001Thank you all for coming. Roll call should show that the committee is here minus Mr. Ukalo and we'll take note of everyone else please. I appreciate that. Uh looking for a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move >> second. >> All those in favor. We have an agenda and the minutes which were transmitted electronically and we've had for a few days now. >> So moved. >> Second >> discussion. All those in favor >> I >> Okay. Public participation members of the public and staff may bring to the committee's attention information, ideas or matters of concern related to all the duties and responsibilities of this committee. This committee will not allow comments regarding specific staff members or personal grievances. The time for individual remarks will be aortioned according to the number of speakers and will
002be limited to five minutes per speaker unless extended by the chair and that will not happen. Anyone want to speak? Okay, please stand, give your uh name and address please and let us know what you want us to know. Hi, my name is Vanessa. I live at 30 Street. Um, I'm a mom of I might cry. I just want you guys, but I'm a mom of a parent who or of a child who just started that fast. Um, I want to say it was the first week of February, last week of um, January and my child has really struggled throughout her entire education um, socially and stuff like that. Um, and it was even really rough for her and um, we transitioned to the class. It was amazing. The whole staff welcomed her with open
003arms and I can't say thank you enough to you guys. Like, it's really been such a good transition for her and I really want the community to just know how important this is and what you guys are doing here has been so impactful to her. I just want you guys to know how important it's been as a parent just to see her go from a lot of visits to Charlotte crisis to just being happy. She has friends who are talking to her and they play in the gym and she eats lunch in the cafeteria and it's just been so good and I know it's a new program so I just wanted the board to know that it's doing what you guys wanted it to do and it's really helping students who need it. Thank you.
004>> Thank you, Vanessa. >> I just want to say that it's it's really ironic because she actually texted me when I was here on Friday doing my visit and I didn't check my phone until I got in my car and you had pretty much given me the same story. Said, "No, please come to school improvement on Wednesday and tell us all that." >> I just so thank you. >> And I mentioned it to her teacher. I can't remember her name off the top of my head right now, but I told her when I stopped in earlier this week, I was just like, "You guys need to know how good you're doing here and how I mean, she comes home from school happy." And I can't tell you when that happened before. like she really like
005we don't have solid friendships yet, but we have I mean a group of girls came up to her her second day who a group of girls who she was worried about cuz she had had interactions in the past with and they went up to her and they said they offered her a Mountain Dew and they said, "Hey, we're really sorry for how we were in the past and we just want you to know that like we're trying to do better and be better." And I know that's probably coming from encouragement from your staff and it's just she came home so happy that day. I mean, I can't thank you guys enough for what you're doing in the building. I really can't. It's It's been great. So, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you for
006sharing. We're We consider ourselves to be the complaint department. >> Well, which is exactly why I told her to come. I WAS LIKE, I'M HERE BECAUSE, you know, and we I've been through a lot with the Tarant school district. It's been a rough ride and I feel like this program is just very needed for students who just maybe don't fit somewhere else and that's really the best way to put it. You know, she really she comes home smiling like I can't tell you how much of a relief that is. I was I was at one point, you know, having like almost getting anxiety for the phone calls from the school and I don't have that anymore. I can get through a workday without phone calls, without emails, without having to go pick her up. I
007mean, it's it's been really amazing. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you. And that leads us right into the next item on the agenda, which is the report from the FAST Academy. I'm going to start by saying that uh I went through with Kristen, and I'll ask her to speak in in a minute. uh for a school visit this Friday. We had about we were here I was here more than an hour. Uh we had two delightful young ladies going around with us and they did as much as the talk probably as you did Dr. George. just familiar with and and happy about the program and we saw classes that were working and not that it's unusual to go through a school and see things that are working but it's just so happy to see
008a brand new program especially taken up under the circumstances by Dr. at the last minute just working working so very well. Uh Kristen, you probably have something to say. >> Um sure. Yeah. First of all, thank you for the hospitality. Um was amazing to come here on Friday and see what the school has done in just 6 months, what you have done in just 6 months and that's truly a testament to your dedication um and hard work. So, thank you so much. Um thoroughly impressed. I I mean I've always been impressed every time I do a school tour, but I cannot express to you how impressed I was in what you have done here and how amazing the kids were. And you know, we talked a little about your color system and earning points. Um,
009and the kids really are buying into that, which is amazing to to see. And they're really trying to get to that highest level. Um, and you're making it so that it's attainable, but also they have to work hard to get to get there. So that's great. Um, you know, we talked about your motivational boards all around the school with some great quotes. I thought those were nice. The job board, um, so that kids could apply for jobs. We talked about your point system. Um, and also the community partners that are coming in to talk to the kids, which was nice. We saw a science class at work. Um, saw a math class, which really wasn't my area, but I did learn some things. Um, saw a gym class, which was fun. Um, playing bad mitten.
010Um, yeah. I mean, honestly, I I can't I can't say enough good things about what we've done here. So, thank you. >> And I guess it's now time for the presentation. >> Jeff, you can go to the next slide if you like. So, some of the highlights of things that we're currently working on um is as a whole staff, we meet together consistently and we've created some posters. We're actually in the process of printing all the posters to be hung around the school um to really promote more consistency and a cohesive culture in the school so that we can have more of a shared language around our expectations for students and reinforce how positive behaviors amongst all of our students in the school can promote progress. Uh, one of the things actually we have our
011science and math teacher here currently um, but our science teacher u, Miss Lamontine brought over from the high school our points and level system that we used in the alternative program at ths when that was there and as a staff we worked together to, you know, make tweaks and alter it for our current program here at Fast Academy um, to help just make accountability for our students to promote and reward positive behavior and reinforce our expectations for students in the school. Um these are tied to respect, responsibility, safety and attendance. Um and it's also directly connected to our current criteria to be able to exit this program um for students that did want to go back to the traditional middle school high school setting. So when you came to visit on Friday, you asked to
012see like what what might a snapshot look like of our data from the points and level system that we use at Fast Academy. So at the top that was like a snapshot of that week that you came. Um that data doesn't look as nice. I think with some of the days that we've had off attendance kind of dropped a little bit. So that last week it was 43% of the students were on pink and had to kind of work their way back to um being more on track. Um and all those kind of pieces can fluctuate throughout the the weeks um that students are attending the school because our students don't want to be on pink. um that's the lowest area of the level system, which actually helps reinforce calling home and getting notes from
013parents if students are sick because if they're getting an excused absence, it's not going to count against them in the level system. So, even some simple things like that, um building in some stronger parent communication, um it helps to reinforce. And then at the bottom we pulled together um some just month by by month data so you can kind of see it more than just a week snapshot so that you can kind of see where some of the trends um might be for the data. So at that bottom was 9th grade and the other side had some 11th grade data on there so that you can kind of see um our 11th graders have just typically kind of fallen a little bit higher on the points level system throughout the year so far. Uh I
014included some data on PSATs this fall. Um our ninth graders actually did pretty well. um still below the state average uh but they did fairly well on the PSATs where um our 10th 11th graders, you know, we definitely have some work to do in terms of improving their reading, writing, and math scores um for the SAT in the spring. So, I thought this was a nice data um to kind of take a look at. So, this is last year attendance. Um, so I put Torington High on in there in comparison, but last year this was like the chronic absenteeism rate for our fast academy current cohort of students. Uh, 44.7% of students that we have currently in our program were chronically absent last year. Um, and to just compare that to school like Torington um,
015high school, they were at about 18% last year. So, if you compare last year to currently where we're standing this year as a school about halfway through the year, um we went from 44.7% with our cohort of students to now we're currently standing at 20%. So, I think some of that points and level system are really working um to reinforce positive attendance for school. This is just a snapshot of our our referral data. So in the middle column you can see our students and actually um I pulled this in February uh the data and at that time I only had 40 42 students in our program that I could actually look at data last year on because some of our students were uh either you know possibly outplaced or homeschooled or you know they just
016were not in our system to be able to collect our major refer referral data. So, with our 42 students um that I was able to look at data on for last school year, they made up over a thousand, so 1,04 major behavior referrals for those 42 students. Um when you compare that to Torington High School last year, um the high school had 4,116 for their over a thousand student population. Um, so I think what that tells us is we, you know, we do have, you know, a population of students that have some high behavioral needs in the building. Um, at February, I pulled the data on our current student um, those same 42 students and we were at uh, 224 major referrals. still, you know, >> a good amount of referrals. But, um, you know,
017if you look that comparatively, like if we were to chop last year in half, um, we're still seeing a pretty major decrease with those students from last year to this year, right? Pretty good. >> It's amazing. This is just a look at I pulled grades from the midyear point at the semester 1 point this year with our students and I compared it with where these students were last year. So last year um only 29% of our cohort of student actually passed all four of their core academic classes. Um 22% failed at least one course, 18% failed two courses, 4% failed three, and actually 27% of our current student body failed all four of their core classes last year, which is about 71% failing at least one of those four courses. This year, 80% of our
018students by the midway point passed all four of their core courses. So that alone was just like such a nice data point to really see for our kids that they're finding a lot more success in their four courses here um in this smaller setting. So um with only 20% of students um failing at least one course. So we kind of did a flip in that that data which is awesome. So, I tried to pick out because um you know, like we were kind of sharing in the public comment section earlier, it's like those small little snapshots where we're really seeing the most progress and growth um with our kids. So, I tried to pick two students to kind of highlight here. Um so noting that graduation requirements are 25 credits um at the top, six
019credits to make you a 10th grader, 12 to make you 11th grade, and 18 to be considered a 12th grader at the high school. Um the first kind of student case study I pointed out um was we have one a student that is a thirdyear freshman. Their first freshman year they earned zero credits. um the second year of attempt um only 0.5 but here just by the midway point um they had earned four credits um and our goal was and with the snow days we did not hit it yet but we're getting there um trying to get them to sophomore sophomore credits by March was our goal um cuz really the student has a lot of growth like a lot of credits to make up if we want to put them on any track for
020graduation but it shows that we are successful currently in that path to credit recovery and growth. Almost wish we could have hit the student, you know, a little bit sooner in that process. So, working to try to establish a path to graduation. Um, another case study is um another student that really wants to be in this 4-year graduation cohort this year. um first attempt, you know, with nth grade had only earned four credits. Um and that's with summer school attendance and credit recovery that first year. The second year repeated, earned seven credits, so was a little bit more successful, but also with summer school attendance and credit recovery. Um went into last year as a 10th grader, earned five credits last year with credit recovery. Um this year had already earned 4.25 25 credits by
021the midway point. Um, currently standing at 20.25 credits. Um, and you know, some credit recovery in progress right now. Our goal is to try to reach 24 by quarter 4 and try to be able to set them up for success either to finish the year with us or their goal for themselves personally is to be at THS that last quarter of the year to try to graduate with their peers. Um, so, you know, just two nice highlights of how we're kind of moving the needle faster over at Fast Academy right now. Um, and trying to set students up with, you know, being able to achieve that four-year hopefully graduation cohort rate. Um, the other little piece to highlight on there is we have uh brought in three students that were in out placements this year
022into our school. um which you know two are are permanent here right now and have found a lot of success and one you know we're still working on currently um trying to find some success. So that is a great highlight as well for our program currently. So um we I'm proud to say we have one student that earned the work experience credit that the board had helped us to approve earlier this fall which is really exciting. um he was able to complete over 200 hours with his employer um and with counselor followup um and an evaluation from his employer he was able to earn that.5 credit. So you know I wish it was more than one but so far I mean that's great progress for us uh as a school. We're also working to get
023a lot more students involved in service learning. Um we have one student currently assisting at Toringford at kindergarten class. She was over there today. Um, another student just applied to volunteer at Charlotte. Um, and we've had a lot of kids staying after and working with us extra hours after school, painting, making bulletin boards, doing different things to try to beautify the school, set up different equipment here to just try to make the space, you know, a nicer place for all students. Um, which has been great, you know, to be able to work with us, work with even our custodial staff, um, and things like that in the school. Um we've been collaborating and working um we should have internships set up with McCall and Charlotte this summer for our students which will be great and
024actually Donna really helped us out to work with McCall to bring insight group um which they have over at the high school um here at FAST so which is awesome and we have our students participating from the high school every Wednesday. So for uh teacher staff growth opportunities, a lot of that has either been internal collaboration um together as a school or even working with ths and TMS. Um we really tried to align our meeting schedule and be really flexible as a school. That way our staff were very tiny. Um we're able to work with the different departments at the middle school and high school. That way our math teacher can go over to TMS or THS and work with the math department or our science teacher or English teacher. Um, and we're able to,
025you know, meet with them during their same department meeting times and things like that. Um, and ths has been really great to us letting our teachers attend. Um, we've had teachers attend their teacher workshop. They've invited our teachers if anybody aspires to be an administrator to join that group um that they host after school. Um, and you know, we try when we can to get the teachers into each other's classrooms to do peer observations. Um, and just some of our growth opportunities has really been just our whole team has been awesome at working together to look at our current data and our current systems and things that we have in place as a school on how we can improve and consistently reflect on things and make them better. Um, because obviously year one can be
026a little tough. So, we're constant constantly trying to reflect and grow as a group. So, um, when you came for the school visit, um, this Friday, you had asked a little bit about, um, you know, the teacher morale here, our climate in the building. Um, you know, if teachers like coming to work and showing up, and I will say our absenteeism rate is really, really good. Um, I would say as a school, um, our absenteeism rate here is about 4% compared to the district rate of 7.5 roughly. Um, so I think that would reflect a positive climate and a high teacher commitment to our students and our our staff and the building here. Um, our teachers show up every day and I think that really helps with the relationships, with the stability for our students.
027Um and you know I would say they everybody works really really well together um as a team in the building. So that piece has been really positive. And I will actually maybe add one more thing to that too because I think I have to give the teachers some kudos too because they all have five preps. So they're teaching five grade grade grade levels each which is a lot to prepare and to plan for every day. Um, and especially considering we have a lot of students that have been historically disengaged with school. So, I mean, that goes to show I think our teacher commitment is absolutely wonderful in the building. So, I got to give them a shout out for that for the first year and with that many preps, it's a lot, you know, >>
028definitely. And they even came tonight. Uh so for school spirit and events um we actually piggybacked off the high school a little bit with um they have their eay up at the high school. So we've tried to run choice activity days which the students are begging us to bring back as many of those as we can. They absolutely love them. Um and we kind of incentivized those days a little bit different than at the high school where everybody kind of got to participate. We actually ran um F reports to see which students were kind of falling behind in classes and used that as a motivational tool to um try to get everybody, you know, passing their classes, participating in the choice events um and things like that at the school. Um we have regular school
029spirit days. We actually just introduced a Friday like a consistent Friday incentive uh spirit day where students can earn participation to be able to wear pajama pants on a Friday or a half to school through our levels and tickets and reward system that we have as a school which has been you know we haven't done too many so far but the students really like it. Um and I think believe it or not that's been a really big motivator for some of our kids. Um, our students have attended homecoming uh and events uh participated in athletics both at the middle school and high school. We've had kids on teams on football team, basketball teams, on the middle school soccer team throughout the year, indoor track. So, those have been some highlights. It's just a picture of
030some of our school spirit events there. Then moving forward, some things that we're working on as a school, um getting those expectation posters hung up around the building. Um you know, curriculum development, especially around some of our advisory kind of blocks for students. Um you know, tailoring something specific to our building. Um building updates. you know, we've done a lot of those throughout the year, but we have some other pieces that we're still working on um currently in the school. Um and then a lot with our systems procedures, refinement of entrance and exit criteria are all things we're consistently taking a look at. Uh we're looking to make some schedule changes for next year collectively as a team to implement some more choice and flexibility um to help benefit our students and their schedule. and
031um obviously continuously trying to look for some partnership development. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. Very very good presentation of a very good program that doesn't usually deliver good numbers. The student body that usually doesn't deliver good numbers delivering pretty good numbers in in this setting who are working with you. I didn't ask you to do it, but could you please give us a couple sentences on the transition academy because we're meeting in their space and they're in this building. It's not part of your program, but would you just tell us a little bit about that? >> No, they've absolutely loved their space up here. I mean, they even loved us bringing in some of these tables tonight. I think they might steal some of these tables for part of their space. Um Michelle
032does a wonderful job, Michelle Boulette, the special ed teacher that works in the building. Um, you got to see a little bit when you came in how everything is very organized. Everything's labeled up here for the students. Um, one of the things I think we'd like to do is have a little bit of collaboration more across um, our school with TTA. Um, I think there's some ways that we can build that in. I've spoken to Dr. Baker about that too. She has some great ideas. Um, but I think the students really love it here and there's some also great resources right around here. I know there's like public transportation right around the corner. She's excited to be able to, you know, use and work on using with the students that are here. Um, they consistently
033go out to different job sites. When you had visited on Friday, I think we had two different job sites that students were, you know, currently at. Well, I think they've really been happy and I'm sure Dr. Baker, if you have anything to add, um, with the transition over here. um they've really loved the space and I think the space is just continuously getting nicer as we do some different upgrades, you know, to the building and everybody settles in. So, >> and this is a program that was at East School with >> rented space. I don't know if they charge us or not, but at Advance. >> Yes. >> Uh and now they're here inhouse and just >> making the building even more lively, even more vibrant. It's just fun to walk through the building, see
034what's going on. Uh, you talked about summer programs. Are we worried about the word backsliding doesn't work? There's a term in education, but losing ground, students who lose ground over the summer. I know special ed teachers are particularly uh attuned to that. Are we doing anything? Talk about summer internship internship program. I mean, I would love to work on like we do have some students like some of the students that I shared about that have really struggled to be where they should be in terms of credit. Um, so trying to just figure out the best way to help continue that momentum because some, you know, some of our kids we really need to make a lot of ground in order to be in a good place to be able to make it across that stage
035for graduation. participate in our district summer school program, >> right? Things like that, right? Of course, at the rate we're going, there won't be a summer vacation anyway, so it won't make a lot of difference. That's all I have for the moment. Kristen, do you have anything you want to ask about or add? >> Um, do you want to add um that I I want to She's not here tonight. I want to give a quick shout out to Donna who really worked tirelessly here for this school. the gym equipment, the the room, uh the activity, I'm not sure if there's a name for the room, the activity room where they can earn points to go. Yeah, there's some like a basketball hoop in there and a hockey table and some really fun things. Um if
036anybody's clearing out their house, maybe have some board games or some music devices that we could add to that. Just make sure those donations are small enough so we don't have to send it to the full board for a vote or get in trouble. Um that would be awesome. um cuz the kids can earn points to go there and they love it there and seems really cool. So um anything we can do to help um these kids do better would be great. >> Thank you. >> Bill, do you have any questions or anything you want to say? >> No. >> Okay. Open to the floor. Who wants to say or ask anything? >> Of course. Um >> I have a couple quick ones. This is one. This is great that not only are the kids,
037you're finding a way for these kids to learn again at a parallel rate to regular education back at ths. They're getting the number of credits in that they need to to become successful. What's even more impressive is it sounds like some kids are actually gaining breath on that graduation requirement. So fantastic. I do have two other questions. One, the chronic absenteeism, and I should know this off the top of my head, is it a sliding scale throughout the year? Is it halfway through you can't have more than five? Or is it chronic absentee is in the minute you hit 10? >> So 10%. You know if you 10% of the time are absent from school. >> It's percent. Okay. I thought it was 10 absences. >> 10% on the day of attendance. So if you're
038in school for 180 days, then it's 10% of the 180 days. It's >> the absentee isn't is significantly down. My other question actually may go across the table a little bit. So two the two goals of fast were to get kids out of the environment that wasn't working for them, promote their growth as a student and as a person and it was also supposed to help at ths so that we didn't have those disruptions at ths. So your data that you're showing looks fantastic on those interruptions or referrals. Has it had the same impact in that same cohort over at ths? Are we seeing we should see significantly less referrals at ths as well? because as you showed and this was a lot of referrals that came over here. You guys have really done a
039nice job getting them back on track. >> Yeah. I mean I think it's impacted DHS dramatically which you'll see in the next presentation in April. We we'll be here with the data for that and that's actually what we're talking about too. So if you're going to be here but >> yeah I don't have the data in front of me. Um but yeah a dramatic decrease in >> things like rights verbal education >> anecdotally I would agree with that and here >> just the culture of the building as well it has it has shifted >> how about like oss ISS or do we do that how does that work here best we >> kind of we still definitely have OSS and ISS um you know sometimes we we do have a smaller staff so sometimes I'm
040strategic about when to run an ISS because I don't always you know, I don't have a designated room that's always operational. Um, but I would say with our referral data, some of the referrals are more major, you know, because we're using the point in level system, you know, um, you know, we do still have OSS and ISS for our students here, >> but a significant improvement either way is what the data seems to show. So, thank you very much. >> Anyone else? We have our science and math teachers here. If either of you would like to say anything, >> what do you want to say? >> Um, >> don't want to put you on the spot, but >> I'm really appreciative that the district decided to open this program out here offsite. I working at
041the high school for the last three years, I loved the program that they had. >> Um, I really appreciated being on the ground floor of getting that program up and running. Um, it's been a hard to get from September to March and I'm finally getting my feet underneath me here. Um, starting a school from scratch is not easy. Um, and it is a good team and I think that we've all pulled together to get us where we are. Um, but I am appreciative of this opportunity. It's so nice to see the kids that came over with me continue to grow, to appreciate being in a bigger environment almost than they were in the two rooms that they were at in high school. And then um to see the other kids that really were fighting us
042in the beginning kind of find their space here. Um there were a lot of kids that were really unhappy that first couple weeks. And I think they are comfortable and they're happy and they show up. The kids show up. They really do show up. So, I appreciate you. >> Me, too. And we've had good teamwork. Like, you're doing the U Rep and I got certified for math, right? Like, um, and I'm so glad I did that. I took my summer to get certified for the I took the middle and high school certification test for math. Um, I took calculus 35 years ago. It's like, oh, I'll remember it. No, I had to I left a few weeks and I had to, you know, restudy that. But when those um those middle school kids um came
043in, they were just so happy. Like the high school kids came in, they were happy to see you. Like everyone had a familiar face. The middle school kids knew me. The high school kids knew you. Like it it got off to a very good start. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. Very healthy, very healthy atmosphere here. Very very positive, very very welcoming, I would think, for students. And that's what we heard from the parent who spoke as well. Okay, I guess we're all done unless someone else has something they >> Thank you very much, Dr. Tor. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Good job. >> Good job. >> Okay. Firefighter course update, Mr. Marshall. That's what you're here for. >> Yay. >> I think so. I think I was um about to
044ask answer some questions. >> All right. So, we weren't really sure, John. So, the update I I think we're here to talk tonight about maybe things that you think we need to put in place in order to bring this from conceptual to reality, right? Is that kind of the conversation you wanted to have? Are there specific things, in other words, that the board or the district needs to do in order for us to move forward? >> Okay. Have we looked at courses like this in other schools yet? The Well, are there yes and no? >> There are some, but we don't know that there's any that be exactly the model that we have. A lot of the what we went to that public safety forum, it was a lot of public safety. It wasn't specifically
045intro to fire. There was maybe EMS, um, other types of public safety courses, criminal justice courses. Um, what we're looking to run is a possible certification course, which would be about 200 hours total. Um, so there wouldn't be some Saturdays that kids would have to come in in order to complete. They would need the full Saturday anyway um for the hands-on part of it and because it just takes so long to get the equipment and they also want to be have a good chunk of time. Those are the type of things that we'd have to work out um with the fire team, >> right? I wonder if there could be two levels to this. One, the academic certification, the classroom work, and then separately the hands-on practical experience. It could be. That would be a
046question for Chief Trip to see what kind of >> That would probably make it easier for us to run a program that we could fit kids in. Kids who couldn't come on Saturdays or for whatever reason. >> Yeah. >> And other things going on, whatever. Uh, okay. So, what are our concerns? Our concerns are credit for one thing, accredited teaching, and we we can't just have firemen show up and say, "Okay, could you get a high school credit?" Uh, as much as they would, I'm sure, know about firefighting. the state doesn't let that work, >> right? And then Kim, we're going to tap Kim's brain for a second because there is a certification that we probably could assist a firefighter with getting. Um, again, we talked about pairing the firefighter with >> a certified teacher
047>> sign. >> Right. >> So, the trade and industry certification is the one that that um Sue's talking about. So a trade and industry certification can be given to an individual who has more than three years of full-time experience in a given industry, auto mechanics, culinary, uh things of that nature. And so the state will certify you with with it's an 098 certification, which is the trade and industry in a comprehensive high school, right? There's a version of that that is for the technical schools and there's a version of it that is for the comprehensive public schools. So, um, so that would be an option to work with somebody on that or, you know, as Sue said, if the person was paired with a certified teacher, then that teacher would be the teacher on record
048if it was a science teacher, for example, or whatever. So, we would kind of have to talk about what the best model was and what the high school wanted to do. But, I think there's options either way. >> So, doesn't be the same thing as the trade school has with people who teach carpentry, culinary, and >> and we actually have them in the district. We have an auto mechanics teacher. Makes >> a lot of sense. >> Yes. We have We have a teacher who's certified with the 098 for auto mechanics and we have our teacher who's certified for culinary >> that that has those certifications and that's the certification that they hold. It's all the same number, but then they have a write in that explains what their specific industry is that that would be
049listed on the certification. >> Okay. So, that's something we should continue to look into and see if we can find someone from the fire department >> wants to. Does the fire department give us any idea about the amount of buyin they have from their individuals? >> They have a tremendous amount of buy in. They are the ones that presented it to us initially. >> Okay. They're the ones that want >> So that will not be a problem. People will want to work in this. >> Yeah. They have >> Yeah. This was all them. I mean, they sought us out. They've been appealing to us for collaboration. >> They said the guy is going to come in to help with the training and everything is not coming until March, until the end of March. So, okay.
050He'll be here with more knowledge about what what what we can do with the actual program. >> I'm just I know I was just going to recollect I'm recollecting and you can refresh my memory. I think we even had a part-time teacher a few 098 Saturday. So, so I'm just you you know there there's >> Cheryl Spielman, >> right? >> Yes. That's that I'm just we we've done this before in our high school and I think you know it's it's a >> you know it's a process with the state but I think as long as they've got the requisite experience they can absolutely be sure. >> In regards to the 200 hours would it be possible and I'm looking to Andrew to to maybe weigh in on this to offer the program as a double
051block like we used to do American studies. >> Yeah, we talked about that as an option as well. >> It would just depends on the number of credits that the students looking for and what it looks like. Yeah. >> Yeah. Because we wouldn't want this course to stop a kid from being able to get the credits they need in other areas. >> But it can be done. >> Just have to be careful. >> It would have to be a yearong course. >> Yeah. >> It's not running next year. This is running for 272 as next year pretty much shut. >> Yeah. >> Um and then we talked briefly um at the uh regular board meeting about the cost. Um I I want to say it was 165. I I don't the number is sticking in
052my head for some reason, but I know that we weren't sure how we were going to do that. It was going to be all district or if it was going to be half and half like econ classes or if it was going to be follow the parent. And I know one or two board members expressed that as a public school we want to offer these courses at no cost. >> Right. Right. >> Well, I I do understand that, you know, we are not in the best position financially. um you know so I'm certainly open to a 50/50 like my classes >> right and these are all the reasons why you know I mean this is a two-year out course and that's the reason we brought it forward this far in advance just to kind of
053tease out all of these little nuances to see if it's if it's even viable right >> um but yes because there will also be a textbook which is part of that right >> that cost and there's a licensed online program that they have to use >> it will right >> so that's The per year cost a textbook would be just a onetime purchase for at least >> probably every kid who would like to be in this class wouldn't be qualified for various reasons to be in it. How are we going to >> what do you mean? >> Well, I mean there are physical requirements to be a fireman. Uh there are just plain wanting to be a fireman doesn't mean someone would have the temperament for instance to put themselves in that situation. And I'm
054wondering if if we're just going to let anyone who wants to sign up for it sign up for it or if there will be prerequisites of one kind or another academic or recommendation of couple teachers or something like that. >> I don't think we've gotten that far. Um >> we've started talking about juniors and seniors mostly. Let me get to that. And then talking about teacher recommendation and a school council which we've talked about that well with teach but we haven't again we haven't put the actual proposal in yet. So that's what we were looking at right now. >> Okay. So you're talking >> Yeah. Well, I definitely see your point regarding physical abilities. I don't think we can. >> But we also need people who are reliable, which would imply an and attendance or
055disciplinary record examination. >> Sure. >> I mean, this should be a demanding course, >> right? And I'm sure that that would all be part of the um the meeting with the school counselor, right? You know, there would be some some actual counseling that would have to happen. >> It's going to be similar to how we run our trades program, the building trades program now, which we have a relationship with the the union from the building committee uh which where they are recommended from school counselors and or from teachers and they're put in the program. They have to a lot of prerequisites on that. You have to be 18, have to have your driver's license, have to be on track to graduate, have to be have show good attendance. Um, so it'll be similar to that
056type of >> class. That's what I'm picturing. We had talked about initially. >> Yeah, definitely. >> Okay. >> And they have to know what they're signing up for. There are >> precisely that you are looking to >> look like a lot of fun, but it's more than a lot of fun. >> It's a lot of work >> and it certainly is labor intensive. >> Yeah. I can tell you there were two kids that heard about it that came up to ask me about it right after which was not a surprise. I knew that they were interested and they want to go directly into firefighting this >> No. Oh, there's three. >> All right. Well, there you go. >> Oh, no. I think it'll be a popular course. I I'm worried about not attracting enough kids.
057I'm just wondering. Well, >> maybe too popular those kids would Well, I think there going to be a lot of kids who want it. >> If it's an overenrollment problem, we could figure that out. That'll be great. Yeah. >> So where another thing we need to think about is which which category of credits does does this get into? >> Would it be in the science and technology sort of thing or there's >> call it a career technology education? >> Career technology public safety under career technology education. Yeah. There's only pathway in there. >> Okay. >> Who else? Who else? Jeeoff, just as a thought, if we were to go the 098 route, it's substituting for one of these professionals may be a little bit difficult and they also work in a very high-risisk environment. So,
058it might not be a bad idea to see if they would agree to get two folks 098 certified. Just, you know, injuries happen in these types of jobs, firearm, police officers, they're they're out there putting their life on the line for our community. Just thinking of what would happen to a class full of kids who are on a year-long commitment to get firefighter one if somebody were to have to go out disability or if we don't have somebody who can back fill in. Just might be one of those things you wouldn't think of or I wouldn't have thought of otherwise until somebody talked about the structure tonight. >> Yep. I think we're looking at a team I think of a speaker really and any firefighters that are coming in. cuz I was like anyway so
059to cover everything. >> Awesome. >> Again, our idea initially was to have a >> a teacher cover the classroom as a duty kind of like we do now for the building trades program where they're in there. They can take control of the power school where the firefighters are going to know about that. The grading they get with everything for they don't do the grading. The teachers won't be doing any grading, but they can import everything for >> and create teachers won't be creating lesson plans or anything else. It would be a duty whether there to help with passes and the everyday school. >> Yeah. Administrative. >> Is there a formal committee to put this course together or are you just >> I think we're looking at David. >> Well, and Dave, >> right? Yeah. Yeah.
060>> Yeah. Who would someone get in touch with if they thought of something between now and sometime later that we should be thinking about? >> You bring me? >> Yeah. I'm working with Chief Chip Mosley. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. So, we can get that word out that anybody who has thoughts about what the academic or technical end of this should look like can ask for consult. >> Sure. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Anyone else? Comments. So nice. >> Thank you. >> Looking forward to seeing this come together. >> Definitely. It's exciting. >> Okay, distinguished alumnist update. I saw something in my email this afternoon. In fact, >> well, we sent it out again. This was our second outreach. Um, we have only re we haven't received any submissions, but that's typical every year. It takes
061more than one attempt. Um, we did get a phone call from someone who had submitted a year ago who had some questions about wanting to add to the submission that she sent in a year ago. So, Lori's helping her with that. Um, I will just say that the media have been in have been it's been interesting this year. You know, there was some reorganization of our local newspapers over the last 12 months. ation isn't kind. >> Yes, it is. >> It's been really challenging, I have to say. Um, you know, we have a whole list sir of local media outlets that have always been very engaging and they've been very receptive to anything that we've asked them to do in terms of like public service announcements. um the whole Hurst Media Corporation, which I guess
062has taken over the Republican American and some of the local uh newspapers. >> Um it's been very challenging. >> Yeah. So interesting. >> Yeah. They're not picking up. >> No, >> they don't. It's It's really hard to get in touch with anybody and then when you do reach someone, you know, you don't get a call back. And so Lori has really worked hard to try to continue to >> to get in touch. Um >> we're using the social media. >> Yep. >> Yeah. We find from the radio report when we send out fully done press releases in each ready to print everything and they're not picking it up. They're not. >> Yeah. We actually had uh one reporter who calls us pretty routinely every time there's something that comes over the police. >> Oh yeah.
063Yeah. >> Well, I So I called him and I said, "Look, you know, this is an opportunity. How about if you can figure out a way to get this run so that we get some traction on this? when the candid when the person is selected, you can come, you can do a story, you know, you can come in May or June whenever we honor this person and >> yeah, >> unless they're bleeding or on fire, they may not care, >> Right. >> Uh radio uh >> the radio pick up >> local radio stations, Lichfield. >> Yeah, they they were fine with it. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, we have a lot to look at from previous years. So, yeah. And we will get and we'll get we'll get a few. They always connect to
064>> Okay. So, so far so good. And what do we have coming up before our next meeting? Our next meeting is April Fool's Day. So, we have deadlines coming up before that. >> Uh the 13th. So, next Friday is the date we have set for >> for the final submission. which means we might be in a position to choose that person at the April meeting. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I think that was our plan. >> It was it was but uh that's the first of April rather than the 6th or 7th. So it does make a difference. >> Well, would we get the packet on the first and then no narrow down or No, you get the packet at the March board meeting. >> Okay. >> That's what we've done in the past which
065gives us >> and then narrow it down, >> right? gives us a week to look at it and pick our top couple and then we meet a little bit before the April meeting and actually choose. That's worked in the past. >> Other thoughts on that. >> Last item on the agenda is the AI committee progress. I have had volunteers from the board. I have had uh three or four volunteers from the board, couple people, one administrator and one member of the teaching staff. There's still room for a couple more people at this stage. Uh this is the brainstorming stage. This is the beginning of the revenge of the uh >> Oh god, they give me nightmares. Yeah, I had a whole spiel before the first essay tests that I gave to try to relieve that
066anxiety. I realized that it's an anxietyinducing thing. But we may be back to blue books. >> I think we still have some kicking around closets now. >> They're cheap. I mean, compare compared to a computer, you can buy an awful lot of blue books. But anyway, I what what I will do over the weekend is get out something to get to the people who volunteer to see when we can all get together either by Zoom or by um if we do it by Zoom. It would have to be the official school zone, wouldn't it? Because this is a board thing. I can't just use my own personal account. Oh, so Josh could be involved in that, too. Good. >> He's like, >> figure that out for me to do. But I think getting people together,
067the more people there are, of course, the tougher it is to get them or all of almost all or all of them together. But and then we'll figure out how we want to divide the work, how we want to divide the responsibilities, the areas we want to look at and everything else, but I want to brainstorm first with the people who are the most interested and that's where we stand. Was there questions or comments? >> Are you taking more? >> Sure. Should I put your name down? >> Um, >> I would have anyway probably. You can and it will I should be able to zoom in. >> You're being valid told I think >> I'll be I'll be out for surgery for a few weeks. >> I should be able to zoom in. Yeah. But
068I actually have a suggestion of a teacher at the high school um Angel um who's been doing a lot of work around this. Um >> text me or or email me. >> Yeah, I will. Okay. >> Get in touch with that. >> Thank you. >> We don't need a ton of people, but I'd like a few more than we have. I'd like the people who are actually working with it now and can help us figure out what's going on now and how it's working and how maybe should >> email them today. >> Anyway, so that's all on that unless there more to be said or more to be asked the above topics for future meetings. Well, AI the new math program eventually couple months from now maybe. Yeah, because I think April's got to be
069pretty well packed >> because April we have the uh presentation on the substance people, >> the substance organization, the high school board that's going to take up some time. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, but someplace down the line before the end of the year, we'll hear how the new math program is working out. >> Okay. uh early grouping device concerns which may or may not take up a lot of our time. Um anyone else any partner before we'll have the the substance people that'll be part >> probably too late for new courses April for maybe not >> I don't think we have any hanging out there. >> You won't see any from us. >> Well no that's that fire thing is next year. No, no, but I mean in general. >> In general, I
070think I don't think we have any more in the hot right now. >> We've already done that. I hope not. >> Okay. So, >> comments for the good of the >> great presentation by fast and Amanda, Dr. Torres, as expected. Um, you know, we didn't want to lose her at high school, but glad it's it's going as great it is, and I, you know, wouldn't expect anything else knowing how she worked there. >> No. No surprises. >> No surprises there. No, it's been awesome. I actually said said the uh same thing. We were when the team at the high school was, you know, really no longer with the exception of Mr. Scott and Mr. Martian. It's kind of upsetting, you know, cuz I really enjoyed that team, but what you're doing here couldn't be happier.
071Really, that's such a huge testament to everything that you've done and and your hard work and dedication and really the children in this school. I should be so grateful for you your hard work. Thank you. >> I was really impressed with the presentation of Dr. Torres and all the all all the all the growth that's uh that uh that's happening here at the school. Uh unfortunately I wasn't able to come to the school school tour due due to a another commitment which which um this is the school I I wanted to see uh both for my own edification and the fact that I'm delayed I'm from from the board uh to this school. Uh also uh I'm I'm I'm impressed at the at at this stage as how how much thought is has been put
072into into the into the firefighter program that that Mr. Morand is is is proposing great meeting >> just great presentation from fast. Thank you Dr. Torres and teachers of fast. Great work. >> Just say thank you to our staff over at fast. It's definitely takes a village. This has not just been me. Um we have a great team over there and everybody works really hard. So >> thank you for coming. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. Just I want to echo what everybody else is saying. It's such a pleasure to work with you, Amanda, and your team. Um, so thank you to everybody. I know that it's it it's a lot of hard work and everybody's rolling up their sleeves every day and getting it done and it really is a pleasure. It puts smiles
073on our faces every day. So, thank you. >> Congratulations to the staff. It It's absolutely incredible. Dr. Torres, I I have nothing but incredible things to say about you. And I do think the city of Torington and the students are completely benefiting from having the diversification of programming. It's it's clearly meeting the needs. So, thank you. Thank you. >> I know everybody has said it, but I'm going to say the same thing. I just think the staff, you know, um and what Dr. has done at Fast Academy and I think it's a testament with the parent that spoke at the beginning of the meeting about how uh the values that it's bringing to the program and you know definitely kudos to the staff. You know we have two veteran staff members you know like Amy
074said there's one from the high school there's one from the middle school that came in for continuity but we have some new staff members here who are like brand new like new graduates. One of them was a student teacher at the high school and the fact that we have this nice mix of veteran teachers with some new teachers and the collaboration between the high school and fast I think has just been tremendous. So just a great job. >> Okay. you you've done an extraordinary job and to hear the data across behavior and academics and then seeing that seeing the attendance shift that is such a strong testament to what you are doing in each of your classrooms and what you're doing bringing the whole team together it's so clear that the collaboration and programming that
075you've done in six months had just an extraordinary impact and again I want to echo what kids are hearing from that parent told us >> well Josh, >> anyone back there? >> Oh, I should start with you, Jeff. >> Just thank you for helping these kids find their way. It's a they obviously, as you said before, it takes a village and I think you've proven it. Sometimes it just takes a different approach to the village to help make some kids successful. So, thank you to your entire team here and obviously for all the hard work it's obviously having a different the whole goal of the program was. So, thank you all. I had the privilege of subbing for Dr. Torres the one day that she was out. Um, and I I you know, and she
076said, "It's an incredible team, don't worry." And it was just a great day and everybody everybody is a wonderful team and and the feeling of community is is clear. And I had kids come up to me who I I've known for a very long time. Some of the kids who really truly struggled and the fact that they came up to me with smiles and said so happy I'm here and I'm doing well. I'm doing well, Miss Green. >> Yes. So kudos to all of you for the work that you've done. >> Thank you. And I will take the last piece of this community partners family resource center. I sent this out to the board. Family resource center at Google Wetmore is having an open house on the 11th of March 2:30 to 4:30 to uh
077let people see their program, see what's going on and and services they provide to our families. Sue, do you want to say anything about that program or >> about this program for family resources? >> No, just about this. Um, it's been located at Bula Wetmore for a long, long time, but it services the entire community that just happens to be its home. Um, it's staffed by some amazing people. I would recommend stopping in if you haven't had an opportunity in the past to see it in action. They provide many, many wonderful, very necessary services to the community. Um they are partnered with lots of the local agencies and social service support groups in town. They offer uh parenting classes and that sort of thing. So it's it's a really nice group >> and the person
078who runs it does a great job of it. Yeah. And the refreshments are good too. >> 2:30 to 4:30 Wednesday the 11th. And now I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> So move second. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you all.