001the only time is doesn't count my children take scooters in my school they just start go [Music] what is CL oh e e e great so um we'll start with Collaborative Learning in the library so one of our initiatives uh each year is the um hour of code so coding um we actually start in grades K1 and two so we use a program called bot logic and it's used to remove um to move robot through different levels and the kids work together and we kind of have like a little coding competition with all of the all of the students so again it's paired programming to solve various problems so our librarian tackles that each year and the kids absolutely absolutely enjoy it so here's just a picture of them working collaboratively to move the robot
002through the actual coding and then we do have some winners who in fact with a little trophy so here are our first second and third grade winning Pairs and then Collaborative Learning in the music room so there is a little video as well so our second grade students are taught a partner dance called Sasha which is a Russian folk dance they actually listen to the piece of music they watch a video of students doing the dance they turn and talk about what they notice during the dance um they discuss about you know what it is to be a good partner and what each group member needs to do for the group partner dance to be successful so if we that it will bring us to a video of the students dancing the Sasha I e
003so the next one is collaboration in the art room so our students um discussed our approach to creating a 3D paper project which was a sculpture they worked in pairs to observe and to investigate strategies in solving um the problem and creating this sculpture so they also took the partner's perspective into consideration as they worked together and there are some examples of some of the projects and students working together to create the 3D sculpture piece getting those Projects Home in one piece is another story I don't know if they actually came home as a 3D project anymore but they did a really nice job with that the next one is our kindergarten collaborative learner lesson again collaboration is happening consistently every day all the time and basically every lesson that that is taught um one
004of the activities and one of our math lessons is a group math learning game called Shake and spill so it involves groups of two we give each group of students two color counters both red and yellow crayons or counters we give each student a recording sheet and the teacher will say we're going to learn a new way to play shake and spill one partner will choose counters we'll shake them and spill them and we'll draw a picture to show the red and the yellow counters they'll work together with their partner to figure out how to fill an expression to show how many red and yellow counters after they do their shaking spell so again taking turns shaking and spelling the counters um letting one person go before the other person um that's a whole you
005know that that's a whole collaborative piece of itself and there's some pictures and photos of K working together and then when asked students how they worked collaboratively um with a bud and how it help them some of the their comments where we counted chips together we wrote the number sentences together we could count over so rechecking what we counted in case we made a mistake we recounted we count it over and people can help you with the answers and stuff love the stuff part or to make a mess um our first grade collaborative learner um was was a science lesson about animal structure and Survival and why do birds have beaks um students actually um investigated why birds have beaks and students um talked about the relationship between the shape of different bird beaks and
006the food that each Bird eats so each bird beak was a little bit different and based upon the shape of the bird beak what kind of food do you think that particular bird might be eating so really doing an investigative piece um and obviously talking and working together determine which beak is best for that food and why so there was collaboration between the students and then finally there was in Valentine's Day so back in February um some of our second grade classes they a Valentine's Day heart Tower stem challenge where they were given cups and they were given cardboard pieces and a picture of the structure and were simply challenged to recreate it um it was not an easy task because obviously the whole structure is based on one cup at the bottom and again
007you really had to collaborate because obviously if one child did something the whole thing would collapse and as you can see they did a really really nice job of working together and building that structure and obviously incorporating Valentine study I didn't get a picture in here but also um just recently during St Patrick's Day a lot of the children they made and they worked together with families um had parents come in and some of the classrooms they actually created leprechaun traps so again working together collaboratively what kind of trap do we want to make so again trying to build that fun into that collaboration piece is is huge for our little ones so they had a great time with that I know it wasn't students up here um we got a little glimpse into collaborative
008like I said it happens on a daily basis and the teachers and staff at Quaker really really go over and Beyond to make sure that kids are working collaboratively each day thank you does anybody on any questions so um as usual the provided to you in board do um both princi are going to go over just a quick set of highlights and questions you might have I'm gonna try to go quick so um this one of the first updates was to monitor attendance we continue to monitor attendance um each month we have our attendance team that meets monthly to review all of our student absences um again student vacations really do seem to be the highlight of student absences that definitely seems to be um the biggest indicator unfortunately absences is just vacations that are
009taking place um we do send out letters we make phone calls we have parent meetings ppts as necessary but it does meet every every monou in regards to our math we have we've reviewed our math pacing guides and assessment calendars they continue to be revised and updated as necessary our math coach continues to work with each classroom teacher on a weekly basis while also pulling both small group um for either enrichment or for additional um skill practice we have our data and curriculum review meetings are held with each gray level to review all student progress tiered interventions and to inform instruction our srbi meetings continue to be held every Friday to review and discuss student progress in areas of reading math social emotional wellbeing and those f are continue to be reviewed every 6 to8
010weeks as noted our I ready math scores do our winter fall um to Winter our percent Mastery has increased which which is a great indication that students are grasping the math concepts that are certainly being taught in regards to ELA and hmh we have professional we've had professional learning on Universal Design for Learning we've had PD on the science of reading which I would actually just like to read a comment at the very end about our PD that we just had on Friday um I just had a wonderful comment that I just wanted to share with all of you we've had some p on math and hmh during our staff meetings in our professional development days teachers have worked um currently with our h coach to learn strategies for share reading and prioritizing standards and
011skills when planning we are in the process of planning another day with our hmh coach that's going to focus on writing and as you know we continued our roll out on the hmh reading and writing curriculum so that's definitely a continuation it's going very well and I do want to just praise that the teachers and the staff for really embracing the new program and really really working extremely hard in implementing and rolling out the program this year as you know it is a new program it's not an easy task and they are really doing a phenomenal job with that as you can see our H&H benchmark assessments again um winter Mastery definitely has increased since the fall so we are moving in a positive direction in regards to that Dibbles is also part of our
012Ela assessments teachers did receive Dibbles coach a Dibbles coach came in and did some training with our staff our reading Specialists and early intervention tutors have used that assessment in the past last year and the years prior so they were also a wealth of knowledge in assisting our teachers with blowing that out as well literacy how provided a PD day on or half the PD day on Friday and the feedback that we received was just very overwhelming positive they actually loved loved literacy how and loved that program for the instruction that was given to them all new K2 teachers we had several we had three I believe in second grade um the district provided them with attending Wilson's foundation so that our bonics program that has been implemented for several years with new teachers coming
013on board we want to make sure that we're providing them with the necessary PD so they were sent to the Wilson Foundation Training at the beginning of the school year the dibles um information is also um provided to you again moving in the right direction in regards to that again this is a new administration of dibles this is the first time teachers are giving it to the students themselves at the beginning of the year as I had mentioned our reading Specialists and their tutors who were more they had more training gave it to them at the beginning of the year and then our teachers were expected to give it to them in the middle of the year they did a really nice job with that as well I know I'm moving fast if you have
014any questions feel free to let me know in regards to attributes of a graduate they are Incorporated to our daily lessons as you can see with the board presentations they're are being you know really keyed into on every lesson every activity that we're doing they're incorporated into our learning targets into our success criteria on a daily basis um our literacy plan we do meet monthly um with our literacy District team um we do have a school-based team as well science of reading walkthroughs we're completed with the team and our and our coach School based lit team does meet to discuss and review any data that might be coming through can discuss ways that we can improve our HOH curriculum anything dealing with the literacy component gr level teams do take place we're working on curriculum
015so four teachers have already signed up to participate in the math curriculum writing so that's obviously we're getting started with that staff are meeting have met with our curriculum director Eric to review the curriculum writing process and discuss the new District curriculum template so he did did come to one of our staff meetings in regards to discussing that and rolling that out with the [Music] staff regards to communication the s'more Weekly Newsletter goes out every Friday parents that's where their all their information it's a OneStop shop so if you need anything all of that information is is listed there every Friday I try to include a lot of classroom pictures and teacher activities because as a parent myself I want to like look to the newsletter I want to see if my daughter's in one
016of those pictures so even though she's in E3 would probably be really mad if her picture was in there so I know that parents especially at this level they want to see if their child is being highlighted so again I have teachers that so kindly send me some information from um their classrooms on things that they're doing weekly I do send it to all of you so I hope you had a chance to look I hope you have a chance to look through on Friday as well gives you a little glimpse into what we actually do at Quaker um and parents do seem to really enjoy it um a district code of conduct Matrix and behavior plan that's obviously something that we implemented this year as well um there are major and minor writeups that
017are now filtered through Power School which is much easier it kind of eliminates any Paper Trails or paper all over the place it's it's all in power school so it kind of just follows the child in case if they are written up for whatever reason it's all trackable so you know I send over Amy some of my second graders if she has any concerns all the information is right there on various you know behavioral situations that might have happened um throughout the Laker um our star assemblies are very effective um the kids absolutely love them we do showcase classes in students so this way every child that quer has a chance to get up and and perform or talk or sing or do something in front of um you know a group of people and
018I think speaking in front of a large group of people is so necessary and if we can begin that at the early age by the time they get to to Amy in fourth grade they're up here and they're speaking so eloquently and and beautifully um so it's it's really nice and the parents are invited so the parents get to come in and see their child being highlighted and then we recognize star Behavior so I typically will call up 10 students that showed kindness or 10 students that tried their best 10 students that acted safely throughout the month 10 students that respect others so all students are being you know highlighted in some way um any questions yes question so is I already a one where you take the test in Fall which was really everything
019for that grade you can expect them to be proficient is that the one that kind of you know what I mean yes by the end of the year you hope you've got everything covered yes so contrast it with dibles Dibbles point in time or the same thing point in time so it's not building in other words so when you look at think it's more of a point in time yeah has a beginning correct middle expectation already throws everything at them they can do it's like of course you're not at second grade level yet it's the first month right yes but dibles is traditional right in time yes and I just wanted just to thank the staff too and to thank all of you for your support we can't do what we do every day without
020your support and I can't do what I do without all of the teacher and the staff support that maker which is they're rocking it they're they're really trying their best and I know things can be difficult at times but they're full putting their full heart in what they do each and every day and it's very much appreciated and I know I mentioned I just had one comment about the Friday's PD which was really outstanding and I just as I read this I said I really do need to share this and it's from it's from one of my classroom teachers and it said I wanted to share with all of you that the training from literacy how on Friday was probably the most important and impactful training I've done since coming to Oxford it was on
021point and applicable to Everyday teaching also it answered a few of our burning questions as we transition to SS of reading classrooms I am sharing a whole group lesson plan that I came up with that I'm going to try to run over the next few weeks during my literacy time it included the recommendations from Angela the trainer and input from my prior experience with literacy how I thought you might want to look at it as I know there are ongoing discussions with literacy curriculum in the district again this is my interpretation for the kindergarten level after I try it a few times I'll send a follow-up to let you know how it all went also this plan does not include my intervention time I do that during morning work during I ready so again I
022just thought that was a really powerful statement that the teacher was given PD that was really beneficial it's not only heard to other and that she went back she created a lesson plan that she's going to now roll out in her classroom so again I appreciate all of your support with with getting that PDN because it was very beneficial thank [Applause] you uh many of the same points that Rachel just discussed are also in my middle of the Year update so I thought I would just highlight a few um we are pleased with our score Trends right now um Dibbles is looking better than it did in year one we're still ironing out implementation pieces as Rachel mentioned this is the first time classroom teachers gave the assessment um Dibbles is a little bit of
023a complex assessment because it's meant to be a screener it's meant to tell you if there's a problem so it's risk level a kid is either at very little risk some risk or a lot of risk but it doesn't tell you exactly where that risk Falls so in addition to teachers starting to give the assessment themselves and having the initial training from the dibles presenter uh Dr pogonowski and myself were able to take some time and do a halfday PD with teachers on what are the next steps after you look at that Diles data and so now they're able to pull diagnostic assessments like a quick phonic screener oric phonological awareness screener and really pinpoint the exact places where kids have gaps and attack those gaps so it's a new assessment for us and it's
024going to be an ongoing process to help teachers really learn how to use it to our best Advantage because it is a rolling Benchmark you're you're supposed to read more words correctly by the end of fourth grade than you did at the beginning of the year so it's a moving Target that the teachers have to keep hitting but we are pleased with that um hmh again pleased with those scores and they are very similar to what we saw growth-wise with I ready how they will compare to Smarter Balance scores is to be determined we don't have that comparison piece yet um but we also had training with an hmh trainer who was able to come in and really help teachers Target their instructional time because they were finding there was so much in this program
025lessons were taking too long they're falling behind in the scope and sequence so that training was able to help them say okay you need to prioritize this is how we're going to prioritize and give them a little bit of professional freedom to use those approved materials so teachers are finally kind of starting to find their rhythm with that program um so that's moving along we have not forgotten about math though most of our PD has been around science of reading this year and that new curriculum we are encouraging teachers through Ed Camp last week as well is we're going to do a little more work in April with the concept of building thinking classrooms it's not a curriculum it doesn't change anything that we're teaching but it changes the way we're teaching and it really
026lines up well with attributes of a graduate because the strategies you use are really about putting a problem in front of the kids and letting them wrestle with it letting them grapple with it and really have to struggle a little bit in a productive manner they have to work collabora collaboratively there's no more kind of sitting in the back of the classroom and hoping the teacher doesn't call on me you're up you're moving you're seeing each other's work the teacher seeing your work your work is visible so teachers know exactly kind of where you are so it's a big push in mathematics right now but it's actually instructional strategies that could apply to any subject that you teach so we're starting to roll a little bit of that out with teachers and you know kind
027of try and get them to think about ways that they can move kids and teach kids in their classroom outside of just the traditional you're in your seat now you're in a small group you're back in your seat now you're in a small group um and just to finish off with kind of the academic and the professional development piece literacy how was here Friday it was an excellent professional development um our third grade teachers here had Angela come back yesterday she spent a full day with them really digging into what what are you struggling with in third grade right now what are the actual practice activities that you could start doing with kids the next day that support all of this research and yes research has been around for 30 years but unfortunately it was
028kind of pushed aside and it wasn't taught to our teachers so now they have to relearn it or learn it for the first time so that was day one of coaching she actually comes back tomorrow and the structure of the day is those teachers will have Subs in their rooms we have planned each teacher will be modeling and practicing a new instructional strategy that they've learned with the team watching and with Angela providing feedback and it's a safe environment we're all going to make mistakes they have me modeling a lesson too which I love doing but um it's the feedback from the third grade team has been we didn't know how to teach phonics because it was never part of what we had to do before and this is what we so desperately need and
029that's what they they needed they needed a couple of full days of just being in in it so that they could learn and feel confident enough to really do these strategies with kids so I'm super excited about that work and I think that it'll just continue to grow and really make a big difference for our students a lot of our students learn to read just fine but there's a good part of the percentage that really really need that extra evidence-based explicit instruction and it's good for all so now we hope to get it to all um the other pieces I just wanted to touch on briefly uh with it being my first year here two big things for me really were um one communication with the community and you also get my newsletters I try
030and incorporate attributes of The Graduate our Hawks attributes along with um what student council has going on community service along with other timely topics um we had a couple incidents of some very unsafe internet behaviors so I try and incorporate that into the newsletter and give them some videos and resources um if we're seeing aend start to slip I try and throw that in there of all the things that go into the newsletter the one that I get the most feedback on from parents is the staff Spotlight they love seeing a new staff member each week and they're like oh that's that person I never saw their face and I didn't think that that would be the the biggest takeway from the newsletter but for a lot of parents it is but I think it's
031really important that they feel like when they walk in the building they know who we are so I think it was a good first step for this year to really um help bring the community together and as far as our School Community we did have the staff survey uh we met as a staff afterwards and really the big thing that kind of came out of it for our staff it goes was wanting to be a part of change process and wanting to feel like they had some say in that some control some um that they were being heard so we've we've worked a lot on that this year we've formed a few extra committees new committees because there are changes that need to be made we're already um working on a new schedule for next
032year that will incorporate intervention time for every grade level every teacher and allow push in support with our Tutors or our our Specialists um so we have a team working on that we have a team working to revitalize our PBIS and oural uh that's where our new golden awards and our Hawk Awards came out of um and we also have our school-based literacy team which is really seeking information from their colleagues in a safe way saying all right tell me which areas most scared to teach right now like let's figure out what the PD plan is going forward so I believe um my hope is is that staff morale is improving and they feel like they really are a part of the process they're being heard their opinions matter and that together we're making these
033changes so it's it's been a pretty positive vibe around here um kids and staff and I hope to just keep improving that thank you [Applause] guys acceptance of Boer club for um so you'll see in the agenda I gave you a memo the booster club has um asked the board to accept a donation of a mural from the B's on then B Foundation which would hang in the lobby of the high school um by where the auditorium is um by where the gym is located um I do have Lisa here tonight there are any questions about it um but I am recommending the board accept this gift for Board of policy um so they can um get to work on getting this up for the high school any questions motion to approve the booster club
034um eural donation for Ben Bells is there do we put the amount second discussion all in favor opposed estain motion carries thank you very much have newslet and we already have received ,000 donation from Once Upon a Child month here her mother own once upon her child found out just last week that actually she had wanted to do this as her C but when she found out about the fundraising aspect of it it kind of was happen so she worked on something else so when I found out that this was you know she reached out and so she's going to be helping out as well but we are ready to start getting out there tomorrow and also get the out get kids involved Community involved and we're looking into getting this done um just if
035this is approved that they can do June 17th so we and Su and I were talking the other night looking at the wall and saying this this is where it's going to go and we want to do an unveiling um right before school starts and invite the community to come and to see it so we're looking forward to it I mean it's the murals I don't know if any ever any other schools and SE murals they're beautiful they're absolutely beautiful and is excited to see this before she goes off to college special special ties yes so I reached out um to the four schools to send me their logo because you can have also custom piles put in so to incorporate with so the re we're doing The Giving Tree not the um the kindness
036tree excuse me so we look at it is that our kids are starting off at Breer Farms as little munchkins and by the time they graduate high school they're they spouted to be young adults so I think a perfect vision of what are we looking at our kids what can't be done without the schools and so to incorporate the schools and these kids to you know so the fundraising aspect is um just like I but KS will be able to help tile and Lil's um experien in that she's also um she's helped out at Ben Bells so the kids will be able to help so they're going to be their work will be on this mural so along with our school's um mascots so I'm I'm super excited about it I hope the community gets
037excited about it too and it's the thing we always just be kind I think we need a lot of that thank you thank you so much than you the doors the auditorium and there's that brick wall right there put it right there for the name where is that one no that one's on the far side there's no on this wall it's like where the ticket booth is that wall right there it's 8T tall and 7t wide so it's beautiful I don't know thank you for bringing it forward apprciate you guys very much okay next item is revision of the approved operating budget 2425 I'm going to invite Howard up to address on the changes OS budget presentation with the board of Finance we received updated numbers related to our medical insurance revisions to our Pension
038Plan um and there are changes that bring our budget down so we're asking the Board of Education to rote tonight with the new budget numbers which Howard is going to go over and then we'll do trans member to the board of Finance um to let them know what the new budget number is going to be this is a good story to share based upon the new information um and the important thing is this um um most years you budget with additional numbers um based upon initial recommendations from your insurance broker but that's well before the actual numbers are available and are ready to actually be included in fact as you go through the process the numbers don't actually get finalized until late April beginning May at the earliest there's are initial projections so most cases
039we end up with adjustments as you go through the process and this year's adjustments were significant so the pages I gave you are they actually replace the pages in the bind that you have are really the only pages that Chang um the very first page is the key one so basically what I did there is I created a a an iterate how we went through the iterations first we came to you with a 5.65% budget it was then changed based on recommendations another changes to 5.77% which is all those changes were in the green um and then from the in the yellow we went from 577 down to the four 5.45 that you that you approved again those changes are in the yellow and now we're going from 5.45 to 4.12 and basically those are
040the changes that are in the red and know the four changes are the primary one the prim the biggest one being the medical insurance reduction as Dr Miller just discussed um basically what hap what what went on there is basically when you start the process so early in in the year we start November December time frame the insurance companies don't have the data to be able to provide accurate numbers and so what ends up happening they have they for claims to come in and they watch how your claims are coming in and then what ends up happening is they come in March about now and they can they can actually hone in on what that number is going to be for the year part of the issue with what's happening too is that the teachers
041have accepted and are moving to a high deductible health plan this coming year starting in September that's going to lower our costs so they have to blend that together with the remaining other unions that are staying on the current plan unless we get them negotiated in so again right now this still could if we get the other unions negotiated to eal health plan this number will still go down even further because it's it's a large savings from the current plan that we're on um and so that was $341,500 for the other uh bargaining groups but it's not going to go down as significantly as because small up two of the group you only got a third right so exactly so it's a much smaller number but it could go down but this this is a
042this is a good number for now for bu purposes that we moving forward um the pension again we started this out I talked to Jima at the town he said use the number that was used this year 19.7% of person's salary if they're participating in Municipal Employees pension un which is none of the teachers it's just everyone else um and basically that number came in and again all these documents are in that back section showing you where these numbers came from just the backup and so the state sent us the letter which we just got recently um and that was it's going down it's the number is 16.68% so the 197 down to the 16.7 is that $133,000 difference in salaries and then dental insurance is going the opposite way it actually you'll see the
043let email there from Brown and Brown they talked about how it's going up to right now sign is quoting 18% increase um we only have 5% increase that's what they initially told us and they said they're going to try and negotiate that down to 10% is what they're targeting right now so that's the number we put into and then the final increase there's the $113,000 that's an error on my part um Mr K caught caught the error in the numbers um when we initially were looking to increase the Coo's salary we put it to $100,000 then we did the analysis and saw that 113 was the correct number and I failed to go back and actually change it for3 so was $113,000 so those are the four changes that take it from 5.45% down to
0444.12% so we're asking the board tonight to revote on the budget and then we'll send a member to the board of Finance We Ready given Jack KY a heads up that this is coming um so that they're aware that they will receive a revised budget for them to begin working with so what's the actual number these are the percentages but what's the increase or how much are we asking for the actual increase we are asking for 1,400 793 on it's at the top of this second page and how it's gone through and updated the rest of the budget the rest of the budget right I think that's linked into it's on board dos it's on board do the full the full book is in there these Pages tonight is the the key ones I Chang
045and so what will happen is I will then after this evening give um Jim um the updated copy so go into their website and we'll start communicating out to the parents of the general community on through social media tomorrow they revised budget anybody have I'd like to make a motion to accept the revised operating budget for the fiscal year 2025 for a Delta percentage of U 4.12% or a total budget amount requested m373 second discuss all in favor iOS thank you all work thank you thanks Howard okay um so some updates for you this evening first of all we have our next um student performance coming up next week on the co musical will be taking place on April 4th and 5th there'll be two showings each day um 9:30 in the morning and 6:30
046in the evening on the 9:30 show specifically for the students from the school and the evening is for parents community that want going to come um it's $8 online and $10 at the store and they are performing in m and dragon um and then the following week April 8th and 9th I believe is the art show that correct C yes yes as long as thep does it that's an evening sty at 6m damp on it everybody was worried they go no we're not gonna be able to have it started 6 pm. correct yeah yeah right um it was a hit last year and I encourage board members to attend this year again and the general Community the students do wonderful artwork and it's a wonderful way to see student um perform student um artwork Elementary
047School through high school you can see the whole gam know we have um extraordinary students um in all of the schools so you must say um fills the entire um gym of high school um the agac project in this building is going remarkably well it's going so fast you can actually start see evidence if you take a look up um right here in the middle of the room here um is the new units that are going into a lot the rooms you can see here and we've got it behind you and then there are cartridges inside of hallways you can actually see physical evidence that the work is taking place don't tell yeah um you heard reference to the PD last week um kudos to um Eric for facilitating and RPC um which is our
048professor development evaluation committee for putting together um for several years of teachers have wanted to do an ed camp and basically if you think of an ed camp have heard of or part of it think of a conference where teachers have um put their um name in the um in a p and said I'd like to present about this I'm passionate about um teaching mathematics I'm passionate about using a product called cahoot or passionate about using um this software in Pam case teaching CPR and um teachers see a grid and they self- select the sessions that they want to um go to some sessions they were three4 in the morning other sessions they were um 45 minutes a block um and some of the sessions are open in allow teachers just to get together and
049talk about the curriculum so it's really teacher generated in terms of the content that they wanted to present and it was teacher choice in terms of what they wanted to attend what they wanted to do and the afternoon it was focused on vertical align at the high school level we teach in the secondary um midd high school they work together in departments um and Elementary School primarily focused on litter s um and then we had psychologists that had guest presenter that we brought other districts together um to learn um as a big cour together that will be another follow session so it's a wonderful PD day um just to reminding the general community that we have two full pday days um during the course of the school year um it's contractual that we provide to
050our teachers and the fact that we able to provide teacher choice and that so many teachers volunteer their time to put these sessions together I want to thank over 27 um teachers um took the time to present to their colleagues as a wonderful day on Friday I'm going to turn it over to Megan for a moment to talk about some of the supports that we're providing been all had a conversation the community of how are we providing additional supports to students and staff that having um behavioral challenges in their F we been putting stuff into place I it's for a moment sure so we just actually recently put up two postings to PR of professional positions we do have a growing need in our preschool program primarily we are seeing a lot of new referrals
051um both from the preschool programs in the Community as well as birth the three referral so that's actually increasing quite a bit it's again I say this a lot but it isn't unique to Oxford but we do need to put more supports in place for them um we are seeing a growing need in special education um we have hit over 300 students in special education so we are working you know um with our resources to provide those supports um and then we also have another PA professional position that would most likely at this point in time go to Quaker Farms um due to the fact that we did have a student move in recently that needs um a level of support and then some additional supports that um we need to put in place for
052some of our our newer students um we also have um Connecticut Behavioral Health provides our Behavior technicians um we do have some shifting in kind of student needs so we are going to shift one um to where the need is um and then we're actually onboarding another one and with the hopes of getting one more that would actually help support teachers and Par Professionals in implementing those behavior intervention plans so being in the classroom showing them what the plan looks like how to implement it with Fidelity um and then provide those um kind of fading supports so that the parent professionals and teachers are doing that with the Fidelity checks afterwards so um putting a lot of that in place and I know we talked about um in one of the curriculum committee meetings next
053year is bringing in some trauma supports for students that would be provided by our clinicians to provide that extra level of support for the students that um would it would be a screener process and and parent you know would be a participant in that but supporting that so that we can address some of those uh needs that are coming in any questions did you just say there 300 children in the district with that are special education how many total 1700 we're seeing an increase in special ed again it's not something that's not happening all over as well um but we are seeing an increase in there as well as I for plans for support forgive my ignorance because I openly admit I don't know whole L about what's going on because I'm new um is
054this what's the what's the range what are we looking at is it emotional and then learning disabilities and other things is it what's the gamut here of where it runs I would say all of the above so we are we're seeing you know an increase in learning abilities we are um you know across the board reading math writing um looking at that specifically we are seeing an increase in Need for mental health supports we have done some psychiatric aows to help students um get some really good um things in place so that make sure we're meeting all of their needs um in terms of interventions and things like that so it really does run the gamut of um of different you know we have students with visual impairments um so I wouldn't say there's an
055increase in one area or the other um but we are we are so it could be physical it could be emotional it could be learning disabilities it could be correct all that y there's nine disability categories that would qualify you under special education services would you say that the is this co co related and being some of it not all of it I know understand it can be being not having contact as they were younger kids and would you say that it's more of a Elementary like a greater farms and a goes type of thing or is it I would say across the board from all of our schools we're seeing an increase and even some identifications later in high school which that tends to be a little bit more of the mental health piece
056as students you know de are developmentally older um however I would say it is the product of Co I don't think we're out of that yet I think there is some from just what environments look like during covid and afterwards some with lack of instruction just because they weren't face Toof face um but we've done a really good job at remediating that with our intervention but I would say that's not out of the question of Co being impact thank you um a couple World Language updates um we had mentioned at our last meeting that we had a World Language teacher that's out at the middle school and that we had acquired um subscription to resett a stone for the students the students have all theirs been created and the long-term sub teacher was um trained
057last Thursday I believe it was so the student should be at this point beginning to get on the system and any student that's on it now will continue to have access during the summertime beyond the school year as well um and all the students in both the Spanish classes um from both teachers will have access to Rota stuff um so that's um that was in support additional support since we had such um a lag of instruction in that area um also in World Language on April 2nd at 6m is the World Language Honor Society induction ceremony at High School um board members you're welcome to attend if you'd like to um I will certainly be there to support the students and the staff there um the question that probably is on everyone's mind um that
058has not been asked yet is um April 8th um the solar Clips I kind of teased that out on my newsletter last week um I'm going to read a statement that came in from the State Department of Education there's a memo that was released all the superintendent last Thursday um in that memo it stated um since there will not be a total solar eclipse occurring in Connecticut there is no safe time to view the event without specialized glasses or filters viewing any part of the bright Sun even through a camera lens binocular or telescope without a special purpose solar filter secured over the front of the Optics will instantly cause severe eye injury that Lance will instantly cause severe eye injury it gives me SAR severe pause I'm concerned for the safety of our youngest
059children we can tell children don't look up at the Sun what are they going to do they're going to look up at the side for a moment if this sentence is correct instantly pause they just look up for two seconds now we permanently impair their their eyes they not going to go blind but they'll permanently be impaired um from a visual standpoint our youngest kids middle school and elementary schools go home during the time of this eclipse from 215 to 437 is the time range of this Eclipse Connecticut is due for 90% which means it's not a full event it's going to look outside like it's dusk but looking up at the sun you're going to see a small portion of the sun emerging around it you looking at it any is what's going to
060cause that permanent high damage so there are school districts that I know that are purchasing sunglasses for the kids but I cannot guarantee that a Kindergarten kid are first grade student or even a third grade student is going to wear that sunglasses properly I can take the kids outside and instruct them to wear it but they can't guarantee that they're going to do it properly and give the sunglasses to kids and say where it going to the bus and we it on the bus and we it come your bus into your house but I can't guarantee that they're going to wear it properly or even keep it on so to me um my primary concern and I say this every day is the safety of our students and the safety of our staff and if
061I can have students that could have permanent eye knowing that they could go home during this period of time I'm have severe concerns with allowing that to happen now when I'm talking to other superintendant there's not a single other school district that I know today that's doing early dismissal I don't understand why based upon this information to stay in Connecticut I already have cancelled after school activities for the afternoon there's no practices there's no games that afternoon so during this window of time I've already instruct athletic department andat there are no games and no practices in the afternoon um during this block of time I 99.9% positive that come tomorrow have a letter that will go out happen to the parents that we're going to have an early dismissal that day I know this causes
062um um significant um impact is on parents that might not have child care the flip side is it could snow tomorrow afternoon and I can have an early dismissal that's unplanned and I'm sending kids home and parents do need to adjust I know this is not something that's planned on the calendar but not us were looking at a solar equ who built the calendar a year ago and we didn't get this memo until last Thursday so I'm sorry for any parents that will be inconvenience by this but safety is our top priority and when I have a piece of information with saf of Education that list this detail on there I have to give it significant Authority and I have to weigh that considerably for the best interest of our students on the flip side
063there are families that would like to view this rare event with their children and there are staff members that would like to view this with the Val members during early release gives this opportunity for families to view this on their own as they see fit in with the safety process that they have put into place and allow families to make a personal decision on how they would like to do so and I would love students to be engaged in this but have the safety and the supervision of their own families with nurs so that's kind of where I'm at right now um as I said on 99.9% positive that come tomorrow that letter will go out um as I said I did tease this out in my newsletter to families and staff last Friday I
064got one email from one parent um that stated um that they were concerned that there was an early release this um late in the game um they didn't have ladder notification planned for it I did communicate this to the PTO um on Thursday's meeting last week and it was unanimous all parently there were about 25 people in the room that we should have early dismissed on that this is what we should do across the districts have to weigh that as a piece of evidence that parents also would suggest at least defend the younger groups younger kids this is something that's wise to do anybody have any questions do you plan on making it high school all the way down or yes okay yeah and what's the plan for the show um Can after school activities
065during that period of time so if the AR show set up early in the day the students can get there at 6:00 and it's after the right yeah we would just stay Bethy and I would just stay to set up because we used to set up all that afternoon talk to the other teachers what their plans are I I for see no problem because we're usually there setting up inside the gym there's no windows there we aren't going to be working up anyway you know I I was just wondering are all the kids off the buses by the time that they yes if we do an early release little kid that's what I worry about because it's 12:30 the kids would get out so at the latest they'd be at the home even if there
066was a roadblock it's by 2 o'clock at the latest okay yeah just curious again uh how does it affect the end of schoolt long in school yeah um and maybe we could bring audience of citizens if people want to address it I can address it is this including your staff what was that staff um no just my final thank you to the board I know keep saying this to you but um in deep um gratitude for the time permit that you make as board members and hope you felt appreciated this month and the small Act of recognition that we provided to you um this month so thank you again than your yeah audience of citizens we have anything screen my report um I would just like to thank the board um we had a great
067um training session prior to coming to into this meeting um with our board attorneys and the roles of of board members and I I thank everyone for coming um and I think that it helped us um some of our questions and some of the things that we wanted to get answers to so I appreciate that I appreciate the meal that Chef made for us um it looked wonderful and I know everybody enjoyed it top of cake looked really good um so I I would like to really thank them on behalf of our board for bringing us such great food and I love having back the kids come and help come that so I enjoyed having the kids come tonight and be part of our board meeting so I hope we can see that more often
068and we will be back before the board Finance before we know it um so I just encourage people to come and hear the discussions that are had I will tell you one of the issues that was brought up last night was our director of security um so we need to um be sure that we're clear as to what that position is um it's not taking the place of a police officer or taking the um SRO are not responsible for taking orders from civilians that's not the means of this position um so I hope that when we do go back to the board finance that we can clarify that because that seems to be a big concern last can I add to that for absolutely um so for the general Community if there are questions asked
069if there's an emergency that take place we follow a national model um which is very common in most school districts um that if an incident takes place that involves any form of law enforcement on site they take command of the site so I would relinquish control the principal the Rel control the director of security relinquish control to the police officer in site it's also possible that the FBI could be on site they would take control over the local law enforcement but the fact of the matter is the Professionals in that field that's on site take control from all of our school staff that would also be the case with that director of security that would be here oh and Sue and I actually got to watch the Domino um event let me tell you there
070was so much energy in this building from the parents the volunteers the kids I don't know how they didn't knock over those boxes they they jumped over them they were all but it was just so great to see our community come together and watch the kids in the hallway and parents and grandparents and it was it was wonderful and I really appreciate that community service and if we can do more of those things let's do them I just want um subcommittees facilities Mike yeah call me now our next facility meeting will be tomorrow we have a I'd say a packed agenda we're gonna have two guests we're gonna have Joe stocko the active uh the athletic director and kak not she's maybe well she's invited yes uh the goal is to have more regular updates
071about facilities for for the people using it using our Fields um we're gonna be discussing possibly full pack security topics it's it's a jam-packed event as well as hearing about all the maintenance issues going on in our our district and a piece of that just a general um public information that we did put an RP out for the pull pack and the hope is to present it to the board of selectman within the next month get on their agenda so that they can um approve it and then give it to the board Finance for funding can I just ask the process question does that RFP need to be just out to go to the board of selected or does it need to have people responding to it we would get responses from companies and then
072we' go to the the bo second with our recommendation for who would like them to award the bid to so it wouldn't we wouldn't be able to do it for the April 3rd s probably yeah I just right they're curriculum meeting will be the Monday before the next board meeting last timey okay we have seven policies down for a second read uh if you want a brief synopsis of each of them Rob can you talk about the weighted grading and honors proces this primarily relates to the um state of Connecticut procedure of allowing students to get into the colleges in the state of Connecticut and it creates a weighted assistance uniform across all the Connecticut schools so there's uniformity and how they are assessing students um grades so there would be two um grade systems
073one there would be an Oxford grading system and then there would be the uniform that students could get in s the local community local Comm connectic okay the next policy we have is to improve completion rates for fasta we already have one of these um policies on the books but now there's a new graduation requirement that the kids have to learn how to fill these out so we've updated the policy to reflect that um after that we have graduation requirements and again filling out the fast fo is one of the new requirements um there's also things about financial literacy um and whatnot and we do need to fill in the table in there what the graduation requirements actually are this okay and then next we have an administration of student medications in schools this mainly
074applies to Naran and where we store it and how it's available um next we have the increasing divers educator diversity plan we had a lively discussion about that last time can't wait to do that again choose not to adopt this policy right and then um we have FMLA which we really can't Tinker with we need to stick to the letter of the law and then lastly employment and student teacher checks just um How We Do the background checks and what we include in it you want do one and then do discussion if anybody has question so we'll start with the first one weed grading in honors classes does anybody have any questions or concerns so then I would move to accept it as move to accept the policy as written than discussion all in favor
075motion car all right next one is improve completion of uh fasta rates I would move that we accept the policy as written any discussion now just to clarify that's coming from the state like we have no control over so are we actually saying I think financial literacy is great and everyone should have it but we're saying if someone doesn't fill out an application financial application you will hold them back to graduate is that what we saying no there's a process if they don't complete it that this SCH can can submit it on their behalf and there so in there if you're not going to submit it at all what else you could do so there's little different parameters in there but it's become a Statewide requirement to help all students do it and what's the
076state application for federal student a so even if someone has no ambition of ever going to college and getting student aid still compl a waiver instead there's a waving process that's more more paperwork just so right and there's a recognition that some students just are not able to do so and there is a way for the school dist to do can do it on their beh yes I don't know any kid they really can't they don't know all the information so it's not so much in educ State's OD just are they pressing on the educational aspect of it or they really pressing on this one the information parents income I I think they're really trying to get it to the inner cities to make sure that all inner city students have an opportunity to get
077and they uniform across the state it is a complicated process and it's an access piece to it to get more try and fill it out talk about not getting money oppos motion carries next we have graduation requirements I move that we accept the policy as written second second discussion all in favor oos administration of medications I move that we accept the policy as written second all in favor oain motion carries increasing educator diversity plan I think we should at least vote on it right or we know it's done V is down the second week you probably need to vote down the policy now I will let you know that I have informed the state Depart of Education they have referred to their attorneys as to any reports they might might do next on I don't
078know what the next step is but we put it back on the agenda we have yes why don't we table this until we find out what that is is there a time crun or do it is actually um the due was um last week and we had an extension through April 15th My Hope Is that they give us information before April 9th if we need to revote again we'd be able to the next meeting still why don't we table it all right so we'll roll it over to the next meeting then if you can remember to put that on the policy on agenda please right so table next is FMLA um I move that we accept the policy as written second any discussion all in favor opposed and lastly employment and student teacher checks I
079move that we accept the policy as written second any discuss all in favor motion car thank you very much yeah um we met today um for our monthly meeting or sometimes more than monthly um the packet is up on the board docs that's Howard standard pack packet does a great job it opens up with the executive summary which be self-explanatory um couple thing couple takeaways um we we've got 18.5 12 .6 we got 31.1 encumbered or spent leaving us about $2.9 million still uh it's in transition we talked about um the central activities balances a little bit and how there's some opportunity to do some things within the district to improve conditions in certain fields for example or um potentially uh provide some assistance with the school bucks fees for school bucks that charge every
080time they fild a card up so we just throw around ideas at this point there's nothing concrete nothing to motion on or approved um we also discussed uh February transfers which as you know from last month we have a board policy it says we reallocate budget line items um get them back to it a positive balance um we did go through that page there's about I think 36 line we're going to need to make a motion again uh this is standard for us and it helps with transparency and and forecasting our position with the budget um we'll get to that in a moment and then uh we did a quick review of personnel and some open jobs we've had some U coaches hired Etc it's in the document and uh we still have some open
081roles that are also listed in the Personnel section of of our packet so we need to motion to approve the February budget line on reallocations as presented by the district finance manager schedule second any discussion one page it's page seven in the Finance on board doc finance committee again the header at the top is standard boiler plate for usort describes the what it is in the need for it aligns with the policy all in favor opposed just as we're talking about Finance we um are looking for people to come to the board of the board of Finance meetings so one first one is April 22nd um we are working with um the high school and um the PTO to arrange for babysitting at quick farms in the cafeteria so parents can come in they have
082their voices heard in the um gymnasium and then the kids will be in the cafeteria so we're working them to do that and as well on May 6 for the refer I mean the town meeting I'm sorry um remember the town meeting is the one area where people can come to stand up and take money out of our budget so um just encourage as many people as possible to attend tag te they also can remove capital projects that get presented which happened last year um leison reports we had PTO meeting last week um there was a bunch of field chips that were approved for um middle school and for um grade Oak and there dance or something it's um being done by the middle school it's not being won by PTO I know both p
083and the bo club we planning for teacher appreciation week in May think the PTO is doing field uh Pizza truck Pizza truck doing truck teachers love both of them you have anything um no Bingo was a huge success we had almost 100 people there um they like the we did it at the river fire department and they like the venue um we're starting now to get ready for senior planning for the lockin and all of the senior events so we'll be having a meeting in a couple weeks and invite the senior parents to come and start volunteering to help with that um we've did the the mural it's already passed so that's good April 10 next April 10th planning meeting will be on April I think that's it anybody have anything else um whoever was
084doing the Instagram posts about the budget yes excellent job thank you that's very informative I think it's very simple people can understand it good job um are we going to do that for the issue we had last night with the Oxford Pate not much liking our in fact today's post was about that what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to monitor social media and hear from her what the is out there and trying out social media post about that I'm trying to do one soci one social media post per day about the budget um for tomorrow and Thursday I'll be focusing around the changes to the budget from tonight um the goal to the budget process is to have one piece of information out there that's bite-sized easier to digest a graphic that makes
085sense that can be reposted elsewhere and just a budget fact it's that just easy to be repeated just continued information not too much information just enough that people could understand and reach and talk about it okay thank you you need someone to speak at Board of Finance about what we want security to be more than happy thank you um there's one thing I forgot to do earlier on in the meeting and I apologize but I did want us to take a moment of silence um Mr jiva's wife passed he's our town finance director and I would just like to take a moment to um acknowledge that thank you for that Mr has been very helpful with us and it's a great L thank you for allowing that um have a motion to adj motion to
086adj any discussion