001seconds. Give me the thumbs up. Just make sure it's just um Oh, I'd like to call to order uh the regular board of education meeting Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at exactly 6:30. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll start, please. Vinnie, Stephanie Miller, Debbie Sherman, Mike Cooer. Are there any amendments to the agenda? Hearing none, we can move on to minutes. Motion to approve the September 26 regular daily education minutes. Second. Any discussion on those? All those in favor? Oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. Motion to approve November 8th special joint board of education board of select amendment. Second. Any discussion on those minutes changes?
002All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Our favorite thing to do, oh student recognition. And I'm gonna invite our um science um teacher here all the way back to Basin who um contacted me several several months ago and wanted to recognize um a number of our students were being recognized for accomplishments dealing with the National Chemistry Olympiad um as well as being a finalist. So um Miss Plaza, can you come up here and join me? Yeah. And we always like to recognize our students and this is something that we want to schedule on a night that we have the high school administration here to make the presation. Awesome. Okay. So, hi. Um I'd like to recognize these students who um chose to participate in the name section of the um national chemistry of competition.
003It wasn't anything they had to do. It was not part of any clubs that they were doing. um they just did it because they love to learn and it like warmed my heart and we had a lot of fun getting ready for it. We met for several weeks at like 6:00 or 6:15 in the morning once a week. Mr. Hibbert let us into the school so we would get in, we'd have breakfast and we would practice and then we went up to Quinn and compete it and we actually had one person who qualified to take um the next like the national exam by then. So, um, without further ado, and by the way, just so yes, um, all these people pass their AP exams with three scores. You want to take a picture right now?
004I'll be that parent. Abby Zoro. I won't be that shot. Sam, by the way, Sam is doing her capstone um making science videos for some elementary school classes. And um last but not least, uh this is the student who um scored high enough on the local exam to take the national exam. She sat for several hours right at Quinnip um to do this and um and one person's not here is carry shouldn't be in Thank God you guys have you probably need to scooch over. I'll take a couple. Oh, Dr. Miller, you looked away. Awesome. Great. Everybody you take the time to really invest and time and your energy and you're successful. You could be out having fun and even applied your studies to chemistry. It's amazing that you participate with us and it's amazing
005that you take the time to really mentor and coach these students to really help them develop a love for science. Thank you. Nice job. You're welcome to say, but you don't have to. Thank you. Were those all the recogations? song or what? Smile on my face. I'll try not to now you're all Now you're all over the Well, when you have Are you doing When are you doing? I have to talk to Joe. Um, next on our agenda, audience of citizens. Is there anyone who would like to address the board? We're so You can go to the podium if you like or you can talk from your seat. Whatever you feel comfortable with. I can't see who's behind Anthony. Oh, hi. It's you. Congratulations. Um, so it doesn't seem like anyone wants to talk. Um,
006is there any correspondence, Mike? Uh, none at this time. Okay. Thank you. So, attributes of a graduate, I believe that's OHS and MS. Are you doing tag team type thing? I'm going to invite our two principles up. Um, we've been speaking about um the access of the graduate for several years now. Um, this past summer, the administrative team really coalesed the work that the teachers had done um during the year to develop the rubrics and how it applied the active graduate to the student learning to assess student learning. And what we wanted to do um this year is to highlight each of the attributes to the board and to the general public and what they they mean and how they are being applied at each grade level. So we what we've done is we've set
007a schedule for the year where two principles each meeting will come and present a specific attribute what it means at their grade levels um and showcase some student work or voice of students um through that. So the first presentation that we're making this evening through the cycle is a joint presentation from the high school and middle school on one specific attribute and then the next meeting will be the elementary school presenting and that is the year progresses will be interchanging the schools and they'll be paired up in different ways. So how many attributes are there? What is your test? Oh, just if you if you're spreading it out five. Okay, you're spreading it out. Yeah, I see. You waiting for Yeah. that you can't get it to change. Who's our IT guy? Mike, you are
008on vacation. There you go. All right. You can start mine. Mine are first. So, thank you for having us tonight. We're talking about the critical thinker which is one of the five attributes of the graduate. Besides critical thinking, we have collaborative learner uh effective communicator, empowered learner and productive citizen. So, our talk is on critical thinker. On this slide, um there are four subsections of critical thinking that we looked at. In fact, these four sub subsections are part of a rubric that we have that we use to assess this particular attribute at the high school and the other schools use it as well. So, detecting bias example of that that I shared with the board through student work. That's one the first one. Second one is p persevering through complex tasks. You know, given something
009that is intellectually rigorous and challenging, how do you work your way through it? determining when did you make mistakes if you make a mistake how you correct that so on and so forth using logic and analysis of both your work and say it exempts or really accurate piece and what's the difference between the accurate piece and what you that's something I also provided for you guys uh third one constructing or justifying or refuting arguments uh we I give you an example of a US history class very seminar where you're given a point of view and you have to argue for it or against it whether the United States should be an imperialist nation or not. You don't have to agree with it but you have to be able to argue and then the last using
010research strategies developing theories about real world issues and getting you to apply what you've learned to give an example of our engineering classing a state. So the next page takes those four subsections of critical thinker and and this is a type of rubric that we would use for the kids so they would know if they mastered uh this or do you have debate club? We have one but kids that are that sign up. I I did debate. No problem. I thought I knew you guys wanted to see me present, but uh so we don't currently have one active. Okay. But we have in the past just because there's not interest or whatever. Uh because that would certainly tie into absolutely. So this is just for your reference. Each of the attributes has a rubric that
011was put together by a team of teachers and administrators last year uh and have representatives from each of the four schools to get go to the next slide. And I had given you just some hyperlinks to each of uh these uh attributes uh of student work that we did this school year in in the building. And just go I'm going to go over quickly. You don't have to click on each link. I know that chance to look at some people have to get access. Uh the first example was of an English 10 class uh detecting bias on the part of an author uh in using their craft. How might the author's craft influence you as you to a particular issue or a a particular um position? being aware that authors use this crap to influence
012readers critical skill set and that was an English class taking a look at a book but it can be applied to nonfiction second one I had to ask for a lot of help from the teacher this is a math class and it was on it's actually a math modeling class which is if you think about the highest rigor class to to mid levels to sort of the classes for the masses this is one just regular math class for 12th graders. You don't have to be in calculus to have try to solve problems like this. So, a lot of the kids would take this and they're just given a prompt uh given this game. Is it fair? It could and and most of the kids think it is. And the point is that it's not and
013kids have to figure out mathematically why why it's not. probability is not equal and they're shocked by the end of the process and why it's not the results aren't. So they have to think about they give their answer to the teacher. The teacher gives them feedback. The next day they get model exemplar answers. What's the difference between what I came up with versus what someone who solved it correctly came up with. Why did this person get a right? Because you're thinking about that. It's pretty pretty interesting to me anyway. But I didn't understand that high school kids came. Uh third one was the US history which is a Socratic seminar. The last one is our principles of engineering class real world application using software to create things a view. So I don't know if you
014have any questions in school kids. Yes, I do. On number three. Yeah. American imperialism. Yeah. And I read over the thing there Teddy Roosevelt Spanish 1812 all those things is that I I guess with all the things that occur in the world today. Sure. Uh I don't think debating Teddy Roosevelt is something that there are critical things that they could be talking about. You got the Silk Road, China, you have Cuba that is dominated by China, you have Venezuela, you have many current things, okay, that this is good background history that's not worth debating because it's time. I don't disagree with you. But I'll tell you why. um this is the period of time that we're studying and that that information uh can be applied to say post world war ii the cold war first
015world second world third world uh American imperialist develop developing world competing with the Soviet Union uh and applies to modern things today that that particular uh period of time is the period of American imperialism expansion is that we're living today in the world is being controlled. You know, we had the the the second world war, okay, which my father went through and all those things going through the second world war. The imperialism of Russia going into Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, you know, the Berlin wall th those are much more current and that's imperialism. You know, you have China building and taking over countries which are now bankrupt. You can't pay China back. I mean, I think that's a more lively debate to bring people into the thing. What Teddy Roosevelt did and his his goals back then
016he was secretary of the Navy resigned and went to swamp, you know, San Juan Hill. You know, it's, you know, we all got things that we want to say the country was booming, steel was being made, sticks were steel, you know, there's all kinds of things there that are there that lead up to something. But we live today and you can see today the problems that we have with the lack of good firm education of what happened just 75 years ago. You know that we can have this kind of turmoil going on and be afraid to express it. If you want to talk about materialism, let's get today and get the kids up today so when they walk out into the world they know what they're getting into. Teddy Roosevelt in the name for teddy
017bears isn't going to help them. interject. Can I interject something? Um, and Anthony, you can jump in here. Maybe um an understanding of what a Socratic um seminar is because it's the it's the skill. I understand what you're saying as far as the the content, but the skill is very um sequential that you are to build upon these questions to finally get somewhere. So I see your point of using real world but you have to also remember that this is a skill that they're trying they're using that I I knew that would come up so okay what the Socratic method yes okay there's four different of it okay and there's the old method and the new method okay so there's different ways that they can do it but the end result of that is to
018come up with a consensus because I decided to look up the word consensus okay which is a skill that we learn in business versus the the debate here of getting there. Consensus is to control the event and get the answer that you want. Okay, maybe a lot of talk, but it still is the moderator control it and based on the latest version of this and how you go through it and how it's handled determines how that debate will come out. So, I'm not concerned about the debate. I love the debate. I'm just saying that the like using more modern material. Yeah. Can I just also just interject? They also have like a set of standards um they have to teach using and those standards do involve like some of that content as well. Um so
019the teachers are trying to use skills that are going to engage the student to teach that content. So it's not your typical 20 years ago lecture style. So there is material they do have to cover um which in US history. Uh and yes, we want them being able to apply the skills of what goes into uh conducting a Socratic seminar with being able to do that and use that in real world application and being able to engage with information and they may engage with information in different like a civics course or something like that. But there is material they have to cover in a US history course. But if you go back to the first thing where you talk about techniques, relating things and stuff. Okay. So if you read the the questions in blue
020here, that's a perfect example of how something is presented that, you know, is American internalism even justified? Okay, so you know, you're already guilty of it. You're not going to debate it. You're just going to they can say, well, maybe I can justify it. You know, we had good steel, you know, conquer went to the west coast, all that kind of stuff, you know. So there, you know, but the questions when you read them, go right back to the very first technique. So if you don't think number one, you're going to get screwed number three. Yeah. I also think, you know, when you look, you know, they don't say history repeats itself, right? And that's part of the reason why the standards are the way they are and we do want teachers to introduce current
021event topics and so forth, but that is not the meat of the standards in the curriculum. It is US history and while it is heavy on the skill side, there's also the content piece that goes with US history. You're covering certain eras and time periods. But I will say I do agree with you a little bit though. Uh and so they were having you're having a seminar. Unfortunately, I I teach subjects so I I I would skip the guild each second, but uh but I know people like the TV show. The um the point I guess that I would make is that yeah I mean this happens to be the period of history that they're studying but uh most research would indicate that kids will learn about these things if you can connect something to
022say background knowledge. Obviously they weren't alive back then they're alive now. So you can as a teacher make parallel explanation to okay uh in this particular time we're talking the late 1890s you know and then you could say like I suggested um this is very similar to what happened post World War II when we were one of the two superowers really domination for economic and political uh and you could say and then look today you have all sorts of issues with materialistic government Should Puerto Rico be a state as an example that has all sorts of political scienceification? What type of electors would they have reset? So there's certainly a lot of stuff that you could connect to this and I think this was one of the discussions that we had with staff when I
023asked them to produce some work for me that I can share with you guys. Um I'm asking you to do this because I know you do these things variety of things. uh eventually we'll get to a place where it's better in the curriculum uh where you know I'm sure that long-term planning is going to be so in say a global studies class when would a student expect to have these different aspects built in what's going to be I think right now you know I'm only years uh one and a half years uh they're doing these things because this has been a part of their work for a few U but um it's not institutionalized in that coded that's where you might see some of the connections that you're suggesting. So how how can you make
024this work uh with kids? I know you're you're studying this particular era. Is there any connections to what's going on and and that may be something that many kids would then be able to say well history does repeat. Okay. Well, yeah. I'm fine. Can I join the class? I was gonna Why don't you teach it? Say that exact same thing, Anthony. I read kind of a scary article, but I didn't finish state exactly that way without getting too political. It was taking some of Trump's statements and aligning them with previous Hitler's statements and um you know, no matter where you're coming from. Anyway, that was exactly point I was going to make. you know, what's that saying? Uh, we don't learn from history. We're destined to repeat it. Yeah. To repeat it. I know that's
025not exactly the case. But so, I think it be important to, you know, learn from history, but also connected to and I think the point that to me that that should be emphasized through this conversation is this attributes we're talking about live above the content itself. Live above the curriculum. So regardless of what curriculum we're laying in front of students whether it be in kindergarten or seniors would have become um learning chemistry, biology or social studies or language arts. The skill of being a critical thinker is something we're expecting students to be know be able to do in all those areas. And what we've shown you is just a snapshot of how that skill is being done and assessed in a couple content areas, not in every area. you just saw an example of and
026what you're talking about here is the application of critical thinking, analyzing how the world is constructed and why things are happening. And there are a number of different ways that that skill could be um applied regardless of how that content is played out in front of the student. So lively debate. Thank you for contributing. Um anyone else questions for Anthony? No. All right, Sylvia. Okay, so when we think about the middle school, we have to think a little bit about backwards design because when we think about the attributes of the graduate and like you know next meeting you're going to see from the 3 to five level and the K2 level like how do you take these attributes of the graduate which are the skills that we believe that students have when they walk across
027the stage at graduation and then dial them back to each of our the previous schools. Right? So, we've been thinking a lot at the middle school like how would we how would we do that? How would we showcase the um progression of these skills in the 68 level? So, the first thing is that our students are pretty visual overall. So, we have this hanging in each of our classrooms, right? So, in each of our classrooms, we have each of the attributes there. And then um if you go and thank you to Ellen because she I had the vision, she created it. So that's good teamwork. Yes, it is. That's often how it works. So um and so the next slide. So then we thought about okay, we have these five attributes. We have these content
028areas in our CL in our school. What makes the most sense in our building to um really track the progress of how the students progress through the attributes? So what we decided was we were going to divide the attributes up among content areas. So ELA's focusing and that's not to say the other areas aren't doing all of the attributes, but for our purposes it made the most sense to see the progress in content areas. So ELA is focusing on critical thinker, math empowered learner, social studies productive citizen, science collaborative learner, and the unified arts effective communicator. And so then these um particular attributes are um also hanging in those content area classrooms. Right? So we have the all of the attributes. This is what we want to see. And then in this particular um area,
029this is where we're going to hone in a little bit. Okay? So we took the four. So we took this idea of you know critical thinker and then we looked at the four indicators and what that means for the 68 level and in terms of our progress monitoring like students are self assessing in each so we've kind of developed a protocol in each of the content areas. So the first part of the protocol is that students are self assessing. I think that's the next slide. And then the teachers are monitoring the growth through targeted uh assignments and then the teachers are conferencing with students. Right? So the students are self assessing saying on the rubric here's where I think I am as a critical thinker right now. And they have to, it's interesting because in
030sixth grade, right, what they have to look at the language of the indicators and be able to talk to them through what we have on our rubrics is a little different than high school is we have I can statements that go underneath the rubric. So that's more studentfriendly language. And so students sort of they're starting to assess themselves and can you know how how how much can I do this or I can do this or I can do this under the rubric. And then the teachers are conferencing with the students and saying, "Yeah, you know, on this particular assignment, I saw this. I saw you emerging." And what you have to remember is in the 68 realm, if these are if these are attributes and skills we're expecting them to be proficient in when they're
031in 12th grade, they should still be pretty emerging when they're in middle school, right? We're not going to see a bunch of exemplaries unless although some of the students you'll see in the video I their effective communicating skill I was very proud of them um you know being interviewed one-on-one with the principal and they were great you know so but what we did when it came to student work was I had talked to the teachers and I was saying you know like what's the best way for us to showcase our students as critical thinkers and so they were saying well you know we have these assignments but I think that it's going to get lost in translation if we try and give you a copy of our assignment. And they so we talked about and
032they said um we came to the conclusion of well what if you interview some students? What if you just talk to them about the work that they're doing and you ask them questions? Um and so that's what we did. So, um, teachers sat down a student or two and I asked them questions about the assignment they had in class and really through their answers they were demonstrating how critical thinking is being taught in their particular class in their particular lesson. So, this is just a little video. Again, I had the vision. I interviewed the students and then Ellen put the video together. Well, while he's getting his sound, I did reach out to each of these parents and, you know, talk to them about tell me a little bit about the assignment that Baker, it's
033coming out of here. that changed my ear. See how loud that gets. Well, while he's getting I did reach out to each of the parents and you know talk to them about a little bit about the assignment from either coming out of here. I did but not lie. Well, he's getting I did reach out to each of thebody. [Laughter] I did. I looked at Yeah. So, can you tell a little bit about the assignment that Miss Baker uh gave the class? So, Mrs. Baker assigned us um after the book one for the Murphy's we um we were doing like a project um from either like the point of charact the point of view from another character or from maybe after the book maybe another chapter or maybe um a flash forward to when Carly turns
03425 and talks to Mrs. Murphy again. Why did you decide to take Daniel's point of view? because Daniel is um one of the foster like siblings um of um Carly and um they have um like they didn't really like each other at first but then they um then afterwards they started to get along and then that um Daniel was like um the other sibling that like they started to get along they finally started to have like a regular super relationship even if they weren't like generally related. So, by showing the chapter from his perspective, what did you hope to what did you hope to accomplish? Um, I hoped to like show the point of view of Daniel from like um him struggling um like to show the struggles between like um someone who just joined
035like the family. Great. All right. Thank you, Hannah. Thank you. We take all of the evidence of the story. So, In this case, a long walk to water. We take the evidence and how the characters interact with their surroundings, each other, etc., and we essentially mix that together to create our theme statement. Okay, great. And can you tell me how you got to your theme statement in particular? So when I was finding my theme statement, I um chose how the characters interacted with each other. Um their surroundings, their situations, the conflicts that are faced um with them and also what I felt the author was trying to convey to the readers through the message or through the story. Um and I put that together and I got my theme statement. Great. Thank you, Avery. We
036started developing a theme by finding a motif that has like commonly occurred in our story. And from there we went down like to the next four boxes and we found um evidence that supported our our motif that was like good evidence and it wasn't just stuff that was thrown out there. And then from there we found a theme that was like that like matched our evidence and our motif. Great. And so how did you get to your theme statement when you're thinking about how it pushed you as a thinker and a learner? I got to my theme statement by first finding like a common motif and checking with Miss Sadella to make sure she agrees on it. And from there, I found evidence and went back into the book to find like good evidence and
037make sure it was all correct before moving on to the last part which was finding my theme. And at the end, I checked everything over with Miss Sadella. Great. Thank you, Jordan. All right. So, Brady, can you tell me a little bit about the fishbowl you took part in in ELA? So the fishbowl was basically a class discussion among our different ideas and opinions or viewpoints on the book summer proases which we were reading. We had an inner circle of desks and this kids sitting in the inner circle would um discuss their different top the different topics and ideas and opinions of the story. And then the kids on the outer circle would take notes and if they wanted to join in to discuss they they raise your hand and we would take turns going
038between the circles so that everybody could discuss and had a chance to voice their opinion. Great. What kept the discussion going in this fishbowl? So in the fishbowl, the way the discussion kept going was that different people could have had different ideas and that would really that really show like how different people can interpret different things differently and that it was almost like a constructive argument. Great. How different opinions and and how do you think it pushed you as a learner or a thinker this fishbowl? So it really pushed me to think outside the box and how Not only like and how not only like small parts of the story affect it, but like how every single part of the story affects the plot and everything and how different viewpoints can be how different viewpoints
039can be like the same or different, but they both show like a real idea. Great. Thank you, Brady. You're welcome. So, Cali, can you tell me a little bit about the fishbowl activity that you participated in in your ELA class? For the fishbowl activity, it was based off of chapters 1 through 11 in some of the Mariposas. And what we had to do was there was a box of questions and there'd be one person that would pull them out and you would read them off and the people in the center there the center and the outside. The people in the center of the fishbowl, they would have to really think about how to answer in-depth answers for these questions and the people on the outside would have to analyze the questions and they would have
040to take notes. Um, so how do you think this activity pushed you as a learner and a thinker? This really pushed me as a learner and a thinker because if you're on the inside, you really had to come up with original ideas and answers for these questions and you really had to communicate together. If you're on the outside, you really had to analyze these questions and see if you agreed or disagreed with what the people said. Great. Thank you, Calie. You're welcome. And I swear I didn't prompt them. Like I had the question. You did a nice job. I had the questions and I really wanted to see what they would be able to produce when I would ask them question a little bit about the assignment based on based on the work. Do you
041have any questions for Oh, nice job. It's nice to see the students. Any questions for Okay, thank you guys so much. Okay, next on the hip parade assessment report. I assume that's Eric. Eric, you're probably doing the next two, right? Thank you guys. Nice working with you. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. So, I'll just kind of review overall um what was sent to you and then um kind of any questions you guys have, but just to kind of let you know where my head was at creating this. Um being new in the district, I just wanted kind of as a starting point for me obviously and and being able to dig through district data. Um try to put in there all the different places uh I collected the data from. Um, so it's a
042few hours of just getting that information all in one place. So I see it as kind of like I said that starting place uh for me and the district as you know where are we at um and we can move forward whether it's going to be the same exact template year from year but or the same exact data every single time. Um but having all this in one place uh obviously whenever you're doing an assessment report what's going well what's not going well which we'll get into in a few. Um, and then the most important piece for myself and when I meet with teachers and and other district leaders, uh, it's asking questions. So, um, data doesn't tell the whole story, but it should lead you to being able to ask questions, dig deeper. Um,
043obviously use it to set goals. Um, but, you know, also that big idea of asking, you know, why does it say this? You know, what are we doing to, you know, cause this? What are we doing to do better in this area? Uh some of the major challenges um I kind of put these in there as well is we're in a transition period with a lot of assessments um which again is a huge issue especially in that K5 realm um just using assessments for the first time is difficult in regards to understanding what the data means trying to compare them to previous assessments um and what that tells us. So that definitely was the major challenge trying to work with some companies to get some questions answered which um you know we're honestly still waiting
044on some questions to be answered from uh some of the companies that we're working with. Uh another challenge is lack of trend data with some of the assessments even ready which we've been using for a couple years. Um you know it's been two years so you really don't have that trend data. That's why there's a difference in how some of the data is displayed. um you know not really doing line graphs with two years worth of data. So um hopefully we can you know keep some consistency with some of these assessments over the next few years and actually get some of that trend data um which will help us kind of dig a little deeper and ask some different questions. Well bless you. Um I said before some of the comparison issues like the Ready
045to the HMH which is new what exactly does that look like? Um you know I think we saw in the HMH data the especially that kindergarten and first grade um data the HMH which is the reading data um showed some very low scores with um students that are at proficiency at the beginning of the year. Well those numbers generally are not um ever too high at the beginning of the year. Um I think if we look it was on page 30 H was 13. um the fact that it was one and four for kindergarten, first grade. Um that's one of the answers. I'm still waiting on the company to see if there was some sort of testing issue. Um so that was a challenge. Uh it doesn't make sense to me that our dibble status
046we have um you know even though it's only part of the HM you know almost 30 40% of students showing above at or above in certain areas um on that assessment not showing it there as well as previous data with I Ready shows that in the beginning of the year even the first year of implementation with I already in the teens low 20s with number of students who started the year and this being one of four just makes sense to me. Um the company is looking into it. um as well as trying to get maybe some state comparison data um so we can also compare to some other districts around the state who are using HMH um with them kind of branching out with the implementation of the right to read grant um they're still
047working through gathering some data from other people as well so um I'm eagerly awaiting that so we can compare that with other districts um but we'll also have other information show um the validity of that um and then obviously that at the high school is new as well so again a lot new and different assessments that people are getting used to. Um this year I did forget to mention to not put in the beginning with the explanation numbers were rounded um just um just to make for ease of um the data and keeping things somewhat simplified. And then when it comes to trend data with some of the state pieces such as ESPback, you'll notice that the first year is 1819 and then it um does jump to 21 22 22 23. uh that is
048because of those pandemic years. Um the state does have some of that data and they do not actually a lot of it's not presented on their trend data or it's as uh they put asterisk next to it just because of the different ways that schools were running during that time whether they were all in hybrid not in um how they were testing. There was no consistency around the state with a lot of the testing. So, um, you know, there's not a lot of comparison going on with us versus state. You don't know how other students were tested, how they were in school at that time. So, um, that is the reason why some of the the data, the assessment years jump. Again, I put it in there so we can kind of see those pre-COVID
049years, where were we and what is going on there. Um, the overall kind of trends, um, I did put in there in a summary piece. Um but we're going into year three with I ready. We are seeing a lot of positive trends with the number of students who are starting the year off at or above grade level um is increasing year-over-year um as well as the amount of students who make that jump to reaching their typical growth. Um as back growth that goes um great oaks um we definitely see some positive trends in their data and I think it's that fifth grade ELA is is up to 80% of that class. um was at or above grade level. Uh and most of their scores are 15 to 20% higher than the state average. So we're
050definitely seeing some great um those SPEC scores at GO. Uh the PSAT 9 and SAT scores. So PSAT 9 obviously that nth grade and then the 11th grade SAT scores um where we made some huge jumps um between last year, the previous year and last year. Um I think it is the math we jumped to over 30 points higher than the state average. Um so there are some definite gains in those areas that we're seeing in ninth and 11th grade when looking at the PSAT and SAT. And then our science scores overall that NGSS assessment. Um again that's another one where you know we're 15 to 20% higher than the state in those scores and that's taken in third grade, 8th grade and 11th grade. So we're seeing that both at ghost the middle school
051and at the high school level. So definitely some positive trends with some of the data. The pieces that you know I kind of noted as u further analysis things to work on um things that the uh district has some goals that um we hope to address. Um it's you know while we do have some positive numbers out there I think math overall um whether you look at the ASPback data or some of the IR data there's definitely a difference in the number of students at proficiency um kind of no matter what grade level you're looking at um in regards to where we're at versus the state. Obviously the middle school kind of has those lowest numbers. Uh when you look at eighth grade for both ELA and math, we see kind of a a pretty
052drastic declining number over the years. Um while other grade levels are showing kind of that flattening trend u where we want to see more of an increase in these postcoid years. Um but you know math overall is definitely an area of focus. Um something where I told you we got to ask questions. It's that kind of PSAT10. Um it's interesting because we kind of have those declining numbers in eighth grade. Ninth grade we see on the PSAT both ELA and math a jump with um numbers showing higher than the state average. 10th grade we seem for the past couple years seem to we took it a decline and then back up in 11th grade. um you know so definitely that's one of the questions I have that we're looking a little further into and looking
053at individual student data trying to figure out what happened and why the down up down up um trend in those areas. Um and then at the end of the report there's something called the performance index um and that is on page 33 33 um and the performance index that comes from the state and those areas. So, what I did is I put the ELA, the math, and the science in there. And you'll see that the target number the state gives is 75. There's a lot of statistical in uh data that goes into coming up with that number, but the the basis behind that is um they're looking at growth year-over-year um as well as the difference between um your students who are high needs, non- high needs. Um so you know obviously you know the
054goal is to trend higher and get to that target of 75 and above. Um and that's currently kind of where we're at. Uh a lot of the work is going to be done in the curriculum writing that is going to take place um beginning this year and moving forward um in regards to where we are with alignment. That's that process will help us kind of um dig a little deeper into some of those grade levels where we see some inconsistencies. you know why there's some data that shows sixth grade's going up and then all seventh and eighth grade goes down and then up and ninth. So that process will allow us to kind of ask those questions and dig a little deeper in those grade levels. Um the the high dosage tutoring grant we got
055in math um which is six through nine but is going to be mostly at the middle school level. Um, I'm interested to see what type of effect that has on math proficiency and scores. Um, and the effect is effectiveness of that. Uh, the state put the grant out there because the research shows that high dosage tutoring does work. Um, so I'm I'm very interested in in running a successful campaign to um to improve math proficiency with middle school students and then figuring out if it it was so effective, what can we do to continue that program moving forward. Um and then just overall the the districtal implementation of UDL or universal design for learning. Um I we had an outside consultant pro provide some PD in the beginning the year. Um I developed some professional
056development for middle school, high school we've done recently as well as the lower levels um with a focus on making sure that uh that lessons there's access for all students no matter what it doesn't matter if you have an IB 504 reg um that access um of lessons is available to all. Um so I don't know if there's specific questions about the data I can answer. Quick question more I know it's early and you're asking questions in the from your perspective what's how do you approach where you have like let's use ELA 78 right assuming we're one place pre- pandemic was assume they tanked right there other grades we're seeing decline back to pre pandemic so let's assume it's an incline up on the ones that just keep going down right how do you think
057through that because you do have a different mix of kids right I just like foundation how do you approach what's how do you right now we're so I'm using because you got to remember this is last year's ESPback data right so for math specifically just because I know that's a concern across all the grade levels so I can I dug a little deeper into the ESPback data for example and we pulled students who were near the bottom of that testing um we pulled that group and I worked with one of the interventions for math at the high school um and we kind of created the ninth grade list and we said, "Okay, this was their respect grade, eighth grade. Where are we at ninth grade?" They have, which is new. Um, you know, we're going
058to have grades and um from their ninth grade class. Um, and we're starting to triangulate some data to really figure out like where where could that issue be? Um, because based on where the P like the PSAT9 like doesn't make sense to be that low and then up. Um, one thing we did find when working with when I was working with the interventionist is we do have some of those students um, go to the tech schools. Um, so I think we started to track uh, I think it was I don't the numbers in front of me. It was in the 60s number of students that we wanted to track um to see how they would do ninth grade this year and I believe it was 20s mid20s or so of that group who was in
059the lowest performback was no longer in the high school because they went on to the tech school. there is. That's the bomb. It's It could be. It could be. So, it's a portion, but I think there's other things going on, right? Um because it's the ALA piece, too. Um you know, and listen, there's I'm not saying this as an excuse. There's a wide range of things outside of just the data. It's the motivation, you know, of seventh and eighth graders sit down and take an ESPback test. They're not the most fun. Um you know, the difference with I Ready is, well, it's not fun. It's an immediate, hey, this is where this is what you got. And the kid can see it right away. Like ESBAC, you sit there in the spring, you're going to
060take this longer assessment and all right, we're going to send it to you next year when you're in your next grade level in the fall, you know? So, it's like you have no clue how you did and that sort of thing. We'll give you a detailed report later when we send it home with parents months from now. Um, you know, so there's that aspect which plays a role, but um not to the point of we should be where we're at. So, you're starting to lower picking apart and working triangulating trying to get the root cause because I I also want to see is it you know the motivational piece is going to show up if the students were in that let's say bracket on us back in eighth grade and in ninth grade you know
061they're showing their math grade is up here PSAT is up here um you know that lends itself to maybe it was more motivational thing like if they're if they're that low there but showing that they're on a grade level in ninth grade um so that's why we're kind of tracking a room to start that process of seeing what's going on. And then like I said, the other piece is going to happen when we do the curriculum writing with Kath and K8 and being able to do some vertical alignment piece and and just figuring out what is, you know, why he's great. Maybe there's some gap pieces there. We're also missing um in regards to what's being taught right now. You also have to take a look at assessments by themsel one piece of data. How
062else are the students doing in their classes? How are they doing on the interm assessments that we're doing on the formative and the summit of assessments they were doing as part of the curriculum themselves? How are they doing on? How are they doing um I ready? How are these other pieces are they all telling us as a picture the student is not being successful or is it just one particular assessment that students just are not motivated to take and they're having high success in other areas. And just to add on to that, how many, you know, when when you look at some of the classes and my boys went through the middle school and they had they were in both their twins, so they went through the two different color groups. Um, is it more
063important to understand the content or is it more important on compliance of doing your homework? And I'll I'll put it this way. I had one who missed tons of of homework assignments. I think at the end of the year he had like something like 60 missing assignments which is frightening because I was all over it and he did well on the tests and and he did well and the other one did all of his homework assignments and tanked all of his tests and quizzes didn't do well. They both had about the same grades and they go how is it possible which one counts? Is it more about the the test scores or the compliance of doing the homework? And I never I left middle school going I don't know. It should be the focus on
064what are students able to do when they're asked to use the skills and the content they've been taught independently and in a new situation like that is the best way to tell. So if those summitive assessments you're talking about put a student that on their own had to use the content and the skills that they were taught in that situation, then that's going to be your best measure of did they get it or not. um not so much like the day-to-day homework piece. the day-to-day because I'm not sure how that was graded if it was great for more participation or correct or not correct it was completed it was started and and completed whether the and that's where the again the curriculum writing the the focus and when you get to the really crux of
065of UDL how do you increase engagement it all goes back to that piece right how do we you know we talked about attributes of the graduate um and the reason those are important is because you know we want our students to be able to use the skills and information they have in a setting they may not be aware of that they're going to be in in the future. You know, and that's really the important piece of education now moving forward is we don't know what the most in demand jobs are going to be 10 years from now. We have no clue. Um you know, the jobs that are out now were out 20 years ago. Um some of them, not all of them. Um but so how can we create when we teach students those
066skills and the content and put them in the situations to apply them um in a way that is going to show the teacher that they really understood it. I just want to clarify a statement in my head is that from 8th grade to high school a shift and but you threw in a a thing that a lot of some of the kids it might be because some kids go to tech school. Yeah. I I think you said the data that the students identified in eth grade or 20 of them went off to tech school or out or out of district. They're no longer part of the cohort. So that's an explanation for the jump for smarter kids in high school. It could be it was I got I saw that information. It's not like a
067complete answer as to this is the reason why just saying one of the things we saw when we looked at here the kids were tracking when you look at 8th to 9th grade you're not doing the exact same cohort anymore. It's like now we got to look at like what effect does that have on the scores? Whether they went to a tech school, whether they they went to out of district, there's a bigger disparity between the kids that we have in eighth grade to 9th grade than any other grade level. And this past year, 8th grade into the current ninth grade, we had the largest number of students that left our school from a number of years that went to other schools outside of our point. when they go to the tech schools, they still
068take the standardized tests. Yeah. And like I said, they may be dealing does it get incorporated from us as a district? So, and it may be and it may be the same thing like why ninth grade was what is it a motivational issue? Do those you know do those students still have a one or the Sback? Like no, they may have a three and they're in a situation where they're thriving. It doesn't mean that, you know, people who are not good at math are going to move on and go somewhere else. Um, it's just one of the things we've looked at that we had to look further into. I know at least four kids. Shell's next. Go ahead. That went to tech school after it's okay. And you know, one's a nurse. Another one is
069a multi- spindle CNC machine and stuff like that. A lot of math and stuff like that. And uh, and I was into a text about electronics and stuff. I I just find it a little bit disheartening they can and say, "Well, our scores improved because they left." I'm just saying that and they're excelling. Okay, they spent $20,000 making $80,000, not $100,000, making $20,000. So I I just find it personally uncomfortable that that's a and listen when we're looking when we're looking up the scores that say when we're talking about what happens from nth grade though all I'm saying is that piece of information changes so we don't have we're tracking some of the students we don't have the exact same students so I agree does the fact that a student doesn't do well in ESPback
070in eighth grade is that going to affect how much they're going to make 15 years down the road or affect ffect what career they're going to get to? No. But our job is to figure out what's going on in eighth grade that we can try to help out in that situation, improve the scores. Well, I agree. You got to dig because not everyone's only 20 went to tech school. Okay. There's going to be a good portion of the kids in the bottom of the bell curve that can just slide their way through high school and not get what they need. The problem is is that somewhere along in we already know in sixth to eighth grade, the math was disjointed. is that the problem is with the teaching and and reaching the child that has
071the capabilities because they leave. You know, I know many my my classmates, we suck and we left, we started businesses and made a buck. I wasn't at the top of the SBA scores either when I took them. But it's not I listen, I 100% agree with you. It's not a hey, you know, it's not an indicator. These kids are here. It's indicator. It's, hey, we had we're tracking this many kids and we found out, oh, we now have to like cross off this many because they're no longer with the school, whether they went to a tech school or went to another school or out of district or wherever. It's not a, hey, if you're not going to do well on this, you're going to go to this school. It's it's not that piece. I'm just
072saying that of the kids we are tracking, there's a portion of those that are no longer with us. Shel, well, I have a few questions which I I will take outside of the meeting. Maybe we can have a conversation separately, but a more global um sort of a generalized question is and I think you alluded to it a little bit is um and maybe you know more I didn't find out enough when I did some preliminary research but um you know when when you try to compare apples and oranges and bananas it's hard to track them across. Um but um have you found any kind of good tool that um you know uh compares um you know sort of what's assessed in ESPAC versus I Ready versus SATS PSAT. So they have so I Ready
073has a projection score um which I put on there. So if you go like that is supposed to be and it kind of gets a little convoluted and I tried to put like an explanation in there but so there's like a typical goal a typical goal in I already which I already says your typical student will meet and then there's a stretch goal which is beyond obviously that typical where if a student is below grade level they need to hit this to start to catch up. Um so what they do is they give you a projection yeartoyear of hey if your students reach if all of your students reach this typical growth goal they should reach this on the state testing if all of them the problem is I couldn't once you finish the year
074so I have the information now the projection goal doesn't show up from previous year so I couldn't go back to see hey does it look like we matched it or not so I'll have this year's data next year's ban and we'll be able to see if that's close or not um to determine. I I have my hesitations because again it's a different assessment. I think it's supposed to be just some sort of um uh estimation. Um but like it says here in 22 23 that if um students meet their typical we have about 60% of our students meet the typical growth goal. Um so we should be in that 60% range. We're obviously not there. So like the I don't see the correlation. Um but that's one year of information. I'd like a little more
075where I say it doesn't at all. And there's also a lot of other platforms out there that work with you know SAT and so forth that you know there's vendors all the time do it. Um whether it's how accurate it is and how much it costs versus what's the benefit of actually doing that. Um you know I'm not I'm not sure about that piece. I think the focus we have a lot of curriculum to break. Um, we have the district initiative with attribution of the graduate. I think focusing on kind of the high quality instruction and making sure that's in all the curriculum is is where the focus should be. Thank you. That's good. Um, I just have a general question. Um, as you've gone through this data, how much work um, do you anticipate
076needs to be done in alignment, right? or do you think do you think that is a possible um you know area that we're not you know you have to have your your sequence and your scope and sequence and it needs to be aligned. I mean if the kids are not teaching to the test that's not the same as alignment. Um but if they're going to be assessed on a skill in March and it's in our curriculum for May then they're going to bomb in March. So have you do you have an opinion on that at this point or are you still kind of discovering? Yeah, I in agreement don't I don't agree with teaching to the test. Right. Right. So, we want to make sure that you know that we have alignment in regards to
077what's happening one grade level to the next and so forth and we build upon those skills. So, that would be the curriculum. Would it Yes. Would a part of it be like, you know, you always go back to when we had, you know, the MAP assessment. Is there a part of it where, hey, they haven't really learned this part yet and they have to take it a month early? Like, yes, that's a part of it. Is it enough to say is that enough to say well that's the reason why you know these scores are down around 30%. Like no that's not a reason why why it's that low. I think you know the the work we have a curriculum to do like there's a lot of work. So to have a district goal we're talking
078K to2 ELA K8 math that's a lot of work. Um and you know I think any curriculum director in the area is going to tell you it's not you know just writing and putting it out year one and saying hey it's perfect and now we're ready to go. It's it's a process. So, curriculum writing is is part of that process, but it's also how do we use that curriculum? Like, are we constantly going back and and vetting to make sure the assessments are telling us what they need to tell us? Um, you know, are we going back and making sure we're we're providing feedback after each unit? Did we get to everything or do we constantly miss something year after year? Hey, this, you know, this is we try have to be done in six
079to eight weeks, but we always take this last topic and have to do it in two days because we never make it enough time, right? you know, so it's it's having the systems in place to review what's being done, to use the data to figure out where to ask the questions and go back into that curriculum to figure out, you know, what revisions need to need to change or need to be made. That's why I don't agree with that. Write it, put it away, and we'll come back in five to seven years and take a look. I think, you know, when we do write it, it is going to be something where, you know, it has to be looked at every year, what's working, what's not working. Um, and you know, honestly, any good curriculum
080is going to have small revisions, you know, here or there. It's, you know, the way this world moves, how fast it moves. I don't think there's anything you can create say it's good for a number of years and move forward with it. Okay, good. Thank you. Anybody else any further questions? Thank you so much. And now we'll move on to the curriculum and instruction goals update. So, just a few updates. I know previously there was the 3069 when I first got here. Um the subcommittee um think when I was here for two weeks, three weeks actually. So just looking at just a more comprehensive picture, a clearer picture of a lot of the major goals going on in the district and obviously there's a little more than this here or there but um just to
081kind of clarify because the 306090 there was a lot of the piece actually had to do with curriculum writing. So instead of having that as most of the document um just that first goal of obviously the a lot of the work I'll be doing is getting the um the curriculum piece up and running. Um yes we do have curriculum out there but it's identifying what curriculum does need to be revised and what needs to happen. Now obviously the district goal is K to2 ELA and K8 math. Um so at this point we have adopted a curriculum template. Uh the district previously used the um universal backwards design called UVD template. Um so we adopted the basically the version two the most up-to-date um um template. So that process is done and at this time it
082is um just working with building principles. I've been in schools talking about the curriculum writing process, what it's going to entail um so we can start that um after the holidays. The the big hangup is obviously with new programming um with K to2 ELA, it just didn't make sense to start writing curriculum right away until the teachers have some comfortableness with the programs um that are being used. So um with that and the fact that we're adopting a new curriculum piece um that training is going to start again after the holiday and work throughout the rest of the school year and into the summer. Um there it is. Um so those first two one is the actual create the template and and how are we going to review and update it and then second is
083actually write the specific curriculum. Um we move forward to the T val plan that's going to have to be created for the district. So um every district in the state tal is basically the teacher evaluation plan. Um and every district in the state has to create a new plan for next year. So the past couple years with with COVID the pandemic there's been what's called flexibilities where it's been not every district loosey goosey but it's been kind of like you know it was hey get what you need to have done and and there's a lot of um plans out there that are not um you know formalized. So the state is having districts go back and kind of formalize under uh these new guidelines. So Monday I was at a full day training in Chester
084I have another full day training Thursday for Pak guidance. PDC is our district committee that is going to be working on TEL. So it's basically creating the plan for teacher evaluation. What is the district um uh uh ident identify as high quality instruction? Uh building support in for staff and then obviously that focus on how do we know it's working student center piece. So we have to we have to create a plan for that which is going to be a lot of work. um that is going to be most of the second half of this year working with um the PDA committee and creating that. So I um so does that mean that are you using C I mean so so districts have to align to a set of standards so we use CPT rubric
085the Connecticut rubric for teaching um we're most likely going to stay with that other districts there's Danielson Morzano Marshall so it has to be aligned to one of those set of standards um but the the state is allowing for some um innovation I guess and creativity so you can't make up your home. You don't have to use the rubric in its entirety, but whatever you use for evaluating teachers and what high quality instruction looks like has to be based off a set of accredited standards. So, what does the what does the evaluation look like now? I mean it used to it used to look like you know depending on how many years you were in you had formal observations or if you you know or you had just 10 minute what but and it was
086there was a template in the software that are you still that's correct done that way this year this year it's all like that and there's still going to be the process is still going to be similar where there's still going to be meetings with your evaluator coming up with goals for the year um but I think previously you know the focus focus was all about you know that testing data and it was like I want to move my kids here to here focus is shifting towards no it's the what instru you know what high quality instruction are you doing in the classroom which will lead to that so the focus is going to be more on that aspect of it um and the state wants to you know districts to kind of get creative to
087lessen the burden with the paperwork piece and make it more about a continuous loop of feedback and coaching instruction and so forth. So what does that look like? And not so much and when we first started the process, I remember some of the uploads at the end of the year were like 60 documents and some like one of the districts you had to upload, you set it a scanner for an hour just trying to get ready for a meeting, right? Um where the state says, you know, now it's like get away from that. Um it's more about the process of making sure we have a continuous you know um support for the teachers as well as professional development all for the purpose of making sure students are producing what we what we're expecting them to
088produce. All right. Thank you. Um and then just moving forward um obviously the math score piece and and looking at that um tutoring grant that's going to be a large part of the school year and trying to um get that off the ground and manage that piece. um and and and look at the effectiveness of that. Um and then we also have the other grant we have is the dual enrollment piece where we started the survey process um so we can work with um the community higher ed institutions in regards to figuring out is there a way for us to offer more in the world of dual enrollment and and having students more opportunities for getting um college credits or certifications for other careers uh before they leave the school. What's HT again mean? Oh,
089that's that's high do tutuine, right? Okay, that's okay. What has that have we gotten those people yet? Yeah. So, um we're at the point of um creating kind of the communication identification to students so we can communicate that to families um and they are in the process of preparing the tutors for us. Okay. So who so these will be so do you hire the tutors? It's a company they hire the employees. So the state worked with companies in Connecticut as well as you could have done a virtual option. So there's national companies too. Um but the companies had to be vetted by the state. So the state wanted to see what kind of what type of training the tutors had, what type of experience company had in providing tutors for other school districts um that
090they would be able to focus on the area of math in the middle schools um in nth grade. Um, so once they went through that process, then we were allowed to use grant funds to procure those tutors knowing that there's a, you know, it's difficult to find staff for the school. So there's no way they can let this grant go out there and say districts, good luck hiring. Um, so the grant money is the 95% of it is going to cover the cost of tutors um for the school year. So just to get straight, so the the state is going to provide qualified tutors. Then do they become our staff? So they're they're only undertally separate. Totally separate. They're only under grant funding. So it's it's just for as of now. It's just for this
091school year. So once the school year ends and we don't have anything to do with the process, the paperwork, it's all kind of outside contract. So, they're guaranteed to um to have a bachelor's degree, to have at least one year experience tutoring in the math area of the middle school, so algebra, um and to go through a federal background check. Okay. So, this grant in no way adds staff to the district for future years. Now, we might like the model. Well, maybe you find someone good and you steal them. Well, and that's part of the grant. The state also is doing this because they're hoping that that also helps the pipeline of teachers. Hey, you're in schools, you're getting experience, you think about getting certified as a teacher. Um, so they don't have to be
092certified as a teacher. Not a tutor. No teachers have to be certified, but they have to have experience working with students in school. I think there were uh 80 there was 80 something districts that applied and um 46 were awarded with the grant. Awesome. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Did you finish this? Yes. I kind of got lost. Any questions on any of this? No curriculum instructional building. No, Eric, thank you so much. Huh? Yeah. Really? Who's that? Tracy Alman, right? Yeah. You You don't have to stay. We appreciate it. Um, so Rob, I guess this is you with the HVAC grant application. Yes. The state of Connecticut came out with another round of HVAC grants. We obviously are in the middle of starting the process for the work for this building, for the core
093of the building. Um, but there are still two areas of this building, the cafeteria and the gym, which are not covered under the new eight pack work that's taking place. So, it's the older system. And then we have an entire building of Baker Farm that also is without Thank you. Thank you. Um, a high quality HVAC system in that building, no air conditioning in the classroom. So, on hot days, we've got to shut down early like we did earlier in the year. And in any given day, I have classrooms that don't work properly. And just like we have in this building, we can't get parts for the classroom equipment. We've got to Frankenstein pieces together in order to jury rig to get classrooms going. So, I'm asking the board to have a motion this evening
094that um gives me authorization to apply for the HVAC grants for the two remaining portions of this building. And for Quaker Farms, um the same request is goes to the board of selectment tomorrow evening um at their meeting at 7:30. Um I need approval from the board of education. I also need approval from the town bodies um for me to start the process of applying for the grant. Um what we're looking to do is to use the same consulting firm that wrote the grant and the specs that got us awarded for this building. um by doing so I spoke to other superintendents and other districts that applied for the HVAC grants um and they didn't get um awarded the fact that we used a company to write the specs and that knew how much applied
095for the HVAC grant got us where we got um in this building we're going to repeat that same process for the great performance project in the two remaining areas of this building. So I'm just I I've given you a copy of the letter that I would like to send to the board of selectman which you see in the agenda and I'm asking for a motion this evening to authorize me to apply for the HVAC grant from the state. All right. So why don't we make the motion and then if there's discussion we can have further discussion. Motion to grant permission for the superintendent to apply for the HBAC grant for Quaker Farms and the gym and cafeteria at CO. Second. Any discussion, questions for Robert? Clarification needed. All good. All those in favor? Oppose. Abstain.
096You may apply. Thank you. Okay. Now, your report, Robert, my report. I'm going to um begin by um singling you out, Stephanie. um since I joined the district in December 2019. You've been here um you've been with me both as but when when I've been here personally but as superintendent and I have truly valued and appreciated the guidance to support the friendship um and the collaboration and the partnership that you've um had through the years with me. Um, there are times that we yelled and screwed each other and there's times that we've had very honest good conversations together, but I believe that through that process, you have made the district better and you have made me a better administrator, a better assistant, and a better superintendent. So, um, well beyond your years as board of
097ed chair, you have devoted and dedicated your life to education and to the kids and the staff of this district here. and I and the district owe you a debt of gratitude for the time and the energy and the passion and the commitment that you've made to this district. So, I wanted to thank you. That's so nice. Thank you for saying that. And you know, the feelings mutual. So, my I'll do my report now too, working with all you guys and you know, we're um you know, here for the kids and for the district and made amazing strides and hired amazing people. So, um I know you all carry on and you all know how to get in touch with me too. So, We just take a moment. Oh, sure. Um, is that the end
098of your report? Do you have other sound you first? Oh, that's nice. That's so nice. Thank you, G. I'm going to miss you my song. I can still be your sounding board. Nicole, I do. Making sure it's all buttoned up. So nice, you guys. So, on behalf of all of us, you've worked really really hard on a certain project. So this this will be Should I open it up? Yes. Yes. That is so nice. You know you're gonna make me cry. Education, the playground for learning. Stephanie Miller, teacher, assistant principal, BOE, chair, 19 to 23. So, this is going near the swings. Amy, can I hug you all? I don't know, but I'll just hug you for now. Thank you so much. And oh my god, those swings me. I don't know why, but they
099meant so much to me and glad. Thank you. These are beautiful. Is everything spelled correctly on the black? Yes. trying to see if you could get it. The principal is your pal. So that's how you know it's P A L and not PL. So there was a little joke in there. Steve, I'll let you tell it. Yeah, we were gonna make a little lookalike label over the word just to see just to get a little probably say, oh, it's so All right, I'll start twitching. Thank you. In the card, there's one other thing we would like you to to do. We got you a gift certificate for Barnes & Noble. We would love for you to since reading is so important for our kids to pick out some books to donate to the libraries for
100the kids with dedication from you. Oh, absolutely. So, we so appreciate the town library, the our school libraries. Oh, okay. So, probably a book or two of um for each library. Absolutely. Oh, I'll have so much fun doing that. So, we wanted you to be able to pick what you felt that you wanted to say. That's so nice. Again, thank you. You guys are the best. Love you. Congratulations. Oh, I won't miss I'll especially meet you for Eer at uh at the tavern. So, sorry. No, that's okay. Um I wanted to start by Yeah, thank you so much. A couple more quick updates. um we had discussed during my goal presentation of implementing a school climate leadership type of a survey. I spent the last couple months spending several different um solutions out there um
101through discussions with my cabinet and also in discussions with the OEA u we've selected a um survey it's called wellbe it's out of um the UK it's eared um directly at school climate and leadership to create action plans to improve um the school climate um within schools um so we have our kickoff meeting tomorrow morning um have um it and my admin assistant joining me to begin having the conversation of getting the data prepped so that we can begin rolling this out um in the next couple weeks for staff. The goal would be to do this at a minimum now and end of the year and most likely sometime middle of the school year as well um to get an initial baseline in the year and next year probably we would start earlier in the
102year and not um in December. Um along with it is um opportunities for professional learning within their system guided toward leadership for leaders in the district self- assessment surveys. There's a whole body of work and that they also provide consultation with the district leadership and the school leadership to really make meaning of the data that we're gathering in order to make improvements in schools. Um I want to highlight I want to thank um Pam Aldrich who's not here this evening and a number of teachers also Deb um and dozens of students that came Friday night to the military veterans um day celebration. There were two um sittings um for families and their um and the veterans. It was well attended. Um, as I walk through the room, they just the joy that the veterans and
103the family center are just being able to sit down and have a meal together and not having to worry about cooking and cleaning and just enjoying each other's company and and some were doing with friends and some with their families. It was just a a beautiful evening and there were cards and there were artwork up. We had music up from high school and as I said dozens of students were there. Um the food was donated but they warmed the food they prepared um and on the plates they delivered it. It was a well um oil machine. Then Pam Alders put hours and hours of work in putting it together and met a number of other teachers there. Bethany Campbell Dave Becca um Jennifer Crooks um all u providing support um through the evening. So it's
104just a great a great night. So I want to thank them all for all the efforts in making that happen. This is the first year we've done in I think I could see us doing it again in the future is very successful. Can I just throw in that it was great to see that every school participated. Oh, good. Um on the tables there were cards done from Quaker Farms. There was um pictures on the wall. It was just really great how everybody came together and and worked to to honor the veterans. So, it was a great night. Um speaking of being recognized, um I put out a press release. I know I said it in my newsletters, but also highlighting at the board level, congratulations to the Great Oak staff and students and parents um
105for being named at the school of distinction by the state of Connecticut two years in a row. Um it doesn't happen by accident. It happens from hard work and commitment by the teachers, administrators, students and staff. Um and really um driving forward and really being devoted to academic success within the school, not just one area but in a number of areas. just a whole focus on improvement um two years in a row is something for the district and our community very proud of. I know I'm very proud of the success that our our staff and students and teachers had. Our staff was able to celebrate on PD day last week with a cake um in celebration and um again just a heartfelt congratulations for everyone that um involved Widow for that success. Absolutely. Um reminder
106to the community um at tomorrow night um at town hall 7 pm is the town meeting. It's the vote to allocate the money for the hback project for this building. This is an essential vote in order for this project to start. The town needs to approve the funds for this project. um if it gets um approved tomorrow night, the contract will be signed tomorrow night and the work will be set to begin in December and it'll be completed in time for the deadline of the state for the Eversource grant um late fall and the state required the project be done by December uh 31st 2024. So it's essential that we get people to this meeting to vote yes to support this Hback project. I did send an email out to all parents in the community
107um this morning social media reminder again tomorrow, but we need parent we need people to go out in support of the funding for this project because um as we talked about earlier, we have two other areas of this building and we have Baker Farms that needs the work and we we have funding that the state has committed to us, but we need the local funding to to complement what the state is providing to us. Just to follow up, just make sure you call out the location because I had different people thinking it was in different locations, but you know, because they call out GO great oak. Some people think it's at that location. The the vote is not. It's at town hall. It's at town hall. So, I'm just make sure we call out the
108location. I thought it was in there, but I No, I'm saying I've received other emails from other bodies just just in case there's any miscommunications. It's a town hall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then um finally we are entering the month of performances um and we have our first we have the fall play taking place on November 30th which is um opening night and then December 1st and 2nd um they are um performing a play called the nerd. Um so you'll see the high school the high school. Um so that's the first of the upcoming performance coming up. a whole list of performances in my Friday newsletter to the community as a reminder to everybody on where the dates are. Um, but I do want to highlight that um, the performance season is upon us. So,
109um, start marking your calendars and the kids love to see an audience um, in the room. So, let's support them. Absolutely. Is that it? That's it. All right. I already did my report and thanking you guys, so I won't bore you with anything else. Um, subcommittee reports. Um Joe's not here, but is anybody on facilities? Is that that is on facilities that needs to report anything? I haven't heard anything. Okay. So I think we're trying what's even on our trying to think what's on our list. Is there anything on our list that needs to The major thing is that we've developed a matrix that we had showed you at this joint meeting last week on the work taking place at the middle school and we're continuing to work with the vendors on making sure that
110those milestones get hit appropriately and the problem is as we've said every time you fix one thing it uncovers more stuff. So it's it's a it's a work in progress. Was there anything any further um information on the the light fixtures down here and you know that caused that that issue? I mean has everything been upgraded and taken care of? Yeah. In fact um immediately after we identified what the cause was of the light fixture gone bad, we identified the other areas in the district that had similar type light fixtures. We shut those areas down immediately. And so we had an electric out to assess whether or not they were in safe working order, which we did within three school days of having it shut down, verified, and then back in operation after that. It's
111not the awesome facilities that's on the middle school, right? Yeah. Um the play the playground um is 95% the new playground farms um that was installed last week. Um the final piece is to add the rest of the mulch to which is taking place this week and the project will be completed. I heard a lot of great comments. Parents um when they came to vote about the playground should um do curriculum. We have got all of our information but we we have to schedule a meeting. Sure. Um Nicole policy. Yeah. So, we have um one policy down for a second read. It's the administration of student medications in schools. Um it's a model policy from Shipment and Goodwin that we um vetted with our medical director in town. He went over everything and he recommends
112that we um approve it as as written. Is it in here? It I'm just noticing that it was not attached to the agenda item as in the previous meeting though. Yeah, it was in it was in the last meeting for the first read. I have a copy here if anyone needs to write at the moment. I have a hard copy. So that would be no 24th. Yeah, 24th to 26th 24th minutes. Um, does anybody want time to No, I read it. I think as long as our medical director has vetted it and our council has, I think we should be fine. The policy came from council. Medical director reviewed it after that. Okay. So, did you want to do a motion? So, I make a motion that we approve the um administration of student medications
113in schools as written. Second. Um any further discussion? All those in favor? Opposed or abstain? Motion carries. And we have another meeting scheduled for Thursday at 6 PM. Okay. And so you're you're kind of organized with with going through certain sections of trying to update and shipment and Goodwin is great because they they highlight the big changes and they give us pri they help us prioritize what needs to be done and then we back bill by going ahead and reviewing the policies and seeing what we think needs to be updated as we can. Okay. It's a it's huge undertaking. Um, Mike, finance. Uh, next meeting is currently scheduled at 11:21. And any liaison reports? PTO meeting is Thursday. Okay. And I attended the district meeting last week and they're planning for the festival of trees
114and the theme is Oldtown Oxford and Pen Rogers is really popular. Well, that's that's Pam's middle name. She's old time Oxford. You can tell her I said that. I'll tell her I said. And we have a Thanksgiving football game next week. Um and the booster club have been looking for help with parents to support the concession stand because um we're expecting a lot of people in attendance for that that game and we're having the Taj Mahal of Portaotties, right? We are. Yes. Thank goodness. That's what's most important. Um so I think at this point we are going into executive session. So um so I hereby move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of consideration of written attorney client privilege communications regarding proposed solar energy memorandum of understanding and performance contract and
115potential waiver of attorney client privilege and disclosure to town officials of same and I further move to invite Dr. Miller abide. Thank you. Bye. Good night. Um so you second we invited Dr. Miller. All those in favor. Opposed or stink.