001[Music] I have 7 o'clock on Thursday February 27th um the wom Board of Education special meeting should be is a special meeting should yeah set special but it's a regular meeting regular meeting [Music] meeting it's a special meeting um I'm GNA call the meeting to um is everybody you know budget meeting is um um is has everyone had a chance to look at the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda I so move thank you thank you heather all in favor motion carries unanimously is Pat on by any chance um comments from the public the board has set aside time at the beginning and end of regular meetings for public comments for members of the public to share their views on matters involving the Bon public schools and to help inform the board
002decisions on such matters 2 minutes will be allotted to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to any one subject for the record please also give your name and address the board considers the views of citizens in its deliberations and welcomes and appreciates public comments the board listens to public comment thoughtfully and with interest the board however generally does not respond to public comment during board meetings by offering commentary or answering questions the board also invites commentators and the public to contact the board or the superintendent directly with any specific questions or comments the board through the chair and the superintendent May respond to questions and comments offered during public comment and shares directly and in responding may also direct members of the public to the appropriate staff member for a response are there
003any comments from the public I have comment um do you want me to go up there whatever easier for you Peggy it's quick and easy um I'm pegging your uh W president and I'm not here well I'm not speaking as anything WBA on Tuesday March 4th I will be wearing red to school because I believe it's National um if you are for public education wear red that day and I hope you guys wear red we I hope we all wear red just uh in solidarity for um public education thank you any other comments from the public hearing none um consent agenda consent agenda includes the regular meeting um minutes from February 11th and February 6 is any questions or comments on the consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent thank you Lori
004is there a second thank you Nicola all in favor motion carries unanimously um board chair's report nothing specifically for tonight we have a pretty robust agenda so think discussion will flow through U that way excellent just got a few things for you um so I want to just recap when just before the break I sent you a note uh on Saturday February 8th 283 School Debaters from 14 Schools completed in the Connecticut school tournament they debated the motion the house believes that carbon capture is essential to fighting climate change um and so the uh middle school students representing Wilton did exceptionally well with two teams and all of them um won all of their uh rounds and then the middle Brook team s g Sophia W and I placed first and then I was also
005the highest scoring speaker that day so congratulations to all of our school deats and we look forward to more um as um Pam just commented a second ago um two days ago we held our longrange planning session um through which we um invited a panel of seven experts from across industry to come and um engage with us around the role of artificial intelligence and so there are three questions um how is artificial intelligence impacting your industry today will you anticipate that impact being 5 10 years out and what should we be doing to prepare our case and those questions led to um an incredibly robust conversation um across every we had about 60 folks or so in the um you know lasted for about an hour and a half was incredibly engaging and since P
006there you know I just invite you to wait if you want to offer anything think it was very it was very positive and optimistic and a lot of the speakers were talking um about AI being like additive rather than you know it's going to come and take away everybody's jobs and everybody's future um so that was good to hear um I it was it was a great it's occasion to me that they all they all had a very favorable idea of AI we managed it but they also talked so much about the social emotional learning that was so imperative for us to still do because whatever that does it still doesn't have that piece of it and it takes a human being to make that and to manage that and so if we don't have
007the social emotional learning in place then I think it's too much of that and not enough of the person and it just was very interesting that they all that was through all of them they all said that and stated that in different ways definitely all stated that as an important VI of what we all should be doing that kind of connects to like our overall vision of the learner that kind sits over you know all the pieces that as a district we we put together right and the recommendations about you know from across the panels where like f focus on that you know part of the rational the technology again is changing so rapidly so scary know we set up and you know we shared some information from the U World economic 2025 jobs report
008and uh you know the survey employers all across the globe and then Agate you know C of anticipated trans information and so what the 2025 jobs report is different because um in the anticipated core skills for since um you see the emergence really strongly invol these Tech skills and the the core skills for 2025 all the soft skills that are so clearly embedded in our today so that the conversation really Senator W you know keep trying to help grow good human beings um idea so it was a really powerful conversation great a range of a range of [Music] so for us you know I found you guys were there if you guys want the weigh in as well I'm Jory I was just gonna say you I piggyback L to think about that those skills
009but they talked a lot about those soft skills the idea of critical thinking problem solving the uh the fact that you can have ai do everything it wants and can do with all the data but it doesn't then help you analyze and it really doesn't help that piece that is still that that human aspect to it so it was really uh Tom's comment about how isolating the fear of of it is how isolating AI can be because it's it's this and that's all so those were some of the comments I thought it was very interesting with some of the comments about how AI using if you can use it as a tool effectively it can really allow you to get through data that could take you or weeks to get through to really give you
010an idea on how to synthesize some of that information and then do the research to confirm it's the information you had is correct that was I thought that was a fascinating part of the conversation you know it struck me that it was clear there were no answers you heard quite the intellectual Firepower is amazing right and yet you heard a lot of I just don't know I can't predict it so I think we need to be patient with ourselves as we figure it out and navigate it for our students and I also I I sat there again just to the power of that panel I thought that could be could can and probably will be our students in even a few short years I think we're we're producing graduates of that caliber who we often
011say for a better world and and they're going to change the world so I was I was just optimistic and I thought this is something that our students could could aspire to and you know we're I'm not saying any up committed but you know we're working on a community panel like a professional panel I was sitting there right at first I thought that could be that really could be the pan of that group of people you know our kids could aspire to be at that level whether it's a legal profession the medical profession so um so well done pulling them together after yeah it it was powerful I think going back again to what Pam was saying like there it was very positive overall but they kept coming back to that we can't lose that
012human touch and I think that's just so so important we can use it to do the kind of the grunt work great all the but then we need to really analyze it and use it properly but it was very I just felt came away feeling very optimistic about it afterwards and I wasn't really sure that I was going to feel that way at the end of it but I did and I just thought it was fascinating and again the group of people that you brought together coming from all of those different walks and having the different viewpoints I just thought it was very well done so we'll have a B's going to leave that secondary team tomorrow debrief group of us will get for come back with next steps and pl and is continue to
013to to March forward in our our quest to understand that we can be the human inep into the C and then the last pieuse for me um yesterday I forwarded you action alert um you may be aware that um both houses in the state legislature um overwhelmingly passed the bill to add $40 million to the excess costly fund for this fiscal year concern it appears as though the governor signaling that he may be tow that and so cave sent out um a note to I think all board members in the state with a link that used to send an email so I sent a note I just invite you and anyone else who's listening's got some skin in the game here send encourage him to sign this spill that count I was going to bring
014that up in the fiscal um but just so everybody knows you can go to the Connecticut Governor the connecticut. website and click on email Governor the which I did today and it is um House Bill 7067 and um right now um we are slated to receive 941,618 million our percentage would increase to 72.8 and it would be 1.14 3754 so it is a significant um addition to um this year's budget and um I would encourage everybody to um go ahead and just write you know your one sentence saying that you support the um the bill [Music] financials so I gave you both um the December's Financial update just because we didn't have time to do doing budget and then also January's Financial update um just so that you can kind of see the progression throughout
015the year um and one back to the state legislature is um working on getting that $40 million which is definitely help we are seeing that electrics coming in higher I think that's across the state right all of us are seeing electric coming in higher um so we're kind of doing a little bit more of a deeper dive into that to make sure that we're receiving all of the credits that we're supposed to be receiving for the solar um because there was some issues at the start of the Year where the state was running behind on issuing those um we're kind of close we're keeping a close eye on all of the expenditures we're trying very hard not to put a freeze in place uh Dr Smith had communicated with all of the administrators and the
016secretaries to closely monitor their spending and we have really seen um that everybody's trying to abide by that going through reviewing any open vide closing things that we can close um just so that we have a better idea of what we have and if there's any expenses that people are anticipating that they're letting us know so but overall things are going pretty far besides the electric are there any like particular lines that you're watching that might tip the tip point or is it just kind of a general I think it's it's it's it's yeah I think it's more General right now um there aren't the electric is probably the biggest concern at this point fuel's a little higher than what we had anticipated but that may come down um a little bit as well and
017then there's going to be like some shifts of things right because we're moving things from transportation to cover other things but I think overall we're pretty well um the we'll have another meeting in a couple of months but insurance seems to be doing pretty well we've been monitoring that pretty closely all year so there isn't like anything that's like really jumping up Insurance projection seems to have been pretty On Target so everybody you know that helps a lot yes and February bre passed without incident in any building [Music] got through the whole so that was very exciting the happiest call I received all year like we're okay any other questions for laa financials thank you very much and so moving on to review and discuss um first up we have the Cider Mill Bel schedule
018update wher you're happy hear um so just a recap um from October you know that we were really looking to go for a typical Elementary schedule Monday to Friday and you've successfully done that that's made a huge impact on our on our um school and get into that um we have longer class blocks which allows us to dig deeper into the curriculum for longer extens of time and increased lunch and recess time which came with some challenges but we'll talk about that um and World Language instruction is now integrated into the Core curriculum for science and social studies we had lots of positive feedback U teachers are um appreciating their extended instructional time students are benefiting from longer breaks um so let's move to the next one so we did another staff survey in November
019just to get once we were kind of running with the schedule as you know ball comes with lots of um impact to the schedule so we waited um just to really get a better sense of how how we were doing and a few things came up um there were transition concerns um really between lunch and leaving and getting two specials just there was some overlaps um so that that came up the Lune wave timing and recess Duty teachers that was something really important that we were trying to do was to get a certified staff member out of recess and we were able to get two out there in our initial version and teachers felt like it wasn't really needed so that that came up loud and clear in the survey so we made some adjustments
020kind of Midway um we were able to add 5 minutes transition time to and from specials which has made a huge impact for um those teachers and also just for the um tener of our hallways when you're picturing um High number of students transitioning at the same time in hallway we were also able to put in a five minute buffer between the lunch waves which did the same thing I don't some of you probably been um in our building between 10: and 1 during that lunch block and there are a lot of students passing in that kind of main Corridor and so it really did help out quite a bit we also um adjusted the recess rotation so that teachers are now on like a six week rotation and then they get a reprieve um
021which gives a little bit more um teacher time which has been very helpful and well received so we still have some challenges with any schedule rate um with the way it works ideally you would love to be able to put each teacher with their students right so that you have the teacher the adult and student connection it's just logistically not possible and there are a few occasions where teachers from one side of the building although it's the same grade level have to cover from the other side and they don't really know the kids so we have the benefit of having a certified teacher out there but it's not always the one that we would rather um and we just not able to figure that out um and then also just because of we need more
022time right um triy to provide transition time the time has to come from somewhere so the end of the day continues to be a struggle specifically when we're partner teaching and you may start off in one um teacher classroom and then you know you have to end in another teacher classroom so we're still working through um through those challenges but overall um the changes have been very positively um received improving transition scheduling efficiency you know we were doing this Main to just calm the tenor of the building down and I think if you've spent some time in the building I think it's a little palpable um so it's been u a very positive um change for us we'll continue to refine um we anticipate going to a version of the same schedule into next year
023um but we're going to work on addressing some of the lingering challenges that we have it is a Comming for sure [Music] than yeah had some uh I want to go back to the lunch recess thing um 30 minutes of re um lunch not Recess Recess is fine lunch um was a little bit of a challenge it took us a little while to get used to but um the PTA has been fabulous they um gave us a grant where once kids are done and the tables have been cleared and no no rushing right we have some indoor games that kids are able to pull out and it's absolutely helped so we're going to do a second version of the um since the first one was successful so so they eat watch some kids eat clunch
024really fast yeah and then they're done 5 minutes yes and then we lot of Bott and you have 25 minutes to do something with it yeah but some kids some kids Dy and some kids [Music] eat so the additional transition time yes where do you CLA that from mainly from the end of the day or is it eating into instruction all time the day we really Tred to not take it from instructional time um Dave is I should say should have started by saying Dave dudx is just a logistical genius and I can't even actually tell you where he got the time but he did not lose it from instructional time and he was able to somehow just offset the way the lunches Ran So that actually didn't take away time we did lose five
025minutes um which after you did the lunch kind of did take to give transition to and from special that's kind of where that five minutes came from but it's not like we took five minutes five minutes five minutes five minutes so somehow you figured that out and I just said thank you you should and then I was just curious because now with the lunch and then recess you're talking about like which teacher out there with recess so they no longer have like the teacher recess correct correct yeah so I was just curious if like teachers have been expressing how or notice any different change in the way they're kind of getting with their classroom or understanding their kids because they don't have the eyes on at that time or so we still have morning meeting
026religiously every time which is the community building and then every teacher takes their day and when they need a movement break so I mean there are some depending on which schedule you're running right you can have a heavy academic morning there's not one class that's going without a movement break in there where they're up they might go they might in the nice weather they might go outside for five minutes they might do you know Goen whatever it is that they're doing but I was just curious if there have been like any kind of reactions to kind of like class clim classroom climate over like or manag question but I haven heard about that I think it's remember the the whole play cycle and everything having an extended lunch recess I think the benefits of that
027outweigh um you know they're building community and yeah throughout workshop and everything so just in terms of see you know kid Dynamics or interactions with each other in other ways has so the kids go to their original classroom leave their backpacks there and then end up in another classroom at the end of the day then they go back to their so in fifth grade um and half a fourth we piloted something called partner teaching and so in those cases yes not in not in third grade but it depending on you know the right A lot of times the right next to each other next year where we um we are proposing um moving quite a few classrooms um partner teaching had a a positive impact on um our world and in teaching um a very
028positive impact and so we will be doing that in fourth and fifth grade fully to do so the most efficient way we didn't make a lot of moves last year to make it work but we will um get our partner teachers geographically next to each other now that we know it's worked so it be a little bit of growing pains having to make that one time movement so Kevin Smith we will be needing boxes but we will get back to everybody so it's but it's been beneficial and next year we won't have some of these logistic ises so it's probably more fun to to be a part it's been such a positive um kids teachers parents everybody great good I definitely have been in the building and I think that it's a much better environment
029like it feels um it feels just a little bit Yeah the hallways don't feel as you know transition like it just doesn't feel as um overwhelming or frenzy so I think that that's been a great great Improvement and I know that there was concerns about kind of having those longer blocks and I haven't really heard any you know um you know concerns that like merited that no because in so many ways they're really not that much longer I I think for Middle School going to something like that would have felt a little different but for elementary I think just seeing it out like that you made people think you know something other than other one what it was but that the kids have really kind of um taken to it and I think it also
030lends to a calmer space in the classroom so thank you GNA move up because I brought a friend thank you Mr I hopefully you all remember Michael Collins nice to see everybody one of our team leaders and also wa rep and he and I also met with you if you remember last spring when we were talking about introducing this so it feels like it's it's appropriate that we come back again together thank you for being here tonight appreciate and thank you all for taking all opportunity to let us do this and give you another dat what's going on um so just a a quick overview of what changed and this this slide is really just meant to give you a little bit of reminder of some of the the big changes so for example the
03160-minute academic classes are now 48 minute academic classes um still 240 minutes over the week and that's because the the drop I'll explain in just a second stride went from 41 minutes to 45 minutes so a slight increase there uh we had a rotating schedule for all the academics that stayed the same that that seemed to be a very positive thing that we wanted to keep so we kept it uh last year uh one academic class would drop through the rotation and now we don't have a drop all the classes meet every day and the flex period which was about an 18-minute period uh was an 18-minute period uh is now no longer in our schedule and we increase time at the lunch from 30 minutes to 45 minutes that's lunch ESS for us at
032Middle School okay it's just kind of a broad brush of all of that so the start of the year I just started asking folks all over the place it was in the hallway it was in staff meetings it was in instructional leader meetings it was in the hallway it was sitting down with kids at the lunch tables and just saying how's it going what do you think what do you think of schedule and these are just some of the comments you know I it's just a complete sh they all love the longer lunch I guess um but children and adults alike seem to really like the rotating schedule you know adults would articulate a little more just that idea of not seeing the the children at the same time of day was great those you
033know those morning kids and those afternoon kids it's nice to just see them at different times of day and that was certainly articulated uh there was a little bit of a a disparity on the drop you know the the children would explain either they like not having as many classes on a given day or I'm going to pick a you for a second since my teaches math thank God I didn't have math today I didn't have to take math always hurt so something like that but the the teachers were able to articulate how their lives were just so much better I let you even jump in on that of just how life was so much better without the drop the main reasons is when you think about what organizing their lessons were like throughout the
034week they they would not only not be align with our classes till Friday but just the planning of coming in on Tuesday or Wednesday wait a minute did we cover lesson this or did we get to that no we didn't oh that was the other class so there's a lot of that and the planning and some of the even the more organized folks that created those spreadsheets that were all colorcoded to know what lessons were done where just even when you knew what they were doing it looked like it was crazy I know if you want well yeah especially then when you would factor and God forbid you'd be out for a day and then that would throw the rotation completely off and you'd have classes in different places and just trying to play that
035constant game of catchup and all the head space it required I think a lot of that early feedback in the fall was just folks really appreciated just knowing that today my classes are here tomorrow I know based on what's happening today we can be going here and it just ran so much smoother so folks really did appreciate that and so you know to piggy back on that and then uh other pieces of that teachers articulating how much they appreciate seeing all their children every day as opposed to those drops where they wouldn't see the money a given day uh when we had the flex many the teachers were using the flex time to try to Circle back and touch base with some of those children that needed an everyday touch point if you will um
036so just forward forward into this year just uh the word was used by one of the teachers at the vibe is just so much better in our building and and what they mean by that is just that it's it's calmer it feels like I can get through my day I've I'm seeing all my kids there just is a a Cadence to our our building now that just feels more normalized um the the flex I'll talk a little bit more in in just a minute but you know I don't if you want to enwa person who hears in a different way from folks if you want to just talk about just the vibe or the emotions we've got Good Vibes at Middlebrook this year um just to put it simply but yeah you know folks to
037go back to the drop and the flex and there were so many balls in the era across last year and it was so much headp space as I mentioned and folks just like that they're now able to predict what is happening on a given day they're able to plan we're going to talk about we were able to find some pockets of time to give back to teachers which was a huge help which I think has also greatly increased I think morale and just the overall culture and dealing in each of the build in the building right now as well so uh moving on to the next slide luil um this was in more in the sense of more of a formal um get gaining feedback in more formal way to get long the survey and
038uh this is called not burying a lead right you know so when you look at results that are like this that are so very favorable it's it's a nice feeling to know that it's working in that regard that when you know we had s this is um I should give a public thanks and and shout out to Kim zimo who help put together these surveys but three separate surveys one for students one for parents and Gardians and one for teachers and staff and you can see the the percent of favorable rating for that's overall um answering what was it 15 questions I think it was plus an opportunity for open-ended uh and as Kim pointed out you just don't see survey results that are this positive you know um you L for it I said
039not since America's opinion on Betty White have seen like this so it's uh it is uh you know very positive in that regard there are some opportunities to drill down a little bit this we will in a minute but um I just thought it was very telling that Kim too someone who's had a little more experience with surveys than I have talked about you just don't see this kind of favorable rating so it's a a pretty good sense of what we're doing and how it's working is working in in a very good way and I'll even just throw in we've had a number of WEA meetings throughout the year and even the fact that folks are just saying I don't need to say things are great thanks like is a testament to I think how
040people are feeling whereas even last year we had a line out the door and we'd be here till 6:00 at night just Fielding questions concerns worries anxieties and just the fact that we're not getting that this year we hardly get to talk so these next three slides really kind of break it out for the three surveys and we just thought you'd like to know a few examples of what the questions were and the favorable rating for each one of them um we also in that open end at the end of the survey some of the the comments were around uh some feedback about passing time and that renewed our efforts uh the adults that is to make sure that we are holding students a little more accountable uh and what I mean by that is
041that students and staff might say oh you know the kids are coming late or hey they're it's taking them too long or oh they can't they can't get from one end of the building in two minutes to the other end of the building and I was throwing the you know what flag on that saying nope come out in the hallway with me and see just how they're moving through the hallway and there visiting hey there's my friend Mike and I'm going to stay at the bottom of the stairs and wait for him before I go to class you get the idea but it gave us an opportunity to renew that energy in our building to make sure that we're all collectively doing a better job with that but um you can see the positive respones
042for what feels like a calmer day the preference for the 48 minutes well over 80% there on both of those not so surprisingly that relatively speaking the the lower favorable rating if you will relative to the the um uh the drop class and that's coming from the the children saying hey I prefer not having the class but even there still 62% still very favorable and the students liked having not having one class for a day the other thing that skews that a little bit is um the survey being filled out by sixth graders who had no point of reference if you will in our building now they did have somewhat of a reference right in terms of time of day and in their day what it looked like fifth grade but certainly not the Middlebrook
043schedule the Middlebrook schedule sort of thing and then also not so surprising 99% of them saying yeah oh I'm all right with the more BL period a lot more lifetime recet I was surprised to see the two children who said no to that by the way I I want to know who they are um parents and gens you're going to see that the SC the um questions here are very similar and that's done on purpose because we're trying to get some comparative data and you'll see that the responses are very similar IL to what the students said you know makes me wonder if perhaps some of the the parents maybe uh filled out the interview by calling their child next to them and said hey what do you think about this and what do you
044and I'll be honest with you as much as that sounds like it's a you know a negative statement I think I probably would have the same thing who was me you know hey what do you think about it what do you is that working for you or not that sort of thing as well as the whatever anecdotal conversations happen at all uh interestingly enough to see it's 71% favorable for the drop versus the um the kids saying you know in the 60s so but in for what it's worth Department right um and then the last one uh the staff and you again see these numbers that are just so very positive almost all across the board at 95% favorable I'm satisfied that we found a sweet spot uh for the staff with our schedule and
045it's worth noting that um I told you I come back to that Flex piece you see that's a relatively lower number there um that the flex period itself was where a lot of our services were delivered so whether it was Support Services through intervention or special ed um or related Services that's where our support staff were actually seeing their children we during that flex period so there was concern when the flex period was going to go away uh oh how are we going to do that when are we to deliver it so that's um what you can see that's the other part of that too is that there's fewer staff members that fit into that category so the number aren't going to move if you will as much knowing that there's about 100 staff members
046filling out the survey okay if you want to say anything yeah and I know last uh June when we met there was a concern about you know especially math and Ela is the curriculum going to be able to be delivered and I'll just say anecdotally today I was able to teach my entire lesson on balancing equations we got through the cool down I pulled a small group based on the results of the cool down and that is the norm you know that is not the exception um I also touched BAS my math colleagues today and I let them know I was going to be here I said give me the good the bad the ugly what's going on um Everybody again overwhelmingly positive they're saying we're able to synthesize our lessons we're getting to the
047cool Downs we're covering it um in a couple in one of the grade levels they're saying they're actually a week ahead of where they were last year and they're saying that with that consistency of seeing the classes each and every day they're feeling like they're getting stronger connections between the lessons themselves so we're feeling very good we're feeling confident that I think as Jory said we might have hit the sweet spot here with the 48 minute schedule um the next slide uh is really what what I've referred to as perhaps the Highlight for the staff but it's a an added bonus and that as we shifted it this really had nothing to do with the schedule but it was another change that we made that I think also speaks to that energy in our building
048this year and that is that um typically uh dismissal Duty was in that 255 320 zone so about 25 um roughly 25 minutes on a regular basis that every teacher had some level of dismissal Duty however many kids were in their room if you were lucky enough to have a room that had the first early buses then you were lucky but it's still dismissal was a good close to half an hour's time this year what we've done is we've scheduled three teachers at a time in two areas so dismissal now is done in two distinct areas we have the front lobby and we have the cafeteria and we have three staff members as well as admin on duty every day and what that means for the teachers is they're assigned roughly about 13 times throughout
049the whole school year uh about three times a quarter and we also thought it made more sense to happen four days in a row in the in that quarter so it's a little easier to then figure do I have it today one day whatever and again thank you to Michael for his help because he helped um arrang that whole layout schedule with teralis they did a lot of the leg work on that it's very much appreciated but that is something that I've heard over and over again from staff members as being one of the biggest moves that we made that helped the energy in the building just that idea of knowing that come 255 it was so much more predictable about how they can use the next hour plus or minus of of time in
050their day and that's made a huge difference what you say in meetings one of our special ed teachers always consistently says I absolutely love this we can't blow this guys because you know when we think about the old schedule we had that extra tutorial which folks were using for emails phone calls getting lessons ready meeting with their IAT and I think that was hard transitioning to the schedule that we had last year where we didn't have that extra time to get those important items of the day done now we found that time and we've been able to give that back to the staff so that they can get a head start on getting tomorrow's lesson ready making those final parent phone calls just getting the room ready for the day before they head out so
051it's very much appreciated and I know from a WEA perspective we're also thankful because we know that while it was taken off the teachers plate it was added to the administrative plate and our administrators are in those dismissal locations now every day so we do recognize that we do think that you know our administrators in the building took one for the team for us so that we could have that time back you're welcome the other part of that too is is to when we get to that point where it's a manageable CP of kids we'll release the teachers that are on duty so it is it's pretty consistently done by 3:15 at the latest wouldn't you say you know so it's a even when you are on duty it's a it's a lesser duty if
052you will right um so the last slide just talking about next steps is is really just to recognize that we recognize we're not done we realize that you know while there is a good vibe and there is a good feeling and we're feeling good about what's going on we recognize that we need to continue to monitor this and specifically to monit it and keep a close eye on our student performance because it's easy to say hey isn't this great life feels so much better but we want to make make sure that you know specifically uh one of the things that um I was zoned in on was the um instructional minutes for reading and writing you know relatively speaking it was one of our lowest uh lowest positive scores at 85% sufficient time for instructional
053reading and writing um so it's a it's kind of a heads up hey let's make sure we're watching it but it's also something that is couldn't be better timed in terms of the um curriculum work that we're doing right now because one of the things that we're looking towards and moving towards is finding that curriculum that can be delivered in a 45 to 48 minute period so that's another piece to it that this is going to be they're going to work very well in tanging with each other I'm also frankly kind of holding folks to the screws to know that hey look you wanted this now prove that it's okay and you can do it that you can deliver the curriculum in that shorter period of time and have the results that you all and
054we all enjoy from last year to continue that we we have a standard we don't want to back away from but certainly something that we need to make sure that we're watching and something I know that we collectively wondered when we made this decision and where we're moving forward but I want you to all know that we are collectively all on that as well um I have complete faith in the staff they've proven through their time just how good they are and how professional they are and I'm I'm confident that that we'll get there but I just wanted you to know that we're we're still monitoring that um in May we'll survey the staff again it'll be an updated version of this survey happy to come back and share those results with you as well
055uh there's a slight day five stride adjustment that we're going to make it does not have an impact on the on the crater schedule but that's that's one minor thing that is not something that I want to worry or concern you about but it's just a thing that I'm working with jenet Noble's our instructional leader for stride but uh nothing that's going to have an impact on the whole schedule and then probably one of my favorite favorite updates that I've ever given the board is the last one is that there's going to be no major big letter changes to our schedule for 2526 and uh something that again we believe we found that sweet spot and uh really happy about that you climbed a lot of mountains to get there yes we did a lot
056yes we did so I I think this is all great I can't remember why he went to the I remember you coming in the spring and tell telling us that you needed to go back to 48 minutes and I remember this discussion I can't remember what 60 Minutes was not work why 60 Minutes wasn't working so the Big Driver of that was trying to have all classes meet in a given day so in order to do that and also have all the classes meet on every day it meant there's only so many minutes in the day to be able to do that so all the classes could have met and then still had um stride periods that were more than 30 minutes or lunch period that was more it couldn't have been any more than
05730 minutes so and the other thing that that also um interrupted or interfered with is the prep minutes for teachers it would reduced the prep minut the loow not only do we believe they need it should have but contraction we've all agreed on that we're going to have so that was it I I just I went on a blank and I thought why because I remember the meeting and I remember thinking how How brave you were to come back and say you know what this is not working we have to do something else cuz you had had taken so many time you know you had worked so hard to get to the 60-minute and there was so many in the teaching and learning meetings that we used to have it was just like every month
058you got I felt so sorry for you because you come and talk about it and it was just such a hard lift it's so complicated and I get all that so good for you for finding it thank you P I appreciate I would like to just add something to your plate in terms of the you back in May because I think that one of my kind of longer concerns has always been you know my foral colleague wow is you know are we protecting instructional time so just kind of having an understanding about how many times per month we're running a special schedule and what that special schedule looks like um in the school and is it different by team so like when you have even a half day our team's doing you know running shorten
059is every team running a shorten day or are they doing you know team based work like what is there um kind of like a consistency in that and kind of what the special schedule or schedules look like because I think as we kind of fall into that the shorter time and we get adjusted to that so we're kind of like off the high and the things so great and we settle into things sometimes like it's easy for time to get you know CLA back for other other things that are just as important but still can affect student performance so I think it's like balancing those at the same time is just you know becomes um super important and I think also kind of you talked about the the reading language not sorry the reading and
060writing being combined and I was thinking language Ela um and just so how that's working in that building especially since we're doing an Ela curriculum review and um I think it would be really important to make sure that you know there's whatever ships or understandings need to be done that that you know happens um accordingly but I am heartened to hear that um because one of the big moves was the I the I the IM curriculum and the 60-minute time block so that everyone the scores are certainly meeting out as of right now and umcl to everybody for that overall performance because it's really been um something to celebrate um but just you know maintaining and even still pushing for you know pushing forward yeah I'll just add to that you know our foot is
061still firmly on the gas and you know my colleagues they are absolutely amazing I've been in and out of rooms watching and you know even though we've had all this success in the past seeing the new strategies the new moves everyone is trying each and every day I mean there is absolutely incredible work happening in all these classrooms across the school and it's really cool and it's really neat to see it did I've been I've been through myself and just what's going on I mean it's definitely between you know embracing the um thinking classrooms and um trying the new ideas um it's really is um spectacular and your scores are certainly demonstrating you know the um the diligence behind all that you guys are doing for our kids so that is not I didn't need
062to ask for that as it seem like a loss of things I just know that sometimes we you know put our scale on one thing and then we kind of forget about the other thing and so just you know keeping our eyes on on all the pieces I will just share we absolutely have not lost sight of the fact that the interrupted schedules were a big deal to us and we recognize those are instructional minutes that you know it frankly was a big reason why we shifted so much in what we did with stride um for those of you that were familiar with M Brook and how we used to do it we we would have a lot of interruptions in our schedule the week leading into a concert and that was whole school Interruption
063and it was so important to eliminate that so that there was not that level of impact across all disciplines and through the the five X and Y day that we set up we've created a new opportunity where those rehearsals are happening differently so it doesn't require that kind of impact on the academics you can back me up on what we talk about at instructional leader time when every there's talks and conversations about oh we have this next new shiny thing that we want to bring in and do an assembly for I'm the one saying no we can't because and this is why and we're not going to touch it we can't have yet another interrupted schedule we also coordinated efforts this year so that when we do have those half days that's where we've really
064front-loaded a lot of theal work and the teamwork knowing that it's going to be a shorten period anyway why not take the opportunity to really build in those times specifically for teams not only to plan and work around but also then we're not in effect messing up a regular instructional day so instead of interfering 48 minute period day we're taking the the classes that would have otherwise been a 30 or 30 35 minute class and that's why we're doing that the teamwork okay so I'm I'm with you on that yeah thank you I abely and that is absolutely very important to us and it's what's nice is when we do have schedules that are going to interfere I've had teachers start giving me a hard time about oh wait a minute I need that time
065for and you know we've had yet another Interruption the conversations we had recently about the the half day schedules and where they land on our calendar folks saying hey wait a minute at Lee don't don't have too many that are in this time of the year that's s thing so so and that's kind of the overall balance that I know sometimes like when we settle into you know a a more of a routined pattern we can sometimes you know forget about like small impacts having large um large effects the networ staff is a very proud group and they're very proud of the results of those kids and they want to keep that going too they should be all of those are interconnected with each other so believe me that's something that's on all of our
066minds to keep going that way well I'm hting to hear all this at at the table because I've been through it since the the beginning of this schedule and I was you know a little bit nervous about you know performance and moving away from those um 60 minutes so I'm happy to um see the performance and hear um Positive Vibes as well so thank you for your a question um were there kids who were able to take a for who receive Services who were able to take a foreign language last year that have had to drop it this year as a Services being um slotted in into the foreign language slot uh blanket generalization no are there particular children dependent when their servicers may have had to do that I wouldn't be able to speak
067to that so specifically less kids able to take a foreign language this year no more work because we have the intro class the exploratory class so the the reason I'm hedging on my answer here is really because depending upon the child and what the level of support that they need how many skill-based classes do they need to take and therefore when are they available to take the um exploratory World language class or not so depending upon a given child's needs will dictate how much time they're able to uh participate in the exploratory class how many kids are doing the exploratory language them introduction to roughly about 50 a grade level but not not even well it's not even that many at at 8th grade probably it's 50 25 20 by the grade levels you know
068in terms of the number of kids with sorry I did that backwards with the children that have some level of support services so that those children that don't have those Sports services are then the the other side of that is there in the world language class because this at that time period they're either going to one place or the other for some level of support or into the world language class and a math question while that is there because we always heard I I am take 60 Minutes to do a lesson is there some part that you're able to deliver in less time is it like independent practices you know taking up less time than the 60 Minutes would have you believe you needed so over the years we've found ways to streamline and collapse
069some of the activities um some of the activities were redundant within a lesson um so we found efficiencies along the way and also you know we've just found that you know sometimes illustrative math will have an activity scripted as a 25 minute lesson when in reality when you're there after 15 minutes the kids are already there they've arrived at the idea so so you're able to synthesize that part of the activity and then move into the next so it's a little of both out of both buckets any other questions thank you very keep up the good work um under possible action items 2425 District calendar change so I'm asking School you [Music] back play nicely and so I was stuck with s saory choices and so um the best choice of the those that were
070available were to bring the teachers and keep the kids at home so we have one of those because we have exra data the option to not do that is going to cost us $ 26220 so do that's a hard one and seriously the professional learning thing was was vital so to to cancel the whole day for everybody would mean we would have up the DAT as you all know just not a good instructional time and we lose the P was good of all the unfortunate choices I think that was the best choice to have made and how to use that day um you can't win with any of it anyway you know just so um Heather would you like to make a motion to cancel the 18 school um so MO is there a second
071second thank you P all in favor any oppos no motion carries unanimously I just ask question the lowest day of school right now is Monday yes gradu Bob's G to come forward at some point with [Music] proposal so we don't get any more no delays graduation I've been saying to people that is the projected date right now we've got a few days it'll come to the table we're we're going to talk very soon I thought we get to this board meeting I think for the next one I think we should have a recommendation very good fantastic that's a projected day so you know for everybody out there listening the projected very important uh the T snap bonding proposal great so here um this is I think more of a formality than anything else so I'm
072asking for a motion from you to accept the recommendations from the tnap committee and as you know K came through last year and together very Jeff Paro working alongside Jose kind of spread those out and then um came up with a list earlier this winter um 20 the tnap committee and so um that Committee in addition to the board of edge facility at Town facility and that group so select will select what goes forward bonding for this for fisal 26 um but I think it's important that into a vote that you know what their recomendations are can I just ask the question does this round um reflect all our Priority One recommendation not all priority one priority one for f 26 one for fiscal 26 yeah and I just okay yeah obviously you know the
073big any anybody have any questions the board of Finance have to decide how much if they're going to if they want to B this much the board of Finance doesn't um set that that goes straight from the select to the town so the board of Finance can set the appropriation for the board of education budget and the proposed so the board of Select will move forward with this amount or that's still that's to be determined yet that's their next item coming up after they settle their [Music] budget reading the T you're confident no I don't anything but I think you know setting that aside um here's what's important and I think you know appr propose this conversation we know we have needs and a lot of thoughtful people SP a lot of time looking at
074the various needs and that's the list and really that this body support absolutely what actually makes it to the referendum and think it's a separate question so we I do agree that I like signals like these are key priority items and they've been um recommended by the t St committee which um was diligently looked at all the issues including head members in board finance and our financing capabilities as well and um I think that normally we do um you know vote to as regular practice we vote on what bonding priorties we want to recommend to the board whether they think follow our recommendation is their prerogative but I think that I I personally support um this list as it relates to the board of facilities and that would be I think the vote that we
075would be looking um um is there a motion to accept the recommendations of the tstamp committee as to fiscal year 26 bonding priorities for the Boe related facilities thank you n second lary all in favor I motion carries unanimously thank the community STS lease so I'm going to ask the board forend the motion slightly from the action that was in ask the board to um to make a motion to authorize you to execute the lease the lease is not fully prepared I thought I would have it this week and I don't um so um pending that we kind of finalizing [Music] hopefully next week and then forward rest of it for a couple months now so you know story totally yeah no I'm very excited yes I'm still kind of on track though to maybe
076for like a March April or yeah so that so that we would um execute the lease and then the the building owners got some interior work to do and um how quickly that stuff happens but we're ready to move once the space so I fully anticipate that you know we would be know sometime certainly before um any questions for Kevin on the community steps list is there a motion to authorize superintendent Smith to execute a lease agreement for the community steps umram thank you pan is there a second thank you heather all in favor motion carries unanimously I'll be looking forward for an indication great so the next one here is the another item we've been talking about for a very long time ask board mention to approve the purchase of a bank $56,000 um
077to develop our Transportation program so this will enable us to purchase a 10 passenger V and we can get going way are there any questions for Kevin on this proposal I have a question for Kevin the maintenance and repair do we take that on or do we Outsource that or oh I'm sorry missed the second no no do we um have a maintenance schedule and who actually does it the um our trucks that we currently own um I think that's a where it's somewhere somewhere over his area yeah don't know like who who what employee is responsible thank you um is there a motion to approve the purchase of a van to develop an IND District transportation program thank you Lori is there a second second Thank you Pam all in favor motion carries you
078mously great it is this is great and so the next one um you know typically um I would come to you ITR last the full list of gifts and grants and donations um but this is such a big one we do today so um I'm asking for a motion for the Board of Education to accept the grants in the amount of $955 34 Sly the strong week over met bianc toward the space kind of walk through the whole um Grand Design and so every was really excited about this so this is one very cool very very cool this is easier than birday thank you very much to and Shout families this is an extraordinary gift and opportunity for our schools and our kids and the the Lo community so um really another ribbon cutting to
079look forward to in the projects that'll come out of that perhaps even maybe we'll have a m next year talking about what they're doing um is there a motion to approve the um gift and Grant of 95,5 34 for the Innovation and financial center proposal thank you very much Heather our second thank you Nicola all in favor hi hi car is unanimously this one's far less interesting asking the board for a motion to adopt the revise policy 6141 321 student respons said District Technologies I explain ago our policy was updated so we took the ship replac the um policy and updated [Music] if I can just make a request to make sure that the revised and last review dates reflect um today's today's dat that'll help us keep track as we move forward and um
080on the regulation as well this is the second read of this policy think that that's all our questions and concerns are there any additional um remarks is there a motion to adopt policy 6141 321 student responsible use of Technology Thank you Pam there second thank you Lori all in favor motion carries unanimously ask motion carries I'm asking the board for a motion to adopt the superintendent's proposed budget for f year 26 in the amount of6 m68 this one a little bit of the larger number attached to it the other things we been talking about tonight um so I'm open it up for any um conversation discussion on kindal questions um sometimes when we get to this point it kind of gets quiet just because we've been months on it now but I don't want anyone
081you know out there to think that the silence reflects kind of like a lack of um you know diligence and and hard work behind it but we've just been living with this for a really long time and living with it in like a positive way this this year I think has worked in a very extraordinarily efficient and productive and collaborative manner with all of us at the table and also our colleagues um at the board of Finance as well so I just um tell you know lla and Maran who I know who you know behind the scenes make all this um come together and Kevin and you know all the administrators and the um the cost centers have really um made this a um a budget that I think that we can feel um works
082for us and advances our priorities and a um fiscally disciplined and responsible manner at the same time so um I'll open it up to anybody else oh hi Pat we're just opening it up for comments or questions um before we call you know a vote at the table so if anybody has any um anything they'd like to address or talk about feel free ask away I just want to make a comment thanking everyone who was involved in this process including all our board members it was a highly collaborative insightful and informative process and I just want to say thank you to everyone thank you um I'm going to call for a motion then anybody else um would like to you and then I'm going to just give a once we hear the outcome of the
083the vote yeah it's great I we managed yet again to do so much with hardly any more dollars it seems um as someone very attached to the fine and Performing Arts I just want to I just have concerns that the um Capital the capital Improvement plan is not going to work fast enough for certain um things in the CL center of the Sound and Lighting engineering that's going on in there so I just this is great however I have concerns about the Aging of some of our facilities furniture and always takes a head have to say our are going really well during corporate times no it's a good it's a good budget it's a very clean one and it certainly addresses a lot of what needed to get addressed but there was a lot of
084things that didn't get in it and you know the whole facilities thing I think is really the tricky the tricky one because that's we just keep kicking that down the road and the furniture down the road and that's going to probably come to bite us eventually if not pretty soon um is there a motion to adopt the fiscal year 26 budget proposal request of 96 set 96 m968 334 representing an increase of 3,731 75 or 4% over the current Year's budget I so move Thank you Pam is there a second thank you Lori all in favor I carries sorry motion carries un not this way um I would just you know in general we'd like to say that now we have a board bed budget this is our budget is no longer Kevin's proposed um
085budget so I'd like to thank kin and the administrators and the staff special thanks again to lla and Maran and the business office um like to thank all of you sitting at the table as well um for your hard work and dedication towards this I'd also like to thank um B chair Mandi and B members for their collaboration and partnership especially with the guidance setting process um while guidance was set slightly below what Boe would have preferred it was done with transparency and understanding of both our current tax environment and education commitments with that in mind both Kevin and his team and this board dedicated ourselves to reaching a 4% budget it wasn't easy it was important and the budget that passed tonight is at 4% this budget is transparent every dollar is accounted for
086the budget is also carefully considered it provides both performance and opportunity at the highest levels it maintains current class size and provides for our teachers so we can deliver a rigorous and challenging education experience from the academic core to the Arts and Athletics and Advance the vision of the learner for all our students budget also recognizes our commitment to infrastructure maintenance both physical and technological we take our role as tenants seriously providing the best possible physical and technological environment possible given our resources and ability the district does not own the buildings we cannot Bond and we cannot carry multi-year about multi-million dollar multi-year expenditures therefore I fully support and encourage the board of selectman to create a school and Municipal infrastructure fund as proposed by first selectman Lyn vanders prior to her departure and then
087discussed and supported by BF chair Matt M and the B on January 9th 2024 with their full unanimous support this new fund can carry over annually for the purpose of addressing needed improvements in school and Municipal infrastructure funding funding the account would fall to under the purview of the board of finance and the BOS would oversee the spending I also fully support and encourage the town to use our current bonding capacity bonding up to our current debt and Debt Service tax level will allow us to advance our large infrastructure needs at current tax level at current tax tax lcal funds the B budget survey will be released next week and provides another Avenue for the public comment on the budget I encourage all citizens to fully engage in the budget process the public hearing on
088the Boe budget is scheduled for March 26 the board of Finance has set its budget deliberation meeting dates for April 1st 2nd and 3rd as necessary bonding projects will be presented to the BF regular meeting scheduled for April 8th the deadline for the BF to recommend a budget to the annual town meeting is April 15th and the fiscal year 2025 annual town meeting is set for Tuesday May 6 with a join voting following the meeting on Saturday May 10th thank you all very much it's been one of the smoother budget Seasons that I can remember so um so that's a lot to get here so I want to recognize everyone work so thank you comments from the public hearing none and seeing none in the room uh just future business and information items we'll have
089a regular meeting on March 6th and then again on March 20th um and the public hearing um on the bo budget with the B will be on Wednesday March 26 and then takes place at the middle of 700 um meeting is adjourned at 8:15 whoa [Music]