001uh I'd like to call the September 24th meeting of the Gren Board of Education policy committee special meeting to the time now is 6:02 p.m. present are board member Eden Thomas and be Washington hi be glad to see you uh Susan uh Denise ditt dittle and our eminent communication team of Kate so our first order of business is to review the minutes of the July and the August meeting uh uh I suppose you guys have had a chance to read it would somebody like to move the motion and then we can discuss it I make a motion to approve the minutes of um July 23rd and hold tight and yeah July 23rd that's all I have that's right I dri have a second well I'll second it then so the sorry I was I was
002a little slow with the trigger here uh yes uh a second Thomas this a second Thomas thank you very much so is there any discussion on the minutes of July 23rd hearing a deafening silence I will presume that we have no discussion would all those in favor of accepting the minutes as submitted please indicate by saying I I I all right all right so it is unanimous three in favor uh no abstention no opposed uh in terms of the August 27th meeting I don't think we have any minutes to approve I will just say that we had a lack of Quorum so no meeting was held uh if somebody thinks we should do otherwise please speak up and entertain your ideas okay so we move on uh for for the purposes of speeding Denise to
003a early dinner I promised her she'd be out before 11 o' uh we're going to start with the transgender the new business Item B policy 5145 would you like to take it from here sure sure good evening everyone in uh January of 2024 the Connecticut State Department of Education issued an update on um guidance for the Civil Rights protection and supports for transgender or gender diverse students uh that document is available on the state department of Ed website and we have had a committee at the district reviewing that document and as a result um recommending changes to our policy so that the district is in compliance with the new regulations from January 2024 so um I don't see any changes in the actual policy itself um other than a few legal references um the changes
004really are in the regulations uh attached to the policy and um there are some changes in terms of pronouns so in terms of um uh taking out his and her and replacing it with their you'll see that in several places um again this this these regulations are in alignment with cave um under gender identity uh there is a under the definition section um there is a statement that was recommended that we add to indicate that everyone has a gender identity um again it does indicate that um the gender identity um can be the same or different from the gender assigned at Birth um but we do want people to be aware that everyone does have a gender identity um we also added sexual orientation that was not in the regulations before um it refers to
005a person's identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are romantically emot Al or sexually attracted including any identity that a person may have previously expressed or is perceived by another to hold that's a lot of um information uh but we did take that specifically from cab and their recommendation on page two of the regulations um under the bullying section again we just changed himself or herself to themself um and when we're talking about damage to property we changed damage to their property so again some pronoun changes um and then probably one of the biggest changes is in terms of the records um so at this time um we want to be sure that we're treating um changes to official school records for students who identify as a different gender than the
006one assigned at Birth in the same manner that we're treating other record uh requests record changes requests for changes to records um hey Denise can I ask you a quick question with that yeah do you mind um do they have to change their um gender identity legally or and then we can change it on our records or they don't have to change it legally first so so part of the issue with the regulations that we used to have was that it was very unclear what what records would change and what would um initiate a change um because if you recall um the parents were not as involved as um we would have thought that they would have been the regulations have clarified that the new regulations in terms of um we've taken out the whole
007section at the bottom of page two um because you know we we're not required um to change a student's record um based on what we had in the old policy if you look at page three we're this is the section that the new section that refers to records it says the district recognizes under furpa that a student has the right to request the school to change their name and gender on such students school records if the student or parent Guardian if the student is under 18 years of age that's very important believe the records are incorrect misleading or violate a student's privacy in general a school should treat requests to change Student Records based on transgender status no differently than it would treat any other request for a change to Student Records um so it's
008being treated the same way as it would be for any other student record um upon such a request schools should correct student education records to accurately reflect the students chosen name name and gender identity regardless of whether the student has completed a legal name change okay so if the student believes that the criteria for changing or amending a student record is if the record is incorrect misleading or violates a student's privacy so if a parent and a student said that the record with what name a is incorrect they could request that we change the record and have the correct name on the record but the parent if the student is under 18 would be very involved in that and that's that's a positive change I think I think what was happening in the past the
009students were going to the office to have these changes made or going to their counselor and um The Counselor would would recommend that they have this conversation with parents first because they knew they would tell them that this information will now go on power school and your parents will know about it but I think you really need to talk to them first and it could be a little uncomfortable and some parents receive information you know a little better than others um especially when it comes to this kind of a topic so um I think it is important though if children are under 18 that parents are involved yeah it's the law clear on that and I think we need to have the law clear on that it makes it much clearer for the school and
010the parents to understand the process so they're not required to get a legal name change okay if and that's what was in the previous policy if the parent or student set believe that that name is incorrect and we have a form that they would complete and we've amended the form we're going to review it at the next principal meeting um and share it with the principles if they believe the name is incorrect there is a form for them to submit um and same with their gender if they believe the gender is incorrect um they can they can request that it be changed the same way they would if there's another you know an error in something else in the student record so it really brings this change in alignment with any other change to a
011student record okay thank you yeah and it's much I think it's much clearer for everyone to follow I think there was a lot of questions that the state received and they knew they had to really update that guidance that they issued because it was really difficult for school districts to implement it I had two questions Denise on language on page this is in the RS and this again is a Administration document not a board document but I'll pipe up anyway under gender identity everyone has a gender identity what about the person who's uncertain about their identity um I I believe there are um there are identities that they would choose if I it would be gender fluid it could be um or gender transition well that's if they're um if they're transitioning to a different
012gender um they're pretty clear about what they want at that point it could be gender non-conforming um there are several terms that relate to students who don't identify as either m or female okay and the last thing uh on gender expression behav uh through Behavior clothing hairstyles activities or mannerisms I would I would add the word language the choice of language that one uses is a gender expression you don't have to buy that but I just thought i' throw that to you okay um and then the rest of the revisions on page oh I just want to walk you through the rest of the uh revisions they're very minor on page three it's really just changing pronouns from his or her uh to their y okay thank you um thank you uh I know gender
013non-conforming uh is sort of the uh current term of of uh reference in in the in in the dominant culture um however I just want to I I I find it I'm I'm concerned about that overall like historically looking forward I think we may end up changing that because non-conforming uh subtly asserts that there is a Norm that's being diverged from um you know when there are a lot of ancient cultures that recognized multiple genders you know um you know that we happen to develop in in a culture that does not recognize more than one or more than two I should say um and now that's a thing that we're starting to to to deal with uh generationally which you know I think it's progress and we're in we're moving in the right direction but
014uh it's just one of those terms I think you know 20 30 years from now may be seen as archaic um but uh yeah otherwise than that I I really don't have anything to uh to to comment on um you know I think the name changes and the gender changes on the record is it seems within reason um you know because it does uh check in with the uh caregivers as well as you know gives gives a student agency so I'm I'm fine with everything else and I don't have any suggested name change or suggested uh term change for the non-conforming thing because that's you know in state law and you know it's that's a bigger fish to fry and like I said that's probably going to be a generational thing in another 20 30
015years we'll have to resolve that well come back I mean even thinking about 2018 when this was first developed and seeing some of the changes to make it clear in 2024 you know um you may say it see it even sooner and then well you know if it happen sooner I'll be all the all the more in I'll be happy to see it yeah yeah um Matthew and Susan I would recommend that we add as it an I don't know if it would be an appendix but the form that we've been working on yep I would agree that that is shared with with students and parents if they do want to make a a change I think that is really important to be included I AG we can maybe we can send that out to
016the committee tomorrow so you can take a look at that y wouldn't that be wouldn't that be part of the regulation and therefore the domain of the superintendent I I could probably share it right now if you um Caitlyn yeah let's take a look at it because we can get it all in the package okay okay Kaitlyn would you allow me to share my screen yes you're able to okay thank you yep just take me a minute to find it for okay just make sure this is it okay all right can everyone see that yep all right so we have to put our letter head on it um but what we did is we put the regulations at the top um it's again it's titled request to add change or remove a preferred first name
017Andor agender and um one of the things we we've been working with power school because you know there's different fields where the names appear um and we wanted parents and students to know that the chosen name and gender will appear in power school as the preferred name and pronouns but in systems such as Google classroom schooo or power school in the grading section in the health field the students legal name will be visible um as will the permanent record um there are some um concerns with privacy um so we want to be sure that students are aware that their legal name will still be visible to teachers when they're entering grades so that it's not a violation of their privacy to share their legal name if it's different from their chosen name so we have
018their current legal name and ID ID number and then they select an option add the chosen first name SL gender listed as my preferred name in power school and remove the chosen person or remove the chosen first name gender listed below um from my record that's missing an M um so sometimes as you are aware students CH their name their chosen name changes um as they you know you know as they um change and as they identify you know differently and then we have a field for their chosen first name their chosen preferred gender and then just a sign off uh for the student and the counselor um and I believe there is a sign off for the parent as well um with the new legislation there would have to be if they're under 18
019yeah yeah there there is I I'll have to go back to Lauren and make sure that I have the most uh updated copy Lauren and Angela have been working on this because it really aligns with what happens in power school um but the student signs off the counselor signs off and the new form does have a sign a signature for the parent and we'll get that to you as well thank you thank you Janice yeah we have several versions we've been working on so I apologize this isn't the one with the parent signature that's okay Denise yeah I oh I'm sorry um I I lost I lost the feed there for a second are we in a vote we we haven't gotten there yet uh I want to be sure everybody had a chance to
020speak do you have something else you want to share oh no with the uh transgender and gender not well the transgender policy yeah that's where we are no I'm good I'm good I've said what I had to say and uh and yeah looking forward to moving beyond a binary culture thank you thank you I just Matthew if if I may I found the correct form with the parent signature there it is yeah yeah so we'll get that out you know in the package and we'll make that an addendum to the regulation as As a matter of curiosity have do we H have we had instances where children at the elementary school level have raised issues about their identity we have um just a few but we do have them Middle School you see a lot
021of interest and and in the high school yeah one one child in family that I've been working with an elementary principal on um really uh the family approached the principal this is a young child I think last year the child was in first grade so this year the child would be in second grade and the the family approached the principal to share that their child ident you know was born female but identifies male and and you know just asked in terms of um bathroom accommodations and um making him aware of the fact that you know their child identifies as male since ve a very young age and is very open very open very comfortable with that but at the younger level really we're finding there's more um communication about the the choic that come from
022the parent because the children are younger fascinating thank you would uh one of the members be interested in making a motion of some sort I make a motion that we recommend um policy R uh r514 5.53 to the full board uh can I ask ask if you would consider making that for p and rather than R oh P okay we we didn't show the both board both of them because I think a lot of the changes have come in the regulation so I think they need to be aware of that too okay that's why I used this one because that's where the changes were okay is there a second well should um yes I'd be interested in seconding but I just want to be should we do both the P version and the r version
023if B would like to do that if Bev would like to do that and you'd like to accept that that's fine with me go ahead what there are there are changes to the legal references in the policy yeah I see 514 5.53 second Thomas okay is there any further discussion the deafening sound in that case I'll call for a vote all those in favor of recommending uh adoption by the full Board of policy 51455 3 and R 51453 please indicate by saying I hi I I the motion is unanimous three in favor no objection no exensions and thank you so much Denise you're more than welcome to stay we'll s thank you you'll be seeing me with the the there we have a quite a lengthy uh updated Title Nine policies for students staff and
024school climate so you'll be seeing a lot of me coming up have a good night everyone good night me too Denise okay thank you good night Denise goodbye we are now moving on to new business a discussion of policy p411 5.3 evaluation of coaches um would somebody like to make a motion so we can discuss it I make a motion to um adopt p411 5.3 evaluation of coaches second Thomas thank you we have a motion made and seconded to recommend adoption of p411 15.3 discussion Ian your hand is up I'm sorry that was an inadvertent tap um I is there someone could we get some background and explanation mark Romano was not able to be here but this is a brand new policy although it's a practice that's been in place in Gren for a
025long time all of our staff gets evaluation we're going to be getting ready to share with the board the new educator evaluation plan that has been um crafted by the state but we've personalized it in groten um but it's a very important process in evaluating staff and it's ongoing and coaches all have evaluators um Mark Romano does an amazing job really organizing that and a lot of the process has to do with um some professional learning in coaching um that's ongoing and a lot of observation of coaches um and also a self-reflection process so that just like in it as in the educator of Val just like what I did with you in the board where you reflect on your goals and you give evidence to support um that you've fulfilled the goals or you're
026still working on the goals um the same thing is done with coaches and we have a lot of coaches so um I would say that with Mark Romano Style and other leaders you know H me last time with my picture whoops so with the leaders in the district who are supervising the coaches like I said there's a lot of observation there's a lot of feedback that's given um in the moment and then there's the self-reflection part and then the final um evaluation part in written form but I think a lot of the feedback is um throughout the year and through observations in a similar way that we're doing in educ with our Educators too getting in more often you know and observing and giving verbal feedback and then written feedback and then with the self-reflective
027process mid year and end year so you know it's a cade policy but it's really a a policy that needed to be um put into place but it's been put into place almost as our regulation or the way that we've been doing business with evaluation of coaches Susan down on um line number um paragraph number three right and um the second sentence um well the F I'll end I'll start with the end of the first staff members to recognize that the district schools intend to seek and maintain you see where I'm reading from um let's see one two three the responsibility of all administrators that and other professional staff members to recognize that the district schools intend can we say in public schools instead of the district schools and make this more personal to us
028yeah I think that's a good suggestion and I think you've heard us say that and you say that as well that that's what we do seek what do we give our kids in school to get dat the you know most highly qualified staff to work with them including these coaches should a should athletic director be capitalized or no which what are you saying should be capitalized uh athletic director and sentence number one I think that would probably be appropriate where's where's Andrea when I need her but I think that would I saw in another form they did capitalize uh athletic director so yeah that's fine now Susan why do we switch from eval to appraisal why don't they call it um self evaluation why do they switch um because the title is evaluation then when
029they talk about it they say a pra them I don't know I've never seen that I I would rather say self- evaluation that's what we call it for the educator ofal so yeah yeah s appraisal seems like you're buying a car or something yeah it doesn't no it doesn't drive does it no am I'm hearing you correctly that you'd like to delete the word appraisal and substitute the word evaluation yes yeah and in the paragraph above instead of calling it The District Schools we're going to call it grot and public schools intends to seek and maintain the best quality staff right and I just want to say I'm in support of the idea of St and appraisal for evaluation um again just for consistency I think be articulated that well uh so we have another
030appraisal in the next sentence itself and administrative appraisals include we want to change that to evaluations as well B yeah whatever the word appraisal is change it to evaluation do a search and replace Susan be real easy yeah okay I'll recognize myself unless either of you folks wants to talk a little more welcome Clint welcome Clint um I'll just say that you know I'm in favor of the policy in general uh because you know as as an educator in the current climate um you know it is a standard practice for educators instructors um so I think it it'd be fine to have it for athletic personnel as well because they perform a similar function just in a different venue the last paragraph on that page is pretty important we've seen instances in with school personnel
031and with coaches where um if they haven't really fulfilled the professional code of conduct or they've had misconduct um in subordination um violation of rules they've been terminated so um that's basically what this last sentence says the board May terminate contract of any coach at any time for reasons of moral misconduct insubordination or violation of the rules of the board or because a sport has been cancelled by the board so we no longer have the sport I I'll recognize myself if nobody else has anything to say uh I find that is a a very good description of the process but the constitution of the evaluation itself I don't want to say it's missing but it seems extraordinarily subjective so I'm wondering whether if we if we were looking at evaluation of teachers or evaluation of
032counselors would that lay out this process without discussing the evaluation itself I'm wondering if we should be either here or in regulations be defining the scope scope and criteria of evaluation I think it would be more in regulations is where you would see it what is that your intention is that your intention to do yes I'll have to work with Mark on the regulations okay Ian go ahead uh yeah I was gonna um just say yeah I think um I can agree with your concern having some kind of specified form or regulation with this where it's articulated clearly like what the expectations are and what sort of valuation would look like what the scoring rubric would be um would all be good but it should all come you know through the athletic director who's the
033supervisor of that department in consultation with our Administration the superintendent or their designate yeah agree if we if we pass this tonight uh and you come up with a regulations subsequently would you just run those regulations by us so that we absolutely to Y okay just to clarify real quick sorry um so that would be the r version of this document number that's right got it thank you okay any any further conversation needed or does somebody want to make a motion um motion oh sorry go ahead B no no go ahead Ian honestly I was about to do it but then I realized right in front of me I stepped out to take dogs out so if you have the number that' be great um p411 5.3 and what what would you like to do
034with that number did he say if I had the number that would be great yeah I don't have the document right in front of me because I just stepped out of the room so if you have the number go ahead and make the motion okay I recommend that uh we send policy p411 5.3 to the full Board of Education as amended second Thomas as amend as amended yeah as amended second second Thomas I'll also get you the amended version with regulations how does that sound that sounds Dandy okay good any further discussion before we take a vote do we need secret ballots roll call all those in favor please indic by saying I I I I the vote is three for none against no abstain we have moved on the uh Personnel evaluation for coaches
035and that is lovely we are now moving on to our third uh old business discussion of P51 3181 electronic communication devices um this was the older version of the C policy and Matthew's going to reach out to um Jody who he's been working with at Kate to see if the drafted new policy is available for us to take a look at I'm going to check with the Connecticut um State Department of Ed because they were also going to be working on some models and um but I did get a report from each of my principles about or each of our principles about um how it's going this year and you know if you'd like I can start with um how it's happening I would say that gron Middle School Peter bass was very confident that
036um they've really followed stricter guidelines that are through the handbook the policy isn't as strict as the handbook regulations and basically no cell phones are allowed out at any time during the GR middle school once they've walked in you know they put their phones away um preferably in their backpack but sometimes they're on their person and they're not to take them out really till the end of the day and pretty much that's happening um of course it's pretty evident that in all levels elementary middle school and high school if a student pulls out the phone to use at those times that they're not supposed to then they get a verbal warning at first but if it happens again then the phone may be taken and put in the office until the end of the day
037where the student can go and get it it happens the third time three strikes are out then the parent has to come and get the phone so um and I know that um at all levels the principles have given the kids the reminder of what is in the handbook and the information on on the policy and what the expectation is so Peter reports that there's no change for their expectations from last year and there are no issues with these cell phones at Gren Middle School knock on wood currently um at Charles Barnum Seth had been here with us earlier this summer and he said we have not had any problems so far this year um Katherine Kowski it's going okay at CK this year we are seeing more students with watches like the one I
038have that work for texts and phone calls um and they've let parents know the calling feature needs to be disabled on the watch and all phones need to be turned off um in the and in the student backpack so you know this I feel like Dick Tracy sometimes if I'm in a meeting I'm getting a phone call and I'm talking into my um so they can they can be you know in they can interrupt um so they noticed that at CK Mystic River says no problems so far this year Nea no issues other than remind ERS to stay off them on the bus I don't know how they monitor that but I guess they're letting them know and then at themes River we have not had a problem so far this year as in the
039past students keep them turned off and in their backpacks now all of our schools have lockers as well interestingly in the new elementary schools where there's lockers the kids actually use their lockers so they put a lot of their backpack and their things in the locker in the middle school because of the size of it and sometimes their lockers are in their academic Wing where they usually are but sometimes they're further away so um that can be a problem just accessing it so they tend not to use them some do but some don't same thing at the high school the kids are carrying their backpacks all around all day long so I wish that they could be more convenient those lockers it used to be a thing back in my day you know even decorating
040the locker so anyways and then at the high school um Matt says at fit high school we truly appreciate our students adherence to our change in protocols and following the stricter guidelines of the handbook this includes our efforts in getting the phones out of everyone's hands during instructional time and keeping students out of the bathrooms during passing time that's alleviated a little bit of the drama they can certainly get in their classroom and once they've checked in with their teacher they can get a pass to use the lab but instead of during that passing time that sometimes makes them late um they've kind of closed that off our admin team received um reviews on the um oh they must have had a welcome back to school video and some of the kids called it corny
041on the first day but they were really truly happy um with the student response to the change that kids were kind of accepting of the change most kids and in fact many students have shared that they actually like these updates I think we even heard it from a couple of our board reps Melanie mentioned it last night um and then as a staff we were working hard to strictly enforce the cell phone policy and they they have been same thing as the middle school and Elementary if the do do come out um they do office you know they first um tell them to put it away and if that doesn't work a second time then they refer it to for an office referral for electronic violation and um you know they've had um I think
042they said up to 50 students out of a class of or out of a school district of a thousand you know kind of testing the limits there in the first couple weeks so um and they've also had parent conferences and worked with teachers and parents to develop plans for students in need of support with because I think it is um they've gotten so accustomed to having them it's almost like a lifeline and kids can really um get very nervous if they don't have their phone some kids um I think some of the Articles you sent us Matthew talk about social media and and um The Bullying that happens and some of the um effects on the mental health related to this so um I think that just we have to be cognizant of it and
043in talking to Carolyn Wilson There is some addictiveness to behaviors with these devices um that we have to be aware of so but that was the report from my princip from the principles great uh I'd like to share at on at our two meetings ago uh Susan raised the question as to whether or not the legislature was going to likely act on this issue this year and if so should we hold off rather than go through this and I went to myself oh boy I better check that out so I contacted all three of our Representatives uh spoke to Senator Summers and spoke to uh Christine Conley uh both of them told me that of of course they can't guarantee what the legislature will do but they have no expectation that there'll be any action
044this year and the reason is is that the legislature gave University of Connecticut a Million Dollar Plus money for a study and the that study report will not be in for another 10 to 18 months so it's unlikely that we'll see anything for the legislature so uh my instinct is from all of our conversations so far that we're not far away from what we might like as long as we can get the stakeholders on board as well so uh I um it's great that we have it in the handbook but we need to make the policy handshake with the handbook and the handbook hand shap and I think it's going to be interesting to see what G Cade has drafted in the intro and what the state department is looking at too so uh you
045know I sent out a bunch of stuff before that was posted a Annex of more documents with uh I don't know if Erica posted it yet today but she'll be getting it up and part of it is this which Senator Sumer sent to me she's part of a working group on electronic communication devices in the schools it's a PowerPoint presentation uh and she and both she and representative connley said if we felt it would be useful they'd be glad to come and be a resource for it both of them were very supportive of the con concept I think they like to see how the pudding tastes before they buy on sign on but they're pretty pleased with the concept so do we have any comments at this point I don't want to run over anybody
046okay so there are a few more things I I'd in a perfect world I'd like to do there are so many different pieces to this that almost wanted to have a per chart so uh I'm asking us all I'll ask the four the four questions uh to first and then we can go over each of them as you want do we have enough consensus based on what the high school elementary and middle school are doing that we're ready to try to shape a rough working concept into a draft uh the purpose of having a draft at this point would be that when we do bring on board our stakeholders parents teachers and students that it would probably be easier for them to react to something rather than to get into a long conceptual conversation uh
047can I get some feedback from Bev Ian and Susan on that the second question uh we've been in touch with Carolyn Wilson uh I forget the name of the former board member who Carolyn mentioned do you remember that Susan who has done surveys yes um Archie Swindell Arie Dr Archie Swindell Dr Swindell uh so we have a potential uh survey designer we have the possibility of doing it inhouse so we don't have to spend a ton of money um so that's a that's a second piece that we need to kind of figure out where we're putting in our timeline the third piece is to identify and then on and an onboarding timeline for the stakeholder reps the teachers the parents and the students um the parents um my guess is we're going to find parents
048in either a booster club or a PTO the students I'm Susan I'm sure will have her folks figured that out maybe one of our board members could represent the high school and Peter could find somebody from the middle school with Susan's help the teachers I'd love to boot that over to the GAA and let them Cho the two teachers but you may have some other thoughts about that I really value your thoughts yeah and and finally the last item is to shape the the agenda for the next meeting if we can cover that uh the only other piece that I thought we've talked about some of what we'd like for rules but we have not talked about carve outs at all the obvious carve out is a student on an IEP or 54 has a
049specific need to have a cell phone at some time that's going to Trump everything but we may also have students who have employment situations or who have responsibilities for younger siblings so um I'd like us to at some point consider the potential carve outs and how we would handle out the carve outs so that that there's it doesn't come to the teacher to have to deal with it but if the administration and we have figured it out together I'll shut up also have a lot of children who come to us speaking another language I met a young man from Haiti who's being adop Ed by a family here and um we discussed that in his kind of first meeting and I was invited to um about how the cell phone use is a tool that
050they use in the family to help communicate he seemed to be so responsive he's very sharp wonderful young man um was really you could see he was picking up on the language but that tool could be very useful to him so already at Fitch high school we have situations where there are native speakers from other countries um who need access to language and that's a viable tool I have another tool to share with you later about language Susan off topic but another tool Ian sorry uh I just wanted to mention one of uh I'm sure there's others but um uh carve outs uh medical concerns I know that uh there are some people with diet with diabetes of some sort that have monitors that run through their phones y um so that's a thing that
051we'll have to kind of consider and figure out a way to run that through the administration and the health the you know the health care um in the school so that we can get it documented and issue some kind of like pass that they can show the teacher or or like something that you know again respects all privacy concerns but also verifies the fact that there is an actual concern that needs to be addressed in that manner right and thank you Ian please thank Porsha for bringing that to my attention i' missed that I will thank you also did you see in your packet from Erica the model I we actually had the model C sample model policy um position statement and policy guidance for personal technology use in Connecticut schools impact of social media
052and use of cell phones did you get that yes but that's that's uh been super annuated there Jody told me a week or so ago that they're reworking that in light of the uh State uh the CED guidelines oh good all right we hope we have I hope to have an update that's what I'm G to call to get the updated one okay good Bev did you have anything before I turn back to Ian um not really um my only comment would be if the policies we have now are working I don't see why we're changing it before the state comes out with their policy but if you want to move forward with all this go ahead but our policies are working now I didn't hear Susan say they're not working so but if this
053is something that you have your heart set on Matthew Well here here's my here's here's my rationale and I I really do want your feedback the current guideline says that the supervising teacher grants permission now we have changed our uh handbook we have we've had we've changed that and all I'm looking for at this point because it does seem to be working well is that we make we have congruity between the handbook and the policy and then when they come out with something new and they tell us to do something differently chances are we'll listen and I think Erica has put together what's in the handbook as a regulation too to make it consistent um so we've got that additional piece um but there is that irregularity of you know kind of and I think
054we need to think about the carve out that we've just discussed as well in the policy there may be exceptions to the rule um based on medical you know uh student who you know needs support with language maybe special needs um but I think if we can get and take a look at what Jody's talking about with the cave and take a look at that to see if that's more in line with what we're talking about and closer to what we're doing then you know then we might be able to bring it to the board but let's um let's gather some more information because I think it's really important that our students and our teachers and our parents are understanding of why we're making these changes too so that's that Ian you have something I'll
055hold off uh yes thank you um yeah I just wanted to say I think maybe we should just kind of create a quick uh action list in in priority and you know it seems like lwh hanging fruit as far as like you know what Matthew is identifying um you know to get the handbook to agree with the policy since you know currently the way we're operating there's been no uh significant complaints you know no no significant number of complaints I should say um and everyone seems to be uh okay with it um you know it seems like yeah just getting the policy and the handbook to agree would be one one thing we could easily accomplish and then maybe next up look at putting carve outs into the current policy and handbook to make sure
056that it's understood that you know if there is a compelling need and that can be documented and and and verified then um you know we'll we'll allow some carve outs and some accommodations for that and then three uh I think you know I think Bev made a good point and and that's sort of like where I was thinking overall was you know if there is larger stuff coming through like through cave into the state then maybe we should uh you know pause there pause at number two and wait for number three to come through before we any make any other Grand revisions thank you okay B no I agree with I think we should do step one step two and wait before we do anything major focus groups and all that okay so what I'm
057the way I'm processing what I've heard and please jump on me politely if I'm misunderstanding is that we're almost ready to try to come up with a draft document that would reflect what we learn from cab and what Susan learns from the state um add to that a first pass at carb outs so the question I if that if I'm if I'm not hearing that I'm wrong on that that I misheard you um once we have that and I'm not sure how long it will take us to have it this is now I would hope we would have it by November is November a Target date to bring on uh some of these stakeholders you know Clint you haven't said anything either I'd be grateful for your feedback you're invited uh Matthew thank you I
058appreciate it I've been following along and uh I uh I have no quibbles with uh the board members that spoke in their plan of attack um I think slow and steady as we collect more information would be most prudent okay yeah okay so here's the question who's going to tie the Bell on the cat's tail uh I have no problem doing my piece but I'd rather it be a group effort uh how would you guys how do you how do my colleagues recommend that we proceed in this uh we will have hopefully something from CSC and from uh Cab in a couple of weeks I hope certainly in time for the next meeting well um if I if I could just jump in real quick sorry I I guess may maybe I'm missing something and
059and please correct me if I'm Mis misunderstanding um but I believe like you know what Bev and I were talking about was first step let's make sure the handbook and the policy match up and we can also probably just combine in putting in a couple simple carve outs that we've already identified just for starters and that that's something that we could do ourselves without any large group having to to to participate um and just have that as a status quo for a period of time until such time that the state and and cave and csde all kind of settle out and produce some document that we can then react react to so would would you and be understood would you and Bev uh be interested in working on that text would you like my participation
060doesn't usually an the administration does that they work on I think Erica and I can um do that yeah that's what they usually and I'll have Clint look at it and then I'll bring it to you guys yeah thank you that would be greatly appreciated thank you that's great no problem I love it less word for mother particularly when I'm Mom okay so um how would we like to shape the next meeting's agenda agenda and then we can be out of here gosh we started at 6:02 maybe we can be out of here in an hour um well I can tell you that probably in about a week or so I'll have a number of policy referrals uh ready to go um and when is the next meeting scheduled I think it's the 8th of
061October I don't don't hold me to it but I that's what I remember seeing I would uh see I would respectfully request possibly maybe shifting it to the 15th on account of the ad hoc budget procedure committee meeting on the 10th and like I said I'm drafting up some policy referrals uh coming out of that committee and so that would allow us to meet on the 10th and actually uh vote as a committee to send it to the policy committee for review the I'm looking at September no wonder if it's uh okay yeah I don't have a calendar in front of me either I was working off the date that you said there is a cow meeting currently scheduled for October 15 okay that's a Monday so I'm looking at Tuesday that's the no Tuesday
062is the 15th the first Tuesday after the 10th is would be my hope to have the policy committee meet then that's the 15 that's the 15 I guess maybe that's that's a tangential procedural question is can the ad hoc budget procedure committee through the chair send a referral directly to the policy committee I don't see why not I don't know or did well there's been some discussion at the board that there's been some discussion at the board that it either needs to be referred by the chair or by the board as a whole and that some PE some individuals want to discuss discuss it beforehand to see if there's a willingness of the board to I'm fine with it but I know there are people who whove said they want to have to see if
063there's a willingness of the board to even have a topic addressed Ian are these policies related to um some of the work from the ad hoc budget committee related to budget uh yeah precisely all right yeah so I mean that that's and but we as a as a committee were want to be respectful of the overall process that board has historically followed so we did not want to send policy committee referrals directly to the board or to the committee of the whole necessarily for like a first read we wanted to run them through the normal policy process yeah that which would be the policy committee having like yeah here next week so Irene's coming next week on Monday right and and our next uh ad hoc uh budget procedure committee meeting is scheduled for October
06410th which we're hoping to have uh you and the new business administrator Irene in attendance to kind of like tune up some things and that also could give you all a first look at these uh draft policies as well and uh and actually you know I'll invite Jay as well I think yeah no that would be four board members so yeah would be fine I can invite Jay in to that meeting as well just to try to kind of FastTrack this a little bit Ian you could give Jay a call and ask if he's comfortable with with making the referral to us directly so we could take it up on the sure yeah I can reach out to him tonight after after the meeting yeah I mean I I won't speak for him but if
065Jay refers it I'm I'm good with it I don't need to okay I just don't want us I just don't want this committee to to jump the gun right right and I think that you know as long as the if the chair signs off on it referral and that follows historical precedent you know and and you know past practice of the board so I don't think anyone would throw a procedural flag on that and plus like you know on top of that we have two runs through the policy committee and two runs through the board anyway as part of that package so no matter what everyone's gonna get a swing at it sounds like B yeah so is it possible do your schedules Bev and Ian allow you to meet in person on on that
066meeting uh That central office on the 10th on the 15th you're talking the eth I'm talking about the eth is where policy committee is no no uh I thought we were trying to move after the October 10th you want to move the policy committee to October 10th no no no the ad committee is I'm talking about the policy committee right and I was hoping the policy committee meet on the 15th so that meet before the C at same day 5 PM would you would Bev and Ian would you be available at 5: PM I can arrange my day oh boy okay hold on I gota get a calendar out um I don't know are we trying where's when's the next policy committee meeting we're tentatively scheduled for the eth Tuesday the 8th of October and
067Ian is asking if we could shift it from the 8th to the 15th yeah I hear you correct yes that is correct later let's not do it before another meeting yeah no I don't want to stock pilot either I'd rather like you know so there's a there's a cow meeting on the 21st correct um yes yeah right so I in an Ideal World um I I'd like to see the sequence of events be like on the 10th the ad hoc budget committee meets and we vote to move our draft policy referrals forward to the policy committee on the 15th we meet we give a first read through some comments and ideally we all you know vote to put them forward to the cow that would happen on the 21st it doesn't it doesn't go to
068the cow it goes to a regular board meeting oh oh that's right sorry I thought there's one cow in the regul you're pushing your policies real fast no no no I'm sorry that that's my misconstruing of the sequence of events I for for a moment I was thinking we did one cow and then a regular you're right though thank you for the correction so um so yeah the 28th would be the first read by the whole board and then when would the policy committee meet because the 15th you said you didn't want it before the C on the 15th or before the C on the 21st oh wait there's a c on oh that's right because the the holiday indigenous right that's all righty I mean if you what about the 16th well thatd be
069fine with the 16th what about the 16th I'm fine with 16 let me just see that I'm not going to some other meeting I'm always at a meeting luck at you Susan I know really 16th or the 17th would work for me too hold on the 17th I'm committed yeah the 17th I can't do but the 16th I can I can do the 16th okay so we're going to uh would you ask um Erica to cancel the meeting on the 8th and reschedule it for the 16th 6 PM guys and I'm not saying I'll be there in person so I'll need a zoom link yeah yeah honestly like six o'clock meetings are really tough for me to make um in person and I would have gone home if I knew you guys weren't going to
070be in person I thought you guys were all showing up I would have been home but I'm gonna go home and I'm not far from home so sorry good that's all right that's all right I just got to catch up on my beauty sleep after last night just oh hope beautiful anyway Susan Oh My grandmother used to say beauty is as Beauty does right it's like a box of chocolates right yeah okay well is there anything more that we want to cover this evening no I think you you came to listen do you have anything you want to share or contribute I think that was directed at me Matthew that was there was some cross talk but no I'm I'm uh I think full uh and we will continue to March down this road to
071get it right I did mention last night at the meeting I'm not sure you heard it after we had chatted we I mentioned at one point that we were probably not going to get to AI as a policy this year with all the time we've lost over our financial stress but I spoke to Susan I spoke to the board and I said that uh we had chatted and that I was hopeful that maybe we could do something for professional development for the staff to try to bring people up to speed about some of the Advan ages and pitfalls of AI so that people are getting on the same page to think about it so I have been working with the new assistant superintendent and none of this is official yet but we are we are
072tentatively planned to have a smaller working group that we've been connecting with over the last year or so uh on the next tli day which the goal of that meeting would be to see if we cannot build a small workshop for the first official profession Development Day again this is all in theory right now we're working through that but that is the Hope as a Next Step I'm thrilled thank you um yeah along those lines I definitely just want to voice support for um getting something going on that as well as soon as soon as we can reasonably get it into into the process because uh there are some significant concerns with that on a number level um you know but I'm looking at it more as you know from a teacher's point of view
073H big problems man big problems and I I if I could just add sorry Ian I don't mean to cut you off but if I could just add my my two cents here because of the the changing nature of this environment it is it is a it is a daily task just to keep up with it which I like and enjoy uh but to somehow wrap our heads around a policy that would be meaningful enforceable or what have you at this point I think is a a difficult task to say the least and I don't know what the the value is immediately there could be some out there I know there are a lot of different groups that are commenting on it but my hesitation is the speed with which this is coming at all
074of us Educators administrators the general public users Etc well from my point of view um it might be a relatively simple approach and and I'll leave at that but uh you know I I don't want to risk uh you know discussing an agenda item that's not on the schedule but uh I would welcome the conversation anytime in yeah yeah I think my hope in in in asking for the referral to the policy committee was that we would be able to start the discussion and uh come up with some plan for training for our staff even if we don't Implement anything immediately just people begin to get on the same page together and talk about coming com I think the Board needs a workshop also yeah and that's what I brought up last night about the
075board having a workshop on AI that east line their Board of Education how to Workshop because we need to know about it also not only the teachers and the staff the Board needs to know about that and I bet most board members don't know about that and that's why I talked about east line had somebody come and give him a workshop I mean Clint can come too but we should really be thinking about that what's good what what the Board needs right and and to build on that I would say also like Clint as you're developing this working group to kind of you know uh research all this or like I mean it sounds like you're already kind of on it um and there that's already kind of happening organically um I would definitely encourage
076the thought of having a board member at least one as part of that or involved as a we or ex officio or in some capacity so that you know someone from the board can kind of keep the finger on the pulse day to day or week to week it's memory serves we uh uh board member acrian did attend one of our larger group sessions which was early days and it was very much informational and so forth this is not a working group uh really making any decisions it's really how do we wrap our arms around this and handle it and and really help educate each other right yeah and to that end I guess definitely I I would just encourage like some level of board engagement on that on a regular basis as part of
077the group um as well as like apprising the whole group the whole board from time to time Susan last last year's cave they had the gentleman from MIT come and do a presentation on AI that I thought was phenomenal do we know if cab records that could we see if uh we could get access to that tape so we could so if you do c and call jod would you ask him that and I'll do csde yeah because if we could have that up for the at least the board members and you decide what you want to do with the teachers if they listen to that one-hour presentation they would have it would be an intro it would be a nice intro and then we tell them it's already out of date Susan can you
078contact on the superintendent from east line and ask them who the board has um to give a workshop on AI because that would be more interactive than listening to something and you can't ask questions no feedback so I'd rather do it call Jeff I'll call Jeff great idea be thank you yeah thank you all right uh Ian how many policies do you think you're going to have on the 16th um probably about four but they're going to be relatively short I think like you know three paragraphs or or fewer um yeah it shouldn't be too heavy I don't think a lot of them we've already like honestly like we've already been kind of circling around them a lot of conversations we've had um over the past many months uh you know um as a as
079a cow and also as as a regular board during Communications you know we've we've all members have kind of touched on aspects of these things you might even want to pass them over to Erica and she can see if there's anything align through c as well so that she kind of do a little homework for us I said about a week or so I should have like the rough drafts uh completed okay um right now they're just conceptual all right but I've been going through the policies and matching up codes and looking at where we dub tail in with like a 0.1 or a 02 add-on um something like that Susan at the next meeting can we do a review of the homeschooling policy would that be too much um no that's fine okay all
080right well if Andrea was here I would ask if she had a motion to make but since she's not here does anybody have a motion to make I'll make a motion to adjourn I second this a non-debatable all those in favor please say I I all thank you all for