BOE 10/29/2020 Goal Setting Workshop

001are we uh we live now one second okay all right everyone we are live great uh so I want to uh call this meeting to order it's a special meeting of the Board of Education it's a workshop uh it's a goals Workshop um Bill maybe I just a few words before I hand it over to you um so you know the goals document um and our goals are fundamental um to the organization um you know it it really is a document that at the end of the day M links the mission statement and our outcomes to pretty much how the entire staff really spends their day and spends their year so it's a document that really we should spend a lot of time making sure that we understand it and because as a board this

002is really one of the important oversight tools that we have to actually man measure and monitor progress against our goals and as a leadership team this is an important management tool because it really really outlines the priorities uh for the staff for the for the entire year um there's two things that we haven't done traditionally in a goals doc doent that I think we should keep in mind as we go through this document one is that every you know every set of goals every set of activities should have some sort of performance metrics for us to monitor how well we've done against those goals and um it's not that everything can be metrized and a lot of metrics lead to unintended consequences but I think we need to look at how we're actually going to

003measure progress against those goals because that's how the board can eval valate the leadership team and that's how the leadership team in term can evaluate their staff and I think that as we go through this through this we should keep in mind that we probably should have a set of metrics that we think are important that really drive the right behavior and a tool that the board can use as an evaluation tool the second thing that I think we should keep in mind which we which we haven't traditionally done is we haven't created a discipline to actually Circle back to the goals document at the end of the year to basically look at what we said we were going to do and how well we've done in terms of executing those goals and I I

004think that having a set of performance metrics having a discipline to go back and evaluate how we've done against that is something that you know it's not going to be seamless it's not going to be perfect um we have a lot of things that everyone is working on this year but I think we should be pointing our efforts towards that to create you know a better feedback loop um at the end of the year where we can really sit down and evaluate how well we've done and what things we need to kind of um move to next year and and so forth um that that's kind of it th those are the kinds of things that I kind of got from looking at this at these set of documents some are more complete than others

005but I think that fundamentally we should probably step back and include some of those things that we traditionally haven't included so this could be a more valuable and more effective oversight as well as management tool so I don't know with that um bill um I'll hand it over to you actually Tony I I I love everything that you just said and can I just add one more thing is as we are going through this Draft today I would also love to understand where is the newness um so what is different versus last year because then I think I would hope internally each individual school is Hind exciting to understand how their goals performed um and so obviously there's there probably tweaks on a yearly basis I would love just to highlight those tweaks and the

006newness if you will right uh the other thing is we have a hard stop at 9:45 so whatever we don't get done we'll try to schedule another meeting to to to to continue okay you you want me to start sure yeah so now I think that opening is very very very helpful and I think I'd add sort of make that a threesome for us to be paying attention as we go through issues of metrics measurables to a calendar and seek process for circling back and I think Ruby good point about what's new and fresh year because uh there is new and fresh year and um so let me say a few things I think the leadership team considers this at the main basic points a very solid document what remains a draft is the measurables

007um and I was very explicit about that we sent that but a lot of thought and care has gone into this is terms of the basic work priorities uh and typically we we're now in about our fourth year of this sort of approach typically we as a with a board in leadership we've been having this conversation in August and this document would have been developed over the whole summer in a very iterative process because of our situation and you were very supportive as a board to understand this summer we were straight out determining how we're going to open once we open we're straight out trying to figure out how to run and modify our opening having said all that I think that for the basic points here of what the work is and what the

008work should be it's very strong and very solid there's a leanness to it uh your leadership team is requesting and urging leanness uh with high leverage areas that we focused in on that's districtwide as well as building specific we think those there's coherence here which is we've always had and I think indeed adding the measurables makes a whole lot of sense and adding in a timeline of when we're circling back with you as a board makes a whole lot of sense because we've always circled back with each other almost on a weekly basis as to how are we doing against um our structuring process so let me do a quick overview uh and then each of the key if you will principles and cabinet will walk through quickly what's here and we can definitely highlight

009at each point what's continuation and why that matters but what also then is new uh and again we don't have the measurables in here but we're prepared to you know work on that based on those areas that the board says yes that really is where we do agree we should be focusing and thus it's most important to have measurables there because I would just remind the board as you know midnight last night we learned about more infections through a soccer program 6:00 a.m. this morning I'm in emails and text with staff about hand how to manage more infections coming in this case through the Western soccer club so our team are trying to run the district run the buildings provide education set goals now we've got administrators calling 112 families and so that's what we're

010in the midst of here uh very challenging um so what we can talk about covid-19 critical conversation I had yesterday with Mark Cooper and Laura Marx about all of that so I just you know you as a board know this we have an update set for next week but that's what that's what we're juggling here so I think healthy organizations typically have lean strategic approaches this is lean but we think it is high leverage um we would strongly recommend staying with the same architecture and structure we've had for our outcoming goals we'd strong recommend staying with the same overarching outcome of Global Citizens tough to measure but aspirational we believe West and deserves and needs to be aspirational with that overall outcome uh and then we we would recommend staying with the five major goal

011areas and we've layered into that action plans that structure helps us be focused specific and also fresh as to what really matters um I sent you the link on the website where we have that diagram if you will the circle we would recommend staying with that we would keep it with hyperlinks and all the rest with clear definitions and language as to each of the areas that are in there by the way other districts have complemented us on the clarity and focus of what we've had in the past our willingness to actually Define terms we Define Global Citizens we Define all our areas uh so that that's I think a strength of what what Weston's had uh before I hand it off um let me say sort of overarching and I debated um on the

012document you had putting right up at the top you have the overall Jing outcome you've got the five goals I debated putting in the following there are two strong themes that are new two strong themes to everything here one is this idea of how do we ensure high quality teaching and learning in a hybrid full remote or volunteer distance learning we just need to be upfront explicit that we're operating within a covid-19 pandemic As We Know sadly this is not going away it's only getting worse so we as Educators have to put right up at the top for this year and probably next year I hate to say maybe the next several years how are we making sure we have high quality teaching and learning in different schooling modes be that in person be that

013remote be that hybrid that's got to be and and and we can show how that crosscuts everything here you get it at the district level and you get it at each of the buildings level the second one is this idea powerful very important of diversity equity and inclusion uh and that crosscuts here quite a bit but maybe the next draft of this use a board say yeah those are two very powerful themes and and calling those out right at the top you can almost think about the layout you've got your image that circle at the heart of it is Global Citizens our five goals going after that and for this year and I think it's multi-year two powerful themes that connect everything in that work and again teaching and learning how to deliver that in

014the context of covid-19 pandemic with different schooling scenarios the other is this vital sense of diversity equity and inclusion so what we're going to do now is run through quickly for you each of the goal areas now least keep an eye on the clock for me because I know you need to come and go you're okay now okay then we'll go to the schools Lisa and Dan have their plans here fully formed Laura is going to join us Patty has to be out for personal reasons today they actually have their very clear set of goals they want to share with you verbally that very much tie into to really these two big areas I've just shared so why don't we uh move into it I'd suggest we kind of try and hold questions till we

015get through because we believe it's coherent and we can move through this pretty quickly last thing I'll not is I know Tracy's got to step off for a PPT at about 9:15 um so we we'll try and keep this this moving all right does that make sense okay so uh Ken you want to pick it up from here you and Tracy you've got the first two academic excellence and healthy learning environment yeah I'm very happy to do that and you know it's it's always exciting to think about what's our next level of work even in a time of of Crisis we are um thinking about how to move Weston forward to continue to be a leading district and so continuous Improvement is always been our Mantra and uh bill has mentioned two new areas which

016uh figure prominently in the academic excellence and healthy learning environment goals that's the um uh teaching and learning in the hybrid and distance learning modes as well as has this idea of diversity equity and inclusion two really big areas that we're uh excited about and um are going to be looking to uh report out on uh significantly as we always do at our annual instructional update that has been one of our uh feedback loops uh it doesn't necessarily capture all the work that we do in the district but it does capture the academic piece as well as the social emotional uh and there are all of um uh you know district and departmental goals that we report out on with the help of the Sills uh because really this is a top down and bottom

017up uh set of goals I mean this really bubbles up from the schools and uh we align ourselves as a district so I can say that you know this was not done in isolation at central office this is really a collaborative effort of the leadership team so um if we delve into the academic excellence and are we going to show here the uh the document or we just kind of uh I don't know if board members have it in front of them is that okay so we don't need to show it then okay all right so then you know overall um when we think about there's really um you know really four areas here in the academic excellent two of which are new and two are continuation goals uh because as you know in in

018education uh generally speaking you know for initiatives to stick and for um professional development to be applied in the classroom uh sometimes it takes uh multi- years two to three years with a particular emphasis so um you know as we have started last you know March with work and distance learning we're in a different place now than we were then so um you know our staff in our curriculum leaders administrators have been working to really support teachers with the uh the new tools that they have the teacher toolkit so that they can actually deliver learning in a way that is engaging um it's consistent with our previous emphasis on having students um engage in discourse uh collaborate as well as uh be very student centered so student is worker teacher is coach so those things

019that we've always focused on within our new uh world in education whether it's hybrid or distance learning we're striving to ensure that students have that qu high quality experience so um that's something through the work with the SS with the additional professional development time it's very process oriented so when we think of you know indicators of success and we talk at the annual instructional update um it's both you know qualitative and qual quantitative which I like to think of as where's the E what's the evidence that we've made progress on our goals because that encompasses you know both qualitative and quantitative and not everything can come down to you know number in education um you know the second second area again is a uh process oriented focus and that is um you know I've listed

020there uh special education which which Tracy will talk about uh you know and I I'll just come back to that and let Tracy talk about it as well as the intervention services which is year two at this point last year is you know through the budget process we were really looking to augment at the middle school our math and reading services in terms of how we identify students who need additional support and this is before you know special education this is a regular Ed initiative and so um establishing our processes very much like what we have working at the K5 level very well that is to make sure that we capture kids early and give them the for they need this is year two of that goal uh and then as Bill mentioned the equity

021diversity and inclusion goal is a is also a professional learning uh initiative we are hearing from um the Sills and the buildings that our teachers uh you know need first to be um uh thinking about these issues and how it relates to their classes so we have reached out out for outside assistance um Lisa has already started this with the High School uh Dan and I are engaged in conversations to uh bring additional support to the Middle School through the Connecticut Center for school change uh really having an emphasis at the secondary level uh but also thinking about from a districtwide perspective how do we engage all of our staff uh in this work and I think the recent curriculum committee meeting gave you a window to what that was looking like um but I'm

022going to pause here so Tracy can hone in on the special ed which is again another the that's a continuation initiative from last uh from last year yeah let me say something really quickly there in that handoff what we've done for a couple years now and Tracy agreed to keep it going is is it's it's fundamentally the what special is about you aim for the least restrictive environment you aim for inclusion so we feel in our goals document we should fold our work special education into the overarching goals that matter as opposed to separating it out as a special education area so I just want to be clear that uh there's a real method to what we're doing here go ahead Tracy sure uh good morning everybody and I agree that that's a really important

023point that special education Falls along a Continuum of services and so we need to be thinking about how that Continuum operates um and what's the process within each aspect of that Continuum I will just say broadly from a special education standpoint process is always going to be a key part of our work because it's continually evolving um and I think this year is a really great example so the district had targeted looking at process within special education preco um and I think the work that's happened within covid has added another layer to uh that process discussion I I will share with you that this goal is is written in a Broadway for a variety of reasons um one is that when we're talking about special education we're talking about decision making for individual students there

024is an overarching process that uh captures all of that work but we it's very challenging to speak in generalities because we're not we're not making decisions about groups of students we're literally making decisions on an individual level but what we can be doing uh from a process standpoint while we're looking at decisions individually is thinking about what are the types of questions that we're asking what are the types of evaluation data that we're looking at um what are what are our sort of discussions around how we make decisions about goals and objectives um and planning for individual students but it's not something that's neatly captured within uh a broad statement at sort of a district level the other piece um that I think is really important is that there are key aspects of special education

025that are priorities at different levels so what I mean by that is at Hess we might be talking a lot about our process around birth to three because we have students transitioning in uh to our preschool program and that's that's a really important time and also a a complex time from an information gathering standpoint and then if we just jump ahead to the high school we're obviously not thinking about anything like that we're thinking more about transition out so how are we planning for students uh for Life Beyond high school and whatever format that that happens um from an intervention standpoint the work that happens there is critical for a number of reasons one that's an opportunity for us within general education to be able to provide individualized and targeted support to students um and

026hopefully remediate areas of concern within general education that that's always the goal to Bill's point about least restrictive environment if we can provide structures and supports within general education and allow a student to close the gap app great um so we want to be devoting effort there and also thinking about well if we have a student that maybe isn't responding to that intervention as well as we had hoped what are the steps that we take within the general education process and then ultimately how does that connect with our special education process um so I do see those two things needing to work very closely together um from a special education standpoint the information gleaned from the intervention process is critical um it helps to minimize the number of steps that we would need to follow

027within special education if we've gathered some robust data and we've answered some general questions about how that student is doing it helps us to make a more targeted plan on the onset within special education than we would if we just were coming in sort of with with with no information about how they're responding to interventions I think that generally sums up those two areas for now all right so that gives you a sense of the academic excellence and now moving along to the healthy learning environment uh as we said um some of these initiatives cut across the various goals and you know the first two goals of academ excellence and healthy learning are really supported by the other three goals of the digital learning the gauging progress and the resources for learning so these are

028these are the two that really as pillars really stand up there as um you know being uh you know um some of our top areas to focus on so uh here you see diversity Equity inclusion again uh the board task force is listed here and I think those three areas that um were were outlined um as part of the task force that really captures what we are focused in on and certainly um you know from a curriculum struction standpoint but uh diversity of personnel diversity within the system as well as looking at how um you know our system is structured in terms of policies uh for inclusion in practices um those are areas will'll be looking at um so I think Tracy you were going to talk more about the social emotional learning which is

029a continuation of uh work that's been done in the district for several years I will just highlight that um for the DBT uh steps a program that we are in year two with the health uh Department uh implementing uh curriculum in the 10th grade uh we as you know we we began in ninth grade with the steps a program and now we've continued into 10th grade so year two of that work uh and now you know Tracy is is jumping right in with the social emotional and uh we're working closely on that this year so Tracy if you want to chime in here sure so this is an area similar to teaching and learning that really touches every student in the district you know there might be a student who's not involved in intervention or

030in special education but all of our students are are involved in our overall instruction from an academic standpoint and certainly from a social emotional learning standpoint um and one of the first areas that's targeted here is similar to the teaching and learning thinking about how we're supporting social emotional learning within the different models of schooling that we have this year whether it be hybrid I would also include and it is here um you know full inperson instruction looks different for our students and how are we navigating that and how are we providing supports while also keeping in mind the parameters that we're facing uh with health and safety guidance I know there has been an enormous amount of work around school culture and staff training for the social emotional learning programs that are happening in

031the district um a lot of this work of course is happening on the school level uh but there are various committees within the district one is highlighted here the district emotional intelligence leadership committee um which is looking very broadly at the work that's happening both with DBT and with ruler and then mapping that out to the individual School levels what does that mean from a professional development standpoint for teachers and also from a day-to-day experience standpoint for our students um as Ken mentioned this this is a continuation of work and also based on everything I've learned so far also an expansion of work so we're thinking about um not only how are we integrating these programs but how can we expand the integration of these programs um in different areas and so that hits on

032the area of Staff training um which is ongoing um I've had an opportunity to meet with uh our Mental Health professionals at each of the various levels I can tell you that they are excited about this work this is an area where they are saying you know we want to keep moving forward um on this I think especially around DBT because that is relatively newer um and so we have already um coordinate coordinated some continued professional development in that area um and then thinking about how we incorporate that in our classroom on the teacher level and and then more broadly how do we incorporate our parents in the instruction that's happening the language that's being used the strategies that are being instructed I know that has been a focus um in previous years I think

033particularly last year around DBT and that's certainly something that we would be looking to both continue and expand moving forward and then obviously uh the last last item here school start and end times was an area that uh we we really were working hard on the second half of last year and it's been a a big topic for us it's taken a little bit of a backseat obviously in the current situation we're in and that's something that we'll have to discuss with you as a board in terms of uh you know where to where where where we want to go with that in the future um the third goal item digital learning obviously ties very much in with um the first goal so Dan do you want to uh jump in here sure so uh

034the digital learning goals builds upon uh last year's digital learning goals obviously with some changes um the pandemic really forced a paradigm shift in education that we're hoping to strike while the iron is hot and continue moving forward with uh many folks were you know unfortunately forced into a situation where they had to learn the technology that they weren't necessarily comfortable with learning previously um and so we're going to work on supporting them the three major points to the digital learning goals are support integration and professional learning from a support standpoint it is making sure that the technology department is supporting the district goals and needs from a hardware and a software perspective as well as as making sure that we have the proper Hardware in the district to support curriculum and instruction part of

035that process is I'm going to be putting together a six-year uh technology Hardware replacement plan so we have a Clear Vision as to what the district needs are when we are looking to replace them so we all are on the same page moving forward as to where the district needs to go as well as identifying um efficiencies that we can Implement from a support standpoint because we can have great technology but technology will break no matter what and the question is how can we get there quickly efficiently and get everyone back up and running if technology is down too long staff members lose faith in it and will reduce the chance of them using that technology again because they don't want to be left in a Lurch if it breaks again so support is a

036major piece to this another piece to this is the integration the integration of Technology whether it's software or Hardware into curriculum and instruction to make sure that we are supporting the district and school goals using technology in any way possible as well as using data reports and data analytics to help gauge and measure progress and help Drive the district forward by looking at Key Salient points that you wouldn't be able to otherwise identify without data visual visualizations and the and the final piece is professional learning we want to give everybody the proper tools we want to integrate technology into the classroom but if teachers are not comfortable and confident in their use of Technology it's all for nothing so it is continuously a uh s circular process and feedback with staff with Administration with myself

037with the tech department to make sure that we are not only giving the resources to staff members but that they are learning properly how to use it and implement it and not just from a training standpoint but from a perspective standpoint so they so they get that frame of reference as to not only how does this program work but how does this program work in my class what's the value of it and that also goes back to the integration piece if there's no value to the product we look at cycling it out so this this can all of this is O over overall connected but the professional learning piece to me is the most important aspect of Technology nothing else Works unless people are comfortable using the technology tools that we give them so that's

038part of the action steps was just developing better support working on what equipment needs to get replaced continue integrating building and working on data visualizations for the district for the schools for the individual classrooms as well as continue with professional learning I think this year has has really shown how much professional learning is how valuable professional learning is with the amount of Technology PD sessions we've given and how much staff want more professional learning opportunities with technology because they're now seeing that the value of it especially in the situation that we're in okay thank you Dan uh just moving along just in the interest a time uh the uh the gauging progress goal is uh the next one it's still um evolving what you can see here um are really the quantitative measures uh from

039a gauging progress standpoint for the academic Excellence goal engaging progress is really broader than just the academics it really relates to uh the each of the other four goals uh so so you know think of not just academic but the healthy learning and uh you know could be related to other aspects of the district things that we're working on and valuing so in here is really just a very narrow View and as I said at the outset uh when we look at uh our progress and we have a growth mindset of you know continuously improving in the district there's both the quantitative and qualitative uh you know approaches to looking at performance uh and as I said you know what are the the U if we really shift the conversation to what's the evidence that

040we are um improving and uh or need to make adjustments um you know these are just the the data points that you uh see you know we really have three touch points during the course of the year when we look at and engage progress uh one which we we don't have this year is the uh the annual uh standardized testing report in October uh based on the state assessments which we didn't have last year here um in November we have the the statistical report uh for the graduating class which we will have uh coming up this month that uh relates to the AP the SAT the act and how we did in the college acceptance process for the most recent class uh that is coming up um and then as I said we have the

041more qualitative um annual instructional update in the spring but uh in talking with the the curriculum leaders yesterday uh administrators uh right now in terms of the smarter balanced assessments the state assessments um that that is uh that's an area that you know typically we'd be spending this time of the year looking at those assessments and our Sals have said they really have not missed in terms of seeing where students are and their performing they have not missed those assessments because the data that is most critical for improving students student learning has uh really been the uh the benchmark assessments they've been using with students whether it's uh the reading assessments the the uh the fountain impanel uh things like the map assessment which we will be giving uh soon we did hold off in

042the beginning of the year with the map assessments because we just you know instructional time is has been so critical with kids in the classroom we did not want to use uh that time for testing but we will as we get into um uh November we'll be we'll be starting uh with that so we have benchmarks of where our students are in comparison to where they were um you know last year uh and not only are standardized tests uh indicators we use but we really subscribe to multiple measures uh no single data point or measure um you you know is used in evaluating a student or or even our system we look at performance-based results which are uh which we've created in the system such as our what writing portfolio processes in grades eight and

04310 and because of how we have calibrated um we do get Fairly reliable results in terms of how students are doing in in relation to uh the rubrics uh we calibrate that process very well so these are just some of the uh the academic indicators and this this goal will be you know build out further uh you know in the next week or so let me Ken can I can I ask a question here or are we holding off on all questions till the end I think if I make getting getting through the Le Lisa and Dan we're almost there would be helpful because again this very coherent no problem thank you yeah if that's if you could because it all kind of connects and we design this to be lean and connecting uh let

044me if we're about to shift Ken to Phil let me just say something quickly here yes okay so in the document you have before you in this section before you go to the action steps there's a paragraph that I actually wrote So Others May disagree with it but it's that we are in a major shift moment on the issue of how we assess engage progress nationally uh in a mult multiple set of ways uh and so we many of us who've been watching and understanding and working on how to gauge progress in education for a long time uh you look for Hope out of this mess we're in this could be an area of hope uh which is how do you balance out the right set of indicators and measures because numbers have never clearly

045been the best sole indicator for how we're doing schooling uh there's lots of debate about that it gets political it gets substantive but it's a big fat debate but but since the state has been unable to provide the standardized testing environments that has said how else do we gauge progress fortunately many moons ago West went down the path of we're a mature Community we've used multiple indicators multiple measures so we just have to be understand that the the whole context is Shifting the college level as many of you know is Shifting dramatically uh many of the elite and I have to use that term Elite institutions are backing down on the use of Assessments they may go right back there but they're backing down on it but so there's a lot shifting here the other

046thing I want to raise up for you and many of you may have heard it and understand this Point big time what Ken said to you about what the Sills are saying that the sbas only give back partial information to us as Educators and one of the longtime concerns with the standardized assessment movement and I'm not against it is have standardized assessments but know what they're for and know their value and what they give back to Educators in making decisions for children so you heard a very powerful comment as sophisticated as the SB have gotten compared to past standardized tests and they're much more sophisticated in the sense of the information they give to teachers you've had excellent Educators now tell you yesterday now today that they still don't give us much but fortunately in

047Weston because of the multiple measure commitment you've got other places to go for indicators of gauging progress so I that's a big set of comments and a big issue we can't grapple with it this year because the context is changing but I just want to let you know you're your educator ERS are paying attention to this this complex issue U so why don't we shift now to uh Phil and I think a lot of what Phil will cover you've been covering with him as a board in the various budget workshops and through the facilities committee good morning everyone um so as Bill mentioned a lot of what we have just regarded to the budget and just the goals that we have for in the budget so primarily primary goal of the budget really is to

048support all the initiatives that the district has and trying to align those goals with the funding that's available um the resources that we have available to us um by the town um so that's primarily our goal is really just to support and to develop our budget in that regard um we will be for this year we we will be starting to do a u multi-year look which would kind of help us to guide all the financial um which would kind of help us to to plan better financially um we will this year um in a few weeks I believe um start initial discussion um with of the various with the funding bodies and all with all the boards the board of Selectmen and the board of Finance um just to align all the various goals

049that both on the town side and on the board of education side so for from a financial and a budgetary um aspect that's pretty much what our goals are to truly just to align the various goals um with our with a financial um resources that are available to us in addition to that from an operational standpoint um not you much to switch their bill yeah sure from an apparitional uh standpoint again the goal again is just to is to work collaboratively with um the town um we we're we're still we're definitely deep into um the feasibility outlook for the various um buildings and um the various for the future plans for the town and we're working with the town and with the various committees to accomplish those goals um so I think really in in

050a nutal that's pretty much where we are right now those are pretty much our main goals and our main focus um you know so we'll continue just to address those and I'll just quickly flag here under Human Resources there are several critical points there again we've this crosscutting theme of diversity equity inclusion is here as it relates to diversifying Personnel we made progress this year uh in several key areas uh and we've had programs and plans underway looking for new Partnerships but that's raised up here Title Nine the policy committee for sure knows that Title Nine is something we have to pay attention to so we we raise that here so again that's new diversity equ inclusions been with us but it's it's uh an updating I think a much more definite approach so that

051would be new an early question about new and we need to flag under Human Resources here the covid-19 management uh because that is such a dominant piece of what goes on certainly for the central office but definitely out into the buildings uh in terms of how we're in an HR way positioned to help our staff function in a safe and healthy way uh in in this covid-19 environment um and then we always want to list here it's brief we want to list here external resources the the the incredible benefit Weston has with the Weston Education Foundation and also then the incredible benefit we have with the PTO um I've often you may have heard me talk about it is are that the PTO is our United Way uh they're immediate they can respond fast they

052may hit short-term needs and issues for us they sometimes get more strategic whereas the Western Education Foundation is more of that traditional in a sense Foundation more iic longterm uh not that quick immediate hit so it's a very good blend of support that this District's had for a long long time and it's critical for us as administrational leadership team we raise them up in this document to emphasize we need to cultivate we need to support we need to facilitate that that relationship um so we're at a pivot point now into the schools I'd urge we go there right now uh and you have leases which as i' said in several places is attached as a separate document because her document has that that's a final very fine document and when I attempted to bring it

053into this and yes I was the one putting all this together when I attempted to bring it in I made a hash of it so I said I'm not going to mess up Lisa's team's good work so I kept it separate uh Dan's content is all there it just wasn't in all the the layout approach that Lisa has uh just so you can visualize at the end of the day someone smarter with technology than with me when we've got a final final document we'll piece it all together it'll be up on the web so it's all connected but why don't we go to Lisa then to Dan uh lore's not on yet because again last night we learned about another infection coming in nobody you know we got a quarantine 11 12 students because of

054uh soccer program actually that's whis more than HB butt right now but that may be part of what's affecting Lura right now but Lisa why don't you go ahead and then follow up with Dan and then I think we're going open up for discussion okay thank you Bill um so um we start creating our action plan usually in about April um of uh the spring we do we bring ourselves together and we figure out um where we're going in our Continuum um one of our goals is a three-year work in progress we basically have two key goals the first goal has to do with academic Excellence engaging progress and every um you know the action steps are all listed in there and then the other with the healthy learning environment is the one about the

055inclusive School climate and we have all of the strategies and action steps um I just sent you a document um because I'm thinking that that might be helpful um hopefully what you see in our action plan is the alignment between the schoolwide goal and the and the department goals um but I sent you a document to show you how when you when you look at you know as you go up to the different layers it becomes sort of more and more broad but but what is the through line or is the evidence indicator that we are succeeding in our goal and so you don't have to look at it now but I I'll talk you through a little bit it talks about I gave you an example of each goal the healthy learning environment and

056the gauging progress and so so you see that like if our schoolwide goal is the whole idea of the more inclusive climate and that came out of work um uh in the spring quite frankly um specifically in the areas of um not tolerating discrimination based on race ethnicity sexual orientation or other perceived differences we have really specific action plans one of them was to create a social justice um advocacy group I'm very pleased to say that we have a social justice advocacy faculty group we have a social justice student advocacy group that meets with the um faculty group they met last night I guess the meeting went on and on and they finally had to cut it short at 9:30 it was very purposeful that I was not in that meeting um because of the

057of the work that they're doing we originally were going to have a very small group and when over 40 students um applied and I read through every application along with these teacher volunteers it was very emotional reading on the comments and I I have samples of things that kids wrote it was uh emotionally exhausting I guess I would say and the facilitators of the group Jana op and Amy Holmes and other people in the group are like Lucas Walker the physics teacher and um Jen Klein's social studies Meg Sullivan um guidance this we can't we can't narrow this down this is to much of a movement and so now it's turned into grade levels with liaison and facilitators and all of that so that's kind of within the whole thing um of a separate piece

058of that but it's kind of a multi-pronged approach how we're working on this healthy learning environment and the example I gave you was was if you if you look at the school wi goal to do this and action steps about embedding certain things in um reading now last year we had started to Pilot this in English so the English goal is the idea of the culturally diverse voices and there were specific action steps that go with that we um I didn't put it in this particular thing I sent you but we piloted something the summer I was um privileged really to join the group it was a great um literary group of students so we they did a lot of um the the piloting during the school year and then in the summer and then

059um so then the department goal goes down into the individual teacher goal and this is where it has to go right through the classroom and then what's the data what's the evidence that were succeeding and um all of our teachers have a goal that in some way shape or form relate back to these two goals to a departmental thread and then they have to show both quantitative and qualitative data of what are they doing how are they um you know demonstrating their success and with this particular teacher the example I gave you she's an American lit teacher she has 74 students she um clearly aligned her goal and she was like okay I'm gonna give a baseline survey on how comfortable kids can feel I'm going to take student work samples I'm going to give

060the survey several times over the year there's a lot of great information of um some of the Baseline survey data where kids may seem to feel comfortable about diverse voices but maybe they aren't um as comfortable as they are she says maybe they will realize after exposure that they weren't as incom that they weren't as comfortable and the concept different than me is a loaded phrase so she clearly has everything out what would happen is mid year she would come and she would show us the data in the student work samples of how is this work going um the other example I took was one from um the uh academic progress and if you look at the the whole idea of gauging progress and everything we've really been focusing on differentiation for the last several

061years we did a book and the goals were um aligned with that and someone actually it wasana opy brought up you know this differentiation goal also relates to the social justice goal Lisa because we're looking at the students at a much deeper level of who they are and how we can meet their needs in ways that perhaps we haven't even thought of we've just scratched the surface for some of the uh social emotional issues but this particular student in uh teacher rather in World Language is looking at again the whole idea what D Devo is talking about training PD how to do match the best strategy with um the digital um resource and her goal specifically is targeted in Spanish five honor the end result is going to be the Apple test but she talks

062about how she's going to gather data and she says you know at the beginning of every unit 80% of my students must demonstrate growth and I'm going to use those actual um you know can do statements and I'm going to measure it so when she comes in in January and at the end you know show us the evidence and sometimes like we tell the teachers they might not get there it's fine like we've identified these struggling ERS but oh great these have improved but I found some more that's all fine um the idea like Kent's is continual continual progress and moving things forward so hopefully that example um helps illustrate how it goes right to the through line into the classroom and combines with both professional development and um supervision and evaluation to make sure

063that that you know that the work um that the work gets done quite frankly and I think that in doing it and looking at the Journey of these individual teachers and how they can relate sort of to the district mission is um is really important and then it it it serves as specific evidence indicators of how are we as a district addressing this um in the classroom y um just one second I see the time I mean we have a few more to do the board probably has you know Bill maybe if just we can stop just here for a second because I just don't want to run out of the time and the board not having any questions if we can we just well I guess a friendly amendment I think Dan can be

064pretty fast he has a doent and and Laura just joined us okay so let's do that I just want to have time for the board to send their questions and comments so that that could drive the next you know the next couple of steps that's all yeah yeah I just I mean given how incredibly because I want to say the whole board I mean your your leadership team is working really intensely but they are exhausted it's a s-day job now just witnessed midnight last night 6: am this morning only seven days so I I'd rather let us get through this let us share with you then as a board you can let us know what the next step is and I um they're exhausted I'm fine I just want to make sure you know that

065they are just running on empty uh that's fine we just have we have questions that will lend we have questions that will lend support to them so we just want to make sure yeah no I know so let's let Dan you know yeah go ahead no this is all this is all good I just wanted to make sure that we just looked at the time that that's all fine good morning everybody and so I will in the interest of time be very brief and a lot of what our work um at the middle school does really uh reflect some a lot of the work that uh Lisa already spoke to in fact our our area is also focus on the healthy learning environment and academic Excellence as we have in the past um what's new

066is is uh the diversity equity and inclusion goal and and frankly that is exactly Lisa's wording from her school that we're borrowing as well because last spring my faculty felt so strong in response to the events that unfolded around George Floyd Ste um that they felt it was important as well to make that a major Focus for this year um a lot of the uh the strategies around Multicultural and diverse materials and uh continued development of critical reading and thinking skills um a lot of the credit for that work does go to our cils to Christine sinot um and U Nick Torres who met with me to actually put the wording together and it does build on work that we've already been doing at the middle school in each of the grade levels with our

067teen activism unit in our sixth grade ELA uh with some of the work around um that they do in seventh grade uh and work in eighth grade as we really struggled with how to talk about issues um you know we we we tried to embed a little bit of um uh the Holocaust originally and then um pulled back from that text because we just didn't find it to be um you know the appropriate text it does talk about issues but we're now doing um uh the land of permanent goodbyes which does deal with conflict um U and um Injustice so we're continuing to look at that and one of the tools um that Christine will be using um as she does the evaluation of our materials in English language arts is to really go against

068a checklist to make sure that the the books that we are choosing truly do reflect um not just topics around diversity but also are written by um uh authors who represent diverse backgrounds as well um the uh we've had the RWS matter pledge for about four years now at the middle school what's new um in our action steps there is to identify professional learning opportunities to support strategies for engaging students in civil discourse we find that at the middle school level just developmentally our students struggle uh when they're engaging in difficult conversations um so we want to identify some uh staff training that then can be rolled out with students um and in addition seeking opportunities for guest speakers or workshops to Pro promote Multicultural awareness among our staff because that will inform what they

069do with our students um our second goal there um it hasn't changed uh dramatically um we are trying to implement the wingman program uh year two we started last year but obviously with school closure we had some challenges uh and frankly when I met uh yesterday with our advisers um they're not sure we're going to really get it off the ground this year they've been in conversations with Ian hawkley um who um founded wingman's uh the wingman program and um other schools are are finding that in in Hybrid models it's it is a challenge so we're going to give it a good attempt but we may have to pull back uh until we're back fully in um I think everything else there um you know there's some updates to The Advisory program the DBT steps

070a um our PBIS um School climate survey as well as our um uh activities under goal three where we talk about SAR those are carryovers continued parts of the Middle School culture I think when you go to the area of academic Excellence I think what's really important first of all is to acknowledge that uh we do have a system in place now for a true um uh tiered Intervention Program in in reading and math with the additional support uh we we increased our reading support in the budget last year and we created the math intervention specialist position Michelle Clark our math intervention specialist has already met with all of our uh Middle School Math teachers she's reviewed um students who are in the math lab program as well as any students who were struggling who

071were getting under a 75% in math uh those that's in addition to her case load of the math Advantage students um so that is up up and running well um the the new part of this goal uh which is similar to what we've heard already is the digital digital learning piece optimizing the digital learning providing professional learning for staff around best practices in digital and hybrid learning evaluating the reliability and effectiveness of digital resources and tools and Advocate and advocate for upgrades as indicated um we're still waiting on those um much valued uh new Chromebooks uh as I told Dan DeVito earlier we're running out of October um and and we were promised them October that teachers and students are really waiting with baited breath for those new resources we're also noticing that some of

072our teacher um uh laptops just are are they're struggling they're limping along uh with some of the older machines uh now that we're have we're placing so much so many more demands in terms of uh Zoom especially not the middle school this week as we're doing the full day hybrid where uh we've got students zooming in every day and then again it's continuing to provide stud students with training around digital learning um so it's not just our uh typical digital citizenship and Internet safety but also more training just on the tools and uh um the the devices that that we have at our disposal thank you Laura I had queued you up before you got here you'll be the final piece and we'll go to discussion I the board understands why it'll be verbal at

073this point they know Patty's out today so you're picking up you're picking up K5 but I think you'll hear from Laura that the real meet on the bones of those larger themes that we've been talking about all morning so go ahead Laura please yeah thank you apologize for the delay it's a busy morning here so um so I I will speak to the K5 Patty and I are always in uh frequent communication about goals and uh providing a comprehensive and systematic K5 program for academic Excellence we are PR prioritizing um this year of course the language arts and the math curriculum um teachers are learning an entirely new way of teaching this year so um ensuring that those foundational skills are solid is really uh key for us um so that will continue to be

074a priority we have been um particularly at the K2 level we have completed all over beginning of year beginning of year assessing to get a sense of where students are um especially given um where we left in the spring and we have been um pleasantly surprised students did make growth and progress throughout the spring there's always a little bit of a summer slide and we are finding that students are starting to already pick back up um and regain some of those summer losses so we uh we are in good shape um but the reading and the math of course will be um a continued priority this year with um the emphasis on regardless of the schooling model we are in because we do anticipate maybe shifting between multiple models throughout the year being able to

075maintain um that uh Continuum of instruction and making sure students are achieving and moving reading levels and acquiring all of those important skills our PDD on Tuesday will be centered around that we'll be working with grade levels um uh around that area and that is of uh K5 we are in tune the technology has been um a huge learning curve for our teachers um again since where we left in March when we closed School unexpectedly to the program we now have in place it is a dramatic difference there is a tremendous amount of synchronous learning we have uh a wide variety of resources for our teachers and their and their technology toolkit the Comfort level of teachers is increasing um and it it it is a a lot for them to learn you know the

076stress levels I think are very high among our staff um and they are continuing to uh every day to learn those tools utilize those tools and to make them the very best uh lessons that they can be um so we have we have seen a tremendous amount of progress already and the technology will continue to be supported for the teachers um as they apply those to the lessons um of course our voluntary distance Learners is of uh always on our minds and how we are making sure to um give them the best educational program possible make sure that we can progress monitor for them uh through the use of Technology um and using that information as we move forward both at hurlbut and Wiis together again we are continuing to focus on the emotional intelligence

077needs of our students and our staff at uh our levels a lot of that is tied in with our PBIS program and the positive culture in our buildings we will continue to work on that this year we going to spend a little more time at the beginning of this year um you taking a step back and just starting with our staff again as I you know mentioned and I think we see this across the district and across schools um the the teachers are under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure they're you know they're working really hard they've got you know pressures in their own life so uh we will be spending some time working with our staff on that uh that EI piece and the emotional intelligence um diversity inclusion is always embedded in

078what we do and we will continue to look at ways to increase that and to um across the both buildings you will see in the hurlbut um budget request for next year as we refresh our collection in our library we are looking at some new um parts of our collection that will help support that work every year there is just you know an explosion in the kinds of books that come out that we can use to kick off lessons conversations um and uh for our level two recognizing and appreciating differences in each other and um helping our students learn how to communicate that so that's K5 in a nutshell um if there are any questions I can certainly elaborate on any of those areas but um did want to emphasize that you know K5 we

079are very much in line so thanks for letting us run the table on this just I think helps you as a board see this is coherent it's lean it's focused it's fresh and key areas but it does build on where we've been and leaves opportunity for growth going into future years so open a discussion and we do know measurables are a Next Step clearly but open up for discussion yeah um can I uh you're muted Tony yeah I want to open up to board members yeah c can I jump in here I'm going to make a couple of comments and questions and then I'm just going to um let you answer them or not answer them or just think about them um thank you very much I know that putting together a project like this

080um at this time is is herculan so thank you I really appreciate the work we understand that it's not um complete at this point but um and and frankly the sections that need to to be added are in my opinion the most important sections so thank you for not rushing those through I mean when we talk about gauging progress and actual action steps that's where the rubber hits the road because we I think can look year to year and say you know from a platitude perspective we have you know a general set of goals that we have every year and carry forward every year but it's the action steps that really matter so um you know thank you for your attention to that I wanted to just say a couple of things about um gauging

081progress and um and Bill I think you spoke to it a little bit but you know the standardized tests in my mind are um one tool of a multiple measure um outline that you talked about and you know they're important they're important at at the younger grades they're sort of important at the older grades too but I don't want to underestimate and I encourage you to really really flesh out what happens in the classroom with the Educators and the observ ation skills that they have in assessing progress um so the tests are one thing but frankly I look at them but I I want I want more to see what happens with the interaction between the teacher and the student at various points um to observe document analyze what they're seeing in their kids and

082I know they do it every day but we just need to see that in the document at every school and I saw I Lisa's example was an excellent example of how you do that you know this is about what happens between those kids and their teachers every day and what those teachers are able to observe and those observation skills are 90% of professional development and teaching I mean you deliver the material as you will know but you also observe then and document and analyze and and Converse with your colleagues and then create new new directions so if that could come out in the plans um you know really succinctly that would just be be really useful to us I also um I know that during a time of covid it's even harder to do that

083and po you know how do you observe Children online it's much much more difficult I get that but again this is where um we really appreciate your attention as far as um diversity Equity inclusion I I I heard Dan say something that triggered a question in me and that was that you sort of borrowed language or used you know similar language from what the high school was using and I think that's wise it made me say though there should be some districtwide assumptions um that are shared between all schools um at the top level as far as these goals go and I don't mean assumptions that bill has written or whatever but the but the where the four schools have come together and are absolutely sharing language um around what we mean and some of

084our best practices for example yes we're going to use resources and and and books and integrate um hiring practices that increase levels of numbers of people of color in our district Etc but also I think that you know as we talked about in one of the earlier meetings um goals around um not just highlighting the atrocities that have happened um for uh minority groups and people of color but rather the cont contributions that they've made across the dis across the the world and in art and math Etc and how do we that would be an assumption that is shared by all schools that we promote the positive contributions of um diverse communities in our exploration of um of diversity Equity inclusion in this District that for example is just a shared assumption across all schools

085um and I think that if you can hammer out some of those that would be um very very useful because then you can make sure that they play out in the books that you choose in the way that you teach Etc uh I think that I'll stop there yeah let me let me just a quick quick comment there Taffy just I want to kind of put some color around Dan's quick comment I think Dan's gonna agree with me um I think the board should be encouraged one we've been on this issue of diversity equity and inclusion for a while that new phrasing as I said to Tony and Melissa arrived from my powering all over the place is to language that truly was inclusive truly was embracing in the title because we've been working with

086racism social justice that may be but we actually like and you may as a board think differently but diversity Equity inclusion that's new language to frame all of this Dan's mention I if I make quickly Dan's mention of Lisa's work is Lisa through her great team had sort of come up with the meat on the bones of that and we said that's great language let's bring that then districtwide so all four principles the entire cabinet knows that districtwide for us a big fat theme because it has to be is diversity Equity inclusion the other big fat theme is how do you have high quality teaching and learning within covid-19 so we couldn't agree more I just want I think Dan was giving a polite nod to Lisa as to where in our process as a

087collaborative team this this emerged so I just want to clarify that it's whole team and we're learning and listening from each other at each step and giving credit which is what Dan was doing no I think that's that was as I said to you Dan I think that was wise for you to use that language and I I just I think that's absolutely the right thing to do don't reinvent the wheel use what works use what's strong share it but I do think across all four schools we you should be sharing the best of what we have to offer and what we're planning on doing so I think that's right and diversity Equity inclusion uh was born in the corporate sector that expression or that language um and is used across um you know companies

088across this country and are and is and is standard in part of company's policies so it's not new to the district I mean it may be new to the district but it's not new okay thank you we understand it's not new we we're so I'll go next um I just want to say a huge thank you to like what Taffy said to all of you for all of the work that you've done I mean you you guys are are really burning the candle at both ends and it's so appreciative um Laura I was actually going to send you a private email because I wanted just to share this with you that I saw on TV yesterday and I thought it was so applicable to the K5 level where on the Today Show an anchor woman

089uh said that her uh daughter's teacher used the phrase instead of inperson and vdl student she actually used the phrase of inperson students are roomies and vdl students are Zoomies so that the kids actually thought it was a very fun way to refer to are you a roomie or are you a zoomi um anyway I just wanted to share that with you before I went into my questions I will pass that along to the teachers I had not that's I thought it was super cute um okay so the first thing that I just wanted to say is around um just I talk a lot about us being Nimble us having four schools on one campus the ability to um have communication very fluid I'm wondering if there's an opportunity in the strategy section for each

090school to talk about in preparation of so we hear a lot about um Laura communicating with Patty which is great so maybe there's a strategy of impr preparation for herl but into wh um we hear a lot about Dan and Lisa working together so it's an impr preparation of but I would also like to see where is that impr preparation of between Patty and Dan um because I think it's there's a big um there's you know I'm gonna give an example Uma was talking about homework last night and I just said Uma you're in fifth grade now once you get to sixth grade it's going to hit you like a ton of bricks in terms of the amount of homework that you're going to have so maybe if if if there are some strategies where

091the principles can work together and and and we look at that on a yearly basis just an in preparation of and Link the schools together I think that would be really helpful just so that it's top of mind for parents to too if I could just respond just uh for the record we started that a few years back where our teachers have gone down to um or I should say go go over to whs and um observe and speak with the the fifth grade teachers our fifth sixth grade teachers have been doing that in both uh English language arts and math that's something that uh Dr craw and I had started with uh Patty a few years ago oh okay great perfect perfect yeah so maybe even if we can just highlight it on the

092doc so that we have it in writing too that would be awesome the third thing is is that schools start and end time you don't have to answer this right now but it is still in this document as something that we want to look at for this fiscal year um I don't know Bill what you feel like if you even think it's manageable to have that conversation this year or if you want to push it out till next year or is it a or is it a placeholder to I yeah well I I can tell you what the leadership team thinks but I wanted to have the conversation with the board and they do we do not think it's manageable uh I think right now especially as we're looking at the likelihood of us being

093in a different schooling scenario next year we might be a to around the edges cheat in some work on school start end time uh it's going to be the role of the team not me frankly but maybe you say if you're in a hybrid do you start a little later did you you know do we do some experiments with the core issue but I think I I just my advice I think it'd be a mistake to ask for bandwidth to be expanded into that issue right now but it's so big so important and it was great work I really think it was great work uh I I sort of can you mothball it not lose it but the board has to talk about it you know the bo you know Bill I think you know

094making a decision for you know school start and end time is a is a was a was a decision made to uh to shift um long term right I mean it was going to be a shift that we were going to play out over a period of time right um I think that school start and end time is going to be a very tactical issue depending on the mode of attendance that we had and any tweaks around that that's going to happen over the next several months if any I don't I don't view it as a strategic item I view it as more tactical depending on the situation as it relates to Public Health and if we have to make any tweaks with respect to the mode of attendance um rather than dealing with it

095as a you know as a big strategic issue right it's kind of how I view it I don't know yeah um okay sorry I just have three more things and and and and then I'll be quiet to give someone else I just wanted to get everything off my list um okay the the third thing is around human resources and um the diversity equity and inclusion and you talk about um that you'll reach out to additional organizations and seek out local and Regional resources I know that I've had this conversation with Lewis um when I first joined the board about a year and a half ago and he kind of echoed the same sentiment right that we're working with different organizations I would love more detail around this um whe whether it is uh college recruiting

096at Spelman um you know Hampton University um Ken you sent us that fabulous you know teacher experiment that happened several years ago out of Norfolk State University I just I I don't want it to be so lofty as we're going to work with certain EXA certain organizations I I kind of want detail around this of we're g to make these visits we're going to go to these master program job fairs in these black specific colleges just can I Lop can I jump on that Ruby to add to it I also think it would be useful to have a um a Long View on this because it's not about you know how many teachers are we going to hire this year but rather to say in the next three years or three to five years we

097hope to have a certain percentage of our T of our of our teaching staff to be um of more diverse communities and and a number a percentage you know it's a long goal and and we just need some specifics around that because we can say each year we're going to try but that's not detail and that's not a goal a goal is you know something a little more definitive sorry Ruby definitive yeah no and then just uh two more other things with regards to gauging process um is while I progress yeah while I agree with you that um you know test scores are not the end all be all I do think there is a responsibility that we have to the parents while a lot of parents move to this District obviously because of the

098education I think there is something that that parents look for um on on how is my child doing and how is my child doing versus is the average and I do think that there is still with the absence of some of those test scores I do think that there is something that we still owe to the parents and that they're going to be looking for I don't know what that is but just keep that top of mind too Ken when you're when you're kind of thinking okay well if we don't have x what is why that we then can still satisfy that need um and then I just didn't know if there was any opportunity if there's any programs that we have introduced within the last three years into the district where there's an opportunity

099to understand um qualitative pre and post of that particular program um I if we've done any sort of analysis like that when we introduce a program into this District if we look at pre- and post kind of Roi on that particular program in terms of success sorry that's it I just wanted to get everything off my list yeah just a quick ESS it's been I think the biggest program bringing in and we we look at we do look at that so but I think for other big inies we definitely can do that but you as a board to be sure that we have done that that's one of the biggest programs coming in um so but yes good good point and and good point on the HR specifics we can do that uh that we've

100got some of that material we we can layer that in if I could go next um my comments are are not meant to listen any response right now but hope fully to be constructive as a food for thought and you know to Tony's opening point I think this is one of the most important dialogues that we as a board and the administration can have because we laid down our goals which uh leads to our strategy which leads to our investment and funding and where we put our efforts right so the I think the first word I heard from you Bill was Global citizen um you know I the lens that I have is I would like for Weston to be the the Envy of you know an international Global awareness school right I I've shared

101my comments on you know the foreign language program I think it has opportunities um but you know as we were talking here I was just Googling International balarat programs in in Connecticut right I I have to say I'm ignorant on whether that only exists in Charter Schools or private schools but can we look at you know what are the elements of an IB program right no they're in public schools Victor they're in yes so then I would turn the question say why why don't we have an IB program I I ran those in Greenwich we can have a long conversation I I think that I would park that as a big issue for the future I'm I embrace IB but Absol absolutely process it's a big process yeah yeah and here we're talking strategy long

102term so maybe my kids benefit from it but maybe somebody else will right but but as I look you know having my International background I I went to an IB Program when I grew up I I talked to other parents who do I think that should be the bar if we really if we're if we're really serious about being the global raising Global Citizens toally you have a yeah Lisa has a comment just really quick I because we could go off on this and um I I understand exctly what we were saying Victor um Christine scata mereda starik and I went to visit the IB program at Unice um and it and we're blown away by it um we were very fortunate that March Newan house who is our great un lady and retired from

103there had had taken us down we looked at it and all of that um I remember that we looked at it back in the 90s too so I would very much like to um to look at it again it's very complicated it's very involved but it also is really really exciting stuff yeah so it's it's thanks Lisa it's food for thought and maybe it's not an IB program but maybe we borrow elements from an IB program to get closer that but I think we're very far away from that frankly um the other point I'd like to put is um when we talk I would urge us as a group to link health and wellness and Technology um because I think I think I think they're linked and I think by us looking at both of

104them in silos we'd be remiss to to what we're living right now in terms of the impact between between technology and health and wellness look I I've read articles about you know prior to this whole covid thing I read articles about schools in the west coast that were just going no no no technology until the eth grade and you know that's a very extreme you know school of thought but but we we shouldn't we shouldn't um ignore the merits of balance and and the challenges that that presents to us going forward especially in this type of learning environment so just think about the link between those two um and my my last point and it pivots off of Ruby's point on on looking back um I think the and I'm gonna get the acronyms wrong

105whether it's ESS DBT EI I I get them frankly I'm not that close to them but but you've rolled out new programs and I think I think I would urge you all to think about uh you know what has worked and what has not in the new programs and that look back because you I I have you know very ancillary feedback and it's not well balanced but anytime a new program is rolled out there are always things you're going to want to do differently so if if if if that's something we're investing in we should really be intellectually honest about about about how we're rolling it out and and and be be be open that that needs to evolve and maybe not be rolled out the way it was rolled out on on the first

106go around so again that's my my group of three Global citizen health and wellness and technology and and and look back on new programs hi guys um my comment is kind of an overarching and and it kind of touches on everything that you kind of put out into the goals document but when I hear about the DBT training that we're doing with our students um and you know obviously staff has had certain a certain amount of training in it um as we're talking about launching Global Citizens where they're going to be encountering you know hopefully people from other cultures with other with other ways of interaction um really instilling that openness to be receptive when someone says hey you know that that bothered me you know how we can engage in those conversations when I

107hear us talking about you know we really want to be able to tackle you know diversity inclusion the ability to have those delicate conversations whether it's between our staff and our students whether it's between our students it's really developing that ability to have respectful conversations where somebody can share and somebody can receive and then collaborate in a discussion to come out in a better spot on the other side um this kind of even goes to the policy we were discussing about how to handle you know when somebody does something that may be viewed as racist it's about creating the ability for us to have respectful conversations about whatever differences we have and I know that that's kind of a nebulous thing to measure and a nebulous thing to kind of get our hands around but

108if we can actually do that all these other pieces fall into place go Lisa you know I couldn't agree more but one thing that I've learned in the work that I've been doing in this area is is that we need to make sure that the staff has the cultural competency to be able to engage in those discussions right so I guess that's where I was going Lisa is like that was the one piece when I looked through like pulling the two sides of this together I guess is where I was going Lisa because I saw in the document continuing DBT you know education for our students but what are we doing about getting the staff where we can kind of become that greater being well we're the high school staff is working with this Dr

109David nerenberg who wrote the book you know um um what social justice have to do with me engaging white students of privilege in this kind of work and the first thing that he's been doing and we did something about two weeks ago that he planned we're doing something on November 3rd then we're doing something November 18th is how to professionally develop the staff to be able to do the work I can tell you right now that staff where you want to go we're not ready to to do that kind of work yet because if you don't make sure the staff can do it then it's going to blow up and that's I know and Lisa I guess we have to figure out then how do you adapt this to the appropriate levels exactly middle school

110students and staff appropriate levels for whis because we can't wait to high school till you tackle this because people can get ingrained tendencies that you know we have to figure out the appropriate way to address this at each of our schools as they're coming up the line before get to you so this is a this is a big overarching you know umbrella uh to kind of tackle a lot of the the issues that we've been discussing well the the social justice advocates in their application said the most pressing issue of our school is students making edgy jokes that offend minority groups um the idea of bigoted slurs misconception students use lack of speaking up between friends that was the main theme in all of it and I mean yeah it's it's really but I think

111you know it's like as we've discovered with other things Dan you know your kids this is when this stuff really kind of starts popping you know Lisa's got great work going on at her level we have to figure out how to take that same thought process and apply it at your students and then just like we found out with social media we had to push that education down you know to Patty's level um you know to start at working our kids towards this this goal a lot of that does start at hurlbut um with the EI program identifying uh students identifying their own feelings how other people are feeling how do you articulate that those communication skills we start building those um foundational skills here as well I I completely agree with you Jan it's

112a it's a process um and thank you everyone because I realized like this is a very uh delicate balance because you know you can't tell students how to think you have to give them ways to interact with other people so I just I just want to say thank you because this is taking education to a whole new level I think it's it's a valuable level for developing citizens to go out and work outside of a bubble that they grew up in and interact with people outside of a bubble that they grew up in but it is very delicate and just thank you Tony I have comments but it's 9:49 I can't hear you sorry let's just finish our comments um if everyone could stay on a few more minutes that would be great yeah I'm

113very sorry I do have to pop off so thank you all very much greatly appreciate all the hard work by go ahead Hillary okay I I just have a few a lot of things have been mentioned but my biggest I think this was great my biggest comment was that if you were to say to me this year what's most important I would say to these students like the social skills and the ability to communicate so um it's sort of in here but it's my biggest concern as a parent going through all of this so I did want to just mention that it's not just mine I think it's pretty much every parents concern with their kids on screen so much is how do we teach them you know the important social skills that all of

114us learned growing up so I did you know I wrote that down sort of all over the place um and then other than that the other things I wrote down that haven't been mentioned is sort of you mentioned intervention services and special ed but one thing that I thought about is how we sort of customize education in Weston and how we have gifted programs and stem and how it's not you know just about intervention but it's really about customizing our our education for our students so I don't know if that's something that you um want to mention or not but it it was something that I I thought of as I was reading you know your academic Excellence section um trying to think what else I have here that hasn't been talked about that might

115be it oh I did talk about I did mention um uh when you talk talk about standardized assessment results there's nothing in here for K through 2 which you probably know um so and then the other thing that we didn't mention and we didn't never have talked about since I've been on the board is grading policies so I don't know if that's something that sort of sits out there that's already been discussed before I came on um but you know Kathy mentioned observations I'm not sure if you tie that you know or where that comes in um that's it those WR that comments thanks thanks Hillary um Melissa do you have anything um sadly I missed the beginning of the of the presentation today due to an issue going on at the house so I

116think I'll hold my comments for now okay great um well thanks everyone this this I I thought this was a great discussion and um I thought the feedback was was excellent um you know I'm gonna end where I started um I'm GNA kind of cut to the chase a little bit and say that you know there when we look at this goal setting process and goal setting documents you know you know I go back to three points number one is the activity and the things that we prioritize should be filtered through our mission statement to make sure that the things we do are furthering our mission um it needs to be a tool that drives accountability of the leadership team and the staff and it needs to be a tool that also drives resource allocation

117because the things that get prioritized here in our goals document are the things that we're going to ask for resource and the things that we deprioritize you're going to expect to have to eliminate right and so so I think think very carefully because I think that this is there's a multi kind of use of you know goals document used for for several things and and uh I don't want to belabor the point but keep that in mind as we actually do the next round and as we you know finalize this document um um that's you know I have you know a lot of specifics that I went through in terms of the of the documents but I you know uh I think that in one form or another everyone seems to have raised those similar

118points anyway bill yeah and I think there's been a really good conversation the points and comments are all excellent I've been scribbling on my iPad here uh that uh I just believe still in the written word um so as opposed to typed but it it I think the good news for you as a board is that I think we're in sync um I think uh some modifications to this the big one would be where are do we want to come in with the measurable pieces where can we where should we it may not go all the way through the document I think the next iteration should raise up again here's the outcome I'd urge us to stay with that this year very powerful observation Victor on IB you don't go you don't nibble on IB

119because I I've LED districts with IB uh so and I it's a great program but it is all- encompassing so but anyway I think keep Global be my recommendation keep those five goals I didn't hear him and say no not to but it may be thematically to say this year going forward key theme is teaching and learning within better phrase than this covid-19 environment and the other is diversity Equity inclusion that those Crosscut everything we can update it that way we'll we'll bring into the next iteration the K5 piece and then Tony I can work with you and Melissa on when we next have a have a conversation final comment is everyone's doing this work so the advantage of this document being lean and focused is Tony I think it is already working on those

120those three pieces this is what the leadership team says here's what we're doing here's what we value here's what we care about and and this is what we're working on so even if it's not exactly on the written page these are headlines for what the work is um and some of the new points we can talk with you about how soon we get into that or not but I there's I I think the team I'm sensing they will agree with this very good very healthy conversation we just now need to determine when we next come back to continue the conversation there's one other point is we've accelerated a lot of U where we thought technology was going to go in the next couple of years during this this covid crisis right I I think you

121have to be be very deliberate very purposeful about the technology aspect of it because I think that if there's a real need to step up our our our our you know technology offerings um let's make sure that it's that it's you know we see it very clearly in our goals document and we see it very clearly in in the budget asks because um um you know it it is become it has become such an integral part of of effective delivery of our curriculum that this is the time to basically make sure we you know really be specific about what we need to make sure that we are are even more effective uh in in the use of technology I don't know if everyone agrees or not but yeah bill yeah I think uh I think

122we're we're set I think maybe next would be Tony Melissa Yumi and others principles talking about when we next connect on this okay we'll work on revisions we won't wait for that time being set we we'll get the revisions in and then at least have the a digital paper next iteration great um with that uh c a motion to adjourn I moved second second thank you all right thank you everyone again thanks for all the hard work um this this was a good session and uh um until next time happy meeting jour