001my phone for some reason it turned off yeah I okay let's call the order at 6:34 do the Pledge of Allegiance please Pledge of the United States of America to the repic for which it stands Nation God indivisible liy and jusice okay R Paul starting with Joe are Robert Vinnie cadella Debbie Sherman Mike Steve are there any amendments to the agenda anybody no okay the September 24th regular Board of Education minutes for approval I'd like to make a motion to approve the N9 242 24 Board of Ed meeting minutes a second any discussion all those in favor opposed abstain motion carries October 1st special Board of Education minutes like to make a motion to approve the 10124 Board of Ed special meeting minutes is there a second a second any discussion all those in favor
002opposed abstain motion carries audience of citizens anyone likees to speak no okay H board correspondent nothing nothing assessment report and curriculum instruction and assessment goals all so I just want to start with kind of just going over some background info some changes from last year um just kind of go over some data that's not in here just not available at this time um so some of the major changes which are um also in here but the I ready data is put in the report but if you remember we are not doing that anymore so this is obviously the last year's data if you remember from last year even the I already data we're only doing it um most of it was done at the middle school then we did math only at the K 5
003level because if the new curriculum changes so just want to point that out uh it's also the first year the digital sat um where all students were taking that and still kind of waiting for reviews and research and all that to come out and how that affected scores we obviously know how it affected scores versus previous test Administration and we'll still kind of look into um how the digital uh compares to past um as well at this point because school started late we did extend the uh fall Benchmark window so those assessments that we do in the beginning of the year to kind of see where kids are at in order to for teachers to set groups and form instruction um so that is actually the fall Benchmark window which includes uh the ISL assessment
004in dibles which is the major K5 literacy assessment we do which is um that is one of the state required assessments that we do um that will be done on Friday The Benchmark window closes on Friday so the majority of students are done um but it's a lot to catch up any students who have been out that sort of thing um so that information is not in here as well as there's some State performance index data um that is not in here as well last year I looked at the report I did it in November last year and it was available at that time so I'm expecting the performance index data to be available at any time and I think we did something similar last year and that we looked at some of the data
005earlier in the year and then came back in November when I did that full report to kind of update and put some more information together um so just want to be on the same page so the majority of this data is a lot of the sback data um as well as the SAT information as well as a few others but the sback in the SAT is the majority of this information um I think overall when you look at a kind of Bird's eyed view um obviously there's some some good data points in there that we really like seeing and then others that we need to kind of dig a little deeper and and have some more work on which we'll see when we get to my curriculum instruction goals um I think what we saw
006at the middle school um both in ela and math when you look at it uh sixth through eighth grade Al together um we saw some some big Improvement in year-over-year where both Ela and math went up 10% we're looking at sixth through eth grade data um so obviously some good work going on at the middle school some things to praise there we also I'll don't have it in here at this time we also started looking at kind of that cohort data so last year's sixth to R Group to this year's sixth to eight group obvious it went up 10% right when you start to break it down and look at the grade levels by cohort meaning the pre the fifth year from last year to the to the current sixth year and then going back
007years um that data is a little more up and down um which we need to dig a little further into sometimes cohort data when you look from kindergarten to you know if you had that data from kindergarten to the time they graduate sometimes you get to see Trends um which we can start to look at a lot of trend data you may see is those transition years from let's say fifth to sixth grade 8th to 9th grade we usually see dips um which we'll talk about some things uh that we're doing but the cohort data is a little up and down there's some grades where from the previous previous year um to this year or this year's data went up 10 11% which is a huge jump on on on a assessment like ASAC esac
008and then there's a couple that went down a couple percent um so again it's more information we got to look at some of the data you know it's hard to look at just the one year and say you know what happened so for example um sixth grade ELA dropped 14% from fifth grade so when you look at the percentage of kids or students who are at or above Benchmark um sixth grade ELA esac they drop 14% from fifth grade but if you take the number it's the highest sixth grade percentage of at or above since since our Co years so we are making some some good gains and what I try to tell um on people is uh growth is not always linear we're not always going to be able to just every single year
009going to be increase increase increase um we are seeing some good gains at some some areas and we're also implementing a ton of new programs across the district especially in El which sometimes creates a bump and you know when you have those first year to with the implementation okay ask a question now or you want me to wait go ahead so would you be able to when you do the cohort um data be able to um identify when new programs went in so it might help us understand that the new reading program is working better Now versus in the math programs as well so it just might help us find what programs we've put in that are working and what aren't working tutors and stuff things like that yeah and it's you know it's ALS
010you know it is a little more than new program at times um you know it's rare that we're able to take a program and just say here it is run exactly like it is a lot of times it's here's what we have um and we have to manipulate or or revise to meet the needs of our kids and you know not every program every aspect of it is always the most effective so each program has things that are better than others when you do pilots you know rarely is it hey this program we chose is better at every single aspect than this program um if that was the case then everyone would choose that one program right so you make your decision so as a school um we have to look at those programs and
011make decisions as to what are the areas that we see it may be weaker and what can we do um response to that so for example with the hmh ELA that we we have like that's what we're going through right now it's a it's a massive program um it's not meant to be here's day one lesson one day two lesson two go run it there's a lot of decisions for teachers to make sure um you know and I am extremely happy that um with last year's budget we're able to add the literacy coach who's been doing some amazing work helping us kind of catch up in that area with resource creation and working with teachers on on making a lot of those decisions it's going a lot faster than if we did not have that
012that person um as an example um so again some some good information on esbc especially at the middle school level which has seen kind of some low declining scores since Co we have we did see a lot of uptick which is which is something to celebrate um sat data uh when it looks when you're looking at the Reading Writing Ela lter some side of things um I would say that's somewhat flat um when you're looking even going from 9 to 10 to 11 um which kind of mimics the State national um scores the ELA seems tends to be higher than math and it tends to be a little more flat whereas the math tends to be a little more volatile year toe um so the math side of things we definitely along with the state
013and the country you know there's a lot of work going into grants and so forth to try to figure out these math scores um while while overall they are low um you know some good things we did see while the overall sat percentage of students at are above Benchmark dropped um from uh the previous year to last year um from the PSA the group that took the PSAT 10 to the group that took the SAT last year we did have 5% more those students in the at or above Benchmark um which on a test at large you know 5% is a decent jump so we're we're looking at increasing obviously keeping keep increasing those math scores um and trying to go um and and trying to do as much as we can there and we
014have the math tutoring Grant in the second year at the middle school um we have curriculum writing going on at the middle school and math um which I think will help support uh the programming that's going there and this year we'll get into it but one of our major goals as I'll be working with the department heads uh the department head at the high school in MA it's kind to do audit of the courses and take a look at the SAT scores what areas do we seem weak match those up with kind of what we see with Exel what do our course offerings look like are we doing things in the right sequencing do we need to add any other courses um are we offering what we need to offer when they need to be
015offered the other thing with the SAT um that we need to do a little more work on and and I'm I'm thinking about working with again that math department head and maybe surveying students is the past couple years you know that motivation Factor yet had a lot of schools drop the SAT requirement um some schools are bringing back there's still a bunch of schools that are not there's a couple schools that say they're dropping in three years from now and kind of have a set date you know so there's also that motivation piece students not going to college or their college that they want to go to does not take the SAT um I think we need a little more information on the student side of things as to how they View and what their
016motivations are with the SATs but I think looking at that this year trying to get that that information may help as well and I'm not saying that's the only cause I just that's something to look at and bring that piece into the equation too now sats are going electronic this was the fir the past spring was the first year they're all digital because I that was good for some and bad for others yeah and you know it's the first a couple of the other changes they you know they shorten the reading passages it was supposed to also mimic some of the stuff we're seeing with the you know the I ready you've seen in the past year the EXL where it's supposed to change questions based on the student responses and so forth um so
017there's that aspect of it going into too so like I said the first year I'd imagine in a couple years there's probably going to be some pretty big research out there as to the effect of going digital um but last spring was the first time that I think they said 98 99% of the country uh the students who took the sat in the spring took it digitally because I also thought with the reading stuff is comprehension yes and things and that everything I read in the outside world is that comprehension is missing of high school and college so I would think that those be the things we looking at I I would almost assume that sats are going to be across the board and the big ones go that way everybody's got to go that
018way so I think that's part of our underlying plan as SATs that's the game yeah and I mean it's definitely had the pendulum swing very far one way over the past year or two and now it's starting to come back and we'll see where it you know we'll have to see where it settles in the next year too anybody else I'd agree on the SATs that both of my boys that were seniors last year they took it once and they didn't take it again because the schools they want to go to didn't care so you you typically you score higher and depending on when you get algebra makes a huge difference of when you get a good score cu you need that you know basee of get Algebra 1 Algebra 2 geometry and if you
019don't get that until the end of junior year you don't take it senior year you're at a disadvantage compared to other students so we give it you know obviously the state of Connecticut every student of public school takes it that junior year um in the spring and then anything beyond that is up to the student you know paying for that um but you're right that traditionally it was you took it two three four times and you know yes if the school you want to go to doesn't require it then what's the motivation to take it multiple times or see how you did and take it again on a little bit off are we gonna have a because I got a couple texts and stuff print our c c them yes so we talked about that
020at the subcommittee meeting I'm working with it we're going to be using a new site to house it um so we have a couple up there now and I say with I talk to him maybe within the next couple weeks month we should have it online on the website ready to go with everything we have available the bookshelf say six weeks I don't we should yes I want under promise yeah um there's some web design slash coding training I'm going through now um to make sure it's all up there because I explained to them we're in the med yes absolutely there's a lot of prcum work being done which I'll talk about when we do the instructional goals sort of that thank you do you want to talk about tomorrow what you're doing tomorrow do
021you want to do that now or you want to do that later on with the just let the board know what is yeah tomorrow so I reached out I was on um indeed kind of looking at local jobs who's hiring um and notice the state's obviously always been talking about Advanced manufacturing and we don't have people for those jobs so Oxford being as small as it is interestingly has multiple Advanced manufacturers in corporations um so saw indeed a couple of them uh were posting jobs where it's a high school experience um didn't talk about college experience so I just reached out via their email contact to a number of the places and just said hey we love to talk and you know how can we better leverage our students to be in a position to
022maybe get some of those jobs um and personally like I've heard all the advanced manufacturing we need these job we need people people trained I kind of want to go see what happens in these in these corporations so I know obviously we hear about robots and machines taking over and yes that's what the factories are but I kind of want to see for myself what what are these uh what are the workers being asked to do and what can we do to maybe bring those skills into the school to help get them a l up because some of these jobs the ones out the place I'm going to know tomorrow online says they offer 401K Health full health benefits um so I mean there's some there's some good stuff there um and if we're not
023bring for for some of the stuff and in some cases we can't because we don't have the facilities in the schools to create and mirror what they have in the industry what can we do bring our students there either for small experiences or for larger internships so we'll the state also has certain restrictions on work based learning and internship so I mean I still have to talk to the factory president figure out their side of things and what they're willing to do and want to do and what we can do and then work within the state regulations too it's not as easy as hey yes something them down we can just say go ahead see you later um the visit there's Hoops yeah there's Hoops so it's a visit just to kind of get the
024conversation going and seeing what we can do to help our our kids out or going to college and J Becca and Vic are gonna go with you are you gonna be able to go yeah or no so we have uh two teachers at the high school who do I'm going to interview for a job'll leave there your idea I'll be making chips yeah I just happen to see it online like I mean like I said i' I've been hearing about the manufacturing stuff all the time and I just want on indeed to see who's hiring an I like the initiative yeah to see what's going on we'll see like I said we'll see what comes with it I'm not making any promises because we got to see what you know yeah been the other thing
025with math I was over at B and U they had a big car show that's what I was and the thing is that it's a tractor car show so there's a lot of kids there right big tractor so I got a chance to talk on the reason I bring this up because it's math related so when you're talking to them you're talking gear ratios you know because we have this problem with math these are Sor and juniors and seniors and they're talking about well I got to they can you know change the gear ratio on this to do this and I got to do that I got the ey pressure here so and many of them were Ox because I knew their parents from the cars and uh so they're learning Hydraulics pressure gear ratios
026and math to functioning things and it's always been a key thing for math is hands on so and I I know it's a a different little bit different type of school but the process is something that again we should look at because these guys knew all about you know I got to redu us to GE got listen and uh some of the things I here coming out of C they hire college students and they have no clue they knew that they know the math but they don't know what it does so I think as we go talk further about because I think that's the meat you need for Math and you're going to use that your goals yes um yeah so the goals did a little different than last year I think you'll see this
027with almost everyone now is taking using Dr Miller those District goals that were created kind of basing goals which one of what what of my work align to those District goals as well as at the end I put in some um data specific pieces assessment specific pieces um so the first one I'm always every year I'm going be working on curriculum um kind of the big um the big projects right now are going to be um the oh OMS uh World languages um we're going to kind of take a look at that curriculum and and we're looking to rewrite every single course um that we offer for World languages um from the Middle School to the high school um we also have uh 6A the Middle School um art and general music we kind of
028started this at the end of last year with kind of scope and sequence um and kind of doing kind of that outline type um uh for the for the class and then this year we'll write will work on writing the specific curriculum and then we have a new library media uh specialist at the middle school um there's a lot of changes going on with kind of library media digital citizenship all that stuff so she has some great ideas and experiences I'm doing some PD with her this year so we're looking at kind of rewriting that curriculum um as well uh for those students and then um day five maap scope and sequence resources as well as I if I put it in here right I forgot to put in there but K5 also uh the
029work I'll be doing the literacy coach creating Resources with her for the hmh program um so that's a lot of the curriculum work now what I found last year is that's now and usually things grow throughout the year um I know we have a couple course proposals sitting in the hopper over at the high school um that I have to review bring to the subcommittee um so we may have a few other courses added to this as well um another one of my goals aligned to the district goal um is just that idea of improving teacher proficiency and confidence in hmh so working with the uh literacy coach and making sure that's done um last year was definitely a learning year for teachers with the program um just the size and scope of it um
030so this year you know hopefully we need to increase that conf their confidence and the ability to implement it that comes through um PD they're going to get that comes through uh resource creation they're going to get um the nice thing about having the literacy coach in District is that we're able to provide um timely and frequent professional development so yes we'll still have outside groups come in to provide uh PD for teachers but usually that happens couple times a year it's difficult to get coverage for all the teachers on a day um one day well while outside providers are in the building the nice thing about having the literacy coach that's our district employee um she's able to ride that PD um on a smaller setting with the teacher one-on-one or in small groups
031where we don't have to go try to find three four five six seven Subs in a day um in order to get it so she's already been providing professional development for teachers that's going to be ongoing and they're going to get more this year than ever before um without having this position so I'll be working with her with that piece um the department heads uh the fact that we kind of went back to the um a department Ed for each major subject at the high school I'll be working with them um to provide quality feedback to teachers within their Department um so I'll be doing training this year on you know if you're in a teacher's classroom they ask you for advice um so we they're they're very strong in their content area so working
032with them in that instructional feedback area um how the evaluation system works um so that they can work with their teachers which would be outside of the their evaluator so their evaluator gives them feed back you know this is someone else who can help go in and provide that that um that feedback to them and then uh another another piece related to this District goal is um the K5 report card so with the switch from um our previous literacy program to hmh we made some revisions last year that were needed to fit what we were doing some of the changes but we knew that would kind of be like a Band-Aid as we got used to it um so we're looking at kind of redoing the entire report card for next year now that we're
033in year two of this so the report card is going to be the same as last year and then next year we're looking to implement a new report card um based off of everything we've learned with the with the new program and making sure everything at once so Eric can you say like new report card when the parents get it's going to have the different categories comprehension all yeah we're going to look at so the committee I know yeah so the committee is going to look at a number of different um templates um where I have an idea to kind of put a survey out to parents as to like what are the pieces they always look at or want to know um to make sure we get feedback from the parents side too um
034So based on teacher input parent feedback and just templates um that we'll research it'll be based off of that so it's just a little too early to say here's exactly what's going to be in there right um obviously the standards and so forth but there's also so many that I know as a parent like you know a two-page report card sometimes gets a little overwhelming and they like skipping straight to the comments anyway sometimes so like what can we put in there that's like the most important that they de to know that will also inform the pre the next year's teacher if they took a look and the in the fal and so forth and that's because of the change in the the majority of it is because yes the change in How We Do
035literacy was was massive from a couple years ago what we're doing now so like I said we made some changes just to because if you kept it the old way from a couple years ago the teachers teaching what were teaching last year like they're just just didn't fit right so we made some some changes to some small revisions to make it benef fit and now next year we got to make sure we you know whatever we're using is going to be what we're using moving forward so it became like a round hole square peg thing yeah okay um the next goal U the district goal on um successful integration development new staff members so my piece of that is always deals with team so this is nothing new um I just always make sure all
036new teachers who need to go through the team process um have a mentor and are successfully going through that so that's going to be something I do every year um that does not change ER is that new teachers to the school or is that just new teachers out of school new teachers to teaching so it could be um could be someone come from another District who was only a year in would need to do team it's like a two-year process it's a state department okay um the next districtal focuses on AI um which is a important topic especially high school and even 612 now um so kind of goal to build the capacity of District staff we did talk about this last year with staff um I ran a couple PD sessions we have been
037working with someone at Advance um we did some work with some admin over the summer um and did professional development for School principles and central office staff um myself and four other staff members to at the high school to at the middle school are going to be doing a uh micr credential course kind of a self-paced six- week AI course focused on using AI in education um the benefits of it and also those dangers um so GNA that's going to be kind of the district committee nucleus is myself and those people who go through that sixe training um so that way we can kind of create like we do have to have some sort of policy um we did in the handbook put in like we did add that you know the use of a
038student taking a prompt put into Jack GPT copying and pasting that using that is the same as going to Google and doing the same thing it's not your work um but we know we need more than that so we're getting more knowledge this year so we can create policy resources for parents resources for students and be more clear with how to utilize AI so that's going to be a goal this year um and then I have to add more to the next section this is just some quick um goals based on actual just assessment data so we have room to keep going up in ela map um Ela map and esack so listen some years you do this long enough and there's enough increase you know if we're sitting here 80 85% at or above
039average like there's can't just keep doing goals while we're going to keep going 2 3% every single year um but we're at a point where we can keep increasing every single year so um I'll be looking to increase the overall percentage of students at are above Benchmark for ELA and math on esac as well as the PSAT sat um when we get the EXL and the dibles data after this Benchmark I can update the board with specific goals side to that so when you say Goals will increase Ela back scores by 2% to equal scores so it's like 2% higher in those are above or at I try yeah at or above Benchmark okay so we might move like from 58 to 60 yeah so I was looking at I was trying to find like
040instead of just saying like well 3% across the board I I did try to go back and look at where were we like preo whether we're can we match get to that point of like Hey we're back to where we were now we can go up from here sometimes I found a round number sometimes I looked at the math for hey what happened the past couple years of math versus Ela which tends to be a smaller increase than Ela um so um came up the numbers and then like I said ISL tibles will have to be added like I said The Benchmark Clos is on Friday so I'll have that for November anybody have any questions no I'm good okay thanks Eric thank you Eric this is great I'll just pass these around these are
041the curriculums that we were given at the subcommittee just so you guys can see what we're getting so um just the different different grades different levels different programs but you can just see that we're following the the template that we put together so um see you have it and back my way when you guys are [Music] all yeah I'll I just wanted you to see what templates look like and what we're actually putting in there um so I thought it was very helpful it's just something that you know this is how it's actually being written and how much we've gotten St we we're happy oh this is ccul for health education y so this is the way it was supposed to be that for health right that one sorry so you'll get that one that
042next month that one's on the front it says Eric do you sleep yeah listen the teachers have the teachers do a lot of the writing I do the training and work with them throughout do a lot of the formatting and revising with them but um teachers that have written have done a tremendous amount of work as well so I think the teachers recogniz foring out volunteering obviously they're getting paid to do the work that they St for that I want to do the work and they're doing high level and they're very interested and we're very appreciative that the teachers want to participate in this they've done a lot of hard work a lot of good work us so is there a way we can reward them besides we can figure away yeah I mean this
043is this is major work yeah and this is the first time we've actually had it in a set pattern and everybody's following the same and we actually have it in a long time so I think it's a huge accomplishment but the reward is the satisfaction of have an energetic class students absolutely so could ask do we have enough interest like with the pipeline we need to do and deliver for CH do we have enough resources or we kind the biggest resour is is time people and people and time is you know it's limited uh when you look at you know how much like teachers do throughout the day amount of meetings we have almost all the curriculum that is written is done outside the the school day so I do the training during the school
044day meet with them during the school day and they do the writing outside of the school day um you know so like I'm not going to lie like it's going to take a few years to get a lot more done like that's a lot of work and that was a lot of what you're looking at is like is the high school language if you go look at the program studies and I'm not saying every single curriculum needs to be Rewritten but every year there's going to be more and more coming out but I don't like I don't I also don't see this as like you're ever like hon hey we're done not right curriculum see you later then there's the RS and like this is only as good as the implementation right so like that
045curriculum you're looking at for English is only as good as the teachers having time to sit down after unit one and be like hey this is what we said we were going to do how did it go like let's take a look at student work is this what we're expecting out of it hey the the the data we got from this test this unit test and the SAT is saying we're weak here where can we in that into our curriculum so it's it's really work that never ends um and it yeah it all just come down in time but you have the ability like once I mean it's R repeated even when you have it right there go through it but the implementation and the reflection part where you you right get anybody have anything
046for go on specialed okay special education report and special education technically so I changed the report a little bit I don't know most of you probably have noticed because I'm trying to incorporate the role as director as well as the role as assistant superintendent and make sure that you know you see all the work that I'm doing um but also make sure that we're paying that really close attention to special education so I have a a brief report of just kind of the status of special education and what we're working on and then the alignment to the goals um I do want to caution you on looking at the data I will send out in the Friday update the actual data so when I did this report last week we closed on October one as
047our kind of date for our numbers um we had a couple rollover issues with like PSIs and Power schol so some of the grades weren't incorrect so then it fed to CT saids incorrectly and then any new student that came from out of state we've had a couple they have to be manually entered by the state before we can access them on DP set so there's a couple of things that that three-day time window didn't allow me to get the most accurate excuse me counts um so I will get that to you on Friday because I have a much better look at it the beginning of this week so I will get that to you um in terms of special education one of the great highlights that you know I want to speak to is
048that we did do and have a state approved collaborative between Oxford and Monroe so we are working um every single day together those two programs it's really now one program um so we have a lot more students in there there's definitely more support staff but we now have both Oxford southberry Monroe New Town as job opportunities um and more connections so it's been really great so far I mean we've had some bumps because obviously the route to Monroe got a little washed out um but we are you know they've they've made it there um and they are we're sharing both spaces at this point so if days that we have jobs in Oxford they're going to start the morning here in Oxford and times that we're in Monroe um we also had a transition Grant
049through the seat of Connecticut so one of the things that we did purchase through that was um some vo vocational materials for them to use as well as gym memberships so that's something that they'll be practicing utilizing um going to the gym kind of making a schedule things like that um Elementary and secondary specialized program update the only major change to that is we did make an adjustment in hours which was approved by the state of Connecticut um and what this does it allows us to have the day where the teacher and the support staff are with the students all day long and that they're not pulled out for their prep so we kind of put the prep at the beginning or the end of the day so when the students leave or they come
050in a little bit later at the middle school program this the parents and the teachers have that time uninterrupted to be able to prep because with a specialized program there's a lot more prep involved um you know making sure the communication devices are working making sure they have the correct visual cues making sure vocational things are set up so they have that uninterupted time together to plan and also do some PD together um so that was the major change but it's been working out really well and both of the teams have been able to collaborate we've also um continued the um DT the developmental therapy training with CES so they're getting really great feedback now that we've implemented it for one year they're doing the assessment and they're getting feedback from professionals um who I've
051been fortunate to work with in the past but know the program are the only two certified in the state of Connecticut to do it and come and give them feedback based on what's happening in the classroom and then coming back to make sure that they're implementing the changes so it's been a really great model and there's been a lot of change um but it's been really beneficial to all the students our numbers are also in increasing too so those programs have more students than they have in the past two years um enhanced behavioral supports and Services I you know we in the special Department can't thank you enough for you know stating that we needed some more support and behavioral and and passing it through the budget um so the way that we utilize those
052funds um we did a little different than just having a full-time bcba we have a a part-time bcba who works three times a week primarily at Quaker but there's some others schools that they're Consulting with and then we also hired a behavioral technician that's going to work directly with the bcbas to be in the classrooms to model the plans to check Fidelity to um you know make sure that the teachers have what they need so that they can implement the P the plans effectively so it's been a really great model that's been working well um I'll have more information soon because obviously we contract the bcba like any other position it's hard to find so the new one just started today and did consult last week but I can't thank you guys enough so I
053appreciate it bounce back in cits is um a trauma informs or kind of school um stressor program that we talked about last year implementing we're going to take it step by step we're going to be you know slow in the process of implementation so our staff you know just were trained in the past two weeks um we're going to start creating that referral process we're going to have very small groups to start out the first year to make people comfortable um make sure we have the process there is a parental permission piece of of it um but that's to help provide um coping strategies dealing with stress and Trauma um that students have experienced which really will help a lot of our our students that are struggling with some major behaviors and then the last
054major Initiative for this year although we have always a lot going on I as you noticed I haven't mentioned CTS but we are in year three we're working through a couple implementation things but I would say we're other than when things pop up from the state we're we're getting through it it's much better than the last two years um but the last thing that we are training the whole staff on probably on our March PD day um Wood Johnson which is an assessment that we have for both cognitive and academic testing um is coming out with version five but they are completely changing the way the assessment is delivered and it's going to be um utilizing iPads and computers now so um it's going to be a lot of training that we're going to have
055to provide our staff to make sure that we're doing evaluations correctly just because the format is going to be completely different than I mean we've been using this test for many many years um the deliver is going to be much different this year I'm actually very excited about it um and then in terms of the goals um I did the same thing that Eric did trying to encapsulate everything that I'm doing in relation to um the goals for the district and it gets a little tricky so I'm happy you know if there's any feedback or things you'd like to see I'm happy to make any changes to that um what I did here and I don't know if you see the highlighted colors but I aligned some of of the goals um obviously everything we
056do in special education and everything in my position as assistant superintendent supports all of the goals so we're trying to find the best way to kind of align that um so I highlighted times where it's related to special education and times where it's related to assistant superintendent and sometimes words it's both um so for the overall District goal this would for um engagement and students instruction this I mean in special education we kind of Hit Upon all of these because we're trying to build those building BLX of skills so that they can you know have grade level curriculum or have it with modification or accommodations um one of the big things for CT saids is beginning January of 2025 it will be a requirement that all goals and objectives for academics will be aligned to
057Common Core St standards they already are but now the requirement is is we cannot finalize an IEP until we choose what that anchor standard is um so we do have some training that we're going to be doing um to get staff ready you know to understand what they mean by the anchor standard and how they're attaching it to the goal because it's not the overall like every single objective a common core it's the anchor that kind of attaches it to it and knowing that some of our students work below grade level what does that look like when we're attaching it so um by by the end of the year any IEP that's developed from 2025 on will be aligned to common for State Standards so we're going to start doing that work with them now
058the state has produced some good resources it's some work I've done in the past so um Lindon and I are going to be working in in the next couple of months what is that so even though people have IEP and it might be modification of curriculum less work more time don't they ultimately align to some sort of standard yes ultimate maybe a partial piece of it yes so that's what it we have to then identify we already do what this is making us identify and attach it to so right they may be working at a different grade level but it is an alignment to a standard um or an area so this is more like memorialization or just formally connecting it correct more or less yeah the IEP program won't allow us to finalize unless
059it's attached to um it's gone different ways I remember like probably 10 15 years ago we used to have to write the goal the objective and goal and attach the full standard like ourselves this is kind of changing it a slight slightly different um and then the next goal for vision uh vision mission and framework for the athletic program um I'm going to make sure obviously meet with the athletic director um but I want to make sure that our vision is aligned with the unified piece of it of the alignment to special education obviously it would help in the other pieces of it as well but making sure that our vision and Mission also is inclusive to the Unified sports in terms of the coordinator of student conduct uh the way it kind of blows
060is the stud the Dave Becca reports to the principles daily and works with them daily but it kind of filters to me as the overall um overseeing what they're doing um so yesterday we had our first monthly meeting um we're going to co- evaluate depending on which area he's choosing to work in um either focusing on middle school or high school and um we're just hoping so my goals I didn't put achievable of metrics but when Heather and Sylvia Pres I'm going to align because that work is going to be the same work we're going to be doing together so um really kind of overseeing that making sure I'm a point person for both of them um making sure I'm checking in with Dave regularly um also the restorative practice piece which will be part
061of the new legislation um and policy that we'll have to create for next year um the new St uh staff success program so making sure that we're pairing our new sta with a mentor which we just did last week making sure that we're doing 30 60 90 check-ins um which will be starting in the middle of October which is next week um and um making sure that we're continuously checking in I did align this one the special education as well we have new staff in special education so Linda and I are um always checking in with the new staff and making sure that they have what they need that they know the process um so you know that's something that's always been ongoing this ties into error ER Eric can you have something about team
062this is separate separate it's the same goal doing separate things different components mine's a mine's a state required um new teacher training piece this is a district go that's not state required this is something that District's doing um on top of it and not every if you get a new teacher from another District that's already gone through team they don't get like I wouldn't work with in my capacity as a state requirement but what Dr Miller is saying as a district we still want to make sure hey you're new to the district we want to make sure you still get support even if it's outside of that state required and that's brand new we want to make sure that every state every staff of regards what role you have is a signed Mentor during the
063first year to make sure you're successful some staff members don't like teams the state requirements only certifi teachers um so there could be new staff members that aren't certified uh actual teachers that have to go through team that this will support The Same Spirit yours is legally bound ours is just a good practice we want okay good way to stand and then the wellness which is a really big part of the the change in my position so having a wellness committee um I know that the overall District goal was to have quarterly meetings but we have set it up to have monthly meetings and planning events and doing some um you know employee building we did some things at the vacation um people are really excited about that so continuing to have that one of
064the other things too Howard and I are looking at some additional Employee Assistance programs to give a more robust plan to employees in case they're you know going through various different needs it won't just be for most of the basic ones are just kind of five sessions um the more robust ones have it for different areas they have kind of online connections they have text you know support groups and things like that so we are looking at different carriers for that as well and just making sure that everyone in the district um continuously knows what we have to offer for them in terms of Employee Assistance insurance and other Wellness um activities and things one of the things too and I think it's actually one of the other goals is we did create the employee
065benefits card so we do have the website and it is being utilized frequently by staff nice um the next one is the support student internships and really I'm just helping with the soliciting and making sure that we have the local businesses um we have a good database so far so making sure that we continue to do the reach out and then filter that to the high school so they understand who's looking for jobs and how can we build internships from that and the last goal um is is helping and supporting those environmental um just helping with the organization making sure you know the schools have what they need when we get to that point um so just a support piece of that any questions anything I'm missing that you'd like to see in there what
066so back to the specialized stuff it's tough area it's always in demand more kids are coming in the needs are greater two questions what what's the next thing maybe too early but what's the next resource or something we need in support of that Andor what do you think the biggest risk or opportunity is this year like it's always fluid right and it's tough it is always fluid I do see we are we are increasing that's not been changing um so as I actually I know the number looks lower now but when I looked at it today when we have more solid data we are still at that kind of 305 and still have 13 or 14 referrals out um so and we're also seeing an Ever growing in the preschool so that's something we definitely
067continue to keep a keep an eye out is the growing numbers of preschool students coming in um as well as you know there's a lot of students moving from out of state and I will say most of our movein you know at least 25% if not more do move in with an IEP so we are seeing growth in that way too so making sure that we are providing what they need based on those IEPs and then making them align um and then some of the other things that filter into other areas you know some of the behavior pieces and making sure that we're addressing those but also looking at it through the special education lens um but also educating so that we can support them in the best way so um I do have some
068ideas for next year and thoughts that could really benefit um you know Linda's wonderful she's been really helpful in everything that we're doing she's she's in the buildings every day she's probably at every single building every single day um and so trying to think of ways to balance that so that everybody's getting what they need throughout the district so we might see something like last year it was Cole you like let's make sure we have enough bcbas because it behavor like this year it might be a different theme it's a person or a program or have some ideas I mean I you know it's not budget ceasing yet but I have some ideas of supporting um right now you know not looking administratively but there isn't as much support in the elementary schools for kind
069of dealing and and de-escalating behaviors other than the principal so something looking along those lines of especially with the new legislation coming in how can we support the the elementary levels for the behaviors because not that we don't see Behavior it's different in middle school and high school but we're seeing a lot more um outward ERS in the elementary setting who might just need maybe more of something too on top of the training yeah absolutely anybody else have any questions for Nicole just I mean at Nico question for Megan probably answer but is the state or the country or government anyone giving indications of why there's so much worse behavior and more special needs coming through at such a young age like a 25% increase that seems like a lot our parents just not reading
070to their kids in the beginnings or is the whole I just don't understand what's I mean Co is now three years past we can't really blame Co anymore I I think there's a lot of things I mean I do think co co did and still plays an impact because if we think about the students that either didn't have daycare or can you know opportunities during that time and a lot of those students so I just know from personal my niece was born in 2020 so she didn't she had some preschool but she's still not even in kindergarten yet so all of those students that were home during that time didn't have preschool or didn't have opportunities outside the home a lot of parents were working and they might not have had that same interaction so
071I can't we can't rule you know covid out um I do think there's other environmental factors I think there's a lot of things at play I I can't give you like a good solid answer but I do still think we're seeing some effects of of of covid and the lack of either instruction or ability to be around peers at that time too give me an hour a couple drinks we'll go I'll tell you what I think being so close to all this stuff not professionally but just in groups of people and cohorts of families and yeah uh just a question uh for the legislature that's coming down has it been finalized are they planning to finalize it soon because I know as a board as we're prepping for Budget season because it always seems like
072you're either in budget season or prepping for Budget season um it's G to be very important for us because it's we're going to have to react to some of this stuff because it's going to be unfunded mandates uh that's going to trickle down so so where we are now the the P that we have to implement as of the 2526 school year will be discussing it I think in policy this month or next month because the state legislation does State we have to follow the specific policy created by c um so we have to kind of talk through that and and approve that through policy um and then we have done started the training in the restorative piece just so that we have some people trained in District to be able to implement that piece
073of it but that also then has to trickle to more staff that's going to have another impact so yes there's going to be I think quite a few things that we're going to have to look at from budgetary standpoint to implement the legisl yeah is restor mostly like how to different approaches dealing with behavioral issues yes yes is that the simplest way to put yeah I just did the training to or last yeah I can't remember where we are what day it is um and so yes so I think the the big thing is people always say it's kind of um you know not consequential not you know I don't like to use the word punishment but that that's not necessarily the truth there's still time there's where you can suspend where you can work
074but it's also trying to reinforce that you have to fix the situation it's not like you just kind of you get suspended and then you come back and everything's over with how are you going to repair the situation um and giving students that kind of language so just uh because I I found theal to be uh enlightening uh on detention I I only had detention once I did you're right you're stealing Joe's phone they W write thisch no the we had a process back in the 50s in stone age was card and you know three demirs down to the office and talk with the principal gave you some options you know get the hell out or do something you know and then maybe another warning and then you went into detention okay we never had
075detention on Saturday morning which to me my hats off for the Bold move I I don't know how the parents are going to take it you know because it's more punishment for the parent than the student and and you go into detention and detention back in my day I read your thing you're gonna do your homework you're gonna do that that's not mine assistant super no I know I just I can talk to it a little bit but I'm not the one it's the high school principal and that Administration kind of I know I can tell you how we determine whether there's a detention and who's running it but I'm not the one doing it's a high school initiative and detention is not the start of the consequence there's a behavioral Matrix that we use
076that ramps up so detention is one of the steps along the way there are steps that take place before student would get to detention there's after school detention before you even get to Saturday detention there's a whole sequence of events that take place I think the best person to answer your questions would be Mr Ryan um in two weeks when she presents the high school report okay thank you yeah and the only other thing is that with some of the goals and stuff that have come out and everything you know I learned a lot from Mr Miller on you know having some kind of guidelin which I think God you stressed to us and that was smart you know being able to analyze these goals so many of these goals and stuff are words you
077know their emotions and things how how is the board how do we know that you achieve these word gold type of things you know that uh attitude improved you know how do we measure that we got a survey that showed some stuff you know where are the goals that we can put our hands on and say think we moov bold bold sure in terms of what are you looking for for measurable so some of the things that I also do is based on the action items I kind of go through those and look at that through a measurable lens as well so if there's something specific you're looking for I'm happy to you know do a survey I don't want to over survey everybody do something survey I think we asked a couple years ago
078is that with all the data I ready and sat and PS all all the stuff it's those are your tools those are your toools okay today from my standpoint is that I need to know concrete that they they really move 10% here was the number last year here's the real 10% okay not 2% in sat and 1% and I ready and we're not going to use I ready that should be like an objective of the administration to have some hardcore things that we can look at and say you agree to this amount of performance the teachers and staff agree to that amount and we can look at it and analyze it as novices look here she has achievable metric so the first one 100% of IEPs will be developed beginning January 2025 we're going to
079know at the end of that if you made 100% or if it's 85% or what that's 300 I right yes yeah and and she's working off the action items but there's a whole column on achievable metrics okay I'm just saying every one of these has that I'm looking for some basic core things that you can judge you know that things you know you know the CEO looks at the bottom line he doesn't look at Harry Schwarz is get 18,000 chips off his machine you know that type of thing you know he's looking at will this door stay on the bone 7:30 so what's happening so I I think and I could I could be speaking out of I think we need some kind of core thing that we look at that everybody agrees this is
080the benchmarks you know you know I won't live long enough to read all those individual things you know but anyway that's just my I hope you're 90 I got 10 anybody else have anything for thank you m thank you next item is the report of the superintendent so good evening um a few updates for you tonight um first of all the high school pull pack which is something we've been waiting for the while not on um obviously thanks to the town funding in the first place the delivery of the pool pack is going to be in the vendor's hands within the next two weeks not really their hands the property with the next two weeks and they will have a crane onsite they're planning to begin the work on November 1st um they're expecting it
081to be a 2 we install um there'll be on the roof outside of the the pool area and inside the pool area during that two weeks the pool will not be unusable um because the system we shut down that will take place after the final girls home meet which is October 17th um the impact will be that during practices this the girls will still be in the state tournament window um and we've made arrangement for the students to practice and the seem more full during that that time period um it'll be up and running before the start of the boy season um and we would not be having a home um in the the pool that's not going to be impacted it's the impact will be the practice that would have under that window um
082that will include having the area outside of the high school right outside the um clear it out so the a crane can actually come on site they'll take the old one down get it out put the new one up there's a lift there kind of a um a surface that needs to be built around the new on pull pack on the roof and it gets installed and um we're right around the time when we were expecting to be done so pretty much it's on schedule um as far as being on schedule we're actually ahead of schedule with eight back project for this building they're in the final stages of turning everything on and getting everything certified and few cosmetic things that need to be done ceiling tiles need to be patched up a little bit
083some carpet tiles and so forth but for the most part this building is in operation all the classrooms and the offices on the side of the building um I do want to compliment that the vendor that was selected um air they have been professional they've been Court respectful clean organized they communicate very effectively with the administators custodians this building and Facilities um the selection of air temp beginning um yielded a project that was efficient on time and high quality so a lot of kudos to on the selting process and for the vendor themselves and for selecting good staff members to do the work I think we got a really good prject um through all that in terms of Transportation um we did get another update from town a week ago um there is only one
084person that allar uses to M the routes that person was last week is out this week and way back on the 15 so any of the route the roads that open up last week and this week um will be rerouted by Allstar beginning on Tuesday um and they're still working on the four SCH transportation for the AUD District students we request that they add another driver adding another driver will solve the problem we're waiting for response from them because that's what we needed we need another driver from the morning runs in order to move the start time later than than it currently is um parents that have been contacting us that saying that the roads are open we're our response to them is we're waiting for All Star to now alter the route starting um
085the 15th which is when they need to start doing that work um I am excited to announce that we have two students um from the high school that were selected by the administration that will be our student representatives to the Board of Education um our hope is that one or both of them will be here for the next meeting so that um Heather when she makes her High vot report is able to produce them um I did give them an official letter thanking them and congratulating them from being selected from the high school administration one of them was going to be here today we decided it would be better to have them here and have Heather introduce them at the meeting in sou two weeks um and a reminder I did put in social media
086earlier today um Friday is a planned early release day for press learning in fact um Eric has ready send out information to the admin team the teachers um and all staff will be engaged profess learning inting secretaries par professionals teachers highly organized so thank you for putting that all together and on Monday is and if it's a holiday um that is on the calendar as well so the schools will all be closed um school and office will be closed on Monday next week um question on full pack did we are we okay with parking back th one program have we I know that might been included here I don't think she made it to the media I he's been in communication with her I'll verify that again just want to make sure they're aware how
087is it going to affect drop off and pick up and the day that they bring the crane in there might be some impact there um but once they get it off down and the new one up the cranes should only beide for a day or two at that point it shouldn't be an issue but while the cranes they are actually lifting and nothing can be around that area yeah yeah um and um Heather and Paul we in high school were involved in the collab meeting that took place today about the project anybody else any questions audience of citizens maybe can you tell me how many five fors on District on top of the IEPs I'm just curious because I know that's another whole load of work there's still students we having to service you give
088me 10 minutes I could probably pull a rock can you give that to her after yeah okay perfect um my report we have nurses negotiation um that we need to set a committee for so there's anybody that would like to be on the committee for the new nurses Union please let you know um they want to meet sometime the end of October so the the four nurses um bers yes created a union this is the first contract that we'll be negotiating with them so need to have board members that want to be on the committee je is it typically at night the afternoon when do you do it typically we do it when during when schools in session we typically do it sometime between 5 and six o'clock start time and it's in the evening
089during the summer we can do a little bit earlier but we can't all thir vaccines well is your sense if it's going to be a a one day this is not a one- day thing the fact that there's not an existing Association there's not an existing contract means we're starting from scratch and everything is built from ground up so this is going to be a very tough one a long one and is not going to be done in one evening good how does that work do they come with something propos or we take a boiler plate try to offer this like boiler plate I believe that they're going to come forward with initial proposals um and then we work from there what local are they using um I have to pull it up it's not
090it's not ask me it sounds like a really good way for me to learn this so yep just just let me everybody let me know who wants to do it afterward the nurses the nurses and that's all I have uh subcommittees facilities Mike so nothing new since the last time we met as a board our next uh facility subcommittee will be on the 22nd of October at least at this point we typically meet an hour before the board meeting um so we should handle then so Mike do you mind if I add something go for it um so I've been approached by several people about bathrooms for football games and then popcorn and Mike and I have spoken about it and we're going to try and Kickstart the uh the whole bath committee thing so
091Mike has been in touch with Joe and I will be speaking with George to see if we can get these things uh off again um I have some really bad pictures bathroom bathroom pictures yes the general public state of the so part of the problem honestly is after Friday night game those P John do not get cleaned for for the popor games on Sunday so maybe sorry um I don't know we can figure out during the facilities meeting if we can get them cleaned in between somehow it's either getting the company out there or signing it to Saturday custodian to out there on Saturday to do the help that custodian I don't think our custodian wants to go near they' have to have the truck P they might have pump it but they might do
092right now my understanding it's it's Monday uh and Fridays change schedule and we have to see what home games are left for Pop Warner because they just had four in a row or at least three in a row um so their season for home games they only have four per per year so it could be a moot point for them but we had to solve for next year we Sol for next year and high school football is still an issue graduation an issue soccer is an issue anyone who's using that field it's an issue and it's it's not going away there are yeah there's also several people within the community that are willing to donate time as well as resources yeah so if we can get that all pulled back together that' be great it
093would be nice can I just ask why did it stall because it everyone was so gungho hold for a long time and then it just fizzled think that's a conversation another day yeah um I we you and I can have a conversation anything else on facilities oh M sorry no no I appreciate that they working that's a okay no build haunted um curriculum so we had our curriculum meeting on September 30th we had um Jim came and we talked about a couple of things with technology we're going to work on updating the website try and take some of the co stuff off the website um and work on updating that um we were thrilled to look at the new um PR service for the new for the curriculum that you guys have been working up
094to do yep so it's going to be our curriculum is actually going to be online where parents can go in they can look at it um assessments won't be available of course but they can at least get in and look at it we talked about um the the work that the C the literacy coordinator been doing and Eric gave us a copy I think I thought it of her schedule um the amount of work that she's doing and getting done is commendable and I think that that was a great um way we went last year getting a literac um we're going to we have so all right this is this is don't have anybody left but the 10 years ago the town of Oxford received supposedly a $50,000 agricultural grant that um is coming up
095on being the 10year mark and somehow there's a thought process that if we do not document how we Ed this grant which nobody seems to know where the money went to it went to there um that we have to send the money back so Eric's working on that with Alicia yeah I called her and then this week we I had to start up last brand thing so I'll I'll be meting with her the next week or so with that being said um ever since the students moved back to this building as an elementary school during the Spring and and up to in past Earth Day the students have been out in the garden they have planted they have grown stuff they have done their workout there and there is a gardening club with fing place
096now so we can clearly document that the students in this school have been out in the garden using the facilities out there so I think there clearly is evidence that we can point to that shows we have a clear line of work the students and staff are doing connected to gardening we also have to find out what the parameters of the grant were so if you need F Grant right what happened with the greenhouse up was purchased and it's just still sitting out there anything she so she I think it was like originally built for like the stiff corrugated walls then the frame new frame was for the plastic tarps they've been going back and forth so I think they're they're making it a little smaller because it was massive um the greenhouse that was
097out there so they should have that up and set according to Lea in the near future so that was originally purchased for the agricultural committee for the town through Community Support Grant right but um then it just kind of didn't go anywhere with that that committee that committee kind of dissolved now they're back up in the town right it just didn't it didn't grow um I gave you copies of what we what we got from Eric for the curriculum and then we talked about the new the new District evaluation update um I think it's pretty much it other than the update from the assessment St so that was it for [Music] cc policy right we're scheduled to meet next week virtually 5:45 on Thursday you guys are all welcome to pop in if you'd like
098uh we have two excuse me three policies today that are up for second read um the first two prohibition of sex discrimination including sex based harassment um the language is basically the same for students and personnel and it involves um a definition change and that's why we have to re re-approve the policy does anybody have any questions on that all right so I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the prohibition of sex discrimination including sex based harassment policy as it applies to students as written is there a second second any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstain motion carried like to make a motion that we approve the prohibition of sex discrimination including sex face harassment as applies to personel as written you can have I already typ my names so any
099discussion all those in favor I opposed abstain motion carries no the last one is a policy on uh the reports of suspected abuse or neglect of children or reports of sexual assault of students by School Employees and again that involves a definition change and that's why we have to reapo it are you GNA make the motion uh does anybody have any questions or anything they're good just out of curiosity what was the definition change it was to reflect new definitions for sexual Conta and sexual assault in the fourth degree good thank you just curious I'd like to make a motion that we approve the new policy reports of suspected abuse or neglect of children reports of sexual assault of students by School Employees as written is there a second I'll second that one all those
100in favor oain motion carries thank you very much thank you finance um we're meeting next Thursday to review the September financials and budget position as well as a couple other items next Thursday right yeah 12 one right whatc Mee committee me um L on reports we haven't had another P meeting since the the last board meeting so I have no update not at booster club me but I know so the concession stand is up and running for the fall season for football um we're starting to get together the um flyers and the forms for the Festival of trees that's right around the corner um Bingo will be and what the th the 23rd of October so people are signing up for that um and then I guess we brought in that speaker that was well
101received I got some good positive feedback from parents great thanks both at the high school did you chase out the ice cream truck I never found out where the ice cream truck came from m h did they leave or they no they stay that I mean no one knew until the end of the game and then when nobody knew they were supposed to be there the ad didn't know anything Dr Miller said didn't know anything Bo club didn't know anything they showed up so I don't know if had a permit I think we need a permit so but gave paper didn't that was so the only the only other leison group that we used to have was Oasis um but from what I understand Oasis has is not operational at this point um so I
102did speak to Sony today oh you did okay and they're looking for people to help organize and be part of Oasis now but it's a town committee it's a townwide thing but they are looking to see if there's any school-based staff or Board of Education members are interested in participating in it what's it's a drug and drug and alcohol program mostly awareness and they bring in speakers they've done that a couple of times so I speakers both at school level and at Town level so I was going to touch base with with um Mr Temple and find out where the town stands on that whether or not they want to continue it or what the reason I think it was just because Vinnie moved and I think it kind of fell apart when V moved
103but I just want to make sure that we're doing something that the person told me that she's right now filling on the pap work for the gr we need to be signed by the school and by the town in order to move the board that's all I have um is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn some motion any discussion any all those in favor opposed abstaining