3-22-21 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Miss Joan, do I have a quorum? >> You do. >> Yes, you do. Mark sent you everybody in uh chat. So stating >> All right. So, and is Susan here? >> I sure am. >> All right. So, if we have a quorum and at 602, I would like to call the regular board of ed meeting um to order. Today it is March 22nd and once again it's about 6:02 in the evening and our first order of uh business is uh for the pledge of allegiance and um oh and we have a flag. >> Yay. >> So very cool. Um and so um I will um I will just start us off since I can't see anyone now. Um and uh so um I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and

002to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with justice for all. Mark, thank you. Very cool. Very cool. >> That was classy. Thank you. Um and so the next order of business is the recognition of um visitors and um de um delegations. And this really goes to Liz Porter. Um and I am going to pass that on to you. um just that she had asked me a couple of weeks ago about um about to recognize um a group of people who um had done some amazing work um around the history day. And so I would just Susan if you don't mind I'm actually just going to um pass this on to Liz and have her introduce and if you could talk about history day for a couple seconds that would be

003great. >> Hi everybody. Um, it's very exciting for me because History Day is is near and dear to my heart. I've been involved with it for almost 40 years. Um, no, 30 years. Sorry, I'm aging myself. Um, but anyway, um, you may remember last year when we had the middle school kids actually participated from Cutler and we had two groups go on to states. Well, this year we actually have three Fitch High School students that competed at Norwich Regional History Day. But let me just remind you a little bit about what History Day is. And especially for those of you who are are listening from the audience, Connecticut History Day is one of 58 affiliate programs of National History Day, a nationally recognized standardsbased academic program and competition run annually. This competition is divided into

004two divisions. Junior division is grades 6 through 8. Senior division is grades 9 through 12 and five categories. Paper, exhibit, documentary, web page, and performance. Annually, about 4,000 students in Connecticut alone compete in one of six regional competitions, Norwich being one of them. The first uh second and third place winners from each division and category then go on to the state competition which this year will be held on May 1st. And the top two finishers for each division and category then go on to the national competition where they become members of team Connecticut. Now, of course, last year, um, we had to go virtual for the state competition, and this year, all regional and state as well as national competitions are all being held virtually. We're praying that next year will be in person. But

005like I said, this year, three Fitch High School students decided to enter Norwich Regional History Day competition after they had completed their research and project construction under the guidance of Mrs. Carita. Miss, excuse me, Carita. Miss Carmeita Hajj. The 2021 theme was communication in history, the key to understanding. How appropriate, huh? The students from Fitch researched and developed their entries based on this theme. James Whitloth wrote a paper entitled The Culpa Ring, America's First attempt at EP espionage. And I read that paper. It was well done. But unfortunately, James did not place at the regional competition. But we want to recognize a his efforts and congratulation him on participating in something that's very challenging. Mary Clark created an original documentary entitled The Anti-War Demonstrations: The Key to the Understanding. The key to understanding the protest

006that shaped a generation. Sorry, Mary. Uh Mary placed third in her category and has earned the right to compete at the state competition. And finally, Jackson Kramer created an exhibit entitled the Hartford Current Communication from 1764 to 2000. And Jack finished first in his category, which is tough to do because he's one of the tough categories there. They all are, but Exhibit seems to be the one everybody gravitates to and he came off on top and he too will have earned has earned the right to compete at the state competition. So I just wanted to recognize them all. I wanted you to recognize this is not a you know a short little thing. This takes hours of preparation, hours of work. And now Mary and Jack uh Jack are working on improving their uh their

007entries because they have to enter states. They have to send their improved new and improved um entries to the state by the 15th of April. And I just wanted to tell you um I I'm just like so excited for them and I'm so excited for um Miss Hajj and but also for Fitch High School because Fitch High School has was uh involved in this in the early 2000s for about seven years and had great success and it's nice to see that it's coming back. we're coming back strong and I I'm really proud of them and um I'm hoping that you know this is just the beginning for Fitch High School and we're hoping that we get the Grton Middle School back involved. So um I just want to say congratulations, kudos to to Jack and

008to Mary. I'm so proud of you. I'm very proud of James, too. And uh good luck. Good luck at States. I'll see you at states. >> So Liz, um I just got a text from um Jay that he's having technical difficulties. Not able to get on and so um I I will hopefully once he is on we can at least say yay. Um because it's such an honor that he was at least mentioned. Um but congratulations um to the other two and as always Miss Hajj for bringing out the best in our students and making us all graten um proud. Thank you so much for your work and Liz um for making sure that the board knew about this um because this is the first time that we've we really had heard about it or

009thought about it as a board. So I'm really excited about that. >> You're welcome. You will it will not be the last time, Kim. It will not be the last time. I am incredibly incredibly excited about that. I see that Jay has um come in. Jay, good timing. We have just we have just sort of wrapped it up, but we do want to say congratulations to you as a dad and also congratulations to Jame for his honorable mention. So, congratulations. >> Thank you very much. And he sends congratulations to the winners as well. He couldn't be here tonight. Well, give give them our best to Jay. Thank you. >> Can I ask a stupid a technical question before we continue? >> How do I get out of this? >> I I got just Jay as

010my focus. I want to be able to see everybody. Can we get out of that? How do I get out? >> Top right of your computer, there should be where it says gallery. But um Mark, I am actually wondering if you put that on so that the speaker would have full glory. Um, and truly I'm not quite sure people want to see my face that la that large. Um, I don't like to see that my face that large. It's scary. >> The control the control in the upper right >> only controls the view for each individual. >> Right. I know that. And I and I um I'm doing that but it keeps on switching to speaker. So, um, >> so >> Kim, I I mean, yeah, Kim, I wonder if we could have the the

011um the two students introduce themselves because I'd like to see their faces. >> That >> they're right here. >> Yes. >> All right. >> So, Mary, you want to start? >> There you are. >> Hi. Um, I'm I'm Mary. I made a documentary for the contest. Uh, not sure what else I should really say. >> Who did you interview? >> Who did you to you? Congratulations. >> Uh, I I interviewed a really cool professor from the University of San Diego, uh, named Carol France, and she talked to me about the the protests. Was this Connecticut protest, Mary? Was >> she It was okay. >> Thank you so much, Mary. >> And I hope Mary that after you get yours, you know, you finish doing whatever you want to do to it and if you want

012some help, you know where to call. But, um, maybe we can get it up on the Fitch High School website so that everybody can see the beautiful work. And Jack, that goes for you, too. You know, so we can get some things would like to show be able to show other people. So, we'll talk about that later. Jack, where are you? Thanks, Mary. >> Thank you, Mary. Good job. >> Uh, can you see me? Like, uh, all right, good. Um, my name is Jack. I did a presentation on the Hartford Current, which was, uh, a really good topic for the, um, theme of this year's competition. you know it's a newspaper so communication is what it does right so um it's also the oldest newspaper in our on our continent actually um even before our

013country so >> uh going through like the oldest records was um really cool and I think I learned a lot from it >> good excellent well best >> all of you yes >> Jack has an has a name changed over the years? Was it the Harford Current from the early times or has it evolved the name? >> It it has changed it. It's the Harford Current now. Um and I can't remember when they changed, but at some point it was the Connecticut current. >> Okay. Um, I think it I think they changed the name sometime in the 19th century, maybe during the Civil War, but I'm not sure. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Looking forward to seeing reading and seeing it. >> Yeah. I hope you like it. Thank you. >> Good luck you girl

014guys. Good luck. Actually, what thrills me is that to have students be on our Zoom with us. It's been a year. Um, and so you don't um it's so nice to be able to um have that um and to remind us all sort of why we do what we do. So, thank you the two of you for spending um some time with us. And once again, Jay, please send our best and congratulations to your son um on the work that he did as well. But thank you. So well done, Cara. >> Yes. Thank you, Cara. >> As always. >> So, Susan, I opened up I opened up my packet over the >> Yeah. Did you find a couple little favors >> and and I I I saw some stuff in my in my pack and

015and so I don't know if you would if you would like >> I would love to honor you with this. Um, we were looking at our list and we realized that not only were we going to be honoring our pair of professionals and our administrative assistants, but it's also board of education month. And so, we decided, Joyce and I decided a nice certificate with each of your names. So, honoring our wonderful board members, Liz and Kim and Lee and Jay and Rita and Jane and Dr. Andrea Arian and Rosemary and Dean. Um because the as the little pin says, it's teamwork. Together, everyone achieves. And we thank you for your dedication and commitment to Graten, to the board, to our students, um and to education and your tireless advocacy on behalf of our children. You

016always put them first. I've told you this over and over. And so I'm so happy to be part of your team and leading this fine district with your support. So thank you very much and we honor you and you can wear your team pin. We actually give the team pin to all of our new teachers when they've accomplished the team which is the the work that they do in becoming um you know a certified teacher and you know the help and support they get as brand new teachers. So that together everything, you know, everyone um makes a difference is really meaningful. So thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. Um and I know that um that Mary and Jax, you would love to stay and Cara that you would love to stay for

017the whole board meeting, but you do not have to and you're more than welcome to leave at this point, but you're more than welcome to also stay and and hear some of my very corny jokes if you would like to. But with that said, we're going to move us on um to the comments from citizens. And I'm just going to read the blurb um that we get. This is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Each presentation should be limited to five minutes or less and citizens should, if possible, submit written comments. Presentation should be related to matters pertinent to Graten. Board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments of citizens portion of the board meeting. Citizens should state

018their name and addresses for the record. Miss Joan, do we have any? >> I have no one, Kim. I have no one. >> Okay, >> I'm looking. There's nothing there. Yes, same with me. Is there anyone that's a participant that is here that would like to speak for the to the board because this would actually be the part of our meeting where we um actually have citizens position citizens petition. Wow, it's Monday and I'm having a hard time talking. Okay, I am not hearing or see any. Um, with that, I'm going to move us on um to student representative report. And did Zay make it on? I was told that he might try. >> I don't see him, but Allison did send a brief from the two of them. So, >> and I do have

019that. So, what I'm going to do, folks, is I will read um because um Susan um did reach out with Ted um to our stu our two student representatives just to um to tell them that we miss them. um and that even though that we're doing it by Zoom to if they could come back and join us that would be great. They nei neither one of them were able to join us but they did send a little blurb and so I'm just going to read that. Um and Joan do you have that? If not I will make sure that it gets sent to you. >> Ma'am I do not. >> Okay then I will be more than happy to send forward that to you. >> Thank you. >> So hello. Hello. This is from um

020Allison and then um it says hello. So far, I've really I I have heard really good things about the sports coming back, like cheerleading and basketball. I think people are really enjoying being able to finally feel like they're we're maybe getting back to normal. And I think everyone is very grateful to be back with their teams and their friends. Also, I've heard from a few fellow students that are full distance that they are really considering coming back to the four days if we go back almost for full-time. At this point, I think everyone is missing being normal at school and I think it would be awesome to get everyone back together and be as normal and as safe as possible and that's with a smiley face at the end. >> Well said from our >>

021well done. >> Okay. Um so Susan, I'm going to now uh move that to your report, please. >> Okay. Well, tonight Tom Londale joins me and I guess it's our first official time to introduce Tom. Um he is our new student data manager, but I can't even call him new anymore because he hit the ground running. I mean, from the first um week where we were analyzing some data and he was kneedeep into it and knew there were some challenges at the middle school with scheduling and other things. So, he went over there and he's met all the principles. I'm going to let him introduce himself and tell you a little bit about his journey in education and then he's got a presentation for you about assessment and the interconnectedness of assessment and instruction and

022why it's so valuable. So, off you go, Tom. >> Thanks, Susan. Can you guys Oh, thank you. Can you guys hear me? >> Awesome. Um, so I just want to say before I start, um, I have a 2-year-old and a seven-month-old, so I apologize if there's some background noise at any point. Um, and I did also want to say, you know, I'm the kind of person, please feel free to interrupt at any time. Please don't feel like you need to wait till the end of my presentation. Um, I'd love to have dialogue in the middle of this. So, if you have any questions, please let me know. Um, as Susan said, I'm Tom Wans. I'm the student data manager. Um, I come to Graten by way of East Hartford, uh, professionally. Um, I was a

023science teacher, um, in an IB school for seven years. Um, and and I absolutely loved it. Um, it's, you know, been one of my greatest challenges to leave the classroom. Um, but I will say Susan made one heck of a sales pitch uh for Grten to to pull me down here. And and uh she's not kidding when she said, you know, I'm I'm in it kneede. I I told Susan, you know, my first day, I said, "Please, Susan, expose me to everything." Um, and I said, you know, I think the the greatest thing East Harford did for me was just give me kind of a wealth of experiences that I get to bring professionally. Um, and Susan's really kind of pushed me off the diving board straight into the pool, which which I think has

024been a good thing. And, you know, not only working with data, but now, um, helping out with the technology department. I've gotten a lot of exposure to a lot of things in Grten, um, which I know is going to help me professionally, but I also hope that my experiences are going to be really valuable to Graten going forward. Um, so I just have a little bit to share with you tonight. Um, we are deviating a little bit from the agenda. Um, so I do just want to mention that uh, we we had hoped to talk about some FMP data tonight, but unfortunately we cut it a little too close with the trimester 2 ending. So we're not quite ready to talk about that and I'd love to come back at a future meeting and discuss

025that. Um, and as Susan said, this is really just an introduction talking about data in general and talking about how it's interconnected to instruction. Um, so I'd love to share that with you now, but as I said, please feel free. Um, I'd love questions as we go along. So, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Can someone just give me a quick thumbs up to tell me they can see it? Awesome. All right. I think Miss Porter won the uh won the prize for fastest thumb up. So, that was awesome. All right. So um you know the question I think everybody kind of starts with is you know why even assess during a pandemic right we have so much going on our students have a lot of stresses right now and we

026totally acknowledge that but I also want to make clear that I believe and and I know Susan believes that assessment is extremely important at this time and the reason for that is we need to establish a baseline of where students are at and what they've learned and also what they're missing and and that's how we're going to be able to inform our actions going forward. So I think that's a really important place for us to start. I did just want to provide a brief overview of of where the state of Connecticut stands on testing right now. So, as you guys know, um we have benchmark assessments that are mandated by the state, both the Smarter Balance assessments and the next generation science assessments. Um and the state is fully committed um to administering those assessments

027this year and requiring that of all schools. Um and their reasoning for it is pretty straightforward. They just like us, they want to monitor the long-term trends and they really want to see the impact of this pandemic on students. And I I agree with that. I think that's extremely important. And lastly, they want to be able to target support and resources based on that data. Um, so we're going to talk about in a second, you know, the the goal of the state is is not to hold um districts accountable this year. That's not what it's about. It's really about understanding what this pandemic has done to our students. Um, and also setting us up for success, supporting them going forward. So, the state um Department of Education has applied to the federal government for a

028waiver. Um, but I want to be clear that waiver is not a waiver to try to opt out of testing there. The state um really is committed to testing. It's just we're waving the accountability aspect that comes with that testing. So, this waiver is still pending. Um, as of right now, technically speaking um the state testing that we'd be doing at the end of this year would be for accountability. Um, but as I'm sure you know, our former state commissioner who applied for this waiver is now the head of the US Department of Education. So I fully expect that this waiver will be accepted. Um and that waiver that Miguel Cardona had originally submitted, it asked for us to wave the summitive rating. So basically that accountability index that comes with state testing. Um they

029don't intend to sort schools into different categories this year, identify new turnaround schools um or focus area schools. They're also hoping to wave the 95 part uh% participation rate. So, while we fully intend to test every student humanly possible, um the state didn't feel it was appropriate to penalize districts this year if they couldn't get every student in to test. Um so, that is what they're looking to do going forward. Um as I said, it's still pending, but I I fully anticipate that it's going to go through. Um the other key thing that I want to start with today is is balance. And like I said in the beginning, you know, I think a lot of people question, you know, why assessment in the middle of a pandemic? There are certainly, you know, many competing

030needs. Um, and I do agree that while assessment is important, we need to find balance between, you know, too little assessment and too much assessment. Um, with that in mind, you know, our real focus here is prioritizing that instructional time in the classroom. I know that has to be priority. There hasn't been enough of it this year. I think we all acknowledge that. Um, and and you know, our job number one is getting kids back in the classroom. It's not just throwing assessments at them. Um, but when we do assess, we want to be really cognizant of the fact that we are selecting the highest leverage assessments that we can. Um, and and I'll talk about more about what that means in a little bit. But, you know, kind of our next step from that

031is if we're going to give assessments, we really need to use that data to inform instruction. It can't just be data that we're going to collect in a spreadsheet and look at al together. It has to be actionable and it has to have a positive effect on our kids. Can I just stop right now, Tom, and just um say that we're going to be sending a letter out to families discussing the testing. The testing won't happen until May and June. So, we've really held off on it. And but we have been utilizing these interim assessments, which Tom will talk to you about. And we've been bringing students who are full remote in on Wednesdays to do some of these assessments. And parents have been wonderful about bringing them in. some of the students have been

032in and seen their classroom and wanted to come back. So, it's really worked um in several positive ways. So, we want to continue that. And as you know, we're going to go to the four and a half days starting in May and we're going to continue to utilize Wednesday as a day where we can get more of this assessment done, not to interrupt some of the instructional parts of the week and to also do some celebrating with kids and endear kind of fun activities. So, we're really looking forward to that. And so, but that's part of what Tom is talking about with the balance. You know, we have to keep in mind that our kids um are looking forward to this. We're looking forward to having them and we have to keep in mind about

033balance. So, thank you, Tom. >> Absolutely. >> Sorry, I have to keep moving around everybody because it's blocking the uh each of the slides. Um, so you know, the first thing I wanted to talk about was prioritizing instructional time. Um, Graten Public Schools, we participated in a pilot. This year is one of the pilot districts for the state administering the Smarter Balance interimm assessments remotely. So um, you know, never before have we been able to administer these type of assessments um, remotely, but the state of Connecticut kind of upgraded their portal which let you be a remote proctor. So, you know, the students, it was kind of a two-way system where we could see the student taking the test and communicate back and forth within the testing portal, which was excellent because if a student

034had a question while they're taking the assessment, they could talk to their teacher or message their teacher right in there, get their questions answered, and go right back to taking that assessment. And it was it was great because, you know, um you might have 20 students taking it at once, but I could talk privately with each student kind of on a rotating basis and check in with them and every student could take the test, which I thought was a great thing that the state utilized this year. and I think it's something the state's going to utilize going forward because it was a great addition kind of to our toolkit. Um, as student said, you know, we're we're planning on, but we've already started utilizing Wednesdays to administer assessments online and in person. So, um, Susan,

035you kind of mentioned it, but to go into a little more detail, especially for our remote learners who, um, weren't comfortable coming in, um, back either to a two-day a week hybrid or a 4 day a week in person, um, we are going to have the opportunities on Wednesdays for them to come in and test in person. Um, so we really believe, especially when we're talking about the summit of assessments, that it's crucially important for students to have a great testing environment, and we feel the best way to ensure that is for them to be in the buildings. Um, so we're going to offer Wednesdays to those students to come in and to get that done. And we we think that's the best use of that Wednesday time. Um, you know, not taking away some

036of those other instructional times on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Um, but also, you know, in the past couple months, teachers have been using Wednesdays to, uh, administer those interim assessments as well, which have been great. Um, and I also want to be clear, you know, besides the summitive assessments, the big state benchmarks assessments, the vast majority of these assessments are very quick. Um, so they average 10 to 15 questions. They usually take 15 to 30 minutes. Um, there are times where they've taken longer and and we've definitely gotten feedback about that if people have learned the kind of the system and how to set it up and administer the tests. Um, but you know, the more we practice, the better we're going to get at it. And I think that's one of the greatest

037um, strengths of utilizing the system is that we've now practiced the portal time and time again and students and teachers are familiar with it. So when it is time for us to take the the summit of benchmark assessments, we'll really be familiar with it and everybody will be ready to go. Um I also want to talk about selecting high lever assessments. So we really want to focus on those assessments that are really closely aligned to our state standards and those required benchmark assessments, those ESPback and those NGSS ones. Um we also want to ensure that there's grade level alignment. So, you know, at the middle school and the high school, that's a little easier, only a couple buildings, but at the elementary level, we have a lot of different buildings. So, we want to ensure

038that there's um alignment across all those buildings so that we can really sit down and analyze together the student strengths and weaknesses. And we also want to ensure that the the IABS we choose, because there's many of them, are the ones that are are really measuring our critical grade level content. Um, and then lastly, we want to make sure that we're choosing assessments that can be administered kind of regardless of what learning model that we have to be in. So I think this year, you know, one of the things that I really learned this year was flexibility and the need to have systems that are really flexible, whether you're remote, whether you're hybrid, or whether you're in person. And and I think our decision to really prioritize these interim assessments um through the ASP portal,

039it was a great step in that direction because um they can be administered in all phases simultaneously. You could have some students remote, some students in person, and they could both be taking the same assessment at the same time for you as a teacher, which I think is really critical. So, I just want to actually show you a couple examples of what the questions look like for these interim assessment blocks. So, this example is from a grade four test, read literacy text. Um, and I'll just give everyone a second to just kind of look at this question really briefly. All right. So, as you can see, this question is really about word meaning, the word conserve, right? And and this was a question that our fourth graders actually did exceptionally well on. So, this was

040one of their top questions that the vast majority of them answered correctly. And if you use context clues, which hopefully they did, um they'd understand that the word conserve in this context means to save. So they would have selected C. I'm gonna show you a math example now. A little bit harder, >> but very typical for seventh grade math. >> You'll love the financing. We do a lot of financial literacy in seven in middle school mathematics. >> Susan told me I had to stump you, so I had to put a hard question on here. But we're actually, you know, we're gonna turn this on her. She's gonna have to answer this one off the top of her head without pen and paper or calculator. So, um, so this question was actually a seventh grade question.

041As you'd expect, this is a a high level of difficulty. Um, and, um, there there not that the majority of question students got this one wrong, but a lot of students did answer this one incorrectly. And it is a multi-step problem, it's not surprising. It is a pretty high level of difficulty. Um, you know, the the next piece, the third thing I want to talk about is just what we're going to do with that data. And we'll look at a little bit of data in a second, but it's really crucial that if we are going to assess students that we're using it to drive our instruction, right? And and part of my um a big component of my role is really ensuring access to highquality assessment results. So, you know, data isn't great if you

042get it three weeks after you give it to kids or two months after you give it to kids. It's really hard to act upon that. So, so one one piece of my role is really making sure that teachers have access to that data in as timely a manner as humanly possible. And we'll talk about how that can get done in a second. Um, I also want to make sure that we're empowering teachers with resources based on that data. So, if a if a teacher gets data, positive or negative, um, we want to make sure that teachers have resources to be able to act upon that data and support their kids. Um, and then lastly, sorry, my my son is meowing in the background. I'm not sure if you could hear that. Um and then lastly,

043we want to provide uh differentiated differentiated instruction for students based on whatever that data is. Um so let's look at this is a very you know targeted piece of data, but just something for us to look at together. Um so you know we don't have a ton of examples from the fall um where we're able to kind of one for one match to an example of something that also happened in the fall of 2019. Um but this is an example of what we do. So, this is going back to that grade four question that we looked at before. Um, this is data from that actual test. So, this is comparing, obviously, this is not a cohort. This is a different group of kids in fourth grade this year. This is comparing the breakdown of the

044fourth graders last year to the fourth graders this year in the fall. >> And while you see some more of the red area, everything else is pretty par for the course. So, you know, when we were really concerned about kids coming back in the fall, we noticed that or a lot of the literacy coaches were saying it wasn't so much different than the summer slide. You know, we usually take a little dip in the fall, we regain. Um, but of course, we're going to be measuring out using these various assessments throughout the year as well. >> Yeah. And and I also say that you know the data we're seeing um at least the initial data we're seeing really does kind of uh correlate to the national data that's coming out through NWA. So NWA gave

045um the the MAP test which we you actually used to use in graten um which is a similar to an aspect type test um and they gave it to a couple hundred thousand students and and the slide was really pretty pretty m I would say marginal um so there was a slide like Susan's saying similar to a summer slide in reading um but it wasn't as catastrophic as I think the initial fears were students performed better than what any of the projections were um and and that kind of goes to this so so a small slide but nothing nothing major Um so you know once looking at data at this or sorry once looking at data like this I think the next question is you know so now what what do we do with this

046data and that's what I want to talk about now. So if I'm a teacher um we're leading a data team and I'm looking at data like this I I look at especially this below standard group and I say well it's increased but but why is it increased? And and the way that we can analyze that is to do item analysis. So, we can look at specific questions that students struggled on and try to determine why. So, here is a question that those students struggled on. Um, and I'm just going to give everyone a moment to look at this question. Um, and then talk about together why might they have struggled on this. I'm gonna ask the board, why do you think they might struggle on this one? So, I'm going to turn around the question

047to you all. What do you think's a little different in this kind of question than the questions we might have received as kids that might cause kids to struggle a little? >> I can't see if any hands are raised. >> I actually can't either. So, you're welcome to just talk out if if you have a something you'd like to add. We'd love that. >> Well, normally, don't kids just go for one choice? >> Yeah. >> Bingo. >> Okay. So, that's and you know, and it says it's very bold most likely and two. But in the in the presence of a test situation or you know these assessments, they get scared, they get nervous, and they want done. >> Yep. And that's why this practice with these IABS is so essential because had they not practiced

048the teacher might not have picked up on it. But most of our kids got at least one of the answers right but they didn't get the two. So that's good information to have right right prior to the the sumitive. >> Yeah. No, absolutely. And I will say, so just to give some context, the the ESPback portal, it's not the type of test that'll that'll stop you and say, "Oh, you only answered one. It'll just let you go forward even if you did it." Um, and it also it doesn't award partial credit. So just because you got one of the two right, you don't get any credit. It's all or nothing. >> Um, so you know, doing a deeper dive into this question, you know, although we had a lot of students who answered it incorrectly,

049but almost universally the students got one of them right. Um, and the real kind of breakdown was the fact that they just didn't read the directions carefully, unfortunately, and they only chose one of the options. >> Yeah. The teachers's biggest nightmare, right? Read the directions. >> Absolutely. And I and I think, you know, something like this only compounds when a student's taking it remotely. And I think that kind of drives home the importance that I talked about earlier of having that that, you know, as good of a testing environment as possible. And we understand that may not have been something that was that was possible, you know, when students were remote and they were at home and, you know, like like my house right now where I have a 2-year-old running around outside the door,

050it makes it difficult to be able to take a test with to the best of your ability. Um, so I think that's why we're really pushing to to hopefully get as many students back in the classroom as possible by the take by the time they take these assessments because we really want to see what they know. We we don't want there be any bias based on their um whatever environment they happen to be testing in that day. Um, but you know, let's kind of look at the other side of the coin. You know, if there was a situation where the teacher realized, you know, it really wasn't the test type or test question type, it was the content and they were missing something with the content, what could the teacher do in that situation? We

051want the teacher to be able to see that data and act upon it. And they have some really great tools at their disposal to be able to act upon that data. Um, and one of those is, um, the system called, um, sorry, Smarter Tools for Teachers that's built directly into the assessment portal itself. So, um I can't take you into the assessment portal itself just cuz it's password protected, but um right within that, so if a teacher opened up that portal and saw, oh, my students struggled on that question, there's a link that will take them, um to a whole kind of, you know, collection of resources um that have lesson plans, presentations, practice activities, different formative assessments that they can use to help their students. Um and I'm going to attempt to show you

052an example of that, but I'm going to have to change what I'm sharing. So, hold on one second. We noticed that one of those tools is the newella program which we've had in Grten for several years and it provides a Lexile on the students reading. So it gives you many different examples on a content area in different readability. So it's open access for all kids. >> You're you're jumping the gun on my presentation there, Susan. >> Sorry. >> Um so I hope that you guys can see this. So, this is an example of of what teachers have access to. So, like I said before, if if they see that students aren't doing well on a question and maybe this question is about determining an author's message or the main idea, um, this kind of has

053an entire outline of exactly what the teacher could do for a whole really a whole sequence of lessons. Um, there's no way they could do this in one in one day. Um, but they can pick and choose what they'd like to do or they could use the entire thing. Um, but I want to be clear, we're not asking teachers to have to reinvent the wheel. We're providing them with really kind of complete resources to be able to work with students to to make up any of their weaknesses that we identify through this assessment. So, one of the things um that Tom and I talked about was providing more professional learning for our teachers so that they all know what resources and I'm thinking to myself out loud, it would be great that I think parents

054would love a forum on the assessment and what do the questions look like and you know how we're getting the kids ready. So, there's a couple ideas that we have for so what, now what, you know, how do we get them ready and prepare? Absolutely. Um, so Susan jumped the gun on my Nuzella, but the other thing that we want to make sure that we're doing is providing differentiated instruction for students. And one of the great tools that we have in the district is something called Nuzella. Um, I'm showing you an example here. Newella also happens to connect perfectly to our Lucy Caukins uh teachers college write readers and writers workshop program. Um, and in this case, grade four. But if a teacher decides that students need support in a particular unit of study, they

055can go in and they have a whole host of related articles right within there. Um, but beyond that and being able to differentiate. Um, the really powerful thing about Newella and why everyone really loves the program is its ability to change Lexiles for the same article. So you'll see here there's five options of reading level uh for that one article that a teacher can select. So, this fourth grade teacher could do everything from a third grade reading level all the way up to, I believe, a ninth grade reading level. Um, and really differentiate for her learners or his learners. Um, and I think that's a really powerful tool to really meet kids where they are. And that's going to be crucial as we help kids make up the gap going forward. The other great tool

056that we have, you know, the question that we were looking at before was all about word meetings. Newella has uh power words, which is basically a vocabulary um program built into it that really pulls um important words for students to be able to learn and it tracks their use of that word over time. And that's all built into the portal that we've already provided for them. And it's a great resource going forward. And as Susan said, you know, I think one of the things we want to do is just make sure teachers are aware of all these resources and utilize them to the full capacity going forward. Um lastly, I just want to talk about kind of my work going forward and our school and district data teams. You know, one of our real focuses

057going forward will be completing these type of data dives on individual assessment results. So, especially as we give these assessments over the next few months, um, and when we have assessment results from our summitive assessments over the summer, we really intend to to meet with both district leaders and teachers at this building level and really do deep data dives, not only teaching them some of the techniques, but also, you know, kind of the the now what as Susan said. So, we have this data. What do we do with it? What tools and resources do we have at our disposal to help kids? We also want to use this data to identify commonalities and themes across classrooms and uh grade levels. So, we know we're going to identify common areas of weakness and strength um in

058students depending on, you know, how remote learning affected them. Um but we can use that and leverage that to work together across grade levels and across buildings um to really meet kids where they are and and figure out ways to help them going forward. Um so, the now what for me I I feel like is really exciting. Um, I think we all know the SOA. I think we know that this year has been difficult. Um, I think there's really no way around that. But I think the NAWA is us kind of coming together and and leveraging our, you know, our resources to help kids going forward, whether it be, you know, the rest of this year, the summer, and the fall as well. Um, but I'm I'm happy to take any questions. I I know

059maybe Susan will want to add some now whats as well. Um, but but thank you guys so much. I appreciate your time tonight. >> Thank you, Tom. Tom, what a great way of introducing yourselves um yourself to us. Um and being able to kind of give us a primer of how we should be thinking about data being presented to the board um moving forward. Um but a great melding of both the introduction of you and then also kind of walking us through for those of us who are not in the education um world um to kind of uh do that has been incredibly helpful. So thank you very much and belatedly welcome to Graten. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Terrific. >> Did we have anybody with a question? Jane, you are

060are muted. You are muted. Jane >> Tom, I you have to know I have a barking dog. Um, she she comes alive whenever I'm at the computer, so please excuse this. Um, just welcome aboard. You're just bringing new life, new energy, and um, I was riveted as a former reading, writing teacher, riveted to what you were saying. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, thank you, Tom. I know you have little ones you probably have to tuck in. So, >> the the bedtime routine has begun, so I appreciate it. >> I know. >> Um, I just want to say to the board again, thank you and and please feel free if you have any questions, you know, data or otherwise, please feel free. Always reach out. I'm happy to talk. Um, you know,

061don't be strangers. Please be involved. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. >> Thank you, Tom. >> All right. So, we're going to move on um to Mr. Knight. >> Hello. So, I am going to talk about the object code summary, which is attachment number one. Um and if you notice in the bottom right hand corner uh it shows that uh we're projecting uh uh endofear unexpended balance of 285122 similar to uh prior prior months. Um it's being driven by uh some being underbudget in in salaries uh due to a few different factors including uh some subs being picked up by the by the cares and CRF uh hiring teachers slightly lower than budgeted uh and the transfer of those two and a half FTEEs to MSAP uh offset by uh some uh overbudget in

062other benefits which is driven by uh additional uh tuition costs. costs and unemployment uh and retirement. Uh we're also uh under budget in our out of district tuitions of both special education as well as regular education. Uh but then over budget in supplies uh to better uh put us in a better position for next year. And then equipment uh due to the purchase of that skid steer equipment at the Grten Middle School to help with our help with our snow removal. So that's that's where we are with our object code summary. >> Do we have any comments about that from the board? >> I I have a quick question for Ken if that's okay. >> Um Ken, I'm on the a forum for Grten as I think many of us are. Someone mentioned that she

063got a check from the Grten Board of Education that was tuition. Um, I never heard another thing. I don't know the person who sent it. Have you heard anything about that? >> Um, no. So, if it was a it was a check from the Graten Board of Education, that would be us. We would be issuing a check. I'm not too sure. >> Uh, directly to a person for for tuition. >> A person whose whose name I didn't recognize. I never heard another person say, "Oh, this is why." I just wanted to know if if if we did that. I don't think we did. >> No. No. Uh well, uh so uh if there are if it was a one of our teachers uh that is taking uh classes, uh we do a tuition reimbursement program.

064Uh could that be it? >> I don't think so. I think it was a >> So because no one mentioned it, um whatever it is doesn't make any difference. I thought it was odd. >> Yeah, >> but whoever knows on on Facebook or on the internet, but thank you. >> Okay, >> thank you, Lee. Any other questions about the object code? All right, hearing none, you can continue on with your insurance report. So the health insurance report that's attachment number two um for this is through uh January of uh 2021 uh and it shows that for the month of January we're actually at 73 and a half% of budget which is um is bucking the trend. We we had been increasing steadily uh from 80% in October to 83 in November, 93 in December, but

065uh looks like January we uh we took a step back. Uh it could be due to the uh the surge of of CA of COVID cases that happened during that time. Uh but we fully expect uh that uh this will uh go back up to to meeting and actually exceeding budget for at least some of the months the remainder of the year um as we anticipate all the postponed um um visits and procedures to uh to to come crashing in at some point. Uh but uh at this point we are 75% of budget on a year-to- date basis. >> Any questions, Dean? >> Yeah, thanks. Um I know we've seen these before and it's just occurred to me. Uh for the uh BA under under the BOE monthly budget, uh we have the same amount

066parcelled out for every month. Yeah. >> Do we always do that or do we ever tinker with it to um to reflect the the the reality of what how we typically get hit month by month? It >> it's true that uh these claims do come in. There is a seasonality to it and it probably could be graphed out. Uh but we do typically take uh just the amount divided by 12 and and put it on the piece of paper for ease of understanding it. Uh but uh we we probably could do we could do a a better job of of applying the seasonality to it. I'm not too sure it would have helped us much for this particular year just because >> not at all. >> Not really >> following any particular uh uh schedule

067but uh your point is taken. >> I guess what would be more useful and maybe this is more work on everybody's part is a column that would be another column that would compare this with the year before. Although a granted last year was a very strange year, but a year a year-to-year comparison would be better, especially given since the even amounts every month is a rather artificial way to look at it. The easiest way to look at it, I I do the same thing and when I do cash flow, but um so as you go from 45% to 87% to 62%, it's as it is, it's a rather artificial um they're rather artificial. So to go from month to month and say, "Well, look, we've gone up, we've gone down." More important to me is

068what's typical for that month. >> Sure. Sure. >> I think you had a chart like that, Ken, where you showed last year and when it went above on the different months, and it was more typical that it would break even or maybe go a little above, a little less, but this has been pretty um trendy to be underneath the monthly expectation. >> Yeah. Yeah. But we do have >> probably have that from last year. So you can kind of look at that. That's interesting. >> Yeah. Yeah, we definitely have that information and we could we could chart that in here if it provides any additional um um you know information that any want to see. So we can do that. >> Yeah. Like a say this is a column based on like sort of a

069fiveyear average something like that. >> Yeah. Okay. Any other questions about the health health insurance report as always? Thank you, >> Mr. Kilpatrick. >> Uh good evening. >> So, uh I too uh would like to thank uh the board on behalf of the uh the departments that I work with. I know that uh all of the employees certainly appreciate all the things that you've uh supported us in especially this year. Uh and so thank you once again. I did want to uh uh go off topic just a little bit before I get to the items that are listed on the agenda and let you know that there are some things going on at food services that uh you uh hopefully you can share with the public and so on. Um the uh community eligibility provision

070C has been approved through September and I was told September 31st but I think there's only 30 days in September. So uh it must be till October 1st but uh of uh 2021 and uh we we suspect that Ernie's smirking because he's the one that told me the 20 the 31st but um I I we suspect that it will continue on at least uh through December once they get to that point. But uh there's no guarantee of that, but we suspect that that will happen. So right now it's been approved through September 30th uh of 2021. Uh also uh coming up again on Wednesday the 31st of this month, uh uh farm to community box food boxes again at Washington Park. Uh this time it will be from 10:00 uh to 1:00. So it'll be

071a three-hour time frame on March 31st. And that's for any member of the community. Uh it's not that uh the kids food uh bo uh bags, but uh these are boxes for the community of 30 30 pounds or so that Jay was throwing around the last time. So uh it was good workout and everybody had a good time. So if you'd like to join us again, I think we pretty uh well assured that it will not be snowing like it did the last time. >> I was just going to ask you that, Sam. And I'm hoping Lee shows up with the donuts again. >> You can count on it. >> And and of course, you have the healthy food certification coming up later in the uh in the meeting. So, uh moving on to the

072next item is the elementary schools that are being built. Uh both Fames River and uh um Mystic River uh magnet schools are running on schedule presently. Uh Fames River is about two weeks behind. Uh they're working to catch up as we move along. Uh they're scheduled to be substantially completed on June 30th. A substantial uh completion uh doesn't mean that it's completely ready for move in, but it means that most of the work is done. And at that point, if we get approval from the fire marshall, we could actually start moving things into the building. So, uh, the FFN or, uh, furniture, fixtures, and, uh, equipment, uh, has been approved by the state. So, we're moving forward with that. We're a little bit ahead of schedule on that. And, uh, the other item is the

073uh, move management uh, project that's going on. Uh Tom Tom BBE who is the move manager for uh Arcadus uh has been holding bi-weekly meetings. Uh and so we're a little again a little ahead of schedule, but uh this will give teachers uh an opportunity to uh to start to um prep for uh the big move. Uh there have been boxes delivered to the class uh to the schools already. Uh there are containers sent to the school or they will be sent uh during vacation week for um confidential items and there is uh big boxes that'll be in each hallway um they're uh like 4 by uh 4x two boxes where um any anything that they want to uh throw out um can go into those boxes and the custodians will move those out. So

074they're on wheels for us so that custodians can roll those down the hallway. So he has been encouraging uh everybody to uh move forward with uh purging uh as as uh as the weeks go on here. So uh principles have been on the meetings, Susan's been on the meetings. We've had good attendance at those meetings with Tom BBE and things are going well there. >> And we got our packing video done and I did a little of Marie Condo. Just saying I gave it gratitude. When we have to give it up, we need to purge. I did my military story. Can't go overweight. So, um, between Tom and I, we did our thing so teachers would understand the packing process. >> Can we find them if they go overweight, Susan? I don't. >> Huh. Yeah.

075Well, that's what used to happen to us in the Navy. >> Right. Um, and the last item that I'd like to report on tonight are um air filters and indoor air quality. uh in the schools. Um as you know um we uh installed uh MV 11 filters in our air conditioning uh and uh equipment uh HVAC equipment uh at just before the beginning of school back in August. Um a recommendation from the state was to go to MV 13s but our or to the uh level of uh filter that uh your equipment can handle. Ours can handle the MV 11s. uh they normally take a MV 8 and consider that a MV 8 is a more porous uh filter where a MV 11 is much more dense so it filters out more things out of

076the air as it as it continues to uh send the air into the building. So uh we've continued to do that and uh during vacation week uh we are planning to uh change all the filters throughout the district uh on on on that week. So, we'll have new filters for the spring. Um, the other thing that we uh did uh with the recommendation from Fuss and O'Neal was to uh start our HVAC systems uh earlier in the morning, two hours earlier. So, we're starting those at 4:00 in the morning rather than 6:00. And uh this uh uh actually pumps more fresh air. It kind of uh washes the air uh before school. and we leave it on for two hours after uh the school is closed in the evening after the custodians are gone in

077the evening. So they're running for um quite a while during the day and we've also increased the amount of fresh air that are coming into all the buildings. So that again was a recommendation from Fuss and O'Neal. The other item um that Fuzzen O'Neal mentioned in their report uh we had actually been doing right from the beginning uh back in March of uh last year and uh that was we we flush uh the water systems in all of our buildings uh twice a week now because we have less kids in the buildings. We're using less water. Um but uh between uh uh concerns about uh lead and some of the older buildings uh being in the water and also uh Legionnaire's disease uh has a tendency to build up in stagnant water. So uh we've

078been doing that actually before uh we even uh got uh Fuss and O'Neal in and our custodians do that twice a week. They do it on Mondays or the first day of the week after a long weekend and also on Wednesdays. So, we'll continue to do that uh until we all get back to uh normal status. And that's my report for tonight. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. >> Jay, >> so Mr. Kilpatrick. Um, for those of us who are not uh technically um as up to speed, is there a way to compare the efficiency of the MV 11 to to HEPA? >> 80% 90%. Do we have any idea? Uh I I'd have to look up the exact percentage, but a HEPA filter is even more dense

079and would filter out even more, but our equipment couldn't handle that. Uh a HEPA filter is even uh more dense than the MV 13. So, >> okay. >> And it's not uh it's not exactly incremental. Uh uh so that uh 13 is not just five steps higher than um an eight or uh but uh our equipment can handle the 11 and that's uh we've uh continue to monitor that on a on a daily basis. So okay thank you >> Rita you are >> yes Sam um will our new schools have the help he he filters >> uh no I don't believe so but uh for instance uh Grten Middle School has uh in most of their equipment actually have two layers of filters they have MV 8s uh where the air comes through first and

080then MV 13. So it it takes out the heavier particles uh in the MV 8 and then it passes through a 13 before it goes into the building. So um I suspect that the two new buildings will have similar equipment to that. >> Okay, thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Sam, as always, it's good to see you. >> Thank you. So, I'm going to move us to the comm uh committee reports. The first one would be Lee, >> but Lee, you're on mute so it's hard to hear you. >> I'm so sorry. Um, we did meet. Um, it was actually the shortest um meeting we've ever had. Uh there were no questions about um the the first reading, the one we're going to do, the second reading in probably about 20 minutes. Um and

081we will get back to normal um hopefully on April and maybe even together maybe. So, any questions for Lee? If not, I'm going to move it over to Jane. >> Yep. The curriculum committee met on March 15th. Am I on mute? No. Um >> Oh, you're great. Thank you. >> The uh area of concern and the topic was the fact that nationally 66% of high school grads are enrolling in college, but 34% are graduating. The concern is that our youth across the country um are disconnected. Employers are citing poor work habits, attitudes, lack of preparation for the workplace. The once again the teachers at Fitch have are digging in um to address this problem and better prepare their students uh in the program called grow our own. This includes getting news to the kids, expanding

082the IB program, developing strategies. Uh students are explor exploring career clusters through Navian um including in topics such as banking and management. Um students can will in the future be able to include IB courses and clusters over four years. They can change their pathway but must complete a cluster. In 2020, 41 students uh did complete the cluster classes. And I don't know more about cluster classes, so I'll be bringing back more information at the next meeting. Um career development will include awareness, exploration, application, career management, and entrepreneurship. Um pathway initiatives will be designed to improve graduation rate and more importantly or just as important, post-graduation. excuse me, success. This is a work in progress and everyone's very um enthusiastic and taking it very seriously. So, um a major move forward at the high school. Congratulations

083to their efforts. >> Thank you, Jane. >> Finance and facilities. >> Oh, I had a I had a quick question for Jane. >> Sure. Jane that that that uh graduation rate that you cited the 30 some odd percent from college is that graduation rate period or graduation within four years. >> It probably is within four years. I don't know. I didn't get that statistic whether it's at all or within four years. >> Yeah, because I know a lot of schools keep track of how many students accepting five and sixyear programs. The typ the typical four-year program they keep stats on how many finish within the four years and how many take longer than four years. I think >> common just don't graduate at all. >> Right. >> I think partly um one important um thought

084that's coming from this is the lackluster kind of approach to life. The hoham I don't know what I'm doing and you know no paths uh forward that these kids build for themselves. And I think one of the things if I can add Jane is that I feel like Brton has um some exciting things happen with offering five different magnet opportunities at the elementary level starting to talk about careers and what people do in the real world and how they use their math skills or science skills and then looking at the schedule that we're providing for our middle school and all the different opportunities the pathways in STEM and arts and um and then you know having that continue at the high school with these different career pathways. So, um, you know, but really I think

085getting the information to kids early on, you know, so that they have something, you know, they can kind of really nurture their passions and the things they're good at and so that parents don't send kids to four years of college and the kids saying at the end of four years, well, I really don't know what I want to do. So, we're hoping we can, you know, we can help them start thinking about that a little earlier on as they go forth um and decide whether they want to do a trade, whether they want to do college and and what are those things that they're looking to learn postgraduate. >> Thank you. So, Jay, >> uh yes, so finance and facilities met on March 1st. Um, we reviewed the um regulation 1330 use of facilities to

086bring that up to date, including um not charging for middle the middle school turf field um because that was uh paid by the um um by the bond. Um we reviewed the fee proposal for the Fitch High School Fieldhouse. that's going to be passed on to uh parks and wreck because the athletic fields task force is going to make a CIP proposal that includes um you know fields and facilities across the town including um the fieldhouse. Um we reviewed the DoD supplemental impact aid account. Uh we discussed the priority CIPs that will be going to the town council. Um, we tabled the OPED projections because Milan uh the town actuaries have not uh issued their report yet. Um, reviewed the latest uh insurance reserve data that we saw tonight. Um, we discussed the 2020 2021

087budget projections. Um, and then we discussed um the Graten Middle School construction funding and what that could be used for to add um things to the Graten Middle School site, but obviously we want to wait until the elementary schools are done since that's apparently, you know, that that's all coming out of the same funding. So, it's a slow night at uh at financing facilities. >> Oh, Jesus. Okay. Any questions for the finance and facility committee? Can I just say thank you to Lee, Jane, and Jay? That was a great um report um about what you guys talked about and it was really informative and and actually um created dialogue. So, I really appreciate that and and that so thank you very much. That was actually very informative. I appreciate that. For those of us who

088can't make um every every meeting, Liz actually did the minutes this month and I think they were superb. >> There there she goes. All right. >> Oh, Jerry, thanks. >> Just enough information without going overboard. >> All right, Rita. >> Hi. Yes. Um, Learn's superintendent perspective was the Montville superintendent Lori Palin. She p she presented her district's goals and strategies for reimagining schools after COVID rather than looking backwards to the way they were before at the status quo. Um I have a PowerPoint presentation if anybody is interested I could forward it on to you. Um, one one thing that I thought was extremely interesting was that the Marine Science Magnet School hosted a farmers market as part of a statewide initiative and greeted over 250 visitors to the school who purchased $6,000 worth of coral

089that they grew. Now, I really didn't realize that, you know, coral, but it's it's amazing. It's very valuable. And um so people came from all over whether they had small aquarium tanks to very large aquariums and um purchased um coral that the school had grown. And it that that money will go back to support their agriculture program as well as to provide some scholarships for su super you know support in the future. Um see I also thought it was interesting that all the rest directors the six of them asked their lobbyists to create a document of all education related executive orders for for distri distribution to our districts which I can also pass on to anybody who's interested in that. the second floor. The learn building committee for Ocean Avenue learning center center is going

090along well. We have a $10,000 grant application that I think the state will approve, which is really nice. And um you know, we we talked a lot about how schools are returning. Learn magnet schools returned March 15th to four days a week and will eventually go to five. So that's about it. and and all the lotteryies have all been done for at all. They they've all been done. Actually, Marine Science does theirs in January and the other ones have just wrapped up. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rita. Any questions for Rita about the learn stuff? [Laughter] >> I don't I don't know how to understand that. Polly, was that Polly? Oh, she's muted. >> Um, so that we did u meet with the town council, the RTM, and the board of ed.

091I actually think that the board of ed really had the majority of the conversation in that we were um had just finished our budget and two um we um were talking about the reopening plan and um a lot of the questions were around that um and um Jay we did begin some of the conversations about what apartments are located and it's the same um though Susan is investigating it further with John Bert but it was also O the question about um the projects at the town are directly involved. It's a one-bedroom apartment, so they're less familyfriendly, if I can say that that way. Um uh to kind of try to get in the the sort of young sort of EB workers or the young Fiser workers, etc. Um but we did ask that um on

092behalf of you because I know that that was an interest um of yours so that the board would make sure that we had that information. Um, and I don't remember what what else am I forgetting? I think that was I really think that we were the I think we had I think we had the heavy load um largely because of the um the uh reopening of the schools and what and people's interest in that. All right. And so um I don't think we have met with the leazison since in in between, have we? the >> the the I think we're meeting Wednesday. >> Oh, is that when that is? >> Yeah, I believe it's this Wednesday. >> I think you're correct, too. >> It's um Yeah, >> I'll look. >> Nope, I think you're right.

093Um and then Graten Scholarship Lee. >> Uh yes. Um there is a subcommittee of the members who are now uh reading applications. Um I think that we are planning to meet at some point in April. Um because it's my first year on the scholarship. I'm not sure if they brings all of the applications or I I don't really know yet, but I will be there when we have the meeting. >> Thank you, Lee. I really appreciate that. Um, and the athletic fields. I know that since our last meeting, we have had a presentation from the athletic field committee. Jay, do you have any new information about that since that presentation? >> Uh, no. Just that now they presented to town council RTM and and the board of ed. They have a firm proposal that they're

094going to present to the town council and see um, you know, how they want to uh, uh, pursue it in terms of funding. So, um there are two committees that it would be really cool if we had a board member um cool man um uh as a member of these two committees. It's the trail committee um and they have just met so they actually won't meet until next month and then also the long-term recovery which I believe was started last year um through the town council to kind of take a look at how does the town move forward after the 2020. If anyone is interested on the board, it would be really swell for you to just send me an email um and I will then um throw you not throw you but um but

095introduce you to the people who are doing that. So those are two committees that that probably could use some board participation. So I'm now going to be moving on to action items. One of the things before I before I start that is is that I would like to be able to add a motion um on the request of the superintendent a motion to the agenda um to set our graduation date and end end of school date and graduation date for the um 2020. Um, I just need to make sure that I have most of you um would approve um for us for me to add that to the the thing to our to our meeting. I'm getting most yeses from people. >> Okay. All right. Dean, you okay with me moving that on? >> Kim,

096you need a motion. >> Yeah, you do need >> add it to the >> Oh, I need to have a motion to make to add a motion. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And we need twothird uh in agreement. At least two. >> See, Miss Joan, you just can't leave me. See how important you are, my >> All right. So, um I would take a motion to add the motion for the end of the school and graduation date. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Thank you, Rosemary. I I'd like to just I I know we I'm not a stickler on this, but technically what you're doing is you're adding an item to the agenda. That's what you require twothirds of approval for, >> right?

097>> Whether there's a motion or not is a separate question. >> Okay. I I knew I I I knew there was a twothirds about it. Um but I uh but is there any other discussion? Thank you, Dean. And I appreciate your willingness to continue to have me learn. >> I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. >> Oh, please do because I have lots to learn. All right. If there's no other discussion, all those in favor of adding the motion to the agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. The motion has carried. Um and um so we're now going to be moving on to um the consent agenda which is where all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. Um points of

098clarification will be allowed. So all those in favor um can I have a motion for the acceptance of the consent agenda? >> So move. >> Can I have a second? I got >> any discussion? hearing none. All those in uh favor of the consent agenda, please say I. I >> I >> oppose abstain. Motion has carried. And the board of education would like to thank the Kuanas Club of New London um for making a donation of $500 to the Mary Morrison Elementary School. Lee, would you be willing to read the first um motion which is under old business, please? I will indeed a motion to approve policy 6142.102 social and emotional learning as a second reading. >> All right. Can I have a second to that, please? I've got Liz as a second discussion. We

099had a presentation in the committee of the whole last week. We've um this policy has been before us for a long time. I appreciate the policy committee's patience with us in terms of needing to sometimes put that off to the side. If I don't hear any further discussion, all those in favor of the policy 6142.102 social emotional learning as a um as a second reading, please say I. >> I. Oppose. Abstain. >> Motion has carried. >> Rita, >> yes. >> Would you be Would you be willing to read the motion under the new business number one? >> Yes. >> Thank you. to certify pursuant of CGS section 10-215F that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut Nutrition Standards published by the Connecticut

100State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut Nutrition Standards during the period of July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022. This certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or by the non-school organization and groups. >> Thank you, Vita. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. Thank you. >> So discussion. >> Okay, to kind of give some >> It's Liz. >> Yes, Liz. >> I'm sorry, but what's the bottom line in this? I'm I'm not quite >> if I can let Ernie If I can let Ernie >> Oh, I'm sorry, Ernie. >> Thank you. >> Hi, board

101members. How are you? Tracing everybody. Um so what this first part um what we're discussing is we want to continue with the healthy food certification for the school year 2122. Um and the next one that you'll be reading involves the exemptions. But this first piece here um makes us uh which is which is a good thing. We want to keep this that all the foods served are healthy, all natural. Um, we don't use artificial sugars, colors, all that kind of stuff. Um, this this is very important. These these are we want to stay in the healthy food certification. There's very very few districts in the state of Connecticut that don't abide by these strict standards. Um, so this is something and of course we've done it for the last um, five, six years as well.

102So that this is a good thing for the kids. >> Thanks Ernie. >> You're welcome. Is there any other comments or questions for any >> Oh, sorry. >> Yes, Dean. >> Thanks. Um, yeah, there is my my main concern is not, you know, how to make sure that junk food is sold, but I think of two types of offerings. one is the school offering itself and the other is what may be offered through bake sales and uh things like that uh that we've allowed for eons. Um, so and I know that and and I think this is between this and the next motion, it probably all covers it, but I want to make sure that we are all on the same page because uh refers to 10-215F and section subsection B of that does say

103that a board of ed may exclude uh items that I've been talking about. Right. I I was looking at the motion itself and the way it's worded, it's it almost seems like it's kind of ambiguous when we say uh this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all uh all times and from all sources including but not limited to. Are we saying that those items in the last sentence are exempt or that they're included in other words is the first motion the catch all that says we're adopting this no exceptions and then the second motion is going to be oh and we're carving things out is that in fact what we're doing >> so so Dean great great great conversation so what that does it allows us

104to operate um program without So here here's here's the caveat of it all really. We're trying to limit the amount of foods that are out of my control. If um the um middle schoolers want to do a fundraiser in the middle of of breakfast or something at the school, this is the thing that we're saying this is not allowed. um because a it could contain an allergen or something that gets in the schools uh that the kids are are are passing around. But this isn't really the caveat. This is just stating that that we're going to follow Connecticut's nutrition high nutrition standards um in all our cafeterias during the the normal school day. And the next piece coming up, Dean, there'll be a piece in there that allows you guys to put in the exemption

105so that fundraisers can continue like at football games, um, after the school day, um, etc. and stuff. So, I I know it's maybe a little confusing this piece here, but this needs to be settled before you can move on to the exemptions, which we certainly want to have exemptions. The reason why I ask it, I'm asking this question is because I I was under the impression that the statute is the statute and there was no need for us to actually adopt it. That the only action that we were allowed under subsection B was to make an exemp an exception for things like bake sales and whatnot. So, I was confused as to why there were two separate motions. Sure. That's why I wanted to make sure we're all talking about the same thing. I'm pretty

106sure we are. And um the weird thing is is this language, both of these pieces comes from the state. This is their language that they wanted you guys to actually vote on their language. Um can't explain that. >> All right. >> Any Go ahead, Dean. >> Yeah, I'm I was just gonna say thank you. >> Nope. Absolutely. I have um I've learned a lot already, Dean. So, I appreciate I like I enjoy being challenged. So, thank you. Any further discussion? Rosemary? >> Uh I just want to say thank you so much for all you do for our kids. Um you're the best and um and our kids are are going to be nutritiously sound because of it. >> We think so, too. Thank you, Rosemary. Thank Thank you. >> I'll second that. >> Oh, it's

107already been seconded. >> No, Rosemary's >> Yeah. And I'm third and I'm and I'm echoing it also. >> Oh, I'm like I'm on a business mode of trying to stay on my game so I can, you know, impress Dean. >> Any further discussion? I don't know, Dean. I'm making that up. >> Okay. All right. If I'm not hearing any, all those in favor of the motion that's on the floor to certify pursuant to CGS section 10-25 um 215 that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under its jur jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutritional um certific uh standards during the period of July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022. This certification shall include all

108food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or by non-school organizations and groups. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Liz, would you be willing to read the next one? >> Absolutely. Motion to allow the sale of sale to students, not of students, excuse me, to allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring at the end of the regular

109school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice, meeting, or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food sales. Can I have a second to that? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Rita. Discussion. >> I would like to amend the motion to read to allow

110the sale of to students of food and beverage items. And the reason why I'm making this is because this the law distinguishes between food and beverage. I want to make sure we don't adopt something that just limits the exception to food. No, it says beverage items. >> Well, and it says to allow the sale of to students of food items. The rest of it refers to food and beverage. I want to make sure the language is clear. >> So, you're talking about in the very first sentence. >> Exactly. I want to make sure we don't inadvertently adopt a a a policy or provision that just covers food. So that beverage for some wacky reason isn't >> but on the second line it says and beverages. >> Yeah, right does not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards

111and beverage is not listed in. Let me see. Hold on. Just hold on a son. I' I've been >> we're on two. >> Yeah. No, I understand that that do not meet. So in other words, just for my my edification, food is covered by the nutrition standards and beverages are are not >> beverages are. >> Oh, they are. Okay. So why I'm just wondering why they're why it's broken out that way in that language. >> And you know what? I withdraw the I withdraw my my motion. Any further any discussion? >> We'll cross bridges when we get to them, I guess. >> Okay. I am not going to reread that motion because Liz, you did it so well the first time. I did not need to be silly for the second time. >> You did

112such a good job. >> All those in favor of >> So, all those in favor of the motion that's on the floor, please say I. I >> oppose abstain. The motion has carried. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thanks Ernie. >> Thank you always. Ernie, >> we'll see you in nine days. >> Jay, >> no. No. >> Would you be Jay? Would you be willing to read um number three, please? I move to recognize April 7th, 2021 as paraprofessional appreciation day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the pair of professionals. >> Second on that. I have Liz. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. And a big thank

113you to all the pair professionals. >> Absolutely. >> Rosemary, would you be willing to read the motion for number four, please? >> I'd be honored. >> Thank you. Um, the motion is to recognize April 21st, 2021 as Administrative Professionals Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the administrative professionals. >> Can I have a second on that? >> Second. >> That was Lee. >> Yep, I got it. Sorry. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose, abstain. That motion has carried. >> Kim, before we go to the next part, can I just ask a quick question? >> Yeah. >> Um, when is teacher appreciation day? Is that May? May. Okay. I think that's

114I think that that's when we do our sort of large celebration of our teachers and um friends of schools and stuff. >> Teacher appreciation day is the day before school begins when the kids are thinking I can't wait to get back. I'm so bored. >> All right. >> As we had >> as we have as we voted on beforehand um to add this motion. And I will read this and then second it can second it with then we can go into discussion. So the motion on the floor the motion I'm proposing is to revise the 2020 20 to 2021 school calendar to represent the last day of school as June 17th 2021 and to set the graduation date as as June 18th 2021. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. I got Lee.

115Can we have discussion? And Susan, can you please talk through talk this through for us? >> I'd be happy to. I think um we're hearing from our seniors and our parents that, you know, it's time to set that date. And I'm feeling pretty positive that, you know, we won't need another snow day so we can end the year on the 17th. And that was kind of what we were talking about earlier in the year that that looked like the 18th was going to be a good date. So I think we can say with confidence that that's going to be the date for graduation. >> So this is this is not a new date necessarily. This is the one that we had sort of been thinking about but had not voted. >> Yeah. It we usually

116give an extra week from when we're supposed to end knowing that we're going to get some snowstorms and other things. So, um, that was kind of our original thoughts in the beginning. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. >> Um, yeah, we just didn't have it on the calendar this year. It says that we'd vote on it later. I think this is the first year we did that. But my question is, I know there was a change in the law, Susan, um that if boards of ed vote after a certain date that even if there are snow days that the graduation date is set in stone, >> right? >> Is that law still in effect? And does this are we within that? >> Yes, we're we're within the our ability to do that, >>

117right? Okay. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Right. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor, which is to set our last date to be June 17th and our graduation date, June 18th. All signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Thank you very much, guys. That was um that's good for the our senior class. They'll be happy to know that. >> Um so, letters of communication, Rita. >> Yes. Um my communications have been mostly about um the schools reopening for four days a week and questions about why is it May 3rd that the it they won't be five full days it'll be four and a half and I think the high school was going like 7 in the morning or

1187:30 to 10:30 it was a very short time period it's only 3 hours I know that that was changed um by the governor. Um I didn't know if that's still in effect, the three hours, but it just seems like such a short amount of time and I was just that was the questions they had and that's mostly for the superintendent to answer. That's all. >> Would you me to >> Sure. >> Okay. Well, one of the things that we're doing a little bit differently is that we don't have subs teaching students remotely that we really thought it was important for the kids to have the teachers that they started the school year with. And frankly, I don't know how other districts have found highly qualified certified chemistry and physics and English language arts teachers to

119to teach their remote kids. I'd really rather have our students have those highly qualified teachers that are theirs already. So, it does it still um takes a lot of work and that Wednesday afternoon has been really essential in helping us to make sure that those lessons are planned and the LMS system is working and that they have everything they need and some time to be able to meet with remote kids too. So the morning will be really for all of them and that will be um a morning that has a lot of different opportunities. One of the things you heard Tom talk about was the assessment. So bringing our kids in in the morning and doing some of those assessments that are needed and in the afternoon if the students who are remote learners um

120can't you know come in the morning they're concerned about health and safety then we'll have time in the afternoon to also support them. Um the other thing that principles have brought up is that whole re-engagement and how can we do some more spiritlike activities. Maybe there's endear field trips that are happening. Maybe there's performances that we're preparing for. So being able to use Wednesday not only for assessment for some other really engaging opportunities um that will be fun and enjoyable. So there's only five of those days, you know, those Wednesdays. is not a whole lot of time. Um, but you know, I think it's, you know, it's valuable time and, um, you know, we we really needed to do that just to make sure that we could cover our bases and and handle teaching the

121kids, mostly the kids in front of us, but there are still a number of kids who will be remote. >> Do you have an idea about how many? I mean, I noticed about 90% are coming back. I can put that in my board notes. >> That would be great. I would prefer that. >> Thank you. >> I'll chart it out so you can kind of see the differences. Elementary, middle school, and high school. >> Thank you, >> Dean. >> Oh, I I same sorts of messages from people wondering, you know, why things are the way they are. Um, but you know, it it's occurred to me that as much as I would prefer to see five days of instruction, however it's done, I also understand that teacher prep takes forever. If you're a mature teacher,

122you figured out how to do it without, you know, running around 247. [Music] >> Especially for some new teachers, you know, it is it is very very time consuming. And I do understand if you've got to teach sort of both ways. >> Um it probably adds some overhead. >> Yes. >> And so I think that it seems to me that the Wednesday was sort of sacrificed or at least part of Wednesday was sacrificed for that. I do have a question. You part of Wednesday is also for for uh teachers to connect with students who may have questions or need some help etc. Are we finding that because of the remote method that more students are coming forward and talking to teachers than they would otherwise in a typical normal physical setting where they'd say, "Well,

123maybe I'll stay." Nah, I won't miss my bus. I'll I'll talk tomorrow and they never really do. Are more are more students connecting with teachers this way? I have heard that Dean that sometimes students who would be a little more reluctant if they were personto person are feeling a little more confident by either doing um you know the app or in the LMS and then actually talking to the teacher or even zooming in um you know one-on-one. So, I have heard some good news, but there have been other students that haven't necessarily picked up the phone or haven't reached out and teachers have had to reach out to them, >> right? >> Yeah, it it sounds like it like it's like it's time consuming. So, where do you find the hours, >> right? It does

124take time and so that's part of this, you know. Um, but we are really looking forward to having the majority of our kids back and I think that's going to make a huge difference. But we can't neglect our students who are remote either. >> It's an unfortunate sacrifice. >> No. So >> Lee, do you have anything? You are muted. >> Did No. >> Okay. >> So sorry. Nope. Nope. Nothing in particular. But thank you for supporting the people um doing their boxes for the food thing. That was that was awful kind of you. Thank you. >> Actually, I'm doing some tomorrow, too, for the city. Yeah. Any anyone who needs food um tomorrow I I can't remember the dates, but we're doing these things. John, >> thank you, Lee. Thank you. >> Glad to do

125it, >> Rosemary. >> Uh I received similar letters. um about um just wondering about what the future holds. Um I have also attended some gas me uh meetings. Um we are looking for more members um and we'd love to get some parents involved if um you can spread the word and GASP also has some interesting things going on for students to participate in. So, it's a nice connection and I've um uh let Carolyn know that um we are interested um and and I want to thank people who showed an interest in the um sound community services diaper drive because we have a lot of young parents. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> So, thank you. >> Thank you, Liz. I've had a couple of people contact me about why we're not going five days. So, I

126just wanted, you know, to, you know, they wanted an explanation and I give them an explanation. Um, I do I have encountered um an kind of a mixed bag of people who are um happy that that the kids are going back and others who are angry. So, um it's just it's just the the time. It's just the situation. So, just working hard to to uh you know, allay fears and to support people's decisions. >> And I would encourage families to look on our website because we keep communicating and adding information. So, most up-to-date information. Rebecca's done a lovely job, you know, making sure it's all up there and um you know, >> absolutely >> to help parents >> and also with um to connect on with Lee tomorrow, a Fitch graduate is coming to that

127uh St. John's food drive and she's driving the Nutmobile from Planters Company and Mr. Peanut is showing up. Oh, >> so I was able to get uh she used to be my neighbor. She's a well, she almost was a Fitch grad. She had to leave her her mom and dad. They left this area in her senior year, which was very devastating to her, but she's really bounced back. She graduated from the University of Indiana, and this is her job. And she's been traveling around the country on the nut mobile. And so if you're if you're by St. John's tomorrow about 3:30. Look for Mr. Peanut. >> What's your name? >> Her name is Grace. Grace Noise. >> I will look for her. >> Okay. Well, I'm gonna be down there, too. But I just >>

128Jay, try to follow that up. >> Oh, boy. Um, so in addition to all the emails that that the rest of you got, I I did get a a question about the graduation date. And so tonight's vote was very timely so that they can make their plans. Um and we're looking forward, you know, to an in-person graduation. Uh fingers crossed. I'm not guaranteeing that. Um and then um I was remiss by starting the meeting late. I was remiss in not recognizing and maybe Liz did but uh recognizing Kita Hajj as having reinstituted our participation in the Connecticut History Day which for which I understand is the first time since um Mrs. Porter uh was at the high school. So glad to see that uh tradition started again. >> Andrea On Saturday, I had the pleasure

129of going to a virtual conference at Can um the University of Connecticut headed and facilitated by Kiana Foster Moore who is a graduate of Fitch High School and also Martin Luther King Scholar and it was a a national multicultural education conference and it was just superbly done and in in conjunction with our own diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. I'm going to be meeting with Kiana to see how we can diversify, attract, and and um and actually bring to Groten a more diverse face to our faculty so that our faculty and our our entire community reflect each other. And I wanted to point out too that uh Kiana has has um presented nationally and at the Harvard School of Education. >> Very nice. >> Jane, >> what I have noticed is that um there is a

130great relief um with people having been vaccinated. teachers are far more comfortable with getting up and going to school every day and very grateful um for everyone being well. >> Thank you, Jane. >> It's huge. It's a huge turn to move forward. >> It does feel big, does it not? So, um I have the series of emails that most people had spoken to. I did receive a text from um the mayor of the town um Patrice who uh someone had sent her a graph that actually the COVID numbers last week had increased in Grten just that my sense is that that's what's going to happen but that she just wanted to make sure that we were aware of that. Um, but um, I'm just really excited about hearing about people who have attended our schools

131or have graduated from our schools and going off and doing great things. I think that's a great way to end our time together tonight. Um, but I want to make sure that >> before we before you end, can I just um say one thing? I I about Susan. Um, Mrs. Boston had done an interview for Welcome to the Welcome to Graten program and it was excellent. It's about the Graten Public Schools and she really did a fantastic job. So, anyone who can tune in, it's right on YouTube or on the local channel. Um Sean at the library filmed it and it it was it's just excellent. So, thank you Susan. >> Well, thank you. I wish it could have been in person. It was on a zoom, but I was happy. >> It was very

132well done. Thank you. >> Thank you for um um making sure that that that we talked about it. So, the last part of the page is our our dates. Susan, when is the school on break? >> The school is on break um from about the 10th. I don't have my calendar in front of me. So we have um Good Friday on the 2nd which will be a day off from school. We come back the next week and then we have the week off after that. And I'm just looking but I feel like the 10th is a Saturday. So throughout that next week >> okay so the 12th we have a committee of the whole meeting and we tech we typically do not meet >> as a as a board. So on so Joan I'm wondering

133if you can make that correction. Um but that we will not we will be down one committee of the whole meeting and and Susan and I will plan accordingly um to that. Um we typically do the um the policy and finance on the 5th and we can do maybe the um curriculum on the 19th before the CO. So we'll get the other meetings in. >> Yes. So you and Jane can can work out that' be great. Um, and then also the on the last page there is the um the other other meeting dates and and Miss Joan, I'm just wondering if if we could make sure that we get on the RTM um if the RTM has done their schedule in terms of do they do a public hearing? I can never Dean, do you

134remember? >> Yes. >> RTM do a public hearing too? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Don't we? So many are so many public hearings, so little time. All right. So, so that >> slideshow, not to worry. >> So, that needs to go on. Um, our advance for our town stuff. Um, and also what's not on here is the board of ed's portion of the town meeting or the town budget is not on here as well. >> Is is that different than March 29th? >> Yes, >> that is. >> Oh, that is >> that is March 29th. Oh, I am just quickly moving through the March. Okay. So, thank you, Rita. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> I thought we were meeting the 25th. >> That is the public hearing and that is when we're doing the presentation,

135but the 29th is when the town council brings um goes into our budget. >> It's always good to have some of our board members present for that. Right. >> And they'll be sending us a link to that. It'll be their meeting. >> It'll be their meeting >> and they'll send us a link. >> I don't know how that's going to happen. Maybe maybe Susan and I need to investigate that. >> Joyce reach out tomorrow. >> So, we'll have So, Joyce will Joyce will tell us. >> Kim, is that are we gonna get a link for the 25th? Joyce is looking into that and she'll she you we will know by the 25th. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. Um agenda topics. Um what what we're doing for the summer, which I think is already on our CO,

136>> you know, how we going to do credit recovery and how we're going to get our our students that have >> fallen behind a little bit back up to speed >> and camps to re-engage them. >> Yeah. and camps. >> Yeah. >> Exciting camps with great >> fun literacy. >> Yeah. And and you know, we're just so grateful that we are we have the funds to be able to do this >> from the federal government. and the state >> and I I have to say um that I was given the heads up from CAPS that they have these ESSER consultants because the number that we were given for the third ESSER is quite large 7 million and they can advise us and work with our committee. So I will probably ask a couple board members

137to join me and some teachers across the district because this is such a big deal. It used to be that Mike and I would kind of figure this out with the principles and with central office, but I think this is so big that we should include a few of you and present it to you once we've done it. But to have an esser consultant or someone through CAPS that can help us and tell us what is doable and versus, you know, what's not doable is a really good idea. So Fran Rabinowitz had reached out to me. So I said, "Yes, count me in." just talk about what the um what that acronym stands for for people who may not know. >> So the ESSER funds are really named the CARES Act. So we had a

138CARES Act one or the ESSER one and it's an education relief. I don't have all the you know the the words for it but we've we've known it as the CARES Act and we've had one two and and now three is coming. Okay. other agenda topics. >> So, Andrea, I don't know if you're have an agenda topic or whether you're doing something. Rita, >> um there is >> I'm just waiting. >> Andrea, just take a second. Um, I would like to hear from maybe guidance um at the high school to see how our seniors are doing um with their acceptances at colleges and what they're going to be doing in the future. It'd be nice to have um a report because it must be very difficult this year for for the students with college acceptances

139and you know how they're how they're planning their future those that are graduating. I don't know if the guidance counselor or if one of the vice principles would like to report on that sometime to the board. Thank you. >> Okay, that sounds like a good idea. >> Any other future agenda title topics? >> Could you just check Kim for me? On the 29th, what meeting do we have? I have the 25th, but I don't have >> Oh, the 20 the 25th is going to be the public hearing for the town council. >> Yep. Um and with that's Susan and I will do a presentation about our budget that we have voted on and the 29th >> is when the town council talks about the board of education budget. >> Okay. Thanks. >> That's what that

140>> I sent all board members I think I sent the presentation twice to you by accident but you have it. >> You did. Thank you. >> Notes too. >> You did. Any other future topics? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Say good night, Gracie. >> Second, Gracie. I'll second that. >> Thank you, Vita. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Abstain. The motion has carried. You guys, nice work. Nice work. Nice work. >> Thank you. >> Night. Have a good evening. Night and >> I'll see you soon.