10-26-20 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Alrighty. So, um it is uh my pleasure to um start our uh regular GREN board of education meeting. Um today is October 26 and it is about 6:04. Um and we have a um we uh we have a quorum. Um, and our first thing that's on our um, our agenda is the pledge of allegiance. And I am wondering if Dr. Grineer, if you would be willing to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I would be honored. >> Thank you. >> I have to my screen up here a little bit. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America >> and to theublic for which it stands one nation under >> God, >> indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Dr. Gradier. Um and also just for

002for those of us who do or don't know um last week uh the board of education had a special meeting before the committee of the whole um in order to interview and then also to vote on um our newest board member. Um he was at that point a candidate and now he is a board member. So Dean, I would like to officially welcome you to um your first regular board of ed meeting as a board of ed me member and we are extremely excited about um your um your coming um aboard along with us and and actually he's already been incredibly busy in terms of all the meetings that we've had so far. So but >> thank thank you Kim like a bad penny I keep turning up. >> We're kind of I'm kind of

003liking that. Um and uh so the next one is the recognition and particip participation of visitors and delegations. Dr. Grineer, I don't see anything on there, but I'm actually hoping um Andrea, do you think next month we could at least talk about our new scholars that have come from the Fitch High School? >> Yes, I we usually do that in February, but I would prefer to do it now. So, yes. >> Okay. So, um, so m so in November, maybe we can put that on our on our agenda and then at least um if they can't come, maybe we can um >> Oh, they'll be here. >> All right. Um All right. So, but Dr. Grineer, is that that is that all? >> Well, yes, but I did have two agenda items that I was

004hoping that the board could vote to add. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Um, so I believe everyone was sent that later um earlier this uh afternoon. Um, and it was um two possible motions. One um and I believe both of them Dr. Grineer, you're going to talk about it in your notes and then I also believe the other one will be in the business manager report. Is that correct? >> Correct. Right. >> One the the the item that would be added would be discussion and possible action regarding a virtual mentoring program. >> Yep. >> And the other one would be discussion and possible action regarding the alliance district school building budget proposal. >> Okay. Um does the board have any issue about adding those two at the end of our new business? >> No. >>

005Okay. So, do I have most people have said yes to that? Okay. >> Well, um, >> there should be a motion. >> Oh, Dean, you're right. Thank you. >> Would you like to make a motion? >> Yeah, I I I move we add those two items to the agenda. >> Second. >> I'll second it. >> I've got Rita for a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor of adding the two items to the agenda, please say I. I. I. oppose. Abstain. That motion is carried. Dean, thank you. The next section, um, and I I know I should remember this. Um, but I think last last month we actually asked if people had anything that they wanted to share with us to throw it in the chat. um or make sure that I'm

006and Caitlyn maybe I'm going to need your help um to recognize um pe u people but this is the portion that we hear from the community um and the board welcomes that each presentation should be limited to five minutes um or less and citizen should if possible submit written comments um presentation should be related to matters pertinent to Groten and board members will only ask questions at this point in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments of citizen portion of the board meeting. Citizens should state their names and addresses for the record. >> Caitlyn, do you see anyone? >> No, I don't think so. Hearing none, um we are going to be moving on to the student representative report. And is Zay here? I I think the scholarship went to

007his head. >> And is our new student represented here? >> I'm sorry. I you know what? I'm going to have to reach out to both of them somehow. They didn't tell me they weren't going to come. Uh but I I'll I'll make it a point to meet with them tomorrow. >> Thank you, Dr. Grineer. >> And once you're done with your report, you will be on. >> Right. Okay. So, uh, last week if if you remember, uh, you, uh, the the board was hoping I would go into a little bit of detail, uh, about contact tracing. I think it'd be helpful just for everybody to, to know a little bit about the the protocol. When when we receive information that someone has tested positive, we we either get that from the individual or we get

008that from the Ledlite Health District. And uh when that happens, that case then uh is we Led Light Health District calls that person and tries to determine all the people that were within six feet for more than 15 minutes. Uh and then what then Ledge Light actually calls us if if it's a school person. Uh and and we then do our own contact tracing. And I I I can tell you that we are far more conservative with our contact traces. So we uh in in the case uh uh last week for example uh the the the individual who had tested positive indicated there were two people uh in a school that they were uh close to. They were close contacts and in fact we we identified 16 people. So when a person is identified as

009a contact, we we the the school district typically the principal or or actually frequently the school nurse will call that person and and inform them that they are a contact and that means that they are uh to remain uh quarantined for 14 days and we strongly encourage them to get tested and then to report the test results to us. immediately. Uh that that has been going on since uh since the beginning uh well since we've come back to school since September 8th and u and we we have followed that protocol. The other the other really important thing about that protocol, which we have not been particularly successful at communicating, is that when when someone is recommended to be tested, either because they're symptomatic, they're they're sick with a fever or some other symptom of COVID

010or or they are told that they are a contact, they uh they need to stay home and away from school for 14 days. And uh in some cases uh we've had individuals come back too soon and uh it it's the the 14-day period by the way is that once we figure out if somebody who may have been exposed to COVID, it takes about 14 days maximum for the for the virus to possibly show up as as a contagious uh virus for for the for the person. So the 14 days not not a magical number. it's uh we we believe that during that time uh if if if COVID does not manifest itself then the person can come back to school. So that's the that's the big that's the big uh protocol that that that we've

011been following and uh we have been really diligent about this and as I I said in a couple of recent notes I seems like I'm in daily contact. I don't want to jinx myself. I I didn't get a report today. Uh but it's it's been almost daily contact that Ledgeite will call us, we call Ledgelight or or the Department of Public Health. Um and uh so that's one thing. The second thing I I wanted to address is the notion that we we have been included that Graten has been uh put on the a red alert. Uh that that means that means a couple of things for the town. It mean well first of all it means that there are more than 15 cases per 100,000 for for the town uh and and and by virtue

012of that the the town can move from stage three phase three which uh allows restaurants to be open at 75% and so forth uh back to phase two graten has opted not to do that but we have closed the I know the town has closed the recreation ational facilities, particularly where people were congregating like basketball courts. For schools, it really means two things. One, we didn't need a reminder, but they tell us it's very important that you reinforce your mitigation strategies of wearing masks, maintaining six foot social distance, and um frequent handwashing. The other thing is uh it means that the town is encouraged to expand testing including of people who are healthy who actually may be asymptomatic. And so I I did speak to the director of Ledge Light today. Uh and we we

013are expanding the facilities in Graten for people At least he's not frozen with a silly face. >> Yeah, but he doesn't know it, so we don't know what he's saying. >> We'll inform him. >> This uh >> So, Mike, you were frozen for about a 30 seconds. >> Oh, that was And I had some really pearls of wisdom that came out that time. Uh anyway, I said that we we're expanding testing. Did you get that part that we're using we're going to use parking lots to to expand testing. >> The the other thing I want to talk about is however >> in in the schools particularly and I know there are a number of uh number of emails that that were sent uh from teachers at at the middle school. There there are two things

014going on uh in all of our schools. The fir first thing is that the hybrid learning model is incredibly difficult to implement. It means that you have about a third of your kids in front of you at any one time. A third of your kids are there only two days a week. So the other third are home for uh two or three days a week. And then another third are home at all times. And so a teacher in the hybrid model, he's trying to present material, put out lessons, have live stream conversations, respond to emails, respond to personal uh personal texts u and emails from from parents and students in some cases. and and that is extremely difficult and and I have been as I as I keep putting in my my notes um my

015board notes I I've been having teacher focus groups and and that has been a a a huge focus of what I've I've tried to talk about that we know that the hybrid model is is difficult we are trying to provide as much support as as as possible there's been some team teaching uh that has gone on. Uh the hybrid model at the elementary level uh at least I have to thank Jamie for setting me up with a nice conference last week. I I met with several teachers last week and I thought they were going to be concerned with safety of the building and we quickly settled that issue. I think people feel at least I chess relatively comfortable. They really wanted to talk about the the the special area teachers really wanted kids to come

016into their rooms. The art art teacher, one of the art kids, children to come into the art room and the music room and so forth. And so we uh this week I think we're going to move forward with that recommendation. We also talked about having hiring probably teachers and tutors, but mostly teachers to support kids using some of our corona relief funds to to hire teachers to be tutors after school to help kids. I I I was in a conversation with one person that the she contacts several students uh a day. Well, several like four uh and their families don't speak English. So, the amount of help they get at home is, you know, obviously limited. But let me let me turn my attention to the middle school that has really has some unique problems.

017Number one, we are we are opening a we opened uh on on the 8th of September a brand new building, but we didn't take full occupancy of it until this week. We didn't get the gym until this week and we didn't get the uh we get the theater and the coral area. And so there have been problems with the facility. There have been problems with the technology, serious problems with technology. In fact, when I was there this morning, Susan and I met with the administration that we we got a note that that the uh the building the building lost Wi-Fi, which means there's no Google Classroom, which means if I'm planning a lesson, my lesson just went out the tubes uh down the tubes because I I I can't uh I can't present that lesson.

018But in addition to that, we've had uh we've had Prometheium boards that were improperly installed uh by the manufacturer, by whoever installed them and we are working to resolve that. But in the meantime, the Prometheium boards are not fully operational. Huge problem. The other thing is we we are about 150 which is you know more than one per teacher. uh we we have these document cameras that are very important for projecting lessons but particularly in the hybrid model uh we are 150 short we we ordered them they're on back order so that that's been a a huge problem uh taking attendance particularly at the middle school actually particularly at the middle school and the high school because they're such large buildings and we we just today got a piece of software that will put a

019little icon next to a child so so we'll know which cohort it the child is in. That that has been taken a large amount of time. But the biggest the biggest issue at at the middle school because unlike the elementary school where a teacher has 20 or so students at the middle school teachers can have 100 120 students and trying to produce those lessons and get the lessons out uh is is is a huge problem. And so what we Susan and I went over and met uh with the administration today and we talked about how do we support the teachers to keep the hybrid model alive. We know last spring's experience was not good. uh way too many students uh were disengaged and going back to uh going back to a full full distance learning

020we we don't think is is the best thing for the kids. But what we do acknowledge is we don't we don't have a vibrant robust engaging uh hybrid model right now and we need we need to work on that. So, I'm having two meetings actually. Uh, Beth Horer and I are going to meet with several of the building representatives tomorrow morning to try to see if we can't get a better handle on how we solve these problems and of course the administration will join us. Uh the second is I have a a focus group with u other teachers uh during during the noon hour and actually I got emails today from teachers who couldn't make that and so I'm going to going to create a couple of other opportunities to have focus groups. It's it's

021it's important that we try to get a we the administration get a better handle on what these challenges are. But it it's it's also very clear to me that what we we need to do is to put put a hybrid program together that will allow us to present lessons so that o ultimately we develop the the professional skills which a lot of us don't have. One of the one of the things that's very clear to me as I said to administrators this morning a year ago we all felt pretty competent. We knew how to work technology. We knew how to supervise classes. Teachers knew how to present lessons. They were well organized. And and and we have been thrust into the world of noviceses. We don't know how to do all these things. Admittedly, some

022of us know far better than others and and and what I what I sense is there are plenty of people in each of the buildings who know how to do things but knew knew how to do technology. But one of the things Susan has really pushed and I'm happy to say we achieved it is there there each building had a tech representative like a teacher who would help out with with tech skills. We added two at the high school, two at the middle school, and and one more at each two two more at the middle school, and one more at each elementary school. Now, there are going to be at least two or three colleagues in the building that they that will get a stipend. We'll pay for out of the Corona uh corona virus

023relief fund that will be able to be there to help teachers after school or dur during a common prep if they have it. We also hired this week two temporary technicians. We we have we have five technicians. As Dennis Kolk pointed out to me, we have about 5,000 computers. It's so and we have five technicians. Uh so you can only imagine one technician trying to support a thousand computers is not not particularly reasonable. Um so what what we're going to do is we are going to continue to collaborate and try to get all these ideas on the table. I've I've I've had some some good email exchanges with teachers o over the the last couple of days, but the the middle school is unique for for sure. It's it's a new building. It's it's it's

024a bit intimidating. We we we've had we've had two positive cases at the middle school. We've we've had two or three positive cases actually at other schools also. But I certainly understand the the first one we had at the middle school was was very large. There were 40 42 people were identified as contacts. Uh fortunately contacts meaning they were within six feet for more than 15 minutes. Uh I asked uh Lori Leine today for the the results of the test and uh zero zero people came back positive. Uh you know and I I I don't say that in any cavalier way because it could it could change tomorrow. uh we we we could start to see cases, but right now it would appear that our mitigation strategies seem to be working well uh in terms

025of protecting the health and safety of the students and staff. And I would say that the the hybrid model is is is not working well and we need we need a lot of work and we have we have our uh we have our technology skills that need to be sharpened. Uh we have some curricular I know the first six weeks or so Susan uh and and her crew did some great work this summer. Uh I I know on November third there's going to be a a whole group of people that are going to do more curriculum. U but I I would I would not want to say that our hybrid is where we we want it to be. I think we are far away from coming in all full. uh my my my grandchildren in

026West Hartford went in everybody five days a week uh starting uh today. Uh I don't think we're at that point. Uh I certainly don't think our hybrid model is I mean our our our full distance learning from last spring makes me feel that we can meet the the needs of children especially in an inequitable way. We have way too many kids who who are disengaged. we we need to get a a way more engaging distance learning, remote learning uh program. So, I I think I think that's where we are. We've got a lot of a lot of work ahead of us, but you know, as as I I said in my board notes, I think I think there are two problems staring us in the face. Health and safety is one problem, and how to

027make this hybrid learning reasonable is the other. and we I think we understand the challenges and we're working towards solutions. >> So, Mike, um I know I'm going to ask I'm going to stop us at this point and then and have the board asked questions and I know that Jay has raised his hands. So, I'm going to recognize Jay. >> Um so, just to get a little perspective, uh I was reading that uh Steve Mansfield, the director of Ledge Light, indicated that um you go into red in in the town of Grten. Um or or is it or is it the whole district? Do you know? Is it the whole >> No, it's it's not a district thing. It's a town thing. >> Okay. So, based on the town, um because of our population, you

028go into Redwin, there's seven infections. Um because it's 15 per 100,000 and I believe we have 47 or 48,000. Now, my question is, the outbreak at one of our local health facilities that I'm told resulted in 33 infections, are they counted in that number? Uh, in your interactions with Steve, do you know if that's true or not? >> I know it's not true. If you're referring to uh to to a like a nursing home, they nursing homes and prisons are excluded. >> Okay. So, those seven are in the community. >> That's right. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. I'm going to recognize Rita, but you're not not muted. You need to unmute. And then Liz. >> Um, Dr. Ger, what about General Dynamics? They've had quite a few cases. Does that count for the cases

029in Groten? >> Yes. >> So, they they aren't they are recently. Um, besides the technology at the middle school, have you thought about adjusting the case load for the teachers, uh, I I know that at the high school they take fewer classes than that are offered at the middle school. Is there some way we could possibly adjust the case load so that teachers are not seeing quite as many students per day and they aren't so overwhelmed with work and >> be before I answer that question I would want to talk to Claire de Peter Powers who is the guru in this area uh yeah I mean we I'm I'm interested in in anything we can do for example Uh Seth Danner has an idea which I'm attracted to at the at the elementary school of

030course that we might take if if you could picture uh three classes uh uh of of a fourth grade. He he thinks maybe what we should do is take all the full distance learners and give them to one teacher and and and take the other take take the kids in the in the in the three remaining classes, combine them into two and then uh have the have the teachers >> uh the the two teachers just teach the hybrid cohort kids. the the the the fly in that ointment is that if if you and I are the the two teachers, I've got my kids on on on Monday and Tuesday in but I've also got the kids who are home and so you still have the I mean it's not it's not quite as as big

031so maybe that would be helpful. Um, so we're that that's a dialogue that that is continuing and I I I I think we we might be able to do something and I know uh Claire is going to join us I hope in the morning with Beth and we'll we'll put that on the table. >> But Dr. Grineer, I know other school systems, Fairfield being one, they are having even their elementary classes come in and only teaching the core subjects and then their specials are done online, even their gym, their art, their music or whatever it is. So that they're they're not there as long of a time. And you know there's there's a possibility that even in middle school you'd be able to take maybe three courses on Monday and maybe three you know every

032other day or some something has to be done because to have that many students in the middle school I I think is just way too much you know teaching that many have that many preparations. >> Yeah I understand. >> Well they have >> and do they have temperature checks and are they tested? You said something about the parking lots. Are you talking about parking lots in our schools or parking lot at the senior center or where? >> Well, they asked me if they could use parking lots like on weekends for drive-thru. >> Oh, okay. >> They're not We're The answer to your question is uh we're not taking temperatures as children walk into the schools >> Or teachers. That's right. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. Grineer. Um, I've received have you all have a

033number of emails that have been very distressing and I would like to you to address more of the the health and safety and well-being of our teaching staff. And just to clarify something too, the high school teachers too have a um a workload of 125 plus students. So if you're going to what you're going to do to the middle school, it's going to happen the same thing in the high school. And I really think that um I was I was thinking about this and we're coming up to the holiday season and I know you're not a big fan of the of full remote, but I'm thinking, you know, Halloween's coming, kids are going to be out trick-or-treating. Who knows if they're going to do that? And then we've got a couple of days where we've

034got professional development and then comes Thanksgiving, families together, then comes Christmas. Why don't we take a break? Why don't we just and I'm not saying full distance for the rest of the year. I'm saying let's let's everybody take catch our breaths and give a people a chance to recoup and recover, gain strength, have time for some of the um you know the training that they need to have. You know the thing is is that we've pushed these and push these teachers to the limit. And when I hear of people who are crying before in school and why they can't get into the car because they're so stressed, I'm sorry. That's unacceptable. And we need to find a way to support our teaching staff. So, I really would like to know what our strategies are going

035to be to help help our teachers to deal with this crisis >> Physically, emotionally, >> we need a support. Let me let me let me start with >> So I I I I what I want to be careful about is that we're getting into the weeds about the some of this stuff. I think that Dr. Grineer, I think that you've heard both Rita's um concern and Liz's concern about that. I think we all share that. Um but I I think we have to this is not the working meeting um nor is that the level that the board I think should be on. Um but I I think Dr. Grineer, you've heard the marching orders, right? is is that and and excuse me and Susan as well. Sorry, you're on off on the right corner. Didn't

036didn't see you. Um is is the is that we are really concerned about what what's what does this mean for our our staff? What does this mean for our families? What does this mean for our students? What are we doing for our students who are um who are not being able to um who are not being able to be reached? Um, and I think that you've heard that and I think we can then somewhat move on from that because once again I I'm I'm gonna get scared that we're going to get into the wheat and that's not really the job of the board. The one thing I'll say, Kim, because I'd like to say it as many times as possible, if we continue the mitigation strategies, Liz, >> yeah, >> I I think uh when

037when I I thought that was going to be the big topic when I spoke to the Quad Chester teachers and it seems like wear your mask 100% of the time, uh stay six feet away and wash your hands as frequently. That seems to be the the epidemiologist say it over and over and over again. They might say a few other things, but they always go back. Those are the three mitigation strategies that contact tracing. And now we'll add one one thing that I'm very happy with is increased testing that that that will that I I think will protect us a great deal, you know, and and I and I say that as as as a person who who goes into the schools all the time and my grandchildren are going to the schools all the

038time. I you know, I I I I'm with you. >> I know you are and I don't mean to >> No, no, I don't care. >> I'm just really concerned. >> Yeah. Yeah. and all on all for everybody. >> Yeah, me me too. I'm I'm with you. >> Any others? Or can Dr. Grineer move on to the next topic? >> So, the next topic I'm happy to report uh is I'm just going to if uh Kate, can you let me share my screen? >> It should it should be working. >> Yeah. Thank Thank you. So, I I I just wanted to uh Whoops. I just wanted to remind everybody uh that uh we have this we had this this really terrific map uh that Mike Zuba and Pat Gallagher gave to us and uh we

039we put it out and people were able to determine based upon their address which uh school they would go to under the new recommended system. And I spoke to uh Sue Dean Shinbrat who was monitoring the the email and she said there weren't too many more new emails but but she said almost almost everyone uh indicated they just wanted a little bit of clarification. Once they got the clarification, there was a high degree of satisfaction. And she was surprised that a number of people indicated that they were very appreciative that this system is going to deliver racial and socioeconomic balance to the district without redraw redrawing district lines. So, I I I think this is if it's it's later for for the board to vote on, but if if this uh if this recommended plan

040goes goes forward, uh I am I'm going to be thrilled to tell you uh on September 1st that we will have completely these two schools will be nearly perfectly racially balanced. In other words, each school will have about 47 48% of the children will be children of color. Um, and and we will be able to maintain that uh through uh through the the magnet themes. The the other thing I I want to highlight is that Northeast Academy this year, we we made it a point to make sure people understood there was an opportunity to go to Northeast Academy and uh we we we took in a whole other kindergarten class and 30% of that class were kids of color. So that that that school is that that school is is approaching an impending imbalance and

041I I think that the 30% of those children will move the school to even greater racial balance. So I I think I would strongly recommend uh that the that the board adopt the the recommended plan uh which which as you know uh basically keeps Katherine Kolowski exactly where it is. The as I say the the children who go to Katherryn Konowski will continue to go to Katherryn Konowski. The children who go to Mary Morrison will go to the new school that's on Brandon G Avenue. I don't want to say anything. I don't want to throw Jim Strereer off. I could offend him by picking a name out. Uh the children who go to Barnum, that was one of the questions actually. The military community uh they wanted to be sure that their kids who go

042to Barnum will continue to go to Barnum and that will be true. The Northeast Academy kids uh w will go to Northeast. There is a little bit of a section here. Uh but those children who live north of uh north of Clchester School, if they choose uh they're they're being zoomed through Northeast Academy, but if they choose they could always join the lottery to come to the school on Fishtown Road. So I'd be happy to answer any questions, but I think this has been a long time in the making and and I think we have a terrific plan. >> Do I have questions from the board? Kim, Dr. Conir, you said that they could join the Fishtown School, that area, >> but you also are grandfathering them in if they have siblings at the school,

043correct? >> That's right. That's right. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, this Enen uh Belair, right? Do I have the right name now? Uh so yeah these these children will stay if they want to to go to Northeast and the the uh the other people uh uh the new families will actually go to this school. It's it's it's within walking distance. That's why we did that. Any other questions knowing that we are going to be voting on this? Jay, >> Dr. Premier, I know we we discussed this and for those watching at home, we we've had extensive discussions about this over the past year um in committees of the whole, but just to clarify um I know there were concerns about a couple of neighborhoods and my recollection was that you um uh had focus groups

044with uh some parents in those neighborhoods and >> and they are um they have no concerns about the uh the new lines. Yes, I I I specifically conducted a focus group of parents from Brford Manor and I explained to them, of course, the school is going to be close, the the people who live on on on Brford Avenue. Uh the school would be close and however because their children currently go to Quadchester, they would go to the the new the new school at the Cutler site. Um, and they they understood the the the ra the racial implications of that and they were very supportive actually. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Hearing none, I'm going to move us on. >> Susan, I think that's you, but I can't hear you. >> Hello everyone. I

045get to talk about the two new elements. >> Kim, excuse me. >> Yes. >> Dr. Grineer to discuss the mentoring program. >> No, we're going to do that at the end. Uh >> okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you for keeping me me honest, Joan. >> So, I would like to do a shout out for our committee that has worked so hard on naming and looking at the themes. Um it's been a couple year journey actually when I look back at some of the agendas and I just wanted to say that last year in January um I actually brought the themes um the the theme survey to the board to show them what the teachers were thinking. Um there was a followup um in June to really discuss both the naming and the

046themes and the committee had made some recommendations to the board but the board had recommended to me to go back to the committee bring in a historian Jim Streer who happens to be here with us and three board members and that really worked out very well. So when we first set up the committees, each of the principles, Jamie Giri at Claude, Steve Wheeler at SB Butler, and Kathy Miner at Mary Morrison had community members, parents, students, and staff on each of their committees. Then we brought those committees together to have some deep conversation. And we we noticed that um one of the things that was really recommended was that we not name each of the new elementarymentaries um the same as the middle school. Um and you know there were other discussions as well. So

047I just wanted to kind of give you the history before I um start in with the actual themes and I'm going to share and get you the magnet themes. Can you see this? So, these are the results of the survey. We had 398 parents, studio, students, and community members who filled out the theme survey. We had teachers and staff fill out the survey results. Um, 186 of them. And one of the questions that we asked was, "What is the most interesting elementary magnet theme to you?" Um, and they they could pick more than one, but I have to tell you that um it came out for both the community and parents, students, and the teachers very similarly that environmental marine life science at 43% for the parents and community, 57% for the teachers. um active

048exploration play and ingenuity 36% for the parents and community 55% for the teachers and staff. The discovery academy and um was 31% and then 26 and then IBM my PYP primary years program was 26% and 15%. And I wanted to show you just to remind you that the active exploration, play and ingenuity is a play-based but a real problem-solving approach, inquiry and exploration. And you'll hear that theme quite a bit in all of our magnets, including the ones that we already have, Steam at Katherryn Colonowski and the arts at Northeast Academy. Um, it might look a little differently. These were some of the ideas that were generated. But I think the really important thing is that the schools that end up having these themes, you're going to be bringing your community together. You're going to

049be bringing parents together with staff to really engineer exactly what this is going to look like. Um they all talk about the social emotional learning having hands-on um exploration um and collaboration with peers with the environmental marine life science. Um they really talk about our beautiful location which is nestled in between the Thes River and the Mystic River and all the opportunities for partnerships including um the project oceanography, Yukon Avery Point, New England science and sailing and again problem solving um real life kind of experiences environmental sustainability um and also looking healthy living habits too for children and conservation and then the discovery academy nurturing creat creativity and curiosity really based on some of the great work from Dr. Renzulli up at Yukon and Dr. Howard Gardner at Harvard. Really where we nurture kids passions

050and proclivities and help them find what they're really good at and what they love to do and um kind of an enrichmentbased program similar to what we do before and after school but maybe incorporating some of those things right into the school day. And then the international balorate again inquirybased interdisciplinary framework. We know about this through our my so this would then expand our district to be an international balorate district where you would have primary years program at the elementary my at the middle and then the international balorate diploma and careers program at the high school. So that's basically it and I'm going to stop sharing. So you have any questions you can ask me and I can see you. >> Anyone any questions with the themes? And then I can >> Susan. Um I

051just want to reiterate what I've said in the the committee meeting because I was in on this committee. Um that the IBP PYP program is a way of teaching. So it can be incorporated into any of our elementary schools >> and so it doesn't have to be a separate entity. As a matter of fact, it shouldn't be. It should be a part of what it is. All right. So I just wanted to make sure that's clear. So when when I look at that list, I see we have three schools that don't have themes. We have three themes in my mind. pick one for the schools and just go from there. And then, you know, if we want to explore putting in PYP, that's another discussion, right, >> in my mind. >> And that's very similar

052to what we did with the middle school, remember the two middle schools. Westside was our STEM magnet school and Cutler was our arts and humanities magnet, but they both because of that grant for MSAP U magnet school assistance through the federal government, we were able to then layer the MYP with that. And when they came together as Graten Middle School, we end up with a steam magnet school that's got the my um foundation. So, you're right, Liz. You bring up some good points. >> Dr. Grineer. >> You're muted. >> I was going to say, Liz, that is almost literally word for word what I wanted to say. So, thank you. Actually, quite frankly, Liz, um you answer you you answered one of my questions, which is if we don't pick the P um the the

053PYP um we would we lose our our expansive sort of young kid to high school kid um IB program. So, thank you very much. Rita, I saw that you raised your hand. Sorry. >> Yes. Um when I look at the number of parent, student and community that took this result um this survey 398 and only 186 teachers and staff. I think it was done fairly early on and I would like to see it now that these schools are really a reality. I'd like to see it done again. I mean you have active play and ingenuity at only 36%. That's less than half for the parents um who took this survey. And the discovery is 31% and only 26% for the the teachers. I I just would really like to see this go back out. I

054don't see why we have to rush into this. I can understand the names for the schools we have to decide on, but the themes seem to be very important and two and three seem very similar to me. I know they're a little different. I know that. But as if I was a parent and I was going to try to decide between those two, active exploration play and ingenuity, discovery academy, nurturing creativity and curiosity. I I I would like to see another more some science, some um more technology. I I I just don't know what this means. So, my feeling is I would like to see I'm not probably going to vote for this at all and I'd like to see it go back out now that these schools are really a reality. >> I think

055I I think one of the things the staff has been in contact with the principles talking about these different themes. They've had many many conversations and our concern is that if you know if these end up being embraced by the school community it's really important that the school community makes meaning of them and really creates what they have to create. And I'm not talking just about the stu the staff and the teachers. I'm also talking about the parents and the communities. >> That's why but there were only 398 of them that even took the survey. And I think now that they're real, these schools are reality, you'd have a different set of numbers. I think more parents, from what I understand, would take this more seriously. >> Dean, >> they did hear you. >> You're

056muted. >> Sorry about that. Yeah, bad habit. >> Yeah, I I wasn't thinking about that. I got something else. But, uh, Rita, you bring up a good point. If we go ahead with the uh with the with the zoning, uh parents who might have thought they were here or there or whatever might now chime in where they might not have chimed in before. Now that they know they see the school's going up, they have an idea of where their kids going to go. They might have something to say. Uh the question I've got is for Dr. Grineer. You mentioned earlier that um u I think you said that the the racial uh racial balancing or imbalance would be at least partially dealt with through the magnet the intrad district magnet uh system and my question

057would be I see that there are links to these different themes for example Wake County North Carolina for uh for the active exploration theme etc. uh what experience we've had some experience with intra district uh with designation of intra district magnet schools uh do you know do we have enough information that's going to lead us to believe that at least to be confident that were this to be to be implemented say that in fact we will get enough people moving and choosing you know maybe not the school the district that they're in but in other districts that we in fact wind up with a racial balance or your guess >> no no uh Well, first of all, what I tried to say is on September 1st when the schools open, they will be racially balanced.

058Uh we know that just by looking at the demographics. Um but if you look at a school like uh like uh Katherryn Colonowski, it's 41% out of district kids uh go to that school. So we know that's a hugely successful uh magnet. and and Northeast has not been operating as a magnet for that long. But what what you can do legally as as you probably know, you you can't assign children on the basis of race. The the US Supreme Court ruled uh in in 2008. Uh but the Connecticut has a law that says you have to have schools that are racially balanced. So they have to be racially balanced, but you can't use race as a factor to balance them. Um and so what uh what we've done uh through uh through learn in this

059grant that we were just part of Susan and I work with some a scholar and then a demographer on control choice. So what we've done in Northeast Academy, you you're allowed to set up essentially catchment zones and you could take two kids from this zone and five kids from that zone. It's not by race, but if you, as you can figure out with with neighborhood, you're you're actually able to achieve uh pretty successful balancing of socioeconomics, which we think is most important actually, not not race. Uh but you end up with with with racial composition also. So I think yeah that uh the the county in North Carolina that that that for sure our our scholar is a guy named Rick Kalenberg he he was instrumental in that and so was our demographer Michael. So

060we we believe that if we start racially balanced that with with controlled choice one neighborhood gets to send three kids and the other neighborhood only gets to send one child uh to to a particular school. through a lottery process. Uh we'll be able to achieve racial balance and keep it that way without having to, you know, the bane of Grten's existence has been to redrawing these lines and we don't want to do that ever again. >> And I'd just like to add, we have a new software now for registration that we're going to be implementing this year and the lottery process. So it will be very well organized and structured. Um, you know, and I feel very confident that that will be an asset. >> Susan >> Jane, >> what really excites me about the

061theme-based schools is that there there will be living like living organisms. The teachers, students, families will take ownership and redesign and make it their own over time. It won't be cast in stone like days of old. And that is exciting. Well, even the naming committee decided that they wanted to set up set up a name and that the theme would come kind of afterwards. Um, and similar to Katherryn Kowski, they didn't start out as a steam school. >> Um, they started out with a lot of other things, but it was really the school community that came together to fine-tune that. So, >> I are you ready for me to to move to the the naming committee? We have several members here. I I just I do one sec one second Liz, I will recognize you.

062Um but we do have a chat of um Beth is saying that not to move on this tonight would really um hinder the process of the staff consolidation and movement. So I just wanted to to kind of make sure that that got heard. >> I just have a question Sue. Um when was the when did the these this um survey go out? I mean, was this was the initial survey sent in September or was it did did this come from an earlier survey? >> I don't remember. >> Last year in January for the teachers and then later on we sent it out to the parents. >> So, it hasn't been during this time of craziness at the very beginning. This was given to them a while ago when we were still in a normal situation

063>> precoid. Well, they did have a chance to they had the opportunity. We we are not there was plenty of opportunity is what I'm asking. >> And when you think about the number of elementary teachers um and staff, you know, you have almost 200 out of probably 250 elementary teachers. So that's a pretty good size group. Y >> and then you know the parents too to have almost 400 parents elementary parents responding to that that's also a good percentage. >> Okay. Thank you >> Dr. Grineer. Oh, excuse me. Jay, I'm going to recognize Jay and then Dr. Grineer. >> Um yeah, just a a quick note and that is I I was thinking about the percentages that Malone and McBroom um consider to be uh valid and and these are much higher. I don't remember

064their exact thresholds, but I think this represents a very good cross-section of people that actually did respond. And I would hate to then say to this group that just because their their results are a few months old that we're going to throw them out and do it all over again. >> I agree. >> I think it's still fresh enough and I think there's still a large enough number and our teachers have enough to worry about at this point. I think, you know, as as Beth said, if they're moving toward staffing these schools, um we can't wait until next fall to decide on that. >> Thank you. >> Agreed. >> I I was thinking about um by December. I was not thinking by next fall. I was thinking by December. and student usually teachers do not

065put in their transfer until uh January or February of the following year. >> So I was not thinking of a long time period. >> We're we're actually talking about trying to move that ahead a little bit so that we'll have some time for the new staffs to get together and to be able to start forming those relationships and having input. So, um, you know, I think we are looking forward to having that done sooner than later. >> Thank you, Susan. Dr. Ger, >> I was just going to say quickly there there's the staffing concern that we've we've worked with with Beth and and and the GA on, but there there's also the notion that each school is going to have to start to develop and and I'm I'm doing this with the budget. It's gonna

066have to actually develop the the theme. Uh, and you know, September gets here. I see Jamie nodding her head because Jamie and Steve are gonna have to actually operate and and and Seth Danner operate a a fully functional lotterybased themed magnet school on September 1st. And we and we need to have that happen. The lottery needs to happen like in April. So, you know, as I as I move my way back, I I'm I'm not panicstricken, but I'm concerned that we want to try to get this theme squared away as soon as possible. >> Thank you, Susan, if you would move on, please. Oh, Andrea. Sorry. >> Sorry. I think one of the things that we we have to realize is and somebody said this before, I'm not sure sure who it was that the

067theme will morph into what it's going to be and that will happen through parent input and teacher input. It's not going to be the same theme in in five years. It may be the same theme, but it won't look the same in five years. So, I I wouldn't um I wouldn't I would put the vote forward. Thank you. I'm going to move. I'm actually going to I I think we've we we have a a good enough sense about where people are. I'm going to Susan, I'm going to ask that you move. >> Okay. So, here is um a quick little slideshow really sharing the data um from the survey results on the naming. And remember that the survey took place October 15th through the 21st. Um and we really um got information from the staff.

068We got information from community members, um, parents, teachers, um, municipal leaders, and the responses were, this was pretty, you know, for having a oneweek survey. Talk about results. 688 responses we had. And you can see the breakdown. So, we really analyzed it. Parents, there were 423. the staff members, 152, um 71 community members, 34 students, um couple grandparents, and what we did, the survey I had shared with you, we broke it down to the names, the first original names that the the committee had really selected. We added to the committee as I said, Jim Streer and three of the board members along with the original membership was invited. And um so you can see that when um 6003 of the 688 who completed the survey selected at least one of the names from the list.

069So they were allowed to check off the names that they preferred in the list. So almost all of them checked off at least one of the names on the list and Mystic River Academy and Thames River Academy came out to be the top choices in that part of the survey. You know, we did a deeper dive. Um 25 people wrote in variations from Avery Point. Um and then 16 had variations on the themes river component name. We had approximately half of the survey participants suggest additional names and I'll share we have a few pages of that. They were more oneoffs, but I thought it was really interesting and very creative some of the work um or some of the names that our um constituents had. About 35 of the 688 said they felt that it

070should honor a historical figure or community leader. But even in that, that wasn't a whole lot of um suggested names of people. 25 out of the 688 commented to keep the existing names of Cutler and Westside. So there were some people who thought that would be a good idea. 14 mentioned some part of the Gratton's naval history or the submarine force. 12 um of the people who responded also um suggested other area institutions or businesses and 10 made a comment about um that we should unify the community. And I think that's one of the things that the board of ed really spoke about that they wanted to see this more of a unified experience and that we needed to avoid names that link to specific neighborhoods. Um they even talked about things that might be

071presumptuous. They didn't like the academy name. They, you know, several of them really spoke out about that. And I think three people spoke out about Mystic being presumptuous. So we just kept digging in the data. Lambo Laam Academy came up and he was um you know quite a figurehead back I think Civil War days. Jim was that do you remember? >> Revolutionary War. >> Okay. Revolutionary War. >> Um and then you know they talked about east, south, west, like we have a northeast academy. Did we want to name them? And I've been in a community New Canaan where they named them after the parts of town. So, um, so that was a recommendation. And then these are pages and we we can put this out for people to see, but you know, but I really

072wanted to kind of let the board members who served on this committee and Jim Streer really speak to our discussion and and what they felt um was important. And we kind of went back after we we looked at, you know, a lot of this data, we went back to this frame which really kind of indicated preference for the ones that we had um let suggested or recommended. So is there the the board members who served on this committee? Would you like to speak? I would like to um have >> I would like to have Jim Streer um speak um recognize him because one of the names rather than using academy I believe Jim came up with Mystic Magnet Mystic River Magnet School and then the Mystic River Magnet School also as opposed to using Academy.

073So, I I'd like Jim to say his feelings about that. >> Maybe we don't have to share anymore. >> I mean, sh Yeah, >> that's a good idea. Let's not share anymore. >> So, Jim, >> well, I appreciate the opportunity to to talk tonight. Uh, I also appreciate the opportunity to serve on the committee. This is the third uh school renaming committee I've I've served on, the Catholic Kronoski Magnet School and the Graten Middle School. And this this committee was very conscientious and and very thoughtful as far as going through the names uh that were provided uh and suggested. I was very pleased with the number of uh participants in the survey. I was I was shocked to be honest with you in a oneweek survey how many people people responded. But I was asked

074to join the the committee uh uh to look at it from a historical standpoint and I I kind of laid on or took it in consideration my previous uh venture with the uh middle school where we're we're trying to unify our community and I've always felt that Grten uh is a is a great community even though we're diverse as far as the number of uh fire districts we have uh we are all one. So, so looking at it from a historical perspective, I thought the Thes River and the Mystic Rivers, if you couple them together, it was sort of like a common denominator of uh Graten's really, really rich maritime history. uh and it made a school the school names more unifying uh because you're still going to have uh the geographically distance between the

075the two schools but they would be similar to each other by having the river theme and if we look back as far as historically the Mystic River and the Thes River the commonalities you've got the ship building aspect where you got cargo ships and submarines and sailing ships and fishing crafts and pleasure boats etc. And then of course we had the fishing theme which uh whaling and Manhattan businesses and lobstering sailing of course you know we got the sailing ships on both uh rivers and the pleasure crafts and then the lighouses which was one of the suggestions we had a lot of people suggested lighouses. Well if you if you look at you know go down each river you've got Morgan Point and Avery Point and London Ledge and Latitude Reef. So I I thought

076that was a a kind of a unifying uh way to to name the schools is to have the river themes. And then of course we we we kind of rantied around the the academy naming it an academy or naming an elementary school. And I my personal thoughts I I thought magnet school provided a very strong and positive uh implication to the school's name itself and uh it it also and I I'm not looking at it like the school board looks at it. It would actually present a school within a school all right by having a magnet magnet theme. So that was my my look on it and uh I was pleased that uh most of the committee, not the majority of them uh kind of backed off and and they they gave thought to it

077and said, "Geez, that that does sound like a good idea." As far as providing your your detailed theme, that's up to the board of education, the students or the parents and and the teachers can to get involved. But I thought for the interim that the names of the Mystic River Magnet School and the Thes River Magnet School would be appropriate. >> Thank you, Jim. >> May May I ask a question? >> I'm going to recognize Lee and then Liz. >> Um I've never asked you this. Um, and maybe you can tell me why the why is it that we are the only people in the world that call it things and um as opposed to temps and I just wonder um when people move here um and they see things where did it start being

078called as opposed to temps? >> Well, it Lee, it's like it's like graten and I've been to all all seven gratens in the United States and the one in England and England. >> I am going to try to keep us to the naming committee, but I am >> Well, that makes a difference to me, but okay, I give up. >> Okay, >> Jim is actually um going to be publishing a two-part series in the Graten Times on the naming of schools. So, we're really excited about that and has done some a historical approach on all of the names of our schools from going back, you know, many many years. So, we'll look forward to reading more about that. >> Great. >> Liz, I just wanted to um explain a reason why I actually changed my

079mind. Um because I was very um I was very much against the mystic mystic river and ths river because um I was thinking definitely that it was going to be very divisive. But when Jim recommended that we added add the magnet idea or the term magnet school that that actually made made sense to me. It clicked because a magnet means we're bringing everybody together. And Jamie pointed out that, you know, she gets kids from two different totally different regions and that they they the kids meld, they mesh together. And that's what we were focusing on. That was my concern was creating a unified, you know, a unifying situation. So when you put the word magnet in there, that just denotes that it is a unified um we're welcoming people from all over the district. So

080I just wanted to explain that that's why I shifted my vote because I heard very loud and clear that Mystic was one side of the state of the town and you know the things was the other side but it was um excuse me Lee I'm explaining but um so I wanted to um explain to you why I changed my and explain what the theme how that would help with our our unifying of our district. >> Thank you, Liz. Andrea, >> I was on that committee as well, and one of the reasons that I wanted to be on it was that I was so adamantly opposed to any further divisiveness within the town. But then I heard Kathy Miner talking about how the the themes of the of the mil of the magnet schools were were

081really what was was going to bring those themes were going to bring the community together and that in time that we would forget about whether this was a mystic side or or city side. And the other thing was I think it was Seth Danner who said that no it was Steve Wheeler who talked about how Yeah, >> our town is nestled between the two rivers. And you know, when I heard that combined with what Kathy Miner said, I realized that it was really a an embracing of of the of the the entire town and it just made all the difference in the world to me. And that's when I realized it was not divisive. It was going to bring us together. >> Thank you, Andrea. I think actually you guys have really I was part

082of that group of not wanting the mystic and the themes river because of the divisiveness and Jim thank you um for kind of coming in and kind of helping us kind of see that more of a historical and then also understanding um the concept of the magnet theme. So Kathy once again thank you for your leadership as always. Um so is there any other question about that? I I'm I I I want us to stay on this if we need to, but I am looking at the time and it's about 7:20. >> I The only other thing that I I forgot to say, if you look at the number of parents that chose it, it's overwhelming. So, we have a community as well. That's it. >> Thank you. >> So, um Susan, you continue to

083be on. >> I know. I'm ready. >> All righty. >> Here we go. So, um I uh just a big shout out to our communications director Rebecca Beas who helped me so much with disagregating all of this data. It was a tremendous tremendous job and I had shared with you um the kind of preliminary results but we were not at the end of the survey. So it was really important that we were able to to realize the full amount of results. One of the things that is different in this count is that we were able to disagregate. So if I was a parent with four children like I am, it would not share just the data from the firstborn, it would share the data from all the children. So we we really had to to

084do a deep dive to to get to this. So the charts are a little different than what you first saw because we made sure that every child was accounted for. Um so there were 591 here's another one like our parents have and teachers have really come forward to help us with these surveys. 591 unique parent participants representing their 864 students. So, that's really impressive. And 328 educator participants, and that's a shout out to our teachers. They really wanted to have their voice heard. Um, so I think that's important. So, when we look at a parent, now I'm going to show you slides because what I've done is I've brought these together and I've tried to assemble them and Rebecca has helped me with this. Assemble them so you can see the parents perspective and the

085teachers educator's perspective. So here we identified the parents identified um the number of children that were partic of their children participating in hybrid which was 715 715 and 148 who were full distance. So kind of keep that in mind. Um you know at first it was like we were seeing numbers like 20% 25%. So kind of in between and then again you know who are these children where where are they in our district. So you see overwhelmingly we had a lot of preschool prek parents respond 253. Um some didn't provide the information that's in the orange. We had many young elementary school children um which is really prek K and two. So over half of our responses came from our youngest from the parents of our youngest learners. And then we have 219 responses from

086middle school and 168 responses from the high school. Again the parents perspective is your child able to understand the instruction. We thought this was really important. Are they able to really understand what's expected of them in receiving remote learning? So this is really specifically around the remote learning. Now remember if you're a hybrid student that means you're face toface for two days but you're remote for three. If you're an all remote you're remote for five days in the week. So everybody's remote a little bit or you know part of the time. And so when you look at this data from the blue where children um only need help sometimes um and the orange where they um can complete most of their work with little or no help. So that's your your blue and your golden

087rod. This is the kids who really need require help to get their work done. And then the green is um my child always requires my help. So it's really a mixed bag. I think more often than not um you know not quite probably twothirds um really are showing that most of the time they can do it on their own with a little bit of help. And then again the talking about engagement. is your child engaged in their learning either for hybrid or for um distance learning and overwhelmingly they're saying yes in the blue that they are um in the red it's somewhat engaged other was really a combination yes they are but this is happening or that is happening so that they were really trying to to juggle it and then the golden rod is

088the the slim piece of the pie of students who aren't engaged Here we have the educator's perspective and we broke it out for the educators hybrid vers versus full distance because we really wanted to see from an educator's perspective if they were noticing a difference from those kids who are coming in for part of the week versus the kids who are fully at home. And um you can see the difference in the results um from moderately engaged which is the red and highly engaged which is the blue. Um you know you see many more um children in the hybrid learning model who are more engaged than in the full distance learning. Especially if you look at the golden rod, which is rarely engaged, 14% in the hybrid um and 27% in full distance. And then

089the green sliver of not engaged at all. You don't see any teacher reflecting that the hybrid learners are not engaged at all. They're engaged some of the time. Another perspective for student engagement, how many students are completing their assignments? because now attendance isn't only are you there remotely, are you there in person, but are you getting your work done as well. So that's an important feature. So most of the students are completing their work. That's in the blue. About half of the students are completing their work in the red and then only a few are completing and nobody says that none of them are um you know not completing their work. I have a slide that's going to come up for the teachers next, but I just wanted to tell you that we asked some

090of the same things of parents and teachers, and you'll see the shape of the data is very similar. So, both parents and teachers fully agree that having a consistent schedule for kids is of utmost importance. They also believe that a blended learning model with live Zoom lessons and independent practice and pre-recorded lessons is the way to go. Um, and you'll see that also on the um, teacher slide. Live lessons is a way to engage kids and that comes out with 424 responses. Um there was a lot of talk even in the comments about making sure that our written instructions were clear and concise and giving kids more than just the written response but maybe even by meeting with kids talking to kids about the assignments and ways to connect so that they would understand. And

091then of course pre-recorded and interactive and collaboration with peers. I was interested because the collaboration with peers I thought would be even higher than that from the parent and the teacher's perspective. So you notice the shape of the data looking at the educators perspective is very similar. We have um added the in-person in instruction because the teachers are there and present with their kids so they can notice how that's going. But then the schedule comes up again to have that consistent schedule. The live lessons comes up that stepbystep written um directions. So um and again collaboration with with peers is something that I thought would be um definitely more um positive for engagement. going back to parents on Wednesdays because Wednesday was something that honestly we really dug through all the Wednesday data and it's

092quite controversial um because some people say it's not enough work some people say there's too much work um but Wednesday is really something that we're looking into to see if we can make some growth with Wednesdays um has your child used Wednesday for extra help um and teacher communication And as you see the um that the red is yes and the blue is no. So not everybody's taking advantage of that. So that's something we need to consider. And then from the educator's perspective, um how many students have reached out for the office hours um and have attended um the you know to the work. So you've got many of the students reaching out in the blue um in the red about half and only a few is the golden rod and none is the green

093and then some are saying it's not applicable. So that's something that we definitely want to do a deeper dive on and I can show you some of the comments too. So it was important to us that we really get a flavor for the comments. So a lot of things were repeated over and over again, but this is kind of the essence of what parents were saying. So in this one case, the uh Fitch High School teachers are carefully planning the lessons and objectives to meet the curricular goals. Very positive frequent live lessons. So from this parents perspective, they're feeling that there's the right pacing of work, the right rigor, it's been chunked out, and there's timely feedback for students. The next comment says there needs to be a new there needs to be new instruction,

094learning opportunities, and independent work provided by teachers on Wednesdays. And um if they're all caught up, then sometimes they don't have a whole lot to do except for maybe some independent reading. So that's another parents, you know, perspective. This year is going so much better than last year. We did hear that over and over again, you know, from the spring when we first did remote learning. I've heard a lot about more communication, needing more communication um with teachers and um more notice regarding the in-person onetoone help. So, communication, I think, is always something that we're trying to improve. And then um you know one of the things that this particular parent appreciates is um is working that works well for their child is having a set schedule that is same dayto day whether he's in

095school or or home. And the schedule has made this year a lot easier from the spring. And it would be very helpful to have a week's worth of work ready to go and kind of showcased in advance. Again, more one-to-one check-in, being able to communicate with friends and um peers. Um thank you to your team for doing the best that you can during this pandemic. So there's some great appreciation from many parents that they're trying to do the best they can and they feel teachers are trying to do the best they can but this is not like anything that we've ever done before. Um so again teachers are doing the best they can. We're trying to do the best and you know trying to differentiate so that it works for all kids. Now, these are

096the educators and some of the same things that you've heard from parents, you hear from educators um from kids are happy to be back. They're wearing their masks. You know, we're trying to do everything um to safeguard. We're trying to provide family support, but it's not always easy. It can be a challenge. Um the biggest challenge is getting them um to complete all their work. So, I know that that's been a real issue to make sure that kids um know what the expectations are and that they are able to follow through and they have the support they need to do it. We've heard this over and over again, what a heavy lift hybrid is as far as prepping for both hybrid and distance. Mike spoke about that. So, we do want to listen carefully to

097try to identify some of these problems and to provide the support teachers need. Um, and then, you know, we've heard this before, too, that because the LMS is all in written form, um, that kids who have problems with reading have a hard time navigating that. So, even finding new ways of getting that information out beyond the LMS. And then, um, you know, here's the teaching is different. It's not easy. Um, it's new learning. It's new learning for parents. It's new learning for teachers. It's new learning for students. We're we're all noviceses like Mike had said. And um you know, planning for those in front of me and those at home, you know, sometimes it feels like three preps. um they really have um commented that the Wendy Wednesday Wednesday schedule with um which the expectation

098is really to do um you know some connective kind of zoom lesson pre-recorded lessons um you know and have work available for kids to do have office hours so that you can have communications but then it's a a planning and collaboration time um even for um you know personalized PD for teachers so that they can keep up with all of this. So there's fear about the widening gap. I've been in many conversations with the state department and we're getting ready to do even more assessments now to check in on that. And um you know I felt like this was a pretty comprehensive report and it was a lot of work looking through all the data and the comments to really get a gist of what people were saying. And I'm going to stop sharing so

099I can see everybody. Um so thank you to Rebecca for all her help with this. Um the principles have the information too so that they'll be able to really study some of these comments from both educators and parents and be able to really identify some problems and solve it collaboratively. >> Questions from the board. >> Just want to say thank you. There's been such work put into this. >> I think it's important work, Jane. I I think that we have to keep listening >> and as we we go through I I think I shared you the story about that mug I found with the big apple that said progress over perfection and this certainly isn't perfect by any means >> but we do want to see progress and sustainability and it's going to take all

100of us working together for that. >> Rebecca, thank you so much for your efforts and um and doing that as well. Thank you, Susan. >> You're welcome. Sarah, >> are you waving or do you have a question? >> Um, actually both. Um, I'm just want It's not a question, it's a statement. I Well, how do you get that many people at to respond in such a short period of time, I'm stunned having done research in the past and very impressed. >> I am too. It's our community. It says something about our community of teachers. >> It does. >> And parents and community members. It really says something about them. >> Yes, it does. And about your organizing it, too. I have to say that. So, >> thank you. >> It's hard. >> It It's not

101easy. We heard we've heard it over and over. So, but you can't solve a problem without identifying it. That's the biggest That's the biggest success of problem solving is you've really got to to get down in the weeds to figure out what's really going on and what can we do to help. So Mike and I are going over to Grant Middle School tomorrow and we're going to listen and that needs to happen so we can really figure this out. >> And that's how it happens. >> Rita, >> yes. Um, Susan, when would you come back to the board um in a couple of months and tell us if we're still in the hybrid plan and share with us what some of the solutions are that the principles and maybe the teachers have come up with

102>> when they identify the problems. >> I would be delighted especially if in a couple months we're still able to be in a hybrid model. >> Yeah. So yeah, >> if I'm not hearing any more questions, I'm going to move us on to the business manager report. Mr. Knight, are you here? >> I am here. >> So I'm not going to share the exhibits unless you want me to. >> We've all gotten them. >> Yeah, that's what you've said in the past. So uh so the object code summary which is attachment uh number three uh shows that we are currently have a projected unexpended balance of just under $25,000 $24,467. Uh we're four months in. Uh many lines are still at budget, but we feel very confident that um that in our salaries and benefits

103line, which uh which represents 77% of the budget, uh that we are on track uh and um uh on track with the plan uh and the remainder of the expenses we continue to track and we feel uh confident uh there as well uh that uh that we should hit our budget. >> Are there any questions about the object code? Dean. >> Yeah. What do you typically find are the um sort of the known surprises, if you will, as you move through a school year? >> Uh, one of our biggest one is out of district tuitions, which have not yet hit for the most part. Um, you know, it depends on how many students go out of district. Um, how many special education uh students are placed in out of district. Uh so those are uh

104you know we we anticipate uh that to be a certain number in the budget but uh those come in um uh you know that that becomes known uh hopefully over the next couple of months now that the Pisces numbers are set uh we should start to get in some of our uh tuition bills uh and um we should have a better idea of that over the next couple months. >> All right. Thank you. >> The health report. Any other questions about that? Okay. Then the health report. >> So the health insurance report which is attachment number four. Um so this is through August of uh 2020. And for the month of August uh we were at 83 and a half% of budget. So it appears we're still uh seeing an impact uh against what we

105had originally budgeted uh of the uh of the pandemic. uh we are told by our uh healthcare consultants that we should anticipate uh that all the postponed visits and procedures will will come in at some point. But um um we're still we're still waiting. You know, as as you know, uh the latter quarter uh of last year, the health insurance claims were much lower than what we had budgeted. Uh they continue to be low. Uh but it looks like they're starting to catch up a bit. uh it was at 45% for July, 83 and a half percent for August. Um I would anticipate that to to to continue to increase. Uh but I I would hope we could still stay within budget for the year. >> Any questions about the health insurance report? >> You

106always get so many questions, Ken. >> I know. I know. I love it. And then your last one sir >> uh attachment number five the this is the pandemic related funding that uh that we are have been allocated to us. There are two pieces to this. There is the corona relief fund the CRF uh and this is for expenditures through December 30th of 2020. Uh the amount that was allocated to us by uh Connecticut was 1,227 291. uh Susan and and Lori and I uh have uh have come up with a plan on how to uh allocate and use these funds. Um uh the academic personnel which is the largest uh group is to cover uh the substitute teachers that we have in place. uh some the the par professionals that are helping us uh

107uh maintain the social distancing and the uh and and help with the uh uh distance learning. Um and then there's additional staffing uh that we needed for the for the remote uh learning that Dr. Grineer had alluded to before. Uh and then all of the curriculum uh planning and development that uh that the that the teachers did uh over the summer and continue to do. uh all those costs will be covered uh by this by the CRF um uh amount uh here. Um and then for the student support, we are we do have an additional uh uh two social workers that we're going to have uh to help assist the students uh and staff uh you know to reach out and make sure everyone um is getting supported the way they should. Uh we've hired

108additional custodial staff at each of the schools. Uh so that will pay for that uh cost as well. And then uh there was an allocation for uh cleaning and safety supplies, desk shields, hand sanitizer, masks and gowns and gloves. Uh all of these all of these things that we have uh purchased and gotten in place uh will be paid for uh through this uh this corona relief uh fund. Uh and so those are all expenses that are going to get paid through December 30th of this year. The uh the CARES Act, which is uh from the uh the federal uh CARES Act, uh was an additional $664,000 that uh that was allocated to Grten. Uh and once again, it's going to uh help pay for uh additional uh teacher substitute teachers uh uh staff that

109we need for the remote learning uh for the additional social workers that uh that uh that we we have hired as well as the additional custodial staff. And the the horizon for this one is longer. It goes out till September 30 of 22. Uh so uh this will kick in after the CRF has been uh expended. questions about the budget. Dean? >> Yeah. Um, thanks for that. I was just thinking as I was I'm just trying to get up to speed with all this stuff as you're going through this um >> Jean, you've had a week. >> I I know. I know. But um although I although this arrived on Friday, I'd have to say. Uh but in any event, so these expenditures, this this these revenues and these expenditures, do they relate at all

110to attachment three or these sort of like a parallel? >> Well, yeah. Uh so yeah, it's kind of parallel. These costs are add additional costs that we have incurred due to the pandemic, >> right? >> It's it's additional teachers, additional substitutes that we needed uh in order to uh in order to do the hybrid uh hybrid learning plan that we're currently in. So this is well off budget in a way and >> yeah it's off budget. It's additional the the first first uh the uh the car's act is that uh federal uh grant that was uh done last last April and the in the corona relief uh fund is a state money uh in recognition of all the the additional costs and PPE and all that sort of stuff that we're going through. >> Right.

111What I'm what I'm thinking of is this and I don't want to belabor the point. um coming from the outside um there's you can never satisfy everybody but there's always a lot of chatter in some quarters about the transparency or lack of transparency in a board event budget is everything reported how how granular is it etc and so I'm thinking wow if somebody wanted to be a conspiracy theorist they'd say well here's their budget then here's unreported expenses you know u so I was just curious as to how often this happens I guess not very often we don't have that many viruses but Um, and it would be it would be a trick to fold this into, you know, your already uh laid out budget. >> I understand that. >> Let let me explain. I

112if if we didn't have these funds, we would have we would be in hundreds of thousands of dollars deficit right now. >> Oh, that I understand. That I understand. I'm I'm looking at it I'm I'm talking simply from a reporting point of view. >> Yeah. Yeah. We could we could we'll we'll lay it out. You know what what Ken and I are trying to do is uh just ma make sure at the end of the rainbow we we don't have a deficit. >> All right. >> That's sort of our big >> Dean. That's the reason why it's in a budget form. We're not just throwing out a number and saying we bought some stuff is that we've actually that we've actually taken this is how much money that we've received and these are the things

113that we're spending on. So I actually think that we're being more transparent than than than not. >> Oh, I understand. I understand how this works. I'm just saying there will be people who will who could make something of this. Just a you know fair warning in terms of how the data is presented. >> Absolutely. Anything else hearing? None. Mr. Kilpatrick and I will make sure we have time for you sir. >> I thank you. Good evening. Uh so I got uh three things to report on and I believe Dr. Grineer is going to join me on the second item. Um but uh the first thing is the relocation of the portable buildings uh from Westside and Cutler. They have been delivered to the uh central office site. They've been placed on the slabs. Uh they've

114been blocked up. Uh the company that is doing that uh setting those uh needs to come back and do another set of blocks to uh make sure that they're secure. And then we will be tying them down to the slabs. My my department will tie them down to the slabs. We're waiting for uh Eversource to get here to uh set a pole for electricity and then we'll be uh my department again will do the trenching and and hook up the electricity so that we can use those buildings. Um pretty much uh all the space is already spoken for as I said before. Um it it adds up to about half the amount of square footage that we had at the woodframe building at Pleasant Valley, but it's certainly appreciated and uh the guys are going

115to be working hard to get those uh in place and operational here very shortly. Um, the second item is the uh alliance uh district uh funding. And the uh item that I had uh the most to do with on on that list is the last page, I believe, or second of the last page, the last page, which is the Charles Barnum Elementary School uh project. Uh a a couple of years ago uh the uh school uh the uh permanent school building committee had a CIP project uh uh where we had a study of the facilities at Charles Barnum and Mary Morrison schools and in that study there were many recommendations regarding those two schools for upgrades uh as needed in the future. Um, one one of the very important things uh uh at Charles Barnum

116School because we're going to be keeping that school was to upgrade the fire alarm system. Uh, and so uh because the alarm system it doesn't have us uh the sounds or the lights that are necessary in in today's world to meet the code today. While it was grandfathered in the way it is, this will improve that and give the kids and staff notice that the fire alarm system has been activated. So, that's our um Charles Barnum project that we put in here. Uh we've got about $5,000 in professional services. In other words, the architect would have to design this. Uh, and then materials and labor about $90,000 to do that alarm system at uh, Charles Barnham School. Any questions on that one? Okay. Uh, the second item is the >> You want me to finish

117the other one, Sam? >> Yeah. And I'll I'll chime in if you need any assistance with it. That'd be fine. >> So, >> did this go through the finance, Jay? did this. Okay. >> Yeah. The this has been a little little bit unusual. The the the state of Connecticut allocated um and then actually went to the legislature allocated $30 million to alliance districts and they divvied the money up to each of the districts and and Graten received uh little bit more than $477,000. We we were told that we had until Friday uh to get this uh to the state and so Ken uh Knight thankfully uh whipped over to the post office and got a post uh got it postmarked by then. Uh I need to get the minutes of this meeting into the state

118uh department of administrative services by tomorrow or else they won't give us the money. So anyway, here's here's how we're spending 477,000. The first two are for access control. One at uh Kathern Konowski and one at Northeast Academy. It's it's the swipe badge thing. Uh the the company is out of business. The old company is out of business and we can't repair it anymore. So this is for a new a new system. It's it's the current one we we have. The the second thing is there's there's pre-work that needs to be done in terms of wiring. As many of you know, the phone system in the central office is is pretty pretty bad, very bad. U so this is going to allow us the $236,000 is going to be the foundation for the wiring for

119a voice over IP system districtwide. So the middle school has it. The two newer schools uh that that we're building, of course, they will have brand new. This will this will give us the uh ability to have um voice over internet protocol, voice, voice over IP uh district districtwide. Um, we've also putting some wiring, network wiring u into Charles Barnum, uh, a and the and the the central office and network wiring uh, for uh, for the high school. This is this is all, you know, sort of back backroom stuff that Dennis Kolkawth we we we thought these were important things that could really help our district and and use the and had to be of course on on a building on a building project. And we thought this would go a long way uh to

120to to helping us. And it's a one-time deal and if you don't spend it uh you have to give the money back. And so we we we put all these programs together uh just just to be sure we're not going to leave any money on the table. >> Any questions about that or Jay, do you have any comments from the finance committee? >> Um well, some of this got fleshed in um after the meeting, but so my understanding is and correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Ger. So the Connecticut Education Network comes into the central office. So we're talking about wiring. It's not like the central office itself, >> right, >> necessarily needs this wiring, but it's it's feeding all of the schools the the signal from um CEN >> uh to upgrade their um

121their internet connectivity. >> Correct. >> Dean, >> thank you. um the the moving to cloud-based uh uh voice over internet unified system. A lot of people switch I'm trying to make an analogy. A lot of people switch from you know a landline to this sort of system privately or even commercially. Is there against this expense is there an anticipated long-terms long-term savings of any sort? Well, >> we going from one expense to an one operating expense to a different operating expense, but more or less the same. >> I think the only answer I'd have to get Dennis to to maybe maybe Ken can weigh in, but I know when we were thinking about replacing the landlines, it was going to be millions and millions of dollars. And I think this is far more efficient, you

122know, by a factor of many. Yeah, I think we should anticipate um uh expenses uh for phone expense to not uh uh go up or down um uh going forward after this. I think uh what this does is it solidifies our our network so that we can continue um um pretty much I think along the same uh same expenses. >> Thank you. And uh and I can say that I've tried to make calls to the central office and 50% of the time they do not connect. So it's really a safety issue I think if uh the central office is is unable to contact or or be contacted by uh the buildings. >> I could chime in quickly on that too. Uh Jay, a lot of times uh when you're calling from the outside to the

123central office, it takes quite a while before it actually makes the connection. And then what you'll find when it does make the connection that the line is actually busy and that's apparently why it took so long to to make that connection. So a lot of people outsiders that are trying to call a central office don't realize that um it's that it will make the connection, but it takes quite a while to do it. >> A little buzz once you get it sometimes, too. Yeah, Rita, >> I believe this is a question more for Sam. Has the phone issues at Northeast Academy been resolved? >> You're muted, Sam. >> Sam, >> you're muted. >> Um, you need to unmute. Okay, now I've got it. So, um, we had Verizon come into, uh, Northeast Academy to put

124boosters in about five different spots in that building, and it did improve it, but it hasn't taken care of all the problems. We've had them come back a couple more times, and uh, they're going to come back and add some more boosters, but again, it it's like the new middle school. Even the new middle school has some dead spots in it. uh when when you build these buildings with this much steel in them, uh there are uh places that won't get reception. So, we're working on that both at Northeast uh Kathern Kolnaski and the new middle school. >> Um I know when you're closer to the water also there's an issue, but in this part of town um actually AT&T works better than Verizon and we've had to switch. So, I don't know if that's

125something you want to look into because it is very difficult at Northeast Academy for their phone system. It's it's been like that for, you know, what is it 10 or 11 years now. So, just a thought. I I just saw that we had all this funding. I thought maybe we could jump in and direct some of it there. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Any other questions about that? And if not, let's move to the CIP. So, Dr. Grineer, uh Sam, you're back to being muted again, >> right? Uh just pulling up my sheets here. Um and taking a look at that. And uh the first item is the Grten's uh middle school athletic complex and we've uh applied uh for $825,000 for uh lighting project on the new uh athletic field uh the uh artificial

126turf field and on the uh softball field. So it's about 500,000 for the synthetic field and about 325 for the softball field. So that's the first item that we've uh asked for. Uh the second item is uh Northeast Academy indoor air quality project. You remember that we had Fuss and O'Neal Engineering come in and do a study for us on that building. Uh they checked into the HVAC system and also into uh the grounds around the building uh because we had a high humidity issue there. While um we've instituted um an active dehumidification uh process there in the building, it has uh uh pretty much uh remedied the uh mitigated the uh high humidity uh issues in the building. Um but uh the grounds are still extremely wet and uh I don't think we can

127say that um it it may not be a problem uh again. And so we've uh the second item that Fuss and O'Neal recommended was to do uh some uh grading and drainage around the building. And so we've uh asked for uh $430,000 uh in uh the uh short-term upgrades of uh doing some grading and uh drainage around that building. >> Excuse me, Sam. >> Yes. >> I I thought we only I thought we we said only the drainage for 215 and we we moved the other item to next year. Yeah, I'm looking at um >> I think I think there's a mistake here. I thought >> I think that's I think that's a I think you're right. I think that's a typo. We we asked for 215 in that and we were going to ask

128for the 200 next year um so that we can continue to study the uh HVAC system and ma and and make sure that that is uh continuing to uh mitigate the problem. So, >> so, so line D, if you've got your sheet there, line D is an error >> and therefore the total on the bottom there should be 215, >> right? >> There were two project uh 22 uh should be just the 215 in construction and the total should be 215. >> That's right. the uh Fitch High School uh athletic facilities we pushed off to 2023. Um, and the next item on the list is Charles Barnum Elementary School. And um, uh, because we are keeping the Charles Barnum School, the roof at Charles Barnum School uh, is beyond its uh, life expectancy of 20

129years. And so we've applied for uh, $900,000 to uh, put a new roof on Charles Barnum School. I don't have page numbers on mine but uh >> the last one >> that is the last one. Rita, >> yes. >> Okay, >> that's what I have as the last one. >> I have a question Sam. Is the roof at Charles Bond reimbursed by the state 80%. >> Uh not 80%. No, it's uh it it's at our regular rate, which also that also changes each year, but it's always been in the 50% range. Sometimes uh I think some things come in at about 46% and I've seen things come in at about 52%. So I it's generally in the 50% range for graten for reimbursement. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Jay. And then Dean, but Jay first,

130please. One of the things we discussed um at the finance committee meeting was um for many years we've had recrowning the football field on the CIP list and I realized that there's only you know so much money but I didn't want that to be lost on the radar. Um and furthermore uh the refurbishing of the fieldhouse and the track. Um, once again, I'm also working with the the town council's athletic athletic fields task force, and they're coming up with a townwide plan, but I don't want u these individual projects to be lost in the in the shuffle in the event that that plan isn't adopted by the town council. Um, so I'm just concerned that, you know, the football field was on there for like six years and now it's gone, that everybody will think,

131well, that that's fine again. Um, and there's been concerns about the fieldhouse for a long time. >> Dean, >> thank you. Um, couple of questions. Uh, the Graten Middle School Athletic Complex. Um, I'm trying to think, this may be something I should have been able to divine. Uh, but I know a lot of people will ask this question. So, this is a brand new school, brand new grounds. I'm sure someone's going to say, "Well, gers, why wasn't this in the original project?" In other words, we're used to seeing CIPs for repairs and additions and things like that, but people are seeing the middle school as brand new soup to nuts project. What's this then? So, is this something that might have been cut out originally when we went to bonding, or is this an afterthought

132or an improvement or what is it? this this would be an improvement over what what was uh requested and approved um from the beginning. So lighting those fields there is a list of uh items that the school base uh the permanent schoolbased health center the uh permanent school building committee uh has uh extras uh extra things that we may want to do uh at the end of the project should there be funding left. And this is actually on that list as well. So, um we just we want to make sure that it's uh in there somewhere because this would really uh make those fields um valued three times what they are right presently. I mean, you could get three games a night on those fields at certain times of the year. So, um, light lighting

133of those fields would be a great improvement for not only for the school, but for parks and wreck and for all the other programs that go on throughout town. Yeah, I I I mentioned this because I have seen in the past in other districts um uh sort of a a wishlist proposal to the town folk and then a whittling down of the project and then as the project moves along actually becomes to fruition. The things that were cut out in the original bond request were sort of, you know, added back in. Some people feel, well, boy, I wish they'd asked me this before. uh you know so we sort of we voted on the bond thing and then we're going to you know quote sneak in capital projects on the back end on a brand

134new project but I understand what you're saying >> yeah the the Graten Middle School project actually has come in under budget at this point so there is going to be some funding left over and this may well be one of the items that they go back to Christy I hope is shaking her head yes there as a member of that committee uh that would go back to the town council and and I guess First, they would have to ask bond council if this would have be an appropriate expense uh on the bond itself. Uh and then if that were true, then they may ask the town council to fund it through that. >> Uh the second, it's not so much a question, it's a comment. Uh my I have one kid who's in marching band,

135so that's how I get down to the the football field. Um, and I've learned that I know we have natural turf and I love natural turf, but I didn't realize this is what happened. Apparently, Fitch could host the types of events, regional events that other high schools could ho do host and there's some revenue from that uh either from concessions or some fees or whatever. But we can't because uh people don't like sitting instruments down on natural turf. Um, so it's just more of a comment. I don't know whether anybody's actually explored putting down artificial turf and and one of the benefits being being able to host events maybe like these regional marshy band events that we we can't host now because people refuse to come to a natural turf field. >> I think that's

136one of items that Jay's committee or that townwide committee is taking a look at too is turfing the uh the football field at the high school. >> Okay. I do have one other question. It pertains to the to the to the relocation of the portable classrooms. I I didn't I didn't I didn't hear a space to make a comment or ask a question on that one, Kim. So, I leave that to you. When when could I ask? >> Do Why don't you do that now? >> Okay. >> So, we can move on. >> Right. So, we're talking about moving the uh moving the portables to the central office and hooking them up, etc. And the space is needed, the space is spoken for. So, I'm projecting out. Uh, I'm not even gonna ask what the

137space is being used for, but if if the are we going to get in a situation where we have a long-term use of the space and at some point there'll be a request to build out permanent space out of the central office to replace the old rotting um um you know portables. >> Not in my lifetime. >> What's that? Not in your lifetime. Okay. >> No, it's all it uh it's it's all going to be used as storage. Um, we we uh with the closing of Pleasant Valley and that property uh being placed up for sale by the town, uh we we lost 10,000 square feet of storage space over there that we need to uh clean out uh so that the town can uh dispose of that property. Um and u so we we

138will be uh culling a lot of things as we move stuff from the Pleasant Valley site to the central office. Uh and and that's why I say that it the space is all pretty much spoken for. >> Okay. >> Uh >> so long term we we won't need these or won't need as many as much of that space or >> uh other in other words we're not we're not moving offices into these things and at some point we're going to see >> double the size of the central office or something. >> No, I I I don't foresee that. They're not going to be used as office space. not being built that way. That would be a fire marshall issue, too. So, >> all right. Thank you. >> So, you guys, we have a lot more

139left on the agenda. The good news is most of them are motions that we have already talked about at the front end of this meeting. So, um I know that we usually don't go past 8:00, but but um I I want to make sure that everyone knows that they have their voice, that they can say what they want to say, but just to to know that it looks daunting what we have left, but in quite and the reality is is that we've done a lot of that conversation beforehand in terms of the motion. So, um, with that said, I'm going to move us forward, um, and talk about, uh, our committee reports, and that would be policy, curriculum, and finance and facilities. And Lee, you are muted. >> Yes, I know. Now I'm not. Um,

140yes, we met policy, and we are going to have a second reading of P4118.237, um, face mask and we will do that very shortly. We meet again on Monday for our regular meeting. >> Thank you, Lee, for you guys working so hard. Curriculum Andrea, >> we're still looking at cursive and hand and penmanship hand and and cursive without tears, as a matter of fact, and we're looking at it particularly. We had questions arise about what happens in grade two, and we're going to be exploring that. And we also have still have concerns about one card, one community. So like I had that >> finance and facilities. >> So we met on October 6th. Uh we talked about how the budget process is already in process. Uh Dr. Mir has met with um principles about their

141site budgets. Um extensive discussions about the CIPs we just covered. um discussion that solar panels is now in the solar panels for Grant Middle School is now in the the um hands of the town to come up with a power uh sharing agreement with a solar panel company. We discussed the alliance building funds we're going to vote on tonight. Um we discussed relocation of the middle school memorials, uh the portables, and we received the update that the middle school gym floor and I believe that has now been completed and been turned over to the school. Thank you. Um negotiations we're not we're not there. We're not doing anything at the present moment. Rita learn Yes. Uh learn we we met um and I have also met with the executive committee. But there were two things

142that I spoke to Dr. Geneer about that I thought were very important that learn is um going to start for our um all the districts the learn districts one is a um a teacher residency program where um learn will be investigating and expanding it's a systemic program to diversified certified teaching ranks across the learn region meaning that pair professionals would be able to um receive their uh teaching certificate it. So, it was a way to grow our own and help people along the way. The second one is that Dr. Lee title and learn is offering a leadership practice network for the superintendent in southeastern Connecticut and it's called leading and learning about race, racism, and equity. And I had asked Dr. Ger, he said we were definitely going to be signing up for that even

143though he probably won't be attending this because he won't be our superintendent anymore. But I wanted to make sure that we were included in this for our new superintendent and the same issues that I think all the towns are having the challenges and opportunities regarding the pandemic. Um, so the town council RTM and the board of ed leaison, we had one at the beginning of October. Is that correct, Lee? Um, and I think most of the conversation was about the uh about the educational sort of hybrid model, would you say? >> Pretty much. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, and we have one, I think. Oh, Christie, that that's just absolutely beautiful. Um we uh have uh and then we have our a meeting next week as well. >> Okay. >> Yes, we do. >> All right.

144And then Beth, we are meeting on Wednesday. Is that correct for our leazison meeting with the ASA? So we will get back to that. Um at the present moment, we don't have anyone covering trails. So there is no response to that. Grten scholarship Lee, >> I am very excited. We will meet for my first time on Thursday on Zoom. I'm going to be meeting people. I have no idea who they are because I'm not sure we ever was part of it. Were part of it, but we are now. So, I will meet these people on Thursday. >> Thank you, Lee, so much for taking that up. I really appreciate that. Um, superintendent search. Um, so we have had our first round of interviews and we'll be going to our second round. Um, and that's sort

145of where we are on that. We've been actually meeting quite a lot of each other. Poor Dean joined the dur joined the board and he's just seen us a lot. Athletic fields Jay. >> Yes. So, we've been meeting all summer and into the fall. This Thursday, um they will be presenting the plan that they hope to forward to the town council for any final comments. I've invited the board uh to that meeting. Of course, it's an open meeting, so anybody can go to the town website and request a link to Thursday's meeting uh to see that presentation. And that's a comprehensive uh needs assessment for athletic fields uh across the town. >> Thank you, Jay, for serving on that. >> Um and so the next is the consent agenda, um which is all matters listed

146on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and acted on by one motion. Can I have a a motion? Not e an e motion, but a motion for the consent agenda. I got Rosemary. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Um all the Any discussion? Super. All those in favor, please say I. >> I abstain. All right. And >> I don't know, Kaitlin, do you have any idea? H, it's gone. So, uh, but the board would like to say thank you to donor's choose who has made a donation of books to the Shannon um Doby at Claw Claude Chester Elementary School. We had Bob Books site words for kindergarten animal stories non-fiction site word reader parent pack at various levels. Bob Books set one beginner readers and Bob books set two

147advancing beginners and little first little comics parent pack various levels and then we've also had um Daughters of the American Revolution has made a donation of 50 masks to central office. Um we would like to say thank you to all of them. Um everyone has changed. Um Jay I I look up and and and Dr. Guineir has left. >> No, >> I'm here. I'm sorry. >> Oh, there you are. Oh, you're eating. >> We don't usually get dinner until 9:00 on these nights. >> I'm here. Keep going. >> All right. I just I got worried. Oh, that was the best thing that has happened to me all day. Okay. Would you be willing would you be willing um to read old business uh the motion please? >> Uh yes. Uh I move to approve a

148second reading policy P 4118.2375141.8 face masks coverings. >> So this is a second meeting. Um Susan or Lee if if you would be willing to kind of talk about what would look different. So, some of the board members had looked at this. There was some language in there about needing incentives to wear masks, and we thought, "No, we don't need incentives. You wear a mask if you're going to be in our schools to safeguard, and we wash our hands, and we keep six feet apart." So, that language was corrected and probably a few other things that we were given some tips about. So, we have edited, revised so that the language is clear. Any further discussion on this? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor to approve as a second reading policy P 4118.237 slash

1495141.8 Facebook. >> Yeah. There's two two actually. It impacts both of those. >> Yes. >> policies. >> So we really should have them separate. Huh. It actually counts for both of them. >> Okay. So, all those in favor of that motion, please say Oh, it's already discussion. Oh, we already done that. Okay. So, any more discussion on that? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Um, Rita, would you be willing to read under new business the motion, please? The first one. Okay. To approve the 2021 board of education meeting schedule which was in our packets. >> Dr. Grineer. 30 30 second explanation. Next December, not this coming December, but December of 21. I think we all thought that the first meeting on the 6th of December

150was going to be a CO and the second meeting on the 13th would be a board meeting. Actually, the one that we voted on said that sixth was a policy meeting. And we just want to change. If you look at your your sheet, it says now the 6th of December of 2021 will be in at six o'clock will will be uh a CO meeting. So we'll get two meetings. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor um of approving the 2021 board of education meeting schedule, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Jay, you oppose. Okay. Abstain. The motion has carried. Jane, would you please read the motion for number two, please? >> Yes. To approve the diversity, equity, and inclusion statement. >> Can I have a second?

151I have Liz. discussion. My understanding that we wanted to approve this, but that we were then going to have um Andrea and Jay kind of get together and to think about where this was going to be >> and also to change the goals. they were going to amend the goals on the the board's dead and then I think we'll have a larger discussion at the next CO where where we would like this to be but I think it'd be a nice step forward for the committee to have the statement adopted >> any others >> Jay just for anyone who who hasn't been following along on this um Dr. Gineer and the board uh created this DEI committee uh back in June, I believe it was. And um they've all been working all summer and fall

152to develop um rather than just a a instant statement, you know, something that really came organically from the uh the faculty, the staff um and uh something that was thoughtful um and that we could all um support. And I just want to again say thank you to that committee for working uh on this all the time. Thank you, Jay. Any other discussion on this? Um I I think Miss Joan asked me if who seconded this one. Does anyone remember who second the motion? Rosemary, >> I will. >> Thank you. All right. So all those in favor of the motion to approval of the diversity, equity, and inclusion statement, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Rosemary, would you be willing to read the motion for number three, please? >> I

153would be delighted. >> Thank you. Uh, the motion is to approve the preferred class size guidelines. >> Can I have a second to that? >> Second. >> I think that was Dean Joan. >> It was >> okay. I got to get on the record somewhere. >> Um, thank you. Um Um, and can we have discussion? >> I have a question. >> Yes, Liz. >> Um, Dr. Grineer, I'm looking at the special areas. Is physical education the preferred size of 30 students? Maximum preferred maximum class size of 30 students. Is that K through 12? >> I'm going to let Susan answer that question. >> Susan, >> I would say yes, it is. But I would say that typically in the elementary school, it would be the class size of whatever class. Um, so it would probably

154mirror more the um elementary class sizes, but both the middle and the high school because of their large gyms, they're able to take on 30. >> Does then does that need to be delineated in this document? >> I thought we had it 6 through 12. It's not. >> No, it just says physical education. That's it. 30. >> Yeah. >> And that's why I'm asking. >> So we I think that's an important point, Liz. I think we need to clarify that's really for the 6 through 12 otherwise elementaryaries will be within their own class size. >> Thank you Liz for finding that. Any other discussion about that >> question? >> Um the CBA's got in it somewhere uh maximum class sizes. I presume this these numbers are in accord with the agreement with the bargaining unit.

155>> Yes. and they're just preferred. This is not written in stone. >> All right. Thank you, >> Dean. Just to let you know, this is sort of what they is used for budget purposes because it helps us to determine how many um it helps the district determine how many teachers, etc. that they're going to need with the preferred class size. >> All right. Thank you. >> That's why we're doing it now. So Kim >> Liz ju so if there needs to be that delineation on physical education does that mean what does that mean in terms of our voting for this? >> So um I think we would need to do an amendment to the first motion to add that. >> Okay. And and Miss Joan who keeps me honest says yes. So, um I would

156take a motion if there's no further discussion on this, I will take a motion for um the amendment on the first motion that would delineate the 6 through 12 in the in the physical education. Can I have a >> So, move. Can I have a second to that? I have Rosemary. Any discussion on that hearing? None. All those in favor of the amended motion? um for the delineation of the physical education 6 through 12. Please say I >> oppose. Abstain. Miss Joan, the motion is carried. Do I need to go back to the first one? >> No. >> Okay. >> No. Let Mike answer. >> No. >> Let Mike answer, please. >> No. She's like She's like from a like a voice from above, right? Like >> very very celestial. >> Yes. Dean, would you

157be willing to read the motion for number four, please? >> Number four. All right. Um the motion is to approve the name of the new elementary school on the Cutler site. Um, >> so now we haven't >> What's the What's the name? >> Yeah. The name is is the >> Mystic River >> Magnet School. >> Mystic River Magnet. >> That That should be That really should be the motion. >> That's right. That should be the motion. >> So Dean, I didn't ask for a second on that. So would you like to read the motion again? >> Well, I'll make the motion again. I move that we approve that we name the new elementary school in the color site the the Mystic River Magnet School. >> Can I have a second to that, please? >> I

158have Liz. Any more discussion or any discussion? Not anymore. That was rude. Any discussion? Jay, >> I I just want to say that um uh I know there are folks that uh would like to see the retention of um the Carl Cutler name just because of his deep ties to this area as a founder of the Mystic Seapport. um bringing the Charles Morgan here, our connection with the Seapport um but um I respect uh the work of the committee um and uh the principles that were involved and uh and Mr. Strereer and so uh I am going to vote for this um uh I think it is a um uh a wellthought through and wellsupported uh idea. Can I just add, Jay, that the committee really did speak to naming parts of the building possibly

159after famous people and that was brought up that to be able to name whether it's an auditorium or a gymnasium after um Cutler. Um and the same thing um was true at the other schools. So that would probably be another committee that we would have to do. We actually talked about that also in the Graten Middle School naming committee to be able to name parts or to do a timeline where you could really do um famous people from our community. So I don't think we've forgotten those ideas. I just think there are things that we need to think about and work with the board on to put into place. Dean, >> if I might, um, the high school I went to in Stanford, uh, Susan, you may you may remember this one. It used to

160be called Ripoam High School. Some years later, it stopped being Ripwam High School. It went through other things. It became I think it became a middle school. The building is there. >> The RIP the name Ripoam is still used, but I think as far as the alums are concerned, the school's gone. >> Yeah. So when you recycle a name you you it's for honoring the person if you named it after a person but it's also to keep the alums happy that their schools continued etc. We saw this with the noank school people were very upset about you know the continuity and all of that. So to the extent we would seek to be keeping a name Freeman Hathaway which didn't happen or Carl Cutler in order to let people feel a continuity of community I

161think a lot of people would say Cutler Middle's gone. You can call it Cutler Elementary all you want. Cutler Middle's gone. So, uh I think it would just be to honor Carl Cutler. And I think something along the way, if not the whole school, part of it or some facility, some feature, uh you know, wouldn't be a bad idea. >> Yeah. >> I I'm really sorry, even though I didn't attend Freeman Hathaway, I'm really sorry the name Freeman Hathaway has disappeared. I don't know where it's gone. >> Thank you. >> Yes. So Dean Freeman Hathaway um that that committee made sure that there's a when you walk in Northeast Academy next to the auditorium there's a beautiful plaque >> describes who Freeman Hathway is and I'm hoping that the same thing will happen with Carl

162Cutler >> and all SB Butler which is also going to be part of the new um Mystic River Magnet School and Claude Chester. So, we have three very important people we need to honor in that one building. >> Thank you. >> Any further discussion on that? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? Ready? All those in favor of naming the the new elementary school at the Cutler Site Mystic River Magnet School. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. >> Yay. Um, Rita, would you be willing to read number five, please? >> Yes. To approve the name of the new elementary school, Fames River Magna School on the West Side site. >> Oh, thank you for doing that. Can I have a second, please? >> Second. Um,

163that would be Liz. Um, any discussion? Sorry, I said it in my head. I just didn't say it out loud. My guess is it's the same as what we had just talked about in terms of of of the of the historical stuff. All those in favor, please say uh All those in favor of the motion to name the ele new elementary school at the Westside site, Thames River Magnet School, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That has carried. >> Wow. Great. >> Yay. >> Right. Kim, >> I just wanted to point out I got one vote and I'm hoping that a custodial closet would be named after me. >> Your name was definitely brought up. So maybe some place >> and Dr. And Dr. Mitchell. >> Dr. Mitchell in the next closet. >>

164Can I um Jane, no Jay, excuse me. Jay, would you be willing to read the motion for number six, please? Jane, can you do seven? And Liz, would you be willing to do number eight? >> Yep. >> Okay. So, Jay, number six, please. >> Yes. Uh, I move to approve the fiscal year 2022 CIP proposals. >> Can I have a second? I got Rosemary. Any discussion on these? >> Okay. >> All right. Hearing approve the magnet be themes for the two >> I got we got a vote on it my lovey >> um or Miss Joan from above would be screaming at me. All those in favor um to approve the motion to uh to approve the fiscal year 20 2022 CIP proposal, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstain. That motion has carried.

165My friend Jane >> to approve the magnet themes for the two new elementary schools and Charles Barnum Elementary School. >> I'm going to get ask for a second and then we'll go into discussion about what those themes are. Can I have a second, please? All right. The themes are Miss Susan Austin, would you be willing to Liz, do you have a com? >> I just have a question. Are we assigning the Is this what we're asking us to do is to assign a theme to a school? Is that what we're doing? >> Yeah. No, just just >> I'm sorry. >> My understanding is that we are to approve the three magnet themes. And is it not the district's responsibility to put which one goes to which school? >> Yeah. If we'll come back, we'll come

166back and make recommendation. >> I want to remind the board that an a PYP is a way of teaching and a philosophy. >> Yes. It doesn't necessarily mean a theme. I just want to remind you >> you are right. >> We hope to have it at all five elementaryaries. >> That would be awesome. >> All right. >> The number one choice was environmental marine life sciences. Number two was active exploration play and ingenuity. And number three was discovery academy or a discovery magnet with nurturing play and create or creativity and curiosity >> board. I have a question. Is it okay that we have all three of these themes together? >> Yeah, because we're not assigning them yet. We're just saying these are the the group of three themes we're going to develop and then report

167out on August 9th. I mean >> August. Sorry. >> Are you in a different year here, Jim? Mike, I'm calling you Jim. >> Do you know something about the weather that we don't know, Mike? >> God almighty. >> Do we have do do I have do we have a do I have a sense from people about that? The three the three uh themes. >> Can we lump them all together, folks, or do you want them to be separate? welcome together. Okay. Any further discussion on those themes? Hearing none. Um Susan, I'm going to start, but I'm going to ask that you name the themes to make sure that um it is recorded correctly if that's possible. So, um, the motion is to approve the following magnet themes for the two new elementary schools and Charles

168Barnum Elementary School, and they are, and I'll make sure I I check this with Joan, environmental, marine life science is one, active exploration, play, and ingenuity is two, and The third one is discovery magnet. Nurturing creativity and curiosity. >> Discovery academy. >> Right. But I think we got rid of the academy thing. I think we're going to do magnets all the way. >> All right. Fine. >> All those all those in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. I'm abstaining >> that we just got the um esteem. Miss Jones. >> Yes, I got it. >> Okay. Thank you. All right, folks. We are moving through. >> Got one more. >> All right. No, we've got two more actually, but go ahead, Liz. Can you do number eight? >> Absolutely. To

169approve the recommended neighborhood zone plan. >> Can I please have a second? >> Second. >> That was from Jane. Any further discussion on that? We did have a lengthy discussion at the beginning of the meeting. I think that that started like at 6, but it feels like hearing. None. All those in favor to approve the recommended neighborhood um zone plan, please say I. >> I oppose. Abstain. The motion has carried. Dr. Grineer, thank you for working so hard and getting that done. I I just want to say I feel like the board just just put in like five beams into the graten 2020. This was a huge action tonight. Thank you. >> I'm going to read the two um items that we added um at the very beginning. The first one is to confirm the

170Graten Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools approve the implementation of a virtual mentoring program using the video conference platform Zoom. The district will operate the virtual program during the 2020 to 2021 school year in accordance with the guide guidelines set forth by the governor's prevention partnership. Can I have a second? >> So moved. Second. >> I got Rita and Dr. Grineer. Can you talk about that? Sharon Shik uh who is our mentor coordinator recently attended a webinar and uh the the governor's prevention partnership encouraged people to participate but they said the superintendent and the board had to approve uh first of all had to be an acceptable platform which we have a zoom and and it and uh the board and superintendent had to approve at least for this year using uh a

171video platform uh to have virtual mentorship. This this would be great. We we have lots of kids who need mentors and we have several mentors. So So this is this would allow us to pick it up and and continue. >> Any other questions or discussion on this >> hearing? None. Oh, Andrea. >> Yeah, I just want to say I hardily approve this and endorse it. Yeah. >> Thank you. Any further discussion hearing? None. Um, all those in favor of the uh Grant Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools approved the implementation of a virtual mentoring program using the video conference platform Zoom. The district will operate the virtual program during the 2020 2021 school year in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the governor's prevention partnership. All those in favor, please say I.

172>> I. Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. The last one is to approve the Alliance District School Building Budget proposal. May I have a second, please? >> Second. >> I've got um Jane. Any discussion on that? >> We have to get this to Hartford tomorrow. >> Nothing like pressure, Mike. Nothing like pressure, you know. >> Hearing no further discussion. All those in favor to approve the Alliance District School Building Budget proposal, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose, abstain. That motion has carried. We are now >> quick drying ink. >> All right. So, now we're going on to um letters of communication and comments by board members. Um Jay, >> yes. Um I'll try to keep this quick. Um first of all for anybody who's listening um we receive a lot of emails from parents,

173staff, faculty, believe me that we we consider all of them very carefully. We um sometimes one or two board members will will respond. We don't all respond to everyone but we are listening. We are trying to walk that tight rope uh between the needs of the parents, the needs of the the faculty. Um and we have to rely on on uh the administration, the health district. Um but believe me, we we all are are deeply concerned about it. Um I also want to uh mention that Carolyn Wilson from GASP, the Graten Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, uh reported to us that the Connecticut Association of Prevention Professionals awarded Dr. Grineer um their education sector allstar award and I just wanted to um let everybody know about that. >> Yes, >> that definitely will get you

174a plaque on a on a custodial closet I think. >> Oh, good. >> Yeah. >> Yes, >> we may have to add to increase its size. >> Rita Rita, do you have anything? Um, I received um many letters again like Jay said from parents and from staff members and we hope that in the future we will have a full discussion at a COW meeting about remedies for the hybrid system and how we can assist teachers and students throughout the district to improve our learning. >> Yep. Dean. >> Well, uh, thank you all for having me. Quite sure what to say. Thank Thank I I I I hope it remains colleial. Uh, fair warning, I will not always vote you uh with the with the rest of you. Uh, there may be things we differ on.

175I hope we can, you know, continue to work together on what counts, which is the education of the children and not get lost in lots of different little forests. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Jean. Jane. >> Yep. I just wanted to say that working on the search committee is um very long in good a lot of depth and I find it to be a very melancholy experience. Rosemary, >> I'm with Am I on? I'm with Jane. Um I also um received uh emails and um chats with with um mostly parents. Um, and I also attended a Zoom gas meeting and they have a number of announcements that are pertinent for us and that's their increasing the youth engagement especially for the upcoming events to observe medication abuse awareness month and um that'll be announced on

176ch on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We're also collaborating with Brottentown Police for Halloween event um by in um Pquanic Bridge and that'll be announced. We're also um completing a 2020 youth school survey and that should be done by the end of the month and we're um completing the community survey report which is almost done. And um we um just started a new um thing for kids for students and it's a con essay contest for dose of prevention and that actually sometimes carries monetary rewards but I I did not get a chance to research it and see if they came through in the in the age of COVID. >> Thank you Rosemary. Thank you, Rosemary Liz. I received a number of um letters and emails from teachers as well as a lot of parents and um

177I'm glad I'm I'm really glad to see that we will as Rita said in the future CO that we will be addressing you know especially our supports for our teaching staff and as well as our kids because that's that's of primary importance at this time. So I look forward to those discussions. Thank you, Liz. Andrea, >> uh, I received many letters and and communications and I want everybody to know that we are all touched deeply by them and we take them extremely seriously and we're moving forward on them. And the other thing that I have is I a a parent called me on on by phone and I've been trying to return her call, but the number that I have is no longer in service. So I must have transposed a num some number there.

178So if that parent is listening I I asked for her to call me again. Thank you. >> Um >> Kim, can I add one more thing? >> Yes. Me too. >> Um this um we had a an incredibly wonderful experience with the Martin Luther King. >> Yes. Um, and I was reduced to tears, which turned out okay because I had a lot of Kleenex in bed. And um, but I also have been given a great deal of hope for the future again. >> Yeah. And that's what I wanted to say also that I just want to congratulate all the scholars and the fit scholars. It was it was just wonderful to see. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew, for all your help with with the students. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. And I I

179I appreciate that. And I I'll send that to the to the scholars. But I want everybody to know what courage it took for those students to reach down deep. I always I always start our meetings with I I started with something that happened to me. I call it my Mr. Brown story. And then I get them to tell their Mr. Brown stories. And that that took a lot of courage. So >> yes. Yes. Um the food wasn't as good. >> So um I just want to let you know that I too have um shared um as many emails as everyone else has. Um and I've talked to a couple parents and staff members as well. And uh Jay, I I appreciate your comment about the fact that we do take um what is being said

180to us seriously and we do look at that. And Rita to your point I think every meeting we have we talk about the hybrid and we talk about what's happening or not happening um and talk about where do we need to have the more deeper dive and so um I am appreciative of the fact that we're doing that. Also just to let you know that I was informed today that Dr. Grineer um has been approved to be our interim superintendent until December 31st. So I just want to let you know that notification come in. Um, so also just to Yay. Um, or not yay depending on I guess >> so please notice at the end of our agenda topic we um our agenda there's a a listing of our uh virtual meetings that are there.

181Um, did you forget Lee? >> Yeah. >> Is Lee's not Lee? Are you here? >> Of course I am. Oh, Lee, I can't see you. >> I don't know why. >> There you are. >> Oh, >> I've been here all along. >> Oh, Lee, I am so sorry. I You're not on my You're not on my screen. >> It's a number. >> Don't know why, but in any case, um I immediately emailed Andrea to tell her what a good job and our scholars did. I am getting many of the same letters that all of you are getting on our GS um on our email and I'm looking for solutions. We are all looking for solutions. >> That's it. >> And Lee, once again, I am so apologetic that you're not on. >> That's okay. >>

182Jay, >> um by the way, Lee, we actually volunteered you to do cook for next year. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. I was I was remiss um in going too fast to uh to go over the um MLK scholar. I just want everyone to know that they can still go to mlkrustf fun.orglive and there's a replay still playing there um mlkrustf fun.orglive and you can also donate. >> Thank you Jay. >> Hey thank you. Do we have Dr. Grineer? Well, I talking about donating. I was explaining to somebody that that night the committee gave out $320,000. >> Wow. >> It's it's it's stunning. It's a quarter of a a third of a million dollars. It's amazing. >> Wow. >> And that came a great deal of that came directly from the from the community. And as

183Dr. Mitchell said there's one one uh woman who sends in $10 a month every month and he reminded us about the um the idea of giving in terms of of what you can afford and how that just >> that probably means as much as or even it does mean as much as a $20,000 scholarship. >> Yep. any um any agenda items >> besides the hybrid and co and >> nothing else nothing else to talk about >> no >> new schools >> I I just want to say you guys this was a longer than normal meeting um and um however I'm just so excited because we really just put down some footprints for the district to then take off and do the work that they need to do um for the um for the district for

184the elementary schools. Like this was really like a very big meeting. So um yay. Um congratulations. And in >> there you are. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> I have a second. >> All right. Um that's Rosemary. All those in favor please say I. I >> oppose obain. The motion has carried. Good night everyone. Thank you for your hard work. >> Good night. Thursday.