BOE Meeting(6 April 2023)

001The Suicide Prevention policy it hasn't had a first read so it's listening I live at four to E5 um next is uh public comments I want to take a moment to recognize and thank the community for their support and engagement over the last several weeks from the budget to open choice the board considers the views of all stakeholders and its deliberations and welcomes and appreciates your involvement and support I read every email this table is about our kids and our community and while all six of us may not all always agree it is not about politics sometimes our discussions and decisions turn political outside of this table with politics can come frustration and hurt feelings I've certainly experienced that and I'm sorry if others around the table or in this room have as well this

002board 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 Wilton public schools and to help inform the board's decisions on such matters tonight giving Community interest in the agenda and the board's commitment to hear from the community each speaker will be given two minutes and the first comment period will last up to 30 minutes for the record please give your name and address after the board gets through our business there is an additional comment period where each speaker will be allotted two minutes and all who wish to comment on matters involving the well in public schools will be heard the board considers the views of citizens and its deliberations and welcomes and appreciates comment the board

003listens to public comments 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 contact the board or the superintendent directly with any specific questions or comments is there a public comment hi there uh David it's after 62 ultimate Road I'm just coming here to express my full support for the open Choice program uh this is a program that has been in effect for decades now across many towns across Connecticut it's been in effect very successful in many towns and I yeah I think it's something that as a town we should we should fully Embrace I was very upset this week when I saw a paid Facebook ad uh coming into my feed

004it was some sort of sing song or poem I don't know what it was it was an attempt to make light of the situation and spread mistruths about the program about the program's cost um we you know I've spoken to board members I know what I've heard what the cost is uh this is a marginal cost situation uh the arguments made were about average cost which is not the right way to look at this if you have 19 kids in a room you had a 20th kid it's not a simple multiplication to add up what that cost would be I think we need to think about who we are as a town think about our values we are a relatively privileged town and I think it's something to benefit it's kids that potentially come in

005as well as their own kids to bring some more diversity into the community we have control over the numbers we have control over the situation there's no issue of local control and again we need to think about our values and who we are not be a town of no not be a class s town and uh just be accepting and do good for a good greater region thank you hi Lynn Vanderslice 103 Middlebrook Farm Road many of you may have read my op-ed from today if not I have copies I'll hand those over and um thinking you've read it I'm only going to touch on a few of the points Wilton has a long and proud history of opening our schools to economically disadvantaged students from outside our community Laura I know you had project

006concerned classmates as a Wilton student today in discussing a land use matter Rick Thomas Eddie and I spoke also about the three project concerned students that were in his class board of Finance member Matt raimonde and I often talk about his ABC classmates Elijah Everett and Chris Payne with whom I was very close and still am in touch Rick Matt Laura in my lives were all enriched and more importantly Elijah and Chris's lies and so many others were changed because of this community and the decision made by previous Board of Education members you should rightly ask yourself is there capacity at Nolan Driscoll to take on five new students will there be additional costs to the taxpayers will there be costs that shouldn't be born by the taxpayers the answers are yes there is capacity

007next year's combined kindergarten and first grade enrollment is budgeted six fewer students k-3 is budgeted at 10 fewer students having reviewed the open Choice program and the details of your own approved budget the direct incremental costs are minimal just as the change in costs associated with the decrease sorry I'm under the weather the decrease in 10 students school-wide were minimal when you developed that budget no change in the number of teachers no new staff any good accountant will tell you the incremental cost of one student is not equal to the average cost per student yes there will be costs these students families can't afford such as activity fees and athletic equipments music instruments and such Wilton families have already stepped up to provide an endowed fund to cover those costs for many years how do

008I know frankly because my husband and I are one of those families and I have spoken with the others as I noted in my op-ed there's an outstanding Board of Education and Community commitment equivalent to two and a half students for 13 years that is currently unfilled I believe this community still stands by that original commitment through open choice you have the opportunity to continue Wilton's proud and generous Legacy at minimal cost to the taxpayers I encourage you to vote to do so thank you hi my name is Keith Denning I have a 38 Wick sand Lane Wilton Connecticut I'm also the state representative for Wilton at this time another 42nd District I have already written an op-ed that was put in good morning Wilton that I assume you've read I Echo what uh Mrs

009Benders ice has written and I'd like to present a letter written to me from somebody who graduated from Wilson Schools I understand Wilton's board of education is voting on a program Open choice and it appears that you have no data to support the success of these programs my name is Albert Ruff a 1983 Wilson High School graduate who participated in a similar program called Project Concern I was bus to Wilton from Bridgeport Connecticut I became aware of this vote from Jill throughout bacon a Wilson resident who has two boys in the school system today I've known Joe since I entered Wilson public school system in 1975 and we remained friends today she is not the only friend that I have for my days of Bolton everyone was so welcoming and accepting I blended in well

010I'm participating in extracurricular activities I believe it was a great experience from both sides I'm not a Wilson resident but I can talk to you about the success of the program participating in Project Concern allowed me to see a whole new way of life I graduated with a 3.2 GPA was accepted to Babson College early admission and went on to work at several Fortune 500 companies in this environment and the ability to develop long lasting friendships I feel less discrimination and a more comfortable and predominantly white surroundings I am who I am today because someone stood up and decided to take a chance to help inner city young boy who wanted to learn if you're looking for success story you can say I'm a Living testament to the positive outcomes of Project Concern I recognize

011the contributions the program played in my ability to achieve many milestones in my life and contribute to society as I said to Joe I hope Wilton will stand up again and take chances of another young girl or young boy and give them the opportunity to see a new way of life Albert Gruff I think that says enough for why we should continue this program and I appreciate your time hi uh my name is Noah Litton 270 Newtown Turnpike I'm not a politician I'm a taxpayer of Wilton I have a child in the school system I grew up in Brooklyn New York and went to public school my entire life I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood with two parents who cared about education I was busted into an elementary school in what was

012then a poor area to attend a magnet Elementary School I went to a diverse public high school and had to interview to get into a special program there my father was an elementary school teacher at taught in Brownsville Brooklyn my mother was a librarian I have two aunts who were School teachers I count myself lucky I had a diverse educational experience yet I am opposed to Wilton's participation in open Choice our school system is a public utility that is set up for the residents of our town state income taxes are redistributed to the general needs of the state and that is to be expected property taxes are meant to be used in Wilton not to subsidize the residents of other towns no matter how good the cause and no matter how much our hearts wanted

013sometimes hard to do the right things is physically responsible sometimes it's hard to fight the urge to spend other people's money our school system costs are a combination of fixed and variable it has to be noted however the even fixed costs are only fixed for the definite period of time fixed costs when viewed over long-term highrise in our variable as in fact they can be changed we have been told that there are no additional fixed costs for participating in open Choice the reference is usually about space in the classroom I have no reason to believe that this is not the case but if we are in a position to have extra space in our classroom and if this is a trend what does it mean for our school system it could mean lower student teacher

014ratios this may be insignificant in the short run but in the longer run when fixed costs are no longer fixed there is an opportunity here if we keep FTE levels the same over the long run and our student population can use the decline our students can benefit from an ever-improving student teacher ratio who wouldn't want more attention from their kids from their teachers this is a proven way to improve educational outcomes lower student populations could also mean over the long run cutting the number of classes and reallocating space and teachers and things like stem robotics or other areas in which our school system is woefully deficient today and I know we're both fleet's efficient because I'm on the stem curriculum committee if we don't want to go in that direction in the long term we

015could cut classes in FTE and reduce our taxes by accepting students even five today we're removing these potential wins over the long run participation and open choice now Cuts our communities the longer term options for the future now what happens if we accept five students on the assumption that we have the space that all of a sudden this reverses several large families move into town and suddenly we don't have the space in the cohort where the open Choice kids are not a far-fetched scenario what happens can we push the open Choice students out no so suddenly the no extra fixed costs now becomes a new cost if we need to relieve a crowded situation the other calls that have not been articulated or discussed in any satisfaction or variable costs there are costs but beyond

016classrooms and teachers that we pay taxes for textbooks computers supplies classroom equipment the broken fence that someone mentioned during the recent budget debate broken elevators photocopies Sports partitions participation sports equipment all of these are costs that are directly related to the number of students instead of subsidizing the taxpayers of other communities how about we reallocate those same variable costs into more funding for the high school robotics team or another stem teacher or more of the coaches that our border vet tells us are vitally important to our school systems educational outcomes up until now I've been talking about foregone save money what happens if these students actually have IEPs 504 plans or other emotional and physical difficulties please this is the an area of the school budget that has already bitten us are we going to

017get reimbursed 100 will our costs go up we have no assurances only hopes and assumptions I can go on and on bottom line is that participation in open Choice reduces our fiscal options and leads to a fiscal subsidization of other communities from our Town's tax base if you believe strongly it's spending your money on residents of Norwalk or another Locale you have the option to do so there's a charity that is set up for that a better chance of Wilton I think is called ABC I'd invite you to donate that is your prerogative and that is the most Equitable way to support children in need beyond the state taxes they've been paid today until you the Board of Ed have fully explored all costs and consider that there are no better uses for Wilton taxpayer

018money and can guarantee that our total dollar spent will not increase one iota I implore you to reject participation in an open Choice today thank you thank you I'm Steve pudsworth since Glenfield Road I rise in support of open choice I do so both for myself and for weak the Wilton Interfaith the action committee all right today's spoken principally as a result actually it limbs very very eloquent editorial op-ed and good morning Wilton to seek their views on what we actually do in these circumstances and what specifically I focused upon was this of Mrs vanderslie's statement she said a child's ability to participate in activities under outside of school where their classmates is critical to allowing a bond and create lasting friendships with their classmates she mentioned certain types of extracurricular activities she focuses particularly

019on transportation to get to them back and a periodic help extra help in various types what I want to underscore is this is weak sweet spot we know how to do those kinds of things we provide transportation to CF young children who need it to get treatment we also provide two of our Refugee resembled families the opportunity for extra help we also fundraise we do meal packaging each fall as many of you know because you actually participate them that cost fifty thousand dollars for the ingredients we know how to raise money Lynn has said eloquently how she is capable and friends of hers are capable of also raising money but I want to suggest to you is there are many ways of dealing with the issues we face what we can't do is speak solely

020from our heads and reject our hearts do we really think that it's the right thing to do to turn down five young children whose experiences in life can be fundamentally formed in very special ways here and we've heard that out from testimony and want both you've done had to say and what others have said about what the impact of these programs are in past forms really over something which for now is marginal cost and honestly if you don't like the results you can always change we're talking marginal costs now and we're talking a system in which we can speak with our hearts and not just with our pocketbooks Wilton is a community that cares he cares in so many ways and it wants to see the best this program offers the best not only for

021those who are fortunate to come into it but also to our very students here we'll learn how to live in a more diverse atmosphere and environment who make friends with people who would necessarily be people they'd ever know and who have a chance to have Richard full of lives because of something we do as a community this is our charge as a community to see the broader vision to live what we want for the future and to be the doers not just the Sayers but the doers of those things that make that possible thank you hi Kim Healy 14 Hidden Lake bridge I'll just open with saying that I believe in choice I believe every child should have a choice no child should be forced to attend a failing school and as you also know

022I'm working on a Statewide program that should help every child in our state learn how to read but so just before coming here tonight I spoke to a really good friend of mine his name is Wayne Williams he runs a program in Bridgeport called brave enough to fail and that program empowers our black and brown children in our state with the skills to succeed even when facing extreme difficulties and I asked him for advice on how to think about this program because like many of you have said I think it is it has worthwhile um you know success in some cases but is it enough so this is what he asked me to mention to you he said you should know that by agreeing to participate in this program you are acknowledging that our state

023has failed for decades to improve our city schools this program was started decades ago we know lots of towns surrounding here have been participating and that there will be no need for this program any longer if the state had addressed the issues back then instead of punting them down the road we talked about the few children that were very thankful for coming here what do we tell the children that have applied to come to the programmer to be participants in the program that don't get accepted they know that their schools are failing them what are they gonna you know what are they going to believe is their chance for Success if they must stay where their friends leave them behind this program will simply allow the legislature to keep kicking the can of failing schools

024down the road leaving hundreds of thousands of the over 500 000 students in our state over half of those children are in our alliance districts and as I've told you before 84 of those kids are not reading or having are doing math at grade level everyone who supports this program right now I hope you do not believe that you are done with your work here because that is not the case the majority party who leads our state appears to me to care so little about the children in Norwalk that this is the best they can do to potentially help a handful of children sadly the data shows that the long travel times of these kids make to come here for this program are no more successful than if they had stayed in there it's a

025critical name address Alan Davis three Salem Road in Wilson um I have some questions for the board which hopefully you will address as you get into proper session but I also have some things I'd like to say that's not my questions uh there seems to be a lot of vagueness about the specifics of the funding of this program so I would invite you to please share with us what you know to be the facts so that we can potentially get a little Clarity on how it's how things will be paid for I'm thinking specifically about the what would happen if the child was a year 504 or an IEP I've heard on the one hand that the sending Town pays I've heard on the other hand that we will pay I'm sure there's a right

026answer that when our series um the other thing I'd like to ask is by joining this program are we committed to it for the long or can we try and maybe see what happens and potentially withdraw at a later time right people have talked about the fact that it's not my children it's 65 children you know one a year of full life in school but maybe it's the case and please tell me if I'm right or wrong that we're not necessarily committing ourselves for 10 15 years or in perpetuity this is something that we can try and see how to see how things go that we all have the option of control so two questions second thing I'd like to ask did I say something like to say they'll cancel this question as I observe

027um the the rhetoric that has been thrown out in various places here it begs me to ask you a question why are we so selfish this is a great town a great Community with great schools if we have the opportunity to share because we have some spare places I think I'll come back to that places in a second why shouldn't Let's Help but to spare places kind of another question I said I didn't ask any questions as I understand it in any given year we get to say how much potentially invites into our school so again there's no commitment there right it's of course if we feel we have the ability to accommodate for four children at that no extra extra cost because we have spaces on the Grassroots we choose to do so but

028we have no obligation to do so right so again I guess that's three questions um and finally I'd like to say as a family that was invested in the ABC program we were a host family for amazing child as much as I love that program and I think it's great it's only a high school and we have the opportunity here to help to perhaps improve the quality of some children's life what Early Education is that much more formative and a very important environment so that's all I have to say any other comments um I'd like to offer a commentary on two topics if I made one of the open Choice then the second is the 2024 board of education budget so I support Dr Smith's recommendation to be a lead at the northern Public Schools

029participate in open Choice program we in Wilton have an opportunity to extend the benefits of our exceptional public school system to less privilege students without incurring any appreciable incremental direct costs and without adversely affecting the instruction of Wilton's children on the contrary to Ogden Smith anticipates educational benefits for our young citizens the financial analysis is straightforward the marginal not average cost of 85 students spread with two grades is close to zero is three thousand dollars however in the events that the financial costs have been at this judge I'm quite confident that private funding can be secured as I know two families who have already made agreed to make material contributions then Paul Vanderslice and Catherine and I the impact on educational outcomes for in-district students though is difficult to engage objectively particularly since the incredible

030data blinking class sizes and student performance is mixed I remain however confident in this administration's professional judgments and I believe it would be foolish to rely on Layman's assessment and pedagogical Effectiveness so the decision seems straightforward to me we can do good for the less fortunate at no cost and we should the second is about the budget the board of Finance is a delivery not a legislative body we devoted to decide what we wish to spend on Town services including the education of our children I do not and did not support finances decision to present to the annual town meeting a reduced Poe budget the budget submitted to the finance was appealed approved unanimously Deputy were thorough and careful consideration the cost of the instructional programs required to fulfill the Mandate schools production in the

031boa budget Difficult by voters will adversely affect our students as articulated by Dr Smith a conclusion I infer you share and the cost saving less than a dollar per day grass I asked the bre to invest this substantial energy and expertise in advocating for a substantial voter turnout at the annual town meeting and to vote now to love any other public comments in the room I've never done this before so be patient uh Jennifer Lopez 31 West um I actually heard on that I'm much better at writing I am talking so I'm just going to read part of what I wrote to uh letting the editor at good morning Wilson um so my I understand that a lot of people see this as a charitable thing that we could do and absolutely I think it's

032the right thing to do I think I came to Wilton because it's a giving lovely town families that welcomed us with families that believe in things and want to want the world to be better um however there's that aspect but um we're giving stuff to our kids too by doing this our kids are in a school with one percent black kids and that's just um it's not right I realize there are many societal reasons why that's the case and that a lot of people might say though like that's not our fault but it's a fact and it would be nice to be part of trying to rectify that little has changed and 60 years um since the Civil Rights act um I think it's important that our kids get to know kids of different cultures

033from an early age again ABC program is great it's high schoolers and they come here no one looks like them they're alone they're away from their families and and they have it's very hard to forge Bonds in high school um we all know that um so having kids in our district for very early age would make an enormous difference in not only their lives but our kids lives as well um I find it sad that we're at like the one and I did all sorts of research research on this um uh four-year universities they're black populations are around 13 so our kids are coming from here going there and they're suddenly seeing this whole world that we could have given them much earlier just a smidgen it's uh again and I would love to have

034like a primer on budgets because I think that 23 000 number is extremely misleading and um and it doesn't cost that and we'd be able to give some kids possibly make a massive difference in their lives for their very low cost to the district hi I'm Ken Hoffman 182 Drum Hill Road um I'm under the career right now a lot of what was just said um I I happen to be the stepfather to two children both are biracial both went through the Holton public schools and three children who are not biracial who went through the Wilton Public Schools all of them benefited from the fact that in Wilton you give them a great opportunity to get a good education and all five of them made good use of that and do amazing things now but

035all five of them would say that the one thing that they came away from in the public schools was not enough preparation about diversity and inclusion through direct exposure to learn what advantages they could get from learning about other parts of the greater Connecticut Community other cultures other ideas other families and one of the things that I think the open Choice program does is brings net Advantage into our schools for the students who already live here as well as advantages for these five students look as someone said it's only five students in a state which has a tremendous underprivileged student population those of you that know Carrie Nicholas who is my partner you'll know that she is a social worker in the Bridgeport Public Schools so on a daily basis I get to experience the

036difference between the Wilton public schools and the lack of advantages there are in a community like that but even though it will only Advantage five children for this year that's five okay and um I have I've waited for um Connecticut to approach the idea of academic quality I've lived in Connecticut since I was uh 28 20 years old and I'm a year or two older than that now um um um and I've seen very little progress so um at least since five but I really think what you're doing is bringing a tremendous opportunity to Children Here in Wilton they will be exposed to different things they will learn different things because someone I I read an article about instruction time instruction happens at least in my view not as informed as your view in three

037ways there is one-on-one instruction there is peer-to-peer instruction and then there is group instruction in the schools and hopefully that peer-to-peer instruction will benefit these children as they grow up and they won't be saying as my two racial children said as they were growing up at Wilton um I didn't really learn about what a biracial Society or a multiracial society was until after I left at all in public schools so thank you very much for your effort appreciate it thank you um is there anyone on this on the zoom I don't know hmm um so I think in the interest of time CeCe if you want to go ahead and then we'll do the other the meeting two people in the room well we'll go to CC then we can go to zoom and there's

038one other person in the room and then the remainder will be for the end of the evening I live 47 Sturgis Ridge Road and a lot that's been said tonight about the ABC program I was on the board of ABC for eight years but also longer than that because I was a social worker for both schools both of the houses both the boys house and the girls house and I would just like to bring up a point that nobody's mentioned so far and I won't take up much of your time one of the things we don't think about when we think about the gift of Education that we're talking about here with open choice is the students who will be coming to us are self-selecting into a program and these students they are giving up

039a tremendous amount in working with the ABC students I saw that time and time again and I put them all on pedestals in my mind because what they gave up to leave their Community to leave their friends to get a better education you can not underscore the impact for that child and that family they're giving up to be able to leave their community and to come here for better education or let's not even say better education more education and perhaps other opportunities so I want us to think about that type of child who's willing to come into our classrooms and be Bust or be driven by their parents and take on what it's like to come into a predominantly white environment and thrive they will be nothing but a benefit to our school for our

040children for our students and for their families so thank you we're going to do Zoom first and then we'll get to the last person in the room hello are you able to go ahead please my name is 140 Old Kings Highway in Wilson Connecticut I just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware that the lottery for open choice is in the blind Lottery that you are not able to expose race and ensure that you are going to be taking on children of different ethnic backgrounds that there are 65 and a half percent of the population of Norwalk is white and that typically when you have these types of programs the applicants will be the more privileged affluent families that will take advantage of this opportunity um so I'm not saying whether I'm poor or

041against I just wanted to make sure that everyone speaking to the fact that you're going to be bringing in people of different ethnicities and different cultures is not accurate that it is a blind Lottery thank you well um we're just no we're gonna just please please thank you confusion it's okay okay final comment from the room 67 welcome Quest and the first thing is I would like it if you would answer the question about finances because there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation about it but um for several years now Wilson has been sharpening its focus on diversity equity and inclusion emphasizing the ability to understand the social perspective of different racial ethnic and gender roots people actually have and live in these perspectives could greatly enhance the impact of this education a

042benefit to Wilkins doing this and of course if we give these students the quality of Education Wilson is known for for these reasons I strongly support trucks working thank you and we're going to move into the regular part of the meeting now um consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda it's removed is there a second a second a favor aye any opposed Ruth we did the we adjusted the agenda do we ever approve the agenda after we adjusted it we did okay um no okay okay um um next move to reports and recognition um board chairs report I have no reports not superintendent great I like to use this time uh to just update you and provide some celebrations it's been a few weeks since we last met and it's been

043busy it's been especially busy over there at Middlebrook school so back on the 29th Middlebrook and it's staff held its first Arts Festival uh it was great I don't know if any of you had a chance to attend but they showcased the talents of our artists our musicians and our young budding chefs who are making Falafel which was amazing um so I want to say thank you to Jory and to that team our fapa colleagues who really took a risk and it paid off it was great to see so many community members out and as always our kids are incredible and are talented in so many ways um the next day we had career awareness day and so more than 50 of our community members joined the staff there to speak to students about their

044various professions I had three reports in my house and they were all five stars so you know again thank you to that team and to the Wilton Education Foundation for supporting that and we look forward to um you know picking this up now and you know making it an annual tradition we want to congratulate Middlebrook music teacher Michael Gordon who is the recipient of the 2023 fund for teachers award this fund for teachers provides fellowships so that teachers can self-design and engage in summer learning experiences you'll recall we had two of our Cider Mill teachers um win a grant last year and they went off and did some studying in Hawaii Michael is heading to India for three weeks and we can't wait for him to go and come back so we can hear about

045all that he has learned a week ago Saturday on the 25th the Middlebrook Science Olympiad students competed at the state science olympiaded up in Coventry team members earned medals in six events and the school earned second place overall so Jory Bravo congratulations to you to their students to our science teachers Kendra Norman and Debbie malazzi who have led them and prepared them really remarkable this year is the year of Wilton debate so we heard the last time we were here about our high school's success this past weekend Middlebrook sent nine debate teams to participate in the Connecticut middle school debate league championship tournament say that three times fast so nine of our Debaters placed in the top 25 in a pool of 66 or so um two of our teams competed against each other in

046the final round did I get that right so how about that right so Margaret Wren uh Olivia Durden uh ishan V Jai wall competed against Nadia Khan um arav Gupta um at gopika Kamal and so sounds like it was a 2-1 split decision and Nadia um arriving kapika took first place and we also took second place so how amazing is that um so Bravo is that what seventh grade beat the eighth grade so they're gonna have another bite at the Apple next time I bet um so again you know terrific for our kids and uh hats off to uh Katie Durkin and Mike pinoli their teacher advisors um and then on the music front over at Middlebrook uh four of our students represented Middleburg School in Hartford at the cmea's sixth grade honors choir and

047so we want to congratulate uh Kurt J Elise P Spencer s and Rachel Vee who were up there in Hartford representing um Middleburg School in the choir so amazing um you're probably all aware the high school spring Sports season is well underway our teams are off to a great start and last night as I was catching up on my news feed um I saw that our girls varsity lacrosse team is ranked ninth in the country by Inside Lacrosse right now and Connecticut I won't tell you the other two teams because there are Arch Rivals they're also ranked in the top ten but um you know first time I think Connecticut's had three teams in the top ten yeah so pretty impressive and then you know last certainly not least we've had a wonderful celebration all

048week here at the high school this has been Festival week Festival returned after the covet Hiatus and here too you know we take an opportunity to celebrate arts and culture through the course of the entire week and then the week is typically closed out and I didn't make it this year but it did happen we have a fabulous um you know I refer to them as the Jim Sheridan band I know that's not the right title but we have a group of teachers who are you know supremely talented and they typically close out the week with a performance for our kids so um hats off to you all and thank you for setting that up and um to all of you for you know continuing to honor Arts culture and music in our fine school

049system that's it thank you and we now move to review and discuss and the first item under review and discuss is Board of finance budget deliberations under baoe goal number seven hear about the lead reports oh I'm sorry I'm skipping around committee reports um yes teaching and learning I don't know we talked about screen time we delayed the update on school of mental health but it was sent in a little bit later and we talked about intervention statistics um screen time we basically just talked about continue to reinforce half screening putting your phones in Cubbies um we also talked about possibly well maybe not possibly but having putting together some sort of group together to or Pilot to have some teachers kind of chart screen time how often they're on screens why they're on screen

050so that we can have some actual data to support what we're talking about we talked about possibly reinforcing the use of links and schoology to have parents be able to print stuff at home if they don't want their kids on screens um we also talked about the school finding ways to block sites and social media while the students are in school the intervention statistics there is a chart online if anybody wants to see it it talks about how many kids are currently receiving Services how many have exited how many have exited tier one and gone into special education vice versa and then we also talked about summer a little bit there are currently 75 students that have accepted a placement in our summer Intervention Program um policy we met this Tuesday Tuesday the 4th we

051reviewed a policy policy 5141.21 administration of medicines by school personnel and administration of medicine medication during before and after school programs and After School Readiness um Shipman has a model policy on that um finding it a bit and bring it to the board next meeting and there's two new draft policies that are required by the state emergency action plan for inter-scholastic and intramural athletic events and X everything's got big words in it today exertional heat illness awareness for intramural and interscholastic Athletics um foreign some others coming to the table I think ready for Prime Time next meeting the minorities staff and physical examination and um operations did not me no no no yes um to um review and discuss Board of finance budget deliberations great so um I'm pretty sure place left in the room

052some on proposed reductions before I get into that I just want to replay the um the tape here a little bit so when we started the initial budget proposal that you all saw back in January was almost 92 million dollar proposal which represented a 5.99 increase over this current Year's um spending as I shared with you at the time the initial draft that you know among the administrative team that we looked at was actually you know contemplating like a 10 increase and so you know to me that just reflects that there are a lot of needs a lot of interest primarily around adding staff you didn't see that initial proposal you saw the 599 and then um you know I talked um over the last several months about just what some of those drivers are

053we know that we had a substantial teachers contract agreement this year that was contributing to the increase we have other contractual obligations inflation certainly paid a role with the increased cost of goods and services and then we also saw a pretty substantial increase in the cost of special education outplacements this year that also is a driver of the budget increase and then last but also really importantly was the loss of Revenue that we had in place for the last several years as a result of the Esser grants and covid funding so all of those really you know conspired to create a perfect storm which led to the kinds of proposed increases we're seeing from that initial proposal to um the budget the board adopted back on February 16th we were able to reduce that proposal

054to a what's amount to what was a four and a half percent increase and that was the budget that the board of Finance delivered deliberated on I the room I just want to take a minute and say thank you to her thank you to Matt Knickerbocker you know that Town's got its own budget issues but when Lynn saw what we were wrestling with she called and said we think we can you know we have a grant we can manage the camera installation so that was an immediate 000 off the um table for the Board of Ed um in similar fashion um Matt Knickerbocker our new Town Administrator renegotiated an electricity contract which for the board represented uh Savings of 293 000 and we expect to see savings um you know we just we haven't talked

055about that a lot here and I don't know what the conversation has been another place but I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you again um that made a big difference in you know what we're trying to do here in terms of the other reductions we took to get to that 4.5 percent I've been updating you periodically about our medical claims history um so um through and right after covet the medical claims history increased quite a bit and so what we're seeing is what they refer to as a boomerang effect so over the course of this year as we're watching our month-by-month claims the total cost is coming down again and so you know because of that favorability we feel pretty comfortable in being able to reduce what we were initially proposing as

056anticipated medical costs so that was you know nearly four hundred thousand dollars in reductions and then we had some other um you know smaller areas so life insurance we took a thousand defined contribution 16. um Athletics Transportation was a sizable reduction of about 83 000 and that was after some renewed negotiations with Str bus company and a commitment from them to absorb all of our Athletics Transportation you recall we were having issues with driver shortages and last year and through the early part of this year relying very heavily on third party vendors which come at you know a cost almost double to what sta would charge for those kinds of runs so things are going really well right now with SDA and we're on track there and then we made some other reductions training conferences

05721 000 Diesel 10 in District transportation to Athletics 1400 and then we made a salary estimate adjustment to our trainers which amounted to about 17 000. um so that's what got us to 4.5 this last week after the board of Finance deliberation they've have further reduced our proposal another 1.4 million so now the current budget stands at a 2.89 increase over this current Year's spending that total change from the 5.99 down you know represents almost a 2.7 million dollar reduction so if you turn your attention to the draft document I shared with you I should say this is draft we've been working on this for uh just a few days I met with the admin team yesterday evening to review it's a dynamic environment and so I imagine some of these pieces will change but

058I'm going to give you our first draft thinking um goal here in trying to enact this reduction is to spread the decrease across the entirety of the budget okay so I am going to try to avoid the elimination of any single program and I'll you know I'll talk you through those details in just a minute when we make reductions we keep an eye on a few things so you know we have to protect health and safety we try to match Resources with core beliefs vision and strategic objectives and we tried to the best we're able to minimize impact on students and staff we try to protect programs if we can we need to ensure mandated curriculum we need to comply with state and federal mandates and we certainly continue to try efficiency find efficiencies or

059savings wherever we might so um this is not in rank order so I sent you a draft document on Sunday it's changed since then it'll continue to change so I'm just going to talk through that um each of the items so the first is Group insurance and we're looking at a potential reduction of about 350 000 there I say potential for two reasons one as you know we went out to bid for a new carrier earlier this year the bid proposals are back we had a finalist meeting with two carriers this week and there's an alternate carrier who has come forward with a very very aggressive competitive proposal and so we're vetting that now I will have a recommendation for the board when next we meet but looking at the numbers a change could result

060in about a hundred and fifty thousand dollar reduction right off the top in this year and then some much more significant Savings in the next two over the next two years so that's one piece of that the other piece is tied to staff reduction so you'll see embedded in this there is a series of Staff reductions most staff carry health insurance so when um we reduce people in addition to the salary savings that we pick up there's oftentimes a benefit pickup so there's a cascading effect so the remainder of that comes from potential savings if all of those staff are reduced makes sense so I just the 350 that you have here is a cumulative three over three years no this is in fiscal 24. this is fiscal 24 yes 350. yeah yeah okay yep

061because here it says the first year okay yeah so what that means is if we switch to another this other carrier um there are significant savings potential in year two so it would be fiscal 25 okay year three fiscal 26. I will give you all of that stoop to nuts um on the 20th okay okay so that's what that means um again because the staffing change we can reduce the defined contribution line a bit that's ten thousand um FICA also 12 712. um the next line we're looking at is the additional timeline we're proposing a reduction of ten thousand there um the impact that would really be um our summer program offering or some of our summer curriculum days those are days that we use we bring you know teachers and other staff members together

062to write and prepare curriculum we would just look at offering fewer days so um as we're I don't think we have our enrollment numbers solid yet for the summer programs we're proposing we might be able to pick up some savings if the numbers don't pan out the way that we might be anticipating in terms of the impact of writing or revising curriculum you know the choice we'll have to make if we can't get it done this summer is try to carve out time during the school year or it gets deferred to Summer 24. um that I'm I'm proposing um a point for reduction to our administrative staff line This is 74 788 um our wonderful and amazing friend compar is um stepping back she's semi-retiring and um you know what we initially thought we would

063do Frameworks more than full-time and so I just you need to know that I know you already know that she is responsible for a long long list of um really powerful and important work that takes place here in the Wilton schools but Fran is stepping back I'd hope to you know kind of backfill that 0.4 because we still have work that's got to get done but just given the magnitude of the cut I don't see how we can do that and so I'm just proposing that we just don't fill that 0.4 so we have some work to do in planning around that partial vacancy Fran is responsible for a great deal of things the digital learning program which you've heard a lot about over the years our library learning Commons television production participating in the

064area 9 cable Council I think that's I see that in my future friend um going to those meetings stamp curriculum review data security Frank coordinates all of the technology instructional leaders and the work that they do in schools webmasters and you know certainly not least France fingerprints are all over our portion of a gradual work so there's a lot so this is you know a true loss um from substitutes we would look to take 9 500. this is actually out of the custodial subline and so as Marianne has been doing her analyzes this is based on actual she feels comfortable that we can reduce this line so just to clarify because we've had our own issues with kind of the general classroom teacher substitutes that's not where we are drawing a production the cafeteria Aid

065line Marianne's proposing 10 000 there too and again that's based on actuals and so she feels like we can we can take 10 out of that um we're proposing to eliminate one custodian position so that's that would be um sixty one thousand dollars the result you know really would be that um the remaining custodians would have to be responsible for a larger area so Jose is working on that plan now we have our head custodian here at the high school is retiring in a couple of weeks and so we won't fill that position I'm anticipating that the head position you know will be backfilled by somebody internally and it would create another position vacancy you know so probably at the end of the shifting it'll probably be a night custodial position someplace that wouldn't be

066filled had their contract feel just like are we going to have issues no because the contract doesn't stipulate how many it's just salary agreement but are they not going to argue about now we've increased their territory yeah um I don't see how that would be a contract issue because that's not fixed in the contract but it'll be you know it's we're going to increase the workload and you know one of Jose's charges will be how to manage that across the custodians in any given building on any given night um we had a proposal to add clerical support to our facilities we were originally proposing 1.0 this was a position that we eliminated from the budget a couple of years ago and you know at the time we were going to try to manage it with

067part-time and Patch together with other people it's just not working well and you know this is an area where sometimes we make decisions and try to be efficient and you know the efficiency we gain really doesn't pan out in good work products so we had proposed to add the 1.0 back just given where we are what I'm proposing to do is just reduce that 1.0 to a 0.6 and so you know we'll continue to manage but he does need some more dedicated support to ensure that the whole department runs really smoothly uh we're looking at the equivalent of 2.0 Library paraprofessional reductions right now we have about 1.5 or 1.6 in each building and so what I said to Fran and to the rest of the administrators is let's look at see if we can

068manage with 1.0 and so this would be you know a true reduction across buildings um France I don't want to speak for her but just to summarize our conversation I'm concerned about the reduction in just the Staffing and the services in the library most concerned about the impact here so this is something we're going to just keep a close eye on as we go through this process of finalizing recommendations and so I may come back to you the next time we meet and say all right maybe it's not 2.0 maybe it's 1.5 and here's how I'm going to manage you know the balance of the cost uh we're looking at a reduction of what I would describe as the equivalent of 1.0 certified here at the high school in speaking with Bob it's likely that

069um you know is doing this sectioning for next year we would take some partial FTE from each of the Departments 0.1.2 you know at those impacted apartments that we're not looking at uh any kind of significant enrollment change over from year to year the incoming 8th grade class is roughly the same size as the outgoing 12th grade class so there will be some increased class sizes as a result in those impacted departments that's not clear yet what it's going to look like we won't really know until we've finalized the sectioning I may have some a better update for you in a few weeks we're proposing to reduce 1.0 instructional coach at Miller Driscoll I'm here too you know there's been lots and lots of conversation about the professional learning program involving coaches um yeah for

070my money we get a lot of bang for our buck with that program really what we would be doing is just shifting the caseload so the remaining instructional coaches in that building would pick up bit more responsibilities can I make a comment about that you can um I'm not really in favor of eliminating it at military school the model there seems to work our teachers seem to appreciate it I'd rather look at reducing it at Middlebrook my other comment about that is since it doesn't seem like our reading waiver is going to be accepted that we are then having to pay for a very very costly program and Miller Drisco is going to need the support I'd rather see the coach stay there so yeah I think we'll I'll just take the feedback and you

071know I'll you know Chuck we can you know kind of evaluate it and just we'll look at the whole program um in terms of other reductions we're looking at we've got a couple of different possibilities here that we're exploring which would amount to the equivalent of a 1.0 certified so one possibility could be to reduce a classroom section at grade five that would increase class sizes from 20.2 to 21.7 I'm not in favor of that and so um you know I think given my druthers that's not where I would go but I wanted you to understand the different scenarios we're looking at another possibility to achieve that reduction would be to eliminate both of the 0.5 science certified positions ones at Miller Driscoll one's at Cider Mill if we were to do that that classroom

072teachers would have to assume the responsibilities for science instruction that's not a great option either none of these are great options a third that we're exploring is to reduce the 0.6 strings position for a year at Cider Mill so the teacher that's in this role right now is out on leave for the next year and so this could be it's an unpaid leave so it could be a one-year reprieve she is primarily responsible for third grade strings as I started with um really interested in eliminating third grade strings so um Chuck and I are going to sit with the fapa folks when we come back from the break and talk about some possibilities about how we might reconfigure things so we can still provide third grade strings I just don't know if that's a possibility

073but it's a position we're looking at to get to the dollar amount that we are pursuing in addition to the third grade strings we would also propose to eliminate the 0.5 science para position so at each Miller disco Insider Mill there is some partial para support that helps set up those labs and you know supports the teacher we would have to let go of those two positions so the benefit would we'd be able to keep the two life science teachers but it's a trade-off moving down the list here we are proposing to reduce classified staff over time we provide summer clerical days just to catch up with all of the office work and so it's not a major major reduction but it's a reduction nonetheless um the next item Eric Hawkinson and I talked to

074as you know we have um a computer and Chromebook replacement plan and so we were slated to purchase a new computers for our instructional staff at one of the buildings this year Eric has some computers that are still in service he has invested some money to replace the motherboards in those machines to keep them functioning and so what we would propose is we just um we keep we just go another year with the machines the teachers have and if they break or need to be replaced he can swap them out with these other machines that have the new motherboards in it that'll get us likely another year of service and so the impact there is where just we're extending our replacement plan cycle and pushing everything off a year we've been tracking the athletic gate

075receipts you know Bobby has done a good job of um you know with ticket sales and so just tracking actuals we feel like we can add an additional five thousand dollars in Revenue that will actually be generated from game receipts um this will look familiar to you we're proposing again to reduce our library book replacement budget by three thousand dollars at each school um the net impact here is we will increase the age of our collection because we're not going to be replacing as many books with new books and we'll have fewer new titles um you know one of the upside if you like is at Cider Mill as you know had the flood and you know most of our collection was wiped out so that collection will probably be the newest by the time

076we're done you know we won't be expanding the number of new titles but you know the age at least will be more current than where it is we're sitting right now between you know the average age is somewhere between 2008 and 2009. it's old so along the same lines you know we um feel like that the furniture replacement budget is you know victimized annually and so we're not eliminating it but we are you know reducing it at each school and so what does that do it just slows our replacement plan um we're looking at a minor reduction to the total special education services lines um so there's a range of possibilities one is to decrease uh 12-month secretary to 10 months there is an opportunity the state recently released a grant of ten or twelve

077thousand dollars to support the conversion to CT saids that's the new state mandated IEP program and so we're just proposing to supplant a locally funded stipend with that stipend that would be one year so that's about 10 or 12 000 and then we are looking at the slightly reducing the contracted Services Line Andrew and I talk about this all the time and in every single conversation she reminds me you know this is true if we exceed our budget and need to provide mandated special education services the money's got to come from someplace and if that happens you know we might be in a similar scenario we have to freeze a budget and draw some funds from some other non-speed lines to cover those costs um similarly we're reducing um some District Contract Services this comes

078out of Chuck's budget so we've been working with uh professional on one of our strategic planning goals and so we would be reducing the amount of time we would engage with that person over the next year we reduce training conferences in one round of reductions earlier that I just explained we're proposing another reduction of twenty five thousand dollars this is Chuck is working with the administrative staff to finalize all of that but those are trainings and opportunities you know just across departments and so it's it's quite a lengthy list the last last piece here is we're looking at you know across the district we're proposing to reduce clubs activities and intramurals by about half and so um the way that I'm imagining this is we run clubs and activities in all of our buildings and

079so again not wanting to eliminate anything um what we're proposing what I'm the way I'm conceiving of this is we can run some clubs but we're going to have fewer sessions by about half so that'll be how it operationalizes in some places um Bob and the high school team have been looking at their um club and activity list and so they have a slightly different way to approach that and so they're looking at participation rates so there may be some clubs that don't run at all or depending on participation rates you know there may be a different frequency or inner set of intervals by which the clubs meet and just you know depending on student usage so again those are kind of preliminary all together they get us to the 1.4 million dollar reduction um

080I think you know probably if I had to kind of summarize that's probably about what I'll come back to you and recommend but there may be some ships and tweaks just as we you know we continue to scrub and you know as I said it's Dynamic so you know there may be other opportunities with Staffing as we learn about you know retirements or resignations or things like that the remaining three items here um I've listed listed that um we may want to explore an increase to the activity fee I'm not recommending that for fiscal 24 but I think it's something that the board that we should think about if we're going to reduce clubs and activities by 50 it does not make sense to me that we raise the price and tell people you're paying

081more for less and so I think you know big picture that might be something we need to think about right now the lower schools charge a 25 activity fee and then High School charges a 50 activity fee um I would also you know suggest that we explore the pay to participate and consider increasing that I I don't think it's I'm not recommending we do that now I think we need to take some time and I say that because um we work with our you know various booster clubs but we don't have really good Clarity yet on the complete picture of the contributions and so I'd like to come back to the board with Bobby with some greater analysis so we can all see just the complete picture of how all of our Athletics are funded

082and just make a decision based on you know a complete set of information and then question about that how long does that take we've been talking about this for a while well you know it's on my to-do list um and it's at the bottom so um I just with everything else that we've had to do I just haven't been able to make any material Headway but you're right it's not a new thought um and yeah so I think if we're gonna seriously think about this for the um for the next round for fiscal 25 um and you know I just did you know in the full conversation about this I haven't heard from this board as a body that there's been an appetite to really go after this but I think let's look at it

083and then you know you guys can deliberate on the information you have since I sat on the board that implemented paper to participate um and Chris finkelson and I were a study had a study group that studied it it was very hard to get information from the booster clubs um several booster clubs would only talk to me if I promise never to reveal what I learned um you know but it was you know yeah interesting and also to look at the neighboring towns and what they charged and there's definitely things to be explored there yeah and they're I mean they're vast differences and you've been talking about planning information from the booster club since she started in 2014 so it's not easy not yeah what percentage of activity fees do we actually collect is there

084a mechanism in place for collecting them all um yeah uh yeah I'd have to just pull the information the you know the participation and look at the collection rate so I can't tell you what that number is today generally it's always you know kids are trying to buy their prom tickets yeah I think it's High um but they're like what do you have some insight on there no it's not the total mass that it's the um percentage so do we have kids that participate but don't pay that's I think the question yeah yeah all right well I I can look at that um you know the last piece and I I offer this not because I have any interest in um going after this but um you know if we're taking across the board Cuts

085then you know I think we need to look at Athletics too I'm not I have no recommendation I'm not supporting a cut to Athletics but I think you know big picture and you know as we start to think about you know fiscal 25 26 if we're going to find ourselves in you know positions where we're really scrambling for dollars and we just we need to look at it all to take some questions I have a question I just have a comment if we're going to consider cutting Athletics then we should sooner rather than later talk about increasing the pay to pay pay to play to see what it would come up with sure yeah we'll do a bit of Kevin's talking about the reduction to Athletics being a few years down the road then there

086would be time to I thought it was a reduction for this coming I'm not proposing I'm not to do I well so just if you look at this list there are no numbers behind any of those last three items and so we don't need to I'm not recommending action on any of those three to get us to the reduction we need so that's my point like I think you're absolutely right like we really we need to understand the universe of um you know kind of booster contributions other parent in-kind contributions you know as a parent of two high school athletes I feel like my wallet's always open you know and I say that you know lovingly like I'm happy to support but I just we I've never sat down and really had a complete understanding

087of all of the inputs here and I think that would be important before um you know I would make a recommendation I would ask you to make a decision on it but there's time to study paper play before anything like that happen sounds good but we're going to have an issue with our community if we're going to cut strings and you're not going to cut Athletics or even talk about cutting Athletics and we're also going to talk about cutting science Labs but we're not going to cut Athletics right hey look my kids play sports I'm not interested in cutting Athletics I'm just if we're going to be fair across the board it's hard only a certain number of kids play athletics every kid goes through science class so right right so somehow there's got to

088be some give somehow yeah and to just to be clear we're not eliminating science curriculum you're not you're just eliminating the person in charge of the labs we're putting it back on the teachers yeah and so with you know not without some support right but it's a reduction and yeah I think you know Jen your Point's Fair we need to talk about all of it and I wouldn't mind understanding why string starts in third grade the band starts in fifth you know like there must be a reason for them I wonder if there's a way because it let's do strings and then many of the kids quit strings and they got banned in fifth grade yeah so if there's a more questions of having loads of third and fourth graders not give up strings somehow

089that was started with Mark what the music guy Martin no what was his name the one that used to do all those concerts in the October concert and you wear the turban and can crate back but he was on [Music] yeah and I I don't know why I think he thought that once they got a bit into it that they would stick with it yeah I'll get I mean well I haven't asked for attrition numbers but I'm sure that um it does Ken probably has them right so yeah so that's a it's a good good question it's a lot of Lost [Music] yeah it's a lot of loss [Music] is there any other information you want as we're just working through this process I'm sorry look at Ruth Nicola Pam they are naturally oriented this

090way each other yes [Laughter] um we'll get back I'm sure I'm sure people have questions and yeah so far okay and feel free you know as you're looking at it thinking about send them along and you know we'll just catalog and like we do and you know we'll just we'll continue to continue to work through it are you ready for the next one kind of depressed um which brings us to Mental Health and Social and emotional learning so you've heard a lot about um you know mental health we started the year with some really alarming data I don't want to um belabor this and I don't have a presentation but I do have a consideration for you [Music] um over the course of the year we've been tracking you know our own students Wellness you

091know Kim has been here a bunch of times reviewing the various screeners we use um several weeks ago uh we co-sponsored with Wilton Youth Services um some other youth serving organizations that deputy chief Rob suppose was also there as a panelist this breakfast so Andrew Gerber the president of Silver Hill keynoted and then we had a really good panelist conversation there were probably close to 200 people in the room and so it just it was I thought it was a helpful conversation um there's been you know some just some good good move and good partnership with the town and trying to provide resources but the conversation didn't really get into or focus on root causes and so what I'd like the board to think about and I'll come back to you next time we meet

092with a more formalized proposal I just want to drop the seed right now I think we ought to consider creating a working group to really kind of dive into this and you know for my own interests the kinds of questions I'm pursuing are interested in pursuing or really around trying to get underneath what is driving some of this um lack of Wellness we're seeing you know among our kids and why are we seeing more kids who are you know really dysregulated you know to the point where we have to call 2-1-1 or they're hospitalized or what have you um you know my instinct is there's a range of reasons but I'd like to you know if we can understand some you know of the more primary drivers then maybe we can program some better prevention

093so that's one piece I think going back to you know the screen time question you know again as part of this conversation I'd like to gather the research look at and talk about the impact of social media if to the extent screen time plays a role and you know again come back to some politics policy discussion about what we might be able to do preventatively or proactively to try to you know just keep you know more kids from getting to a point where you know they want to self-harm so if that is interesting to you um I wouldn't mind just some feedback on the concept and then you know I can take some time to formalize it and you know I think we have a recommendation coming up here in a second to create you

094know kind of a similar task force for communication so in terms of how it would operate I think there's a model there that we could play you know a couple of board members some community members we'll have some guided questions pull some experts do some interviews with teachers with kids with families with others and just do some data analysis and you know see what it all you know yields other other districts grappling with the same questions 100 yeah this is not a Wilton issue and you know we've talked um you know I would say um you know with the group of superintendents that I interact with we talk around the issue and we share information but we haven't collectively engaged so I think if you're suggesting maybe we want to partner I could certainly put

095that I wasn't I hadn't didn't have that idea in my head but we could probably I'm sure people would be interested you know outside of Wilton was the legislature got anything in the works well I mean I know there are bills um and there were last year it's been a major Focus um CC can I interrupt you for a second um so that the topic is just mental health and um just you know bills that you're aware of in the legislature now to um that might be coming our way um so the SP2 is focused on children's mental health and one of the aspects of it is setting up the office of the Healthcare Advocate so that we because we've never had a health Advocate but we don't have a behavioral health so that will

096be so that providers have someone that can help them with insurance and covering costs and then also families will be able to go there as well and have someone that can help them perhaps do some navigating we are very aware that there is an interstate compact being put together by National Association of social workers which is to allow that people can take their licensing from one screen into another which is phenomenal and then also Connecticut had the highest licensing costs for social workers so we reduce the costs of that and we've also increased the amount of time their license will last so it's going to go from one year to two years we were the highest in all of our area so that's I every expectation that that's going to go through we also know

097those things are not enough we know we need to be doing more and we're still talking about it it is still a bill that is a work in progress okay thank you yes that was the other I mean this would necessarily address a pipeline problems with our you know proposal but that's something that's been a major major issue that we've experienced here in this community issues or ideas to explore as far as Kevin works on putting them more formal test proposal together yeah you should send them his way um next on the agenda is review and discuss policy 6163.1 selection of school library materials yeah so just this is the first read of this policy um where the policy committee has been looking at this Library material selection policy for some months and um it's

098a policy that's been in place for a long time so it came up as part of our review you'll recall we had some questions about some books that were displayed as part of banned books week here back in September so we reviewed the policy um the you know the goal of the policy is to um you know just describe the purpose of the library materials and then Define some processes for selection and so that's what you see in the policy document the regulation um expounds on some of those procedures it articulates selection criteria and who is responsible and then it also speaks to how we would deal with challenged materials so um I would just invite you to you know take some time review it you know as we do generate your questions this will

099be on again for the the next meeting and then you know we can we can deal with questions and um and then if we're ready to vote we can vote next is policy 3542.43 food service charging right so this policy change and we've had a food service charging policy for some time the law has changed around this policy so the language and the policy is catching up with both the law as well as our current practice so what I mean by that is a year ago the state legislature took this on and introduced what you know they colloquially refer to as like a no shaming provision and so we've included that language um practically you know one of the changes that we had in our former policy was if a child reached a certain threshold

100and were charging beyond what they had in their account they would be provided an alternate um an alternate meal so you know four or five years ago it was like a cheese sandwich a piece of fruit something else so the law is specifically prohibits that practice uh it was very encouraged to learn our food service program gave up on that practice a while ago so you know they're actually ahead of the policy here and so again we're just revising the language so that it's current with the law current with our our actual practice and the regulation just effectuates the positive changes correct equipment um and then next because we moved it up is so you might find it later on in your um is um the um policy 51 45.1 Suicide Prevention and intervention okay

101so this is another policy that the committee has been working through for some time we had I think you know it's we've had a good policy in place for a long time um we went back as just part of the review we often will look at Cave model policies and shipment model policies and much of this existing policy reflected um shipment language which was great we rely on them quite a bit in terms of just making sure that our policy is aligns with the law you'll see as you go through it you know we have changed quite a bit of the language that was in our old policy and not really in alignment with the shipment and Goodwin proposed model specifically when you're looking at procedures we had multiple categories of procedures and as I

102read through them and I looked at the shipment model I looked at what you know our existing procedures were there was just some unnecessary procedures in there so we we struck them the other piece that wasn't in the policy that we added is the last piece it's the suicide education and prevention for students and staff we provide Suicide Prevention education it just wasn't articulated in the policy and so that's we're just catching up the language there and then I guess just to complete that part of the conversation the the shipment model did not have a confidential report form we have one that you know we like we look at we use and so we've kept that as part of the policy in the Reg I think um just uh bring it to everyone's attention because

103I don't know if the um redlining brought up but that new suicide education prevention that's all new language just so when you're reading it you know that's new foreign [Music] for those other two we'll keep them on the agenda and then if we're ready to take action we'll take action thanks policy committee is a possible action items um first up is the middle change story if you want to stay where you are come on down either one however you're more comfortable yeah so in the policy in the um the brief and that as you as you are well well aware um the team over there has been working on a schedule model proposal for a long time um it sounds there is consensus around a model that Joy presented the last time he was here

104which is you know essentially a seven drop one um it feeds 60 Minutes to our core classes and 40 minutes to our stride classes the new schedule integrates Ela and the current model that they're contemplating also allows for an 18 minute flex period during which students would be either independently reading practicing mathematics or the team would be using for a team model time as part of that you know I've asked that we evaluate the use of those 18 minutes and then come back in the middle of the year with a recommendation about the efficacy of that time as part of that change we're able to add a new stem robotics course which Fran and her team is working on develop helping so we'll have a 6141 before too long and then you know I think

105it's you know one of the key goals through all of this Beyond trying to get the necessary minutes of continuous obstruction for dla math one of the you know key features of that middle school is the team model and so this model preserves the team which is important so I'm asking for a motion uh that the Board of Ed adopt this schedule proposed by the Middlebrook Administration to be implemented in the 23-24 school year any questions from the table I have one um sorry how are we doing with staff and they're being okay with the changes in terms of how many hours they're teaching and whatnot has that all been settled and everybody is in a good place there are specific s of working around like when I teach it's minor in the grand scheme

106of things very confident that that those Minor Details very third uh fourth meeting with some of the inspections it was a particular post today yeah so just to be like it's not settled but I think he's right to be optimistic okay are we going to regret this decision no that's what I'm asking are we should we be voting on this right now or do you guys want to settle all that first yes okay anybody else um is there then a motion that the Board of Education adopt is scheduled to pose by the middle folk Administration to be implemented by the 2324 school year I should say so rude uh yes yes that's a lot to remember second second discussion I think they're ready all in favor aye any opposed motion carries unanimously congratulations congratulations my

107uh my soon-to-be sixth graders looking forward to it okay next item is discussion of an approval project open Choice um so if it's okay um just to kick off the conversation I've just prepared some remarks they're lengthy so I apologize in advance but I think you know given the volume of communication it merits [Music] um so uh it goes without saying you know there's been a great deal of communication about this and many in our community have expressed strong sentiments either in support or in opposition I want to be unequivocal in my own position here so I support project open choice and I am recommending to the board that you vote to participate as we've discussed the goals of the program are to reduce racial ethnic and economic isolation to improve academic achievement and to

108provide a choice of educational programs as you already know for Wilton we would be drawing students from Norwalk I've spoken to Alexandra Australia the superintendent there and she is in support of this program and looks forward to partnering with us if you adopt this program um as I've proposed we would open three seats in kindergarten and two seats in first grade for the fiscal 23-24 school year what this would mean is that three kindergarten classrooms and two first grade classrooms would each have one additional student should we receive five students we've tried to keep class sizes on the lower end of our averages historically especially as we've worked through the pandemic adding three students in kindergarten and two in first grade does not dramatically impact the overall class average size class size average looking at

109the projected enrollment for kindergarten and first grade for the next year we're anticipating average class sizes of 19.6 and 19.8 respectively adding three to kindergarten would mean an average class size of 19.8 and then adding two first grade would create an average class size of 20. for those classrooms with an open Choice student it means one more student for that teacher for some classrooms teachers will have 20 instead of 19. these numbers are not outside our typical class size range given the varying needs and compositions of classrooms well likely to continue to have classes that range from 18 to 21 the principals work with their team to look at the kids as they know them and they tweak those accordingly um teachers are accustomed to classes of this size and so here too even though

110it would mean having one more student in each of those classes I really don't anticipate the additional student would have a deleterious impact on the class or the teacher the opportunity for our students in those classrooms is that they get to meet and potentially become friends with someone with a background that's different from theirs this is a very good thing for our students Keith referenced it in his comments earlier I read the letter and I was really I was really interested to to read it so there was a graduate as you heard who attended the Wilton schools as a participant in Project Concern in that letter he described lifelong friendships that developed in his early years as a student and I have no doubt that his friends appreciate their friendships with him in the same

111way moreover he articulated the opportunity he had and attributes them to participation in the program which highlights the other significant opportunity participation in open Choice provides students who may otherwise be economically racially or ethnically isolated get to participate in our school program so the way I view it is we have the opportunity to change life trajectories and improve outcomes for these kids with respect to cost if you haven't read it and I hope you all did I would encourage you to look at Lynn's op-ed piece that ran this morning and good morning Wilton as she was here and said earlier her piece describes the negligible Financial impact as well as anyone can describe it in many of the letters of opposition people were confusing are per-pupil expenditure with the actual cost of educating one more

112student in a classroom I'll just say for the record if the program was actually going to add twenty three thousand dollars per participant per year to our budget given the conversation we've just had and for those of you who know the way that I work it's not a program I would ever support and so I just don't see the math working out that way the incremental cost of adding five open Choice students is not five times our per pupil expenditure our per pupil expenditure is derived by taking the total cost of our Public School operation and dividing it by the total enrollment so for 2022 our per pupil expenditure the average is 22 980. and so just to you know kind of illustrate this I would just ask you to consider you know we experience

113enrollment fluctuations annually those fluctuations do not result in a straight line increase or decrease in per pupil expenditure multiplied by whatever it is it just doesn't work that way so losing five students doesn't result in a cost reduction of 22 980 times 5 or 114 000. Lynn's example that she cited was accurate when we've had minor changes in enrollment at a grade level we have not added or subtracted staff with the proposed edition of five students spread across two grade levels we're not adding new staff because the class average is already in our typical range we possess the furniture and the materials already and just to complete the point the per pupil expenditure average includes all expenses across the district including for example Transportation special education outplacement and utilities all are included in that PPE

114but none of them would be impacted by adding an open Choice student okay so you obviously see the difference um as we've discussed and has been reported to me from other towns that participate one of the challenges that open Choice students do have is participation in the life of the school Community beyond the school day recently CES has begun to address this with open Choice students who attend Trumbull public schools by creating additional van runs so students can engage in after school activities as chip and I have spoken about this that's a pilot and so I know they've heard this feedback and they're interested in trying to do something in other places I don't know what that could mean in terms of CES for us but you know other people are thinking about this concern

115too so as Lynn was I'm just describing you know earlier and as she noted in their letter these expenses that might come with participating in activities outside of the school day those are not expenses that our school districts should or would bear um and you know I wanted they're in the room so I'm gonna say thank you we have two families so Paul and Lynn Chris and Catherine have stepped forward and have pledged substantial controversies to ensure that these students can fully participate in the life of the school community um so I just want to say I'm grateful for your support as we've already discussed but was worth repeating I'm asking the board to vote on accepting five students for the next school year only so this was another just point of confusion that we

116heard in some of the communication continuing to accept open Choice students would be an annual decision based on enrollment and our experience with the program so I would ask that nobody assume that we're going to take five students every year in perpetuity next year's recommendation would be based on enrollment projections and whatever our experiences over the this you know the next year I've received some repeated commentary that Westport budgets something on the order of a million dollars to address costs related to open Choice a while ago when I first heard that I asked the superintendent about this and his answer was clear he said they don't have a line item of a million dollars or anything to support open Choice students again open Choice students I called him again this morning just to confirm and

117his answer was exactly the same there is no million dollar budget line in Westport to support open Choice students you know he went on to say is just no idea where that came from um and just to repeat some information that I've shared previously students in receiving districts also have the opportunity to attend schools in the sending districts as you know we do send some students to the Norwalk magnet program the Regional Education Service Center that's CES is responsible for administering this program when they are when there are more students than seats available selection is done through a weighted Lottery this Lottery has generated some questions and what chip reiterated to me was no it's weighted to ensure that the program's goal of reducing racial ethnic and economic isolation is met as you know the

118state provides a modest Financial incentive for local Boards of Education that volunteer to participate so districts receive three thousand dollars per student that they receive that incentive is provided when the total number of participating students is less than two percent of the receiving districts population that's you know where we would be and then the per student grant would increase if the student number exceeds two percent of the total population the district also receives additional ECS funds based on a per pupil allotment and then as we've talked about already transportation is provided at no cost to the receiving District CES manages that um should a student require special education services the sending District pays the amount equal to the difference between the cost of services and the grant paid by the state let me just skip

119through some of these things so let me just talk about that for a second so operationally we would Define reasonable costs as you know any costs above basic special education services which we would identify as services like weekly Learning Center support in a small group setting a social skills group support for from a special education teacher in the general education classroom setting if a student's PPT recommended additional service so speech and language OT PT paraprofessional Services counseling esy or pull out direct instruction those costs would be tabulated and billed to the sending District um sure so reasonable costs right things like basic special education anything above basic special education services support in a small group setting social skills group support from a special education teacher in the general education classroom so if you can imagine

120you know services that might be provided in a group that are being provided anyway anything that would be more singular one-on-one those would be the extraordinary services for which we would bill would you add to that yes I think the issue becomes for example when a special ed teacher is providing services in a general Ed classroom they provide services I I like to think of it as a rising tide raises All Ships so we work with the kids who have needs in that room so if there is a student in that room who happens to be a part of the open Choice program they would benefit from that special ed teacher's expertise in helping with the executive functioning and whatnot that would be the reasonable cost of special ed services as it applies to all

121kids when the IEP that gets developed starts to have higher levels of special education pull out service related Services of you name it speech and language otpt counseling you name it if there are extended evaluation issues psychiatric evaluations those kinds of things those kinds of things and ultimately if a student required an outplacement that would become the cost the total cost of that would be borne by the sending District I had experience with this in Fairfield we were part of open Choice it was not uh we did not see a higher percentage of students in open choice being identified as students with special needs then among the typical population does that make sense so you're thinking about you know 12 to 15 percent of the population you're gonna maybe have one of those five students

122at some point in their career might need special education services but it's not um it wasn't anything outside of the realm of typical that we would typically see proportionally for special education and we had no issues with billing back the services we received the funding it was not an issue and so as I've talked to my colleagues around the region and across the state you know you've tracked probably read some of the articles that um Illustrated you know the conflict between Woodbridge and New Haven that sounds like it was a complete outlier relative to just about everybody else's experience to participate more locally you know I had a lot of conversation with the superintendents in both Westin and Westport and both of them reported there's just there's no problem there and so I spoke with

123the director of special services in Westport and he said you know exactly what Andre just described like it's very routine there's no issue when they bill for services you know in this case it was Bridgeport you know Bridgeport always pays and there's just there's just never been an issue and so um you know given their experience we have a good working relationship with Norwalk already I just don't I don't see that there's going to be an issue here and you know again we're talking about you know at least to begin a very small handful of kids so you know from my perspective um I clearly see the potential educational benefit and we already know that Wilton has a rich history of educating students from Urban environments participating in open choice would support our goals around

124the portrait of graduate specifically the attribute of developing active socially sensitive citizens creating more opportunities as we've heard and you know read from one of the letters of our graduates creating opportunities for our students to interact and form relationships with individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences well absolutely enrich their educational experience so from where I sit the goals make sense the economics makes sense and this is truly a program that aligns with the values that I think we hold as a community so the other questions I was asked 504 plans would not go to a sunny District I'm assuming 504 plans don't provide direct service 99.99 of the time they are reasonable accommodations so they're not um they have no additional cost to bear um so they would not um there's no cost to charge

125there's no Services directed under a 504 plan it's typically reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities great I just wanted you to say it sorry okay thanks the other question is ESL how would that be yeah I mean there's no provision under the law to bill for Extraordinary ESL services and so we have two ell teachers in the district and if students required ell Services these students would become part of the caseload happy caseload if the need is there I again in my experience the services for ell students I know we call them MLS um we have new new letters um the services are better in the urban setting so very few of those families come this way they get better Services sure in the urban centers yeah and I think the other just piece if

126you know you track you know Child Development um if you have kids with um you know second language needs in the early grade you know our program is immersion and you know my experience has been kids pick up the language you know much more readily when they're five six seven years old and when they're 14 15 16. and so I think you know part of the benefit would just be in uh you know language Rich environment with English-speaking peers um all right my last comment or question regarding specialists how confident are you guys knowing that Wilton's idea of special education and what our students need is very different from Norwalk how confident are we that Norwalk is going to say whatever you guys want we're going to cover they have no choice they're not part

127of the PPT that makes those decisions that that student becomes our student our PPT we make the decisions about what they need in in collaboration with their parents obviously in the full PPT process and we just bill back we don't invite Norwalk to the meeting they don't weigh in they that's not part of the process we just call them and say you know we send them the bill that's it I never fight that bill they never well in my experience in Fairfield over 20 years um I think I had one time when the supervisor in Bridgeport questioned the nature of the IEP and then it was a phone call and a conversation and once we explained what the need was it was a non-issue yeah and I think that's what I would rely on to

128start it um interrupt but you know we have a relationship with this District we have other agreements and so I just I don't to answer your question I don't foresee an issue chip a lot when he was at our meeting last time for a trip from CES you know said he had never like he would be the you know the Cs would be the group that would be intervening when there was an issue and he had never had any experience having to do you know if my office communicates and we don't agree then CES becomes the arbitrator of that no you explained it last and our last meeting pretty well I just want I was just curious if the district sending District objected to what was deemed that they were going to have to pay

129and whether they had a recourse or there was a system for them to say we're not going to pay that we don't want to pay that that's too much there's a conflict resolution system that CES arbitrates yeah but I never had to use it in the 21 years I was in Fairfield never once I think the frustrating part for some people in our community is the whole Woodbridge situation right NFC s was really in charge of it and could have taken care of that you see yes we're in a difference and I think Regional Education all understanding yeah yeah so CES had nothing to do with that um there it's a different risk up there I forget which one it is um so it's a different regional coordinator um you know there are other you

130know these are things that don't make the headlines either right so um you know the superintendent Woodbridge is brand new and so you know she you know didn't have a lot of interaction with the program or you know just the whole experience is new so um you know I don't know you know what was going on on the New Haven side but I just think there are other factors that contributed to you know the headlines that we all read um and you know in places where you've got you know season and experience people on both sides of the table willing to you know have a conversation then you get a lot of places and so I think Andrea's experience is probably more reliable than you know what happened once in a you know north of

131here but I don't think it's we can say enough that we are a different Regional educational District than Woodbridge New Haven and then you know CES and we had someone here from CES and so we just need to that's the answer to the Woodbridge that's you know in our Regional you know District that has not been an issue yeah and I guess you know Woodbridge is also again participated for you know this program taking place for a while so this just sounds like it was an outlier right and also because we can observe what happens in another region and everybody keeps talking about the Westport money I think just like I would never expect our budget to have a line item for students that we take in for open choice I doubt and I agree

132that Westport doesn't have one either I think the comment came from people that said that there was an increase in Staffing the need for social workers and whatnot and so Choice students wrote into all of that it's need to respond I'm just sharing with you that's what the background is to some of that and that's where I think the information was coming that was for shared with some people okay and I can only share the conversations I had with the exactly the superintendent and West and Westport and right you know they're saying no additional costs so you know if there are others I'm not aware of or maybe he's not aware of them you know I can't even respond to it yeah nope I agree um I think it's you know I've spoken with board

133members from Westport from new can from Ridgefield I've heard from teachers I've talked to students I've read a lot about open choice I even tried to fill out the application because people had questions about nobody talked about how much money like a social how much money families made everybody every stakeholder has a different viewpoint right and I think everybody around this table needs to truly understand that and I think that people look at this as being a win and a win but people don't look at the other side of it sometimes and I don't think that that's fair um I have plenty to say I'm sure it is anybody else here have anything to say or is this really going to be on me if you want to keep going I don't need to go

134first um I know Mandy wrote in something and she would like to share her opinions um but I'm happy to have you guys go and talk in and I can piggyback and ask my questions um I said we should all just go around the table individually do you want to start with Mandy I mean do you want to sure that's fine I'll read it okay apologies I could not be here tonight but hope all are celebrating I have a generous Ramadan happy Passover and happy Easter I cannot be here tonight because I am on a plane right now to celebrate Easter weekend with my family this is one of the reasons I emailed the board on March 16th March 31st and April 3rd requesting we change the date of this meeting as this is a

135week filled with religious celebrations and school vacations I am a bit upset that we have chosen tonight to discuss this when so many are out of town or celebrating and bewildered that I never received an email from the Boe chat responding to my three emails requesting we move this meeting and or remove the voting potential for tonight and what could it be a decision that impacts Decades of future students and taxpayers I do not support us voting on open choice tonight this is a large decision for our town and is seen by the 150 cell letters we have received there is Extreme interest we as a board have not even had a proper discussion how are we going to vote on this tonight at last there's an extreme lack of clarity surrounding who will cover

136all costs for special education how can we possibly enter long-term commitment with another town with no memorandum of understanding or no legal clarification who is paying for what as Kevin stated to the local open Choice representative at our March 16th meeting regarding costs of special education the law speaks to the receiving District covering reasonable costs on the sending District covering costs Beyond reasonable there is as Kevin stated no monetary definition of reasonable cost this gray area leaves Wilton taxpayers incredibly vulnerable there are gray areas around so much of open choice at the March 16th meeting when the open Choice representative was discussing Transportation he mentioned Norwalk students staying after school in Wilton for activities and getting on our late bus as most towns have we do not have a late bus after for after school

137activities are we now creating a new late bus system who is paying for that Kevin mentioned that perhaps the PTA could take care of transporting our students is that our plan have parents step forward to volunteer for that as of today we cannot guarantee or even offer an estimate of cost to Wilton taxpayers for this program for next year or Beyond and this is fiscally irresponsible especially in a year when we cannot even get our own current Boe budget which solely wouldn't students through the bof if we can spend the next year coming up with an mou or legal documentation with Norwalk that clearly outlines who is playing for what and if we can further understand who Norwalk will be choosing for this program as it is not a lottery since it is weighted for

138socioeconomic race ethnicity selections then and only then we should move forward with open choice as Kevin stated in the March 2nd Boe meeting if this is something we are not ready for we can pass I agree with Kevin for this year we should pass and instead spend the year defining agreed upon terms with Nora for all costs of the Wilton taxpayers why are we rushing into a legal commitment with no terms let's slow down and do this the right way that protects our budget in the meantime I propose we increase our ABC students to increase the ABC scholars in our schools and further increase the diversity for next year we currently have five female ABC Scholars could we double that offer thoughts to five males with provided funding for next year I would love to

139work directly with the board of directors for ABC will and to increase fundraising in support of ABC a program with a data supported track record of academic success and fundraising please let us use our brains and not our politics to move forward with hope and choice the smart way for Wilton kids norwalks kids and our community again this is feeling rushed and is a good starting point for this conversation versus an ending point we have at least one lawyer on our board I can imagine she would suggest a private client under a 13-year commitment without Financial transparency or protection why would we do that to our town based on my above thoughts my vote for tonight moving forward with open choices and no in abstentia under the bylaws we don't allow absentee voting PS as

140a recent discussion regarding the nellobook schedule when asked how many letters the Boe had received in favor of and opposing the schedule no one knew the answer and Booth was not willing to guesstimate I'm attaching a document with the quantity of letters and support and opposition of of the of open choice that the Boe has received as of 2 pm today when I had to leave to catch my flight as a 20 as of 2 pm we had received 172 letters total 107 opposing 65 supporting fondly Mandy schumach yeah my only comment to her note is the fact that we don't take people's responses when they're not going to be here I don't know why we would have a discussion and a vote on something of this magnitude when an entire Port is not here

141everybody knew she couldn't be here yet here we are still talking about this and still possibly voting on it foreign meeting when you guys approved the meeting schedule for this year I have in the past missed this meeting if it conflicted with Monday Thursday services at my church since I'm only on the board for less than a year I thought I would choose the Board of Ed over that this year and I I think you know our we meet up the first and third Thursdays I mean I think we've been doing that since time began in Wilton um you know and so I think that's something to be addressed and maybe next year at the organizational meeting everyone should look at the calendar going forward you know and say I fully agree we all should

142actually looked at the dates yes we made sure that there was not a commitment and a conflict but knowing after the fact that there was one and the fact that nobody would that we couldn't figure out another date or the fact that we wouldn't push this and realizing we probably have to give an answer by I thought you said the 15th last time but I could be wrong yeah next week right like I get it but I there are plenty of other options um in all um fairness to that the proposed alternative date was last night where we've always had Thursdays on our calendar and calendared for a year that is also another religious holiday and in addition to that um to postpone it until our next meeting I know that all members of the

143board are not available at that meeting either and shared some additional options for the dates instead of shooting it down that's all I'm saying and we don't need to belabor this conversation or this topic and that's my point the time to say about it all I have to say about it is that dates have been shared and consistently rejected somebody else like to talk about morning choice I think you know we we've been receiving a lot a lot a lot of events all of us and I some were very supportive and some were very angry and not understanding I think the whole purpose of the open choice and what it's going to mean to this town they're roughly 47 districts school districts in this in the state that do open choice and I think we

144should be one of them I think it speaks to the values of the portrait of The Graduate I think it speaks to the values of this town and who we are as people we've always had a big heart we've always taken care of each other and now we have the opportunity to do something for three kindergartners and two first graders little people that are going to come to this town and probably benefit and not only are they going to benefit but we're going to benefit because we will be doing something that brings elevates everybody and it's going to elevate them and it's going to elevate us as a community and I think it's time we start doing that I think we start as a community to become more open to what open choice will give

145us I think it's it's an opportunity and I look at it as an opportunity an educational opportunity a cultural opportunity a social opportunity for all of us and I think we I think we will benefit and we will be the better for it I think one of the reasons we received so many letters against it was the extremely misinformation around how much it cost and nobody's in a position to up the school budget by a million dollars I think there was a lot of misinformation that drove people through fear to right into the board so the number of letters in support and against a do we play them all equally when there's so much misinformation flying around over the last three meetings we've listened to Dr Smith and Dr domay come in and talk about

146the open Choice program we've heard cost breakdowns Logistics and details of the lottery participation you've had our questions answered I've reached out to people in other districts to hear their experiences I've undertaken due diligence educating and understanding the program and its history I followed up with Dr domay to ask further clarifying questions and I discovered that there are almost 50 eligible receiving districts that make neighbor New Haven Hartford and Bridgeport in my research I could only find one eligible District who is not currently participating in the program and one Woodbridge have opted not to fill seats this year open Choice has been up and running since the 1990s many towns have had open choice to be a rewarding manageable experience choosing to renew their participation year after year this isn't a 13-year commitment that we're

147making among those participating districts are Westport and Western and they've both been in the open Choice relationship with Bridgeport for more than 20 years it's regrettable that so much misinformation has been spread on the cost issue and I thank first select woman Lynn Van Der slice for her support of the program in her clear explanation of the numbers in today's good morning Wilton I hope that today Dr Smith's clear explanation of the costs will be accepted at face value by those members of our community who have previously expressed doubt open choice is a success today in 50 districts across Connecticut because it confers benefits on both sending and receiving districts if it cost a fortune as some have asserted it would not still be a viable concern 20 years after its Inception is Western a

148town very much like our own can run this program successfully so can we if we have capacity and we've heard tonight that we do we should move forward with courage and a firm belief that this is the right thing to do for our students and the students from Norwalk who would be welcome at Miller Driscoll School the program aligns with the values of our town our schools and what we're trying to teach our students about being active socially sensitive citizens in the world in the words of Lynn vanderslie's open choice is a fiscally prudent means to continue this proud and generous Legacy we've been given an opportunity to act for the greater good to demonstrate social responsibility positive relationship building respect and kindness all love to girls that we have identified in our portrait of

149a graduate on our website we proudly Proclaim will public schools for a better world it's time to lift those words off the page and live them and they took the last of possible okay okay next um when I sat down a month or so ago to write out why I supported Wilton's participation out of a choice my first thought was because it's the right thing to do and I didn't get any further than that um and as we've discussed at the board um you all discussed it without me the first time and then the second time I was here and I Kevin has answered the questions about the finances um CES has answered the questions Andrea thank you for your addition to that and I still when I sat down I thought it's the right

150thing to do um but I can't stop there um obviously I attended the Wilton public schools in the 70s and the 80s during the years of Project Concern and the only explanation I ever received about it was at home from my parents and they all they told me was Wilton had better schools and Bridgeport didn't have the money to have good schools so some children from Bridgeport were being educated in Wilton and my parents told me it was the right thing to do and just so everyone knows my parents had a mixed marriage one was a Republican and one was a Democrat and I can say clearly I have no memory of a project concerned student misbehaving and I have to do a shout out thank you Keith thank you so much Jill for getting

151in touch with Albert Ruff Albert and I were often in the same home room as he was a uff and I was an schw and to him and Pam and Diana it was just a great thing to have them in the class of 1983 at Wilton High my husband who graduated in 1982 had five project concerned students in his class um and it's been my honor to serve two terms on the board of education and also to have been voted in by the board as per our town Charter to until to sit in an empty seat until the next election I serve because I believe in public education it's worth and it's absolute necessity for the health of American democracy I am fortunate that I grew up in a state with a long history of

152public education has the history of public education in the Northeast East been perfect absolutely not but we haven't given up we strive for the time when every child in Connecticut as well as in the United States has access to the quality of public education we provide in Wilton growing up in the United States I'm very familiar with the tales of rags to ridges and pulling oneself up by the bootstraps in fact some of the stories I heard were about people in my own family and like the well-known Horatio Alger novels that became part of the American narrative my ancestors success came not just from hard work but also a piece of luck an opportunity for to succeed it's the American way provide an opportunity to succeed oh it's up to the individual then to do

153the hard work Kevin Smith and CES have answered the concerns about money private citizens are donating in case something unforeseen occurs and all that is needed is for Wilton to open their doors I support Wilton joining the ranks of Westport and Weston and participating in Project open choice after several discussions at this table researching the program including the experience of other districts and for all the reasons Kevin spoke to earlier I support Dr Smith's recommendation to open five seats in 2023 with three in kindergarten and two in first grade the program would not be successful if the cause were as high as some speculate the program has been running successfully both physically and academically for more than 20 years and in almost 50 districts across Connecticut the costs are zero to minimal the experience of

154Weston and Westport bear the South this is not regionalization there is no mandate there is no loss of control I spent all day in Hartford and waited my turn and at almost 11 pm to testify against regionalization this is not it participation in open choice is exactly that a choice a choice Wilton gets to make on a yearly basis depending on enrollment and experience it is a choice to give Wilton students the opportunity to build relationships and understand the experiences of a more diverse peer group and help authentically prepare them for the world Beyond willing it is a choice to give Norwalk families who are looking to give their children a better education the opportunity for a life-changing will in education it is a choice to live the portrait of The Graduate it is a

155choice I'm ready to vote for that's why I chose to go last already knew how you guys all felt I'm sure you guys have had conversations I've never called nobody's ever asked me my opinion of this I've only asked questions like everybody else but never would we have had a meeting that would have a vote without one of our members had you guys already not known how this would play out is this just like something that's I we're like on a wheel it happens every time this is like just never ends Kevin I didn't expect you to comment about what's been going on in town it's not your goal Ruth I appreciate the gesture at the beginning of this meeting but I really would have expected as chair of a board of education and also

156a member of the DTC that you would have said maybe something specifically to me or spoken to me separately I would have suspected that my the apology letter that went out today said I had nothing to do with that statement and would have been honored point of order I just let's stick to discussing it yeah choice we can but I'm gonna finish foreign tically the very issue that is divided part of our town is an issue about diversity diversity is more than skin color and backgrounds and how much money you make it's also about being accepting of differing thoughts and opinions one of the pillars of the porch of The Graduate is active socially sensitive citizen I have heard all the ways that our district is trying to implement this into the classroom maybe the

157true work needs to start at home first most importantly and I can't see anything sorry most importantly all the Wilton students were here that we are here to watch out for are watching all of this whether anyone here wants to acknowledge this students in the high school who wish to agree with the Republican value or position or raise certain questions or concerns often feel coerced into silence and compliance we have always believed them but following yesterday's comments I have zero doubt nor should any of you I will skip my part about the GCC overstepping again I have brought this up I'm always ignored I you know I bring up things about our election process it was on the table we couldn't get to it it came to another meeting it's never come again Mandy writes

158emails they're ignored I mean at some point we're all here we all got elected to this position and it would be nice to feel like we were truly a part of it sometimes an issue that divides our town as much to the point where people are called racist and classists having resentment towards minorities and fear-mongering for having differing opinions is not a good way to embark on a new program especially one about diversity sorry I didn't eloquently prepare something like all of you I just wrote down a bunch of comments so now they're kind of all over the place you're doing fine you're doing fine keep going you know let's let's at least be honest about how this all works right we're inviting students from another town great I don't think anybody that has opposed

159this program has not wanted to do that I don't think anybody has not been welcoming to diversity I think what the issue has been is about the finances and making sure that this is not going to spiral out of control and Lynn and Chris if your families are taking care of that then I'm sure most people in our town would probably feel better about the whole situation you know we talk about the misinformation part of the issue with our board is that communication to our town and our community about very specific issues is not so great people find out about it after the fact people find out about it at the very last minute and then they feel like they don't know what's truly going on and then people are all over the place for

160their facts and then people get angry and then comments like yesterday about calling us names because we don't agree with something or because we have questions about it comes about education on this board and it would be great to truly fix it which I see on the agenda tonight there's something about it which is great talking about these kids for a moment I would like for people to truly think about these kids who we are asking to come here some of them will be put on a bus for up to 45 minutes they'll be brought to our schools they will have school here and they will go home on a bus for 45 minutes there is no plan in place to support them afterwards at least not one that I've heard of we talked about

161having concerns about it there's no plan in place unless I have missed something we talked to other schools about it they had a plan in place it fell apart it's one of the biggest complaints for districts that participate in this and I don't want to have somebody come here and feel like they truly don't fit it's hard when you don't come to any social event when you don't come to sporting events when you don't participate in after school activities because suddenly you are a person that people keep recalling calling Wilton the bubble that you were invited into this bubble and now I feel like you're like a pet that we are all kind of looking at because you're different than us I would like if we're truly going to do this to put something in

162place I'd love to say before we vote on it but I know that that's not going to be the case how we pick these kids there are what there are differing numbers tonight than what I have but majority of our students most of Norwalk is white so we're essentially cherry picking students to be a part of this because Wilton is not going to see diversity in somebody who is a white child who just doesn't have the same economics social economics that we do which means now we are actually selecting a black person or a Hispanic person or whatnot that in and of itself is racist I don't understand I don't understand why nobody else agrees with that and that's fine I don't need to talk about the grand list you know there's people in town

163that are saying that actually I will talk right norwalk's Grand list is 15 to 15.2 billion and ours is 4.4 billion so they're talking about us helping we're not the more affluent Town despite what people think that's what I'm being told we talked about the sped parts we talked about those again I truly am not I want you guys to understand those people who have questions about this program it has nothing to do with not wanting to open our hearts to other disadvantaged kids it's you just had a budget ask that was cut by 1.4 million dollars and now we're talking about cutting strings and cutting all these things and people are concerned about that so again Lynn and Chris thank you if you guys are taking on whatever costs are not covered I guess

164my question for you guys is what what are we doing what are we doing about the children when they come here and helping them truly integrate yeah you are just responding because I think you raised a couple of you know good points and um you know I think you know to your point about the the economics um but you're not say until I'm blue in the face you know it's not there's not without risk because we don't know who the kids are right but I do really believe in my bones and again the experience that we've gleaned from other places all point in the same direction that you know from a cost perspective it really is marginal at best and so I think you know I'd like people just you know to accept that because

165I think that's accurate there's no record of a district incurring you know whatever 22 23 24 000 in cost when an open Choice kid walks in the district that I'm aware of so I think the other piece that's just important and you know the way that you were framing it um is a little worrisome to me the state has established a goal about reducing economic racial ethnic isolation it's a broad goal it's written into the law you know the comments that Kim Healey made earlier she's right like this program isn't fixing the issues with the cities and you know and you know Kim I'll say thank you to you for your work on the committee with reading legislation but this program I don't think the state of the purpose was to fix the cities the

166purpose was to take a step to reduce those barriers and so for my part we're proposing to create an opportunity for a few kids so it's a small effort but I think it's an important effort both materially and symbolically and so for the families that are participating the you know they're making the choice not us right the choice that we've made is to create some seats but we that's kind of where it ends for us um in one respect so the the lottery the weighted Lottery um absolutely is intended to address those goals and so there is a profile of a student that this is intended to benefit and that's a profile that's different from most of the kids not certainly not all here but most of the kids many of the kids in our

167town and I think you know again I'll go back to you know kind of my own personal belief that having greater diversity is good for everybody um I think with respect to your you know the concrete question you just asked about what is the plan to support them I don't think we can have a plan I think we can have um some real strong intent but until we know who the families are who the kids are what the kids interests are I think that's all going to develop um I'll go back to you know and I agree with some of the comments that you know have been written or were made here tonight this is a really generous community and people will step forward we have um some private some substantial Private Financial commitment to

168make things happen that may not have been in place in you know previous generations and so I feel pretty confident that as the needs arise or opportunities arise you know if we if the participating families are willing we could probably make things happen for kids but until we know who they are and you know what their circumstances are I don't know what the answer is so that's the best I can offer you tonight and offer anybody I guess I would like a promise from you that you will do everything you possibly can to make these kids truly feel like they belong I promise even if you're going to pick them up yourself well you and I might have to go together but if you're good I'm good and Kevin and I had a conversation that

169exact conversation Jen I don't know if that makes you feel better as someone who grew up with a project concerned kids and let me tell you they came from Bridgeport and talk about a long bus ride and they had they provide their own bus and so it looked different kids and let me tell you Wilton back then was white there were maybe two black families right so we knew they were different and looking back as an adult I'm like what did we do we didn't do much but like I have to tell you like Albert was very involved he was in the student government there were kids in Project Concern he participated in every athletic game and you know Transportation was provided and there was you know individual families in town and Nicole Garland has

170had this table and described his brother's experience during Project Concern and so it's there's a lot that goes on that we don't see but I had this conversation with Kevin too because I look back and think of like eight-year-old Laura and thinking I didn't know you know like what happened when we all went to a birthday party like they were that was someone even invited I don't know that's something you know I agree ancient Laura now understands and so that's the first question I raised with Kevin when I talked when he talked talked to me about open shorts and we're smarter about those things now we are yeah you know the whole inclusion thing and it happened if you're going to have a birthday party that that inclusion peace to be a part of that

171yeah and the support systems I think we're smarter about as well you can see us can help I mean chip instead if we go to them but I know Steve was here earlier too and to offered the supportive react which again we'll have to you know it's we'll have to see what emerges but I think you know what I'm hearing is there is Community Support to honor that commitment that you know these these kids can participate as possible because I'm a part of weak and we we drive you know cystic fibrosis kids that come to this country to get treated we drive them back and forth to Stanford Hospital all the time so I mean there are people out there that would be loved to do to help to make this work and so for

172people who don't know what weak is please define it it's all the interface institutions in the town of Wilton and we're all part of this and we've we've done a lot of projects a mill the meal project to see a project there's just a searing family that came here right after the beginning of that war all five kids just became American citizens that's huge considering that she walked maybe 10 miles with those kids on her back and alongside her to get out of Syria and went to Jordan and then somehow got here and though now all those five kids are citizens of the America so I mean there are ways to do this they really are and their communities and people that are willing to help make it work I'm glad people are stepping up

173I think again this is part of you know we're kind of jumping into this and there hasn't been a huge Community discussion about this until the night of us voting I know I think that the you know part of the diversity thing that is a little bit different now than was back then is that people are much more in tune to diversity and we even in our own school districts we pointed out we pointed out in a way to celebrate it but you're pointing it out yes so again making sure that these kids truly feel comfortable and they're not just here because they're here you know people keep comparing this to the ABC program it's not it's not even close um it's you know people talk about all these kids are choosing to come here

174these kids they're highly academic they want to be here they're leaving their families it's not the same thing it's it's totally different situation and the ABC house those kids are um successful and that program is successful a because they have an amazing amount of drive and they want to be here with me because there's a lot of community support in place for them there are Financial supports in place for them there are people at the high school that tutor them regularly or come talk to them regularly there are people all over this community that drive them everywhere like that's why they're successful and I just would like to know and I would have loved to have had something more permanently in place ahead of time but I will take all of you and I will

175take react to go with it no weak is great I truly great I wish they had said something before an hour ago well [Music] two minutes ago these are you know these are very young children so the whole need and the whole support system will be different than for ABC agreed but most definitely I think there will be a commitment from the community to help them and and so the need if you're putting your little kid on a bus the parents are invest they value education they want the best for their kids they're gonna they do but I also my only other comment about diversity in this town is you know people keep telling us that you know their kids is a small group of people that have signed a petition petition that have said

176that we have not made them um I don't know feel comfortable outside of the real you know outside of their Wilton bubble and that they weren't exposed to diversity enough and whatnot we all made a choice to move here we also have a choice to leave and you also have a choice to take your kid to any other program and expose them to diversity so on some level this isn't a school responsibility I appreciate what our schools are trying to do and I appreciate the support of graduate and that we're trying to you know make this huge well-rounded person and that's great but I wish people in this town also would recognize the fact that there's so much parent can do to help their child not feel like they are part of an affluent primarily

177white town and while we're talking about that let's not forget about the 25 of our school population who's not white like it I mean it's kind of not fair to all of them who are here and who have organically made our town more diverse but there's all of these conversations in town that I would love for them be real just I mean you're that's all I'm going to say about it um I think those are maybe all of my questions for now or comments I should say if I can just count something you said about 70 of students being white and Norwalk I think it's 25 of students in Norwalk or like 53 are Hispanic 15 are black and four percent are Asian I I have different numbers you have different numbers than somebody else

178had different numbers so I think they're all over the place the board's prepared to vote I would ask for a motion oh no wait sorry I have one more comment I'm not in favor of accepting first grade students I'm only in favor actually I'm not really in favor of the whole program because I'm not here as me personally I'm supposed to be here representing a huge part of our town but I already know it's going to pass because there are enough of you and I know how you feel but I do not support accepting first grade students because we should be starting kindergarten so that they get our education from day one so we're not backtracking in first grade and to give them the best opportunity to experience a full built in education and so

179you want five kindergartners as opposed to I don't think we can do five kindergartens but if we could I'd rather do that than take two first graders so if we were taking three kindergarteners and stopping there would that make a difference I think it just goes to and not even the financial costs not the not that anything cost of any of this it's truly just if we're going to take a student you should take it in kindergarten you should take them from the get-go and start from the beginning yeah I think optimally I probably wouldn't argue with you and you know as I presented back in February or whenever we first spoke about this um you know I didn't have a strong rationale for the number five it was looking at class size trying to

180figure out critical mass what's too few what's too many and then you know the distribution was really about class size average preservation but I think you know theoretically your point right we should take in kindergarten you know again this is year one and you know if we have this conversation again next year you know maybe that becomes a again depending on how you vote now but um if that you know that's something we probably should look at and where are we placing these kids are they all going in the same classroom are you splitting them all up there's no assumption that they would know each other right before they come here not necessarily I mean they might or they might not they live by the time they've been on the bus a few times one

181would hope yeah okay maybe a conversation I promise I have nothing else to say anybody else turn the table have anything to add or say um is there a motion to approve participation in the open Choice program I'd like to make a motion that will participate in the open Choice program for the next career is there a second all in favor all right I'll pose let the record show um four in favor of one and post is there a motion to open five seats between kindergarten three seats and first grade two seats for the 2023-24 school year kindergarten and first grade three and two seats respectively for the 23-24 school year so moved is there a second second thank you Laura Thank you Pam all in favor I'll post let the record show for in

182favor want to post thank you foreign Public Schools communication task force so um gent here point about communication so um there's a couple of pieces here I think you know I um won't respond to some of your um perception but there is a routine pattern here of the way the board communicates I think in general as a district we can get better we have um a range of ways that we communicate to people and you know we consistently get feedback that it's good it's bad it's too much it's not enough it's the right kind it's the wrong con and on and on and on and so it's something we've been talking around for years and as we have um you know tried different platforms and things like that we've tried to get better so um

183we're proposing a different approach to this and so what I'm asking the board to consider is um really forming a Communications tax Force so a couple of you would participate Fran and I would share that with some others and let's ask some questions and try to get into this and so what I'm interested in I'm trying to do with this is really um Circle back to and improve our communication strategy across the district with you know the full range of stakeholders in addition to that as you know I'm also interested in kind of zeroing in and revisiting how we communicate between staff and parents or teachers and parents specifically around achievement and so you know I've observed you know a couple of patterns over the years we have you know conferences once a year in

184the fall and you know as meaningful as those can be they you know last anywhere from seven to ten minutes and not every parent you know can or gets to participate and then you know I think secondly as I've observed is we've made the transition to digital devices and digital platforms there's just less paperwork coming home in the backpack and so you know particular parents of our younger kids are just not seeing the good work that kids are doing in classrooms and so I think it raises the question for me you know how can we better communicate with families around students progress and what are they opportunities that exist that we may not be taking advantage of yet but we can so you know through this task force those are the kinds of questions that

185I'd like to participate you know kind of beyond that with the current communication platforms we use we have some redundancy so I'm going to ask this task force to kind of look and facilitate some of our transitions so as you know a year ago we moved to a new website platform that website company was purchased earlier this year we also launched an app you know with the intention of trying to drive you know one-way communication at least in a more meaningful way since more and more folks use handheld mobile devices well you know the company that now owns our platform has a much better tool than we have so we have the opportunity for good two-way communication on a mobile device and we can eliminate some of the Redundant communication platforms that we currently have

186like School messenger like remind there's probably another one so anyway but um I'd like you to continue just creating a task force and so you know the board over the years Laura you can probably speak to this they've probably been you know task force or working groups episodically um here and again so you know the difference is it's Mission focused it's time bound you know they're clear deliverables and yeah you know try to you know we'll have to set a schedule and some you know completion dates but I'd like to try to use that vehicle to really move us forward so that's that's the proposal and so he actually does anybody have any questions for Kevin regarding it well I would just suggest that not be too big because I find that the more people

187you ever involved sometimes meetings can either go too long get sidetracked sure yep friend you have a about yeah yeah um basically we uh in terms of the the size representatives from each of the schools our webmasters administrators so we're talking about like maybe 12 to 15. yeah yeah grandparents yeah and parents of course and students right okay um is there a motion to establish a Communications task force thank you Jen is there a second a second thank you Nicola all in favor aye any opposed five zero okay so we'll get rolling into um you know Fran will be the primary facilitator and so we'll just you know we'll send out some organizational information and we'll get going ASAP um and I think if um in the coming days if um anyone on the board

188has a particular interest in participating just let me know can I let you know you can let me know now I was expecting that email coming you know when the meeting ended hmm if anyone else has an interest let me know [Applause] [Music] um next week is um we have second reads under discuss and approve of some policies from our previous meeting and the first one is policy 6148 completion rates of the free application of General FAFSA federal student aid where the FAFSA um we did a first reading on this over um at our last meeting it um is to conform with new requirements under Community General statutes are there any um questions further questions on this hearing none is there a motion to approve um policy 6148 completion rates for the free application for

189federal student aid is there an assistant second thank you Laura thank you Nicola all in favor aye any opposed five zero thank you next is to discuss An approved policy 3542.31 free lunches um this also was on um the agenda last week and it is now to conform with other state requirements yeah it is so some of that you know we revise some of the language that you know came out in that no shaming law are there any questions about this policy is there a motion to approve policy 354231 free lunches Thank you Pam is there a second second thank you Laura all in favor any opposed five zero and then finally is discussing a group policy 4141 salary guides um this was also discussed at the last meeting and it's just revised to confirm

190with current practice correct uh we are part of the policy review there was some redundant language that we struck or is there any questions on the salary guides policy is there a motion to approved policy 4141 salary guys so rude thank you Nicola is there a second second thank you Laura all in favor aye aye any opposed also five zero um future business and information items or our next regular meeting will be um after the break on April 20th wish everyone a happy and healthy and restorative break for those who are celebrating holidays we wish you happy holidays um then Board of Education um meetings following that will be on May 4th it's not included in this agenda but I would like to remind everyone the annual town meeting is scheduled for Monday May 2nd

191the Board of Education next regular meeting after that is May 18th and then June 1st and then um June 15th [Music] last but not least there is another opportunity for comments from the public because there's any comments from the public [Music] bridge I would just like to remind you that there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of children throughout our state that will still require us to be concerned about them so if you need any recommendations of volunteer opportunities for your children or yourselves please reach out I'm always happy to um help connect people with them there was a lot of use of the word values tonight and so one of the things that I thought about um was do we value civility I know I as selected signed to Proclamation saying that I would

192act with Civility and I do really believe that words matter and that taking ownership of words whether or not you feel like you created them or put them out you know still are important so I did notice that people who wrote in opposition tonight were called angry I I'm not sure if that was appropriate term of uh you know appropriate way to refer to them if they just were opposed for whatever the reasons they provided but um I think it was mentioned that the DTC had put out a an email yesterday I have informed you all of that they called Republicans racist ultimately and you know I take great offense to that and I wrote you all about it and I told you that I took offense to it and I have not heard from

193you I mean that's real I know you don't sign a proclamation saying that you will act with stability but to know that I am one of your constituents ultimately and took events to something that was put out I expect it to be acknowledged thanks all right good evening Bill Waller 40 molt work drive um I I have a few comments about I was late arriving so I just have a few basic comments about process that sort of echo I think some of the things that Kim has said um you know just to recap there was and I think this is directly to me to the decision-making process and the decision was reached tonight regarding open Choice um yesterday there was an email all the Kim reference that said not just Republicans but anybody who opposed

194uh open Choice must be doing so based on racial animus um he was born it wasn't just Republicans there's Independence as Democrats I know who weighed in against us um this morning we got an apology which I appreciate from the chair of the DTC saying he didn't mean that you shouldn't have said obviously that was well received I like to think it's sincere I guess that remains to be seen I came here tonight wearing a few hats I'm a parent I'm a taxpayer I my I'm a husband of a member of the board I'm a person to oppose open choice and one of the people that was maligned by that statement um and even having arrived late I don't know exactly what was said on the record but I never heard from Ruth I never

195heard from um Nicola both members of the DTC one would think the decent thing to do if Ruth and Nicola you distance yourself and you disavow those statements would be to personally take responsibility for being on the DTC having made those statements and walk them back I think a lot of people out here would like to hear you say Ruth especially as chair of this of this board of education that you don't agree with those statements and you don't subscribe to such an alignments of people who disagree with you politically I emailed a few people yesterday to say it's really cheap I've heard people say well if you disagree you must be angry if you disagree you must misunderstand those are very well-worn shop worn tactics over the course of history that have been used

196to silence people you heard from hundreds of people I think by way of email opposing and in support I'm here not just for me I've been involved in politics for 25 years I've seen things it's okay I have a pretty thick skin but there are greens dozens hundreds of people out there in Wilton who will not speak up because they're afraid to do so they are afraid to speak up because they know that if they step in not just speaking up on issues but if they step in they get involved they volunteer they put their name into The Fray they're going to be maligns that is wrong and what you guys have done and there's silence and complicity in this and not speaking up you've got three hours you've done nothing and you've made the

197situation worse we deserve better any other comments from the public hi Linda anderslice one of the Middleburg Farm Road again I just wanted to make a couple of comments one about my personal commitment and I was aware of Chris's commitment there are other people besides the two of us I've already been speaking to people I have a network of people that I've developed over a long number of years primarily because of the work I did with ABC and an extended community that I'm involved with who really is primarily their primary philanthropy is children from economic develop economic disadvantage areas not necessarily of color but just providing better opportunity for students who are who are economically disadvantaged so yes I'm gonna have a lot of free time and what I did for a lot of years

198before I decided to put my financial brain back you know going is I spent years working in that air volunteering in that area of expanding opportunities for children from economic disadvantaged areas and I plan to stay in Wilton and I plan to do that on behalf of this I also want to say Jen your concerns worth the same concerns that were expressed before we opened the ABC house you know we were approved for eight students but we only had a small house so we couldn't bring all eight in so we brought in three we brought in three because the worry that what if woman leaves two were coming in as freshmen one was coming in a sophomore you know you didn't if it didn't work you didn't want somebody isolated and it turned out one

199of the students didn't come back from their November break but it was absolutely isolating in the first several years and there was there wasn't that network of volunteers that you have now there was a small group of us who really were focused on this and helped out I mean I think I just met with the Miller Driscoll PTA last week you know you've got some very engaged women that were there and an Engaged man and I would hope that that group would welcome these students and um you know the other thing I'll say is my son was not educated in the Wilton Public Schools who purposely put him in schools that had economic diversity that was important to us um and you know there the the I saw it myself how parents embrace the children

200that don't have the same economic advantages that they did they were expensive schools there were scholarships that allowed those kids to be there so I've lived it myself I've gone through what your concerns are and I'm confident that the people not only the people who are donating but there are other people in this community just as they circled around Ray and Lewis during their first year and then when all eight of them were there I mean it took a number of years for ABC to be what it is now where it isn't isolated and uh to to find host families in the beginning what is this program so anyway I'm rambling but I and the other thing I want to say is I fact check when I get letters because often it as you both

201have said you have different statistics for different things about different towns there are resources out there there is uh something from Advanced CT profile for every town I can tell you our grandless per capita is 150 percent of Noah walks their share a commercial share of the grand list according to the way they calculated is 150 of ours you can look at the the home prices are there more than 50 percent higher so but there there are I'm happy to share all those resources where when you get things that are data driven and you want to check them I can give you the resources where you can do it anyway I'll stop thank you any other comments from the public I'll keep this long no I'm just kidding um um I want to volunteer but

202I want to volunteer for this in a different way because I'm not busy enough with Planning and Zoning in the investment committee um one of the things we didn't talk about tonight which I think is clearly important is if we're going to have these students come in in open choice is making sure that their parents feel like they're participating in the program and that means two things that means inviting their parents to participate with us and it means going to their community and participating with their parents and I would like to volunteer to do that and I would like to organize anybody else who wants to volunteer and do that because I think that's equally as important as well being the children I think that IT addresses a little bit of what you were speaking

203with in terms of making sure that there's an inclusive program it's not perfect I mean you could end up in public service like a lot of my kids you know that doesn't make a lot of money but um you know um I think it would be a good thing for us to do so anything you can do to reach out to me I'd be happy to do that coordinated with Lynn and Chris and figure out ways to get the hair thank you let me just express my thanks to you I think you've made a very wise decision but I think it's also not incumbent upon the community much as limits expressed in the last speakers expressed to come forward and be part of those volunteers that you're asking for to do all kinds of different

204things as I mentioned the Wilton under Faith action committee 36 numbers steering committee has gotten behind this they want to be part of helping them that can we have a lot of experience in doing and please note that that help is there it's very Hands-On Health people volunteering to do it so I want you to know that resources there and I also want to thank you again for taking the time to think through this open choice to think it through very wisely and to make a decision that I think we will all come we appreciate it now many of us but God will come to appreciate even more in the future thank you is there anyone online the sale anyone else in the room meeting is adjourned at 10 o'clock thank you [Music]