001foreign everyone game time [Music] good evening as chairman of the Hartford board of education I hereby call to order September 20th 2022 regular meeting 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 to celebrate achievement review information and make policy decisions related to the effective operation of Hartford Public Schools this is a regular meeting and all items that will be discussed or voted on this evening have been posted as required by law as the Hartford board of education we are here to set goals listen to 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
002the responsibility of the superintendent the monthly meetings of the board are open to the public there are the time when the board conducts this business of governing the school system in the public Arena the regular meanings 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 courtesy are important Elements of Effective public meetings please silence your cell phones and communication devices and refrain from talking while others are speaking since it is legally mandated that proceeds to be accurately recorded I may have to ask for order should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities I am pleased that you have taken this time this evening to join us we are very proud of the school system and thank
003you for your interest in Hartford Public Schools now this will be read in Spanish buenas noches personas presentes decisions notifications administrative individuales foreign [Music] Communications foreign momento thank you we will now move on to public comments Miss Oliver we as a board in collaboration with the superintendent and District leadership are committed to cultivating a culture of Excellence at all levels of HPS we thank you for taking the time to attend tonight's Ford meeting we appreciate you coming to learn more about Harford public schools and for sharing your thoughts and concerns we have an established protocol to track and respond to concerned raised we want you to know that we take your concerns seriously and to that end staff will follow up within 48 Hours of follow-up is required via the preferred method of contact the
004speaker has indicated on the sign-in sheet we will follow this no contact method of follow-up for the time being adhering to safety protocols as a reminder you have three minutes to speak at the two-minute Mark the bell will ring letting you know that you have one minute left at the second Bell please wrap up your comments now this will be read in Spanish Hartford this is explantiados history is foreign our first speaker is Michael Downs my name is Michael Downs good evening board members uh superintendent my name is Michael Downs 74 Rosemont Street in Hartford and um I'm here to uh reiterate what I brought up in July concerning the fact that at the most 35 percent of our high school graduates in Hartford go on to post high school education whether it's college or
005some other form of training or the military at about 65 percent are prepared to hit the streets one thing or another and uh sometimes it's uh they get involved in the illegal activities and um we're sort of we're sick of that in the city of Hartford and we think that the um the board should get involved in bringing back something that was part of the school system 15 years ago it was eliminated and that is vocational technical education family consumer science as well as art music library and physical education realize it's not your fault that the all those teachers were laid off 15 years ago and then when the state said you have to bring them back they weren't available so now it's harder but we have to put an emphasis on that and we
006need to get back into the area of teaching our students the basics in carpentry Electronics Blueprinting and Design Graphic Arts Metals Plastics and also how to feed and clothe and transport yourself which family consumer science teaches you um so I would say that we we should seriously look into funding from the state of Connecticut for that it was the state of Connecticut that took it away let's bring it back and finally I still don't see any work done I wish school thank you foreign good evening superintendent and school board members my name is Richard Demay World languages teacher and a member of the Hartford Federation of teachers executive board as Weaver High School area coordinator Eric Ward a nationally recognized civil rights leader recently wrote an article for the American educator Journal entitled you're my
007inspiration in this article he helps differentiate between equality and Equity as well as diversity inclusion and Equity equality is sameness everyone gets the same thing equity on the other hand ensures that outcomes in the conditions of well-being are improved for marginalized groups and lifting outcomes for all to put this idea of lifting outcomes for all into perspective a 2020 study found that discrimination against African Americans has caused the American economy 16 trillion dollars over 20 years let that sink in for a moment 16 trillion to effectively pursue Equity War differentiates this concept from those of diversity and inclusion diversity focuses on quantity such as the percentages of Hartford Public Schools students and staff from different racial and ethnic backgrounds inclusion is about quality for example the the quality of educational opportunity provided to students across
008cultures and identities whereas Equity is about Justice that is the policies and practices that ensure Equitable outcomes towards that goal here are some ideas of policies and practices for Hartford Public Schools to consider reopen libraries in every school so that our students and classrooms have access to books a media specialist research skills and additional technology for any student testing below grade level or experiencing challenges in learning provide smaller sized classrooms to give such students the extra attention they need in those subject areas increase the salaries of the lowest wage earners in our district who tend to be disproportionately people of color ensure every student takes music and art classes from certified teachers and that those whose schools have not had this opportunity get additional funding to make up for the loss this allows every child
009to fully develop their multiple intelligences and possess competitive skills upon graduation recognize the value of our veteran staff and not discount their expertise simply because they're on their individualized Journeys and developing technology skills thrusted upon us all from the pandemic often our veteran staff of color are even further marginalized in this area and finally reduce the amount of testing and provide students with more instructional time to wonder imagine explore learn understand and feel valued give our students and staff the Justice they deserve true Equity thank you [Applause] hyacinthiani hello everyone board member superintendent ah I'm here you know there's so many things that I have to say three minutes would never do it never there's so many sadness we continue [Music] superintendent boards we continue to undermine our system of schools all right I'm looking
010at our Board of gender when did that go out didn't allow people to get out and come and speak and what's going on in our system there is wrong totally wrong now I'm here superintendent because I like to find out from you do you ever think why you're losing so many good teachers from our school system I think that's something you really seriously need to think about because you know everything comes from the top when the pressure the intimidation and everything comes from the top goes into our classroom how do you expect our teachers to feel our staff members in general they work Under Pressure stress with no support you know I had real great feeling the day I think of it when we had that opening day before school I felt like you know
011this is a new beginning but then the new beginning waved right off because it was not real it was not real our teachers are not feeling it superintendent I've asked you when you came into this position meet with your teachers find out what they are doing they are on the front line they can tell you what's wrong you can't stay up there and just throw different things at them at all the time you don't know whether they work or not you need to hear from them without intimidation they come and speak the next day they are told well you know you should not have done that they're reprimanded that is sad that is not a good system to work under as I always told you before happy principles Happy Teachers make happy kids you'll get
012a lot from those teachers when I look in general at your graduation rate in general and what's happening in our school system as I as I said and I like what the previous speaker says we are not preparing our children for the future yeah we may prepare 25 of them but what about the rest they're not prepared for the future they're prepared to be on the street in the jailhouse and how do you look and feel about that superintendent because I want to address you because it's your issue you've got to care about the people are on the front line so they can do good work now I see where a contract is supposed to be signed you know to extend your day and I thought the valuation is going to be on October and
013usually people do you know do the evaluation and then they sign a contract why is this so the opposite of this I don't understand all this board members if you have kids in the system in the Hartford Public School System think about it and see what kind of quality education your kids are getting they are all living the ones that can get out there getting out and we're not preparing the rest of kids I look at all our libraries most of the school that I've gone to there they have no staff in them your library is supposed to be a safe haven for your children at school and that's not happening so where is the fluff there you know you got to be proud of a school system really is proud when good things are
014happening not only when 25 are achieving and the rest are not that is not a happy feeling so I'm asking you seriously to look into it respect your teachers respect your principles give them the way to do things I mean look at it let's let's let them be creative they're not creative anymore they're tired they're worn out because all these things are coming from downtown they call it all right you've got to have confidence in the people that you're hired to be principled and teachers give them the reason they can spread their wings our children are bored because they're not getting what they need so I'm asking you to seriously look at it and board members you need to know what's going on out in the community I'm a community leader and I know I
015hear everything what's happening in our community and it saddens me really saddens me it's not getting any better when something is working in your system when you have school that's working well don't destroy the program that's in those schools and it's half it's happened it's another sad story so I'm asking you seriously when you go to bed tonight 's Kim open my eyes to see what's happening to our teachers they're not staying because they don't feel respected they don't feel supported so help me with that because I would love to talk with somebody that says I love to be in the school system when they leave they always say that oh my God what the difference because people respect them out there so please do that do some of that for me okay thank you
016your system will work much better when you try to keep your people you don't have to go to Puerto Rico to get people you have a lot of people in this state that can work for us but they need to be respected thank you [Applause] Victor cristofaro good evening everyone my name is Victor Christopher I'm the Prince president of the Hartford principals and supervisor Association last year I stood up here and I spoke about the fall of 2020 when union leaders in HPS came together and formed a coalition representing over 2 500 members I stood here last year and requested that we worked together to create a work environment that we all deserve what has happened since in the past year how have we collaborated here are some examples after five years of being told
017that we cannot suspend last year administrators were told that that was never the message that school leaders always had the final decision regarding School suspensions this is quite shocking as many of my colleagues pointed out that their suspensions were overturned multiple times usually leading to situations getting worse to address this issue the district scheduled a 30-minute meeting that took place right before the Teacher of the Year celebration 30 minutes where my colleagues could raise their concerns 30 minutes since last year we had learned that in Hartford if your doctor tells you that you're injured and can't go to work Harford expects you to go against your doctor's orders that's right the question would act was asked if a doctor says that you're not ready to work because your injury has not healed and the district
018says you should be back to work who should you listen to who would you listen to well in Hartford the answer is listen to your employer a fact that they're so adamant about that my members receive letters saying if you don't show up to work regardless of what your doctor says we consider you self-resigned and you no longer work here is that what we want in this District one of the issues that we brought up for five years is the fact that when Hartford people get administrative jobs after the interview after they get selected they get the job in an acting capacity now the district points out that the superintendent has that right and therefore the district will utilize that right now contractually if you've gone through the interview process you should have rights to
019the job makes sense right but our people are told no they're um you're going to be acting for the year because we have a right to do that but here's an interesting caveat if you're not from Hartford and you come from outside the district that doesn't apply to you people hire from outside the district have placed in their jobs permanently is that what we want in this District well as the new year started we all gathered for admin Institute ready to work and what was hartford's concern over these meetings they're concerned about sneakers sneakers they made a point to tell the administrators that they were not to wear jeans sweats or sneakers now admin PD is the time to roll up your sleeves get to work just like I'm sure you've all participated at board
020retreats just administrators in a room working together for four days preparing for the many initiatives of the school year and the district's concern is sneakers I don't know how we got here but I'm running out of avenues for help this year I'm asking you the Board of Education let's collaborate to create the working conditions that we deserve thank you [Applause] good evening Board of Education and all the people in attendance I only have three things that I want to talk about here today the first is Charter reform we need and I've said this multiple times we need a fully elected Board of Education this district has five appointed board members out of nine right nine so five appointed board members each one of you board members who are appointed you're taking democracy away from poor
021black and brown people died gave their lives to us to be able to vote and you're taking that away that's extremely Cavalier second comprehensive after school programs clubs and youth Athletics like Mike was talking about uh industrial Arts and the Arts programs like Harford performs programs like uh Spectrum in motion girls for technology we need to have youth Athletics starting at an early age we need after school busing superintendent you make a lot of money we need after school bus and I can't stress it enough third thing Carrie Saxon Perry if if you don't know about Carrie Saxon Perry shame on you first black woman mayor in New England I secured a 22 000 love you're a block grant from Hartford Foundation of public giving trying to get him to say I still haven't even
022had a meeting yet I have a vendor number already so does my lead artist I still can't even meet with the principal I want to make that sad area look a little bit nicer I have an idea of the beautification Ellis echeveria is the lead artist to wrap the gymnasium um uh Andre we're gonna wrap it with a vinyl wrap it's gonna it's gonna be extremely beautiful Andre Rochester is engaged in our students so we could put a art installation on the fence Trinity College young ladies from Trinity College working so hard so hard they uh have been conducting interviews doing research that kind of continue doing this work so we can have a curriculum to go along with the Kerry Saxon Perry and I just want to say again superintendent when you first got
023appointed I talked about strength and power it's time for the strength to come through because the power comes from that chair and we all know that in this room but it's time for you to have that that strength that we always talked about thank you have a good evening Wanda Jones foreign good evening superintendent Dr Leslie Torres Rodriguez and distinguished board members local 566 would like to thank you and the chief for initiating a successful summer youth program with the collaboration of ax Smith local 818 evening facilities custodial supervisor and Acme local 566. this program provided for our inner city youth job opportunities to support the needs of some of our lower income families and steer our youth in a positive direction to complete their education we would also like to thank the superintendent in
024her cabinet for highlighting and promoting this program this program on the Hartford board of education website thank you Dr Torres the union like to highlight the superintendent summer initiative rollout although we appreciate our food service department cooks and workers receiving the summer initiative we respectfully request that the original language in your email that highlighted custodians as recipients of this and this is in this incentive be honored we would also like to request that our full service truck drivers who delivered for the summer program in our facility trades Personnel who worked in every facility during the summer be rewarded the summer incentive as vice president of the local 566 and a food service worker for over 20 years plus I believe Dignity should be at the front the Forefront of how the food service department leadership
025treats our our members without dignity we will continue to seek a lack of employee retention and many vacancies unfortunately superintendent without reform in this area there can be no renewal and no healing thank you superintendent and board members for your time and attention on these matters I would like to end with a quote by Martin Luther King no work is insignificant all labor that uplifts Humanity has dignity respectfully local 566 Union vice president [Applause] and our last speaker is John Walton good evening superintendent and distinguished board members I hope you had a good summer let me start off on a light note uh superintendent during your convocation you reminded me of uh former president Obama uh when he when he was some of his staff members at the White House were interviewed as to how
026he acted as president and one of the things I admired about him although I disagree with many of his policies is that from the people in the kitchen to the highest state leaders he treated with dignity and I saw bits and pieces of that when you were in your convocation and you were uh jumping in between your role as superintendent and and being a part of this community uh sometimes we forget that you are a mother you are a person of this community and you that gets blinded by the fact that you hold the position of superintendent but it was nice to see you in your business suit and sneakers uh interacting with the kids and performing but let me get to the business of five six six last school year local 566 focused on
027the subjects of reflection that were broken down into three components character behavior and investment this year we want to Center the discussion to the topics of reform superintendent and your convocation address you cited two subjects healing and renewal which our school Community desperately needs but cannot achieve this without the addition of reform reform must take place before the process of renewing healing you may be asking yourselves what this means so let me explain Dr Claude Anderson identified education as a Mainstay and Cornerstone to a thriving Community he also acknowledged education that doesn't address economic conditions of the community will fall short of the ability to heal and renew them in the late 1960s and early 1970s industrial trades education was eliminated from public school curriculums this stripped the ability of our students to be able
028to build and maintain our community the Reliance on others to do what we need done in our community came became the way of life during the Civil Rights Movement industrial trade workers funded the civil rights leaders of the time to achieve civil rights success in the United States as Martin Luther King articulated there can be no real civil rights success without economic progress we must speak to the economic needs of our community before all other aspects of Education can be implemented the superintendent and the board must take a hard look at re-implementing the industrial trades back into our curriculum through internships and Community partnering with our facilities and food service departments in addition bringing back trades curriculum back into our middle school and high schools which we have seen examples of in other suburban school
029districts this would begin the process of providing our students the ability to earn income that helps their families gives them the ability and gives them the ability to further their education with limited to no debt this will also create in our students a personal investment in in the community as they would be learning the fundamentals of building and maintaining their educational facilities the city of Hartford would benefit with this investment as it would increase youth skills as a larger pool of resources for the city simply put if there are more economical opportunities through education then our students would be less likely to fall victims of negative futures 85 percent of local 566 members are residents of our community and are invested in this progress we are committed to the reform of our departments and school
030system although we are happy to see some changes in our supervisors and middle management ranks these changes cannot just be symbolic Hartford Public Schools must commit attention and efforts to reform these departments overall direction which thus far has continued to use a business as usual model changes that don't address the direction and those Who oversee that direction won't be able to reform nor provide the results this community deserves for example President Biden's Administration floated the notion of putting Harriet Tubman's picture on the twenty dollar bill which would be a result of symbolism this does not address the economical inequalities of the communities to which Harriet Tubman was trying to liberate nor provide that Community accessibility to economical resources conclusively the kova 19 pandemic and other health health and safety situations highlighted the importance of facilities
031and food service operation as parallel to academics there can be no education of students without the women and men who provide the conditions for health and safety without these individuals educators will not be able to educate and students will not be able to receive that education I would like to leave you with a quote from Dr Martin Luther King if our economic system is to survive there has to be a better distribution of wealth we can't have systems where some people live Superfluous and ordinate and inordinate wealth While others live an abjecting poverty thank you for your attention board members and superintendent foreign apologies one last speaker Michelle Watley good evening ladies and gentlemen I thank you this evening to come out to listen to each and every one of the parents um as a
032parental parent and I'm talking as a parent to please think in consideration of our children because this is our next future that coming I listened to another school another town where a child was asked in appearing in the board meeting what could you do for us the child and I don't think no parent none of the parents could not answer her because this was a child age 16 would plea into the parent superintendent I'm asking you as a parent to a parent one day you're going to be grandparents and you're going to move on but what I'm asking you to ask your staff what could you do right if you had to go back and correct things or put things in place what could you do that's all I'm asking you and for the Hartford
033student I have a child just start here in Weaver I had a child went to brutally in Hartford system and I cried every night because of what my child went to she's age 19. she was my child was a child I bring from another state and went through the horrible experience I had her brother is in this school and I have to ask myself what can I do for protect him in the school system and I'm asking you asking each and every one of your as a parent I'm not coming as what position you are have there as a parent we need programs to come back in Hartford we need to train our young children or a young teenager we need to train them we need programs we need so many things to come out
034I remember when they were in Clark Street school I went to this 31 years ago what could we do and they bring back some of the program I'm asking you now please consider you and yourself to bring back program in Hartford Thank you foreign public comment thank you we now move on to the report of the chair as always I'll remind at every board meeting you could find the full committee reports as well as all the attachments and videos and the meeting agenda on board Docs as a reminder that all committee and workshop meetings are live streamed as well as viewable after the meeting the YouTube links are saved to each meeting agenda on board docs I encourage the community to view the meetings and read the reports when possible if you have any questions
035please contact Christina Santiago our boy liaison at C Santiago harfordschools.org before I conclude I do want to share a few highlights with the community one as part of business agenda item 4.5 we leveraged the Connecticut superintendent leadership competency framework and achieved the 89 completion rate for the superintendent's evaluation for Academic Year 2122 I want to thank my colleagues for the engagement and thoughtful feedback during this process two the district has engaged with the prestigious higher ed Institute in an effort to expose some of our students to world-class facilities faculty and resources currently not at Libby to share the name of the Institute but I'm confident that some of our students would benefit greatly once plans have been finalized three for business like business agenda item 4.1 the board will host a mini retreat on October
03620th to learn more about the superintendent's Discovery relating to the creation of Hartford Public School Foundation for and lastly with the start of the new school year I believe we are poised to regain our pre-pandemic momentum and make meaningful strides towards our strategic operating plan goals on the behalf of the board we very much look forward to working and engaging with our students caregivers Community Partners staff and the superintendent thank you we will now move on to the report of the superintendent also as a reminder that the entire report that I provide is on board docs I usually just pick several of the sections to report on and I'm going to start Christina I don't know if you can share just a just one uh data display as it relates to our attendance initiatives and
037a just a recap of some data so as we began the school year there certainly is positive momentum to your point uh chairman and encouraging signs around attendance so I'll lift a few Trends here 26 schools have average daily attendance above 90 percent compared to 19 schools at this time last year right so 26 now 19 schools last year the district-wide average daily attendance is just below 90 percent compared to 81 percent at this time last year all grades Pre-K 3 through 8th have achieved 90 or better attendance um with the exception of pre-K 4 and Kinder who have 89.9 89.5 but if we round it up is that 90. over the same period last year um only our eighth graders had achieved 90 Ada and then a high school of ADA is at 85.5
038compared to 81 last school year we certainly do still have a lot of work to do but right this correlation between improved attendance the comprehensive redesign of Engagement teams is promising school-based teams are certainly have been kicking their engagement programs into high gear some examples right Naylor had their first pep rally Burr has begun their Twilight visits to support families these are visits that take place after school hours McDonough has opened their bear Den Global is shouting out tier three students who came in right the beginning of the school year with the yard goat tickets you name it there are several Innovations across all of our schools and I do want to thank our Ace teams our teachers our staff our administrators for their diligence and their commitment to not only establishing deep relations but
039engaging learning opportunities across our schools an athletic update we are still in the process of uh hiring and looking for coaches uh specifically at the middle school level for uh the fall we currently have a 58 increase in middle school offerings compared to last fall all 17 middle schools are expected to have at least one sport many of them offering two to three last year 12 schools offered a middle school fall Athletics and so we are confident that all 17 will be offering that this year and we certainly have a lot to celebrate at the high school level with Weaver right participating in their first varsity football game in several years and we have our quarterback at smsa Daniel Hernandez that was named the WFSB player of the week want to highlight uh our new
040teacher induction I know that the year has already started we are underway but I I want to pause and highlight that uh out of 172 out of the 224 new teachers hired uh since July 1st uh they were in attendance in our four-day professional learning um and we also had 21 of our student teachers I'm also joining some of that learning and for new teacher induction our teachers participated in over 20 sessions received not only content but also curriculum training across English Language Arts Special Education supports for multilingual Learners learned about some of the technical tools like PowerSchool Parent Square certainly leverage the opportunity to offer training in informed practices to our new teachers and of course dove into Equity work as well so I want to thank Dr Curtis the team in the office
041of talent management and all the other departments because it truly was a collaborative effort chairman that concludes my report [Music] thank you we now moved to the business agenda business agenda item 4.1 resolution Hartford Public Schools Foundation the motion that the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to explore and research establishing a Hartford Public School foundation and report back to the Board of Education do I have a motion superintendent [Music] so our as many of us are keenly aware of the fact that many of our students have unique challenges that require very targeted uh Solutions and the pandemic coupled with limited resources has further disenfranchised our community and we are really thinking about uh post covid funding of how to maintain uh sustain our Innovative programming strategies and initiatives we know that we need
042additional momentum and we know that the arpa the Esser funding the relief funding expires in the fall of 2024 so a possible new Avenue for us to explore how to address our financial sustainability strategy is through potentially a creation of a 501c3 a foundation um this is something that chairman and the finance committee have talked about for for some time now um and so um we will engage over the next set of weeks in some research to identify local and even National examples of models as well as potentially other uh structures perhaps like a hybrid model that I can present to you all at the upcoming board retreat [Music] thank you I'll open up to discussions and comments Miss Brody is a resolution necessary like I'm trying to understand because so this has been mentioned
043in a couple committees but not in a way that is open for questions because we kind of don't know what to ask so I'm I need to understand the resolution the need for it and why research just can't be done I just I don't understand a resolution and and I do want to ask the superintendent stated the um the chair and some other people is she saying the chair of our board you Mr regard or the chair of something else she didn't reference whom she was referring to have been talking about this for a while I'll address that so in terms of the resolution uh specifically as a board giving the superintendent the go-ahead to actually research and provide input of whether or not the foundation is a viable option for us as a district
044the reason for the resolution is because this is um something that I think as the superintendent that she needs are approval to move forward in this direction as it relates to the comment around the board or the chair rather I asked the superintendent to further examine the potential of this this was discussed in several committee meetings and today what we're voting on is to give the superintendent the authority to move forward in discovery mode not to create a not to create a foundation this is Discovery there is also a need to engage in Council advisory and so I can't do that without um board as well Miss Brody so we're saying go ahead do your research but at the same time prior to any anything else we we have not had the platform to even
045ask questions prior to Discovery we've it's been mentioned in committee but it's like oh we're not taking questions now sort of thing um so it's just a total I'm so confused on not discussing because we we so we have something set up a month from now to discuss so no discussion prior to the superintendent going out prior to her speaking with Council there's not a collective discussion with the board prior to that it's only after all of that then we are able to engage um collectively with questions so miss Brodie I would say that I think there was um it's time to discuss what's being proposed also tonight is another platform to to provide questions or comments um I would say I think there's a lot more to be discovered and unwind which is part
046of the next I would say 30 30 days that the superintendent's got to take again I just want to reiterate that this is for Discovery um so I think a lot of questions may be unanswered and allows the superintendent to go back and um find those answers or resolutions we looked at data and I it was some other I was I listened to somebody and they all they they warned they said when you get data reports and you hear a lot of growth growth growth that's a smoke screen we had a million slides on growth but when we really talked about the progress of our students there is no category um for English language arts math there's no category that collectively um our students are achieving even 25 proficiency so with that said we're talking
047about a 501c3 we're talking we we need to talk about how we should be focused on academic achievement period and all those things that connect to it so some of those things that connect to it um I've been saying it forever speakers have been seeing it forever the way kids are molded in the way they grow we all I I have just memories you want to go to school you want to go to library you want to learn how to operate in the library you want to go to music class you want to be in a Martin Luther King um music room I could remember tapping the wooden sticks and learning that part art and that we have some schools that that's not even a position that's open because we're saying we don't have funding
048for it those things that shape and mold a young person the things that make them want to go to school the thing that our students of color are music and art so I'm just so confused why we're distracted on things like starting a foundation at this moment in time because at this moment in time our scores reflects something that I'm embarrassed to look at think is is just is a distraction it's something and I'll just out in there but I will not be supporting something because when I hear reports month after month oh as a district we you know we presented and we recognize because we're groundbreaking we're doing this we can pretend to be groundbreaking we could pretend to be Trailblazers but at the end of the day that those scores that were shown
049to us last third last Tuesday at our board um Workshop that is what we reflect not all the smoke and mirrors we need to get back to the business of using the funds to support teachers and what they need to do that shape young people we're distracted out in there thank you Miss Brody uh Dr schmerling some of the recommendations that we've been hearing in public comments almost every meeting relate to lack of resource and programs that children need that we've not been able to afford having a foundation that raises supplemental funds enables us to do some of those programs that people are talking about the budget is constrained having a foundation that identifies sources of revenue that supplement our budget I think could be constructive and I think at least exploring the idea for
050the next 30 days can't cause any harm we can ask questions and pursue the detail once we have some recommendations so I do support the the pursuit of the possibility of creating a foundation that will raise money to support the things that we want to do thank you Dr strolling uh board member Walker thank you Mr chair um I believe that this the foundation is a concept is interesting uh I believe it's it's premature to begin to do so this forum I think it was um mentioned in in a very scant and cursory way at a committee level I I believe we have committee structure to do the work of of the school board and I think a lot of this work uh should be done at that level I honestly I don't think this
051Foundation is ready to be talked about at this at this level uh what you mentioned today should have been mentioned at a committee level the actual process of here's what we're going to do here's how it's going to go here's to do the research some of those process steps are things you do at a community level and do the work at that level I think there are things are discussed at this forum that are more pressing for today the absolutely think a foundation at some point is going to be needed or some method to sustainably fund the school system after Esser funds and federal funds kind of dry up but um to me this work had been done at a community level which used to be performed and then when we have a story to
052tell then sure let's let the public know where we're going what it the Contours and shape of it is okay um that's um so I would hope that this exploration takes place but I really really hope that there's sufficient work done at a committee level to really flesh out and explore what this will look like thank you board member escobano degree respectfully with my colleagues I do agree that this is a step towards the right direction for the Hartford School District I believe that I think Bridgeport it was that has a foundation if you look across the nation and even in the state there are other foundations who have been able to Leverage the foundation to be Innovative to get out there and get the resources that our kids need that our families need that
053our teachers need and this is another way that we won't be constrained as my colleague here said the budget is constrained right we have line items the foundation gives us the ability to be more flexible to tackle those issues that our community is facing in a more Innovative creative way if Hartford district is going to be one of the best districts in the state that I know it can be we need to be Innovative and creative and I strongly believe this is a way to do it and I do agree though that it needs to the work needs to be done in the committee level and I am the chair of the family community engagement and so I'm looking forward to working with the superintendent and her team and having those conversation in the month
054to come um and exploring that so I will put that out there thank you thank you board member Bella also agree Yahira on the exploration and I also believe that in transparency I think the public should know what we're looking into and uh what rocks we're turning under uh and looking under um I I don't think we have the luxury of leaving any options on the table for the city of Hartford um both now and in the future and I think the foundation positions us to receive funding from National um you know education foundations that have massive um you know not not one Foundation can pay for everything but certainly um a few and uh strategic Investments could help us along the way so I'm I'm all for exploring every Avenue of Revenue um for
055our children seeing no further comments um the motion on the floor is at the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to explore and research establishing a Hartford Public Schools foundation and report back to the Board of Education all those are Faith all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any Nays extensions the eyes have it em 4.2 contract renewal Community Schools contract motion at the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute the contract with the agencies listed on the item for the term defined in the contract ending June 30th of 2023 at the course not to exceed as listed do I have a motion so move second superintendent thank you just a little background and reminder for our community that uh Community Schools or schools that partner with families and Community
056organizations specifically reflect the local needs and assets and priorities of that Community rethink and rebuild relationships based on trust and respect and create and Implement a shared vision of student and school Success core partnership components are in alignment with our strategic plan family and Community engagement collaborative processes and practices and integration integrated student support structure and the expanded learning opportunities the community school coordinating agencies are active City Blue Hill civic association voice and Girls Club of Hartford career resources Catholic Charities and the village for children for families and children and they're going to continue to they seek to continue to coordinate and maximize not only public but also non-profit and private resources right it's the braiding of those resources to deliver the critical services to not only our students but also to their families coordinating
057agencies also provide more than one type of service to students in in the community some services are very unique to each School Community such as right some schools have mental health and clinical supports that are offered to students and families and the community schools are evaluated based on the community school standards through School site visit tool that Chief blackberg and her team can speak to if needed thank you do I have any questions or comments from my colleagues board member Brody so when I wanted to know the work that was done I won't know I wanted to know the plans that the organization had like what they were going to deliver on and I wanted to know what the results were and that would allow me to make an informed decision on voting for continuation
058I asked for that you can roll back the tape that is not what I got I don't understand I really just don't understand I have I respect every organization presented um is not personal in any kind of way I'm just asking for Dad and I I don't understand how as a board member if I'm asking for data that I don't receive um what I ask for I I I'm unable to know what if a result um did not come to fruition I need to learn to understand from I can ask a question to the organizations who are represented tonight like what was your struggles um what more support um did Harford could Harford Public Schools provide what happened with families that kind of swayed you um to take another approach I can't ask any of
059those questions because I don't have the data that I requested in committee so uh superintendent I'll let you address that but I do believe we have represented from our Community Partners here today um Chief blackberg is here as well and can speak to the request but to miss Brody's um first comment around data I would like for you to address that one of you Mr chairman is it okay for me to respond thank you good evening to all and thank you so the pieces that were provided and if that is not what you were expecting we can go back and look to compile additional components but what was provided is the layout based on the outcomes that our community providers share that they're going to do so what was provided of that is not what
060you were looking for we can go back to the drawing board and look to provide additional information what was provided was the Community School site visit template that is used for standards and that is what we are working with when we have our monthly meetings with Partners to determine if they are in fact meeting what they say they're going to do we also provided the framework of how that plan is compiled in alignment with the Strategic goals so again I have no problem publicly publicly saying if that is not what you were looking for I do apologize for that and we'll work with the board assistant to get you what you need but I'm more than willing to invite Partners up if there are particular questions that need to be answered so we do have
061all of our partners active City Blue Hill civic association career resources Catholic Charities the village and the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford here with us all of our agencies are so if you don't mind joining me uh thank you as they woke up uh board member escobano thank you hear me okay great so I also want to clarify that during that meeting um I requested all of my colleagues to send in their questions or concerns that they had about any of the cbo's um to be sent in the next day so that way Chief blackberg and her team had an opportunity to review those questions in advance and send all those answers and I can concur that we did receive the some data but I guess again it wasn't exactly what my colleague here
062was requesting but I do want to make it clear to everyone here that every colleague who had a question had the opportunity to ask and if there were follow-up questions I requested that they'd be submitted at a certain time period in order to ensure Chief blackberry and her team had enough time to answer and get those answers back to us thank you thank you are there other questions or comments from my colleagues follow-up do your message excuse me sorry member Brody you have before so um I appreciate you all coming I've worked with some of you probably personally my children have I appreciate it I have a my youngest is at the Boys and Girls Club I mean I probably every um and she goes there right after school on the bus um so I
063appreciate your work um it's more than um is more than me I the data is not to say look you didn't make it the data is to say what is the struggle and how could we be better what are we not doing what what do we not see that is all because we only can make informed choices or we only can get better um and continue to thrive through looking at data and we all know that right in a non-profit world we that's how we show and we learn from our struggles so I don't have any questions from you today because I was not presented with what I asked for in committee and that was data on what you did um last school year I appreciate your work um more than you'll ever know and
064um thank you for coming tonight thank you um along those lines um I'm actually interested just based on your experience what are some of those pain points or things that we could improve upon anyone could fill that question good evening and thank you for having us Aldo and Alan the village with family and children as we talk about pain points I think um we've heard um a lot tonight what people's experiences are one of the realities is as you are running a community school your job is to integrate fully into the school our concept is to supplement not supplant so as you're talking about Ace teams as you're talking about Twilight visits that you're talking about open houses that you're talking about bringing resources into the school that allows children to have a greater Focus
065things that align more with vocational studies things aligned with post-secondary education we're bringing those things into the schools and we partner with the institution to do so so when you talk about the stressors and the challenges it is the same it is that if we're running these programs during the day and we do have as you're looking at Community School I wanted to really keep in the concept the construct because if you measure a community school which begins at the start of the school day and ends at 6 PM sometimes 6 30 and so and depending on special activities and engagements that may go beyond that you have to be very clear about the measure so if you're talking by implementing activities during the day we struggle with the same thing the administration struggled with
066because we sit side by side to them because there's an intentionality around instructional time uninterrupted instructional time some of the funders that we work with and we look to braid funding they don't want to exist within an after-school frame so we meet with armed principals we engage we talk about those pieces as we're looking at inviting parents in and having them develop relationship with the institution and I want to be specific as I say these things because when you have a community school the job of the community school lead organization is to integrate seamlessly if we're walking through the school and the parent says Oh The Village did that oh Blue Hills did that it's a problem because our responsibility is to build a relationship with the institution if we create series scenarios where there
067are heroes from the outside it devalues the school so as you're looking at a well-functioning community school it is integrated in every aspect of that school therefore all of the struggles that are inherent with running that school day are by its very nature the same problems and struggle that the community school has so if you're talking about issues that may exist with custodians if you're talking about issues that may exist for security if you're talking about issues that may exist with Transportation all of the same walls become ours because our responsibility is to exist within a school frame to work with the school principal with the construct of supplement not to plant with the intentionality to provide wrap-around services that allows the institution to focus on academic growth and development while we provide a wrap
068around services that help underpin that process thank you and anyone else like to like to provide a perspective so thank you to Mr chair I think the question was what were the pain points correct that is correct so um I Echo uh uh the sentiments by aldwin uh Mr Allen from the village by the way my name is Nick LeBron from Catholic Charities I think the way that I would best describe it is it's similar to I like to use analogies to frame uh the conversation and so what I would the analogy I would use here is that oftentimes when you're sailing in the sea you can be much more nimble when you have a smaller boat but Hartford Public Schools is a large entity it has more staff and employees than the city of
069Hartford so I liken that to a battleship it is hard to do a U-turn with a battleship in the sea it takes time and so with the the detail that Mr Allen shared it's similar in that way in that the ability to be nimble uh presents difficulties I'm not saying that you can't do it um you can but um along with any institutions any organizations rather be at the state the Municipal Federal local level there are things that you have to go through to make sure that everything is aligned meanwhile whatever you're trying to be nimble to is happening right and so therefore it is reactionary in nature by Design and this is not a heart for public school specific thing this is a National broader landscape so I can give examples about that but
070I don't want to because I don't think that there's anyone to blame except the fundamental structures that we were all inherited with and I think that that's the difficulty thank you anyone else good evening brother Calvin Lovejoy Blue Hill civic association and I'm actually here at Weber High School this is an extra long day for me as I got to school this morning at almost eight o'clock and um you know I think I'd really like to speak from the front line and although I am a supervisor of the director you know when we talk about the Community Schools model you know it's all hands on deck we roll up our sleeves we dive in and whatever our school needs help whatever our young people need help wherever our families need help that's where you'll find
071us at and so literally being in classrooms being in hallways being in cafeterias bringing up small skirmishes even before they start building the relationships with our young people that make it possible for the IQ to increase so that the EQ can be strengthened it is really really a vital part that we play inside of the school and I smile because I think about something that I heard today from one of my colleagues and one of the things that we're you know teaching our young people when many a time as you know they speak that team age language and so one of the things that we've established is that you know instead of using certain kinds of words we we've identified those words as baby language so we don't want to use baby language and amazingly
072enough you know one of my colleagues who was in a classroom this morning uh as we were speaking in a meeting after school he said you know what I heard some students say when they heard another student use quote-unquote a bad word that we don't use baby language here I said I know that we're doing something I appreciate it thank you very much thank you greetings my name is Chantel gray director of specialized initiatives and Partnerships at the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford I would just like to recommend um having a lot of the community-based organizations offer programming on Saturdays at our other locations we are open you know until 8 PM we're servicing over five or more children at our club sites so only pain that I would like to recommend if we're
073able as a community based organization to offer Saturday Academy at the boys and girls club we have six pillars that we align with academic success health and wellness character and Leadership steam diversity equity and inclusion and Workforce Readiness and we don't do it alone at the boys and girls club we have other partners thank you for your time good evening everyone I'm Sandra plesinger from career resources and I would like to also recommend and I think this will be my only recommendation that more agencies can join the Air Force of community schools because last year was our first year in a community school English was such a great experience for the students for me personally for all our staff accountable resources to be able to see the changes that we're able to accomplish in such
074a short period of time with the students and we might personally I don't have the data like quantitative but the qualitative data it was amazing just to see the students that didn't want to do public speaking at all to at the end of the year being the one volunteering to do the morning announcements you know and it's not just one organization it's all of us working together and meeting and really working towards the student in the academic portion and in the social emotional learning thank you board member Walker thank you Mr chair um your your comments are inspiring in the work you do is impressive I've had the opportunity to visit um McDonough and would love to visit other sites the transformation At McDonough is impressive and it left me wanting to understand that working
075relationship as I think Mr Allen the first speaker that is that it's seamless is so essential to a success so I am just impressed with what you do my comment is I guess at a board level continuous Improvement is the thing that we can potentially offer you I think the timing of this feedback it's what I would like to see different um it would be great to have you come in throughout the year particularly towards the second half of the year because the the comments you've made about more participation and the expanding to Saturday I think timely received information is something that we can act on and so I would really like to see that change put in place where we can hear from you in the second half of the Year where it can
076then we can work with Chief black perk or others to see how to improve the program for the upcoming year and so you can feel I think your voice responded to and the offerings we allow you to do in the upcoming season it's great to see you guys and I thank you for your hard work um so I just want to also emphasize we are making some changes to the fce committee I will be meeting with Chief blackberg there we want to hear from you we haven't figured out the time frame more than just in the middle of half the year so we will keep you posted as soon as I meet with Chief Blackford we are going to be making some changes to the fce committee to make it more efficient in order to
077have those voices at the table for us to be aware of what's going on some of your challenges what we can do at this level to support you so I look forward to building and strengthening that relationship with you guys thank you for a member uh Pastor Johnson yes thank you chair um my comments and sentiments are very simple just thank you all so much for the work that you have done uh and continue to do most of your organizations are uh are respected deeply um when I get a chance to go by schools and engage with young people and go by various community events you all are represented there with young people and I just want to say that that is absolutely amazing uh again deeply respect everyone and probably in relationship with brother
078Lovejoy more often just due to the work that we further do in North Hartford but to see those young people come together for a day of cleaning uh on Barbara Street from Hartford Public Schools was an amazing thing to see hundreds of young people flooded the street and a lot of young people don't go to the same school but they come from different neighborhoods and to see them respect each other in a very territorial space with no incidents on Barbara Street on a Saturday morning I just want to say that that that is amazing so I'm sure all of you are doing work like that and I look forward to partnering with you all in various capacities but that's just one partnership that I've actually seen come to light uh in in work active City
079I've heard that name a lot around Sports and I'm I think there's a lot more territory you all can can grasp as it pertains to Sports in Hartford as we don't have certain things that we uh that other towns have but your name continues to come up so again just thank you to everyone and I appreciate the work that you all do thank you emotion on the floor is that the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with the agencies listed on the item for the term defined in the contracts ending June 30th of 2023 at the course not take seat as listed all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any Nays extensions the eyes have it thank you item 4.3 curriculum Associates elevation platform motion that the Hartford
080butter education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with the curriculum Associates elevation for the term defined in the contract ending June 30th of 2023 at a cost not to exceed 80 000 80 175 dollars do I have a motion so moved second second superintendent 20.5 of our students are identified as multilingual Learners so elevation is a comprehensive data management platform that organizes student data for our multilingual Learners it provides progress monitoring processes it does house it's not only state but also Federal mandated paperwork and enables accurate reporting and supports instructional planning for um multilingual Learners in online paperless platforms some of the things that um the cost is associated with elevation platform engages School Educators in not only academic but also in linguistic data that is specific to multilingual Learners it does integrate updates
081nightly in alignment with the power school and it provides detailed reports for our Educators and it saves parent and team meeting notes in one in one place the student data is easily retrievable from other districts that are also using elevation which helps for students that might be moving in and out of our district thank you uh comments or questions from my colleagues board member Walker thank you um two points I guess one I guess that's intended um so is this platform going to support um kind of dual language instruction does that exist in a district and is this going to support that Ike and Spanish language Learners learn in Spanish while they're also learning English and this will support that no this this data this uh platform is specifically data management tool follow-up question um
082this year I would like to um be able to get feedback from teachers on instructional staff as to how the tool is working occasionally I get feedback on tools that somehow don't quite deliver to staff as they think they would so I'd like to be able to get some feedback as we go through the year about how it's working form of abroading did we have any um staff that are going to be utilizing this system tested or anything to that yes Dr Negron if you can speak to that please good evening everybody um yes Miss Brody last year what we did as we learned about the tool we actually ran a pilot with many of the teachers who normally would engage in doing the level of looking at information and data and assessing to progress
083manager multilingual Learners so we had to do the pilot and based on their feedback which was favorable that is when we then decided to try to expand it and bring it forward to the entire District thank you ahead of um a second question Brody go ahead because over time we've seen um other contracts with data management so how are we thinking about all of those um other contracts and what they do do they complement each other are they all just segmented how um because we've had some other data tools as far as and I don't want to put you I'm not putting your spot document but something to think about like a follow-up right all those different um places that we've had where where data here data there how are they working together or do
084they just simply work separate that might be a reality but that's something I would like to so I do not have all the answers but the answer that I can can share is that we're always looking whenever we're looking at these tools how are they compatible with PowerSchool because as you know that is our main source of being able to pull data so that allows for anybody that's going to be using it to access it that way so that it's readily accessible any other questions or comments from my colleagues board member Bella uh good evening um my question is really just around who's going to own the data is it consistent with other data tools where we would have access to that data and should we need to migrate have access to historical data in
085this tool what's your answer sure so yes we do own the data it's our own data all we're doing is we literally right now collect all that information um old-fashioned like through paper and this is just going to make it more efficient see no further questions or comments the motion of the floors at the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute and contract with curriculum Associates elevation for the term to find the contract ending June 30th 2023 at the cost not to exceed 80 175 dollars all those a favor signify by saying aye aye aye any Nays extensions the eyes have it em 4.4 revision learning motion that the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute a contract with revision learning for the term to find the contract and the June
08630th 2023 at the course not to exceed 448 880 do I have a motion still moved second superintendent yes and I'll actually called um Dr Negron back up to speak to and or chief Avila um too fabula for the continuation of the work which is in support of our instructional leadership with our school leaders and we also have Mr Patrick Flynn who's here representing revision learning as well yeah can you uh Chief Alvin can you please give us just a brief description of that foreign so over the last I believe uh more than seven years revision learning has been working with our organization to support new leaders in building their capacity to provide effective feedback to teachers and so when a new administrator comes into the uh in Hartford Public Schools they run a three-day
087session with revision learning so that they learn the process well and able to implement it last year revision learning started working with Harford high and in regard to the commissioner's Network and has really supported the process in building the capacity of the instructional team as well as the teachers this coming year McDonough who's a feeder School into Harford high and part of the commissioner's Network plan is to to build that feeder School into Hartford High so that there can be a strong through line has revision more revision revision learning where working with McDonough school as well Additionally the work will also support our pdoc committee and the work that's happening between the department of school leadership and the department of academics and will support professional learning for our executive directors of school leadership thank you
088do I have any comments or questions from my colleagues board member Walker yeah um yeah um chief of avalock can you just break that down I wasn't on this particular committee and in a more simpler fashion like this tool going to support coaching between teachers or how does it work because now just say it's going to work as a as a system between McDonough and Harford public high school now I'm a little lost as to how's this all going to work what does it actually do I'm going to turn it over to Mr Flynn who can give you the actual details the thing to start with is that our work in schools and in particular this year in Mcdonough and at Hartford Public High School is all about creating the conditions for school leadership and
089teachers to do their work right it's as simple as that what we believe very sincerely and what we've applied at Harford High last year and we'll get the opportunity to then do it at Mcdonough this year is that a collaborative shared decision-making model that is driven around instructional practice and supports teachers especially in teacher to teacher peer-to-peer interaction around instructional practice is your best Avenue to that to that success so um we we in particular focus in on instructional leadership team development where we have teacher leaders engaging with the principal and with their administrative cabinet to support instructional improvements inside the classroom now that that is really what we pushed out at Hartford Public High School and the focus around all of that is about improving an opportunity for feedback to get to teachers feedback
090for growth feedback for improvement and that that has to become more cohesive is what it really comes back down to so what we're looking to do is is continue to provide the services direct to um to the instructional leadership teams uh both now at Mcdonough and at Harford public high look for that 6 through 12 potential progression and vertical alignment of those services in order to really continue to improve in that last year we had great success in particular with the teacher to teacher component all of that most of the data that we have that supports all of that really comes in the form of teacher and administrator data showing improvements in instructional practice through their feedback okay so if I have a follow-up question so break it down a little bit more what someone's
091there with me for instance and and in an old school way what was effective is an in-school coach so from a young teacher uh I'm put my structural my instructional proficiency because someone more experienced comes in and gives me feedback and then there's a feedback loop I can look again I tell you what you've got but you didn't quite get and then somehow there's some trust built up and then eventually that younger teacher becomes more proficient through that relationship so is this tool kind of augmenting that or or facilitating that it is it's um it's augmenting it it is providing an opportunity for not only an administrator to teacher-based feedback model to take place but a teacher-to-teacher based model to take place um and it's it's providing an opportunity for um the comparisons of data
092outcomes right for in our instructional practice not to just be one-sided or coming down from an Administration it really provides an opportunity for teachers to inform the the work of other teachers so it is augmenting it is supplementing the the feedback that is coming from an administrator okay yeah if I can do one last comment that sounds really exciting I would like to see that then Chief aval attract and see what the outcomes are and and what I'm saying is because if it really works in this space um let's expand it because one of the things that I kind of sense is the way we kind of do it right now where there's an evaluation and a teacher gets something like sheet of paper and they're left to try to figure out how to make
093life better for themselves as a teacher if this is better then let's have it be better for the district I can't agree with you more um and I would say that uh you know both of our books are focused in on that exact topic of making sure that we increase the amount of feedback towards a culture of learning within our schools and and that component is an extremely important part of it we do have data from Hartford Public High mostly once again teacher and administrator-based data that really shows and demonstrates where and how improvements started to occur within the classrooms as a result of that model thank you yeah board member thank you chair um I would be interested in knowing so in this past Academic Year obviously Colby hit everything was a hot mess
094but um I want to know what were some of those challenges for the administrators and the teachers I would like to get a sense of their feedback that they provided you in terms of how helpful this was for them I think the the challenges really revolve around two core ones and I'm going to give you the one that we always talk about that is time right and the opportunity to make sure that we have the right structures in place to get the time for those instructionally driven conversations to occur so that tends to be the first and foremost one that's brought up I would I would suggest that feedback itself is a challenging process right giving receiving feedback um it's it's fundamentally not easy to to to receive uh it's also for fundamentally not easy
095to give and as a result uh much of the training and much of the focus of our coaching and our support for those teachers as well as for those administrators was developing a model for that feedback to have that impact that it was so I would say time feedback itself becomes a challenge for those folks because we have unfortunately sometimes uh I heard this phrase earlier in one of the schools the culture of nice like we like to be nice to each other and feedback sometimes has to be directed support in in that support so so I'm assuming this school year is gonna that's gonna be a little bit different right it has to be you know and I would say yes because ultimately what you're starting to see now is a is a comfort
096level based on core dispositions of those who provide and give and receive feedback and we've established those those um those dispositions pretty well within Hartford Public High School we'll be introducing those into McDonough and as a result of that we're starting to see a comfort level with that providing and receiving to the point in which feedback is is about our formative growth about informing how and when we will get better at what we do and I think that that's really cool one last comment slash question I'm I'm All About all about professional development and creating that pipeline of teachers to become administrators internally right that's really important I apologize um one of the things I would like to see maybe it was in the teaching and learning committee and I apologize I wasn't there but
097I would love to hear directly from some of the admins and teachers on how great it has been using this tool and and how we can continue improving that throughout the district that would my only recommendation absolutely sure thank you uh board member Ledger thank you chair um thank you so much chair um good evening the question that I have is with regards to the the tool that you're using and communication with the teachers and the feedback are there metrics that um you're following or is there a certain type of rubric that teachers have the expectations that are set before them and how much time would this be during planning time and common planning time professional development with the entire school where the feedback would be reviewed and also I'm sorry one more time please
098um would this be you know limited to subject the subject matter or grade level things like that so to answer the first question in regards to the uh the model um could you just repeat that because I didn't quite catch all of it so if you have a group of science teachers or specialist teachers special subject teachers mathematics history do you have feedback based limited to those Educators as opposed to General academics so the entire rubric and entire model is based on your HPS instructional Vision so we start and we end with the instructional Vision as the guidepost so while it's not evaluative and formative when the teacher is giving feedback to another teacher it is focused still on those elements of your instructional Vision that drive your entire entire instructional program so the rubric
099and the criteria are very clear made very clear with the teachers because it is your vision and it's what we've been teaching towards in regards to the timing you asked about you know when this occurs this is a position which I've always admired about the instructional leadership team is it's after school it's focused conversations and dialogue twice a month to really focus in on what are we learning from our walks and what we're what we're seeing inside our own building by department so that we can and it's every department so it's across all dish all all subject areas and they're providing each other with that rich rich information to then design uh co-design collaboratively with with our team as well as with the administration the professional learning that's going to be provided to support in
100a responsive way what we're learning and seeing inside those classrooms foreign I just wanted to add that standards and so that is also providing the capacity to build up that we are meeting state standards thank you I have one more question how heavily is this weighed on the teacher evaluations or is it oh I'm sorry how heavily is this information weighed on the teacher evaluations this is not a valative at all this is informative about informative information to build capacity but it is not evaluative okay thank you Foreman Bella just a simple question um again really simple question does this ultimately support teachers um yes absolutely it is all about developing a as I said a collaborative shared model that supports directly instructional improvements in the classroom it can be directly tied to increases in
101teacher efficacy so absolutely the only other thing that I will add is the fact that we want our students to grow but we also want our staff to grow and it's important that we provide those opportunities for our staff as well as we provide them to our students see no further comments or questions the motion on the floor is at the Hartford board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute and contract with revision learning for the term defined in the contract ending June 30th of 2023 at the cost not to exceed 448 880 dollars all those a favor signify by saying aye aye aye aye aye any Nays abstentions design the eyes have it moving on to item 4.5 approval of the superintendent contract extension the motion that the Hartford board of education approves the
102superintendent approves superintendent Dr Leslie Torres Rodriguez request to extend her employment contract for additional year term through June 30th of 2025. do I have a motion so it moved I have a second I will now open the floor to questions or comments from my colleagues thank you I'm going to read off so ignore I apologize if I'm not making eye contact with the audience um I had to just write down all my thoughts as this is a very important bowl and I don't take this anything we vote on here on the board very lightly um this District just like many others has faced unprecedented challenges that has to impact the progress of our district as you know I am an elect official I'm not one of the appointees and many of my constituents are not
103happy with superintendent's performance and with the direction of the district is heading towards I hope my fellow board members and superintendent are taking the voices and concerns of our constituents very seriously many many people want me to vote no today and I understand why but I also know we Face unprecedented times with the covet pandemic the past couple of years have been a challenge across the board for our staff and students and you've been a victim of that too superintendent I want each of you to know that this decision that I'm making today was not an easy one for me because at the end of the day the people who are most impacted by our decisions here are our kids and our families there is no denying that we have a lot of work to
104do as we start to recover from covid I have high and realistic expectation and I expect progress we will hold you superintendent accountable at every level when we review your evaluation just like how I am going to be held accountable by my constituents based on my decisions here on the board because guess what I am just as responsible for this District as we all are here I know that our district can be I know that our addition can be one of the best in the state and superintendent I want you to know that I'm taking the another Leap of Faith with you to lead us for the next two years this is an opportunity for you superintendent and all of us in the city to move closer to that reality of being one of the
105being the best in our state and I want the opportunity to be a partner in helping you grow and implement the changes our community is asking for and deserves one of those ways improving our climate and culture for our staff and family thank you Boardman basketball any other comments or questions from my colleagues for member Brody so if this was a um a vote that would be like are we um executing a contract um as far as like our superintendent returning next year that's a different um type of um conversation right but I have to consider um [Music] are we and at a place where we're comfortable with two years or another year to see how it go but where tonight we're voting on to extend beyond the two years to add a third year
106which the superintendent and it has um the right to ask for every year um I believe we have a superintendent that's more than capable to run our school district um but I'm perplexed in a way when I look at the Hard data um the hard data is is a struggle for me um because it spells that we are not doing good um as a school system um that we are not delivering um what our children um deserve and unfortunately when we look at the school system as a whole um we have a superintendent that is in charge of our school system uh many parts but um definitely um our leader right so um my vote tonight will just reflect um that data um because that that's that's exactly um what I have to to go
107off of and um and that is exactly um why people go to The Ballot Box and vote um for Board of Education members that's that's what they're expecting us to do to make sure we are um holding our only one employee accountable for the results that are delivered um through Hartford Public Schools thank you board member Brody any additional comments or questions from my colleagues Barbara Walker thank Mr chair so um yeah Madam superintendent uh you have um had a year of a lot of action you wrote a lot of plans and you've been continuing to execute your um DME for the district now this past year has represented five years and in my mind in the mind of many of my constituency five years is sufficient time to make some determinations on where the
108district is going that the data isn't where we want it to be this is not a vote on the superintendent keeping their job the superintendent has her job for the next two years by State Statute superintendent cannot have a contract Beyond three and so the vote tonight is to whether to give her a Max contract or a Max extension right um I want to impress upon the leadership to drive more changes I think there's a keen opportunity to reach further out into the instructional staff get them to buy more into the DME at this point is rolled out I don't think we can achieve the success in this District unless we get the instructional staff to really buy into it and then where they can't bind to it we will need to make some changes
109because we can't progress unless those who who are in the classroom those who are our Community Partners are totally bought in and totally executing this program um so to me this vote to me is one that is um either going to press for more change or press for more urgency or we're going to say gee things are fine as they are and so I would hope that we really are producing a decision tonight that is leveraging every tool that we have towards higher Excellence into more urgency and making improvements board member Oliver thank you um so I just want to acknowledge that that's probably one of the only board members who've been here with the superintendent over this five plus year Journey that uh the pandemic is not an excuse but it is a reality
110and there were things that our superintendent put in place and quite honestly we were building momentum and I was feeling good about it and especially as a Hartford resident born and raised and went to this high school and graduated and got to go to an Ivy League College because of this school system to actually have my peer in the same class happen to be hard for high but to be able to be our superintendent who was committed and it was heartbreaking to watch a lot of that stuff um just dismantle in front of our eyes that said I'm very supportive of the superintendent I will be voting us tonight and we've had very I think transparent conversations about our expectations of the superintendent and that yes we continue to be in recovery mode and people
111are saying the pandemic is over and we have high expectations um but I want to acknowledge that yes it's about student achievement and we were feeling good about a lot of stuff and we have some work to do I don't at least for me um I'm not ignorant of that and what I have found is solid leadership and and our superintendent we will continue to work and collaborate and always do continuous Improvement we always have opportunities to improve and we'll continue to have those transparent conversations and we welcome people to share their thoughts with us um as well as share our thoughts when we're in those committee meetings and other venues where we can have really deep conversations but bottom line I just want to acknowledge that we were building some good momentum that quite
112honestly 2020 started a racing and we started going backwards so um I want to thank the superintendent for her leadership I think there's a lot of supports that went beyond the classroom that she also had to leave quite frankly as part of our community and I look forward to her continued leadership in that space and collaboration with our internal staff and external Partners thank you thank you for memorabilo it's not to belabor um this part of the agenda but um I Echo the sentiments of my colleagues both appointed and none um you know I don't see the distinction I think everybody who takes a seat takes the seat seriously and so um you know as a person that was appointed but also as a Harvard resident as a as a as an aunt to kids
113who go to this District as a board member um you know this decision to vote for the extension um you know came with a lot of thought and I think to sum it up I believe that I've I remember um being in the school district when in this seat the superintendent seat was a revolving door and we suffered for it Generations suffered for it um this superintendent um and and as a board I think take the responsibility uh to do to make achievement the first and foremost outcome of any student all students in the Harper public school systems and very seriously and I know that the audience does as well but I do say that the factors that lead to my decision to vote for this extension is is really around the words commitment commitment
114to Excellence a commitment to Improvement the willingness to confront difficult challenges and and the unforeseen the commitment to our students um and as a partner a CBO I want to see more of those Partnerships flourish and this is all feedback that obviously um will happen in in further discussion and and and we roll our sleeves up with that as well or I I roll my sleeves off of that um but I will be voting yes thank you board member Johnson thank you uh chairman rigger and I share the sentiments of uh my colleagues um this uh particular vote has been something that um has uh just really been a part of a part of my day and uh it's interesting to hear the various perspectives on how people think and feel about uh our superintendent
115and Phil about our school system and I share the sentiment with a board member Yvette because you're a point that doesn't mean you take this this position less seriously as for myself I'm committed to Hartford and committed to the school system and commit it just beyond committed on so many different levels so this is not just a opportunity for me this is something that I consider as real work and service and giving back to my community and the one employee that I I do manage I have seen overcome so many different various impossible obstacles personally I've seen her in her staff take on so many things that no other school district deals with you know most of you know I uh grew up in Rocky Hill public schools and some people say that those schools
116are way better than Hartford schools well I have to say that in my experience in speaking to the young people and knowing the different various uh things that our young people go through I think that our school system has responded to the best of its ability with the resources that we have and I just want to applaud the superintendent and her staff for that it is not an easy job being a community organizer who would pack rooms like this out on educational issues and having the opportunity to sit on the other side and to get a full understanding of what the role of superintendent does and her staff and the teachers in the various different levels of support we're not where we should be but we are headed in a direction that I think that
117we can all be proud of if we just give it time if you think that 2020 was just going to roll by and we weren't going to see the effects of it you were deeply misguided so I I think we're in this for a little bit until we can see an actual return I appreciate councilman LeBron's sentiment on turning a little small boat or a big ship this is a big ship that has endured a storm like nobody has ever seen before and so it's going to take time for us to come out of it and now is the time and I think our superintendent knows our expectations uh my expectation is Excellence at all times and uh I believe she understands that and my vote will be yes tonight in the spirit of Excellence
118thank you and the additional comments or questions or matter of fact comments rather sorry um I do want to add a couple of talking points um and make sure I'm on the record um I know my colleague board member Bello stated this but um again I don't think there's any difference between appointees and elected if you take a look at how appointees get here is through the mayor which means elections have consequences so the people vote for the mayor at essence that's who the people put on this board so I just want to make sure that's very clear that the mayor is voted by the people so if the people do not vote for the mayor that they want I would encourage you to take a look in the mirror and ask the question who
119is responsible for that right secondly I think everyone here Knows by all means I encourage you I encourage everyone in the community to take this role I encourage anyone to step up and take this role as chair I don't need it I'm doing this because I'm passionate about the district I'm passionate about our kids and if anyone implies that I'm doing this for any other reason you are sadly mistaken and I rest assure you I think anyone that knows me knows that that is the case and third um as as it was mentioned by my mem board member Oliver pre-pandemic we had tremendous momentum covet happened as reality but what I will say is and I've said this to the superintendent I've said this to everyone this is the momentum year right effort good but
120we're going to reward results that's that's as simple as that right we have a goal we have a plan in place and by the end of the end of the Academic Year I expect has to be tracking towards those goals in a very aggressive way and as it relates to the sustainability of this um having a leader in place is going to assure us that we meet that meet those goals I think the superintendent is a professional she's mature enough to understand our expectations of her and I expect her to deliver with that being said the motion on the floor is at the Hartford board of education approved the superintendent Leslie Torres Rodriguez request to extend her employment contract for additional one-year term through June 30th of 2025. all those that favor signify by saying
121aye aye aye aye any Nays nay nay abstentions the eyes have it em 4.6 first reading policy 2251 data dashboard Vice chair Johnson and take a deep breath all right so um our first reading tonight uh which is uh priority number four skillful staff effective operations um policy I believe here uh District data dashboard was adopted in 2009 since this time the state department of education has introduced comprehensive accountability system with specific metrics the district strategic plan that reflects the metrics of the state accountability system data science and technology have progressed significantly I had the opportunity to attend the cave I guess pre-retreat where the State Board of Education came in and talked about this system which will um allow this information to help us progress in terms of our data and their system is
122really really uh really really awesome so some of the questions that we had the revisions to the policy call for dashboards that are relay data and alignment with the district strategic plan and another question that we asked ourselves is should the policy list specific metrics uh our next step return to the policy committee for a second reading then to the full board at October at the October meeting this concludes thank you board member Johnson as this is the first reading no voice required at this time moving along to section 5 consent agenda items on the consent agenda are 5.2 contract contract continuation International Institute for restorative practices item 5.6 approval of minutes from August 16th board meeting any comments questions on the cassette agenda do I have a motion to take the consent agenda up
123as one item so move second all those all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye aye any Nays abstentions the eyes have it now that the consent agenda is one item do I have a motion to vote on the cassette agenda all those a favor signify by saying aye aye any Nays abstentions the eyes have it the September 20th this time yep sorry the September 20th Hartford Board of Education meeting is now adjourned thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]