May 28, 2028 Board of Education Business Meeting

001Call this uh meeting of the Board of Education uh to order. Uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, welcome. This is our May uh business meeting. We apologize for being a few minutes late. We were in um executive session um for for a couple of matters, but now we're all um we'll pick up the we'll pick up the pace now that we're in public. So, thank thank you for waiting. Um may I to start off uh may I get a um a motion uh for the uh consent agenda? >> Second the consent agenda for 29. >> All right. Second. >> Thank you, Karen. The um all in favor uh just a note the consent agenda, you'll note that the uh for the public the consent agenda includes the textbook recommendations, which are

002not usually on the consent agenda, but we all had uh first reads of those in earlier meetings, and it sounded like we were all good on that. So. All right. So, uh we have was motion second. All in favor of the consent agenda. All right, that passes unanimously. All right. Now, we will uh move on to the um Superintendent's report. Uh Dr. Jones. >> I just have a um a couple of things tonight. Um first of all, I want to say congratulations to ISD. They are celebrating today their 25th anniversary um as a school and an and an IB school. And it was really fun. They had an assembly this morning, I was able to go over there for their afternoon like it was like an alumni gathering, and I met the original principal. I

003may say his name incorrectly, but but he was Principal Fornelli, um who actually started ISD, came, and just a lot of previous teachers. Terry Ricky was there. Just a wonderful event. And then tonight, they're um having another celebration. Um just as a reminder, the North Street Bridge construction, we didn't talk lot about it, you know, earlier in the year. It's time. It's getting ready to start. Um so, from June 8th all the way through the summer, there's an alternate route. Um we'll have information um in the newsletter on Friday. And so, if anybody is directly impacted with their where their house is located, transportation would contact them directly. So, we could have some hiccups, you know, for a couple of days, slower traffic. But it is an alternate route uh because the bridge is being

004reconstructed. And I also want to just say thank you to Public Works. For those of you that have been on the board for a while, originally that project was planned for 12 or 18 months. And now they are going to have it done by the end of summer. So, they really went back to the to the table, to the drawing board. They listened to the community, the schools. And I'm just very grateful for that cuz that would have been a long time. Um we also rolled out the My Ride app for our high school so that they now can sign up for their app. They can follow the bus. If the bus is running 10 minutes late, they can see it. We only have about 60 people signed up so far, and but we're watching

005the data on that. It's working well. Um we're hoping if it continues, then we'll roll it out within the next week just for the last couple weeks of school so everybody gets to trial that. So, that's been a great thing. Um we also have a lot of capstones happening um across the district. And um most of cabinet spent Wednesday morning here at Central for their capstone. Several of them had wonderful capstone presentations. We also have some exhibitions coming up at a few elementaries if anybody's interested in visiting some of those. And last but not least, I just want to say since our last meeting, it was announced that New Lebanon is a Blue Ribbon School. And that is just the best news. We are absolutely thrilled. So, congratulations to that entire staff, community, family, everybody.

006Thank you. >> Committee reports. Rica? >> Thank you. Riverside Building Committee, we evaluated the architects who bid on the project and interviewed a select few just this past week. The committee plans to choose one by the end of the school year, and that'll be followed closely by the owner's rep. Moving on to the Greenwich Alliance for Education, at the Alliance Board meeting, I think it was last Tuesday, maybe two Tuesdays ago, 14 reaching out grants were voted on and approved for the 26-27 school year. The grants are for theater arts, STEM, special education enrichment, school gardening programs, and the expansion of AVID AVID at Hamilton Avenue, and the launch of AVID Excel at WMS. AVID Excel is for students who graduated from the ESOL program, yet still need to build their academic vocabulary to enroll

007and succeed in advanced courses in high school. And congratulations to all the teachers who brought their great ideas to the Alliance. And as a reminder, I'll remind you all the time, it's the 20th anniversary for the Alliance for Education, and there will be a lot of events next school year. Moving on to the Distinguished Teacher Award, we had a really great ceremony and reception honoring the six recipients. And again, I just want to acknowledge and congratulate Ms. Berdick, Ms. Connolly, Ms. Ellinger, Mr. Ledvinsky, Ms. O'Brien, and Ms. Roth, as well as the Distinguished Teacher Award Committee for all of their work. And lastly, SEAC had their last uh and final meeting uh on that same Tuesday a couple weeks ago. Dr. Heiligenthaler updated us on the um extended school year plans and uh a note

008had gone out in late April to all of the parents of those students who are eligible. Kristen Mulhern, who's a district social worker, also presented and showed us the community resources available to all students and families on the district homepage and it was really an incredible list for all families. >> I didn't know if you had a quick question. >> Just I I just have a quick one. Um phase two of the cafeteria for the Julian Curtiss Building Committee, we're um going to be starting the cafeteria in the next couple of weeks. So, stay tuned. >> Karen. >> Sorry, I was just going to give a quick report on PTA Council um who hosted their Essence Awards this year with an um impressive and or unprecedented number of uh nominees, 16 this year, all incredible

009volunteers within our schools to whom we could not uh function without. Um and also that they hosted their annual awards dinner this year um and I know the president of PTA Council uh may be sharing some information about one of our young students who won um uh the opportunity not today. Okay. Not you know, won the opportunity to uh the the design competition for their new logo, which is fantastic. So, I guess he'll share that information with us on another date. Um but it was a really nice opportunity to be surrounded um by all of our administration, uh principals from all the schools, um and other uh areas of Greenwich Public Schools as well as Board of Ed members there to acknowledge the hard work, dedication you know, that are that is given by every

010single volunteer within our schools, especially through PTA, PTA Council, and how appreciative we truly are that without you guys as volunteers, there were a lot of things that would fall by the wayside within our schools. So, once again, the board would like to congratulate all the volunteers this year and on a wonderful year and thank them for all the hard work and dedication given to our schools and our students to help us move forward. >> Bob? >> And I said I was Mr. Ellinger was one of the was one of the teachers. I thought I thought you might have said miss. I just want to make sure he he No, no worries. And uh >> Sorry, Mr. Ellinger. >> He's probably listening. Um for Central Middle School, the RTM will be voting on in June

011in their June meeting on the Central Middle School supplemental funding request. And various board building committee members are meeting with various committees and districts starting this evening with the budget oversight committee and going into next week with the full meeting and vote on June 8th. Um overall, the construction's going well. There's still some issues with the fire pump that are hopefully going to be resolved in the coming weeks. I can have more information for that in the June meeting as there's a lot of plates spinning right now. So, we'll know we'll know more about the various issues and hopefully they will be solved and I will be coming back in June and saying everything is working perfectly. >> We policy has some a few items on as an item on the agenda, so I'll I'll

012spare you a policy committee report. The Old Greenwich Building Committee Um as you might have seen in the paper, we realized a 15% additional state reimbursement on the project, which is worth $8 million. The backstory there and the Old Greenwich Building Committee wanted to make sure to give a shout-out to Principal Ben Savage over there, who in her spare time reads arcane state register regulations and found that we might qualify for that. She got in contact with her state delegation and next thing you know, we've got Well, not next thing. They had to go and argue up there in Hartford, but next day, but long story short, we ended up with another 8 million to offset the project. So, that's great. Construction proceeds apace there. We are We're on track. Playground construction and whatnot set

013over the next month or so, so it's good good good stuff starting happening there at Old Greenwich. Anybody else? Okay. So, with that, we will move on to the public hearing portion of the evening. Uh first, we want to welcome our GHS student government representatives. They um >> Good evening, distinguished members of the Boards of Education and Dr. Jones. I hope all has been well since the last Board of Ed meeting. My name is Cole Reynolds and I'm the student body vice president. As the school year is coming to a close, I'd like to recap on what student government has accomplished this year. Each of our subcommittees did a great job with their roles. The video game tournament from the events committee was a major success with a strong turnout. The community service subcommittee held

014a successful volunteer fair where where multiple nonprofits recruited student volunteers seeking service hours. The relations subcommittee had a student government newsletter a few months ago, which went out to the whole school. A sub All subcommittees worked hard to ensure their respective areas of focus were strong, frequently meeting with administration to do so. Additionally, each class was quite successful this year. The senior class had a fantastic start with concession stands at athletic competitions and senior sunrise. Their main event was a Harlem Wizards basketball fundraiser, which was incredibly successful with a strong profit and major turnout from all schools in the area. There was also senior spoons this spring, a competition where you're given a fellow senior that you have to tag with a wooden spoon. Certain safety rules were added to make the game more challenging

015and to retain a proper learning environment. The junior class had many holiday themed events like their pumpkin carving contest. They hosted many concession stands, bake sales, and developed their cardinal cookbook, which is a collection of recipes submitted by the GHS community to go along with the spirit of International Night and celebrate our diverse cultures. The sophomore class had several profit shares and bake sales throughout the year. And throughout the whole year they began planning a school-wide house competition, which will hopefully happen in the future as a field day type event. They've been thoroughly working out all the details to ensure its success next year. The freshman class was extremely impressive this year. They instantly jumped to work with bake sales and began a new tradition of showing a movie in the morning of every first

016Friday of every month. Thank you all for a great year. For a new board navigating major budget challenges, you have my utmost respect for the incredible job that you've done. Thank you and I look forward to get joining you all next month for our final meeting and to transition to our new student government leaders. Thank you. Um Uh Thank you, Colin. Uh good evening, members of the BOE, Dr. Jones, students, and community members. I'm Gabriel Lessa, student body president at Grand Central High School, and I'm happy to both see and speak before you this evening. AP season has wound down at GHS and I don't think I've ever seen a more well-prepared group of students. More broadly, as this academic year draws to a close, the social calendar is ending with a bang. The senior

017class began internships last week taking up service roles in practically every facet of our town. Seniors will hold their final prom this coming Saturday in an event that has been months in the making and I find myself excited for the evening and for these last weeks alongside my peers. The juniors went through the same motions earlier in the month, and from what I have heard, their prom was beautifully executed, uh a testament to the hard work of our junior class officers and advisors. The sophomores and freshmen have been watching closely and have strong role models to follow as they step into their years as upperclassmen. Beyond class level milestones, our students have uh have also had a remarkable Our boys rugby team placed sixth nationally last week as the only non-private, non-magnet school to place.

018Uh our cheer team was named Connecticut Team of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. Uh International Night at the high school drew dozens of nations represented and hundreds of attendees in what was yet another successful iteration in recent memory. And our economics club achieved success on the national stage with the Euro Challenge team make uh with the Euro Challenge team taking home second place and a trip to DC, while the Federal Reserve Challenge team uh was selected as one of 12 out of 207 to be published in a coming circulation of 5,000 books by the New York Federal Reserve. In other exciting news, student government held its elections yesterday. I'm very hopeful for this uh coming generation of leaders. Watching the campaigns unfold, it is clear that the energy in the executive

019remains very strong. This also marks the final BOE meeting at which Callan and I will stand before you together in our current roles. It has been a wonderful year, and it was a pleasure to see uh and see It was a pleasure to see so many of you at the PTA dinner earlier this week, a beautiful evening, and my thanks to the PTA for hosting. Although, I was a little upset that I did not win that bag of cookies. Um I look forward to our next meeting, and I'm happy to look back on the successes of this year. I'd like to thank you for your time and for your service to Greenwich, and I look forward to speaking with you again for our final time next month. Thank you, Gabe. >> Thank you, Cullen. And

020I welcome Margaret Jackins, the president of GEA. >> Good evening, board members, Dr. Jones, and community members. My name is Margaret Jackins, and I am the president of the Greenwich Education Association. As I prepared for tonight's meeting, I read over all the documents in tonight's agenda, including the draft of next year's agenda. I was very pleased to see teacher attendance reports scaled back to quarterly events. Thank you so much for responding to the improvements we've made in that regard. I also read with interest Dr. Jones's report on cell phones that will come up later tonight. GEA greatly appreciates her including the GHS faculty survey data in this report. A strong and consistently implemented policy regarding cell phone use is an important beginning in addressing the excessive amount of screen time being experienced by our students.

021And I do mean beginning, because let's face it, many of those cell phones now being left in pockets on classroom walls or in backpacks are also linked to the laptops students are using in class, making texting and social media available right at their desks. I'm not arguing for eliminating technology from schools, far from it. Technology has an important place in schools. Used thoughtfully, it can enhance instruction, expand access to information, and support creativity. I'm arguing for balance, intentionality, and age-appropriate limits. We should be leaders in promoting healthy learning environments, not contributors to a culture of nonstop screen dependency. Many students are struggling with attention, sleep disruption, anxiety, social isolation, and reduced face-to-face communication skills. We see it every day. In my classroom, I would always marvel at how when I gave my students a group

022project and instructions to work together, the immediate default for most of them was to open a shared doc and communicate through the typed word. It was like watching toddlers having side-by-side play. Teenagers need opportunities to engage in discussion, collaboration, and human connection without a screen mediating every interaction. They need classrooms where eye contact matters, where conversation matters, and where learning is active and personal rather than passive and digital. For younger students, learning is deeply physical and social. Children learn by talking, moving, writing, building, experimenting, and interacting directly with teachers and classmates. When Greenwich became a district with personal devices available to every child, it was a state-of-the-art decision. But now we know better. We see on a daily basis the negative impact of too much screen time. So, I ask everyone listening, teachers, administrators, board

023members, and parents, to become more judicious in the amount of time we are asking and allowing our children to spend behind a screen. Our students need more opportunities to think deeply, interact personally, create collaboratively, and engage fully with the world around them. That is the kind of education our children deserve. Thank you. >> Now, we welcome Lisa Sylvester from PTA. >> Good evening, everyone. My name is Lisa Sylvester, and I'm the PTA Council President. Um thank you, Ms. Hirsch, for mentioning our dinner the other about the dinner that we had the other night. It was really a tremendous evening um of celebrations and volunteers um celebrating everyone across the district. So, if you were not able to make it, we're going to send a save the date out as soon as we have that date,

024and we're going to mark your calendars cuz it was a lot of fun, and it's a night not to be missed. Um and I promise you that Margaret and I did not share our notes tonight, but I have a few topics um similar along uh the lines of she had. Technology and digital learning continues to be important topics both locally and nationally. While cell phones are a big part of the conversation, they are not the only concern. P-Tech wants to be sure there's a healthy balance in classrooms between technology use and hands-on learning. Research has raised concerns about digital learning, especially for younger students, including shorter attention spans, reduced focus, increased anxiety, depression, and ADHD, as well as challenges with social skills, civic engagement, and overall development. We are interested in how the district is

025reviewing these concerns and adjusting curriculum and technology use based on new research. We encourage you all to keep reading the studies and really listen to the parent and teacher feedback. P-Tech would like to be part of those conversations, so let's continue to learn, grow, and work together to come up with some solutions that not only fit students at every age and developmental level across the district, but also support the teachers and families in managing the digital world. In addition, P-Tech would like to work with the BOE and the district to better understand how increasing academic pressure is affecting students' mental health at Greenwich High School. With more AP classes being offered, easier access to those classes, and the added GPA benefits tied to AP courses, many students feel pressured to take as many APs as

026possible to stay competitive for college admissions. As a result, students may be sacrificing sleep, balance, and overall well-being in order to keep up. We believe it's important to look at how those pressures are impacting students and to consider ways to support both strong academics and mental health concerns. And last but not least, as Ms. Hirsch mentioned already, we recently held our annual Essence Awards, which acknowledges and celebrates outstanding volunteers in the Greenwich public schools. I would like to encourage all of you to attend that ceremony next year. And maybe even nominate someone. We really would love for you to see and hear firsthand the stories of why those people were nominated. The Greenwich public school community is fortunate to have so many dedicated and passionate volunteers and the PTAs cannot do all the work that

027we do without them. We're very proud of all of them. But a special shout out to this year's winner Maureen Harper and our lifetime award winner Monica Wong. Thank you. Have a wonderful weekend. >> Thank you, Lisa. All right. Fair enough. We have move on to our public comments. >> Yes, it's a short list tonight. We've got three speakers, so I'll read all of them off so they can know their order. Alexandra Stevens first at GHS library media specialist and GPS parent, Maria Bueno, GHS math teacher, and last Peter Schwartzstein a GPS parent. >> Good evening. So, you know, my name is Alexandra Stevens. I'm a 17-year GPS parent of two GHS graduates and one current Cob Phoenix. And I've taught at GHS now for the last 16 years. Tonight, I'd like to talk to

028you about the prior board's decision to increase the AP weight to 1.25 as both a parent whose two sons took a total of 26 AP courses and a teacher who has worked with hundreds of GHS AP students. First, I want to talk about the application of the Vision of the Graduate. You require students to master 14 capacities in order to graduate. Those include critically interpreting and evaluating information, exploring and solving complex problems, being responsible for mental and physical health, and collaborating with others. I believe that the VOG capacities apply equally to teachers, administrators, and the BOE. For should we not model how we expect students to conduct themselves in the academic environment and hopefully in life? Approximately 15 years ago, GHS teachers and administrators demonstrated these capacities when they formed a committee to critically evaluate

029the waiting of GHS honors and AP classes. Among many factors, the committee considered what pure institutions did across the country, how students' mental health might be impacted, and how specific colleges viewed our waiting scale. They then presented their results and recommendations to the entire faculty for a vote. Fast forward to the board's September 25th meeting in which the prior board quickly voted to increase the waiting of AP classes to 1.25. In making this change, the prior BOE policy committee did not engage in public dialogue, nor did they seek the input of GHS faculty, administrators, or mental health professionals. I would argue that they should have at least asked the stakeholders some of the same questions that were asked 15 years ago. What problems are we trying to solve? How do many pure Why do many

030peer schools weight AP and honors classes lower than GHS? How do colleges view our current waiting and how would they view this change? Will the number of unprepared students taking AP classes increase, and how will that impact student mental health, stress, and amount of homework? I don't think the prior board ever asked those questions, and they certainly didn't get it by in GHS community. According to a survey sent to all GHS faculty, 76% of those responding do not support this change, and they want to keep either the existing weight or actually decrease waiting. Another 20% indicated they needed more information to decide, so only 4% of our faculty actually agree with this change. And for good reason, there's a laundry list of reasons not to over weight AP classes ranging from creating incentives to take

031inappropriate level classes to impacting student mental health. The GHS student body himself president himself listed some of these factors at that meeting when he even urged the board to postpone voting and do a thorough investigation. Yet with so little support and input from our community and so little concrete data and evidence, the board went ahead and made this change. Fortunately, it's not too late to revisit it. Another element of the VOG is to appreciate the value of reflection. I hope you will now model such reflection by holding off on implementing this policy change until you gather data and collaborate with teachers, councils, mental health professionals to design the right policy for our students. Please uphold the essential tenets of the Vision of the Graduate in your duty of care. You owe it to our students

032to examine important policy changes through objective and data-driven lens. Thank you for your consideration. >> Maria Bueno >> Good evening members of the board, Dr. Jones, community members. My name is Maria Bueno and I've been teaching mathematics at Greenwich High School since 2001 and I'm the proud coach of the Greenwich High School and the Central Middle School science teams. I'm pleased to share a remarkable accomplishment regarding the GHS science team. Each year thousands of students across the country participate in the US Department of Energy's regional science bowl. It is a competition like no other. Five seconds for a toss-up question and then the team collaborates 20 seconds on a bonus question. The topics are in in biology, chemistry, Earth and Space, energy, physics and mathematics. So to prepare this team has proven its resilience under

033pressure. In November we traveled to MIT where we endured six hours of grueling questions and our students didn't even blink. Next came the Yale invitational in January, an eight-hour marathon where we outscored top Connecticut schools in the East Coast, Newtown, New Canaan, Glastonbury just to name a few. But onto the main event. In February we went to UConn Storrs. We boarded the bus at 6:00 a.m. This was a 12 long hours of Science Bowl fun. In the final round, which started approximately 8:00 p.m., the room was filled with tension, and these five students remained calm, locked in, and completely focused. I am thrilled to announce that they outscored 36 of the best teams in the state to bring home the gold. They became the Connecticut State Regional Science Bowl champions. I would like to congratulate

034and recognize the sheer ambition and extraordinary dedication of five unique Greenwich High School Science team players. Joyce Gong, Martin Lipp, Rex Lu, Jejun Lao, and Axel Person. That victory earned them an all-expense-paid five-day trip to Washington, D.C., representing the state of Connecticut at the National Science Bowl, where they successfully competed against some of the top STEM high schools in the nation. Seeded top four in their division, making it to double-elimination rounds nationally. In addition, Greenwich High School Science team holds the regional record for the most appearances representing Connecticut at the National Science Bowl. We were there in 2018, we were there in 2019, and we are sure back in 2026. Rex, Jejun, Martin, Joyce, and Axel proved that success isn't just about individual brilliance. It is about harmony, stamina, resilience, and trust. They didn't win

035just They didn't just win a trophy. They exemplified what it means to be a dedicated team who performed flawlessly together. I am incredibly proud to share this major milestone with our community. Congratulations to the team and thank you so very much for all of your support. >> Yeah, spectacular. Congratulations. >> So, Miss Miss Bono, if you can if you can hold on a second, they um if I can break protocol, they Rex June, uh Martin Joyce Axel, congratulations. I think that was um um it's amazing to to to not only uh represent us regionally, but win the gold um and then go to DC and and and take care of all those other folks down there. We really appreciate it. Congratulations. We really um are astounded by your accomplishment and thanks so much for coming

036to sharing sharing success with us. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Well, that's a tough one to follow, Pete. Uh >> [laughter] >> Good evening. Uh my name is Peter Schwartzstein. I am a proud father of a CMS eighth-grader and a fifth and third-grader at North Street School. Um I'd like to address the subject of cell phones in schools, which I believe is on the tonight's agenda, and then respond to the discussion of the AP program that was uh discussed at the last board meeting. Some Greenwich parents have argued that students need access to their personal phones during school hours for safety reasons in the event of a school emergency. I want to reference a statement that was issued earlier this school year by the nonprofit National Association of School Resource Officers. The points in the

037statement have been echoed by local, state, and national law enforcement. Their conclusion is clear. Access to phones during the school day reduces student safety particularly during emergencies. The statement outlines several key risks. First, during an emergency students must be fully focused on life-saving instructions from teachers and administrators. Phones can distract students from hearing and responding appropriately to those instructions. Second, some emergencies require students to hide in silence. Sounds or light from phones could reveal students' locations to an assailant. Third, emergency responders and school officials often rely on cell phone networks during crises. Hundreds of students simultaneously using cell phones could interfere interfere with critical communications. And fourth, student communications during emergencies can prompt parents to rush to the school, which creates traffic and access issues that could delay and distract emergency responders. I encourage the

038board and the and the community to read the full statement. Greenwich should heed the advice of the school safety experts and adopt a true bell-to-bell phone policy. Uh switching gears at the board retreat 2 weeks ago, uh Dr. Jones, you discussed the efforts to reduce gatekeeping in the GHS AP program. I want to just point out the GHS was already well ahead of the national average for AP participation 5 years ago. And if you look at current GHS students today this year 68% have taken at least one AP exam during high school, which is nearly double the national average for public high school graduates. A key question that in my opinion has not been sufficiently answered is how has the increase, the rapid increase in AP enrollment since 2021 affected the pacing and quantitative performance

039in these classes as measured ultimately by the test scores. Dr. Jones, you focused on scores of three, four, or five lumped together in your presentation. If rapidly expanding AP enrollment has not affected the program's ability to prepare top students to earn a five on those exams, then I ask that you please share the data. Please show the board and the public not only the lump of three, four, and five, but individually the fives earned in each of the last five years, and how many fours were earned in each of the last five years. I think that will really help to better understand the impact. Thank you for your time and attention. >> Thank you, Beer. Um so, I joked at um executive session that back in December we added um this um item to um

040our our standard agenda to um uh give the chance the board a chance to discuss um anything that was mentioned that we we thought we wanted to talk about. And ever since then we've had fewer community comments. So, go go figure if you're just being responsive. Um the um that said, does anybody have any thoughts? Yes, go ahead, Dr. Jones. >> I do just want to say I am working on the data set that was just requested, 2016 through 2025. It it's in rough draft right now on my desk. So, hopefully at the next meeting we'll have it for you. >> And while we're while we're asking your your questions, when does the um um do you know off hand when the weight the grade weighting change goes into play? What what for what cohort?

041>> It's next year's freshman. >> Next next year's freshman. Okay. All right. >> Any other thoughts or comments? Um uh seeing seeing none, um I was uh we'll see if it works. I was hoping a point of uh of a personal privilege. If I'd like to move to make a motion to move the action items up to the head of discussion items. Some of you know I have I have some I have some issues at home so I have to go to zoom halfway through the meeting. So I was hoping I was hoping to take care of the action items while I was in here in person if that's if that's possible. Um I'm trying to see if anyone wants to second the motion. Okay. All right, so this would need a 2/3 vote and

042if it doesn't vote then that's fine too. So the motion is Paul seconding the motion to move action items up before discussion items. All all in all in favor? Thank you. All right, I appreciate it. Um All right, I I I Thank you. Okay. The So that said and we'll we'll try to be expeditious here. Um then the next one is action items. So the Riverside School Educational Specifications Modification to add pre-K. Would anybody like to make a motion? >> Can I make a motion to go back to return to vote on the Ed Specifications from I might need Dr. Jones' help. I'm so sorry from 2020 five with two pre-K classrooms. >> Second. >> Thank you. Okay. So discussion. I was just going to say go ahead. >> As the rep for the school

043I don't know >> Do you want to say anything to the building that will committee if you wanted to present anything? >> Uh I'd be happy to speak. I spoke a lot about this actually um a couple meetings ago that the way the cost savings to adding the pre-K is are tremendous. As Dr. Jones has pointed out, we are likely to need new pre-K classes going forward. Some of our schools are reaching 100% capacity where we're going to need those classrooms for our K-3 5 students. So we need to close uh some pre-K classes. Um so given the cost savings and the need for a state-mandated program, um I think that adding back in the pre-K classrooms to the Ed Specs or sorry, um approving the original Ed Specs with the two pre-K classrooms, um

044would be in the best interest of the town and the school district. And I would love to see this voted on tonight since we're selecting an architect maybe on Wednesday. >> So does anybody want to say anything? The I'll go. Um uh so um I I appreciate the um of the thought. Um I um remain opposed here uh for what it's worth. Um last year um the board voted uh specifically against this um because we felt as a board that it was not in the best interests of um that um campus um to add pre-K. Um there's nothing that has changed there to that. The only thing that's changed is now we can get more money for it. Um I I don't think that's uh um um a good enough reason to to change change

045the the our thought process. Um right now you have a situation where Riverside is our most um, um, crowded or our our our biggest school. Um, adding um, two sections of pre-K um, on top of that um, creates a um, a large challenge. Like it creates an administrative challenge. We cuts down on playground space. Um, it adds traffic because you're going to have bussing. All the reasons why we didn't want to vote for it last year. Um, and we voted it down. Um, I agree that um, we probably need to as a board we and as a district we need to rethink about where our pre-K and have a thoughtful conversation about um, where pre-K is. But I believe strongly that um, changing course here and going back to um, um, shoehorn it into Riverside

046when we had a very thoughtful discussion last year and wanted to remove it. And haven't heard any reason why we would change that other than we're getting money. But we get money for any site where we want to put pre-K. Um, so putting it here um, I think it's penny wise and pound foolish. Um, and I think it's economic argument not an argument in the best interest of the campus. Go ahead, Sophie. >> Um, I I guess I I want to address a couple things. First of all, I I didn't want to take the pre-K out last year. So I'm I'm consistent and I I think it was a good idea to have it in and I'm glad that there's an opportunity to add it back. Um, it's not true that we would get money

047back for putting it elsewhere. Um, specifically like we're getting a state reimbursement here for putting pre-K in a very large building project and the amount of money I mean, Veronica can speak to this better than I can as a building rep, but the amount of money that we would be getting back is calculated based on the total cost of the construction project. So building it elsewhere, we might not realize that at all. So I think we are we would basically be deciding declining to take money that otherwise we're not going to get. So, I think I wanted to clarify on that. And then I will say also I think it's you know I I think there's an argument to be made that our special needs children, you know, our special needs students are distributed across

048the entire town and we don't have as [clears throat] many um uh pre-K classrooms on the east side of town and I think it would benefit the that population to have classrooms more equally distributed around the town. Um lastly, I would just I was a parent at Riverside School for I don't know, 12 years in a row and almost everybody can walk to school. We have one school bus um and there's maybe 10 kids on it. So, I'm not so worried about the uh parking issue that you might see with other schools where lots of people drive. Um adding two classrooms, I don't think it would be a big issue for the pre-K. Also, you know, we're fortunate Riverside is a very large campus and we have um at least three playgrounds. So, you know,

049and I think this is just something maybe we take it for granted in Greenwich, but we have these huge beautiful campuses and when we did do the I saw it on the Riverside Feasibility Committee and when we looked at putting in the um two extra pre-K classrooms, it's not a problem. We can fit it on the campus. So, I'm in support just because I think you know, I don't understand economically the argument to not do it here when we think we'll need pre-K classrooms. It makes the most sense financially and I think Riverside campus can um easily accommodate it. >> Go ahead, Karen. >> Um I would say much like Sophie, I'm wasn't really in support of removing pre-K classrooms. I mean, we've heard from Dr. Jones time and time again um every year that

050we have uh growth in our pre-K program and ever so often have to add at least one classroom somewhere mid-year and have often run out of space and where to put those pre-K classrooms. We have heard from parents in the past that there's concern that you know, there's a lot of pre-K program space within the Greenwich Public Schools on the west side of town and fewer on the east side of town. We know that pre-K and I know this is a it's not a general and pre-K like you know, private pre-K's but it is still a precursor to you know, academic improvement in and setting children at young ages uh on a good path to start kindergarten and forward and so to me it seems like a no-brainer um uh to add them back in

051with you know, and reduce the cost of the build cuz I believe part of the reason that we chose not to uh vote to add them in was because of the cost of the build cuz we had so many uh different projects going on at the same time. We wanted to to make sure that the town was not being overburdened with the cost. Um so to me this this is a no-brainer if we can save over $5 million right? I think the reimbursement for adding pre-K is over just over $7 million. The cost to add it we take it down to you know, a $5 million bonus. To me that sounds like a a worthy worthy discussion to have. >> Go ahead Brandon. >> Um I just want to make one more point. Um I

052I think you mentioned you know, adding the idea of adding programs to a school that's already sort of at capacity. Um I the there are many elementary schools in this district that have to house or ask to house and um multiple district programs besides their K through 5 responsibilities whether they're maxed out or or not. Um they might have the Co-op like Cos Cob has on top of having pre-K or Old Greenwich has the positive pathways and pre-K. North Street has the unique learner, has pre-K and a number of students who are uh deaf and blind in and of itself creating almost a program. Riverside just has K through 5. It's one of the only schools with no district program and I think that equity also across the district is something to be considered. Um,

053many of these schools as result of these programs have had to make modifications to their playgrounds or their transportation or their traffic flow, arrival and dismissal, especially when you're talking about some of the higher needs populations that I mentioned. Um, and I this is something that the building committee would work tremendously hard with the architects to ensure it remains a safe, walkable school. Um, you know, uh pick up and drop off times are dispersed so that the pre-K students can get there as well as, you know, with separate entrances. Um, you know, and and we're just in the beginning phases, but I think that all of those potential community concerns would come into play as well. >> Um, I too remain opposed to this uh project. I think the increased traffic, the decreased field space,

054uh there's not enough parking as it is. Um, and and so those are my thoughts. >> Can I say something, Paul? >> I'd like to. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. So, I heard a lot of comments about the um uh the huge campus and I think that's something we should recognize. This is a big campus. And, you know, we have the same type of staff we have um at the administrative level, a principal and assistant principal that are um trying to uh maintain this um uh this huge campus. I think the reason why there's probably not those extra programs there in K through 5 is because uh if I remember right, I think this was the our largest school our our large this is our largest um um population. Um I'm also concerned with

055the, you know, um the fact that this was already deliberated on. We had decided that it would that, you know, it wasn't going to be our it wasn't there then. So, I don't know, but I assume that we had some robust conversations. Um and that the only thing that changed is the economics. Um and so, let's talk about economics. We're going to save $5 million. I think we're all missing the point that we're actually taxpayers in the state of Connecticut as well as taxpayers in the town of Greenwich. So, these are our tax dollars that are being spent. And let me emphasize that a little further. We pay four times the amount of taxes in Greenwich than in any other well, average for the rest of the state. So, um uh you know, this isn't

056free money. Uh this is money coming down uh from the state that came up from us. With that said, uh Veronica uh had made some good points. I have a lot of faith in her on the on the committee. I place a lot of uh um you know, um I'm I'm assured when when she tells me some of these things. Um the hard one. Um Okay, so I think we can I think we can call I think we can call call call the question. All in favor of the motion on the table. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Opposed? 2. Motion passes 6-2. All right, moving on to the um agenda plan, um I will make a motion to um approve the 2026-27 agenda plan as presented. >> Second. >> You get to decide, Karen,

057who will >> Oh, no, no. Okay. >> Okay. I'll second. Okay, um go um Karen, go ahead. >> Um just a couple just a couple of minor modifications that I we can decide if we need to make a motion or if these are close enough. Uh in here we well, we reduced the number of time we reduced, you know, monthly attendance updates to quarterly. I think the ask from the board actually was to broaden and have an HR update to talk about a whole range of HR issues, staffing shortages, uh not have an exclusive focus on absences. Um I also wanted to recognize that um I appreciate the tuition discussion moving up a month earlier. I think we all felt it was a little late and put uh our families in a challenging spot uh

058this year. I was curious if we can move it even earlier in the agenda and and I just wanted to ask uh Dr. Jones when specifically the um acceptance notifications go out and see if we can maybe get a good alignment so that any anyone considering applying to the pre-K, for example, actually knows what it would cost. >> I don't know if Mr. Branigan if if you're actually on to move it up, do you see an issue with that? >> The only issue is the state of Connecticut releases the per pupil calculation in January. So, we're already um February is the earliest in order to use that as this another data point. You can push it up in January, but you would not have the state data just as a data point to compare your

059[clears throat] uh internal tuition. >> All right. Yeah, in that case let's let's leave it. I certainly want us to have all the data possible when we make when we make that decision. Uh and then just the last point is you know, for her school board, this agenda still feels kind of light on academics. >> You mean? >> Uh I mean, we we have I think just it two meetings out of so many. Uh we we, you know, I think we have an achievement data uh report in October. And then, you know, as we had at the last retreat a little bit more of a show and tell uh brag session, which was great, but but a little light on data. I'd like to see us have, you know, more granular data uh and more

060of a discussion so that we hold ourselves accountable so we have a better sense of of how we're progressing. There I don't I don't think there were any other meetings that talked about academic. >> I I think it's just uh maybe the way it's written, but September 3rd and September 10th, those are very heavy academic um you know, data-focused meetings. >> Yes, we kind of do September, October, and then there's kind of not much the rest of the year. I'm just wondering if we could are there other are we getting any other standardized data, AP test results, anything that's coming in at other points in the year, or is it this way because that's when we get the data? >> That's when we get the data. So, and they're it's a heavy meeting, and they're

061already working on it for the fall like as as when when data starts coming in. Um and you'll get everything that's available to us um from this current school year. >> We actually added the spring presentation only a couple of years ago for the purpose of talking about like in those meetings in September we talk with the school present their action plans for the year and it was a way to connect back into how how things were going kind kind of kind of why that's there. Go ahead Karen. >> I was also going to add I know we we have a February retreat that that goes over different programs we have and a lot of the subjects in there while they don't specifically stipulate that their achievement or academic a lot of the data that

062you're asking for is actually rolled into a lot of these other discussions and program reports that we get as well as other updates and we often I mean this is a standard agenda and so I'm sure Michael also will like support the fact that during the school year we you know that's why we end every business meeting with the agenda report so if things need to be added often times like we'll say oh we need an update on this program or we want to hear more about this and if we're going to be starting to also look at our new strategic plan for going forward we're going to be hearing a lot so much data and discussion of those topics that you will actually be like please less less please so you know I do

063know a lot of that will be added and it's wrapped in there even though it's hard to see through some of the the titles I don't want you to think that we don't focus on that but we do. >> Okay I mean given that information I think the only change I'd like to see is the broadening of the the HR updates to be to be broader on HR rather than just absenteeism. >> Yeah yeah I think I think that's that's in keeping with how we I think other comments we've had about how we might see those those those reports evolving. Any other thoughts? Okay all in favor of the motion. >> Can I vote for it and that changes still? >> Yeah. Okay. Okay, motion passes unanimously. >> All right, so finally here. >> Okay,

064so the last the last action item I'd like to make a motion to authorize legal counsel to enter into settlement negotiations with the town and depending on the litigation Camilo Camelo vs. Hirsch and the BOE. All right, so we can't talk a lot about this because obviously this is a litigation matter. I can say just for the purposes of clarity we um um the board has worked with a couple of law firms. This motion was asked by a new firm Pullman Connolly who is co-counsel who has the who's going who's participating in the negotiations for with with the town. Anybody who's reading the court documents, you'll see what's being litigated and the different issues going back and forth there and we're hoping that this will help bring the case to to to close. All in

065favor of the Oh, I need to discuss. >> Yeah. >> A few you can limited. I mean we don't want to talk about specifics, but if anybody wants to say anything. >> No, I was just going to say I'm I'm support of having discussion settlements. We've we've tried to approach it before with you know, negotiations and and whatnot. So, happy to to have this. >> Okay, all in favor. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you for entertaining me. Thank you for allowing me to move that. The action comes up now. Back to discussion items understanding special education staffing stats staffing formula. Dr. Jones and Dr. Harley and Toler, you guys are up for a spirited 10-minute presentation. >> 10 minutes. We'll talk to talk really fast. >> Yeah. >> This is something actually I think

066the board hears about a lot. It's just how and you get the question how do we actually have the staffing formula. There is a PowerPoint, but you also will have a a worksheet I'm going to hand out the elementary one first so that you will be able to walk through and see how we actually calculate staffing. And then Stacy's literally going slide by slide for you. >> This is the same one that was posted. >> Yeah. >> Okay, just I just didn't know if I needed to move over there to to view it. >> Yeah, the difference is that Dr. Jones added some animation to help you know, walk walk us through the process. >> You mean like keeping kindergarteners entertained. Okay, I see. >> So, can we go to the next slide? So, the

067presentation is on our staffing formula. And what one of the recommendations from the original PCG audit was to look at the staffing for the district. We took the the year. So, um I This is actually I'm finishing up my fifth year, if you can believe that. It I heard that well. Um yeah, so [laughter] so we we took our first year, we introduced this at the end of uh my second year here. This is our third year in using this formula. Um so, it's been uh vetted. It was vetted by um when we rolled it out uh my second year, its first year. We did that with teachers and related service providers as part of um elementary and secondary uh committees um that we had, as well as PCG took a look at this when

068they came back and did our audit last year. Um and actually um have used some of what we're using and interviewed Dr. Jones and myself about how we developed it and um they're in the process of developing their own, but having looked at our model, which is very nice. Um so, it So, what we use um is a weighted workload. So, there's the traditional caseload, which would just be you have 15 students. What we look at is the weighted workload, and so we take into account the amount of service that students have. Next slide. So, when we look at how we determine caseload, in preschool, we know that that is a caseload number. So, that's um 15 students, nine general education, six special education. Um our elementary and middle schools are through a weighted caseload.

069So, this is where we're looking at exactly how many services are on the IEP, and I'll go over what those look like in a few slides. And then our high school, we look at a standard caseload, because we have been doing program development. We're still in the process of tweaking the IEPs and getting all the services on there to match the new programs such as co-teaching. Um and so we're not quite there yet, but we'll we'll get there. So right now they're still at a um regular caseload. Next slide. Oh, thank you. Um so some other um special programming is that um our co-teaching um at the elementary when we look at Cos Cob, we have a number we have five students in our co-teaching programs um with the remainder of the general education students

070that are in the classroom. At Melon High School, we we try for 45% of the total roster, so no more than that. There are occasions where for example, if it's Spanish one and 65% of the students who sign up for Spanish one are special education, there's no way to get a balance at 45%, right? Mathematically impossible. But what we do try to do is then balance and have a little bit of a lower number of students when we can't get to that 45 uh 45%. Um the last couple years I've worked with Miss Talada where we've run the percentages of all the classes um to make sure that we're staying within that balance. And um with the new automated Aspen uh scheduling program, we're able to actually put that in the um uh the what

071however it runs like to say here the guidelines don't put more than 45% in when they pull the students. So that'll really help too because now we're not hand scheduling, we can actually rely on the system to do that. So we other have other specialized programs within the district. So we have our unique learner program which we look at we don't want to go over 12 students, our positive pathways, which is 10. Our secondary level CTAA program, so those are our students who are on modified or life skills curriculum, um 15. And the same thing for the wellness center. Um so, you know, for those programs, we really have um more of a set number of students uh for the for the support and the type of program we run. However, for the elementary, we're

072looking at specifically um different components to be able to to develop a weighted caseload. Um so, what we want to look at is we look at um various parts, and we have a form a four-step formula that walks it through. And so, the worksheet that you have uh for the elementary that says uh elementary worksheet for Havemeyer Elementary, so I created it. Um just so you know that these are actual numbers um from a school from about 3 years ago. So, this is something that I walk all of the um principals through um at the principal meetings each year as we go through uh the worksheet that Dr. Jones gave you. Okay, next slide. So, when we talk about the elementary, the first thing you're going to notice under step one is several and if

073I you need me to stop at any point cuz it's a lot of numbers. I told Veronica when we were doing the SEAAC meeting that this is like a math test, right? >> [laughter] >> So, there's a lot of math involved. Um so, we first look at our contact minutes. And so, this is where we're determining how many minutes students and teachers are coming into contact per week. So, this is where we actually start to develop our weight. Next. So, the first part is our direct service minutes. So, this is the time the special education teacher is providing the specialized instruction to a student. The next thing is our indirect service minutes. So, our IEPs capture um all the times that are not direct service minutes. So, the consult we have with the BCBA, the

074consult with the occupational therapist, maybe there's monthly team meetings. All of that gets put in the indirect service minutes portion of the IEP. And so, we pull all of that data from there. The next step is we look at our evaluation minutes. So, we're looking at the number of triennials. So, every 3 years, students in special education have to be reevaluated to determine if they are still eligible for services. So, we look at how many triennials are would be occurring in the school, and we multiply that by 12 hours. So, which is 720 minutes. Most evaluations take approximately 6 to 7 hours. So, what we include in that 12 hours is the evaluation, the PPT time, the coordination time, the paperwork time. So, we've tried to be very generous and with with the minutes for

075the exceptionally long ones to make up to balance for maybe don't take as long. We also divide that by 32 weeks. There's more than 32 weeks in the school year, we know, but again, what we're trying to provide is the the um the maximum um benefit to the staff in terms of completing the work. So, we're not we're not counting in weeks the 3 days before winter break, or you know, those short weeks. So, we're saying there's about 32 full weeks. And so, that actually helps increase the weight a little bit. The other thing we look at is the PPT minutes. So, we look at the number of IEPs that are within that a school. And we multiply that by 60 minutes and again by 32 weeks. So, it's shorter than what the regular school

076year is, but an average IEP PPT meeting is about an hour. Little bit less, little bit more, but we're looking at averages. So, we're trying to take all of that into account. Next slide. So, I just wanted to show an example of where we're pulling these minutes. So, um this is an example off of um the off of IEPs where you have your special education services and your indirect services. So, all of those minutes are what we account for when we talk about our contact minutes. And I want to give credit to my team over here because they literally go through every student's IEP and count those minutes. There's not an easy way to do it. We can't just pull it from the system and say, "Please tell me how many minutes are at Cos

077Cob?" Doesn't work that way. So, you know, they're pulling every IEP and counting every single minute. So, um this is, you know, um really it it's as accurate as as, you know, we can be in really looking at um at what services students are getting. Next slide. So, again, when we look at our triennials, um as we're determining the contact minutes, we have that * 720 minutes / 32 weeks, and the same with our number of IEPs * 60 minutes / 32 weeks. Okay, so now comes a little bit of the fun part. Here's your math. So, I filled it in a little bit before for you. So, you know, we start with the number of IEPs managed. So, you know, here at Havemeyer Elementary, we have 42 minutes. Um So, we have and we're

078looking at the whole school. Um and so, we first look at our direct service minutes, which are 13,412 minutes per week. So, when I say we're adding up a lot of services, we really are. Um we're in the thousands. We then look at the indirect service minutes of 90.6. The evaluation minutes of 315, so that's 14 triennials at 720 minutes. Our PPT minutes of 700 or 700 78.7 minutes, and we add all of those together to get 13,896 minutes. Okay. So, then that is what we bring to the top of step two, is where we're looking at our contact minute ratio. So, this is developing the actual weight that we look at. So, we take our contact minute ratio and we divide that we're looking at 1,500 minutes of instructional minutes. So, that's giving our

079teachers their 60 minutes for prep and the 30 minutes for lunch. So, at elementary, it's 1,500 minutes. So, we take those and we then divide our weekly contact minutes, our 13,896, divided by our fifth 1,500 minutes of instruction, and we get a contact minute ratio of a factor of nine. So, what that's saying is the the amount of uh of work associated with that is for nine students, right? So, depends So, the weight changes depending on the number of service minutes, the number of um indirect minutes. This actually doesn't yet have to do with the number of students in um in the school. So, then what we're trying to Our next step is determining the actual workload. So, for that, what we do is we take our contact minute factor of nine and our IEPs

080managed was for 42 to have a weight of 51. So, when we start talking about how we're going to staff our school, we're looking at staffing it for 51, not 42. So, that we're saying that that the number of service minutes is that's how it's weighed. And that's how we individualize it for the needs of the students at each individual school. So, it's not a blanket, you know, one school everybody gets the same. It's really individualized based on the needs of the students. So, then what the next the next step, step four, um is we're determining the the teacher weighted caseload, which then helps us determine staff. So, we take this school workload by the current number of teachers. So, we've we've determined that it's 51. And right now, we have 3.5 teachers there. And

081that gives a weighted caseload of 14.57. What we look at is trying to staff at about 15 Our guidelines are about 15 come April. So, we know that there's always a couple kids, you know, May and June. So, we're looking at April. So, in order to staff for September, we're looking at a target between 11 and 13.5 so that we can grow because we know that we have students who move out, move in, qualify, um you know, it's a it's a it's a moving target. It's not the same. So, we look at that that target number so that we can determine how to staff for September. Next slide. So, with this, our weighted case load is 14.57 if we have 3.5 teachers, which falls outside of what our guidelines of 11 to 13.5. So, then

082we go up by .5s. So, then we look at our proposed of adding a .5 teacher to four teachers, which then puts us in 12.5, which is right in there between 11 and 13.5. So, that gives us the availability to absorb eight new students without going into those guidelines, right? And so, again, we know students move in, they move out, we qualify new. So, it allows us to absorb and to look at that. Are there any questions so far? >> No, but let me let me take that opportunity to excuse myself. I'll still be around, but but I'm going on to Zoom. Um so, I'm going to pass the gavel to Sophie for the the remainder of the as to school committee of this chair. >> I'll try not to take it personally. >> Try.

083>> I just say I reserve the right to ask questions after this meeting because it's a lot of information coming at at us. >> It's a it's a lot. I totally absolutely. You can see why we have the animation though, you know, step by step as we walk it through. So, our our middle school, um So, I also have examples of our middle school. Our middle school is a little bit different than what our elementary is. One, our target has changed. We're looking at between 14 and 16 uh to start the year where where our guidelines are 18 by April. And we also um aren't looking at the PPT minute time because our teachers, when they're pulled out of a classroom, there's a sub that goes in the classroom. They're not making up those service

084hours. So, if if I if I'm doing a if I'm co-teaching or I have an academic lab or whatever I'm in, if I'm out, I don't go back if that if that makes sense. As opposed to at elementary, when we pull out, we're making those up. So, we don't account for that. So, it's a little bit different. So, next slide. So, with our middle school, if you look at go to have Havemeyer Middle School, um, yeah, we look at So, we're looking at the same thing for our contact minute calculation with our direct service minutes, our indirect service minutes, and our evaluation minutes. So, again, we're still giving that uh 12 hours for the triennials. We're looking at all of those different services that a student gets. Going to the if we look at the

085middle school example, this is the math gets even uh larger because we're starting with 99 students um with our management. And when we look at our service minute calculation, we're looking at 39,268 minutes and evaluation minutes of 742 for 40,663 minutes. So, you know, our teachers are busy. They're working hard. There There's a lot of services that they're that they're providing for our students. So, the another difference between elementary and middle is with the contact minute ratio is that the bell to bell the bell to bell minutes minus the lunch and prep is 1,470 minutes instead of the 1,500 minutes at elementary. So again, we've taken it into account specifically middle school what we're looking at for that. So, in order to figure out the contact the contact ratio, we have our 40,663 minutes divided

086by the 1470 minutes per week to get a contact minute ratio of a factor of 27. So again, this is where our weight is coming from so that we are saying, "Okay, this is the needs of the school." So, to determine the weighted caseload, we would have our contact factor minute of 20 contact factor minute factor of 27, our IEPs managed of 99 for 126 weighted caseload. So again, we're not saying that the school has 99 students, we're saying that we're looking at staffing for 126. And then we would look at dividing that the same process by seven um and that would give us 18. And again, we're looking at between 14 to 16 per teacher to start the school year. And so we would look at, "Okay, what do we need to do in

087order to adjust that?" And in this case, we added a teacher to go to eight teachers at so to bring that to 15.87, which allows us to absorb about 16 new students. So it as you can imagine, as you have more staff, so that would be approximately two students per teacher in absorbing that throughout the year. Um what we do do um it is that as we're determining staffing, I'm determining staffing for the school. The individual caseloads are managed by the by the building principals. And so that might be part of our staffing is the weight, right? So one teacher might have a smaller number of caseload, but their weighted higher, right? Like the actual numbers. And somebody might have more because in in some cases the contact minute ratio is below one. So there

088there's not a lot of services that a a particular student would have. So those are really managed at the building level and we try to work with the um with the principals in terms of how they do that staffing. But I think it's really important to know that as we're looking at staffing right now, you know, and and we've had um some of our elementary schools have gone down. The fifth grade class in in in from special a special ed perspective has been very large and they are all moving up into the middle school. So we have two middle schools that got an additional FTE and we have a large number of students moving up to the high school as well. And so the high school is getting two two additional FTEs. And those all

089come from looking at this, who's high, who's low, and then evening that out um to make sure that we're maximizing the usage of our of our FTEs and that we stay within the guidelines. So everybody that you know, we we individualize each school's um weighted weighted caseload so that it reflects their students, but everybody has the same guidelines in what they're staffing. So Does that make sense? So, we really are trying to look and to make sure that we're providing the right support. We also use the same formula um the same formula but apply it a little bit differently for speech and language and school psychologists. Um so, we look at that the the services that they provide. They don't manage caseloads but they do have some that they provide direct service to. So, we

090incorporate that and we're really looking at because there are there there their professional organizations um don't have guidelines and actually if you look at Asha for speech, it's like everywhere from like in California you can have 63 kids on a caseload, no joke. Um to you know, so what we look at is where are the outliers? Like what is and I would say that most everybody at at the elementary and middle school are around the same and then we have some of the outliers and that's where we're like, okay, where do you need a little bit more support or where can we utilize this particular service provider to maybe help with the evaluations or to support somebody else. Um so, that is how we staff. We spend a lot of time doing it. Um and

091really um want to make sure that um we you know, we have our teachers have the time to be able to provide the supports and services to their students. Questions? >> Do you need the gavel? >> Oh. >> Do you need the >> [laughter] >> I don't need the gavel. Um no, thank you. I mean, this is amazing and such an education. So, I really appreciate it because I had I frankly I didn't I had no idea this is how you did it and it's um so interesting to see and I appreciate how much work it takes to do all of this. Um I guess the one question I do have is about moving like sharing staff between buildings. >> Mhm. >> Um because I can see that probably it's necessary sometimes, but then I

092also, you know, transportation time is lost those are lost minutes and you're tracking every single minute it seems. So, just curious um how you handle that. >> So, we do have several schools that have have split positions. Um the buildings actually work very well together and it's not always back and forth during the same day. So, it could be two and a half two and a half. We do try to minimize the travel time um because when staff do travel uh they get a half an hour of time for travel. Um so, we minimize that um and so, the buildings kind of look at how what works best for the the group of students that they that they have. Um So, sometimes they'll take maybe the smaller the kindergarteners that maybe don't have as much

093services or there's less students in that to try to balance that out. >> Thank you. Karen? >> Hello. Um much like Sophie said, thank you so much for providing this cuz I know this was something we talked about in you know, very deeply when we were doing the the PCG review um and something that we've talked about just in general in conversations and and some of our uh special education reps and and uh SEAC have talked about as well. So, this is really eye-opening um and I appreciate that it's not just number of it's not based on number of students. It's based on students and the number of services each student is provided. So, that you know, that there's that our staff isn't uh some staff isn't just overwhelmed um and I like I said,

094I need some time to digest. Um I have just two simple questions. One was, you know, what changes is, you know, we've made to this was it something that wasn't weighted before? Like what the changes were to to make this new um process and then also instead of having shared staff, my question is this from time to time, you know, we have staff that's you know, needs to leave uh mid-year for some reason or or you know, maternity paternity leave or long-term sickness or they move, whatever it may be, and how that's managed if we have a long-term absence um or an opening in a position for the the staffing to you know. >> Um so, I think the part of um what we added was the accounting for the PPTs, the um testing as

095well as the um indirect minutes. So, previously, it was only the direct minutes and it um didn't necessarily balance out to the special education teacher. So, for example, you could have a student um who might have been weighted really heavy, but they only saw the teacher for 2 hours, but the minutes came from the para, right? So, we make sure that it is aligned to special education minutes, school psychologist minutes, speech and language minutes, so that's aligned to the correct service provider, and then we added those other areas that were were weighted um which weren't incorporated into that before. Um for um when we have teachers who are who are out for long-term absences, we work with Dr. Bud to see about getting things posted um as well as looking at depending on how long

096the leave is, um who can sub in those positions. So, the the guidelines and Dr. Jones might be able to speak better on the guidelines, but um I do believe it's 40 days or 60 days, and that's actually uh part of one of the board policies um that, you know, you can have the substitute in there. So, we work very closely um to see who we can have in there. Um on occasion, um we also when we do have somebody who who goes in as a sub, we also have them work with the other staff members in the school. So, I mean, our teachers are great in working with their colleague who's subbing for their colleague who's out of to make sure. And then we also utilize some of our district level staff to help

097provide additional support in lesson planning or IEP development, depending on what that need is. >> So, we're not just overloading at, you know, staff members, you know, based on openings. So, that's good. That's what I was just trying to get to. And, um, like I said, I once I do a little deeper dive, I may reach out to you with some questions. I hope that's okay. >> Absolutely. >> Go ahead, Karen. >> Great. Um, first of all, thank you so much for the rigor. Um, and I'm really delighted to see how thoughtful we're being about this. Um, I was I just wanted I had a question when you talk about, you know, current, uh, number of teachers and proposed. Is this a budget ask? Is this about unfilled positions? Are you taking teachers from elsewhere?

098How do you get from current to proposed? >> So, the I I have to say, the last couple years we've been really lucky in that it's balanced out. Um, however, a couple year uh, 3 years ago I want to say that when we looked at this and we looked at students, we needed to add outside of the budget. Um, it's it's hard because um, we and we try to anticipate like what we need budgetarily, you know, in September October. But if you have a large number of students who qualify or move into the district, we might we might not know that at the early part of the year. Um, and so that's when, you know, I've worked with worked with Dr. Jones and I believe we were actually able to move some FTEs around. >>

099Yeah, I might just add to that. It's this is like a huge puzzle puzzle across the district for general ed, special ed, everything. And so, if we go down for instance, we may have, you know, four retirements in elementary, and our enrollment, we don't need two of those positions. Those positions will have been, especially in the last couple of years, that FTE shifts to a different department like special education. So, it it is a huge puzzle. Right now, I'm watching, for instance, in elementary, 10 different sections. Could go up. Well, let's hope not. They also could go down, but we don't replace any of those open positions until we know it's needed. And that's the work that is happening right now, a lot of work. >> Yeah, so for the special education teachers, we've moved

100them, and we'll be here if something happens during the summer. Right now, we're good, but if we have a huge influx move in, that's when Dr. Jones and I would look at like, is there is there a way to be able to to cover that? Go go go ahead, Bob. >> I just want to know if you made the IEPs 99, so it was a perfect 18 at the bottom. Cuz that that speaks to my math brain. Um, and I was also curious, with the preschool program set up the way that it is, um, are kids looked to move into try to move into the same school if possible, or a close school to that if possible? And then, how does that work at the middle school level? Are there are there more I mean,

101I know the I know I'm sure the IEPs are different for every school, and I'm sure that it's exorbitantly different as you go to middle school with just the amount of more kids, uh, less schools. So, how how does that work exactly? Do they Is there Is there I wouldn't wouldn't be an algorithm, but it was there some Is there some sort of system in place where you you would try to help the parents and the students find the best school for them within a distance? >> So, for our students from in our pre-K who are moving up to kindergarten, in most cases they go to their home school. We do try it when we have preschoolers coming in, we do try to if there's a preschool at their home school, we do try to

102put them there or the closest home school to that. We do have some students. So, for example, Cos Cob homes are co-taught and so that is district. So, there are preschool students from all over, they're not from Cos Cob, but from all over that look at is that an appropriate program. And so then there's movement for that. When we're looking at staffing for K5 with our incoming pre-K, actually again, we use our pre-K minutes because they haven't had their transition PPT yet. And so each one of them has 4 to 5 hours a day on their IEP. So, it actually is weighted a little bit heavier and then once they go in, their minutes dramatically drop. So, again, we're trying to be generous with some of that time so that we, you know, um as

103we know that they move. In middle school again, they go to their most students go to their home school. However, our schools that have our special programs, we do let the parents have a choice because so let's say you're at Cos Cob but Western's your home school. Um send your uh you might want to move to Central with your cohort, right? Because you've been with these students since kindergarten, these are your your peers and that's okay, we can support that. Or you might want to go to Western because that's your home school and you live next door and you want to walk and we can support that. So, we try to work with individual parents. Um It's interesting you asked that because next year will be our fifth our first fifth grade class at Cos

104Cob. So, getting ready and already I have some of the fourth grade parents reaching out saying, "What are we going to do about middle school?" And I said, "Please let me get through this year and we'll have that conversation next year." Um and what that will look like in middle school. So, um it will be interesting to see if we're going to have a cohort, if they as a group they do want to move to middle school, or together at Central, or will they be going to three different middle schools? And then we'll plan accordingly kind of based on what the the needs of the students and the parents' preference. So, we try to balance those out. >> Okay. Veronica? Sorry, Bob. Thank you so much for this. Um like Karen, I'm going to digest

105it and I'm going to ask my favorite question. Um how does this factor into paraprofessional staffing? >> This doesn't factor into paraprofessionals at all. So, um paraprofessionals are a different line within the IEP and we look at that during the summer. So, we look at the students again. The only similarity is we pull every single IEP and we go through and we look at what's written in the IEP. And so, then we look at who has a one-to-one, who has a shared para, who needs it for this and not that, and then that's how we look at staffing. >> Thank you. Any more questions? Okay. Thank you so much. That was just so informative. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you. And please reach out with any questions. I I know it's a lot. I

106feel like I breathe it, you know. Yeah. Thank you. >> Oh, thank you. Okay, Patrick. Do you want to come up? Thank you so much. >> Hey, um Okay, good uh good evening everyone. So, uh in front of you is the financial report for the month ending the end of April. Um I think the things that I would like to highlight is 2 months ago when I was here talking about um how we are expecting the uh school year will be finished on the budget balance. It was 1.5 to 2 million dollars uh budget balance that we were expecting. Um this month we look at it again with kind of like another 6 weeks to go to finish the um uh the school year. We are still thinking in the same range of 1.5 to

1072 million budget balance to finish um the school years. The rest uh the financial is kind of like um pretty similar to uh what you have been seeing in the last few months. So, I stopped to see if there's any questions. >> I don't think there are any questions. >> Okay, good. >> Thank you so much. >> And the next item is the budget transfer for the information items. Um uh it is kind of like the budget transfers to support the special education uh mental health uh clinical services at the Greenwich High School and the Western Middle School provided by the um effective solution effective school solutions um companies. So, uh it is because of the uh additional uh students in the high school and also the Western Middle School that drive the requirement of

108the additional service by the by the vendors. Okay. Right? Good. That's all I have. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, now we're on transportation. Dr. Jones? >> Yes, just very quickly. I you know, just letting the community know we're continuing to to work on this issue every single day. Um, we have explored more than 50 different sites and uh we remain optimistic. Um, I did have a question this week where um you know, some individuals were asking about parking buses at the new ice hockey rink. That is not doable. Um, you know, obviously it would be too close to the community um and it's you know, we would have the same issues that we've had being parked at Western um and there's not enough space. But that's all we have tonight.

109We're working on it. >> Okay, thank you. Um, next up we have policy is is Dr. McCantheon is online. Okay. >> I am here. >> Okay, do you want to lead off on this policy item? >> Sure. Sure, see I am I'm logging into my laptop at home. Just give me one one moment here. >> Recording >> Okay. All right. There we go. Hi everybody. Say again. So um before us as a first read is um a policy um a revision to our policy on uh political um activity. Um, the policy committee felt that well, the majority of the policy committee I should say felt that um our current policy was a little too vague in some aspects and and in other aspects was was violated annually. So, to go to go speak to So,

110right now we have a long-standing policy that prohibits political activity on school grounds during school activities. We have a long-standing tradition of allowing political activity on school grounds during homecoming. So, the non-controversial amendment here changed it to our policy is as you'll see here carved out is this annual exception around homecoming. It didn't make sense to anyone on the policy committee that we would have a policy and willfully break it every year. The point where the superintendent even, you know, sends out communications about it, you know, when it's that time of year and so on and so forth. The other aspect The other revision before before everyone tonight is a slight tweaking of the wording. It seemed like when school activities, how it was written before, was kind of vague. So, is when students are

111walking into the building, is that a school activity? Or does school activity start with a first bell? We, you know, we probably all kind of think one way, but you could see how that could be exploited. So, the language there tries to tries to specify what we mean as far as whenever kids are on campus for the purpose of school activities, including after school and sports and music performances and anything like that. The other So, those are the um, uncontro- the the less controversial um, changes. Um, there are additional changes that the policy committee did not make that we wanted to bring to the full board and that would be around um, limiting um, political activity on school grounds even further. Uh, we reached out to um, our our attorneys um, on this. Um, and

112um, um, they said or he said that um, there are many boards of education around um, the state that uh, completely prohibit um, political activity on on on school grounds including when there are no children there um, under the argument that um, activity on school grounds conveys can be interpreted as kind of a an endorsement or a tacit endorsement. Um, we didn't um, argue one way or the other at the policy committee level uh, level instead we thought it was best to bring that um, to the to the full board uh, for discussion if we felt that this was if this went further not uh, this went far enough or if we wanted to limit it uh, further. Um, politi- it seems that according to our attorneys um, um, school property is not public property

113it can can is not considered public property kind of the same in the same way as like a park is um, where anybody can get a permit and protest in a park. Not anybody regardless of time of day um, in certain communities can go to an elementary school and get a permit and have a rally out front. Um, currently our policy allows that. Um, the question is if we want to prohibit that completely. So, that's kind of the explanation behind um um the wording before you. I have my own thoughts on where we should go from now, but um I think it's probably best if um we defer we we open up to everybody else first. >> Um sure. I think we can open it to discussion. Veronica, do you have a question then Paul?

114>> I just have a question. Um how would this impact um just specifically election day? Obviously most of our uh schools are If If we If we prohibit political activity at any point on school grounds, but yet we use it as polling sites and often candidates have been outside. I'm just wondering if that was discussed or maybe Dr. Jones knows. I don't >> Yeah, Dr. Jones can answer. >> Yeah, when we have actually election day, we are no longer in school. Uh we used to if you went back even my first year here, we were open. We would have professional development and school activities. They have to be a certain distance um from the polling place, but we are no longer in school. Yeah, we have that day off. >> Yeah, we didn't ask the

115attorneys about prohibiting polling. Um my my assumption is that that's probably not as much in our purview as um rallies and protests. >> Yeah. Paul? >> Mike, what did you say that I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. You said something was currently allowed or something was currently not allowed. What was it? >> Well, right now I Yeah, right now as our policy reads, um um political activity is allowed when school is not in session. So on Sunday or Saturday, um we can point to any number of examples on either side of the on both sides of the political spectrum of uh political activity on on on on school grounds um including our district grounds including Halfmeyer. >> Yeah, Dr. Jones. I just want to take this opportunity to say I do not approve things that

116happen on Saturday and Sunday that just show up. And I think there's a really a misunderstanding because people get upset with me when all of a sudden there's a protest of any nature, but those don't come through the school. If they were hosting something that needed a permit through the town, that might be different, but on the weekends, you know, in the evenings, we don't control that. >> But but I think we we do. I think that the Connecticut General Statutes say that like Michael was saying that it school property is not public property in the sense that we normally understand public property. A a park, a sidewalk, somewhere where people have the the right to assemble. School property is a different level of of public property and it's public property placed in trust to

117the Board of Education. And the Board of Education, according to the Connecticut General Statutes, can can limit or can allow activities and it doesn't discriminate between at night or on the weekends or anything else. It's it's school property and it's forever in the trust of the Board of Education. >> Yeah, I think you're both right. I think the the attorney said that um um we would have that authority. And as Dr. Jones has pointed out, the current policy does not give us that authority. We'd have to amend the policy. >> I I think to me the I mean, we've had we had a good conversation about this at policy committee. To to me, my concern is what is best for the students on the campus, right? And um sort of preserving their educational experience. And

118so I actually I I hear you that you know perhaps the law allows for us to put greater restrictions on it, but my primary concern is what is the what is the condition when the students are on campus? Um and the language as we have it in this new draft is expansive. So if it if students are there on the weekends or in the evenings um for a rehearsal or sports event or what you know, all of all of those times you can have political activity on campus. So I'm not it feels like when any potential political activity could even occur is so limited. Um and I'm a little concerned frankly if if we do something more restrictive although the attorney said, you know, it's possible we could do it. I'm afraid we might be

119inviting uh litigation where people say, you're interfering with my first amendment right to express myself on you know, government property. So so I which I just I would like to avoid that fight. And so I'm just to say I'm in favor of this language because I feel like it is sufficiently restrictive that I think it protects our students and staff um from feeling like they're bring you know, really being harassed or their education is being interfered with by political activity, but it it it seems enough, I guess is what I would say. And now I can see everyone would like to speak. So um Karen, Karen, and Bob. >> Just so you know, like on the policy committee, we didn't go as far into depth into discussing this part of the question as to political

120activity on campuses. And I do also much like my three policy committee members say like I have differing opinions on you know, we are you know, the property is given to us in trust. I think there's a vast difference between having some sort of rally, um which even if you did it in a park, you would need to have approval, right? Versus having the opportunity to like we have people who rent out space within our schools when there are no school activities. And if somebody's having a meeting, that's a vastly different thing than a public rally outside. So, I mean again, I I would like to to get some understanding further in depth if that's what we're going to be talking about from um our attorneys on that, but you know, I I I think

121there's a vast difference between some of the different types of political activities we're talking about. Campaigning versus having a meeting inside where you rent it out a room. Like, you know, you know, that kind of sort of thing. So. >> Um Karen and then Bob. >> Uh Sophia, I like the way you put it that the first priority is what's best for the students. Uh and I think, you know, that that is absolutely the spirit we should honor. I I did have a question about if there's a gray area that's not obvious to the public, isn't does there happen to be a sports practice or game? Does this does having it phrase this way rather than sort of more of a a black and white no activity on campus at all set us up for

122a lot of messy enforcement disputes that somebody shows up, they didn't know there was a game or a practice going on, and then someone suddenly calling the police and saying they're there when they shouldn't be. I I I just I want a balance and make this so it's clear to the public cuz that's that's a pretty unpleasant situation if you have to kick someone off campus who didn't realize they were there at another time. And another carve out that I think we don't if we go more restrictive, I think a lot of the RTMs meet at schools. >> Okay, but I'm going to go with Bob who's been waiting patiently and then and then I'll come over to Paul and Wendy. >> Yeah, I was just going to say I think that what's written here

123is is great and I feel like this would be what we should use and I feel like if we go any further than this we have to start looking at what are we gaining and what are we losing? Like what do we what do we get out of being more restrictive than this other than a lot of emails from a lot of upset citizens in town. Right? I feel like we we would we would upset a lot of people and about like Sophie said infringement on First Amendment rights and things like that. I feel like we're not gaining a lot by telling people they can't do certain things. I think that this is a great way to explain the policies that we have for political activities on our on our school properties. And I in

124my opinion, I don't know that we should go any further than this. >> Paul? Then Wendy. >> Yeah, I just want to best understand Bob. You don't think we should go any further than what's already the policy or any further than what's >> amended. >> The what's that? >> instructed. >> I think these revisions are great. >> Oh, the revisions. Okay, thank you. I just wasn't sure. So, I I Sophie, I think I I I agree with you as well as it relates to you know what we're all looking for here is the best options for the students. I do I I think it's already been litigated whether there are First Amendment rights on this type of particular property. And they're not they're not the same and that's the law actually references that that we

125we we can stop that and they'll free speak a rally that that and someone else said it, you know, you need a permit for a rally. There's the right to assemble and if the assembly is is you know, grassroots or something like it wasn't planned or something like that in a public park or something else is is permissible. Um Um But those are just like those are details. I think we're coming back to like I agree with you with the this should be based on the kids. What I'm worried about though is you know potential I thought that's what Bob was talking about is is inviting a bunch of phone calls. I feel like we it's this is already codified in Connecticut General Statutes it relates to who is responsible for Board of Ed property

126and that currently um we based on Connecticut General Statutes we can we can approve or not approve. And if there's a rally on a Saturday we can and we get complaints about it we can legitimately say it we did not approve that. It shouldn't have happened. Um I don't think any one of us is going to go running down to the field and try to throw people off but it gives us the opportunity to um uh you know uh I just worry that we're we're going to we're going to back another um board in the future into the corner and I think that a lot of this is like I said codified in Connecticut General Statutes. I don't know what where what that how that places me on where I want to go with this

127but this is discussion and so those are the thoughts that I'm having. Um >> Thank you. Wendy. >> Um yeah so just going back to home homecoming and our carve out I've heard from many families and students as well that the political tents at homecoming feels divisive and they detract from what should be a unifying and student center oriented event. Um and our policy is clear that political activities should be separate from educational from from the educational environment and and the homecoming exception, you know, contradicts that principle. Um I'm not questioning anybody's um intentions, but I do think that we should eliminate political activity at student events altogether. Um I I don't think that there's any place for that and I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Um I know that before I

128was on the board, I would cringe when I would walk by the tents of people because it's really gross to see these people campaigning at a student event. Um so um you know, I think it would be great if we could get the RTC and the DTC to work together to eliminate the tent and campaigning altogether. Cuz I don't think there's a place for it there. >> Just say something quick and then Paul um I'm glad you raised that specifically just how you did, Wendy, because this was a discussion that we were having about policy and we wanted to bring it to the full board instead of just talking the four of us because there was a a lot of discussion of why do we have this carve out, you know, it violates our policy

129and I think I'm I hope I'm speaking correctly for the committee that we said, you know, if we're going to allow it, we should have language around why are we allowing it, but there's a good question of why are we allowing it and exactly like you said, because if students and families don't like it and wish that it wasn't happening, maybe we don't have it at all, you know, and so that's really why we wanted to bring it to the board. >> Sophie? >> I would have Yeah, sorry, Michael Joseph, yeah. >> Oh, no problem. I mean, if um as you see my my two cents, I think um that's kind of why um um I like the idea of of going stronger and and um eliminating all political activity. Because look, they um obviously

130the the nightmare scenario of you know, a KKK rally in the school yard, but even more mundane, right? There's nothing to to stop anyone from uh announcing their candidacy for anything on the steps of say, you know, Cos Cob School at 4:00 on a Saturday and and and and conveying and give giving the sense that the this is something that the the the school supports. Or you know, if even if I announce that, um you know, um right now in the past we've had people on both sides of the political spectrum. The first selectman had his uh re-election announcement on Havemeyer. Then there was a No Kings rally a couple months ago. Um um the the law to to pulse point, the the law um seems clear that um at least according to our um

131the the the experts in the state, that um you have a right to assembly. Um you don't have a right to assembly assemble in a school yard. And right now there's nothing in our policy that stops anybody from assembling in our school yards. And I think that's seems like a rather dangerous oversight on our our on our part. And it'd be a lot simpler just to say, "No political activity on school grounds." >> Veronica? Um Wendy, you said it so well. >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much. And I feel like you really uh brought together a lot of the thoughts that I had. I agree with Wendy and and a bit of what Mike just said also that um I don't think we need a carve out for homecoming. I'm sure that once upon

132a time in a different political climate, there was a time and a space for it and maybe it was more welcomed and maybe 10, 20 years from now a future board might go back and carve out homecoming again. But um I think to protect our students and to protect our families and to also protect the integrity of a special event and day for many families. Um, I agree that we should keep it should be a black and white policy of uh no political activity on school grounds during activities and um while school's in session. Thank you, Paul. >> So, as it relates to the political parties and the school, I think that you'd probably find that as long as if one is having it there, the other wants to. But, if one isn't, the other

133doesn't. So, I don't think think stopping it is a big deal. Right? Cuz it's it's stopping it for everybody. And uh I do I have heard the the comments of the of the gauntlet running the gauntlet into um into the stadium with the with the political signs on each side. I I I I like to think that um I mean, I know I've been there and we've been we're always kind and generous to one another. Um uh that's all I've ever seen. But, it doesn't mean that the people coming to see the football game really want to see it. And I I So, I I cut it out. Uh One thing that might work here though is maybe we should take a look at the Connecticut General Statutes and put them in our policy because

134I think they actually do of of all the things that we're asking and then they leave it to the Board of Ed to continue to have the authority um over those things. Right? They make they make it clear that that, you know, you can't just assemble on school property. That you can't um have a uh you know, a free speech, you know, event on school property. The school property is a different type of public property. And so maybe we should go back I can't remember the whole thing, right? I just I read it briefly. Um maybe we should go back and take a look at that because we've done it before and putting it in our our um our bylaws could be helpful because like Mike said, there has been um you know, announcements here,

135things here and I don't think anyone would was being like oh, malicious and tricky and let's do this. I don't think they knew, right? And so let's put it in the policy what's in the general statute. >> I think I think that's a great suggestion and um it sounds like maybe we should send it back to the policy committee and we can pull up the appropriate statutes and figure out if we want to actually quote the language or just reference it. Okay. Anyone have anything further? On this? No. Okay. >> Oh, great. >> All right, Dr. Jones, we're going to have this >> cell phone discussion, please. I know you're all so excited. Um this is a big topic and it was a big topic whenever um put we put out the regulation 2 years

136ago. Um we had been um we had cell phones off in K8 for several years um even before 2 years ago, but we kind of rededicated ourselves to being vigilant about making sure we were on top of it in K8 um and theirs is much more restrictive than the high school. High school 2 years ago, there was quite a bit of push back um and especially during opens, during their lunch time, um during um passing time. So what you have in this packet and I'm not obviously going to read the first couple pages. Um it's just some of the research and what it says and you know, and it does it does talk about just the distraction um you know, that happens for students with unrestricted smartphone use and our teachers right now, um um,

137at the high school it's often away during instruction, but but it's not an easy thing to manage. It is it's hard. Um, I also would put in the research infographic here, which is just, um, you know, it's [clears throat] that's from reputable sources like Common Sense Media, which has been around for for years. And, you know, it actually just gives you like 83% of teachers generally across, you know, the country want some sort of phone-free policy. But it's just a good infographic, and I I credit, um, Wilton superintendent. This is something he had put out cuz they're 2 years really, uh, beyond where we are cuz they went full on 2 years ago, uh, no cell phones. And New Canaan is the same, and I had been, uh, going back and forth with them over

138the last couple of, um, listening We've had a lot of conversations about this issue. So the other thing, um, thank you to Margaret, who I had asked during the legislative session, um, that is there a way to find out how our high school faculty feel about this, and whether or not they supported the statewide bill, uh, bill to bell. And I wanted that information because I talked during session, legislative session, I talked to, you know, our state representatives and definitely on a weekly basis, sometimes more than once. And I like to be able to say, here's what our staff think about it so that, you know, when they're in Hartford, um, they they know that the community as a whole how our thoughts are. And when you look at the faculty opinion on student cell

139phone use, you'll see, um, 60, uh, almost 61% supported the bill to bell band. Um, then there were the GHS policy, like not during instruction was 37, and then some supported, um, 2.4%. Now I will say even on that support the statewide bill to bell, some of the people who were against it, and I'm not saying for our high school staff, I'm saying this is at the state level when it was being discussed, they were against not having local control. So, I don't know how many teachers might have actually been against it. They just wanted to be able to control what we did in Greenwich. So, that I'm not sure about. Um and then the faculty opinion on student smartwatches, um and basically, you know, the overall theme was um you know, the the majority

140would be happy to have it more restrictive than it is now. Our policy, um which is in right behind that, is um fairly simple. I mean, it just is making a kind of a statement about technology in general. Our regulation, um walks you through again what I just mentioned for K8, but when you get down to the high school, um and it's on the very, very back page, we're much more liberal. And again, this kind of comes out of what our community was saying, but I also think our community is in a different place than we were 2 years ago because I think our parents are much more tuned in to the mental health challenges, and they've been watching other school districts who have implemented very, very restrictive policies. And what we're hearing from those

141districts, including Wilton and New Canaan, um are that they're working, that they feel their kids are healthier, happier, they're talking more to one another. I will say in Wilton, the one interesting thing right now, they they are, you know, they have ongoing committee that's talking about it. Um they're looking, they rolled pouches out that are lockable for middle school. They didn't do it for high school. That's part of the discussion right now because the pouches themselves, when you when you put them in there and you lock them up, um it cuts the cell phone um it cuts the the actual cell phone, what am I trying to say? Um signal, thank you. Connection. So, that is you heard when somebody in their public comment talk about connecting to their computer, well, it would their cell

142phone would be completely cut. So, their smart watches also would not work. Um and so, what happens is at the end of the day, there are unlocking devices that are around the school and we would have to figure all of that out. But, if the board went in this direction, definitely what I'm hearing from colleagues who are farther along than we are is we would want to have some sort of device so that it really relieves the stress for a lot of the management that comes along with it and there's a cost to it and and you know, that's the reality. But, if we really think that this is the direction the board wants to be more restrictive in, it we may need to spend, you know, a little bit of money to actually do

143it right. So, I'll stop there. >> Oh, well, thank you so much. I mean, I think this is incredibly helpful and I just wanted to, you know, we as you said, I think the thinking around cell phone use has evolved so, so quickly and I would say even 2 years ago when the board was having this conversation, I think everyone felt much more relaxed about cell phones and felt like they were so, you know, providing efficiencies and now, um we understand so much more how difficult it is for students to concentrate in the classroom. And Margaret, thank you for your comments because I just feel like they were absolutely spot-on. Um that both sort of what we're hearing at the board level and then also, frankly, for myself as a parent, you know, it's just

144the phones are so distracting. The kids are distracted by their own phones, they're distracted by other kids' phones, other kids' watches beeping, you know, it's just so hard for them. Um so, I'm really glad that we're talking about this again and these infographics um were amazing and also so upsetting to read. You know, when you hear you when you just see how much kids are using phones either to be distracted or frankly that the cheating issue is a huge issue. Um, so I'm glad that we're talking about this and trying to figure out what to do. Uh, Karen. >> Sorry, I was just going to say I know I know this has been a discussion that we've had a couple of times before and obviously every year there's different there's changes and and we learn

145more um, and have more research and more data um, than we did in past. I know that you know, there's a national trend for this um, and state legislatures actually bill got shot down for multiple reasons. You know, there's often away policies, there's bell to bell restrictions, there's using locked pouches teacher managed classroom policies which I don't think making our educators uh, also have to police uh, students in that way uh, is exactly fair to them while they're trying to educate. Um, but more than anything um, I mean you know, Yondr pouches yes, they're expensive kids know the work around. This district will spend a ton of money to digitize all of our student communications and IDs and how they pay for their school lunches. So this is more than just a cell phone in

146the classroom policy. I definitely think K through eight they don't belong there. Um, often away unless you have some uh, you know, something students have things in their IEPs or 504s or other requirements to be able to use them. Um, high school is a different animal. Um, but before we all get into our opinions and and viewpoints, I think more importantly than anything this along with screen time discussions which had started had been around for ages and we shelved them during um, COVID and beyond for multiple reasons. I think this is our opportunity as a board to really engaged in good community um, discussion and feedback um, on opinions and thoughts. I obviously will be wide range and all over. We also have the survey results from um, you know, my gosh, my brain just

147went to the ones we do every other year where they talk about the things that add to students' stress and anxiety and and gradu- it's not graduate education. It was it's a different one. Graduate Together. Graduate Together, yep. I think there's a lot of data points. I started doing research into which districts in Connecticut have policies on this and and so forth. There's, you know, and there's a lot of reasons to not have school about, you know, available uh cell phones and some for them, whatever it may be. But, I think this is a good opportunity for us to really to get uh public uh import in- public input um and I think this should be a community-wide uh discussion, personally. >> Um Michael Joseph and then Karen Cross. >> Yeah, I mean, I uh

148Sylvia, I think you're being too kind on us. I mean, cuz you and I lost this fight two years ago. We were both um arguing for for stricter um regulations two years ago and we lost and we were right. Um and we had the opportunity to get out ahead of this and now we're playing catch-up. Um 26, it was the wrong decision then. Uh it'd be the wrong decision now not to ban bell to cell phones bell to bell. Um we um um 26 states have now passed um cell phone laws um um doing doing just that, including our neighbors in New York. And um now um as we see, instead of cell phones, conversations moving on to um screen time in general and ed tech. And um um we still have the opportunity there

149to to to to be leaders instead of of following along two years later. Um I think the one thing to to Karen's point, I think the one thing that um we need to be mindful of and we need to discuss and have a serious conversation of is where we've um institutionalized um cell phone use. Um is as more and more parents um want to hold want to wait and not give into cell phones, they um are they running into institutional barriers where the school um for one way or another forces their hand. Um whether it's library books or buying lunch or communications on a sport team sports team. I heard second hand that um um the eighth graders needed a cell phone um to go on the Washington trip. I I certainly hope that's not

150true because I would go ballistic if somebody told told me that my eighth grader needed a cell phone uh for a field trip. Um so those kind of institutional um um I think we need to work through where we as a district might be sending some mixed messages if we institute this ban and what those workarounds might need to be. >> Thanks, Karen Cross. >> Uh yeah, I guess I guess Mike and I Mike and I are very much on the same page. I I think it's really important that we preserve a parent's right to decide that their child is not ready for a phone. And I I I have younger kids. I don't have a high school student at the moment, but what I've heard is you need a phone at the high school

151to badge and to pay for lunch. It that the those are the sort of things I think we need to remove because I I think it's really important. Some kids might be fine. Some kids don't but there are kids who are and I think we have to really make sure we're not putting parents in a position where where they have no choice. Uh and secondly um and and and Karen already said this I don't want to put the I I I really don't want to put any more burden on our teachers. I don't want them to have to be the bad guy, the enforcer. Um I I want you know, this to be really clear. So that it isn't it doesn't become a thing every day, every class. And look and and lastly, you know,

152Peter Schwartz who he who spoke earlier, his point on safety was spot on. Dr. Jones. >> Yeah, just on a couple of those points. Brent Reeves who's over he's over safety and security for us a fully supports a full ban. And what you heard from some of the comments tonight that when we have an issue, even if it's a minor fight or whatever it is, you know, cell phones are coming out, kids are videoing, it becomes incredibly challenging if it's something that we're trying to manage from a safety and security standpoint because it's already going viral before we've even figured out what's going on. And and if you really did have a crisis, which I believe it was the gentleman's night with the public comment that talked about it it will it can shut your

153whole system down. And and that's scary when that happens. I had a when I was in Virginia that that happened to us and it had to it had to do with one of those threat call-ins and everybody was scared to death because at that point in time it was newer. Like now we're more swatting and things like that. It doesn't panic people as much. But it's a very serious issue. As for the digital IDs that rolled out at the high school, they're already looking right now we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes on making sure that kids have a regular ID like they did, you know. And that and my part of part of the challenge there is we're also looking at from a safety security standpoint and I have said this for

1547 years, but we're going to fix it next year. We have too many kids that just walk off campus that are not it's not an open campus. If you're a freshman or a sophomore, that should not be happening and I've We've had some pretty big meetings recently over this issue. So, we're looking at what is the easiest way where if you For instance, if you're a junior or a senior, and and that's what been part of the conversation is swiping in and out even if you are off camp- Who is off campus that is a senior? Um and so, looking at the actual card itself, and so, I'm not worried about reversing kind of where we are digitally. Um that We're We're on top of that. >> Okay, Wendy. >> Um I think I'm maybe

155one of the only people opposed to the ban to ban in in high school especially. Um but K through 8, I'm okay with the bell to bell. Um the I mean, there's no reason for them to have a cell phone. But in high school, I think it's actually developmentally inappropriate for high school students to take it away from them. I think that um I the I think our own regulation states that students in high school must learn to self-regulate their cell phone usage before graduating. A bell to ban A bell to bell ban removes the opportunity to practice the skills they eventually need for college, for work, for adult life. When they go to college, is a professor going to say, um "Take Put your phone away." or take your phone from them? Uh Does

156your employer take your phone away? >> [laughter] >> No. Um If we want students to learn responsible use, we must let them practice responsible use. So, that's where I stand. And I think the Yondr I think Yondr is actually disrespectful to students who are responsible and using their phones responsibly. So, I think it's like putting handcuffs on them. Uh I don't like Yondr bags at all. >> Veronica. >> Um I think that I I think that before we enact a new policy, I'd also like to look at the policy that we currently have in place and think about what has worked and what hasn't worked with that and what we would need to change. Um just the other day Paul and I were sitting in AP class. Um and you know, still in May, end

157of May, you know, the teacher had to remind the students to put their phones in the pouches. My understanding on the small discussion we had in there with very few students, just to be clear, um was that still it's a lot of sounds it sounds to me like it's a lot of management on the teachers with the current policy we have in place and I'm open to any teacher emailing me and telling me otherwise, but but I feel like it's a lot of management for the teachers to remind the students to put them in the pockets and then when they don't do it to have to remind them again and 10 minutes later class has actually started. Uh my in some creative thought I had was um I would I would love to be able

158to tie putting your phone in a pouch, although I'm this has nothing to do with bell to bell band, but just looking at that policy, the pouch, the shoes, >> No, not Yonder what? >> Not Yonder pouches. The shoe pouches and and that's what I was talking about, sorry. Um what I would love to do is actually tie the cell phones in the pouch to attendance because I I don't know if it's the same as it was in the 90s, but if you miss a class at the high school, then you're not in class, maybe you cut the class or whatever it is, you used to get a phone call home and whatever. So if if if if there's some way it was just a creative idea I had, uh doesn't it can go nowhere

159else but this small conversation, um but I just want to make sure that we look at the current policy and learn from it. >> Uh >> Karen? >> So, Wendy, much like you, I'm I am in favor of limiting it in the elementary and middle school. I'm not in favor of limiting it as bell to bell in the high school for multiple reasons, but I do agree with not you know and having them not in classrooms to distract our students. Um I know in discussions I had with Margaret, we were talking about it uh when it came up at state and and beyond and her comments, if you don't mind me uh paraphrasing, were it's not just the cell phones, it's also personal devices in the classroom, right? So, they have access to some of

160those things there um that can be distracting. My bigger concern with having the shoe pouches up in front is, and this has not been fully litigated yet, but it is a big discussion throughout the the country, is who becomes responsible for that thousand-dollar device, right? Once we take responsibility and ask you to check it in, if something gets broken, lost, stolen, there's no guarantee that the device wasn't cracked before it went in there, but the kids like, "Oh, you cracked my cell phone, you owe me." So, who's responsible for that financially? It's something that we would need to dig dig deep into. I know that's a discussion that's happening around the country. This is I brought it up 2 years ago. Um and again, the question we also have to look at these are the

161unintended consequences that I'm concerned about is students who have IEPs or 504s that allow them to use apps on their personal on the on their phone or use it to take a photograph or something is how do we make sure we don't stigmatize those students that have access otherwise, right? And so, I just it's a deeper discussion. That's all I'm saying and I'm not I do agree that it it is distracting for students in classrooms. They should be off, they should be in their bags and quiet, but I think the other piece is there have to be consequences, right? If a student is if we tell them they have to be off and in their bags unless they have something, you know, like written in their IEP or 504, for instance, or whatever it may

162be, and they're not listening, then we have to be very strict on the consequences for not following those because I'd say what, 95 plus or more percentage of our students actually do follow the rules, right? And so, to punish 95% for 1 or 2% or maybe it's more or whatever, but, you know, we have to be respectful of our teachers who spend all like, you know, their job is to educate our students, not to police them on the use of their cell phones, and it's not to teach them necessarily what we should doing, but they are going off to the real world, and it is our responsibility to help them learn to regulate themselves in those environments. So, again, I I think that this is something that we should become a good I I'd like

163to do more research, but I think it should be a a public discussion. >> Um, I I agree it should be a public discussion. I just wanted to say I really feel like we should all study these infographics because I I don't think that 95% of students are capable of managing their phones. >> I I I just pulled a number. >> No, I know you did, but I'm just saying I think the infographics are interesting, especially when they're talking about the hundreds and hundreds of notifications that students get during the day. And um and you know, full disclosure, like my senior in high school, he has a phone, right? I'm sure he's getting lots of notifications, like if he didn't have a phone, he would be getting distracted by other kids' notifications. So, I think

164there is also an argument to be made of like uh protecting the students in the classroom who either don't have a phone or who are following the rules from the students who have their phones are constantly buzzing. >> off and away policy. Should be >> Right. No, no, no, but I'm just saying I I fully agree, but I I in addition to in the classroom, I would just go further of saying when you're in the student center, I think a lot of teenagers would like to not be filmed and had their picture taken or like have Tik Tok going all the time or Instagram reels or all of this stuff that they may be trying to manage their own social media addiction frankly or you know and trying to avoid screens, but if the six

165other kids at the table are all on it, it's really hard. So, you know, I know that they're practicing to be adults and I appreciate your point on that Wendy, but you know, but they're a lot of our freshman are like 13, 14 years old. I mean, they're very young and they're in this huge student center and and it's a lot, right? Um >> But we're not their parents. Their parents should be town should be limiting them. It's not up to us to do it. >> Well, I guess what I'm saying is I could I can do my best to try to limit my child's screen exposure, but when I send them to school and if there are hundreds of other students there with their screens up like even my best effort is not going

166to make any difference. >> But like when you walk through the student center, do you really see lots of children on their devices? I didn't. I didn't. I saw them on I see them on their laptops. We're >> Sorry Michael Joseph. Yeah. >> We can we could probably debate this all all all evening. Um but uh look, I I think let's be clear here. This is an um addictive device designed to be with all the notifications and um bells and alerts and things designed to grab and keep students' attentions and 13 and 14 year and 15-year-old students are simply not um developmentally um advanced enough to to manage that. Um it's the same reason why we don't allow them to have cigarettes um and alcohol. Um it's very it's it's just it's you know, it

167sounds stark, but if you read The Anxious Generation and if you read all these other reports and you see the differences in these schools that there's a difference in climate in these schools that uh done or even if you look at the vast percentage of students in the Granite Together survey that didn't want to be on their cell phones and wished, you know, things like Tik Tok didn't exist anymore um because it's taken over their social lives. Um it um I think it's the the the least we can do is to get up with the uh with the current times here um and and support um a sense of norm of returning a sense of uh normalcy um to to to to the high school experience. Because right now um we're we're fostering digital we're

168allowing too much um digital addiction to to to uh to fester. >> Bob? >> Yeah, I just want to say I um I was originally, you know, kind of laissez faire about this like let's let the kids have their phones and do what they want and I spoke to a few uh Board of Education members and a few other people in town and I I'm I'm at the at the very least I feel like there there should be a bell-to-bell ban. Maybe maybe with with it maybe they can have the phones at certain times, I don't know, but I think that should be the the the minimum with which we start and then we can learn to walk before we run. Another thing I would say, uh Brian Reeves approves of the guy I always

169say the guy should have a cape. You know, he's he's amazing and he's he goes to elementary schools, talks about cybersecurity, talks about everything. I think he would be very compelling to maybe have him come and speak to the board about the risks and what could what could happen with this. >> Thank you. Wendy? >> I never said that we should let them do whatever they want with their phones. Like it we should just I think phones should be off and away during instructional time. And other than that we should not be holding on to their personal devices. It's their personal property. >> Okay, I think we're going to continue this conversation in the weeks and months to come. But um I'm wondering if Yes? >> Is there any uh is there any goal or

170objective this might be for Dr. Jones or maybe it's for Dr. um Michael Joseph. Is there any goal or objective to have a this is an action item at some point soon prior to starting next school year or is this something that we are just planning to consider discussing? Just so I can um wonder. >> So Dr. Jones asked for the board's opinion. So that's that's where that's how this became an agenda item currently. Um that is an excellent segue to the board goals conversation because it does it does appear there. >> I'm sorry. I forgot one thing. Yeah, maybe in our further discussions maybe we think of just implementing something for ninth graders because they are 13 as you say. I don't I mean that's very young. 13 is that really true? 13-year-old freshman

171>> We Well, yeah because just it was the December first cut off. >> Yeah, no. I don't know. I mean how many could there possibly be? A lot like What Usually I think you're 14 as a freshman. But anyway, ninth grade maybe we do something to limit ninth graders um use. >> That would be incredibly difficult to actually I mean, when you just walk down the hall and you know, and in the glass corridor and knowing who's a freshman and who's a junior, you can have a There's no way. It would just be impossible. >> the other schools in Fairfield County is doing that, I was reading. Um >> If they have a freshman academy and all your freshman, if you're if you're organized like we talked about last year when the board was looking

172at 9 10 11 12, it could be very different because their freshman may be in a freshman academy. We are not structured that way at all. So, and we're a large high school. So, yeah, a lot of complexity with that. But, um >> So, taking away these phones, how will we handle emergency phone calls when people when parents need to get in touch with their children? >> You know, for years they called the office. So, you know >> Yeah, but we have 3,000 >> Right, but we've got a house offices, you've got the main I mean, there are phones all over that high school. >> going to add more staff to take the phone calls from parents? >> You know, I really don't think, to be honest, there are that many emergencies that happen during

173the day. I think parents are so used to just texting their children about, "Hey, did you take your sandwich today?" or whatever, or your cleats, you know. I I don't think most of it is actually really something that it we've just fallen into the habit. People just text and you know, you don't think about what you're interrupting really during the day. >> Yeah, one thought I have for that, Wendy, cuz I I hear your point is people you can still email your child and your child could still email you. So, I mean, that and that's still is a distraction, so I feel like the teachers all give me like, "Great, that's not so good." But, you know, if you wanted to say, "Remember you have an orthodontist appointment at 4:30 today." You can still email

174them and they would probably see it during the day. Um anyway, are we are we ready to move to board goals? Okay. I I think we'd love us to make a decision. >> Yeah, yeah. >> I would love for us to make a decision because I I've if if that's why I wanted to know what your thoughts were as a board. I we will do as much research, bring the data, whatever we need to do, but otherwise we're just sitting back and watching for another year and saying that what's happening right now is okay. And if that's where the board ends up, then that's where the board ends up, but I think we know a lot about mental health now and are just so much more aware and if we're going to do something, I

175would say, you know, make a hard decision and let's move on. >> I appreciate that in anticipation, sorry, of the next academic year. Um okay, Michael Dobbs, do you want to move on to board goals? >> Sure. Um so Um so hi everybody. Um Michael, I don't know if you can put the the the document up. It might be easier for the for the for the folks at home. So, um before you tonight as a first read um is a draft of the 2026-2027 board goals. So, a reminder here, so while we have three sets of goals as a district, right? So, the the strategic plan goals, which are over 5 years and mostly around student achievement metrics. The superintendent has her own goals which guide her work over the year. And then, thanks Michael.

176The um and then the board goals speak specifically to what the eight of us as board members would like to hope to accomplish um over um the next academic year. So, last month of the last meeting, we evaluated um or reviewed how we did last year's goals, and uh hope springs eternal that we'll do um little better on this this year's goals. Um Um Peter, the hi Peter. >> Did you let them in, Dan? >> Go go go go to bed now because the whole town is watching. Thank you. Here we go. Why don't come home? Um so, on So, you have here um and I don't know how much in depth uh we want to go. The um I'm happy to um What I did was um heard what everybody said last time. And

177um based on that, we used the same format. And I kind of um um wrote wrote a number of bullets uh based on what people saying we wanted to try to accomplish in the coming year. Um and I um we have it here. So, right there on number one, learning student achievement, um you can see we're committed to focusing board work on forwarding the goals of strategic plan. And then you have those three bullets. Um and it goes like that for the um each of the sections. I don't know. I defer to all of you if you want to go section by section and talk through it now, or if you'd rather have time to digest it and send everybody send in um email comments, and then we can use that to revise um everything,

178or a little both. If everybody if there's just like some people want to jump out and and and and and note um >> Okay. Um I think it was Karen Hersh and Karen Kraus. I was just going to say um I think what would be really helpful for us if we you know to have this discussion I'm I'm not going to opine on if people want to add to or whatever um is seeing the redlined version of this. I know last time we had the redlined version from >> Yeah, I can't do that. The um because um it basically the whole document's new, so that's why I didn't do a redline. >> Oh, cuz a lot of this is like it's new. >> Pretty much all the bullets are new. >> Oh, no I Well,

179then I'm looking at a different document cuz a lot of them look the same. So, I it was hard for me to figure out what was I see you know I see you changed some things like you know the screen time and cell phone use and and stuff like that. I think that that's you know things that we did talk about and we're certainly talking about now, but like the stuff under number one about evaluating presentations with metrics and stuff like that was the same. That's what I'm saying. So, there's some that if there's a way to just highlight, I think and you know and then under three it's just proactively support blah blah blah and the second bullet just says layuna question mark? >> Yeah, that was the question. The um we didn't I

180was it wasn't clear if we were >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, that's what I'm saying. So, that's what I'm just saying if there's a way that we can even if you just send us something that has a highlight with a different bullet like it just made it very hard to go through the whole thing. From on my uh for me, I can't speak for anybody else and so that's all. >> Karen Kraus Yes, so two points I thought might be worth adding. One is um I'm not entirely sure where this fits. I think it probably fits in section six about the community engagement. You know, we've we've had a lot of requests for greater transparency in our discussions. A lot of those comments came up around the board, but I think I think there's value

181in transparency. We've certainly made an effort this year I think to try to be more transparent about our conversations. Uh but I think you know having more of our conversations uh in more detail uh and getting more data into the public in general. I think you know also in the student achievement. I'd love to see us get more data, more granular data on student achievement out in the public domain and and use it uh for our own analysis as well. Okay. Bob? >> Um I just wanted to mention I thought it might be a good idea to put in that I don't think I saw it. Uh maybe the the BOE members can visit the schools at the beginning of the school year. Maybe in in pairs or you know, one or two kid one

182or two can go in the schools just to talk to and meet with the faculty. I think I feel like we were able to do that as as newer board members and uh it was I feel like it it was really helpful on both sides. >> Um okay, I'm glad you brought that up because Veronica has been working on a project which I'm very excited about um where she's putting together a comprehensive calendar of all sorts of um GPS related events. So that we would all be able to see it, uh everyone on the board and do our best to attend various different events. So I I mean I think to your point at which I totally agree with Bob of it's great to be able to go into the schools and maybe sometimes it's

183not for a visit, you know, but just it would be great for us to know, oh there's a musical or there's a science fair or there's something that I can pop in and watch and then I'll learn about the school that way. And so Veronica very generously offered to create this calendar which will be shared with everybody and then it will give us opportunities cuz maybe if someone has an open morning or you know, whatever it is that they are able to go. Um they can do that and it will give us a chance to do be in schools more often. Paul? >> Uh I like that. That's that's great. I mean it sounds like um we'd be in school during school hours and watching the teachers and learning more about what it is we're

184doing here. Is that the the >> I think the idea is that I mean, Veronica is so good about going to so many things. Um and she seems to know everything that's going on. So, it's like, can you help create that list for everybody else so that we all know um that you know, whether it's and it could be during the school day or it could be, you know, a dinner or a concert, all of those things. Um just the opportunity for all of us to find time what works with our work schedules, our family schedules, and everything to be in the schools. And also, frankly, I know Dr. Jones has referenced that when we do do these official visits to the schools, which I think are great, but that's a lot of work for

185um for teachers and staff to prepare for us. But if there's something that's already happening that we just can go for, you know, then it's it's less of a burden on on the staff because we're just showing up for a science fair that they've already, you know, prepared as, for example. >> Yeah, I so I referenced whether it's during the day um because I think it's a great idea, but I want to make sure that we have a uh you know, there's security we're showing up and they're like, "Who the hell are you?" But um but if there is like something going on during the day that the particular assembly that the classes are doing or a student debate or something like that, I think it and and one of us has that that free

186time, I think that calendar would be great. We could reference it and potentially go, but I did want to that unintended consequence of like having to um probably have um Dr. Jones, you know, tell somebody we're there or or whatever, so we might need we might need school badges. >> Yeah, I know, that's why I thought we'd all have a shared like the shared calendar so that Dr. Jones would also know. I mean, maybe we could even do it as that right at Google things so you can sign up and say we're going. Oh, right. No, I know what you're saying. >> Oh. >> These are like big events. So, yeah. Sorry, it was like the P-Tech dinner and things like that. Things that just so that we all could look at the full year

187and say, "Oh, these are things that we can try to go to." Or frankly, like I went to the pops concert last night at the high school because actually my child is in it, but I feel like that's something I would love for everybody to know. >> Okay. >> That there's a big event going on. >> And also, when it comes to school visits, I know we usually do them at the start of the year or Dr. Jones usually sends out something for us to be able to sign up. Um and like the principal will take us around. So, it's not us I just want to make sure our educators know that we're not coming in just randomly and standing there and watching their classes um cuz that is disruptive to the educational process, but

188it's usually the the you know, the principal or assistant principal taking us around, showing us the the school facility, talking about the programs that they're working on in the school, usually can pop into like a classroom or two with them. Um so, we're not And And it's also for parents to know we're not popping in and just watching your children um in a classroom uh and and we're not there unsupervised. So, I just wanted to allay any fears that may be out there um you know, in in support of what what Paul was saying. It's not It's not us just just breaking through the security. Um you know, we have to follow those uh processes, too. >> Yeah. >> Does anyone have any questions? I think we got a slightly off topic. Any other comments

189on the board goals? >> Well, then just the one thought I had while we were thinking here is that's not there. I mean, so we have um eight of us um you know, a board goal to um of each school getting getting two board visits, for example, um um between the beginning and the end of the year is more than we currently do. Uh something like that could be, you know, developed might could be very productive. >> Just as long as I assume I mean I not to out myself, but I don't work during the day other than you know, this, but we do I know we do have members that work, so I just want to make sure it's not if we put that in there as a goal, we can just say the

190majority cuz I know you also work during the school day, Dr. at Mercantini, and I don't want to have to I don't Yeah. That's why I say as long as we word it so that it's not somebody that's required so somebody we're requiring a board member so they don't have to take off a day of work for instance for Yeah, go ahead, Veronica. >> Sorry, so my thought in in doing this was I one of the reasons I jumped into a lot of the the events was because I I did have the time and I'm organized and I just knew about it and so I'm happy to to So I asked Sophie and and Mike if I could sort of put together a Google document, I could send calendar invites, whatever it is with the

191dates of the year. I didn't even tell Dr. Jones yet, but it is on my list of things to email her. So that she can help me to work on it because I don't even know everything, but um that way if that way for There are many members here who work and work tremendously hard, but if there is an event that you want to attend and you want to be able to plan ahead to leave early that day or or Karen, I know you've worked from home days or um Mike has, you know, vacation that doesn't sync with ours. Um so so again, it can just all be planned accordingly looking at the whole calendar year. So that was just my intention and >> I'll send Mike Antonaccio or >> Yeah, he's also >> And

192he's great and he can create a shared calendar that we can just um subscribe >> Yeah, he's on my he's also on my list. This is going to be like a post graduation. >> I didn't I also sent you a list of a couple of items that I didn't know if you might have. >> Yes, well, I welcome them. >> Okay, anything else on the Michael Joseph? >> Yeah, no, so so maybe so if anybody who wants to send uh between now and the next meeting, um, any suggestions around wording um, or revisions, um, that'd be helpful. >> Okay, that sounds good. Um, okay. Do I have a motion from anyone? >> We have a choice. >> I'm sorry, we have the agenda. Oh, I'm Dr. Jones. Um, so there's only one meeting left. That's

193June 11th and then we are done for the year unless, of course, you add special meetings for special things that you want to discuss. Um, um, we do have at the next meeting the staff evaluation, uh, executive summary, staffing report, retentions, retirements. Um, it it there will be an executive session. So, I think it's making sure because some of, um, what we want to share, this is a brand new report, um, from, you know, human resources. So, just to share some incidents that have happened during the year. What are some of the things that are uh, that HR has, you know, dealt with from a from a legal standpoint. Um, so I'm assuming that would start at 6:00. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Other than that, that's that's all I have. >> I think it sounds

194like there's probably enough um, interest on the board in having a, um, a cell phone item probably on the agenda next time too to once earlier, a possible action item. >> Oh, the one question I had for the, um, agenda, do we have any cuz I don't see it on here like uh, awards or celebrations cuz I feel like we didn't do as many we didn't do them this uh, semester. You know, if there's sports or things we usually give out some >> Yeah. >> We really haven't been doing very many this year and I think part of that was it was hard to get students to come. Um, you know, it's been a lot. >> I I think the good news is that our sports teams have been like unbelievably successful. So, I don't

195I would be you could fill this whole auditorium right with athletes. I I think hopefully they'll all be celebrated at graduation. Uh do I have a motion? >> I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. >> I'll happily second. All right. Thanks, everybody. All right, who do we have? Guys, we're doing we do have a motion to adjourn. >> And Mike's got his hand up, though. >> Okay. Uh it's 8:00. Thank you, everyone. Good night. >> Bye, everybody.