NPS BOE Meeting - (1/28/2026)

001Good evening. The time is 7:01. I am calling the Newington Board of Education meeting to order for January 28th, 2026. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. >> Deb, would you please call the role >> here? >> Marissa >> here. >> Amy Paratt >> here. Sam Sharma, >> Brian, >> he's he's online. >> Sam is online. We saw him. >> Sam's online. >> Brian, >> not present. >> Stand >> here. >> I have Miss Bus and Mr. >> Thank you. We have a quorum. Um, first item of the agenda is our consent agenda. >> Participation. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Sorry. I'm like I ran

002from class, so I'm a little out of it. >> I haven't gotten my Yes. And someone pulled out right as I was walking in, but that's okay. All right. Sorry. Public participation, I apologize. Um, anyone online or in the room um can raise their hand to be recognized for um public participation on any matter related to board business. raise your hand if you wish to participate. >> Not seeing any. Okay. Now, consent agenda. >> Thank you. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented for the minutes for the special meeting on December 10th, 2025. For the regular meeting on December 10th, 2025, and for the regular meeting on January 14th, 2026. I'll second. >> We have a motion to second. Any discussion? Okay. Um, all in favor? >> Any oppos? Okay. Motion passes >>

003720 to zero. That's the count. All right. Next is the superintendent superintendent of schools report. >> I would like to start off my report by introducing Dr. Dr. Gerald Haristen. He is our chief of innovation strategy for equity. I might have forgotten one of the titles in there, but his primary function um he does a lot of things in the district, but his uh Oh man, that was good too. His work in this area has been outstanding. Um, as part of the roll out, folks have noticed that Newington's ahead of the curve. Uh, Dr. Harrison was asked to present at several forums uh to share how we are going about this. So, I think it's uh something that we'd like to share with the board so they are up to date on how we are

004responding to some of the legislative changes regarding school climate, restorative practices, and really getting um you know, getting parent and student voice in all of these initiatives. So, Dr. Harrison, I will turn the mic over to you. All you got to do is press it till it turns green. >> Like every time or just once? >> Just once. >> All right. Uh, so I miss my son. So it's like really hard to be here, but uh but uh because I've I've missed like five dinners in the six in the six years of life. Uh so um and like PTA meeting was going on while I was getting ready to come. Um so but I you know I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. Uh and she did a great job of doing something the

005other day. So I don't want to be remiss and not returning the favor. She had no idea I was doing this. So, I wanted to thank specific people. Kristen um who's been huge uh along with Wendy who's not who's no longer in the district um with helping me think through a lot of the things when they were in their nent stages um tough long discussions about what this stuff would look like uh in instruction and in various forms of support through PD. Uh, so I just I really appreciate really close to five years of trying to manifest some really complex work. Uh, and then obviously I mean she's online. She couldn't be here tonight cuz she's at home being a great mom or she's actually on the road at a wrestling match being a great

006mom uh listening to this as that happens. So, uh, Tamara Hang um, who has been more than essential in this work. She's done all kinds of things that extend beyond just the sort of nominal um role that's articulated in her um sort of professional duty of coach. She's done all kinds of thought work and hard work making sure this stuff um is meaningful. And so I just want to say thank you for her wherever you are in absentia. Uh and then lastly, Dr. Brummit. So she I owe you a huge appreciation. Uh, I told you a long time ago that like two years ago I saw my hope and dream and education just come through in Newington. Now I'm just working on borrow time. Uh, I'm pretty much finished in my career. I can do

007whatever, but uh, this is really what uh, I wanted to do. Um, so I appreciate you for that uh, opportunity and everything that comes with it. Uh, I'm really working on I'm done with the cake now. I'm just in the icing. So I appreciate that um, so much. um to be specific on the topic tonight. It's up there. I'm going to ask Dr. Bett to advance the slides. It's not really um much to the conversation in terms of PowerPoint slides. It's really more the the conversation that comes off of the slides. So read as you as you need to and I'm going to talk you through it. Up here you see from our strategic plan which is three years. We are in the wonderful year 2026. Um, so we're just turning the two/3 curve on

008this plan and so we've seen what we think are valuable increases in certain areas and in instances. I think where we're headed now is to try to systematize and more regulate our outcomes that are desirable. Uh that's a difficult task and most change strategies are supposed to take three to five years to really see some baseline of consistency. Um and we've we're in the we're in the throws of that and so this gives you some sense of where we try to target our focus areas and we I think have done a much better job of cross-pollinating our efforts but there are distinct focus areas that we work in and these are them. I'm sure these are familiar so I won't linger long on that. Thank you, ma'am. By way of segue, you'll you would have

009seen that there is no school climate reference. That's a much newer uh topic area that really it's best to kind of consider it work that's at the nexus of discipline and social emotional learning. When those two things come together and people are feeling safe and engaged, that's sort of an essential way to think about what school climates, what school climate is for our stakeholder groups. And who are our stakeholder groups? This is one element of how we characterize the student stakeholders that we serve. There isn't much that the numbers don't tell you except for Newington is changing. Um, we appreciate that. There really shouldn't be a dot dot dot there. There should be an exclamation mark. Uh, we are excited that we get to work with an ever diversifying pool of aspirations and opportunities and

010assets to draw from to make us as good as we can be. And that's how we choose to look at our evolving picture of Newington. This is yet another way to think about who we are demographically in our evolving picture of resources, assets, persons that we get the wonderful job of helping to serve. I wanted to be intentional about framing that as a positive. I think sometimes it can be a misnomer that we do what we do because we're getting more diverse and that means that we have to move away from things that were tradition and that can sometimes communicate that we are in a a pickle or a bind to do things differently and we don't have to do different work. We get to we get to work with different ideas and different people

011and different perceptions and different strategies and we see that as a net gain because our whole institution can grow. Although it's difficult, it actually is a net gain. Not only in the sort of research base around businesses practices and how they increase based on diversity, but we think diversity is just an increasing opportunity every time you get a new idea. Think about what it would be like to sit down with dinner by yourself every time you ever had dinner. And think about every time your ideas grow. You read a book at dinner, a new thought. You talk about a book at dinner with a person, a new way of thinking about that book. You talk about more friends who are in a book group and you eat dinner together. Every time we increase at the

012table, we learn. That's the way we think about how we're growing and changing. We don't want to eat dinner alone. We like company. We call that our intended outcomes. We seek to maintain places at the table for people who are enjoying their time here. We seek to increase where we have to of people are sort of losing access or not getting what we hope that everyone gets the sustenance that they need. And we don't want those pictures to be predictable. So, we want to very specifically and strategically target where we think there might be a table that needs to be lowered or a chair that needs to be raised so that everybody can get what they need from the opportunity to come eat together or we have to afford them. I'll pause for a second.

013I do tend to be quite poetic. I listen to a lot of R&B and my mom is a preacher. It's an interesting mix. I won't read to readers, but I'll let you take in this very specific aspect of our overall district plan that we just spoke to. >> That reference to tears might feel unfamiliar. I'm not necessarily sure of how much this group has talked about what's called the multi-tered system of instruction. Um, in its former iteration, it was most often referenced as SRBI. Nationally, it has a different nomenclature or had a different nomenclature, and that was RTI, response to intervention. More recently, there has been an emphasis on not necessarily the artifice of tiers of instruction, but what that scaffolding is called, and that's just called the multi-tered system of support, MTSS. We want

014that for SEAL, school climate, and discipline. The way that we start to construct that infrastructure or that scaffolding is by data. We use a lot of precise what we hope is precise precise methods and data generation processes to tell us where to build the insides. Our schools might have different looks of those or the artifice or the cover of what they of what the multi-tered system looks like in their schools, but they all are in the process of constructing the same kind of scaffolding spine to put their school culture around. So while you might see different looks based on level or parts of town, what's inside it is supposed to be remarkably consistent. That's why we use this action step of starting everything that we do from proof. We value perceptions and people's lived experiences.

015In fact, that's our it's a part of the data set. Um we have principles and Dr. Brumit herself who talk about this term called street data. If you want to check out the book, there's a book by that name. So, we have a wide array of things, but we really try to use as much evidence as possible from different sources, but that's what tells us where to build and how. All right. Again, I'll try not to read to readers. I'll let this wash over you first. I just wanted to make clear that because as I've referenced, you know, Kristen's integral support, um, Tamara and Wendy before she was here, um, we have been doing this work for a long time or at least in the way that we consider the precision of the work to

016be ours. We've we've had a plan. We've had things working for multiple years. Um, and that was without an external impetus like the school climate policy. So, we don't see our work as being sort of framed fully by that policy. We actually see our work being informed by that policy. It's part of our evidence base for what we do. Um, so what I wouldn't do tonight, but what you'll benefit from, I think in June, um, is more of a precise outline of what we've done under school climate relative to challenging behaviors and different aspects of what the policy says you should be doing specifically, but under the umbrella of school climate, which includes SEAL work, discipline work, and where they meet, we have a lot of efforts, but we don't skip the policy. The policy

017is huge for us because it generates a lot of clarifying information about the health and well-being of our discipline system. What we've done specifically to keep ourselves accountable is there are five standards outlined in the policy for how to mark your growth school by school. It is not a part of the policy that districts actually have their own improvement plan, but we talk about the part of the policy that does suggest that this improvement should be a part of your district's improvement. So, we happen to be really specific about that. So, we took one of the standards and made it our accountability measure for school improvement. But those standards are designed for schools. So again, our seriousness with this effort is that we've taken on um things that other people may not feel are necessary.

018Um but we have taken on a seriousness about it because it is again a part of the work that we do. So that that italicized text, the school district community has a shared vision and plan for promoting and sustaining positive school climate that focuses on prevention, identification, and response to challenging behavior. because it is so precise in what it focuses on challenging behavior. It could not ever be the heart and totality of what we do but it is a huge part of what we do because this is actually what we do. Um you've heard I'm sure about the three pillars of Newington public schools. We try to market them as much as possible. There will be t-shirts. They are $39.99. Um but I may be kidding about that. No, I am. But uh but um

019the simplest way to think about this is that we have a district school bookend approach. We have a macro organizing body which is the DELT. And at the DELT we strive to consolidate the efforts of our three pillars and to look at how we support leaders in manifesting those three pillars into systems in their in our seven schools. And each school then has an organizing body called the SELt which has a very similar focus. It organizes the school's internal systems to try to develop those three pillars into their way of doing school. We borrow from each other to tell each other about how effective we are at providing and doing the work, providing supports for and doing the work. We're not frankly at full continuity yet with this approach, but this is our approach. Um,

020if we were a football team, while I'm a Jets fan, please. >> Thank you. I know. I know. We This would be our Patriot way. We try to have an identity that reflects the best of what Newington can be. So, at least our strivings have a focus. We don't try to emulate um parts and pieces from from where we are, from other people. We try to cobble together with real scrutiny the best of ourselves and put that into an organizational framework. That's what that is. But I'll let you look at that for a moment. Thank you, doctor. to go one more level deeper. What makes each one of those what you saw might be those little squares are subcommittees and committees, but what makes their work function is a relentless commitment not only to equity

021but to routines. So Tamara and I have done um innovative work we think around making sure that there is a consistency of things to look for to make sure that we are not biased or subjective in what we think is good work. But we can look at different parts of our scaffolding to see how they function, their health, and to see if they're connected in an efficient way. Those things, those bones that we look for are really lines of routine. And the the routine is what we look for to be consistent. So the routine around looking at data, the who is in the room around looking for data. We have different measurement approaches for naming those routines and looking at them, but it really is the consistency of engaging in a common practice in specific

022areas for specific outcomes that we call routines. And that's how we under the red circle keep ourselves accountable. Under the second red circle to engage in critique under the third red circle around our the MPS mission. Thank you doctor. I'll pause before we go into the latter part of this short presentation. But any questions thus far? >> There we go. Can you tell me a little bit more about the equity university? It's >> gone. What it used to be? >> Okay. >> Um, what you'll see Well, if you go Dr. B, could you go back three slides? It's in it's in the parenthetical reference evolving. >> Okay. >> So, I'm a huge believer in uh I like college football. Uh, specifically, I like the development of offenses. Um, so you could say that Equity University

023was the method that we used to use to run. >> Okay. >> But we are no longer that offense. The landscape changes and so we evolve our approach to scoring. What it used to be is a way for us to get educators in their off time in the summers to think about massive problems of practice that were disregulating or shifting some area in our culture. So, we needed to gather together a compilation of people who could think specifically about that problem, but they would bring with them assets for how they've been successful at addressing it. It's a it was a way to consolidate our effort with slow motion, i.e. the running game. >> But we don't we can't wait till each summer anymore. Running is slow. You only get three yards a clip. We have

024to spread the offense and move fast. That's why that looks that way. It is the idea of getting people together in small consolidated thought partnerships very quickly and often in routine so we can score. >> So the short pass, >> my man. >> I like the analogy. I get it. >> Thank you. >> And I like your hat. I get it. >> Thank you very much. >> I'm a pass fan. I'm sorry. >> We could have gone all night without knowing that. >> Yeah. >> It's all right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. You're welcome. Thank you, doctor. So, well, I'll give you a I'll give you several quick excerpts. Um, but let let's start out with we're going to use one case. It's High Hope School. It is without a level reference. That's

025by design because it is supposed to represent a distillation of several schools. But I'll let you read this first area of their work. So perhaps you're at that the latter part of of this part of the case study on high hopes. So the school climate improvement policy um the school climate policy came with a expectation that there would be an improvement plan developed for schools. Um there is there's there's a much longer way to think about and discuss that but we'll get to that at the end of the year. U what I will say is that this would be the first time that something like that um would have taken place in our state. Um so what comes with that is a set of five standards that schools can choose from. Some are more appropriate

026than other others given the the sort of language of the standard for a particular school. And so this school high hopes and we have several who are in this place has chosen standard 5. That's the italicized exo excerpt. What we would hope to see at this school and what we support in this school is their use of holistic data. And my reference to street data was that that when we might have by way of the real scrutiny um that Kristen has done and and her colleague Bev Lawrence do now we might have a really good understanding of some outcome in terms of student data, academic data. But what we would struggle with is this corresponding feature of how students get to the instruction that tends to lead to that to the knowledge application that tends

027to lead to the knowledge production that we see in test scores. But there's a whole host of things that happen on a regular basis that have to do with how kids feel and think about themselves whenever they come into any kind of social context because we all feel it. That explains why some of us dress the way that we did tonight. Some of us read the way we do tonight. Some of us feel the way we feel tonight because you bring everything whole self. What we're missing sometimes is a way to account for that in the data that we have academically. And we don't have to. What the school climate work allows us to do is to account for that. is to make sure that we are taking care of kids holistically, that we teach

028them holistically, and that we have measures that say that we have taken everything that we can into stock as we try to make sure that these students progress year to year, dayto day, week to week with what our expectations of them are. It just so happens that we are starting to get our hands around what those precursors are. We're using language like engagement to give us more of a holistic sense of what actually goes into a bee or mastery. It's the moment of closeness to the table that you're trying to eat at. That's what we have several schools doing their best at understanding. And this next slide will show you how. Give you a second to read. better. Thank you. If you just looked at the the black bolded references um below each of those

029uh purple headings, some of the work that again Kristen and Bev are doing around PLC's is starting to speak to the work that we're doing in our discipline and subcommittees because what we hope is that people have a more fuller explanation as to how to instruct fully even if that means and we have several instances of educators who are able to use instructional time to support SEAL skills. Thinking about your thinking, thinking about your feelings and what we can do to support you to be ready to learn academically is an example. But that requires a lot of transparency and willingness to talk to our diversifying stakeholder group because we don't have the full language of what a kid does when they do a thing. we don't understand it totally because they don't just do that

030at school. They do it for a reason at school. It comes from who they are in their community, in their home. And so we're trying to do a much better job of finding what that language is in the place of its origin so that we can understand what it is or tries to be here. Everyone has coping strategies. They just kind of look different. That's why the context is so valuable. That's why teams gathering themselves around a broad array of data is so important and that's why that whole process of decision-making and sharing it between parts of our institution is so valuable because it makes us more holistic in our effort. Every grade, every emotion, every behavior is actually all a part of our school climate. Thank you, doctor. Discipline specifically. So, let's look at

031high hopes again. I'll let you read. Before I share any questions about what you think this is pointing to or ideas even about what you think this points to, suggests, highlights I give you a clue. The word respect I think we take for granted or can take for granted unless we put real context to it what respect actually looks like. Um, here's an example that might help us not necessarily just lean on this to to do the lesson. Um, if so, if I was following behind someone and they dropped their wallet, I would have to think about what it would mean for me to pick up their wallet and hand it to them. And the reasons why I think about that could be related to my past experiences with how misinterpretations around my helpful behavior

032look. I would have to think about where I am and who I'm helping. Would they want my help or would they be afraid? I'm an extremely cautious person and I'm also very much so a people pleaser. So I'm always nervous about like scaring people. So every idea would preede even if I would actually pursue the thing that I want to do which is to help which has everything to do with my want to. But that's as much a part of who I am is everything that I think about that goes into my decisions to behave, to actually do the act of helping. I know that there might be some mystification around what cultural responsiveness is, but that's all it is. It's me describing us understanding what goes into something. And it tends to be really

033robust and contextual that people do things for a reason and they don't always do the same things but those reasons change based on the context and environment that you're in. Nothing really expresses that like discipline because at its core it is a dialogue. It is a behavior that is saying something about the person in the space that they're in. And that's what we try to teach kids. How to use their behaviors to communicate things that they want to say about where they are and how to use their words to explain their behavior and their intention and how to support teachers and how to model for students how to do that. Both do the behavior and talk about it. That's what that points to. We have several schools um not everyone who are doing this in

034varying degrees and they're trying to understand everything from behaviors of attendance to cursing to using inappropriate language that might demean or defame all the way to incorporating an inclusive language through through the use of restorative practices. So we're looking at behavior in its gestalt right like in the totality of it to try to understand what we can encourage and how for the best social behavior. Thank you, doctor. Next slide. And I think we're getting close to the end, but this is how we do that. When I say accounting of behavior, this is how holistic that tends to be. So, we've given an agenda for every subcommittee that you saw on that on that graphic about their mirror, district, and school. And they they can use this in their SEAL, discipline, and school climate committees. and

035I'll just go over simply is to just take a snapshot and cobble those snapshots together to create a very clear picture of what discipline or what you don't see is on the electronic version of this camera has included six data sets that are you that are uh accessed by six hyperlinks on the tech version of this document and as they meet they move through a multi-tiered based discussion on how to support students based on the data in each one of those hyperlinks. Those are living links that capture recurring data sets over the course of their time in the school for 180 days. We really take analysis seriously. I think the last example is seal. I'll give you a chance to read. pretty self-explanatory. So, doctor, if you could bump to the next slide. We are

036hope we are moving toward um procedurally and thoughtfully around how to to the wonderful question around how to use our internal work to evolve our work. So as we progress and see these pops and instances of good work, our next stage of evolving our offense is to put those steps together and create our next self. That is how we circle back to our overall improvement plan over three years. The reason why it takes so long is because all good things don't happen all at once. We're not necessarily seeding a field. It's very different than that. We're actually taking small wins. Thus, the football reference. And every time we see something is affected, we take a snapshot of it and we put it together. And that just takes time. It may look like the work that

037we do is slow or plotting or ineffective, but that's if you look at it through a very very l lean and traditional prism of what it actually looks like to be a successful school in our district. We're trying to expand the frame to make room for different kinds of successes. this particular illustration of a lesson and the ability to self- advocate we think is very important and it it doesn't actually take a backseat to grades. It's all a part of the same thing. We owe that if you could Dr. Brumit clarification and how to do that to people who aren't in the room but are always with us on this work. um even if in instances to two thought partners that have been critical in not just the policy but each of our areas of

038work and that's Jessica Ritter and Eban Mcnite the latter being consultant from CIRC and the former being our legal representation they've been huge for us in helping us do the best that we can but sticking to what is effective and best practice elsewhere and with that in Any questions? I apologize. Way longer than 15 minutes, but he is not in bed yet. So, >> I do get to give him kisses before he goes to sleep. >> Um, go ahead, Mr. Hollerin. >> Um, I think we can see some measurement, some improvement. We'll probably talk to this a little bit later as we get to the curriculum committee um briefing. um in terms of seeing targeted groups and their advancement and their progress too. But I think part of your work is very much about community

039and connectedness between the student body. >> Yes, sir. >> And I was wondering if there was a way that we could have some kind of indicator how well it's progressing. Uh I when our student reps are here, I often ask them, "How's the school spirit?" Um, but I think that that's got to be a big part of your work and I was just wondering if there's any way we can gauge how well our school community is progressing and coalesing. I think is probably a better term. >> You you ask good questions. >> You should stop by and see me sometime. I'm a coffee person. If you >> I will. Um, yes, that work is our restorative work. So I think we've got a fidel this is going to be how do I say this helpfully

040we've got different ways to look at the fidelity so the actual work being done is based on the actual intention then uh there are intended to be surveys that will closely measure students and staff through focus groups um that gets to your community part and our hope was to move into it in a procedure into parent more involved parent involvement in the specific area of our culture >> particularly our culture in Newington around our language as we diversify we are not um we're not you know selling bridges and deserts we know that that brings not unautomatic tensions and so we know that kids are often um bringing what they know from where they know it and we want parents to be a part of helping us to construct a new reality around that. The reason

041why it's procedural that way and under restorative is because restorative is all about community. It's I lay it out as a sequence because first we have to expose staff and that is what we're doing this year. Okay. >> Every school is intended through the legislation to be on a path of informing staff about what restorative practices is. Our best step is after they know it to use what they know to help build those communities with those strategic efforts. We're just planting seeds at this point. >> Yep. It's ongoing work. Yeah, that was a great answer. Thank you. >> Thank you. That was a good question, >> Mr. Newton. >> Dr. Is this available in print form? Because it wasn't in my package, so I would have rather seen it ahead of time so I could

042have given a little bit more thought. Yes, sir. >> Not draw conclusions ahead of time. So, >> I apologize. >> No, no, no, no. But we can get a copy of that because I I I digest and read it. >> Thank you. Nice choice with the green. By the way, >> Miss Weaver, I just want to say thank you, Dr. Harststead. It's always something new even I think in a lot of this work that's been done for a while now. It's it's like crazy to just see it um kind of evolve. And I know a lot of this sometimes I even feel sometimes like it's um it's not vague, but it's high level. it's, you know, and trying to ground it. Um, so I appreciate you kind of putting an example or two in there

043to to kind of ground it into, you know, we're talking about these big concepts, this infrastructure, and I think a lot of folks are like, well, what does that look like on the ground? Like, what is that what are we seeing? What are we hearing? It's like, what's the vibe? >> You know, I think we need like it's like school vibe plan, right? Like >> um as the kids would say maybe. Uh but I think one of the things um that we're most curious about too is um with those challenging behaviors, you know, this became um you know, even an issue, you know, staff were bringing it up. I feel like it was every district was talking about challenging behaviors, you know, a couple years ago. And I feel like that's kind of waned out.

044Um, but I don't know if that's necessarily that we've resolved things or we're making that progress or rather, you know, we've shifted to just >> trying to adapt maybe to some of the things that we're seeing. Um, so I'm going on this rant just to ask like >> are we seeing that progress because we're not it's not necessarily the same language in the zeitgeist right now anymore. Like we're hearing challenging behaviors but very much less so. That was on top of our staff's mind I know when we were going into union negotiations. So, it was uh right there and center and you know trying to just figure this out because I think the biggest thing now is still you know my sister's a teacher in Windsor and she hears the same things I hear from

045my best friend in East Harford and then we're here and it's I think the biggest one is more like apathy and more the disconnectedness. Um, so trying to just like are there specific things that were that this is addressing to identify the behaviors that are maybe not the challenging ones we saw two years ago but are persisting. >> That was a lot and loaded. Sorry. >> No, no, no, no, no, no. That's all right. Um, I think I could I think I could answer it a couple in a couple of different parts. So yes, there was always going to be an initial reaction because challenging behaviors was something that lived on paper as a reference in a big legislation and that took time for people to orient to. So yeah, the perception was um definitely

046a reality because there was charge and urgency around this thing that we didn't fully understand yet and yet it seemed to come with so much other work. Now the truth is is that I think it looked like that and what it ultimately was as it was more work in a way if tracking information was new. But for people for whom that wasn't necessarily new, the urgency waned faster because all they did is shift their earlier way of tracking information to this new way. um they weren't as loud in their reaction, but they were there. And I think as more people began to acclimate to the need to collect more data and those who did that over time, that's what might account for the lessening of the volume. for people who are still struggling with just

047the tactic of organizing around information because mainly what it is is that it's generating accountability around things that have been happening all the time. It's putting a name to it, tracking that name, putting an investigative process to that and transferring information across people. That's new, especially if you hadn't been used to doing that before. and really people's familiarity with it is being coupled with their ability to just become more sophisticated at that. But yeah, that's that wasn't convoluted at all that the situation itself is just layered. So, >> thank you. >> Um, Mr. Sharma and then um Dr. Stanley. >> Hi, I got a quick question. Um, I think I just saw your slides and you know our student body is getting more diverse, right? That's a good thing. And um I think over 90%

048of our teaching staff is white and as of now with the numbers that you shared now um around 50% of our student body is non-white. So what are you doing like in terms of bridging that racial and cultural gap in order to improve learning in our schools? What am I doing? That's a big question. Um, some I, you know, how do I not be evasive? Some parts of that are more about activities that don't necessarily fall under what I do or the possibilities that I can control, which is just the um, transitioning in and out of staff of color or a more diverse staff. Some of that has to do with things that are really cool about Newington. Some of that just has to do with the way um teacher diversity is constructed. But one

049thing about Newington is that it is rich rich with exceptionally good teachers. That would be good if you put them in a in a 12t hole and told them to teach bats how to read. They would just be good. Um and I'm not saying that as a person who has no context. I was a consultant in our state across the state and I think I served all but 30 schools. So I've been around schools or districts. I forget the the exact number but I've been around. Newington is exceptionally gifted. Um, and what I think we have to do to answer your question is to take the people who are capable at reaching the students that they see as the students get more diverse and sharing that because we do have people I will name them

050who are really good at that. Tracy Moden, uh, Jonas Roberts, Jill Hinton, but as I say that those are people who are two at one school, one at another. And that isn't that the the sort of reality that we have people who are good at it. And whether or not transition takes care of our diversifying staff, I don't know. But what I do know is that we can maximize what we do have that we know works. And that's the that's the heart of our infrastructure is to cobble that those pieces of effective practice together. But that is a wonderful question and a recurring one. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Dr. Stanley. >> Thank you so much for sharing your presentation. Uh I found it very enlightening. I just had a quick question. Is there

051an expectation set for the number of hours that the students and the teachers participate in these activities? Is that a weekly expectation set forth by the schools or the policy? Or is this set forth by our own climate? >> And short answer is no. I hadn't even thought about that, but no. No. Do we have an idea of how many hours they're putting towards these activities currently? >> No. But say say more about say more about only because it's unfamiliar to me. Say more about like how you mean hours toward these activities. >> So um for to get specific on Tuesdays when they have their home meetings or their school family meetings. Are these the sort of activities that they're participating in or is that the ideal time that they would do these sort of

052activities? >> Yes. School families lessons in and of themselves while I don't know how long they last um or sort of the the definitive calculation by if you added up all the hours at the schools up until now what that would be. But yes, your sort of gist of your assumption is correct that that is the place where at least SEAL lessons would be taught. Um and yeah and yes. Yeah. >> So there's no determined number of hours per the week or per the school year that was set forth by the policy and that's something that we're supposed to design as your school climate um activ or your school climate subgroups or divisions. >> No, the the school cl I think I understand what you're asking and so I apologize if I'm missing this. So

053no, the hours aren't necessarily a byproduct of the school climate or subcommittee or discipline subcommittee's manufacturer. >> The school family's lessons as I understand them are a byproduct of principal design for when they occur. Um so that might account for how often they occur and how many hours they accumulate to. Um, but the actual practice of teaching those lessons is something that does occur across the district and I don't know that we keep the amount of time attached to that on record. At least I don't at least I don't. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And and last sort of follow-up questions because I hear from the PTAs and and from the teachers about these unfunded mandates and these expectations that and burdens that are put on them to, you know, be up to date with the

054policies. And so, do we know how much additional uh requirements there are for teachers to be taught these activities or how to be a part of these groups and run these sort of activities? Um, no. And again, I I think I'm I think I'm understanding what you're asking, but I might be wrong. The legislation doesn't actually outline very specific to the way that I think your frame offers them. It doesn't outline teacher expectations. What what we have, which is helpful, is administrator guidelines. And those are things that help principles and administrators understand understand how they create the infrastructure in their schools. Um that helps that may help clarify what might be a byproduct of that kind of mirror system. So the subcommittees have always existed um since I got here. Uh and those are sort

055of voluntary times or they you know they find coverage if they're not. Um but what those things are at were and have become are places where people again could problem solve around practices that were burdening everyone but everyone can't meet. And people who were effective at it whether the problems were then met around effective ways to solve those problems that existed then and now organized around problems as they exist today. something as simple as what will a lesson look like tomorrow given the fact that we're all in our grade level or all in our school seeing a student need for this well because we can't shut school down and all meet partnership can organize itself and help to focus the information that needs to get out to everybody and then share it and we do

056have schools that are pretty efficient at that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> Um kind of just piggybacking off of um Dr. understand these questions regarding like and the lesson that you gave it as a example that's only one way right that students are learning um like you mentioned that um and this is like the stuff that I'm learning in school now is that everyone has you know a different way of handling their emotions and their behaviors are actually telling us something that they need or something that they're lacking and it's you know it's tricky to identify exactly what that is. But lessons aren't necessarily a like here's a video, do some discussion and whatever. It's it can happen in math class. It can happen in English. It can happen anywhere

057as far as like having a a student or a teacher recognize a student is behaving a certain way and she can read direct or you know. So I think the idea, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it is the idea is that there's a group of people at each school that are looking at behaviors or data and things that are coming up and then seeing where like the most um like occurring problem is is and then how can they teach the teachers how to resolve either in their classroom or in school family or or elsewhere. But it's not just like a here's a lesson and we teach it. It's kind of like an ongoing everything. >> I'm pointing sort of a point of pride and confirmation. Yes. And I'm proud that

058you brought that up >> the Yes. Yes. And yes to the question that you are alluding to and maybe a way to think about it is we all I think uh or if you haven't it is a thing Maslo's hierarchy of needs. So there are two that form the foundation of what we all need to be a full person. And the more the pyramid, it's a pyramid. And the more the base thins up into the apex, your need for that is really more sparse. You don't need it as much. Well, there are two at the very bottom and it's physical needs and sense of belonging. It just so happens that in school prior to COVID largely, but that was like an inflection point, not the only one, things like isolation weren't necessarily a part of

059the conversation, but they've always been there, says Maslo. But you have a choice. You can either deal with a kid's sense of things or kids sense of things because they're always there now that we know they are or you can let them deal with you because kids feel things cuz they're little people. They have the same sense of needs that we all have. They're just little people dealing with it. We want to make it so that kids don't have to choose like we hope that kids don't have to choose about whether or not to eat, right? So, we want them to be taken care of holistically. So that up the hierarchy of needs, you're learning is easier, but it's always there. You can deal with it or not, but it is always there at your

060base driving everything that you do, eating and belonging. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Okay. I hope you can still get home. Run, run, run. >> Thank you so much. and grants my son next year. >> I know it was I mean thank Oh, sorry. I next anything else for your I just I as always there's updates linked into the uh report and part of your packet. I will follow up with Dr. Harris's presentation. They get a lot of our presentations get revised right up until the last minute. Um M Dr. Harris and I met today and he made some tweaks a couple hours ago. So that's one of the reasons why we don't always send them out ahead of time, but I will get them to you uh

061shortly. So please read through this report at your leisure. I just wanted to share with the board um current event here. I was at the state capital today part of a panel discussion uh as we head into the legislative session. um I represented, you know, superintendents and um you know, I got the opportunity to say with stakeholders in the room that we need, um ple please don't give us any more unfunded mandates this year, state legislators, and also uh excess cost. We need to have our funding predictable. Um we need ECS money to go up for the board members that are new. ECS's money education cost sharing, it goes directly to the town, but I advocate for it because the more money the town gets, the better it is for all of us for education

062cost sharing. Um, I advocated for um, you know, making sure we don't have to cut supports that we've gotten um, in districts now that sometimes grants go away and you know, what can the state do to support those efforts? Um, and I always advocate for what's called the burden of proof where, um, in Connecticut, uh, we are one of the few states that has a burden of proof where no matter what happens in a due pro in a special ed dispute, the district is on the hook to defend everything. Uh, that's very unique to Connecticut. I worked in four states total in my career, and Connecticut is by far the most latigious. And I say that anytime in front of a mic at any type of public forum that that is why we have such

063high one of the reasons why our special ed costs are going up and our special identification rates are going up. Um so I had the opportunity to speak to that today with some colleagues uh board members um other stakeholders. The CEA was there in full force. Um Dr. Miguel Cardona was there because he's getting very involved in the state now that he's back in Connecticut. And I was actually able to meet S. Johanna Haynes um and she's, you know, supporting um our efforts locally and um the U Miriam Khan Khan as a representative and she's uh we're fortunate that she is a teacher, special ed teacher who's head of a task force on how to make those funding sources better. She was instrumental in getting the seed grant uh passed through the legislature this year.

064The seed grant was money that we have awarded to us this year and next uh about $185,000 and it allowed us to start a new program at Chaffi for some of our more involved kids at no expense to the board for now depending on how long that funding keeps up but it is definitely guaranteed for next year. So anyway, I wanted to share that um opportunity that I had today because I feel it's very important to be fiscally responsible and look for any opportunity for state support. Obviously, the board knows I write grants with our grant writer to try to lessen the burden on our taxpayers here in Newington. Um so just want to share that little update. >> Okay. Um, so now moving on to new business, we have a report for our enrollment

065projections for 2627. >> Excellent. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you our enrollment projections. As you recall last meeting, we spoke about um where we were last year and where we are to date, right? And so now this report takes us from where we are to date and what we're anticipating for next year. Um, so that way while you all engage in the budget process, um, you'll be able to consider and think about what are we trying to achieve with our staffing, uh, to be able to provide the, um, excellent education that we always do for our students. So, with that being said, we use a number of factors that help us make determinations about our staffing. Um, one of which is NASDAQ, which is a company that, um, does do analytics around

066uh, the town of Newington. uh we provide to them a lot of new information uh and um especially with the growth and development that we've seen lately uh to be able to kind of incorporate that into their uh analytics around uh what we can project for incoming preschool students uh as well as kindergarten students and the like. Um and they're constantly updating the projections to support us. Uh we use that information along with what we know uh we currently have um as well as the information that we get from the preschool preschool census that you might have seen that went out through our office recently um as well as our declaration through open choice. Um so taking all that information in consideration I'd kind of um ask you to go right to the middle of

067the first page and the first exercise we're going to do is what's called the strikethrough exercise. If you see the number 59 less uh and you could change that to 10, that would be more accurate in the subtraction methodology that we'd like to use for this report. So we are right now uh anticipated to be 10 less students uh from the current school year. Um and so uh with that we would look to declare because we have opportunities to declare 19 seats for the open choice program which would bring us from 134 up to 153 uh which is the number of students that we would hope want to choose Newington or at least 19 more to make it 153 um as a school of choice. Um I know that in the budget process I think

068Dr. Brummit has shared with you that if we have 3% of the population of students that choose us as a a school through the choice program, uh that comes with a certain amount of funding. 4% comes with a different amount of funding. >> I'm sorry. >> Correct. Additional funding. Yes. Um we believe that we could uh easily manage uh 199 19 students joining us through the choice program. Uh that would bring us up to um around 3,813 students or nine students more than what we currently have this school year. Um our kindergarten enrollment is estimated to be uh at 246 from 247. So that's just a difference of one. Uh very minimal. Uh so we're not looking at many changes there. Approximately three students expected to complete a fifth year. So, we take those folks

069into account. Uh, and 12 students more uh than this current school year total is what we're looking at. So, we're looking at uh 3,816 students uh total for next year if all goes as planned. Um, and that would be just a little bit higher than where we are right now. Um when we look at who we anticipate to retire, uh we have a prek teacher uh leaving us retiring at the end of the year, a reading consultant or coach, uh multilingual teacher, and a special education teacher. And then we also take into account, well, who are the folks that asked for a child rearing leave this year and then are going to return. And so we have two staff members you see there who are coming back. So we have space and we have positions

070for them, which is wonderful. So, of the retirements, we have uh spaces where folks can come back into. So, we're really looking at a small recruiting year this year so far. Of course, this report is only as good as today. Uh a lot of things happen between now and the end of the school year, and we we work to account for that. Uh but right now, it looks like a a smaller recruiting year. Um, and uh, with all that being said, the numbers are are behind here to kind of account for everything in the report, but I would pause for a moment and see if you had any specific questions for me. >> Ben, >> uh, the five students you're saying are doing a fifth year. Are they in an eat program or are they

071mainstreamed into the regular population? >> Um, so the fifth year would be a separate program. Miss Weaver. >> Um, just a question on the NASDAQ report. If I am Am I jumping the gun? >> Okay, great. >> Um, I think it's page two of it. Um, because it's historic. It talks about the historical percentage changes, but I know it's not accounting for the it's just the K through 12, so it's not we're missing the 200 or so um from preK. Um, but just curious like do we have any analysis about the decline? Is this >> like it just concerns me a little bit the numbers? Um, that small chart. >> Uh, yeah. So, I know at some point we were talking about, oh, we're going to have all these increases and students from some of

072the developments and that kind of stuff and then we're not seeing that. Um, is this reflective of because I know there's also a growing trend of just lower enrollments in general um in schools, but is that reflective of the state? >> It is a growing trend statewide um that that there has been a decline. >> Yeah. >> Over the past decade. Um some stabilizing years just kind of steady and then a little decline dip stabilized. Um, I do know that we have more more, you know, housing that's gone up or or accommodations that have gone up. It hasn't resulted in a a massive >> Yeah. >> enrollment shift yet. >> I just couldn't tell if this was like, okay, this is >> a Newington specific or this is >> general trends yet. >> That's also

073240 something off. So, we're actually projected to be up. So, it's >> report is there's a discrepancy. is more of what I'm saying. >> Right. >> Their projections versus our actual projection. >> Will we account for the prek? >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Okay. >> Which >> um I just have a comment on the open choice numbers. Um and I know a lot of um we've heard comments in the past like the open choice students are bringing diversity to Newington. I think it was clear earlier and we'll show again that like Newington is diverse in and of itself um without the the open choice. But I think it is a benefit and a positive to increase the number of students to that 4% threshold because as Mr. Face you mentioned the town does get tuition

074for those students and then any special ed cost for those students is um is also is 100% right refunded >> um or reimbured to Newington public schools and that's the money that goes into our CIP. So, um, so I don't see that as a I just want to put it out there that I don't see it as a negative. And I think that hitting that 4% mark is actually a positive because we do get more revenue. >> Yeah. 2,000 per student. >> An extra 2,000 per student. So, >> and that's a, you know, that does help. I mean obviously more students is more teachers but if you take the number of of students and divide it amongst the all seven schools it really you know you're not going to save teachers um save that cost

075necessarily their class sizes. So I will add the open choice uh revenues that we receive actually do pay for a lot of teachers because we're able to use that money as we see fit for the most part. Some of it's got some designations on it, but uh during budget time, you will see exactly how much money from open choice is used to pay for our te numerous teachers in in our district. >> Any other comments or questions so far? What did I do? >> What are you trying to do? Oh, am I on the right screen, Steve? >> Yes, I I can go through all the numbers if you wish. what it shows and and I tried to kind of uh put together for you is just at each school uh going down the the

076lefth hand column um would uh and then going across would be for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade up top, you know, just how many teachers there would be the t representing teachers and then on average the amount of students um that they would be uh with. And so you can see especially when we get to our kindergarten, first grade, second grade, just about what class sizes would look like uh with this projected enrollment. So you get a good sense of where we are right now. Some schools um you know, most schools are about the same. A little high here, a little low there, but we do have small bubbles that go across at times and sometimes we have to reshuffle and reallocate staff based on that. I have met with all the

077principles already. Uh we've discussed this thoroughly. they're already moving and looking for what changes they would make next year, talking to staff about who's interested. So, all those conversations have already um begun and um and we're in really good shape. So, our recommendation would be to maintain this current staff that we have right now uh so we can keep providing the supports uh to the students that we have. Yeah, I mean just kind of state the obvious that 23 24 class size at Anna Reynolds is um is higher than the other well it's the highest class size in the entire district. Um so what are the thoughts there >> and yeah what are the thoughts? that has been a bubble group going through a little bit larger than the others. And so then what principal

078Smith will do is he'll reallocate supports to be able to support those classrooms. Adding a whole new teacher and reducing by a you know adding a whole new class significantly reduces the class size um down like 15 or 14. >> Um and that that then is a a different rebalance. Um so um so he supports in a different way and we have great support staff there as well interventionists and reading and mathematics. So you know he he just manages that. >> Is that similar to the current third graders at Anna Reynolds for teachers with that same class size? >> So that they would be a different um overall class total or I'm >> this year third grade this year current third graders. >> Yes. They have that high >> exactly what they have right now.

079I apologize. >> And then it just keeps going up. >> Okay. Okay. And Okay. As long as he's comfortable and the teachers are comfortable or >> it usually disperses because when two schools come together, generally it isn't super large, but it can sometimes be two bubble classes meet and then we look at what we have to do for fifth grade. >> Luckily, E Green is the lowest class size. So the two anorosin green combining looks like it'll even itself out. >> That does help usually. >> And John Wallace sixth grade is 21 or 22, right? 2,122. >> Um, >> yeah, there's a missing >> hash. >> Oh, there's no hash. >> It was like, >> well, we're trying to shoot for a really large class size >> and see how we do. >> Yes. I

080apologize for the >> half the district in one class >> slashming. Okay. >> And then this um we were asked this question previously and we've I think provided also in uh did we do the extended look back to the tenure Dr. Brome? >> I believe so. >> Okay. >> But it's not this is the only thing that pack it though. >> Okay. So I can we can share that with the board. We actually have a 10-year look back. I know last time we talked about a potential fiveyear look back. >> Um, this shows three years right here just so we get to see in each department uh by program the number of staff that we have had uh and and what might be the same and what might be different. Um so that way you

081can kind of see over the past three years. Again, we do have a tenure that we will send out if that is not in your packet this evening. Um that was put together. Um we did put it together this way. um as previous budgets have always kind of been put together this way. So it was the data that we had readily available that we could share with you that would make sense based on some of the decisions you've made in the past. For example, improving in um social workers, right? So we've seen that in the program and that will be reflected here. So that that's why it's put together this way. I do know we're transitioning over to a different way to look at it by school when we're talking about the budget and and

082I think you know that would be a good transition to do as well eventually but I think for the purpose of this it would be most reflective in the decisions that you or previous boards have made in the most recent years the the tenure look back was put in the um the board to-do list goes there. >> That's right. Okay. >> Um I'm not trying to I think it's linked if people just want to see it. >> Oh, so it was a response to the question in >> correct. Here it is. Yep. >> That's where we end up putting it. >> But I can uh let me pop it up now just because Mr. did did do a nice job on this. So this is our 10-year look back of staffing. So I don't know

083if you want to add anything. We just I tried to put a few notes uh when some of the decisions might have been made and what they were. So when you're looking through it, you can reference those um available and open to any questions you might have though. Um oftent times you'll see in areas such as intervention uh in certain areas like that depending on which school becomes a title school during which year we we do have to reallocate our intervention services accordingly um based on the title funding and how we can use it. Um so sometimes that will um oscillate back and forth between you know potentially Anna Reynolds will be a title school but then one year John Patterson might be a title school. So one year you'll see an increase over at

084in in you know Anna Reynolds and then one year an increase over at Patterson. So we do um have to account for that. Um so you'll see some variations there. Um, >> Miss Weaver, just clarifying too when we talk about entitle schools, just a refresher, the other they have to have a certain amount more than the other schools. >> Correct. So, >> so it's not us just like, oh, we're putting this towards it. Like, it's literally there has to be a delineation between the schools. >> Absolutely. When we submit um how we're using the funding, >> it has to align directly with the requirements. Correct. So those schools receive that um you know funding based on their status of um students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch and and a couple different variables.

085>> Do we know which schools are title one next year? >> Next year. >> Do we have that yet? >> I think it's Reynolds and Kellogg. I knew the question was coming. >> Right. Right. >> Thank you. >> I don't think they're changing for Okay. Next year. >> Okay. The same as this year. It is what it is this year. Yeah. >> Yeah. There was one year Reynolds wasn't. >> Yeah. >> And we were like, "Oh, >> yeah. >> Oh, at E Green as >> Okay. So, >> basically, um, >> any specific questions on staff allocation or what we're thinking for next year? Um, again, I think we would love the budget can support stable >> stable staffing, we'll call it. >> Okay, appreciate >> and I will send this out to the full board

086as well as the presentation um that we promised you earlier. Thank and thank you, Mr. Prey, for putting that together. >> Thank you. >> Great. Moving on to policies. I'll just turn it over to Miss Weaver. No, we can turn it back over to FY in a second. Um, I just wanted to note um in your packets. First of all, I want to thank the uh new policy queens. Uh Dr. Gail Stanley has joined the policy committee. Um so excited about that. Um so we had our first meeting um last month like I'm like looking for um on on January 12th. Um it's we're still in January here. So um for new members of the board um we had met prior to your inauguration um that there were um some 7,000 series. So this is

087the construction series of policies. We presented this to the last board but I thought it would be wise to represent these um so that this board has all the context um and for new board context as well. Um, we always will bring a policy to the board, bring it back to policy committee for review, take any comments or questions from full board, then bring it back to the full board for actual vote. So, it's always kind of like a three-step process. Um, there will be some exceptions sometimes when we need to pass things like with some expediency. There is one that we'll note um later on. Um, but I think we can just um go through and if everyone wants to just read them quickly, we can go through the 7,000 really quick. There were

088no comments last time from the last board on these. So, um, there's that. These are pretty straightforward. Um, anything you see will always be any yellow highlights are additions that the committee haded and then any crossouts is what we strike out. Um and anything um read is also additional um language. So um we changed assure to insure because those are two different meanings and um >> those words matter. Um, and this was uh, and uh, also I'll just use this time to um, we we had a lovely meeting uh, with um, Britney Carr, our former board member who is a former policy queen, always a policy queen, but former policy committee member. Um, these are half of her words usually. So, um, I but we usually like them. Um, so yeah, sometimes when it's vague

089wording like number nine was true economy reflecting full value of each tax dollar spended. That's not necessarily something um that we can prove um in in I think the manner we want. So we put responsible fiscal oversight to reflect the full value of tax dollars expended. I think that's a little more clear. Um the superintendent was presumed to be a man once more. So we changed that. I know. Yeah. Um and then we also noted to um to as always policy to reflect current practice. Regular reports and recommendations shall be provided to the board to guide capital planning and decision-m. We know this is a regular practice but wanted to ensure that was enshrined in policy. So just reflecting what we already do questions on that. Um and we'll also be renaming all these policies

090once more so it's not a confusing number. That's just a random number that doesn't make sense because that tends to happen. Enrollment projection very apt for right now. Um both Britney and Mary did not like the language so we renamed or we took out the first part. Um just because we thought it was redundant. Um this is what happens. It's literally um and then the regulation is attached. Just if we scroll down uh reminder once more um we do not vote on regulations but we always as a committee want to share and be transparent. So the regulation is how the policy will be imple implemented and we want to just make sure um that's shown as well so you know what's how it's actually going to be implemented. Um and obviously um we know that

091it's not necessarily principal reports now it's district reports for enrollment as noted by Mr. FY just now. Okay. Next is the facilities and renovation and evaluating existing buildings. Again, this is all in the context of construction. So, um we added that into we want to make sure we have that indoor air quality because we know that's mandated as well. >> Yep. >> All the Yeah. So, uh Oh, yeah. Um one of the um legislative pieces that passed, I forget which year at this point, yeah, at least two. Yeah. Was um indoor air quality. This comes with a lot of requirements on the district to report on indoor quality indoor air quality standards. So, as Jason Plum came, um also some of our HVAC um ones, it's like what was it going to be like $500,000

092for >> five years? >> Yeah. over 5 years, >> right, for all the inspections and report analysis that that they they want us to do. We're trying to do a workaround for that, which is much cheaper. But yes, any these are unfunded mandates that hit us pretty hard, but it makes its way into policy. So, >> and that is not to say we did not always care about it or quality. That was always this is just to reflect the reporting requirements. >> Okay. and it'll be 710 not 7114.1. There was no other 7114. I don't understand it. >> Um naming facilities, we didn't touch this one. Um this is one that was recently updated um and been into use. >> So no changes. >> Yep. Um I'm sorry. I think we skipped 7:15. Yeah. Ed

093specs. >> You're fine. There's always a million Okay, >> it's always the shorter ones that we But um we kind of cut out, if you just keep scrolling down, we cut out a lot of this because it was really prescriptive and we didn't think it necessarily was um as generalized as it should be. So, what we did was add the state of Connecticut educational specification guidelines that are the state of Connecticut guidelines um instead of reducing it down to like a random six. There's much more in that document. So, we felt that was more reflective and easier than trying to quote some things. So, that's the 7,000 series. And it's okay if you don't have questions now. You can come uh feel free to contact myself, Dr. Stanley, Mary, Steve, any of them. Um if

094you have any questions, um we're looking to meet on March 2nd, so we can bring it back um to that. The next ones are um the 9000 series. We'll go through these just noting time. I don't know. Dr. Sale, you want to take any out? Okay. Our first policies on the board. Um, and just want to thank you and Mary and Mr. Fery. Great meeting. Um, as always, these are my favorite things. Um, which I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing about me, but um, I I think it really is enjoyable to to go through these policies. I know Mr. Gracie loves it so much. Um but yeah, so we we went through this um and we kind of changed a lot of the the policies about this. So the 9,000

095series is the bylaws and u this is kind of the most robust one. Um second to our uh our our student series obviously, but um this is really what guides the board. Um, so we just changed some of the grammar around um, this one, but what we noticed too is what we'll do and we kind of switched around some things because there was the role of the board and then board related responsibilities and we kind of delineated those two out. So you'll see some of the policies kind of combine where we're going to move some of them. Some of them were like kind of redundant and I think what's needs to be clear about policies is always the title of the policy should really follow that. So what we did was we took the um

096board related responsibilities um and the board responsibilities. So board related versus board actual responsibilities um and kind of made sure so you'll see as we go through the other policies how those kind of um intertwine and Mr. FY feel free to chime in too if I'm missing anything but um um oh and Dr. Stanley made a great point. move uh the number seven to number one noting that we should be in compliance and it's most essential. Uh yeah, >> quick question on number two >> to change it to identify the educational needs and develop >> policies that address the learning process for all students. >> Yeah. Is that encompassing the same as the original >> the original that we cut out? >> Yeah. So, um what we thought too was um in terms of like

097so this is kind of I think captured in another policy a little bit. Um so we wanted we thought kind of a lot of this is like the needs of um and to develop policies that's really like the more broader overarching one. Um I'm not saying we wouldn't care about the aspirations of the community or transform such needs and aspirations into policies. Um, but it felt like that might not always happen because there may not I think we all know as electeds that we speak for there's different aspirations for the community or of the community and there's different um and I think we I think it's unfair to say that we nec we as board of education members um transform those needs into policies where we work collaboratively to enshrine policy into the reflection of

098the mission and vision of the school district. Correct. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes, it does. >> So, um that's why we felt it was just we never want to keep in policy something that we can't admit to um fully or that it could be um interpreted in a way that kind of isn't true. So um if there's any room or there is any air where it is there's space for misinterpretation >> uh we want to eliminate that because we want it to be clear. >> So really it just felt like that was maybe too overly complicated. >> I agree. Thank you. Mhm. >> So the next one too is we changed this title um because it was board related responsibilities and we changed it to individual and full board responsibilities. We want to

099make sure it's noted that so this was the first elected members of board of education. What's noted is our individual responsibilities as board of education members. And then if we keep scrolling down, um I think it's important to keep going. We'll go all the way down um to board of education responsibilities. >> So So this is where we did we move this one? We moved it, right? >> Yeah. So it should be gone, but it's okay. Um so this is I think we kept it just so we could show you guys. This was the original policy. Mhm. >> And then we're like moving it over to our role and responsibility if that makes sense to the first policy. >> First policy we already saw. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> So you'll see that move. Um.

100>> Got it. >> Yeah. So if we scroll back up, this is what's really important is we can kind of bring this back too. But what we wanted you to know is if we scroll down just a little bit more. Still sorry. Um, individual board responsibilities. We want to know as just a member of a board. >> So there's the board actual itself as a whole, but then as an individual board member um what are our individual responsibilities? And we just kind of um change grammar on that. Okay. The next one would be legal responsibilities. And we're also changing kind of some of the order of the policies so it flows a little better. um simply because sometimes they just get meshed into different areas. Um so yeah, 940 was way in the back and

101we thought that should be up front. So now um 912 which become 910. Um we just eliminated what is good just in general. What >> this is very subjective. um what's appropriate, what's good, what is what is appropriate, what is good, we don'tate, >> what is adequate. >> Um >> and so then we also added just to note too, it they always reference the Connecticut General Statutes, but I think it's important just to note when you you're noting as defined in section 10-4A. So just more accessible that way. Um again, I think this was a Dr. Stanley edition. prioritizing uh a safe school setting >> as first and foremost. >> And then this one, yeah, we just changed a little bit here. >> Yeah, that is correct. We thought that was kind of important. Um,

102and we changed some of the transportation kind of stuff because uh it mentioned contracts of more than five years and sure the last time we had a bus contract. >> Um, we thought move to the end as well. Number 11, any other actions that kind of are permanent by law. That's a catch-all. And um 12 we just eliminated for simplicity sake. It's just anything defined in the general statutes, not just these four. That's >> we'll keep it trucking. Sorry guys, we'll get there. >> Next one is limits of authority. Um gonna say short ones, but um so this is um really what we didn't change much. We just um kind of reworked some of it. >> Did it say whatever work education members exercise? No, it just said it was like one full sentence and

103it said it it started the where it starts accept it started as a full sentence >> and that was not legible in my opinion. So, >> um yeah, we it was the runnest run-on sentence. So, we thought maybe break it up so you could actually make sense of what was saying. Again, just cut out words that are subjective like appropriate. takes becoming to be presence. >> Yeah, >> exactly. All right. Next one. Public statements. >> Tim's laughing. Um, so this one we combined because of its gravity. So if we just scroll down a little bit, you can just see what it is. Um, and then we'll see it. So what was confusing is this one. Oh, actually sorry. This is public statements advocacy. So this one will go back. Actually, it's perfect. You did this

104this way. So this was public statements advocacy 9020.1. We'll go to 9020, which is public statements. >> Can I go back? >> Yes, please. Um, >> there it is. >> I don't know why we wouldn't know 9020.1 versus 9020, right? Um, we felt that it was important to just kind of keep these two together. While separate in nature, I think it's important that they're just kind of one. Um, because they are talking about the same thing. Um, but what's important is um to note that this is really on the board and not public comment. >> So, we had a long discussion on that. So, this is this is talking about public statements by the board um and by board members. Um, so we wanted to make sure it's clear to like advocacy on part of

105the board members. Again, this is the bylaws of the board section. Um, what that looks like. I think that's why we renamed it board communication. >> Correct. >> Clear. Yeah. >> It's confusing when it's like public. >> So that's the title change as well. Thank you. Yep. >> Yeah. So actually the language was fine. It was more of just how it's framed. Um, so we don't want that to confuse because we know there's another policy yet to be seen here yet that um discusses discusses public participation. >> So I'm going to strip over the one that we >> Yep. 930 9:30 is the next one. And so this one you don't really do much with I don't think we did we do anything with this. Yeah, we were good. >> Yep. But as always too,

106so this is a good example um for new board. This is um if we did look at it and we didn't change anything, it will note that we reviewed it. So it won't say, you know, and some of these have been reviewed. >> Correct. Correct. But we'll say the last time it was reviewed so that not in 20 years, but the next policy committee uh knows when it was last looked at. So this just confuses me a little bit because it says that the board of ad recognizes the need to maintain open communication between itself and the staff but then it says that all communication should be through superintendent essentially. So why does it like is there a way to word that we could relate so that it's like >> you're saying >> like what

107is the open communication if we're not allowed to not allowed but like not supposed to communicate. It's almost like there's an aster. >> Yeah. Yeah. Like >> we Yeah. Like what's the intention of I think Yeah. Normally I think the intention of this policy again this is maybe 2017 one right? Um would be that like ask at the board like we go through moring we'll be like morening can you get someone to do this? Um but it doesn't have to be that way. So yeah. >> So it's not really like open communication. And it's just it's more like like we have the ability to communicate but we have to communicate through. >> We don't have to. Yeah. So the must deal must be dealt we could change too. Um >> and it seems to specify

108administrative matters and I know that would be appropriate probably to go through the superintendent but certainly not other matters. I don't know if there's a way to >> Yeah, we can. >> No, good point. This might have been when we were at 9:30 at night. >> It's fine. >> We'll just >> Yeah, maybe just I mean I can think about a little bit more like exactly what uh >> or how to reward it, but yeah. I just >> need that was about the time on the clock. So, yeah. So, >> all right. >> We'll we'll just we'll we'll go back and fully do this one. All right. Next one is an one we have interest in passing sooner rather than later. Um this is the order of business. Um we want to change the limit

109to four minutes per person to reflect council. So that was thing and then we just made sure >> been two minutes before. >> Yeah. So for a while it's been Yeah. It was 2017, but yeah, but we just reiterated it that it would be >> and then the other ones um we haven't sent out to public yet, but there are two policies, standing committee and um regular committee. So that's not ready for full board, but um these are we'll be changing our standing committees to um likely add another or check out if we need to change anything there. Um and then our actual committees um if they have any questions uh we've sent it out, Mr. Pia has sent out to all the chairs of the committees um see if they have any questions about

110those ones. and the other um one 9055 or 901 9132 which will be 9055 uh committees um as we look to establish a communications committee. So we'll cut out like that's the same thing as the other policy but if you scroll down we're going to um so what's different about our district is that we put in what the committee's charges are. Um, I looked at several other districts and they have a standard policy from CA from I'm not sure when and it says nothing about which committees or what they do. >> Correct. >> So, go us. Um, so feel free to review. Yeah, it'll be down like um >> Yep. So policy, we we kind of did ours while we were at policy, so we feel good about that. Um, but yeah, each chair can

111discuss with their committee or however they want to do it. Um, and then all the way down and new committees will be. >> Um, and we noticed too, um, so welcome feedback. Um, other districts have many different names for many of their different random committees. Um but some had community relations as well. So um we wanted to to do that and I think they um I think it was suggested by someone to do a newsletter from the board. >> Yes. We want to do that so that we can increase transparency and make sure that we're >> effectively representing our public. >> Yeah. Exactly. So um and I think if you have interest please talk to >> being on the committee. >> Yeah to be asking. >> Yes. >> So those are the policies and then

112there's a lot fun little twist to our last policy um which is that there was always a fun last minute requirement. Um so there is a um Mr. first you can absolutely talk about this uh if you want but there is a new requirement that has some expediency needed so if you want to take that away >> all right >> thank you um so um our food service department recently or I think they're still even here today yeah so >> I'm getting the final report tomorrow >> has uh they've been conducting the audit of our food service and nutrition nutrition program. Um and through that audit um there is a specific assessment that they use and that tool has shown that there are some areas where um although we're we're doing wonderfully with our our

113meals and what we're serving students and the like. Um there are some areas in our policy that required some revision uh because they were not in compliance. So what this aims to do is to bring everything into compliance with the areas from the assessment that showed that um we could upgrade the policy. So you will find in red those areas um that have been revised. I do want to thank uh Dana Maravix and Kristen Freeman uh for supporting the updating of this policy. Um, the state leaned on Yukon heavily to create the model policy that aligns to the assessment in the areas that we needed to look and mirror ours against to see what needed to be updated. And so we did that and we find that this um would help us meet that policy

114um or the uh criteria better uh if we were to adopt this policy. Um Kristen, I don't know if there's any significant changes that you'd reference in here. I do think there are some differences clearly. Some are even instructional minutes that you'll see that look different uh for wellness um physical education in in the assessment. um and will aim to achieve those. Right now, that wouldn't be a part of our instructional schedule. So, if you were to look at the two, you would see discrepancies. Um but what we put in the policy is that we aim to achieve that goal. >> I would echo what um Stephen is saying. When Den and I were going through this, um, I got a little concerned because it's like nine pages of new language, which would be concerning

115for me for a policy, but these are things that we already have, um, in place, like a regular review of our curriculum for, um, nutrition and for physical education. We only have certified physical education staff teaching physical education. Um, there's some new things in there uh, about codifying the need for a wellness committee in um, the district. What was interesting is that they um want to see in the policy that there are very specific um rules about um food that can be brought into schools by families. So we have this whole separate manual that Mercy Heatherington and some of her staff put together and now it actually shows up in the policy. So I told Mercy she was a little ahead of her game when I dug that out. >> Yeah. I'm I'm just concerned

116that like ones so just to clarify like the requirement here because it says for like under celebrations it says for events, celebrations, clubs and sports held on school ground after school hours. There's one that says no homepreared food is accepted. That is correct. So like if we have a swim boosters like club at the high school for senior night >> during school day >> it says events and celebrations during the school day is on top >> but then it says after school hours >> there's two Oh yeah. So, so what was a specific circle? >> I just know I'm saying years ago, not anytime recent, but like all these um sports teams have like senior night or something at the calf and everybody brings in their cookies or their whatever a potluck for the musical

117like that. >> I did talk to Dana about this because I I think I reacted the same way. Like I'm like that's happening and they have to have a full list of the event coordinator being like a mom from has to have a list of allergenfree substitutes and all these things. >> Yes. >> I'm speaking like PTA events. Do you know what I mean? >> We are going to aim to achieve this. >> Okay. We're going to >> this. But I don't know that PTA would fall because it says events. Well, >> events. >> Oh, just anything >> literally anything on school grounds anytime. >> No bake sales, no like nothing ever is allowed. >> Well, he's saying aim to the children. That would be >> better. That's better. >> So that wouldn't be the

118board sponsoring that. >> Be liable because we didn't have to do that. >> We would not be liable for an entity that writes from us. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Forget it. Anything that's targeted at school I guess. Does it um does it is it a school sponsored event as in teacher sponsor? Like PTA is a separate >> entity. So a PTA event in theory would not fall under this. >> I think the PTAs are already aware of this and implementing something similar because they get restricted by the nurses. Um so even with their events like the kickoff to the school, they have to make sure that the icicles or the popsicles are appropriate allergen-free. That's why they're not doing dairy and lactose. Or when they have their food truck nights, they have to have a

119lactose and and an alternative. That is But is that home prepared? >> No, they don't have anything home prepared. >> They're they It's been a restriction that they've already >> So, let's just um >> Sorry, back to no cross talk. Um sorry. Um, so like the homepreared food, if like anyone were to make something for an event that sponsored by I think we just need clarification if that like if it is a school sponsored put on by the school event that falls on this this policy and if it's a booster event or a PTO, PTA, etc. Um, is that for against Mr. Hollerin? >> Yeah. And I think going with that, I think about like John Wallace has like their net into the stars where they've done a lot of food trucks. >> While that

120is clearly a school sponsored event on school grounds, it's not prepackaged or clearly labeled. So that's a huge wrench in a lot of things like that. >> Not not nut-free. >> Yeah. >> So can I just address that side? Um, so with the food truck, so I think that there's an assumption I think that there is an assumption made um that me as the lay person, I'm at home and I'm like, "Yeah, there's no nuts laying around on my counters. It's fine." I don't know what standards are that my kitchen is nut-free, but it's assumed that um in the industry and restaurants, they understand how to comply to those. So there's a difference between something that is um uh baked and and created by a food truck, a restaurant. And one of the last bullets

121that's on there is about um the school personnel um encourage the parents to reach out. So if I am the parent of a child who has a peanut allergy and we're getting food from um I don't know, Tommy's Burgers, I can as a parent go there and kind of check it out and be like um I'm not really sure this is going to be safe for my kids or I want to kind of look at the menu. So, we we get the parents involved in that too so that they're educated about where the food is going to be coming from. >> It just seems like the policy itself is contradictory because it says all event celebrations must be peanut tree nut free but then it also says you know with parents with students with food

122allergies contact the venue. So I think that you know and then allergen safe food must be available. So like do we need or is that really true that everything has to be nutree? Yes. >> Okay. So the the nutree is a that's yeah >> yeah. Okay. So the language is from the state of Connecticut. So we have to being a um a healthy >> good school system we have to comply. >> Okay. And what is the timeline >> to com like March >> March one >> to comply >> March one. >> Okay. >> So I think we'd be able to take these inquiries look into them. >> I do believe there's a meeting next week. >> Maybe if you come back on and we could have answers. >> Yes, there is a meeting next week.

123>> I just I would add one last one too like >> the four weeks prior is also specific. That's the current that is the current practice. >> It's a current practice in place. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um I just have a generic question without reading every single um thing again with a different lens. um is how much of what's in the policy is we're adding just because we have to to add it and we're already doing it versus how much is that we need to add and we need to comply with like we need to make a change. Like I guess there's a lot here. So I'm just worried that there's a lot that like every school needs like middle and what did I say? middle and high school needs 200 hours a

124week of physical activity. Um yeah, where I where that was, but like what does that do for >> said 200 hours? >> It said 200 minutes. Sorry. Um but it was every like um >> where I lost it. >> We aim for it. Amy, to to to your question specifically, um, in reviewing this with Dana, um, one of the things that is new is the commercial food marketing. Um, I didn't know. So, the only place that that would take place would be on our athletic field. So, I called Chris Meyers and he said, "Nope, we don't do that. We might have a local business, but they're not out there marketing like Chili's or and and certainly the intent is to not market something like McDonald's or heaven forbid um products that only um 18 or

12521 year olds um consume obviously. Um yes, what Mr. Fy was pointing to the the minutes on the physical education um that part is definitely new and that doesn't even align with even what the the state recommends. So that was just kind of interesting. um uh language that was in there. The other things that are new, it's just stuff that is in practice when you look at the curriculum review. So Amy part there's only really small parts of it that are new. So a lot of the questions around these events when I looked at them they they were almost verbatim in the manual that we have that that is already in existence. Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So I have more discussions than for this to follow. >> Okay. >> So I'll just note we

126have to pass that before March one. >> Yep. And um our next policy committee meeting will be March two >> at 6:30. >> I Yeah. And I think that's fine. just doesn't seem like it's up for negotiation or um word smmithing. So, I think with um with staff help we can figure it out. >> All right. >> Right. So, we'll make sure that we >> keep adding it to the agenda. >> We will. >> Right. Okay. >> Okay. Okay, I think we're we're gonna have to add recess for the high school. >> There's chatter about mandating it for middle school, which is coming down the road. >> Middle school recess. >> Okay. So, the next item on the agenda is a report for the curriculum curriculum committee. So, it's not our typical um timeline to

127do a committee report, but we did just have a a meeting and um we thought it prudent to just address um or just give the report on the committee. So, it's not listed here, but are we going to talk about the the books, Miss Freeman? >> They're in the um it's >> in the ones I shared with you. Yeah, it it's not on the agenda, but I'll just we'll just add it as D. Um, okay. Well, I'll start with >> the generic curriculum report, too. Just >> Okay. Yeah, let me just I'm just going to Yeah, I'll just start in the order we talked about it. All right. So, the first thing um we talked about was two new textbook adoptions. Miss Freeman is passing them around today. So as is standard with new textbooks

128um we review at the curriculum committee and then they are brought to the full board um with the recommendation um to accept them and then they are available in Miss Freeman's office for two weeks um >> for two um through two consecutive sessions of board meetings. Okay this weekend. >> Yeah. So they'll be in her office for two weeks if anyone wants to go and um have a little reading session. Um so the first one is for a Yukon ECE course um in our music department which is pretty cool. So it's the first ECE music course we are offering um brand new for Newington High School. Um the textbook is um required by Yukon. So, it's a a textbook that they um they require to teach the course. So, it's kind of we don't have

129a a choice in the matter, but >> it's a pretty cool textbook. So, >> we thought it had some interesting things in it. >> Um this >> Yeah, this is >> the second is um for English nine honors. So, it's a a novela called All the Light We Cannot See. Um it's a book that students have read um as part of book clubs but now it is being um recommended for a full class um reading. So that is why it is being added. So it's already been in our classroom libraries but now it's um part of the core curriculum. >> It is a Netflix series. >> It's a Netflix series >> starring Mark Ruffalo. >> Okay. Read the book first. >> Multimedia. Multia. Any questions on the text box? Um the next thing we discussed

130was um a change for our marching band. Um so with much discussion and um thought the they have decided to um change marching band to be an optional 0.25 credit. So currently band is a 1.25 C credit course. Um so it's the class during the day and then the 0.25 25 is the the portion of the after school requirements um you know bands practice and and football games um and anything else they do as a as a marching band. So now um there's two courses. One is band during the day a full credit course and then the after school optional um 0.25 credit course to do marching band and and be in the football game band. Um some of the reasons behind it is that there's um a lot of students potentially that like student

131athletes for example that have too much commitment after school and so they're not taking band during the day because they can't participate after school. Um or they're not interested, their schedule doesn't allow they have to work after school. Um a number of reasons. U maybe they don't enjoy it as much and they'd rather not play an instrument than do a marching band. So, um, the hope is that the marching band will live on. We don't ever we don't want to see it go away. I think our concern potentially was what if an entire section is not interested in, you know, all the drums don't want to do marching bands, then um, what happens then? And um, it probably what if there's only drums in the marching band? Um, so yeah, I think Mr. Brooks and

132and um they've talked about that and all the different um potentials and they're comfortable with um um their thought is that the students that participate in marching band are going to be the ones who really want to be there and enjoy it and are are very excited about it. And then it'll bring back and we'll have a more robust um concert band I guess is >> yes >> um to you know and get more student musicians in school band um during the school day. Um and then a requirement for anyone in band is to do the Memorial Day parade. So regardless everyone will be marching in the Memorial Day parade but then only those students who choose to have the 0.25 25 credit um will be in the marching band for football. Um and the

133feedback so far, so um students were notified went out to um students because they have to start their course selection and there hasn't been negative feedback. Um some you know people are um happy about the decision and so I think overall right you haven't seen anything else come through. >> Mr. Brooks to let me know and so far it's been nothing but positive. Miss Weaver. Um, great. Yeah, I think marching bands good scared. Me, too. So, I was like, um, and I think that's probably similar to like the Yukon model. They use like one credit for marching band. Um, and those kids are >> there, which a normal class be three credits. So, it kind of makes sense. I'm just curious, is this kind of consistent with other schools or did we look at I

134assume we we always do. >> I I can only give my local reference, which is Southernington, and they have a marching band program. Um it that is just uh much more expansive than Newington's but they follow the same protocol. The students there earn 1.5 credits for the amount of time they spend outside of the band. And it's actually weighted as an honors course because of the intensity that is involved as being both a musician and needing to march around a field and make cool designs. So >> yeah. >> Thank you Dr. Hanley. >> Yeah. I can say from other states just being a drum major formally myself um they I I know which is like drum section would always be there um but some schools offer the half credit or the additional credit for marching

135band to be used as total credit or as physical education. Um I don't know if that was ever discussed or something that we could discuss or consider in the future, but >> yeah. No. And statutes would not allow um physical education credit just like um back in the day when I went to high school a long long time ago. Um I never had to participate in PE because I was a threeseason athlete. We don't do that either. So statue, what a great idea. >> Some legislation Plus recess. >> I think we'll just add recess. I think >> it just says physical activity. >> Okay. Walking to the hospital. >> Walking in the gas. >> We'll decrease Yeah, we'll decrease passing time and hit the speedwalk. >> All right. The next um item was the PSAT

136performance report. So, um, is it in the packet? Okay. Um, so let's see. Our 9th, 10th, and 11th graders are performing above C average for math and literacy. Um, both the class of 2728 hit the growth targets that were set by college board. That was good news. And when looking at growth between 10th and 11th grade, the data shows no consistent trends across subgroups at this time. I just read what you wrote. Kristen, do you have anything else you want to mention or add? Any questions on SAT PS the SAT report? Miss Weaver, sorry, I know I ask this every time. Um, are these trending like from past years? because it's obviously different cohorts. Um, so I wasn't there for the look back, but just general trend. I knew you would ask that question and

137I have the report up. >> So good. Thank you. >> Give me a second. >> Um, so what what we track for the trends is the SAT because that's really what counts. The whole purpose, remember, of PSATs is literally for kids to practice for the SAT so that they can have that experience. But it does inform um the school just on how well we're growing kids from year to year using just one piece of data. Um at the last curriculum committee when we reviewed SAT scores, we looked at the kids that just uh not just left left half of a a year ago, class of 2026. That was it may have been at the end of last school year. I'm not certain. Um, so we see consistently and this the data goes back to 2018

138that Newington continues to trend above the state in both ERW and math. There was one year when Newington dipped significantly in both of those areas, but the state did not. So, it's interesting when you look at the graphs like the dots almost touch and then from there you can see um that Newington um begins to have that uh a performance level that is above the state. Um most concerning and this isn't the first time we've heard this story is the performance in mathematics. It is not something that is unique to Newington but it also doesn't mean that it's okay for Newington. So, we continue to see um either a flattening or a downward trend on the SAT. However, if we recall back to last spring and looking at the ESPA scores, we're beginning to see

139some rebound um with the math and we had a conversation of we always look at the data. We're like, where are the COVID babies and kind of where are they showing up um in in the data? >> Anything else? Okay. Yeah. So that's um Yeah. So then that's the this what Dr. Roman is showing now is just our the projected scores for um the the classes junior sophomore and junior class. So they're predicted to score between like the junior class currently is predicted to score between 500 and 540. And um er w e >> English reading >> evidence-based reading and writing. We used to just call it verbal >> verbal. I was like what does that say? >> Um one thing I would add Amy about looking at the the projected targets. Um it it's

140a it's a work in progress with the college board. I think that they caught on that a lot of districts want to use some kind of growth target rather than just looking at percentage of kids that are hitting benchmark or looking at mean. Um but they they they don't have as much data as say um uh ESPA does of of looking at all of those data points. So when you look at their projected growth, you can see it's a pretty wide range and so it doesn't really offer a lot of um precision. The thing that I want to point out is when a class of students hits the mean and the mean is um above what the um target is for benchmark, right? So let's say uh the class of seniors their mean is 500

141but the target is 480. That sounds like it's really good news. However, when you look at the data, it's usually because we have groups of students that are doing really, really well and we have groups of students that are not doing well. So, I would always encourage you to look at the percentage of kids that are at benchmark along with that mean just to make sure you're getting the the full story, especially with this data because it is only um one class. And you can see in the trends the data is pretty volatile because um we're we're not tracking one group of students through time. Every time we get SAT data in, it's a whole different group of kids. And then just I confirmed during the meeting, but just so um everyone is aware, every

142student is taking every freshman, sophomore, junior student is taking the PSATs, right? >> Yes, we offer it to every freshman, sophomore, and junior. I cannot guarantee that every single one of them >> if they show up for the test. >> Yes. And if they happen to be absent in school that day, we offer opportunities for makeup. So my guess is with um as things go with high school students, there's a handful that that don't participate, but they're all given the opportunity. Absolutely. And that is free of charge. Um the board of education actually um funds that as part of the operating budget. We'll talk about it soon. Um, okay. And then the last item was um our our communication plan and um kind of final um I don't even final communication plan for middle school

143math. Um and and how um I mentioned last meeting and our in the curriculum update that we spent a lot of time at the committee level um looking at the reasons um the aligning with our district mission and vision. um kind of just identifying um what we want to accomplish and how we want to present um the decision to to the public essentially. So um what's on the screen now is the communication plan. So this isn't what's going out, it's just how we came to the um the understanding of how to communicate. So, um I don't I don't know if we want to I mean I'm assuming everyone read through the packet and um so if there's any questions specific to this plan or um or I can just go over like the the key

144highlights. So, you know, obviously it aligns with our district mission district mission and strategic goals. um to kind of provide that high performance um for all students but also reducing the predictable performance gap that we see in our data. Um yes, Miss Weaver. Yeah, this is helpful. Thank you. Um just curious about the timeline that last bullet before so um developing the communication plan for the public disseminated by February 13th 2026 because I know that's coming up quite quick. Um is this like you said this isn't it? So it's like a a memo or some of the sort will be >> it's included in your board packet. >> That that is it. Yeah, correct. I think a great way to describe what the communication plan is is it's more symbolic of the process that we

145went through um with Michelle Kellogg and I working directly with the curriculum committee getting their perspective of um the kind of lingering questions that are out there with the public and then having new board members come on too of where we wanted to start with really at ground zero of looking at what is the most important information um that we want to share and what's kind of the story that we need to tell of why we're coming to the decision that we did um and I do just want to give a a special thank you to Dr. Stanley who um spent some some time with us um from the perspective of a parents and she had been coming to the board table prior to her election um and just gave us some great perspective on

146that. So the plan really again just um represents the the process of collaboration of it was the committee that decided this is the most important information that needs to go forward and these are our recommendations of how this is shared with the public and the things that we would suggest be highlighted. The actual communication that was obviously the final outcome and that should be the last um document. Yep. >> Yeah. And um um we we decided and we can we'll open it up for a discussion, but we decided that or we thought it would be best to send out to um Is that what you're going to say, Mr.? Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. Like who to send the communication to. Um so obviously this the current seventh grade students aren't impacted by what's happening next

147year. Um, as far as the seventh grade math goes, they I'll I'll say in a second, but they are getting a separate or they have gotten a separate communication. I'll come back to that in a second. Um, but we determined that we would send it to sixth grade, current sixth graders, current fifth graders who are in the middle school coming up on it and then um current fourth graders. So, we stop or we um went fourth through six. And the reason is because we don't know what's going to happen in in three to five to seven years when like like I as a preschool parent right now like middle school math is far from my mind and I don't know if anything's going to change but as a current sixth grade parent like obviously I

148need to know. Um we thought that this the fourth graders going into middle school would benefit from having this communication so that they know what to expect in middle school. Um and then um and that's where we are. Mr. Holler, if you want to add to that. >> Yeah, and I'll just add to that. A lot of that is in response to some of the feedback we got that not everybody who wanted to know got the information. And so that led to a lot of misinformation and confusion. So we widened the scope of who we distribute it to going all the way back to fourth grade to make sure that we're thinking ahead for the students who would be impacted going forward. not just the immediate students, but kind of going a couple years back.

149>> Miss Beaver, just another thing. I don't necessarily see it. I'm speed reading once more. Um, but we're up on math interventionists, right? Like, and just wondering how that's playing into this too, if it's it bears mentioning or not, how that is coming into the fold as well. Is it getting added at the middle school level or >> how? >> We're up from this year and we're not planning on adding any >> I'm saying from prior year. >> Yes. >> I mean just that our ongoing efforts to improve math achievement and there's always been there is a need. So we did increase I believe at Chaffy this year. >> Okay. I was just wondering if that was worth mentioning or not because I know I when I was asking for the the look back I

150was like oh we're up. Mhm. >> Especially that tenure look back, I'm like, "Oh, we're up a lot on math interventionist." Um, >> and just kind of how that played into it. So, sorry that was personal thought, but I'm, you know, obviously as we put that that scaffolding support in, um, was wondering if that beared mentioning in here or not, but yeah. And just kind of along those lines, we also miss um Miss Kellogg has been kind of focusing on that increasing rigor and and um you know expanding bridge um sorry building thinking classrooms and using the PLC's or um you know teacher Tuesdays to kind of help guide the the math teachers like as they're as they're teaching the students. So, so that along with um the bridge program that so originally when the

151bridge program was was presented to the board, it was um a kind of self-study model and it was going to be done either over the summer um or during the end of the school year but with you know potential teacher support um as needed. Um, so that was a concern because it, you know, not everyone has access to a computer over the summer or not everyone is is good with that model. So I don't know that we've even we talked about it a lot at this table, but um, what they're doing or what we're going to do in the middle school 7th grade encore schedule is to remove library sciences, which has been on the table for many years. the life um the media specialists don't find it as productive to have that course for

152seventh graders because they prefer to go to um the classrooms and they have a more right I don't know if we talked about it here but they have a more um aligned with their curriculum and they can help research things in the context of a of a class as opposed to having a separate media class. Um and so in lie of that we'll have this Matt bridge to bridge to algebra six week six to 8 week um encore for every student in seventh grade. So they'll rotate through um so that allows for a teacher to be there students to get the support they need and have that extra math time during um during the school day. um without disrupting their reach program or their reach time or or anything that where they're doing course or

153Yeah. So it fits in. Yep. Sorry, one last question cuz I just want to clarify too um the instructional minutes are increasing for fifth grade. >> Yes. >> That's already been implemented this year, but just wanting to clarify. I know this is communications going out to fourth, fifth grade parents and those kinds of things. So I don't and again I don't know if it's worth noting but we're we've increased that instructional time by >> in fifth grade M if you could >> in in math it was I think by 11 11 or 12 minutes I mean it's brought it up to a full hour. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um Dr. Stanley >> um for students that already had the media class in seventh grade is it offered twice a year? Forgive me for my

154I don't remember. >> No, it's one of the um encore Yeah. specials. So they have like wellness, health, music. >> Correct. So >> do they get get rotated through that twice per year or justice? Once. >> So what happens? What are the opportunities for the bridge to algebra and the kids who have already had their media science for the year? >> This is starting next year. So got so yeah so next year. this year. So I So um just a good time to talk about what happened this year. So um a notice went out to 7th grade um grade level math students and or parents and and basically said that a communication will be going out for the those students who are selected for the bridge program. I believe there was 10ish 10ish students um

155between the two middle schools. Um, and they'll have the opportunity to do the bridge program kind of like the original way where it's um, they'll do it self-guided with support, right? Self-guided finish. >> They'll be able to do the bridge program this year and then have the opportunity to move into algebra 1 for 8th grade. >> Yeah. I and so I think the distinct difference for this year before we cause concern of like wait we're back to the original problem we're talking about a very small number of students. So um to go back to um Dr. Stanley's point, if we find that these students, for instance, um have not yet participated in library media and in conversations with a family, the family's like, "Yeah, I'm good with my kid not taking library media and during

156that time would participate in the Bridge program, then that would be a solution." So, the first place we might look to is Encore, but we're not going to tell a student, you absolutely cannot take art now to do this. But with that small number of students, um providing time that is overseen by a teacher and reach is a very very manageable because it's such a small group. But next year when we look at a um whole grade level programmatic, it just becomes part of that encore cycle. So now all students get exposed to it. Yeah. And then all the students that are in the seventh grade accelerated this year will move on to algebra 1 next year. Um, so that was a communication that went out for seventh grade and then this communication will go

157out to fourth through sixth graders. >> Amy, could I just add one thing about the the grade level communication? Um, it it not only said the the students who be selected, you're going to get communication, but we were very um clear. We reiterated what the criteria was. Um, and we shared in there that um, we understand that parents are a really big part of the decision-making process. If you don't get a letter that your child was selected, talk to your teacher and we welcome your input. So, we wanted to make sure that we were transparent that if you were not selected, it doesn't mean that you're boxed out, but that we want families to participate in that. Um, to go back to making sure that everybody is aware of sort of our open enrollment. um

158policy. Um, one of the things though that that usually happens and that didn't happen in a lot of the conversations when we had um concerned parents coming to the table, the vast majority of time that parents call the teacher and say, "Oh, I I really, you know, expected Lynn to make it when they hear from the teacher about where um their child's strengths are and where their child needs to grow and why algebra in the eighth grade is a not yet and we're going to wait till 9th grade." parents are like, "Oh, okay." It's really important to understand that algebra is the cornerstone for all math after that. That's why we've been so passionate about not to rush it because when students miss out on algebra, they're not going to do well in geometry, algebra,

1592, and we're so we're not even talking about participating in AP classes, but that foundation in algebra is is so critical. But we do honor um parents wishes. um if they really want to see their child move forward. >> Dr. Stanley, >> I just had one final com comment after doing a lot of reflection uh upon this and these changes about the great work that's been done to improve the communication and that you know it's becoming more standard and I think we're really improving how we address parents concerns and how we're communicating in the future. we learned a lot. Um, and it really shows with these two um, uh, documents that were created. And then also thinking back to what math is and how much it's changed even in the past 5 10 years from

160and then like from the perspective of when we went to high school. >> Um, the kids are learning this amazing math and these algebra skills younger and younger. And so I don't think the algebra 1 that I took in high school is the same algebra 1 that they're taking. And I think that us as parents can learn from this and be reflective upon how we need to kind of change with the times and make sure that we're updated because our kids are coming home with pre-alggebra and algebra in in sixth grade and that didn't really happen. So I think it's just going to be a change in in how it's labeled and how it's thought about that this is amazing math. This is seventh grade math and this is amazing math and this is eighth

161grade math and then they're going to be amazing math students in algebra which probably includes algebra 1, algebra 2 trigonometry stuff concepts that we traditionally had in high school and we just have to reframe our thinking. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for those comments. I think you're right that it's not the same math and and and we did talk a lot about that at the curriculum meeting like in depth about how uh you know we reviewed like state recommendations and like other you know data and things and things changed like the um we talked about common core came out what was it 15 years ago? Um and that was just a different way of how math was taught. not, you know, not not saying that we were like not not up with the times

162because we obviously like did the changes required for common core, but the the leveling and the the way that math was done prior to that coming out is different uh was different than what we need to do now. And so I think what you said like keeping up with the times and and just kind of reflecting on how kids are learning and what they're learning and the best opportunity for all. So, thank you for your comments and I think that um yeah, that's what definitely what we wanted to do is like get back to the root of the like the the thing that we're trying to to solve which is all students can learn math. Go ahead, Mr. Hollerin. >> Yeah, and I think just adding to both what you said too in the communication

163on uh point number two is prioritizing depth over speed and I think that's exactly what you're saying. I think when I went through algebra, it was very much about how fast can you calculate versus I think the way that is providing a more fundamental understanding of math is how do you apply this concept? How can you understand how this works? And some kids are very good calculators by nature. They can just process. But I think by being exposed to different ways to think about math, they understand how to apply it in different ways and can communicate math >> to people who process differently. And I think that's a very important lesson to learn. So yes, I agree. Great comments and that's I think spelled out very well in the communication. >> And I'm just going

164to one more bring it back to Dr. Haristen's presentation earlier this evening when he said that um that like we learn something new every time we're around someone different, right? And we learn from people who are different than us. So that that's why we celebrate diversity. Um so like Mr. Holland was saying like you're if you can get the answer right that's that's great but that's not really building that foundation that deep deep knowledge and being able to communicate or explain to others or learn from others maybe a different way to do something is really what the the opportunity that we want to give the students in sixth and seventh grade so that they can be successful in the the higher u more complicated math programs. Go ahead Miss Weaver. I just want to say

165thank you for your comments and thank you for the work being done here because I know it's been a lot of hours and I say that as someone with policy so you're doing extra hours. Um thank you to Kristen to tell everyone. Um cuz yeah it's I think this is where like the work really gets done. Um so thank you for putting in those hours to be able to bring this product to light. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. And I'll bring you 700 more policies to try and match that hours. No. >> And I do I I do also want to thank Miss Freeman and Miss Kellogg for all the work that they've done. I know there was in a lot that it started like a year ago. Well, more than a year ago cuz the

166sixth grade math was um happened prior to to 7th grade. that all the research and and the reasoning and explanations and backing up the the approach. Um I I just think that you both did a great job at especially at the committee level like when we just kind of took a step back and just started to reframe it again and just kind of understand from the beginning the reasoning. So a lot went in prior to that but then also taking the time again to um to come up with this plan. I think it um will hopefully um will help will hopefully explain thoroughly to um the the parents and the community what is being done and why it's being done. And of course, if anyone still has comments, your doors are open and and um

167you've had several conversations already and I know that you're you're willing to again and we want parents to be a partner in their child's education. So, um, but yeah, thank you for thank you both for for everything. And we did have some really fun times at our committee. I don't know. We're kind of getting a little bit better than the policy committee cuz it's uh we had very interactive prompts. It was very fun. So, just putting that out there. Thank you. >> All right. Any um other comments or questions? I would if I may just the chart that I've highlighted here I if Miss M Freeman wouldn't mind just this was very powerful as we look back um if you it's the one about the trajectory over the last uh 10 years uh how kids

168have performed both with and without the accelerated >> um so so this graph is interesting because it's looking at the APA so remember that's the average percent target achieved It's the It's the growth. So, it's the most important number we're looking at. When you look at um if you if you came to curriculum committee meetings and had the fund that we had, you would see um statistically how long it takes a student to get out of level one when they are growing at the rate that they do. So, that's why those percentages of students um at goal are can be so misleading because it's not showing the growth. So this is a really great number. Look at growth. The green represents the percentage of the growth target for students that scored at a level four.

169So one of the things that we think about is um well I'm worried that my student who is a high achiever when they go into a heterogeneously grouped course that they're not going to be challenged and they're not going to grow. And um the the very last set of data and it's only one class, the green you can see it's the highest it's ever been. and that it it it's higher than any other year that came before it. The math scores themselves were not necessarily the highest that they've ever been since that time, but the growth for the sixth graders was higher than all of those previous years when it was always accelerated. There was one year in there that we did um not run accelerated math. It was when students came uh back to

170a hybrid model um from COVID because kids just we didn't have enough information about kids to make um recommendations to accelerated but there's no data for that because um the ESPA uh data wasn't reported. So we thought that that was interesting. But what I thought was more interesting Dr. Brema if you went to the next one. I think >> this data I thought was super interesting. Um, one of the the criteria for being recommended for acceleration is that on the ASPA your level is a level four or a three high. So they split all of the levels into a low and an high. Why don't they just do eight levels? I don't know. So we looked at the APA of students in those three criteria, the ones who would be um going forward to accelerated

171and you can see there's no rhyme or reason of looking at the growth um the growth of that population of kids specifically that would be recommended for accelerated. Um there's no um correlation between being in a heterogeneous group um class or homogeneous. In fact, when you look at is that 181 19, you can see how low that is. And that is a group of kids that were not affected by COVID. CO was not even around then. So that I thought was really powerful as well. And again, it's not data that we can say see there it proves it. It's just a data point to look at and it's um for us to consider moving forward as we collect data to measure the um effectiveness of the changes. This will be good data that we continue

172to look at um and track moving forward. >> Thank you so much. Um all right, I'll open it up to public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities. If you're in the room, you can come to the end of the table. If you're online, you can raise your hand for your time. >> Hello, Mr. Plord. >> Just turn your mic on, please. >> A little different in this room. Okay, sorry. Uh, Matt Pl, 15 Woods Edge Drive in Newington. Um, I just wanted to say hello. Uh, I have been appointed one of the council's liaison to the board of education along with councelor Das. I have watched your meeting since, uh, my, uh, you know, election to the council and even over the past couple of months, but this is the first one I've

173been able to attend in person. So, just wanted to offer my support and assistance if I can be in communicating uh matters to the council. Um I I do split my time as a leazison to the zoning commission just down the hall on Wednesday evenings. So, I'm going to be back and forth. We're going to see how that works out and you may get somebody else at some point, but for now, you got me. So, um if I can be helpful, uh and I'm sure councelor Das feels the same way. Please don't hesitate to reach out. And, uh to Mr. Paresi, we uh congratulated you uh yesterday evening in our council meeting on your uh uh uh change and we just wish you all the luck and thank you for your service to our school

174community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else public? Okay, so before I open to remarks by board members, Matt stole a little bit of our thunder thunder, but we um we did hear that tonight might be your last board of ed meeting, Mr. Fari. So um as I think all of us know, but um a communication will be going out to parents shortly, but u Mr. FISA has accepted a position as superintendent of Brookfield Public Schools and so tonight will probably be your last board meeting and we're really going to miss you during budget season and the timing is interesting but um but we do want to wish you the best and thank you for your years and years and years of service to Innovation Public Schools as former principal and obviously your your roles

175up through now. Um you've done a lot for the district and being in charge of human capital, our teachers and and paras and staff and everyone who works hard to support our students has gone through you. So thank you for that. and yeah, you've been a great asset to our district, but we wish you well. Moving on into your new role and congratulations, >> board members. Miss Weaver, do you want to go? >> I don't even want to talk to him right now. It's just too painful. No. Um, it's been a ride. It's been a ride because it's like it's been a while for um well since I've been on the board and since I was I think I like remember you as a student. It's like so weird. Um but thank you so much

176for all you've done particularly for policy our policy king and leader. Uh always on an all women group if we've noticed through all the boards. >> Yes, it's all of them. Um but >> diversity maybe. >> Yeah. Um, but I think what's great is is your dedication to our school system has been steadfast, has been ardent to all of the things that um we've done. You've put in so many hours, so many hours. Um, so thank you and thank your family. Um, and I apologize for all of the hours we took um, at this table, at the policy table. Um, but so grateful for the good work that we've done together and for the work that you've done for our school system. And um I'm just so jealous of Brookfield for getting you, but it's

177totally fine. We'll be fine. Um and just want to congratulate you cuz uh welld deserved. Very excited for your next endeavor. And um yeah, just good luck with those policies cuz I don't know how they're going to do. But um congratulations truly. >> And um before um I do Mr. Diaz is on the on the line. So Dan uh Diaz will be taking over. Um so he will be here for budget season. Dan um we wish you all the best of luck as well. Um and congratulations in your new role >> and then um Mr. Mr. Turillo will be assuming um the principal position over at Wallace for the time being. >> Interum. >> Interim. Yes. Dan, did you want to say anything? >> Oh, yeah. Just uh No, I'm sure if you can hear

178me or not. Sorry, I have my earpods in. >> Um yeah, no, it's quite an honor. Thank Thank you so much. Uh you know, I for the fortune to work with Mr. Paresi as well in my capacity as building principal um and assistant principal when I was at Newington High School. So, um I echo the sentiments as well and wish him the best. and I'm really looking forward to uh working much closer with all of you and uh truly a privilege to uh to to serve New England public schools in a in a different role. So very looking forward to it. Thank you very much. >> Thanks Dan. Go Miss Weaver. He says that now he's policy but actually very also full full circle because he was my ninth grade history teacher. So this is

179like very fun for me. >> Like I said, Newington's finest just keeps coming back, keeps getting better. So very excited. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Newton. >> My fellow chieftain, you're leaving me. Um Dan and you, I have one piece of advice. I think I said it to Kristen a few months back, you know, as you get promoted and the higher you go on that ladder, that bullseye gets bigger on you. So, just remember, you know, you know where home is. Home was here, but now you're out there. Good luck, >> Mr. Hollerin. >> Yeah. Um, Mr. Paresi, thank you. I don't know what else I could say, and normally I do. Um, but the work you've put into the school has been incalculable. I I think that not just the work of the policy,

180but guiding us through, especially when I came on as a new board member, really guiding us through how central office operates, how the administration operates, what we need to look at. And just like I'd tell any student that Newington pride and spirit doesn't end at our borders, so take it with you and Brookfield will be lucky to have it. >> Dr. Stanley, >> I would like to create an agenda item to do a subcommittee on how we offer our counter offers and our retention packages. >> I'm so glad that we have the abundance of um staff to rely upon and well um deserved promotion of Mr. Diaz. So um but you will be missed um and congratulations and I know you will thrive. Yeah. Okay. Um, uh, next week, Mr. Plord will be sitting around

181the table along with the rest of the council members. Um, so we have our our budget presentation um, from Dr. Brema at 7 p.m. Um, yeah. So, we'll get our first our first the first look then. >> So, get ready for >> coming down the road. >> Lots of meetings. >> Yeah, we'll get the binder next week. I would say I'd bring snacks, but they have to be prepacks. No snacks. >> All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Meeting adjourned at 9:41 p.m. >> Oh, you found it.