001Good evening everyone. Evening. Good evening. It's uh June 16th, 2025. It's uh 7:06. Uh this is the regular excuse me, the regular meeting of the Weston uh Board of Education. Jody, are we are we live? Yeah, we are. Okay, great. Thanks. Great. So, uh we have a quorum. The first uh item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, welcome everyone. Uh uh this is our last meeting uh until September. Um quite a bit has been accomplished over over these number of months. Um and it's going to culminate with a rather long meeting tonight. Uh but a rather good meeting. There's a lot
002of interesting things on the agenda. So the next item on the agenda is uh number three, the approval of the minutes. Uh these are the May 19th, 2025 Western Board of Education meeting. Are there any changes uh to the minutes that anyone sees? If not, may I have a motion to approve? Move. Second. All those in favor? I. Next item, item number four is a public comment. Um, as everyone knows, we read a uh I'll read we read a statement before that or I read the statement before that. Uh, the board welcomes the opportunity to hear from members of the public about matters concerning Western public schools. Public comment is an important chance for the board to receive input and feedback from our school community. We listen attentively to all comments shared. While we value
003and pay close attention to public comment, it is our practice not to respond substantively or sometimes not at all during public comment. There are several reasons for this. First, engaging in a discussion on non-aggenda items could violate the board's obligations to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. Second, the board or the administration may not be prepared to discuss certain matters raised in the first instance by a public comment. Third, the board develops its meeting agenda carefully to ensure that the board addresses matters that are pressing or relevant at the time of the meeting. We encourage members of the public with specific questions, concerns, or complaints about our schools to reach out directly to acting superintendent low. You may also email the board at our email address, board of education westernps.org. Additional details on public
004comment at board meetings can be found on our website. Uh and the meeting conduct and bylaws of the board are also uh on our website. With that, uh is there anyone from the public who would like to speak? If you would give us your name and where you live. Thank you. Hi. Hi. I'm Stephanie Fineold and I live at three Pink Cloud Lane. Good evening. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Mothers in Blue, a group of Jewish parents committed to confronting anti-semitism and supporting a safe, inclusive environment for all students. This has been a difficult year for our community. The appearance of seven swastikas on school grounds was painful and deeply concerning. A stark reminder that hate exists even here. But it has also been a year of meaningful collaboration and response. And we're here
005to acknowledge that progress. Tonight, Mothers in Blue sincerely thanks acting superintendent Deborah Lowe for prioritizing this issue and helping lead the district with a clear, thoughtful action plan. We also recognize the principles, administrators, teachers, and staff who supported the work at every level and the board of education for making the response to anti-semitism a priority in the search for Weston's next superintendent. Together, Mothers and Blue and the district have built a true partnership. We've been honored to serve as a resource to all of you. Together, we have worked toward real progress. Districtwide recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month, the start of the implementation of No Place for Hate programming, new committees focused on curriculum and accountability, and more transparent communications when incidences occur. This is just the beginning. There is much more to be done,
006but we are hopeful. We know that the Western School District shares our sense of urgency and commitment, and next year we'll continue to address the hate we've seen with action that helps our schools be safer, stronger, and more inclusive for every student in Weston. Thank you sincerely on behalf of Mothers in Blue. myself, Stephanie Fineold, Carrie Benvie, Hillary Felton, Sherah Coladne, Judy Meadows, Lorie Rosenberger, Jennifer Rubin, and Susie Wolson. Thank you. Thanks, Stephanie. Um, I think we have to commend your group as well. um you know you've been very very supportive and collaborative you know over these you know over this very difficult period very measured um and your recommendations and the collaboration you've had not only with the schools um with Rabbi Freriedman with with Steve Ginsburg I mean I I believe you know
007we're seeing the fruits of everyone's labor and I I can assure you this board will continue it Um because we have to thank you. Uh anyone else like to speak? No. Great. Well, thank you. Uh the next item is item number five, the consent agenda. Uh the first is the reappoint contract modific we need to do is vote to approve. Oh, we're just going to do the whole thing. Okay. Sorry. Uh the motion is uh move that the Western Board of Education approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I have a motion? Is there a second? I second. All those in favor? I I Great. That was good. Uh new business. Yes. These are the gifts. Yep. I can read them. Uh first is uh uh Weston High School PTO donations in the amount of
008$2,600 to furnish uh the math lab, $2,600 to furnish the literacy lab, $3,200 for student lounge furniture, and $5,200 to support our partnership with Challenge Success, and $500 donation to the county assembly's charity ball. Uh, we need a motion to approve. Move that the Western Board of Education approve and accept the donations as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I opposed. Uh, the second item is uh the WHIS PTO donation in the amount of $3,000 for custom window film on entry doors. May I have a motion to approve? move that the Western Board of Education accept the WHIS donation as presented. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? I I think next item is uh the 20245 district improvement plan. Um at your prior meeting, uh this year we decided
009to break the plan. Oh, sorry. At the last meeting, the board heard the first sections of the year end summary. And tonight, you're going to hear the last two sections led by uh Dr. Hankle and um then school climate. Um Dr. Edwards will kick that off and the principles will also summarize. And I think there is um presentation for this. So, let me move out of the way. Okay, as it pulls up, good evening everyone. Um, as Superintendent Low mentioned, this is part two of our uh district improvement plan focusing on our academic goals as well as our school climate goals. Um we have um condensed this presentation slightly to focus only on the district goals um that we presented in the fall. So we're going to separate those out into our math achievement data
010as well as our math growth data and then move on into our ELA achievement and growth data as well before I hand over the microphone to um Dr. Edwards who will focus on the school climate data and our progress in those areas. So to start um what you will see um that we have adjusted this um from maybe the winter or the fall is we have added a column uh based on our spring you see that Michael I know I was listening uh spring 2024 um achievement based on our goals from last year. So, one thing to keep in mind is that it is a different cohort. It's a different group of students from spring 2024. But we always are asked how we are determining our goals. And that is one metric that we look
011at. We look at last year's achievement and growth. We look at our fall data based on the current students we have um in that school year. And then we look at our um what we believe as a a statistical significant metric that would um determine our target for the end of the school year. So in this case um again we do not have our standardized assessment data. So smarter balanced and next generation um science assessments as well as our SAT scores are not have not been released yet. So our focus tonight is just looking at our universal screening assessments for both math and literacy. um math we use NWA primarily and then for literacy you'll see we use Dibbles 8 and NWA as well. So here's a highle snapshot of our district goals and our
012pro the progress that we have made this year. Um you can see that some of our areas of success in our early grades in K through2 um our spring 2025 results show 96% of our students in K through2 met or exceeded the 50th percentile based on the NWA assessment. 50th percentile means that they are on grade level. Um and our target was 84. So, you know, kudos to K through two, our Hurbut um teachers and administrators because that was a huge feat from the fall from 79%. Great job there. Um and just a reminder, we always look at achievement and growth. And so the goals at the above the green line are achievement and the goals below the green line are growth. Moving down to growth, some of our areas of success, um we see
013that 80% of our students met or exceeded their growth targets. Um so we have um we have exceeded that goal uh by by 1% and also um our students with disabilities reached the 71% uh target in the spring of 25 which was a 13point gain from winter um uh and four points above um for spring. So kudos to all of the staff um in grades um across the district grades one through nine. So, one area of focus that you can uh probably zoom in on is grade nine specifically in math. This has been a goal of ours over the last couple years. We are closing that gap slightly. Um we are seeing that while our proficiency dipped um in the wintertime, we did rebound and uh partially only slightly missed our target by 3% um
014below our our target of 79%. We've been doing some work around algebra 1 curriculum and instructional practices in small groups. Um looking at curriculum and um supporting our teachers through our our coaching support this year. And so we um know that we're going to continue some of that work moving into the summer and also as we start the school year. Um I'm not going to read all the individual bullets on the action steps that we'd like to highlight from the winter. Um but you'll see some common through lines from math and reading. Um you'll notice that we have really been focusing on opportunities to look at student work. Um we've done a lot of work around curriculum development in both uh mathematics and reading. We've also, as you know, been updating our core curriculum resources
015across the district in math and literacy. and we want to continue um deepening those resources and supporting our teachers unpack those resources so that they transfer into the classroom. Yes, sir. So when dips from mid70s to 50 and then rebounds, so there's an asterisk asterisk there in the winter if you remember. Um we adjusted our data in the in the winter of this school year. um because we focused only on algebra 1 students in in math specifically. We do have students that are in nth grade but in other courses they could be in pre-calc, they could be in algebra 2. And so that posed a scheduling uh um difficulty for us. And so in the winter, if you recall, we actually adjusted who we assessed um this year and we only focused on algebra students.
016And so that's why there is an asterisk. So it is not a oneto-one correspondence. So really we're looking at the endofear goal um because those are all 9th graders regardless of the courses that they're sitting in. So is spring to spring? It's really spring to spring is probably a better way to look at it. Absolutely. Yeah, good question. Um so going back to our action steps that we'd like to highlight. Um some of the work that our teachers and our curriculum and instruction leaders have been focusing on from winter to spring. They have been working on one-to-one student goal setting conferences with students, especially in grade eight. Um, and we're using our intervention resources to create customized plans, um, in individualized plans focusing on some of our intervention programs that we have such as. Um,
017these tools actually connect some of the NWA data with each other so that students when they're using some of these programs have a more customized plan and they're more specialized based on what their goals are. Um, we've also been focusing on our multi-tiered system of support and that structure is where our curriculum and instruction leaders are supporting um, teachers unpack data, transfer data into um, specific instructional strategies and really understand um, what the individual needs are of the students are throughout the school year. Um and then finally, we've, as I mentioned, our curriculum and improvement um cycles. We are starting a new core resource in grades two and five to align to grades six through 8. That core resource is called illustrative math. That's our first year of implementation in grades two and five. Next
018year, we're going to adopt grades 1, 3, and four. So in one more year we'll have a very coherent um alignment of curriculum uh from grades 1 through 8. Um and we feel that that is really going to support some of our coherence around standardsbased instruction and what we're trying to um support throughout the district um to elevate our curriculum. And then last we've been doing some work with family engagement. uh we've been providing a lot of parent events to support some of the instructional strategies and growth mindset and problem solving um from the classroom and then at home so we can really increase some of the partnerships between our um our teachers and our parents to understand what some of those strategies are that the teachers are teaching in the classroom and they can
019repeat some of those strategies at home. Um moving on to literacy. Um, as I mentioned again, uh, in literacy, we're focusing on our universal screening assessments. Um, this is the first year that we've done Dibbles 8. As you recall, when we adopted our new core resource, American Reading Company, for reading, it also came with the transition of our universal screener, um, which is Dibbles 8. This is the first year that we've adopted grade three with Dibble Dibbles 8. Last year it was grades K through two. Um and so we've seen some really great um progress um with the first year of implementation for K through three. So in spring 2025, you'll see 94% of our students in grades K through three met the grade level proficiency target and that has significantly outperformed our target of
02085%. So kudos to our teachers and our principles um for that first year of implementation for grade three. Um students with disabilities in grades K through three rose um to 82% in the spring which is a 13 point um increase above target. Um grade nine NWA proficiency we have met or exceeded the goal at 85% in the winter and although we saw a slight dip to um in 78% in the spring we've still closed that gar that uh that target um of 82%. And then last, another great success uh focusing on our students with disabilities in grades three through nine. We've seen some steady improvement across the year um and uh to 56% and we've exceeded that target of 50%. Um one area here in ELA that we'd like to focus on and moving into
021next school year is the overall growth in grades 3 through 9. Um we narrowly missed that growth target um which was 60% by 2%. So we are closing that gap but we would like to dive a little deeper into understand um what individual students and how much they've met me missed their growth target by remember this data point in the beginning of the year if NWA says hey you need to you need to score 10 points in order to be deemed growth and you miss it by and you only grow nine points it's a yes or no. So in some cases we have students that miss that growth target by like one point and we can go a little bit deeper um in that area when we unpack it in the spring uh in the
022fall next year. Um so again some common themes um across the ELA area as well. Um this year we've done a lot of work around our multi-tered system of support. Um that is our data teams and our intervention teams that we're working with across the district. We adjusted our handbook this year and this is the first year that we've been rolling out some of those systems and structures that are in place and we feel really confident that this year we've done a great job of of using those systems to support teachers with protocols and being more efficient with how we analyze data and how we transfer that data into action into the classroom. Sometimes that's easier said than done. Um and they've uh our curriculum instruction leaders have been really focusing on small group tier
023one um data analysis, transferring that data into action and strategies. And we really feel that that individual um small group time that we've had with teachers at specific grade levels and looking at individual groups of students is really helping us differentiate. It's helping us meet the needs of the kids that are in front of us and it's really making our conversations more purposeful and intentional when it comes to analyzing the da the data. Um the third bullet down again a common theme is curriculum updating. So we are now in our second year of a new core resource at Hess with American Reading Company. um we still are providing a lot of support for teachers and unpacking that resource and this is the first year at WIS um that they are adopting the American Reading Company.
024So even despite some of our first and second year rollouts, we're still seeing a lot of great improvements because um our teachers and our leaders are really supporting those systems and structures around data analysis. So those two things coupled together are really we're seeing some really great um improvement over the last couple years. And then again, as I mentioned, a lot of school-to-home uh conversations, partnerships with parents, explaining what these new curriculum resources are, explaining what are some of the resources that they could help teachers transfer some of that information at home and and revisit some of those concepts and strategies at home. Um, and so that kind of concludes our brief update for ELA and math. And I'm going to hand it over to Tracy and she's going to talk about some of our
025school climate goals. [Music] Thank you. Good evening everybody. Um the purpose of the next couple of slides is to outline just some highlights from the Panorama survey. So to reorient you to that process, we started the Panorama survey in fall of 2024, so this school year with the intention of administering it in the fall and the spring for our first year of implementation. And as a result, we didn't set specific targets percentage-wise because our baseline assessment hadn't been completed when we developed the goals. Um, so what we did for our end ofear update is we looked at our overall goal and specifically the key words within that goal about um students feeling like they are part of an inclusive environment, educators and families feeling as though they are safe, welcome, and supported in our schools.
026Um the panorama survey has many questions uh for the student survey, the staff survey, and the family survey. Again, these are just a couple of highlights to underscore the themes in the goal. Um and I do want to explain the questions just a little bit so that you can understand the data that you're looking at. Um, for the first student question, and we looked at it for both grades 3 through 5 and 612, how well do people at your school understand you as a person? You can see that this is reported out in the percentage of quote favorable responses. Um, the responses that earn a favorable result for this question are completely understand or understand quite a bit. Um the responses of understand somewhat, understand a little or do not understand at all are deemed
027not favorable. Um and I can tell you that for each of these questions, the group uh right below the favorable rating in this case understand somewhat is a very high percentage of our our responses and we have a very low percentage of responses falling in those much more concerning categories. Um, in terms of how much do you feel like you belong at your school, again, the language is completely belong or belong quite a bit to yield that favorable percentage versus belong somewhat, belong a little bit, or do not belong at all. And again, for those non-favorable responses, the highest rating we see is belong somewhat. Um, so there's some wording in in the question that I think is potentially a factor and we can dig into this data much more at a later date. You
028can also see in the um parentheses the response rate fall to spring. There was consistency in grades 3 through 5, a more significant drop in response rate for 612. um we had some decreases in our favorable results for grades three five and the opposite was true in 612 where we generally had increased favorable responses. Oh, thanks. Um the survey was also administered to staff, teachers, and families. Um and again we're looking at how much the adults in our learning communities feel a sense of belonging. And the question that uh seemed most appropriate to measure that was overall how positive is the working environment in your school. We looked at that same question for staff and teachers. Um just so you understand again the favorable responses staff and teachers would need to say extremely positive or
029quite positive for a favorable result whereas somewhat positive, slightly positive or not positive at all um fall outside of those percentages. You can see we have a very low response rate for um the staff data and a a significant drop in favorable percentage um from fall to spring. um teachers had more consistency in terms of response rate, but we also saw a decrease in those results. And that's a point that we need to pay an awful lot of attention to as a district and as a leadership team at central office. Um finally, the Panorama survey asks a number of questions of families. We did ask families to complete one survey per child. Um so we had a I mean a relatively low response rate uh thinking about the size of our population but enough to
030be able to draw some conclusions. Um and the question was how big of a problem is the following issue for becoming involved in your child's current school? The school is not welcoming to parents. I know the wording of this question is a little bit complicated. Um the responses that are deemed favorable are not a problem at all or a small problem. Um and then the non-favorable ratings are medium large or a very large problem. Um and so that's what the data is showing us a slight increase there from fall to spring for the family survey. At this point, I'll turn it over to the principles to give some highlights from their buildings and we'll start with Hurlbutt. Thank you. We continue to work on our social emotional curriculum and we had a very nice addition
031to our work this year in the implementation of our feeling spots program in our ELC and uh piloted in most of our kindergarten classes. It's a program that really brings feelings a little more visually accessible to students and they absolutely loved it. They talk about it all the time. So, we're excited about that and we'll definitely be expanding it a little more regularly in the kindergarten classes. That was a it's a nice precursor and kind of a stepping stone into the mood meter work that we do. We also um continue to work on classroom lessons through the ruler program, the Yell Center for Emotional Intelligence. And a big step for us in the work is really getting students to work on their advocacy skills, which I know is as they move throughout the schools becomes
032more and more important. And we want students to feel ownership of knowing they have adults to go to if something is bothering them. So that's been a continued focus for us. All of our staff was trained this year at the beginning stages of restorative practices. That will continue to be a focus next year as we go deeper into that work. And as Tracy mentioned, we will continue to work on the climate survey results. We were hoping to have more responses to the climate survey from both staff and families. Uh we thought even with all of the reminders and the extra communications we sent out this spring um we did feel that the numbers were a little bit low and we would love to have more feedback and participation on those. So we'll be we will
033continue to focus on that next year. Great. Good evening. Whoops. Hi. So, one of the um key areas under this um a uh action is looking to try to increase the sense of belonging in school for our students in uh or our students and for our families. Um so, we really were looking at are there areas where our our students interests or their talents um that we were not really supporting them enough or they wanted more of that we were not having programs for. So this year we we um came up with quite a few enrichment opportunities um such as our coding club um our whis feelgood club which was a program that really was inspired by our fifth graders. It runs Monday mornings so that you can get a good jump start to the
034year to the week and have be positive. And then um our literature club um which culminated in a literary magazine for our school. um kids wanted to have more opportunities to really write um freewrite um stories, poems, um comics. So, that was a really nice success. Um and I really have to give a a nice shout out to Shelley Rhinus who was our library media specialist who really um spearheaded a lot of these clubs as well as Kate Longo who's our PAR professional in the library. Um they also worked with our students to really take on those leadership roles and to really encourage them to say, "What do you what what do you want? what would you like more of? In our school, we also worked on um increasing those opportunities for family participation as
035well. We uh held several book clubs around the book um the anxious generation which resulted in some wonderful discussions and some thoughts about where we go next year and what we're doing in our school. Um we also increased our um parent volunteers in our library having them come in and um not only just shelf books but also interact with students and have some fun activities that that they wanted to share with them. And then we um started something new this year and that was having um parents and their and their child um do some guest interviews for our morning news um especially this year was around Jewish heritage um Jewish American heritage month um and the Asian um heritage month um and that was really a nice addition um for our students and our parents.
036Um as Laura said um our staff was also trained in the restorative practices um this year and which will continue on into next year as well. Thank you, Patty. So, at the middle school, we also were focusing on um that sense of belonging and the feelings of connection. I'm actually going to maybe take my my bullet points from the bottom up. Uh I'm really proud of the establishment of the eighth grade peer leadership program that our our school counselors have um taken over and really led. those uh eighth grade peer leaders have been active throughout the school year. Uh sometimes in a very formal role. Uh we used them for example a few weeks back when our fifth graders came up for their transition and it was the eighth grade peer leaders who gave the
037tours of the building. But they've also done some things more informally. Uh a group of them decided to create a new segment on our Weston Warrior morning show. uh they call it the hype team and they really just go around the school talking to students in other grade levels. And it's it's interesting because most of the middle school is segregated by grade level and that was an opportunity for the um for the sixth and seventh graders to interact with the eighth graders in a meaningful way. Um I think I've spoken already about the fact that we've rebranded our schoolwide advisory program uh which we now call connect and uh we've continue to expand those activities to focus on um the sense of belonging and the initiatives uh in those in those advisory lessons those connect
038activities really um work throughout the year to build connections and actually culminate in our our warrior day which was very successful this year. Uh the top one is has been um the most serious one and um we had about 30 individuals, students, uh staff, parent community, administrators uh come together for a 2 and 1/2 hour training session um by ADL so that we would be prepared uh to launch the no place for hate program uh in the fall. So that was the formation of our no place for hate committee. Um the plan is for that committee to meet monthly next year and uh to start the year off with a kickoff celebration and then have at least three activities throughout the year uh that are composed of student organized student activities uh that must have
039some interaction involved in them um with a strong message um about inclusivity. and a safe welcoming place for all. So, um I'm very happy to be um turning that over. I know that uh Jason Bluestein, the the new incoming principal, is uh committed to this work. Uh Drew Walters, the assistant principal, was also a part of the training committee. So, it's got a lot of momentum and um I'm sure great things will happen next year as a result of that. [Music] Thanks, Dan. Um at the high school uh we this is an end of the year um kind of summary of the high school work. We're always continuing to build on our packed curriculum which is our uh weekly advisory um as well as we've implemented uh link crew over the past couple of years
040as well and that's ongoing in terms of our 8th to 9th grade transition and our upperassmen uh leading that work. We also took time to refine our final exam schedule using the feedback from the midterm schedule. One of the points that the students um and staff made was using flex time on our uh final review days which we did a final review day and in the morning students go to four of their classes and then in the afternoon they're able to schedule the time in the appropriate courses that they can choose that they need the extra help in. Um so we got some positive feedback and that was a shift from the midterm schedule where we had students scheduled for the entirety of that day. So giving some students ownership um of the review that
041they needed and the extra help that they might need in preparation for their finals. Um we also uh had to in terms of our cell phone free environment at the high school uh we had two pilot away for the day days which were um a greater success than we thought they were going to be. Uh we challenged students to keep their phones away for the day voluntarily um in May and to our surprise we had over 180 students volunteer to put their phones away and they received a button that they wore proudly throughout the school day uh to showcase the fact that they gave up their phones for the day. So we then worked with that momentum and uh we did three cell phone free Fridays in June. And again, um, we were pleasantly I
042wouldn't I'm not going to even say surprised. Um, we have amazing kids who came in and they committed to having their those cell phone free Fridays and they worked with us to be sure that their phones were stowed um away ideally in their backpacks. Sometimes there were some in the pockets, but they were not out. Um, so which was progress heading into the next school year. understanding that we've had two away for the days and and three cell phone Fridays, we're going to continue to go and build on that momentum and we're going to start the school year off in a pilot. Um we have our first board meeting about 3 weeks into the year. So we're going to start with what I'm calling an entry and exit cell phone free environment, which means for
043our students um our upper classmen have a limited um open campus where if they have a free period they can leave and they can go get lunch and come back. And so we're understanding that the cell phone can serve a purpose once they leave the building, but inside the building, we're asking those to be stowed away at the start of the year. So we're going to pilot that in the first quarter. And just as I'm sharing with you now about the success of the 20 away for the days and the three cell phone free Fridays, I'll be able to share with you updates um and feedback from staff and students um on those first three weeks of school in a cell phoneree environment where students are stowing their phones in their backpacks upon entry until
044they exit. So we're really calling it an entry to exit cell phone free environment. Um, we also held a student well-being workshop virtually for families in partnership with Challenge Success. Our coach, Dr. Brandon Wy, hosted that. Um, if you'll remember last year, we hosted a um, student well-being and a healthier approach to college admissions workshops, which were really wellreceived. So, this was kind of a combination of those in a virtual environment. We have it recorded, so I'll be able to share that out in a timely way um, as we head into those um, moments in our high school school year. Um we were surprised to see what a positive impact removing the center carols in the library. So while this is kind of a facilities thing um it really did change the climate and environment
045in the library and really lends itself to a really open space and contributed to some really group and collaborative collaborative work environments in there. Um, and then we are also we've also finalized our plans for the renovation, paint and furniture of our student lounge, which for those of you who don't know is on our galleria hallway and is has typically been known as the senior lounge, but given the open campus privileges that our upperassmen have, we're really creating a student lounge in there. And so with the support of the um former class gifts of the class of 23 and 24 and the endorsement of our student government in choosing the furniture and the pallet and um some of the design um we're happy to launch that this summer as well. I didn't like the way
046they looked. And um you you they really blocked the view so when you walked in the center carols um you couldn't it just kind of shut down half the library. Um and so I really want to thank our facilities crew um from electricians uh to carpenters to our custodians. It ended up being a bigger job than we thought it was going to be. Um but um I'll give a special shout out to uh Billy Gh who is our electrician who was up in the ceiling for much longer than we thought he was going to have to be. Um but the kids really have had a really positive response to it. It's also helped to facilitate a lot of the work um that collaborative space for students. We've showcased various student projects in there this year
047without the impediment in the second semester. Um some of you might have seen the ninth grade projects that were just displayed. We've also had in former in previous years we've had some health projects. So it just really opens up the space to showcase um student work and it's an awesome place for us to also meet as a staff a much warmer environment for that collaboration um rather than the cafeteria. Selfishly, that's this will be the first year that our summer curriculum academy is going to be working in that and that's we always use that space and because we've gotten so big now now because that center that center carousel um equipment is removed, it's now large enough space for all of us to be in one area together and work collaboratively. So, I'm also very
048thankful that it's been removed. Um so you can see that um we've done a lot of intentional work and really thought through some of the ways that how school climate and academic achievement kind of go hand inand. Um and that concludes our kind of highle overview of our district goals. It actually concludes um most of our goals that we've set forth from the fall to the spring. And then when we do our September um opening presentation, we also do an overview of the standardized assessment scores which include Smarter Balanced, NGSS and SAT at that time. So we'll revisit this again, actually go a little deeper and focus on some grade level data as well um in this in the fall. Any questions? I have a few. Go ahead. No, no, I have a couple. Do
049you do you want to do sections like Sure. Okay. So, um I I have both sections. Oh, I do too. You too. Okay. Great. Shocking. Okay. We rehearsed this before we got here. Yeah. We're we're asking it was a long lunch. Yeah. Stay here. Go ahead. Okay. My first question just is more about the the goals that are set for Weston. Sure. We always compare ourselves to other Duray districts. So the two questions I have is where are our goals relative to other duray and where are our results relative to other duray. So I think Michael you asked those questions also I think um our universal screening assessments are um each individual district creates their own goals based on their own assessments. Every district does things differently. I can tell you Durge districts don't all
050use NWA and frankly even with the Dibbles 8 assessment there is a battery of assessments that districts can choose from they all don't choose Dibbles 8. Um so when you're looking at universal screening assessments the curriculum based or the assessments that we choose um it's not those are not publicly released and they're not all onetoone. So comparing those wouldn't be apples to apples. What we do do in the fall is we look at our standardized assessment scores. We look at our ST uh smart bounce. We look at NGSS. We look at um SAT and we also if you recall our next generation accountability system and is also a comparative metric across districts. So those have not been released yet. But when we do the fall um report, we do bring up a chart and we
051look at where we rank compared to our regional um um districts. So that's more to come on that. Good question on this topic. So Tina, so I appreciate this. This has been over the last two years since I've been done a great job. parsing out the data, you know, showing us clear targets and sort of how how this has evolved. So, this is great. Um, couple things. I have I guess my most diffult, um, my most difficult question, I guess, is one that you may not be able to answer, but how do you disentangle the attribution of the results? So, um 96% for K through2, right? Versus a target of 84. That's a tremendous number. Um you guys should be commended for that obviously. And I'm biased because my two kids are younger, but um
052Principal Cadis has done a masterful job over at Hurbut. So, um I've really appreciate her efforts and she's all she's very supportive. Um and so just hats off to her. I I know everyone does this um across the district and I and I appreciate that. Um how do how do you disentangle that though? So some things that some reasons or um factors that I can think of is the cohort itself, right? Um you have additional instructional support. um you have a it's a new curriculum, but now you've had an additional year of the new curriculum. So, how do you what do you attribute to that just outperformance? I'm just picking on that one number of the 96%. Like h how how do you know what's effective in terms of what we're doing and you know
053and what's not? What's really contributing to that? Well, I can tell you we break it down by grade level. Yep. So at your at the school improvement level, you if you look at the individual plans, the leaders actually do unpack that data a little bit more granularly than we do at the district level when we're looking at targets because at the our district goals are typically combined goals and it's typically reported out based on a common assessment. So all the students that complete dibbles 8, that's typically how we build our goals. And yes, it's an average. If you unpack that, which is what the schools do every year, they actually disagregate um general education subgroup data, which is our students with disabilities. We look at individual grade levels. We look at um three-year trend data
054if we have it. We look at fall, winter, spring. Um we look at curriculum based assessments also. um it's really hard to put a snapshot of all of that information on one slide, but at the school level um they take a variety of different metrics into into into play when they're looking at their school-based goals. Um K12 is typically um at a higher level uh performance-wise right now. Um I think their momentum around the multi-tered system of supports are really leading the way around data teams, data analysis and some of those structures to support individual teams of teachers. Um we can see that if I I mean I just unpacked K12 before I even got here and kindergarten itself 98% of our kindergarteners are um on grade level at the end of the year for
055for math. Uh, first grade is at 97. Um, I'm sorry, 92 and grade two is at 97. Um, so they're already our our youngest students are leading the way in um in the early literacy and the early numeracy assessments, right? It it's it's it's hard because you know I look at that and I say well are the are these like a really smart like cohort of kids or is the is it the curriculum and now another year of that curriculum is that really making a difference? Well, we're in year two. Yeah. Um and I would say that the first year we had a lot of success in our first year. This is our second year and we've had even more success. Um, I would also say that our subgroup data, our students with disabilities, we're
056seeing that we're closing gaps um in certain grade levels based on um our curriculum and also based on the small groups of um teams that teachers are working on unpacking the assessments and being very intentional and specific with individual plans for students even if they're not students with disabilities. So, so for all kids and also what are our interventions that we're using um to help support for students in kindergarten, first grade, second grade um early on, right? So, none of our teachers, none of our reading consultants, none of our curriculum instruction leaders wait until the spring. Um they take that fall data and we start moving and creating small groups. we start intervening and we start um identifying what the individual goals are for the students based on reading and based on early numerousy. Laura,
057did you want to add anything? I could see your wheels turning to No. No. Okay. Yeah, sure. Um yeah, I'll just add to what Tina said. I think we you know we are always looking continually at the data not just the three times a year we give the assessments but you know the teachers do that on a daily basis and looking right down to the individual student level what do they need every day and what's the next step in their development and certainly we are seeing some carryover um from prior years in the literacy you know the math uh second grade it was the first year implementation and uh we were very well supported with professional development and the teachers were given time to work together to really unpack those units understand them and then
058figure out what they needed to work on for each individual student. And we, you know, we were thrilled with the results. Um, you know, but we did have, you know, a strong base to start with. And I will give I have to give a shout out to the ELC. They're doing so much work at the ELC level, too, for the students that are in our program to prepare them to start kindergarten. Yeah. And just generally speaking, yes, every year you have a new group of students, but I will say what stays the same, and this is why it's important to be coherent um and have a clearly articulated curriculum. What stays the same can be our teachers and our curriculum. And every year we get stronger um with a consistent um resource and a consistent
059process to help unpack and support teachers. So um there is a I feel there is a direct correlation every time we do the academic year and review. I know um that's part of our subcommittee work and that's why I put up the posters today. But some of this is very qualitative in nature and you know looking at student work looking at practices with adults um it does show the quantitative results based on what we're doing. And then my my my final question on this section is um look you guys have raised the target. So I'll I'll piggyback off of the topic of what David brought up which was um you have raised the target. So last I went back and I saw last year that for example the 84% or more of K through2 students
060I think last year that was 80 or 81 and then below in the growth section which I thought was astounding um last year that 80% or more of grade one one to nine will meet or exceed growth targets that was 59% last year that was the goal and this year the goal was 80. So, I guess it it it does seem like um and you've you've mentioned this, Tina, that it does seem like the goal is at least partly determined by maybe what what has been trending, what the cohort has done. And so, next year, if we were to look at this, should I expect to see, for example, that 84% goal trend upwards even higher than than than what it is today? Again, we look at our spring targets, right? Then we also want
061to look at our fall baseline with students. We take that information. We do look at three-year trends and then we we typically use a statistically significant number like 3 to 5% something that is um achievable may aggressive but also we want to make sure that we try to achieve something. So um the answer is yes. David. Oh thank you. Uh, so I guess we'll move on to the uh next section. Okay. Does anyone else have any questions on the I had a math observation shocking. I'll go back. Uh, and I, you know, I'll stand up because I think Do you want a pointer, Mr. Gordon? Teacher Gordon. What I really like is this because I think this is like the new battleground, right? to start the new asset test for the capabilities of our students
062because this is sort of that what's the term executive skills. They've learned how to learn math going into nth grade. We we had we were like wondering you know we had a little remedial pre-algebra class right now they've learned how to learn math. So this is this is pretty slick because when you're at 61st percentile you're actually operating at like 10th or 11th grade nationally. It's it's a grade ahead of 50th percentile which is that great. Right. Is on grade. Mhm. The reason this is a really good number, we should focus on it because what happens a grade or two later, they take their math SAT, right? So, they're able to do this, which has sprinklings of algebra one. I just happen to know this because I went through NWA in seventh grade this year,
063maybe has a sprinkling of algebra 2, and that's what's on the SAT. So, my point is it goes back to eighth grade. If you have eighth graders that are pretty good in algebra one and a few are taking geometry, right, they're they're going to do much better here. So the key is to get as many kids as we can taking algebra one in eighth grade because that sets them up both in analytical skills but in the exe executive skills to do here really well. So I mean one of the goals would be the more kids we have doing algebra one the better the business here on this observation that I would add that the goal is to ensure that all of our students have a really strong foundation in algebra 1. not necessarily to accelerate
064them too quickly to get to that point because we know that what the research shows is that a strong foundation in algebra skills supports them in higher level mathematics like calculus and and beyond. So accelerating or pushing them through too quickly without ensuring that they have a deep understanding of the algebra skills does not support them in the long run. So I just want to make sure I clarify. I think that's what you're saying correct. Well, I didn't say accelerate. I see. Okay. I see. On algebra. Okay. Yes. Agreed. Agreed. Good observation. So, my question doesn't require me to do any of that up there. Just uh I mean I could probably make it work if you want, but no. Uh I have a couple questions about district culture and climate. Um my first question
065is at least from where I sit, the middle school is such a unique group of students and age and all those other things. Why are we grouping 6 to 12 together and not breaking them out? Yeah, we we can disagregate the data by gradeband. Um the reason why they're grouped like this is be because the assessment questions are the same on Panorama. So the three five questions are worded uh differently than they are for 612. So again, this is a composite because as a district we're looking at apples to apples. So 35 612. Can we get a copy that's broken out? Because again, the middle school is such a unique it's a unique age group, right? They're they're they're going through so many changes and stuff. And I'd love it. It it'd be super interesting,
066at least to me. Let me back up one minute. When we look at the word favorable, for example, it's it's kind of a misnomer, right? 51% favorable is actually better than 41%, right? Because 51% favorable means correct. Sorry. So you're right. How well do people do at your school? How well do people at your school understand you as a person? If the response is positive, it's considered favorable. Correct. Okay. So you want a a higher favorable number to show progress in those areas. And just as a reminder, because we we talked about this in the fall during our subcommittee meeting when we looked at the fall panorama results, all of these questions have uh an odd number of responses. And so if you are on the fence or in the middle of any of these
067responses, it is considered unfavorable. But but it is the same test in the fall and correct test. It is the same survey in the fall and the spring. So, so you still have you would you would still have that same consideration or challenge. Yes. I just want to make sure that when we think about these questions and the responses. Yes. We have to really make sure that when people are responding, they're either on the plus side, not in the middle. Right. I think it would be really helpful to get that. We can we can easily separate. Sure. Something not a problem. Um and then my other question is one moment. What do you what is the re I think it was under the district culture climate. Um what do you attribute this super low response
068rate especially among um actually across the board I think even families is pathetically low. We I mean we did talk about it. I think um this year in particular we have seen um at least a couple years that I've been here we haven't seen such a decline in the spring survey data. Um there may be a little fatigue out there when it comes to survey. There was a a variety of surveys that we were asking parents to do. Um even students, you could see some of that fatigue at the student level also even though we've created structures for them to complete the survey. Um we talked about um how if we want to increase survey responses, we don't necessarily need to do two surveys in a year. We could look at a fall to fall
069or a spring to spring. Um by law we have to we have to do it by annually every other year. Um the reason we did it fall and spring this year was because this was a new tool. We wanted to gather a baseline and then we wanted to look at some progress for the end of the year. We I mean full transparency we might be over surveying. Yeah that is a possibility. Yeah, I mean I think as a parent um having it in the fall and spring are interesting because it shows progress during the the year especially when it comes to across the board but you know parent perception. Um maybe the surveys I know when I took the survey I had surve I had survey fatigue rather than survey fatigue. I like in other
070words there was so many questions questions. I would prefer to take the survey in the fall and the spring with fewer questions um than only take one survey a year. So I think to your point there might be survey fatigue, but I think it's the it it's a commitment to to to do panorama and nobody has time, you know, but so I would just say I think it would be really helpful to continue to do it in the fall and the spring because it shows improvement if there is any and clearly we've seen some level of improvement in most cases um except for the students but shorter surveys. And then my very last question is um what do you attribute the uh the the the lower favorable in the 3 to five grade? Because I
071would naturally think right because if I'm looking the six 67% favorable is a lower score for students feel less like they belong in the spring than the fall, right? and same um how how well does the people understand you as a person and I think that's really interesting because you would think in the fall there's a lot of apprehension especially among the students about what is this year going to be like and so when you see a lower number uh that's like to me extra concerning so do we have anything that digs in deeper as to this because this kind of probably forms their their mindset set. Yeah. When they show up in uh fourth grade um you know having So is there any Yeah, we again we have the ability to disagregate the student
072data. It's not anonymous. We can actually look at classes. We can look at counselors and uh counselors that they're working with. We could look at grade levels. Um we did not unpack that data at this time. Um we looked at just overall school results. Um but we can we can definitely look further into it if you wanted to add anything. Yeah, I do think a factor for this um grade level cohort in particular and Patty you can weigh in is testing which is happening at the exact same time and really for the for the first time in this way in their school career. So um of course there's assessment and evaluation at Hurlbut but third grade students are taking Smarter Balance for the first time. May is a very intense assessment month and while I
073have not met with students to ask them directly, I think that that very likely contributed to these feelings, the the classroom experience feels a little bit different because you're, you know, engaging in assessment versus the type of learning that you've been doing the rest of the school year. Okay. Yeah. I think it would just really be helpful to figure that out because that is the inverse of what you would sort of expect from fall to spring. But I think you are that's potentially spot on, right? the students are stressed. They're taking all these tests and they, you know, my son was like more tests. It's like test, test, test. So, the environment in his mind is completely different. So, absolutely. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I guess I just have one more because you
074asked a bunch of them. Um, on the teacher front, so that favorability went down as well and so did the response. So, curious um and and staff as well. And so, look, staff is a is a it's a it's a smaller set. Um, but I'm curious, if you took these two together, um, what would you attribute that decline to? Any any any guesses? I think this has been a very challenging spring and a very um unsettling and unpredictable spring for staff when you think about the experiences um within the district from a a leadership standpoint. um the behavioral challenges and incidents that we're dealing with that impacts the adults who are standing in front of children. Um and I think I think that's what we're seeing here. I think it's a wake-up call for us
075because I think we have an obligation to make sure that um no matter what's going on in the schools that our teachers feel like this is an exciting and good and positive place to be. And I think that was just honestly very hard to achieve this spring in particular. Well, and it's interesting because if I if I look at this data and then I go back to the 6 to 12, right? Um those favorable numbers what actually went up. Mhm. And so you would think that let's say given the challenges to the climate, right, and what's the the incidents that have happened, you you you know, I would think, okay, that affects, let's say, teachers and staff, that would also affect students potentially as well because they're in this, you know, um in this environment
076as well. Um so is it was it a leadership you know I I presume that the leadership challenges let's let's call them um wouldn't necessarily impact the students directly they wouldn't necessarily see that impact maybe that impacts the staff and the teachers more so I I think some of the it was just interesting the the moments since you know midway of the year are still fresh and I think when you look at surveys in general kind of what we talked talked about the fatigue before. We need time to reconnect and re-establish um what we're seeing as far as positive working environments, for example, that one in particular question. Um and so that's why we kept coming back to saying maybe if we did another one in the fall, it's too soon. We need, you know,
077we need time before we ask these questions again. And we can't ignore what they're trying what our staff and our teachers are saying. And that's that's some of the work that, as Tracy said, we're we are mindful of and and the leaders are mindful of. And we have some work to do in that area. And we know that we have your support. And we know that um as things transition, we have two new principles. We have a um a new superintendent at at some point. And that will help us reestablish some of that positive working environment hopefully and maybe that we rethink about when we reassess and we'll get some more valid data. I think we also have to and I'm not minimizing the improvement for the 612 survey, but you do have to be
078mindful that the number of survey responses was significantly different fall to spring. And so I'm not I'm not exactly sure what the impact was on that overall data because of such a significant difference. It's not like the 35 data where we're off by two students. We have a difference of you know like 400. Um so that's another factor for fall to spring in that data set. I mean, sure, it it could be that those people that didn't those students that didn't respond would have responded negatively and so those those numbers are artificially high given the smaller sample set. Totally understand that. Okay. All right. Now, I do if I could also add I think that that point is well taken for the staff piece as well. Um, you know, we have over 200 teachers that
079we employ. So this spring number is about 60% of the teachers who responded. Um other staff is nearly 200. So sometimes that what role they play in the district it has to be taken into account as well. And that that's an extremely small number. So I don't think we're um I don't think we have enough information. I think this has led us to more questions um to point us in a direction to try to understand more about where the next level work is. And this would be another scenario where it would be helpful to have it broken out by school because I just think that you can focus more clearly on where some of the issues are if we if we knew on a school by school basis. Yeah, it's important to know that that
080is the work of the leaders, right? looking at this data and this year they took this data and brought it back to their staff and they analyzed it at the schoolbased level with with teacher data, staff data, parent data and student data. Um but at the district level um it's important to know that our responsibility is for all schools, right? And it's their job for leaders to actually unpack it at the school level. Okay. You're welcome. More to come. So now we're moving on to B. Oh uh to see the Weston High School Bulling and Association of Schools and Colleges descend accreditation report. Yeah, this is um an exciting uh piece because it does happen so infrequently. It's a comprehensive look by an outside group of accredititors uh that look at high schools based on
081their own sort of self-improvement goals that they consult with these these uh outside uh NIA ask people to look at and so I'd love to turn it over to principal Canada. It's a major major undertaking this year and congratulations on preparing the report ahead of time, hosting the visit and then uh considering the con the uh conclusions. So, uh kudos to you and your staff uh for their work. Uh there's a lot of good news in here. There's a lot of uh places to continue moving forward. So, I'll turn it over to Principal Ketta to give you the highlights. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, I'm also joined by one of our English teachers, Mrs. Trinity Klene, who co-chared the visit along with Mr. Torres, uh, one of our assistant principles. Mr. Torres
082was actually the co-chair of our collaborative conference visit. My okay, a co-chair of our collaborative conference visit, uh, which took place, you'll remember, uh, the spring of my first year as principal. So, we set some priority goal areas uh back then and the New England Association of Schools and Conferences came for their dennial visit this year in early April, April 6th through the 9th. Um, and it is an incredible amount of work, an incredible undertaking to invite a team of strangers essentially. We did have the one of the co-chairs came back and she was at our collaborative conference visit two years ago um to come into your school and really look under and and in all of the nooks and crannies to really get a sense of what is going on in the building and
083to help support us as we continue to set goals for the future. So, I'm going to turn it over to Trinity, uh Mrs. Klein who's going to walk you through our preparation for the visit and then it'll turn back to me and I can go over uh the priority goal areas, the commendations and the recommendations to move forward. Thank you. So, thank you so much. Um I'm going to talk through uh two pieces. One is how we got to the school summary report and then uh what the 3-day visit for the visiting committee looked like. Um so for the school summary report we take the self-reflection that we did at the collaborative conference and the main part of the self-study is an evaluation of the prior the three priority areas that were set as part
084of the self-study and evaluating the actions that were taken to achieve the desired outcomes evaluating those impacts and then setting a course for continued growth. Um so that process of gathering input about the actions, identifying measurable impact both qualitative and quantitative and gathering evidence of action and impact and then identifying those areas for growth worked through the different um stakeholders at the school. So this involved input from faculty and using our steering committee which is primarily our program council to really synthesize information um and write that part of the report. Um in addition there is an update on foundational elements that was done by the co-chairs um as so myself and Mr. Torres um as well as the steering committee and faculty. Um our principal ratings were reviewed and evaluated by the same faculty teams
085that helped write the self-study as they were the most knowledgeable about those ratings and most able to speak to uh what stayed the same, what improved and we actually um downgraded oursel in one area. You'll talk about that, right? Um and then there's uh what are called the four C's uh conceptual understanding, commitment, competency, and capacity. Um and that section of the report is primarily written by the building leadership in collaboration with some district leadership. Um so we put the report together and it goes out in advance to the visiting committee and they read it and then really what they're doing is they're coming to check that it matches what they see when they're in the building for 3 days. Um so I want to speak to the very wide panoramic view of the school
086that was achieved in those three days so that they were able to assess our progress and our self-evaluation. Um as you may remember they met with some school board members. Um they started after they started by being toured by seniors in our student government group. um they had two different meetings with students um clustered by 9th and tth graders and 11th and 12th graders um that no other faculty members were in. So those were very much um free space for students to speak their minds. Um they spent an incredible amount of time visiting classrooms. They were in classrooms for over eight hours across the three days. They visited each teacher's classroom and observed them teach at least twice. Um, and so you'll see reflect in the report, um, all the good things that they have
087to say about the teaching and learning that's happening in the classrooms. I think that's a really strong part of the report. Um, they sat in on building meetings that typically were occurring during their visit, a challenge success meeting, a special education staffing meeting, and a student senate meeting. Um, they took part in our student work showcase. Um, acting superintendent Lo visited us that day as well. um and they were able to view um at least two project exemplars across all of the departments and meet with students who completed those projects so they could really interact with students about um how teachers approach their their learning and um the assessments that they do. They met with uh around the priority areas for priority area one curriculum and alignment they met three different times for focus groups.
088Um there was a mix of stakeholders in one group including the assistant Dr. Henle uh team building leaders um Ped members and teachers. They met with another group of curriculum instructional leaders and another group of teachers. So that that was our kind of biggest goal. Um so they met with three different groups around that for priority area two which is support for all learners and uh our MTSS process. Um they met with school counselors, members of the MTSS team, as well as a bunch of different stakeholders involved in school climate work such as our PTO, student government, challenge success team, uh link crew, and our um packed advisory program. For priority area three, they met uh which is capital improvement. They met with district directors, um building leaders, curriculum instructional leaders, and teachers to validate
089what they were seeing for those action, impact, and growth ideas. Um, and so they came back with a report that really took a deep dive, spent a lot of time speaking to a lot of people um, to be able to reflect back what we thought we were doing. Thank you, Trinity. Um, so this is a 46 page report that NIAS submits to us that after tonight it will be posted um, not only on the high school website and other places. So it it the intention is that there is public access to this report. What you are hearing tonight is a very a bridged overview of that report. So I am uh this is the reader digest version um of our NEAS report. So priority area one I had talked about that um collaborative conference visit.
090We had established a priority area one goal of establishing and implementing teacher-led structures and processes for ongoing curriculum development throughout the year with the support of school and district leaders. So all of that work that you see up there on the screen, I won't um bore you and read every bullet will continue in our work. It is it is best practices and curriculum um implementation and revision. One of the things that we are specifically focusing on heading into the 2526 school year will be to embed um and establish common assessments and grading practices to measure student learning outcomes. It is something that the program uh council, our leadership team at the high school and I have been talking about and it was very I think throughout the visit it was nice to hear the validation
091from the NEAS uh team um in our goals and some of the work that we had been doing. So the successes that we have seen um and the goals that we're setting for the future. So, um, heading into the future for this priority area is really continuing to, um, establish establish a strong teacher voice in curriculum design and revision along with all of those other um, bullets there. Priority area two uh, creates a formal defined multi-tered system of supports process to identify, refer, and support students who need additional assistance, including English language learners and students with special needs. um the multi-tered system of supports at at the high school level is always complex. Um there are various um systems in place and one of it's one of the things that we have really been working
092on over the past few years as a school team. Uh we know that we've done a lot of really good work around the multi-tered system of support. We have some new positions that we've highlighted heading into next year with our math lab and uh literacy lab interventionists. Um, as you know, last year we hired a student support specialist. And so, again, the NIAS team really validated that work, but also that it's great to have kind of that mirror that they're holding up to our process and recognizing through their conversations um with staff um that we need to do some things to shore up our practices and to refine our kind of protocols and approach to make sure that they are clear to the school team. So, that um will continue as well. Um we've also
093um Trinity mentioned in her uh report the various groups of uh teachers that met with the NAS committee. So they met with us teachers and parents and students who sit on our challenge success team. They met with our packed committee who and that packed committee uh creates the lessons and the structure and calendar for our advisory uh class and they also met with u members from our school climate team. We have a lot of people on those committees that are doing very similar work. And so one of the pieces of feedback was to really synthesize and condense those teams into one. And that's something that we've also recognized this year the members of that team. We have some repetition in membership across that team. So to really limit the number of meetings but really um
094support the overall output um and to really work more efficiently on those committees. So it was also again nice to get that validation. um they recognize the amount of work that the school team has committed to this work um and then we set that goal those goals for the future. Priority area three um so we are in an aging building um and I think one of the things that you'll see in the commentations was the work that we've done to really keep up an an aging high school building um and just the overall cleanliness of the building and kind of the student centered approach. So we talked about the carols earlier. So one of the priority areas that was set a couple years ago was to be sure that we have developed and maintained short-term
095and long-term plans to address the capital and maintenance needs of the school building and facilities by working collaboratively with district leaders and evaluating necessary resources for implementation. So over the past couple of years and again you know a few years ago I was new to the district um we've really shored up our communication and collaboration meeting regularly with folks in central office making teachers a part of the process. One of the examples that they've referenced was you know as we're working with Mr. Devito and um the copers um to really replicate that teacher input in terms of where we might be putting the copers um where do teachers most effectively need them, how many, what are the sizes and that really looking at replicating that process of both student and teacher input. So we are
096consistently and constantly trying to make sure that we have the right voices involved. Um the courtyard will be north courtyard is scheduled for renovation uh at the beginning of the renovation this summer. We talked about the student lounge. So just making sure that the folks who are going to use the spaces have input into the design and implementation of the spaces. So that is priority to area three. Um we have a whole list of wonderful commendations um from the NEAS report and again this is really the a bridge version of that 46-page report but it's re it was really nice to see as well the um you know link crew the work that we've done with pact all recognize the upgrades of our facilities uh the work that the teachers have committed over the last
097few years and we know curriculum work is ongoing this is not work that just began three years ago this is curriculum we are constantly in a revision cycle because we are always reflecting, you know, the needs of the students, what's going on in society as we continue to refine our curriculum. But it really highlights all of the work um that our teachers and our students have committed to over the last uh few years. Um and then they left us with some recommendations as well. So talking they spoke about increasing overall communication between building staff members and district leadership increasing student centered learning in all of the classes and establishing a common share belief for decision-m um so some of these align to the work that I just spoke about in terms of our MTSS process.
098I the things that I highlighted are the things that we are really focused and honing in on. It's not to say that the other work isn't happening, but these are really becoming those specific goals that we're really um I guess doubling down to use the words I heard earlier um on on those um highlighted areas. So, as I said, this is really the a bridge version just so that we made sure that we could review it um before we uh post the um report for public consumption. Any questions? So for this recommendation, it is it saying there's I don't think there's a lack of that given what I saw at graduation. Right. So uh which one? Sorry, David. The increased student centered learning in all classes. I mean I don't think we have a lack
099of that because we have phenomenal kids. Right. Right. So I don't want this to be misunderstood as this is a recommendation for continued work to move forward. It does not mean that that this isn't like an area of need. It's just it's we're going to continue to work on that student centered approach to learning. It's not to say it's not happening because it certainly what I've said is even in the last few weeks being in classes. It is incredible to see the amount of student voice that is occurring in our classrooms every day from the various fishbowl discussions, Socratic seminars, our project-based learning. For those of you who are in the building recently, we had um our junior health classes were doing their um were demonstrating their projects and our 9th graders were doing were
100demonstrating their learning. Um so there is a lot of that going on and I think this is this is a goal to only expand it. Sir, do you have some ask of us? Is there something you would need from us to to to even go further with this? I mean, here's a great question for you, right? That's a dangerous question to ask a high school principal. I know, but but I mean, this seems to be the the bottom line for this age group, right? To get them jazzed and confident, right, about their next level at college. So, so, you know, fire away next February, next uh next October. You got it. Okay. I have just one question. What is the the bow on top? like what what are we trying to achieve and why? So,
101the New England Association of Schools and Colleges comes in um similar to when we've had the Tri-State Consortium come in and kind of help us look at our schools, our practices. Tri-State came with a specific question that we had developed around our math practices. Um, NEAS comes every 10 years and it's really um, a refinement process and I think it's a really great great way to take a look at what we're doing and to have folks from other schools. We had, you know, folks from schools all over Connecticut. Sometimes you can have folks from schools across the New England area um, coming and and they're coming from their own schools with their own practices. And to me, it's really thoughtful um professional dialogue around things that they're noticing and seeing and also wonders about have
102you ever tried this? You know, when we talk about our multi-tered system of support, those um folks coming from other schools have their own practices that they've implemented. So, they might ask us, "Have you thought about trying this?" And I think it's a really wonderful um it's it's daunting. I will say that it is a lot of work. Um, but I think it is a great way for us to be sure that we the practices that we are implementing and employing are the contemporary practices that we want to see in our school buildings and our classrooms. And full disclosure, I knew this because I was on the call for the board of ed, but I wasn't sure the community knew why we would go through this. So Lisa looked at me like, are you nuts?
103We do we do need to be accredited, too. It's it's the it's to be accredited, right, as a high school, right? That's like that's at the end end we're looking for the goal right which we were right along the process we learn ways to improve what we're doing even if we don't hit the accreditation but the goal is accreditation yes yes we did get I think it also fosters in Trinity I you can agree or disagree but I think it fosters really wonderful um collegial and um collaborative conversations in our school building about our practices and and I think teachers ers also have an opportunity to see what others are doing uh and to continue to learn. That's not to say it doesn't happen outside of a NEAK visit, but I think it just adds
104a certain level of collaboration and um you know, kind of a a coming together as a whole school to really look at what we're doing and be really proud of what we're accomplishing every day and every year with our kids. I think it's a very validating process. Um, you know, we're in the building every day doing our best, hardest work and to have a process that allows us to reflect on that and share with the community and each other. Um, what's going well? These are areas to focus on and that it's constantly recursive. It's not locked and fixed. It's setting goals for a couple years, checking back in. It's it's very much the cycle of inquiry that should drive education. So, it feels like the right thing to do whenever you're doing it, I think.
105It's every 10 years. It is every 10 years, but in eight years they'll come back for a collaborative conference. We also at the end in one year I submit a report as to where we are one year from the visit. And then I believe there's a three-year report, a six-year report, and then they come back for that collaborative conference visit in year 8. And then we set new priority area goals that we like really hone in on for those two years prior to the next dennial visit can take a long period of time. Well, I think if you think about school change, right? Um, and what it takes to really implement consistent practices over time. I think that that one year out, the three-year report, the six-year report, and then that collab the collaborative conference
106visit is new over I think within the last three to five years. Um, and that was really a reflection on that dennial visit. And that that denial visit was really like this kind of gargantuan task for schools. And so it really shortens that a little bit by saying, "Okay, we'll come back in in year eight and you could set some shorter term goals based on that those cycles of review you've had in year 1, three, and six with that same you school team. It still seems like a long period of time. I mean, it's more than one generation kids. I mean, I just think about how quickly things have moved just in a relatively short period of time in terms of technology. We started a conversation a couple years ago about, you know, what do
107you do about smartphones or or smart watches and we've moved now you have meta glasses. It's seems like life is moving much faster than everything. Yes. And I can't imagine doing a dennial visit every five years. So anyway, thank you. Thank you. Are we done with the screen or should we No, not yet. Hanging out. Okay. Uh all right. So we're on to D. Uh the board of education policies, regulations, and bylaws. Restorative Practices Response Policy. It's a second read. Sharon, do you want to Wait, can I ask just one question? Sure. Would you mind voting as a board to um move the anti-semitism work ahead of this agenda item? Flip flip the agenda items. I think we have people waiting for it. Oh, absolutely. If that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so sorry, Tracy.
108So So I move that we um I'll do this, Steve, if you'd like. I move that we move u item E, work to combat anti-semitism to the next agenda item in place of D. Thank you. There we go. Peter seconds. All in favor? I I Okay, thank you. I appreciate that and I appreciate people um hanging in there in person. Um I was uh very heartened to hear uh the comments at the beginning of the meeting and I'm hoping just to build upon those that uh as you know we as a whole district and principles and assistant principles and teachers have taken uh the incidents over the course of this year incredibly to heart uh and worked um you know work through a lot of emotion, a lot of different perspectives ives a lot of
109um you know sort of different feelings about where we might go next and so that is why I came back with the recommendations that we try to build the work whatever it is uh long-term over time and build it into the fabric of what we do rather than say oh we got that speaker we're done uh I really want to see uh the work taken seriously and embedded in what we do and so I recommended the four committees. Uh, one curriculum and instruction and that is because we want to give our students the best possible foundation uh, as citizens and as studies studyers of history to go out after they graduate high school and understand what they're hearing and be able to um, critically think about it. Uh, debate about it. Uh, no fact from
110fiction. uh know where um some of these prejudices have come from over time etc. So that's long-term effort and again our curriculum I think is strong but it's probably time to look at it, refresh it, revise it, add to it, extend it. So that's that work will take time and uh Tina and team and principles will lead that. Uh another group is the um social emotional learning and I think um Dan spoke eloquently to the uh no place for hate type of uh programs. we have social emotional learning embedded from the early grades. You know, you you heard reference to the ruler program, etc. Uh so we're not looking to just sort of add more so much as we're looking to see how it all fits together, see what miss what we're missing, see what
111we can integrate, uh see how much student ownership can happen. It was very heartening uh when the ADL came in to speak to uh the training for the No Place for Hate School in that room. um twothirds of the of the people were students and that is a telling marker right there. So thanks to Dan for organizing that and that will grow too but again this is embedded. It takes time. It's in the fabric of what we do. The uh another group we want to look at is culture and heritage which I think will be fun and I think parents and the community are itching to get that started but I really think we we just there's too much going on at the end of this year. So that is um a better lift or
112a better launch uh next fall I think. So that left the accountability group because there is that understanding that well there have to be repercussions and responsibility and understandings about if you're going to be part of the community what are your responsibilities. So, um I was uh happy that um parents from the PTO and the mothers in blue and school administrators uh wanted to sort of collaborate and say, "Okay, how can we get this started?" And selfishly, I know I'm here for a short time. So, I wanted something that could be concrete and could fit my 3mon, 3 and a half month timeline. So, that's why we started with accountability. Um and I don't mean to make light of it. it's important, but I also thought it would be an easier thing to um bring
113to fruition in terms of concrete steps in the more immediate time period. So, we looked at and I want to commend the mothers in blue and Stephanie specifically was on that committee with us. Uh but we agreed on uh three or four things. One is to implement or to ask for approval, sorry, to implement an anonymous reporting system and Dan Devito will take us through that. Another thing uh we wanted to do was to make it a little bit easier to um to highlight uh the practices that are already in place around the um consequences for various infractions. Of course, hatebased behavior being one of the most serious ones. Uh, so quite frankly and unashamedly, I went to Westport and stole from their website and their superintendent, Tom Scree and I are like best friends
114right now. Um, uh, just they had a very I don't want to say handy, but it was helpful. They charted um some of our numerous policies that lie across our website and they had condensed theirs into a sort of a chart. uh just making it a little bit user more user friendly. So I thought that was a great step and then um uh Dan Devito um very creative uh with the website as one of our PTO leaders as well collaborated on trying to uh make a tab for that that he can also preview a little bit tonight to again just make it more user friendly. So, I'm going to stop talking and I'm going to talk about the uh let Dan take over with the anonymous reporting system and Jim Wilsy and our staff has
115also checked this and because all boards of ed want to know well what did the lawyers say about it? It has been through legal. It's also been through our insurance um uh whatever you call it onlookers looking at Phil. Uh so it's been through that. It's been vetted. Uh, so I think we're ready to go as long as you as the board um can approve and um support this and ask your questions tonight. All right. Thank you. Uh I'm just going to stand up here so because after this I'm going to show the web page. So uh I wanted to talk a little bit about um Sandy Hook Promises uh say something anonymous reporting system. uh the group we vetted uh several different um anonymous reporting systems and we landed on uh say something. It's
116a absolutely fantastic tool. So I just wanted to go give a brief overview as to how it works from a user perspective and what happens when a report is put in. So it's based on the say something foundation uh which basically it's an all-encompassing product. So, it's not just an anonymous reporting system, but there's also I'm going to call it curriculum. Basically, uh lessons for staff and for students. Um you know, if you look at um step three, say something to a trusted adult. You know, we would start that at the younger grades, speaking to a trusted adult and building that relationship as well as uh as they get older using the ARS. That's the acronym anonymous reporting system or calling 911. So the there are three ways to submit a tip. They can either
117use a mobile app, they can use the website, or they can call a hotline. Regardless of what method they use, they will actually begin a conversation with a person. So just a quick kind of screenshot of what happens if they submit a tip through the app or through the website. It actually gives them uh about 30 tip types as well as other and in our discussions with different products. The more um tip types presented, the better it actually is because it helps them hone in on exactly what needs to be done. So, when a person submits a tip, they're actually routed to the Say Something um center, which is a nationally accredited crisis center with crisis counselors. And so, they begin a realtime conversation with a crisis counselor to discuss what is the tip they
118are submitting and to gather as much detail as they possibly can. They are uh um they're multilingual. They are highly trained. Um it's really a a fantastic step that it goes right to crisis counselors. From that point, the crisis counselors, they have their flowchart, right? They vet and triage. They categorize, then they deliver, and then they hand off. So, there's two major categories, life and safety and non-life and safety. If the crisis center determines that the tip is a life safety issue, not only do they contact the school district based on teams that we set up on the building and on the district level, but they will also call Weston Police Department and deliver as much information to the Weston PD as possible, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If they determine that
119it is a non-life safety issue, it is then delivered based on kind of a routing setup that we have on the school and on the team based on the building uh of where the tip originates from. Beyond the tip, oh, and as part of the tip delivery process, they hand off everything to us. all communication if uh pictures are uploaded everything they don't they don't keep anything sensitive information is redacted in the event that it is sensitive information however we are made aware of it so they they deliver 100% of the information they gather to the district and to the Weston police department beyond that they have an amazing amount of training and curriculum on their website including self-guided training training and then for students uh the it's either self-guided or done kind of through
120an advisory period or can even be done um in like a large group setting. And they also have uh documentation and videos uh for parents and for residents of the community as well. So, as you can tell, it's a really an all-encompassing product that really meets the needs of everything we're looking for it to do. Any questions? I have one quick question. You talk you talked about the information being sent to um any non-lifethreatening in particular. Uh it just mentioned the school. I'm assuming that that also gets sent to the district as well so that the district is made aware. Okay. Yes. Yeah. It's based on a flowchart we provide them. Okay. that basically says, "All right, if if we determine that this tip is based on the high school, sorry, I'm not picking on
121the high school, but if it's based on the high school, we tell them here's who you notify. If it's at the middle school, here's who you notify." So, we have complete control over the notification route. Okay. So, we can make sure that central office gets it as well. Okay. Yep. Most historically, what's most of the tipsters? Are they students, teachers, parents? Students. So if they're students and are let's say just to make our our question easier let's say the problematic student population is middle school right so I see I see a hiccup because if the reporting mechanism is via cell phone the middle schoolers don't have access to their cell phones to create a tip using the app so what's the workaround where they can say I've seen or heard something that moms in blue
122wouldn't want to see or hear, right? How do I inform my my parents, my teachers, other people? So, there's there's three different methods for submitting a tip. So, there's the app. They can go on the website via their Chromebooks. This is obviously you're talking if they're in school when it's happening, right? Right. So, they can use their Chromebooks. where you're going to be putting links all over our website that links it to the say something website to submit a tip. They can even call if needed after school. Yeah. After school the yonder pouches they come out and then they could submit a tip that way. So it's not true real time but it's real day. Let's call it Yeah. It's as soon as the person reports it. It's real as soon as the person reports
123it. I have two questions. One, is it only what if an adult puts in a tip about another adult? I mean, a parent knows this exists. The community now knows this exists. there's physical abuse that someone wants to report and not call 911 or talk to somebody. I mean th this could be not only students, it could be adults as well. Yes. And then my second question is financial support. How is this funded? You want to take it or you want? Um I know you you and I have talked a little bit about that. Uh Sandy Hook as you um know is a is a foundation um out of built you're coming out of the tragedy at Sandy Hook. Uh its original the foundation's um goal was to highlight awareness around gun violence. So over
124these many years uh they have um become a foundation that is um financially secure and one of their uh what they've done with the money at least one route has been to establish this say something anonymous reporting system. So there is no cost to school districts who choose it. Well, you know where I'm going with that. Yes. If we're going to use a question because I haven't I haven't done your done the research. I should have, but it's a great question. So, go ahead. No. If we're going to utilize it, uh, and we're going to rely on it, then we should somehow financially support it, make a donation, and it's something the board should think about. Um, it seems if we're going to use it and it's critical to it's a it's a it's a
125critical input for the community, then I think we should talk about whether or not we make a donation to it or the town makes a donation to it. Should we give it a shot first for a year before we make any decisions along those lines? Well, I mean, we can talk about this, but I, you know, I do think that it's a foundation that's providing a critical service, and if we're going to utilize it, then we should make a donation. We should ask, I don't know, Dan, we should ask other communities if they do the same. Yeah, I had promised to do some research, and I apologize for not having it for tonight, but those are great questions. Uh, you know, we could look at um what other towns have done. we could consult with
126our lawyer. We could talk to Phil um and and all of that. Okay. Um but going back to this particular anonymous reporting system, I think Dan tried to highlight that one of the reasons we chose it over some others was not the cost, but more that it operated more quickly with uh real people versus being screened um through um AI type of services. And not to say those are bad. It's just we for Weston felt that the sooner tips could go to a real person, the more helpful that would be. What happens when you have a because there are products out there that people submit a tip and it's not real time, but it's it's ingested by an algorithm and then can go to a real person. And when you have those types of products,
127you end up getting false positives and then people start losing faith in the product because this isn't real. this isn't real. And then you so something could potentially slip through the cracks. And and also I uh also wanted to kind of bring Jim into the conversation. Jim's been speaking to other school districts, the police departments of other towns who have the um say something product. I didn't know if you kind of wanted to give a little bit of feedback on what you had heard. [Music] Ridgefield and New Kanan are currently they they have been using this for a few years and they give positive feedbacks from both the school districts and the police departments. Um we do have the blessing of our chief part of the Sandy Hook uh package is a comprehensive training that
128will go directly towards um our dispatchers and our emergency communication center and the police department. So they will not be that was one of the questions that came up. Do our dispatchers have to be vetting any specific calls? And those are done at the San Hook level in their crisis communications which is based out of Miami 24/7 staffed with licensed medical health professionals. So once our dispatchers get a call, basically they're just getting a call for a a welfare check if it's a life safety issue at that point. And just um to kind of pick up on your parentto parent, yes, this can be utilized um across the board, there are specific curriculum packages with embedded within the this program directed for parents when to use it, when not to use it, directed to kids
129from K through 12, the curriculum packages, how to train them and staff and faculty. So, I don't know if I if if you have an incident where a parent is reporting something and it could go back to your point where it's a middle school age ch child who saw something and doesn't have a phone or doesn't have access, doesn't know how to go on a website, goes home and tells mom or dad and now mom and dad doesn't have to send an email at 10:00 at night if it raises to that concern of that parent. they have this to use as a platform and then it's vetted instantly through this platform and um I think uh I neglected uh the fact that there was a teacher on our accountability working group and he raised a
130good point um well you've raised several but one was that uh that idea of tell a trusted adult is always the first choice no matter what your age tell a trust trusted adult is always the first choice but there will be times and situations where uh for whatever reason uh students or adults just don't feel comfortable doing that. So this is sort of a great plan B but it is not to take away from our messaging of you know please share with a trusted adult first. Um, another worry amongst and a legitimate one amongst our staff was, well, wait a minute, you know, especially the administrative team, does that mean that we're, you know, 24/7 we're we're on, you know, we're on call like the police are or like the crisis, excuse me, um, the
131crisis center, uh, run by Sandy Hook Promise. And we've, um, we're we're we're we will and have broken it down. So, if something is a nonlife safety trip, nonlife safety tip that those will be handled during the school day for if somebody calls up and says, "I'm concerned. I saw Johnny, you know, gambling online." That um as serious as that is, it's not the middle of a night kind of crisis that a life safety tip would be. And life safety tips can always and will always be answered by the police and the school teams. Again, we're a small district. um we most likely someone will be available but uh with the caveat that that may not be all the time. So, we're trying to make reasonable expectations for for the public to understand that our
132staff, you know, we'll do what we can, but there may be an incident um especially off hours um that we may not be able to respond immediately to, but those type of issues that are involve life and safety or life safety are going to be handled by the police. And as um and it's it's in the form of a wellness visit, a wellness check. It's not I'm going to go arrest you. But I don't want that to be the the um you know the idea. It's really to go and ascertain if in fact there is real immediate danger. What uh what's the plan to educate students on how to use it and reinforce it? Is it like Yeah. What is the plan and age appropriate as well? Yeah. Uh this program is going to be
133aimed at grades 6 through 12 and there's a resource built up over time that Sandy Hook has to share and uh the principles, the assistant principles, the advisory periods, the summer time will be spent trying to figure out okay what's the timing of this etc. It needs board of ed approval. Uh the implementation will not take place until the fall. Yeah. So, um this is item E. Uh may I have a motion to uh approve that the Western Board of Education approve the anonymous reporting system as presented? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Hi. Hi. So, we are now on to D. Nope, not policies yet. Hold that thought. Okay. Um, sorry. Uh, the next the next is to, uh, show you what the student code of conduct looks like.
134Um, and I want to thank Dr. Edwards and the principles and the assistant principles, grades 6 through 12, for crawling through the the larger document that Westport has on its website and condensing it and reviewing it so it fits Weston's needs. And I do want to again thank the accountability committee and those members for agreeing to this concept. Um, and it's just it's been a a sort of a lot of work in a short amount of time. So, um, I'm going to turn it over to to Tracy and then if you have questions, that's great. Uh, and I know there's a lot of infractions, so you may or may disagree with fra, you know, fraction 11 and you don't you don't think the consequences for snowballs are correct. We can have those kind of conversations
135offline. Uh, but I just conceptually wanted to give you a peek at what it looks like tonight and whether you know you think parents would respond um, favorably and the community. Uh, so I'll turn it over to Tracy. Thanks. Thank you. Um, and again, credit to Westport who served as a guide and the principles have done an enormous amount of work on this. Um the first page of the code of conduct really just outlines the goals and priorities of the document which is to establish some consistent discipline practices and this applies to grades 6 through 12 specifically. Um other districts have adopted it at the elementary level and we're not there at least yet. Um the document is designed to give families and students notice of the types of conduct that is not allowed in
136our schools. um and what we're doing to support a safe and healthy learning environment uh within the district. I do want to note that um this is intended to be a guiding manual. Um meaning that we as a administrative team will continue to take into account um particular circumstances or behaviors at issue before determining uh what discipline is or is not appropriate in a particular circumstance. We also have um processes that we follow as a district that are outlined um in this introduction. Um incidents that are addressed through this code of conduct involve a meeting between the student and a building administrator. Parent notification is part of our process. Um and with certain level offenses, I am notified along with the superintendent so we are aware of areas of concern. So this is again kind
137of the introductory goal of the document. Thank you Dan for projecting. I if you go you were in the right spot. Y um and then the corresponding pages are literally specific behavior. Um I think there are 59 of them. And what we did in our document is we put side by side the consequences for 68 and the consequences for 912. In some cases, those two are very consistent. In other cases, you'll see a discrepancy. We were really thoughtful about where that should happen. Um, and you'll also notice that in addition to outlining a consequence, every behavior of concern has a restorative opportunity. So we've talked a lot about restorative practices in terms of our policy work and I think this chart in particular underscores that we are doing both things. So when a student engages
138in behavior that's problematic, we are providing a consequence and we are also helping to repair whatever might have uh resulted from that incident. I don't think I need to or should go through all of these. They're organized by categories as best as we could. Um and we are looking forward to having a a document that can be used again across 612 um as a framework. And you'll notice that there are ranges here. It's not like if you engage in a behavior there is this one very specific outcome. Um it's a lower range um response to what's the higher level response to each of the particular incidents outlined. And I think if we could find the hate-based behavior just for to, you know, sort of tie it with tonight. 33 36 36. Thanks, David. And these
139this category of behaviors um you'll see have similar consequences. I don't know if you want me to read those or just have it. Okay. Ultimately, will this be by the degree of severity? So, anytime we're looking at any type of behavior, we're looking at the circumstances surrounding it and yes, the severity, which is why like this is a good example. When we're talking about hate based conduct, we're talking to update up to 10 days of in school or out of school suspension on a first or subsequent incident. There's there is a range in the severity of hate-based conduct. And so one incident, just as an example, could potentially have a two-day inschool suspension, but another incident could warrant a 10-day out of school suspension if it's particularly egregious, concerning, targets a student in a a
140way that's uh problematic. And you can see when we're talking about conduct in this category, we're talking about possible police referrals. We're talking about possible recommendations for expulsion. Those are not um consequences that you see for a number of other behaviors on this chart, right? There's much more minor offenses that would never those items would never even be a consideration for. If a student has 10 days of out of school suspension, how do they maintain their academic work? What's expected of them? So, we do we do provide opportunities for students to remain engaged in their academic learning experiences, even if it's not on campus. And without getting too much into the weeds, there are specific um legal responsibilities and obligations for students who have special education needs uh for some of these disciplinary consequences. Tracy,
141um, I think this is helpful, but I think it might stop short of what people may be asking for and maybe they just can't get what they're asking for. But when I look at 36 and I see up to 10 days in school suspension, out of school suspension, there's no minimum. So, one could say there could be no in school or out of school suspension, right? I think it assumes that we need suspension, but you're right, there is no minimum here and this is a work in progress. So if that becomes an issue, we will Yeah, I I think some places that I get I I think um just from our meeting that happened back, it seems like it was a long time ago, but I think that people um they kind of conflated two
142separate issues. They wanted to know who the student was, but I think ultimately they didn't really want to know who the student was by name. They wanted to know that there was going to actually be consequences that were tangible that they could understand. So I think it I think it would be helpful to understand that is there a minimum for not necessarily just 36 but for any of these and I know some of our policies do have minimums. So I think as potentially the next draft there should be a minimum because I think this can also act as a uh education tool for parents to talk to their kids about impulsive behavior and impulsive behavior does have consequences and the minimum consequence is this. But I think that would be helpful to have some some
143for some of these items especially uh probably 36 and maybe 35 a minimum. No, I I think that's a great point and let's we'll take that back and look at it and consider it. Um Megan had her hand up. There's a just having edited this with the principles and assistant principles there for these there is an assumption that there would be a we're talking about a day minimum of ISS. So where you see up to 10 days ISS there's an understanding that that would begin with one. So it's a range. We can also update the language for clarity but that was the intention of school administrators. There are some moments in this document where you'll see one detention up to 2 or 3 days ISS right so that's a that we felt was important because
144there's a distinction between detention right based on context and like the student the scenario that a detention up to two days ISS that was a difference in the um consequence whereas when we're when this is how we interpret it when we're talking about ISS or OSS that it could be up to 10 which would be an understanding of at least one. Yeah, we purposely again tried to structure this. If you compare it to other sections, these responses are much more significant than responses we see for other behaviors. And I'll I'll be transparent. We were also trying to streamline this document. The other versions of this are in upwards of 70 pages. ours. We're trying to make it a document that families and students can have conversations about, but if this is if this particular area
145is a concern, I mean, I agree with Megan. We can just add the wording to the first line. I would think it applies to each of these. We tried to be consistent with this whole category. I know for my purposes I would say it would it would give us a really good footing if incidents do happen to be able to say to parents there will be consequences and the consequence will be a minimum of and I think that in the grand scheme of things I think that was the cry that we sort of heard from the community was that the they couldn't they could they couldn't we couldn't articulate the consequence and they couldn't feel it. So if we simply change it, you know, one, two, 10 days, I think that right there changes just
146without even adding a whole column. Just one, two, 10 days. Yeah, I do I do think that there's still going to be this desire to know more specifically and I think that's something that's always going to be in play and there's lots of reasons why we can't do that. But again, I think we're fine with adjusting that language and I think this is intentionally a document that will be updated. we the building administrators also have to live it right so they might be going through this in what seemed like a perfectly appropriate response as we're going through the motions in the upcoming school year I think naturally there's going to be times where we say this particular category isn't working and our ability to respond and adapt this document is going to be important so
147just out of curiosity You mentioned the restorative discussion with staff members and possible restorative conference. Can you go into on on 36 in particular? Um can you give a little more color on that? Um as best as I can, it's going to really be situation specific. Um, so a restorative discussion with a staff member, it could be meeting with a building administrator, it could be meeting with a school counselor where a student is having an honest discussion about the impact of their actions on maybe a specific peer, a group of peers. Again, depends a little bit on circumstance. You'll notice that the language here is very deliberately possible restorative conference. So, when we're talking about more intensive work potentially between students, um an an affected or impacted student, that's also going to depend on the
148willingness of the student who is impacted by that event. Sometimes it's appropriate to bring students together to talk through a situation directly. Other times that's not appropriate in the immediate and is maybe more of a longer term plan, but that's why those two responses are illustrated here. So when it comes to hate-based conduct though specifically, do you think it would be important? Of course restorative um discussion, you know, with staff members, possible restorative conference. Um is it uh should we use some sort of educational opportunity in there? Should we address it specifically? Because I think that's one of the things that we heard loud and clear in that March meeting too was repercussion and education. And so we might want to think about what we're putting in there so that we can keep that door
149open. That yes, of course, especially with hate based crime, right? Why is it that the hate based crime is so painful for members of our community and help to educate the offender um as to why it offends those? So maybe we could put something in there. Just a thought. Yeah, we can certainly discuss that. I think that is naturally a part of the restorative discussions that are happening with staff members at this point. Um Megan, you're nodding. I don't know if you wanted to add something, but um the educational opportunity is an important part of this process, including at the middle school level. That's also a part of the restorative approach to discipline. So when we are meeting with students and we're understanding their perspective, their point of view, whatever the case may be, not
150only for these incidents, but incidents throughout, education is a part of that restorative plan. So the education sometimes can lead to a restorative conference because there's some educ education and learning that needs to happen before students are ready to be in a restorative conference or a circle. So it's implied and maybe that's part of the language for the introduction. And I don't know to to to explain those components of restorative school practices. Yeah. I'm just suggesting it just primarily because exactly what you said, which is you want this to be a document that parents can talk to their children about and so that they can work with their children and the children will understand what what restorative uh what a restorative discussion is. You know, how how does that work for a child and maybe
151it's learning right about why that behavior is considered to be hate-based. Yes. And one of the things that I probably should have said about this document is that it's going to live as a supplement as part of the regulations for all of the policies that are outlined on page one. And so one of that one of those policies is the school climate policy. And we I'll be honest, we went back and forth about the length of this introduction. Do we include some of the key terms embedded within those policies or do we kind of keep this short and to the point? Um, but maybe there's some specific specific language around the restorative work in particular that can be added here rather than getting completely in the weeds on all of the social emotional components that
152play into this as well. Yeah, that could work. I was just thinking specifically on that one box of 36 to be honest with because hate based actions are very different from you know the other things that are listed in here. So again, perhaps it does make sense to put it in the introduction or or in the box, but just so long as we're aware. And to your point, there are mention of restorative responses throughout this whole chart. And as we do in a lot of other policies and regulations that we currently have, we explicitly link the different policies and how they're connected. So you integrating school climate restorative practices policies that we've already adapted within the introduction to see the through line to use as an educational um document as well is probably is well
153taken. I agree just one one quick comment for me. So um look it's a it's a monster document. you guys have done, you know, a great job even just getting this up to where it is today. And it's going to be an iterative process, uh, for sure. Um, I think just as I was going through the document and listening to David's concern, um, you know, if you look at let's say number 43, right, which is possession of materials designed to be used in the ignition of combustible materials. Okay. Um if you look at that you do have a situation where you did put a minimum in there for for the same sort of let's say call it penalty right ISS um if you do a just a quick control F you could find 24 incident
154incidents of having some sort of minimum in this document now they're not to your points that they're not always the same right some is a detention to ISS etc um but there are circumstances of that I think you know number 43 for instance that where there is a minimum for the same penalty is is I'm assuming that's what you want David right is like something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And I stumbled upon number one as well. So I think that if we could just standardize Yeah. and agree that there that you know if there is a minimum which it sounds like there is a minimum it should be documented just like 43 and number one. So, that being said, I think it just sounds like we just need to clean it up a little bit.
155But I do want to commend you guys because and I I think I brought this up during our most recent policy committee meeting, which was, you know, after the public outcry that we had in um March in which people were saying specifically what are the ramifications for the behaviors, etc. And it's very difficult obviously because it's got to be a case by case situation. But I remember thinking to myself, we really need a rubric for this. and you put together a rubric for this. So, thank you very much. I know that it originated in in another district, but we obviously had to customize it and I knew a lot of work went into this. So, thank you for doing this. And I think that this is exactly what the community needs to be able to
156have these conversations within their homes. And um and also so people understand, you know, just here it is. It's black and white. It's this is what's going to this is what it looks like. So, thank you for for all the work that you put into this. And it it again, it's one small piece of the puzzle. Um, I think Dan, we were also um gonna use the website just to make it a little bit more easy or make it easier to find. And I don't know, Dan, if you have a mockup of that yet. Sure. So, this is also going to be uh a living breathing website. Uh, it's going to it's called uh community relations. And so, after tonight's meeting, I'm going to be updating it with the code of conduct and any other
157applicable policies that get approved. Um, it's going to live under district information, community expectations. It will also be listed under school information under each individual schools as well. So, this is the beginning kind of a work in progress. And thank you to Tracy and thank you to Kelly for all the feedback on this. But it basically just it lists all of the applicable policies as well as the regulations of the school climate when it is complete. Um, and we will be adding to this as needed. And this is just a center central way for everybody to find all information pertinent to community relations and the the chart will go up there. Yep. And I may have missed this. the the chart orig you originally looked at what Westport was doing and are the remedies similar
158between communities? I mean, did we? I think so. Pretty much. Tracy through it more than I did, but on the surface they look somewhat similar. I mean, I think there were some significant edits to the document. And I I think one of the things that was most pronounced is um kind of across the board in Westport there was a I would say a very significant discrepancy between middle school and high school responses and we really tried to take a close look at that. I mean that's obviously working for their district. I didn't have in-depth conversations with them about the rationale, but we we did talk about what made the most sense here and what's what's consistent with things that we have been doing up to this point. The purpose of this document was not to
159recreate the wheel. It was really to create continuity and consistency and to also call attention in a new way to obviously situations that have been particularly concerning this year and how we're responding to those. So, we adopted it to what we believe our community needs. Yes. Great. Thanks. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. And thank you Stephanie and and all the um mothers in blue and the interested uh community members for hanging in with us and following us through this process. It is again this is one piece of a much larger puzzle but I thought it was important to be able to bring something in the short time period that we had uh till the end of the year. So thank you for the anonymous reporting system. Yeah. Never mind. Sorry. You're so I'm actually
160using it but Sharon needs to pay more attention. You want to do it again? Now I think it's time for policy. Now it's for policy. So um the first is the restorative practices response policy which is a second read. Do you make any comments on any of it? We haven't made any changes since the first read. So if anybody has has any thoughts or questions on this one, feel free. Otherwise, it's we're ready for a motion. I have a motion. Move that the Western Board of Education approve the restorative practices response policy as presented. Is there a second? All those in favor? I I visitor and observation first read. Do you want to do that one? Sure. Um so this is a policy that we already have in place in the district. We have a
161visitors and observations in school policy and it has been uh very successful up to this point. We do need to replace our old policy with this new policy recommended by Shipman. Um the only changes in this policy pertain to health and safety protocols and uh that are in play whatever is in place at the time of the visit. And there's also language in this policy and one other that we're going to talk about tonight about the district's response to federal immigration authorities. Be very transparent. That is not my area of expertise. We had an extensive discussion about this in the policy committee meeting. Um people are certainly encouraged to watch the recording of that. But the I think the key piece to this is that schools in the past were considered protected places. um they
162are not anymore and so what when it comes to immigration officials and so there are specific procedures and responses that we need to have in place to make sure that we are responding to what's being asked of us and also uh protecting the needs of our students. So those are the only updates to this policy. Everything else the the forms that are used for visits and our procedures around that are recommended to remain consistent. drug and alcohol use. Um, I think safety and security is next. I don't know if that matters, but Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Yes. Okay. I'm really a cup of coffee. Exactly. So, yes. So, um, we are also recommending the adoption of a school security and safety policy. The goal would be to repeal the very outdated policy that we have
163in place right now and adopt this new policy in its entirety. Um the old policy was not only dated but didn't really reflect all of the work that's happening in this area for our district. Um we are generally adopting or recommending to adopt the policy as written by Shipman. There are um components of this that we already have in place as a district like the allhazard security and safety plan. We submit that annually to the state as required. Um again this policy similar to the previous policy also has very specific language around immigration officials um which needs to be captured in our documents moving forward. Go. Okay. um drug and alcohol use by students. This one is a little bit different because right now we currently have a regulation. Um we don't have a policy
164which is kind of a unique situation that we're about to remedy. Um we are recommending full adoption of this draft policy by Shipman. Um there's a lot of good changes in this. I think the primary is that the previous set of regulations. So regulations are inherently described to be very prescriptive. Um and those particular regulations were uh written at a time of zero tolerance essentially. And so there's not a lot of discretion around any potential incident that could fall in this category. This policy allows for a little bit more discretion while of course still holding a firm and hard line around any sort of criminal behavior that's obviously not going to be tolerated um in the district and needs to be addressed promptly and seriously. But there are moments where there are educational opportunities for
165students and this uh policy allows for those to happen. Any questions? First read. All right, great. Thanks. Um, F is the Connecticut Leader Evaluation and Support Plan. So, um, if you recall, two years ago, the state of Connecticut required all districts to adopt a new evaluation plan for leaders and educators. Um at that time the Connecticut provided districts with a framework around um what the leader and educator plans could look like. Districts could either adopt the Connecticut plan as is. They could have um adapted the plan to meet um their needs or they could uh created a completely new plan from scratch. At that time, two years ago, we used our professional development and evaluation committee in the district to create a subgroup to do a crosswalk of the framework for leaders and educators. And
166um we came to you with the first uh proposal to engage in a pilot um plan which was implemented this school year. We have been engaging in feedback from educators in with that plan as well as leaders and um we are at the at the point where we have made adjustments to our Weston plan for educators and it has gone in front of the WTA the the Weston Teachers Association for vote and approval. And we're here this evening to um ask for final approval to adopt officially adopt the Weston Teachers Association evaluation plan as provided. We could start there and then um the leader plan um was reviewed by the um W uh the Western uh administrators association and they have decided to adopt the Connecticut framework as is. um and they too have reviewed
167uh both the pilot plan this year as well as Connecticut's frameworks and have voted to adopt the Connecticut framework moving forward. So these two plans have been reviewed, vetted um uh by both unions and so we need your final approval to adopt it officially as a district so we can do implementation for next school year. This year was the pilot and moving into next year it will be full-fledged adoption and submitted to the state. Questions? I have a motion. Move that the Western Board of Education adopt the leader evaluation and support plan as presented. Is there a second? I'll second. All those in favor? I I um before we move on, I'd like to offer an early dismissal. Wait, what? I'm sorry. Before you do that, can you just do the educator plan? We'll get
168there in a second. Before we move on, I'm offering an early dismissal to our all of our principles, but we can't let Patty and Dan leave without us all expressing our admiration for everything that you've done for the kids, for the Western School, for the community. It's, you know, going to be very difficult. Feel [Applause] free to stay. Feel free to come back. [Laughter] We're really going to miss you guys. You've both done a wonderful job. See you tomorrow. Yeah, see you tomorrow. Sorry. Uh, so we just need an official adoption for the educator plan because it is G, right? G. Uh, yes. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve that as well? Move that the Weston Board of Education adopt the educator evaluation, growth, and support plan as presented. Second. I second.
169All those in favor? I I moving on to Is it time? It's that time. stay away. I needed to stand up. Um just a brief update. So, as you guys know, we are projected to have a surplus for this year. Um we're taking a rather conservative approach to our end of year um projection um just because of the nature of the volatility that exists within the final quarter. Um but for but for as of May we're releasing uh $30,000 towards the projected that we projected for dental claims for this year. Um so there's a reduction of $30,000. In addition to that, the significant u change this month is the excess cost reimbursement from the state. Um so you may recall a few months ago, you know, we had a a reduced reimbursement rate. Then this
170then the legislators um came on board and they say, "Hey district, we're going to share $40 million." So, Western share of that entire pool of $40 million will be approximately $133,000. So, which is a net positive for us. Um, which means that for the year um that line item will be slightly um positive by about $22,000. So, all in all, we're um in a positive trajectory to end the year. And when we return at the end of the summer, August, September, um we'll give a close out um or preliminary close out pending review by the auditors um just to see where we ended the year. Questions? Can we have a motion to approve? move that the Western Board of Education approve the May 2025 financial update as presented. Second. All those in favor? I I
171Debbie. Um I I can't give an update because I might be an outdate. [Laughter] So, no, I don't have anything to add. Okay. Committee updates. Uh, Cabitt. All right. No worries. CES. Nothing to report on. Okay. Curriculum. Well, we had our annual uh in-person curriculum meeting. Academic year and review. Academic year review. And Tina, if you want to just kind of talk about some of the highlights. Yeah, that this was um this is our annual academic year and review meeting where all of the different departments um come together to provide an update from the year um in every department. So, our curriculum and instruction leaders are the focus of the presentations. They provide um the areas of focus and their high lever strategies that they worked on during the school year with the teachers and
172the students. They talked about areas of celebration, um some takeaways and lessons that they've learned throughout the school year as well as some action steps moving forward. Um they bring with them artifacts from the school year that um reflect some of those areas of celebration and and focus and we do a gallery walk and then we have an open discussion around feedback and celebration. So, um, we brought two of those, um, pieces today just to kind of represent some of the work, uh, this year, but it is a a great culminating experience for our CILs to highlight and celebrate some of the great work that they've been doing throughout the district. And if you haven't seen it, it is recorded. Um, and it's a really great way to talk about um, the culmination of the
173year and and all the great work that is happening that is beyond the data. It's more about qualitative components of the work that they do. that's really hard to just put on a slide. And I'll just quickly add quickly add that um the curriculum instruction leaders and the teachers just incredibly uh complimentary of the CILs and the curriculum program and stuff. So it was good to sort of hear from the leaders just uh how um positive the the their work is with the teachers in the classroom. So that was really really good to hear. Thanks. Thanks. Well, I was just going to add because I didn't get to say say it during the uh dip dip review. It looks like the bet on ARC is paying off, right? Because that was that was a bet,
174right? Like, you know, because we we swam upstream where other people were swimming downstream in the state of Connecticut. And according to the data and in this chart, it looks like it's start it's it was a good bet for us. We're It's still early, but we've had a lot of success in the first two years of adopting. So, um hopefully we can keep moving uphill. Upstream. Upstream. Yeah. All right. E EOC Wednesday night slam be there. We'll talk about what's around us, what's above us, what's below us uh in this building. So, that's uh quite a presentation for those who sat through it. And we invite uh of course it's all for the board members but all all the public and interested stakeholders to really learn the details. Um finance and operations we heard Phil's
175uh we heard Phil's report. Policy committee is Sharon is it? So policy basically we've gone through everything that we discussed in the policy committee meeting. Michael safety and security. Um, we just wrapped up basically all the progress that that's been made over the last year. We talked about some of the initiatives that they were going we're going to try to make progress on, we're going to make progress on over the summer and then of course others that we're going to continue into next year. Great. Uh, the next is to approve the uh 20 2025 2026 uh regular meeting schedule. move that the Weston Board of Education approve the 2025 2026 regular meeting schedule as presented. Second. I second. All those in favor? I I um the balance of the agenda is meeting dates. We have
176the slam meeting which Peter just announced. We have our next board of education meeting on uh September 15th. Um so before we adjourn uh at our next meeting which will be uh in September there'll be someone in this room with a new name plate with a title beneath it. I think we should all we should all recognize Tracy's promotion to an assistant superintendent [Applause] and Phil with his new title CFO and chief operating officer. Is there enough room on that name plate for all that or we have to get a bigger one? Small pot. Yeah. Okay. Uh, may I have a unless there's anything else, may I have a motion to adjurnn? I want to congratulate you too and make a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor? I I Great. Thank you everybody. Thank
177you. Yes. Yes. Yes. Want to g my chest. [Music]