6-24-25 Groton Board of Education Policy Committee Meeting

001Good evening. It is 6:01 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, and this is a special meeting of the Graten Board of Education Policy Committee. Uh, I call the meeting to order. We have present with us committee member Andrea Akerman, uh, assistant superintendent Anarie Mancini, Denise Doolittle who's in charge of special education, Clint Kennedy our IT guru, Jodie Goler who is a the policy person for CABE, our indomitable superintendent, Susan Austin, and uh, in the background Kate Brown who is a technician and helper who makes this broadcast possible. I'm going to start with a review of the minutes for Tuesday, May 13th, and then I will entertain a suggestion from Mr. Kennedy. U I'm don't have a light there. That's okay. Um have Andrea, have you had a chance to review the minutes of the May

00213th meeting? Okay. Well, if you would trust me and care to make an emotion to accept the minutes there, it the minutes are to my perception accurate and complete. So, if you'd like to make a motion, that's fine. Or if you'd rather I make the motion, hopefully you'll second it. I can't hear you. You're you're muted, Andrea. No, you do it. And I I get I I I I hate Robert and his blooming rules. So, okay. I don't know if I can second it or not, but if I can, I will. Well, you you can you you can second it. You can recuse yourself. Uh whichever you prefer. I'll second it. Okay. So, I move that we accept the minutes of Tuesday, the meeting of our May 13th meeting. uh without amendment uh as submitted.

003I so move. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Andrea Aerman. So this is Matt and Andrea. And um all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opp Well, nobody else is here, so it's two in favor, none opposed, none abstaining. Um Clint, you had made an informal suggestion before. Do you want to make it again? If I may. Uh if it pleases the board subcommittee and it doesn't put anybody else out on this call too much. I was proposing that we go old business first and then new business. Uh I have no objection to that. Let me share with you how I had expected it to go in terms of time allocation. I had thought that ba based on a discussion that I had with Susan that I'll I'll share with you

004all in a moment that we would not need more than 15 minutes on the uh I'm looking at the last meeting with this on the school climate and then spend another 15 minutes on therapy dog and leave us an hour to or an hour uh for artificial intelligence and that's builds in an extra 30 minutes because we don't want to do more than two hours uh for whatever runs a little bit over. Susan, is that comfortable? Did that sound like a fair estimate to you? It sounds like a long night for 90 degrees and knowing Denise is still at central office. Um could we do since climate's only 15 minutes, do climate then AI and maybe shorten it up a little bit and then do I don't see the teacher who's here for the therapy

005dogs. So, okay. Know that she I'm comfortable with that if you are Clint. Uh I have no problem with that. Do we know the name of the therapy dog person? Because we do have somebody waiting in the waiting room, but we we have not put them forward because we didn't recognize the name. She just emailed me. It's Leah. Leah Muchon. Great. So Kate, as you're listening, Leah's approved. So when we're there, please bring her forward. Thank you virtually. So we're now talking about uh policy 5131.911. which is the Connecticut school climate policy proposal. Uh I had met uh with I had chatted individually with some committee members about some questions I had about that policy and had the opportunity to meet for about 10 minutes with Susan yesterday before the regular board meeting. And Susan,

006I'm going to recapitulate what I understand we kind of agreed on and you confirm or deny as you as is appropriate that uh my questions were more in the in the regulations and the way it works for anybody who's viewing this welcome welcome to the meeting. Uh thank you. Is the policy is the responsibility of the board of education. the regulations are the responsibility of the administration. We do not have any official say in it. Susan has always been gracious and shared them with us to get our uh feedback and has on many occasions integrated some of our feedback in the regulations. So, at at last night's brief meeting together viewing that I really did not want to spend the time, I I saw if we got into the the comments on the regulations, we'd

007be here well over an hour and a half on that alone. So, we're going to focus uniquely, if Susan is in a court, uniquely on the policy piece with the understanding that Susan's going to work with her staff to tighten up some of the questions that we had on the regulations. That'll let us set the policy for first reading with the understanding that we will get a look at the regulations before the second reading. Does that does that coincide with your understanding, Susan? Yep. Thank you. That's a yes. Okay. And you made a couple good suggestions on the policy because we felt some of the language was redundant and Okay. Take notes on that. Do you see a dog poke into the screen? That's my my second best friend. Okay. So, we all have with

008us policy P5113- 911. Uh Kate or Susan, can did you want to put that on the screen? Do not have that. Good. Do you have it from the I I can send it I can send it to Caitlyn. Okay. Thank you. If you'll do that. So, we'll just start and we'll put it we'll we'll just start and we'll put it on. Um I am looking Oh, you changed your place on the screen, Andrea. Um, Andrea, do you have any comments that you'd like to initiate your reaction to the policy Connecticut school climate policy? Just to just to just to open up the the floor for comments and then I'll turn it over to Susan, Denise, and anyone else that superintendent wants. No, no. Uh the only thing that that I again is that I'm going

009to be looking at consistency you know in terms of um you know presentation of the language that's all you know in other words commas so and things like that you're looking for consistency. Yeah exactly we appreciate that Andrea. Thank you. Susan, would you like to take the lead in explaining to Actually, Denise will because this is by law something we have to have in effect at the start of the school year, actually July 1, but we need to also prepare our administrative team so they understand the law and they're able to implement this policy and the regulations. So, this is what's most important. and this is kicking it up a notch from what they've had to do. But they are very um knowledgeable on covering their bases when it comes to school climate and bullying

010or acts of you know any outburst of behavior and what they have to do. So there's some differences in this. So we need to make sure that they're prepared for the beginning of the school year. That's all I need to say. Denise, the floor is yours. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Matthew and Susan. So, um the new policy is really aimed at improving school climate overall and it's based on a public act that was passed last year. Um and we have had the year to review it and implement as Susan said on July 1, full implementation. Um many of the key elements that are in uh the legislation align directly with the priorities that our district and many other districts are already working on. Excuse me one second, Denise. Uh can you bump the size

011up just one more, Kate? Let me try. I apologize for interrupting you, Denise. Well, that's okay. Outlook. So, I'm not sure how to do that. Clint, can you help us navigate? Oh, here it is. Oh, you got it, Caitlyn. There you go. That looks good, Kate. Control plus usually works as well. Thanks. Um, so, sure. So, some of the key elements um in the policy uh really focus on redefining our behavioral response systems. So what that means is how do we respond to challenging behavior? Um because we know that this has a huge impact on our school climate and our goal is to improve climate by being more responsive to challenging behavior using restorative practices and particularly using a tiered response to challenging behavior. So, we're going to have certain um steps that we're going

012to take when students exhibit challenging behavior. And those steps are designed to support the student as well as their peers in the classroom because we know that often times students in the classroom are observing challenging behavior and it has an impact on them as well. So there are certain times when that challenging behavior impacts other students directly that we'll be communicating with not only the parents of the student who exhibited the challenging behavior but possibly maybe one or or two students in the classroom that were impacted directly by that behavior. Um the policy also um allows teachers to request that the crisis intervention team come together and meet and discuss um options in terms of interventions and strategies that would support the student. And the districts are all required now to give students us I'm

013sorry parents of students who engage in multiple acts of challenging behavior uh resources so that parents can go out and they can pursue support for their child. whether that be child and family agency um uh the graten youth and family services uh or the urgent crisis center there are going to be resources shared with parents so that they can help support their child. Um the another important component of the policy is um to elevate the role of our climate committees in the school. So each school will have a designated climate improvement committee. They will also have a climate coordinator and the climate coordinator will assist in implementing um a lot of the response protocols that I talked about a moment ago. Um also required, again this is all required per legislation. Also required is that

014each school develop a school climate improvement plan. um that would be developed by the stakeholders within that building and there's certain requirements of the plan that we've outlined in a template for each school. Um so it will address you know what who who is on your crisis intervention team. Uh what what what strategies or interventions do you pro does each school provide to students who have challenging behaviors? how often are they coming together and looking at their response protocols and how are we communicating with parents? Um, also included in the policy again is um a school climate survey that's administered annually. Our district has been administering a school climate survey for many years. Um, and we gather input from all of our stakeholders, parents, students, and staff. and then we analyze that data and we

015draw conclusions and we set goals. Um there are many districts that are not doing that. So as a result of this legislation, they will be doing that as well. Um so that's just an overview on some of the key components of the new uh policy. I I would just like to add that um the the the policy that addresses bullying as we've previously known it um is being you know, is is is being changed in terms of this new climate policy. So, the focus will not be on investigating and verifying acts of bullying. The focus will be on addressing challenging behavior and developing interventions, strategies, and resources to assist that student as well as other students who've been impacted by that behavior. Um, and there is a reporting form. So, we still will still have

016uh a bullying reporting form as well as um a reporting form for challenging behavior. Uh but the definition of bullying has changed. Um the definition really looks at um uh an act. It can be a single act. Bullying no longer has to be uh a repeated act. It can be repeated, but it can be a single act that is severe in nature. Um and bullying as know it really includes some type of power imbalance whereas the perpetrator is you know engaging in behaviors that embarrass the victim, demean the victim, belittle the victim. Um you know there's that perceived or actual power imbalance involved in the behavior. So, we're looking at it from, I think, a more holistic way and and a more um responsive way in terms of how we address the behavior and how

017we support both, you know, the student engaging in that behavior as well as the students and the staff who are impacted by that behavior. So, um, Andrea, do you have any questions at this time? No, I'm just astounded that we're at this point. So, I do have two clarifying questions. Um, you did not say this. I read it between the lines. So, tell me if I understood correctly that we have done the climate survey for a long time. We're going to be doing a new climate plan with a new committee in each school. And I am presuming or assuming both of which are very dangerous verbs uh that the climate survey uh the nature of the climate survey may be modified so that it handshakes with uh gathering data that will help in the climate

018plan. Is that correct? Correct. So there I I I did not mention that the um the state is sh has shared with us and it is in your policy. There are now national um school climate standards and Connecticut has adopted them. So, all of our school climate improvement plans will address the five um Connecticut school climate standards and we will explain how we're addressing each standard at each school. We will also write goals that are based on the results of our climate survey data that we obtained uh just recently. Thank you. And my second question has to do with uh some of the words you used about demeaning behavior, embarrassing behavior, maybe quote minor or incidental, non-physically damaging, but nonetheless pushing you know other inappropriate behavior. uh my sense of life is and I think

019this has not changed from uh clearly Mark Twain's time at least and probably going back millennia that there is within human nature uh displays of behavior that are less than ideal and for you not to be doing 20 or 30 or 40 investigations or research per month, there's got to be some standard to differentiate between to to define what the level of behavior is that rises to uh an investigative report. You know, my mom, your mother wears combat boots. Well, that could hurt my feelings. You know, it might make me feel demeaned. Is that going to result in something? How do how do we define what rises to the level of necessity for intervention? Sure. So there's three types of bullying can take many forms, but there's three types that bullying tends to take verbal,

020social, and physical. So bullying is now defined as an unwanted and aggressive act uh unwanted and aggressive behavior among children in grades K through 12 that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. So, anyone uh is free to submit a complaint or a report if they feel they've been bullied. Um just like before, um bullying is now also encompassing the term teen dating violence. Um, so it would be um available for students to complete and the staff, you know, would determine whether or not um it, you know, it met the the criteria of bullying through their investigation. Well, my my concern flows into operations, which you guys will have to resolve. It's not a policy issue. Uh I could see you overwhelmed with uh complaints that you might even consider personally not to be frivolous

021but to be of a nature that there really don't rise to a level of needing enforcement. Uh I hope you will consider as you look over the regulations. This is not for our committee to tell you what to do but I hope you'll consider trying to wrestle with defining uh give yourselves a break. I mean, we you just don't want to be doing 20 or 30 of these things a month. No. And and I will I I will clarify that um more times than not these disagreements are resolved uh at the school level and they do not rise to the um level of a complaint. Matthew, I I did now that you've gone to this um to definitions, you know, I I didn't want to say it because I, as I said, I didn't really

022have a chance to really read the um the the minutes and all. However, uh and to really pay attention to the policy, however, um where do we get the def definition of school climate and what is it? So that's a good question. Uh we were talking before the meeting. We compared Matthew asked us to compare the virtual Moses policy with the and regulations with CABE and we did and they all al both policies and regulations align with the House bill that this um that was passed last year by the legislature. So, all of the definitions uh are in House Bill um have to find the the name of it. Uh but but they're all included in the legislation. They do define Your question was about school climate. Yeah. Uh I would think that the the

023definition of Do we have a definition of school climate, Andrea, in the uh regulations? It's the first the first step means the quality and character of the school life with a particular focus on the quality of relationships within the school community etc. Yes. But but please be aware that all of these definitions and steps in terms of the tiered responses are mandated through legislation. So we literally are adopting uh the the law as it's written as it was written a year ago. All right. May I may I ask a question of Jody if you're still I can't see your image. Jody, are you on with us? Yes, my image is there, too. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. I only see five at a time. Okay. Um, is my cons is the concern

024that I just raised something that you've heard from other districts about how we define so they just don't drown in in paperwork? Am I over am I overreaching? Yeah. Again, I I think ju just to for just to for clarification sake that when this bill was written um in the 2023 legislative session, it was required that CABE write a policy um that takes into account all the aspects and definitions of the legislation. So unlike a lot of laws that are written that require policies, typically those laws basically say the policy needs to include these elements, but boards of ed policy committees can develop their own local policies as long as they comply with the comply with the law. This is a little bit different. This actually says that this is the law. These are all

025the elements of the law. CAB is required to write a policy that boards must adopt as written. So, and this is really not a bullying policy. It's a school climate policy. So, all all of the issues that districts deal with will be relate will be around um reports of challenge or observations of challenging behavior. Um some sometimes when when your administration um comes in is confronted with challenging behaviors or report of challenging behavior um the the of course the the your your administration will investigate it as they would any challenging behavior but but they're not but they're not investigating it as a bullying report. they're investigating is a challenge of behavior report. If their investigation reveals that it meets the definition of bullying, your administration is no longer required to do the kinds of things

026it used to do when it when it reaches that finding. It just it can it can it can um address that issue of bullying as it would address any issue of challenging behavior. um whether they're looking looking at restorative practices at at very low levels of bullying or or suspensions and expulsions for high levels of bullying. So you your administration now has more discretion than it did when it was chasing chasing reports of bullying and then and then through its investigations finding out that it wasn't bullying after all. It didn't meet the level of bullying. And then you have disappointed parents. you have exhausted administrators who have to go back and indicate to the parent your complaint didn't rise to the level of bullying. So this this legislation was written to relieve your administration from

027some of the the due process burdens that it had to address through its previous bullying policy. That's very very helpful. Thank you Jody. Um uh I don't want to cut off discussion. Is there anybody else who wants to add something? I do want to make one amend one uh motion to amend and ask two questions, but I'm ready to move towards the the actual work of the committee and getting this passed. Anybody else have any comments they want to make first? No, I just wanted to say well no, I guess yes. I just wanted to say that was very clarifying and I uh I I really appreciate getting a new perspective on this. So, thank you very much. Thank you. You know, you're going to be welcome here every meeting anyway. So, and I'm going

028to expect another phone call and I I apologize again. It's the visiting nurse I said. Okay. So, we'll let we'll just uh when that comes, Andrea, will you be signing off definitively or could we just go into No, I'm just gonna she's going to tell me when she's in a Okay, so we'll go into recess when that happens. Uh okay. In I found what I considered to be a discontinuity between two paragraphs. I showed it to Susan. I believe she's in accord with me. If you look under the second paragraph, could you go up to the second and third paragraph, Kate? where it says funding. Funding and accountability. Yep, that's perfect. Uh, in funding it says the district shall in its discretion allocate sufficient funding at its discretion. And in accountability, it says shall adopt

029and allocate resources. Well, either it's at its discretion or it shall. And we've kind of agreed uh I'm going to make a motion that the that the first sentence under funding that we strike the words in its discretion and strike the word sufficient because we're going to presume that what we're going to allocate is sufficient. And like so many other things in life, if it turns out we need more money, the superintendent will move the money around. Well, and especially if the funding is to sat satisfy the requirements. So, I think it I think it's just too many words in play. So, it would read that that line would read the district shall allocate funding to satisfy, etc., etc. And the motion would include, and I'll make the formal motion in a minute, under accountability,

030it currently reads, "The board shall adopt and allocate adequate resources. We shall change that. strike the words adopt an adequate and allocate adequate. It shall say the board shall use allocated resources that's what we did in the previous paragraph to support the Connecticut school climate policy and that is the extent of uh the amendments that I would like to offer. So I'm also you also had mentioned the ethical word you didn't I'll get down I'll get down there. I don't think that's a uh Okay. I don't We We'll get there. I don't think that's an amendment word. I think that's a editing word. Yeah. Well, Matthew, when I was reading this yesterday, as I started to read this, those are exactly the things that I was crossing out. I we figured that would be something

031that would rise to your attention. Dr. Aman, you know, I haven't been your student for long, Andrea, but you do whip a have a strong whip on coming in line. Yeah. Okay. So I move that we amend the language and the funding paragraph to read the first few words to read. The district shall allocate funding and then the balance of the sentence as is there and under the heading accountability the first few words will be changed to read the board shall use allocated resources and continuing as it was. Do I have a can I add something to Matthew? One of the things, let me get the motion on the table and then All right. Sorry. Uh, do I have a second to that motion? Second. Okay. Discussions, Susan. Well, I just had said in some

032of the regulations is also the language of the law. So, I think that Denise and I had discussed talking to some administrators and bringing a little committee together and refining that. And then we once we get that done, we can share it with the board. Well, we will have a second reading if there's we're going to need to come back before in the July 8th meeting to look at uh your work on the regulations and if you have any suggestions for strengthening the policy, we'll be glad to look at them at that time. Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded that we modify the language. Uh is somebody writing this down? I have notes. Are you taking that down Susan or Denise as well? Yes, I am. Okay. So, the district shall allocate funding to

033satisfy etc. The board shall use allocated resources to support etc. All those in favor of making that this amendment vote I. I. I. So, the amendment is passed two two to zero to zero. Going on for just a couple of for the purposes of discussion under uh accountability number two it reads a sound school environment that develops and sustains academic social emotional ethics civic and intellectual skills. In my memory over the last four years I have never heard us discuss ethics. I glad to see it's there. Uh, I'm not I don't think we need to change it. I just think you guys in administration may want to discuss how you're going to achieve it and get that in the regs at some point. I think it's a great goal. Susan, you had some comments. No,

034just that we had discussed that word ethical and what that looks like. So I mean if when when you come back with regs since the regs are going to be the operationalization of what the policy says you share your ideas for how that might happen and I think we'll be a much stronger district for it. And finally I'm on number three and as I looked at AB and C it said uh we were going to identify prioritize and support. So my note in my column aside is once prioritized how is this going to be communicated to students staff parents and the community again that is operational question consider whether that's worth considering Denise. Sure. Um so we have an administrative retreat every August and we will be training our administrators. We did brief them on

035this new legislation at last year's administrative retreat. Um, but we will be sharing the forms. We'll be talking about process uh with them in August and then we will ask them to put this on their first faculty meeting for the start of the school year and then we will share it with parents through our website um our handbooks um and other means as as appropriate. That sounds wonderful. So, I don't have any other questions on the policy. Andrea, did you want to raise any other questions? Are we ready to vote a first for a first reading? Okay. I move that we uh adopt policy 5131.911 as a first reading as amended. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing no discussion, I'll ask for a vote. All in favor of adopting 5131911 as

036amended, indicate by saying I. I. I. So that passes two to 0 to zero. And Denise, I thank you very much. Feel free to stay overnight at the office if it's cool. No, get on the road. Thank you. Okay. I look forward to our uh July 8th meeting so we can lock this up and and uh Susan, you have the notes I made on the uh I do form number two where it defines interview victim and we agreed we should say. Yes, we made those changes. We made those changes. Yeah. Great. Thank you so very much. Okay. Thank you everyone. Stay cool. Stay. You've got a lucky bit of news because Clint has to leave early. We're going to change the order of things and you're going to be the most important thing. We're saving

037you for last. Sounds good. Okay. We are now taking a look at U P6131.32734118.53. [Music] Uh, I wanted to uh let me let's put the motion on the table. Um, Andrea, would you like me to make the motion to uh I'm going to do the motion that was submitted initially? Yes. I move for purposes of discussion that we adopt P6131.3273 also simultaneously it's co-labeled as 4118.53 uh electronic devices generative AI artificial intelligence as submitted. Do I have a second to that? Second. Okay. So this motion has been made and seconded. I would like to add uh I re I reviewed the draft of that with um Clint and Ann Marie and the uh the areas that we had agreed that where there was agreement are faithfully uh included in what was uh what was just

038moved. there was an area of differing perspectives between and Marie if I use the language that you don't feel is accurate please interrupt me okay uh there were two different perspectives both perspectives came from a place of and I don't want to say moral they came from a very good place it's just a difference of perspective it's not a it's a respectful difference of perspective. It's been my view that a policy must state the what is desired by the board of education that the regulations discuss the how those regulation that policy is to be implemented. For those who may be watching who don't know the way things are structured, the policy is the responsibility of the board of education. The regulations are entirely the responsibility of the administration though they graciously let us share some

039input with them. Of the policy that I just made, there are four paragraphs and from my reading there is only one of the four paragraphs actually talks about policy. That is the last one. it it mandates a comprehensive review at least every two years. That is a policy position. The other three paragraphs, all of which are good. I have no no problem with the content, but all of the other paragraphs are from my reading aspirational or operational in nature. And so what I did on my own is I went and tried to meld the intended outcome which I think we all agree on uh a vibrant living and really comprehensive policy. I tried to reframe it in five brief sections. It it is not 40 pages long as you might expect from me. It's a

040little over two pages, a 12-point type. A statement of need and purpose which grabs almost verbatim the first three paragraphs so that the work there is is is not lost, is not meddled with, it is not trafficked. The second section is called collaborative approach. This was taken from the regulations but it was becomes a directive. It becomes a policy directive where the board of education requests the superintendent to establish a district-wide committee. The the uh the description of how that committee will work is the exact language from the regulations you prepared. The third section is elements of operational concern to be addressed in regulations. Again, it's my belief that no administration can operationalize something unless they're operationalizing what has been described. And so I have put in a bunch of u bullets. Uh Susan, I

041don't know if that got to did that get to Kate so she could put it up. Um you you got it. No, you gave me a hard copy, but I didn't receive it digitally. I don't think it was sent to Clint and Marie. Matthew, are you referring to the email? You've had it in the body of the email. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Can we get that on the screen? I will uh let me work on it. Okay. And I'll I'll keep talking. So, I prefaced before I listed those elements and I I had it in three sections. elements for students include elements for teaching staff in will include elements for administration and board of education will include I'll get to that when we get it on the screen but I had an introductory thing called note

042it's in smaller type so that it's not confused as being policy itself operations being an administrative function this policy limits itself to enumerating currently identified elements that administration will oversee and direct this list is not exhausted exhaustive, excuse me, and may be amended between mandated policy reviews. Interested parties should refer to the accompanying regulations for any interreview changes administration may need to implement. The intentionality behind that is to say we recognize who's in charge of regulations and there's no not only is there no effort to try to micromanage administrations uh operations but we're saying very clearly we recognize where the authority lies. The fourth part of this is a single paragraph. It's the mandated review cycle. That was the last paragraph of the initial document. And the fifth says supplemental policy elements. And that basically

043says we'll continue our highly valued association with CABE and other educational organizations in the state of Connecticut, which was also drawn from the regulations. That's really not a regulation. That's a policy drive. So that was my goal. Uh, I'm going to back off the content for just a minute to suggest we have this co-labeled in the 6,000 and 4,000 series because we want it to be for for certified staff and for personnel. I would argue that we need to have a third category and that would be for students. the same document but also labeled because if a parent is interested in seeing how something affects his her student, they may not look under personnel or certified teachers, they're going to look under students because that's their interest. So I looked within our policy manual and

044the closest thing we have is 5131.81 and that is electronic devices. uh and so I have tentatively numbered this 5131.82 82. So that we when whatever it is we have whether it's the original or what I'm going to move as an amended version it will be in three places instead of two wouldn't change be the same document. Can we bump the size of this up Caitlyn or Clint? Let me see. Let me see what I can do. Thank you. So what you're going to see is going to be two colors. The green is Yes, Anmirie, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. Oh, um, Matthew, I just put up my hand, so um, you didn't I haven't had it up long. Thanks for recognizing me. Um, I love the idea of including students in this because

045I really do feel like students are going to be highly impacted by this policy. I'm wondering, uh, because I know Cave has come out with a model policy. um how do they categorize this particular like an AI policy? Um I I wonder if it's, you know, identified in a certain way or if it's multiple if it falls under multiple categories. Why don't we ask Jody? Okay. Um I I don't have access to the K policy, but I believe it is only singly coded. um that doesn't mean that that that is correct that again I like I like this conversation and it's something that I'm taking back to my own work to see if this is something that we should code in different areas as well. So I'm I'm moving toward Graten's point of view on

046this one. Yeah, I just don't want it to be confusing to our to people who are looking for it. I I think it makes sense to um because it does appeal to multiple stakeholders. I just don't want want it to be confusing to people as as they're looking for it. I I understand the the the way I'm perceiving it is that by giving it three numbers and having it appear in three places wherever one goes they're going to find it and it will not vary from one place to another which we have to remember if we ever amend it. We got to amend it in all of them. And I did discuss with Jody about coding and I tried to follow his advice which was to locate something that was seemed very close and that

047was uh 81 and now we've number this 82. Does that do you have any concerns about that Susan or or Anmarie? I just feel like it's a lot to digest. I mean I think that I I almost feel like I need to see one at a time. um whether we start with the student version or the adult version. Um but they're not going to be different at all. They would be identical. That I mean that was that was the thought I had. You you may not like you may want something else. I want to hear that but I thought it would be the identical text. We're not going to finish this tonight. My hope is this is I'm hoping that this will be a discussion which will really get us moving towards a solution. But

048there's no expectation that we're going to finish this tonight. So Cab has not considered this, Jod, and looking at it from the different perspectives yet. No. No. When I wrote this policy a couple years ago on just as um Chat GPT was um rearing its ugly head. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to get something out there quickly to because a lot of districts were simply trying to shut everything off and so I wanted to put something out there that was aspirational that districts could could see that there was a positive way of moving forward with AI and certainly you've taken this through Matt's leadership take have taken this beyond what I did two years ago. Um typic typically we will singly code or dual code. Um we have we don't typically try code um there there

049are different ways of going f first of all I would suggest whatever AI policy you have is your AI policy I wouldn't create three of them that that's much too complicated and way too deep in the grain size as far as I'm concerned. Um you might want to you could address certain things within the regulations to address students and and teachers and board of ed um that that would be up to you. That's a business decision from your administration. Um, if you want if you felt that having three different places, although I agree with Matt, having too many places to look is isn't going to be the problem. Think you're trying to think where did the board put the AI policy? Will it impact students? I'll look in the students. Um, it's not there. Then

050I'll look at well, where would it be? Maybe instruction. I'll look at instruction. No, it's not there. I'll look at personnel. Um, having it in all three areas would would be, I think, easier for your community to access. if you didn't want to go to three different codings, you can always cross reference as well. So you can that's we've done that in the past. That's been a good way to do it. So th those are ways of of approaching it. Um again, we would we we dual code things like um um when you have a personnel policy, it'll be non-certified and certified. We'll do the 41 and 42 coding. Um but but in this case, it's something very different. It's very new. Um, there's nothing to stop you from doing three codes and then moving

051to two. If if you realize that having it in three different areas might be overwhelming or adding to confusion, you can you can make those decisions down the road. When you first did it, did you do it under the lens of instruction? I did. But it'd be more comprehensive and it could include the other um that's how I looked at it then. I looked at it this is instructional issue. It's technology. where where where are other technology policies? So, I embedded it in there. That makes sense to me. It it does. It it it does make sense, Susan. The the rationale for doing multiple is not that it is wrong to have done it the way it was done, but it is to make it easy for any one of the stakeholders to find it.

052And as long as there's uniformity between the diff between the contents of the different code, the worst that you'll get is a is a question as to why is the same thing in three places? The answer to which is we want to make it easy for everybody. But we can come back to that. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this coding. We we we have a couple more meetings. So, and now the language that you added, Matthew, um was that just to go in deeper to it? Um was that generated through um looking at the law? How how did that transpose the language? Well, I don't have my little manual with you. I have a binder, as I mentioned to Susan, that's probably 200 pages worth of documents from around the

053country of different people trying to wrestle with AI. And this language is my language. Okay? But I don't take ownership of it. I'm a compiler of other people's language. So this is my my best shot to start the conversation. This is not a take it or leave it. I mean, let's if there's something that's problematic, let's rip it to shreds and rebuild it. I'm fine with that. But the answer to your question is I wrote it. It was informed by my reading, my broad reading. And you had mentioned also by some of the regulations, right? Yes. Some of it comes directly from the regulations and I can point that out. Uh okay. So the the first can can we scroll up a little bit? So do we just get the header stuff away? I'm I

054apologize. Yeah. Go down to so that we just start with number one. Statement of purpose. Bring that up to the top. Okay. So, here we have the first three paragraphs of the original that you submitted. Uh, I have made a couple of changes. You can This is spelling error in learning. I highlighted in that yellow. What I wanted to change. I crossed out what I want. Anything I added is in blue. So, everything in green is what you initially sent me. I added an intermediate paragraph. Uh I did that because I wanted to try to help this document as a policy be an educational piece as to the meats and bounds of what we think artificial intelligence can do and to do it in one or two sentences. I would turn basically to Clint. I

055didn't ask his com I did actually ask his comments. He said he suggested we do this tonight, but I would be grateful for Clint's comments about the second paragraph. The rest of it is exactly as you gave it to me with the exception of one last sentence at the end of the fourth paragraph. It should be un this it the policy and we should make it the policy. This policy should be understood in conjunction with the company regulations. I want people to see the policy and turn to the regulations to see how you will operationalize it. So, just a few quick quick hits. Um, I'm always a little uncomfortable with the just general term of artificial intelligence. That's why I really pushed for generative artificial intelligence just because we use in the com vocabulary we

056do just call it artificial intelligence AI, but it is a specific set of that. So, if we want to be precise, it's just a it's out there. Um, I've made that change. I made that change. Um, I I I see where you're going with this and I like what you have listed in that second sentence, Matthew. It's always going to be an incomplete list just because of the power and and the the opportunities with which a tool like this can be used. So if we're comfortable with a a this list as it as examples with some type of etc potentially then okay but again when you start trying to define what it is through example or possible uses I it can be you know it it could be a an infinite number of uses and

057it continues to change uh as we see you know as we get into a more agentic realm of generative AI. AI tools, etc., etc. Would you be more comfortable, Clint, if we had it, it demands it demands great user reflection in parentheses in areas such as and then at the very end value claims, etc. I would be more comfortable with such as. Okay. Certainly not for a policy, but I I typically such as Great. What were you saying, Clint? As an aside, I we could certainly call it a tool here. Um but as I work with professionally with teachers and others, I do like to refer to it as more of an instrument because it is not something that is commonly known as far as you know a a set recipe ABC. You know, it's

058there are so many permutations in the way that you craft and use some of these tools. I think that word works better. Certainly not for a policy, but as we start talking about this, would you would you like for consistency for us to refer to this in this document as an instrument or a tool? No, sorry. It's this is an aside. I don't think instruments appropriate for a policy per se. uh it's more as we continue to kind of build a a common mental model amongst us and as we continue to take that out in the world and work with our teachers and students and so forth. Okay. So, uh are there any comments? Andrea, uh an Marie, any comments about uh I guess I should make a motion to amend. Uh no, let let's

059talk about it first before I make a motion to amend. Are you okay with that guys? And Marine saying yes. Yes. Saying yes. Okay, good. So, is there anything else on section one that you want to talk about? Okay, moving on to section two. Section two is lifted from the policy statement that you have prepared. I'm looking at the wrong policy statement. How about if I do AI? I have animals in the classroom. Okay. The board of education requests uh requests that the superintendent establish take out the word to no to establish a district GAI advisory committee. So the blue sent the the the blue paragraph which I wrote is the policy statement. We are saying that we are asking the superintendent to establish this committee. That's the policy and we talk about uh and

060I put in from your uh the green is actually what you had. I just took I just substituted the word minim mitigate instead of minimize but whichever one you prefer is fine with me. I think I see an hand up. I'm sorry, Anmarie. I'm looking downward. Please speak up, Anmarie. We're We're friends. Yeah, I'm I'm I tech I I typically don't yell out. I'm a rule follower. Um who who do we who are we talking about when we talk about legal experts? I have no idea. That was that was in that was in your uh that was what you had in the uh I got that from your from the I'm losing my mind regulations. I got that from the regulations. So I I will if I can jump in here. I I I don't

061know what the original intent was or if that was in the cave policy or not, Jody. It could have been something we added. Who knows? My understanding or my assumption would be part of this world as we're evolving there is regular and ongoing litigation around the training data that is used to build many of these models um and the appropriate withness with which some of that data is used. So there are many legal questions that are still outstanding um in the both the training of these models as well as the inference using these models. uh and so forth. So my my strong inclination is to believe that it was it's in reference to that that that landscape is will be continuing to change I would predict over time. Uh so I'm just wondering if we're

062going to have a district committee um are we com are we committing to having one or more legal experts and who will they be? So I always wonder if something is written down, you know, what are we committing to? It's a fair question. I don't think we should have them as a standing member of the committee. Uh but if we want if we feel that that's important to keep in there, it could be some type of language, you know, in consultation with as needed or what have you. Yeah, I I am I imagined and I I really didn't articulate that very well. Thank you, Anarie. I had imagined that it was going to be Floyd. I didn't know why it was origin the text that was it was in the um regulations and said legal

063experts and I made it one or more so we weren't committing to more than one but I had presumed it would be we don't need to do it that's just your operational decision to have the the lawyer review everything yeah and I always I have to say ahead Matthew I have to say that that stopped me too okay that stopped me too so Um, so every we always submit like when once we have decided on this we do let Floyd take a look at it but I don't know if he would be Yeah. But if we're meeting regularly as a committee I don't think we want to make I don't think like you know we have committee meetings sometimes once a month or a couple times a quarter. I don't know if we want to

064commit to bringing in an attorney um for all of those, you know, or some kind of legal um expert every one of those meetings. You know, that could be costly for for the district. So, I just would be very careful I think to putting something like that in writing. I think you're right. I don't think it would hurt to take it out completely with the understanding that since you're going to use Floyd's services anyway that you'll use him as an advisor whenever you want to use him. Right. And I just want to also say Matthew, we have quite a few um committees already that this might align with like we've had curriculum and instruction committee where we could really focus on AI um grant teaching and learning an Marie put together the strategic planning group.

065So we have like an abundance of committees already that maybe this would align better to one of them that would continue the work of teaching and learning and curriculum and instruction but look at it from the vantage point of how AI is going to influence instruction. So let me offer an idea. My intent was to begin the conversation. We've begun the conversation. I would be delighted if if you and Marie and Susan and with Jod if he's willing uh we know what we want to have which is a committee. How we structure the committee is not my concern. My concern is that we state we want to have a committee. Why don't you write up the paragraph the way you guys want it and we'll and we'll just pass on that and continue come back

066to that next time. We're not voting on anything. So Sure. That sounds good. Thank you, Matthew. Okay. Can I can I ask one more clarifying question? Um, right now we have I'm looping back to this and I apologize. Um, we we labeled this as instruction personnel certified. Where does the non-certified piece come in here? We talked about students and I can see certified and the students piece, but I'm having trouble seeing where the non-certified piece comes in. And forgive me if if it's really obvious and I'm just not seeing it. I just took it the way it was and added something to it. I didn't try I didn't bring any evaluative focus on the inclusion. I just presume that's the way it was. I don't this committee, as far as I aware, Andrea, tell me

067if I'm wrong, this committee has is that's an operational decision. I just want the students involved, too. Clint, is there something I'm missing? No, I I I don't have anything to add to that. Sorry. Well, I just know because we talked a few minutes ago about triple labeling and I I maybe we unless I'm missing something, maybe that we're we can eliminate that label. And Maria, I think you're making a really good point. I think I think again this gets to um where policy policy and community morayes and and your board you know is is looking to communicate to its audience as to where where it's most feasible to find certain policies but but you could certainly take this you could add business you know this is again the 3000 series you could add non-certified

068certified I think I think Clint will tell you that there probably isn't an area of of the board's overall purview and your administration and and the entire district where AI won't be impacted some way. It it'll be in your bylaws. It'll be in personnel. It'll be business. It'll be community. It'll it can you can literally have nine codes for nine sections. But I think I think your your board is going to have to make a business decision as to as to where is the community right now in terms of what it needs to know and how to find it and and and the administration being able to communicate that to your public. I think um but this can all you can start with nine and go to one. You can start with one and go

069to nine. I think it's just a it's really a business decision at this point. But you make a great point and we do have the the the remaining assuming Matthew you want to keep this in as we scroll down here. But you know the ability to have this looked at regularly and thoughtfully is is critical to this. So I'm less concerned about getting 100% now just because I do not think 100% is is is a viable option for for anyone at this point. So, Andrea, would I be misspeaking if I said that I would love Susan and Ann Marie to to think about how we want it uh coded? I don't mean choosing the numbers, but you know, what sections we want it in and come and come back at the next meeting with your

070ideas. I think we'd be receptive to that, wouldn't you, Andrea? Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I mean, that's the way we should be a team. Okay. So, I'm gonna go on now to section three. Is that all right, everybody? Yes. Okay, Leia, you hanging in there with us? Yep, I'm still here. Okay, thanks. I haven't forgotten you. Elements of operational concern to be addressed in regulations. I read you the note out loud before. So again, this is Matthew's pass at the elements for students. You may wish to delete something. You may wish to modify something. You may wish to add something. This is not a package I'm selling. I just want to get the conversation started. Authorize GI platforms by grade level and subject matter. We're not telling you what how to do it, just what

071what we going to need. That I drew that from Clint. Age developmental appropriate access and equity. Age appropriate instructional modalities. Student GAI ethical use standards. Student GI resource utilization. Analytical analytic evaluation of outputs. Documentation and critical thinking skills to discern the technologies limitations and digital literacy, safety, boundaries, and accountability. Can we bump the size of this again? Can it? Thank you. Okay. And we'll raise it so whoever people can read the next the paragraph that follows. There we go. Okay. You don't need me to read it aloud. You're capable of reading it. Uh, Matthew, very very difficult for me to see. Okay, I will read it then. I'm happy. Thank you, Andrea. Student violations of GI usage policy will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, eg warnings, restorative acts, academic penalties, or more severe measure

072measures commensurate with the severity and repetition of the offense or offenses. Administration will annually amend student handbooks so parents, guardians, and students have access to district policy and expectations. Regulatory changes within a given academic year shall at a minimum be posted via parents square. What do you all think about that? Matthew, I'm going to say what I said to you on I guess maybe it was Sunday. I don't know. Um I I think there's too much in there. I think it it goes over into regulations. I mean, this is what we're going to do and how we're going to do it is warnings, restorative acts, and all all that sort of thing. I just I I think it's too much uh feedback. I agree with you, Andrea. I really think historically we tried to keep

073the um policy directly related to the legislations short and sweet and then the regulations, those are more pliable. So, as things change with AI, we're going to be evolving. The policy and the law may not change yeartoear, but certainly regulations we might tighten up. And I would want to or the future superintendent may want to be able to have that ability to do that with the staff as we see fit. Well, that is all operations doing with the staff as you see fit. There's nothing in here that's directed to that. Let me give a hypothetical. Perhaps I'm stretching too far. If we don't define, if we don't have these things, if I get voted down, it won't be the first time in life. Life will go on. I'm good with that. But if we take

074these specific directions, this these are directives that we call them requests, but they're directives. That's the policy directives. If we don't have policy directives and student X does something that is really inappropriate and we want to exercise some sanctions at whatever level and the parent comes and says you can't do that. There's no policy that says there's anything wrong. We have to state what it is. In my humble opinion, we have to state in broad strokes what we what our intended outcomes are. We do need to have our platforms vary by grade level and subject matter. We do need to have age and developmental appropriate access and equity. We and instructional modalities. you know, fourth grade, fifth grades can be quite different from from the and you're going to define all the operational stuff in

075regulations. That's right. But I would also say that our administrators are very much well aware of that and we have something called a student handbook that we're actually revisiting all of them to make sure they're in line with legislation to make sure our regulations are up to date. And that's what the parent sees because you're right, this is the information that parents and kids need to know um you know should they not follow what is expected in schools. Wow. So I think that we do have our bases covered in so many ways. First through policy, then regulations, then the student handbook, then the parent nights, and and the messages that principles, good principles send out on a regular basis. Matthew, can I ask a a clarifying question, please? Sure. So you have student violations of

076GI usage policies will be subject to appropriate disciplinary. What are those usage policies that you were referencing there? Ah, very, very good. Good catch. Uh, I think we should change that to regulations, policy to regulations. Good catch, Clint. So, are you going to leave in and I think that would be okay in my view anyway. student GI um resource utilization blah blah blah um analytic no I'm on the right one the age appropriate uh instructional modalities and I saw age appropriate again very difficult for me to see uh age blow that up again Clint more maybe to you know, I think it's just me. I think it's today. Uh, as I said, this is not a the best medical day for me. Um, but anyway, fast. Um, where it says age approp disciplinary something? Doesn't

077that just cover it? You don't have to go through all that other stuff. Well, obviously you know that I I I feel strongly that any policy direct what the regulations are to do. And where does it say um the part Clint about age appropriate? Um right here and elements for Matthew has elements for students include and that's the it's the fourth bullet I think is what you're referring to. This is age appropriate instructional modalities student GI. No, not instructional. It was another one about age appropriate age developmental appropriate access and equity. No, disciplinary actions I think it said. Oh, that that is below. That is not a bullet. that and doesn't um doesn't that that cover everything where you just say it's it's age appropriate and then you let the the professionals deal that out.

078Uh uh that's exactly what this does. It says age appropriate and it lets the professionals do in regulations whatever they want. Yeah. But I think it it needs to just stop there. Okay. Maybe this is a good time to to to move on. Uh we're not going to vote on anything tonight. Uh please, whether you're on the committee or in an advisory capacity or in administration, uh give some thought. If this format does not appeal to you, I invite you to come up with an alternative format that states what the intended outcomes are. I have no ownership of this language or this structure. But we do need to have a policy that says essentially the board of education directs the administration to do X Y and Z. We need to articulate what the X Y

079and Z are. and then the administration. I I think I disagree with that. I don't think we I think I I my fear is that we're going to move what is policy into what is regulation and that's going to have a um well I don't word I guess the word I'm looking for is uh I don't want to say devastating because that's too difficult that's too detrimental. Thank you. Um, and I I think that policy needs to stick with policy and there are deep implications for having policy become regulation. That's my fear. Can we just direct I think if we need to if it needs to be directed just direct them to implement the recommendations of the of the handbook of the student handbook. Yeah. Then we need to then we need to see the

080handbook before we can do the policy. Well, we I'm sure we can see the regulations before you do the policy. Sometimes we see it during or after. So, I think they have to go hand in hand. I'm I will I will I will really take some time in the next week or two to really consider all that I've heard you say. So, I'm I'm going to really see what I can do to to to mold this a little bit better. uh at the same time if the policy does not state the intended outcomes it is not a policy though what you said Andrea I think really accurately mirrors the the different perspectives that Anamarie and I had chatted about it at our meeting and maybe that's because we've been uh principles and we've been or

081administrators and maybe that's because we look at things differently, but I see that deep implication for having policy move over into okay regulations. I I fear that. Okay. Well, we will come back to this. Uh it is now 7:17. I'm going to think, Leia, that if we go another 13 minutes, we can go as far as we go and then it's your turn. Okay, sounds good. You need to go. Uh, sorry. I thought we were ending the AI session. Where could you want to continue? I was I was going to go on and continue as until we got to 7:30, but what's your We can stop now if you want. I think I just I'm mindful of Leah being here. She has a young family and she's waiting. So if if this if what I

082brought today sparks somebody else to come up with another approach that that is I want to say better that responds to my concerns in the original document is that the only thing that was directive was a directive for the review that there was really nothing in my opinion nothing that stated what the policy outcomes were supposed to be. So if you have another way of looking at the policy outcomes, I'll be delighted to see it at our next meeting. Jody, can I just ask July? Maybe we'll finish in August. Jody, would since you're here and you know like around the state what people have been doing, have you seen outcome statements on these policies that seem to be mindful and would be something we should look at? Not specifically with AI. Again, different boards will

083take different approaches in terms of how it directs the superintendent to develop the regulations. Some are more prescriptive. Um, some policies, you know, again, I this is this is a great conversation looking a lot of lot of boards will take regulations and applied in their policies. I discourage that. I tend to like policies that as Matt articulated deal with the what and and then the regulations deal with the how and sure you want to make sure that the regulations implement the policy but you also have to be careful of and I what I hear you saying Susan and Maryanne and Clint is that you have to be careful that the the directive doesn't become so specific using Andrew's word it doesn't become detrimental to your administration carrying out your policy. Yeah. And that really and

084what you know I I know you want to end this at this point but I I stand ready to talk to you Susan and your team to help you with um with what you're trying to bring back to Matthew and I always I'm always available to Matthew as well to have that conversation on the side as well and we can come back at our next meeting and and nail this. But thank you Jody. I would appreciate that support. I'd be more than happy to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I I I too, thank you for the clarification. Uh this is not going to be an easy policy. I think Graten is very lucky to have Jod and Clint uh as as real experts and together we are going to we're going to take a little longer,

085but we're going to do a good job. And Susan, I look forward to your improvements on what I've done. But at least we got a place to start now. Yeah, I I agree. We've got a good starting place. Absolutely. So for those who have other things to do, Mr. Kennedy, go and take care of our town, please. Thank you all. I appreciate it. And Dr. Mancini, if you're Thank you, Anmarie. I appreciate it very much. Good night, everyone. Good night, Jody. We'll be talking. Okay. Night. Well, so how what did you think of all that, Leia? Um, I'm very interested in improving the school climate and I think it connects well with what I'm proposing. So, absolutely. So you might want to talk to them about what you've done in preparation besides writing a policy

086with um you know Denise do a little support and I think a CA version um because you've really gotten a grant that will help support implementation. So you want to give them a little background? Okay, that's that's honors. So, I'm I'm Lee Mutron. I'm one of the counselors at the middle school. Um, and I'm looking to propose a therapy dog program for the next school year. Um, I've received funding from, um, Graten Education Fund and also a nonprofit in New Town, um, which was founded by, um, a family who was affected by the New Town, um, shooting. Um, and the girl's name is Charlotte, and, um, Charlotte's litter is the organization. Um and basically because the schools were so affected by this event, dogs were brought in um and used therapeutically um to help the

087students deal with the tragedy. Um so I'm feel very lucky that we were able to receive that grant as well. Um and the work that the nonprofit is doing is really motivational for for me. Um so upon receiving those two grants um I've looked into kind of the regulations and the guidelines through um what's called AIP. So that organization get provides the foundation for how to implement um therapy dogs in schools because it works with professionals. Um, so, um, I have lined up like what insurance policy I would use so that way, um, Willow and I are covered as a registered therapy dog team. Um, and we've done all the training, um, and we're registered with Pet Partners, which works in conjunction with AIP, um, to support professionals working in the field with therapy dogs.

088Uh, I've read over the document. I think it's wonderful. Uh, you may not know it, but I was a hospital chaplain for a number of years after I retired, and therapy dogs are an extraordinary resource. So, I really look forward to this happening, and I'll do everything I can. I only have one question about the policy in the I'm I'm not sure which language you want because it's marked as alternative language, alternate language. It says here, "Requests to bring therapy dogs to school may only be made by current district employees." And that raised two questions in my mind. First of all, are we limiting it to just employees or if there's a student for whom uh there is a medical necessity whether it's physical or emotional um to have so it's separate it's therapy dog

089is separate from service dog um got it therapy dog has policy too yeah has to have that's why this is going to be separate from service dog policy because therapy dogs. So, Willow would be like a facility dog and a therapy dog because she would be stationed at GMS, but um she could we could also be utilized in other schools in the district if if there's an event or if there's needed support. Um so, therapy dogs work with a handler and to provide like comfort and support. So it's not to provide like a service under the American Disabilities Act. So it's it's its own separate thing. Thank you. Thank you very much. The other question that I had is the phrase here current district employees and what you said may answer my question, but I'll

090I'll ask the question anyway so you can clarify it if I got it wrong. My concern was the word current district employees and maybe and I looked at it from the point of view as could it be a violation of ADA to discriminate in hiring an otherwise exceptional candidate based on his or her uh need for a dog that would uh compensate for a disability. But you've pointed out the difference between service dogs and therapy dogs. So that answers that piece of the question, but I don't like the idea of saying a current employees. We may have a hire in a year or two or three in another school who is an accredited handler or becomes an accredited handler for a therapy dog. And I don't want that to limit us and constrain the superintendent

091from saying that's a great idea. We could use a therapy dog in XYZ elementary school or the high school. So, if we're using the alternative language, do you have any objection or see any reason to to limit it to current employees? It's a qualification of the person, not their status as to when they were hired. That's really an issue to me. Yeah, they would have to be like working in the building. So, maybe we could phrase it as has a contract or um something about impending of the district. Yeah, the word the word the word current doesn't affect it doesn't even address where the where it is. It's the word current is is completely limiting to the time somebody has become a GPS employee to only current employees. I'm not talking about the qualifications. I

092get it. I get it. And if we had four more people in the middle school who said they were handlers and they met all these things, it doesn't mean that the administration is going to to have four more people. That's that's an operational decision that the administration will make. I just don't want to bar a future employee from having this opportunity to propose being an accredited handler. Susan, what do you think? I I don't know. Do you know why the current was listed there? I don't know exactly why it was. I mean, I think it needs to be an employee. Although, I have to say that we do have school resource officers and police who are hand dog handlers and I think they are therapy dogs as well when they come into the school and

093but they're not limited to a facility. So they are able to go to do like we had the dog come in when we had that horrific accident with our teens in the beginning of the school year and they were really served us well. I mean it made a real big difference I think in the school. I I think what it's trying to say because attached to the policy you have to like submit a request um to Susan like to have the therapy dog at the school. So, I think it's just saying that in order to request to bring the therapy dog, you have to be in the district. Um, so I think we could say made by a district employee. I think that would say it. Do you think so, Andrea and Matthew? I have

094to say that I thought we were going to um halt the meeting when I uh Matthew, what was the word? If you need to go, just just I did. I I did. The nurse called and I did, but I missed the all the conversation because I said that the phone rang and I said that's the nurse. Oh, I'm sorry. I I just missed it. I would have put us in in what was the word you in recess. I would have put us in recess. Okay. But Leah Leah has done a nice job. I think she could fill you in. Yeah. Do it again. Do it again, Leah. Yeah. Play it again, Sam. Um, so essentially I'm proposing a therapy dog program at the middle school for next year. Um, and we were just talking about

095the difference between service dogs and therapy dogs. Um, so therapy dogs um, have a handler and they're a registered therapy dog team through an organization. So Willow and I are registered through Pet Partners. Um, and it's not a certification. It's I had to go through like um a test to see her appropriateness for um basically comforting people. Um so I when I read this if I I wanted to ask this this question Leo when I read this I think I misread it. So what you're saying is you want to bring a a therapy dog program into the middle school. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. So, I'm a counselor at the middle school. Um, so there are some situations where, and this happened even this past year, where sometimes a student just needs the comfort

096there of a dog and it's not anything that can be like sometimes everything can't be resolved in that moment, in that 10 or 15 minute session, that it's sometimes just the comfort of having an animal there um where you don't have to say anything. And there's um research about oxytocin being released to like bring the stress levels and the cortisol down. So um sometimes just in certain situations I think it would be really helpful for emotional regulation for a lot of the middle schoolers. Um so and I think that it could be used in like um I was talking to Susan about having it be like an attendance incentive. Um, so I want to be there like in the morning welcoming the kids, um, and encouraging them and hoping to, you know, promote enjoying school,

097wanting to be at school. So that's a main goal of mine for next year is to promote attendance. Um, that's really totally misread this. That's not what I I thought you were you were advocating for. I'm 100% with you. um except for therapy cats, but that's another student. Um but um so let me understand now that would be in the middle school in Did you say in the morning would be all day? How would that work? Yes. So it would be all day. I'd like to start with one to two days um just to get her acclimated to the routine of school. um she wouldn't go into the calf just because of the food and like health safety reasons. Um and then I would like to put in like guidelines for teachers like how to

098request her to come up to the classroom. Um and um you know no more than three kids up at a time petting her, but just you know having regulations in place to protect her and and teach the students how to approach dogs and incorporate kind of the caring and empathy part of what comes with I don't I I've seen people like in grocery stores and somebody will go up to the dog and and start to pet it and they'll say no he's on duty you know and is that the training for the children so service dogs service a specific one person and their disability um therapy dogs are for comfort for anyone so there's community events that Pet Partners has that you can go to um and Lila would be a therapy dog and a

099facility dog. So, she would be for everyone for staff, for faculty. It's to help like bring the community together is how I envision it. Um and you know, when I've come to school, I've helped with the girls on the run after school and um they really liked that she was like at the finish line, so they were petting her like as they were finishing. Um and they wrote me a nice little thank you note and drew Willow. So, I really think that even though even just being there those two days, I feel like she made a huge impact. Um, and as a motivator for them. Um, so we could use it as like an incentive and have it being a positive thing. You know, if you are in school all week, then you can have

100Willow time on Friday. Um, and then they're also, this idea, this organization is also donating 15 copies of Good Dogs, Great Listeners, and The Dogs of New Town. Um, so I was also talking to our librarian about having a spot in the library with a bean bag um, so the kids could could read. I've really been trying to encourage my students to read more. Um, and I've been giving out like summer reading books and things like that. So therapy dogs are also used in schools because kids can read to therapy dogs and they're, you know, they're not going to be upset if they make a mistake or something like that. M um so that's how they're used in elementary schools a lot of the times um is to promote reading. Um so that's another idea

101that I've been working on you know with the librarians as well. Leah said that when she started this she um really went to the G the um Graten Foundation and they she received a grant so that she could get the insurance and the training and all of these things. So, she's received a grant from our own retired teachers with the Graten Teaching Foundation and, you know, has really done a lot of homework on around this. Um, I really commend her for for doing this. And I think you've brought Willow in a couple times just to to have people meet her and and participate like you said. Um, so she's done a lot of background work and um is really invested and thinks that this will help our Graten Middle School culture and climate. Yes. Uh

102we had a teacher at Fitch Middle School. I can't remember her last name 30 years ago. That's why. Um but her new first name was Suzanne. And um I don't know if you've met her through your through your um organization or your outreach, but uh see figure out who she is. um because she would she was a um a special ed teacher and she had a I guess a therapy dog that she used very in a very similar way that you were talking about. So she has actual uh expertise in using that at the middle school level and you might I don't know who would know her name maybe some other counselor would remember her last name. Yeah, this is Suzanne. Okay, I'll tell you. Not Suzanne Talbot. She's a school psychologist. Suzanne Talbot. No,

103no, no. It was a special ed teacher and she she she retired not long a So, I guess you I'm sure Suzanne Talbot knows her. Go ahead. Yeah. I'm sorry, Matthew. I'm sorry, Leia. You figured out that uh we're very supportive of what you're doing. Thank you. I I have some some problems with the the format. I It says alternative language. Alternative to what? So, I um Susan, what's the We have a person policy. The original policy. I put some of my notes on here for um the staff member who writes um some of our policies, but um I think the alternate language is like something you can include or not include. Um that's how I I'd like to know what it is we're supposed to vote on. So this is this is what we're

104supposed to recommend the that the full board vote on. So throw this out at you and see how I'll raise a flag and see if anybody salutes. Okay. Uh go over the text and determine if you want some language. And if you want some language, insert the language that you want. And if you don't feel that the language is necessary, then take it out. I'm not instructing you on what to do. Just whatever choice you want, make a choice. speak with Susan so that she's on board with what you want to do. The only thing that I would kind of insist on as as an individual voter, not saying what the other members would do, is delete the word current so that if there is some there is another school or another person in the

105future, we we haven't locked our hands to and have to refuse somebody because it's policy that they can't be there. I think um I think it's just talking about alternate language for the request. So Susan like um it says such requests must be submitted to the school's principal and it has like and I think there was like an attached form to fill out with like the vaccinations and documentation of the dog license and the training and the insurance. Um so I see that all in your regulations. So works are listed in regulations at the back. So then we we can delete maybe the alternative language needs to go um with the regulations but I want to make sure that people know that they have to request right so I mean I think it go could

106go either way. I think we take out alternative language and just have that as a preface of how go about it. But then in the regulations you have all your forms. Okay. So you have all the documentation of what would have to happen. There's another another linguistic issue. It says owner handler. It says nothing about the owner handler not being a faculty member or not being an employee. If I take my dog, well, I'm on the I'm on the school board, so maybe I would qualify if once I'm off the school board, if I train my dog to be a therapy dog and I'm willing to be a volunteer under this, I'm an owner and I'm a handler. Is that what you want to open this up to volunteers who are accredited or do you

107want to limit it to faculty or to to employees? That's that's that's your choice, Susan. But if it is to be limited to the uh to the members of the school community, then let's delete the word owner handler and find another label that denotes that the owner handler is a member of the community. And but how many times are you going to find a owner handler? I mean, what if you No, I think I think the way it's written, it's calling the teacher or other qualified school personnel the owner, the handler like because they are say that. So, that's just I think we should clarify it. I see. I see it's up above. Okay. Yeah, it does say it up above. Okay. My apologies. You My apologies. I misread that. Where where is therapy go?

108It says the board of education. I don't want to think the word support. I would use check out support and says authorizes. I would say therapy dog teams because um the word like use isn't um recommended because you're not like using the dog. You're working with them as part of a team. Um so you could say the board of education um what was the word you used? Authorizes. authorizes therapy dog teams. Um, you want therapy dog teams now. So, the word like use of therapy dog is just not recommended by AI. Why don't you why don't you rework this to to so that you and Susan are are really comfortable with the language because we're going to be voting on the language you present us and okay I see close to mathematically impossible situation where

109we're not going to approve what you want. Okay. Just get the language. You've been working with Erica, right? Yeah. And Denise Dittle a little bit too. So, we could bring people together and just fine-tune this. Good. And we're going to next meet on July 8th. Would that be convenient for you to come back on July 8th? I don't think that um I just got a message from Clint. He's not available on July 8th. He's on vacation. Well, we're going to have to find another date in July. So, that's up in the air. But, are you going to be in town in the month of July? Yeah, I'll be around. Yep. If there are any dates that you're not going to be that you're aware that you're not going to be around, would you let Susan

110know so we don't schedule it for when you're not here? Valuable and we want to get this in place. And I have my right am I right? Is that your sense? I'm sorry. Say that again. Am I speaking for both of us and saying we want this to happen? Oh, absolutely. And you know if you uh contact Denise Dittle, she knows that teacher. That teacher was here when Yeah. Suzanne. Um Suzanne. Yes. Susan, if you want me to edit it and then I can share with you and then and Erica, we'll we'll we'll we'll make this happen. Yeah. Sure. Thank you so much for your dedication, Leah. Yep. No problem. worked with Leah a lot especially with kids who've had some struggles and she is their champion she when I say who do you have

111when you go back and it's always her their counselor so every once in a while we we can't we can't know unlike Andrea who seems to know everybody the rest of us don't know everybody so having an opportunity to interact with you and see what what good fortune our students have to have people like you just it makes my day well thank you I appreciate that and thank you for hanging out all night. No problem. Okay, so all right, thanks everybody. So what we we are doing is we're continuing uh therapy dogs to the July meeting. Is that correct? Yeah. And and will uh AI go to that as well or is that just going to be standing part of the No, that that'll that'll be to July meeting initiative discussion. um uh I don't

112have the word continued to be continued in July. Susan, are we going to have anything new in July besides these two things? Um at the regular meeting? No, no, the policy meeting. Oh. Um I don't know. I'll I'll talk to try to give us a try to give us a vacation if you can. Okay, I will. You guys have a blessed night. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. I second the motion. We're going to have a lot of discussion. All those in favor? Hi. Okay. Unanimous vote to adjourn. Have a blessed night, everybody. Thank you. You too. Okay. Byebye. Thank you, Leah. Yeah. Thank you, Leah. Thank you, Andrea and Matthew. You bet.