4-17-23 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001We are going to start the meeting. Um it is 6:05 on April 17th and um this is a Graten board of education committee of the whole. Um and the first item of agenda is um a review of the March 20th um uh CO minutes and I would take a motion for acceptance. >> I'll move. I have first. Can I have a second? >> I have Dean for the second. Is there any discussion on these minutes? Hearing none. All those in favor please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Abstain. That has carried. >> Our next order business. Um, so, um, as I think Susan alluded to in her, um, notes and the is that she is still coming, I think she's still, um, on vacation or coming back from vacation. Um, and we thought it would

002be just a great time for us to meet our new um, our new person that collects the data for the district. And so I am actually going to turn it over to Phil to kind of introduce um and maybe we can also introduce ourselves um on the board would be great. >> Okay. I mean we could start there. You want to start with introductions? We could go around the table and start with uh >> the manager for data student data. Tallaher High School post Charles >> Kim Shepard and Watson who now has a Pers's kiss in my mouth. >> William Gorgan who is her kiss division >> Liz Porter board of ed >> me too. >> He's now putting them on the floor. Andrea Andrea Board of Ed Beverly Washington Board of Ed. >> Thank

003you, Beth. >> I think we have Jay >> uh Jay Whitoff, board of ed. >> Great. Thank you guys. So, that's our board. Some of them are um on Zoom. We uh Matthew Schulman is not here and I don't see Rita. Um she either has not joined us or she's not going to be in attendance. Um I'm not quite sure, but I know Matthew is unfortunately with a family friend who has passed um in North Carolina. So, >> okay. So, we have um we've put together a presentation that we're going to share with you. Um and um we are going to look at attendance. Let me just get this into slideshow mode. Um we we also invited members of our administrative staff throughout the district to join us. We have uh Ted and Christie here

004who just introduced themselves and I see a number um that are joining us via Zoom. So, um, at some point during the presentation, I think you you'll see, you know, an obvious point of entry for them in terms of talking about how we're supporting our students, um, especially those with with attendance issues. So, but we'll walk you through it. Basically, what we want to do is, um, you're okay. They can't see that. I know, but I wanted to make sure that we could see the >> um our goal as always is to increase student attendance and staff attendance uh through consistent and proactive practices. Uh so again, we're going to outline data for both our students and our staff um for you. We're going to talk about interventions that are in place uh for both

005as well. um and talk about both our proactive strategies and and also some of our reactive strategies um as we're uh dealing with issues of attendance for both students and staff. Um just to um define some things for you because you'll be hearing these these words thrown about during this presentation um in terms of truency versus chronic absenteeism. As you can see to the left, truency counts unexcused absences only. Four unexcused absences in a month or 10 unexcused absences in a year is considered true. Um on the right side you see chronic absenteeism. This is all absences whether it's excused or unex. Um if you miss 10% of the school year for any reason um and that's including disciplinary um you are considered uh chronically absent. Um and this does factor into our district's accountability

006index which is that number we we often talk about that's hard to define in terms of where that number comes from but this is one of the elements that factors in to it. Um we all understand the educational impact of it but we wanted to at least show that here. Um, you know, it's well known that that truency or chronic absenteeism plays a part in foundational gaps in learning uh in children's academic failure and of course they're at a greater risk for dropout or juvenile delinquency. Um, again, we also have a resource that I want to point out on our web our we have a part of our website um that's called attendance matters wi which really outlines a lot of this information. It also provides some research. I'm sorry, some resources for parents um

007to uh on how to work with their children if they're uh resistant to going to school. It also puts them guides them into who to contact at the school if they're having problems as well. Um so, you know, we advise a lot of our our parents to look at that and board members as well. Um again, it's another portion of our website check out. Um things to note too when looking at these numbers. Uh again, generally speaking, one to nine days missed um over the course of a year is is considered good or satisfactory. Um anything more than 10 days sort of raises a red flag and and then of course you're at a risk for chronic absenteeism depending on when that falls. Um and it is important to note missing two days a month

008really adds up to more than 10% for the year and it does you know hurt the student success not only when they return but also long term we were talking about. So um things to keep in mind this graphic here you know we'll come back to this at the end too after we sort of talk about all the different steps um that we do take. Um starting at the bottom of course uh you'll hear about the attendance reporting across the district. Lauren will take us through that. Um with regular attendance monitoring across all grade levels that happens at the building level uh with their attendance teams. Um and so we'll hear a little bit about what that entails from some of the representatives here. um I think a lot of you know about but you

009know we could talk more about the attendance letters that get sent home um at various times to to let the parents know where their child lies if they're falling into that uh danger zone. Parent meetings are held. Um you know this this mentions after the 10th absence. Uh but they happen all the time. Um anytime uh there's a concern at a building level, parents are brought in to discuss you know how how the building can help. And then of course connecting with appropriate community resources as needed depending on how um you what kind of support we determine the families and students need. So at this point I'll I'll hand it off. We're going to look at some data. Um this is again students but um and so I'll let Lauren take over. >> So what

010you are looking at here is chronic absenteeism. comes a comparison between our um school district and state um and how that was reported out. So what you're looking at are two separate lines. Okay, so the state average um for chronic absenteeism is to the left and brought in public schools is to the right and if you look you can see that the um bottom line which is in blue that represents all students. When we're looking at chronic absenteeism, again, 10% of the school year, wherever we are in the year, um this is the percentage that we're looking at. Okay, so for all students and then we have what we consider high need students. Okay, so we separate them to really track them as well. And um students who might fall into this bucket would be

011children who receive free and reduced lunch, children who may have um accommodations for an educational plan, um students who may be learning more than one language. These are students that would fall into that high needs group, right? So we keep a close eye on all of our students and and our high students. And you'll notice that if you're comparing our district to the state, we truly are on par um with the state in terms of our trend where we're seeing um those levels, how they're changing over time. Um and as you can see with all of our students, we are really within about one and a half% of the state average. And that does include like when you think about the more affluent communities where there may be more uh things may be more readily

012accessible to them and uh they may not necessarily have the same type of barriers. Um so that number is also calculated into state average. So we are within one and a half percent with all of our students and with our high students we are really within with the exception of between so between 2015 and 2018 we are less than 1% away from that state average. Notice the trend is almost identical. We see that spike in the 2122 school year just as we did as we're all kind of coming back from pandmic. Can I ask a question between the blue and the yellow line? So, so blue is all students and that includes students with high needs and then the yellow or the orange line is just the the the high need students extracted. Okay. >>

013Y really want to make sure we're we're focusing on all the groups, right? We want to make sure we've got a good handle on all of our >> I just want to see who's I am really sorry. I am just trying to find out for those for those who are online and you want to have a question. I think you're just going to have to say something because I've got you um it down below so I'm not going to see it. So please feel free to say hey Kim. Um I have a question. >> Hey Kim, I have a question. >> Thank you Beverly. >> Okay. Uh my question is how would this um graph look for Grten if we took the children um that are receiving free and reduced lunch out of the high

014need student um line? How would that look for us? Is it possible to do that? >> Sure can. And if you give us a few minutes, we're actually going to show you specifically free and reduced lunch. So that's an excellent question. Okay. And the other thing is, do you have an idea of how we're doing 2022 to um this is almost the end of the school year to 2023? >> Yes. As a matter of fact, if we keep going, that information is available to you. We're going to get to that in two seconds. So, great question. So, let me get you some of those answers to you want to look at. Before we we do go into the free and reduce end this year, what we wanted to do was make sure we were looking

015at first we look at the state, right? How are we comparing to the rest of the state? But then more specifically, we want to look at like districts, right? So when we think about the different school districts in Connecticut, we are grouped according to what they call a dur a district reference group. So um communities that have a similar makeup or population. socioeconomic status um similar needs. So this actually is an even better representation of what I if you will like apples to apples, right? So when we think about Rotten as a school district and what our who makes up our community, some other communities that look like ours um are Hampton and Middletown. Okay. So, there's there are there's a variance in our socioeconomic status in all three of these communities. There's a variance

016in um the free and reduced versus non-reduced. Um so, this is a great way to really look at where do we compare to someone and and other districts that are similar to us. And if you could see, so Graten is is all the way to the left. We're the first one. We really are steady with our attendance. We're um we're below Hampton uh by quite a bit and we're really on par with Middletown. In fact, after COVID at last year, we didn't have as great of a spike as as districts relative to us. Um so that really is a positive. um particularly with our high need students and we know that again in districts similar to ours, they're a a large percentage of our population and so we're helping to support those kids and we're

017doing a great job in comparison to other districts within our >> Kim. Can I say something? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Um, that may be very well true, but we still have a problem. And just because we're doing a little on on par with Hampton and Middletown, it's still a problem for the Graten School District. So, we can make it look nice by doing these comparisons to other districts, but we have to like focus on our district and how we can bring the absenteeism down and that say, "Oh, well, we're on par, so it's okay." you know, it's not okay. >> And Bev, you bring up a great point, and maybe I should have prefaced the whole presentation by saying that the data that we're presenting is by no means trying to show that we're in

018great shape. Um, some of this comparative data, it's just good to see where we are um, you know, in comparison, but it but by no means are we saying that we are happy as to where we are. there are going to be some explanations thrown out as to why we think the numbers are where they are, but there are definitely, you know, we can see right here where we need to get back to. So, um, so, so we are not saying that and we'll be careful to make sure that we're not saying >> no, this is this is definitely a process. um and where we we're in a very different place come 2017 2018 are ideally we're going to get back to that and then some um and through some of the interventions that we're

019putting into place and that the schools are really really focusing on like a lot of time and energy going into supporting these families and these kiddos who are having a difficult time getting back to school. So this is really just to lay the groundwork to give you like a good like bird's eyee view of what is happening in our entire state. Um so if you >> so as we mentioned last year this is more or less if you look at our entire population 28.4% of our students are what we would consider chronically abst. So this was last year's data coming off the pandemic. different totally to totally different numbers. >> We don't have that. We don't have this slide. >> You know what we added this year? We added this. >> This is last year.

020>> This was Yes, we did add this after it's printed. >> Okay. >> It's No, it's it's a a slide that just got added. >> You have the second slide that shows this year. We >> I wanted to show the comparison between last year just because I figured that would be a question that was asked. No, but we added we did add this. >> Yeah. >> So, districtwide. So, this was last year's districtwide. >> Yes. 2122 data for attendance. We were at 20.4% chronically absent >> and we can resubmit that. We can resubmit this to you as well if that's helpful. Um, >> yeah, we we changed some of the colors and and we added this up. Again, this is this is last year. So, then I'll switch over to the one that you have

021in front of you in your packets for this year. Again, um not saying that we're anywhere near where we want to be, but this just shows you where we are right now compared to where we were last year, the end of last year. >> And and just keep in mind, remember, this is all absences. So, excused kids who may have been quarantined last year, I uh you know, homebound for whatever reason. Um excused absences, unexcused absences, disciplinary actions. Um and when you think about last year, it there was an adjustment period um for students coming back to school. So, Oh, you skip one. I'm sorry. So, can you go back a slide? >> Did I skip one? >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Which one? >> Yeah, this one. >> Yep. That one there. So, this

022is this year's data. >> Oh, this year's. >> Yes. So, you should have last year's and this year. So, this is the 2223 here. >> Oh, this is 22. Okay. So, this is this is the red and yellow. >> For us, it's red and yellow. >> Yes. We changed it just to make it a little clearer. >> Okay. So again, going from last year >> to this year. >> We just wanted to show that slight difference. >> So notice that we are making some strides. It is a little bit lower than it was last year. um we still have there is opportunity for that number to fluctuate and even go down a little um considering again remembering chronic absenteeism is 10% of the year. So if we can help those children get back in school

023and stay healthy, right? Um as more days are added that 10% becomes less if that makes sense. Um right and that was amongst this what we would call triemic with the RSV that was occurring the flu um the COVID breakthroughs. Um so what we're hoping to do now is hold steady with these numbers so that ideally our numbers will decrease each year. Look at Fitch. >> Yeah. >> So this is by school and what you are looking at is in relationship to its entire population. So when we look at CK for example, 23% of their students are chronically absent, missing more than 10% of the school year to date. Same thing with NEA and Fitch. That's 33 for Fitch High School. That's 33% of the total population for Fitch High School. >> How many students

024are we talking about when we when How many kids are at pitch at Almost. >> Almost a thousand. Exactly. >> Yeah. But I think >> Do we know what middle school is? >> Right around >> 900 something. >> I I I just was I'd like to know what the numbers you like. How many kids are at CK? How I don't remember. I know we've had this data before >> and I can give that to you. I just want to know. I'm looking at >> percentage 342. >> What about Barnum? >> 342. >> But chronic we we can't be making the assumption that the chronic absenteeism is just because of illness. Even though, >> right, >> and and there's no way to tease out that data, right? to to tease out the kids who are sick.

025>> So, that's a big part of what the building administration and the attendance teams in each of the schools are doing. Um, they meet on a regular basis to look at who these students are and part of what you saw as those steps to interventions. That is what and feel free any building administration administration to jump in and add to this but they are keeping track of who those students are who they've met with what the reasons are for their absences. So they're really trying to intervene and be proactive all at the same time. >> Yeah. Why don't I mean Christie if you don't mind Christie is the assistant principal at Charles Barnum. She maybe you can give us a brief synopsis of the process. So at the beginning of the year, we identified all

026of our kids that are over 10 absences and we have a social emotional learning team which consists of school psychologist, myself, um our behavior tutors, you know, a variety of different people, our our um military leazison person. And we go through every single student and we make sure that that every single one of those students have at least some person that they're connected to from the beginning from the very first day of school. Um we do that with all of the kids moving forward. determine who their kind of um adult is. They do surveys and every adult knows who those students are, their adults theirs. We meet once a month to go through every single student. I have a running record of every student that's been absent as far as if there's some large number,

027was there a death in the family? Was someone did they break their leg and they had to be out for a while? Whatever it is, so we have a good handle on each one of those kiddos. Um, so we meet bi-weekly for that and then once a month I pull the full report and then send out letters or whatever needs to be done. Um, and then in addition to that, we have certain families that were really, really high last year in particular that we make phone calls to. So I have a handful of kids that we knew were, you know, chronically absent. I mean like over 40 absences, like really severe. So the teachers every single day if that child is not there by 9:15 calls me and I either call the parent or I

028text them or whatever it needs to be done and they're usually there 10. So not ideal. They're late but at least they're there. So one family we had 45 absences and now they're down to 17. So that to me is, you know, is a big difference. it's still not going to show up on your graph necessarily um because they're still going to be considered chronically absent, but the amount of days that we now have them is huge. We had another family who was completely um just gone for all of CO. We had a lot of families like that never got on. We tried everything we could, brought parents in, and now she's down 16 absences and she had almost 16. So, I mean, I feel like some of the things we're doing are really beneficial

029and we're putting a lot of time and effort into them and any new student that comes into our building, we assign one of our team to them until they start to make their own connections just so that we they have somebody that they're constantly connected to. So, I think we try to do a lot of that stuff. We can probably get some more questions, but that gives a >> Is that consistent? I'm sorry. I I'm just jumping in and you had your hand up. I apologize, but is that consistent with all the different schools? I mean, does does Fitch have something going on like that? Does Bratton Middle School, do each of the elementary schools have this type of committee together? Are they working in con in concert with each other? Are they talking between

030schools with kids of same families, but there are different schools? Is that all happening? I can tell you, you know, we met as a district data team which meets throughout the year and I don't know if it was the last meeting or the meeting before, we we discussed attend just like we're doing here. We discussed attendance and everybody sort of reported out similar to what Christy just did um to see how lined up we were. Um and each school does have a plan very similar to that and are taking different interventions based on their kids. So it is, you know, very um um unified throughout the district in terms of of the efforts and the way we're tracking attendance. Um we could have others share, but I'm sure there'll be other opportunities throughout the presentation

031too for people to to jump in, but that is happening and we're we're getting more and more um towards you know sharing those practices and making sure having those connections. I know there's conversations happening across buildings, you know, when there's uh same families, you know, across multiple buildings. William, did you have a question? >> Yeah. So, when you talk about your engagement with the with the families, um those that are missing, >> um what have you learned? Is there anything in particular that you recognize that you need the resources for like 20% of them will be missing because of, >> you know, X or Y? And is that stuff that data that you can share like why the absenteeisms you know such as is it based on their location, their neighborhood, you know, the >>

032um are they those that are taking the bus or that are parent drop off? Um um >> well well kind of the answer to that is yes. So kind of all of those like if we had transportation issues we've worked with transportation to see if we can get a bus to get them with the magnet you know process and stuff like that. it's a little bit easier. So, some of these kiddos are now on buses versus being dropped off and and not being, you know, having that issue. Uh, one little girls I was referring to, there was a daycare issue because her she had a sibling that was in preschool and only went to school half day and her mother was a single mom and was working. And so, the children and we found this

033out by working with the middle school and things like that, but the older siblings were taking turns on who took the day off to make sure that she would get on the bus. So we try to work with those um in our building. Some of them are um because of um military where if someone is going to be on leave for a certain amount of time, they may leave early to go to a holiday or because you know dad is home for a little while and they tend to take a little time off. So we find that which we have, you know, we want to support. Um, so I think it and then a lot of them have been absences still from the COVID piece where if a student is not feeling well then there

034are certain guidelines that they have to follow before they can come back. So that's actually been the biggest piece right now is we still have students that are out for four or five days consistently until they can come back with a with a negative COVID test. Now it's not not by any means the extent it was before. Last year our numbers were over 30% and right now we're at 21. So, you know, not great, but you know, making progress. Um, but we make phone calls to parents all the time. Start with a teacher phone call first. If that doesn't work, then we have someone from the team and then if that doesn't work, then I call or seth calls and then sometimes that kind of gets them moving a little bit more. Um, >> sitting

035in on some of these I'm sorry, please cut you off. sitting in on some of these attendance meetings. Uh the nurses are often present and and we I am hearing that you know typical uh illnesses are that were usually handled by one or two days out are now five to seven days out still people are playing it safe. People want to be you know and and in the past we've encouraged them to do that >> right >> um but unfortunately that's affecting their absence. So my other question is that that tie into that is how are we being proactive with the families and engaging them to say this is what we've learned. So if your your student does break their leg you know we will make sure they get a specific type of bus to

036be able to transport them or you know they you know if you are having family you know issues with the you know watching your children please contact X or Y. I mean, are we we being proactive with sharing things that we're learning from this and making sure that families have the resources or at least just know who to call? >> Yeah. So, so part of that that seal team is our school psychologist and things like that. So, or our social workers and so a lot of times if we recognize or we find from a conversation with a parent that is then they're the next step. they say, "Well, we're gonna have so and so reach out to you and offer you whatever resources we have or are good use of information that it really comes

037back to those relationships and having those relative things because they don't always." So, for a parent to say to me, I'm a single mom and I have to get my baby on the bus someday. I mean, that takes a lot of guts, you know? So, it's building those relationships, those connections. So, we try to do that and we also try to give them reminders that there's always going to be emergencies and we understand that. But that for most people fall within those nine days, it's when we take a day off because it's it's raining or we take a day off because, you know, mom's going to be home that day and it would be fun to hang out with her or, you know, things like that. We try to eliminate those as much as possible

038so that they can use that buffer for 90 days in in a more judicious way. I'm going to recognize Beverly and then Jay. >> Thank you, Kim. Um, what have you um done differently this year than you did last year to bring down your numbers? And what did you find most successful in helping you to bring down those that those numbers, those absentee numbers? because last year you said you were higher, this year you're 21%. So, um, what did you do to that was successful in bringing that percentage down and are you doing anything different this year than you did last year? >> Um, thank you. Um, so one of the things that we did was we found on our student survey that one of the questions asked about what your who your trusted adult

039developers, who you go to in the building, and a lot of our kids either didn't know what that question meant or didn't have one. So, we spent a really big effort. Our entire social emotional learning team went into every classroom and did lessons. We made a video with the kids and you know, Seth and I about what it looked like and then they had the opportunity to identify each each of them to identify someone and then we went through that entire list of every student to make sure everybody had someone and if they didn't then we made a point of someone in our building reaching out to them. Um, and I think that that has made a huge difference. A lot of them said they're teachers, but many of them did not and said someone

040different, which we were some of them we were kind of caught off guard and didn't think that there was a relationship there or as much of a connection and there was. So, we've spent a tremendous amount of time doing that. And I think that and then the kids going home and being able to say, "Oh, this is my go-to person." I think makes it more comfortable for parents to reach out. And those have been the people that we've had reach out to the family. So, if it's one of my students, I would reach out. If it's one of you, he would reach out. the nurses, she would reach out just so that they knew that that's a stu most likely someone that the students have been going home and talking about on a regular basis.

041Um, and we review them every we look at them every two weeks to see if there's anything really big, but every month um we make sure that we are connecting with any of those families that have some big jump or big change. >> And I know that's consistent throughout the buildings, the monthly meetings. Yeah. >> Um, I also just wanted to go back to something Christy said about identifying kids from the previous year and and being proactive in contacting those families. I think that's a great practice that we want to make sure we get into all of our buildings >> and passing that information on as the kids transition um from elementary to middle and from middle to high. Making sure that communication is happening so we can work with those families who who have

042been chronically absent over the course of few years. And I I want to encourage the uh members of the administrative team that are on the Zoom just raise your hand so we know if you have something to add. >> Can I also just see what's on the floor too? >> Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't I don't want to call on you blindly and just force you to speak, but if you have something to say on a given topic, please bring >> Jay. >> Yes. Um so I I I really um like the idea of where Dr. Han and Beverly were going with uh really analyzing why and what we can do. Um however, the data is a little confusing. So if if we have a student who was registered to attend the school and we

043hear anecdotally that this happened during COVID and then they just never showed up again. I mean, how long are we tracking that student as absent? And is there any way to break the data down more to show if a school has a 33% absentee rate, uh what percentage of the student body is contributing toward that? Um you know, these these um um numbers, you know, the the buildingwide numbers may not really reflect um the the reality of it. if you were to break it down, there may be a couple of students, you know, who've been absent 50 60 days and is that skewing the data or do you have some way to to smooth that out? And then secondly, um I know we uh made an effort to u hire more social workers and part

044of what my understanding was was that funding was going toward they were going to be working on um attendance, but I don't see any social workers here. Um can we get a report um from that team and um is that has that been effective? Uh and do we need more? >> Jay going to your first question like that that like say the 33% from Fitch that represents 33% of the student body. So so that does you know we didn't put the number of students that means but that is that is a number of students from the school that are chronically absent. So 33% of of all students there have been out for more than 10 days. >> Been out more than 10%. What day are we on? >> We're more than 10%. Okay. >> More

045than 10%. >> 10 days. >> Yes. About 13. >> Yeah. So it would actually equate because we're on day like 130 right now. So it would be 13 days. And do we continue to track them even if um they've been out for extended periods? I mean, um you know, as I said, we were told at one point that we had lost a number of students. We had administrators going doortodoor, knocking on doors to see if people were still in town. Do we have a good handle on, you know, how many of of those students are actually still in the district? Uh so just talking about the high school and and I think you know Christy went through transfer process with the elementary school in Charles Barnum. Um you know the high school we send out

046uh letters for any student that has missed uh two absences in a month or uh four absences uh in a quarter uh to just let the parents know. It goes through the letter actually states how many absence they have in each specific class. Um and then also how many tardies they have because we also have the issue with the high school in regard to credit uh that students can actually lose uh lose uh credit for courses based upon their their absenteeism. Um in addition then we do also have uh our assistant principles meet uh with two guidance counselors each to go through uh the SRDI process for those students to determine uh if there is uh those those issues. Um I'm sure this is not specific to the high school. To answer your question about

047students that are um uh not just chronically absent but simply not attending. Uh we do have a list of students that there are different reasons for that. Um you know you you said like kind of what have we learned? Uh one of the things we learned is that it's really specific for the student. You know it's almost a different reason for each specific student. you know, we have students that um you know, have you know, some special needs um that, you know, we're working with, you know, either 504 or the special education plan and we're working with those teams. We have students that are required to go out on homebound because of health issues. Again, even though the student is receiving education, they're not physically in the school. That counts against us. Um but they're

048chronically absent. uh with the um uh the uh students that um there are a number of students that actually have physically withdrawn from us but are still where we still are required by the state to work on those students because they haven't enrolled somewhere else. So we are actually in charge of finding out where they are. Um and so we're working with some of those that that can be very very difficult. Um, and then there's the the students that are simply not attending because of whatever reason. And then again, they and so those those numbers do count against us. The other piece is from the high school and I'm sure at the middle school. I can't specifically talk about this data, but historically as I've looked at this data, um out of school out of

049school suspensions count against this on this on this data um which generally again I can't specifically talk about this data because I haven't seen are generally higher at the middle school and the high school level than they are at the elementary. So um so those are included on this as well. Um so the uh but it's something where you know I think Chrissy did a great job. not to rehash the whole thing, but you know, we we focus not only on the attendance, but also on the credit you provide. And it's more about making sure we're educating our families on who do you reach out to if you if you're having those issues, which are all in the letters. >> So, just a quick followup on on that. Um, again, I it'd be curious to

050know if we could without obviously uh giving any specific student data. I mean, how how how do we arrive at that 33% figure, how many are students that we don't even know if they're in the district anymore? How many are based on so if they're uh if they're removed from the school, they're they're still on that list. Can can we get more data about how we came to those numbers? Yeah, we can go a little bit deeper on that thing. Definitely. >> Yeah, that's what I'm trying to understand here is what, you know, what's driving the numbers uh by building and then just just curious if we have anything that we can do maybe in the future to talk to the the social workers who might have a better pulse for um what's going on

051here. >> So, Meg, I see that you have your hand raised. This is a public meeting, but this is not um the committee as the whole is not the time where we um recognize people from the public. Um we do have an option if there's anyone from the board who would like to recognize and take and have you take their turn. Um I will open that up for a um for the board member, but if not, this is um once again, this is a public conversation um but it's not for public comment. >> Kim, I have a quick question. Absolutely, Beverly. >> Okay. Um, at the high school excluding the students with medical issues and the students uh that have out of school suspension. Um, do you call because I heard the other uh assistant

052principal, if I'm not mistaken, saying they actually call the house. You said you send letters. Do you call the house and actually speak to the parents? >> Yes, we do. And does the high school still have an attendance um person? >> Y Diane Strong is is our attendance clerk at the at the high school. Uh and she does make physical phone calls uh as and then we will call through the counselors as well and then uh I call and oftentimes are meeting with families as well uh especially when it comes to credit issues. So u yes we do have that entire process. I didn't go through the whole process. It's very similar to what uh what uh Christie was able to go through. But uh you know, we do make phone calls um in regard

053to if we're at least if we're not getting a call from the parent so we know what's going on with that particular student. >> And how successful are you um with um calling improving your um the students attendance? >> Um well, I'd like to be better than 33%. I can tell you that much. Uh the uh I I don't know if I can really say how successful we've been. It really depends on the kid and the family in terms of actually getting them in. Um you know, I think that our numbers have improved, but we certainly have a long ways to go, especially in high school. >> What was your what was your percentage last year? I don't have that in >> I don't have that in front of me. I'm sorry. I don't know

054exactly what it was. >> Was it higher than this year? >> I would imagine so. Okay. and we can get that number that we can fill that number in for you too. Um, these are these are a lot of great questions everybody's coming up with and these are ones that u you know we'll make sure to follow up on. We do have um a few more uh breakdowns of the data that I'd love to go into and I and I'm sure these questions will uh will continue to uh to come up throughout and we'll have different people chime in. But um >> hey Kim, if I have any more time left over, I will um give some of my time to the I don't know if it was a parent or whoever that was that

055wanted to speak. >> Um she put her hand down and we're going to go through that slide, but if you would like to for the next this next slide for this conversation, if you would like to um I will let her be recognized. So this information is uh it's a district level um by grade level. So if you look at the beginning um you can see that kindergarten has a higher chronic absenteeism rate. um which makes sense when you think about entering the school particularly after a pandemic, right? There's been a lot of illness. There's uh you know, they've managed to catch just about everything this year. We typically see kindergarten with higher um attendance issues. Um some of our lower ones, which are interesting, is grade four. um they're they have the lowest chronic

056absenteeism. And um grades seven and nine and 11 are grades that we um would like to focus on to see what exactly is happening there. Why those numbers um are a little bit higher. You would anticipate, you know, if it was a transition year like the ninth graders, you could see how that might make sense. We could speculate grade 11, you know, are there college tour college tours happening? Are there those types of preparing for graduation that are uh adding up throughout the year? So, we would like to take a closer look at that as we move forward and and then move backwards also see why those particular grade levels have higher numbers. Yeah, I mean that's going back to Bev's question of why, you know, just taking a different look at, you know, why

057the numbers are, you know, why is grade four so low? Why is grade seven so high? >> Um, those are we're going to be working with the attendance teams at the school to uh to look a little bit closer to that. >> I would recognize Dean. >> Yeah. In addition to the causes, so medical, um, I'd be curious too about the season only because like something just occurred. I remember way back country that there were some family but the school never so I'm wondering I don't know whe that's widespread whether is there anything season that probably can't lay out correctly is there anything seasonal about the absence Sure. >> Hey. Hey, Kim. Kim, does Dean have a microphone in front of him? >> Oh, you can't hear me? >> Not really. It sounds muffled. I

058You know, we we got to get better microphones or something here. >> Oh, he's he's pretty far away. And I guess I'll tell him to remove the sock. >> Well, she told me to put a sock in it. So, >> can you please take your just surmise >> Dean Tus 164 payer? Uh, no. I mean, basically, I was interested in the seasonality, make up a word, of the of the absences. Is there something going on maybe by season? Only because I mean, my my wife and I were floored when we saw this. You would actually take your kids out of school to go down to Disney. I understand it's fun trip and all, but we would never have imagined that people did that. So, to me, anything is possible at this point. Indeed, I'll tell

059you as as a when I was a principal, um that used to really get to me when I when I'd see that happening. But more and more I'm seeing, you know, just if you if you investigated a trip to Disney over a break, that's you know, it's it's about three times the cost as it would be if I went in October or November. And I think that plays a big piece into it. So again, I' I've mellowed over the years in terms of um of the annoyance that used to bring me as a principal uh because I knew that was affecting, but that definitely I think is a is is playing a role here. >> Also, the holiday >> Yeah. Are are people taking more days around Thanksgiving, more days around Christmas, checking out early

060in the year >> rather than waiting to all the way to the end of June? Yeah, >> I think it's dependent on the school um and the populations in that school. The reason would look different. Some schools that have higher um percentages of like your language learners tend to go on longer holidays, right, throughout that January period versus maybe another school that is enjoying those Disney trips somewhere else. So, I think that would be dependent too. might see seasonal trends in certain buildings, right? So, that would be interesting to look at as well. >> Middle school. >> Sure. >> So, Jamal, I don't mean to be putting you on the spot, but I would love to hear a little bit about um the Graten Middle School's experience um in terms of of not only just

061the grade level, but also yours. I don't mean to put you on the spot, buddy. >> Oh, no, no problem. I'm just listening. Um I don't I really don't have much more than to share than what was already shared in terms of our you know intervention strategies that we have in place. Um we we definitely um try to be proactive um to the point and this was already mentioned but I just want to reiterate um really uh at the beginning of the year identifying uh those students who have had um some history with issues with absenteeism. So we've utilized data from Edsite uh secure to be able to identify who those students are. Um when we do our uh fifth grade to sixth grade uh transition, we um you know speak to the fifth grade

062staff, the administration to identify who those students and try to again build relationships uh with with those students as well as their families but also um make them aware of the importance of uh attendance particularly at the secondary level. uh the impact that it will have as they move and transition from the middle school to the high school with with credits. And so we try to do that. Um I think it's important uh to to be reflective of that, you know, our numbers have spiked uh due to the pandemic. Not for the point of of saying, you know, this is why we're in this situation, but this understanding that um there has developed a pattern um where um more students are are absent and some of that has to do with um obviously illness, but

063other for other reasons as well. So, we're trying to create a culture in which um you know, students really want to come to school. Um and um so it's important that we do uh establish relationships as was already stated. So we we we try to make sure they have a point of contact. We're in a little bit of unique situation compared to the elementary schools um in the fact that not only do we have, you know, school social workers, uh we we have school counselors and our school counselors at the middle school particularly are involved in that social emotional piece. So, they're doing more than just um scheduling and and things of that nature, but they're also working on establishing um intervention plans. And so, we haven't um them really take the lead on building

064those relationships. And then we utilize our social workers uh to be able we and at our school we do have two social workers to develop um or find resources for families um if if they need them to identify once we identify those barriers um that they have. But one of the probably one of the things that seems to work uh the most is um particularly those students who have had um have gone beyond the the 10 where we see there there's there there's a pattern um you know home visits when we when we go to the home and we're knocking on the doors and we are um willing to to meet them um in their in their community and really share with them that we're there to help. uh that has been probably the has

065had the most impact. The letters have an impact um in terms of initiating that communication because in that letter we're saying that hey we want to um develop a relationship with you. We want to be able to be supportive, but when we knock on those doors, that that helps. Um, and so I I think helping u us being able to maybe have that at all three levels would be something I would would love for us to really think about in the future is how do we begin to really knock on those doors um you know with with individuals that they know they can build relationships with and they they can work because what you what we tend to see is that we start to see a pattern where those students are coming back but they

066will have some times where they're unfortunately not showing up and being able go back there and and and knock on the door again. They really see that we really care about them. So, that's probably the biggest thing that I see um that has really worked for us so far. >> Thank you, Jamal Beverly. >> Thank you, Kim. And thank you, Mr. Davis. Um, I'm glad you brought up about going doortodoor and building relationships because that to me is key in getting the students to come to school. Um, but the point I want to make is as I look on this graph on the graphs that uh are before us on chronic absenteeism, the pandemic started in 2020. this graph we started in increasing our absenteeism started to elevate in 2018 2019 so that was you

067know it was happening slightly before the pandemic so I just want to make that point >> which graph were you looking Yeah, >> I'm looking at the graph that says chronic absenteeism state versus graten and from what I can see like it started elevating in 2018 2019 the numbers started going up. That's all I'm saying. So, we keep saying, "Oh, because of the pandemic, because of the pandemic." At some point, we're going to have to stop saying because of the pandemic, this happened and that happened and just focus on the here and now. >> Yeah. I mean, the graph I'm looking at, you know, and I think I put it up on the screen, um, between 2015 and and and 2019, you know, it went from 11.1 to 12.2, right? That's where you're looking, >>

068which which Yes. is a is a slight increase and then of course it and then of course it jumped up over over the next two years. But you're right and I think I think Jamal made a good point is that you know it's just a factor that we have to take into consideration. Um but knowing that yeah now here we are it's going to be the 23 24 school year. You know what you know how are we going to make this better? And I think you're hearing bits and pieces of what the different schools are doing. And again, focusing on the relationships and and go doing that door-to-door check is going to hopefully make a huge impact. I think we've seen some of it uh you know, some of the impact already, but we have

069to uh we have to continue to be as proactive as we can be and we can continue to share ideas as to what's working and what's not working. And again, that's part of the conversation here, I think, um to work with the board with that as well. um looking a little bit more and again some of these things we've already uh discussed but just some further breakdowns to look at just so you can see the different ways that we're looking at the data. So again, we um we're looking at those those students that are considered high means and pre- reduced lunch is uh one element that um identifies a child as being higher need. Um >> go ahead. I I need you to continue. Sorry. >> Being of higher need. So when you think about

070the Graten District, almost half of our district is free and reduced lunch. Um so right from the start we are we are needing those extra supports um to help families and students um be successful. When you look at free and reused lunch in relationship to chronic absenteeism, almost 60% of our students who receive free and reduced lunch are the ones that are chronically absent. So there's definitely a correlation between the two, which we we knew. Um this just verifies that. um which again is is part of that bigger conversation of how do we support those those families like like it was already mentioned right developing those relationships so that families can say I'm struggling I need help with or this is the reason why so that we can uh provide them the resources or introduce

071them to certain community resources that are available that maybe they don't know about. So when we're all kind of working together, that's that's the best way for us to bring these numbers down. And again, this is just another breakdown. So you're looking at district uh by ethnicity. >> So do we just have a different color here? >> Yes. >> Yep. You do. >> All right. >> You do. >> So it's the 2022. >> Yeah. >> 2023, which was going to be one of my questions. I didn't know what year we're looking at. Yeah, we the we'll get the dates on top. I hope that would help clarify. >> Um so again, so with with the different ethnicity groups, um the breakdown in the district and then the breakdown in relationship to chronic absenteeism, it's fairly

072similar the two graphs, but the place that stood out the most if you look at our Hispanic population. So 25% of our district is made up of of the his Hispanic um population, yet 30% of um Hispanic population is chronically absent. So there's a a greater increase there with our Hispanic students being chronically absent. And so that's just again another layer to be looking at and thinking about when we're trying to support our um our families in our community. Well, how can we capitalize on this? How could we take this information and what we now know to provide the supports or to figure out the reasons why? >> Can I ask a quick question, Kim? >> AB: Absolutely. >> Um, when you're dealing with the Hispanic community, do you have a Hispanic person that calls

073them or and tries to, you know, somebody that can relate to the Hispanic community? Um, is there a building rep that might be able to uh speak to that? I'm not sure whether it's here or online. >> Any our social workers Hispanic? >> I see Jamal um has raised his hand. >> Are any of our social workers Hispanic? >> I do know. >> I I don't know that off the top of my head. >> Well, that would be something for us to look at as a board. Um hiring an Hispanic social worker. >> Amen. >> Yes. So, I can speak to to the middle school. Um, we we did recently have at Hispanic they they are no longer in the district. They move closer to home. Uh, but we've have um really in terms of

074our hiring um you know um do consider that part of the process um to be able to have that skill set is it's it's something that we look for as well as you know other skill sets. Um, we do have several individuals within um, our school system who are are fluent in in Spanish um, who I can tell you uh, that I've seen has helped tremendously. Um, Mr. Daniel Lick, uh, one of our assistant principles who is is fluent in in Spanish, has been, um, instrumental, um, in really connecting with families, um, explaining sometimes those letters, uh, as they're going through those letters, um, explaining to them what the process, how the, um, absenteeism um, is calculated. And so, that is very helpful as well. Um, but we also have, as I mentioned, some other

075staff members as well that are part of that process. But again, going back to your initial point of um ensuring that we can build those relationships um being bilingual particularly with um English and and Spanish has been extremely helpful. >> Can I just um uh pause for a second? There's um seems to be quite a lot of activity on the chat and this is a public meeting. The problem is is that those of us who are present um we are so far away from the screen we can't see. I know we had a parent who asked a couple questions in terms of um absentee policy. I have requested that our assistant superintendent reach out to your um child's building administrator who could then um contact um uh who can then contact you um about the

076absentee um uh policy yeah reporting procedures. So um but just to understand that when you do some chatting we those of us who are present which is me um um is we can't see I can't there's I have decent eyesight I can't see what's happening on the chat and then it becomes incredibly um uh uh thank you that's I can't even say the word distracting so I'm not trying to be mean um I want I want your answers to be answered um but it's really hard when you do it on the chat in a public Bev, did you was your question answered? >> It was answered for the middle school but not for the entire school district. So that that answer from Mr. Davis was what he's doing at the middle school. That was very

077good. I appreciate that answer. But um what about the entire district? We all all our Hispanic kids aren't at the middle school. So, >> right. And that is one of the lowest in terms of staff representation that we have districtwide is is Hispanic. So, so you've identified an area of concern. Definitely. Is there anybody else who wishes to uh speak on that from Zoom? All right. So, we'll continue to explore that. Definitely. Um there was another aspect of attendance that I wanted um Miss Kazini to to sort of address that a lot of us probably don't know too much about. So that's what the next step is here. >> So just a consideration and just for your knowledge of um the unique place we are um at as a school district in Grten with our

078military families. there is policy, Connecticut policy in place um for military families where they are um allotted 10 additional days than all other students. So when we think about you know your your students and the what's considered excused for the state level according to Connecticut policy. So this policy came as the result of like it's called the compact um which is you know a federal um policy. Connecticut took that and created their own policy related to it. Basically stating that u military families, students of military families who have parents or loved ones that are being deployed or coming back from deployment are are allotted 10 additional days on top of the the nine days. Okay. Um, however, and this is the the however that we've began to have conversations at the state level, we um

079that doesn't that doesn't help us with that accountability index. So, we're still dinged for those students being considered chronically absent, although policy states that that they are allotted this. So, we began the conversation with our state representative um who works with us through the school district. So, we're looking closely at that, but it's just for your knowledge that this policy does exist to Connecticut and it greatly impacts Rotten in particular. There is no other district maybe um thank you Ledger um which might be close but not to the extent um of Groen. So, it's just a just a piece to consider. It's not an excuse. It's not it's just have that that piece of information tucked away and know that we are looking at it um and trying to open those conversations. >> Um so

080again I just brought it back to this slide. You know we've hit a lot of these areas I think with some of your your questions. Um before we moved on to uh staff attendance, excuse me. Um you know, are there questions that you you want us to sort of go back and look for or um and research for you or hear uh more from the school representatives before we move on uh to staff? And I'll stop sharing just so we can see the screen. Liz, >> I would be interested especially from your school about the impact that this this law >> I just wrote it down. >> Yeah. Because um I know a lot of families and I used to live in that district myself and when dad came in or mom came in, you

081know, kids were gone. And so if we're if we're having to record out especially for like Charles Barnum or for Graten Middle or for um Pitch High School >> and parents are coming home and they have you know the state saying one thing and yet they're penalizing us >> for following what they've said the law is. And so I think I I apolog for for you guys get this conversation going with the state reps and saying this is wrong. But I would like to know really how it impacts what's that impact look like. >> Yeah. What the percentage of the chronic absentee is due to deployments, people coming back, you know, that's that's connected with a military aspect to it. I would really like to know that. Andrea, >> I'm I'm on the uh state

082board for military children and in in training that I took about a month ago, it was made clear that federal law supersedes state law. So, I'm unclear on how the state is holding us accountable for children who of the military who are out on what is uh federally mandated. So I I don't know where we would go for that. Perhaps Miranda, I don't know. But um somebody ought be ought to be able to answer that question. Maybe we should speak to the state representatives. >> Yeah, I think I think we have included Miranda in these conversations, but um if you'd like to be looped into those, you know, with the position that you hold, we could just so you're in the loop. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. you could do that because that is the

083that is the question, right? That's the big question. >> Yeah. I I don't know it, you know, have have we talked to the um to the state representatives to or to Senator Summers or have we? >> Yeah, I believe those just initial conversations sort of making them aware of its impact, but um we're going to continue to follow up and and and work with that. So, >> thank you. I I would like to be included. >> Okay, >> William. >> Um, do we have data on military families, military students, what they what percentage they make up all the absentees >> of the absent? So, I know um they've been working on identifying all the military. >> You guys are both very low voice and so people on Zoom land are not going to be able

084to hear you. We can get that for you. I'm just gonna make your sentence much shorter. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. I don't know if that was a question William asked, but how many of our families are taking advantage of this uh the Senate Bill number 217? >> Um it it wasn't the exact question, but it was absolutely in the same ballpark. and she's going to get us the data um about what our u military students are um and who have taken advantage of that. >> Okay. And I I'm I'm with Jay on getting the social workers to come to the a board meeting and and let's hear what they're doing and what their role is in all of this and how um you know it's good to hear from the social

085workers. >> I'm pretty fond of them. Don't know why. >> You said you were fond of the principles. We brought them to you. So, we will bring the social workers to you as well. >> We will get them to the table. >> Any more um questions um before we move into the staff absenteeism? >> I do have one more Kim on the improving attendance one step at a time slide. Mhm. >> What's different that we're doing on this page than we did last year? >> No, it's the one that it was just on, >> right? >> What's different this year that you have on your slide than you had last year? >> Were the uh and I and I'll ask this question. you know, were the were the meetings happening, the the parent meetings, the

086I mean, the attendance letters I know were going out, but I think last year we were we gave a lot more leeway because of what >> I think the state was giving a lot more leeway last year. And I think that, you know, just a a good example, you know, last year you could be sending 10 or 15 kids out of school a day, sending them home because of contact. Um, now the student would be sent home, they would be counted as absent because the state, you know, the if they're not sitting in the seat, then they're absent. Um, so it's something that the u, you know, last year, u absenteeism was a very different thing than it is this year. Um, it just because, you know, because of co. Um, so last year, yes,

087we were sending home the letters. Yes, we were um you know uh setting up for for uh students that were in really bad shape. We're setting up meetings and so on, but even from the high school standpoint, we weren't pulling credit because of because of absences last year because because kids were almost, you know, we had a huge amount of students that were absent just because of illnesses. Um so it was something where um you know a lot of it's the same but I think it's more in terms of you know the focus on it and and the the uh the importance of it this year. >> Yeah. Unfortunately I think you saw from some of the data you know we weren't at you know at an ideal place before co I mean we were

088at 11% you know we the the state wants us at 5% which I don't think many districts hit at all but um to what the co what the pandemic did was uh just create bad habits and then we're trying to get the families um out of those habits and the state again by giving us leniency over the last couple years now is sort of stepping things up and so that's why our efforts have sort of stepped up as well. Um and while we still want people to remain safe, we want them, you know, we're stressing that we need them to be in school uh to avoid these these um gaps in their learning. >> There a heightened level of outreach too with the parents going on this year versus last year given the leniency has

089waned, right? So there's been a heightened sense and more outreach activity from what I've heard you guys >> and I and I think that to answer it also Beverly is that I think that our letters are more consistent. We developed um at the district level agency letter that is much more specific and in power school it has a program where it's able to track them much easier so that we are not trying to manually track them in the buildings. So we have the ability to once we send a letter kind of check them off and then we know not to send that letter again until they get to a different level you know things like that. So I think we've added the power school component which allows us more time to have those individualized more

090personal conversations so that we're not spending all that time data. I mean Bill walks into our building and most of the time my head is in attendance data um just because we're trying to tease it out and trying to get the most information. So I think that's been a huge piece and having the data team really take that on as a whole group this year and really talk about it more deeply has been one of the additions that we've added. >> How do you actually know that the parents are getting these letters? >> Because they call. >> All right. >> My my parents will call and say I just got this letter. Can you can we talk about this? So I've had a lot more parents actually reaching out to me, you know, even just

091from that first letter. Um, so we've been able to have conversations much earlier even at like the level of the four truency versus waiting till, you know, like they get to 10. So for for my from my perspective, um, I think that we've had more parents calling and being engaged and, you know, and things like that. >> Are they are they required to call or will they let it? No. Okay. >> No, with the fourth one, no, they're not required to call. the 10th one. Um, we reach out or, you know, a lot of times they'll reach out to us ahead of time before we do. Um, but I think parents are a little more aware of it and a little more engaged to it. >> And and then another question, how successful are you

092with getting the parents to come and meet with you? >> Um, again, it's sometimes very successful and and other times we're we're really trying to get in touch with that parent. Um, you know, and in other words, the other piece when we're having students that are really in bad shape, especially in regard to credit, sometimes we'll even do certified mail um to make sure that we are getting that uh to make sure that we know that it actually was received. Um, and then we are calling to make sure that the students are coming in um for those meetings. Uh, you know, and eventually uh if the parent won't come in, we'll at least try to get the student when they do come to school to meet with us and figure out what's going on. Um

093because sometimes it's it's about not engaging the families not engaging and again we are doing uh home visits as well just like the middle school was talking about um when we really are having difficulty getting in touch we'll actually go out home >> and you think by doing these one two three four five steps that next year when you come before us with attendance that the percentages will go down >> well I mean that's the hope and and of course bringing in you know it's not reflected on here uh either is the different questions that have come up tonight. You know, how how are we using our counselors? How are we using the uh the social workers? So, those could I mean they play a part in a lot of these steps, but um we

094could get more specific and and really expand their roles if we see the problems, you know, you know, continuing. >> These are really summarized steps. It's not a a full picture as as we heard of what's actually happening in every building. I think though that relationship piece is probably the biggest piece. >> My my hope is that the more relationship we have, the better off we're going to be because we've been so disconnected that there were many parents we didn't even know what they looked like. We could recognize their voice on a phone, but we hadn't seen them for over two years or some parents had never been to the building because their students were in kindergarten when they left. So, I think that trying to build those connections again and and having people kind

095of come out of their shells because we were all kind of isolated in our own spaces. I think that >> that's going to be a big piece. Just keep working at that. >> And we do get to that at the end of this presentation. But, you know, I I've noticed at least across this year that each of the buildings have had more community events. um you know in the two years previous you know we were not inviting um we weren't allowing parents to come into the building just for safety uh precautions. So you know we are h you know this year we've had concerts and plays and uh spaghetti dinners and and different ways all these build community give those opportunities for building relationships with families you know with administration with your teachers with other

096families all which play a part in um building that community that kids want to come to every day at school. So a lot of those you're right are not you know you don't see those in these in these steps here. These are more uh general things, but I know we've done a lot more of that. So, we're hoping that we see some positive effects and that and those are just going to increase as you know into as we move into next year. Let's tack on to that still. I know one of the other initiatives has been a lot of after school clubs especially in the upper levels and I know you're familiar with it but um to be able to find those extracurricular activities that maybe are clubs not not sports and clubs but more

097clubs so that we can hopefully draw those children back to school because if they if they come to school then they can participate in these after school activities which are really fun like e gaming and some of those things where we might spark their interest to come right it's kind of along All right, let's move us on to staff attendance. >> All right, and um Lori Le is going to take us through the staff attendance slides. There's just a few. We broke it down in a a few different start with the breakdown of total. >> Great. Um, so before we dive into that, I just want to answer Beverly's question. She specifically asked before I jump into the staff data and we close out on some of the student data. There is a an element

098of diversity. I was taking a peek at the numbers while we were uh talking um among social workers, uh, school psychologists and counselors. Um, so that was one of your questions. there is an element of diversity there. But within the schools, if there uh isn't certainly someone who's maybe bilingual within those groups, I know like Jamal said, maybe a member of administration, we have bilingual teachers. So, I know each school does identify those bilingual resources to help connect with those parents. Um, and then lastly, I just wanted to mention that um the district does have access to translation services for multiple languages, too. So, we are having difficulty communicating with parents. um this will do have the ability to access that that resource as well. Um so I will dive into this through the staff

099data. So uh what we did is we we took a look uh we have the last four years of data including the current year to date. Basically what were the factors what were the factors that contributed to the majority of the absences in the course of a year. So we did um take a look at those categories which is um if you see on the screen blue is uh personal leave for family illness. Uh red is personal uh leave for an emergency. Uh yellow is uh professional development in district. Uh green is professional development out of the district. And then red is the illness color. So um so that is personal illness meaning not a family member they the staff member themselves are ill. So obvious um I you know obviously we don't need to

100probably state the obvious but we can certainly see the trend has grown. Um I there's a there's a significant element here of co illness. There's just no other way to describe it. Um you can see as we take a look back to 2019 2020 um where we were um at the 26.66% illness um you know the a fair amount of that year was in person obviously until March 2020 um and then we started to see some increase. So um you know we can see where we were kind of almost pre- pandemic levels and then we can see uh in 2021 we saw actually a decrease and that was because there was a lot of at home learning going on. If you recall um a lot of staff members um were frankly able to kind of

101work through some of their illness and continue to work because they were working remotely. So we actually saw a decrease for that reason. And then um you know then again you know certainly some spikes in 2122 and 2223 um when we return to in-person learning still dealing with COVID related absences um back in 2122 we're still dealing with longer absences for CO and if you recall we're still at that point in the 7-day and 10day quarantine or isolation requirement. So that uh drove those numbers up in 2122 and then in 22 23 we're still frankly we're seeing breakthrough co at this point you know breakthrough um illnesses due to breaking through the vaccines um which I'm sure everybody's familiar with. So, you know, certainly our goal as we move forward is to continue to, you

102know, see a decrease in these numbers as as and also we're we're also this year primarily on mass which plays a role as well. Um this is the first full school year we've been um there there was no mask mandate. So that that plays a factor. We did see a slight increase in family illness uh over that time period for similar reasons. um you know families with you know staff members with young children who are required to take turns with their significant other and and quarantine their their children or isolate their children due to illness. So we did see you know you can see there is an element of increase last few years due to that as well. Um certainly our goal moving forward is to see these numbers decline and hopefully get us back

103to a place where we're prepandemic levels. that you know the goal but certainly we know for sure that that has impacted the last you know three years of our absence um and then uh what's not here or what's not included in here is epime we have we have split those out um those are not on the chart because uh for you know obvious reasons they're you know they're medically uh necessitated so we didn't put those here, >> Lori. Um, after how many days of absenteeism do the teachers have to bring in a doctor's note? >> If they're absent more than five consecutive days, we start the FMLA process. So, um, so I would say five days, a week's worth of time, and then we involved with the FMLA process. Then we would start to work

104with them on what their medical needs are on an ongoing basis. >> Did you ever think about shortening that from a week to like three or four days? I mean, so a teacher could be out a whole week without a doctor's note. Is that what you're telling me? >> Yes, I would say that could happen. That's correct. I mean, there are cases where the teacher contacts us right away and says, "I'm going to be absent for 5 days or 10 days. I know I have a medical need and we would certainly, you know, have that communication right away. But the but I would say the the the principles and the assistant principles, they do watch that very closely. You know, they're watching it at day three and day four. They're talking with us in HR

105about what the prognosis of that person's needs are. So, I wouldn't want to uh imply that they just disappear for five days. There's a dialogue that's going on during that five day period. Oh, William, I'm sorry. >> So, the PD that is professional development development. >> So, is that predictive? Like, do you know like next year, you know, who's going to be out with, >> you know, in and and out of district professional development >> for the most part? And you can and you could tell, you know, just from looking at this that it just wasn't offered the last couple years. That's why you see a slight increase into this year. Now we finally have people coming in for um you know for in-house stuff as well as going out which just wasn't happening before.

106But we could yeah we we definitely have things on our radar that we know are annual things that we kind of rotate teachers through. Occasionally something will come up, you know, out of the blue that, you know, there's some interest in that we'll try to support if we can. >> But from a budgetary standpoint for, you know, >> teachers that have to fill in for that, you you have a pretty good plan for that. >> And I would also just point out that if you look all the way back to 2019 2020, and you look at the current year, you know, there's also been some thought about, you know, how much teachers and and individuals are out of the classroom. um you know because we haven't even gone back to the level we're at in

1072019 2020 for professional employment um in districts and district you know we're mindful that there are staff shortages as well. So we're being thoughtful about that process also. And then this is um this is just average classroom teacher attendance data over uh multiple years based on what gets reported to the state through the ED 165 report. So it just gives us kind of an overall trend um as far as kind of how we've been looking. our our in-house data doesn't go back this many years. Historically, we could only go back four years. So, we wanted to just kind of show the trend going all the way back earlier to 1718, 1819. So, we can see over a period of time, if you average all of the attendance, it it stays fairly uh you know, consistent

108other than 1920 um it does drop down a bit. Um but um the 22 23 data is not yet available, hasn't been reported to the state, but we'll be able to kind of see what that looks like and if we're seeing a spike in that data that gets reported out to the state. Uh and just to clarify, my understanding this is personal and sick illness only. Yes. Um so it'll be interesting to see if that kind of spikes, you know, across the years when the 22 23 data gets reported. So, we'll continue to kind of monitor that as far as, you know, where we're stacking up, but you know, over time, um, it's fairly consistent, but I think certainly I think we probably all agree it could improve. >> And it's not shown on this

109graph. I I can't I don't know if you you mentioned it, Lori, but the 2122 uh numbers, which weren't part of the state report because it wasn't yet on the state site, is at 10.1. >> Oh, yes. 10.0 >> for that. But it has improve. It did improve a little bit. Yes, you're right. >> Any questions about this? >> I mean, and really the last two slides have sort of summed up a lot of the points that were already made. Um, so we can kind of go through it and then open it up for any last uh questions. But um you know we're definitely like you mentioned we're definitely seeing a lingering impact from COVID. Um as Lori mentioned it's our first you know first full year back to school where everyone is unmasked. Um

110you know immunity is low due to several years of masking um among the triemic. We are continuing and we're continuing to see covid related uh illnesses. Um so again going back to those steps we are monitoring the attendance both staff and students. Um, you know, we identified some of those um areas of concern and and some of the board members brought up some some others. Um, so we are definitely there ongoing discussions about what kind of supports we can put in place to help things improve. Um, one of the key things we we want to do is is continue to provide and increase the social emotional support and that's for staff and students um alike because um, you know, we know that it's affecting everyone. It's not just it's not just the kids. Um, and

111again, we've already mentioned some of these. You know, we've started talking about these um, you know, what we could do. Um, is there a way to provide some type of incentives for attendance? Um, you know, you I don't know if we want to have certificates, you know, to acknowledge um, good attendance. Um, I mentioned these earlier about family engagement campaigns. What can we do to get more families in the building and building that sense of community? I think you've heard that come up. uh many times uh throughout the night as a key part in helping uh helping kids find a reason to come to school every day. Whether that's through increasing our after school clubs, increasing our activities for you knowh for family engagement. But um you know we definitely want to look to see

112what what's working and what's not and what's helping bring kids and families into the buildings um to build that support. And of across and of course we mentioned the support for students with military roots uh knowing that they face uh different and and additional obstacles um and how we can continue to help them too. >> So that is it. We didn't you know we we hit a lot during you know I think your questions really helped drive this presentation. So I do appreciate everybody's observation. you're seeing what we saw in the data um and you're and and again your additional eyes on the data are helping us see things um that we could uh continue to act upon. So that's our presentation that's you know we will continue to look at it. You've heard us

113discuss our process is is monthly if not more so in the buildings and our district data team also will continue to to use you know to have attendance on its agenda to to monitor the progress across the district. You mentioned that the state wants um districts to be at 5%. Have they given you any guidance on how to achieve that? >> Um I mean other than you know I think some of the things you know I think um community engagement those types of things the letters you know that all came from the state in terms of um provide you know increasing that communication and reaching out and using community resources. So that's all come from the state. Um and that's what we've helped build our plans around. Um I >> think also some of the

114funding and grant funding for like some of the after school activities and those types of things have been so >> is there any place in the state that's at 5% or lower? >> Not that I'm aware of. >> We can we can look into that. I was just kind of curious that would be something I mean also our attendance history whether um I mean it is also has what made us an one of the many >> reasons why we are an alliance school district. So, let me make sure that I so from from Beverly um you want to hear um just sort of the social have one or two social workers come and present what they do in terms of their as they're a member of the team of each of the schools um in

115support of getting families and uh children and their families re-engaged in school. I've also heard from um Jay um just to have a more uh disagregate of some of the data um so that we can kind of see what that means. Um and is there other things that we want to make sure that we get followed through on I don't want to miss anything >> and I tried to write down the questions >> on the >> Oh, the military percentage. Thank you Christine. >> I appreciate it. And Kim, in the chat, Miranda wrote that it says that uh what did she say? Sorry for putting this in the chat. The federal law, the compact says LEAS may grant 10 days of absences. Connecticut law says shall grant 10 days. >> Wow. Okay. But I guess

116it's still being held against us just in terms of what um it goes down as absenteeism. Thank you, Miranda. I appreciate that. And thank you, Beverly, for reading that. All right. Um, there was a request made um by Jay um to add one agenda item to the agenda and that is just to get an update about what happened um at the uh Mr. Giver U magnet school in order just to get an update on that. Did anyone I did not get the letter from Phil >> so that did not go through. Um but can I just see if there is there agreement to add this to the agenda just so we can get an update about what happened this afternoon? >> Yes, please. >> One, two, three. Andrea, >> yes. >> Jay, I'm assuming. And

117Beverly, >> yes. >> Okay. So, we just want to thank the the people that came with the attendance presentation. I just want to say thank you to them. >> Beverly says, "Thank you." >> And Christie just gave a huge wave. >> Beverly, this is actually I'm so very thankful for your um request for this um agenda topic on the attendance. It's been kind of helpful. Thank you. Um all right. So, Bill, >> and I do want to mention I I did send something. >> Excuse me, Kim. >> To add an item to your agenda, you need a twothirds vote. Okay. All those in favor of adding this to the >> first and second. >> Thank you. I have a um I'm making a motion to add this to the agenda. I have a second by

118Liz. Any discussion? So, the motion that's on the floor is to get an update on the Mystic River Magnet School um cafeteria ceiling. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> All those um all those opposed abstain. The motion is carried. Thank you, Miss Jones, for keeping me honest. >> Um, I did send an email out at 255. Now, I used the board of ed member email. >> Apparently, that is a is an old Maybe it's an old uh >> probably, >> so I apologize for that. Um, it was just I just included the message that was going out to Mystic River families by their um principal Steven Wheeler. Um, and I I'll read that >> please just for everybody to hear. Today during our first lunch wave, a small portion of

119the ceiling in the cafeteria began to sag. Students were immediately moved to another section of the cafeteria and then dismissed to their classrooms to finish lunch. Uh in addition, students for the remaining two lunch waves also ate lunch in their classrooms. Uh the fire department was called and arrived to meet with maintenance staff as they assessed the situation. Um student and safe student and staff safety is a priority. Therefore, students will remain eating lunch and breakfast in their classrooms until the cafeteria is ready for us to utilize the space once again. Um, and then he ended it just saying he'll continue to update families as new information becomes available. >> And my understanding from Sam um is is that the contractor is coming down tomorrow morning to look at the cafeteria >> uh ceiling. >>

120Yeah, they're coming at 6:00 a.m. to meet uh with Sam. Um, it's not water damage. That was my first when I first heard the news, I assumed it was some type of water even though it hasn't really rained too much lately, but it has it is not due to water. So, it's structural in nature. So, uh, I will, you know, maybe I'll send the email to you and then or I'll figure out >> which email works best. >> Or you can just ask one of the administrative assistants like Joyce. She sends us emails all the time. >> Okay. Um, so I'll keep you guys as Sam updates me tomorrow. I'll continue to keep the board. I appreciate that. Um, I'm gonna recognize Dean. >> So, two new elementary schools built elementary schools are built at

121roughly the same time. So, I'm I'd like to think that if this is investigated that we're also going to and a problem is found that we're also going to take a peek at Dane River. >> I think that's a great idea. >> Right. off. But >> any other questions? >> I have a question. K. I I I can't figure out how to raise my hand, so I apologize. Um, is is is any of this under warranty or do you think it's something that we are going to have to pay for? >> Okay. >> So, I actually asked this that same question to Sam. It is not under warranty. Um, he was trying to describe to me that it was actually I guess there's like the cloud ceiling. So there's the upper ceiling and there's this

122ceiling. It was this one. It was something like a joist. It wasn't a structural issue in terms of the building. It was actually the things um that held he that's all that he had. Um but it is post um warranty. Um and that's what I know. >> How old are the schools, Kim? >> Two years. >> Two. >> Yeah. But that would be a great question um to see if um to Dean's point is should there be some investigation to our other new school. >> All right. >> Um and Sam is also um he actually was going to be here um but then he needed he just is going to be up at six o'clock to meet with the contractor. So it's nice that he's actually the contractor's coming so quickly. Any other questions on

123that agenda item? Thank you. Let's move to the last one. Um so I just um Susan Joyce and I let me explain. So Susan Joyce and I um met about um three weeks ago. Um and there are two there should be two other sheets besides the PowerPoint. There is the board of education meeting template that has the months. This was something that was created I think maybe five years ago. No, I'm lying. Maybe six years ago um where we were just trying to kind of keep what was sort of the normal things that got talked about um on each month. It's not an exclusive. In other words, we can add things to it. But these are sort of like when we go to the when we go set the agenda or in the past seven

124years when we gone to the or since this has been here when we set the agenda for each one of the c the committee of the whole meetings or the board of ed meetings, we make sure that what's on here um also gets um put in if it hasn't been in before. It's not exhausted. And as you know, we always add things to the list. So what you might notice is that the referral tracking sheet which has the curriculum policy and the committee of the whole finance and facilities and communication. I also went that over with Susan um and Joyce and I but we did not touch curriculum policy um finance or communication because it's not my committee to touch. So, I didn't touch any of those, but some of the stuff that was on

125the committee the whole that we were seeing on a regular or were it said ongoing, we tried to find a place where it might go into the template. Um and so um I we we just with Susan not being here and also knowing that the next two meetings are going to be pretty big in terms of the board of education uh regular meeting where we're going to have the data of the of the K through three reading and then our first committee the whole is going to be on our reading program. Um I just wanted to make sure that this kind of got talk that got talked to. Um, and when I was reading over the board policies, who knew I was actually um, following protocol because we're actually supposed to once a month once

126a year go through this template to make sure things got talked to. So, that's that's the reason why this is on. Um, Liz, I think there needs to be and Phil, you got to help me out here. Under your regular board meeting, BOE meeting on the fourth Monday, we need to add either November or December, we need to add the adoption of any brand uh new curricula. >> Perfect. All right. So, that needs to be added. I I would say even >> report be done in January because they I think they have until >> Yeah, >> generally they have until Christmas. So the problem that we have the problem that we have starting to in January >> is is we go the judge the budget. However, it's really important um that we talk about that.

127So um it makes sense to do it in your regular board meeting in January. I no I think it's honestly we need to be able to vote on these things um in December at the latest because we we should be according to our schedule >> if we follow our schedule we need to have the board to be able to vote on the addition the addition of any new curricula prior to January because that's when it gets published now even though it's it's electronic publishing But would that necessitate an agenda that could be on an agenda the vote without it? >> It doesn't have to be on here. However, to her point is that for this because this template is for years to come is it might be nice to put in December um if if

128if necessary if necessary approval of um new curriculum. >> Right. >> Yeah, I agree. >> Miss Joan. Yes, ma'am. >> Would you be willing to put Do you have that template in front of you? >> Yes, I do. And I'm writing. >> I love you. Would you be able to make sure that Joyce and um Susan gets that? >> I will see her first thing in the morning. >> Love it. Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Is there um anything that people want to add as a on the on um uh the referral tracking sheet? >> Referral tracking >> like is there any is there any is is there any um agenda items people want to chat about? Um Jay um Matthew sent me one and I think it was more appropriate to go

129into finance and it's about um the process of going to electric for school buses and is there a way to sort of begin to kind of take a look at that? Um and so I was actually going to put that into finance to to kind of look at. >> Sure. I will I will send I will send that email to you. >> Yeah, he had sent that to me as well. Um the agenda is already set uh for this month, but we can certainly add it for a future meeting. >> Yeah, I don't think it has to be done immediately since it's going to take a while for any of that to do, but um I was just going to move that to finance, >> right? Important to keep track of all the things that

130that we need to be looking at. Okay, >> Jay, I thought we already talked about electric school buses in in finance. >> So, it was more about heat pumps. >> Yeah, Matthew was bringing up some other ideas just to keep the conversation going. I mean, it's it's going to happen. We so we can't we can't act as though it's not going to happen someday, but we need to uh to know what the best practices are. >> Yeah. Anything else? >> Andrew, did you come on just to say hi or do you have an agenda item or are you going to make a motion? >> I do believe I move to adjourn. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> And William has seconded. All those in favor, please say I. >> Opposed. I >> abstain.

131Motion is carried. Good night, folks. Good night. Good night.