Board of Education Meeting 10/8/20

001that i see you guys walking down there so right and there's a house up on the hill because the people built it in 1992 and then we sold it so we sold it and we didn't have any kids and advisors she was advisors and they transferred her here so she moved in there but she was the same owner since 1999. and we got to go in it it was like so exciting we'll call this meeting of the board of education to order um all members of president uh jack morehouse and heidi simmons are joining us virtually please join me in the pledge of allegiance first item on the agenda tonight will be board presentations and there are three uh we'll start with uh assistant superintendent marianne butler um dei update thank you and good evening

002we have quite a an ambitious update for you uh concerning our diversity equity and inclusion work it's in four buckets that we are going to address first is on grant opportunities the second is on our professional development work the third is in communication and the fourth is in programming so i'm very proud to announce that we have been invited by the international research and exchanges board known as irex from washington dc to participate in a grant application to support a two-year virtual exchange program for our secondary school teachers and students these these participants will be from the united states jordan morocco and other middle middle eastern north african mina countries identified through the fulbright network the project would allow for students to participate on a semester basis in activities centered on public health issues with

003opportunities to interact virtually with students from the united states districts and mina countries irex expects a total of 4 000 participants to be engaged globally senator heather summers crafted a letter of support on our behalf of the participation of stonington in the project she is also going to be considered as a possible distinguished presenter for the project if it's funded the award notification should occur late this fall with a virtual spring kickoff event we're hoping to have both middle school and high school students participate should the grant be awarded to irs i'd like to give a special nod to our fulbright middle school teachers that got this grant ν Fernandez a new me if we can do that thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Middle School is part of

004a select group of Fund for Teachers fellows chosen to participate in a follow-up project to their Facing History training that he participated in this summer. It's called Teaching for Equity and Justice. He's collaborating monthly with other past awardees to deliberately apply learning in his classroom and school. As an extension of this work, Tim plans to establish an equity and justice reading circle for students and families of Stonington Middle School. Meetings will occur virtually for participants to discuss sections of books from a selection that he is determining now and participate in related activities. The reading circle will also create an action plan for broadening conversations about equity at the middle school level. Under professional development, on September 30th, a district-wide conversation about identity, race, and racism streamed from the high school auditorium to all schools. Thank

005you. The three-hour session was co-facilitated by myself and Laurie Foote, the Director of Counseling from Region 7, who is a certified facilitator in DEI work. The faculty participated in activities to explore racial identity and its daily implications. All teachers participated in the same facilitated small group conversations at their home schools after watching the initial launch in activities broadcasted from high school. I will also be sending out to the board tomorrow some results, exit surveys that the teachers did district-wide about their experience in participating that morning. And if you'd like to also have any teacher comments, it's all anonymous. I'd be happy to provide that with you as well, to you as well. Diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership team. Teachers and administrative leaders have been identified at each building to participate in an eight-session series on

006DEI work. The district's leading the leadership team on DEI work through CREC. Assistant Principals Dianna Bucalli, Anne Faye Sullivan, Tom Musque, and Associate Principal Alicia Daw will lead the leadership team to plan and coordinate professional learning across the district throughout the year for all faculty members. The CREC series commences in November and continues through the spring of 2021, and addresses a range of DEI topics. In addition, these four leaders will facilitate similar sessions with the leadership team, including to ensure that the administrators have a common language and similar experience around the work. EastCon, Stonington High School and Stonington Middle School are continuing their respective partnerships with EastCon to support the implementation and monitoring of trauma sensitive practices to enhance student engagement for all students. Classroom visits are expected to commence shortly and will provide teachers

007and administrators feedback on the level of student engagement in the hybrid and distance models. Communication, diversity, equity and inclusion, the DEI webpage. Several alumni and parents have met with administrators to express an interest in DEI work that is underway across the district. A page dedicated to our work in DEI has been published to make our progress related to the call of action easily accessible to students, families and the community. We encourage you to visit the page and learn about our continuing work, creating an anti-racist learning environment for all students and staff. District Family Advisory Council, a new council with parent representatives from each school is under construction to increase the two-way communication between district and family about social, emotional and academic learning, new programming ideas and the progress on DEI work across the district with

008other aspects of learning experiences in the public schools as well. Members will be encouraged to co-create the agenda for discussion and possible action items with district leaders. We encourage you to join us for the next session of the DEI program, where we will meet three or four times a year. And finally, programming. You're gonna hear next up a presentation about voice, which is now a district-wide program that empowers students to advocate for themselves and others. And finally, we also now have K through eight, a second step social emotional learning curriculum being implemented this year. The need for extra attention in this area of teaching and learning has been recognized by the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Department of Education, and the Department of Education. We are now working with the Department of Education to

009develop a new program that will be able to help students with a more inclusive and inclusive learning environment to access content in all subject areas. I'd like to ask if there are any questions or comments from the board, please feel free to address them, but I would like to give Lily an opportunity to talk about what she's hearing from the high school perspective around this work. Hello. So I actually reached out to Ida Malik, who is the vice president of student government. She was really active over the summer and kind of getting on kickstarting a lot of petitions, just to kind of give a little bit of a sense of what she's hearing. And I think that's really important for the students to be able to get involved and connect with the students they're Saturn's

010so I think that we have made a lot of effort and from what I've heard we're making steps forward, but it still really is a perverse problem. So it's not just bad quality. We need to work on those issues and the thing I call aberger for me is that at the beginning of the pooling period, there was not a lot of room. I decided to support. I was just aware there was no breakout room, and I realized there was no breakout room standing around. TheFreedom of Everyone signet was a huge part. the recognition of this but also a proactive effort on behalf um not on the part of the students and also the staff so i think that even though a lot of these things are in place um it really just is about the

011conscious decision to integrate this into our curriculum so marianne what can the board do to uh enhance or support um the efforts that are underway so there's a few things there's a major concern by the teachers and the administrators that when these difficult conversations come up especially in the classroom that um they're handled so that we protect the feelings of all students that are in the classroom but also that the teachers know that you will have their they will have your support when those controversial subjects come up that is one of their reoccurring major major concerns the other thing is i think you could take some consideration i know you'll have a retreat forthcoming pretty soon um to put a board goal around some type of dei goal or work around equity a goal around

012equity and maybe perhaps even do some workshops yourselves as to model that for the community there's a lot of different resources out there and i'll be happy to put a list together for you effects of interest any uh questions or comments from the board jack heidi anything on on your end no okay all set thank you i just mentioned that in mystic there is a community book group and each month we read another book of of implicit bias and then discuss it right now there are about 30 members 33 members or so um you it is out of the episcopal church in uh it's in the groton side um i'm i'm not a member it you don't have to be a member but it's also run by the noank library and it's really good discussions

013we're um doing white fragility in a week and a half so open to all i guess it's just one question in terms of our hiring practices i know in uh in my company when when we look to hire there's a there's especially with things like um do we have anything where we look at diversity when we're when we're hiring specifically for teachers and you know other roles in the district is that is that part of our process i don't think i well let me back up we do have a minority recruitment plan we do okay um that was actually a requirement by the state department of education to have in place in january of this past year uh they didn't collect it or approve it or anything like that i do think we can be

014more mindful of that and i think that's a great question um i think that's a great question um i think that's a great question um i think that's a great question where are we looking at processes when we're looking at candidates quite frankly we don't where are we looking at processes when we're looking at candidates quite frankly we don't have a lot of diverse candidates have my my first impression is that maybe we can do a little bit um more deliberate work with the universities when they're looking for student teacher placements because that's a nice way to say spread the word about what a great experience you have in stonington and maybe hopefully we can hire some of those folks back but again not having a human resource department here that specializes in it that's

015kind of a shared uh piece of our work that we have to make that a more deliberate effort across the district. No, that's a fair point. I mean, when I look, I think of my company, I mean, that's arguably one of the top two things that our HR department is focused on right now. So that's good. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Next presentation is on Title IX. Allison Vennon. Magic touch. Good evening. So I have a presentation up on the screen here, and I'm going to make sure that you all receive a copy of this so that you can reference it after tonight's meeting. And certainly I'm happy to follow up with you with additional questions. So my portion of the presentation tonight is really going to focus on looking at the new Title

016IX regulations that came out in August. You had a policy that was approved back in August. We're going to talk, I'm going to try to highlight for you some of those changes related from the U.S. Department of Education with regard to Title IX in schools. I'm also going to try to highlight some of the changes that were made in the past. So I'm going to talk about some of the compliance aspects that we have in place in our schools. And really, I'd like to talk about it more in terms of overcompliance. So we want to make sure that we're addressing any concerns that board members of the public had about students' ability to report, who to contact, who they can go to. So I'm going to go through what I apologize is a little blitz-like.

017And for some of you, this will be, some of it is a repeat from the presentation we had in January. And of course, I've added new components. When Anne-Marie and Alicia started, we had a lot of new components. So I'm going to go through a little bit more detail about that. And then when they're going to speak after me, they're going to really talk more about the direct work with students that's going on that pertains to some of these policies and programs. So the first really is to highlight the policy changes that took place this August with regard to Title IX. There are multiple changes, but I'm going to try to highlight a few of them for you here. One of the biggest changes is that they're really looking at schools to only be responsible

018for investigating events or Title IX violations that occur in an event where the school has substantial control over the event. So obvious example of that would be in the school during the school day. Other examples of that would be a field trip or a school-sponsored dance that might occur on the weekend. In the past, this was much more vague. So if the school got a report of something that perhaps may have happened off campus, but it affected two students in school, the school had a greater responsibility to look at that. So now they're asking schools to really focus on those events that have happened. That doesn't mean that if an event occurred out of the school, that the school wouldn't address it in terms of putting supportive measures in place for those students. The other

019piece is it's very clear now of who is involved in a Title IX investigation, and they actually require at this point that there's a minimum of two people involved. So one of those people is the investigator, and the other person is the decision maker, and they can't be the same people. So that's very clear in the new regulations. They also are very clear. They're not going to be the same people. They're not going to be the same people. So it's very clear that anybody in the role of Title IX coordinator, and by the way, we have myself as the district Title IX coordinator, and we have a coordinator in each building. Right now, all of our building administrators are trained, but our assistant principals are really fulfilling that role right now. They cannot be the

020decision maker. So they've really separated the Title IX coordinator role from being the decision maker. The other piece is that the respondent to a Title IX complaint is offered the presumption of innocence during that investigative process. So as a school, the investigator is not supposed to pass any judgment or make any kind of decision favoring one party over the other during that investigation process. The other piece is that we need to allow both the respondent and the complaintant party to be able to review all of the evidence that we've collected as part of our investigation prior to our final decision. We also are required, and these are, we've already been posted to post any training materials that we use to train our Title IX, both the coordinator and the investigators. So you will see, I'll

021talk about this in a minute, we have four different training videos that are posted that anybody can go on and watch. And those are specific to those roles that I just mentioned. And the last thing is that there is actually now a formal complaint template that came as part of the regulation. We have, we are going to be using that template. We do have, and I'll mention this later too, we do have a specific section of the district website that is now a Title IX section. So that's where we're housing the training videos, we're housing our regulations and our policies there. And I've also made sure that that complaint form is on that section of the website. So it's easily accessible to anybody. Next, I want to talk a little bit about the training and

022education that our administration has gone through. And much of this has been occurring over the last almost two years now. We have all completed a sexual harassment training for managers. We have all for two years now attended the Title IX coordinator training for the state. That is actually held in October. So I just had my updated training earlier this week. The rest of our building administrators are cycling through that in the next two weeks. We've also had our leadership team. Have a meeting with Safe Futures where we really walked through a lot of these nuances of our student and our teacher relationships in our buildings. We've also had our DCF liaison from Stonington come in to meet with our leadership team and talk with us very specifically about reporting incidences to DCF. And we also

023have obtained, this was actually through part of our work with the OCA, a actual training guide from the US Department of Education. And this is really specific to addressing misconduct by school staff in the school setting. So all of our administrators have access to that document. And we've been using that as a guide for some of our training and education as well. So we've had our teachers go through quite a bit of training as well. They are also had a training module that they participated in through our Karma online programming. We have recently onboarded a new training platform. It's called Safe Schools. This was actually recommended to me this summer by a couple of other local districts that are using it. So this has both a staff training platform and then a student's platform for

024grades 9 through 12. So we are new members of Safe Schools and Alicia is going to talk a little bit more about how we're going to be using that training platform with our high school students. We are already using it with our staff. And as a matter of fact, our students use that as their coronavirus training very early this school year. So we've actually had some more intensive staff meetings at the high school to really again look at that staff student relationship that was done last year. All of our staff in our schools this year have already repeated our DCF mandated reporter training. That's actually due every three years, but we're doing that every two years. And we also redistributed the Connecticut Teacher Code of Conduct and I will ask Ana to include this when

025she includes the PowerPoint. So you can take a look at that. That is a document. That is put out by the State Department of Education and it's distributed to teachers along with their teaching certificates, but it does really specifically speak to a lot of what we see about our teachers and their connections and relationships with students. So again Alicia and Ann Marie are going to talk a lot more about this, but in terms of our student and training and education, we've really looked at our student handbooks to make sure there's as much information in there as possible so that students know who to contact. So that students know who to contact. If they have any concerns with regard to Title IX, they have my information. We make suggestions about other people that they could go

026to. We're telling them where they can find additional information about the policies. I have also emailed the high school students that information. So they have my email. They have the letter that we send out to all the families as well. So they know how to contact me directly. We're also going to start emailing the students on a more quarterly basis. And also doing some policy updates in school on a quarterly basis. When I met with the student advisory group last year, one of the things they said to me is, you know, you guys are always reminding us about stuff the first week of school, and we don't really pay attention the first week of school to all that stuff. We have a lot of other things on our mind. So that really brought us to

027the idea that we should be doing more refreshers of this information and getting this information out more frequently to students. So I came up with the idea that if we time that with report cards, that's kind of a great way for us to be thinking to have. What are the policies? What is the information? What are reminders? We need to get out to our students, not just about Title 9, but anything related to student safety. And as I indicated previously, we have revised our online anonymous bullying report is now called a student incident report and a student can use that to report any kind of safety concern or issue. And my information is also included on that report, which is online and available at all. This. School district websites, the school website, I should say,

028continuing student training and education. We've had multiple assemblies, especially specifically at the high school level. Again, they're going to talk more about some of those that have already taken place this year. I mentioned the Title 9 section of the website, which is accessible, obviously to students and families and staff, the Safe Schools training platform. I'm going to provide you a handout, which will kind of give you a rundown of all the different curriculum. Offerings and the course offerings that are on that. We're going to really be using that with the students in a variety of settings, everything from our health class to our advisory classes. And I know, Mrs. Dahl will talk a little bit more about her use of that training platform. The other big piece is really trying to engage our students as

029much as possible and looking at our practices, looking at our policies and asking, how can we do better and what would work for you? And how can we make sure that you know who to go to? And so, we're really making sure and again, as when they speak about the voice program, they really talk about students being involved in that. And we additionally will be having our parent advisory group as part of that as well. I think Mary Ann just mentioned, we have our second step curriculum that was added this year for K through five, and that is a social emotional curriculum. So the last piece really pertains to our communications with families. Again, they've received all the information with my contact information, and they have access to our Title IX section of the website.

030They also are informed about how to report anonymously so that both parents and students have access to those links. The other thing that we're really looking to do is to make sure that we're communicating with families when we are discussing these topics at school. And so I know Mr. Freeze has been working on making sure that his weekly bulletin has an update and a heads up for parents when we're going to be talking about these topics in school, because we really want to make sure that we're talking about these topics at school. Because we really think it's important for families to be able to follow up when we have these assemblies and when we have this important discussions with students at school. The other piece I already mentioned is engaging that parent advisory group in

031some of this work, and I've already mentioned the Title IX section of the website. So I apologize for the list-like fashion of that presentation, but I'm happy to ask any questions. And again, Alicia and Ann Marie are going to get into that. And to more of the specifics with the work with the students. Allison, I have one question. So when staff is working with students, are we doing anything to role play or show them what, you know, uncomfortable behavior looks like and that it's not okay? Yeah, so we've actually, we kind of have three layers of that. Our leadership team has actually been through that. So as that safe future session that I referenced earlier, we've actually been through that exactly what you just said is kind of going through that mock scenario role-playing. Last

032year, Mr. Freeze and Mr. Curlin did a similar faculty meeting with their staff. They actually took handouts from that misconduct guide that I was talking about that really, they really focused on different scenarios between students and staff. And what they also really tried to focus on in some of those gray areas, you know, a good example, we hear even in our safe schools training, which I'll mention in a second, you know, the coach driving the kid to practice and those kinds of things. So they really tried to dig into that as much as possible. And then the third layer of that is that and this is the first official training of anything that we have been able to find. We've been looking for a very long time. The safe schools platform actually has a training

033module for staff and it is specific to staff student relationships. And exactly focuses on those gray areas that I just talked about and really have asking staff to step back and think about appropriateness and your relationships with your students. So actually the high school staff are going to be participating in that this coming week. Right. So I'm thinking about more geared for the kids specifically. So they're a little bit more about that in terms of some of the programming that we're doing directly with students around. That okay. And Alicia's actually already started some of that with our youth officer. What else? And you talked about the three different roles, the building. Yeah, coordinator, the investigator and decision maker. So it sounds like the coordinators already been identified in the assistant principal. How are the other

034roles determined and are there criteria that used to determine that? So we're really using in and let me begin by saying this, the person. That is the decision maker has to be somebody that is non biased. Okay, so you have to think about your relationship to any of the students that are in the situation to be in that position. So that being said, we're presuming that 90 to 95% of the time that decision maker person is going to be the principal of the building and they've been through all of the investigative training. They've been through the title nine coordinator training. We're presenting any what has been commonplace? Is our? Our assistant principal, therefore, would take the role of the investigator. And so their job is really to receive the complaint, start the investigation process, which

035is quite very detailed oriented in the regulations of the proper steps that have to take place with that. So it's every, you know, it's obviously interviewing the complaint in interviewing the respondent, interviewing witnesses, making both the respondent and the complaint in giving them access to. All the information that's come from the investigation and then they have to present a summary of that investigation to the decision maker and the decision maker is the one that's going to decide if there's been a violation of title nine and they issue that final decision and both the respondent and the complaint received that information from the decision maker at the same time. So is it assumed that it would be the principal or do you get involved in that? The say, no, in this case, is the mid principal

036and the assistant principal. I cannot be the decision maker because I'm the title nine coordinator. Sorry, in terms of deciding who the decision maker would be. I you so I'm informed from the onset of the investigation. And as I'm informed, we would discuss who that person would be. Got it. Okay, so you're involved in that. Yeah, I can. I mean, I'm really confident saying in most cases, it's going to be the principal. If there was an appeal of that decision that would bump up to the district level. Again, somebody other than myself. In the training that I was just in that they actually have 400 people from the state participating in this next two weeks. There was great concern among schools who don't have two administrators because of this new rule and they're really struggling

037with that because oftentimes and I had this role for a very long time. So I understand it really well. When you have a school with one administrator, you often go next to your guidance counselor, your social workers in your school psychologist. Well, guess what? Those are the people. That unfortunately do end up being biased because they have often very close relationships with specific students or many of the students. So I know a lot of districts are really struggling with this. We're fortunate that we have that dual administrative role and at the high school. We have the three people as well to be able to kind of divide that up. But it is time-consuming from that aspect as well. Any other questions or comments from the board? Yeah, Alison, this sounds fabulously complex. How is an

038investigation initiated? What is it? Can it just come from an anonymous email? The anonymous email thing that you were talking about? Does it have to begin with one of the authoritative figures? How does how big a concern does it have to be before the ball? And what does it have to be before the ball begins to roll? When we when we just updated actually that anonymous online reporting, we actually updated it not only to include my information, but to also indicate to students that if they or to anybody, a parent, if they felt that their report was going to be specific to sexual harassment, that they had an additional option, which was to contact me, complete our sexual harassment complaint form, which will also be on our Title IX website. That doesn't mean they still

039can't choose the anonymous option. The problem with the anonymous option is is that it really prohibits your investigative process. So and we have a line if you if you go on to the website, I'll be happy to send you the link. But we try to talk a lot about this in the first couple paragraphs on that on that anonymous form that you have to realize if you're going to be able to complete the form, you're going to be anonymous. Sometimes you're limiting our ability to investigate something, but we are giving students two different options of using that form or actually using the file, the complaint document. Now, we're not going to be requiring that the initial complaint be in writing. So a student could go to and again, we also make a note to say

040you can go to the following people because we really want to encourage kids to go to who they're comfortable with. Many kids don't know. I am so we want to make sure that they know they can go to their principal. They could go to their counselor on the complaint form. We even mentioned that you should ask if you are uncomfortable filling it out. You should ask a trusted adult to assist you. So we really try to encourage them to be able to go to whoever they feel the most comfortable with and they can make that report just in a conversation. And then we're going to use the complaint form itself as a guideline for that initial interview. When we collect the information can make can they go to a peer? I all of the people

041that you mentioned, seeing adult or an authority. But is there a peer group that they actually could appeal to so they could go to a peer, but then it would be the responsibility of the peer to go and report that. Alicia and Alicia. Maria are going to. talk a lot about that empowerment piece. And so I think it's actually a perfect segue to that, is really talking not just about our students speaking up for themselves, but also speaking up for each other. So certainly you could go to a friend and have a friend go and report. And I think that a lot of times we're getting those, when we actually do get those anonymous reports, they're often about another student. So somebody else is reporting on behalf of a peer. Thank you. Sure. Any other

042questions or comments before we transition? I have a question. Go ahead, Jack. I should know this at this point, but do students have an opportunity to fill out evaluations at the end of the year, thinking that you fill out an anonymous evaluation that you may, if we're having a problem with someone, it may start to show up on something like that. Or are there other ways that we survey students to just find out about their experience in general? So every year we're required to have our students participate in what we call the school climate survey. And that's actually another category under the safe schools initiative, safe schools climate initiative. And I will warn you that that process is also going through a significant revision by the state department of education. I think there are a

043lot of students that are going through that process. And I think that's a little bit behind in their work on that because we were actually supposed to get some information about that in January and I haven't seen it yet. But yeah, so, so I don't, but I don't think that piece of it will change yet. So in addition to the survey that you get as a parent, we're doing those same surveys with our students in elementary, middle school and high school. And I do want to add to that to say that we will absolutely be continuing to tailor those questions really specifically. And we already asked things like, do you feel like you have an adult experience? Do you feel like you have a role in the building that you can go to that you

044trust if you have a problem? So we're already asking that as a question, but we're going to continue to really look at those questions that pertain to student safety and in terms of student's comfort level with reporting any concerns that they have. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, we can transition to the third presentation on the voice update. Alicia and Ann Marie Hull. So can everybody hear me? So I have to say, I'm very, very excited to be speaking to you tonight about voice. I will be honest with you this was a program that started two years ago, based on a very organic conversation. We were having myself. I was invited into. This is Hull's women's studies class, two years ago, and after I gave my little presentation to the class, a very organic conversation. came

045up which basically became the springboard of voice so this has been going on for two years but now we have the opportunity to really hone in on the high school and distribute this district-wide so voice is empowering students at every level to have a voice and to ensure their needs are met with appropriate grade level resources I'm sure there's a couple of those somewhere so this is a district K through 12 program that will impact all students through the implementation of a student empowerment initiative to ensure every student in the district develops the skills and belief system to advocate for themselves and their peers this comprehensive program will develop student voices foster social and emotional learning provide executive functioning skills to ensure all students are comfortable and capable of functioning in a virtual world and

046the capability of reporting concerns that they have about their safety well-being of others and the integrity of their learning environment what it will include student groups will be partnering within the school and throughout the district which we have been doing for the last two years provide focused age-appropriate delivery of instruction on interpersonal skills to a myriad of topics which we'll get into in just a minute while high school students will serve as a role model to the students in the lower grades. That has already been occurring. In addition, the district-wide program will provide K through 12 supports to all high school graduates to fulfill the high school's vision of a graduate, which is a NAS standard that we will be developing within the next two years. And there'll be more to come on that at

047the end of this year. So what does it look like at the high school? It looks like the following. We have a student advisory group, which I will get a little more into in a few minutes. We have a teacher advisory group that has been meeting since the summer. We have link crew. We have mentorship. We have a parent advisory group. Safe Futures will be providing individual counseling on site as well as, and I do want to some, I can't remember, I think it was Frank who brought it up. They will be providing professional development, with our staff on role-playing, which was an activity that we had did as an administrative team. They too will be coming in and working with the high school staff. Advisory and task block, that is where our activities and

048programming and presentations are occurring. The Safe Schools training platform that Allison has mentioned quite a bit. We have been onboarding resources and programs and webinars to the teachers and the staff, which I'll, you know, I'll be talking about in a little bit. So we have a lot of resources. I'll get into a little bit more. And our new student resource officer, officer Carrie Browning, who has been in and been meeting with the students quite some time. And I'm so glad Lily's here, but she'll definitely give me her impression, her honest opinion on what that's been like. And again, this one is to be coupled with the senior project, which will become the vision of the graduate, which will be a NEAS requirement. And I'm so glad Lily's here, but she'll definitely give me her insight

049on what that looks like. And I'll be talking a little bit more about that as we develop it within the next two years. So who is the, who are our voice teacher advisory group? Mrs. Whole, who is our coordinator. I don't mean to have my back to you. Alisa Whitman, Yolanda Fernandez, Whitney Stan, Jeffrey Parkinson, Jeff Lewis, John Denard, Sharon Riley, Moe Steinhoff, Ken Cody, Janice Lam, Sari Monica, Sally Monica, and Jen Solomon. So of this group of 13, we have nine teachers, two guidance counselors, and four coaches. Topics, and I think Jack, in virtual world, you asked about where do these topics come from? Do the students get a chance to voice their concerns? So what we did over the summer was we took a look at the climate, the student surveys, the last

050student survey that they fill out at the end of the year. And based on those surveys, we came up with these topics. Now, as the year progresses, and we hear from our student advisory group, we can change this, and we can also add to it. And I'll also talk about the Google Classrooms that we started. So these are just a few of the topics. I won't read through them. Self-respect, empathy, self-esteem, stress management, sexual harassment, social media, leadership, social justice, friendship and dating, coping with pressures, microaggressions. Now, we have a lot of questions. What's really important are some takeaways that our teachers are actually seeing in the classroom. And at this point, I'm going to have Mrs. Hul go into what some of those are. Hello. So the image you see on the right is

051actually one that shocked me personally. So years ago, when I started women's studies, I had a softball player who asked if she could innocently charge her phone in my classroom. And it seemed like an easy thing to do. So the charger was near my desk, and I plugged it in. And that next 71 minutes, her phone just kept going. It just kept going off and off and off. We all have our group chats. I have one with my sister who tends to go off and off and off. But this is what it looked like at the end of a 71-minute class. And that wasn't even including Snapchat. So it doesn't mean that 396 messages are negative. It could just be her friend or her mom or dad asking how the day went. But it's a

052complete distraction in the classroom. And that was sort of the point that we did with the staff when we did some training on boys with the high school teachers is to sort of put them in the students' shoes. While you're teaching and you really believe in what you're teaching, this is vibrating in their pocket. So how do we get them to feel confident enough to either shut off their phone or use their voice to say, please stop texting me because it's distracting me? It does play a part in the image to the left, which I think all of us probably know about, which are the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. But they're experiencing something that probably most of us, I'm not aging you, I promise, but myself included, which is the digital part of what

053they're experiencing as teenagers, even as young as middle school. So this is part of the image, and this is really what they're experiencing. I'm sure Lily could attest to it. And it's a lot for them to handle because they're not equipped. They haven't been educated on how to handle that. November 4, we're launching voice at the elementary school. And then once that is going, we will then conquer the middle school. And some of these are the same topics you'll see at the high school, but they will be age appropriate. And then once that is going, we will then conquer the middle school. And some of these are the same topics you'll see at the high school, but they will be age appropriate. Especially at the middle school level, healthy relationships will focus really on friendships.

054So how do you voice to your friend that they're not being nice to you? Something simple as that. But it's not simple to them. We're adults, and they're very young still. So these are some of the middle school topics. And then what did voice look like at the elementary school? I will personally tell you it's been the greatest joy of my professional life here at Stonington Public Schools. Alicia and Mary Ann, they let us jump right in. And in women's studies that first semester, I had unbelievable kids, and they said, let's do it. We wish we had this when we were in elementary school. They really, really voiced that their issues personally started as young as elementary school. Whether that was body image, whether it was self-confidence, which it was lack of empathy for people.

055So for the past two years, over 75 kids from women's studies has gone down to West Vine. We did mentor the fourth grade. Then they got to loop with us in fifth grade, which ended up being a great experience. So three semesters of women's studies. And they came up with the slogan, which was be a voice, not an echo. That is one of the groups that went down. Behind them are the chain links, which was one of our biggest projects. But every fifth grade student in West Vine was asked to write something nice about every other kid in West Vine in fifth grade. And then at Christmas time, we actually gave them each a chain link with about 75 compliments about themselves that they got to take home for the holiday. And then obviously, we

056had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. And then obviously, pictures help. We did start at the Old West Broad. And then we made our move. But including all, what does that mean? Staying safe, which was mindfulness and anxiety and how to deal with that. Obviously, teamwork was a favorite one of the kids. But we did talk, how do you translate that into the classroom? And then modeling respect. COVID did obviously impact us a little. So we did have to go virtual last year. In the spring. But we talked about communication, why that's important. Empowerment of the community, which is one we're hoping to hit this year, which is eventually presenting to you, the Board event. And then here are some of the pictures of yoga that you'll see. Sarah Kimball, who

057actually is a Sturrington High School graduate, volunteered her time to go into West Vine and teach the kids yoga. They loved it. The kids that never stopped talking couldn't believe they could actually relax and go zen for a minute. So that's a great picture. And then the quote up top is the most important thing. It actually was a reflection from one of my students who said he believed that the voice program is not about giving these kids a voice. It's actually just reminding them that they have one. And this, he believed, was the greatest thing about the program. So you'll see it was a huge success. It doesn't mean it's overnight. It took two years to actually see that the progress was happening. I think you're next. So what has the high school kids learned?

058What has the high school student body experienced so far this year? I feel like we have been in school for a couple of months, but actually it's only been five weeks. And we've done quite a bit. So all the students have experienced experience thus far. They're having their second one tomorrow, an age appropriate class activity during class block. Thank you. We'll go. Oh, hello. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. This is cool as passing out a sample. That was the outcome of one of our activities that we had done. I'm. The entire school. Safe schools, online courses. So all of our students started the year with three COVID specific online courses, three of the safe schools platform. Next week. that they will be taking. The first two days of home-based, which is also called task block,

059task block home-based, it's the same thing. They specifically have a checklist. The teachers have a checklist of what they need to go over with the students for the first couple of days of school. And one of those items specifically on the checklist, and for those of you who have never seen it, this is the student agenda, student handbook. And the teachers are instructed to specifically point out on pages 20 and 42 of the student handbook, which points out the Stonington Public School policies, Title IX policies, sexual harassment, and sexting. So they go over that within the first couple of days. We also, Anne-Marie has created a voice Google Classroom for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. Within those Google Classrooms that all students have gone into, also contain the same policies that are in the

060handbook, are now in the Google Classroom. So the students have those policies, reporting forms at their fingertips. It also includes the youth officers' contact information and the ability to contact any one of us to also identify topics or areas of concern that they would like us to address, whether it be in a lesson, whether it be in a presentation. Our student advisory group will also be meeting on October 14th for the very first time. All seniors, juniors, and sophomores, we finished our last group today, have received presentations from our youth officer, our freshman will go next week. And Officer Browning, who is our youth officer, brought in Officer Saunders, and he had taught, he was talking about a myriad of issues that we need to address. And we have a set of topics. This one

061was sex trafficking, alcohol abuse, and Lily, I know, experienced one of the presentations. I'm just curious, I know I'm putting you on the spot and I apologize. Could you just, what was your impression of that? Oh, yeah. So, like Ms. Doe said, it was at 9am in the morning and we were learning about sex trafficking in our area. So, it was shocking and I told Ms. Doe at lunch, I was like I was not expecting that. But I think what's really important was that, I mean, it had that effect on us. Like we've been having those kind of discussions since we were in elementary school. Like we've always been talking about, you know, say no to drugs. And this has been kind of drilled into us. But this is definitely a change from what we've

062had in the past. So to that, I think that you succeeded in leaving an impression, which is good. And in all fairness, and I will say over the summer, Officer Browning said, you know, really and truly, Alicia, we need to talk about sex traffic. And I said to her, my exact words were, there's no sex trafficking in Stonington. I said, are you crazy? And then she proceeded to go into the very real stories in our area. And I almost dropped dead when I heard. So I said, and how it leads to it and how innocent it is. So to lead towards that. So it was very, very, very informative. So, and we will be having more discussions. So this was, we're almost finished with this series. We'll have our freshmen next week. Then we'll take

063a little break. And then we'll start up again with a new series of topics to present to our freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I'm sorry. Can't help it. But it's nice because we are meeting in very small group sessions. So the officers only have three classes at a time. And because we're in the hybrid mode, we really only have 20 kids in front of us and maybe 20 kids virtually. So it's nice. And they do feel very comfortable. And Officer Saunders has been coming in after his third shift to meet with our students. So if you're listening, Officer Saunders, thank you again. Parents received information about our voice program the second week of school. And our first parent advisory group will be meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

064Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our high school staff, what have they done with voice? Well, we have provided professional development on voice in August. They spent an entire morning listening to myself and Mrs. Houle, as well as participating in the first activity that our students did. We also have a staff voice Google Classroom, which also contains the links to all the activities that they are doing at the task block with their students. It also includes. It also includes. It also includes. It also includes. It also includes the safe schools online training. So as Allison mentioned, as I mentioned, at the beginning of the year, the staff has taken all the safety, the COVID training, bloodborne pathogens

065through safe schools. Now they will be receiving other trainings that we will be onboarding, such as sexual harassment. And also the youth officers contact information is in it. Elementary school, both West Vine, I think Anne-Marie already mentioned this. And also the youth officers contact information is in it. And also the youth officers contact information is in it. And also the youth officers contact information is in it. Both West Vine and Dean's Mill will be starting with their juniors and senior mentors on November 4th. Okay. So what you see up here are the results of the first activity that we did with our students. So part of my job was to go through every single child's reply. So like 675 of them. And I put together. Thank you. I put together a whole list, both for

066the staff and administration. And these, I just want to say that not all are obviously sad. Like these are just the ones for, to show you where we want to improve. Some kids thought they were great. Lily. And so it's important. I'm kidding. I'm just joking. But I will say this in all seriousness. How do you improve? You have to get down to the core of where the problem is. And I applaud the administration at every level and the board of ed for saying, let's figure it out. Right. That's the only way you can improve. So some of them, the assumptions that they made. I was shocked by how many kids wrote. That they weren't smart. It was. It was, it was depressing. And these were students I have who are not. They are smart.

067They're not dumb. So that just shows you their lack of confidence within themselves. So many unsuccessful. Some said, I, you know, that I come from a stable home. All right. Some kids wrote that I don't come from a stable home, even though I pretend I do. Words to describe myself. And then. I think there's something I wish people knew about me. Really struck a chord with the staff at Stonington high school. Some of them, even the one I'm more than an athlete. Many kids wrote that. And as a softball coach, right. You think the kids want to be known as that, but there's so much more than just that. There's so much more than the star in the drama production. So obviously I have a whole other side of me. So now we want. So

068tomorrow we actually are going to put the ball into the students court and say, how can we help you? We were going to ask each own base to come up with three action plans. And then that's sort of. That's the question. Now you're talking about a one minute firsthand, you're talking about a one minute firsthand, but we're talking about three. So you're talking about three. Yeah, five or six minutes. So you're saying we're going to. There's. We're going to be. We're going to have a one minute firsthand on two part, and then you're going to have a one minute firsthand on one part. And then, without that, we're going to have a one minute. In the middle of the day. Where we will conclude this activity and start to implement things. We did a mini

069one at West Vine. So those kids you'll watch a video in a quick second, you know, or I should say, you know, doing their feelings on paper. They have a problem verbalizing it. And that's where the disconnect is, even at the high school level. That's our job. How do we get it? You guys, I'm just being honest. This was like a month ago. They're already sharing their feelings. It's already working. They almost just need permission to start sharing their feelings. And it sounds crazy, but so does the staff. I've had more staff members come up to me sharing and using their voice about what they want to do next. They just needed permission. And as crazy as that sounds, we've given permission. They're already empowered. So hopefully when we come back in June, you will

070see we'll have actual concrete evidence for it. But this in itself is obviously it's a huge starting point for us. Thank you. Being creative and fun. This is what Catholic school experience meant to all of us. The amount of involvement that we received from our high school students and the connections that you made with our kiddos is more than we ever expected. You exceeded our expectations and this became a project that just re-documented. Our students. Value and treasure you more than you could ever. For spending your time with my students and what an impact you made on their lives. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. The voice was kids coming down and teaching them how to use and find their voice. You're teaching them how to put up with affairs that can't

071be avoided by anyone. You're sharing this voice. Now it's just a little taste of the last year and the beginning of this year. So please know that we have so many different groups meeting this year that can also indicate where we meet, where we go, where we go. And so thank you so much for having us here. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much for having us. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. to go different topics um i would like to use this opportunity and she'll be mad at me later to thank uh ann marie for um the hours that she's putting into um onboarding these lessons for our teachers um reading through every single one of their responses the responses it's incredible so from the

072bottom of my heart you know um so at this time i'm happy to answer any questions that you may have um any questions or comments gordon just more of a comment i just say that this is awesome i mean it's it's uh congratulations thank you i think it's i think it's i think it's great i think it's needed i think it's timely um and i guess one thing i would just say is let's not let this just be you know stonington this is something that you know hopefully we're sharing with westerly and east lime and waterford and everybody else because i mean i mean i know i'm sure you know i've got a 15 year old and how are things going good how's practice good right ask him about today's presentation because joe put him

073on the spot good good but they don't talk right like even my own son to me and then to to help teach them that is thank you i think it's awesome a huge part and i'm not going to call out on your son but the the leaders that are boys hold such a huge part of this because a lot of it is teaching the boys at a younger age that it's okay to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and to be a leader and okay to be expressive um and that's a key part of it because if we

074start them young then there's going to be no shame when they get to the high school they can express feelings but again they're already doing it they just needed permission but i agree gordon we all have kids they don't talk to us but they're talking to other people i promise lily did you have something i do i just like to say not only did miss cool read every response she also wrote a note back to us um so just saying made my day um i i do have a question so for the elementary middle school you have high school mentors are you planning on doing some sort of like peer discussions as well or is that is it just like officer branding and like in your lessons for high school with voice with voice at

075the end yeah in voice in the high school i'm asking if you're also doing some sort of um peer discussion or is that just for elementary and middle mentor we definitely as we move forward yes i mean you're going to see you might have really heavy for the first time yes um right okay because i was going to suggest that if you weren't planning on it i think that like smaller groups and just talking to each other that way yes connects people that's that's my point we didn't have that on there so that's what we need to hear absolutely i just want to say that all three presentations were incredibly encouraging and i'm hopeful for all three of them um you know diversity is important for all of us and and for our country and

076uh you know title nine i also thank you for all your hard work and i'm incredibly encouraged by the voice program i hope it takes off and i hope you have a great participation and we look to you to encourage everybody in high school to have a voice and to participate in this program it's really awesome thank you heidi jack anything uh real real real quick um sorry heidi i didn't want to step on you there um um i just want to echo what rupe just said uh this is incredibly um encouraging and um it looks like it's going to be a great program um when mrs hool uh spoke about the cell phone usage um that really kind of struck a chord with me i know with my own kids um you know smartphones

077really started to take over their lives um i've had several high school students recently um uh as employees and they're all good employees good kids um but you know one of them uh um said to me you know mr morehouse i would prefer you you text me rather than speak to me and at that point i knew that we've got a problem in our country we've got a problem with this generation because you know i i said quite frankly i like to look you in the eye and i'm going to do what i and and talk to you um so and and i think this happens at an early age um i know with with um my niece and nephew um they're constantly on their phones and occupied by their smartphones and i know at

078one point i don't want to sound like a broken record here but we had talked about wait till eight um which is a program which allows students to have phones but they're not smartphones and uh so they still can communicate with their parents they can text and so forth and i think you know maybe we don't do that but maybe we look at other programs or something similar that give kids a chance to to be kids quite frankly and to get their faces out of their phones um i know harassment's a real problem um um it becomes an obsessive compulsive uh thing for these kids when they're constantly on their phones so i uh it seems like that aspect might be a part of this program and and i would encourage um our administration to

079to pursue that because if i could look at one thing that was when i look back at my three kids that's been kind of a negative impact on their childhood i would say it's a smartphone so um and i'm sure i'm not the only one so again i want to commend all of you for doing such a fine job and uh thank you for all your hard work and that's it thanks i echo what everyone has said it's really impressive and exciting to be a part of this and i want to thank all of you for your creativity and um your uh originality it's wonderful thank you thank you thank you and i'm happy to come back i think somebody slid it in that i'd be coming back quarterly to give updates which i'm very

080happy to do and i promise you i will not take this much time i really just wanted to give you an overview of the program that we appreciate it thank you very much all right next item on the agenda communications and recognitions um gordon let's start with you anything elisa lily anything on your end baruch jack jack heidi craig said he's good so we'll uh move on uh next item on the agenda comments from citizens um we did not have any um next item is the consent agenda there are two sets of minutes uh september 10th and september 9th um checks and bills and personnel report um i know heidi uh you want to remove the september 10th minutes is that correct no no no no i i it concerns the september 9th minutes number

081nine so you want to remove the september 9th minutes removed i just i wanted to add something to them right so i have to remove it first move the september 9th minutes from the consent agenda we'll approve that consent agenda okay comment as to what you want to add to the minutes right now right now right now okay um that they what we need a motion to remove the minute from i make a motion to remove the minutes there's a motion made there's a second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries so the consent agenda now contains one set of minutes checks and bills personnel report what's your pleasure my pleasure there's a motion made to approve the consent agenda is there a second second there's a second

082all in favor uh opposed motion carries okay heidi september 9th minutes um uh the minutes reference a statement that i made but i would like my full statement to be attached to the minutes and i will send that text to anna okay is that in so i'd like to make a motion to have my full statement attached to the minutes it's a motion to add her full statement is there a second i'll second it second there's a motion made there's a second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor all right opposed motion carries uh next item on the agenda is the approval of the long-awaited employee health self-insurance fund budgeting and reserve policy mou um i know this is something that has been in the works since i was on the board

083last and um the final piece of this i believe was related to if the committee the working committee could not come to an agreement how would that uh be decided and the decision was made that since the board of education contributes or is responsible for the largest portion of the money in that account it would be weighted uh towards the board of education so um the consensus between the board of finance and uh the first um select woman was the board of finance chairperson would be a part of that group the stonington board of ed uh the board of education chairperson and then the assistant superintendent of schools because the superintendent and finance director are part of the uh working group so um is there are there any questions on this document that i can

084answer if not um i'll entertain a motion to approve i what what was changed the was it the excess claim reserve it was quite a complicated um document but um i i wonder has the board of finance seen and approved this yes i mean this was a extensive negotiation uh with the board of finance that chair and the first select woman and the major change is not the calculation but just how to resolve conflicts and issues and correct me if that's not right right here that's essentially it was difficult to come to an agreement on how to resolve disagreements and so this is the highlighted uh paragraph there is the resolution language essentially and heidi to answer your question this is being presented to the board of finance by the chair of the board of

085finance and to the board of selectmen uh by the first select one so the three chairs have agreed in principle and then it's our responsibility to take it back to our individual boards for ratification so that it can be executed so all three will get together and make a um a compromise decision on this all three boards have to approve this so it can be executed the chairs have reached um a decision as to how to move forward and this is the result of those conversations there's a motion made is there a second second there's a second any discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion carries next item on the agenda first read for policy four one one five uh point zero one evaluation and support program marianne i'll refer

086to you at this point sure what you folks have in front of you is a brand new policy that is an option given to us by the connecticut state department of education based on our circumstances of being under a pandemic offer to give some relief to our practitioners about the measures that they are typically asked to be evaluated on this year. So what it does is it's a one year only flexibility so that the teachers would still have goals that don't necessarily have to be as quantitatively measured and they don't have to be around academics. It's really an ask by the State Department of Education for us to focus on the social emotional needs of our students and then of our teachers and believe it or not of our administrators because they have social emotional

087needs as well. So it's also gonna be the basis for a new model of teacher evaluation next year. So and I'm also gonna ask you if you would because we are actually gonna start meeting with our teachers about this soon in October that it would ask you respectfully to waive the second read and approve this policy this evening. I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have about it. Any questions? Okay. Mary Ann you talked about a new format. So is the new format the goals observation rating that you'll use that as a template to even when you're not just the social and emotional. So there's two things here Heidi. We'll use the same management system that we have been traditionally using at reflect. There will be some components within that system including a

088rating of one to four. that we will not use. So it will be a lighter use of the management system without a rating that typically goes at the end of the year that rating goes into the personnel file as evidence that the person is actually, has been evaluated and we have a rating on that scale of one to four. This year, what will go into the personnel file is a narrative on formative feedback on the work that that teacher has done largely around social emotional learning. If they want to do academic measures, they may. My sense is there's so much work we're doing with this anyways, naturally with EastCon, with Second Step that this is making it easier for the teachers because it's part of the work that they're already doing. And it's just a

089lighter load for them this year. Is the narrative written by the teacher or there is an evaluator, right? There isn't a... So the staffs are usually divided between the assistant principal and the principal as far as the primary evaluator. In certain circumstances, we do have secondary evaluators. The teachers will be asked as they have in the past as part of the traditional model to write a self reflection on their work over the course of the year. But the narrative that goes into the personnel file will be developed by the primary evaluator. Wow. Great, impressive. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll end the motion. I'd like to make a motion to accept policy for 115.01 Evaluation and Support Program. Second. Motion made, there's a second. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none,

090all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on the agenda, monthly reports. They were four. Any questions on those reports? Any clarification needed? Okay, hearing none, we'll move onto the superintendent's report. MaryAnne, I'm assuming you'll deliver that. I am. So you have in front of you a memorandum from the superintendent of schools based on your inquiry last month about the cuts that you had approved as part of the budget process last year. We were asked to... Or our budget was reduced by approximately $1.6 million. You have four attachments that address some of the inquiries made. The first attachment explains the athletic and extracurricular reductions that were made at each level. The second accounts for other line items that were reduced as part of the need to meet that $1.6 million cut. And then a

091listing of some of the activities that were impacted from those reductions. And then finally, specifically because there was interest at the high school level, Principal Freese's rationale behind the cuts that he offered. Not sure you have any questions or discussion points around those particular items. Any questions on that document? Yeah, I just want to make a comment, if I can. I read Mr. Freese's report. And certainly if Waterford and Eastline, have similar programs and they are fully staffed, I would hope that our students would basically have the same. Those are two well-respected school systems. So I guess my question is, once we're through this time period that we're in right now, how do we address this? Is this something that we should look at during the next budgeting process? Or how do we kind of

092rectify the situation? I have a recommendation, Jack. I mean, we're going to be entering another budget season within the next 60 days. Yeah. So that would be my recommendation at the point that we're discussing the budget. We can discuss that as well and figure out how we add back those funds for, you know, all of those programs. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on that? Okay. Mary? Okay. The next component, we were asked to compile. We were asked to compile some accomplishments and challenges as an update from the first report from the principals, as far as how things are going with the hybrid and the full distance learning model. I'm going to start off by giving you the trends that were challenges, quite honestly, across all four buildings in the interest of time to

093do it that way, and then go through the accomplishments of each building. The number one need ask stressor for our teachers is that they're feeling the amount of planning, time, and attention that they're having to make. with this hybrid and full distance model is a dramatic increase in their workload. It was in every single building, and we hear it consistently. It's a different model than what they were used to last spring, which was an enormous stretch from the traditional model, but it is a big learning curve and time demand on them to have kids in front of them in live time and then also in a virtual world. And the trick, too, is we have at a secondary level kids who like to create their own model. Some days they like to sleep in, and

094they decide that they're going to just be a distance student when they should be in person, and then that creates a different dynamic for an impact on the teacher's planning of what they were actually going to do that day. So that was the number one trend. The other challenge is delivering in this blended model when they do have distance kids and also kids in class. The secondary teachers did get a lot of support. They got support at the opening of the year from EASTCON with a full day of actually sitting in the student seat and going through what that model looked like, working with kids in the classroom, working with kids or teachers in a blended model, and that helped to at least give them a sense of what this should look like. But again,

095it's a very big shift from how they've been classically trained. The other one is challenges on how to take attendance when, again, the kids are cohort hopping, if you will, and maybe they're not going to be able to do that. So that's one of the challenges. And then the other one is maintaining student engagement across the levels. Substitute coverage becomes an issue as well. It's always been an issue to get adequate substitute coverage. We're very worried as the cases start to bubble up as we see them happening in this area of the state quite dramatically and quite quickly that we're going to have more and more staffing implications as that impacts teachers that can't come back or are quarantined or have to take care of children. So that's another piece. And then something that can't

096be overemphasized is the ability for our staff, administrators, teachers, to take care of themselves as part of this, as our workload has shifted from what we are actually trained to do to become public health officials or to actually be more responsible for student engagement and family engagement in a different fashion. That is, we want to make sure that our staff is healthy, because if they're feeling good and they're in a good mentally health and physically healthful state, they're going to take care of our kiddos. So those are the challenges district-wide. I'm going to very quickly go through the accomplishments at each level because there are some unique accomplishments within each building. Starting with our flagship school, Stonington High School, the accomplishments that are stated. Teachers are being very creative in their efforts to engage all

097students in the hybrid model. Teachers are engaging in maximizing. Teachers are engaging in maximizing. outdoor space for teaching and learning. The technology department has gone above and beyond in making sure that teachers have access to multiple devices to manage the delivery of content and engage learners. Advisory and voice programs have launched in both in-person and virtual modalities. Sports have started their abbreviated season and parents have been fabulous partnering with us in abiding by our social distancing guidelines. Some clubs have started to meet. Due to programming needs of individual students, 52 students attend in-person four days of instruction a week. We've also, by the way, seen an uptick in students who have, at the high school level, have chosen to go to the full distance learning model rather than the hybrid. Elise, did you have those

098numbers? The uptick in the kiddos at the high school who have opted to go to distance learning. We have about 100 now, don't we? We have 115 distant learners, which is 18% of our students. We have 52 students attending four days a week, which is 8% of our population. And we have 11 students who have changed cohorts, which is almost 2% of our population. That's officially changed cohorts versus cohort hopping. Yes, exactly. And we do have a lot of cohort hopping. Hopping. So, yeah. And finally, at the high school, students have been phenomenal in their ability to manage the new rules and protocols and keep themselves and others safe. Stonington Middle School, in the Stingray tank, the accomplishments. Teachers are doing a great job of engaging remote and in-building learners simultaneously during each class period.

099Teachers are also finding great ways to encourage interaction between cohorts at home and in school. The advisory program is going well. Students are engaging with their teacher and with other students in their small groups three times a week. Teachers are finding creative ways to provide masks and masks to students who are not in class. And we have a lot of students who are doing great work. Teachers are finding creative ways to provide mask breaks and movement activities throughout the day. And students, again, are doing a great job with their masks and physical distancing. The building is quiet and calm, which does not sound like a middle school. And everyone is enjoying the time back in the building. Student behavior in the cafeteria is great, too. Again, that's not typical of the middle school behavior. Deansville

100School, accomplishments. Live streaming has been going very well. Less technology issues and teachers are becoming more comfortable engaging their students at home while also engaging with their peers. Teachers are engaging students in school. Attendance and engagement continues to be high. Students are attending meets and completing work each week. We do have some outliers, but we're working with the families and supporting these students as best we can. And students who are out of school due to being ill are continuing to be engaged and participate remotely, even when they're scheduled in-person day. And finally, West Vine Street School, accomplishments. Teachers have increased their comfort level in school. They have increased their comfort level in knowledge of the technology and integrated live streaming lessons. Students and cohorts have adapted well to be back in the building with all

101the safety protocols in place. And parents are reporting very successful transition to the in-school model. West Vine Street School also has an outstanding outdoor classroom space. You know it as the sensory garden that's being consistently used across grade levels throughout the day. And arrival and dismissal procedures are much more fluid and efficient. So, Lily, do you have anything from your perspective on the hybrid model? Yeah, I would like to say just to comment on some of the accomplishments that you mentioned for the high school. Technology has gotten a little bit better just in practice as well. So I know that you have the numbers, but just having these microfields that we just got has been really helpful. And they have been working so far. So that is really nice. Then also some teachers have tablets.

102They have a lot of things. They have been working on tablets now. So slowly and progressively it is getting easier and a little bit more fluid, which I think is definitely a plus. There are a lot of mixed feelings towards the hybrid method just because it is inherently so cumbersome. Just those students in class, those students at home. And managing those two groups at the same time has proved challenging both for those students and those teachers. However, the hybrid model is still... From all the people that I have talked to, having that interpersonal connection, being able to have in-person communication has been really, really helpful in just smoothing the transition from what we had last year to what we had this year. But the real test is going to be if and when we do

103go to the full distance learning. Just because we don't have that connection between the teachers. We don't have connection between the students. So maintaining the schedule that we have. I think it is going to be really imperative. Just from the Board of Ed perspective, from the staff perspective and the students, just being able to keep reaching out and making sure we don't really lose anyone along the way is going to be really important. Because even right now it is really easy to get lost in technology and essentially like the new teaching style. And the intent when we designed the hybrid, this hybrid model, because it is so different than what we did last spring, was to make it... The transition, whether we go home or go to school, it is going to be really important.

104And the transition, whether we go full in-person or hybrid or full distance, to have as minimal changes as possible. Because that is actually a trauma sensitive practice, is to have this consistency in routines. And so that is very important. And just so you know, we are struggling. If we do have to go full distance, how do we have some type of social activities for you folks to do or some way to kind of have that in-person contact in a safe way. It is critical. It is definitely something that I would keep... Right. ...at the very forefront of concern, especially if we go to distance learning. Right. Because keeping everyone engaged is going to be rough. So the second portion of this is a report. The board asked for a report on the status of where

105we are with a full person in return. Ironically, with this report happening exactly one month from the opening of school. We have been in from September 8th to October 8th. And I sent you all the leg lights report that they give us every week. Right. And you could see the spike in the cases in this area. And it's, again, it's getting a lot of attention from Hartford. So first of all, I'd like to acknowledge and thank our dedicated faculty and staff who have welcomed students back and continue to do an outstanding job in all capacities from food service to facilities, technology, you name it. They're supporting the hybrid and full distance learning models. As of last Friday, the district's attendance data for the week was over 1,000. And we have a report from the district's

106attendance data for the week of September 28th through October 2nd, which was last Friday, which is submitted to the State Department of Education on a weekly basis shows that we have 1877 students enrolled in the district. 344 of those students are fully remote learners. We only have five students thus far who are not engaged. That data is consistent with the previous week. It's important to note before anything else that follows in this report. That upon a full return to school. The size and the configuration of our facilities does not allow us to maintain social distancing. Guidelines set before the by the Center for Disease Control control. Those guidelines set forth best practices and mitigation efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. Safety of students and staff should and must remain the priority in all

107of our decisions concerns concerning the instructional delivery model. As a reminder, the hybrid model was adopted to provide a safe and safe environment for students and staff. And we're going to continue to do that. Thank you. Our next rigor-basedita anestesiome device This device will provide us the best chance of staying in school the longest period of time. There are two other factors that need to be considered as part of the discussion of a full-person return. What is the impact on staffing as it relates to financial implications and the other is our ability to provide adequate ventilation in buildings with the onset of the colder weather. Several of our staff members were relieved to learn about our decision to open schools. In the fall in the hybrid model. and full distance learning model. Some have health

108conditions, which would make it risky to return to work in a full in-person model. The in-person model simply does not provide the same mitigating measures that the hybrid model does. We have reason to believe that should we return to a fully in-person model, the requests from remote assignments will increase and the need for classroom supervision, additional staff will be proportionate to those requests. There will be a financial impact and a human resources impact to fill substitute teacher and paraeducation educator positions, which are already difficult to fill. Another important mitigation strategies we have employed, and Peter, if I mess this up, you'd let me know, that we've employed this fall is the maximum ventilation in each building. As the colder weather approaches, there will be challenges in maintaining the heating demands that accompany the winter weather

109and maintaining our heating. Our ventilation, optimum ventilation. It can be done if we stay with the hybrid model. It will be impossible, Peter, or difficult all in-person. So we will not be able in a full in-person model to have optimum ventilation for our staff and our students. Since the opening of school, we have been able to introduce outside air at the optimal levels on a 50% in-person hybrid model. This has resulted in a 40% increase in the impact of the hybrid model. We have also received a full-person hybrid model that will be able to provide a maximum amount of fresh air to meet the CDC guidelines without causing excessive cold weather damage to our HVAC system. In short, the 50% in-person hybrid model allows for optimum dilution of air, regardless of weather, and our facilities

110cannot provide that optimum flow for students with full attendance in the colder weather. The ventilation of our buildings was a critical concern to staff for this fall for their return, and it will again surface as a major concern should we pivot to a full in-person model when the weather conditions require us to heat the buildings. Going back to full capacity will reduce the dilution rate of the inside air and decrease the ability to mitigate air flow to limit the possible spread of COVID-19. Other guidance and directives specific to a full-person return include information from the following entities and are monitored on a continual basis. Center for Disease Control, Best Practices in Public Health and National Trends, Connecticut Department of Public Health, State Specific Guidance and Directives, the Governor's Office, Ongoing Guidance and Directives, regular phone

111calls with superintendents and municipal leaders, the Connecticut State Department of Education, their continual addendums to their document on reopening, adapt, advance, and achieve, Ledge Light Health District, District and School Specific Guidance, our medical advisor, Dr. Mee, and Dr. Michael Blayfelt. He gives us specific guidance on schools and the district. Area district superintendents meet weekly on phone calls, talking about trends and thinking around opening and shifting models and COVID activity from the areas around our district as we have 102 staff members from Rhode Island, 228 staff members from Stonington, 126 staff members from Connecticut towns outside of Stonington. All of these entities, professionals, and data points help inform our thinking about a shift to any delivery model. Data points are considered in the aggregate and the specific situation is very dynamic in nature. The variables that

112influence the decisions to change the delivery model are numerous and the conditions outside of the districts play an important role in that decision-making process. Several area districts have decided to return to a full in-person instructional model this month. With the recent uptick of positive COVID cases, many are reconsidering this move. Many are gonna have additional closings after the call that I participated in today. It's our recommendation to the board that we stay the course with the hybrid model as recommended by our medical advisor and as supported by Legelight Health District. Should area districts return to a full in-person model, it may be advisable to watch and learn from their experiences. When the decision is made to return to a full in-person model, the district will need approximately four weeks to make the transition as there

113are staffing, transportation and programmatic implications to address. This will also allow adequate time for families to adjust their routines. Staffing assignment changes and potential vacancies may lead to significant financial demands. In the latest email dated September 28th, 2020 from Dr. Blayfeld, our district medical advisor, he endorses the continuation of the hybrid and full distance learning models. In quotes, as for schools fully reopening, rates of infection are increasing and we now have more states going red, indicating an infection rise. Positive cases are being identified locally. We have only been successful for a few weeks. This is because of the vigilance in the hybrid model. Full reopening the Stonington schools at this time would only jeopardize the success being seen at this time. I would recommend looking at this again in January, not now. I'm happy to

114answer any questions. I have a question. Sure, Jeff. First of all, I think the hybrid model is working well. And I only can say that from my perspective as a parent of a high schooler, my daughter needed to stay home today. And what was she's in cohort B, which would be a Thursday, Friday, which was really nice that she could just hop on her computer. She didn't have to miss instruction time. And yet she still gets to go to school a couple of days a week and meet with other students. Honestly, she would prefer probably the hybrid model for the rest of her high school career. She likes it. So I think it's working well for some students, maybe not for others. But given the circumstances, I wanna just commend the administration. I think you're

115doing a fine job. My question though is, I think one of the stressors around the COVID model is with the stem cells. is with the stem cells. staff needing to find childcare. And I'm just wondering, at some point we had talked about helping teachers and other staff members if they need childcare. We had discussions with the Como. I'm wondering what, if anything, came of that. Thank you. We actually have three organizations, the Como, Mystic Seaport, and NEST, that all are partnering with us to provide supervision and following our schedule. We also have a daycare for our teachers and other community members as well. I believe their rates are similar. I can't guarantee that, but they were pretty reasonable and they were staying in line with each other. They've also been in communication with us just

116to kind of get some lay of the land and some rules and improve communication with the families that are ours so that they understand you need to follow our schedule. How do you sign into a Google Classroom and the like and help navigate that. Thank you. Any other questions? We'll take the kids on those distance days when they're at those organizations and not ours. The Como, also, Jack, just so you know, the numbers at the Como haven't risen yet to the point where we are going to have the spillover program here at district office, but that is, that we have an agreement to that should those numbers grow and the demand change, which it could. You never know. Thank you. Any other comments or questions from Erin? Vegas? you were talking originally about some of

117the challenges that the teachers have was there a specific ask of the board you know things that they would want help if you can break the space time continuum that would be very helpful working on it i have to say there's no perfect model right right now there's just not and we have to give the teachers the nod that this is the most difficult model for them um i'm not sure let me let me go back to the leadership team and let's see what we can come up with as an ask uh it's just it's really really we know they're putting in long long hours you know and part of it is because they want to give timely feedback to kids part of it is they want to make sure they're communicating with their families

118the biggest challenge for them is engaging the kids who are are full distance they especially at the elementary level feel like they're missing that connection with those kids and uh so um but let me let me think about that and get back to you and i'll talk to the leaders any other questions or comments i i'm in awe of what the teachers are capable of doing and i i have a third grader that i work with and i um have zoomed with him often and i don't know if there is any way to make it perfect for um the teacher to be able to communicate remotely it just is really hard and they are just really doing the best they possibly can so perfect is when they're in person but the remote is really hard

119to reach out particularly elementary because they're hands-on age so i'm i'm really impressed by what's happening and um i'm along with gordon if there's anything that we can possibly do and i'm not sure what that that would be thank you very much for that so maybe you can take that back marianne absolutely okay i had a question going back to the um student pickup in the afternoon is that i mean the student pickup has gone much smoother now you know and again parents are being very cooperative which help which helps so uh it's typical you know any any opening of school we always have some pickups at the beginning of the year and i don't think there was you know it was not unusual in that way is that there was just a um new

120new asks of the parents i guess is the best way to put it but it really evened out at all buildings yeah that's always the toughest the toughest one it's one of those things that until you do it you don't know what needs to be tweaked and so they figured it out and then finally there was another ask of um an update on the covet expenses this is exactly you know going to be coming before you on a month-by-month basis you can see where that that bottom line is this month just costing you again that could jump if we have a change in circumstances here and we need extra paraprofessionals or long-term substitutes to cover managing classrooms if we need if staffing changes and we have needs for them to be working remotely it's the

121same items you were looking at last time just kind of an update on funds that have come in from the state and then the offset and where we are with that I don't know if you have any questions some are staffing and some are PPE expenditures so I just have an FYI for the board I will be sharing this on a monthly basis with the Board of Finance in my conversations with Tim he's managing questions that he's getting from his board so I think it's better to keep them informed as we move through this so that was my commitment to him once we get it I will pass it on to him and then he'll share it with the entire board. I have actually two questions on this document is the jump of almost $90,000

122of technology is attributed to what yeah so the $90,000 I'm not sure if you can hear me I provided a itemized breakdown to Frank as well but essentially it's software and hardware that was unanticipated costs from the beginning of the year so that $90,000 is as of October 1st that includes things such as communication tools for the district and with families it includes Chromebooks it includes some additional iPads so some hardware peripherals things of that nature so you had a 30 days under your belt do you anticipate that number to continue to grow or you just feel it's a level level dog practice thank you we're anticipating that to be fairly level you know we do have funding for repairs and maintenance and things like that that we still have funds available for so we're

123anticipating that to help cover those costs you know we used some of the ending balance to help provide some additional repair materials at any given moment we can have up to 60 Chromebooks pending repair so we have sort of a assembly line factory production set up going right now collecting those Chromebooks from families right now we're supporting about 2,400 Chromebooks in the district again with you know four computer technicians it's a full-time job so we're trying to pad some of that inventory with some spare devices to give us a little bit of breathing room so that we're not trying to you know one in one out repair and replace are we allowing and forgive me I actually should know the answer to this but are we allowing the students to use their own laptop so

124we're asking them to use our Chromebooks right we were previously and we are a BYOD district however one of the software we use and this is included in these new costs that we've now rolled out district-wide before we were just using GoGuardian specifically at the middle school we've now rolled that out district-wide that allows our teachers to remote and see what the students are looking at they can have all their screens up they can point them back on task so unfortunately we can only apply that software to a district on device So to make the teachers lives easier to keep students focused on tasks, especially with some from home, some in person. That's why we said we're just issuing a device to every single student. And fortunately, towards the end of last year, we had

125a refresh scheduled for the middle school. That refresh instead became additional devices and we're now supporting some older model Chromebooks. That's the uptick in repairs. Second question is the cost of energy is that projection on the last bill you said 40% increase or? Yeah, we've got a lot of extra costs that's gonna come along with energy. I just got the first utility bills, the high school is up by 34%. And West Vine was up by 48% on electrical power. I anticipate and I'm also meeting with our vendors tomorrow to discuss the anticipated gas and oil use that's gonna be done. So I assume you're talking about an increase in usage not kilowatt price, right? Just an increase just because of the increase in usage of power. So just to give you a little quick heads

126up those were exhausting air out of that building 24 hours a day, seven days a week just to keep it. We're using the medium of trying to, we try to match the CO2 levels of the outside to the inside. If we do that, we know we have outside air in. We're doing it now and that's successful. But come winter time is our biggest concern. Thanks Peter. Any other questions or comments? Jack, Heidi, you good? Marion, do you have anything else under superintendent's report or are you all set? I think you've heard enough from me tonight. All good stuff. Next item, committee reports, you had the September 10th minute. From the finance and facilities subcommittee, any questions on those minutes? Items for. uh future agendas i just want to make one quick comment on the board

127um retreat um we have landed on a facilitator uh that did take me some time to get that figured out um and i'll be working with anna to get a date on the calendar it will be in october um so be on the lookout for that over the next couple of days beginning of next week any other items that you would like to see on a future agenda all right next item um board comments i i'd like i'd like to make one go ahead um i just want to make a brief statement in an effort to put um the chokas chapter begin to put the chokas chapter to rest uh in the september 9th special meeting i stated that according to all three areas of our section five one four five bylaws definition of sexual

128health and sexual violence and sexual violence and sexual violence and sexual violence and sexual harassment the data of attorney cheney's investigation revealed that sexual harassment was a consistent behavior throughout the employment of mr chokas now a letter from the title line coordinator further proved that the behavior that was referenced in attorney cheney's reportment as just inappropriate behavior was in fact sexual harassment sexual harassment is a form of bullying it's sexual bullying to which young adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable granted sexual harassment can be an artful behavior and its constructs can be difficult to detect but now we have both an investigation by attorney cheney and an acknowledgement by our title ix coordinator that the behavior labeled inappropriate behavior was in fact sexual harassment our job as a board is to make sure that the school

129environment in which these children are being educated is safe and recognizes these children's vulnerabilities if the eventual goal of self-confidence and strong self-image is challenged along the way with creepy confusion and unfounded guilt then we've been irresponsible in our oversight of the healthy development of these young girls acknowledging that chokas behavior was sexual harassment is the beginning of the healing for the victims they now know that their creepy feelings and discomfort were valid and that validation relieves guilt of suggesting something happened that did not it happened and they were victims of sexual harassment so i can appreciate that my fellow board members probably think that i am belaboring this but i would like you to understand that i want to make sure that in moving on we are not leaving any of the girls behind

130victims of chokas sexual harassment have actually spoken with me in the last few months and shared that they still feel that they have not been heard i would like to conclude this chokas chapter with letting these girls know that we do hear them and we have heard them towards that effort perhaps and we don't have the time to discuss it now maybe that needs to be put on the future agenda But towards that effort, I wonder if as the Stonington Board of Education, we could make an official statement of support to all students and families adversely affected by the behavior of this teaching, of this teacher. And as well, pledging to continue all the fabulous things that were reported to us by Anna Marie and Alicia and Allison. Pledged to continue to ensure that systems,

131procedures, and training programs are all in place. So I am not making a motion. I am proposing a statement for discussion. And I I Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That could be put on a future agenda, unless somebody wants to make another comment. I just want to clarify one thing I think is important to note. So the letter that you're referencing is the letter from July 11th, 2019. And that letter is specific to the incident that happened at that point in time. So I just, I think it's important. January 19th. Yeah, January. January 2019. I just, I want to be on the record as clarifying that. I think that's important. But, you know, I heard what you had to offer. I just wanted

132to make sure that we clarified that one piece relative to that level. Thank you. Any other board comments or concerns? Then could we put that on as discussion for a future agenda, just so we can discuss whether or not people think that's a possible idea, and if not, why? Yes, and I do believe that we will engage legal counsel as well. I think that's an important... part of the discussion. So, we will definitely add that to a future agenda. Heidi. Thank you. Okay, hearing no other comments or concerns, entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Motion to meet. There's a second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries.