HBOE - Regular Meeting 11/21/2023-ORG

001for the e for that for the awards to everybody tomorrow feel for e for e see tell were e love [Music] good evening as chairman of Harford Board of Education I hereby call to order November 21st 2023 regular meeting I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone get some feedback here I wish to I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present and to our television viewers the board superintendent and I are pleased that you have joined us as we celebrate achievement review information and make poliy decisions related to the effective operation of har Public Schools this is a regular meeting and all items will be discussed or voted on this evening have been posted as required by state law as Harford Board of Education we are here to set goals listen to

002to reports of the superintendent approve budgets contracts and Personnel appointments and make policies for the district we are not here to make management decisions or solve the problems of individuals management is the responsibility of the superintendent the monthly meetings of the board are open to the public they at the time when the board conducts its business of governing the school system in a public Arena the regular meetings are not meetings with the public therefore comments from the audience will be confined to the time designated for the public to address the board the Quorum and courtesy are important elements in effective public meetings please silence your cell phones or communication devices and refrain from talking while others are speaking since it's legally mandated that proceedings be recorded I may have to ask for order should noise

003begin to interfere with our recording capabilities I'm pleased that you have taken this time to join us this evening we are very proud of the school system and thank you for your interest in Harford public schools now this be write in Spanish har super El thank you uh before we move to public comments um I believe the superintendent you would like to uh make some acknowledgements good evening so uh good evening everyone as some of you might know we have been working very hard and strategically and collaboratively to improve attendance across all of our schools so thanks to the hard work and commitment of our student engagement Specialists our family and Community Support Service Providers and all of the members of our uh attendance culture climate and engagement teams plus the collaboration of our partners

004and our families and caregivers I am proud to say that we have made significant improvements in reducing chronic absenteeism um one of the many initiative designed to increase awareness about how important it is for all of our students to be in school and in class every single day every single time um is our arts for attendance contest and for the past uh three years we've asked students and staff to create videos visual art and slogans to demonstrate why attendance matters uh this year the submission from across our district received more than 1,600 votes from our community and I am proud to say that we have some of the winners here with us tonight so when I announce your class if you can come up and join us for our photo the winner of the attendance

005visual poster Mrs muro's first grade class at Naylor school is there a visual team of the um there it is the beautiful creation the winner of the slogan contest is Miss scully's class from bansa learning lab and their slogan is attendance is key to being a champion at HPS congratulations and the winner of the video contest is Miss debiasi class at pansa stem can we give him some share some love and let's let's watch the video [Applause] o for all so while everyone transitions back um I also want to acknowledge that um with a lot of excitement and a lot of Pride that one of our students was the finalist for the Connecticut kid Governor so we have Alexa addes where's Alexa okay Alexa is a fifth grader at Renzulli Academy and was nominated by

006her classmates and was selected as one of seven finalists out of more than 40 nominees Statewide and although Alexa did not win the election to become the next kid Governor she is now a member of the kid Governor cabinet since she was selected as a finalist so we are so proud of you Alexa for representing Harford public schools and um I don't know if you all have had a chance to look at the campaign I certainly did and um this one touched me so much because it is focused on improving physical mental health and uh wellbeing and for her peers and um so let's take a moment before can we look at the video just cuz we want to celebrate your greatness okay so we're going to look at your video for options to so

007you know um we could pause on that because um Alexa is going to do just a you know a short overview of what her platform was all about um and I have all the confidence Alexa and I have had several conversations over the years and so I am sure that you're going to just say exactly what's on your mind and in your heart okay so my platform for a kid governor was the mental and physical well-being of the community so what I was mostly going to focus on was being able to have exercising and being able to exercise and be able to be healthy and physical while still being able to control mentally and be able to stay me mentally well and physically at the same time so we are super proud of you Alexa

008and um some other facts she is a read she loves to read we've had conversations uh several times throughout the years we've talked about the people especially the women um specifically women of color that um she admires and hopes to someday uh be like right like justice soay is one of the people that you you shared with me about a year ago so we're so proud of you and we're here to um say that um you represent us well and we have a um a certificate Miss Oliver if you can a little certificate that we want to present you with go for [Applause] it okay thank you um again a round of applause for all of our young students we will now move to public comments uh board member Johnson we as a board in

009collaboration with the superintendent and District leadership are committed to cultivating a culture of Excellence at all levels of Harford Public Schools we thank you for taking the time to attend tonight's meeting we appreciate you coming out to learn more about Harford public schools and for sharing your thoughts and concerns we have established a protocol to track and respond to concerns raised we want you to know that we take your concerns seriously and to that end staff will follow up within 48 hours if followup is required via the preferred method of contact the speaker has indicated on the signin sheet we will follow this no contact method of followup for the time being adhering to safety protocols as a reminder you have three 3 minutes to speak at the 2minute Mark the bell will ring letting

010you know that you have 1 minute left at the second Bell please wrap up your comments now this will be read in Spanish har NE William Conroy Longo uh good evening superintendent tus Rodriguez um and the members of the Harford Board of Education my name is William Conroy Longo I'm an assistant principal at McDon Middle School I'm here tonight speaking in support of the measure to extend the contract with revision learning learning and terer and Flynn in tandem with our work with the commissioner Network MCD is fortunate to be a member of the commissioner's Network and receives additional funding to support School Improvement efforts and the State Department of Education turnaround office is supportive of our efforts thus far uh the contract with revision learning teer and Flynn is pivotal to the work of instructional

011leadership at McDon uh at this time revision learning terer and Flynn laid the groundwork last year to build capacity of our administrator and instructional leadership teams to co he schoolwide goals professional learning and provide pinpointed feedback to teachers daily as a concrete example in the spring of 2023 our partners at revision learning teer and Flynn supported an intentional minic cycle devoted to increasing student to- student discourse um during the sixe cycle we saw evidence of student to- student uh discourse increase which was facilitated by teachers in the classrooms and that went from 33% mostly inevident to to 53% mostly inevident by the end of the 6E cycle additionally at the end of the year 92% of teachers reported that that feedback they received from administrators and teacher peers impacted their instruction a positive component of

012our membership in the commissioner's network is that MCD students feed directly into Harford public high school and therefore our partnership at both schools with Cher and Flynn revision learning supports students from grades 6 through 12 and will be a benefit from the impact of this partnership in continuing our work with revision learning peer and Flynn we will have a strong resource to build a strong culture of learning which directly supports instruction engagement of students and strong climate and culture for staff specifically we are able to build professional learning that is for teachers by teachers and with teachers thank [Applause] you Loi moo okay I'm so sorry this is such a scene good evening board members I am here to speak with you today about the importance of the revision Learning Network of terer and Flynn

013in regards to mcdna middle school terer and Flynn has been invaluable when it comes to moving the dial and teacher practice in our building we know that teacher practice is the strongest indicator of Student Success in the classroom and our just students deserve the best teachers out there through our commissioner's application we we've received differentiated coaching in critical areas of the HPS instructional Vision by terer and Flynn we we receive feedback on an individual level plan together as an instructional lead team and participate in meaningful professional learning as a school they support teachers in turn King professional learning in modeling professional uh powerful instructional strategies in under and in understanding the power of data last year with the direct support of temin Flynn during the month of March alone we participated in over 83 learning

014walks uh wherein we focused on increasing student discourse we saw a marked difference in teaching practice from that feedback we started out with the majority of teachers not using student discourse in the classroom and ended with the vast maor majority of Staff using student disc discourse effectively to support student learning moving forward we want to use teer and Flynn to continue supporting our teacher learning around student- centered learning our next area of focus based in the HPS instructional Vision they will be critical assets as we continue to support our wonderful beautiful students in becoming active agents in their own learning my ask is that the board extends our contract with terer and Flyn so that we can continue to positively affect the instructional core resulting in increased academic outcomes for students and an increase in

015teacher performance by renewing this contract the board will be giving the teachers at mcdonal Middle School the support we need to ensure all teachers are equipped to provide all students with the most excellent educational out uh opportunities thank you so [Applause] much Martin Edgar ladies and gentlemen of the board Dr Rodriguez my name is Martin Edgar and I'm a rank and file member of local 108e the Harford Federation of substitute teachers I am here tonight to discuss an issue related to substitute working conditions in the district the problem deals with the closure of restrooms in many of our schools where we aren't able to we aren't uh told in some schools where we can go when we can when we need to use the facilities in the building many of the restrooms are closed due

016to student loitering and mischief and many school officials don't give us instruction on which restrooms are open and which others are not on October 25th I went to smsa Sport and medical Sciences Academy and I had to go to the restroom and when one was not immediately available I used the boy's room that was open the vice principal at the school told me not to use the boy's room again and I asked him what bathroom can I use and he referred me to the one in the Middle School office which I never knew existed and one the one at uh the school the one I never uh knew about for 15 years no one ever told me I could use it as if this was not enough I was mysteriously relieved from my last period

017class and asked it the teacher to uh who relieved he asked to why he was doing so and he said the principal took the action I went to the school office for the remainder of the day and asked the secretary to contact the principal so I could speak to her about why I was being relieved and about the restroom issue the pr the principal told the secretary she was supervising students and could not come down I have tried to speak to her since then and she has repeatedly changed meeting times or said she could not make the time I had availed for my part I did cancel once but the other the majority of them were done by her the delays when a principal takes an action against the sub teacher or any other subordinate

018they should immediately confront them over their action and if need be Rectify it anything less is unprofessional conduct we all have the right to do process in a free country and my dad fought for that right in World War II subtitute teachers are not punching bags for this Administration or its colleagues I have spoken to my union president about the problem and filed a report with the Harford Health Department over this incident the days of substitute teachers being seen and not heard is [Applause] over Michael DS good evening board members my name is Michael DS live at 74 Rosemont Street in Hartford I'm also the president of the Hartford Federation of substitute teachers recently it was noted that the uh superintendent uh wished everyone a Happy uh Thanksgiving and uh uh did so to all

019of the various entities that work for the Harford public schools and uh she neglected to uh wish the substitute teachers a Happy Thanksgiving so I um am taking this time to wish the substitute teachers the city of Harford a Happy Thanksgiving also wish everyone here in the in the in the Board of Education and the superintendent a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that we are not for forgotten uh when the New Year's holidays comes up in uh next month um also I'd like to say that the uh Hartford uh Federation of substitute teachers does not let grass grow under our feet we uh are presently uh in negotiations with the city of Hartford for uh uh concerning some issues and we are also in discussions with the uh office of talent management and Human Resources

020uh uh for uh concerning other issues um also recently I read in the Hartford news a local newspaper concerning um families who are ill housed many are in families with children who are in shelters and otherwise inadequate housing and I've mentioned this before I just mention it again because it's been uh uh been footnoted by uh uh by this article in the uh the Hartford news uh concerning this and it's it they say it's a uh includes a substantial number of families and many of these children that are involved in this do go to the har of public schools um also uh the the uh attendance issues this past weekend the Harford of the New York Times And The Wall Street Journal had articles each had an article on School attendance and uh they mentioned

021that uh the problems with School attendance and and children uh or students not attending school or missing many days of school uh is a nationwide problem so I'm glad that the Harford public schools has um taken it upon themselves to uh attack this issue and uh I'm glad that we're seeing great improvements thank you and Happy [Applause] Thanksgiving Carol Gail good evening members of the Board of Education and superintendent of schools my name is Carol Gail I am a Hartford resident a longtime educator and president of the Hartford Federation of teachers last Friday a memo went out to select teachers that illustrates the gaping disconnect between our District central office and our schools as well as why Hartford struggles to retain staff this memo scolded teachers participation in the letters training offered by the district

022over the past two years letter is a college level 12 credit course attempted to be squeezed into the professional learning times provided in our school calendar our teachers speak very highly of letters however they complained about the limited amount of time provided to complete an intense amount of work despite this heavy workload many chose to take the letters training for college credit and complete even more hours of study on their own time specific concerns stemming from this meth Mo are as follows timeliness the Letter's training concluded last May why did teachers receive a letter six months later expressing concern about their participation in this training timeliness is an issue that has been raised by the union repeatedly since my tenure in office number two punitive approach the memo was from Ed Wilson Staff attorney teachers

023are not used to receiving memos from an attorney it means that they are being dis were told that they had not spent enough time on the train thank you um number three inappropriate use of discipline the district can only address the amount of time people spent on letters during District provided professional Learning Time many teachers worked beyond their contractual time on this training rather than punishing staff with quote less than average time unquote they could have appreciated and congratulated those who went above and beyond and if anyone did not spend their professional Learning Time appropriately that is a subject for their evaluator to address under professional responsibilities on their evaluation not as District level discipline number four treating people as data points and not in line with best educational practices the memo went out to

024teachers throughout the district who spent less time on the training than the national average and as compared to their colleagues there was no taking into account the fact that some of these teachers were in fact on maternity leave or on another approved leave of absence like workers compensation or that the teacher successfully completed the program best practices in education recognizing that learning style differ and Learners do not all need the same amount of time at least one of the teachers who received this memo has certificates showing all 12 credits were passed successfully should in successful completion be the Benchmark and not the number of hours put in when a student doesn't pass a test the teacher addresses the learning needs she doesn't call for security the issues addressed in this memo should have come through

025the principle or perhaps the office of academics the board may not deal directly with the management of day-to-day operations in the district but you do supervise the superintendent who sets the tone for how things are done teachers were very distraught by receiving this letter if you want to address retention start by shifting to a culture of trust and collaboration and professional growth and development thank you thanks Walton this is a little different good evening uh superintendent and distinguished board members good evening to the newly elected mayor I look forward to working with you and your team good good evening to the mayor candidate runner-ups there are no losers when it comes to improving the conditions of our city and its residents good evening to the audience I feel like I'm at home with everyone because

026there are so many people in this audience that I've worked with and uh created a relationship professional relationship with so it's just good to see everyone um I have a lot on my mind and I'm not as prepared to talk to you this evening as I usually am but I'm going to it um there are some things to be thankful for with the new holiday coming right um I am thankful to the superintendent for giving local 566 every platform possible at the highest level for our voices to be heard I am thankful for the chair who has shown leadership in the legislative Endeavors that we are doing behind the scenes that many people don't get to see I am thankful for the vice chair who who has been a staunch Advocate and very impressed and

027proud of the Agricultural Endeavors he has made in our city I am thankful for our distinguished board members Our Ladies here who have who are strong leaders in our community and keep us on task and accountable with their strong advocation for what is proper for our city our students and our families but as always we have some issues to talk about and we're going to talk about those issues I come up here all the time and I say that the procurement process which we have vendors who work for the city of Harford were paid have contracts with the city of Harford Harford Public Schools they still don't offer internships to our students and job opportunities to our community members we need this this should be a requirement we should not be giving millions of dollars

028to companies that don't invest in our city if they can take our tax dollars then they need to improve the conditions of our citizens and our residents and our students now the process that we have and I know board members that you are not in charge of the day-to-day management operations but we got to have a conversation about these committees who one uh are formed to pass judgment on the harassment complaint and they have and committees that do our internal investigations I will Echo some of the things that my uh partner uh Union president just said everyone knows that I'm a strong advocator some people call me a pit bull some people say crazy but when I get to Advocate and represent my members I give it my all and can you believe and I've

029brought this to your attention uh superintendent and the deputy that I have lost 100% of my cases representing our members lost it which indicates that the board has a 100% success rate when it comes to any cases that I bring up against them I mean that's better than the federal government that's better than the state now on the flip side of that when we go to arbitration things change and we are winning arbitrations which is costing the city of Harford and the Board of Education tons of money when we can stop that and have a process in place that one create committees that include everyone not just certified administrators and I'm going to say this administrators I hope you don't get mad at me but when you have personal relationships with people that you work

030which is which is fine and you have coffee and you you go to each other's homes and you spend a great deal of time with each other and you work with each other you shouldn't be asked to to to make a judgment on your colleague that judgment should go to a broad panel of non uncertified and certified staff to all be included to make a fair assessment of the decision made and process not just the people in administration how can we ask people to hold people accountable that are friendly with each other I get it we're supposed to do that but that's very hard not even when when a jury is selected for a criminal trial right they pick everyone they don't just pick the educated the elite the affluent they pick everyone everyone gets

031that letter in the mail that says you're responsible for jury duty this is going to make our process fair and not only is it going to make our process fair by implementing this superintendent and board members it will make everyone accountable to do the right thing because now no one controls the outcome and that's the problem that we're having you cannot say that you have a process that has a 100% success rate nothing is a 100% successful nothing and if we start developing processes that are more fair you'll have people who trust them more because what we're finding is and if I was to ask you board members this question or superintendent this question would you consider yourself to be held more accountable than a lunch lady or a food truck service driver for conduct

032and behavior and policies in it you would probably say to me based on my education and my title that I'm probably going to hold myself to a higher standard although we should all be aware of the basic standard but I'm going to hold myself to a higher standard but what's happening because we the the board is controlling and not this board but the the administration is controlling the outcomes what we have is a tilt in Justice because what's happening is the people who have less credentials less influence and less title are held to the highest standard and given the most severest penalties whereas the people who have more influence and have a higher title are given a pass so I wish you all uh happy holidays I know I took up some of your time

033but I just want to give you some food for thought so that when you go with your families you will enjoy them but when you come back you will be focused on making the processes more fair for the people of this community thank you that concludes our public comment thank you we now move to the report of the chair several board members Vice chairman Aj Johnson Secretary Francois Ledger and board member Tyron Walker as well as myself had the privilege of attending cab caps convention this past weekend we not only attended several workshops but we also a breakout session presenters superintendent Tes Rodriguez Deputy superintendent Paul fer and Susan Palmer assistant director of strategic initiatives and myself presented on takeaways from Harford Public Schools Innovation strategy lastly at the conference the district received the cab

034board recognition award this program was created in 1988 to recognize excellence in board governance and Leadership and Leadership activities of local Boards of Education Harford Public Schools last won this award in 2011 special thanks to Vice chairman Johnson for his for his leadership and lifting this effort and leading this [Applause] effort during this time um I had the privilege of leading a discussion um the Connecticut Urban School legislative Network was the opportunity for our urban communities to work together collectively to develop a legislative platform for our schools that will benefit our communities and most importantly our children the purpose of this network would be to advance proposed bills develop new legislation that provide eable and highquality educational experiences for all of our for all of Connecticut K through2 public school students districts that have attended

035the initial meetings are Stanford New London Danberry Waterberry New Haven East Harford Bridgeport and New Britain next update is the task force the legislative advocacy task force the Harford Board of V legislative task force um received a presentation from the Connecticut school and state finance project the plan is to Leverage The expertise to further educate our community which includes Harford residents parents and elected officials lastly please be on the lookout for Harford Board of Education Community office hours this is a boardled initiative from our leadership team the goal is to create a space for board members to interact and engage with Community outside of these meetings as noted earlier issues regarding management is responsible of superintendent but we feel it's important that we are more engaged in the community as a reminder you can find

036the superintendent report and full committee reports as well as attachments and videos in the meeting agenda on board docs all all committee and workshop meetings are live streamed as well as viewable after the meeting the YouTube links are saved in each meeting's agenda on board docs and I encourage the community to view the meetings and read the reports when possible if you have any questions or feedback please contact Christina Santiago or borazon at C Santiago Harford schools.org we now move on to the report of the superintendent thank you a few um updates one uh is as to our progress toward our attendance our year-to-date average daily attendance rate is 90% and our chronic absente esm rate is at 25% which keeps us on track and on goal for the month of November and as the

037next couple of months right well this month and the next month will be a little challenging for us due to the holidays the uh half half days the winter break the cold season um we continue our work with our school Ace teams uh so that our teams can continue to implement strategies to avoid the holiday slide and uh our district Ace uh and so academic soccer cup began back in the middle of October and actually run through tomorrow and at the end of week four uh in that HPS cup canelli and Renzulli are tied for first place with 26 goals each uh montor magnet at bat shelder and montor and um Annie Fisher are tied for second place with 21 goals and we have a four-way tie for third place um with Paton stem breakthrough

038South canella and Webster and I share all of that because I know that um while the um the challenges are fun you know the the important piece for us is making sure that we continue to cultivate those habits of coming to school every single day um because one Interruption one attend one absence right it turns into interruptions in learning so uh please continue to hard work around this um two more updates one is around our SGC budget overview which um Deputy Foster and I uh provided at the beginning of the month uh it was an overview of our budget process and the implications for um the the expiration as many of you know our covid relief funds are going to expire and so we wanted our SGC members and principles uh to not only listen

039to the overview but to ask questions um and begin to think about what all of this means for their respective School communities um we do encourage everyone to uh participate um in the upcoming discussions as you know we we are um facing probably one of the most challenging budget Seasons as um you know we're going to be challenged with prioritizing um the priorities uh without having funds um to cover it all so um more more discussions to come but I encourage everyone to lean into that process alongside of us um and lastly as chairman rger referen the report is on online and I do want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving all of our staff sta inclusive of our substitutes um a beautiful restful Thanksgiving thank you we now move on to the business agenda

040chair yes um one comment well question so the all the schools that are placing in the competition I didn't hear all of I missed kind of f the first part of the first place but will all the schools mention magnet schools that placed in that in the soccer cup yes yes I can I can review so at the end of the fourth week four canelli and ruli are tied in first first place with 26 goals each uh monor magnet AB bat shelder and Annie Fischer are tied for second place with 21 goals each and then there's a four-way tie for third place um and those four schools are B stem breakthrough South Kella and Webster that's that I just wanted to make that point um that none of our neighborhood schools are in that um

041in those buckets and that's um alarming at least to me um and the other um point of information I wanted to say for board members who don't serve on the legislative committee um it would be helpful that we have information at least about the legislative committee thank you can I respond thank you um we have canella um I'm sorry um canelli is is the school uh Miss bro I said canel is canelli thank you um thank you before we do move on I do want to make a recognition to um chair uh nette Chief U nette for her um election as mayor of Windor um I just want to recognize her congratulations now we officially move on to the business agenda good evening everyone sorry to interrupt we have I have something for chief blackberg

042if she could just come down for a moment come on down I guess come on down as Chief blackberg is coming down I just want to point out that she was elected she made history Chief blackberg made history as being elected the first black mayor for the town of Windsor [Applause] Connecticut to [Applause] we now move on to the business agenda item 4.1 administrative appointment kjra ratley the motion that Harford Board of Education approve the superintendent's recommendation to appoint conjur rattley to the position a chief academic officer superintendent superintendent do I have a second second okay thank you and just want to make sure miss uh Santiago that uh Dr do I have a motion sorry do I have a motion do I have so move do I have a second second superintendent thank you

043uh just want to make sure miss uh Santiago that Dr ratley is joining us um yes and so Dr ratley joins us from Charlotte North Carolina originally from Winston Salem North Carolina is an experienced educator who remains committed to creating conditions for students teachers and leaders to thrive always having a passion for teaching advising and helping young people to be successful her career in public education began as a high school biology teacher before teaching middle school and then becoming a school counselor she continueed to expand her impact on school communities by serving in the role of high school assistant principal principal High School principal and central office leader she has experienced developing systemwide curriculum implementation monitoring systems teacher and leader professional development as well as uh continuous Improvement processes she is adapt at building meaningful

044relationships and embedding herself in the professional and local community she has received professional training through University of Virginia's partnership for leaders in education University of Washington's Center for educ ational leadership um she has served as a member of many organizations in her local community and is um let's see she is she is a she is a member of the Arts and Science Council culture leadership programs and volunteers um to lead her membership in the Delta Sigma Theta sority she stamps firmly on the promise of public education and believes that in partnership with our Educators families and Community our children can maximize their potential regardless of where they come from their circumstances or their zip codes I'm going to pause there um to have any qu uh for any questions but I do want to thank

045um Dr rley for um joining us um last week to meet some of us um here in Hartford uh good evening so we've sat in this um seat quite a few times with um people coming before us people who are not um from Connecticut and we almost probably 100% of the time the people don't stay so my first question is your commitment um to your planned commitment um to Harford Public Schools um that's the first question hold on one second we are uh they're turning you up try try again hold on one second her try one more time try one more time man okay can you hear me it's yeah we can hear you now it's much better but uh we're going to try to elevate elevate your voice I'll turn up my volume if

046that helps any is that helpful no it's inside the auditorium so just give us give us one moment it's not on your end it's on our end got it all right try now okay can you hear me yes okay so first of all thank you for um this potential opportunity for sure I do want to apologize in advance because I don't know which board member asked the question um but I am very happy to answer um as mentioned um in the bio that Dr Tes Rodriguez read my commitment to Children is just that until the specific question about my commitment to Hartford directly links to my commitment to students I take my work seriously I will not have um even taken on um trying for this this opportunity had not I considered a longstanding relationship

047with not only Harford Public Schools but the Hartford Community just knowing how education and and outcomes for Education runs you can't get things done in a year or two it takes three to five I'm not saying that time span in order to put a stamp on how long I would want to serve in or have the opportunity to serve in the district but I am saying that it takes time and I am committed to the time that it takes in order to learn from great leaders who are already there from you all and to have an impact on students and the community have question member Brody I do okay thank you for that so um when I was not on the board but I was a parent um I clearly remember um our chief academic

048officer at the time um in our super intendent at the time made a commitment that parents would have the opportunity to be a part of the process a having a seat at the table um so if you could explain um your work um with um families [Music] um because it can it can be a relationship where you interface like with families um hopefully you giving input on the things um that families could absolutely do to support um their children in the learning process how they could support um and work with teachers um it it's not so much so of what I feel that we're doing now um I feel that it's absolutely needed um cuz we were successful when when that relationship ship was fostered um and valued um so what are your thoughts around

049um working um with families to make sure um if you're not giving them the tools you're directing them to the tools that can directly impact um their children's education absolutely thank you for the question I am a firm believer that we can't get this work done without families our families send us their children every single day and we don't take that lightly they know their children best so while I completely agree with you around making sure that there are resources and tools that there's Outreach it doesn't always have to happen on our terms between 8 to 5: or 900 to 7 or whenever the school is open we have to make sure that we do provide that Outreach and not just to provide with tools but also to hear and listen because what we may

050believe being the experts in the room that might work for one particular family may not work for another family so they too are part of this process in terms of helping us to better understand how to educate their children um and better knowing who their children are what their strengths are where their gaps or Le learning um areas are and so it's not just a matter of allowing those resources or making those resources available I think that is hugely essential but I think we also have to make sure to your point that we build the relationships in a very authentic way so that we're hearing from parents but we're also responding to them and that we're leveraging their expertise in raising their children thank you are there any questions from my colleagues board member Ledger

051thank you so much and good evening once again um I did have the opportunity to meet the candidate um during our virtual meet and greet if you will and I want to ask this question I did ask this question before but I want to ask this question for public consumption um what is your experience and your view on montor because we do have public montauri programs in har for public schools and what is montauri what does innovation look like to you with regards to montauri yes thank you for the question um in my view montori just like many classrooms in our schools is where the magic happens the specialty about montauri specifically allowing students to guide themselves in their own learning and we become those facilitators in the classroom to ensure that they are reaching

052their highest potentials and so when we think in terms of innovation it doesn't happen in a silo it comes through Discovery and so I believe that montauri is especially a place where our students help to lead that Discovery and Lead that Innovation creating the content so that we could really make the classroom a special place for them but also learn from those practices to see which ones might be able to expand to other classrooms that are non- montauri as well so that all of our children have Rich experiences thank you so much I I do want to make a a note uh for public assumption that um Miss rattley did U make herself available to the board on two occasions uh one um in person and also one virtual option so I know there were

053board members that had an opportunity to engage with her prior to uh prior to tonight I just want to make sure that that was on the record um are there there any additional questions board member Johnson yes through you Mr chair thank you so much and uh I had the opportunity as well to meet with uh this candidate and um you know this is not a question because I think you've answered all my questions personally but this is just more uh of a statement um and what I enjoyed about uh our time uh meeting together I mean uh the mere fact that you were in your District in Charlotte for you know over I think it was 15 years that you were in that space and um to hear about the size of the district

054in Charlotte murg uh and how those your skills are transferable here I really enjoyed that but I also what I most enjoyed about our conversation is uh that you're you're real you know I really appreciate you just laying out uh what it would really look like in your first 100 days um on the job but also seeing how you interact with our superintendent and uh it's always stated that our job is to manage uh the superintendent and with that uh we want to make sure that uh the her cabinet and her staff not only support her vision but also really know uh why we're why we're here which is for children and uh our conversation uh I left with the impression that you are are serious about that that you are serious about children and

055you would support the mission and the vision of our superintendent so I just wanted to elevate that and uh just uh possibly look forward to working with you thank you um seeing no questions the motion on the floor is that the Harford Board of Education approves the superintendent's recommendation to appoint conjur ratle to the position of Chief academic officer all those in favor signify by saying I I I I I I any Nays abstentions the eyes have it the motion moves congratulations thank you so much I look forward to joining this outstanding team thank you uh sorry Miss Miss rattley we were clapping while we were talking do we like to say a few words I was just thanking the board thank you Dr Tores Rodriguez I look forward to joining this outstanding team um

056as I mentioned earlier in a conversation I know that you are are Front Runners Dr toes Rodriguez is known for standing strong in her leadership for children and that does not happen without a very strong board that advocates for children in the community as well so I understand and I connect the dots and I do take this work seriously because it's up to us to help chart the path and if need be change a life trajectory iies for our children so thank you thank you and we look forward to working with you moving on items 4.2 contract approval partners for educational leadership the motion that the Harford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with Partners For Education and Leadership for the term outlining the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at

057the amount not to exceed 112 $122,250 do I have a motion so moved second superintendent yes thank you this is um a request for approval of a contract with partners for Educational Learning to support with not only the development but the implementation of a principal pipeline program structure and curriculum that uh will become ours and that identifies HPS staff that already have the 092 certification administrator certification and Connecticut teaching certification and offers them an opportunity to grow and develop into um highly effective leaders uh peal um will work side by side with our team and um this is we're trying to be responsive to some of the feedback that we heard not only from our Educators uh but also from some board members around our pipeline work um and creating opportunities for coaching and to

058develop it to develop our our aspiring leaders um I will pause there and I know that we have uh representatives from plal uh joining us as well as acting assistant superintendent uh Daisy Tores Hill who's um the the internal lead for this work are they here physically it's p is remotely and uh assistant superintendent Daisy Tes Hill is here in person okay uh Miss Torres I think it might be wise to approach the mic assuming that we have some questions from my colleagues as she makes her way up I want to see are there any questions from my colleagues board member Brody is this um organization local to Connecticut yes they were uh they're Partners in educational leadership now they were formerly the Connecticut Center for school change and where are they out of they're

059Hartford uh we're in Harford I think they're on the Hartford West Hartford uh border or town Town Line um they they have worked in the past with us uh supporting uh with professional learning for our school leaders around uh diversity equity and inclusion and um racial bias and getting to know ourselves as leaders and um yes I asked that because I'm wondering why they didn't feel it was important to make themselves present here in person um but could we my question is could we talk about um cuz not with them but we've had something that that has come before us in reference to um principal pipeline am I mistaken um we had some type of program in the past I I did ask the team in Mr tus Hill can can add uh there was

060a partnership uh most recently with the Wallace Foundation um I know that I I came in toward the tail end of that partnership um we did some research and there have been several pipeline programs uh in different iterations 2010 11 there was one um there was another one that was in partnership with Achievement First and um they've been they've had several different iterations Miss Miss bro so I guess I'm trying to gauge what did we do Why didn't it work why are we why didn't we continue that we're here now I'm trying to understand where we are right now and connected to what we have done what I I can only speak to I can't speak for the previous programs I know that we had host did an aspiring leaders program before the difference is

061that this is designed to provide six months of intensive professional learning specifically for um our leaders and it is not dependent for example and the last one was a partnership with Achievement First where there were um resident uh principles that would go and do residencies U elsewhere um this also is something that we are looking to uh co-design and make ours um for future for future use I also know that off for for conditions in the past I understand that when some of these principal residency programs were um held in the district the Prof the department was a department of four um allowing for much more capacity there's currently a department of One Professional learning and um the added uh the added project that Miss uh tus Hill is taking on to support with this

062work superintendent can you please speak to I think Miss BR brings up a good point to um I guess the actually inperson participation for this meeting if they are local yes um and I know that um Richard lemons is on and and Richard I'm I'm actually going to turn it to you so that I don't I know that there is a personal um challenge that you have and so I'll leave that up to you to to feel I think it's a it's a brilliant question uh the partners for educational leadership is a local nonprofit we're deeply committed to supporting Harford Public Schools I I have been a part of as the executive director I've been a part of uh kind of co-constructing this project with the superintendent and the larger team for months now and

063the only reason I'm not sitting there in person is that we just buried my grandmother and I and it made it and we had to deal with some estate issues and I reached out to the um to the administrative team and just to check and see whether it was possible to visit um virtually tonight otherwise I would have been there in person my apologies for not being there directly this evening thank you um are there other questions from my colleagues board member Johnson through you Mr chair um quickly can can you just explain the value um of this contract as it pertains to the coaching uh and you know what our staff will be receiving um just quickly I I just want this out in the air in space so we understand what we're voting

064on from your perspective absolutely thank you for the time to talk a little bit about this program we're really excited um this is uh as Dr Tores Rodrigo mentioned this is a intensive six-month professional Learning Journey for our internal candidates who currently have a 092 um certification so that we can build their capacity alongside with our partners for educational leadership so that they could become um ready to lead as Hartford uh Public School principles and some of the design work has really been focused around exactly that to St to retain our leaders here in Hartford we want to make sure that the program is specific for Hartford Public Schools and that we we work alongside with plal so that our candidates are receiving coaching from our PL Partners as well as Hands-On experiences we were

065looking to tap into our existing principles to support as well and they will also uh culminate at the end of the six months with a Capstone project that is is going to be directly related to the work that they're doing um around uh Hartford priorities in their current roles within the district we want them to be ready to graduate to lead in one of our schools here in Hartford and it's it's an exciting opportunity I was in a similar program in another District um with a a leadership development program similar and I find it to be extremely valuable so I'm really excited as to what's to come thank you are there any additional questions I have one board member Brody what is there a preference um for those who given to those who complete this

066program or training can I so we will they will our graduates um will be right uh ready and Prime to lead as uh Hartford principles um we will not um circumvent the process of principal um interviews and and selection process but this is the pool that we would like to tap um for the next uh roles of Hartford so um we're going to be developing their interview skills we're going to support them with their entry plans um so that it it is they are ready to go um when those vacancies um arise can I I'll add as well and we had a a recommendation and this is actually gone to uh the the team that has um the council The Advisory Council for them to consider um and it was something that uh Miss Oliver

067referenced last time as to you know could this be an opportunity to give um one or two points um for those that are graduates uh or the fellows that complete this um the fellowship um as part of their their candidacy and so it is something that is you know The Advisory Group is going to think through along with some other opportunities as well and who is The Advisory Group yes so we we have a a team um the leadership development advisory Council so we've got um the assistant director professional learning principal kahill principal Sullivan Deputy superintendent we have um acting Katie Leonard several team members in our talent office our chief of schools um you just a a broad range to support um the team at PL as well we want this to be informed

068by actual you know practitioners as well and so we want to leverage their voices and their design thinking as well thank you I have followup if no one else has anything member Brody so is this the time like when is the time like is it after work great question um so there are 10 sessions that will begin in January um through June and eight of those sessions will be during the work dat so those the candidates will will pull will be pulled out for a full day of professional learning and two of those sessions will be held on a Saturday so there is a commitment on part of the candidates that's all outlined as part of the application process okay and I and the reason why I asked this question because I know we talked

069about this sort of thing before and my um comment was that we we have professionals that work for Harford public schools that have lives and they and they can't commit to this Saturday but if we're giving points to just those who complete this program and it's a preference to them and over someone who is a excellent candidate they have their 092 they just can't make that schedule and someone already may have points in this process over them that that's my concern and it was a question I asked for whatever program we were doing before and that's why I was asking it for this because I know it's a commitment outside of work that some just can't make just because of their life so that's thank you that was my question thank you for Johnson um

070you know I'm cautious in asking this question but I think it needs to be raised just so we can I I personally can understand um what we have uh this particular um uh opportunity is for staff members that are that have 92s are seeking 92s so forth and so on but my question is how many teachers of color do we have um with 92s that can take advantage of this opportunity in in our district so obviously I would um love to consult a little bit more with office of talent management but what I will tell you is this is a program um for leaders who have the 092 right and it's it's not um only for um some folks thinks it's just for assistant principles right we are opening it up to all that could

071be um school counselors that could be um teacher leaders instructional coaches folks who have that 092 have had a leadership experience five years of leadership um teaching experience and are committed and feel that they would like to participate and become ready um for the program um in terms of the exact numbers of our leaders of color I mean that is something that I don't have readily available but I can I can get that information for you superintendent D can you elaborate I don't I can look in the num at the numbers but I'm I'm wondering if your question is about um those that are not currently assistant uh principles or assistant directors and I want an opportunity to have a pipeline uh experience or Journey like this well my my question is specifically on uh

072opportunities for um our staff members of color that fit the description to move into this opportunity and what I'm hearing is that it's assistant principles so I guess the question would be how many of our assistant principles are princip assistant principles of color and can have the opportunity to take advantage of this of this opportunity I can certainly get you that information and we want to make sure that in our recruitment we are also emphasizing continue to emphasize our commitment to diversifying our Pipeline and especially a leadership pipeline um the the reason I wondered if that was your question is because there is um the the monies that were set aside for the leadership development work um this is a portion of that money for this program but there is a follow another design uh

073um that is for um teacher leaders to become to transition into the next leadership opportunity assistant principles assistant directors and so we've that's coming up at another time um but it's also focused on making sure that we diversify our talent I I'll just um add that that this is our you know our attempt to build the bench if you will and these are principles under the Wallace Foundation about building the bench about diversifying our town so we're starting with the principal pipeline but the the vision is is to create other pipelines as well to follow with the next one being for assistant principles thank you and and and I don't I don't want to I don't want you all to confuse my question based around um race in any way I mean I I'll take

074any qualified person that's able to teach our kids I just have preference that I know that when we get to Windows of opportunity it just really sucks when folks try to move up but they never had the experience to do so and if we can provide that experience to um our staff of color that's what I want to see and that's what I'm hearing if it's not this one that there is something else coming around as well thank you uh question for um Mr Lemon on the on the line here um can you just quickly talk about the maybe topics or themes and competencies that this program will look to address so uh it's a great question the uh and uh M hores might be even better able to talk about this because there's been

075quite quite a bit of co- planning with that design team but basically we what we're trying to do is build a development program that's really anchored in the reality of Hartford the specific competencies that Harford knows that kind of year one principle struggle with and need to develop and need additional support with so we're trying to do is is develop a a pretty parsimonious collection of high leverage leadership uh competencies and focus on on those and make sure that these individuals understand the relationship between those competencies and the systems of Hartford this isn't a program for Bridgeport or Stanford or Meridan this is for Hartford um anchored in the culture of Hartford and that what we're what we assume will'll learn in the second half of this year is also which of these C competencies

076are best able to be developed in this specific program and which we need to double down on and that the superintendent emphasized the co-construction of this but I think the second part of that co-construction that is very important is that you're owners of the program all the materials and the facilitation guide at the on the back end of that so that in following years you can you can take that program and tweak it adjust it based upon what you're learning about your administrators and uh figure out how to make it have an even larger impact and I'm I'm Wonder wondering if this Tores if you would mind talking about some of those big ticket competencies and topics that the design team came up with over the last several weeks absolutely thank you Richard for that

077um so the elac committee that's the committee the council that the superintendent referenced earlier we've been working behind the scenes um with the creation of a Hartford a portrait of a Hartford principal and through that design we came up with um some competencies and attributes um that we would uh like to see in candidates and future Harford leaders and so what we're through that process we are developing tentative topics that we will sit sit with plal once this contract is approved to then flush out um exactly what that will look like in terms of those topics that are aligned for example some of those include change management um leading for Equity instructional leadership uh leading with um Innovation and you'll notice a lot of these are aligned to the um focus areas that we have

078and we're focused on here in Hartford um and that is intentional um but we are also aligning our work not only to the Hartford um portrait of a principle but to the Connecticut leadership standards so that we're grounded in the research and we're grounded in theory um so that we have a mix of theory and practice for our candidates thank you board member Ledger thank you um first um Mr lemons I want to extend my deepest condolences on the loss of your grandmother you're welcome um so the question I have is with regards to competencies so you mentioned competencies but I want to know if you have something that deals with cultural competencies when you are addressing these individuals um know for this program I I think it is a brilliant a brilliant question the

079the the comparable programs that we have worked to develop whether they were lead conel the lead Connecticut turnaround principal program the lead Connecticut uh Residency program the urban School leaders Fellowship the Merit and teacher leadership program and others of they have all had that as a component of the culture because what we've learned is um static technical skills don't get you very far if you don't understand how to reach across into across culture or a different culture than your own have Personal Mastery in that relationship and understand how to build a common vocabulary and we know that this is a a key central part of the work that hartford's doing as an entire system so we imagine that this is a core part of the work that will be develop again we're we're taking a

080bit of a cue we're not coming in trying to superimpose a curriculum upon Hartford we're really looking for the experts inside Hartford which include Folks at the building level and central office level and to give us guidance but this has been on the table as part of those negotiations over the last several weeks thank you so much the motion on the floor is that the Harford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with Partners For Education leadership for the ter term outlining the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount act to exceed $122,250 all those in favor sign all those in favor signify by saying I I I any Nays I one a the eyes have it the motion moves thank you thank you item 4.3 contract renewal approval revision

081learning motion that the Harford Board of Education authorizes a superintendent to execute a contract with revision learning for the term outlin the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount not to exceed $297,000 do I have a motion moov second do I have a second second thank you uh the purpose of this uh request is to continue uh the leadership coaching services from revision learning and that partnership and these Services have been a state approved part of the commissioner Network plans for both Harford public high school and McDonna middle um to develop instructional practices uh the uh specifically over the last four years the schools have organized and successfully implemented strategies for improving the instructional leadership team practices uh formative um observation and feedback uh Cycles professional learning planning and implementation specifically at Harford

082hi for example um they were awarded an additional year of the commissioner's network funding and the approved scope work will uh include a sustainability plan this year um they have continued to leverage the practices including specifically cycles of review of student performance outcomes the cycles of that formative feedback to support our uh professional growth of our adults um and cycles of school Improvement planning and review so we are here um to request uh the extension and again this is through commissioner network funding and already has been approved uh from the state as uh part of their strategy and work at the schools are there any questions from my colleagues yes and I just want to make sure that um are I believe Mr Flynn is on yes I see him uh the question is are

083you local um so uh Patrick I'll let you talk about the the extensive work that you've done well you're from Connecticut but done in Connecticut go ahead so we are local uh we've actually worked in 92 of the Conneticut districts out of the 164 um we have been um we were established in 2010 and uh have always been in Connecticut um I like to also talk about the fact that uh both of my parents uh went to Buckley High and uh graduated from there and and I grew up just north of of Harford uh so it's always had a place in my in my life and in my work thank you uh seeing if there's additional questions or comments from my colleagues board member Johnson uh superintendent can you um just uh just tell us

084about the the funding source for this uh for this particular item um and just elaborate so we can all know how this thing is being fund it yes commissioner Network through uh the State Department of Education which is a very extensive application process I don't know if some of you board members remember when um it was Harford high that was part of uh the initial uh there's a year of assessment and planning that has to happen before we even get a chance to go before the State Board of Education for approval and we are fortunate given uh the great work that has happened not only for high but then at uh mcdd that we continue to um get the state support in uh additional funding and so it is strictly through uh the commissioner Network

085State funding thank you for member aliver oh thank you um earlier we uh we had a couple of um folks talk during public comment about the student discourse course could you just explain or someone explain what exactly is we spoke about how critically that important that was and how that helped you improve um learning in the classroom I'm going to tag in uh Patrick from Mr Flynn from the professional learning support and um I know that we have our school leaders here and so perhaps um principal rice you can or principal well I believe it was student discourse at mcdna um tag you in Mr Flynn sure I'm happy to talk a little bit about that you know student discourse is really at the center of what we believe to be one of the most

086fundamental components of Student Success and that is student ownership of their learning um and actually your your new Chief academic officer referred to that as well um that in our capacity to communicate our own ideas uh share our critical thinking thoughts provide our um opportunities to share back and forth create common collaborative discourse uh we're able to increase the levels of learning for for our students and I think that that's really what is fundamental so we we did Focus heavily on that at MCD um we actually had a a whole process called called March discourse of paloa where we focused on ensuring that in our classrooms we we um provided the types of supports and resources that would allow students to build their capacity to communicate listen and provide learning for themselves over the course

087of of any single lesson and just to add on to that um just to add on to that a big push this year is to take discourse to the next level and make sure that students are being accountable to one another and pushing each others thinking agreeing and disagreeing and really helping them to connect with content in real meaningful ways we've also seen that it's really helped support our multilingual Learners um and actually have seen our multilingual Learners growing on the same trajectory as our students or native language speakers at mcdna so that has been also a huge plus and then we also have the impact of we feed into Hartford High so our students are getting this exposure over six through 12 thank you for member Brody yes I just wanted to comment um

088and it has come up over the years even predates me sitting up here that if we're voting to give money to a partner that the expectation is that they're here if if especially if they're local but sometimes if you're not local we pass big contracts here I see some of our local some of our local and fairness some people some of our local um partners are here and they're in person that that that that should absolutely be in um expectation um but I don't have anything um you know in reference to a issue um with um this contract renewal but um because I appreciate the work I know this has come before I think I've recognized one of the staff member that I worked in another building quite some time ago so I know you

089you got some good folks over there um but the expectation should be that there in person and if I could just say I I I truly appreciate that I I did have a prescheduled workshop in a school this evening um it was scheduled long before the board had had um requested my presence um so I did want to make sure that I satisfied the uh commitment to my client uh and to this District uh prior to being able to um to come to that so I do apologize that I'm not in person but that is why I'm not able to be there tonight thank you the motion on the floor is that the Harvard Board of UC Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with Revis revision learning for the term outlining

090the contract ended June 30th of 2024 at the amount KN to exceed $290,000 all those in favor signify by saying I I I any Nays abstentions the eyes have it the motion moves thank you item 4.4 contract approval extended school hours providers motion that the Harford Board of Education authorizes a superintend to execute a contract listed below for the terms outlining the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount not to exceed $162,000 Village uh Village for families of children's $81,000 Catholic Charities 81,000 do I have a motion so move do I have a second second superintendent thank you um see the purpose is to establish wraparound supports for our students and I am just GNA actually have Chief blackberg continue to come back come down is this you for any questions are there

091any questions from my colleagues partner can our partners please approach the mic board member Brody you have the floor the first question is can anyone that attends the school they can partake absolutely okay that's I I thought that but I just wanted to clear that up so I just wanted to um to know do we have like is there any issues with and it might be a you might could recruit or do advertisement here do we have any issues um with Staffing the programs that we have um with you that has come up in a conversation that I had with some community members like is there a some vacancies that we need to fill in reference to our after school and then in the work you do in the schools well um so update there

092I think there's been an ongoing ation over the last couple years around Staffing and Staffing being an issue being able to hire the right staff and sort of maintain fortunately I can say through um efforts of HR and a variety of other opportunities which no one can take credit for we actually have been able to fully staff and not only have we been able to fully staff we have been able to recruit and retain teachers as a part of the um Extended a program as well as the overall Community Schools so it's a great relief to say yes we are staffed at this point fully okay um so the reality is as a nonprofit organization and Industry that um has a high turnover rate um we're constantly facing that and so what these grants are

093able to do is to supplement funding and to be Innovative with programming um there's certain archetypes of folks that are looking for these type of jobs and what ends up happening is you get someone and um after two or three years if the pipeline isn't open for them to uh develop either internally in the agency or sometimes the district they move on to the district you end up losing them so I think the overall thing is to be prepared for that and um constantly recruiting and also um and also investing in staff uh so we aren't aren't fully staffed right now but this would help us to get on track to do so but I just want to say we are compliant with our ratios always number one are there additional questions uh board member

094Oliver hello I'm not sure who this uh question is for and it may be too early on but I know one of the things we focused in on in our district is instructional coherence and so we did a lot of work internally um and it's work that uh to do I'm going to say like outside external instructional coherence is maybe the next Horizon but I'm thinking about that because I know um the support for academic enrichment comes in many different ways and both of the organizations um that are presenting um have a lot of uh I would say history experience and expertise in doing that and working with um our school leaders but just thinking about that as we talk about academic enrichment and so again I'm not sure if this is like in general

095some thoughts for superintendent you or if it's or if it's for our colleagues here but just wanted to um get some just general thoughts on the instructional coherence pieces we're talking about academic enrichment yes and you know coherence in general um as you know is a little challenging and we stay we continue to work at it as a matter of fact I was having a conversation this earlier today with acting assistant superintendent um Katie Leonard around coherence um it is something that we're aiming for I think we have to we have we still have several internal steps to go especially around our early literacy work given that we're waiting for that approval for the waiver and I think that will help inform um you know the coherence that happens then with our with our partners

096but it is it is we have it it's in our mind and we we don't want to lose because it's another opportunity for us to well for for our partners right to be in front of with our students and continue to to reinforce the skills um how much time do I have not that much not that much okay what I will say is this is that um I think it's the uh the understanding that we are not teachers right and so that we're supporting the schools and the thought process is is that if we provide the wraparound support with the effectiveness that we need to that overall that would improve the it'll rise the ships of academics but what we have done um is gotten grants and support systems where we actually have certified teachers

097and coaches who can train our staff to um immerse themselves in disguised learning techniques uh this grant specifically for um all three of our schools uh we um part of the monies will be going to the Barbara Bush Foundation um to help with literacy where we're having Co coaches come and and uh young people from the high schools coming to read to the younger students the students from MCD will be going to Parkville uh to uh read and Coach so you know it's supporting in those ways I think the ultimate thing is to understand that for a student and a scholar to be going to school all day it's very difficult to them for them to then turn and go to school in the after uh after school otherwise you would have attendance issues and

098you know the older kids would just Decline and so it's important to be Innovative uh but also understanding and responsiveness that we are um as a nonprofit social workers we do clinical work things like that case management um so I think it's a combination um thank you and also um coherence is a critical piece of anything one of the pieces we've always understood um from the point where we were sort of disconnected activities happening after school way back in about 20002 2003 before we became a more sophisticated Network I.E the community schools and with the um Advent of the Community Schools the underpinning is that staff are fully PR are present in the school full-time therefore they're able to meet with the Academic Teams they're able to have teacher level um engagements we are we

099actually hire educational coordinators from the schools themselves in these people are typically the ones that lead particular academic um structures and they're able through the connection not only the meeting that we're present but also in the PDS that they attend by the district Infuse these practices into after schools they're able to align our our because if we look at curriculum we have evidence-based curriculum we have staff developed curriculum um that we use on site and we have just again um General sorts of curriculum so they're able to work with our teams and align these pieces so at our sites again working under the Community School frame um it allows them to actively engage and apply not only the learning they have at their site but as well as what they get from the district from

100those Wednesday PDS as well as the PDS that we do as we sort of connect out nationally because we do take our staff where possible where finances allow to um other states to G glean these best practices and bring them back and the entire approach is to make sure that what we are doing is we providing meaningful aligned supplemental opportunities to learn and as Nick said in a disguised fashion so we don't go directly at it teachers have the responsibility of taking learning and attaching fun to it we take fun and attach learning to it and because they are coordinated by the Ed coordinator and because principles have high levels of Engagement in our community program Community Schools program there is a better job being done of making sure that there is coherence that there

101is consistency and that there is congruence um good afternoon everyone my name is Janelle hooker I'm the Community Schools manager for the district I think it also makes sense to put some context into our extended school hours um Grant where we were trying to really be as intentional as possible to ensure that these extracurricular activities or that happen in the afternoon were in alignment with the academic work so as they talk about um the instructions that they're doing we want to make sure that they have some Hands-On opportunities for our young people to have an understanding of what's happening during the day in the school so they have opportunities to have a creative way of having these um transferable skills and these um competencies that we need our kiddos to have as they're transitioning from

102grade to grade so extended school hours give that opportunity to be able to have that alignment um and that's really what we're looking to ensure that these opportunities offer thank you are there any additional questions seeing none the motion on the floor the Harford Board of Education authorizes a superintendent to execute the contract um as listed for the terms outlined ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount act to exceed $162,000 um again the village for families of children $81,000 Catholic Charities $81 ,000 uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I any Nays I extensions the eyes have it the motion moves thank you item 4.5 contract approval Urban League of Greater Harford motion that Harford Board of Education authorizes a super attending to execute the contract with the Urban League of

103Greater Harford for a term outline in the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount not to exceed 990,000 do I have a motion move do I have a second second superintendent specifically uh this would be to provide wraparound services for the supporting pregnant and parenting teens program which is specifically focused on improving health education and social outcomes for pregnant and parenting students and their children um and so the partnership is between um us and urban and Urban League will support our young people who are um with us Harford residents and the Urban League uh shall will develop maintain and Advance as partnership with us um for but to coordinate and enhance the delivery of several um Services right promoting the importance of healthy parenting Wellness College and Career Readiness uh hosting and fac

104facilitating workshops and interactive trainings for current and expect expected parents um right around healthy foods uh mental health selfcare um as well as uh maintaining relationships with other community based service uh providers uh to support with educational employment training um and wellness um and there's also a case management component to this as well I know that we have some um Partners here in case there are questions questions thank you uh before I turn it over to my colleagues can you just talk about the um the role that the Urban League is playing with the 90,000 I believe there was discussion during committee that it's a pastor so can you just explain that yes and I'm going to ask uh the team members to explain the the role that right we give the fund and then

105um Urban League go ahead hi hi good evening so um the Urban League would be the fiary for the funds and so they would actually hold the funds and actually do the purchasing for our young parent parenting teens um and we would have a purchase order process in place so when students need certain resources and or items they're able to access those um in addition to that we are going to do some education around um safe sleep and appropriate use of car seats for our moms and dads and so upon completion of that they'll will put a purchase order into the Urban League and our students will be able to access those items thank you um are there any questions from my colleagues board member Oliver uh just this is more of a quick comment

106I just wanted to uh thank uh for the amount of stakeholder engagement in this work um just seeing the number of um community outreach and other organizations and I just want to also acknowledge uh the staff here at HPS I've had the fortune um fortunate um experience to work with many of you directly including Miss trimley Jackson and when it comes to our our vulnerable young people the support and the way we take care of our students is is excellent and I know um the commitment that's there and so again looking forward to supporting this so thank you thank you any additional questions or comments seeing none the motion on the floor is that Harford budget education authorizes superintendent to execute a contract with the Urban League of Greater Harford for the term outlin the

107contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount knack to exceed $90,000 all those in favor signify by saying I I I I I any Nays abstentions the eyes have it the motion moves congratulations thank you thank you item 4 six contract continuation approval Frontline Technologies Group the motion that the Harford Board of Education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with Frontline Technology groups LLC for the term outlining the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount not to exceed $13,000 and uh sorry $3,329 do I have a motion so move do I have a second superintendent yes thank you so the office of talent management uses the platform for absence and time uh solution um and Frontline Central and so it is a software that is used to track and manage attendance

108for uh our district users and then uh the office uses the system to pull a variety of reports to keep the Integrity of our data um right employees can also view their signification person time balances as well as record their um scheduled absences via the the platform um Frontline system was adopted and implemented a few years ago um and is available for use every day by our employees and given the significance of this use right it wasn't prudent to uh shop for vendors especially when we take into consideration the lengthy implementation process um required to roll out a new time and attendance system for our entire District so uh the funding is um twofold you see here the breakdown of the funds ARP it's 94,3 22 and uh 18,957 uh how our staff members teachers

109and professionals are engaging with this particular product is there a staff member here that can um give us their perspective engaging with this with this system um can you rephrase that meaning uh everyday employees in yes um so I mean I'm an employee of of harf for public schools so every day I have to punch in swipe in my card right to check um attendance every employee is uh required and that's the expectation of every employee so we use um Frontline time management to do that so time the time cards are associated with um Frontline um the system um also if I um request time off um that's the system that I'm using to uh submit my request to my supervisor and that is you know across the board for every employee in the district

110do you like it I like it is it easy enough to use I think people like the app so there's an app that you could um download and you know check your time and so it's pretty accessible and um I've gotten some great feedback thank you Bor Ledger thank you so I'm an educator as well so where I work we use Frontline as well so the question I have for you is um do you use Frontline for your professional um evaluations where you input information or is it strictly um limited to the features of whether it's clocking or checking your time and requesting time off and things like that right I believe that we do use the platform that's um through the office of professional learning um uses U the evaluating the evaluating tool for

111um certified staff and do you have access to your prior years of your evaluations and things like that I believe so okay and is that useful to you um at times it could be okay depending on the work thank you board member Brody first comment that I think if we have an employee that's pres that's going to speak to the motion they're not going to say it's not working so I just find I'm sorry I just find that humorous um do you have a question Bo M bro that was my comment I led with that was a comment my question is does substitute teachers do they have access to tracking their time on this as well um so substitute teachers can use the um system to um um get jobs right so they don't use

112it for um as far as clocking in and clocking out that's not what um the system doesn't allow for that so um as far as job assignments they they do use it so for the 113,000 are we not able to have them be able to because you can be in one school and you have to just remember instead of just having like all the other employees an opportunity to know the time that you have accumulated week to week I don't believe that we've explored that but I I believe that um because substitute teachers are perdum teachers um per DM staff I'm sorry um that the system we are we are only using it for full-time staff so can it not be can it be used for other than full-time staff do we not know that

113we have not explored it I'm not certain if we if we have but I can get that information I think that would be um I think that would be very um helpful as we heard some comments tonight and we hear month to month about how they need a key for safety if something happened emergency all of those things I think to make it Equitable because we do rely on them we rely on them so much that we've lowered our education requirement to have them so if we're saying we need you I think it would be very helpful it is helpful that they're able to pick their assignments electronically all of that but for them to track their time as well um instead of just signing in on in the book from building to building I

114think that's worth looking into thank you thank you any additional questions seeing none the motion Flo is that the Harvard Board of Education authorized a superintendent to execute a contract with Frontline Technologies Group LLC for the term outlining the contract ending June 30th of 2024 at the amount na seed $3,329 all those in favor signify by saying I I I any Nays exensions the eyes have it the motion moves thank you item 4.7 second reading and adoption several policies motion that the Harford Board of Education adopts the policy listed below policy 6146 graduation requirements policy 351 16.5 safety and sexual offenders on school property policy 3542 22 Food Service Personnel code of conduct policy 3542 policy 35 4241 food and service Personnel Professional Standards policies 41 3272 4118 53 4218 D 53 gener of AI

115board member Johnson sorry do I have a do I have a motion so move second Bo Johnson yes thank you so much uh Mr chair um so we have up this evening for a second reading uh 6140 graduation policy um the policy committee expanded uh the policy to accommodate veterans who left High School to serve in armed conflict permitting the Board of Education to award an honorary diploma the statement was extended to include long-standing Connecticut residents who have had significant history of service to the Hartford Community and our residents of Hartford this is a policy that we talked through and we've gotten some great feedback and uh I think this is a policy that uh will allow folks who lived in that particular time to have an opportunity to receive an honorary degree uh for

116whatever reason um there is a a stringent process that we did put in place of some uh guard whs and check marks but this is a a very good policy item number two uh tonight for uh second reading and again let let me go back Dr Silver did you want to add anything to that nope if okay if you don't good thank you all right uh we're going to move on to item number two second reading uh policy 351 6.5 safety seexual offenders on school property this best practice directs staff and community members on appropriate protocols for ensuring students with guardians appearing on the sexual offender registry have clear processes to follow with Schools staff and a means for families to meet their responsibilities to their children moving on to item three second reading Food

117Services Personnel code of conduct this is a mandated policy identified by our cab audit as lacking in our policy manual our unions have reviewed this policy moving on to uh item number four Food Service Personnel Professional Standards our unions have reviewed and mandated policy also identified by our cave audit as lacking in our policy manual moving on to item number five uh which is pretty long in number um but I'll read it 3273 411 1853 421 8.53 generative AI this is a policy necessary for Guidance with emerging artificial uh intelligence tools and I'll stop right there as these are all up for second reading I believe there's oh my apologies item yeah that's good that's up for second reading thank you are there any questions or comments board member Brody um Can someone speak to

118um um degenerative AI there was a city council um I they not C motions whatever it came up city council they they felt it was necessary to address there um so could we get some feedback as to why yes that's a very good question we're going to uh bring forth Dr Silver thank you very much Pastor AJ um the reason that the public schools are addressing the artificial intelligence and I I'm not sure um Miss Brody um if your question is the relationship between how the city council is addressing artificial intelligence and how the schools are addressing artificial intelligence but I can only speak to the schools and the artificial intelligence um we want to make sure that we are thoughtful about how we are accessing artificial intelligence and we don't want our students to

119and the policy speaks to this uh provide our students with Innovative and effective educational experiences that Foster high levels of learning we want them to be able to innovate um with artificial intelligence but we don't want the artificial intelligence to replace the natural intelligence that our students have so we want to support the development of their skills and cap capacities while at the same time um thoughtfully moving forward with ways that uh artificial intelligence may help our professionals and our students um respond with Innovation so can I can I comment on this so um as some of you know I I'm an entrepreneu Residence at MIT which is probably the well known for AI um this is very much an involved technology and I've seen a number of policies throughout the country um and all

120of it is very much in um in the spirit of exploring right I don't think anyone's necessarily know exactly what to do with artificial intelligence and still very much again involv with technology I think just today there was some disruption in open chat gdt in terms of the CEO and so forth so um I think there's the acknowledgement that um AI will be here in some form or fashion um throughout our lives um education being one of them but I think it's um to answer I guess to address the your comment Miss bro I would say what I've seen from the city council is very Broad in nature saying hey let's explore this but I don't think anyone's able to give a definitive guideline of what that exploration looks like um I think it's very

121much Aviation and various conversations going to take place and as I've mentioned before um with ai ai has been around for a very long time is now getting a lot of um attention um but we need to be very mindful that as AI could do very um could do things very uh positive there's also some negative consequences um again uh if those data sets are incorrect or or not truly representative of the of the population that's looking to use it so I just wanted to put that out there for public assumption um but I think it was a very worthwhile uh comment or question that you had are can I ask that are we in Communications with city council for them to actually present that like I I from my understanding I know the superintendent

122was contacted and um she could speak to that um yes and I did I did uh virtually join the council meeting and um there wasn't much conversation it actually was a like an item that was taken up as part of other resolutions um the word is a resolution um and I did um have a previous conversation with council president around um our partnership with Google and she expressed um interest in learning more and learning how the council uh can support the work that we were doing here and also learning more um as to how for the city right could any of these Technologies support uh the work that is happening throughout the city and so um I see that the resolution was um had several bullets I um did I'm in the process of um

123continuing to follow up just to further understand what some of those bullets um meant uh but I do know that it was more um as chairman mger said more um General uh interest in learning what we are learning and so there's more to come I guess is what I can say in that in terms of continuing to work in partnership not only internally but um with city council and the last thing I would say I think is the just the trend of AI is really getting around responsible AI um so I think that's the framework that we have to do as a society as we look at um developing and um incorporating this technology in our daily [Music] lives are there further questions or comments as it relates to the policies that board member Johnson

124shared with us and just to be clear M uh through you Mr chair we we did not I don't believe we had policy on AI at all in our policy so this is us moving and evolving with uh with the technology seeing no further questions or comments the motion on the floor that the Harford Board of Education adopts the policies as listed all those in favor signify by saying I I I I any Nays abstentions the eyes have it the motion moves item 4.8 first reading several policies this is a first reading of policies listed below policy 0523 Equity policy policy 13 111.1 political activities of School Employees as this is the first reading no votes required board member Johnson would you like to open up for discussion yes just uh really quickly um item

125six first reading of uh 0523 Equity policy um the diversity of our student body our community and staff is a strength of the district and should be fostered educational Equity benefits all students and our entire Community the first uh the draft Equity policy has been engaged with our community during July August September October and November to ensure student staff and Community Voices are integrated into this uh important policy the policy committee ALS also uh closely reviewed family and student uh feedback identifying additional opportunities to refine the language of the policy to reflect uh the resilient Spirit of our community what I am uh what I will say is I'm excited about this policy this policy started under the board previous uh to um a few of us being on the board and and uh I'm

126happy to say that we're looking forward to completing this policy and I hope this speaks to our community and the brilliant diversity of our staff and everything that we have so our next policy committee meeting uh is on December 4th at 9:00 a.m. and we'll conduct a second reading for the equity policy uh and again this policy came out of many conferences that we've been to one being the conference of the School Board Association and I've had the opportunity to hear other districts talk about their Equity policy so to deliver this to our district um is really really big and I think it uh May set precedence as I'm not sure where other districts are with their Equity policy but Harford will certainly lead the way um my apologies I'm looking for 13-11 on my

127uh sheet here um if I may Pastor AJ yeah please it's not on the sheet um but I do have a quick summary um I'm sorry I didn't provide it in the report um but our board uh our board policy committee did review the political political activities of School Employees um some of the language was outdated and the legal references were out dated so um this is a first reading but we needed to include language about uh protecting students from um uh completing um a campaign work for people potentially running for office who might be employees of the district um so making sure that that was in our policy also cave identified that um there was language missing around posting political circulars or petion uh petitions and the collection or solicitation of campaign funds in

128the school setting that's not permitted during school hours so we were missing some language um related to Student Activities around supporting campaigns um and that that can't happen during school hours and also um the posting uh of uh circulars and petitions and collecting campaign funds ALS can't happen in school hours during school hours but other things uh were not uh revised in the policy were not identified um and they are consistent and in good shape and that includes um employees of the district engaging in political activities that that's encouraged and um that it needs to be confined to the hours away from school and employees may not be released from their regular duties and hours for political activ ity um so that is spelled out and consistent that stays the same in the policy thank

129you so much are there any questions for member Brody is what is our so when we're just amending a policy what is our process is it the same through the same reads uh thank you for that question Miss pry and if I may pastorj our process for amending a policy is to um review the model policy from the uh Cave list fre sources and to integrate the uh new missing language into our existing policy where possible or if there is a conflict uh because of a legal statute or another law change that we need to to abide by there are times when we need to change the language in the policy itself and that's and we do that the policies are identified through um the legislative updates that we receive from cave and from shipment

130and good women as well as um the ones that are available on the website for our um our legislative Connecticut General statutes website our I was referring to also our process here like does it go to a first read a second read like what's that process when we're changing thank you so much so the policy is identified as be requiring modification or being written fresh um because we're missing that policy so depending on um what the policy is for example this is this uh the let's see the graduation policy that we have in place um today and the equity policy they have gone through processes with our staff last year we made major revisions to the graduation policy and that work was done by um Miss Katie Leonard and Miss uh Tracy avoli and that

131was a process where they worked with teams of staff and reviewed the requirements and clarified um the language and the policy as well as the administrative regulations our Equity policy that we have for um a first reading today that's been to our board a number of times but we have gone back to our community to collect more data and to uh engage our students our families and our staff with the equity policy have them read through it we've collected feedback from them our office of schools has done that and we have compiled and summarized that feedback and are using that feedback to shape the language of the policy so our Equity policy is a just a larger um engagement policy um be because it uh is such a a dear an important policy to the

132fabric of our our school district and we want to make sure that it includes all of the uh voices that it could possibly can does that answer your question Miss Brody no if we does does any alteration to a policy do we bring it for to a first read and then a second read adoption no matter what we're changing whether it's brand new whether it's is existing or we changing words so so and board member Johnson please keep me honest here so um there will be another reading of these two policies at the committee meeting and that if there's need to be any changes to those two policies it will be done there if there's agreement from the committee that the wording and the word and captures the spirit of the policy that we're looking

133to do it will be it'll be brought forth for a second reading and the voted upon if at the committee meeting that the committee does not think it's worthwhile to bring forth my understanding is that the chair will go back again and look for language that's appropriate yeah I'm I understand that I appreciate on that explanation I'm just saying generally speaking we have a policy we think we need to amend it does it go through a first read and a second read adoption is that our yes okay thank you thank you any additional questions comments yeah I just want to make the um thank you Dr Silver for uh for just bringing us through through that and I I just want to say that uh this policy committee has operated uh effectively um in the

134past almost year uh maybe year and a half uh on really just is updating and getting our policies up to date and um as the policy chair I always ask Dr Silver and Christina to make sure that any move that we're making that our board is fully aware of what we're doing um so it's not a surprise and so I just want to commend them on uh doing what is asked by sending um the various policies out um and really taking time so we can have feedback and proper dialogue uh I I take policy serious because this is what kind of guides um guides our staff and kind of guides our system and so I just want that uh also to be said and as for our Equity policy we have pulled this policy back

135a number of times I think that was stated today to make sure that we got it right um and so there is intention in detail to this uh and so I I I just want to make that make that said um we're not looking to hide anything under uh a couch or a couch cushion uh we try to do things um conduct public business in in public thank you thank you um again as this is the first reading uh no vote is required um we now move to the consent agenda items on the consent agenda 5.2 acceptance of funds adult education CE grants and 5.3 approval of minutes of October 17 2023 meeting any comments or questions regarding the cassette agenda do I have a motion to vote on the cassette agenda as one item

136so move do I have a second second all those in favor signify by saying I I I any Nays abstentions the eyes have it motion moves agenda item five executive session Personnel discussion uh Dr Torres Rodriguez do I have a motion to enter into executive session so do I have a second second all those in favor to signify by saying I I any Nays extensions the eyes have it will will be taking with us in the executive session superintendent Tes Rodriguez attorney Lori mizeri and Christina Santiago