001we're GNA call bter unit States St Mike Debbie Sherman any amendments to the agenda Noone okay uh approval of minutes is there motion I'd like to make a motion to approve the 43024 Board of Ed regular meeting minutes a second um any discussion all those in favor opposed abstain motion carries my favorite part of the meeting is student recognition and Dr Miller should I over to you okay we have several recognitions tonight with students and staff so welcome audience great so if I can have chrisa and here so this year um is the first year that the Middle School um did a geography B um for those of you that don't know Christina is one of our new studies teachers at the middle school this year um and she went to um the administration and
002she made a suggestion that JB be put together and you went through all the efforts of organizing it um getting students and parents and staff um all together and then um it was run and Colin you you won JY would you mind explaining a little bit what it was like um sure so we had so it started with like a test where the entire school got uh like this geography test I forget it was like 60 Questions I'm pretty sure um then after that we went to the second round held in her room where we kind of went around the room and every student that got two questions wrong was out we got to final 10 in the final round it happened about last week um on Monday we're put on the stage and we
003went down the line answering questions and whoever got two wrong was out and we made it to the final round and there were it was me and a sixth grader and it was like best two out of three of the questions W and uh yeah I just got more questions congratulations you and Christina um for your work both as the geography be and putting that together um giving you the certificate thank you and also we have started a new um initiative with value pins and the work you did represents collaboration so I'm honoring you tonight with collaborative thank you so much congratulations thank you very much great J conratulations and K and Megan so these two wonderful teachers and um Megan your name keeps changing I don't know if I SP you Megan or megie
004but can I just call you a great teacher [laughter] these two wonderful teachers came to me last year and said that they would like me to purchase a book for them for their classes simple seed so they can start doing journaling with their students um and really talking about gratitude and how to be better people with each other and you brought that forward to this year um brought the speaker in to the school to speak to the entire school went to the PTO and asked for funding brought it over to the middle school and now we even have um this speaker coming back during convocation to address all the staff members um districtwide and we even purchased a book for all staff members um for the fall so you have um planted a seed of
005gratitude across the the district so I'm honoring both of you with both a certificate and also the value pin for compassionate thank you so much congratulations thank you take picture you [laughter] open it I don't know [laughter] okay hold on [laughter] we're honored to have both of you as teachers in this scho dist our students are lucky to have both of you thank you so much [laughter] any um audience of citizens if there's anyone that would like to come speak to the board I I just have one thing I'd like to say very quickly um this time of year we hear a lot of rumors and stories and until you hear an item come out from the Board of Education or from Dr Miller um it's not fact um so we are facing some some
006issues right now and I we have budget vote on Thursday so I'm encouraging you all to just come out and vote regardless of how you feel about the budget just do come out and vote that's my audience of citizens for you tonight anybody else like to say anything no no nobody everybody's good okay board correspondents not attributes of a graduate presentation for OMS and O8 test hi everyone hi some students here tonight [clears throat] we have some sixth grade a couple sixth graders couple some we'll introduce them as we get along and then a few eighth graders so um I'm going to be talking to you a little bit about the attribute of graduate of empowered learner at Oxford Middle School so just like we've been talking to you uh this year about our attributes
007we focused our attributes per department so we talked you about critical thinking when it came uh we focused that with the ELA Department collaborative learner with science and for empowered learner um that focus is on the math department Dr Miller are you my apparently I am oh thank you I appreciate it so the reason why as a group um as a department we decided on empowered Learner in the math department is when you think about math anxiety and self-empowerment usually when students have anxiety it is around their math skills they don't feel like they're confident enough and often times in Middle School um especially girls they tend to feel like maybe they're not good at math and they don't want to participate in math as vigorously anymore so we thought we wanted to combat that
008right and so we took the rubric for the um empowered learner and we focused it in our math department so the math department worked together at the beginning of the year and they created a weekly checklist for students to track their progress in the attribute of The Graduate of empowered learner so they took the um ideas that were in the rubric like I actively participate in class asked my teacher or peer question all the different elements that lead to what an empowered learner is and they had it on a checklist and they students really were um looking at themselves from the Advan Mastery to novice and where they fell in that and if you look and you'll see there's three data tables one for sixth grade one for seventh grade one for eighth grade in
009each of the data tables you'll see that at the beginning of the year students fell you know primarily in novice or in developing but if you look towards the middle of the year the numbers are growing in the way in which we want them to grow where students are feeling more self-empowered and feeling more confident in their skills in mathematics and you'll see that across sixth grade across 7th grade and across 8th grade so here tonight to talk to you about their Journey as empowered Learners in their math classes are some sixth graders seventh graders and eighth graders and to start us off is Michael Michael's in sixth grade he's an advanced math and he's just going to tell you a little bit about his journey as an empowered learner so I think I'm going
010Empower learner because whenever I get feedback I try to accept it and improve on it and maybe if I get something wrong on a quiz or test I make sure to practice it at home and make sure that I've learned that skill and that's why I think I'm an empowered learning great job Michael you want to come over this way and we'll go and Miranda Miranda's in six grade also in advanced math hi my name is Miranda Kelly I'm in sixth grade of Miss bath is advanced math class in the beginning of the year I was not sure how I was going to do in this math class there are a few areas of math I don't like for example fractions I have learned many tools I can use to help me with tough areas
011these tools include seeking help during my win period and using strategies my teaching including organizing my questions neatly so I am productive in strong visuals for certain questions by using these tools I feel confident in myself and realize that I do belong in advanced math and that fractions aren't that bad and then from Seven Grade we have Colin Colin and Miranda are actually brother and sister just a little tip in I'm Colin KY I'm Mr Mel's pre-algebra math class in this class we have dry erase boards displayed along the back of the classroom with the whiteboards we teach ourselves many math skills with the help of Mr monel every two days we practice problems and then on the third day we are quizzed for example right now we are learning perimeter and area of a
012com comp composite figure I like to practice with my group using the white boards because it gives me the confidence to do well on my quiz at the beginning of this year we were sat individually in Rose and a lot of us found that we were really quiet and together not really together but we just wen't as a group and that caused a lot of us to be very silent and nobody wanted to ask a question um we set up the boards um after Christmas break and I found my test grades my assignments all going up after I learn to speak in front of people and learn to ask questions our last group are eighth graders going off to high school in a couple of weeks and so they're just gonna round out the so
013good evening Board of Education members um so I'm going to talk about my experiences throughout the entire middle my entire Middle School career with attributes of graduates so definitely in sixth grade toward the beginning of my middle school career the attributes of graduate were not focused on that much and therefore I was more confused and math was a little more difficult however once I got through seventh and eighth grade using the checklists and all the tools developed for attributes of a grad Empower empowered learner have helped me to achieve better grades and better math proficiency great job um so at the beginning of my middle school career in math I wasn't entirely very confident specifically I would try to speed Through Math just to get it completely over with um now that I'm in eth
014grade I've learned more of time management and that slowing down with math is often more helpful because math when done right takes a lot of time and I think the checklist and attributes of a graduate have helped me with that because it gives me goals and like the checklist like Brady was talking about gives me goals to work towards and gives me set um like set assignments and things to work towards and time management like slowing down is very beneficial Alie so I'm need to talk about how asking for help it's really key I used to like not really want to ask for help during math even when I was confused so I didn't really like want to say that I didn't know how to do something but after I started asking for help it
015really helped me gain a lot of confidence and become like a more empowered learner awesome last but not least is Ark okay so our uh access to resources inside of seventh grade was very limited compared to eth grade because we are learning more in eighth grade and developing our skills to do better in um high school so what I think was very important like and also what's an attribute of a graduate is uh learning how to use your resources and uh using your resources well um to develop like a better understanding of the curriculum you're in so such as like an online Tex textbook um uh ruler like uh like other like uh items that can help you progress your journey through eighth grade and eventually to high school so I think using your resources
016well and learning how to use them well are uh key to learning how to um develop skills in Middle School great job so we have a little certificate from for each of you to say thank you for presenting tonight we know it takes courage and um it takes empowerment to speak about empowerment right so we really appreciate all of you coming here tonight and your families for bringing you to talk about being an empowered learner great job does anyone have any questions I told them you might have like a trick question for them or something but thank you guys for coming it means a lot that you come to the meetings and give us your on your education so thank you very much thank you so much you did an excellent job good work great
017J oh right hey guys good well first of all these kids were thrilled to hear there's G to be a packed house tonight and we're able to talk for everybody so but uh we have a a group of students who uh are from the Unified sports uh class which is one of our PE classes and I'm just going to let them talk about a project that they have been working on with Great Oak Elementary School the purpose of why they're working uh uh on this project is what we're going to start with and for that I'm going to introduce Sydney and AA and then before you get into it I just want to thank miss oconnell and miss laapa for coming to support their kids so so um we started this program where we come
018into the middle school and no yeah wait it is the middle school I'm sorry oh it's great it was their middle school sorry anyways we all come in and we basically do like a bunch of games and kind of incorporate everybody and try to create an inclusive environment where we can integrate Unified sports into their brains sort of and have them more excited for it for the future yeah the program is so big at the high school so we felt that it's important to introduce it to them young so they can progress through their time in auction public and just be you know exposed to Unified sports so we thought that was very important and um yeah we also thought that it was important that all of us were there especially like have students from
019the team go there not just adults because um it's important to you know have them be their or have us be their role models as not just adults because we're you know they're going to grow up and Bs one day so and they always look up to us as always you younger students always look up to the older students in the public in public schools so yeah and they're more excited to see you than they would be to thank you Ladi so um what was the how do you how did you guys plan your activities that you were going to be working on with the kids um you know was there did you did you model that after something you were taught did you come up with these things on the spot did you do
020some planning ahead of time so in the beginning of class we would get in a group of us students and we would choose activities that we did in class and we would put ourselves in their shoes and think what activities would be fun to play and we chose activities that incorporated teamwork and we also found would be engaging to them and some activities did have to be adjusted so they would understand it better but overall it was very fun for them so the activities that we did in class we would then bring there and like Brook said we'd have to adjust them based on like their needs and like some people have trouble understanding so we'd have to break it down and then also when we were doing the activities we if we were doing
021like little groups we would each go into little groups with them just to help them out if if it was a big group it we'd be spread out and just be there within any questions yeah so we did many activities like relay races um in some games they really enjoyed word jail ball what time is it Mr Fox and kickball there were some games like we played line t earlier today which they did not enjoy as much because it was more confusing because you had to stay on the lines the whole time but overall like at the end they said they enjoyed all of the games and it was just a fun experience just being able to play together and get to meet new people and then at the end of today we sat in
022a circle and we asked for their feedback just so Mr C and then people next year would just know what they like the best and we asked them what they learned and most of them said teamwork and inclusion which was our goal so thank you that was Nicole and Brook thank you for that portion of our presentation so how did it go I mean was it a success um so we have found it to be very successful um a lot of the students have been very open about their experience with it um even one student sat out the first week and said that he didn't want to be a part of it anymore but at all the um groups since then he has showed up and actually to participate in all the activities and we
023have found that there's been a lot more teamwork growing within the class like originally they were gravitating more towards the friends that they already knew or their classmates but now at this point it kind of feels like they're everyone's classmates and even throughout grades they're able to really relate to each other and if someone's having a hard time go up and take initiative and comfort each other and so I've found a lot of progress just in a few you guys went there five afternoons after school right and Today Was Your Last Day yes okay so you're giving up your own time toing um well I feel like um this was like a great opportunity not only for um them to learn from us but for us to learn from them as well they gave us
024the opportunity to see um you know how certain people learn how to inclusion with fing for each age because sometimes it's trippier to teach different ages certain things and I feel like overall it was fun and educational thank you very much so um one of the things IID asked you guys and I'm going to put you on the spot was did did you encounter any um obstacles working with younger kids and we we wanted you know we had fun and and not not to like joke around about it but did you ever have to try to work out a situation that you didn't anticipate was going to happen I mean one problem that I kind of anticipated was they're gravitating towards friends I mean it happens in our class too all the time but today
025when I asked them um I said raise your hand if you met someone new while doing this program and almost all of them raised their hands which was the goal of this was to get them to Branch out and include so good ni so thank that was uh that was G and Julia now here's this you're going to bring this home now this is the kicker so what does this have to do with empowered learning or being an empowered learner um well being a power owner is kind of like I don't want to say nailed into our head but it is like reminded like throughout all of our years in the Octor public school system like to be an empowered learner is to openly um receive and and and like view people as as a
026way to learn from them not like as you know just there's a lot to learn from everybody basically um and we learned a lot as a team us working together every every um meeting that we had within ourselves before class or during class it was it was basically like a new like okay well they really like this so let's let's do something that's similar to this let's do something that will help them get their energy out something that they'll enjoy that that will teach them our values while also like being simpler for them to understand um we we learned how to plan we learned how to um you know work with different age groups it was a mix of third and third and fifth graders so we learned all those ages and um just like
027dealing with different temperaments dealing with different personalities just CAU us a lot socially um I know that I definitely like learned a lot from these kids um not just because you know kids are people at the end of the day and still learning how to deal with people and it's just like I don't know it it it it really is like such a great experience and we all I think we're all came back better from it and I know I definitely am sad to be done with it but yeah thank big questions for these guyss I did just want to give a shout out to obviously all of them for doing what they did and um doing it greatly but also Brian franwell from Great Oak Elementary because we started this before big like Co
028shutdown and we had gotten a few like some momentum towards it and then it stopped and he really wanted to get it back going and so he asked if we had anyone interested and they all volunteered so I did also want to give a shout out to Brian as well yeah you can't to do it without the collaboration amongst the schools we didn't give you guys certificates because I promised you guys food so that's on the agenda for this week nice lunch non Oxford High School C [laughter] in the cafeteria food middle school kids at the high school is great we're just we're up in the ante for these guys thank you so much for letting fin we're just waiting for Dr Miller to come back assisted I don't have ready so um if I
029could ask um I know I did recognition before s could you come up here for a second please I wasn't aware that Su was going to be here tonight I've had a certificate for her but we're GNA do this in the next time but um for those of you that are not aware I'm not only a sue a phenomenal teacher but she was recognized by the Connecticut Science Teachers Association just a few days ago um in excellence of Science teaching for this year and you're going to be awarded tomorrow night at the ceremony and Megan is going to be joining you um so we're so honored um for this recognition for you so well deserved perfect okay um there's been some questions about um science over the last few months um we know that we
030had a long-term sub in the Middle School in science and we are working with the High School San sorry Spanish Spanish have SE in my mind there Spanish um we've been working with the World Language teacher at the high school um with the plan for and assessing the students where they are now leaving the middle school so that the teachers can better differentiate and plan for the students as they're coming into the high school for the fall um Rosetta Stone will also be available um not only the students have access to it late spring but the students will continue to have access to it during the summertime um I don't have an announcement about the award of the HVAC brand but I will tell you that I was notified by the state of Connecticut that
031the press release will be on Monday um so I'm hoping that on Monday I will have good news to share with the community [clears throat] and then we'll be able to ask the town for funding so everybody cross your fingers that we have two Awards to announce on Monday um after the press release from the state of Connecticut I am still struggling with Facebook um still working through the challenge so that's why there has not been any posts recently um still working with um trying to get us online again um and that's why there has not been a social media post on the honor role it is posted to the website um for the high school and middle school um there was a glitch for the posting of Middle School um there was names that
032for that that originally so we had to repost the list after we caught the error um I do want to thank all the students staff and parents that participated in purchasing this districtwide Spirit t-shirts um we were aiming for 100% of the students in staff we did not get there but this the first time that we've done this um we hit um 543 shirts when he closed the store this morning morning this 543 um so the um funds will go to our kick for cause account which is used for supporting families in need here in Oxford um we've supported families that have had Financial hardships we supported families that had fires um had hardships that way um and families that um for one reason or another have a life um changing event that needs some
033support so that's what the fund is there for um so we're anticipating to have this shirts the last week of May hand them out and we'll be selecting one of those days um that week will be the districtwide um Spirit dat to where across the the district can you just talk about a little bit about the design and where it came from and and so what we did is we uh and we're actually to have the students here at the next meeting to be awarded and what's what happened is we asked each of the schools to have a contest to design a district design that represented um grow every day our district um mascot our district logo and our mission statement each of the school winners were selected by their respective schools um and then
034it was given over to the high school art Department U bethan and Pam um worked with our high school art students um and that design was then synthesized or integrated into one common design to represent elements from all four schools into one districtwide teacher design it's pretty cool um this is the month of events um almost every night there's something um tomorrow night is the high school senior Awards um night where scholarships are handed out to students from very different organizations um representing um everything from just a couple hundred doll to um highest around $8500 per year for four years so it's pretty significant um milestones for students to receiving special scholarships like this um so that's tomorrow night um I do want to thank the high school guide counsel counselors Andrew mcra for putting
035together this five program she does it every every year on Thursday is the Middle School spring concert at 6:15 um and then there's another concert on Monday the band concert at 7M if I've got the count the dates correct on that I'm seeing a yes from my administrators over there um I will also be attending on Monday evening along with administrators and two students from the middle school and two students from the high school at the Western Connecticut superintendent award Ser it's a pretty um um distinguished group of students um that are selected by the administrators the teachers in school to receive um that recognition and we go and we're um basically four students from me School District are represented and their names are called it's a pretty special evening for the students on the
036um 22nd I believe is the national a a senior night high school and then on the 23rd which is next Thursday is the trim Coffee House and Senior art of high school and that's at 6 p.m so a lot of stuff going on this week and next week across the district um as um that mentioned before Thursday is a critical um time for the community to come out and vote I can't tell you how to vote I'm just telling you to vote um 6:00 a. to 8:00 p.m. at Quaker Farms um great time go vote and they go to the concert um plan sale is also taking place at same meeting so go and um by plans or multiple plans um but um please vote um whatever your inclinations are around the budget we need
037everyone in the committee to vote and put their um ballot down and to vote for the budget one way or another we've also begun a new um online application system um to rep placing what was our um system called Frontline um all of our new postings are on that new system now for both internal and external applications so that is up and running that is one of two major implementations of the it was launching this spring and the next part is now started um that's on boarding and some HR data but the first part was this first that which is the application system that's you're running now and um we're going to start something new this year or tonight and I'm going to turn over to V to say some stuff as well sure so
038part of my new role as assistant superintendent is not only to support the students in the district but also the staff so I am developing a staff uh Wellness committee um and this will actually be in Dr Miller's Friday um information to the staff so the initiative is aimed at enhancing teacher well-being across the district and we're going to work collaboratively to plan activities and initiatives um that PRI prioritize our Wellness for our Educators within the district and administrators too um we'll bring summarize some ideas um create a creative and safe supportive environment and organize different events throughout the year so that's going to start launching at the end of this year into next year um and then one other followup is also support of the students so last night at the curriculum committee excuse
039me um we talked about seal screeners and doing a pilot for that so I did send out um interest to staff today to see who' be interested in piling a couple of the programs that we looked at and I already received a lot of responses so it's something we will start in the fall again we'll have one meeting at the end of the year and plan out what that looks like for the fall for more information any questions thank you um could you um just briefly talk about the where we ended up with the early retirement and then El yeah so we ended up with um two teachers um two secretaries two par professionals got that correct yes yes so a couple of those people that um had not been our on our radar before
040on our list of retirees so it did bring out a couple more people than we were anticipated and those um staff members will be included in the districtwide celebration for the retirees on the 29th yes we on top of the original eight this is a total toal best total yes two two and two yep [clears throat] anything else for Dr M or after Peete no okay um audience of citizens number two anybody have anything like to talk to the board about no questions last time okay reported the chair I just have a couple of things um I just like to say again I would hope that um we can get out to vote on Thursday um I'd like to thank the parents and the community for their support at the town meeting I absolutely would
041like to thank um Mr Jensen for moving our budget forward at the town meeting and Mr Temple for supporting as well um I think that um it's very important that we get out and vote I'd like to thank the parents for showing up we had a packed house and it was nice to see so many people come out um can't tell you which way we like you to vote but just come out and vote um and I know that our new football coach is here tonight and I just would like him to be introduced Mr Connor would you stand up and just introduce yourself to the the board and the people that are here uh Rich Connors um new head football coach at Oxford and uh hopefully we'll see all you in the stands this
042Friday night thank you for coming I had the pleasure of meeting you and your family at a town meeting so welcome to the district thank you I know you've been here doing other things before but welcome to your position um and that's all I have um facilities and stage schools Mike uh facility update uh our next meeting is in two weeks on the 28th and uh no new updates at this time and hopefully by the time we have our next meeting we'll have some idea on the hbac update fantastic um curriculum is me we had a curriculum meeting last night um we are the minutes are already posted so um we had a great long meeting we talked about where we are as far as um current culum being written summer work um and as
043Megan said the seal um classes and programs that we're talking about piloting um and I really think we're in a good place so minutes are up if anybody has any questions let um policy po we have several um policies down for a second read tonight the first one has to do with non-discrimination it applies to student students personnel and Community it involves some um definitions and examples um it also includes new language regarding domestic violence victims um and then lastly it states that it's unlawful for an employer to make decisions on an employee or applicant's erased um criminal record so those are the main changes that are in effect regarding um non-discrimination does anybody have any questions about those policies no motion I'd like to make a motion that we approve the non-discrimination policies for
044students first second any discussion all those in favor I oppose abstain motion carries next I'd like to make a motion that we approve the non-discrimination policy for personnel second um discussion all those in favor I oppos abstain motion carries and next I make a motion that we approve the non-discrimination policy as it applies to the community second any discussion all those in favor I oppos abstain motion cares okay next we have the bullying and safe School climate plan um we Revis the policy and the safe School climate plan plan to add disc add definitions regarding discrimination and harassment it also um the policy clarifies that it's applicable to both schools and alternative school programs operated by the Board of Education um and does anybody have any questions regarding that then I make a motion that
045we approve the bullying and safe School climate plan is written second any discussion all those in favor oppos abstain motion carries next we have parent teacher communication uh the main change for that policy is we have to have a virtual option so that's what we were adding for okay does anybody have any questions about the parent teach communic nope okay then I make a motion that we approve the parent teacher communication policy as written second one any discussion all those in favor oppose abstain motion carries and then lastly we have retention and disposition of records and information um Rob has been going through some of the records she's had one from 1910 so that tells us we actually in our records room we actually found first in the 1910s index cards that almost yellowish and
046they're actually information from staff that worked here back then Daddy might actually be interested that's great yeah so this policy outlines what we need to do to properly dispose of things and um this may have a budgetary impact coming going forward in the future so that's something we have to consider like shredding and all that stuff like or storage or what or transferring to mic it's not microfish anymore [laughter] digital archiving there digital archiving there you go um so I would make a motion that we approve the retention and disposition of records and information policy as written second any discussion just a quick like it's good to have a policy and love places have policies but it's really hard to implement with efficacy it really is so I don't I don't know what the plan
047is around that like how do you track down stuff that's seven years old you have to get rid of it electronic pay like it's the execution that's really hard with these calls especially that yeah it's easier to get it all digital be entered and properly tagged it's easier yeah you got to tag it right um any discussion all those in favor I oppos abstain motion carries that covers everything we just had a policy meeting just a few moments before this meeting so we're going to have some more um things to talk about next week or next next uh meeting but thank you very much all said J thank you guys Finance insurance and Personnel please well I won't make another announcement to get have to vote three of those but um no we have an
048upcoming April review of the financials and whatever comes out of the referendum um coming up next Tuesday L on reports um PTO had their plant sales which did well and they've had their teacher appreciation on Friday I think book sale book sale thank yous Thursday sorry and know the teachers um at both the the high school for the booster club um Mexican um truck and the PTO Pizza truck here um for the preschools the teachers loved it in all the schools so they greatly appreciate it and for teacher appreciation we so much thanks to the parents for putting them together and thanks for the parents who helped at the book book fair book fair not plant sale they'll need they'll need help on Thursday for the the plant sale and then from the booster club
049um the football QB Club did the um first golf tournament yesterday um I saw by for a period of time was very well attended um a great event to understand and I think that they really um thought it went well good also tonight there was a senior parent planning meeting um and there was a great attendance for making of the tiles for the Bell mural um you still need help for the day you're putting them on is that I think that's all filled in for but um if we need more Lis we'll probably put out another note I think we're going to have a paint night too to paint them all do anybody have anything else before we have a motion to adjourn at 718 is there a motion second any discussion all those in
050favor I opposed abstain motion carries we're adjourned at 718