001Recording in progress. >> Hello, sir. >> Yes. Got to get the live stream going. Good evening. I'd like to call this >> Please hold. >> We are good to go, Stanley. But obviously we have >> cross connection problems. Yeah, that's next door. >> Next door. >> It might be. >> All right, I'm just going to pause this and mute this for a moment. >> Okay. >> Is that Steve Woods here? Sean, what' you say? >> I just thought I heard another meeting happening. It sounded like Steve Woods might have been >> Yeah, we're having cross connection with the meeting next door. >> I see. >> They're on it. Okay. I would like to call this special meeting of the Newington Board of Education to order for Wednesday, September 24th, 2025. The time is 7:02 p.m.
002Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Deb, would you please call the role? >> Here. >> Anthony >> here. here >> thank Okay, we'll start with our first resolution honoring our school cafeteria staff. Resolution honoring Newington school cafeteria workers September 24th, 2025th. Whereas Wednesday, September 24th, 2025th has been proclaimed as Newington school cafeteria workers day. And whereas the Newington school cafeteria workers prepare and serve an average of 2,250 meals per day. And whereas the Newington school cafeteria workers follow local and state health standards when preparing meals. And whereas the Newington school cafeteria workers prepare meals following nutritional guidelines established by the United States
003Department of Agriculture and the state of Connecticut. And whereas the Newington school cafeteria workers have shown dedication and conscient conscientious performance when serving school lunches. Therefore, we do hereby proclaim Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 as Newington school cafeteria workers day. Be it resolved that we urge all the citizens of our community to join with us in actively expressing gratitude to Newington cafeteria workers on this very special day. Be it further resolved that the new secretary of the Newington Board of Education is directed to spread this resolution upon the minutes of this meeting and to provide a suitable copy for presentation. >> Congratulations. >> Come on up. >> That's a thankless job. Hi. Thank you so much. >> You're written on your shirt. >> Not at night. >> Yeah. On the other side of this design that
004way. We'll kind of balance it. There we go. >> Everybody ready? >> We want to thank you so much for today. We appreciate all you guys giving all your support through the year. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> We really appreciate you. Thank you. But stay a bit. >> Stick around. We'll um >> Yes, we do have um online Miss to read statement on behalf of Dana. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for your time. I just wanted to take a few minutes tonight to talk about the food service staff. They really are so much more than people who make and serve meals every day. way they make connections with students. Sometimes it's a smile, a kind word, or remembering their favorite lunch item, but it can really brighten a student's whole day. I
005love hearing the stories they share with me, and I save them for nights like this. This is from Dana, not from me, because they show the heart of what our staff does. One story that stuck with me came from our welcome back meeting in August. One of our employees told us at the end of the last year, a group of fourth graders asked her to sign their yearbooks. They told her how much they were going to miss her next year. Isn't that just sweet? Moments like that remind me that the cafeteria isn't just a place to get meals. It's a place where kids feel cared for and connected. And that's because of the relationships our staff build with them every single day. I'm so proud of this team and the impact they have on our
006students lives. Thank you. And that's from Dana Marovix, the director of food and nutrition services, and I agree with every word she said. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for coming. Appreciate it. >> Those of you online for the TPZ meeting having some technical difficulties right now, crossing rooms, uh, please hang in there. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just talk louder. All right, our next Yeah, you can stick around. I'll I'll open up to board comments after um after these three. Yes. So, if you want to hear nice words about more nice words, welcome to stay resolution honoring Newington school security offers officer September 24th, 2025. Whereas Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 has been proclaimed as school security officers appreciation day and the Newington P and whereas the Newington public school system is committed to honoring
007its school security officers and recognizing their contributions to the educational system. And whereas the school security officers are wellqualified and dedicated to the safety and security of students, faculty, staff, and visitors at the schools. And whereas the school security officers maintain a safe and secure environment for effective teaching and learning. And whereas the school security officers establish a strong presence in the schools and develop friendly relationships with students and staff so that everyone feels comfortable coming to them when they encounter security issues. And whereas it is the desire of the board of education that the school security officers should be made aware of their appreciation. We do hereby proclaim Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 as Newington school security officers appreciation day. Therefore, be it resolved that we urge all the citizens of our community to join
008with us in actively expressing gratitude to our school security officers who represent an investment in excellence in our community. Be it further resolved that the secretary of the Newington Board of Education is directed to spread this resolution upon the minutes of this meeting and to provide a suitable copy to the director of security. Do um we have Marquetta Collier online. Yep. >> Good evening everyone. You can hear me? >> Yes. >> Good evening. I want to say thank you on behalf of the security sca staff. We thank you very much. We appreciate it's >> not going to solve it because they're overriding it. >> Okay. >> Plus, if you come back in, >> it'll clear whatever the audio is. >> Thank you once again on behalf of the security staff of the Newington schools. We
009greatly appreciate this day. We thank you for being recognized and we just want to say thank you once again for everyone. >> I think they need to restart theirs. >> Thank you so much >> because I just ended ours and restarted it. So it's definitely there. Welcome to 8 2 5 2 4 28. >> Please enter the meeting passcode followed by the pound sign. You are in the meeting now. >> Recording in progress. >> We're just having some technical difficulties. >> Are we still up for now until they >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, they're hearing what we do. She >> we can hear you all. It's just cutting into their audio sometimes. So poor Marquette was cut off a bit, but we can hear online. >> Move on to the resolution. >> Okay. >> I
010mean, we have half our members online anyway, so we can't really stop our meeting. >> No. um want to go into the next award and Marquetta was the only >> Miss Peters, would you mind helping her with this one? >> Sorry I can't be there in person. I'm well away in Waterberry traffic. >> A resolution honoring Newington Hall monitors September 24th, 2025. Whereas Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 has been proclaimed as Hall Monitors Apprec appreciation day. And whereas the Newington public school system is committed to honoring its hall monitors and recognizing their contributions to the school system. And whereas the hall monitors work and interact effectively with high school students, faculty, staff, and visitors. And whereas the hall monitors assist students, staff, and visitors and help ensure safety inside the building. And whereas it is the
011desire of the board of education that the hall monitors should be made aware of their appreciation, we do hereby proclaim Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 2025 as Newington Hall monitors appreciation day. Therefore, be it resolved that we urge all of the citizens of our community to join with us in actively expressing gratitude to our hall monitors who represent an investment in excellence and in our community. Be it further resolved that the secretary of the Newington Board of Education is directed to spread this resolution upon the minutes of this meeting and to provide a suitable copy for presentation. And we do have one of our monitors on, Taylor Rich. Hi everybody. Hello. How are you? I just want to say thank you. It's really a privilege working for Newington public schools. Every day I go in with
012a positive attitude and I try my best every day. And I just love working for Newington public schools. And I love that we are at Newington High School. We are we call ourselves the the family of learners. And that's what we really are. We come together as a big family. >> I love that. Thank you so much. And thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, do any board members want to make a comment? Miss Beatric, >> I want to thank um everybody who's been recognized tonight. And you know, we talk a lot in this um room about the impact, the positive impact that all of the people in all of our schools make in the in the lives of our students. And um sometimes we think about the people that we see face to face,
013but sometimes we we think about the people that we don't get to see every day. And you guys are a a really great great asset to our students. They they need positive role models in all areas and that's what they get when they see you guys. So, thank you so much for all of that you do for them. And I love the fact that it's um framed as a family and a family of learners and we impact our our kids in the way they learn in lots and lots of different ways. So, thank you again for what you do. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Mr. Hollerin. >> Thank you. I am so sorry I can't be there in person, but this is a great night for recognition and I think it's a group um
014that is often underrecognized um from our hall monitors to our security officers to our cafeteria staff. School, yes, is about education, but it's also about community. And I think every single person in our school system can have an impact on um the life of somebody trying to figure it out. Um for our security officers for keeping everyone safe, making sure that when we send our kids to school, we can rest assured um that they will be in the the best hands um from our hall monitors to making things stay organized and welcoming. and our cafeteria staff. The cafeteria in my high school was the social center. Beyond all the academia, beyond all the clubs, that's where we learned how to go from kids to adults. And to kind of prove that, I this is a
015photo I have of the cafeteria workers from 25 years ago in my high school that I keep hanging up in my kitchen to remind myself that every single person in our system can make a difference because these ladies did for me. Um, so it's a reminder I give to myself every day that every single person has an impact. So I cannot thank you enough. >> Thank you. Wow, Sean, that's great. >> Weaver. Just in time. >> No, it's your turn. >> Oh, sorry. You just said you had a comment. >> Oh, no. You're good. You're good. No one else has their hand raised. Sorry everyone if I sound Oh, I'm out of shape. It's fine. Um, but just want to echo what Mr. Hollerin just said. I think and Miss Beatric um going through the
016halls of New England public schools when I was there, when my sister was there, now my cousins being there. Um, there's always been a high caliber of cleanliness, of safety, and of community. And that's because of all of the people online today. So, I just want to say thank you for what you do. It is not unnoticed. These are always like one day things. Um, but I think what's important is we honor you guys because it really is those connections. You just never know what you could do for a kid. Could be that they're having a bad day or it's the day that's going to break them and um and you bring them back. So, just want to say thank you for all that you do um for our students because it's not just the
017academics and just >> All right, everyone online, thank you for hanging in there. Still having technical difficulties, but we're going to try to get the meeting going uh momentarily. >> We were just getting back from New York. So, >> thank you for your patience. >> Um Mr. Chararma, >> hey, I just want to thank um all the security staff and also um all the cafeteria staff for whatever you do. there, Sam. >> Yeah, thank you for >> bad news. Hold on, Sam. >> So, right now, put this on the table with the speakers on so you guys can hear the guy. >> Okay, combined into one single room >> and it's automated by the walls. When the walls are up, it's because of the two rooms. That's how the cameras are working for each one
018independently, but the audio isn't so >> okay. >> So, we're muting on both sides and I have the >> Okay, >> so the audio will come through. >> It's coming from your computer. >> Okay, >> perfect. >> Thank you for that solution. >> Do we need to use Look at the Google. very [Music] I'm going to put a motion to recess. >> I get a second. >> I recess until further notice. 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 Three, two, one. Right. I will entertain a motion to motion to come back into session. >> Second. >> I still here. >> Okay. So, we're Okay. So, we have a motion and a second by Miss Carr. Is there any discussion? Can you hear? >> Okay. >> Can
019anybody hear me? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Did you have a question or discussion? >> No. I just wanted to make sure the audio worked cuz I second that too. >> Oh, okay. Now we hear you. But Miss Carr, well, we're going to give credit to Miss Carr. No discussion. All in favor? I. Okay. Meeting resumed 7:26 PM. Okay. Um Mr. Chararma, I believe you were in the middle of your remarks. >> Yeah. Um just wanted to thank um just echo what everyone else said and thank the you know the cafeteria staff and the security staff for everything you do. So we appreciate your services. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? See none. Okay. Yeah, just to echo um I mean Mr. Hollering kind of said it and and Miss Weaver just this is
020a a group all three of these groups of people are are very well appreciated and and and desperately needed in our school system. Obviously feeding school lunch and breakfast is critically important for our students to be able to be ready to learn. Um but even just that friendly face and and someone they can count on every single day. um and our security office off officers for keeping our students safe um throughout the day. And Taylor, I love that you love your job and and the hall monitors keeping those high school students in in line is is a tough job, I'm sure, but thank you for the work that you do and and the rest of your your hall monitors. >> Thank you. >> Have a great evening, everyone. Thank you for joining. All right. Next
021on the agenda, we have public participation. So any matter related to board responsibilities um in person, you can come to the end of the table or on the phone. >> Bye. Thank you. >> Thanks guys. Thank you so much everyone. Thank you all so much. Appreciate you guys. >> Yes. Um if you're online you can raise your hand to be recognized and we will allow um four minutes as we will eventually be amending our in theory our policy to allow for four minutes that I just put the mic on its Jonas Roberts Fister Drive I believe that we are all here for the same reason we want what is best for the students in our community. We also want to be informed citizens. Last meeting the word curriculum was used often but not always accurately.
022If we are going to be transparent and inform our community of what is happening, precision of language is very important. Curriculum is based on state standards. We have a committee of experts in our school system who writes our curriculum based on those standards. Programs, resources, and materials are not curriculum. They are used to deliver the curriculum and teach the standards. Programs are researched by the district. The list of programs is narrowed down. A group of experts in our school system pilots the programs with our students. The team of professionals meet regularly with each other to discuss which of the programs will best meet the needs of our students. I cannot stress enough that both processes mentioned above, curriculum writing and selecting programs to teach the curriculum, should be decided upon by the professionals that work
023with our students. Just because a program is loved by teachers in another district does not mean it is best for the students in Newington. Just because a program is used in other districts in our DUR does not mean it is best for the students in Newington. The professionals working with our students on a daily basis should be making those decisions. I hope we can all work together with open minds and open hearts, trusting the people working with our students to make decisions that are best for our students. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else for public participation? All right, moving on to our consent agenda. Miss Weaver, uh, move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Hollerin. You get credit for that one. Um, we have a motion and a
024second. Is there any discussion? Oh, all in favor? I I >> Any opposed? Motion passes 80. >> I'll turn it over to Dr. Bermit. Ready? >> First of all, good evening everyone. And again, our apologies for the technical difficulties. Both rooms were interfering with each other, but for reasons we cannot yet explain, it's been resolved. Thank you to our tech technology staff both town and board for collaborating on this. Um I will not you know go word for word in this report but I wanted to draw your attention to um because tonight we're talking quite a bit about curriculum the report that was issued by uh our curriculum team Miss Freeman, Miss Blount Lawrence and Mr. Serno um about some of the courses that we either created over the summer or revised over the summer
025or in the course of our curriculum review cycle. So you can see quite a lengthy list of um some of the curriculum that was revised or enhanced over the summer. And again, um, to make that distinction is there's the curriculum, which is the standards and other components that you'll hear more about later, but which is separate from the materials or the programs that are used. Um, sometimes those are dictated to us when it's a Yukon course. It has to come from Yukon as indicated on here. Other times we use state standards and go from there. But more more on that later. But I just want to show everyone the volume of revisions and enhancements that were worked on in the very recent months. Um, and also we did quite a bit of professional learning over
026the summer. Um, a lot of that had to do with our instructional practices and we had a very successful extended year uh program. That's our special ed services that are provided to students by law over the summer who have special needs. We ran programs at um our elementary level, middle, and high, and those all ran very smoothly. And we've actually gotten off to a very strong start. Um our students are happy to be back. Lots of positives going on. I know we heard some positive stories earlier. I heard a really awesome story out of the high school where um teachers were asked to um spotlight some of the most positive things they've heard since the start of the school year and they made this sticky note ensemble and it was really really touching some of
027the things the students said about being happy to be back about so glad they got their favorite teacher so glad they're back in school with their friends. So, I mean, I think it's an an exciting time of year where there's a lot of energy and we're certainly seeing that. And um that really concludes my report. I think we did share already um last meeting about the maintenance upgrades that were done over the summer. I'm sure that you've noticed our buses have moved from Garfield Street to the transfer station and we're eagerly awaiting the month and a half to two months process of getting Garfield Street paved. So, our buses will have a lovely paved lot in a few hopefully a few weeks. And we also talked about some of our other upgrades that we did
028over the summer. And that really concludes my report. I look forward to uh hearing some updates from the curriculum office momentarily. But I just for folks that do read this report, it also gives you an update monthly on our enrollment. We do a monthly snapshot on that as required by law. And at the very last page, our business um CFO Lin Boy has included our current actuals, which has been a request. Um and she's on this document. It shows where we're at with our expenditures. And just to orientate everybody, um I know there's been discussion around the non-lapsing fund. Anywhere where there's a negative right now in the parentheses, that shows where we'll be applying the non-lapsing fund as the year goes along. We're not negative overall, of course. We right now have a balance
029of 27 million because there's a lot of incumbrances, but this report, should you be interested, um has what was appropriated by the town as well as what's been expended as well as what's been encumbered. So that is absolutely public facing information that anyone can review, but when you see those negatives, they were kind of pre-planned negatives because we're going to use the non-lapsing fund to offset um as the year rolls along. So, that concludes my report. I'll turn it back over to board chair for any questions. >> Thank you, Miss Weaver. >> Uh yeah, just had a question about the enrollment for ESY. uh has that ste I just can't recall the proje the the actual numbers if they've increased over the years or not. Um it feels like that that number is large much
030larger. >> They've increased um more more needy students require additional services in the summer. So that does um increase our enrollment. I will say through our contract with effective school solutions who you saw last board meeting, they provide a no charge summer program for students who see them during the school year as part of our contract, but during the summer we have very busy programs running at um many many of our schools for all three levels. So it runs for the month of July and it's an extremely busy and active program from prek all the way up to post post high school. Yeah, that's what I was alluding to as well. I think I know our our ESS um had presented on that as well, having that support and also I think a transition kind
031of program as well from 8 to 9. Absolutely. So, those are all operational and they're meant to support our kids and the whole goal of extended school year is to um prevent uh loss of learning for students who have special needs. Um and it's a required uh program by law. we have to provide extended school year bylaw for students on an IEP who show regression without it. >> Would just be curious, no rush, if we could get just those numbers. Yeah. And and maybe if there were um kind of budget items too, just to show clearly I think there there might be an inflation >> uh expenditure >> larger than inflation. >> Okay, very good. I can have that for next month. >> Thank you. programs. >> Are there any additional questions or comments? Miss
032Carr, >> I noted there was a large figure 331 transportation changes for the month of August. Has that been an issue for staff or for parents? You know, changes in schedules for timing of kids getting picked up. >> Thank you. Um, that is the time of year where we get a lot of requests from families about maybe moving a bus stop because they feel it's unsafe, maybe petitioning to have their child on the bus because they feel there's some hazards. So, that's a pretty common amount of uh activity late August, early uh September where we get a lot of change requests. But, um, actually, it's running extremely smoothly. Um, even and for just in case folks didn't see it in the update, even with our buses being moved to the transfer station, bus routes did
033not have to be adjusted. Times didn't have to be adjusted. But that number that you read, uh, Miss Carr is absolutely indicative of the time of year that we just have a lot going on with our bus activity and requests. And then as the board knows, they also approved the vacant seat program several years back and that will begin um taking applications soon for any seats that are open where a nonbus student could avail themselves if room is available. >> Mr. Newton, >> Dr. Brum, question and this is just for my clarification. It says down here hyphen no billing for all prek3 and pre prek4 students. Is that paid through by the state in that grant or how I don't understand the no billing? >> Okay. What page are you on >> page for all
034your students? The 56 is on the bottom. No building on the bottom of the enrollment says no billing. >> Oh yes. >> That refers to kids who are in magnet schools. So some of the magnet schools um have they bill us for the services and others do not because they get different types of funding. So kids who are in a magnet school for prek we don't pay for and also kids who are in a Hartford magnet school or a technical school we do not pay for their um educational services. Those are state funded. So that's what it refers to. >> Sure. Any further questions? Thank you for that report. Moving on to new business, we have a curriculum committee updates. >> Is that Mr. Hollerin? >> Thank you. >> I was having some technical difficulties
035there. Um, but yes, we met uh Tuesday, September 16th. Um and uh we started it by going over the uh 2025 SBA and NGSS achievement data by school grade and student groups going back to 2018 um comparing some um year-over-year data excluding the COVID year. Um to try to decide what we want to talk about in our curriculum meetings going forward. Um, some of the items we've landed on is talking about benchmark advance, getting some more feedback, um, about how that's being implemented, um, seventh grade math, um, taking a deeper dive into, um, fifth grade math and ELA, um, because we do see kind of a consistent pattern of a dip in that grades. We'd like to understand more about what that's going uh, through. We also reviewed uh regulation 6146 for graduation requirements. The
036long and short of it is is that the uh internship requirement I believe um is dropping to 0.25 of a credit um to better suit the um the reality of what we are dealing with for the academy and the internships. And we also went over policy 6152 uh for leveling and placement. Um and I think in a very abbreviated version it was a a good exercise. Kristen Freeman, I cannot give enough credit. She was able to provide data around the room. We went to each station. We had to write a story looking at the data trying to understand um what we were seeing, what our impressions were, what we want to focus on. Uh really well run meeting and well attended by the public. Um and um we are going to have a joint meeting
037with policy committee. I don't believe it's been finalized yet. um to make sure that the curriculum committee and the policy committee can get together in one room to make sure that we are both understanding what we are doing for curriculum uh and the impacts on curriculum and policy and vice versa. Um and that is my summary. If anybody else would like to add anything, Jess, Tim or Kristen, uh feel free. Um but um productive meeting, long meeting, and I look forward to the next one. Thank you, Miss Weaver. Just noting I will be working with Mr. Hollerin still on getting a schedule. We also need to schedule a regular policy meeting. I think we've just decided that one for October 1st uh just because we do have some also some legislative mandated policies we need
038to get through uh ASAP. So, it will be coming out very soon. Just need to coordinate with a lot of people here. Um, and I would just note too the other thing we we did set kind of topics or agendas for the curriculum committee um going forward um who's ever on it. I I think one of our focuses was wanting to discuss some of the uh alternative pathways and we don't like to want to say uh we'll say non-ol uh track pathways particularly in light of some of the exciting news we've heard about our health uh science uh tracks and we have and differentiations in the themies that we have at academy tracks we have at the high school as well. Um just to highlight I think maybe not everyone knows what's uh what are
039the different tracks particularly those that are on a non-ol track if they're looking to go into trades or they're looking to go in other things. Um what we're offering and I say the exciting development being we got an ambulance not to be used because we need all these emergencies. I just want to also clarify that. >> Yes it does not move. Um, >> fully functional. It is a great training tool. >> Fully functional, does not drive, >> doesn't move. >> Um, okay. Thank you, Sean. Uh, moving on to curriculum development presentation. Miss Freeman. >> Yes. I'd just like to ceue up uh Miss Freeman's presentation. As our board will recall, last meeting we uh had a question at the end of the meeting and following protocol, we didn't address it then, but committed to having
040that addressed today by Miss Freeman, who is the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. And um it's blank, but she's going to advance it. The goal of her presentation is to show the board and our attendees here, and she did do some handouts um relative to the pretty intense process of writing and reviewing curriculum. Uh what we follow here in Newington is extraordinarily typical for the state um and is also the process um that our attorneys believe is the proper process based on uh laws and protocols. But I think Kristen and um and her department and she's worked with her uh elementary curriculum coordinator to work on this presentation is really an effort to show what goes into this process which is an evolutionary process that's year-long. So I'd like to turn the mic over
041to Kristen and hope that our clicker is working. Go ahead. >> So, there are 10 of us at the board table this evening and I want you to imagine that all 10 of us are going on a trip. Going to take a trip to Kenya. So, it's our destination. So, we're going across the ocean, across the continent, right next to the Indian Ocean. Because there's so many of us, we have a destination, but we want to make sure everybody enjoys the trip. So, I checked in with Mr. Mey right before the meeting and he said, "You know what? If we're going there, I got to make sure we see the cheetahs." And I'm like, "All right, we're going to make sure." Miss Craig, I know that she's a big beach person, so she's telling me
042we've got to go to Mimosa Beach so I can see the Indian Ocean. Dr. Dr. Bermit's a big foodie, so she wants to make sure that she samples some of the cuisine, comes back with some recipes, and so you can imagine everybody has their own individual interest and desires that they want to see. So, we know that this trip is going to be successful if we can collect evidence that we did all of those things. And now we need to figure out a way how we're going to get there. How are we going to go from here, Newington, Connecticut, go all the way to Kenya, but also make sure that we see cheetahs, we see the Indian Ocean, we get to sample all the cuisine and hit every other interest. If we take a trip
043like that, we don't just get up and all leave and just kind of head east and hope for the best. We have to have a really specific route in order to get there. And that is what curriculum writing is like. It's like creating the route of a trip. But our destination is our standards. And not just the standards, but we want students to master the standards. The evidence that we collect are our assessments. You probably knew them back in the day as quizzes and tests. We usually just call them assessments now. And then of course we have our route how to get there and that's our learning plan. So I'm going to talk about the development of curriculum and that it is a strategically um a a a process starting with the destination first then
044looking at the evidence and we don't even talk about how it is we're going to teach it or how we're going to get there until we have all of this information set. Just like if all of us are going to take that group trip. So, I like to think of curriculum development um it's kind of like our GPS in order to get to student mastery. So, you have handouts in front of you. You're not going to have to read every single paper. I actually had a conversation with Dr. Brema um and Miss Lawrence and I and I wondered how much of the handouts I should provide as to not overwhelm. And it's a struggle to talk about curriculum development on a surface level because it's just not a surface level process. I was actually hoping
045Mr. Roberts was speaking he could just kind of um take over. So we're we're going to start at the start at the beginning. Um I want you to open up your packets. We're in the blue to pages one through six. We are going to build a fifth grade chose chosen on purpose. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Fifth grade math. So if you look at the pages 1 through six, those are the common core math standards for grade five. Common core standards for grade five. I would need to give you about an hour to really read through all of those, but I ask that you just take a glance at them and when you get to the standards, take note of the complexity of the standards and how they are written. But those standards
046that we either get from the state or at the national level, that is our destination always. So we need to make these standards a little bit more palatable and we have to figure out how we're going to organize them. So the next thing we do is from the standards we create a pacing guide. If you find page seven you're still in blue you'll find the pacing guide and this is how are we going to organize all these standards into these units. And not only that, the units have to make sense in the sequence we go, but we only have 181 days, unless it's a COVID year, then I guess we only go for 180 in order to have students master all of that. So, this gets even trickier trying to figure out the time allocation
047for the standards in which we've organized into the units. So in order to determine how much time we have a process called powering standards. When you look at all of the standards that are present in grade 5 common core we look at what are priority standards and those are the standards where we give the most attention and effort into making sure that students master supporting standards. They're just like they sound when students they learn supporting standards kind of by way of the pri priority standards. Um kids pick up their understanding of supporting standards by virtue of how the priority standards are presented. So that's just the difference between the two of those. And finally we now need to get to language that all of our teachers are going to understand in working with students on
048a daily basis. It's a process called unwrapping standards, but we look at what are the concepts and skills. So, what do students need to know? What do they need to be able to do? So, if you go to page nine now, you start getting into language that you're like, "Oh, okay. Now, I know what you're talking about." So that process alone of just being in stage one, all we've done is we've just gone from standards to really what what do those standards really mean. But notice the complexity of the process. So that's stage one. All in blue is our destination. So now we have to move to evidence. >> Say that again. >> You like cheetahs. >> Cheetos. All right. >> So, our so our evidence is um how how do we know that students
049actually mastered? Student students don't master standards because we taught them. Students mastered um students master standards because they've learned them. So, teaching really doesn't happen just because we teach. teaching happens when learning happens. So, we have to have evidence that we've actually met that and that's what assessments drive. So, we are going to go right to unit two of this curriculum, we're still in fifth grade math. The first thing that we'll do as we're looking at unit two is say at the end of the unit, what does success look like? We develop a summitative endofunit assessment first. So that is on pages 11 through 14. Mr. Newton is going to create the answer key for us. He's going to take all he's going to do all the questions for us. So the assessments are created,
050but we're not going to rely just on Mr. Newton's opinion about whether the answer is right or not. collectively as a team, we have to create a rubric, a scoring guide that actually measures what student success looks like. So now, as you head into pages 15 to 22, you will notice that every single question on the summit of assessment has a scoring guide. The scoring guide is rated from a one all the way up to a four. And there's distinct words there that match the level of mastery. In the most perfect world, every student is going to be hitting three or four in a perfect world. So now we have the evidence at the end of the unit, but it would be really bad practice if we taught for 30 days and then said, "I
051hope the kids do okay on the big test." So we take little steps along the way. So back in our day, at least my day, those were usually called quizzes. We call them now interimm assessments. And so there's one example of an interimm assessment in your packet. And that also has to have a rubric because we have to know how to score it. So that's on pages 23 and 25. >> So I'm going to pause right there mostly so I can get a drink. We've talked about our destination is the student learning always comes from the standards. Now we talked about we have to create the evidence and what the evidence looks like. I just want to pause and see if there's questions. Miss Weaver, I don't know if it's at this level and this
052is just personal question is do you also have like the activations like we used to have schema activators so that's aging me um but also like I don't know AP calc we like we did a daily like warm up so to speak um so in general that is going to be at the discretion of the teacher um good practice is that you always begin a lesson with activating some kind of backgrounds knowledge and also with sparking curiosity with kids, but that's going to look different for every subject area, for every grade level. Um, but when we get to the very end, I'm definitely going to answer your question for this unit. Other questions? Yes, Mr. Mey. didn't take 24 pages of We changed a lot of words. The words to me make it more confusing.
053>> Um I'm confused already. >> And we're talking about fifth grade math, right? >> Well, why why do we complicate it so much? >> So, we're not talking about fifth grade math. We are talking about um I was charged with giving you a presentation about how we develop a curriculum for teaching fifth grade math. So what you have in front of you are the materials that a curriculum committee teachers would create so that they can be in their classrooms teaching the fifth grade math. So this is not necessarily for students. just the quizzes and tests are but the curriculum that is for teachers so that they can deliver the instruction it still seems like even for the teachers it seems like a lot of stuff >> it it is a lot of work it is
054and in order to align to state standards which is the expectation in Newington and across the state and we our success is measured by assessments like SBA that all has to align to standards. So um without that kind of alignment when we get to that big test the big summitive test of SBA or SAT student um learning is the performance is not going to be on par if we don't have things that are aligned with standards. You are correct. It is an incredibly complex and intricate process. >> Thank you. You're welcome. So, now we're going to take our route. This is how we're going to get to Kenya, right? Because you guys all told me we want to do different things, but now we're going to take a a learning route. We know our destination.
055That's all the blue. We know the evidence that we want to collect. Now, we're ready to say, so what are we going to do in front of kids in order to make that happen? And I want to make a real important distinguishment here. We don't come, teachers don't come to work and say,"I think it's a good day to teach fractions." And maybe today I'll teach them how to add fractions. Okay, that lesson went well and maybe now we're going to add in some mixed numbers. And I'm I'm being a little bit flipping kind of silly about this. But the process is never about let's just teach teach. and we get to the end of teaching and say, "All right, so now let's make a test." That kind of process is completely outdated. It is not
056good for kids because you don't ensure that your teaching was matching what we wanted kids to be able to do on that final assessment. So that's why those assessments always come first. So we're in this final stage of these learning experiences and we want to create a path. We have to make sure that everything is aligned with the rigor. So that talks about the complexity of the standards. To Mr. Mele's point, if he just spent all the time in those standards, I look at them and I say, "How is fifth grade math so complicated?" Um, but we need to make sure that we understand what those standards are saying, but understand the depth and the rigor of them. Um, Miss Kellogg has been here and she talked about conceptual understanding. When I learned math when
057I was in grade school and middle school, that was not a focus. It is a heavy focus right now. And again, that comes from knowing those standards. We also want to make sure in this route to learning that we have multiple opportunities for students to engage with new content. Learning is a process. Learning is a process that happens inside our brains. It is a process that is unique to every person. And if I could um make simple the way that learning happens, we take in new information. we somehow begin to wrestle with that new information by connecting it with something that's familiar to us that goes to the activator. And it's as we continue to kind of combine something that we already know with something brand new. Now we have new knowledge that we've created.
058So you can imagine based on our backgrounds, based on our experiences, we all have different types of backgrounds knowledge that we bring to the table. So it's so important that teachers are giving multiple opportunities for students. Day one, not all kids get it. Day two, all of a sudden kids are like, "Oh my gosh, now I understand." And for some of them, it's just because of their background knowledge or it might be the way that the material is presented. In math, we typically use manipulatives. So, kids really like to be able to use um the tens blocks and the little cubes um and use those manipulatives to help them understand math. And still, when I observe elementary teachers, there were kids that were just like me. Just give me the piece of paper and the
059pencil because I know how to write the equation. I can already see it in my head. So, we honor those different ways that students learn. And so that's really important that that shows up in that route to mastery that learning experience. Your learning experience for fifth grade math unit 2 pages 26 through 32. So what I just want you to appreciate is the length of this part of the curriculum writing process. You can see the depth in which it is written. So we don't just say teach fractions on day one, teach adding fractions on day two, teach subtracting fractions on day three. Um it is uh very strategically done so that one skill build builds on top of the next skill and when they review that entire learning plan again making sure that we're meeting
060these requirements that kids are having multiple opportunities and they're having different ways that materials can be presented to them. Pausing for questions about the learning plan. Yes, Miss once again just like for like lesson 13 slides or these kinds of things and my experience with some of my teacher friends, they're making up like lesson plans weeks of or you know couple days in advance um because they're adapting. Is that fair to say that that often has to happen? like there's the curriculum structure written out as it should be and then ultimately teachers are making quote lesson plans. >> Yes, 100%. So, so at the very end you're going to see a lesson but to your point um this specific curriculum um we decided to align a lot of the resources we use with Illustrative Math.
061Illustrative Math um by Kendall Hunt. It comes with slides prepares. it comes with suggestions about how to introduce the the lesson. But to your point, Miss Weaver, um I can read that as a teacher and say, "Okay, I could see how this is going to make sense, but I know my students, this is not going to work for them." And so that would be an expectation for a teacher based on what they know about their students to make those adaptations or just decide however illustrative math these experts have decided to be presented. I am not presenting it that way because I know it's better for my kids and that's what I'm going to do. >> So I guess clarifying too just to give some of the definitionals back like that's not curriculum that's less like
062how would we kind of >> so illustrative illustrative math advertises itself as a curriculum. I'm be very careful with my words. Illustrative math advertises itself as a curriculum. When you look at the illustrative math materials, you can go online and find them. It gives you a sequence of what to teach unit 1, unit 2, unit 3, unit 4. It gives to you suggestions for what those daily lesson plans can be. It gives you samples of what you can use for interim assessments, what you can use for summitive assessments. It does not give you the scoring criteria. Um, but but here's the challenge. So you could say, "Well, why do you go through all this work? Why don't you just pick up illustrative math?" If my child was sitting in a fifth grade classroom and you
063were the teacher and so my kid is coming to you for fifth grade and I want them to master all the fifth grade standards and your teaching was just picking up the book and reading, okay, this is what I'm going to do on day one. That's not giving teachers the opportunity to know the content in depth in a way that when my kid gets stuck with math, you're going to say, you know what, I have another way to explain it because I know what we're going to do in two days and this is what's going to help you make connections. So, it um gives us a lot of materials that support the implementation of the curriculum and some of those might look like they are lessons. Okay. Yes. just taking just taking that a step
064further. So, illustrative math is, you know, there there's lesson plans or there's things ways to teach. And what you were just saying is that if someone if a student isn't getting it, then there might be another opportunity for the teacher to present it in a different way that's not at all a part of illustrative math. Right? So we have other programs like or other things that supplement. Yes. And I think um there's a teacher in the audience right now. So I'll just look at him for confirmation about this. When I was a teacher and I had my curriculum and my might have suggested lessons. For me, one of the most fun parts of teaching outside of being with kids was planning a lesson and thinking about, oh god, I've got to teach this subject and
065it's um it's about the three types of rocks and this is so boring for kids. How can I make this lesson like really creative and come to life? And and I think that that's like teachers enjoy it that they enjoy getting into that creativity. um the most important thing. So if I went in and I saw Mr. Roberts and I know it's not the lesson, I might say, "So tell me about that." And he would say, "Oh, well the last three years I've taught it, the kids are falling asleep. It's the most boring lesson in the world and I wanted to try something new." And I say, "My gosh." And the kids were so excited. So we want teachers to bring in their level of expertise. And we trust teachers to make those decisions to
066um modify maybe a lesson that has been provided to them based on the students that are in front of them. >> Um you don't have to >> not working. Okay. Um and I think we saw that with our reading curriculum. the this teacher that came and brought her students here and and they were at convocation as well where she allowed her students to pick the topic that they were interested but they were still doing the work that the standards the the state standards and the um following this route to mastery. >> That that is correct. Um so a really good example is when we get into middle school for ELA um and students are in book clubs. So you might imagine that there's three different novels that are being read in a class. Kids are
067in book clubs. They all have the same final assessment that all has the same criteria, but it's based on what they read. So even though there's that difference, we're still assessing them to the same standards. Yes. So, what I heard um Miss Aguire talk about is that she decided to come up with what she thought was going to be a more engaging way for her students to meet those standards. Miss Weaver, um also just getting to the point like I don't know if the public really wants this, but I I I'm curious in that um we have curriculum writers as well. Like we do we pay teachers the extra to Yes. over the summer write curriculum themselves >> that is a part of their um some we we do pay teachers a curriculum rate that
068is negotiated in their contract by themselves I um no it is overseen um by somebody like Miss Spiller who is the coordinator for science so she would oversee that some of our programs do not have administrators that oversee it so in that case it's usually me or Mrs. Lawrence that is working with that team to make sure that the process is smooth. >> Yes. So that was my question was more like in terms of oversight or um collaboration. What does that look like? Particularly when it's maybe a new quote, I don't want to use this word now, program versus um something where we have to, you know, have all of I know we have like department meetings where it's like just the history folks and you have a history department head and then you also
069have like a a curriculum coordinator. So, how many people are involved when it comes to >> So, so that is such a huge It depends. So some of the curricula that you saw on that update, it was one person writing it in collaboration with me because only one teacher teaches that one course. So people who don't teach the course that doesn't make or they don't have a level of expertise, it wouldn't make sense. In your bigger areas like grade 8 ELA, grade seven ELA, um in the middle schools, we ask for a requirement, one teacher hopefully from each school. So we have those perspectives. When you look at something like Benchmark, which is huge, that was a team of I want to say there were probably 15 to 20 people that were on that because
070keep in mind the number of grade levels. So, it still has to align for the standards, but in that curriculum writing, they were making decisions about, so we're looking at all of these resources. How are the resources going to help us with a learning plan to meet these standards? and they also had different assessments that were in benchmark. They did that for a year and then this past summer they went in and they revised it again. We always know the first year of implementation is when we make the most mistakes, but it's also when we learn the most. So, Mrs. Lawrence would over she oversaw that process and they helped kind of clean up or really tighten up the areas of the curriculum that they knew um were a little bit short the first time
071that it was implemented. This one, sorry. On average, how many curriculum changes do you think happen a year? >> You can come back. >> I would say if I am I'm guessing um probably about 30. >> And some of them are big and some of them are small. And is timing like would you say there would be a midyear change or are they all >> um No. So uh so I'll talk about it. Can you hold on to that second? We're almost there and we'll we'll talk about this. No, no, no. No apology needed at all. >> Anybody else? Just on lessons and learning plan. >> Oh, don't tell me that it now all of a sudden Dr. Can you hit enter? So, really quickly, I'm going to sum it up. We're going to go
072from a journey from a standard, remember that's where we started to one single lesson. Dr. Remmit, >> this is a standard that you'll find within the standards in one of those first pages. Remember then we have to figure out what is this standard even saying? These are the concepts and skills that the standard is asking for. This is one lesson. So it looks like this probably takes a good five or six lessons just to address one standard. So the target is just one lesson, but it always has to connect back up to the standard. Remmit it. This question on the end of the unit test is a question that aligns with that standard and mostly that target. There needs to be alignment. What we are asking kids to perform has to be exactly what it
073is that we taught them. >> Last one. And then we finally get to the lesson. So you can find the lesson on page 33. That's the very very last page. The lesson there just shows you the sequence of the slides that are used to present it. And so I think it has a warm-up in there. Yep. So that was to ask to your question. So um you can see going again from what we start with these large standards and coming down to one lesson isn't just I'm going to go in, I'm going to look at a standard, I'm going to create a lesson. all of that um all of that process before that has to take place so that learning is actually a coherent experience for kids and Dr. Brahma if you go to the
074very very last slide questions. So um one thing I would share with you is that we have a fiveyear cycle to your question. So it it literally is a um a table that we renew every single year. So every 5 years minimally we will evaluate a curriculum for its effectiveness. Now sometimes the state says we don't care where you are in the 5 years. here is new standards and we generally respond to that and so it might be three years we renew or we know that the state is going to release standards 2 years from now but we're at the 5year mark. What why are we going to do that? If standards haven't been released then maybe that revision and update is going to be minor. they've recognized that parts of the learning plan aren't
075really as effective for kids or maybe they've recognized that the assessments aren't as performance-based as we want them to be. So, it would be a small curricular revision. Um, most recently we have new social studies standards that are being released. Those are going to be much larger and longer processes. So, I submit the test to Mr. Fries's office. They might be 10 hours long. They might be 100 hours long. Remember the hours get divided by the number of people that are on the committee. The other link that I put in there um is our curriculum overviews are published and that is per statute that we provide overviews for um all of the courses that we teach. You scroll down just a little bit. So here is each of the grade level overviews and then for
076the high school it links out to the program of studies which gives a description of each of those courses and with that I will take any questions. I'm sorry that we're not really going to Kenya, but more than happy to take any questions from you and I'm gonna sit down now. Go ahead. >> Um, not a question as much as a comment. Thank you so much for this in-depth explanation. Um, again, you know, we talked a little bit earlier about um, terms and um, maybe I'm not fully understanding what those terms mean and in the proper context. So, thank you so much for for really digging deep and and providing me with that. Um, the other thing too that I'm struck by you and your team is the level of detail and science and and
077you know um reviewing and parsing and breaking it down to its most um effective denominator, not common, um, but really most effective. Um, and by seeing it in person, it really I'm I'm more visual, so it it really gives me the the background um that I needed to to more fully understand the process. So, thank you very very much. Can I respond? >> Um, the only response that I would provide is I heard you, Miss Beus, talking about the art and science of teaching, right? That scientific part is about the alignment. It's about what we know about how the brain learns. The artful part of it is knowing your kids in front of you and how you're going to respond to them in the moment. The artful part is that every single one of our
078teachers has a different personality and a different style that they bring into classrooms. and we all encouraged our teachers to use that as their strength. Um, and for me when I talked about the fun of teaching, that's what really for me got me energized and excited. >> Just a quick followup and again more appreciation for the hard work that our educators do, knowing each child's strengths and weaknesses in such a personal and detailed manner. And I can't even begin to imagine um the amount of um that would be a hard challenge for me with a classroom of 20 kids and and knowing them that well that they are able to work within this framework um to give them success. And so again, huge thank you >> Miss Weaver. >> Did you have your hand up?
079I didn't see any other hands. Uh just a followup. So, um, for a kid that's meeting this standard and they want to, I don't know, I'm not going to use the word, but they they want to meet more higher standards. Is that built into the extra um material? So, like illustrative math has like your kid met the standard already. >> There's another thing. >> So, that is another huge it depends question. Um, so if we were to look at illustrative math, there may be parts in that they advertise themselves as a curriculum um where it would be above the curriculum standard and that might be a really good enrichment activity. Um, more times than not, teachers are using what they know about the standards. Um, math is a really great example because math um it
080it builds itself sequentially. So if I'm a fifth grade teacher and I'm on a standard, it's really easy to jump to the sixth grade standard of what builds on it. And so for teachers, they would create learning experiences based on that standard for an for um an opportunity for the student who is already meeting it. >> So a kid in seventh grade could get an eighth grade standard. Um yes. or we're still going to work with the seventh grade standard, but the um the way that a child might have to analyze a problem and solve a problem and take apart a problem and put it back together can be much more complex and so it might also align to the standard there. So that's a different way that we kind of tinker with rigor of
081a standard as well is um what the way that kids have to actually demonstrate that that is a way that we can up that rigor. Okay. Uh, and lastly, I mean, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, like if you said the arrangement of classrooms, so leveling and placement that in your definition would not be curriculum, but it would be programmatic like just as we use these, not even just now, but like going forward when it comes to budgeting, when it comes to other things, what is that considered? the the choice to uh group students into two different tracks in seventh grade is not a curricular decision. The choice to put kids into two different types of groups based on their um ability on the data that we have is a decision about
082how we group students together for their learning. >> So that doesn't change the curricula. >> Well, yeah. Uh no it um but there is a slightly different curriculum now that is being implemented in accelerated 7 because it includes additional standards. >> Okay. Right. So we didn't change we didn't right there's there's not a changing of the of the curriculum. It is a changing in how we're grouping students together in order to master the standards. However, can I just say one more thing? If you go to nth grade English, I'm actually going to use science as an example. If you go to um biology, the biology curriculum is the biology curriculum is a biology curriculum. There is no CP biocurriculum. There is no honors biocurriculum. It is just the curriculum. And we still group students by
083their perceived ability, but it is the same exact curriculum. Can I just um ask on the back to the rigger piece of it because in in the handout um page 26 the implementation plan um it says what is CYU? It says CYU and assessment. if you give me a second. >> Regardless of what that means, it's it also says mild, medium, and spicy. And I remember Michelle um talking about or it says mild, medium, and spicy or general practice opportunities. And I remember Michelle talking about the you know, a student who might have might be there with the mild problems, but they're going to get a spicy problem because that's going to increase the rigor. going to force them to think about the problem or solving it a different way or maybe showing their work
084a different way. Is that correct? So the curriculum is the same. The curriculum offers or allows for multiple levels of rigor. Yes. Um and so CU is consolidating your understanding. So in the BTC model, kids are often they're exploring the consolidation of your understanding the yours to the students. It's really critical that the teacher brings the kids together at the end of the lesson to make sure that they're consolidating their thinking correctly, right? To make sure that there's any misconcept misconceptions that need to be addressed. the mild, medium, and spicy. Those are often offered as tasks in the classroom or can be offered as different practice when kids go home. >> And just another note on I'm not sure what page it was, but the um the mastery based uh grading, is that what we're
085calling it? the progressing meeting exceeding. I was just reading some of those and like the the meeting might be like they're solving. They got the right answer. They showed their work one way and they're good. That's like a three and that's ideal. We want our students to be at three. Exceeding, which is a four, would be that they got the answer, they showed their work, but maybe they showed it multiple times. I was reading in here. So I think that's also another level of distinction for meeting the standard versus exceeding and another way to show that students are at different levels. Yes, you're correct because because the standards generally say that um we always teach kids multiple ways to solve problems in math. What we want kids to be able to do is to say,
086I know how all these three ways work, but this is the way that works for me for this problem. So that ends up being the student outcome that we want to try to meet. So that's the kind of language you would see for these standards. If we're looking at a different curriculum, the language might be very different. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Go ahead, Miss Carr. >> I actually was going to go off what you were saying, the difference between meeting and exceeding. I guess the only concern I have is how the questions are phrased currently, explain or show your reasoning. It may stop kids from going over multiple ways of how they know how to solve a problem. And then they're only getting meeting scores instead of getting exceeding
087scores, if that makes sense. It absolutely makes sense and um students who are in the classroom um on a daily basis with their teachers um come to understand how the assessment how the scoring works and that if they want to show multiple ways to show that they know it in more than one way then they can. So we don't leave kids to be like well we're going to leave it up to you to kind of guess how you might get a four. We don't do that to kids. So that information would be provided by the teacher. Weaver. >> And just following on that, um, just from an assessment standpoint, is there a prescribed way on an SBA or on something on an assess like a a more state standardized assessment where it would say show
088your work? Most of them, I believe, are multiple choice, though. >> Um, yeah. So, so a lot of the SBA items are multiple choice, so it's right or wrong, but there are ones that are open-ended where kids do have to show their thinking. Um, and it could be three different ways where you could get quote unquote full credit. Just wanted to confirm that. Thank you. >> Um, I think just something that I I took away and actually Mr. Mi said it is that this is a lot of work. So, I think it is really um the reason why we have you and and the curriculum department, but also the teachers that are spending their summers or extra time to rewrite the curriculum because they're the ones that are know the material or know the standards
089and are able to take that standard and break it down into a teachable lesson because that's really the job of the teacher. And that's that's why we have professionals in this community to to do that work because it it is it's a lot. And I think there's, you know, I can read a standard and like I don't know what it means, you know, like I might be able to solve a math problem, but the standard it's it's really, you know, people go to school for this and and are educated to teach specifically um what we need to do. So state standards are we have to follow them by law. So I think it's a it's a really important job and um and not something that is just done by anyone. Um it's definitely a a
090profession which professionals need to do. So that's just my take away from this. Any other questions, comments? No. Okay. Well, thank you so much for the presentation and we will post I know the the link was shared to the handouts that we got, but we will post it online as well um with the minutes so anyone watching it back can can follow along. >> All right. And the next item for new business is a discussion on adding um followup to our discussion last time on adding online payment methods. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, we do have Lynn Ba on the line and she has done some followup at at the request of the board from last meeting. So, I'll kick it over to her about her latest uh updates. Thank you. >> Thank
091you, Dr. Brahman. We um looked into the specific ones that we have currently and we do have the ability to expand what we have now for our food service program and our Chromebook program and our preschool program to all of the programs so that we can have the one company that collects the funds online for all of the schools in the whole city town. Sorry. So that's e that easy school pay that we use. Is that that's what you're referring to? Correct. >> Yes. >> So I guess I have a question. How um how do payments or items get get set up in that system? like I think you know field trip paying or class dues or um even the school store like how would that work as far as um adding items to that
092shop? I guess that's how it really is set up. >> There are specific shops set up for different things and um whoever would be in charge of that specific um thing. there's many teachers that are in charge of specific things and sometimes they're um there are stipended positions that are in charge of things. They would um be setting those up or it could also be done by someone within the central office. That's something that we would need to explore because by sending it out to all of the different schools and programs, it could get difficult. So that was something that I wanted to explore with Dr. wrong it further. >> Okay. Uh, Miss Weaver has a question. >> Yeah, I was just going to ask uh uh twofold. Thank you, Lynn, for exploring more. I
093appreciate you taking the time and effort because I know you looked at multiple programs. Um, but just curious, one, if there's additional costs to that to expand it out or if that's currently already kind of baked into it and and two, um, kind of yeah, how much is this a lift in in terms of manpower >> for the cost? It depends on what kind of a card you use basically right now. Um, Mastercard has one cost, Visa has a different cost and anything other than those two has a different cost because we also have American Express that that comes in at a different cost. So those percentages are based on the banks and there's really very little we can do to not have those fees be charged unless we bore the brunt of it ourselves
094and that would be something that we would have to budget for. We couldn't do that now. I'm not sure that that's something that you would even care to do. But it will be something that I I can bring to you the the actual costs it would be. I just have to know how you want it handled. >> So the the costs are on the the parent or the families to pay the the different credit card fees >> at the current time. Correct. >> Yeah. Yeah. Just to clarify, would there be additional costs on the board for the platform expans expansion? >> No. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. It's a distinction between Easy School Pay and some of the other platforms we looked at that bore extra costs. Um, much like when you go to
095the gas pump, you get a cheaper price for paying cash than you do for credit. That same concept applies to the use of credit cards for for school-based, but it's a convenience, which many of our students uh have expressed an interest in. >> That is basically what they call it, a convenience fee. >> Yeah. Uh so just curious on the manpower side of things kind of how much that would take maybe timeline just rough guesstimate on those kinds of things. >> Honestly it depends on how many clubs and groups wanted to use the platform. There's it's it's very easy to set up. We've been looking into it and you just have to know what you're going to put on it. You can put all these different items. You can create a school store with the
096items on it. It it just depends on how it wants you want to be used. It could be used for pay for play. It could be used in in many many different ways. >> And I believe we talked about uh Miss the use of a point of sale device like you see at certain vendors where people could use their credit card and tap it or swipe it. >> Yes, that is correct. Craig was looking into the um the viability of that for because we need network capability for that. So um Craig Holland, our IT director, is is getting that information for me so that we could make it much easier for everyone to just tap and go. >> Okay. Yeah, that's um because yeah, like at the school store, I know right now they're taking
097cash and check only. Um I think it's run by Ali Miller, right? And DECA >> at the high school. Um, so like I'm wondering could we reach out to maybe some of the um the teachers or whoever there are like the siphon positions like Ali Miller or someone in you know the office at different schools to see what their thoughts might be and and how it might you know how it might what it might mean for them to add the easy school pay to the whatever their >> they can certainly do I think the biggest impact would be high school for sure, but other um I think even sports, paying for sports fees, we could go as far and as wide as we want to go. Um so I think it sounds like we need
098to do a little more homework to bring back the extensiveness of this as well as interest on departments. Um but I think it is I think it is going to make things a little more convenient for folks >> and they decide you know if they don't want to do it then they can pay cash or check >> even if we like pilot like sports fees for the winter sports um that off that option or or the school store um obviously with Allie's permission or go ahead but just p maybe even just a a small pilot to see what it would take to add um just kind of and then We can bring that back. >> I know. >> I think uh Mr. Mard could do that. We could put her talk to Craig to see
099the the infrastructure needs and then maybe pilot it with a few departments. >> I know that Ally is very interested in it and she was um we spoke earlier this last week and um she's very interested in piloting it. >> Awesome. Does anyone else have any um thoughts on that? So, that sound good. >> Thank you for your time. >> All right. Awesome. Thank you so much, Lynn. We really appreciate the research and >> looking forward to hearing how it goes. >> Thank you. >> All right. That brings us back 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 or online can raise your hand to be recognized. No, just um turn on your mic. Thank you. >> Hi, Gail
100Stanley, 28 Cornish Drive. Uh I want to thank the board and especially Kristen for preparing this presentation for us today. It was really helpful and and clearly differentiates the differences between programs and curriculum. Um which is really important for us to um uh define those concepts. Um, I just had a couple notes about your presentation going through um, thinking about the state standards and how often they change. Um, and how quickly are we required or how quickly do we um, advocate or how quickly do we try to respond to these changes. Um, and there must be some overlap in the state standards and some redundancy built into this. When we think about the proposal of the bridge to algebra uh course in the curriculum, I only saw that there was three state standards that were
101going to be covered on there. So there that means that there must be a lot of redundancy between the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade curriculums or not. Let me see you're shaking your head, but we must highlight the important ones or um and and so how who makes that determination and how does that happen and why? Um and there must be different curriculum plans or designs when we think about um having including more these standards and including different assessments and including an abbreviated lesson plan or a different pace for the lesson plans. When you think about how it was done um for the accelerated um math students so that they got access to algebra 1 um by the eighth grade, there must have been something different and what are we missing out or what can
102we build upon um when we think about what should be included in this bridge to one algebra curriculum because it is somewhat concerning that we've only identified three things for these students um to cover in this curriculum but it's preventing a lot of or it's causing a lot of angst in the community. Um so how and why was it only three standards that are considered to be the most important? Um and then I think my other thoughts were it doesn't uh what I thought was really important about this presentation and it doesn't say anything about how or the programs uh that we decide how it's being taught. So it doesn't say about deleveling classrooms. Um it doesn't say about students must have heterogeneous learning in order to uh you know become fil with these standards.
103Um and so just remembering when we're talking about these conversations for all of us that we keep these two ideas very separated. >> Thank you. Anyone on the phone online? Um and Miss Stanley, you'll um you'll get a response back um shortly. Yep. Um All right. Rearks remarks by board members. Mr. Newton. >> I think it's important that we continue on the path we're on with with more not that it was hidden before, but openly discussing curriculum, openly discussing the methodology and what she has her staff have to go through just to get a lesson plan. I think it helps for a better understanding with the public as well as the board as to all the parts that go into this. It's not just a simple decision. And I think that the more open we
104are, the better it will be for everybody. So I'd like to see us continue that. >> Thank you, Miss Beaver. Just want to say thank you for the presentation tonight. Sorry everyone. I came in here disgustingly sweaty and coming home from uh New York City, but it's climate week, so fun times. Maybe something our our kiddos could go to. There's a free three-day conference. So also the UN General Assembly happening. Nothing crazy going on. Um so apologies. thought I would make my train faster, but is the is what it is. Um, but I just wanted to note too that um we we have some exciting things happening. Uh maybe some teacher of the year things happening soon. Is that public or that our teacher of the year is a finalist. Very excited, very biased as
105she was my second grade teacher. Um so just once again, I think that's many in a row that we've had semi- finalist or finalist. So clearly a great caliber of teachers um that we have here in the school. I think that are emblematic. How many finalists are there? >> Four. I believe I was told it would go down to from 80 to to 16 to four. So, uh just wanted to note how impressive it is to be a finalist uh in this in this award. So, Mr. Ano, congratulations already. Um and then just to note too, um we will have a policy meeting on October 1st and then I will um coordinate with Mr. Holland as the chair of the curriculum on that. We just want to also get our policies through, not to delay,
106but get our policies through that are legislatively mandated. Uh like some of the paid leave and those kinds of things that go into effect are already in effect. U we want to be in compliance with those two. So we will cover that. The agenda will go out um this week at some point October 1st, 7 p.m. um for our next policy meeting. Just want to put that on the record. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Tommy. >> Put your mic on, please. >> Can you just put your mic on, please? >> Sorry. Um, so this is no reflection on anybody here, Miss Freeman. This this just this is a very confusing I think to to me, maybe to the average person. Um, I think he said that there could be up to 30 curriculum changes in
107one year. I I don't know how the teachers and the children can keep up. Um, so my thought is it doesn't really surprise me that more and more uh parents are homeschooling children because I think there's so much I don't know what it is. I don't want to say politics, but there's a lot of politicians, legislators, I don't know who's making all the rules and everything, but very seems very complicated to teach our children um at least at the basic level. And it and then it still seems that we want to keep everybody in the middle. I know we use the word equity a lot. Um, which means to me everybody lands in the same spot and it doesn't really give a chance for the uh children that want to excel to excel. Anyways, thank
108you >> Mr. Hollerin. I just wanted to thank uh Miss Freedman and the entire curricul curriculum committee um for providing that overview. Um I think that it does seem like a lot because it's complex. It's a lot of work. Um and I don't think these decisions are made by opinions or guesswork. it is evidence-based science um decisions. Um and I don't think that there are people who have an agenda to what students get taught. I think it relies on the more information we gather, the evidence that we have, the new science, the new learnings that we have, um, and historical precedent that makes sure that what students are learning in the classroom is held to the highest possible rigor and standard that we possibly can. Um, and I think that that presentation did a wonderful
109job of trying to simplify a very complex and very challenging um, process um, to ensure that curriculum is current. So, I just wanted to say a big thank you because I think that was a wonderful job of trying to boil it down to its essence and even then there's still a lot there. >> Thank you. Okay. Oh. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Jess is ready to run home. Sorry. I don't know if we can put something like this on the website just in the meantime because I know you know a lot of people in the public have questions and I definitely think this is useful to understand the process and clarify to parents and the general public. It will be posted on along with the minutes for the meeting as it's a meeting handout. Do you
110have something to say, Miss Freeman? >> Yes. Would you like to speak? Um, I don't think that I anticipated that the decision would be made that the paper handouts would go on the website. I need to review those because some of those materials, we would call them secure materials that we don't want posted on a website like assessments and rubrics. That's why I made paper copies and in the presentation there are no links that go out to those. So our curriculum is secure. Um if parents want to view curriculum, they can call the curriculum director and we sit with them and review them. Um so there there's a lot of parts of it that we do not make public um because they're secure. So there's parts that I could um there's other parts. Um if
111you're telling me I have to do it, we have to do it. I am just telling you that I don't think that it's a good a good idea for that reason with the assessments. >> Understood. I think um we can we can chat. We do have to post materials online for FOI um but we can retract as needed and make note that um anyone is welcome to contact the curriculum office to Yeah. Um anything else? Thank you Miss Rayman for that presentation. It was very informative. Motion to adjurnn. Motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor to journ. >> Any opposed? >> Meeting adjourned 8:48 p.m. Thank you. >> Have a good night.