001I'm calling this Newington Board of Education meeting to order it is Wednesday May 17 2023 the time now is seven o'clock P.M would you please rise as you're able 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 please be seated uh if you would please call the roll Michael Brandon is here Dr Bruce Watcher here thank you karate here on here Jessica waiver here I have everybody here except Mr love area all right very good next up is agenda Item B which is our presentation of awards and proclamations the first one that we're going to do is a resolution honoring the Newington School nurses I'm going to ask
002the vice chair if you wouldn't mind reading this I barely have a voice well nurses May 10th 2023. whereas Wednesday May 10 2023 has been proclaimed was proclaimed as Newington School nurses day and whereas Newington School nurses help to foster a healthy nurturing community in which our children can learn and grow and whereas Newington School nurses are the first and sometimes the only line of defense against the illnesses and conditions our students face making their contribution to the education and Welfare of the student population invaluable and whereas Newington School nurses by nature of their profession are called upon to take on roles beyond that of a health provider acting as a teacher Confidant mentor and friend to the students of Newington and whereas Newington School nurses are dedicated to the success and Wellness of newington's
003future Generations therefore we do hereby Proclaim Wednesday May 10 2023 as Newington School nurses day be it resolved that we urge all of the citizens of our community to join with us in actively expressing gratitude to all School nurses be it further resolved that the secretary Lexington is directed to spread this resolution oh sprinkle spread this resolution upon the minutes of this meeting and to provide a suitable copy for presentation signed members of the Newington Board of Education [Music] so I believe Mercy Hetherington is on the line to accept this evening issue we'll look at the these no I don't see her all right do we have any of the other school nurses on hello are there any other School nurses on the call tonight raise your hand I don't see any but I want
004to make sure oh looks like we do have a Scholars good would you like to say anything Vanessa um on behalf of all the School nurses in Newington we just greatly appreciate um you recognizing us and we just appreciate just being there for all the kids and the staff um to do our job thank you again thank you anyone else any other nurse so what we'll do is if you want to make comments we'll start on this side of the table first I just want to thank all the nurses um I think the comment about being um counselors or confidants in there is really important a lot of times that nurse's office is a safe haven for students and we forget about the fact that the nurse is that person that they trust the most
005and so thank you I know it goes beyond just giving medical care so I appreciate you and I thank you for all that you do thank you yeah I was going to say the same thing it's you know more than just Band-Aids and nice facts these days so there's a lot of allergies and medications and just general being there for students so we appreciate you and and all the students appreciate the work that you do so thank you yeah I'm just want to say again so much gratitude for what you all do um and we I think emphasize this especially during those first days and those middle days of covid and as we come out of it we still appreciate you um I don't know how we would have gotten through without you um and
006that continues just to make sure every day students are functioning and actually can either go to the classroom or just be in a safe place and I know we've had several kind of medical incidents over the past kind of year and a half it feels like and knowing that our nurses are there are just such a comfort I think not only to the members of this board but just the community at large knowing that we have just incredible nurses so thank you for YouTube every day um and we know that the students appreciate it we appreciate it and um congratulations and we will sprinkle This Love I I just want to Echo what everyone else said um there'd be like multiple times when my kids have like gone to nursing school and also like the
007nurses called me up and come pick my kids up so we already appreciate all whatever you want everyone to hear what you all do so thanks a lot for everything I think you guys have all said it but I was going to say thank you for everything you do I know I had a clumsy kid um who you guys have helped who also has allergies so you guys have been so helpful um with my own clumsy kid with everything you guys have helped with because allergies with you know covet everything and you know we're very thankful that you're right there I know you dealt with so much during covet especially you know with symptoms mimicking you know cold symptoms and flu symptoms and everything else so thank you so much we appreciate everything you do
008yeah I think I really appreciated what Danielle said just in terms of the nurse's office being that safe haven sometimes and helping students get through a tough day you know sometimes they're not feeling well because of other reasons and it it would be very easy to just Syndicate home but I love that our nurses kind of help kids through those tough times and and really work toward Solutions with the students when they're struggling and special shout out to miss Ortiz and John Wallace because I know um I know some people who tend to go to her office a little too much [Laughter] and just made me think I I think this though this may be annoying I think the sign of a really good nurse is the fact that there's kids that want to come
009there so much I I um my friends still we talk about um the nurse who was at Martin Kellogg when we were in middle school and how going into her office felt like going to our grandmother's house it was just filled with warmth and it was so much more as Danielle said than a Band-Aid um or an ice pack so thank you for all you do and for your kindness and oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Amy I'm sorry sorry um for your kindness and just your your warmth in the way that you've um nurtured our kids all right thank you everybody go ahead Dr brummett well I just want to uh say I have the pleasure of supervising the nurse supervisor Mrs Hetherington and on behalf of the board Nurses Appreciation Day the board brought
010the entire nursing staff lunch they had it delivered from Panera um they have a tough job it's it's not like it used to be and kovid was a whole new level so um I I we do appreciate our nurses they work super hard day in and day out and you never know when an emergency is going to hit and typically it does so um anyway much appreciated thank you Dr Fletcher all right thank you okay now we are going to move on to our next presentation and I'm going to hand these off to you I'll make an introduction to it so we're going to be recognizing our board student Representatives tonight we want to say I'm going to say thank you in advance but if you want to go ahead and read both of those
011in there then we'll give you both an opportunity to share student recognition award this award is presented to Maggie Woods for participating in the Newington Board of Education meetings and her leadership within the school community and for demonstrating exemplary leadership skills additionally this award is presented to Trisha Ayer for the same wonderful reasons of school year 2022 2023 all right so what we can do I'd like to present these to you right now then we'll give you an opportunity for comments and you're going to be ready okay all right so do this professional in here and Dr Fletcher can you get in the picture we're going to do a little picture for uh you want me to photobomb yeah no you're part of it yeah thank you before I forget tonight you get to take
012home your named Badges because they're just for you so we're only going to recycle them and we said maybe they should take that home for their desk at college all right would you ladies like to comment thank you um I just want to say thank you for the opportunity it's been a real honor to come and represent the students not only at NHS but also in Newington Public Schools and I'm very honored to be able to have this opportunity in this position to do so and you've all been so welcoming and kind so I really appreciate you all thank you how am I supposed to stop that um I also want to say thank you um I think for me it's very scary to talk in front of adults and I feel like it's like
013a really big thing and we're here presenting like like not all the time good things like sometimes we like talk about issues that we see happening um at NHS and I feel like the space is like very like welcoming and I feel like safe to be able to talk about this kind of stuff and that like my ideas will be listened to and that like my voice kind of matters which is really nice um all of you have been so kind and I say all the time but it's like crazy how like my first day I was here and I was like shaking I was so nervous I was like you're judging me they're checking me they're judging me and now I like see all these friendly faces and I'm like I'm so excited to
014be here and I'm just really glad that Maggie and I had the opportunity to be able to hear be here and like represent the student body because I feel like a lot of the times people in the school like don't feel like they have a say and we have a chance to bring what they want to see to the table so yeah thank you so much and I'm sad because I will be leaving out of state um so I probably won't be seeing many of you again um I will visit but I don't know who I'm gonna see around town I am I'm going to Purdue in Indiana um yeah and I'm really excited but it's like a far place but if this is the last time that I'm seeing all of you um oh
015my God you just mentioned that oh my goodness I am so delivery fried but yeah oh my goodness but this is the last time I'm seeing you guys in this room so that is very sad and I'm sad to see you go but I had an amazing time and I don't regret anything so yeah future boilermaker there you go um ladies I just wanted to say um one of the things you just said your student voice to me that is everything that is so incredibly important um so much so I mean Jessica and I both went to Newington High School and we're back however many years later at this same table still we have leadership roles in high school now we're back still doing that um because we felt heard and and I think even
016now now even more so because of your leadership because of your courage and advocacy um you are Paving the path for whoever sits and sits in those seats next year and after you in 10 years from now every year we'll we'll feel more comfortable truly advocating for what the students need um I feel that there should always be students on this board of education you are so important I don't ever feel comfortable making decisions about the children of this town without the stakeholders truly being involved another thing I just want to quickly say is that what's really cool about these two young ladies is that anytime I've been to anything at Newington High School they are there um last night the the scholarship awards at Newington High School um I heard your names called multiple
017times and given in honor the scholarships were given in honor of these families who in in Memorial dedicated these Awards to students that they feel truly embodied the the loved one who'd passed away or the family or whatnot and so the fact that you received those is just really touching um and the involvement you have in student council and in the plays and I think Mag you you're a lifeguard I think when my son was doing his three-year-old water baby sorry he just jumped in the pool that one time he was like cannonballs um so you're everywhere you're a part of this community I know you're going far but please remember that newington's your home always always always always will be so thank you all right so June 12th we've got it on your calendar
018right you're going to be there okay all right cool all right that's good because Purdue would really frown upon you guessing yeah passing on that all right um yeah I think um just for reference sake the students in your position have not been sitting at this table for too long so it's been about six years um Josh Shulman was the chair then and the students used to be like kind of where Craig is so like like they used to be over there and then when your turn to speak you'd come up to the table he'd speak and then they'd be like all right thank you very much have a nice night um so Josh set the precedent to invite the students Paul keptic on Paul vasela and then Dr Fletcher as well so it's important
019to take note of that too because um you know like Beth said you it's important that you're a part of this board of education and I think sitting at the table you feel more a part of it than you would if you were over there no disrespect like you're you're all good with me um you're comfortable yeah he does look comfortable um so I you know when you said that you the first meeting you were like scared to talk in front of all of us I I fooled me because um you just represent the school so well and you know what's interesting too is when we've had other students present and you've been here I really like how first and foremost it seems like you know everybody that comes to the table but also I
020think they feed off of your leadership kind of what Beth was talking about they see you sitting there they hear you speak in your report and then they're presenting and it's kind of like it kind of sets the tone that it's okay to to do the presentation that they're probably really nervous about but because you two crush your reports every time you're here it it allows everybody a little bit more freedom and a little bit of you know a moment of pause to relax and understand that there's nothing really scary about this table um well maybe there is but not not in your not not in what you are here to do um on a personal level I just really like that when you've given your reports and I know I'd shouted out some ideas
021and things like that you've I think it's easy for students to hear people tell or suggest things and just say all right yeah yeah yeah but I really like how you take suggestions not only from myself but others and and you think about it and we we've had some brainstorming sessions too like at this table and that's really cool and I think over the last six years Your Role has expanded and it keeps going and it's people like you both that are going to pave the way for the next two and the next two are going to feel more comfortable and they're going to you know follow your lead follow Jimmy's lead you know they're going to follow all these students but I think it I think it's on the bingo card though if you
022mentioned Jimmy you wins right um ah see there you go um but I'll wrap it up so I'm just I think that your leadership in your school is really important your leadership here has helped pave the way for Future Leaders um and when I I know I've talked about a lot with the middle school students looking up to high school students so keep that in mind you know as you are going to go to Purdue you're the Freshman right so now you're going to look for those upperclassmen to kind of be leaders for you but then guess what you're now the leader for the freshmen that are coming into to Newington High so it's just it it's an important role you crushed it you did so well I'm so thankful to have met you both
023to be able to work and brainstorm with you and I wish you both luck and see you on June 12th I love that I love that love that um I just want to say thank you guys for everything you've done um obviously I didn't go to Newington High so you opened my eyes to a lot of like clubs like stop the stigma and all these different clubs you had never heard of heard of when Jessica and everyone told me about that and I was just like wow like just it's been over 10 years okay since I've been to school so you know just to see that these amazing clubs and just different events are you know happening in the school still and and just to have you here to kind of be a voice for
024the students who maybe are too afraid to come up here and talk you know that's that's courageous and you both are Just Amazing Just let you know um I can't wait to see you graduate I'm so excited for everything you have in your future and thank you for being amazing so I just want to thank um Trisha and Maggie both of you like for you know for doing this and you've inspired like so many students and I know you're graduating so congratulations and good luck oh I don't want to cry no it's just one of those things you know everyone's had this this is Love Fest time for you guys and I'm so excited because I've been waiting for this one um but one of those things I um do when I think about being
025on the board was always like the student voice obviously being the youngster here but not youngster and the farther and farther I get out the more and more I just want to hear your thoughts and your voice about everything and I just go back to one of our meetings where we had a really deep discussion about mental health and you guys popped in and timed it and we were like listen we have like lines out the door and just your tone the way you set it and everything like it sat with a lot of us for a long time and you know it's one of those things where we say like we have students representing what's really happening in the schools you know we don't walk the Halls every day um you know I I
026walk those Halls but not as recently and so much has happened in the last couple years particularly this last term that we've all sat on and what you've had to go through as students is critical to get a sense of what is what are we feeling what are you hearing and the amount of activities you're involved in and the touch points you have at every single point literally I don't think you could have more touch points at this point um you would find it though and having that as a way for us to get a face to the issue a voice to the issue is so critical and it's just one of those things I was on student council when we had a board rep and no one wanted that position like everyone was like
027oh and my best friend Macy had that position and she was like like I have to go to this board meeting at like six o'clock at night and we're like What even is that like we had no Concepts and I think it's just one of the best ways to get an understanding of the Civic process we talk a lot about what our portrait of a graduate is what we want students to look like and this experience as crazy as it may be it's such a great way to get an understanding of what the Civic process at your local level looks like and I wish every student could just come here to understand that because I think you know we get government 101 but one of those things is really this is this is government 101
028Crowd by fire and you guys have absolutely risen to the occasion and done such a wonderful job your reports are so holistic and really make sure that you touch upon everything and anything you can you come like full report ready you coordinate back and forth with who's talking when even when it's like half virtual and all this stuff the way you have done that is such a great example you have set for not only students to come but the student body itself you represent them so well and you are shining examples of what our portrait of The Graduate is so thank you guys so much for the time you've dedicated for this I know it is not easy when you're like trying to do homework in finals and in 17 ape classes uh plus and
029then applying for college and all these other things and looking fabulous at Proms and everything else but thank you for taking the time I know it's it's not easy so thank you for doing that thank you for showing up and showing out and being amazing examples for what NHS looks like um okay and I'll see you under 12. yeah just um thank you for being here and sharing your perspective and Trish it is scary to speak in front of adults sometimes I get scared too but I've seen you both of you grow over the last several months and so it's been it's been really amazing to see the progression and you're getting more and more comfortable and feeling like you can open up to us and and really share important things that are happening at
030the school so um good luck at Purdue good luck in your senior year and uh it's been really great having both of you at this table I'm last I'm not going to say everything over again but Trish enjoy every moment from now I see I am June 12th um and you you know I love you but that's all last time I've had like two tissues this year I might need to just bring the box just a quick bang out to both young ladies first of all just a quick reminder Trisha is the salutatorian so that's sort of a I know and Maggie's a delight to work with she was both were kind enough to introduce me to our new representatives for next year at a recent stuco meeting so they I did put a picture
031of them in my update a week or so ago and I mean so they've even helped us with the transition so I appreciate all that they've done and don't forget your name tags they make lovely desk accessories all right yes I want to say this it has been Pleasant working with you in a world where there's a lot of unpleasant things that's going on around us you know it's just there are things that are swirling around there's a lot of negativity you brought a bright light to this table and it's been a pleasure working with you I'm going to be sad to see you guys go but I know that the future looks bright for the both of you and I want to congratulate you and I want to say thank you for your input
032and for being advocates your voices for the other students and we've heard you good job I just hope that the people that follow you are just as good as you are right now thank you there they go all right congratulations so at this time we're going to move on to our next uh item D3 which is the recognition of our mentors and mentees and Mr farizzi I believe that this is yours thank you Dr Fletcher um so I too just want to thank you both it's been a pleasure being able to sit next to you and hear all the wonderful things that you talk about so thank you um and uh with that I am honored to be able to present to you this evening um some of the kind of unsung heroes in general
033because we usually don't talk about their work behind the scenes which we call mentors and those are mentors to our new teachers here in Newington so whether they are coming right out of college and joining the Newington Public Schools as a brand new hire into education or if they are transitioning from another District to the Newington Public Schools we match them up with a mentor teacher here who is um had extensive training in the team Mentor process through the state uh Department of Education as well as has shown high levels of success in the classroom themselves so we have 40 Mentor teachers right now uh 14 of them which I believe are on the line either in person or on a call and then 26 that couldn't make it this evening but that is an
034awesome amount of folks who are really um helping our next generation of Educators grow and develop here in the Newington Public Schools through their expertise these are folks that we count on to really help the mentees engage in five modules that are required through the State Department of Education within approximately two years some may need three but in general accomplish it within two um and the modules are rigorous um and the mentors not only support them each and every day through those modules and ensuring that they have sound pedagogy sound classroom management sound assessment practices sound Professional Standards but also just help them with you know in your own workplace just general life right how to manage this how to find the copy or how to go here how to do this how to navigate
035the world of education and um so for all that I I just have 40 amazing Heroes that I'd like to introduce to you this evening I will share the names of those that are joining us this evening and then we have about 26 others that we have already made sure that they are recognized uh so on the on the call with us this evening and I noticed some of their mentees are with them but I will just share the mentors we have Vina bazinskas Ken Bell Eileen breed ice Krista Cody Brenda's will Jen fitchman Susan freeze Christine gamari Kim garger cat Kathy Griswold Amy inzero Jennifer McGowan Andrea Obert Hahn Jonas Roberts and I think Sue abacherly those are the folks that could join us this evening if I missed anyone online please say your
036name I'm sorry but um I just want to thank them truly and sincerely for all that they do they do a majority of this work outside of school hours because they have their own responsibilities during the day so um they are true heroes in my eyes thank you if you'd like I can take a few minutes and I'll I'll allow a couple of the mentors to speak if they'd like to so if you would like to say something you can raise your hand and I'll call on you all right Lauren go ahead hi thank you I just want to say thank you for this opportunity this was my first year being a mentor I had the pleasure of mentoring Anthony Marcelo at John Wallace and he was wonderful I couldn't have asked for a better
037mentee to start off my journey as being a mentor but I just also want to shout out to Rachel Stewart at John Wallace she was integral in helping me navigate my first experience with this um and I just really enjoyed myself and I'm looking forward to my next mentee thank you is there another Mentor that would like to speak all right seeing none I want to say thank you for participating with us and we'll allow our board members now an opportunity to make comment he does without crying all right so I just for those I'm not so sure we'll see so um awesome job to everyone who steps up to be a mentor um it is not an easy job it is it's it adds extra stress to an already stressful um work day and
038kudos to Steve this you need a shout out here also because the fact that you have 40 mentors is insane to me um I've worked in many districts where people are like begging teachers to to go through the training and to do it just be not because we don't want to develop new teachers but it is a huge responsibility so that's a shout out to you as well and to all the mentors and I do need to do a little separate shout out I'm going to do without crying to Mrs breed ice who um is just amazing and your mentee is so lucky and to Jonas who is mentee is so lucky I'm sure you're all amazing those just happen to be the two teachers that I've had experiences with and um so Mrs breed
039ice your JT is a junior in college do you feel old yeah um I think it's it's great that so many people are willing to take the extra time and um and just help a new educator find their way and be a safe a safe place for any question or whatever that comes up during the day or throughout the year um and and thank you for you know taking the time and and training to do it and then and then also doing doing it and performing it and sounds like it's a great opportunity as Lauren said you know she's getting something out of it hopefully everyone's getting something out of it not just the mentees but appreciate you and and thank you okay sorry it took so long to get to Your Love Fest but
040we just we have so many people we want to uh think um but thank you all so much I remember last year I think I called it like the NFL All-Star team like these mentors are always the Top Notch and top tier of Newington Public Schools um and what it takes and just knowing so many of my friends that have had to be first-time teachers in the past few years it's just a different landscape so being a mentor now I feel like is just even more um so many you know as my sister goes into to her senior year and is going to student teach it's one of those things I'm like well make sure you know you have a good Mentor like how is the mentor program going to be um and it's just
041one of those things that I think is one of we talk about how we can you know make a good culture for the school attract more Talent like what does that look like and how can we support teachers and teachers are already doing so much to be able to support each other and that's just one of the things that tells us wow like we have a special district um and I have to give a special shout out to miss Cody and Mr Bell um because I love you guys um but I'm not shocked that you're the best mentors out there because you have not only been just incredible teachers to me to my sister but being incredible teachers to other teachers so thank you so much for taking extra time and doing it um I
042love you all hopefully I'll see you June 12. I just want to quickly like thank all the mentors I mean I remember first time when my wife she's a teacher at different District but when she started teaching her Mentor really made it so much easier for her to like get in transition to do teaching so thank you for so much thank you so much for doing this so I'm going to kind of echo off that because my grandma was a teacher for 35 years third grade not an easy grade uh my dad's mom and she was a mentor to a lot of people um even after her passing people always say that wow she you know she really stepped up to help others and to know that Newington you know has you know recognized 40
043mentors that just shows how you know how willing and above and beyond our teachers are going just to help the next generation of teachers um the fact that you guys are stepping up like Steve said taking the time outside of school to do this just really shows how much you care about the students um their well-being other teachers and you know you did this during colbed so thank you for everything because I know it wasn't easy for you mentally obviously mental health is you know a huge thing now and has always been but um thank you for taking that extra time and going above and beyond you are appreciated thank you I know that um our student reps know that I will have a good Mentor program um so this is always a really great
044um feature at our board meetings because it shows the investment that our Educators have in one another and it's not just you know people who are new to the education field it could be somebody who switched districts and has been in a district for the last 12 years and they come to a new district and that is a can be a culture shock too so having that person that you can count on and rely on to ask the question that you don't want to ask in front of everybody or just kind of find your way in core social groups that exist within the schools you know it's really important um the fact that we have 40 mentors is is incredible um and every time that I've sat here and we have the mentors here we
045always have mentors like Mrs close that talk about how great the program is and how they can't wait to do it again I do think that that's a credit to the leadership in the district but also just um the people who are signing up and also the mentees too because they make that experience they have to be willing to be mentored you know obviously it's a part of the program that they're they're here but it's up to them to make it successful too um I'm not surprised just looking online really quick I see Andrea I see Brenda I see Krista and of course Lauren you know some of the best teachers that I hear about in this District or I've seen myself today was be a hero day at John Patterson as Miss Overton knows
046um so as Mr frisi said you know you were all heroes um and I'll never probably get a moment to do this again so there's a person on this call who is a mentor to my daughter and they are a very important person to my daughter so the fact that they are a mentor to teachers and and obviously they are mentor to their students and in particular my student means the world to me and I think we'll probably have to do a puppy visit tomorrow not to be repetitive but thank you all so much um I've been on both sides of the mentee mentor and it's definitely a difficult position but so incredibly rewarding um Mr farissi I just wanted to say that I love that Newington sets up a mentor for teachers that are
047new to the district not just new to the profession as somebody who switched districts this year sometimes switching districts is like going to a new country um so I think that having that set up is just a fantastic above and beyond and really probably what what keeps our teachers here and recognizing so many of the names that I heard read these are such amazing individuals and Educators and our children are so very lucky before I give it to you I just want to make one statement and that's simply that the value of a mentor is inestimable always profound Dr Fletcher I just want to also agree that this is an All-Star lineup and I want to make sure that we um I saw us who Freeze's um comment in the chat that Sue is the
048mentee to Kathy Griswold their fourth grade teammates Eddie green and Kathy is mentoring Sue want to make sure that was clear but thank you all for your efforts it's a very hard year to be a mentor and a mentee but I know you've all done amazing work together so thank you let's give them all a hand thank you once again all right at this time we're going to move on to agenda item C this is our public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities you are uh welcome to speak if you are here in person the phone number to call is 860-665-8659 or if you are in our Google meet you can put up the little symbol there of the hand you raise your hand I will call on you we do limit civil
049participation to three minutes so we will wait a few moments to see if there's anyone that wants to participate okay I don't see anyone there are no calls coming in thank you we will now move on to agenda item D this is our standing committee information items and what I want to do is I want to reverse it just a little bit here if you guys don't mind if you'll indulge me I'm going to ask our student reps to give their report it's the last one um you want to start yeah I would like to actually I never get to say stuco okay so we are going to change it up a bit and instead of starting with music and arts we're going to start with clubs so um first you go we did have
050an end of the year breakfast celebration that Dr Robert was at and it was so fun we got pastries from Mr Rich who like is the head of the culinary department they tasted so good um and so it was for like any student that had above 75 points in stuco and there was like a good time I was like 40 people I think which is like amazing because I remember like last year like we were struggling to find people who had enough points to even like qualify to be an officer which was 60 or not even 60 points it was honest yeah 50 points and now we've like come such a far away so I'm very proud of that um this year 2016 years are earning Stu Go chords um and we also wrote letters
051to third and fourth grade students at Anna Reynolds um as kind of like a like letters to like younger people to tell them about like high school and how exciting it is and how it's going to be amazing and to wish them good luck for their aspect tests that are coming up which I didn't really like when I was younger but you know what no one really likes standardized testing and um the students will be writing back with the help of their teachers so that's really cute I think um 20 students from stuco in diversity Club as well went to John Wallace earlier this week I think um to present important information about high school to like upcoming students so like the 8th graders and about the different clubs that they can take apart in
052and the different leadership positions that are available because a lot of people are leaving this year and we need some positions to be filled in and we also um had Teacher Appreciation Week recently and we got like food for the teachers and we gave them like a yura kind of like bag that we have um to like some of the teachers and it was really cute I really liked it we were like thinking of it all year like we sent like texts in the group chat we were like do we like Thanks A Latte or do we like this instead um but we we were a little creative with that and then we also got to um honor all the school staff at NHS with a luncheon and or we get to and it's going
053to happen on June 9th so exciting stuff really close to the end of the year um for stop the stigma today was meant or this week was Mental Health Awareness Week today was wear green and we have two board members wearing green so that's awesome I don't know if that was intentional or not but yeah as you should um yeah SUV Monday was um mellow Monday and you got to wear like comfy clothes or pajama pants I wore my green sweatpants and they looked amazing um yesterday was um Suicide Prevention Day so we wore um teal and purple um today was wearing is wearing green tomorrow is um theme Thursday which is tropical day which will be fun and then Friday is Express Yourself um so just wear whatever you want basically but it's something
054that like kind of like represents who you are um and then uh Deca for Deca knew officers were elected um which is really sad because I'm a Deca officer and so like I'm seeing like all the new people come in and it's like reminding me that I'm leaving and I'm like and um like we have student square and normally Colin stegmeyer sends out the student squares as reminders because he's the secretary and there's a new person sending out the student squares and I'm like it's like my whole world is changing um I'm trying not to think about it though and um we also had ICDC which Maggie was on that trip and she had a load of fun I saw a lot of pictures I saw a picture of Jimmy and Colin inside a fake
055crocodile um it was really interesting and um I think um Maya glitchio um ended up like getting to the final rounds right yeah um she's amazing excellent and she um she and Colin um placed at uh the state competition to go to Nationals and then everybody else was conference right yeah so it was really fun and then um yeah so do you want to go on first works so spring Sports last time we were here we were just saying they were just starting well now they're ending um so the state competitions are gonna start in the next couple weeks I know track they have conference on Tuesday next week so that's usually like the first one that comes up um senior nights are also happening right now they're kind of coupled this week a couple
056last week a couple next week and a senior night come see Trish on May 24th um um and an NHS hosted their annual ciac Unified sports Statewide track meet last Wednesday bringing together athletes and partners from across the state I went there was a huge turnout it was really great to see everyone show up even just to cheer everyone on it was really nice um baseball played Windsor last Thursday at Duncan Park in Hartford um that was cool they're going back I think next Monday against Weathersfield so that'll be a fun game um girls tennis had a game to support a Newington Police Officer fighting brain cancer and the whole team wore shirts that were made as part of a fundraiser by the Newington Police Department and many members of the Newington Police Department were
057in attendance of last week's game to show their appreciation and they did win so it was great it was great um and fall Sports have begotten their pre-season meetings already they're coming up soon and also Patty Brown and Mackenzie Hillman were recognized as NHS is scholar athletes highlighting their excellence in both academics and Athletics so they went to a special conference and received their Awards in front of other student athletes from the whole state which was really nice okay so um events that have happened so I talked about uh mental health awareness week which is this week um but senior earlier this year um we had like senior May 1st right was um decision day where everybody came in with their school merch I do not have any merch from Purdue I do need to
058change that so I put stickers on my shirt because I got a bunch of stickers um for some reason which is amazing though I love stickers and then that week we did have like a few other spirit days we had another pajama day I think um we have a lot of pajama days um actually I have a question did we talk about pep rally last time we were here I don't know if it was before or after pep rally we haven't been here in a while oh okay if we didn't it was great it was really that was great um but we also had our AM and PM Awards and scholarships yesterday um and it was announced by Dr brummett that Trisha is our salutatorian and Soraya Joseph is our valedictorian for this year's graduating
059class we were also able to swear in the stuco members for the following year including next year's Board of Ed reps so next year's Junior Board of red wrap is Isabella Longo and next year's senior Board of Ed rep is Megan hitland we also did swear in Maggie as president and that was really cute congratulations Maggie it was adorable like and Jimmy was the one who did it so like Jimmy's up there and he's like passing the torch on to Maggie and it was but he's holding on to that position he keeps saying he's like I'm still president I said for the 2023 to 2024 school year hasn't started yet so Maggie until that diploma is in his hands he's now letting it go um and so next week we have next Thursday we have
060both the National Honor Society induction for all new members and we also have our athletic awards next Thursday as well and next Wednesday is our Scholars breakfast um next Monday is our science National Honor Society induction to a lot of inductions right now um do you want to talk about senior Waters oh yeah so we also have the senior one act coming up it is um ironically called how to overthrow your student government in seven easy steps um it's uh directed by Eli Johnson who got a ton of Music Awards last night it was crazy but well deserved and um Brooke Hendon and um it's tomorrow seven o'clock um doors open at 6 30. tickets are five dollars at the door and it is actually really cool the leads are our future senior board Megan
061hintonian and Colin stegmeyer so if you want to see something really cool and if you want to see Colin stegmeyer dressed as Julius Caesar I would say you should come and see it um and then the last couple things we have are just um class office selections for the following year are upcoming um so we're starting to fill those positions that all our seniors are leaving behind um we're trying to fill those up quickly before the next year and then um sadly but also on a happy note graduation is on June 12th I won't forget yes June 12th so um we will get to see you all there on June 12th and it has been a pleasure so thank you and also the chorus concert is next Tuesday come support do we have any questions
062or comments from the board members who start on this side if there's anyone any questions I mean I'm about to not say something at this point come on come on no I just like again it's just so thorough it's so nice I it's one of those things I love how much you like okay we didn't even have like we're trying to put together a point system with suko like when I was there and I'm like like the math was just like not adding up so to see the progress you've made is really encouraging the amount of events you're doing not just for students but teachers in schools is just incredible um how much you're doing for mental health the amount of spirit week you're doing I mean you're like churning these out it's just really
063really incredible um and I just want to say um there's a t-shirt I can get you on Amazon for 20 bucks and get here tomorrow for Purdue so I'll get you that hun but um I just want to say thank you again for how much you're balancing I know you literally just came in she just came in from a tennis match and that she won 6061 and like the amount you're like you know what you're balancing and and just all of it um and just the amount that you're covering thank you so much absolutely wonderful job promise only that Maggie will be inducted into the National Honor Society next week if I'm not mistaken I'll be there but oh thank you both uh I couldn't be more impressed than the board has said that so
064many times so thank you so much for everything yeah again thank you very much all right at this time we're going to look for our uh curriculum committee report and I would like to ask if um Jessica and Amy could help I had strep throat and a double ear infection but still signed on I just don't remember much of that night it was a very high fever but I wanted to be dedicated and log on so help yep absolutely and just want to say thank you to our chair from from curriculum passport for still logging on uh at that time it was uh great um and I will turn anything over to Wendy that I don't remember but um this was a bit ago but once again we were going over um I believe this
065was the performance indicators on just some of our progress that we've been making um so kind of what's been when done is is more markers are being set um and I think one of the wonderful jobs kind of going over the progress we've made over the course of the Year basically as we do these math and reading assessments um we're seeing growth but we're seeing a gap that still persists that achievement Gap um not just across you know race and gender but also you know when you do a little bit of the the intersection of combining race gender special needs different learning disabilities and abilities and I think that's one of the things we're looking at and we're seeing those gaps persist but we're seeing those gaps close um bye guys uh we're seeing those
066gaps close um at the earlier levels which is really showing and kind of that first sign of proof that you know what we're doing particularly in our Equity efforts is working and it's being effective so obviously with so much of the impact of the pandemic trying to track these things it's difficult data can only tell you so much but one of the things we're seeing and what's great to see are the fruits of our labor in terms of getting those testing and these are much better I think in terms of having them be tested shorter easier spurts and more often so we can really see that progress from September November January and May March of May and I I think that's just um one of the things so that's really what the core of the
067discussion was about um and just kind of where those efforts will continue to see how we can close those achievement gaps as they persist because some of them are as large as you know 20 percentage points so we want to be able to to make sure that all of our students are meeting benchmark and I will just say like with those subgroups like we're seeing Improvement in all groups so that's really great to see that's it okay any questions from the board thank you very much appreciate it so that brings us to agenda item e which is our new business and at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr brummett for her update on her goals progress thank you Dr Fletcher let's just get to the first slide of this uh presentation
068versus the last oops to the last there we go so it's that time of year again where I am going to present how I've fared with my goals because like everyone else in the district the superintendent needs to set goals and report back to the board on how they're they're going uh just to remember remind the board of the process that this is a year-end evaluation um tonight I'll be sharing my self-assessment with you I prefer to do it in public sessions some superintendents might do it in an executive session but I feel like I want to share this publicly and then from here the board will conduct an evaluation an executive session and they will issue a written or verbal draft performance evaluation and then they'll share that with me an executive session but
069when the report is finalized it is foiable so it is important to you know be careful about what's written in that report and that's why I want to make sure that the the board subcommittee that's doing that has all of the information so I I always include this in my presentations because I think it's very relevant for us to always stay focused on our increase in diversity uh our every aspect of our diversity continues to rise from our special ed population to our 504 population El pre and reduced Launch Open choice we're down a little bit and I always include magnet school kids because of their financial impact but um which I'll talk about later in a different line item but we are increasingly diverse and that's why what was said earlier from our curriculum
070committee is we have to focus on making sure all of our students do very well one of my mantras and you'll hear this tonight in this evaluation is it's a very much a collective efficacy uh mindset in the district what I do is not in isolation uh Wendy Steve my entire team uh are integrally involved in everything that I'll be discussing tonight uh that's why I wanted to put that front and center on this initial slide so where are we heading in NPS earlier this year we discussed this but currently and it I believe it still is that our students are still impacted by coveted learning loss and this has affected all areas of our population with a probably a more deliberate or significant impact on our students from subgroups r2b where we are aspiring
071to is that the opportunity and achievement Gap are eliminated and all students are successful regardless of race how are we getting there one of our strategies or big bets is that if we support all schools with their Equity efforts as outlined in our theory of action and all School Improvement plans then and if we operate if all plcs and srbi or operationalize the srbi framework using culturally relevant pedagogy we will effectively address disparities so all students are successful I just want to make sure because I use a lot of acronyms in this presentation I want to make sure the board understands and many many of your Educators but some of you may not know that we spend a lot of time talking about professional learning communities in Newington and one of the things that we
072self-assess our ourselves on is what stage are we at and my we are still analyzing the self-assessment that all of our teachers are doing with their plcs but our goal and I believe we're heading in that direction is to be more toward the higher end of this stage first starting off with when we started off this work you know you have to determine what you're supposed to do as a PLC we've gotten past that and um what what's classroom practices are we discussing and what should we be teaching those things I believe we've very handled very well though we always need to think about Equity through that work developing common assessments we've done a very good job with that analyzing student learning stage five six and seven are where we're spending a lot of our
073time and when we do this analysis often it happens at a PLC or it might happen at an EIP team which is an early intervention team or a data team these are all opportunities for us to look at student data and make determinations about how we're doing and as mentioned by the curriculum subcommittee overall our kids are progressing if you look at us as a big picture our kids are growing but when we peel away the onion to the subgroups those students are still not performing at the same level and that's why our work needs to continue um another important part of the stage is adapting instruction so you have students who may not be learning the first go-around how do you adjust your instruction to meet the needs of those children or in the
074case of culturally relevant pedagogy you sort of think about that on the front end how do I adjust my classroom so that all kids are engaged regardless of their background and then how do we reflect on instruction what's working what's not and how do we Implement and do some action research on that to see what is working for our kids so that's a PLC and we are continuing that work that's ongoing but we are growing in that regard uh of course I clicked the wrong button and then srbi is a scientifically research-based intervention it's been around a long time but what we found is we dug deeper into our Equity work that we needed to kind of refresh our work on that so last year Kristin and a team redesigned and rewrote our srbi handbooks
075but just so the board knows when that we talk about srbi we're talking about scientifically based research interventions but we're also talking about Collective responsibility that just because a student might not be in my class I might still provide that child with an intervention because I'm doing that intervention with my class or we do an intervention period at many of our schools and kids often switch around so that they're partnered with teachers who have students with similar needs at that time so I am serving more than just my own students a willingness to be transparent I hope tonight you'll feel we're being very transparent with our continuous Improvement efforts obviously we want to focus on early prevention I'll talk about preschool in a minute but that also trickles down to our early grades and the
076work that we're doing on scientific science of reading and other interventions uh obviously it's imperative that our instruction is of high quality rigorous and that we look at it systemically with social and emotional learning being a part of that especially as our kids continue to struggle with that aspect of their of their learning and obviously we have to monitor how we're doing and and that is ongoing both at the school level and then next Friday uh Wendy will convene her third or fourth district data team where they look at the data collectively so the entire team which is represent represents the entire District all schools sit down and look at the data collectively about what are our Trends what are we still seeing what's going well what is still something that we need to work
077on this also includes cultural responsive teaching and that's um I'll talk about our canons in a minute but we are looking at and that this is a real tough lift for us because teachers often want to say just tell me the strategy I want to just Implement cultural responsive teaching in my classroom tomorrow but it really is about understanding your students understanding what their needs are how how do you view yourself in the world and how does that impact how you interact with your kids so it's a it's a mental mind shift as well as looking at ways to make your classroom environment the best it can be because that's what promotes learning opportunities for the kids and then a comprehensive assessment plan we've talked about that already we do have benchmark assessments they are
078being used routinely and more when kids are in an intervention group they're assessed even more often data analysis Wendy and her committee do that all the time and it is done at schools all the time too with support from both school-based folks and central office folks and we do we use the concepts of database decision making so when we look at whether something's working well for our kids or whether there's an intervention that we're trying are we looking at the data to see if it's effective the other thing to think about too is the rule of thumb for srbi is that 80 if you're if you're tier one instruction what you get what all kids get in the classroom if that's going well nearly 80 percent of the kids should be doing grade level work
079um and all there's always statistically about 20 that will not however our belief is that we've got to look at how we're serving all of our kids and and what who's fearing well who's not and what what are we doing as a result of that analysis so we are diving very deep into this work I just wanted to do a quick refresher course on that though not none of these are new Concepts just how we're using them is a little different and finally some of our big bets this year are that every school will develop an equity team and they have and our other big bet is that these PL the PLC PLC work with that we're doing in conjunction with the srbi framework will provide that code focus on cultural responsive teaching and really
080be what our students need to get better we are setting the table this year and last year with structures and uh capacity and we feel that though we're seeing some small gains I think we're going to see that take off even more next year because all of these structures are now more firmly in place than they've ever been some of the other gears that we're using to move the district forward are ongoing professional development our central office team talks about this all the time I'll talk about our adult in a minute we do use the courageous conversations framework as one of our canons and we provide a lot of coaching and feedback at the school level about srbi decision making and give a lot of feedback to Educators be it the administration or the coaches
081or the teams everyone is getting a lot of feedback about how they're doing um I provide a lot of feedback to our stakeholders we have a data dashboard that is shared out at a lot of our curriculum subcommittee meetings uh the Board of Ed presentations certainly have shine a light on what the board what our schools are all doing the weekly updates survey data all kind of shines a light on what we're trying to accomplish as we finish up this year and head into next year we'll continue or enhance some of our leadership routines which includes rounds visits uh we go to each School twice a year tomorrow we go to Martin Kellogg uh continuing the training on culturally responsive practices making sure our Equity teams have everything they need for support and training and
082provide individualized training for every school so every school's at a different spot so much likely differentiate in the classroom for our own students we differentiate for each School based on where they're at so hopefully those are all going to work together and I shouldn't say hopefully they are working together and we have a continuous Improvement model so I've already shared with you the SRB srbi guidelines those are one of our canons and this is not the canon in a military operation this is a Canon that is a main thrust something that really drives our work and I brought just to show the board tonight our other two canons um courageous conversations about how we show up in our meetings and what we do to interact and look at the data and we do have to
083have honest discussions when there are certain populations of kids that aren't doing as well and our other important Canon is cultural responsive teaching in the brain many schools have done book studies on this uh where we've seen that happen we've seen substantial progress on this work so these will be continued next year one of the things that I think is important for the board to know is this is a three to five year plan you don't change the equity work in a school district or the student achievement in a school district overnight especially as our population concurrently gets more diverse so our responsibility and intention is to continue this work over the course of the next several years to make sure our teachers have everything they need to feel confident in these news teaching strategies
084or um how they go about interacting with kids so just further to elaborate the srbi guidelines help us organize our systems the courageous conversations help us to think about we see the data when we see their interactions with our students what is how are we showing up how we interacting and you know calling out anything that might not be appropriate and cultural responsive teaching in the brain is how do we begin to address student performance this year we have reframed our central office PLC that existed long before I arrived and it met on a regular basis but now we've reframed it to be a district Equity leadership team and we spend two hours every week and we're very very dedicated to that except during award season where we sit or we sit and talk about
085our goal how we're doing on our goal we look at our theory of action which I've already talked about we talk about strategy so we debrief about what's going on at every school because every one of us around the table has some interaction with schools on a daily basis and is providing that coaching and support and our goal our overarching goal as adult is to make sure we identify the areas of impact with our culturally relevant pedagogy systematic decision making how are we supporting the culture and climate and how are we helping provide resources to each school so we really consider ourselves getting out into schools and giving the students the schools what they need most often we work with teachers and administration so that they can then go into the classrooms and do the
086right work with our kids we have a district-wide Improvement plan and this is sort of the driving force of each School Improvement plan but we do have some of our own goals and I wanted to show the board that we are making progress so I won't go into each and every line item but we literally much like our schools do we look at ourselves kind of in a benchmark way and three times a year we haven't done May yet because we're going to look at the self-assessments to guide these answers but we feel we are making substantial progress on all aspects of our PLC work and our providing the feedback The Continuous Improvement mindset the srbi decision making I'll get into some of that in a minute are partnering with all of our schools and
087supporting the leaders we we feel we've met the SRB guidelines that are firmly in place to ensure common uh expectations some schools are a little further along than that but all of them know that this is needs to be happening um and providing the coaching and the feedback um not sure why we rated 3B red I think that is supposed to be yellow but um we are working with all schools on the ready for order framework which is part of this book and it really shows not a road map but a way to kind of contextualize how you might want to think about your instructional practices to make sure they're culturally responsive um and they're ready for rigor framework we've already talked about and all of our central office staff participate in rounds we can't
088all go to all of them but we because we want to schedule them for a time when the schools are doing what they would normally do for what we want to see but I would say by and large no less than seven or eight of us attend every rounds visit and then we spend substantial amounts of time talking about what we saw and that also informs our work about what support schools need so this will be filled out at the end of the year but I do believe three of these should be yellow or green because we are um all of us partner with our schools to monitor the implementation of a variety of practices by all of us I mean both Wendy and Steve Kim Kristen of course Gerald myself marilena and Jay are
089all supporting schools in some way shape or form spotlights by schools what now many of this you've seen you've what I've intentionally had every school present uh what they've been working on relative to equity this year now it's not the only thing they've been working on but when they came to see you throughout the course of the school year they were focusing in on their Equity efforts I'm sure you'll recall our student panel discussion I believe that resonated with the board those those students that you saw rather have now formed a student panel with myself and Dr Hairston and they're giving us continuous feedback on what their life is like as a student that has been extraordinarily powerful the high school's also making major progress on their srbi redesign it's something that wasn't necessarily in
090place at the high school as we would have liked but they've been working hand in glove this year with Circ and they've made terrific progress up there I've talked to Circ and they are really excited about the work they've done some of it will be continuing over the summer next week I won't do a spoiler alert but the parent Equity committee from Martin Kellogg will be joining us next week at the board meeting and you will see from Mr Lambert some of the discussions they've had and some of the policies and protocols that they've put in place and we're also going to look tomorrow at Martin Kellogg and look at the PLC work being done there they spent substantial time this year enhancing and improving that Wallace has been a real Spotlight District I chose
091Wallace for the superintendent Network visit that was here late last month and I will tell you uh they were blown away now this is a group of superintendents from around the state who belong to this network we all go to Brown's visits at each other's respective schools what they saw at Wallace relative to habits and rituals for Equity was was extraordinarily they were very impressed why because they could tell it's very coherent they could sell the work that's done at the district level and how it trickles down to the school level and they saw that when both they visited classrooms and uh plc's now granted there is more work to be done some classes had more evidence of it than others but there's been substantial progress there and I think we've got the structures uh
092in place to make some substantial gains similarly we had a recent rounds visit at Chaffee and we saw their classroom environments and their focus is how we improving the routines in our classrooms that support equity and we saw several classrooms where it was a beautiful thing where all the children were doing well and you could tell it was because of how the teacher had set up that room to make sure all kids were engaged had a voice if a student was having an off moment how they interacted with that student to get them back on track at Green we had a visit earlier this year from a state committee that I serve on and they were very impressed with the co-teaching model that egreen has established in fact Kathy Grizzle one of our mentors has
093a very effective co-teaching model with another teacher at the school and it's it's really two teachers working together to meet the needs of all the children um and some powerful training that leads up to that work Patterson also has a strong Equity team that is leading the way to a lot of the work over there Mr frisi has been very involved and they've had this focus called habits of work and that gets into our standards-based report card but what they're looking at is making sure do all of our kids do well on the habits of work in other words the attention span the ability to engage and what do we do if the kids are not working uh out if it's not going as well as it should be and Reynolds in the midst of
094their uh renovation has had a implementation of a Yukon model this year about how they're doing the early intervention process and they've really universalized that and I've observed it a couple of times and they really take each student and they start off the discussion with the students strengths as a way of kind of helping to drive what they might need for supports it's a very it's a whole different way of looking at a student who might have some academic challenges Pre-K my favorite topic we have two full day full week classrooms going in next year one at green one at Chaffee both are full with a 20 person waiting list so we are diligently calling parents to make sure they're still interested because we want to make sure we have as many kids accommodate on
095the waiting list but what's exciting besides that and I'm very excited about that I will tell you the parents are too when they found out their child was uh we had to do a lottery when they found out their child was selected they were over the moon but you can see in the four years we've been doing this took some data samples we've gone from 60 kids in pre-k to 105 this year and I estimate next year will be up to 125 kids so just so you know um E green will be one of the sites and uh chafee will be one of the sites once Patterson is done I hope to open up a full day class from there next year not next year the year after my goal would be to have one
096full full day site at every school and then each another site that would another classroom that would be serving three-year-olds as well as some parents uh four-year-olds don't want the full day they still want to kind of keep them home or have them do something else on the other half of the day but I believe that we will have a substantial substantial number of kids who will be with us for kindergarten go through our pre pre-k program so that's been a nice Spotlight for us and just I'm going to go through this very quickly because many of this has many of these items have already been discussed but when I look at the uh one of the things that needs to be looked at for my evaluation is how do I measure up to the
097leadership standards so student achievement as I mentioned holistically we're doing very very well we have ways to go yet looking at our subgroups but we have and I spelled on going wrong not good uh on gong so we are still managing the impact of covid still implementing learning acceleration strategies we've talked about our Equity efforts to improve classroom climate we continuing are continuing to leverage our Esser funds to make sure we have ml teachers bcbas interventionists uh Wendy LED Leadership Academy this year it was kind of a Different Twist on kids who might need extra help after school rather than calling it The after school program or not that we would call it a remedial program but we flipped it so the kids are in a Leadership Academy and while we do work on academics
098they also get to do some things that bolster their sense of self-worth and I put a picture in one of my updates that the kids went on the playground and picked thing you know cleans it up and you know had that opportunity and that's just one example I've already mentioned rounds that that's another piece of my educational leadership rsrbi and PLC work our social emotional learning efforts the central office dealt the organizational management I'm very proud of our work this year on the budget we had the highest budget increase in over a decade so hats off to the board we have continued maximum leverage of our grant funds the board saw that certainly during the budget deliberations about how much money we use in Grants to offset the the operating budget the Reynolds project is
099going along very well it's it's one more year get ready for that party and then um Wallace is finally underway I am so thrilled with the support of the board the support of the council I met with some parent groups uh last week I had our folks from uh Reynolds support that Amy was kind enough to come along with Jason about lessons learned about how that referendum could move along um and the co-presidents of the parent group at Wallace are all on board and I've conferred with the town about now being able to advertise this and and they're they're fine with that some of my other things that I do uh when I'm not doing the school stuff is uh I'm a secretary to Alpha Delta Kappa Beth is on that with me it's a
100philanthapa group that is mostly Educators and we do a lot of cool charitable things during the day but not during the day during the school year for a variety of Charities throughout the state of Connecticut we have a lot of collaboration with all of our town agencies Human Services everyone sees the donations that all of our schools do but we've had such a positive uh linkage with them for the transition Academy where the kids are delivering food to community members which is just so wonderful that continues on lots of collaboration with the library I have the most awesome opportunity last week to talk to one of our town Librarians and Tom Myler collaborated on a program for our ml families that will encourage them to come to the library it's not just about books that's
101the total the title they are now going to have opportunities for networking and they're going to bring in Social Services just to give parents that um camaraderie and opportunity our senior center collaboration I think many of you went to the art show this year that was such a success and our one of our high school English classes is doing pen pals with the senior center and I forgot to mention that here but we also one of our music teachers at Kellogg brought her Coral groups over to the senior center I was able to attend one of those concerts and the seniors loved it so all that's such good will for our community uh Gerald and I co-chair a parent and Community Council and we had created that fireside chat that you heard um Yvonne also
102talked about it when she was here a few weeks back our the board's edition of those religious holidays onto the calendar has been a huge amount of Goodwill in the community uh for eat Outfitter this year I must confess I got some cool presents um the the families were so excited about that and I was invited to um and I attended with a few other leaders from the district um a Ramadan informational session that I learned so much and I do make frequent appearances on the talk to the mayor show have you caught those I'm not sure we have a large viewing audience but um and then the board has asked me ever since I've been on the board to make sure that I have items on the surveys much like all of our leaders
103do and our teachers do and the couple items here parent survey what uh is the reaction to my office about how I communicate with stakeholders do they understand what what we're trying to do and I've been averaging in the 90s the whole time so I'm thinking that's pretty good um and then the second one is also about communication informing parents about a variety of issues still averaging in the in the 90 percentile rather when it comes to staff surveys there are three questions that are asked of all staff members do they feel supported by the superintendent again um high level support looks like my high support was during covid but for obvious reasons we were doing a lot of things together um how how does the superintendent understand and interact with stakeholders Town officials parents
104again around mid 90 percentile average there and the clearly articulated goals that Inspire folks to work toward them again in the high to mid 90s over the course of four years so those are pretty good I hope um and again I hope the board feels they get tons of communication from me I want to give the board a bang up because the board worked collaboratively together to get a lot of things done this year but I want to bring to your attention two things that really supported our Equity efforts the material selection policy that you worked on which really gave us a policy that guides our work and has really helped us as any curriculum issues come up or book challenges have come up and the dress code policy that was a lot of work
105on the part of the board and the subcommittee and Mr farisi but at the end of the day I'm pleased to report that the dress code went very smoothly this year a few bumps initially but right now it's just out there there's been no issues uh hopefully you feel that I call you back or send your email back um I inform you about State uh issues and legislative issues I hopefully advise you on legal responsibilities and the training that you've gotten through various uh consults with shipment and Goodwin and I do I always want the board to know when there's emergencies at the school so they don't worry what what it's about um and I do try to do that as as I do I hope do it for All Occasions um and so these
106are some of the organizations well let me start at the top um real we've seen a nice Improvement in communication of late with the mayor the town manager there's a lot of things going on collaboratively there I do work with a lot of the department chairs have a great relationship with Parks and Rec in fact Parks and Rec is on our Wellness committee uh work with the police chief all the time Town planner uh actually she's been great to work with as well the library EMS we've already talked about Anna Reynolds can't I serve on the Caps executive board I'm first vice president now I was second vice president this year in two years I'll be president um I hope they kick me off um I'm a CCSU advisory committee member and a professor I
107still share the Caps teaching and learning committee we'll talk about Hospital 5003 in a minute I sit on the reader reading leadership implementation Council I attended a meeting there yesterday they tend to be frustrating but we should know about our waiver um by the end of June and we also found out that we'll be able to talk to the waiver committee if we have any questions about how they looked at our programs but there's over 90 waivers that that committee has to go through um and I serve on oh I Mentor three interns once or tonight and I serve on the advisory committee for intergovernmental relations which gives me a nice inroad to talk to a lot of officials at the state and legislators to get kind of a pulse rate on things that are
108happening preliminary goals for next year are to continue obviously working on our srbi and PLC processes increase training with the canons these two books plus our srbi framework expanding cultural responsive pedagogy we are also actively involved in a discipline committee right now uh teachers have been a bit frustrated with the increased concerns with student behavior and how are we responding to that are we looking at that with an equity lens so Gerald Wendy and I serve on that committee with a good representation of many teachers throughout the district uh we are going to convene some focus groups soon to get parent and community and teacher feedback on our efforts with equity Steve as you know has led the wellness committee this year they have their last meeting for the year yesterday and talked about as
109you heard in his report the really huge upgrade we made to our EAP program and then we're going to talk about some Wellness efforts for our teachers might focus in on email usage and other things that might make their job a bit less stressful we're going to work on that as an administrative team but I think we'll be coming out with some outcomes from that and then that work will continue next year as well as will scl efforts so that is my long-winded report any questions from the board just a reminder we will convene next week an executive session to discuss this but if you do have any questions for clarification no would be a good time to ask them go ahead I just have a comment not a question I'm so excited John Wallace
110is going through just wanted to say that so that was my comment I'm very excited about that um yeah that's what I want to say and I'm excited we have a high uh budget increase and uh thank you for everything you do I look at your resume I'm like she's on all these things so I'm nice there's two people who really you know well besides you guys too who like you know are part of everything and the fact that you know you're helping essentially with legislative things as well I see you sometimes and you know we're all trying to work together collaborate uh collaboratively I'm just really excited that a lot of the things that I think almost all of us wanted this year have happened especially generals um um I went through so thank
111you for everything you've done I just want to say thank you that's a pretty con I think that's like exactly what we want for portrait of a graduate like as our as one of our Newington High graduates um yes but I uh just a question on the kind of surveys and stuff did we see like a dip in participation too I know that's kind of hard like when we're doing percentages it's sometimes like oh you know I I think I don't know if it was a little lower okay well yeah parents like yeah yeah okay so a little different pair of Staff know okay thank you anyone else Dr Burma thank you so very much absolutely just want to thank the board for their support and a lot of the success has be been because
112of the efforts of the board and the cooperation on many of the issues that did go well this year so thank you all right thank you so what we'll do now we're going to move on to uh item E2 which is discussion and possible action on the school calendar for 2024 and 2025 you should all have that packet before you [Music] do you want to say anything about it yes um it's around this time every year that we project out yet another year in just so you're not thinking you're crazy you already made a change to the upcoming school years calendar so as folks can uh recall we do sometimes modify these but our initial attempt at the 2425 school calendar includes going with the later start date again um we've obviously included the same
113holidays that the board has already approved the only difference you'll notice in this calendar um not every holiday happens every year just the way the calendar rolls but we do have um the three kings holiday comes back onto the calendar this year but we found that we still want to do the PD Day in February because the timing is just better for how we're doing our data teams and things like that we did not build into this calendar and this might be one area for the board to discuss that this year we put the 13th or similar day the Thursday before the February break as the PD day and then made the day before the Friday before the long weekend a vacation day for teachers we did not do that in this calendar because they
114will get Three Kings Day Off in January and there are a few more uh holidays throughout the school year next year that didn't happen this year so that could affect the last day of school significantly we're already at the 13th and that's if there are no snow days so that's up for the that can be up for more discussion I I my feedback from teachers that I'm getting through the Committees that I sit on is they're pleased with the later start data especially teachers who have young families that's been an asset that I've heard positive feedback about and right now they're a little they're excited about that extra February day that's again next year's calendar so um the board does not necessarily have to vote on this tonight they can ponder it but this is
115our initial out of the gate recommendation knowing that the board can get feedback next year and make any adjustments as they see fit so I don't know if there are any questions okay so what we'll do is we can discuss for a few minutes if you want to put this off until the further future meeting we can do that or if it's your desire we can make the motion on this doing a discussion and move on it any opinions Mr Brandon um I I could be missing it because I have a bunch of different calendars open but and maybe it falls I'm not sure of the date but I don't see Yom Kippur is it it is yes we we scoured it we verified uh that does fall on a non-school day so Friday November
116okay Rosh Hashanah is October 3rd it is okay yeah it was um okay I have a question and I and I I'm talking as a teacher right now and I know there's probably nothing that can be done about this one December 23rd coming back for one day I don't know if there's another day where it can be like put in there um or even like have that be a PD day I would say that was the last thing teachers want before the holiday um that's a tough one that 23rd um is my thought and I thought it's somewhere and maybe it was because of the holiday fell on the 24th but I thought there was one Union that also got the 23rd off unless that was the 24th was on a weekend because last year
117we had the 20 with the Friday the 23rd off is that because the 24th was a Saturday I believe so Steve can you comment on that it was my school year last school year we had Friday the 23rd off because of one of the unions and I don't know if it was because the 24th was a Saturday I don't that's why it wasn't okay I I mean I just I don't I know that there's been times that Newington has when Christmas falls on a Wednesday that we give Monday off I know that it's been done in the past um I can tell you every single day that every teacher in the world that we've got up um and I know that it's it's one of those things like it's a day before a really long
118break um and I and I know we've we're ending on a Friday so maybe we go to Mr brand it's like maybe we only have 180 days that year yes yeah I just think fast has been given off I know that there have been school years in this District that's that 23rd has been doing Wednesday we're the ones teachers live for Wednesday being December 25th because it is the ultimate longest holiday break you can get it's bad when it's on a Saturday or on a Sunday is the worst day once in a while good point I'm so that's a teacher Wellness okay well I teach around this I think families would appreciation I have no skin in the game on this one no I think families would appreciate it too because that 23rd is going
119to be pretty rough like especially if you are going away for you know that holiday um I think it's an awesome opportunity to Pilot the 180 day opportunity because looking around the calendar it's tough to find like because then you know again we don't know about snow and things but then you're pushing you could end the year on a Monday and that kind of stinks too which were you know we were gonna do but um I think it's just it presents a really great opportunity for 180 days Amy yeah I I would uh second that the 180 days this year I know that there's contractual things though so um we wouldn't necessarily want teachers to come back I don't know maybe we do a celebration again but um I I think that the late start
120date is good because obviously we got that feedback um just recently that starting later is preferable um it also kind of extends our summer a little bit but then looking ahead June 13th not including snow days um potentially could make us go very late because um in June so I would just uh you know I know that um I know that like having 16 seems like really late this year if we have a snow day or sorry for the whatever what year this is um so that's all the thing is I would say is that I since all the holidays are most of them are falling on actual school days um and and with the later start I just want to caution the end of the school year so if we can do 180 days
121with contracts I don't know how that works out so I think we need to get some information on that I'm looking at you Mr farisi Mr Rose what if we put back in the school day on the 14th of December take the 23rd off for students and teachers so now we've taken away one day and I don't think teachers would love this but I think they would prefer and maybe it's a question for the teachers I think they'd prefer to have the 23rd off and have the last day of school whenever that should be as your PD day I think in this particular I think when I talk to teachers they're like no I don't want to come back but I think given that as a choice giving so having the students go to school
122on the 14th that makes up for the 23rd give the 23rd off to the teachers and Tack the PD day at the 16th and if I did the math right the teachers would still have 181 days February 14th is a PD day February okay February oh sorry February 14th back into the calendar as a school day give the 23rd as a how as a vacation day and put the PD day on the 16th yeah but I think it is I started by saying I I think and I don't know and maybe it's a question for the teachers would they rather have that 23rd and I mean it's a teacher's dream to have that much time off into suffer it's a dream I'm telling you it's what we get very happy for um as much as
123we love our students and everything else like that extra day is just awesome but I think that might be a question for teachers what they prefer you really want to make them happy give them time off in March of my four day work week would make them really super happy but well I there are a couple of mitigating factors I know PD um that February PD gives us an opportunity to do um you know some work middle of the year um and then the 180 versus 181 that's um you know that's been a I've asked my colleagues that have been here longer just to remind the board that 181 day that was for for what purpose Steve or Wendy some of the half days yeah yeah I can just speak to I mean we used
124to go 183 I think when I was in the classroom and we got it back during teacher negotiations but um yeah we've always gone 181 but right now I think the the situation is that that's what the teacher contract is built on um what about this what about it's not is it it's not a presidential election year which is important because I know presidential election a year the parking becomes a debacle so what if we give the 23rd as a vacation day the teachers no that would not be enough to each never mind I was gonna say in the teachers come in on Election Day as a PD day which they used to do this yeah so that would be but there will be early voting not here multiple days the crowd on the day
125of the election oh this would be actually no this year 2024-25 would be a would be presidential and they'll also be doing the well I don't know how early voting is going to change that in terms of our polling locations and all that jazz Brandon how does that could we do since this is so far in advance and I think just the tone of the table is try to find a way to make the 23rd work is it possible to just maybe brainstorm some ideas sure and then come back to it is it absolutely I think it makes perfect sense to have that 23rd but I also want to be cognizant of the fact of like that mid-February PD is important and there's there's reasons for all of this put maybe option b could be
126180 days so I think if that's okay Dr Fletcher I'd be happy to bring back several options that reflect some of the conversation tonight um I don't know if this is appropriate for this since we're talking about calendars or should I wait for board remarks um are we gonna kind of look at the board calendar for next year to make sure it doesn't fall on any holidays well you're going to have a newborn that'll be the next agenda next week's agenda okay but we have already made sure it's not going to fall on any holidays but sneak sneak preview so at this time then this is going to go back to committee I like saying that we're sending this back to committee there it is all right and now we're going to move on to
127the discussion and possible action of the use of school building fees should Jacob mullets hi good evening everyone every year uh this motion comes back to the Board of Ed or consideration uh through addressing the operations across we incur to support all communities groups use of our facilities uh you know we've been very fortunate we've been able to extend two years with no increase uh to the community over the last couple years uh but like everybody else you know we're vulnerable to all of the pressures and equation fuel costs costs of supplies and use labor costs uh to just keep operations going so uh at this point we're proposing a four percent increase to our rates uh to address those key drivers and our cost structure and this is primarily you know the cost of
128the custodians who were working the facility for the benefit of the organizations uh use of all our uh utilities for heat lighting for the event you know those costs don't go away uh yeah when the building is in Greater use them uh typical activities and the uh cost of just the supplies that are used every day you know custodial costs or materials and bathroom supplies are up 15 20 easily so uh an adjustment of this type should be considered by the board uh we went out locked into any one set number other than what we think was reasonable a request we are looking at a three percent labor rate increase built into the astomy contract for next school year so this follows along very closely with that all right miss you you charge the same
129fees um for events that are I see it says profit making what about non-profit well that's the difference between Schedule C and Schedule D okay that's here one is the non-profit schedule the other is the profit making schedule so depending on the organization's status they will qualify for either of the two schedules uh you also have schedule a schedule B items which are uh exempt by the policy that is in the board book for uh use of school facilities uh like they have political groups and use the buildings for free uh park and rec uh has a pass-through on their costs for any labor we encourage support the activity like we have a custom to keep the school open for basketball in the winter time and we will just pass back the cost of that
130to them and it doesn't have to be individually priced it's just uh charged back to the other organization so the schedule is pretty comprehensive in that fashion or uh supporting New England Community groups with the lowest possible costs non-profit groups which can be Newington or from other or other communities around the area and then the for-profit making groups which pay the highest rates you answered my question no he didn't answer while I was asking I was sorry I was just wondering let's see if there was a non-profit event that needed the school are they going to pay all these same costs and you're essentially saying no they pay a lower rate for a non-profit organizations the non-profit Wellness okay in parentheses I don't see nothing oh okay yeah I see thank you uh just a
131question Leo um because no we don't want to say this and I know we at one point froze the fees I think during coveted times so just kind of quick recap on when we did we increase the fees at any point well the last two years we did the last two years sorry last year we we raised them by two percent we definitely work well I know we voted for it I don't know if we actually implemented it but we did I thought we did I thought we did I think it was three percent okay yeah it was a two percent two percent yeah there must have been two years before that was nowhere okay okay we didn't do anything for the two years for covid that was like making literally no money off of
132that um and I'm just kind of figured out like I don't want to raise fees on the public obviously but we're getting hit hard and I'm just looking for next budget year like that's gonna be and then including the labor costs that are already three percent um just so like the public understands like we're not doing this just willy-nilly this is more of just to cover the cost that we're already going to anticipate okay I'm going to say this I'm going to bring the perspective of somebody that used to rent I spent four and a half years renting the auditorium at Martin Kellogg and every year I had an increase and it never bothered me because you expect that when you look at the rates that are on here right now uh most of these
133non-profits that are using that and paying that rate they cannot find their own facility for that rate that's why they're still using hours so uh a three percent or well four percent increase is minimal and it's not even disputable in in my book I would say that we need to do this we have to be fiscally responsible for our buildings as well so personally I'm in favor of doing it yeah and just also you know I've done events in schools too and sometimes you have to pay additional fees for the staff that are there you have to pay so to have it all in the one fee I think four percent you know when I first saw it it I think it is the highest that we've done in a while but we're also kind
134of catching up on some of the years that we're Frozen and and just so you know it was I May 11th last year okay I stand correctly that's like two percent um dick who was the one who so um yeah but I'm in favor of it also I think it's um like Dr Fletcher said it it helps preserve our buildings we have the staff that have to be there and this is not a rate this is not something that we're just you know printing cash for right like we this is an opportunity for organizations to come to our buildings using that are very reasonably and we can pay our staff to do it so what I'd like to do at this time is have somebody read the motion the Board of Education increase the building
135you speak by four percent for the 2023-2024 school year effective July 1st 2023 seconds yeah so made and seconded any further discussion on this I'll play CNN I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll yes yes Dr Bruce yes Sam Sharma yes definitely Weaver yes very good thank you everybody and now we have one more discussion item but what's interesting is when I walked in tonight I was given a major update on this so before we bring it up for discussion would you like yeah so I just wanted to give some context um uh Miss perrotti and I were at a Newington advocacy day this morning um I take my first hour off this morning to go to the Capitol and um just kind of residents were asking questions and I thought it
136was a great time um to bring up that question about hb5003 which representative Curry had given a presentation on before and I think um just wanted to give some context that we were told by our legislators that it won't be an actual bill anymore it's just going to be in the budget um so they're the same Provisions I think that were focused on there are some other Provisions that I think um were in kind of question right now are kind of how the cost of living adjustments will go only to Charter Schools and not to public schools so that's one of the points of contention as well as just kind of overall we're getting money that was we're set to get anyway just out of more accelerated rate how they're fully funding the education cost
137sharing Grant um especially as we we see those Arbor money go when um essentially kind of looking at how it is placed between public and charter schools and how much are they getting more or less so those are kind of points of contention but we were told that it won't be like voted on by as a bill it's just going to be in the budget which still confuses us not a part of the legislator so I think part of this was just kind of we had talked about it as a board of we were like full support of wanting more money and right we want our education cost sharing Grant funded so um just kind of as we write this letter I'm not for sure how we want to present it to say I think
138I don't know what that bill will look like because it I don't think it will be a bill anymore it will just be Provisions um and how we show our support because I think all of us were excited about hearing more about that that particular part is that the education cost sharing being fully funded for us so we can actually get our money if that makes sense go ahead yeah I just want to add and um I did confirm to you that the another piece of the bill that I think we all supported was that the tuition for student residents of Newington attendant attending magnet schools will be we wouldn't be responsible for paying that tuition it would be um this the steam would pay it so um that's another piece of the bill that
139we've been told is going to be added to the budget so I think just to piggyback on what Jessica is saying is that we do support pieces of the bill but we don't necessarily um like it might change or whatever is going to happen with it hb503 won't necessarily be voted on as it is today uh it could change to be like other pieces that maybe we don't support or we don't really feel comfortable with enough information right now but I think that what she was saying is the The Accelerated ECS money and that Magnet School tuition uh we've been told will be a part of just worked into the budget as line items thank you um yes so I did consult with uh because I had heard from some board members about uh just
140questions I called are lobbyists that we use for caps um his name is Chris Smith and it is legislation is very confusing Bright Now Hospital 5003 um was originally a democratic bill but ironically the higher rate of funding is on the Republican proposed House Bill but the lar the the likely thing hood of it coming somewhere in the middle of what the each party has proposed might be somewhere in the middle um the amount of money in that bill is pertinent because the more money that's in there the more guarantee we have of the funding that will help make a difference for towns like Newington we're in a good position Newington will benefit regardless of what iteration it is it's just a matter of how much we benefit because if it's not fully funded at
141the level that was recommended originally by its authors then the money coming to Newington will be impacted charter schools are going to be in there one way or the other I don't know I don't I didn't ask them specifically about the staggered or the cost of living increases but he said politically at the state right now Charter Schools do have a lot of following and no matter what iteration comes out for this it's uh likely to benefit charter schools because they are just highly supported by the folks on both sides of the aisle actually but um the whole point around the letter was it was something that was suggested to superintendents some boards have already done it if this board does not feel comfortable doing it it's not a requirement it's not an action item
142tonight it was simply a possibility so I will turn it back over to you Dr Fletcher Jessica yeah I just want to say like just from that I just didn't know if we like this letter would mean anything so I guess helping that origin is helpful too because I think I'm will ask me for all but like I think a lot of us just want that those dollars and we support you know a lot of what is said in this um I just didn't know if it would be effective at this point just given where it is and kind of what the origin was of if we sign this letter what does that do for us and again yeah making sure we're not like that component of the bill like does that take away from
143us legislation is confusing so sometimes trying to get those answers and you know talking to our legislators they're like well I think this is how superintendents feel was this how boards feel you know every stakeholder in this obviously it's one of those big bills so it's just one of those things I think we're all trying to just get clarity on so um maybe asking for more clarity in a letter is helpful too Strauss I I don't feel comfortable signing this because I don't truly understand it I read what you had sent us and I my interpretation was very different and she sent it to everyone um I don't exactly know what like where you got what you sent us and I appreciate it because I didn't have the information and how my perception of it
144was towns like Newington could actually not benefit from it indirectly so I the way I was reading it with my you know little blinders on was we may actually not benefit from it um How It Was Written and whatever you had sent us um and so that actually worried me I actually read it and got angry for Newington so um I am again like Jess said like if I we had made more information and I understood this more I would feel comfortable putting my name behind it but based on mixed messages I am apprehensive about like putting my name behind that Michelle yes I did send it out to you guys um um well most of you know in my new role I'm working more closely with other legislators um and I feel um similar
145to Ms troads I think right now especially after saying what you're saying at first we thought it was maybe one party that kind of um had you know control over this and now we're finding out it could be the other I think that um we should table this until we figure out where it's going um I am in communication with some of the people that are going to make this decision and I think that as we've had representative Curry we should also invite you know others so we can kind of hear like you know their side and see how it could essentially benefit our town if that's okay so I mean as there are other people now and we know this have changed I think that's something we should do um I've spoken to a
146few people who would love to come and obviously our Advent supporters of Newington and have a little bit more information and gave me this information and I think that that's something that we should look into as we want to all collectively help the town of Newington thank you it seems like the consensus is that we wait so that is what we will do we will wait for further information what is the last legislative day June 7th June 7th I don't believe that when we're told we would not guaranteed but uh given the large surpluses uh it's anticipated that in seven so three weeks you know thank you very much that concludes our new business and we will now move on to agenda item F which is public participation on any matter related to board responsibilities
147uh if you're here in person you may speak which I don't see anybody in the room or you can call in at 860-665-8659 or if you are online in our Google meet just raise your hand the little hand symbol that's on the bottom of the screen and I will call on you we will give you uh three minutes or any comments or questions that you may have so cue the Jeopardy theme music all right I don't see anyone and I don't hear the phone so we are going to move on now we will offer the opportunity for any more remarks by the board members it's not mandatory but if you have something more you'd like to add to tonight we give you the opportunity as perrotti yeah I just wanted to say thank you to
148um our fire department and EMS put on two presentations at the high school um right before Junior Prom and senior prom and I think it's obviously a very important lesson and see what possibly could happen if you make poor choices and drive under the influence but also having the car parked outside the high school is a reminder just for the community too because there's potentially some people that that's you know even adults I think it's important to teach our students but the rest of the community there are instances all the time of people driving under the influence and it's just a really good reminder that it could end very poorly for um many people so um so I want to thank them and thanks believe me I have been asked by several people what that's
149all about awesome and I said That's you the way you drive foreign last night was the um the scholarship Awards and um was it 120 students 100 102 students were given 102 scholarships 86 students 75 hours long but um it was it was incredibly moving that um all of these people have given Scholarships in honor of those who have passed and to see the look on the student's face when they shook the hand and this you know say like this was for one of the ones I read was for a girl who was in Newington High School grad um but her life had been tragically taken while she was um riding her bike at UConn going to school for puppeteering and so the award went to a student who would going to um embark on
150a journey through arts and I just thought that was really special and to kind of be able to know that that money it's not just dollars that's somebody saying like the memory of our daughter Our Father our family is living on through you there were some stories where there I mean we were all kind of getting misty out it was really beautiful and the students were incredibly grateful um one other note about that and I was sharing this with Dr earlier the the diversity in the students who were recipients of these scholarships was a really cool thing to see um even since I graduated in 2005 just looking all these years further how much um the the picture of those students on on stage has changed to truly reflect our community is a plottable and
151it is a really really beautiful thing thank you anyone else we got it meeting is adjourned