9-28-20 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001It looks like we have a quorum, right, Miss Jones? >> Yes, you do. >> Okay. Thank you, my friend. >> Dr. Grineer, are you ready to party? >> I Yes, I am. >> All right, then. It's my honor to uh open up the Gotten Board of Education regular meeting for September 28th at 6:00. And the first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. And Beth, I'm hoping that you would be willing to lead us. Thank you. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag >> of the United States of America and to the >> to the republic for which it stands, >> one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Beth. Oh, there's Rita. Yay. Okay. So, the um recognition of visitors or dele or delegates. Do we

002have any of that sort tonight? Dr. Grineer. >> Uh no. Uh and I'm wondering the only one I'm hoping to introduce is Z's U colleague. Z do we know if if Allison is here? >> Hi, >> Z. Would you would you know would you know if she's here >> she just texted me. I'm ringing it right now. >> Okay. >> That's okay. We have we um have other items before that. >> Keep going. Yep. >> So um I Let's do that. Um so the next portion of the um board of education uh budget uh excuse me budget um meeting is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Um each presentation should be limited to five minutes or less and if possible to um email their um written responses um into

003uh into the superintendent's office and um present presentation should be related to matters pertinent to graten and board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments of citizen portion of the board meeting. Uh, citizens should state their name and address for the record. >> And I have it from a chat. I have Mike Whitney. >> I have Mike. >> So, Mike, I will recognize you. Thank you. >> Hi. How are you? >> Mike, you are. >> Thank you. I just have a couple things to say. Uh, first of all, can you hear me? >> Yes. Yes, we can. >> I don't know if you can hear me. >> Yes. So, first of all, um I know there have only been a couple cases that I've

004heard of in the Grten school system for um COVID. Uh and I know letters been sent out to um uh the people that are in the the school community of that individual school or schools. I' I'd like actually if the um on the website, the school website, you just post those letters. I think that'd be helpful in getting the information out because uh people actually are kind of um trading information on what letters have been received and and I think the the the letters have been helpful to the school community, but I think they're would be helpful to the the whole Graten public schools community. So that's the first thing. Uh the second thing is uh it's a question about Wednesdays at the middle school. Right now there no scheduled class periods. They're for office

005hours. And I know the whole middle school schedule is new this year and I was wondering one is uh was that going to be like that if we're fully back to school and two is that day we're going to move forward. we're not catching you. Well, >> full year if it stays in hybrid plan because to me it seems like we're losing a lot of uh construction all time. >> So, Mike, I um I just want to paraphrase because you became um somewhat disjointed in your um >> I don't know [Music] too much. >> This this isn't working. >> One second, Lee. Let me see if I can try to help. Could you hear anything? >> So, Mike, we really can't hear you, but I think what your question was on the second point was

006the what was happening instructionally on Wednesdays at the middle school. That is what the board heard. >> Kim, I think he also said, what is the plan moving forward towards full uh full in uh and how is the board going to make that decision? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Not not yet. We're in the comments. We're in the comment section. >> Okay. >> Mike, did did um Mike Whitney, did Dr. Grineer and I catch your last point, which was what's the plan for opening full and what's happening on the Wednesday instructional time in the middle school? >> Yeah. Yeah. actually just going forward with the the Wednesday if if we stay in hybrid is going to transition to scheduled class periods or is that just how it's going to be office hours? >> Let me see

007if um if we can't get that answered tonight whether that gets answered. Okay, Mike. >> Okay. And and the last thing I just wanted to say, thank you to Dr. a pleasure interacting with him and it's always good knowing he's at the helm. Is there anyone else that would like to be recognized? It was helpful to note it in the chat. Um also if there is someone who would like to state anything um it would be helpful to also sort of quickly do the question if possible in the chat because if we have another experience it it it becomes difficult to talk. Um but do we have anyone else that is interested in in speaking or do we see anyone else that looks like they are Okay, hearing none, I'm moving um from the comments

008from citizens portion. Um and Dr. Geneer, um is there any information to answer u Mr. Whitney's issues around what's happening on the Wednesday or does that need to go back to the middle school team? But yeah, the the the plan on Wednesdays is to have uh two hours of some uh some instruction and some uh office hours uh for typically the first two hours of the day. Uh and then uh the the remainder of the day, the remaining five hours, uh teachers uh use that time for catching up on uh correcting of work, pre-recording lessons, uh getting set up for uh for the next next couple of days. So, I I think that will continue uh in indefinitely. Uh I I actually I'm going to report on some focus groups and the focus groups that

009I've had with with students has the the Wednesdays the the feedback I've gotten is actually quite positive. The kids uh uh really enjoy being able to zoom in and talk to their teachers. >> So I'm going to have us stay to the responding to the comment section. Yep. >> Sorry, Dr. Geneer. Um >> and then we'll talk about the the full in uh when we get to that part. Susan's going to talk about it and I've got an update from Ledge Light which I'll share at that time. >> Okay, great. And um is there a way that we can throw on probably not throwing but is there a way to place the letters um from YouTube? >> I made a note of it. We'll put those on our website. >> Awesome. Thank you very much.

010Um there's a uh there was a chat asking if we're going to have our conversation about moving to moving from hybrid and I think that that's going to be part of your discussion a little bit later. So not that I'm not going to address it. I I hear it. I see it. Thank you. But looks like we are going to be having that in a little bit. Um and thank you Tracy Liz. Um, I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but um, in terms of the the letters, it seems like the letters are a is this a um a template that's being used because all of them seem to be the same. >> Okay. So, that was discussed in the communication portion of the agenda that right now we're

011responding to the the questions that are coming right to the board. That's why I started the way I did. Thank you. >> No, that's great. Rita, >> um yes. Could Dr. Ganer answer um Mike Whitney's question about the two hours of instruction? He said presently they're only having the teachers are only having office hours. So, I'd like to know whether or not the two hours of instruction are going to take place at the middle school as well as the conferences that if you need to talk to your teacher. Yeah, I I'll I'll talk I I'll get the word out. I'll I'll talk to Peter. I'm not They've only had one week so far of of actual classes and I know they've been having some tough times uh that we we I think we've addressed it

012uh with with the internet connection. Um so, uh I I'll I'll find out. uh the clearly there's an expectation that there would be some some interaction with the students as well as office hours on those days on the Wednesdays. >> Thank you. That's happening at the other schools, correct? >> Yes. Yes. >> Any other comments um from the board about the comments from the citizens? All right. If not, we are going to be moving on um to um the student representative report. Hey Zay, did he miss us? >> Yes, very much. >> Um, do we know >> Oh, it's it is very robotic. It's very buffered. >> One of the things that seems to help is if you turn off your video and do the speaking, it seems like it will access. We could try

013that. Are you on the >> Hello? >> Yeah, a little better. >> It is a better thing now. >> Um, >> we can hear we can hear you much better. >> Okay. Um, what what were you going to ask me, Miss Watson? Oh. Um I was going to see whether our your new colleague um was here for us to be introduced to her. >> Uh sadly she couldn't make it now because she just recently had a procedure on her back. Um and the anesthesia is still getting to her. So she thought that she was going to be able to make it but last minute decision didn't work out. Well, um, Zay, when if you do chat with her, please, um, let the let her know that the board is thinking of her and I hope

014that she has a speedy recovery. >> Yes. Yes. >> And Z, do you have things to talk about? >> I actually do. Only two, though. Um, so students do enjoy the hybrid learning system. I have heard both positive and negative sides of it. But in the end, they all understand that we're doing the best. began to get interactive lessons to students during the school year, which I think is good that um we all do understand that this virus is serious, which is the main concern. Uh another main concern in the air right now is really just flu season with the whole virus because we've never experienced anything like this. Did we lose him? >> I think we did. I just sent him a chat. >> Oh, man. >> Oh, no. You're back. >> Oh, really?

015>> Yeah. Oh, this this >> um do you are you able to tell me what part you lost me at by any chance? >> Um you were talking about the flu and the virus and that people are taking that seriously. >> Okay. Yeah, that the main concern as of right now is that students have been getting a little uh in an anxious when it comes to flu season in the winter and fall because So Z, we can't hear you. >> No, I'm not hearing a thing. >> And it looks like Dr. Grineer is actually trying to get a hold of him. I'm wondering. Um, but I would recommend that we move forward and that we try to either see if Zay could actually write his comments and just kind of send it to us and

016we can add it as part of our attachment to our minutes. Um, and I am sorry that this is happening because I so enjoy to hear his voice now that he is a senior. >> Dr. Grineer. >> Kim, I I'm I'm on the I'm on the Just give me 30 seconds. I'm on the phone. Okay. Thanks. Uh I'm on the I'm on the line with the head of Led Light Health District, and I think there's an update on this whole coming back in full, but uh I can I can I can start in >> Well, you know what? Can we move to Susan? >> Yeah. Yeah. Move to Susan. That'd be great >> because I think that I think that all of us and more are very anxious to hear that. >> Okay. >> Thank

017you. >> Absolutely. >> Hello every is he will he let me share >> my I'll get back to him. >> Yes. You're able to share. >> Okay. Good. Thank you Mark. Um first I wanted to say that Mike and I we've really been listening a lot. We've been hardly talking or you know we might ask some questions but we've been listening to um colleagues the principles the AGSA the GA teacher colleagues our students um we had a great day on Friday. I think he wrote to everyone about our visit. I was able to zoom in in on an IB class and got out in the breakout room with some kids and just was amazed at how things were going. But I do know it's a heavy lift. I mean, our teachers at Charles Barnum sat

018under a tree with us and just really were honest with us about how things are going and they're, you know, they're working so hard and, you know, it's it's a job that you're teaching the children in front of you and the teachers and the children remotely um the children who are coming in part of the time and the kids that aren't coming in at all. So, we really recognize and technology has been a challenge. There have been a lot of challenges. Um, so we're really taking it from a very honest perspective. One of the things though that um we've asked for is for the principles to um actually have focus groups with their teachers and some of their parents um that have been on these focus groups. But we wanted to gain even a bigger

019perspective by surveying. So we would like to survey our parents and our teachers and our students um to really get an essence of how this is working, how it we're working as a hybrid, how it's working as full distance. And we know that the answer is always going to be it works much better when they're with us all the time. But um but we are trying to make the most out of this situation and try to safeguard all of the adults and children in our care. I mean that's been a number one goal, but to also to teach them the best we can. So what I'd like to do is share with you um one of the surveys. I can start with the the parent survey and just give you a sense of it. We

020actually had some of these questions come directly from teachers and parents themselves and we kind of streamlined them. So the the two surveys have a lot in common and I think it'll give us a lot of data so that the board can make an informed decision on what are our next steps. So we'll be bringing you this data and also the data from the focus groups. So if I share with you this is the parent survey. Can you see it? >> Yes. Okay. So, it basically asks parents where their um children attend school. And if you're a mom like me with four, you get to answer it four times. Um one for each child. And it it talks about um which model that the family is using or each child is using, whether it's hybrid

021or blended or full distance. and um have they considered switching to another model like we were looking today and there have been some parents that were in remote that have come back to hybrid and there's some that are hybrid that have gone to remote. So we then um ask the question you know if you know if they've considered this model you know give us an answer to why that might be true you know why are they doing that and then we talk about the different technologies how comfortable are the children following the program and then um is your child able to understand the instruction that they're receiving through these different modalities and are they able to complete their work. You know, are the children engaged um on the days that they are learning at home

022either full remote or hybrid and then to give us some open we have open-ended responses as well so that parents can really share with us some of the particulars. Um and then how are the Wednesday how useful are the Wednesdays? because we did want to know that question. I know Mike had just um Mike Whitney had just asked it, but we are curious that is a day not just for makeup work. That's an independent practice day. That's a day that uh some of the long-term assignments are being able to be worked on and there is instruction involved. I know it looks a little different at each of the levels and there's office hours so we can get more response back to the board and for the community on that. And then in terms of instructions,

023you know, what seems to be best fit for your child from learning from home. Everything from live lessons, pre-recorded, the blended live Zoom, the collaboration with peers, um, written step-by-step assignments on slides, and they can answer as many of these that are working for their kids as as they want. So, they might answer all of those things. They might answer just a few of them. and then what additional resources or tools would you think would be helpful for your children? So, we really tried to, you know, here are some other things that we put into place, schedules, grading, attendance, technology, and are there any concerns or questions about these parameters? And then, um, you know, feel free to give us any additional thoughts. And then they go, they rotate back through this loop if they

024have more children. And the the teacher survey is very similar. I'm not going to show you the whole thing, but you'll get a sense of it that we're asking the teachers some of the same questions. Um how's this technology thing working for you and your students? You know, um what's the skill level for these different programs? So, this will help identify needs for professional development. And then how is the technology working? And we know that the connectivity isn't always so good. We see that in our own Zoom meetings. And then we talk about engagement. What's engaging? You know, how engaged are your students? What seems to engage them the most? How long does attendance take? Because we have now attendance addendum and parameters on attendance, whether it's hybrid, remote. Um, so we're collecting that data

025and sending it to the state. and um you know which areas require more support. you know, I really want to know from teachers where they need our support and um and then we also asked about engagement of students as well from the teachers what are they seeing that how kids are are engaged and how you know the amount of kids most of the kids participating about half only a few so I think that we're going to get some really dynamic information um I think listening to groups of teachers gives Mike and I a lot of information and to our students and you know to the administrators but I think when you do a survey you really send it out to everyone everyone has the opportunity to answer and I think that's what we want really

026want to hear from so we'll really um try to elicit a a very positive response on this and the focus groups are going on so we'll be able to report back to the board to let them know and that will hopefully help steer us in the right direction for what are some of the next steps. >> Liz, do you have a question? >> Yeah. Susan, has this teacher survey gone out yet? >> No. As a matter of sent to the principles and to Beth and Doug for them to look at and then we'll decide as a group when that's going to be sent out. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Same thing with the parents. I know that we have this survey. We also have a naming of the elementary school survey. So Mike and I

027just talk have need to talk about when these surveys go out and when when it's timely to get them back so that you'll have the information you need. >> Thank you. >> I know the focus groups, Mike, were happening this week supposedly. This week? >> Okay. Mo most of them this week. Uh maybe a couple next week. >> Right. Right. And and Susan, there was a question to see whether the the teacher survey was going to be going out to the staff of the Paris as well. >> Yes, I should have said I mean it has a lot to do with the instruction. So the Paris might be able to answer some of the questions, but it's mostly for certified staff because they're the ones who, you know, really are in charge of the instruction

028for kids. But there there might be things that the paras are able to answer on the survey. We also want to create a survey for students. So asking some of those same questions that we're asking parents and teachers, but asking them of the students. And I think there's some upper elementary kids who would be able to answer some of these questions in middle school and high school students as well. Rita, >> um Susan, what steps um are we taking to enhance the internet connections with Zoom and so forth if there are difficulties? Is this a question for Dennis? >> Well, Dennis is pretty much on top of that. We do have a help desk um and we we are kind of monitoring what are some of the technical difficulties. Sometimes we're able to fix it

029at our end. And mostly what we found is it's not an issue with the amount of power that our internet has for the district, but it's something that's happening like on the Zoom side and or it's happening outside of our parameters on the district. Like even with this meeting, you know, when we're at home, sometimes it's our connectivity um that's not happening. So, we are keeping track of all of those um you know help desk questions and you know the um different areas of concern. I know that some of our computers are struggling because we gave them out about six years ago. So, we've got a plan for that too, but it seems like and a lot of software has been um purchased and and given out. So, there's a lot of new learning. There's

030a lot of connectivity that needs to happen from that. But we're kind of marching along and trying to prioritize and get them into the hands of teachers and students. >> Well, this is my second part. Um I I've read that there are quite a few towns that are trying to have, you know, better internet connections for all their residents dealing with this especially for going forward. And I was wondering if this is something when you have the leaison meeting with with the town and the city if we could address if there could be a you know like a townwide so that we could all our residents will be able to access the internet properly. >> That's a really good point Rita. It is a shared community responsibility isn't it? >> Yes. did find that there

031was some programs that families can um receive where they can get free internet and so I think we just need to get that information out to our families. >> Yes. Thank you, >> Lee. Lee, >> yes, I'm I'm I'm on um Leon Ory came up to me yesterday and said that there were some people always um that were saying that the the computers were a problem at Fitch. I emailed Dennis. He got back to me in half an hour and said they are aware of it and they're working on it. Um, you know, these are called computers. It doesn't always work well. If people could just be a little patient, Dennis is and and his staff are doing the very best they can and maybe we don't need to talk a whole lot about getting

032the whole town of Graten connected. Um, let's just try to do what we can for our students and our teachers. Well, this board and through our grants and through the Connecticut State Department of Education has really provided for our town. We have um these beautiful Dell laptops thanks to the Dallios, a thousand of them at Fitch High School that are going right into the hands of students, whether they're in labs, whether the freshman class is receiving them, whether we have some teachers that will be able to use them. And um you know besides that we have the Chromebooks that were ordered through Alliance and some Prometheian boards. So we are getting a lot of equipment. The problem is supply and demand. The you know the supply um we're requesting is a large supply. The demand

033is great. So we're still waiting for some of the resources. So we're trying to fill in the gaps as we go. There will be plenty of technology in the hands of our students and staff once we get through this whole process. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Susan. Any other questions for Susan before we go back to Mike? There was a question about um the whether the parent focus groups are going to be for all grade levels. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The the other the other thing I would observe and as I and I'll work my way back to u some of the information we're learning from teachers is I think tonight's meeting is a a pretty good example of the frustration that teachers face. You know, we we try to listen to Mike

034Whitney and we can't hear him. We try to get Zay and he he you know I don't know whose technology is falling apart but uh it's you can imagine if you're trying to put a class out to 22 students and two of your students are you know sort of breaking up the way we're breaking up uh it becomes very very difficult and and but I what I wanted to do I wanted to go back uh to Susan's uh I'm gonna I'm gonna share if I can Mark uh I wanted to go back to this whole question because I just I literally just got off the line uh with uh with Steve Mansfield who's the head of Ledge Light Health District and he sent out a note uh today that I wanted to oops I wanted

035the board to see and uh >> Mike they um I sent rather late because I didn't get it until late but that was forwarded to me the board actually got got it. I don't know if they've seen it, but they >> Okay. So, so BA basically like le Ledge I I I didn't even know about this because I didn't for some reason I didn't get it, but I got a call from a reporter uh and what Ledgeite is saying is uh if you can see my cursor u they have seen a fairly extensive uh increase in the number of cases in in the last uh la last couple of weeks. So you see here the week of September I mean August 22nd the week of the 19th to the 25th there were 60 cases um

036is in the Ledgeite Health District and just in the last two days uh I've notified both the middle school and the high school. We we had uh we had uh individuals at the schools identified over the weekend as well. And so what what Steve Mansfield goes on to say is that the hybrid model actually is is a I don't know if they go quite so far as recommending it, but they say it may reduce transmissions. We can uh have appropriate uh social distancing. So it just says at the bottom, we recognize some school districts and municipalities are experiencing very low cases. then they may choose to continue to move to in inerson full in in person while you consider above factors the ability to provide COVID environment the the health the health officials are are

037very concerned about this and the notion uh what I reported to the day uh was having a thousand kids return to the high school and a thousand kids return to the middle school uh is not something that I would recommend u given the increase in in the number of cases. There are some districts that are I I would say there's a handful of districts in southeastern Connecticut. I'm going to stop sharing. Uh there's a handful of districts in southeastern Connecticut who are considering uh uh going back full the the first or second week of October. There's a more districts. There's probably seven or eight districts that are going to reconsider the possibility of coming back as as Graten board said right from the beginning that u in midocctober uh we would reassess and that's part

038of what Susan just reported on trying to get the the data for that uh and that they might come back uh the like the 1 of November. Um I think everyone especially the leadwide health officials are are concerned about the number uh increasing number of cases. Um they are doing from my perspective an outstanding job. Uh unfortunately I know this because I have been working uh with them pretty diligently. uh we we have cases uh we have concerns that we report and we have individuals tested uh because of the low uh positivity rate. Thank God. Uh we often get the result that is a negative test but I I can tell you um we we are receiving almost daily new reports m multiple new reports. U so the person gets tested then they get we

039notify ledge light and then we uh we we get the test results 98.5% of the cases are coming back negative. So uh but we are we have experienced as I said two two cases just this weekend one at the middle school and one at the high school. Um so this this notion of of coming back full I I I think uh I I would just throw we could talk about this uh as as as we go through October. Uh one of my measures is going to be the number of people who feel uh confident enough to come back to hybrid. Uh at the high school, we've actually seen uh a different trend. 15% of the kids started uh uh uh full full distance full remote learning and now that's up to 23%. So we we

040we want to we want to be careful. uh obviously uh but I'll I'll uh unless you have any questions I'm going to go back to what I was going to say to begin with. >> Do we have any do people have questions about about what Dr. Grineer was talking about the board please? >> Could you repeat the percentages at the high school that are now full remote? >> TW 23% are now full remote at the high school in some of the elementary schools. I I was at uh uh uh Charles Barnum and Katherryn Konowski on Friday and it's closer to 33%. >> About a third of >> which a third >> Charles Barnaman and and Clchester. Yes. You know what? I'll I'll get them all. Uh and I'll and I'll put them in board notes.

041Uh, I think that would be helpful because to me that's a that's a pretty important indicator. >> Dr. Grineer, are you are you are you saying that they're full remote or are they and are they homeschooling? >> No, full remote. >> Full remote. And do we have an increase in homeschool? >> We do. We we have we we have a significant increase. I I'd say we've gone from again I I can >> that data. >> I can uh I can give you that those data on Friday, but I can tell you I I I typically sign at the beginning of the year maybe maybe 10 homeschool and and I'm I'm signing four or five a day. So I I I think we're we're we're probably significantly up there. >> Well, way way more than in

042the past. >> I think I think it would be helpful for us not to do anidotal information. I think it would be much more important if we kind of hear about um what what that is and um and um like the school ages. I think that that would be that would be very helpful as well. >> Okay. May I ask a question, >> Steve? Please. >> Um, homeschool and remote learning is two different things. >> That's right. >> They're very, very different. So, if you're talking about homeschool now, there's a a whole situation where these kids are not allowed on the buildings, on our the anything. So, it it it's really different. So, I think it'd be good if we're no talking more about, you know, remote learning than homeschool. >> Yeah. I I'll report

043both. >> Thank you very much, Mike. >> Any other questions from the board around that? Hearing none. Let's go back to your report, Mike. >> Okay. So, the first thing I wanted to report on was it's kind of a school opening. Uh we're we finished week three. Uh Susan and I have have had some some really good experiences. Uh we we visited classrooms, we visited teachers, spoken to uh spoken in a few cases I've spoken to both the teachers and and the students. But on Friday, I I hope I wrote this fairly clearly. I had a really interesting experience. the the the three fifth grade teachers at Charles Barnham School invited us in to see a lesson. And what what we saw was teacher A was actually teaching a live lesson with a with a

044a document camera facing her and she was sitting next to a an easel and she was writing a math lesson on on the easel. Uh I was fascinated to figure out what the other classes were doing. So I stepped next door and next door there was the the second uh fifth grade class uh with a with a teacher and the and about eight children. The children were watching the prometheium board with the projection of the teacher teacher A. But teacher B had all the remote children on her on her uh her her computer on the Zoom just like we're looking at right now. and she was monitoring all the children from class A, class B and class C. Then I went to the third class and teacher C was monitoring the chat and he was

045answering questions for the kids as they went through the lesson and then ultimately the teacher uh said to everybody that they needed to do a certain uh page of math problems in their book. Uh it it was it was pretty remarkable what what they did. It took it took a a lot of planning and then they invited us to stick around for lunch so that we could debrief with the the fifth grade team and in fact 12 teachers came. It was it was terrific. We we sat outside and so it was a whole third grade no three teachers, three third grade teachers, three fourth grade teachers, three fifth grade teachers, a speech pathologist, a kindergarten teacher, second grade teacher. Um, and they they gave us uh some really terrific information. You know, I I I

046don't want I don't want to be too uh too pleasant about all this. The the f the first thing is this is incredibly difficult. >> They have the same problems that we're having uh trying to get the kids to uh come in with the proper technology. Uh, one problem that was surprising to me is it's extremely difficult. I figured the kids in person would be okay and the kids at home would be somewhat disengaged. It seems like it's almost the opposite. The teachers are working so hard to engage the kids who are learning remotely that sometimes the kids in front of them are are are a bit disengaged and that that's a that's a problem. Um, but the probably the biggest thing for me is that as as a former teacher, they teach all day

047and then the day is over a and they have the other 60% or so, 65% they have to correct all that work that they've given up during the day. So, it's a it's a hu huge amount of work. And pe people were talking about thank goodness for the Wednesdays where they can catch up a little bit. But I identified with that uh so much because I I can see that after teaching all day you're you're tired and and and uh the idea the idea of trying to engage these kids is uh is extremely difficult. But as the three fifth grade teachers explained, they were all pretty techsavvy. uh you know we I if we collaborate uh we I think we're going to be able to develop a system that you know I I I use

048the word sustainable a lot Kim uh can we keep this up? I'm I I'm hoping uh that as we go through this pandemic we're going to be able to number one get better at it and and everybody to to to a person said we are doing much better than last spring. Uh but to a person they also said we're not we're not there yet. It is very difficult to to pull off this this kind of distance remote learning even with the kids uh in in front of you. Um but I will say this some sometimes the kids lead the way and we had as you know we had a football game the other night that was quite remarkable. it was with NFA and both teams got together uh to to talk about social justice. I

049was >> very very moved by that. There's a video on on the day uh website um and one of our students uh whose name is Thomas Williams was was really quite eloquent and then after the game he said something that I'm going to repeat I suspect throughout the fall. He was talking about playing football with a mask and what a pain in the neck it was. But he said, "We have to make this work." And and I thought, "Boy, isn't isn't that a isn't that a great line for what we're trying to do right now? We have to try to make this work. It is really really difficult." But I think we're getting better. And I I spoke to Dennis today. We got in another 200 Chromebooks. There've been a problem with delivery. Uh Susan

050is working with the alliance guys and we're trying to get more Prometheian boards at at the high school. You know, this is a like tonight. This is a work in progress and uh you you can imagine all the work that goes into a lesson plan only only to find out that uh you to two of your kids, four of your kids their their internet fails or your internet fails. And so it's it's it's really it's a it's a challenging extremely challenging. But you know I I I certainly don't want to say we're in the dark. I I I think last spring when we were given 24 hours to figure this out uh was was was you know was was frankly we did not know. I mean, I I I I was I was talking to

051teachers and they said, "Well, you know, my clever app is doing this and when I I try to get the kids on the parents on Remind and then we go to Seessaw." And I looked at the person, I said, "I don't even know what the heck you're talking about." Some of these words, she said, "I didn't know what those words meant, you know, 30 days ago. This is this is a new world that we've entered." Uh, and so I I think we're doing I think we're doing great. I'm very proud of the the work that we're doing, but I'm I'm in I'm into this for the long haul and I I want to make sure that we're going to be able to have a a really a strong distance learning and if you know if

052these trends continue, which I pray that they don't and we have to go to uh full distance learning, we are going to be night and day stronger, night and day different than we were in in in March. But I'd be happy to answer questions. >> So, um any um any questions for Dr. Grineer? It looks like I'm going to do Jane. Um and then um uh Elizabeth or excuse me, Liz, never called you Elizabeth before in my life. Um and then we Jane Jane, you are on mute. >> Sorry. Blame the dog. Um, it just seems that down the road teachers and kids are going to be stronger, more independent learners and kids in particular are going to be able to help each other far more and not rely so much on teachers but much

053more on themselves. >> Yeah. And as I mentioned last week, the state board of education is considering the removal of snow days and allowing us to to switch over to to full distance learning. I I I think you're right, Jane. >> In the middle of this mess, there's some real real positive aspects here. >> Yeah, it's not all bad. >> Exactly. >> Liz, and then Rita, >> first I want to say to all the teachers that are out there listening, thank you from the bottom of my heart and from the board. The second thing I want to say though is Dr. Grineer, you said something about the fifth grade getting three teachers together and they did it like it's a team effect. Is that the norm that's going on right now? I know that my

054grandson has um he's one student of fourth grade um in his district because they're total remote. And this is a a suggestion or this came from not only from there but other people I know in the Midwest that they're they take all their kids that are all fifth graders or all fourth graders and they divide them up and so the teachers have a small amount because um and that way it helps to spread the the the wealth so to speak. >> So is what happening in that fifth grade is that the norm or is that an example that we need to be looking at? I I I think it's uh the team teaching aspect is is fairly common. I think these people uh I mean it was only one lesson and they'd be the first

055ones to tell you that it took him three weeks to get to that level. But I I think uh you know I'm I'm looking at I'm looking at Beth and I know she's been working with her colleague and yeah I think I think team teaching is an exemplar that we need to take a look at. uh it it doesn't mitigate the fact, you know, as I said, there's still a lot of work to be done after the school day is over, but if we could get I'm hearing a lot of threeperson teams because we seem to have a lot of them in the district that somebody's taking math, somebody's taking writing, and somebody's taking reading. Yes, I I think that's a model that we want to we want to pursue. And the the other thing

056that keep the word that keeps popping up with teachers is that we're experimenting. And you know, we keep we keep saying keep going, keep experimenting. >> And I would have to say this collaboration is something that I've always admired in this district. Um, from the time I came in, like the work that's happening in the summer, the department meetings, um, it's continuous and that collaboration is really critical. And teachers have said over and over again, I don't know what I would have done without my colleagues through all of this. So, I applaud that. I think that's what's getting us through is the teamwork. >> Thank you, Susan. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Dr. Gineer, when you visited, did you see any um of the special classes like art and music and and how are they

057integrated into the day? >> We we we did the uh the the special teachers come to the children. So that the cohort of eight or nine kids or whatever it is um stays in their room with with the teacher and then the in in one case uh we saw uh the uh an art teacher uh working with the group and it you know they're they're resourceful and they brought in what they brought in. What impressed me is I saw a music class and the the the the lesson was actually on the Prometheian board and the kids were following a pattern of rhythm and uh it was really quite remarkable. I think there was even a keyboard up there and the they were they were doing uh I think the teacher was showing them it but

058I mean clearly it's not the same. Uh I know in fair weather the the band instrumentals uh people are going outside. We saw a cute picture of from uh SB Butler. They had the orchestra outside and kids with >> violins and cellos and other instruments and so but the w obviously the wind instruments are problematic and I know we've really spread those children out. So I think the specials are are going okay. PE classes u you know as bad as the drought is it's it's we've been lucky. uh we we have not had very many days of of of of fell weather. So I I think that's going along pretty well actually. >> So when it when and my other question is when a student is fully remote, could they participate at the high school

059or the middle school in intram murals and sports? >> Yes. Thank you. Liz, before I recognize you, I just want to make sure there that any other board members that haven't spoken can speak. That's okay. Rosemary. >> Um, I just wanted to remind people that one of the least talked about but more important aspects of remote learning and the hybrid is that we're keeping kids in cohorts, which makes for um contact tracing possible. um which we're we don't talk a lot about, but contact tracing is very important in the next few months. >> Spoken like a true nurse. Thank you. >> I know. I'm sorry I had to say it. >> A amen, sister. I've been spending a lot of time on that. >> Um Jay or Andrea, >> Jay or Andrea, before I go

060to No. Okay, Liz. >> Um Mike, what's happening? I hear a lot about the elementary school but and and some about the middle school but we're not talking about the high school. What's happening at the high school? Are they are they actually working with um like com making teams up? Is that happening there? What's happening? Um I know that um tech support is stretched to the limit and so I'm just wondering what type of supports are coming there. You know, have you been up there to visit? >> I have. Uh so let me talk about the middle school first. Uh we have spent as you can imagine a fair amount of time solving some of these physical problems. U last week actually for the middle school uh was the the first full week of classes

061of academic classes. They the first week if you remember they were remote. second week they they they they had kind of activity periods uh where they got to know the building and got to know each other. Uh last week was the first uh first real week of academic classes. what I've heard from teachers there again te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te tech te technology problems we we've we've got issues with prometheium boards uh and I I am I'm sure that the teams clearly are working together but but it's a little different be because uh they they they're not teaching like elementary folks are three or four different subjects what I hear from the high school uh is uh actually two high school

062students uh one of whom I actually know quite well because she's my granddaughter uh and another one who is uh Rebecca Beas's son. They they really thought that the whole Wednesday thing was going great. They had the opportunity to zoom in and have one-on-one kind of tutorial support. Uh, I think I think the classes are are are going, you know, relatively well, but you know, as Zay said it, some some students are are are doing quite well. Uh, other students are are really struggling with it. I I think it's it's it's it's it's a real challenge, but but I think overall the teachers are better prepared. We have better better software programs. Uh, I think the special ed folks are are feeling more comfortable. We're able to uh provide the services for those children as

063as well as we possibly can. Um, it's not quite the same. Uh, I'm going to have to I'm going to have to get a little bit more detailed information and I I'll I'll I'll make a visit there u tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> Right, Dr. Gar, I'm going to move us along though. I would love to hear more information about how the special ed services are going um because that cannot be an easy population to do hybrid or virtual or yeah >> um Monday Tuesday um and I just think that um it is such an integral part of our district that I would like to kind of hear about what's going on. Okay. >> So I have to say that that was a great picture of that transitional program. Um I thought that was great.

064>> But if we could move on because we do have lots going on in our agenda. Okay. So, if I could uh Oh, I know where it is. I'm gonna I'm gonna share my screen. Uh I hope. Okay. Can you see that? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. So, uh, I want to talk a little bit about enrollment be be because in the process of putting the budget together. If you look at this center column here, we we realize obviously uh two of three of the schools. >> Am I the only one that's I still have the Oh, you do? Oh, yeah. We still have ledge light. >> Okay. Uh, shoot. Okay. Let me see if I could get this out of here. And does that is that show you anything different? >> No. >>

065Oh, damn. Okay, I'm gonna >> This is sort of interesting. >> I I I'm gonna stop sharing and I'm going to try to do it again. Okay, this should work. >> Sometimes if you punch the screen. >> Yeah, that's my that's my wife's technique that I try to avoid. >> Uh but you're right. So So here's here's here's a as I started to say Claude Chester, Mary Marson, and SB Butler in FY22. uh there are no students there be because uh those schools are going to be closed. So when when Ken and I started to work on this, we we we realized two things. One one is we had to develop a budget for the the two larger elementary schools. And then we also haded to figure out and Susan and her staff were super

066helpful on this how we would actually get to don't don't get too alarmed with the numbers but so Charles Barnum right now is 368 students. So we're saying for the sake of argument it's going to be about the same. Katherryn Kolowski has 413 and Northeast Academy has about 420. uh the two new schools as you know need to have uh a minimum of 604 students that well that's how we're being reimbursed anyway. And so what what we've done is we've we've taken taken the Westside Elementary School and the Cutler Elementary School which hopefully will be named the real names fairly soon. Uh but if we take the one that's at Westside if you notice if you look here Whoops. If you look here, there are 140 students at any one time, but there are but

067they are half-day students. So that hence there are 280 half-day students, 343 full-time students. So, if everybody showed up, we certainly don't think we're going to have 623 students, but it because we count every student and you count the the the the half-day students uh twice uh or you count every one of them. Uh that gives you that enrollment. And then there there are 56 students uh who are going to be uh in the in the early grades which has a half a half day program. So have 111. So So what we're what we're planning and maybe maybe Susan could chime in and talk about the the half-day programs if if you could Susan. So, one of the things we learned early on is that each of these buildings can be what we call a

068four tier tier building where they'll have four of every grade level. And in kindergarten through fifth grade, we'd be able to manage them with the numbers that the board actually proposes as a kind of ideal number. So, we're talking about 20 for those primary grades and going up to as many as 24 for the upper grades. But if we want to do a four tier system, we'll also have three to four preschools. And when we have three to four preschools, that means or actually four in each building and it could be I think there's three preschools and a prek in each building. then that means that you have you're servicing 30 to 36 students. You know, you'll have morning children and afternoon children. So, that's where we really receive so many of our numbers um

069that are kind of necessary to make that 604. And I think that way you really have a wonderful, you know, you're really condensing and putting your preschools in two big buildings so that Nadine Mlin who oversees that end of special education is available in those two buildings. You can also combine your resources. I know we've talked about early childhood centers and maybe that's something that would be down the road, but for now having them in two buildings is much better than spread across town. So, and that's where we're going to be able to see um you know and have 604 students in class sizes of 20 to 24 rather than in class sizes of 25 to 27. >> So, is this >> I don't know if anybody has questions about that. >> Well, you know,

070it's really hard to kind of see this because we're just looking at this and it's on a screen. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm it's it's it's it is I guess it's nice to have a nice brush kind of conversation about this, but maybe this really needs to be in a committee of the whole, Dr. Grineer. Um because >> Sure. >> It's I don't know about anyone else. Maybe I'm just speaking um for myself and I can't see anyone else. So, um >> I agree. >> Yeah, >> I agree. >> All right. We'll we'll we'll we'll put it we'll put it on the first CO meeting. That that'd be helpful. >> Okay. All right. I think the good news is it's showing you that based on our enrollment numbers um from last year,

071we're able to see the light at the end of the tunnel that the three existing schools are around 400 and then the two new schools will be at least at 600 which is the expectation. >> Okay. >> In order to >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, I'm going to keep going unless there are questions. >> I appreciate that. >> Uh, I I sent out u the the neighborhood zone uh pla excuse me platform that that Mike Zuba developed. And so we are going to allow people to go uh on this really interesting platform. They will plug in their their address and then parents will give us feedback as to what they think about the the possible uh neighborhood zones that are being created for the three uh elementary schools. It's the same it's

072the same platform that Mike Zuba and Pat Gallagher uh uh showed us. But I I didn't want to overwhelm the parents the first couple of weeks of school. So, I waited until today and I'll get feedback next CO on that. >> Well, it seems like those two things are somewhat related in terms of the enrollment and elementary schools and the neighborhood survey. Lee, do you have a question? >> I do have a question. Um, um, I think it's important and I realize it's not exactly what I'm talking about, but I think we need to come up with the names of the two elementary schools. We have to stop calling it Westside and Cutler. >> Um, I mean, I do the same thing. Um, I think it's important that we make that decision. And that is

073a decision, I think, for the board. I I believe we'll have that decision within a few weeks, right, Susan? >> Working on it. We just met with a committee >> and we're getting we're putting together a survey >> and we want to, you know, find out from our families and our staff what they are looking at, what they're concerned about. And we got Jim Streer on the Zoom. Woohoo. >> So, I'm ready to move on. Kim, >> please do. >> Yeah. I just I just wanted to make sure everyone uh understood that the the conflict that involved the the grant funding for the middle school because of the title n issue with the office of civil rights has been resolved. Uh there is a compromise that was achieved. Fortunately, we we we basically said to

074the Office of Civil Rights, we would not use the money for interclassic sports, which of course we never used anyway because it's a middle school grant, and that we would abide or we would we would comply with the decision of the federal court. Uh and they they said that was acceptable and they uh will release the money. Actually, it's supposed to be released on Thursday. Uh so we we should get we'll get the full uh $74,000 for this year and we believe the $74,000 for next year. So that matter is over and I am delighted to say it's behind us. And then the last thing is just uh the the sports it's going uh actually uh quite well as I mentioned the all the low and medium risk sports are are are ongoing that's to

075say cross country is a low risk volleyball field hockey uh soccer they are proceeding indoor volleyball but with masks and then the football thing. Uh, as I said, you might look at it in in in the paper. There's nice uh nice little video. It's it was kind of a fun thing. The the the receivers and the quarterbacks have this kind of touch football thing and and the linemen, they run with like a 100 pounds on their back and all kinds of one one of our kids was interviewed, one of our linemen, and and he he said, uh, you know, linemen never get any of the credit. they they they they sort of uh labor anonymously and he said, "You know, tonight we were in the limelight and it was kind of fun." So, I think

076we're the the kids are practicing every day. They're working out. They're engaged and uh as uh our our coach who's a terrific person, Mike Ellis, said uh you know, it's not the football we wanted, but it's uh it's fun and it's competitive and we uh and those two teams, the NFA and Fitz team got together and it was really quite moving. I'd encourage you to look at this the day. There's a nice little both both on the social justice part of it and on the athletic part of it. So, we'll proceed. Uh I believe there are five contests. It will take us through the month of October and then uh that season will be over and there's a possibility uh that there may be a real football season in uh in March and April. >>

077Wow. >> To be determined. >> So one last thing, spectators. Two spectators can come to an outdoor sport. We give them a ticket. They put their name on it and their cell phone number for contact tracing purposes. This is like a big deal. And uh and no spectators are allowed, but we're we're live streaming the games. The only the only indoor game is volleyball. So volleyball is being live streamed. No spectators. >> And that's it. >> Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions for that? Rita, you need to be unmuted. Okay. Patrick Gineir. Um I I there was a wonderful article also that Mike Demorra wrote um about John, you know, the whole game between NFL. But this is my question. If if they do play in the spring football team, how do the coaches

078stipens work? I mean, >> yes, this is what I couldn't quite understand, you know? I mean, they're they're doing it, but it's very limited. It started much later. So, it's not the same, >> right? >> But I was curious about that. >> Yeah. >> Because the CIA recommended spring, the ECC went along with these, you know, Friday night lights game, seven of them. >> Well, I I actually uh as soon as you asked the question, my eyes immediately went to Miss Horler because that's my number one agenda for our next uh we we need to negotiate this. >> Okay. >> Yeah. There are some ideas. I can tell you some some districts have said to the football staff, "Here's your stipen. Do what you what what you can in the fall and >> and and

079but it's the money for the whole year. So, pace yourself." Um, that's that's one district's view of it. Uh uh we we really I'd really want to take a look at how much time they put in and then potentially uh uh what what might be required in the spring, but we really have to that's a that's a schedule C thing that we'd have to negotiate. >> Okay. And I know the governor came up with new winter sports rules today. >> We did >> for and also the spring like lacrosse and so forth. So you might want to um check those out also. >> I will. Thank you. Thank you, Rita. All right, so business, uh, Liz, >> just really quick, uh, Dr. Grineer, how will this impact like the spring sports? Because we have, um,

080you know, like if you have football players that play baseball >> or whatever, >> right? It won't impact it. That's why I said uh March and April the the the season would be over by midappril and the and the the players would be able to transition to baseball or lacrosse. >> All right. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Guess we're depending on a temperate climate. >> Yeah, exactly. >> All right. Um so we're over to the business manager report. Thank you guys for sticking with me. Hello. Um, so the object code summary attachment number one. Um, I can put it up if you want or we can just uh I think it was included with uh all your packets. I >> think we all got that in our packet. So I think it's too hard to

081do and have a >> I agree. >> Hard enough on paper. So, uh, the, uh, the object code summary does show a projected unexpended balance of 27,828. Um, it's relatively early in the year. Uh, so many things are still at budget. Um we did have some you know there is some uh projected um uh savings due to some um resignations or or or retirements that we hadn't um taken um into consideration in the budget. So there is some savings there but there's also uh some additional expenses. Uh so you know at this point we're still on track uh and we think that uh we'll be uh we should be uh within budget uh at the end of the year but it is early. >> Any questions on that? If not, Ken, just go ahead and

082maybe you know what, Ken, maybe if you could just kind of go ahead with all of yours and then we'll um I'll I'll entertain any questions. >> Okay, that sounds good. >> Thank you. Uh so the health insurance report which was uh attachment number two uh that's showing that um this is just for the month of July. So this is the first report for FY12 uh 21 and it's showing that we're at 44.8% of budget. So uh we're still uh being impacted the claims are still being impacted by COVID 19 uh what what's being called COVID 19 deferred expenses. Uh so those are elective or or or visits that people aren't doing because uh uh because of the uh the situation. Uh the MDG who is our uh consultant for health care uh is still

083suggesting that we hold on to uh any reserve that would have been built up at the end of last year uh to pay for um what we expect to be uh additional claims once these COVID deferred uh um activities um actually actually come to fruition within this year. Um, okay. I'm going to move on to COVID related funding. Uh, the Corona Relief Fund, that's uh 1,227291. Uh, this is a fund established by the state. Uh, needs to be expended by December 30 of 20. Uh, majority of this uh fund is for uh salaries. There's 175,000 for PPE and cleaning supplies. Uh, the remainder is for salaries. Uh the application uh needs to be uh submitted by this Friday and we are on track to do that. Uh the salaries is uh going to be mainly

084uh substitutes to cover for uh folks that are out for COVID related reasons. Uh as well as some additional student support such as uh such as um social workers uh and some and some tech support uh so that we can uh get through um uh what we need to get through uh through the end of this year. uh the CARES Act funding. Yeah, this is a fund of 664,46. This is from uh the the federal government. This needs to be expended by uh September 30 of 22. So, it's a much longer uh um period than the uh the corona relief fund. Uh we have uh put in an application. Uh at this point, uh we need to do a revision on that because the Corona relief fund kind of uh um was going to pay

085for some of those expenses. So, we just kind of got to rejig it and put it back in. Uh and we're uh in good shape to do that. uh on the alliance district funding. Uh these uh uh this uh funding was we anticipated uh an amount uh last year of it was about 300,000 um that um is still being worked on by the Department of Education, the Office of Policy and Management. Um and so we're we're still waiting on a decision on that, but um uh we're we're cautiously optimistic uh that they're at least talking about it. Uh but at this point uh we do not have that alliance district funding in place. Uh and then the last item is the impact aid application process. So annually we have to u get from all of

086uh the students if if their families are federally impacted meaning they either live or work on on federal uh land. Uh and this uh this impact aid this is a revenue uh line item about 3.2 million. So it's very important. uh the situation that we have uh is is creating some issues in that uh it needs to go out to all families and we would typically hand it out uh on October 1st to to all the students uh with not all of them being in at the same time. It just creates a little bit of a headache uh getting them all out there. But uh we're going to do the best we can. We feel like we have a good plan in place. Um um and we're hoping that that won't be uh impacted by

087by any of this. So that means that anyone and everyone that's hearing this board of ed meeting tonight is to encourage our families to fill out this form and get it back to us because it is a huge help for our budget. Um that $3.2 million goes a long way. So please all who are listening get the word out. Any questions for the business manager? All right, hearing none, we're on to Mr. Kilpatrick. Um, I'm going to ask the same thing is that can we please let um Sam go through his list and then if you have questions then we can ask him at the end of his list. You're on, sir. >> Hey, good evening. Made it back just in time, I guess. um had a poor connection at home. So I ran back

088to the office because I I didn't want to sound like uh poor Z. Uh and it actually even some of you were cutting out on mine. It kept a note came across my screen that said I have an unstable um connection. Uh and for the kind of money that we pay for our connections, I don't know why I would have an unstable connection, but I think we need to talk to those guys about that. So, uh, the first item is the, um, Rotten Middle School, uh, completion. Um, and, uh, the work is continuing, uh, on a daily basis there. They're working on the blackbox theater, the small performance area, and they are to be completed by the end of October. The gym floor, uh, as you know, had some issues. Uh, part of the gym

089floor had to be removed. uh the new wood is in the it gym but they are acclimating it to uh the site. In other words, they're adding some humidity to the uh wood so that it is of the same moisture content as the existing floor in there. So once that stabilizes and everything reads the same uh moisture content, they will continue laying the floor uh finishing and then striping and so on. Again, that too will be the end of October. uh roofing work continues. Uh basically the uh uh the rubber, we'll call it rubber roofing, um is on and what they're finishing now is some metal work around the edges and then what they call coping will go over the top of the metal edges. Uh and so again, that is uh uh to be

090completed by the end end of October. Um it's pretty critical that we get the roofing work done. And uh uh those uh rubber roofs um are quite slippery when you get frost uh on them or andor ice and snow. But uh even just a little bit of frost becomes uh pretty dangerous for the roofers. So the sooner they can get that done, the better. Uh you may have heard that the um on the uh artificial field um we uh painted the lines on for the field hockey. Um, and I handd delivered the keys to the field hockey coach and her assistant on their first day. And uh, it was uh, it was quite thrilling to see the girls uh, um, I I don't know if there were 50 girls running around that field, but uh,

091they were ecstatic and uh, and it was uh, and it really was a thrill to see the kids uh, on that field. So, we're going to continue to keep the lines uh painted until uh again the contractor comes back. Um Peter Peter was hoping that uh we could wait until the uh blackbox theater and and those larger spaces including the gym are completed uh so that if they need larger spaces for classes or for uh for the kids that uh they'd have places other than out on the field. So, uh those lines will go in as soon as uh those other uh areas are completed. Uh you may also know about uh the new driveway that is planned for the uh end of the building which is toward the uh Fort Hill end of the

092building. Uh there'll be uh a new uh turnaround essentially driveway for the uh special ed buses which will uh allow uh the buses to come uh not be in the main driveway blocking uh parents that are coming uh into the building. So uh they'll be able to pull into this new uh driveway and allow the kids to get out um without interfering with the parental traffic. Uh they're probably over uh I've been there a couple of times. It's probably over a hundred uh parents dropping off kids uh in the morning and picking up in the afternoon. So it's a lot of traffic out there right now. Um there are still a few um items inside the building that are being worked on. One of the things they've put temporary countertops on some of the lab

093uh counters in the uh in the science rooms and those will be done on weekends or nights. Uh and again uh hopefully by the end of October that stuff will be done. And then at uh when all this stuff is done, there will still be what they call a punch list, which is uh small items. It could be uh as simple as um uh something that didn't get a second coat of paint somewhere or um an item that a lock set that isn't working properly. Uh window that isn't operating properly. Oh, well, these windows don't even operate, but uh some pretty simple things on that list that may still need to be taken care of. And that punch list uh could go on for a period of time, a month or two before all of

094that stuff would be taken care of. So, that's a middle school. The elementary schools, um, in in case you haven't been by, um, I think Mark also posted a video of of Cutler. >> Yeah. >> Today, um, and you could see that there's, uh, steel in the air. Uh, the framing is up. Uh, and and the same is true for, uh, the Westside site. So, there's steel uh, up in the air and and of course, they continue to move along on those projects. Which uh brings me to uh the portable relocation. Uh the portable buildings that are at uh Cutler and the building that is at Westside, I have been told for the last three weeks, I believe, that uh they will be delivered here any day now. So, um I noticed that they they

095haven't been lifted up yet. So, uh they're still there, but we're expecting uh that we're ready for them here. It's just a matter of the contractor uh uh picking them up and delivering. Um uh the next item on the list is a custodial cleaning process. So uh an update on that. Um we it took us uh quite a bit of time to uh finally get our full complement of additional custodians for the schools so that we could do the extra uh cleaning in the buildings. uh uh finding uh part-time custodians that uh wanted to work uh the day shift um took us uh probably about five weeks to get that full compliment. And uh >> uh while while we were doing that, uh Wed Gaston, who's our custodial supervisor, was um um well, he he's

096got a shaved head, but he was pulling his head, he was really pulling his hair out, uh moving people around to make sure that we had people uh constantly moving around our buildings uh cleaning hightouch uh zones uh and the lavatories on a uh u about every other uh hour basis. So uh that work continues and and of course we um have got some additional uh part-time custodians for our uh Wednesday cleaning as well. So, um, and when when we get to a week, there are going to be a couple more weeks where we have 4 day weeks. And on those weeks, we will, um, have additional workers, custodial help on Tuesday nights, uh, or or actually on Wednesday nights because it'll be Tuesday, Wednesday, those cohorts. um on Wednesday nights. We'll do the additional

097cleaning uh on Wednesday night with the extra people uh so that the Thursday Friday cohort will will come into a uh a clean safe space. Uh the next item is the food service. Um I guess you probably all I hope you all got to see that article in the paper today. uh Ernie >> beautiful piece there >> and it's uh it's really remarkable what the food service people uh have done since the uh the beginning of the COVID uh situation um way back in um I guess it was like March 13th uh that this whole thing started and um Ernie um and his staff of uh uh while they were being paid they volunteered to come out and go out into and hand meals out to the public uh to people in their cars as

098they pulled up uh and have continued to do that uh since uh since March. And um I think they kind of I was I was hoping I was going to be able to um give you this news uh firsthand, but apparently it did state in the article that um they've served over 14,000 meals since the beginning of this is quite quite remarkable. >> Wow. And uh Ernie did want me to uh again uh plead with any uh parents that might be listening to this uh meeting uh to please get those free and reduced uh forms back in uh as soon as you can because again they are very important uh for the funding for those uh for the schools. So if they can get them in that would be very helpful. >> Thank you. >>

099Any questions for Sam? No, I just want to congratulate Ernie and the whole staff at the food service. It was a wonderful article and I love the pictures of the students sitting, you know, socially distanced in sixth grade and the meals looked absolutely delicious. My little granddaughter said, "Could we get those meals?" Well, any other questions or thoughts? If there are none, I am going to be moving us on to committee reports policy. Lee, I know we have a lot that we're talking about tonight. >> We uh today, tonight we will go on the second reading of three. We have a first reading of another one. Uh we continue to meet regularly. Um and we will be meeting next week. >> Thank you. curriculum. Andrea, >> we met on the 14th of September and we

100met with some of the teachers in the in the elementary level and al also actually there were teachers from the other levels as well and we talked about handwriting and whether cursive was um should be really resurrected and it's interesting because I thought that it was going to be that the literature was going to support that but actually it doesn't. So, we're going to continue that conversation at the curriculum council and we also talked about spelling and um the resources that are available in the the the district right now. And at that time, we also had representation from the library, the Brton Library, and we talked about one community and one card. And that two we're going to be meeting again, that's an ongoing conversation. We're going to be meeting with Dennis Cloon regarding the

101security issues in terms of students information. >> That's that's kind of what we were talking about at the committee the whole last week, right? >> Yeah, exactly. >> Um Jay, >> so we met on September the 8th for finance and facilities. Uh we discussed a lot of things that uh we discussed today in terms of the um uh COVID funding. Um, we also got a report about the um, uh, tuning the um, HBAC systems in the schools to make sure that um, as much fresh air as possible was going into the buildings. Um and uh we also received a report that um I guess it's now in the hands of the town council about solar panels on the middle school and um if an agreement can be reached then it would come back to both

102of us to enter into power sharing agreements um for installing those. >> Any questions for Jay? If not, Jay, would you be willing to just for simplicity purposes, could you talk about the athletic fields at all because I know that you're on that committee as well. >> Yes. So, in the spring, the town council created an athletic fields uh task force. Um the idea was rather than um deal with all the fields in town on a peacemeal basis, they wanted sort of a master plan for what the needs are. um whether it's uh uh school property, town property. Um so all summer the uh committee met. Um Kim appointed me to that committee and so various stakeholders came in from the the school district as well as the various teams that use um uh fields

103and space. Um, and the idea is to forward this um, master plan to the town council. I believe uh, it'll be voted on perhaps next month and then it'll be in their court to determine um, whether that's something that we can finance. >> Jay, thank you for being part of that committee. Um, Rita Lur. >> Yes. Um, at our meeting on last Thursday, Dr. Ryan Donlin, who is the associate executive director of Learn, he presented Learn's reopening plans for their schools and also how they spent the past six months hosting virtual one-on-one sessions, town hall, staff meetings to collect feedback from students, staff, and families. In light of all this feedback, they desired they desire they had to hire a new online learning coordinator to help with their instructional frame for the year. And I

104had a question, Dr. Grineer. Do we have someone in that role? >> Not not yet. No, >> not yet. Are we thinking about it >> to coordinate all the >> online learning coordinator? I know they have a little very different type of school, you know, because they're so spread out, but I was I was just curious if we had that. >> We we we've discussed it, but no decision yet. You know what? We'll I'm going to add it to the CO and we'll talk about it. >> Okay. Thank you. Um they have 30% of their families opted to go fully remote at learn at all the schools at the Ocean Avenue Learning Academy. Um they have 67 students going four days a week which is wonderful. >> Yeah. Wow. >> Yeah. Which is really great.

105And that includes 18 to 21 year olds. Um this was interesting. I thought for their they always do a teacher of the year presentation in September for the board and this year they decided at learn that because of what all the teachers did this this past spring that they're all teachers of the year. So they couldn't select one. They they they said um all certified staff were designated as teachers of the year which I which I thought was really wonderful. Yeah. >> Um, we're going to start negotiations with the learn teacher association and also they're having a newly formed administrators. They've never had an administrators union. So that is now being formed by the administrators um at learn. So there was a some other things but I I think mainly the important part was listening

106to the other districts and how everyone is facing these same challenges. But a lot of them are going five days a week, the smaller districts. >> Yeah. >> Which is amazing. But they're mostly, you know, except for old line, most of them don't have high schools. That's it. >> Thank you. Um, so Grton scholarship Lee, >> you're the one that you're chairing that. >> Are you talking about the TC RTM? >> The scholarship. >> Oh. They said before that they begin to meet in October. >> Okay. >> And they promise to be in touch with me. >> All right. Awesome. Um yes, I do. I have been chairing a little bit of the um town council, the RTM. Our next meeting is actually going to be um next week. And um I actually what's happening

107in the board I think actually has been dominating uh the leazison meeting just because of just what's been happening in terms of the hybrid and stuff. Um but Rita I'm actually am going to bring um to the leazison your question about sort of the understanding connectivity yes for all residents of Grten. um because I'm assured that there's probably some people who would like to do Zoom uh meetings or whatever um or activities but cannot because of the activities >> looking looking for jobs going for job interviews just everything >> right >> so thank you um uh we should be having a board of ed a GSA GA >> soon it's in October >> I never date. >> We don't have a date yet. >> Okay. Maybe maybe maybe I'll get Joyce on that to kind

108of pull when we can when we can get together. >> We'll we'll send out a note tomorrow. >> Thank you. Um Dr. Grineer. Um and then um the last thing negotiations I mean I think negotiation we met last month just to making sure that we go over the teachers contract to meet the needs of what's happening um with the pandemic. Um and um uh the superintendent search uh we're actually going to be at the end of the meeting, we're going to be voting on the leadership profile that was put together by our search coordinator who is on on the Zoom meeting as we speak. Um but we will go into more further detail um in a little bit. Um and this is based on the surveys and the focus groups that she was able to

109do. And I I bet you she's gonna kind of walk us through the leadership um thing. And so I'm going to now move on to action items. The next part is is the cons consent agenda. And this is where all matters listed um are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion um with points of clarification if needed. Um, so we are I'm will accept a motion for the approval of the regular meeting minutes of August 24th, 2020 and the approval of special meeting minutes of September 8th, 2020. Um, can I Liz? Can I have a second? >> Second. >> I've got Rosemary. Um, any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the consent agenda, please signify by raising your hand or saying I. I not hi. You say hi to

110me if you want to. Um all those oppose abstain. The motion has carried. Um we are now moving on into our old agenda. Um excuse me. Our old Yeah, our old agenda. Our old business. Rita, would you be willing to read the motion for the first one? >> Yes. to approve as a second reading policy P1230, parent organizations and booster clubs. >> I have a second to that. >> Second. >> I've got Jane. Um Susan or Lee. Do we have any comments about the second reading? Um the the only question I had was I I wanted to see I think we all wanted to see what the dues were particularly for the um for the physical education booster gr and it's $10 a year. So that's >> it was very nominal and I know that

111this really came out of um even audits. So Ken was instrumental in helping us frame this out and the use of CAPE. So >> yes, >> any other comments about this? All right. Hearing none. All those in approval of this for the second reading of the policy P230 parent organization booster clubs, please sit signify by saying I. >> I. hands. Uh, oppose >> abstain. The motion has carried. Thank you, Liz. I will eventually get it. So, Liz, would you be willing to read the motion for number two in old business, please? >> To approve as a second reading P6172.6, distance education. So Susan or Lee, if you would be willing to talk a little bit about the second reading. >> We had talked about this during the first reading. >> Kim, you need a second

112for that motion first. >> Oh, Joan, I love you. May I have a second? Rita, >> Rita is gonna help me out here. Now, Susan and Lee, can you talk about the second reading? >> So, we did talk about this during the first reading. It's always been Dr. Grineer's goal that every student who goes through Fitch will have this opportunity to have online learning. Um, we brought in Apex learning a few years ago and it used it very successfully even in course credit recovery, but this even this policy even expands so that high school students can also earn academic credit applied towards graduation or for college readiness. So, um, but there's an outline of when and where they can, um, get these courses if, for instance, they're not offered in the district. That's one of

113the ways. So, we've kind of gone over this a couple times, um, and, you know, had wanted to have a policy like this even before we went full remote. >> Is there any other discussion about the second meeting? >> Hearing none. All those in All those in favor to approve a second reading of the policy P6172-6 distance education please second by saying I >> I >> opposed abstain motion has carried. Rosemary. >> Yes. >> Do you have any um would you have any uh would you love to read um the motion for number three in old business, please? >> Few things would make me happier. Um to approve as a second reading policy P6114 um 81 emergencies and disaster preparedness. >> Can I have a second to the motion, please? I have Liz >> discussion

114please. >> So this one is really definitely related to the sign of the times that we're in and it really authorizes the board um to temporarily wave certain policies if needed and grants the superintendent um the temporary policies to address CO 19 pandemic emergencies. So, um, we've actually, even before writing this policy, we've had to come to terms with some different ways of instructing our kids and being able to safeguard them um, based on, you know, the governor's recommendation and the Connecticut State Department of Education. So, this policy was written by CABE for the times that we're in and um, and gives us some flexibility in all of that. I appreciate you getting um on that so quickly, Susan. Any other further discussion? All the all those in favor to approve as a second reading

115policy P6114.81 emergencies and disaster preparedness, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed, abstain. This motion has carried. We are now moving into um to new business. Um Jay, would you be willing to read under new business the motion for number one, please? >> Uh I move to approve as a first reading policy P4118.2375141.8 face masks and coverings. >> Can I have a second to this, please? >> Second. Second. >> I got that. Thank you. Thank you, Rosemary. I thought I had spoken, but it nothing came out of my mouth. Joan, it was by Rosemary. So, Lee and Susan, can you help us um go through this? >> So, we really got some help from our friends. Um you know, Leah Hris, who is in charge of our nurses, really helped us

116out with this and Cab um Denise Doul has also worked on this one. Um and Rita actually mentioned it. learn I think has just accepted this kind of a policy. Of course, sign of the times again about face masks. We've been given a lot of guidance through Ledgeite Health and through the governor's office and the Connecticut State Department of Education. There's actually an addendum on face masks. So, taking all of those things into consideration, we really outlined what was necessary in the wearing of face masks um and including transportation and the different kinds of face masks that are worn. We I know we've purchased some that have the clear mouth spaces for students um who either are learning ASL or need to use um American Sign Language and be able to see um lip reading.

117So, I think our district has been pretty um prepared in all of this and you know, thank you to Sam's office and to Ken for getting the PPE and the supplies that we've needed. Um so it it goes through um you know that while we all you know expect kids to wear face masks, there are certain tenuous situations where either a child has trouble ble breathing or if there's an emergency situation where the mask has to be removed. >> Are there questions? Andrea, >> I have a I have an observation about on page three or four and it's really in the middle of the page. It says teachers or schools may provide incentives for compliance with the face mask requirement. I object strenuously to that. I I don't believe that we should be uh even

118suggesting that if that that um you would be rewarded for something that's so serious as this. I think it gives the the impression that that uh well if you don't do it um you don't get the lollipop, but if you do do it, you do. No, this is serious business about not not spreading a virus or or contracting the vi virus. And I don't even know why that is in our policy. >> Probably because it was first suggested by Cabe. There are certain students who are in um self-contained programs that they are doing some behavioral um work with students so that they understand that it's necessary to wear them and you know it like an ABA program so that >> I understand that and I I would under certain circumstances I would I would support

119that. I don't >> it doesn't need to be there. I agree. >> Not believe I agree. Thank you for pointing that out, Dr. Arian. >> Rita and and also the the sentence right before that where it says that if a visitor refuses to wear a face covering the facility the you may be denied. I think it should be they are denied >> right will be >> access. So I think that should be modified. And the other thing that was brought up at at the cave meeting when we went over this policy, it also should still a policy should clearly state which types of mass are acceptable. So on the Connecticut website, they they tell you which ones are acceptable and then the ones that are not. You know, the ones that you just can pull

120up and you know, aren't. So I also feel we should include in there a sentence about which ones are not acceptable for cover face coverings. >> Oh there is the definition of the different types of face covering on the first page. >> So you >> yeah there still should be one which ones you could are not acceptable to wear. >> Okay. And there and that is covered in in the um I believe quite a few schools have adopted that. Yeah. >> The addendum from the Connecticut State Department of Education. >> Yes. >> And Rita I mean Andrea >> and also um the just above the one that I read is because it's not parallel. It's hard to understand what it really means. So I maybe with your permission I I may go over and work

121on that with Erica if that would be >> Thank you. We would appreciate that. And what I'll do is I'll bring this back to the policy committee which is next week and get some um corrections made on this before we bring it back to you for second reading. We'll look at it again carefully. >> Thank you Susan. Thank you for your work on this. >> Any other questions about the second meeting? >> I mean the first meeting, sorry, first meeting. All right. Hearing none. All those in favor of approving for the first reading the policy of P Oh my goodness, I lost it. Um P4118 um 2375141.8 fa face mask coverings. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. >> I'm opposed until that's changed. >> Okay. >> Me, too. Until those

122are changes are made. Uh me too. >> Me three. >> Okay. So >> So >> can I just say the problem is going to be that we're going to have to vote on this for the first time next month at the end of the month. So if you with your permission if we can get this revised for the policy committee and then bring it back you'll have that opportunity to agree or disagree >> and then the second reading you can absolutely deny because right now >> oh first reading the yeah means that we have to go back to an absolute meeting and then the next month a second meet u meeting. >> So we might not get to face masks until Christmas. >> Oh no no whatever whatever needs to be done that's what I'll

123do. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. So, >> but we're gonna take the nose away. >> Um, no. You know what? I think Joan, I don't know if this is um allowed in Robert's rules, but I think I would just like to get clarification of the vote. So, I'm just asking for all those >> I have four nos, which means there are three yeses, which means the motion is defeated. >> Okay. But if we can we redo it and get clarification because some people didn't quite understand that. >> Joe, what's the what's the ruling on that? >> Well, there wasn't another motion. I I say you just do the count it again. Take the vote again. >> No, wait a minute. Yeah, >> just a minute. If it doesn't carry then this policy doesn't carry.

124>> But if but right however does uh does that mean then it can't come back and be revisited? That's what I'm asking. >> No, it can't come back. >> It it it can't come back as as a second reading so that we could vote on it. >> Okay. >> No, it'll come back as a first reading because they've defeated the first reading tonight. That's right. >> But it can't come back as a first. It'll come back as a first reading. >> Okay. >> It delays the opportunity to have this place. >> There you go. >> It just delays it in for two more months. >> Isn't there Isn't there anything in Robert's rules that covers, you know, like I did not understand this the process. So, isn't there anything that that covers >> I I

125could How about if we say this? Somebody makes a motion that that you pass the uh you you you you pass this uh first reading uh uh with the understanding that it will be revised and and by the policy committee >> right as amended. Passed as amended. >> Yeah, I'll move that. >> I can go with that. So Joan, the second motion, we need a second for it. Would be this policy as as amended, >> right? I I Okay. Right. So we now have amendment. >> Um I need to >> I think he's right. >> So I think Mike is right. >> Yeah. The motion. >> Do you need somebody to change the the motion? >> No. Yes. >> You need a second. >> All right. >> A second for what? >> Change for the

126changing the motion. >> Right. Wait a second. Whoa. Whoa. Wait, wait. Mike Whitney is correct. It is the person in the majority can reconsider the vote. That's how it goes. So for the four nos, I need someone to reconsider the vote. And >> I'll reconsider. >> No. Rosemary. I've got Andrew. So we now have a motion that provided that the changes to the first reading has occurred um or or I can't remember what what was what was said but you were are you are reconsidering the vote for the first reading. >> Yes. >> Wait a second. Andrea, is that correct? >> That's correct. >> Okay. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. I've got Jane. Any further discussion? >> My apologies. That's all. >> Jay, thank you. And I'm sorry I didn't recognize

127you in the mayhem. I didn't see everything. Okay. All those in favor of the v of the vote to um reconsider, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That has carried. We're going to move on. >> Thank you. We'll do a good job revisiting it. >> In the interest of time, Kim, I I'd recommend we table number two. >> Yep. And because I think I would like to have that go into a committee of the whole because it's been a long time since we've talked about um uh class sizes and stuff and it might be worthy of having that considering the fact that we're having two new elementary schools. We have a new um middle school. So, I would like to have that in our committee the whole. So, um, provided that no one

128is going to complain about that, um, I am we're going to table agenda number, uh, under new business number two. We're going to put that to a committee as a whole, and that we'll come back for a vote next month. code. Um, I don't know. Lee, do you do you have any um Can you please read the motion for number three, please? >> You're muted. >> You are not muted. I mean, you are muted >> now. I am. >> Yep. >> Unmuted. A motion to approve the 2021 board of education meeting schedule. Thank you. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. >> Joan, did you get that? I got Rosemary. I don't know about you. >> Yes. >> All right. Um, and so do we have any discussion? The reason why we have

129to vote it on is because Joe needs to make sure that this gets to the town clerk um so it can get posted. I I have a question. I would like um we usually only have two meetings in December. So the committee of the whole on December 6 could be the meeting and then December 13th and not have a meeting on December 20th >> like that. >> Thought I thought the same thing. The 20th is kind of close. >> It is. >> Yeah. So, um, if we could just make that revision, >> I would support this. How do people feel about that? Any discussion on that? >> Good idea. >> Yes, >> I support Rita. >> All right. Well, we always support Rita, >> right? >> All right. So um all those any more discussion?

130All those in favor of um accepting the meeting uh schedule with those with that revision please say I >> I >> opposed obain that motion has carried. All right. Um and um Jane could you or Jay have you read? >> Yes. >> Okay. So I am um Jane would you please read number um four please? >> Okay. Discussion and possible action regarding recognition of October 2nd 2020 as National Custodian Day. >> Can you read the motion please? >> Yep. to recognize October 2nd, 2020 as National Custodian Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the custodial staff. >> Definitely. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> I've got Lee. Any discussion about that? >> Special letter this year. These guys did a phenomenal job. >> Yeah. Well,

131not only are they doing COVID and all the extra responsibility for that, but they're like working on a graten middle school and I mean just all the stuff that they are um working. Sam, your group is just amazing. >> All right. If there's >> I just wanted to add that in my experience as being a a principal in Broton, I don't think that there's a finer group of of people in terms of of um dedication to the job and I mean we're all dedicated, but they go above and beyond in my view. >> Thank you, Andrea. Well said. Okay. Not um not hearing any further discussion. All those all those in favor will recognize October 2nd, 2020 as National Custodian Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to

132the custodial staff. Please signify by saying I >> I abstain. That motion has carried. So, let me orient our group and then I'm going to um send it over. I'm gonna actually ask for a motion, but I'm going to disorient ours um um ourselves and the rest of the people who are on our um Zoom call. It is that um as people know, Dr. Grineer um has signified that he will be retiring from the school district, which then places our school board um as a search committee. Um and we have been actively involved with Mary, and Mary is um with with us. She's actually third three rows down on my right. Um I have no idea what on your Zoom screen. Um and um so we are absolutely in process. Um I think Mary I'm

133going to um in the discussion part of after the motion I'm going to let you kind of describe what you have done. Um but just just to let people know that um it is necessary for the school board to approve the leadership profile so that we can accept accept sorry accept the leadership well it is to approve um to accept the leadership um uh profile um so that we can move forward um and looking at um candidates. Um, so the motion that's going to be on the floor is to recogn uh is to accept the broughtton superintendent of schools leadership profile as presented. Can I have a second to that, please? >> Second. >> I've got Liz. And so for the discussion, I'm going to start off with Mary and then I'll open up to

134the rest of the board. >> Great. Good to see all of you. Um, if you don't mind, I'm going to share my screen so everybody will know what it is that I'm talking about at the moment. Okay, you can see it now, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay, wonderful. So, um, as you know, um, the board of education was very determined to get as much input as possible into this process. Best practice across the country is for the board itself to serve as the search committee. And yet they benefit tremendously from hearing from all the different stakeholders as part of the process. And though those individuals can't sit around the table with them, it's really important that um their views be represented while the board is considering its candidates. So the Grten board um encouraged me

135to meet as many people as possible. We were challenged by the timing and we did have um 13 focus groups and interviews and spoke with 38 individuals through that. But and so that wasn't the greatest turnout for the the focus groups, but we had a robust turnout for the um the res the survey where we had 270 people participate. And as I put in this report, my last record on doing a search for participation in a survey was lower than yours by 37%. So you blew the numbers out of the water on survey participation. I also just want to take a moment to thank Joyce Medling for her help in getting the word out. She did a tremendous job of um circulating. Everybody seemed to know that this was happening. So what did we find?

136A total of about 308 individuals participated. Um you'll see the breakdown here. We had um two focus groups for parents, just about nine individuals, one focus group with the board of education, three with teachers, one with town officials, two with or one with administrators, um school administrators, two with union leaders, one with community residents, one with non-certified staff, and one with central office leadership. and you'll see the breakdown of participation in that. As far as the survey went, you'll see it was predominantly parents. We had 165 parents participate, uh 44 teachers, 26 support staff, 24 community residents, 22 military families, 19 students, uh five administrators, five city officials and staff, two recent graduates, and two board members. And it says 314 at the bottom because some people identified in a couple of different groups. So

137what did we find? We asked about strengths that um what people are proud of about Grten and its schools. Uh and then we asked about challenges and then we asked about the qualities that are desired in a new leader. um both the experience, the expertise, the the credentials, but also the kind of human being who would be most appropriate for Groten at this time. In terms of strengths, um 108 of your participants cited teachers, administrators, and other staff uh as the greatest strength of the Graten Schools. The staff care a lot about education of students and helping kids grow. They're passionate and progressive and tap into different learners. They also come with a variety of different backgrounds, not just education backgrounds. And they have things together as a team. Um the administrators seem to get

138the right people in the right places and staff work incredibly hard uh focused on what's good for students and encouraging their development personally and academically. Um they talked participants talked about the staff bringing a lot of talent to the COVID crisis and staying in touch with families. Their openness to innovation has allowed them to adapt what they do to these incredibly changing situations. Next was program and academics and there were 105 participants who cite and this is a broad category some aspect of the academics special ed IB program co-curricular um sports extracurricular as strengths of and 52 kind of were general felt that the the schools are offering a strong rigorous academic program that's very fresh and exciting um the offerings are vast fast from a wealth of options. Um, including strong STEM, advanced placement,

139innovative in teaching, um, staff stays on top of new learning approaches and provides a really strong educational value. Additionally, 18 cited the outstanding co-curricular, extracurricular, and sports offerings, programs like robotics, music as a pride of the district. Um, and whole community fundraising to send the marching band and the jazz band and the chorus to England. Um, the arts are strong and the diverse sports options are a major strength. The IB program is a strength. Uh and then 13 participants identified the special services program as strong um with sufficient resources which is very unusual to hear. Uh five talked about moving toward the magnet school uh model at the elementary level being a strength. diversity. 80 of your participants cited um the community and and um and the district's broad diversity as a major strength. The

140the economic diversity, the ethnic diversity, um diversity of attitude and the teaching staff is more diverse than state average and um the commitment to minority recruitment hopefully will will bolster that advantage. Um the DEI committee including 93 participants was evidence of people being excited to speak the language of equity. Moving on then to a connected and cooperative community that supports the schools um was considered another great strength according to 57 participants. Um this you're viewed to have very strong partnerships, open um relationships between community members, organizations, businesses, and the schools. The spirit of inclusion, the spirit of volunteerism, um the community members participating regularly in school efforts, the community recognizing the importance of investing in students for the future of the town. Um the military has also provided the schools with impact aid and other

141supports such as a military family life counselor and that kind of mutual relationship was really wonderful. The openness um to the military families and the understanding of military structure and its impact on students education have bolstered that relationship. Um the the fact that the schools also understand and support students and families experiencing the transent nature of life in the military was mentioned. Leadership was also mentioned as a great strength with 40X participants who found the current district leadership to be the strength accessible, approachable, dedicated to providing excellent education, collaborative, caring, compassionate culture where all stakeholder voices are heard. Um they also identified leaders excellent communications especially external communications with stakeholders as an asset. Um, participants identified a shared vi vision of high expectations where students and staff come first and leaders are viewed to operate

142openly and transparently, very organized, following through on state requirements and local plans, flexible and able to adapt quickly to changes in a common effective way. Finally, four specifically mentioned the board of ed. I know you did notice that there were two board members who who completed the survey, but anyway, um only one the fact that there's only one board of education in a town that has multiple, you know, police departments, fire departments, um governments, uh was considered a strength that the board of ed actually tied together the town. Um and then the commitment to focus on um diversity, equity and inclusion on the part of the board. And then finally, there were 18 participants who mentioned the school's infrastructure, the district's infrastructure as a strength, combining the high school middle school campus and allowing for

143sharing of resources between the schools. the two new elementaryaries, leaving the district with just one elementary um that has more than 10 years of service. So going on to challenges, the next question, the challenges facing Graten and a new leader. Um the new superintendent is going to need to address some aspects of program and structure. Uh again many participants cited something in the program and curriculum as a major strength of the community. 116 cited some aspect of the program as in need of attention. Um so 46 talked about structural changes right now and you can imagine I was doing the while the survey was up and doing the focus groups as the schools were getting ready to open. It's just how the timing has worked out on this and there was considerable anxiety on both

144the parts of parents and staff as there are are significant decisions yet to be made um and just concern that the pandemic has kind of thrown off schedules a bit. 18 expressed concern that there's too much flux with too little clear decision making. For instance, about opening the magnet elementary schools. They're afraid that planning has fallen behind a bit there. Um, the new superintendent is going to oversee the new physical completion of the schools and simultaneously engaged the community in major decisions about themes and staffing and some were asking whether the new initiatives could be slowed down a little bit. Um, that feeling also extended to some academic initiatives. um staff expressed a sense of being pulled in too many directions without the opportunity to really master an initiative. Um 20 participants mentioned the need

145for a focus on Grten's overall academic performance setting high expectations especially at the secondary level. Uh you know some of this may sound a little contradictory and that's how it came through but these are the data. um need to focus on high expectations and the high school needs to shore up pathways for a robust workforce. So not just about collegebound but also for the development and preparation for the real world quote unquote. 21 participants felt that there needed to be a focus on behavioral, social, emotional, and mental health services. I'm probably not moving forward fast enough. Um, especially in light of the current COVID crisis, there's a concern about the impact on of COVID on the emotional health of Grton's kids. Um, and the school's need to provide greater consistency and structure to foster appropriate

146student behavior. Eight specifically mentioned bullying, both physical and cyber bullying as a concern. Um again though considered a strength by many there were 11 who felt special education poses challenges in that need attention. Um and felt that the district's approach to identifying students is adversarial rather than kind of cooperative with families. Um some felt staffing was insufficient. Um in terms of the diversity again you had a lot of people who cited the community's diversity as a major strength. 71 participants identified some aspect of diversity as a major challenge and how will the staff create learning learning environments that are equitable for all and focused on excellence and high expectations. And I know your DEI committee has a focus on that, but the community is expressing its support for that direction, I think, and wanting that

147to be a process of great integrity and depth. They want to see improved results for all demographic groups. Um, and then a further challenge is ensuring staff of color, this may not have come out, I don't know if it's come out in the DEI committee, but ensuring staff of color feel comfortable in the schools. um they there was an expression of some persistent microaggressions that they experienced. Several expressed concern that the committee is the DEI committee, the diversity, equity, inclusion committee is too large and unwieldy and that the group needs to examine inequities embedded in the curricula and consider the professional development needs of teachers, undertaking a careful assessment of what equitable instruction and services really look like. And then just to keep that discussion going. And then some fear that the focus on true

148equity can be sidelined because of the pandemic and the district restructuring. They want to make sure that the depth of the DEI committee work is not lost amid the the chaos of the pan or I shouldn't say chaos but the challenges of the pandemic and the restructuring leadership vision transparency communications and cultivation. Sounds like we just talked about a lot of that as a strength, but there were 64 participants who noticed some aspect of leadership that the new superintendent will need to attend to. Um they would like to see a fostering of student growth of staff growth um team building and retention communications and vision. In general, u participants want to see consistent, equitable, transparent leadership, not overly influenced by parents or the community. Um, and then 23 talked about identifying um staff hiring, retention,

149growth, and team building as challenges. They want to see the administration attract, retain, and support the growth of teachers and commitment to building the team and clear chains of command and communications so that staff feels supported. And they'd like to see the administrators getting into classrooms on a daily basis. Um, some staff members talked about wanting to be fed and inspired to grow. Obviously, CO 19 is a big challenge and the timing of my collection of the data um reflects that. There were 57 participants who talked about um CO being on their minds. Uh 29 spoke very generally about it and needing to follow the rules. Um the challenges posed by distant learning was a focus for 23. Keeping students interested in learning. um finding better materials for the distance learning, offering schools students a

150good social network in a time of COVID, which we know we all need. Um, and then a couple also talked about taking the opportunity that is presented in this incredibly challenging time and considering innovations in teaching and curriculum that this time might help us identify. Um, five respondents also talked about the financial strain that COVID protocols create, especially with the potential, um, loss of tax revenues and, uh, a strain on community financial health. Finally, um or two more uh finance, budget and resources were identified as a challenge by 32 participants um with a couple of them mentioning moving out of the designation as an alliance district as a potential loss of revenue and then the support of construction projects potentially dampening enthusiasm for operating budget increases. the impact of COVID on local and state tax

151coffers. It's just really mentioned in the prior section too. Um the concern about the strain on educational opportunities. Obviously, you also have a fairly complicated budget process with the different governments and all in in Grten and that is going to be a challenge for a new leader. And then final the final challenge was student transents. Um, we've talked about the military and and the tangent nature of for students just that a new leader might find it hard to engage that community of parents. Okay, moving on um to desired expertise and qualities in a new superintendent. You'll see that the um survey invited um participants to rank their um preference, their sense of what the most important expertise would be desired in a new superintendent. And the results of that you'll see here were I I

152um I do both their their first choices and the top three first choices. So what you'll see is that communicates and collaborates effectively in schools and community garnered almost 25% of the first choice respondents and then it was in 22% of the top three choices for people. um Sher's district-wide vision of excellence in innovative instruction was almost 24% for of first choice and then 17 in the top three choices. And the broad base of knowledge of educational issues and practices was 18% for first choice and about 15% in the top three choices. And you can see how that breaks down. Um it so we've really covered the combine. If you we looked at qualities then in addition to expertise your participants in a big way want keeping students growth and well-being as the primary focus.

153Um with 33% selecting that as their top choice and it was the in the top three choices of a quarter of your participants. And then accessible, approachable, and visible in schools and community was 28%. And decisive, confident, objective, problem solver was way down from there. Those top two were the clear top preferences. And then you had decisive, confident, and then committed to transparent communication. So moving on from there, all these qualities are essential in a leader and yet um this is the priorities prioritized needs of Graten public schools at this point in time. Um what you need is somebody who can communicate and collaborate effectively and understand the importance of cultivating caring thoughtful relationships with all stakeholders. You need a spirit of openness of individual with a spirit of openness um and who welcomes volunteers

154and students are encouraged to connect with community resources. So you get that two-way um support. This would need to be a skilled communicator, very present, deeply listening and welcoming advice from stakeholders, and taking the time to really understand varied perspectives, able to absorb and integrate those perspectives, and then explaining complex ideas really clearly, both orally and in writing. Um, staff will know that the leader hears and understands them and values their experiences and insights and parents will know that they can reach the leader with their ideas and receive a fair hearing. The community will trust the leader to have the best interests of students and family and the community at heart. Um the leader is going to work to understand the military structure and the special needs of base families and honor the spirit as

155well as the letter of the military interstate compact. Uh the super superintendent is encouraged to attend events at the um subbase and provide supports from the schools um and is a key partner on the military superintendent's liaison committee. The leader isn't going to be political, but is going to bring a lot of political savvy um and reach across the aisles to build coalitions and bridges and can help that um bridging happen in town. The leader isn't going to rely on top-down coercive decisions, but cultivate a collaborative spirit, ensuring clear decision-making processes. Um the successful student superintendent is also going to rely on those collaborative partnerships in the community with Fizer and EB and the military and the schools will um understand the skills needed in such realms so that they can better prepare students and

156expose them to career paths. This person is also going to share a vision of excellence and innovative instruction. Um where right now staff are feeling like they're reeling from multiple transitions and various initiatives. So people don't they they don't want the apple cart really turned upside down right now. Um, but they do want the leader to appreciate and value what is underway, commit to the school's strategic plan, and keep the momentum going in those directions. They want the leader to see and value the big picture. There are major decisions of a visionary nature that still need to be made in short order to deliver on the promise of the magnet schools with their themes, their staffing, professional development. Um, and I just lost my place. Um so decisions of will help decisions on those topics

157will help a lot to reduce some staff anxiety and they need to look beyond present realities and be a strategic thinker who understands students really deeply and educators and their needs and get them excited about the district's meaningful robust school programs. This person needs to have a really um a great passion about learning and pursuing ongoing professional development both for themselves and for the staff. They're going to be strong academically and you know ideally connected to a community sorry to a university and keeping really current on educational practice. uh they're encouraged to observe and gather data before making changes. And um some participants talked about wanting somebody who has experience as a superintendent, ideally again in a large school district, but most important they want this person to be a teacher at heart who never

158forgets what it's like to be in the trenches. And finally, because of I the IB program in Grten, um people felt it would be ideal if the person came with that kind of with a background in IB, but a deep knowledge of special education would be very helpful. Uh especially Connecticut laws regarding it. And we're almost we're almost there. We have a couple more. Um, this ideal leader will keep students growth at the heart of every decision and will be familiar with the diverse community in terms of race, culture, socioeconomic status and will commit to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. I have have written indepth it's uh deeply understanding the u practices that can be a deterrent to students feeling that the schools um are addressing their learning needs encouraging um examination of DEI and

159systemic reform and examining policies and curricula through an equity lens. This person will recognize that helping staff grow is critical to student growth and they'll work on building a strong administrative team, delegate the work, inspire others to be creative, um build on talent, and harness staff potential and provide coaching um when people aren't quite meeting the expectations or when their growth is um stalled or they they just need need the coaching to be effective. accessible, approachable, and visible in schools. Again, staff really want to see this new leader have uh deep roots in classroom instruction and make a point of visiting classrooms regularly to have the pulse of the school. Uh the leader compassion, understanding, and empathy are important and diplomacy. Um, and it's really important that people feel that the leader is on a

160level playing field with with the um with everybody else. They're not above them, but accessible to all. And finally, a decisive, confident, objective problem solver. Uh, make well-informed decisions that reflect the vision and stakeholder voices. And standing by those decisions is really important. The leader needs to have a thick skin, not take things personally, and hold staff accountable to work in alignment with the vision and mission of Graten Public Schools, and then navigate the complex process of garnering resources. That's going to be an important learning for the new leader. well organized and focused. This tireless leader is going to have the energy for the work and the will to inspire others and the creativity to adapt to situations, the ability to juggle, and then have a the buck stops here mentality. So that's what your

161that's what your um stakeholders had to say in a nutshell. That was really well written. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do I have questions from the board members, >> Lee? >> Yes, I I read it. Um I thought it was beautifully written. Um and I guess I really understand that these anything that is in that is because what the people in Graten want in a new superintendent, >> right? Um, I I I think I think it's just absolutely terrific. The only thing I found wrong is it's not called Fitch Middle School. >> Other than that, you are perfect. >> Lee, I I realized that when I was looking for something on the website today, so I apologize. I will change. >> That's okay. It was beautifully written and I I it doesn't say anything

162about um water walking on water. >> I Yes, it it's implied, isn't it? It's implied. >> Thank you, Mary from me. >> Jay, I I see you had raised your hands, Jay. >> Uh yes. Uh I just want anyone who may be watching at home to realize that she really fasttracked this um uh process. Uh, and I just want to thank Mary because I know you you you spoke to a lot of people. You sifted through a lot of data and um this is really a terrific tool. Um, and I was I was blown away by by the picture that it paints and um I think anyone who who is going to be applying uh knows exactly what their expectations uh are. Well, Jay, that's my hope and that's that's what why I feel like

163it's important to be as comprehensive as possible on these so that you make sure that your candidates know as well as the the board what what an ideal um candidate would look like. So, it's it's they know what people know what they're getting into. Thank you. Aita, you need to be unmuted. I felt so many of these qualities um in this in for our superintendent search already um are qualities that Dr. Grineer has and I feel people have been so impressed with him with the military community with all with with the graten 2020 plan with so many things that um he has brought forward that we might have to replicate him in some way. I think that you're right that a I think that the sophistication of understanding of your stakeholders about what is ideal

164is because they've seen what what works. >> Yeah. >> And obviously I don't include anybody's names in this. So but know they've been they I agree with you Rita. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other comments from the board? I second that. >> I I just wanted to thank Mary um again for um a comprehensive and wonderfully sensitive rendering of the data and um I I think Rita is absolutely right. The uh the idea for for the responses came from the reaction to Dr. Grer and his tenure in >> yes I jump in um I want to jump in too. I want to thank Mike. He's made this easier for us. We know what we need. We have models of Mike in our heads with all the wonderful things he has done for our population.

165And so >> I I I am I love the fact that we are celebrating Mike um because you absolutely deserve it specifically like you announced your resignation and then COVID happens, right? Um so um but I I really want to keep us to the profile. um and and make sure that we have a leadership profile that represents um what we what we want us um to ultimately have as a superintendent. Are there any questions about that? I don't want to impede that. >> No. Jay, >> the one thing I want to say about that is so we all participated in this and the rest of the input, you know, is from our parents and our teachers and our administrators and so it this is what it is. Um, and so all those voices were heard

166and um, so I wouldn't change a thing >> except Fitch to Graten Middle School, >> right? >> Oh, that's Well, thank >> all right. If I'm hearing no further conversation or discussion about that, I just ask for the motion um for all those in favor of accepting the leadership um profile as written as presented tonight by Mary, please say I. >> I oppose. Obtain that unanimous unanimously. Um what was uh moved forward. Um, also please pay attention that Mary to the board. Um, Mary has set forward several dates of next week. We need to get them back so that we can meet with her. Um, so if you can do that, that would be very helpful because we need to we need to because we don't we're not really doing much of anything else. So

167we might as well just u make sure that our next agenda item is that we're going to be going into an executive session because we're going to be talking about the superintendent search. Bye Mary. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thanks, Mary. >> What I would like what I would like to entertain is I would like us to go back to all the other action items and and get those done and then we can go into an executive session. And then Andrea, I'm just asking once again for you to to when we go into that um executive session, who has joined us, the date and time when we go out and recording the vote. Okay? If you could do that, that would be great. But so the next thing um is uh um letters

168of communication. Rita, >> yes, I received a letter from Dr. Humphrey about when we were going to go do five days of school. Um and I would like to know too, I thought we talked about the board discussing this sometime in October. >> Yep. And that was and that was alluded to um earlier on in this meeting was that we had always talked about the fact that it was going to be an October conversation for um the board to have with Dr. Grineer. >> But I was just curious when in October. I thought it was October 6, but maybe not or in that time peri frame. >> I think later probably be the 12th. There's a CO that night. >> Okay. Thank you. Um that that's all and I was just going to again talk

169about the the food service and thank them and that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you Rosemary. >> Um I got a communication from um a set of parents who are concerned um on the other end of wanting to stay hybrid and heard rumors that we were going to go full-time. So, um, just to balance it out. >> Yeah. So, >> thank you, Rosemary. >> Can I add, Kim, that just to remind everybody that we're going to be sending out the survey. So, we're going to bring back some data for you guys to make a decision with that will help be helpful. >> Right. Just also remember that when we go to full-time is really actually the superintendent's decision and not necessarily >> not the boards. It's the board's input, but it's absolutely my or excuse

170me, the superintendent's um decision. >> Jane, you need to be unmuted. >> Sorry, fatigue is setting in. >> I I hear you. I'm sorry. >> My focus has been on policy, curriculum, and superintendent search. >> Okay. Liz, >> I had um I as as everybody Dr. Humphrey, but also um Miss Harrington. We've had two communications from Miss Harrington. I just wanted to, you know, remind everybody. But I've also had some conversations with um some teachers and some people from the neighborhood about um the stresses of this hybrid u model. And I just want us to keep that in mind that as we look at this hybrid model, it's it is very taxing especially on our our youngest are I we have, you know, small children and they're they're struggling with this. Um but also our

171teachers who are trying to be three teachers at one time and I just want us to keep that in mind because they are doing a herculean job in an extremely difficult situation. And um I I just wish we I wish we could do more for them. But I just wanted to bring that forward because I am getting conversation from them. >> Thank you. Liz Lee, do you have any >> um No, I don't. But I want to let everybody know that if you want to get tested and it's free with no no questions asked Monday through Friday, number one Shaw's Cove in New London. >> Yeah. >> In a tent outside, no questions asked. Get tested. >> Yep. I did. Andrea, >> I had the same communications that everybody had. >> Thank you, Andrea. Jay,

172>> yes, I received the same communications as well. And um I know it's late, but I just want to echo what everyone said earlier about our appreciation for the teachers, the staff, the paris, food services, our bus drivers, our bus aids, custodial, everybody has really become an essential worker in in keeping um all of our students safe and um we appreciate what they do every day. >> Thank you, Jay. Here, I'm just going to ask that I can I repeat exactly what Jay has just said. I couldn't have said it better. Thank you. Um, and so look for advanced planning, the meeting dates that are on for October. And then agenda items. Rita, we're going to take one of yours. We're going to do this. We're going to take the the the classroom size. Um,

173and there was another one that you had mentioned that that Dr. Grineer wrote a note about. I >> the middle school the the middle school Wednesdays. >> Thank you. Thank you. Anything further? So now I'm going to go back to the motion um that's on the floor. I mean that uh that we skipped uh which is um the discussion and possible action um regarding the approval of the superintendent schools um actually evaluation and and contract. Um and I'm going to ask that we go into executive session. And in executive session, I'm gonna ask that Ken um Knight uh the business manager joins us. Um I need a second to that to go into second. >> I think that that's Rosemary. Joan, we have Rosemary going into executive session. Mark, >> go for it. >> Call

174your motion. >> All right. So, I'm sorry. What? Joan, >> call your motion. >> Iive session. >> And I And we've already been seconded by U. Rita. All those in favor, we've already um said I. So, we're are now going into executive session with Ken Knight joining us. >> Byebye everyone. >> bye. >> Can we join now? >> Ken, you're muted. >> Come on, Ken. Join the room. >> Oh, what do I How do I do that? What do I do? >> Mark Mark's gonna put you in. >> Okay, here we go. Come on, Mark. Get it together. >> I put him in there. >> All right. See you later. >> Yay. We made it. >> All right. We're back. >> All right. So, um I will make a motion that the board approve retroactive

175July 1st, 2020. Um a 2% increase to Dr. um to the current superintendent Cedric Reneer's salary. Can I have a second to that? >> I have Andrea. You have the second because Joan's not here. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos. Abstain. The motion um carried unanimously and I actually said the word. So proud of you, Kim. >> It's the beach stuff. >> This is a marathon meeting. >> I had no idea it was gonna be like this. Sorry about that. Um, all right. >> We uncovered some important stuff, guys. >> We did. We did. >> We actually really did. Um, I will take a >> motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Jason second. Whoa, Jay. >> All right. So, um, Andrea, we close the meeting out at 8:53.

176Okay. That's when we close the the the regular meeting. We we came out of executive session. >> Right. Hey Mark, we have ended the meeting. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Bye guys. >> Thanks Mark. Stay well. >> Thank you Mark. >> Take care all. >> Yep. Thank you.