6-16-25 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001All right. Good evening. This is the Graten Board of Education Committee Committee of the Whole meeting on June 16th at 6:00 p.m. It's being held in central office in room 11 and online. Uh we have in attendance this evening Jen White, Matt Schulman, Dr. Mancini, um the superintendent, Adrien Johnson, we have Dean Antipas and Ian Thomas and Sam Kilpatrick. And online we have Dr. Andrea Acumen online. So we have a quorum. The first item on the agenda is review the minutes of um May 19, 2025. Everyone got the minutes in their packet. Hope everybody reviewed the minutes. Any corrections to the minutes? No corrections. Okay, those minutes are approved. Um, the minutes of June 9th, 2025. You got those minutes in the packet. Correction. Corrections. I believe. Yes. You need motions. I I read in

002Robert's rule, you don't have to have a motion to approve the minutes. All you have to do is say the minutes are approved. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Just give her the motion. Go ahead. For the minutes of June 9th, Dean Antipas is listed as remote. He was very much present. Oh, he was there. You're right about that. I can be remote sometimes. Oh, you are the absolute. Don't go there. So, we have uh the minutes of June 9th with the correction that uh Dean Anttopas was in person, not remote. Any other corrections? Okay, those minutes are approved. Next on the agenda tonight, we are fortunate to have um Dr. Mancini who's been working hard with a team of teachers and I don't know any principles. Yeah, cuz Jamie was there um doing the

003strategic profile and you and I I was there Susan. So um and she's going to give us a update. Thank you. Review the draft of the strategic plan. Thank you. Can I just start and commend Anmarie Mancini because this was something that was definitely on our bucket list when she arrived. I had said that we had a plan that had really been exhausted and it was a plan the old plan was based on a state plan and fortunately for us this new state plan came into effect. So, we were able to use the state plan because it's always important that our plan connects with the state plan and our plan then sets the stage for the the plans at the schools, the school improvement plan. So, I really appreciate her hard work and the hard

004work of the committee and having Beverly sit in with us too was terrific. So, thank you. Okay. And I did see Mike Whitney has joined us. Oh, good. Okay. I had that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, I'd like to What happened? Oh, just so just so you know, that's a copy of the plan. I just passed a couple of them out. Um, and then what you're looking at is a slideshow. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. So, uh, again, I'd like to, um, just say that I'm really pleased to present this plan. This was a truly a collaborative effort. teachers were involved, um, support staff, principles. Obviously, our superintendent was highly heavily involved in this as well as our board chair. So, this is a plan that I think that we're all really proud of. It took

005uh this was a quite a process, but I think we're really happy with the results and I hope you are, too. I'm going to um, you know, there is a lot of information on this slide. Obviously, I want to give you an opportunity to ask questions, but if you wouldn't mind holding until the end, I believe I may ask answer some of your questions as we go. Um, of course, if there's something that's really burning, then feel free to interrupt me. Um, okay. So, starting. So, this quote really speaks speaks to me. It's one that I've kind of um always keep in my mind and that is because a little bit of my type A personality I really believe in intentionality and being purposeful and I think when you do that oftentimes that will lead

006to success and that is really I think the thinking behind the development of a strategic plan is ultimately we want to see improved outcomes and you have to be purposeful and intentional when you do that. So the objectives for this presentation really there are three. I want to share the district's new five-year strategic plan which we were referring to as the five pillars of progress. Um I want to build shared understanding and ownership of this plan. And then finally outline a path for implementation. So what's the purpose and the context? Um, first of all, I want to start with the context and Superintendent Austin really just spoke about this a little bit that there was a 5-year strategic plan that was developed in 2017 and it was extended due to COVID. That happened in a

007lot of school districts. I I have colleagues in many districts that that said the same thing happened there, that they were on a path to success reaching their goals and then COVID happened and then so they had to modify their strategic plan a little bit. That's what happened here in Grten too. As Superintendent Austin said, um, one of the first things that she and I talked about is, you know, putting together a process to update our plan here in Graten as a result. And then, of course, the purpose really of a strategic plan is to provide overall direction for the school district, identify goals, action steps that will eventually lead to improved student outcomes. And I think, you know, that's really why we're all here. We want to see students have success. Oops. So, one

008of the things that one of the first things that I did um and superintendent also attended with me is we participated in a webinar by the super school superintendent association on strategic planning. And this was uh a kind of some an information that really stood out to me that research conducted by Marzano and Waters indicates that the highest performing school districts demonstrate eight hallmarks with the number one uh hallmark being a shared vision and um goals. So again just kind of emphasizing the importance of having a plan that will guide your work. This slide here outlines our timeline of our work. We began work in October 2024. That's when um I asked for volunteers to participate in the strategic task force. We brought together members of the district's curriculum committee, the data committee, and then

009opened it up to anyone that wanted to be a part of it. Um from there, Superintendent Austin and I attended this or participated in this webinar called Rethinking Strategic Planning. I certainly have participated in strategic planning in my two previous districts, but I wanted to not replicate what we were doing other places. I wanted to kind of look at new ways to look at um this plan or developing the plan. In November, the committee got together and STF means strategic task force and they conducted a SWAT analysis. I'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide. But essentially a SWAT analysis is um when we look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And so that was a really engaging activity. Um in December the committee got together and um we created a

010survey that went out to stakeholders. That survey um was open for about a month. We had nearly 600 respondents. So, I was really pleased uh with the amount of people that wanted to engage in the survey. In January, between January and February, um I'm sorry, January and March, the committee got together and reviewed sample plans of other districts from really the kind of the tri-state area. Um and then started to draft goals and priorities. And then the um the other things that happened, excuse me, I have to move my thing here, is that um superintendent and Austin and I, Austin and I began to meet with focus groups and those are kind of smaller groups that we had just conversations with teachers, students um our administrator team and they provided us with more insight than

011I think a typical survey would give us. And then finally, we also participated in a second webinar offered by the uh superintendent association called the strategic plan toolkit. And that gave us information on how to create our what I refer to here as KPIs or key performance indicators. Obviously, it's great to have a plan, but if you're not monitoring the success of that plan, then, you know, it's it's nice, but what what really what good is it? You're not holding yourself accountable. And I think that's an important component of this. So here is our data our three main methods of data collection and um we want to really point out here that we used multiple sources to strengthen the validity and reliability of the data that we collected. So as I mentioned just in the

012last slide we conducted a SWAT analysis with the members of the strategic planning task force. um we sent out a survey that was um we had oh nearly 600 respondents and then we also met with focus groups of teachers, administrators and students. So I wanted to kind of share with you some of the data that kind of that came out of our different sources or that we were able to um to collect from our different sources. The SWAT analysis I summarized here. Our committee identified the following things as strengths and the the um on the right hand side of the slide there you can see some of the weaknesses. This slide outlines the opportunities and threats. What we did once we got this information is then we compared it to the information that came in

013from the survey to see where there's overlap and where we can identify trends. So here speaking of the survey I wanted to kind of share with you some of the information that was collected here. You'll see that our highest number of respondents were our parents and guardians at 69%. Our faculty was the next greatest number of respondents. That was just over 39%. We had some community members um respond that was nearly 7% and three board members responded. So I appreciate by the way your engagement in this process. So here are some of the questions that were on the survey. First we wanted to kind of get a context of you know how long people have been involved in the school system. you see that the most of the respondents have been with the um school

014system seven years or longer. Then the the survey asked how satisfied are you with our programs? Most of our respondents uh said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with our programs. This was good information for us to have. It's also good information for us to have if people are not satisfied. So then we asked them what they believe should be the top priority for Gotten public schools. And I um when I put this on the slide, I made sure to put it in order of um the priorities that people identified. So highquality instruction, I was really pleased to see that because that's, you know, a major focus for me. I want to make sure that our students are getting high quality instruction every day in our classrooms. That was nearly 55%. No surprise that

015people are also very interested in having a safe and supportive environment that's over 50%. Mental health and wellness is I would say something that uh people are talking a lot about now especially after the pandemic that was 46%. You see literacy and numerous numeracy skills that was a little lower than I anticipated but um maybe they were thinking about high quality instruction and kind of combining the or thinking of the two things together. Family engagement just over 30%, college and career readiness is up there around 30%, support for special populations 27%. And then, you know, I don't want to keep reading these to you, but you can see um I continued the responses on the second slide here. Um and you'll see, you know, there's a variety of things related to resources, technology, cultural responsiveness.

016Then, um, Superintendent Austin and I met with focus groups. Again, our focus groups consisted of, um, teachers groups, actually support staff met with us, um, and students and our administrators, of course. And really, we kind of we let these conversations flow a little bit more casually, but we started with three driving questions. What are the top priorities for our district? And kind of in their opinion, what skills and dispositions do you believe our students need when they graduate? and then what actions need to be taken to achieve our goals. So I did a summary of the feedback here. Obviously we had pages and pages of notes but and taking kind of a highle summary that I could fit onto a slide. Really these are some of the main themes that came out. Literacy was something

017that was a big concern for our focus groups. And then the MTSS process specifically looking at differentiated interventions for um our English learners. And then also supporting the needs of our students that um just need social emotional support. Fred, that was from the staff, our student focus groups. That was really interesting. They were very interested in learning more about um our uh our career pathways and also expanding the offerings. Um they wanted they also talked about the importance of staff connecting to them as them as students. Um and they were very complimentary of our staff and they said, you know, please make sure that this is emphasized, that it will continue. Our staff obviously care a our teachers care a lot about us and we want to make sure that as we continue to hire

018new teachers or work with our teachers, emphasize the importance of that kind of those relationships. And then in terms of academics, they um talked about studentto student communication and experiences, the offerings that we have in in our in terms of our programming and then interactive having interactive student centered lessons. And I think that's not a surprise. Um no student today wants to go into a classroom and have a teacher talk at them for 90 minutes. So this is this slide is just really a transition slide. Um if I was to click on this, it brings us to the um draft of the plan and um that plan I distributed, you know, throughout the room. We'll come back to that in a minute. So the most common goals when superintendent Austin and I attended the webinar

019on strategic plan how to you know conduct a strategic planning session um the we learned that the most common goals according to their research were these six academic achievement post-secondary readiness individual and collective well-being skilled and supportive workforce community engagement and then operational excellence and fiscal responsibility. um we did not share this with the um strategic task force members because we didn't want it until the end because we didn't want it to influence their work like this is what most school districts do. So now we want to make sure that our goals are aligned with this. But once they got together and started to identify what we're calling their pillars or our goals, you'll see that these line up exactly. Yeah. Almost exactly. Of course, one of the things I was really happy to see

020is that um academic achievement, accelerating academic achievement was the first goal that our committee came up with as well as making sure that the learning environment or the learning community is a rich and vibrant one, a safe one. A lot about school safety there and social emotional learning. Um there is an emphasis on making sure our our workforce feels supported as well as they continue to grow um professionally. Um here we have our fourth one on strengthening pathways that promote our post-secary readiness and then improving our operational systems um and increasing fiscal responsibility. Um I haven't been with the district that long, but it's obvious that this is uh an area of need for us in light of our um our budget situation this year. And then you can see, and we'll go more into

021depth in this later on, but you can see how the key performance indicators, this is just really a summary of our key performance integr uh indicators line up with our pillars or our goals. So, we're looking at um DP DPI and indicators of English, math, and science success. We're looking at um average daily attendance, that's ADA, our chronic absenteeism, our staff attendance, and then incidents related to behavior in school and out of school suspension. We're looking at the percent of students that are on track to graduate, those taking college courses and u post-secary entrance, and looking at the four-year graduation rate. Now, some of these things are coming right off the next generation accountability index. So, it shouldn't be a surprise for you. And then finally, the percent of students who can identify a trusted

022adult. This is coming from our climate survey. Percentage staff um reporting that professional learning is connected to their position. I actually put that on there because I oversee professional learning in the district and I wanted to hold myself accountable to making sure that professional learning is meaningful to our teachers. um our and our percentage of caregivers who believe there are opportunities for involvement. Again, that comes from our climate survey. So, what are the next steps now that we have this? We've created this strategic plan. Oops, I'm sorry. So, first thing that is happening is our central office leadership team is going to be associated or take ownership for one of the pillars. Sometimes there's a little bit of overlap where maybe there's two central office team members that are kind of responsible and we're developing

023an action plan for each of the priorities identified in the five pillars. At the same time, our school teams, they have been um they have seen the uh strategic plan and they are working on developing their own school improvement plans using the five pillars of progress as um kind of as their guide for creating their actions their action steps. And I think you even sent out a template that worked for them which they really appreciated. Actually, this is the example of the template. Yep. You see that? Um, and it might be difficult to see, but there are the district priorities identified on the left. Then this each school will create action steps for the pri for each one of the priorities. And then they'll do a mid-year report and an endofear report. and they're being

024held accountable through this kind of color-coded bar um kind of I guess you would say a bar graph on the bottom of the template. This is just a sample of one page. Um they obviously have a whole document. All right, with that said, I want to give everyone an opportunity to ask questions or provide me with feedback. Questions. School improvement plan. Do they do that every year or? Yes. So the each each year um every school will create a school improvement plan that will help us reach our goals as a district. That usually happens once they've received the data, they've looked at it with their teams and um they're able to kind of earmark areas that need the accelerated learning specifically in their building. So right now our principles um some of them have started

025to draft ideas uh because they're looking at their goals and thinking back about you know reflecting on this year and we have asked them to have their draft finalized what for when we come back to our administrative retreat. I believe that's the 18th of August. And did they review the plan um with the staff at a staff meeting? Yes. We want that we want everybody um in each school to be aware of the plan because if this is a plan that we're just creating here at central office or even the principal has and nobody else knows about the plan then how are they contributing? They they can't contribute because they're not aware of what the goals or even our action steps are. It's really important. We want everybody to be feel invested and to feel

026like they're part of contributing to the success of the district. Matthew and Jen. Um, when I was when you showed the context, Matthew, you pull the mic up. I'm sorry. Speaking I hope that's better. Uh, I was kind of interested uh the at the time that CO came and that was a curveball nobody could have predicted. At the time COVID came, which elements of the 2017 plan were moving ahead better than expected, as expected, sputtering a little bit? Did that give us any uh color, any insight as to how the new plan would be? Because I kind of want to know what worked and what didn't work. Most important, what didn't work? Well, I would say the two years that we didn't receive data. There was the year in 2020 when we went out and

027there was no date because the kids take the test. Then the following year they the state had decided again to forego those results um because they weren't certain they were valid. So I would say that was really a pinnacle point that we were absent of data. Okay, let me back up then. So this at the point of the last data set analysis prior to co so we would have been at that point two and a half or three years into the expected five-year plan at that point what was working and what was the challenge and can that inform what we're doing going forward. So sorry. Um I will say that we definitely looked at the um that at the former plan. In fact, it was one of the first things that the strategic task force

028did. Um even before it did the SWAT analysis, we looked at okay, what is what does the old plan say? What were the goals? Unfortunately, I don't have some of the historical knowledge just because I was new this year. But that was something that was part of the process for sure. But I will defer to the superintendent in terms of like you know where where we were at the status of specific goals. Well, I think that was the year that um we had had some accelerated learning between 18 and 19. We had um another um in 21 we had another blue ribbon for Mary Morrison which transitioned into the river for their success. So, and we were asked to um graduate from the alliance district, which our representatives were fast at work not having that

029happen because that came with a price tag of that lowering the ECS. And I said it's we're too fragile right now. We're in the middle of a pandemic and um we you know said we need another five years. speak not ready to graduate from let me try the same question a third third different way the answer okay the the question was after two and a half or three years of the program as superintendent you uh promote Jaws already I did and then he declines try again before we can hear you we can hear you all sorry that's okay so after two and a half or three years. What I want to say kept you up at night, but what were the things that had we not had co you would have really wanted to emphasize

030to make up any lost ground? Well, I I would say that we were making progress with literacy and math and science. So we we were feeling, you know, that we were moving ahead, but we knew that the hybrid model and the other models weren't giving us, you know, the attention we needed with the kids and everything had transition to technology. So we were concerned that that would influence. So there was there was nothing at all in those first two and a half years where it was below your expectations of your the progress level. Well, we were we were really seeing good progress at that time. Okay. And um we were worried about some social emotional learning and that kind of thing as well um at the onset. Okay. And kids were disconnected a little bit.

031Thank you. You know, um, one some of the things that I noticed when I look back at the historical data here in Grten, and again, I haven't not been here that long, but it's important for me to kind of be aware of where we where we were and where we want to go. Some of the highest results are that 2018 2019 year. So, the district was making good progress. there was um some good improvement, solid improvement in mathematics for example, especially at the elementary level during that time. Um I think literacy was lagging a little bit behind the math, but the but definitely the results are stronger than they have been in the last couple of years. I don't know if that gives you any more context. Thank you, Jen. Um two questions but the

032first one is you mentioned there's um central office that's going to be attached to each pillar is that um could you talk is that um Susan yourself Dr. Kennedy and Sam or is it like who are the so it will be myself superintendent Austin Sam will have some responsibility in that fifth pillar um Dr. Kennedy, um, Denise Doolittle, um, and Lori Le Pine, um, as well as some of our specialists that are here at central office, Ben Moon, Sarah Beth Stona. So really the the entire I would say the entire building um, yeah has has some responsibility here. Okay. And the last one is your definition of success like at the end our target where we are going to be at 2030. Yes. Okay. Just making sure. Yes. And those are out where you're looking.

033Oh, it's her on the KPIs. Yeah. So, where we're going to land it by 2030. So, you probably might be you probably wondering where did I come up with those numbers. Most of that num those numbers are coming from we um get a document from the state department of ed that are called ESSA milestones and those go through 2030 which is actually a nice coincidence since our plan is now going to be to through 2030 and um it gives us numbers each year um that they want us the state department of ed kind of wants us to or targets they want us to hit and um so it's either the final number in 2030 or um and then we tried to kind of back it up and say, "Okay, well, if we need to um

034gain 10 points between now and 2030, then we maybe have to gain two points, two percentage points a year." That's kind of my goals, too. Remember when we designed the goals, we wanted to set it up so we could see the progress along the way. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Is that one online? Not yet. Not yet. Okay. No more questions. I'll ask another one. Somebody else need to want to go first. Go ahead, Mike. Yeah. Uh, thank you for the presentation. Um, I had a question about the surveys. Are those surveys separate from the climate surveys? Yes. So, this was very specific to the strategic plan and the development of the strategic plan. And so, we um sent it out. I believe we released it sometime either late November, early December and it

035was open for just over a month. Um and again we had I think you you missed it because you were coming in but we had nearly 600 respondents. Oh no I I've been on the whole time but just electronically. Um so and then what age groups for students were surveyed? Um we asked I believe middle and high school students to respond. And so, um, did you have to send like my my experience with, um, you know, you know, research and social sciences is that with minors basically for everything you need, uh, parental consent and and, um, student assent. Is that what that mean? Yeah. Actually, I think the way that we went about that is instead of doing having the students fill out the survey, we had we conducted focus groups instead. Oh, so they

036didn't have they didn't I think they didn't have I want I'm sorry, I misspoke. They didn't have access to the survey. It only went to staff um um community members, board of ed members. I believe um that how we handled getting data from the students or information from the students was through the focus groups and then focus group membership. How was that? We basically went to the school principles and said, "We would like to talk with students. Um can you let us go into a classroom of a teacher who's willing to give us some time?" Yeah. So that's still I mean I know it's for internal purposes but of course this this meeting's public so and the results were made public so was parental consent and no um considering that it's an anonymous like you

037know I collected Susan and I collected the information we took down notes um no student names were collected and certainly no student information is being presented here well well it is actually right not identifiable student information r I I just um just circle back if you're going to do this I gather year to year. Um so understandably the pilot but just please circle back on that because um in my own um experience I was I was surprised and how how tightly um there are very few liberties about um uh when you when you don't need to get um parental consent and student ascent and and and since since it's contained in something that's now going outside of the school community just by being presented here developing a strategic plan. Uh I'm I'm no expert on

038this, but but please check that. I I do know in in at my institution, I I I would have to uh um get both of those things e even for definitely especially for focus group actually. Yeah. So, I've just been through the research process myself um just having um gained my uh dissertation. I understand what you're saying in terms of you know getting parent consent. I think if we were to be doing official interviews where we were sharing information, this is something that the superintendent does all the time and talking to students. That's kind of how we saw it. But I certainly will make sure I look into it because we don't want to um we don't want to do anything that's not in the of what we're supposed to do. Yeah. Because because there's

039certainly value in continuing this, right? And and assessing the plan as it goes forward. So So just as long as it's u done in a sustainable way, that'd be great. Thank you. Thank you for that guidance. You all set, Mike? Yep. Any other questions? Adrian. Yeah. Um I I'm actually the the surveys um are very interesting. Um but it seems like the results that we have are a conglomerate of answers from everyone. Is there um there any way we can get some more detail into that? like all of the survey questions and then maybe broken out by staff or parents because it you know parents and staff students are all kind of I guess maybe not students but um all kind of um put together um in the way it's presented now. Well, that would

040be that would involve looking at uh you know obviously we collect this information through like a Google survey and then um we can there's a way to I guess disagregate that data um because it comes through as an Excel sheet. Um I guess there's a way to do that. I don't really see you know can you talk to me about why you might want that diff to see that differently? I I feel like the data is presented and and you know pretty clearly. I'm really concerned to see I have a feeling or I feel that like um like staff might have a different lens on things than parents that are so I'm just I'm more curious about like what how staff see things. Um I mean I'm curious about how parents see them but I'm

041curious about seeing if there's if there's um if their results are significantly different from group to group. Yeah, I you know I I can't say off the top of my head. We did that survey back in December and started to look at the results then and then immediately took the information and applied it to our work with the strategic task force. Um you know, Chairman Washington can kind of speak to that. So um just know that the data was used in a way that we felt helped us to craft the plan. All right. So are the survey are is that available to us? It I have it. You can take a closer look. Yeah. Yeah. Take a closer look to see if it's when it's disagregated. Are there any differences in how teachers see it

042versus parents? What do you mean, Adrian? Is this survey available? you want to see the questions to the survey or what would it not I don't want to see everyone's individual answer but um maybe just a little bit more in groups of you know I mean I thought it said students too but maybe if they weren't part of that you know parents versus I don't remember all the questions on the survey so um I mean you got a couple of them there but this is just yes this was a highle summary I would say most of the questions we didn't do a very long survey because I find that if the survey is too long, people don't want to participate. So, I think we kept it to 10 or 11 questions and I may have

043shown you seven or eight. So, you got most of it. Um the if I if I skipped one, it was more like a give us context information or background information of who you are kind of thing. Yeah. All right. Um and then the one one other question I had um and and this is great by the way. No, thank you. I appreciate it. But um thank you for putting this together put into this because um it does look very comprehensive. Um and I I know everyone did a lot of work on it. Um so um I did see something about um districts magnet and inner inner IB programs um alignment across all grade levels. Um so how does magnet how would that align between all grade levels? Yeah. So one of the things that the

044committee talked about is that the at the elementary level we kind of have these magnet themes and then the students go on maybe to middle school and high school. For example, if we have the STEM theme at one of the schools or at Northeast Academy we have an arts theme. How does that kind of um when the students have those experiences, how does that continue on through their K12 progression? All right. And we really we through our DODIA grants purposely wanted to intentionally have career pathways preK through 12. So it does align that kids will be experience different um areas and that you know they're really excited about and you know and good at and that that will help them in designing. We've even looked at a software product that might help with career pathways

045elementary, middle school and high school too. Yeah. You know, one thing that I always want to be really careful come um of coming from a magnet school system is that just because, for example, I go to Northeast Academy and I, you know, there's an emphasis there on arts um but I don't attend a STEM school doesn't kind of eliminate me later on if I'm a student that really loves science and mathematics um but I went to Northeast Academy. I can't at the middle school and high school level, you know, pursue advanced classes in math and science. So I think it I I think those pathways are really important but it should never be something that um excludes someone from picking up an an area that they are passionate about or really skilled in later on.

046That makes sense. And then how about um IB um because now that really starts in sixth grade now, right? So is there there's is there alignment um plan to start that in the elementaryaries as well? Well, in the last ODIA grant, from what I understand, and this kind of uh this predates my time here, but in the last ODIA grant, there was um uh information about include um exploring an IB elementary school, looking into it. So, that's something that I think that we will begin to do, but there's a lot of work that would be associated with that, looking into that. Yeah. making sure staff is on board, making sure the administrators like what what schools are interested, are the staff on board? You know, there's becoming an IB, becoming accredited in IB is a

047lot of work and so you want to make sure people are invested in that process. All right. All right. Thank you. Um, Mr. Thomas, thank you. Um, yeah, definitely thank you for all the work putting this all together. Well, it was a group effort, so I'll say thank you for the group, not just for myself. That's a collective thank you. Um I I get I definitely um would second um Adrian's interest in looking at the data through different lenses. Um you know disagregate and then like reagregate through different lenses to kind of see like what other trends may pop up. Also I noticed I mean was it all so the students were all focus groups? I believe so. Moving forward, I think there could be some value in uh pursuing what uh Mike suggested as

048far as like having consent forms and having the surveys be done individually. Um what do you mean individual? Oh, you mean just like a I'm a student and I take sit down and take a survey. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Because I think you might get a different set of insights. You know, focus groups can also create a corral around a certain conversation as opposed to like, you know, someone responding, you know, on their own. Yes, absolutely. Although I I will have to credit our students. They were really um they were great participants. They were very honest with us. They told us good, bad, and ugly, and that's what we wanted. Yeah, definitely. That that's good to know. Um, and I just question I I I'm glad they noted as far as like

049looking at uh getting us information regarding the IB program and if there is interest in the community to try to broaden it out and and deepen it and and make it more established if that direction that the community wants to go in um or or vice versa. Um so I think that would be a worthwhile area of exploration. Um, and I'm also curious to know, uh, as far as like the overall magnet school model, was that a question, um, that was involved in the survey? Um, I don't recall there being a specific question around the magnet school model, but I'd have to go back. I think if it was, I probably would have reported that data, but um, off the top of my head, I can't be sure. So, I I can go back and

050look because as you identified, like, you know, some students that go to certain magnet schools Yeah. will have a faster track to get to the more advanced classes than someone who maybe develops an interest something in in in a certain pathway later on. Um and you know and to that end also like you know that would tie into to just um getting a sense of what our our transplant data is in general as far as like how much you know who's going to what schools from where. We do have Lauren working on a project to disagregate that data for you. But I think it's important to note that no student is excluded once they get to the So they're coming from our elementary school um our elementary schools. I know that there are those are

051theme-based schools, but no student once they get to the middle school level um is told, "Well, you can't enroll in this class because you went to this elementary school, right?" No, but but they could enroll in a class at a higher level sooner if they did. I understood your comment earlier. Possibly. Correct. I would say though there's assured experiences. I always say that in Grten we're a very streamy school. So we have it all. I mean we have the STEM component, we have the arts, we have the reading, you know, and math and science. So there's all these assured experiences whether they're field trip or the partnerships with project O I know are going to be an influence on each of our schools. So we do have assured experience no matter what the themes are.

052Sure. So our kids are getting you know a little bit of all of that. But hypothetically speaking, I guess Ann is um you know, if I'm going to Themes River and I'm having all these experiences with Project O, maybe I am, you know, a little bit more advanced in science or I have a little bit more knowledge than somebody that went to another school. But, you know, ideally, we want to make sure that our honors classes or our advanced classes are open to all students. Right. Of course. And that's the point of my question is is to get a sense of like how the community is is is adapting to because the magnet program that is still relatively new to the town. Sure. And that's something that I think we do as a as a

053board. I think we'd be well served to uh you know just take a take a pulse on you know from time to time and have that as part of our our surveys. Yeah, I think that's I think that would be very interesting. maybe a a separate survey um than the strategic plan if it's really focused on the um effectiveness of our of our magnet programs. All right. Because with the magnet program comes a lot of other intrinsic costs. Absolutely. You know, namely transportation um and a lot of logistical time. Mhm. Sure. Spent figuring out how to get the buses where all the places. So, um anything else plan? Yeah. Yeah. No, I think I think we're off to a good a good start here. I like it and um you know, I just like I

054I I like to see in particulars. So, I'm I'm glad to see like there's going to be direct action steps and school action plans. Is that a thing that we'll sort of have a chance to review as they're presented to the administration? And just I think not so much the data. I think that's one of the things that we do present to you is the the findings in the data. And so that plan will be, you know, you'll be able to and we can ask the the principles, if I remember correctly, when when the principles came in to present their student achievement data, some of them incorporated parts of their school improvement plan. For example, at the River, they always have a school improvement plan. This is not going to be new for them. And

055so, um, Principal Grodano came in and talked about how, um, their results drove their school improvement plan. So we can kind of talk, we can incorporate that as a part of the presentation. I think that'd be great because, you know, at least in my experience, I've been asked by, you know, a number of community members and, you know, just like, oh, well, you know, if we're struggling with this, then what's being done to address that? Absolutely. And I would I would love as as as a representative who's who's serving as a liaison between the school district and the community um to have more um specific actions and things programs that are that are being started in response to certain data points that are coming in. Yeah, I I agree. Um and I think that you

056know we'll see a little bit more of that. I am a firm believer in making sure that you know there is an alignment between a district plans, school plans and you know and and how that um what the outcomes are. And so um I think that these are the school plans are something that I'm going to be looking at very closely providing feedback and guidance to our our principles and um and I hope that we'll see that these um it's a valuable exercise for them. Great. Thank you very much. Can you have anything? Yeah. Um just curious um the the concept of stakeholder we've heard that a lot over the last few years seems like a really neat idea rather than identify specific members of an organization we'll say stakeholders and a lot of times

057that could be abused um but it seems like a really great idea. So in that vein, I'm looking at survey results, you know, who's who's responding. We've got parents, guardians, faculty members, board of ed members, and then community member, which I presume is not on the board, not a faculty, not a parent or guardian, and I guess not members of administration out to the town council. We sent it out to Yes. and some of the um local business members. So, anyone who gets board notes or the weekly notes that Superintendent Austin sends out, that's um that would they would fall under kind of that group. I would be Yeah. The reason why I'm curious because obviously parents and guardians, they know why they would be interested or they should know why they're interested. Faculty members

058likewise, they work here and the board too. Uh although if we all responded that would be one and a half percent still kind of minuscule, but nevertheless in the grand scheme of things. So when I see community member, I'm thinking that could be that could be a group of people who just are squeaky wheels but are not necessarily indicative of what the community thinks. In fact, community may not on the whole might be thinking anything. I mean, I guess my argument would be why would they respond then? Right. Because they got something they want to say, right? Right. Um Yeah, it's it's kind it's kind of a tricky thing. I think I mean it's not a lot of respondents. Yeah, but there there is that squeaky wheel phenomenon. So, if you're not a parent or

059guardian, you're not a faculty member, you're not involved with the schools in any way, you're just, you know, Joe Schmo and someone said, "Hey, I got questions for you. What do you think about the schools?" Uh, most people probably wouldn't have answers for you, but the people that do again may not be representative. If you could get answers from everybody, that small group of people actually wouldn't be the representatives. everybody if you gave them time to think about what they thought of schoolings. But um I completely agree with you. I think that people that respond to surveys are people that are generally happy and want to share that or people that are really dissatisfied and want to share that. Um in my own experience as a parent, I get those um climate surveys and I'm

060supposed to complete them and I don't and I know I'm supposed to complete them. Um but I'm generally happy with the school system. I'm not overly ecstatic where I feel like I have to, you know, write comments that the principal sees or the or the superintendent sees. Um, and I don't have any major complaints. So, when they come to me, I they say, "Oh, I'll do this later." And then I miss the deadline and then that's that. Um, I'm sure that's kind of what we what we got here in terms of the members of the community. Same something similar with survey results. When you say, "How satisfied are you with GPS's educational programs?" This question was put to whom? Everybody got it. Everybody, including students. Um, we asked them. I don't think that was the

061exact question we asked them, but you know, again, we tried to make the focus groups a little bit more conversational, less less official. You know, when the superintendent and assistant superintendent shows up in your building or in your classroom when you're a student, um, we tried to make them as comfortable as possible so that they would open up to us. Okay. And again, because this could be skewed, the people who are really dissatisfied, well, they've been itching to write a letter to the F. You know, same thing with people who were very very satisfied. They're looking for ways to, you know, happy, you know, smiley faces, five gold stars, the whole thing. Yeah. But a lot of people would fall in the middle. And even though there's a neutral category, probably they're probably a group

062of people would say, "I'm dissatisfied, but not dissatisfied enough to actually say anything." And might not be very polite. I'm just going to keep a low profile kind of thing. We've all done this. Every time you go out to an establishment and they want to improve their operations, they give you a a little thing at the end of the meal and they say, "How was your radar service?" Look, I can really pick it apart if you wanted me to, but I don't want to move. So, I'm just going to, you know, I wasn't really thrilled with it, but you know, okay, okay, okay. Or I don't even bother. Here's a tip. Enjoy the tip. I'm out of here. Um, so again, that might, you know, sort of skew things. Yeah. And I think that's why

063we try to collect data from a variety in a variety of ways whether it be the focus groups or the from the strategic the task force and giving engaging them in different activities or the survey. Um I'm sure there are maybe other ways we could have collected data as well. These were the kind of the three main ways that that superintendent Austin and I um thought of uh moving forward. I'm sure we can try to incorporate other ways as well. I mean, at the end of the day, when you when you talk about the priorities and and threats and challenges and all of that, probably come to about the same group of ideas. Anyway, there's nothing in here that's like, whoa, you know, wow, how did that get in there? And, you know, maybe we

064should go back and, you know, uh, you know, control the survey better because, uh, something the skew the skewess is actually manifested in the responses. I don't think any I don't think changing anything in the in the survey how the survey is conducted would actually give you another set of concepts for what priorities ought to be. Anyway, thanks. Thank you. Dr. Acman, you have any questions you want to ask? No, I don't. This has been very thorough and uh very uh educational as it were. Jay, what about you, Jay? Uh, no, no questions at this time. Thank Thanks, Matthew. Yeah. On the page on most common goals, the fifth one is community engagement and support. And I think that's extraordinarily important because am I not speaking clearly enough? No, I can't hear you. Okay. Uh,

065one of the the amongst the most common goals, the fifth one is community engagement and support. I think that's really critical because as we've seen the last two years, we haven't gotten all the support we might have liked and what communications we have have not been received always. Sometimes they have, but have not always been received in the way we wanted to be received. And then I noticed that in the SWAT analysis, community engagement did not appear as a strength, a weakness. It didn't appear anywhere, right? And I'm wondering is that because it wasn't asked or that that's the first question you can come back come to that but I also see this as a tremendous opportunity because one of the things that the district did very successfully in the project 2020 was to hold

066some community forums where topics came up and the administration and chair could do the educational piece and then where we would learn that's where they'd learn from us and where we'd learn from them would be in the questions and the dialogue. And that's part I'm drumming on this communication plan again that that was an integral part of the communication plan was to do some of these things. And I I would commend to you uh to consider this is a perfect opportunity to have a community forum and allow the community to be educated and to educate us. Um I guess that's my hope. But my question is how come it didn't show up in any of the uh SWAT analysis? you know, so the way that we conducted the SWAT analysis is of course superintendent Austin

067and I we had the strategic task force group. It's quite a large group. I would say 30 people around around that number. Um I can tell you it's large enough so that when we do have meetings, we have to bring in extra chairs. So it's it's a big group. Um and basically we explained you know each one of the categories, the strengths, what does that mean? We gave some guiding questions. And then what we did was we put a poster board all over the place and we had people brainstorm ideas and then you know do them on the poster boards and then we did kind of what we would call an education a gallery walk where people went from each poster and maybe added things asked questions then we debriefed as a large group. So

068the the um it was wide open and that's I guess for whatever reason it's some it just didn't come up. Not sure why. But if you look also at the survey results, I was also surprised to see that community engagement I think only came out as like 30% of the respondents identified and um so that was a little bit lower than I would have expected as well. And it's on the state plan. We had looked at the state plan very carefully and we looked at a lot of other plans across the state and I think even out of state in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Yeah. So um and you did see parts of community engagement and I know in the schools as part of culture and climate that's really important for their school

069communities to be you know participating in a lot of different activities whether it's PTO or clubs or whatever. So, let me just close by saying if we want to see different results next April, the presence or absence of community engagement and reciprocal dialogue, two-way communications, I think will be a great indicator of our success going forward. Thank you. Okay. Hi. Thank you, Dr. Mancini. It was a great report. I appreciate it. And what's the followup? you come back and I think the followup will be you know as we begin to implement next year uh we can provide a report both at the midyear and the end of year you know in terms of where we are um with the goals and and our um priority areas through our action steps and we'll see in um

070the fall the school plans unfolding too based on the data and chair I would like to also thank you for your active involvement during the process. Um, you know, it was really great to have you be a part of it and really interacting with the task force. They really enjoyed having you being part of that process. I had a good time, too. I was glad to be there. Jen, do we need to vote on this? I can't hear you. Do we need to vote on this? Like, we can't vote on the calendar. No, not now. Like at our regular board meeting. Um, I don't accept it. To accept it. Okay. So a question regarding acceptance make it official. Yeah. To make it a question regarding acceptance of this is uh for example is is this

071a completed finished product? Uh would you consider any utility and including something to do with community engagement as an articulated goal? So right now it's actually one of if I if I'm remembering correctly it's one of our priority step uh priority areas under one of the goals. It's not its own separate goal. Okay. I think it's Well, that's something the board can work on that because you do talk about that. So maybe in the September we can start thinking about some community engagement. Um because when I was at the GA meeting, I talked with them about um Shannon's husband doing that presentation at the knowing Baptist Church. And that would be something very good for parents, not for board members, but I thought it was an excellent presentation. And you talked about getting him one

072time, but I never heard anything back from you. But um that would be good. And I talked to the GA about doing something like that, having a couple of schools get together and listen to his presentation. But we can work on that, Matthew, because you do bring that up a lot. Community engagement. Well, it's there for parents, but not for general community. Okay, you've heard one. You did a great job. Yeah, you did a good job. Thank you. Um, next on our agenda is um the proposed park open space behind former Mary Morrison Elementary School. Everybody got the letter from the town manager in their packet. Um, I don't need to read the the letter, but in district four, I'll just give you a a synopsis. in district four that are lacking park and playground

073space. So, one of the things they came up with is using a a area on Mary Morrison School to put a a playground or a park that will be townowned. Um and and that would help solve the problem of not having a park or playground in District 4. Um, I talked to Sam and Susan about it and they didn't have any problems with this. It's located kind of on the outskirts of the property. Can you show show it on the show the map and we could talk about it? And Sam, you were you were thinking this was a really good idea. All right, Sam, do you want to talk about it first and then I'll take questions from the board? Yeah, when the town talked to me about it, I thought it was an excellent

074idea because it is quite uh quite a distance from the school. And even if we have some early childhood programs in that building, there's still a a a playground closer to the building for early childhood for younger kids. and the other uh playground that is near um on the opposite side of the building uh which is um for older kids maybe for fif up to fifth graders. We could actually uh probably do something about um repurposing that uh for um younger children too. So there plus it has the big field in front of the building uh for kids to use. And uh even if this were a town park back there, uh the one thing I would hope that is that we could have uh some sort of fence or something with a gate in

075it um to pre most people from just going back and forth through. But even the early childhood kids, if they're in that building, could still do a field walk back out to that playscape, too. Um because I think the town would be uh happy to let us share that with them as well. Okay. um Dean and then Jen a lot of years ago I can't remember how many years ago Hank Steinford some of you may have remembered Stank Steinford said take a look at a map of Groten and tell me where the open spaces are do you see where there aren't a lot of open spaces and he was referring to what we now call district 4 I think I might have been on the council at the time I don't remember I wasn't sure

076what the answer would have been. This is not going to solve the problem, but that area of town does need more play spaces, more park spaces. So, I'm perfectly in completely in favor of uh of this. And it's that sort of once he pointed that out, I thought, gosh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, ideally, a kid ought to be able to walk to a park to kick a ball around or throw a ball through a hoop. Uh it's a big town. That's a tall order, but you can't say no to this. Yeah. And that's the argument with the District 4 U people that they don't have a play area and every other district has a play area. They have a park, but District 4 does not. Um, Jen, um, two questions and talk a little

077bit. Oh, yeah. Two questions. So, if we put the park there, right, it the access is pretty much in military housing or what I always consider military housing, right? Um why wouldn't they put it on toll gate so that it's more open and accessible to the community without having people drive through military housing? So, that's first. And then second, um not townowned, but there's a military um community center very close to that spot. And then on Sailfish closer to um Charles Barnum, there's another play play center there. Those are the two that I'm aware of in in military housing. In military housing, so not town owned, but there are play parks there. My most concern if we're thinking about the community this is p this is targeting our military families but within the other side

078of togate and I don't know if there's something why we can't do it there like in front of Mary Morrison it's just an idea something to consider Sam do you have any idea why they didn't put it in front this is what the town's proposing so I didn't ask John that question. You can ask John. I can ask John that question about Tollgate as being more accessible to the larger community. That's a good idea. Well, I'd be concerned about topography. Yeah, that's what I was. Yeah. Yeah. I always thought it was sort of flat as well. It can get swampy. Oh, you're not going to get a lot of walkers to the park down Tollgate as opposed to the through the neighborhood. So, Oh, that's true, right? cuz I think it was um Porsche that

079was saying that when she lived in military housing, she can walk from where she lived into that area to get to Mary Morrison school cuz her kids used to go there. So that was a good area for a playground because it was a a walker. Yeah. A path through there and actually I could drive all the way down uh past the uh past the field all the way to the very end of that. And if we want kids to maybe go to the playground on their own, I mean that little kids, then you know going down to gate is not as safe as going through in that area the back way. So it could be a safety thing too. Mike. Yeah. So have many questions. Um uh first I just make a statement. So I

080I do appreciate that district 4 needs more um open space. Um I don't think uh we should proceed with excessive urgency here uh because uh what we'd be doing is seeding some uh school board uh land uh to the town and unlikely to get it back. to constrain further uses. And so so I'd like to take a considered measured approach be before we would even say okay within within the board of education and the school system before we'd even say okay town uh now now take a look at the because there are a few things I don't want to see happen is one thing is to use to maybe um over the summer say have it where okay we're considering this might might be considered for a possible future public park. And then uh the

081Pleasant Valley, which is town uh property, which is town uh owned at this at this moment. Um there's still uh people of course urging for that to have public open space there as a park. What I don't want to see happen is that um you know, there's two possibilities and then neither of them come true. All right. And uh so I think the you know I personally I would like to see the Pleasant Valley u um art that's entirely out of our hands go through its natural life and and get to a conclusion and and and ours in Mary Morrison to proceed on its own timeline with the board and the school system concerning it first and then and then um um um working with the with the town if we fit. Um, so that's

082my statement, but my questions are what was the field used for while Mary Morrison was a school? Was it a soccer field? Which field? Outback the the one the proposed the parks and wreck used it for a soccer field and a school used it at times too. Yes. And do we have like a with the school a certain requirement for like field like a typical elementary school that size? Was there a typical like I've got to have this much open space or field space? I think there is. Isn't that I don't know what the exact requirement was, but that's a pretty large piece of property right there. Yeah. And and though and so then this sort of a statement and you can back this up. That front area, the grassy area by the parking lot,

083it's got that playscape in it. I've actually spent uh years ago quite a bit of time there. Um it's, you know, far uh with my kids, but um it's it's it's soggy and and and you know, you had to like add wood chips and wood chips and wood chips because you can see off to the left um there's a a marsh there and so that whole um grassy area um is very poorly drained. Um and it it's sort of like a Northeast Academy u problem to it where French drains had to be added. But this is actually worse in my feel. Yeah, right right there in that lower kind of that middle left side of that. Um, great playscape, but like nasty wet. Um, not just after rain, but a couple weeks after rain or

084seasonally. I think it must still be that way. I haven't uh haven't noticed it that way lately, but there were some beaver down there previously that were causing some of that diversion of water. Yeah. Over onto the lake. So, so like, so before before we say, okay, well, we've got this this front area, let's make sure it's actually useful for the kids because uh that's mold problems and and or just laundry problems. But I mean, the it just be for preschoolers to be uh waiting around despite maybe they would like having a bog or a mud wallow. The wet area is kind of localized over to that one area. Yeah. Yeah. right where the playscape is. Yeah, the field itself is pretty dry. And then I remember I I didn't watch the Thank you um

085to uh Joyce for supplying the uh the minutes from the earlier meetings when Mary Morrison I think it's 2019 the decision was to close that eventually and then I think is uh 2020 in November that's where the decision to keep Mayor Mayor Morrison in the school for various reasons. I didn't get to watch the meeting, but I saw the minutes. One thing in the minutes they're talking about that whole um uh parking lot needed to be redone. Was that just because old and nasty or because it's I think there's flooding with that, too. City flooding parking itself. Okay. It's an older parking lot. It is an older parking lot. So, okay. But just remember, Mike, we're talking about the not the parking lot. We're talking past the the play area. Okay. Oh, I know. But

086I think we might I don't want to get in the big discussion that the parking lot needs repaving. Well, I think what I'm concerned is we're overestimating the useful area of the existing property and then giving up a part that is is the highland in this um and uh with climate change, it's still a thing very much. So, science supports that. Uh, one of the thing is extreme extreme um rains and and we know this like it's not just um you know uh it's not just rain once in a while it's like heavy rainstorms. We've experienced it like a week ago, two weeks ago as well even worse. um that's where like flooding gets excessive and having those highland areas uh for kids to play is really important. I think that's what on this property

087that park is and and so we're what we're looking at is just a flat map, but what we're not seeing, it's already been brought up is like elevation and and and what that's done. So, um I'm not um like uh wholly against giving uh u you know working with the town on this. I think we should do our due diligence as a school system first beyond this this meeting. I think we should get stakeholder input. Um and um doing something like this when the school year isn't isn't going along. Um uh I know it's not I this is just the timing of it, but it could feel to some as we're kind of doing it when people aren't looking as much and I don't I don't want to um have that appearance. Yeah, Jay. Yes.

088Um, so I have some concerns that if this were to be used for swing spaces, which we had um contemplated some years ago, um obviously this building and its infrastructure is going to need uh extensive um renovation before it could actually be returned to a school in in my estimation. But um I would rather just see um the board direct the superintendent to work with um her staff and consult with the chair about anou for the use of this property to ensure that if it does become a an active school again um that you know the the school will have priority use on that land um during school hours and u any um direct afterchool um activity and I think that can all be worked out. I I would not support just seating all that

089over um to the town, but find a way to to use it as we do with the other schools. Parks and wreck use all of our facilities when school is not in session. And so that is just a normal way of doing things, but this is complicated by the fact that it's not currently um a school. So that's all. Yeah. Thank you. Um I want to appreciate Mike's and and and Jay's comments. Um I find myself aligned with those concerns. Uh I like the idea that if we're going to proceed with this at all, we need to do it in a very formal fashion with anou. But as part of that, I think we are uh we do we are obligated to um do the due diligence to do a topographical analysis to take a

090look at the historical meetings of how we got why did the previous boards uh or the previous board choose to retain the school in like a semi useful status, you know, um you know, as if it was ready. It could be reactivated theoretically as a school given its district location. Obviously, that would be, you know, we're one Colombia class submarine away from needing another elementary school and a lot of new housing coming our way, right? And you know, to that end, so I don't think anything should be done overnight, period. We have to move cautiously and and and and with intention, right? As Dr. Mancini referred to earlier, you know, purpose and intention. So, um, and I do I, you know, um, having been up there a good bit myself, um, there is a lot

091of wetlands. There are a lot of wetlands in that area. So, like top topographical analysis is is important. If the school is going to be reactivated at some point in the future, um, major renovations are required. Probably have to, you know, there there's got a lot of things to have to look at. And and just looking at the parcels roughly, I mean, you could see how a building could be a new building could be built in up there and the other one dropped and things could be reversed around like um the uh Mystic River in Dames River. Yeah. We've also talked about Barnum in is in the same situation. You could build a new school. So, there's a lot of moving pieces here. And on top of that, like, you know, Pleasant Valley, as as

092Mike identified, is far from being a done deal. And the town does have a bit of a history with with with closing out. Um, so I I would not want to move too fast, too far in one direction, uh, and then have a deal go sideways and not come to fruition. And furthermore, a lot of the people um in the Pleasant Valley area wanted a park in that area, that lot, that parcel. Because if you think about Route 12 and and and Jen, you kind of touched on this before. You talking about the military housing, this if it all came to fruition and this deal came and that became a park, that would work great for that neighborhood. Um this park, I think, but everyone on the other side of Route 12 Mhm. would not

093feel a substantial difference in their quality of life. Yeah. Because the only park also military owned is like where um Navy lodges, right? The bell for area is Yeah. So, um, you know, I I think we'd be well served to just kind of take a deep breath here and and think about what we need to do to to get ourselves up to speed on the history and the possibilities, you know, the how we got to be here with this parcel and as designated in the usage that is now. And then, you know, what possibilities were we anticip were previous boards anticipating when they made the decisions to retain it and not send them. Okay. Thank you, Ian. Can you send Ian the link to the meeting that you sent Mike? Yeah. Did we not send

094it out to the whole board? No. No, it's out to the whole board. I got Okay. So, see it? Y. No, I haven't. We just got that this morning. Um, but you know, to that end, I will just put a plug in. That's one good reason why we should maybe publish all the past meetings on YouTube is because we could have done that research over the weekend. I can't hear you. being I was just saying that's another reason why maybe we should publish the meetings online all the historical meetings online because that's research we could have done over the weekend on our own if we had act if if those are all public with the dates are actually online they just aren't beyond they aren't pass on the YouTube channel we'll get Mark right anyway

095all right so you have anything to say that that's my point um so I look forward to working further on this okay Adrian um so Um my primary concerns I mean one there's a security aspect um and I know that we have students using the buildings now um so and and in one of the things um one of the you know um things that it might be a dog park um and I you know I don't know what the safety ramifications of having a dog park right next to a school would be um some kids are afraid of dogs so there could be that um but obviously dogs getting out of the park or things like that. So, so we really don't know what would be planned right next to a building that we are

096using. Um, separately, they're calling it the former Mary Morrison Elementary School. It's still called Mary Morrison Elementary School, right? So, it's not like a it's not like it's been demoed. Um, I just I just noticed that. I thought it was a little odd in the um when they proposed it to the former school, but um do we I mean I I would like to my biggest concern is that we just don't have enough space as it is and and that came up um you know in the strategic plan that we don't have enough space um right now that we have some space concerned. So, um I think that we should really focus on having an option um you know and to turn this back into a school um you know that would obviously require a

097lot but if we if we were if this if we were to um turn this this space over to the town um it could be very hard to get back if we did want to make a school there because now like certain neighborhoods might have like the way it is and and not want a So, I just have concerns. I do think I I have to assume that the town has done some studies on the population increases in with all these housing developments that we're building. Um I know it's going to be well over 700 units um in just the Tollgate and well it's going to be about 700 in just Tollgate and William Celely property. Um plus I believe there's some other proposed units which um so we can maybe assume that we're going

098to have a population increase because of those increased units. Um, you know, when when um when people in the town talk about increased income because of taxes, obviously when people move in, some of them are going to have children and and there's also going to be increased expenses. Um, so I would be curious to see I I assume that somebody did a study on this, but I'd be curious to see um what the expected effect on the school systems are going to be because of all these developments. So, I would like to ask, you know, would John Riner said he would be willing to come to the board to speak on that? I just didn't give him a date to come yet. That'll be good. Speak on on what they're expecting the population. Yes. Uhhuh.

099Yeah. Changes to be Yeah. So, certainly the other day certainly we would need to to talk about that. Um, and then I feel like it was and I can't remember when this came up, but wasn't there talk about an early education center possibly? Um, so how did that change so quickly? Because if when you have an early education center, it seems like um the more fields we would want face. Like I think little kids like to run. Yeah. That conversation goes back to 2019, but then we just recently did Yeah. You did it last year. Yeah. In 2024 about it. Yeah. So um I I you know I appreciate that. Um, we need more parks. Um, but I think that, you know, as Mike and Ian and Jay have said, we need we really need

100to think about this um and come up with a long-term well, I guess we can't have a a fully long-term plan because we don't know exactly where the student populations are going. But, um, but we should have a a vision for this. Well, is it in the areas of Dean? Go ahead, Dean. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. You go ahead. And I was just wondering, is it is it in an area that if we opened up Mary Morrison as an early educational center that it would affect what we did? I get my opinion there's enough space around the building closer to the building than that. Yeah, that's pretty far off for for young kids other than to go on a a mini field trip. It's too well. And Mary Morrison was a school

101that has a whole wing of early childhood. And we did a walk through um back in the fall and saw at least five, six really terrific terrifically maintained classrooms with little bathrooms that No, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about um but they have a they have a playground right there for them. Okay. Dean, the discussion regarding uh use of the school as swing space, re-upping it, rebuilding, using it for other programs. Yes, the school district has held on to the um held on to the property for possible future use. And there's some current use as well. I understand. In the meantime, that field is not being used as far as I as far as I know. It's not not being used exclusively by the school anyway. I mean, we don't have any

102immediate plans for it, right? So, I like Jay's idea of, hey, if the town wants to turn into a park until some future date when we get our act together as a school district and know what we want to use the building for, then yeah, let's have anou. I don't have a problem with that. Now, if the town wants to turn it into some sort of a parking lot or a frankly even a dog park, uh, that might change things. But I don't I don't have a problem with saying, "Hey, we don't have a problem with letting there be public use on what is already frankly public property." Well, with the understanding that if we decide we've got some grand plan for this this parcel, then we get first priority. Ian, just to build on

103that, yeah, like some exigent need, not necessarily a grant plan, but exigent need where like a submarine gets stationed here and we increase or Triton Square actually gets filled up, you know, and there's some young families here, we get influx of young kids. I mean, that seems to be the general gist of these housing projects. Uh, Triton Square is the only one that's actually gotten completed all the way through. Um, plus the ones up north on Route 12, you know. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, I would be concerned if we look at the MOU and this gets into the specifics, right? Like, so that's again like I think we need more information and also like some draftus to consider of like what would it look like because to Dean's point, yes, we could let

104the town have it and have use of it, I should say. you know, as a public space, but you know, as a playground or as a park. Park could be open space, just undeveloped, no infrastructure. You go there, you can walk your dog, you can hang out, play frisbee, whatever. Or are playgrounds? Are we talking playscapes? Talking things that are dug into the ground, installed, you know, concrete foundations and all those other firmaments that that, you know, cannot necessarily be easily removed in case that we do have an exigent need to to to you know, use the property for school purposes, district purposes. Um, so again, like we really need to, you know, look at the details, look at the projections. Um, you know, just off the top of my head and this there's Triton

105Square, Colonel Ledard School, Graten Heights, and the Pleasant Valley property. But no, Pleasant Pleasant Valley is not sold, not not done. Colonel Leard School is it's what two years ago was supposed to be developed. It's in default right now and I'm not sure what's going on with that development and Graten Heights is in limbo at this time as well. And there's also Butler. I know it's different part, but it's another basically we're going up somewhere. What I'm identifying is that that there's a big push to develop housing. Also, the gold star property. Okay. Those are all identified areas that that the town has like talked about developing housing. With housing comes people as Adrienne said people tend to have kids. Kids need to go to school. Matthew then I won't de labor you also. You

106all got the letter was some of my concerns. Uh the only one I hadn't mentioned in the letter which I thought about later was security because as Sam has has indicated when we were talking about the uh charging station, one of the reasons we wanted to control that is we just didn't want people wandering around close to a school. So um the world being what it is, that's got to be a concern. But I like I like Jay's approach very much. My sense is and maybe I'm misering, but my sense is that conceptually we would all like to see the town have some use of some space as long as it doesn't interfere with present or future educational plans. And Jay's idea of empowering the the superintendent and the chair to meet with John and

107whomever John wants to talk about the idea is great. Now, we've just got to work out the devils in the details and work out the details so that we can come to some use that's acceptable to everybody and just move on. That that would be my hope. Thank you, Matthew. Yeah. Uh I question for Sam. I'm curious because we're talking about what if we need the school in case a boat or two show up and now it now other schools are bursting on the scenes. Is the school in shape to actually be opened as an elementary school? And if not, how long would it take to get into shape? And how much would it cost? Yeah. Well, that's what I wrote down. How much would it cost to get it in shape? So, my impression

108is it's not it's not in shape currently. Maybe it is. It's not terrible shape, right? So, I I wouldn't I wouldn't off the top of my head, I think, but Yeah. depend upon what what the down require of us to open it back up. So yeah, it doesn't mean that there isn't that there wouldn't be a need for it. I'm just wondering whether this this is the building that would actually come to the rescue of the town if it's in a position to come to our rescue if in fact we started to burst our seams. It just most like storage facility along with a couple of small program spaces. Yeah. A couple questions. I mean, it does concern me that our oldest buildings that are in the worst condition are for their military children. And

109in the long term, Sam and I have had many conversations with board members too about the potential if this is something that does happen, we may have to build a school at the Charles Barnum site on their playground. So that you know and it might have to be a school that would be like a themes river or a mystic river to be able to hold enough kids and grow. So that you know why I built a new school where Mary Morrison is why did you pick the land isn't as as good. It is more swampy and um they the the field is much better and that right Sam you the lower level could be a problem problem and then of course where the building is built there's there's a lot of ledge around there cropping

110ledge outcropping is quite visible so in large rock in mist in Mary Morrison at Mary Morrison all Right. And then Mike, right? Uh just to follow up on Matt's comment, I would I would be in favor of Jay's suggestion in the but but to I wouldn't want to empower them the superintendent chair to come up with a draftou not to execute an MO has I would expect any would need to come to the board for review. I just wanted to make sure that was that was that was like at least that's not my that's my expectation. I'd hope the board would feel the same. Uh, also, so Sam, uh, the high ground, is that the high ground as as Mike identified? Is that ground better to build on than down low? Obviously, down low is

111swampy. Schools, the high elevation drops down. So this would be great for yeah if we could get a topographical map of this area to get a better sense of that elevation change back off front know where the front is the back drops down elevation. Got it. So that could be as swampy as the front area. No it is stream coming through. Oh got it. All right. A little bit more of a barrier, right? Well, all the same. Yeah, I think as we move forward to get a better construction diverted that water from maybe earlier diverted back then. Got it. In the 60s, right? They didn't care about that stuff. All right, Mike, you are having a private conversation because I cannot hear you up here. So, I'm going to go with Mike. All right. This

112is quick. Um, so so that that is reasonably high ground. as higher as you say than the than the towards Tollgate Road where where you can see the even right along the edge of that playground and past the driveway and through all the way kind of parallel togate road you can see that river go along. So that's the and it's listed on the Grten GIS or Grten topographic map. The lower part of that is all listed as uh swamp or marsh um including the lower part of that playground. But uh uh one one thing I did take a look at is GR GS just while I sitting here. Um this property is 36 acres or 37 acres and uh let's go to ESPN curious about Denver. Sorry, what are we doing here? I don't think

113we got our our money's worth. Um so this is uh 36 or 37 acres and then Charles Barnum is 16 acres, right? Yeah. So if if we are going to build and and I agree I I'm bothered by the voices before while not on the board of education and I guess when on it too is um that Charles Barnum are our supporting our most our military cluster um although our schools support the military um it's um it's the oldest school and this is the biggest piece of property. maybe not all that's useful because of the the swamp as you say, but it's it's over twice as big as the Charles Barn one. Um and then in terms of um I've always viewed our schools as a vital component of useful open public open space um

114for for the community whether it's um you know having a a baseball game or softball game or field hockey game reckley game um um you know where Cutler was or where um Mr. river is now or um I know a lot of people um use the outer three lanes of the the um aging fitch track to to exercise and as long as it's not during school hours I I believe we permit that use. Absolutely. Um and and I've always been I think um the the school system has always been a a very open partner to the town and and uh organizations for u recreational uh space. And so I think I I mean this is why I think we need we need to um brainstorm and and plan on this ourselves before going to the

115town. I can see a way of we don't necessarily need anou. It's just that hey, you know, the public can use the space that we have and maybe we get a little town funds or CIP to fix it up so it has more functionality while still staying um school board um or Grant public schools land. Um that uh but but then um my last thing is uh we we could recommend or not do anything um this time as cow but would we'd have to it's asking for I'm writing the letter says I'm writing to request the board of vacations concurrence on a concept of establishing a public park open space. Um uh so we're just a cow here right? We can recommend vote something to the uh the board which is us but we can't

116decide on anything here right we can't move forward and that's what I said in the message that I sent you that we just talk about it here and then you have to take a formal vote at a regular board meeting we do have one coming up and I'd like that to that board meeting to be when we can expect to garner public input rather than I'll see you in September because um it's summer vacation Right. Like I want to make sure we give time for public input on this. Okay. We've had gotten trouble of not having early stakeholder input on things. Repeatedly. So I'm hearing that we want to get a topographical map. Is that possible Sam? Can you guess? Yes. Okay. And I don't know how many people are in favor of just by

117consensus what Jay is recommending. And if we get like the majority is in favor what Jay is recommending we could put that on a formal board meeting or we can talk about it again at another cow. So those are two things. We're going to get the topographical map. Do you want to go with what Jay is recommending and then we put that vote on the formal board meeting or do you want to talk about it again in the summer at the next cow if we have a chance to cuz we got something I want Amarie to talk about at the next cow too. Can we go around and offer an opinion like John? Could we just go around and offer a short answer to your question? Yeah, I didn't get there yet, Ian, but thank

118you for moving me along. I just want to get clear on the floor. Oh, I'd be good. I'd be good with the cow route because I think it's gonna like a discussion in installments. Yeah. Okay. You want to go to another cow with Yeah. Okay. Jen, I'm okay with another cow. I am not in agreement with letting if we are sort of hesitant. I'm not in agreement of even letting them open it for a park because then you open Pandora's box and sometimes it's harder to um rein it in even if you have an agreement in place because now the public already has exposure to it. They've used it and now they're going to come out in full force. So if we're not considering to let them use it, then just don't even open the

119box. That's my opinion. Hey Jay, I mean Jay, thank you for the uh have to I'm sorry. I'm so much better looking already motion. I'd like to discuss it with the town and I would hope that we would could talk about a me talk about a memorandum of understanding and not necessarily even prepare a draft to talk about it because it needs to be clear that this is not a park. This is an agreement for perhaps they're putting in a little infrastructure to make the land that's already available for public use in non-school hours. But I I like Jay's idea of in entering into a discussion with them, but I also appreciate Jen's comment about setting community expectations. So we can ask I well I can ask um John if he can send a representative

120from the town to come to the next tech meeting with regard the map with the map with with regard the map not just a topo map which we do need but there's no way for for me to know by looking at a topo map what the quality of land is. For example, if we somebody gave us $100 million and we wanted to put a building there. Are there places to the right hand side that could accept a building or is it all non-buildable? Maybe we I don't know what we need, but we need some indication of what's buildable on that 37 acres. That's a far more involved type of we'd have to get consultants in and everybody else. We'd have to drilling all kinds of things in order to make that internal. Can you give

121us a can you can you walk the land and say it is clearly very very expensive and can't be can you give us some indication of what the possibilities are without us spending a lot of money on a study tell you what the property is like right now and as I said you know there major ledge outcroppings around the existing building presently because it's at the highest level on the properties So when you get into blasting and all that sort of stuff, insuranceances, everything else in the blasting itself, if you were to knock that building down, you know, it's all dependent about what you're going to do with build new building and refurbish that onto it. A lot of questions. Uh we also need to know the town's attitude towards funding another building. They have

122not been that responsive to us recently. Uh Adrian, um I am kind of what Mike was proposing, slow it down, have some understanding. I mean, I'm also actually at looking at the map um concerned about the parking. Um, so if people were to come from the other side of Route 12, which it seems like we're, you know, at least in the last meeting there was a lot of people that asked for a park on the other side of Route 12, um, then they would need somewhere to park. And I don't see anywhere to park except in parking lots that we are that we have. So it might push people close to the building that sometimes we have students in. So I' I'd be in favor of um, you know, just kind of slowing down, getting

123some public input, just having a thoughtout discussion on it. Okay, Dean, I'm in favor of talking about it further. I don't think the town is in a huge rush. I think it's just something on the list. They want to, you know, they ask about it. I don't see, you know, anybody champing at the bit. But again, my position would be uh we're, you know, we don't have any immediate plans for it. We should hold on to the property. Yes. But in the meantime, frankly, I already see two soccer goals on the on the field, so I don't know who's using it. There's a path from the neighborhood to the field already. You know, you can bet it's already being used. So, right. Okay. Um in um yeah, I'm with Mike and and everyone that was

124saying uh let's let's slow down, take a look at all the all the layers of of of interest, availabilities, possibilities. um to the um questions about the quality of the land and and and future construct or expansions. I I would just be curious to know if there's anything in the archives that you know when they first built the school and first took hold of that's a big piece of property and as would happen with like the river and Mystic River and um you know it seemed like be like that was the plan overall like you buy these you got these large pieces of properties and that way you can build one school and then drop the old one and you sort of alternate back and forth over generations. Um, so I would be curious instead

125of hiring consultants all that, maybe just do a deep dive in the archives, see what's in the records for that land, see if there's something there that's already been done. Um, just to give us more understanding of, you know, what was what was the overall vision of that place when the property was acquired in the first place. Quick, let's put a school up. That was the vision. Yeah, that was it. But but it looks obviously intentional with the size of the land and that that spot was already cleared out. You know, I mean with Mystic River and Thes River, it it there's a lot of utility there with the way that the the parcels were were planned out. At least to me, it looked like maybe that was all an accident. But it sure looked

126like somebody had a plan. The parcel was donated. Somebody was glad to get rid of the wetlands. Here you go. Okay. We only need a little bit of it. Take the whole thing. Okay, Jay. Uh, yes, I'm I'm fine with uh discussing it further at a at a future uh CO. I just would suggest that given the history of the way things um work in this town that it ultimately be written down what our agreement is. Um Okay. Yeah, that goes. Yeah. So, but yeah, if we want to discuss it over the summer, I'm fine with that. and get some public input. Okay. Um, Dr. A, I'm in align with with Jay's thinking and and in addition with Matthew and the public in input and I think we need further discussion. Okay. Okay. Moving right

127along. Next is um review the referral tracking sheet. The first thing we'll talk about is 2024-3 um 22 and that is discussion um regarding archiving all historical board meetings back to 2016 2017 school year to be GPS YouTube channel. Um, was my referral? That's your referral. I believe it's a pretty timely thing given, you know, the need that we had over the weekend to to maybe access some historical meetings and get caught up on something that was discussed uh a number of years ago that's not currently published on the channel. Um, again, like I just, you know, I made this referral a while back when I first got on the board and um, you know, the the historical meetings had been up there till uh, shortly before the board changed over and then there's a

128change in the YouTube channel and all the historical meetings were lost or taken down and put in apparently they're in the Google Drive. Uh, so, um, all I was asking for is to have them and see what the board would feel about having and and and have them republished and put back up on the YouTube channel. That is Can you talk a little louder? I can't hear you. I just wanted to see them all republished to the current YouTube channel uh, as they were before uh, the change in YouTube channel. Okay, Clint, you want to respond? Sure. So last time this was discussed uh I believe if memory serves it was with former board chair Whiteloff and superintendent Austin and ultimately we came down that we agreed that we would have it currently for the

129time being everything from the beginning of the previous school year through today and if you look now on the YouTube channel the current board of ed playlist has 180 meetings on there. Uh um Mr. Thomas is correct. We do have uh historical archives within Google Drive that we can take over this summer and over time to do that. If we go further back then I believe it's 2017 2018. Um some of those are in tape format prior to me coming here and so forth. So that will obviously we we have we we think it's important to keep that. There's certain you know restrictions on how we retain videos and so forth. So, we do have that that that process with digitizing, preparing, uploading would obviously take a lot longer because we're switching mediums and so

130forth. That being said, if if I'm directed by the superintendent to to work through the Google Drive to start, I would suggest historically moving backwards. So if the earliest one we have is September 2023, if memory serves right now, we would go back to 22 23 and then 202122 and so forth until we exhaust all videos that we have currently backed up in Google Drive. Um, and just as a side note, we did make the executive decision instead of having, again, forgive me before I was here, there was a separate board of ed YouTube channel and there was a sports channel and a different school channel and for interests of algorithms helping to for discoverability for the community to link all of them, we made the decision to have a graten public schools channel and

131then playlists within that board of education, each school, special events, etc., etc. So some may disagree with our decision to do that but I think it was ultimately better so that it's actually being part of those uh feeds as so people can can have that uh surface in those feeds more frequently. So again to go back that is a task that we can certainly take on prefer to do it over the summer uh when we have some time. Obviously we're pretty busy in the summer as we're preparing for next school year. Um but I think we can we can use some of the the people power that we have internally uh to make that happen. I am reticent to commit to before anything that we have digitized. I would have to go I would prefer

132to be able to go back and understand the the timing of the process and actually have us work through that. So I would be happy to come back when we have that. Um if we talk about years prior to that. Um, is there any extra cost to do this over the It's it's time and I've been directed as I think is appropriate to make sure that I'm not that I'm managing budget overtime and so forth. Um, and this is a larger theme overall. Our AV team is wonderful. Mark Russell is an institution in this town. Um but he has and his team has been asked to do more and more with the frequency with board of ed meetings while at the same time maintaining uh and not cutting any events that we have at the

133schools. I I I in my conversations as the head of the IT team, I'm I'm not comfortable taking him away from any of that. I think that's important. That's kind of our mission. Um that is our mission. Um, but with the frequency and with the additional board of ed meetings that we've seen over the last two years increase, overtime has become necessary. Um, and that is something that I'm instructed to manage because it is a cost. Can you do this without overtime? Um, again, taking those ones that are already digitized, so it takes a full step out of the process, a a process that goes from tape to to a digital a computer file, if you will. Um, yes, we can we can certainly accommodate that between now and the start of the school year.

134So, how far back would that get us? I think that gets us to roughly the 2018 2019 school year. And why would we need to go back further? That I do not know the answer to that. Is that something like if a board member wanted to see it in the Google area, they could we could just have that? No. No. So, that would be taking everything in the Google archive. And again, I don't have an exact date. I'd want to I'd want to literally review the entire archive of that. But but I'm committing to it's roughly that date putting those on there. Again, anything before that we certainly have records of, but is my understanding from Mark that his archives are all tape based before that. Okay. If I could just uh inter wait slightly.

135I Well, wait. I didn't recognize you yet. So, just wait a second. Are you finished? Are you are you I'm more than happy to to to to be part of this conversation. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. All I was going to say is like on the YouTube channel that hosted the board of ed meetings prior to the change, the oldest meeting that I had come across in my previous research was a 2016 is like either late 2016 or early 2017 meeting that was already published on a YouTube channel at one point. Now those were back when only like the regular meetings were broadcast, nothing else. Sure. So, I mean, I would be fine with, you know, again, like whatever is achievable within reason, you know, and and I like your proposal of of like working from

136here backwards systematically yearbyear until you run out of what already was been digitized. I don't think it's Yeah, I don't I don't see the value of the time in converting old tape. But if it was already published to a YouTube channel, my thought would be that it's already digitized. It's already just in a bank somewhere. And if we come across things prior to that, any of them, it, like I said, it's far easier for me to take something that's already a computer file sitting in Google Drive and doing that. If there's one from 2006 and I've already worked through everything above it, it it it is very I may have to beg a little more time if we find a treasure trove of those through the archives. But yes, what what I'm concerned about is

137having to set up a whole different system and working through those tapes and so forth. No, I was just trying to restore what was already published online. Sure. I would I'm happy to commit to that. Okay. Any other comments, Mike? No, just I'm supportive of that that approach and please come back to us if you you hit an unexpected snag amidst the ones that you think can be readily done. It's sometimes you go farther in time, it does that. Um with the the Google Drive is there um the files on Google Drive like for instance our attachments like you know I'd click on them as Google Drive somewhere is there like expected persistence of that that data uh just just in the terms of the links the uh persistence as over time on how long

138we have to keep a record of that from a from a state regulation standpoint or well yeah like if I clicked on this agenda it's not working because it's printed right but fair I agree with you you know right Now it goes to uh the right documents and I think it usually works even from the much older minutes but is there are you saving that along archiving that in the Google drive? Superintendent's office builds but builds the agendas and manages the calendar for part of education and so forth and I know that they keep records of all this. Have I have I road tested that if to go back a year or two three? No. Well, I know that we could pull those up cuz we any files that are created, a PDF file, a

139PDF that's linked to another PDF, all of that is archived and backed up. I think your question is what is the accessibility and would we have to would that l that deep link persist or would you have to make a request for that? It's a fair question. I don't have a perfect answer. I'd want to go back and look. Okay. And I don't know how far back you'd want me to test, but I can certainly, you know, go back a year or two, three is. I mean, sometimes you hit a broken link, but generally they're there. I just would would hope it it sounds like you are archiving and backing the it's part of our standard backup processes as a user within the superintendent's office is creating these PDFs and so forth. That's all archived

140and and kept back up in case there's a mistake or something gets lost or what have you. Okay. Thank you. Jen, what's your thought when doing this? I'm okay as long as it's not going to create additional work. If it's easily accessible, then fine. There's like additional work for the interns. There's quite a few Chromebooks to go through this summer. Totally. I totally know that is my priority. Uh but no, I so yeah. No, as long as you're not converting tape to whatever, you know, digital format. um 10 years I was thinking might have been too long you know like even the IRS doesn't ask us to go back that far but um wherever you can stop like a natural break thank you Jan Matthew if we can easily do back till 201716 that's a

141good start and we'll revisit it later have a great summer Adrian yeah I I I I apprei appreciate that um too. I hopefully it's not too too much work, but I would appreciate um you know going back as as far as is relatively easy and and feasible in your department. Got it. Um the one thing I um would kind of question is um the searchable like how I I've sometimes had time a tough time finding um Graten Public Schools things in there and just kind of changing search words and things like that. Um, is there any way to to kind of create a grand list of where things are? Yes, Google doesn't always make it easier in that Google which owns YouTube um, they very much like to time stamp during the time of upload.

142So, when I take a 2017 video and upload it in June of 2025, it calls it we need to do creative things by renaming it with a searchable date in there, which you'll see. I'm looking at the list right now of the 180 Grten board of education meetings we have in the Graten Board of Education playlist which is underneath the the overall channel. You know, I scroll to the bottom and I'm seeing 9823. So, you could do search features such as, you know, typing in the date or something or keyword searching for 2030 if you wanted the year of 23. Are the date like something like the dates are is the format of the date consistent throughout? Yes. Yes, we may be able to do a better job on leading zeros for those months that

143aren't 10, 11, and 12, but we will certainly look at that. I I hear what you're saying. You want to be able to be able to scroll and visually see it or keyword search, if I understand you correctly, to be able to find that information here. And every on top of that, anything we do, we would obviously put in this playlist. So 180 will grow over the natural process. We have a meeting next week. Um 181, well 182 after tonight. Um but I will start adding those to the bottom. So you'll see that growth. All right. Yeah. Thank you, Dean. Go back as far as you want. I'm not in any of those meetings. So Jay, yes, I'm definitely in favor um if they can uh uh upload the Google Drive files and then let's

144just see how far back we get. um as long as it doesn't interfere with Chromebook and other activities over the summer. Thank you. Back to Acman. I'm just afraid of the the enormous cost of this and the not only the cost in terms of money, the cost of terms and in terms of time on the staff of of of and staff and Mark Stefen. Uh, I'm I'm in favor of the concept, but I'm not in favor of doing it. That's a very little thing. It's for searchability. I really like how the minutes and agendas are the archived minutes and agendas and it's by school year. Maybe that's how you build like different playlists. So, so like we got the new stuff in a normal playlist. There are different ways we can slice and dice this.

145I may be able to make some people happy certain one way and other people happy another way or what have you. Call it deep cuts or director cut. Two two quick thoughts to build on that as well. Um one thought is like what about uh doing it in the more like a military fashion where you have the year leading and then the month and then the date. Certainly possible because we have the ability to rename them. All of those 180 currently are month, day, year. Yeah. So it would entail going back and modifying the titles on all those. I know. Is that a lot of work? That that that's just one thought of like you know how I know that I've started doing that with my computer files and it makes them categor like numerically

146the algorithm t takes command of it and everything's chronological. The other thought that the other just thought I wanted to share with some people is that you know yes there is a time commitment but also if they're already digitized and you're just uploading to a YouTube channel it's sort of like you know a few clicks set it starts to upload it's going for about 15 20 30 minutes sometimes an hour or so where then the person could be doing something else and just like looking over there every every once in a while to make sure it didn't break the connection. So it is a it's a it's a if it's already digitized it's just a passive upload. Um so it's not a huge time sync. I agree like you know anything converting physical to digital

147that that's I'm I'm good with a hard stop at that at that break point because that does become a thing you have to monitor in real time and manage. So, I'm in favor of this if it's not doesn't cost us a dime. If it doesn't interfere what the staff has to do on a daily basis, you know, that they could get what they need to do get done. Uh, I will proceed at the direction of the superintendent, but I can accommodate what the board said here. I I have no problem with that. Um if uh if there's further thoughts or conversation about how it's structured, how it's named, I'm certainly open to any and all suggestions, but cons if I may ask, consensus would be wonderful just so I don't make some people happy and

148some people not happy. So that's could be a future topic because we're going to work on getting these uploaded first. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next is um R2024-11 full review of the state testing data and state report card. Um thank you Quint. Sure. I'll be in my office. Superintendent Austin's going to address that. So um that is one of the designs going back to Dr. Grineer um was that we had a board of education meeting template. So those things that were routine things that happened every year, monthtomonth are put on the template. So if we look at the template really starting in um August when we're looking at um school climate data um and then going to September where a district overview of the data happens, October where we do a deeper

149dive into the secondary or the elementary, whatever comes first. We usually, you know, we usually do the second first and then when they have action plans now, it'll be in a in the form of a school improvement plan. Um, and then elementary in November. Um, we do a special ed update and sometimes look at special ed data too. um and EL data across the year, but then we have time for budget and then we come back looking at the growth model and the state report card in April um to to wrap it up. So you see that throughout the year we're really showing showcasing the data and reviewing the data with you so that it doesn't really need to be on the tracker because it's on the template. Okay, Adrian. Yeah, I I agree that

150that's largely the case. Um, I think that in the April meeting, it could be put in with that state report card. Um, because I think it's in in in next April would probably be a good time because we're going to have a a new board. Um, there's going to be some new members and I think it's good for the board to understand the resource um on Edsite because I think that it's a very powerful tool for a board member to be able to do research. So, um, we talk about all this stuff, but we never talk about like go to this page on Edite and scroll through and this is how to access it for board members and for the community. So, so my intent with this wasn't that we weren't doing it was that

151to point to this one resource and show what that resource offered. I think that the student data manager has done that at different presentations. But I think Adrian's talking about the community pieces, but I I think that we could just th I mean, and this doesn't need to be this wasn't meant to be a meeting. Um, I feel like we've spent more time talking about the um referral than actually the referral would take, but um I think that it could just be tacked on to like like the April meeting of state report card and just say, "All right, we're going to show you this is this is some of the new data that we have and this is the whole um Edsite report card um where you can find this data and more if you're

152interested go through it." So I I was just looking at Edsite and like so here's something that we've I don't think that we've done um but um we have talked about revenue but percentage of revenue by source um and you know the district if if it's a pie slice it's very very small and when we look at this like so uh tuition and other as a percentage of revenue by source um it seems like the state average of that is it doesn't actually show me but I'm going to say It's 8% of the pie slice. Um, so what is that? Is that something that we're missing out on? So I think just like it would give board members in the community um a way to ask questions just by referring to this site specifically because

153there is so much information. So I don't know that um I mean you know it it it I think it it's got more words in a in a bigger space in the tracking sheet than it really needs. Um I think it just can be tagged in somewhere. go through it. All right. So, what you're asking is like when we in April when when the superintendent does or Amarie the state report card show go on to the ED site. Yeah. Just just edit like a 10 minute. You did say you were going to do that this April, but you didn't do it. Well, she had done a flip chart. She had done a PowerPoint instead to get to that information. And I think there was a link on there. I don't know why it It wasn't

154done at the meeting, but there was a link to the ED site. I think I just need more clarification so that I know, you know, moving forward what we're talking about because uh the request at least on the tracking sheet says about review of student testing data, Smarter Balance and NGSS, but the example uh Adrian that you just brought up was something related to finance. So, um that would not be something generally that I would present or even Lauren Cassini. So, if I had a little bit, you know, I I would just like to be a little bit more clear. Are we talking about test data on Edsite? Are we talking about there's a variety of things on Edsite? But I if you want us to present something in particular like the example that you

155just gave was more finance related. I Oh, no. I think that I just gave that as an example because that would like and I and I don't know if that relates to us or not. Maybe it's a quick question, but it's a question that if um board members or members of the community had seen, we could ask that question and there's probably a logical answer to it. Um but, you know, so that's just something that I was scrolling through. I just feel like having access to that site and kind of running through what's there. Um because, you know, in addition to the one report card page, you can kind of do a deep dive into all those things and like in individual schools and compare them to other schools and things like that. Yes. Absolutely.

156Very powerful. So I think that um in and quite honestly this is like you know um whatever 18 months or 17 months ago now 16 months ago um you know I um full review of the state testing data. I'm going to say that I was on the board for six months and hadn't done it. So So now that I've been on on for a whole year I realize that we do that in you know in you know September or so. Um, so I think that just um if we just put the state report card or red site so just modify it to that to kind of throw a little I'm very willing to do that. I just want to be very mindful when you present when we present data u especially if you go to

157a site as powerful as edsite. It's very easy for us to have certain um maybe a certain idea of what you want to see and then you can you open it up to Edsite and um it very would be very easy for any of you I think naturally I would do this too well you know you showed us this but why didn't you show us this why didn't you click on this link it Edsite is massive right in terms of all of the things so um I think we will do our best to present you know everything that Edsite has to offer as it relates to our data but I would caution you just to be aware. We might present things that we think you want to see and then there's a whole other there's

158so many rabbit holes I think that you can go down if you will on eds site. So I would just you know be mindful of we may have certain perception of of what you want to see and maybe it's not as uh maybe you think of something that we hadn't thought of. How about a like a general overview of the site report card if you No problem. Yeah. to the chair to out to you a couple times. It comes in different it looks in different shapes, but it's the same report card. So, we did go over all the elements of it, but then there is a site where it's called state report card. Well, I do you want to you want them to do it live like Yeah, I think we pull it up. Yeah.

159like in addition to board members the community members maybe you don't understand how that site works and people can do their own be another topic for an even community thing for parents how are we doing you want to know how we're doing come here for an hour we'll show you where we get our data describe our program you learn we'll teach you how to use it so you can compare us to other districts hour and a half and an evening yeah I feel like we're we're you know we're we're on the rim of the wheel and going through individual spokes, but the hub of it really is just edsite data. So maybe if we just kind of go over that a little bit of what it is. Okay. Essentially, Ian, I didn't call on you.

160I know, but wait, please, please, Ian. Jen, go ahead, Jen. He had a hand up way before you did. Anyway, listen. You have to wait till you're recognized. Thank you. Go ahead, Jen. Very simple phrase. thinking that like on our Graten public schools site like we have links to like our minutes and blog, why don't we just have a link to Ed's site there? Would that help? Yeah, we could do that, Adrian, because then you're saying like sometimes parents won't be able to find it or the site. if we put the site I'm sure that that's you know that certainly the more information that we can give parents about the district or people that might be moving into the district you know maybe if you're coming from a different state you don't understand that edit

161it's there yeah because you can have like the general link and then you can attach like Lauren's presentation so that at least a parent who may not want to go through all of that data has like a summarized set of information. It's easy enough to put in. I think that that's something that can h I don't think that that's necessarily, you know, talking about the board, you know. No, no. I'm just saying like you were saying that the community access component of it. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That that's probably a great idea, Ian. So what I'm hearing I guess and and correct me if I'm wrong but it feels to me like you're asking like for like a edite field trip in a sense like you know when the state testing data comes out um you

162know what you all pull your data from walk us through it in real time on the screen you know so that it introduces gets us more familiar with Edsite and also introduces the community to Edsite so they know where we're pulling our data from and and also keeps everyone aren't familiar with it. Chair, just to clarify, we at the school system level and um so the the data that's made public on edite, you know, the public version comes out much later than um what we have access to as a school system. That's a secure site. It's actually called like CRS. Um so just to clarify that that's something that you know just the superintendent myself maybe like the principles have access to that we cannot share publicly just because it's a secure site. Um and

163by the time that information gets to edit sometimes it's several months later just so I wanted to make sure to clarify you know that's uh that's how that goes. That's fine. I mean I just you know all the data we get is is dated. Um, so, uh, yeah, but either way, I just thought it, you know, to build on that idea. I'm in favor of that idea and and having like an annual check-in with the website, Edite. I know we've done it because I know that you were very excited about it when Lauren kind of showed originally where to go on Edite. So, she has done that, but we could do that each year. That's the beginning. I think that's what he's requesting. And you'll feel why why is the data embargoed for so long?

164That's an excellent question. So one of the things that the state department of ed does one of the nice things about converting from like when we used to give smarter I'm not CMT and CAPT was that um those were paper and pencil tests it took a long time for them to score then they had the state department of had to validate all those scores you know review everything smarter balance and NGSS now because they're uh online tests um they're scored much more quickly but the state department of ed still go through a very extensive process of validating the results and making sure that they are accurate. They literally will go through every district um and every student score. I want to say sometime in the last year or two, for example, there was a problem

165with the lost link scores. That's the test that the English learner students take. And um the results, it was a good thing that they were still embargoed because um the state department of ed found some errors and then had to reissue all of the um I believe all of the district scores. So sometimes there's a problem that happens and that's why they do not um kind of release the embargo until the state department of ed has completely gone through and verified all of the results which is obviously takes a you know takes time. Do it for accuracy. Michael. Yeah, thank thank you for explaining that because I was going to bring that up that um you know seeing having our discussions center around a presentation that's standardized through the state uh that's easily publicly accessible

166and that's been um reviewed and essentially I guess u certified by the state department of ed. uh that has um much much greater value I think um in in terms of because this is what people are going to look at uh anyway during outside of our board during the budget process too. So um it has um a higher I guess a stamp of approval if you will or rating score in terms of um of the data source um uh more provenence if you will and uh and in in in science and research that's really really valuable. That's why I think we should uh focus our our our discussions and and the presentations the PowerPoint presentations are useful and I acknowledge that they have similar data but we're looking at one format and then as a

167board we're not as prepared to answer questions when someone says you only spend such and such on this per pupil uh cost and then you say well the state does it differently etc etc etc. We should be educated and informed uh on the ed site and structure everything we do that way and we can get the early returns but by time April rolls around we should be on the state stuff. That's my feeling. Ian, can we take off your referral? Are you satisfied with um your referral? Yeah, for the the meetings and the archives. Yeah. Yes. You satisfied with that? I'm satisfied with that. Okay. Hopefully it comes to fruition. And Adrien, are you satisfied with yours? Can we take it off the referral list? Um, as long as it ends up somewhere else, it's

168gonna end up on that template. Template. Oh, all right. Yeah, if it goes straight to the template. Yeah, I already put it on there. Kind of the condensed form like Edsite over overview. Maybe we could just write that on there and Okay. Um, yeah. And then All right. So, um, so Joan, we can, um, put a What? Does Joan do it? You do it. Joyce. Okay. I don't know if Joan or Joyce. Okay, Joyce. Okay, go ahead, Adrian. I put it in the minutes. Okay, we're moving 20 No, no, we're moving 2024-3 and uh 2024-11. I'm going to please I don't want to make this long. When we tried to do this at the curriculum committee and the cows a committee as well, we were told we couldn't cross it off oursel. The board has

169to do it. We're not the board. Do we just have to put a squiggly line and do it at the next board meeting? That's my question. Well, we don't refer the referral list at a regular board meeting. Well, we weren't allowed to cross off stuff of our curriculum. We tried to and it just came back cuz supposed to be the board. I know we've gone back and forth on this, but I just want some like basically if we can do it here in the cow, great. Then can we do it in curriculum and cross our own stuff off? That That's what I'd be looking for. We do with policy. We trying to figure out what we Yeah, we do. Yeah, you do it with policy. You cross it off. You get the red pen. Typically

170the referring on the agendas. I don't know. Go ahead, Dean. Typically the referring body is the board itself. I know we don't do that. We've got a lot of longstanding referrals, uh, you know, charges to the various committees and stuff like that. So, the committees kind of make up their own business a lot of times. Um, but I think strictly speaking, I think you'd be safe in having the board say, "Yep, we're we're done with that one. It should it's supposed to be the board's referral to the cow, the specific committee." Feel like So, do we have to put this on a regular board of ed agenda to remove it or can we do it? I mean, haven't we haven't we taken the time sometimes at regular board meetings to review the referral list? It's

171just that it's just that with the curriculum committee, we we cross stuff off. You know, it came back. Oh, came back. So, why don't we cross like if a committee does it, I don't know. I'm making this up so you don't have to agree. If a committee does it and they want to take something off, maybe at a board meeting when Adrian's given a a curriculum report, he can say, "Well, the curriculum committee did review the math curriculum and I we could take we're taking that off our referral like that." Love it. I love it. And and policy operates differently because we actually send stuff to the board. Yeah. Board. Yeah. So it it behaves differently like that. It does. Does cross. I love it. I love it. Beverly. Beverly. All right. One or two

172more questions and then I think my Indiana pace is up. Before Andrew Before Andrea makes her famous motion there. Susan at a at a at a forthcoming meeting. Could you bring us up to date on the status of the mentoring recruiting outreach and where that's standing as well as the status on the Pitch High School student exit survey and where that's standing. And finally, uh, there's not I put away my pen. I'm not as quick as you. Well, I I'll keep going and I'll catch up with you afterwards. Say that. What are you asking for? Well, there we have a desire to do some recruiting for the mentoring program. And what are you on the template or the um I'm on just a blank piece of paper. I'm just asking you for an update at

173the at a at a future time. Okay. Where do we stand on the uh recruiting outreach, the recruiting committee and recruiting for mentoring? Recruiting for mentoring. Well, I sent you one thing that I talked to Sean Gley and he's not opposed to you coming and giving a little spill, but he his studio is getting venerated. So, as soon as that's done, he's I didn't want to I didn't want to presume to do that without the blessing of the board. I'm just didn't want to freelance. If you're saying Matt, go ahead. Yeah, we already said Matt. Go ahead. Okay. And I got the answer. Uh the students uh exits F student exit survey. Could you give feedback at your pleasure, Susan? And finally, as I will be leaving at the end of August, I was hoping

174that giving that much notice would allow the board to try to recruit uh or find recruit a person who might want to run for reelection and get that person up to speed early. They'd have four full months September through December to begin to get up to speed so they don't have deer in the headlights when budget comes to them. Uh so just something you might want to consider doing get that process underway. Okay. Um and transplant data. Where are we on the trans data? Lauren is working on a spreadsheet on it. So thank you very much. Got it. Thank you. We've had a few things going on the past couple weeks. Just saying. You will every week forever. Well, no. It was really busy the past couple of weeks. Adrian, is this um Yeah, back

175to the referral tracking sheet 24 2024-12, the foreign language survey. Um I've kind of uh I'm we're going to just bring that over to curriculum and talk about it there. I think we need a new survey. That was so old and we've talked about that. French is having a a hard time staying in existence. Okay. Is that okay with the board that um 2024-12 the foreign language survey from two years ago and what we are currently offer offer goes to curriculum. It comes off of the cow and goes to curriculum. Is that okay with you? I'm okay with it. It's fine with me. Um Adrian talked to me about this. I've been doing some research to try to identify where this survey is and who has the information and um no one can seem to

176locate this uh survey. So um not only you know there's an argument that it's old data at this point most of the students probably have left the high school um but uh no one seems to know where these uh this survey results are. So I've been working on that for a couple of weeks and uh it's a MIA survey right now. So, what do you suggest? What do you suggest? Board meeting. So, I have the, you know, I I screenshotted it before it got deleted from um YouTube. What do you suggest, Amber? I I would suggest I mean, I need to know a little bit more and, you know, Adrian and I probably need to have additional conversations, but I need to know a little bit more about what we're what we're what we want

177to get, what information we want to get from the survey. Um, I do feel like surveys that are ones that are a certain, you know, certain amount of years, from what I understand, this was taken in 2022. It's now 2025. You know, we're entering the 2025 26 school year. Um, we may want to reservey the students. If if it was a student, I don't know if it was a student survey, an adult survey. Hold on, Adrian. Hold on. She's talking. Hold on. I just don't know. I don't even know who the survey went to. So, um, and when I ask, um, I've asked around, nobody seems to have any context, and, you know, I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone. I'm just trying to investigate and, um, no one knows what what I'm asking

178for. Well, when Clint goes, wait, Adrian, go ahead. Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, I can I can pull it up. I mean, it was done, um, right after Latin was um that right after they stopped offering Latin. Um, but I feel like if I were a parent, I would say, "Didn't I just do this survey two years ago?" Um, and what did you do after we did the survey two years ago? And it was discussed in a board meeting that'll soon be up online. Um, so there was some discussion, but there was no actual I don't believe anything happened except it was helped you to justify why Latin was cut. You all can hash it out. Yeah. So, but yeah, we can we can talk about it. All right, Jen. No, I'm just talking to Mike.

179I can't hear you. I'm just talking to Mike. Oh, okay. I thought you had your hand up. No, sorry. Mike, I actually have a question. All right, we're all done. Thanks. Thank you everyone for coming tonight. Uh, Dr. A, you have a motion. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. and Mike second it. All those in favor say I. Oppose. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.