8-22-22 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Um, Miss Jones, do I have a quorum? >> Yes, ma'am. You do. >> Mark, are you ready? >> I am. Thank you. >> All right. Super. Good evening, everyone. I would like to call the Groten Board of Education regular meeting August 22nd. Um, and it's 6:04. And I would like to call it to order. And the first order of business is um, uh, salute to the flag. Um and um Susan, would you be willing to lead us? Thank you. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand indivisible with all. Thank you. Um sorry just want to slow down. Um miss um the next part is recognition of and participation of visitors and or delegations and I don't think that we have any. So we are going

002to move on to comments from citizens. Um this is part of our agenda item and other subjects of concern that lie within the jurisdiction of the board of education. 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 wr related to matters pertinent to broughten. 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 meetings. Citizens should state their names and addresses for the record. Miss Joan, do we know of anyone that uh is asking to speak to the board that is online because we have no one here in public? >> I have not received

003anything. We do not have anyone in the chat as well. And I don't see anyone wishing to speak. are raising their hand. So, I am going to move us past that. Just trying to do that slowly in case someone's trying to figure out technology. All right, we are going to move down to the student representative report. And have we heard anything from the high school? I have heard that there were four selected, but we haven't met them yet. So, as soon as they get back to school, hopefully we'll be meeting them next month. >> And maybe we could have a board member meet with you guys so that we can get we can and I think Andrea would be happy to do that to meet up with the student board. Okay. Can people on Zoom

004hear me as well? >> Okay. Thank you, T. I'm hoping that we have a family showing today. All right. And so I'm going to move us down to the superintendent administration reports. Um and Susan, so we have an attendance report. The board has all seen it, but we'd like to go through it and Tom is able to um showcase the report. So, we'll do like we've done before where we'll go through the beginning of the report, stop it, and if there are any questions or if you have questions in between, just raise your hand and stop it so we can see each other. >> Can you guys just confirm for me that you can see my screen? >> Yep, I can see it. >> Perfect. So, we are going to review uh the attendance data

005from last school year. um that is this is one of the first data sets that has been released. We are anxiously awaiting the rest of the state data to be released at some point this week is what we anticipate from uh Abe Crist over at CSTE. So we should see the rest of the data this week. So we are going to be looking at two of our indicators today around chronic absenteeism. Uh first I just want to start off with a couple quick definitions. So the difference between chronic absence and truency in the state of Connecticut. So chronic absence is missing 10% or greater of the total number of days enrolled during a school year. So for a student who's with us every single day during the school year. That's 18 days more than 18

006days. If however if a student is only with us for a month that's only counted within a month. So if you were only here 30 school days more than three days would be considered chronically absent. So it is percentage based. It's not just a certain number of days. And then truency is four unexcused absences in one month which they actually they don't calculate it just by the month of September. They calculate it as a 30-day consecutive period and then 10 or more unexused absences in a school year. All right. So this was our data for all students in Groten. So this is historical from 201617 till the present. Um and as you can see uh we had relatively consistent uh chronic absence data before the pandemic. This is for all students altogether. So ranging from

00711.3 up to 12.6. We went very high during the pandemic as most districts did to 37 a.5%. We have dropped back down to 27% for last year. Um but that is obviously still well higher than we were before the pandemic. Uh the important thing to remember here is that one COVID quarantine from last year was 10 school days. Uh that would count towards chronic absenteeism, not truency, but chronic absenteeism. It would affect a student. So if they were out for one quarantine or or in potentially multiple quarantines that had a major effect we believe on the chronic absenteeism numbers from last year >> or COVID illness absolutely or exposure at home any of those things could have greatly impacted >> when the state department met with us they actually said that they're um that this

008is pretty familiar because of the way we were quarantining and expecting people to stay home when they're sick and then if they were exposed remember we were contact tracing and sending people home. So um but we certainly want to get back to where we were and even better than that. >> Absolutely. Um so the state looks this in two different indicators. They look at all students. That's what you're seeing here. They also look at it by high need students. These are two different indicators the state bases it on. Um and as you can see si similar kind of data before the pandemic. So pretty consistent in the years leading up to the pandemic, very high during the pandemic year. Um and then again a substantial drop but still well above where we want to be.

009So at 33 and a half% last year. Uh high need students are students who are um free for free and reduced lunch, ELLL or special education. So they are grouped together into a category called high needs by the state of Connecticut. So what we, you know, what Susan and Phil and I wanted to do, you know, there's no perfect way to to try to figure out exactly how much of chronic absenteeism was caused by COVID 19. Um, but we we do have a way of getting a relatively close idea and that is kind of excluding out excused absences. So this kind of takes out the absences that would have been COVID quarantine. It also takes out any other absences that might have been for illnesses unrelated to COVID. So this is not a perfect measure

010um but it lets us see ballpark what our crowd absenteeism rate would have been if we kind of took COVID out of the equation from last year. So last year we had 27% of crowd absenteeism. However, that goes down to 15.3% if we kind of take out all those excused absences and only look at the unexcused absences. So we're estimating that our chronic absenteeism rate without co quarantines would have been in the neighborhood of 15.3%. So again, not an exact figure, but much closer to where we were before. Still a bit above our our district average, but in that ballpark. Any questions about that metric? Again, this is just an estimate that we created. >> Now, the goal for the state is 5%. So, we do have >> or less to go or less. >>

011Susan, did you say 5%? the the goal is really to see um no more than 5% of our students be considered chronically absent >> and that is a universal goal uh by CST. So where where other goals are kind of uh CSD kind of meets you where you are and sets realistic targets to kind of gradually step down or gradually increase uh that 5% rule at a universal for every district. So if you could be at 60% chronic absenteeism like some districts are or where we are um and everybody's goal is the same when it comes to that metric that that is unique for for CSTE. >> So progress here is when the numbers get smaller. So what is >> that's what we're looking for. >> What is CSD? Is that Connecticut State Department of

012Education? >> Yes, sorry. Connecticut State Department of Education. Correct. So, is there any school districts in our in our DU that is close to the fine? >> You're going to get there and couple slides. >> You are thinking ahead. >> Um, so, so one of the ways we wanted to look at the data this year um was based on grade level. So, we wanted to break up our our chronic absenteeism rate based on grade level. Again, this is all students. It's not just high needs. Um you can see transition years uh consistently have higher than average chronic absenteeism rates especially kindergarten in sixth grade again in ninth grade and then our seniors as well. Uh we we seem to have a lot of seniors who have who have skipped out at the end of the

013year and have have really spiked that chronic absenteeism rate. Um that rate was significantly lower uh earlier in the spring. So that did raise substantially as we approached summer vacation. >> Yeah. I I just had a quick question. So this is I I put what year. It doesn't say what year. This is last year. >> Yes. All this data is last year. That is correct. >> I mean it's really appalling when you think of almost half the seniors were chronically absent. >> That is correct. So that means they on average they missed about 18 days of school. >> Right. >> Yep. >> Can I question? >> Yes. >> Absolutely. >> Uh the viewers can't see the uh percentage for the 12th grade. that times the 42% which I found staggering and I'm not sure anybody

014can answer the question. And I'm very pleased to see we have goals which will come up in a few slides. But how do we get from 42%? Do we have to do sanctions or can we do legislation? >> It's a rhetorical question for now. >> Yeah, I I Matthew I I we don't currently have an enforcement mechanism around chronic absenteeism. There there is one around truency uh because that is a state requirement. So my impression is that most of these would become wrapped up within truency enforcement. Um so I don't believe we necessarily need a separate mechanism for chronic absenteeism. >> We will talk about ways that we plan on dealing with this um coming back to community. Attendance matters. You matter for adults and for students. There's no more contact tracing. So not we're

015not sending people home if they've been exposed unless they've got a fever and unless they're sick and unless they're living with someone. So the um state um you know of Connecticut um health departments have relaxed some of those things because we really feel like a lot of this is an anomaly of what we've just been through in a pandemic. I'm gonna recognize Rita and then Andrea. >> Hi. Yes. Um I thought we had a policy for chronically absent students that if you miss so many days you were, you know, I know a letter went home and you were told that you weren't going to be able to graduate or move on to the next grade level. Is that still the case? >> It is. And that is around truency. Absolutely >> truency. But what about

016the chronically absent? And I thought that was the same thing. >> So truency kind of sorry it wraps all those up. Chronically absent isn't necessarily a measure that we're looking at in those terms. So but to your point the triggers around reaching out at certain kind of thresholds when they meet you know 3 days 5 days 10 days that is a a school and board policy that we do follow up on currently. Yes. >> And how many of these sixth grade students let's say or these ninth grade students have been held back? I mean, if they like if if a child in ninth grade or 10th or 11th grade doesn't have the amount of credits to move on to even graduate, are they brought in and you know, do they speak to their guidance counselor

017and say, you know, like listen, you're not going to be able to graduate if you don't have the credits. You've been absent a third, you know, so many days. And what do we do for our younger students? I mean, I know it's not kosher anymore to hold people back, but you get to the point that they have to be way behind grade level if they're missing that many days of school. So, I mean, I think we're doing a disservice if we don't have stricter um, you know, policies about this. So beyond the pandemic which really highly affected these numbers because a kid could be out for 10 days he would you know at with the illness and then maybe 10 days with the quarantine or something like that and within one year they're chronically absent

018more so than we've ever seen before. But with the policy comes a regulation that has tiered interventions and we use those tiered interventions. We're going to be working with our administrators, our social workers, all those people who have our crisis teams or our attendance teams to really make sure that we're following through with parents, not just sending a letter home, but making phone calls and making sure that we're on top of the reasons why they're out. >> Has I mean, Norwich, I know, hired a Truan officer also, and I think London has one. Is that something that we could do? >> Say that one more time, Rita. I'm sorry. I got >> Oh, I'm sorry. I I know that some towns have truin officers that actually, you know, make a point of it's just not

019true, but those chronically absent from school to go to their homes. Um, I mean, I read the measures in the back that we're going to do. I mean, they're they're words on paper to me, but unless you have somebody really like tracking these students, and I don't mean the little teams that, but I I just think that this is really appalling. I mean even if you look back to what it was and it's even worse for those students that are on free and reduced lunches and so forth and so on the number you know it's it's just these students need encouragement to come to school and we have to figure out a way to do that as far that's my feeling >> so I think one of the things we're putting into place is more

020support from central office looking at the numbers timely and making sure that the attendance teams at the schools have the support that they need. We did notice during the co year that was so dismal and you know we had hybrid model and a lot of kids out some kids we couldn't even find and so we found that having a personalized approach whether it's your classroom teacher or it's your principal or assistant principal or guidance counselor or somebody you knew coming to the door seeing what was happening and what the needs of the family were really served a a good purpose in getting some kids back. So we will definitely use those interventions but we'll also support our schools giving them you know our resources that we have here at central office to help support them.

021So through data team will be monitoring it school data teams and through our um our actual attendance teams. That's part of why we added hours for our um coordinators, our community coordinators to to help us. But but what about the students that have missed so much? Will they not be allowed to move on to the next grade level? >> Well, it doesn't that there may or may not be a correlation with their grades. So there there may be students who had a bout of COVID and then was quarantined but still was able to go to school on all those other days beyond the 18 and do quite well. you know, they were able to make up some of those assignments. >> But when when we get to the the slide that says percentage of chronically

022absent students by region and you look at Waterford, Northington, Stonington, Montville, they're they're all way below us and they have the same issues with COVID. So, I still think we we need to do more as as a as a school system to help our students get to school. So, what would be your what would what would be your do more? >> Well, first of all, I don't think we should be moving kids on that don't have the grades. It this is from elementary on. I mean, I know kids are not being held back and and I think that it's a disservice. It's a disservice to the students. It's a disservice to the teachers that they'll have the next year in school because they're not ready. Let's say a fifth grader is not ready for sixth

023grade. They don't have the basis, you know, the knowledge base. Um, I just think that we have to enforce our policies and be a lot lot stricter and not not be afraid to hold kids back from from moving on. I think that is much more um of a threat than you know just having a data team look at this and you know maybe somebody going to the home once in a while but >> well that's not what I hear them saying. I do hear that we're getting in charge of the data but I don't hear it's just a once in a while. So I I do want to >> there's been a lot of persistence around getting kids back to school and there has been a pandemic. You need to remember that that this is

024not this is a once in a hundred year kind of thing that happens. And we believe in accelerating kids, engaging them, getting them back and giving them the tutoring and the extra help that they need so that they can continue on to the next grade level and we've been pretty successful with that. But this this data does show that we had, you know, students who more students than usual have that 18 day out of 182 day problem. And first I I wanted to say that in terms of a pandmic that was then, this is now we're looking at now. So I wonder I'm wondering Susan is um do we have a reason why each of these students was absent today? >> It's all in power school. Yes. >> And unless it's unexcused and the parent

025didn't give us information >> and that was my question about and how do we assess whether it's correct? Well, tell us we yeah I mean we we I think the closer to home that's why it's harder to tell from a district bird's eye view the closer to home we are to the school situation whether and it's really that classroom teacher is more likely to find out what the needs of the family what the needs of the student is you know to be able to inform us to have anything formal in place for assessing >> well it is the classroom teacher that is marking them power school. So that's as close as you can get to knowing if they're, you know, why they're out. [Music] >> Well, yeah, the parent would say that they're sick. They

026they've really been held more accountable to say they're sick and that they have COVID. That's been part of the protocol. You remember that they share as well. >> This was 21. This is 21.2. 22 right >> that you're looking at. >> So it's not in the rearview area. >> No, I know it's not like >> I So my push back on that Andrea is that it's not behind because there was still protocol in terms of quarantine. >> I understand that. I understand. But I still don't I still don't understand to how are we assessing whether um I guess since you mentioned that that they are giving accurate reasons for not just saying >> I'm sorry I think I have an answer for Andrew's question but can somebody repeat it a little louder for me please?

027>> Can you say your question a little bit louder? Oh. Oh, I see. Tom, my my question is how are we how do we know that what the parent is telling us is so and does that just not enabling the child? >> So, so we do have a policy in place um it's part of the truency policy actually from the state of Connecticut. So, for the first 10 excused absences, 10 we do take the parents word for it, but the parent has to either call or directly email the school saying that a student is sick. After 10, a doctor's note or some kind of other valid proof of an excused absence is required. The parent themselves cannot excuse the child after the 10 point. >> And are we following through on that? >> Sorry, are

028we following through on that policy? >> Getting the note from the doctor? >> Yes, to the best of my knowledge, yes, the school nurses uh especially last year with CO 19 were were very much on that policy. And I guess my last comment is that I piggy back on what Rita said and that is I I really believe I think we need to to take as Rita says to to take that when I look at the chart the one we had just before light blue and orange or yellow. I see 42% amongst amongst the seniors. To me that says there there's a certain number there are a certain number of seniors who are just ditching school the last few weeks because they finished their they finished their stuff and it's time to give up and

029they become uh role models. Otherwise I can't explain the difference of why the high school is so much higher than all the others. I could be wrong. Um, if we have kids who are absent a lot in the last quarter, we need to tell them that they're going to have to do summer school and have their diploma on. >> Well, and we can look at the data like that by quarter to see if your um prediction is correct. It's not the hypothesis, >> right? So, we can we can take a look at that. But I think moving forward the campaign is going to be um attendance matters and I'm going to be talking about this at convocation with the teachers as well. It matters that the teachers are here with us and that um we're

030back to community and you know full throttle um everybody working together and the kids are back and that message is going to be loud and clear to parents as well. that it, you know, it makes a difference. Their learning takes suffers typically if they're not here with us. So, um, so I just I just want to make sure I'm clear on something that it is I know that policy about or that state about once you're in 10 days and every time a doctor's not. So, you're telling me then that for every child that isn't in school, there's a doctor's note on file every time that kid is ask if they send their >> one once they go over 10 days. Are you asking? >> Once they go over 10 days, >> right? >> So, so

031not necessarily because we could all if they don't provide a doctor's note, then the child just gets put in as an unexcused absence at that point. But we're not doing anything about that. >> Well, so so if it's an unexcused absence, then it starts our truency protocol. So then that process begins. Um, so there there's kind of a a process that goes along with it. So if there is a real reason, you know, the child has a medical condition that's keeping them out of school. They would have doctor's notes in, they would keep getting excused absences, and therefore the truency kind of procedure would hold off. Um if they're not providing those doctor's notes, then there'd be unexcused absences put in at which point then the truency uh would be activated and those policies would

032start to be enforced. >> And then what happens? >> I'm sorry. >> And then what happens? What's the truency? >> Well, this the school within 10 business days uh needs to inform the family that they are truent and then they're supposed to follow up on that protocol. Ultimately, it can be a referral to DCF if it gets to that point. Um I don't know of any cases that got to that point last year. >> There were absolutely DCF reports filed in some cases. >> I could probably find that. >> So can we Tom starting the 20 22 23 school year? >> Yep. How how soon into the school year can we get a cohort of absences that would make sense for the board to look at? >> So, so my thought for next year was

033to look at this quarterly. So, roughly, you know, every 45 school days. Uh that would take us till, you know, I really that first week in November would probably be the earliest that we could look at it. I feel like anything lower than that would be such a small number. It's it's tough to look at it when you're only talking 20 school days where three school days or or more could get you really close to that chronic absent mark. So I think 45 would be a a good number to look at this year >> because this is what I'm thinking. Obviously, the message is from the board is that we're really alarmed >> at at the high level and that's a good message for you to have to be able to tell the principles and

034that we can make it our our our piece that on a quarterly basis we're reviewing the absence records and then can say, "Wait a second, maybe we don't have a policy that's strong enough that the the district needs in order to be able to combat that or are there other mitigating factors that are not in play and I know that you have some slides I think you are indicating that or at least there is a correlation between that. Um so um but I am just wondering if it makes sense for us to see what the what what those did you say like first 45 days might >> yeah I believe that's in off the top of my head I think that's November 2nd but I might be off by a day or two. Well, shame

035on you. Um, so if we could at the very beginning, so Miss Joan, if you could even um help us um get a get a a a tickler in there so that in November we're looking at these um and then also sort of um if we can also have like what what has each individual school been doing if it noticed that high piece so that the board can be so that we can start off knowing what we have in front of us uh for the school year. Does that make sense to to people? One of the things I have heard from family and from principles is that if a child misses the school bus in the morning, it's it's it's not likely that some parents can get them to school. They might not have transportation.

036They might have a job. They might there are even children who have to watch their brothers and sisters sometimes. And so that is a dilemma that we have in our community. Um they even mentioned to me when I was at the barbecue at Brford Manor, it would be great if we had a bus that could go by a couple of these larger neighborhoods and do a second round to get them to school. So, um I know that our my elementary principles um have stated that it's quite a problem and they've been known even to send, you know, to get the mom and the child in if it's a a real problem to send some kind of a a van or something to bring them in. So, um you know, that's something to contemplate, too. We

037want to really figure out what the problem is here. You know, we have to analyze like a lot of different points of view and maybe even survey. >> Well, like something like the bus that's a that's a cost to the district. Don't misunderstand. It might be very useful. But is it does the cost does the action meet the cost? In other words, you get the better benefit of that. So, but once again, I think that that's something that in November, if we had enough information to be able to determine what's happening, we can then make a decision. Do we put into the budget a true officer? Do we consider the practices or policies around do do kids um get to be able to to move up the next level or graduate? I mean, I think

038I think I think it's all well and good that we can take a look and be alarmed, but we need to sort of take this information and we got to hope that we've got things in place right now that can help us lower this amount. Um, and that we are also going to be dedicated to that and that's a message that S that we can give Susan um to give to her staff um about that the board is really concerned about that. Matthew and then Vita. I'm sorry. Okay. >> I I appreciate Susan very much the nuance expression some of the reasons. When we get to the next slide, we'll see that this is somehow to free these. So that means that there's a much higher probability that the kids who are most disadvantaged more

039disadvantage as well. So I'm wondering if you couldn't I won't call it policy because but practice if you will that if a child misses the number I'll use the number three it's your call the child misses three classes in a two-month period or however you want to structure it automatically at that point well before we get the three that we have some direct contact with the family to say what's going on with the child sick Is he or she doing the homework? What resources can you bring to that? Let me initiate this sooner so that if somebody is walking off the cliff, we can touch them before. >> Well, that's why I said the closest person especially in elementary is that classroom teacher because they are in communication with the parent. they would reach out

040if the parent hasn't called and as soon as they saw some kind of a pattern or you know knew that the child was um you know really being compromised because of the attendance they would absolutely follow up in a high school it could be the counselor it could be a teacher it could be a social worker but you're right it's got to be someone who knows the child and would be paying attention to that and better than you know we could be looking at it at central office and say by the way which we will but also I think making a point to the teachers that they as their part of their role is to be paying attention to attendance do do you think it might help the faculty or the teachers the support staff

041if there were a threshold you set whatever number they felt was appropriate so they didn't we didn't have different teachers using different standards and x number y amount of automatically. That's when you need to have a first intervention. >> Well, it has to be, you know, up to it has to be less than three in a month because three in a month already makes them chronic. >> I trust you. >> But it could be if they know that they have CO you and you had, you know, information from the home and information from the doctors, you wouldn't call them on the CO because you knew you had a reason. It's the ones that don't have a leak and they have to watch out for them. >> But we saw with our analysis of the reading

042scores that also again skew to everything secure. So even if they have a reason early intervention is the my humble judgment is the best way to mitigate the damage right sooner than later becomes a problem. >> Yeah. and and Matthew I think to we need to hold on to that whole issue around equity like what does the board term as equity right and that um in terms of getting you know that just equity is is kind of keeping the playing field the same for everyone. So giving people what they need in order to be able to have what the what that thing that's sort of what equity is, right? And so if we're having a higher level of absences, right, in in areas where there's not as much equity, how do we as a district

043support that? And I think that goes to your your the scores, the median scores, scores, right? >> Rita, did you have your hand up still? Uh, yes I do. I'll lower it now, but I do have a couple of questions. Susan, I'd like you to check for me with the high school um administration. when my children were students at the high school and I know even after that um if a child or a student was chronically absent or true it 10 days one semester let's say 10 the next they were called in front of a panel even if they had excused absences if it was more than 20 days about and there the panel was made up of um peers teachers and administrators and they sat down with them and then actually this panel decided

044whether or not they could move on if there are excuses why they weren't there. You know, not not just like a fake doctor's note, but a real doctor's note. You know, they had operations and so forth, but they actually, you know, there was some meat behind everything that, you know, people didn't want to be called in in front of this group of people and sort of gone over everything. you were then held back or you couldn't go on to the next grade level. What is being done like that at our high school now? That's what I wanted you to check on and report back to us, not just in board notes, but publicly. >> Be happy to. >> Thank you. >> Um, thank you, Tom. >> Are we ready to continue? >> Please do, my

045friends. Okay. >> Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I'm being reminded by my fair lady um to my left, Andrea. I just had a an observation about the bus. I wouldn't want to give the idea that oh well, I'll slip in, but I'll just catch the bus, but in terms of the cost, don't we have we paid the bus from what to >> Right. I appreciate that. >> As soon as it came out of my mouth, I realized that. But but I'm hoping that um and then we can move on is that this does help you Susan in terms of that the board is really concerned about specifically the higher the the 12th grade and the 40%. >> Well I think each of the transition years causes us to alarm like what's happening that in those

046years kindergarten sixth grade 9th grade and 12th grade those seem to be the high spikes. All right, Tom. >> Um, so I think Matthew alluded to this already, but um, this is looking at the percentage of chronically absent students by free and reduced lunch status. So again, this is all students, but broken up by whether they are eligible for free meals, reduced meals, or not eligible for free meals. This is the closest we can look at socioeconomic data. Um, as you can see, there is a strong correlation between uh the relative socioeconomic status and the rate of chronic absenteeism. So, uh, students who receive free meals, uh, have a much higher rate of, uh, chronic absenteeism than students who do not and students who are reduced. >> Tom, last year though, everyone received free meals,

047right, the past couple of years. And this year, >> that is correct. Um, but they still do have applications on file, so um, we still can determine it because there are other factors that are at play. they might receive SNAP assistance for example um in the home outside of school. So we are able to still have that data. >> Any other questions on this slide? >> I think I'm moving. >> Uh so this is chronic absent by special education status. So students without disabilities versus students with disabilities. As you can see there there is a much higher rate of chronic absentism for students with disabilities. This is not unique to broaden. >> When we do something like this in the future, Tom, can we get an end for each of the columns? >> I'm sorry.

048Can you say that again? You want the number in each cohort? Is that what you're saying? >> Yeah. I don't want to identify anybody, but just the number. >> Yeah. No, absolutely. We can do that. >> Uh, so we did a few comparisons. This is regionally. Um, so I I did just try to grab the surrounding towns so everybody could see kind of in relative terms where we fell this year. Graten is roughly in the middle. Um, kind of looking regionally where we are at this point. [Music] >> No, but I'm thinking I want to call my friends over there. >> Yeah, >> because Waterford is large like Bratton. The other North Stonington, Stonington are really much smaller districts, but I don't know what's happening in Preston either because they're a small district. They've got

049a large number. >> So, Rotten, Norwich, and New London are all high risk um identified. Um it's not it's not the alliance district because I don't want to get confused. We're in the alliance district, the state, but it's reason why we have children first. So there's a children first orchestra, there's a children first in London and there's a children first run and we all got monies for that for three communities because we were identified by the federal government. I need there goes the word if I knew if I moved my sentence along a tad I need it. Right. So I'm not surprised that graten George and London have the high percentage of absence. I mean there's also been question with power school and making sure that our secretaries are all recording data properly. There has

050been problems in the past that we might not have accurately noted that. So Tom's on that as well to make sure that next year we're really careful with how we're um marking attendance and it's not going to be as complicated next year as it has been past several years. >> Absolutely. >> Any other questions regarding this slide? We have a few more comparisons to look at as well. >> Uh so this is looking at our our district reference group, our DURD. Uh so these are are districts who are roughly in the same socioeconomic breakdown as we are. Um and as you can see here, Graten again falls roughly in the in the middle of the grouping. >> Tell us where Gilbert is. >> I'm sorry. >> Gilbert. >> Uh Gilbert is Gilbert school. Uh that

051that is one school that is singled out and within our DUR. >> Okay. No. Yeah. >> All right. And then we also looked at it by the alliance districts. Um so this again is a very large spread. I would say B Grat is within the bottom third here. So that that is very good news overall. Um but you can see I mean that the spread is very large from Vernon who was at about 15% all the way up to New Haven who was at about 60% this year. So NPR did this huge um section on New Haven that they've actually um are hitting the streets right now about the first day of school, the importance of going to school. They're doing kindergarten, middle school, and so sixth grade and nth grade. So they're doing all

052the they're really focusing in on those three those three areas. >> Rita, >> yes. Could Tom could you tell me after Handom it says new after Manchester it says East what what what what time >> oh I apologize it must have cut them off the top of my head I don't know I can follow up and fill those in I apologize >> okay that's I think when I rotated everything it must have cut those off I'm assuming like east is probably east h Oh no no that's not east haven so I I will follow up with you it might be east Windsor in that case >> or east Harford >> Yep or East Harford absolutely Yeah. Okay. Thank you. No, no problem. I was just curious. >> No, I will send I will send a

053a list that faces the right way of all the towns. I apologize for that. >> I really appreciate all this work you're doing, Tom. This is amazing. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. through the laptop. So, so um for one second, we're just having some um fun technical things. Um, our speakers are not on. So if people are here, >> can you hear us now? >> Sounds about the same, but I mean >> it's more when uh Andrea and Matt are talking. >> So we'll have them test it. Testing one, two, three. Yeah. >> Four, five, six. >> Yeah. >> Better. Yeah. >> She's in heaven. >> Yeah, it's definitely better, guys. >> Okay. Well, there's this thing. There might be a reason why she is the superintendent is that she just figures out that

054there's a power button, too. But I figured that a little before. All right. moving us forward, please. >> All right. Uh, so, so we did sit down together and and start developing, obviously, this is just a district level action plan. There are things that need to be done at the school level as well. Um, and I don't know if Susan and Phil want to jump in at certain points to talk about them. Um, you know, I know one thing we want to do is increase our district level communication about the importance of school attendance through an attendance matters campaign. I don't know if Susan, you wanted to speak to that at all. Well, we had done this I think the couple years before COVID hit and it did seem to have some positive effects. We

055had a big banner on the buildings. We made, you know, the little magnets. We talked about it. I talked about it at the district level. Um, principles talked about it on a regular basis. But what really happened was we had these teams that really were working well and making sure we were following up, calling families if they hadn't called in, making sure Was it the child's health? Was it another issue? Was it that they missed the bus and didn't have a ride? You know, really finding out why they were absent. So, we will definitely reignite that campaign. Um, we tried tried to do the best we could during those years with COVID, but it was really challenging because there were people just weren't coming back and they were, you know, kind of sequestered in their

056homes. So, um, we will do that again. And then going back to the tiered series of interventions which we work so hard on that are attached to the policy as regulation. >> Yeah. And one of the things I'll just speak to the next bullet about the school level attendance data teams. Um you know Susan and I visit all the schools together once a month but then we each um I we have individual meetings with the principles as well. Susan with the middle and high school and and and I go to the elementarymentaries. And part of these monthly meetings are going to include a portion of that meeting being dedicated to attendance. Uh getting reports on what their school level attendance data team um is doing, what they're finding and then uh to one of the

057board members earlier points, what we can do uh to support them. Um so so we're anticipating you know increased communication on this issue. um we were going to do this you know anyway as we are again trying to move forward you know postcoid but of course in light of these numbers um it is going to be a monthly priority to to check in and and have an accurate um understanding of the numbers at each at each building. >> Absolutely. And I just wanted to speak to two of the two of the bullet points here. Um on the one hand we are simplifying our attendance reporting next year to try to make it easier on teachers, secretaries, school administrators. So we we truly understand who's who's excused and who's unexcused. We want that to be a

058big focus next year so we can understand the reason behind the absences. And then second, we are implementing a new system. So to Matthew's point about kind of setting um I wouldn't say queries might not be the right word, a trigger for example to say, you know, a student has missed two days of class within the past 30 days. Uh we will have a system in place that provides that report to principles based off whatever parameters that we decide to set as a district team. Um so one of those maybe be on chronic absenteeism somewhere on truency. We can provide um really streamlined reports to each building to those principles and that would assist Susan and Phil as they meet with them. They can go with a report and and have a list of all

059the students who meet those criteria with them. >> I wonder if we can go back to the tier series of interventions. Do we know exactly what that is? >> Yeah, it's attached to the policy. So we can get that to you. >> Okay. I'm wondering if if we could spend an entire CO on each of these bullets so that we really understand what do you mean when you say what what are the increased supports to school attendance exactly what do you do what are we planning to do and what we can get a whole CO >> we could certainly do that we could bring the principles in and some of the people on the attendance teams to talk to um the board about it as well. >> So that makes sense for November when we

060get the data we could then also have that conversation as well. >> Good. Okay. >> All right. >> I had one more thing that I wanted to say that when if we were I know when I was a not when I was a principal, it didn't happen then, but when I was a teacher, we used to have a a dedicated teacher who would call home at each address. So, let's say we went back to that and we get the um the answer, well, he missed the bus. If we got that bus from 6:00 to 6, why couldn't we just say, okay, we'll send the bus for you. I guarantee you that would stop. >> So, let's talk about that in November where my concern is that we've gotten pretty much into the weeds around this

061stuff, right? Um, so you're talking about specific interventions. Let's hear what happens to our data in November. as long as we can talk about this and that we and then along with that is is the action the district action plan very much >> because I I'm going to be very interested to hear about um how if we are really focusing in on making sure that the data is implemented and inputed um correctly about because I know that that has also been a struggle especially for the middle um and high school students in terms of catching each class. So, um I'm interested in doing that. All right, Tom, can you move us through? >> Yep. Uh so, um Susan and Phil and I met and we we also wanted to make sure that we were setting

062goals. Um we we thought it would be appropriate to try to set some goals over the next three years. Um we wanted to set both ambitious goals and realistic goals. Um we were also, you know, all of us were in agreement. We wanted to set goals where eventually we we were getting data that was better than we were from before the pandemic. Um, so here you can see that our goal for this upcoming year for all students is 13 and a half%. So that's half of what it was last year. So we're we're aiming to have our chronic absenteeism from from 2122. Um, and then steadily dropping percentage- wise down to 10% in 2425 and that would be our lowest since you know really we have the data based on these indicators. We did the

063same exercise but for our second indicator which is looking at high need students. So here we're going from 33 and a half% we're aiming to get down to 20% um then 17 and a half% and then down to 15% in three years. So again we're aiming to be below where we were on average from prior to the pandemic by the end of 2425. That is our goal at this point. Um, thank you so much and I echo what Vita um talked about is that we really appreciate your hard work and making sure that we have the data but also putting it in a way that kind of makes sense for us. Um, so that's actually what Rita said. I'm just echoing I give credit credit is due um echoing what Rita had said in terms

064of your work um and helping us understand it and clearly um this board is concerned about just like you guys are and so the partnership around around to do that feels really really wonderful. Let's move on to enrollment. So um we still are working very closely with the registar and Tom and Rebecca have certainly supported that team um to make sure that um we've been able to get requests in. I had mentioned in one of the board notes um couple weeks ago that the military um children continue to come in, especially kindergarteners. And um I did talk to Miranda about how orders have been given to get to Groten, but they're waiting for that October one number when when the military has the funds to send them to their new port. So we might just

065have a little overlap in here, which can be a good thing for impact. So as long as I can find a seat for every kindergartener, we also have um done that um preliminary screening for TK. We actually did a pretty thorough screening um just at the beginning of August and so there have been 18 students selected. So they'll be um taken out for the one year to go to Thes River with the TK teacher, but they'll be making room in those kindergarten classes that they're leading. So um that's a very um good thing for us too because we have that extra FTE for TK. Um, when I look at the numbers, I just kind of did an average of what's there. Now, there are not all placed and there will be even some children coming

066in probably the day of school starting for for the screening and we haven't known them yet. So, but most of the numbers are between 18 and 22 in K through five. So, right now I'm I'm really not alarmed. I don't see anything outrageous in those numbers, but I do worry if we continue to see the votes come in and and not see people moving that it could cause a little bit of strain. Although I have to say that the board recognizes the value of having small classrooms and you set um your ideal is is really a good number ideal. It's it's really between 20 22 24 as the kids get older. And so um but by contract I've had years where um at one of the military schools we might have 25 26 and we've

067been able to have a pair by contact we are able to add support in the classroom to help the teacher. Um so just letting you know it's not all settled. We still have probably another hundred being um registered across the district K through 12. Um and they're working very hard on this every day and communicating to parents. Some of it is we have an online system for enrollment which is wonderful. But then if they need to show the verification for um registration um and proof that they live here that sometimes comes in a little later. So just making those phone calls home that you're not fully registered yet. You still need X Y and Z. So Tom's even on that, he's thought of a way that they can give those parents feedback from that system

068to say you still need to do this or that. You still need to bring in your lease or whatever it is. So um we're we're working on it trying to make it a better process, too. Thanks for keeping us updated. >> Um MSAP >> MSAP grant. So, um, >> stands for magnet school assistance program. We had one of those for Westside and Cutler. If you remember, it was with Learn, our really wonderful partners at Learn. Um, I can't say enough about them. Between the professional learning and the opportunities that they've given us and the networking that is provided through Learn for all the districts around is phenomenal. And when learn approached me um it was Kate Ericson who approached me personally and said we were so proud of the way that Grten um performed on

069the NSAP grant from the middle schools. She was inviting me to apply and to think about it for the elementary schools. So um she said that the follow through with the MSAP grant the data from the past MSAP grant was phenomenal. I I hear from principal Bass and Leslie Forbes and uh Kathy Wilson who are kneede in the process that they just it was so enriching for the kids um and amazing what we were able to provide you know the community provided this beautiful brown middle school but with what's inside the community and the the teaching and learning that's happening and the resources whether it's through um coding in robotics or whether it's through the core classrooms um you know the music program so many facets were really sought for were available because of this

070grant so in a similar way the real thrust of a magnet school assistance program is equity so it's really goes right along with our our you know goals here and our vision here with um the building of the two new elementary schools and the idea of having magnets and home area schools. Um we really did see uh improvement in our data as far as equity, but we're not there yet. And so that's the reason that this grant would help us. I don't know if you remember the name Michael Alves, but he was one of the um the professors that really worked with us side by side to make sure that Grant Middle School had equity down into the classroom and made sure that it wasn't just in the school, but that in the classroom, you

071know, in all the periods that it mirrored the community. And so that's what we would like to see in our elementarymentaries as well. and the resources besides, you know, I mean, that's the real focus of an MSAP grant. And um I even there was another quote that I didn't put in that was in the letter. While progress has been made in Grten's desegregation efforts, Connecticut continues to provide notice to the board of education of impending imbalance. The board seeks to prevent a recurrence of minority group isolation that led to the creation of the grant 2020 plan because that was the catalyst for change for us. you know, it was already in the thoughts of people, I think, going back to 2002, but it was that um that letter that we got from the State Department

072that really put the plan into motion. And it says, "A key strategy for a sustainable solution is the creation of rigorous and engaging magnet schools which will attract diverse applicants from across the Graten communities. So, um, you know, disagregated by socioeconomics, by different races, by looking at our bilingual community and our our Spanish speaking community. So, all of those will be um, you know, part of this and and the the way that we can magnetize these magnets with the extra funding and partner with Nest and Project O, those all have big price tags. So, I think this is going to give us more leverage. um and even looking at a northeast academy arts to see what what are some of the things that can draw populations there is really important. So that's the concept of

073the MSAT and the learn folks have been given some you know reassuring news good news that they're that this is very promising as well. Um, so I know that Tom has worked so hard on the data that's been needed. I don't know what I would do without him these days with all that we've had. But um, certainly appreciate, you know, both he and Phil work on these projects together and then keep me a a breast of it and then I have to add my two cents and we go back to the drawing board and then we come here and we get more information that we can work on. Um, but >> when will when will we hear about whether we'll get the the grant? >> So, I think you're the due date for them getting

074back to the federal um government um is Wednesday. I think >> that that is that is their goal. So, um the they did come back and and ask for both additional data from both us and learn. uh they basically want us to play an imaginary game and say if MSAP doesn't happen what will graten and learn look like in five years uh which is an interesting exercise so we are both the learn team and myself are working on those projects uh we hope to submit them back to them by Wednesday >> wow yeah that's a project isn't it >> nothing else to do for learn and for the grton school district at the end of August. >> Sure. >> But I will keep you posted. I know I feel like I've been talking about both

075of these grants as if you know they're they're good perspectives, but I'm hoping to know finally by um September on both of them. September, October. >> Any other questions? If not, I'm moving on. So that would be you, Phil. Okay, mine's uh should be relatively quick. We we included the uh the PD day program for August 26th in with the board packet um this uh this month. Um it really just outlines the day that Dr. Sonia Cherry Paul is with us and the work that we're going to be uh doing. So I wanted you all to be able to see that. Um and if you were interested in coming to the keynote address, uh that is the first thing in the morning at 8 to 9. where where she'll be addressing the entire district. Um,

076and that's >> Dr. Aerman has agreed to do the facilitation afterwards. So, please let us know who's coming. >> I said that I would assist somebody. Well, I'll help you facilitate with you >> and and what Susan's referring to is that following the the the keynote, the different groups will be breaking up to discuss an article chosen by Dr. Cherry Paul sort to continue the discussion of um um culturally responsive teaching. Uh it's going to be facilitated by members of our faculty and and and Dr. Acriman. Um we're going to get um and you can see on that where where the different um groups of teachers go to and those are going to be facilitated sort of by grade level with pre it should be it should read prek through two um sticking together three

077through five and six and six through eight and then the high school. Um also happening throughout the day is that Dr. Cherry Paul will then meet with these different grade levels just for a half hour. She wanted to bridge a conversation, have an open dialogue, just to hear teachers thoughts on on what they've been doing, where they want to go this year. Um, just to sort of gauge the personality of our our crew and also to hear their concerns and and their desires, you know, for the year ahead. Those are only going to be halfhour conversations and she'll she'll hold those both at Fitch and then she'll move over to the middle school uh to meet with the middle school over at GMS. So um so today really of three things the keynote, the article

078discussion and then the half hour with Dr. Cherry Paul. Um so there's a lot of lot of moving parts but I think you know we everybody knows where they need to go. Um if you have any questions about that day please reach out to me. um if you want to you don't you don't have to let me know if you want to come to the keynote but if you wanted to participate in some other way or attend one of the other uh sessions you know please just reach out so I I can help you find where to go um but it should be you know we're really excited to be working with her so I'm looking forward to the day >> yes um Phil could you give us some background information about who exa is

079Dr. Um, Sonia Cherry Paul like her bio. >> Yeah, I can I can forward that to you. I I thought I might have done it a while back when we first started looking at her, but I will um I I could forward that to you. She did work. >> Well, I mean, just something briefly just to tell the public. >> Yeah. Oh, right now? >> Yes. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. >> Why would she be know why have you selected her to come to Graten? She um we found her she worked for um Hineiman the publishing company that we've used um uh before. Uh she's also uh a former colleague of Cornelius Minor um and both in the uh the woman Dr. Cherry I'm sorry Dr. Kim Parker who we're using at the high school to

080uh start looking at our curriculum at the high school. So it's sort of all connected and that's how her name uh popped up as we began to sort of look into um her work. uh her work is primarily with elementary uh and middle school which is why her you know her work is going to focus there um for the uh for for this school year. And as you can see by the title of you know she's g her workshop she does do a lot with uh readers and writers workshop and using that as a uh um a way to to really build community and cultural responsiveness in the classroom. So, so I basically I reached out to her um and I I met with her along with Jamal Davis, our DEI coordinator. Um we sort

081of laid out the work that we've been doing over the past couple years. Um and laid out the work that the DEI committee wants to accomplish over the next three years and and really we tried to see if it was a fit with what the work that she's trying to do and and she has um started her own company um has since left Hinaman and started her own company. I can't for the life of me think of what the name of her company is. Um but um it it was really right in line with the with the the many facets of culturally responsive teaching that we've talked about and in this particular case really focused on what our elementary school teachers are already doing and how to sort of enhance that experience uh in their

082classrooms. So so so it became a a happy marriage right off the bat and and then when we really started exploring the work with Cornelius Miner and Dr. Kim Parker. Um, you know, I think that between the three of them, uh, their work overlaps throughout, uh, the district, so we'll have a nice continuation of, uh, good >> of information going on. And I I I will still provide a written, um, summary for the board, so you can share it with whoever you like. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Survey after professional development, we survey all of our teachers. So, we'll really try, sometimes they fill it out, sometimes they don't, but we'll really try to encourage them because the more um teachers that fill out the responses to um this professional learning, the more we really

083clearly see how effective they are. >> Yep. >> When's Thursday? >> This Thursday, right? >> This Thursday. >> I thought it was Friday. Friday is the professional learning. I think it was a date coming up. Sorry. When we're talking about professional development, Ken, I think you're on. Okay. Hello everybody. So, I'm going to go over the object code summary. Um, I got to put it up on the screen. Attachment number >> three. >> Yep. Thank you. Um hopefully you can see that. >> Not really. But >> no, >> it's not really showing up. >> But >> h well um >> we can see >> you can see it. >> Well, I mean we have it. It was in our packets. >> Yeah, it is in your packets. >> I can kind of read it. >>

084All right. I'm not going to share it because >> it's Yeah. So, um let's see. So, uh this is for the FY23 year. I will note note that the agenda says FY22. This is actually for FY23. Uh and so this is uh on a total budget of 79,157271. Uh we're a month and a half in. We're we're essentially still at budget. Most line items are still at budget. Um there hasn't been uh many changes, but there are a couple to note. Uh number one, uh we are anticipating a uh a savings of one FTE at uh at the uh Mystic River uh school. Uh so there is a savings uh identified here on line number two on the first page. Um and then uh going down line number 12 there is uh uh we are

085over budget. This is being caused by um additional um severance that uh uh we've had to incur one additional teacher than we had at the during budget time as well as three parah one positions uh h have uh have uh retired. So therefore, we have more expense there, but it is offset by the fact that be that we will replace those positions at lower rates. Uh and then down on line 27, this particular report anticipates uh an one additional bus. I know that we're probably going to talk about um uh two additional buses. Uh if if there is an additional bus, we're we're hoping that um uh it would be funded by additional cost savings by some late resignations. Um that calculation has not yet been uh finalized as we are still in the process

086of hiring. Um so the next report should should show something uh a little bit different there. Um but all all told we're still uh still on on track uh uh at this point although it is early. >> Sorry. Yeah. We're a month into the budget. >> Yeah. A little early to to to to make any uh declarations. >> But um so is the talking about the buses is that going to happen when when Sam talks about about that so the two of you can kind of chime in because I know finance and facilities has talked about that but the rest of the board needs to probably hear that too. So I'll wait for that conversation with with Mr. um Patrick. All right. So, any other questions about the object code? Seeing none, I'm going to

087move us to the health insurance >> health insurance report attachment number four. Again, I'm I'm not going to try and share it. I don't know why it's not working. Um, but this is for the the full year of uh FY23 22 right through June. Uh you'll notice that the month of June uh was at 122% of our um of our expected uh monthly amount. Uh this this is kind of in line with what we anticipated. We anticipated the the end of the year to be a little heavier uh as some of the postponed um uh procedures and visits started to come in. Uh this actually comes in uh amazingly right right on our our target uh amount. Uh we're at $20,000 uh under a on a 11 million uh 800 almost $900,000 number. That's that's

088an amazing uh >> amazing uh very very close. Uh and I took a look at our reserve and our reserve is coming in exactly where we anticipated it to be when we went through the budgeting process. So as far as how we're marching forward, uh it's it's it's it's going exactly how we anticipated. So um I'm happy from that from that perspective. Uh so and then just as a comparison, we re really can't compare June to prior the last two Junes because those were both quite impacted by uh by COVID. Uh but if I look at June of 2019, which is the the last uh the last time uh we were at 122.4% for that month. So it I I think it's it's tracking back to more along a normal trend than than it had

089been. Uh so I think hopefully things will start to be a little more uh predictable uh as we go forward. >> In addition, we had concerns because there were a couple years that people weren't able to do those normal procedures. So we were worried about spikes and this kind of comes in more in line with what we were seeing prior to CO which is reassuring. Any questions on the health care report? Hearing none, we are going to move to Mr. >> That's you. So, I a couple of things I'll report on from facility and also some uh things that we'll talk about briefly. Um, so after a very hectic summer, and I say that uh with all due respect, it was very hectic because all of our buildings were extremely busy this summer with kids

090in summer school, uh, parks, and wrecks, summer camps, everything else, as I reported in an earlier meeting. So, uh, our custodial staff had to really be on their toes and make some, uh, adjustments throughout the, uh, throughout the summer. and uh Wendell Gaston, our custodial supervisor, really led them along the way, get everything up and shining and ready for the opening of school. Some teachers have already started coming back last week. We always try to get the buildings ready for uh August 15th. Uh it was a little difficult to get them all ready for that this year, but uh we came in pretty close that. So, right now, we're just doing some final dressing up in the buildings uh as we uh wait for uh the teachers to move in next week. Um I did

091have also um a concerned citizen uh to um make a request uh to find out about a program or a study that was done. It looks like it was done in about 2008 regarding uh UV as a germicide uh in schools in school buildings. So, um, that's the best I I haven't been able to find those units throughout the buildings. I think it was probably in SB Butler. So, I'm going to contact the town public works tomorrow and see if I can get into that building tomorrow and see if I can find that stuff because it's not in any of the buildings that we have, including Mary Morris. I will just report back to uh Miss Woods as soon as I have definite answer on. I also sent out an email and text to our

092former director who was here in 2008 when West Greenway to see that which I'm sure he does. Uh he doesn't forget anything like that. Uh and so I haven't had an answer that as soon as I have an answer I'll be sharing it with Kim. and the rest of you. >> Thank you. >> Um I guess I can move right on to uh buses. The bus routes have been completed by our uh coordinators in in the transportation office Jenny and Evelyn along with the help of Tom who have disappeared. Um so uh they're done. They've been handed over SDA our bus company. Uh they have done some dry runs. However, some drivers go all summer long, too. So, they took vacation over these last two weeks. So, when those bus drivers get back, they're going

093to have a meeting tomorrow, a bus driver meeting tomorrow. Uh the rest of those runs should be done tomorrow and then they will all be handed over to back to transportation and we're making uh late last minute adjustments to those runs based on what the targets find out and then we'll have them posted very shortly >> and we'll be I'll be communicating to So, I've sent out a couple letters already this summer, and this next letter will be um more detail about getting to school. >> Um, >> and attendance matters. It >> sure does for all of us. Um, I I I happen to agree with Dr. comments regarding that second bus run concerning uh people just taking the late run line because they didn't sleep in or whatever they might do. Uh but one

094thing we don't know is what a bus is going to cost next year because as we said we've hired a bus consultant, Mr. Mike Kennedy. Uh and uh Ken and I have talked to him already. Ken has already sent our existing contract to him. We're going to be going through the existing contract with a fine tooth comb and looking at all aspects of it as to whether the six to six is really the right thing to brought to do because so many things have changed since that contract was written last. Um now we have all these magnet schools in town. So that changes trans transportation greatly. So, he's going to be looking at all aspects of that contract and then making some suggestions suggestions to us and Ken and I will be working with him

095over the next month or so. We're hoping to go out to bid in November. Just just to remind everybody, uh, we write a bid spec uh, specifications for what we want. We may be asking for new buses that assert that after a certain number of years or older mileage or whatever we need uh newer buses uh maybe right now we pay for fuel for instance maybe we don't want to do that anymore and we want them to pay for the fuel. So there are a lot of those things that are going on. Uh those will all be included in the bid set that will go out in November and these bus companies will give us their log on it and then we will select the company that meets our needs. So that will hopefully be

096ready to go out in November. But again, >> so Jay, do you want to add to that this conversation? Yeah, I just wanted to um as we sort of covered at the last meeting a little bit, um I just wanted to thank uh Tom and uh Sam and the bus coordinators for getting these lists out so early this year so they could do the dry runs. Um and uh but let people know, anyone who might be watching, you know, the these do change almost daily as students come and go. And the other thing is I I hear people say, "Oh, well, I saw a bus go by and it was only half full." You know, we reserve seats on the bus based on students going to a school. We don't know how many of them

097will be driven by a parent that morning and then maybe we'll take the bus home that night. So, it is a constant uh constantly changing uh picture uh dayto day and even morning to to to afternoon. And uh so I really give a lot of credit to everybody who's involved with the scheduling and planning of this, you know, as well as the bus drivers who who deal with all these last minute uh changes. Um it really is quite a bit of teamwork that gets involved with this. So thank you all. >> So two buses, when will we know for sure we're going to need the two buses? [Music] It looks like we're going to be pretty sure we have available to us and the third one. These are what companies call the short version. We

098had up to 15 and 16. >> Some of them hold a wheelchair. We need one more of those because of the students that we have in wheelchairs. Some of them are used for our three-year-olds in preschool in special ed preschool because they have the the equipment, the belts and their, you know, child seats and everything like that. So um it was just definitely we saw an increased number of students who needed transportation from special ed and young children too. >> We should have all example the fact that as school opens up we may find that there are some uh students that may not be here any longer that are still on the list. That's a possibility. And of course, uh, not only, uh, military kids move in and out of this district, but, um, civilians

099also move back and forth across the river, up and down the river. So, you get a lot of movement in this area. Maybe some late registrations, too. So, we're get everything ready to go and then after a couple weeks, then we'll know for sure. >> I'm going to recognize Liz and Jay. Do you have another comment too if so after Liz? >> No, I just didn't lower my hand. >> Thanks, Kim. I just um I'm sorry, but I did not hear the When do you you think you'll know we'll need that second bus? Sam, I couldn't hear you. Could you just say it again, please? >> Yeah, we're looking at adding two more uh special needs buses. Uh and it and it looks right now uh it's it's pretty clear that we will need those

100two additional buses, but SDA has already provided those two buses to us. So, we know they're available to us and as uh Jenny and Evelyn get this stuff done this week, we'll know uh exactly where we are. And of course, as things change uh when we start school and things change over this first couple of weeks, we'll know whether uh those two are sufficient or whether we need to add more or maybe we can Thanks Sam. Appreciate it. >> I don't think the laptop. >> So tell me what I need to do. Sorry folks are having and I don't I don't read lips for Mark. He was trying to get a hold of me. Thank you. >> Testing. Testing. Can you hear any better now? >> Can you hear me from this side? Okay. >>

101Oh, I can hear you better now. Yes. Thank you. >> Yay. >> Okay. So, lessons learned. >> Question. >> Oh, absolutely. You know, my my screen still says you are viewing Ken Knight. Kenneth Knight's screen is across the top of the page in green. So, I don't know if Kenny's to click something off or >> Well, I think you might be the only one that has that, Rita. >> Oh, really? Yeah. Well, I guess Ken and I are >> strange. >> Uh, do you also know, Rita, that you are not on screen anymore? I I I do know that. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. All right. Matthew, >> two questions. Uh I don't know if we're responsible for this, but it's election problem of Mary L. [Music] Older retired military guy. Didn't know

102there was a ramp in the back up the steps. Sitting on the steps trying to catch his breath. There was no signage indicating it was around. So whether that's our responsibility or board of elections could before the general election. >> Yeah, I would say that that is the responsibility of the registars. The registars have have provided some signage for us that we put up at the high school because they're larger and we put them on plywood. Uh, so we do take them up to the high school for them, but the smaller signage they usually do themselves, but there's no ramp in the front. >> Yeah. >> So, how do we get that information to the register? >> I I will I will call her and let her Okay. >> The the other thing is several

103people told me that they smelled mold. Not making that assertion. It's just check it out. Well, we couldn't hear that. >> Um, so Matthew um was just making a comment about um a citizen had talked about the fact that they had to climb stairs and were not ready to climb the stairs to go voting in Mary Morrison. And Sam is going to take care of that. And the second is um that this uh another person talked about the fact that they smelt mold in Mary Morrison. And as we know that is a building that we are keeping um in case we have in influx of needs or whatever but also our robotics is there. But are there any further questions for Sam? Because I am going to move us on. >> I I believe Sam

104there is a ramp in the back of Mary Morrison that was built for when we had a teacher that was in a wheelchair. Absolutely, Rita. That that was what was discussed and Sam is gonna make sure that >> Yeah, it's sorry I we could I couldn't hear at all. Thank you. >> No, that's fine. That's fine. Um and so our next is the director of human resources. It's good to see you in person, live and in person. >> Live in person. Good evening everybody. Good evening everybody on the screen. >> Bless you. I wanted to take an opportunity to kind of talk a little bit about our recruitment and outreach efforts that we've been working on throughout the summer into the start of the school year. >> Excuse me. Excuse me, Lori. I can barely

105hear you. >> Same here. >> Oh, there you go. Problem solved. >> Can you hear? >> Is that better? >> A little. Yeah. Yeah. >> How about that? Is that better? No. >> No. Okay. How about I come around to the other side of the table real quick? How's that? >> There you go. >> Give that a whirl. >> Thanks, Lori. >> Pardon my movement here. Okay. You can hear Sam over here, so I'm going to give this >> Oh, yes. Much better. >> Okay. All right. Maybe that might working well. >> Thank you, Lori. >> Yep. No problem. So, I wanted to provide everybody with an update on our recruitment and outreach efforts over the past several months uh through the summer for the start of the school year. Um, and you know, some

106of these things that uh we've been doing for some time. Some are new initiatives. So, I wanted to just kind of talk through some of these items with the board so that they had an understanding of, you know, what our outreach efforts look like to try and uh address our staffing needs for the start of the school year. Um, so some of the newer initiatives uh for this summer that you know we all know the climate for hiring staff has been challenging the last couple years. I think that's no mystery um during the pandemic. Um that continues. Um there's been a lot of um media coverage about how low unemployment is and that um individuals have left the workforce in rows and have decided to maybe stop working. So that has created a significant shortage

107on top of people that maybe weren't comfortable working during the pandemic. So we're still feeling the effects of that, but we're making good progress on it. I think um some of the community initiatives that we've never done in the past, this is one one of the most extensive uh outreach campaigns we've done since I've been here, obviously to meet the needs of the district. Um we have actually gone out to community events. So, we've been actually going to uh registration, student registration events. Um we've been to Beacon Point Homes. Um Susan just recently handed out some flyers for us at a barbecue at Brford Manor. Gave >> them all out. Yeah, we uh we literally uh sent staff down to Eastern Point Beach and handed out flyers to parents who were sitting on the beach

108for the day and um we've done that on numerous occasions. So, we've been um working hard to kind of get out in the community in our local community to say, are there parents or family members out there who are interested in maybe working for us? I hadn't thought about it. Um so, that has been one of our newer initiatives uh this year. Um we do do a regular um partner with the Department of Labor office out of Montville. There are local Department of Labor office and as you know they provide ongoing support to individuals in the community who are looking for jobs and it's important that we're visible there because these are individuals who may know nothing about Graten Public Schools. So we want to kind of get in front of them and let them

109know that the opportunities that we have. So we have a regular appearance there that we make. um they work with us to provide us with candidates. Uh we meet with them there and then work to bring them on board and hire them for jobs that they're qualified for. Um we've also done a number of uh inschool events. Um over the past two weeks, I think in the past we've done one or two actual school career fairs. This year we did three. We did two at the elementary and one at the middle school for a combination uh middle school, high school support. Um, in addition, uh, we we we dove into this last year. Uh, we spent, uh, quite a bit of time kind of taking a deep dive into social media recruiting last year. Um,

110and that continues as we move forward. We're actually, uh, Rebecca and I are meeting this week to brainstorm some additional ways that we can expand our social media presence as it relates to um, kind of now hiring and our hiring needs. But um the feedback that we've received when individuals when we've met with individuals who are interested in working for the district, a fair number of them have said they've seen our social media posts. So that's definitely getting some traction for us, which is very helpful. Um and we also have used that as a platform to communicate our in-person events and said, "Come down and see us. Come talk to us in person." and they've actually showed up at the events and said that they had seen our Facebook posts and wanted to come and

111talk to us about job opportunities. So, um so that has been helpful. We still use some of the traditional method methods running ads in the day, getting our word with the day on through their online posts. Um >> getting articles submitted Yeah. getting articles submitted um uh online postings of our own. We do collaborate with our partners. Um, I know that's a question we get often. Um, STA and the school district, we share candidates. If we get a bus driver, we send them their way. If they get somebody who's maybe not qualified to be a bus driver, but could be a bus aid, they send them our way. So, we work with our partners. Um, same thing with Miranda. Um, she's our military liaison. We regularly uh connect with Miranda. We send her a list

112of what we need. She sends it out to the military community. She's been very helpful to us. She reposts our Facebook posts within the community uh within the military community and we also interface with the town. Um we uh posted on the town um library the digital boards. We post they posted up for us our not our now hiring needs over the summer and we also put that up at several of our schools electronic boards. So just you know we're hiring come see us our website. Yes. And then we also have we just had printed with the return of school, we want to say what else could we do to kind of get the word out. You know, there's a lot of traffic going in and out of school property. So, we just had those

113lovely little yard signs printed up and they are going out around the community and they'll be on the lawns out in front of the school. So, if parents are driving in and out, community members driving in and out for events, they'll see now hiring signs for the district. Um, so we really kind of put our heads together this summer and say, you know, basically pull out all the stops. Anything and everything we could think of, we put it on the table and said, you know, we're going to do everything we can to try and meet the needs. So, um, so that's that's just kind of an overview of I know we provided a document that gave a number of specific events. Doesn't represent everything that we've done, but it tries to capture some of the

114larger scale events. We also do the larger community career fairs. The day every year runs two large career fairs right here at the Mystic Marriott. One in the fall, one in the spring. We're always at those. Those get a significant amount of foot traffic, so we always make sure that we're present at those larger community-based career events. >> How do we do at these? >> Um, you know, we do so far we've we've been successful at all of them. We have not had an event where we didn't have somebody come and talk to us on as far as hiring. We've made hires at the events. On average, on a smaller a smaller event, let's say one within our local school or community, we're usually averaging about four to six hires per event. >> Um the

115larger scale events like the career fairs at the day, they have so much more foot traffic. will usually make a larger number of hires from an event like that. Um I know I took a look uh this uh this afternoon because we've had a number of hires since we published the data even saying how many paras we need. Um and we had made a number of additional hires since the last update. I think we were from 50 down to 42 question. I think it was around 42. >> Yeah. >> And what we we're opening in what a couple of weeks. >> Yeah. No, good question Andrea. What we've been doing is working with the schools. We have to find creative solutions to this problem. So, yes, we're still looking for paras, but what we do

116is we have worked with them at times to have a tutor support students in uh if we've had trouble finding a par, but we could find a tutor, we might actually have them provide those supports. We hire a substitute pair of professionals. Um, so we might still show a par vacancy, but we've hired somebody a substitute capacity because they don't hold the qualifications and we will actually help get them the qualifications. We'll help them prepare for the parapro assessment. We'll we'll offer them the assessment and get them qualified. Once that happens, they'll change their status from substitute to paraprofessional. So, it's a good question because on the surface it looks like what are we doing about these student needs? But it's employing some of these creative solutions to make sure that we can open the

117doors and provide support. >> Well, I was happy to hear that there are like four at least four uh hires sometimes for building >> per is it possible for us to get a list an actual number of we need this many, we need that many or is that not within our >> Yeah, we we have that data. Yeah, we can we can provide that. That's not a problem. >> That will be good for us. even put it in the board notes, but it's constantly changing >> maybe. So maybe so maybe that that just is a continuous thing because I think that is going to be one thing um that we as people who are in the community that we're going to be asked because look I mean you guys got hiring signs. I thought someone

118came up to me like you got hiring signs all over the place. What's going on? Um um so I I think that that would just be useful. I am gonna recognize Liz. >> Thanks Ken. Um, and um, excuse me, Lori. Um, I I heard that um, we've got one still one teacher that we still need to hire. >> That's correct. >> What grade level is that? >> Um, our we had one uh, social studies teacher at the U middle school. Uh, we had a late resignation and we just received on Friday resignation from a Spanish teach halftime Spanish teacher at the middle school. But there may be a solution in house. >> Yeah. So, we're we're we're taking a look at that. I know they are uh actively interviewing and trying to get someone in

119place for the social studies. U we just found out about the Spanish on Friday, so we're already starting to take a look at alternatives for that. >> Okay. And um Erin Maguire has resigned at the high school. What's the transition plan there for replacing her? She's a very um she's had a lot of responsibility at that high school and I'm just wondering what that plan is going to be. Is there a transition plan in place to help the new person whoever's hired to be able to take over that that role? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. Uh Liz, um yes, there is a transition plan in place. We have asked one of our retired administrators who has secondary experience to come in and work with the high school to kind of fill that void

120to make sure we have an administrator present for the start of school. The staff at the high school, the other administrators are working with Aaron to transition her work. And then when the new person starts, they'll work on transitioning some of that work back over. I think they're going to kind of reassess who's going to do what up there and who might make sense to do what based on the skill set of the of the team based on the new person coming in. >> It's kind of an opportunity to kind of restructure in areas that we might need it. >> So, I will keep the board a breast and and have you in on some of that planning. >> Yeah, I was just kind of curious because um you know there's it's an opportunity. I

121see that. Um but we need but the beginning of the school year is so critical to get off on the right foot and um I remember that when I was I left Montville High School was in the September and they held me for almost well they held me for like three weeks and I know that is something that can be re can be done. um was I I'm not sure what happened. You know, what's what the thing was with Aaron. I don't know the particulars at all. I was just kind of wondering if um she is going to be held to help with the transition or is has she been um when's her contract end? And I don't know I don't know when that all that stuff goes in. But, you know, I was just

122wondering if if we're going to hold and or ask her or to be, you know, have her help with that transition. >> Yeah, she's been she's been working with us on the transition since she gave her notice. Um, and we were able to secure an administrator to take over for the start of school. So, she's transitioning to that person because you're right, Liz. I mean, we wouldn't want to leave that position unfilled or unattended for the school opening. >> Yeah. I I just, you know, I I was surprised when I saw it on Facebook before it came out before I I we got the notification officially, but I I wish her the best of luck. She did a lot of hard and good work for Grten Public Schools for 10 years. So, um >> Thank

123you, Liz. >> Just wanted to say that. Thank you very much, >> Rita. >> Yes. Um Lori, could you tell us who the um administrator is that is filling in the retired administrator, please? >> Sure. It's Jeff Keki. >> Oh, great. Thank you. >> Yeah, he has secondary experience, so we feel like, you know, he'll be has an understanding of the needs of the students at that level. >> That's wonderful. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other further questions for Lori? If not, we're going to move on. Could you stay in case we need you for the executive session? >> Yeah, sure. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Well, you don't want to sit next to me. Um, so we're in for the Sorry, I said something very very sneaky to um to Lori. Um,

124so committee uh committee reports um policy. Okay, we're working diligently on all the things that we've been working on and we we've taken back policies from from what we we sent to the board and we're re really diligently going after getting equity for everybody. We sent the eligibility to participate in intercolast scholastic sports to Mark um Milano. We said this is what we want, not what we'd like. How you going to do that? He's going to talk with his coaches about that. We're looking at the con um the naming facilities. We're uh we're going to move ahead with naming facilities. Um in terms of of the ad hoc committee, but we're we're looking at the wording on that. We want to change that. Okay. Make >> sure it's clear. We're looking the challenging curriculum and

125the advanced course enrollment. again looking at equity, making sure that everybody is served by these >> super. You guys have been turning to Bernie >> um curriculum Liz. >> Yeah, we met today. Um t um excuse me, Amy McKenna came and had a gave us some information about uh college prep versus basic level classes. And it was very encouraging to hear, at least I was encouraged to hear that there the the supports that are in place and that are moving and evolving in the high school especially for students who are not quite at grade level and trying to p help them go through. Um I was there when the basic level classes were eliminated and the question had come up is the ba is the college prep levels now being watered down and um Amy

126was quite adamant that no they're not it's it's their um for students who are struggling there are supports in there to help them maintain and so I I just you know we had a very lengthy discussion and I have some I I'll have in my notes um and I think Dr. Piaza has some notes about, you know, what is going on at the high school and um what the the the goal is, you know, to help keep help students keep um ch being able to be exposed for rigorous um opportunities, but also the the the concept of mobility have you know when you were the idea was you in a basic class, you were stuck in a basic class for four And with the college prep level, this gives people an opportunity, a little bit

127easier opportunity to have more upward mobility. So, they're working on that. The other thing we talked about, um, we've talked about a couple of things. We're looking at graduation requirements, policy 6146, and, um, question came up is how do we change um, graduation requirements? And um that do we what's the process? And so we're not quite sure where that goes. I'm looking for my my note that I wanted to say here. Um so I'm sorry, Phil, if you're there or Andrea, how did we word that? Because I cannot find my note. So >> Bill, where are you? Bill was on. Well, anyway, we're looking at um there's been the concern that was brought up was that um we're looking at a total revamping of the social studies curriculum or standards by the state. And we

128have a we have a an inside scoop here because Cara Hodgej has been on that working that all summer. And she is telling me that we're going to probably be out of compliance with once these standards go into place. And the other thing is became aware of is that our history or US history curriculum does not go past 1960. And as you know, we have a there's a lot of information about United States history that goes farther. So, we're looking at do we need to increase um should we increase um graduation requirements? Right now, math, science, and his English are all four credits. Social studies is the only one that's three credits. And we investigating about our surrounding areas. For example, um East Line, it's three and a half credits that you have to get.

129Um so we're looking at that and we do need that that direction of um where do we go how do how do we go about what's the process about this um change of graduation requirements does it have to start at the full board or we just don't know what what to do. So Kim that's going to be something I think you and and um Susan might have to discuss and tell give us some direction. Uh we did a there's an update on we're beginning our investigation of financial literacy across grade levels and we're also doing continuing our audit. Uh Dr. Piaza is doing an audit with the uh high school and the middle school the audits about curriculum board approved curriculum in both program of studies for both institutions. We have been busy. >> And

130Liz, if I could add, you you asked me to to jump jump in, but we wanted Susan, if you would talk to your contemporaries about how they are uh how do they they they decide among themselves what the credit system is, how many credits this is, and so on and so forth. If you could talk to other superintendents and maybe even um we get some input from Rita. >> Thank you. I forgot that. Andrea, thank you very much. >> Rita, >> hi. Um, yes. When and in in past years when the state has mandated like when we increased our science to four credits and it was very simple. The state tells you what um you know that you have to do it. They usually give you about two years. So even with the social studies,

131you don't have to do it immediately, right? because you have to build that curriculum >> and it's just a policy change and you just say from now on we're going to be having four credits for social studies. >> Yeah. But Rita, the problem we ran into is that according to the current state data, >> for example, you only need three credits of math. We require four. >> We require four and we can just increase social studies also. >> Okay. So I you know that's what I was we were kind of wondering is there a process and a presentation. So we want to make sure we do it correctly. >> Maybe learn would be >> has been coming a long time. I mean we've heard this for a while now that they would going to be

132increasing four credits for social studies. Some some high schools actually have two years for US history. And maybe that's something we're going to have to look in >> look look into especially, you know, so we could get up to 2022 or 23. >> Wouldn't that be phenomenal? >> Yes. >> But that's I just wanted you to know what we were doing. >> Thank you, Liz. That's amazing. >> I'll look into that more with Phil. >> Yeah. Just to give you a quick heads up, the African-American, Black History, Puerto Rican, and Latin American studies is on the docket to become a mandated class within probably within the next two years. >> So, you know, that's going to impact us there as well. >> Jay, >> Financing. Yep. Finance and facilities met on August 2nd. We reviewed

133uh the history of the health insurance claims. uh the ARP esser spending next year's CIP summer facilities projects uh bus contract and bus routes. Thank you. >> Wow. Wow. These committees are very busy. Communications. Do you want to >> Sure. Uh the first part of our communication meeting this evening went over the communications survey which had been presented to the board earlier. Um Rebecca reported that they they analyzed it to see if there were anomalies in one school or another that skewed the data and they determined that there were no such anomalies. The data is valid across the district. Uh the information I believe Bill correct me if I'm correct correct me if I'm mistaken but Bill is going to start sharing this at the school level and uh that looks like it's in good

134shape. uh they're looking at uh some of the acts that we're having for parents to use to communicate to get some uniformity at least within the schools if not within the system. And the other part of our meeting was on the priorities we wanted to embark upon for the next year. We came up with three categories. Common methods of communication within schools to families, how the district communicates to families at home and how the homes can communicate to the dis district to be quicker, better quality and more variety. The third is to increase family engagement. And the fourth is public outreach. We shared between us perhaps a half a dozen maybe eight different public outreach strategies and we agreed that we would reflect individually and make a final decision next time. And there's one more

135me. >> He did better than me >> and me. >> I guess listening catch up next month. >> Yeah. Um I think one of the things um board just that we did come up >> that was what I was just starting to say. um was that we were actually um wanting to see if we could um had the PTO's kind of take a look at doing that leaison meeting again now with the age of having zoom um and so people are not having to leave their house you know at night time um as a way of increasing the interchool connections with um for the different PTO's but also it allows the board to also hear um quick and quick and dirty um um So, uh, Phil was going to come up with some ideas about

136how to reach out, um, and to the different PTOs, um, to see if they would be interested in doing that. Can I do that? >> Several PTO presidents have suggested. >> And the high school has not had a PTO in a long time. I'd love to see the high school have some kind of an organization that can be a counsel to the principal, too, you know, um, so that we get that information directly. It's mostly booster club kind of information, but it would be nice to have that too. I'd like to see that happen. Huh. Um, okay. So, I'm going to move on. Um, negotiations. Um, the negotiating team is working um with um our admins um contract um and we're we're in negotiations. That's really as far. Um, but it's been going very pleasant,

137I might add. >> Um, Lauren, that would be you, Rita. >> Um, we start our we have meetings on Friday, so I can report next week, >> next month. Um the town council RTM board of ed le liaison that's actually better known as Kim's shame walk has not gone off the board yet. ASA GA board of ed leaison we have not met over the summer. Grten scholarship >> that's me. Um we don't meet until sometime in September early October. I'll let you know as soon as I know. >> Thank you. Oh, I had a a question actually for Liz. When you do meet >> Yeah. >> Um, you know, when when someone makes a donation and um you sent out this form and then said, "Would you like to attend? Would you like to receive

138the program of who received your scholarship?" And I always marked um yes. And I didn't receive it this year, nor did a few other people I know. They've been asking me. and I said, "Well, I have no idea. Um, we haven't received that. Usually the high school sends that to the people who make donations." So, I don't know who to talk to about that, but, you know, I just think, >> you know, it' be just something to bring up. And maybe the people at the high school should be sending the like the usual should be sending these out to to the various people in the community who do make donations. >> I agree with you. >> Yeah. It's nice to see who received your scholarship. >> It is nice. I will make sure that that

139gets mentioned, Rita. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Same with Andrea. >> Yeah. And if I could add something else, I had a question about my scholarship. Um, and I addressed it with the scholarship committee directly and they took care of it and I want to thank them very much for that. >> Super. >> Yay. Athletic fields J. I see that they met this week. >> Yes. after having not met for many many months, they did meet last Thursday. Uh basically this the holdup is still um the Clawchester visioning uh committee um and they did some housekeeping items and that was about it. >> Did they have any conversation about the crowning of the field and stuff? >> No, that was not discussed. >> Okay. >> Trails? >> Neither trails nor the library met in August.

140The trails the meeting next month and library. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and the military >> I think we will be meeting in October. >> Okay. >> All right. So, moving us on to action items which is the consent agenda where all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion with points of clarification will be allowed. Can I have a a motion? I've got Liz uh for the first of the uh of uh the consent agenda. I have a second from Andrea. Do I have a discussion? >> Just to say thank you. >> All right. >> This is amazing. um especially Costco and Fisers with their gifts and I have to see say we saw thrilled parents and children as we gave half of those

141away at the barbecue in Brford Manor and I had gone out to the dollar store and provided all the things that you could put in it and they could pick and so they they kept saying how much they appreciated and they were beautiful backpacks I have to tell you. Did you take pictures? >> I do have a couple pictures. Yeah. >> Can you post them? >> I think that would be great for our Facebook page and >> Yep. I'll forward those. >> All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor of the approval of the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. We have carried. Um the board would like to u thank Costco wholesale who has donated 64 backpacks with school supplies. Um and Fiser has donated the following items to

142the pitch high school nature sound clocks, Rubik cubes, Eagle carry bags, certificate holders, um JK branded lanyards, um Jenga games, FISA string bags, and D F and D branded pens. Um >> they're just pens you write with. and eight cases of t-shirts um sizes large to extra large and Fiser notebooks 20 a case. Um so the board would like us to thank both of those um companies for their continued involvement and um help with our district. There is no old business. I'm moving us on to new new business. Liz, since you're right in my eyesight, would you please read the motion for number one? >> Yes, I'd be glad to. Motion is to recognize September 20th, 2022 as National IT Professionals Day and to direct the superintendent to of schools to send a letter of

143appreciation to the IT staff. >> Can I have a second to that motion, please? >> Second. >> I've got Matthew as a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor to recognize September 20th, 2022 as a national IT professional day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation. All please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. I know that our second is to go into executive most likely be going into second uh to executive um session. I would like to know if people would be okay that we try to handle the rest of the agenda so that when we come out of executive session we can close out the meeting and leave. >> Yes. >> All right. So I am going to go

144to Liz um and for letters or communication or comments. >> Yes. I've had um I had a a parent or a community member come up to me and ask about the charging stations at the um middle school or at the schools about what the impact of the people charging their cars and I um is on the district um do we have to pay for that? I sent my query over to Jay and he is um he's investigating that. sent back a comment that you know um during the school day those things do not those charging stations don't seem to be being used. However, on the weekends it seems like people are charging their cars there. So, um I think this is something we need to consider is you know are we being taken advantage of?

145So, um that was one of those those things that I was not expecting but I sent it to the right person. I thought that was interesting. Um, I don't have any other communications. I'm just thinking, nope, that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Liz. Rita, >> um, no communications except um about the people that we're going to be interviewing to fill the position. >> Right. Thank you, Jay. I just want to take a moment um to recognize um one of our bus drivers um Maline Sheets who passed away on August 15th. Um she actually served the district for almost 40 years um through Eastern Vancom Laid Law and STA. And um so uh for all those years she was a driver um you know of our students and uh like I said sadly passed away

146August 15th. She will have a uh celebration of life on Sunday September 18th at the Elts Lodge uh in Grten at 2 PM. So I just wanted to send my condolences to her family. >> Thanks Jay. Jay, thank you. Matthew, >> no comments. >> Andy, I know this. >> No, no, I can't have it. But anyways, um Andrea, >> Susan and I went to a celebration of the 10 I'm sorry, the hundred men men of color in the state of Connecticut. It was in Sim Simsbury and we celebrated Jamal Davis. And I just want to say congratulations again to Jamal and to the wonderful things for our district. >> Um, so as the regular the other emails that we got um from that Sam had um talked about with um from Miss Wood. Um and

147also just to let you know that very soon you guys will be getting the questions that um will be put together. Um so you'll have that ahead of time um before we go into um before we go into the interviews. Um and also just to let you guys know that we did get feedback um from our the board attorney um Floyd Dugas who said that yes we can hold these in executive session. So really plan on six executive sessions. It's going to be awkward and and maybe kind of clunky but at least we know that we are following um protocols. So each person will have an executive session and then our sixth one will be when we get to have a disc the board can have a discussion about our um about about each candidate

148and I'm telling them about 20 minutes um actually 20 I'm holding people to 20 minutes um to uh for each of the interviews so that we're not there all night. Not that I don't want to spend time with you guys. >> Could you tell us the time it starts again? Um, it's going to be I'm I'm going to try to hold us to the 6 to 8. >> Okay. >> No, no later than than that. So, I'm I'm really going to try to hold it as a regular meeting >> next Monday. >> All right. >> August 29th. >> All right. Um, and so just to just to not that we have not ramped up all summer long. We've been very busy. I think there's just been a lot of things for us to be talking

149about and thinking about. But there's our list of advanced planning. Um, and also just remember that we are going to be also scheduling a retreat in there at some point hopefully um with uh Mary Broadick to to to do some work for us um to do our vision and goals um and such. Liz, >> I just wanted to let you know, Kim, and just to say the curriculum meeting on the 19th will have a new date. We haven't figured out what it is yet, but it'll probably be um like September 12th >> and and I and I believe that the same is going to be true for um the communications as well. Um so, thank you. And I believe the 29th has been cancelled as for negotiations. >> September 29th is on. It's the August

150that was canceled. >> So, I apologize that was incorrect information. Thank you, Lori. All right, >> Kim, do you have any idea yet about when we're going to have that board retreat? >> No, but I'm going to make sure that's not the time period that you are not available. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um, suggested agenda topics. Matthew, >> I'd like to bring the mentor question back for the pal in anticipation of making a motion to next regular meeting. Uh, since we discussed it. The White House released a uh initiative in July seeking 250,000 volunteers for mentoring and tutoring saying that it could be funded through that people would be funded through the Vista volunteers when I was when I went through it 60 years ago. Uh and that we could use them the matching

151funs that are required organizations can use. They said that the losses lost learning losses they gave not for the Groen district but just nationally four to six months depending upon whether it was reading or math. I know there are challenges but we I first brought this up we don't do mentors I can live with that but something we have some kids who are at risk and we can help them know that it's so bring this up. Thank you to put that on the agenda. >> It's right there. >> So, I'm gonna have um Susan kind of give us a status report and then also the what are the plans moving forward and what's the timeline. >> Okay. >> We've got some good ideas. >> All right. Any other agenda items? Okay. So, I am going

152to read the motion for the next part. And I hope that Mark you were around to put people um into the people who um are board members into a separate room. But I think you you are hearing me >> and you said yes. So okay. Um and um I am going to make a motion to um uh go into uh executive session um with the board of education for specific purposes of talking about the superintendent's compensation package for the 2022 2023 year. Um and um I am going to suggest that we invite Susan Austin and we also invite um Lori Leine as the human service person. Human service human human resources same thing. >> It's also human service. >> All right. Can I have a can I have a second to that? I've got Liz.

153Do I have any discussion? Hearing none. Um, all those in favor of going into executive session, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Motion has carried. Mark, if you could do your magic. >> You got it. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> We are >> Andrea doesn't need to write it down because it's going to be recorded. >> Oh, >> so but we left executive session at 9. 8:35. I told her to go home. >> Told to go home. Okay. >> Um, all right. So, let me know when we're ready. I'm just going to ask for Jay to read the motion. >> Ready? >> Bye, Jay. >> Okay. Uh, I would like to make a motion to grant the superintendent of school, Susan Austin, a 2% wage increase retroactive to July 1st, 2022, and to

154agree to uh buy back 12 vacation days on a one-time basis to be deposited into her annuity. Further, I move we extend her contract for one additional year. >> I have a second to that. >> Second. I have Andrea seconding. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor on the motion on the floor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. The motion is carried. I will entertain a motion for pending. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second by Jay. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. Mark, we're done. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks everybody. See you soon. >> Yep.