Avon Board of Education Meeting - 11/19/24

001[Music] all right good evening everyone I'd like to call to order the monthly meeting of the Avon Board of Education for November 19th 2024 at 7:00 p.m. I will start with a roll call so those of you who are joining us if you haven't been with us before you'll know who's sitting here at the table I myself I'm deborra Sho I am the chair we have Dr th singer Vice chair president devb Jeff fman our secretary present thank you Lynn Katz present thank you Deb Sarah Heath here thank you Nicole Russo present thank you Susan zakaris present thank you Chris Campbell here thank you and rshh cipil president thank you thank you and as far as our administrators we have our superintendent Dr carola here thank you assistant superintendent Mr janini here thank you our

002assistant superintendent Mr medic pres thank you our business manager Miss Russo pres thank you and miss sardinis our executive assistant to the superintendent and board clerk all right if you wouldn't mind standing and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance the flag is in the back corner I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right thank you I always like to start our meetings by reading the mission statement to remind us about the work that we all come here to do together our mission is to inspire and each student a joy and passion for learning a commitment to Excellence personal integrity and social responsibility we do not have recognition this

003month we will return that next month do I have a motion to approve are minutes from the last regular monthly meeting of October 15 2024 all right Sarah do I have a second second thank you Lynn all in favor I passes unanimously with nine our next section is communication from the public if we do have people that would like to speak you can see Mr Conley Jim over at the table are their names on their gy okay so if you don't mind bringing it over I will read the instructions that we have for this section of the meeting you just give it to Christine if you'd like this is the section of our meeting where Avon residents have the floor to share their thoughts and our concerns with the board it's not an opportunity for

004conversation rather it's the board's chance to listen to feedback from the community please add your name to the list and Miss sardinis will then call on you in order you must state your name and address for the record each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak in an effort to hear as many of you as we can we must adhere to this time limit you can certainly stay state that you agree or disagree with a previous comment if you'd prefer to be brief brevity will allow more attendees to be heard after 15 minutes are up the board may choose to extend public comment or not no speaker will include charges or complaints of a personal nature against any individual Avon Board of Education member or individual employee of the Avon Board of Education

005whether the speaker names the individual or not please refrain from clapping or cheering Miss sardinis will be our timekeeper tonight if you should reach two and a half minutes she'll alert you with a 30C War morning at the 3 minute Mark you'll be alerted again to signal that your time is up we do welcome your engagement and participation Christine right please come on forward how you all doing good um wanted to just today address Title Nine and the importance of keeping boys out of girls Sports bathrooms and locker rooms U just to give you a little bit of backround my name is Dr Kevin McGary I have a daughter in Avon Middle School um I have a doctorate in leadership and a masters in coaching I'm also a uh award-winning author of lead with purpose

006which is really focused on uh leadership in Youth Sports I also have a passion for coaching I'm here in Avon I coach softball and basketball for girls Sports and really like to help develop those girls to be uh really successful young women uh when you think about Title 9 just I'm going to read just a couple things so Title 9 from 1972 says no person in the US shell on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of or be subject to discrimination under any activity examples include sex VI uh sexual violence sex-based harassment and the failure to provide equal athletic opportunity allowing boys and girls Sports clearly violates the provision of Title 9 I want to give you an example my daughter is in Middle School runs cross country

007she had an opportunity to go to the state championship race and finished 19th out of the entire state for Middle School which is fantastic but if she competed in the boys event she would have finished 135th the top girl the top girl in the state for middle school if she competed in the in the boys event she would have committ 12th which I believe would violate Title Nine by failing to provide equal opportunity to compete against girls and hold the State title of state championship for uh youth Athletics according to a national poll from RMG research 72% of registered voters think biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's or girl Sports more importantly last night at dinner when I talked to my daughter about coming here what she said she was I

008don't understand why I would ever compete against boys I don't want to compete against boys I want to compete against girls in sports and I my view is having boys who are physically stronger competing girls Sports is dangerous demoralizing to girls and takes away records and awards and potential scholarships for girls we're starting to see cases across the country uh recognizing this as well such as Riley Gaines who many of you might know is a famous uh swimmer who tied against a male for Championship there's you got and this week in Ohio passed a law Banning transgender students from using bathrooms aligned with a gender identity recently in Connecticut a law a lawsuit regarding males and girls track and field is continuing to be able to hopefully remove boys from track and field my ask

009is this vote no tonight on any policies that are let letting and setting the groundwork to allow boys to be playing in girls sports or participate in any activities in locker rooms or bathrooms thank you questions comments not at this time this is just for comments but thank you all right Christine Mr thank you and good evening I'm here to urge the board to not adopt the proposed revisions to the non-discrimination policies the current policies were adapted two years ago and were built to conform to the regulations of the state of Connecticut they're only being looked at because the Federal Department of Education put forward a bunch of revisions to Title Nine from the old 1972 act the proposed expansion of rights based on sex to rights based on gender identity has profound implications in

010three areas first is boys playing on girls teams as we've just been hearing second is questions of who has access to private areas like showers changing areas and bathrooms and third would be coercive use of names and pronouns different than those uh assigned at Birth the board is doing its best to make its policies conform to the new regulations in Title 9 it has paid Hard Cash to its attorneys to have the review done and has invested a lot of board time I stood here in August to suggest that you not do this because at that time the regulations were tied up in federal court and I thought they were very likely to die there I don't think that's true I think they will be declared moot because the same Federal agency that put out

011the new rules is changing hands in about eight weeks and the incoming president has said on day one he's going to take down a lot of the regulations some of the things he is promising or threatening depending on your Viewpoint are that the federal government will recognize two genders and two genders only these will correspond to the sex as recognized at Birth it will also cancel federal financial support for any school that encourages young children to question their gender identity and quite possibly it will they will blow up the entire Department of Education regardless if tonight you adopt the proposed policies you're going to have to go back and fix them if you build it now you'll have to tear it down later and build it again and at every St you have more legal

012fees and more work for the board I urge you not to throw good money after bad but instead to find the proposed regulations a good home in the bottom of some drawer thank you thank you Mr beanan we have another Miss Kathy Rand hi Kathy 135 Northington Drive uh first I'd like just like to thank everyone on the board for your commitment to Public Service although everyone doesn't always agree on every topic I think your time commitment is uh is appreciated um I'm here to comment on the uh potential policy changes being considered relative to Title 9 I'm actually approaching this from a uh fiscal perspective uh it's my understanding that there's a proposal to change the policy wording due to the uh recent ruling from the Department of educ ation and uh given our

013recent election and the ongoing lawsuits from 26 States it seems prudent to me it to to delay any policy changes in the short term the president-elect has said he will eliminate this ruling on day one so it seems wasteful to me to use taxpayer money to pay lawyers to draft new language and then possibly have to pay them again later if the ruling is reversed any legal fees saved actually could be sent on St could be spent on student programs that are now underfunded in the meantime all the students will still be protected under Connecticut's current laws because we have Public Act uh 1155 that protects students based on sexual orientation and gender identity and it gives guidance around the usage of um bathroom and loer rooms and you also have a policy in U

014Avon regarding bullying that would be additional protection against harassment and the language in the original title 9 legislation protects um pregnant students so um additionally any parent who is a member of those organizations uh which are plaintiffs in the lawsuits they have the right to negate these rulings in their uh in their children schools and actually numerous schools in Connecticut have already been exempt from the ruling because parents have joined those organizations so we have a very fluid and uh somewhat muddled situation right now and I come back to fiscal Prudence you you are stewards of the taxpayers money and it just seems wasteful to me to pay lawyers twice in order to be in compliance with the the first ruling now and then possibly the new ruling or no ruling in the future so

015I'm in favor of delaying any changes um until after January 20th and until the court cases are resolved which hopefully will bring us Clarity it it may be possible to avoid any legal fees if we wait and see what the final verdict are thank you thank you m Rand did we have someone else join the list yese hi everybody I actually was was this on can you hear me yes oh sorry uh Elizabeth zagata 174 High Ridge Road I was not planning to speak tonight and I did not come because of the proposed policy change I came because I'm really interested in your approval of curriculum materials specifically around reading and writing and also I'm really curious when the graduation date is going to be um but I do feel compelled to um stand up

016and add some comments after the ones that preceded me um I do have a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut and I'm an ad Jun faculty member um for graduate courses in educational law and policy and I'm a former teacher so I just want to comment um I looked up some stats while people were speaking um in 2022 around 80% of transgender people in the United States had considered suicide while around 40% had attempted suicide and also um according to research from the Trevor Project states that passed anti-transgender laws and policies aimed at minors saw suicide attempts um by transgender and gender non-conforming teenagers increased by as much as 72% in the following years and I also want to say um from the research I've done and from my lived experience as

017a teacher that having uh activities where students can feel a sense of belonging and connectedness is crucial to combating some of those horrible statistics I just read so that is all I have to say thank you thank you Miss anyone else miss sensus all right thank you everyone for your comments moving on we welcome our Junior representative for the first time this meeting we have Maddie Van valkenberg with us Maddie are you ready to give us an update on what's going on in the buildings yes okay yes hi um so as we know all the schools had their Veterans Day assemblies and as far as I know they were all very successful especially the one at Avon it was great um at uh TBS the orchestra and sixth grade band performed and I know that

018at AHS the choir and band also performed at pgs the community council Turkey Trot is happening where each grade raises a specific Thanksgiving food item to donate and that's November 12th through the 20th um there's also the December book fair which is going to be the 2nd through the 6th and throughout all the schools we have Thanksgiving break coming up and conferences soon at RBS there's going to be a Lon lman Orchard pie pickup which is November 5th so people have already picked up their pies that they purchased and the Blazers Dash happened in late October after our last meeting where students ran laps for prizes um at RBS there's also going to be a raising can's fundraiser which will which happened which happened in late October at TBS students um have been writing notes

019of appreciation to their teachers and there was also the roko rally assembly which happens each month where recognize where they recognize students who have demonstrated flexibility and shown good sportsmanship uh Gifts of Love weekend backpack has also been happening at TBS where the less fortunate students have had an opportunity to pick up a backpack filled with Necessities like foods and other snacks at AMS the student C Council hosted the annual food drive and over 378 pieces of food were collected and were able to be donated to the Avon Food Bank the Leo Club at AMS is fundraising to help um purchase turkeys for Thanksgiving and that's through the Miller Farms and food share they also sold gratitude grams this week to the students and staff where you could purchase one and send one around the

020school to another person um this Monday night Dr web and Miss Anderson hosted the first ever executive functioning workshop for parents at AMS and as I said before parent teacher conferences are coming up the fifth and sixth at AHS we just adapted a new club for public speaking opportunities um there's also going to be an acoustic night held by music society which will help us reach our goal for hopefully hopefully our goal for the Super Bowl um Avon Club a club here at AHS is having a 3v3 basketball games and all the proceeds are going to the gifts gifts at the CT children's hospital um additionally we also had a blood drive and I'm pretty sure it was very successful that was awesome for your first time thank you for being willing to join us

021we look forward to working with you for two years so thank you Maddie all right next is our financial report with Miss Russo it starts on page eight good evening everyone we ended the month of October with uh just over 7.32% on 7.33% on expended of our uh budget as we discussed at finance committee the majority of th those funds uh will be cumbered through the rest of the year things like salary um taxes and benefits and 403b contributions AR encumbered to the very end of the year in addition we're right on track where we were this time last year um we ended 10:31 to 23 just over 7.25% uncovered in salaries uh on the certified staff we had some savings or showing some Savings in some lines due to some unpaid leaves and open

022positions that have been filled but due to timing on on boarding of Staff versus their long-term Subs uh they'll be encumbered in the month of um November for non-certified salaries we had some custodial leaves and movement um as as some folks shifted around there and you'll see some variances in those lines impair Educators interventionist and Tas uh as of the time I wrote this report we have had 11 vacancies as as of the end of October uh we have on board on boarded one new employee so thank you I ask anybody out in the audience or uh in the public if you're interested in becoming part of the par Educators here at Evan Public Schools we welcome you and um we hope you uh check us out on budget transfer 20252 one you'll see some

023deficits uh lines covered with some savings lines in other expenses as we discussed last month um we're continuing to monitor utilities uh just saw in the news this afternoon that the natural gas uh increase was denied at this point uh but we'll continue to monitor that as the utility companies continue to seek out increases uh we are seeing eversource increases come through this year water and natural gas have um been fluctuating so we're going to continue to monitor those throughout the winter uh and then we'll make any necessary adjustments after that there are some small variances in budgeted verses versus actual cost in our uh life disability and workers compensation policies Transportation uh we have had a a new uh Transportation rout for a vegg um vag placement that we're sharing with the town of

024Simsbury to reduce that cost in equipment we had some variances in the final install cost of budgeted items versus um also they were Grant funded uh versus the final cost we had so that was for tech for our tech ed equipment that's the dust collection system to help with the air quality um for our CNC machine that we were funding through a grant as well uh so that's being the final pieces that are being done right now and we had some Wellness equipment that title four funds covered uh that's being set up and installed as well right now so budget transfer 20252 clears up some of those variances and special education um as we discussed at finance committee some timing variances on when we handle some of our um cases and use our attorneys we

025saw a little bit of an increase in first quarter uh that may not continue through the rest of the year but we were being very conservative with our estimate on that purchase order uh so we did a transfer from regular legal fees to cover that you'll see that on transfer 22502 as well I was going to continue my report with the budget that's I does anybody have questions regarding what we just heard yes please if you don't mind that would be great to update us yes thank you um as we discussed at finance committee we've just uh ended our first round of discussions with our administrators regarding their budget proposals we had a discussion at the board level regarding where we stand as of this point with the salaries and benefits um projections that we

026have right now we're seeing uh a higher increase than we would normally like to see mainly driven by um health health insurance and uh OPB we do not have final opip pension numbers as of right now these are estimates we're estimating 14% uh in health insurance increase that's based on our 5-year plan um as well as the oped that was cut during the board of Finance final round of the budget putting that back into place in terms of 2425 levels and pension remaining flat again we won't have those numbers for quite a few weeks maybe the end of uh December hopefully that would put a benefit increases at one a 1.54% increase to the budget that's a fluid number I need to wait to see where we end up we have a meeting in early

027December with our insurance broker who'll walk us through our claims year-to dat stand and what our early projections for medical is again that that's a fluid number all the way through the the end of the process as well as um our opep or other post-employment benefit number that in the Actuarial report for our pensions is still to come um with in salaries we kep everyone we have right now the contractual rates increases for next year same FTE that are in place as of today again a fluid thing we have people that are still um on boarding in different positions we have folks that may retire so as of right now I want to stress that just this moment in time uh the impact to the budget would be 3.13% increase over prior Year we're still

028reviewing um some other drivers of the budget and we know we talk about that usually during the process what's a a driver things that have a large impact that for the most part uh I won't use the word uncontrollable their fixed cost Something That We're leg legally obligated through a contract or legally obligated to present like tuition and transportation that are also driving the increases um tuition we are seeing a significant increase as of now but there is some ppts that are going to be taking place over the next month that may change that number uh so we discussed some things at the finance committee last week uh but that that's a fluid situation so I hope it comes down a bit um based on some new information that we have as well we're still

029working through supplies and equipment request uh based on what the buildings asked for what's broken between when they present it to us and what's now um our HVAC services our um Building Maintenance working through all those things we're continue to refine those at this point as well as with contracted Services if you remember at the beginning of the year we talked about and you approved the athletic trainer contract that will have a budgetary impact for this year um we'll trying to offset that again that's why we're not talking about all those nitty-gritty things we're trying to find a way within the budget to work within those constraints to make the most minimal impact as possible for next year um so we just wanted to update the board on where we stand now we'll continue to

030work through it and finance and we'll continue to work through it um at the administrative level as we review each of these requests thank you Susan you always keep us apprised of what's happening for the process so it's actually nice to have an audience that can hear the step we're at today and we'll continue to do the work as we get closer did any other board members have questions thank you for the summary we appreciate that all right next our committee and leas on reports curriculum professional practices Lynn yes uh we had our last meeting our first meeting of the year on October 29th where we had a chance to well before the meeting we had a chance to review quite a bit of um new or revised curriculum and then the presentations by um

031Mr Jan enie and Jody kensy were phenomenal so we had more opportunities to dig into the curriculum and ask all the questions we might have I think it's important just to remind the public that what we see what you see at this meeting is not just us rubber stamping curriculum we really have opportunities to read through it and discuss it and get to know it very well so it was a great meeting and our next meet and we'll be talking more about that and hearing more about that tonight um and our next meeting is January 28th thank you Lynn Finance I'm fortunate enough we just had Miss Russo give all of the updates that we needed for that but we certainly are talking about the budget we've already been um talking about Capital Improvement we've

032presented that to the Town Council as well so we are definely ly working on that each time um you'll see the minutes from November 12th in the packet for your review our next meeting is December 10th normally we do a virtual meeting but that's the same night as the hand vote to approve central office so I think we're going to try to hold it in person here to make it convenient for everyone to be able to participate does anybody have any questions about that all right moving on to negotiations Suzanne yeah um the tentative agreements for both teachers par Educators interventionists and nutrition service are still being reviewed um by the attorneys um for the unions and also by the board of edit attorneys um to make sure that all the information is accurate and

033um before being sent to the board of ed so that's where we are no meeting scheduled all right thank you policy vage thanks Deb uh we had our meeting on uh 111 1224 and we were fortunate to have many of the board members join us besides the committee uh members themselves and you will see most of those policies in the agenda and on the agenda and in the packet tonight um I just want to say thank you to everybody because we have looked at these policies it was reviewed by board councel uh we've met and and reviewed it at two previous meetings our next scheduled meeting is going to be in February but we may need to schedule something just before that because the a lot of updates and things down the pike right thank

034you thank you and next our Capital Region education Council Chris yes we haven't met yet this month we actually meet to tomorrow in Harford and would you mind just sharing a quick review of your cape experience yeah okay K was fun Dr C was in the building um it was it was great it was all of did was U probably 30 different schools um from the uh whole state and we got to sit and talk about various issues looming issues um positive things and how to uh tackle that uh met some great um board members and other um superintendant um I would highly advise anybody that can go next year to attend that yeah thank you Christopher glad you were able to experience that absolutely all right next is the board chair update I want

035to take an opportunity to once again thank the administrators for hosting our veterans on Veterans Day um Commander Stinson is charming and lovely and so he's wonderful to work with he changed it up a little bit this year which I really enjoyed I had the benefit of starting with them at the middle school in the morning it's nice to see repeat faces we have an author amongst the group I bought his book I should ask him to sign it sometime it's very good um but they tell their stories to not only the adults that are in the room but they really love engaging with the students and the students ask great questions um every building does something unique it's nothing repetitive for them there's different songs at every location different speeches so it's really special

036to be a part of I was then able to join them at the Town green which we haven't done that in years when my children were younger The Roaring Brook School would go to the town green that was their moment with the veterans this time it was just for the town truly and we had the benefit of having Dr carola speak as well and she did a lovely job as usual um we had some ukulele players there we had one of our seniors sing the national anthem it was beyond breathtaking um really talented and I could tell that it was very touching for all of the um veterans that attended they go building to building we bust them around if you're not aware of it so it's a long day for them it's a long

037day for admin that um goes around with them I know that Nicole you were able to go to roing Brook and Sarah you were at roing Brook as well and Lyn did you go to Pine grve so it's nice so all of us try to show up at the different buildings it's really something to be a part of and parents will come and join their students if they are active service members or have served and they get to stand and be recognized by the school Community as well so it's really quite special most other towns have the day off we intentionally do do not because we want them to know why that day is so important so it's really quite meaningful um I want to also share that yesterday I had the privilege of coming

038to the high school Paula voy who's the state chief manufacturing officer came to visit us um he had a tour with Mr didona of our um you want to call it the engineering department computer science engineering yes okay it's fabulous if at any point you have an opportunity to come see the Machinery that we have had grants to be able to purchase the students are so engaged the the joke was it's hard to get them to leave the room to go to another class cuz they're enjoying it so much um just the projects that they're working on so to have someone from the state come down and witness what we're doing and then present to a group of students that are really quite engaged with this topic and wanting to learn more and I was

039quite impressed from a stem perspective we had a large number of females that were sitting there and the front row asked a ton of questions and they were pretty much all the girls that were um really raising their hands and it was really exciting and I could tell that Mr Bo was enjoying that interaction with them too so it was it was really nice to be a part of and it's very proud when we can do something like that um for the students so other than that superintendence report thank you start with the hiring report Mr medic good evening everyone um our last meeting was October 15 so we have a list of resignations that we received from October 16 onward uh those par educator position positions that are listed were included in our counts

040last month for the 11 vacancies uh we have uh hired one individual which brings that vacancy total down to 10 we have several candidates being interviewed this week before the Thanksgiving holiday so it's our hope that we'll be able to on board a few more staff members into those positions over December and hopefully upon return from winter break uh we did hire a certified social worker to uh Phil for uh Miss Rosemary moaning who left us uh Eva AIA joins us after working for several state agencies uh in which she did youth counseling uh and she'll be joining us right before the winter recess after giving notice their a current employer and we're very excited for her background working with uh elementary school children all the way up to high school children um we will

041have an updated hiring report in December and we'll continue Contin to work to fill those par educator vacancies that we do have thank you uh just in relation to what Mr medic shared one of the things that we are talking about is entering into some conversations um with the par educator Union um can't say too much about that right now because we're on the front end of it and I'm not sure where we're going to land but as you know when we uh we're having difficulty hiring for teaching assistance one of the things that we did besides have the hiring fair was make some changes to scheduling to allow um folks who might not want to work full-time to be able to split shifts for example so we were able to pick up more uh

042local people parents for example who maybe don't work or or work part-time and and were willing to come in many of which had teaching certifications or similar qualifications to come in and maybe not work a full day but work a half day um we don't have that provision in our par educator contract um so it's something that we're talking about considering what that might look like with them um and maybe we'll have an update for you by the next time we come we're just looking for any way to continue to fill those vacancies it it is a Statewide issue and something actually that was talked about at the um cab caps conference that Chris and I were both at um some of the certified positions are hard to fill all over the state right now

043um less difficult in some places we are we are luckily one of them but we do see less applicants than we used to even for certified positions there are people going into the teaching profession and the and in the into the administrative ranks for sure um but it's even harder to hire the non-certified people particular the par Educators this a difficult job so hope we're hoping we'll be able to bring something back and fill the rest of these positions on the enrollment report um just want to point out something we are at we are actually down seven students from um last the last meeting that we had the numbers one of the things to remember is there are numbers we don't count in the overall enrollment even if they are still our students some of

044those are outplaced students students who for example we've had um some students who need to be hospitalized for elongated periods of time that won't be counted in that roster anymore because they're not currently here we may have outplaced them to a completely different facility whether for medical or other um special education reasons so um it looks a little bit more than I should say less it looks like we have a lot less students than usual from one month to the next but we had a number of different um issues that came to resolution or that came up that necessitated students being somewhere else over the past five or six weeks okay moving on um try to keep this brief tonight because I know you have a a lot of items on this agenda and luckily

045I've been outdone to some degree by Maddie being able to say as much as what's going on in De thank you too so I don't have to speak to some of the things I was going to speak to you've already heard about them um from a strategic plan perspective a couple of things I do think are important we've continued on with our initial training for instructional rounds as you know we've been doing that uh with all district faculty and uh we just had another session of that today at Pine grve School our last one for the initial round is tomorrow at Roy Brook I believe right um sometimes I don't look at my calendar until I know I have to be there depends on the day um and then we will continue on with that

046work we've been looking for patterns talking about teaching and learning with with faculty letting them visit each other's classrooms um learning how to collect evidence and data related to teaching and learning and then um empowering faculty really to have conversations about what the next level of work um we will engage in is it's been pretty exciting um going pretty well and people have been very engaged so we're excited to keep moving that forward um also as you already know we rolled out the uh parent teacher conferences um pilot few bumps on the road uh has I think we'd expect and some of that has had to do with scheduling in person versus virtual conferences for example but overall I think it's been going well a lot of the conference blocks are filled throughout the school

047district so we know that people are getting on they're utilizing it and it's working so we'll report back on that in the near future um also just some other General updates uh you already heard about Veterans Day but I I still want to pause for a moment as a superintendent and thank all the faculty the staff the administrators and students uh for the great presentations the music uh they it really is just a day of overwhelming care and respect shown to our veterans whether and and Veterans as a whole as Deb mentioned there's a group that travels with me and with us any of us that are able to stay with them I I stay with them from the time they come in the morning and it's as Deb said starts very early for them

048they come to Avon Middle School at 7 7:30 in the morning and have breakfast and then start attending the presentations and they finished up with us at with going to the town Green in the middle we I should say we went with them to the town green they finished up with us at Roaring Brook at maybe 2:30 in the afternoon and you know a lot of these uh veterans are are um older gentlemen and ladies and so it's it's a it's a long day of walking a lot through the schools and so on so we're very grateful that they continue to show up and do with us we had um a group this year we had both from the VFW and the American Legion so we had a large group that traveled school to school

049with us and went to the green and then in addition at each school um we were able to the schools invited in depending on the space that they had how many were there um veterans that were uh parents grandparents or other family close family members of the students and were're recognized and also our staff because we have a number of veterans on the staff so it it was just great thank you for those of you who were able to come our you know the community I think and our um staff members are always grateful when they see you and know they have your support as board members as you already heard work on the budget continues I'll just leave it at that it's going to be a long road right now uh play very well

050done uh grateful to all the performers uh Miss queso the parents and the patrons for coming out for their support um again they just they put on a really great production we had uh an an issue on Saturday night as you know by now um that necessitated um unfortunately kind of last minute cancelling the play because we we didn't have all of the um actors that we needed to be able to run it that night but they picked it up they kept moving forward uh anyone who had a ticket for a Saturday night had the option to come in on Sunday and see the play or if they W unable to do that to uh have the ticket refunded so and we're still working through that end because that's a different piece financially but uh

051huge success and grateful to all of the students whether they were on the stage behind the scenes they really did a great job uh anything else that I have to add will probably be throughout the discussion and whatever questions that I might be able to answer for you still on the uh new business related to policy Andor uh Mr janini and I related to curriculum so I'll pause there and we'll chime back in when you need us thank you a second well this is always an easy exciting and non-controversial topic so thank you for passing this one to me um as you know Connecticut state law changed some years ago thankfully this was one of the laws we would we would thank them for many as you know I would not say that about um

052and we are now allowed to set the graduation date um as long as we do it at on at least the 180th day of school so it has to at this time be at least the 180th day of school and so that is also um frankly why we do it at this time of year because if I do it in three weeks from now when there had been a snowstorm in between it may not be able to be the same night because by that point it would never no longer be the 180th with the makeup date so we said it hopefully before the weather hits because people need to be able to make plans and there you know people flying in there's there's a lot that goes into graduation so um currently the last day

053of school is Wednesday June 11th so that is the 180th day exactly as you know that's not always the way this works sometimes we work in maybe you know a couple of days because we know almost inevitably there will be some sort of weather power outage or or what have you um but this year with the DAT it was the date that actually worked for having graduation and when we looked at you know exams and the entire calendar so you can set the date as long as it gets passed here tonight it should be Wednesday June 11th 2025 that's exciting I wish that my daughter's graduation date would get set so I would know where I would be but but they don't they don't do do that where she goes to school so I'll be

054I'll be waiting and seeing how many snow days there are and you know with my luck it'll be June 11th right okay and I'm sorry but if it is you know the answer got a good speech out of one of you yeah somebody else better step up and run a great graduation I that'll definitely get me divorced that's that's that's the one a lot of things but that'll be the one all right so do I have a motion to approve June 11th 20 2 as this year's graduation date oh you went fast all right I'm GNA say Jeff in a second with Suzanne and all in favor all right passes unanimously mark your calendars board members as well it's always the Pomp and Circumstances fabulous just want to put out there since we're talking finance

055and there's people here to actually hear it tonight um yes we are returning to the bushnel and we've talked about this in the past we've talked about it during budget season and believe it or not and it still remains true we actually save money going to the tional over when we hosted it uh locally so we get a we get a great event for the students and their families and we we managed to spend less money on it than was spent before we moved to the bushnel so excited to return there they do a fabulous job it's really a great experience for everyone so and air conditioning is great too key yes yes we've learned okay thank you everyone our next um item is possible action to approve Consolidated titles one two two and three

056grants and the chef settlement open Choice academic and social support Grant good evening everyone included in your packet this evening on page 29 is the annual uh memo describing how funding was awarded to the district through the major title and openchoice grants generally speaking districts are encouraged to apply these Grant funds um to to actions that support all students at large um so again this year Avon is planning to allocate uh the majority of this mon money to um fund student support services that would look like academic tutors uh that are utilized at all um five of our schools um in addition some of the grant requires money to be utilized to support professional learning um the bulk of which this year will be utilized to assist teachers in the adoption of the new K5

057mathematics program thank you this is something that we vote on every year and we always use the funds exactly as I think we should so thank you for that any questions all right do I have a motion to approve the Consolidated title one two and three grants and Chef settlement um open Choice academic and social support Grant so move thank you Chris thank you Lynn all in favor I passes unanimously thank you all right our budget timeline this is the time to start marking your calendars um I will just briefly say that I'm PR appreciative of Dr carola and Miss Russo um putting our particular dates on our meeting night dates so that we try not to add extra meetings in there is the possibility we might have to but our first budget Workshop um

058actually is just before our monthly meeting um now my eyes aren't landing on it um thank you so Tuesday December 17th we'll start that meeting at six o'clock and then our regular meeting would be at 7 so please just mark your calendar and then there is room to add if we need to um another night if there's more questions but our actual budget presentation by Dr carola will be at our January 21st meeting so that's how early we operate um do you want to speak to any of the other dates okay so please mark your calendars um and I guess I mean do you need us to approve it's really more informational because we're working with the town it's for information yes because the we are adhering to budget timelines with the town and and

059includeed as part of the Town Charter so it's why we had we did not have our first scheduled Workshop until December but as you know we wanted to be able to start budget discussion with you even earlier than we normally do which is why we had the discussion we did at the last finance committee meeting even though it wasn't labeled a quote budget Workshop it was all about Finance for the 25 26 school year so we've started that as we already said there's a lot more work to be done and we're working as quickly as we can through it um I guess one of the other things I would say is that as a maybe more as a reminder than anything else because I think everyone that's on the board at this time was here

060last year when we did the budget so you you've been through this at least once if not more than that depending on how long you've been the board um one of the issues that we have with the timeline that we have to follow is that we don't have final numbers um even by the time we are with you in January um and you have to make a decision on the budget because we must turn it into the town um by uh Friday January 31st we it's completely plausible that we wouldn't have the final Insurance numbers for example which as you know drives a budget when we're talking about millions of dollars so just kind of putting that out there again that we do the best we can working with Consultants working with the town the

061insurance brokers Consultants working with the town to um put what we believe will be the ultimate numbers but we still have to keep moving forward even without them thank you this is normal course for us this is how we operate every time so um I'm grateful more people are exposing themselves to the information and you're always welcome to attend the other meetings to learn what we are learning um as we prepare we're the earliest budget that needs to be ready for the town um and then the Town Council after us so thank you next um just as Lynn pointed out um these are things that were very deeply discussed in the committee um for curriculum of professional practices so this is when no decision can be officially made at the committee level it must come

062to the full board for any action to be taken so we're at the point where it's been well vetted we certainly can answer more questions as board members if if there are some here um but I am grateful a lot of people made the effort to attend these meetings so they were able to be there to hear it firsthand but just know that it has been well discussed already and now we're taking action so we're talking about proposal and possible approval of course changes and I don't know if you just want to take it one at a time Jess or sure so we did this intentionally with this order of sharing the course changes first um there is one course change which would be moving ECE human rights to a FYE course uh that was

063made intentionally on behalf of student interest being so high in that course um and some challenges that were created with it being a half year um quite frankly there was quite a bit of content there that certainly could be done over the course of the year as you'll see in the stage one curriculum um it also will now meet um the 10th grade requirement for social studies as well so it'll be a benefit for our students um in addition to that there are um several course changes but they're um primarily title changes um and so our teachers do this periodically because of feedback from students who uh once enrolled in a course will uh give some feedback to say I wasn't sure that this would be working with a certain textile or we'd be reading

064more non-fiction text or uh there's one in here this evening that clarified that the content was post 911 uh and so those are those course changes that are included this evening there's no content change it's just simply a title is it easier for you and Christine if we vote on each item one by one so like the change or the is that easiest sure okay so L I think you have to right just for clarity sure students who have access to that class that's a great question potentially because uh being a halfe course it means students would have to pair it with another course in the second half of the year um or the first half of the Year depending on when they take it um and so that just with scheduling being so complicated

065at the high school level that U might preclude some students from taking that course because if they're trying to have access to another course another full course yep so it will potentially make the course more desirable and more um easy to access for students for sure it's also another FYE ECE offering I saw remes and the Nicole yeah Jess I think we spoke in the curriculum committee as well right but even though we are changing from half credit to full credit for the full year uh it is flexible for the people who wants to take half credit still right because yeah the question came up like um could a student withdraw halfway through the year if they so chose to do so I mean technically yes um we wouldn't encourage a student to do that

066but if they so chose they could do so yeah especially with the stem stem curriculum and everything everybody is focusing on that so I think if they choose to continue with the half credit they can still choose right during the beginning of the year yeah I mean we they they could certainly request that from their counselor again it wouldn't be something we'd promote for them to do we'd encourage them to remain in the course for the full year we do have courses you know we do have students who leave a course Midway through the year and you obviously have to do that you couldn't enroll Midway through the year but you could leave halfway if you so chose get you you shouldn't you shouldn't because ECE early college experience this is a this is a

067Yukon course for dual enrollment being offered at the high school level so if you were in the course yes you you might be in it just because you we hope you want to learn about um human rights over the course of history and you you want to do it at a more rigorous level so an ECE level is like an an AP level in terms of grade weights and so on but if you withdraw halfway through the year you are not going to get the Yukon credit for it yeah uh just want to be clear right so my question was like during the beginning of the year if the student choose to half credit instead of full credit is that a possibility I wasn't there when you had this conversation so I don't want to

068inter Mis no that wouldn't be I know what I'm saying it's correct but I didn't have this conversation yeah so I think that so I think we discussed in the curriculum committee that it could be a possible uh but if it is not possible then we need to put that language here right like if anybody wants to choose have credit it's it's not possible no it is going from a half year to a full year course that's right that's correct it is it is no longer going to be offered as a halfe course correct right and and that would be true of any full year course with that you know students would understand that I don't we wouldn't need that Lang no they will know that yeah okay y thank you okay Nicole um I

069just had a question you you are anticipating that more students will take this course will that impact the enrollment in other courses and if so what does that mean for scheduling and teacher assignments good question um that did come up at um our curriculum professional Development Council um which are the teachers that meet and review these first um and so um Betsy sandborn who is the uh Department coordinator for social studies at the high school spoke to that um and based on student interests and um you know there there will be certain courses that they'll run and there'll be certain courses that they won't run but they try to maintain flexibility year to year again it's just all based on students interest um but it wouldn't impact FTE no did you have a question l

070no anybody else all right do you want to make the motion sure okay like to make a motion to approve the course change for human rights the ECE human rights course moving from a half year to a full year thank you to have a second I'll second I'll take Sarah okay all in favor I passes unanimously thank you thank you all right um next Sports and Society to be deleted from course offerings yes so um this this course uh as we'll um as you know it's been a shared goal for us to have 100% of our curriculum uh vetted and approved by the board stage one curriculum and so what I asked of the department coordinators was to go through the course catalog um and to really take a hard look at any courses that

071hadn't been taught in a few years um and let's not uh do the work to then uh you know not utilize it because there are a lot of manh hours that go into this um and so this was one course that had not been taught in a few years um and we we're trying to refine that practice of ensuring that um as we move forward the process that we laid out originally um is held to so that means we would bring a course proposal to you um which you would consider then our staff would write the the curriculum which you would consider and then they would actually teach the course um and so a lot of the work that's being presented to you this evening is going to bring us to that uh realization that

072reality um so we're excited for that um when Sports uh in society came up what we talked about is there may be times where a course uh we call it like sunsetting or deleting a course which basically means we're going to put it back on the Shelf because there's so much change um that we believe we'd want to make if we were to teach that course again that we really should go back through the process of bringing it through all of the approval stages so we recommending that course be um deleted if you will um this evening I don't think we need it I we we don't actually need action on this it's this is really that's why it says verbal discussion this is really more so that you're aware because we have had such

073a push to make sure that all courses that are offered have written curriculum to back them up and this is an example of one that is not going to be offered anymore at least right now because it does not have a written curriculum and we don't have the plans at present to write the curriculum correct maybe two years from now this might come back around and they say you know what we we would like to put this back on the Shelf so we just wanted you to be aware that that's the way this is going moving forward this is an example there aren't many of them but this is an example of that I think Jeff has a question M's very simple so this will not appear in the program of study correct okay thank

074you yes that was going to be my next point is one of the reasons it's important for you to note that is when we bring you the course of studies we give you the redline masters of like you know which courses have been added deleted modified so you can see the changes and that course would be removed because it will no longer be taught thank you any other questions all right then we'll move on to the next title changes of two English language arts courses in order to clarify yes so again these are just to clarify for students that uh one of the examples I gave was the post 911 11 course um that was included in your packet again all of the title changes are just to ensure that students and their families understand

075or or have kind of a clear uh picture of the content being taught in that course content is not changing thank you Glen okay so I'll make a motion to approve the the title changes for two English class English language arts classes and two can we do vote all four um I let's just do them separately okay just for the two English language arts courses to clarify the content all right do I have a second okay Sarah all in favor I passes unanimously thank you next is the two title changes to visual arts courses so same um that was the uh discussion we had about bringing in the fashion and the textiles and again just where student interest lies a lot of questions that that our teachers receive from them and it's just Clarity in

076the content being taught any questions about that all right Lynn I'd like to make a motion to approve the title changes for the two um Visual Arts courses thank you to have a second thank you Suzanne all in favor I passes unanimously thank you all right next we move on to proposal and possible approval of stage one curriculum first is grade K through 12 reading curriculum so also um included in your packet this evening um and you received this a while back um is a document containing links to the full stage one K12 reading curriculum uh and so during our October CPP meeting jod CI our director of curriculum Jenna alsworth um our department coordinator for the English language arts department um presented an overview um on some of the key changes in the reading

077curriculum that was being brought forth um some highlights for our k6 units included shifts to units um being more focused on narrative and non-fiction texts and away from um social studies and science-based themes that was one change uh Stronger vertical alignment and the addition of the foundational skills um to bring us in tighter alignment with the science of reading and some of the changes that were being encourage there um at the secondary level there uh was a move to a more of a hybrid approach um and so moving away from what we may have experienced traditionally um in our high school days of doing like a class novel that is still utilized um to model the instruction and then students move into Choice texts um based on their interests and their independent reading levels any

078questions go ahead Jeff some of these changes are based upon the unfunded mandate from the state right regarding the literacy program um not yet okay not yet that's coming um this is our uh full K12 curriculum that has not been modified based on any changes uh with the science of reading that you're referring to our team is still working through that um it's possible in the future we may bring some changes um but that would primarily be K3 um at least at the moment we believe our 42 curriculum would remain the same so the current K3 that's part of this proposal is as is without being altered because of the unfunded mandate correctly and correct and as we spoke about in the past our team worked really hard prior to the science of reading mandates

079coming down to ensure that those foundational skills were embedded in the units of study so we stand by these as strong um reading units for our K3 students uh and we just again you know wanting to get them out for families and uh the community to review we wanted to bring them forth to you so this is these are units created by our teachers not purchased because the state St said we had a purchase from their preferred vendors these are homegrown C thank you I appreciate it they are also remember so work down this path again um the without the changes tonight but there these changes are minor um the ones as they stood were what we were asked to allow the state to use potentially as an Exemplar for reading curriculum even though we

080didn't qualify for the waiver and still got told to do something different so yes no yes and no these are not Chang as a result of the Mandate um and we're still going to be back here though talking about what to do and I I almost said this is part of my updates and I didn't I was wondering if we were going to go down this path and waited waited until we came here um as justess said the team is still working on it so as you know we've been reviewing the state approved options for for reading materials um there's a compendium option remember we discussed that that means things that we could utilize to supplement we already have in place without changing the entire program and then there is the possibility that we do

081change the entire program and as you know this has been a long time of of writing curriculum purchasing materials doing professional learning so we did all of that deliberately and very thoughtfully we weren't going to make this decision without doing the same so um it's a it's a team of reading Consultants teachers uh Jody Jess people from the entire district and also at times working with outside Consultants from the state and through the science of reading courses that we went through um to make final the final decision of whether we're going to choose a compendium option or a new program and that we expect to probably be decided fairly soon um and we will be bringing that back once we have that completed and the recommendations from the team that's been working on that and

082then at that point yes there will be a financial impact no matter what it just depends on what the the financial impact is based upon what's decided to move forward go ahead Nicole do we have a timeline for that so we can make Bud decision yep anyone else raes I have some specific questions for if I'm looking at grade five units there is a unit three fantasy book clubs as well as in grade 10 the threat of dehumanization can you little bit elaborate in terms of what is being covered in that I just looked at Jody I was like speaking directly to I can speak more more directly to grade five than I can to grade 10 right now not being prepared to speak to it um it's an opportunity for students to um EXP

083explore the genre of fantasy writing um with a number of books in book clubs and so they're they're really there's no specific um in in fifth grade there's not there is an interactive um a read aloud a shared experience that the teacher will walk them through and teach and teach and model through that and then students will have an opportunity to select amongst um a list of books where they can read with either another partner reader or as far as as large as like five people in a book club okay to practice and use those same skills that were taught in the in the large group setting um to a book of their choice thank you great to do a little bit more I'd have to refresh my memory on the grade 10 one what

084was the grade 10 question uh it's a unit five the threat of dehumanization so I'm just curious I have to have to open up the units yeah I would have to do as well I'm happy to do that be like you to but I can follow yeah we can follow up both yeah great any other questions okay Lynn before I make a motion I just want to confirm that even when we you know this is in the meantime curriculum but it's really powerful and strong and and when we buy another program it's not going to mean we throw everything out I mean this we're still teaching phonological awareness correct might our curriculum may not have that many changes exactly programmatic materials that go along with them the materials okay it we'll have to make them

085match no matter what they are okay that's all I just wanted to confirm that are there other questions should I make a motion go for it okay so um right okay so I'd like to make a motion to approve the stage one curriculum for grade K12 reading the reading curriculum do I have a second all right Sarah all in favor I and ver you with us I'll but okay so it passes with nine thank you all right next is grade K through six writing curriculum so also included in your packet this evening are links to the full k6 writing curriculum um during that same CPP meeting a few weeks ago jod kranski presented an overview of these units um these revisions included increased opportunities for writing sharing and celebrating um that writing um stronger vertical

086alignment and a move to ensure that our reading and writing units are ordered and paced to support one another um the reason why those units are just K six is our 712 teachers are still in the process of writing and refining those so we'll be bringing those to you hopefully um later this year any questions all right um Nicole um is there a relationship between what the students are writing and reading during the units so yes you'll that that's that pacing and pairing them together so whether it's a theme like a non-fiction theme they might be also working on writing nonfiction at the same time uh fantasy they may be you know writing more imaginative stories things of that nature anyone else kayin okay um make a motion to um approve the stage one grade

087K through six writing curriculum thank you to have a second second all right I got Chris thank you all in favor I passes unanimously with nine next grades 9 through 12 English language arts elective curriculum so finally included in your packet this evening are five Ela electives uh five science courses four social studies courses and 17 World language courses uh and yes um these were all of the remaining courses um in each department that had outstanding stage one curriculum so we um conducted a curriculum audit of all courses at the high school um and so those 30ish courses were all th those that uh still had remaining stage one curriculums so our department coordinator ators and the teachers in those departments in partnership with jod kransky and our curriculum Specialists have worked uh since P

088last June to make sure that these were all written and ready uh for a deadline that we set this fall to be able to bring them to you prior to the course of studies uh being presented uh next month all right Jeff um just a more general statement Jess I want to thank you Jody your teams I know I've been very vocal about making sure we have curriculum that is publicly available accessible and all put together I know I've been a royal pain the last several years but I do really feel that it's been important that the curriculum has been transparent and the F the the community can get to it so I just want to thank you all I acknowledge the hard work I appreciate it thank you any other questions okay Lynn others

089you can certainly vote on each one separately yeah y vote on all of them yes please well separately okay separately okay okay motion to approve grades 9 through 12 English language arts electives curriculum all right do I have a second second Sarah all in favor I passes unanimously with nine in science Lynn motion sorry go go ahead I'll go back after I wanted to go back to R's question when we're okay at a BRI point to science then um motion to approve the uh stage one curriculum the science curriculum thank you do I have a second remes thank you all in favor I passes unanimously with nine again okay social studies okay make a motion I'd like to make a motion to approve the social studies curriculum thank you to I have a second thank

090you Suzanne all in favor I passes unanimously with nine World Language finally um I'd like to make a motion to approve the curriculum for world language thank you do I have a second Chris all in favor I passes unanimously with nine thank you Dr carola so I remes I don't know that you were there to hear all the pieces at this meeting so I wanted to make sure you didn't walk out of here tonight feeling like something was left unturn um that unit five is what you're asking about in grade 10 the threat of dehum dehumanization um it's primarily about teaching students to read rhetoric to look for propaganda to look for bias one of the main texts that they use is 1984 um and so if you read the the piece and you'd have

091to link through because remember these are like thousands of pages so it took me a minute even to get it back open but um it's mostly um classic texts there are some newer ones but as I said the main one that they utilize in this class is the is the novel 1984 and it's talking about objective versus subjective Truth uh manipulative effects of argument rhetoric EG propaganda and to allow students to start to continue to learn really because we teach this even in the younger grades um to analyze an author's intent through the character and the plot development and how to consider real world application using some more contemporary non-fiction text so obviously 1984 is fictional text from the past in some ways they might compare it to something more current and non-fiction is that

092okay more questions yep go ahead that's the big picture okay thank you all right so now we move on to the policy section of the evening um the first is revision of sex discrimination and sexual harassment for students it's being renamed to Prohibition of sex discrimination including sex-based harassment [Applause] you talk I I will do whatever it is that you want me to do um kind of recap for just a recap I think helpful broadly for other people that are here with us tonight too because I know all of you know this um and obviously not able to comment on some of the things when they're when they were said earlier um one one piece just generally speaking and making sure even all the board members know that some of the newer ones may not

093um you don't pay as the board in the town whatever we don't pay for these policies um the model policies are given to school districts who utilize the the law firms um services so in other words they represent the Board of Ed in your contract negotiations for example with the unions that in of itself gives you access to the policies um you also have free access to the Connecticut Boards of Education policies so the good news is that every time the policies are revised you are not paying for them to be revised the flip side of that however is when there are numerous questions about policy and as you know I do my best to answer as many of them is possible for you I'm still not a federal court judge or a an expert

094on some of the types of things that have come down the pike more recently and I don't pretend to be one either especially when we get really deep into some of the kinds of conversations that we have been having about these policies and some others so when the board attorney does come to speak to you to answer those questions or to give you legal advice as they have done on um at least one of these policies tonight even know you received legal advice from board Counsel on um the policy we're talking about right now and the com and the other the personnel and the student policy um that yes that costs money um if we are having conversations in these meetings that I here and there have to say to you I'll do my best

095to research that and I'll get you an answer I do everything I can to get that answer without calling picking up the phone and calling the attorney if I can um I read the 1500 pages that the title The Title Nine uh regs from 2024 that were updated from the State Department of Education that the attorney sent me um I'm still not going to say I can speak to every single thing that's in those um so that is when yes that it it would cost you money I think there's an opportunity cost to be fair also because I for one and along with others I'm R running an entire School District so when I spend x amount of hours on things like this there's an yes there's a cost there also um but I thought

096we should clarify make sure we said that so that you knew what you did and you did not pay for and so does the public um this policy as you know um we were uh sent as a new model policy um and told that it by law should take effect um on the personnel and the student side as of octob August excuse me 1 2024 um as I told you back then uh we hadn't even as as the administrators had the opportunity to really go through what they had sent us and it's a lot um so I had asked it to be tabled upfront until we had enough time to really even understand it ourselves um the law also requires that all of us are trained in this as administrators and it now also requires

097that everybody in the school district is trained that was that was not something that had happened before we're still working through that um we do not have everyone trained in the updated um Title 9 UM complaint process that we have been told we have to follow BAS Bas on these regulations for example um I we have to put training materials online so if you go online that's part of the law also for us so if you go online um you'll see what I just forwarded you also as the board just to kind of bring it back to your attention that was uh three plus hours of training that um all of the administrators we all sat through together and um some of the other staff that needed it sooner than others School psychologists School social

098workers school counselors others that might be on the receiving end of the paperwork for a complaint making sure that um they were going to know how to follow the updated investigation procedures that we have been told we have to follow so big picture that's where we are you know the you know the advice that you have gotten from your Council related to this policy um as you know I called again um and I did ask the attorney based on the change in the administration um in advance of assuming that someone would ask that I think I said this at the policy meeting whether or not uh the board should keep moving this forward um given the possibility that there may be changes and this is not my answer as you know that just to be

099clear um your attorney's answer to you was to keep moving this forward because at present if we don't we're not in compliance with the law they told us to be in compliance with on August 1 first um and I I'll go through what the changes are to the policy again the grand scheme of things if you if we want to talk them through at Sarah Gleason from Shipman did a much better job of that with you than than I could although I again know quite a bit about it at this point I will just say some to be able to speak to some of what was voiced tonight and some of the things that I think you all know that you hear from constituents and people that call and have conversations with me um some

100of whom are out here tonight also have heard um what you are looking at tonight if you did not if you make the decision not to move this policy or the non-discrimination policies forward some of what's already a lot of what's already in place does not change so for example um if you make the decision not to vote these policies and to table them for example and wait and see what happens after the change of the administration takes place um the requirements that we abide by in regards to locker rooms in regards to participation in sports U for for transgender students both of those will remain the same as they are right now these don't these don't change this and I think someone else brought that up tonight too kind of as there are protections

101that are already in place for students um at both the federal and the state level so well we've all talked about what the concerns are um with these policies Andor the regulations because the regulations are not things that you approve you approve the policy um I I can't give you any other advice than that right now than better than what you've gotten from your attorney all I can tell you is that um I called in advance I said this is policy meeting so the board already knows this I'm saying this for the for the benefit of anybody who was not at the policy meeting with us your board council's advice was to move these forward or you as a board are out of compliance what what they consider to be um law by virtue of

102the fact that it has been handed down by the um federal government the state department of education has handed it down Connecticut is one of the states that is following it we talked about this previously and I think it was brought up here again tonight there are individuals schools that have um been served with injunctions not to follow the pieces that are different in this policy between 2020 what was called the final rule of 2020 versus 2024 and those because of those court orders those schools are for the time being for however long this takes to play out like we've talked about Exempted from following that any schools it's not even districts it's schools as I believe the attorney explained to us that have not had that um served have a legal obligation to follow

103it and that's what's in much of this I um I saw it again when I she sent us the regs there's a lot of fine print in red about where these regulations and are are under dispute um throughout the country and there's a list there's a link to click on even the specific schools by certain States um and that's that's where we are again I'll answer questions that I can I'll I'll speak back to what the changes are that you've already discussed I don't want to I don't want to talk about things that are not necessarily what you still have questions about or want me to talk about I know at least by saying that I hope I've addressed some of what has come up out there even though as you know we're not this

104is not a back and forth the audience I still think it's important that maybe they get some of the questions or concerns spoken to that were raised tonight and of course and many of you that I'm looking out there tonight already know this so whether you speak to one of them or you call me directly um I'll answer whatever other questions you have when we're offline because I'm able to do it there back and forth directly I mean and I'll just share from being on the board for nearly years these are living breathing documents and we will revisit them regularly so it's not anything new to have a um policy come back to us if there are changes made we simply bring it back and we take action on it again so this does not

105disrupt any of the work that we have ever done so it would be a new precedent to stop doing that practice um does anybody have questions or comments go ahead Jeff I I have a lot of thoughts so bear with me because I think anyone who's sat on this board knows I can talk over the past few weeks I've had engaged in numerous conversations regarding these policies to it's clear that many people hold strong and passionate opinions about what the right decision should be I've taken the time carefully review the policies proposed changes and all the relevant information to ensure my decision is truly well informed as someone who's talked government for nearly 30 years I have emphasize to my students as the legislative branch that writes the laws the executive branch that enforces them

106and the judicial branch interprets them however with policies related to Title 9 the legislative branch has not updated the law to provide the protection many believe it offers instead those protections have been extended through case law executive orders and bureaucratic interpretation this Reliance on the executive branch to legislate creates confusion and uncertainty especially regarding how future administrations will enforce the law in my view this represents an overreach of executive Authority a consequence of the legislature failing to fulfill its role I've also heard concerns that failing to pass this policy would leave students unprotected or at risk I want to assure this community that these protections are already guaranteed by state law which has been in place for at least two decades that will not change regardless of this policy furthermore I know every member of

107this board will do whatever it takes to ensure all students are protected and feel safe within our schools given this context my focus has shifted to the legal and financial implications of non-compliance this is not the first time I have faced decisions like this in 2020 I was asked to vote on policies that arose from executive overreach due to legislative inaction while I disagreed with the process I recognized the importance of compliance to protect the district from legal risk I made the decision comp to comply while continue to advocate for change I took the same approach more recently with the literacy program requirement which also stem from executive mandates in both cases my driven my decisions were driven by the need to ensure the district are made compliant and protected from potential liability in this

108case the district not only faced being risk out of compliance with Title 9 but also state regulations the state mandates that we comply the state mandates that we comply with all executive orders and bureaucratic regulations meaning our non-compliance with this policy could result in additional legal and financial exposure while I may disagree with the lack of legislative action that has led us here my responsibility is to protect the district from liability ultimately I believe that ensuring the district remains legally protected is Paramount uh at this point while I disagree with how we arrived at this point my vote will respect the responsibility I have to this district and to the students I will comply but I will continue to advocate for legislative action to resolve these ongoing issues thank you thank you Jeff anyone else

109Nicole I have a statement prepared I would like it noted in the minutes and I can provide a digital copy for them I'm deeply concerned with both the rush to implement the Biden administration's proposed changes to Title 9 as well as the lack of congressional action regarding these significant changes I believe believe that these policy changes will also have unintended consequences on a variety of other District policies that are not yet fully understood I'm not confident that we have done sufficient due diligence to adequately and accurately implement the executive order or that the diligence done to date incompasses the everchanging guidance based on recent Court decisions the proposed changes to Title 9 have consistently been challenged and defeated in federal court and are currently blocked from being implemented in a majority of States a additional

110lawsuits by private citizens and organizations have also resulted in injunctions against these changes that cover any school attended by a member of these groups including schools and districts throughout Connecticut the underlying mechanism that the Biden Administration has utilized to try and force through these policies is also failing in the federal courts recent rulings have led to a significant change in judicial review standards regarding administrative rules and has created a compliance environment that is in limbo the Supreme Court's recent decision in ler bright Enterprises versus rundo will result in nullification of administrative rulings that ex exceed statutory Authority this could put the proposed changes to Title 9 in extreme legal Peril as courts continue to reject interpretations of statutes that have been issued by executive order rather than changes that are made appropriately through acts of

111Congress given the environment of uncertainty and the results of the recent election it would be prudent for the board to table this vote until at least February this will allow us Clarity regarding the new administration's position on these proposed changes and allow the board to defer or further amend the relevant policies lastly I have always been clear in my position that all students of Avon Public Schools deserve to feel safe and protected at our schools the district's policies are in compliance with Connecticut state regulations regarding non-discrimination and I have full faith in our superintendent and each school's administrators to continue to make sure all of our students are treated with respect and receive a learning environment where they can flourish due to all of the points I have outlined if a vote is called today

112I will be voting no on any revisions to District policies that have been proposed to the Biden's administration's reinterpretation of Title 9 furthermore I will also vote no on any policy changes where I'm not comfortable with the diligence performed to date and um when it comes time I would like to make a motion to table this until at least February to bring it back to the board when we have further guidance of the new Administration or Court decisions any other comments raes I'll give it short here right so um I think um based on whatever discussions we had so far right I think there is most of us or maybe some of us are agree that there is not enough due diligence has been done with the information what we have right now and and

113the fact of the matter is right it is going there is a change in hands in after Jan 2th with the president elect right so so so instead of causing the confusion by introducing this one to already protected uh title n in in the school system I think I would I mean given a choice I would second Nichol's proposal in terms of wait until the after the new uh new federal government comes in I think maybe the February or later would be a best approach uh I think I would I would say I mean given a choice right I I would say no to all policies today and wait until February any other thoughts or questions okay so we have a motion to table on the floor by Nicole a second by rshh all in

114favor of tbling this until February there's three all opposed six it does not pass page would you like to make a motion to pass the policy um I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 51455 rename the prohibition of sex discrimination including sex based harassment all right do I have a second thank you Sarah all in favor there's seven in favor all opposed there's one opposed or two opposed and no extensions so it passes all right next is policy 4000.1 revision of sex discrimination and sexual harassment for personnel it's renamed to Prohibition of sex discrimination including sex based harassment do you want to make another motion to table okay so Nicole makes another motion to table is there a second for that I'll second all right Jeff seconds all in favor there's three all

115opposed six it does not pass Sage would you like to make the motion to pass um I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 4000.1 rename prohibition of sex discrimination including SE sex based harassment right I have a second thank you Lynn all in favor passes with seven all opposed two so seven to two all right thank you next is policy 5145 point4 revision of non-discrimination student anything more you want to say to that [Music] Nicole you had a question at the last meeting that I told you I would get back to you about and um I think know the answer to it already but for everyone's um information trying to get to the right page sorry Nicole had asked why Title Nine was stricken from part of this it was at least one

116of the questions what page are we on sorry there's so many regulations in the other one it's hard to find the what I'm looking for here okay so on page 10 well it's on both policies I was on 129 but it'll it'll be in the other one also so if you go to page 121 that's the student version of non-discrimination uh um this policy has been updated several times over the last um few years because laws and regulations continuing to morph I think just in what we see on here February 15 2022 May 16th 2023 and December 19th 2023 um so there have been already some significant um changes to this in generally speaking and I think we talked about this as the policy meeting too this one there's really less substantive changes too than

117the others two that you just talked about this one the primary change and I'm going to get to answer your question Nicole it's inherent of what I'm about to say if you go to page 122 um under B bullet one where you see it in yellow um protected class membership including but not limited to epithets related to sex sexual orientation and ority Identity or expression um I think it was even mentioned um in comments tonight but and as a reminder you all know this already too because it was one of the revisions that already had to take place in some of the other policies Connecticut state law has a definition of protected class that does coincide with the federal uh definitions but it's actually contained in the statute in Connecticut um this policy this last

118update here is what you see in front of you is doing that making sure that this policy is also in compliance with the def definition of protected class in this state um down below where Nicole had asked um where the cross out is see from Title Nine of the education Amendments of 1972 that's actually because that other policy that we just looked at that's what it's referencing so back to this non-discrimination policy is cross referencing and that's where you know sometimes you've had me come back to you a year after policies have changed sometimes as we continue you go through them because anywhere that there's a cross reference sometimes there ends up needing to be an update this was put out in the model policies as an update um with the other policy because the

119name of that policy was always referenced the original but the name has changed it has changed from as Christine Deb someone mentioned at the beginning it was what you see entirely crossed out and has been changed now to um prohibition of sex discrimination including sex-based um harassment to an update to the terms to have them mirror the terms that are being used um at the federal level that's the answer to the question Nicole um and the rest of it on page 125 this goes back to um what we are legally required to do as as the quote the districts um that we will invest investigate both formal and informal complaints of discrimination harassment or retaliation and that's an update um as a result of changes to the regulations that they want to be certain that

120we are not um I guess sweeping anything under the rug that whether you make it a formal complaint and you fill out you know the 15 page Complaint Form that goes along with some of these policies or someone hears something someone sees something legally we still have the obligation to investigate it and again that is tied into the updated regulations um for sex-based harassment that are in that other policy so you are correct Nicole in the um in that I wanted to be sure of that I had to go back and cross reference a few things and um I won't speak to it again in the other policy because it's the exact same in both the student and the Personnel policy and one of the changes overarching that were made that that I think we

121talked about in one of the policy or both of the policy meetings was that um there's been a a streamlining of if you will of the policies for both personnel and students to have the processes be more the same for complaints and more more specifically around the appeal process related to um actions that might be taken as a result of complaints that they are standard in personnel and student policies that you have been given as models in the past that was not the case and um we as the administrators had to just make sure we followed every individual one and and there were there were reasons for the differences along the way because the policy language was different so that's the big picture of what's different in the non-discrimination policy both for students and Personnel

122any questions or comments thank you okay Fage okay um I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 5145 point4 um revision of non-discrimination for students all right all in uh I need a second actually I apologize thank you suzan all in favor pass seven all opposed two so it passes seven to two next is policy 411 18.1 revision of non-discrimination for personnel there's actually one more difference in here and I think I said this at the policy meeting space force is added in as one of the as one of the um branches of the service because these non-discrimination policies as you know cover all um facets of what's defined as protective class and Veterans is one of those so they had to add in space force to United States Army Navy Marine Coast Guard

123and Air Force and connectic National Guard thank you B um I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 41181 revision of nonis discrimination for personnel got a second thank you Lynn all in favor that's seven all opposed two passes seven to two all right next is 411 2.5 revision of employment and student checks um there's there's one change here actually there's two change here because I think the other one has to do with credit checks um on page 136 of the packet see what's in yellow this is a change um to Connecticut General statute and so a required change in this policy the board will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment solely on the basis of an individual's erased criminal history record information as defined in Connecticut General statutes 4 4-88

124um that's it that's the law the law was updated and they updated the policy to reflect the same um and the other piece of it is uh what we talked a little bit more about I'm sorry that's that's on the other one 139 um looking for the sorry I'm looking for the credit check piece of it but 139 is this is what we talked about more in the policy committee meeting this is also an update to state law which is there can be times that a DCF investigation is done related to a staff member any any employee of a school district and if an appeal if let's say abuse or neglect is originally substantiated by DCF that's something they do that's not something we do and the employee goes through an employee Pro an impal

125process excuse me with DCF um we is now clearing the law do not disclose that to an employer doing a reference check we can't we cannot which makes sense because if they went through an appeal process and were found not guilty of what were they were originally accused of it would preclude them from getting a job anywhere for someone to think that they were guilty of such a thing and so they amended the law to make sure that that's not disclosed by school districts any questions where is the other piece of it where is the other sorry this is another long one yes 147 there's there's one other smaller piece that I just want to make sure we're on the record it's clear clear about um it's about credit checks um we don't do credit

126checks but if we did uh we do DCF checks and other types of employment checks if we did um you can see what's in yellow uh we would have to give the potential employee a reasonable amount of time at least 5 days to dispute any of the information prior to making any final employment decision and if we take any adverse action based on the credit report if in fact we did use them and do that we would have to notify them by the means you see there so that again is a change to Connecticut General statute that we have to comply with any questions on that all right page i' like to make a motion to uh pass policy 41125 revision of employment and student checks I have a second thank you Chris all in

127favor I passes unanimously with nine next is for 21.3 deletion of increasing educator diversity plan we talked about this quite a bit already um short version as you know we the state law changed and we not only have to have a increasing educator diversity plan the board had by law to approve said plan and it had to be submitted that was done um the updated policies therefore we were told to delete this because it doesn't it no longer complies with the more recent law that you have a plan and it be approved so this policy now has to be deleted okay Sage I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 42113 deletion of increasing educated diversity plan have a second thank you Suzanne all in favor this is unanimously with nine thank you all

128right next is um 514 1.22 revision of administration of student medications in school this has a couple of changes um one less substantive but as a as a cleanup done in in relation to the law actually too believe it or not um anywhere that the term paraprofessional is used in in any school district needs to be changed to par educator so that's a small cleanup that had to be done anywhere it said par professional um the properly recognized term is now par educator so that's changed that's the non-substantive part the substantive change in this policy is related to training first of all to the go backwards 156 um who is a qualified School employee is defined instead of just being referred to as a qualified School employee and this is important because when we're talking

129about administration of medications we're not just talking about whatever prescription medication a student may have in the nurse's office that generally speaking is only distributed by the nurse or certain people within the district typically an administrator who has to step in because we've been trained to administer those medications in accordance with a child's medical plan this is encompassing a broader scope of medications that may be administered in 2024 epipens that may be have may have to be given to a child and it might be out on a field where there is not a an administrator a teacher uh there might be a coach a par educator uh occupational therapist whoever else is there that is trained go ahead I thought inter because don't they mention spech yeah I thought that was interesting too um but

130basically we mean everyone it's not what they it's not the way they passed it in the law this is this reflects what was passed in the law as the definition of a qualified School employee but that said what this means for us in practice go to page 157 and and throughout where it talks about the training it means we have to train people every year in how to administer these medications that's on the ground that's what the changes mean and we're not going to exclude speech and language pathologist because the legal definition didn't have it in there for some reason I have no idea I wanted wonder if it's because we're teachers and not MediCal I think that's actually why because they consider you under teachers just like a counselor isn't listed out here but

131it would be a teacher right I know that you're asking though I think because you hold a different kind of certification under the Department of Public Health but generally speaking in the law I think when we refer to a certified faculty member a teacher we mean any person SLP counselor yeah yes and you and you do have to be trained because by this definition we would lump you into the teacher definition even though you have a Department of Public Health certification good question raes just wanted to clarify right when you when you say par educator right are we talking about certified par educator or any par educator um you don't need a certification to be a par educator although there are test requ there are testing pieces you can do to become nonstate certified as

132as a professional educator so yes any parent educator okay thank you any other questions all right Sage so I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 514 1.22 have a second oh I'm sorry for it I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 4 um sorry 514 1.22 revision of administration of student medications in school thank you Fage have a second I'll take Nicole all in favor passes unanimously with nine all right next is 514 1.5 suicide intervention and prevention this is Page um all Boards of Education are required to have a policy related to Suicide intervention and prevention we talked about this quite a bit in the um policy committee meeting um the last time this uh policy was revised was actually just earlier this year um and the regulations that go

133along with it we have continued to revise too even though those are not approved by the board because we want to ensure that they comp they are reflective of what the school district actually does in regards to Suicide intervention and prevention um and we've talked about those already answer questions about them again but they're not what's on the table tonight I just want to bring it up because it's a it's a big part of implementation of this policy um the legal references changed and so what you see in yellow on the first paragraph what's stricken and then what is in yellow um is an update to the policy recommended to comply with current state department um regulations that have been enacted and so is the last piece which is training for teachers School staff and

134students regarding prevention of and response to youth suicide right suzan yes there's the H is missing Christine on the yeah we'll fix it we got it I see what you're talking about thank you somehow it got cut off it has attempted has threatened you yeah we'll fix it before it gets published if it goes through here thank you suzan any other questions or comments okay page um i' like to make a motion to pass policy 51 41.5 suicide intervention and prevention thank you to have a second Sarah all in favor passes with nine thank you and our last policy 614 eight revision of improving completion rates of the free application for federal student aid otherwise known as FAFSA talk about opportunity cost um this policy was adopted in February 2023 because the law required us

135to adopt it and to um have students who are graduating in this class the class of 2025 complete the FAFSA as a requirement to graduate from high school which I won't expound upon for the zillionth time about how ridiculous is to me and most of us to make that a graduation requirement but nonetheless legislature did do that um important for the for fafs to be filled out important to help our students get financial aid I if you know disagree that it's important to make students do something that's primarily a parental uh or family obligation to be able to graduate but we put all the things in place to comply with this already and had a great financial aid night here we have our counselors working with the students assuming we were going to have to

136comply with this um and we're going to continue doing that so we aren't going to do anything different as a result of this changing we already put everything into motion to make sure this was the direction we were going in except we are not going to require that it is completed or that a because remember it could be completed or they had to get a um waiver so both of those things are gone as a result of this change because the legislature made the change it now says 2027 and Beyond um so why do we have to bring it here and change it because it's a change to the law you'll see a change in our program of studies which we have to keep current so that our students that are graduating to go to

137the military to go to college or to get jobs have accurate programs of study so this will be removed as soon as we move this through tonight and um I think as I said at the policy committee meeting as a parent of a of of a senior myself you have to do this regardless of whether it's required for graduation but the problem is and if you're a parent of a senior you know this uh it's not ready to go the government state the federal government revised the FAFSA and it was supposed to be released already for students and their families to be able to complete and it is still not ready and the hope is by December 1st in the meantime it's very stressful at my home sure it is at some of yours also

138um and that's the change here they couldn't require you to do it for graduation when they couldn't even put it out as something that could be filled out so this had to change questions or comments all right page I'd like to make a motion to pass policy 61 48 revision of improving completion rates of the free application for federal student aid have a second thank you Lynn all in favor passes unanimous V of nine thank you this is our second portion of the meeting where communication from the public is allowed if anyone else wanted to speak do you have someone okay is there anyone interested okay just don't mind signing up on the the list and then we'll call you up like we did in the beginning list is really just to make sure that

139we get your names correct for when the minutes are done in the meantime isn't it interesting I don't think I told you this but was reminded tonight when Mr McGary spoke my my daughter came in 19th in the state for the high schools so yes in cross country and we've been enjoying this reprieve before indoor track starts yes very much enjoying this reprieve of gymnastics competitions instead with the younger one not that I don't enjoy going to me that's not it's not what I meant I'm just saying as you know if you have students that do this and are that dedicated to it it's a lot all right the same um Provisions that I read at the beginning of the meeting apply at this time mrin who's the first right K Johnson I uh live

140on malberry Lane over in Faron Woods just a couple of things I do understand um from your explanation that the um writing of the policies is kind of a standard that the lawyers provide for us but I just wonder how many hours were they were consulted with which is I think from my understanding what you said that that's what will be an extra fee for the department and I'm sure you don't have that off the top of your head right now but you can um let me know what that was that would be great I do have a concern um reading through the policy and talking to some people about the um the single person and I know we don't really have any control over it the single person being the person who investigates and

141then comes up with a decision um I think that's something that was not great decision to be made by the people that wrote that but um so anyway I do have a concern that one person is in control of all that and the other thing I have um a concern with is the the verbiage about um host creating hostile environment um again it's not really defined anywhere what a hostile environment is and I'm concerned that having a teenage granddaughter who goes to this school that um eye rolling or you know clicking of it the mouth or any of those kind of things um in the event that someone enters a restroom that maybe they wouldn't have gone to 20 years ago um could trigger something a complaint for some simple motion that someone makes that's

142just um you know it's easy it's it's up for interpretation and um I just think it creates really a problem for a lot of people to have those kind of situations so thank you thank you m Johnson have another you can come forward yes I don't speak very loudly so um hi my name is Rose Mary AEL lansburg five Aspenwood uh I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Trinity College and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hartford I just wanted to address the information by the last speaker regarding transgender individuals and suicidality um one thing about suicidality obviously uh very sensitive topic and U I've worked with children um actually teenagers who have um committed suicide and fortunately it was unsuccessfully um but regarding transgenderism typically it's not uh causal but

143rather partly a function of the mental anguish that someone who feels he she he or she was born into the wrong body is going through there's also something to be said about the effects of synthetic hormones on one's mental health um wanting to protect young girls from competing against biological boys no matter where they are in their transition and wanting to preserve their safe spaces including girls bathrooms and locker rooms is not an effort to vilify or exclude transgender individuals just as they have rights set in place so too should young girls thank you Miss lansburg anyone else okay thank you we have communication from Avon Board of Education members anyone Sarah um I I didn't speak earlier but I do think that the best way to protect all of our students is through the

144revised policy especially vulnerable populations and to always stay in compliance with the law um I understand this is a sensitive issue or topic but it's in my opinion irresponsible to not stay in compliance and some of the issues raised tonight I don't think are necessarily specific to Avon I think they're more National issues that are being made to seem like there are issues here in Avon and I just think it's disappointing when we focus on things that are um overlooking some of the most vulnerable populations of our students anyone else okay oh go ahead Nicole um i' just like to change years for a moment and um reiterate earlier today what Deb and um Dr Conor MOA had said about the Veterans Day Celebrations this is the second year that I've been able to visit

145the schools in the first year that I've been on the town green and I have to say it's a remarkable Testament to the administrators The Faculty the staff of coordinating a full day and all what all the children from our youngest to our oldest can do and your speech was amazing so I do have to give you credit for that so thank you and um I think it's great that we're showing the kids how important it is to show respect for our veterans and to let our veterans know how respected they are I was honored to be asked to be there to do that it was it was very nice so thank you anyone else through the chair if I can say again again we don't it's not a back and forth comment by the

146board bylaws so there's still some more comments that were made just now or earlier on that didn't get addressed and you want talk to me I know some of you at least knowwhere to find me if not if not cther if not all of you um be in touch okay do I have a motion to adjourn so move thank you Chris do I have a second second thank you Sarah all in favor passes unanimously at 859 [Music]