Tolland Board of Education June 9, 2021

001let's see i will call the regular meeting for the june 9th at 709 to order and let's recite the pledge of allegiance do we have the students no unfortunately i didn't get the chance to load that up okay well let's do this to the flag of the united states of america to the republic for the republic for which it stands which it stands one nation under god under god indivisible with the right okay um approval of the agenda i did have a quick question for that um dr willett because um you know one of our many conversations today because we talk all the time had mentioned that um we're going to teach the timeline um do we need to do that in executive session do you need to do what i'm sorry say that again

002um your timeline for this original oh um no cause we're gonna still go into executive session to talk about it we're just talking about the timeline i'm just i just edited the document yeah no so same process just different document okay so that's what i thought i just wanted to make sure to clarify if we need to or not sure sure so at this time let's go to the approval of minutes um we can do the may 17 2021 special meeting minutes and also the may 26 2021 i will entertain a motion to um approve both christina porter to make a motion to approve the may 17th special meeting minutes and the make 26 minutes would you run yourself a second or tony you can have it that's cool okay lisa pick one let's go

003ahead any discussion are there any issues uh if not let's do the roll call vote so madhu hi lord hi tony hi sophia hi griffin hi rainey hi i'm as well therefore those um minutes are approved as is let's go to uh public participation um at this point hold on did we did we already approve the agenda because i actually had something to bring up about that yeah no we were just discussing the um dr willett's super his yeah okay can i can i just make a motion to make a change to the agenda i just want to swap items mnl so we can have public participation before we go into executive session that way people aren't sitting here until like midnight if they want to say something um i think we would just have

004to have a vote on that okay so i make the motion that we swap adam's m l a second in the motion okay any discussion so we will vote so madoo hi lauren hi tony hi sophia hi griffin hi rini hi i'm i as well therefore we will swap those two out thank you okay so we will go back to the uh public participation um tony the timer will give you the 30 seconds visual and vocal just to let you know um when you're asked to speak if you could please list your name your address and like i said you will have two minutes at this time i will open it up to the public you could just raise your hand so going once oh i have a visual can for sarah go ahead i've

005never i've never done zoom before so well the visual works this is my first doom i'm sarah briggs i am 157 anderson road holland do i speak now or go ahead okay i'm basically just um here to listen and i've emailed um dr willett a few times regarding the children wearing masks for the upcoming school year my son is going to be starting kindergarten for the first time in the fall with you guys and i was just kind of here to listen and maybe get some updates and see what you guys discuss regarding that thank you and at this point just so that you know um we usually do this through the public participation and then uh comments can come into the points of information is what ends up happening okay the members can speak

006and dr willett so at this point we're just going through all the comments for the public okay thank you yeah uh liz hi everyone um first fifty-four josiah elaine liz costa um i just wanna commend uh talent high school and specifically the class officers class advisors mr polon and mr zenzak for what they put together for our seniors uh was really really impressive uh what they put together the last week and then i know graduation will be wonderful but i just want to commend them all it was clear that they took input from both students as well as the advisors and i've never seen something come together that was more beautiful and more well planned and put together so congratulations to them and thank you okay thank you liz um anyone else at this time

007okay um let's move on to correspondence and that will go back to tony thank you madam chair uh we received an email concerned with the policy committee meeting cancellations author is interested in knowing what the plan forward is and even asking for committees to have co or vice chairs an email asking for a plan for committees to continue their work even if a member is not present an email thanking dr willett for continuing full-day education during this heat wave an email articulating concerns with the effects of the heat and mask burn author asks that the district look at making mask wearing optional for the remainder of this year and the next email concerned with the mental health risks to forcing children to continue wearing masks the author would like it to be optional email asking

008to take away the mask requirements for next year email requesting that the team review the cdc guidelines and work towards unmasking the children an email reiterating concerns with committee meeting cancellations author asked for board member responses and you know articulating the desire of a group of concerned parents concerning the removing the mass mandate from our schools for next year's school year and an email asking that our children are not required to wear masks author also asks that critical race theory is not taught in our schools thank you madam chair okay thank you tony at this point let's go to the points of information um i will open this up to everyone including dr willa if you wanted to i know you had sent out um information about the masks because that is a state level

009ordeal so i don't know if you yes so um so the i think the question was specifically about next year um i did send out information about what we're required to do to the remainder of this year and i think it's executive order 12a as well as dph and cdc require school districts to require masks through the remainder of this year however there has been information potentially shared from dr fauci on a national level and others that potentially students who are in grades six through 12 in particular or those ages that can be vaccinated may not have to wear masks next year now having said that i'm not sure what the situation is ultimately going to be should it should be dph permitted we may be able to say that students who have shown proof

010of vaccination students whose families have shown proof of vaccination may not be required to quarantine and or wear masks but that that remains to be seen we do have to see what happens once we get into the summer and we see where dph goes over the summer and into the fall so um we do have reason to believe however that there will be some lifting of the mask mandate because uh dr fauci did make mention of it and when he did he made mention explicitly of the the age group that can be vaccinated ages 12 and above which kind of equates to grades six and above so we'll have to see how it goes but at least there was mention of that that at that level those who had proof of vaccination would now maybe

011over the summer i know pfizer has been applying for status for vaccinations for all ages and so that may extend through all ages if there's proof of vaccination those who have that may not have to wear masks so that's all we really know right now we're kind of waiting to see what happens but what we are being required to do is require masking through the end of the year at least with the exception of if you're outside on recess and so on and you're not congregating children don't have to me uh thank you dr willit let's go to a board member so um you are a mute madoo so thank you sorry about that um so i did have something uh someone sent me an article showing that talent had a net number uh and

012that positive number of move-ins so like 117 move-ins and it got me thinking um do we is there any way to know if that translated into an increase in our tps population between the october attendance number and the and june we'll say uh we definitely had a difference from earlier part of the year to later part in the year um went up to the last i looked at it was and so we did add quite a few students in in this particular year okay just something i was curious about yeah just to throw it out there you know a nice uh enrollment sheet dr will it would be great to show the students that come in and where they go just i think i have well i know you're looking monthly so it'll be nice

013when we're out of cobit i can do all kinds of things but yesterday yeah i'm just just throwing it out there as a suggestion all right that was it for me thank you okay thank you uh plourde thank you ashley uh i wanted to thank um miss briggs for having the courage to speak up for the first time i you know i hope your son enjoys kindergarten when uh when he enters um when in regards to the masks like dr willett said we have to follow guidelines laws all of that um in regards to advocacy there may be more advocacy parents can do as well as the board at the state level for our kids so if um my co-chair of the communications committee would agree maybe we could put that on a communications agenda

014and just talk about it and see what we could do as a board to advocate for our kids so thank you miss briggs uh and then in regards to there's some emails about the policy committee uh i just wanted to commend tony i went back and looked um since 2014 the policy committee has not met more than four times uh and then when tony took over as policy chair uh it's met 13 times so thank you tony for having a passion for policy and that's all i had okay thank you um anyone else at this time okay uh let's move to the um students rep reports so let's have uh summer and alexandra hi everyone so we had prom for seniors last friday june 4th and class days which was saturday june 5th and both

015of those were really fun and the upcoming monday and wednesday during school we're going to have graduation practice which is going to be next friday at the your good stadium and also i would like to thank all of you for the amazing yukon sweatshirt and for all the kindness that you have shown this year i've just learned a lot and i just want to thank you all you were just really amazing thank you that's awesome i'm so happy i was like well i'm gonna help go and just drop them off i didn't ring the doorbells or anything but i was just like okay so awesome guys thanks um alexandra and then so quite a few students were recognized for their hard work this year at the night of excellence last tuesday which went very well

016um and then i don't think i'm gonna be able to make it to the next meeting on june 23rd so i just wanted to start by thanking everyone for the sweatshirt as well um i really appreciated it appreciated it and then i also want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the rep for the past two years i've had a really great time and i really enjoyed myself and i've learned so much and then lastly um student council recently elected its new board of red representatives for the next year so i know natalie's here so it's natalie mitchell and emily pereira and i think natalie is here so if natalie just want to say hi hi natalie welcome i think uh the internet's a little fuzzy so we have natalie so

017let me write the names now so natalie pereira emma and emma emily natalie mitchell and emma pereira it's emily but yeah emily well i'm excited but you know i hope that our reps here you know you guys have a great future i think that you guys are going places and i can't wait to see you know whether or not you guys can make it to the 23rd i just wanted to make sure that you know with graduation is coming up and everything i was just got that through so why don't we go ahead and give them a nice little round of applause for doing this so thank you guys so much and welcome to natalie and to emily so i look forward to working with you guys thank you ladies thank you okay um dr

018willa let's start off on a nice positive note here let's do these celebrations yes so we uh you know we do from time to time and especially uh when we were outside of the pandemic uh chaos there we were doing celebrations and so we're bringing them back to the um to the board of ed meetings so there are so many things to celebrate with our students um and staff at tallinn public schools that uh it's impossible to do them at any one time so we'll be providing them um over the span of the uh over the span of uh you know the year probably every third meeting or so so just um if there wasn't something included here uh we'll probably be including it in another couple meetings and please just let me know to

019anyone in the public um or or anywhere else if there's something going on that um you know that is a that is a celebration for for the schools for our students we just want to make sure we cover that so please share them with me as well so a couple of quick celebrations for this particular span of time in the in the spring um you did notice and i did send out some sports congratulations some i won't read everything here because there's a long doc but just uh just to highlight that uh you know senior adriana rhodes and freshman charlotte pacheco earned all conference for the central connecticut conference and all state and all-american honors and gymnastics and congratulations to our ccc conference champions and our teams girls lacrosse boys lacrosse ths golf team tallinn

020boys and girls outdoor track teams they're all champions um and uh you know that's that's a fairly regular thing for us in thailand uh talent has a lot of championship teams and so kudos to the teams and to the coaches for their amazing uh achievement uh and uh you know always we always see them out there running or practicing so it's no no surprise um invention convention for those of you who don't know this is a competition a science competition um stephanie cassidy and fay sleeman are two teachers in our school system that help students engage in the invention convention where uh the inventors of tomorrow present their inventions and uh you know and compete against each other for this election they were students were represented amazingly and the following students received recognitions in the

021invention convention so you can see them here and you can see their their inventions as well sophia ash the cozy canine cradle i mean some of these i'm not sure exactly what they are but that one i'd imagine makes dogs happy um kylie kroll uh bracelet board cecilia ruiz giro oxy hydrogen generator so you know check that out that'll be something amazing you can buy probably at best buy sometime in the near future well that sounds like a shirt king thing it does actually um and whatever it is we could have used it today because we lost power uh von combs simply crunchy sounds tasty and that's something that um i'm sure if you ask him about he could tell you and audrey mccowan a breath breathe better buzz box um she was recognized as

022an inventor and a national finalist so audrey's going to complete uh compete with more than 400 finalists at the invention convention u.s nationals very big deal this is invention convention is an organization that's been around for for some time now um and you know people kids have actually gotten patents and things coming out of that so it's a really very exciting situation congratulations to all kids involved for our teacher recognition today michelle campbell math teacher uh tms i used to be the principal there uh she deserves it she's amazing always has been um so this is a jay kudos to her from jen webster the math supervisor in the district finally last but not least we have a series of presidential award for excellence or of excellence candidates and or recipients rather in this case

023and i'll just kind of scroll through because there are many uh talent school system always has a very large number of children that have reached the grade and criterion levels for these awards so it's just to give you an idea of the scope of just one of the schools and one of the seasons of the presidential awards we are constantly getting them the students are constantly getting them so kudos to all the students who received it this year and i'll scroll through them slowly here um you can't see your screen just kidding no all right well that explains why everyone's staring at me like where's the screen there we go thank you so if we can have that because there's a lot of names on here i mean i have my videos yeah i don't

024know i'm glad thank you for telling me that i did not realize it hold on can you see it now yes it's starting at lincoln so there's a few yeah so here we go i'm just going to do a quick up and down here so here's the sports uh the invention convention that i talked about and the kids who won the adventure convention cozy canine cradle kylie's bracelet board the oxy hydrogen generator simply crunchy and the breathe better buzz box teacher recognition is michelle campbell and then the presidential award of excellence this is great yep hey we have an amazing group of kids and staff here um i'm so proud to be here so proud of them unfortunately um there will be no extra movie footage at the end like an avengers movie this is

025simply the names of all of the amazing kids i think i see a shake on there yeah there is one there you go so congratulations to all of you once again uh we will continue to do celebrations i couldn't get them all in on on this particular agenda but every third or so i'll be putting more on so we can celebrate every uh you know every child so this is excellent i'm really proud of our students like this is fantastic and the culmination of a year that we've had and to have this many students and our excellence i mean this is fantastic i'd love to see this very exciting let's go to uh thank you ashley um well this is great and congratulations to everyone um job well done oh by suggestion the the national

026finalist to the uh invention convention perhaps could demonstrate to the board one meeting i mean that's so cool that would be awesome i would love to know what the breed better buzz box just throwing it out there sure i think that would be fantastic let's go to uh madoo let me do now we have your pictures hold on there you go yeah yeah so actually i i was actually gonna say this is the exact same thing floyd did um i am totally interested in the uh breathe better buzz box um i did also i just want to say congratulations to our student athletes our young inventors um uh their coaches and mentors um and our award winners i'm proud of their accomplishments um and i also um wanted to thanks uh simmer and uh alexandra

027um for being a part of us and i wish you both good luck in the future and i look forward to meeting our new student representatives natalie and emily that's a great you know a lot of positive i don't see i'm a fan of positivity so this is fantastic to have i love the having um what you have every third meeting i think that's something to look forward to i think that if we can celebrate our students accomplishment i think that goes a long way so anyone else at this time if not we will move on to the monthly financial report okay um okay so the monthly financial report um oops that's not that's all right here it is the monthly i'm sorry let me move something to the back here and monday financial okay

028so as you know the monthly financial report is provided at the first forced meeting of each month in this case uh monthly financial report does close out the month of may for us uh 11 month 11th month of the year and the business manager provides a narrative to let us know roughly where we are at um the attached may 2021 financial approach shows an available balance of 832 193 dollars or 2.08 of the current board's budget um and you'll also notice in the end of year reconciliation documents this figure is pretty close to what we were thinking we would be at and the end of your reconciliation document projects where we'll be you know at the point of june and so there may be and hopefully will be an update in june and july for

029the end of your reconciliation document and you'll see how this these funds um you know are reconciled as we get to the end so um in addition to this general overview i also do uh like to give you a couple of details about um you know about this particular um month and i'll just load up the expenditure report and try to get it to blow up a little bit here so um as i do each month i try to go over some of the highlights for the expenditure report and this month salaries are currently under budget um you know we we did try and have been trying to hire uh over the covet pandemic year but um you know it has been true for our district and other districts that staffing has been a bit

030of a challenge we are recovering that now we're noticing that um that's picking up and we are recovering and getting the positions um getting people filled but uh we did go throughout the year and a number of positions some people people retired or chose um this year to you know do something else with their lives um and so the current available balance is one of the chunks of why we're at 830 at this point uh the current balance is 331 thousand it will fluctuate a bit but that's going to be one of the things that um you know that impacts our end of year line substitute available balance is 59 000 under budget now you notice that the sub budget was higher as we went along um available balance dropped by 36 000 last month

031we have temporarily added an assistant principal uh to cover for a few few dates of absence on a few things that occurred at the high school so that impacts it a little bit and so there's a number of things happening on that line but the larger impact of that is over the year you know having to get the sub coverage and so that's why you saw that got run down a bit over the span of a year overtime expenses cannot be encumbered they're currently under budget by 11 000 as we get through may they're down by last month by 16 000. stipends are over budget again um this year they paid a place has been reduced and so that's going to impact this line um also within prior years the stipends have been encumbered so

032you know this line is going to kind of balance out as we get to the end but we did collect less this year so we can expect that to you know to reflect that health insurance severance employee benefits are collectively 48 000 over that's because we did have more people leaving and more employee benefits to pay out and that was not uncommon for schools in this particular year newly employed newly hired employees and retired employees they they can drive fica medical medicare social security and so on so newly hired and those who retired since the beginning of the year um they can immediately change available balances so the available balance right now is 99 000 under budget and you know that does reflect a lot of our fluctuations this year with employment retirement course reimbursement

033unemployment expenses are collectively under budget at the end of may unemployment is under budget by 12 000 which is which is good given we did have a couple fluctuations there um and the rest of it is under budget by about 67. the benefits consultant and workers comp remains on target legal audit and technical services are all over budget um 26 000 through may the district completed negotiations this year not only with the peras but also the secretary union and so that does affect these lines a bit as as does some other uh legal implications of the work we had to do this year so expenses on these lines will you know will increase a bit even between now and the end it's going to obviously remain over budget and also the boe approved purchases of

034the end-of-year reconciliations will be reflected in here as well a shed the truck rental moving labor bgp related stuff that was in the reconciliation document so that's going to impact on that line repairs maintenance custodial cleaning equipment technical expenses continue to be incurred as the year keeps on and you'll see that through june many of the maintenance and custodial expenses are cyclical so it does you know they do continue to kind of aggregate throughout the year we can expect june to have an impact on that too as those things continue to get uh expended and used students student transportation is under budget um by 49 000 and that was you know bigger before and of course now as we get to the end it's a little less under but it is under budget um barring

035any major issues the transportation line will be under budget probably by the end um maybe not by much but it will be special education tuitions are under budget at the 11th month of the year at this point you know it does fluctuate you can never really be sure because anything can happen even at the end but i would expect that to stay we did use and continue to utilize state troopers this situation is you know increased recently so we do have a presence at the buildings this need for public safety also during the pandemic has typically been um not not that high this year but we're going to end the year with uh you know with this additional use of the troopers right now the budget is under budget i do expect it to continue

036to be a bit mainly because we didn't have to use a lot of public safety officers for events this year because we did not have as many events so it is going to probably balance out and we'll still have some money in there even though we do have an increased trooper presence energy expenses are all transferred to the town's universal internal service fund as you know textbooks have been fully encumbered they are over budget by about 10 000 which happens sometimes that does fluctuate as prices fluctuate and needs fluctuate a little bit curriculum supervisors will continue to work on that um instructional supplies miscellaneous supplies general supplies they're over budgeted mainly due to the additional expenses for things like the argo stadium other graduation and reimbursement of coveted supplies and food expenses so we'll see

037some of these things you know kind of balance out at the end but um you know as we receive reimbursement but um you know you'll see it over right now and new instructional equipment is over by about 65 due to encumbrances for these district-wide computers and where the impact of any funds coming back in was incurred so most of it is due to some of these chromebooks and related switches and connections to support them that's a basic overview of the um of the budget for may if you have any questions i can try to answer them or record them and and get you answers so at this time if any board members have questions um i know i just had a quick question dr uh will it in terms of the negotiations um for the

038secretaries you said that was completed so i'm assuming that we're gonna see that soon yes okay yes it wasn't sure if it was like final stages or we're actually seeing it so no it's uh it is uh and chair uh chairperson uh um bsaw can also comment on that but we um yes we're we're we're at the end okay perfect um let's go to griffin thank you ashley um dr what i just had two quick questions um did we get the excess cost sharing grant um did that come in yet uh we we have received the excess cost grant um i don't i can't remember whether it got posted before this got closed um and i'm trying to recall that and so i can let i can check tomorrow or uh when the business manager

039gets back but um it was more than we expected i was looking at the line by you know 560 the tuition education agency um and it's a significant change from last month so that's why i was asking if that that ended up getting posted um so it looks like we have a balance of and last month we had 236 so was i'm wondering if it ended up there probably um but i would want to check first to make sure okay because that can also be the result of tuitions that we ended up not using and that were returned to us so it's probably a combination of a couple of things there um but we did receive more than we had anticipated in excess cost thank you and um my other question was um the other

040funds that we were getting from way back in the beginning of the school year that we were putting towards chromebooks and all that has any of that actually come through in you know cash basically yet that is reflected somewhere in here yeah um it did the the you mean uh like the grants we received sort of i can't remember all of that erf you know erfs um they have and they've been sort of uh distributed through the lines i think there's a couple of lines that it did come back into but i would have to check with the business manager director to to tell me exactly which lines but i know quite a bit of it at this point did come back okay okay thank you yeah and there's a little bit more to come

041too because i wrote one that i think should give us another 10 000 at some point here i'm just going to confirm too um in terms of the salaries for the summer program that is the esser funds correct um the salaries for the extended school year program we had money set aside for an extended school year program because it's part of every year it's just that it was a much more limited version it was mainly for students of special education and it was far fewer kids and it was fewer weeks so the esser funds will be covering above and beyond what we hadn't already budgeted yes it you know and and most of that is incurred in the next fiscal year okay perfect anyone else have any questions okay let's move on to um h3

042the safe return to in-person instruction okay so this is i'm gonna have to kind of toggle up here a little bit here we go so um if you'll take a quick look at uh and this for though for anyone at home this is on the superintendent's page um i'll navigate to it so you can see exactly where it is now you go to district superintendent um to pretend it will it and it's in the bulletins and newsletters it is this item right here the tunnel public schools safe return to in person and continuity of learning page so this is provided to the board of education to give you a little background on it the sr3 grant that the district is in the process of working through requires that there be a safe return to in-person

043instruction and continuity of services plan so for those of you who are about to make fun of me i did not make up that acronym myself that acronym was given to us by uh by the state and i am just complying with their their nifty um title but in this case um we we need to put together a plan in order to receive the funds so part of that process um is putting this together in its form that you see it tonight and um you know and this is put together put to you tonight for our first review it's gonna return again uh for the june 23rd meeting uh for another review and i'll just briefly go through it right now i won't go through every single page but this continues to have information added

044as we go through the next two weeks but fundamentally it will be the same with respect to what this document does so this is meant to replace next year the document that the documents that have existed because um things are now different and so you can get a sense of it through you know it's got a kind of narrower scope than prior documents the introduction is really the main thing that will be changing between this and the next one um and so you know that's just essentially me just talking in a narrative about the new school year and and some of the rationale and maybe citing some of the research but the rest of it will remain roughly the same um the sections are uh our sections provided um you know to that are provided

045to me to comply with so that the grant can be granted to us for uh s or three so you'll see the headings are mostly those that are part of that compliance health and safety strategies just starting out with who your compliance liaisons are district-wide that's me it's the principles for the other buildings universal and correct wearing of masks this is a statement that you know wear masks are required students and staff must wear face coverings or masks to completely cover the nose and mouth etc and so the concept of whether masks will be allowed to or students that are vaccinated will be allowed to go without them is something we would like to see put into this however that will require that the state and dph allow it so that's why you'll notice the

046languages should the state allow it students who submitted proof of vaccination to the tom public school system through the nurse's office and dora paula fire firearms or who is our nurse director will not be required to wear masks whether that can remain in the in the plan or not will rely heavily on ultimately what the dph allows so it's here right now um in anticipation but it may have to be modified based on on what the dph and cdc ultimately require of us you'll also note that as we go through this that's where the articulations will come if something changes in the next two weeks and there is a articulation from the department of public health i will include that articulation or further articulation here and i'll include a lot more links to these sources

047so people can see you know where to look for where the changes are coming from physical distancing again you know now we're changing the language to maintain social distancing without a specification so when required students will have to maintain social distancing what ultimately that specification is may change right now you know one from six to three um that kind of thing we're going to have to see where that ends up but right now you know it may be that we're we're still required to maintain some level of social distancing and if that's the case then when required we will be doing that um hand washing and respiratory etiquette for whatever reason the grant wants to make sure that i remind america connecticut and our community of um of the need to wash your hands so

048it is here please you know wash your hands sanitize you know and and in case anyone wasn't quite sure how to wash your hands we have step-by-step instructions to help in compliance with washing our hands so um other things like the uh you know please generally the etiquette you know if you're coughing and sneezing do it into your elbow not on your best friend that kind of thing cleaning and maintenance health facilities ventilation we have regular cleaning schedules efficient cleaning technologies sanitizing stations building temperature thresholds and ventilation requirements all these things are covered and explained in the plan as to how we are going to maintain those standards and make sure that we're in compliance s15 contact tracing explains that we will be executing contact racing as provided by the guidelines and director directives of

049the eastern highland health district and the connecticut department of public health you'll notice in here that it says students and staff who are fully vaccinated will be not will not be subjected to quarantine unless otherwise directed by the aforementioned authorities so um if a student and or staff member is vaccinated and that proof is at our in the nurse's office or in our records they will not be quarantining anymore neither will still as per what's available right now unless something were to change or we were to be ordered to do something differently diagnostic screening and testing there are any unvaccinated students attending school you know we we will be able to test staff and we are currently applying to have the ability to test students so if a child has a cold we may be

050and hopefully can in our own school system provide a rapid pcr test so a child would not be sent out on quarantine if that cold was shown not to be a covet related cold sometimes kids you know have cold and they weather it and they stay in school trying not to cough on each other and so diagnostic screening and testing the district is looking to be able to do that internally so we don't have to ask parents to go to labs or to go to you know outside areas and that will help parent guardians with their own family lives but also help return kids faster if for whatever reason they're not vaccinated um there is a possibility that kids at a certain age level will not be able to be vaccinated and that's why and

051you know we need to have that capacity for testing because the children who are of an age group who who cannot be vaccinated will still be subject to those quarantines and things like that so if we're able to give them a rapid bcr and it comes back negative they can come back to school sooner rather than being out for 10 days and so that's the objective there we do not anticipate there being many kids who actually have to be out in quarantine that's hopeful um and it's just the statistics of vaccinations were going up one thing i've been asked to remind people of from the dph is that vaccinations will be what makes schooling in person next year so you know please get vaccinated please get your kids vaccinated by vaccinating the kids we will

052be able to maintain in-person schooling and they ask us to remind that remind everybody of that continuity of services services to address students academic needs you know general comments and statements about that you know what resources are available for mental health emotional health food services considerations uh you can read these on your own but these are basically saying that we are back into normal operational status for these food services similarly we expect to go back to just what we're doing now really normal operational status if we did end up having to you know end up having to do something different then we would make adaptations and make sure food was available for families much as we did this year um and the state funding and so on would be important part of that as it

053was this year determination of education options um so keep in mind and note that tom public schools plans to provide full in-person learning on the typical school's calendar and schedule that's available by clicking in the document you can see the calendar and the schedules for the district the tallinn public schools will not offer remote learning as an option for students through its general education programming the state of connecticut is saying that it will be providing remote learning for students who qualify and so there will be a process articulated likely during the summer that will that will illustrate what the qualifications are you know what one has to do to be qualified for the state's remote learning program and if they are then they could attend that remote program but the thailand public schools will not

054be offering a remote program next year in the event that other models and learning must be considered during due to pandemic conditions then we would have to go into the education model determination again and the process for doing that is illustrated here stakeholder engagement we will have periodic reviews of this document in this process so the board of education is reviewing it tonight we'll also be reviewing it june 23rd and december 22nd 2021 and june 22 2022 and december 14th 2022 and june 28 2023 you will be sick of my acronyms by the time we get done with reviewing this document all the way through 2023 but that this document will be reviewed um on a roughly six month six month um you know uh period of time and uh you know we'll have the

055the opportunity to to then also make adjustments and provide feedback um the purpose of these is to provide feedback to which then i would make an adjustment um if so if if necessary um and if uh advisable most of what i can or can't do once again will be dictated by the department of public health and the eastern highland health district understanding uniform format basically this is section that says we will be offering a spanish version and we will also be offering translations upon request open forums we will be having open forums the superintendent's community forum will be moving monthly and people can access and ask questions at that time as well as uh every board meeting and public participation and so on the forums do give an opportunity for a longer conversation and more

056in-depth questioning than your standard public session board meeting simply because of the time limit that's necessary for you know for those kinds of structures um so this is you know the uh opportunity for people to really get an extrapolated answer that type of thing planned use of arp funds so right now presenting this to the board among the most heavily impacted populations from the pandemic were students in the early elementary grades and that is where we're noticing some of the most profound impacts so as such the sr arp funds will be utilized to increase staff at this level for a duration of three years so for fiscal year 22 this is what it would look like you'd likely have nine in kindergarten to try to significantly reduce the class sizes because they went through a

057year and this was this age was the hardest and least able to adapt um you know we need to put an increased amount of attention on their needs because they are the group that was hurt the most frankly so this would incr this would provide the class sizes you see here so by adding an additional um additional staff in uh and then it would we would evaluate each year and shift those staff around we would be doing it for a duration of three years and we would be adding one additional staff to kindergarten and um in an additional staff to grade two for fiscal year 22 and then we would shift those resources around as needed this would provide a class size of 16 roughly um an average in kindergarten 20 in grade 1 and

05822 in in grade two and that would be adding two through the use of sr arp funds and again that would be for a period of three years and it would be rotated um based on this the need in each of those three years for fiscal year 23 and 24 like it says here they would be you know adjusted the estimated cost of three years of three staff would be about 324 thousand the remaining 137 000 of the arp s or 2 would be for extended school year and extended school extended school day programs an example of that is as you know this extended school year this year is uh is an addition of two weeks roughly 200 kids and all the transportation that that embodies and things like that so um that also is

059within compliance with the state's requirement that 20 of all arp funds be used for learning loss 20 percent of the full number would be about 92 000 so this 137 is not only the learning loss funds um but also it includes some of the other pieces um you know to address learning loss as well so we would you know we would be doing even more extensive work um and it could end up meaning at the high school for the first time some srb rti tier two services which the high school has not had um for some time and so that would be and you know could be a skinny block but it would be this is basically a special block for students at the high school to be able to get support in math and

060english language arts and so on um there's a variety of learning laws um strategies that we're using that i went over in the ffc meeting last week i think it was and uh you know those will be somewhat for they're articulated here but they are in those minutes as well or should be you know listed or talked about there a bit so um and i can provide more details on that to anyone who wants to know the district covid response team the as you know we've had a coveted response team uh these are the members of the covid response team and essentially it just talks about you know who they are what the process is um and so on and that coveted response team will remain in force for next year until we are told

061we do not need it anymore there are appendices to this document one of them is communications and what i'll be doing with the remaining appendices is simply providing data and links that i will then pepper throughout the document so you know when i refer to the dph's uh information about mask wearing i will have a link where it bounces us down to the appendices so that people can you know see that information through a quick uh click or hyperlink versus trying to go out in the internet to find it so this is the first draft of the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services plan for the tallinn public schools and you will be seeing it again on the 23rd in its updated form and it will be submitted that night to um

062to the state so that we are in compliance with the esser to sr3 arp requirement and and thereby doing that we can receive the funding and continue with the grant well thank you very much dr willett that was a ton of information to review and to go through and to just put it together on here um you know at this time i'm going to have the board members just so that you know sarah um you can speak uh during the public participation again but at this time um when the meeting's going through it's only for board members um so at this time i'd like to go to uh plord i just took your hand down um yeah i'm just gonna think for a few more minutes and then i'll raise it back up thanks okay

063you know it is definitely a lot of information and that i have so many notes and it's like i just kind of want to absorb it first because it's just a lot so do thank you um yeah there's a lot to go through um one question i did have um was about the option for remote learning um is the state going the basic route of you know i guess for qualifications for it um is it basically just it has to be a medical reason or like do you know if they're opening it for other reasons we're hoping to get further articulation on that my my read of it right now is that it would be for uh exceptional circumstances such as those that might um be used to justify an accommodation like a 504 you

064know it's something that would prevent the young adult or child from attending in person and that a medical doctor or someone would provide documentation through which this determination would then be made and they would qualify for the state's remote program another way that this might occur is districts may be required to buy into one and you know crack would offer it type of thing but um but the state has said that it was going to provide it so they have about 14 weeks to come true on that and you know and we'll see what happens there right that was it for me thank you okay thank you madhu um let's go to tony thank you dr willett and uh i guess my questions are focused mainly on the process if i heard you correctly this

065is the first read uh so the next meeting will be the second read and then uh you're going to have to relatively quickly turn that around submit that that night that night so yeah as far as any comments or concerns uh do you have similar to the budget process uh a page up or would you like those emailed beforehand so you can gather your information for that or how do you get it turned as quickly as you need it yep the best place to go for that and i have um and there's a reference in the document to uh contact um in this pa in this case the contact me site and i would use the i would i would use the um the process here that people feel most comfortable with but a general

066question and this link right here is something that will help get the information to me as soon as uh you know it's submitted it's something that will be uh will be pretty quick so that's a good thing um in people can articulate their question and uh then we can use it to to adapt the document so um they can look through and try any of those contact me options but this one um providing and submitting this question through this this form this will this will give people a you know an opportunity to get it in within a span of time of a few days and we'll see it within a few days versus sometimes if it's just set to the general email address it can take quite a while before it's seen so um again

067i'll kind of walk through that one can go to the superintendent's page um contact me and this would be the general submission of a question this can be where people submit that and it'll come up with the form and they can provide you know their articulations and their questions that kind of thing so there's no wrong way to do it but this would be a way of providing that feedback another thing is i will take notes in public session and you know and work to to do what i can with what people provide in public session as well one thing to keep in mind is that my hands will be tied somewhat by what is what we are allowed to do so um someone might say to me well you know uh i think everybody

068should wear face shields for instance i demand that we wear face shields um unless the dph requires that we wear face shields if there's no medical reason or requirement from the dph hhd or state then that might not make it into the document because it's not a requirement of the dpa ghd or whatever or if it contradicts something that the dph or hhd or state says must be there i won't be able to take it out that type of thing so um you know i'll make what modifications i can to it um and it's uh it you know it's available for public feedback but again it's one of those situations where people can all have a say but not necessarily everyone get their way because the way will largely be what is allowed um and

069so you know that that's just a something to think about with respect to the process is you know this is a compliance process for so3 and we have to stay within the parameters of what you know what that means i can't violate the dph and still comply with the sr3 arp grant so thank you sir yeah okay um sophia johnson just so you know this time is only for board members you can uh speak during the um public participation because at this point we just have forge of the board of ed we don't have um town council crossover unless it's a town council ordeal um let's go down to florida thank you ashley um and thank you dr willett for putting this together um as you can probably tell my hair's on fire right now

070a little fired up when i read things like this um because i do understand where people are coming from where you know we've we've stayed home and stayed safe for so long um you know and now that the most vulnerable are vaccinated you know we're continuing to treat our kids um in a way that really i mean it's tough on them i have a kindergartner it's tough um so i guess my questions will revolve around um this sr3 grant the arp grant does this does anything in here go beyond the requirements set by the state of connecticut for like for instance let's say the state said you didn't have to wear masks or the kids didn't have to wear masks if they're vaccinated does this require more than what the state has and you don't

071have to answer that now i can't no no it doesn't um in fact what i tried to do with this is bend to what i have heard was available so for instance uh the statement that um people who are vaccinated don't have to wear masks that's actually a reach because that hasn't been uh okayed yet in an official sense uh i'm saying that you know that that's what i've heard and so it's incorporated right now but there hasn't been an official statement that that's what the state of connecticut or the dph will allow the only thing that they've said on it at all the only person who seems to have commented directly on that right now is the national level fauci saying that the vaccinated group aka the year olds and above may not or

072he you know the way he words it is something around the lines of you know uh uh you know there's a possibility that and that's kind of how he says it so um it's incorporated here for all kids but actually on the national level it was made the statement was really for the vaccinateds of 12 and above this is in in anticipation that the summer will include a pfizer vaccination for all kids and so that you know that's roughly why it's there that way i just want to make sure that you know as we go forward with this you know it doesn't mandate things just to get a grant i guess that's where i was going with that um yeah no it'll it'll mandate things to be in compliance but that compliance will be pointing

073they'll point back at each other you know esser will say are you in compliance with dph kind of deal okay um and then not not to get you know national with vaccines but i mean with the kids i mean talking to the pediatrician you know when the adults get vaccinated you know we don't have to treat our kids this way oh and that's what i'm not mad at you and just i just get fired up about it because um i think you know there's probably kids that have already had coven you know and they still have to continue to wear a mask and not play with their peers and it's just hard on them um so thank you for keeping me on the committee you know very vocal um i just see things like ventilation

074you know we're increasing the run time you know the remote learning if we're going to continue to quarantine kids i don't see how we could you know as is my son going to stay home for 10 days and get nothing i mean that's no well the the hope the hope there is that if your son can't be vaccinated um that the school will have testing so if uh your son for instance feels kind of um you know unwell that he would go down to the nurse and be tested immediately okay so he would go home for having a cold but because we can test him internally he wouldn't be put out for 10 days if it's not coped and what's the opinion on because i know now you can buy a copic test at you

075know cvs for 40 bucks what's the opinion on home testing you know if my kid has a sniffle you know before sending them in yeah they ha i i don't know the answer to that um the one the the focus that i have heard you know was on um the testing our nurses can provide so um they haven't i think come up with a real determination about those at-home tests with respect to allowing access to school but the idea here would be that even if a child is not vaccinated they're feeling kind of sick they get tested from the school they can go home because they're not well but they don't have to stay out for 10 days if the test shows that it's not covered and so it would greatly cut down on any

076quarantine even for a child who was not vaccinated but the dph is encouraging very strongly that everyone get vaccinated because it's the only way to prevent some of these mass quarantines for you know variants and other things that could become part of next year if we're not careful so they they reiterated repeatedly last tuesday that you know the only way to in-person learning sustained is for vaccinations to be you know ubiquitous so that it's just a constant refrain from them thank you my hair's still on fire but i'll do it in a positive way i do have a quick question in terms of what she had asked um because i to be perfectly honest from june to december i mean things shift so quickly i mean how what happens if we are and not in

077compliance because of however you wrote this up i mean that's a large time frame well you know it's it's to be revisited because i i get this is their timeline they want six month increments um you know with respect to kind of when we kind of look at it again and and that may that must be for some reason that you know frankly i don't know exactly why but it's probably what they would expect to be shifts would be uh you know would probably be in such increments anywhere that i do anything in this document it's going to have to be connected to in language as made available by or made possible by or within the guidelines of the dph the adhd so even if i do say that you know students that are vaccinated

078wouldn't have to wear a mask for instance it'll be caveated with as permitted by so you know if the dph changes their guidance then we would have to do what they're permitting um so the document would still be accurate it's just frankly there's no other way to do that um you know the they have the complete control so executive order 12a for instance ends i think on july 20th if in another executive order is is um the you know is uh provided we've got to shift you know and do whatever the executive order says and that's not a new thing the um at the beginning of this year the state was saying one thing and then they completely shifted with respect to their thresholds and what was acceptable you may be you know you may

079remember for those who were tuning in way back at the beginning that 25 kids put us in the red you know in in a in a zone of a hundred thousand and um that quickly went away and that became not a red zone thing um as this as people uh as the as time progressed the state changed how it required and how it looked at it um and so we can expect some similar things that you know the state may change how they look at it so everything in here has to be caveated with um provided the state you know allows it through this guideline or you know these requirements okay just like i said i just wanted to know because i mean things shift so quickly so that's why i just on top of

080my head i mean like six months that's a long time and you know we go one month the next thing you know it's like 100 well 180 so that's just peace of mind i mean the one thing just to caveat on that is the difference is the vaccinations so we had a year a whole year that had a tremendous number of changes and changes in the requirements and that's why the meetings were every week on tuesdays because literally there would be something different every week having said that the vaccinations are supposed to be the stabilizing element here so that that doesn't happen that's the that's the rationale behind the state's approach so these documents will be much more generalized because they aren't expecting dramatic changes so long as everyone you know as as maximum number

081of people in all age groups that are permitted get vaccinated okay let's go to sofia i was wondering and perhaps you answered this um previously is there a cost to our district for the students that choose remote learning and if there is is it based on the percentage of children that that will buy into that or how will that work well there's not supposed to be um it's supposed to be that that state plan is offered as a remote option at no cost however we really won't know until we're actually at that point one other possibility is the state could say you must reallocate you know you know we'll provide you the resources but you have to allocate a person and that's i hope not what happens that's not what is supposed to happen they're

082supposed to provide the remote option but you know like anything else the only two things you can really count on in life are death and taxes and you know what the state does it could fluctuate now most people don't expect it to but it's possible okay anything else will be are you sorry uh let's go to uh tony thank you madam chair i just had one quick question uh dr willa on the scenario you were saying i think it was uh miss floored uh with the in-school pcr tests that we're hoping to have available would that be something that would require parental permission yes or would you have it on record i mean how would that actually be implemented conceptually you'd have to have the parent give their permission and and if they did the

083test could be administered it really would be just easier for a parent to do that than say go bring them to whatever testing center you know is that urgent care or something so um they would have to give their consent if they didn't give consent and it cannot be determined that it is not covered and they have not gotten or shown proof of vaccination then those children would be subject to quarantine to the maximum number of days as is specified by the dph which is currently 10 um and there is another version what could be you know eight but probably ten thank you sir yeah okay we do so i i did have a question about um quarantine if someone does have to quarantine for 10 days let's say permission isn't given to have a

084test done that's at a school and they are quarantined for 10 days do they then go into the remote learning option offered by the state or how do they how do we do that well they they they could probably um there may be an option for segwaying temporarily to remote learning from the state um but if they are so this is where the rubber hits the road on the philosophy about this so far what it looks like is the philosophy is that if a person chooses not to get vaccinated and chooses not to get a rapid test those are choices that mean that the child will then have to be out for those 10 days because these are the choices that the parent guardian or family is making so it's not saying that there wouldn't

085be supplemental work sent home by the teacher but they would not be having remote access it would be like um you know if a teacher sends home some supplemental work for a child who's sick it would be along the same lines as what would be done in a typical year if the child got the flu if a child got the flu for two weeks and was out for two weeks because of the flu a teacher would provide some work provided the child felt well enough to do it but it will not be the synchronous remote learning that you saw during the pandemic so it's not like you discard the new situation but they would be treated more like the flu a child who had the flu like it was a more prolonged illness like in

086a case like that yeah you know and if a child's out for the flu you know they they're given some work to do at home so long as they feel well enough to do it it would be the same kind of scenario okay all right thank you sure okay um let's give florida the shot because tony you already talked twice so lord i was just gonna say dr williams is your hair still on fire yes okay i just wanted to but i just wanted to say i know it's not on fire because of you i know what's in this document is to adhere to certain guidelines and certain things from the state and national government um and so i can't necessarily change all those things but um thank you for putting this together um and

087that's all i had tony go ahead yeah go ahead tony but that's it yep that that's it i'm thinking of nothing else but i guess i'm just sitting here trying to run through the the policies in my head that could be affected and i know dr willett you're probably you've probably done this in the process of i guess i'm just curious now have we thought then that next step would those absences then necessarily fall into the you know the allowed absences policy or the yeah i think what's really going to happen now is that the the state's regulations and requirements reassert themselves and somebody who's probably you know who's home ill with that gets excused if it isn't if it is a verified illness so you know if we know that a child is ill

088and it's verified by a medical person that is an excused absence versus strictly verified absence if a ufo lands in your backyard and you decide to have a picnic with all the aliens and that's going to mean it three days out of school that's a verified absence the district would log it as something that the parent called in but it's not excused whereas if a child's sick for three days goes to the nurse and it's obvious they're sick then um that that could be through a medical professional like the nurse or a doctor's note that that then is a excused and it doesn't count against them but if you know you do have a certain number of threshold absences the state then requires us to act on um so typically people will get um letters

089home at the fifth absence you know the ninth absence if a person has more than 20 if a child has more than 20 absences in a year and they're of even a verified kind then we have to go into a different mode of operation and and that type of thing that will be reasserting itself so that states um requirements will come back into play next year and so everything that people typically experience with attendance will be back and they'll be experiencing it again um but if a child is sick and there is medical documentation or verification of that then those are excused and those don't count against uh that max number the same way okay so none of that really covid becomes much more like the flu well just to use your brief example you

090know if we're writing a document that says what we plan on doing if the alien lands in our yard uh my assumption is then we need to make sure that we are you know we've got our ducks in the row as far as that alien yeah the the uh the the you know colorful euphemism there of the alien means that a parent guardians can literally have a child out for almost any reason as long as they say to the school they know where they are but that only uh that's only allowed to a certain threshold aka say 10. and then if it goes past that then it's looked at as them keeping them away from schooling so um really what i'm trying to say here with probably two colorful languages everything that used to be

091in in in place will be back in place so there really won't be from what i can tell any uh exemptions and so we wouldn't necessarily need any new policy because our policies are aligning with what the state had in place um for attendance we may we'll talk to swimming committees okay um griffin thank you ashley um i'm sorry um i'm trying to still comprehend all this so my car's not quite as on fire as much as floors but it's getting there so i guess my only question would be you know we're clearly at the mercy of the state just as we were or just as we have been for for so long is there anything we as a board can do especially for the mask wearing and how this is going to play out

092come september is there anything you think that would be helpful that we can do as a board to you know to have some of this stuff lifted this just seems so difficult especially for the k-5 unvaccinated population so that's my only question is there anything we can do do you think yeah um i'm just pulling it up right now the i would contact the connecticut department of public health um if you have an opinion these are the people who control this this in the state of connecticut um you know i'm looking at their site here i just loaded it up for your perusal but i'm looking for a contact number and you know sometimes these those are difficult to find but um the the people that are really controlling where this goes are the department

093of public health and organizations like that in the in the ahd um just to clarify we we probably shouldn't do it individually or we should do it individually or should we come to a consensus of a of an email uh from the whole board it can be i don't wanna it can be all of the above um it can be all the above if the board wants to send a you know we i have done that before where the board gives me direction and i'll author a document give it to the board for perusal you approve it and then i send it on behalf of the board of education for talent to the legislators to the department of public health etc sometimes you'll find that people in government will say a certain thing and then

094dph will have a different take on it and so unless it's an executive order or a law dph will be able to [Music] influence the anything that is not codified in law or executive order they'll reflect most of what's in law and executive order but if there is no law in executive order then what they say outside of that also goes so it's just um and you don't ever want to be on the legal side of not following the dph if something were to happen because they'll say you ignored the directives and guidelines of the dph et cetera so there's a couple of reasons why dph is one of the major players here so connecticut's dph would be a good place to focus your energy if you want to influence the decision making and they're

095the ones that um you know superintendents we have the meetings with the dph on tuesdays we literally get our direction from them in those meetings and and articulations and those meetings incident incidentally they're actually now discontinuing the weekly meetings because the prevalence is going down um they'll probably do them more on a monthly basis or something like that and it might be just because it's the summer but i think it also has to do with the prevalence i will say griffin um i did like florida's comment of the communications board taking a look at this and you ladies can help draft up a letter i mean i don't want to put you guys on the spot but i do think that that would be great if you you could put this on something and really

096start i mean i feel like what i'm always saying drafting up a letter because i think we were trying to do one too for um the grades not counting on the other uh exam that the students talk and i don't think we've ever actually pushed a letter out for that but i would like to do something in terms of this for the connecticut dph so is that something you ladies would uh like to take on have a little thumbs up well i think we can at least talk about it in our committee and see what we we come up with you can make it absolutely and tony's with us too we can't forget him the eastern highland health district is also the health district local district for tallinn and you can reach out to them

097too they're not as powerful as a dph they take their direction from the dph because they're a local health district but they're also um you know a good resource if you want to express an opinion or get you know get get an answer they can tell you um you know why something is a certain way um and that's your eastern highland health district um i'll see if i can pull that up really quick here um just so you can have us there we go so this is the eastern ehhd or eastern highland health district contact us you know these are the people to talk to on your local health district and the dph is the is really the higher authority but these these guys are great and they do a great job there's not many

098of them in that office so you might you know just be understanding if they can't get back to you like in five minutes but they are um you know they're they're the group that uh we we also report to i can't go astray of the ehd either and nor would it be smart too you know okay well i think that we've um obviously this is a lot of information to take in and to review and since this is a first read we will once again have more um discussion on our next meeting i do feel like board members will probably have some more questions for you dr willett so in the meantime um do you want them still to do the general box or just email you um board members can just email me if

099it's a board member email me if you're part of the general public use use the contact page and you can choose your method but the one that will get to me sooner other than calling my phone number but the one that would get to me sooner the one to five days is the uh the question here okay thank you very much dr will let's move on to the h4 education code relief fund okay oops i hate when this okay so this is just a review of the covet relief fund you may recall that in december of 2020 specifically the 23rd there was a consideration of the creation of a coveted relief fund it was uh do it was with funds that had been rolled over at the end of the year you remember last year's

100reconciliation document the board of education had endorsed a 30 40 30 split and uh and so 40 of that was going to be rolled over for the creation of a coveted relief fund and to be used for that those items so this was written up it was endorsed and adopted by the town council and the rules were set up as as you see on your screen now through the contributions the custody of the funds and the use of money and so on uh you me recently made a request of this fund where i went over the section that was relevant to make that request so i won't uh you know to i won't belabor the point on that right now the main reason for bringing this up in this particular meeting is the duration of

101agreement so the status of this agreement and fund shall be reviewed by the board of education and town council annually between june 1st and september 1st so you know to uh at the pleasure of the board and for the review of the board um i'm just pointing out that you have entered the term of the duration conversation and that we should probably be through one of our chairs or uh you can instruct me to reach out to the town manager looking to um to set up the process where the board event and the town council uh you know review this so that they can determine whether it should be continued or terminated yeah i do believe that we were discussing having some funds going into this so i believe that the board would um look

102to seek to extend the um dates on our agreement therefore um we can i can reach out to uh tammy to get this would this have to be another joint meeting or are they going to put it on to their agenda i think um you can decide with uh the chair of the council um how to best approach that um you know and then and let us know and obviously we'll do everything we can to help mike and i will do whatever we can to help um would any board members have any opposing thoughts about continuing this before i go and uh you know try to go to take the steps to extend it um we do oh you are muted all right there you go um sorry um i guess you know do we

103feel that it needs to be extended and if so is there a dollar amount that we're looking for well you can um whether it needs to be extended or not is that the pleasure of the board and the council um the council has the final stay in control um and if you are going to continue it then when we get to the june reconciliation document on the 23rd which is what i hope to do or at least talk about that i'll give you an idea of what you have for remaining balance and you can give me direction about what split you'd like to have happen there you know whether it should be 50 to the erf and 50 of what's left to to see it you know the coronavirus relief fund but you might want

104to have an idea at least a gentle person's agreement or some understanding between the chair and the chair of the council whether that there's an intention and uh there's support for continuing it because there's no point in rolling it to uh or requesting to roll it to a fund that will no longer exist so it should be a conversation you know to get this to get um a sense of whether there's support for this or not and hopefully that could happen prior to say the june 23rd meeting in just a general term not i mean not me not really the official meeting but at least a general sense then you can decide as a board how you want to do that end of your balance so and this may kind of be a stupid question

105i just don't know the answer to it um is there a difference between you know putting the money in a coke really fun versus putting it into an emergency like the emergency reserve fund so the erf can be used for three things capital special education and technology um the corona virus fund uh can be used with anything related to the coronavirus that is like cleaning and okay personnel yeah it's been very helpful this year um it's been very very helpful this year because there were a lot of things all over the place um and you'll know you'll notice from the minutes of the last meeting that we um you know we went over the categories of that there were there was a p1 and p2 request and um that's been forwarded over to the town

106now as per process and uh one of the things that was in there was food service you know getting hit pretty hard um so you know it's um it's something that has been very helpful to have we don't really know with a crystal ball what next year looks like hopefully it looks awesome but if if there are some continued unanticipated needs which there there could definitely be this kind of thing really does help the other thing is that if the money is not used the way this is written it rolls back to your area to your erf as long as it doesn't exceed the percent um that can go into the erf by ordinance chapter 8 of the town it seems like i mean to me it seems like it would make sense to keep

107it going just because you know i mean if we have to have like a plan of continuance of services you know i mean you might as well have the fun to go with it right i just think that this gives us the opportunity not because like the erf does have only those three options whereas this gives us a little bit more flexibility as how to spend that for whatever our needs might be so you know like dr willett said i mean it does that definitely has come into play and has helped us set costs you know that we can go through you know so i i agree that we were already talking about putting some funds in this i mean we just don't know when it is a pandemic and what we're going to need

108so you know by having the funds available and having you know not having that strict guidelines of the only three things yeah say we need this we have money that we can use so then it offsets it and you know yeah yeah you don't you don't you don't need to sell me on it i get it i understand i am with you i get it well let's hear from ffc here she's got her hand raised let's go let's see actually sure you don't want to be chair of ffc also that's what i was going to say is what you just said that there's really no risk to not continuing the fund because if we for whatever reason don't use the money for covid which would be fantastic it will automatically get rolled into our erf

109but the cobit relief fund gives us a little bit more flexibility with what we can use the money for compared to the erf so i certainly am in support of it and um in a future meeting you know we can have the discussion about the percentages and how we want to see it split but um i'm certainly in support of continuing the crf so thank you thank you griffin um let's go to rini um i just want to you know pile on to that a little bit i'm also in support of keeping it at least for the you know well at least one more year until we see you know kind of how things go and and then you know we can evaluate again in the following year but for now it it already seems

110like there's potential things that we wouldn't know about that may be coveted related that we might need the money for so i i'm in support of um requesting the town council to allow us to extend at least one year at this point okay um i could do a formal request asking them for a one year extension on there um i'm not sure how the town council if they vote on that or how what the next step would be but i think that that would probably assume to just write to her and request a um one-year extension correct was that yeah you definitely and again you can you can decide with her but i think that that is one way of doing it that may be very expeditious okay and then she can bring it to

111the um town council if they have that discussion okay yeah i mean you could uh someone could make a motion uh um right now to uh to request that the council continue the fund and then you would have a vote in a motion on that so you would have done your board part on you know the board side of it will have officially reviewed it um that's totally up to you and this is really not i like that where we're going with this so i would um entertain a motion to put this as board action under k2 yeah and i'll write up a motion for you yeah i was just going to say extension of the education coveted relief fund um one year christina ployd i make a motion to move the extension of the

112covert relief fund to board action as do k2 telesecond okay any discussion let's do the vote rainey hi griffin hi hi tony hi lord hi sophia hi dana hi um i as well so we will put this down for a um action as k2 and dr will you will write up motion perfect thank you guys um i think that's the best the best solution to this i think going forward it kind of just helps us out so let's move on to the um committee in liaison reports um monday had the mental health correct we do well you are muted yes speaker correct yes uh dr will was uh kind enough to grace with his time along with reverend gallagher um it was it was a it was a long and in-depth conversation um we have

113a lot to uh to go over um we're gonna end up splitting into two groups um one's gonna focus on prevention and then the other is gonna focus on you know treatment options and what we offer um but no again and thank you so much dr willa it was it was um it was very helpful for you to be there um i think i think some of the stuff that we talked about you know um were things that we hadn't even thought about and it's exactly why you know we need to talk to people that's perfect okay and do you guys have anything for curriculum um yeah we uh i don't have the meeting agenda in front of me i thought jacob would be here to do it but um we uh we did meet

114um we talked about hold on i can't even remember what we talked about so basically yes we met um i know we talked about uh um the pathways we talked about um uh pandemic um the current pandemic situation um we talked more a long time personal finance he had a yep we had uh the personal finance teacher come in and uh talk to us about um you know the pros and cons of you know um what the what would the curriculum look like in the pros and cons of of making it a uh a permanent or like a mandatory class um and then yeah we talked about pathways and discussion on uh basic trades courses and learn learning loss too i think i i might have said that was an ffc but that was in

115curriculum that we talked about learning laws okay so that was also another jam-packed meeting well thank you madhu it seems as though that we're keeping you busy over here yep wouldn't happen any other way thank you so much um okay so let's see what else we have uh rini i didn't want to take your thunder away for the negotiations but can we get an update i'm fearful that the cat is out of the bag already and you know dr willett has you know come screaming in with the good news that we did come to an agreement but i do think we're maybe waiting uh for them to have it back to a signed type thing we are it's uh it has to go to uh their their union for a vote right so we're at

116that stage but we did come to an agreement so we're happy about that um they do a great job for us and very important to the whole operation of the district so um we're happy to have come to an agreement with that thank you so much i mean i hate to take that away from you because i know that negotiations you can never say anything [Music] but you know it's okay okay um let's see i have um birch grove dana hi can you hear me okay um so i have quite a bit and um i'll just kind of go as as i can um so the virtual primary project is on budget on time the school looks fantastic i don't know if any of you guys have had a chance to drive by and check

117it out we're going to continue to meet weekly until further discussions are had obviously for change orders and and stuff like that that's time sensitive um we don't have an eta for the proposed town council or board of ed or birch grove primary committee walkthroughs um unfortunately this is uh determined by the property managers and future communication is going to be i'm going to have to keep you guys in the locus as that progresses um basically uh there is some stuff that's gonna be coming uh hopefully brought to our next scheduled meeting on the 23rd uh about a presentation to the full board about the place deep and the swing set and how that impacts the playscape um so a couple things i just want you guys be on the lookout from getting the correspondence

118or information from either katie murray or dr willett um in regards to that it's possible we may not receive the packet until on monday so um what is that the 21st correct dr wall so it's possible that we might not get the packet itself the full construction packet for the um playscape until two days before our meeting i did speak to katie and we're trying to work on giving the layout um some documentation some less than the construction packet for us prior to that the week prior if we can she's working diligently um with the motto to get a condensed version so that we can at least get a peek at that at the layout in the this the sketch and what the the goal is um the paperwork the document is really the that

119she's gonna be won't get till monday is pretty much um applicable to the construction team only but the overall bottom line is we'll be provided a site plan um the location of the swing set that's going adjacent to the playground but it's a five basing set uh ten swings in total um two of them are going to be accommodating for students of a variety of needs um and again like i said katie's working really hard to get that to us sooner um we it will be the committee will need to um bring it to the border that or katie and myself will need to bring to the board of ed um for to approve the proposal to include the swing set as a part of the quote unquote full campus package um under the 46

120million dollar budget so by approving that we're approving the proposal to include the swing set as a part of that um but we're just plu approving the plan so that the state can review it and determine whether or not uh the swing set is eligible for reimbursement or not so that's really that's a huge caveat on it um you know it's going to be brought to us so we can improve it so they can send it to the state so we can find out if it's actually reimbursable um the swing side whether it goes in or not it's another purview of the birch grove building committee within the 46 million dollar budget again we're just approving or reviewing uh the elig the packet for eligibility only the application um the reason why i bring this

121up is because everything's coming so fast and furious with the bgp um so it will be something that we will need to act upon quickly and the window of us getting the information and reviewing it and then talking about it at a meeting is minuscule so um what i will say is we do need to act on it promptly because it will help mitigate costs in the future potentially um putting a new swing set in the future um post post bgp build um but the the goal is to provide a swing set to provide the full educational needs for all children at birch grove primary so um and it's the most fiscally responsible one um i think i hit it all dr willett do you have anything that i missed or katie is katie on

122the meeting i think you did a good job um okay i don't know if katie is here she said she was going to try no yes i'm here okay i don't know if you have anything to add katie or did i miss anything i think you got it okay we're we're cruising along um but since we have colleagues here you know i was gonna say if any board members have any additional questions too you know just in case you know okay because i saw some thinking faces so i didn't i wasn't sure i was gonna take the opportunity so anything else katie no dana got it i'll be back uh next week or i'm sorry at your next meeting assuming that we do have the swing set packet ready to go then um so that

123i can answer any questions you might have about the swing set packet perfect it sounds like our 23rd meeting is going to be quite the packed jam-packed agenda perfect um thank you guys uh is there any other um liaison reports that i'm missing at this time i don't believe that anybody else met ffc weights uh so i'm good okay um chairperson's report i'm lucky to be here tonight and one piece so we are good to go i feel like this summer time as soon as this stuff rolls around it's like it's time just flies really quick and you're like oh my gosh it's already wednesday so um let's go to board action and dr willa if you could um let's discuss this so um the aasa is uh basically is a organization for administration and

124superintendents the aasa offers a national certification program uh so the program is you know this is the program narrative if you were to go to the asa site and click on national superintendent certification program this is roughly the narrative that you would see this is truncated a little bit because it goes on for a few pages but um so you know it essentially is a program for superintendents um that that have had some experience and want to uh to work collaboratively um in a training in a series of trainings to you know enhance and expand that so i i have not asked for something like this during my tenure but i decided i would put it out there to the board and see i did apply for the program and filled out the appropriate forms

125and paperwork and was accepted to the program so if the board of ed is okay with it i would like to participate in this program and the dates of the program are as follows here the first three are virtual there is some uh there is one in nashville then the the fifth one is virtual although it's unclear exactly what they're going to do with that and then the sixth one is in san antonio so it stretches over a period of um you know of a couple years here and um you know i feel that it would be a very good experience with respect to enhancing skills and ultimately at the end of the day you know you get a i would get a national certification for talent but that's essentially it um and so it's

126put to the board uh for its consideration and uh if you are interested in doing that you could uh you know approve it um and i can give you rough language simply to approve the superintendent's request uh for aasa national certification program participation so i'll entertain a motion for this and then we can have a discussion um after it's seconded any questions to go with it so um are any board members willing to make a motion dana plourde i'd like to make a motion to accept the superintendent's request to participate in the aasa national superintendent certification program really saw second okay um discussion are there any uh questions in terms of this um for any board members uh let's go to madu oh you are muted medu yeah sorry like sorry it's new update and

127it's places where things are in different places um is this something that we have budgeted for already um i believe there's a line item that we that we have and i just wanted to make sure that this is something we had budgeted for yeah and there's a part of my contract that talks about this kind of thing so it you know we we do have funds next year for it but uh i do put it out in front of the board to you know obviously as part of the process so you you can you can endorse it or or not and if you didn't i wouldn't do it so okay okay thank you okay uh let's go to tony i i gotta be a little quicker on the raising of the hand matt you got

128my question uh perfect i'll just go ahead and say i think you know obviously adding tools to dr willett's uh tool chest makes the district stronger so uh i completely support you know this okay let's go to plord i just wanted to say i get a test dr willett has not requested any anything in the past four years and i think that uh this is a great opportunity uh in cruising the website uh so i am all for it uh i would just request you know when when you come back you share some of the key learnings with us i think it would be great i do a presentation and everything okay let's go to sofia i echo what tony said i think this will only enhance our district and i think it's awesome and

129i hope dr willett that they give you some stress relieving techniques because you and all of your other superintendent cohorts can commiserate about how much stress you're all under and perhaps discuss or share ideas on how to alleviate all that stress okay so at this time um i would like to do a roll call vote so we will start off with sofia hi poor hi tony hi we do hi rini i and i think uh griffin is trying to get back into the meeting doctor wallet griffin is lost yeah yep she is you're right okay um we will that was an eye also i got the eye okay we will go to dana hi um i as well did we get griffin back in here so she's she should be back i hope and thank

130you everyone griffin we are voting on uh dr willett's uh the aasa national superintendent certification program all right i was actually able to catch it on tv so i am an eye perfect i as well so those passes unanimously uh dr willett have a good time learn and bring it back to us i mean i think it's a valuable it's always great to add like you said um tools to the tool chest of your you know what you're working on and i think it gives you a good opportunity to speak to other people from around the u.s i think it's a great opportunity it is thank you i deeply appreciate it thank you everybody get the hot chicken while you're in nashville and bring me back sometime i will okay so now we have a

131k2 for the uh covid release right fun if we could um dr willit did you have a written yep yep yeah i put it up here if you can if you uh there we go so i will entertain a motion to acknowledge the boe review of the coveted agreement in the 6-9 meeting and recommend the continuation of this agreement to the town council madue renducinata motion to acknowledge the board of dead review of the covid agreement in the 619 meeting and recommend the continuation of this agreement to the town council second okay any uh discussion at this time if not we will go to a vote so sophia aye lord hi tony hi madou hi rini hi ayna hi griffin griffin looks frozen oh boy she's having a hard time tonight with this hi if

132you're calling on me you were frozen for a minute there as well therefore i will um get in touch with tammy to look for an extension for one more year on this so we put this over here perfect okay so at this point um we are going to do the public participation comments must be limited to items on the agenda once again tony will be the two a two minute timer and he will give you a visual and a vocal let you know when you have 30 seconds left if you could please um put your name in your address at this time i will open it up for um public participation so we have uh sophia johnson thank you so much um i just wanted to ask a quick question with regard to the safe

133return to in-person instruction and continue continuity of services plan um there wasn't an attachment and i you know i did follow through follow up follow with what you guys had on the screen but is that draft document available for the public to review and my second question is with regard to with the safe to return to in-person instruction and the you know the continuity of services plan you did it i apologize go ahead oh no i said you did it you got the whole thing out there you know i'm sitting here and i'm sweating it's hot and it's a long title but it is but it you know if you know i could have broke it down into an acronym but you know i'm looking and like i said it's hot in the steam in

134my glasses but anyway uh my other question was that with um with the consideration of the unvaccinated students and um you know and i'm speaking as a parent forgive me i'm sophia johnson 48 crystal lake road um you know tonight i'm sitting in as um town council liaison but this question is poised as a parent to a suit to be talland high school student my son is a bit of a worry board he we call him mala crisis his name is malachi but this pandemic has been you know it had a significant impact on his perception of what would be safe for him and right now he's comfortable with doing the remote learning so exploring the option of being able to continue at the state level is something that as a parent i have to

135explore but i would prefer that he go to return to in class because he needs to although he may not feel that way he needs to have the interpersonal relationships with his peers so that he can graduate and have you know a relative understanding of different people and how they act and how they respond to different things and learn and strengthen his interpersonal skills but he will we're allowing for him to exercise his right to not be vaccinated and to continue with wearing a mask um in understanding the impact that that will have to this plan i can almost guarantee that he's going to be one of those students that will want to do remote but again we're going to exercise our parental discretion and have them return to school and have them wear the

136mask but is there a contingency plan for a code of conduct with regard to being singled out or bullied or being called a coward he's dealt with a lot of bullying in his in his lifetime being singled out because he's wearing a mask and people knowing that he's wearing a mask would indicate that he's unvaccinated these are different things that i'm hoping that two minutes is up uh i uh so just better process i i think i can respond in points of information so i'll have to hold my response but i can respond in points of information okay uh thank you very much um let's go to any other public members okay if not at this time then we can enter into executive session uh well you want to go to points of information real

137quick just uh was that you didn't move that on the agenda though oh okay do you want me to public participation okay uh so ms johnson i will uh i will reach out to you with an answer to that thank you very much sure okay so um we need we need a motion to enter into the executive section for the purpose of the superintendent's evaluation we do rendition telemotion motion to enter into executive sessions for the purpose of the superintendent's evaluation christina plourde second oh and i'd like to include uh inviting the superintendent to join us thank you all right so just as a matter of process everybody who is in the room you uh you will end up being put into a waiting room until the executive session is over so i apologize for

138about one vote though we're still oh right when when you vote so we actually need to enter so um sophia hi tony aye madue hi rini hi dana hi hi emma i as well therefore we will move into executive session so at this time we will go into the points of information so if any board members have anything they would like to say you can please raise your hand um and dr willett i know that you will have something to say but once you get everybody in the room so let's go to griffin ah thank you i actually just was wondering if we had any update on the meeting with the town to discuss going back in person after i missed quite a bit of tonight's meeting with lousy internet it's definitely frustrating to on

139my end and i'm sure even more so on dr willetts because i think he let me back in about eight times and each one kept kicking back out so just curious where we stood with going back in person if you guys knew well as of right now um i think that tammy was asking the town attorney about the meeting about meetings to see exactly if we can have everybody there and things of that nature so we're just trying to make sure that everything would be legal of having that going forward so that's where we're at any other board members okay dr willett are you ready for the yes so um so thank you and uh and so i think miss johnson is uh yeah she's still here so um the uh two things um you

140know there'll be uh various students who uh you know who who whose families desire um the remote program the state provides and so um that group will will do that but they'll also be um probably a numerous group of uh individuals who are also um either medically impacted or for a variety of reasons will still you know want to wear the masks and so there there will definitely be as part of our programming you know conversations social emotional learning conversations all and and that type of thing to to you know be mindful and help the children be mindful and you know not to judge because you don't know why the child is wearing the mask and there's a variety of reasons they could be wearing it um so hopefully it'll be like any other thing

141that the kids experience with each other that you know that is uh you know that is different they'll they'll be told and educated that you know it's a matter of just difference and need and this is not something to to you know to that should be a subject of ridicule and in in that vein there are um there are currently policies that policies and discipline code you know regulations for ridicule and for bullying and so it would fall under the same kinds of things so if they were ridiculing them for you know having an eye patch you know and or ridiculing them for a mask it would be processed under the same set of regulations discipline codes and so on so they'll exist um you know we can process anything that happens uh with the

142existing um policies we probably won't have to rewrite or restate them and we will be ready for it because you know we know that that that type of thing can happen so um you know we'll be we'll be vigilant and we'll be talking to staff about that in uh the convocation we have at the beginning of the year things like that thank you anyone else at this time for board members not um we do not have anything on the future or new business so therefore i would um entertain a motion for a german okay any discussion no let's do the roll call vote so plord hi tony hi sophia hi madu hi griffin hi dana hi rini hi i'm i as well we have everybody right i think so therefore i will adjourn this meeting

143at 9 32 everyone have a wonderful night bye guys