Board of Education Meeting 2021-06-21

001okay thank you i' like to call to order this regular meeting of the board of education at 6:03 PM if everyone could please stand for the pledge United States of Amer it stands one nation under God indivisible withy fory here hereo here H here Mr Kisco here Mr minich here M Richardson here miss toor here Carbone Mr arum yeah Mr Barlo Miss Ferguson here miss KUSI oh she's not here I'm filling in for her and you are Steve Barton thank you msky here miss shy here thank you I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda adding two items we'll have item 78 EF funding and item 7 I will be the board ofed calendar 2021 2022 also adding action items n h and I who that John second all those in favor hi

002School Community session public participation the board invites members of the community to speak on topics to be addressed in the agenda or other topics of Interest individuals wishing to make a comment must State their name and address at the beginning of their comment the board will not allow comments regarding specific staff members parents students or personal grievances courtesy is expected in The Limited public forum the participating time will be limited to 3 minutes per person and 10 minutes overall to guarantee efficient operation of the entire Liz Patterson just come right up to the table thank you thank you hello everybody um my name is Liz Patterson I live at 382 Charles Street um hi some friendly faces uh I know a lot of you are on our side when it comes to unmasking our kids

003um maybe each and every one of you just wants to get back to normal um but that takes action it takes people standing up for the rights for our children and ending these ridiculous mandates over the last few weeks I got tired of hearing our hands are tied and it's complicated so I did my own homework I spoke with the governor's office the Connecticut state Department of Education the dph our local toron area health district and literally all of my local legislators what I learned was the decision to unmask our kids this fall is up to the individual District let me say that again the decision to unmask our kids is up to the district but don't just take my word for it look at all the other districts in t in Connecticut already making

004this commitment to the fall they weren't scared by the words requirements in quotation in the Lea real template they got confirmation just as I did from the Department of Education that the these are only guidelines to consider when writing your plan and please don't tell me it's about funding aside from the 20% allocated to the learning loss program the American Rescue act has no other mandates for the allotment of funds and I know this because you confirmed it at your M May 19th Board of Education meeting when someone asked that direct question it's time to take back our schools it's time to stop being afraid our children are not at severe risk for this disease they have a 99.99% survival rate from Co do you understand how remarkable that is do you realize that our

005children are 10 times more likely to die in a car accident than from covid and no one's Banning children from riding cars there are three4 of a million children Connecticut I had to look that up 34 of a million does anyone know how many of them died from Co not thousands not hundreds four four children with pre-existing conditions but that's another case right it's time to really weigh the benefits versus the risks and put these restrictions into perspective when we're talking about that number we do not we're not simply talking about a minor inconvenience here I know these masks are hurting our children I know that these masks are bacteria infested isolation Shields they cause headaches and learning difficulties and joylessness in our children I know that our kids are struggling and these masks are

006to blame so please hear me do what you can enough is enough put the children of warington first stop being complacent don't sit back and allow the state to tell us what to do and what's best for our kids here in torington take back your District like your jobs depend on it tell the Department of Education what you intend to do this all please unmask our kids thank you thank you kellyo I am Jennifer Kelly I live at 107 Wall Street um I have two kids enrolled in the school system right now I have two nieces I watch my friends two kids that all go to public school here we opted to keep our kids home this year simply because of mask that was it no other reason I refused to mask my kids so

007with that said um a lot of things that have happened over the last year um starting from the top of administration right down to my kids school can't name specifics so I'm not going to but I'm going to say this there's an old saying it takes the village I'm assuming most of you probably have kids we all know what that means we watch each other's kids we feed them we bake them we do the whole night now with that my opinion is the schools as a whole should be part of that Village we're leaving our kids with you all day long and if we can't trust you to keep our kids safe why should we s the Mas not safe these kids are miserable my kids refuse to go to school with the mascot and

008I'm not going to make them so I gotta leave part of this out because of what I'm not allowed to say but that's okay you as the school board from offer Administration right down should be looking out for our kids best interest not what serves your needs not what serves the government's needs not whatever the kids now not going to name names because I'm not allowed to but the other day I was dropping my friend's daughter off at school she wasn't even out of a car she didn't even have her backpack on and their school principal was behind her to have Master where she mask what is that why is that a thing let that child get out of put her backpack on and get herself ready for her day so I have to go

009through this because some things I'm not all to say but correct me if I'm wrong somebody anybody I don't care but my understanding is this meeting is because part of your funding requirements you guys have to have stuff in by the 23rd which is in two days now I understand fully that Co and all the nonsense it comes with it is constantly changing but I don't see Public Schools as a safe healthy place for my kids they did remote learning the last year but what about all these other kids they were on okay look at this room right now I am pouring sweat this is disgusting and this is what our kids go to school in and this is supposed to be acceptable and this is a plan for government funding no so I can't

010stand being in this room I don't know who else can it's hot it's gross this is nasty now I remember when my kids went to school before Co everything coming home social emotional learning this that and the other how are they doing that can you see my face when this is up to my eyeballs can a kid see yours when a mask is up to your eyeballs they can't see social cues they have no idea what your face looks like that's not okay and to me that's a contradiction to all of the social emotional stuff that we were spend with our kids now full in person with masks no remote option that's what we're given down the line it could change but what I'm disturbed by is the fact that Administration the Board of Ed

011the principles all of it you all are okay with mentally and physically abusing our kids they are terrified us parents are ridiculously upset by this and if you're willing to submit our kids to that for government money I'll say no more on that but in closing we all have a choice every single day everything that comes up in life we have a choice no matter what I made my choice when school shut down and re open I'm not masking my kids I'm not putting them that they will not come back to sto a mask it won't be in their possession it won't be on their face nobody will put one on them and how that plays out remains to be seen they should be optional if we're being forced to send our kids back to

012and if not we should be given a remote option was it my favorite thing in the world no quite honestly none of us liked it my kids hated it I hated it it is what it is we did what we did but you the Board of Education and all of the other administrators need to make a choice to stop harming our kids physical and mental well-being our kids should be a top concern not somebody reading a piece of paper to handle School District money it's disgusting so in closing I encourage you the Board of Education and all of the school administration to not just do better but be better thank you Elana patters did I say that right welcome hi I'm Eliana Patterson i' just like to say think about when we first heard of

013the food did we start wearing masks no did we stay at home if we were not good yes if we didn't wear masks in the flu we shouldn't be wearing masks now at school I can't stop saying what what did you say on the first day of school the first thing I wanted to do to make friends was learn about people but I couldn't I couldn't see their expressions and it didn't go so well please unmask us thank you thank you for everyone's comments um Miss Patterson if you wouldn't mind emailing me who you spoke to at the state and what districts are doing that just so I have it for information purposes you want me to tell off now or just just you can email it and then so thank you recognitions tonight we

014felt that there was only one person that we could recognize that there wasn't room there wasn't enough room in the room for more than you so I just wanted to share a little bit about Mr arum who has been one of the Lifesavers to our district over the last couple of years Ed arum has served many roles throughout his time with the torington public schools after teaching in Brooklyn New York for several years he got his first business manager position in region 10 four years later he came to TPS in 1977 to become our business manager where he stayed until 1991 over the last 30 years he has served in many roles and made a lasting impression in our district and our community he has always been the one we could turn to in challenging

015times he has been our interm superintendent of schools in 1990 and then again in 2008 with his friend and sidekick Mario Longo the meatball to the matah ball and Michelle cook they were able to make the torington high school turfield a reality and for the first time last Friday we were able to celebrate our post-pandemic graduation on that very field he has been the burger flipper extraordinaire at the Raiders run celebration and mashed mounds and mounds of potatoes for the community super kitchen at Thanksgiving time whatever the occasion Ed has always given his time freely to the district and community in 2018 after numerous too many to count intern business managers Ed agreed to become our interm business manager even though the agreement included Ed's and Alice's time in Florida from January to March Ed

016would talk to the Seuss every day and still attended all subcommittee meetings and board meetings via Zoom as that long as it wasn't during 3:30 pool time every call was answered in November of 2020 the referendum passed for the new torington high school middle school and central office building project we are so happy Ed will continue to serve as co-chair with Mario we know that we are in good hands as we move forward with the building project Ed we can't thank you enough for all that you have done for the district over the years but especially during the last three years when we really didn't need to when we really needed to establish stability throughout the district and you know how to add Cel count double bonuses we will miss your humor and your expertise

017in all things business we wish you and Alice the very best in your retirement many things just wanted to offer you this plaque as a token of our appreciation for everything you've done and hoping that you will still answer our calls thank you a brooklynite it's been a pleasure to be here 33 years we just put our house again just 1.8 miles from where we are now so I will be here hopefully another 43 years right you can call me anytime well thank you tough one right superintendence report sure how do I follow that yeah I know exactly um graduation as was saying was on the tur field and I I talked to Ed um you know who had the opportunity to watch it and those of you who were there it was such a

018moving experience um especially the culmination of such a a difficult 15 16 months so so moving to see our students right there in front of us not with the blinding lights of of the Warner which it is lovely in and of itself but you know to be on our own field right there it was wonderful uh it was a great experience I think uh THS staff did a fabulous job secretaries custodians um admins just the whole staff pulled together um Steve was there too uh great to have you on stage um so just a real feel- good moment student speeches were outstanding s speeches were amazing Jona it as always um it just was wonderful so so proud um and today's the end of the year uh last day um we didn't think we would

019get here um it's been a tough tough time but uh our students our families our our staff I'm just so proud of them this has been uh such a Herculean effort and has taken everybody to to pull together and everyone has done that from you know the sites to central office to our board thank you so much um for all your support during this difficult time um and our our families and Community um we ended on a very positive notes uh this last weekend we also had a June team um for the very first time uh celebration in the community um one of the members of our Equity committee uh shantee Robinson was the mayor of of uh the day and she spoke and uh but it was a lovely celebration um so it was

020nice to be able to have that as well a lot of culminating events a lot of things that we couldn't do in the past we are now able to do so we're really looking forward to office of teaching and learning update okay coming around just very briefly um this is kind of just to give you the status update on where we when we last spoke about this um as you know we've been planning for professional development throughout the summer for our admin team so we've just about finalized those plans um there's going to be a full week once everybody is back in District after their vacation schedules have you know kind of all played out so we have a pretty much a full week planned for them to participate in training around some of the

021electronic platforms that we've been using for the past year and a half many of those platforms have new features that we um are bringing some of the um the vendor reps in to teach us a little bit more about how to really get the most out of those features performance matters is one you've heard us talk about the star assessment they have new reports that we can pull that will help us with our data analysis is um we are going to do some work around systems and um goal development that will inform our Improvement plans and our district Improvement plans uh student and family engagement we're going to take a look at Chronic absenteeism and some mitigating strategies for that um and acceleration which is um you've heard us talk about before that's an initiative

022that's happened Statewide Nationwide and then our back to school PD for our instructional staff our teachers and our PA professionals again around acceleration how to use data to inform our decisions again those instructional platforms how to really get the most out of the things that we're paying for and then the mandated trainings for a safe and secure workplace um that we're required to do every year we have a lot of curriculum work happening this summer um it's happening in all core content areas English Math Science Social Studies World Language and library media um science so we're excited about that happening throughout July and August as you know we have our summer learning experience a larger really more comprehensive summer learning program than we've had for as long as I can remember um it uh spans

023July 6 through August 19th depending on the grade level we've identified approximately 700 students to participate our staff um primarily our counseling staff right now is still um touching days with families to get the permission slips and that sort of thing so I don't have solid numbers about actually who's coming yet but we'll have that next time our spring assessments are all done obviously since the kids are gone um we're in the process of pulling that information apart now and we will present that to the school Improvement committee um at the at an upcoming meeting um and then Ally you have some updates on the technology Ali's working Fast and Furious everything around ter for summer school right so we're process of receiving back our devices for students um for the next couple days this

024will receive back the ones from our remote students um they will be inventor cleaned asset updated and you prepared for distribution again as soon as next Friday um we'll turn around 550 devices um for summer school and esy in just about a week so we'll be busy for the next couple of days and going back on but with Su had said I think graduation was amazing this year it was really incredible we were able to live stream um we had about 160 simultaneous viewers and it was broadcast on channel 22 and Ed said he watched it so we had at least one viewer there but um so far the on demand version has been viewed over 1300 Times by 900 unique viewers um we able to employ as part of the video grant that we

025received last year four cameras we had a floating camera up above the field with boom left and um a total of five team members were able to make it a great success so I'm very proud of my team and it was was a phenomenal experience and as we were breaking down everything putting back in the building it started to just to drizzle a little bit so we got really really lucky yeah if I could just type in um I ran into someone on Saturday at the jth of that who lives nearby the high school that he could actually hear it call very clearly and so the audio was yeah the audio was great on point yeah thank questions on any of those original updates want to share Ally was amazing all the administrators everyone teachers

026at the high school that all made that together it's a very emotional night first time I've ever cried at a graduation um but it was great all the same thank you for all your work board of education budget oh I'm sorry special education update I'm sorry Noe just pass these around real quick so for uh just to go over our numbers for June I know this is the same chart that uh Laura shares monthly so we were pretty similar to where we were uh we were down nine total special ed stud students in District for the for June compared to May uh our prevalence rate is staying below the uh State average at 15.31% actually went down a little bit from where we were May 1 uh Laura did want me to let everyone know

027that next month she will be doing a more comprehensive presentation from where we were and September all the way through the end of the year so she'll be comparing the data um for the whole school year on uh the second page it's going over the referral process process um you know this really didn't change very much from the past month um our prevalence rate once again though for students with disability is at uh 11.13 I'm sorry our outplacement uh rate is at 11.13% still well below the state average which has been something that we've continued to work on throughout the year um and just some other data here 55 students have exited from special education this year by testing out nice job to them um since the start of the school we've had 39 children

028move into torington with an IEP and we've had 35 children move out of torington with an IEP and I believe compared to last year we had um more children move in so this year was a little more um St a little more the same and wasn't as variable as past year just going through this real quick on the third page um there is an elementary making a decision- making behavioral flowchart so this kind of ties in with some interventions that can be put in place for students before going to special ed so all the information and this document really pertains to General ed students and as we can kind of see I'll just go real quick through the steps on the right that at the end of special ed referral might be warranted if these

029aren't working um if we're looking at the document all the columns on the left is pretty much the same thing if you hit that continue what you're doing solely extinguishing comps and reinforcers is successfully tolerated so if something's working with the student to improve Behavior keep going with and try to eventually wean them off and decrease that so if we just start at the top though um you know regular educations uh teachers are um delivering a classwide behavioral plan and differentiating is needed for their students the next step down would be a teacher brings a concern to the Student Success team to discuss potential Behavior plans to implement uh we want to implement this plan for two weeks we're going to collect data to analyze the effectiveness and the implementation is adjusted as needed if

030those interventions aren't working which should of course be supported by data we consult with the behavioral interventionist the behavior Tech or registered Behavior technician all of our uh special ed initials coming into play here bi BT RBT um you know at this point they'd ask for review of indiv sorry an individual student plan and they would observe the student collect data this would be done by the behavior tech for the RBT that that point they would adjust the behav Behavior plan is recommended by the behavior interventionist continue to implement with Fidelity and collect data for at least two more weeks everything's good we go to the left if not we go straight down if interventions still aren't working we could request informal counseling support from a social worker or psychologist we can have the bcba

031observe and consider additional adjustments to the plan we look to identify triggers and then implement the plan with Fidelity for at least two two more weeks collecting data once again if it's still not working then we'd schedule a review with the student services team consider additional regular Ed interventions which would be a 504 and FBA functional Behavior assessment and development of a behavior implementation plan or potentially referral to special education at this point and then on the last page here just to kind of go over um our elementary reflection rooms so the uh the reflection rooms the first part just Kenna says who is um the reflection room team so we have Behavior technicians and registered Behavior technicians are rbts these are in all schools we have Master's level behavior interventionist at the K5 five

032level and then the overall supervision is done by TPS board certified Behavior analysts we also have social workers and school psychologists contributing as necessary and super student services supervisors and building principles or uh assistant principles overseeing administ ation uh while a lot of the support is provided in the classroom setting the reflection room is a safe place where students can go when they are disregulated experiencing social and emotional difficulties so our reflection room staff you know uses deescalation strategies and restorative practices to help students work through their um the issues that they're having and if the student does have to go to reflection room once they've been able to uh readjust their behavior and get in a better spot they able are safe ready to go back to learn and we go back to their

033regular class uh just the roles and the responsibilities of the behavior teams real quick uh so the teams in the reflection rooms are responsible for bottling appropriate social emotional Concepts so we're establishing classroom Norms teaching and ensuring behavioral expectations being respect respectful kind words appears in adults being responsible so controlling personal actions to be safe towards other people in property these expectations we want to keep reviewing with the students on a regular basis to keep reinforcing them we want to prioritize building relationships and connections with the students want to collaborate and model social emotional learning Concepts within the general education settings to promote generalization so if one student sees something uh another student doing something that is positive we want that student you know really to be able to observe that and kind of you

034know maybe try to model their behavior off that and then of course we want to guide disregulated students to actively help them take responsibility for their actions make a restorative plan and implementation plan to begin the healing and then we had the uh the chart which I went over before this to kind of help guide our actions with those students like I I I can imagine this as a as a type of thing where a child set in class the teacher isn't able to call the child and so they go to other room to have this time I could imagine some kids really needing that and then I could see how some other kids May abuse that because we're all smart enough to know if I act out and that means I get to leave

035the room and go play Ambulance with somebody that that's just kind of a sweet deal so how do they know how do they sort through that and are there times when they kind of withdraw the reflection as an option if they feel like the child is over utilizing it so that could be I think that would really be on an individual basis the big thing is you know if you did have a pattern of a student that was kind consistently going to the reflection room you know I would think the team would really look at what's causing the student to go there I mean like like you said there could be some students that might kind of see that almost as an incentive going to uh to an alternate setting but you know really in

036a case-by case basis if that's noticed the team would have to look if there's some alternate interventions that could be put in place to help the student uh improve the behavior that's been causing an issue but doing it in a different way so that they weren't you know using the reflection room as a perceived reward no problem great job okay uh board of education budget 2021 2022 um I don't really have anything new to update other than there will not be a joint meeting with the board of Finance so they're having some difficulties this week with a quorum uh so the mayor has suggested that I put in writing to their legal council are questions so I will be providing a letter to their Council of you know all of the issues relative to our

037budget and since that's been open we'll also be asking a lot of other budgetary questions that we've had lingering for several years so we get going on that have was that Wednesday meeting yes so we so you all have Wednesday night nice um so there is a meeting tonight a city council meeting um which the budget is on the agenda but I'm sure be disced the use of various funding Capital project discuss it's basically left that the the well Direct um I'm assuming that's maybe what they're going to talk about tonight Gary and no go y That's ECF funding who makes the decision to put it out for refer is that us or the city not us it's the city the buildings that they I concur with I think it was you that made the

038statement that I don't think it makes much sense for us right now to put something El out for referendum since we just put out this multi-million dollar School change you know building um so just for the record I I not in favor of another referendum to get the money did we see do we get any more clarity on cost verses I forget the Fell's name that um the whether we can use the federal funds for the roof yes mayor received something from name probably has that well the only clarification we got was that that person actually worked for Mr for cost we the impression that it' be best to use this money without having to go to referendum and use whatever money would been given if it's a while and take it mon to say

039it that way but why use City money when we can use f money but we don't have an answer that we know what I no so and part of the concern is just the timing of all of this right so we don't really so our plan is to in August um we've not gotten a solid clarification on when all the municipal plans will be due so if it goes to referendum that would be November um but we don't really have a say in whether it goes into their plan whether it goes to referendum so we're just concerned about the middle school getting done I'm just worried about if Vogal has a 35y old proof you know another two years or three years could absolutely destroy whatever's underneath that rubber and I don't know if it's

040if it's got some Stone up there a gravel and stone or if it's just rubber but it just makes once it's once that you're beyond the roof life it's just detor that much F you strip it down to the is it the ble building or the Wetmore building well building it is it's a Vogal the building that's all we know American Rescue plan act update so just so that you have the whole documentation um we've reviewed this before um this is what we received May 10 but just just to refresher um the first part of eser money was just to get us to survive the second PL Sr 2 cares act two was to thrive according to the state and that or the American Rescue plan is really to transform is to really look at

041what our learning losses are look at where those gaps are and address those um and we've been updating you on a lot of the different plans uh I know at sick both Andrew and Marine also shared what we're doing at the various levels a lot of the summer work is what we're iMed in at this point so just a reminder that we have to rece reserve at least 20% of our allocation to address learning loss um and also ensure that the interventions will include social emotional and academic needs and address dis disproportionate impact on underrepresented subgroups so just reminder who those groups include um it is our lowincome families students of color English language Learners childrens with dis with disabilities students experiencing homelessness Children and Youth in foster care and migratory students they've been designated

042by the state as um focus groups um and certainly the funding will support all of our students but in particular um this whole uh grp Grant or this Grant application is really focused around Equity equity for all students um so the overview just gives you a breakdown once again uh the total 5% allocation is Reser for addressing the learning loss piure the breakdown just at the state level so if you go to the next page once again you've seen this slide before it's all about Equity Equity Equity um is our Collective responsibility to fulfill the established priorities to an equity focused lens um as access must be focused on our pre- to 12 populations most dis proportionately impacted by covid-19 so we saw a lot of that particularly at the beginning of covid um Ally

043and her team worked really hard to make sure that we could have connectivity for our families who are really having difficulty uh we were able to give students obviously the one-on-one devices that was a game changer made a huge difference um so that level the playing field so we have to make sure as we are moving forward that we are continuing with these things in line and making sure that we have um that focus in our plan so we are already up to the week of June 23rd which is Wednesday and so just a reminder I know I've said this before the June 23d plan will be updated it's just like everything covid it will be updated probably weekly we will continue to add different components to the plan including any commentary that continues to

044come in through our reopen uh link so community members parents staff can continue to uh make comments and we will check that on a regular basis the application is due they say mid August and here it's actually August 16th uh and so that's when we have to really clarify the funding um we will have to have a meeting in August before that so that we can really look at what the allocations are but you'll continue to get updates even when we're not meeting uh on plans and uh input as we go through um and if we can just go ahead next few pages the the little the little student in the corner uh where it say say Lea R Esser plan um and the districts are required to develop a plan for the use of

045the funds um at a minimum the funds will be used to implement pre prevention and mitigation strategies consistent with CDC guidelines so how the district will utilize 20% reserve for learning loss and then they also include these activities summer learning and enrichment extended school days comprehensive eff after school programs and an extended school year so a lot of this uh happened even before school was out we talked to you about after school programs extended day and now we're getting ready for extended year and summer school programs enrichment as well as uh learning opportunities so we are moving forward um just reminding everyone that right now and you'll see this in the plan we are under an executive order until July 20th to continue to to wear masks inside that is not an optional that's a

046mandate from the governor and so we are awaiting update awaiting information on that uh executive order and so as soon as we know we can update our plan and move forward with that information see and go from there yes one you know the governor is mandating this so most everybody eff doesn't want isn't in Mass but if without let's say the government gives us no guidance up until July but the guid but the the we don't I I don't think we plan on making children wear Mass if the governor takes the edict I said the edict the Mandate away I don't think that's ever been our just for the sake of clarity I don't think I I don't think anybody's everever said we're gonna have a mask mandate without the governor's mandate right so what's

047happened is you've got um the governor's executive orders and we've had those right for a long time now we've had those since March 2020 and so then there's also guidance from CDC then there's also guidance from Connecticut dph from you know the feds in terms of just dph federally and then also torington Area Health so we've worked with all of those groups right and taken their guidance during this time so when I show you the plan you'll see things in terms of what we have to respond to in terms of the breakdown of that certainly what we want to do is we want to return back to normal and not have to worry about masks or social distancing or any of the things that were related to covid that made it really crazy right um

048we want to be able to have our students um come back to school in the fall and and move forward absolutely so you know unfortunately I don't have a crystal ball I have no idea what they're going to say or do um and as I've said many many times before I am not a medical professional I do need to rely on CDC and dph and um Governor's mandates or Governor's proclamations in terms of how we will move forward and then I share those with the board and and we move forward as a district so um we will as I said that very last page is just about um making sure that we have stakeholder engagement and feedback and we will continue to um ask for that throughout this process um can I just go right

049into the next okay does anyone have any questions on this money before we're I I have two questions one is about the stakeholder the meaningful public public in stakeholder engagement so if we have to approve a plan tonight and then people are having opportunities to get feedback after the plan has been approved like to what end what are we going to do are we going to meet again and discuss that feedback how are we going to incorporate their feedback right so what happens is similar to what happened when we had commissioner Cardona he never requested or demanded that boards approve plan because they are exactly what you're saying because they will continue to change and be fluid and have be updated but certainly we want to make sure that the board has input into the

050plan and can see the scope so you will see it as it gets updated with the information and certainly I will bring back the bigger broader view to the board so that you can make other decisions such as the funding piece the funding piece is really where the rubber beats throw in terms of the board um as always you know I I brought Car Act I brought Esser um Esser one two and that's really K act one to sorry for all the different acronyms um they're basically the same and now we're on to AR um which some people call sr3 so uh anyway so it kind of gives you the sense so we just keep going with it because it's it's fluid and flexible and then the Mandate is is that we will um update

051it formally every six months and so that would be brought back in its entirety but only for that time because then that's likely to even change during the next six Monon period so once we're in session then you'll get the updates every month so it's going to be on the agenda every month yeah it's not going away but the plan itself so we're not approving this tonight we're just receiving this you're just receiving right we don't have to vote on this but we still felt it was important for everyone to see it yeah I agree understanding that it's going to continue to change all summer as things change and more guidance comes out right and we still I mean we're still Gathering uh stakeholder feedback we we'll meet with the tea you know parents can

052still give input um we you know it's it's on going to be ongoing um I think once it's posted then people can give us some feedback on what's there and that will be helpful because not everybody ented the surveys that we put out and we put it those out to various stakeholders so we did do a survey of Staff we did a survey of students we did a survey of parents but some it just may not have worked into people's time frame and now might maybe it does um survey for community members and the equity committee was able to give some feedback and that was very helpful as well so it's helping shape some of the ideas and things particularly for parent Outreach um and community outreach so that was helpful you were there that

053was helpful to have some of their out their impressions in terms of really getting out into the community and and talking with people and maybe using different venues rather than just the school so that was great so it's very helpful so it's just ongoing it's an ongoing process it says every six months I read so much El today but every six months up to 2023 you have to evaluate and revisit this yeah it's the last page of the plan I'll yep minut so I'm just trying to understand because we didn't get this document so it was in the electronic send out Sunday right yesterday so like the community hasn't seen the document we see it first right but so how would people have given input on the document that they haven't seen like how does

054the state expect I understand but the survey didn't cover everything in that document you know what I'm saying I'm just trying I'm trying to get inside my mind to understand how the state is really going to be taking people's meaningful feedback in when the process seems to indicate otherwise okay but remember this has been really rushed and really because we didn't get the information till very late so that's why they're giving that window they're saying go ahead and post your basic bones your skeleton of your plant and then what you're going to do is you're going to continue to get feedback because it's really important to have this more fleshed out in August before you're really committing dollars to how you're moving forward so some of it we've already talked about some ideas at budget

055subcommittee so we've talked about some ideas about how we may you utilize some of that funding so the board is privy to some of that but I think when you see the plan you see more specifics of what they're requesting and a lot of it is um around the whole Health piece looks a little different than the red yellow green um plan and kind of get you to that green and a more simp it's kind of like fast-tracking that um because the green was all open and we're back to normal essentially except with for some mitigating strategies and is it fair to say that people have been in touch with you for the last 14 months telling you what you should be doing absolutely absolutely so and that's a kind of input as well kind

056of community input as well but you won't you won't if somebody reached out you won't deny them the right to or the the access if somebody has a great idea would you would you discuss it I'm just curious sure of course I mean this is all this is my first pandemic too so you know hey yeah this is the exact same document from our baby corre yes yep I just wanted to give people a frame of reference that's a good I think the other thing you really want to see at this point is is there any glaring red flags that the state is going to say no to or you know this looks good or because we don't want to carry on you know waiting to get updates and then have them say in August

057you can't half of this you can't do so it's good to have them have a look at it because then they give you six months to to fix it but in the meantime you want to be able to start using your funds so it's really helpful for them to get an idea of where what we're thinking I think the other big thing that everyone has to understand is that the state of emergency has not been lifted at the state level or the city level so if those had been lifted we would be I think in a kind of different position on a lot of this stuff but right now you're still subject to executive orders all normal parliamentary things are kind of out the window um and there's been really no guidance as to when

058those might be lifted so just a side note I think some of the cynicism comes from reimagining schools that transform students lives I'm not sure what the state means about that some people question what the purpose what their intent is I know what our intent is your intent is but they have a tendency to drag it out as long as they can stick their fingers at every pot they can stick it into well it seems like a lot of people Nationwide are concerned about government agencies using the pandemic as an excuse for overreaching other right so I kind of had that same thought when I read that title that's not our title right Democratic changes through legislates Etc ET okay any other questions on this document before we go to the reopening document and as

059I said fluid and flexible we're going to keep working on this this is just um the basics and then we'll be working from that everybody get one make sure's enough yes should be so the in the table of cont contents tents this is the template that we received so um and so these were the guiding um headings that they said you had to make sure that you have within your plan um so safe return the next page is safe return to inperson instruction and continuity of services um you'll see that phrase over and over and over again continuity of services um so so we have already said we're doing 100% inperson instructional model that we are not doing remote next year um and really our goals are to make sure that we are safeguarding health

060and safety of students and staff we're monitoring the health of students and staff um we're hoping that we don't have to worry about positive cases but certainly we we have now perfected um unfortunately um and it now we will have students and staff who have been vaccinated so that will be a huge help and as you saw because you got these reports every time something happened uh they have been lessening uh in intensity and uh number certainly more than they ever were before uh and then whole piece about Equity access and support to students in the community um really we have the devices the one-on-one the connectivity have been huge uh and then making sure that we have communication with all of um the folks I have an extra copy here too couple of exas

061um and thank um and then uring all uh students families and staff have the social emotional uh and mental health support that they need so those are just our a focus and our guiding strategies um and if you go to health and safety strategies um the very first one these are their categories on the left the mitigation strategies we don't create those that's what's part of their template okay so all the way down on the left um throughout the whole document so Universal and correct wearing of masks so basically I said exactly what um I said when we were talking about ARP uh is that Governor mon has issued the executive order until July uh 2021 um July 20th 2021 and then right now mask wearing is mandated by students and staff regardless of vaccination

062status at this time that means for our summer programs as well anything that's happening inside um as you saw at our graduation we were not masked um it was a glorious thing uh nice to be outside and um just to have that freedom um uh and then I just put a caveat if masks are required then we will uh review the correct wearing of um masks which sure at this point most people are very very familiar um social distancing at this point we don't know what those mandates will be if there will be any guidance um you saw it go from six feet to 3 feet uh and social distancing we're going to have as much distance as we possibly can but just remembering that public schools are not created for pandemics and um we

063have different classrooms um sizes based on the square footage it's hard to separate our students we want students to be able to have uh group interaction and to talk with each other about the learning that's really an important part um of the learning so we are hoping and planning that we are going back to having normaly um group tables and the like um and we will continue work with Administration and Facilities director on whatever we need to do a lot of this right now um until the middle of July is based on guidance from all the various organizations that I've talked about um flexiglass will still be available in classrooms and cafeterias as needed and as um the guidance is available um some teachers may still even if they're vaccinated and their students are vaccinated

064decide to keep the plexiglass um that's their decision uh I think everybody's gotten really good at handwashing and knowing all the different protocols so I won't go over those um popping into their uh elbows or even our littlest kids are really good about that um and really paying attention to it um we will not have sanitizers next year but our um our whole John has done a great job with his district team make sure that they understand all the cleaning and hygiene protocols and procedures um as we go ahead and and move forward and uh reviewing the guidelines it's really nice that we have water bottle filling stations at every site now uh right now water fountains are not used at this time and we are still using those disposable towel dispensers in lie of

065the uh hand blow dryers um and then just the whole thing about uh isolation and quarantine similar to what we did all this year and um I'm sure that everybody's really familiar with that whole process uh a lot of times when we had to quarantine the whole room the room would just the class would stay within that uh room parents would come pick up and uh that became basically the isolation area uh School nurses still have all their PPE and if they need any more I know Ed's been good about supplying them with everything that they need that will continue next year as well um we do have a nurse coordinator who was exceptional our nurses have been amazing during this time was really helping us with that whole um positive case uh tracking tracing

066contacting communicating all of those pieces um we've done I have to hats off off to Charlotte um Hungerford Harford Healthcare Community Health and Wellness uh torington Area Health for all of their vaccinations for our students our staff um they were wonderful really answered the call um and now really it doesn't seem to be as much of an issue um they've closed down a lot of their satellite areas um that was as of I think last week or the week before losing track now um they Clos off the Armory because they really didn't see a lot of need at that point um and then people it's easy to get an appointment with your own practitioner CVS orre I saw at the Armory they had over the weekend um walk-in vaccination clinic instead of the Walk testing

067right Charlotte will have two openings at Charlotte you can get and also in Winstead would oh the new place yeah the new place yeah that be good yeah so I think it's just going back to the health centers rather than uh satellite locations so that's wonderful um just the the special ed uh I think department has done an excellent job uring that our students still get their services regardless of the difficulties and the disruptions and the remote learning and the hybrid and the imperson all this last year and certainly Laura and Steve and their team um will make sure that that continues uh so we just go through the variety of different services that students could possibly receive OT and PT and speech and any of the other particulars that would be mentioned in their

068IEP um so then on to the continuity of services to really make sure that we are addressing academic needs as well as staff social emotional um mental health and other needs um including food services so um they have done a phenomenal job as well just a shout out to at Advance in terms of making sure that our students regardless of what model they were on or in um received breakfast and lunch um and it was wonderful that the board did approve of the C so that they had our our meals districtwide um free for all of our students um so a lot of support for students a lot of um morning Gathering meeting restorative circles or our touching base with our students to make sure that we have a sense of how our students are

069doing um making sure that they are um in a positive place I think staff has learned a lot over this last year in terms of um just a way ways def find um what students need and I think students have gotten better at monitoring their own emotions but also asking for help even more importantly when they're struggling and then just making sure I think Kim's done a phenomenal job making sure that staff really um has some Outlets she did a great job with all kinds of different Health initiatives this year I know she's looking forward to having more in-person activities um which she did preco uh and and offering all that yoga and mindfulness and um and our walking challenge which I think probably same amount or or more this year same this year same

070yeah so more than last year but same as previous year so okay so we're we're getting back there um but that's like 85 to 90% of our staff wow which is awesome huge chunk of people that participate yeah so it helps remind us to be healthy particularly at the end of the year when there's a lot of stress and then the whole um academic piece a lot of which you heard Sue talk about uh at this meeting during her presentation but also certainly at school Improvement um with her team Andrew and um Moren sharing what we really want to make sure that we are touching upon um making sure that they are working also with the student services team um so we have alignment there and hopefully we can have the interventions I'm really looking

071forward to having interventions back next year and having uh the interventions uh teachers do intervention rather than teach in class um and then you see the dates for the uh additional supports to address the learning law and that will continue you do see that um these programs will occur throughout 2021 21 22 22 23 um and if we can uh encumber some funds and then bring it even into that next year um we are allowed to do that as well so we'll see how far the funding goes um so with the board support we really appreciate the El really building up the El programs and services um having that director I think will really be a game changer we want to make sure that we have um our translators really helping our El Learners and

072families um become be even more of a part of our Learning Community um and then have the opportunity to ask their questions um address any difficulties that they may be having professional development Sue touched on a lot of this uh training will include but is not limited to Blended learning accelerated training reducing barriers to Student Success uh addressing unfinished learning newella um so you see a whole host of uh learning that we will uh be going through and I think it will make us stronger as a district which I think is wonderful um at the very top the the whole culture responsive goes right along with making sure that we are reaching out to our families we are aware that we have a very diverse Community um our Hispanic Latino population is growing so as

073I said it's really important that we understand um that we are sending out information uh in Spanish and we have those translators um making sure that we are providing Services um a lot of I what was spoken about even this weekend at the celebration is really just making sure that we are understanding um different cultural needs of our families within our community um Sue was talking today about a great EX example in terms of just the testing that we were doing the espa testing and it was occurring during Ramadan well a lot of our families do participate and that's part of their religion is the fasting during Ramadan and so to have our students testing during that time is really really tough because they they are not eating until sundown um and so if you

074get to the spring the days are longer so that's a really long day without eating um or drinking any water and so it's really tough so really to just become aware um of the cultural things that are going on for our folks cultural religious what have you um and certainly Sue will update us more on all those different issues so just the budgetary information that um I know that I've shared and Ed has to the amount um and so it it's bet 5.9 um with the 20% that must be spent on the learning acceleration the academic renewal and the student enrichment which is the 1.1 million um and then really looking at those other buckets because those buckets are what we have to show in our plan that we are addressing family and Community engagement

075social emotional mental health of students and staff strategic use of Technology um staff devel and the digital divide and then building safe and healthy schools so those are the five components that we are required to address um and we will enhance within our plan um some of the public comment we have been able to um break down a little bit because it was easier it was a percentage so um we were able to get that parent piece um and to have 1,327 respons respondence of the parent survey um I thought was good uh and so we had 68.4% are completely comfortable returning 17.2 are happy to return but a little apprehensive 6.1 happy to for the sense of normaly but wish there were more ways to protect everyone like vaccinations required for younger students more

076ways to socially distance um and some people wanted masks um 8.3 wish that remote learning was still an option so um we will pull all of that together and continue to add to the the plan as we um go through but at least it gives you just a basic of what we've got at this point um the initial date is obviously June 23rd we review December 23rd and so on until um June 23rd 2023 and then uh we followed this form we thought that this was probably a little bit easier than the other one that had uh the colors and the bells and whistles because hopefully we really don't need all of that um in our return to normaly um and we are are moving forward so this is just our basic First Step a

077lot yeah I'll start with the budget just just a you know we had our meeting with the city and we found out what we were earning or what we were getting and they they brought up the 6 million the 5,955 536 if being a number we could probably you know grab some money from to plug the holes in our budget but I'll ask maybe you can answer the question not completely but we're gonna I don't see how we can't spend all that money bringing all these students up to the level they need to be at in order for us to allow them to continue to move forward at a pace that maybe not pre Co but close to it am I wrong you see it's having any money what well I think that there's a

078variety of different buckets right the majority obviously is going to go toward those learning gaps but you're also trying to make sure that you are building safe and healthy schools so you've got that whole piece that is more infrastructure you want to make sure that you have the technology and something that is going to last that's durable that's um truly functional in a way that we want to move forward with our grade seven through 12 um especially as we're moving into new building and Pathways and all of that as well because that's a huge part of our so I think it's a combination um so I don't think it will just be that but certainly well I didn't mean just that I'm saying all the Bucks together right so we're we're utilizing that and as

079we go forward we're going to be talking about different options right we talked a little bit about those options before um we've talked about possibly putting um the Middle School windows in there um because that is a a safety and health issue that we want to make sure that we're addressing um and then making sure that our computers are within um this and that's a possibility I think when you look at the broad scope that's the thing we have to sit down and look at it and say okay how many students went to summer school you know I think as we start to pull that back then we'll see how many other interventions or programs or um strategies we have to put in place for that learning loss so we're we're just starting this and

080I think that's why they're being so flexible in terms of um giving us some time which actually I appreciate because I think it is going to take some time to pull this apart a little bit and we also have to get them all back in school to actually be able to properly analyze I just don't how we would be able to set aside a chunk of money for to cover the budget shortfall that the city has having no idea what it's going to cost us even two years down the road there might be a need for 25 cooters that because we have still 10% or 15% of the student population not up to not up to testing ability I mean I don't know how we could possibly consider that at this point setting aside some

081money for next year's budget for operating I just don't understand it I mean technically actually we can't use that money for that anyway so I understand I know I me switching it back and forth question goe um in the um mitigation strategy for math could we clarify that in the absence of any guidance from the state we would masks would be optional or not required so we talk a lot about like what happens if the governor mandates it but should we clarify if there is no m mandate what's our plan what's our plan I think that's where it's saying mass sorder will follow executive orders CDC and Connecticut dph guidance and continually updated as necessary only that I think what she's saying is so the public and make it super clear can feel good about

082it that we're we won't be implementing this mask mandate unless it's forced upon us right it would be either by the governor dph or torington Area Health because if we were to have an outbreak we're under a state of emergency and a city of emergency so there's a lot of people you know involved in this but if it's like it is right now then we won't be wearing masks but if something changes over the summer we don't know AR yeah and I think that that also needs be made clear that if the state is under a state of emergency more than likely the city's going to continue under state of emergency and a lot of that has to do with funding because then they qualify they qualify for certain funding so then they you know

083they're going to want us to comply with whatever state mandates are for the school system so so could we put in here provided all those agencies I guess the governor and all the Health agencies yeah um provided that they don't mandate or require requ to be in session or maybe could we just put like subject to review pending changing guidelines or something like that so we're not tying our changing mandates or requirements because the guidelines are just guidelines if that's all there is then we can right make our own decision not really though so I think that's where it gets really trippy because not right now right if there's absent any mandates or requirements and it's just guidelines by everybody including the governor then yeah so I wouldn't say I guess my point was I

084wouldn't say um absent and guidelines I would say ABS any mandates for executive so but that that's tough because this is a it's a health issue so you have the governor you have the State Department of Education you have Department of Public Health and then you have toron Area Health so I was hoping that they would put it in the hands of the local Health authorities so that we could work with like torington Area Health um but any one of those people could tell us that we have to do that that's where it gets sticky it's not all she's saying that's not gonna be a guideline that would be a requirement told us just suggesting we don't use the word gu we don't plan no you're AB exctly we don't thank you yeah I'm sorry

085no that's good you did a good job yeah we can look at rewarding it some way it's I just want to remind folks okay that this has been a crazy year and there was a time when CIA right the athletic Council didn't even agree with dph and so they had a huge battle and a fight so I I'm hoping that all of this just Falls by the W side because in the middle of that we were stuck in the middle so just just reminding people because they one entity was saying sure go ahead you can you can do this and then the other entity was saying you can't so you know it it's it has been complicated so I'm hoping that it gets super clear and they're all in the same page so that's the

086difficulty um with trying to change the language at this point because we're not even to July 21st so once we get to July 21st we'll we'll know and hopefully we've got the lay of the land um because we want to get back to as much normaly as possible but you know if you've got agencies arguing with each other in in the um it's gonna be messy on one of the pages it just um it says at a minimum the plan must include how funds would be used to implement pre pre prevention and mitigation strategies consistent with CDC guidelines like it only calls out CDC is that do we think that do I think that will continue or just that it was purposeful in their choice of no I don't think it was purposeful um I

087do think that remembering that our funds are federal but they come through the state so the State Department of Education the Connecticut dph and the um all work together on this and so that's part of the difficulty because there are so many layers in so many different agencies um I mean it's nice that they're all helping but then you get mixed messages and it get it gets muddy um if that becomes the case which I'm really hoping as we move into July and we're really almost in July so um we should get an answer soon I know it's hard to wait uh but I did look at some other reopening plans and some of the schools were saying things like absent the guidance for such will be optional I don't know if that that phrasing

088works but I do think it's important for parents to see what the alternative is or what the plan of the board is in lie of any mandate mandate I like that right and then that covers I I think that's doable um because I think you're going to have some families who really do want to keep the mess and certainly you know if they want to wear the mask that's fine um right right so that kind of leaves it open yeah thank you yes so I have a question about the second section continuity of services because I was looking at the template today and and I totally like totally conare with what you were saying about like all of these things in that first section that had to do with health and safety every single one

089of those mitigation strategies we were required to comment directly on but then in the template for continuity of services there is nothing prescribed in there other than just that brief description describe how the Lea plan will ensure continuity of services including but not limited to services to address the students academic needs and students to staff social emotional mental health and other needs which may include student health and food services so then in our plan this is a very substantive section that includes the high amount of detail on multiple areas so I guess my first question is how did we come up with all of these recommendations that we that are in this section too so under the description right it says that you have to describe describe how the laa plan will ensure the continuity

090of services including but not limited to so we use those headings because we had to include these and maybe add more so most of these were updated from the red yellow green so this is what you saw and that's why we use this format it's very similar to what you saw in the original plan that we did the um the triaa yeah the original reopening right and most of what you see here we already are doing in our building yeah nothing new no right this is just routine it be it becomes prescriptive though when we put it in here and when we say this is our plan like there so there's one one that popped out to me and maybe this popped out to me because there was a conversation on Facebook last month where

091a person from our community was very upset about a um teacher at the high school sharing their political views inappropriately with their class and like 75 comments on a thread okay so maybe I had that in my mind when I was reading this but it says teachers will develop lessons and Lead conversations with students to discuss the implications of the pandemic and consciousness of racial equality at the personal community and societal levels and I mean that to me sounds like we're instructing our teachers you must develop lessons talking about these things and that feels a little overly prescriptive and possibly problematic if we're concerned about you know I think you tow a real thin line there if if we don't want I I don't think we want teachers to bring their political viewpoints into the

092classroom and all of those issues can be very much very political depending on different viewpoints on them and so like I would not that I get a vote on this I guess but I would like to see something like that removed because while a teacher certainly may talk about those things as they come up as appropriate I think it's concerning to say that they will develop lessons specific to these things right so this is under the social emotional section so it it's really not an academic it's more of once again building that cultural and so it's making sure that you know students can talk about anything that whether it's it's racial or it's just the the inequality of how the pandemic has hit certainly the pandemic even statistically has hit our minority population much harder

093than it has our white population so they may have some different each um ethnicity may have a different perspective on um and if you're talking about social emotional or mental uh health issues those it the personal or the community or the social um component may come up I I think that a lot of this is related to what we do in advisory and um those kinds of lessons so that students feel like they can express themselves you don't want to get into politics or political views or somebody's telling students what to think this is really supposed to be an opportunity for students to become empowered and feel like they have a voice in terms of saying you know uh talking about what's happening with them and to share so that they can share their experiences

094can I just jump sure um that came directly from you you may remember us talking about the units that the res Alliance developed and they developed them specifically for New Britain a year ago and then last summer they opened it up to all of the alliance districts um and remind me what they're called you guys the Readiness Readiness units right thank you um so all the alliance districts were given access and we provided professional development for all of our staff throughout the summer we actually paid people who were willing to come in over the summer to attend these trainings and then we also offered the trainings in the back to school PD week in August um the high school in particular actually really really appreciated the units and it's exactly the the intent is exactly

095as Sue said to provide um a safe you know space for students to feel that they can discuss what they've just lived through and these units are very structured you know the um the resources are built right in there's there they're tied to standards so that's that's exactly where that came from it's not intended to be in any way political so this was so this is a set curriculum that was developed by the resk alliance and we are adopting it and instructing our teachers to it's not it's not a curriculum it's a resource so it's a resource that the resk alliance so all the res in the state worked to develop um it was done in partnership with the New Britain Public Schools but and this was pre-co honestly um it was a social emotional

096program that they were working on but then when Co hit um the you know these things were looked at as well this is a great resource we should and then they went to the state um and I can't remember now if it was Miguel if he was still here or Irene fesi actually might have been the one to say we need to make these available free of charge to all of our alliance districts so making something available is not the same thing as us putting in the plan that we expect our teachers to develop these lessons and to utilize them I guess that's the part I'm getting hung up on like I'm totally I like I totally get that things will occur organically and a good teacher will talk about was on kids Minds when

097that's appropriate and when it fits with the lesson and and when it's necessary I guess it's just the prescriptive nature of it that concerns me AR um but there was a um I guess the Mandate through the teacher evaluations that um they were not to be academic this year and focused on social emotional wearing so in order for some teachers to set goals they needed to do some of this stuff and that was M yeah I think that was optional I think they could opt for that and this is something else I can add add on to that I I think when we throw the racial component to that you're just asking for you know a student himself I guess we talking about the student talking directly to the teacher but whether the child and

098I've asked this question in some of equity meetings um there is no definition of What Hispanic is these days um nobody can Define it and it's it's almost impossible if you're Ecuador you don't want to be called Hispanic you want to be called eador um and is that a nationality or race it's when you when you when you introduce that it's almost as if we're trying to capture some of the current moment M um um nationally that picks up on those those little things that tend to divide rather than um you know keep together I mean there's no reason why a child shouldn't be able to discuss with a good any teacher any of those issues but to ascribe it to something like a racial issue rather than something that a white child I mean

099I don't even know what white is these days you know I mean the Lebanese child what he's what he's been subjected to when he left you know during the Civil War in Lebanon and came over here and and fought against people who you know had the issue of people looking at him differently than than than a white child um you know why isn't it simply a a a what do you call it a simple discussion on or ask the teachers to draw out these kinds of things that they've gone through whether it be again I don't see a child saying based on my race I suffered um consequently um at least not in high school or R school um it's more of a discussion I would rather have the discussion I think the teacher would

100do more would get further finding out what it is that they've been impacted by and listening and however teachers do it you know provide them with some some poort and and and some some some ideas which is the intent of I I know it's the intent I'm not disagreeing with that I'm saying you introduce ra and to that and you're asking a teacher the way I read it too to first of all the teacher couldn't even begin to you know address those kind if the teacher is not a ecuadoran from Ecuador how is he going to understand or even um you know seriously consider what he's never experienced before you know he hasn't experienced the racial or the the difference in the covid um U numbers and it's it's it's it's complex those numbers too

101because there's all kinds of numbers that have it multi-racial and black and then non-hispanic and Hispanic and white but it gets so complicated to try to offer any kind of guidance to the teacher when it comes to race that I think it just adds it gives us it gives us the possibility of facing more problems down the road with the parents and teachers and and students who just don't don't feel comfortable and students don't feel comfortable talking about race they don't and I don't know that the teacher can can can fix that for them so coup anyway yeah just just a couple of things if I could just jump in um so I think we have to acknowledge medically that the pandemic has hit African-Americans and Hispanic Latinos much more significantly there's all kinds of

102statistics on that but and this was related to implications of the pandemic but then we can also if we're just talking about equality you could change the statement to say and consciousness of equality and take out the racial and then when if it becomes a racial it becomes a racial issue it becomes a you know whatever it is a medical uh whatever their concerns are that could be brought up um but I I think that the good thing about all of these resources and about what Sue sharing is that the staff was trained in that and um in this in you in the utilization of these resources which I think it was very helpful and I think people our staff um was grateful to have that I'm I'm truly not I'm just I talked about

103certain things a few months ago how it was going to start approaching us rather quickly in the news and the media and the schools around the country the lawsuits I think we just could afford to keep it on a non-racial basis because it doesn't seem to work that way anywhere along the country and as a board I don't think race is is something that the students should be debating um you know there there there's there's no we finally have a course and I'm G to say I'm not against the course I read the curriculum the new the new course I mean a lot of it's really good especially about the African-American history which they've never had before but you know we have high school kids it's it's not like it's not a college um setting

104where you you debate these kinds of things they they it sometimes brings them to a level of of of significant divisiveness and you can see it in the headlines every day these days and we're going to be we're GNA be in the headlin sooner or later um whether we like it or not because that's just the way we're heading I don't mean us but that's the way it's heading in education and board of EDS seem to get swallowed up in all this because we're to blame for everything even though it's your decision we can't blame you okay Nikki and I just I wanted to note too that we have a policy on um controversial issues in the curriculum that probably when you start going into some of these discussions this policy probably becomes more relevant

105and if it's something that's planned as part of the curriculum parents have the choice to opt in or out um so it's important that we are following the policy the number um yep it's uh 5025 525 y controversial issues in the curriculum right remember that this was a resource this was not part of the curriculum and perhaps it should just say teachers may lead conversations because honestly some teachers are looking for permission to do so because of the controversial nature of some of this but at the high school level in particular kids come into class wanting that opportunity we want to be able to let our our staff know that we support them in in that endeavor if that makes sense okay so you're going to make it teachers May and then take out racial

106and just make it consciousness of equality the personal community and social levels everybody okay with that okay any other questions on the document I guess are we [Music] I have a fundamental question is there any discussion that we are maybe turning these kids into snowflakes by validating their emotions and their feelings or are we just accepting that have we gone so far that that's just a part of what we do and who we are Johnny it's a mandate coming from the state but that's why I said is there any discussion about it I mean I know it's a mandate from the state but is anybody saying this is maybe really bad for kids I think no answer well I don't think well but I'm asking from the superintendent if from the the point of view

107of this document uh I mean every school system in the state's going to have a document like this and it's going to just accept it yes we need to validate every every feeling these kids have and tell them that that's more important than what they know what you feel is more important than what you know because we're telling teachers they they were told the beginning of last school but I think it it is equally as important for these students coming out of this pandemic because I think students are coming from a variety of different experiences and I can't begin to guess what's happened in their household if they've suffered loss or you know death or their parents have lost jobs or um they've had to become the babysitter for the younger children I don't know

108what's happened but I think it's really important to give students Avenue to express whatever has gone on um and to have a person at the schools who can listen um and and address that or um help them find supports or meet with them on a regular basis or whatever it is depending on the role of that staff member at the school because I think this has been a really difficult time for our students as well as for our staff okay so we got through World War II without needing any of this but now we've turned these kids into such little there are several words I could use but won't but we've weakened them to the extent that we need to deal with this for them or help them I just think you know some of

109this is a philosophical that's exactly what I was asking is there any philosophical John I would tell you that they probably needed a lot more mental health supports after World War II that would be my perspective as well survived without it though right surviving and arguing with all I was ask if there was any discussion about it and it would have been a yes or no answer but it went on uh Jess and then Gary John kind of read my mind I was actually not I wouldn't have said it like that no but I wonder because I know for some kids some kids you did first you know they lost a grandparent that lived with them through Co you know they had significant trauma there other students that their biggest trauma was everything that was

110normal not being normal anymore and so I wonder I just it concerns me a little bit sometimes the idea of the classroom which should throughout history has been a place of academic Focus all the sudden becoming a counseling session and maybe you have a child in there that needs it maybe you have five in there that don't and not only don't like this isn't good for them so that's what I just I was kind of wondering something similar is that are we is there thought given to how many kids just need things to be normal and they just need to have a day go by where they don't have to talk about Co and they don't have to think about and I don't expect you have an answer for that I just think Gary I

111well that's why I raised the question how much money we're spending I would my personal opinion but I'm not dictator or that personally Mak the decisions um is take the money we have as much as we can and Take It Outside the classroom that's kind of what I was getting you know so that it's not I mean they're so far behind let the teachers teach and use what we have $6 million if you only planned on using $2 million let's say to raise the level or to bring these kids back and then use the teachers for the social emotional as much as they can use more money to bring in more social emotional professionals again only because I just think the teachers should teaching I'm not a teacher but and I don't know that they're

112social workers you know we kind of talked about this at the city meeting how that you know because the city has no Social Services Network it's all forced on us but maybe we could spend I know people going say you're crazy you're wasting I make them wasting money but take a million dollars or whatever it takes and get them and give them the professional you know wraparound that that they may that they may need rather than just rather than relying on a teacher I think that was would make more sense maybe you're afraid to spend the money but I would certainly support it I I think just focus everybody back yeah we can you can attempt to put what you want in this document but there's no guarantee that going to get approved right so

113you have to stay focused because we're talking about is there an option to do this but I think that there's a lot of political beliefs going around the table which is disen heartening I think we should just focus on the document and what we would like to see changed in the document kept in the document and have the discussion about that Armen so good you don't have a question anymore no not anymore okay thank you Aran Gary I have a question about numbers um which indirectly relates to the document is do we have a number for number of students uh attending a summer one of our summer programs we will have that for you um but we don't have that now because we're still getting confirmation uh it doesn't start until July 12 so we

114identified 700 kids so 700 students received invitations to participate you don't you don't have the commitment number we don't have the final commitment right thank you right Gary I'm going to quot educator because you know I'm not talking I truly am not referring to political commentary because it I could ask question all I'm saying is can we just focus on the document and if people would like things kept in the document removed from the document well that's what my qu that's my point about people rather than going into all these things let's just if you have a section you don't agree with let's talk about that section and whether you have an alternate for it or Kathy and then I just have two kind of housekeeping things under mitigation strategies um Universal correct wearing of

115masks the last bullet says if masks are required are required say it twice I saw that Sor yeah thank you thank you and the other thing is that um when I was reading some of the preliminary it talked about how it should be um friendly language for parents and when I see restorative circles I know what that is but will parents as they're reading understand that so that was just those are my two points Clarity and also on the next page sorry one more social emotional mental health staff EAP oh okay yeah we need to just break spell out the acronym so many of them because there's so many you know so that's it thank you thank you Gary I think we can go through this quick but under the first sentence District provide professional

116learning cult professional develop of professional development I've talked to about this I'm not I agree with everything underneath there I just think we're using words that are today doesn't matter what side of the mention because I've got a number of Educators here who are on the left that don't like certain kinds of language because it ascribes to certain things and that's not political that's just you know how you interpret there's the cultural competence ped P pedagogy that is is something that's catching on and there's a lot of data on it and there's no Georgetown has a whole you know department on it but unless we can Define that then I'm not so sure we should label it that because the definition of both those is so varied depending on who's defining it in some cases

117it's very negative in other cases it makes perfect sense but Gary I don't mean to cut you off but we have a super long agenda told asking what in the document would you like to see different well I I can give you an idea of what an educator from this Gary I'm sorry but you can send that to the board you like I'm G Give an example do you want to just take that what wording do you want instead of this word that's I'm gonna say okay I'm gonna say it okay what so which which piece are you refering the first sentence cultural competen cultural cultural responsive practices because I don't know what that is okay so that's question what you want to change I just want to tell you give you a frame of

118reference because in the Connecticut leader evaluation and support rubric 2017 because it hasn't been updated in domain for under culture and climate it's just pulled from that because it's e it's under Equitable and ethical practice 4.3 maintains its focus on ethical decisions cultural competencies social justice inclusive practice for all members of school and District community so for us it's those examples that I gave before in terms of making sure that we are reaching out to our families and being Equitable making sure that we're including them we're aware of the issues um do domain four is broken down in a rubric um which really just clarifies um it cultural competence in school communities enhances learning and teaching and helps ensure Equitable opportunities and supports for each and every student that's how we're using that okay and

119I I think I'm okay with that all I'm saying is to prevent further what may what may continue as we move forward as long as I feel we're we're we're not committing ourselves to back dooring I'll say it Publican here critical race Theory and that's not political because right now it's a storm I know I'm not supposed to swear but the country is being develop devolving into chaos over this because nobody really knows what it is that we don't that we don't get too far without knowing exactly what we mean by and maybe you can Define it so that it is defined in our plan um because I don't think this board wants to get into that not only amongst ourselves I mean with the public then it will be a fight it's about equity

120and cultural awareness so we can look at that verbiage and I'll send you this I'm not I agree with what you proposing I'm just saying it opens us up and probably not but it opens us up to criticism as to us not really understanding what the rest of the worldes it as that's all it leads to to some far more difficult issues but I'll give you you can tomor so do you want something changed in that section or do you just of what it's not what you don't want it to be I understand everything that these Educators no I know that but in this okay with what's underneath yeah what do you want this to say I'd rather have her just look at the just have a better way to absorb it and maybe still

121have a better way and that's not I'll accept it the way it is because I don't have other than some of the the direction these Educators give and they're liberal Educators um I'm not an educator and I would be able to prescribe or detail how I think you need to say it but I'll just give you a couple things that these guys get I'm trying to keep the politics out of this because those have a political own to them that's all I'm saying and I'm just trying to keep it to the docum right so instead of saying that do you want to say what Sue just said Equitable and cultural practic that's how we're asking that's how that's to give no no no no so Equitable and cultural practices I mean learning I'm fully agree

122agree with the need for equity and I say that over and over again properly defined because that's another topic that people so you wanted to say provide professional learning on on ethical and Equitable practices I think that sounds less divisive or less everybody okay with that does that we just lose the cult awareness piece that really is important and that's well so and that doesn't have any cultural ethical andal you could put cultural in there culturable awareness okay so we'll just we'll word Smith that and bring it back okay I think I think Gary's right because I have also heard that before that those terms specifically are loaded language so to one person they mean one thing and to another person they mean something else something very specific so I think that's good for us

123to okay does anyone have any other section they want to look at address [Music] wording go ahead the only other comment I just wanted to make was um a lot of this document focuses on once the kids are in the building but not so much on you know the attendance Challenge and those kids that we aren't able to reach and I wasn't sure if that was like intended to be outside of this document like those strategies to really reach those kids that call them unreachable that's under so right so under personel um reducing barriers to Student Success so we can maybe we could pull it out a little bit more I know it at six to entertain and fun through that that's that's massive so um we could put reducing barriers to Student Success including

124you know maybe do some little examples in in a um parentheses chronic absenteeism because that flushes that's really but we can flush that out just just yeah that's just the only thing that I said yeah feel like I don't remember if it was Equity committee where we were talking about it but how to reach the people that we had been reaching and it was we were talking about over the summer and I suggested maybe having the school guidance councilors reach out to the families that weren't engaged and I think actually that would be something really good to put in here and I don't know that that would necessarily go under professional development because that's more that would be more a direct action that we'd be taking to reach yeah so that's a good that's a

125good right one of the things that we are doing though is we are working with someone who is going to provide an an expert actually in the field of um you know School refusal and chronic abente ISM to help train all of us you know us included you know on really what we can what's what's scientifically proven to work to get kids to back to school so that's where we're starting with it so that's why we put it under is that the leap funding part of it part of it any other questions on the document thank you guys a lot of work went into this all right monthly Financial aren are well we're at year end Surplus as ofing at $ 77387 right yep um we're in a good spot any questions hi Mary mental

126health program Grant okay this one's an easy one we've done it for years and years and years this is to help our students um as they enter kindergarten to get some supports um and paase is the person who has worked with those students um they are chosen by their teachers if they're having a tough time doing that transition um in particular this year I think it's really important for because we may have some students who stayed at home and didn't come for their first year in kindergarten um it doesn't cost the district anything we do all in kind Services uh such as space uh lighting heating you those kind of basic things we already have um it pays for Paula's time when she's servicing the students um Paula also helps with a lot of our

127prek programs and um she's the leaan kids play she works a lot with our younger population she really has an expertise in that area it's been very beneficial to help students really settle in but it's also been a really nice Le on for parents as they get nervous or they're concerned um about sending their babies for the first time to school so it really helps she's very good at it any questions on the grant just is it just wi so we have it we have it um at V this year we only had it at vogle but traditionally we have it at fcal and this only says vocal in where the schools right we're going to just have to see if we have the space again so we have the opportunity last year we just

128didn't have the space and even be preo we had it was tight for them so if we can we certainly will offer that and then she will just split her time he field trip All State Music Festival Hartford Connecticut in your packet do anyone have any questions on it year every year right it's once the kids are have audition and then they go to the they perform else H ECS we had spoke last week at our meeting about the possibility of a joint meeting meeting with the board of finance and the option uh that board of educations now have to directly request 2% of their ECS money to come directly uh to the Board of Education uh versus going to the city um the the joint meeting has been declined um they was not going

129to be able to get a quorum and then there was some issue of they don't do subcommittees so at the end of the day I don't believe the joint meeting is going to happen um so there does not appear that there'll be an opportunity within the next couple of weeks to get together and discuss our budget concerns um so we had talked last week that we would bring this back forward because we would have to notify city council that we are going to ask the state for our 2% directly and then we would have to notify by the state by the end of June that we're requesting our 2% directly um so we had talked about this last week so I'm bringing it back in case we wish to take action um we will not

130be having a meeting Wednesday so this would be our only opportunity to discuss this questions John I would just like to point out that it's not for lack of your trying to find alternative dates to the one that they shot down at first either right because there's been a lot of back and forth and it's always can we do and the answer comes back we can thank you I appreciate I I agree with John I think we need to move forward I think we have to you John about your efforts and then I think we need to Gove forward and uh ask for 2% I mean I don't know how I've said this before I don't even know how we got here and how the decision can be made right rationally to take the last

131guy in line and cut his budget by whatever the amount was how much was it that 700 something $800,000 looks say from our request from our request because we we have less we have I'm not even sure we have had less than what we what she indicated but that's that's another issue I can address later but every other budget was passed as far as I can tell and I was was the last one that got the that got the hammer or the axe I should say um and it's it's it's just it basically it's less than a zero because after inflation and after adjustments we're getting less money and it just doesn't process to me it just doesn't I don't if we continue to let this happen you know and I keep we said this

132every year you know we have to play we have to play ball we have to play ball and every every year we seem to have to fight to get our money back um and if it continues you know this the city's budget will be as large as ours and you know we have how many employees 738 they've got 300 employees um you know at some point we've got to push back hard and I guess this is the first ly or the first shot any other questions on the ECS funding yes any questions before we move on to the next item what is the pro and con of doing that like I know I was really hoping we could have the meeting like I really would a to and I think that you'll all know that

133every year at budget every year I asked and we start having quarterly meetings so that we're not always addressing this at budget um but it never works out so to me the pro is at some point we have to stick up for our students and our staff we cannot continue to eat these increases I believe that we have more than come to the table to work with the city every year returning our surpluses trying to figure other funding mechanisms to pay for items um I think I feel strongly that we negotiate in good faith we want to do best for the city of torington and our students and I feel that we acted in that way um so if there's no money there's no money there's no money for anybody but I think to have

134your largest Department get a $95,000 increase and think that that's sufficient and a 0% capital and promised money that we might get in the future is not money in our pocket now so every year that we're not funded we're constantly Treading Water trying to keep our head above water they could talk about Alliance they can talk about all this other funding that money is not part of our general operating budget it is money for specific things to help us move the district forward so to me the pro is for once we are going to stand up for the kids and the staff and this community that deserve to have the money they need when you're doing out money to everyone else our kids and our faculty deserve a fair shake at this the con is

135and I guess we can call it a con however you want but the con is the city is counting on that Revenue that they're no longer going to receive that 2% because it's going to come directly to the board of ed so the city may not think too kindly of the fact that we're pulling Revenue out from underneath them but I don't feel that providing All City departments a 4% increase and giving us 95,000 is fair either so Nikki and then sue what's the um impact the taxpayers so yeah well I would ask we've been trying to get what is in the general account the all the other accounts that they're pulling from for all these other items so the impact of the taxpayer would be nothing if they take the money out of where

136they're taking the money out to pay for all these other things but isn't the budget already locked didn't they already approve all the budgets it doesn't but they approved it on the basis that they're receiving 100% of the EC they could just go into the reserve go into the reserve complicated and that's happens every year they go into it to fund balance numerous times throughout the year and I sent you the list of how much goes they go into the contingency every year by year to pull money m so that's what happen and then our mental St I think the important thing to hone in on and we have is that what we're doing is looking out for the children of torington and and that's what's most important um and it it's it's almost like

137a slap in the face that we got $95,000 and 0% Capital it was very very misleading going into that meeting and and I agree with everything that you're doing to get that UCF Arman um yeah I wasn't at the meeting but um going back to Nikki's point about where they G to get the money um and I think you said there was $18 million in the fund balance correct and then there's um how much in the Insurance Fund 9 million so there's 18 million 9 million right approximately yeah thank you Gary to your question your point if we don't get it this year when the city has a surplus which they won't tell us what it is but it's got to be bigger than ours um and they have their cares money which they don't

138tell us where they spend it but they have our they have our line items the city had a 2% increase in the the grand list and they're giving 4% to the rest of the Departments if we can't get an increase this year we will never get an increase it's not going to happen so if we don't start fighting for something we'll get that and that's what we've been getting for the last four years I mean Capital zero what if the mayor doesn't win the election and we go and there is no referendum who's going to pay for the rof I mean it could be two years before get ref or it's finalized or the bonds are completed and if she loses you know it's another year and then we're spending TW we do it over

139again we didn't approve the full roof for middle school was occur I don't think I don't know who it was but we're going to spend twice as much to do the roof because we didn't do it all one time we would have increased the bond by what $800,000 instead we're going to spend probably by the time we're done a million five million eight we have to we have to put our Stakes on the ground and because every year we say don't fight every year we get less and less thank you I think the only thing is when we went through the um I don't know add spreadsheets at the budget meeting you know outside of the roofs going to referendum I mean we were accounting for kind of everything that we asked for or everything

140that was like in our budget I need to clarify that I thought we clarified this last week what was on that list was when we were asked to come to the city because we had to figure out some strategies because the city had no money so as usual we stepped to the table and say well maybe we can try to figure out this if we move this to this none of those things were anything we wanted to do but if we try to move this and this we can work with the city you know what we got they originally started at 14% went down to 10 went down to seven and they're at a 4% increase what are they giving to the table you know just because we're larger we can't always be looked at

141well they're not getting any money we can't take all the sacrifices I will continue to say the minute that the city council approves our contractual increases we should always at least get our contractual increases when there's money to be had so coming to the table Ed didn't offer that up because that wasn't part of our budget it was offered because we were all going to have common sacrifices it's not a common sacrifice when every Department in the city gets over 4% which I'm not actually sure if it's every Department in the city because the budget is still not available to the public but so there's a difference between coming to the people for shared sacrifices and being taken advantage of well as a negotiator some we look at that as a setup and it's true

142I me I negotiate all the time it's a setup you can look at it that way and it's happened before and it has to stop I mean we need to provide the resources necessary to educate the children and a that that at least is is competitive with our surrounding communities we don't even comply Point go ahead I think my point was just what we put into the budget we're getting outside of we're not getting what we put into the budget that we but how do you think we're getting what we request the only other the only thing that we didn't cover with other funds was the was the roofs that they suggested in their plan suggested that they went to the referendum the roof the capital yeah the capital we got zero yeah we we

143funded that we're funding that through other channels outside of the roof not the so not the technology wasn't part of the city is ARA I mean I felt like when we saw that spreadsheet maybe that wasn't that wasn't set in stone because the information that was received by the city was different than what we received just on the roof though I didn't think it was about the it was no because when we went through it it sounded like we were I don't have the paper right in front of me but it sounded like everything had a line item outside of the roofs and referendum so what else was I missing that well they were supposed to pay when we met with the mayor uh she agreed to pay for the El Paras she agreed to

144pay for the computers and she was checking on the metal roof because she was looking at the Federal Register and we were looking at what uh CA sent us right yeah there was that confusion so what are we went in there at the meeting myself Sue and Fiona and she had Alice there we came up with the idea that we would help the city as we've done in the last three years with our Surplus for them they asked us last year for Surplus we gave it to them there the year before we asked they asked for Surplus we didn't have that much but we gave it to them again our Surplus and our expenditures were 54% of the actual Surplus that the city has had so I think we've gone overboard and we've tried to

145work with them and then on a mon we met on a Wednesday I said I'll give you the thing on Friday she said wait till Monday no I gave it to her on Thursday Monday afternoon all bets were off we We can't agree because it's not in there but it is went to the state the number two man I thought he was three he's number two and told us yes you can do it and we have that paper papw you saw it you said clarify we're not we're not getting we don't know if we're getting the computers that's why we want to have the meeting we don't know what we're doing with the metal roof because they could put that in their thing so that's why we wanted the meeting with the board of finance

146and the other thing just for clarification La our budget for this year was approved as on line item so what we spend our budget on this year we could do we never go at the end of the year and go on a shopping spree and buy all the stuff we always in good faith return the money so the items that we're purchasing the city is not giving us $454,000 for those items we could have done it ourselves the budget committee was suggesting the whole time is how we GNA use those funds can we use those funs but we're trying to work with the city for what's better for everybody so right because so we didn't get $454,000 we're paying for some of our items this year that's in our budget for next year and September

147you've seen the the we haven't hidden any surplus if you no Surplus was out there Surplus you wait I I had a question and and just let you know the letter I sent two things one the way I found about their budget it was in the was in the waterb paper that's the only way you can see their budget it's in the Waterberry paper over the weekend okay must haveed yeah so the other thing was um and I just forgot my head I just have a I just have a question clarifying question so um in are we are they allowing us to keep at least some of our cly well that's what I remember I sent them a letter on June 17th during the bard of Finance meeting held on June 15th it was proposed

148to transfer border bed capital projects from the capital budget 2122 to the board ofed 2021 budget surplus the following project will be transferred from the board ofed surplus of 2021 into the capital reserve those purchase orders are being typed tomorrow going right into our Reserve okay so so how much is 5 144,000 all right and then so what do we have left we'll have about 170,000 or 200,000 how much about 170 200,000 okay wasn't her intent to take 400 from us and give it back to us yeah but is that yes but is that how she correct circumvented the process correct but the purchase orders being entit no no we have to do that I'm saying she was giving us our she was to take our money and give it back that was part of

149the plan that's not funding that's us fing any other questions so now if for some reason after we do all the necessary negotiations and they want to come to the table and have a joint meeting then maybe we Rec consider at any point we could tell them but in the absence of the willingness of the importance of this to come together and have a meeting I don't see how we have any other choice you have a question no just just a comment I agree and I I would feel differently probably if it wasn't for the roofs having to go to referendum but that really concerns me that that's I don't know what we're going to do if that doesn't pass and that's not something that you can just you know it's not a Superfluous purchase

150it's something that we need for the Integrity of our building for student sfe so that's that's what's pushing me over the edge towards and it's two rooms not one that even makes it dou concern not for nothing but the city owns the buildings and the fact that we have to beg to get roofs put on pass the stuff and then Nikki I feel like what it's going to come down to is if it does go to referendum is the city is going to look at the board of ed as a bunch of buffoons because why didn't you get this during budget time or why didn't you think of this sooner it's gonna all come back on us how it always do right which is why am so opposed to this referendum with with the roots

151and it would never be approved it would never be voted just one as a landlord if I get a phone call that my roof is leaked I'm obligated to fix the roof or they don't pay rent we don't have any recourse it's as if I I don't it's almost as if we have a slumber as our landlord if the roofs can be caving in the roof could be you know draining gallons and gallons and gallons of water and it is on the children and yet nobody not exactly well it has over the years let me put this do we have problems with with things up up above the roof yes we do we have problems with air quality those things should never be allowed and as a landlord I'm obligated to fix them or the

152city of the state step we have no recourse they go on as long as they go on without being fixed and we just Pat hand go to the city every year it seems the four years I've been here and beg for beg for tokens haven't been that successful you know again we're already absorbing our contractual increases and we continue to be penalized because our staff is working hard to find money here by savings by doing good work so instead of us moving forward we just have to eat all that every year and then you know I mean I'm getting asked comments from the reporter about all these things going on at the city council meeting tonight it's just you know now maybe we're not getting an 85% reimbursement on the school like it's just it's

153got to stop and we just have to work together figure this out understand you own the buildings take care of the buildings and if you don't want to pay our contractual increases don't vote to approve them it really is that simple John in case the referendum doesn't pass I checked on this during one of our many meetings about this Walmart so Walmart sells 10 by 12 blue Tarts $10 each so we just have to a little map I'll hold the L any other questions on the E ECS all right Board ofed calendar um and all the fun this forgot to add we're supposed to send the our calendar for the year to the City by July 1 um so this is we just basically took what we had this year and moved it to next

154year I quickly looked at it to the um to our District's calendar and there just a couple dates that are potential issues are um Wednesday sep nber 22nd is welcome back night at TMF there another Wednesday November 10th were parent teacher conferences that night um and then just the April 20th meeting is during April in um don't we nor have the meeting on the fourth fourth Wednesday of the month any is the fourth Wednesday would be the 29th for which month oh is it is there five Wednesdays I'm sorry okay we move it to the 29th with school date High School what I think it's the district could do September 29 for the board meeting how about September 29th we move it from the yeah September would be the 29th and then that's Elementary welcome

155back night oh it is the September 29th yeah we can try and figure out if we can switch those to Thursday and then we'll just bring the school calendar back we can't switch off Wednesday so unless it's a special meeting so we're have to yeah I'm kind of surprised that it's not oh so it's eight that's yeah we'll we'll work on that on parent conference and we'll just bring that back to the board I think the point is we need something to submit by the 1 of July right you keep fix it lat as long as you just get to repost it the like I think this one for some reason lives out there because I know I always put it in my calendar and then I'm somehow off weeks all the time because the

156other thing is we have them all at midon because we didn't really we're not sure so we're probably going to have to change it for locations because if we can go back to the schools right we'd prefer to be in the schools um but we don't know what we're going to get approval for and school Improvement will probably want to go back the road circulating through the building very well forcy just loves going with us to I do okay so they're gonna change those dates so do we want September 22nd or 29th well if they're going to change let's leave at the 22nd and then and then right yeah no reason to change it because we can't change a Wednesday anyways and there like there's right so if we change it from one Wednesday to

157another it's not a special meeting it's still board bed correct yeah but there's still in Conflict on the other Wednesday so they're gonna have to yeah so let's just leave it on the 22nd because it's not I agree we'll just leave everything for now until so how about we'll bring this back in August because I think we're all I mean we'll submit this just so we meet it but then we'll bring it back in August because we can also look at the location and just April 20th you probably just for vacation yeah you don't plan on being here Florida I need Oh you mean for the subcommittee subcommittee yeah yeah whatever date that is it's during the during the break over the 20th the 20th that's during the break yeah yeah but a subcommittee can

158change any other day yeah I mean they could do it on the thir inad yeah how about we make it the 13th just to get it off of April break Wednesday April 13 for facility and Bud okay so we'll change that to April 13 Marissa that's going to be the only change for now and what did you say about well November you'll November yeah we'll just change the April break for now and then we'll have a better idea of the schedule in August so we look at the locations and those two other dates in August your teacher that's right yeah the teacher rest all right so it's 8:27 um so committee reports budget committee oh um okay budget committee I'm sorry all right so we um we discussed uh the uh American Rescue act Grant

159update which we received tonight we had the covid-19 final report uh thank god um we we uh an advanced food Management Services agreement that's what was going on there it was approved by the state of course we went through monthly financials which I already talked about um and um we're um you know we're looking good so um that's it any questions everybody was there yeah I think most people were there school Improvement committee School Improvement committee the U sorry facility and Tech I thought you're skipping uh facilities and Tech that meeting it up we we discussed the security Grant uh what we're what we put in for um um and there was a um window project update there's going to be I think June 24th I have it written down there's going to be a

160zoom meeting with the state about the window project um and um what else did we discuss uh yeah like I said we discussed the the various details of not micro details but some of the details of the security Grant and that was the uh and I sent out email to everybody on the details on those yeah so yeah so waiting to hear uh how the June 24th meeting goes thank you John we presented the alness of the Year award to Steven rowski and that went very well he uh was there and happy to be there I had a chance to talk to both Mr rowski and Mrs rowski very gracious lady very nice happy to be there just as well he knew everybody from his high school class that room and maybe other people it

161just it was a very very positive experience with good good press good ink in the Waterberry paper about a week ago maybe a couple weeks after the presentation but they finally caught up with that and made that now mark your calendars they're probably marked already for August 4th of first school Improvement committee meeting of the next year where we will have the Middle School Improvement plan so is there any y chance that's going to happen good and uh we will uh also discuss the spring assessments as we've been told tonight so there'll be some worthwhile things there at our uh last meeting we spent a lot of time on the barriers to uh learning to we finish that discussion held over from the month before and it it went well so please be there on

162the 4th if you are so incl looking forward to seeing you thank you policy we discussed policy 1028 roles and responsibilities of committees and came to the conclusion that we will be revisiting in August we also discussed policy 6088 which is field trips and again we'll revisit in August thank you building committee we have a meeting this Thursday just remind everybody uh we have our first career fair this Saturday June 26th uh at the high school in the gym uh there'll probably be about 12 uh different uh uh uh organizations there on apprenticeship program so it's the first one uh for a 10-year period that we're going to have Mario and I will be watching them every year so plus remember there'll be four apprenticeship programs trying to get between each year 48 to 60

163students and some residents for apprenticeship program so after 10 years if we have 480 students or residents in the union making money staying in tarington having kids here and buying houses it's a it's great be great so come on down yes yes L on reports does anyone have a school report Cy go ahead okay from Forbes fabulous 15 days of fun we marked each day in June with a special activity starting on June 1st with what makes our class fabulous June 10th they had their field day with Summer Olympics theme classes were assigned to represent different countries activities such as javelin throw with pool noodles and swimming Railways involving water sponges cups and buckets the calf staff served lunch outside and at the end of the day Ray Bader continued his tradition with his band

164he gave an outside conert for the whole school to enjoy June 17th fifth grade fund day with special activi they had a birds of prey presentation with real live Birds special lunch from a food truck and the fifth graders received their t-shirts class of 2028 Forbes yearbooks were distributed that day and then last week third graders from touring F were shown a video of orientation to Forbes using their fourth grade using their fourth graders only followed by a zoom question and answer with a fourth grade class in which the students could ask questions of the teachers or students today the last day of school we resumed our fifth grade farewell parade this year in which the fifth grade students passed through all of the halls and the rest of the students and staff applaud and

165cheer them on the staff all outside at buses depart to wave each bus goodbye and then Mrs ceden dressed up in her Sun costume holding a sign only 7 72 days till the first day of school I'm sure they Lov that just a couple things about the high school I know we've already heard a few things about graduation so I won't say anything else about other than if you didn't get to go and you'd like to see the program I brought um the scholarship night they gave away 95 scholarships which is astonishing and um I don't have a dollar amount I wish I did but still I I think they said it was like 70 something thousand really that that sound that sounds right yeah and then Raider rally um that was well I was

166able to go and help out concessions and it was super fun and they raised $7,000 and thousands of food items for local charities and I think they exceeded their goal I Believe by a couple thousand dollars which they had kept very modest and I think even Char with kid less to participate just out of respect for the troubling Financial Times that we're in um and it was still successful so I was want to give kudos to eron for all the work and the student council that they did all right like to entertain a motion to approve actually we can remove item 9A because there's no change and we already approved it entertain a motion to approve the monthly financials move second all those in favor I entertain a motion to approve the primary mental health

167program Grant all those in favor I John and Gary yes thank you entertain a motion to approve the all state music festival in Hartford Connecticut second all those in favor I entertain motion to approve the Board of Ed regular meeting minutes of May 26 2021 so move second all those in favor I entertain a motion to receive all the committee meeting minutes second all those in favor entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda second Al those in favor I entertain a motion to notify city council and the state of Connecticut that the board will be requesting to receive 2% of their ECS funds directly to the Board of Education I really want this one guys second Gary add and Gary all those in favor I favor opposed oppos opposed Nikki opposed entertain a motion

168to approve the Board of Education calendar for 2021 2022 with the revision of the April date second all those in favor items for upcoming agenda uh monthly financials uh reopening anything else anybody calendar calendar will be coming back and possibly exploring health insurance options for the Board of Education okay comments for the good of the order we'll start with you Ed well I hold on Ed Cory you gotta specify which Ed just for the last time so sad well your last meeting so you have the floor yeah I appreciate you know as a brooklynite who lives in torington I now I'm always available Mario and I take care of the high school project and if you and the middle school and the administration doing but you know you can always call on me Sue and

169Sue because they do it uh early in the morning St never I just appreciate living here and helping you thank you Ed Corey um well of course uh thank you Aram for uh all of your service to our school district um which uh don't need to remind you began before I was born um but in all seriousness um no I I really appreciated all of all of your guidance uh as I sort of learn the ropes here on the board um so I'm gonna be carrying those lessons around for a long time um and the only other thing I just want to say is uh I'm really I'm really proud of everyone on the board for all the discussions that we're having about a lot of the really uh like kind of hard issues especially

170surrounding our budget but also Co recovery and and masks and all that um you know I think that we're doing this in a way that's a lot less acrimonious than many other boards of Education um and I'm really uh I'm really glad to be serving with a bunch of people who understand that we can disagree on a lot of this stuff and work it out without uh hating each other so thank you for that was that it cor thank you yeah you know I have sharp elbows Gary but I I I don't hate any of you you know know Nikki just I Echo what Ed said Thank You Ed for everything um and it was nice to hear from parents and even a student today it's always great when parents are involved on whatever topic

171we may be discussing it's great to hear from them directly so I thank them for that so just Ed it's been wonderful working with you for a very short time it's been great thank you for all that you've done for the city for us for our education system thank you Ed you my superintendent for a while back a few years and uh I always appreciate your guidance and your your intelligence and how we deal with everything so I and even my restaurants that I tell you to go even your restaurant if I got a story for you about me but anyway um thank you so much for all you've done for for our district for our town and we've been blessed to have you here and all of the capacities in which you've served so

172well I'm blessed to be here and also I just want to um I attended the graduation parade which was just amazingly fun to watch the kids um they were so happy and then I quickly went home and set up my computer on my picnic table outside and watch the live stream which was amazing it was just the sound the quality of the pictures Aly it was it was tremendous so thank you for that um and also there might have been two people watching it on channel 22 because my mother watched every minute so um and just lastly I just want to thank our teachers our administrators um for all the hard work this year and central office staff as well I can't even imagine I mean it's been a year like n so thank you

173to all of them and to you for all you've done for our kids that's it just I also do want to say thank you Ed for all of the time that you've sacrificed and please extend our gratitude to your wife as well I know a sacrifice for her as well um one thing I want to throw out there and this is not related to anything that we talked about tonight and G's going to love this is I do think that we I don't know that we need to look at the cell phone policy again I support the current policy but I would like for us to think about whether or not a change in tone is necessary in that area because we now have a one to one device with our students which we never

174had before and we've had students that have spent a tremendous amount of time staring at screens and so maybe this year when we come back we need to strongly discourage um the use of cell phones in the classroom and I don't know what that looks like but I'm just throwing I'm yeah thank you Ed for everything be together in the building committee be great um I'm going to miss your paper that's for sure I'm very much paper and pencil Jack so um so I'm G to miss your paper um and uh graduation graduation was awesome first time outside uh probably in a long time I don't know if it's ever been outside I don't think so I know it's been in the gym yeah and then the last year we did at the parking lot

175the20 I'll take that was right it was outside it wasn't quite not quite like uh you know Friday so yeah very good excellent Gary thank you Ed I remind do that about seven years ago maybe at Mario's house they said when are you going to come back you said never yeah never but she did never left that's true yeah thank you for all your hard work Sue and Sue I know this is difficult right now going through all this with us but as Ed Corey said we have great we don't have a lot of acrimony in our meetings we even when people disagree we we seem to get through it I hopefully we can continue that next year of course thank you Ed um and and your wife um also I was at the graduation

176and it was phenomenal the best graduation that I have been to in the 12 years I've been on the board it was just so nice to have it at torington high school on the field and it was so casual with the parents in the stand Standing on the by the fences it was just I didn't um but it was great and I think the kids enjoyed it also um they were it just seemed to be more relaxed um and like a celebration so that was that was great John I know we're not supposed to evaluate people but you know this time of the year I think I'm going to try getting away with it start with Ed and Ed for anyone who hasn't had much experience with business managers the gold standard as far as

177as far as absolutely every part of of the job and I don't believe for a minute that we won't see him again he's young look at him years but also this time of the year the end of a successful school year anyone who's been in education knows exactly what I'm saying here the whole staff the central office staff just absolutely working through a very tough year and putting up with us who occasionally not pleasant to deal with we try but not necessarily wor all the time but successful everything coming together as well as as it has that's that's the superintendent down in that central office just doing a great job and my final comment is about it's also evaluative about the high school graduation that went so well thanks to everybody and everything that's been

178mentioned so far and Julie Beckwith just that is so hard to put together it it looks because it all works well it looks like it just sort of happens wasn't this easy no no it does not it does not and it works very well every year thanks to her and then the rest of it getting out to the public alley getting getting it out there and everything and anyway I'm gonna stop because we got home you should talk so I also just one Ed I'm going to miss you more than I can ever Express in words um we've dealt with a lot of interesting business managers in the past um and it's been so nice to have someone competent that understands the numbers you've continued to carry us in a really good financial position um

179so more than grateful for that I also want to thank this has been such a difficult year that I'm not even positive that everyone completely understands the impacts of what's happened what's changed week to week and passing it down to the buildings and central office working and asking people to do the unthinkable and we were really fortunate that our staff you know Paris secretaries nurses custodians teachers everybody just did what needed to get done and the central office staff never taking any of their vacations like it's not normal so my wish for all of you is that you get some time off this summer so relax enjoy July that's why we're having summer break in July so that you guys don't have to see us either in July shut your vacation i' like add another

180comment also thank you to our board chair who has I don't think slept in a year and a half with centr so I think you you've L us competently I don't think anybody could possibly know how much work we own correct we each see a little part of it some of us may see more than others but they're just hercu we are so lucky to have a chairman as like we so dedicated so okay future meeting um oh I'm sorry I can't say how proud I am of the stff and the amazing I know I mentioned it before but oh my God just to go through this um they Rose to the challenge um and just took it on and truly at the sites at central office our it folks and the board I mean

181I do think that you know in spite of sometimes of our differences and point of view everybody works together and it's it truly feels like a team and um we haven't always been there let's be real you know it before I was in this position because things were crazy and I'm not saying it has to do with me I just say it's very very fortunate that now we're on uneven and so that leads me of course to Ed and you know um I'm not going to say goodbye because this is not goodbye um because that's just not even happening and I'm going to continue to as Sue said stalk you and call you we're going to see on Thursday exactly so um yes so everything that you have been able to do for us to

182get us um and not have us as Ed used to say to us at the very beginning not in a sexist way don't worry your pretty little heads because it's all taken care of so you know what we appreciate that statement more than you know Dia you yeah thank you sir thank you thank you thank you so yeah so I just have to say I'm not gonna say goodbye to Ed y because we're gonna still be around for the next few days um I just have to tell you all I can't think of a nicer group of people I'd rather go through a pandemic with and I mean that we could do this we could do anything and we didn't give ourselves Co exactly was even better yes nobody in central office yeah crazy unbelievable

183know we were each other's bubble for the longest time yeah we were our cohort I started with you Kim um you know I Echo what everybody's saying about Ed you know in the time that we work together and uh I promise you that every time I park my car I will think of she parked her car the first time I'm here not in the right not a good day not a good day so I gave her a ticket after that she perfect I have to like move it like six or seven times every time just to make sure that it meets Ed I make sure that I continue to do that so that's why we had fun sometimes I know you're just sitting in for someone so I won't make you be tortured by this

184say congratulations to Ed thank you for uh letting me speak on Lord's behalf tonight great well thank you very much for coming Ally it's been an absolute honor to have worked with you thank you for everything um definitely looking forward to be working with you on the building project and I can finally say I know a guy there you go all right motion to adjourn are