12-12-22 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening. My name is Kim Shepardson. I'm the chair of the board of education and I am um opening up our regular meeting on December 12th, 2022 at 6 PM. This is our meeting that we would normally hold on the 4th of the month, but it is during winter break and so we will not be holding meetings. So actually for the board members to remember that um this is our last of our regular and or COWs for the year. We have gone through a two 2022 year together. Um and so I'm going to call the meeting to order with a pledge of allegiance. And Ted, you have my last in my eyesight. Would you please lead us? I aliance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which

002it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I believe we do not have um any visitors or delegations to this meeting. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Awesome. Um so we are moving down to the comment comments section. Um and this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Each presentation should be limited to five minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments. Presentation should be related to matters pertinent to Graten. Board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments of citizen portion of the board meeting. Citizens should state their names and address for the record. Miss Joan, do you know if there's anyone who shared interest in speaking >> act

003to me? >> Okay. Is there is no people no other people there are lots of people in this room. I apologize for that. But there is no community members in our room. Are there community members that are on Zoom that would like to address the board? >> Not that I see. Thank you, Mark. >> You have a chat. There's a chat. >> Yeah, but I think it was not for us. >> Nothing in the chat. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> Go away. Not anyone. Sorry. >> And now, >> you know what? I I want to just make sure because it's like 6:04. So, I'm slowing it down just a tad because I don't want someone to walk in at 6:05 saying, "What do you mean I can't speak to the meeting?" So, Oh, she

004just batted her eyes at me. That's not a good thing, >> Miss Andrea. All right. Um, we are going to now move on to our student representative. Um, and so all three of them are here. That is amazing. I don't think that people from home can see that, but all three are here. and it's so good to have you. Um, all three. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. So, I don't know who goes first. >> I'll start. >> Sure, I'll say. Um, so just a few things um about Empora and about the music department. So, is one of the clubs I talked about last time and I had mentioned last time they had an open mic night coming up. Um, so they had that this past week and that went really well. They um and I had

005talked to Mr. Juveno, who's the teacher that oversees the club and the students club, they said they didn't quite have like the um the like show up like they didn't have quite as many audience members as they had hoped for, but they said the people that were were there really did enjoy it. Um and then it went really well. So, they're um hoping to be able to do another one of those for back winter break. Um and then they're also starting a new contest for um all the all the art students to be able to be involved in. that's not just close to writing, but that people um involved in the art singing or other music or or like what we have in the room, just different things like that so that kids can be

006involved in that as well. And they're hoping that that can last the rest of the year. Um so that can be kind of an ongoing thing. Um, last time I also mentioned um about the North Carolina group um at Fitch and the over the past week we sung at the Shaq and at the Nautilus which were a lot of fun because we had two different groups there that we were singing for and it was a really great experience and we had a lot of donations for this Hawaii trip. So that was also really exciting. Um and then the orchestra bands and choirs are all performing on the 23rd for our school. So, we're gonna have like school live. So, everybody's going to get to hear a little bit from this group. Um, which is really

007exciting now that we have a new choir and orchestra director so they can kind of get a feel for what that's like and hopefully in the years going forward more people will get involved, >> which also has to do with our eighth graders that were here last week. Um, they came up with it and each group did a um each musical group did a little something for them and it was really promising. I got a lot of very good feedback from teachers of the middle school reaching out to um Miss Hall the choir and orchestra director saying that they had a lot of students that were really interested in being in the music program. So that was really exciting. >> Very good. >> Yeah, that's >> okay. So, I know I mentioned this last time,

008but we had our eighth graders visit. And it started off with a panel where a few of us would answer some questions they sent in. Then we gave them tours, which was a bit hectic because some of us took over a little too long for our tours, but it worked out. And then we finished with like a mini pep rally for them. So, we had musical chairs. We had our band play and then we were like throwing t-shirts into the stands for the eighth graders. I'd say they definitely enjoyed it. And it's something that I wish I would have done my eighth grade year. Sometimes they're doing it. My second thing is our tape fundraiser. I actually sent Mr. Piaza a video if you'd be able to play it on. >> Okay, everybody see that?

009I don't know if I have to. Let me see if they can hear it. >> It looks like Is it >> Do you want me to go on mute? >> Yes. and for my last topic, I have a list of spirit week days for next week. Starting off with So, our first day is pajama day and then we have holiday colors day, character day, and we're still thinking about a couple of the others, but those are our main three so far. And then we're trying to make a commercial for it this week to kind of hype it up. And our tape fundraiser commercial went well. So positive this one will go well too. >> That's fun. How cool is that? >> Pretty cool. >> It's really cool. >> Okay. Um they kind of covered everything

010happening at Fish. Um but I know the middle school is having their winter conference this week. I think 14th to the 15th. So Wednesday and Thursday. Um and so I know people are looking forward to those. And this is in January, but I believe Catherine Kaskki is also having their winter concerts, you know, band orchestra. Um, like mid January, which is around the time that we're going to be having midterms. But what like three years with me four years. So I know a lot of students are preparing their food for those really exciting. So Kate, when's the last time you took midterms? I mean, >> my freshman year. >> Your freshman year. >> So I'm just going to ask for >> And I hadn't taken a final until last year. >> Wow. >> So I'm

011always curious, do they help or hurt? So we're going to be looking at some data this year to make sure they're more helpful. >> Depends on the class. >> Yeah. I think what's really nice about um being able to do those concerts is been a while since we've gotten to have an inerson concert like that. So I know a lot of families are really looking forward to the first year we've really been able to hold things like that where people can come see performances. >> Do you have any more carolling coming up? >> Yes, a lot actually. So on the 23rd or no the 22nd we're going to the middle school and to some of the elementary schools to car the students there which is really exciting. Um and then this Saturday is the pancake

012breakfast for um the choir and the orchestra at Fitch. And so we're have I think there's a duet um a violins that have been working on this new piece like outside of their regular class and I know they're really excited for that. I'm pretty sure the holiday piece. Um, and then I'm pretty sure the honors orchestra as well as the carers will be a lot of fun. >> And I'm cooking I'm cooking for the the breakfast. >> Oh, good for you. >> Short order yet, so it works. >> Pancakes for everyone under. [Laughter] >> How cool. Is there any questions from um any of the board members that are on Zoom? Okay, hearing none. It's so good to see you guys. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate that. All

013right, we are going to move on to the superintendent and administration reports. So, I'd like to say we had a um really nice visit from NAS. did you meet some of the neat visitors? And they were very impressed, especially of our students and our school and our teachers. And we had some jobs we had to accomplish. And I think we really did. We're on the road to really making some nice progress. And I'm going to let um Principal Keller come to the table and share a little bit of the details and make sure all of the board members know what RISE stands for. We're making sure the kids know, the teachers know, and not only the the students and staff at Fitch, but across the district. Ted and I are on it to make sure

014that the VA vision of the graduate, which starts when they're in prek, prechool, um is understood by all. >> Absolutely. Um yeah. So I I just wanted to take a few minutes just to talk a little bit about um the NAS visit and what we accomplished through this visit and talk a little bit make sure people really understand the the whole process. So uh first of all can everybody hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Perfect. So um first just to go through the the NIAS process with everyone um you know it used to be the the old process that people knew was that you saw NAS every 10 years um and every 10 years you'd have that dennial visit um which you know I I always saw as a good opportunity to self-reflect and get

015get an idea of of what you're doing but it a lot of people saw it as kind of a a really nerve-wracking experience. uh and um they've really tried to change this uh to be more of a a collaboration uh between the ask and the schools where um you're really identifying some areas for improvement and they're working with you as colleagues to uh to really uh look at those areas and and determine what steps you're going to take. So, um so it really is two visits now. It's it's two much smaller visits uh where they have what's called the collaborative conference visit uh and then the dennial visit. This last visit was this the annial visit. We went through the collaborative conference visit in October of 2020. Um it was obviously more of a virtual

016visit uh because of of COVID. Um but the whole idea of that visit is you do write a report where you're looking at your entire school and you're identifying certain areas for improvement. And obviously there's there's a whole lot to the visit, but if you really wanted to condense it down, the visit is basically when they come in, they take a look at your entire school and then they say, "Do we agree or disagree with what you think you need to improve upon?" And um and really uh do different areas of report. Essentially, our collaborative conference visit was here's three things we want to improve upon and the ask agree. That is that is really the simple piece. the the denial visit what we just went through here in early December uh was really about

017progress. It's talking about okay it's been a few years since our our collaborative conference visit. How are you doing with with what you said you wanted to improve upon and what do you think the next step should be? And so it's a much more focused visit than the the original collaborative conference visit. Um where yes, they do look at the whole school. they want to go through and and learn about different things, but but they're really concentrating on those areas of improvement that we we focused on. So, when we talked about the priority areas that we as as a school had had identified back in 2020, um we said that we wanted to make sure all of our courses had a completed curriculum in a unified format. uh we wanted to work on our SRBI

018process, the scient scientifically researchbased intervention process. So when we have students that are struggling uh how are we helping them and we wanted to make sure that we have an improvement plan that's based upon our vision of the graduate. So those were the three areas uh that we focused on and the said sure those sound good and go ahead and move on those. So really the what I can share with you right now is just the preliminary thoughts that we got. Obviously there'll be a a formalized report coming out. Um but they did give us some feedback uh as the visit was finishing up. Uh and uh were able to talk to our faculty and staff a little bit about it as well. Um and the first thing is that it was a really positive

019visit. They they really enjoyed the visit. They enjoyed meeting with the students. They enjoyed meeting with the board, uh, the faculty and staff going to different classrooms, learning about what we were doing. Um, and really the feedback was that we making the progress we said that we were making with other things they were impressed with. Um, and that it was good that we were able to make pro progress even though the last three years have been dealing with CO. Um, and I think that, uh, I think everyone agreed, we said it in our report that sure, we would have made more progress if it hadn't been for CO. everyone would have, but it is what it is and we made some some really strong progress. So, they really said with curriculum, just keep working how

020we're working, going through the process that we're going through. Uh they think that we've done a nice job really auditing where we are with our curriculum and and we want to continue that. Um the SRBI process uh didn't give us a whole lot of feedback there, but what they did say was that just continue with what we're we're doing. where uh we've developed a real strong process of identifying students through our ABC forms and and through uh uh our meetings with the counselors and we just want to continue to to build upon that and continue to build on the supports that we give students and then uh with the district improvement plan and vision of the graduate. Uh this is really the first year we've been rolling the vision of the graduate out even though

021it was developed in 2020. Um so they said just continue working on developing that making sure people understand that work and uh continuing and developing the school and districtwide improvement plans. So just to share a little bit about uh the vision of the graduate I think that that was one of the things again that that really the the meet the meetings and everything that we did really focused upon. Um and again this year is the first time we really rolled that out. We've had the vision of the graduate out there, but because of co it really hasn't been something we've been concentrating on as much as really just making sure we're dealing with COVID. But the uh um the idea of rise uh we're really trying to brand ourselves with that now and make sure

022people really understand what that is. Um and so the first thing is just getting it out there. And so I just want to give you a few examples how we're doing that. First of all, we've completely revamped the website uh where it's right on the front of the website and uh you can actually go through on the website and uh this is not interactive the way it is, but um if you click on the arrows, it goes to each individual aspect of RISE and tells you exactly what each one is. Um we've also put a nice little video of the school right on the top there. So, I think it's a lot more attractive. Um and so when we talk about okay, what is R? What does resiliency mean? What does innovative learn mean? what

023does socially aware citizens uh mean and what does engaged communicator mean and all those are right there on the website to start with. In addition uh for those of you hopefully you can visit our school soon. Um we've really started to get this the the idea of rise all over the school where we have banners, we have placards that talk about the vision of the graduate. Uh they're all over the school now. Um so we want to make sure that you know it's as you go through the school you can't miss it. It's it's always there. And so, uh, that's some of the things that we've started to do. Um, in addition to that, in my parent newsletters, I've been explaining the different aspects of RISE. And we talk to our students about it as

024well. And then the last piece is is that RISE can't just be sitting by itself. This can't just be like this this idea that's just kind of out there. So the teachers, one of the big biggest pieces of work we've done in the last few years is we talked to our teachers and our teachers have identified different instructional strategies that they will commit to doing in the classroom in order to uh support RISE. Okay? So it's not just we want students to have these things. What are we actively doing in the classroom to support each of these aspects of RISE? So when it comes to making our students more resilient, what are we doing in the classroom? Well, the stu the teachers have uh uh brought in this idea of feedback and reflection. How are

025we giving students feedback intentionally uh to to support them being resilient so they can go back and work on the work and make it even better? When it comes to innovative learner, well, we want to use higher order questioning in our in our classroom. So, how we want to make sure that we're training our teachers to use higher level questioning and we're not just asking for recall that each um for socially aware citizens making sure that in the classroom we have connections to the real world and how are we connecting the work that we're doing to what students will actually see outside of the classroom. And then when it comes to engaged communicator, really trying to beef up our collaborative work in the classroom, making students ensure students are working together. And this here is

026actually a slide from the first round of instructional rounds that uh Mr. Brown actually worked on organizing uh that we went into classrooms. We actually looked at the first two aspects of RISE uh the resilient individuals and innovated learners and we went into 40 classrooms in one day and looked at what's actually happening in the classroom so that we could now take that information and support our teachers and design professional development to actually work with our teachers on how do you uh better incorporate feedback and reflection? How do you better incorporate higher order questioning in the classroom? So, it's not just a document that looks good. It's something that is going to uh actually lead to uh positive change in the classroom and support our students coming out of Pitch High School with these different

027skills. And we've talked a lot about doing more of these instructional rounds where teachers and administrators get to get into the classrooms and see colleagues. I actually wrote about it in boardnotes. And um I'd love for Ted to um discuss this when he meets with when we meet with the principles again um just so they can see a concrete way that this can be tackled. You know, even having those posters in the elementary schools and the middle school because falcons do rise. >> Absolutely. And I think also it's it's it's important to note that uh when we developed rise, it wasn't this uh this thing that was just developed uh in and of itself. We wanted to make sure it had connection to the IB learner profile because obviously we have IB and NYP throughout

028our classroom. So it has to have a connection there as well. Um so you could see that, you know, we lean through and we're looking at okay, how is this related to the IB learning profile? What are the uh strategies we want to use in the classroom? So again, it's it's not something it's it's just happening in this class or it's just happening in that class. It happens in every single class. Um, the teachers have kind of gotten sick of me of hearing me say it, but I say every classroom, every day with every kid. Um, and that these things have to exist in that in that way. Uh, a few other things that were mentioned. Um, again, these were mentioned by the committee. I don't know if they are going to be in the

029report or not. Um, but I think a lot of these things you're going to see, um, are things that we are talking about, things that we are working on. So, um, these are some other areas that hadn't been mentioned at the last board meeting I was at. We are talking about the bleachers and and making sure that those are compliant. Um, they noticed it as well. I said, you know, put it in there. That's I mean, if that's something we we are already working on. Um, that if you don't know what I'm talking about, the pit area and the and the library has been a little bit of confusion. uh when the um library it was uh was renovated uh the it was the old auditorium and the orchestra pit still kind of exists in

030the library. It's this little sunken area. Um again it's not ADA compliant. Uh and uh so we kind of are working on how to use that uh um a little bit uh well we're trying to be guess creative in how we use that area. Um so uh uh instructional areas in the vintage wing. Uh the first thing that the the chair did mention was that uh while we called the vintage wing, he had said, "I've been in a lot of old buildings and that's a good looking old building." Uh which was great to hear and uh I think it speaks to our custodial staff and our maintenance staff and all the great work that they do. Um also uh Sam I'll tell you that he's never seen such a clean boiler room in his life

031is what he told me. So which was great as well. So um >> that's something to be said. >> Well, I think that it's uh you know they do a whole facilities tour. actually was uh le led them through that and uh you know they really were impressed with the condition of the building and the work that they do to keep the building in said there's obvious a lot of pride in the building here which is great. Um but they say obviously we took them to the all the rooms they saw the culinary rooms they saw the difficulties that were having in there but again that's something that we already are talking about as a team here. Um and then just working it's something almost every school works on is how can you increase time

032for teachers to work together um and something that we are definitely looking at as well. So just a couple of things that again were mentioned. Um so you know the the final thoughts in terms of the visit uh you know everything we heard was positive. Everything we heard was um that the the work that they are going to suggest is the work that we're doing. Uh which is exactly what you want. I think that's really what you're what you're looking for that you're on the right track. Um obviously this is a preliminary report for you. I will have a final report for you once the the actual report comes out. Um, and uh, certainly we'll know if there's anything different in there. I can only really take from what the the chair was giving me.

033Uh, but everything that they told us was very positive. Uh, that they really enjoyed the visit, that they really thought we were on the right track um, and doing the work that we should be doing. So, just a couple of quick uh, thank yous. I just wanted to mention because this really is uh, you know, this isn't me doing this work. This is a whole collaborative uh, process. There's a lot of work that goes into these visits and uh certainly uh really appreciate everything that was done. Uh we had a lot of parents that came up and volunteered to meet with the committee and work with them and students. Isaiah was one of them uh that helped meet with the committee and and uh and talked about our school. U so a big thank you

034to them. Uh Ken and Jen uh in the office, a huge thank you. Uh Tim, I didn't put you on there, but I did. I I do thank you as well. Uh but uh Ken and Jen did an absolutely fantastic job working with all the accommodations and the meals. Uh three days where we're feeding them, housing them, uh you know, making sure they're getting to where they need to go and and they were a huge help with all that. Um certainly appreciate the board of education taking a little extra time to meet with them. Uh I have to say that they came out of that and just felt that we had a really supportive board with that. I really appreciate it. and Superintendent Austin and Assistant Superintendent Piaza were probably in my my building more

035than they wanted to be that week, but the uh they they they were there for every meeting that we needed them there. Um uh the one thing, you know, to keep a NAS group happy is you need to feed them and Ernie fed them good. That whole group, they they did a fantastic job. You know, they they really uh they kept that room stacked with uh with all sorts of treats and uh food and and uh drinks and everything. And again, it's just it's really appreciated. Uh Kelsey Courtright, Amy Frame, and Melissa Manzio were the teachers that really led the charge in writing the report. Uh which is a huge task and uh this is a days long uh process that they go through uh and really getting all the the the uh the evidence

036and all that. Um they took that time. They really looked under their wing. Um and uh that's a real tough process. So I really appreciate it. And again, there wasn't one faculty member that didn't didn't contribute to this somehow. So, it really is a team effort and it's the faculty, staff, and administration. Uh the entire administration did an absolutely fabulous job. So, um, you know, it's something where, yeah, you can kind of breathe a little sigh of relief that, you know, you got through the visit, but now here's where the tough part comes where you actually have to do the work and and so, um, it's important that we kind of keep as we get the report and look through it, um, really develop our goals and and making sure that we're we're going on

037the right track for the next one. So, um, so really I I again, I couldn't been more pleased with with the visit. I couldn't have been more pleased with uh the feedback that we've received so far. Um and uh you know I think it's just moving to the next step. So um again I thank everyone for for their work with this and uh happy to answer any questions that you might have. >> Any questions from the board? >> William. So if there is a finding like the ADA with the bleachers, >> is there what are we obligated to do to do? Like how do we have to act on that? Like if they find that specific finding, are we do we need to have that addressed within a time a period of time? Um, so

038basically the um I I don't know what all the rules are regard the ADA compliance but basically what DAS is giving you is suggested approvements. >> Um, so it's not like a legal entity that that tells you you have to do something. Um, now if they thought that we were being unsafe or something, they might put that in the report, but there's nothing in there that suggesting things were unsafe. basically they they're looking at it and saying because when when the people are coming out they're not experts on you know uh facilities they're teachers um and so they're coming in and saying hey there's something you might want to take a look at and improve um so it's >> I don't think they're allowed to mandate financial >> it gives us a little bit of

039teeth though I I feel it doesn't give us a lot but it could give us some teeth around the fact that we you know we had an accredit accreditation happened and they recommended us to get up up to date. I don't think it's going to move the process any quicker because this is we're in a it's a slow process to go to referendum and and stuff like and and to that. >> Yes. But >> I think it's more alarming when they when they come out with something that you they put give you a recommendation and you're like you haven't even been working on that. Um that's when you kind of get alarmed. nothing they've mentioned this the board isn't already looking at and so um that's what I see as success because they when a

040new set of eyes comes in and they take a look at your school and say you're on the right track to me that what that's what you want >> I agree any other questions hearing none let's move on to the assistant superintendent report >> I'm going to share my afternoon. Um, bas basically what I I wanted to do uh quickly today, you know, we're often talking about our calendar and our >> Thank you. >> TLI days and professional development days and so I wanted to provide a a report to you based on what we're offering and what the respon what the response was from staff and and how we're going to sort of use that to make sure we're using these days uh to the best of our abilities. Uh a survey is given out

041after every professional development day and every TLI day. We try to encourage all staff to to participate in that survey to give us that feedback and we do discuss it at our graten teaching and learning committee which is made up of uh leadership across the district and teachers. Um and uh we really uh take the survey data and and uh rip it up rip take it apart and really look at it and put it into you know what worked and what didn't. So this is a brief overview. I listed at the beginning of the document and this was included in your your board packet as well. Um some of the things that were offered just so you could see the variety of things and all of these we try to we do get feedback like

042I said after each TLI day for for suggestions and we try to take those because we want to give the teachers uh what they want and what they need. Um you know a lot of you these you've heard discussed before um three steps forward two steps back with the artwork um at LCrua that that superintendent Austin has spoken about in terms of bringing artwork uh to help teach issues of social justice. Uh we had a lot of teachertoteer PD which was which was awesome. We like to use our own experts within our district. A lot of those were technical aspects um and uh enhancing our curriculum and our instruction. Um some of the things that were brought to us from the teachers that they wanted was understanding uh trauma and chronic stress in students and

043how to work with those students. Um teachers need some SEAL too was the title that the presenter came up with for you know a session on social emotional health for teachers and self-care. Uh we had some um obviously our growing ELLL population we've discussed before. So, we brought in um an expert from Southern Connecticut State University to work with teachers on our multilingual learners. Uh and then you see a lot of the again instructional software training that of course we want to put in the hands of our teachers but we also want them to know how to use it and how to extract data from it and see if it's actually helping our students so that you see their Dreambox Lexia Teach Town all of those um our instructional uh softwares uh over in uh

044special education department um Denise Dittle uh and I forget who helped her but they led a workshop on uh specific learning disabil ities and dyslexia criteria. Uh we had some Navian training which is a software that all our counselors use to help for planning for students. Uh PMT training which helps um you know with our our students uh uh in our ABA program. So uh a lot of different things that um were hopefully beneficial to our teachers. Um the data showed overall uh very positive responses to to what was offered. I'm sorry about the colors. I wasn't able to change them and I know um there's blue, you know, we're concentrating on the dark blue and the orange um in terms of the satisfaction. Uh they used blue again um for the very dissatisfied uh

045section, but again you see it's about um you know 76% and overall we got 265 responses uh that should have been on here too out of about the 450 uh certified staff. So just about 60% which is a pretty decent uh uh response rate and higher than uh previous years. So it really gave us some some a good picture of how people felt. So overall and we did we did um break this up between the morning and afternoon session on on the on the PD day. They had a three-hour session in the morning and a three-hour session in the afternoon. Um so most of these workshops were offered twice over the course of the day with with teachers uh switching out. This is the morning data. Um um and this again is an overall picture

046not individual to each workshop. Um again you can see uh from this graph that uh people thought the content was relevant uh which of course is something we want to see. We don't want to waste people's time. We want it to be relevant to their professional responsibility. So we saw you know over 86% uh did find it relevant. Uh then we want to know how they feel. Can they use this knowledge in their classroom? um do they feel confident in their ability to now use this new knowledge? Um and again you see there where you know there is a little bit more uh so we we'll break that data down by the workshops and see what we need to offer a little bit more in um to give that support. Um but we saw you

047know a little dip there with 63% of the people felt pretty confident uh where there's some 21% feel somewhat confident where others uh maybe not so confident. So we we'll continue and some of these workshops lended itself to that where this was just sort of part one in an ongoing workshop. Uh we want to know if if we have quality presenters. Um so we asked if they thought the presenters were knowledgeable, helpful and well prepared. Again it was a combination of outside bringing people from you know outside experts in and using our internal experts as well. Um again a majority um were pleased with uh the presenters that we were able uh to bring in. Uh the afternoon workshops again it was basically the same things offered uh multiple times throughout the day. Uh the

048afternoon sessions saw similar um in terms of overall satisfaction. Uh the content being relevant uh to their responsibilities overwhelmingly which is great to see. Um again in terms of their confidence in in um using this new knowledge and skill uh definitely some areas uh to improve upon. So we will look at that. And then again um most people thought that the presenter was knowledgeable. Um we also did give them a chance to make some uh comments uh and leave some comments. So there's definitely some areas that we we will improve upon. um you bring you know a lot of times when you bring people from the outside uh they're recommended by others um who have either seen them before or other districts have used um we did get some feedback unfortunately on some of the

049workshops um you know I'll share just some of the the positive and negative uh I'm sorry in areas of improvement that we heard uh from staff um most of the positive feedback came you know special ed teachers really appreciated the time that they had to further explore CT sets which we've heard um about uh since the year started Um most people uh really um appreciated the time when they met with their grade level teams and departments. Uh that collaboration time is always appreciated by staff. Uh they appreciated the technical workshops, the dream box, the Lexia, the Prometheian board. Um anything again those are you know those skills that they can use you know next day in their classes. Um they they thought the tiered levels of intervention was a great workshop. One of the workshops

050just walked through the uh levels one, two, and three of our our intervention program. Um, and those were offered to uh, you know, to all staff and it was really appreciated. The ELLL, the multi- language learners um, uh, PD was also very well received and we are and that is an ongoing professional development that's going to continue throughout the year. Um, and they made note that they really appreciated having multiple, you know, choices um, to choose from throughout their day. um some of the areas that we'll improve upon. Uh teachers said it would would have been great to send some of the resources and materials ahead of time uh to teachers that they can review. I know some of the presenters from the outside did bring in some some articles and things which just took

051time out of the workshop uh to get to. Um people want us to really tap into our district resources more for presenters and use our experts and and they because they like that teachertoteer work. So, I'm going to continue to explore ways to find out all the skills that we have in district so we can um use that to teach each other. Um some people made some suggestions uh to vet the presenters a little bit more thoroughly and check references. Uh some of the presenters weren't very wellreceived. Um some were doing, you know, the old deaf by PowerPoint, you know, very dense slides and reading, uh you know, in a three-hour workshop run that way. I think there were people that were recommended to us, but I don't know how well we vetted them. >>

052Yeah. So, we're going to sort of look at our process a little bit. >> Um, so, uh, and some and they asked for some of the presenters in workshops lacked concrete strategies to use in the classroom. uh like the trauma and the SEAL workshops um were very basic overviews level one surface type of stuff that maybe we've we've had before and people understood and they were really looking for concrete strategies to use in the classroom. So we'll um so we'll like I said we'll explore um different uh different ways to bring that to them. Um so that's just some of the feedback and I did include also in the charts um our pair of professionals also received some uh professional development. Now they um they received it in the areas and again they had asked

053to be brought into the loop on a lot of the district initiatives that our certified staff has been doing specifically in our DEI initiatives um in our social emotional learning. So, we were able to bring in Val Davis um who did um her presentation on unconscious bias um for all of our paraprofessionals. Uh we had some in-house uh teachertoteer work with Jen Belmonte and Jen Thorp and Heather Parsons who provided a workshop on social emotional learning and we also had uh strategy workshops on behavior management and situational awareness uh with our students. Um so again we pulled we have about 185 uh paras in the district 131 responded so about 71% which is which is great. Um and you can see um again we're focusing mostly on the blue and the uh red in terms

054of overall satisfaction. Um so you know again overall positive in terms of uh the professional development that uh they received. Um they overwhelmingly um thought it was relevant. um to their um to their professional responsibilities. U this you know you see the the gap of somewhat confident kind of grew here about again being confident about their ability to use new knowledge. So again these these workshops were meant to be sort of introductions to some of these topics that we will continue to offer throughout the year. uh and they really loved you know our our presenters uh Val Davis was was very well received and and as well as our in-house uh that you know the teachertoteer training was always very well received so uh so again that's just an overall look again we want you

055to know what we're doing for our teachers and the quality of the workshops that we're bringing what their responses to it and again what we're you know we're continually trying to improve so we will continue to survey um as best we can encourage their responses and then act off those responses. >> That's one of our bigger days, the regional day. >> The regional day >> get ready for March, too. >> Big days. >> You know, for me personally, that was kind of the first one because last year we've kind of left it up for the buildings as we were still coming out of uh you know, our co protocol. So, um the next full day, PD day, will be in March. So, time to plan for that as well. >> Any other questions from the

056board? Matthew? >> Yeah. on the overall satisfaction of the 20% who disagreed who were not somewhat or very dissatisfied. Did their comments illuminate anything for you? >> Yes. Um and that that's for the comment I made about some of the presenters um not giving concrete strategies to use in the classroom. That seemed to be the largest complaint. Um and again there were two workshops where we brought people from the outside and and one was the um uh the one that seemed to generally read off the PowerPoint and it wasn't very engaging and that one didn't and that was the the trauma based one where they wanted more concrete examples of how to use those strategies in the classroom. And then the seal for teachers. Um >> she just kept saying retire >> again. Looking looking

057at you know strategies for the teachers to use on themselves and the presenters seem to generally um acknowledge that there was a problem which of course we already knew. Those seem to be the the largest complaints >> when people are dissatisfied. It's usually they're not engaged. The material they already know. It's just like in the classroom with students. You have to give new relevant, rigorous, interesting, engaging work all the time. So the topics seemed very relevant and very engaging. >> Yeah, it was topics they wanted and and it was disappointing to to I was in some of those, you know, as I was making my way around the district that day. It was disappointing at the >> um you know, the execution. [Music] >> Exactly. >> Right. Yeah. I think like vetting it a little

058more. It's always good to have seen someone like Val Davis came to us and um Lori had met her and had been in her presentation on unconscious bias and we've had her back every year for like three or four years. So, she has almost seen everyone including the board, but not necessarily some of the newer members of the board, but she's truly engaging about always checking your bias because we all have them and making sure that we're understanding very well. So that was good. So that's a for instance a win. >> Any other questions, comments? >> All right, moving on. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So Ken, just because you know we're going to have a lot of you in the month of January and February, we we thought we would just kind of

059like, you know, >> bring it back into the fold. >> Yeah, >> let's check in. Um so on our attachment number two is our object code summary. And this shows that we're similar to our prior month reports >> anticipating uh a slight surplus or slight projected unexpended balance of 65,778 and uh it's made up of there's some unfavorable v variances to budget in transportation in retirement and in heating oil uh but the offset by favorable variances on salaries, special ed tuition and supplies. >> And we're still saying monitor those, you know, individual site budgets and hold back 25%. It doesn't mean that we can't release that as we get further into the spring and we'll probably do so, but um they're just being good custodians of our school budget knowing there are so many cost

060increases this year. Some we knew and some we didn't know. >> Wow. 126 for the transportation. >> That's two buses, two additional buses than than we anticipated, but also even through the pro of >> and they were specifically the smaller buses for our special needs students that needed wheelchair. And you know, we just found that we had more needs than we had previously had the year before. >> I'm really impressed that we were able to cope with those three items were just shy of $400,000. And uh what I found remarkable is the increased the positive increase with tuition payments. And I'm wondering how many tuition students we have that have been counted for that. That says very good things about the district. They I think they've aged out in some cases and we've also brought

061back students who were in very pricey outside districts to come back because we have the programming for them here. So that again I have to give credit to Denise Dulo and her team. >> Yeah, Google personnel is continually working on trying to minimize those costs and so and it's a it's a little unpredictable. So when we were setting this budget last year, >> you don't really know exactly who you're going to have come this year, right? So we make the best estimate that we can think that we look at looking at at this point. It looks like we overbudgeted a little bit, but that's fine. >> So >> thank you. Um I looked at the our budget is July 1st to June 30th. Is that correct? So these numbers stipulating that they cover through November

06230th, that represents only 51 12ths of the year. We're not going to incur two more buses, so that piece won't double. But the other $250,000 mas is that a fair expectation of what we're going to have in additional expenses for the next balance for the year. >> Yeah. So when we estimated for instance the heating oil oil and the diesel we're looking forward knowing how we had some um some supplies of diesel fuel left over from the prior year. So we're able to take that into account and then we extrapolated how much we're going to need beyond that at the current prices. So that's that's what we going with that number. So I would hope that those numbers would not get in worse than what they are right now. Beth, >> thank you. Kim, can

063can you explain um line 64 for tutors? Why why did we spend so much more money, if I'm reading it correctly, on tutors? 321,654. So, we we've had a little bit of a tough time getting uh enough uh Paris into into the positions. Uh and in order to cover that, what we've done is we we've hired um more tutors uh which is a higher a higher cost, but they're actually um more of a B parah is more of a onetoone with with the with the student, whereas the tutors were able to go more of a two to one. So >> or a small group >> and they're able to provide instruction as well. So that's a real benefit. We've called them special education tutors. We've also put in some social emotional learning tutors in the

064buildings. Um some of those are paid for though. The social emotional learning tutors are paid for by our Besser. >> Yeah. where these special ed tutors are definitely helping to cover the bases um that were needed through an IEP, but they're able to also instruct and they're able to take on small groups of students instead of just onetoone. >> Yeah. So, so what you what's reflected here is you're just seeing uh the increased number of tutors, but there is a corresponding decrease in in par professional costs. Are we um thinking about are are you thinking about continuing to keep these tutors or are you or or do you want to hire more PAR professionals? >> Well, we wanted to fill all those positions for PAR professionals. Certainly, we're getting ready to negotiate with the PAR

065union coming up soon. Um, we know that there's a competitive cost rate out there and other districts around us are paying more. So, it's a real fine line, but I would say that we have been very pleased with this model. People have asked me about this model. Um, and that the piece of the extra instruction for the student where a pair really her job is or his job is not to instruct, it's to really help a child move through their day. and, you know, make sure they're focused on their learning. Um, the teacher does the instruction, but with this, we're really getting extra tutoring on top of keeping the child focused and and in direction. They're actually meeting with small groups and teaching them. >> Okay. So, so you like having more tutors than par

066profofessionals and and you're thinking about maintaining this >> if we need to. I mean certainly we wanted to be able to fill the positions of parents but that was just not happening and we needed to take care of these children per their IEP. >> Okay. But you think this model is more beneficial. That's what you're saying. >> We've noticed that it's been very very beneficial. The principles have talked about it. the special educators have talked about it. Um, so >> okay, >> we're glad we tried it out. >> Yeah, it's beneficial to the students. That's great. >> Yeah, that's how I feel, Beverly. Yeah. >> So, does that influence how we think about negotiations with the pair of professionals and does that also influence about how we think about our budget? Well, the Perry Union

067also hosts the tutors. >> So, realize they're underneath the same union, a tutor, but a tutor has to have um you know, a bachelor's degree and sometimes they are certified teachers. We've been fortunate. So, um or they've been retired teachers and sometimes special educators. So, um, depending on, you know, who we've been able to enlist. Um, Beverly, are you are did that answer your all of your questions? Okay, Matthew, did you have a comment? And then Andrea, >> I I think that's just for Susan. And then, how do you accommodate that or account for that in the IE group? Let's say that you have a a student coming in from out of town or even if you've had a student who's had a parent all along, but now how do you what's the language in

068the IEP? >> That's a very good question. Um, if a child really needs support throughout their day, you usually see it's one to one and they have 30 hours of coverage. But there are many children that go to a resource room or need some reorientation or some extra help and support but they are sh they're with a shared pair parah and they have fewer hours during the week that they need. So that's when you're able to share and we've always been able to share. We've used pairs to share. They usually have to go back and forth to different classrooms. We might cluster two or three kids together in a classroom. But with the tutor, they're actually able to bring them together and do a reading group with them. >> Right. And I like the strategy.

069I just want to know about the legality of >> So it Yeah, it's pretty specific. You see one situation or the other special? >> Any other questions? >> I have one more. Um, absolutely. You mind? >> Oh, please. Uh Ken, is there anything that we should be concerned about at this point >> as far as the budget is concerned? >> Not this year. >> Well, continue to be concerned about inflation and the impact that's having on on our ability to to get what we need uh to to do the job that we do. um you know, as we go through the year um and we start using up the funds that we have. I I'm a little concerned about the end of the year um and hoping that uh these funds last. We tried to

070take that into consideration here. I think from a salary perspective, I don't think that there's a concern because we pretty much know who we have uh and that's going to fit within what we've budgeted. But I'm a little concerned about inflation. >> I think we all are. >> Yeah. This could make our budget This could make our budget time pretty. >> Yes. Pretty pretty >> pretty. >> Yeah. It's going to be a lot to go through. All right, >> Kim. >> Yes, Liz. >> I'm sorry. >> Your your hand that you raised is actually in the same corner where it gets tucked. I think that that's your TV is. And I could I I really can't see it, so you're going to have to >> I'll just yell. That's fine. >> All right. >> Hey,

071Ken. Um I'm looking at supplies. Um are are we good with paper? >> Um so there was a paper shortage uh over this past summer. Um it seems to alleviate it a little bit. Um the costs have come down a little bit. Uh we've also put some measures in place to try and limit our usage of paper. Uh so I I think I think we're okay. >> Okay. >> We're doing a lot of online forms, online report cards. We've asked teachers to do more like the oldfashioned blackbook notebooks and things like that that they can write in instead of just dittos. And we used to call them dittos, but you know what I mean. >> Yeah, I know what you mean. >> Graphic organizers. >> Been there. I've done that. >> Yeah. Worksheets. Okay. I

072just um I was just kind of wondering this I had heard around that you know there's a paper shortage and yet people still are just >> you know people aren't paying attention to it and so I was just concerned that I can remember midterms we had ex we had paper finals we didn't and so I want to make sure that um we have what we need to get through the year. >> Yeah. I I I think I think we passed a little bit of a um hump, if you want to call it, uh in regards to paper, but uh we we can always do better and we should continue to to work on um less paper or more digital resources. >> Thank you. Thanks, Kim. >> Absolutely. Any further questions? If not, let's go to

073the um health insurance report. And Sam, now you've done such a good job. >> Let's see. So, here is the health insurance report >> through through October of 2022. Um, you can hear >> to be on a show. Uh but for the month of October um see it we were at 77.3% of our estimated uh anticipated uh claim amount. Uh this this is in line with what we expect. Uh this is the be towards the beginning of the year. Uh employees are still working through their their deductibles. Uh so this this this trend that we're seeing is is uh predictable and what we would have expected. Uh we should probably start to see this start to pick up as deductibles start to get used up. Uh and um the plan would take on more at

074that point. But for on a year-to-ate basis, we're at 75.3% of anticipated. Um the town is at uh 74.9%. So we're in line with their uh with their results as well. Also, I feel like we're in decent shape with regards to uh health insurance plans >> and we imagine that flu line which is right about a million dollars >> just about. Y >> last year you indicated that you expected things to pick up and balance out by the end of the year and I seem to recall you said you thought CO had something to do that do with that. Is that uh >> it's >> elephant in the python gone? >> Well, I would say it's not uh gone, but what we were what we were experiencing last year was hopes postponing had an impact.

075The the curve didn't look quite like this. It looked a little little more bigger impacts because as they postpone and then they they push it to the time uh later. Um But I think I think we are past the majority of the impact of any postponing or delaying any sort of doctor visits that we're kind of on more of an further questions any I don't even know if that was a correct sentence that came out of my mouth. Any further questions? All right, hearing none, let us move on to Mr. Kilpatrick. That's you. >> Thank you for creating a much better climate. >> That was just me for >> all. So, you know, were those done on a craft machine? >> Those remember those? >> Do >> they was purple? >> Yes. And the ink

076would get over. So, um, so I I'm here to inform you that, uh, winter has officially arrived. We had snow this minute. A little bit of that problem, but it worked out pretty well. I think everybody arrived safely and got home safely. So, that's the important part. So, uh, we also met with the team last week that, Dr. Kennedy and I actually took a group around, showed them server rooms, as you heard, the boiler room. um and lots of the other uh uh the brains of the building or the nerve center whatever all those things that are unseen uh by most of us as we walk through the building and had had nice talks with them and and while we were taking that tour with the group that I had um they were continually questioned

077me on rise which I had no idea what it meant. uh each each weather obviously has a positive is a positive attribute that we want to have kids to have. But um I also came in during Thanksgiving weekend so that they could put all these posters up. And now when I walk into the building, you see these posters over there that say ride just the fact that that word rise is down the end of that hallway as you walk down. I I find it to be a positive message. Just the word rise itself >> and rise. >> Absolutely. the people and and of course the other thing that Ted talked about briefly was the pit at the media center in in the high school and we did talk about the possibility we're looking into possibility

078of an electric or a hydraulic lift that uh we might be able to get down those stairs. Uh there isn't enough room to do a ramp. The ramp would have to be about 70 ft long. So it would take up too much room in that pit or around it. So, we're looking at the possibility of of getting a lift >> just like you would do to a swimming pool. >> Acceptable. What's that? >> Just like you would do with a swimming pool. Get swimmers in the pool. >> Yep. >> So, hopefully we'll be able to come up with a solution to that problem fairly soon. Um, also um Ken um did most of the work. Um, but Ken and I uh submitted a grant uh application, two grant applications to the state uh both for

079the beachback uh in the vintage part of Fitch High School and for Charles Barnum School on December 1st. Um and the state um uh has u determined that they they really rolled this thing out pretty quickly and most of the districts were not able to um put the whole project together um due to timing of uh town councils referendums all these types of things. So they've given us some additional time and I think I believe that we use the date of February 28th throughout the application. So, we'll be going uh to the facilities and finance and facilities committee meeting at the next meeting and uh asking them to move forward on some of those items that we need to uh address uh in case we get this uh these grants. The grants will be um

080approved sometime in in January. So, we'll find out during January whether we get the grant and we can move on, we can move forward on some of these other things uh through January and February to get that stuff in line to get that grant. Um, I guess the last thing is that uh we're just uh working this week started working on a list of projects that we'll be doing during winter break, whether it's the cleaning of our buildings um uh some other smaller projects that we can do in the classrooms that we can't do when the kids are in the classroom. So, we'll be working on that over the next couple weeks and ready to roll when the break arrives. And we also are going to be voting on the CIPs that we discussed in

081an earlier committee of the whole also in Yes. >> Any other questions for Sam or comments Sam? Actually, I do have a question for you. Um, so do you regularly attend the um permanent school building committee? >> Yes. Okay. >> There was no meeting last month and a message just went out today, I believe, from uh Robert Austin, uh Bob uh Bob Austin with France asking if there are any uh new items uh for the committee for this third day of meeting. Um Greg Anover, the public works director said there was nothing from his viewpoint at this point and of course we have some stuff to discuss at our next finance facility. So, I said it would be for the next meeting more than likely. >> Right. Um I'm going to make sure that um

082now specifically because we had um I'm going to say it wrong. NASCA >> um um has said that they're concerned about the vintage area and also um the bleachers that I I want to make sure that we continue to kind of make sure that that's in people's minds as we as we think about that. in the Charles Barnum um and so I know that um Dean had been assigned that um committee and I'm going to um he's not here um but I am going to send out a note to him to make sure that he can um attend those so that we can have not just you but you can have one of the board members also attend the meeting um to get some of this stuff. >> Yeah. Well, the town council will have

083to uh name a building committee for the HVAC projects if if the if we get the grants. Okay. >> Would it be the same pardon? >> Would it be the same people? >> Uh it would be that committee or they could name the board of ed. They've done that in the past. I suspect that these would be large enough that they would give them to the town committee. >> Okay. Right. Any other questions? If not, let's move on. And I think we're at the committee report um policy. >> I have a question. Where's >> He's on. >> He's ready for us when we're ready for him. >> We have four policies coming for you. >> Thank you for a second reading. A second reading and I'm hoping they disclose. >> Okay. And then um for

084our next meeting, which is tomorrow night, we're looking at graduation requirements and the mentoring program. >> Okay. >> Policy for that. >> Oh, cool. >> Wow. Great. Um Liz, for curriculum, >> I hear you better when you're not muted. >> Thanks, Kim. I appreciate it. All right. Um we had quite a packed um meeting last time and our next committee meeting is the 19th at 6 o'clock and it's remote. So uh if anybody wants to pop in, you're welcome. But we are um we had Timll and Chelsea Courtright come to speak to us about the EMT class and we've asked for more information on that. Ann Keefe forbotnik. She came and uh presented the IB uh careers pathway programs core and uh discussed personal and professional skills reflective project service learning and language development. And

085then we had an update on the magnet uh magnet curriculum work that was being done at the elementary level by Emma Rottner. So um that was very busy for an hour. Uh, we will be looking carefully at this ne next meeting. Um, Phil, just make sure I'm right. I think we put down Ed Rising. Did you put Ed Rising on this month? This week, this next week's agenda. >> I did. >> Okay. I couldn't remember because it's just been a zoo here. So, Ed Rising and the NOTC um curriculum as well. So, we've got quite a bit. There's a number of things coming up. We're trying to make sure that we have all our ducks in a row and that people are following the proper procedures. >> Any questions for Liz? I should have said

086that for policy. Any question for policy? >> All right. Um finance and facilities Jay. >> Uh yes. Uh we met on December 6th. Uh we discussed um the budget history um with an eye toward um what we'll start to be doing next month. Uh we reviewed the school safety security plan and the costs associated with that. Uh Mr. Kilpatrick introduced this um the background on the HVAC grant. Uh we got an update on the uh GMS field lights that may uh with some luck go in next year. um after quite a a delay. Um speaking of delays, we discussed the solar panels, which my understanding is we've been talking about this for what a at least a year. Um and it's finally gotten through the legal review. um >> and filing them. >> Yeah, I'd

087love to see what issues actually came up over the past year legally between the town of Grten and an agency of the state that would take a year to iron out and how much we paid for those legal fees, but it is what it is. And then finally, we got an update on the bus contract. Liz. >> Yeah. Jay, did you guys ever discuss the um charging stations at the middle school? Remember I gave you a question? >> That was the last >> Yeah, that was last month. We we discussed that. >> Yeah, we reported back on that at the last uh >> last meeting. >> Um so, basically what happens with those charging stations is I guess the state of Connecticut paid for them to be put in. Our understanding is that we're paying

088for everybody who who plugs in and every school is different in terms of how much um but the majority of the board members felt that um the cost to the district was irrelevant. Um once uh we see the increases in electric rates, I know mine is scheduled to double um but each building's on a different contract, so that will roll in at different times. Um so um I know you had mentioned that there was some concern that um you know those are being plugged in like outside of ours and you know who's paying for all that. So the bottom line is the district pays for all those uh electric vehicles that are being plugged in. >> Thanks Jay. I I apologize. I I think I was not here that day. So I appreciate you giving

089a recap. Rita, >> hi Jay. Um, I have my I'm going to follow up with Liz's um question and and just ask what would be the another alternative if the board of education didn't pay for the charging stations that are at our school. Well, I had raised the question of, you know, um Tesla puts in uh stations that that people have to actually insert a credit card and pay. And um I had asked whether that was an option. Um the other members of the finance committee just felt that the the amount was minimal and not worth worrying about and it's for the greater good of the um of the town. I still think that that's something that you know should be pursued further >> especially with with rising electric rates. Well, and because there are

090so many electric cars, the Nissan Leaf, the, you know, the Chevy, there's so many coming on the market, BMW, that um I also feel that maybe we should do something. And Tesla is opening up their charging stations. Before they were only for Tesla cars, but now other cars are going to be able to charge there if they have an adapter. So, um, it's it's it's really something, you know, to to think about a little further as more people start driving electric cars and hopefully we'll have electric buses in the future. >> And I had one other other question for you, Jay, and that was about the busing contract. Um, so are you exploring other bus companies? Well, that actually is a um function of going out to bid. >> So rather than a negotiation, uh

091that went out to bid. Uh all the bids have come back and our understanding is that Ken and his team um and I assume Sam are analyzing the bids that came back in and will now make a um contractual decision. Well, in in before or in the past, except the last time, the negotiation committee for the board of education is involved in the the bids because it it you know, we the board of education is the one that really pays for the um busing the buses. So, I I would like to know um how we could be involved so that um the board, you know, we're we're included in this process. >> I'd have to defer to um Ken and Susan on that because again, this was done through um the board and I believe

092the town's uh bidding process. I also think that we will be involved because that we'll have to have a presentation of of the contract that they they give us and the reason why they have chosen that. >> No, but that would be a done deal. We the board needs to see before >> not at all. >> It would not. >> It would be because it would come up for a vote. So it'd be nice to see the all the bids and have some input into you know discussing with the different but busing companies that you know have put in bids you know what their plan is for seat belts, camera monitors, just electrification just so many things. the same way like that we need to start thinking about you know our law firm and you

093know that's also part of the negotiation team when we put that you know out to the p you know out for to have a a different or the same um law firm the >> actually that's not correct it actually goes to the town and we can have the town um >> no no I've I' I've sat through many negotiations with law firms and they come in and present to the board of education. The town has their own lawyer. Our our lawyer is paid for by the board of education. I'll have to get more information about that. >> Okay. >> I think the only thing that the town has to Okay, our lawyer. Is that correct, Rita? >> Yes. At the at the end. Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. That's all. Thanks. Thanks, Jay. >> Beth,

094>> Jay, I read that there was a community in uh southeastern Connecticut that had a private vendor that offered to install uh charging stations at no cost and that business model would have had little ads. It was rejected by the town for reasons I won't bother you with you now. But have we looked at at a private vendor in addition to I mean so we could have more stations available and that would be a self-supporting operation would be any cost to the district. >> I'm having a little difficulty with the audio. Um but the finance committee >> uh discussed this at the meeting before last. Um there didn't seem to be any interest. um in pursuing that further. But um you know personally I would like to see uh us investigate um how we can

095recover some of the um uh the the cost especially if we add more of these stations, but certainly for the ones that currently exist, especially given um the large uh electric rate increases that are coming down the road. And Ken is actually going to get back to us with a list of um which contracts expire when for each uh building and what the rates are now and then what they could possibly go up to. >> Um Sam looks like he can get get a point and then I'm going to recognize um Beverly and then Liz. >> Yeah. So, um I Jay, I think I um I I told you at the last finance committee meeting, or at least I can't remember which meeting it was, but uh I'm talking with the town. They have somebody

096that's going to be putting a meter on uh some of their charging station to see exactly how much it costs. And I want to do that at least one of our uh schools, see if I can get that meter put on here so we can see exactly what it's t how much time it's taken and what the cost of that is. So, um I know that um both Mystic River and um Things River, there are cars parked there all weekend long. So, I think those would be the two schools that I that I'd like to see something that on uh have have those meters put on. So, I'm working on that in the meantime. >> Thank you. And I believe that's what Liz was, you know, what precipitated the whole thing about our putting it

097on the agenda the last time was the fact that during school hours usually nothing's connected to those and then when schools are closed there are vehicles there all all night and all weekend. And so um it would be good to know that how much money we're talking about. >> Beverly. >> Yes. Thank you Kim. That was my question. what was the cost? Because if I remember correctly, I think Sam, you said the cost wasn't that much, but my memory could, you know, be all foggy, but that was my question. What was the cost? >> We're going to find out. >> Yeah. I I I don't I don't recall um specifically saying that, but I do know that when I talked to the town initially about putting meters on these stations that they determined for themselves

098that it wasn't cost effective to put the actual meters on on those units. It was going to cost quite a bit to put those on, but I don't again I don't know what those numbers are either. But I think the first step is to see how much it's costing us first and then we can go from there. Um, Liz, >> yeah, I have a question. I don't know if you could see it in the chat. It says, could we shut off the circuit breaker to the charge car charging stations after hours? Is that possible? And also, I think that um I hear a lot of interest in this topic, so I think it still needs um some attention. So, uh, I look forward to hearing more information about this. >> Thank you, Liz. Rita, I

099did see your hand up at one point. >> Okay. Oh, you're just waving. Okay. No, my question was answered. Oh, I thought you were waving. Communications. >> The communications committee met today by for this meeting. We had our first working session on reviewing the 2016 communications. Excuse me, Matthew. Can you speak into the speaker? It's hard to hear you. >> I know we should be there in person, but we're not. >> My booming voice on Kim. Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay. The communication committee met earlier today, just before this meeting. We had our first working session of taking the 2016 communication plan and working to review it to hopefully come back to you in a month or two or maybe three but not longer with a TW proposed 2023 25 communication

100plan. >> That's good. >> You guys are really really busy. the um the finance and facilities communications curriculum and policy. The amount of work that you guys do is just pretty amazing. Thank you for your hard work. Like that's like that's like that's the whole purpose of like having a board to have these little subcommittees that do a lot of the heavy lifting. So thank you very much all of you who are on those committees but and also who are leadership to those committees. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um the others is negotiation. So, we are um if you can see on the agenda um we have um where we're going to kind of hopefully um go forward with the um uh administration. We were supposed to do that last week um month, but

101we um didn't. And so, that's going to be on. And as um uh and as as Susan mentioned earlier in the meeting, we are going to be having um the pair of professionals for the for the is it the one year or >> we're going to go for four years. >> We're hoping to go to four years. Um and so yeah, because we did a a jump over that's not the word, but you know what I mean. We we added a year to the last contract. Um and so now that's up. And um Rita, my my promise to you is that I will have it um um looking at the historical around the bus contracts. Um and then however it comes out, we will um talk about that as a board to see how we

102want to move forward. However, I do hear um an agenda topic coming out of this, which is where are we in the process of the bus contracts and whether that needs to be an executive session or not so that the board can get a sense of what the business department and transportation is looking at and maybe that's could be a time that we can also as a board just kind of um talk about what our concerns are or not our concerns about that. Does that sound like that's fair? >> Yes. So I think you'll find with the history except for the last contract which was five years ago. >> Okay. >> Board of Education always um was involved with the negotiation committee actually looked at the bids and presented it to the board. >> Okay.

103I'm sure you're right. So let me just get the historical data. Um learn >> we had an excellent meeting last Thursday December 8th. um Caves executive director and general counsel Patrice McCarthy presented and she talked about the legislature having a possible magnet tuition reimbursement for districts which would be wonderful where we would you know our town would not have to pay for students who attended magnet schools in other towns. So we need to contact our legislators and push for that. And the second thing is that she said that feminine hygiene products now should be in all bathrooms, boys and girls. And I was wondering I was going to ask Susan whether or not that is the case in our bathrooms. >> I would have to check on that. >> That's that's a law that's come

104through January 1st. Is that correct? >> Starting January 1, >> right? I'll have to find that out. I have heard about it, but I don't know if we've already started doing that or not. And the and the second um which I I thought was really interesting was um learn had a a group of people that went to Griswell High School and they um observed their state of the art room for esports. Does every does anybody know what esport is? >> Yeah, it's the video um uh like basketball, soccer and and such. >> Yeah. And and they actually they're electronic sports, >> right? Um, and I guess every districts can compete with other districts at 4:00 one day of a week, but this is supposedly a phenomenal room. And they they said that Fitch was um

105also had been there to observe it. So, I thought that was interesting. And Fitch in one other town, maybe Waterford. But with this gaming they also um it's not just you know kids playing around but they learn um coding and design and skill development. So it's not just like they're sitting there playing games during this period >> very involved. So he can he can say he can tell you that he has been there and we have our own program as well. >> That's great. Hi >> I I will I will not elaborate. We have a board member who actually has a child on our team at Fitch in their inaugural season uh this year. Um so if he chooses to elaborate certainly. Um >> no pressure. >> I will keep this very brief but this

106is a passion of mine and it has been since 2015 2016 when I started a team in New London for New London public schools and then we eventually uh were able to convince Carissa Nihoff at the time who was the head of past CIA to recognize it. So Connecticut was actually the first state to recognize esports as a as an official sanctioned competitive group. Uh but Rita I think you you hit the nail on the head when you were talking about how it's not just games for game saves. We started really because we were trying to build around the C uh um the four C's program that we had in New London at the time which means teaching critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity kind of in a horizontal curriculum across the traditional silos of math,

107science, social studies. So we've kind of mapped out the the Fitch program and hopefully soon to be Graten Middle School program along the lines of skill development and socializing and team building. Uh certainly there is a component of it where we want to be competitive and win and so forth, but that's that's really secondary to the the idea of socialization and skill building and also giving students who may not be the first to sign up for some of the traditional activities to be able to be part of a team uh at school after school with a coach wearing the school colors and so forth and so on. So, the game is important, but don't tell the students I said this. To me, it's a secondary to the the experience, the skills, the experience that they

108can have uh to hopefully make them better citizens and more participatory and so forth. So, >> yeah. And the games are a lot of fun, too. I watch more of them on Sundays than NFL football these days. It's just something I've grown into because the kids brought me there. So, it's it's a brave new world, and I think it's a really important piece of the overall picture. But, thank you. I can talk about >> and I also was told that colleges gave out $18 million in um scholarships for um there's so there's a lot of dollars out there if you are very good at this >> dollars and even more so even if there aren't dollars it's a way to get accepted in a reach school that you may not have been able to get

109into if they see you as talented and able to fulfill a role. So yes absolutely it's a it's a benefit for some of our students to get that stretch goal accomplished. So anyway, I was fascinated to learn about this. I I didn't know we we were doing it at and really happy that we are. So thank you. That's it. >> Really reassuring about the insurance scholarship being the MVP almost every single game. >> Wow. >> Sorry. I have to say one more I apologize for just jumping right in. The one is one of the main issues with esports though too is our gender diversity within those ranks. It is predominantly a maledominated sport. Traditionally, traditionally in all of its, you know, 10 plus years of existence. I'm very happy to report that the the that

110the uh the team that did quite well this year, they just missed the playoffs. Uh there's five starters. Three were female students, two male students in the starting five. So, I was very excited about that, which it's the way it should be and it should look in my personal estimation. uh but it isn't always the case and it's something we've been working on in the community overall to make it accessible to all students not just a particular type of student or or identified student >> and I think topic going on >> right and I think it also gives students you know that may not you you need a reason to come to school sometimes it's because you're playing football or basketball or in a play but this gives the some students another reason to you

111know it's not all about academics You're right. Thank you. Thank you, Rita. >> Welcome. >> Anything else from learn? >> Um, so the town uh town council, the RTM board of ed and uh city council January, ready for this? January 12th at 5:00 for a um startup meeting. Yes, I finally got it on the books. Um, so >> um a place to be determined and time to be determined, but it's it it is the um it is that's the date. I'm so excited. >> And this is the liaison group. >> This is the liaison group. Um and my um my thanks goes out to Juliet um and uh Kathy Chase who have have quickly signed back on um along with um I just got a uh from the Graten City um counselor who has joined

112our group. So I'm very excited about that. And then the AGSA GA board of edison we have not met um in this past month. Um and Graten Scholarship. Yeah, we just had a meeting last week. Um, if you had were on their list for getting letters out, you should have received a letter. If you would like to get a letter for donation, would you please I am me or send me an email. Um, and I will make sure you get a letter and the form that you can fill out. Um, we're still look, there's going to be a March 4th there's going to be a Grten scholarship um, fundraiser and I think it's at Chipotle. So, and the thing is is if it's at Chipotle, it's a 30% of the this after $150 you get

11330%. Which is huge. So, you know, um if you get a chance, you want to I'm I honestly've never been to Chipotle. Um but I'll give it a go just to help with graten scholarship. But, um yeah, we're starting to really people are starting to send in checks. I do not have the money at the uh amounts at this point. They didn't have it last meeting, but we did send out over almost 300 letters. But if there's people that you think or you know that might want to um donate, send me their name and I'll see if they're on the list. If they're not, I'll contact you and I can get a letter out to them as well. But you know, we're trying to get 50 grand or more to help our students. Um and

114uh you know, I I don't I don't think anybody's ever been turned away. So, you know, I think some every kid's gotten something. >> Thank you, Liz. You're welcome. >> I have two questions, sir. Yes, please. Liz, I have two questions. The first one is, has there been any movement Oh, thank you. Has there been any movement on how the money is distributed? I um earlier this year I talked about the the idea that the money is sent directly to schools and the scholarship. >> This thing is as a scholarship. They they did some investigation and I believe it was with their with the um not quite sure who it was. I don't remember. I'm sorry, but I think it was lawyer and they said that because it's a scholarship, it has to go to

115the schools. However, that's you know that's the the parameters which they're dealing with. But let me get back to you Andrea on that because I do know we discussed it because I brought it up again. I got your back and um I will make sure I get that the correct answer to you this week. Okay. I don't want to give you misinformation. >> Yeah. Well, I I guess what you could ask for me is if I stipulate that I I don't want it to go to the school, well, will that um have an effect? So, that's the question you could ask for me. >> I'll get back to you. >> Okay. And the second question is uh I understand that it's it's a tough job getting to uh some of well getting to our students

116who are seniors to act actually apply for the scholarship. So what's this any strategy for that? >> They've um in they are really talking with the career counselor at Pitch High School. She seems to be very receptive and moving on this and is really working on uh keeping the counselors themselves in the loop and they're working towards more better communication. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Athletic fields. >> Well, as you know, uh the task force addressed you with the uh plan that they developed in 2020. Um my understanding is that they are going to go to the town council next month with the results of the visioning project for what uh the um folks in the town want to do with the Claude Chester property, which will be the last piece um before

117they can then present the entire plan to the council to decide uh whether they'll adopt it and how they're going to fund it. >> Okay. Thank you, Jay. I think the meeting is January 10th. um trails >> trails and library nothing to report >> and then um state council that's in spring um and the uh permanent school building committee Miss Joan I would like to add that to a um to that list so that we can get reported on that on a regular basis. Thank you. Um the next part is the consent agenda agenda where all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. Uh points of clarification will be allowed. I would mo I would entertain a motion. >> I got Andrea. Can I

118have a second? >> Second. >> I've got William. Um any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor about the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose, abstain. That motion has carried. We are now moving into um old business, which is really the approval um uh list of approval of people from the second reading. Liz, would you be willing to read the motion for number one? >> Certainly. Motion to approve policy P 6141.52 challenging curriculum for middle years as a second reading. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> I have William as a second um discussion. But I wanted to clarify that this we worked very very very hard on this as policy because we wanted to open up our our higher level forces to

119everybody not just our studentation. And I could speak I' I've thought about this all day whether I should use this as an example, but I want to say 40 years ago at least when I was u a teacher at one of the junior high schools, I didn't reh recommend a student and it has I know that it affected that individual deeply and I've thought about that all the time for 40 or more years. So it's a personal thing with me and I want to make sure that that everybody understands that certainly that input from the counselors and the teachers should be sought by the by the parents but the final decision decision on whether a student signs up for an advanc of course should be the student and the parent and we are not looking

120to to water down anything. All of these standards are will remain in place, but we will make sure that there is support for the student and if if it's up to the student. If the student rises to the expectations with support, that's that's what we want to see. And if the student doesn't, well, that's a choice that they're making. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor of approving the policy P6141.52 challenging curriculum for middle years as a second reading reading please say I >> I >> oppose abstain. That motion has carried. Rita, would you be willing to read the motion for number two, please? >> Yes. >> Thank you. to approve policy P3520.11 electronic information security as a second reading. >> Can I have a second to that? >> I have Matthew for I

121have Matthew for a second. Any discussion? >> For the first time in my life, I'm going to say I have no idea what this what I would be talking about if I were to talk about this, but maybe perhaps Dr. Kennedy would >> well I don't think that we I think you answered all questions last reading >> but just to reorient that this is really necessary that there are people out there trying to steal your data and other things and we really the insurance company is saying we need to have this two factor authentification >> and we modeled this heavily uh against the cave suggested policy. Any other discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of approving the policy um 3520.11 electronic information security is a second reading, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose.

122Abstain. The motion has carried. Beverly, would you like to read the motion for number three, please? Okay. I make a motion to approve policy P4113 period one two minimum duty free lunch periods as a second reading. >> Can I please have a second? >> Second. >> I got Liz. Um discussion on this >> just that in compliance with public act 22-8. Look at her go with knowing what the public act is. >> Any other conversation? >> I have one question. Um for the um nertified staff, it says the board will provide the duty-free lunch period as defined by the Connecticut Department of Labor. And what's their definition of duty-free lunch period for the um nertified staff? So for full-time employees, they also get 30 minutes. We keep it consistent. >> Part-time will probably get a

123part-time, you know, break, but they aren't there necessarily for lunch because they might only work, you know, 20 hours or >> so during a week. >> Any other discussion? Hearing none to um all those in favor to uh approve policy P 4113.12 minimum dutyfree lunch periods um as a second reading please um say I >> I >> oppose abstain one one absention that would be Matthew it has um it has the motion has passed >> may I explain the >> I don't think you need Um, unless someone here wants to hear Matthew's extension. >> Oh, I don't mind hearing it. >> Okay. >> If he wants to speak on it. >> Thank you, Beverly. >> I'm completely inord. >> I would also like to, but you you'd need the microphone. Matthew, >> I'm completely in

124accord with not guaranteeing lunch to somebody who is either arriving after lunch or leaving before lunch. But if we have a part-time person who's there for a full day, I think he or she should be given the time for lunch. >> Okay. Thank you. Sorry. And um Beverly and Rita, thank you for slowing me down um because he he has the right to explain that. Um Jay, would you be willing? >> We're actually would you be will we're on to new business. Um and before we >> we have one more. Oh, see I already crossed it out. Jay, would you be willing to read um the motion for number four, please? >> Sure. I move to approve policy P3543.31 electronic communications use and retention as a second reading. >> I have a second to that

125>> second. >> I got I've got Liz. Sorry, Andrea. Um discussion passive. >> Do you want to say something to orient them? >> This is similar to the previous one. This is really about record retentions and so forth. The one change that came out of the first reading was to make a small section of the language more generic so that it pointed specifically to the the local policy as well as state policy around these specific times so that we're not going back in modifying this each time. It really points to those guiding documents as far as time frames that we need to make sure that we're keeping hard copies, electronic copies in each of those subcategories they talked about. So that was the only change that we >> So it's basically a compliance policy. >>

126Absolutely. >> If I could say it's not that I didn't understand it. I could just never explain it. He does it the best. >> Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those to approve the policy P3543.31 electronic communications use and retention as a second reading. Please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. abstain. That motion has carried. Okay, now I'm with everyone. Um, so we're now in the new business. Um, number three is going to be where we're going to go into an executive session. Mark, I hope that you're hearing us so that when we get to that point, you'll be willing to put us into a breakout room with um, uh, other people, but we'll talk about that in our um, motion. Um and so what I'm going to um advise that we can do is

127go through the first two um dom and proposals advanced planning so that when we're done we can uh we can just adjourn um after executive session. Um do I get a favorable approval of that from people? >> Could you say that again why we're going into executive session? because we're talking about the um AGSA contract number three. Uh yeah, number three. Okay, that seems fine. >> All right, thank you. Um Matthew, would you be willing to uh read the motion for um new business, please? >> I'd be pleased to. >> Thank you. I move we approve the FY23 CIP proposals. >> Can I have a second to that? >> I have William. Um, this is that we have talked about this for actually a couple times in committee as a whole. I know finance and

128facilities has also gone through it, but is there any other questions that people might have? Huh? If not, um I uh uh all those in favor to approve the >> I I do have a question. This is a CI we're on the CIP, right? >> Yes, we are, ma'am. >> Um why why don't we add the bleachers? >> I mean, I I you know, it talks about the football field and drainage, but why haven't we added the bleachers? I don't have the answer to that. Maybe it's because it's a it would go above and beyond what um the cost of the CIP would be. I don't know. >> Jay or Sam, would you be willing or Susan? >> I I don't have an answer as to why we didn't. I mean, I' I've investigated the

129cost of the last couple weeks with some companies that I've worked for in the past, weren't in the past. I didn't get injured at high school. So I talked to the company that had been on those projects for me. So it's a three4 million dollars for one set of leagues >> and we would need how many >> how many sets would we need? >> Well, the question is what do you again all depend on what the field's going to decide do but um >> so what did what did you say again? It would cost what >> do one set >> what's that? Okay. So, unfortunately, Liz, um, >> yeah, my my my internet went down. My I just wanted What was it? I couldn't hear Sam. >> It was a >> Can you mind? >>

130Three4ers of a million dollars. >> Okay. And how many? >> One. That's one. >> That's an estimate that I got from >> I'm going to recognize Jay. So, um, Sam can correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the issues over the the many years of the existence of this athletic fields task force is that they want to flip the orientation of the football field. So, the concern is you go and you invest all this money in new bleachers and then you flip everything around. Um, so I mean that's that's kind of what we're up against. that that also may affect what we do with those auxiliary buildings. I mean, personally, I'd like to see us put on there doing something about those public restrooms. Um, but now we've created this this task force that

131the town council has basically said to us, you know, we want to consider all of this in one package. Um to be honest with you, even the renovation of the field because the athletic fields task force is going to recommend putting uh down a um uh turf field. Uh the town council is probably not going to consider this, but it's been on our list for many, many years. It felt sort of wrong to pull it now as though it no longer matters. I mean, they're going to have to make a decision one way or the other. either this field has to be renovated or the u artificial turf has to be put down. So, you know, it it all revolves around this task force and and wanting to do everything in one fell swoop at

132the town level. That's my understanding. >> Yeah. And I think that how he uh presented Rita, I will recognize you absolutely. Um but I um I think what I got from him is that it's actually like in three phases. not three phases but three areas right there's Sutton there's Sutton Park there's the um Cloudchester and then there's the Fitch so that it is in sort of three phases but I'm going to recognize Rita and then Beverly and phases is probably not the word that I need >> I I I think that that would is would be a good thing but I think we still have to put it in for safety reasons and NAS even mentioned it in their report I think if we don't have that as one of our requests for our CIP.

133I I just think that they need to see how urgent it is and how unsafe they are. And even if it's what, three quarters of a million dollars for one, how big is one? What do you mean by one? So, I I just would like to see it at least included in our CIP packet. And whether or not they switch the fields, maybe we can just put the bleach new new bleachers back far enough where even if they put in artificial turf, it won't matter. They did say there was enough room to do that. That's just my feeling. I I I actually don't think that your idea is a wrong idea. Um, I just don't know how we would go about doing that with a CIP package already put together, but I so I I

134don't know how to answer that question. Beverly, um, two things. I'm going to support Rita and her suggestion u for all the reasons that she stated. And the second thing is as far as this artificial turf, um, when I was watching football over the weekend, a lot of the teams are going back to natural glass. So, we really have to stop put a put a reset on this artificial turf idea and really explore natural grass. Also, thank you. I Beverly, I don't disagree with you and I know that William has spoken to it a little bit, but I'm not even quite sure if we would be the people that would. I mean, I think we would have a big discussion about it. Um, but I I share your thoughts. I do too, >> Matthew. >>

135I I will support going ahead with this basically out of the fear that even if everything is approved for this master plan, from what I understood them to have said, it's going to be 24, 25, possibly 26 before it's funded. Um, and I'd say let's not lose the attainable in pursuit of the ideal. That's why we can't wait for bleachers. >> Jay, I just told Liz to go. >> Um the um you know, for all the same reasons, then we should really be putting the uh fieldhouse and the um and the restrooms. I mean, you know, if we want to be consistent with everything that we really need, >> we need to put all of that on the list. >> And um, you know, I understand Beverly's concern. There's also a uh a group in

136town that's very much against uh the artificial turf going up at Fitch. But even if it they stay with the natural, um this particular task force uh has uh discussed actually flipping the field in in the other direction. Um and again, there's reasons, you know, why they think that that that would be better. Um I really am not able to speak to all of that. Um but yeah, I mean to be consistent, we can put all of that on the list. Um you know, so that it doesn't get lost. Uh just like the fact that if we keep this this field, you know, how many years have we been putting on this list that the football field needs uh to be recrowned and that it's a safety issue and um you know, and yet it

137goes down um in a vote at the town council every year. Any other discussion? >> Well, how can we add add on these? You know, the fieldhouse, the bathroom, public restrooms. They're so important. And I mean, we need to be compliant for handicapped people. And we're not >> Liz, >> that was my question is like so I mean I I'm not adverse to what is here but what I think is we just haven't gone far enough. Do we have to do another CIP? Is there is that the next step to do a additional CIP? Is that what we need to do to add the things that are essential? I mean at some point you know it's it is our responsibility. >> We do have a project a listed Fitch High School athletic facilities. We talk

138about crowning of the field. So what I've heard you say is that and I agree we should be looking at the field house. We already know we've gotten the renderings so we know more about what that would cost. The restrooms. Um, so the two buildings and then um the bleachers. I think we could probably find out how many bleachers we would need so we could earmark it, but that could go into a whole fieldhouse field athletic fields project. At least they would know unless we unless Sam you think we should do those as the three separate items that would go along with this. I I I I'll have to talk to the town and see how I can add something to the CIP list at this point. >> So, we could approve this tonight with

139that we that we would come back in in January or even at a CO with a look at um adding another CIP. We meet with John Bert next Monday. He was sick so he didn't make the meeting today but we will be meeting with him on a variety of things. >> Let's add this one too. We can put it together and show them Jay and then Matthew. Sorry, I didn't >> I I I kind of think, you know, we should amend this tonight and make the um the will of the board known um rather than leave it till January, February when it's going to get lost in all the other budget matters. I mean, the worst they can do is say no, but at least we put on record, you know, what our priorities are.

140Um, you know, whether it'll pass muster with zoning planning, um, because I know the planning department actually reviews our CIPs, you know, at least we'll be on record that this is what we voted for and that we weren't the ones standing in the way of it. >> Okay. Thank you, Bev. on the substance of what we want to do. >> You're gonna have to raise your voice. >> On the substance of what we want to do, uh I'm for all three in process. I think if we put all three under one item, it makes it much easier to turn it down once. I think we might be better to put a separate item for each of the three things. If we don't get the whole pie, we can get something. I do agree we should

141ask for what we think is best for the kids. And as I mentioned to the other people with the fields committee, there's a litigation opportunity just waiting to happen, whether it's with title n or whether an accident or field or whether it's an accident on the bleachers. And I think that needs to be I I hope if we decide to go ahead that that will be imminently communicated to the town board. Andrea, >> I wanted to uh support what Thanks. I wanted to support this even in terms of just complying with me as they're the ones that also noted strongly that we we need to address this. So that we I I believe that we need to be on record for having taken it to the town and if the town turns it down, well

142then we did what we were supposed to do for kids and for our our rating. >> So what I'm hearing from the group is that some type of amendment where we add the bleachers, we add the um concession stand and fieldhouse um >> and restrooms. Yeah, I saw the concession stand and restrooms as the same thing. So, but um but yeah, um I'm I'm looking towards Sam to find out how we would do an amendment to your CIPs. >> I think it would just direct me to add those items to submit them to that submission that I already made so that when I go to the point I can get it to John say that I was directed by the board to do that, >> right? Um, and then when you get then move on

143to the final >> and you would vote to vote for what we have as amended, >> right, >> with the addition of the fieldhouse, the restrooms, the food concession stand, and the bleachers. >> In the past when in the past when I brought these things through the CIP process, they some things have been cut at the planning commission stage. Other things have been cut by a town manager. So those things can be cut before it even gets to town council. But I'm not saying that it would or it wouldn't, right? >> I'm just saying that's a possibility. >> But but >> I think if it's an amendment to this, I think it has a little more weight than >> um individual items in my opinion. >> So um people online, did you hear what he

144um what Sam had stated? >> Not not clearly. >> Okay. So that so what what Sam is saying is is that to make an amendment to the current the current CIPs where we're adding the fieldhouse, the bathrooms, the um concession stand and the um bleachers as an amendment um for our CIPs where where it at least um goes on record that the board of ed is really concerned about um about that. Um but he also warned us that the process of presenting CIPs is um that it can the our CIPs could get um could get um knocked off in the plan by the plan the graten planning um department or the town manager but at least our voice is being heard around that. I'm gonna recognize Matthew and then Jay. >> Question for you Sam.

145>> Please raise your voice so that people can hear. >> Sam I am. Question for you Sam. Uh I understood that you have said perhaps incorrectly probably three bleachers would be needed al together. >> There we have two sets of bleachers presently. The the home and the visitor. So uh I I talked to these companies about uh replacing about the same number of seats with handicap accessibility etc. on the uh on the home side presently that would also include a a score. >> Understood. Understood. So my concern is that if we're asking for a million and a half dollars for one item and we got it, then everything else might fall by the wayside. Do you think it would be reasonable and don't give me an answer if you're not ready to would it be

146reasonable to say though we need two, we're asking for one so that we can replace the one that has the most traffic and uh and that we're going to hopefully come back once the field committee makes its final decisions. >> Well, Sam is not going to have the money monies available for the CIPs like like we do in the other ones. I for this amendment. >> I'm I'm not trying to tell Sam what to do. I'm just saying I don't know what to do. All I know is >> we're pushing the envelope. Let's not push it too far. Ask for one. >> Well, we do the planning for the fieldhouse. >> Yeah. two outside buildings. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Right. >> I'm not to >> Well, it's an estimate and also remember it's also

147part of the field committee. This is where it gets kind of very tricky. This is where there's a lot of roads that kind of converge. I defer. >> So, um, Jay, >> yeah, I mean, what I what I hear people saying is we want to put out there everything that we feel is a priority. Um, all of these things are important for safety, um, for equity, for all the reasons that have been discussed over the years. So, uh, to Matthew's point, you know, I would amend it as all of these being individual items and then at least we get it on record tonight so that we have something to discuss in January, February, March. If we don't do something tonight, I don't think we'll have a chance to to put these back on and then

148we can decide what the top priority is based on what money, if any, the town council is going to allocate towards CIPs this year. >> So, Jay, can I ask for you to set a um it's I'm going to say the word adjusted, but that's not the word. Um amend amend to the motion. So, we need to make uh a motion to amend. >> Yes. >> Well, um I'm not sure that I'm the best one for the wording. Maybe Sam can can assist with that. But I mean, we're basically looking to amend this motion to add ADA compatible bleachers, modernized public restrooms, um modernized concession stand, and renovated fieldhouse >> each with their own separate CIP. Right. >> Right. So at least we have spoken on on these are needs that we have been talked

149about for many years but it's finally concrete and then you know we can just thrash it out during the budget process. >> Sam are these going to be three new separate sheets. >> Yes. We we want we want them to be three separate so that they don't have to they can just say no and to the whole thing um >> football crowning. Yeah. Because I did tell them that I was going to approve. So we know >> okay >> I don't see where B is. Do we we are they listed ABC? >> Are they kind of It doesn't really look like they call us. >> All right. So, can I have a second on Before we go any further, can I have a second on that amendment? >> I'll second it. Can I ask you

150a question? >> Yeah. Well, I got to get it seconded. >> I've got seconded it. Did I've got Andrea who second it discussion. Andrea, >> you got to speak loudly, please. and you had a microphone. So that's that's the amendment. Um I I just my question is if if we do it if I'm afraid that if we only ask for one set of bleachers and we get it, we'll never get the other two. That's my my question. >> I I I think people have to remember that this is also part of the field study plan. like the bleachers have been noted in the field plan. >> Well, we're asking for three, right? Not >> I believe that we'd be asked I don't know. There's a there's a a home side and a visitor side football

151field. So, there will be two set >> two. All right, that's my question. Thank you. Any other um any other discussion on the amendment on the on the table which is to um the amendment is to add um each separately projects that are in the back end of Fitch which is the um field the fieldhouse, the concession stand, the bleachers and the concession stand has the um the bathrooms um to both modernize safety and ADA proof >> and failed house, right? I think I said that. >> ADA and I think title is it title N >> and title N. That's right. So, basically federal and state complaints. >> Okay. All those in favor of the amendment, please say I. >> I. I >> oppose. Abstain. That amendment has carried. Miss Joan, I now go back

152to the original motion. Is that correct? >> Yes. As amended. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I like you. All right. >> As amended. So all all those in favor to approve the fiscal year 23 CIP pro proposals as amended please say I >> I >> oppose >> abstain that motion has carried you guys that was a really good discussion >> all right Andrea would you please be willing to read the motion uh u for number two >> I am willing I'm delighted to do it you know I never read out loud, but for the the maintenance crew and for the custodial crew and for the secretarial body, I I'm thrilled to make this to um to move to recognize January 18th, 2023 as National Maintenance Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to

153send a letter of appreciation to the maintenance staff. >> Can I have a second to that? Second. >> That's Liz. Any um discussion on that? >> I just want to say again um our schools could not operate without the dedication of the of the staffs that I mentioned. And uh I don't have to say it. The boiler room says it all. >> Thank you, Andrea. >> Okay. All right. All those in favor to approve the motion um uh to recognize January 18th, 2023 as National Maintenance Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the maintenance staff. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Abstain. The motion has carried. Um I'm going to go to um Rita. We're going to be moving down to information and

154letters of communication. Do you have any? >> Um, no, not really. >> Okay, thank you, Rita. Liz, >> yeah. Um, I went to the robotics pancake breakfast. Had a delicious meal, but lots of good conversation. And I think uh as I was talking to some of the parents, some of you all got a a email from a young a young lady, a student who's in the band because I told her that, you know, it would be nice to be invited to some of this stuff, you know, personally. And they listen to me. I was like shocked people listen to me still. But um you know it's just that it was really wonderful to see people come out support the robotics team. They've had their struggles u and they're they're rebuilding with lots of positive energy.

155So that's >> Rita. >> Yes. I had a question. If I wanted to make a donation to go directly to the Fitch Music Boosters to support their um trip to Honolulu, how do I do that? You know what, Rita? I would uh send Ted Kellaher a note. Email Ted because he could tell you. >> Okay. Or or William could also tell. >> Oh, Will. That's right. William, you're there. >> Sorry, William. >> I will have Sandra Hall, who is the orchestra, who's the lead for it, send you a link. And that link, you'll be able to um uh it's really easy. you'll be able to just donate the entire trip versus you'll have two choices. Donate to a particular student or to the trip. You just choose on donate to the trip and uh that'll

156be great. Um that's wonderful because if we raise $5,000 through uh fundraising and donations, we have somebody that will match that with another 5,000. >> Oh, wow. >> William, could you send me that link too, please? I I'll send it to every member. >> That'd be great. All right, Beverly. >> Okay. Uh I attended the K webinar on the role of the school board uh for advocacy and uh some of the hot button issues were special ed in term of funding. It was 72% but they found extra money. So you're going to get 90% reimbursement. Well, you got 90% reimbursement last year. That's what they said. They're gonna have legislation >> excess cost. >> Are you talking about excess? >> No, it just says special ed funding in term of funding. So, I could have

157left that out as excess cost, but I'm just looking at my notes. They said was 72% for extra money, 90% reimbursement last year. That's what Sheila McCabe said. >> We'll follow up on that. >> Okay. >> I know excess cost has gone up. I mean, they're looking for the percentage to go up, but that money actually goes directly to the town to afford the budget. And if it goes over, just like impact aid, it's additional funds that go into the town, not to the school district. Yeah. But we'll find out. They said there's going to be legislation on the reading program, social emotional learning, and school buses in terms of electric school buses. And I I should have said this before, but I just looked at my notes. Districts can ask for money for charging

158stations. That's what Sheila McCabe said. Um they're going to have legislative breakfast in January of 2023. And um what else? Oh, they said the school COVID test kits are going to expire the end of January. So, please get them out to the community, to families, because they will expire at the end of January and then you have to dispose of them. >> We're sending them all out. Sam's on it. He's already done the headcount and we're going to say we want you safe. I actually said a little bit of that in the past couple board notes to keep yourself healthy, but we're going to send them all out so they can use them over the holidays when they're with other people. >> Okay. And it's going to be legislation on military on the military compact.

159They said it needs changes and they did mention Groten. They mentioned us >> if there's a bill >> military compact. >> I know. >> And if there's anything that might impact our district is to give your thoughts to Cape and um that's about it. >> So my understanding is that learn is going to have host the legislators in January, but it's not for board members. It's just for superintendent. Well, according to Sheayla, they said they're going to start up with legislative breakfastes. They're getting that in in place now for January. >> She didn't say it was only for superintendent. >> Well, that's >> because this webinar was for board members. That was just for learn that learn is going to have okay um legislation. But um Andrea, I'm wondering if Andre Andrea if you would

160be willing to be thinking about out loud with this with Susan about getting our local. >> We typically do it at Fitch for our local legislators. >> We have done it at >> We have Yes, we have. And >> before CO >> Yeah. >> But but that may may not be true anymore. >> Well, I I I stopped being the district coordinator and it went to somebody else. >> Right. But you're now back on CAPE, right? So maybe you can >> but I wanted to I wanted to Beverly is so much more knowledgeable about that. I wanted to talk to Beverly about that. So anyway, we can have that offline. >> I'll find out. Um the one for superintendents is we're just talking about the unfunded mandates and we're kind of setting the stage for

161what we expect came to be monitoring with legislation that doesn't usurp the authority of our local board's event. So specifically with some of the errors that occurred this year. So that's just why we're meeting because we want um the legislators to hear our voices, but they do need to hear the board's voices as well. >> And one last thing, Susan, this might interest you if you don't know about it. The state department's looking at changes on math education. >> Well, I knew once I what did I say? soon as they feel like they can mandate programs in literacy, they're going to go after math instead of setting the model curriculum and setting the standards like they're supposed to. >> So, thank you. That surprised me. Thank you, >> Beverly. Thank you for doing that. >>

162So, I'm unclear about the legislative breakfast. Is somebody hosting it? Well, like you said, I'll I'll I'll >> Yeah, we can talk about that. >> Do we know the point of Do we know the date for the legislative day in Hartford? >> It was November. I think >> there is no legislative date in the spring. >> No, it's always in March. >> Oh, March. Thank you. So, they'll they'll let us know. >> You're talking about the day on the hill that Kade um right puts on. That's in March, >> right? And and because Patrice mentioned at the meeting that they still don't know which rooms are going to be allowed to go into this year. So, I think it's everything, you know, they'll they'll update us once the session starts in like I think it's

163around January 4th or 5th. >> Yeah. >> Jay, do you have anything to report? >> Nothing to report. >> Thank you. Matthew, >> nothing to report. >> William, >> nothing to report. >> Andrea, I got all of those nice invitations. I was unable to go to anything and I'm really apologizing for that. The only other thing that I have is um to mark your calendars for January 15th. That's the Sunday of Martin Luther King weekend. That's when the ecumenical service will be at St. James Church in New London at 3:00. >> If we get anything in print, I want to get it out in board notes and to everyone. >> Very well. Do that. um agenda topics before we go into our last um I have um seen if we can um have a bigger

164conversation about this esport program. Um it seems that many of us are not aware of it. So it would probably be a really good thing for us to have. I would also like to have an agenda topic where not only do we bring in like we bring in our local legislators and have a meeting maybe with the town council, RTM um and the board of ed and our local our our local legislators because this field thing is going to be a big thing um um out of all the all the other stuff as well. Um and also magnet themes um in terms of inter interdist magnet what does that mean? Do we get more money? you know, do the legislators need to um be um advocating for us um what have you. So, I'm going

165to add those um at some point in our agenda. Good. >> Anything else, folks? Matthew, >> visits to schools. I haven't had the chance to visit a single school this academic year. And every time I've asked about it, what I've heard is we're doing bus and such and when we're done with that, we'll be able to schedule visits. I'd really like to see opportunized at this. >> We'll look in January. >> Thank you. >> Um, we've been sending out all of the afterchool extracurriculars so that you can certainly go to those. I know you've been going to PTO meetings. >> Um, but we've really had a tight schedule. We've had we've had NAS and that wasn't a place for, you know, a walkth through at that time. So, >> Beverly, uh, on behalf of Graten

166Community Mails, I'd like to thank Ernie and um, probably Sam for allowing us to use Baines River Magnet School on Wednesday evenings to distribute meals to the community. So, thank you very much. Beverly, is that every Wednesday? >> Yes. Every Wednesday and every Monday at the Gruntton Senior Center. Oh, what? 5:55, excuse me. And uh every Wednesday at um Dra Fever. But it it really is um we really appreciate the school district allowing us to use their facility. It means a lot to us. >> It's great. and we give out like 170 between 125 to 170 meals on a Wednesday evening. So, thank you very much. >> Wow. >> People come and eat here, >> Preverly. >> No, it's uh we they drive up, we we ask them, "How many meals do you need?" They

167say 10. We get 10 together and we give them 10 meals. The next car comes up and that's how he goes. They don't come into the building. seen that and I was wondering what that was. Yeah. Okay, that's wonderful. Thank you. >> Can I add to that? Uh, at the Fry 55, well, between 55 and Fames River, it's between 350 and 400 meals a week. >> Wow, that's pretty amazing. >> At Fry 55, you can eat in the area where we can recently. >> Okay, thank you. If we're hearing no more communications, I'm going to make a motion that the board of ed goes into executive session. Um with uh the in the motion, I'm going to ask that Lori Leine, Ken Knight, and Susan Austin um join us in executive and Phil, excuse me,

168um into executive uh executive session. Can I have a second to that? >> I'll second it. >> Any discussion? Hearing none. Um, all those in favor of going into executive session with the people um I just mentioned, please say I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion has carried. Mark, can you throw us in >> into a breakout room? >> I can. >> Kim, >> thank you. >> Yes, Jay. >> Aren't we supposed to announce? Maybe I missed it. I'm sorry. Aren't we supposed to announce the reason we're going in? >> Yes, we did. Um Jay, thank you. I'm sorry. And the reason why we're going into executive session is for the um purposes of um of approving um discussion of the contract uh for the administrators. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jay. >> Good night. Thank

169you. Are we back? >> Yes, >> some of us are. >> Yeah, some of us are. I'm not sure if I'm even here anymore, but >> I'm I'm here. >> I'm here. Sorry, I was muted and I was not aware. So, the motion >> who who read the motion, Kim? I I'm just starting to I'm trying to uh to approve the ratification of the association of Garten schools administrator u administrators AGSA contract for the period of July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2027. Can I have a second to that? >> Second. Is there is there any conversation discussion hearing? None. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor to approve the ratification of the um AGSA contract for the period of July 1st, 2023 to June 30th, 2027. Please say I. >>

170I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That motion is carried. Guys, good work. >> Motion to adjurnn. I have a motion for adjourn on the on the table. All uh can I have a second? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> Oppos. >> I'd like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year. >> Happy holiday.