9-26-22 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Alrighty. Good evening. My name is Kim Shepardson Watson and I am the chair of the board of education and I would like to call um the Graten Board of Education regular meeting to order. Um it is September 26 and by my by my clock we are at uh six o'clock. Um, and before I ask for the pledge of allegiance, I am actually just going to um ask us um to remember Lee White in August of 2015. Um, a woman um who was a force um a woman who was dedicated to her adopted town. Um, and this was not her first stint on a board of education. She was a resident in Massachusetts and she also was a board of ed ed um member there. Um and she served on the board of education for six

002years um ending her term in November of 2021. She then went on to the rep um RTM which is a representative town meeting body um and was um serving there. Um unfortunately she passed away this past weekend. Um and uh in deference to her I just um am just going to ask that we um have a moment of silence to remember Lee White who um talking about a fierce advocate for children. She was someone who I looked up to and admired for. So if we could just do that please. I thank you everyone for doing that. Uh the next order of business is a pledge of allegiance. Um and Mr. Keller, would you be willing to lead us? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

003which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It is such an exciting moment for the board of ed and I am looking over to Andrea Arian who is a board member but also a leazison for the Martin Luther King and a board member for Martin Luther King and I know that you have been working with all the recipients um but today and unfortunately they're not right on camera at the present moment um we have our scholar fellowship recipients. And so, um, Andrea, I'm just going to, um, leave that to you or give that to you and do what you may. >> I'm so pleased that I have invited the Martin Luther King scholars from Fitch High School today and they're going to be introducing each other because part of

004the charge of being a Martin Luther King scholar is learning those skills that you have to have as you enter society. And a good handshake is the first one. introductions are are second on the list. So, I'm going to turn this over to to actually he's our student actually our student liaison on on Martin Luther King group because he's the one that if you get an email from Isaiah, you really are getting it from me. So, Isaiah would all rise. I present Cairo Robinson, daughter of Frank and Dana Robinson. >> Bring him up. >> We would love for you to I You're gonna be very small on the screen, but at least >> maybe a lot closer. We can still see them and folks can see >> Dean, that's why I love you so much.

005>> So, if you could do that, >> thank you. Thank you. >> Row. We're up and moving >> front and center. >> Would you have to be able to see yourself in the mirror in the screen? >> Yeah, we can see. We don't. >> I first met Kyra in freshman year during our world history class with Mr. Higgins. And I remember always being annoyed during that class because whenever Mr. Higgins would ask a question, Kyra would always answer the question before I could. And Kyra is a member of the National Honor Society. She is president of the black student union. She walked through aarium and she's a peer mediator at this high school. Pyro plans to attend VCON to receive her dream psychiatrist. And I guess for everyone here when I say Pyro May I

006present Rihanna Dut, daughter of Rich and Marish Bat. I have known Rihanna since the fourth grade, and she has always been the kindest, most passionate, and creative person I know. Throughout her high school career, she has maintained high honors. She's president of drama club and treasurer of Key Club. She intends on attending MIT for astronomical engineering. Tonight, please join me in congratulating Briana for being selected as this year's MLP scholar. May I present Aisha Hashimi, daughter of Rona Habibi and Nadir Hashimi. I've known Aisha since sixth grade, and she's always been the type of person to help anyone and everyone, whether that's reading over essays, carrying around chewing gum, or making us laugh on our bad days. This translates to her time outside of school, too, where she volunteers to help Afghan refugees. She has

007held high honors in sixth grade and is part of the National Honor Society. She intends to study dermatology at Yale following her high school career. Please join me in congratulating Aisha for receiving the Dr. King scholarship. May I present Isaiah Anderson, son of Jason and Gloria Mar Anderson. I have known Isaiah since third grade. He has been my only competition in math. Isaiah has a is a very friendly and responsible student. He is in the National Honor Society and class president since freshman year. He has helped bring teamwork to the baseball team to pitch high school, providing people um a great support group. Isaiah plans to attend Georgetown University to study in political science and all graduate 15. I don't know if the board has any questions. >> You don't have to be front and

008center anymore. You guys can come back. You guys did an amazing amazing job to stand close to a screen um and to be so composed. And if you are representing what our youth look like today, we are in good hands. We are in good hands. And thank you. And thank you for the mom and dad that were able to attend. um and for members of our Fitch family and staff. So, thank you. But board members, do you have any questions or comments? >> Have a comment. Thank you for everything that you've done for this community. You know, working so hard and getting this scholarship is great for you, but it also reflects how hard you're working for this community and making us look so great. You guys are phenomenal and I'm so proud and thank

009you for everything. >> And there's still tickets if you want to come board members. It's one of the best events at the Marriott is the Martin Luther King scholarship dinner. >> Talk about that. >> I think Isaiah, you have to say you certainly can say if you want >> or you can get back to your homework or whatever else. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Wonderful. >> Excuse me. Women. Right. All right. Wow. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Andrea, thank you. Um so the next uh agenda item is comments from citizens. Um this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens and each presentation should be limited to 5 minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments and presentations should be related to matters pertinent to Graten and board members

010will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation um and cannot respond during the comments of citizen portion of the board meeting. Um, and citizens should state their names and addresses for the record. Um, Miss Miss Joan, do we have anyone that has signed up uh through chat or anything? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> Is there anyone in the room? All right. So, that's going to push us down to um the student representative report. I'm excited that our first regular board meeting um of the school year, we have our two student reps. Um and that makes me very happy. And so, I think the two of you guys have a plan. And what I'm going to ask is that you just um uh state your name, Isaiah and Kate. Um but

011just to kind of state um your names would be very helpful as the board in total kind of get used to um get used to you and get to know you. So >> hi I am Isaiah Anderson. And for me it is a very exciting time to be a falcon right now. We are in the middle of planning our homecoming dance that the senior class is taking care of. And along with that comes spirit week leading up to homecoming and pep rally on the Friday before. And spirit week is given to the senior class council. However, pep rally is planned by the student athletic advisory committee which I'm also a part of. >> Um for me it is also a very I'm Katie Sashi. Um and for me it is also a very exciting time

012to be a pitch falcon. um especially with someone who's been very involved and um has always had an ear for music and things. It's been very exciting to hear that drama club is finally really starting up again and they're looking into doing a musical this year. Um which is so very exciting. Um musicals have always been something very close to my heart. So it's been very exciting to hear chatter about that and see all of my friends getting excited for that. Um, as well as what Isaiah said about spirit week, we did pick some very, very fun um, different spirit week, I guess, like dress up days. Um, we have had some debate on doing decades day um, from one of our friends in student council, but um, I think it's going to raise a

013lot of school spirit and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun for everybody. So, we're excited to do that. >> Yay. Um, Rita, do you have a question? You are muted. >> I know. Hi. Um, is is it Katie? >> Yes, that's me. >> Yes. Hi, Katie. Um, I wanted to know what you meant about the dressup day and an issue possibly with the student council. I mean with the town council or did you say student council? >> I think she meant student council. I think that there's a debate about the decades. Yes. Um >> Isaiah and I have a friend in student council who was the only student to dress up in our grade for decades day last year and we did it for spirit week. So he has uh not exactly

014loved this idea the most, but I think he I think we can all get him on board to do it. >> Right. >> That's our goal. >> Yes. >> You're a junior at at Fitch High School. >> I'm a senior. >> You're a senior. And Isaiah, you're >> a senior as well. >> Yeah. So we have two seniors. Usually we have a junior and a senior. >> We have two juniors in waiting in the wings to learn this year and then they'll be able to come forward. >> That's wonderful. Well, welcome and thank you so much for for volunteering your time to come to the board meetings. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> Any other question from the board? >> Dean, >> you want an interesting decade? Try the 1930s. Nobody

015ever does that. the 20s. They do the 50s. >> 30s. >> Oh my. We'll have to bring that one up with Luka. See what he says. >> The clothes are fabulous. Fabulous. >> Uncomfortable, but maybe fabulous looking. >> Not that I was around for the 1930s. Let me just be clear about that. >> What are you suggesting? >> No, I'm not suggesting about that. No. you feel like it sometimes. >> Yes, on a daily basis. All right. Um if there are no further questions um for our student rep reps, um they did um state earlier that they were not going to be able to stay um for the full meeting. So, at this point, we'll we'll just miss you guys and it was good to see you. Nice meeting you. And and as always, it's

016a pleasure, my friend. It's a pleasure. All right. And thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> You have to be so proud. We're just waiting two seconds for a transition and then we are going to be moving into um the student. Yeah, it's all about students. Um actually it's the superintendent um report and I believe you are going to be giving us lots of good information. >> We are going to be giving you a lot of data. Hello everyone. I actually have um we added a slide that might help orient us to with the state of Connecticut. It's on the slideshow and I'm passing it out as well. These are the results from 2021 2022 from last year. Smarter Balanced Assessment Results or ESPback as you've heard us say. An ESPback smarter

017balance is really an assessment of the common core state standards which Connecticut has adopted as the Connecticut core standards. A lot of you remember days when we used to have CMT and CAP. Well, those are long gone. It's been a decade that we've been implementing the Smarter Balance. And we have a summitative in math assessment and a sumitive in English language arts. You'll notice that I went back to our tradition. The board has always viewed these colorcoded. Mathematics is in the green, think money, and ELA is in the blue, think book. Blue book, green math. So, when you see them, we're hoping that it kind of it'll also help you see when we're going back and forth between ELA and mathematics um and the data. And we're going to be showing you some trend data.

018Before COVID and then right when COVID hit in 2020, we couldn't give an assessment. Everybody was home quarantining. We didn't know what would be the next step. We thought we were going out for a few weeks and it became much longer than that. So, um we'll move forward on a small smarter balance. So, I am um just making sure that we're all on the same page. So, um, there has been a request and we are and it's going to be honored to bring in principles and teachers to kind of go over this, but my understanding is that you just really has just recently have gotten this and tonight is going to be the overall picture um and then we are going to have um teachers and principles kind of coming in um and talking about

019what it means for their individual building um and what is what are the action plans around that. So, um I don't want you to feel that this is the only time that we're going to be seeing this data. We're going to be seeing this in sort of the global. Um so, if you can think about we're kind of going global to kind of going into the um the details. >> We're going to start with the district view and then when the principles are here, they'll be able to speak. >> Yes. >> And there is a lot of data. We get an annual report card um from the state and there is data that is released at different times. Um, I've showcased a little bit um of the data as it came to view in the

020alliance tracker, but now we really want to give you more data. We're choosing to do ESBACK, which is grades three through eight in ELA and math first as a district, but then we're going to disagregate the data. We've actually disagregated a little bit for you, but by school. And the principles will be coming to you with their improvement plans and their action plans around the data. And we're going to start um and we have um our friend and yours Tom Lansdale who's joining us virtually at home and he'll walk us through some of the data too. Um we wanted to start just by sort of explaining um some of the metrics that you're going to see tonight. We're really going to focus on the performance index. Um, I'm not sure if you can read all

021of that, but it basically says it's all tests across all grade levels and they're converted to a common scale. We're not going to bore you with the mathematical equation that um is involved in that. We could go that into more detail at another time if you'd like. >> Bring your faces down below. >> I can't do that. I because I just did it on my screen and I think Mark could do it there. >> Mark or whoever's >> No, it's me. >> Sorry. What do you need? >> Um, >> you can move the boxes to the to the bottom. >> I'm trying. >> Oh, >> that's good. >> Well, now I don't know who's talking, so All right, keep on going and I will figure this out. >> And and this performance index is the

022measure that's used by the Connecticut State Department of Education to show overall achievement in the district. Uh the student growth metric uh is another metric that we will um share with you at a later date. We didn't want to bombard you with uh too much data at this time. So we'll start with the uh performance index. Uh this slide just tells you a little bit more about um >> about the performance index. Again it's an average performance of students in different subject areas ELA uh mathematics or science. Again we're focusing tonight on ELA and mathematics on on the S track. Uh it ranges the index ranges from zero to 100 and is reported for all students. Um and for students in individual uh student groups which you'll see on our slide. Um the thing that's

023important to note and we'll look at it as we look at our goal slides later on in the presentation uh the state has set the ultimate target for performance index at 75. So when you're looking at the numbers that we currently have just keep that in mind and again we'll we'll use that number to set goals u later on this presentation. Now this is the how the state of Connecticut really the averaging of all the students who take the assessment and the trend line and as you can see going back to 201718 18/19 you don't see a 1920 or a 2021 but we're back on par at um 2122 looking at the trends um just because of the interruption of the pandemic. So if you look at ELA on the left hand side from 201718

024the average performance for the state was 67.6 6 in mathematics that same year it was 62.7 the following year 18/19 um we don't oh and then the science is still um not applicable I think that they hadn't really rolled out the NGSS at that point or they didn't have anything to compare it to and then in you went from 67.6 6 average in ELA to 67.7 just an incremental increase of a tenth of a percent in mathematics it went from 62.7 to 63.1 and then this year I think I had told you that while we might have not have gotten back to our 19 2019 data we um looked at the um the I'm sorry. Science performance is 63.8 for the state in ELA for 2122. Um we're at 64.2. So you see even the

025state data did not reconcile back to where it was prior to COVID which was 67.7. It's a little lower. And then the mathematics data even um took more of a hit in the state. It was 58.6 6 compared to 63.1 which was the last time we were able to assess kids with CO before COVID. And then in science um you see the 61.4 this year this past year compared to 18/19 which would have been 63.8. So this just helps orient you to keep in mind. So when you look at our data you can kind of see how we fall comparatively. Okay. Um, and again, keep in mind that the goal for the state is to get every district with a performance index of uh 75 in each indicator as we're as we're looking at at

026this data. Uh, Tom, you want to start walking us through the slides? >> Yeah. Can everybody hear me? >> Yeah. >> Awesome. Um, apologize for having to join you guys in person. I'm awaiting some test results right now and hopefully I'll be back soon. Um, so as you can see, I I put on the data going back from 2016 2017. You'll notice that Rotten has a metric for 2020 2021. Um, I do want to be clear, I calculated this myself. Uh, so I figured out for every one of our students what their performance index would have been so we could have a performance index from last year. This is not an official state number because the state decided not to do that. Um, but for comparison's sake, I wanted everybody be able to see where

027we would have been in 202021 because I help I think it helps us kind of orient ourselves to where we are kind of in coming back from the pandemic. Um, so we did have consistent growth from 2016 through 2019 and again this is grades 3 through 8 aspect ELA. So this is English language arts only and this is for all students. We had consistent growth from 68.1 to 16.9 prior to the pandemic. We have that gap year of 2019 2020 with no testing. We had a pretty large drop to 64% immediately following the pandemic but then we did rebound over 2.1 points um to 66.1 which is a fairly large increase from 64 uh 64 and sorry I should not have said percent to be very clear these are not percentages these are indexes. Um,

028so overall a a strong rebound. Um, but we do still have about two points to go to get back to where we were prior to the pandemic. >> And we really did see you're going to be seeing the breakout by grade level the next time we, you know, bring this to you. Um, and you're going to see some of the growth models. So, we're going to give you even more things to look at and to ask questions about. But I would say that across the board at almost every grade level, we saw some measured improvement in ELA. from last year. >> Yes, that's correct. >> From the 2020 2021 year to 2122, every grade level saw improvement. That is correct. >> So, do do you want to ask any questions about this data at this

029point or do you want to see the math and then ask questions? >> Tim, I had a question. Um we're still I mean even though there was a little bit of growth from 2016 to 2019 and then of course the dip during from the pandemic but we're still pretty far away from the 75 points that the state would like us to be at. So, um, you know, it' be wonderful when we do have the principles here to have them address this and what are they going to specifically doing in their schools to increase the performance index for their students because this kind of lumps them all in, but we're going to be receiving it by school. Correct. >> Well, that's why I think it's so important for the principles to share their action plans. However,

030I have to tell you that in this case, we were above the state across the board here. So, we outdid the state and the state has 75 for the whole state as the target as well. So, I think it's something that we're all going to be working very hard on. >> Right. Right. But, you know, when we do see the principles, we'll have the information specifically for each school. Correct. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Yep. With the so what, now what? What can we do about this to accelerate learning even better? >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> So, we ready for Matt? >> Nope. We This is the high. Okay. I'm sorry. >> So, just to be very clear, so Susan referred to the state report card earlier. So, the state report card

031really focuses on two um groups of students. all students and everybody altogether. And then high need students, which are both um students who have IEP, special education students, students who are ELLL um or students who receive free and reduced lunch services. They may count multiple times within that category. Um but they group all those students together. So again, the target is still 75 here uh for the state of Connecticut. Um you can see we had consistent growth from 16 all the way through 19, 59 up to almost 62. Um we did have a drop after the pandemic down to 57.8 um but gained a point back this year. Um so again we look to keep that growth going going forward. So as Susan said green is for math. So notice we have switched to math

032now. And again we're looking at the group for all students. So um overall growth from 2016 to 2017 up to 2019 from 63.3 up to 63.8 a a a larger drop than an ELA down to 54.9 for 20 uh to 21, but then a a much larger jump this past year 22 uh 2122 all the way back up to 59.4. So, a very large jump last year compared to the year prior. >> And yet the 59.4 is still um an improvement to what the state overall is as well. >> Yes, correct. And and again, this is looking at the the second grouping of students, the subgroup that the state looked at for high need students. So here again, overall growth from 1617 up to 2018 2019, a large drop from the pandemic and and another

033um noticeable bump over three points. I just want to mention though when we talk about offering that extra tutoring, the extra intervention during the school day, um the resource teachers with special education students who have IEPs, they are receiving um additional support in multiple ways in during the day, during the summer, after school. So just know that um while that support is really for all kids, you'll see that with the high need students because of the e teachers that we provide and the tutors that we provide with special education, the special education resource teachers um who are highly trained like in a lot of different programs specifically designed for children with dyslexia and other facets. um we are really trying to take care of their needs in a very accelerated way because we want them

034to achieve like the rest of the population and even better. So they still have a target of 75 as well. >> So just as we did in the chronic absenteeism uh presentation, we wanted to be able to compare our numbers to different groups. So one of them we looked at is our district reference group, our DUI. So these are um districts that are supposed to be kind of our comparison cohort socioeconomically. Um so you'll see in comparison to kind of our cohort in DUI G, we we compare very favorably. Um all the way at the top 66.1 was the highest score in group uh G for the DUI. And again this is for ELA only. For the math uh test again in DG we performed very well in comparison to the cohort. Um the only

035district who was able to outperform us was Verden at 60.3 but our 59.4 was was a very high second um because third place was almost three points lower overall. So this is a very >> kind of neck and neck with Vernon in both math and ELA. >> Absolutely. >> And have a lot of similar things happening for our teachers. So >> um this report compares us to all of the alliance districts within the within the state. Um so you see it's much larger. There's more alliance districts than what exists in our DUR. So, I apologize for how small the bars are. You'll see here the Graten outperformed everyone else. I apologize for not being able to add the numbers on the top of the bars, but there were so many different uh towns included in

036here. There was no way to get them in without having them be about a fourpoint font, which you would have been able to read. So, I apologize for that. If you're interested in the specific numbers for each town, I'm happy to send those to you. >> Well, that would have been for ELA 66.1%. >> Yep. And for this Yep. That's for ELA. >> And then >> Yep. >> 59.4. >> Yeah. But for the other alliance districts, if they would like the specific numbers, >> but again, Vernon was the only town to outperform us in math within the alliance as well. Uh so this is looking at by region kind of our regional towns um with a range all the way from New London score of 49 to Stonington score of 75. So Stonington hit that

037state target this year. Um Graten Falls roughly in the middle of the cohort regionally. This is our math performance index. So, um, with this one, New London again at the bottom of the regional index with North Stonington at the top. None of the districts in the region hit the state target of 75. Grten falls in I would say the lower third uh of this ranking this year. >> And it's interesting if you look at the middle group, Graten, Montville, Ledger, and Preston, they're kind of all hovering around that 60 point number. So, um, you can see that we're kind of clustered together. >> So, um, I just want to take a second to kind of explain this slide. So, the index rate, the blue, that is what Grten's actual score was, the ESSA milestone red.

038So back in 2016 2017 um following the Every Student Succeeds Act, Connecticut set goals for every single district from 201617 all the way through 2030. Every district's end goal was the same. It was 75. Um they didn't use any fancy math to calculate. All they did is they said, "Well, in 2016, Graten, you're at 68.1. You have to get to 75." They took those number of years and divided the the distance sprat needed to go and that's your growth rate for the year. So if you had to move 10 points over 10 years they were projecting you to make one point of growth every year. Uh some districts had really really aggressive growth curves. You can imagine if you were extremely low down at 50 in 201617 you had to make a lot of growth

039every year to get to that target of 75. If you were a district who was at 73 in 2016 2017, you had very very small growth that they were projecting you to make based off those SM milestones. Uh these milestones are frozen in time. Uh they were submitted as part of the ESA application for the state. They do not change and they are not variable. Uh so they basically have been frozen in time since that 201617 school year. So again the red is the SM milestone. That is the target set by the state. The blue is what Graten has actually scored. Um, so you can see up right until before the pandemic of 2019, we were right on track, very, very close to that growth curve that the state was projecting. We didn't have an

040index rate in 2019, 2020. Um, but we have after the pandemic, not surprisingly, we have not kept the growth curve that they are projecting for us. Um, and that is the same for every district in the state. We've fell down to 64. We made considerable growth back up to 66.1, but we are still well below that 70.7 SMI. But again, they didn't change the SM mileston following the pandemic. They have kept them the same for every district. Same exact concept here. The green is Grten's actual score. The red is what the state had put on for our SMIS targets. So again we were relatively close to keeping pace with those SM milestones prior to the pandemic in 2018 2019 did not have a score in 2019 2020 uh with our scores falling down to 54.9%

041we are well below the ESSA target in 2021 um we did make you know almost five points growth in up to 2122 but well below the target for ES of 67.8 So, we were discussing it, you know, at the district level. How do we forecast for the future? What is that going to look like? Um, and and to make it reasonable, but still end up with that 75 target by 2030. So, um, Tom did an outstanding job doing this forecasting. So, we'll show you this next interesting slide, which makes it um the growth more reasonable yeartoear, but still gets us to the end game 75. >> So, um as you saw in the prior slides, you know, we have a pretty substantial gap, for lack of a better term, to make up, right, to try

042to get back to our targets, but it's it's unreasonable to think that we could make all of that growth in one year. So, what we've essentially done is recalculated the ESA targets. So we've taken 2122 as our new baseline. So 66.1 is our new baseline. We are sticking to the original goal of having a 75 in 2930. We've just redistributed that growth across the remaining years going up to 2930. So what we've done essentially is made our growth curve much more aggressive. We've accelerated that growth over the next one two three four five six seven eight nine years um to try to get back to that 75 target. So, we've kept our end goal the same. We've just made our growth more aggressive over the next nine years to meet that target. >> And we

043will report that with our alliance tracker, whether it's with the Art Esser funding, with all of the um you know, the grants that we've received to showcase this is how we're going to get there. >> Absolutely. I do just want to know, you know, we we did copy the same methodology that the original ESSA targets were sent with. We we did not try to do any kind of you know exponential forecasting. We just went with a straight linear growth curve. >> No magic to this formula. >> No magic at all. We did the exact same thing uh with math. So we took 2122 a 59.4 score as our baseline. We kept the exact same target in 2930 of 75. We took the growth that we need to make and we evenly distributed it across the

044remaining years. So, um I would love to hear from the board. So, it helps me frame out I know that one of the next steps is to look at the secondary data and fine-tune both the front and middle school data by grade level. um looking at um the high school the and both um 8th grade and 11th grade have the NGSS that we need to review with you. Um instead of ESPback as a state test for the high school, they have the SAT which is an 11th grade. So each of the principles um we're actually going to start talking about it tomorrow. We've been talking about it, but to fine-tune the, you know, what is the action steps we need? And there's a lot happening this year at the high school and the middle school

045to help accelerate learning to provide those interventions during the school day, after school. Um, not only with regard to grades, but also to use the data that we've received back from the state to help us fine-tune what the kids will need. So, Any questions from the board? >> Sort of a general question because I haven't been in the biz for very long. So what we have is goals, measurement, are we meeting, when will we meet, what are we going to do to meet, etc. It occurs to me that this probably isn't the first time that state for example has attempted maybe not this way to say what's going on in school where would we like to be should we set goals how do we do this in other words I think this there have been

046attempts to skin this cat in other ways in the past and I'm asking this because the core is going to be well what are we going to do now that we know where we are where we want to go how do we get there kind of thing. And uh have we learned from prior attempts perhaps didn't work out? We thought something was a good idea and it turned out that a multi-year investment in something resulted in absolutely no improvement whatsoever, math or language or what have you. Maybe it's apples and oranges, but it's really more of a comment than a question, which is, you know, what do we have amnesia when it comes to what happened before this or do we know what happened before and what work didn't that we can apply to this

047effort? >> I would say we absolutely know what was making progress for us. the work we've done with T teachers college Columbia University the reading and writing I think because students were really reading and and writing even during COVID we saw them continuing to make progress um from last year to this past year but I think when you're in a hybrid situation and you're seeing the kids in person for only two days and then they're expected to do it remotely sometimes with parent supervision sometimes s in a daycare, sometimes with grandma, that they didn't have the support of a certified teacher five days a week like they needed. So, that was a huge piece of information. And some high schoolers were able to handle the remote learning better than others. Um, same at the elementary

048level, not as much. We saw it more in high school that the remote learning worked for some kids. So, I would say that we really need to get back and lean into the initiatives that we're really driving. um and helping us navigate and make progress. So um you know we we we don't have to do this thing remotely anymore. So would you say that but for CO we were on track things that were being done were part of a solid trend so that but for COVID we will be on track to meet the 75. Nothing to worry about. We're driving down the road we'll get there. >> I'm very confident. >> Okay. So we just been interrupted. That's all >> the data seem to indicate that in those years previous to co >> Okay. And

049I was just going to speak to another point. I don't know really how to measure this, but one thing one aspect I think we have now that we probably didn't have back then is the social emotional support for kids. >> Um again, you know, again, I don't know how to how you'd measure the impact that that might have on scores, but I'm hoping that as we continue to move forward, we'll see those gains just because we have more support structures in place, not just academically, but uh social emotionally as well. and the administrator plan. And when Ted gets a chance to come and talk to you about some of the things that are happening at the high school and you're also at the middle school, you can see how we're really paying close attention student

050by student um at their data whether it's their classroom performance, whether it's looking at the SPEC or the SAT or you know whether it's the um you know the first rapid um Lexia um data. So really fine-tuning that and getting support with certified teachers, tutors, Falcon Academy, after school, those all those things are put into place. So I'm excited for you to learn more about that because I think it's where we really get the bang for our buck is student by student. It really matters that we're paying attention. >> So these things tend to have very long cycle times and education is full of this, but education is not alone. Industry also does the same thing. We go through learning and relearning sometimes the same thing all over again. And it can look from a

051high level from looking at over say the last 50 years maybe if you want to do that that you start to see patterns of you know same stuff just different day another decade more different labels but it's really you're in the same sort of gerble wheel and we've been there we've done it we get we don't we don't reach but you're confident that again but for co we were on our way and would have gotten there. teachers will tell you that things have changed on them over and over. They just want to have some sustainability and to do the deeper dive into some of the things that we've introduced. So, I think taking the time doing the deeper dive is really important now that we're back. I have a question. I I I was thinking

052about this when I looked at it over the weekend, but Dean um I think kind of alluded to it is that um years back when actually Beverly Rita and I were um on the board, it was not the SBACK, it was the CMTS and then they moved to the Smarter Balance. And my question is Tom with your growth model, what happens if um the I mean over nine years because we're talking about this was like nine years ago um the the country went from using their CMT or whatever it was and did a unified um smarter balance. And I I'm assuming that our index will then change because the testing or the what it tests is going to change. >> So yes and no. Um I think logically yes they are they are measuring different

053things at that point but the index is made to convert any test to a common index. So, for example, it can take a third grade student's ESPback test and a 11th grader's SAT and put them on a common scale. So, they try to let you compare them apples to apples. Now, we know it's apples and oranges, uh, but they try to put them on the same scale for us so we can kind of gauge overall performance with very different student groups, if that makes sense. Um, >> it does, it does make sense. Now, now that being said, to to your point of what happens if we suddenly decided to change course, um I can tell you that when the Connecticut State Department of Education submitted their plan, um preceding the 2016 2017 year, they committed

054to using Smarter Balance through 2030, uh and they committed to those scores. It it's way above my pay grade to say whether they could change that or not. I think the federal government would have something to say about that because it was tied to that federal funding. Um, but as far as I know, we are committed to that through 2030. >> Okay. >> And I would say in addition to that, this assessment, Smarter Balance, is directly aligned to the Connecticut core. It's our Smarter Balance. So, it's our assessment in Connecticut. It's directly in line with um what the state has provided us as standards, what our teachers have really been immersed in. So part of what they've learned through the process um to learn deeply what those standards mean and even at the elementary level

055not only is it aligned to the curriculum the instructional model but and the assessment but it's also aligned to their report card in a standardsbased way. So say I would say elementary probably has done the deepest dive in this work but we're going to be rolling out now with middle school looking at the my standards and the s back together. So um really going deeper into what we've been doing and um continuing to make it challenging and um relevant to kids. >> Cool. Tom, uh, Tom, Susan, and Phil, thank you very much. It was a It was easy to read, and I think it is getting us, um, looking forward to once again hearing what each school is doing. It's been a long time since we've um had that experience. So, that's going to be

056cool. >> So, there's no further questions from the board. I am going to move us on in the agenda. Um and um the assistant superintendent. >> I segueed. >> Oh yes. >> Um yes. I I was just going to give a report on um a few of the committees that um I have the pleasure of working with in the district. There's a number of committees but the three in which um you know it's comprised of uh administrators and teachers uh throughout the district that really drives the work uh throughout the year and that I I'll be reporting on throughout the year. The first is the curriculum and instruction council um that is again made up of of teachers and administrators from across the district on all levels. Um, we did hold our first meeting um,

057uh, LA just last week. Um, and really what I use this as is really sort of to take the message from the from the board of ed and from the board of ed subcurriculum subcommittee uh, to sort of lay out the expectations in terms of curriculum. We reviewed the curriculum handbook, the curriculum timeline for new curriculum and updated curriculum um and reviewed the forms that are available to them if they want to propose a new class, propose a new textbook, uh propose new instructional software. Um so there's a lot of nuts and bolts this year. There's a lot of new teachers on the committee. Um and and what I've found over the past year is that a lot of people aren't aware of the a lot of the procedures that are in place. So part

058of um the charge of this committee I told them if they if they were um volunteering to be on this committee was that they were going to act as liaison and the mouthpiece for this this committee back in their buildings. Uh and I've asked the principles to allow these representatives some time at faculty meetings to report back on the work uh that's there. Um you know it was a great conversation. a lot of people um you know um we talked a little bit about uh courses on the horizon and um what needs to be done to get those off the ground. Um and the part that we didn't get to that I was really looking the most forward to is we were going to have some breakout groups and really uh talk about the priorities

059at each level um both the elementary and the secondary. So, so that's going to be sort of the work leading up to our next meeting. And hopefully we can get some of that work done um before that meeting so we can really uh uh accomplish some goals at the next meeting and not have to uh you know do some of that pre-work to really make that time valuable that we have together. That committee meets four times over the course of the year. Um and the next meeting will be in uh November. Uh the other committee is the Graten Teaching and Learning Committee. Uh again that's made up of uh representatives from all from all all over the district different levels. Um the primary focus of this is um professional development and the teacher evaluation plan

060or the G plan. Um our first meeting is next week. Um so uh we have not yet met yet. Um, but we really are going to focus this year on reviewing the professional development surveys that go out after every professional development day when we have our TLI days or our full day PDS. Um, even you know this in August the first couple days um you know at this first meeting we'll be reviewing the data um received back from teachers on our opening day professional development. Um we didn't get to do a lot of that last year. So, so I really want to make those surveys valuable and make the teachers understand that we are reading them and we are adjusting our professional development according to their responses. Um, and if something works, we want to

061continue to do that and to continue to offer those things. And if not, um, we want to change things up. And again, we look at this not only I look at I look at things at the district level and then we can break down these surveys uh, per by school. So we get that information to the principles so they can uh continue to plan for the future. So that's a lot of work um that's going to be done by this committee. And then of course the uh the GED a teacher evaluation plan um you know we work there's a lot of members of you know I work hand inand with Beth Pler uh the president of the teachers union um to nail down the language of our plan and make sure that everybody understands it

062and it's communicated as to what the expectations are for the teachers and the expectations for the administrators. Um and uh we are we're expecting some changes to come from the state. Uh we were supposed to get some uh this fall or winter. They have been pushed uh we hear until uh after the new year um in terms of what the state's going to do with teacher evaluation. Um and so uh we are anxiously awaiting that because obviously that will uh alter the things that we're doing here. Um so that'll be part of our work probably more than likely the second half of the year. Uh but the GTLC or the Graten Teaching and Learning Committee again focuses on professional development in that teacher evaluation. Um and then the final one is the district data team

063uh which is exactly what it sounds like. Um we uh gather data similar to what you've seen here and probably even breaking it down further into uh subgroup uh data. Um again looking at it at the district level u making sure we get the data uh back to the building level. It's also an opportunity for the building reps. Um this team is made up of uh one administrator and one building rep uh from each building. So it's a little bit smaller. Um and um they'll also be bringing data from their schools uh so we can compare and contrast the different schools, see what's working in some schools so we can hopefully uh um you know really u move all the buildings ahead by looking at best practices and seeing what's working in the different buildings

064across the district. Um again that first meeting is not until November. um after we have some data uh that we can really uh look at from the school year. So that has not met yet. But those are the three committees that um I uh get to work on again with building representatives, building administration and teachers that help really move the work forward throughout the year. And a lot of the stuff that comes out of those committees will be brought here as well uh to share so you are aware of what's going on. Any questions for Bill? All right. Hearing none, we'll move on to the business manager report. >> All right. >> How are you? >> Good. How are you? >> I'm doing dandy. >> So, I'm sharing on the screen. This is uh attachment

065number two. This is our object code summary for FY23. Um, sorry, a lot of numbers. Uh but you'll see at the very bottom that our uh uh projected unexpended balance is 41,126. Uh this uh this report uh reflects the following uh increased transportation expenses due to the two additional buses required. Uh the increased cost for the heating oil and diesel that we uh we spoke of at the uh the last meeting. Uh there is additional severance costs for a teacher and two carers that was not originally um considered in the budget. Uh these are all offset by a decreased cost for one uh one FTE one FTE teacher position at um at Mystic River. Uh as well as cost savings uh for replacement of par two parses with PAR two positions holding back of a

066percentage of site budgets and a decrease in the outofd district special education tuition costs. uh we we have we haven't gotten the bills in yet, but we took a look at that and we do believe we are a little bit uh a little bit heavy in that area. So, we are we brought that back uh by 4%. >> In other words, we had you know, it looked like we were preparing for more than what we have. So, to adjust that, >> we still have approximately eight and a half% more than we had in the prior year uh to the budget. So, we feel like we are sufficient to cover it at this point. And I have talked to the principles about and I'll be talking to them individually about holding back. Mike used to do

067this on a regular basis, the 25% so that we really can march our way through and make sure that we are, you know, we got to figure out what's going to happen over the winter. So, we're going to be be cautious about that. >> 41 end of September. >> Yeah. Yeah. We got a ways to go, but uh usually like triple this or something >> or at least >> every every year is different. This year I think it will be a challenge, but um all indications at this point is be all right. But uh we'll see what happens. and and we're expecting that we're going to be spending this entire amount that everything will come to fruition including these kind of um anomalies that came forward in inflation. You know, we didn't have the crystal

068ball last year at this time to see what was happening now. >> Paint sales and heavy sweaters. >> Well, sweaters might be might be bad. You think take take down the heat a little bit. Any other um any questions on the object code summary? >> Actually, I do have a question. Now that you mentioned that, are we required by the state to keep our building at a certain minimum temperature? I'm not suggesting anything. I'm just sort of curious now that the subject came up, is there a requirement that we keep them at least, you know, whatever the >> minimum maximum. Okay, I kind of thought I can get it for you. >> No, that's okay. I was just curious if there was one. Guess I'm not shocked. >> Thanks, >> Beth. >> Thank you, Ken.

069Um, Ken, is there anything that we should be concerned about or keep an eye on in the future? >> Um, I think we should be concerned about inflation continuing to uh increase. Uh, it's going to put pressure on all of our uh all of our expenses. Um, as far as the diesel and heating oil, we are kind of locked in at this point. So, uh, I think this that that what we're doing right now for that is the worst of it. Uh, but, uh, all the other expenses, uh, are are subject to, uh, inflationary pressures. >> I mean, even just the use of paper because you can't get paper, but that's not such a bad thing. we we do have the technology to support but also I don't know if you remember those black and

070white notebooks but those notebooks are actually are good writing tools so instead of using and filling in a a worksheet and using paper reams of it for a child to come in with a writing notebook is a real valuable way to um correct that issue. So we we've really looked at ways that we can be efficient but also continue our excellent teaching. >> Good question Beverly. >> Any other questions? >> Hearing none. Let's do the insurance. >> Yes. That one that is attachment number three. Oops. Sorry about that. So this is our health insurance claims report uh for the month of July uh 2022. Uh claims for the month are at 77.2% of projection. Uh this compares with last year it was 87.7% for July of 2021 and 86.8% for July of 2019. I'm skipping

071July 2020 because that was very impacted by COVID. So those numbers still make sense. Uh so the this 77 is quite a bit lower than um or 10% or so lower than those two those two years, but I think it's trending as expected. These types of HSA plans uh the deductible um resets in July. So typically it's it's lower in the July and August and then it continues to build as those deductibles get used up. Uh so u you know I think I'd like to see where August comes in but I think we're on track pretty much uh as in previous years at this point. >> Any questions on that? All right. And then >> and attachment number four. So we actually went over this in the last uh CO, but just to um to

072refresh um this the these are the proposed school uh meal prices. Um we last adjusted these prices in 2019. Uh we base these off the USDA reimbursement rate. So I put those both on the page. uh and you'll see that our increase is approximately uh the same increase as the USDA reimbursement rate. I also added in uh just this uh additional chart that just shows you how that compares. So we're we're actually at 80% or so of the USD USDA reimbursement rate, you know, both the last time we did it as well as this time. We're trying to be consistent in in keeping these uh these prices at an 80% of the USDA rate. >> And we'll be we'll be voting on this. Yes. Later today. >> Yep. This will be the the we're taking

073that vote. That would be um um number four is the motion to approve um the recommendation that ca that comes from uh Ernie and Ken, but also from the finance and facilities um committee. >> Kim, I had a question um for Ken about the chart. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, Ken, I I don't quite understand um the reimbursement rates for 22 2022 23 the middle of the page. >> So, is it do we get reimbursed for lunches for those students that are free and reduced lunch? $4.33. >> Correct. >> Okay. And yet we want to charge. So we're actually like from what we're charging is like $3. We were proposing $3.75. But if you took that 58 cents, which is the difference, and subtracted it, couldn't we use some of that excess money to be

074used to help the people that have to pay for lunches and breakfast? Um so so the the rate that we get reimbursed by the USDA that so the how can I put this um the the rate that we are um proposing here at 80% of the USDA it kind of takes into account the it's just the overall pool of funds that come in. Uh so we're getting uh $4.33 for a free student that gets free uh lunch. Uh and and then there's some uh catering uh that uh that Ernie does as well like like the u the beach um right stand. And so if you put all that together, uh it comes out to that that we need these types of prices in order to um in order to maintain the the program as self-sufficient.

075>> So it's reimbursing for lunch, but then his um enterprise fund has to pay for the people who service the cafeteria >> equipment. So there's other costs, >> but not but not Ernie's salary. Correct. Uh, no. Ernie salary is is >> No, we don't pay salary. It's all within the enterprise. Yeah. Everything. >> Okay. And it would be nice to know if they made a profit at the beach this year. We haven't you know, we don't usually get to see that breakdown, but but it would be nice to know like if you know we I I'm just trying to figure out a way where we do we don't have to raise our prices for the our the schools that have to pay for lunches. So, I'm still trying to figure that out. And also, I

076know that the state of um no, the federal government actually has three billion dollars for keep kids the keep kids fit fed um fit uh fed act. So, that's like money that you could apply. Is that additional money that you could apply for or is that part of the USDA? Yeah, I don't know. Have to check that into that. >> Yeah, it's a new It's something new that and I think it was to help offset um lunches for schools. So, it's a new act. It's called Keep Kids Fed Act and they have $3 billion that that you know districts could apply for some of that money. >> We are um collecting forms from parents, the free and reduced forms. They're online. We're encouraging it. I'll probably be sending out another message. Um, help us help

077you and others. Um, is the campaign because we feel like the more data we have on free and reduced lunch is going to support Grten in receiving any additional funds and you know >> and alliance money and everything, we really need to get a handle because of COVID. We weren't really able to collect the forms like we have in the past. >> So, what you're saying is true. I would really the goal is ultimately to see if Grten couldn't be one of those districts where we could take care of all of our children. >> Yeah, that that's what I'm hoping. >> Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. >> So, those forms, if parents are out there listening, please turn in those free and reduced lunch forms. It's going to help you. It might help your neighbor. It

078helps all of us. >> And the deadline is September 30th, correct? To turn them in. >> Friday. Yeah. Friday. >> Friday. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rita. Any other questions? Awesome. Let's move on um to Mr. Kilpatrick. >> Oh, good evening. I have two items that I want to report on tonight. Uh the first uh is the solar panels for um uh the two schools. Um and uh that is in regard to the power purchase agreement what we refer to as the PPA. So that uh agreement has been going back and forth between the uh attorneys our attorney Greenbank's attorney uh Rick Norris and myself. Uh so we've been working on that diligently for quite some time longer than I had hoped. But at any rate uh we finally sent off our final uh

079list of items. there was only one more thing that we needed to change on that. So, we're just waiting for the final copy to come back and that will be ready for uh the superintendent to sign. Once that's signed, then it would take uh 12 to 16 weeks for the materials to arrive on site. And so, it looks like it would be a spring or summertime project depending upon how bad the weather is this winter. Um the second item are the field lights at GR Middle School. Uh and again we're working on that with the contractor. Uh and also um the contractor has uh signed a contract with Kent Frost uh Automistic uh to do the final plans for that. Uh and that is moving along. Uh again, um that we had hoped that that

080would be a fall project or we hoped it's going to be a summer project, but again, that looks like that would be a spring project at the >> But we do have temporary lights up, so we're still able to >> Yeah, we have lights that >> we have. Yeah, the temporary ones we kept for the fall. >> Wow. Any questions? All right, I'm moving us along. Um so we are now on committee reports policy that August at at any rate we have policies here for you tonight to uh for the first reading that's facilities advanced course programs and eligibility to part participate in scholastic I will athletics and I'm losing my voice. But I wanted to thank in particular the staff at the high school, Mr. Romano and Mr. Keller who work diligently to uh

081to bring the uh the eligibility deploy policy to our first reading and I'm hoping for our acceptance. Um I have to say that they went out of their way and to make sure that um children are who are the students who are eligible to play the academic standards and are the pardon me and they're designing ways very specific ways for them to be to receive support. So pardon Um, oh, the naming of facilities. We're we're happy to bring that tonight. We had long discussions about maybe you could maybe you could take over. >> So, we really broke it down into the naming of the facility, the school building, which would be the committee that we've used um with the three new buildings. So, very similar. and then the name naming of parts of the building

082like the library. So that would be really for the board of ed whether it's an ad hoc committee to make those decisions. So we've broken it up into those two parts to try to really um clarify that process and simplify. Yes, simplify is really part of it. >> Super. And we'll have more conversation about that when we get to that. And we'll >> Yes. >> between you between you and Susan. Um boys, we can we can do that. You got it. Um curriculum. I know that Liz is traveling. Um is there anyone here from curriculum subcommittee >> because Matthew is um celebrating the holidays. So, >> right. And um and we did not meet this month because of scheduling issues. Okay, that was a quick report. Thank you. >> Um Jay, I see you are

083on and so finance and facilities. >> Uh yes. So we met on uh September the 6th. Uh we discussed the um need for some additional buses and the cost um you know due to uh all the routes that uh we maintain. Um, we also, believe it or not, uh, began to review the budget timeline. You heard me right. We are already starting to think about next year's budget. So, um, Ken marched us through that schedule. Um, we discussed fuel costs that Ken u talked about earlier, the diesel, the heating oil, how we're locked in on some of these, how different buildings are under different contracts. uh for natural gas depending on when they were uh existing or built. Um, we looked at the pricing uh for uh food nutrition that uh that Ken discussed and

084and once again the the idea of this is at at the end of the year this is this is an enterprise um uh project of the board and so it doesn't make any money. In point of fact, I think most years there's a small deficit and I do know that uh food services even runs a fundraiser to try to erase that. So it's not all these extra funds that that we can offset with. Um and let's see. Uh we got the update on the solar panels that it's basically still at the contract phase. Um we received an update from um Mr. Kilpatrick on the fieldhouse study that uh was completed and there are a few options. We discussed this actually at the last committee of the whole. We are waiting to see actual copies of

085that uh study. Um and I believe Chairman Watson is going to schedule a meeting with the athletic fields committee um so that we can uh work with them on on you know which u direction we want to go with that. And then uh we discussed the uh food service classrooms study. Uh we know we want to modernize that wing of the high school. There's a great demand for um food service classes among uh the students and we want to uh to allow more of our students to pursue that along with the other uh programs we have at the high school. Um people have mentioned well you know they could go to Graasso. Well, number one, they may want to do that in addition to other things they can only do at Fitch. Um, and Grao,

086of course, is also something you have to apply to. So, um, you know, we've made a commitment to increase the capacity and modernize, uh, those spaces and that's all. >> Wow. Thank you. >> A lot. Um, and communications did not meet this month as well and it's scheduled for October. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Han to the committee and get him caught up to date hopefully before the >> Okay. All right. Good luck on that one. >> All right. Um, negotiations. We are in the midst of um negotiation with um the administration um union and our next meeting is Thursday at 530. Okay. Um uh Rita learn. >> Yes, Lur. We had um our regular board meeting on September 8th. At that time we had a presentation by the assistant executive director Dr. uh Ryan

087Donlin who provided an whole overview of all the openings of their schools. Um they also showed a little video of their convocation. They have so many um staff members that they have and don't have a place to um have everybody come together because they have schools in East Harford and everywhere. So they just do a a video for their convocation. Um what I wanted to um mention that there is going to be a the state is actually hosting um it's called Igniting Change. It's October 19th at the Connecticut Convention Center and it's for all professional learning collaboratives available to all districts. And the keynote speaker is Dr. uh H. Richard Milner who is the author of the award-winning book Start where you are but don't stay there striving to help other to help educators in

088the fight for social justice equality um inclusion transformation for all students. So that would be something that if any of our teachers, our staff wanted to attend, that's October 19th at the Connecticut Convention Center. also the Marine Science Magnet School where many of our students attend. They were the only high school to present at the National Conference on Aquarium Sciences with all these other colleges that were there. The Marine Science High School, they have a wonderful program where they're growing coral and that is what they spoke of. And they actually sell the coral once a year and and have, you know, gotten um quite popular. So, but that's about it. I mean, it was very and you know, they're doing fingerprinting again. Um Susan, where do our our staff go for fingerprinting? >> They actually

089go to learn most of the time. >> They are going to learn again. Okay. Because for a while they didn't and we had to go to the police department which was very slow. >> I don't think that we're doing that as much as going to learn. Yeah, that's great. I'm glad I'm glad they're having it again at Learn because it's much quicker than um getting the results and when we went to our local police department, >> but um that's about it. It was really good meeting. >> Thank you, Rita. >> Um the next is the town council RTM board of ed leaison. Um actually there was a town counselor that had reached out to me um that wants to kind of get it going. So, I'm um in correspondence with um actually a town counselor

090Juliet Parker to get that going. So, I am looking forward to that. Um we do not have a leazison meeting scheduled or at least it's not on my calendar. Um but Rita, do you have or >> what what is this for? >> The um the AS the leazison meeting with the board of ed. I'm not sure when the next one. It's supposed to be in usually October or November. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you. I didn't mean to go. >> I think Phil sees Beth tomorrow morning >> or sometime this week. >> What's today? Monday. Wednesday morning. >> Okay. So, if you could >> get out your calendars and see when it is if we have one. >> Sure. >> Scheduled. >> Graten scholarships. I believe Liz Porter is the our leazison for that. Um

091athletic fields. Jay, I think you >> before you go beyond that, um I had asked before for people that have donated to the Grten scholarship. In the past, they um we have received a um the pamphlet in the mail that says where your scholarship, who received it, and I've had two other people that have asked me, you know, why haven't received that? And I asked this at our August meeting. Um, and I'm hoping that someone at the high school will get on board with this and send these out because it is really nice if someone takes the time to donate the money, they should at least see who's received the scholarship. So, I'm hoping we get that going. Susan, maybe you can put a bug in at someone at the high school ear. >> Yeah,

092Principal Keller sitting right here, so he >> Oh, great. And he looks like he's And he looks like he's writing on his phone. So luck this time. >> Thanks so much. >> I I do have I may have some um insight into that because I I found out um accidentally that my scholarship did not go to the young man who was it was designated to. And the um when I spoke to the people on on the on the board, they send the money directly to the college. So, I had to really advocate for that young man for that young man's money not to go to the college because it would reduce >> right >> the amount of funding that he got. >> Yeah. >> And I wanted him to be able to use it for

093books and and >> Yes. Yes. It should be whatever. It shouldn't go right to the colleges. It never did before. And In the past, the student would always send a thank you note. And that's another thing we didn't receive this year. >> Well, let let me say that. Oh, I received a thank you note, but let me say say that I spoke with uh the uh the people on Graten Scholarship and they were u they were unaware that monies would be reduced. That was that they they didn't understand that. And they're having a second meeting, I think they said, in October. and they're going to bring bring that up again, but I was able to get that money for my >> Ted, do you serve on that committee >> or as a leazison? >> I've

094been to many meetings. I'm not on the committee. >> Okay. >> Do do we have faculty or do we have someone from the school? Do you think that you could get that information um to that person >> or designated people so that um we could get the answers to that? >> Awesome. must have counselors on there, right? They would be a number of >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, we're going to try to we're going to try to have some of that stuff um come back to us with information about the Graten scholarship cards acknowledgement and do they know that the money is being >> I mean it it always comes at um at graduation night and I usually pick one up and I wasn't I was not at graduation first time in many years this

095year um because our son was getting married but that that's usually where but it's also sent to you in the And >> okay, >> I think it's very important for those people that just to see who received it and >> you know it would be nice. >> Yep. Thank you. Jay, do you have anything further than what you reported out in the finance and facilities? >> Well, um, no. the uh athletic fields did not meet um this month uh just because uh they're still dealing with the visioning project on the the Claude Chester school site. >> Okay. >> And just um to let you and the board know that I I I think I CCD you guys. I did send a note to the town manager and to the um mayor about the board wanting

096to meet with the trails committee and um the wreck department to kind of talk about um our concerns that were raised um at the committee the whole and how we can kind of partner with them um to move the project forward because I think Jay your comment last week was very helpful for me in really understanding that this is going to be a large scope process. and we really are needing to think about this like we thought like we did around the three new schools in terms of getting out to the community about why we're having that done. So, um as soon as I hear back from someone, I will be more than happy to let the the board know. Rita, >> um yes. Um Jay, are are they just talking about fields or are

097they talking about the building also? My understanding is that the charge of the town council a few years ago was that they are to look at every field and facility uh associated with athletics. So our understanding is that that would include the fieldhouse, the concession stand, and of course the idea that someone had brought forward to flip the football field could possibly affect the buildings that are there. It will also affect the track, you know, and everything else. So, the the town council wanted a comprehensive um discussion about what the needs are townwide for fields and facilities um so that it could come in as one package rather than coming in as CIPs. >> That was my >> that Yeah. Well, my question is if if you knew whether or not Quadchester would would be

098going up for sale or not. Um, I know Learn is looking for a new site they possibly for the multicultural magnet school. So, I was just curious if whether or not in your talk about the trails and the fields if they mentioned the school. >> Well, what uh what the town did was they had a a public visioning workshop, >> right? And people suggested what they want to see happen to Claudchester, whether it's remove the building, put fields. Some people want to make that into a town green. Um I I heard there was another organization that was interested in the building. So I don't know whether they might still be in play on that. Um and so all of that visioning data was collected. uh I don't know exactly what the status is of of

099organizing it and then I believe ultimately it's the town council that will decide which direction they're going to take and then all of the other things that we've been working on for years in terms of field needs and facility needs around the town will then all be put together with that for one project. >> I see. And given that Sam mentioned at the last meeting that that just our needs at the high school field for buildings and fields could be in the neighborhood of multi-millions of dollars, then I would have to assume that this will need a townwide referendum for this entire fields project. So it's not something that's going to be uh a CIP next year, >> right? I'm just more thinking if somebody wants to buy a building at one of our schools

100that that would be revenue for the town. You know, they learn was interested in Pitch Middle number of years ago and they said no, it's going to become a town hall. >> So, I'm going to keep us to the field committee re report. >> You can you can do that. That's fine. >> But hopefully we can sell something. >> And I know um trail the trails committee um was Matthew. He is not here. library is also Matthew. He is not here. And >> yes, we met we met and uh there were three interesting things to me and the first one is that there's still debating whether reserves and national guard would fall under the the military compact. And that's and there's even debate within the the National Guard and the reserves as to whether they

101want to be included in it. So, it's really very convoluted. Um, and the second interesting thing to me was that the uh the com the compact guarantees that all of your credits will be accepted as you move to schools and it it also addresses extracurricular activities. But towns have ways of obviating what their duty is. And I I don't remember the town and I'm glad, but there was a town um somewhere in the country that had a young man who came in and wanted to play baseball. And the baseball team was very um selective, I I suppose, and very inbred, I would think. and they they found a way of of having him disqualified because they sent out a message in a communication form that he would never have received. So then when he went

102to practice, they said, "Well, you didn't respond to the uh message that we sent." And they disallowed him from from participating. I just don't I don't understand how anybody >> But then they went out and asked the middle school kids because they needed people on the team to come on the team. And this is a military child who's probably come late for the try out part. But under the compact it says that they need to have access >> and so they didn't give them access but then they open the doors for the middle schoolers because they need more players instead of asking this high school kid. >> It's beyond my crazy. I I know that when I was principal at at pitch middle. We had a young man come in and uh I said to

103the coach, he has to try out and the coach was reluctant. And I and Kathy Wilson was there and she said, she's the principal. You have to do what she says. But I said, you don't he doesn't have to make the team. He just has to be able to try out. And he did. And he made the team. And the last thing that I'm going to talk about, and I have that my voice back to to to a degree, is the impact of impact aid and the necessity for everyone, whether you are eligible for it or not, to sign that and send that form back. And what's interesting to me is that Captain Curtain, who was the the head of the base, said that for years he didn't do it because he didn't realize that

104it was the numbers. He thought, "Well, I don't qualify this, so for this, so I don't have to sign." He does sign now. Now, I'm not I'm not in the military, but I I think I know that if the captain says you should fill it out, you should fill it out. And Miranda's going to help us get that word out, too, >> so that military families or people who are working on submarines, I mean, we and really um are on the reservation. There are so many ways that we can get the impact aid. Um, so we want everybody to fill out those forms and that is coming out the end of this week. So, we'll be getting that message out as well. Lots of things to do. All right. I'm going to be moving us

105on to the consent agenda. Um, which is where all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion with points of clarification. um allowed. Um I'll take a motion for acceptance of the consent agenda. I have William, you're either giving me the >> a motion or like a boy scout. I wasn't quite sure what that is. I got second from Dean. Um is there any question or discussion? >> I was highlighting very nice people who specific donations. >> I will be doing that at the end. >> I'm sure. >> All right. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Um the board of ed would like to thank the United Cerebral

106Policy of Eastern Connecticut. Um has donated um donated three Yogibo positioning bean bags for use for the students in the district self-contained special education programs. on the products are Yogi roll, a Yogi, a Yogi bow midi, and a Yogi bow huggy bow. United Way of Southeastern Connecticut. Those are just fun words to say. >> You too. You can really hug them. >> I just really love saying those words. United Way of southeastern Connecticut has donated student backpacks and assorted school supplies to the district. The Coventry West Greenwich Elks um number 2285 has donated 25 backpacks to Themes River Magnet School. each containing school supplies. Mary and Frank um Gargano has donated $50 to the um Graten Public School mentoring program. Deborah and Brian Baldwin have donated $25 to the Graten Public Mentoring Schools mentoring program.

107Rosanne Kowski has donated $60 to the Graten Public Schools mentoring program. And Thomas and Joyce Weber has donated $25 to the Graten Public Schools mentoring program. Tanger Outlets has donated $500 to be used to to be fun used to fund PhonX resources at Themes River Magnet School and Tanger um Tinder Outlet has donated $1,000 to be used to fund Academy Classroom at Themes River Magnet Schools. For those donations, we would like to say thank you for that. There is no old business. We are going to be moving on to new business. Um Dean, would you please read the motion for number one, please? >> Certainly. Uh move to approve policy P6145.1, eligibility to participate in intercolastic athletics as a first reading. >> Thank you. Can I have a second to that, please? I got I

108got William saying second. discussion please between Andrea and Susan. >> I think I've already explained how diligently the high school work to uh to make that this not only strongly educational and athletic at the same time. Would you say Susant want to add to that? Well, I would say that we follow the Connecticut Interscolastic Athletic Conference that's specifically for the high school, right, Ted? >> And they have certain requirements, but in this case, the Fitch High School is really even up in the Annie a little bit, but providing support at the same time. So, the expectation is that um a child has eight um consecutive semesters or four years that they are able to play. So um and that's for everybody. So you can't really go over that four years. And um we set the

109criteria for this. But the other thing that we are doing is that a child has to be passing at least five of their classes. But if we're the high school is looking every week, every other week at all their athletes, but actually they're looking at even more than that, their students um to see if anybody is at risk failing or getting a D at any given point so that we can kind of come in and make sure that those CTL periods, which are 25 minutes, and then there's a couple extended ones where they're not we're not waiting for the kids to ask the teacher for help. we're actually having the teacher reach out to the student and offer support during the day. There's also the Falcon Academy. So, if they failed one class um and

110it could have just been a test that they failed, then they need to come to the Falcon Academy for tutoring after school as well. And um and then, you know, we we really try to get them right back into playing and practicing, but they are giving support. I wanted to emphasize that that we we appreciate that they need really if they're on the team they need to be a practice and we appreciate that and that's what where the uh the tutoring within the school day comes in and there's more of an emphasis on that and there if you are failing then you do have to go once a week if you fail two courses then you have to go twice a week >> and sometimes even more that they can actually participate even more if

111they need to but I think that we're saying we want high standards for our athletes and all of our students, but we're also going to give them measured support so that we're not going to wait until the quarter or the semester to see that a child's failing. We're really monitoring and I know that I have to do a shout out for Mark Romano because he's really tackling a lot of this and I think it's eye opening, but I think we're trying to catch them before they fall. So, >> any questions um from the board? Dean, >> as there's so many things, uh there's how we'd like it to go and how it could go. Hopefully, it goes as we like it to go. Is there going to be any sort of monitoring uh for this

112to see because what we're really doing is we're giving people a a break. We're saying, look, you know, we'd like you to participate in sports. We don't want it to. So, we're going to provide you with support, etc. Do we have any way of sort of measuring how this works? So, we're gonna look at it again in four years or, you know, um >> I don't think we're gonna wait till then. We're we're monitoring it weekly by weekly. The data team's probably going to look at grades and, you know, and other things, too. Um, for our high school students, um, like we always do. So, I think, you know, as soon as we can roll this out, you know, it's a new set of rags and we've adjusted the policy. So I know we want

113to get it into play. Although I have to say commend the high school again, they're already practicing some of these regulations. They they're not waiting for this policy. They're already taking care of the supporting the kids. >> The basic concern is not, you know, how do we punish kids for not doing well, so we'll keep them off the team. The basic concern is they can't handle their academics. Apparently, they can't handle their academics. Having them play a sport as well is is just imposing the burden they're not going to be able to overcome. That's how it looks. So we're going to try to address that. Um, so I just want to make sure there's a way we can sort of revisit are we in fact um, you know, helping kids and making sure that they

114can both handle their academics and do the sports and we're not. Well, I think this is probably something you'll see on the high school improvement plan that they are really making a concerted effort through their SRBI process during the day and then even after school to make sure that our kids are are fairing better, all of our kids, and that we're not waiting until they fail. You know, we're really trying to intervene before. It doesn't mean that a child won't fail. That happens sometimes. But at least we are trying to provide services so that we're offering them the best um possible support. >> Yeah. The old Athenian standard was a sound mind and a sound body. So I don't want to hit athletics, but if in any particular case it looks like a student could

115be doing better, but they're also tied down with so even with support. I don't know if you can ever see that, but it might be a parent with some kids that they're stretched too thinly. Yeah, >> the kids stretch too thinly and really we should prioritize the academics and you know skip the rest of this but >> I just want to make sure >> sometimes this the you know whether it's the the band the music department whether it's a play or whether it's sports those are the things that actually engage kids and so it sometimes helps the academics. So, are there any other questions um while we're still in the first reading? Because in October, it will come back for the second reading. >> So, my guess is is that people have questions it can

116come back to policy um before before October meeting. >> I know they were working on a date. >> Okay. Thank you. >> William, would you be willing to read the motion for number two? Absolutely. I was looking for a motion to approve policy 7551 naming a facility as first reading. >> Can I have a second to that, please? >> Vman, I'll second it. >> Thank you, Rita. >> Andrea. >> Yes. Well, we uh we really just cleaned up the um up the policy language that was there. I'm sorry. Okay. So, Susan, can you pinch hit with this, please? >> Or someone from policy. >> It's probably the shortest, smallest one paragraph policy we have in the whole book. >> And we redlined some of the language and and added to it, but um it's really

117the prerogative of the board of education to establish the need and appropriateness for naming any school building or portion thereof, including in indoor and outdoor facilities. Um and so it talks about in the regula I think there's regulation that's there um oh the regulation states how that um is to be done. So they've broken that out. So um in the first part that if we're the procedure for selecting a name for a school building shall be as follows. We establish a committee. We try to get representation from around town and on the board and um even student representation like we've done for Graten Middle School, Sames River and Mystic River. Um and then we bring the names to the board for their final decision. With the case of naming portions of the building, the request

118is made to the board of ed to name a portion of the school facility, which we have had done just recently, and the board forms an ad hoc committee. Um, and they um, you know, review what the recommendation is and then move it forward to the whole board. Can I ask um so on the the the re regulations number one um that you changed it from the superintendent to the superintendent from the board? Was there a reasoning behind that? I I I I think we we believe that the superintendent would oversee the entire you know the process. >> Okay. >> And that because it comes to us for a final a final approval that >> this is the way it should go. >> No, that's that's great. And I think that's the way the practice

119had been. >> No, the practice is the board. Well, the past three times the superintendent pulled the committee together. >> Well, the did the back end work before bringing it together. >> You do pull it together, but to me it should say the board, but that's um usually that's a chairperson is the one that calls these together, these ad hoc committees for the naming of the schools. >> Well, this isn't an ad hoc committee. This is a a school naming committee. have all those different folks involved, >> right? >> So, it's really probably the superintendent's administrative assistance who pulls it all together to be very honest with you. >> That's right. Yep. Dean. >> Yeah. Uh, so it could start with somebody or a group of people thinking, I think we ought to name a

120building or part of a building as follows. Okay. And then you would put together I mean it's an ad hoc committee in the sense that it's not a standing committee. >> Well that's true. It's a part time. >> Okay. So you would put together a committee for the purpose of I guess exploring that or reviewing that or what have you. But I skip down to number three. No matter what happens from the committee that you set up. The board shall then make a final selection. I you'd have to twist that a little bit to give the board the opportunity to say thank you but no thank you. We're not going to rename the building. I mean the only thing you could say is the superintendent under the direction of the board will do the the

121leg work putting it together but then bringing it back to the board. >> See my my my issue is more than just ministerial. It looks like you put together the committee. This is not a board superintendent thing. You put together the committee but then whatever the whatever the work of the committee is ultimately comes to the board. Of course the board has to make a decision. The board shall then make a final selection right >> of the name from the submission. Suppose the can the board then say we would rather not rename the building. Thank you for your work but we're not going to do that. >> Or they might not like the names that's happened and we've gone back to the drawing board and then brought it back again. So >> yeah, the board

122definitely has the final decision. >> But are we allowed to know this is not the change portion going to make sure we actually have that that freedom if we think something is barreling at us. We'd rather not have anything. Somebody's very enthusiastic about something but we're not. We have our reasons for it. Can we when it says shall then make are we locked into actually, you know, going with a recommendation? >> Not necessarily because just recently we didn't we didn't we actually had to go back. We actually ended up agreeing back to that. But no, >> I'm Rita, I see your hand is up, but I'm going to recognize Andrea first. >> One of the things that I just heard was that this is not a standing committee, but this is a standing committee. It

123may not meet regularly, but the ad hoc is the um the meeting up meeting up the that looks at portions of the building like the library or the gym. But my understanding is that this is a standing committee. Well, it's not a standing committee in the sense of like curriculum and policy and finance and facilities. That is a standing committee. Those are standing committee. So this is a committee that is formed has a has a life has has a has a has a beginning middle and end. So it's not standing if it's a >> I thought that was the ad hoc >> the ad hoc is just inter is internal board board of board members. >> So a standing so a committee is for outside community members to be part of that. >> I guess

124for me I would be comfortable under under the leadership of the board, the superintendent shall appoint a school naming committee. Feels like that would be better. >> That's fine. >> Um I I I still disagree. And if you look at the procedures down below, one, two, and three, it all mentions the board, the board, the board. And um the board always was I mean we the board has a secretary part-time and the secretary of the board was the one who got the committee together. At least in the past it was that way. So um I I don't know. I I'm just maybe under the direction of the board, you know, you you can charge >> that was that was just being announced. Yeah. and the direction of the board. >> Yes, I heard you say

125that. But I just, you know, because if you look at the procedures, it's all about the board. >> Yeah, I think that we did that because it would it has to come to the board and we wanted to keep a board member off of it because we wanted it to come just to us. >> No, a board member should definitely be part of this committee. >> Absolutely. But we had a the um committee disagreed with that. Don't you remember? I watched it today. >> What what committee? >> The policy committee. Who was we looking at this? >> Well, but then maybe the policy committee didn't want to have, but I mean I've been on many school naming committees and in the past I I know Beverly has also. and you you should have board representation.

126>> That that was um a strong dis discussion and then in the end we decided not to let's send this back and let us reconsider. >> Well, I would like to we've got to move this forward because we have >> we have a kind of timeline. This is a regulation. It's really not for the board to vote on. It's how we lay it out. But I'm happy to change the wording under the direction of the board. The superintendent shall appoint a school, you know, naming committee. I mean, that's really been the practice. >> Well, it has to come back for final vote anyways. Yeah. So, you guys can talk about it at your next >> talk about it and maybe reward it because a board member should definitely be part of the committee. >> I

127don't know why you'd leave them out. >> I think it says com any a community member. So, community member could be a board member, right? and and Rita, I think we left it out because the board has the final decision. So, we didn't feel a board member should be part of the committee because they ultimately have the final decision, >> but then they're they're not part of the suggestions. >> Well, you could always make a suggestion. You could give a committee member the suggestion. >> Yeah, I still >> I see your point, too, though, Rita. I see your point. >> I see both. >> Yeah. So, so can you bring that back and >> especially because it's a board I mean it's it's a board naming I mean it's part of the board the schools

128I mean that's what we do and I just think it's strange not to have a board member on the committee >> or committee >> we had a hot discussion about that so it wasn't just a >> you know off the top of our heads but we'll I think we should because I know we're on a timeline but let's >> let's move it to a and we'll move that. Yes. >> Yeah. I mean, it has to go to a second. So, >> yeah, >> that's not an option. Any further conversation about that? >> No. Just again, it was because the board makes the final decision. That's why again, that's why we didn't put a board member on the committee. We figured let the committee do what they want to do and then bring the names forward

129to the board without a board member influencing the committee. Not that a board member would do it, but >> Yeah. But also I mean that I mean I don't think the a board would not take the suggestion of a of a committee that had part you know had student representation community represent hopefully teachers and board members then you bring it up to the whole board but that's just how I look at it. Thank you. >> All right. So, um if there's no further discussion, all those in favor of um the first reading um of uh to approve the policy P7551 naming a facility as a first reading. All those in favor, please say I >> I oppose. >> I'm opposed. Kim. >> Opposed to what? >> The first reading. >> Um >> Rita, are you

130opposed to the policy or the regulation? to what we're voting. I'm not opposed to the policy. I'm opposed to the wording >> of the policy or the regulation on the back >> because all we're voting on is the policy, not the regulation. >> No, the policy number one is what? The policy. >> I'm not I'm not talking about the regulations. >> Yeah, you are. >> Oh, no. Oh, yes. Yes, you are. Well, just that. >> Okay. >> So, okay. So, you're post um abstain. >> I just think it's written wrong. I mean, even if you look it on that, it says guidelines are established by the board. I I just >> Okay. So, we're voting on the policy, not on the regulation for first reading. Um, I think what would be helpful is to make

131sure that Andrea or or Beverly um um and the third person on your policy committee is >> Matthew, thank you. Um is is um if you can get to make sure that they hear that before October 4th when they um we talk about the regulation. But we have moved into voting. So I've we're not in discussion anymore. I'm on the vote. So I I believe that that motion has passed. Is that correct, Joan? >> I abstained. >> I I got your abstension. >> Okay. Is it Dean and Rita abstaining? >> Yes. >> No. Rita is >> I I'll abstain. >> Okay. So Rita and Dean have abstained >> and the rest have moved forward. Yes. >> And it passed. >> Okay. Thank you. Does it quick question is there a minimum I don't remember is

132there sort of a minimum number of votes in other if we have too many extensions even if everybody else votes yes does it still pass do we have a minimum sort of a floor >> remember >> I can't remember >> does something have to pass the minimum number of votes >> we have that total down to whoever votes >> right >> so there's if we need you know There are seven votes and we need five to pass. We thought but we got out of that seven we have two abstain and we only have five and so now we need three to pass. >> I mean you see these rules the minimum requirement rule because you could have a situation where eight out of nine people abstain and one person votes yay or nay. Is that

133a is that considered representative then of the body? >> Strictly speaking yes. But but you often see rules that say, "Well, no matter what >> I don't I don't know if we have that detail in our policies and >> what we're doing here, >> right? >> But that would be a good question to research. >> I think the council, the town council has a rule like that. What happen at least so that a minority doesn't make some something happen?" >> I I I get that. I don't think that that's on that's in the board. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we are going to move on. Rita, would you be willing to read the motion for number three, please? >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> To approve policy P 614151, enrollment in advanced courses or

134programs as a first reading. So, Andrea, Susan, Beverly, >> the one thing I I do want to say is that we worked diligently to make sure that all kids who >> Excuse me, Andrea. >> Yes. >> Nobody second that. >> Oh my goodness. That's my fault. Can I have a second to that policy, please? Can someone just give me a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Beverly. All right, Andrea. >> Okay, so we work diligently to make sure that the upper level courses were not exclusive and were open to everyone. So the the the language in here really talks about if a student wants to take a course no matter what background that that student has in terms of grades and that sort of thing that they should be able to be considered for that

135course. Uh I I know that um one of the committee members recalled a situation where he wanted to take an AP course and this is a board member and he was disallowed but his parents insisted that he take the the examination and he passed and he said how much better he would have done how much more enriched he would have been had he been able to take the course the AP course itself instead of just the exam. So we're we're the purpose of our of looking at this is to open those the doors to higher level courses to everyone. So you want to continue >> well and I think it goes along with um the work that we're doing at the high school trying to increase enrollment in those higher level courses. But again, we

136have support systems in place like we described for the athletics where we're really monitoring student progress in those classes and providing they we have a task class that sometimes aligns with I know IB and sometimes AP or we have the CTLs that they can meet with their teacher during the day and then we have after school Falcon Academy. So, um I would say we've got some pieces in place to support our kids with this, but sometimes the desire to take a course and the engagement in a particular topic that kids are interested in can wipe out all the past that you know that they might have had in a let's say a science because they are so engaged in this new um area that they want to learn about. So, we really wanted to be

137able to, you know, really open opportunity and there's a guiding principle within this which is part of this law that is having us do this is that we're aware of the diversity um and the under reppresentation in advanced level courses. So, we really have to make sure that all of our courses are diversified the way our community is. >> Rita, >> yeah, two two points. The first one is that um Fitch has had a policy of you do not need if you want to take an advanced placement C course. Um this has been in place for 28 years at Fitch at one before that you had to be recommended by a teacher and that is no longer the case. any student could take any um course at at Fitch High School, an advanced place, an

138advanced course or but what I my question is what are dual enrollment and dual credit courses. >> I'm just not familiar with those terms. >> Yes, please. >> We're gonna um we're gonna invite her here. >> We're inviting um the principal here to talk to answer that question. >> Oh, great. Thank you. So dual enrollment and dual credit uh are are often times uh kind of interchangeable. Uh but the uh it's a any course where a student can receive credit in multiple ways. So uh receiving a high school credit and also a college credit or receiving a high school credit but also having uh an opportunity to be part of a a program. So uh examples of courses like that are AP courses. Uh our nursing program is a dual credit course because I can

139get certification or dual uh enrollment course because I can get certification. Other areas uh ECE uh there's there's a lot of those types of courses in the in high school. We're even cross referencing looking at the IB diploma but possibly being able to get ECE credit where it might work out that you can also marry it with um Yukon credit AP where it's not just a you know a three four five but they might be able to get Yukon credit as well. So really giving kids multiple opportunities um to have that readiness for college. >> Thank you. and credit going into it which helps the parents because we know what the price of college is these days. >> Susan, what does ECE stand for? Again, >> early college experience. It's a uh a program with

140Yukon for Yukon credit. >> Is it accepted at all the um public universities in Connecticut or just Yukon? It's it's a Yukon credit, but it can transfer to almost any public university in Connecticut. Almost a lot of different universities. >> Any other question about Dean? >> I like the idea of exposing kids who may have basically talked themselves out. It may have started in elementary school or they've done it or somebody older than them has told them don't go in here or think twice about going down that path. I think we've all had experiences like this ourselves. People are trying to be very helpful. You know, I like the idea of basically having kids think again. Don't don't count yourself out. If you think you might be interested or capable of handling an AP course,

141then do that. I also have to be mindful um of the kids that are in the AP courses who would be considered completely capable or pretty capable of handling the material that's being thrown at them for preparation of the for the AP exam that comes in May. And we want to make sure that the support that we provide doesn't detract from that very tight schedule in the AP class. In other words, the AP class cannot have a remedial component. I don't think should have a remedial component. Now, the entire class, for example, in AP calculus just never had trigonometry. The teachers got to basically step out of the AP curriculum and teach them trigonometry because they all were never learned for some reason in pre-cal. that that sort of phenomenon. But other than that, the

142kids that are put in these AP courses are going to have to within the AP course handle the material how we support them outside the AP course because otherwise, in other words, if you slow the AP course down, which you can't, if you slow the AP course down so that other kids can catch up, that's that works in a non-AP situation, but they're all facing the AP exam in May. the kids who were in there are like, "Well, I can do this. I'm shooting for that. That's where I'm going." I don't think they want to be held up by. >> So, we have a presentation we're going to bring to the board on the support we're giving AP teachers and AP students. It's called the National Math Institute, Math Science Institute. I've written about it

143in board notes, but um it's supported by Department of Defense. Big amounts of money to do this. Not on us, on DOIA, on Department of Defense. and we've like tripled our numbers of teachers being involved in the summer program this year. They get a stipen from DoD. They work hard in this coursework. They network with people across the country and other military communities to make AP the best it can be. So, some of the things we're learning in AP is not, you know, it's kind of slow and steady once the race says the tortoise to the hair and going in depth in a lot of these topics and looking at scenes. So, and the kids also have just in time tutoring at any time with this organization. So, there's some support systems that we're giving

144our teachers and our students at the same time through this, you know, this Nimsy school. Um, and I just want to bring it to the board to explain it even further. But that's a piece of this support too that we're going to be giving. Um, and and that was never that was never our intention. and what AP courses or any other course would be watered down ever that the teacher would have to step out and you know um provide in instruction. >> I mean it has it has happened >> but that's that's not our >> but it has happened where kids who should know certain things that wind up the couch teacher may wind up in a situation where got to stop what they're doing and basically do a a whole class on something that

145they should have learned already. probably happens in every teacher's class. I think it happened to me. >> Yeah. >> Every year I taught multiple times during the year. >> Yeah. >> It's just you already have a short, you know. >> Yeah. Right. Right. Some schools start, we're crippled you because we don't start school until maybe the beginning of September. Uh but there are other districts around the country that start a lot earlier than we do and they're all happy for May whereas we see that we have a shorter calendar by a couple weeks. >> Thank you, Jean. >> Yeah. Sorry. Well, Susan, don't they have to have the prerequisites also? Like they can't go into calculus unless they have pre-cal, right? >> Especially with mathematics definitely has, you know, a kind of course order. Um,

146even some of the sciences that there are certain prerequisites. Um, so we take took that in. Yeah, absolutely. >> I share Dean's concern because years ago that's that was a big problem that the teachers were dummying. We used to say dummying down the course for kids that weren't ready. So, I do share some of Dean's concern, but it's going to be up to the student, too, to make sure that they get the help they need when they see that they need help, >> right? and that they have to and and Beverly to your point they they are having to follow through on some prerequisites um to get into these higher level classes. So that means that the work needs to be done in the district earlier on to identify kids to make sure they have

147that >> we have to communicate better too to everybody. >> So is there any further discussion on this policy? >> I have a followup to this very topic on the prerequisites >> is it okay? Yeah, on on the on the regulation on the MAC side toward the bottom, board seeks an equitable course enrollment policy that limits prerequisites and entrance requirements to those that are directly related to a student's potential for success. How is that going to be measured? Does that mean that a a student may be we may say you want to take the AP course, but you don't maybe you don't have the prerequisite. Well, go take it anyway kind of thing. I don't know how to read that. Other words, we're it used to be have you taken the prerequisites. Do you have

148a now we're saying well you know maybe you know enrollment not exclusively based on students prior academic performance and maybe you don't need all the we're limiting the prerequisites >> in order to give people more chances to get in which is fine >> even with the teacher recommendation you know some teachers may recommend one teacher may recommend a child for a certain you know class and another may not so that isn't the be all and end all is the teacher recommendation >> so are you saying that the regul just needs a little bit tighter or more clear about what that means. >> Yeah. Are we or are we not going to have like >> we're not saying we're not having say we're limiting >> right >> the number of >> Yeah. Because sometimes this has

149been done in other areas too where basically killing people with kindness. A lot of people have been sent over the many many years to college and we don't track whether they fail out at some point in their freshman or sophomore year. We don't track whether they finish college on time, but we were happy that we got them into college. Want to make sure we don't duplicate that kind of a process here. Hooray, we got people in the AP courses, but how are they doing? >> Good point. That's a really good point. >> The plan to make sure that >> That's a good point. And and I guess my question is which we need to stick to this policy but to the point is how do we track that and how do we how do we

150gather that data so that we know that we when we are having kids go into higher level classes that they're able that they're successful. >> Rita >> um I I agree with Dean about that one the third from the bottom. The board seeks an equitable course enrollment policy that limits prerequisites. Well, I I don't think that that should be in there. I mean, why do you want to limit prerequisites? What what we talked about in terms of opening up AP and IB is that you need to have prerequisites like like Beverly said, you can't take calculus without taking the, you know, the courses before it. But I think it was more for for students that say that wanted to take US history um you know AP US history as opposed to the honors. I'm not

151even sure we have AP anymore. But um I I I also don't feel that that sentence is worded correctly. So would >> we want to have I mean we have enough in here saying about um equity and access to rigorous courses for all our students but to me we shouldn't have there are there shouldn't be limits on prerequisites and entrance requirements. I don't know why that sentence is there. >> So we can take a look at that at the committee. >> Yeah I agree because we're not voting on regulations. We are voting on the policy, >> right? I know. >> Okay. Any further question about the policy? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving the policy P6141-51, which is the enrollment and advanced courses um or programs as a first reading. All those in

152favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. and Dean has abstained. That motion has carried. We are now moving on to number four. Jay, would you please be willing to read number four? Um, sure. I u move to approve the proposed meal price increase for elementary schools of $2 for breakfast and $3.25 25 for lunch and for secondary schools of $2.25 for breakfast and $3.75 for lunch. >> Can I have a second to that? >> Andrea has seconded it. Any discussion? >> Jay, >> um I said this at the last meeting. I think there's broad consensus on this. Nobody wants to raise these prices. uh we are still keeping the cost at 80% of the recommended level and and Ken feel free to correct me at any point um recommended by the the federal

153government. Unfortunately, due to uh the inflation that we've now determined is not as transitory as we were told, um costs are increasing. this program does not uh make a profit. Uh any excess at the end of the year if we should be lucky enough is actually reinvested back into equipment. However, most years I think we have to the loss. If we don't raise these prices now um then it go into a need. Now on the other side, several of our schools have qualified for free meals and our intent, as the superintendent mentioned earlier, is to get enough uh questionnaires back to to possibly get more schools to qualify for that. Um and so the meantime, you know, we have to be fiscally prudent and uh keep up uh you know, with at least a percentage

154of what the federal government says the the the lines are. >> Thank you, Jay. Any other discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor to approve the motion to um approve the proposed meal price increase for elementary schools of $2 for breakfast and $3.25 for lunch and for secondary schools for $2.25 for breakfast and $3.75 for lunch. All those in favor, please say I. >> I oppose. >> Oppos. Beverly. >> Okay. Thank you, Beverly. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't mean to go. >> I'm obaining. And Beverly is abstaining. >> No, I'm Reed is abstaining. Beverly, >> as long as Joan has it straightened out >> and I'm sure she does. >> I'm opposing. >> Yeah, >> Joan is a much better woman than >> I got it. >> See, I told you. All right, but

155the motion has carried. Thank you. >> Um, I like to read. >> Okay. >> All right. You know, I never read out loud. >> That's right. But this is so close to my heart. I want to do it. >> Okay. >> Move to recognize October 2nd, 2022 as national custodian day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the custodial staff. >> Can I have a second to that? I'll second it, Rita. Thank you, Rita. Any discussion? >> I I just want to say that When I was a principal, the custodial staff saved my little soul so many times. I I can't tell you how hard they the custodial staff works and how dedicated they are to their jobs. So, yes. So, you anything even reading out reading out

156loud? >> That's right. That is pretty big for you to read a motion. So, um, if there's hearing no other discussion, all those in favor of, um, the motion uh, that's on the floor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. >> Abstain. That motion has carried. Beverly, um, can I ask to start with you about letters or communications? I just had a communication and I talked to Susan about this earlier in the month uh from it had to do with the um buses not picking up students that were on that were not on their list. bus drivers were not able to pick up students that were not on their list and they were concerned because some of the kids were young and they would have to say, "Nope, you can't get on my bus. You

157have to go home." And um so I talked to Susan about it and I think we got it all straightened out. Right, Susan? >> Right. I I talked to the bus transportation um group here and Sam is here nodding his head too that you know we really in the very beginning there were some moves that were made and um some changes that were made and whether the families didn't pick up on the new bus stop. Um, but they did work it out individually with each one. >> And we just have to make sure moving forward next year that that doesn't happen because some of the kids went home. We don't know if their parents were home or not. I mean, they could have been in third grade and we're saying to them, "Nope, you can't

158get on the bus. You're not on my list." And we don't know who's home for them, you know? So, we have to be careful next year that that definitely does not happen, >> right? Agreed. >> Rita, do you have any correspondence? >> Yes. Um, I attended the Graten Education Foundation's fundraiser on Saturday night. Um, it was a an art auction. Some of the um our past teachers had made quilts. It was just a lovely affair and hopefully they made quite a bit of money so that they they give grants out to our staff that um request them for certain projects. And I also really enjoyed the article um in the day last week about Northeast Academyy's art the art magnet school the health and wellness fair that they had. Thought it was just a great

159article and the pictures too. That's all. >> Thank you Rita Jay. I just want to say that um you know I first uh became aware of um Lee White years ago when she was reviewing restaurants for the day and she's continued to write a column uh ever since. It was a it was a pleasure working with her on the board. She was very passionate about um students and the schools. Um learned that she wasn't feeling well about a month ago, but she did she never wanted to discuss it. So, I never pressed the issue. Um, and actually when I saw her last week, uh, she still didn't want to discuss it. She still wanted to know how opening day went at schools, how the news were doing, and my son was doing in college. And

160that that was Lee White. She um had a passion for education. She had a passion for public service. And um, it it was never about her. So, as we remember Lee White tonight, uh the other thing I want to mention is um to the uh Google lunch program, uh I I'd be very interested that we do this that Rita because once again, none of us want to to raise and we hope uh that there'll be, you know, a continuation of the program where no one is paying. That would be ultimately uh the best solution. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jay Dean. >> Well, God rest your soul. I'm gonna leave it there. >> Any other communications? >> No. >> Okay, great. William, this is a point of the agenda where if there had been something

161that had um hit your email or uh communication um that that's a time for us to kind of talk about that. Did you have anything? All right. Didn't want to leave you out, Andrea. >> Well, of course, my communication is going to be about the Martin Luther King dinner. It's on, pardon me, it's on October 20th at the Marriott, Mystic Marriott, and it starts at 5. The tickets are $70 this year. And we have representation of scholars from William Fitch High School scholars today, from NFA, from New London Science Science and Tech, from New London High School, from um the main science high school and this year and from Stonington and this year for the first time from Roso and through >> three rivers as well. >> Nice. And it's October 20th. 20th at Mystic

162Mary at 6. >> Andrea, >> should we send that to you? Usually you send out something through Joyce to us. I I don't know if I received that this year, but should could we send you a check made out to Martin Luther King >> and that the district letter did go out? I thought it went to board members, but it may not. >> It did. I I have it on my calendar, so it probably went out, but I just don't remember the price. So, it was seven. I'm gonna send the reminder to you all. I'll have Joyce send that out. >> But can I send it to Andrea is my question. >> The money. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And she says yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Um I um had lots

163of memories with about Lee. Um uh I she and I went down to Washington DC to that conference and the woman walked all the way around Washington DC with those plastic shoes of hers and it was amazing. Um but she was a fierce fierce advocate for all things about kids and she is her presence is missed. Um I just wanted to let you know that I as I mentioned to you guys I have not heard back from anyone in the town regarding us meeting with them at at the field. I will continue I will pursue that but that also to know um if we could get even if it's by um video uh the town council is going to be um talking about um the grant that we just received and my understanding it's first

164on the docket um and the meeting starts at 6:30. So, if we could um I'm working until 7. Um so, if we could just get um a few board members to either attend through hybrid or to be in person, that would be great. >> Tomorrow at 6:30 at um at uh >> I'll be there in person and I think Shannon's going to join me. >> So, um so Shannon's going to be there to um to chat about um the grant and that she wrote it. Um, so Susan, but if if we could just even if it's um hybrid, that would be just that would be swelp. Um, is there other is there the calendar events? There's a lot a lot of things that got cancelled, but the highlight is is that we have secured Mary

165Broadick and the mystic u Marriott um for our retreat. And um if there are details that you guys need to have, we will share that with you. She's supposed to get back to me and they're going to have like soup, salad, dessert, and a nice meal like probably a steak offering, a chicken, and maybe a seafood or a pasta. So, I'll get that menu out. You all can select. So, I thought it would be a nice place to kind of get away for all of us. I think we I think you deserve it. >> And then three days later, we'll be back for the MLK. So, but is there agenda topics that we want to make sure that we get covered or send them to you and they can send them to me? >> No,

166I just, you know, reading that policy about making sure that there is an evaluation about these courses. I think that that will be really some very important and to keep track of somehow maybe on your sheet, you know, that we have. >> Okay. Not a bad idea. All right. Hearing no other agenda items, I will make a I'll take a motion for adjournment. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh Jay has seconded. All um all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion is carried. Good night, guys. This is a big one.