001good evening it's Tuesday October 15 2024 um it is 6:06 pm and I'm calling the gr Board of Education Committee of the whole meeting to order um before we get started I just want take a moment um to thank uh superintendent Austin and the U uh staff and faculty for the support that they provided today following that really tragic accident uh the other night and Susan wanted to speak about what what supports were offered today so I just want you to know that um I really am so pleased and proud that of the partnership that we have with the police department I got word in the middle of the night about the tragic accident and at that time um you know I had limited information I did talk to Chief fararo and he was with
002me like every step of the way throughout the day so that I didn't miscommunicate and I wanted to just communicate respectfully and be as supportive as I could to our community when something like this happens it affects our entire community and we have a wonderful Community here in South Eastern Connecticut in gron and these students while they weren't attending gron schools this year they have attended Gren schools so they're very well known through their sports activities and their schooling so today was a somber day but I have to tell you that Matt Brown and Peter bass's leadership and all the principles Jamie actually has one of the siblings in her school um they really had thought this out they had gotten their crisis teams together our counselors our social workers and our school psychologists were
003on board and helping out they had had emergency faculty meetings where they laid out what needs to happen you know that we have to be super sensitive and supportive for this and our children while they use social media to get their information you know our cell phone policy being strict as it is was really helpful that that wasn't where they were getting the information during the school day but they did um you know go and see those Mental Health Providers and um you know it's it's just um it's just a sad thing a sad day sad weekend for grotten um but I I do say that the support from the entire Community is what's needed and um it'll be day by day step by step and if we find anything that the family needs I'll
004certainly bring it to your attention and um you know we'll go from there but um I do thank the entire staff and um you know I thanked John Bert because Chief visaro is always there and he is just wonderful to work with and really keeps me informed so couldn't have done it without him say thoughts and prayers are with the family and everyone affected at this time I was going to say the exact same thing I like to extend my condolences to the family all right so um at this point uh we will review the September 9th 2024 uh meeting minutes have any suggestions comments about the minutes if not I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes so moved second second Beverly and if there's no discussion all those in favor please by saying
005I I uh next we'll review the September 16th 2024 minutes um so I'll entertain a motion you accept those I make a motion to accept the September 16 2024 minute and do I have a second second is there any discussion or comment about those hearing none all those in favor please indicate by saying I I I opposed extensions all right so now we will move on to orientation to the state testing data so um Lauren you should probably take a seat up at the table or get a microphone so that we can see you and hear you um Lauren Cassini has been working with our principles and staff administrative staff um and really examining the data drilling down to the classrooms with our math and literacy Specialists um and really planning next steps with them
006when we look at it with a district lens the principles at their data teams in their schools are doing the very same thing and um the way we've broken it out this year is we wanted to give you the the larger overview of the state data that you're going to start seeing and when you're going to start seeing it and then also um the deeper dive into Elementary which um students take sback in three four and five in both math and literacy and they take the ngss science in fifth grade but they're preparing for it every step of the way throughout Elementary School um we're going to break it up a little bit this year so that themes River and Mystic River which are the larger two schools and the one that have some of
007our specialized special education programs in them and the largest community um those will be on next believe next week the 21st so and then they'll be followed by Northeast Academy CK and Charles Barum following I think in November um early November and then we will have the secondary you know Matt Brown and um Peter bass to talk about the secondary results so that you'll you'll get all that data you know in the next few weeks so this is kind of the introduction to the data and you know um we can certainly go through it and if you have questions you know just ask and um I think it's separated into kind of an intro piece and then a deeper dive um Mr chair a point of privilege if I could yes um could we just
008have all the staff there's a lot of empty seats at the table I wonder if like the staff could all move on to camera uh because there's a couple people in the lower right hand corner that uh are not really visible so are you talking about um maybe um if Lauren you want to sit over here so we can see you and Irene if you want to sit next to although Mike Whitney is coming but that's Dean if you wanted to sit next to Adrian Johnson right over here so we can see you appreciate it thank you just put it on Andre Andre won't be here can everyone see the slide on the screen and this was in the packet too yes I can see it yes okay good yes good evening everyone you want
009to pull it up so we can you again it's not very often I'm told that you can't hear me that natural teachers voice right um okay so again I just wanted to re reorient you to the the purpose of tonight's meeting which is really to examine the elementary Summit of assessment data um and really look at it from uh more of a balcony view um at the district level and then beginning next week like superintendent Austin said the schools will come in individually in that will will tailor that we've been working with them to tailor down that data to the school level um and more grade level per school okay um so the results of our esack data this is really focused on grades three through five for elementary um again you'll see six through
010eight and then the high school later on and you'll see by school um over the next few weeks smarter balanced is taken every spring um grades three through eight do take it they take a portion um related to English language arts and then they take another assessment for Math and then we also have the what they call the ngss so the Next Generation science standards um which is also taken by fifth grade eighth grade and 11th grade during that same time frame in the in the spring and so as the results begin to come in we are looking at it through a iety of lenses but when you want to look like quick snapshot what is the gist of the the information we have which is really what we're looking at tonight um there are
011four main levels to the esack so the English language arts and the math assessments that occur in Spring there's four main achievement levels and those are based on scale scores um depending on the grade level that you are in okay and so when we look at and we talk about in some of the upcoming slides Benchmark what we're referring to are those students who who were either meeting or exceeding the grade level standards okay so that green and that blue is really like that's our goal and so overview grades three through five all of our students 902 students um in grades 3 through five took the ELA smarter balanced assessment these are the results of them you can see on the top is the count by each of those standards so does not meet standards
012um approaching standard meets and exceeds remember meeting and exceeding that's our Benchmark those are our students who are on grade level performing on grade level for this particular assessment um I think I do think it's important to note that it is it is one snapshot um it is not an overall um picture of a student it just gives us one snapshot to look at and to be thinking about um and to plan for and and use as we kind of look at our curriculum and our individual students and where they're at and how we're performing and how to support them um our students who are approaching that is that's always the trickiest area right they're almost there but they haven't quite met it and so those are typically the kiddos we really like zero in
013on um to look at what happened where did they fall in that scale score and we'll talk we'll talk a little bit about that but that approaching are those kids that are just about there and we really try to focus in on how can we get them over that that hump or that cusp we like to refer to it as it's almost like you'd like to see them grow in every single area absolutely the kids who are in the red maybe become the approaching right and then approaching becomes meeting standard absolutely question for your La uh does the ELA can can we can we see where those who are not meeing reaching the benchmarks where there is there a cluster of a particular set skill sets that they're particularly weak in yes could we dive
014into that a little bit at some point yes so I do I I do have that um I don't know it's in like rough data form um so the schools do have that so when the results come out one of the one of the pieces that I do is download the information for them and then look at every individual student in their school that you that took the assessment we look at where did they fall what was that scale score how close were they to the next achievement level as we're calling and that's an approximation it's not an exact just to be clear um but how far were they how close were they to that next level and then they also have um the different claims and so where did they fall in those claims
015because in some cases we can have students who are meeting a standard in one particular claim but maybe approaching it in another and so schools really use that information to make some decisions as well so while it's not here the schools do have and use it so I can get that too it might take me a little time to put it into a form like this it's quick and easy to look at if the board thinks it would be useful I would I would love to see it so one of the things that um Lauren is able to do is she works with the elementary principles and administrators she also works with the math specialists the literacy specialist and they're the ones who they all together do the Deep dive so that they can really
016see what the trends are at each of the grade levels in each of their schools so where instructionally do we need to focus and make sure that we're attending to um as well as for individual students through the srbi process or the mtss process who needs invent intervention and what do they need it in so that's really the work of our buildings to make sure that individual children are getting what they need and that we're looking also at the trends so that we can work with the grade level teachers to make sure that instructionally we're getting to the point so I would I'm I'm understanding that within Ela there are X number of subset categories and that would give us an opportunity to see where we we can get the most bang for our limited
017bu where our strikes versus where we really falling down according to that yep and the schools you will see that come next week and in the following weeks the schools have done some of that work and I know that they have also built it into their action plans which they'll share for you so you may be getting another little taste of that next week but I can certainly put a slide together that's easy to read that just for a quick glance like what are our areas of strengths according to those claims and where do we need the most thank you thank you very much Bev and then Adrian thank you Jay um that has always been one of the goals of the Board of Education to get um those students in the approaching standards over
018to the meet standards I'd like to know what are we going to do different this year or next year that we haven't been doing in the past because we always had difficulty getting those students over the fence ever since 1993 um one of my co-workers he was a school psychologist and I asked about testing he said you got to get those kids that are on the fence over the fence and we doesn't seem like we have accomplished that so I just want to know um maybe in the future you could tell us what are we doing different now to help those kids get over the fence and I like to see that information that um Matthew was talking about I'd be interested in that also absolutely I can get that for you and if you're
019asking my opinion about what I think will will make that approaching uh group lower I think transitional kindergarten is a a huge starting point we're grabbing those kiddos earlier they're acclimating to school they're beginning to look at and really solidify some of those pre foundational skills so I mean again that is my opinion and I'll you know only time will tell if that com you know if that is in fact a fact but I'm big believer in the transitional K and prek and I think that also the um the work that's being done in the district around literacy and early literacy is going to make a significant difference so you know we are in the process of making changes and we can already see in the double data the first one done across the year
020that there was some growth and and we we look forward to that so starting early with what you're saying with prek and TK but that early literacy is really imperative so that work that the board has you know supported us in in the past couple years um and the implementation that's happening now I think will make a difference but there's so many variables so there's the curriculum there's the instruction there is the mtss process where we're really zeroing down and looking student by student there's something called a Target that a child has to make and so looking at the Target we're going to talk about the growth model model so there's so many things Beverly that we want to address um that we think is going to help lift Lift us up lift the students
021up well I I thank you for saying that but maybe it shouldn't be so many things maybe we should focus on a few things and again um as the board looks at the budget for next year I would seriously suggest that we think about putting more money into our elementary education program and um try to get those kids over that fence and if they get over the fence then they'll be good hopefully for all their school remaining school years so that's my suggestion that we really dive into looking at elementary education and put more money into that and I'm with Lauren about prek and transitional kindergarten I I'm a Believer in doing all we can at a lower level I think that's going to really benefit our students and our in our schools and accounting
022going to recognize Adrien then Jen and then Ian uh Bev I appreciate you saying that because I um I 100% agree agree um in and I think TK is huge um and we know that I think it forget the exact statistics but huge predictor of overall School Success is how well kids are reading by the end of first grade so um I think one of the things we need to know is what the teachers think they need for tools to achieve that um that to me would be worth a ton to have some staff comments or the staff comment on you know are the class sizes okay do they feel like they're effective do they have materials do they have enough time do they need other supports in the classroom um so like those type
023of questions would be you know would be great to have answers to and then we can we can kind of make make decisions you know obviously keeping the budget in mind but um we can make decisions where the board feels we need to focus I personally feel that focusing on those Ela skills you know you know by the end of first grade and then again the next Benchmark by the end of third grade is is huge and that that can affect in the long term our system as a whole um but these These are you know these are the beginnings of a long-term goal um and then I'd also like to um you know thank Matthew 4 he said and I believe the same question or very similar question was last year um I think
024I can't remember if I was in attendance of that meeting but I I watched it um and there were some questions about grouping of um of those those children that are approaching standards and if and I can't remember who asked the question last year but um like is there a big group of them at the bottom end of that you know is that a big curve in that section so we know if kids are right at the cusp or if they're kind of close closer to to further away so um I I do appreciate that that question I think um I think that could you know that could interest the board to have that information and that is in a few slides from now so all right great yeah all right Jen um I'm really
025thrilled about you know transitional K and all of that and all of that but I'm actually concerned about the kids that are already on the path right like what are we doing for them because um everybody always refers to covid so those kids who were in kindergarten during covid are probably in that third grade now so um what are we doing for those kids so there'll be um those were the kids in kindergarten first and second so there're are third fourth and fifth grade and I just don't want to forget about those students so yes we are um building a more sturdy Foundation um going forward but what are we putting in place to help the kids that did not have that foundation and so as you guys are going through um the data and
026looking at it that's something that I always want um to be um kept in the background yeah yeah if you have something definitely I'm just not sure of the process I never know when to give you your information as I have it so um in terms of what you're saying never forget those kids we don't any no no no I am what what you're saying is absolutely true and that's why tightening up our mtss process which is our interventions is critical okay and so we did begin some of that work last year in data team but there is a lot and it is happening at um all the levels what it looks like at each level vary um I think the elementary level is probably the tightest at the moment but even making making changes
027so that as kids transition from one grade to the next that information follows them so that they're not spinning their wheels and trying to pick up you know they can pick up where they left off later before so things like that we've been really talking about how to streamline some of some of those and really Target those skills um I know they do use the dibles information and that's that's a bigie to how they pay those interventions that's what you want those kids in three through five yeah who aren't seeing the fruits of transitional K or the literacy program per se from the ground up we do have those in place those Universal screeners K5 are really critical to the work you know as well as some of the interim assessments for aspac so we're
028really using using the data and then it informs instructions so it's the core and then if they need more so the core instruction has changed and so that's also a lift up I think in the right direction and then if they need a additional support we're able to give that to them so there could be some third fourth fifth graders that still need some phonic support or you know and so we're able to do that for them great thank you Ian uh thank you um I appreciate all the efforts here uh definitely I'm interested in in in more detail uh you know as far as like these these numbers we're looking at we talked about it briefly as far as you know where they came from but um I'm uh curious to know um you
029talked about having the data and then processing it into um an easy to view form such as this uh but I would be interested in um seeing the actual disaggregated data as far as like you know the numbers that make up like how do we get to the 21% what are the standards that we're measuring and which ones are falling short versus which ones are meeting and exceeding you know the details within those standards uh you know as far as like you know uh reading comprehension phonics um you know math mathematical computational skills you know the actual like Diagnostics I guess is that something that we're going to be able to see we talked about you know getting a dashboard set up for in-house data collection uh that seemed to be a thing that we're
030going to try to move forward with and I would just like to kind of see that introduced alongside these sort of like broad overview type presentations but also um you know maybe having an appendix to this sort of document where we could see how the standards were calculated you know which ones were you know what's the numbers inside these numbers I'm not sure I understand what you're when you say how the numbers were calculated would I'm not sure what I mean what standards are we measuring for you know they're out of the uh common core standards is that where we're meing is directly related to so inside those standards there's a number of breakouts you know with with numbers and decimals and all sorts of things um and each one and there's all these different
031categories um and so that's kind of like the numbers behind the numbers is what I'd be interested in seeing as well as part of an appendix to a broad overview like this just so I get sense you know because you know in in in my profession you know we we you know a lot depends on diagnostics so I'm comfortable looking at numbers like that and I think it would be um very informative for us to know like we may be excelling in one area of of you know um Ela instruction but maybe um you know one particular component is is is causing a bit of a drag somewhere and maybe we should look at more specifics as far as like that's what you do with the elat right so I mean I I do want
032to clarify that Smarter Balance assessment is not a diagnostic it's a summi of assessment diagnostic is one more similar I would say to like Dibbles where you can really like like like get down right to exactly where the um where the problem lies you're not going to get that from the smarter balance assessment you might get you might get a bucket and then from that bucket we would do a diagnostic to to identify what is happening within that bucket but smarter balance in and of itself is not a diagnostic I think though what you were referring to are those scale scores and they do have them for the different claims the issue and maybe that was maybe I should have been clear when I said meeting it up for you it's really it comes with
033individual student data and we cannot provide that to you so I would need to create something where I'm eliminating the student right the identifiable student and I'm just giving you in claim you know in this first bucket in listening and um comp uh listening standards right like what where kids falling like a percentage there or a number whatever you would prefer is fine but I can't just give you the actual document because it has identifiable student information right which I think that that's where we're going that's the direction we're going in as a board from what I understood you know based on the other previous data conversations we had that we wanted to develop an in-house system to capture as much data as possible and and um have it anonymized of course and and all
034privacy concerns addressed but to give us a more technical breakdown as far as like how things are going it's not so so much for us to lean in or do anything it's just so that we can better understand you know and and and so teachers can better communicate to us like what what they you know want to move forward you know what they think should be reinforced and and and and and built upon and vers like you know maybe find seeking other Str IES in other areas so um yeah so I would just appreciate that um you know so we actually have a dashboard we have edite secure that we use and there's edite public so we actually do use that that's a working site that Educators use all the time when it comes to
035esac and drilling down into the standards that you know we're meeting and the standards that we aren't so we do have that so is that something that we as a board could review from time to time you could if it's there is an ed site public you're not going to drill down to students that's not identifiable right no all the data that's there we don't need back to that point I understand that point like we don't need to I don't want identifiers I just want to know like you know what's working what's not and like you know are there Peaks and valleys where are the Peaks and valleys inside these numbers right you know inside these numbers it could be things that are are like highly competent and then things that are not so um
036so we have um the Ed Ed site public we did we did look at that together um one night at the board that's the site she's referring to and if you and I can resend the link um it's available to everyone but you can really dig around and play and sort on there as well and again I'm happy to to to do that like go through that process again um because it is it's very there's so much you can really go down rabbit holes there and so my recommendation even when I'm working with teachers or administrators in Ed site secure and or public you need to go in with a focus like what is the question I'm looking to answer today right and that's the piece you go in there looking to answer otherwise you'll
037end up in 30 different directions and coming out feeling overwhelmed with more questions than answers but we can always revisit that and I'm happy to send you the link again but that could hold some of the questions that you have okay and their state releases different data all throughout the year um and they've gotten even better at releasing it sooner than later and it isn't until the end of the year and into the next year that you're actually getting a report card and a strategic School profile probably a year and a half after that by the time it's all released so and that's also one of the things that we talked about in the past about trying to to correct for in some ways about trying to create an in-house system that maybe mirrors that
038uh is to be able to capture more like real time or closer to real time data you know so we can have a more reactive approach if if there is something that is is not working to its best ability and I'm definitely holding um a future agenda item to develop that dashboard I mean we know about we've talked about the Dibbles data I'd like to see real-time attendance uh information the things that we can capture in real time as a district it doesn't have to go up to the state and be verified and you know go through their their process that we can do here locally right along the lines that um Nick was talking to us of course he was talking about doing something on a piece of paper on a wall but now
039we have digital resources so you like to get that and I definitely have not forgotten that and I personally want to move forward on on that and know what can we track in real time right all right well I do look forward to that conversation in the future and I I appreciate the the the overview in this presentation so thank you okay all right so this is historical so Trend over time um how our students grades three through five performed in terms of students that are at or above Benchmark so you can see that again um you know we're we're slowly making our way back up from those preco years um you know we're getting there that's we're getting there you know it's it's creeping up a little bit ideally with our curriculum our new
040curriculum in place and our tightening up our interventions we'll see some continued gains and when the schools come in you're going to see it grade by grade school by school so you're going to get even a clearer picture of how it's working this is like averaging for the district I'd like to add for people who may be watching this that the statistics we're seeing here in gron but not a Broten reality but a national reality we're all struggling with this around the country and uh while speaking only for myself there's a lot of work to do um we are doing and making more progress than some other districts not enough we all agree but we we are working on it thank you Matthew that was a beautiful Segway it was a segue into how are
041we performing in relationship to other districts in our dur um so we are considered dur G which is really just it's a reference group so these are like districts right in terms of uh makeup demographics socioeconomic standings Alliance um Alliance there many of these schools are also Alliance districts um you know with the transient populations and so on um and I always think it's important to put the state in there it's in the gray just because we we definitely want to be above the state median but um but that really tells us the story of the state from the new canans and the places I've been to the grottens to the um Hartford and and other communities all throughout the state so we really are outperforming the other districts in our dur um I'm looking
042forward to sharing with you the science um part of this because that's a real wow which is why we have Ben moon with us here here tonight as well um so we might put him on the spot a that's it's what we need to do so um I think I've said this in like other meetings it's like great to compare us to our dirt but um we really should compare us to um schools that we like benchmarking but not necessarily just our neighboring towns but towns that we want to be like so um like the avons The Sims berries who are always consistently up higher because if we're always just comparing ourselves to like type we're not really raising the bar and challenging ourselves so we need to like put a high bar out there
043so that we can try you know we'll try harder not that I'm saying we're not trying harder now but I'm just saying so that we can really um push to see like as like you do with any Benchmark what is that District doing well that we can um sort of emulate or you know follow or take you know um guidance on um not that we have to be a mini one of those towns but just take the best of the best that's why it's benchmarking and it's stretching so um the dur District reference group used to be the urg EP economic reference group and so they did put like communities together because of the socioeconomic piece too and that had plays a a big part in it but I'm very pleased to show you what
044we've also uncovered with the socioeconomics because the the more we do in um our work um with balancing our schools like we've done between the inis magnets and having the one Middle School the one high school we had a Dr Rick kenberg who came to us during the Grant in 2020 who really showed evidence he's a researcher and he said the closer the closer you get to balancing your schools and having diverse socioeconomics you'll see the bar raised for everybody and so we're starting to see some of that too so so I'm gonna recognize Ian then B and then uh thank you Jay um yeah I just wanted to Echo the sentiments that that Jen just said I mean uh I don't know who said it there's a there's a phrase I heard somewhere that
045said if ever you find yourself to be the smartest person in the room you should probably find a different room um so I think there is value in trying to find areas where we can challenge ourselves um you know beyond what we are doing currently now and which I think you know being above 50% is is great um it seems like we're trending the right direction um but I I do think um when we do there's value in finding things to Aspire for as well as things to compare against so I just wanted to share that thought thank you thank you and be thank you Jay um Susan I appreciate your response to Jen but I have to say I'm along the same line as Jen and Ian and I don't need to go on
046and on but I agree with them we need to raise the bar compare ourselves like Ian said if you find yourself the smartest person in the room you need to find a different room and um so every year we do the same thing we compare ourselves to the dur and we say oh we're doing great because look where we are with the dur but really I don't know it's questionable we also always compare ourselves to our neighbors from Stonington end to you know on one side to New London on the other and this slide I think represents some interesting patterns we've never really superseded Preston and ledard and we have this year so I while we're really kind of close um we're also close to Montville and Waterford isn't too far away either so I
047think that even in our neighboring districts you see some tremendous growth too in you know because we do want to compare ourselves to the southeastern region as well um um you know to see how we're doing yeah um I would kind of like to Echo what's already been said um but bring it down to um the next slide um and specifically Stonington because Stonington is um obviously they have some areas that are very affluent but they also have West Fine Elementary which is very similar to groten demographically um so Gren has I believe 48% free and reduced lunch 54 or 54 um well great it's three through five I actually went through did calculations I believe it's like 48 points but um so and if we um look at their Ela scores they're at 65.1
048the average of third fourth and fifth grade just just those grades um so you have to kind of go into the data and it's difficult with with a public version you think Stonington is 65% free and reduced lunch or that school 41 so they have West fine which is like around 350 kids or something like that so it's very similar in size to our schools um and and in math um for some reason four isn't there so we'll get to math a little bit later but they're at like 71.7 um in in that school so if we talk about you know the economic diversity that school is very similar to us um and I'd love to know what they're doing like so much differently than us where they're seeing um such like significantly higher results
049well I play the old soon song again I think the percentages are showing Improvement but 55% means that 45% are not meeting Benchmark but I don't care about 45% that works out to 406 young human beings each one of whom we can help reach the Benchmark has had a much better chance at a successful life that's our goal that's the way I'd like us to frame it not in percentages but in the human beings whose lives we have a chance to help and I would have to say that that is happening every day in our schools with the court instruction and then offering the you know teers of intervention it's meant to be aspirational not to be critical no no I'm just saying that that is the good work in that's happening in the schools
050so as my comment yeah all right I averaged when I said 48% it was 48.8% and that was just in our elementaries so it goes to 54 when you throw in middle school high school but that was the um that was the elementary so it's not just three through five I could I could only search b so that so so our Rue is 48.8 for free and reduced well I know that um Northeast Academy is like the 40% it's the lowest but everybody else is above the 54% um Bri buch I I can give but yeah we're at 39% at Northeast Academy MH um zes river is 50.7 52.1 at River 48.8 at um Charles barnham B Chester is 53.4 that's what I found on our website anyway um 44 44% rain reduced rain reduced
051that's closer to Northeast well it's in the middle kind of I mean it's 4% 4 and a half% lower than us so there is a difference but it's a very similar I'm saying is that pocket talk is is a very s is a similar Community who seems to be doing really well given the economic advantages or disadvantages that that town might have so it would be in my opinion worth understanding if there's things that they're doing um that we might be able to emulate or thing you know successes that they're having that we might be able to um you know give to our kids in this District thank you um this slide shows um our English language arts broken apart by grade level um and they're pretty consistent with grade five being the strongest uh
052with students at or above grade level or I'm sorry Benchmark um that was that's pretty much this sour performing by grade level MH so going back to those scale scores we talked about and how the achievement level is connected at each grade level to specific scale scores a range of scale scores I'm not going to go too deep into this because it's a lot of information to kind of memorize right um but I wanted you to just have a visual of it so you can understand how it is um put together so the level one two three four those scale scores are sequential where if you look from grade three to grade four there is some overlap from grade four to grade five at each level there is some overlap this is helpful when we
053talk about Adrian what you had brought up so those those kids that are at that approaching um standard right where are they how are they how are they in terms of how close they are to the next to meeting Benchmark and so when we look at this these students that were on the high end of that level two scale score at each grade level 54% of our students were on the upside of that scale score versus 46% that were on that lower end there was quite a quite a good percentage of students and I don't have the actual number off the top of my head and I apologize for that but within so we didn't just look at like the high scale score and low scale score in each building level and individual student level
054we looked at who was really close who was within 15 scale points of making it right so we're really trying to zero in on like who really is truly right on that cusp um and again who just barely made it as well right so we're also looking at those kids who just made it over that that hump into that new uh level okay because those that's important to know as well we don't want slide back either we want to keep Ming fit forward and so in terms of our high needs this is just a reminder when we talk about students um that are considered part of a high needs group we're talking about students that are special education they're identified as um needing special education services there are students who are identified as multilanguage Learners
055so limited English proficiency and economically disadvantaged students those who qualify for free and reduced lunch Lauren certain schools everybody gets a free lunch free and reduced rate lunch so does that mean that everybody who's getting a free and reduced rate lunch in those schools is considered economically disadvantaged whether or not they are economically no it means their percentage is high enough that we can get a community eligible program but I guess I'm I'm how do we identify who qualifies for free and reduced lunch in a school where everybody gets free and reduced lunch so you have to apply almost like a grant to a community eligible program and they Ernie goes through a whole process in this application and they look at our numbers so you have to make a certain quota of the number
056of free and reduced lunch and sometimes it's a matter of getting those forms in for instance at our military schools they do not get automatic SNAP benefits which if you get automatic SNAP benefits you're like already in um you do fill out the forms but that really helps but because they have TR care and they don't get the Husky plan for this date they don't automatically get snap and a lot of families with a dad going out to see for six months or even a mom these days um you know they might not fill in the form they might not feel like they have the information to fill in it they might be proud and not want to fill in the form so filling in the form form just like impact a is really important
057even if you have the C so it can continue to receive those benefits so those percentages that you see of 54% are based on people really filling out those forms okay so you've been able to tease that out yes yeah yeah that's reassuring thank you uh so when we look at our students by needs and we group them into two categories either a high needs or non-high needs here is our performance and it it obviously is it tells a very Stark story um you know our students who are high needs have a a very op it's almost opposite um in terms of how they're performing compared to our non-high need students okay so our high needs we have 36% that are not meeting standards uh versus only 15% who are exceeding and it's almost the
058opposite for those who are high non-h High needs so for the special education it's um the standard set for special education no they're grade level standards okay so they're compared to grade level they're assessed on grade level standards rather than okay so then their own personal gos yeah so then that might be skewing a lot right which if you look to the next slide this is a breakout of those three High needs uh subgroups and yes so it's fair to say when we look at our special education population when we look at the number of students that are not meeting standard um they are working they are working towards their own goal they have a plan in place right they have very targeted skills that they're um addressing um and there are educational plans in
059place for that same thing with our limited English proficiency right um there is there are resources and there are plans and goals and targets for those students as well so while let me think I'm not quite sure how to say this but when I when I'm looking at this and I'm seeing that 61% of our special education population is not meeting our standard my first question isn't or thought isn't oh my gosh 61% aren't but more okay well how are they doing year over year are are they meeting spec their specific targets right like that's more of a reasonable assessment of them I'd like to say there's change in the special ed law so while they had targeted skills before they aligned it now to the Connecticut core standards so that when they have their
060own IEP individualized education plan they've really they're now tailoring it so that it does meet grade level standards and they're putting those in place too so I think that may help us and English language proficiency those are the children that when they first come their parents sign off if they're speaking a different language at home and so their parents indicate whether or not we should be they should be receiving services so sometimes it's just the way they filled out the form and if we find that a child is struggling then we go back to the parent to talk to them but there's a loss links assessment that we give them and there's a score of one to five by the time they're at four and five in ela and math we exit them and they're
061no longer needing the proficiency and meeting the standard of limited proficiency so these are really students who don't have the language in you know speaking listening reading and writing yet and we're giving them extra Services um and you know they need a lot of attention and we've seen that that population has risen and there many many I think I did add that um survey you were asking for it was two years old but I put it in the board notes and in it you see all the different languages that are spoken when we did the foreign language survey so that is in the board notes but it's incredible to see and some haven't had formal schooling either some have so that makes a difference so but then you look at the economically disadvantaged and to
062me that's like a picture that mirrors really what the you know non- High needs breakout is you know a little bit maybe more on the red and yellow than we'd like to see but um you know I really feel like it's more in sync with the whole population or the average of the whole population I guess than guys Ian and then Adrian uh thank you uh just curious to know um looking at this this chart um so uh the do we have any data that that compares the special education numbers the the the amount of students that are um showing up as high needs by special education and those that have limited English proficiency um I guess I'll just the simplest way to say it is that you know when I was doing my special
063Edge certification um one of the things they identified in in one of the classes one of our discussion groups um was that there's there's a tendency um to no fault of anyone is sort of like an accident of of chance but um that ESL students tend to get classified as special education or needing special needs when in fact it's just a language barrier as far as like things like science and math and you know I mean reading comprehension will be another matter because if you're grading for english comprehension versus just overall comprehension um but still all the same when we're assessing limited English students are we assessing them on a fair playing field as far as like if they're being classified as special education as well as ESL do we have any data that that
064looks to that crossover and do we have any way to try to accommodate for that and and and you know make sure that we're providing the Education meeting people where they really are because there's a difference between um being proficient in a subject uh vers being proficient in English being on grade level the subject you asking I think I'm not I I just want to make sure I'm understanding what you're asking are you asking do we have data on the number of students that are identified as special ed and yes that would be step that would be step one do we do we have any data that that that we can look at say okay well we have this number of ESL students and this number of special ed students and look at this percentage
065that's a crossover and is is what we're seeing um really do they really qualify or do are they really in need of special ed or are they need of you know intensive ESL you know English instruction you know there are you know these categories aren't unique you might have a child that is in special education and also Limited in English and ALS so economically disadvantaged I mean there are many varieties you know they might be in several of those categories but I have to say that um really the the law states that children have to take this assessment even within a year of them coming to the country is it one full calendar year that they get a reprieve or no we have students that it's only what 11 months so you could have children
066that don't that are really limited and that they have to sit by behind a computer and take an esack test um even in special education I mean there is an alternative assessment for special ed for like our ABA students and students with significant needs but um very we are only allowed to have what um is it one% 1% can only benefit by taking that alternate assessment which is really a teacher directed assessment in POS they're able to do what do what do you mean by that in other words that if they if we have children who in some of these specialized programs that have limited cognition and you know pretty serious disabilities that they still have to be assessed by the state and it's called an alternate assessment but it can only be 1% of
067our special ed population that can qualify by so well that seems oddly predictive and and odd arbitrary cap on on I mean yeah well you you and I think alike that way because there are times when you know you've got your maybe in a district you're able to service more children in your District yeah yeah I mean so but you're gonna see a break out better um Ian when the schools come in because they actually have a page about their school data so you're going to see numbers in all of these things right but that that all that aside I mean that wasn't the question I was asking though the question I was asking was uh how many ESL students are also classified as special ed and do we have a a system to try
068to accommodate for that meaning that there is a difference between needing special education services and needing uh English instruction and are all the Assessments in English I guess that maybe that that would oh let's let me give you an example you have a child coming over from another country and they are very limited but the parent might have a concern or the school might have a concern that more is going on language or Limited in capacity or limited that they have limited English proficiency but there might be something more on so you'd go to a PPT and in that case the assessments would be in the the language that the child speaks to to weed out is it a special ed need or is it a language need that's the question I want to answer
069but in esac they can have I think a dictionary of the language that they can refer to um but that's about it so they don't have a an interpreter or no and techology nowadays is no way to accommodate for that you wish there would be well I'm pretty sure there is this question is are not not I mean it comes from the state department so it's you know it's a question we could ask the state department that is a question I definitely would like to ask ask the state department all right thank you for clarifying all that appreciate it I I can kind of see um the problem may be larger than just our district thank you yeah ni yes I think I had a follow up to Ian's question you you want to ask
070that first think that's okay with you uh in hospitals where I worked as a chaplain if we have somebody coming in who speaks cber creation we take them over to machine call them up and we have a cber creation interpreter so we can do live interpretation is this something that we could look for for a grant to see if we get one of those machines so we could we have those we do have those in our school we have um a phone service we also use other interpreters who speak the language especially Spanish because that's the larger part of the population so if you're coming to PPT or a meeting and you need to discuss with families any of the data that we use this interpretation service and you know we can also use it
071with working with students so would you be able to look into whether that would be legal for us to use that resource for some of these exams to overcome some I know it's not not at this time yep well maybe that's something we could ask our our Senator and representative to see if they can get some clarification for us put that on the list okay uh ay um I guess one question to start um is could we have kids that are in more than one of those groups so we would have I would like to think that the 21% of economically disadvantaged children are also receiving special ed services is that the case yeah so and thank you I should have clarified that so I teased out because of because of the the nature of
072free and reduced lunch and the Privacy around it it's there are very few places that actually you're able to get that information single like they'll give you high needs groups um which include all three but you can't just pluck out necessarily free reduced lunch all the time by individual students so like you can kind of tease it out but not really um so what I so what I needed to do was basically remove all limited English proficiency all special ed and then that population of high needs that remains that's your free and reduced launch so there isn't an overlap did I miss not for that so there can be between so like in our special ed population there are free and reduced students there oh they could be yes our limited English could have free
073and reduced students and our and just the same as Ian was saying some of our special ed students um can be language Learners and vice versa so you know those two are overlapped but the the the economically disadvantaged that's a sole all right look so just economically disadvantaged not e or special ed right yeah could you break those out for us so we can just have the numbers on each one though so that adds up to 519 kids but you're saying it's not 519 kids it's less it's less yes um it's uh give me a second I'll say 57 so not that no it's not it's not yeah there's there's some overlap but not signific again all right um so yeah I mean I would kind of like to know those 21% of kids that
074are way below standard that's 60 children um and it sounds like maybe not that many children are also in special ed and why that is um you know or why you know what kind of services are those kids um because obviously if they're that far below they need extra help um so um and and another thing that you know I just did the math so um economically disadvantage works out to be 58% it's probably a little over 60% of the high needs and I have a fundamental problem with accepting that economically disadvantaged kids you know aren't going to learn as well I realize I I think that that's a failure of us and not a failure of them like it's it's it's a fundamental problem with our district if we can't meet their needs and
075what do we need to do to fix that to well we're not going to fix it but but how can we make that better because I I just like this High need subgroup I understand all of those are reasons for high needs but it's largely weighted by by economically disadvantaged students and I would love to know what we can do as a district to support those families and obviously we can't you know change their economic status but what we can do to support them and maybe with more you know meeting with parents more often or having you know like reaching outside of the school with those families maybe this is for communications um you know for a separate meeting but um I I just have a real problem like that where kids can't learn as
076as well I don't think with I don't think that's the right message that they can't learn as well I don't think that's it at all well yeah I shouldn't have said it that way I should say that that they should be significantly more challenging as a group to instruct I think what happens they come need to meet that challenge well I mean if you look at the research right like depending on you know the home from the time they you know infants right the reading that may take place the books that might be involved the experiences all you're doing before you get to school K children are building vocabulary right they're bu building vocabulary they're building um background knowledge all of those things are the things that set kids up for Success once they get
077to kindergarten first grade so to tackle that things like preschool transitional kindergarten right early those are this is my passion mine too do you know what I mean though like so no I don't think that they they can't learn as well I think they're just starting further behind in a lot of cases because of they don't have I can I have the research somewhere of how many words fewer it's thousands of words less Milli than than their Peer who may come from a more steady background you know where parents were home at dinner time instead of working a third shift like those types of things and and there's no right wrong or indifferent it's just it's just the nature of it right like but they come in with so fewer words and experiences to cling
078on to so when you're in a classroom and you're learning about this some child over here may have gone to the aquarium and says oh yeah I remember that and they can cling on to it much better than a child who hadn't had that experience so it's all about promoting experiences for children building knowledge building building knowledge which is part of what we're doing reading early on you know I know it's been some good work going into the preschool uh you know throughout the town and reading to them like we've all kind of taken that piece on throughout the throughout the year we go to the preschools and we read to them like those are the things that and the daycare centers those are the things that are going to really make a difference and
079I think though we're seeing as much as it's not there yet we're seeing progress being made when you're looking at just free and reduced lunch that it's very similar to the average of what we're seeing across the district in those buckets would I like it to be less red absolutely I'd love it to be no red and then you know the approaching you know be setting towards you know meeting but and I think that's aspirational and I think that we constantly think about that I think when I see what we've done at the high school level to make sure our kids were accessing the higher level courses and the numbers of kids who are taking the AP ice that's also part of it no matter what the economic or no matter what has been holding
080them back so all across from preschool all the way to 12th grade i b I just finished yeah I letting her know that I can't go to her so just one at a time yeah Adrian can finish then Bev then Ian then Jen I I'm very happy to see that the they're reaching out to Young to young families to to families with small children and I see it as an investment although reaching out however we do it costs money and we need to talk about that as a board but other ideas in addition to TK to reach out to those kids or to the families of children that are you know for and under that aren't quite in TK um that don't qualify for birth to three and that we maybe don't so are there
081ways that we can that we can impact our community the B vet or maybe library or but are there are there known ways like districts that have made a difference by trying to reach those kids in in in setting ourselves up for more success later on and hopefully a lot less special ed costs in in in extra help throughout school by by investing that money in the younger part of our and how to best accelerate the children to us after the fact right because yeah well that that's our primary job right but if but if there are things that we can do like can we have like Monday nights where just have little kids in and we have like a little do this with your kids to parents I don't know maybe that won't work
082we do have a good partnership with Children First Gren um where we we have um a staff member in special ed who reaches out to the children first grot and they meet regularly um they've had fairs together to bring people out we had a couple of them at themes River last year and you know really give parents lots of resources so we do you know we go and read in the schools um so there's a real Synergy with that they have Community leaders in all the different communities around town for those Early Childhood programs for parents who have young children so there actually is a vehicle in place that we could even do more around so that's one of the things that you know I had been really involved in um and then naen who
083came in took over with that and did a great job but there is that group in Granton that's done some fabulous work I mean that that is fantastic to hear but I want my question is kind of where we where can we go forward from right I'm thinking the same appreciate that I appreciate TK I mean that's huge um but what what can we do more are there other towns that have done more that that it's been successful and maybe we can try to use some of those strategies so I I but I do appreciate that but that is something that we could do better at I think that we could have more Synergy around we've done some things but I think we could probably even do more with that great thank you um Susan
084along with the along the line with with adrien's thoughts do we partner with those groups because I remember when I first came to Granton I worked for Head Start and I was a family worker and we went into families and we taught Families how to teach their children at home and um we never partner with the school district is that something that you can do it do partner with these agencies that reach out to young families and families with young children you know that $500,000 Grant where we just are the conduit of the funds and they go into having seats all across the district Head Start is one of them River Side um and then we we as the you know the district who oversees the funding also provide books that go into hospitals and
085doctor's office and you know they have a whole program they have a a program over the summer um a lot of us go and read in those schools so um there is this collaboration and I think though that what you're bringing to my attention is maybe more involvement across the district would be helpful because it's tended to be with um one of the supervisors in special ed learn is involved we have um a learn um representative who oversees early childhood and she works along with us and all of the people who are in Children First Gren so we've really kept it going you know we had those programs alive and well when there was a a grant um and they continued to be self- sustaining and we continue to get grants with them to support
086this kind of work do you meet with them and talk to them about what we see as a school district for our young kids and what they're doing in their programs that we're all on the same meeting and um you know I haven't met with them you know this year yet but I do try to get together with them a few times and I'm sure an Marie will probably meet with them as well so we and we do have SE specialed um you know um Specialists who are also involved so it might be something that you would even like to join me Lauren and we can find assess their needs a little better but through that Grant we they tell us what they need and then we are able to provide this to families and
087one of the best things they did last year were these fairs these Early Childhood fairs and they was really incredible so I was able to go to a couple of them well maybe we need to do more collaboration with them I don't know yeah yeah I mean it's it's definitely something we could do better at um my other question is um with the 61% I know school districts are bringing back a lot of their special Edge students but with a 61% that does not meet standard are we meeting the needs of all these special Edge students do you want to answer that that's a loaded question I I think we can do better also there but I think that um it really depends on the child's um level of disability um some children are far
088away from the grade level standards but this new legislation that's occurred in the state Beverly may help us in setting their IEPs with Connecticut core standards as The Benchmark that's already lifting it up for most kids so um I think that will be a good thing okay because when I see the 61% makes me question are we meeting the needs of all our special ed students or can we do better and I don't know but that's a question for you or and when we dig in the D data to look at growth we can see how they're growing and how many of them are meeting their target and maybe that's something that we can go deeper in to really help them to make measured growth accelerated growth okay because I don't want the reason to
089bring special ed kids back to the district to save money I want to make make sure that okay we're saving money but we're really doing a good job with these Special Edge students agreed all right um so I'll recognize Ian and then Jen and then we'll get back and then Matthew and then we'll get back to Lauren all right uh thank you Jay um about your passion I just appreciate Adrian's comments um I think it is important to note that and and of course Lauren's uh response to that is is I mean that's that is established uh research where it there is a a sort of a a baked in uh deficiency in in uh students coming from disadvantaged households where they don't have the same resources or the parents are are sort of focused
090more on Survival as opposed to you know investing in in in the um development of of their child's intellectual capabilities um so you know along those lines I think that just kind of like ties into what I was asking about earlier and um you know looking at the larger systemic problem of you know if we're able to identify students that that don't need special Educational Services because it's a simple language barrier then that frees up the resources to be more um specifically targeted towards the students that do need special education services in the sense that you know maybe there is a a um a fundamental deficiency in in you know phonics or or or um you know fundamental decoding skills uh for reading uh which is the basis of all education you know um so
091yeah I I just want to kind of share that comment and um I look forward to discussing the referral list later thank you and do things um not related so going back to the economic disadvantaged families um agree with Adrien right um that just because they're economically disadvantage doesn't mean that their learning aptitude is disadvantaged it's sometimes times um you don't know what you don't know as a parent so if you yourself let's say never finished high school and you're just work you know working and you think you're doing a better job you are doing a better job for your child but it's not at the level where other students are so aptitude wise I don't think but um exposure knowledge that's why I'm so thankful for that transitional okay because now what you're doing
092is kids who go to montau and then kids who just stay at home with their parents um now at least if they're being exposed at an earlier age you're sort of setting a More Level Playing Field so I feel like in time you know maybe that red will go down so that's like a goal I'd love to see this what this looks like two to three years you know from now um it's exposure because like I said you don't know what you don't know and you think you're doing a great job but you're not back to about reaching out to family exactly so um I totally agree we need to come up we haven't had like a Communications type of meeting so maybe there is something that we can sort of like propose or think
093about doing as a district um second is um so I used to sit on the board of the United Way up in like um Central and Northeast Connecticut not here um but we used to have partner agencies so you know like that 500,000 that you had mentioned like we would meet with them and establish goals sometimes they were in our schools and we provided wraparound services so that we can identify students and work with them Beyond just the school district so if um are staying for after school like um some of the programs we used to fund were like after school initiative so that first of all um the kids will be out of like the streets so that they're more focused on education we give them like meals after school so that they have
094a meal like even before they go home just in case they don't have dinner so I'm not really sure if with that 500,000 like we can sort of tailor it so that maybe we do provide it's not like after school care but it's more like programming for a after school whether it's um Athletics right or um not Athletics to competitiveness but just to keep them engaged or we provide like tutoring types of services so in case their family does work like two or three jobs that at at least that's something that they can apply for like parents so we do have that in another Grant this one that I'm talking about is definitely related for preschool okay it's just for you know having more preschool opportunities and seats in some of our partners you know
095who are like the riverfront school um and you know those schools for little ones but we do have the 21st century grant that was for Middle School we have one that we're waiting to see and hopefully we get at the High school so that's definitely something and then there's a sliding scale even at treehouse and families can really go depending on their economics no you know no child is denied access and it would be related to what their income is for what they would afford could afford to pay so we have that in different other areas and I think you're right I think it's really important that was it Jay okay that's data I'm sorry I mean it's sort of related to data I know I just wanted everybody to keep in mind that have
096a law agenda and we have a 20page report from the budget ad hoc committee so I I'll go off the reserv I'll I'll go off the reservation but not very far that's a terrible expression I'll take that back I apologize I apologize for using that expression I will go off Target a little bit but not much Adrian you threw an Alka celer in my glass and it just started fizzing oh about we have Librarians we have kids who love to be read to we have other districts who have kids who love to be read to we have gmtv we have a relationship with the library we can set up a program that's set to run at 300 p.m. we 4M we do the research for the time going and taping it in the schools where
097somebody is reading to the kids it makes it an entertainment reading a story and then the kids can see themselves and their friends can see them and it can go different weeks can be in different schools maybe leder would like to play with us and have some Ledger schools in it and we get on their Network and they get on our TV network so that every X o'clock five days a week or or more often there is an educational activity happening and while it's not budget neutral it would be close to budget neutral because we're making uses of other agencies and are already present in home resources back to dat we could talk about that later Susan okay any other questions not we're going to go back to laen thank you thank you for your
098patience I am anticipated quite of few question this is an overwhelming slide um so I'm going to try to put it as clear as clear as possible so what you are looking at here is our growth for language arts so what that means is what you are looking at here are students of ours that have more than one uh data point over the course of more than one year over two years okay so that means it is our students who were with us for two years and have from one grade to the next how much growth have they made how has that scale score changed okay so every student when they per when they complete an assessment the as they're given a Target this is how based on your scale score at your grade level
099this is how far we want you to go this is what what your next score should be so every student is given a Target what you are looking at looking at here is who met that Target and or how close did they get oh my God I yeah so you have two years because I wanted to show you the difference so 2223 was the year for that growth Target how many of our students met it what percentage and how close did they get then we have 23 24 which was last year so this bottom green and blue indicates how they performed last year on ESC for ELA the blue the very bottom Blue Bar represents the growth rate meaning it's a yes or no either met it or you did you either met your target
100or you didn't so 38% of our third through fifth graders met their growth Target well it would be third into fourth and fourth into fifth right yes so assuming that 23 24 those are fourth graders and fifth graders right they're looking at their targets from third grade to fourth grade and then fourth grade to fifth grade if that makes sense so that growth rate that blue bar says yes 38% of our students fourth and fifth grade met their growth Target the green is the average percentage of Target achieved so I phrase this as a question because I think it's easiest way and I literally say it to myself every time I look at this how close did they get that's what that green bar is so 60% um so our the majority of our students
101made it 60% of the way to their growth Target I know that's all good well it's better than the year before yes and we want it to get better even after this right continue yep so you're right and we have math so I think a lot of the same yes thoughts questions will come up as we look through the math so if you don't mind what I'll do is I'll just give you the information um yeah if there any outstanding questions that haven't been addressed through the ELA please feel free um again we have our number of students um 102 students took the math Smarter Balance this is a breakout about well while it says add or above 51% but in the in the chart student percentage if you see the 26 and 24 I
102I understand that equals 50% but it was I had done the actual so it came to like 506 I a meeting I don't know why you do that um hey B your mic is hot I so to my husband enjoyed Le she was thank you for telling me that though so in terms of our grade three through five um in math students at or above benchmark um 50% again just it's 50.6 I believe is the FI final total um we're at or above for the last school year and you can see there's a slow steady increase we're almost back to where we were preco um and we are heading in the right direction but we want to do better for sure so in terms of the Durk again um these are like like districts we
103are near the top the state is not far behind us on this one um and Vernon is ahead of us which I know is there a little bit of a rivalry between us and Vernon and the superintendent there our goal is to always strive to them for sure I won say your superintendent's not competitive and in terms of the region this is where we we stand in relationship and I am thankful I'm going to look into that particular School in Stonington I'd like to know more about that might be a a place to begin someing out they've had significant growth since Co actually this this year's down from last year but a huge rebound that we didn't seem toig yeah enjy yeah so it it's worth looking into to see what are the what are
104the likes what are the what do we have in common what's really different what are those pieces that's the nature of our work right it's collaboration and know looking to find new and better ways to do things so I appreciate that any questions so far I know we kind of Breeze through a few slides I'm trying to be really respectful of your time keep going then um so this is by grade level which is interesting I know Ben and I were kind of chatting about this as well um you know we're in the ELA by grade level fifth grade seemed to be the hot spot where we did the best um in terms of math it's third grade and we were just talking about you know especially with math having having a stronger Foundation earlier
105on you we don't have that it's harder to bounce back with the math right it's it tends to be a little easier with language jarts to like compensate for Miss skills where it's not as easy um when you're dealing with math and math concepts so the fact that um our third grade is the strongest was hopeful and here are those scale scores again um once again if you look grade three to four to five there's overlap in those scales at each level but if you're looking level to level it's sequential I like this picture and this is Yep this just a reminder for this um so when we look at those scores for those students who were approaching Benchmark 57% were on that higher end of the scale score closer to that Benchmark than not
106the shape of the data kind of mirrors the ELA yeah it really not a good thing really does in terms of our our high needs versus non-high needs and by subgroup again and I did notice here that our um students who fell into that economically disadvantaged category there was a significantly larger group of them that were in that approaching band than um than the English language arts there were there there were definitely more students here that were at Benchmark in that particular subgroup so I I like to look closely at at that group I think you're going to have the mass Specialists working with you on November 5th and with an Mar and I so we're going to do some deep diving and again this is just non High needs verses it's a it's a
107fairly similar story um again that that approaching I'm curious to know more about I want to really dig into that a little bit more at the district level and so here is our math Smarter Balance growth again if you look at the top numbers that's 2223 if you look at the bottom it's 23 24 the blue is yes right so 38.1% met their growth Target um and then the green is the how close did we come on average we got about 56 57% of the way to our growth Target would you define what you mean by growth Target so um every student is given when they take the assessment they based on where they fall according to their grade level and according to their scale score they're given a Target how many points they should
108make the following year on their assessment if they when they take it again and so that becomes their growth Target and so this is did did they get there they didn't how close did they come and our students in Middle School know what their targets are and so do their teachers so they really have been paying attention to that and that does seem to help do we know why we have 62% that didn't meet the target I don't know it's something we can do the Deep dive on with the math specialist I I really couldn't answer that um it's a good question though I know that the work has begun to really look at the curriculum and aligning you know the different pieces of the curriculum and more experiences with some of the um IED
109assessments which are like tailor to look like some of the smarter balanced assessments give them exposure and experience with that um you know I think they're working through different pieces right now um I think the ability to answer that question will help you make decisions that's why we're going to do the Deep dive with them yeah and then um the ngss next gen generation science standards um this is how it's just given to our fifth graders at the elementary level um and our students I mean we were acknowledged in more than one um public forum for the improvements made where were you recently knowledge I think I was at um one of the big state department meetings and convocation the first of the year and they said it's gron in the house [Laughter] and they
110they really and that's why I said Ben come on to the mic because you might want to talk a little bit about why you think you know we've been seeing some measured growth in this and and just your conversations with the high school too and middle school to kind of align some of this work not that you're a k through 12 you're K5 but you do a lot for the district so yeah me to speak to it a little bit yeah go for it all right um yeah so uh we were definitely pleased to see you know a fair amount of growth you know compared to last year um this is the one area where we're back to the 1819 number y That's this is the first area so this is like hopeful yep really
111really good sign um I can tell you a couple of the things that we've done that most likely play play a role in you know in getting to this this space um we a couple years ago created a science leadership team um one to make decisions about curriculum and where we go professional development wise but also to be a team to solicit feedback from teacher teams and identify barriers to Why students aren't successful um Adrian you mentioned earlier tonight about surveying teachers I think it was when we were talking about literacy um and we did that we've been doing that the last two or maybe this will be year the where we've been doing endof year curriculum surveys in science kind of getting a gauge as to how teachers are feeling about their knowledge of
112Standards their access to materials their um knowledge about high quality teaching practices um and then we take that data and we try to put strategies in place to address those barriers um and we keep data on that as well and we've actually seen indicators that as teachers self-reported capacities are increasing that scores are increasing too so um so that's one thing um last year we also implemented uh science grade level meetings um about you know four or five times a year specifically at grades four and five um and really focused on going back to what the standards were assessing and kind of kind of just regrounding in what are students supposed to know and and be able to do um at the end of a unit of instruction um you know all of our Community
113Partnerships I think play a really big role um there's a lot of growth across the district but uh kathern colasi I think if you dug into the into the data like CK in particular had really good science growth and what's of note about that is that like coming right out of covid we started a multi-year professional development partnership with the Connecticut Science Center um so this would be year four of that partnership and so you're starting to see some of the results you know across the district but specifically at at CK from some of the new teaching strategies that that are implementing I think having you beyond your magnet work at CK take the leadership role K5 is going to help us do things districtwide too because beyond the magnet theme that's something that can
114help for all ngss standards and that something that yeah for sure I mean I I I think you know most of the credit goes to the teachers they're the ones that are you know directly instructing kids and reacting in real time and um balancing all the other demands of their time so um but I but leadership and and coordination and the ability to be able to be in classrooms and do some embedded coaching um which is what I do as well I think also plays plays a big role um so we're super super proud of that but um I think think you know if I've picked up on on any themes tonight is that we want to continue to do better right and I I like the phrase like be the best at getting better
115and I kind of like remind myself of that you know in the work that I do like you want to be the best but focus on being the best at getting better like that's where I kind of kind of frame where to put my energy like what are the systems that I can put in place that are going to allow not only me but teacher team to continue to improve um so the way the way that looks this year our focus is on assessment um because unlike Ela and math we just get in the elementary level we just get um ngss data in grade five so we don't have a cohort to be able to compare to so this year we've developed assessments um common unit assessments for grades four and five that will actually
116be really good evidence of of student work uh and we'll be able to have grade level meetings about and really be able to identify like what do kids know and what do they not know and then be able to do something about that dashb yeah beyond the summed FR yep um so that's one of our systems about you know ways we can we can continue to get better and then um the other one of the other big focuses for this year is um defining what we want high quality science instruction to look like so that teachers have a clear picture and a clear Target of you know when when they're teaching science what what are we shooting for and that allows us as coaches to have something to coach into um as well and and
117for principles too look for us for principles uh and then then a lens for professional development um and be able to collect those needs so um yeah so super proud of of you know how kids did um but but definitely acknowledge that that we're not done um and we're going to keep working hard to to get better we have another sign be the neighbors then this was pretty interesting too so if you think back to the ELA and math where it was almost opposite uh trends for our high needs versus non-high needs um you can see that this is the science is a little more rounded um it's not as severe in the TR again anything kids not Ming this non High needs versus science and then our district plan to increase student achievement understanding
118that we will continue to examine assessment data identify areas of strength areas that need Improvement this will happen through District data teams School level data teams um action steps to support areas identified its needs which the schools the individual schools will get into um when they come to present the next coming weeks um continued our efforts for chronic absenteeism to reduce that looking closely um at Chronic absenteeism in patterns so specifically over the course in specific D specific months specific schools really beginning to Target that more and and um maybe even possibly looking into cleaning up the policy a little bit I'd like to add some thoughts about that I'll probably be very around it um and then our TFS process again strengthening that interventions closely um research based intervention based on assessment tools and
119consistent structure to monitor the effectiveness of it thank you very much and uh thank you thank you for coming in and presenting NSS that's real so you said you're you're developing even though ngss only is tested in fifth grade unlike ESC you're developing something fourth grade in District yeah we developed common common unit assessments so they're they're pencil paper um tasks but we aligned them not only to units but every even every l every assessment question is linked to a particular standard um so that hopefully teachers will be able to see you know not only what kids can and can't do but which standard that that applies to um that way it gets us a little bit more like real time decision-making about what to do about it and then the I IAB stretched across
120fourth and fifth because that assessment is one of the more complicated assessments you're doing sometimes a lab you're looking at data you're interpreting and making decisions based on that and then there's the information side that you have to really have information and not be knowledgeable to be able to answer it so it's like putting a whole um lesson in every question you know and so it's really they have to be able to be versatile and be able to do all of those things on the computer yeah our teachers did a good job using those iabs on the science side as instructional tasks and instructional opportunities um and on the science side that's I that's our current thinking is like that's where we see the best use we're going to have these common unit assessments we've
121got really good evidence of student thinking but we're going to use the interim assessments as opportunities to really get kids comfortable with the look and feel of the test and how to navigate and um a chance to have some really good dialogue about about what those tasks look like and do you plan to go down to third grade with that at some point yeah that's that's the next step so um grade five we've got a complete Suite of Assessments excuse me grade four um we we've completed three out of four we'll finish up um the last one at some point this year and then grade threes next yeah and we worked with the Connecticut Science Center on that too they have a great teacher education arm called the Mandel Academy um that we've been working
122with for a long time and so we've been doing this work in consult with them um as as another layer of expertise in this area thank you very much that you're gonna recognize Ian and then Jen and then Adrian uh thank you Jay uh I just want to express my appreciation and support for uh the approach that Ben just described and also that philosophical uh take on being the best at getting better I like that too as far as like having that in-house Diagnostic and having a format of the questions that U mimic and and familiarize the student with what's going to be on the sback I think is also and all the other assessments that we have that are standardized that's a great approach because a lot of times there's a disorientation that happens
123as well with these standardized tests um because uh you know we we're we're taught how to teach in a differentiated fashion but then we're assessed on how the students learn in a standardized fashion so it's that's a dichotomy that's hard to to to navigate at times and it sounds like Ben's doing a great job as far as finding the balance there so thank you appreciate that k um do you think our scores are better in science because the students are more engaged because of our Partnerships I believe you had mentioned Katherine Kowski but and if I remember from the presentation last year I think they had project oology NES as well Connecticut Science I mean those are Premier yeah partner agencies do you feel like engagement like at a very early age creates that love
124for Science and that's why we do better because the kids are relating to it more or they're learning like through Hands-On and it's a different form of learning that they don't even realize they're learning and now we're seeing the benefit of it yeah I I I mean I just think it's a number it's a number of factors I I come back to our teachers you know as like first and foremost like making the time and space to provide these engaging lessons and you're right they are a lot of them are Hands-On and kids really enjoy it um but teachers also have to be deliberate with you know specific teaching strategies like we want to be fun but it's also not just fun right we want kids to be learning things so you know I think
125our professional learning that we've done to kind of build teacher capacity has played a really big role um but to your point I also think the Community Partnerships are are huge um again Connecticut Science Center has the professional development arm which we've been able to take advantage of but then I mean project o NES Nature Center Mystic Cort we're just blessed with so many so many great Partners yeah um and not to mention like our our summer programs too are at the elementary level often geared towards science stem engineering a lot of our after school programs are are geared there and even though not all of our our magnet themes are science related some are more stem in science than others but a lot of our partner programming that magnet programs bring in end up
126connecting to science and social studies but but often science so so I just I think it's a lot I think it's a multi-pronged approach to why we're seeing that success thank you so Ben I just wanted to say thank you I feel really comfortable with our with our district um you know with you kind of kind of um you know continually improving and and I was going to kind of say something that Ian said which you know you know if you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room and uh I love that but but uh you've clearly you know switched rooms and that's nice I really appreciate done and and I'll also say Lauren thank you for all of this I mean huge the amount of thata and the Insight that
127this gives us into into our kids for doing and we appreciate all your questions because you really are so invested in this and it really shows it's really supportive for me to have you you know really curious about this work and wanting to know and how you can support it so one of the things that we did after that survey was they wanted supplies science supplies so they didn't have to go to the grocery store all the time and they wanted to match the program that we had with mystery science yep and the kids were what were they about 5,000 a piece per school or were they 5,000 a little less than that but yeah so we didn't have money remember last year so I was able to carve out the district title funds and
128prioritize because the title is all about the core standards and ngss our core standards and I wrote about that so we were able to do that to be able to get the supplies ordered in the summer and get them delivered and that was greatly appreciated by the teachers that that was one other little obstacle that always gets in the way that they don't have what they need for these awesome science experiments so we wanted to really nip that in a bud but I wouldn't have known it and I not had been by my side saying this is a real need so we have to listen thank you and thank you Ben and thank you all of our all of our teachers who um obviously can't all be here but are working every day on all
129of these um issues and uh and working you know boots on the ground with these individual students to increase their Personal Achievement we're just looking at averages and in some respects I don't know Matthew if if we had an hour or two could explain to me uh how useful they are uh but it's the individuals that you know at the teachers deal with every day um and thank you Lauren and as you've heard uh the district is very interested the board is very interested in this this real time valuation data work that it's a future agenda topic we work with you on that thank you so much thank you thank you the budget I'll fill you in tomorrow may may I add something for Susan this is just a personal expression as you use the
130collective data to make decisions about instruction could you consider including metric based goals in other words we would like to get from x per to y% and use the motivational aspirational piece with the faculty to cheer them on and prod them at the same time so as an alliance District we actually have the state recommended and I can show you that that every Alliance grant that I do I'm providing overtime what the goals and you actually saw a piece of that in my evaluation my self-reflection where the goals are where they're expected to be by 2025 at one point and then 2030 so we do have that as measured growth across time in each of the areas so we do have based and it's based on what the state aspirations are for us so right
131thank you very much and so now we're gonna move on to the next agenda item which is the interim uh report from the ad hoc bud budget procedure committee um and our thanks go out to Ian for sharing the committee again many Thursday nights over to to work on this this is something that obviously we came up with in the last budget or at the end of the last budget process in the spring but they've been working all summer on this and then also Mike Whitney um and I don't know if you want to give a overview I mean we've all had some time to read the report you want to give we can entertain questions um sure yeah I mean uh the chapter one The the report basically I I try to set it
132up in in a few different sections uh with chapters and chapter one is just a narrative little background of the report um you know is an offshoot of of uh a number of observations that we had during the last budget cycle and um interest in in ways we could refine the uh the procedure that we that we do um so if people you know like we could I mean I'm more than happy to just project it up on screen and uh we can kind of go through it section by section and discuss whatever is um you know of interest and um you know get a gauge my hopeful outcome for this meeting would be to get a sense one the uh chapter uh 4 the um the policy revisions uh as a committee as the
133ad hoc uh budget procedure committee we referred it to through the chair of the of the Board of Ed we referred it to the policy committee uh so all those policies are on this on the agenda for um tomorrow night's policy committee meeting um so uh you know we're not trying to run anything through uh undue process uh we want to follow the established procedure for revising policy um that the Board of Ed already has and so that's uh you know two reads through the uh policy committee and two reads through the regular uh full Board of Ed uh so this is just sort of a general introduction to the report um there are some items uh as far as the timeline and the table contents that we could discuss tonight as separate motions uh
134that I think the the the board could um lean in on uh as far as uh trying to uh you know say that that's that's the direction we want to go with uh you know because that's not necessarily attached to policy but it is you know as a template but it's also particular to this year so um with that I guess I would just want to gauge the room has everyone had a chance to read The Narrative the chapter one um or would anyone like to go through that now all right I'm just going to share the uh the report and um we just kind of walk through it and as conversation come up we can talk about it so um I'm sorry did I hear a question no okay um so CH I'm sorry
135go ahead I said we're just letting you walk through this gotcha okay so um so the Gren Board of Education ad hoc budget procedure committee was formed in late May of 2024 and charged with the task to create a report and make recommendations to the full board regarding budget preparation presentation and oversight because it's not legible oh you want it larger please all is that better yes let me so the format of committee recommendations will primarily take the shape as attached draft documents the first three documents have beens um have been put forward as recommended policies procedures and method of presentation by the ad hoc budget procedure committee the recommended presentation organization models if approved by the full Board of Education have been attached to a corresponding policy as the extension of the policy um
136chapter 2 is a proposed table of contents that would serve as a template from which a re-envision budget book could be constructed for the FYE 26 and Beyond if approved this template could be attached to the policy p3110 or p3113 as a model for future board members and administration to uh to use as a reference and a norm to diverge from as needed as determined by the board and administration on an annual basis chapter 3 contains a proposed timeline of events related to the budget one merged contain both um oh yeah one merg to contain both the board of education's point of view of broad oversight in a fiscal year context and the administration's point of view focused on details of construction production and other internal Tech technical aspects with the budget if approved this
137could serve this could also serve as a template that could be attached to policy 3 p3110 or p3113 as a model for future board members and administration to use as a reference and a norm to diverge from as needed as determined by the board and administration on an annual basis chapter 4 contains nine proposed draft policy revisions that address several issues identified both by the committee and by Other Board of Ed members at large during numerous discussions that occurred over many months uh of the FY 25 budget sessions as well as after the fact as the board and administration dealt with lingering issues from the FYE 23 and 24 budgets so uh chapter year uh chapter two we took a a look at the full year in context and our previous edition of this report
138had two separate timelines and it was uh determined by the committee that we would merge the two together and um so I know the superintendent sent out a draft timeline earlier this evening and so this may be a thing that we need to discuss now since we're kind of getting into the pipeline um because there are a few uh key differences between what the superintendent sent out and and um what we have here and uh so so it really it correlates with the original one that Ry had sent out but there are some overlaps um that are in sync and then there's some other things that may or may not be doable at the business department end but just letting you know that typically the earliest I've ever seen the budget book delivered is before
139the holidays in the 10 years I've been here and um that's because of the workload that needs to be done in order to get that digitally it's easier to produce but we've often done it both digitally and in book form to make it convenient for the board to look at but there have been just as many years that we've delivered it right at the beginning of the new year right possible to review that tomorrow so tomorrow's policy meeting so we can hopefully you all get on the same page AG as to what a good calendar would look like well I think that you see the the one that the ad hoc has put together and you see this one that is I would call the doable um and to see where they match up where
140they line up and where they might be off a little bit so certainly a discussion around that I think one thing we could clear up personally I feel we can clear up is in the past the budget has gone to the finan and Facilities committee and I personally uh support it going uh directly to the full board as soon as it's available even if it's only in digital form um you know ideally we have something in paper we can make notes on but in this day and age I think a lot of us are are comfortable with the the saving of the paper and the issuing it in a digital form yep right and I I would definitely invite sorry go on I was about to say exactly that I I invite my fellow committee
141members to to jump in Freely um as they see fit to to help uh you know discuss this the document here thank you so I'm gonna recognize Jen and then Irene okay I think um even Dean had mentioned in one of um our earlier meetings that um it doesn't make sense to go to the finance and Facilities committee because um there's only this is only a nine man board or nine person board so going straight to the board would be fine and so that like the rest of us can get the data without like binance sitting on it for like a week before it's shared so I'm that's that's the one change um to be honest with the timeline most of it is um in parallel to what is here the main difference and this
142is something and we even did it last year right the main difference is us having the Board of Ed um review like the superintendent budget like in January starting in February as proposed by Reay um that's too late like last year I don't know how many hours we ended up spending in January but if we start in February and we so last year we started in January we barely made the February deadline and here um Rey who did not have the benefit of sitting through like our January meetings had suggested februaries if we start in February we're never going to make that February 28th deadline I don't see it starting in February on this calendar though I see it budget work session February 10th January to deliver the budget to the Board of Education yeah
143but it's only like one so it's the same here showing the 6th the 14th the 27th as budget work sessions so then it should be is that the same then that I just missed that I apologize ol if I did okay I think some of those dates do overlap I see the six on on this okay my bad but um with a public hearing but you might I think the public hearing comes after the six and I don't mind giving a preview like in December for you guys to kind of chew on and ask questions about that's fine it might even help us the only difference I saw is uh on the Ian's version there was a work session scheduled for the 22nd or the 23d of which month of January I don't know if
144we can add another work session in January or not yeah I think it it seemed to me like I we just got this today but it seems like um we had a lot more meetings planned in uh the committee's version like uh budget review Cs and in my own opinion we should put them in the calendar as such rather than just making so many special meetings um for myself I like to plan ahead um you know a couple of weeks for meetings and um and having them in the calendar and then deleting some if we don't need them seems much easier than just adding six or eight meetings however many we added last year in which seems like it's been past practice that meetings just get added well and three meetings a week is a
145lot for staff well last year we we added quite a fewo or this year quite a few more than usual just because we had specific concerns in the right and so so part of the reasoning behind this to my understanding um was that you know one there was a desire it seemed to be the consensus of the board but is definitely the uh desire of the committee that we run the budget review session similar to how the Town Council and the RTM do theirs where there's an opening of one Committee of the whole meeting that is recessed periodically uh you know day by day and that each Committee of the whole meeting or each session would um have sort of a targeted list of budget items that we' handle and so the reason I pulled
146in all these dates was just looking at one starting in January early and having a public hearing to uh to to to open the session because that that sort of combines with the the preview and the presentation that's noted on the superintendent's draft um you know but I don't see any reason to wait you know um and it's always easier to to uh eliminate meetings than it is to add them and um we did get jammed up towards the end last year where we did meet two to three times a week um trying to uh handle a number of items where I'd rather be a lot more strategic about it and that and I believe that was the will of the committee as well um that we wanted to a lot more time ahead of
147time and maybe hopefully finish early and maybe strike some meetings if they're not needed if we're able to move through stuff and also that kind of ties into um prioritizing the budget along the lines of like what are fixed obligations vers what you know are things that could be movable and one of the things did do oh I'm sorry go on beev uh just a quick a question um years ago when I was on the board of education we would hold one budget review meeting on a Saturday morning and we would be there for like 9 to 12 or 9 to one and we would do the budget and everybody was you know you're not coming from work to do it you're more refreshed I don't know if this board is willing to give up
148a Saturday morning to look at the budget and really you know you're more refreshed you're not coming from work and you're not there to from six to nine doing it you know I I would suggest and I would be in favor of doing that and that's just a suggestion of I'm going to recognize I read you do so the um Tuesday December 17th review with the fin needs and Facilities committee that was basically a status on the budget that wasn't delivering the full budget to that group The but the full budget would be delivered on January 6 when the superintendent makes her presentation so if the board would like to add a meeting just as a status meeting instead of just having it with the financing facilities committee we could achieve that but to have
149a budget delivered by December 16th this year is not achievable we're still working on the audit so I think that's a key factor that people need to keep in mind is that we need to get through the audit otherwise our grant funding is at risk so the more you want to push up the budget being delivered the more pressure being put on the business office on delivering the audit and trying to deliver a budget at the same time and that is my concern that we're going to start seeing grants at risk because audit has to be the priority to maintain that funding we also talked about really having more accurate numbers I think we saw over time that we haven't always allocated what we needed and so that's another goal that we have um is
150to make sure that utilities are what we expect to pay and you know and I think that you know we'll have a better sense of that too in the if we give oursel time I wanted to also add that last year we had many of you were new and so we did have the principles come in and give you you know that data sheet um about their schools and they talked about their schools so that took a lot of time so what I've tried to do is when they come in to talk about their data they're also going to talk about the makeup of their schools and what that has to offer and we can even make those sheets up to go in too cuz I like those sheetss because it shows you what we're
151spending on every school in central office and I think that's helpful but I think we just put it in the budget book and we won't have to waste five four nights or whatever we took so that was another piece that we added that you all said we really probably we did it because it was a new way of looking at it can still showcase that but we don't have to spend time we can put it in the budget book the only other item to um address I was at the casbo budget best practice meeting just last Thursday on budgeting right on budgeting it was a session on budgeting about best practices um comparing what several districts what they were doing well which they which things they could improve upon recommendations and their best practice was
152January 15th is being considered um ahead of schedule to get the Board of Education the budget so we're actually even before then but typically a majority probably about 90% of the attendees don't deliver the budget till February 1st and then they still have that turnaround time of February 28th so I think we are in a good situation as far as delivering it by January 7 I also attended several cave workshops on budgeting and best practices and I put a little bit in the board notes that gave you some of the videos but that was really very powerful so looking at I'm looking at the committee's proposed timeline stipulating that we met every time that they're showing and I'm looking at January 7 to9 not being two meetings but being a a frame for a single
153meeting have I got that right Ian yeah the idea is again like if you've watched the Town Council and the RTM meeting uh budget process what they do is they just they they do meet you know on an almost night basis sometimes but they they open up a session and they just recess um so yeah the goal was to have those dates available now you could drop one out drop two out but if you block them out ahead of time then they're there and at your disposal my my concern is that uh we have uh a on your thing we on your sheet Ian it suggests a joint Board of Ed Council r TM budget meeting with a public hearing and work session on February 5th um the so here the superintendent's calendar shows that
154on January 14 have uh having a public hearing on January 14th I just don't understand how we can have a public hearing on the budget if we haven't had some significant work on the budget beforehand well here's the thing yeah exactly so it's not the board of Ed's budget yet it's a superintend so here's the thing is is yeah that that's the approach that I that went into this calendar was the idea is that the superintendent creates the budget the budget's delivered and is presented on January 6th at the same you know at the same time we take a public hearing to kind of get Fe get input to the board of ed so that that begins the transition from superintendent draft budget to Board of Ed approved budget um and then that gives us
155a month of January to work with the budget ourselves as a board of ed and then there's a second public hearing that happens in February 5th where that's the joint Board of Ed Town Council RTM budget meeting where now we've had a month with the budget and you know the public will have some sense of the directions that we're going and there could be some further comment on that and it would also give the Town Council in RTM a chance to interact with the board in very specific fashion as far as you know again they would have had weeks with us witnessing us work with the budget so they would get a sense of like what arinal you know directions may be um in any given area and so they'd be able to speak specifically
156towards certain things um so the thought was like yeah to have the the initial and then of a midpoint and then you know then we close out with another month with more information you know being able to work with like Town Council input RTM input and you know two rounds of public input so I I found Irene's argument to be ultimately very persuasive so then the question is how how soon could we have a uh superintendent budget um is it any possibility of getting it before January 6th what what I can commit to is January 6 if I have something available beforehand I definitely send it out I don't hold it until that specific date okay so if it's compiled earlier I'm more than happy to share it as well as identify the unknowns that
157we're still have assumptions built into the budget is it this is not my area of expertise at all okay please so I'm not trying to to micromanage I'm trying to great is is it possible to feed us parts of the budget so we can get started on our work maybe feed us the part I'm making this up from poll Club feed us the part of fixed cost so we know we have a figure for contractual we have a figure for for salaries we have a figure for bus transportation the lwh hanging fruit can we get a piece of it so we can start the work even if we don't do it all in sequence we started last year that's we did Insurance yeah and you guys didn't like that at all no I was going
158to say I was going to say Matthew L so um I um I I have PTSD from last year I I'll be honest from what happened because every time we walked in here the numbers changed numbers that should not have changed freaking changed and they were going to be next they were show next week I I had like a binder changed piece of paper pull this one out change this piece of paper traumatize right so if you could tell me on January six that this binder is going to be pretty solid except for let's maybe um insurance or something like three items that we don't have any information on but on January 6 it's 95% complete 90% complete just like insurance and I would be willing to like say yes to January 6th I do
159not want what happened to us last time when we were all brand new change this page change that page oh by the way like it was 125 now it's only 50 you come back the next day oh it's 175 and I was like it was awful I will tell you that and I think that's why this is the reaction that we are like trying to put a schedule together like hey we need it by December so that we can sort of analyze it but if you're telling me it's going to be like 90% complete with a few exceptions I'd be willing to wait for that final product what I don't want to happen is on January 6 it's 75% complete and then we have 25% changing while we're in the middle of those working sessions
160and we don't know what's heads or tails I'll be honest you're laughing at me but that's how I felt January 6 date is reasonable if we have a complete budget yes because there were there were numbers that changed and sometimes we were you know sometimes it came up and sometimes it was just new papers with different numbers and we didn't know what the changes were okay so if we had a complete budget with whatever line items that need to be yellow um that are just your best guess because we can't get that number yet that seems reasonable to me um and and I you know I understand that the business office has a lot to do um you know you know I'll let Ian weigh you know and how he feels about January 6 for
161the start um but um but yeah if we had a a full budget where it seemed like last year me we didn't have that until February um you know like kind of a complete idea of what was going on and then hey Jay can I oh okay raise my hand oh oh sorry I spoke off but then I'll just say and I would really like to have those work sessions in there so we have plenty of time to talk about it Ben yeah I I'm in favor of January 6 I wasn't a new board member but I didn't like the budget coming in bits and pieces I like to have the entire budget one time that was something new last year and I guess Susan tried it out and it didn't work out that well
162so January 6 is fine with me um as long as we get most of 90% 99% of the budget yeah and and uh speaking for myself just as one individual member of the committee I would find that to be an acceptable compromise as well if it's a if we get a firm document that is the superintendent's firm draft budget there it is is and that begins the transition from superintendent budget to board of vet approved budget if that starts on January 6th then I'm fine with that oh and I'd like to have a hard copy instead of a digital copy because I like to write notes in the budget book I could agree with that too so I'm gonna recognize then my thank you for January 6 for that deliverable I can add the highlights
163for the ones that are assumptions and I can even what I've done in the past in my past life is have a note section if we're waiting on something I can actually put in when we expect to have it because usually health insurance doesn't come until January 31st I typically look at our historical Trends as well as the state Trend and National Trend and try to make um not in a conservative that's the last thing you want to do because then you're raising your budget later I'll take it almost to like a an extreme but not unreasonable so those will be built in so there's there's typically retirement health insurance um it typically comes after December 31st in my experience it comes by January 31st so those particular line it you might see a lot
164of yellow because it's done by the specific um program code but you'll know it's health insurance health insurance health insurance and I can even put that no with the Assumption in there and then I can actually have a page of assumptions that are still being vetted through with our vendors and in those negotiations with um Blue Cross Blue Shield Etc that's something I the actual report wasn't here right at the beginning of the year either so we had no idea about of them so and Irene you did explain to me a really NE neat idea about um what you did in another Community where the municipal government and you know the leadership Municipal and school got together and had Representatives on it to be able to talk about priorities yes as community that actually is
165one of the policy adjustments was the um in one of my communities we had an ad hoc budget work group that wasn't um having you know a town ad hoc Budget Group and then a school ad hoc Budget Group we actually came together where it was two Board of Education members two Town Council Members the superintendent Town manager and then the two Director of Finance we would start meeting about mid August to start identifying um and projecting what our forecast is as a whole and then start to identify we're in agreement we're going to use 10% for health insurance assumption so that we're using the same assumptions as as much as possible utilities making sure we're using a similar assumption if we're going to need additional funding and but there's no way to you know
166squeeze that dollar anymore how much do we both need to go into the budget and make aware that we need to do some reductions in areas so it's it's created that Synergy between the two groups so that we both walked into doing the budget with the same assumptions saying agreed upon this is what we're going to deliver and it really set the stage going forward into the budget process so that when you're going to the end of the process and those groups come back together you're still delivering that same message that you started with so it cuts down on any clashes I found um between the groups because we're all here to serve the people we're here to hire to serve you know we're here to serve the students and hire to serve the taxpayers
167but we also need to be conent of the fact that the taxpayers also pay for schools so having all the parties together at the beginning I found was extremely helpful I've been in communities with and without and with definitely New London just it was a article in the paper I think I sent it to the whole board New London just started looking into creating such a a committee but we we haven't we haven't even thought about it in rten but it's something we can definitely you know bring up I think I um I'm sorry Mike thank you um I agree with with Bev that uh I'd be fine with getting the the full superintendent budget book and uh digital and printed um on that January 6th um and and and I think I uh thank
168Irene for pointing out that you know having narratives and highlighting the uncertainties is really helpful so that we um know the known unknowns and they can be refined as the process goes along uh I see edit um Ian editing as we go along and I think that Monday December 16th one uh pairs um reasonably well with what's in the um the document that Irene and the superintendent forwarded this to it tonight and I just say that succinctly as uh you know uh something like the superintendent or previews the budget because that's been used in past years that word previews but instead of with the finance committee just make it the whole board ofet so previews the the budget with the the board ofet for the December 16th all right uh Bev thank you thank you
169Jay I think I read somewhere in Ian's um handout that he was suggesting that we form an ad hoc budget priorities and procedure committee he didn't talk about um the Town Council the RTM or anybody else being on it but he did in one of his Pages he talked about the ihak budget committee so I would be in favor of that that sounds good if you could all work together in the beginning maybe the process will be easier agreed I think about that RTM education component that might always spearheaded and even to have those guys on board too in the beginning because that will give you that other dimension and I think if we work together in the beginning and we we kind of agree on priorities and what the expectations are it's going to
170be easier than guessing a number in the end guessing where we need to be right and actually that's already in our existing policy there was some language to that I believe p3113 was the one where it it basically said that the the board should do that uh a closeout session in March and then a opening session in August uh essentially book ending and and then I I sort of one of the draft uh revisions uh to basically enhanced that and that could easily be a thing that we look at in policy and add in um RTM and Town Council representation on that budget committee um maybe to I mean I like that idea um that Irene suggested as far as like trying to to just really get the conversation going in a more fluid fashion
171and and make it part of the regular process try to head off a lot of conflicts at the past if there is any problems or grand concerns I should say I thank you I just had a point of clarification um typically in the private sector policies and procedures are lumped together is the same thing but in government policy is the board of education does policy and then Administration sets the procedure so since I'm new to Granton I just need clarification on if it's used from the private sector standpoint and just not knowing that there's that difference in government well I think on the policy committee we know that to be true that policy is based on Law and um we try to keep that kind of succinct and then the regulations that go are really
172done by staff and me but I tend to share it with the board not to approve it but just to show how they coexist together I like to do it as the about the same time and we can you know they can give feedback and all but um I definitely saw in these that they kind of were merged together and it almost needs to be outlined separately so what is policy and I always look to cab and casbo to see what is a model policy I know there's some legislation that's changing regarding um budget policy and so we there might be one of those policies that we might have to wait on till that passes but um definitely to look at them almost separately the way you've got them in they kind of merge together
173but I see one part of what you've written as policy and I see other aspects of procedures I I I understand that but that that's chapter four so I I don't want to like jump the gun too far and confuse the issue um I would just say that you know the policy handbook we have has uh things that are coded as p and then things that are coded as R and we've edited both in the past on the policy committee so um you know I think there is some some purview there uh granted the nuts and bolts definitely you know come from the administration no doubt but overall like you know the Board of Ed does have you know the responsibility to kind of oversee these things and and um but you know we can
174save that conversation for when we actually get into those draft revisions because honestly like I I don't think you know yes I know that that some of that touches on procedure but uh again th those I like to defend those uh particularly uh as we go because there there's specific reasons why I thought those are appropriate to put in there um but I'd just like to kind of focus on the timeline for now and and get clear this chapter um and uh you know see if it's a thing that we can get to a consensus on and then move forward you know like this document for a timeline move forward for this coming year um you know the regular uh Board of Ed meeting coming on the 28th where we could approve it and say
175this is what we're going to go with so I just I'm I'm really going to say that I don't think the number of days that we have in January are really doable that both Irene as the you know the director of the department and my work as your CEO I wouldn't be able to do anything else I mean it would be just it would really consume our time I I actually like Beverly's idea of a half day Saturday to carve out I think we could get a lot done and then maybe put a day down and like we've done in the past we give a section of the budget that we're going to go through and if that needs to keep going that maybe we have the next day or or something but more than
176two days or three days of meetings just is not doable now so yeah I definitely I can agree and and and um empathize for that concern I just wanted to kind of start the conversation you know and yeah get one extreme and and definitely like all I did I just pulled these dates from like looking at Tuesday Wednesday Thursdays um you know so we can still carry on the regular cow and the regular Board of Ed meetings as needed um but also would then conflict with some committee meetings so I am open to you know open to suggestion open to to to some sort of like moderation on those dates um but I definitely think that we need to have some kind of steady progression and and um and I think that was the will
177of the committee as well that there needed to be some sort of defined steady progression and like scheduled sections that were like committed to this is we're going to move through these um sections and if we have a good session and we can move through a couple more then we maybe we'll add some more from the next meeting that were that was scheduled and try to move through it faster um but uh I don't know about that I mean a half day on Saturday I would defer to the to the whole board uh to see what the consensus is I mean if that is a thing that people think would be valuable and maybe we could we could get some things cleared out in bulk um I'm open to that I definitely and I think
178the committee might be open to that as well um but uh but yeah so I would just you know like to hear can I say something I I can't do four meetings a week I cannot do a meeting on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I have a life I have a husband and I can't do four meetings my mind cannot take four meetings even three meetings this week is a lot so that's why I suggest a half a day on Saturday instead of four meetings a week that is just too much and we we all have to be here early in the morning and and work we're on the district so you know I have other things too that I'm very responsible for so I'm gonna recognize Matthew then Irene then Jen the easy part is
179on Saturdays I'm glad to do a Saturday but for me it would need to start at 12:30 or 1 or I can show up at that time but my mornings are taken some of your Sunday mornings are taken um I hear you three meetings a week four meetings a week it's not tenable but I also heard Jay this year Matt I'm gonna have to schedule another special meeting and then there was the Sigh as his family life was just viated so I really don't want that to happen again not to him and not to any of us so my question to you Susan is maybe when we meet tomorrow to discuss this a little bit more because I don't want to drag it out you can just ask yourself the question look in the mirror
180and say how many meetings in January can I tolerate and let and give give us more than one give us as many as you can and we'll see if we can do it and I think we'd have to give up maybe some of our our other meetings in order to do this and maybe just focus on the budget I know it's I I'll do whatever the group wants me I don't I can't see adding two cows and four committee meetings that I also attend and then a regular board meeting we're going to have to have the regular board meeting and then I counted eight to 12 of these budget meetings in January and and then another in February so I I read where it says January 7 to9 maybe I misread it I read that
181as a fork in which a meeting would occur I did not see that as two or three days I saw it as three days three-day period it was written with the idea that again like thinking back on our February of last last year um where we did end up having to do that more or less you know two days in a row three days in a row um so I did WR it in there with the idea that possibly it could be like that however you know it could also be a window uh where one occurs I also could be open to the idea of you know placing some of the cows in a month with a budget session you know maybe that's how we approach it um either way like and and and Saturday
182afternoons I could also be open to that like you know if if the will of the board is there um I'm just glad we're having the conversation and and speaking frankly about it and wherever consensus of the board lands I I'll I'll go with um but uh you know I I think it's just important that we have a schedule that's that fixed and committed and that we're able to attach parts of the parts of the budget to those agendas like ahead of time so we know what we're getting into and what sections are coming up after that so if we have a very efficient session we could actually draw from the next scheduled meeting of like okay the next section let's pull that in now and and knock it out um you know so yeah
183I mean I would like to have at least one budget meeting a week um you know throughout January February um you know to to to Really handle the business as necessary but again looking at the Town Council and the RTM you know uh they do two to three a week um depend when they're in the thick of it now they only condense us down to a month but we have a lot more um details to go through so spaning that over two months you know maybe we could do one or two a week or a couple bulk Saturday sessions either way um Jay I see some other hands up so I'll I'll yes yeah I think I see if I got this right it's Irene then Jen then Mike then Bev thank you um my
184past life I'll keep referring to that because I'm two weeks old here the Saturday You' hit the ground running yeah thank you brace as of today so but he's still going to be Fridays give us support on Fridays yeah and my past like Saturday meetings for Budget discussions were amazing because the community could also intend so you have more Community engagement but again that's up to you to decide what you want to do about Saturdays um the only other items I seen on the budget timeline were Friday February 28th just to stipulate that the delivery of the budget to the town manager elect IC March 14th and so saying a printed budget book delivered to all these respective areas is an electronic copy and then post it on the school district website and the reason
185why I'm making these recommendations is to start reducing costs and then also have people driven more towards our website to find some of that information and then the last item that I would recommend is up updated was the very last item item that was in September of subsequent year is sending out the budget forms to the department heads and principles we don't have that information available in September and the reason why is um due to the grant deadlines we have to make sure all the grants are reported and all our draw Downs are in by September 30th so to try and put those two together it's not feasible without adding additional staff okay the audit is now starting in the summer as well yes the audit you have that on top of everything else so
186audit season typically goes from July until November so you do have that overlap with the budget so you know it this is something that we could revisit changing or updating the turn around time of delivering the budget if additional staff was add that to the business office basically I serve as Director of Finance the accountant as well as your budget analyst so trying to do three things that one time and try to make sure they don't fall down so like I said these items if we want to revisit it during the budget process and this is something we want to do for the 27 cycle we would I would just need to put in that request for that additional staff if that's what the board would like this year as I recall uh the town
187manager did accept an electronic version this town has a lot of people that have to have it in paper so unfortunately that's we still will have that March deadline I don't how many copies it is okay but there's a a huge demand for paper still okay well and I think that we've given it to the Town Council we don't produce it for the RTM but we did it for the Board of Ed and the Town Council and it takes Stephanie I watch her almost a full week to put the thing together it does it's incredible so it's also costly because it takes a staff member out of commission in the business office for a whole week isn't that something that we could just sorry I'm out of turn sor I think you were next oh
188um okay I'm just gonna Fe isn't that something that we could just like Outsource to like a Staples or something it it doesn't make sense to me because I know we produce binders and you know what I mean like it like having it's just something to consider astronomical not in our budget so I know what the price is yeah so no even if we okay um a tent staff person for a week sure yeah maybe right yeah um but anyway um so we're I I think we're not married to all of you know the dates as you can see we've been being very um like flexible based on um you know your suggestions and your insights from your old I I really do feel like um as long as we can um get those dates
189scheduled doesn't mean that we're going to meet it's more like hey if we said we were going to review um just like um what's the school buses but that night and we get done that night fine let's cancel the other two meetings that are scheduled during that allocation time frame it's not like we're going to just have a meeting to hold a meeting because we all wanted our time last January what I can tell you like we all didn't want to we didn't want to be here so if like Administration is open to just putting it on the calendar and we say that we're at least going to meet like on one of those days and if we need to extend to day two and three then that's that on us or that's on us
190that we are making the decision to extend and go beyond and sacrifice our our our family time but it's better than poor Jay calling trying to secure a room trying to get Mark and his and his team like up recording you know because then they can't plan either because it's like an ad hoc thing so if we can just plan let's say two meetings maybe it's not all three days during those weeks and then we cancel promise you like we all don't want to be here either and I have so much faith in you that like it's going to be so organized that we're not going to have to go three days looking at one spreadsheet so um that's the Fate that I'm putting in you um you know from like the minute we all
191met you so um if you give us this I promise you we will not like if we plan three meetings in like the four weeks we will not meet 12 times I promise you we not no it's awfully hard to have staff commit to three nights in a week exactly and even to commit if we needed the three nights and we've put it down there then you know we might have to use it and that's a lot to commit for all of our staff whether it's the people putting out the microphones or running but let's put it this way it's at least better land then us like meeting that night at 10:00 saying like oh crap we're not going to meet it we're going to need to meet tomorrow and then now like if they
192had plans now it's sort of like oh now I need to work it's just're going to need that many nights no I hope not like I said even if it's just two it's just something to think about when you guys meet in policy tomorrow but it's it's better than like we're not going to get through all of this any want no there's and I don't even know if this has to be in policy this is this is the whole board thinking about our our our schedule I think you you tomorrow night I think you're gonna I would assume you're going to concentrate on chapter four but right I'd rather I'd rather focus on the actual policy draft revisions that are firmly policy this you know in in the policy draft revisions basically just says like
193you know regards the calendar that we're going to meet and we're going to decide on something every year uh and so this doesn't have to carry through as a template this is just something we have to figure out for now this year and right now it is a conglomerate between you know what the superintendent's drafted and what we've drafted what Ray drafted I spliced into this so I think you know maybe just for expedience sake maybe we should just like have the explicit question right now I mean do we want Saturdays to put Saturdays in play and have larger sessions that are specifically all for budget and try to push through like you know and then therefore like eliminate the Tuesday Wednesday Thursday possibilities which would allow the board to continue to operate you know
194on our regular schedule as far as like cows and committee meetings and whatever else normally occurs during the month um well first of all let's get back intoe Mike Whitney then Bev and then I'd like to say something if I may sure Mike all right thank you I accumulated a lot while I was waiting but I'll make it quick um first uh in the superintendent version of the timeline there are already seven budget work sessions there once a week I'm I'm personally fine with having those what are scheduled with the knowledge that we might need to have more more uh particularly near the end uh secondly I heard what Jen said about having it uh an organized process I wasn't on the board uh through the last budget process but I did go back and
195watch everything and um I think um having the full budget up front on January 6 and then going through that in a organized and scheduled fashion so that people know what's coming up not just the board of ENT but anyone else from the public that will really help um move things along or do its part too um Irene mentioned um and actually uh superintendent mentioned about uh bottlenecks and Staffing and printing things out or getting things ready I I think that comes up a lot and my suggestion would be in terms of actually budgeting for next year to think about uh staff increases in the um the business department uh Finance um and um along with that though I just want to make a little note that uh the RTM does receive paper copies of
196the budget book or of the the the school budget supplement or at least certainly has um and then the last part oh there are two things one for me personally Saturdays will definitely conflict with with family commitments I have um in January February so I'll be unlikely to be there or you know U partially able to attend somehow so I wouldn't be in favor of that I know that's not really on the the topic tonight but and then the the last thing is and this is I think one thing that we can resolve tonight or in the policy meeting is the form of the budget meetings do we have them as we open up the budget session and then instead of um adjourning and forming a meeting every night do we just recess and then
197pick it up as it goes along that's the form I don't think that have a big effect on us but procedurally but it is the form that the Town Council follows and the RTM follows um the nice thing there though they do have a schedule of what they're go what for us to be object codes they they be handling each time and I think that's really really important to have so we typ typically do do that Mike we set aside what we want to accomplish at each of the meetings so there is another um template that we use that has all of the different work sessions and what we want to accomplish but yeah Mike if sometime you could explain to me what um what value is added by recessing the meeting instead instead of
198adjourning especially if there's intervening um CWS or regular meetings I I I'm just trying to understand why that um is helpful but that's not for tonight it just just quickly we're trying to align ultimately we want a budget book I think that's aligned more closely with the town side and this would align our budget process more close to the towns side with not much uh problem uh procedural change for us yeah I just don't understand the recess and journ what what what value that adds but can you Bev is next yep that's fine and then I'd like to say something if nobody objects no that's okay J you could speak before me if you want to jar no no no go ahead okay um um I don't know about the difference between adjourning and vessing
199but when I was on the board prior to this time we always recess when we had budget I think we recess because we're continuing on with the same topic with the same you know with the same basic topic with with the school board budget we never did adjourn we adjourned at the very end we didn't adjourn at at end of every budget review meeting um so that's what we did I don't and I even brought that up when I first got on the board with you guys I said why are you adjourning in that recess and kin said well that's what we do we we adjourn so I just went along with it um I'm in favor of su timeline and I'm also in favor of Saturdays but if everybody can't make a Saturday then
200that's not going to work so I think we could accomplish more if we came in on a Saturday that's all I have to say could I ask another question of Susan yes uh I see we jumped from a meeting from January 14th to January 27th could we squeeze in one meeting in the in the intermediate week I was looking at that too I thought I would rather do it once a week like that and get another one in if we could so we certainly can look at that what my blessing yes please thank you we'll look we'll look at our calendars to see it looks like that would be the week of the 22nd to 23rd so we could find a date in there so as I recall the uh as Jen has reminded me
201and Adrian um the the uncertainty of adding all these meetings at the last minute I personally would be in favor of adding a Monday Thursday meeting for the purpose of planning in advance uh on the calendar that we could easily it's much easier to cancel a meeting and to set one up Monday Thursday uh Saturday is is just not not good for me um but one of those Monday meetings would have to be regular meeting obviously and I really think we should maintain one C uh just because of this which only gets larger every week even though we strike things off of it so and then you need regular compromise so that's 2 four6 eight 10 meetings in a month with the understanding that if we get far enough along we can we can cancel
202them out but at least they're on a calendar and they don't interfere with RTM or Cel now we also have the whole month of February right so I mean but the other thing you have to think about January and February uh you know sometimes we have we have snow do it by having these extra meetings you by the fire yeah well we will make them all hybrid that's true could to yeah so anyway that's my two sets who's next J if I could just jump in to answer the question about why re and not ajour yes yes please procedurally what it allows the town to do and the RTM to do is to um at the end of the at the end of the session they vote on the final numbers as amended throughout the
203whole process and it allows the body to at in that last session um to reconsider any number because they haven't finalized any vote the the the final vote out of the out of the um out of the extended cow session would be just that you know that would be the finalized document moving it towards the regular meeting for adoption take a vote in a cow well you do I mean that's what the Town Council does they vote on that out of out of the committee into the regular meeting yeah and it's it's um ratified in the regular meeting Yeah we actually call these budget work sessions so I think aren't they technically special meetings or well that's I just would like to I mean I think that that was the General drift of the committee
204and and number of people on the on the board that that we just wanted to kind of formalize the process and it seems to work very cleanly for the Town Council and the RTM to have this extended cow session that they Recess Recess Recess because procedurally it allows them to go back at any point time to drop in on a previous part of the budget if they have to adjust something based on a decision made on a later part of the budget so it sounds like Ian are you suggesting that we not we change our nomenclature and not call them cow meetings and just call them special board of education budget workshops it's a board of what they say what the what the Town Council does is it says it's the budget Committee of it's
205the committee of the whole budget meeting you know and and it's just recessed and then reconvened recess reconvene recess reconvene and at the end they have finalizing and they vote on each little piece as they go through the process and then at the end they vote on the big number but that also provides anyone in the body that maybe wants to drop back in and revisit any section to try to to to pull it back in you know and if they have the support of the body then it works it goes and if not you know so you to adjust the numbers at the end and consider everything as a whole while also procedurally systematically going through each section and it's all one meeting just extended over a period of weeks all right so I
206guess it it works it works more um efficiently with the doc dou umentation of of the meeting as well because I think if you go back into the archives and look at the way the Town Council documents what they did it it's all kind of put together as one meeting one set one big package I think the difference is that we have never voted every night on a number we just I think that that's kind of like again I don't want to speak I mean that's that's my interpretation of what the general drift of the was that that's kind of like where we were going as a committee and that's also the the sense I got from a number of other board members in general conversation that you know we wanted a more formalized process
207where we did actually do that where we did vote on certain object codes function codes and make adjustments by Department yeah if we do that then I see your point you would need to recess otherwise uh there's certain times you can't go back and reconsider right exactly right okay you learn something new every day Mike I just want to say quickly last year's budget process right at the end uh there are several things that were pulled out and voted on uh by you guys so um this would you know it sort of has a hybrid feel to it last time yep all right so moving right along um oh sorry just a a quick question I guess maybe for um procedurally just to kind of move past this chapter I get I get the sense
208you know we should make some adjustments I I I could I'm looking at the superintendent's draft and our draft and I can see how the two could marry together um especially with the idea of maybe aiming for like a once a week twice a week type frequency um as as to what you suggested uh Jay um so I I don't know I mean should we you know so I I'd like to kind of vote I'd like to see the board vote and commit to a timeline that is mutually supported by the administration and the board um that's a consensus document that that you know so obviously some more drafting you see the highlights I've made already some notes I put in here uh I've saved this is an alternate draft um maybe this is something
209uh we should bring back for the regular meeting or uh next week just as a a standalone agenda item just the timeline to try to get it hammered down how about if you send it to Irene and I and we'll look at it for um the doable doable piece so if you send that to us and then we can kind of look at ours and that one and then try to see what we can do and make a suggestion too all right so holidays were closed in January and February yeah so it would be a Tuesday Thursday okay okay so I mean if if the rest of the board and and the committee are are comfortable with that I mean I'd like to kind of just take the notes that I've gotten so far and
210also look at the superintendent's draft and kind of take a day with it and and see if we can kind of find a good compromise here accepting Saturdays I think Saturdays are kind of I kind of pick up where Mike's going and I do remember the commitments I got both kids graduated now so uh but I I thank Mike for the REM the reminder of the Saturday commitment of family so um yeah that that Saturdays could be a very tough pill to climb but I think we could probably do it you know find something acceptable that that maybe it's only one meeting a week night or one or two depending on the how we space it out I'm gonna recognize Adrien then Mike and then Irene I was just going to uh voice that Saturdays
211I'm kind of in the same boat as Mike with um family commitments on Saturdays x69 8 86 to Saturdays Saturdays are off I'm gonna take them out right now uh Mike yeah you're muted Mike oh thanks um I just want to say the S commitment is still School related uh and but then also I think at this point um we've hashed out right through January 6th and so so just as long as we have that that December 16th and January 6th stuff set that that leaves us a little longer to to figure out the nature of the budget sessions okay thank you uh Jay could we do we want to make a motion to to accept the the timeline up through January 6th um we I think we can can't just agree yeah we can
212just have a consensus we we generally don't vote in um uh in C okay um does anybody object to that that we're we're clear through January 6th what did we change did we change anything is Tuesday October 1st 2024 is that still good with Susan and Irene oh yeah that was have we just did it today actually so October 15 do it I'm sorry could one person explain what I'm doing I want to make the note Tuesday October 15th um I added to that one one administrators meeting principles and business office we basically did a kickoff meeting with the principles today and business office and the only other thing we changed uh Bev correct me if I'm wrong is that um on December 16th it's going to be previewed with the full board instead of
213just the finance committee okay y I heard that we put the present in January 6 yeah yeah so the November 15th is good November 25th is good that they match our existing timeline yes okay and the only request I I was going to ask is if if Ian if you send me the updated document you have here today I can work on the dates tomorrow as well as Thursday we get um that January 22nd or 20 third in there too and add that one I'll see if we're open yeah yeah that's true that is it could be President's Day President's Day Martin Luther King yeah there's like three or four between those two months yeah so we just make it those will be Tuesday Thursday potentially Goa right um Ian um in terms of the
214budget binder uh do you think that's something um chapter chapter three so we kind of have consensus with with the timeline I'm just wondering if if we could skip to policy only because the binder is something that um again it's a model unless there's something really is there anything in this change that you really like to highlight to the board um I guess I would just encourage I um the business manager um and you know superintendent and the board Al together like uh we as a committee were using the Town Council budget binder as a model and basically just wanted to kind of reformat the way the budgets presented in a way that would enable us to vote in on numbers by department or by object code and I'm not sure exactly how that would
215merge so I would definitely like want to hear more um from the superintendent and the business manager on on how we could maybe uh accomplish such a thing and just slightly reformatting of information that is already um that we already kind of contain um so in the Strategic Vision I've always believed that a budget tells a story and I think it's really important that we talk about and highlight some of the stories so what you've had in there is what we're already doing I mean transitioning away from the alliance district is a a big um big nut to crack because it goes with 25 million dollars that groten continues to get paid from ECS so I wouldn't necessarily want to put that out to the public because I mean gr granted we almost were um
216graduated back in 20189 but um I think it comes with big price tags so I don't know that I want to put that in a strategic plan do I want to continue to have um increased performance by our students and growth absolutely but we talk about that in the storyline and um you know and I think that's important to do I also think that the charts and graphs also Orient everybody to what the spending flow is how much is the respon responsbility of the taxpayer how much is the responsibility of the revenue sources that come in I think that tells the story so I'm really pretty committed to some of those things that we've done in the past I think they they do an excellent job helping to tell the story and I think you
217need to trust me on that you know um I certainly am open to looking at other suggestions um you know in here you know you do talk about achievements and highlights um you know and you talk about um some of our you know employees and I think that sheet that goes over each of the the buildings and and what the lead leadership structure is and what the special ed is in you know what special ed programs are in the schools I think also tells a story and that could be part of the budget book it doesn't have to be you know a night out for each school but I think it could go in there if you recall um we even talked about as part of that um you know we had the I think
218the cost of personnel and we talked about the cost of utilities running each of the buildings but I don't know if that's something that we can do all for January 6 that's a lot of work right and just to follow up on Susan I'll need to see what documents we pres we have from the past and what is being added new to the budget book um because if it's recreating forms and everything like that we're already sending the requests out to the principal so I I'll need to look at all of chapter this chapter three to see what we currently have and what would be an addition well I think it's a fair place to start as far as getting like um you know direct feedback on this outline from you know the Administration point
219of view so there are three three things I'd like to sh four things I'd like to share the first is Susan I really appreciate the trauma that would be felt by some people if uh the 25 million doll uh figure floated too soon but the question is it's got to be floated sometime and maybe give some thought that you can share with us as when at some point in an appropriate way when this news has to be shared with the community because if we do it the year that it's going to happen it'll be just catastrophic politically well and there's a lot of work going on in legislation right now a blueprint through caps which would not decrease anybody's ECS and so there's a lot of work being done behind the scenes with legislation okay
220and so you know I don't want to use it as a scare tactic either because there's nothing that's been decided on that okay so the three things I wanted to mentioned I would love to see an Annex that compares our cost expenditure per pupil not only with the dur but with all the local school districts that may be within the 20 mile radius of us because I'm led to believe though I have not done the research myself that we're among the lowest expenditure and I think given that some people that have in some other bodies uh constantly tell us how a wonderful job we're doing and don't want our budget to be increased at all uh they need to see the second is uh Paris if we're talking about helping the business office with some
221more support uh I shopped at Target today got scored some real good price on dog food and there have a big sign out part-time people available starting wage 1775 this is for unskilled labor and we have skilled Paras so I think this is something we really need to address um just a quick point ECS is 25 million uh loss of the held harmless provision um currently if they were to recalculate the ECS formula uh I'm told would be 99 so still a substantial number uh and it potentially is going up every year so right a couple things about that that section um one I know that that is a bit of a hot button item I I did put it in there as just examples of strategic areas of focus not saying it would be
222the one that is focused on in this in this budget it was just like there's a whole list of things here that could be strategic areas of focus and I would you know that that would be a thing basically just we wanted to kind of put it out front um in the budget book um and kind of go into into greater detail about it again I think that whole strategic Vision could be a c or two two or three and then Bo board goals one day yeah we that I mean I did I did choose that one in particular and and and another couple board members did too uh expressing discussing that at some point uh because it is a real thing and it is important to know like what does the future look like
223beyond that if there is legislation that is possible to to ease the transition or create a different funding structure that doesn't uh that is not attached to to um having students performing lower than um expectations uh maybe that's a future we could all look forward to and and referring back to the referral list I put the discussion of uh board goals developing board goals back on January 5th another reason why we have to keep the CWS going Mike thank you I just wanted to quick point I hope this is doable uh searchable PDF for the budget book very very important what what part is really important Mike could you repeat that I'm having a searchable PDF uh it's it's just standard and it it's helpful for board members helpful for the all levels of government
224the public uh but also it's actually in keeping with best practices for uh readability and so it's actually uh A diversity equity and inclusion Point too because uh people have different abilities to read and and you can go type to text if if you need to listen to a document I wouldn't want to listen to the whole budget book as a document myself but uh having those capabilities to highlight segments would would would be very very useful and paginated right oh gosh yes yes all right so do we oh Bev oh thank you Jay I just want to thank Ian and his committee Jen and Mike for all the hard work they did bringing this forward uh it does give us a place to start off with and a good conversation to where the board
225wants to go as far as the budget is concerned so I just want to thank him a big shout out thank you B yes and yeah I definitely want to thank my fellow committee members it I agree this has been a lot of work I know you gave up a lot of Thursdays to get this done so appreciate so one of the things I was going to suggest before we go and really go do the Deep dive with the policies and I don't think we're going to get them all done in one night but I do think that um one of the things that I've asked Erica to pull and I think you got a copy of it was the cave um the C policies that go with each of these the more updated ones
226to take a look at and I thought it might be interesting too to have Floyd weigh in maybe he has even a suggestion or two for him to take a look because I think the thing that I really want to do is make sure we separate policy from procedures and to make sure that we have noted all the legal references that need to be referenced and that we're following the state law and I in and I had a conversation about state and federal law but also we have this town Charter that she's really curious about wanting to get to know better and see where that ties in um because I think that we need to that's all part of it and I'm sure you contemplated that but I think there's a lot of work to
227do to make sure we get this accurate um and you've already got us started so I appreciate that but I think that if we could um really take a look tomorrow night um at K policy with this aligned maybe you know let me go in and share some of these documents with Floyd so he can take a look and offer any suggestions that he might know of um that that might be help us get it moving forward even quicker yeah um so Ian stop me but um if I remember it incorrectly from our um committee meeting and Mike too but I I don't think the intent was to go through um is that chapter 4 here in one day no at all oh because we automatically referred it to the policy committee we did not
228feel that even though like Ian you know um put like a nice draft together um we did not feel that that was our place to um take the work of the policy committee so by presenting this we would um overstep policy committee's ability to review it and then them doing their first and second read and this would have just overshadowed that so that's why um I think Ian had mentioned that like in the beginning it's like we referred it to policy it's just here for informational purposes and ideas you know that like we had thought of but not necessarily something that you guys should just like approve right um without doing your due diligence from the policy perspective so um at least that's yeah that's how um I thought having that legal expertise I think
229too having eyes on it will help us as well and to extend on that um we do need to have the legal review of it because anytime suan signs or if I sign works up a grant for a certain amount there is standard language in every single one of those grants that indicates that we are testing that we are following all federal state and local laws so if there's something that um we're adopting or considering adopting that is in conflict with any of those three again we have Grant money's at risk and that's the last thing that like to see at risk right and and I want to thank Jen for bringing that up um did mention that in the beginning as well like this was not meant to bypass or or override existing procedure
230uh you know or policy vetting process that's why we wanted to refer chapter 4 you know as it is you know in the nine parts that it is um to the policy committee to vet through the usual process and if you know the superintendent business manager uh yes I'm fully I I would invite and welcome um Floyd any any and all P Personnel that you think need to put their eyes on this and give feedback please um please do bring them in thank you and I'm happy to look at procedures and regulations too and have you all weigh in on it but it it also has to be something that Irene can deliver with her Department soent of that and I know that it is probably that uh I believe it's 4.7 is is the
231sub chapter uh where it goes into the procedure for purchasing um right after the guidelines there that went into such specific detail because um that came pretty much verbatim from uh Ray's letters over the past uh at the last cow he or the last regular meeting he um sent us he gave us a a large write up on recommendations of ways to tighten up the proced purchasing procedures and so I just took the opportunity I found a corresponding policy that already existed in our policy document and that's another reason why I wanted to focus on trying to do it through revisions is because a lot of the law already all the work was there I just tried to find policy that generally matched the gist of what the intent was with the revision uh to
232try to like um streamline the legal end of it so that would give something Floyd something to really research on and like okay well does that law actually cover this and can we make that change so all that is welcome conversation and I look forward to to jumping into it tomorrow night thank you uh Mike and then Matthew thank you I Echo what um Jen and Ian were saying about the attent intent um that that this should go to the policy committee uh that said uh I think maybe all three of us I'll just speak for myself I certainly in looking at um the budget policy the go the policy that governs our budget review process um that's on the books right now um uh lacks specificity and and really doesn't have all that much
233guidance and so uh filling in the gaps and hitting on the having policy that hits on the main points the main tenants of how operate is is helpful so that it's not just uh passed on through oral tradition but it's codified in our budget and our budget for seed uh policy so thank you thank you Mike so there are nine policies that Ian's committee has come up with I'm not sure that the two purchasing ones come under the budget review no but uh I think they can be taken up afterwards that leaves us with seven that we really need to focus on first if if your committee thinks I'm mistaken please please let me know so I I spoke to Jay beforehand we're limited to no more than four board members uh actively participating I
234would love to invite uh Jen and Mike to decide if one of them would like to attend uh every meeting it doesn't have to be the same one you can rotate but at least one one of you attend every meeting that we're doing so we have the advantage of every little bit of color we can get on these issues uh as Ian said the broader the input the better if other board members want to come um we I think we can set up so that the board members can be admitted to send text you know the the the messages so if I think we're doing it fully virtually right yeah I think we're doing it virtually so if somebody wanted to contribute an idea could they text us you might get into a quum so
235then so now you've created an accidental okay so we're not gonna We're not gonna have an accidental meeting so if we have to limit it to four so if you guys want to Duke it out then be fine I look forward to a really robust and constructive series of sessions we'll get it done do you think this is the order that we start in in case we can't get to it all um where we want to start with 3110 budget planning honestly um I think that does kind of coincidentally just yeah that numerical order actually would mostly correspond with priority order in my mind let's do it that way I mean even transferring funds between budget functions that is also later that is the work of the business office and that's um you know that's
236the working on the budget which is or you know the everyday work that the business department does so I would say 3160 3310 and 3320 should be for later um to be reviewed is there anything else that you see in there Irene only I would have is that we do um create a procurement policy and these purchasing items belong in its own procurement policy instead of it's not part of the budget it's what occurs after the budget's already set okay so so what about the transfer of funds between categories that would also be in the procurement policy wouldn't it no that's budget that is okay that is they transferring from one budget to okay all right and i' I've heard mention that the there are certain Town purchasing policies that we're required to to follow
237so I don't know what that inter play is right exactly something you might want to study that's we were talking about Charter but not necessarily Charter but if they have a financial policy that we're in conflict with um we need to start collaborating on the policies and making sure that we're locked up and how we're doing things so if somebody were to transfer from the town to work at the school apartment we have something consistent or similar I don't know that I'm speaking for Ian so I'll speak for myself but I invite Ian to pop in if there's something that we haven't covered in one of these to topics feel free to share your ideas to add to delete revise we will listen attentively sure I appreciate it thank you yeah so just to Circle
238back on what uh Susan just said um the you you were looking at 3310 3320 and 3432 as being things that would definitely we could handle later and um three I think did we say Irene take a look at this 3160 transfer basically 4.5 to 4.9 would all be later I'm sorry I'm I'm getting lost guys so under the showing it up on the screen under the chapter 4 proposed policy revision the ones that are basically ones that we need to focus on now because we are starting a budget process is 4.1 to 4.4 or actually can we use the policy number because I'm looking at it the P the p number the P okay so the p3110 through p3150 those four items and and you also wanted to deal with transfer funds between categories
239as well we can we're just recommending that we date because the four top ones are discussing what got it basically on our front door we're prioritizing exactly they're all like time get the job done right should be a fun and be ready for January and February but 4.5 and 4 point or 3160 and 3200 would all be like close on the heels after that I I would think because that's like budget management after the fact right and then Irene you were saying purchasing guidelines and purchasing procedures would be better suited to fall under a broader procurement policy yes we would need a procurement policy that's exactly where those two items would fall and right now we do not have a procurement policy we do not does the town have one I haven't reviewed the town's
240policy meeting with the next you've been here two weeks meeting with oh good yeah good um I just would like to say so 3160 3200 in all the years I've been on the board we don't transfer funds uh because we like the budget to reflect so we can see you know where the the deficits are so to speak um but I am concerned personally uh and I'll see if anybody else is um sub chapter 4.9 this is something that I'd like to get going as soon as possible monthly we looking at right now so the 4.9 P 3432 I I I would simply suggest that there's a little bit of urgency here if not putting it in exact policy if something Irene you could be thinking about for better reporting for the board on a
241monthly basis because one of the things that we're concerned about is getting information and enough information in a timely manner okay and not finding out when it's too late to do something about it exactly I think these five would represent a good um high priority I agree again and probably numerical order or um well I I honestly I don't know 3432 could actually be a thing that that that could be done relatively quickly maybe I don't know I'd like to hear your ideas anyway you know I know that before he left Ry had sort of floated a new um kind of reporting tool and I wasn't completely understanding uh so I'd like to see what you you would come up with or if there's items that you've seen in other communities that you're interested in
242yeah and you would like to provide samples that would help me too maybe something you've seen in the past that worked in some of the places you've been so for four5 4.5 and 4.6 the p31 60 and the p3200 now that we have the non-ls funds we do need to have this available too that's the mechanism to transfer it but right that's when you start to see those transfers occur right and Irene's on that she thinks that we need to do that yeah and uh and we did yeah we just did that uh with the last fiscal year but I I I'm not seeing the urgency because we don't usually do it in the middle of the year right it's usually done in the third quarter so the right majority done in the fourth quarter
243right just making sure people arw spending right well that's the problem that they might have a fault sense but we did get better at encumbering and that's a huge piece of this so we know that we have limitations on the spending all's got hand up oh Beverly okay um Irene could you at some point give us your feeling about transfer of funds between budget functions because I think that's the um item that Ray was definitely against so maybe at some point you could tell us how you feel about that I actually like to see the clean budget I if you look at the available budget column I brown upon having negative amounts there and the only reason why is if the person looking at their budget is only looking at one specific line item in
244the financial system they're going to think they have all this money available if you're not looking at your total budget as a whole so typically what I would do in my past practice is make sure that the budget transfer occurs um within that program itself and that way you have a solid handle when you're looking at your reports on what you're actually spending so you don't have that that budget available in that particular other line item anymore the other piece to that is it helps you build your next year's budget because the system will give you what your adopted budget was and then your revised budgets your revised budget is going to show those transfers so it's simply adding a column to a report so you can see where things moved from and to and
245then it helps you build your budget and your outwears I think Ry was saying that for him then he can see he sees the negative numbers he knows that that's a line he needs to increase in next year's budget so it's just how you look at it I mean looking at I think that that could Circle back to the reporting as well I can appreciate what Irene's saying far as like making sure that that um you know things are in the positive but you also have to document any transfers that occur so that know that there was a shortage and that something had to happen in order to cover it um within the budget that was you know the broad budget so you know I think I I see sort of a hybrid model coming
246out of this but I just wanted to clarify real quick that 3160 32000 already existed in our policy documents so those things those powers are already available to the board they're not new they just were not exercised prior to or in recent history um so again like I you know I think this process has been beneficial just to kind of have a chance to dive into the the budget part of the policy book and and you know raise up a lot of these things and you know suggest some revisions and we're going to kind of work our way through the process and uh I think we'll come to a better place on the on the far side of it agree well thank you all for this hard work at least gives us some starting points
247right you know build on one quick question as far as chapter 3 goes um are are are we going to do that the same way we did the timeline as far as just bouncing back and forth or or how are we going to leave that come back yeah maybe as we did do I need to take any action on it do I have notes or is that a am I going to receive notes yeah do you want to weigh in on what you think yeah I want to take some more time though work on that yeah if just send me annotated uh you know just take this document it's a Word document if you don't have a word version I'll email you both a word version so you can just an annotate it as you
248see fit and you know we can kind of bounce it back and forth and bring it back before the board um once we get to sort of a nice compromise area yeah I think you'll find Susan most of it um is the same right like we may have just move in different places in different order in different places where we felt like it would make more sense like top down or something rather than just like sporadically put in there so um it might just have been moved um and um I think um the one thing that's different is like H where we were going to pull the capital Improvement programs and budget we know that's not really ours and our jurisdiction but we wanted to put it there so that um we can show that
249we've been requesting um CIP dollars for certain items and it's either moved forward or been denied and and I were just that same conversation to do a historical view of all the times we've asked for HBC for Nea you know like to Showcase all those years so that so that might be new um denied after each year this year denied this year denied this year denied oh sometimes it didn't even make it further you know yeah sorry it's probably not going to make the budget book but I do plan to put that fiveyear actually it's like a 10 year 20 year look back and then forecast out for Capital Improvement but I'm not committing to January 6 for that year yeah yeah it will come it might go over the summer but that way it
250tracks the requests yeah and what we receive all the way through I know that this year we do want to prioritize Nea and CK with HVAC and get moving on it um because we're spending a lot of money heating and air conditioning and and we need to resolve the issue so that's like one of the new categories that was in there um also Soo um before we forget like it looks like we're signing out um there was one other task that you put um for for Mike um Ian and myself and then that was like the um software we didn't um review of budgetary software for the district we didn't get to that and we wanted to actually wait for Irene to come and see if um she had ideas too but right right good
251point Jen thank you for that I quot today what for what for the news T Technologies to with the town okay so I have that quote but out on the web right because it's cheaper there or is it out on the I have them both both Clint and I prefer that it's cloud-based yes um Clint and I are meeting on it tomorrow and we're hoping to put in a CIP for this cycle but again we still have a contract with e finance for at least another two years but it'll take us 20 months to actually it'll take at least 18 months to implement yeah but a lot the reports you're looking for I can just click a button at that point I've used the software since and she's a pro too so okay all right
252thank you very much I know you have to be back first thing in the morning we're going to go through our Referral List but we certainly don't want to uh force you to go through that I'm I've been trying to get things in board notes from the tracker that we think will suffice because you've asked for some documentation and that kind of thing so hopefully that works out if it doesn't need to be discussed um all right thank you thank you Irene thank you Susan thank you thanks okay nice meeting you see you yes yes to tou B you had said you were going to take a consensus of the board to approve the budget timeline through what date what did you take the consensus I I asked if anyone objected and there were no
253objections right to January 6 on the timeline the notes to Joan um tomorrow if it makes it easier okay because I know you wouldn't allow me to vote Joan so I took the [Laughter] consensus I was trying to keep up with you I know um okay everyone have a good evening all right yeah we're just gonna go over the Referral List real quick and then we'll we'll adjourn but thank you Joan all right thank you okay um does anybody want to discuss any items on the referral list or add anything I could offer deletions deletions okay shoot okay under Communications um I I say delete the PTO booster club Outreach um there did not seem to be any pain on their part about not having been called back okay no but there um and I'm
254not sure hey Jay are we doing the whole Referral List or just Referral List for the C well I was kind of going to concentrate on the c um okay that's what I thought that's what we usually do yeah but I'm happy to take any deletions all right we'll get rid of that one so deleted um the foreign language survey we did get that in the board notes um my concern is that was old information so do we want to have a discussion on the old information or do we want to talk about doing a new one I feel like there's a lot of information in that one that we had and it doesn't seem like anything got used and my guess is that there's not going to be tremendous differences okay so so you
255still would like to have a discussion about that survey all right well we now all have it so we can all come up with our questions as soon as I can get get it on a c yeah so you now all have the survey data um school calendar is going to be on the October 21st agenda um we had this board retreat to discuss budget planning process since we're doing this with the ad hoc do we really need to have a retreat on the budget I'd like to do a um a board self AOW on a retreat a board self AOW and maybe maybe at the same time maybe not to talk about our our goals yeah board goals yeah that's been hanging out there so do anybody object if we get rid of the
256board retreat for Budget planning because I think we're spending a lot of time which one are we on um the um 41524 discussion regarding a board retreat to discuss budget planning process that was yours Matt do you object I'm looking at the wrong sheet read that I'm oh the cow excuse me what was the date four 4:15 the bud foreign language survey no we can let that go that's not mine which one board retreat on budget planning new lines below that yeah y thank you very much uh yes please can delete that all right uh Dei plan gonna be coming up on a future meeting um let's see are we replacing just a quick question there Jay yes are we I'm sorry I'm looking at the document now are we do we have something on
257there for the board retreat to talk about um self evaluations and uh goals super uh no but I'm gonna add one okay I'm kind of hoping and I we've we' do we still have a quorum I don't know why I see myself Mike and Bev online so that's three and Andrew all right um so yeah we can do self- evaluation and goals uh I'd really like to do that I know it's a lot but um maybe in November once we get through data and before we get into budget that sounds good um I guess there's really nothing else we can uh Delete uh is anybody want to add anything I I apologize for walking out we're not gonna have a retreat uh We're not gonna have a retreat on this topic on the budget planning
258process because we're doing that now with the ad hoc but we're going to do one for board self- evaluation and goals and I hope in November okay um is there anything else what what about the discussion of the transplant map Ian did you like Susan's answer to that in her board notes oh I haven't had a chance to review that um oh wait no was that about subcontracting it out yes yeah that's a that's complicated I no I'm not happy with that answer because I were someplace else with that when we talked about it last year already doing it and had it about to about to produce it and then suddenly never happened um okay so I thought and and honestly like I'm just looking for we should have that data in house and if
259we don't that's a problem yes we need we need to talk to Clint about how he how his team can create a visual from that so leave that on like this spreadsheet like a data like we can do the raw data I don't need a fancy mapon know like who's going to what attendance Zone not who who individual but just general let's ask Clint if he can come up with a proposal for us right yeah because isn't it as and maybe isn't it as simple as like knowing where the child lives right what the closest school would have been and then what school they're going to it's as simple as that right except it changes daily so the question is how often do you want to refresh the data what mechanism do you have I
260don't think Ian was like or and um Adrian were asking for it all the time just like at a single point in time maybe at the beginning of the school year or end of like last school year whatever pick a date and time here are the kids who are enrolled in the district this is where they live this is the school that they should have gone to and this is the school they're going to I feel like it's three columns that you can extract from a database um do a uh okay so we'll ask Clint to do that we need to be able to refresh it we don't just want to do it once and file it so we need to have I think annually I mean yeah if they're going to shift from one
261Magnet School to another it happens on an annual basis it it rarely happens in year no but we keep space for um military at all the magnet schools so there is some some movement but right we just ask if can do this inh house yeah so we're not going to delete it from the Referral List um anything else we want to add or you can send me an email um I do have something like add adri I'll recognize Adrian I would like to ask what happened to 24 202 24-10 um it seems to have been deleted uh what was 2024 d10 it was discussion the board's interest in drafting a policy regarding family and board notification of testing data oh she said they already do that uh it's already a district policy and a state
262policy you want to do something Beyond yeah because it do it happens didn't she didn't she address that in board notes uh yeah but it sounds like Adrien was not satisfied with the answer oh okay we can put it back on and put it on a future agenda item yeah how do things get deleted off so if she talks about something in board notes if if the data is given in board notes I think she she in certain cases where she feels it answered the question it gets deleted so still aren't not notified about or I have to go back and read that board Note again I mean what what well we can't really discuss the item here but what about her explanation did you question but so once you once you have itward Friday
263as an embedded link yes well it was either Friday or the Friday before I did not see that okay yeah so if you want to do that either way no I'd like to leave it on there um it's been on there for six months okay and if the policy hasn't changed the practice okay I don't know if the practice has changed okay I I'm more concerned about the practice than the policy but okay I put it in as policy um also there is um 202 24-11 full review and testing of the testing data and report card which I know we've started um today but we're not done and it's because it's on agendas already through November now oh how do we get those agendas they come out on Friday when uh all right when Joyce
264but but they've been planned they've been pre-baked into future agendas so once they're on agendas they come off the referral list all right um and [Music] um and then um a new one would be discussion on the software survey okay I uh yep I uh wanted to make a referral to uh open a line of communications to the representatives and Senators um to begin advocating that we look at the assessment and diagnostic laws so that uh current technology can be used to bridge the language barriers so that SP to the state to the state delegation to allow uh and interpreters for the esac interpreters or interpretive technology for esack testing uh so that we can better uh allocate our special education resources and our English language instruction resources right so you want that to be
265an agenda item as to whether the board wants to send a letter to the delegation right do we want to start advocating for that as a district okay and possibly on a state level you know use our weight as a board of education saying that there's a discrepancy there that we want to like accommodate I agree a thing want to do as a board because you know in my experience it it's definitely a thing I agree with a with Ian in what he wants to accomplish but it's not clear to me that that's a cow referral item rather I would suggest if if Ian wants for him to just draft a res solution that the board could consider and put that as an agenda item on a regular meeting you think adri either either way
266we'll put it on an agenda item for discussion Ian you prefer it as an agenda item or as a referral for a cow discussion um well my thought would be like running through cow come up with a good consensus uh document and then and send it to a regular meeting to to ratify as action that's good Jen just so that um we don't lose track of things I guess can we add like a column to say um date completed and then um we leave it on there for like three months and then it just goes away before or Sunset it so that this way like what was it um 2410 right like yeah it's not a surprise it's not a surprise and if 3 months is too long maybe two months or one whatever like
267we think is fine but there should be notific something why don't we just why don't we just do a strike why don't do a strike through with the date a strike through with just will a strike through with the date that it yeah it will accomplish the same thing yes instead of another column yeah it will accomplish ask to do that all right very good is there anything else I'm going to recognize Andrea Mo to address I have a second oh well wait I had one more thing you lost your mind uh Jay can can I bring forward one more thing okay go ahead we already in the motion to adjourn um so I I I'm not sure if this would be a cow referral or a curriculum committee referral but um honors classes would
268that be if we wanted honors classes all the way through uh or if we want to discuss it I should say uh would that be a curriculum committee referral or would that be a uh account referal that would go to curriculum first this prits program studies that would be my my sens of okay uh then I'll I'll send an email to the appropriate chair um there's one on the curriculum right now says discussion re honors classes beyond the 10th grade oh yeah that's already on there as a 9916 from you on 9:16 y good no all right I guess I already did that so we actually picked that up I think from a meeting Ian Jo Joan and Joyce are extremely good about listening to these meetings to The Bitter End and then grabbing things
269that's appreciated much appreciated and uh definitely very welcome thank you for that um and the other one is a policy referral I'm thinking it's I want to look at policy 1312 and 13124 about uh the anonymous and complaint um process and procedure but I I think that give the numbers again Ian uh 1312 and 13124 having to do with public complaints and Anonymous complaints and how they're handled and reported to the board I think there needs to be a distinction between the board and the district and that's where there there was a crossover in that policy that was confusing some of the language is ambiguous and Y fair enough you got a motion on the floor have a motion to adjourn do we have a second second second okay all in favor I doust extensions
270thank you Mark