001goodbye right let's call the 11224 Oxford Board of Education meeting to order um at 6:30 p.m uh student pledge of Alle pledge to the flag United States of America to The Republic stands one nation under God indivisible Justice all right we'll do roll call start with Nicole Vinnie candella Mike Robert car Jo Brandon Rose Ken very you good all right do we have any amend amendments to the agenda hearing none we'll move on uh motion yeah would like to do we have a motion to approve uh minutes for the 10222 24 Board of Education regular meeting motion I could repeat it but yeah I'll make a motion to approve the 10222 24 Board of Education regular meeting second any discussion all in favor n there any oppos sorry and uh yeah motion carries yeah that's
002where we're looking for still looking into this thing I'm not abstaining but thr the word out for you all right and i' like to make a motion to approve the 10282 24 Board of Education special meeting minutes second any discussion all in favor Jes I those opposed abstain I'm gain because I wasn't there okay I guess I should obain motion carries all right um moving on to audience of citizens anybody anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak right moving on to action items correspondence U I don't see oh sorry my bad board board corresponds anything no all right and student representative update all right I'm gonna start so we're just going to briefly discuss like what happened recently so we had Halloween so Halloween two weeks ago so
003we had many many students and teachers dressing up in like fun costumes and it was like a really nice like way because it you know buil a fun like inclusive community and we also had this thing where like each grade was like competing against each other of like who had the best costume and like winner gets a gift card so it was really nice like it it enhanced school spirit so that was really nice and then we also had pink day the day after so breast cancer awareness day so all students from Oxford High School dressed up in pink to show support by participating and we rais funds which will contribute to the research and support programs for breast cancer and this really United the school in life for like a meaningful cause and also
004this Thursday we are having a stuffa bus event so that's where anyone who brings a non- perishable item will have a free admission ticket to the football game this Thursday in anonia so it's also a really nice way to you know raise money one of the new things that Mrs O'Brien is creating at our school this year is school council this is going to be a collection of staff and students and administration who are getting together um once a month to meet and discuss issues around the school the school council will be having their first meeting next Thursday right after school so that's one of the things I wanted to highlight last week we had our senior night for dance cheer and football last Friday um I'm a uh captain on Unified sports team and
005we are hosting a tournament next Thursday at our school after school and we're hosting a dance next Friday so we're very active at Oxford High School for unified events in addition select unified team members will be traveling to a Leadership Summit on Thursday this week and as Lindsay said our last home football game is this Thursday against anonia and one last thing that I wanted to highlight I'm a member of Wolverine Club this is a new club that was created by R Mr Houston and I just wanted to um kind of give some Spotlight to this I'm a student who I've always uh known that I wanted a career in sports but I didn't really know how to go about that and this club is um focusing on students who want to go into sports
006management and it's allowed me to do take statistics for the sports teams and even we're going to broadcast games we did the volleyball game a couple weeks ago so I just wanted to highlight that and how that's making an impact for those students who do want to go into sports think I saw you on news channel eight and you guys are announcing games and all that stuff too yeah that's cool very cool and that's it thank you thank you thanks guys all right so we have um some action items the first one's the M request for the Oxford Middle School PBT coordinator yes so in taking a look at the current contract uh when Howard went to assign a stien to the middle school he realized that when the contract was finalized last the oea
007the stien for the Middle School PPT coordinat was missed from the list neither neither the OA nor Administration or anybody caught that it was was a lot of stiens there academic and Athletics and no one realized that that was missing from the list so we're asking for authorization for um the board chair to execute anou with the OA to add this typen back into the contract here as a PPT coordinator for the other three schools um has always been in the contract it was supposed to be in the contract we're asking just to correct the contract as it is so that's what they're asking authorization for tonight if I make a motion we have discussion yeah I'd like to make a motion to approve theou or at least to uh have the board authorize Rob
008car board Sher to negotiate theou request for the old Oxford Middle School PPT coordinator any discussion um just curious was that in last year's okay yes total am it's $240 okay it's always been there just for some reason got missed from the list do we have a copy of the M do we have to execute one I don't draw it up until we get the board approval to do Theo uh all those in favor I I those poos abstain motion carries uh next item is the OMS field trip multiple night request so I received a request from middle school for the field trip in June to go to Nature's Classroom it's something that the middle school has always done expect to decid curriculum it's allows students to really deeply be engaged in Nature and Science
009it's a multi-day field trip by board policy all multi-day field trips need to be approved by the board of by the superintendent and by the board of education so I'm asking the board to approve the multi-day field trip for the middle school all right uh I'd like to make a motion to approve the MS field trip uh the multi night request what's the name of the place again I'm sorry Nature's Classroom Nature's at Nature's Classroom second any discussion I have a question sure um $375 who's paying the cost I don't have the details for that are we paying or families paying that be families or it would go to the PTO for some subsidy but I don't have the details on that and it said 375 for 3 days and 100 for one day so
010could you just go for one day yes sub students could they go for one day could they [Music] go for multiple days but just not spend the night is that the idea behind that so they can go one day so it would just be one day do they stay on the at the camp yeah this is pretty common thing a lot of schools in con get to participate in uh all right those in favor I I those opposed abstain motion carries all right um so the next item is Seymour Oxford to agreement for 2024 20 25 so this is due to some of you on the board um for others on the board it's a refresher last year we entered into an arrangement with Seymour Seymour sent a couple students us we sent us a
011couple students there um the tuition for the Seymour um cost is a lower cost than the tuition is to come here so the net result is SE more pay a situation and the net profit ends up going to the town hall um this year we have two students attending from Seymour we have one student attending Seymour um from Oxford again the net profit is to our benefit Seymour's agreed to move forward we because the flow flood everything got delayed with um Seymour and us getting this executed this year so I'm asking for authorization for Bobby to sign this year's agreement with Seymour which is the same relations we had with them last year okay I'll make a motion um make a motion for the board to authorize Rob Carr board chair to enter an agreement
012with the SE more oxer tuition for 2024 second all right any discussion okay those in favor those opposed any extenstions all right motion carries and finally change of signatories on Board of Education bank account ending seven let me make that motion okays you okay ending in 7754 at New Town savings back removing Deb sherban and adding adding Robert Carr I'd like to make the motion to remove devb Sherman and add Rob Carr as signatory on the board of education bank account ending in 7754 with new town savings second uh any discussion so I just I went down last Monday and filled out paperwork necessary with new town um and I guess we're just meeting we're um waiting on Jim ala at this point so it's been set in motion um do we have any discussion
013those in favor I those oppose abstain I'm going to abstain thank you um motion cares Dr M okay um just a few updates for you tonight um first as a reminder um every fall our schools have parent teacher conferences um where we have an early dismissal and parents um have the option to come in their teachers um that is scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday at midd high school so we'll have an early dismissal for students and staff will stay and be available to meet with u parents later in the day um we one of the goals this year was stiff technology AI um and I know it's a source of of questions that the board had back when he had our retreat in August so we were arranged I think we're pely positive that this
014is happening now on December 10th for um a representative from Ed Advance his name is Matt mvis he's an expert in AI he's going to come into the board um at our regular board meeting and present to you about 45 to 50 minutes about Ai and then be to answer questions for you so that's part of our commitment to you to help um bring to um the public and to you what AI is all about um for um education and impact on students I'm very happy to hear that um through the conversations that I had with Oasis and that Bobby had with um George tble um the application of OAS Oasis has continued for those that are not aware the public and new board members Oasis is the local organization here in our community to
015fight um substance abuse um it fell apart to a degree and they're working to put the organization back together um they just submitted the paperwork for me to sign I signed it yesterday and then has to go to George temple and H sign it um seeking um funding but I'm happy to see that we are moving forward with it um being available um and being put back together one of the net benefits is they do bring in presenters to our students and presenters for our parents in the community to hear about subst of you so it is a very positive thing that we're able to see this back in operation and a part with them I'm also happy to announce that um through our um efforts to do a employee benefit card and to develop
016a list of businesses in the area that are interested in having student interned one of the businesses here in community actually reached out to us um asked to do a partnership with us to bring in food to our staff so we had a meeting with them um today and on a weekly basis we're going to have um a delivery um for those staff members that would like to purchase food from this um business um Parts with our our well wellness program that we have and we're just getting the details up and running so I'm not ready to lunch what that um organization is yet um but we did them today and it's one of those things that we're trying to do to help our staff here in um in the district so I'm very happy
017about that so thank you for helping with that sure yeah we can share out more it will happen this Friday so we'll announce it to staff at that time yeah um very happy to announce that the contract for the roof repair here at goes um has now been signed signed um co-signed by our chief operations officer and business manager the planning meeting took place this afternoon um the principal of the um School Amy misset was part of that along with M um and the company the work begins um officially on June Jan sorry on November 25th so um very shortly um during that interum there is going to need to be work on fora because the cafeteria and the gym won't be available um for the will be a 5day project that'll be in for
018the 2 and a half days that we have school and then returning on Friday and Saturday during the Thanksgiving break I've already let Mike know anticipate that it could be delay or the day or two so plan on that Monday or Tuesday possi being impacted so we're going to work with witzens to have more um temporary lunch served um in the hallway by the elevator and blunch will for those few days will take place in the classrooms um and gym if the weather is is good outside or the gym will be um floated through classroom so it won't be as we normally have it just going be a work around since we can't have students in the gym in the cafeteria while they're working in the roof during that period of time so I'm excited
019that we're moving forward with that project and we're close to seeing it happen um the other projects that are currently underway one is the pull pack um that work began yesterday the crane will be on site Thursday and if things go well we'll be be leaving sometime Friday hopefully that'll be um shortly after that there's been an Interim Change in the flow of parent drop off and pick up at high school to accommodate where the crane is going to go um you can actually smell the difference in the air of the high school with the pull pack turned off pull pack was turned off yesterday you walked in and you could actually smell the air and it it smell like fine so you can see what type of impact not running that that's the reason
020why we needed to replace it in the impact and environment of the building you can clearly see the difference on versus off you probably notice that as students as well so I'm excited we should see that done um within the time frame that we expected we announced two weeks um it should be run a twoe project um and um the other project that is currently um underway this week was the replacement of all the mulch that took place um the damage from the flood or in the playgrounds at Quaker pars so all the old mulch was pulled away and then the process of putting the new molch there and spreading out and I'm getting it all set there and then finally I'm very excited that last week I was able to attend the state teacher
021of the year Ceremony this is an annual ceremony that the state puts on with teacher the year committee it's held at the bush it's a beautiful venue um their teachers the year all have an opportunity to walk across the stage they get their um a picture taken with the commissioner of education and they actually get us look out on at the beautiful scenery of um the bush now and have their opportunity to be um call out in front of all the rest of the teachers of the year across the state they also hear from the governor um the commissioner and various other people including this year's teacher of the year it's a beautiful ceremony and add opportunity and to attend that with our teacher the Year this year Su blasen once again who's the teach
022of the year um chemistry teacher at the high school and she had a a blast and it was just a wonderful honor to celebrate with her that's my option for tonight thank you Dr um so second audience of citizens uh would anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak would anybody like to speak hearing none we'll move on to my report sorry so um as Dr Miller updated I spoke with George about a bis he was um very happy to hear that we were going to be starting that up again um had his full support I don't see any issues going forward with that um the LA at the last meeting Megan asked me to um see if anybody wanted to be in Aces rep and that's a regional board of education where um
023multiple um districts participate um so if anybody would like to volunteer um I'd be more than willing to uh give your name to Megan and we can get that started is there a deadline for that Meg they don't have a deadline yeah so it's kind of open yeah okay so if anybody's you know you get to interact with other school districts and and uh participate in that um I need one of the things on my list to do is to contact the PTO Le liaison or the president of the PTO um and probably going to look to ask you sue after we're done um for email addresses or maybe Deb you have one if I can get if I can get I appreciate that thank you very much because we need to get that back
024up and started um about two weeks ago um with uh Dr Miller's permission I met with all four principles um I you know um I think we have a good set of of principles um they were candid and um it was basically a a meet and greet type of thing um I knew uh obviously I knew Amy from Claire being here and I knew uh Sylvia from Ally being over there i' met Rachel a few times but I hadn't had an opportunity to discuss much with Heather other than when we interviewed her and and she came in and uh did her presentation but um it went well um I'd like to continue doing that every couple of months just to keep my pulse on what's going on with everything um and it's it's just a
025very informal conversation about how things are going within each school um I also met with Dr Miller um with the President and Vice President of the teachers union Stephen Nicole I thought that went very well as well um they had some questions for me obviously I'm a new um player in in the game they I think that they had some very good questions for me um and I had some questions for them about how things were going on on their end um overall I think it was a good discussion uh between the four of us and then um finally um all of the I believe all of us in the room the adults in the room at least um we've been invited to breakfast at Derby for the Thanksgiving Day um game between Derby the
026batt for the spoon or not the spoon not Seymour the the boot um and I believe it's this week where the I believe it's this week where you're have to I provided all your email addresses to Derby so if you did not get an invite directly please let me and I I can for the invite to you um I went to the one last year um I can't I didn't go to the one prior because it wasn't on the board um but the food last last year was great catered by the students do it the students we catered it but this year it's endurance they take care of it yeah so um it's a good way to get to know people outside of your circle of friends uh it's a good way to support Oxford
027down Oxford football down at the school um it starts at 8 8 8 o' in the morning yeah and that's really all I have all right subcommittee reports facility safe school and we'll start with uh Joe um so first off the next facility meeting is to be determined um we all kind of agreed that we didn't have enough time to fully give to the meeting so we want to find an appropriate time that we can not have to rush and everybody gets their voices heard um being it at its facilities School safe safe School excuse me transportation and building it's a lot to cram in an hour right before our meeting here so we're going to move that to a time that makes sense for all of us DRC Mill wants me figure that out
028I'll get back to you um moving forward uh you mentioned uh Andre Houston's uh the the new Wolverine club that you guys are doing uh he also mentioned wanting to bring some new equipment in get them up and running with a kind of more upto-date system and um things that might help them also based off the curriculum so we're working through with Mr Houston on that and seeing what we we could do um Wolverine field bathrooms are the big ticket item on the agenda we are moving forward uh we have been in contact with the town Mike dagostino so we're trying to progress it's a slow moving process but we're trying to kick it into gear with that I know everybody's excited to hear about that and um that's really it any questions for me
029make sure you talk about the transition between you think we're good we're we're good all right curriculum d date for our meeting is the 25th at 5:15 I have not heard that from Vick so um Steve's good so we'll plan on going forward on 25th disappeared yeah I texted him so we're that for the 25th at 5 policy and quality Nicole so we've got two um policies down for second read the first one is that school climate policy that we talked about in depth last time um it's going to have a budgetary impact there's really nothing we can do about it we have to we have to press push this through and it has to be in effect as of July July one we actually added that to the policy itself that reads in effect
030beginning July 1st 2025 so if anybody has any questions otherwise I'll make a motion that we approve the school polic school climate policy as ritten I I mean we can do it in discussion I do have a question though um what exactly is the budgetary impact is it one Higher is it multiple higher do we have a dollar amount in mind because it's going to have to be budgeted for I'm just curious yeah I'll let Megan or Dr Miller address that we're in the preliminary stages of identify what we think it would be most likely right now we think it's going to be one staff member um we can address it further but until we really get into the heart of it we might need to live with it for a year and figure out
031exactly what the true impact going to be but right now we're in EN visiting one staff member that we're going to bring forward in the budget and there's also surveys that we have to do but I don't know how much that cost yeah there are surveys um we're kind of vetting and looking at them now there is a free option through Ed Advance has created one but if we want a different type of survey there are surveys available that actually we're doing theal pilot so some of those companies actually now have surveys that align to that work so we can also get quotes for that if we want to have an a different survey than the one being provided by survey um gear towards students or more faculty or it's I believe it's students faculty
032and Par it's all St gr yes is it does the state mean do they provide you said it's a free tool it's a free tool it's not provided by the state per se at Advance had created at one of the resks um so we I haven't seen it yet but it there is a PD actually tomorrow in which um some of our staff are going and be able to look at it um so that would be an option and then again there's other so we can look at survey questions they can bring it to curriculum committee or we can one of the other um even facility safety kind of looking at it from that lens too it designed to be an anonymous survey I assume yes did I see this did I see Nicole that
033an existing employee could potentially do this if they were certified with a certain I can't remember what it was but yeah they're certified s position yeah well I mean it's just it's heaping in more work to another the same employee which really goes without adding digital staff the biggest impact is going to be on School principles because going to be adding more stuff they're going need to do as an administrator with the 092 which means there'll be less time in the classroom less time in special education in ppts less time working with with parents so if we can alleviate that allows principles to continue make principles yeah we we can afford to have the principles really do the detail with after my discussion with go and quicker Farms it's they they take on a lot
034the principles both both so are these surveys and stuff stuff that you have to submit to the state like on a regular basis so that they know you're doing this policy or um I'm just re going back to the policy um I I don't believe I think it's the internal like the previous right they're not going to ask us for the data they'll probably be a survey that some point in the year that confirms that we've done the surveys um but probably not they're not for results and from what I read it seems like from the survey you take that and then you make the Improvement plan you develop it based on the feedback that you received and then that goes to the state or the state never looks back at us and says it's
035really internal making sure we're making the adjustments for each of those so each school will have their own climate Group which also expands who's on each of those climate groups so that's all defined in the policy too so now we have a parent or students um so each school will have one of those and they'll do their conduct their internal surveys and then we'll look at it from a a district lens as well um one other thing to consider for funding as well is we're going to have to do professional development so um all of our staff will have to have some level of restorative um practices training we have some that are going to have like a higher level of training and we've started doing some of that already so we're ready for July
0361 but it we would probably want everyone to have just an understanding of what that looks like so that we'll have do you need a specialist in each school or do one that covers all of them so there is a school climate specialist in each school that's typically an administrator um that's how we have it now it's typically the school principal but it could be the assistant principal so I'll just go over this with you guys again so it's a mandated policy required by the Connecticut school climate law it must be adopted and implemented by July 1st 2025 the new law requires the creation of a school climate coordinator a school climate specialist for each School The Specialist needs to appoint members to a school climate committee there needs to be a school climate survey
037for students employees and families and from that a school climate Improvement plan will be developed all this will require training and funding to implement this mandated policy um and we're following the caveman model which is what we're required to do right the state law required that everybody every District call have the same policy and the state law actually dictated it would be the case also so when you said you were envisioning one staff M that's just for the coordinator so we're not going to give a stien to the other on the specialist in each school so as of right now I would be the district coordinator and there would be a school climate specialist for every school that's four that's four so yeah and what we're thinking in terms of an additional staff is helping
038out a qfs and goes um because that will put more work on the principles in doing some of this training and investigating piece of of it due to the new definitions and this is completely unrelated to the to the um uh the the reporting of behavior no yes this is part of yeah and this person that we're going to hire to do the full-time component goes and quick or could they also be part-time support for the other schools where they do have an assistant principle like can someone really be the central point we need to further Define how this pH is going to work at application one person really looking at it right we'll explain why we're Envision one person as we go through it um yeah we're in the process of it's going to
039have a dominant effect Elsewhere on how we're also going to make some additional changes make that work I just have a question so sometimes the state puts out stuff and it's optional sometimes they put out laws that they then call as mandates and we have to like we have to follow the laws regardless regardless of whether we have policies or not or even if our policies conflict are we have to follow the law do we have to make a policy for every law that the state comes up with for scho schools like a onetoone kind of thing I'm just curious like if it's a law what's the point of having a policy except to say we're going to follow the law well I'm just curious there's tons of laws that we don't have enough policies
040for absolutely correct but the state law requires that the Board of Education adopt a policy for this okay that's but in the the law is to make the policy to then follow the okay sometimes sometimes mandates are not required and they just strenuously want you to but sometimes they're law and it just sometimes it gets a little blurry and and sometimes Department of Education say every District needs to do this this is coming from the legislation this is not coming from State Department education education is enforcing it but this coming from legislation and I think you're wondering do we really have to do this I think in this case we do have to right but that's that's weird because it gets fuzzy sometimes and it's like why do we have to make a policy it's
041straight up law if it's a mandate but it's because sometimes they're mandates that are law yeah it's just we really want you to and I wasn't sure if we had any I have not heard any districts that are pushing back that are going to say no we're not going to do this there could be something out there there could be lawsuits out there as a result of this I don't know I haven't heard of it yet but it's quite possible that the board says we're just not going to do it yeah this is also from the 2023 session so they gave us entire two years to adopt have C create the policy adopt it um and then we had you know Fe back from shipment and Goodwin that they were not creating a model policy
042but they will have some supports for us as we implement this too with that make a motion that we approve the school climate policy as written second any discussion we just had all right those in favor I I those opposed abstentions motion passes thank you very much the next policy that we have done for a second read is our transportation policy the big thing for this one was we have students who go to Platte plat Tech changed their start time to 7 a.m. there were kids getting on the bus at 5:15 in order to get to the school for 7 a.m. it was way too early um Dr Miller came up with the idea we changed the start time as a policy that could force the bus company to try to be more agreeable with
043scheduling and whatnot so we changed the policy that the earliest a child can get on the bus is 5:45 which I acknowledge is still way too early help it helps in this instance so that's why we made that change does anybody have any questions and did the policies first then we put leverage on them or they it was coming I've been telling them for the last 3 weeks that the board will be adopting this policy as of tonight and they need to get ahead of it and make changes in ahead of this state they went ahead they made changes to their time so that nothing is early than 545 right now oh so they're comping they right now complying but this holds them to that Nicole is the additionally to promote student safety that line
044is the that the only change in this policy I'm sorry what there's a highlighted portion you're correct we did discuss remember the part for the out plac for yes that that's the change that is the only change in the entire poliy there's two Chang then we add we added the time change okay I'm just confused because that other part wasn't highlighted that's why I was clarifying are the two so current policy two amendments to it yes all good all right I'd like to make a motion that we approve the transportation policy as written second you're the secretary youever you want to win right uh discussion no those in favor I those opposed extensions motion carries okay the last thing that I have for you guys tonight it's a first read it's the suicide prevention policy
045the committee took this up back in June of last year we went over everything I'm sorry June of 2024 we went over everything we wanted to run it by our Medical director Dr Brown it took us this long to get feedback from him he's gone over the policy and he has no changes recommended so he has recommended that we adopt it as written so take a look at it let me know if you have any questions or concerns and we'll bring it back for a full vote the next the next meeting I just have a question for you real quick um the um policy on what defines a we had have we talked about that at all yes and um that's on pause right now because we were ready to go forward with adopting it
046and then we just found out that Shipman and Goodwin has three new legisl slative changes so to go ahead and have you guys go through the process and then just have to redo it all over again it made sense just to put it on PA we are adding language specifically regarding um pepper spray so it will be a d ous instrument in the policy thank you all right um Finance Steve uh no updates right now we're meeting next Thursday to review the November financial review um and we're working on finalizing Finance dates to begin the budget process we're going to have a deep dive meeting in December one in January uh and there'll be board budget review workshops as well um all set I'm all set okay soon um we're gearing up for the festival
047tree so that'll be everyone's find um for the next few weeks it's uh December 13th and 14th um Lisa is reaching out to some different groups as far as entertainment because we will not have the Polar Express Reading so she's going to reach out to the different um choruses or whatever might be able to help us um and I don't know if the Board of Ed wants to make a donation in the form of a rether tree or anything to one of the Charities that we are choosing Charities this year are Axford animal shelter um Safe Haven the domestic abuse place and um team but their heating assistance program or we can make our own but those are the three choices that we're getting have we done anything like that in the past because I
048this is kind of where I started to join the board yeah we have okay definitely worth um discussing all right um so at this point we're going to move into executive session um who do you want you want yourself and and our two stent are not my board policy are not supposed to be here for executive session you probably could wonderful col so I would like to make a motion uh to go into executive session uh to request uh subjected to request request for salary advancement for non-certified staff member exe exe uh and I'd like to invite Dr Mill Miller and Megan to come in I'm gonna mess your name up so I'm po outski there we go you got it uh second there we go discussion those in favor those opposed abstain I'm just
049going to in the light Ro 7eleven in s