001All right, I'll bring the Winchester Public School Board of Education regular meeting to order. Start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Will you all stand? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Joseph Santoro. Chrissy Rylander. Kurt Warner. Julie Luby. Nora Mokarski. Eleanor Bishop. Jonathan Morhardt. Okay, on to approval of the agenda. Does anyone want to add anything or make corrections to the agenda? Okay. Make a motion to approve the agenda. Second. All in favor. All right, on to student participation. Starting with the student [clears throat] showcase. For student showcase this evening, we have Let me get the names so I don't forget anybody. We have four amazing children with us.
002Um I think everyone is here actually. >> [snorts] >> I should have all So, the students are going to share with us about their experience of participating in instructional rounds, which I'll tell you a little bit more about anything that they don't already tell you when we get to Superintendent's report. I'll just simply say instructional rounds you've heard about before. It's the adults walking in and out of classrooms and this was our second time this year and we included four students. Woody Dick, Alexa Hudak, Hudak, Jackson Dombrowski, and Leah Brooke Berent. Hopefully I've got that right. And these four young people were phenomenal. Um They had so much perspective and just introspection. They were They were spot on with everything that they saw and said. So, I'm going to invite if the four of you
003want to come up to the table. And I'm going to ask you guys, I know Miss St. Hilaire's not here to have prepped you. So, you are You should know these are entirely unrehearsed, spontaneous remarks. But, I'm going to ask each of you if you would introduce yourself, your name, your grade, something fun about you. But, then tell us a little bit about your experience going in and out of classrooms and doing instructional rounds. Can you do that? And we'll ask you some questions as you go. Okay. My name is Woody and I'm in sixth grade and uh I like cats. Awesome. So, my experience in instructional rounds was we discussed like before we started, we discussed like the norms we had to like look around for. Such as like is the question promoting reasoning
004in the student's brain? And we had to look like observations, not inferences. So, we were like couldn't make an inference based on the student's body language. We just had to say like [clears throat] see if they were like said they were angry or happy or something. So, what did you see? What did you hear? Not I mean that's what you were looking for, right? What you could see or hear, not what you thought or wondered. Some things we could see was that not like a lot of the groups were participating. But, in some groups not all the kids were participating. It was like one student doing the work while the others like just didn't do anything. And what we heard was that some groups the students were talking actively like about the like question. But,
005some didn't really have any like chatter. And they were just doing their like work without really like talking or Thank you, Woody. We're going to go around and let everyone have a chance to share something and maybe we'll pepper you guys with some questions. Uh my name is Jackson and I'm in fifth grade and I like basketball. Fun. So, tell us about your experience. Um So, at like towards like um when we were getting done with all the classes, we uh took all the notes and we put them on a chart and like the tasks that we saw, what the teachers were doing and like environmental like ways people were looking and learning and working together. And different ways the teachers teaching. And uh yeah. Thank you, Jackson. Uh my name is Leah. I'm in
006fifth grade. And um during the instructional rounds we were focusing on not making inferences about the kids and just using our ears and eyes and listening to everything. And I like how the all the teachers gave the students like more time to talk about like the question that she asked. And then she let them turn and talk about it before she asked the students like everything about it. And Oh, and then like and the students were very productive in small groups instead of like sitting by themselves at their desks. And they were more talkative and they were able to learn more. And they also used more And they also used like materials or hands-on activities. And that looked like a lot of fun. Thank you, Leah. I'm Alexa and I'm in sixth grade. And one
007of the things that I liked about the instructional rounds were um we saw like a bunch of teachers like making the students figure out the question instead of giving the question or the answer to the question like directly to them. Which can help like making bigger and better inferences about bigger things. And there was also kids like working together like in Thank you, Alexa. So, tell these guys since they weren't there before we ever went in classrooms we spent some time prepping. You talked a little bit about that, Woody. What happened when we came back? Did you go by yourselves to classrooms? No, we worked in groups. I think we had Was it three teams went out? Two at Pearson and one at Hindsdale, maybe? And we weren't in every single classroom, but we got
008just about everywhere. There were a couple times we couldn't just because of the switching of classes, we couldn't get to every single classroom, but we hit most of them. So, what happened when we came back drowning in sticky notes of things we had observed? Like we would put all the sticky notes in like categories on posters. And then we wrote like what the students might be ready for next and like >> [clears throat] >> what is our final inferences from all these sticky notes the observations on. One of the things I'm wondering is when you went into classrooms were you surprised by what you saw? Did it look like what you expected? What was that experience like for you? I was kind of um some of the some of the some of the like younger
009grades the teachers were pushing more on like making them get the answer than like what I remember from being in those grades, which I thought was pretty Do you have a takeaway from the experience? Any like huh? Anything that you left thinking like Did you think what you saw showed promise? Thought it was like It was pretty good. I thought that a lot of grades especially like lower grades showed a lot of promise with their work and how they were doing it and getting the answers. >> [snorts] >> Thank you. Um Do you think it was important to have students participate in the process? Yes. I do, too. I think hearing your what you saw, I think as adults we're very trained to make judgments when we go in. Whereas I think you guys did
010a great job capturing evidence. What did you see? What did you hear? That really filled our discussion afterwards with what was going on. Um The one thing I'll say is this was not evaluative in any way. This was if anything like a thermometer. Like we're talking about high quality instruction. We're talking about tasks. We're talking about collaboration, student discourse. And so, this was an opportunity for us to sort of take the temperature of where are we with that and what might some next steps be? Do you remember any of the next steps we talked about? See what students were ready for next. >> [snorts and clears throat] >> And we made like posters about like um Look at that. Oh, there it is. >> Silveria's got something you can show us. All right, what do
011you have? >> Thank you, Barb. We made posters afterwards when we like gathered in groups and then we put like what things students would be ready for next. Kind of put like that all the information that we had and like seeing what teachers do and what students do and we um like put put like But this poster was about when like teachers have higher expectations, the the participation level and like uh succeeding and work um rises especially with engagement and uh sense making, willing to take risks, student confidence, facilitator moves, Facilitator. facilitator moves, and the task. Outstanding. It was a wonderful experience and it was so much richer for having Woody, Jackson, Leah, and Alexa with us. It was really great. So, to the four of you, thank you for participating. Thank you for sharing
012with our board. You did a great job. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Has it inspired any of you to want to be a teacher? I want to be a principal. All right. Woody, was there something else you were supposed to tell us about? Oh, yeah, I remember now. Having nothing to do with this, right? I I have a little tickle in the back of my mind. You have something else really cool you wanted to share. So, I did this project where I in math that it was like extra where I had to like make a business, calculate like all my profits and expenses, and then make decisions about the business. So, we would write down like the prices of our items, and then we would calculate that to our like monthly expected profits, and then
013the sheet would give us a percentage of those monthly profits that we actually made, and then we'd have to subtract the expenses from those profits, and we also had to make decisions like in the end, I remember one of the like outcomes was that the like our food vendors had to like gas prices had to go up, so we had to pay an extra thousand dollars every month. And we could also decide to like participate in like extra stuff that cost money, but it was like a chance for something to happen. Like I had this shopping night that I could like pay a what was it? $800 to participate in, but it made my sales go up 5%, so I had to calculate that into my regular and I ended up like $13,000 of debt
014at the end of the It was pretty fun. Woody, how old are you? 12. He's 12, ladies and gentlemen. He's running a business. We are so impressed with ALL OF YOU. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU TO THE PARENTS OF THESE wonderful children for having them with us tonight. You guys are welcome to stay or go. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. On to the next student representative report. Mia. Fields is not here, so stay with Mia. Do you want to turn Mia's name around for us so everyone can [snorts] see? Mia Ortiz Reyes. Mia, what a pretty outfit. Mia has brothers and sisters. All right. Are you excited to tell us what's going on at Hinsdale School? Yeah. Okay. Do you want to tell us from what's on the paper or do you
015just want to tell us all about it? I'll tell us from the paper. Absolutely. Why don't you put it down? Miss Silverio can help you if you need. Mia, what grade are you in? I'm in second grade. Awesome. So, you have to speak big and loud and maybe pull your hand away from your mouth so we can hear you really well. And tell us all about Hinsdale School. How's it going? It's going good. Great. Hello, my name is Mia. I'm in second grade. This month in second grade, we have been learning about the Civil War. Clara Barton saved people during the war by helping them with medication if they were injured. In math, we are learning about the different coins and what they are worth. We are learning learning how to buy real things with
016money. Pre-K has been focused on animals. They are learning all about how animals live and grow through exploring and reading informational text. In math, they are starting basic addition and subtraction. Kindergarteners are decoding words and reading with more confidence. They are making personal connections to stories they read, and in science learning about weather patterns. They had a chance to create their own record weather forecasts. In grade one, students are learning all they can about the sun, moon, and plan- planets. They visited the Starlab hosted by the Connecticut Children's Museum, where they had a chance to see all of their learning in action. In math, they are solving penguin-themed addition and subtraction problems. One thing I would like to see happen at Hinsdale is adding flowers to our playground. I'd love to help Miss Field plant
017them. Thank you for having me. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Great great job, Mia. >> [laughter] >> Plants. It's spring. And from Pearson School, we have Luna Johnson. Hi, Luna. Hi. Are you going to be big and loud for us? Awesome. Tell us all about it. Good evening, board members. Hello, my name is Luna Johnson and I am in third grade. School activities and events. I am a member of kindness group. We spread kindness around the school. We help the teachers write kind notes and try to spread kindness throughout the school. For our aca- for our academic highlight our aca- for our academic highlights, we wore for we wore we wore crazy socks for Down Down Syndrome Awareness. We wore blue for autism awareness. Something neat that students have been learning. In math,
018we are in grade three, in math we are learning about area and perimeter. We We are building two-dimensional shapes with We use the line of lines on a graph paper to cal- cal- cal- cal- cal- calculate area and perimeter. You measure the top of the side of the and multiply to get to the area, and we add up the numbers to get to the perimeter, which is the distance around the outside of the shape. In language arts, we are starting a new unit about Vikings. We will we read about gods, giants, and dwarfs in Norse myths. In second grade, we learned about Roman gods and goddesses. >> [snorts] >> We learned some of the language that they used in Roman times related to gods and goddesses. For an example, the Romans would pray to to
019gods like the goddess of the sea pray to have a good sea that that day. In third grade, we will read about the Norse gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, which were worshipped by the Vikings. In science, we are learning about fossils, spec- specifically dinosaur fossils. We learned that birds are the closest animal to dinosaurs. We were we were able to have a really fun field trip field trip experience to the Dinosaur State Park. We learned about how fossils were created by dinosaurs thousands of years ago. We learned about all the layers that the fossils get buried up. Get buried. And gets hard, then thousands of years later humans find them. Paleontologists study dinosaurs and different fossils. We We got to dig up pretend fossils and look looked at many life-size animal skeletons and we
020were and were reptiles, dinosaurs, and other animals such as birds. I I learned that some animals like birds can can look similar to fossils of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are the birds' ancestors. They have been finding fossils in empty fields at the time there were trees and plants where they lived. Where they lived. And many chan- changes happened to the land. We saw dinosaur prints fossils in fossils that show where the dinosaur walked in Connect- in Connecticut. You can tell where when we why they we whe- whether they were walking or running based on the distance between prints. One great thing about Pearson, I really like this school because it feels safe and I really like the teachers. Thank you for inviting me to share Pearson school school happenings with you this evening. >> [applause] >>
021Great job, Luna. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. >> so much. Okay, on to public comments. The Winchester Board of Education welcomes you to its business meeting. There are two opportunities set aside to hear comments from the public. We welcome and encourage public participation as a valued part of communicating input with the Winchester Board of Education. We appreciate your adherence to the following. Complete the requested information on the sign-in sheet if you wish to speak. State your name and address when called upon to speak. And you will be allotted 3 minutes to share your comments. Please be advised that this is not the practice of the Board of Education to engage in dialogue regarding commentary. The Superintendent of Schools will be directed by the chairperson to prepare an appropriate response in a timely manner. We appreciate
022your time and thoughtful commentary. Would anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak? Okay, not seeing any, we'll move on to approval of the minutes. Uh minutes for a regular board meeting. Would you like to make a motion to approve the minutes or make any changes that need to be made? Motion to accept, do we have a second? >> Second. All in favor? Okay, done. All right. Moving on, communications. Uh I just want to speak to the public. Um The our town manager, uh Mr. Harrington, presented the town's budget last night to the Board of Selectmen. Um there will now be uh public workshops that the Selectmen will be working on uh finalizing the budget to eventually present to the town. Um the the current budget workshops that are scheduled are for Monday the
02313th, uh Wednesday the 15th, and possibly uh the next Monday the 20th. Um so be engaged, uh be informed, um participate throughout the process. Hopefully you can come to the meetings or at least watch the meetings to understand the process and what's going on with the budget um before we get to the referendum. Um so just stay informed. All right. You said 13, 15, and 20? 13, 15, and 20. Yep. Okay, on to Superintendent's Report. Super- good evening, everyone. Um so pleased to be able to tell you a little bit about things that have been going on in the district. Um as you heard from our students, we are continuing our focus on high-quality instruction. In simplest terms, that is students who are cognitively actively engaged, not just physically engaged, but really thinking, asking questions,
024talking to each other, figuring things out. Um tomorrow is an early dismissal day, and when the students leave, the teachers will stay and continue the work on how how we do that in the classroom. What is what are strategies to make that work? And it will be the second visit from our um colleagues at Partners for Educational Leadership, the group that I mentioned that is um beta testing, if you will, a new workshop series um that we are the um unpaying beneficiaries of um because we were so enthusiastic about trying to attend. Um The kids told you I think everything you need to know about the rounds. They were really successful. The staff willingly opens their classrooms to their colleagues and students. The We had teachers walking with us, students, and administrators. Um And again,
025it's not evaluative. If anything, it's like a dipstick, like where are we and what's next in the work because you know, the road to excellence is just something you always continue to walk. Um our guest readers event was a huge success in both schools. Thank you to everyone who participated. Uh the drone competition was phenomenal. Uh for those of you who were there, I don't need to tell you, you know. And if you weren't able to get there, I strongly suggest you um mark it on your calendar for next year. Our students did a great job. The event went smoothly. Um so much gratitude [snorts] to Miss St. Hilaire. Um We have one team that did ultimately qualify to go to regionals, but ultimately decided not to go. Um so we won't have a team
026competing this year, but we did have a We did have a team eligible. Um We just I can't possibly have just been last week that we had parent conferences. It must be a couple weeks ago. It's all blended. Um and as always, they were very well attended and a huge success. We really appreciate the opportunity to um face-to-face talk with parents about students and their progress. Um the PTA sponsored an outstanding student-staff volleyball event. Every single grade level had the opportunity to bat the ball [clears throat] back and forth with their um teachers and staff. There was so much good spirit in the room. It was played um with like a large, I'll say, beach ball kind of volleyball, so there was none of that if we all have those horrible memories of PE class
027in junior high school and like it hurt. This was not that. This was lighthearted and fun, and laughter was um all around. Uh we will be beginning um Smarter Balanced Assessments in early May. I mention it now only because by the time we get to our May uh board meeting, it's possible that they will have begun. Um the school sends information home to families to let them know. We are committing to not changing our morning routines for testing. We will continue to um >> [clears throat] >> make sure the kids have their breakfast. We may even be a little pushier about that. Um and we will continue to have our morning meeting on those days so that kids are coming into their familiar routine, getting themselves settled and ready to demonstrate their learning versus coming
028in and ready to learn. But we are committed to maintaining their usual morning routines before the testing. Um Operationally, as you know, the budget the Board of Ed's budget has been submitted to the town and now um incorporated [clears throat] into the town manager's budget, which he gleefully told us last night now goes on to become the Board of Selectmen's proposed budget. Um We are continuing to talk with the folks that are doing the um small level study to see what a preschool expansion could look like. Again, being explored because it's our belief and what would fuel us to go forward is that it would be 100% reimbursable. So um that [snorts] is still in the works. Um as you know, I'm sure the roof referendum passed. The ed specs have been developed. Um We're
029running pretty quickly tonight, but I Roger will be here tonight. He wants the board to vote on the ed specs. Um [snorts] he feels it's very important. He is going to be the project manager, and it's very important to even though we won't do the work until summer after this, we still want to get our proposal in. They have to go in. It's a non-priority list project, so it can go in any month, but it's got to go in in the first 10 days of the month. And our goal is to get it in in the first 10 days of June while we're still in fiscal year '26 and we know our reimbursement rate is 72%. Um because if the rate were to go down and we apply [clears throat] after that, we would be
030kicking ourselves. Um quick principal search up dates. We did focus groups with um staff and families. We conducted some surveys of kids [snorts] as well as um staff as well as families to put together um criteria, which I have taken and turned into um interview questions and a rubric based on what people said was important. Um and of course um rounded out by the things that we know are really important for a principal. Um we had more than 40 applicants, a really strong pool. I I went through all of the resumes, screened um I think a little over a dozen candidates um and identified from that uh people to put in front of a large committee so that [snorts] we knew that each of those committee slots would go to someone who met sort of
031that baseline criteria. So we have um a full day of interviews scheduled on Thursday. We have a large committee that includes administrators, teachers, parent Board of Ed representation. Thank you, Ellie, with a backup. Jonathan, you were my second person, right? >> the second person, yeah. So if something goes crazy, we're going to reach out and drag you in at the last minute. Um the goal of that day, the candidates will come in, they'll do a performance task where we give them some data to review and then ask them about it during the interview. Um by the end of that day, I hope that the committee will identify perhaps three, maybe the top half of the candidates who really and I think they're going to have a hard time because we have a really strong slate,
032but really who are our top candidates and then we'll have those folks back in um for just about a half a day. We have two experiences planned for them on their return visit. They'll interact with um instruction. They're going to watch a teacher teach and then do a mock feedback conference with a teacher in front of several of us watching. That's not pressure, I promise. >> [laughter] >> And also interact with a group of kids and then debrief with the team of us that are doing that round. Um and we'll use that as an opportunity to ask them questions about all of their experiences throughout our process. What are they noticing and wondering? Do they even want the job at that point? And if so, why? Um and then ultimately from that round, we hope
033that there would be still two standing candidates and Kurt and I will do um finalist interviews with those two folks. Assuming again it plays out the way I anticipate, but we'll obviously move as we need to. And um if everything goes on schedule, we would add a special meeting on our committee meeting night since we're all together anyway. Um is that opportunity for the board to meet and approve um the principal the successful candidate. I will say to you one thing that I say to every committee that I have ever convened. If on some crazy chance we get in the room and we don't feel that we have a candidate in the room that we would hire, we start over. We do not settle. Like I said, there were more than 40 candidates. I think
034I've done a nice job sort of getting it down to a reasonable number, but there are lots of people we didn't talk to and we will never we will not settle. What's your hire date then, you think? Um well, July 1 would be the official date because that will be if Barb will end with us June 30, but as soon as we name a person, we'll be um immediately getting them an email, giving them an opportunity to start visiting when they can, get to know us, plan some overlap with Barb in June. Um So when would you sit in front of two people, you think? Um so in my mind, the three people coming back was I think like around the 21st, 2nd, and 3rd. I think I was imagining Kurt and I haven't run
035a date by him, but I'm thinking maybe the 24th. So that's the last week in April? Or no, second last week in April? >> it's right before the committee night, which is probably April 28th if I were April 20th. Yep. Okay. So you're talking by the end of the month, you should have something in front of you. >> That's my hope. Okay. Um I feel like the later it gets in the school year, the smaller the pool gets. Um and we have a very experienced, enthusiastic pool, so strike while the iron's hot. Um Great. >> [clears throat] >> Uh yesterday we submitted I think I mentioned I'm sure I mentioned that previously we had submitted the congressional grant uh through Representative Larson's office and I think I shared with you that in the fine print
036it turned out they were really looking for capital projects. I did submit our um expansion of our autism program as a bridge project. I promised a literal bridge as part of it, but I don't honestly think that that will be seen as a fundable project with them. Um but we submitted yesterday uh through Senator uh Murphy Murphy and Blumenthal's office. Did I say that? It suddenly sounded wrong. Um they collaborate together and select grants that get pushed forward. So we have sent our application to them and it does meet all of the criteria under the Department of Education for them. We asked for about $950,000 um for staffing, supplies, um some materials um to really grow our autism programming at Hinsdale School. So I'll keep you posted. We got the confirmation emails. I know it
037went in. We were able to submit letters of support um and I am thrilled to say that we were able to submit I think about nine letters. Um Kathy wrote one, obviously. I wrote one. Uh Paul Harrington, Jay Case, Kurt [snorts] submitted a letter. We had a letter from Fran Rabinowitz, who is the head [clears throat] of CAPS. Um we had one from our community partner, Blaine O'Meara. Um perhaps you know who speaks often at our meetings. Um and I feel like there may be one or two more that I'm not thinking of quickly. But so we had a really nice, strong pool of Oh, Nancy [snorts] wrote a letter. I'm so sorry. I knew I'm counting and think so maybe that was the last one. So a really nice set of letters from a
038different group of perspectives. Nancy was able to talk about our financial need. Um everybody brought their own perspective, so fingers crossed. We are moments away from launching our new website. We've been operating um with the old site and just limping along, not adding tons of content or anything because we know we're getting ready to pop, but we met with the website designer um tail end of last week, gave her some notes on things that needed to be adjusted. We've just heard back that she's made those changes [snorts] and so we're pretty close. And finally um of the year nominations went out. I'm pretty sure I included the board on that. Yes. Um looking for you to nominate teachers, paraeducators, or any staff members um who you feel are deserving of recognition. Um we will name
039one teacher of the year, para of the year, staff member of the year who will be recognized [snorts] on June 4th at our end of the year retirement of the year and years of service celebration at AMP. Um but I also will make good use of all of those nominations by way of um spreading joy and kindness and letting people know that they were mentioned. Um As I mentioned, tomorrow is an early dismissal day. Don't forget. Please take your children back. Um we'll be doing professional development and then the following week we are school closed for vacation. I am excited to report that the uh Champs school play will go forward as it always does. Uh the play is Beauty and the Beast. The schools will see the last sort of early showing, last rehearsal
040on the morning of Thursday the 23rd. There will be a show Friday night the 24th in the Gilbert Auditorium and Saturday afternoon in the Gilbert Auditorium. We'll be sending information out on how to get tickets. We'll put get it on our Facebook. I'll send invitations to all of you and the Board of Selectmen and all the people um We're going to offer a discount to seniors if they'd like to come, but um I've been peeking in the windows in the afternoons and I have to say it looks like it's going to be fabulous. Um And as Kurt mentioned, the Board of Selectmen will be deliberating on the budgets on April 13th, 15th, and 20th. On the 13th, they will focus on the town. The 15th will be exclusively I suspect around the schools budget and
041that would be an important night to come to speak. Um at the meeting last night um the mayor said the residents have to come out and tell us what they will support. So that is what we're asking. Please come to the podium and tell the Board of Selectmen what you will support. Their concern is that whatever budget they put forward has to pass and so they want to hear from voters what are you willing to vote for? Um what won't you vote for? What will you vote for? So I think that would be a really important thing um to share at public comment. Speak in support of anything you want or against anything you want, but that is the question. What are you willing to vote for? Um presumably there will be further opportunity to
042comment and continue this conversation on the 20th. The budget does have to be finished and done by April 24th, so spoiler alert, I would not rule out the possibility that there will be more meetings during that week of the 20th to the 24th. Like you guys had to, they too have to get it done. Um, can we go back to the drone competition? [snorts] Yeah. Last meeting we had we approved a visit of the trip to West Virginia with two teams. Right? >> Potentially. Okay. And then um, we have one team not going. We have only one team that qualified and they're opting not to go. >> going. >> So nobody's going, right? Um, is that for fiscal reasons? No, absolutely not. >> it's not like money was the hurdle. Nope, absolutely not. We would
043not let that be the problem. It was a function of it was down to like one student and a parent couldn't go and they didn't want to go out without the parent. It was just like normal kid stuff. All right. Um, and we're feeling perfectly comfortable with it that we had a great season. >> [snorts] >> And okay, yeah. Thank you. Okay. No, I think that's it for me tonight. All right, perfect. All right, on to committee reports. Um, I'm going to assume our committees don't have much to report because uh, we had to substitute our committee meetings for presenting the budget to the Board of Selectmen. Um, so if I'm wrong, let me know, but I would assume that there's nothing really to report on the from the four committees. Okay. Uh, All right,
044moving on to the liaison report. From Gilbert, uh, Diane Cook is set to retire at the end of the school year. We congratulated her and thanked her for 28 years of service. Also, uh, various policies went to first and second read. Uh, the first reading of policies include just one, emeritus slash e status. And to second read, uh, number of policies, code of ethics, confidentiality for directors, methods of operation, development, distribution and maintenance of manual policies, regulations, bylaws, policy adoption, revision, reaffirmation, amendments to bylaws, formulation, adoption, amendment of administrative regulations, suspension of policies, bylaws, and regulations, public meetings, time, place, and notification of meetings, time in executive sessions, and construction of the agenda. Policy committee's been very busy, it's like Okay, on to information items, enrollment reports. Okay. Um, let's see. Couple things I'll draw
045your attention to. Um, nothing really drastic. I will tell you kindergarten just went up another student, we're now at 73, which means we have one class that has exceeded the uh, class limit of 18. Um, and [snorts] currently next year's kindergarten has 79 students on the list. Awkwardly. Um, so we're watching that closely because that's hitting a pressure point. That's starting the year if those kids Those are like real kids with names and addresses, not like theoretical kids. We have 79 kids on a list. If they all come, that's starting the year with two over in every classroom, which is essentially the cost of almost half a teacher. Um, so we're watching that to consider at what point we would have to open a section and goodness knows how, but nevertheless, we're watching that. So
046I mentioned that. Um, that's about it. The Gilbert Hinsdale, not a lot of movement. Um, or I don't know what I just said. Pearson Hinsdale, not a lot of movement. Gilbert down a couple of kids. Um, as traditionally is the exit point, they seem to be coming out primarily at 9th and 10th grade. Um, kids who are with us in 11th and 12th don't tend to leave. Um, but 9 and 10 seem to be those points. That's about it for enrollment. Attendance report, we are um, doing a good job. It's not as good as we'd like, but it's not awful. Um, actually very funny, I'll share with you in the screening interviews, um, most of the candidates did their homework and they looked us up on EdSight, did the research, and several of them just
047sort of started talking about chronic absenteeism and ways to address that, and I had to stop them because on EdSight it shows us as having 25% chronic absenteeism last year because as you may recall, our data collection was skewed, things that were um, dismissals were counting as absences. So I had to stop of many of the candidates and say, "Whoa, it's okay, it's not quite as bad as you think." Um, and in fact, our overall chronic absenteeism rate um, is trending exactly where it was last year, just at 11 and 1/2%. I will say when I share that data with other alliance district administrators, um, they say, "Wow, that's great." In fact, we just met with Oh, I didn't think to put that on the report. We just met with our contact from the state
048from the alliance district, and he's pleased as punch with our numbers. Um, similarly, our average daily You know, we would love to have that number below 10 all the time. Um, but we're close to that. And our, you know, our goal number really, well, of course the goal would be 100% student attendance, but in the real world you don't really want that because you don't want six snotty people in school, so um, 95% is a really nice goal to shoot for and we're so close to that. So we continue to work really hard on attendance with the appropriate level of enthusiasm knowing we're doing pretty good. And the schools have implemented some really neat stuff like random lotteries like, "If you're in school today, we're doing a drawing." And just silly little things to add
049to the idea that being in school is a good thing. Perfect. Uh, personnel report? Um, you've got it all there, the comings, the goings, the openings. Some of the openings, um, we continue to try really hard to fill and some of them, for example, the data [snorts] specialist, we've plugged temporarily with um, a company that's managing just our PowerSchool and our state reporting. It leaves big chunks of the work falling on other people, um, and falling through the cracks honestly at some level, but we um, you know us, we're scrappy and we get it all done. But when things quiet down, we intend to obviously post that position and put someone back in it to do the work that's not getting done. Um, and the other thing I'll just point out, we have had some
050nice new hires. We're thrilled our new [snorts] nurse at Hinsdale went to our schools. Um, came right up all the way through bachelor, um, I was meeting with Teresa Payton. What day of the week is today? I guess it was just yesterday and Keandra, the nurse from Hinsdale was there doing something at HR and "Oh, I know you." And they went to school together. So just really nice when people from our own community are back amongst us. So and she's off to a great start. [snorts] Great. All right. On to monthly budget summary. So, um, through the magic and mystery, we're still in business. [clears throat] Um, I'll draw your attention um, go to the second page, um, which is our appropriated budget. Um, I would guess prices affected pupil transportation. Has it hit yet?
051The The agreement that we have with the bus company is that we only will pay up to so many gallons and then the rest is on them. And we partner with the town on the fuel. So I don't have a current update on that, but there hasn't been a flag at this point. Actually, Paul shared last night. This is one of those Oh, Paul Wherever Paul is, I hope he's listening. He's just grinning from ear to ear right now. On the day after Thanksgiving, Paul had the foresight to lock in prices for gasoline and diesel. And I've lost the numbers, but I'm going to tell you it was like $2.30 a gallon for gas and like $2.50 or something for diesel. Insanely good prices compared to what they are at the pumps. I have butchered
052the prices, that's me misquoting, not Paul, but with Paul's foresight, we are locked in at really good prices. So thankfully that will drive up the price of all the things we buy. Paper will cost more, the groceries will cost more, but our actual gas itself will not cost more. Uh-huh. How long does that last? Didn't you have a date locked in until October or something? You have exceeded my memory capacity. It's year to year. So July 1, you think we might see a difference in prices? No, he locked it up. >> No, it's it's November the 10th. Till November. Yeah. And this we buy our gas from the town. And the the bus company goes to the town to get gas. So our budget proposal coming forward is based upon the current locked in price.
053>> what it was like in January, but that there was an increase of some sort I put in there, but certainly doesn't match what's going on at the pumps today. Okay, so then whatever this locked in price is for the well, current budget proposal for fiscal year 27 could be an issue after November. Depending on >> Presuming how the budget season goes and everything else. Right. Right. And the course of international affairs in the interim. Right. So, a couple things I'll just draw your attention to um and we've discussed a couple times before that we have some positions that are being paid for in other ways. For example, we have a speech and language teacher that we hired through professional technical services. So, that line is over and salaries is under. We have um the
054position I just mentioned, which is our PowerSchool state reporting data position, went from being a salaried position to being paid out of professional services because we're doing that through a contract. So, things like that are causing um the personnel costs to be running good, if you will. Um again, add that and some vacant positions that we've had at different points throughout the year, which is balancing out what's going on in the professional technical services line. Um the one place where we are pretty significantly out of pocket is we're about $740,000 beyond plan for special education out-of-district spending. The combination of tuition and transportation and that is after the application of this um excess cost grant um return funds. So, [clears throat] Yeah. That that's a big number. Um and we are going back to do
055a little research to figure out is that costs that changed, number of students that changed, you know, >> [snorts] >> why is it that far off? I mean, I said we don't have a crystal ball, but that's a big number in a district our size with that with our size budget, that's a lot to manage. So, we're going to study it and just see if there's anything we can learn from that. Like um one of the parts could be a person in and a person Okay. It could be attrition in and out. It could be um costs of programs went up more than we budgeted for. You know, one of the um struggles at budget season, Kathy will say, "Here's our list of tuitions. We should increase them by 7%." And then we look at
056the budget increase and it's like, you know, all 12%. I say, "Yeah, we're not going to do that. We're going to hope it only goes up 5%." And she looks at me like she's choking and dying. And Nancy's like, "What do you mean five? I think we should do three." And we duke it out to see what we can responsibly budget for because we don't want to underbudget, but we also can't afford to overbudget cuz So, part of the analysis of this will help us know like what really happened, why we're struggling to make ends meet. Do you think we can look at that by May's Board of Ed budget time meeting? To figure out what this the core is? Right, things changed before we ever started living the budget. >> [clears throat] >> Right.
057>> [snorts] >> It'd be great to try to get these costs looked at and maybe managed. And I know we're [clears throat] looking at internal programming. I think that's going to be important. No, Kathy. May, we'll be good. Okay. Everybody's coughing. Are we coughing up stuff? Okay. Any other questions about budget summary? Okay, on to the WTS long-term study progress update. Yes. Um as you no doubt recall, at our last meeting, um you all motioned for me to undertake a long-term study. I don't really know what to call it. I'm not even sure what I ended up calling it on there, but hopefully you know what I'm referring to. >> [snorts] >> Um step one is to engage an outside person to work with us. So, I've reached out to uh Sam Rabinowitz. I've reached
058out to Gabe. I've reached out to colleagues and sort of gathered up a list of names. I've had two meetings um with two different pairs of people who have really cool and interesting experiences to bring to the work. I'm awaiting proposals. Um That's a strange set of noises. Um I'm awaiting proposals. I anticipate having those as soon as this week um to take a look and see if they're comparable in terms of cost. Um but there was great enthusiasm about digging into the work. Um So, I was really encouraged that we had [clears throat] some really good people interested in helping us. So, by the next meeting, I'm sure I'll have more to report. Perfect. Any questions about that? Oh. Okay. On to the breakfast program update. Yes, I am so excited to share with
059you our um school lunch program um we work on in collaboration with EdAdvance. They God bless you. Run it for us, but obviously it lives in our kitchens and in our schools and um we were feeling like our breakfast program, I think we talked at the last meeting, is sales were down and we know in part that's probably because we relocated it. The kids couldn't just grab it and take it to the classroom. We wanted them to eat it in the cafeteria, which we stand behind. We still think that's really important for instructional reasons and [snorts] um cleanliness reasons. Um just in terms of head space even. You come in, when you get to the classroom, you start your day. But, we we recognize that that may have impacted sales, but in looking at that,
060we also said, "Yeah, breakfast every day is like a donut or a frosted piece of cake." And it was just very carb, sugar, processed food um So, we met with um the heads of the two kitchens and the people at EdAdvance and I have to say to their credit, they could not have been more responsive. They immediately said, "Well, what about this? What about that? Can we try this? Can we try that?" And so, I'm sharing [snorts] with you the April breakfast menu from both schools and I would point out to you that there are things like fruit parfaits and bacon scrambled breakfast pizza and egg and cheese sandwiches. Um >> [snorts] >> We just feel wonderful about the fact um that the kids have some options that are more protein-based. And I will tell
061you um I was talking with the folks in the Pearson kitchen and they were saying, you know, "The first time we did the egg sandwiches, we made three trays and we only sold two." But then the second time we did it, we only made two and we ran out, which tells me it's catching on. So, we are trying to figure out how to get this into something a little more visually appealing, if anyone has the >> [clears throat] >> patience for something like that, but I want to drop it on Facebook and I want to send it out to parents and just say, "Hey, give us another look." Because I think um as kids realize what's there and parents realize what's there, the popularity will grow and there's nothing to fuel a program than success.
062So, Why is there um free fat-free chocolate milk at at Hinsdale and not at Pearson or should it be at Hinsdale at all? I don't know. It is, so maybe it's just didn't fit in the box the way I printed it or maybe it's somehow not on the list, but I can tell you for sure that there is chocolate milk at Pearson school. Okay. I know from first-hand experience. And there's no >> me up on that. We've had debates with the fifth grade for many years on chocolate milk served in the school, so we did decide not to serve it during During breakfast. Okay. Well, there you go. And there's no Lactaid milk at Pearson, but not at Hinsdale. Is that is just another decision, too, about what's interesting? Okay. Don't know if that's a
063significant thing or not. Okay. I have to imagine that someone has needed it at Pearson, and so it's been added. Okay. Any other questions? Okay, moving on to our action items, policies for possible adoption. Uh curriculum exemptions. Yes, so we we have four policies up tonight. This is the night of second read, the night where if you so choose, you can motion to approve these policies. The first says that um and this is based in state law, that these are the topics that parents have a right to opt their students out of. In our policy online is the form that parents would use. They would fill it out annually, should they wish to exempt their children. There really isn't Any? These aren't really things that are actually within our curriculum to start with, so it's
064a little bit of a moot point, but it is the law. Um so, we have it. Um the closest thing we have currently to dissection is owl pellets. I don't think that that's technically a dissection because it's Well, I'm not going to go into what it is. I actually think I know, but I won't. Um but I don't think that counts, but if that were objectionable, we would certainly allow someone to opt out of that. But that's as close as we come to dissection. Um the bit about other curricular exemptions is relatively new, I would think, because it's cited at the bottom of the policy Muhammad versus Taylor. Yes. 2025. Um it doesn't escape me that with that new addition to the opt-out list that my concern is that it becomes overly onerous on the
065district. Because I'm my concern is that the the curriculum can become a like a a patchwork, a balkanization of persons deciding what to opt out and what not to opt out on, more like a buffet. Um so I you know, as a board member, um I just want [snorts] to note my concern that it does say school district administration will consider whether to permit a requested exemption. Um I just want it noted that I'm concerned that persons are or the potential is is that we lose if you will, a sense of who we are if persons continue to pick and choose a curriculum with this opt-out piece. And that recognizes this Supreme Court decision. Um but I'm I am concerned about the the direction it could take above and beyond these five items. You're talking
066about that particular paragraph within that >> paragraph. Yeah, and I know Shipman and Goodman >> vague or open [snorts] to interpretation? >> Well, it it opens up to >> interpretation. to a a parent choosing now not to be a part of the curriculum on um Roman Greeks gods and goddesses um [snorts] or um historical topics like slavery or um topics um that they just find offensive. I mean, one of the missions of a public school is the marketplace of ideas. That persons um to learn about different perspectives doesn't mean you become that perspective, you know, what I mean. Reading about Winnie the Pooh doesn't make you a Taoist. Um but it it allows you to at least hear. And so I I just recognize and note the other curricular exemption the way it's written would
067allow individual families wider range than the five. And I know that's the Supreme Court decision that allows them to do that, but I just want it noted. You did draw attention to the most important aspect of that. The board does not require teachers to exempt students from anything beyond the five. And anything someone asked about would be considered, but there is no obligation to exempt students from anything other than the five. Okay. And that's the state law of those five, the Connecticut statutes. Yeah. Okay. >> [snorts] >> Any other concerns? Do we want to do all of them? Or do we want to vote on each one individually? Do you want to go over all of them first? >> we go through all four cuz they're all a little bit length. Um the next policy
068on gifted and talented is also 100% aligned with the law. The state of Connecticut requires us to identify students um for being gifted and talented and does not require us to provide programming. Um I'm going to just draw your attention to one thing I found um after the fact, and I apologize, on page three in section four provision of services, there's one of those paragraphs that must have come in italics and asked we should have just struck that paragraph. It just says you can add information there, and we don't have anything to add. So the board >> If you pass this policy, it will be minus that paragraph that is just instructions to us. Um So um just for my own edification, gifted and talented is primarily then the creative arts, right? Um No, it's
069It's academic >> music, visual arts, performing arts creative arts is in the first paragraph. >> talks about gifted and talented, plus there is the performing arts aspect of it. So you have extraordinary learning ability, gifted and talented, outstanding talent in the creative arts. So there's subcategories. So if I'm gifted and talented in math, it would be recognized by this policy? Yes. So generally speaking, the way that districts um work with this at the elementary level is typically to um focus primarily on the extraordinary learning ability aspect. And we um will be beginning the use of the Otis-Lennon School Ability Index as one aspect. You'll notice um on page two, it goes into um the state's expectation that you have a multi- um faceted method of evaluation, and this is something that in my former life
070as an assistant superintendent, I was very involved with and have things that I'm able to to sort of launch in and start using for us. Um so you look at standardized achievement scores, but you're also looking at the Otis-Lennon, which tells you um it gives you a School Ability Index, which is not altogether um dissimilar from an IQ score, except that it's group administered, and um but it gives you a starting point. And so the PPT is not the special education PPT of one parent, one child, and administrator, but rather you'll see in that first paragraph, it's really a group process. You do a blind screening. We give all of the kids We'll give all of the kids in the third grade the Otis-Lennon. Um you start with the top, say, 10% of kids. You
071sort of look for like where there's a drop-off or a cliff, because what you're looking for is a group of students who are significantly different from their peer group. You find that group, and then you fill in lots of other information um that you can gather individually or whole group. And then, without knowing who the kids are, you start to say, "Yeah, look at these seven kids. They are just different from their grade level group." So that's the identification process. Um and we would obviously be doing that, sharing information with parents all along the way. Um we don't currently have any programming for gifted students, which doesn't mean that you're not obligated to identify. You continue to be expected to identify. Um but we do have a small um dollar amount in the budget for
072a stipend um if our schools look more or less like they look now, that we would be able to implement in grades 4 through 6 um to provide um programming for kiddos. Next up is homework. It literally says nothing. Um from the board's perspective, it says that the administration will figure out what the homework should be. It should be meaningful and appropriate to the student's grade, and yeah. That's it's a very simple policy that um leaves it to the principals and teachers to actualize. And then finally, the last policy is really just saying we will follow the law um and not um have students removed from state testing um because they have a disability. We will either have them take the standard assessment or the alternative assessment when appropriate, but we're not hiding kids from
073assessment. Okay. Any questions on those? Well, I wanted to go back to the gifted and talented. Um just so that I'm clear, page two it speaks about multiple measures under group assessment, page two. Yeah. It says um locally normed cut score. So that's in your hands locally. We can choose our cut score. And page three speaks about may identify up to 10% of the total population for the district, right? So if it's locally normed the normed cut score that's not going to vary year to year, will it? Because we can identify up to 10% of the population, and in year to year, that could So this is broad and general. So what happens for practical purposes when you give the Otis-Lennon, is you get national norms and local norms for the grade level administration group
074that you send in. Mhm. And why that matters is because much like in special education, it really doesn't matter what gifted looks like in Des Moines, Iowa. What it matters is what does it look like in Winchester, because we're looking for students who stand out from their peer group. So it is fluid, because there is no singular definition of gifted. I mean, maybe out in the Mensa world, somebody will tell you if your IQ is 160 or whatever, but in the educational world, it's how dissimilar are you from your peer group? And typically, it's the top 5% of students. Um and they say kids who are truly gifted are as different from their peer group as a student with Down syndrome is from their peer group. Like they are divergent thinkers. Um and with that
075come all kinds of strengths and talents and needs, which is why it's so important to do the identification, because you have students who might be really great academically, but are not performing well because they're not engaged, because we're not challenging them, or their social skills are not well developed. They don't know how to tolerate peer interaction well. So by identifying the the with um that level of difference were able to provide intellectual stimulation and also meet their social emotional needs. Um and typically it's like your top 5% of kids. Because you are really looking for the kids who just They show themselves as different. In our community. Yeah. Cuz we service our community. I mean, in the back of my mind I'm thinking this person could be considered gifted here, but if it was community
076They might not be. may not qualify. And one thing I will say to you in my past experience, if someone moves here and says I was identified as gifted in Idaho, we don't ungift you. I mean, if you've been labeled gifted in a prior school, we welcome you. If we have a program, we're going to welcome you right into it here as well. Any other questions? Okay. So, we are going to vote on these. Um I think there is We're looking to remove a paragraph from the equitable identification of gifted and talented, correct? >> Yep. So, on page three um paragraph uh well, item four, the second paragraph that begins the board may wish we're going to strike that. Um but uh as for anything else, I think I'd like to vote separately on each.
077>> to vote separately on each? Okay. All right. Um so, let's vote on the first one, which is curricular exemptions. Um make a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. We have a second? I'll second. All right, Joseph. All in favor? Against? Okay. Uh item two, equitable identification of gifted and talented with the removal of um the paragraph on page three. Um Remove paragraph, I make a motion. Jonathan? With edits, second. Second with edits. All in favor? Unanimous. All right. Item three, homework. Would like to uh make a motion? I'll make a motion. Second. All right. All in favor? Okay. IDEA, uh item four. Anyone like to make a motion? I'll make a motion. Second. Jonathan? All in favor? Okay. All items pass. All right. On to item B, Board of Ed social media presence.
078Um We you guys tasked myself and Christine to come up with a plan for possible social media page. Um I'm thinking Facebook, correct? Yeah. Yeah. for our Board of Ed alone. Um and would you like to read what you had sent to me? >> Sure. So, um I figured the name would be Winchester Board of Education, Winchester, Connecticut. Um the description is this page shares Board of Education updates, meeting information, and district news to keep the community informed. It's for informational purposes only and not an official board communication channel. Um I was thinking that we would also include a link from the um Winchester Public Schools website that goes to our um Board of Ed section of the the public schools webpage. Um we'll turn off comments. Something we all discussed. Um so, and then
079a summation of the meeting minutes would be posted after minutes are published on the W UPS website. Um that summation is something I can take on. After this board has approved the minutes. No, it would I was thinking it would go after they go onto the the public school website. So, not until they're before they're approved, we have to As a draft. So, minutes are not official until the second meeting where this board adopts them as official. Cuz otherwise it's misinformation until it's [clears throat] approved, until it's been could potentially be misinformation until approved. But then we're just making a big deal >> Cuz that could be mis- that's that could be that. Yeah. Um and then that kind of delays getting them the minutes the minutes out there, so But at least they're out
080there. Is there a way that we can do it as not as official, as unofficial? I I'm what I would do is the the plan I discussed at the last meeting is I would take my summation put it in a Google document share it with view only for every member of the board. So, they see what's going to be posted before it gets posted. Um I obviously would have editing rights and so would Kurt. Kurt would make the final approval before it gets posted onto our social media page. So, it'd be like an unofficial meeting summary. Yes. Yeah, we could word it that way. Yeah, we wouldn't call it minutes. >> Like pending um approval of the minutes at the next board meeting. Well, why don't we do this? That would require all of us
081to look. And then you to post. Yeah. If we differ then It would delay it. It would and it would create probably a problem. I mean So, hold on. Let's let's make a motion and then we can open it up to discussion. How about that? This is an action item. So, let's make a motion for the Board of Ed social media presence. Um would anyone like to make a motion? I'll make a motion. Second. I'll second. All right. All in favor? Do you have one or are you going to vote on it? To discuss. To go into the discussion. Right, to go into discussion. So, there's a motion on the floor. You're going to discuss. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Correct. So, we have a second. Um so, now we can discuss. So, do you
082want to elaborate on that? >> Yes, we do. >> think No, we're going to Motion, discussion. Okay. Um You know, I'm just I'm just thinking about I've written I've written minutes eight years, right? And they'd go into the packet and people differed on what was in that packet as a draft. And then we come to the next meeting and make edits, but even that in some cases and some times and places it was disruptive. So, if that sat out there in the public that could potentially be disruptive. Then that creates a problem as a board. And it's out in public public. It's a Facebook page. So What do you mean by like what do you mean by like disruptive? So, well, so we could have a different interpretation of of what happened. >> What happened.
083And I know it's recorded, but not everybody goes to the recording. So, meanwhile the public gets this impression if they go to this webpage that that was what was happening. Yet you see it differently. That's not what happened. Now you got to look at it, look um recall what you said or did. Um and I know it's going to be factual, but we can differ on the facts. And so then what happens is that develops discord amongst us and the public gets that misinformation until it's fixed, the record is fixed. I'm just saying that that could potentially be problematic. I would say only put out there what's official. If you want to go minutes >> So in my mind. A link to the meeting? To the recording. >> To the recording and maybe like a
084chat Steve GPT, whatever. Mhm. Uh summation of the meeting. But chat GPT could be wrong. I'm sure they could. Sure. So, this is it, you know. So, let's just say we use chat GPT and Christine, the two of you agree, but I disagree. And meanwhile it's floating out there. Right. Until we adopt the minutes officially. And like I said, now we're back to >> of this page is to get it out quickly. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Right. But it could be really bad if it's bad informa- if it's wrong information. Accuracy over speed is more important. Um well, yeah. And that that also gets into um when we're sending this to the board before we present it out. Um if there's discussion Right. that become could become a quorum. That's correct. So, so part of
085this and part of what I looked at, we do have a social media policy uh for our board. Uh and I advise everyone to go. Uh it's policy 9327.1 uh A. Um so, it's our adopted policy for social media. Um it talks about some of these um uh situations. It talks about etiquette. Um my biggest fear is while we can't comment on our own page, we can share on our personal pages, and then I fear that we then can put our own opinions on what happened on that, and and that can create an issue on that because you have every right on your personal page to do that, but I I just worry like that's setting a precedent that could cause some issue as well. So, if we were to do this, I would kind
086of say we make a policy where we don't we can share it on our personal pages, but we don't comment or or give discourse on anything. Just share it. To to get it out to That That's That's my only thing. So, >> it out on our own personal pages? Right. Um there is guidance on that. Um that board members have had training on with CABE on what your line is. So, our policy is pretty much taken from the CABE Mhm. policy. It was in the packet last month if [clears throat] anybody wants to look back to it. We had it here at the meeting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as board members, you you do have free speech. I mean, you can say those things that you wish to. I'd hate to silence that, but you
087also have guidance as a public member as a board member. You are a public figure, so you have you have to act as a public figure. >> In accordance with Um What do other boards do? I know we talked about this before. Um I know Watertown has their own um Uh I spoke with their chair a couple months ago, um and they have three admins on there. Whereas, I guess the vice chair and then whoever the opposing party pretty much does the content. And then the chair does final approval. Do Is it minutes before they're approved? Uh that's I don't know. So, I'm not sure about it. And I don't even know if they they go as far as that's the information they put out there. >> Right. Right. Um Maybe it's other things besides
088minutes. Cuz the minutes are part of the official Just hit like the highlights of what were the topics. Yeah. Sort of like almost condense the agenda more so. Say topics that were discussed at the meeting were topics that were acted on, were Yeah. And then they have And then they have the link to watch. So, if they if they if there's something on there that that they want to have information about, they can go to the link. It's a good point. >> Yeah. That way there's no summary of what happened. They can infer what whatever they want. Yeah, I can do that. I was thinking we would share the um the agendas, too. You know, when they're Before the meeting, yeah. Before the meetings. That's pretty common. Yeah. After they're posted. Yeah, after they're posted.
089>> So, public documents. Yeah. I mean, it has to be pretty basic cuz right. Pretty vanilla. Yeah. Well, I think right now we just kind of start small with our agendas, and then we'll just do the agenda summary and the link to the video as opposed to a full summary of the minutes. Um and then meeting dates Yeah, more like uh and then maybe as we get more comfortable with the whole process, we can start looking at including PTO events and school events and but for now, we'll just kind of stick with the agendas and meeting links and And the district page, of course, does do the events and things. >> Yep. So, we can share from the WPS page. But simultaneously, you know, as board members, you still also have the ability to have
090your own personal page. You have a legal right for that. Yep. Um Sure, you just got to keep up with it. We'll be okay. >> [laughter] >> We'll be okay. It's the maintenance It's It's another responsibility. It's the maintenance, exactly. Sustainability. Yeah, I think When you say admins, what kind of ad admins admins like admins as in the terminology from Facebook administrators? >> Yes. Not like Julie admin. Okay. No, the people that can control. Vice chair, chair, and Well, I think it's just opposite party For this purpose, I think it's Chrissy and myself. Chrissy and Kurt. Um Are you going to send it to us? For That's what I was just going to ask if the the um If it's vanilla, if it's vanilla and if it's vanilla >> and not Yeah, I feel like
091if it's just a summation of the agenda. Send it to you. I don't I don't foresee that. You don't want to bring No, I mean, it's Right. Yeah. >> So, basically, you'll trust us to test what what goes on there. >> First round, we'll go, and then when we all do first round, we have a conversation in May. How did it go? Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. All right. Any other discussion on this? All right. Want to bring it to a vote? All in favor? All right. Unanimous. All right, that wasn't so bad. All right. On to healthy food certification. This should feel familiar. You do this every year, Nancy. So, this is a requirement for us to continue with the food service program. Oh, sorry. Turn on the green light there. This is a
092requirement for us to continue with the food service program to be able to get reimbursement from the national school lunch program. So, it's very important. We actually have to have you all read the two motions specifically into the minutes and vote to continue [snorts] with the healthy food. So, Can we make an edit? No. Well, you have to capitalize when you say Board of Ed, yeah? Okay, but that's not in the reading of it. >> Okay. Right. All right. >> [snorts] >> But the word-for-word is Sure. Perfectly fine. You can sit through this drill if you Yes, I have. All right, you want me to read it? Whoever, you know, it's It's your meeting. Would Would somebody like to volunteer to read it? I'll read it. Um health healthy food certification for Board of Ed
093action. The requirement for annual healthy food certification statement, CGS section 10-212-215F, requires that each local Board of Education or governing authority for all Connecticut public school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program must take action annually to certify whether all food items sold to students separately from reimbursable meals will or will not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards. Public schools include all public schools, regional educational service centers, the Connecticut Technical High School System, charter schools, interdistrict magnet schools, and endowed academies. We request that both of the following motions be affirmatively passed. Motion language for healthy food options. Pursuant to CGS section 10-215F, the Winchester Board of Education certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its [clears throat] jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by
094the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources, including, but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fund rais- fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non-school organizations and groups. Motion language for com- I think you need to Okay. Get approval for that. Okay. >> You just made that motion. All right, so the motion for the language for healthy food options is on the floor. [snorts] Do we have a second? I make a second. With the edits. All in favor? All right. I don't I didn't look at the zeros.
0956-0, motion passes. Motion language for combined food and beverage exemptions. The Winchester Board of Education of governing authority will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. The sale is in connection with an event occurring at the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. The sale is at the location of the event, and the food and beverage items are not sold from vending machine or school store. An event is is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and interscholastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are
096not. The regular school day is a period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage sales. Do you have a second? All in favor? With edits? Well, there are none in this case. Motion passed. Board of Education is Well, that's the first thing. There you go. That's it. That's it. All right. All right. Thank you, Nancy. All right. On to item D, Pearson Roof Educational Specifications. Roger is here to talk you through this. This is going to similarly be another um big motion. You're going to get bossed around from now and in on what's a motion and when and how. Roger, if you can just hit the green light. Two
097nights in a row. There we go. It's getting pretty comfortable in that chair. Yeah. Not that one, wasn't Um the educational specifications are basically a requirement from the state when you do submit a grant application. And it's basically a document that uh documents exactly what you're doing and you're going to meet the requirements that the state lays out there. And it's it's pretty simple. [snorts] If you've read it, it's only about 2 and 1/2 pages. Kind of speaks for itself. But it's it says things like we're going to meet the pitch requirements. We're going to do a complete roof um and then it's the roof is over 20 years [snorts] old, so it meets all of the criteria that the state lays out. Pretty much it. Okay. >> [snorts] >> All right. I don't know
098if there's any questions. I'm here to answer them. Roger, there's specific language for a motion that they need to make? Just the the Board of Education the Winchester Board of Education accepts the educational specifications uh accepts and approves. If somebody would so incline to make that motion. Did you get that, Nancy? I Yes. Okay. I'll make the motion. Um you know, I it's just out of curiosity. Um you we've done measurements. It's approximately 10,000 square feet. [snorts] What if it turns into 11,000? We're okay, even though the motion says approximately 10,000. >> is 40 49,000 49,000 square feet. We're okay if it turns out [snorts] we mismeasured by a hair. Yeah. Okay, the motion is still okay. All right. Second. And just so the Let me back it up a little bit. And one of
099the reasons why we're pretty sure of that um the one of the previous roofing uh consultants uh they they call it they call it Eagle View. If you're familiar with that, that's offered by Google Maps, but it's a highly defined view of the roof. And what it ends up being is about a five or six-page document that lays the roof out, all the angles, perimeters, and it gives you all the measurements. And we've been using it for a number of years and it's been really, really accurate. So, we're pretty confi- confident that the measurements are correct. All right. So, we have a motion on the table. We have a second from Jonathan. All in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay. On to second public comment. The Winchester Board of Education welcomes you to
100its business meeting. This is a second opportunity set aside to hear comments from the public. We welcome and encourage public participation as a valued part of communicating input with the Winchester Board of Education. We appreciate your adherence to the following. Complete the requested information on the sign-in sheet if you wish to speak. State your name and address when called upon to speak. You'll be allotted 3 minutes to share your comments. Please be advised that it is not the practice of the Board of Education to engage in dialogue regarding commentary. The Superintendent of Schools will be directed by the chairperson to prepare an appropriate response in a timely manner. We appreciate your time and thoughtful commentary. Does anyone wish to speak? Does anyone wish to speak? Anyone wish to speak? Not seeing any. Move on to
101item 10, future agenda items and board member comments. Um two things. Just that in May our Board of Ed meeting looks at the examination of special ed costs. And then number two, um well, we already talked about it, but just give us the update on the consultant person being hired. Mhm. That'll be every month. That'll just stay on the agenda. Um There was one more thing, but I don't remember what it was. Oh. Um website. Let us know how it goes. The beta test. As they call it, maybe. Beta test update. Review. Facebook page. Anything else? Any comments? Um well, I just want to comment that I did read at Hinsdale for Read Across America. And it was We walked in and there was a really nice little freshman table for all of us. Um
102the children were so sweet and so appreciative. And actually the classroom teacher did send my son home with a stack of thank you cards that each of the students had made. Um so, what I was a really wonderful opportunity. Thank you so much. You actually made a dream come true for me cuz there was a specific book I always wanted to read to my son's class and I got the opportunity to do it. So, thank you. Um and my son came home so excited to to hand me all the thank you cards that his friends had made. So, thank you for inviting us. You're so welcome. The principals get all the credit for that and Renee. They run with that and our literacy coach as well, Shannon. Everyone did a ton of work on that.
103Yeah, it [snorts] was it was really wonderful. And you could see how happy all the kids were as they came down to get their guest readers. They were all so excited to bring them to their classrooms. So. I'll speak to that as well. I got reprimanded by one of the students that >> [laughter] >> um You caused some trouble. No, that their class I read to fourth grade, which was my daughter's class and they're not they didn't get as many field trips as other classes got. I said, Well, I have no control over that. Um but that was the only comment. Anything else? That's it. Okay, would anyone like to make a motion to adjourn? Motion made to adjourn. Jonathan, second? Second. All in favor? She's usually the second comes pretty quick. Okay, thank you.
104Give everybody an opportunity. Meeting adjourned. 8:36. Yeah. Not too late.