001foreign [Music] I will start with myself and fellow board members I'm Deborah Shu I am the chair we also have phage Singh our vice chair present Deb thank you Jeff Fleischman our secretary president thank you Deb Jackie Blair president thanks Deb I know Lori Young is with us she's just not sitting at the moment Lynn Katz president thank you Deb Liz summercorn cannot join us this evening Sarah Thompson president thank you Deb and Nicole Russo present thank you Deb thank you and our administrators Dr Carnival our superintendent good evening Mr giannini our assistant superintendent here thank you Mr medic our assistant superintendent present thank you Ms Russo our business manager good evening thank you and Miss sardinskas executive assistant to the superintendent and board clerk all right excellent thank you would you all stand and
002join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance 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 excellent I love the Young Voices amongst us all right I always like to start by reading our mission statement just to remind us all of the work that brings us together our mission is to inspire each student a joy and a passion for Learning and a commitment to Excellence personal integrity and social responsibility so we like to move right into our recognition piece which I think is the perfect segue and the best example of the work that we do and how it translates into our student body so we would like to start initially Dr carmola do
003you want to speak to it sure can I ask Dr devivo and Mr Lee to come on up Dr Lockhart wasn't able to be with us here this evening I know the two of you would like to help us recognize our class of 2023 crazy valedictorian and salutatorian thank you thank you can I have Ariella Reynolds join me up here Ariella Reynolds is the class of 2023 valedictorian of Avon High School Ariella is the quintessential example of a well-rounded student who has been exceptionally successful in her varied Pursuits Ariella is has pursued a very rigorous course load during her time in Avon starting High School level courses in Middle School Ariella was able to advance her education and enroll in 24 college and honor level courses her incredible academic work has been recognized starting in
004middle school with a scholar leader award as well as being student speaker at the Avon Middle School Step Up ceremony this Excellence continued in high school where she was awarded two by literacy seals for Russian and French she was awarded the Princeton book award and she has received a gold medal in the French competitions for the past four years she has also been recognized by the College Board as a National Merit finalist her intellectual Pursuits have been taken have taken Ariella to multiple internship opportunities including opportunities to publish her research at the center of the scientific Integrity retraction watch Ariella designed and developed a study to investigate her efficacy of three different modes of plagiarism detection in retracted articles she presented her findings at the American Medical Association International Congress on peer review and scientific
005publication at Brown University Ariella was able to complete two separate internships her first internship was with the cognitive linguistic and psychological Sciences Department to develop methodology for comparing the effect of value-based reasoning versus consequence-based reasoning on one's understanding of an adherence to policy position her second internship allowed her to conduct a literature review where she helped to Pilot a study on how people make decisions during her junior year and Beyond Ariella also embarked on several research projects she worked with a research team at Harvard to launch a study on the aging process she also worked at UConn Health Department of Psychiatry to recruit participants and develop study materials for nurse intervention on anxiety disorders finally Ariella worked as a researcher with the Jewish Theological Seminary in a social emotional learning where she worked to help
006reduce education gaps ariella's educational background is only surpassed by her varied extracurricular activities she is part of the varsity tennis team and the crew team she has also been responsible for leading several clubs here at Avon High School including the philosophy club and the French baking club her leadership in the Sierra Club has helped raise money and awareness for protecting the planet her organization of the Connecticut Youth Forum the Avon chapter helped sponsor students to attend forums held at the Bushnell her efforts to her efforts to benefit the school population have continued in her formation of a club called minehacks which teachers teaches students different study techniques Ariella is an extraordinary individual who is excited to pursue a degree in behavioral decision Sciences at Brown University Ariella will be a success will be successful in
007her future due to her personal Drive intelligence and enthusiasm congratulations [Applause] Arielle we'd love for you to come forward we have a certificate for you as well congratulations thank you congratulations thank you you deserve that all right another round can I call Sandra Lou to join us Sandra Lou is the class of 2023 salutatorian of Avon High School you can come here she has excelled in a rigorous and challenging course load Sandra began taking High School level courses in middle school and which helped her enroll in 30 college level AP and honor level courses in high school not only did Sandra take courses here she was also enrolled in microbiology an introduction to economics at Wesleyan University her demanding coursework LED Sandra to complete an internship at UConn Health in the department of biomedical engineering
008and orthopedic surgery her success with this internship has led her to the opportunities to work with with PhD students and publish her research this summer in addition to all her academic accomplishments Sandra enjoyed being a member of the swim team and the captain of the cross country team she is an active member and captain of the Avon High School math team and a member of the science club being part of the science club has allowed Sandra to participate in science competitions and she has successfully placed in the top 10 for biology and anatomy and physiology Sandra is also an accomplished artist having received two awards for those Scholastic art competition she was also a finalist for the illustrator of the future competition and Sandra is attending UC Berkeley in the fall majoring in chemical biology
009we are confident that Sandra will be successful in her future endeavors due to her empathetic nature kind heart leadership skills and determination to succeed congratulations [Applause] congratulations and Arielle if you come back up we're going to take a picture if you want to get a picture of you too we'll do it at graduation too but it won't we won't be all together come on come around the back ladies don't worry [Applause] it's amazing very impressive okay next we have our Cabe Award winners which Cabe is the Connecticut Association of boards of education so it's personal to this board as well to recognize the students that received this award I know Mr Lee will do the high school right and correct thank you I know we are missing one of our middle school students tonight who
010couldn't make it but go ahead Mr Lee okay I'm going to have hope chakshi come up hope foreign recognizes students who exhibit exemplary leadership skills and that means a lot to many of us in this library right now because many of us are leaders so this is a proud moment for many of us who uh want to celebrate um um hope hope goes above and beyond the normal expectations of a junior she is a high achieving academic student who dedicates hours to volunteering and helping others and has successfully completed her president's gold volunteer service award one of the requirements including planning a three-day exploration activity along the Connecticut Shoreline hope is currently one of the co-presidents for the Leo club and has been an integral part of the club's success and Community involvement Hope's love
011for academics and reading has earned her a position on the state of Connecticut 2025 High School nutmeg selection committee in addition she has been selected as a semi-finalist for the National Security language Initiative for the youth program a merit-based scholarship for high school students to be immersed in an overseas language program hope chosky congratulations hold on hope you can come forward hun we have a certificate for you too go ahead Sarah trotman throughout her High School experience Sarah has achieved in and is currently enrolled in most of the advanced coursework at Avon High School she has crafted and enriching three years with the intention to prepare for a college program primarily focused on a science track academic Mission yes that is a real word athlete and dedicated citizens Sarah lends her time and talents to
012numerous extracurricular Endeavors field hockey track Healthcare science club community service programs which includes Leo club and Avon voices for Equity as well as band Sarah is not only a good leader but she is kind-hearted and her disposition makes everyone around her feel welcome Sarah serves the A1 Community very well Sarah Troutman and from the Middle School I Believe Miss Wallace Mr Sumer are here good evening happy Tuesday still Tuesday all right so I have the pleasure of honoring krisha Sinha krisha is in the eighth grade at Avon Middle School similar to what Mr Lee described I won't you know reiterate the criteria the Cabe award at the middle school level looks for a lot of the same qualities a scholar a leader someone who does the right thing just because it's the right thing not
013because they're looking for recognition or looking for accolades a strong and steady leader who even when the Middle School principal perhaps doesn't abide by her set deadlines for publishing the school newspaper is persistent nonetheless with Grace and ensures that that the information that she and her colleagues for the newspaper Club are hoping to get out to the school Community does just that the first time I met krisha I don't know if you remember this last year long story short I won't elaborate we might have taken a bus ride together story for another day and on the bus during our bus ride krisha turned to me very quietly and said what's it like to be an assistant principal so well I'm glad you asked we have a long ride now my point being krisha's curiosity her
014interest in learning about the world her interest in growing and soaking up everything that she can around her I think about my middle school self and then I look at krisha and I hope that I'm krisha when I grow up so without further Ado one of our middle level scholar leaders this year or Cape scholar leaders from Avon Middle School Christian Cena [Applause] congratulations congratulations be careful about where you sit on the bus sorry we're taking a picture one more so we have a large group as you can see of students from the robotics Club um and we thought it might be most expedient if Ms Wallace Mr Suma called them up and we do have certificates for you we're going to also hand those out to you but we are most interested tonight in
015seeing you and your robot and what I now have heard called the hype video I believe and so if you would all come on up come on up all AMS robotics students coaches so the Board of Ed may remember that we approved a trip out of state because our AMS robotics team go ahead like I said at the last meeting who's been to Disney fill in all available space right move in this is our AMS robotics team that you approve the trip for to go to the world competition for robotics and we thought it was only fitting that you would all be able to come and show the board exactly what they were approving when we sent you off to Texas so thank you so just a few brag points from someone who learned a
016lot about robotics this year first and foremost all of the students and coaches played an integral role in getting our two teams Two Worlds you pushed each other's thinking you pushed each other's logic you pushed each other's curiosity and I know I speak I won't speak for your coaches because I know that they've said this to you as well that they are incredibly proud of your representation of Avon Public Schools and your passion for not only growing your robot to be the best possible model that it could be but also to work with your classmates in other communities so for those who aren't as familiar with the VEX IQ robotics program the way the competitions work is say we're competing against Farmington in a match our team and farmington's team are actually working together with
017their robots to score as many points as they can in a given match at the end of the three five seven matches each team's average in each of the matches is their final score so one of the most interesting things to me someone who could take many courses from all of you on robotics was seeing the the immediate willingness to jump in and work with students who you don't even know towards a common goal and that's something that goes far beyond the Pythagorean theorem or the periodic table that's us seeing you grow into solid humans and that's what I'm sure your parents and all of us are hoping for along the way so in addition to being incredible coders and engineers and drivers and comedians at times I'm sure that was needed we're just really
018proud of you for who you're growing into and how you're supporting each other along the way for those of you who don't know one of our two robots on its way to Texas actually arrived in Texas in I'll say a million pieces is that a fair way to put it didn't ship well not due to Packaging due to the shipping and so through the pillar of resilience one of our two teams in Texas rebuilt their entire robot in about six hours is that a fair time estimate to be ready for competition the next day so in addition to embodying resilience down there our other team that did make it to Texas finished in the top 10 percent teams in the world so you know impressive all around whether it be the overall performance or what
019it took to get there I really want to thank Chris Jones Eric Lord and Scott Rand the hours and hours of coaching support everything that falls under coaching you know in general you did an incredible job and uh we're really appreciative so I'll stop talking because they're far more interesting than I am I think we have a video first and then we'll invite the Board of Ed members and the audience are we demoing over there guys if you would be willing to help us by come over coming over to the table because they need the what's the word I'm looking for flat surface in order for the robot to work are we playing the video first so that they can see the video sure so if you would be so gracious as to join us
020over at the the viewing table if you will see hello everyone so we'll just give you like a way to show you how the robot walks so uh to start off Daddy's real Santa Claus right here does everybody see them yes so okay so these spin like pretty fast and so when the wheel spins we pick up this thing which we call the Seesaw and if you pick it up all the way it shoots pumps so stop so the Pug some stuff from the back of the sea salt they all get started in here and then you might not be able to see it but there's like a trapped up there's like like a gate which kind of prevents it from jamming so if you don't pick it up all the way no pucks will
021come out so this is our shooting mechanism the flywheel and the um the five year old and the seesaw and then uh and the flag was connected to this uh this wheel up there it's double wheel for the book without a picture that you saw in the video so there's this purple dispenser that we take just out of your originally supposed to spin the big purple wheel but we found a new way that just goes under the fists and takes themselves to the robot so it's connected to those and then we have a trap door at the top so the chapter on top oh so this arm over here it it lifts up the blue dispenser as you guys saw in the video and it also opened the trap door at the same time into
022the sea salt so that we continue shooting and so once the tractor does so if you almost blow it into the air it has to train some jamming and we don't want it to jam because we have like well we want to get the most points and like we also have a certain time you have a minute to do everything so uh having like less chances of jamming would just help your overall so it makes it so that if two discs go in at the same time the top one will stay there while the bottom one slides out into the Flavio so there's absolutely zero chance of the robot jamming and jamming issues as um has been proven to be fatal for some of the other things is these four balls right here rather than
023having to like adjust it yourself so this is kind of like a self-adjusting system so these wheels like move so if it touches some of the blue the wheel to move the robust to self-adjust Into the Blue so rather than having to move the robot and make sure that it's perfect these so you don't you don't have to line it up so it's like in a liner yeah [Applause] so instead we decided to ask these things because uh he scripted on the dispenser and without these things that tucks this trigger over here and it's expanding the match which means a DQ but the Defenders are nice and we didn't get it this holiday so so it had to be on television now he both flipped into the wall so this is a trigger right here
024we do a slight bomb and this thing goes off and this is a touchdown so whatever down it touches it adds one point to all the discs in that though yeah as you can see like shooting sex videos thank you [Applause] so we're going to set up for the picture but I'd also like to call up Mr Lord Mr Jones and Mr Rand the three advisors who are here with them tonight who have been the people behind the scenes making sure that this could happen traveling with these students spending countless hours with them I wanted to make sure that it wasn't lost on you Mr Rand Mr Lord there they are still trying to do the right thing and Mr Jones for doing all you did for these students thank you thank you so much
025sorry I didn't want them let's do some information so that you can be seen because he was staying night at this time there you go everybody thank you thank you [Applause] terrible that was fantastic we're thrilled that so many of you could join us and see that in person I know the board was excited to see the robot in action so we are incredibly proud we know that most of you have come this evening for the purpose of celebrating your children with us so if you want to take advantage of it being a school night and leaving we will not be offended if you would like to do so you're certainly welcome to stay but if you feel that you would like to depart that is perfectly fine thank you so much with any luck
026there won't be a quiz for the rest of us on anything that just happened seventh and 8th graders I know seventh and 8th graders incredible all right so I will move us along can I please have a motion to approve the Board of Education executive session minutes of April 25th 2023. so moved thank you Lynn do I have a second second by Jackie all in favor aye aye so by eight tonight yep okay next could I please have a motion to approve the Board of Education minutes of April 25th 2023. Nicole thank you do I have a second oh second Sarah thank you all in favor I ate unanimously as well communication from the public Christine do you know if anyone signed up okay we'll just make sure nope okay thank you very much so
027we will move on to our items of information proposals our student rep reports so Sharla and Lillian okay um first I'm going to start with um Avon High School uh this week we're in the middle of our last spirit week of the year with a pep rally this Friday AHS is also also offering upcoming Virtual School field trips and we are also in the middle of our first diversity week with student presentations every single day I know they're covering topics like violence against women and mass incarceration so students are signing up for presentations throughout the week There's also as we saw earlier today the internship showcase featuring the spring and winter winter internships for both for all grade levels at Avon Middle School as we saw the AMS robotics team arrived in Dallas with both
028teams competing and one finishing in the top 10 percent there was a talent show last week and they also just finished up their last spirit week of the school year at Thompson Brook they had a yearbook cover contest where over 34 students entered the competition with two winners one placing on the front of the book and one placing on the back they gathered for a town meeting to Showcase their poetry and to view a presentation for Autism Awareness Month and lastly the next week the fifth grade is heading to the Nathan Hale field trip all right for rowing book school they just put on um I think it's Willy Wonka the musical or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I did not get the notes for Pine Grove Willy Wonka okay Lily and being one
029of our internships okay thank you Lily fantastic all right next is our financial report with Susan Russo our business manager good evening for the month of April relatively quiet month financially with the spring break week a little bit not that much Movement we continue to see some variances in our certified salary lines due to our FMLA and other leaves resulting in our teachers certified substitute line being a deficit that's continued to grow throughout the school year which is why we had the freeze on as well as the utility increases that we did forecast that were over what we had budgeted I'm happy to say where we're Landing up now at the end of April 2023 a little over three million dollars unencumbered or 4.71 percent that's higher than we were at this time last year
030which was at 4.9 4.59 or 2.8 million dollars because of the situation we're in now we have decided to lift the freeze for the month of May to allow the schools to finish purchasing what they need to finish off the quarters the pair for the summer and get get our foot started the right way there and we were lucky I mentioned a little bit last month that we were talking about utilities particularly electricity and that did turn out to be more favorable than we had forecasted still was higher than we had planned but it turned in favorable from our precautionary um pause and spending earlier in the year we were able to cover the electricity increases and we just had some increase in natural gas or above what we had planned but overall we're looking
031good as we end the year any questions for Susan thank you as always next are our committee and liaison reports curriculum and professional practices Jackie our next meeting is May 30th at 5 30. I believe it's possibly here in person I think we're going to be discussing K-12 Performing Arts curriculum for review and discussion I don't know if Mr Genie had anything else to add to that no just that for the Performing Arts that's the first time they've come to the board for review and it's K-12 so we'll have three representative Representatives with us that evening doing General music through ensembles kindergarten through grade 12. thank you Jackie Finance Lin Katz yes yes we met on May 9th reviewed the financial report that we just heard about transfers donation letters Student Activity reports and the
032feast schedule all of which is on our agenda today and our next meeting is June 7th at five o'clock excellent thank you Lynn negotiations that's me our next session with the administrative assistants is taking place on Monday May 22nd that's not so far policy Laura so the policy committee met on May 2nd and we have a number of policies on the agenda for tonight those of which that were discussed at our meeting were the health assessment screening and oral health assessments policy the immunization requirements policy student health services student use of the district's computer systems and Internet safety a management plan and guidance for students with food allergies glycogen storage disease and or diabetes and the non-discrimination for both students and employees policies and then we went through a whole series of our bylaws including
033removal of board officers time place and notice of meetings meeting conduct and Quorum and voting procedures as well as the construction of posting construction and posting of agendas and meeting minutes so you will see that those are also on our agenda for tonight possibly for action thank you Laura Lee is in report for Capital Region education Council Jackie tomorrow is their annual meeting unfortunately I cannot attend and I will forward anything that I get after the meeting to you and Dr Carnival thank you Jackie all right next is the chairs report I would like to comment on how impressed I was with our internship presentations out in the gallery space and Lillian was one of our presenters this evening so it's always nice to see one of our student reps out there just such a
034variety of different topics and everybody seemed to really get something out of it and that seems to be consistent every time that we have the opportunity to interview the students they do such a nice job so 13 of them this round and just always constantly amazed so really well done and we're really proud of all the work and the time that that takes and your efforts to explain it as well and present it to us so that was very well done since we're all together minus having Liz tonight I just thought I would mention the fact that hopefully everybody did receive a couple emails from the town regarding a sexual harassment training for elected officials they have different options in person there's one on June 16th if you're able to attend just make sure you
035RSVP there's an online version or through an employer so I just thought I'd make note of that otherwise I'll pass it to Dr karnamola for the superintendent's report thankfully I know that a couple have asked also about the sexual harassment discrimination training I will get back to you I I received the same email that you received which is why I hadn't sent something out in advance to tell you that I saw something coming down the pike so I'll get back to you after I have a conversation on the town side and of course all of us as School Employees are required to have that training so on our end of me and the rest of the faculty and staff we're all set with that so on the hiring report I'll turn that over to you
036Mr medic good evening everyone as you can see from the hiring report we continue to fill several vacancies in our non-certified bargaining units and positions this is the time of year that we receive resignations from both certified and non-certified staff who are electing to voluntarily leave the district for a variety of reasons we'd like to thank them for their time and service with us this year and in the previous years they've worked with us in addition to highlight we have six individuals who have been long-term employees of the district I did the calculation earlier today I think they total about 175 years of collective experience many of these people are household names in our community and we'd like to thank them for their dedication service to the students and families of the community specifically our
037longtime school nurse at Pine Grove School Miss Patricia de Rossi at Thompson Brook School we are saying thank you and goodbye to Mrs haverkamp and Mrs dully many of our board members have had children go through their classrooms over the years in addition Miss Martha Kane a long time Science Biology teacher here at the high school will be going into her retirement we also would like to congratulate and say goodbye to miss Kathy Patton who has been the face and heart of Roaring Brook School in the main office for many many years and at the same time Miss Barbara liebbeck who's been a long time steady presence in our main office at Avon Middle School so we um we look forward to working with them over the next several weeks and appreciate their Collective wisdom
038and support of our students staff and families for close to 175 years thank you on the enrollment report we are steady at this point from last month and still taking kindergarten registrations and so far as our strategic Plan update tonight uh you know we have on the agenda the enrollment in space utilization study that was a part of our District's goals district and board goals so we are working with them together information to plan for the future in the district our early literacy team met in Rocky Hill today again for the second to last science to science of reading workshop for the year and today's Workshop was on comprehension tomorrow we also have a team visiting the district again to see what we do in practice here we are planning for the retreat it would
039normally be just the administrative Retreat and this year we have for the first time this June invited in faculty leaders from all five of the schools and we are excited about that looking forward to it I think our faculty is also that will be June 21st and 22nd I believe on the 21st we have the 22nd I can't remember which date we have the faculty members coming out the leadership team is on the 21st and then leadership team with the building leaders teacher leaders yep thank you I sent the email but you know it doesn't matter what day it is to me uh Ms Krasinski Mr medic Mr Nini and Miss Fox and I conducted instructional walkthroughs at Roaring Brook School last week we had a great visit again seeing literacy instruction and action some
040math also but the time of day we were there we saw more literacy than math we'll say we were very impre impressed particularly in grade one where we caught up with our youngest authors learning to improve their writing skills writing short stories and illustrating them yes that was in grade one so thank you again to all the admin and the faculty and staff at Rory work for hosting us uh the chief of police let me know just general way of updates that the school resource officer position the new position is now posted and they are going to start accepting applications there will be a few rounds of interviews um he and I the chief and I will do the final round of interviews at a time to be determined I'm not sure when that will
041be yet kind of depends on what the process looks like but he and I will work together to do that and as you heard from Mr medic our team continues to recruit interview and hire staff for the upcoming school year that's a large part of our work this time of year to make sure that we have folks in place for the start of the school year michoud and I will meet with the Avon Education Foundation board on the 22nd to finalize the grant winners from the spring and also to set up our exciting prize patrols where we come and deliver the big checks to the folks at the Avon Education Foundation funded their Grant proposals I'd like to thank again as you already did Ms mascol and Mr Haynes and the Avon High School faculty
042staff and administration for ensuring that this internship showcase was very well done again tonight is very well attended it's great to see the students out there a lot of excitement amongst the students who were there to present tonight and once again I think we all learned a lot about the opportunities that are out there for our students so I appreciate that and again congratulations to Lillian our wrestling team I think you already know was honored at the Capitol last week courtesy of Representative kavros DeGraw who had asked me if it was possible for us to get them up there to be recognized they were and they enjoyed visiting very much and they were given a citation for the state championship was a pretty big day for them and that is all in all my update
043I have some answers if you have some questions about other things on the agenda tonight but I'm going to pause here because I know we're looking forward to getting the presentation and the policies sorry go ahead Jeff just a quick question regarding your update do we have thank you do we have any update on the signs of reading mandate from the state no okay thank you the only thing I can tell you is that as you know we worked very hard with this team to submit a waiver as the state asked any districts who felt that the instruction the curriculum the instruction the assessment and the programming they had in place met the standards and we did believe ours met the standards and continued to revise them throughout the year this team worked very hard
044on that thousands of pages in the end that was submitted to the state I told you that already also and the one thing that I have heard thus far is and this is a quote though I won't say from who um if Avon's waiver is not approved no one's will be approved this is basically what we were told by virtue of the level of work that we did to Showcase and explain what we do here because my natural follow-up question is if we don't get the waiver do we know what the time frame is on the required purchase materials it sounds like we don't have any update at this point thank you that's all I was asking about thank you anyone else's questions thank you Dr cardamola our next piece is the consent calendar and
045before approving it I just want to always acknowledge how grateful we are for the donations that are made our ptos and fame and any other group that reaches out to us we are so thankful and grateful for because it really does round out the experience that the students are getting here barring any want to remove an item from consent calendar do I have a motion to approve as it is okay Jackie do I have a second thank you Lynn all in favor aye passes unanimously with eight next is old business the first item is a regulation 5141 we are looking to replace it regarding health assessments screening and oral health assessments I don't know Dr Carmelo do you want to speak to that or if Laura wants to say anything yes as Ms young mentioned
046we discussed this at the policy committee meeting we had actually discussed this twice at the policy committee meeting this last meeting was the second time we did discuss it as a policy technically but the recommendation from board council is not that this is a policy but rather that it is maintained as regulations the difference there remember the board does not approve regulations that is typically because they can be changed sometimes quickly by the state for example and or for operational reasons so the advice from shipment and Goodwin is to maintain these regulations that they have provided to the administration and the board as regulations not to adopt them as a policy because when and if the statute changes or the Department of Public Health changes its regulations as again you know they do fairly often
047we will be able to stay in compliance so they were discussed originally as policies and I say they because it's both of them it is the health assessments screening and oral assessments what is listed under a under old business for regulation and also B uh regulation which are the immunization requirements that the state of Connecticut put into effect for school districts last year so in short we these are another example of we have been following both of these because we have been required to by law already but the board the policy committee already took action to move it here to the board the policy committee took action to recommend the deletion of the current policy that is on the books for Avon which is outdated and not in compliance and to adopt these regulations for
048both Health assessments and screenings and immunization requirements so it's truly just for clarity and transparency about Shifting the regulations but the board doesn't actually have to act on those two pieces do any board members have questions we do have to act on the deletion on the third piece right but not the two regulations correct so are there any questions about the regulations okay so we can move on to the piece of item C which is policy 5141 the request is to delete student health services any questions regarding that Laura would you like to make a motion sure I would make the motion then to delete policy 5141 student health services which is our Avon existing policy do I have a second thank you Lynn all in favor I passes unanimously with eight thank you now
049we move on to new business and we do have a presentation this evening to invite you forward from the slam collaborative our capacity and utilization analysis either Mike you prefer we're just gonna I ask that they returned a bit so the board could see what was on them because sure thank you you got it so in Mike the board received the entire the original the 47-page document but not we haven't seen the executive summary correct okay tonight but in advance of the meeting they saw everything yes okay all right that's perfect um good evening everybody um whatever clicker you're going to click for me good evening everybody so tonight we really have a update of where we're at in the process um as well as things to come so I'm glad everybody had a chance
050to look through the um through the overall package um we've been working through the enrollment analysis the enrollment projections the evaluation of programming and capacity and utilization is such a big part I want to thank everybody who's been involved in that especially the building principles I know over the course of the winter we had several questionnaires marks up a floor plans um building walk-throughs focus group meetings and a lot of back and forth to get the information right and it was a really good process I think it really speaks to when you work well collaboratively you can get a really good um analysis and end result to it so a big thank you out to everybody that was involved with that just touching on some of the demographic summaries so it's part of the big
051report on the enrollment projections we really look at everything we call them enrollment drivers that's everything from housing sales to housing starts to birth to demographics to um females of childbearing age everything that goes into driving enrollment in a community I'm just touching on the highlights here tonight the 2020 census which did not capture the impacts of any movement of the pandemic it was really fielded in the spring early on of 2020 showing a growth of about 834 residents overall getting up to about 19 000 residents we did our own demographic projection really picking up on the pace of the last several decades on projecting that nominal growth out to just over 20 000 by 2030 looking at the land use makeup of the community it's largely built out a lot of the population change
052is going to really be tied to the turnover of existing housing which we saw a lot of in the last three years as well as any infill development Bert's like many of our communities in Connecticut coming out of the Great Recession you could see on that chart on the lower right Bert's really kind of dropped off in the mid 2000s through 2010 and then what we saw was birds have upticked over the last several years I believe your kindergarten class of this past year is tied to that 2017 Birth Cohort of 156 students which was a little bit larger than the years before and a couple of the years after what we are tracking is the birds for 2021 and 2022 2022 is still a bit preliminary but the state will have that rectified in
053a few months but we're seeing birds of about 163 there so really your highest level since the early 2000s one of the biggest drivers are housing turnovers so what we do is we look at MLS data that tracks housing sales by month throughout the uh throughout the year for to service that we use for that it's the Warren group and what this gives us is a good indication of um the turnover of existing single-family homes so what we saw leading up to the pandemic was really stable housing coming out of the Great Recession do I have a point around the top I don't want to turn it off by accident but if you want to play it oh wonderful all right so what we saw coming out of the Great Recession you know housing declined
054a lot um then it had a little bit of a mini rebound through 2013 through 2018 um and then we saw a big uptick in housing so 2021 was 490 total sales um it was the highest recorded housing going back to the previous session what we also saw in 2022 and I updated that for the full year now that the data came in was that it dipped back off a little bit um so we saw that across many of our communities in the state of Connecticut about a 90 sale drop overall so what we're seeing is that it's beginning to normalize a lot across many of the communities that we work in so really that big push in 2020 2021 kind of was that push of push of families into the communities which are going
055to have a longer term impact on your enrollment because what we've seen throughout the pandemic is that we see some families with school-aged children but also with children in say zero to five or zero to four and toe that are still going to funnel into the system over the next few years housing permits have been very steady over the last few years going back to the late two you know the late 90s and early 2000s is when there was a lot of subdivision activity as I mentioned earlier is really built out we're not seeing a lot of single-family activity but overall since 2007 you've averaged about 22 permits per year and that includes the Peach Tree Village which had a hundred for multi-family development there foreign a lot of little tricks on that remote um
056so getting into uh housing developments this is what we call our housing pipeline so working with the planning department we wanted to get a good understanding of what's been happening um so what we do is we really look at housing developments that can be drivers for student enrollment um and we're really focused on three major housing developments and none of these are single-family subdivisions they all match that apartment or multi-family housing so recently approved or approved is the Avon Mills apartment that's a 250 unit apartment there as well as security Drive which is 176 total units there 76 from a reuse of a building and 100 from new construction and then the ongoing Avon Village Center master plan calls for 400 units as part of the future phases there so what we do when we
057have approved projects or projects that are recently under construction or things that are likely going to move forward they don't get captured in our traditional Aroma projection methodology so we add these in as external factors to ensure that the students get kind of built into the enrollment model simply put um so of these three developments we're going to generate just under 200 um school-aged children for Avon Public Schools looking at our overall enrollment history your enrollment peaked back in 0708 since um you know been declining but over the last five years you've been really stable overall we did see a dip in the elementary enrollment very similar to many communities in 2020 for the first year of the pandemic but then by 2022 it's now rebounded to pre-pandemic levels but still that dip nonetheless kind
058of persists a little bit not as a bubble but as a little bit of a little bit of a crater there in the enrollment but not to the level that we saw in many other communities at least similar communities for that dip we developed three different projection models we developed below medium and high this is our medium model which we match up to the overall housing activity and demographics we see this showing growth going forward but I think the important part of that growth is really going to be by the new housing when we when we disaggregated the new housing from the natural growth as we call it which is really demographic and generationally driven and student enrollment driven what we're seeing is a lot of the new students that are going to be coming
059in driving that growth are going to be from that new housing so the elementary enrollment is projected to grow by about seven percent reaching just over 1200 students at the end of the 10-year Horizon Thompson Brook is going to have a little bit of a decline but then eventually grow to about 540 students and Avon Middle School is projected to dip a little bit and then increase back to about 540 students and then at the high school we're projecting a decrease through the midpoint of the projections and then ultimately it'll get back up to just under a thousand students at 970 students at the end of the projection Horizon this is just showing us the individual schools the two elementary schools that have the attendance zones Pine Grove and Roaring Brook we're seeing the growth
060there really due in Pine Grove to Avon Village Center and security drive and then Roaring Brook really due to Avon Mills expansion there um and that's just based on the historic policy of those students going over to Roaring Brook so overall growth at those two different Elementary buildings is really kind of what we begin to focus on with the space needs when we look at the enrollment overall um as I mentioned earlier working collaboratively with everyone here at Avon Public Schools we went through a pretty lengthy process of deriving capacity capacity utilization and programming for the building um studying floor plans marking them up going over each space going over adjacencies of space then my staff getting out walking through the buildings I believe is over that President's Day Break week and then holding grade
061level focus group meetings where we had a lot of great dialogue I think one of the things that we look at when we go through this process is we we do understand your loading levels we use those loading Levels by grade in order to be able to assign a basic capacity to each space but then we also realized that you'd never utilize space at 100 I've been doing this for over 20 years you never see a school operating at that so we apply a utilization factor of 90 to the elementary schools and 85 percent to the intermediate middle and high schools and that accounts for scheduling that accounts for enrollment Bubbles and it really gives a much better number from a planning capacity standpoint because we've I've never worked in a district where you hit
062your base loading targets across the board um so touching on the highlights here I think one of the things with Pine Grove um that you'll see and if you've been following along the enrollment as of October 1st 640 I'm showing a capacity of 616. how are they fitting in the building well the key comes down to this area right here 30 instruction of classrooms or capacity so that really looks at your current loading and how many sections per grade you have and then we're noting that in use this 32. um at a part-time art teacher is on a cart and a Spanish teacher is on a cart so they're moving around and when they were able to put those two classrooms back into use and that's how that's being accommodated even though you're over your
063planning capacity Roaring Brook is based on uh based on our analysis is that 95 percent plenty of room at Thompson Brook currently at 80 percent Avon Middle at 95 percent and then Avon High School at 84 percent this is a detailed look when we marry those enrollment projections with the enrollment numbers and this is just based on K4 especially for Roaring Brook where we do have Pre-K we've taken those classrooms out held those five Pre-K classrooms they're not counting them towards the K4 capacity um but we're showing the two numbers here so we're showing that planning capacity especially on the chart on the left at Pine Grove where you see at 616 we're projected to be over that and then when we get to that Max Capacity which assumes that each of your available instructional
064classrooms you're loading to the maximum levels so what that shows us is starting at about the midpoint of our projection you're going to be right up against that Max Capacity but overall you're going to be up against your planning capacity throughout the entire 10 years and when you're over your planning capacity as I mentioned earlier you need to make decisions on classrooms so those resource those support spaces that are in full-size classrooms you have to be able to use those to your best abilities to be able to provide instructional spaces especially as bubbles occur so I believe in Pine Grove we've when we analyze the buildings they're able to really handle one enrollment bubble however when you get into two enrollment bubbles across different grades is where it gets really tricky and puts a lot
065of pressure on the building over at Roaring Brook overall you're going to be okay in the short term but then get up against your planning capacity around our projection midpoint looking at Thompson Brook looking at the projected enrollment relative capacity no real concerns there um at Avon Middle School you have right in the middle of our projections um you'll be close to your 100 capacity but based on the two and a half teams that you have per grade for a total of five teams you should definitely be able to accommodate because that bubble or that pressure gets spread out across the two different grades so it should be not much of a concern there and then looking at Avon High School I mentioned with the declining enrollment there no real capacity Sirens with the overall
066planning capacity at just over 1100 1100 seats so looking at our key summaries of our Key summary observations there are clear space needs at the elementary level no surprise especially at Pine Grove um as enrollment continues to grow build up you're going to continue to displace programs which is really just creating classrooms for instructional use it may not be ideal in a lot of instances we saw they weren't really adjacent to the other grade level classrooms or they had some concerns because there was classrooms that really weren't in the right location and in that building it does have some longer travel times between the different classrooms themselves some room at Roaring Brook for the near term but not enough space to accommodate all of the pgs students to address utilization concerns so when we did
067a back of the napkin or a quick analysis really as part of the planning options that you know really are our next steps we've realized that even if you were to try to accommodate all the students in that building you would not be able to do it and then there's a clear lack of space to grow so any any growth of a pre-k program is kind of hemmed in at Roaring Brook School the Intermediate Middle School is no concern turns at Thompson Brook our Architects when we walked through and did a detailed review of the middle school we identified and they came up as focus groups as well just a lot of concerns of the types of space it's a it's a it's a circular building so with the circular building the inner ring lacks
068any natural light it's not really ideal you want to have natural light flowing into those classrooms there's small window wells but they're not really achieving the a level of natural light that you would want to have as well as a good way I guess would be to describe it because it's a circular building and the way the classrooms are cut almost as Pizza wedges as you enter the classrooms themselves you have a much larger area and then it necks down making circulation making any kind of interactive teaching and learning which is key to 21st Century Learning very difficult in that classroom itself it's set up for an older style of teaching and learning where it's forward-facing kids into desks not a lot of interactiveness not a lot of breakout around small tables so that was
069one of the things that came up and then the high school has sufficient space for the programs one of the things we noted especially as part of the focus groups is that there isn't any real space there for program expansion should it be Alternative High School additional electives or any enrichment programs there um one of our short-term recommendations as those housing developments that I mentioned earlier come online would be to proactively rezone from Pine Grove over to Roaring Brook School that'll allow for um some a little bit of a relief valve for the space as I mentioned in that utilization curve looking at the projected utilization there is some capacity there but as you get out a little further that capacity gets gobbled up and at least that approach doesn't redistrict or doesn't move any
070current um Avon students looking ahead at our next steps of things that we're working on looking at some further Elementary options looking at some redistricting to see if that could achieve a better result of being able to Stave off some of those enrollment pressures we're also looking at some different grade level reconfigurations with the idea that if it's looked at addressing some of the deficiencies we see at the middle school can there be a grade level shift where we could free up some space in the elementary buildings push that in through a middle school project and try to avoid having to do numerous construction projects as well as just stand alone if we were to address the space concerns at the elementary schools what some additions and alterations could potentially look like there to be
071able to address those space concerns that we see coming down the pipeline so with that I'll pass it over to the board hopefully I touched on all the key highlights I think you did I just want to be clear you're not here tonight we are not here tonight with all of the recommendations on the path forward for how exact exactly to fix all this if you will we have as you saw some summary considerations some preliminary recommendations this has been an ongoing process thank you it's a lot as you said it was a lot of meetings and a lot of time spent so far going through the building and with us but still it is a lot of information and so we thought it would be best for you to come at least and do
072this preliminarily so that everyone knew where we were as of now so this is we're not talking about huge changes for the coming school year we are making slight changes here and there where we need to of course because we all know that we do have some space issues particularly at Pine Grove and we've been working closely on that already kindergarten registrations are still our wild card so we will continue moving forward planning in the district but also working directly with slam the other thing I just want to make sure and I'm sure you must have questions also I just want to put this out there Susan and I met with Brandon Robertson and Grace over on the town side and as you know there's a change order that has been put forward to continue
073the work instead of looking for a new firm to work with us on the board of ed side we already have one and we need the same sort of analysis done at the central office because the town is also trying to make a determination about what to do short term and long term with that building from a capital aspect so that's not yet started but a next piece coming down the pike any questions go ahead Laura so this is very sobering and a lot of information and I'm sure a tremendous amount of work went into this is there any way to add the information that would pertain to a proposed development that's gone through Inland Wetlands but hasn't made it all the way through Planning and Zoning that would include 55 residential units on Nod
074Road it's 100 nod way it calls for 13 single-family homes and 42 units um it did that recently go through Illinois Wetlands it did and obviously there's no way you could keep up with all of this but it's a never-changing landscape but I can reach out and get some information on that thanks for the heads up sure only because obviously everybody's bursting at the seams on some level and that could end up in the short term five to ten years becoming increasingly more difficult to manage yeah we'll see where it's at in the process we maybe based on what it sounds like it still has to go through the full commission yes um so there's no assurance that it's definitely going to go through but I want to be able to add it into this
075so we can then track it and be aware of it thank you your account can't give you the information because they preliminarily have brought it to our attention too but it's very early on still okay that's great thank you other board members Lynn I don't know how long these things take but maybe you can estimate when would we begin to see the housing completed the new housing completed the um Avon Mills and the unsecurity drive so what we did was we were planning on actually not when it's completed but when we feel we're going to start seeing students is kind of how we we look at it and it really comes down to completed construction certificate of occupancy and then kind of like families move in a little bit of maturation we figured 24-25 would
076be around the time where where that's when we started adding them in but not all at once so I mentioned 199 students we added them in incrementally um out through I think it was 2030 realizing that there's going to be some some churn of development there could be some delays and we never want to overload it all at once because that's not how construction happens but yeah that's really that that window of time so anything from now until then is really kind of the natural growth that you're going to see thank you anyone else go ahead Jeff uh actually a couple questions to the superintendent related to the survey the first one is uh refresh memory did we have a casual conversation as a board once regarding the possibility of redistricting for the two elementary
077schools we have in small ways over the years before my time and even since I've been here had to take certain additional streets or new new registrations without this kind of the same thing they're recommending without displacing current families so yes we have done that as necessary over time and the other question is knowing that Roaring Brook also houses our Pre-K and that seems to be a school with a high capacity with a tremendous amount of space left over in the high school any discussion or thought about possibly relocating that program to free up space in Roman Brook we have not talked about moving it to the high school at this point now we have our greater space need right now is at Pine Grove and so we have thought about um what else we
078might need to do there if we had to for example you know we started talking about um ideas like doubling of classrooms that have been done in the past and larger spaces with more than one teachers teacher at Pine Grove we've even thought about what it might possibly look like if say to just for example fourth grade classes moved from Pine Grove to Thompson Brook if we had the capacity to do that still it's next door we would still be you know those are just ideas that are floating around on the preliminary end for how to manage the short term because that's how we're looking at it obviously short term midterm long term okay thank you we have a lot of requirements with Pre-K that I'm not sure we would be able to meet right
079away readily here by moving them to the high school just like kindergarten you know at pre-k a lot of the same kinds of requirements with first floor egress bathrooms and so forth and I don't think we have a space that could house that here any other questions we're just at the start thank you for taking the time to present this to us we appreciate it and um we will see you in the future I'm sure all right have a good evening thank you so much thank you all right so now we move on to the next policy 5131.71 looking for a revision of the student use of the district's computer systems and Internet safety Dr cardamola did you want to speak to that yes we as you know revised this policy recently as a result
080of recommended changes and required legal changes and so these are very small changes that were in the red line that we discussed with the policy committee and that the board saw prior to this meeting it's mostly terminology changing over time related to technology are there any questions by board members seeing them Lord would you like to make the motion do I have a second thank you Nicole all in favor I passes unanimously with eight next item is policy 5141.25 this is New Management plan and guidelines for students with food allergies glycogen storage disease and or diabetes I know that when we prepared for the policy committee meeting a number of the board members said didn't we already do this policy because it looks and feels so similar to another policy that we discussed twice at
081the committee level and also at the board level that is a separate policy however that was a newer policy related to epipens diabetes medication and also um the word has just escaped me um no that's this one the other the other policy opioid opioid blockers so that was the other policy this one is related but obviously not the same and it's more specific to medication administration and this is a new policy we've never had one that looked like this before because uh it was a new requirement by law so this is the model policy and it's entirely just adapted to Avon our medical advisor has gone through it which is a requirement of the statute also so has our head nurse supervisor it basically outlines are responsible for the management plans that we have to
082have for food allergies glycogen storage and disease and diabetes and it also defines when students have to have individualized health plans and emergency care plans and finally it speaks in part to the training that has to take place both of staff and students for any of these items yes this is a it's a newer perspective to consider when we're talking about training for all students from our youngest students to our seniors we're talking about Pre-K to 12 really finding developmentally appropriate ways to train students in things like food allergies for example so so that we are preparing say the three or the four-year-old who might be in a class next to a peer that seems to be having trouble breathing or you know has been exposed to peanuts and so on that maybe even a
083pair might recognize that something is not right with someone sitting near them so this is a it's a heavy lift to be honest to think about what that's going to look like to put that training into place particularly in the elementary schools it is a requirement however it is in this policy we have not received any thing from the state to assist in the requirement development developmentally appropriate resources and so forth I have no doubt we will find them however working together and with our medical advisor and our nurses and so forth but it is a new way to do it so it's not just staff being trained it's students being trained in all of these any questions by board members go ahead Lynn I know there have been changes so with 50 kids who
084have health plans also have a 504 plan is that a mandate also it depends there are times when a student might only have an individualized Health Plan and or they might have a 504 and an individualized Health Plan it's dependent on student situation and what the needs are anyone else Laura all right then I would like to make a motion to approve the new policy 5141.25 management plan and guidelines for students with food allergies glycogen storage disease and or diabetes thank you to have a second Lynn second thank you all in favor aye passes unanimously with eight all right next is policy 5145.4 it's a revision of our non-discrimination policy thank you Narcan that was the that was the word that wouldn't come to me epipens Narcan so this again is a newer policy both
085this one I'll speak to both of them at the same time the student and these staff policies were recently changed they've been changed numerous times actually in the past few years as required by state and federal law and regulations this therefore is a small change we already adopted the policy that's in front of you in 2022 it is the current model policy there is only uh one change in both of these policies both the staff and the student and that is because by law we have to have two different policies one that is directed toward staff and one that is directed towards students even though the language in both is nearly entirely the same some of the processes and the procedures for example for handling complaints or providing resolutions are different obviously whether it is
086a student or a staff member also there are two separate policies for that reason they are both exactly the model policy with the exception of the red lines that you see which were um adding in specifically language to refer to transgender and non-conforming Youth and that is they are exactly the same in both policies Jeff so I appreciate the conversation that I've had regarding this thank you I keep forgetting drama Mike I apologize I still caution altering the language while in 2023 the addition of these terms seemed to make sense to us we are not the courts and to to council's own commentary is that these terms are constantly being redefined through Court action and I always caution us from going away from the model policy from Council because now to I think the superintendent's
087point we have to make a note that we have made changes so as they update we update this but our update has not been test tested in court and I just really caution that we can be opening up a legal loophole by avonizing a policy as simple as it is and as small as it is I just have those concerns Jackie um I guess I'm trying to what did the did the attorney suggest against this adoption and do any other policies like this exist in Connecticut with this language so the non-discrimination policy as I said is the model policy minus these two terms so anyone who utilizes Shipment has a policy that looks like this generally speaking there's a cape version of it also they're they're very similar um there is another cave policy that
088I actually a board member brought to me I believe last year to take a look at because it was a in a policy that was in addition to this one um and there were a couple of other districts Hartford I believe and North Stonington or Stonington that had adopted that policy that policy was very specific to transgender and non-conforming youth and so the discussion that the board members at the time had with Council in two different sessions this was one of the things that you you spoke to the board Council about two different attorneys that work at shipment whether or not the board needed to adopt another specific policy that was um very specific to transgender non-conforming youth like that Cape policy so to your point Jeff that is a cave policy it is not
089a shipment model policy however based on the conversation that the board had with the attorney the um idea was generated that in lieu of adopting a whole other policy that was not Shipman's policy these two terms could be added to the pieces of definition of language as as the conversation went to be clear that we were talking about in policy both of these um references to gender expression or gender identity so has this you had this conversation with the attorney has this change gone back through the attorney yes um and this was where it was landed rather than having a completely separate policy because to your point Jeff that was we were cautioned you were cautioned against doing that by shipment because of the continual changes that get made to the regulations and the law
090and that Cape policy was from 2017 and is outdated already so I guess my thought because I understand Jeff's point I think it's a good point but I think that I guess if I was going to look at this from a wider lens and really think about it as what is the best way that we can protect our students and what is the harm done if we don't pass it or don't add the language versus if we do pass it um I guess to me I would definitely fall on the side of passing it to protect as many people as we can I don't really see the downside legally I don't really understand what the I'm trying to picture what you're thinking lawsuit wise so when I read the model policy which shipment recommends for
091the purpose of this policy gender identity or expression means a person's gender related identity appearance or behavior whether or not that gender related identity appearance behavior is different from traditionally associated with the person's physiology or science sex at Birth with gender related identity as a layperson I feel that covers some of those other issues we are adding this the words after gender identity expression includes transgender and gender non-conforming what my concern is it's not so much putting the terms in because I do believe our students are protected with the model policy right because how I read it what my concern is knowing that the discussion regarding gender identity and expression is an ongoing conversation that is being litigated through the courts that as additional rulings and judicial interpretations go through that our policy May may
092end up out of compliance I don't know I don't know how this can be interpreted any other way but I'm not a court of law dealing with this and the courts can interpret things in very specific ways so my caution purely is to being out of sync with the model policy could open us up possibly to a lawsuit that's my sole concern I agree I want all of our students protected and I think the model policy provides those protections I just don't understand why we feel we must break with the model policy if the model if a council is telling us the model policy is addressing the concerns of all of our students I understand that and I think you and I probably share the same feelings about protecting our students so I don't want
093to go down that road because I think we both share that I guess for me I think because we are in an environment where so many of us are aware of the concerns around you know certain demographics of students that if we can maybe add language that is even more protective it's hard for me to imagine that adding this language is so like deleterious to us that we couldn't come back and fix it if we had to except that we probably won't know until there's a lawsuit and I'm just suggesting because it's not about what the protects are adding if this could be any group of students in any combination in any way has nothing to do with the group that we are discussing in this case I I just am very cautious and I
094appreciate the council has felt that no this probably shouldn't but if we're the only district with a policy written like this with these terms and something in the definitions change somewhere then we are out of sync with existing case law that's my sole argument I am not radically opposing this I am not saying let's vote this down but I think it's important to go on record that I think we need to be mindful when we start altering model policy for Council then we begin to assume we understand what the judicial system is going to interpret certain terms especially in this case terms that I think are still being defined terms we know aren't fully protected by current legislation and that is still being discussed I just think veering away from model policy potentially puts us
095at risk I just caution against it well I think that's a good point I think we Veer away from model policy a lot we avonize a lot of policies and when we have strong feelings and strong debates about things I think we we have looked at policies historically and we could change it like we I feel like we've changed policies many times in the past right have we not changed policies like we have a meeting we change a policy no so difference in terms of Chainsaw so when I think when I first came on the board we've had several conversations that there were policies that the Board of Ed at the time altered from the model policy and I do believe they were questions and so forth and in the past six years since I've
096been on the board my understanding is we have gone back and revised some of those policies put them in line with shipment and Goodwin I am not aware because I asked the question at every meeting when we talk about a policy what have we evenized and I don't think in the last six years we have infrequently I would say I I can't think of an example right at this moment but I could I could probably think in an example if I take another few minutes think about it but we it is true that we have attempted to stay generally speaking with the model policies with few changes well actually one example is on the agenda tonight um there are a number of changes to the board bylaws that are Avon versions because they are allowable
097by you know you have the model policy where shipment says here's what you have to have to be in compliance with the law or foia requirements when we're talking about board bylaws you are able as a board however to add in or tweak certain areas of that to make your bylaws be the way you want to do business the way you handle public comment for example every board has the ability to make that decision so those are some examples of how we might tweak a policy to be the Avon version I think the point that you are making is this is a little bit different because it's a definition of terms and I don't necessarily disagree with that I on the other hand we had a conversation about how to make sure this policy was
098clearly inclusive that was what you know you had asked of me to work on with board Council and this was where we landed with that so I I think there's Merit on both sides being very clear that we are talking about these specific definitions related to our staff and our students but on the other hand you know to Jeff's point and Jackie you said it also I think just now and Laura and I talked about this as we talked through this policy definitions change all the time it's why we just changed a computer use policy for students because we had to make some changes to the definitions of things on the other hand if we had a specific platform we utilized here in Avon that we needed to add in to that technology policy for
099example we would have done that so I think this is I don't know that it'll I do know I don't believe based on what council advised that you're opening yourself up to any additional legal trouble by making that change in the definition do I think it's possible that it would change and that there might have to be additions or deletions to this policy absolutely because we've seen a number of them over time from statute and regulations already would it be helpful to add language that says includes but not limited to would that broaden it enough that we don't really feel you know so we're kind of recognizing some specifics but we're making it broad enough that we're possibly um that that to me would kind of solve the problem that we're having I would say
100no matter what I just put this out there this doesn't have to be voted on we have our non-discrimination policy is the model policy it is in effect and I'm putting that out there because you know how I feel about this on on your behalf as a board if we make any further changes again to this tonight I would rather that you paused and did not vote on it and we brought it back to the attorney again even if it seems nebulous language I I don't feel comfortable recommending to you that you adopt something that has been further tweaked after your attorney looked at it that's all I had a question is Council saying that the way the definition is written out does not include people who are transgender and gender no they are not
101they the ways are we being redundant in adding those words they didn't necessarily say it was redundant it was more about being clear to the to your point Jeff to the layperson reading this that these protections do in fact apply to individuals who identify as or Express transgender our gender non-conforming it was it was more of a how do we ensure that that population of staff and students understand that this policy is about that particular group or those particular groups of people despite the fact that the current judicial interpretation of this term gender identity or expression does include them it does include them yes Laura so my recollection of having spent a significant amount of time with the attorneys was that actually they talked about districts that choose to have more inclusion and more protective
102language are actually a good thing and it is also my understanding that these two terms were brought specifically to the attention of Port Council and board Council approved them and said they would be appropriate in our policy correct to be clear but I do understand as a general rule not wanting to rewrite model policy and I don't think that's what we're attempting to do here this is an attempt to clarify terms that might be part of a larger conversation in terms of you know some of the descriptors here um and I think we need to be careful to not be redundant perhaps but if the attempt is to be more clear and more inclusive then I think that would be appropriate but I also think if there's enough questions about this perhaps we should table
103it and come back for a second read and get further review by Council I just like I said I am not I have mixed feelings about it because I understand the purpose of what we're trying to do what my concern is I don't feel we as a body should try to Define legal terminology I would rather counsel while Council said this may be acceptable they still didn't they chose not to put it in their model policy and that's the thing that worries me if the majority of us would like to move forward this I do not object on principle on this my issue is simply to issue the commentary because I wanted it noted that I have a concern when we start dabbling with our own judicial interpretation and we should be leaving those things
104really to counsel so I don't necessarily feel if anyone else says I don't I don't feel it needs to go back to to policy committee I don't mean to hold this up but I felt it was important to be noted for public record what my concerns are less thought that I would have about it before it sounds like maybe we could vote on it tonight would be I really think that the idea of crafting a policy that the public and the staff would be using and making it actually really clear obvious kind of current language easy to read is a positive thing as somebody who sometimes looks I can look at these policies and everything kind of goes together it's really might be very meaningful to somebody who's you know taking the time to look
105this up and to say oh look I'm I'm protected or my child's protected or my co-worker is protected it says so right here and that's the word that I can really identify with right now so um I guess that's I I would like to see us making everything super super easy to understand but I understand that you're concerned about the terminology in the legal terminology all right do you have a recommendation as the policy chair Laura it would be my recommendation to move forward tonight but I understand and I respect the differences of opinion so I would you know look to the superintendent to ask for the recommendation based on what council says I I defer to if you want me to bring this back this is the version if you would like to go
106back again to council I don't think there's an issue with you you can you can meet again and discuss it which you have not been able to do again since this update you discussed it up front talked about what you might want in it and so on and then left it to be figured out what how to solve this current version yes and council did not discourage Passage no they reiterated that this is not you know their model they feel covers the entirety of it however to Laura's Point as they talked about with you as a board they didn't see harm in you being using those two terms to be more transparent and clear that this policy covers someone who may not otherwise understand that those terms are inherent in that so legal deficit so
107my concerns have been noted to the group I think sending it back to the attorney to review a policy they've already reviewed is redundant and it's not worth the taxpayer money on that part well I mean up to you obviously though up to you if you would like to have a you know a 15-minute meeting with the attorney to say you know can we talk through some of these concerns that came up again help you to set that up I I think adding or tinkering with the language is going to mean seeing the you know actually having a conversation with the attorney again but I like Jackie's idea of included but not limited to the following and that might give us more life might give the policy more life as the language changes but I
108don't see a downside I really don't worry about I'm not at all worried that if we go with this change it will result in any kind of legal and as much as I'm I'm the the pain on this right if Council has looked at this version and has not said oh God don't do that and we can move forward with my cautionary note on the record I do think if we were to do any additional changes I would definitely want Council to look that over even if we had a period I would like counsel and to look that over there I'm comfortable with how it is I think it's clear enough but it also absolutely agree with being as inclusive as possible for that Clarity piece so Jeff I totally understand where you're coming from
109but I'm comfortable with it as is I am too I just thought that might be another another way to go but I'm comfortable either as is or going back to the attorney Council has seen it and says that it's fine I'm comfortable with it as is I'm comfortable with it as well I have no doubt we'll be back here discussing his policy at both policy committee and the board level sooner than later because as I said I I think we've had to revise his policy at least three times just since I've been here with you so I'm sure we will see more come through the courts more come through the regulations and we may very well come back and see a change that this ends up being removed and or replaced by something I think
110that's possible down the pike right now I've we've done what you asked for originally as a board and Council has moved well Council track this Edition over this Edition or alteration fall to us it's when we make any time we change policy even if we adopt a shipment model policy Lock Stock and Barrel or arcade policy our policies go on record with shipment so when someone when if one of the administrators needs to pick up the phone and say we had X and Y incident and they talk through what to do next whatever attorney is on the other end of the phone is pulling up Avon's policies and looking at that as they answer the question so when changes happen and I think I remember this this prompts I have to travel Laura talks also
111about going through and revising our policies you've talked about this in the past and so this was something that would come through in the regular revision process anyway yep okay so 20 years from now I've been hit by a bus or retired and none of you are here someone else if this never got changed before then someone else is going to sit in this seat and these seats and say well this is weird this wasn't model policy there's two there's two words that are different in here I don't know why we did that you know we should always but they'll you'll go back down the same path as we have with some of the other policies but that won't happen because this changes too often for that to happen it won't be 20 years from
112now and I think that's a good thing that we're staying on top of that and changing it as you know it's the way we should the thing all of our policies exactly because then we maintain legal compliance with it yes okay Laura so then I would like to make a motion to approve revised policy 5145.4 non-discrimination for students as presented do I have a second I'll second thank you Sarah all in favor aye aye passes unanimously with eight Laura would you like to read in the um yes the motion for the next policy thank you motion to approve revised policy 4118.11 non-discrimination for employees as presented thank you do I have a second Lynn all in favor aye aye again passes unanimously all right thank you for a second then I apologize uh Lynn Now
113we move into board bylaws policy 9222 removal of board officers so I kind of just speak generally to all of these and um and Morgan decide one by one what to do with them tonight again these are obviously not um policies that need immediate action for two reasons one there there are changes that are recommended but most of those changes that are recommended for legal reasons are because uh foia changed and a lot of those regulations and requirements changed as a result of the pandemic and people holding online meetings and so forth so 90 and I know you already know this we've talked about in the past here and also in policy 98 of what is in these is the recommendation and or requirement from foia and legal counsel so that your meetings as a
114board are conducted within the confines of Statute and requirements from Freedom of Information most of them you have already been living by as a board because almost every change in these policies is related to participation through electronic equipment much of the language in each one of these policies has been changed to reflect what we must do to be compliant with foi requirements so for example when you are having a meeting that is held entirely remotely remotely like we do still with some of our committee meetings for expediency those agendas have to be posted at least 48 hours in advance versus a regular board meeting which might be posted 24 hours in advance and we obviously try to post in advance of even regular board meetings but those are the changes that are redlined in here
115that have been recommended these have been recommended for quite some time but we had so many other policies that we needed to make it through because of so many statutory changes particularly Central to life first we know there was a very it was a very active legislature over the past year or so but the Board of Ed bylaws kept kind of getting pushed further down the for for future review and they're finally here tonight all right so perhaps we act on each one individually but certainly if there are questions as we go we can do that so are there any questions regarding removal of board officers and that is a new policy by the way correct we did not have this in our bylaws previously it's a new model policy from shipmental so okay that
116is recommended for all boards I did have a question on that I'm sorry go for it I'm trying to phrase it in my head it was simply just a removal of officers so in our case we have three officers uh chair Vice chair secretary this is not necessarily removal from the board does this also include removal from committee assignments no does that also include not removal of committee chairs no it is board officers technically are only actual Board of Education officers not chairs of any committees okay all right Laura motion to approve new policy 9222 board bylaw removal of board officers second Nicole all in favor aye aye passes unanimously next replace board by law policy 9321 time place and notice of meetings any questions about that Laura motion to replace existing Avon policy 9321
117board bylaw time place and notice of meetings with model policy from shipment and Goodwin all right do I have a second Lynn all in favor I that passes unanimously next policy 9325 the replacing of the board by law meeting conduct any questions about that I do go ahead Jeff if I read this right in terms of public address organizations now are permitted would be permitted to address I think our policy always was is you had to be an Avon resident or my misreading or misunderstanding I'm trying to find exact I remember reading ah 88 um a number two the board May permit an individual group to address the board during a public forum at the beginning of each meeting yes so so for example yep if um Boy Scouts yes anyone or I'll use an
118example that might be more relevant on the flip side for example I I might address the the Town Council and the board of Finance have the same requirements because generally speaking you you have to be a resident when you're going to address a board I I work for the Board of Ed I can still address the Town Council of the board of Finance even without being a resident likewise we may have a person who's the president of the uh Chamber of Commerce who doesn't live in town but the Chamber of Commerce is even as a part of the Chamber of Commerce that person will be able to address the board is it by are we permit because you've you've shared with us before the concern about opening up the public forum to various groups and
119then all of a sudden every group in the world can come and address us is this purely permit okay it's not it is not automatic I think we had an issue actually at a board meeting like that not so long ago where someone who was a an alumni of Avon Public Schools but no longer lived in town and wanted to come to support something um yeah it was an exam it was asked an exemption was made the board chair asked the board if you were in you voted to allow the person to speak this is permit so on public comment you still have to be a resident of the community unless the board is allowed right or you work here or thank you so actually that was not a good example because on my end
120and that's just on my end with the town that's a simple majority vote Chris thank you for the clarification on that question any other questions okay Laura motion to replace existing Avon policy 9325 board bylaw meeting conduct with model policy from shipment a Goodwin do you have a second all right thank you Jeff all in favor aye passes unanimously with eight all right next is policy 9325.1 replace board bylaw Quorum and voting procedures any questions if not Laura nobody has I mean this is all about the electricity the electronic requirement Provisions that's what's different right so nobody has any questions okay uh motion to replace existing Avon policy 9325 board bylaw quote Quorum and voting procedures with model policy from shipment and going good one do I have a second Sarah all in favor hi
121aye passes unanimously with eight thank you next policy 9325.2 replace board bylaw construction and posting of agenda any questions about that this again is about electronic participation and the example that I used earlier is a part of this bylaw 48 hours in advance when the board is going to hold a remote meeting okay seeing none Laura motion to replace existing Avon policy 9325.2 board bylaw construction and posting of agenda with model policy from Shipman and Goodwin thank you to have a second Sage all in favor aye aye passes unanimously with eight final policy 9326 replace board by law regarding minutes any questions this is to comply with current foi requirements seeing none Laura okay motion to replace existing Avon policy 9326 board bylaw minutes with model policy from Shipman and Goodwin all right do I
122have a second thank you Nicole all in favor I passes unanimously with eight thank you all right our second section of communication from the public are you aware no I just noticed that we don't have communication from board members I'm happy to amend the agenda if anyone wanted to speak at this time oh I apologize we missed that yeah I think you're good okay Nicole just to kind of piggyback off of what Jackie was saying um the last few months I've been able to see a lot of fun things the Willy Wonka Jr and the Peter Pan Jr and seeing the Avon students have the opportunity to shine in in their individual strengths and then to see it come to fruition tonight seeing the high school students and the internship showcase is just really powerful
123to see how you know the Avon schools can progress these kids so well agreed anyone else all right Lynn I am really in awe I've said this to her alone one-on-one but Laura and the committee the policy committee all of you have worked so hard I'm I just can't imagine all the hours that you put into and I want to thank my colleague Laura publicly for all the work she did and um here we are tonight we got we did the easy part we voted yes and uh it's all all the behind the scenes work and I appreciate you thank you anyone else all right do I have a motion to adjourn okay Sage do I have a second all right Lynn all in favor I we adjourn at 8 54 pm thank you thank
124you everyone [Music]