Avon Board of Education Meeting - 03/19/24

001[Music] good evening everyone I'd like to call to order our monthly meeting of the Avon Board of Education at 700 p.m. on March 19th 202 4 to get us started I always like to start with a roll call so you're familiar if you've not joined us before with who is sitting at the table so I'll start with the board members I'm Deb sh I'm the chair we have Fage Singh our vice chair president Deb thank you Jeff fman our secretary president thank you Lynn Katz pres thank you Deb Sarah Thompson pres thank you Nicole Russo present thank you Suzanne zakaris president thank you D Chris Campbell president thank you and rames cipil president thank you thank thank you and now for our administrators Dr carola our superintendent present thank you Mr janini our assistant superintendent

002present thank you Mr medic our assistant superintendent present thank you m Russo our business manager present thank you and Miss sardinis executive assistant to the superintendent and our board clerk thank you all right if you wouldn't mind standing and joining me for the Pledge of Allegiance there it is I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right i' just like to start by reading our mission statement to remind us all about the work that brings us here together at this table our mission is to inspire in each student a joy and passion for Learning and a commitment to Excellence personal integrity and social responsibility and now March is a special month

003and I'm going to throw it to Dr carola for the next section thank you so March believe it or not is a board of education appreciation month and sometimes people will ask well why why would why would we why would we do that for for the Board of Education members they're not really the folks out here doing what we do in the schools and I think a lot of times people don't really understand what your role as a board is um one and two I we often find that people think that you're paid for the positions that you serve in and certainly you spend enough time uh with the rest of us who are employees of the school district to to feel like you're being paid particularly more negotiation season I think and 2 3

0044 o'clock in the morning I think we've been together at some points um I get the honor of on behalf of the school district thanking you for the work and the time and the effort that you put into what are often thankless jobs uh ad we as the administrators sometimes know a little something about that also but again this is the profession that we chose and we work at it every day and enjoy doing it and we couldn't do it without the support of the community and and the board to represent the community so our schools all put together bits to show their appreciation for you and we've done something different with this every year um you can see we have we have a little bit of an extravaganza between the two music Department's here

005so I'm going to start with behind us so we might have to turn around um under the direction of Mr brochu thank you again so much for coming all of you tonight as someone I said I'm sure there were lots of other things that you could have been doing so I really appreciate that you came and one said well it's better than doing homework I agree with that we'll go with that so no further Ado our AHS choir with Mr brochu we're actually gonna sing our national anthem All Rise can you see by the dawn's early light what so proud We at the Twilight last stripes and bright stars through the parous fight or the the red parts we watch were so gly streaming and The Rock R the bsing in a gave Pro through

006the night that our flag was still there oh say does that starled yet w for the land of the free and the home of the [Applause] brave someone someone other than me take terrible pictures come want to be able to send it to you and to [Laughter] your probably thank you everybody that was thank you thank you and also we have a special this evening they had wanted to do this uh before tonight and we weren't able to pull it off and very often that's been because our musicians have been taking part in competitions elsewhere in um other showings or plays and so forth so we're lucky enough tonight that you were free Mr soy and the members of the AMS jazz band thank you again for coming thank you thanks for having us this

007evening um and thank you for your uh contribution to our schools and to our communities we're certainly very very grateful um tonight the Avon Middle School jazz band is going to perform a song for you um and we're going to feature in that uh in that piece eighth grade students uh Sam putt on guitar Eli Spyro on baritone saxophone and Sawyer buan on uh on drum set the song is called Funk Zone nothing says Board of Education meeting like little Funk here we [Music] go la n [Music] d [Music] la [Music] [Applause] oh thank you again thank you that was fabulous that was fantastic oh my gosh I hope you guys were having as much fun as it sounded like you were having will they dismiss or will they dismiss after I think you can

008tell them okay that was a fantastic performance and we know that you guys probably do have homework to get home to so we won't be offended if after the photo you want to dismiss yourselves but thank you to the parents for bringing them thank you for entertaining us tonight that was fantastic another round of applause so it was our Hope by at least with two performances you get to see some of the good things that that we do with students and see very often most of the time you're in this room or in other rooms with us and not necessarily able to see the good that comes of the work that that we do that you support through the budget process through the support of the programming the the hiring of staff and so on

009and I think that it's important for whenever we can you to be able to see the fruits of that labor and and the Fantastic students that we support and families alongside of them we have a couple of others that um I let everyone say I let I asked hey it's board appreciation month again what what what do we want to do this year and um luckily these two volunteered to do this we thought that'd be great and at pgs they wanted to put together a presentation so bear with us because this is this is an ele Elementary School presentation but they did do it almost entirely on their own for the Board of Ed which means they have to have it explained to them who you are too and what you do and that's in

010and of itself a little bit of a challenge but we've got a very cute little song for you to start to show certain slides because it's a whole presentation so um after this is done I will make sure you all get the presentation email thank you for the sake of time they wanted some shown here yes us [Music] [Applause] all they did with they they wrote it with the teacher yes so this is the one they asked to show you also the library remember we besides putting in you can barely see it in the top picture well you can see it all over but the maker space that's the pine grve maker space area that we uh finished a few years ago and with some help from the PTO also actually the new carpet that

011we had to replace you remember me explaining to you during the budget process that carpet in certain areas especially was a lot more important to be in good shape than people often think because of how much time students spend on it and this is a pretty good example of that so thank you to Pine grve I think we have a picture from TBS right is that what you have next so I'm going to let me hand these out at the same time thank you for all your support So in this bag you have you you can pull out and see but some thank you cards from students which I think are always my favorite part thank you go ahead you do it yep let me touch certain things I'm definitely going to mess them up

012um but these are the time there's buttons that in our maker space there is a a machine to make that buttons connected to a computer program so students learn a little bit about Drafting and so on to be able to produce them and graphic design and this year we added in when we went through the budget process we added in um Cricut machines and so they got a taste of using those and admittedly I didn't know what it was until uh because I'm not very crafty and yeah the kids the kids showed me how they did it so when I came over to see them and to thank them I asked if they would please take a picture so I we didn't make them come out to the meeting this is these are the students

013that together with our library media specialist Mrs CW as the kids called her make made the buttons and the cricket stickers that are in there for you and RBS the cards are inside right there's that's it on the presentations I think right yes I do highly recommend not that you wouldn't but that you read all of the cards because they're not only uplifting they're hilarious they're very it's I'm always very excited after reading to um our younger students with the thank you cards that they send over Jeff was asked to have longer school days soone wanted longer school days W put that on the agenda I did see they wanted better lunches on a couple of them I didn't see the longer school days but right here PS can we have a longer school day

014all right well thanks Cyrus I was just gonna say let's not put out whoever the name of that child is I'm not sure their friends would agree we hold on to that until they're a senior we bring that out at Gru we should present that at graduation that's cute so again thank thank you for all that you do thank you for indulging the US and the schools and and taking this few minutes out at least this once a year if not any other time to show some appreciation for what you do for the children and the families and the staff in Avon Public Schools we appreciate your work thank you thank you was fantastic this is always very special and honestly we have just such a nice group board members to work with that it's

015just it's fun to see the Kids In Action honestly I love having them come and perform and do something special because that does show what's happening out in the buildings and that's what this is all about so we are incredibly grateful and I and I think I can speak for all of us and say that we enjoy doing this work together so we're happy to be a part of it thank you for allowing us to be here on your behalf and we'll continue to do good work so thank you now we move on to the business part of the meeting but thank thank you for organizing that we appreciate that thank you all right do I have someone to make a motion to approve the Board of Education regular monthly meeting minutes of February 27th

0162024 so moved moved by Lynn second second by Suzanne all in favor I passes unanimously next section is communication from the public do we have anyone signed up okay I saw your hand did you put your name on the list okay is there more than one okay so if you don't mind you can come forward just while you're walking forward I'm going to read just our guidelines um that we read every time all right this is the section of our meeting where Avon residents have the floor to share their thoughts and or concerns with the board it is not an opportunity for conversation rather it's the board's chance to listen to feedback from the community you've added your name to the list already and miss sard will then call on you in order which we

017just have the one correct and you must state your name and address for the record each speaker has 3 minutes to speak in an effort to hear as many as we can we must adhere to this time limit you can certainly 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 whether the speaker names the individual or not please refrain from clapping or cheering Miss sardinis will be our timekeeper tonight if you should reach 2 and 1/2 minutes she

018will alert you with a 30second warning at the 3-minute Mark you'll be alerted again to signal that your time is up we welcome your engagement and participation thank you my name is Jen mijia and I'm a parent of an eth grader and a first grader in Avon first I want to express my thanks to the school board to Dr caramal and to the administration for all of your efforts and hard work with the Avon Public Schools my reason for speaking today stems from the email sent out last week to all Avon Public School parents in regards to Federal and State Legislative and procedural updates and Department of Education guidelines while I was not surprised by some of the updates I was disappointed with specific points here in Avon we promote an equ equitable and inclusive

019environment for all however specific points under the protections and supports for transgender or gender diverse students fails to actually do this what do I mean under the guise of this Equitable and inclusive rhetoric we have dismissed privacy modesty and comfort for all we have a longstanding cultural history of sex segregated public facilities and it is unreasonable for students to be told otherwise and forced to share spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms with the opposite biological sex regardless of gender identity this policy strips students of modesty and comfort yes absolutely we should have spaces available so that all all feel comfortable and have the best experience possible at school however the solution that the state has come up with and the guidelines that Avon now plans to enforce do not follow that protocol while I may

020just be one parent voicing my concerns over the state legislation at this meeting I represent many other Avon students um based on this petition here um that share the same sentiment I ask the board to please review the state law along with the state department of education's guidelines and consider implementing different Solutions based on Avon's vast budget and infrastructure in the school district that protects the rights and dignity of each and every student thank you for allowing me to speak today thank you Miss Mia do you want her to leave a phone number for you I know you guys know each okay we'll make sure if Dr carola can follow up with you but thank you for taking the time all right moving on items of information and proposals our student rep Lillian Pang first

021and foremost fabulous singing and the high note was awesome thank you so much for doing that so I see it's just you again tonight so it's all in your court um and the Juniors will be taking the SAT which is why Nick Meltzer is not here today um and the sophomores and freshmen are having a career day where they can explore different career clusters the student government is having a movie night on March 28th and the Muslim Student Association is also having having an ifar which is where they break their fast um also on March 28th and that's supposed to be a schoolwide celebration the interact Club is currently hosting a fundraiser for Reed and we're collecting toys and donations over 90 student athletes um made the winter sports teams that made the CCC all

022Academic Teams which means they also were part of the honor role there's an AP art student display at the library and the lacrosse team is having a gem on Saturday AHS girls swimming and Diving took second place overall at the winter girls Championship meets and five of our girls took home medals at Avan Middle School there was a student dance and there was also recently Banda paloa which is when the middle schoolers and the high schoolers play together they're putting on um the School Musical Newsies this weekend and they have started um making Relay for Life teams I'm not really sure what's going on at Thompson Brook for Pine GR on March 1st they had a bingo night and they are also currently doing a Boosterthon which will culminate in a piny dance party and

023the goal is $25,000 for school field trips and other supplies for the schools and Rowing Brook School is also unfortunately nothing thank you Lilian well can I I'll add something in at least of substance because for Roaring Brook no no not what you did I mean because Nick wasn't here and we may be missing part of the report um Roaring Brook had its Finding Nemo play uh last week and it was fantastic I got a chance to see it um want I want to thank um our teachers particular miss limus that worked with our PTO um at RBS and it was it was like a professional production and I think any of you maybe you'll some of you that are RBS uh parents will speak to that later too I have a feeling under board

024member comments but the costumes the singing the lighting it it was it was really great and they I was happy to see also they you know every year that we put any play on um and this is more of an enrichment activity that the F the PTO helps with it's not necessarily the you know the schools doing the play luckily we have the PTO to help do the enrichment of it um there's always students that are going to want to be a part of the play that don't end up in one of the the lead roles everyone can't be Nemo everyone can't be what's her name Dory yeah Dory sorry um swimming swimming I remember that um but this year they found a way to have more students involved and allowed the students to be

025a part of the they had a pretty big chorus with a with a side part where they came out um in between numbers in between acts they were singing they were they were holding up signs they were it was it was it was just really special and I'm I'm grateful that we were able to do that um I can't think of anything from Thompson Brook um right now off the top of my head if I come up with it later on I I will what's that oh that's right that's next month Frozen Jr is next month um the other thing that we did do our bridges program I know that um has I know it was actually today I think Thompson Brook and pgs so we that has continued also over at TBS and uh

026battle the books I think they're probably just going down the path of say okay I could few things off the top of my head and thank you very much lilan excellent and I know that the choreographer for Finding Nemo was an Alum so it was nice to have one of our students come back and do that and I did see some pictures it was phenomenal just what they do with those pool noodles that's amazing all right um financial report we didn't have a finance committee meeting so is there anything you'd like to just interject not at this time okay all right thank you very much committee and liaison reports curriculum and professional practices Lynn yes we have a meeting coming up uh next week on the 26th where we will be looking at and hearing

027more about our uh math program excellent finances me and as I just said we did not have a meeting this month our next meeting is April 16th negotiations Suzanne there's no real update um they're still in the process of negotiations with the custodians and interventionists and we'll soon begin negotiations with the par professionals nutritionist and interventionist um and we don't have a meeting scheduled yet I don't think n thank you policy Fage uh Deb we have an rescheduled meeting for May 7th that's on the books now excellent and we will be covering a couple policies tonight so that's good leis on report Capital Region education Council Chris yes we did not meet this month um we will meet we didn't meet last mon um and we will meet uh tomorrow actually excellent thank you very

028much now for the board chair update I um hope that all of you did see an email that mentioned our location for the town budget meetings has changed we typically met at the senior center but this year we're going to the library so I just wanted to make sure you all knew that hopefully you have the dates on your calar April 1st and 3rd would be ones where we're really there in um support of the work that we've done on the budget but Dr carola and possibly myself would be mostly the ones who would be speaking if needed but we do like having all of us there to show support but it's at the library so I thought that was important to note um second um I was fortunate enough to participate this morning in

029seeing the math Pilots at the Roy Brook School got to see it at the kindergarten level as well as at a fourth grade level it was fabulous um it's just really exciting to see kids talking math and I was quite impressed with their ease and their confidence and um even the kind kindergarteners were just so engaged in the task that they had at hand so I was pleased it's always nice as a board member to go and see again what we're approving and at practice so thank you Dr carola for arranging to have board members there I know that Lyn was able to go yesterday I was able to go with Nicole and Sarah and rsh this morning I think suzan is going later in the week and I don't know theage are you going

030as well that's what I thought so it's just it's nice um to have an opportunity to see it in action so thank you next um I will say that uh Chris and I have been invited to participate tomorrow in career day so we will be representing the um potential um pursuit of elected officials so I think it'll be fun and I'm really looking forward to it it'll be freshman and sophomores while the juniors are taking their SATs and we'll be able to field questions and I'm hoping it'll be kind of conversational and relaxed I I think we got it right it'll be great it'll be great so I'm just I'm excited to be a part of that so I was grateful to be asked and now moving on to the superintendence report thank you we'll

031start with the hiring report Mr medic good evening uh we have a very uh short hiring report for this month we'd like to welcome Mr Oedo to the district he is working as a math interventionist between Avon Middle School and Avon High School uh we had a previous employee who resigned from that position Mr oav brings a wealth of experience including uh experience as a certified math teacher uh we are at the point of the Year where unfortunately we begin to say goodbye to many of our staff members and I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank miss lebros miss mccab miss lions and Miss D gazal for their commitment and dedication to the students and families of Avon combined between them they have 102 years of experience in District and uh we will

032obviously recognize them um later this spring uh prior to the end of the school year um and we will be now turning our attention to filling these positions as well as several other positions uh for next school year so we'll begin posting um jobs shortly with probably within the next week or two as we start to transition to 2425 thank you Mr medic and when we know the date of that retirement uh celebration that we do in concert with the Teachers Association we'll let you know I usually actually actually Mr Moss has reached out but need to put that on my to-do list to make sure that we come up with a date that will work the end of the year starts to get a little bit frantic um the enrollment report you see on

033page 10 we are up 10 students from last year at this time just a few more since last month um we are in the process of doing kindergarten screenings actually those of you bless you who were at the at rowing Brook with us today to visit the math pilot rooms when we walk past parents and children children that you saw there that was some of the pre kindergarten screening going on um still working on registration still asking that if you know anyone with school a that may have school AE children that you ask them to come out and register that helps us to plan you see the signs all over town but the better the earlier we know who's coming the better it is for everyone because we're able to um plan properly with class

034sizes and materials and so forth so we've been working hard at getting those registrations processed quickly um moving on we are I'm I'm toggling between two different things thank you strategic Plan update I'm going to keep it brief tonight because a lot of what we've been doing directly including the math visits today are tied to the Strategic plan as you know we've continued on uh with that vertical team meeting to discuss and research and go out and visit um related to what math materials and program we might Implement here in the district because we have not had for K to 5 um in many years certainly not in my the time I've been here and not before that that anyone knows of it was one of the first things as I think I said at

035the last meeting um that teachers discussed with me as I was a new superintendent and Avon as one of the things we wanted to see moving forward both for reading and writing and for Math and as you know we moved forward reading and writing and we're coming toward we we had hoped we were coming toward the end of that until the state put a little bit of a wrench in that with what we may or may not be able to use programmatically but we had already started this process of the math team it has gone very well I'm very grateful to uh all the teachers that participated in that group and the curriculum Specialists jod uh kranski J janini um for facilitating that work you'll see those of you who are able to and I

036know you know we all have work for a living most people at the at the table and if not you're working for a living in other ways with driving children back and forth to gymnastics games school and and the like it's hard to get into the school during the school day but we wanted to offer up this opportunity just as another way for you to be able to see it in action and so I appreciate that you were able to find some time to do that um but even if not when we have the CPP meeting on the 26th week from tonight right um we will bring all of the materials you'll see a lot of the same things just not in action that we saw in the classroom rooms and um if you are

037unable to come one more thing we're making sure we do on the 26th is trying to bring some students in who might be able to show you some of what they've done too which I think will kind of tie a nice bow around the process so looking forward we will talk about um the math the recommended math program on the 26th at the curriculum professional practices committee meeting and answer questions we will open it up again if if you were unable to come in this round but maybe in in the future can we're going to open up another maybe couple of classroom visits and then hopefully the board will be able to take action on the proposed math program in May because we need to be able to purchase the materials that are necessary and

038start the professional development for the fall so that's what the timeline looks like in terms of math program and our strategic plan um go ahead ly the 30 days begin on the 26 for the review yes yes when we have the curriculum professional practices committee meeting we'll open the 30-day window for the public review of the materials also that's that is it for now thank you all right thank you okay um we do not have anything under consent calendar this evening but we do have old business so we're at the point where the 30 days for these two instructional materials is up and so we're looking to approve them so for item 23 2440 approval of primary instructional material social studies 8th grade textbook were there any other questions or comments regarding that all right

039um Lynn would you like to make a motion to approve okay I'd like to make a motion to approve um the social studies 8th grade textbook do I have a second yeah thank you Sarah all in favor passes unanimously next is approval of the primary instru stru material novel Rebecca Lenn would you like to make the motion yep move to approve the novel Rebecca second thank you rem much are there any questions regarding this before we take the okay um all in favor passes unanimously again thank you new business uh 2024 25 school calendar changes just something quick to adjust and it makes sense for us to discuss it here Dr car do want to just point out where that is um page 14 thank you this is this year's calendar hold on so the

040new one when we reviewed the calendar again for this is for the coming school year not the current school year this is for the 2425 school year um typically we have professional development on Election Day school's closed for students but we bring in staff for professional development being that it's a presidential election this year and therefore the polls are usually busier than they might be in other election Cycles we thought and after having conversation also with the regars of Voters in town I think I spoke to you about that already because we had to make the change for the April primary we just made a decision that it'd be better to close school Al together and allow just the voting to take place without having any staff um in the buildings because parking and and

041so forth could be Troublesome and we'd rather make sure that voting moves smoothly so um we're making we're asking asking for that adjustment that we change um the day in November I believe it's the 2 nov no I'm sorry I I have I have this year on the brain April 2D um it would be 115 to just no school that is election day November 5th and instead that we use the date of the 25th of September as the professional learning day so we still need to maintain the professional learning day both by by contract and also by what we need to do in the district to keep moving forward particular with the new math program for example so for us this works a little bit better to be perfectly honest to get that day in

042sooner on the 25th instead of the 6th so we're able to do two things by moving the state one allow the schools to be used only for voting on Election Day and two have a professional learning day earlier on just after the beginning of the school year so that is one change she's do that Y and the other is we had a half day scheduled on January 8th and we are looking to move that to February 12th January 8th um is very close to returning from the December break and having some more continuity for our teachers students families with the school days being full days and also we're looking ahead to what the professional development would look like and that February date works for us so the eth would be a full day the eth

043would then be a full day and the 12th would then be the half day instead and obviously viously this is long in advance but you know we like this calendar to be as accurate as we can be in as far Advanced as we can because our families need to know when children have to be at school and also to make Child Care arrangements and so on for the future full they would be a half day for it says half day for the eth so we just the the eth is going to be a full day yes correct and February 12th half day correct yes yes so we just have to adjust that it says full day on the 8th that was the yeah we got it okay it's just not on this yep it's just

044not on this okay correct any questions about that we'll just put it back up on the website with the changes excellent so I will make a motion to approve the revised 2024 2025 calendar do I have a second like a second by Suzanne all in favor I passes unanimously it was you who propos I'm sorry I did yes yes you're welcome all right thank you all right next is increasing educator diversity plan this is required by the Connecticut Connecticut General statute 10- 220a section 10 of Public Act 23167 speak to that good evening again um Christine passed out updated copies of the increasing educator diversity plan in both our local uh format as well as the state template uh we did continue to make some edits and revisions to the document over the weekend and

045into this week uh as we prepared for the meeting um we continued to kind of refine some of the goals and action steps that we took so we wanted to provide you an updated copy and uh Dr carall and I can certainly answer any questions at um the conclusion we just put together a few brief slides just to highlight some of the key uh points of the plan um So Christine Christine can you advance the slide yeah it's okay yeah um so educator diversity is something that has been a topic of discussion with the state of Connecticut and the Connecticut State Department of Education for several decades going back as early as the 1980s um over those years Connecticut has passed several public acts as well as bills that have worked to identify strategies to

046help diversify the certifi educator Workforce uh particularly in 1995 with the establishment of the minor minority teacher uh recruitment task force uh the state has seen some mixed um experiences based on their timeline and they've tried a variety of strategies over the years um mostly in isolation and over the past several years uh they have attempted to refocus their goals regarding educator diversity so there has been some growth and movement in this area and then the pandemic hit and the workforce in general saw a decrease for certified Educators across the state so the state had to take a multifaceted approach to not only bolster certified educating Staffing numbers across the board but also continue with its plans to work towards a more diverse Workforce uh Christine if you want to advance just another slide uh

047over the time um many of the programs that have been instituted uh focus on Educators entering the profession as well as some limited opportunities at mentorship and professional development the state department of education has emphasized the importance of collecting and monitoring data on certified Staffing levels uh for a variety of reasons uh one being also to track diversity initiatives over time despite the efforts that the state has taken uh Connecticut still continues to face some challenges in increasing educator diversity particularly with recruitment retention and addressing systemic barriers um so one of the key strategies that the state initially began with was the idea of minority teacher Recruitment and this is a series of action steps that you would take to actively recruit individuals from racial or ethnic minority background into the teaching profession uh with

048the goal of increasing representation to create more diverse and inclusive educational environment the state has seen limited Returns on these plans over the years and recently decided to take a more broader approach which I'll talk about just to kind of share a snapshot uh each year school districts are required to submit collected data in October and again in the spring regarding certified Staffing not simply for diversity but also to ensure that educators are working under certification areas we have reports that we submit regarding our non-certified staffing areas as well as others so after the state compiled all of this data that's submitted by districts uh they shared it out on their uh data platform in total there are about 54,6 certified Educators currently working in public school districts across the state of Connecticut 6314 of

049those are educators of color so the diversity initiatives that have taken several decades have led to about 11% of the certified Staffing Workforce and education being diverse that includes both certified teachers as well as administrators uh as a snapshot we wanted to sh share some data with not just our district but also some of our local districts in the area um in Avon we currently have 19 out of our 306 certified Educators who meet the definition of uh being an educator of color in 200920 we were at 1.4% or four individuals so we have sustained growth over time working within some of the initiatives from the state as well as also local initiatives uh and this is an area that just in the last three years we've also increased uh two school years ago we

050had 11 educators of color and we've now increased that over the past two school years as well uh as the board is aware we've had a significant amount of turnover and certified Staffing since actually during and since the pandemic uh so we've done a lot of hiring in general uh and our teams at our schools have tried to really balance the hiring of our certified Staffing to begin to meet the diversity data of our students we want our students to be able to see themselves in our certified Educators and celebrate that diversity within our classrooms um So Christine if you want to advance to the next slide so as um miss Sho read into um from the agenda last legislative session the um legislature passed uh Public Act that focused on on changing from the

051minority teacher recruitment initiatives that districts were required to have to a more broader goal of increasing educator diversity the differences with this increasing educator diversity plan that the state has asked districts to put together is now the focus is not simply into entering the profession but also what is retention look like and professional development and growth over time so looking at the Journey of diverse education uh diverse Educators over the course of their career in addition they've expanded it to not simply be based on racial or ethnic uh diversity but also cultural and linguistic diversity as well so the state has really uh look to identify and have districts identify strategies that we can take to diversify our Workforce further uh and really look to also build in steps to not only recruit but also

052retain longterm so yes certainly minority teacher recruitment that was one of the initiatives that going back to I think the first slide uh the state started back in 1995 I had to do a lot of history research because I was only in fifth grade at that time um so moving forward um that was yeah uh I just want to add in and good question back to we we were already required by the law to have a plan and and this board did it in 22 yeah um at that time the law called it the minority teacher recruitment plan that that had to be done so the state has moved away from that verbiage and replaced it with adverse educator uh Recruitment and Retention that we're talking about tonight Jeff could you just expand on the

053definition when you talked about they've expanded the definition to cultural and linguistic as well could you give us some examples to understand what we're the population we're looking at with that meet those definitions certainly we're looking at Educators that are bilingual or multilingual we're looking at uh additional cultural groups within uh the broader context so subgroupings of uh various ethnic groups as well so they've looked to really expand on um the diversity um levels across the board so for example sorry instead of just Asian it might be Southwest Asian it might be it boiled down further to um subgroups of ethnicities and the definition Jeff kind of the specifics change over time depending on what the landscape looks like of of the certified educator years too so it originally was about underrepresented minorities particularly related

054to um people of color U I think the acronym for that was used at that point was was bipac yes um and it they have just from a legal standpoint changed the definition to be quote diverse and there's some specifics but they're mostly what we're telling you tonight to to try to be eth Al culturally linguistically diverse I think that one of the important things to recognize as we have this conversation too is the numbers that Roberto put up a moment ago that are the snapshot of what's reported to the state those don't that snapshot doesn't match what we're being asked to do right now because it's that snapshot represents people of color only so there's not there's not a right now there's not a way that the state is looking to collect the data

055from school districts that would meet the rest of this definition that you're that you're asking about at this point so and and take that one step further I think Roberto probably would have said this anyway but it makes sense to say it here applicants don't have to report to you what their race ethnicity or gender is they can prefer not to answer all of those and if that is the case that's what gets reported to the state it's what we maintain on file and it's what gets reported to the state so that said not just here but in any school district these numbers might be skewed we might we we might have more people that would meet the definition I I venture to say we wouldn't have less because it's self-reported but it's kind it's

056a bit of a but so under the new definition if we were to if we were to look at our staff with the new definition it's possible the numbers that we're currently seeing could be higher because they've expanded the definition to include more individuals yes but on the other hand we legally can't ask the folks who no I just to be clear so might we have yes but it we couldn't put out a survey right now to all of our employees that said go ahead and check the box and tell us what you know what is your religion what is what was the first language you spoke and so on that that wouldn't be appropriate so okay can't do it when we hire people and we can't do it after the fact either except by

057self in sorry still doesn't approach percent of students that was my question do we have that percentage we we do so you're asking if our percentage of um educators of color or diverse backgrounds either whichever definition you're looking at matches the numbers of students the answer is no and I'll turn that back to you I was it has to be a ratio yeah I was just curious if the percentage of uh students of color we currently are just under 36% uh students who are um categorized as students of color um most districts if not all districts will have a higher uh percentage of students in diverse setting than Educators uh that's a trend that we've seen across the state across districts across the uh close to 15 years they've been collecting this data well the

058statistics match that alone it's there's 11% of people working in St of Connecticut that would meet the definition so it would be hard for any school district no matter what you were doing to at this point with that number of certified Educators who would qualify by definition even if we had 11 you know if we had if we had 12% in Avon we' we'd have proportionately more than than the state has we still would be within a we would still we would have a a different ratio between the number of students of color vers staff but again that is a statistic that the uh State also tracks and we're trying to see how that correlates on the trend line over time presently I have one question right so I think uh the definition has expanded

059right so but what is the state's guidelines and mandate would be like because this is expanded linguistically culturally and into a different uh people of color right like so now what is the expectation from the state do we have a guidelines from the state like in terms of we're actually submitting this plan that meets the guidelines they've put out is what the expectation is there's not they did not put out a number that said at this point that says you have to have X number of individuals um it's it's more about how to increase overall across the state and the State Department of Education is working um with State universities and colleges also to establish some other pipelines to first of all just get more people that want to be Educators because our largest problem

060right now is actually that in general that we are seeing so few so many fewer people that are coming forward to be teachers Andor administrators so that's that's the Baseline problem and then the the other issue that the state is looking to address is diversifying the work for us also to be closer related to what the student population looks like across the state Christine if you advance the slide 7 I'll actually start talking about some of the requirements of uh the plan so the yeah that's it the legislative update so uh Public Act 23 167 section 10 uh changed the requirement that all districts now have an increasing educator diversity plan to meet the more broad goal of the State uh like most state laws that are written it grants Authority and power to the

061executive office to set the regulations and requirements so we earlier this school year uh tsan and I received a copy of the increasing educator diversity plan guidelines from the State Department of Education which uh gave us a list of requirements that the plan had to have as well as recommendations that it should contain and also strategies by which we could engage as a district to develop a plan and then monitor ourselves uh over time so the Public Act stated that uh school districts were to have an approved plan by their local or Regional Board of Education uh no later than March 15th Unfortunately they didn't see our approved Board of Education meeting calendar from the previous year uh Dr carola reached out to the State Department of Education and requested an extension that extension was

062granted and we now have until April 15th to submit our plan uh to the state to be considered on time once the plan is submitted to the state the state is going to give us feedback if there are any changes that need to be made to our plan or they will accept our plan as approved uh straight away upon their review um the components of the plan that are required the plan must have a theory of action and for those of you who are not sure what a theory of action is it's it's an if then statement so if we do a then the byproduct is in the then section uh in addition there have to be articulated goals in three areas recruitment hiring and selection and retention so those are the key components and

063as you can see from the plan in both uh formats we have articulated goals in those areas um once the plan is approved by the Board of Education and then submitted to the state and ultimately approved by them the requirements are that we post our plan to our district website and the state will also have the requirement of posting all district plans to their website as well so just an overview of our plan um our plan focuses on being intentional with our efforts to increase racial ethnic linguistic and cultural representation of Staff within our schools um all of the goals in our plan uh are required to have articulated managers of the goal strategies Key activities progress monitoring periods we were asked to identify what resources we would need uh as some goals from some

064districts uh that we've seen in their plans may require additional funding or financial resources uh we also had to identify what risks or mitigation strategies we we may need to take to help us achieve the goal and then also what are engagement efforts who are Target groups that we're working with one thing that's important to note um as evidenced by our uh 102 years of Staff experience in our retirees uh retention based on our internal data is not really something that we have needed to address our certified Workforce um sustains here in District over many many years uh we keep people that we hire uh we have very low turnover ratio in total of our certified staff however for the increasing educator diversity plan we still had to have identified retention goals so our first

065goal regarding recruitment um and these are some of the goals that we updated earlier today and over the weekend uh from what was in your board packet uh our goal is to expand the applicant pool of candidates who are racially ethnically linguistically and culturally diverse uh for many years we were simply a post our job District we would post it on our website on a job board and we very often did not participate in marketing ourselves to candidates at colleges and universities or educator prep programs over the past few years we've been more active participants in job fairs at local colleges and universities but also we have begun to attend more diversity focused job fairs and events uh we have seen an increase in total applicant traffic from those events so we do continue to

066plan that as a strategy and key activity uh tan and I have attended multiple fairs Jess and I have as well over the years and we have found some of our current staff at those fairs um in addition we want to expand some of our efforts to also use our current diverse staff as um ambassadors of our district at these recruitment events uh to help build relationships and connections um we currently collaborate with several local colleges and universities in the Greater Hartford area by hosting interns student teachers participating in mock interviews and career fairs at those schools uh we have plans as articulated in uh the plans that you have in front of you to expand to all Connecticut colleges and universities and also expand uh our partnership with the alternative root to certification program

067uh for those of you who may not be familiar uh many people do Transition to become Educators in second careers and the state has um an office that oversees an alternative root program that allows people to take degrees that they've earned and work experience and help transition them to become certified Educators uh we do have several individuals who have gone through the alternative root program who have been with us for some have been with us for several decades uh and they have brought their work experience in finance and Engineering to their teaching practices here so we are looking to work with more uh of the colleges and universities uh we have seen some limitations due to geography we we often don't get student teaching requests from some of the Southern colleges and universities though we

068have seen a few recently so we want to expand on that as well and we also do get some requests from some of our uh neighboring schools just over the board in Massachusetts with Connecticut residents so our goal is to um cultivate some further relationships with more colleges and programs because as the superintendent had mentioned in addition to the State Department of Education requiring school districts to have the plan the same uh similar plans are being instituted in educator prep programs to increase not just the total number of potential teacher candidates but also to help diversify educator prep programs at the college and university level our next goal Center on hiring and selection uh yes I noticed that you you were talking about leveraging um HBCU schools I I think that's fantastic I'm wondering I'm

069thinking that a lot of some of the southern states we might find applicants who would prefer to teach in a state like Connecticut better it's very interesting that you bring that up because earlier this month uh the state of Connecticut um added multiple States in both the southeast and Midwest to the list of uh states with enhanced reciprocity agreements uh for those of you who may not be aware Connecticut has some of the um I guess we can call it strict and stringent for those of us with educator certifications uh they have some of the uh most challenging requirements to be a certified educator and not many states have parallel structures so the state department of Ed has had established reciprocity agreements with many uh States across the country however they recently expanded I believe

070they added 14 new states to that list so that will also allow us to expand our recruitment efforts a bit uh one of the things that we have to do with uh looking to recruit Educators from out of state is share with them certification information because that is a a barrier in transitioning certification uh so we have also um tsan and I have some plans to leverage some national networks as well as some uh educat prep programs at HBCU across the country uh as part of our goals as well so we're looking to expand more from a state level and quasi Regional to be more of a regional or maybe even a national branding down the line so so in regards to the goal regarding hiring and selection uh we're focusing our goal on evaluating

071our current interview practices to ensure that they're Equitable and conducive to attracting highly qualified candidates who are racially ethnically and culturally diverse uh one thing that we want to do more of is to ensure that our current diverse staff are part of the interview process uh obviously schedules are difficult and you know we have to be flexible with that but we feel that we can include more of our current staff in our process uh that we do and that I think will help Forge relationships with potential candidates at the same time it's very important for us to ensure that our goals centered around our educate our increasing educator diversity plan as well as our district goals and our blueprint are clearly articulated in our interview process both through our formal questions of candidates or performance

072tasks that we ask them it's our opportunity to help our candidates learn about us and who we are and who we want to be uh at the same time we have done a very good job of this over the past few years but we are looking to constantly do better uh we are looking to ensure we have uniform processes in all buildings for all job classifications and that this includes opportunities for candidates to expound on their qualifications and experience particularly related to our goals so even though the goals of other districts are different we want to see how educators experiences can relate to what we're working on here currently and as the board knows through our blueprints we do have goals centered around culture climate belonging and connectivity in school and then the final goal

073of our plan is centered around retention uh we have chosen to focus more on uh as I said retention as a whole is strong here but we'd like to do more particularly with our diverse staff and our newly hired diverse staff um we recognize that this is subat somewhat of a subgrouping goal but we believe that by fostering relationships with our current diverse staff and newly hired diverse staff uh in forms of affinity groups and mentorship programs that that will help build a sense of belonging and connection to the district and to the profession uh at the same time and we've talked about this uh over the past several school years we continue to offer highquality professional development to all staff and all classifications regarding cultural competencies and how that pertains to our roles as

074Educators and within school systems and then as we did tonight celebrating the talents of our students and recognizing as we do other months um we celebrate the diversity and success of our students and our staff and continuing to make that a focus uh focal point point of our work here in the district uh we're happy to take any questions that you might have at this point I appreciate your attention go ahead Sarah when you're talking thank you this is great when you're talking about culturally diverse does that include people who are self-identifying with different gender identities as well or just racial ethnic and linguistic we we focus in on our candidates as superintendent said a lot of that data is not it's optional for them to um submit to us we we have folks in

075our district who work here and who have applied here from all walks and phases of life and we don't know what subgroup data the state will look to collect from us uh however we we factor that into as you know our goals regarding connectivity belonging we focus on all children we choose to do the same with Staffing where we really try to focus in on ensuring that you know culturally means a very broad goal and definition and that we're able to support people either as applicants through the process and also as staff upon hire thanks um in terms of the mentoring and the mentorship program how would you provide that to folks who come in from or come into jobs that are not that they don't have people like them represented in certainly so one

076of the things that we've worked on the last few years at the building level is having more opportunities for newly hired staff to meet as a group um with their building administrators and also as a cohort of new hires uh we expanded upon that this year uh and last year with having our district administrative staff uh meet with our newly hired staff across the district for check-ins and things like that for us we're open to any idea and certainly we can make schedules work to ensure that folks have mentorship opportunities so if it's not necessarily a staff member in their building we could link them up with someone across the district and like we've done for professional learning communities in the past if necessary we can link up with some of our neighboring districts as

077well um tan has a very extensive network work and meets uh regularly with folks in his position and we would be able to and those are some of our longer range goals about expanding into opportunities in working with some of our neighboring districts so again we believe that we can foster a strong mentorship program outside of clearly all the formal things that new staff have to do like team training and different uh evaluation processes that we can really help them build relationship with colleagues both here in their building or across the district and if necessary we'll help facilitate that with maybe a partner District or a neighboring District thank you ra right question yeah um I think I want uh thank you for providing that information actually it's helpful um I think if I step

078back and think through it right like strategically there's a lot of checks needs to be made by covering everything right whether it's ethnical or cultural Linguistics and everything right tactically uh you know right I think we all heard right like there's a shortage of certified Educators itself right so so now to mitigate both of these right so is is there anything we are thinking differently like like getting the college grads or whatever the fresh out of the college or whatever it is right give them professional development and make them certified instead of bringing in those certified Educators into that mix so to balance and also address the need uh of the shortage of the Educators itself so is there anything which we are thinking through not now immediately but next 2 years like to increase

079that percentage I I can share some examples of things that we have done and there are some areas that we're looking to explore further so for example we have uh struck a balance in our hiring process we don't necessarily always hire Educators right out of college sometimes we hire Educators with experience sometimes we do the opposite we hire teachers who are fresh out of an educator prep program our goal constantly is to find the highest quality staff in our district regardless of it's an administrator a certified staff member non-certified staff member we look at experience and qualities in working with students and we will work to hire the best person for the position with that said um we also have looked to expand our efforts a bit uh some of the things that we are

080currently exploring we're looking at uh grow your own program of how we can support some of our current non-certified staff who have goals and aspirations to become certified Educators uh with either time to complete cour work work or gain some of the required observation or practicum hours uh within the district and also give them opportunities maybe participate in formal student teaching here with us uh so we're looking to see how we can balance that because we do have quite a few non-certified staff in our district who have used it as an opportunity to grow professionally and further themselves to be certified Educators um at the same point um we're constantly working with our neighboring District to look at um what practices they're implementing and what are our best practices for not just you know recruitment

081hiring selection retention but just overall um how we Market ourselves how we're approaching our hiring season each year so it's it's somewhat constantly evolving but we have found some success with what I would call Grassroots effort right now we're looking to formalize some of these a bit more in the coming years right I think uh I think that that addresses the shortage issues right obviously we need to be looking at all angles but on the flip side I'm just thinking loud here right uh the professional development right will be increased right because you have varied mix of people and then the professional development needs to cater to those teachers right whether it's for their growth and and you mentioned right the state is also looking for some kind of growth for the the people of

082color and other aspects right so so with all those things so do we have a plan in place of course the influx of people will be the the educators will be coming in but also the professional development for those Educators needs to be in place for the next 2 three years so are we thinking through in terms of both the both both aspects or are we just looking at only from the educated we are we are looking and we've had many conversations about what our professional development plan looks like and what we're starting to move to is more of an individualized model of professional development so we try and strike a balance between offering learning opportunities for our staff that are required of them or maybe necessary for their position type to more of a

083model that allows them to learn either individually or collectively but also embed that within their professional practice on site um we a few years ago we started to do the cultural competency training for our whole staff and we did that for close to 600 employees in the first year and now we're able to do that same training for smaller cohorts at the start of each school year as we bring people on board and that has been helpful to us because it's helped us have a shared vision an understanding of what it means to support not only one another as professionals and people but how we support the needs of all students from our most highly um academically successful to our most struggling Learners to our Learners who um have other uh either cultural religious or

084um individual needs and you know tan has really put together a very comprehensive um professional development mod model for that and that's something that we regularly talk to our colleagues and counterparts in other districts to see what either formal trainings they're providing or what their professional learning plan looks like um sometimes we we talk with ourselves as administrators about okay we did the first level training or the 1.0 what does 2.0 look like what does this look like in practice in a classroom with kids and uh as some of you have seen with like our math pilot program that's a very job embedded professional development model so now we're looking to take the same with some of these uh you know broader principle-based ideas regarding supporting the needs of students and what does that look

085like between grade levels or across the board as a whole so that's another area that we're looking at to evolve as a whole but also recognizing that the individual needs of our staff continue to change as well and what was maybe for those of us who've been Educators for a while was always very prescriptive to us Jeff knows what I'm talking about shaking his head um we're trying to make it more beneficial to the educator to enhance their practice that they can put into play each and every day with the kids in front of them y thank you I think I just want to quickly speak to the that question remes because I think it's a question anyone could ask and and this might help if you still have other questions anyone El I think

086the most important thing for us to remember is that our best recruitment are the folks that already work here and so I think the most important thing always said this that that we do is whether we're building administrators or we're central office administrators is is hiring and growing people so we hire the best people we can from the from the get-go and we train them to be even better than that we work with them we learn learn from them often times particularly when newer people are coming from college more recently than some some of the rest of us they've been taught newer ways of doing things that's always a a nice compliment to be able to bring in some new strategies and teach a newer educator some strategies that the rest of us have in

087our tool bags and I think that as long as we are working hard to hire the best people that we can providing the best professional development that we can which we do and we're continually recognized for you know some you know is yes some is prescriptive it has to be we have a lot of mandates to meet and no one likes to sit through a lot of the trainings that we have to sit through but we all do and other than that however I think it's it's incredibly important that we work with our current faculty staff and administrators to keep people growing the profession as as happy as as they can be in the work that we're doing that's more and more challenging and they then are the ambassadors out to the rest of the

088world about this being a place that you want to work between that and the fact that we we pay our teachers administrators well that is obviously helpful that we we're not seeing the same wanted to speak back to you asking about the shortage we're not seeing the same effects of the shortage that many other places are seeing generally speaking we post positions we are able to hire people and and we're able to hire the best people out there but not across the board and some of what we're talking about as we're going through negotiations for example some of our non-certified positions for example that we can do better with and being more competitive in in how we compensate folks in that area will help us to better recruit um non-certified staff as well as teachers

089but at this point I think it's just something to keep growing and moving forward because we want Avon to be a place that people want to work and that's how we recruit people anything else that's a great conversation so now I will ask if someone will move to approve the increasing educator diversity plan so moved all right Sarah moves do I have a second second second by Chris all in favor I passes unanimously thank you next is a policy it's a first read and we're hoping to approve tonight policy 513 1.81 use of private technology devices by students it's on page 29 in the packet thank [Applause] you so this is a complement to the policy that we had a discussion about at the last board meeting we had an update to the uh acceptable

090use policy for students and for staff this is the complimentary student piece of it related to um personal devices because yes we there are personal devices allowed to be used in certain grade levels and at certain times in the district and so this is to ensure that the use there is appropriate with the updated um generative artificial intelligence language that was also we talked about in the last meeting added to the acceptable use policy of of District equipment does anybody have any questions go ahead Lenn sorry so is this whole thing new or yes this whole thing's new okay yes because it was it was generated to be a complement to that other policy and mostly because of accessing District networks even as a guest or student and an answer to AI I'm really trying

091not to be picky with this language I know lawyers wrote it yes I did not write on page 30 I reread this paragraph over and over again and I don't get it this the second paragraph on schooled property at a school I'm not going to read the whole thing it's a very very long sentence but what I don't maybe you could explain it to me I guess what I don't understand is I mean wouldn't if a child for example harassed or threatened using something that his own technology but not on any of these not a school property not at a school sponsored event um not during remote just on his own it would still be a problem right correct and that is already um enumerated in the discipline policy so they're speaking just directly to

092you might be using your own technology to do something school related okay so even if in other words this is let's say you're using your own technology to do something school related right these things still pose an issue even though it's your technology not ours but I would think especially if it's School Rel I mean yes I don't know I guess if it's read individually without in the context of all the other pieces I don't know you know maybe it's it's not it just seems could be clearer to me but I understand why you're saying it I think yes and that's I do I think it's it's just to be clear that while we do provide our own technology and so we have this entire acceptable use policy about right how you can and cannot

093use that if you are utilizing your own to do something for school these pose problems if you're using your own not to do something for school they also but those are somewhere else those those are not because this is all about your personal devices but in relationship to school okay but I'm not crazy you're not crazy but that's the way that's all I wanted to know that's the reason that they wrote it that way I actually had to reference back the same policy myself for the same reason just to make sure that I understood the yeah connection so so first this is also under the the guys cuz I I understand Lynn's point and I'm not discounting at at all I know but the reason this is here because the idea is that they're using

094their personal technology connected to our Wi-Fi so ultimately they're still using our resources the internet to conduct harmful behaviors correct that's why the policy is there and so this goes to the question I asked last month like when they log in there's the accepting of the terms and conditions so they've been notified that if they're connecting to our Wi-Fi even as a guest on their own personal devices their behavior is they're still going to be held accountable for their behavior correct and we can do that because they're using our resources well we can do that anyway not we do that so even if they're not using our resources they're using their parents resources we and harassing a student bullying a student but but this policy is dealing specifically with the connection back to our technology

095versus if if my child sends a bullying text message from home to another student there other policies that may address that because it'll impact back on school right right okay as long as everything's covered thank you thanks sorry all right other questions okay Fage would you like to make a motion sure I'd like to make a motion um to move let's see policy 513 1.81 use of private technology devices by students um to a first read of possible approval we're voting to approve approve it no one wants to we just want to be clear on the agenda that it was a first read can I get a I'll thank you all right all in favor I I passes unanimously all right thank you on page 33 you'll find sign the first read and possible approval

096tonight of policy 614 6.12 Advanced courses and challenging curriculum this policy is one that uh was required by law you might remember those of you who are already on the board with us in 2022 um this was a brand new policy all of it is again connected back to some State statutes that changed this change is also from a new ruling from the office of civil rights and the UN Department of Education the one change is on page 35 what is highlighted in yellow is required by the the department of Ed and the office of civil rights which is to ensure that we don't screen out multi-lingual students from Advanced courses um because they may have limited English proficiency and that is a legal requirement to be added in and the legal citation that's highlighted

097on the bottom is the other addition any questions go ahead Nicole um I don't necessarily know if it has to do with voting on the policy but for those students do they get this sufficient support while they're in those courses to be successful so if you have limited English proficiency and need supports English language learner supports you receive them from the district yes and in general not just for those courses yes until you're exited from those Services good question thank you anyone else okay Fage would you like to make the motion make a motion to approve uh policy 6.12 Advanced courses and challenging curriculum do I have a second thank you Suzanne all in favor I pass this unanimously all right thank you this is our second section for communication from the public do we

098have anyone else signed up all right next is communication from Avon Board of Education members anyone go ahead Sarah yeah I I wanted to make a few comments one the math curriculum pilot um I know we talked about it earlier but it was really great to be in the classroom appreciate the opportunity to see it firsthand so thank you for that um invitation but secondly I just wanted to say for the increasing educator diversity plan just because it's required by the state doesn't mean we will do it well but we will do it well because we're very invested in that and I can see that tsan your work is fantastic and I just want to commend how this has been laid out and and how it seems you know prepped for Success um so I

099I'm just really proud of the work that seems like it's has already been done and will be done um so just wanted to commend commend you all for that thank you for the work you're doing I'm glad you're you're here um and I'm excited to see how it plays out and how we can adjust for the needs as they'll arise but um good work so thank you for that thank you Sarah anyone else go ahead Nicole um I have a few things so one um I just have to commend and this is not being a proud mom um the wonderful job that roing Brook did on Finding Nemo it's really amazing four teachers took this on themselves and the time and the dedication that they put in on its own Merit the play is wonderful

100and enjoyable and then when you take a moment and stop and say wow these are second through fourth graders who are doing this it really is remarkable and it's just a beautiful experience for the students and as Dr carala said they expanded it sign significantly this year to be make sure that they were including the students who were all interested regardless of singing ability or whatnot so that was really nice it was really nice to see it was um beautiful way to see the community all coming together second I had a wonderful time this morning in the fourth grade and the kindergarten classrooms seeing the student directed engagement and discussions and the partner work they really were um using critical thinking and their lessons really were organically differentiated um it was really nice to see

101the students discovering for themselves um again that's a you know compliment and testament to the curriculum program here and the teachers who are so obviously fully invested in the success of our students um I also want to share and comment on I've um been hearing parental concerns including those speaking tonight about State um bathroom policies and I think that it's important to have the continued communication which I know Dr carala you always engage with parents to hear their concerns for all students um that this the district should continue to look at um solutions to making sure that each one of our students feel safe and comfortable in any situation um I don't know if a possible solution could be um increasing single use restrooms that any child any student can use at any reason you

102know at any time for any reason um to make sure that we are addressing the needs of all of our students to feel safe comfortable and successful in our schools thank Nicole anyone else remes I think I wanted to EO sah and Nick all right like um it was an amazing program the math pilot program right this morning I I witnessed it in person in with kindergarten and uh the fourth graders right so thanks for the administration Dr Kola and everybody as well as the teachers who put in a lot of effort I think uh I think looks like the pilot program is a success and and uh but I think I can't wait for that to be uh expanded to the all the classrooms so uh thank you very much uh for everybody like

103I think who who is participating including the kids who are participating in that the the engagement partnership and the enthusiasm of the kids is pretty good yeah thank you thank you for much Chris I wanted to thank everyone for the this plan this diversity plan um when my wife and I when we moved here in 2019 know we sat and talked about um you know making sure that our kids you know had had it all we wanted to have it all like everybody else so the the fact that I I get to be a part of it um is a beautiful thing when I get to have a conversation with my son cuz he wants to know about things and I I tell him son I can't tell you everything but um so he was

104he was interested in this thing uh so I get to go home and let him know that uh it's going to move forward um secondly um Bingo night was had at Roaring Brook School boy oh boy if you couldn't be there you missed a good time uh I want to think I don't think they're here but I wanted to thank uh uh the principles uh they both stayed the entire time um it was so great we had some mic issues for about 15 minutes and then some guys came and fixed that uh but it was a great night that's it thank you Chris Jeff so this is a classic example we started off this night we were honored and no one has owledge that because we put our work first so I I I do

105want to thank the administration again for the the bags I do look forward to it every year the cards are a nice reminder of what we do I've been on this board six years we've had some complicated discussions over the years but I've been very proud to say that every person I've sat with at the table while we may not always agree I truly think everyone has the students best interests and we'll always try to work to meet and ensure all students needs are met I I want to truly thank the administration again for acknowledging us or and putting up with us um but again it's a nice reminder for us why we're here this is a very thankless job we are often getting comments and criticisms from a variety of of of individuals or

106damned to for do damned for don't sorry for the language but it's late so no one's watching and um and it's just a reminder again and I'm excited to continue working with this board and I I do believe we will continue in the practice that we we've had for the last several years so I just want to thank the administration and thank the students for taking the time the staff and so forth as well for acknowledging us thank you Jeff anyone else go ahead Lynn I won't repeat what I've heard because even though I agree but also I I think that certain individuals make our job so much easier um Bridget for one with your agendas always in advance and sometimes annotated and and annotated and just getting all of the documents in advance so

107that we know what we're talking about when we show up and I want to say Christine thank you also because I mean even this you know all the we forget all the dates and you just keep you're reminding us and the extra emails for the zoom meetings and it would you just make it a little less complicated so thank you thank you Lynn go ahead Dage so in advance of through the entire packet I just wanted to share that you know it was really fun to see the kids sharing those thank you messages it's always fun as an educator to see kids enjoying sharing their joy for singing their artwork the writing uh you always get an honest reflection and I love it um and again as an educator to see um not only the

108state taking that initiative as a minority educator to see a plan in my own Hometown is pretty important so I'm glad that um we're going ahead with that and have a pretty solid plan in place so thank you thank you th anyone else all right so we move to adjourn Suzanne you want to make the motion to adjourn thank you do I have a second Chris all in favor all all right we adjourn at 8:37 p.m. thank you everyone [Music]