001sorry i'm used to google meets oh i had to find the i had to find the microphone good evening everyone welcome to this regularly scheduled meeting of the board of education tonight is tuesday february 23rd 2021 and this meeting is being held virtually in accordance with the governor's executive order ellen can we have roll call please yes mr kerry good evening everyone mr cassio hi ellen i'm here hi mrs evans she will not be joining us i do not believe tonight okay mrs granado hi ellen hello mr lesser hello ellen hello mr michaels here hello mrs paradise present hi mr mike uh mr riley yeah hi um chairperson excuse me vice chairperson mr healey here hello chairperson mr carrie president and weathersfield high school student representative thiago nguyen he's here he's having audio issues and
002i heard you all present thank you excellent uh if miss stephanie mckenna would lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands student staff recognition mr emmett thank you mr kerry uh this uh is an agenda item that has not been on our uh board of ed meetings recently uh it's one that i am proud to bring back this evening i would like to take the opportunity to honor a long-standing employee of the wethersfield public schools a mentor a colleague a friend and someone who i think has made a tremendous impact on the weathershield public schools um i would like this evening to recognize mr thomas r moore our principal at weathersfield high school who will be
003retiring and leaving us at the end of march after a 20-year career at weathersfield high school um typically uh we would have you here tom and i'd have you up in the podium and we'd roast you a little bit unfortunately um we're remote but i will say on behalf of the weathersteel public schools i would just like to say that the weathersteel public schools hereby recognize thomas r moore for meritorious service and dedication to the weathersfield public schools with gratitude and appreciation for your devotion to the betterment of the wethersfield high school and the students who have mentored for over two decades of service presented to you this evening by superintendent of schools michael t emmett february 23 2021. tom congratulations and thank you for your service all right thank you i appreciate it that's
004very very nice i didn't realize so and i'll make sure that i get this over to the high school team very nice any board members with comments oh tom congratulations two decades in the high school that's pretty good what was the biggest change you've seen well probably the the renovation of the of the school right so you can actually see the the physical change right and that's uh actually part and parcel to what i'm presenting this evening right if not for our accreditation agency really kind of giving us a little momentum and a little bump right to get that referendum passed right who knows if it if it uh would have actually been passed and you know we were actually on probation for a period of uh about five years right until the renovation was
005was completed so i'd have to say that that's probably the biggest change it is a beautiful facility one that i think we're all very proud of i would like to say congratulations to you and uh i've been with you for your 20 years as well yes you have that's a good journey and uh i wish you good health and happiness thank you thank you chuck yes mr lesser yes um tom i just want to congratulate you and thank you for all you've done for so many kids and uh in weathersfield over the last 20 years to be a high school principal for 20 years is quite an accomplishment so i know we all are grateful for everything you've done wish you all the best in retirement but a huge thank you for your 20 years
006of service to weathersfield all right thank you any other board members oh mr moore yeah i was only in high school for four or four years but throughout the four years they were extremely cooperative and extremely attentive to our um our ideas and our uh interests so an all-around great principle so thank you so much mr moore right thank you thiago that's very nice of you to say excellent thank you mr moore i know i missed you as a student by a couple years you took over a couple years after i graduated but going back to all the sporting events i've remembered you for the whole 20 years and we definitely appreciate all your time and service so thank you and you also mentored me a little bit during college during my 0.92 so i
007appreciate that that's true yes great thank you thank you mr any other recognitions tonight uh nothing else this evening mr carrie thank you mr emmy moving on to approval of minutes mr michaels i believe you have a motion for us i move that we approve the minutes for february 9th 2021 regular scheduled meeting do we have a second second thank you miss paradise with a any comments discussion on those minutes all right seeing none with a motion in a second on the table all in favor say aye opposed abstentions motion carries mr riley i believe you have a motion for us make a motion that we approve the minutes of february 10th 2021 the special board of education meeting do we have a second second thank you any comments or discussions seeing none a motion
008in a second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed abstentions motion passes thank you moving on to public comment anyone on the phone mr emmett uh no one on the phone mr kerry very good public comment is closed moving on to communications mr emmett thank you mr carrie good evening again everyone a couple of quick items for you this evening uh we have a couple of discussion items uh for you including a presentation on the weathersfield high school niask report as well as a reopening update from weathersfield's nurse supervisor claude bobrowski and myself i want to let everybody know that as we say farewell to mr moore the wethersfield high school principal search is currently underway the committee will reconvene tomorrow for the second round of interviews i certainly do want to thank our
009student representatives rosario tyne and lilly bucci for their participation in the round one interviews their perspective uh was greatly appreciated as part of the process i'd also like to express my appreciation for the feedback received through the budget workshop process as you know uh we have had three budget workshops over the past couple weeks and i look forward to be uh able to present to you the 2021 2022 operating budget at the march 9th board of education meeting for your review and approval i also like to let everybody know that the district is working on the required needs assessment for the sr2 grant funding this grant addresses four priority areas including academic supports learning loss learning acceleration recovery family and community connections school safety social emotional well-being of the whole student and of our school
010staff and remote learning staff development in the digital divide we will look to prioritize these areas and look to provide supports for our students and staff that align with our strategic plan and that is communications this evening mr carey thank you thank you mr emmett moving on to action items we have no action items tonight going on our reports and discussions knee ask presentation mr emmett thank you mr kerry uh it gives me great uh pleasure to introduce again uh mr moore uh and the liaisons and teacher leaders along with our assistant principal and athletic director mike maltese and tyler webb and terry esco to present to you the knee ask report all right good now um or am i uh shared with at this point mr emmett you are ready to go sir all
011right so we'll share screen right we'll right all right can everybody see that at this point yep okay and for a bigger screen you can see it all right so let me just uh right move on right so as a little bit of background the new england association of schools and colleges is our regional accreditation agency accountable to all colleges and public and private schools in our sick sixth state region actually there are accreditation agencies all throughout the country neoask new england association of schools and colleges is ours now again as some background the accreditation cycle right especially for public high schools is a 10-year decennial cycle that includes a collaborative conference which is what we are reporting on this evening a decennial visit which will occur in two years as well as three-year and
012six-year progress reports so usually there is uh four there are four tasks in a 10-year cycle right and again this is for all schools and colleges in the new england uh area the reports that are submitted are forwarded to uh what is called the commission on public secondary schools they are the ones who actually vote on the status of our accreditation and as i mentioned earlier in our prior accreditation we were actually placed on probation because of the condition of our building right obviously we worked uh very long and hard right a few years off of the lives of mr eminent myself right in terms of the entire renovation project right but it came out very very very well right so we were able to move off of probationary status right if need be the
013commission on public secondary schools may request additional special progress reports and again that was the case during our building renovation once a year i had to submit a special report right which documented what was happening during the the renovation so a little bit in in full disclosure i was one of the connecticut representatives to the commission on public secondary schools between 2001 and 2009 and actually in 2007 i was elected as the chair of the commission and served in that role until 2009. i also served on the neoask board of directors during that time and i have chaired over accreditation visits from as close as plainville connecticut to as far away as the canary canary islands so i am actually very familiar with the process right and you can see right our visiting team members
014right for the collaborative uh conference right it was chaired by kathy sasnowski right who is retired working for neasc uh charles dumay who's the executive director of ces friend of uh mr emmett uh mary morton and lenny rotigliano i think they did a very very nice job and the collaborative conference visit report as it says here reflects the findings of the school's self-reflection and those of the visiting team and so it goes uh back and forth and so this particular report ends up being about 40 pages provides a blueprint for the faculty administrators and other officials uh so they can use this right over the next several years especially as we talk about professional development and the full accreditation visit for weathersfield high school will take place in 2022. right now overall right this was
015a a really great report and a great validation of weathersfield high school of our staff of our community and of our educational practices so just as a a an overview right that actually is the um uh what they came up with right um so in our our self-reflection process the school had to go through right each of the foundational elements and we had to rate ourselves and the findings of the visiting team exactly mirrored the findings of the school through our self-reflection process so you can see right that uh in these six foundational elements right we had four areas that we met the standard and uh two areas where we did not right so in terms of foundational element one and i just want to go through these quickly just so you know what what
016they are right weathersfield high school without question meets the standard for providing a safe environment uh this is job one this is what we do on a daily basis and certainly through the pandemic we have adhered to this idea of providing a safe environment right so not only do we have a a safe building environment right but also uh the the teachers and staff provide uh really not only a safe but a comfortable and nurturing learning environment so we certainly meet the standard uh as we we move forward on that right uh the second standard or foundational element right uh is something that will be met uh very very quickly we'll be meeting this element within a matter of months in our two chairs christian misinskis and shannon bellinger right we'll be shepherding the process
017as we move forward uh in developing and actually finalizing the vision of a graduate right and that's the document that we're trying to make a 7 12 document we actually tried to make it a k12 document this will be completed in the spring uh of actually that should be 20 21 so right because we have uh we haven't finished it we don't meet the standard yet right we have our core values and uh learning belief statement which have guided us since 2011 right but this will be completed very very soon and will be brought to the board of education so the uh third foundational element uh is one that is of a particular concern right and that deals with the whole idea of curriculum right so i have to tell you very very honestly this
018finding was to be expected over the course of the last 50 right as i mentioned uh last night at the budget meeting right uh really our administrative model has been systematically dismantled by the budget uh during the early 2000s we had an administrator in charge of literacy we had one uh in charge of social studies in the arts one in charge of math and science one in charge of tech ed and adult ed as well as physical education and health and all these curriculum specialists had administrative uh had secretarial support right so those are our five individuals that really provided the weathersfield public schools with um just outstanding service right and uh without them right uh you know the curriculum is in the shape uh where it is right and as i mentioned last night
019also at the high school we had department chairs and those department chairs had 40 percent of their role dedicated to administrative duties uh each of these positions had a role in creating and developing curriculum as well as developing and creating really models of instruction and assessment so i really think it would be foolish right to think that a system could eliminate all these positions and still get the same results right so i'm not uh surprised as to as to where where we are right um the uh next foundational element professional practices right is our school improvement and growth plan uh you as a board of education see that each and every year uh it is created uh by the pres by the principal and the administrators in conjunction with the school leadership team which is
020the department uh liaisons but it really uh reflects everything about the teachers and the staff so that school improvement team right isn't driven from top down it is something that is mirrors the needs and beliefs of the entire school population learning support right uh i think and i believe that the visiting committee felt very strongly that clearly we meet the standard we go above the standard we have processes that address all of our student needs attendance behavior academics certainly social emotional functioning as we're dealing with the the pandemic right so uh that that was uh very validating excuse me and weathersfield uh high school right uh has a uh very has the learning resources right in order to do this right i guess if you throw 92 million dollars at something usually you can get
021some good results with that and our new project was completed in 2016 and as i mentioned we are very very proud right of that right um in the comment it's always nice to talk about commendations all right and again i feel this is a validation of weathersfield high school uh in the community in our our entire uh weathersfield public schools right so you can see the commendations uh they were pleased about the creation of the school-based equity team to ensure access and achievement for all wh uh whs students right and uh obviously this mirrors the town effort right with the social justice coalition led by mr emmett which again i think is the right thing to do and again is receiving kudos at this point we received a commendation for the wednesday office hours students
022felt strongly they were able to get help and work with teachers they reported this to the visiting committee the focus on mental health over academics during the pandemic the supportive environment relationship created between teachers and students which we kind of hang our hat on but the one i really wanted to focus on is the condition cleanliness and maintenance of the facility when this report came to us i immediately uh got our head custodian rich devito right and uh brought him upstairs and just let him take a look at this right because quite honestly right without his leadership our building won't be where where it is today they have done they're in the pandemic right they continue to do just an outstanding job i can't say enough right about our custodial and maintenance staff they really
023do a great job and then you can see the last commendation is uh the ability to embed and interject professional development on a monthly basis right and that is something that we're currently doing right and uh it has been accepted extremely well right now recommendations certainly right this is a blueprint for us to uh to move move forward right and you can see the the recommendations the idea of common assessments uh the idea of creating uh a formal structure to analyze assessment data and to improve instruction and make curriculum modifications right um i have to say that that all of these recommendations i think we have a very reasonable chance uh to accomplish them uh pretty quickly right however this one uh the second one is uh i think a little bit more more difficult
024right uh number two and number four here right so a few short years ago weathersfield high school worked with a nationally recognized educator named allison zumuda some of you i know mr cassio you probably remember this together we created a peer review process called game film teams right and in a nutshell what would happen is teachers uh were in a cohort right with like uh you know people in the same discipline for the most part and what they would do is they would record snippets of actual classroom instruction maybe five to ten minutes uh and what they would do is they would allow their colleagues to review and critique right now the idea uh about this is that it was non-evaluative so you didn't get administrators right in there providing judgment and giving numbers and
025things of that this non-evaluative practice was uplifting in in transparent and it was a peer review process right and that was uh that was a big deal uh this program ultimately uh won an award from the connecticut association of schools right um a few years ago we abandoned this particular practice i think this might be the uh the downside of a leader leader model there were some teachers right who didn't like it right but uh this is um something that we are going to have to deal with right is a formal structure to analyze data to inform and improve instruction i have to tell you though currently some whs teachers are using the game film team approach on a voluntary basis right and i think that that's been been very very helpful um for them
026so along with the idea of uh having a a formal structure to analyze data and improve instruction right i need to speak a little bit about right instruction because i i find it a little bit troubling and a significant issue uh at weathersfield high school and quite honestly for for a number of years we have a very very traditional high school and the instruction in all honesty and transparency uh is very traditional also a lot of lecture recitation teacher in front teacher driven types of uh of instruction right um what we've been trying to do is make instruction more student-centered um less dependent on on teachers a little bit more heavy and dependent on technology certainly a more team approach project approach um while this has been moderately successful i think that this is a
027part of the recommendations and something that is going to need more buy-in from teachers uh especially some of our our veteran teachers and i think that the accreditation report might be a vehicle to move forward in that that particular area so um you can see the the recommendations on uh equity of leveling classes we talked about data informing instruction a little bit in terms of staff or english learners bilingual students right uh the the last two right are actually fairly simple uh the second to last recommendation deals with keys right if you read between the lines uh and this is something mr bearbolt and i have had extensive discussions on uh and we have this in hand we will be taking care of uh this very very quickly and then the last recommendation right is
028for a chemical hygiene officer right uh in the building and quite honestly this would probably be something better off being a 712 position right it's not a full-time position it would just be uh responsibilities of someone right so before we get to uh to questions uh i have to say that i as a principal in the school in general have been very fortunate to have the accreditation process led and nurtured by two very talented teachers shannon belanger and kristen businskis so with the department liaisons who i asked to be here this evening and right uh the three very uh able uh assistant principals shannon and kristen will really shepherd this process moving forward and believe me when i say you're in good hands they have been on visits they know exactly right what they are
029doing so what they uh what i envision them doing right because i will not be here they will be bringing forward the vision of a graduate to the board of education once it is completed with the middle school and again i think that that will happen very very quickly and it will be a 7 through 12 vision of the graduate and i'm sure that they will also provide an update in terms of the accreditation status uh the report going to the commission on public secondary schools uh as well as where we are in terms of all these these recommendations so with that uh i would turn it over to any of the board members who have any questions concerns or clarifications and i'll stop this year thank you mr martin any board members with questions
030comments and you can just unmute yourself because i can't see everyone on a screen so i guess we'll be polite and just take turns nobody all right mr moore you're getting off easy tonight great job thank you for the update very good thank you committee members as well very good yeah just like to say mr kerry as we move forward in the agenda uh heartfelt thank you to the wethersfield high school staff teacher leaders administrators certainly kristin and shannon for all of their work in moving this knee ask process forward it is a tremendous amount of work there's a lot of information that has to be gathered and you've done excellent work i think you've given us a great roadmap for where we need to head and look forward to working with you uh as
031we move forward so thank you everybody from weather still high school thank you mr emmett reopening update yes uh happy to provide you a reopening update with uh miss brabrowski our nurse supervisor uh and contact tracer extraordinaire so uh i am extraordinarily pleased to report that we have now brought back uh students in grades pre-k through six uh we brought in pre-k through three in a phased approach in consultation and collaboration with the central connecticut health district we brought them in on february 8th and we brought back in students in grades four through six uh just yesterday so the buildings were a buzz and i can tell you i got to all five elementary schools yesterday and um the kids may have been in masks but you could see the smiles and you could feel
032the the just the joy of kids being back together i went to webb elementary school and was talking with mr craig and he found that there were kids at webb that had not seen each other in almost a year which is really really profound so we're very happy to have our kids back in terms of numbers at this point in time let me give you a flavor for where we're at in terms of in-person learning so hammer elementary school 82 82.6 of our students have returned charles wright 77.5 percent are back to in person emerson williams 76.7 percent are in person high crest elementary school 87.8 percent back to in person webb elementary 88.5 so uh as an average across the district at the elementary level 82.6 percent of our students are back into full
033in-person learning so we certainly like having them back we have a total of four classrooms across the district that have all 100 percent of their students in we have a kindergarten class at hamer we have a sixth grade class at highcrest and we have a kindergarten and first grade class over at webb so we're moving in a good direction so um chloe could you talk a little bit about where our numbers are right now at this point well i believe that's a great segue because we are moving in a good direction um you know just these past few weeks after attending multiple department of public health and csde meetings and also listening to our daily updates with the connecticut transmission rates and positivity rates it's it's really nice to know that we are past the
034peak of infection in our communities and it is reflected in our numbers in our schools as well um every day if you read uh mr emmett's communication you can tell that our numbers are decreasing sometimes in the past we've reported maybe nine to 11 cases on one single day and now we're looking at an average between one and three i think last um uh on the 17th when when we returned from our little recess there were five uh cases that we were reported but since then the numbers have continued to go down in addition to that we have very few people in quarantine we started with about nine students only nine students in quarantine this morning we did end up with 17 at the end of the day um due to a community transmission it
035was a youth sports league there was a student who tested positive so we did have to quarantine some additional students throughout the school um so contact tracing does uh remain you know very active but our nurses are doing a great job getting information contacting families and then being able to have parents pick up their students so that we can continue to reduce the uh and really interrupt the chain of transmission for any coveted infections in our schools and for that we have remained completely without any evidence of transmission of coven infections in our schools and we're really proud of that we're doing a great job with our mitigating strategies and also with only 17 students we only have one staff member who's in quarantine and that's really great and we've come a long way i
036kind of want to be able to sleep at night i can't yet but we're heading in the right direction with the quarantine of the staff member it too was related to a community um sporting event so we know with these sports uh occurring we're very happy to know that students have uh additional activities to be able to participate in but it does really um uh impact the work that we continue to do um to keep our schools safe um but we're really happy about the announcement for the vaccinations for the teachers as well so i know you probably want to speak a little bit more about that and i'm happy to fill in when you need me to excellent thank you khloe yeah just a couple of other items you know just to remind everybody
037with regard to mitigation strategies uh as close said the mitigation strategies continue to be extremely important and i want to reiterate to everyone that we use a suite of mitigation strategies it's not just one thing certainly mass wearing is one of the key components that we have found to be most effective in uh preventing the spread of infection social distancing is another one that is important i will be the first to tell you having observed many classrooms over the past day we're not meeting the six foot social distance in many of our classrooms and with that we have to make sure that we're doubling down on our others mass compliance hand hygiene is critically important maintaining good ventilation our ventilation systems in our buildings have actually been quite strong with the exception of some hiccups
038over at charles wright so we've been in good shape there um also with our physical services department making sure that we have ample supply of cleaning materials and the physical services department has ample time to get in and clean so we're seeing good uh good progress thus far and i do want to say that we are beginning to look at the process of expanding reopening at the secondary level as well given the low infection rate and given the current numbers that we have in our buildings we are gathering data now so for example cylistine uh rosalind uh bannon principal at silas dean sent out a survey to parents to gauge how many students would be interested in coming back in as of today we only had 56 families that had not responded to that survey
039so again if you could uh weigh in on where you'd like to be we'd appreciate it for planning purposes and then administration at the high school this week we'll be sending out a survey communication to parents to take a look at high school as well i also want to make sure that i touch upon the vaccine process that has been something that has been unfolding from about sunday afternoon to right now so we got word on sunday afternoon that there would be a meeting for superintendents uh yesterday that was held yesterday at 11 o'clock and uh very very pleased to report that as of monday march 1st educators will be included in the eligibility for phase 1b um i must tell you also the logistical process with this is ongoing um we know full well
040that this particular eligibility group is going to be quite large as it will encompass districts across the entire state of connecticut in addition to that anybody age 55 or older along with our 65 and older and 75 and older populations that have not been vaccinated are still in that pool tomorrow afternoon at 2 30 i will be meeting with charles brown along with clover browski our medical advisor dr patel and my colleagues from berlin newington and rocky hill and craic to talk about being able to provide a vaccination clinic for our staff again a lot of logistical components are going to go into this one of the things that we're doing right now is we're maintaining the wednesday as a remote learning day is that may provide us a level of flexibility to be able
041to run a clinic at wethersfield high school when the kids are remote i we certainly have the logistics to be able to do that we've had the eoc our emergency operations center as well as the central connecticut health district out to look at the facility and it is certainly um favorable to be able to run a clinic i must also say that clover browski and our nursing staff are looking to step up and assist in the vaccination of staff members and i think that that's critically important as well cchd will not be able to do this alone so this has been something that we've been planning for a long period of time with regard to the wednesday remote days i do uh hope to be able to phase those out over the course of the
042next month we're obviously looking to see how quickly we can schedule these uh vaccine clinics and how quickly we'll get the vaccine we believe that we have the capability to do it right now we just have to be able to get the vaccine uh charles from the cchd has talked about the fact that they uh did a small startup clinic last week and were able to vaccinate 56 of um the some of the most vulnerable population here in weathersfield age 75 and older and the cchd has clinics scheduled actually right out to easter so we're hopeful of being able to get staff members vaccinated as quickly as we can in march there'll be a lot of information forthcoming and again i just want to stress to everybody patience and flexibility i've heard that from the
043state department of education i've heard it from the state department of health i've heard it from the central connecticut health district we're getting there we're getting close and very much looking forward to getting our staff vaccinated so khloe anything else um well i just wanted to let everyone know too we are collecting data so we do know people who have been receiving their two doses of vaccine so we have a fair idea of when it when it comes time to start um you know calculating how many doses to order for our staff people have been you know very good about providing information it's private information but at least we have some data to kind of help us kind of approximate the type of size of the clinic in addition um i just what did i
044want to say i wanted to say something oh providing education um that is something that is really going to be on our um you know what we want to do to provide education to all staff members you know via our website our stillman newsletter you know just talking about the vaccine and hoping to be able to be resources to anyone who has any questions and also to provide other resources to any staff who may have questions about the vaccine its safety its efficacy the side effects of receiving a vaccine so we're here to answer all questions thank you clone just to wrap up i do want to um also mention the fact that you know here in weathersfield we have several other schools we have corpus christi which is a a private parochial school um
045we also have the correct discovery academy and craig soundbridge back in the fall i was asked to compile staff numbers for those schools so i did provide those to the eoc and yesterday the state asked for districts to be able to help uh get these folks vaccinated as well and not only our private parochial school and correct partner schools but also day cares and license license day cares and other preschools here in town so that's one of the things we'll be talking about with charles tomorrow in terms of how we can do that as i had mentioned earlier i've been in contact with my colleague from crack and again if there's any way we can help to support our partners from craic and corpus christi we'll work to do that too within the scope of
046a clinic any questions any board members with questions or comments all right thank you thank you mr browski for your presentation thank you mr emmett thank you sir all right announcements and information please check your packet make sure if there's a committee meeting you can't make it let your committee chair know meetings held mr michaels we are going to lump you all together you have the three special meetings of board of education the board workshops on 210 218 and 222 and you had the uh finance and operation committee meeting tonight 223.21 you want to give us a brief update sure um i guess we'll work backwards uh we've learned that we are currently 505 119 under budget for this current year um those numbers are for the most part staying pretty uh level where they've
047been and that uh current number does include all of the transfers um that have been made to date um and have been approved by the board um as mr emmett talked about uh we're also looking at uh the qualifications of how we can use the esser funds so more information on that should be coming out shortly so stay tuned for that regarding the budget workshops we anticipate a uh board a budget uh before the board on the march 9th march 9th meeting yes um at which time the superintendent will present that formally to the board uh we'll have a little bit of discussion and then we would look to approve that that night as well and then move that on to the town council um in accordance with the state guidelines for that time frame
048and then just on a personal note a big thank you to all of the staff and administrators and board members for their work during this year's budget workshops uh pretty smooth we opened up to um community comment at all three of our uh workshops but uh we weren't taking up on the offer this year but i think it was a good it was a good change that we made from the previous uh budget workshops last year and that's my update thank you mr michaels and we had correct council on 217 21 miss granado okay yes the correct council met on wednesday february 17th the correct council's capital region education council of which weatherstool is a member along with 35 other surrounding towns the council is responsible for the regional magnet schools and project choice and
049they also organize and work the harford head start the meeting started with a presentation to the council on diversity equity and inclusion the suggestion was brought forward to include in school systems a director of school climate focused on equity diversity and inclusion the council also approved the correct constitutional changes about having remote meetings and the elimination of a board of directors all policies that were approved by the policy committee and had a first reading were passed and greg floria the executive director of correct spoke of the recent virtual legislation legislative breakfast and michael emmett and i both attended greg spoke of the legislative agenda proposed by crack patrice mccarthy who is the legal liaison for crack and cave to the legislature spoke of the session being in a virtual session and she also spoke of
05024 education bills that were being presented this year to the assembly the meeting ended with comments from the different town representatives as we were asked to share innovative ideas that were proposed in our local budgets for this year the council's looking for towns to be innovative in areas such as equity technology personnel and new programs i spoke of our social justice coalition and the start of working in the diversity teacher program that creck has instituted the correct council is a great source of information on what the surrounding towns are doing thank you thank you ms granado meetings scheduled with us for the early childhood collaborative is meeting on 3 28 21 at 4 30 p.m there is no unfinished business public comment anyone on the phone mr emmett i have no one on the phone
051mr kerry all right i have some emails to read then the first email give me a second is from tracy gianfriedo 43 meadowgate and she writes chairperson carrie i'm writing to support i'm writing in support of the weatherville early childhood collaborative and the wonderful work that they do kim boben the family early childhood coordinator has been an asset to the town families and education professionals across so many different groups she has brought in programs and activities that serve under underrepresented groups children in need and trainings to teachers and caretakers in the area she works not only with the yukon pep program in collaboration with the boe but also has been instrumental in coordinating the esl family literacy program providing multiple generation literacy to families and preschool children up to four years old the program has
052a proven record of growth in english proficiency which serves not only the families but also the schools in the community it has been brought to my attention that miss bobbins position needs funding to continue serving our town i'm asking that the board of education provide the funding to support the work that is being done and the work that will be done in our service to our community respectfully submitted tracy a jan fredo and i have another email this was sent to us give me a second i gotta get closer i'm getting old this was sent to us during our last meeting but i didn't get it until this week it says earlier in the meeting mr emmett said that 70 to 80 percent of the k-3 students return to full in-school learning that leaves 20
053to 30 percent of the children remote my children are staying home we've had significant and personal health concerns that are preventing us from returning our first grader has been having a difficult year his passion for school has been deteriorated his confidence has dissolved and his educational focus has struggled remote learning and teaching for that matter is very difficult we hope that the summer to plan teachers could hit the ground running that is not entirely the case my third graders teacher has been amazing the special teachers have been great unfortunately my first grade teacher has struggled teaching in person in remote is difficult and a big ass for any teacher with reopening we are concerned about these struggles would get worse we brought this to the attention of the school's principal and asked for additional help
054she replied the school's focus will primarily be on in-person students that remote learners will receive even fewer good google meet lessons and as far as extra help since my son has the option to be in school she would not provide extra help admitting that he won't receive the same level of education as the other first graders and then following up with that he also won't be provide extra help as simply unexcusable illogical and wrong it is punishing him for his health concern it is the same health concern that would cause a boe committee to meet virtually he shouldn't be punished for these concerns the remote plan is something you offer it should strive for equitable education again you said 20 to 30 of students are remote that's 20 to 30 percent of your students being
055punished for health concerns a proper reopen plan would not discriminate against 20 to 30 students on monday my first grader's new remote schedule was put into place he has one phonics lesson in a week the lesson is 10 minutes long 10 minutes of phonics a week his social emotional learning was reduced to one lesson a week and also 10 minutes long a first grader who is struggling to read mindfulness and relationships will be receiving one phonics lesson and one asl less than a week with the reopen plan he is not being provided the education he deserves the remote learners are simply being punished aside due to their health concerns i never thought i'd fight for my son's education especially when we moved to a town with such highly rated schools earlier in this meeting mr
056ammon said that the schools would be receiving additional government funding i urge you to consider some of that money for tutors consultants and aides to assist the remote learners we need help the reopening plan is pushing this aside thank you for you for your work on this matter your consideration your help matt sakulo s-a-c-c-u-l-l-o ellen and it's 169 2 rod highway did anyone jump on the phone mr evitt no sir no one on the phone thank you board comment any board members wishing to make comment chuck yes kenny mr lesser thank you mr chairman i have two two items uh two meetings attended one i attended the social justice coalition meeting on february 5th and one of the big topics was there's about 60 people there which is a great turnout including many new members
057of the community was community engagement and the desire to broaden beyond the 60 people the conversation and have the conversation go out to the wider community but obviously that's difficult to do during covet the hope is to host some events down the road in terms of getting community engagement in terms of social coalition so the community is meeting uh monthly and is moving forward and as you know michael is one of the leaders of that committee so michael thank you for all you're doing there and the second one is last night after the budget meeting we got a small break and then we had another meeting the career advisory board met um thank you michael jim and bobby for being there and two items i'll report from there one is as i've reported before we
058have a partnership with travelers and tomorrow 12 uh students at weathersfield high school will be experienced in a virtual education in travelers insurance and underwriting and all that wonderful financial stuff which hopefully will be exciting for them but what's really important here is that we're opening new doors for our students giving them a fresh look at other career opportunities and to have a partnership with an outstanding company like travelers is great for weathersfield and great for our kids the other last item i'll report on the career advisory board is that in april uh we are doing a career fair virtually with um newington it's a combined kind of joint effort weathers feel in newington and we hope to have many many different careers representative and if you have represented if you have any interest in
059participating you can make a five to ten minute video and give you instructions about your career and that will be something that the students um can can witness and can view so it's a little creative a little different than the career fair we did in person before uh but it's uh it's a great opportunity for students to get a little glimpse of what's out there and a glimpse of what their future could like look like in different careers so um that's all i have thank you chuck thank you mr anyone else wishing to make more comment miss granado okay as uh lou michaels mentioned the board finished its work on the budget monday night and michael let me mention the next step is the budget will be presented to the public on tuesday march 9th
060at our board meeting this budget is one that i believe continues to play catch-up i find us and i do go to our correct council meetings and that's where i get so much of this information so we are playing catch-up and the board is looking for public support so please come and support the board of ed budget and finally i i had to say talk about this this past week we all witnessed the nasa um landing on mars the rover the perseverance complete with a tiny drone ingenuity completed a nearly seven month journey from earth with the perfect touchdown now the work is on and they're running around mars and it all begins but this event was years in the making and i just want to tell all those teachers out there that it started
061with education for all those nasa scientists each scientist was once a student perhaps a dreamer or a tinkerer at a maker space or even a fearless student who always said so let's just try it weathersville public school continues to work to have critical thinkers problem solvers and collaborators for success in the 21st century and a quote from the perseverance twitter account the moment quote the moment that my team dreamed of for years is now a reality dear mighty things i love it thank you thank you ms granado any other board members wishing to make comment all right seeing none thiago have anything for us yeah just something quick um i just want to thank all the teachers in the meeting um definitely through these hard times adjusting to this educational demand and um overall i
062think all the teachers that i've had i've just been doing an outstanding job and uh thank you to all the teachers excellent thank you all right see no other comments do i have a motion to adjourn don't move do i have a second abstentions motion carries thank you everyone drive safely have a good night everyone good night everyone