001One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] and I mean present is there. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. We welcome you all to our board of education meeting and very excited to have [Music] so representing each of the classes here today and thank you for parenting to bring them tonight. We have a lovely presentation of the music dance that children did in school for the winter holiday. So this is a small winter concert for the board of education public and I believe each one of our students has something different and if you want to come up here and take pick up. I see my name Oliver G and I am from Mrs. Anna's K in our classroom. Good evening. My name is Cecilia Moran and I'm in Miss Miller
002kindergarten classroom and my class song to um um s um we um and the sign language to Santa Claus is coming to town. Good evening. My name is Adeline and I'm in Miss Becky's kindergarten classroom. We sing and play entrance to the dr song. My name is My name is Amelia Cologne. I am from Miss M's kindergarten classroom. We use soft lockers to make the triple. Good evening. My name is Dearra Cusa and I am in Miss R's kindergarten classroom. We dance to the Hawaiian. Hi, good evening. My name is Noah H and I'm in Miss Gilker's kindergarten class and I dance with scarves and a Chinese dance from the clock. Hello, my name is Bubar Jelly and I'm from Miss Cook's class. Our class sang jingle bell for you to enjoy. Happy holidays. If
003not, [Music] Oliver for you. I'm Noah. I'm Adeline and Amelia and this is There you go. Teachers are here for a second. Ready? What's the [Music] Just bear with us. [Music] Please subscribe. [Music] God. Okay. [Music] You [Music] Wonder. All right. [Music] I want to thank all being here tonight and allowing us to celebrate the holidays with you. Thank you. On behalf of the board of education, we'd like to wish you a happy holiday and thank you very much for joining us tonight. We're gonna put you on to the rest of our meeting. So, if you would like to leave, you're perfectly welcome to do so. On your way out, um there's school students take a look and enjoy celebrating the kids. Thank you all very much. [Applause] [Music] That's [Music] It meant a lot
004to us, too. So, it was fine. Thank you. Good job, so would like to take a moment of silence to remember the families, the [Music] town. Take the time to acknowledge that tragedy. Many of us [Music] I just would like to acknowledge the [Music] past a teacher or coach at great middle school. Now lot schools have c approval. So, um take a motion to the November 9th special board of [Music] education. Any discussion question? All in favorain. I Mike Cus abstains. I wasn't at the board of ed meeting on the 9th. [Music] Okay. Motion to approve the November 23rd special. Any discussion? I just in favor Sorry, it's my first time. [Music] Shelley, are you there? Yeah, I'm there. I said I the um sound is really breaking up a lot so if I delay
005I apologize. That's okay. I I accepted. Okay, great. [Music] Audience just you can state loudly your name and ask. Yes. My name is Jennifer Wallen. I live at 42 Jensen Farm Road right behind the high school. Um, hi distinguished board members. Thank you for everything you do and your volunteering. You guys don't get enough praise for everything you do. Uh, Mr. Hbert, Dr. Miller, thanks for being here and thanks for having me. Um, I am here as kind of a little representative of the Oxford High SW team as well as the uh well kind of the Oxford. Yeah. Okay. Um, I just want to state that right now this is kind of a response to a thread that's been going back with Dr. Miller. So, I appreciate your communication. Um, talk loud. Can I take
006this off? It's not by myself. Oh, great. Thank you. Um, this year the boys have the largest team ever of 26 boys. It is suggested that some of them will end up swimming in regionals and representing our high school at a region at a regional level. Um, the Oxford Otter have close to 200 swimmers on their swim team. And the girls team, which was the largest it's ever been and actually had diving this year for the first time in many years. Um, actually have had the best record they've ever had. So, for that, we're very, very excited and very proud. But the pool's a mess. The diving board is broken and the timing system is broken. Um, two out of the six pads don't work. So the timing has to be rechecked quadruple like several
007several times. These issues are not new. Someone taking care of and maintaining the pool has been in question for years. I mean I can tell you I've lived in this town for 20 years and the school opened in 2007 and I took my kids to swim lessons there and their bathing suits disintegrated. The pool has consistently been an issue of concern. And as of late and even into recent like recent times, the bottom is staying green. The air quality is poor. They had to cancel practice the other night or leave it early because the kids have what we would call chlorine cough because they couldn't breathe and they couldn't see. And please, I take this very, as an athlete myself, growing up an athlete, I didn't want I don't want to come and say this.
008My biggest fear is that the pool is going to get shut down and they won't be able to swim and they won't be able to do what they need to do. So, part of us was like, let's just hide it because at least they'll get swimming. So, no, this comes with like a very heavy heart that we bring these issues up. Um, nobody's ever taken care of it. We don't know if anybody's trained to take care of it. It does take training to take care of the pool. This issue has come up in previous board of ed meetings like probably about five or six years ago, maybe a little bit longer. I lived here a long time and I'm aging myself. Um, and although the diving board is a recent issue, the timing system is
009not. It's been ongoing and it was brought up in the January port of ed meeting and I know you have a lot of money for it for 2023 to fix it. Why? Why 2023? If you know it's broken, it's only going to break worse. We have This is the same system that was put in the pool in 2007. If one of you has a computer that's from 2007, please let me know because this is just technology and you would not keep something and not maintain something from 2007. None of us have technology from 2007. Not even. Well, some people might have phones, but most phones know. So, it hasn't been maintained. It's broken now. We have kids who are going to go to regionals. I don't understand why it was added to a 2023 budget.
010It doesn't support the needs of our kids now. What were we going to do? What was the plan or the band-aid that we were going to do to keep this school up and running for these kids? I think it's disgusting that the girls team ended up having to swim through this and and no one made a bigger deal about it. It's not going to get better. it's just going to break more and more. I know that um Coach Stockton, I've talked to him a couple times, too, is looking at quotes and he he also both of you provided information regarding a quote of between 15 and $25,000, but that's not a quote. A quote was paper and numbers and really knowing what we're doing. That's just a guesstimate. No business would ever provide a quote
011in that format. and no board of ed and no superintendent would pass anything that said 15 between 15 and $25,000. Like that's just silly. So that's not a although I appreciate the effort. We all know that the process of getting these quotes through the board of ed and the finance committee is an excruciatingly long process. And that doesn't even begin to mention the backlog of parts and workers that everything is being impacted by by the pandemic. How are you going to address all of this even by 2023? Like how if this had been in the budget two years ago when it was an issue and when we brought it up as issues, we wouldn't now be scrambling. The high school pool falls under the jurisdiction of the school district, not the park rep. It is
012the school's responsibility to maintain it and fix it. as the otter have so many students, I would recommend that somebody contact Christa and Brian, Christa Donovan and Brian Kell Kenny. Um, and I can give you their numbers if you don't have them to see if they'd be interested in adding in for fundraising because they use the pads as well, but I can't speak for them. I assumed that as part of the athletic director position that this would be something that he would be able and willing to do because I would think that being in touch with the feeder programs in town would be part of under his jurisdiction. If the pool ends up closing for any reason other than CO, which God willing, I hope it doesn't. I am honestly going to be requesting that
013we find another pool for our kids to swim in and provide transportation. Although I have my kid, we'll drive anybody we can, but it's not fair. It's not fair that we should miss our season and the opportunities because the district planned poorly and because of the cheat mentality. Overall, it's really disappointing. If you fix it now, it'll ne negatively infect impact the team. And if you don't fix it, it's like all the timing can be messed up for it. You know, my son is being recruited by colleges and is looking to possibly swim in college as well as one or one other student. And we also have the kids coming up the pike who are could easily be college swimmers. It's embarrassing when people come in and scouts are coming in and seeing a pool
014that's d the base is green and the timing pads don't work and we have to have four or five timers to cover. It's it's not what we expected when we built the high school. Don't get me wrong, I know that was a while ago. At the end of the day, all the kids will lose, but the seniors will lose the most. They don't have next year. They don't have till 2023 to get their times better. For some of some of the seniors, this is the last time they're going to swim in any kind of competitive model or method. And the fact that we knowingly postpone this for two to three years is unfair. My only hope is that my 10-year-old will have pads that work by the time he gets up to ice. Thank you
015for listening to me. And again, thank you for everything that you guys do. I know it's not over. Thank you for everything you're asking. Thank you. Jen, I do have a lot of answers to you based said. I will address that in my super report later, but we could also speak in the form for further details. Okay. Thank you. student. I came tonight because I have some questions about ruler and I was wondering if anyone on board superintendent could just tell me a little bit about how we're implementing this in the classroom. It came up at two meetings ago ago I think when um uh someone from the middle school started talking about improvement plans that were coming into the school. So I started to do some research on some of the acronyms and the
016things that came out of that and um and I understand uh this or my understanding in my research is this kind of goes along with social emotional work right so ruler and I'll tell you I don't know to what degree you all dive in and research some of this stuff but holy mackerel you get into one rabbit hole and you can go through a labyrinth and be there for weeks and weeks. So what I came upon was that ruler was actually developed by a doctor Mark Brackett who works um in an area of Gale Gail New Haven right behavioral health and it's an acronym uh recognizing emotions understanding labeling expressing and regulating. Okay. Um, so I'm wondering if you can tell me a little bit about how this is integrated into the classroom and how
017it's um, tracked, shared, discussed. [Music] It's usually not. Okay. All right. Fair enough. And I'll just make I'll make a couple of points. Okay. Um I'm asking these particular questions because apparently there is an app that is available. So I'm curious how this is being implemented K through 12. If it's being used, if the app is being used, right, there's got to be some kind of tracking mechanism, right? because the kids are supposed to monitor their behavior and the teachers are moni monitor their behavior and supposed to be integrated my understanding school home classroom etc. So, if we're using the the app, I want to know how the school is guaranteeing privacy, how are you protecting personally identifiable information? Right? Because clearly, if you're going to track the emo, the emotions and the feedback from
018the child, then if they're using a computer in the classroom, then certainly you can tie that information back to the students. So, how are we protecting that? And how are we ensuring that it's not getting out there into the into the public domain, the corporate domain for use for something else? I'm also curious about the kind of training that teachers go through in order to be able to um to facilitate ruler. There's a lot in here. As I said, you can go down a rabbit hole and take you in different directions. And I came into another area where the Inspir which is a program that is offered as a partner through the Dalio foundation right it's through Yale and it's offered through the great uh through the Dal Foundation and this is a 10-week course
019that helps with ruler and understanding how to implement this and that was interesting to me um because we get into the realm of emotions, right? Emotions are subjective and I have no problem with trying to help people understand their emotions, recognize emotions. Um, I work two years as a chaplain in Bridgeport Hospital and I can tell you that the training that you go through, it's emotion focused and in order to get certification, you have to go through a minimum of four years. And it's grueling. There are papers to write, there are lectures, there are um there's coursework between peers. Okay, so it's very very intensive. So this piqu my interest because I'd like to know more about how we're training teachers because a 10hour deep dive it really it just barely scratches the surface. I'm
020also interested in knowing or understanding how we facilitate this in in the classroom. If there are discussions, right, group discussions or if this is if it's done in a scenario where there is back and forth and there's discussion between peers and student and um and teacher, if there's a conflict of some sort, I want to know how that whole dialogue is managed. What happens if a child doesn't want to share? How do you respect their privacy if they don't want to share? How do we protect children from bullying that can come out of that? We're going to start to talk about emotions that we have to be prepared to deal with the backlash. Is there behavior that's going to go underground? Because now you can't discuss things depending on how we manage this. Do we
021have to be careful again going back to the bullying part of the equation that behavior is going to go underground? Are children going to are the shy ones going to withdraw? Are the more outspoken ones are they going to become a little bit more dominant? Need to be very careful when we get into this whole um group dynamic. I also want to ensure that as we implement this, it's with um an attitude of empowerment. We have a lot of victimhood in our society. Let's be careful not to create a generation of victims. It's great to share. Again, it's I I I respect the program. I understand why it would be looking to be implemented. It could be a great way to build community, but we need to be very careful of what I'm reading here
022of how we manage it and to make sure that we understand what potential consequences exist. So, those um those are the high points that I wanted to cover. And to your your point, Miss Sherman, about getting back to me, I would like the board to manage my expectations. I walked away from the meeting last month where I brought up some curriculum concerns, questions, and I recognize that you're all unpaid volunteers. You've got day jobs and other responsibilities. Uh, but I need to understand timelines, who my point of contact is going to be, and when I can expect some kind of response on the information that I brought forth last month and on these questions here because these are not rhetorical. So, the questions on the on the curriculum, I'm sorry, I can't hear you. We'll
023have a curriculum update on the board meeting. Okay. and will they address? See, I came with some very specific concerns as I brought here today. So, I'm looking for very specific answers. We'll have some issues with And for those that aren't targeted to my specific concerns, I want to know who my point of contact is and what the time frame is for those questions and these questions. Well, since I'm chairing the meeting [Music] tonight. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. Then I will I look forward to hearing the updates later and I'll leave my contact information when the meeting. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Special education. Sorry. [Music] So, Mrs. here tonight for special education report. Um, in preparation for tonight, she was asked to focus on general overview of special
024education. purposely that's not present. Good evening. How are you all? Good. Uh Dr. Miller, can you open it up just that we could have it um visible? I think that everybody received the report ahead of time and within the report there were live links. So I'll speak more in a summitative manner and then I can answer any questions that you have and I also would welcome the opportunity. Uh if anybody wants to talk in more depth about anything that's in the report, I'm happy to meet with you um individually or as a small group, whatever you'd like to do. All right. So, um, this, uh, report kind of gives a snapshot of special education in Oxford at a glance. Uh, as Dr. Miller said, I'm going to be following up in January to talk a
025little bit about um, budget requests for next year, as well as uh, an overview, a more extensive overview of our connections program. Last year I gave you kind of um connections uh a day in a day in the life. Uh and and in January I'll dive in a little bit deeper into um courses and curriculum and um student numbers and cost of the program. Okay. So uh I'll begin with our eligibility. Uh I think you can tell by um the numbers that are presented uh in the report that our special education identification rate is is certainly on the increase. Uh we have seen um a pretty significant increase in identification. It's not un it's not you know uncommon to just Oxford. This is a a trend that we're seeing uh you know across the state.
026I would venture to say across the nation. Uh what we're seeing here in Oxford um is a pretty significant increase in autism oi uh which also um holds the umbrella for ADD and ADHD as well as learning um disabilities. Uh so I think one of the things that's um that's noteworthy is uh that we're looking at about at this point in the year 50 more identified students than we were at this point in the year last year. Um, also included in the report is the special education annual progress report from the Connecticut State Department of Education. So that come that report comes out annually and it's kind of like our report card. So uh we did very well. Uh we met all of the criteria that the state identifies as major indicators. uh with our
027graduation rate, with our um decrease to dropout rate, with our decrease to out of school suspensions. Uh we also uh did very well with our regular education class placement. And what that means is that we do the best that we can to have students be included in their general general education classrooms. Okay. Uh we did very well with our separate class placements uh as well as our decrease in placements outside of the public school system. Uh we also did well with uh our transition goals and services. So a lot of the work uh that I talked to you about last year uh we're seeing some of that progress. we're seeing that we're really writing um more effective transitionary goals and objectives. I think it's important for all of you to know too that that law
028has changed. It's now a requirement for a transition plan to be a part of an IEP from age 14 on where it used to be age 16. So, it is a legal requirement for students to have a post-secary education and employment goal as a part of their IEP. So we're doing a lot with our PD and I'll talk about that a little bit later as well. Um the two areas where Oxford didn't meet uh the the state's criteria is the uh prek program. So the regular early childhood placement uh with a decrease to segregated placement and what that means is that our prek classroom we um try to include uh peers peer role models and uh we don't have a ratio that meets the state standard right now. Okay. And that's really where we fell
029a little bit short. Uh the other area where we had um criteria that didn't meet success, also not uncommon in Connecticut due to COVID, was testing timelines. So many of our kids, I would say when I say many, it's about six or seven students over the course of the year didn't meet the initial evaluation timelines due to school closures and not being available or ready to be tested. Um, also within the report, I included a great uh snapshot of the uh new classrooms that we have. So, Miss Smith's classroom, which is a Quaker Farm School, which houses our K through four students that have um unique needs and needs that are um requiring intensive service. Uh, and there are some great pictures there where you can see kids working one-on-one and you can get a
030feel for what the classroom looks like. um and what the typical schedule looks like. So, we have five students currently in that program and they're off to a great start for a new classroom with that type of intensive um ABA type of instruction. Uh they're really off to a great start. And once again, I welcome any of you to come and see the classroom. We could bring you uh and and we can schedule a visit. Uh we also included um a snapshot of our new prek classroom and uh that's also been wonderful for our students. Uh the amount of um space alone, the environment uh and the lack of crowding that existed within one classroom last year has allowed students to have more time and space for play. So there's more stations. Um there's more
031opportunity uh for students to receive um hopefully that role model approach with uh typical peers joining the classroom. We have space, we have availability. So if you know anybody who has a prek kid, recruit them. Uh we'd love to have them with us. Uh community exploration program is our 18 through 22 program. uh included in in in the summary report there's a link to the state uh memo about how uh criteria also changed for education of students. It used to be through the age of 21 depending on nature and severity of need and the need for post-secary education um beyond just credits for need needed for graduation. uh and it was July of last year that they changed that criteria to the age of 22. So we do have students that at times are staying
032in an additional year for our services depending on their need. Those decisions are made through the PPT process and very individual in nature. I also included there a link to the Connecticut core transition standards. Those are the skills associated with that program and the skills that the students are learning. Uh also there's a link to the current work sites and what types of activities of daily living the students are participating in. Things are opening up again and students are getting out back into the community for their work experience. There's also some great pictures. We get a weekly update, crew news, and uh they give us kind of a snapshot of what everybody's doing during the course of the week. Happy to share that with you, too, if you'd like. Yes. Great. Okay. Um I also
033included their uh special activities that we've had going on over the course of the year. So, on November 13th, the PPS department held a parent forum. Uh we had many workshops. Um, I've listed the workshops there for you if you're interested in any of uh, you know, that information or or what some of those programs are about. Um, I'm happy to speak with you or connect you with the right people that can talk to you about them. Next year, we're we're gonna we're gonna we're going to figure out a way where we can recruit more people. I'm thinking pizza. Pizza might be. Okay. We also had vendors. So, we had agency supports as well as community supports. Uh we had speech and language service providers. We had Oxford the wellness center of Oxford um available
034to talk with our family members as well as agencies from the state such as uh DDS uh and DSS the division of autism and um we also had level up BRS services which is an employability service for people when they um leave the public education setting. So people from those agencies were available to talk to families about eligibility criteria. uh and we'll continue to think about those types of forums where we can really bring good educational planning for for for families. All right. I also um added in some of our strategic priorities as a department. Uh one of those things that I mentioned a little bit earlier is the transition piece. So, uh, our special education secondary providers have been going through a series of workshops on appropriate transition. In that report is a grid
035of some of the different transition assessments that we've brought into district to help us better plan for postsecary education and employment. um the elementary and the middle school faculty have been engaging in uh a workshop series provided by our reading specialists uh on um structured literacy and dyslexia. So, we've focused on informal and formal assessment measures and when you have an issue um that you feel a student is experiencing within domains of reading, what are the appropriate measures and what type of assessments you should conduct um to try to determine what's the best plan of action and our paraprofessionals have been participating in a workshop series on executive function. So many times our students they have the academic skills but it's areas of executive functioning that uh limit their success in the classroom whether it's
036management whether it's uh organization whether it's initiation whether it's shift whether it's self-regulation um those are all factors that imp impact their success. So our pair of professionals who often serve in our general You said there's 50 additional students. Yes. And are these in the primary grades or what? Are they new students? How do we miss if the present students new students been talking about students for years now? Sure. be like a surprise actually. Well, you're right. You're right. Our numbers certainly show an increase of increment of of of an increase over time. Um, and what what the state is seeing as a trend as well as Oxford and I talked about this last year was the increase with OI uh mental health as well as ADHD and autism. Now, autism and and and ADHD
037were on the increase well before COVID. Okay. Um what's unique about this year is we're seeing also a drastic increase with learning disability identification. Now, over the summer, uh there's um there's a a you know a building project here in Oxford. um through that building project in that phase one of opening some of those residential uh homes, we brought in nine additional students through the summer that registered that had IEPs. Um we had a couple students move from other districts that are on the autism spectrum. Uh two of which require very intensive service. And then what we're also noticing is we're getting more referrals. We're getting more referrals from families. We're getting more referrals from SRBI teams and schoolbased teams. Um I I don't understand what So a referral is when a school-based team feels
038that um a child might have a disability. So, we have a duty under um the term childfind uh to make sure that we properly um answer a a parent who feels there might be a suspected disability, a school that might the school-based member that feels that there might be a suspected disability and if a referral is made to special education, that means that a team comes together and determines if an evaluation is warranted. Now through that evaluation students are often identified and services are provided. Yes. Other questions besides the increase if I look at this increase outside I was perhaps a system starting to work you know 20 years in this town I have a special child prior to the last few years right so I view that as a positive it's a negative because
039there's some help but it's positive maybe we're identifying proper I process control. I do think that I do think that you make a really good point, Steve, and I think that we're seeing because of some of the professional development that we put in place and because of the high level of um let's call it expertise that some of our reading specialists and people in the district may have that we are better target targeting and using um very good assessment to really peel way um and find group problems. Uh so I do think that that that comes into play quite a bit and quite honestly I mean I think part of this climate that just looking back to numbers we've had in the past discussions we've had in the past so I think I think we
040can't discount climate just observation. My other question is besides the sheer number of people coming in that will need to service. What do you consider and that ties to beyond knowledge? What is the biggest challenge you think you have next year to think maybe outside the box looking at like how do we you know increase the services or get more effective services. I do think that um when I look at when I look at need for next year, I do think that reading is a priority. Um and when I say reading, I'm talking about um servicing our population of students that require very specific type of reading instruction. Um so one of the numbers in and you'll see in that grid, uh yes, learning disabilities are on the increase. Within that though is the dyslexic
041number uh which has gone up by seven students in comparison to last year. That's a large number because when you look at structured literacy, structured literacy is very tailored to a unique um a unique starting point on a scope and sequence. So you can't just group people together because really you have to teach very specific skills that complement each other and build. So, it's going to be intensive and it's going to be small group. It's going to be four at the most is what they recommend. Um, it's going to be one or two usually, especially at the early level. Okay. Um, so reading is definitely a priority. Um, we are trying to get creative with some of the ESSER special education activity fund ums that have come in. a good chunk of that money I
042earmarked to um tutoring for structured literacy. Um now that's a one year and it's done. So it ends in in June of 2023. Um and then when I talk about budget requests for next year, I am making the request for another reading teacher. Um those are really my my priorities. We also need to think about the the intensive programming. We have a fantastic program on the ground at Quaker. Uh I'm really interested in growing that program to the middle school so that the kids that we have in that program we don't have to outplace once they hit that end of fourth grade year. Um you know that's something that it's very likely we could do with some shifting of staff if we had another reading person that could come in and support reading. Anybody with
043this tour in Michigan? Think about the job market. There's a lot of jobs. That's probably something. I'm communicating with with somebody currently who's interested, who has a very very high certification level. Um, and I'm hopeful that that that will be somebody that will be consistent for us. But once again, you know, that's a that's a one-year solution. um with numbers that are growing uh you know with the learning disability number that's shifted and grown that much uh you know it's it's the need for more hours is is is going to be on paper and of course what we put onto those IEPs are legally bound. We need to follow them. Any chance we can find a tutor? Does that exist in this educational role or repeat it for me? So when you think of tutor,
044do you think like consulting agency, a tutor or you think about somebody who has experience who is parttime but really can convert that tutor maybe into your full-time role if they're the right person? Yeah, I think that um you know I'm open to all sorts of creative solutions. I just know that the need exists and the hours certainly need to increase. But yes, I'm open to to any type of discussion like that. We um work with wellness center in Oxford. Yes. So when you come forward when you do your budget um proposal can you kind of give us some ideas of the cost the contract and how that process works. I know we've been looking for some information on that in the past. Um, you know, how do kids get referred there? How do we
045pay for it? Insurance, whatever. So, maybe when you come back with your budget proposal. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I could give you I could give you a snapshot now or I could give you an indepth later. Give us a snapshot. That'd be great. Okay. Um so wellness center is something that we um we we contract with them through our special education consultation line. So it is a service that's under special education but it's a service that encompasses all students regular ed and special ed. So right now our school social workers and school psychologists uh if they have a situation where they're doing an assessment somebody either is expressing self harm or um suicidal ideiation uh and they feel that they need a more clinical uh interpretation they can call o the wellness center of Oxford instead
046of 211 service uh 211 one service is a fantastic service. Um, but there are some shortfalls to it in the sense that you don't have a consistent provider. You often wait a lengthy period of time for the provider to arrive and that child is in distress. So, with the wellness center, when we make that phone call to them, they respond within they uh they're contracted to respond within an hour time period. Um, it is a flat rate of pay for a crisis intervention and assessment. I believe it's $200. From there, they make the determination of next steps. So, they may say that the child needs to travel and and be seen in in in an emergency room or at least with an outside psychiatrist or treating physician. uh they may also say to the family,
047we'd like to work with your child. We're going to, you know, ask that you make the referral. Once that referral is made and they're being seen privately through the wellness center, it becomes the wellness center in the family that work on pay. We have had the wellness center do workshops for us and they will charge us for professional development. Um but primarily it's crisis intervention and management. They uh have been great. When our school social workers or psychologists want uh or have a family that is asking for help, we give them the contact for wellness center and we have many many families that have made great connections with their counselors there. Um so it's been a great partnership. This is our second year. We started last summer. So last year and the second question I
048had is do we have any sense why students come in? Well, we certainly recruited um Linda was my recruiter and she could be a cheerleader I think in a previous life. Um but she um you know they did a lot of recruiting. Uh I I think what it boils down to is it's a short period of time. So it's not as attractive when there's a tuition assigned to it because the families still need to figure out how am I going to get them there? How are they going to you know I've got to pick them up and then yet they also have to pay a tuition. Then they need to figure out a tuition for another program. um they had a higher rate of participation when there wasn't a tuition charge. That's just the long
049and short. There was also a program I think that high intensity intervention talked about. So right, we started a class from last year at Quaker Farm School for our students that typically we were out placing to programs like uh CES or um maybe milestones. Uh and really we were targeting students that um had had uh cognitive uh disabilities as well as maybe autism um or a combination of both but uh need had intensive needs across all domains of function. So, um, communication, behavior, um, motor, uh, all of those factors, um, and need being present. And really in a resource room, you can't really address those needs intensively. So, um, it is a self-contained classroom. Uh, and it is, you know, at this point, you know, half half a half a year in, um, in its
050growth. and they're able to provide a very specific type of instruction um under uh you know the the the umbrella of ABA applied behavioral analysis. They're able to do discrete trial training where they teach skills very specifically um and very uh targeted and um there's a strong emphasis on um building communication skills. So the students are working with various augmentative communication um picture exchange uh and really trying to learn just that foundation of requesting needs and wants um as a starting point. Um since we district you mentioned that you're starting to do programs between schools themselves that's consistency through each school of education special. So how do you feel right now the culture the schools are being changing? Um I feel that our PPS staff are enthusiastic about what we do. Uh I think that
051the program at Quaker is welcomed. Uh, I think that I think that also the general education teachers at Quaker, the resource room teachers at Quaker feel that these kids' needs are being met uh more comprehensively. So, I think that that's a really good feeling for them, too. Um, and I think that our new staff uh have have meshed really well and are uh appreciating um you know, what they're creating. So once again, uh, talk to us. We'll get you over there. We'd love to have you come see it. And I have to say, parents are very happy that their kids are public schools. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thanks. [Music] Next number meeting calendar for [Music] 2022 questions. Is it wrong to say? No. I mean, you can always have a special [Music] motion to approve
052the 22 2023 meeting schedule. All in favor. Thank you. And carries. I am going to I'm gonna start with we've seen the news that positivity rate has steady that went up against us today. We've seen a steady increase cases here in um students um and staff vaccinated and unvaccinated that students are getting sick. um use um should be updates on the community on um behalf of the health district today. They sent out a report to us yesterday. I met with the emergency services committee at town hall this morning to go over and concern of the increases and the recommendation from health district was to at least through the end of this calendar year because the rising numbers in our area there's concern that um that could further um increase the risk of condition to person.
053So we made decision to adhere with the recommendation from health districts and staff this afternoon for that holiday. Um this gives an opportunity for students to um stay healthy for the holidays and that further go into Christmas holiday and years. We don't want students to miss school. I did look at the numbers right now. have upwards of 10 students as we find that aren't students stay. They are going to be saying students and will that not every student that needs that does become close contact is eligible for student study. So it's a small eligible. So we had a quarantine at our prek program yesterday. nature of students interact off prek eliminates entire group of students from setting. Our first grade we have a first grade class that has positive contact in the class. The fact
054that they do mask the fact that they have great lunch and post contact none of those students contact would qualify for screening state. So those are some examples that while screening study does um lower um the amount of students that need to go to quarantine it doesn't eliminate it um fully so we had a good fair number of students that they do not screen in the first place and we did have families that said you know what I don't want to set up in so we hit pause for right now so it's just this week as soon as the days with proper health districts to see how we're going to proceed from there. As far as that is an issue I had a conversation with a few days ago um I did put in finance
055committee agenda tomorrow to discuss we've known for a while that the diving board is failing on us. Um we knew that the pling system had been on last night. We've also known that the lining the the wall in the floor has been deteriorating over time. We've had a number of issues with the the pumps and the mechs that need to water the pool. We know that the doors on the floor surrounding the pool and the walls area. We looked at all of that last year. We prepared the need to repair that with HVAC need at center school and farms and the decision was made when we put the capital last year that the HVAC issues in those schools put precedent over so we budgeted for 2023 our estimate back then was around $175 was not
056something that we had sitting around that work expenses capital expense at at some point last year. Um during one of the seasons the timing system was fail on us and we did spend a few hours to up that would last longer than it did. The fact that it has just recently broke that was unexpected. We didn't expect it to fail so quickly jump right onto it as our director. You got one of the options [Music] $15,000 and they're actively seeking to additional basic need more than one before making a decision. That repair money does not exist. Trace, you can go. You don't have to say my son and his science homework help. [Music] As you would expect, we did not have in the operating budget set aside to repair the um for these repairs. We
057also have the D board. We don't know yet if we need to replace entire diving board or we can fix what's there. We have a vendor that's scheduled to put up tomorrow. We just learned last week that the work of us. So this was the fastest get out was tomorrow. There's not a diver on the board. So that experience is needed to get her right now. um is not as high as the time systems that do need the time. As I said minutes ago, we have scheduled for the finance part. My recommendation will be for the financial activities money that's sitting there either in the um play or the high school rentals to fix the issue. um we obviously don't have to go to space all the items there also don't need to spend all
058activities we could also use those funds to get the water to so I'm trying to get those two issues resolved so my recommendation is for the finance committ to review and approve the use of and Jonah have spoken we're going to facilit needs for both um the pool and the water field which just went out today. Um we just don't want to spend all money on project like these done. So we are actively working on it and we're trying to follow the policies that exist proposing we jump on this immediately. I received that email on Saturday and even within an hour of receiving email I had so much information as possible I can answer any questions with that we'll discuss more as well we do have someone that maintains that we do we have a
059vendor that does maintain the pool the problem is that we have mechanical equipment there and that is computer system and we're seeing that used heavily by community and by our high school athletic program as such it's beginning to discourage and it's a big it's not a low thoughts are discussing the things that would stop our kids from competition. So timing board but if we have a maintenance person maintaining we're able to get a report from them obviously right but like structural $150,000 but we're And that's right. So this is this is I mean this is not this is not our strongest town. This is how schools have been for decades, right? It's got to stop. And if it means taxable and part of the problem, Steve is that we did bring capital to the town
060last year and we did put a request in for center school for the next three years to fix all that. And you know what capital this year? Nothing can make a difference what we presented. Nothing was funed this year capital nothing nothing year one this year and we did meet traffic that's being discussed that the priority need of capital improvement facilities was something that comes and the course we talked about above tax was the need for that and I think that's going to be easier to fix the timing system initially because that's more of an exploring effectively trying to get He's out with us. Any questions with him? That's so cool. Um, I do want to encourage you, I'm going to share this with you on Saturday, um, as part of the festival trees the
061high school put on their winter contract in conjunction with center school. Um, this is a copy of the program. Um you'll see that there is a range of music that was performed at the concert. Um it was performed from all the different choirs. The jazz band and the center school um students um choir also played. There is a link on that program to the high school Facebook account. That concert actually was recorded live broadcast and you can actually watch the the concert on the Facebook page. It was wonderful having an audience this year. We had made 150 programs out of programs and we needed to make more programs for um people that came into valitori really. I love the fact you brought school kids to high school. I would love to see other schools also
062get the space. Absolutely. Here's some questions last week on social media about um elementary school concert. Where did that go? The decision was made to make it more virtually open concert is scheduled for January. They decided to push it into January to make it a winter concert and get out of all the schedules. when we have the date because they're using the high school stage play from last month until sometime in January. So, it's being used right now. Um, but officially publicly welcome our new rental started yesterday and the ground running. So, it's great to see. So, thank you for that. I also want to thank Dr. for again um arranging for my school art to be on her to this afternoon that um the Elman school teachers worked really hard last week there two
063days Wednesday and Thursday they dismissal parent teacher hostages they were exhausted by the end of the day but they had very good conversations with parents throughout those two days um and they also a couple weeks before that the budget process is underway and I have been meeting with all the principles and center director. So at each school presentation we had um and um um representing curriculation listening we are make sure what's being asked for is in the right budget for construction technology rounding out the other centers education facilities getting athletics the border and the district stuff we're planning next week office team to put together the fall budget together and see where we are at. My goal is to go into the verification um knowing what we are at in terms of our percent and
064then start building the budget for January for a budget workshop and then eventually the budget presentation um to you. So we're under tomorrow night the board of staff is meeting to the last thing of their agenda to vote the name of the new the new name for what was center school building they were name that moved to the former location and from what I understand they're planning on voting as great oak school which will be a combination of the former names but we thought it should be worked out. So it's a combination of both. Um, and my last comment is thank you to Jackie who is behind the scenes, but this is her last board of education meeting where she is serving as her clerk. And I know that from my perspective, I've seen very
065high capacity for her to get nail those minutes down right. So, Jack, you're not here, but thank you for your is we would like um certainly to put the posting up but since we left out with Jackie so we're hoping that we get [Music] someone Jackie you are appreciated Thank you very much. Especially Isa being secretary makes my life. You can't see her, but she just smiled. The text messages. What was the call? She's just been great. [Music] So, I guess I'm not I just would like to thank you all and wish you all happy and safe. Enjoy the time you take off and [Music] remember some options for public So some of that stuff getting started in conjunction with the So in general a lot [Music] okay here's my my new project um curriculum
066technologies communication shared by course last night um we have started a deep dive into all of our principles. Um, we have [Music] currently update to the program of studies which we're very thrilled to have updated and um I'd like to show you part of it. We have our high school. I think everyone we are looking [Music] into and we will be making. We will be updating our website. construction. [Music] Yeah, we're not going to be using the atmosphere to find more details than what we had in the past. So, I think I think it'll be more some deep deep dive into it and they find what the heck is this. It won't happen. updated consistent mentioned before consistenc Okay. Special education is that one of the things that Jason had said is that we wanted
067to capture, you know, kids with disabilities or whatever early preschool kids kindergarten. So that we're working on that going forward instead of trying to catch up. So it appears that intensity that I sit here students involved not surprised and at this moment the board this past year focus on the never lost function all the school district and I want to thank you for your [Music] questions in a nice manner I will also add that some of the material that on was out of date. There was at least one course that was referenced by you last is not even running. So that's one reason. I don't think that class ever studies actually run. So that was one of the reasons why we kind of dug into the program studies and you know make sure that we're
068going to take classes that will actually We're also going to look through social studies on curriculum. We talked about biology. We're going to come up with some ideas and we're going to forward those on to make some changes if you want it. We had three new course um programs submitted. a little [Music] bit of Spanish update on that. [Music] I hope everyone got a chance to look at the videos [Music] that for years and years and years we had paid policies. We recently replaced them with Shipman and we have a contract with Shipman which keeps us up to date with the latest changes in the law. Um Rob sent us all back on November 10th and it outlined the highlights of the necessary changes that we need to make in order to keep this up
069to date. Um, we did our first read with Deb last meeting. It's on the agenda tonight for a second read. So hopefully all of you guys have a chance to take a look at all this questions. Now a chance to talk about it. Otherwise, um, I make a motion to adopt the policy updates as outlined in the November 10th, 2021 memo. Any discussion? I So what will happen next is I will then I will now integrate the changes into our live policies that we have. Thank you for all of our work and policies are on board. there is there is policy finance and personnel Mike. Sure. Uh no major updates. Our next subcommittee meeting is tomorrow at noon. It'll be over Zoom. Le is on the court. Um I know Stephanie was not able to
070attend the oasis meeting but she will get us the date for um plan site and plan site and had a conversation with our high school psychologist and social worker attended the oasis meeting. Okay and I talked to Dr. found this morning about that presentation for freshmen that they're trying to get for probably January which would be um for all freshmen to participate in. So that is one of the events there together this is something addition to that talked about maybe pulling it down to number so maybe that's something that we talk to the way system maybe just a public together is a freshman panel which has a series of specialists that would be speaking to parents and students. We've had two meetings. What we've done is that the first meeting kind of we select groups
071of critical thinking as well as learning broke it down. And then the second meeting we did a kind of a table round table charting so that we could find out what questions were coming up and so that we weren't researching it over and over again because you know as you know you can say the same question 12 ways. So we went through that and we got an update on that which kind of narrowed it down to our programs. So our third meeting this grand deal is where the effort really starts into our individual areas and start to put it together past operating plan where we're at asking for this first time board members been on this committee over the years they have for certain things so I make sure that those items been addressed and
072Biggest thing is accountability for time [Music] sit I did attend the last club meeting and they primarily spoke about the details for the festival trees in the um pizza and friends and I did attend that Friday night and that was awesome that we attended. It was great to offer so they're having pizza and they had the high school drama club put together um Polar Express different students um and parents stories that were read to them. There's refreshments that was attended three different pieces and um that parents and children went through that was primarily the part of the meeting this week also give an update on athletics in which case the CIC is releasing or has released a new set of guidelines which will allow students whether they're vaccinated to take a mask off during play
073after December 23rd. However, I'm hearing rumors similar to that changes now. So, we're still waiting to see that meeting you were not meeting Thursday night for attendance issues. I'd like to see more parents attend. Can we get an update? I can't sure that our over 65 and older we are up there in terms of thinking higher vaccination rates 18 to 24 is very good. um under um 18 um you see that drop in between 25 and 60 there's a a sharp as well overall we're in the 16% range in terms of vaccination for our town but I'm also finding that those that are vaccinated also getting sick and from what I've learned at our meeting this morning [Music] um the well people are getting sick they're What what Dr. trying to explain is if you're
074vaccinated, you're going to see anywhere from a week of flu like conditions and um if you're [Music] unvaccinated sky right now the [Music] hospitality rate is increasing and they're not very school board stating that they do not support masking on sports discriminatory street segregation not support it went out and voice as a board their opinion not favor I don't know I just think there's more and it's an appropriate question. So it's not something I want. My main concern will stay in effect is that you're going to have five basketball players in the field wearing masks and not wear mask. Now you have publicly added students that have elected their own personal choice not to get vaccinated and setting those students up for whatever happens. that you're singing easier for the next I disagree with that
075I don't know the answer is but I I don't necessarily social emotional that's also speaking about as well when it comes to instances of potential bully which is happening schools right now are on the same topic. So I mean I was still myself right and for that reason for the play the play before shutting down we purchased a clear face mask for every student in the play because the play had the same rules as sports where students were unbel all students that didn't matter all the same the same [Music] We have one last item to address session. So I'll make a motion to enter into executive session. I invited Dr. Miller and Mer to discuss a potential L and second. All in favor? I I [Music]