001U I move that we uh come out of executive session. We have a second. Second by Mike. Um there's no action that were taken at this time and that's all I have to say for that. Um all those in favor coming out of executive sessions say I I opposed. Abstensions for added executive session. Okay. Move we adjourn. Move to adjourn. Motion to it. Okay. Andrea made the motion to adjurnn. Michael second it. All those in favor of adjournment say I. I. I. Opposed. Extensions. Zoom. Carry. All right. Now, we're with our regular board of education meeting being held on April 28th at the central office in room 11 and online. It is um 6:16. The first item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States
002of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all recognition and participation of visitors and delegations I don't see anyone here tonight um coming to citizens This is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from citizens. Each presentation should be limited to 5 minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments. Presentation should be related to matters pertinent to Graten. All comments must be directed to the board and not to any individual board member or individual member of the administration. Please do not call out people on staff or on board by name. Board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation. Cannot respond during the comments from citizens portion of the board meeting. Citizens should make
003their presentation from the podium and state their names and addresses for the record. Do we have anybody online? No one has raised their hand online. Okay. Thank you, Mark. Yep. So, no response to comments. Now, we have the student rep report. Thank you both for coming today. Thank you. Okay. BSU or Black Student Union from Fitch has been collecting shoes for our shoe drive the entire month of April and it's going to end this Wednesday. So, there's still time to donate. Teachers, students, and parents are welcome to donate. Um, junior prom is May 17th and the tickets are $30 and ticket tickets are being sold this week during lunch waves the entire week. And then senior prom is May 30 and tickets are $70 and the tickets will be sold starting next week. And where
004is the junior and senior prom located? The senior prom is at the Peekquat Center. Pquat the museum. The museum. And then and then junior prom is going to be at Grten Middle School in the cafeteria. And do you get food with the senior prom? Yeah. Um so the National Honor National Honors Society has been encouraging students who have AP, IB, and Yukon Yukon exams to prioritize studying and staying rested to get the best results on their exam since they're right around the corner. They're very quickly approaching and um we just had the Greece production from the theater um club and there was a very large cast this year, big turnout and um it was the biggest production in years and it was the first show alone that broke their record. Um so they had a
005lot of ticket sales and it was a very great production. Any questions for us to do the events? No. Well, thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is superintendent and administration reports and we'll start off with the K through five reading written wisdom. Okay. And Amry, you want to take a seat just in case you get questions beside Rey? I know that um Sarah Bonoha is here. She is our K5 director of the ELA for K for the elementary and um she and Ann Marie have been working together along with all the other literacy specialists and teachers um and principles um in really helping to guide the implementation of Wit and Wisdom. So I'll let her take over. I know she has a presentation. Everybody, everyone has their
006hand that in the board packet. I'll share in Disney like Hi everybody. Thank you. As as my assistant um gets this up and running, thank you Emry. Um, I I just want to thank you for the time to to be here tonight to celebrate the growth that we've really seen through the K to5 literacy program that we adopted last year. I've observed all buildings making strong prog progress from building strong foundations to strengthening comprehension and writing through witten wisdom. So, I'm excited to share with you the first year of implementation and and where we want to go next. Yeah. Sarah Beth, you might want to talk about a little bit while she's getting that set up about meeting regularly with the different grade levels in the building and keeping really close communication with our teachers.
007Yeah. So, some of the things I want to walk you through are obviously, you know, um why we started this work and I'm going to remind you a little bit about that when we did that last year. Um, and some of the key milestones. So, yeah, definitely some of the things I've done to collaborate with the specialists, administration, and the teachers. And then how we've aligned the curriculum and the practice to show student growth and really what we're celebrating. Yeah, that's been a big piece of it is just maintaining a lot of that reflection and and collaboration together with the literacy specialists and administration. [Music] a copy. Do you want me to see if they No. Good. All right. She usually does have a backup. Yeah, we're good. Yep. So, here we are. A year
008of literacy growth from phonics foundations into wisdom. So, here's our rationale implementation milestones and impact the curriculum alignment and integration and then looking ahead um and those those student successes and impacts. We introduced the same graphic to you when we implemented the UFly phonics program and I bring it up again today because this just reminds us that reading is complex. It's kind of it's you're attaining these reading proficiency in a complex process that involves the learning and integration of knowledge and skills that emerge and grow really over time. Um, and I think that's one of the things we've really been seeing like K to 5 is like making it not just by grade specific, like having it be it's it's a learning process over time and students need the strong word recognition and the language
009comprehension in order to, you know, to continue that growth and become a skilled reader. And it's really a continued strengthening of both. One of the other reasons why me and the literacy team like this version of Scar Bro's reading rope so much is because you can clearly see that the word recognition is great because it overlaps um and it's like an intertwined intertwined skills that you need and then the language comprehension is a spiral because there's really no beginning and end like you're constantly spiraling through a lot of those comprehension skills. I did add these are two links that we put um up to share with you last year and they're really just good places to go and get a little bit more knowledge if if you would like to. So here are the phases
010of implementation from launching, reflecting, adjusting and now to the continued refinement. Each phase has truly been about learning and action. So with the adoption of Whitten Wisdom across all elementary schools, we started in trimester 1, August to November with the PD through Witten Wisdom, the launch and then the preparation protocols which really talked teachers through all of the different parts and aspects of the program so that they could internalize it. And then we launched module zero which was a short introduction to the program and then module one which was the first um unit that everyone that everyone started. We analyzed the B beginning of the year Dibbles data and my one of the biggest parts of my role that first trimester was the that reflection and planning meetings like really giving teachers time to internalize
011the process, ask questions, share thoughts, um, and and really working supporting them through that first trimester. I'm glad you said what BO stood for. I thought it meant bring your own your own data. Getting on here. Thank you. The teachers do that too. They do bring their own data. They do. Yeah. Trimester 2, December to March, we were in module two through KA to through K to 5. We analyze the middle of the year data. And of course, we're always adjusting instruction after we see the the progress that we see during Dibbles with the middle of the year data. Um discussing small group and and impacts on phonics and and phetic awareness. And then those reflection and planning meetings continued with the exception that we elevated to a lot of teacher feedback. So now teachers
012are seeing and trusting the process a little bit more and they're seeing the progress that their students are making. And now our feedback is what's working, you know, what are successes, what are things that we're seeing working and that we can just continue to trust the process in while keeping the integrity of the program. And then what are things how can we help? What are things that are a challenge that are going to work themselves out the deeper we get into this program? And what are challenges that we we want to help support you with and and adjust? And now we're in trimester 3. So all of the K to5 teachers are in module 3 or moving out of module 3 into module 4. We will have our endofthe-ear data for Dibbles that we will
013be able to analyze and use to track the cohort trends. Report card work's been a big one. So, in regards to report card work, teachers, you know, have obviously used programs that don't necessarily align with the evidence they're using now with the program. So, really pulling teacher feedback now while they're still in in the district and and still working through a lot of the student work and and finding examples of what what student work would would match the criteria on the report card and the evidence that would support it. Something else that I'm really proud of that we're doing and the teachers have given us strong feedback as we've um moved into some K to2 and three to five district meetings. So bringing teachers back as a district and having those discussions about what's working
014and and what are things that are shared agreements between the entire district. When I go into each building, I hear common I hear common celebrations and common struggles. So bringing the teachers together to talk those out and and make agreements together and streamline has been really useful and we'll continue to have that communication and connection for the rest of the year. My work this August and uh June through August is going to be finalizing that report card with a team and the digital resources and access. This program has manuals and workbooks, but the digital access is also a huge resource for teachers. There's a lot of videos and a lot of things that they have to download. So continuing to find one source for all of that while also matching the Graten Public Schools curriculum
015page so that they have easy access to it. And then you fly in handwriting going back to the rope constantly going back and reflecting and seeing how we're going to refine that and making sure the data is leading those decisions. Moving into next year the PLC's will be ongoing. So those grade level meetings will be ongoing where we talk about wit and wisdom and UFly. I will support with report card calibration and the digital access. We will start tracking some of the benchmark data. So the summitative data that goes along with Whiten wisdom now that the report card will be adjusted. We'll be able to track it and new teachers, not just new teachers, teachers that maybe moved grade levels, right? So so differentiating for teachers that might need support because they shifted a grade
016level and and are new to the district. administrators and literacy specialists will have those monthly meetings. And another opportunity that Amir Amry and I are really excited about is that um Candace Lanti, who's the um state representative that's been helping us um through some affinity groups and Margie Gillis through Literacy How, we are um exploring the possibility of having a partnership with them. They're an organization that's contracted out of Yukon and it's purely to talk about the balance of the science of of reading and how that works with your programs and and supporting teachers through the the why. You know, they know the how. They know how to implement this program and just going back and really reflecting constantly about why we're doing this, why the shift. And then moving into the third year, that
017continued refinement with writing instruction, continued differentiation for for supports for teachers, streamlining the ELA programs, um walkthroughs with Cal um with like a common look for with administration and specialists so we can see some of the successes and some of the the commonalities between the buildings and really that reflection piece and supporting vertical alignment possibly even into um the middle Any questions? Um, well, I I was going to I was just going to hold until the end, I guess. Um, I was just taking some notes, but I just realized we still have a couple more pages to go, so sorry. Yeah. No, that was a big slide. That's okay. Okay. So, the next slide really could I may I go ahead. Thank you. Yeah. Um that was a a great theoretical uh presentation. Um how
018you know based on the beginning and middle of the year? We haven't done the end of your assessments yet, but based on this, how would you characterize specific progress and challenges that you've observed so far? If I'm asking the question too early, feel free to bump it till later. I I could do both. So, so yes, I think about that constantly and I know the teachers, you know, I think anytime you have um you implement a new program, the hardest part is the adjustment to change, right? Like it's it's really hard. But once teachers start seeing the progress that students make, it's the buyin increases. And that is something that we've seen a lot is like teachers are starting to see the progress in students writing and in that oral language. And I I will
019I will go back to that and and show the success that you're seeing. Yeah. So, making it all work. Our goal is to find success in aligning what we teach, how we teach it, and why we teach it. Um, and I really believe keeping up with this consistent structure can help support both our students and teachers. That being said, I always want to stay focused on that ongoing reflection, asking all of the all of the buildings, are we aligned? Are students growing? Do we need to adjust? just constantly like thinking about keeping that as an ongoing process, that reflection piece, and focusing on the data and how that drives the adjustments that we're making. Let's talk about student growth. So, I started in grade five. When I go to all of the different buildings, I'm
020always asking teachers to bring work, whether it's showing pro progress, whether it's a student that's struggling and they need strategies. Um, and what has started happening is we've evolved into a lot of I want to show you this, look at what this student can do. So, I wanted to start with grade five. As we know, grade five moving into grade six and just ESPback in general in these kiddos who have had some gaps in their past experiences with programs. This has been a huge um celebration for our grade five teachers. So, what you're seeing up on the screen is kind of a before and after. So, you see a grade five students writing sample from October and then a student's writing sample from March. Some of the things that we see in grade five as
021some of the celebrations are that deeper text engagement and evidence use, the clearer introduction and conclusion, and just overall organization in general. That's been something that's really excited for grade five teachers. Is is this a student piece of work? Yeah. Is it the same student? Yes. Great. Yeah. So this is an example of an exemplar. So this student in grade five has shown a lot of strength throughout, but there's always room for that enrichment and that elevation of student work, the interpretation of theme, the analysis of character development, well explained text evidence, and just that logical well organized writing structure. Um, what we're seeing is this growth with their confidence, their independence, and just sophistication of their of their writing in general from K to 5. Um, and I know I'm running out of time,
022but I do have these examples. grade one in particular um has had a lot of has had a lot of growth um with writing and it is it is an area that that grade one has has struggled with because the writing's so different but these are just some examples of some students when I reach out to my grade one teams they want to they want to share they want to show you a lot of the successes so if there's time um do we have time to maybe to maybe look at one would you like to see one yeah so here are four students from a grade one team Um, and I'll just go to K. So, the top one here is K, who was a reluctant writer, you know, tearing up their writing papers at
023the beginning of the year, really struggling with just finding their voice as a writer in general. And this teacher says that they've made significant progress. You know, she's constantly recognizing their potential and and praising and encouraging the student. And they recently completed the second task of module 3 independently, which has been a huge a huge proud moment for this teacher. So, this is module one. So module one was their first unit and this was their task. So they always have diagrams and labels that they have to that they have to um create and generate. So it started in Australia is what this student's saying when Rosie didn't have any books and there is a huge um emphasis on you know detail and labeling. Then Rosie got books from a huge truck. And then when you
024see module three, the same student, it started in Walmart when Steve got lost in the Minecraft stuff. He was scared. So just the development in general of their sentence structure and their animation and their punctuation. Um it's been huge. Then he cried, "Yeah, where are you?" 1 million times. It's good detail. I know. police officer, a nice officer asked, "What's your dad's name?" Steve said, "Steve Jr." The police officer found Steve's dad. He was happy. You know, and this is just one example of many of of just how thrilled these teachers are to see see the growth. And it's not just the elaboration growth. It's it's grammar, it's punctuation, it's it's it's all of those pieces that are that are intentionally embedded in the K to5 program. And I just want to say a big
025thank you um the literacy team, my literacy team. I really couldn't have done this without them. This has been a huge Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped a I skipped one. Sorry, everybody. I'll get back. I do thank them. They're wonderful. Thank you. So, back to your feedback, Matthew. Um, when I meet with the teachers, especially towards the end of module 2, I ask them, "What are the top what are the top impacts that you're seeing and what are some of the challenges?" And what I found was that they're common, right, throughout the district. Um, they're seeing they're seeing the same celebrations and they're seeing some things that they need help with and that actually drove those K to2 and 3 to 5 meetings. I also have survey like when I when I produce surveys for
026them, I'm asking them like how's the lift going? How's the balance? Um and these were some of the successes. So what you're seeing right now are the most common s um impacts that students and teachers have noticed throughout the program that that students are showing. So improved oral comprehension and discourse, vocabulary development, and then that writing growth through structure and stamina. So, it's really building deep thinking and communication skills across the years. Yeah. Um, uh, thank you, uh, for for this. Um, I'm just going to kind like jump back a couple slides. I had a overall curiosity. Uh when it comes to the um the reading rope uh roughly like is there a sense of percentage of time that's allocated towards like decoding phological awareness? Yeah. And you know the word recognition side versus comprehension
027that No, that's a great question. So depending on the grade, right? So when you're in kindergarten, it's a lot of the upper part of the rope, right? you're you're you're learning about graphims and phonms and and starting to even just recognize letters and form your letters. And then the older you get, you know, theoretically it's it increases and you move towards the other end of the rope. However, what we know is that not every kiddo develops reading skills the same way and we always want to be mindful that we might have to to balance the rope depending on the learner in front of us. Um but K to2 is definitely more heavy on that word recognition part and then moving into comprehension the older they get. But it still does blend. Oh yeah, you still
028blend it. Absolutely. And I imagine yeah that the data leads you know where you direct your instruction and I imagine like that the teachers are encouraged to use as much individual judgment as possible to kind of shift in between the two depending on the students how they progress. They first of all UFly has been a huge success. They ab they love you. They they really have shown a lot of progress with the systematic funnest instruction that we implemented last year and then along with the dibbles data. So that that benchmark data that's showing progress monitoring, but also the the benchmark information, we use that during PLC's to really talk about like, okay, what's working? How's you fly going? And then and then reminding them like it's okay to to take a step back if you
029need to. Yeah. Excellent. Good to hear that. You know, flexibility is encouraged embedded in. Yeah. Reminded, always reflecting. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot of uh to my understanding in this material, there's a lot of uh informal assessments. Um there's progress monitoring. Yes. So there's those are those focus question tasks. So those are essentially for the teacher to see how they're making progress toward the toward the summit of assessment which is the end of module task which is like yeah culminates the the the unit. Excellent. Thank you. Um and so with the uh looking you know for the students that we have in the upper grades now this basically primarily wit and wisdom focuses primarily on K through five. Correct. Um however we do have a lot of you know six through 12 students that
030that did not have the benefit of this as a foundation. Um this may be on beyond your scope. I'm not sure but is there uh what sort of programming is occurring in the upper grades middle grades and upper grades to bring this sort of approach the decoding the funological awareness that towards anyone who's a struggling reader in the upper grades? Yeah. I can you want me to address it? No. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. So, um, uh, there is, of course, an intervention program in place for our students who are struggling, whether they be tier 2 students or tier three. We don't have anything, um, right now that officially works with the Witton Wisdom program, but that's something that we're exploring for moving forward. We really wanted to get solid in our K5 and then
031um, start to look at our middle and high school programs. But we do have but we do have an intervention program in place. And um in fact, one of the things we recently added as a resource for our teachers at the middle school level is something called Common Lit. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Common lit. Oh, good. Excellent. And so, um we actually uh purchased the version that allows our teachers to have expanded access and as well as use the assessment system. So that's something that our teachers have just started uh implementing around I think they started implementing around February and they're really thrilled with um the the results and the progress that the students have been making. But thank you for asking that. Yeah, no problem. I I and thank you
032for sharing the common lit um integration because that uh I can speak personally to that. I use that program a lot and and it's incredibly um dynamic in the sense of how you can set up your classes and invite students in and create um you can adjust Lexile level and you can also go bilingual and um and comes like you know fully integrated with with a whole bunch of uh you know discussion questions as well as just reading comprehension. Yep. And it allows the teachers also to be very flexible, adjust uh like not only select readings based on students interest and and reading levels or reading abilities, but also um to uh if they're going to do an assessment, for example, whether it be a formative probably the formative assessment to make adjustments to those
033assessments also based on the students needs. So if they're realizing that students, for example, need more assistance with identifying theme, they can adjust the questions so that there's maybe more theme questions. Um, it really common is uh is a platform that I uh enjoyed as an English teacher and I know our English teachers are enjoying using it as well. Excellent. Good to hear. Good to know. Um, and just to kind of wrap up, I appreciated the uh slide where uh there's all the shared successes. Yeah. But of course, we got to ask the hard question. What are some shared challenges? No, no program's perfect and it's it's been a it's been a very challenging year in general. However, the good news is some of the challenges are just habit habit challenges, right? Like like it's
034it's very very different. Um the program is much more rigorous than the programs we've had in the past. So just you know helping teachers trust the process and and managing that and supporting them and making things as easy for them to access as possible um has really been one of the challenges. some of the other challenges are also very valid and and that's why I want to continue to have those collaboration meetings with with the teachers so that we can make sure we're covering everything. But like having time for that love of reading and and having students have books in their hands and really be able to not just practice reading as a as a as a module um and form their oral language and vocabulary, but having time for them to to read independently,
035too. So yeah, balancing between group and individual instruction or individual independent reading. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Got it. Um could Dr. A jump in? Yeah, sure. Yeah, I got one more I'd like to circle back. Oh, I did my last one is just uh about the report card. Um is that a thing that I don't know if it's already been discussed, but is once the report card is complete for the year, is that a thing that is being planned to be presented to the uh to the board? Yeah. So the report card as we know is standardsbased wit and wisdom does a beautiful job of aligning standards throughout the entire program. Um so when I'm finding when I'm finding evidence through the modules it's there. It's really more about like calibrating right like having teachers
036be able to look at the assessments and really understand the criteria and the numbered part and the evidence. Um, yeah. So, so that's definitely something that once we we do our work, we will share. Okay. Yeah, I look forward to it. Absolutely. Any other questions? I want to follow up on the question of I'm sorry. I Go ahead, Andrea. I I actually have two. I thought you I'm sorry. Anyway, I have two. One of them is going to be easy to answer and I don't know if the other one is going to be too philosophical to answer. But anyway, the first one is and I'm almost afraid to ask this, but I'm going to do it anyway. And it follows up on um I think when he asked about the challenges, what do the teachers
037say when they come to you and they say, "I hate this." That's hard. Um because I care about these people, right? And it's it's really really hard. I think I think first of all I I think everyone's Go ahead. Let me narrow that. I don't mean like I hate this thing. I mean like this is the one part in here that is so hard to teach and they're not getting it and what is it? Well, I think that also comes down to the why, right? Like really thinking about like why are we doing this part, you know, because there's things that as when I was a teacher like I didn't enjoy teaching but there's a why part of it too. So helping them understand that everything in this program has intention and has science behind
038it um is always going to be my first my first step with them. And then just continuing our relationship to help figure out like how can I help support them through at least alleviating some of that. But you can't be specific about I hate when I I haven't heard that. Oh, okay. And I can't I can't teach this because it doesn't address it. Yeah. Whatever. No. Okay, good. About the heavy lift change. Yeah, it's it's been the rigor is different and not knowing what was coming next because you're kind of working your way through it for the first time. So maybe as they started seeing those successes, they started trusting more. That's how they're going to get to it or that's how they're going to do it. But at first they weren't really sure where
039it was go. No, the they was very hard to see the the forest through the trees. Like it really was. Um, but I will tell you like I had meetings today and and the the the climate of my meetings now is much more like okay like we're on the other end of it and we know how we're going to adjust it. See more. Yeah, that was my first question. Yeah. My second question is I heard you say that you were teaching grammar. Okay. So I really want to know about your philosophical approach to it. Are you teaching grammar to say, "Okay, there's an independent clause. You you need a comma and there's another one over here, so you need a semicolon." Or are you saying to the teachers, you know, we're going to teach grammar
040so that kids can fortify their writing that the writing becomes stronger and they understand that where the punctuation goes can make your your sentences stronger and your meaning stronger? What kind of approach are you using that or you saying stick the comma here? One of the one of the big differences between a program like this and some of the other programs in the past is things aren't isolated. So, you know, we're not just teaching in silos, right? So, like this week we're going to do dialogue or this week we're going to do punctuation. This is this is embedded. It's it's actually like embedded into the program so that students don't just use it, but they understand the intention of why it's being used. So, so like for example in that student's evidence work, they are
041required to put quotation marks on their evidence from day one and it it follows them through every grade level. Um, I will say there is a there is a scope and sequence to the grammar. Um, and I will say I think that's probably been um to your question one of the challenges. It's it's a little bit harder to see the like the it's hard right now to see the growth because everything does feel like it's it's singular like okay we're doing adjectives but it is it is being embedded and there is a scope and sequence throughout all of the all of the grades. So we will see progress it's just we don't see it right right now but the but the grammar itself is is definitely not taught in isolation anymore. If um um Dr.
042Rini if you would you give her that that um I will absolutely and you know what I'm talking about. Yes, absolutely. It's it's it's an approach to grammar that I I really would like you to to to take a look at. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that's it. Thanks, Matthew. So, I see us having three publics that you're working with. You're the teachers and professional development. Yep. We're the students. And you've talked about both of those. What I haven't yet heard us talk about is how we bring the parents along. Yeah. And uh I mean it's fortunately it's not like high school where you get an 83 or an 85 or an 87. It's uh really the commentary that the teachers put is as important as any measurement. So I'm just wondering uh how
043will parents see how their children are progressing on the different elements in the reading rope? Yeah. No. And and I think about that constantly too. I mean, when we when we send home the dibbles reports, that's one way that they see their progress. And now we have Whiten Wisdom. So now we have a a a kind of a a permanent compendium. Like we have a permanent program that we need to, when I say we, I mean the teachers, we need to start really internalizing so that we can communicate that to families, right? So that's been something I've talked to teachers a lot this year. Um, as far as as as the stakeholders, you know, as far as like community and families in general, um, we sent home letters to tell them what texts we're reading.
044And then that's going to be a big piece of the report card, too, is like how do teachers feel confident explaining this report card to parents so that they can understand their child's growth. Have you thought about using the barometer approach with the six or seven elements in the wrote? So you you have the thing on phonics and you have a you know bar a bar bar chart that says you know this is where we hope kids in this in your age group would be and your kids doing pretty well or are we standing to work on this one so they can see where Yeah. Well and those standards are the the standards are created for an end of a year success, right? So so even just communicating like it's okay if they're not here
045yet because it's it's supposed to show growth throughout the year. Um but yeah, all of those conversations I I completely agree. So I would like to add one one different thing because uh mainly for any parents who may be listening, this is a new program. This is our first year roll out. This is Matthew's opinion. It may not coincide with the board. This is not a stimulus response magic bullet, but a cumulative process. Uh and we are going to learn more and get better as time goes on. Uh having said that, do we have any idea as to how many years before these first year celebrations evolve into systemwide measurable growth? Uh getting uh getting solid as you heard. Um I I'm a collaborative person. So if I have a problem, I I always like
046to reach out and I I have been very lucky to have a lot of people to reach out to, not just in this district. So, one of the things about the affinity group and some of the the places that I that I find information from is is other districts that are going through the same thing we are. And some of them have done Whiten Wisdom for longer and some have done less. So, I'm I'm constantly trying to gather information to to do exactly what you just said, answer those questions. Um, what I've learned through research and through interviews is it it the first two years, the first one to two years teachers mastering the program. Um and then two to three you're starting to see like that measurable student outcomes across all the grade levels
047and then three to five years that full system really shows results and and you start to see those learning gaps close. Having said that we will always look at the data and and see what you know how we're moving forward in closing those learning gaps even even this year and next year. Yeah. This pilgrim is very happy with what you guys are doing. Oh good. Any other question? Adrian. Yeah, I'm I'm thank you very much for this um for this presentation and updating us. Um I have some questions about like the pacing. I know that we're the um the um time students are expected in the classroom now to work on this is a lot more than we've historically given. So I'm sure that was very hard in the beginning of the year. Is that
048getting better years going? Yeah. And it's funny, we so when I had my K to2 meetings before spring break, one of our biggest conversations was about pacing and and how do we how do we get through the program, you know, you how not not not faster, but how do we get through it um with with it being so rigorous and with the time that we have. Um module zero was one of those like um introduction modules that we don't ever have to go back to. So, we're already going to be starting the year like three-ish weeks earlier than we started this year. And the confidence of the teachers is going to be a huge is going to be a huge positive because they know what's coming. And another thing that that we're excited about seeing
049is just the kiddos having a year of this under their belt and coming in. All of those things that you really don't have to teach them, they already know because it's it's kind of like carbon copied structure through the whole program. So they have a Socratic seminar, they have a tableau, they have these pieces in place in all the grade levels that kids are just going to go, "Oh, we know how to do that." So, so I'm excited. Know how to do it. Yeah. But but pacing is a big one. And we did have that discussion in K2 and I'll have it in three to five as well. Yeah. And and constantly talking to them about where they're at and how can I get them get them closer to the end of module. Yeah. Yeah.
050So if they if they um so with all with all that I'm guessing that they're learning so they probably can't get through the entire curriculum. Yeah, they typically three modules is year one so we'll get there. Um I know module four is very exciting. I I will say there are some grade levels that are getting to module four which is really exciting but then yeah that becomes another like how right how do I how do I get you there? you know, if that's our goal. Um, and and that constant reflection about like we can't necessarily change the integrity of the program. So, so what are ways that we can follow the standards and follow the the priority standards of that lesson, but also maybe have some flexibility, too. Yeah. Well, and I want to add
051that the good thing is is module four is as exciting as it is, um, is really like a spiral or a review. So, um, one of the things that I was really concerned with in the beginning of the year is, um, you know, the fact that we might not be able to complete all the way through module 4, but when I spoke and and Sarah Beth spoke with the representatives from Whiten Wisdom, um, they assured us that if students complete the first three modules, they would be prepared um, in terms of making sure they address all of the state standards. So that was really important to us, making sure that we didn't have students that were going to be going into the next grade level without having been exposed to specific standards that would prepare
052them for the for the next grade. And there was a zero that we did because that was the introduction. Yeah. And I've heard a lot of discussion that that's really not necessary. Maybe in K, but for the other grades, they've already had that. We'd rather not have them take the time that it took introducing to get right into one, two, and three, and maybe four. No, we're very relieved to have experience now in our in our corner a little bit. Like it was it was a lot of surprises, a lot of new learning together, but we made it and and yeah, we're already looking at next year in a different in a different lens. Yeah. Um and then um kind of on that as well, I'm assuming that um there are some students because of
053the pacing and the amount of time that's put into this that there's probably more students that are falling behind or not quite able to keep up. is do we have enough support staff to work with those those kiddos? Yeah, I mean I I I think that's going to be a constant, you know, question and it's a good one. I will say that um from when I collect information as far as the kiddos, you know, and you're looking at I'm looking at it two different ways. Like obviously we're going to have students that we have to support to get on, you know, your your grade level reading and increase their increase their reading. But what Whitten wisdom does do is it allows those kids to be engaged in different ways with modalities and and different ways
054to access information. So what we're actually seeing is those students have a higher level of oral comprehension because the pressure is taken off of them to do something that they struggle with. Um but as far as the supports um I I we use our dibbles to to track that and I believe that every inter my intervention teams you know use the dibbles to to have their to do their tier tier two intervention and their tier three intervention. Yeah. So is it is it um doing that tier two and tier three is that um is that teachers or are we using those are our reading interventionists and our specialists. Yeah. All right. So special ed teachers. So we're not really using tutors for that to help with that for right now. No, I don't believe we
055are. All right. Not that I'm aware of. No. Um All right. Yeah, that was my questions. Thank you. Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah. Um English as a second language like students, how are they fairing with um the program? So there's a multilingual manual that comes with every module um which the teachers I know have found a lot of of a lot of value in and it is something that so I'll go into a specific room and maybe there's you know a student whose whose language is a little bit you know more like higher than another student and they have an easier time accessing with the oral language and and just speaking in general but we have put in place a lot of you know like bilingual resources for kiddos. So, for example, like we'll have
056Spanish versions of the book or we'll have audio versions and then I know our EL tutors have also um been exposed to all of the curriculum as well. So, they have access to the vocabulary that's introduced. They have access to videos that that um prepare kiddos with the background knowledge in in their other languages. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Thank you. I have a question. Thank you for the presentation. Much appreciated. Um does wit and wisdom require a lot of background knowledge? Yeah, there's so the the Yes. Um and the hard part is right now our kiddos are starting a new year without a lot of background knowledge with some of this. But what we're another part of the intention. So for example, in grade five there's um a module that focuses on um a part history
057and in grade two they've already started that work. So there's an intentional background knowledge buildup through the grades. So and kids are starting to make those connections even between the first the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So their background knowledge is improving. Um but yeah to your point I think that that was one of the struggles that teachers had is like oh I want to teach this but I'm nervous they don't know enough so they're not going to connect to it. So there has been a little bit of backfilling with that this year which is which is common um from what I've heard. And if I can just add, you know, I know that um that's something that right now is a concern, but a lot of the research and
058I've been doing a lot of research on elementary literacy because of my background being a secondary person. A lot of the research um really supports the fact that students are reading non-fiction text or being exposed to non-fiction. So, in Wit and Wisdom, as I'm going into classrooms, I'm seeing students learn about um buffaloos and and the West and they're learning about civil rights and it's a variety of sometimes they have science things that they're learning about. So, they're being exposed to this text and that is only going to help them as they progress through the grades. Just recently I have well yesterday and in the last couple of days I've been analyzing this high school students um SAT results and I can't really talk about them in depth because they're still embargoed but I will
059tell you the structure of that test for the evidence-based reading and writing is um almost all non-fiction now. You would think that students are reading a lot of fiction text in that but they're not. They're reading mostly non-fiction. So the work that we're doing now with students will really help them as they progress through the grades and and kind of get that background or content level knowledge. Um so I've been really pleased with, you know, this literacy program in particular. Um I really just learned quite a bit about it since coming here. I wasn't exposed to Whiten wisdom prior, but I really have been pleased with the type of work that students, the types of things that they're reading, the types of writing that they're being asked to do, the vocabulary, and then just the
060the things that they're doing in class, like a Socratic um seminar. That's something that I did with 10th graders, and I'm seeing kids as young as kindergarten and first grade participate in discussion about text with one another. So, uh, uh, it's been something that, um, I've been really thrilled to see the work. And, you know, before we go any further, I really want to compliment Sarah Beth. Um, she is so great about asking teachers for feedback and really being reflective about how she continued to help them. the elementary literacy team is has been supporting uh people obviously the class teachers in the classrooms every day, our administrators and and of course I want to compliment our our teachers because um this was a very a very big lift for them in the beginning of the
061year and they persevered and um you know we're just seeing great things. So I I'm always so impressed with with our educators. They they are really committed to our students. Yeah. Hope I didn't steal your thunder on that. No, not at all. You introduced my last slide. Yeah, really I couldn't do it without my literacy team. Um, you know, going into this as a new leader and having them support me has been so valuable and then Amry and Susan, you know, checking in on me to make sure that that I have everything I need. The administr administration in the buildings just supporting me and allowing me time to have teachers come and collaborate. I know that is a huge toll on on their building sometimes, but um and the teachers, their dedication has been it's
062been hard and they've they've done a really fantastic job. I also have one last thing. Oh, you know, education things are always changing. Um do you see witten wisdom being here for a while and not like three years from now be like, "Oh, now we have to change to a different program." Yeah, I I do. No, I do see it being here for a while. And the reason I say that is because the when we talk when we talk as as district leaders um it's it's aligned with science, you know, it's aligned with the science of reading. So, so what we're seeing in the program is reflected in in you know research and decades of research and scar bros rope and you know all these things that actually make students strong readers and and thinkers
063and and and wonderers and so I I do see it happening for a while. I think the other thing is when you and I I agree um shar that chair Washington that um in education sometimes things kind of cycle through and and they change quite a bit but I think it's really important um you know for students and and for our educators you have to have consistency um if you don't have consistency when when a district lacks that and and you're pinging from this initiative to that initiative and you're and you're changing programs or resources um you're not going to see results. So, you have to have that consistency, really see things through, and you have to be intentional. Um, Sarah Beth developed with, I'm sure, the literacy team, the elementary literacy team, a very
064intentional plan for implementation this year. She went over that very early on in in in the slide presentation. And when you have those two elements, you're you're using consistent resources, you're being consistent about what you're doing, the instructional approach, and then you're being very intentional about the plan, that is a recipe for success versus, you know, that idea of everything in in education or things in education change so much. I just don't think that that's something that is um that is good for our students. Yeah. Like years ago, it was a big push with whole language. Sure. Now I don't know but from what I'm gathering whole language was a failure. Yeah. And that's why we are where we are now. Yeah. Agreed. I have one more question about the report cards. Do you see
065that we are going to have to change our report cards? I mean I I think I think the teachers need time to reflect on how this program is is mirrored in the report card. Like so I mean I think one of the biggest struggles is so it's standardsbased and those standards are reflected in the program but just the time for teachers to get together and start looking at student production and the data and how to explain that and grade that in the report cards. Does that make sense? Yeah. Can you put like a supplement type of paper in the report card for wit and wisdom for the reading program? Well, because it's standardsbased, it's really I think I think a lot of that will happen in the conversations we have. Like many of the standards,
066you know, are going to stay. Um, it's just a matter of having giving teachers time to understand the program and see what what they need to track and what they need to use to grade it and have that be streamlined through the district. Yeah. Um, so yes, great idea to not cycle through every three or four years different programs may be inconsistency. How do you avoid the problem of getting to uh program maturity? We've had it in place for a while. Dean, you're muted. Oh, did you hear anything at all, Mark? Should I start all over again? Okay, I'll do this. So, we're going to avoid the three to four year recycling. How do you how do you avoid the problem when you get to maturity? We've had this in place just to watch the
067kindergarteners get through 12th grade to have an honest assessment about the results. Will we know how to measure the result? Will we know if it's successful or will it be the case of well we've been using this for a whole generation so you know how do we how how can we how can we be there may not be an answer to this but how can we be sure that having avoided the res the the the short-term recycling we don't fall into the other trap of just going with inertia and saying well we've had it for all these years and it seems to be doing the good job but we don't even know what to compare it to anymore right now we have recent results to say this is a new program look how much better
068we're doing what will we say in 12 How will we know? Well, the state has set out guidelines for all of us to attain. We've talked about accountability index and the DPI and if they were meeting the standards and it's showcasing on ESPback and SAT, then that's going to start seeing an improvement and hopefully we'll get to those target numbers. I mean, that's one way. And if our kids are reading and, you know, doing some of those other soft skills too, like they're actually reading and doing research and their work in school, we're seeing that performance as well. I think I wanted to add the piece that I think I feel so um confident about is that in elementary school, you have a class and you're teaching them everything. So, you're expecting readers and writers
069in every discipline across the disciplines, whether it's math class or science or social studies. And I think that because of this push for, you know, um, non-fiction, we're going to also see that in middle school and high school that those teachers in science and history and, you know, all subjects will have to have reading and writing assignments and they do already, but that expectation. And so kids are reading and writing across the curriculum. That's something that I refer to as time on text. And you know that's something that you know we are going to be looking to increase in our secondary program. Making sure that students every time they're in in a classroom should be reading and writing something. And so um you know that will be an initiative that that we take on. I
070figured you would do that. Help us spur that on. Dean, you'll say? Yeah. Thank you. Andrew, I I have again two questions. The first is um if I were to to to want to see an actual lesson, not read about the philosophy, but if I googled written wisdom, would I would I actually see something that would give me what a lesson would look like? And if if not, uh is there something in the classroom that u maybe Susan could send me or Amarie could send me? Um you know, like a textbook as it were. And uh finally, if you were going to present a a lesson here or have a teacher present one here, what would you choose? What would it be? Like what? Like specifically like the grade and the in the unit? Um
071I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. You mean like specifically the grade, Dr. Eman? No, I mean like to today I'm I'm in well whatever grade. Fifth grade. Yeah. And uh it's Tuesday and we're gonna do blank. And what's the lesson going to be? Well, there's so there's there's different stages of the lesson, right? There's the welcome. Um there's the deep dive, which is a grammar. And something we learned with Whiten Wisdom was you live in the learn. So the learn is the is the biggest portion of every lesson. And it's where the students are doing that turning and talking. They're um they're looking at text and pulling out evidence. That's what I want to see. Exactly. What are the text? That's the evidence. It's fun. Now, are there video clips for WIT from Whiten Wisdom
072or could we do our own? I do think I do think the the program the I'm sorry, Great Minds, the the company itself is starting to try to develop that because of its popularity through through all of this. It's been hard to find and have access to those. Um, and I have reached out to reps and asked for that as well. Um, I have not had a lot of success finding demo lessons, but the specialists and myself obviously go in and try to co-e and bring the teachers. I would love to see those, too. Yeah, it's I my walkthroughs are are one of the favorite parts of my job, like walking through and seeing um not just the teachers, but if you go through different grade levels, seeing the progression, like, oh, they're doing this
073and I know why because in that grade they're going to need it, you know? It's really it's really interesting to see. Yeah, that's why I want to see it. You got it, Jay. Yes. Good evening and um Sarah, I'm sorry that I can't be there in person, but I just want to thank you uh for this presentation and uh for all the great work you're doing in in changing the direction of the district uh to more of the science of reading. And um I want to thank the uh board members and teachers who who selected this program and all the teachers who are you know making that change. Um I wonder if Emily Hanford is uh is watching across the country after her podcast uh created some good trouble. Anyway, thank you very much. Thank
074you. Well, thank you. Um just to kind of answer some of the concerns about longevity. Um you know, one thing I think is is is different about this approach and one reason why I think it it behooves this board and and the district to kind of make the commitment the long-term commitment to this kind of program is that since it is standardsbased, um the assessments can be prescriptive. So when you get the results, you can align the results to standards and using those standards um prescribe you know how to you know adjust the nuts and bolts of of someone's reading skills. Um whereas like to my knowledge of the whole language approach it was a generational um in my opinion a misstep um where it wasn't really it was it wasn't really tied to standards
075as much. So it was hard to prove to demonstrate with a scientific method. Whereas this is is founded in in phonics, phological awareness, you know, the components, the mechanical components of language. So it's demonstrable. It's like you can show evidence. You can it can show like okay, you know, there's good understanding here, but there's there's trouble with the graphings or the you know um the components of of the words. So even if like so the 12 years down the line question um one I would suggest that we keep the data from now on record so we can do a time capsule comparison uh especially I would even go back five more years you' get in the thick of the whole language approach and see where the the scores were then and see where we are
076in you know 12 to 15 years from now. Um but I you know from my own experience in training you know I I I can speak to with great confidence towards a scientific approach and having something that is tied to standards um that you know have very specific tasks and techniques that you have to accomplish in order to to demonstrate mastery of a certain level and then move on to the next level of standard. And there they they do spiral. they they you know you increase in complexity but you practice the same uh techniques over year after year so you see the same standards but then there's usually just another extra layer of rigor and complexity as the years go on so it's familiar to the students so there is a progressive approach yeah program's
077just the vehicle any Matthew a question for anarie and Susan if it wouldn't be disruptive is there some way that we could have the board members might be able to sit in for 15 or 20 minutes in some of the classes at different levels. I'd really love to do that if that's not that wouldn't be disruptive. I think we could arrange I probably wouldn't have everybody go into one class then you know children but you might not be able to make it on the same day small groups um and see some lessons. I know the teachers have been very welcoming um you know when Susan and I are we're often in and out of classrooms. I know Sarah Beth is as well. Um and so I think um we have a very positive culture around
078that with our our educators and um you know I'm sure again we went small groups we could probably have you see sign me up. No that's the best way is to see it in action. This time of year is a little tricky because they're just about there. Some of them have started Smarter Balance and some of them are just about to start Smarter Balance, but maybe you know once we kind of get past the Smart Balance testing, we don't want ever want to interrupt our students when they're they're testing. Jen, um Beverly and I got to witness um I think it was fourth grade. I think it was the Buffalo. So um I what I could say was in one particular classroom the students were all like engaged with the teacher and they all probably
079like 70% of the kids raised their hand because he's like oh can you share blah blah with um Beverly and myself and like maybe three or four kids jumped in and um shared what they were learning and um one kid was starting to just um cite the book and the teacher stopped him and said, "Okay, what insight did you whatever?" And then the kids started talking about like what the book meant or whatever it was. And um it was just it was good to see. And that was a fourth grade class and we saw like another one. I think it might have been second grade. I don't remember. I just remember younger. It was a younger grade. So it at least the kids looked like they were enjoying it. Yeah. So yeah, the topics are
080really engaging. We're finding that a lot and the books are beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. They're really great books. Yeah. Any other questions for Sarah Beth? No. Well, thank you very much everybody all your hard work. My pleasure. And as the staff completes their, you know, presentations, I want them to go on home because we have a real busy week this week. It's kind of jam-packed. So, thank you. Yeah. And on out. Yeah. No. Can't. Not yet. Well, you're next. You are coming up. Come on. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. You don't want to stare at this. Oh, there it is. Um, can I ask when when will we see any data with the end of the year? Um well for dibbles the end of the year data will be done early June and then for with
081them um as far as like the data you mean like collecting the benchmarks. No. Yeah. Next year will be a year that we collect um the data as a district. Okay. The benchmarks. Yeah. Thank you. All right. You have your narrative and I also finished your record. which first we got that start again. You have your narrative along with the expenditure report. We've also uh within that um I did write a part of the narrative um there was a question several questions over the last month about electricity and I did a deep dive over the last uh week or so and within there u there's a total of $415,000 of unbudgeted expenses that that hit it. There was the CCM services and the CFIA holdings which are part of the u the solar program that
082was not at least I couldn't find evidence that it was part of the initial budget that went into last year's uh electrical electricity uh budget and on top of that um as I mentioned at the RTM meeting there's also $187,000 worth of um basically delivery fees that that are in there. They there what was once about 80% of your utility charge and delivery rate, it's now approximately 158 to 160% of your delivery charge. So it's it's really skyrocketed. Um we might be getting some relief. It depends on what happens. Uh the PUP PU I believe it is. U so there may be some relief but I'm not I wouldn't guarantee it. So that is why at the last budget meeting we had I asked for some additional funding because uh one of these and I
083I'll have to tell you which I'll have to bring it up at the finance subcommittee meeting. Uh the the loan itself is a uh I think it's a 60-month loan. So you're going to be that's going to be buried in there for the next 60 months. All right. So, um, having said that, natural gas, we've got a new contract that takes effect December of this coming year that's going to reduce your your utility rate. Uh, so that that's going to help you out a little bit there. Um, overall, you have an a bottom line overall of about $500,000 um that we're looking at. And as also noted, you'll see there's an awful lot of yellow Those yellow lines are an indication of what we have to manually do. There's a timing issue involved here that
084I wanted to make everybody aware of. Um, this is where it kind of got hosed up last month. Remember I said I'm pulling it back. I didn't like it. I didn't like it because the timing was off and I didn't realize that until I started really digging deeply. So, the encumbrances are created through a purchase order. basically a dummy purchase order to create the incumbrance for the salaries that you're seeing but every month and we do them on a monthly basis. They should be done on a bi-weekly basis because as we process say a payroll for one of the lines it should be reducing like there's a an inherent flaw in the way e finance works. It's either all or nothing on that reduction of that particular line. So with only a couple months left,
085I had to time it right. Uh basically Friday morning, we're working our tails off to get all the numbers in here the right way so that the reductions were taking place and we and it and it was a right budget. And these are all non salaried employees. These are all nonaredied employees doing the time clock, right? So yeah, and it's basically you take an average of what you've done over the last 10 months and you multiply it out times whatever that average is and that's your last two basically two pay two months that are left in here. So those are two months. That's basically two months of what your average salary would be from for most of those lines. Um insurance we're actually pretty good on the insurance by the way if you if you're
086curious about that that things are holding their own on that. And the uh the line 202 is for the uh OB. I always mess it. Oh, thank you. Okay. So, um that that's not that's not too bad. Net bottom line is pretty good. There's a few items in here. Um the nurses, they missed $7,000 on the move that you people authorized me to do. They're going back. They're going to check that. Apparently, there's a admit there's a code somewhere that's picking up a salary that we have to research and figure out why it didn't move over to the non. So, where are you? What line are you on? Um, I'm on line 153 on the nursery line. There's about $7,000 there that didn't get moved, right? So, we we're going back tomorrow morning and we're
087moving that over. Um, anything else in here? Professional services. We've we've beat that horse every every week. Most of it is uh is going Why is social security in like a peach color? Could you give row numbers as you're going that's 212? That's I just it was one of those things I was trying to get it to I was trying to meet a 12:30 deadline Friday afternoon and things weren't going well. It got peach color. Um, professional services. That's a that's a homogeneation of everything for special ed. And then there are some other I've got a whole list of items here. A whole list. Yeah, there they are of different things that are being used. So when you have 100% consumed, does that mean like say top is 100%. Does that mean we have no
088more money in that line item? That's 109 211. That's been that's finished. That's all been moved over. It's all been transacted. That's all that's all slid over. That that's one of those lines. This is one of the reasons why that's why I made it peach. I wanted to mention that it's peach colored because when we do a reconciliation with the town, the town automatically grabs that fund and moves it over. There are no transactions internally until we see that they've grabbed that money and pulled it over. So, Social Security, Medicare, um, Social Security, excuse me, workers comp and the town retirement funds are two accounts that they literally move the money over on the back side. Now, we have to accommodate that and disperse it properly throughout the system. And that's why you see it
089fully extinguished by now right now. Okay. Um, there are a few other ones we may be coming back um somehow. For example, row 139, temporary salaries. There was $31,000 expended. I need to do some more research on that. We've been doing a lot of deep diving right now and we're taking it one line at a time and it's with all these lines. As you know, there's three almost three full pages. Now, this is after we do a pivot table and consolidate them all. So there are probably 2500 3500 lines total that we're evaluating as we go through these on a weekly basis. Now we have also extinguished several probably about a half a dozen poss we're starting to make phone calls to some of the suppliers like Lur London um different different uh people that
090supply these services to it. if we're noticing that we're not getting an invoice after about two months, we're making a phone call, we're finding out the students no longer receiving those services. So, for example, if we have a PO open for 50,000 and they've only used 10,000 of it, we're closing that PO out. So, that's why you're also seeing a little additional funding coming back into the budget. So, we're we've started that process ahead of time so that we're not scrambling at the end of June and early July. I mean, we're trying to get some forward forward planning. So, Jen has a question there. Yes. Two questions. So, that PO closing, there's communication with the vendor that we're okay. I'm just making sure. Yes. And I not Yeah. No, no. I know. I just want
091to confirm. And then summer school. Why do we have a negative? Oh, 123. Why do we have a negative expenditure? because there was probably a credit there. Again, there are some of these where there's no uh encumbrances. I need to do some deep. I'm grabbing them one at a time. I might grab the big ones first and did what I had. Yeah, of course. We either got a credit or something. There had to be a credit there. I mean, logically, there's a credit that was given on the expenditure. So, we'll take a look at it, see what it is. Okay. But it says the balance is 16212. So that will take care of the summer school that's coming up, right? Oh yeah. No, I don't care about that because it basically increased, right, your available
092balance. When you add the credit, it's going to increase. It will increase. I was just trying to understand like I don't think we're making people pay for summer school. So we may have gotten a a check for somebody that had been paid. Sometimes there's people that are paying for summer school. that check may have come in after after the fact. So, we had to credit the line. Okay. So, I've seen that happen. So, one of the things we decided to do is a a $25 supply. We did this for the elementary. So, all all that's expected is a $25 supply cost for their summer camp or their summer school. And um we've decided to do that for middle school and high school. And that if a family cannot afford that supply cost, then we certainly
093will take care of that. Any other questions? I see Jay's got his hand up. Oh, Jay. Jay, you have your hand up. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Um, and Rey, I'm just asking about the electric. Um, you know, we continue to find things on the electric line that we didn't know about. So, I I assume the energy efficiency loan is the LED project at the high school that I assume is is paid through the electric bill for a certain amount of time and will ultimately pay for itself. Yes. Is that what that is? And then Yes. Yes. And then this CC CCM and CCM and CFIA, you were mentioning solar. So, I know that we did the solar project through the Connecticut Green Bank and my understanding was that we were going to um have
094a net savings from that. Um so, I do understand that a portion of that would have to be uh basically financed through the electric bills as well. Um but just out of curiosity, you know, I look at the utility report, I'm not seeing what we're getting back. So I don't know are we just doing net metering or are we getting a check and how you know u how how do we reconcile the savings versus these unexpected uh charges that weren't budgeted. We're going to we are receiving a $19,000 quarterly rebate from BRG that that we know. We started receiving that uh in December. We should be receiving an auto very shortly if all things are equal. Um I'd have to take a look at first of all and one of the things that I have
095a note on here on the utility report we need we need a new and improved dashboard. It's so messy out there on the spreadsheet file that I'm working with and you're seeing only part of it here on the file that I sent through and that gets linked to what used to be a dashboard and it's a disaster the dashboard. So, we need to rebuild a new dashboard, but I think we should also add a new several new lines within there showing what we're paying for for the loan, showing what we're paying, and then netting everything out to see if you're truly getting the savings that you that you're anticipating. Is that something that John Burke can help us out with? Our utilities, I mean, I can ask. No, but I mean, if he knows about
096the the agreement that was signed, I found we have the agreement. I need to again evaluate them what they were what they are. Yeah. Okay. I I I would just be curious in an analysis versus what we were told, you know, that this was I know everybody really wanted solar on that building. Uh taxpayers were up in arms that solar panels weren't on the roof the the day it was built. And we went through an awful lot to go through the green bank which came highly recommended to us. uh that it was not only going to be something that was going to help the environment, but that was going to help our electric bill. And then when I see that, you know, all of a sudden we're adding uh 227,000 uh you know, to the
097utility bill that wasn't budgeted for, you know, I just would like to see the big picture. Um, so I know you you wouldn't have all those details tonight, but you know, put you know, is this solar really helping? Um, and then, um, I have a personal opinion, Jack. In the long run, I think it will be. Um, let's take a look at it, see what the cost analysis. All right. And then um I don't see um you know we used to get the monthly report on the health insurance and I know that somewhere along the line for reasons that were never explained it went to a quarterly. Now, I don't know if that's because MDG changed their reporting structure and that was approved uh between the board and the town, but when when are we
098going to see um the status of the uh because we used to look at it every month. Okay. I I could tell you this much. Um I did get a report today and uh bottom line is our reserves were are pretty good. We're not bad there. Um, OPED, obviously, that's why you budgeted extra money for OPED. Um, we're we're behind there, but I I'll have that as hopefully I'll have the whole report from MDG. If not, I'll put something together for you for the next the next quarter. I thought we were looking at February was the last time. The last data I have is February. So, I did get something uh from the town. Lori got something from the town today. Okay. But it's again it's a um it's a spreadsheet. It's not the official
099report from MDG. Okay. And that's what I that's what I'm waiting for. I think there's a lot more lag time now, Jay. It seems there was always a little lag time, but now it seems like it's months of lag time. I just don't want to repeat myself. Well, I know. Well, we we always we always, you know, I understand we're we're never going to have everything reconciled to uh you know to the end of the last month, but we at least we got the updates on a monthly basis. So, if we got February, we had seen Yeah. That Yeah. And I want to know why why that changed, who approved that, how is that helping the process? How is that helping us to understand where we stand financially? How how is that working with uh
100the report from the town? Uh because OPEB and the insurance reserve are in the same uh accounting structure on the town side. Um and I just think it's it's getting less transparent, much more murky, and I for one uh think that it's uh um uh it's going backwards. I mean, we had it going where we got a report every month and now, you know, we don't even remember when we got the report and we don't even know, you know, what it means and we don't know how it uh reconciles with the town and it's just um it it's not an improvement. So, I'd like to know, you know, where did that go off the rails and how can we get it back? I mean, everything's computerized. uh you know why why aren't we able to
101get a timely report of what we have submitted uh to the insurance company um and find out you know where we stand um you know we're h hurtling toward the end of the year and we don't even know where we stand on the insurance and and don't even get me started about you know transportation being overbudget by 254,000 the computer network services I mean you know rentals by 166 6,000. I'd like to know, you know, why are we overbudget by $166,613? I mean, this is a lot of money. Um, and I I really would like to see, you know, more detail on why all these accounts are are bleeding red. Is that something you can provide at a finance meeting? I may not have it ready for Monday. Is it Tuesday next? Yeah. Um May
102six. I can't run the detail on it. Well, I know transportation is related to special ed. That's the big transportation is the big problem, Jay. And that's based on those IETs and need. So, you don't have a choice. And so, not to go not to get too far um a field, but that brings up the question that the legislature and the governor um you know, had that uh big uh to-do back and forth and power struggle about whether to grant the additional special education. Um and ultimately, I guess the governor gave in. Um did we ever get that money or did that just go to the town and reduce the taxpayers uh burden on special education come through? So I think that's still being debated in May. I was told anything. Well, I'm talking about
103the special I'm talking not the uh not the excess cost reimbursement that we always talk about and nobody ever understands. But I'm talking about the special legislation where the governor threatened to veto it and then they made some kind of last minute deal when he realized I guess that he was going to get overridden on it. And so where did that money go? I mean, they made a big deal about the money was approved. So, did we get it? I usually am the first to know if it's coming our way. I have not seen that, but we'll check. Ry said we didn't get it yet. All right. Well, I guess All right. Well, I guess I'll talk I'll call our representatives and and ask them, you know, where where's the money? Did I mean, did
104it go to the town? Um, does it go to the boards? I mean, this was months ago. I'm not talking about something that just happened yesterday. And so I'm just wondering, you know, where's where's the money? So, all right, I've taken up enough of everybody's time. I think you can tell I'm extremely frustrated. And here we are uh at the end of April and uh we're about to end the year and uh I really don't understand any of this. So, thank you, Jay. I think Ray was trying to explain to you that through his CASBO group, they keep networking about all of these things. And so I'll let him have the floor just so he can explain at least that one thing. We have a liaison Jed that was working this whole issue that you're
105talking about. And the money is not being released on and that is part of excess cost. It's an increase to us of about $200,000 in excess cost. It's coming back to the town. But I'm being told through our CASBO liaison it's not being released till about May 15th. So I I don't believe it's been sent because I haven't they notify us right out of the gate. This group is extremely good. I don't think if it is if it is an addition to excess cost reimbursement, then you're telling me it's going to come directly to the board and reduce uh this line item which is way over. I think we have to get clarification on that and I don't think talking to a a representative of ours, a legislator is not a is a bad idea
106at all. I think to find out from them what they have heard on their end, I think is a great I mean they did they did vote for it. So I hope that one of them understands what they voted for because I for one don't. But all right, again I've taken up enough of your time. Thank you. And maybe Ray can get some of your other questions ready in time for finance and facilities on I can pull the detail. I can tell you exactly what's in there. I was doing that earlier this evening. I've got got a whole list of things of where and what's behind it. Okay. I mean, you want the exact dollar amounts for each one. I'll pull that. I'll pull it put it in a spreadsheet and you we can we
107can sit for hours and discuss it. Why? It's there. It was needed to support the kids. 99% of this nobody I think Adrian is first and then you both diamond. Oh, Michael before ladies before gentlemen. No, you can go on the basis of gender. You haven't you haven't asked anything. Come back. Yeah. So line 120 substitutes. It looks like we're going to be um like a million dollars over budget. Is that is that right? Yes. What do we have budgeted for next year? I don't have that with me. I didn't bring that with me. I feel like it was around a million or something. It was an increase. I think you did increase it by 250 400 range if Yeah, we did. So what is that just classroom teacher substitutes or is that also including
108parah um substitutes? That one I'd have to dig into into the detail. It's all sub I think that's it's all sub all subs. Um all right so we we're we're spending a lot for some of these positions um that are unfilled. It's just a different part of the budget. It's in a different part. Well, the problem I think if I'm not mistaken, the contract that they hear a certain length from time as a sub, they move into a a different category. If they take it, they have to take an assessment. So, we do have those substitutes that are in special ed and they are able to, you know, get that work experience and some support and then they take an assessment to become educated. All right. But but regular subs might become in addition to
109paras can't get parasubs. We're using regular subs. Um so I'm I'm glad to hear 139 temporary salaries. You're going to get us um something on that. Um what that's for. Um line 325 student intern is another line. It doesn't look like we budgeted for what is that or what number are you on? That's uh those if I'm not mistaken those are the interns they used last summer for the uh computers upgrading or fixing the computers those all right so that's the same we have something like 12,000 in for this coming summer that was last summer's use now this is where I was saying before some of these lines because we don't have a budget uh I may come back to you with a request for transfers to clean up some of the stuff there should
110be transfers in because so we'll know what we actually spent, right? I mean, this is where this is where I should be coming in with some transfers for you to be honest a little bit. Yeah. Um I hate that phrase. Yeah, I agree. And we need to keep track of what gets where the transfers happen. Correct. Um so then the other one, um textbooks, um that one seems way way out of budget. I mean, we budgeted what are you? Oh, the 640. We budgeted 25,000 for textbooks, which I thought we weren't really even using as many textbooks. I could tell I could tell you what what that is. Yeah, there's uh since this should have been put in title one, title one was not approved until very late in the year. So, I need to
111move that funding off of here and put it into title one, but we had to buy these books. U if I'm miss is that the reading program I think or the math program that we had? I have to check with Ann Marie. Yeah, it's one of one of the programs that um fits into title one, but because it wasn't approval, we need to get the books. They apparently they they were purchased last year. They should have been put against title one right at the gate. There there was also the right to read. So, I think they came from different grants that we were able to use. Yes. Yeah. if you could if you could get us some detail on exactly because I I I thought that um I thought witten wisdom and stuff was in
112a different category. Um and I can't remember what category that was purchased against a different grant to Wisdom if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that we put that into this year's wisdom we put into this year's budget. So should it was like 300 although I do remember there was discussion about getting it early or something like just Yeah. But yeah, either way, I think that 300,000 was in this year's budget, but but yeah, getting some um specifics on what that that line is would be would be great. Okay. Yeah. I don't think what we lose came from others. No. Well, because we got $200,000, remember, at the end of the year for right to read or for the two years, we were able to take some of the cost of the implementation of both the phonics
113and the witten wisdom and pay we had to pay it off in the grant in the two years. So, we did some of that, but there's a spreadsheet somewhere that tells you all the specifics. I'll pull it up up. Yeah. if that if the wind wisdom money wasn't used um if we had grants to help supplement that or support that I'd be curious to you know where that money is exactly that that we had budgeted for that didn't spend any Whitten if it was in a grant it had to be spent oh so we we the board added wisdom 300 last year I can't remember exactly where that happened but if we ended up having some grant support for that program I' I'd just like to know the accounting on that program. Did it cost
114more than 300,000? Um did we only spend you know less out of our budget and then where is the rest of that money? Where where did that end up? So there were various components. There was the University of Florida phonics program. There were the geo textbooks that were the phonics based text. Those were last year though, right? Yeah. But I think there were more purchased this year. So we've got to get on that. You'll have a specific and Marie might know off the top of her head. All right. All right. She and I are getting together in the morning out there. Oh, good. All right. Sounds like other people have questions. So, thank you. Yes. Just kidding. You're a man. You're a good man. I don't care what they say. You Okay. So, um I
115know you said that you probably won't have time, right? It's Monday now. There's like five business working days. um as best as you can, right? Um maybe you um shrink this a little bit and then you put like um just for the key ones, what is unusual that is not like normally that's supposed to be there. Um this board has repeatedly asked I know Dean um and Adrian like um give us information on the grants right and what's being offset in our grant for a totalistic view of our budget and our total expenditures. So this is news to me that um wit and wisdom got put in a grant because in my mind the whole thing there's other bits of Yeah. No no I know in my mind we had set aside 300,000 and I
116have the same question as Adrian if we only utilized uh if we pushed over 200,000 to a grant. What did we spend the other 200,000 on? Um and maybe that's part of the favorability that's coming here if it was pushed last year. This is in this year's operation. It's in this year's budget. I'll let you. Okay. So, um at least for um next Tuesday um as best as you can um information on the grants and then like um for key specific items um obviously with updated data for the the month no I mean it's very confusing. Um, no. I'm not confusing. It's very It's very simple. Financ Jen. Okay. Respectful. It's No, he's saying that I'm confusing. It's confused by what your request is. Okay. You take why we're adding or why we're unfavorable or
117favorable and you make commentary. um like, oh, we're favorable in classroom teachers because we have five vacancies or an average of 10 10 vacancies for the period. We are over in um substitute costs because throughout the whole period, not only are we covering for those vacancies, but it's increased costs. Simple analysis, right? I mean, it's just plain custodial. um you know um we something blew up and now we had like extra like overtime hours and additional purchases whatever it may be right that's the that's the analysis we need not like oh yeah it's like increased by 200,000 and it's custodial we need to understand why is it that's the question it's why so you want him to do it on every line ite no the major ones. Well, what would be major in your eyes?
118Where we have significant variances. Maybe we put a percent significant variances. Ray, can you please let them know why? Maybe it's like 10% of um 10% over budget. That that's just simple. I mean, yeah. Anyway, and um like I think I mentioned this before, we are the board of ed and um you know, we need to understand what's in these budgets. Um transparency is key, right? I'm not saying that people are hiding things, but when the board has been asking for certain things and I know you're filling in um at least try to um even if you can't get the entire thing, like try to fulfill like some of the requests, right? Like I know Dean's been asking about the grants thing probably since last year. I'm curious. That's about structure. Yeah. No, no, but
119like like if we have I don't know 2 millions in grants and um it's x amount of positions and it's like we need to get reporting on that too. We're just getting reporting I don't know is it twothirds of our budget? Is it 2/3 of like the operations or is it um half? I don't know how big is that grant budget. Right. Well, so anyway, um it's just very frustrating to get reports in this manner that is not explaining anything. Well, I think you were hearing some explanations. Yeah, you were. And I also believe that with the budget process, we were all working overtime and trying to fill out frequently asked questions as they were being asked. and you were helpful in getting us those questions and I was helpful in getting you the answers.
120So, I would say grace and gratitude and a little patience would go a long way. We've been patient like the entire year. Susan, that's not bad. All right, let's move on. Getting out of hand. Yeah, this is the fight. Mike's night to attack the staff like that. Mike, you're on and then Ian and then Matthew. Thank Thanks. I'd flag some of the things that have been brought up. Um but one of the ones the the rentals and others you did you did draw that out of course in your your narrative and maybe that's something might talk about but it is like you know 200% of budgeted there must have been something big there or maybe it's accumulation it's accumulation of multiple items of I think we had talked about that Sam I think there was
121the handicap um facilities that were rented on the fields because we needed handicap facilities, we needed additional facilities. We've already talked about that. Um, some gymnastic rentals, some Yukon uh stuff that goes through to the boys and girls swim teams, St. Mary's Church, there was some rental stuff there. Portaotties, there's a big item within there. Then canon copers and down, those were the main items that were in the Okay, I do have some of the detail. Yeah, we can give you some details. I will put it together. I wrote it down quickly so I had it because we've been under done with training. An updated oper an update of the operating system uh the budget hearings where we're asked for reports that have never been done before. Well, you have to, but you could talk
122about that at the finance, but I'll talk about that at the finance study committee meeting. And and then I'll just quickly note that when Jay was bringing up pupil transportation, one of the codes is 510 and that's regular pupil transportation. As you brought up, specialized transportation is quite expensive for the district, but here's the regular pupil transportation. So in the finance meeting just kind of I mean that's not up by a a big percent but it's of course a large budget item. There is one there was one of the transportation lines that is up out of all of them as you pointed out and uh the regular transportation line is up and that's there was an increase in midday pickups as well as late buses that help drive some of that. Okay. And then I'm
123going to switch to uh uh kind of towards it's the end of the second page and the the and the third page as well. This this is monies that um at least to date don't look like they have been spent. Um huh. Are you going to line? Yeah, I can I mean for instance u it kind of fits together like 5.88 field trips. Um we spent u 25% of that. Um and wondering is is are we going to come in under budget on that at the end of the year for instance or like by that much or we have a lot of field trips going on right now. I just signed off. Yeah. A lot are in the fall and in the spring. So we are doing field trips now. So are we like we're
124we're not going to come in at like 50% or something. We have to spend that out. We're going to spend okay maybe not all of it. I mean, right now, remember that 500,000 I mentioned, it's a dynamic number. It changed today since last Friday, and it's it's going to continue to change as we spend down throughout the next what, six, eight weeks. Yeah. And and then these other ones are besides field trips, these all they feel like supplies to me, broadly speaking, classroom supplies. Um, and at this point in the year, I'm kind of surprised to see like for instance 602 science. Um, it's only 30 39% expended. And that's on that second page. And then um you go to the third page. This one's a smaller budget, but mathematic supply 617. It's 6% expended
125at this point according to these numbers. other plus supplies 619 23% um 623 libraries 21% um consumed I can actually answer that one Michael and and then the library books was 20 645 23 that's actually very easy to respond to about when we had when I pulled this budget back off the last meeting one of the things Susan and I did was say hey slow down your spend and prioritize and prioritize what you need right now request until we get our arms around the budget. Now that as of this past week, that has changed. We know what we have. We know what we we can literally start spending some of these supply lines. And I think like the librarians had come up with their list of books and they were just holding on to them
126and getting ready. So we have started releasing that and saying go ahead and get those library books. Go ahead and get some of those supplies that you had needed. Yeah. and and and the bid. Matter of fact, speaking of supplies, I know Nicole just put the bid program back out to the floor because we had to the other thing is we had to wait before we put the bid out until the new operating system got pushed out and that was just pushed out today. So, everything was kind of put on hold because we didn't want it to blow up and have to do thousands of lines all over again. So, so thank you both for that explanation. I brought up because it's been brought up in terms of the new budget deliberations seeing that a
127lot lot supply lines hadn't been even close to fully extended but that was strategic I guess and sensible because their supplies for next year anyway yes u or you know and I think I had responded to the board or not next year but they use that confusion that they were using the FY25 estimated column and the estimated number was actually back in September So, we hadn't really started spending at all. So, those weren't like dollars we weren't going to use. They just hadn't been used yet. So, I said better to look at your FY 25 budget and the actuals from 24 when we were setting course for the 26 and that's what we did and and a lot of these applied this is things that gets expended every year through through use as well. Exactly.
128Okay. Thanks. There was mention and u and I hate to be believe this but there was mention of grants Monday one of the things next Tuesday when we meet with the finance subcommittee I'm going to be showing them the grant spreadsheet that we developed that links to e grants and also uh allows us to tie out much more quickly for year end so that we know what we spent we know what we brought in we know what we've requested we know what our draw downs are so this way we can get a better handle on our grants as well. So, as on top of that, as one of the uh we're going to be showing that as part of our revenue process, um Susan and I were talking about this earlier today. Yeah, matter of
129fact, last week, too. We're going to be putting a few items on our website. So, you're going to see the grants, you're going to see uh our aggregate spend from the EFS file, and you're going to see um our budget. This will be out there. It's there now, but it's embedded as part of a link. We're going to be putting it out on on a on a tab itself. It's in our minutes and in our, you know, presentations, but we really want to have a a page that it's easy to get to. And we're speaking grants. You're speaking both competitive and the title right now. These are all whatever is in e grants. That's what we're going after. Thanks. Doesn't have it. Oh, yeah. Thank you. Um, so I I just, um, I do share
130a number of concerns and frustrations that have been already mentioned by a number of board members. Um, in particular, I just wanted to lend support to, um, Jay's notes on the health insurance dash dashboard. I mean, it does I'm not saying correlation is causation, but I mean, we seem to have started losing We started to it's we stopped getting good information from the town around about the time we started asking about the health insurance asking for more detail. Um, and when we started meeting meeting with MDG and looking at the state program and all the other stuff, you know, and and I remember asking like, can we get like a more articulated report as far as like looking at the health insurance accounts as like a bank statement, you know, debits and withdrawals, um, and
131credits. Um, and again, it it just seems like we've gone the opposite direction on the health insurance stuff, which is a huge driver as part of our budget. And on top of that, it's a thing that the town and the board share together to the benefit of the town and at a cost to the board. Um, so I think it's of great concern that that you know we should get regular reporting on that. And yes, there may be some like a month delay, two-month delay because of all the processing. Either way though, when I first got on the board, we were getting updates as part of this regular monthly meeting as part of of this report section and a lot of that data came from the town. So, I don't know if the if it's
132not, you know, getting to the business office or not, but either way, like we we depend on that in order to track trends and and and get a sense of the patterns. So it's, you know, even if it's like a month in a rears, it's still consistent over time and we can account for that. Um, but we just need it to happen consistently. Um, listening to to Jen's um, concerns about this sheet, I had a thought, and I agree. I think it'd be incredibly helpful and save a lot of time if there were an extra column on on the left here that had sort of like a short blurb of like you know say 10%. I think 10% is a good, you know, even number to conceive of as an overunder variance of whatever the
133trend is. But maybe instead of doing portrait, just do landscape and have like an extra column over here where there's, you know, a wide column for notes that, you know, if there's a certain driver that that you know, whatever you have written down there and you communicate verbally when we ask, throw in a couple little blurbs there of like what the key drivers are. That way it could save you time, save us time and and you know it would be a a document of reference for us to to kind of go back to. That could be one way you know we move forward uh from this from this issue or codes with footnotes, right? Codes with end notes, right? I was just thinking ease of ease of access room that way. Yeah, that's true. Or
134have you have an appendix sheet where there's codes that detach back? Um, I think you've done that before with lots of things. Yeah. I'm just saying like, you know, there's a lot of back and forth and and and you know, it could just ease communication. I'll do what you Okay. Um, and grant reporting. Yes, I'm I'm 100% on board. It'd be great to get again like sort of a running report. So, if there's something that we're developing on the website, um, that's good to hear. I think that's good to be completely 100% transparent about, show where it went. Um, my memory is also of the same that we allocated $300,000 into the operation budgets of this active school year in order to to pay for Wit and Wisdom. And if that got rearticulated somehow, then
135definitely we need to know that. And you know that that correlates also with the interest of uh you know where the money did get allocated to. If it was not if the operational money wasn't completely spent on went wisdom then where did it go or is it being held in reserve as an emergency coverage for some one of the one of these other areas that's over. Um, and that sort of correlates to my ultimate uh the the other referral I mentioned to the finance report that can talk about later, but tracking the the staffing positions and if there's unfilled positions, you know, what happens to that money at the end of the year? Thank you. May, did you finish with your report? Did you go over um we done? All right. Thank you, Ray. Thank
136you, Ray. they've traveled home and we thank you for I just wanted to express one thing more. Uh I've made no secret of the fact that finance is far from my strongest suit. And as questions were raised, Ray would say, "Well, this is for this reason and on this one we're going to have to move this out and this one we're going to have to make an an adjustment." I understood all the words. I really did. and I I don't in any way doubt the veracity of what you're saying, but it leaves me with a document that I don't understand. And my real concern is not my understanding of this document. My real concern is we're going to have a new or we have a new uh finance director and you know, we we've heard
137that we couldn't do it this for this reason. We had the the budget problem. We had the operations problem. We we have a lot of reasons why we didn't get the answers and I understand they're true. But we've got to give this new finance director a quote clean budget, something that she can look at and understand clearly because Rey's going to be here for a while to help her out, but he's not going to be here forever. So, I don't know what I'm asking for, but it's not working right now. That's all I can say. It's not working. We need help. And and I'm not accusing anybody of anything. We just need to get get ready for this new new finance director. Thank you. Not to interrupt you, but I will say this much. Over
138the last four or five days, I've been in contact with multiple directors of finance and business managers. The format that we you see in front of you is 99.9% identical to every other district out there. So, I mean, if there's something I need to do, which I'll I'll try to help out and explain things a little better, then I'll do it. But the format itself, 99% of every district is using this format. I got to believe you because I'm ignorant, you know. No, no. And I'm I'm not trying to I'm not trying to say anything bad about anybody. Um, if there's something that I need to do to make it simplified, then I'll try it. I mean, I just don't want to have us hear the new director say month after month, that happened before
139I was here. I'll look into it because it'll be an that would be a fair and honest answer on that person's part, but then we go down the same road again as I wasn't here and I've got to look into it. We need to get it ready for her. Yeah, she she still might say that. She still might say that, but we we got to Yeah. So, she still might say that. We we got the Fed will do his best to I know he willain regardless of deadlines. I'll do my best. Not it's not my intention to to beat on you. Oh, no. That's fine. I mean, I'll take it that way. I'll try to do the best I can to get you what you need. Well, I appreciate it, Ray, because you always have
140been there by our side to get us what we need every step of the way and then come back to help support us and me. I do appreciate it. Take time. Yeah. Well, we've already started a few of these, so we'll have them ready for Tuesday. Tuesday. What my mother would have told me, Ry, is what would you have done if Ray weren't here? And I shiver to think of what I shiver to think it's right. So, thank you. Yeah, remember that. Remember that. Remember that. Don't go like that because he did help us a lot. Yep. Thank you, Ray. Thank you, Ray. Appreciate We got a service to hand at least I know that's that's a that's a definite at least we're not going to town asking for money right thank you Ray well
141we shouldn't have gone to town okay you saying good picking on somebody forget picking on somebody else it's an equal opportunity program I appreciate That's Sam. Sam, Sam, have somebody else. Great. Yeah. Put your hard hat on, Sam. And and your when your scale boots, how long your pants actually? You don't know that, do you, Sam? You made the pants. I try to understand this. Do you have a magnifying glass, Sam? I'm an old guy. All this colored ink cost. I can't even read. I can't read. I can't read. I also 20 years older than Oh, yeah. Laser. Indeed. You only go around one way or the other. Yeah, that's right. Well, I wanted to end up back here anyways. Exactly. So, um I I met with Fuss and O'Neal, which is the company that
142uh um did the uh testing of the HVAC systems at both uh Katherine Kolini and uh Northeast Academy uh last winter break and they had given us a draft report, but uh just about a week ago, we got the final report. I worked with them uh to get the final report. And so now uh we are now at the stage of uh soliciting uh uh costs and pricing on making the needed adjustments to those and uh any repairs that need to be done uh at those two schools for that HVAC stuff. So as soon as I have that, I will uh report further on that. Uh the paper that I gave you uh just handed out is a list of um all the items that we have between the principles of the each school and
143my department. Uh and as the on the first page, anything that is in blue is actually something for the IT department. Now um IT department has a lot of things going on and uh on most of these items uh facilities will be assisting in either um installing or removing something uh within the school. So that's what the uh blue items are. Uh in addition to that um I've also um got some items that are in progress and uh for instance if we go across what why don't I go across the lines line one first of all uh at Charles and I'll hit the ones that are now in progress uh for spring and also mention the ones that we'll be doing during the summer. Um the ones that are uh highlighted in green will be
144summer projects. Uh and and we'll get to those in just a minute. So if I go across the line first of all on uh line one, get over to Charles Barnum. Uh there was a a concern uh regarding safety and our IT or our technicians are working on that now. They are actually installing a new uh speaker in a space which is actually a closet that the kitchen staff go into at Charles Barnum School if there is a lockdown in the building. So there was no speaker in that space and after the last lockdown um uh we found out that she couldn't hear the announcement. So our department is working on that presently. On line two if we go across you can see that I have two items there written in uh hand uh in
145progress. uh in cooperation with it. Um those are the comlet systems at both Katherryn Kolki and NEA. Those are the um the buzzers that are outside that have the cameras. So uh there are some problems with those and we found that there was actually an IT problem. Um whether it was caused by an electrical event of some sort. Uh we're not positive, but uh both my staff um and it are working on those two uh presently. They're working on it again today. But they do have they do lock um so that you can you know either swipe in or you know wait so that interior that's correct but they're locked. Yes. So that was a real big priority for us to get done. Right. um but they can't the secretary can't always see uh who
146is out there ringing the buzzer. So um without getting up and actually looking out the window. So we're working on that continuously. Uh on to line three. Um at um we've uh this is about the mostly about the no tresp trespassing signs that we're putting on all of our school properties. And uh we have now completed three of the schools. And the three schools that we have left, they're working on Mystic River presently and then we'll be moving on to Fitch and Graten Middle School to uh get those completed here this spring. Um and hopefully within the next week or two, we'll have that done. Uh also um on um uh line line three all the way across over to Mystic River Magnet School. Um you can see that that is um just finishing up
147at Mystic River as I said in the the first box. Um and just before that um the blue lights in the cafeteria uh for uh Katherryn Coli um when when the kids are eating lunch um they're making as much noise talking to each other or more noise talking to each other than they are eating their sandwiches. So, um, announcements are not heard very well in the cafeteria. Um, and so, uh, way back when we had Quchester, we employed a blue light in the in the cafeteria gym. And, uh, so that when the announcements come on, the blue light goes on. Some kidd will say, "Hey, the blue light's on." And they'll all come silent and they can make their announcement. It's going to work exactly that way, I'm sure. So again, that's uh as soon
148as we have that in in hand, then we will be installing those. Uh but it's a summer um summer project by the time that that gets going. On to line four, uh sidewalks at Fitch High School. Um we use a lot of salt, uh and salt is an enemy of concrete. Um, and so we have a lot of sparring, uh, spall, uh, spalling and, uh, cracking and peeling and, uh, just deterioration of sidewalks. Um, we fill them in temporarily with sand or gravel, uh, and we'll be, uh, working on those, uh, over the summer as well. Now, do you have to, um, dig up the, you know, jackhammer the sidewalks and we put new cement down? Uh, not necessarily. Some of them we can actually just uh saw cut with a with a concrete blade,
149cut a straight line, clean it out, and then uh pour a new patch in there and and and tr it off. So, without having to do the whole section. Um, on to line five. Again, a summer project um at Fitch High School. it it um when when somebody comes in um they could keep those doors locked, but that would mean the security person would be getting up every time. We can they can buzz them in the the first door, but the second door they can either just walk through or it needs to stay locked. So, uh in in uh talking with our our door person, um that that's going to be a summer project and uh that could uh be um in the thousands of dollars. So, but that will be a summer project for
150us there. And that will be the last of the uh foyers uh at our school buildings that will be um lockable, a lockable foyer. Um I I think the police call it a man trap sometimes uh or whatever, however you want to say it nicely. um the person can get in there and then they're locked in there until they until um somebody lets them in further identifies them uh or or so. Well, moving all the way over to uh on line five um classroom windows numbered. You'll see that in a number of these if you go through this um uh the um some of the schools uh previously when they were built had uh the numbers of the classrooms on the windows from the outside the um we we've had some discussions with first responders.
151Some of the first responders like that idea, others think it's not such a great idea to have it identified that way, but um we're going to go with what the police chief wants and he wants them identified. So, we'll be purchasing um numbers that are about 10 in high. We'll we'll put them on the inside of the window so that indicates to uh a first responder coming to the building has that exactly what building they are. Big pardon. Each high school has that already. Some Yes. And several other schools. Yes. So, we're just going to be looking at the ones that don't. And correct. East Academy happens to be one of them. Is that right? Yes. That's correct. Thanks. um on to all the way down to uh line seven. Uh you see that uh
152a concern about a gate at uh Charles Bronnham School uh maintenance. We'll be looking at that this week and determining what to do and we'll get that again another spring project right there. Uh line 8 uh classroom windows again numbered uh for uh Kathern Kolki. So, it's it wasn't just Northeast. It's also Kathern Kaskki and it may be another school, too. I can't remember at the moment. Over to the second page. Um, line one on page two. Um, all the way over to Northeast Academy. Uh, well, I guess this is a repeat of the first page, isn't it? I've got that highlighted in orange. So, that's numbering the windows again for the first responders. down to line two at Katherryn Kolaski uh wall in the office. Um and and and just below that, line three,
153wall in the music room. Uh those are summer projects. Uh we have a a plan already from the architect. Uh we'll be building that in house. We'll we'll my staff will be doing that over the summer. Um all the way down to line four. again. Um signage um there's some signs they're looking I I need more clarification on this, but there are some signs that the high school is asking for uh to uh direct people to the fields. Um we uh if you didn't uh get to see it in the paper, uh the baseball field was dedicated to um Ed Harvey um last Thursday afternoon um and and a nice ceremony. I think there is actually a sign at the circle that says baseball field this way at least. So I didn't have everybody complaining
154they couldn't get to that, but there are other places that people um that the staff the administration would like some additional signs there. So I think these are the type of signs that people actually read. They when they're looking for something, they'll look for a sign, but if they if you tell them not to do something, they they seem to miss those. Um and then on to line five. Um I I don't know why this was in here, but uh somebody had some concerns about the courtyard downstairs in the middle of the building and that is on our We have now a new groundskeeper and the groundskeeper has that on his schedule to take care of here this spring. Uh moving on over, you see these last couple of pages are all for Charles Barnum.
155Charles Barnum um where it says classrooms, that's a Charles Barnum list. Where's that? This list was Yeah, this is all Charles Barnum. Oh, okay. Okay. And uh these are mostly these the these are painting items for the most part um in uh at Charles Barnum. So, um again, uh somebody had gone through this with you and taken you around the school to show you. Uh well, I've been in the building. has seen most of this stuff and and some of some of them are still questions, but I'm actually meeting with Seth on Wednesday morning. I was okay. Supposed to meet with him this morning, but uh we didn't uh catch up. Um and so all these green items here are summer work, painting and scraping, etc. Replacing ceiling tiles. Um the musty smell in room
156two, the maintenance coordinator is working on that. Uh he told me today there are a couple of ceiling tiles that were stained. Uh probably had a roof leak and uh so they're replacing those two ceiling tiles uh as we speak and all the way down through all those classrooms. Uh it's all painting uh old cabinetry. The building's the oldest in in the district that we're using presently. And so, uh, some of the some of the wood cabinets, uh, the, uh, uh, need to be, uh, the finish finish is cracked and and and peeling. And so, those need to be the doors on those need to be refinished. So, that's what we have, uh, at Charles Barnum. Again, if it's in green, these are all planned for uh, the summer summer work. So, I'm over over
157the third page. Um, you see some lavatory stalls that need to be painted, classroom, uh, ceilings. Um, uh, uh, and exterior doors in the kitchen on the last page. Guess I got to paint the yellow wall in in the nurse's office. I guess she doesn't like the yellow or something there. I'll I'll I'll look at that and find a more pleasant color for the nurse's office, I guess. So, that's what I have presently for. Now, this doesn't uh this doesn't mean that we're not going to do our normal and regular uh maintenance work. These are in addition to the standard uh items that we do every summer and spring as daily work orders. Yeah. and with our each of our buildings being responsive to the community, having the summer camps for the community, having our
158summer camps and summer programs and treehouse. So, it's still a very busy place and there's a workaround schedule to make sure that all hands on deck so that we get those schools really beautiful and ready for the start of the school year. Yeah. So, um working around um vacation schedules with the maintenance custodial staff. Um, every school has uh events going on in it. The high school's busy all summer long with athletics and all kinds of and summer school. Uh, all the schools have something going on in them and and uh so uh we'll be working around that to get these items done. Do you have an extra one that we can uh put in Jay's package this Friday? Yeah, we'll make sure we have Do you have You can give it to um Joyce
159and we'll make sure we and Joan will be asking for it too. Can I make a comment? Um before we share this, can we redack any of the security ones, especially like the cameras and stuff. I don't want the general public to know where we have open issues. Yeah, that's true. I mean, this should be an internal Yeah. document. I don't know that we should showcase it. It's okay for the board to know that. I wasn't showing it to anybody. Yeah. No, but I'm saying if it goes in our put our like in our our notes. Oh. Oh, yeah. The minutes. Yeah. Not in the not in the Yeah. No. Or redact like everything that's security related. Yeah. I don't think I don't think it it it indicated where the Some of them did, right?
160Like camera. Um Well, top right corner. Top right corner. Has to be careful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can tell you the kids forget about where the cameras are very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Know what I'm talking about. These do identify. Young couples forget where those cameras are very bad. Whenever you see anything that is security related, this don't, you know. Yeah. Or let's not put it at all on the website. Yeah. But save one for Jay so we can put one. Yes. Um I just wanted to to compliment you, Sam, on on the spreadsheet. It is um makes it very easy to understand like all the different locations and you know the state of play of all these things and priority level. Um very easy to refer to. Um my only question is uh should we
161have or suggestion comment whatever you want to call it. Uh should there be an extra column or two for central office and Mary Morrison locations since we're still kind of using those for overall operations? Yeah, I can I can I can put something together for that. Okay. But I I like I really I'll do a separate sheet you did follow along and that's thanks to the administration and and to my secretary who doesn't like to be called an administrative assistant. She still wants to be called a secretary. Lowering the lion. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Fantastic. Very helpful with that. Thank you, Sam. Any questions or ding? So, the the the laundry list for Charles Barnum, I know it's the oldest school. Do we have similar lists for other schools, similar little to-do lists for other
162schools? Yeah. Um, you know, some of our new schools were built with the sheetrock walls and even though the directive was not to uh tape things on sheetrock walls, it was done and people tore them off which tears the sheetrock wall uh sheetrock paper off the sheetrock. So, there's some of our schools are um that that's one of the other items that we have um we're hoping to get to after we get these other items done. Um especially in new schools, but it it's kind of a shame that you have almost brand new schools that um are looking shabby in a couple of spots. So, does the fact that you've got the the Charles Barnum list, does that mean that that's you're going to run through that first? Not that you're not going to maintain
163the other building, but that the the the the to-do list for Charles Barnum by room by room by room. Is that you going to hit Charles Barnum first? Yes. Okay. Any other? Yeah. Um I I apologize for forgetting which schools this is in, but I've heard a few um comments about uh like uh diesel exhaust or boiler exhaust making it into the air intakes. in a couple of buildings northeast of I mean Kathern Kolki had an issue with the low pressure systems and um when we had low pressure uh some of the uh fumes are being drawn back in through some of the units so we actually extended some of those uh exhausts. All right. So that's that's been Was it just one school? I heard I believe I heard it was a couple. No,
164Northeast and CK. Northeast and and and C. Yeah, northeast is the other one. So you extended the basically the exhaust in those areas that they had complaints about. Yes. All right. So that's been resolved basically. Well, we haven't had any complaints since we extended them. Oh, right. All right. Great. Yeah, that's great. And and my comment was going to be asking for this. So, thank you. Um are the um are the building administrators um going to have access to this? They they they gave it to us. A lot of that was given to us by the administrators. All right. Created a Google compilation. Do they have access to like how this gets changed and what's on the list? I'll be sharing I'll be sharing my comments with them. All right. We have a principal meeting
165coming up. All principles that we can kind of review this too. I I put in responses to almost all the questions. So, all right. I'll be sharing that with the principles. All right. Great. Thank you, Sam. I see one thing on your list u from Thes River Magnet School that you wrote you need board clarification about the charging station. Well, I yeah, I guess um I'm still not clear as to what we're doing about that. Um because I've heard some people say that teachers should be able to charge their cars there and so we should leave them on during the day for teachers and just have a sign that says nobody else is allowed there. Um that isn't my opinion, but that's somebody else's opinion. So I I guess I mean did we ever take
166a did did you ever give me a directive? I don't think we gave you a directive. I think I'm looking for a directive on that. Okay. So, we'll go around now and see if we can come up here, Mike. Yeah. I think actually uh some guidance is with the trespassing side say like no trespassing during school hours, right? Like you could put something only for use during school hours for for these, right? Because the the big problem is when people are plugging in and leaving it overnight coming back. I think that's that's where much of the that's the big expense. Yes. Yeah. Like I think that's um is it Mystic River? I think there's a tendency to do that at least. Maybe others too. So what do you suggest somebody leave them as is put
167out a sign that says, you know, um um only for use during school hours or something like that. Or or you could strengthen it only for use by the school community during school hours, something like that, and see if that um alleviates it, you know. Or or you could say trespassing after school hours. Smile camera or no? Yeah. No parking. If your car isn't here in the morning, you'll know it's been towed. Put a sign up. I'm sorry. Put a sign up that says if your car has been towed, call this number. Charge station closed at this time. Right. What do you say? Cars. Oh, I I say I say yeah, no after hours because I mean, what's that for? Um and yeah, so so a sign talking about the hours. I wish we just
168shut it off, but that's another issue. Uh sign regarding the hours and then yeah, maybe something that that says, you know, if you car, you know, Graten Auto Body or something like that. Ian, what are you saying? No, I'm leaning towards Dean's position on this. I think it's fair. Matthew, staff only during the day. And sorry, I just want to clarify a blend between Michael and and Deans of like staff only during daytime hours and then after a certain time that school operations cease, including for like after school hour activities, then saying like, you know, this station is closed at a certain time and if your car is missing, here's where you find it. Can you turn off the power easily? So, is it okay? Is that something that the custodian is capable of doing
169on a daily basis? Uh, I I have to look at it a little more detail, but we we could do it. We can figure out how to do it. That probably would be the easiest way to do it. They're not going to plug it in a second time, right? So, you're for um staff only. You're in the hours of 9 to 3 and anybody else from 3 to I don't know 6. Whatever hours you guys think for operations that's above my pay grade. Okay. I think we put a no trespassing sign. It's not your agenda yet. J I know you don't agree with it, but I feel like we can let the staff park there overnight. No. during school. I'm going out to get my electrical card at Hanik. I saying staff only during the
170day, right? Yeah. Is that what you guys Yes. I like what you you said. Yeah. Staff only 9 to 3. Yeah. And then what? And anyone from 3 to 6 that'll be like people visiting for you know sports or if we were able to shut it off easily within operations at six o'clock. Yeah. I think that's reasonable. You know, just and that would be the passive way to the issue. But if you have angry people coming about their car being towed, we can't tow it though. That's a police sign. Is um is 6:00. Does that mean your staff would need to come back at night? If we put um it ends at Oh, no. We have custodial staff or maintenance people that can do that. Okay. I just didn't want them to have to come
171back just to remember. No, we we have staff on second shift. So, ended at the school day. So, that we got a holiday late timer. We can do Okay. And that's Monday through Friday. No weekends. Just for the record, we do have staff badges by the way. Andrea, you did. I don't want and nobody wants to hear this, but I was a teacher so I can say it. Why am I paying for gas and you're plugging in your car? Wait a minute. No. You're an element of good people. Oh. Oh, I know what Oh, I'm paying for gas. You're plugging in your car. No. Well, that's your choice to have a gas car. You can buy an electric car and you'll never have to buy gas. I know. Thank you, Tim. Well, I think what
172we what we really want to have happen is to reduce our electric bill with these things. And I also think that we don't want trespassers or the public on our parking lots because we've been told by the principles it's a safety concern that coming and going at will. Overnight, they're leaving their cars. They're coming and getting them. They're sitting there watching the kids on the playground. I've heard that. So, it's like I think we really need to shut down operations of having anybody trespassing. So, my attitude is no trespassing. Barking is for staff only and just leave it at that. And if we have to, you know, for all hours, day and night, and then I think if we have to shut it down every day at a certain time after school, no parking in
173the in the like at River, right? Are you saying no parking in that lot at all? So if I want to come with my kids after school and put them in the playground, I can't park. I got to park on the street somewhere. Well, no. Well, I guess I'm not really wasting that. No trespassing for for public Joe public, but if they are families of ours, they play pickle ball at pitch. We'll let you think about that. I personally think that no one's going to pay attention to the no trespassing signs because so many people are there all the time anyway. But I I I agree with the sign, staff parking, day use only. And as far as turning them on and off, I think that your staff can just figure out if people are
174there, shut them off, you know? I mean, it I think if even if it happens on an irregular schedule, people will get the drift and like that they don't want to drive two cars there to park one and then leave and then come back and the car is still not charged. The chargers are turned off at the end of the day. Yeah. But given hours of the faculty that might be wanting to stay, they think 6 p.m.ish. I think I'm going with my three to six. Go ahead, Mike. Yeah, I like broadening it from school staff to school community. Uh but I also want to say um that Grat is an environmental justice community and um part of that is like this this community is disproportionately affected by uh many types of pollution. And so
175um there are incentives to uh purchase electric cars or um hybrid cars associated with with with graten because because of that and so it's an attempt to uh um partially to improve air quality and so I don't I don't think in our like the electricity bills are going up and up and up. we shouldn't be subsidizing that. But but just these were put in for partially for that reason to promote like a uh you know moving forward with with how we think about transportation and um some of what we do at school much of what we do at schools even outside of the classroom is for educational purposes. Right. Right. And so having having that option gets people thinking about that. I don't think we should have someone park there every day, overnight, things like
176that. But it does have an instructive value as well. What is the town doing, Sam? Do we know what the town is doing with relationship to their electric? I know that we they were talking to somebody about getting charging being able to charge to to charge the users a meter. That's expensive. Okay, sir. Where do we stand? 9 to three stamp only, 3 to 6 community, then ask the police to patrol the area and get tickets if somebody's in there. And Monday through Friday for the Monday through Friday. Yeah, please. I mean, we can ask the police if we have signs up there, can't we? Sam. Yeah. Oh, we could ask them, but I mean, Chase got We want to ask the police to pull it and give tickets out if people are You guys
177are really good at pointing it out. But police have a lot of things to do. Yeah. I don't I don't want to involve your help. He's gone now. You help too much. Oh, here we Jay. Yeah. You know, I I guess I've been on the board too long now. I'm starting to come to that realization tonight. This was brought up many years ago by Liz Porter uh and she said we should not be allowing people to use uh the school district's electric. We should not be using the money for our students to be subsidizing people who are driving Teslas. And it was poo pooed at the time because electricity I guess was cheaper. we didn't have all this excess fees that the state has now gone on to to pay for all the bills during
178co I think we either find a way to monetize it like the town is doing which is the smart way because we also have to pay for these vandalized charging cables and other than that just turn off the breaker. Um we should not be subsidizing this. We we fight for every penny that we get for the kids and we we shouldn't be charging Teslas for free or any electric vehicle. When when the cables when the cables are are um destroyed, it's uh a minimum of $2,500 to fix them. Yeah. But you haven't been fixing them, right? Oh, yeah. Well, I haven't been fixing them recently. No, I haven't been spending money. Maybe that's a solution. Just let him All right. So, all right. Where do we go from here? Let's give Sam some kind of
179direction tonight. I say nothing, honey. Tesla dealers, turn it off for the summer. Turn it off for the summer. Turn them off for the summer. Turn it off after hours. Forgot what the hours are, right? Yeah. I I agree with like turn it off after hours and um with with a sign. With a Yeah, I mean, sure. You can put a sign up saying, you know, what the hours are and be there for only. No, no, that's the whole thing we're hearing. That's not community use. We're subsidizing at the cost of the kids, right? So, so now we're going staff only. Staff used to only shut it off after hours. So, now we can narrow it down to like 9 to 4 or something. 8 to 4. I mean, some staff like if you're talking
180like athletic staff and it could be like later. I think 6 p.m. is reasonable for like that. Okay. So, and then shut them off. We'll just ask the building administrators on the time. No. Now we want to give Sam but 9 to 6. How how does that fit for you Sam? Who gets there? Turn them off. Well, yeah. 9 to 4. 9 to 4 would be better. 9 Wait, who gets there at 9:00 there? Everyone's there way earlier than that. 7:30. What time does staff Should we do we should we do it earlier? Like 8 to 4, 7:30 to 4? Six. Seven. Well, there aren't any at the high school. So, they're not at the high school. Oh, yeah. So, that there's a lot of elementary schools. I would say Well, they can plug them
181in earlier. It'll just start charging when we turn them on, right? Yes. Be Sam knows what the what each school's routine is. Just trust him to do it. Time just give him time to when the faculty arrives till till hour and a half or two after the school day. I know too. I I don't have trust issues. 7 to 7. I don't have trust issues, but we want what? 7 to 7. People going to want to know 8 to 4. Seven. Middle schools there before. Eight. The middle schools have charging station. Yeah. Hold on. Seven to four. Seven to four. Okay. All those all those who think seven and four, we're not taking a vote. This a consensus. This is not on agenda. What do you say, Ian? Seven to four. If if if that's
182where the majority lands, then I'm all for it. If there's other feelings, then I'm open to debate, but I do want to just kind of move on. Okay. So, seven to four. If that floats, then we go. Okay. What do you say, Dean? Until we find a a better way. Yes. 7 to four. What do you say? Yep. Adrian. Yes. That's my guy. Short and sweet. Susan, you want to vote? I'm with you. I'm with you. Not in money unless it it uh turns the vote and then I would go for the majority. Okay. I'm okay with that. 7 to 4. All right. 7 to 4. And what will the sign say better? He'll figure it out. I'll figure it out and I'll report back. Figure it out. Okay. And then turn them off after
1834, Sam. Thank you. All right. Committee reports. Policy. Policy. We are Sam, you can go home for dinner now. Policy is having it meeting next week. Um, I'm meeting with uh Joe. That happened next week. The 13th week. May 13th. I'm sorry. The May 13th. That for me. I'm already in there. Okay. The the 13th. But uh on this Wednesday at 2 PM, Jod Goler, I and Clint are meeting to try to talk about the elements of an AI policy that they think are important. So, we have a place of departure for the whole committee to add, subtract, delete, whatever. You done? I'm good. Okay. Curriculum. Um uh curriculum we discussed um the personal finance class which I believe is a new class that we just um started and um also um a five-year plan
184for math improvement um which is um the plan is is going now but but next year we're going to start to see some changes. We're giving the um the teachers a little bit of break or a little bit of time to focus reading this year and then um later on in next year um there's going to be some uh some investigation into math programs, potential math programs and it's an element of the strategic plan that we are developing. So we know we want to bring that also to the whole board to talk about. Oh yeah. So, we're going to it's and as for the pilot um or the way that classrooms are going to pilot, um it it's basically all of the school is going to or all of the classrooms are going to pilot
185um the same program in the spring. Um after the state testing is done, um so then all the classrooms will pilot it. So there'll be plenty of um plenty of room for comments on the on the program and that would be next next spring. Um finance and facilities. Uh yes. Uh so we met on April 1st and it seems like a long long long time ago honestly. Um we covered the usual topics. Um our director of finance reported that uh at that time we had a $1.5 million balance in our favor I suppose. Uh there was discussion about working on the ED49 for the Charles Barnum roof project. Um uh talking about the charging stations. I'm not going to go to that. Um estimates regarding uh HBAC projects at the high school and Charles Barnum.
186uh prices have gone up significantly since when we first first got estimates, but it's I think Sammy I think you thought that the increases were due to contingencies, hazardous materials testing and commissioning uh agent amounts that were not included in the original estimates. Um then that that's the increase. Um you were going to meet with principles on April 8th to discuss tools for schools. Um no trespassing signs were installed. We talked about that. And of course the Ed Harvey baseball field sign which I was the only one at. I stood by the fence. I wasn't invited really. I I was notified but I wasn't called to speak and it's just as well. What am I going to say? They did thank the board of education for voting yay on the uh on the sign. So
187that's it. That's it. That's it. Okay. ad hoc budget procedure committee met on 4:22. Uh it was very brief meeting. We just uh discussed about the game plan of how we're going to move forward looking at the budget uh presentation inside the book and we delegated some duties amongst us to work up some templates that we'll work on to propose to the board as models of presentation. I think Jen had some budget books, right, that you got from um the cave convention, right? Um Ian has them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You handed those off to me a while ago. Um and so the next meeting will be on um May 20th at 6:30 p.m. That's a Tuesday and it' be a virtual. Thank you. I'll give a report on learn on learn. We had a presentation
188from Andrea Polo Lilo, I messed up her name, and Sarah Moon about Learn's new grading connections early learning center designed specifically for infants and toddlers. This initiative has been in development since 2022 response to the significant need for quality child care in Connecticut. Um, we're having a soft launch in miday with one classroom opening up and we hope to expand it to a second classroom in September. The program will serve children from 8 weeks to three and a half years old. We also discussed key legislative updates on H HB6869 and at expanding dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment opportunities into the agreement between secondary schools and post-secary schools and an act concerning Medicaid coverage for ABA services. These services are aimed to improve learning, communication, and social skills while reducing behaviors that interfere with learning. And
189ABA stands for applied behavior analysis. And we also discussed an act concerning disconnected youth, expanding support for students eligible for free and reduced price males, multilingual learners, and students requiring special ed, and establishing a youth success oversight board. Um I think I've mentioned this before um learners transitioning their regional um multicultural magnet schools going from K5 to 38 and also the French school received an award from the magnet schools of America and that's all I have to learn athletic fields. Uh yeah, Athletics Fields uh met on April 17th and I had a conflict of schedule so I wasn't able to make it, but they discussed um uh the board of ed and town uh field use agreement possibilities on the project priority u recommendations and the next steps in regarding the uh fields um renovations
190across town. Along those lines, the town council did um vote out of committee and I believe it's coming to the regular meeting um the idea of going forward with a referendum that would look at a fourphase project over the four years or possibly over four years. uh looking at the the $56 million project as a total but broken up into four pieces and they're working with the athletic fields task force to kind of figure out the best way to package that up and it would be a series of referendums year after year. Uh so the town would have to you know progressively engage with the project every year and affirmatively move forward. So, it's it's it's probably about as good a compromise step as we could have hoped for. Mike, just had a quick question
191on that. It seemed like the fieldhouse at Fitch was back on the table. Was that which is quite good to see. Yes. The whole thing is back on the table and bathrooms and Yeah. Wow. That's good. Yeah. So, and it's going to be and then the community is going to have the opportunity to weigh in, which I think, you know, my own opinion is the best way to move forward and it seems like a reasonable compromise. Thank you for everyone that was involved with that. Trails. Next meeting is June. Okay. Library. Uh, I have nothing really to report from the library. There was an environmental expo last Saturday. There was some Glen Public Schools presence there. Okay. uh this state council mil military [Music] children I got lost in military housing so I missed the
192the crucial part so if you would I think most of the discussion was around the actual compact which we have um it's state byst state but all states have signed on for this so there was some case studies done I think they discussed those um graten tends to have a lot of knowledge around the compact, but I think it's it needs to be a continuous effort. I know we do trainings for counselors and administrators um regionally um and a lot of um towns don't realize the impact. So, there was a little card that was given out and I'll see if I can get extra cards um about local areas and the number of students at each of those districts. Um, I know that Kate Ericson was there, so she talked about making sure we discuss
193it at a learn superintendent meeting so that they get the cards and we'll expand everybody's knowledge base on that topic. That was really most of what was talked about. Thank you. And then reports around the room. Any questions? All right. Um, on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Andrea, any questions? Any discussion? Michael? Yeah, just a quick one for the um approval of the regular minutes March 24th, 2025 meeting. That that was our last regular meeting. Mhm. It it lists out um you know the citizens com comments about and many of them were about cheerleading. They supplied a um uh written like like is asked often supplied written uh comments and I'd like to add it to the minutes.
194Actually came late so I never got that uh that is like a the yellow one. Yes. A bright yellow sheets of paper well articulated. I'd like to add it to the the minutes. Was it from a particular one? It was it was just they had it all together as one. So that guess they came up one after another just we just flipped through the pages and um because I wasn't there right to the start which I apologize for. I didn't get one but I was able to follow along. But I think that'd be good to add to the minutes because we do actually um request that that I think redacted since people's names and addresses there was some information that was um suggested. I think we I think you've even added that to your Yeah.
195Yeah. to not speak about people's names and there were kids names in there too. That absolutely be fine. Yeah, I have it. I just saw it at my house. I have Okay. Would it be appropriate to identify somebody as student, parent, community member? Oh, no. No. I think they they selfidentify themselves. It's fine just to I mean electronically essentially take a black line to whatever you feel is not appropriate. Yeah. Any other comments? M um in regards to the uh April 22nd meeting, uh the minutes um were a little scant as far in my opinion um when it came came to the um discussion. Uh we it noted that superintendent also gave an overview of the purpose of the compliance letter. Um and then we noted the grant amounts, but it doesn't really have a
196I'd like to see some sentence in there that captures the fact that the board did discuss it and weighed pros and cons of of signing the letter verse not. and um you know just some some capture of the idea that you know it wasn't you know that we did apply some rigor to the decision right Asian yeah um on the um attachment number five March 24th meeting minutes um I talked to Joyce about this today um but the way it's written um it says consent agenda and then motion. You're on page two. Page four. Oh, those minutes. Um Oh, yeah. We're supposed to amend that. I um And thanks to bring that up. We're supposed to amend that because it's supposed I've got the other minutes. I can just read it. Go ahead. Um, so
197the cons consent agenda was the minutes plus um, uh, Deote Consulting Product Services LLD has donated 12 Smart Rover kits. I'm just going to do this quickly. Electric Boat has donated $4,500 and Fitch Athletic Booster Club has donated 4458.70 for scoreboards. Um, so um, I'd like to consent. So the motion I believe was just to approve the consent agenda and it shouldn't say just to approve the minutes. It should just say to approve the whole consent agenda. Nice. So that all of these items are also included in those minutes. What happened was a parent um sent me an email saying that we didn't improve um 45,000. it wasn't in the minutes and we did approve it, but it wasn't posted because we cuz um I guess when the minutes were typed up, it only said
198we approved the minutes and that we didn't approve the whole consent agenda. So when I went back to ask Joyce about it, that's how we found out that the motion only said the minutes. And even though I did say the consent agenda, when the minutes were written, it only said the minutes, not the consent agenda. So the jury said we had to have them amend it amend the minutes for this. That's how it happened. And that's what we're talking about right now. That's what we're talking about. This is that action. Yep. Very well then. Thank you for that. Joyce knows what to do. Joyce knows what Oh, good. Yeah. Okay. And just a just a quick note to follow up on that. To my understanding right now, we are all good with that. It's proceeded.
199The check's been received. Checks been received. And now the final eye to dot ta cross is have for the town council to vote. Right. Didn't they vote on it? Well, they voted in committee. Voted in committee of the whole. They did it. Yeah. I think they don't they have to do a rat. Now we have RTM. Okay. I think that's on my schedule. Okay. RTM next. So, we're one more vote away from officially accepting the money. Yeah. Exactly. And which pivots to the next question is what's the turnaround time on the scoreboard once the money is all set for the middle school scoreboard? I think Mark said 6 to8 weeks to order. Okay. it like like I told some of the parents that I that emailed me and I responded, it's not going to happen
200for spring sports, right? But by next fall, we have the money and we're moving forward by next fall is a reasonable be expected. Okay, very good. And they need to know that there is a um you know a charter town charter that has us go through this process anytime we receive a gift. So that's why it takes some more time, right? Okay. Um, so we have a motion and we have a second. So all those in favor of the consent calendar as amended say I I I thank you Jay. Abstensions. Okay. All those in favor of the motion. Yeah. motion. I don't know. The amended motion. The amended motion. There you go. Say I I I Okay. So, all right. Next one. Old business. Uh, Madam Chair. Yes. Uh, you know, I don't want to
201put Adrian on the spot, but we did skip over the GA A GSA meeting. Oh. Is it too late to go back and give a report on that on the agenda? Is it on the agenda? See it? No, but I mean it's part of the committee reports. I mean, the state council on military children wasn't on the agenda, but I I put it on on my paper because I know that's part of the report. If you don't want to do it, that's fine. We could do it next month. do it next month. We have to do it next month. It's it's a quarterly meeting anyway. So, yeah, we do it next month. All right. Old business discussion and possible action regarding a second meeting of policy P3160, transfer of funds between budget functions. Um Ian,
202you want to make a motion? I'm directed to ask you Ian from Matthews. Take my orders. Um, I'll make a motion to approve policy P3160, transfer of funds between budget functions, as a second reading. Have a second, Matthew? All right. You want to talk about it, Matthew? No, I'm going to let you talk about All right. Um, well, I have it projected up on the on the screen. Um, basically this is the one that we've already went over before as a first read and the main point of contention had to do with the time frame um, as far as like when the superintendent would provide notification of any transfer made under emergency circumstances to the board chair or designate. Um, there was initially like a 24-hour suggestion, then a 48 hour. We had end up
203on a 36-hour in the draft. And after much deliberation in the policy committee meeting, we came to a one-week negotiated uh settlement just to get it out to the board as a second read and where we could, you know, finalize that. Um, and we did take off the last sentence of reporting requirements to the town council RTM since us doing this in our public forum as we do uh is plenty accessible to the public and town council and RTM. All right. Any questions or comments about policy? Yeah. So, this says this doesn't say. Am I reading the right one? You may be reading the ones in the minutes from the last meeting. Oh, so you want Yeah, I did the same thing when I went through my agenda package. So, I'm reading attachment seven. It
204just says um the board will um non-emergency transfers for the previous month in the monthly budget and expense report is the way it reads. And I I thought it was going to be from listening to that meeting, I thought it was going to be in a week or something as well. Am I reading that wrong or reading it wrong? Superintendent notification transfer within one week of school. So the first paragraph has to do with just regular non-emergency transfers. And that second sentence says the superintendent with board approval may transfer any unexpended or uncontracted portion of any appropriation school purposes for such itemized estimate. All right. Yes. Sorry. All transfers of funds between budget accounts shall be recommended by the superintendent for board approval. So um and then receive written explanation. So to my understanding and
205I believe that was the understanding of the policy committee that there would be an approval process and then once that approval process is is completed so the superintendent would propose a transfer to the the board. the board to approve it and then it would happen and then the full written explanation would occur in the next regular meeting. So it could happen at any time during like a cow could be added to a cow session I think. So it could be timely. All right. And then um one other question that's tangentially related. Is there any policy on transfer between line items inside of money? You should ask um that is on our list for May 13th. That is on our list for May and we've been doing some research reaching out to Cave to get some
206guidance on model policies. Um there is a draft that came out of the ad hoc budget procedure committee from last year um that we've been you know looking at um but there's some confusion over with the coding um what was in the policy manual historically that had to do with something that was similar to that was coded 3200. All right. Um but that's another subject. you're getting off track policy and it's late and you're transgressing. You don't need to know. I was just wondering if that was because it's kind of related to this, but so we had an answer. Yes, they're looking into Yes. And we'll we'll bring it up. We'll bring it up next month. That's all right. So, um, one other thing, um, so the the one thing that I see is missing
207is actual expenditures. Um because you know as we've seen like line items can get um over expend like the expenditures can go much higher than line items and are there any controls on expenditures because it to me it doesn't seem that there's any controls at the end of the year that we have to be in budget on any individual lines anyway. So if we can overspend a line item I mean do we ever actually do this transfer budget functions transfer? Yeah, we've been doing it with Ray, you know, especially with the nurses. That was one example. Yeah. But um and he just said that he has a few more to do. But like Right. Yeah. You know, like substitutes or something like that. Um we we'll use that as an example where we spend a
208lot more than we thought we were going to spend. Um so we're just overspending that. Are we actually going to change the budgeted amount? Um because then we don't really know for next year that we underbudgeted it. Well, that's what Ray had mentioned tonight. Yeah, I know. I I'm just wondering that how the actual expenditure side ties into what we're what we're budgeting, what we're setting aside for the cases of when we over overexpend. So that's my question how that works. I think to to my mind I think that may actually just have to become a different policy like that may be a separate policy that has to do with expenditures as opposed to this is just transfer to cover any sort of overages. So I think expenditures might be a different category. Answer it'd
209be hard to do both in one. To answer your question, it has not been discussed in this framework, right? Um I can see some advantages of it. I'm not going to get into a discussion. I promise. I can see some advantages. I see some problems with it. Uh but if that's the will of the of the board, we can certainly take it up at some point. Sure. And we do have a new business manager coming on board. So I think we need to also give her you know some chance. Yeah. But we Yeah. Just just quickly. So it refers to the monthly budget and expense report all capitals. Um we get a monthly finance report. Are they the same thing? I mean it might just be semantics. Be semantics. I don't know if we just
210wanted to call it the finance report. Seems like that's what we get. I'm I'm comfortable with that. If you were Ian, what's that? Monthly finance report. Call it a finance report. Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay with making that. We need to make a formal uh amendment or can we just do that? It's not final, right? That's just a close. This would be the second. So, yeah. So, I think we'd have to make an amendment. We amend the uh the main motion to strike out budget and expense and replace that text with finance. I have a second. Second. You mean finance report, right? Yeah. So, it says monthly budget expense report. Now, it will say bud monthly finance report. Yeah. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor of the go. Yeah. Do you want monthly capitalized? I
211mean, that's little, but Oh, come on, man. No, I'm serious. Actually, do we italicize it? No. No. I'm serious. Like, it's the finance report capitalized monthly. No, no, it's not capitalized. All right. So, monthly is not capitalized. Okay. All those in favor of the amendment say I. I. Opposition. Thank you, Jay. Okay. Any more discussion? All right. All those in favor of the amended policy P3160 say I. I. I oppose extensions approved. Okay. Approved as amended. All right. New next one. New business discussion and possible action regarding a first reading of policy P4115.3 evaluation of coaches. Um, Massie, would you like to read that motion? Sure. I move that we approve policy 4115.3 evaluation of coaches as a first reading. I have a second. Second, Thomas. Second, Ian. Okay. Discussion. We had a lively discussion.
212I really want to express my thanks to Mr. Romano. I found him very forthcoming. Uh, we had a couple debates. um what you have in front of you will be altered before it comes from a second reading. We shared a couple of uh I want to call them concerns, observations which he agreed that he would take into account and is going to bring back a revised proposal for us to look at. But we're well along on the way. And I think he was also going to address the evaluation process within the regulations that he, you know, said he would share with the board as well, although that's not what's voted on, but I think that will help to explain. Yeah. And uh the the initial part did not to my satisfaction contain a uh standardized
213format or evaluations because not all coaches are evaluated by the same person. So this will provide a framework that will uh be fair to everybody everybody at the same try to be aligned with the teacher evaluation too. Yes. Process. Right. So I'm looking we're looking forward to having a another discussion and hopefully bringing it back something that we really can discuss. Okay. Any other comments? Right. Just one. Um after the enumerated list there it says the responsibility of all administrators etc. I was wondering just in the committee just reflect on whether that paragraph is needed. Which one? It's the responsibility of all administrators by coaches and other staff to recognize. I mean it's it's saying something but I I don't know that it needs to be in this policy. I don't discount its importance in
214general, but I think it's really getting to the point that they have to participate in an evaluation process. Right. So that maybe keep that last sentence, right? But yeah, and then the self-evaluation part is nice after that. So I've written that down. So we will at least look at it together. Okay. Thank you. Um Oh. Oh, actually go ahead now. Yeah, just add so part of this we're codifying in policy a process that in many respects is already on has happened and is going has been ongoing for years like there are already annual reviews of co not a new process at all that followed along and then the other part is I think as mentioned your meeting I would guess there would be regulations that would would go along with this and Um while usually
215we don't need to see the nitty-gritty in regulations, it's probably worthwhile in those rags to have the the evaluation form. That's right. Um because I can just I can see very interested public wanting to see that or us being able to point to it and say, you know, this is how they're evaluated every year. So that's a similarly what we do with the teacher val like we always make sure the board gets a chance to see what that looks like. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Neil said it right. Yep. Yeah. Um I I'll vote for this as a first read, but um I personally feel that we need some kind of a mission statement um about our athletics and what we're trying to accomplish with athletics aside from just winning, you know, the first game and
216then the, you know, the regionals and all that stuff. Um what are we trying to do for actual students? Um, and this this ties in because it's it's part of what are we basing our reviews on? Is it is it how well your team did? Did you win states or or were you the last in the district? It's a great question. Um, so I I really think that um goals need to be be based on something a little bit more tangible and having some kind of a mission statement I think is essential. Um, and I would also like to see um that uh surveys taken by students and possibly parents um and not for general review but for the athletic director to review um so the athletic director can help assess um the climate of
217the team um in general and inclusion like do all students feel included regardless of their skill that are on these teams? Um, so things like that. Um, just so that um, I mean, everyone's heard, you know, some teams the coaching is is very different from team to team to team. Um, and maybe it's I I don't know enough about all sports, but maybe it's needed in some sports and not others, but it would just be nice for the athletic director to be able to evaluate that climate in in the reviews. So, I'll respond to the the two separate things separately. Uh when we got the first proposal from Mr. Romano, I wrote him a long letter saying that I thought we needed a mission statement and uh by the time he came to the meeting,
218there was a statement embedded that's going to come back in the following in the correction in the correction. So that that is being that's being addressed. Thank you. Because I think it's important with regard to your second question about a student survey. We did not Ian correct me if I'm wrong or or Andrea. We did not discuss that at all. Uh I think we can certainly uh maybe Susan if you're going to speak to Mark could ask him if he would consider that and come back and include something like that in that. I you've heard me say before I think the students are a great source of information for the board and for all of our departments and I really look forward to tapping their wisdom as often as possible. uh how the survey would
219be constructed. Wait, are you tying the survey into the evaluation? That's what I think I heard. Well, Adrian, what is it you want? So, we don't do that for teachers or anybody else, do we? I don't you can't I don't think you can tie this survey into an evaluation. Well, it's not as Okay, why don't you say again so I don't put words in your mouth of what you would have that let's just have a survey. That's one thing to see how the athletic department's doing. But if you're saying we're having a survey, we're going to put the survey stuff in this evaluation policy. I don't think you can do that. I would definitely be against that. Well, I I would I would be interested in discussion. I mean, if we can't do it by
220by policy or whatever regulation or something like that, but I don't think survey results should be in the evaluations. I think surveys should be ava available for the athletic director only. That's something different. We're just talking about the evaluation. You're getting off track. Are you talking about an evaluation based on survey based on the athletic director's review of surveys? So you want So you so we do surveys and you want the athletic director to evaluate the coach based on the surveys as as one metric for the athletic to director to review student surveys or parent surveys. We don't do that for teachers, do we? We don't do that for parents. I mean I mean these aren't teachers or parents. They're they're but it's the same. You got to be fair. You can't I don't I
221don't Adrien, could I offer a possible solution for you? Oh, true. Would you consider making a referral to a cow to discuss whether or not it would be useful to have a survey of students for in in in uh at in sports teams for the internal use of the athletic department. Can I first ask Mark what's already being done and how he assesses that? Let me gather some information. I mean, I'm just saying that if the if the committee investigates it and gets Mark Mark's opinion, I mean, I will leave it to the committee to say we couldn't do a survey, but we're trying to accomplish the goals in other ways. I'm not against doing a survey, but I'm saying you if you're saying tie the survey to a coach's evaluation, that I'm against that.
222I'm not against surveying the athletic teams and seeing, you know, in general how things are going. and it might already be part of what they do. So, let me find out. I don't think so. You don't think so? My kids have done sports like lots of different sports. I don't ever remember being that's how it goes. So, you can make a referral to the to a cow and talk about that and involve Mark in that conversation as well. I don't think we need any more referrals. If you guys bring it up in the committee, we'll see what he says. We'll see what he says. I'm looking to get rid of referrals. you that's a different perspective get rid of my but I do hear I do hear what you said and I guess I concur.
223You convinced me. Exactly. Okay. So Ian say anything yet. Um no I was just going to say uh I I agree that I think tying a survey to an evaluation would be a a problematic approach. Um, but I think there is value in having some sort of climate survey coming out of the ethics for that which I'd be curious to know what is happening in that in that department. Um, but yeah, as far as like one of the reasons I've voted for this to as a as a first read out of committee was to bring it to the board for this sort of input. Um, as far as like the mission statement goes, one of the things I was asking the athletic director about was like a sense of like what are the shared values
224across all athletic teams? what are we trying to accomplish from a holistic point of view? And I know that there were a number of board members that had some thoughts along those lines of like ways different ways to to evaluate how athletics are used in our in our community here. um and what do we value out of athletics beyond just you know trophies on in on a shelf which you know are nice but um so I just want to kind of open the floor and encourage board members to kind of engage with this in that on that level because that's what I I came here to hear. Thanks Dean. Well, we could always just adopt the uh a really holistic approach. Just adopt the ancient Greek uh rule which was for education which was a
225sound mind and a sound body. There you go. It's a great pretty much covers everything like teaching and learning. Back then they didn't have vaping back then. Right. I think some of that that mission is in the uh is in some of the student athletic handbooks basically. But but I think what we do need I look through a board policy is there needs to be another policy like this just asserts what our values are for athletics and there probably should be something like that for for other activities too extracurriculars uh that we can then point to and say like you know we have we have student athletics because you're developing as mentioned in the meeting developing leadership character teamwork as well as you know physical activity and things like that. So another like kind of
226a policy even outside of this that says what our values are like like you're talking about would be wonderful. Well, even the board used to have belief statements. I have to find that document, but they had a set of beliefs probably when you were here before that kind of drove the mission and then drove the goals. So they were really good beliefs. I mean you could look at them again and you might even believe in them still. Okay, Susan. Susan, perhaps Mark would like to listen to this portion of the meeting soon so he can hear the differences. I'll tell him that. Listen. Yeah, he's telling what um you know how many minutes into the meetings to listen. Three hours. Time stamps. Yeah. All right. So all those in favor of adopting P4115.3 as a
227first reading um say I opposed. Thank you. Jay abstensions. You abstaining. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Not uncertain about that. Okay. All right. Next is discussion and possible action regarding recognition of National Teacher Day. U Mike, you want to read that? Yes. I move to recognize May 6, 2025 as National Teachers Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the teachers. Second. Thank you, Jay. Any conversation? they should get more than one day recogn I'm obligated to to mention as well like you know anytime one of these appreciation days comes across our desk that you know it's it's all well and good to have a recognition day but let's also remember this value when it comes to um you know how we uh take care of our staff you know
228um with uh compensation and benefits whose side are you on and I'm on the side of a I mean everybody feel that way. But the hard thing is putting it out in the budget and getting the budget passed with that. So we have to be realistic. I mean I know I'm just saying like I'm not saying I'm not I'm not attaching a number to it. I'm just saying remember it teaches more too. I think they Yeah. Yeah. But um you know got a budget too. What are you smiling at, Matthew? I'm just smiling at you. All right. Any other discussion was just this was for this one and the next one. Are there any other events besides a letter? Do they have exciting things for National Teacher Day? They do. The whole schools really support
229and and the PAR educators. I think they do lunchons and they do special things at each school and to recognize our teachers. I want to just say thank you to all the teachers. Um, we really appreciate everything you do every day for our students and to help this school system advance and be the school system that people will look up to and people would want to send their children to. So, thank you. I have all those in paper, Jay. Yeah. I just wanted to add on to what you said, Bev. some of my fondest memories of of the teachers that that shaped my life. And um I also want to give a special shout out to those that are been online for three and a half hour three and a half hours listening to us
230tonight. Thank you. All right. So all those in favor of um recognition of National Teachers Day say I. I oppose. I extensions so approved. And the next one. Dean, you want to get the next one? Sir, I move to recognize May 7th, 2025 as National School Nurse Day and to direct the superintendent of schools to send a letter of appreciation to the nurses. Second, Andrea. Any discussion or comments? Dan, same as I said before, but now it's more interesting because the nurses are in our direct employee. So we have more influence in how we take care of them, right? So when we go through our budget, we have school nurses and then I think we have health aids, school health aids. Hopefully they're included in the the national school nurse day because you can't run
231a school without either of those essential positions. That's right. So thank you to both the nurses and the nurse health aids, right? We appreciate everything you do again for our students. Right. All those in favor of the National Slooh Nurse Day on May 7th say I. I approve. Let us communications and comments by board members on meeting items and other items in your jurisdiction. I'll start. Go ahead. I'll start. Well, the bride may be all dressed in white. And you may ask why I'm all dressed in purple. It's because April is national is military child month and our color is purple. Thank you, Ian. Um, couple of things. uh one in regards to the uh communications uh that we received from the department of ed and the meeting that we had on 22nd. Um while
232I understand the reasoning and I respect the reasoning of of my colleagues on on the vote to sign the uh reminder of legal obligations letter. Um, and in this in this case, like the um the legal language was definitely like once you actually get down to the details of it was not as heavy-handed as it may have been portrayed in the dear colleague letter uh that we received in February. Um but in all just moving forward um one thing that I was a little concerned about was the fact that there was an ongoing court case and appeal that did does have influence or could have influence on how we how we voted and that was not necessarily included in all our preparation for that meeting. Um that those are details that I did my own
233research on and brought towards the board and mentioned and discussed that night. Um and now that there has been a there's been an injunction a block on that and there's been some rulings as far as like how much influence the US Department of Ed has on withholding funds and and in that in that light in that regard with those contexts and framework. Um, I just want to be sure that, you know, as we move forward, I I would encourage the administration and our our attorneys to to work together with the chair and the leadership of this body to make sure that we have um fully informed packages as far as like the current state of play. And I'm thinking back to something uh earlier this year where we had to revise um one of our
234policies in regards to gender identification and and classified and we were tracking and looked into whether or not there was an ongoing court case. There was an injunction that was held up and no appeal and so we kind of like went with what was stated because there was nothing in play. uh in this case there's a lot in play and I anticipate that you know these sorts of actions coming from the United States Department of Education are not going to stop anytime soon. So um I would just encourage all of us to be aware and track the court cases and um stay a breast of that and let's let's keep that in the conversation as we deliberate on these things. And I would have liked to have had um a more articulated art at attorney's
235opinion on hand that night, the 22nd, to get an assessment since we are expecting a ruling to come out 2 days after that meeting. And in fact, one did um that blocked the authority um to withhold funds the way that they were asserting uh the way the Department of Ed, the federal department of ed asserted they could. Um, so there's that. And also I', um, thank you for bringing up the color of the sweater. Um, definitely in support of military children, but it also reminded me of something else. And I'm not sure which month it is. Um, but autism awareness. Um and in general there was there are some comments also that came from the federal government regarding autism that I think are should be of all grave concern to us as well. Um, so
236I would encourage you all to to to do your research on those. And um, you know, I autism is, you know, there there are individuals that are worthy of of all the respect and dignity um, as any other individual human being. And uh, and that's should be enough said about that. Thank you. Um, and one other little uh, bookkeeping note. Well, never mind. That's advanced planning. I'm good to go on communications. Thank you. Anybody else? Dean, I crave the chair's indulgence on the topic of the meeting on the 22nd. I was fairly heated and I want to relate to you something. Um, that explains why uh I consider this an important topic and why I think Matthew referred to forces uh last week. Why I am very concerned about things being taken in the wrong
237direction. Again, indulge me. Back in the 1990s, my wife and I, before we had children, we visited Greece. We had a lovely time. But at the time, the current administration, I won't name the president, but the current administration was busy bombing Serbia. So, Serbia wouldn't bother the Albanians anymore. They even bombed them on Easter Sunday. For historical reasons, the Greeks have a soft spot for the Serbs and vice versa. I won't go into them. So, my wife and I spent the time over there being basically berated as representatives of the United States. Why are you bombing the Serbs? Now, those of you with a deep ethnic connection to a group understand this. They run the gamut from communist to fascists over there. and they they could they went to kill my grandfather back in the
2381940s. Nevertheless, you go over there and everybody feels like they're related to you somehow. Like it or not, it's one big family of 9 million people. But I walked out of that out of that vacation thinking the hell with them. Coming through JFK late at night, go through passport, get to customs, there is a shortish, plump black woman in a uniform checking us out. The woman says after she's done with us, she says, "Welcome home." I remember it to this day. It was how many years ago now? It was in the 1990s. To this day, at that moment, the first word that came into my mind after having left my relatives, quote unquote, over in the other country was sister. At that moment, she felt like a sister to me. What is it that ties
239us together? I'm very concerned that there are, in fact, forces that are hellbent on injecting so much race into so many things that we're going to lose that. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose that. That's why I'm vehement about it. I'll end it here. Thank you. You know what? I had a I just want to say this real quick. I had a similar experience, but not in this country. When my husband, my and myself, and my daughter went to Kenya, a a person in Kenya said to us, "Welcome home, my brother and sister." Right? that you know the feeling then it's very important because in this country we are not tied by a common ethnicity. We're not tied together by religion. We're tied together sometimes by geography. Okay? We're tied
240together by I don't know a love of baseball or things like that. American cultural things that can be very tenuous. This country is very special. I'm not going to say it's unique necessarily, but it's very difficult to hold together a country this large, this populous without some sort of commonality. It's always in play. There was never a golden time when we were all united. Uh but there are times when it's a little more the connections are a little more tenuous than at others. I'm very concerned about this. Okay. Any other comments, Mike? Yeah, just uh today got an email uh from a a school parent about um reducing um solid waste at schools with the with the um emphasis on um cafeterias and the the point was that you know there was is a lot
241of food waste and um there could be strategies to reduce it but then the CT Department of Energy Enviral Protection has grants. So I I'm trying to figure out actually how to forward this to you. I already got it and I already sent it to Shannon and she's on it with Ernie. How about that? I don't know how I got it. It somehow got forwarded to me already and I already put it in play. That That's great. Shannon will probably get done before I can figure out the forwarding. I know. That's good. But it was very interesting to Ernie actually. He's been wanting to do that. So I I always maintained at the elementary school it'd be good to have a you know we have it and we have composting at the river being the
242environmental. So, we do. We interested in that. That's great. Yeah. Oh, a parent wanted me to at the meeting give a shout out to um You have the treehouse at CL Middle School. Yes. We have a special program. Yep. 21st century grant. Okay. And to the people that supervis one person's name is Bri, and I forget the other lady's name. I don't have my patron with me, but uh he wanted me to give a big shout out to the people at the treehouse program at Bront Middle School. They're not only doing homework, but they're teaching some financial stuff, social skills. He said the program is absolutely wonderful. and our um PARA educator um Jen Corbiel who is the president of that union is very involved in that program and spends a lot of time with
243those kids. Michael remember one more thing um pitch graduation is uh June 13th Friday um my understanding is that Grao Tech is likely to be on that same day. I don't know what our time is for ours yet. going first at like 5:30ish and they're going at 6:30 from what I understand. The opposite of what we did last year where they went first and then we went. So maybe in future years like we just alternate who gets the Friday. I know we kind of I tried to do that this year. I said Thursday we have Friday. Remember? Have you tried Have you thought about doing a little bit earlier in the day to kind of avoid the We did five and six o'clock thunderstorms. Yeah, I know. I tried to get it in at 4,
244but then I was told that nobody would show up. So, I think we just I thought about that. I because that's true. The thunderstorms you They start in like New York City at 2 and then they in three and then come down the state. I agree. 4 p.m. You probably know that really well with your marine connection. Yeah. Anything else? Just a quick note. I guess there was an email earlier today about uh the investigation and the reports that are ongoing and I guess tending towards some kind of conclusion and that the the complaintants and the respondents were going to get briefed on the outcomes and then we were going to get some opportunity to review the reports and just do a you know postgame debrief so to speak. That's still in the they're meeting
245personally. They said this morning, so it's still going. Yeah. So, so I guess I guess um what's what would be the estimated time frame of like when we could anticipate that as soon as we meet with the parents? It's really important that we make that personalized connection and we really move forward in a positive direction. So, we really want to do this the right way. Well, because there's also some, you know, policy committee referrals that, you know, might be impacted by that. They can wait. Okay. Y no rush. Thank you. Okay. Advanced planning. Just wanted to note that uh May 20th uh will be the um ad hoc budget procedure committee next meeting at 6:30. I was a little I I got the minutes done within the 7-day window, but they were on the back
246end of that window. Approved though by Adrien Johnson. No. No, they haven't been approved by anyone yet. I just submitted them about six hours ago. Okay, I don't think we have anything for tomorrow. Wednesday 5 o'clock is our board retreat. I hope everyone can be there. Um, it wouldn't be a good retreat if we don't have everybody's part of the conversation. So, that's uh Wednesday at 5 at the Nautilus Museum Museum in the classroom upstairs. And then don't forget um Thursday is the RTM the full RTM meeting for our budget. We're not the person on the agenda but um we probably it starts at 6 maybe we'll be on by 7. So and go ahead. Just a question the format for that are we going to be is it just going to be the chair
247and the superintendent available for questions and responses? Uh yes. Okay. So, if a board member wanted to advocate got public comments. Very well. Thank you. The only thing I was going to suggest, but I didn't talk to Adrian yet. I'll talk to you now in public that he did such a great job. I have I would like him to answer the questions on the budget. I'll sit up there, but you did such a great job with the RTM and JC has told me he will allow you to take lead in that. I don't know if I want to take the lead, but I I I will answer what I can. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. You did a great job. Yeah. I I would second and third that. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. I talked to JC
248I I need Adrian to that budget is not my strength. Budget is yours. And I sent something out to all of you. You might not have gotten it in the email. It was kind of towards the end, but with the presentation that we gave the ED committee and also a memo from Beverly and I that kind of states the oversight of the budget. So, take a look at that and any feedback is welcome. So, to answer your question, it'll be myself, Adrian, and Susan. Understood. But any other board member that wants to advocate can show up under public comment. Yeah, but you could do it remotely. But if you can come come because if we're there as a board it speaks, you know, answer my question. Yeah. Right. Anything else? Just on the on the
249the RTM meeting. So when the the CIPs come up, are they okay to have the you know the directors that talk about the CIPs? They'll be up there. Okay. And Clint will be available for that night, too. Yeah, it should be. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. Motion to Andrew. Second by Mike. All those in favor? I know. I know.