5-22-23 Groton Board of Education Meeting

001good evening uh today is May 22nd and it is 603 um and this is the Gren Board of Education and it is our regular meeting um and our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance okay as your last work with us would you be willing to lead us in the pledge thank you Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you very much I appreciate it so our second order is participation and recognition of visitors and I believe that there is none coming to us today thank you and the next portion is um our citizens comments um and this is the portion of the agenda where the board welcomes comments from

002citizens each presentation should be limited to 5 minutes or less and citizens should if possible submit written comments presentations should be related to matters pertinent to gron board members will only ask questions in order to clarify the speaker's presentation and cannot respond during the comments of citizens portion of the board meeting citizens should make their presentations from the podium and state their names and addresses for the record do I have anyone in the room that would like to comment is there anyone [Music] online Miss Joan did you is there anyone in the chat or anyone no there is not thank you it's good to hear your voice I think I asked that just so I can hear your voice a little selfish that way all right hearing none we are going to go down to

003the student representative report I do know that we have Isaiah online but we also have Kate here our two seniors is do you want to go first um sure I'll go first so I don't have too many things to talk about today but for our spring Sports at Fitch we're starting our ECC tournaments uh baseball has a game against planfield away tomorrow I know actually I think tennis had a couple matches today and in addition to that we have our senior prom coming up on June 2nd and our senior trip on June 5th wow it's getting pretty close huh 10 days yeah pretty much at the finish line right now 10 days around there I think wow that's question that's amazing yes Isaiah where are you going to school hi Dr Aran I am going

004to University of North Carolina Chapel Hill whoa and Kate hi I'm Kate Sashi and I just have a few things to present on um this past Tuesday in Thursday we had the Pops concert at Fitch for the music department um so I was only at the Tuesday concert that was for the um choir and then the Thursday concert was for orchestra and band and those went off without a hitch they were fantastic there were so many many wonderful performances that I was so um happy to be able to be a part of um as well as tomorrow there is the National Honor Society ceremony for the uh inductees which I have the privilege of speaking at and Dr pza will also be there as well so that'll be very exciting um I have a lot

005of friends stepping into that role so that that's something I'm really excited about for them uh we also have the senior Awards night coming up on the 30th which I personally am very excited for I've worked very very hard um so to be recognized for things like that I think is just another reason to put in so much hard work and dedication which is something I've put into my speech for tomorrow um the music department um for the choir at least is also doing a song at the end of the month with the middle school at their Pops concert so we've been working on lean on me um which I'm really excited to get to share with the middle schoolers you know all the joy that being in a high school choir brings and then

006my final two things drama club just had um two very successful Productions of Little Shop of Horrors not this past weekend but the one before and Andora also just had a open mic night on Friday that went really well there was a lot of um poetry I heard that many students presented so thank you Anda would you like to ask the same question to okay where are you going to school I'm going to Gordon College and one a mess all thank you and I forgot to ask Isaiah what he was going to study I should know that but I don't so maybe if he'll answer then you can answer Isaiah what are you going to study I'm going to study political science and then hopefully go to law school after W with the uh intent

007of becoming what a lawyer don't do it no that's not what I heard at the dinner what was the intent what' you say I said that's not what I heard at the dinner what was your what's your ultimate so you intent of being a lawyer and then one day become the president of the United States of America it's so okay what are you going to study I'm in a double major in accounting and finance go girl I like numbers I do too well educational Accounting in education Finance uh hopefully in business sorry for profit but both to Kate and to Isaiah um to do the board during the pandemic and as we come out um the the joy that you bring us the Insight that you have brought the board um you've made us um

008go from a good board to a great board so the two of you thank you very much for your work and leadership in helping um us adults um be the best adulting that or do the best adulting that we can for the board of education so once again thank you very very much um for Kate and Isaiah for your leadership with us thank you might I add to that I think you have all prepared the two of us to do the best adulting that we can do as we go off into college so thank you to you all yeah you you get you have a lot of people on that are um watching you and seeing you and uh holding you as you go through your next phase of your journey and we are looking

009forward to hearing all the great stuff from the of you thank you you got it right but I am going to move us along enough of that touchy feeling stuff um and so we're going to go on to the superintendent and administrative reports um and so um superintendent Austin so I would like to really um share with you the good information that we have on our diversity equity and inclusion committee and the work that's been done this year I see Jamal Davis's with us virtually because I think he has a daughter who's participating in that um competition and um we also have Lori leine and Dr pza Who have also helped spearhead this initiative the goal I think this year was really to Move It from a districtwide committee to having schools have on in

010their schools committees and committee work and we've done everything from book talks to making sure we have equal opportunity schools in their High School looking at those high level classes so there have been numerous initiatives that have happen this year so I'm going to turn it over to them to give you some more details Jamal I'm going to let you go first I don't know what your Tim table is so why don't you share with us uh what you want to share with the board well thank you um again I want to thank thank you for understanding my daughter's running her a track meet I'm very excited Dad she just won the four 400 as a sophomore so ECC Champion Excell very exciting but with regards to to Dei and the work that we're doing

011um I'm excited to to share with you that this year um as Susan was stating that we really wanted to um be intentional in moving the work from being uh more uh top centered to more within the schools themselves so our Focus was building the capacity and Readiness of uh members within the schools so they can take that work within their school with an equity focus and so we were able to um send a number of of our students to um the risk Alliance ighting change uh Pathways we sent um members to inclusive schools and we also sent members to the equity center leadership and our goal um with each of those let me just explain a little bit with each of those there are five um um meetings that they attended uh these were

012attended in Harford as well as in hampen um and what we're hoping that we get from those experiences that they can come back and share um what they learned at those particular um professional development so for example in the inclusive School culture they were FOC focusing on Foundation of equity and education developing an equity lens examining policies and practice in physical environment through an equity lens coaching children adults for an inclusive School culture and then they end um in fact I'll be there tomorrow to see the work that they've done with an action plan with the equity focused organizational leadership the focus was defining your Equity CER Central leadership facilitating facilitating Equity centered conversations again focusing on looking at data using data to inform decision making and then again um ending with some action planning

013so what I really like about it is now we're building capacity beyond that of again as I mentioned for those individuals in terms of a district but within the schools because then we have transition into on creating uh Equity leaderships at each school with the goal of setting one priority that they can focus on so again individualize it to that specific school um providing them both the skills the knowledge and the will to do that work so that's where we are um I'm now going to pass it back to Dr pazza because he's going to talk about how culture responsive teaching has been um integrated into the work that we're doing thank you Jamal um and a lot of what I said I've mentioned before previous meetings we've tried to do a lot of work

014with the cultur responsive teaching in the classrooms again as Jamal was saying building the capacity within our teachers uh to have difficult conversations and to lead the work within their own building uh I've mentioned these names before to you Dr Cherry Paul uh Dr son Cher Paul Cornelius Miner I know you've heard that name over the years uh often and uh Dr Kim Parker uh they've all worked in our schools at the at the various levels to help build um again this capacity within our teachers to to make decisions about curriculum and about instruction um that help provide a better environment for for our teachers so um what we've what I'll talk to more about tonight is sort of how you know moving forward we've started making decisions as to um how we're going to

015continue this work uh moving forward uh I'm happy to say that you know we've worked uh again with Cornelius Miner over the years and we're going to continue to work with him uh both at the middle and high school level um so we've met with him and discussed how we're what that's going to look like next year and we'll have both uh in service days where he is I mean in District days where he is here working with our teachers in classrooms uh modeling as well as giving feedback uh to our teachers um and uh also virtually where he comes in and meets with Administration uh and various teacher groups uh uh virtually through Zoom where they can exchange ideas um about culturally responsive teaching so that work is going to continue can I give

016them a specific example so um Cornelius Miner was working with the Middle School um with ELA teachers but also with social studies teachers helping them really understand their their need to be teachers of reading and writing and showing them ways that they could help their students access difficult text difficult vocabulary and when the other teachers started catching wind the high school really wanted to have that happen so he came back with all of our high school and middle school social studies and ELA teachers then our science folks said well we have difficult text too and we do a lot of research and development and we we are teachers of writing as well and the math teacher said our language looks a little different but it is a language so they've really all been so inspired

017to have him and he's just such an INSP ational and it gives them such really concrete tips of ways to you know put the vocabulary down make those connections in history and really help kids to access difficult text and while we do differentiate with text and there's so much out there online he's able to really give them ways that they can make sure that their kids are reading and writing in their discipline and across the discipline so I just wanted to say that yeah no that's good there's so many levels to his work and he has been it's it's really been impressive uh and I think I've mentioned this before too all three of these um Educators who we've brought into the district has had a positive effect and and the responses that we're getting

018from surveys from people is like when are we going to be able to continue to work um as we talked about during budget season you know this is you know a lot of the decisions we make have to you know we always keep our budget in mind um and the question about building our capacity came up and you know um I'm happy to report even with to work with Dr Kim Parker who worked with our high school English Department about reviewing our curriculum uh looking at the text that we teach um had a really profound impact on our English Department and and Amy McKenna is going to continue that work with our Middle School uh next year and and use what they learned to to now go down into our middle school and do that

019work there uh as well uh Dr Sonia Cherry Paul finished up her year with us last week she visited um CK as well as R uh Mystic River River um I was able to get down to Mystic River and and sit in on a few of her sessions and again I'm happy to report we're we're trying to finalize uh bringing her back next year to work with us on the election day PD day uh to Pro you know probably give Keynotes at uh different levels and then run some small group workshops as well as continue her work with the administration uh again one thing that's been important to her is not just to work with the teachers uh she insists as part of her work uh to work with the administrative uh Council or our

020administrative team so that we're hope to continue that uh next year as well as we uh try to strengthen continue to strengthen our Dei teams on the on the building level so that work will continue uh in some capacities with these individuals others you know we're going to move forward with the skills that we've learned from them to now uh sort of expand their work into the various levels of the school so it's been impressive to see the work that's been accomplished uh this isn't again this isn't the type of work that you just sort of check the box and say it's done it's it's continually ongoing um and I think you'll see that as we move forward and as next year as you continue to hear about the the curriculum that's being written uh

021the books that are being taught I think you'll see the effects of the work uh that these people um have had um on us and the work of the teachers moving forward so we're happy about that and we're happy to continue continue the work um as Jamal was stating I'll let um Lori share a little bit about um her work um but I also wanted to mention to that hopefully we're going to be looking soon Susan and I are planning our end of year meetings with our our principles and part of that meeting is reviewing the survey data that you know we end up sharing with the board as well um we have questions in there if you remember from last year about um how people feel and this is these are given to the

022students the parents and the staff uh their feelings on how the staff appreciate student diversity and respect for each other uh we ask our teachers if they're comfortable having conversations with colleagues about diversity Equity inclusion um we ask them how often students are given opportunities to learn about people from different races ethnicities and cultures um so these you know we're hoping to see improvements in these areas I think we identified some areas that we wanted to work on after last year and so we're going to compare that data over the last uh three years hopefully since we've been doing these surveys and really work with the principles on looking at that data seeing what it says and then developing goals from there as to what we want to accomplish next year and and then eventually

023as you know we share that data with you and we review that with you so um those surveys close soon and then again those are the focus uh part of the focus of our conversations with principles at the end of the year I'll let Lori share anything on our hiring committee yeah so I'd like to give the board just a brief update on the recruitment hiring retention committee it's a subcommittee to the districtwide Dei committee um we spent the last couple of years uh two to three years with a heavy focus on recruiting and hiring we've done a significant amount of work in that in that area I know the subcommittees reported out to you at times but just to refresh memories um we spent a lot of time focusing on um minority educator recruitment

024working with historically black college universities um diversity career events um developing the grow our own programs for our non-certified staff members to assist them becoming certified teachers um working with the teacher and residence program which is actually kind of a Statewide initiative that we signed on to a few years back um to bring educators of color into the profession and give them a path to teaching um and then working with the high school on Career pathway scholarships for our students we originally were uh received a grant for that we continue to support those students as well who are moving on to teaching Pathways and working on their educational preparation programs um so we contined kind of work on all of those recruitment Avenues uh as we move forward we're committed to those programs going forward

025as well and then we've also done uh a major uh realignment of our hiring uh process our interview materials so that they align to our mission around diversity Equity inclusion so we ask specific questions that have been developed by the committee um so all of that has been fully embedded into our process this year we piloted it two years prior and then we've um completely embedded it this year so we're now working with the new materials which is great um and then the focus for moving forward 2023 will be to focus on retention so the committee is Shifting its focus we've done a significant amount of work like I said with recruiting and uh hiring practices now we'll shift our Focus going forward to look at retention initiative surveying and and so forth one other

026thing I just wanted to mention um is that part of the work that we were doing with um Sonia Cherry Paul was were the classroom walkthroughs and as we are moving forward uh looking at our teacher evaluation program and and uh developing our our policies around that um we are going to incorporate a lot of what uh a lot of the resources that uh Dr Cherry Paul gave to us uh on what to look for in classrooms that are culturally responsive and I I think uh everyone that's Taken part in it will agree a lot of it is just good teaching a lot of it is just build you know how you build relationships with your uh kids in the classroom um so it's nothing new it's nothing our teachers aren't doing but it just

027gives our administrators something to look for um while they're walking through we're going to incorporate a lot of that into our uh our program that again we'll share with you as it's developed Lori um could you please tell me um how many teachers are retiring and if we have any new hires already and also you know is it a diverse hirings of of new staff sure so we had uh last uh last count we had 15 retirees um we're in the process of hiring now we've made a small number of hires um but i' be happy to put that information together for you once the hires are made we can identify that information for you we have been able to place every single one of our teachers and residents oh great who have been diverse

028candidate so we've had positions that have opened up due to retirements that we've been able to place so that's a real good and I think there were at least two every year for three years or something we actually had three place last year um and then one this year so four over two years and our teacher and residents we just informed him that he would be going to themes River so he's very excited to get started there next year so could could you just explain for the public what that means teacher and residence sure so the teacher and residence program is uh a program in which they spend an entire year uh school year with a mentor teacher in our district they learn uh they go they do their coursework uh they do classroom in

029classroom uh teaching practice and basically develop their teaching skills over the course of a year and then they are then released to be placed in their own assignment in year two um which is uh the individual I just mentioned he'll be going to ju will be going to themes River and um in the second year they are followed Again by a sponsor teacher to continue to help them grow and develop so it's really a two-year program but they um they work with uh as a co- teer year one they have their own classroom year two it's almost like a two-year internship with student teaching included are these um individuals have bachelor's degrees and then they're going on for their education teaching degrees right correct correct so they do end up with a master's um overtime

030yes yes but they move from a bachelor's to certification that's the program right yeah educator preparation to certification yeah yes and and do we re reimburse them for their courses correct um it's actually we pay the program costs so it doesn't cost anything of the individual to take the program which is it's a it's a program designed to eliminate Financial barrier for the student themselves yeah yeah I think it's wonderful yes it's a great program and our Mentor teachers also get a nice sement as well that's great that's great yeah thank you you're welcome any other questions from the board Dean I shouldn't but I will any efforts to recruit Asian teachers what and first of all what percentage of our student population on the whole would you would qualify as Asian American or Asian

031I wouldn't know the student number I don't ring a bell not off the top of my head I don't know the student number um but specifically our goal is to diversify our entire Workforce no matter what it is so it we don't Target specific um educators of color it's just being sure that we're um finding individual ual who mirror our student population and who are highly qualified yes correct okay yes but the goal is at some point in the future to have the faculty exactly or as closely as possible match the demographic makeup of the students according to categories set by the state right yeah I mean the goal is certainly to have our Workforce mayor our student population demographics yes I I for one don't confuse somebody of Korean background with somebody from Indian

032background but they're both counted as Asian by the state there's no differentiation made I don't know whether we're going to actually take the additional step to make sure that if we have Asian portion of our uh faculty actually consider the uh actually widely disperate subgroups but so your issue is more about the subgrouping by state and federal government oh I don't have an issue at all I'm just sort of curious okay Andre this isn't really a question it's more of a confession I'm on the Dei but somehow in the last two meetings I haven't been able to to um to connect I guess I didn't what I'm saying is I didn't get the um the notification in time and I'm taking responsibility for that because I didn't look in the right place but I want

033to I just want to assure everybody that I want to continue and that the the board from my perspective anyway has your entire support okay thank you Andrea and I'll be sure to touch base with the committee leader to make sure that they know that yeah great thank you so the reason why this is on our agenda is is that um if you can remember about a month and a half ago or maybe the end of March um Susan um and Joyce uh from the superintendent's office and I met um to clean up our template and our referral sheet and um this was on the template and so it's not that we're only going to talk about Dei once a year but we wanted to make sure that once at least once a year there's

034a that the board gets updated on the activities of the district um to ensure that and so that is um in May it just happened to be on the template so Susan and I are trying really hard to kind of follow through on that stuff and it also was timely I think I brought to the board's attention that um juneth June 19th um is a Federal holiday now and it's also recognized by the state and in our own town and city it's been recognized and and it's being observed um last year I think the board asked me to get a proclamation and we actually had school um late that year so that we were able to say that it was you know a recognized holiday um I know that the the a lot of banks

035are closed and a lot of um State and workers are you know have the day and that our city and town also is giving the day so the question was asked what kind of financial responsibility would the board bear so I brought it to our finance and Facilities um group to you know Board of Ed committee to really look at it and examine it and with Ken's help we asked the question well what is this going to cost the board so Ken if you want to just remind I think we also had had a Nifty chart that you did up that yeah and and Jay also if you would like to um as the chair of the finance and Facilities if you would like to also chime in because I know that you guys talked

036about it but thank um I think um Ken has his uh chart so I'll uh defer to him um oh so we uh we had identified that uh be with it being after school lets out this year uh that the impact was for I think we came up with 88 uh 88 employees that central office and the uh the maintenance uh and custodian uh technician group um the the financial impact uh uh isn't so much of an impact uh because uh the the the though that those groups would be paid for that day regardless of whether or not they they were they were at work so uh there we found no Financial impact just a productivity impact because of course if they weren't there they wouldn't be doing uh the duties of that those positions

037and we also discussed that anou would have to go into place because it does affect some union workers so we would have to really craft and get Floyd's help on that the question was also asked well what if school was in session and if we got you know some snow and you know we always plan to finish up the year it seems like we've had graduation 16th 17th for the past several years but if it went past that what would that look like and we did say we' probably have to adjust the calendar accordingly if there was snow and um you know and then the kids would also have the day off but they really wouldn't be G given the day off it just or the teachers wouldn't be given the day off they just

038have that day then then the following day and we' continue on the calendar yeah the the teacher contract number of days will stay the same that just wouldn't uh Pro potentially work on on that June 19th day Jay I saw that your hand was raised yeah I just wanted to to clarify um but but Ken um uh sort of made my point the the classroom teachers and the administrators all are contracted to work a certain number of days per year and that's what they're paid on so if there's a Federal holiday um it it doesn't impact us it just means they work another day and so there's no Financial impact um except um I think we brought up the scenario that if there were some sort of building emergency um that staff you know would

039be brought in um on on holiday pay um but other than that the the employees who are not under a contract specif I the number of days that they work uh would have the day off and as Ken mentioned it's sort of a it's a productivity thing but it doesn't directly increase any of the the line items in the hours I have a question absolutely so it when you said that um it you know they would work when would be the other day that they would make up that day you said that they would make up mean during during a school year you mean yeah uh if school went past June 19th then the June June 20 would be the next day okay and what about um the cost for pair professionals and part-time employees

040that don't work 12 months the same would be true for them they would have to work then the following day so they also have contracted days of the year um so that would just you know offset the year but that there would be a cost to that because they're not normally 12-month employees power professionals and and and uh tutors correct they're not 12-month employees um and but there wouldn't be an additional cost because we wouldn't pay for the day that that they didn't attend school it would be the the following day when they did come in so they would come to work an additional day of the school year based on a calendar if we had to adjust it for weather like we've had to do in the past and sometimes we hold off on

041that graduation as you know sometimes it feels like too long we're waiting to make that graduation date and then um you know and then there's you know weather in Clement like this year we were really pretty fortunate we're ending on the 14th for everybody and we're having our graduation on the 16th so we had a really good year as far as weather goes didn't we Sam they still worked very hard because their custodial crew maintenance crew are the people who are out there at 4:00 in the morning on those snow days ice days you know doing that extra care work to make sure it's safe for everybody else so that's this is a question for Sam then for your custodial we're still in those schools those days even if it's closed on June 19th correct

042no if the school was closed we wouldn't be in if it were a holiday they have if it's a holiday oh okay but we'd have to put that into mou and be very specific about conditions but when they talk about emergency that would be affecting my department I believe is what they're talking about no different than any other holiday we have very few emergencies on holidays and I would not on wood the wood's needed Christmas included yeah so um so the reason why Susan was bringing it up here is that we will be voting on it for this year um uh for the observant of June 19th and um and and maybe um needing to get some uh more information maybe um from Lori about how to just kind of make sure that we get

043that into the mlus or whatever that we need to do for um moving forward um but so I just wanted to make sure that that got talked about thank you superintendent Austin we're going to move to the business manager report Okay so uh the updated object code summary that's attachment number one shows that we are anticipating about a $30,000 uh unexpended balance this is a very very tight window um we're currently in the process of looking at um uh the final bills for the year uh we still have May and June to go so we will be making estimates for those depending on when they come in um we've found that electricity cost is coming in much higher uh we have had some uh additional students come in uh for special education that uh we

044didn't anticipate uh however site budgets are coming in under budget uh which could allow for us to pay for our bid list uh uh things like uh the snow plowing is course under budget this year thankfully uh so uh we are still anticipating that we're going to uh come in uh at our budgeted amount of uh 79 uh 79 m157 lot of money go ahead and if there are um if there is money left over we do we return that to the town correct yeah we would return to the town uh superintendent Austin and I would would would discuss uh how how that would be we've actually done a nice job putting it back into opv or to health savings as well we've had opportunities to do that to be really responsible so um we'll

045be grateful to come in yeah I don't anticipate there being much with a little yeah any further comment about the object code all right moving on to the insurance the health insurance claims report uh for the month of March uh came in uh this is um attachment number two uh came in at 12.1% of anticipated claims for the month of March uh year to date we're at 91.2% uh and as we've discussed before this is a trend that we anticipate uh folks use up their uh they're they're deductibles in the first half of the Year second half of the Year tends to be uh uh uh more uh more U claims um this Compares with um last last March uh at 108% so it's uh a little bit higher but uh on a year- to-day

046basis we're actually a little bit lower uh we did we don't usually get it this early in the month but we did get the April of 2023 report uh and so that's showing that we're going to be at 102% for the month of April so it's kind of flowing the way we anticipate um uh I fully anticipate that uh we will be within our anticipated number uh at the end of end of this year wow great wow that is good yeah that is good any questions about the insurance all right we'll move on um I am sorry to the board if they'd like to see the full the full version of of this room but sometimes I I just it's important for me to see who's there um and if hands get raised I know

047you get in front but um I just wanted to let you know that that was more of my need um and so I apologize that I superseded your you guys um but let's move on to the director of building and grounds good evening I don't know if the rest of you noticed but I when when Kate was doing her report she had some notes on her phone I have my notes here I'm a little bit jealous of uh the young people with their eyes so um moving on I have a couple of things to report on uh the first is that uh last week we did receive our bids uh for uh both the sewer project at fit high school and the Northeast Academy drainage project so the first phase of the drainage project and

048the seore project will start as soon as school is out uh those contractors have been selected and vetted so we're all set on that we also met with uh Mr danielak at gron Middle School uh to uh work on the promotion layout uh which will be on June 8th um there are lots of moving pieces that were we're running around uh uh to all the elementary schools for all of their events that are coming up Field Days uh promotions at those schools as well so we're moving the furniture uh and equipment to those uh on almost daily basis now so those are the things that I have for now and any questions I'd be happy to answer when um now that our cips have been approved when do you start on the was it the

049no wasn't the roof yes it was no that's from last year that was from last year that's from last year uh one one of the other uh advertisements that we had out and came in last week was um I think I told you in an earlier uh meeting uh this year that the state has changed their process regarding uh uh Grant projects and uh previously we were able to select Architects and then move forward with the project they now uh require us to go out to bid or or to ask for a uh RFQ uh for um uh architects so we have to uh and we got uh eight uh uh submissions uh for that and so Rick Norris and I are putting a spreadsheet together to look at all the qualifications for The Architects

050and that will be the first project that we start with uh with the architect is the uh Charles baram roof project Jay uh Mr katrick following up on our uh Finance meeting from earlier this month I saw that since that meeting the town has approved uh if I'm not mistaken the field lights for GR middle school and I'm just curious what is the rest of that timeline I think you might have been waiting for FAA approval or something yes um the uh light project is moving forward um Kent and frost are working on the finalized plans and uh we will be submitting that uh to the town um on the I think it's the 28th we'll be going uh for that uh and and uh hopefully we'll be uh uh ordering supplies it looks like

051uh a fall uh project it won't it certainly won't happen before school starts with the uh the time frame for getting the supplies in so uh that would be uh after school starts J do have another question question uh no I'll lower my hand thank you I have a so when I read in the paper that the town would also be putting lights up aquantic planes Park is that correct that I don't know I didn't see that one yeah so read they mentioned Gren middle and they mentioned Panic Plains and so I was curious whether or not that would impact our some of our sports that are played down a banic Plains if they'd be able to play like later in the evening or certainly during the fall you know it gets dark pretty early

052uh yeah I think Yogi bar had a comment about what I was thinking getting dark early um but uh that would be helpful there along with the the middle school project as well yes they mentioned both of them and they said so many people use the walking path in the you know during the pandemic and everything and they felt that they should light light it so I assume we'd have some lights there right maybe that's something that Mark Romano needs to just be in contact with the park and wreck and to see what that is I I thought Jay might be asking about the solar project and that wasn't on my list um at least if maybe it was on this phone and not on my iPad um the uh solar project is moving along

053as well too and again that will be a fall project for us that has hit a little bit of a snag in that the uh uh method of uh attaching them to the roof it was supposed to be a ballor system which is uh weighted down um they're concerned about the winds up there uh and uh so we're now looking at penetra more penetrations in the roof than we had initially thought so uh again Rick Norris and I are working with them on a daily basis to uh determine whether um we can accept their change at this point so uh working with their engineer on that one still but again that will be a fall project I have one more question um last year remember Liz brought up that about our charging the charging stations

054at our schools and that you know the Board of Education um pays for those so I believe we had a c about it or we were going to to talk about whether or not they could be turned off on the weekends or if it was feasible after school I was wondering just swinging back cuz then has anything ever happened with that um it it's probably something we probably should have talked uh at the uh Finance of facilities committee meeting about but I'm in favor of um I if if it's your uh wish to actually turn them off on weekends if you think that's what we should do I think last time you going to we can do it you can do it okay oh I didn't realize that we could do that I think we'd

055have some upset neighbors yeah yes but that's okay there are the town has quite a few of them so would you like to have that I know that we're not at that but to add that to the finance and Facilities to talk about that let's talk about that we probably need to also find out from the town what they're doing on weekends right with everything any other questions for Mr katrick paid them well huh um but but I do want to say um thank you to um superintendent Austin to Ken Knight and to Sam Kilpatrick for um you know walking the board's budget across the Finish Line with our colleagues um at the Town Council and the RTM um which has finalized their budget process and have approved our budget so I would like to

056say thank you to your your staff um for taking our budget and um uh and helping it get to fruition so thank you very much thank you and the board for the support yeah on the journey yeah it's been a journey it's been a journey all right so I'm going to move us to committee um yeah that word committee reports um and I'm just going to start off with policy so I can tell you all about it here or I can tell you all about it when we do would you like to save that for the discussion it's that's up for you why don't you save that for the discussion all right okay is that all that you would have just fer so curriculum that would be Liz y um so we've had couple of

057things have happened um there will be a pilot next year for a course that's kind of a Capstone project for the um Project Lead the Way and that is going to be called the engineering design and development class and it's has about a number of students right now there's eight that are registered for it but they're trying to get more kids involved and these are students that have gone all the way through with Project Lead the Way and this is their ability now is this this is their time to demonstrate their knowledge and to learn how to become designers and engineer type of thing so we're very excited that that's going to be in a pilot program for next year um we also had an update about the AMT class from principal kellerer and we

058began a discussion on the the teachers WR College writing program that we are going to be looking at um a lot of different research a lot of different articles and to um you know for further discussion that's going to begin in September um one of the things that we are looking at also is that there's the financial literacy requirement that is um begun that the state has come out with unfortunately their verbage is quite um nebulous so we don't know if it's for the class of 2027 or if it's begins in 2027 so we're waiting on some clarification there but we also went through we have a number of Cl of uh of a list of anybody's interested I know Matthew you are of all the courses that are offered for financial literacy but one

059of the things that we discovered is that we're not quite sure even of what the state deems as Financial cial literacy so these are terms that we have to make sure that we're in compliance with so that's that's for um future discussion um the other thing I just want to inform the board and this is also at the on the calendar at the end is that I'm traveling a lot this summer and therefore we're not going to be holding um a curriculum committee meeting until September so no June no June July or August excuse me June July August June July and August we're going to have a little bit of a Hiatus allow for people to do their work this summer there's a lot of curriculum writing going on um and just to get some

060things fleshed out and then come back strong in September thank you Liz thank you for your leadership finance and Facilities Jay uh yes we uh met on May 2nd and uh as we discussed uh already earlier in this meeting we we basically reviewed the unexpended funds the financial implications of juneth uh the field lights and the solar F and that was it thank you Jay Communications Communications had its monthly meeting tonight we went over the final draft with the fine toothcomb of the communication plan and as a result we will vote on it next month but uh I think we're going to have a strong plan for you I hope to get it to you well before the month we'll send it out to everybody so they can read it in advance thank you uh

061the other things as we're working to reschedule a date for the PTO uh meeting uh this is a meeting designed for the parents so that we can ask them what collaboration they want amongst themselves what support in a perfect world they would like from us then we can decide what we can actually do uh we will not be promoting any particular thing this is to be driven by the parents with our support for the parents and the children um we are going to be taking up uh a communication strategy for realtors uh it may be more than Realtors because I did look online I've looked at the town and City website looked at Economic Development looked at the two chambers of commerc uh looked at the HR uh HR offices and the major employers and

062to the best of my knowledge none of them has any information about our school district so I'm hoping that a single document uh may be adequate to advance uh our education for prospective residents of the Town that's great thank you just uh a point about that I know looking at um different real estate sites in our area like they have gotten Long Point the students going to Westside they have all the different areas they have the the students going to schools that are closed so I think it does need you know needs to be cleaned off yes definitely yeah definitely I think we can we can I'm hopeful I'm hopeful we can enlist the PTO leadership these are parents who have a vested and demonstrated interest in the success of the students in the in

063the district that they will be able to put reviews on Great Schools and other sites uh and maybe we can encourage Great Schools to include the actual schools that are functioning in our district how welcoming it would be for family looking our town to go to a closed down school right thank you Rita that wouldn't be crowded that won't be crowded your great um so negotiations we are in the middle of um we'll be holding actually our second meeting um with the uh par Educators um and I think that that is next week on the 31st of um which is a Wednesday so that will be our next meeting um and learn yes um we Let's see we Mike Beldon who is the finance um gentleman at learn presented the budget and it was approved

064um by the board also in terms of the legislative updates HB 50003 was not fully funded by the state of Connecticut legis which means that there is no additional Magnet School fundings available to districts we were hoping that the state would take over um so that we wouldn't have to pay for our students going to magnet schools but that wasn't funded the other thing is learn is not in support of a legislative proposal um that would prohibit the use of seclusion and restraint for child safety so they're they concern that you know if this bill goes through and I actually read even it's even in the in Congress the federal they're thinking of doing this um so they're they're not in favor of this at all because a lot of times it's for the safety

065of the students in the classroom and um the the child itself so um the other ones there's a bill concerning financial literacy which you you talked about that is still hasn't it's presented but it's hasn't been voted on yet and then there's a Bill of Rights for English language Learners that the legislative is looking into and also an act for student meals whether or not the state is going to continue to pay for student meals but learn in in terms of learn itself um the Friendship school which is in Waterford they're hoping to move that school to 51 Daniels Avenue in Waterford on a new site um the town of Waterford would like the site back where the Friendship School is located right near Waterford High School and there's a lot of traffic in this

066area and they would just like that site back even though it was built by the state of Connecticut 50% of students were supposed to come from New London 50% from Waterford and then Waterford pulled out after a number of years um the the fifth the kindergarten class the five-year-olds at the Friendship school will now be going to the magnet school in New London the multiculture magnet school and they've also signed a lease for 58 Pennsylvania Avenue for their transition Academy so it'll be moving from Route One in Niantic to which is much better for the students they could go out they could walk to jobs it's a much better site and a bigger site so that's about it w is that the Old Lighthouse location yes it's the lighthouse has moved out and so yeah

067oh I turned the page sorry uh so the town and City and Council RTM uh Board of Ed liazon meeting is on our thing it's June 1st um and that's actually going to be hosted um by the RTM and so that is for the liazon um the agsa the GAA and the board of edly is on we are going to be at par 4 Wednesday Wednesday for um members of the Board of Ed the leaz on committee um and that's going to be at part four um grotten scholarships yes I have wonderful news we have 46 recipients will be receiving some form of a um gron scholarship at on scholarship night which um was it the 30th or 31st I just had it written down and I lost it but anyway uh we had a

068total of $42,000 that was donated for the the scholarship so we did quite well um we had top three top three three top earners I mean winners of that will receive $4,000 each and then there's increments that go all the way so but everybody who applied received something so I think that's really quite remarkable very cool thank you senior scholarship may30 at 6:30 when is it I'm sorry it's on our little list of my CH and your activities so it is the 30th May 30th 6:30 p.m. senior scholarship Awards and honor board thank you J athletic oh I'm sorry I just had a question some students don't know until graduation when they see their name in the book though is that correct I think that that is more when they get the book awards no

069that's Junior Year's book awards Junior Year's book awards so but I thought a lot of the times the students found out the night of graduation if they receive some of the Gren scholarship but did they change it I don't know I honestly don't know okay well I've been at at those um the award ceremonies and when I I would give my own scholar oh that's right too you usually give it CU I don't go up anymore do that that's true yeah I do hope though that the students the recipients write to the people or just acknowledge the scholarship I I mentioned it to you another time I think sometimes you get to thank you another time you don't even know who received it like last year the high school didn't send out their um you

070know the booklet saying who received what well I have the list if you want to look okay I'm going to move us on Jay athletic fields has there been any new meetings uh no they have not met Trails the June there is nothing to report they will have their quarterly meeting in June oh there is something about Trails we received it in our board notes and it was also in the paper June 3D Granton public schools in conjunction I was so pleased to see that with Granton open space will be helping to lead um the on the National Trails day which is June 3rd very exciting we've been really working hard I think give a lot of credit to Dr Kennedy who was a hiker himself and making those connections and we've had um day

071field experiences with in many of our schools where we've had some of our student hikers join Goa and do some hikes oh that's great it's been wonderful we want to see more of it so there Matthew there we go well how about the library I have to finish penitence first uh the library uh the public library board met the a week ago uh there were comments made about present and potential future collaboration with gron Public Schools Librarians and the our Librarians have been there was some question raised about collaboration on policy and so the library the public library is inviting any Librarian from our system to attend their policy meetings uh and keep their keep us in sync with one another I see lizanne with her thumb up I think she's already been invited um

072permanent School building committee have have they met they haven't met in some time okay last couple of months okay so maybe you and Dean could um just have a brief conversation about what our role is in that or what your role is in that that I think that would be helpful if you would be willing the two of you D same same that would be great thank you um State Council of educational opportunities for military children yes we met on May 11th and there was a great deal of of discussion about well one of the things we talked about was a penate um study on that they're doing on the Compact and I took I took the survey well I guess it's a survey it was supposed to be training but it was more like

073a survey and it didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know know so maybe I'll take it again and and see what's what um but there was a lot of of discussion about the meaning of deployment so there's going to be a a study of that because you know does does deployment and and the time off that a student would get does that mean every 3 weeks when Dad goes out on the submarine for you know some training that's deployment and does the um the application of those days um apply there or is it really meaning when they're you're out to seea for 6 months so they're looking at that and there's a new training on the uh I think it's on this coming Wednesday and that's on the the purple State program and

074that's looking at at the idea that military children move every 3 years so that can mean as many as nine is that correct Susan it seems to me that's how many times you Mo mov in in a child's career at school so the new training is going to be looking at how do we help with the coping of that it's called pardon me the purple State program I'm sorry and um finally they decided that they were not going to include the National Guard in the in the compact because of the the various um differentiations in in how States uh uh man the National Guard and um it was too unwieldy and the last thing and I think this is all the last thing was that and to me this has profound ramifications and that is

075Utah is considering withdrawing from the compact so that's that's that's a big deal and I think I did I cover I covered it okay then done oh no no June 13th there's a military uh entrance um and it's talking about the um idea of of College and Career Readiness in terms of states and that's the captain of the Bas Miranda will be there Bob Ross will be there Susan me so I have been bringing it to the state's attention over and over again until finally I got AI in the state to come down and meet with us because I said how is it that 30 of my students every year either enlist or go to a military academy but don't get credit for it on our report card as college career Readiness not even if

076they go to the Naval Academy do they get credit so I think it has to do with how we keep the records and how Department of Defense doesn't necessarily know how to share the records and and really pinpoint the student to what school so I think we're we've really been working on this project for two years and calling people at Department of Defense the captain has helped out Bob Ross has helped out and I think we do have some resolutions so we're meeting with AIT it something as simple as when you have orders or you enlist you bring the paperwork or your or you bring your appointment to the academy to the school that gets copied and then submitted somehow on power school as yes you're officially going to be serving our country and you

077should get credit that's a career opportunity jez so sometimes you can't let things go you just have to keep on keeping on keep fighting a good fight yep so it should be good news so I'll keep you posted thank you that's great so move us on to action items the next one is the consent agenda which all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine they'll be enacted by one motion points of clarification will be allowed can I have a motion for the consent agenda so moved I'll second I have Liz and it's been seconded by Rita Rita thank you um and so any discussion hearing none all those in favor of the consent agenda please say I I oppose abstain motion has carried um the board would like to thank um

078suene vant who has donated a $200 gift card to Brett's count country Gardens in s Connecticut for use by the Gren Middle School gardening club in campus beautification how cool another question yes um a couple of years ago the town set up a beautification committee which is um working around town and I'm wondering if there's any opportunity for Synergy with that uh don't need anything tonight but if you can think of any Synergy Susan let me know I know a few people on that committee I might reach out me to I think you do know that would be great if you would want to reach out to see if there's any um and then to bring that back to to Susan because it would be under Susan's purview okay that'd be great I love it

079when we can do that Liz yeah can I please have you read the first motion motion is to approve policy P 61631 Library material selection as a first reading so folks This was um put us on on table for um actually almost three rounds the first two was just because our we were just too busy during the other two um meetings and then it did get pulled because my understanding is that the that there was a more information that was coming from the state and um we needed to get more information so is that correct okay and you actually have the the working of that in green on on where you see the objective of the selection and then the selection Personnel that is really um involved in cultivating Cur rating the materials that go

080into a library to make sure they're reflecting a broad diversity of culture and World Views um so I have to thank lizanne and um and also her colleagues because they really work with us to not only look at the policy but it's really regul ations are the working of the staff underneath the superintendent that we want the regulations to match how it actually has to unfold so a Polish policy is usually short and sweet and that's the working of the board so it's important that you know you read this policy and approve it and then the regulations then will follow as how we put it into play Andrew do you have anything else to add to that I just have to say that we brought the language up to date and there was some really

081U vague U wording in here that talked about principles and it said that um the the uh decision to be guided by principles not PS p and the question that I came to my mind was well whose principles are those I said the same thing so um yeah so Susan was really astute about this I would never have thought about it but she did and she U added the principles that are under that are held up by the school library Bill of Rights freedom of uh to read statement the American Library Association and the Connecticut Department of Education which really strengthens to specify what we're talking about that's right yeah and I don't think that there's anything else would there is there anything that you would like to add to discussion and if you and

082if you do we're going to I'll throw a mic to you I probably won't throw it but I'm wondering if she could borrow your mic him did we get a second for that motion oh oh you're so you're so silly yes can I have a second to the motion that we've already discussed Matt has seconded thank you Miss Joan thank you I'm lizanne Johnson I'm a library media specialist at Gren middle school and fit high school I just want to stress the importance for us in the job at how many book challenges are taking place so having our policy up to date will protect our district and our town from frivolous book Banning and book challenges um we worked very hard The Librarians worked in November on the um regulations and we followed the American

083Library Association we the new new New Jersey has a fantastic State approved policy and so we used that as guidelin so we really we really did our research but we appreciate all that you do are if there are questions for me I'm happy to answer them VA no my question is um not not for you um on the second page it are we going to be rewarding this so it's a Granton Board of Education and then board in Green in parentheses again or how how does that work right on the first line on the back page of the first page this is under the regulations oh well under Library material yeah responsibility so would it would it say Granton Board of Education and then a parentheses board again I think it either says the Granton

084Board of Education it says and then from here on out we'll be calling it just the board I see so when you put in parentheses you're saying for future reference we'll just call call the board just like the district is the district right I had the same question for Erica and she corrected me and she said what Susan said Thank You de so there was mention of frivolous challenging is what in here is designed to Tamp down on that or to eliminate or to control it isn't it in the regulations I think it is in the regulations it really talks about that it would have to be a parent of a student who is currently in Groton public schools that it couldn't be someone from Iowa or Florida or somewhere else you know one of

085those other states one of those other states or places I mean that's one that comes to mind right it's a second to the last page I no I I I'm sorry yeah did you want to come up and yeah because she has more once the book has been challenged they can't be challenged again for 5 years what they're finding in other states is that groups will challenge a book 125 times and you have to revisit that 125 Times by stating that we will only V revisit a book after 5 years and that we're keeping it local yes you have to have a vested interest you have to have a vested interest in groten public schools to be able to challenge a book that our libraries have I believe also one has to articulate in one's

086challenge specifically what it is one finds Troublesome specifically what it is that one finds would be harmful to a student um and the book would not be or material would not be removed from circulation During the period of the review that's exactly right thank you for reminding us that thank you de so if I may be so bold and and it's not for you you can you can you can sit down you don't have to stand up at the mic anymore I'm voting no because this tracks the the library Bill of Rights the school library Bill of Rights uh Etc the freedom freedom read statement which is actually goes back a great number of years because these emate from the American Library Association which I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw it with

087respect to its Judgment of what's appropriate or not appropriate so principles that have anything to do with that organization I don't trust so I'm voting no okay thank you any other comment a discussion I could go into detail but I don't think it would matter here I'm not trying to I would never try to um stop your freedom of your speech no I understand but I've I made a judgment call that uh just Steady My objection okay I appreciate that hearing no further discussion all those in motion to approve the policy P 61631 Library material selection as a first reading please say I I I I oppose abstain that motion has carried William would you be willing to read the motion for number two please the motion to approve policy P 5123 promotion retention graduation

088as a first reading can I have a second second see Miss J I can be taught discussion Andrea I think we're uh just up to date on this I think everything is is pretty clear the only thing I want to mention is that we need a uh there if you go down to the second paragraph on the first page of course it's prior to the end of the school year and then you see uh any deviation from the progress mentioned in the first paragraph I'm going to um strike the word mentioned I don't think there's any place for it there and I I thought about it what before when we met we met and then I just thought it was U too superflous but I when I read it again today I said that has

089to go so it just as an edit yeah and then on the next page in the Middle School promotion and retention um and that's on the U the the your your part of this not the policy the regulation there's an Oxford comma missing oh my goodness and I'm so careful with those now I've learned so much okay all right these are two Ed I'll tell you where it goes so we'll see how good a student I am up yours okay tell me well you can tell me later so this one really is um when we we notice that this particular policy really jives with the one that you've already um approved on graduation requirements so we had to really update it um so that it also simple things like on the first page we no

090longer have cmts so we have smarter balance and we have next Generation science standards so we had to update and then certainly with in the regulations we had to update the current classes versus the upcoming classes with our new newly um voted on graduation requirements so they this now is aligned with the the policy that has already been approved there's one more okay on the regulations on page 303 304 there's no s on one stem one stem credit so the S has to go okay that's it you are right about that can I do you have more Andrea do you have more Corrections that's it that's it I had a question about the Middle School promotion and retention if a student fails one subject or two two or more they could be given a special

091promotion or may be retained in the same grade another year my question is like in our high school we give those students an opportunity to go to summer school do we do that in the middle school yes we do this year I've asked the principes to look at any child who's failed a core subject and they'll go to Fitch high school for credit recovery wonderful so that they can continue and we're sharing that information with parents we think you know ninth grade is kind of a gatekeeper if our ninth graders aren't successful then it really correlates with graduation and not graduating so we said it really is important um that our eighth graders if they failed a course like their grade eight math then to put them in algebra in ninth grade without some credit

092recovery is really putting them in a poor position so this should really give them leverage and we're going to I think that Peter even has some things that he sck got up asleep to really Pro to promote that and to also you know give kids some um acknowledgement of them doing that work over the summer so I'm really happy about their response to that good question Liz oh I'm Liz I'm sorry I just um I remember I've asked about increasing the social size credits to four and I had asked um for some data about how many students take more than three credits and I've never received that data and I think that speaks to this policy and so I feel like um you know if we're looking to increase the number of credits for World

093Language but I also brought up the idea of the concept about you know especially in this day and age we need to increase um I believe personally that we need to increase our social studies credits we are becoming more of a global Society we need to have students who are educated in the Democratic process and not just a you know a brief thing I think we really need to encourage that um and I just was wondering I don't remember I'm sorry but I don't remember voting on the number of requ the credits that we were going to allow I don't remember that vote I don't remember when that happened it could have happened when I had to take a couple of times off but I don't remember that happening it did happen but I I'm

094sorry you didn't get the data I think that was sent out but I will double check check and make sure you get the credits so um but I still think that's something that we as a board need to continue to explore because quite frankly when you have three credits and you have one and a half are already dedicated to something I I just don't think we're doing due diligence to our our society and I I totally agree I just want to like us to continue exploring that option please so so Liz how do you want us to um continue to keep that on our foreground would you like to have that be thrown into the the the curriculum referral sheet so that you could kind of continue to have that in the curriculum we could

095do that that would be fine I really would like also to maybe through that we'll be able to talk to the teachers and get some input from the teachers so I think that's a really good thing so Dr Piaza and um Dr Horan Dr ACR can let's make sure we put that in our list look at that I've got three doctors and I'm the only one without the doctor in front of my name that's okay but let's um we're going to put that as a future topic we'll put that on our tracking sheet is that the thing referral sheet referral sheet thank you thank you very much no I think that that um I think you're bringing up a really good point and um I think um let's not lose that no um because that

096policy has passed um but that doesn't necessarily mean that that policy cannot be relooked with new information so okay thank you no I just wanted to tell Mrs Porter to take to aspirin and we'll put it on the document I'm sorry I couldn't we couldn't hear you take take two aspirin and we'll put it on the doctor that's the doctor you know and maybe in the future it'd be nice to know how many students are retained I I don't think many students are retained anymore so it' be interesting to see whether or not from elementary all the way through if students are really retained you know if if because it it doesn't sound like it from this policy but so so that that actually wouldn't like a GL just a global how how hard would

097that be for the for us to get that see it more in kindergarten right um and that's why we designed the TK program because we knew that there were very young kindergarteners coming and sometimes it was no fault of theirs they were just not ready for well I think of it as a report at the end of the year just like a retention I mean just like our suspension and expulsion report could have done that in the summer yep so I'm going to bring us back to the policy any further conversation hearing none all those in favor to approve policy P 5123 promotion retention graduation as a first reading please say I I I oppose abstain motion has passed since this is the first reading isn't imp possible for the the um policy committee to

098re think about the four credits in a social sign so that is a different policy and that has already been passed by second meeting we did pass that y thought so R would you please be willing to read the motion for number three sure thank you to approve the observation of juneth on June 19th 2023 for 12 months employees can I have a second to that please I have Dr Morgan so we've had the discussion already um Jay so um reading this this motion um I'm just concerned it it it approves the observation of juneth on June 19th 2023 and it adds this 12-month employee um which I don't know that that is is relevant to what the public would understand I I would propose that that um to amend it to approve the annual

099observation of juneth beginning June 19th 2023 and just leave it there but I don't know if anybody would support that amendment I would support that yeah I I absolutely yeah okay so oh Miss Joan walk me through this so that I now have an amendment on the floor and it has been seconded by Matthew so now do I go into discussion about the amendment see okay if there is any if there is any okay so do we um want to have discussion on the the motion to approve the annual observation of June 19th yes because all this says is that we're going to do it on June 19th this year and that's it yeah I see that that's how I read it that this is this was only going to be a one shot deal

100and I think we need if this is what we're going to be doing then it's something that needs to be um an annual event so I think the reason and I'm not saying it's a good reason I'm just saying the reason why I put it specifically for just this year is because I wasn't quite sure about any of the m and and stuff that had to be done and so I just wanted to kind of like make sure that we could get it for this year um but that I would be advocating that we then moved to to having it I mean I don't care what I I my my concern was just to make sure that I wanted to get it done for this year specifically I do feel it's an annual thing but

101I wanted to make room for Theus and such and so maybe that doesn't have to be part of our motion maybe that's understood that if we are celebrating the June 19th annually that if there is anything that comes out of like if we're like in school until June 20 go in the that would be in theou do you want to speak to that Lori yeah how that works I just um I think the edit is fine U we would have to do anou with the Union body anyway just to Define how exactly it will logistically function so we can do that okay um I believe that we were going to have a discussion about this with um the different unions and possibly giving back back a day like a different day like indigenous people day

102or because it it is another paid holiday so how many do you know that's why I thought we were going to have a further discussion about this with the m us and so forth with the unions so at an earlier part of the discussion let's make sure that I heard this is that it's it's just that we won't be paying them for June 19th but if the school is still in session they would come to school and work June 20th is that did I understand that so that's how we were going to that that's how they were going to take that it's still a day it's still a day off it's it's still it's still a paid holiday no matter how you look at it it has to affect some employee some way and there

103has to be some cost and whether or not do we need you know I mean to have this day at the end of June it just I don't know Lori do you want to speak to what Theus would do yeah the only the only bargaining unit impacted by this decision is the maintenance custodial it SEC um secretary's unit however the only individuals would be maintenance custodian IT staff that work 12 months who would be impacted that we would need to um meet with them to work on anou together the other units are impacted because what would happen is if June 19th um is observed and we needed to run the school calendar either past to June 19th or past June 19th it wouldn't be a paid Hol holiday for them because they don't receive paid

104holidays they may be off work but that day would then be added on to the school calendar at a later time whether June 20th 21st whatever date that is we add it let's say so that would be 13 paid holidays as opposed to 12 12 like right now for the teachers un for the 12-month employees yes but for the employees that do not work 12 months and work the school calendar they're not paid holidays they're just nonwork days for them yeah any other discussion around that and we are uh talking about the amendment the amendment right so initially I would be in favor of if you're going to do it for one year just do it for eternity um but so the only value in just leaving it for this year as you said is

105as to leave us kind of space to consider this fully and then the next time so I see some value in that on the other hand maybe there isn't very much to theou thing maybe we've already discussed I'm I'm sort of of two minds on this one should we have a further discussion to make sure we're all on board with it we know all the ramifications or do we think we've heard enough about that in which case then let's just go with the amendment I'm I frankly have two minds on it thanks Ste well there has to be an impact to students because if there is no school and it's close to the end of the school year and there's a day off good chance that the students aren't going to come back after this

106you know even if they're supposed to that that's just my thought yeah you can kiss that day goodbye pretty much but you might anyway frankly mean the end let's let's be honest when I was in school same thing last couple days of school yeah not a lot going on especially after seniors have done graduation yeah right then Jay I'm sorry I was simply going to say that you know it's already a um National State uh and local holiday um and we have the same issue with with snow days we don't know how many snow days there'll be at the end of the year um and there are people for example who don't come to work when it snows um and sometimes we have many more than one or two so um I I know we

107said that for a couple of people it's going to affect productivity um I guess snow days do that as well um but I just think that um again I I just uh support that we build this amendment Matthew I was of two minds as you know I sent a note uh in response to Susan's letter with a calculation of cost which further uh I have been educated as to my miscount calculation uh I made another mistake just eight years ago uh so I just want to know Ken if it's possible uh if it's possible what the dollar figure just a ballpark and the dollar figure cost is for the uh for doing this if in an event in a year where we go past June 19th I mean are we talking $3,000 $30,000 What what

108are we talking for cost I I don't know uh but specifically you want to know for the impacted folks which we calculated to be 88 people calculate I I trust you on that so if we have 8 stipulate that we have 88 people and if it's 87 or 92 we will still get the sent the general s it's it's how how much they get paid for a day is that is that what the question is what will the impact be on the budget there is no impact there is no impact there is no impact okay if if if there were no work uh they'd get paid for the day if there were work they get paid for the day okay so that's that's where I'm um so I'm clarified that for for those 88 people

109there's no Financial impact and if I'm understanding correctly for those who are on a contractual basis based on the number of days served there would be no impact they would just adjust the the situation am I correct in my understanding now yeah yeah and then the only impact could possibly be if if employees called for an emergency uh that would be uh that's understood okay and I think the work that we have to get done in the summer to get the schools back ready again will still get done there's just there's these projects that we just get done and sometimes people just work harder at it to get it done in the days that they're there and they team up a lot I know that Sam does a great job at like all hands on

110deck in schools as they go so just to know that the work will still get done b i I see that you have your hand raised but I'm just going to interject one thing so let's be clear we want to celebrate the June the June 19th um I I think what what I'm hearing is the logistics if we're in school past that time at other years but there's going to be other information to make those decisions around that and so um I just wanted to also be clear about that that that we are about making sure that celebrate this holiday um but we're just concerned about logistics um in the future if those arise but I would like to recognize Bev thank you Kim um can Jay repeat his Amendment and explain it again if

111you don't mind absolutely Jade would you like to say the amendment please uh yes I um had proposed OS that we say to approve the annual observation of juneth beginning June 19th 2023 period and the reasoning being that you know it is now a federal state and local holiday uh and this way it won't have to come up for a vote every year and have us need for us to remember to put it on the agenda to vote for it again when it's already been enshrined as holiday at all other levels but that would be happening anyways correct Lori if that something was to happen you would be going and we would be working with each of the different con contractual employees that's correct that's okay B yeah and Jay what was your uh why

112did you oppose having the 12-month employees on that Amendment well it sounds like I know it just seemed awkward to me it it sounds like they're the only ones that'll be observing um it it just seemed awkward we're we're going to observe it as a district right that's right now now you know obviously the 12-month employees there's going to be some you know some us and that sort of thing I don't know that that needs to be enshrined in the motion this a districtwide observation so if they aren't 12-month employees Beverly and they're you know working the school year then they would just have the calendar adjusted so that they would cont to work the days that they're contracted to work but they would just shift it a day if that needed to happen but

113we would still observe it I I just don't think you need the word annually I think if it said the motion to approve the observation of June juneth on June 19th 2023 period per and just not have because that means it's annual you don't and beginning right it's just to approve we're approving it to approve the observation of June 19th beginning June 19th 2023 yeah and then just drop off for 12- month employees I mean you don't need to say annually because it's it's implied it's you're approving it on that day forward all right well let's get first this amendment done first Jay I I just respectfully believe that the motion should be clear that we are not just observing it on June 19th 2023 I I think there needs to be some modification to

114indicate that it's June 19th 2023 going you know and going follow okay so by inserting annual you know to approve the annual observation it makes it clear and doesn't require someone to come back and declare June 19th 2024 to be a holiday it just we okay we make it um we make it clear in the motion just by adding that and removing the reference to the the 12-month enforce okay thank you any other discussion on the amendment I I just wanted to say that uh I I understand Rita's objection in in particularly in terms of you know when I F first saw this as a teacher I and the principal I said how wacky is it to give a day off at the end of the year until you really think about what the day

115means and it has nothing to do with what time I wish it came into a different time of the year because it would then be more established but you know my first reaction was at the end of the year you're going to give a day off but when you really consider what what the day stands for there's no question that it has to be thank you any further questions on the amendment hearing none the amendment that's on the floor is to approve the annual observation of June 19th beginning June 19th 2023 all those in favor please say I I I I although oppose abstain I'm abstaining that amendment has passed now I need to go back to the motion or just stay with the go back go back to the original the main motion and

116ask if there's any more discussion okay so I'm going to go back excuse me point of clarification we have passed this we have passed the amendment we passed the amendment so uh We've amended the original motion the main motion so we now have to vote on the the amended main motion mechanically yes okay thank you the original yes no the amended main motion the main motion as amended the main motion as amended okay so I'm now going to go back do I have to get a first and a second no it's big okay so thank you uh thank you Dean um so all those in favor to approve the annual observation of June 19th begin juneth juneth I am sorry juneth beginning June 19th on on June 19th 23 right is there any discussion no

117I I go just right through a vote right no no right I'm I'm correct yeah you might want to Canvas if this see there any more discussion but I'm holding my eyes because I'm hoping there isn't any oh okay I didn't know if you were St to get a headache any any discussion um my only discussion would be I really liked what um Andrea had said about why you're observing this holiday and to maybe encourage the schools to do something on june8 18th or June 15 you know a little earlier in the school year so people understand what this holiday is all about just like if you you know some schools go to school on Veterans Day and they have a lovely ceremony that day we have ours before the day so again we could

118do something like that for this holiday all right if we're hearing no further discussion all those in favor of the motion that's on the floor please say I I I oppose I abstain just one that motion has passed Jay um letters or Communications uh yes so um I'm sure you all received the same uh emails that I did um from parents and others uh expressing their um appreciation for our parent Educators and while we can't say anything given that it's currently under negotiation I I certainly want anyone who's listening to this to know that I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for all of our Educators staff and administrators including our par Educators thank you J Beth same as Jay Matthew no I'm fine Dean pass Liz I received those Communications as well

119and I I want to also say yes we appreciate all that the comparers do as well as all of our other staff I also received a communication from Irene Weiss who is the um voter regist for voter registration from the league of women's voters and um I've put her in contact with uh principal kellerer to see if we can do another drive to um register students are seniors so I wanted to um give a shout out to Irene for and thank her for getting in contact with me I also wanted to say um as earlier stated by our student rep that the Fitch Pops concert was absolutely phenomenal uh I did not have the opportunity unfortunately to go to the choir and chorus one but I did get to go to the the instrumental one

120it they blew my socks off literally I couldn't believe how wonderful how much they had grown over the year and I just wanted I really want to say to the the the music department at Fitch High School fabulous well done so thank you William um nothing okay Rita we received the same letters about the peirs and I really appreciate hearing from the parents and um the other question I had was in our minutes from our meeting on the 24th um Mrs Bordine had asked about the um the indication on report cards about whether or not a student has received or achieved honor role and in your notes Kim it says here Mrs sheperson Watson noted that she will add this item to the board template did you mean the c um so I meant um

121the template I think um just to add that to making sure that when we go over the report cards because that is an annual review with report cards I think but isn't that something we could just vote on and and speak to hear from the high school staff and you know um I think that I think that we were like it's part of the template it's in the summer that we're going to go over and and at that point we could we could bring that to a vote and then also the about the AED machines in the schools and whether or not you know what what's happening on that case now that our budget's approved so I just think that it's important if if you know if people we we've often talked about this that

122if there are comments from citizens that we need to answer and understand how we're moving forward with with sometimes you know their requests wasn't that in the board notes I believe that that information was done completed but I go back and look but would the public know that no so whether we I think she was I think we answered her speci yes yes but the general public heard her question and then there's no response from the board so I feel that someplace we should have a response you know we have response to comments from citizens but that's only directly for when someone comes up but when people have a approached us about important issues to them we should have a response that everyone can hear I feel not just the one person so that's just

123a thought there's a um there's a couple of us who are going to be looking at the 9000s which is also the meeting template and maybe we could talk about whether we add that to the agenda or was it would it fall under response to comments from citizens it could right but but we then need to then denote that right okay thank you Andrea do you have I have two things yes and the first thing is I I want everybody to know that when I do I have two reasons for doing the the uh Corrections for commas and things like that first of all I do it for fun and the second thing is um I I want to make the difference between instructional grammar and rhetorical grammar and there are two different functions and

124uh I'm hoping to pursue that as we go along during the year so that's one thing the second thing is I couldn't have been more thrilled or more uh I don't know just felt such a a feeling of camaraderie is the word that comes to mind but uh maybe it's more like grandmotherly but Karen Rockwell cardier was teacher of the year and I had Karen in eighth grade and I was so proud of that so that's it so um I've been talking uh or the template has been referred to quite a bit tonight um and I will I think we've gotten the most recent one has been sent out to everyone um but that I'm asking for the people for the chairs of policy curriculum finance and Communications just to look at the referral sheet

125just to make sure that the referrals that you have on there make a lot of sense to you all um just so that we can do that and just um when Susan and I were meeting we were looking we were just we we've worked really hard this this year um and so um to kind of go back to a little bit more of a summer schedule where we would have um one Committee of the whole with one Board of Board of Ed meeting um and then also um in August actually have one of the meetings for the committee whole be a retreat like we would have it at the same time that we have Committee of the whole we would have it so that people um could uh be remote um um and uh to

126finish up the work around our our vision and mission statement um so I just wanted to give you your heads up on that that that will might look a little bit different for us um for the summer um notice that we we have not only um was the cheat sheet of all the end of the uh school activities but also the ACT uh the dates that are coming up in June um and uh graduation is when Susan 16 the 16th the 16th okay a Friday um and uh suggested agenda items I have Rita I have for you to go to finance um the electric charging stations um on school grounds and then for Liz I have the curriculum for four credits um for social studies as are there any other agenda items I guess we'll

127be hopefully voting on the uh community ation plan at our next meeting okay so just make sure that that um I we get that but absolutely okay um super I'm I'm looking forward to looking at that motion to turn oh youa okay no but information and proposals I wanted to acknowledge the middle school concert the orchestra choir the drummers were really phenomenal we enjoyed that very much and I did have a request uh in 2021 we got a form showing minority hiring across the district and I had asked our former statistician and I had asked our current statistician if we could use the same template and have a year or two before covid 2019 20 20 21 2122 if that's available so that we can fit a line and measure our progress and set our

128goals and I I would really like to get that data set so is that possibility that could get to the board yeah um we do have the requests we're researching back we our system does not retain historical data but we're trying to see what we have in the way of maybe archived reports that we can pull that data from thank you very much thank you and we're still hiring so this year we we wouldn't really have all that data till school year starts so yeah anything else no ma'am motion to adjourn do I have a second second okay all those in favor please say I I oppose abstain good meeting guys