001Thank you. Okay, we'll call our Board of Education meeting to order and we will start with the pledge Now can you do roll call sure Kate Connecticut here gladys Cooper Dr. Mary Corneau Lauren Daly Juanita Bush Paris Cindy Henry Sherry LeBlanc Sean Ratchford Minnie Stash and Tosh and Louisa and I'm here Good evening, everyone. I'm gonna try something a little different here with our Podium and Mike and we have a wonderful crowd tonight. So we want to make sure that we're able to really connect with you and Really dig into the the joy of what tonight means for a variety of Different groups that are in the room, but also the significance of the evening and what it has meant for so many Tonight we are here to recognize two educators initially amongst them whole
002Another group that's that is retiring But the first two recognitions tonight are for our para educator of the year and our teacher of the year Lisa Sam has worked at Rogers Park and there she is Step forward with mr. Boucher. Come here again Cream always rises to the top Lisa Through a rigorous application process and tons of her colleagues and peers Voting her in along the way as one of the best para educators in the district and to receive the other night We had a wonderful night Honoring you but tonight this is another formal recognition in front of the entire board and our large DPS education community to say thank you for everything that you have offered to us and you're such a wonderful role model in our schools And mr. Boucher, you've got 30
003seconds to say Yes Okay, and next up hiding in the back She didn't think I would see her back there is Emily Pardalis. Emily. Come on up Emily's our 2026 teacher of the year for Danbury High School If they right here Emily, so I don't see Dan Donovan in the house tonight However, this is an easy one for me to be able to provide some recognition here I have known Emily I think almost my entire career since I started we were colleagues in the Social Studies Department and Very early on and it was clear From the early years that Emily was a leader amongst her peers. She was very driven somewhat of a perfectionist I would say she had been a go-to person as as our You know routes took different paths Emily has always
004been the go-to in the Social Studies Department for leadership when innovation is needed when Right sizing is needed when more rigor is needed when higher standards are needed and we need someone to lean into those Conversations and to push the envelope a little bit on what excellence looks like in a classroom Emily is always at the center of that And I have had the pleasure of being the humanities curriculum administrator director of instruction Go on up the line and every single time I found my way back to Emily's classroom to ask her for advice to ask her for a favor and to ask her to lead some difficult conversations and There's no doubt in my mind that you are in fact our teacher of the year. So congratulations Okay so we have a long list
005of folks in our district who are retiring and you know, I had the opportunity to kind of review the list and the number of collective years on here is staggering and It's really reflective of just almost a lifetime of commitment to the Danbury Public School system We have folks in here 40 years 29 years 30 years 33 35 years just an incredible and Having been in the district for 29 years myself not even counting student teaching and all of that I know that you have seen this district evolve. I know that you have seen the community Change and evolve and I know that you have changed and evolved with it and in many cases helped to lead those changes There's an incredible list of talent on this on on this paper tonight as I look
006at it And I'm wonder scratching my head going how on earth we ever going to replace all of this talent that's in the room but I also know that many of you contributed to Shepherding a succession plan of sorts with your teammates your colleagues your cluster mates younger teachers that have been on your team and Shepherding them in so that they can be the next leaders of Danbury Public School system So I'd like to just acknowledge I'm going to read through all the names tonight So I want to make sure that if someone couldn't make it tonight, they heard their name at home Even though they cannot be here tonight and then afterwards I'll call up Maybe about a third of the folks that are here tonight from the list if that's okay, and we'll
007do we'll do photos So Courtney Allen teacher at Rogers Park 28 years Philippe Alonzo custodian at Westside for six years Deborah Brenner King teacher at King Street for 35 years Teresa Teresa Busher para educator Ellsworth 40 years Kathy Berman who's here tonight teacher Haystown 33 years Gwendolyn Davidson What a kindergarten teacher. Oh my gosh South Street School 28 years. All of these teachers are just I'm going down the list and I'm saying I can't believe we're losing you guys Paul Denninger teacher broad view 48 14 years Marni Durkin Marni Durkin principal of Ellsworth 34 years Craig Fay teacher at South Street 25 years Israel Feliciano school psychologist Rogers Park seven years Augusto Gomes my little Augusto. Where are you? Augusto Gomes administrator central office 33 years Deborah Hyde nurse broadview 10 years Carrie Johnson teacher
008Moore Street 33 years Bev nicely accounts payable central office bedrock of the district 31 years Laura Locke HR generalist central office 18 years Lydia Maury teacher South Street School 10 years Carolyn McGarry special education tutor Denver High School 26 years. I've had your children Victor Mitchell custodian Western Academy of International Studies 13 years Micheline Montanaro special education tutor broad you 15 years Peter Obrey teacher King Street intermediate teacher 13 years also winner of coolest classroom runner-up for coolest classroom Elena Patton HR administrative assistant central office 34 years Tom Porcelli teacher Denver High School 28 years Joseph Redondo teacher at Denver High School three years in Morocco administrator central office 40 years most of that time as a principal of Two of our schools Linda Rosso secretary Haystown 28 years Maria Santo kitchen aid sadly rough
00925 years Sonya Sarah Sini teacher Granville 28 years Lynn Shoemaker special education secretary extraordinaire central office 29 years Hollis Schweitzer teacher great plane 29 years Lauren singer teacher Millridge primary 30 years Tom Sparroco our wonderful ROTC instructor in the back who was dedicated all of his board meeting of board meeting times And and Wednesday nights with us Danbury High School seven years Patricia Tarsi paraeducator Danbury High School 21 years and Ian Wilson PE teacher Danbury Public School 24 years So yes, incredible Okay, and so for those of you who were able to make it tonight We're so appreciative to have you in the room. We'd like to call you up We would have a Danbury Public School certificate of recognition Along with the number of years of service to the school district and we'd like
010to take a quick photo with you And you could more than welcome to bring your family up as well So going down the list and of course if I'm in on the number one rated business travel platform Let's your team took work travel in one place flights hotels cars while staying with Gwendolyn Davidson Margaret Durkin Well Marty Durkin here you go here we're gonna we're gonna When it is thank you Okay, Augusto Gomes Okay, Deborah Hyde Carrie Johnston Yeah, right such luck Okay Beverly nicely come on up that we haven't paid any bills since you left us. Do you know that? Okay All right, Lydia Maury Are you here? Hey, Carolyn McGarry come on down Don't cry. You can't cry Elena Patton, okay in a rocko Linda Rosso come on down Lynn Shoemaker come on
011down Right Lauren singer She hit there she is Thomas Barack Oh And I think that's it and just to be sure no one else snuck in while we were going down the list Do we have all the retirees accounted for here? Okay, listen. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for bringing your beautiful families We're gonna take one quick picture of all the retirees up front if I can just have you come forward And we'll get you in and out real quick photo Okay, we're gonna move on We're gonna continue on with our meeting Thank you everybody for for attending. It was a beautiful reception We're gonna move on to public participation Lauren the board welcomes public participation and asks that speakers, please limit their comments to three minutes Speakers may offer offer objective comments
012of school operations and programs that concern them The board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system Thank you. First one on the list actually have two Hannah and Caitlin. Wow, that helps a lot So much And we are here to advocate for increased funding for transportation between campuses During the day so that way all DHS students have equal access to educational opportunities Hi, so as Caitlin said, my name is Hannah and in preparation for today We conducted a survey in which we asked students questions about the current course availability at Danbury Main and Danbury West and their utilization of the shuttle buses that are currently offered We received 120 responses from students
013across all grade levels and we also got responses from people in every single Academy So we got pretty Equal representation from a lot of different perspectives and we asked these are some of the responses that I felt were the most informative When we asked whether or not students will be willing to take classes at the campus They do not attend if transportation was provided to them 84% of students said that they would be willing to take classes at the other campus Especially if the class was not available to them initially we also asked if there are any classes that students wanted to take but couldn't and There was about a 50-50 response to that question But then when we looked closer at each individual response We found that the vast majority of students who were
014unsatisfied with the classes they got Were from West campus and the vast majority of students who were satisfied go to main campus Which shows that there's kind of a disparity between the student satisfaction at both campuses and we also asked questions specifically to students from each campus and We found that 85% of the students at main campus would be willing to join after-school activities at West campus if transportation was provided to them and we also found that over half the students at West campus Utilized the shuttle buses that we currently that are currently offered on a regular basis throughout the week From this data and from the written responses that we received from students We saw that there's a clear gap in satisfaction between the students at West campus and at main campus And we
015also found a shared willingness across both campuses to participate in after-school activities at both So currently the campus that a student is assigned to will determine what courses Extracurriculars and just the overall academic experience that students are able to access However, the opportunities to students are not always the same many students, especially at the West campus from our data You can see that they aren't Ella. They aren't able to take the electives or eight peas they want which Also according to our research can play a significant role in Helping students explore their future careers and it gives them an opportunity to explore everything else outside the academies this also gives students a chance to explore other interests if they didn't get into the academy they wanted to get into and or if they like It's
016too late for them to switch out. So our proposal Natalie and him a job will talk about it in further detail aims to increase satisfaction In unity between campuses. Thank you. We have Him IA and Natalie Hello, my name is him Ajay and Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak here. And we'd also like to thank miss Lorenz for guiding us through this And Based on our results our peers just discussed we'd like to propose additional bus routes to increase transportation Between the West and main campuses and we're asking for three million dollars to fund these shuttle buses. Our plan is to have Our plan is to have a shuttle bus Going from main campus to the West campus and another shuttle bus from the West campus to the main campus during flex
017And by doing so will allow students to take electives and courses that are not offered at their particular campuses and we'd also want to implement a shuttle bus that transports students from The main campus to the West campus after school for more extracurricular activities Currently we have shuttle buses that transport students from main to West but having that same shuttle bus transporting students from main to West will allow us to make use of the resources that we have at the West campus at The West campus beyond just classrooms and it'll be a great opportunity To use the HPSA room the greenhouse the EMT room and a lot of other resources that are now just Not being used beyond just a classroom and it'll give students an opportunity to enhance their learning As our group previously
018mentioned students have a lack of options for electives and the facilities that each student has is unfair Having a bus system that increases transportation Will help students be more engaged in classes and will allow the resources that we have at West to be fully utilized At the West campus certain classes are not being offered or the classes sizes are abnormally small the solution will help students to be able to take classes they're interested in and Create a more balanced class size that directly targets students needs Also the shuttle buses provide enriching opportunities for the kids at main As Huma just said the West campus has a lot of great technology That the kids at the main campus also deserve that to have the chance to enhance their learning Overall these improvements will benefit students well-being
019and Educational experience so please consider our proposal and thank you for your time tonight Il Zuma Is it what is it? I? L okay, we couldn't see the writing so thank you okay, okay, and and and Who else is there? Daisy okay, all right. Sorry. It was just we couldn't read it come on up Good afternoon everybody nice to meet you guys, this is um my first time doing this and probably her sue and Elma has done this a couple times We're here to address a very important issue in our school We're to address how school funding is impacting our course selection in both campuses So the Hs has opened numerous opportunities for the student body It has given our students the ability to achieve their dream career in the more simple and direct way
020Some of us and maybe most of us are faced like facing a really big issue That comes with these courses since we have split into two schools, so as it was said previously from the other students DHS offers many courses, but since we have split into two campuses it has become limited and due to funding And staff shortages it is Made it more difficult for students have more selection their courses, and it is well known that the chess as a whole is being very very underfunded and very understaffed and We have an increasing student body From from the years to come right and according to a survey we conducted and the Hs West 82% of our students at West Do not have their available classes and their campus and with limited resources such as classes
021being offered at West or even main Students can feel discouraged or unmotivated and can even lead them to drop out of courses They don't desire to be pardoned although the Hs has allowed students to Enter the professional field with more specialized courses with the academy system. We still feel that's being limited because of our split Campus as it is as the split is right now Hi, my name is Ilma Juan Being juniors it isn't likely that we can make a lifetime decision in our first in just our freshman year of exploration courses That is just a short overview of career options that extend beyond what is taught Let alone brand new students who join the school without prior guidance The exploration of our careers should not should be allowed allotted to various foundational and advanced
022placement courses Not a barrier that forces us to stay within the bubble of conventional education 58 to 73 percent of students at West want the opportunity to take more electives in AP classes Because we feel like we they feel like and we feel like we don't have enough according to our survey that we just did This is a major problem because as the Board of Education and as a community It is our responsibility to give our future leaders the future prospects of education to solve problems and make our environment Reach its fullest potential Hello, my name is Daisy and Our ask is that in order to that there's about diversify the course options IDHS OS We allocate an extra part of school funding to allow transportation Like school shuttles to the main campus for classes
023that cannot be conducted at West From our discussion with mr. Donovan the principal of Danbury High School It will cost an extra three million dollars to fund transportation within school hours between the two schools at the same time We should keep in mind the equality of both campuses Because Weston main are not different schools One is a branch of the ladder that everyone agreed to build because of the overcrowding of the student body This simply means that over 262 222 students will be given the opportunity to take the classes that they are passionate about We're standing here because we chose to talk on behalf of our colleagues and teachers. This isn't just a funding issue It's a matter of our students rights to education that we can depend on for everyone here present in this
024room We ask that you keep on continuing to advocate for our future here in Danbury and speak up and from the words of Malala herself One child one teacher one book and one pen can change the world. Thank you Is there anyone else that from the public that would like to speak? anybody else No seeing none. Okay, we will move on. Thank you Okay, can I have a board member to do the consent calendar? Okay, thanks Board of Education approved the consent calendar exhibits 26-86 through 26-90 in accordance with minutes from the superintendent superintendent evaluation committee Curriculum committee board of education regular meeting and board of education workshop. Thank you. The motion is made by Al do I hear a second? Seconded by Kate there are any questions concerns or comments on the consent calendar
025Seeing none all in favor any opposed abstentions motion carries Okay, we're gonna move on to donations Okay, I just before we move on I just wanted to make sure check to see if mr. Jeff Tricolo was in the audience and I don't think I see him So I think we can go ahead with the motions, but I do want to say I don't know if I'm breaking a rule kids in the back Students you did a wonderful job presenting your argument Very poised clear and concise and I'll be following up with your teachers Thank you Okay, can I have somebody make the motion that's in the book I'll make a motion that the Board of Education accepted donation in the amount of $3,500 from Kelly and trust Jeff Tricolo to support the purchase of two
026new main backboard goals and Basketball rims for Pembroke Pembroke Elementary School in accordance with exhibit 26-90 Okay motion made by Kate. Do I hear a second second by Lauren any? questions comments or concerns Okay, seeing none all in favor any opposed abstentions Okay motion carries. Okay. Do we have anybody from the educational staff? Okay student representatives Okay moving right along Superintendent's report, so I don't think we have a presentation tonight. No presentation in per se But we do have the lone Tara Carvalho who's left in the audience Tara can we have you come up and we'd love to hear about the Danbury Public Library's 2026 summer reading program I have I made a statement. I wasn't exactly sure where on the agenda. I was going to fall so I kind of brought a few things
027and a little statement and Hopefully this will stay little friends who came along because these are some of the fun things we're gonna have it summer At the library some little 3d printed guys. So am I giving me some courage? my first time I Do want to say thank you. My name is Tara Carvalho And I think a lot of you have met me before in various capacities and I have been graciously invited Personally once or twice by a few of you So I'm very grateful for that and the warm welcome that I have to be able to share about summer reading here in front of you all We're obviously very excited and passionate about summer reading at the library. So So my nerves don't get the better of me. I think I'm just gonna
028go ahead and read what I wrote Thank you again for allowing me to share tonight at your meeting First and foremost, I am here to invite Everyone in the Danbury school system to participate in summer reading with Danbury library students teachers administrators the Board of Ed Parents and caregivers everyone in the community is invited to participate in all the fun that we have over the summer Each year the library designs simple to use multilingual bookmarks that families can take anywhere they travel to keep track of their reading habits throughout the summer months Let's see intentionally simple and straightforward the bookmark tracker for kids allows children of all ages to take responsibility for tracking their daily summer reading the calendar design also helps children understand time and planning Families are invited to read whatever makes them
029happy There are recommendations but no required titles The library always advises students to seek out books and topics of interest to reinforce reading for pleasure We really believe that there are no non-readers only kids who haven't found their book yet as you're all aware Summer slide is a problem faced by schools everywhere Here in Danbury our statistics show that annual participation in summer reading at the library has been dropping off in recent years For a variety of reasons in an effort to reverse that drop-off Danbury library seeks to continue working with Danbury schools from the top down to encourage and incentivize participation in the summer reading program at the library In the past when families were expected to come back to school ready to share their child's reading log could be this bookmark We saw
030many families using the library to access books and educational support from qualified library staff We would love to see that kind of participation again It has been a true pleasure to promote summer reading at assemblies and class visits ahead of summer break I absolutely adore it as the outreach coordinator at the library I get to spend so much time with whole schools just trying to get the word out and to get everyone so excited about spending time with us at the library throughout the summer We even feed them so that's usually like the hit right? So we hope in doing so that we've inspired children to want to discover more about their library and to share that excitement with their families Thank you for your continued partnership in our shared goals of increasing literacy and
031celebrating a love We are looking forward to what a future of continued collaboration could bring Thank you Thank you Tara, your timing is impeccable because our summer work website for students is just about ready to be published and that's going to go out at the end of the week So what I'll do is I'll take my letter because we're going to send this link out to families because we're trying to raise the expectations that students are staying wet with their studies over the summer and they are reading and they have logs and they have projects What I'm going to do is I'm going to in that letter embed information about the Danbury Public Library and where they can find those books that we're asking them to read and make sure that they know that that
032connection is strong so we can reinforce that Thank you So the timing is perfect Yeah, thank you. Please know that we're there to support the students of Danbury. It's really always all about them. So thank you. Thank you for all that you do Thank you Any questions? Does anybody have any questions for Tara? Just real quick before you go Tara, I saw you have a sign up for the summer kickoff party, but I don't know if it's visible to all of our board members Okay Could you just share the information on there real quick? Sure, absolutely. Thank you, Kate. Yep, so our summer reading kickoff party is going to be Saturday, June 20th between 11 and 1. You can come by any time And I have invited some board members. All board members are welcome.
033The entire community is welcome really all teachers. I really try to think Sean you might be coming along to it as well as Parks and Rec slash part of it. So yes, please join us and kind of join us in welcoming all the families who are participating. It's always nice when they see us, you know, in our different elements and stuff. So yeah, June 20th between 11 and 1. Can you just send me the digital copy of that? Yes, absolutely. Anybody else? Sean? Yeah. Oh, hold on Tara. We have one more. Just want to thank them publicly because their reach out is an action. It's not words. They reached out. They do two days a week at our summer camp for the city. They're very, very proactive. They come to all kinds of things. They
034are looking for people to collaborate with. So I thank you for that and your staff. They've been outstanding in everything that we've done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right. Just a couple of quick notes for the rest of the report. So dress code discussion. So as you know, we sent out some surveys in English and Spanish and Portuguese. And boy, did we get a lot of responses. So we have just under 800 responses on the English survey, which is probably one of the largest responses that we've had for any surveys. So there's a lot of folks willing to weigh in and share. And then we had just under 200 each of the Spanish and Portuguese. So we had quite a good survey response. And all of those need to be aggregated and
035analyzed. But some of the larger, broader themes that popped out really centered around for the current policy, really in the regs. It doesn't look appear as if the policy itself is causing any confusion. The policy is more of a statement. But it's within the regulations where there's some clarification needed around things like what constitutes pajamas and the footwear and some inconsistencies in enforcement of the current policy. And then there's also some other things that are not necessarily relevant to the current policy. So we have to be aware of the fact that there are certain things that do exist. And so some places and some teachers in some schools are enforcing it and some others are not. And so that causes tension amongst different groups. So I'm going to just address the current policy. On the
036question, as you know, we asked about the question around moving in the direction of a potential uniform, partial uniform. And on the English survey alone, we had over 53, almost 54 percent of the parents that responded that were very interested in moving in that direction. And then over another 20 percent that weren't sure but wanted to know more. And then another percentage underneath that that were not interested. But the preponderance of the responses on that were positive in the direction of exploring uniforms. And even more so in other in some of our other the other two surveys, it was almost overwhelmingly a desire to explore that that option. So I think at the very least, it warrants a really rigorous discussion over the course of this next school year as to how we might look
037at that with, you know, as an option. And there would be a lot of conversation about the benefits and the drawbacks and how who pays, how we pay, how we do it, how we enforce it and under what circumstances we do it. But certainly something worthy of I think of this group's discussion to to look at considering the the large response that we got that seemed favorable. So just wanted to report out on that and we'll have a full themes and patterns that from all three of those ready for you. So we'll do a summary across groups. But the surveys are now closed and we'll be tallying those up. Yeah, so I talked to Mike about as a community relations coordination, I think that once the school new school year comes about, it is my
038recommendation we do a town hall to the community on that particular, you know, and hear more about it. You know, so a lot of people don't don't like taking surveys, but they like to open the opinion. But in the meantime, we should consider and plan forward of having interpreters available for for that open house. Thank you. Okay. And then just a mention of the capstone. So the capstone, as you know, we've been doing capstone projects here at the high school for the last couple of years. And so I think many board members that were invited have opportunity to go between both campuses. And I had an opportunity to do to do the same. I was able to come to the West, but I was able to see projects on the other campus as well. And
039I'm certainly would happy to open it up to anybody wanted to comment on on the experiences. But I'm definitely looking to continue to evolve our students experiences in these projects and create expectations. You know, having two campuses, you could see that there's the way that the capstones played out in terms of technology and availability and room and presentation space. So just something that we'd love to bring more synergy to between the two campuses. And our teachers are working so hard with the students and the students are doing such a great job pulling together the research. And so as we move forward with these with this split campus model, I think tonight was another example of, you know, keeping an eye on parity and equity and availability of resources between the two campuses so that we
040can make sure that our kids are on track and have everything that they need. But we're very proud. I went to the I was actually had the Lawrence classroom for a while and two other ones in the media center. And I was just so impressed with the poise of the students. Pretty similar to tonight. The confidence level of students speaking in public really has grown over the last couple of years. And it's really nice to see their comfort level. And you could tell that they're getting more practice in school with that. So when it comes time for a capstone project, so on and so forth, they are they are more confident and poised and well rehearsed. And so for me, looking at how we continue to develop and grow the idea of capstone, what it
041means and raise the level of expectations and rigor around that, we have to look at that with between the two campuses as well to make sure that we're moving in the same direction. And all the students have access to all the tools that we have to offer. OK, and moving on, if there's no questions, a couple more things. Oh, sorry. I was moving on to the next topic underneath. Couple of things. We had the honor of being celebrated in West Hartford just yesterday. So we were able to bring the principal of AIS and a teacher that was a first grade teacher up to West Hartford. I traveled there with Board Chair Britton and where Danbury Public Schools, Western Connecticut International Studies School was presented with their Blue Ribbon Award. There were six schools there. It
042was a wonderful opportunity in a very small kind of closed classroom sized area to hear from the governor Susan Bysiewicz, hear from Commissioner Charlene Russell Tucker and many others about just the accomplishment that it is to achieve a blue ribbon status. The federal government did away with the federal blue ribbon status program and Connecticut picked right back up with their own version of it. And it was quite special and very distinguished. So we were we were very pleased about that. So that was a very nice event. And then just sit this morning already or since yesterday, the rising. Those of you were able to come to and rising. I'm losing track of time. It was seemed like already a couple of days have passed. That was just this morning where we were at Danbury High
043School with the advising group. And this is a group of students who committed to learn about the career path of becoming an educator. And over the course of their time at Danbury High School completed several projects and tasks aligned to that work and in a commitment to the field to continue on. And so today we had the honor of celebrating almost maybe 16 or 17 students that have committed to go on to college and engage in an educator prep program. And so we had a signing day at Danbury High School where they signed the dotted line as a commitment to the education field of education and that they would promise to when they're done, return back to the Danbury Public School system. So they signed on the dotted line, kind of like when you sign
044your college letter to play sports, but they're signing to come back to the school system. And then I presented them with a letter of commitment to interview them. So they present that. So they have a guaranteed interview when they're done and they'll present that back to us and make sure that every student gets who graduates from our program and who was into teaching comes back and gets and gets an interview with us. So that that was a really nice morning. And then lastly, we had some questions about the externship teacher PD and what that was all about. I know a few of you may have received some of our teachers in that in that project, but teacher externship. So for professional development in an academy model where we have 21 pathways and there are a
045variety of industries where all of these careers are in focus. It's really important for our teachers to go out and learn in industry in the field about the different things that they are expected to talk about and teach and nurture conversations about the fields in different industries. So last year, this is now the second year we were able to match our teachers based on the academies with job job shadows, industry experiences or on site collaborations with folks around town industries, greater Danbury area to shadow and to learn and to dig in. So they can come back and really have those connective conversations with students about where where where jobs are headed and what's happening real time discussion. So their PD even looks different in this model as well. So I don't know if anybody wants
046to share from them who received our students, but it was they came back. They were quite they had a great experience. Yeah, I had three teachers that were at our firm that came and when I was asked to to to have an externship at first I was like, you know, for the justice in law. And because I work at a law firm, so I was I thought, first I thought we were getting students, then I realized that we were getting teachers, but I thought that they were academy teachers that they were teaching that and but instead we got an ESL teacher, we had a counselor. And we had one of the jail teachers that was there. So at first I you know, they went out with the attorneys and one went to court and they
047were just spending the day with the different attorneys and paralegals within the office. But I came back to care and I said, OK, you got to help me make this connection because I'm not sure why you know what what are they getting out of this just so next year we can better, you know, help them to get as much information from the experience as we can. So it was very enlightening and that's why I'd asked you to kind of it was just great to see the other side of development in within this Academy model and how it's all connecting with the community. Yeah, and so so an English teacher. So even though you may not be teaching the elective for justice in law, you could be an English teacher or science teacher operating in that
048Academy and in that pathway. So it's important for all the teachers in the Academy to understand what it is that the students are learning and why they're there and what their passions are so they can make those interdisciplinary connections when they're teaching and working with kids. So everybody needs to be educated on the different facets of of of the model and of the industry background so that they can speak to it and build that excitement in those connections for students. So that's why we get them out. So we did have people had one staff, I thought it was students also. Then she showed up Angela was the person from this morning. So it was amazing and you know the things that she wanted to understand better about the landscape the early ed and bring it
049back to the students and that was, you know, of course next year it'll be better because this year I thought was students we prepared for the students. So but everything about how how to go about the pathway into college and you know I did it I did tell that students can come and in turn with us when they graduate and they will even you know they can even we can offer them a job. You're always looking for caregivers. So it was very interesting and you know next year will probably be more polished and fine tuned. Thank you. Okay, next board standing committee reports. Do I have anything from committees. Anybody want to report and go ahead. Nothing to report really just a reminder that tomorrow evening is our final policy meeting of the year, and
050it will be via zoom at 6pm. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have one last action item on the agenda. Do I have a volunteer. I make the motion that the Board of Education approved the leader and educator evaluation and support plan for 2026 2027 in accordance with exhibit 26 dash 91. Thank you motion made by out do I hear a second. Seconded by Sean. Any comments, questions or concerns. Seeing none, all in favor. Aye. Any opposed. Abstentions. Okay, motion carries. Okay. Just a few things I'd like to just talk about tonight we've had a really busy last couple weeks on the board. First thing we had the DS ABC breakfast. Since our last meeting, and it was as usual, a tearjerker, and I don't know if anybody else was there crying but it always
051makes me cry. But thank you to all the board members that attended it was, it was just a great time. I think we had a really just, we were having a little too much fun at the table, but it was really, it was wonderful wonderful event. I want to give a shout out to our Board of Ed representatives who serve on the DS ABC board which is our board member Lauren daily and Juanita Harris, thank you for taking on that additional role during the course of the year. It's, it's very appreciated. I also want to acknowledge that we do have board members that are mentors that have signed up this year. And so I started mentoring in January, I know many just began mentoring and Kate, and, and we have another one so we may
052have four and Sean. So it's it's wonderful and I get the right, it's contagious so as soon as one and then we just start going and it's just wonderful so thank you to all the board members for volunteering and being involved in this program. Second, we had we race graduation and that's the kickoff to the graduation season. One of my favorites. So thank you again we had an overwhelming turnout from the board again, and that is just wonderful. And believe me it is noticed, it is appreciated, you have no idea, I mean it's, these are the graduations that don't get the headlines, but they are just as important and to them and for us to be there so again thank you so much for showing up. I did attend career day at Westside Middle School
053last week they did a career day which was really fun. I didn't go in the capacity of the board it was also through work and I brought some people from work there but I just wanted to talk about it because they did such a great job doing it. There was such a great turnout from the community. And they had each classroom had a different theme so we were in legal, and then they just shifted every half hour new group of kids came in with the questions and they were so engaged and so wonderful and these are eighth graders and I just thought, smooth, well done. So, I hope it just to make it bigger next year was really great great to say, good, good job. We had that pep celebration last night, we did a
054lot this last two weeks my gosh. It's crazy. But thank you to everybody who showed up last night. Another great turnout from my board. Thank you to all those that came. It was another one of those programs that doesn't get the headlines but it is just so rewarding to see that those families and those, and then participation and just that gratification that they have for completing those programs it's wonderful. Moving on to the next week we go into a real real busy week. So, we're trying to get an idea of who will be at what graduation come next week so if you haven't clicked on the yes please try to do that so Kara has an idea of who's going where. I know Tuesday we have a ACE ACE is that. Bless you. Ace is
055at 430 and we have moved the superintendent evaluation meeting to seven, seven pm that night in person here so we could attend ace. Okay, so we'll meet here after the ACE graduation. And I think glass and we'll have some food for everybody so they can eat when they show up so you don't want anybody who's hangry to get here so that's that's. Yeah, no we'll try not to I'm sorry. It's fed before. Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am. You may yes broad view. Yes. And that's at 430. Wednesday we have the middle schools, I don't have all the times and I'm, it's a, I think we've got them all split up everywhere do you have the other all day on Wednesday, Wednesday. Do you want me to. Yeah, do you have the yeah. Broadview Middle School is
056running over is running for sessions. 1130 10 o'clock 1130 and one. And I think it's more of a word kind of approaching it as a divide and conquer. Yeah, I think it would be not realistic to everything so we can have Kara we send this out I believe she shared this already. And then west side is at five o'clock at DHS auditorium that same day Rogers Park is at nine o'clock and 12 o'clock at the RPS RPMS auditorium. And our hope is to get them on on a similar plane next year. We're going to be looking at maybe the O'Neill Center at West con indoor outdoors problematic that has proved to be an issue. But we're trying to look for a single single event day and location preferably indoors. Okay. Thursday. Yeah, that's it. That's
057Wednesday. And then Thursday we have reach and endeavor in the morning. Do we know who is anybody going to be attending reaching you'll be there. Okay. Okay. As long as we just have Pal Center. That's at the Pal Center. Do you know what time that is. 10 o'clock 10 o'clock 10 a.m. Okay. And then we have the high school graduation which begins at five. Information for that will come out Mr. Larrosa will check in with us. And I also have some items that I will send out as a separate email on the high school. And that should take us through next week. And then we just have one more board meeting on the 24th and then we will be on break. Okay. So with that does anybody else have anything they want to add over
058the last couple of weeks or share. No. No word anything. No. Okay. Well all right. Rest up the rest of the week because next week we're going to be going full speed. All right. So with that I think we're done with our agenda. Do you go ahead. Oh yes. Yes ma'am. Our CABE liaison has given us our CABE upcoming information. So see. So this will take us to the end of the year. Am I correct Juanita. Okay. So this information and these dates will take us to the end of the year. So we have an August 6th summer leadership conference delegate assembly on November 19th convention the 20th through the 21st a new board orientation December 10th. I'm presenting at the CABE caps in two sessions. Oh okay. Yay. When do we start. Do we
059know when that registration for that starts for the convention. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well stay tuned for that information to come out for us. Anything else. No. Do I hear a motion to adjourn. Do I hear a second. Seconded by Sean. All in favor.