1-17-23 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening everyone. Um, today continues to be January 17th and it's 7 o'clock and I am calling to order the Graten Board of Education special meeting um, which is uh, for um, continued review of the superintendent's budget. Um, at this point, um, Susan, I will I will pass the baton, um, to you so that you can kind of guide us, um, in the work ahead of us tonight. So, tonight's deep dive is really around special education um, and support services um, which Denise Doolittle and Nadine Mlin are on to to give you information. But I just wanted to also say there's um a place in there for high school completion and adult ed. And I see Melissa Manzion who happens to be one of the principles of that program and you know directors of that

002program. I don't know if she can say if she's ready to go and would like to go first so that then we can go through special education kind of uninterrupted. So, you're talking about going down to where? >> High school completion adult ed. >> Um, do people um do the board members um just by like a show of hands, do you approve of just moving an agenda topic up more higher? >> Thank you. >> All right. >> And Melissa just said she's here >> and can take us. Those are the pages 556 through 559. I'll uh I'll put them up um and um and like we've done in the past, I'll put them up uh go through it a little bit and then we'll take it down so uh you can see everybody and um

003ask the questions. Uh so this is uh 5- uh 5-56. This is uh function 1310 high school completion. Um there is no changes from the prior year. I'll go down to 5-57 and these are the uh the dollar figures. Um and you see that there are is no change in salaries or benefits. Uh but then some uh adjustments made under um expenses. Uh let's see. Looks like a decrease in classroom supplies but an increase in instructional equipment for $3,000. Overall for this uh for this section, it's actually a decrease of 1588 or 1.6%. >> And this is really this is the portion that's paid for through the operations funds. There are grants that come in to help support adult education as well. >> Um but this is the portion that the board of ed pays

004for. Yes, that's correct. >> Melissa, how's it going this year? How how's your enrollment doing? >> So, enrollment started off very low. Um, we started late. My my co-director, Michelle McCresky, and I got a late start. Um, but we picked up a few kids along the way. U, we're always we're trying to increase our advertising. Um, I'd like to send out some flyers to maybe the elementary schools closest to the subbase and just to attract the parents, not the kids of course, just the world. Just looking to get the parents to come join us here at the high school. >> Well, I have to say when I've been out and about in the community, I've had people who've been interested in jobs in Graten, but need to get their GED. Okay. So, I've encouraged them

005to look into adult ed because it's a wonderful resource for them and it could be something that could also bring about a job. So, absolutely there are folks who are interested in that. So, I think we just have to get the word out. >> Okay, good. So, I will work on that. I'll put that down in my notes. >> Yep. So, we have we have a partnership with New London Adult Ed who comes in and takes care of the GED and the ESL classes and the uh Americans um Americanization course. Um, and they also offer some enrichment courses, which I kind of would love to be able to do that here at Grten. I know that's we're we're just we're trying to get our hands on the diploma program first and then maybe Michelle and

006I can branch off and offer some enrichment courses. >> But I know that our that Graten um citizens can also participate in all the enrichment that's happening in New London and elsewhere. There's a wonderful catalog that comes out every year. >> Yes, it's >> so it comes to everybody's mailbox, so pay attention. And there might be something just right. >> You should have just gotten it like the last couple of weeks. You would have gotten it in your mailbox. And there's some great stuff from um like art like knitting that the ladies here have a fantastic time. I like to sit in and join them a couple times. There's a lot of artsy stuff. There's financial advisement. Good good stuff is offered. So, you know, if you have a free night, come on down. It's

007a lot of fun here. Keep it nice and loose. >> And it's a great opportunity. Um the adult ed program actually has 17 year olds and older kids who want to complete their high school diploma and they walk at graduation with our Fitch High School students. So it's sometimes a good alternative way to get their education to get their diploma from Fitch High School. And so we encourage them should they need to work for instance um during the day and then they can work, you know, do the program at night >> and they actually get some credit for their daytime um work that they do. And we have a we have a graduate who just finished his last course tonight. So uh we have one more. So add that to our list. So >> that's

008good news, >> Liz. Thank you. Um, I was just wondering how many students do you currently have enrolled in this right now? >> Um, we have five in the diploma program. >> Five in the diploma program. Um, is this the program that used to meet at Westside? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, this ran the whole gambit of all the different core courses and this is the the thing for that you can get. You have to have the 24 credits in order to graduate. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. And um this is just a a one for Ken. Ken on seven line 730 it says replace of instructional equipment was $3,000 but the year prior it says zero. How is that a 0% increase? We I think we had this um didn't we have this discussion

009last week? >> Yeah, but you're right. It's it's not zero. It's it's it's some irrational number. Uh we will make a correction so it doesn't show up as zero. >> Okay. So, I just was wondering if that was still >> Sorry if I'm I'm beating a dead horse. >> I've got it. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> I'm gonna recognize Dean and then Rita. >> Thank you. Uh let me lower my hand first before I forget. So >> then I can't find you. Okay, there you are. >> All right. So do we have a handle? I mean this has been going on for eons which is always a segment of the population that never graduates for one reason or another and then is able to desires regrets etc. comes back and tries

010to finish up. Um do we have an idea um do we have any stats on for example in Grten just what percentage of the adult population is that has not been able to graduate with a house high school diploma and could benefit from a program like this. >> I can get those stats for you. I don't have them off the top of my head tonight, but I can get them for you >> because I I mean I ask out of curiosity because I'm sure that within that group there is a good chunk that really doesn't care. They're they're doing whatever they're doing in life and don't feel the need for it and there's another chunk that would like to never gets around to it. There's another chunk that actually does something about it. But I'm

011sort of curious to you know what our population looks like. Thank you. >> Thank you. Typically we have about 12 to 17 students graduating from the program each year. Um just varying. I think through COVID we might have had a more difficult time getting kids back. But certainly I think through working with Rebecca Beas with communication Melissa I think you guys have already done some of that. we can really spread the word and I think getting out to the community, getting out to, you know, the Navy side of town and, you know, Brford Manor and some of those other areas that we can really make sure that our community members know what what they could, you know, achieve through this program. >> I have one followup now that you bring that up. I'm thinking of

012I'm thinking of adults and you keep mentioning kids and I understand, you know, what's a 17-y old, what's an 18-y old, >> right? My question now is, do we know how many people drop out of high school? How many kids drop out of high school? There's always somebody that does. So, how many are there? >> I I don't have that number. I can go work with our counseling department tomorrow and try to get a number for you. >> Yeah. And also as important is why do they drop out? It could be just because they can. Some kids just don't like school. Others have other problems going on. >> Thank you, >> Rita. You're muted. >> Okay. So, my qu I have two two quick questions. I I've taught in this program for many years when

013it was at Pitch High School. And with five students enrolled, are you still employing 12 plus part-time staff members or does that sort of fluctuate by the um amount of students you have in the program? >> That will fluctuate based on the number of students we have. Um there were I think as many as 12 teachers before um Michelle and I came on board. Um, I think COVID took a it hit the program very hard. We've been reaching out to our students through phone calls, through mail and email and cell phone numbers, whatever we have. We're trying to find these kids. even on social media, we've been trying to like hunt them down um and inviting them to come back because if we lose them after 90 days, it's kind of like we never had

014them as a student and we have to start all over again in um those gains, those measurable gains that the kids have to show to um to reflect upon our program. So, we are trying to find everybody. Um it's not easy. I don't know where they go. Sometimes I guess they just, you know, you fall off the the school wagon and you just don't want to get back on. It's hard. It's it's a >> And my other question is, Julie, do you still have students um from Ledger that are enrolled in the program? >> Um we only have in the diploma program, we only have Graten students, but there could be some Ledard students enrolled in the GED program. I can find out for you. Ledger used to be able to enroll also in the

015Graten diploma program at one time because they did they they didn't have one. So they used to come to Grten. I don't know if that's the case. And my other question is for Ken on this line item then adult education 124 is is that the staff that's the 42,000 that the increase from Ken is that on line 124. Is that where you're showing the staff? >> Yeah, that that that's the cost of the teachers. So, um, if we only have five students and we have fewer teachers right now, wouldn't that go down a little bit? Because it did go up from 2022 to 2023. >> Yeah. But on once we have a better idea of where that um um what that cost is going to be, uh we we'll update it. Uh at the time

016of this uh uh we published this in in December, we really we thought maybe there'd be more students coming in. Uh but it looks like uh that's not the case. So that that will probably go down. >> Okay. Well, there's the savings. Thank you. >> Um we do have registration coming up on the 24th and the 25th. So we've made a big push. We've hung flyers a lot of of places and by word of mouth. So we're hoping to get a a big turnout, >> right? >> Thank you. So share your share share the dates with your friends. I am going to recognize um Beverly and then Liz. >> Thank you, Kim. Um I was wondering if the the students in the credit diploma program, do they receive a Fitch High School diploma? >> Um

017yes, it's from uh Graten. I guess it is the students do walk with the Fitch um procession and I'm I'm not sure. I thought it was a Grten Public Schools diploma. >> I always thought it was a Fitch High School, but we can double check to make sure what the actual >> We can actually pull one out of the closet right now. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Liz. I just was wondering uh and um Melissa walked away. I was just wondering if transportation is an issue. is that have you found that transportation is a problem? And if that is a problem, is there something we could do about it? >> Um, it actually is a problem. A lot of our students say that because we're not on the bus line, there's really nothing that they

018can do to get here other than friends and family. Um, adult ed has released um an opportunity for us to create an account with Uber or Lyft um to be used for special emergency situations. Um, but our kids are more we need to get them more um I guess transportation just for on a longer term basis. So either I was thinking of calling the bus company and trying to lobby to have a a stop at the top of the hill here in front of Fitch High School. Um maybe just one stop to drop the students off at 5:00 and one to pick them up at 8:30. Or um maybe we can work out a deal with a um with Uber and or Lift. And then we've also talked about maybe the possibility of changing location

019of the adult ed back to someplace more centrally located. >> Thank you, Bev. >> Oh, I'm sorry. That was definitely my question. Would you think about changing the location um where the bus went by? Like things River Magnum School, the bus goes right by that school. So that would be a good location to go back to the old westside area and then a lot of students might be able to walk to that location also. >> Okay, thank you. I'll take notes on that. >> Or perhaps the community center. The only problem with themes is they have little tiny desks and little tiny chairs. >> Yeah. So, it might not really be a a really appropriate place for adults, but we can certainly um look into different locations and maybe survey our community. I mean, just

020to make them aware that it's there and what their needs are and what would make it even better for them. >> Um Michelle, my co-director, and I have started talking about other ways to increase enrollment. We thought we were just brainstorming possibly um doing some courses over the summer um satelliting our class locations at like like um Susan said the community center or the library just to make it a little bit more accessible. I don't know if this is doable, but just op you know options. And Michelle and I have not yet had a chance to circle back with the superintendent um or assistant superintendent just yet to speak about all our ideas. Yeah, I think um I think it would be important for the board to be kept a prize about because though I

021think five is is good because I'm glad that there's five people who are pursuing um um a better uh educational experiences for themselves. My concern is um uh it c you know to stay at five. How feasible is that? Um and so I think I I I don't know Susan, could we could we see if if the board can once they do their enrollment um and stuff whether we could see what the if we could have that information brought back to us. Thank you, >> Ken. It looks like there were two more pages. Did we get through um 558 and 559 yet? >> I haven't shown them yet. There's not much to them, but uh this is the um adult education tuition that we pay to um to New London. I'll put it up real

022quick. Um this is page 5-58. Um there are no FTEEs in this program. Um, and then, uh, down here in 5-59, uh, the cost, uh, for this program is 27,000, uh, this year and last year. Uh, we do have, uh, I think it's a 1% um, uh, cushion there in case they increase that uh, increase that rate. >> That would be good to see what attendance is for the GED and the EL folks. Um, also to see if the location I mean I think some of those courses even while they take place at Fitch there's other programs that take place in New London. So to find out really from that group how our attendance is and how that program is working >> as a followup. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. I'm on it. So,

023um, Rita and, um, Beverly, >> yeah, I I would like to know the number of students that are, um, enrolled because that that is quite a large amount of money that we're paying to New London, the for the GED and the ESL. But I also have a question that it says here that we received a partially paid state grant. I know it's by the number of usually by the number of students enrolled. So, if you could give us a figure for what you're receiving from the state for the grant and also it says it's paid directly to the town. So, the board doesn't really see that money, but we're paying it out of our budget. So, you know, that that's another thing when we speak to the town that, you know, we need we need

024to bring up >> and also I'd really like the figures on what how much is this um the state grant we're receiving that is going to the town. Thank you. >> I'll I'll get those numbers and provide those uh to Susan and Melissa and and she'll they'll forward them out to you. >> Thank you, >> Beverly. Um, Ken, is the 207,000 is that a flat cost or do how do they calculate how much we pay? >> That's that's a >> that's a flat amount that uh that we've paid. Uh uh it actually predates uh predates me. Um we we get an invoice for just that amount. >> So it doesn't go by the number of students that we have. So if we only had three students, we'd be paying the same $27,000. Okay. >> Also,

025Beverly, it's open to all community members from Graten to participate in any of the enrichment opportunities beyond the GED and beyond the EL. We certainly, you know, we are almost considered a bilingual district and have bilingual schools. So, we have many um family members that come in, you know, and enroll their students here that um are learning our English language. So, could really benefit from this. So, I think it's getting the word out, making sure it's accessible. There's a a lot of things we have to think about here. >> U Melissa, do they receive a pitch high school diploma? >> Oh, it says here, um, if you could see that. No, you can't. Says Bronten Public Schools adult education program. Um, I don't have one that actually has the diploma inside. that all the diplomas

026were mailed to students, but there's a photo of Fitch High School. I'm sorry you can't see this. So, it looks like it's a Fitch High School diploma. Yes. >> But that's not for GED students. That's only the diploma program. >> This is the diploma program, right? So, the five students in diploma program um is not part of that $27,000 um number that we're discussing. That's for the GED and the and the ESL. Both those two programs are flourishing. So I think >> that would be good to get those numbers too because that really does support our community besides the enrichment programs that people can participate if they knew about it and you know saw that but then again a lot of those are in New London so they'd have to have transportation to go. So

027that that was my other point when at one time I think around maybe about six years ago we switched to New London teaching the GED and the ESL. Before that, it was always Norwich um that provided we paid for the service. It' be interesting to see how much Norwich charges and then at at at the high school at Fitch, we we did the enrichment. The town of Grten, we had Italian, Spanish, there were a lot of different courses. I mean, at one time when we used to have auto mechanics and woodworking, we also did that there. Um and so it was with Park and Rex. So there's been a lot of changes. So I'd like to know how much the Norwich GED ESL program is in comparison to the New London. Also, thank you. >>

028Um I do attend a regional uh adult ed meeting with the the directors from Norwich, New London, and I think there's one other town uh maybe Stonington. I can I can ask. I don't know if they'll be willing to share that information, but I will try to get that number for you. >> No, no, Ken can get that. >> You don't have to get that. >> No, >> that's Ken's job. So, I'm actually sensing um as we continue to know our story um as a Graten School District, it really sounds to me that maybe it would be really good information for us to have an agenda topic sometime this spring about the adult education enrichment program and how it interfaces with the community and have a larger conversation about how do how does this get

029marketed, where should it be located? um and all those things. So, I am um So, Miss Joan, could you help remind me um that I would like to have that um as an agenda item coming up um after our budget stuff. Thank you. Any other question about adult ed? Melissa, it was >> Melissa, it was a pleasure to meet you. >> Thank you everyone. Have a great night. I've got all your questions. I will get you answers ASAP. >> Thank you for doing that. I think that brings us back now to special instruction which is 540 through 549. >> Exactly. Thank you, Susan. >> Here is 5-40 right here. Um, this is the uh the FTE page. Um, no change in FTEES from this year's budget. Um, and then we'll go down to the the

030dollars. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not speaking over you. Uh, Naen, am I? No, you're doing great, Ken. >> Thanks. Um, and then under uh the um uh the costs uh salaries and wages up 5.6%. This reflects competitive wage adjustment for our paras uh as well as a contractual uh increase for the teachers. uh uh employee benefits reflects the uh increase in uh group insurance uh as per um Anthem and then the uh expenses uh travel and supplies is unchanged from this year's budget. Total increase for this uh for this function 69,482 or 5.5%. if you wanted to orient them a little bit naen to that a quick question um where would be our contract services let's say with learn what what page of the budget would that be on for special education is that that's

031a whole separate page correct >> yep hi Rita I can see if I can find that. >> Well, I mean, you know, you can just let us know if we're going to get to it tonight or is it someplace else? >> We are. We're hoping to. >> We are then. No, then I'll just wait. Thank you. >> Sure. Naen, do you want to um tell the board a little bit about the preschool program and the goals of the program? >> Sure. So, our uh integrated preschool program um it's a program that is um comprised of a 50-50 ratio. 50% of our students um have um developmental delays and the other 50% are general education peer models. Um and each of our integrated preschool program classrooms um are comprised of an AM and a PM session.

032Um our program is accredited through um NAI which stands for the national um accreditation um of the education of young children which is a national accreditation. Um and our teachers they use the Connecticut early learning and developmental standards to guide instruction and they really plan very intentional learning experiences for each of their students. Um, at Mystic River, we do have what we've renamed um as the Early Otter program, which is the self-contained program for our um preschoolers who have significant developmental delays and need some more intensive um instructional support. Um, and we've shifted that to an AM and a PM session. Um, formerly it was just one class. Um, but to expand it to address the needs of our population, we've actually created an AM and a PM session for the self-contained program in preschool.

033We also have our early childhood assessment team, um, otherwise known as ECAT. Um, they are located this year at Mary Morrison. Um, and that is comprised of a speech and language pathologist and a special education teacher. And so they are responsible for doing all of the evaluations um to determine eligibility for any of our new incoming preschool students with developmental delays or other disabilities. >> There any questions? >> I know that Matthew has had his hand raised before Nadine you started to talk. So I am going to recognize Matthew um and then Beverly if that's okay. >> Thank thank you Kim. Um, again, I'm going to display my ignorance. Uh, as I look at the sheet, uh, 5-40, we seem to have no certified teachers at uh, Barnum, Konaski, or Northeast. And we seem to

034have no uh, teacher aids at Barnum, Konoski, Northeast. And I'm wondering is that because we group the kids who need special education in a limited number of places? I guess I was expecting to see uh part FTEES everywhere. >> Thank you, Matthew. Um our preschool programs are located at Mystic River Magnet School and Themes uh Magnet Thames River Magnet School. Um, so we actually we um we used to have uh preschool programs located in about four of our elementary schools and we've reduced that to really and truly just um help with um teacher collaboration. They're able to actually collaborate more uh being um in fewer schools. Um and it also helps with our transportation as well. >> So we don't have any three to five year olds. Yep. No problem. Beverly, >> thank you. Kim,

035um, the two FTEEs at Mary Morrison that doing the early childhood assessment school. >> Yeah. >> How many assessments do they do a day? >> So, in terms of how many they actually do per day, I don't have that that actual number quantified, but they do many evaluations. And in addition to the evaluations, they have to write a report. They also have to interface with uh birth to three. Um they also meet with parents and they you know provide parents with um a lot of support transitioning their their young one from you know birth to three into the public school system. So um the evaluations are really just one portion of their job. Um our speech and language pathologist she also has a case load of students that she services on Thursdays. Um, so I

036don't have exactly how many students that they evaluate per day, but um, they do quite a few. >> Okay. I just wanted to see what their other duties were instead of just um, doing early childhood assessment. I thought they were just like accessing the students and saying, "Okay, this one needs speech." But if they're doing other things beside that, then that explains why we need two FTEEs. >> Yes, >> Beverly. Beverly, I tried to include a little write up on them actually right when we got back from break um in the board notes. I think it was a couple weeks ago. Um so you can always look back there, too. And I I worked with them to sort of put that together to try to raise awareness about what they do. >> Hey, thank you,

037>> Rita. I was just gonna I was just going to say, Beverly, they also consult with area um preschool programs to troubleshoot and provide strategies for students who might be struggling. >> Yeah. >> Is that a paid service, Denise? >> Um ECAT consults with them. It's part of their SRVI process before students are referred for an evaluation. They'll go out and give some strategies to to support the student in that, you know, natural setting. And and one thing I think board members should be aware of is when a a child is identified in birth to three, as soon as they turn three, they enter the public school, no matter what time of the year it is. Is that correct? >> Yes, that that is correct, Rita. It's a rolling enrollment. So students are coming in,

038you know, all throughout the year. >> Now, does that change then with the typical peers? If you have a student that comes in, then do you contact like another typical peer and bring them in on board or are they already established in other preschool programs? Yeah. So, we do periodic screenings throughout the school year when we see our peer um numbers, you know, if they've gotten lower, you know, due to a move or what have you, or if we just want to really beef up our numbers, um we will um schedule some periodic screenings throughout the school year for our model pairs. >> Model. Thank you. >> Sure. >> I think I should know this nine, but I don't. How many students in the class do you have for the preschool programs? >> Yeah, so

039for our integrated preschool program, we have the capacity to um seat up to 192 students. So if you think of one integrated preschool classroom teacher's case load, for lack of a better word, in her AM session, she can have up to 16 students. So that's eight students um you know with a developmental delay and eight model peer students making it 16 total. So and then in the PM session she can also have 16 students. So each teacher can have up to 32 students each and we have six integrated preschool classrooms. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Any other questions? Naen, it is such a pleasure to see you. >> Likewise. >> Thank you for doing all the good work that you do for um our district. >> Absolutely. It's a pleasure. I wanted to also

040highlight just one other thing and I know it's something that Susan has mentioned before um that our early childhood social worker the addition of that position has been um really revolutionary in terms of the support that's being provided to our you know 3 to 5year-old students. In addition to that our BCBA um has really um been a stabilizing force in our self-contained early honors program. So I just wanted to to highlight those supports as well. Thank you. And I think that early childhood um social worker also intervenes at the K level as well which I think coming back after COVID we've had some you know a lot of work to do and she's been there and has also led our SEAL programs as well throughout the district. So um it's been really um proactive. >>

041Thank you Susan. Just also for the board to know, I kind of hang out in early childhood circles and Naen always is spoken very highly of and so I'm I'm proud to be um someone who uh thinks about the district a lot and uh to say they have really good taste. So once again, Amy, thank you for the the work that you do. >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Knight, where where do we go next? We're going to page 5-42. This is function 1210, a special education summer school. Uh this is 5-42. [Music] And uh down on 5-43, uh these are the costs. It's mostly uh salaries. Um I probably should let um Denise um take it from here. Thank you, Ken. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um, uh, summer, uh, programming for

042students with disabilities is called extended school year, and we had, um, have seen quite an increase in our extended school year referrals, I think, pretty much um, as a result of the pandemic. So, last year we had 110 students. This year we had 141. Um the program is at Mystic River and um in the budget we had um program we had budgeted for $20,000 and um we felt that it was very important that um we have adequate funding for the program. So you can see that we've increased the program in terms of the board's contribution to 47, um869. Uh the balance of the program is funded through the idea grant. Um the other reason why we increased the board's contribution is for the past two years we've received stipens from the Connecticut State Department of

043Ed um in the amounts of 20,000 and then 25,000 last year and uh we don't anticipate those to continue. They were related to the um the ARP esser grants. Any questions on extended school year? Rita, >> if if there's any way that you could reduce that number that you've added on the extra 27,869 and bring that down, I think that would be very helpful because I do know that the the program is funded mostly by the disabilities, you know, the IDEIDA grant and um it just seems that we we need to do all we can to find little reductions in our budget. if if possible. Thank you. >> Sure. So, the grant does not cover all of the costs of the um of the program. The grants are meant to supplement, not supplant. And these

044are the most disabled students in the district that attend. So, it requires a high very high studentto staff ratio. A as well as specialized staff in um OT, PT, and speech. I I just think it would be good than if it was a little more clarified. It's just such a lump sum and 139 point um 3% it just says summer school. So maybe you could elaborate a little bit like are we paying for more aids? Is that you know it it's just such a lump sum there that um it doesn't really have a description for what that increase is. So maybe you could include that somehow. >> We could certainly do that. >> Yeah, I think that I think to Rita's point, I think that that makes a lot of sense. Um Denise is just

045to kind of talk about what does that X amount of dollars represent? That would be helpful. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Um U Matthew, you took your hand down, so I'm assuming you you don't have the question or that got answered. Um, so I am going to >> I I was just I was just going to echo pretty much what you said. I remembered last week when we talked about summer school, we realized that we needed to beef up our narrative and I think we have a great narrative to speak about. Let's share it so that we can help the RTM and the council understand. >> Thank you Beverly. >> Hi Denise. Um what is the student to staff ratio? You said do you know? >> Yeah that well you know the studentto staff

046ratio sometimes is 1 one or 2:1. >> Okay. >> Um we have small class sizes. By that I mean 10 to 12 and many of the students either have a 1 one or they share a para educator. Um so it it is a high studentto staff ratio. Again, these are students with pretty significant disabilities that really require that um one-to-one support, individual instruction, um opportunities to practice skills, um and um and related services like OTP, speech, and behavioral support from our BCBA. >> How much do we get from grant funding? Do you know? Last year it was 25,000 and the year before it was 20,000. >> Okay. So it's going up some. >> It did. It did. It depended, I think, on the amount that the state had to allocate to each district. They were

047grant many grant applications that we applied for for enrichment opportunities over the summer related to the the learning loss from the pandemic, but we don't anticipate that to continue. >> Okay. And how many weeks do they go to the extended schooly year program? >> Um, we had about 141 students come for the four-week program and we had 51 students stay on for an additional twoeek intensive program. So their their program was six weeks. >> Thank you, Denise. >> You're welcome. >> Rita. Yeah. Denise, could you um when we redo this page, could you actually show how many students like what you just told us um you know, how many really how many FTEEs are really involved in this program? How many how many aids do we have? How many students? It's just it looks like

048it's a very small amount of money that we're paying like 31,000 and it's so much more than that because of the idea grant. So it it just looks like oh well we have hardly have a program even though the narrative says you know there are students involved in this. It it only says 110. You're saying it was 141 last year. So maybe we can improve on that. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Yep. >> Beverly, do you have another question? >> No, I don't. >> Okay. Any other questions for Denise on the extended day summer program? And you think I couldn't be taught Denise? I can actually call it like you told me to. I love it when I can do that. Mr. Knight, where are we traveling to next? >> We're traveling to 5-44. This is

049function 1220 other special instruction. I will I'll hand it over to Denise. >> Sure. This is the ELLL staffing. So, um, Phil, I don't know if you want to, um, supplement, uh, but I know that we have, um, we have two teachers in the board's budget and then one teacher paid for out of title three. Bill, did you want to add to that at all? >> No, I just I just wanted to make sure Yeah, sure. I I just want to make sure people understood, there are three teachers. two are like as Denise was saying are funded by this budget, one by uh um title three um and also the supplies and professional development uh for this group are funded by that grant as well. So those are not um uh reflected >> and I

050believe one is at the elementary level, one is at the middle school level and one is assigned to the high school level. >> Right. the uh the board can see the breakdown um between uh the elementary buildings and then um yeah, one at Graten Middle, one at one at Fitch. >> I think Beverly, do you have a question? >> Oh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Denise. >> That's okay. >> Denise, what is Title Three funding? I never heard of that funding before. Um, I'll let Susan answer that, but I think Susan, is that the enrichment grant? >> No, it's it's specific to English language or multil- language learners. So, that really is always been a grant that we really invest in our, you know, multil- language learners. And it's important that the board does assume

051some cost to that. I know I've been in prior districts where boards have not and it's caused a problem. So, it's really important, especially to a community like ours that is nearly considered a a district-wide bilingual district because of the number of Spanish-sp speakaking families that we have. So, having a certified staff member who is Tissaw trained and bilingual is really important to us at each of the levels. But one of the things you might have noticed too is the number of tutors. So, we have highly trained, qualified tutors, some of them retired teachers um who are able to be kind of boots on the ground um with the teachers making sure that services are provided to our students at the middle school and high school. they actually have a a a course that they

052go to especially the native speakers who first come to our country so that they get um you know instruction in English as well as support in their classrooms um within the courses they're taking and those tutors are really helpful in providing those those services as well. >> Susan, are there no tutors at the middle school? Am I reading that right or wrong? No, there should be tutors at the middle school as well. >> I don't know, Ken, could we have been paying for them in a different area? We do have that title three. Um, so we sometimes use title funds to help support that. >> We do uh we have and what gets paid out of this um um um section is tutors, seven and a half or 7.5 and that's districtwide that kind of

053spread throughout the district. So we can we can get you the actual numbers at each of the levels. Okay. >> But it's sometimes we share a tutor between a couple buildings. And I know Denise and I and Phil are always looking at the case loads like we do with special education throughout the year. So if we need to make adjustments with kids moving in and out of district, we do that so that um schools are really covered with support that they need dependent on their case loads. And also we do those lost links assessments so that we know the level that kids are moving into um over time after they're here and getting this valuable instruction. So that's important too. So that kids who are lost links levels one and two for instance may need

054more support depth definitely need more support and as they get to levels four and five they're ready to kind of launch. So we we are monitoring that all the time. >> Laura put in the chat that there are two tutors at Vot Middle School but they're paid from a different funding. That's what you're saying, right? I have to get back to you on that. >> Okay. >> Ken and I on that we've identified where where it's all being paid. >> Okay. >> And maybe that should go into the narrative because as Beverly was pointing out like then it looks like we don't have any support in the middle school. So that would be kind of cool for that to be put there. I'm going to recognize Liz and then Rita. >> Thanks Kim. Um Susan

055in this these tutors these um certified staff here that are working with for ELLL um are they just primarily for Spanish speakers because we have had an increase in other languages as well and I'm concerned that their needs are not being met as as much as those who are Spanish speakers. So can you address that as they're people who speak Chinese? >> That's absolutely not true. more of our population designated who are Spanish speaking. So that's why we get the title of being bilingual. >> Okay. >> However, a T-OL trained teacher is equipped to be able to teach children who have multiple languages. >> Okay. >> And a bilingual teacher is one who really has the bilingual component. And I think in each of our situations, it happens to be Spanish since our bilingual classification

056is in Spanish. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that we're addressing the needs of those students who are not Spanish speakers but maybe you know >> whatever other language there but I just wanted to make sure that that was being addressed. Thank you. >> That's absolutely very important. You're right. Thank you for bringing that up. >> Rita, >> my um my question is about line 121 the substitute special education. And again, you're going to take away that TEM, right? Um can >> correct. Yep. >> Um the special ed, it doesn't seem like very much money. So my question is when a parah is out, we have a tutor is out. Do we get a substitute for them? What happens to those students? because obviously maybe this $2,000 you have budgeted for special ed

057subteers would be for the two full-time staff members, but what happens when when tutors I mean we pay such an enormous amount of money for our tutors. Do they get a substitute? >> Um so so a substitute it would show up uh for paris or tutors under the same par or tutor line. We don't have a separate substitute par line uh or or substitute tutor line. >> Well, I mean it's just such a small amount of money compared to our other you know when we look at the high school or or the elementary schools we're pay they're you know paying for the substitutes like it's just so much more either that or nobody's ever out with these teachers. I don't know. And also, you know, in in 2122 it was 720 like almost, you know,

058quite a bit more and then it sort of went down by not half but twothirds. So I was just curious where that big drop came from. Do we have fewer tutors? >> Um so we're we're utilizing uh more tutors um to um um when when we don't have enough Paris. So, we would use a tutor in their place. Uh, so that might that that's causing some of that increase, I believe. >> Oh, but I do want to make sure that if a tutor is out that they they're we could hopefully get a substitute in there. Otherwise, these students would go back to a classroom and not even understand what's going on. you know, if the tutor doesn't show up or it just there just doesn't seem to be it's it doesn't seem right the amount

059that we're paying for substitutes here. >> I think Phil and I should reach out to the principles to get a more accurate response, Freda, before we speak. So, let us talk to the principles. They really would know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? hearing none. 10. Where do we travel next? 5-46 function 1230, special education. Um, and I will hand it over to Denise. >> Thank you, Ken. Uh so this is the line where our certified special education teachers are budgeted and these are the teachers that provide the differentiation curriculum modifications um for students with disabilities in a variety of settings. Could be the general ed classroom, could be a resource room um or could be um a classroom where students with more intense needs um receive most of their instruction. Uh you

060can see on the column for 23 24 that um there is a change there is a plus 1.7 uh for the high school and the 1.0 O is a resource teacher uh that was uh hired through the RPA grant which is going away in June. And due to the case loads at the high school which are between 17 and 19 um we really need to continue that position so that the case loads are equitable and consistent across all of our teachers. Um so that's the 1.0 0 edition and then the 7 is uh comprised of two teachers. Um one is a teacher who um has been moved from central office uh up to the high school to um support uh students with more significant needs in our uh autism and multiple disabilities program. We've had

061an increase in enrollment in that program and instead of one classroom we now have two. So that was a change from a remedial program at central office uh to the high school. And then the point two is a change um in terms of our transition academy teacher. Um that teacher also um is certified to work with students who are visually impaired. And next year we will have her fulltime in the transition academy and we will be contracting with uh board of ed services for the blind which is a state agency that provides services to students who are blind free of charge. Um so that's the increase of the 1.7 at the high school. All the other FTEES remain the same. Uh and in terms of the parah educators at the bottom of the of the

062chart we have um 157 there's no change next year um these are the parah educators that are supporting our students and our teachers and um are working with students with more significant needs and mainly in the self-contained clo classrooms but some of them in the resource model as well. Um there's an additional 44 paras that are funded through the IDEIDA grant. And if you look down below at the um at the budget on page 5-47 uh you can see um in terms of line 102 special ed certified um there is an increase of 193,000 and that is the 1.7 uh FTE increase as well as the contractual increase uh through the the new contract of the GA. And then for line 131 you can see there is an increase also uh for the parah educators

063and again that is to accommodate that competitive wage adjustment. Um and then down below you can see line 561. That is a vocational skills tuition line and that is where we budget for uh the students who attend the ledger vocational agricultural program as well as some of our students who are juniors or seniors in high school or between 18 and 22 and require um supported employment. some of the companies, one in particular that we work with, Sharp Training. Um, and you can see that um there is no increase to that account. Um, and then uh 588 we did remove um uh some funds we had for field trips because uh all of our field trips occur through the school site budget. Uh they're all aligned to the curriculum. So those field trips are really accounted

064for at the building level. And then lastly, we do have funds in line 607 uh pupil tests. These are individual tests that are administered to students either to find out if they're eligible for services initially or we're required to re-evaluate children every three years to see if they've made growth or if they still require services. Um, and there's, uh, quite a few new additions of assessments. Um, there's quite a few assessments that address truency, anxiety, um, school phobia. Um, and our psychologists and teachers are always looking um, to expand their repertoire of assessments. Um, actually, I'm sorry, this isn't the psychological. This would be more um, in the area of dyslexia. So, we've been adding um additional assessments that evaluate students in the areas of reading comprehension, um word ID, written language, phmic awareness, and

065fluency. Um because dyslexia uh several years ago became a new disability in Connecticut in terms of standing alone. So, we have increased um our testing and we also have supplies for each of our teachers. So, they get a certain amount of money to purchase materials that meet the needs of their students. Um, and we we've kept those funds the same, but I just wanted to be able to explain them to you in case you were wondering uh what they're used for. >> Denise, thank you. I'm going to recognize Rita. >> Denise, um, I have two questions. One is for Denise, one is for Ken. My question Denise is, do you still contract with Seabird for the 18 to 21 year old population? >> We have not because we found that the services in our program,

066the transition academy at central office are very similar to the services that Seabird uh provides. But we do have students when they age out at age 22, they transition to Seabird at that point. >> Okay. And then my question, Ken, in online one and 120, do we really need to have the word regular there? Because this is just special education. So the are not regular subteers because you really have it sort of zeroed out. You had something in there, but then it's sort of zeroed out. We didn't you didn't not carrying it forward. >> Yeah, I'll address that. special ed. I mean, maybe we could just take out the regular ed part of it. >> All right, we'll do >> Thank you. >> Y >> Beverly, >> Denise, um you said the um the teacher

067of the blind, you're no longer going to use. You're going to go with the state department. >> Yeah. >> Services. Um, do they come into the school to work with the student? How does that work with the state? >> They do. They do. They have um they have teachers that they assign uh regionally and um we've worked with them before. Um and we're we're going to work with them again. Um last year we had a young lady move in. She was a military um student uh from a military family and she learned Braille. She works with braille and that's a very timeintensive um uh instruction. So we had to um have have they're called board of ed services for the blind uh provide um you know more intensive instruction to help her with her braille.

068Um and they also work with one of our preschool students. So next year they will um we don't have a large case load right now. Our transition teacher is consulting on two students and we have one referral. So, it is a small case load, but you just don't know. We could have a student move in who does use Braille and that that is more intensive. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Hearing none. Ken, where do we travel? >> We are going to 5-48. 5-48. This is function uh 1250. Um the teacher of the blind that we were talking about before. I'll let Denise uh take it from here. >> Sure. So, we have a teacher in our transition academy um who had a partner that was there to relieve her when she would work

069on her with her students of the blind on her case load. And um that teacher, as I just alluded to, has now moved to the high school due to increase in enrollment. Um so, we are looking to eliminate the point. to uh FTE in her job description and have her full-time in the transition program and have board of ed services service these students. So this is a reduction and the um services will be assumed by the state agency. So the expenses on the next page will go away but we have a 100% profit. Let's keep that one highlighted. >> Sorry. >> See, it's always good to find those state resources that work and are free of charge. We'll keep our eyes open for those. >> All right, Mr. Ken, where do we travel to next?

070>> 5-54. This is function 1280. Uh, hearing impaired. Oops, I went too far. Oh, I went didn't go far enough. There we go. Um, Denise, did you want to go from here or do you want me? >> Sure. So, um this is uh one teacher that is um in the board's budget and she is a teacher of the deaf. Um and she has a case load throughout the district. She's considered an itinerant teacher. Um she works with te with teams to help again modify instruction for students who are deaf or heart of hearing. Um a big part of her job is supporting their equipment. Um, a lot of the most of the equipment we're using now for amplification is Bluetooth enabled. Um, so there's quite a bit of um, very delicate, expensive equipment that our

071teacher of the deaf is very conscientious about. Uh, making sure that we have nice soft packages for those um, boots and um, and microphones and equipment to be stored in. and um and making sure that when they travel from classroom to classroom that they're not damaged. So, she does a phenomenal job and um and we're very lucky to have her and in addition to servicing her case load, she um teaches uh several courses at the high school for American Sign Language. Um and then uh in terms of the expenses associated with this position um we did reduce the travel because um some of her students are clustered in just a few schools. Majority are clustered at high school middle school and we know that now that's a connected campus. So that has decreased travel. Um

072there is still some travel. Um, but we were able to cut it in half, especially because we have um f only five elementary schools that she's traveling to. And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Denise, to interrupt you. Um, she also travels to um some of the New London magnet schools as well. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you, Naen. Um and then um at uh for line 735, we do have funds in there for the equipment because sometimes uh the equipment, the amplification equipment does uh get damaged and it needs to be replaced. Um that would be the boots that go on hearing aids um and the speakers um that the teachers talk in, the microphones and the receivers. Um and we do have some towers as well for students who don't have hearing aids but

073need amplification in the classroom. So there are times when that equipment needs to be replaced or repaired and we we kept that the same. Any questions? >> All right. Next. >> All right. Um >> so guys, it looks like we are almost done. We have another huge chunk around support services. I know that it's 806. Um but I'm just um I'm feeling like we've got Denise and Naen here. So, let's kind of keep on cracking with this um with uh these line items and um I hope that everyone's okay with that. Okay, let's go. >> 5-64. This is uh function 21101 support services special education uh central office. >> Okay. Thank you Ken. Um so this is the um area where uh my position is budgeted the director of pupil services. Uh we also have

074um our supervisors of which Naen is one. We have uh one supervisor Miss Mlin who oversees early childhood education. We have another supervisor Mrs. Vaness who works very closely with our um academy behavioral programs and then we have another supervisor Miss Routollo who works uh primarily at the high school level in our alternative program. All four of us also have case loads of students out of district. Nine primarily has um the elementary school children at regional multicultural, the friendship school and the new London magnets as well as some students placed out of district. Um Katie, our um supervisor of the academy has some students placed at the Bradley School and uh learn Ocean Avenue learning students uh who have more s whose behaviors significantly impact their learning. Um and Amy also has a case load

075of students at New London Science and Tech, Ledger Vogue, um Sharp Training, um and several other school marine science magnet. And then my case load is um is is pretty much um you know I I I don't know how it's divided but I have about 11 students um at um High Road School, River Street School um various um uh programs throughout the state. And we also have our um support staff. We have two admin assistants uh that support really the district in terms of uh supporting teachers with um IEPs and 504 plans, checking them to be sure they're in compliance and managing our records. Um and then uh the supervisors have a secretary who supports them in terms of scheduling their meetings. Um and uh she really is in charge of records when students move

076in or students leave. she makes sure that those schools receive the records they need to implement those special programs. Um, >> can I just do a shout out for those assistants because during this year where we took on CT saids and I don't know that the state department was really ready to get that rocking and rolling because they had a problem with the pilot last year. These people have been instrumental in supporting our teachers boots on the ground every day in so many ways. So they have really taken on the training and the learning of CT sets with Denise and um you know our supervisors so that they can then support our schools and our teachers in the schools. So I just can't say enough this year has been a real challenge and I certainly

077appreciate the whole team for what they've taken on. I wish it wasn't so difficult for them. >> Thank you. I can't believe I forgot to say that. Jeez. Um, so you'll see lastly uh the addition of our board certified behavior analyst. Um, so I wanted to explain to the board that um, we have always contracted with learn uh, for board certified behavior analysts and um, we have had we have one and a half. So we have a full-time BCBA and then a part-time BCBA from learn. And um when we came back, you know, from COVID, we were seeing a lot of students re-entering school and who weren't in school, uh we're seeing a big learning loss and we're also seeing students enroll with more significant disabilities. Um, we'll talk about it a little bit when

078we talk about OT, but a lot of our students have spent a lot of time on screens and electronic devices and haven't had a lot of interaction, play, um, coloring, puzzles, things like that that you know, taking their turns, waiting their turn. Um, so we've seen an increase in social emotional learning, which I think the whole state and the country has. Um, so we really have wanted for a long time to have our own board certified behavior analyst and we did a um a survey of our neighboring districts and found out that we were actually um understaffed in relation to our population. So our neighboring partners had more um staff than we did. So, we went ahead and we added um a BCBA for the district in our ARP IDEIDA grant and we are now

079at a level of staffing that is appropriate based on our student needs and it makes us um commensurate with our our regional neighbors. Um and I just want to explain to you um that what a board certified behavior analyst does. Um this is someone who is a master's level um professional and who really understands behavioral science and helps teams not just teams of students with autism spectrum disorders but teams of students whose behavior is severely impacting their learning and other positive behavior interventions have not been effective. Um so what this position does is they kind of um work with the team there. It's a very collaborative position to identify the behaviors that are interfering. Um they then identify the function of the behavior. What do they think is driving this behavior? What is it that

080the student is seeking? Um or what are they avoiding? Um and then they work with us to develop strategies and interventions that will address that need, that function in a positive way so that we can replace the atypical behaviors with more socially appropriate behaviors. And the reason why this is such a special science to me is because behavior doesn't change right away. Um, some of these behaviors are are longstanding behaviors and some of these behaviors have been inadvertently reinforced. So, the BCBA brings in a different lens in terms of looking at the environment and how we can structure and shape that environment as well as how we can all respond consistently so that the student is getting the same response from all of the team members in order to help change those behaviors or shape

081those behaviors. Um they also work with us to design data collection uh methodologies so that we can see if the behavior is improving at least you know data wise. Um and they analyze the data and um they develop the overall plan called a behavior intervention plan. Um, so they provide staff training, modeling, uh, parent intervention, parent communication, and when we have a really tough case and we're looking like, gee, you know, do we maybe need to outplace this student, this is a person that can come in and give a level of expertise that is very reassuring to parents and and I will say to to school teams as well. Um so it is um it it is very uh beneficial that we have our own behavior analyst. Um these people are becoming this position is

082becoming more popular in the world of public schools. It used to be a position you would see in a private clinic. Uh but within the past 10 years they've become more mainstream in public schools. And certainly with the increase in social emotional learning that we're seeing among our students um it is a very very um important position and we've just been so fortunate that the individual that we've hired um is number one extremely knowledgeable but number two has great interpersonal skills and teams just really enjoy working with him. So we very much would like to retain this position. Um it is an 11-month position. He works the whole school year and he works for the whole six weeks of summer school. So I I feel that you know we get a high level of um

083of return on our investment. Just to add to our story in building these really dynamic programs, whether we're talking about the academy program that hosts a highly certified trained special educator with a social worker or the ABA program or having a resource like the BCBA. That's what enables us to keep our own students in our own district, in their own schools. It works really kind of 90% of the time these days, which is incredible. There are often times that we need more therapeutic environments or they need more mental health care than can be provided in a school. But there has been really um a huge return in all of this in building these programs so that our students can stay with us. And there is there are efficiencies there too where sometimes those outofd district

084placements can cost up to $100,000 per child. But when we keep the children in the district and provide the supports that they need, it really is an efficient way to do business and a best practice way for our kids and their families. So, I just wanted to add that to the story. >> Thank Thank you, Susan. And um Ken, if you just want to scroll down, you can see that the only cost associated with the BCDA is the salary >> and benefits. and benefits. >> I am I'm gonna recognize Rita. Um Andrea, I'm gonna need for you to sort of take over for just a second. I have a sick family member that I need to >> Okay. Um see my question Denise in the um under administration you have a special services facilitator for

085grades 6 through 12.5 position. What does that person do? >> Thank you Rita. I overlooked that. That is our student services facilitator for grades 6 through 12. This position is a part-time administrator position and part-time teacher position at the high school and middle school. And he um this position coordinates um and chairs planning and placement team meetings and section 504 meetings so that administrators can be freed up to monitor and um oversee curriculum and be in the classrooms. Okay, >> this is one of those four coordinator positions that we put into place, Rita, a few years back when Mike was here. We had one in humanities, one in STEM, one in literacy, ELA, and then the one in special ed for facilitation of PPTs. >> Okay. And Denise, I thought you said that we had

086a 1.5 um BCBA. Is it just one person or is half of it covered with the um IDA grant? >> No, we have 1.6 FTEES from learn and then 1.0 FTE oh sorry from the ARP idea grant that we'd like to add to the board's budget. That would bring our total BCBAS to 2.6. >> Oh, and where is that reflected here? Um the learn contract is in another part of the budget. >> I see. And and how many students um do we have at the Ocean Avenue Learning Academy? Do you know? >> Um I would have to count. I'm going to say maybe six. >> Six. And some of them come back. They're there for maybe three months to be evaluated and then they come back. >> Yep. Naen has one who's um who's graduating

087in a few weeks, >> right? >> Bittersweet. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yes. The goal is always for our students to return, >> right? Thank you. >> And I guess we're looking for the next one. Okay, we're headed to page 5-66. This is function 2110, social work services. You want to take it from you, Denise, or >> Sure. Sure. Thank you, Ken. So um our social workers provide support not only mainly to students but also to families um and they really help coordinate services um with with outside agencies. So, they're a big support to families, but they provide a lot of support day-to-day to students in terms of helping them manage behavior and helping them um make good decisions um and helping them develop those social skills that we know are so important to um

088to being successful in school and in the community. Um the social workers that you see on in on this page, um one is at Charles Barnum. She supports our students in the four five academy. These are students who have difficulty with self-regulation. Um, and she's a very important part of that program so that the teacher can continue teaching and she can work on self-regulation and making good decisions when students are are having difficulty. We also have two social workers at themes uh themes academy themes river uh and they're in the two academy programs. One is a K1 classroom and one is a 23 classroom and their roles are very similar in terms of um the three of them working with students who we know um have difficulty with behavior and social skills. Um they have

089a very low frustration tolerance some of them and they require uh some very specialized um strategies and interventions to manage behavior. And then we have a school social worker at Fitch High School who does peer mediation, crisis uh resolution, crisis response um and again involves students in groups, meets with students in groups and individually and helps parents and students connect with outside agencies. And then we have eight additional social workers that are funded through uh various grants. And you can see in terms of the uh the salary there is a decrease on line 102. Um and that is um we had a a change in staff. So one staff member transferred to another district and we hired a beginning teacher. So there was some savings in terms of salary there. Um but other than that

090um they there there's money budgeted to buy uh supplies for these individuals. They do use some therapeutic activities both in their individual sessions and in their group sessions. A lot of visuals um and a lot of um instructional tools to help achieve their goals and objectives. see that Rita has her hand up. >> Yes, I do. Denise, you're you said that eight social workers are at Bronten Middle School, Charles Barnum, and Themes River, correct? >> There's uh one. >> No, I don't. Um No, there's >> the one that are paid for by the military family liaison. Didn't you say there were eight paid by that? There are eight additional social workers in the district paid for through grants, not the military family life leaison or counselors. So could could you show us where they're like

091where they're located which schools because you know fames mystic river magnet has the same amount of special education programs as s magnet yet there are two there and it looks like there's an additional one from the military family leaisonian social workers so they they would have three at the river I I have I have a chart that it's supposed to be on here. It it didn't make it into this version, but I have a chart of the of the social workers. Uh if I if I I can put it up now if if that's okay. >> Please do. >> Um here it is. >> And while you're doing that, Rita, I just wanted to emphasize that the social workers that you see on this page in terms of Themes River and Barnum are working in

092our students, our programs for students who have difficulty managing behavior. The BCBA the BCBAS are really the support at Mystic River in those autism classrooms. >> Okay. >> Can can you see this um this chart? >> Yeah. So Fames So actually Fames River has 3.5 >> two at two at the high school, two at Middle. >> Yep. So you can see the 0.5 at ths and the 0.5 at Mystic River. We have uh we used our ARP idea funds to provide uh an early childhood social worker who was split because our preschool programs are only at those two schools. So she's split between Mystic and Fames. So Thes really has quite a bit quite a bit of support, but all our schools have social workers. I remember at one time when none of our schools

093had well there was only one at the high school and now all the schools have a social worker as well as school psychologists. Correct. >> Correct. And it looks a little topheavy for themes because we have two academy programs located there. >> Okay. >> And those social workers are assigned in those classrooms to support the students so that when they're having difficulty the teacher can continue teaching. But I have to say that Mystic River has the same level of support. It just comes in the way of BCBAS for the autism program. But it was really important that Northeast Academy and Charles Barnum for their the rest of their populations also received a social worker because they can do things that the the count that the school psyches um do differently. School psychologists really handle a

094lot of the PPTs and the special education work. while they do some counseling, the social worker is very effective in working with families and helping assist the family and help the child. So, um >> I'm all for the social workers, but it's a school psychologist that I think can be shared and I hope they are shared at some of >> you saw the number of PPTs and the number of you know, >> but we do have we do have now special ed um supervisors that are supposed to be helping out with those PPTs and running them. Correct. >> Well, they they do some of that with some real um you know, specialized cases, shall I say. But >> was there by herself? >> They don't have time to run all the PPTs. I mean, even

095handling the ones out of district is really pretty big case load. >> Yeah. And I I think what Susan might be referring to, I don't mean to speak for her, is that um these social workers as well as the school psychologists provide social skills instruction. They're like they're a direct service provider for our students. So they meet with groups of students and they meet with students individually and they work on developing appropriate social skills. And so they do attend PPT meetings and update progress and write goals and objectives. They also attend um those SRBI meetings because they see a lot of students who are not identified yet and they're actually trying to, you know, deliver those intervention services so that those students, you know, don't have to be identified. So, I I think that these

096are really good questions. Um, but I also I'm trying to be mindful of the fact that we have a lot more to go through. I want to make sure that people get their questions asked and if we need to have more information about special services, I think that we can add another um agenda item to talk about all things support services. And so Denise at that point can go into more detail about how do these support services help with our children um in their and quite quite frankly in their learning. But let me recognize Beverly please. >> Um thank you Denise. Um I'm all in for the 12 social workers. I was a social worker one time myself and I'm very glad to see each school has a social worker. But my question is when

097will the AP funer end for these um social workers that these eight additional ones that are >> well whatever ones are funded by the AP grant. Kim, can you send us that little slide that you have? >> Yes, >> we'll add that too to the chart because I think that's a good part of the narrative. Some are through title one, Beverly. So our title one schools, they really were the first to take um social workers on board knowing the significance of their the value that they bring. So those title one funds are pretty secure. Is the ARPers that go away? Um I think September 2024. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And how many how many social workers are funded by the ARPs? >> Uh 3.5. >> Okay. So that's a those are positions that in

098next year I guess we're gonna budget. >> Well, yeah, after next year we have a full year. >> Okay. >> Yeah, you're right. That those are positions we're going to have to look at very carefully. >> Right. >> So, at least for the 20 the 2024, if if you were going to advocate for them, it would be half of the 3.5 if it if they No, they end in September, did you say? >> Yeah. So, it goes all the way through the 2024 school year. >> Okay. Okay. >> Good question, Beverly. >> If I'm not hearing anything more, let's move us on. >> All right. Uh we're moving on to page 5-68. Uh this is function 2120, guidance services. >> Okay. So these are our school counselors that support students in terms of problem solving

099um scheduling uh career college readiness um and other social emotional areas and we have um six at Graten Middle School. We have six school counselors at Fitch High School with the addition of a 6 uh counselor in our um our uh career center. And you can see we have uh no no changes in terms of FTEES. Uh we do have two admin assistants in the guidance office both at the high school and the middle school. And again, no changes uh to the support staff. >> Um Bev, do you have a question? >> Denise, what's the ratio for um guidance counselor counselor to student? >> I believe the recommended ratio is 200 to1 and that's a ratio that we obviously stay within. >> And do you think that's a realistic ratio? We're not recommending any changes

100to the FTEES. >> I But do you think that ratio is a good ratio 200 to one or >> Well, I think that um you know there are other individuals in the building who can support the students such as the social workers, school psychologists. Um I think the guid the school counselor is an important part of the team. >> Okay. Rita, >> I do know I can add to that, Beverly, that in both our middle school and our high school, um, they really move with the students. So, in the middle school, it's by grade level and they rotate through the grade levels as the kids rotate and they rotate with an assistant principal. So, it creates a team that's pretty cohesive and really gets to know the students. That's a real big goal. at the

101um high school. I know that we're looking forward to having something in place. It's more like a house system where you'll have two counselors with an assistant principal, they go more by the alphabet and so that they rotate with the students through their four years as well. And I think the more we can personalize in these big schools and, you know, and really get to know our students and have them have a go-to person um that they feel comfortable with and hopefully will be a a good teacher, a good counselor, um a social worker, those someone that they really um feel confident in and um can reach out to when they need them. Rita um who is the head of the guidance counselors now? >> So I would say it's the principles in the building.

102>> Okay. >> All right. And my other question is that um if by the population at at the middle school and at the high school Beverly they're they're not reaching um 200 to one. They're less than that. >> They're about 179 I think. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, you know that which is good, but I like the fact that you're thinking about making sure that the student has the same guiding counsel for four years. >> Yes. >> Really important. >> And I think also, you know, really tightening up the supervision of the guidance counselors with those assistant principles so you have like a 2:1 ratio and they can work together to make sure needs are met as a team. >> Thank you, >> William. Yeah, the assistant principal and uh guidance counselor combo is just amazing.

103You know, we just had a meeting uh with our guidance counselor with my son and his 504 and assistant principal um Matt Brown and having that combo is is just is is so useful. Um and it's a great resource for the students to know that it's not just the guidance counselor that they could reach out to. Um but having that uh assistant principal, you know, um as somebody that you can reach out to and uh you know, use as a resource is is just an excellent thing. And I would have to add to that um that really the way that Fitch High School was designed was to have more of a house system so that you have that assistant principal and those two um counselors on every floor so that kids will be able to

104get to them and they're really out in the mainstream in the school with the classes with the kids. And I just love that model and we kind of it was Matt Brown who brought it to my attention years ago and we've kind of worked with Ted to see it back again. So I'm really excited. >> Probably it was probably his dad that brought it up because it's different. >> It could have been. You're right. Could have been right. Any other questions? If not, Mr. Knight, where do we go next? 5-70 function 2130 health services. >> All right. Um, so this is a 0.5 clerical support for the nurses office at Pitch High School and there's no changes. Um, also budgeted in this account um are our OT and PT services. Um, we have uh a

105PT contract with PhysioCare out of Salem, Connecticut for 1.6 FTEES of physical therapists. And we have a budget uh or a contract with learn to provi provide our occupational therapists and our certified occupational therapy assistants. Um, and we also include um uh in I'm sorry, that's line 333. Um we also have on line 332 other professional services. Um there's a slight increase in rates. Um this is where uh our BCBAS are contracted from learn as well as um a consultant that works with one of our multiple disa multiply disabled classrooms to help differentiate the curriculum um at Kathern Kowski. Uh we also have Dr. Second, who is just an exceptional medical adviser. Um he's been a great addition to the district. His salary is in here. Um and we also have um uh teleaalth for

106speech and language that's in here to accommodate for uh fluctuating case loads throughout the district. Um and then I believe um eval if we a student requires a specialized evaluation like a neurossychological evaluation or a special transition assessment um we have um this is the account that that where that is housed where that lives and then there's some health supplies for the nurse's offices. Any questions for Denise about this account? >> If not, let's move on. >> Can I ask Denise, Denise, can you explain again the other professional services? >> Yes. Yes. Um, so this is where um the contract for our board certified behavior analysts are. These are other services that support our students. So we have a contract with learn for BCBAS 1.6 FTEES. our medical advisor. Um, this budget is for our

107medical adviser, Dr. Seand. Uh, we do have a consultant that supports a medically fragile class at Katherryn Kolnki. Um and we have uh a teleaalth um speech pathologist that supports a fluctuating population at Mystic River in Thes River as well as evaluations that that we can't do in district like a psychiatric evaluation, a neurossych psychological or a specialized transition assessment. >> Okay. Could we list a few of those underneath so people in the narative Yes, in the narrative um or someplace so that people understand how involved this other professional service is because it's quite a bit of money and >> yeah, a good idea. I think the more that we can explain, especially before we deliver budget books to the and we fine-tune this budget, I think the better off it's going to be in

108answering some questions ahead of time. Thank you. And and Susan, can you also break down the OT and PT services? Can you do OT and then PT? Okay, thank you. And I think the COVID has definitely affected that as well that we've seen, you know, more need in that area, more case loads, um, >> increased referrals for evaluations >> and I think so many even during COVID were done kind of virtually by Zoom and it's not as effective as in person certainly for that. Any other questions? If not, I'm moving us along. >> 5-72, which is function 2140, psychological services, who um I think I have an unstable internet connection. Sorry about that. Um, our school psychologists support um the whole student population in terms of crisis intervention. um informal counseling groups either groups or

109individually if students need that. Uh they're very um available to support all students in the building. They do spend a majority of their time um with students with disabilities, but that's not the only group of students that they're available for. Um they do provide services specifically to students with disabilities either individually or in groups. Um, they do evaluate students, either students being referred initially for services or students who have a three-year re-evaluation to determine ongoing eligibility. They're very involved in the SRBI referral process um in terms of creating uh positive behavioral interventions and supports for students who are struggling behaviorally. um and they work very closely with parents to help um refer again if they need help with other um community agencies. So, they wear a lot of hats, but they're very effective team members

110um that really support the whole building and we're not recommending any any changes to the staffing. >> Any questions about this? Yes. Why does um Graten Middle have more than has one extra than Fitch? >> Sure. So, there are more evaluations at the middle school level. Um at the high school level, um we're really um preparing students either to for the transition academy uh or for college or career readiness. Um, and we do have at uh the middle school an academy classroom and there is one school psychologist assigned to that academy classroom and then at the high school we have an alternative program and we have one school psychologist assigned to the alternative program. Uh, but the middle school does have more referrals and more evaluations. So we have two psychologists at the middle school

111and uh servicing all of the population six through eight. >> So over time how much we have 11 now. How much has that increased let's say since 2019 or 2018. It doesn't really you know we go back to I guess we had 11 in 2021 2022 but we've never had 11 before it seems. When did that increase to 11 people? >> Um, this is consistent. When we consolidated our elementary schools, we um we kept the same number of staffing and when we consolidated our middle schools, we kept the same number of staffing due to student needs. >> Okay. >> Um so at the elementary school, we have a psychologist uh a.5 who's split between two the two big elementaryaries, ths and mystic. She supports testing primarily. She does a lot of student evaluations. Um, and

112at the middle school again, we have two psychologists that evaluate the whole student body, six through eight, as well as provide um student support services to all of those students. >> Any other questions? Not only that, Denise, but then they have to write everything up and that takes a long time, >> right? That's right. They have to write their report and deliver it at the PPT. They do write goals and objectives and provide direct service and consultation >> and and there's also a period of time that you have to go by, right? Like there's like um there's a a federal mandate around how long you can do a testing to report. So, there's a lot of things that are going on. Any other um questions about this line item? >> If not, Miss Knight, where

113do we go next? >> Uh 5-74. This is function 2150, speech and language services. >> Okay. Um these are our experts um in terms of helping students develop communication skills. Um they work on expressive language, receptive language and pragmatic language. They're also um quite adept at providing assistive or augmentative communication devices to our students. Um many of our students who are non-verbal or have limited verbal skills um have a device that speaks for them and the speech people are um are very skilled at uh selecting the appropriate device and the appropriate app and working with the student and team so that everyone is able to use that device um effectively. Um again we have um we have a decrease uh we have one we have at least one speech pathologist in every building. Um we

114do have at Katherryn Kolki uh negative4 uh that is a speech pathologist who uh went to ECAT. So she was working with a self-contained classroom at Kathern Kolnazki and transferred to the ECAT program at Mary Morrison. Um, we do have at Mystic River Magnet. >> Denise, what's the ECAP program? >> That's the early childhood assessment team that Naen was talking about. They do our child find evaluations at and our birth to three evaluations at Mary Morrison. That team is comprised of a special education teacher and a speech pathologist. Um and then at Mystic River Magnet um again we have a negative um a reduction of of uh point.4 and that again um was um I believe that was also this person who went to ECAT was at um at this school as well. She was

115at Mary Morrison. I'm sorry she was at uh Katherryn Kolnowki and Mystic River. So that position has moved to ECAT. And then we have three speech pathologists. You might be wondering why we have three FTEEs at Mystic River. Um so we have one speech pathologist dedicated to the preschool program. Many of our preschool students have a developmental delay and that is um very they're very impacted in their communication skills. Um, we have one speech pathologist that works um in our autism program because many of our students with autism that that's one of the primary uh areas where they're impacted is communication. And then we have one speech pathologist that works with students in grades one through five. She kind of services the rest of the building. So because we have so many specialized programs there

116and many of those students have speech and language delays, we've had to increase the staff at Mystic River to meet those IEP and 504 hours. Um Fames River has 2.6 FTEES. Again, one is dedicated to preschool and the remaining are dedicated to K through five because that is a very large school. And then at Grten Middle, we have two speech pathologists because we do have two self-contained autism programs at Grten Middle. So, one of those two speech paths spends the bulk of her day in those self-contained classrooms uh working with students with autism and other multiple disabilities. And then the other one services the remainder of the building. And then at the high school we have uh one speech pathologist. Um and I had stated earlier that we had split our two self-contained program our

117one self-contained program into two. So we do have an additional you'll see in the narrative 1.0 FTE that's funded by ARP esser and she is at the high school for part of mo a good chunk of her time. So, we're not recommending um any increases in speech staffing. And then in terms of the budget, um there is a slight increase um in in salaries and there is an increase in benefits. Um there's no increase for travel. Um and we kept the um testing in supply budget level because it's it's appropriate to meet our needs at this time. So just a very slight increase in this group. Any questions about that? >> All right, we're on the home stretch. Mr. Knight, where do we go? >> Oh, hold on. Let's see. >> We're going to the

118back of the book, right, Ken? Yeah, we're going to the very back. Um, which is good. Um, we are going to page 1-04. Oh, wasn't quite there. Uh, and I I'll uh orient you to this this section. So, this this is our tuition section. Um, and so the the top half uh there is a chart for uh special education student enrollment for out of district. Uh this has not been updated. This is last year's chart. So, we're working on uh providing this uh this information uh and we will have that uh by the end of this week. >> And we might need to come back to this because it really is um a work in progress. We're working on that right now. So, um and that's going to be important to look at. Um >>

119why don't we wait to look at it then? >> And if it's if it's a work Thank you, Rita. If if this is a work in progress and it's going to change or possibly have a change, why don't we why don't we do that when you have Denise, I'm sorry that might mean that you might have to like zoom in again. >> But but if >> No, that makes sense and you all have really done due diligence. It's like getting to that second hour. So, I really appreciate that. But probably would make more sense if we get you the accurate information to review. >> Yeah, that's fine. Yep, that feels like that makes sense. But >> um you guys, thank you so much. This has been um it has been a long night and I

120do appreciate that. Um but this has been um some really good conversation. I've got lots of agenda topics that we will be um getting busy on. Um but I um once again, thank thanks everyone. I will take a motion for adjournment. >> Motion to adjurnn. Rita, >> I'll second that. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. Motion is carried. Good night, folks.