Tolland - Board of Education March 8, 2023

001um you'll notice that we did have some um artwork around the room tonight and um and I thought that it had been brought up here but it's not so I'm just going to read the names of the kids that contributed to it um and Trevor egg swing Amelia Carlson Nora Cunningham Lorraine Gonzalez Reyes Lucy Lawrence Camille senec ellaria Nowak Lillian Gordon William franzowski Natalie noweg Skyler cotton Tinsley Morse and adley Skinner Austin Heath Lucas skuselek Catherine Kitty rapone uh Leo vernonard and then Pelosi and Warren harusi is our EGP students who are responsible for the beautiful artwork we have up here in the uh sixth floor of the hicksburg thank you very much students absolutely love having you know okay um let's move to the approval of agenda um given that the town manager had

002provided the budget for today to the Town Council and we really do not have the time to discuss unless we do have a special meeting um I do propose that we add it as I5 a budget discussion overview um I know a lot of people probably have not had the chance to read through and let it sink in as to what we were provided and given or if the Assurance was spoken to in that piece so at this time um I will entertain a motion to add budget discussion okay any conversation in regards to that given that we do have the two board members on Zulu I would like to just do the will call vote I'll start with Tony um then we can go to Lord I think um [Music] any discussions I can't

003hear you guys I'm not sure if it's just me or if it's everyone I will setting looks like it's live um Dana can you hear us ah yes okay I'm gonna just log back off and back on and see if I can hear thank you cool uh hold up um let's go ahead and load on that for the approval minutes um we had uh first we had a second and the other discussion at this time Dana indigned you know okay we'll do the vote um we'll start with Jada bye Jen hi hi Dana hi on the eye as well so they are approved as is okay at this time um we will move to the public participation um I know a lot of people are new faces in here so I'll just kind of give

004everyone a little rundown um you were provided two minutes on the timer and if you could provide your name and your address for the record for Lisa to write them in the notes and like I said you're allotted two minutes and we just want to make it fair for everyone so everyone gets the same amount of time um I didn't see how many viewers but I typically try to go from online to a person in the room online person in the room this I will pick you up as long as it's cooperating tonight if you just stand over here or over here it picks up an emotion um what else I think that's about it so if you are oh people so if you're not accustomed to it if you have something that you like

005to say you can please raise your hand online and you'll get added on to the list and like I said I will just go from the room to online back and forth any takers in the room no there's no sign up but you should just raise your hand and you come on down it's like Price is Right come on yeah you can stand right there and now like I said just do you just list your name your address and um Dr Willett will press the start my name is Lisa Davis 63 Tom Green um I'm a resident but I'm also the president of the local chapter of P flag following Mansfield um I'm coming here tonight to advocate for a policy to be considered for the lgbtq plus students at talonians field I mean following

006Public Schools um I do think that policy is a great way to Institute best practices in school districts and in general I myself um he moved here from Mansfield and I my son was already out of that time but it was due to the hardships that he faced in the school system that led me to start the support group that I um and the president of town and it was solely due to things that were going on in the school system that led me to Indian support so I do feel like policy will help some of the things that we Face some of the difficulties and I'm just hoping that the board does consider instituting a policy for those students hey at this time I will go to the Internet um so we'll have Kate

007Howard Bender as you know list your name your address and you will have your two minutes just make sure that you are unmuted perfect hi guys Kate Howard Bender 103 Goose Lane um I have two things that I'd like to just bring up to the attention of the esteemed Board number one obviously I'm I'm really happy that you put the budget on the com the uh the agenda for tonight at Miss Lindgren I really appreciate that I'm pretty disheartened to see that the town manager is just kind of gone in and and cut us um cut the board by a significant percentage anyway it's not good um so I'm hoping that you guys can kind of have a conversation about that I've already reached out to a couple of town counselors um so that's number

008one and number two I've noticed that in the eight months that that have comprised this school year there have been only three policy committee meetings um and and that is concerning um because you know legislation is changing all the time uh the state does hand out out hand down a lot of expectations there are guidelines that are are changing um in in coordination with and in response to what else happening in schools as we know schools are living breathing beautiful places um and so I would kind of question like why is it that we've only had three policy meetings um in this school year when there's been eight months um and and that would also lead me into the other kind of side point here which is um you know I want to make sure

009that all of our students every single one regardless of gender identity sexual sexual identity expression Etc feels safe and secure in their schools that's the law and so I'd like to see um that on the books as far as a policy so um chairperson Holt um I'm calling you and I'm asking you to create a an explicit policy sorry about my dog to ensure that all of our lgbtqia plus young people and older people sorry um feel safe and secure in their school building and that really applies to everybody but specifically to that um that population of of folks with the next thank you all be well sorry come on either either side I'll pick you up here hi my name is Kelly Murray pronoun is she her Abe Lisa Lane our town is really

010something special so many people came to Thailand for the great schools that did my family my family looks a little different a year and a half ago I told this town I am a trans woman I was worried about my family would I have to leave I didn't know how tall it would react would we be ostracized no pollen showed my family love Colin showed me acceptance now I can talk all about the importance of a good accepting lgbtq policy in our schools I have a bigger ask of talent to show the love and acceptance that you showed me to our lgbtq students It's hard out there for them they hear awful things in the news creating an lgbtq policy with love and acceptance will allow these kids to just be kids these students should

011not have to worry about well-being being uncomfortable coming to schools as themselves this is also important to all of the students if schools are about preparing our kids for careers take a look at the business world pronouns and email signatures are becoming the norm the business world is changing so why shouldn't the schools keep up with the times it's time for Colin to prepare our kids for the future it's time to put together our lgbtq school policy with love it's time to show the kids the love and acceptance you gave my family and myself thank you thank you very much and let's go to um can you learn it she um Katie if you could please unmute yourself you could talk that would be great Ashley did you say yep okay okay it's not actually

012me my daughter's going to speak oh oh perfect just not to list your name and address hello my name is and I love it um I'm coming here for the um the uh lgbtq plus rights first in school I've been bullied before before being trans and I think that should stop teachers are supportive but there's not enough activists people in the school that are helping we need to stop that so I'm done thank you um Katie did you want two minutes since you're here absolutely there you go Katie Murray ate Lisa Lane um the lgbtq plus ia uh policy is obviously very important um and I know the board uh will work with Dr Willett to ensure that all of our students are welcome and accepted in our schools it is this is something that

013can have a really big impact um we see too many kids who have mental health struggles uh due to their identity and we can stop that uh the other thing that I would like to reiterate is that there is what I see as a staffing problem at Tolland Middle School I've sent a number of emails and thank you for your responses over the weekend regarding the Staffing specifically for the gold team in eighth grade who have seen significant uh Staffing gaps and I think that the Board needs to get a better handle on what's going on with Staffing specifically at Tolland Middle School and figure out how to ensure that our students receive continuity of Education it's incredibly important that our 8th graders are prepared for science for high school but you have half of

014your eighth grade class who didn't have a science teacher until two weeks ago I hear the new one is great and I thank the administration for what seems to be a great hire but that there's this there's a problem there and I it's time for the board to work with the superintendent and the other administrators to make sure that our kids are receiving um appropriate and consistent educational instruction thank you I think 80. given that I let two online so I'll take two in the room so one one up and then either way um yeah um I support having a policy that um helps protect and clarify the rights of peer students within the Tallinn schools having clear policy would help us feel uh safer more welcome and more confident within within the school I

015propose that part of the policy is a more comprehensive set of consequences when students are homophobic or transphobic when these consequences are enforced by teachers and and administration bullying will hopefully be reduced even um if people who are anti-queer don't change their beliefs or behavior outside of school they will at least be less openly uh homophobic and transphobic in school uh one possible consequence pathway um at least that's what I call it is being first called out on their behavior such as calling other students learn in class um and calling them out in the moment and if they repeat the defense then they should lose in school privileges like clubs Sports and like participating in certain activities um they should also receive detention and their parents slash Guardians should be alerted further offenses um possibly

016resulting in suspension or expulsion um and having um these consequences just be implemented would really help us feel way safer um because as is there is I know people who have been bullied this year last year and very little was done about it even if it was reported so um yes thank you thank you very much honesty in here in Poland and I enjoyed having teachers and students at support me as being a queer student but there's also harassment going around bullying and I appreciate things you know they respect me for who I am and having students that harass me um just walk away from the principal's office or something like that um just saying don't do it again it's not good enough for me because they just go back and do it again and

017again every time that someone harasses me they get in trouble and they just come back and do it again again I hope that it could be a way that I can make at school and not get harassed thank you so much I upon everyone speaking out tonight I think this is fantastic especially I know that it's not easy being a like a student and just you know finding your voice and speaking to all of us here which we are just normal people but I give you guys a lot of it takes a lot of Courage so thank you um let's move on to Heather McCannon Willis Heather McCann 62 Crossing Drive my pronouns are she her first I want to begin by wishing all women and those who identify as a woman a happy International

018women's day second I wanted to acknowledge the loss of an incredible woman this week Judy human an American and internationally known disability and civil rights Advocate she passed away at the age of 75. he was known for many accomplishments including legislation for Section 504 idea the individuals with disabilities Education Act Rehabilitation Act and more she was instrumental in helping shape policy that protected the rights of those with disabilities and was passionate about the important role that education played in the well-being of all students Judy advocated for policies like knowledges and respects the unique and individuality of students and encourages acceptance of the unique differences between them as a parent of a child with a disability I'm thankful for her work and how it positively impacts my family I see however the opportunity here for policy

019development around the lgbtqia plus community in our school I hope as a community we can continue to strive for even greater inclusion and acceptance and protect and embrace the individuality of all of our students thank you for all you do have a great night other back open into the room hi my name is I want to share a bit about myself with you I'm a senior in high school the president of our drama club a part of the state's first High School Equity Council and I just recently got admitted into the honors program at UConn I spent the last 10 years of my high school career pushing myself to the best I possibly can while staying committed and engaged in clubs and the overall School Community I have been thriving now I want to reintroduce

020myself hi my name is I'm here at T5 tile in Mansfield and I'm a transgender kid who've been given the opportunity to thrive if not for the support I've received from the schools the accomplishments accomplishments that I listed above would be only dreams that I longed for but were so far Out Of Reach I've been able to thrive because I've been I've been seen for all of who Daniel is opposed to just my transgender identity but every student should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential I deeply encourage you to create policies to allow lgbtq plus youth identifying kids to feel safe and protected at school so they too can Thrive I recently did a project when I interviewed queer students about how safe they felt at school one of the students said

021and I quote in situations where you feel unsafe it's a lot harder to focus or be motivated to work on what you're doing you actively feel uncomfortable I spent a substantial amount of time worrying another student said I tend to be a lot more quiet in those classes where I feel unsafe I just feel like I shouldn't really talk in those kinds of classes if I felt safe I wouldn't be as afraid to ask questions and engage more in class I just gave real quotes from students who don't feel like they are supported in schools and how detrimental it is to their education it is crucial to have policies in place to make sure that all students can thrive in the classroom school systems needs to do better so that all students are given the

022opportunity to reach their full potential now you have met a trans person who is driving because of the sport I have received in schools due to the mere fact that I'm able to pass as a straight CIS person I challenge you to get the same opportunity of love and support to the queer kid the queer students just as I have received thank you very much America hi my name is Chris Moran 68 Anthony Road my pronouns are he him and I strongly support an lgbtq plus policy to ensure that all students feel welcome and accepted in school and in our great town demonstrating support for this community through a policy can positively impact students both to feel accepted and to ensure that they feel comfortable in their learning environment to ensure that they can truly

023thrive in school thank you for all you do thank you hi my name is I live on um so um I'm here to say that we need a policy different that writes about gbtqi plus students because they are currently failing to be protected um I personally know multiple people who have experienced hormonal that can transphobic bullying at home in high school such as being counselors um no action has been taken about the incidents including ones that have happened in front of teachers and where that have been reported um one person that I know in particular has had food in front of them have been done and have been shown by their peers um they have been accused of wanting to shoot up the school by their abilities and when this was brought to staff the

024principal and vice principal not only will lead the accusations but kept them in guidance while the rest of the class was learning we met here the Middle School's GSA was also forced to Interchange like their theme from Vegeta to just a general diversity club which is illegal as like right to form any kind of fun that they want that's not his other clubs are about to exist um I feel that a policy to protect the rights of queer students in the school district would be the benefit of us and make us feel more comfortable at school and because quite honestly I don't personally feel like 100 comfortable at school and my friends at school I yeah I feel fully comfortable at school either thank you thank you very much um let's go to Liz Costa

025before Josiah Lane um first of all I came really just to speak about the budget I only took a fleeting glance at it and realized the cut so I want to say I hope all of the board members will support and come to the next town council meeting really pushing uh for increased spend not redo continuing with the reduced spend um and secondly I didn't intend to speak to this but we should be so proud of the students I in six or eight years of attending Board of Education meetings I don't remember when so many students showed up their passion is impressive they're very articulate in what they uh are looking to have and I agree with Tilly that we should be doing it with love however policies often don't happen until something happens in

026this case it's things have already happened so I would encourage you um Mr Holt especially and the entire board to create a policy that supports our students and uh and their um their lifestyle thank you thank you Liz um let's move to in the room we'll be next uh Catherine Henrickson 192 Bruce Lee I'm the proud mom of the virus spoke earlier and I also want to speak in favor of a policy supporting the lgbtqia community at the tall school system um so in in our family Toby has gone this year from entering under one name and is now going by by Tobias so the transition process in school is very recent for us and I found him speaking to Toby's teachers they were all supportive I mean it's a small sample of the staff

027all all supportive but uh various degrees of confusion about how to how to properly and supportively deal with the student who's undergoing this experience so I think a policy that would help educate the staff and also making use of the expertise of the students who are in this position I think that would be really helpful because to the staff were the ones I met were all well-meaning but not all clear how to proceed and then I also want to just Echo what the kids have been saying about not feeling safe because I I see that in my son that I feel his Horizons are restricted in the school because he just doesn't feel safe in a broader community so the tendency is to stay with those other kids who are safe you know so that

028that does restrict the opportunities Just for participating in the broader experience this these little nasty uh calls as you're walking down the hall or in the parking lot or there's got to be some way to address that so those kids can these kids can fully participate in that experience thank you thank you yeah um let's go to Chris and remember Liz hi my name is uh Christopher Jimenez and uh my uh Coronas are he him and I live at 68 Anthony Road um I'm here to show support for the an inclusive lgbtq plus policy my husband and I when we were choosing towns to live in we chose this town because of the school systems that we had for our our son Carter uh in recognition of um International women's day I want to recognize

029uh Marcia P Johnson she is a trans woman of color that started the uh modern day uh queer Rights Movement uh too often uh in this nation in school board meetings just like this we see the uh demonization and the attacks of queer kids especially uh trans children in our schools um we as a town must not only make sure that we protect trans children but we are actively uh making sure that we enact policies to to protect them to make sure they are loved they are seen and they are heard uh regardless of whatever the child is facing they must be protected and loved thank you hello my name is um I'm here with the Manchester hotel in chapter of P flag um and I'm here to provide a little perspective of what it

030looks like to be in these tools as a trans student um I've been out since freshman year and it is frustrating to um to hear about all of these children who are younger than me and going through the same exact thing that I did because I was 14 years old and I hated myself because everyone looked at me and they knew that I was different and it was terrible it was it was it was terrible um and it is not getting better there are policies in Mansfield I'm I'm a senior at eosmith there are policies in Mansfield that directly at least attempt to forbid these um you know bullying Behavior authorization Etc my little brother he is 14 and he is a freshman in his middle school he was called slurs in the hallway because

031he is gay and I just frankly cannot imagine how we cannot try it like I look at him and I think I cannot believe that you are going through the same thing that I did because that is not fair and I don't think that it's fair that any other students should have to go through that because I am 17 and I am not conventional and I'm very passionate and I do not have the power the direct power that you all have to make these changes and if I were sitting in any of those seats I think it's just the ability to make that change to prevent any other kid from going through what I did I would do anything for it and it is upsetting that anyone would not feel the same way thank you

032thank you anyone online seeing that there are no hands raised online hello my name is my pronouns are he him I'm a senior at you Smith I'm from Ashford and I'm here with the Mansfield Pelham chapter of P flag Holland Public Schools need to implement policy prevent bullying of queer kids because why are there no consequences for students who are told to kill themselves during class why is no one in authority making sure that that does not happen and that kids can get away with that policy is crucial because I should not have to worry about my safety during the school day I am there to learn and knowing that authority figures within the school system will take bullying incidents seriously and actually enact consequences instead of just giving a student a talk we'll bring

033students peace of mind and make them feel as though they are wanted and not just tolerated at school education is a human right for everyone kids cannot learn where they do not feel safe thank you anyone else my name is Derek human she her and one of three Mansfield Hollow Road I am here with Tom's few like I have two children Asher a freshman high school and Daniel as a junior in high school Dana also happens to be transgender my family and I are here tonight to encourage the tall School District become an educational leader in supporting protections for all students by adopting a policy that protects lgbtq AI plus students through thoughtful and intentional practices Tallinn schools can create inclusive conditions for all its students thereby setting a tone that demonstrates your commitment to

034making sure every child feels safe seen and respected this matters because there's an abundant research about the relationship between a student sense of safety and their ability to succeed in school the research shows that students that are in the community are much higher risk for depression and suicide School environment can either have a positive supportive impact on Student Success or have a detrimental impact on a student's perception of safety and their ability to learn it is imperative that the understanding and respect for those in the community begin with the leadership of the administration and teachers who are committed to creating safe spaces free of bullying and discrimination regardless of gender identity expression or sexuality the example set forth by teachers and leaders within the school can mean the difference between a competent engaged learner and

035one who feels isolated bullied unseen and depressed we've been on this incredible journey with our sons she transitioned at the age of seven and together as a family we've had amazing opportunities to grow and learn from him because we have openly shared our experiences we've heard from many families who have reached out to us over the years sharing their frustrations and challenges with their school environments and trying to keep their kids safe um I'm asking you tonight um to consider a policy that creates um change so that all kids feel safe and protected and you and still seeing No Hands online okay thanks my name is Catherine McDonald 47 schnapps at Lake Road my pronouns are she her and I'm here as a mom of children in the public schools and as a licensed professional

036counselor um I just want to say there's so many Brave amazing concert site and it feels I wanted to give you your return first before I jumped in that's really intimidating to follow up your courage and bravery um I want to call upon the board to take this as an opportunity the magnitude of this concern cannot be ignored minimized and this is not the time to have partedly pass something to pacify people and I'm hoping as a mental health professional over a decade I could share some stats that will kind of speak to that the story safer tonight or not little anecdotes and they are representative of the broader struggles that the lgbtqia plus Community encounters um 73 of Youth in the lgbtq community experience anxiety about 60 meet clinical depression criteria for a major

037depressive disorder 45 of them have seriously considered suicide and over 15 percent have recently attempted when surveyed by the Trevor Project last year we're not talking about data data this is a real problem it's a crisis and it's obvious it's happening in our community which is really disappointing it's quite embarrassing to say I'm sending my kids to school where this is happening so randomly and just because my children aren't saying hateful things doesn't mean it needs to go on or that it's not an issue um the gay lesbian straight education network has already done a lot of the work for you Tony is being called upon tonight and guess what lots of this work has already been done and I know but just a Hot Topic it actually there are already programs in place grounded

038in research that will cost little to nothing to change the community and hold people accountable who are expressing hate because I know nobody wants to claim that all represents that so I hope you're going to take this seriously and not Implement a low-level policy but really affect meaningful change thank you um something no one online um anyone else everyone's good for now okay okay um at this point I will close out the public participation and we'll move on to uh correspondence however um Jacob is not here for correspondence so um we can open up the points of information or board members this is fine right yeah for anybody that doesn't know me I'm Tony Holt I am the chair of the policy subcommittee uh I want to start by thanking everybody in especially you you

039have so much power your words were absolutely moving and I just want to thank all of you for speaking uh I also want to thank Tilly and Lisa that they were willing to take time out of their days Monday sit down with me and just talk and help me learn and get better get smarter about what's going on there and get a little bit more perspective all right Dr Willett and I have and I know we we'll have a much more in-depth conversation but just to hit it real quick Dr Willett and I have a monthly strategy meeting for policy to try to figure out you know what we want to look at what kind of things we want to put on the agenda and look at it ahead of time where we can start

040Gathering the information because you're absolutely right in that some things are so critical they're so important that we do right then we want to get the the research ahead of time and get those things going policy has such an ability to do a couple of things one to step up and say that these aren't memories you know this is what we believe as a district as a town and we're willing to step up and articulate that but also it creates a number of women provides that that support structure for not only the students benefit but for our Administration to get that knowledge and to get those those uh those tools that they need to do these things and make those changes so and again we'll talk a bit more into but assuming that the board

041votes the way I hope they do it is absolutely my intention to put this in an agenda uh it is absolutely my intention to make sure this is right to make sure that it's clear and to make sure that every one of our students has a safe environment and that's that's what we're here for that's what I know we're all passionate for it and that's what I promise you we're going to do thank you and I do think that when they obvious sort of discussion is going to come out later but like I think a lot of the kinds of the students were talking it's the staff so students will make sure that we have our staff under there too um anyone else I just also want to thank everyone who came out tonight and

042spoke again those online and those who have emailed us to our students you are so brave and I'm so proud of you and thank you for sharing with us um and to our parents I I have no words I just I am I promise you that I definitely all of our students to feel accepted and respected and most of all I'm seeing it so thank you for commencement yeah I also wanted to say thank you to everyone and express my admiration for everyone's very very honest words and your bravery that that you you showed all of us tonight and I'm I'm honestly just blown away by by what all of you involved so openly shared with us and I agree agree agree agree and it's important and I am so honored to be part of

043the politic committee and we'll be honored to work on this so I'm I'm really looking forward to it I think I'm Christina Ford how's your hand up thank you um a couple points uh I think all of you picked the right meeting to come to and speak about what you're passionate about I think Tony is passionate about policy and and willing to take it to the committee and I believe this whole board is willing to do that um so I'm in support of you know doing it right uh like one of the last speakers had said um I researched a couple policies that other school districts have and you know whether or not they have teeth and how they protect all students and I think there's work to be done um so thank you um

044for the kids that spoke that aren't from Thailand I I think that you speak for those that do live in Thailand that are are fearful to speak so thank you for that um and then in regards to some email correspondence uh from Miss Murray I did ask board leadership uh to put Staffing uh specifically for the middle school on the agenda so hopefully we'll be seeing that um and that's all I had thank you thank you Adina hi and I'm going to apologize for in advance if there's screaming children or dogs um I just like to reiterate what several of my peers have said tonight um and I would say that every everyone who spoke parent um students neighboring townsfolk that spoke tonight in regards to regarding what they're passionate about and I think um

045passion around safety in schools is Paramount our students should feel safe in all capacities um and so I definitely applaud your bravery and I apologize um you all for educating us and sharing your experiences we can only improve with continuing our education as well um but I definitely I myself I'm also on the policy committee so I do look forward to engaging this conversation uh in a thorough in-depth conversation there should be no school no student no staff member no parent that shouldn't feel safe within our walls of our educational system but alone within uh tolerance as a community um so and for even our youngest ones I believe it was Finley um you're impressive and beyond your years um but uh you know I I do look forward to hearing from more of you

046I did read every single email and I am listening to you I'm hearing you um and we I will do my best to continue to advocate for all students of Tom public school system and all-time communities so I continue to write in continue to call in continue to be involved in the meetings um just as you're passionate about this um I I look forward to seeing more of you in other other facets of the school system and your own development so uh thank you everybody um thank you all first of all especially you um recently I'm a bit emotional and it's funny because it feels selfish to be doing that um I I feel like a lot of concerns that have brought up on one night out of 365 days um a lot of times

047they are forgotten whether it's about one Community or the other and I feel like this is the night that everybody in this room can acknowledge that should last for the next X amount of years infinite um it should not set on mediocrity and you're the kid parents grateful for you all as well and you all have been at my parents at home uh Becca knows um very well um you can you can you can learn a lot through this process and the kids who spoke tonight the students who spoke tonight I'll say um the other reason I'm crying um you you all really came in and and spoke how you truly felt and um God I hope this does not fall on that Pierce and again thank you thank you to those who spoke over

048the zoom um all I can say is thank you thank you thank you thank you sorry no it's a very emotional topic so let's you know it's understandable so once again I will reiterate that can I throw something go ahead go throw it in you want to reiterate no I'm not going to reiterate go ahead I want to um just thank you and say that the love and compassion that we showed you know was remarkable that you can stand up and to express your expectations through this powerful love and compassion path and it does sometimes take a spark to light a fire so you've been you know you've been working I know to write this virus to bring life into places to help people recognize you know that it you know tell your stories and

049help people understand better and um it's it's such a a powerful message that you've sent tonight and I'm so thankful that you that you came to do um I will tell you that I'm committed uh in every way to help him and my cell phone is out there and other things that I don't hesitate to reach out to me I was uh I'm hoping that we can do many things uh Miss Julio Smith I know you had this awesome play and I always I had the great Fortune to see that um I thought that was and there were three yet and I think I caught the last one I missed the first two unfortunately so you have to tell me about it I saw the very end of it and at this point I missed

050the attitude but I did get to see the third and um you know I thank you for coming to support your you know your your peers here at uh at Tom so thank you so much for being done um and we'll be addressing it a little later in the agenda tonight okay but thank you well I reiterate now but we will be addressing this um a little bit later on the agenda I do like I said I mean the experiences to speak to it it does show bravery so I definitely I can't thank you guys enough for speaking out I do think it is important for our award to consider everything so I do think especially sharing experiences of being a student it's a very little piece of all um with that said we're going

051to go into our student Representatives yeah how to change the subject but to start um last Wednesday we had um the deck of states which for Paul would read in as usual fantastic I just wanted to commemorate some of the winners from the competition um Garrett bugs an automotive Scott first place Samuel Nest mom in business finance at first place Julia bolier and Emily Amelia Richard and financial services Scott first place Josh Rita and suan Zing that in hospitality and services team got first place Antonio Rose and Entrepreneurship at second place Sophia Cunningham in hotel and lodging that second place Patrick and personal financial literacy got second place Jackie Sterling and Jude breakeen and Marcus marketing management team got third place Leah Walsh and Quick Serve restaurant management got third place Nate Bullis and Chase

052Superior in sports and entertainment got the place Samir kashal and automotive services got forth Hannah Simpson got forth in retail merchandising myself and Juliet Carey got forth in traveling tourism and Jason Miller got fifth in Business Services marketing and a list of August got fifth in hotel and laundry management so I just give her a little more great job everyone that was really great um the only reason I felt like bursting into tears right now is that I'm the vice president of the challenge High School and at a lot of our meetings when we talk about stuff like this I hear it over and over this isn't a new problem and the tears can go away but the pain does not so just keep that in mind um and just you know if this doesn't

053get past your next student's correspondence will be very passive aggressive um and have your news our winter pack really happened recently The Freshman came away with a win in every single category which was awesome um the part that was the best though it will be commemorated in my mind Forever The Freshmen won against the seniors and tug of war um there was a unified basketball game it was home I think and we had some photography and I think there's a crowd it's fantastic at the winter pep rally there was also a like a unified basketball game that was really good we got a lot of support for the team and a more awareness and I was very happy about that super impressive um Mary Poppins is coming up set your calendars for March 16th and

05417th or 17th and 18th thank you uh there will be on Friday a night show and then on Saturday a matinee and a night show so if you want to bring your baby or your very old grandparents you can get on that neck um it's gonna be really fun we have amazing equipment um one of their most expensive projects yet and I'm very excited so everyone should go me too I'm also very excited I will be attending I went to last year's in this fantastic um we had a morning another morning announcements and announcements at the end of the day to talk about the DodgeBall I know last year didn't happen but they're trying to happen again you need to create teams of seven and I think they had an after-school meeting about it so

055they're trying to get enough teams to create a dodgeball tournament which should be exciting if it happens and finally my darling Juliet Carrie and the rest of the sophomore class officers are proposing a lock-in for fall of next year a Google form was sent around uh asking about what snacks or activities or movies we'd like to watch so I'm pretty sure that that will be happening next year in fall and uh I'm very excited for it it's like a lot of fun and it's under great management too so sophomore class officer representation and that's it uh you didn't have another part but um I'll be staying because I like to loiter Mira has a lot of work she has to do math homework I'm already right here um thank you everyone she'll be leaving but

056if you have any questions you can direct them towards me thank you ladies very much you did forget to mention SATs March 22nd sats are March 22nd uh prepare for them do well or don't have fun everyone perfect any questions online any questions thank you very much for your referral report okay um let's jump into the monthly financials um well we had a lot of a lot of minutes this is a big circle I was going on nothing worth three sets that I don't have music I can play while I do that but typically you hum a song yeah then you don't want that I have no Talent whatsoever [Music] there you go there we go there you go okay and most importantly really this development um so those of you at home should be

057able to kind of blow that up a little bit um so just I'm going to do the typical highlights for this aspect of the budget you know you've heard this 100 times before that you know we do have the monthly budget reports in the first meeting of the month I'll go over the codes um and just let you know we did get the excess cost payment in the first one and uh we get those in February and May so you'll notice that our balance did come out of that negative position because of that again we are you know still you know in the state of a budget freeze because we want to make sure that we maintain a positive budget position as we get into the end of the year um the salaries code 110

058are currently under budgets um you know that's typical for where we are and we do still have some firing to do um substitute code 120 is available balance of 114. this down is this line is down by 36 000 from last month the overtime code 130 expenses are currently under by 93 but of course you know we do have a number of months and as we head into the end here with the winter and coming into the work that abstract typically done in the spring to get everything prepped that tends to go down stipends are currently under by 71 the pay-to-play funds are always in a state of being collected really so that can always be the same report of them not being fully collected because we're not really fully collected on pay-to-play funds until

059we get to the end of the year health insurance Severance employee benefits 190 200 210 collectively 11 000 down anticipated administrator and tea severance pay were encumbered so um you know that's going to be it's going to be affecting that line newly hired employees and retired employees FICA Med social security code 220. um you know this usually will impact the budget as we go on people leave and have more retirements it's currently under uh 62 through February um but we think that'll balance out by the end retirement of course reimbursement unemployment you notice how a one change of uh course status can create kind of a ten thousand dollar difference and that can come on it you know come on pretty quick so code 24250 and 260 are under but not all course reimbursements have

060been filed on and unemployment claims haven't been in curtains and such so the available balance is about 27 under but 22 is paid out in the month of February for course reimbursements alone so that's that's an example of how that can fluctuate benefits consultants and workers comp balances at 270 um and 310 currently under by 7050 was in convert during the month of November um on the benefits Consulting line we also paid in January 2023 our portion of it's called the opeb and so that that it's been going down and will continue to professional Education Services 320. it's over by 88 it's an increase of 31 from last month um the um the special education needs are impacting that line and that's that's that does happen so generally you'll see that get affecting all these

061areas where we've been a little under a little under you'll see how you know these other areas from being over kind of balance them out legal audit and tax service 340 350 or collectively under by about seven thousand um the change to that line was due to the announcement of a budget freeze so administrators department heads staff and coverage some of the upcoming expenses prior to the previous so you saw that kind of get impact the budget when that occurred repair maintenance code Studio cleaning equipment technical or 24 30 will continue to be spent as the year progresses uh currently we're under by 80 down by 75 000 from last month maintenance custodial expenses are cyclical as you know they just keep happening so you know we still have a number of months before the

062end and um the budget priests will probably slow down down a bit but there's still things that have to happen Transportation code 510 over budget by 169 000 change of 180 000 in this account is due to closing some POS and payment of this see ECG which is basically excess cost so um that's why you saw that stabilized but it's still over um bus routes can continue to be adjusted and you know to that end I just added another bus um two buses basically for 178 a day and another one looks like it's coming for 364 a day for things that just happened in the last two weeks so that that's how that can you know really um fluctuate a lot we expect that to be something we're going to have to keep monitoring this

063year special education tuition 560. it's over by 391 it's a decrease of 567 from last month you know and again that was what we call s-e-e-cg is excess cost to most people and that helps balance that out a bit but as you can tell it's not fully going to be able to do that energy 620 expenses are transferred to the town has is what we've talked about every month the uis fund um and textbooks 640 under by 33. at this point unless there's some emergency situation because of the freeze we shouldn't really see that move too much um unless something got in prior to the freeze sometimes there can that can happen if an order was pending and something held it up but that shouldn't see a lot of movement at this point instructional supplies

064equipment miscellaneous General code 600 610 690 730 collectively over by about 25 down by 150 000 um 150 000 from last month the name change in the account lines is the breeze and them you know encumbering things so they could make it through the rest of the year so that's in a it in a nutshell um but the excess cost payment or eecg payment did help put us back into balance uh you know we're going to be watching all of those slides very carefully as we get to the end of the year to make sure we end in a in a responsible cash positive position financials anyone in raising hand online okay seeing none we will we can continue on all right um next item for tonight is the clean Peak no cost battery storage

065program um basically to try to truncate everything that I have here into some short statement it is a very large battery that can and is placed outside the spool um this battery is a high-tech battery that can Empower a school for three to five days so what happens is these companies will come in and place these big batteries um and there's a grant for the purpose that Megan Massa has reached out about and um you know looks like a reasonable one to look into and um this company we have to apply to this company and reach out to this company to see if they're willing to accept us so part of what I wanted to do tonight is put this in front of you so that you're aware that I am going you know I

066am providing the bills and information to see if they would even consider us as a site there's nothing binding about this we're not going to be locked into anything but it makes sense to to to try to see if we could even qualify because the benefit to our system could be very big as these units the company makes money when there's Peak Peak power surges that company can supply energy back to the grid but what we get from it is that if we ever lose power instead of using generators to put diesel and things into the air and all that these units are the highest Tech and they can actually power the entire building in its HVAC systems for a couple of days so we're in the process of asking all the series you know

067questions you'd want to ask about that you know do these batteries ever leak is there any issues with them if they caught fire how do you put them out apparently the batteries can be put out with hot water I mean I know we've heard the Tesla stories not the knock Tesla you know I'm not making a comment here about Tesla in cases anywhere but the reality is um you know we hear these stories about the batteries that can't be put out by water and those kinds of concerns these batteries apparently are able to be put out by water and their lithium phosphate and they don't have uh they don't give off with Vapor I guess so univentilators if there was a problem they wouldn't suck any of that stuff in um so they look like

068they have a good safety record there's federal and state incentives for the program and US applying to it means that we would actually have opportunity to have you know emergency power and our relationship with them would be about 10 years they would pay for almost all of the of these I think not all of them for the deployment construction and placement so I wanted to make sure the board was aware that um you know I am engaging with this uh company with the town to see if they would even accept us as a potential site and if it does go to that point I would be coming back to the board to make sure you were informed along the way um you know and we're able to be a part of that process I have

069a couple questions you know the pictures did show that it's a very large battery they're not like compact it's a you know it's like a storage unit better popped on the property now I know that the safety use as they can use water and you're talking about Vapors but like I do have what like is the real safety doctor of being on the school property near the schools like how can it impact our students if something goes wrong is the Board of Ed going to be on the hook if we have to pay for you know fixing anything we just always end up being like the default oh no no it's on board event property now it's your bill and so I just you know I want to make sure that we're conscious that it

070is not going to be another key that is somehow going to be tacked on to us some way somehow that there's like female factors if something happens I mean we are with school children like this is yeah and those are my concerns too frankly that's why I even went to the vapor question because I I was very interested in that the water question very interested to make sure these could be safely managed if there was a problem um and so what we're doing is the next step if we were accepted would be to have all of our Public Safety people and everybody involved to make sure that was fully vetted and if at any point along the way the public safety or others don't feel like this is actually viable for us I mean we

071just would not go any further but this this step is just seeing if we could even be considered because if we can be considered then the company will engage with us with even more questions you know they'll answer more of our questions and do more with us if we're even one of the districts that could potentially get Windsor has it right now um you know it has to them but um apparently they've had a good experience with that to my understanding I'll get more information um but the uh you know the safety pieces would all have to be worked out so this P this stage would just be making you know making us a candidate and then we would have a series of meetings to make sure that no tea was one crossed or no

072I was not thought about the safety piece I wouldn't want these on our campuses if there was a safety issue the other question I had was who removes that was gonna be my next one after 10 years if there's a problem how do you get a battery that size like you know like dropping it into like Arizona or a nuclear you know where are you putting these things you know it's all over you know um because it's lithium so I had those exact same questions so let's that goes to the top yeah but the reality is um we have to know those things so I you know at this point I think that um you know if we are one of the districts considered for it then that that would be where we could bang

073out all of that and who would be responsible for removal charges and you know what if the what if the company went out of business then what um you know all of those things would be part of that conversation but we can't we can't really even get to that point unless we apply to via to be considered so this is just you know saying I'm planning on doing that unless you all come out tonight and say absolutely not do not do this we do not want to be a part of this then you know I'm going to have us engaged to try to see one of the things and I recognize is that that may be a question as you go into more of the weeds in this but you know we've had a couple

074of conversations over the past couple of months of different ideas different ways that we can position our expense better from an energy perspective uh than the the solar there this and a couple of other things I'm curious about the interactions between them you know once you start plugging different things into the network you change the network it's no yeah how are they gonna are they going to fight each other they're going to induce inductibles so we're not prepared for you know there's a there's a whole bunch of what happens when they start playing together issues that we'd absolutely have to take a look at before we combine this weekend right and and so those questions were asked to at least in the first round and um the the solar panels would feed the batteries and

075then the batteries would offset yeah so it's it's all these things they would work together because you know and so then you would have even greater opportunity to offset your load especially at peak times so it also might end the uh the Chris cap eight thing where so you know people don't understand why once a year or twice a year teachers and staff run around frantically turning off every electronic device and all the lights and everything else and that's because we get build on certain Windows of peak you know Peak snap right so we get told that a snapshot is about to be taken we run around turning everything off and unplug computers no one understands what we're doing and showing everything down this might actually help offset some of the needs it was a

076very hot day involved very very hot so just letting you know but um but that's uh that's all those things would work together the the um solar panels would work together as of update on that um we're almost to the point of being able to uh to tie up that to be considered as well so um these two things would be working in conjunction if we're accepting Dana has her hand up foreign I just wanted to know how it would work because again I'm all for us being more energy efficient and um you know aware of our planet and our carbon footprint and all of that and do what we can um to be right by the planet as well as um you know saving our town and school system some money um again my

077big concern would be um you know where some of the different questions that Ashley had said like maintenance down the road you know who who puts the bill for different different aspects of it I think there's some other questions that we still need to talk about uh and then is this is this the only program or Energy Group that we can qualify for with partner with or get get information from bidding from um there are there others out there that that we can entertain well this this is the one offering The Impossible deal and that's there and so part of the grant you know working with Ms Massa over in the town these are the ones who would be able to do the work for us so yeah and so and again it is uh

078this is sort of at least for our area Cutting Edge in the you know these the years ago most of us can remember this batteries would have had no capability to do this this is a fairly new development that the technology has advanced to the point that you can run a building as big as our buildings for three days on to five days of the battery versus a generator um so you know this is all Cutting Edge new stuff that if we're getting in on it we could actually benefit from from energy and cost perspective and that might be very important for the district as we head into the next few years and decade where our you know energy and energy costs are are concerned for everyone so this will be a way of taking

079the edge off when things are getting you're saying that this is like The Cutting Edge this is like so great but you'd sign up for 10 years but within 10 years I mean technology advances significantly so how do we know that in like five years these things could be I don't know half the size and you have more power or something I mean that's awesome thing to consider too well they probably would you know and that's that's the thing is that you know if something you have to people engaging in this start somewhere you know the first people who bought the Teslas the first people who did the you know these are the kind of things that um there will be early adopters you know or quasi early adopters and if we were involved with

080this for our area we would be an early adopter and the company wants to make money so the company wants to have those batteries be as efficient as possible but the point you bring up is a good one because you know we may not have the smallest one seven years eight years from now because somebody near us might have gotten the highest Tech ones that are the size of a closet and we still have the ones the size of a trailer but eventually those would have to be taken out replaced you know so that's really what the next stage is all about and that's been one of my biggest questions is yet you know is what how do we how do these get taken out when whenever the new ones are coming in who's responsible

081what we're paying for these being taken out and where does the lithium go and you know that type of thing so again those things are work those are worked out at the next stage um I think many people feel very confident about clean Peak that they will have good answers to those questions um but we all know that unless we're accepted and so this would just be again putting our hat in or seeing if we would be one of the districts that could even be considered perception sorry Dana um I know you probably had another question I just wanted to jump in with those satisfies the the conversation evolved and and all my questions were answered so thank you yeah yeah we would not know there's no commitment to us and we were just discussing

082right I just want to be clear yeah go ahead and answer with a quick question you might have mentioned this doctor what's the timeline on something like that when when does all of this sort of start to come your permission when you know this is if this is step one when the step two take place so right now uh we won't have the best handle on all the steps until unless you're accepted because the company has a lot of suitors so to speak and so depending on you know they'll spend more time with the group of the day you want to bring in and then we would know better but um you know we're looking at it I would say somewhere in a year to two years span or once it's committed these things would

083start to move one to three years probably be here it's a 10-year commitment so I would think it would happen in relatively sort of ten year commitment does that mean your lifespan as well is that sort of well that's the that's the thought is that they would be responsible for all of the upkeep and the placement of these things for 10 years you know now the only question there is will they be around for 10 years right it's a 10-year thing relationship is only good if the other person in the relationship so um you know this this piece of it I don't know but that but it seems like it's a profitable thing that's why I put how they make their money up there because the the plan for them making money seems stop sound

084and uh you know if that makes sense then they would be around to you know for us to get our benefit so that's kind of the the way this would pan out but I don't know until they you know they decide where a suitable partner for them I'm just gonna say I definitely think it's worth exploring it's interesting I'm interested to hear about it after you know if we were eligible or they consider us yeah I I hope they do you know but it's just a question for you manager what are we looking for out of this discussion do we need to to vote to say we approve or is no answer yes go ahead I think no answer because it's not like we really necessarily need board action because we don't even necessarily know

085we are a sooner so I think until we are a sooner in this situation yeah and I'm probably investing up but as soon as the one who wants I don't know but you said it anyway uh we want to see if they like partner with us you know because we are a suitable partner for their business plan so I think for right now you're just coming to the board for information and there's really nothing that we're going to do until they make their choice as to you know I mean that this may be the only discussion that we have so once it takes that next step then we have more in-depth conversation and I would think that we get a little bit more information definitely will yeah okay um let's talk about oh yes the

086Board of Ed meeting on the April 12th it is April vacation I will not be here as will many of you so um the question then becomes um do you guys would you like to reschedule do you want to cancel that is the conversation to be at micro break is a peek after whatever yeah I mean I would think cancel and then needed because at a special meeting could always add a special I think so too it's on the other side of reschedule Without Really knowing what we've got coming up meetings let's see if we can cancel with nothing there but at least put something on my calendar yeah because we still have a meeting it's just a matter of that that one where I'm like we were talking about the board meetings and I

087said well isn't that something so one of us will not be here for that um Dana um yes I too will be out of town um uh I definitely think that uh I'm adding a special meeting if necessary uh would be probably our be in our best interest I'm looking at the calendar and I think the 19th is FFC the 26th is policy um I don't know those are just the Committees that I happen to be on that I know the dates so um I know that we do have a full calendar um but that's I would I would be for canceling the meeting and and adding a special medium if needed okay um well this is what I will say is that um along with Tonya we don't necessarily know what is happening so

088I'm okay with canceling that meeting for the 12 regardless because I just think that no one's going to be here um we do have a 26 so if we have two it would either be the fifth or the 19th and this is something that we can reschedule I mean this is if we're doing Alexa I just don't happen to pick what's up Wednesday um you know what I mean like everybody's used to a Wednesday so why don't we do this why don't we go ahead and we can move this to board action um and cancel at least that and then let's see where we are on the 22nd meeting of March with our agenda and seeing what's happening and then next meeting if we feel as though because we don't have another one that is

089a long time to go without one so let's touch base on the 22nd and just see where we are with the agenda and then come up with we think it's necessary to have the fifth or the 19th the town budget process kicks up too so you may be you know you may desire to attend some of those one of the awards uh board's budget is being considered um in the public meeting on March 20th and you'll have your next meeting on the 22nd and so when there are other meetings along the way so you know it may be that you're opening up a little time for yourselves to be able to participate in more of those as well I definitely have I love management suckers yeah [Music] um so let's go ahead and let's do

090this so let's I want you took an emotion to move I3 under L one for board action um we can do that and then under board action we can cancel that April it's only hope so moved okay um any discussion before we'll move it to board action No Hands raised okay um we'll do roll all of it so bye so Jaden Jen hi Tony hi and then um Lord I and Dana bye okay so we will move this to board action L1 to cancel the April okay thank you everyone and like I said um please keep that in your mind so don't go crazy scheduling your Wednesdays in April because we make just very well take one you are a notice okay um let's go to I4 okay so you know thank you we um

091and put this agenda item in or one of the agenda I'd end so we could um so I can review with you that I'm in the process of working right now and have been actually uh for a period of months on documents and so the the Board of Ed tonight what I've done is I've provided some documentation for you for your consideration um and as I work on uh what I'm calling superintendents you know it's guidelines and practices lgbtq um a plus guidelines and practices for the district I wanted to provide information to you to help uh to help you understand and wrap your heads around you know all of the various aspects of how we would be doing this to support students in the best way possible and so to that end you'll notice

092that I've put out there and posted a number in a series of documents for you to look at and start to really chew on and think about I want you to to have the opportunity to be viewing those as I'm working because I do intend on putting guidelines and practices into place I thank the staff need them and most importantly I think the students need that in community and the families so that that is what I intend to do and I want you to know what you know what I'm basing my thoughts on as I move forward so these resources are available for you to review and and I thank you for in taking the time in advance because I know there's a lot there but being able to look at it review it and

093read everything will help you really my my opinion will help you understand you know the whys about how things are coming together um I would like to make sure I put these guidelines in place by the end of the year so that we can begin next year with them and we can plan professional development around that we do our Retreat and our planning in the summer for you know we are able to get an idea of what our resources are and we're able to look at the calendar and put you know the dates and the times to schedule the people I'm usually usually in the summer for the upcoming years PD so I'd like the guidelines and practices in place so that we you know have you know expectations staff know how you know how

094to best support kids and everyone is on the same page going into the summer so that we can then plan and reach out to resources work with groups like people flag and others and listen and others to make sure that our PD is you know comprehensive effective and is laid out ahead of time so everybody knows that it's coming um and when it will be there so that's that's to me it's important for the timeline so I just wanted to give you an idea of how that was going and you know so you can understand why I'm doing it the way I'm doing it and how progressing with it and so I you know be meeting with different faculty groups over the next few weeks talking about this and putting these in front of them

095and getting their feedback and then ultimately releasing them and in conjunction with that um I know that just talking about it tonight you know as you've heard a number of people expressed with a lot of love and compassion and courage experiences they've had and you know to me that that just it strikes at all of our hearts knowing that you know that they had the courses can come and share that these experiences are happening you know um so the importance of this there's really nothing more important and so you know as I'm working through that to make sure we have practices that you know are Equitable and supportive that um you know that the board may want to consider what it wants to do next and I you know I'm hearing from Mr Holt and

096I know Mr Holt has been supportive of that uh getting into the policy and having the conversations and policy which I think is you know makes a lot of sense as we're moving forward with it so that we have you know the on the you know on the ground practices and guidelines and then the policy is always the overreaching thing that helps show The District's commitment um from a from a legal and you know policy perspective of support so there's always regulation and practices on the ground and the policies that help show the umbrella of support um so that's basically you know why it's on there of course tonight I also wanted to give you an idea of um the draft TPS practices to support you know lgbtqa plus and transitive students that document um

097is a draft right now but please note that as you go through it there are annotations so when there's a statement there there's nothing in that document that is is you know just because I you know hey it's just what I thought I want you to know that as you see these annotations look at the bottom of it and there's the backup for it and the foundation for it so it's it's full of annotations uh many are references to the Connecticut State Department of Education guidance on civil rights protections for transgenders students some of these are frequently asked questions talk there's an mbsa doc International Awards of school um School Board Association there's a lot of backup for everything that's in there so I encourage you to really kind of go through it and look

098at the footnotes and references um because it's it's it's grounded in in all of the things that I think are important and that are documented to be important for supporting our youth in um you know in our community so a question on the annotations that uh [Music] has been embedded by shipping and Goodwin and is supported by Sugarland Goodwin so not only is it's you know well grounded in the literature it has all the references um it is legally supported the CSD is putting out new guidelines and I haven't seen them yet as soon as those are out I would also incorporate them but I just that's why you know I wanted to highlight that that this document is grounded so I know some people you know there's the internet can be a wonderful thing

099but it can be a terrible thing and so people doing you know research um just make sure that you're you know listen um you know people you know we're going to resources that that we know have some you know sorry to really help us with that and um you know shipping and Goodwin will also be a resource for us this is vetted by them um reviewed it supported 100 um and I can also provide other information so please just you know take a look at that and recognize that is um these are all grounded in in you know in legal um legal matters you know the best practices all of that so that's that's why it is the way it is you know what I would be using to to move forward and so I'm

100already I'll be meeting with various groups starting next week on that um making sure we get everybody aware of it get the feedback do the rounds you know stakeholders and then and then get it in place for the VM you know end of this year so we can work on the PB over the summer and enroll into next year with the PD in place and all of these things so that's that's the purpose is just making sure you are aware of what I am doing um and why and and how it's grounded in you know the best and most supportive practices for kids as well as what's legally important from civil rights perspective thank you um I do know that and I was supposed to be one of the board to discuss whether we go

101forward and put it into the policy and they can do a little bit more work on that to get the framework situated and actually create set policy um I know just through people's comments that that's where they would like to go with this and that's not necessarily go ahead right and I didn't want to interrupt you and I just want to tag on to what you're saying yeah if you recall you know within our structure we have the policy and we have the regulations and the policy sets that tone and it says what we believe what we want to happen the overall experience and then the regulations go in and they describe how they're actually going to happen Dr Willett and his team do that uh I think what happens here and where Dr Willett

102and I have been looking at it from a strategy perspective is both you know obviously the policy committee takes it on as far as developing and you know really creating that policy that that overarching structure what Dr Willy does what what he was just talking about there you know I have spent the past probably a month reading various laws and guidances and uh draft policies and try to figure out what we all bring and bring into the committee because I don't see this being a you know a one meeting conversation you know we we try to and our policy committees have a couple of those easy policies that we could change and fix that are normally the state changed a number on the guidance so we have to change our policy we then also have

103those bigger ones where we really sit and talk about it and try to figure out what we think what we feel where we want the district to be five years ten years how do we create that environment where Dr will and his staff can work imagine what they do and this is absolutely one of those um so I think I'm in line with where you were going there a chair in London is that both in second both things are priority and about both things are an absolute honor to work but also want to reach out to the rest of the boards you know I'll see it's fine it's absolutely welcome as this goes on to be a part of the committee and help s her hand off and then I Dana thank you uh can

104you hear me um so this document that you provided us Dr Willett on the dashboard or multiple documents I should say uh on the dashboard have uh there's the draft of the practices to support transgender students and then there's guidance at the cues um students in schools students and parents rights as we're working through this is this something that can be available to the public um so for potential feedback potential assistance with this um is this since we are discussing it in the public meeting can this document or this working document be made public and shareable um first and foremost and I also uh think it's Paramount that we get it on policy ASAP simply because we've had people talk about safety and safety's number one uh still yet I mean that's the a lot

105of the documents that I provided you are documents that are uh available on it it's just the documents that provided you have been embedded as good resources for uh understanding and so that's a lot of these documents you have are documents that are already out there and but certainly I can collect and then kind of post that and certainly the the the practices itself definitely I just want to make sure that I run through other groups to get it to the best possible place it could be and then and then publish it but I have every intention on doing that because when I do this I will also be sending out notification that I have you know I I through and working with the Staples and staff but put it in place as our guidance

106and practices so this is definitely you know put out there for people okay okay yeah I looked for I look forward to a thorough conversation I mean you gave a lot of great literature and guidance on this so thank you um one of my questions um and then Tony if you at some point want to work with communication once you know we get a policy in place or whatnot something maybe that should go to community or students I'd be thrilled to do that um and then the other question I was going to ask was do we want to revisit or talk about our bullying policies or our non-discrimination policies or the student handbooks save climate plan or just talk about you know how these things are being enforced or how they're being enforced because I

107think one of the most concerning things tonight was so many people students and parents talking about not feeling safe so I would just want to do everything we can to make sure that we're enforcing the policies we already have in place and the policy and they work together so that our students can start feeling safer absolutely one of the things that struck me when I really started digging into not just the data but the stories the people on Project news is you know regardless of why some of these are happening the the fact that kids aren't feeling same the fact that they're not feeling listened to we've already got policies in place that we're supposed to catch that so while this is absolutely a policy that we need to develop we need to replace um

108that woman I've been looking at the rest of the list going okay we've got like you mentioned the Discrimination we've got a bullying policy we've got communication policies we've got notification to to parents and home policies all of these other ones that that may have missed something so that those go on the list as well as far as what we need to review and you know how we look at them we have absences and consequences as part of the student handbook as well advised um well those student handbooks get revised quite often uh you know I think um policy is a good place to talk about a lot of the pieces of this that you you know you want to look at carefully and update um it'll be a good conversation to have because you

109know reflecting and reviewing our practices is always a healthy thing to do and you know and I think that you know obviously hearing people's stories and experiences is crucial you know we need to hear them you know hear them and I think it's easy for what you know for people to be defensive you know I think we just we really need to hear them and consider every way and every you know aspect of their experience and really look deeply at that um I will say that discipline you know is a complicated thing so for instance um giving someone an a suspension is sometimes a reward you know if there isn't the right supports because if someone acts in a certain way and gets suspended and goes home and plays Xbox all day and it doesn't

110have any other sort of reflection um then that doesn't reinforce the behavior you know it doesn't do anything to ameliorate and so part of it is you know when things happen you know I think we need to address it through a series of really two things one it has to be something that inconveniences the person who did it at the very least and then it has to be something that educates and looks to bring in these you know an individual to a better understanding um and at the very end of the day you cannot always force people to have a better understanding but you can at least make it so that they don't want to experience the inconvenience again and the suspension is not necessarily an inconvenience you know and I'm not saying let's just

111make it inconvenient I'm saying you know it needs to be something that people want to avoid you know they want to avoid it because they want to become better people and understand things better and be you know more loving and understanding compassionate but at the very least we want to make sure it's not easy to do um but that means having really good conversations about well I want them suspended that may not actually get to the end we're looking for um you know what do we do when we have an opportunity to educate um that also means that you know the district may need to look at this in a way that it hasn't before such as you know that requires resources you have to if you're going to actually do something restorative um you're

112going to do something that brings people to a better understanding the easy thing to do is slap an office detention on it and say we did our job or do it you know in turn into suspension we did our job we held them accountable but did you because if you really didn't talk to them if you really didn't drill down deeper into the reason and you didn't actually spend time and frankly that's that's what is going to make the difference but that also means having the programs to achieve it and I think there's the will but then they'll also have to be will on the side of the elected officials yourselves and others to say this matter is enough for us to put dollars into those programs to do things like that right um you

113know some of the things that we've been talking about that are disappearing are things that um you know where these these kinds of things would be discussed so it's on two ends on one end you want to have constant enriching conversations as part of the culture which means you have to have the programs to do on the team leadership skills for adolescents that you know all of that and then on the other end when there are transgressions because people come from different places and you know no one is ultimately who they will become in the process of therapy coming you know people do need to learn and people make certain kinds of mistakes and statements that they have the opportunity to evolve from and learn from um and that's the other you know prong of

114it we have to be able to do that we have to have people to do that we have to have the you know that going on so you know and we and we can't we can't say that we gave someone a suspension and that that was it and that worked because in all practice unless somebody's coming home to someone who's going to help and I don't mean that in a way that you know it all depends on how it plays out not everybody's family is the same when I grew up there was no one involved I didn't come home to someone who was going to hold me accountable because there wasn't anybody there so you know and that doesn't you know mean that every home is like that but we can't assume that every home

115is anything we have to be you know assuming that you know that the part we play is a proactive fun uh regardless of where people come from or what they have for resources and you know because there's multiple people working we believe in an economy where that's the case and that's not going to change there's not always someone at home and that's not their fault it's people just trying to put food on the table things like that so the programs have to evolve in a way that really encourages reflection and those are the more complicated ones they require more time they require more commitment they do require more people they require more programs they can be done and people are and that's the other piece I just want to you know say I have worked

116in this District since 2006. it's full of loving and compassionate people um there needs to be more Direction on some things which I think you know needs to be happening so people haven't they have the best possible way to express that love and compassion but it's full of loving and compassionate people um so you know I'm really encouraged that we have this great opportunity to really harness the grace and love that we've been shown here by people sharing you know sharing their stories and move it in a direction where there's loving and compassionate people can operationalize what they're hearing you know so that's that's what I I see for us in the future but it does mean you know it does mean not not taking any easy way out and you know those discipline policies

117I can tell you that I know in my experience that you know that they do do their best to try to you know enforce all of that I think that you know they can't talk to anyone about a student or child that's not their own child so people don't always know but the reality is that if people don't feel that they're working then that's what we have to hear regardless of how tired people are and how much we're trying to work to make things happen we have to hear it so that we can find the best way to help um and so I know that everyone's working and I know that they are doing anything you know feeling that they can it's on us to kind of evolve it and as elected officials you can

118help it that way making sure that we give them that support so yes we are going to review some of those policies you know I think we had a student talk about some possible other consequences other than suspension too so you know I just I hear everything they're saying and I couldn't be more in agreement with you and we've talked about it before um but I you know I also feel that I'm hearing you know students feeling like they're not feeling like they're being addressed although I understand you can't talk about something with an individual student but then if they see that student at school the next day having a great time eating lunch with their friends playing on the baseball team or the basketball team like I recognize that frustration so um I just

119I'm you know I need to put a period on that and just say that I hope that we're looking at that the big picture I hope we're following up with the victims um after they're reporting things and seeing how they feel and how they're being they're completely being treated and the consequences need to elevate I I agree with them I think that you know there needs to be consequences and those are that's that word consequences restorative practices are really one of the most effective ways to accomplish better understandings right so I just I want to make sure that we we are careful not to turn it into you know to me it's very it's easy for me to sit back and say absolutely I will suspend everyone for you know but the reality is that

120I know in 20 or 30 years of practice at suspensions and data shows they don't work we use them in districts across the whole United States because they're easy and they make it look I mean there's some cases where you do that because there's a health and safety risk and that always has to happen in that situation but you know we can't we can't pretend that the consequence of suspension is actually effective when data shows it's not and so that's something I just want to be careful about as we walk forward that we're we're thinking about how to really move forward into restorative practices and not you know saber rattling ideas that these other old outdated practices actually make a difference there's a lot of data that shows that data and in fact they're applied

121disproportionately you know so we just have to you know be careful that we that we do it do due diligence to do the right thing by everyone and make sure that we're evolving and not you know not just saying that we're making a difference by doing a certain thing but I think what she's trying to say is that you know correctly if I'm wrong but you know there needs to be like the follow-up from staff that needs to be the follow-up only ensuring that the child feels safe like you know what I'm saying like there's like I guess follow-up is this like key term that I think I feel has been dropped along the way and I just I mean I know that everyone's only 101 different directions I know that there's plenty of students

122but if you have a student that is consistently saying they don't feel safe I mean at what point do we you know have to make sure that yes are you following up on this can you make sure you follow up on this can you do it because that's part of the job so I think that that's part of the bullying factor that whether a student that I think what she's coming across is that you know you have consequences quote unquote and however you want to turn that or the actions of a student you know trying to redirect them and trying to get a positive outcome but you still have to ensure that both parties are followed up on making sure that they both are you know safe okay you know going redirected on that right

123Road and not keep going down the other path but I absolutely agree I think the thing about it is I would say most people in my life because I want to I want to be fair okay I want to be fair to everyone that most people in my life that I run into that wanted to be educators are not Shark Tank type people no they don't they're not cutting deals or looking to cut people out um they they want that no one got into the career to uh to overlook anyone or to marginalize anyone so some of our questions have to be why is that happening if the people in there are committed and want to do the right thing what are you know what are we creating that we may not even realize as

124obstacles for them to do these things and I would say that I that Educators want that and I think that there's a lot that do do that and I think that that is absolutely true that there has to be follow-up and revisiting and all of that I just don't want us to look and say there's easy answers to the to the failures that have occurred and I own them right these kids are having trouble I'm the one who's responsible for it so it doesn't sit well with me and I can't sleep at night knowing kids are suffering or youth are suffering so I own it but I also don't want to replace things or assume that you know the people here are good people and they're trying and that and maybe there are some who

125are definitely need to find other but um I think the failure has to do with certain things that I don't want to necessarily say you know the easy thing is to say they're just not doing this or they're just not doing that but are we creating a culture in an environment that has that makes that thing to do that have to follow are we allowing enough time uh you know for them to do it are they running from one case to the next to the next to the next to the point that they can't you know that they're having trouble following up so they have to triage what they're following up on you know these are not people that would want to to put kids aside none of them well you know none of them

126very few in my career so the the so then that means that we have to go deeper than than them and that means that I may come back to the table to you and say we need more of the things we're not getting so we can do those things that's the next discussion for PD I'm gonna throw one out there every Wednesday would be great a lot of other districts have that we don't have that you want us to have a lot of I want us to have a lot of PD a lot of enrichment I want to do more in telling our teachers how to stop people from bleeding to death I want to put stuff like this in but we don't have the time and so when we get into conversations about this

127and we don't want to give the days here it is guys but we don't want to do the other stuff because you know we don't a certain amount we can spend you know the reality is there are things that we are going to need to do that connect to other things here and it's not the simplest thing to do is say they just don't care enough they just aren't following up in them they are you know because what happens is these people that hear this who are literally literally depressed themselves because they feel like their family are now hearing that we think they're faith so I you know I the love and compassion we have to to do here really has to be Broad and we have to be careful not to to draw conclusions

128without looking carefully at what's really going on so there's definitely you know um people that need to to to be educated including myself frankly there's no stop to how much education you can get you know and no one's perfect and I am definitely not perfect so the education has to be a constant part of it um but we also have to provide the time the resources all of the things that you know that when we use terminology like let's get creative you know that's to me you know I have an aversion to some of that because I feel like you're you've got people being massively created you know so we need to put more substance behind that and not and come up with fast easy answers to things and so that's that's you know what

129I want to kind of emphasize here is that we have to listen and then we have to really work hard not not at you know not not accusing either but look hard at you know the premise let's start with people mean well or not not when they're being horrible and racist and bigoted and terrible that's not what I mean I mean when we're looking at our counselor who is depressed and pulling you know their own hair out because they're running from person to person to person to person um our first thing shouldn't be you just you know did you do this did you do this it should be how can we best support you so that you can execute this that we know is so valuable not what you didn't do that you didn't do

130you know and I I always do look at it and say well how could we have done this you know I'm not picking on any counts I'm saying with any staff you say how could you do this the most effective way but a lot of times they're trying to we have to make that possible we have to make it realistic so that we're not blaming people for doing you know for not doing something that they they deeply want to be doing so you know that's where the rubber hits the road on things like budget days PD days time programming all of that stuff when we talk about the programs and sometimes we think are Superfluous and that you know all of that these programs aren't they can create real misery if they're not there you

131know so it's it's important that we we keep thinking of that um as we move you know through this process of making ourselves to be the the best that we can possibly be thank you for that because I don't think that is you know saying that we're pushing student uh staff saying that they're not spending any I don't think that's what happens well I wasn't suggesting you were I'm just saying yeah we have to I'm just saying that there's the people are and do want to do exactly what you're saying right I'm just yeah wonderful Educators and I do think a lot of opinion you have to have a horrible to go into being a teacher dealing with children every day that are not your own so um I know Jayden you had her hand

132up a couple times so I just want to make sure that you get your time I did um Dr Willett you sort of just did yeah nothing now um I I think every point you just made um so fair and true um it just makes me it makes me think just naturally and and just hear me out here what what is going on in the schools right now that so many kids or so many students are are bringing this to our attention and and I feel like yes I'm completely on board with Communications versus policy every board member working with policy in order to pass whatever it is needed to protect these kids and they're and and and Etc um but in the meantime what what does that look like because we can't rely on

133but meeting x amount of days from now and so what I mean this is just a curiosity question in the meantime what what's the daily routine of whether it's admin staff whatever it is um to address these types of goals and whether it's a specific situation or whether it's the topic as a whole that's too broad of a question that's a better way the word is how often is this reviewed by how many chances are they given to to you know become more consistent with um when Public School expects from them because that makes sense I guess yeah I I does um and it's a great question just trying to think of how to to to give the due diligence to an answer that makes sense you know to give you the best answer um

134you know uh so policies set by board and then implementation of policy happens from the staff the people that are in the schools and you know I guess the the best way to answer that is when I uh when I started back in 95 you know roughly I didn't have I you know within a few years I became an administrator and I I had it easier than these administrators than the other people have because you know a lot of the factors that they have to deal with weren't there um and a lot of things that you know were going on weren't there bigotry and hatred was always there and that was something that we always you know want to hit directly and effectively but I didn't ever have to try to figure out how to

135get an ex parte hoarder to get terrible content off of social media and felt more powerless to do that you know like and you know so I you know these are that's one tiny thing that doesn't invent to dismiss you know the transgressions have not followed through I mean obviously like I said you need to hear it they need to react to it and do it effectively but your staff are running your community's staff are are kind of like remember that show ER and I'm dating myself but they're running is one thing to the next that is how every one of these staff members feel they are running from one thing to the next and they are praying to God that they are able to catch and do everything that they possibly you know that

136they can do to make sure they're you know doing due diligence to everybody's needs and so you know that that's really what I see you know and so when I have conversations about restorative practices you know uh we'll talk about it and and someone might say back to me but how am I supposed to do that how am I supposed to do that with you know with this this this this and this you know when we talk about how people are supposed to do that but but I think that that's what you see going on right now in schools is people are saying that the emotional toll of feeling like you're failing all the time leads you to say I don't know if I can do this anymore and that's why you see the attrition

137in the field because it's it's a thing where no one got into the field to hurt people they got into the field to help people and so you know right now we have lots of policies and practices in ways that they executed they're always receiving things looking into an investigating and communicating with people interacting with the state interacting with agencies like BCF and other groups interacting with you know csde state federal agencies to you know enforce follow through do things like that um but it's it's I think people are feeling they're feeling overwhelmed that doesn't mean that we should not do it and so you do see people working all kinds of hours to execute that and still feel infected too so I you know we just want to make sure that I think that

138the intention is there and some of the the you know policy words are there and things from the state are there but how can we make sure that people can not feel like they're failing and by doing that that will actually support people um you know who feel like something might not be happening you know um because it might be happening it's just they might not have been able to you know in a fast and expand Circle battery um because then they have four or five other things happen you know so in a small way you know this kind of draft follow destroy these guidelines um I know that that um not everyone will love these guys but they're important which is why I'm saying it's my job to do this policy needs to come

139you know you know in the ways that it will but I need to do this whether or not you have a policy written or not I'm doing this so you know I have to do this and this is the right thing to do and you know I'm getting stakeholder feedback and we're going to do everything in a way that's right but you'll notice that everything in there has a citation it's it's vetted by ship and all of that so these are the things we're doing you know from a from a procedural point of view but once this is on you know out there then we've got to make sure that people have the re you know have the support to do this so it's not just hey I just you know it's there it's on

140paper why aren't you doing it you know we have to make sure that the PD is there the understanding is there and then we have to make sure people are supported when they feel like they're failing so that they don't feel like they're found and I think that will make it you know the most effective thing it can be for kids because I think what's easy to do here is really just to I think there's a lot of people really working to try to make things work and I don't want to alienate any of the people who are trying to do that you know at the same time the most crucial and important thing is that is what our students are experiencing and what our what our parents are experiencing so that has to be

141addressed but I don't I want to make sure that we're putting a love and compassion in how we're doing this to everyone um you know to make sure that that we're all moving in that direction and we're doing it effectively and not handing people out making it impossible or making them want to leave you know that Dana thank you um so some things uh I mean I really appreciate this conversation I think it's really important um I think you know we're already behind the eight ball we have had students that have been feeling unsafe um in in our school environment for I mean one student said I don't know six plus years or something and it's the same situation six years ago as it is today um I don't want to rush anything but I

142also don't want to say let's continue the conversation continue the conversation continue the conversation then we're having a conversation six or seven months down the road and without any resolution um or out any structure I should say um I definitely think uh my first question would be because I I have a lot of notes Yeah Ashley so bear with me my first question is and I don't know what the rules around it are um but what what is the possibility of how our student reps or uh involved in our policy committee meeting conversation um is that something that we can schedule to allow them to attend I know there's there's restrictions on who can talk in a meeting or what have you but I definitely think having our student reps input and I'd like I

143mean if I don't I don't think they're both there anymore um I can't see the room um but I I would like to hear their their feedback and and have them a part of the conversation I think it's it's truly important I guess that's my first question and I'll pause for that yeah I mean it definitely is up to each chair on how they want to run their meetings and I obviously am you know so I can take that to you and ain't you no you hit the neighborhood the subcommittee um level the rules aren't nearly as strict as they are here first of all the the student reps have absolutely the right to attend the committee meetings uh to participate in the meetings to speak without anything extra you've already got that for the

144super policies uh I know as far as the policy committee uh I wouldn't say moved regularly but at times we do have public participation we do have conversation back and forth we open it up to get some of that feedback in and you know this obviously is one where we would welcome that so did it you're right and it is absolutely something that we can make happen question number two okay so that's awesome so I would like to invite them because they have the pulse of what's going on in the squalls and first-hand knowledge right there so um I'd really like to make that happen um I definitely a lot of the things that I heard tonight were social emotional health safety student experience um all of that so what does that look like so

145what are some things that we can do to ensure that that happens um you know some of our students the only place that they feel safe is in our school system so it's our job to ensure that we have all those resources for all students and um I think it's so important but I I think maybe supporting the infrastructure to truly address any of the negative behaviors this conversation that needs to happen um and we definitely need to support our admins and staff um with different time and resources and uh you know I heard a parent say some a parent that spoke earlier that said you know a lot of the Educators that were involved with their students were fantastic but didn't have the resources to know exactly what they should or what they could

146or should do or how to handle it appropriately um so there's that I also um I also think that you know continuing our professional development for for our Educators is super important um I don't know there's just so many so much opportunity to do this the right way we really need to get this one right it's it's again safety and social emotional health and uh you know our students and our staff I mean there's so much so this is such a huge conversation such a huge topic um we've just got I can't reiterate we have to get it right okay um I think we have one last thing I don't have a budget to talk about but we hit background and that's the thing that I just wanted to touch base you know as as

147we transition from this conversation into the next conversation you know this really becomes a discussion you know that the resources are not uh to the point of Dr William question we made just a little bit ago be it money be it time be it uh staff all of those things so when we start looking at how we want to allocate those what we want to do with Wednesday afternoons we have to figure out what doesn't happen so certain things happen not saying this is a critical I certainly believe this is but just something that all of the conversations tied together they're always absolutely so at the closure of this section um you're taking this up in policy absolutely and we will have more conversations [Music] so [Music] um let's move on to the budget okay

148here's when the next policy meeting next time you will wait thank you yeah and I mean if this is if you are going to allow public participation perhaps the communications could add a little something yeah I'm sorry yes I said you know depending on if he is deciding if you can put these public participation Communications I think we may want to change agendas to include a formally here yeah we'll be a story that's the or just the committee agenda yeah so that you have in Spaceport but that is didn't mean these are the upcoming policies I know I'm sorry when I hit plus it goes minus and I do not know why well if I hit minus it blows up for a minute it goes all it has to do is me being over 50

149that I can't figure it out but I could bring Victoria in here to talk to you about pluses and minus so right now that's it that's about it but those are then X policy thank you okay the next topic is a pleasure I am not very pleased but we're we're gonna die then because um we do not have the time so thank you all for adding us on to the agenda tonight because we really don't have another meeting in between now and when the town has the public huh meeting so I was quite distressed when I saw what the percentage was today and I think it's really uh important for us to know where we're coming from because I did not see a reduction for the insurance line if I am correct percent of the

150town would have to tell us that I didn't think I read anything about that I just saw a wonderful three so um yeah um well so there's a couple of things that I can do for you know where we are right now budget wise it's just too small to work on so I'll just talk from my uh I'm just talking um there's a couple of things that I think I can do to help us that we've been looking at from the standpoint of budget um right now I I did talk to the transportation company and uh you know we have a good relationship but then we worked hard with them they're willing to adjust the the um you know the rates for the three years so that obviously will balance out you know towards the

151end because a contract is a contract but we could get 9.5 percent um for next year which would save us 86 000 and then another 9.5 percent specialized transport that I was able to work with them to guess so we're going to pick up you know about 93 000 there we're going to use erf funds to offset special education transportation and tuition as we talked about that as a strategy before and now I want to employ it because obviously we're in a space where we really need to that would be another 200 excess cost adjustment the reimbursement rate is going up to 85 for us which means we'll pick up 149 000 149 668 um heating oil dime oil stuff where you know again we have an excellent facilities director we have a good relationship

152with town I asked him to help you know do what he could we have that's another 75 000. so those make up you know roughly by 500 000 on something but we still have another 600 000 to to to achieve in order to reach uh three percent and so difficult conversation here is you know what what will that look like um if I can get us to that point about you know 500 in but I can't I don't have other places really and I'll look everywhere else I can um you know I'll you know we'll we'll have individual contract employees including myself whatever they get I'll take um you know and maybe we can look at the budget and see what we can do there that that won't be a tremendous amount most of your

153people are Contracting Union um can you put up what you have because I just was spreading numbers yeah it's just so small um just we'll give it another shot because you're still talking 600 000 so I'm assuming liberians are gone the let me uh yeah let me try that I want a counselor the middle school counselor is definitely gone like all of the things that we were trying to save are now out the door yeah I'm gonna try to put this spreadsheet up which won't be maybe I can blow it up a little bit bigger so I'm sorry can you give me two seconds but but essentially what those things that were on the list prior now come back into play um under the circumstances so you know in order to reach that production we

154would you'd be talking about what we would do to achieve that if nothing else happens so yes essentially you know the short answer is yes okay so we're looking at cutting the what librarians um then going back to Middle School yeah you're pretty much a middle school counselor you're looking at um leads we'll try to get this see the thing about this it's weird is they're trying to blow it up when I own two missing well okay so here we are um you know Transportation I talked about these but then as you you're you know that'll get you to that 500 plan but then you're back talking about potentially you know reductions such as um you know the the math coach the leaf coach counselor these liaison instead of all of these if I took

155everything we'd still have to find 66 000. so all of that and everything there goes including you know the 500 so thousand that we picked up from the transportation and special ed offset and excess cost and oil you know all of that plus all of this we are still 66 000 away from getting to that three percent figure and so what I'm saying here is all I will do everything else I can um you know I'll look at uh individual contract employees like myself you know I think they they need to have something because the consumer prices and things like that are going and we have to do something that I can look at you know one percent for them you know and maybe a dollar less for myself and just see what that makes

156up but that that we're not a big group of people that's not going to make up you know that might make up the 66 or a little less than that so you know you know you just go like make it minimal just a little bit so that the amounts are attached with there we go that's that's it thank you so you know and there was no talk of any sort of adjustment for insurance rights because then we really need to dig into the insurance piece because I'm not gonna let go of all of this when we really haven't circled the insurance piece that they just refuse to really talk about even in the joint meeting mid-march got a discussion right now the councils you know they're going through their process um they're just they want

157to do something that passes that referendum you know so that conversation is occurring how they find this is going to be up to them you know how they decide to move forward with their you know their way of achieving the budget you know it doesn't all have to come from one place or another I think they're working to be creative but right now the information we have is that the budget allocated to the board would be a three percent and I have to operate on what we have in front of us for a percentage you know I'm hoping you know if something changes here um it's just such a kicker here we are talking about everything and it's like you know TMS counselor math math we received from students about it's about Brands and the

158amazing Educators and supports that they give so many of our students you know the thing to think about here just is you know if you have to find that other 600 700 you know that if it's if this is the soapiest choice piece so if it's not this group you know this and what it and then it's this and you know so you know there's nothing there that we want to have reduced and probably there's nothing else that you would want to see reduced either um you know that type of thing and there's nothing that breaks my heart more than you know like skill spray lessons I Really Work to bring that thing back and then we got the grants we funded it you know I taught the class for a semester so we could

159get the grant extension 84 kids in four sections every other day you know you know and then you know we got we were able to get you know the grant funded position for a couple years and now it's off Grant it's getting operating and you know we might lose it which breaks my heart too you know um and again you know what you do there is if somebody's leaving the position and you're not at the very least you're not taking it from someone else you're not leaving a family without you know without um without the income and so that's that's what's going on there is that there is a resignation for that job you know um and if you had to make the cut at least you're not taking something out of times you'd have

160to talk I just want to see what exactly we're losing again because I just you know these things are going to create the waterfall effective the problems that are going to be created from losing these things I mean we're going to lose teachers we're talking about retention issues you know based on the email that we've gotten and board members are questioning we're going to lose teachers because understand pay is a CIA piece of retention and we're going into contract negotiations with teachers again in the summer these things are going to come out you know the and the other thing is this is just a perfect storm for us because the pandemic is you know the the pandemic is is you know heading in the direction of resolution [Music] um from the standpoint of all the

161other stuff we had to do but the learning loss and the struggles they're they're real they're they're documented in all kinds of literature you know the rates of uh rsrbi services or of special education services are up into designations are up um you know so for instance I I don't want to take I wouldn't want the great leader team leader quickly liaison to go you know those stipends to disappear I didn't put them in the superintendents proposed you didn't have them in the Board of Ed that two hundred thousand dollars you know what else what is that then you know because we can't go down in special Educators can't go down and interventionists can't go down in poor staff you don't have room in the UA cycle because that would destroy that and then you

162don't have the rotations we already are barely squeezing you know keeping that skills for adolescence you know that counselor that I you know may what I would do is try to either give somebody a stipend or I would go back in and teach it in the mornings again just to have it because that is an important collapse you know we're all willing to do things to keep these things in place but but here's the problem like you see you go in in the morning I mean your Plate's already full right now you're taking away the counselor yes they're teaching a class but they're also there for the students so now it's like a double-edged sword that you know you're not trying to make counseling students but it would be teaching the class but once again

163like your Plate's already full so going into teaching I know that you would do it to do whatever you can for the district but like reasonably like you're losing out on a teacher in the counselor position so it's it's more religion I guess what I'm saying here is like we'll do everything I can find Alternatives but you're you know the it's a challenge if if we have to make up 600 700 800 000 you know um you can find the five to six thousand hundred thousand of it but beyond that there really is no you know thing and the other piece we have to be careful about is we can't we can't choose something that seems easy just because it looks like that you know for instance you know that might be tempting to go

164after you know those parents that are unfilled but the reality is we have been and and Suzanne Waterhouse and many have been working really hard to make us get to a much better position from a staff perspective than we've been and we are much better there we've made a lot of progress but those positions have been you know built by substitutes and others while we're trying to build them that means there's human beings in there doing those things you know we can't pretend that that's not the case and just cut those because then we would have to rehire many of these people probably things anyway and the thing is that looks easy right we take it and there's money there but then we spend that anyway because we have to because I can't say no

165to IEPs and to know what I want to frankly and so that makes us next year already negative like we start knowing we're going to be in the hole because we're going to have to be doing these things and that means you may actually have layoffs if we don't face the tiger now and figure out what we're going to do with it whether it's you know something working with the council or whatever then next year that artificially presents a situation because we may have to reduce staff as we're going in the years so we're not cash negative at the end because we had to bring back things that we've attended weren't actually going to be needed so you know that's that's dangerous and we have to be careful of that Temptation you know I was

166talking to another person today I said well just cut all your supplies well that that doesn't you know you can't cut all the surprise you know no I think they were they were kind of joking but they said ask all the parents in town to bring arima paper to the school you know so you know if I send home an email asking every parent to bring a ream of paper to the school and we're not going to buy paper you know a that's an equity issue it's not everybody can afford reading the paper but in real terms that's not how that's going you know you can't do that you know um so and the law says you have to actually deploy you know the resources so that the kids can effectively be given their you

167know being pre-in appropriate most education so you know this is it we're at the grinding place here now you know this you've done a lot we were able to come up with 600 60 000 of things that didn't involve people between me going back to the transportation company and using uh erf and you know um and looking at the energy and dime oil and all that and we've made all the efforts to to get to that point but that where we're left is about 600 000 to go you know um the transportation conversation and then I recognized and applaud the work that you've already done to try to you know scrape out to scrape some of this out but I'm worried about what happened to kick that one down the road I mean we're betting

168we know the grants some of the grants are going to go away next year makes physical here it sounds like we're betting that the insurance drops enough don't compensate for the additional um I I guess and I'm not articulated again well but are we just making it even more difficult to get about the budget next time and some of the answers to that in that area is yes it's just you have you have a particularly bad year this year because you're facing new transport contract massive Insurance increase so you know the bargaining unit kind of implications even though you did a wonderful job of negotiating and your your bargaining units accepted you know fair but modest compensation they're not way up there they're not you know at the lowest point but they're definitely not way

169up there as you can tell from the data that we've shown so you've been responsible there you just got a perfect storm and it would be terrible to to not have any flexibility at all this year and have it really impact your your staff and your service capacity do you predict it getting better at the next well all I can really say is if I looked at and again covet throws a wrench in this when I look at the data you have you have a peak every say three years in the insurance you literally have like you know one two three bang one two three bang so every about second third to fourth year you do have this burst up in whatever whatever reason I can't you might need an Actuarial to explain that one

170but it's every three or four years you have this you know high peak and then it comes down you're facing that high peak again um so you know I I think that there is data evidence to show that this this is a lip you know I don't know how long of a blip and I think I totally support and understand you know Lisa Hancock very smart um knows what she's doing like well you know they're they're intercourse Brian I trust him I think um you know they're looking at how to best navigate it but um I do think that there's some you know there's some sound judgment and looking at all of the things that you know is within the realm of the board and the council to look at to try to avoid having

171a one-year kind of terrible year actually have many many many years negative impact if we had to reduce all of these people so I I am you know I am encouraged that I think they're working hard to find you know to find um ways of doing it well back on this insurance came okay because I really feel like something has to do with this insurance so if you're saying that every three years it kind of turns into a blend or is it not being funded well enough that like all of a sudden this like bubble comes to burst and then it bubbles again bursts like if it's a trend for every three years I mean I don't think someone gets sent like every three years well remember you're you're absolutely the the self-insurance program you

172have has saved you from so much because the last five years you've had zeros for three and that's not something everybody experiences you know that's something that has been made possible by the by the excellent self-insurance program you have with a lot of people work very hard to maintain so it's not that it's just you've had terrible claims here you know claims are higher than you know we've seen them in you know a long time if ever frankly it's one of your bigger blips but you know that does make some rational sense because you know I had hip surgery I didn't do because I got rejected in the emergency room right you know like and a lot of people things like that happened to them they went for surgeries they went for things and that

173did not happen so guess what's happening now everybody's coming to do that there's these things happening because people didn't get to do it then um so that does make some rational sense right so we have a every three year blip or so plus we add to it the fact that the people that we're not able to do elective things or doing them and other things it did make some sense that there's maybe some maneuverability here having said that you know I trust Our Town Partners you know I think they're they're probably looking at their options um I I would I would hate to see this and end this way for us I would hate to see 600 700 000 of Staff reduction because that I've lived through that I know our staff has lived through

174that highly demoralizing it does impact everyone the way you've said you know people do lose you know they think oh you know maybe I need to go find a place that's more stable and I lived through years of this those of us a lot around long enough lived through some of the most impactful years of this this and you're losing you know 20 20 in a year then using another one backpack you know maybe 10 12 years ago and then the state budget prices where we had to you know use the same budget so we had to make a reduction in staff people sometimes point to this artificial 17-18 year and say look there's your FTE but the reality you look at your worry look the year after you recovered from that because you were

175given the same you know budget but you had you know the next year increased costs that naturally resulted in rent so you know people you know those there's all kinds of ways to kind of you know look at it but having said that this could potentially be one of the most damaging years in your recent history and and it has all the negative reverberating effects you're talking about so you know I think that there's a process playing out you know again I trust or you know our partners or Municipal Partners in the council working hard to try to find a way to not have that happen to your industry school system and it is ironic that we're talking about it because you know this on the tales of the conversation we just had because this

176is all part and parcel with the same thing you know are these people that I told you are running around they'll be running around more you know um and then and that's part of the the real regret here that doesn't mean that we we can't and shouldn't do things it's just that that's what you're seeing people trying really hard and it doesn't affect them the way that you would imagine it so I'm gonna be uni honest and here it goes um this is very unappealing especially after the conversation we just had an hour ago especially after the conversation Dr William you were president for this conversation the mental health and substance abuse task force presented the Weyland uh uh presentation right here at the church just the other day uh week about mental health and

177substance abuse in both you and adults um the fact that we have expressed countless times now that this stuff is needed the children have expressed this stuff is needed parents have expressed this teachers retired teachers have expressed this stuff is needed and it's getting to a point where I feel like all of that's being ignored so I'm going to actually procedural question where does the town manager start in putting his board recommended or I know this wasn't his recommendation but for that three number that number because to me that number just looks like a number it doesn't involve a plan behind it it doesn't involve staff behind it it doesn't involve students I want to know where we're getting this three number from and why we're getting there I get it because we don't want

178to raise this and do this I think that's a a nonsense argument I think they need to focus on the kids at work coming to us begging for help instead of hoping and praying in a year or two from now that help arrives from somewhere we'll get it from left field and the third row it's not going to happen so do we take initiative or we do do we accept the same 10-year pattern that we've been following people last night um I don't know if I had a question in there but that's how I feel like this is a very tiring take initiative they do too well what could I mean I recognize your prayer correction yeah I just where I'm sitting is the town manager using whatever process he did and you know I

179had no idea yeah I've been talking about that uh push forward and said three percent is this what I'm going to give it for and you know understanding that it's kind of a council it's got to go through the record and it's got to go through a whole bunch of steps but looking forward pretending that three percent is what they turn and they give us what initiative are we supposed to do I mean right now we can obviously go we can more than them we can do that kind of stuff but it's not like we're going to mine our own money well into you know I also think that again in all processes you know I want to be fair and how how I'm talking about it you know I think to the town manager's

180credit the three percent is higher than what we've gotten for many years you know so to his credit I think he's trying to to provide something that you know meaningful Figures it's not a two it's not a one and it's not a .84 and it's not a zero and we've had all of those you know um the thing about it is that's poignant that many of you have actually you know have recognized and this is this is right and why you know we want to try to be careful not to let live near like this when you have a lot of factors coming together you have transportation Insurance a lot of other things impact your district for a you know five to years to a decade more because of the reductions that had to be

181made when there's other mechanisms that could be utilized during this particular year to offset what could be just a you know an anomaly year or you know even if it's following the pattern say that that is followed if it's every third or fourth year you're in one of these storms it makes sense to use all available or to use your available mechanisms to offset that storm take the edge off it so that the impact doesn't have a five-year or ten year impact on your entire system you know so that I think that's where the council is at now is just trying to figure out that doesn't mean taxes have to go up you know it could mean other mechanisms of accomplishing that and I think they're working hard to figure that out and I know

182Town staff are are probably thinking about these things um and that's probably that's where it's at that's why it's it's good to engage you know the next community that where they're talking about the board of that budget is March 20th you know if you're interested showing up you know and engaging at that point they talk about it um you know but I think that's the thing you know we don't want to let this year that has that massive Insurance increase for us creates such a damaging impact that the next five years you're reeling from it when there's when there's some POS there may be some place to avoid that and uh and that's what you know I think they're probably working through now you know the trust that they're trying to find a wedding Tony

183your question about how can we take initiative I think we support the budget because we can't have it both ways we're not supporting a budget that keeps these things then we're saying we're okay with taking those things away I'm not okay with taking those things away our students need them we've heard from students we've heard from parents we've heard our teachers we've heard from us we've heard from our superintendent we need to support the things that our students need and not talk about and that's not not to talk about but over the number um and then the second thing I wanted to say I mean the reality of it is Dr Willett is that and I think we've discussed this over and over again but the budget you presented us was a fiscally responsible budget

184we've talked about all of the reasons why you just did again why this was a difficult year and an anomaly in a lot of ways we've also talked about all the things that you didn't add to the budget the 38 positions that you were requested in the the other things that were taken away before we were even given the 5.9 number you know can you can you just reaffirm that the budget presented as a fiscally responsible one yeah there were a million dollars in reductions prior to even getting to the budget that you were at you know and you're really being hit hard by the but the the circumstances of this particular year so yes I mean you don't there's nothing you know there everything that's in that budget is important to people for children

185and community so yes you you know again this is one of this is in my career here I've never seen an impact as big as this per se Insurance you're you're dealing with a big tidal wave tidal waves you know by their nature but not constant so again you know it's it's about how you weather the tidal way without leaving your your Island devastated you know what's the way to do that but yeah you've done this board has done due diligence you know that's why I'm surprised to hear sometimes you know the main statement that you didn't you you had the workshops you had the rotation activities you walked around and met with all the administrators and all the call center people you talk to them you know for hours you know if you extended

186many different questions you've met with me individually you've reached out in many directions on your own I don't know any one of you that has not spent a very large amount of time in your own domain and way really working in due diligence on this and I really compliment all of you for doing that um you know you you've put me you've made me work harder than I've ever worked in my you know whole career and that's true of all of you not one of you all of you you've all done that which is to your credit you've really done the due diligence so you know in Europe you know you try you've done everything you can now this where we're at right now is you know we're facing the time and what happens after

187the Title Wave is important here you know what what kind of rebuilding are you gonna do from that tidal wave are we going to have the opportunity to have a Fighting Chance not to have it have five to ten years reverberating effects or or are we going to be in a situation where you have five or ten years of impacts from what happened in this year and if you have an opportunity to avoid that go through the tidal wave and avoid the five to ten year impacts and and I hope that materializes and I do again I have faith that there's a process here I think you have people working hard to look at that and to not have that Title Wave have that five or ten years I was like someone had their hand

188up I just I just want to say that I think this is a huge loss for our district and a huge loss for our students and I think we would all be remiss to not say that this is the definite loss and we're going to feel it as Jen said I think the students are either directly or indirectly going to feel it the staff is going to definitely directly feel it our administrators are going to feel it and I think we as a board should think about what we are handing to next year's board what are we passing forward because we're gonna have to go through this process again next year and understand that this is a loss this is going to hurt and repairs are are expensive twice as expensive as the original um

189I mean unfortunately if you can't put things in place the right way then something's going to break and then you have to fix it when it's broken it's more costly than being preventative and I mean that's just the way our system is which is so unfortunate on in so many levels it's a systemic problem that we're just kind of picking up things after they've broken not feeling preventative maintenance or preventative care and our school system deserves it I I feel really sad about this outcome I'm actually heartbroken about it and um that's why I supported the budget as we presented it because I really can't get behind cutting these things I don't know where we're going to cut six hundred thousand dollars how are we going to do that and I know Dr Willett I

190have completely trust and faith in you that you'll come up with ideas that are thoughtful and as we least impactful as possible but I mean I just think this is a big bummer and a big bummer for next year too and I hate I hate to be a Debbie Downer about anybody I think all the people that sent emails like the retired teachers the support for the keeping the Librarians the lead positions all the emails and all the people that we've heard from really need to email the town manager and email the Town Council because it's you know yes we are the board but they need to hear from others as well and you know we had a lot of people come in and talk and maybe they really need to hear that because these

191Librarians they're gone like it's just you know I'm saying like this is where we're at you know so I just feel like that that is a important piece of the puzzle that you know maybe perhaps they really need to hear from others in town so they're retired teachers the staff that came to talk to us all the the students that wrote about the Librarians and what they meant to them like have them right in to the town manager and the Town Council and I mean I'm really this whole Insurance piece like that's what I'm having a very tough time with I'm having a very tough time like that so you know something's got to get and we're losing a lot of Staff after we just had this conversations with everything and then this is where

192we're at so um I know Dana had her hand up Dana um Dana I will entertain a motion to go past ten okay a motion to go past ten any discussion okay bye bye Lauren said I Dana said I and I'm I as well so we are unanimous I have one past ten so just so you have that uh so sorry everything's dying on me tonight um so bear with me um to say I'm disheartening is or upset about this is to say the least um the reality of it is is I think that we talk about like the kids and again what Jaden said tonight is all true you know I'd say ditto to what Jaden said how are we going to you know impact our school system positively because we just had students

193and and parents and folks from out of town you know say we need all these resources and we need to help support their students in school and all the students in school and now there's I don't know 600 000 I mean it's ridiculous um and I guess I go back to like Katie Katie Murray's been sending us emails for forever and and God bless her and what she's doing for her students and her children but I mean if if we with the budget we have currently we can't even get the the TMS Staffing correct and we've had several of our teammates attempt to advocate for that but then you know now we're going to stretch our our staff even that much more thin um when we're already shorting places and um and I get hindsight's

1942020 but the reality of it is is we all should have stood United and supported the dang budget but the town council meeting whether you voted against it or you voted for it is that our job to say this is why I voted yes this is why I voted no this is our budget as a board of edge get freaking behind that we need to support the budget because the budgets for our schools and our we can't say we don't support the budget and then and another thing say I support getting more Staffing in the Middle School like we just can't do that we can't say we support the budget but then say our Educators get paid well or don't get paid well then they need to do this like we can't speak out of

195both sides of our mouths like we need to be if we we need to support the budget we're the Board of Education and we landed upon a budget whether people agreed with it or not that's what was presented to the Town Council and the we had a vote you have a boat it's in the minutes it's in the minutes but then we go there and we support you whether we supported the budget in the vote or not that was our budget and that was our job to come in United to support that budget but we didn't do that so now here we are so what do we do with this going forward well now I will go back to the to the Miss groton's of the world one of our best Educators in the system

196left our school system still in the prime of her career to go to another school system the quote unquote valued her and paid her more we're going because of this and I I mean this is just me just stating the audience because of this we're going to lose a lot a big part of our educational system here in college period I don't know what kind of magic you're going to pull out of your hat Dr Willett I don't know how many rabbits he got in there uh but I'm scared for our students I'm scared for our students and I will tell you you know they definitely don't have the same education as last year they don't have the same education as five years ago they definitely don't have the same education as 10 years though

197and one of our peers said well let's talk about all the things we threw in that we added in we added Chromebooks we added the technology yes we did do that and we are funding that thanks to tapto and their generous donation thanks to other donations that we had and thanks to Grants and different things these are different these are things that we can't ignore the obvious we can't ignore the audience we are the Board of Education and I'll go back to day one of me being on the board of education in the first meeting and Andy Powell said you guys will be the Guardians of Education we have not been the Guardians in education as a United Team and I I'm devastated I am dumbfounded I am godsmacked I don't even know what words

198I can say because I'm gonna go on my my pedestal my Podium right now and I this isn't going to get us anywhere but I will say that we need to figure out what we're gonna do and what Dr willett's whatever he's going to present us and what he does present us we need to do our best to help support that and help support our staff and help support our Administration and help and support our students that called us to action today how are we going to do that because that's all I'm going to say and I I know I need to go to bed at night and look in the mirror and say you know what I did what I could for what I'm supposed to do and I stood up and I stood

199up and um this is a stop in the face I feel like our I feel like we need a a town budgeting class for everybody and what we need to do but we are literally ripping the artery out of our school system and I don't know what that is um I I'm sorry I I'm sorry I don't have anything positive to say other than I gotta listen to Jen gallachan and say support support support and Advocate and Advocate and Advocate and I have Jen in my ear and I'm going to continue to do that and I hope that we can do that United because that's what we really need to do if we're a board of education members we need to be United thank you the other thing that I want you as a board

200to to uh feel and understand for your own edification is you I think you have worked hard I think you're trying again you're starting to get you do you're not starting but I do I think you feel do you feel what people are feeling here because you're trying your hardest and sometimes you know despite your hardest efforts think you know what you want to have happened you know you start to see something negative happening so I just want to kind of cover a couple things here I've heard this notion that you've added you've added you've added so let me I want to address that for you um you you have again roughly let's just estimate you know 202 209 depending on your kind of Grant status teachers um and the concept here of you know

201you've added you've added that okay so you have a LEAP program you have a TTA program you have an ABA program you have these programs yes you have these programs but you don't have more teachers you have teachers working those programs so you have less teachers and the thing to keep in mind is if you didn't have those programs you'd have even less teachers than you have because the cost avoidance those programs create what you have been doing is putting holes in the side even you know filling the holes in the side of the boat so you don't sink you bought the cork it doesn't mean that it's a whole new thing it's a cork for the whole so for instance Leaf provides lots of cost avoidance for you out of the 30 kids 10

202were out of there you have B you have million million more underwater you'd have to cut 20 more people to cover that differential you have Leaps so you provide the best programming for kids but also so it's cost avoids is it a good thing yeah it's saving you a million right so it's not a new thing that is adding on top it's a new thing that you're putting a cork in the hole so you don't sink it's a new thing you know these job classifications your curriculum supervisors when I first came here you had all of them plus the social studies person but you paid teachers at their highest end of their contractual rates a stipend beyond that so they made pretty much the same thing your admins made but they could do zero evaluations

203so you're actually getting jipped you were paying them almost the same thing but they did zero evaluations and they couldn't pull the weight and with all the states requirements now ppts having to be chaired by an administrator that takes you know that's 200 ppts in a building that takes that admin out you needed the admins time to be freed up so now we got people in there curriculum coordinators replaced by curriculum supervisors for about the same amount of money and they could do evaluations so that offset the PPT impact of having people have to do the chairing for all the ppts plus a hundred other things that have happened that have taken away you know because of mandates the time in a variety of other ways that's not really an app in fact in that

204time you lost your Social Studies coordinator you lost your curriculum supervisor those are losses and they're not just World Language and I can go on and on about this if we really want to let me see if I can pick apart something else oh yeah you're you know your uh your Chief Operating officers you're paying them about the same as you did before you got a pretty good deal out of your Chief Personnel officer because you're modestly paying or about 40 000 more admitted you do pay a forty thousand more she took on a tremendous amount more responsibility so you didn't need an assistant superintendent so you know I mean let's get real here you've actually made lateral changes with modest price impacts to avoid massive over expenditures for not being able to cover the

205cost avoidance of having massive things like you know more outplacements your program stuff has been changes to maintain border you really have not added now I will grant that your Chromebooks I would say are the thing that maybe is the newest piece of that and that was because of covet and you had grants that provided that originally but even when you look at something like the technology of Chromebooks you know you you you all see it yourselves that the society is transitioning from paper to these electronic methods of getting these things done they are superior actually to the textbooks but that's not unique to your District you either do that or you know your kids will not be competitive because it's all about sharing the documents now it's all about the collaborative work that the

206technology allows most of the materials today they have started segwaying from the actual paper stuff to the online multimedia products and most of the things that are helping our kids in Thailand right now with their reading have not you know are are these programs that actually you know tailor it to the reading level so that they can make one teacher who's overwhelmed with 25 kids in your grade 4 class be able to differentiate the reading instruction effectively to the best of her or his ability or their ability because they have a program that can actually help them otherwise they would have to go find all those books at all those different levels and guess what your library has been underfunded for years and probably doesn't have enough to cover every kid that way so you

207need the technology to do it so let's get real I can talk about how you know this notion that you've added you've added you've added you haven't you learned in a lateral position you have created programs that have offset massive losses because these programs avoid your outplacement these programs are cost avoidance programs that are basically purchased to court you're right the Cork's the new thing the whole also a new thing you just filled with that Court did you really add to your District by purchasing the cork or did you just save your boat your leap your TTA you know your programs like that saved your boat guys that's what it did so when I see you know this this notion that you added let's talk about the details for that salary let's go into it

208in depth because you know we'll show that as a glass house if we really go deep and up into it so you've done a good job now this district is doing everything it can not accustomed you know tall and taxpayers more you're in a tough year it comes around every you know three four years again I have all the faith that you know that your partners Council side you know and the municipal Partners they're working to try to find a way to make this this tidal wave not have you know a terrible reverberating effect and let's you know let's engage let's see what what's going to happen as we go through this in the next couple of weeks I appreciate everything you just said um I just want to clarify myself extremely grateful having now

209gone through about a year and a half and I'm extremely grateful every Town Council manager I'm extremely grateful to the new town manager that has joined our town that I don't know when that was but recently um and so I want to make sure that's not mistaken I appreciate everyone's energy toward this because it's exhausting it's tiring there's a lot that goes in um everything that was said though tonight however my position is still not changed I think this is a very disappointing um reduction compared to the original technically reduction that was proposed um that's sort of where I stand I just wanted to clarify again I think everybody should be great for the work that goes into these things um and that includes me so there's a clarification thing okay I mean I definitely

210think that we've had quite the conversation um I do want to keep our meaning moving we still have a boat um any other last minute quick comments seeing them um thank you all for entertaining this conversation tonight even though I was not on the agenda and we added it last minute due to the time I love discussing this um let's move on to um the Queenie and liaison reports I heard mental health over here um yeah stir dead nope what's good Wednesday [Music] Monday we had a meeting Monday um discussed a couple things including sort of the index plans which aren't much but there is a recommendation going into the Town Council from the task force that is related to the board of education and it directly impacts actually the exact topic we were just

211discussing so I'll be interested to hear um if the council shares that with us how that process unfolds um but that's sort of all the discussion was about this Monday and there was a discussion about the future um and how often with me going forward who are likely looking at but I think it is once a month meeting scheduled moving forward um obviously did not need it right we met [Music] um did we talk already about what we had done that meeting I can't remember I know we met I just don't remember met here since then two policies yep yep I go go for it okay uh so we discussed uh at that point in that meeting uh two potential for two policies one was the consideration of school activity funds policy update and the

212second one being the discussion on the need for an emergency action plan for interscholastic and intramural athletic events you know what's going on in the the NFL and some of those we thought that you know certainly a need to be a little more specific as far as a local level what are what our plans will be uh what came out of that was you know that's particularly willing to go in and do a little bit more uh words some examples and then we put it back on the agenda for you know some words some tweaking and then possibly both uh nothing to bring up to this level yet but definitely some efforts and some good interactions perfect Communications um we talked about more State mandates they seem to be careful um but we uh we

213really tried to nail it down and obstructible is going to prepare a letter that um we can send to later we're going to look at in the next communication meeting and then basically bring it to the board and after that um we're going to focus more on the process than the individual candidates themselves um and then I can give a really quick video update just because you give me a positive option yeah so I luckily for everyone I've talked really fast so um tapto um the recent recent events such as the kindness signs staff appreciation at both schools and the fourth grade dance were all very successful events they also recently purchased math timers for the tis classrooms and they are working on planning School assemblies as you know they fund a lot of those

214as well the butter braid fundraiser closed on March 6 pickup is on April 3rd at bgp from 3 30 to 6 30. always a fun pickup go pick up your Butter Braids we don't have freezer shoes for them this year um this year for Butter Braids there was also an option to buy dry soup to be donated to the Talon food pantry so I just wanted to put that up on the upcoming Book Fairs 20 tis is May 15th also stay tuned for forthcoming info on the spring social save the date for May 19th at Birch Grove for that as well as the opportunity to order school supply boxes for next year which will be shipped free directly to your home um TMS PTO recently finished up their annual Munson's fundraiser they're still selling TMS

215self and spirit wear and find that store Link in the digital backpack I've also seen it on Facebook and they are planning a spring teacher appreciation event boosters Talon boosters are hosting a cookie decorating class at the high school March 20th from 6 to 7 30. cost is forty dollars age is 13 and up and the deadline sign up is 313 then they're hosting a bracelets and beverages fundraiser on Monday April 24th from 6 to 8 at the staff at Stafford Brewery staff insiders I wrote Stafford cidery or maybe my correct yeah the cost is 35 and you can find the info on the boosters Facebook page please also save the date for the annual cornhole tournament on 5 20 the registry of the weekend on 4-1 and that's awesome that's it well at least

216it seems like a lot of positives going on in your school system if there's no one else that I'm missing I don't believe so I think we have a problem with my first one I'm not gonna go uh yeah I can't I gotta be honest I just uh okay um thank you guys um I don't have really anything to report out but I'm I I am depressed with this budget so we did have one item report actually well yeah we have L1 yeah yeah no I'm just saying for the chairperson's report I am depressed okay okay okay forward action um so I'll entertain a motion to cancel the April motion to cancel the April 12th meeting 2023 . any discussion prior to vote in saying no hands saying nothing we will go ahead and vote

217yeah all right all right all right Dana hi Christina hi we are canceling the April 12th meeting um I would just like to still say with board members that um shows Wednesdays open be packing them up just in case okay um at this point we will do public participation again um two minute time limit comments must be limited to the items on the agenda once again I will welcome anyone in the room to get Mr Owl over here and anyone online you can raise your hand um once again please state your name and your address because a lot of people forget about that but everyone was so good everyone remembered when I ended up doing it I was thumbs up on that um yeah yeah I'll have two minutes with the timer yeah he's got

218to get the timer I'll keep going so yes everyone did a wonderful job keeping the um name and address for the records for Lisa to type up our wonderful notes because she does a great job we're ready okay come on up um I live at 63 tall and green and um thank you all for tonight's discussion it was very enlightening in many ways my comments tonight are all things that came out of the discussion um the first thing I'd like to say um in response to Jennifer your um question and um query about the bullying and harassment policy I do think that was a very good idea that that be looked at again because um due to the nature of the bullying that's going on in the school I don't think that teachers and staff

219and administration are able to identify it as bullying when somebody makes use of the use of pronouns or a queer kid that might I know it happens in the class and the teachers they they don't know to identify it as a bullying behavior and that was one of the things that happened a lot with my son and that caused them to feel really uncomfortable in class and my son is is a brilliant student he is he is very um he likes to be engaged in class he likes to be engaged in conversations but he has pulled back significantly due to the climate and he doesn't participate in certain things because of the the way he feels he will be perceived and the the things that he feels that will happen due to him participating I

220want to move on from that piece because I see the timer I want to encourage students at the Tallinn School based on what Dr Willett said about restorative practices look into forming a student-run juvenile review board at your school you can do that I've worked in schools as a guidance counselor where there have been student-run juvenile distributions boards and they are a very very efficient way of dealing with climate and you you can be um instrumental in not just changing Behavior but changing the hearts of the movies and you can really make a great change in your your student alignment at all levels thank you [Music] um uh Katie Murray uh go ahead and put the Katie Murray eight Lisa Lane um I am making this comment as a member of Our Town Council um

221I would thank Dr Willett for the information he gave today and I'd like to reiterate the question to the board of education is the budget that was passed by the Board of Ed fiscally responsible is their fluff is it frivolous are there extra pencils in there that can still be cut um what cuts can the Board of Education make that won't cost the town more money down the road I heard the numerous board members as well as Dr Willett state that some of these cuts that you might consider would cost more money in future years how do we prevent that from happening or is there not any options and again do we need to look at paper clips and pencils to be cut or have all those cuts already been made having the answers to

222those questions would help me and I think the remaining members of Town Council as we start our budget deliberations which our deliberations start uh really today with the release of the Town manager's recommended budget we go through the same process you do and those discussions haven't really started in Earnest yet um but that they're about to so having answers to those questions will be very helpful to me and to my colleagues thank you thank you um Catherine McDonald 47 schnapps at Lake Road um I want to express that gratitude for everyone on the board taking the community's concerns about lgbtqia policies and bullying seriously and for calling out specifically the inadequacies of the bullying policy at present I think we have a lot of work to do to make our schools truly safe for everyone

223and that doesn't just include visible barriers or the logistics that we think about when we think about school safety level um and as we're thinking about this policy development I also want to ask the board and everybody to plan to be brave because doctor will let you mention that we're a Town's full of loving and compassionate people but there are also people who lost their minds in early September when children were invited to share their pronouns and there's this difficult Balancing Act and we're gonna make people upset if we protect our children and I want everyone to be ready to be brave and say your discomfort is not worth the safety and mental health of our children and we're not going to allow people to perpetuate bigotry to keep certain people comfortable but that's going

224to be enough but we're going to need to make some people upset and Reckless with others to keep our children safe and to truly change the climate this these policy changes are also going to necessitate involving parents and thinking about accountability there are some suspensions and policies in place that don't really upset children or aren't seen as negatives we also need to bring in parents and invite them to be accountable where are children getting these messages that it's okay to mock pronouns to tell people to go kill themselves and other really hateful damaging things and what's happening at home about that this needs to be a really community-led effort and it is about social emotional well-being not at tis not at Birch Grove not a TMS or THS that it's Fallen as a whole so

225I look forward to those conversations and I hope as much information as possible as made public so we can all learn together thank you let's go online uh let's go to Tilly uh hello uh Billy Murray eight Lisa Lane pronoun she her it's important we look at the right questions regarding the electric battery backup in schools that she didn't think I was going to bring this one up this might be great for our schools or not worth it let's think about the issues we've had in the past with power outages many of us have generators the schools should look for a backup to keep the kids in school and it provides an important backup option for our community if we have an emergency in town it's important to have a backup power for a location

226that can serve as a community shelter listening to this conversation I turned to my kid and said does the school really run around on plugging and shutting off lights to reduce costs this is an absolute embarrassment that we need to unplug and shut things off to reduce costs can we please find the schools to keep lights on it seems like the bare minimum thing to do I'm concerned about tall and not keeping competitive and keeping the bet not only the best teachers but teachers at all please don't fail our kids especially these wonderful kids who spoke today I support an increase in the school's budget that will increase positions not eliminate them the students who spoke today are amazing way braver than I was at that age it's awful they even needed to speak today

227they should be safe in school I understand the concerns of suspending students as Dr Willett discussed but we are also talking safety when putting together the lgbtq policy it's important to reach out to the resources this has been done before you're not Reinventing policy there are so many organizations that can help including pflact Hall and Mansfield please look at this as a priority I want to see the kids in Thailand safe we don't want to wait for a push through we don't want to wait or push through an ineffective policy to placate the folks here waiting could lead to much worse incidents or harm that was described today please put love compassion and acceptance in your policy thank you you would like okay so let's go to Mary Rose uh good evening everyone Mary Rose

228De Barrick she her 37 Ryan Road um I asked just a couple of things I wanted to say is that um Dr Willett we are very blessed to have you as our superintendent uh the way you explain explain things that are thoughtful and informative we are very very lucky um I I personally probably going to try to to uh do an audio tape of your conversation about the boat and the cork I think a lot of people who weren't here to hear that I think it's very important I think our community is under a false impression that everything is okay because the lights go on um I want to thank the board members who supported this budget not only tonight or and is fighting for it tonight but has fought for it you know since

229the beginning and has fought for it for several years there are several members on this board that did not fight for this budget did not fight for it last year even after agreeing to the budget last year went toward in front of the public to to sabotage it did the same thing to this budget you should be ashamed of yourself and it makes me really sad that people listen to you um but the folks that that are championed for it and cheerleaders for it God bless you um and and I'm praying that that the message that our children are number one here in in the town and that the school as a community is part of the community and important to the the the livelihood of everyone in our community um it's it's very sad

230um and and Ashley you know your leadership I appreciate it and and I'm depressed now too um but have a good evening everyone thank you um if there is anyone else online if you would like to raise your hand please do so now at this point and if not I will be closing out the public participation for the night going once going twice um seeing that there are none I will close out the public participation and open it up to the board members for points of information um it's just not out of curiosity the uh for the community when the something happens with the backup generator and the community shelter Birch Grove when that was built was built for such event correct um yeah but they don't have anything they can do that saves something

231like the Empower issue we do have the the other the high school is a shelter Birch Grove is built to be that way too but these things are greatly increase our capacity to be helpful in an emergency situation for a number of days financially they can do no one more these strategies for successful um so you know in most of your you know your events that I've that I've been a part of being used to high school is the Sheldon that's what typically it but you do have a new building where you can you know there's some opportunity there especially responsibility yeah I knew the Facebook I thought when Birch Grove was built it was uh designed in mind yeah the generator but you'd greatly increase your assets Lisa if if you had um felt

232like you weren't done so I hope that you'll send your other thoughts to us yeah I actually I have I do have something for the board this morning I've got the eve Khan there's a woman there who's coordinating training for lgbtq plus efficiency and staff with districts um she's kind of picking up where two colors left off so I have her name and contact information I'd love to share with you great yeah please keep communicating with us and she left me I did want to also say I just thought that that was so well stated that you know others the discomfort of others should not jeopardize the safety of our students so I just thought that was so well put deserved repetition and True Colors was a resource a really good one and so the

233having a place with that is really fantastic I just want to thank two people and that was everybody first of all right I want to thank our chair and our superintendent you guys have very difficult jobs and you're both in very difficult positions and so like you don't get told enough so thank you very kind um the other question too that came up with uh Katie's question too I mean here's a deal even in their original budget which is exactly why I wanted to support what we had we even removed the intervention list for America was six or seventh grade it's sixth grade it was sixth grade so in any case that position was already removed and it wasn't even added back in and those are the type of positions that help decrease the special

234ed costs in the long term because the interventionalists are like the the stop before going into special ed so those are the 504s and that's already gone so that's part of the problem that I had with this budget going into this season looking and saying well maybe later I didn't like the original things that were out that weren't even on the discussion so that's what part of me I looked at this list and thinking to myself like well this is not the road I'm your path that I would want to see our school system women because ultimately we do have staff issues when they are going to other districts because they are getting paid more they're having a different climate different culture the board supports them this supports what's happening and I don't feel like

235that's what's going to wear we really aren't I heard enough from a lot of Staff with the budget and they don't feel supported and that's why they are leaving um and retiring early yes retiring early there are teachers who would stay to re you know till their pool retirement but you know what instead they're going to retire early and they're going to take a job doing something else in order to make ends meet and that's sad that's really sad and I see the names on when they come through and I'm like how is she leaving she's leading our district are you kidding me like these are top teachers so coming up with this list there's going to be more that are going to be gone and that's what I had a very tough title with

236this season I really did and I I just I still can't express my myself enough to say these are positions that are needed and this is going to impact us greatly and it's really sad that this is where we're at and I do feel as though like all those kids that wrote in about the how impactful the Librarians are the retired teacher is going to say you know what it is enough I mean I forgot who came here and he just looked and he's like I've been retired and you know what everyone's at the Woods End yeah Mr High okay thank you that they're at the what's end and that there keeps on being more and more and more that go on to the teachers and especially with after covid like I just I don't

237even know what else to say but that just kind of goes to Katie's question about this budget and like I said I just I'm having a very tough time with this because these are the things I did not want to see come up on the list that's awesome I just I'm very I know that you were okay with cutting everything and you made that perfectly clear that you were like oh but we'll keep the I want to say it was the counselor and what there's another item there was two items that you were okay with in the rest you were like we'll figure it out I just don't feel like being stagnant is where we need to be when our district that we do need to move forward that we do need to make some

238positive changes in order to create a better atmosphere to keep the retention on teachers not having them retire not having them just go because they're getting paid we do have a lot of loyal teachers that are either have their families in our schools they grew up in this district and that's why they're here and I just said I get a little bit upset but I'll entertaining motion the adjourn because moster any discussion no all in favor oh did they say ion uh perfect thank you meaning to Jordan 10 30.