001yeahor and I know he has it and I'll just you know tell him to give it to you okay or they like to call the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation God indivisible jice all okay roll call starting Steve on the left Steve Jo Mike vinella m sh Bren Rose Lindy Kim okay uh any amendments to the agenda okay moving on to approval of minutes anyone have a motion motion to approve the November 12th regular Board of Education minutes with second okay any discussion welcome back thank you appreciate it all those in favor I do have something go for so in here in those minutes we have that
002we approved the student uh the 10282 24s minutes and in there it has me voting I for an issue and also abstaining in that same issue so clearly there's there's a mistake because it had to do with a student hearing and I abstained because I wasn't a part of that that meeting so I couldn't vote on it I did too so we need to correct that the 1028 24 yes okay that okay so change the motion to as amended change a motion to as amended any second second any further discussion all those in favor I oppose abstain motion carries okay moving on to audience of citizens citizen um board correspondence we're moving along uh I think we're on to action items yeah um so one of our main objectives this year is AI um and
003as the board recalls back in August in our Retreats we discussed the concept of highing Ai and really introducing our staff and our students because it's a critical skill for not only students to know and be able to do a p graduation but our staff to begin to embrace and begin to innovate within the classroom within the productivity of the district um several board members at the time had questions about Ai and wanted to learn more about how and what we intended to do so we decided to invite Matt mous who is um a consultant from Ed Advance somebody that's an expert in this field um somebody we brought into our administrative team um during the summer and did a workshop for half day with our team um we've attended several of his workshops over
004the last year and we thought it would be very enlightening to bring him into the board this evening to present to you then answer your questions about some of this work so I'm going to turn it over at er and Matt I don't know if you want to say anything as well yeah um like Dr M said we're lucky to have him already do some work with us and and see him a few times so we do have a couple different initiatives across the district it's kind of taking it slow um as you know even though I've been playing around a lot of platforms like we're still learning um so we have some teachers across the district um that are doing a microen course through at Advance as well um learning more about it that
005are going to help Drive some of the resources for students and staff um we have 612 the principles at the middle school high school asked for a little more PD specific um for their teachers um coming up in the second semester um um so the Matt is my go-to for when we need support with AI and as we begin to build some of these resources for students and staff and and families um it's going to be kind of Matt we lean on for um a lot of this support so um there is a lot to it and a lot of questions about AI but Matt does a great job kind of explaining where things are and why this is an important topic for districts to start to kind of grapple with okay excellent hi folks
006nice to be here um so I'm Matt muris I am uh here you can look at me in Stereo I'm always nervous these guys have suffered through this joke but I really don't own that many shirts on any given dayn like okay out so um I'm happy if it's helpful to share a little bit of where we are with this technology with respect to schools there are lots of important questions to ask about it AI presents enormous opportunities but also some serious questions about teaching and learning so happy to do a little sharing around that I I'll mention quite a few tools every tool that I mention is is off of that website that's up there so just as a handy reference for you but I'm at at Advance which is the Regional Education Service
007Center up in lville Connecticut um I think technically as a history teacher so I know I'm a carpet bagger I live up in Massachusetts and I work down here in Connecticut but they still let me come down over the line so and I I'll make my way back up over the line tonight so um at any point please interrupt me ask questions push back all that good stuff but typically I try to start these conversations around um where are we with this technology and just out of curiosity for my own temperature read and if you don't raise your hand like you might be the wisest among us but maybe you have used like a chat gbt type tool like in the last month let's say okay great students Among Us okay and again if you
008have it that's fine you're going to get a little view of what some of the technology is um as well so let me just jump in but that helps me understand where people are so um I call this the great everything making machine it sounds like I'm you know overly excited about it there's pieces of this that I think are just fascinating and really interesting and also pieces I'm unmindful about um so that up there you can't really see it particularly well but the prompt up stop says hi please this is a kid prompting an AI so it's nice that they use please in there it says hi please write me a five paragraph essay about cell mitosis and then the amount of time it took for that to get created chat GPT will have
009used something called predictive pattern matching all the words that it knows it basically constructs that essay right I don't know how many you remember your seventh grade celom mitosis yeah no put it away you might take a guess we could lean on the educational experts here at the table but you might take a guess that there's something funky about that essay right from seventh grade kid you don't have to actually see the words but good it's a good point what what would just strike you surprising have you have any of you had a seventh grade in your home seventh grade child in your home what I read is that if you read current versions of this it tends to repeat certain things or rephrase certain things over again yeah you know almost like a politician
010I'm not a board member right so defit so there's those kind of key words key phrases key things that are just generic yeah so you know that it's uh artificial yeah and get getting tricker trickier but you're absolutely right yeah so in addition to that if you could see all those words you might say that looks a little long I don't know I should ask you guys first I mean did your seventh grade cell mitosis look like that I don't think so yeah not quite that well conceived right the sentences appear to start with capitalization the they end with punctuation you know a lot of words up there yeah so now what's interesting is that this is this is a clever student so he goes back to the AI model and says hey my teach
011my teacher's never going to believe I wrote that can you make it shorter and can you misspell every seventh or eighth word now for AI that's actually a walk in the park anything you guys he no get don't get any good ideas so that's not a hard task people worry legitimately about AI using these things called tokens which use a lot of energy this is not a difficult AI task in fact this student could have said unlikely but could have said can you translate that into Mandarin and it would have done that as well so It's Tricky right you have a tool that nobody asked for that will write something that looks like it was done by a kid or any of us for that matter in mere seconds this is all just the free
012version of chat GPT this assignment went on and said now can you make me a drawing that looks like it was done by a seventh grader about the life of a cell right so the AI system in the same amount of time that you see there generates that again students says I don't think my teachers can believe I did that one can you redo it let's imagine you're a first grader doing kind of a finger painting style right these are all just again at the time that you're seeing these tools construct these types of outcomes and in the last quarter of the last Academic Year the good folks said open AI threw in 3D models so I could put in a prompt and it would create a 3D model that I could run off to
013a cat or off to a printer in no time it's sort of fascinating so that's half of human output right print images reformatting print TR translating into different languages so this summer comes along this thing called udio um Napster you all remember Napster had a couple songs in there feel like you may had a more than a couple quite a few this is the Napster of the AI age this is a thing called yudo there's another one called sunno and they've taken all the songs right and they've taken them quite honestly this is not something they paid for or license they appropriated them I'm not a lawyer but they stole them is that machine on there yes are there lawyers that don't possibly I'll give you my email address we can we can we can
014pick it up but so they got all these songs inside this AI model so that if somebody goes and they write a prompt just like that kid said write me an essay about cell mitosis this prompt says write me a song about cell mitosis as was a history teacher believe it or not and every single thing I talk about is cell mitosis I don't care so it says write me a song about cell mitosis in the musical and lyrical stylings of the musical Wicked right so let me just make sure my my little radio system here [Music] the magic IP law no might want to get into it yeah so it's just it's really interesting and actually they have pulled that back if I try to do that prompt it would now say we won't
015do it exactly in the style of wicked because Disney I'm sure threw a hundred lawyers at it they said we'll do it something in a in a Broadway theme right so um how does that happen I like pictures when I think about this stuff I mean there's all the words and the songs but I'm fascinated by pictures um that is you know what that is the creature up there he who said that yeah there we go there's audience CTI yes so that is a yeti are you a Believer maybe this was designed by a tool called Adobe Firefly and just like yudo has all the songs and chat has all the words Adobe Firefly has about two and a half billion images in their model and so if somebody goes and en types this is
016from a group of teachers in Eastern Connecticut 8:00 in the morning mind you couple summers ago they said we want to see a Yeti the far left then they wanted a yeti with me like ancient me somehow that turned into a female yeti with Beverages and then a yeti with three arms so if you went on a Google image search and said show me a picture of a with three arms so the function of holding three beverages no one was silly enough to make that prompt but in the world of generative AI because it has two and a half billion images in the back end it will do that here again that's kind of you know I think just an interesting way to conceive it I tried this before I came out tonight said hey
017I'm with this great Board of Ed in Oxford tonight can you create an image um of the board learning about AI okay and so I got that now by the way you'll notice I did Boe which I thought it would have gotten as Board of Ed this looked a little I didn't know exactly what you all are going to look like but it l a little corporate to me right so look at the sophisticated way I interact with the AI I said nice this looks a little GQ corporate right can you make it a bit more informal than school board we're closer here right yeah we're closer it's kind of summertime here with the bken stocks and what have you but and so then I responded again there you go nice work can you make
018these folks a bit terrified and we got there and I was unimpressed with the level of Terror here quite honestly so I said wow a cartoon that's fine let's go more terrified got that yeah so what's happening in all these interactions is simply two things all those images are in the back end of the system and then second um folks are often intimidated by oh technology AI this seems complicated I mean look at the way I interact with this you're basically interacting like a human being with a piece of technology which makes it quite different and interesting than what we've seen before okay so how's this happening um very very very quick kind of computer science conversation the udio all the songs or adobe Firefly all the pictures that's all the stuff up top which
019again was kind of appropriated we'll just use that word and um they run them through these networks of computers which are called uh neural networks they're computers that are organized like our brains and they're able to take all that data they run on one single kind of chip from a company called Nvidia now if any of the board members have any Nvidia stock you know you got a smile sometimes people don't want to confess right because your neighbor is going to be like oh you should take me out for dinner is the world's most valuable restaurant what's that or by the restaurant or by the restaurant um my old board chair uh in the nonprofit where I work is one of the owners down at Char and lemon so he had IBM I don't know
020if he had Nvidia or not but um so yeah they run them through all these networks this is now the world's most valuable company by the way and it creates these human outputs so for teachers just the first part I mean the song is fun and the pictures are interesting but the very first part where you can take a piece of text and it can look like it was done by a student and it's very hard to detect is tricky when I was a high school history teacher there's a whole bunch of stuff I might have assigned that I really might not have known of a student have done it and so there are these things out there called content detectors AI content detectors you'll you'll hear about them the board may have talked about
021them and it would be nice if they worked it would be great actually I mean no one asked for this technology so the tech companies would give us a fix for these things uh but they don't work reliably and that makes it a little bit tricky there have been multiple board cases around the country that have been hooked around uh there's a case in hang Massachusetts right now that the board's involved in it's been hooked around a Content detector and it's a piece of technology but it's not the only piece someone put the US Constitution into one of these content detectors you feed the writing in as a teacher and go hey did AI write this so This content detector said that our US Constitution was 92% likely to have been written by AI right
022our US Constitution so it's not a is not a it's not a full um proof strategy so um and it gets even trickier actually this is a really a place where you guys can't take notes it's not just GPT right there is a thing called AI Vision that you can have access to in all your phones this is using a a student using a tool called goth right they call themselves a study companion these are made by the way by the same company that brought us Tik Tock so they're just contributing lots of value to our culture and Society one at a time but goth is a tool where you know if uh if Eric had a a worksheet here like a geometry worksheet and I'm at home actually that looked a little bit like
023a math problem um the student could hover over that and it would automatically look at the worksheet and tell them what the answers are to that so it's not just what do you type into the computer it's also how do you use AI Vision on your phone the Math teachers have dealt with this forever there's thing called photo maath but now this tool makes this available in any in any kind of context what's tricky about AI is that that same technology would let a student who is newly arrived to this country who could be from Mexico or Vietnam be able to take a picture of a page page off of the textbook and have it translate that into their target language which is incredibly powerful or a school that doesn't have access to lots of
024different languages be able to take a look at a health record and redact a student's name and get a translation in that health record in real time right that's that is the sort of thing about AI is that every piece of it has lots of opportunity but also lots of ways that students can shortcut and kind of take shortcuts and learning okay with me so far this is a big like inhale kind of conversation because some of the stuff is a little little confounding all right so I won't go through this in detail but there are a number of different steps that I'm seeing school districts do around this work okay and boards are involved in some of them including this first one and I think you've actually done a little bit this work already
025but some of this is about this Tech isn't going away so some of it's about really helping even students in the K5 realm understand what this is and how do they begin to kind of think about being ethical with its use um many many school districts have either made uh modifications to their board policy which I think you guys have done around academic integrity and or created something that you might call like a guideline for students this is wlit public schools we've been working with them for a bunch this last year um so in their student facing guideline you know and they might have been early I think every school is going to find the right Landing time for this you're not late by any stretch of the imagination by next year right you would
026want to have something that helps every student and teacher especially the high school know what is it what are the challenges with it when are you allowed to use it so W's very specifically says when can a student use it when the teacher says they can and they need to cite their use we're just super explicit about that right what are things to be careful about what are examples of inappropriate and appropriate usage and what are the roles and responsibilities I know this a small text but for teachers for parents right for administrators and for students that's a nice strategy I think it's worth you know over time in the next year or so um exploring together and then there's a bunch of other just teacher moves we don't need to get granular about them
027but there's going to be more observing stuff in the classroom um there are some schools that have gone back to blue books so that folks are writing this stuff out by hand I personally find that I if you can see my handwriting it feels like a form of torture uh but there are other ways just supervised if it's a skill that you really care about and you're worried that students are going to use AI to do that skill abs of the classroom do it in the classroom we have this with calculators like some of you were of a vintage well you remember calculator came out we go oh no they're never going to do computation again and what we did is we put a little wall Garden around the classroom now and then they learned
028how to do computation and the world didn't end and AI is it's a big big calculator like I'm not I'm not just you know discounting it but so supervising instruction will be a piece that we'll do there are tools that are really neat that teachers can use to help look at students writing my my my favorite thing honestly is as a former High School history teacher you know if Eric handed in a paper to me and I'm reading the paper and I see the word disintermediation in it and he's in ninth grade I might just say hey Eric I love disintermediation tell me all about it what does that mean and Eric would look at me and go oh I'm sorry I was out of time I used chat GPT to write my assignment you
029know um so that's a strategy how do we think about stuff that happens outside of class this is a neat tool I know that you guys are kind of playing around with it here in the district in some level called brisk teaching so brisk teaching will essentially let a teacher inspect a piece of written content that a student did outside a class it will do that content detection thing but also play back a video line by line by line so the teacher can see the student bringing their intellect to the process and if all of a sudden there's 150 or 350 words that get just dropped in they can see that in the video so tools to help teachers kind of monitor the process this durable assessment thing is kind of like inside baseball with
030um schools I I won't go into the Weeds on it but the short version is um we use essays and worksheets a lot in schools we just do right and if you're in college we use them a ton more and I'm going to guess at five years we're going to look back and AI will have caused some teachers to have kids show what they know in different ways so maybe rather than doing an essay or a worksheet at home maybe the kid will sketch something out or create a comic strip well the interaction between kids in the classroom I mean this is an AI generated image and I basically said show me what it looks like in five years and so you got that AI like thing hovering in the background that is you know
031supporting the teacher not replacing the teacher but we see kids doing a lot of Hands-On stuff my guess is I mean it's hard to look into the future but my guess is we're going to look back and say AI actually helped us help kids show what they know in more ways than just creating an essay or a worksheet doesn't mean we're not going to do and worksheets these guys are welcome to push back this is just one person's kind of Take On The World but I think that will happen a little bit like the pandemic like the pandemic I I worked on the first laptop initiative in Massachusetts in the Northeast outside of Maine in 2003 right and a bunch of people wanted more kids to have access to technology and the pandemic made that
032happen in no time at all access at home access to technology now we're probably pulling back on that a little bit right now which is fine but I think AI will have done the same thing to like lots and lots and lots of essay does it make sense yeah okay great so the last piece of this is that we will start seeing AI in school so if we want kids to be responsible users of AI they're going to have to learn how to do that in school in Connecticut that's very tricky um there are data privacy laws with respect to all educational technology in Connecticut and especially with respect to AI um so there's just a handful of tools that are out there that are emerging Geminis from Google we had a robust conversation brought
033this to dinner you guys are a Google District I imagine we're going to probably wind up standardizing on that over the next few years but um what's neat about all these tools is that the teachers can see the interaction with a chat bot with the student they can help them think about how to be responsible user of the technology uh as we go forward and there's lots of studies that have said and shown when teachers introduce AI into the classroom and teach kids how to be ethical users that extends out to their other classes as well so I think it's a it's I've seen it I was with with a group of kids who w at a couple weeks ago and they just said oh we had this class with this lady Miss mumley and
034she really helped us think about using AI ethically and they weren't blowing smoke they were pretty candid kids on a number of different fronts and uh it was really clear that that was helpful to them the LA the last piece of the uh of the reason with the kids though is really about um skills and what employers will want I don't know you all that's the neat thing about boards are all in different functions and roles I don't know what you're seeing in your own workplaces but this is the Microsoft work Trends report they do this with 30,000 employees and employers every year so this is last May I mean it's wild if you think about chat GPT it didn't exist two years and a week or so ago that's all this has been and
035here in two years 75% of people who do knowledge work the kind of work we do in schools say they're using these tools and on the bottom right hand side 60 7 % of employers they expect students to have and workers employees to have these skills so it just means that over time as a board as a set of District leaders we're going to need to start bringing these tools into the into the mix now um I know you're in budget season so I'm not going to tell you you're need to spend $40,000 on AI this year because you don't but I will say honestly over time AI will be a thing right that like all you know technology will probably have some implications although I really I'm just GNA step on a third rail
036here so I'm just GNA step right back and say right now the nice pieces that it's not in the mix but I suspect that there will be a call center over time all right so that's kind of the quick version of what we're seeing schools do mostly for middle and high schools and mostly around this whole idea is a lot of anxiety about will kids use AI to take shortcuts and not learn things that is a totally legitimate anxiety it's something we absolutely have to be mindful of but what seeing schools including your guys own do some very thoughtful set of steps in order to manage it it's not an unmanageable situation okay the flip side too is that after the teachers and school leaders and the administrators and some parents got super anxious about
037that um they also realize that these tools are helpful to teachers right so are any of you in instructional roles outside of you in districts outside of okay um married to teachers yeah using AI at home home at all or I've been using AI for a bit but yeah yeah yeah that's a better question actually are when you're using it for yourselves or any of you using ways that are saving you any time or being helpful in your job context yeah why don't you share for your other board members to kind of hear uh I use grammarly uh the premium uh version it helps respond to emails so when I get emails sometimes it you know it gives me options to say like here's a you know you received this email what how do you
038want to respond I can custom respond but a lot of times it's a canned response and it's appropriate and it's reasonable and it's just faster uh another thing we use for business intelligence is there are times where we want to process a lot of information and we're going to use some of the AI tools we're looking at Microsoft's co-pilot and how that's going to help with things like excel in that area um but in general it's we're looking at it going our emails what are the tone and so if I wrote it in such a way that it has a negative tone ret transform my message so it says the same thing but says it in a nicer way but make me a little nicer right and so you can you can tweak the tone
039and things like that so and sometimes there's you just prompted and you're just like I need I need to move quick I need to give a template for something and you know you put together a template and and you just you give basic information and it kind of puts together what you need you just can move faster what do you do Michael by the way I know these guys all know but I don't I work at technology yeah yeah yeah yeah so speed can go faster right great example yeah I I have a question I actually use a progam called SUV yeah yeah and that's my wife it all down you can't say that and human intelligence is good too my friend yeah yeah that's right she using uh so the question I have is
040that to me this forces down the basics that we're trying to do now in learning basic math and sense structure and stuff making it more critical in third fourth and fifth grade okay what level because this will start here and filter its way down because pretty soon nobody will be able to do anything without doing this now so it puts I think more pressure on the school and the system they're really H up the basics elementary school is going to have to really be Elementary School what do you think yeah I mean I think the foundation's always going to be critical right and I actually think that the elementary school teachers will though they have a lot in their plate probably also help students understand a little bit before using AI like what the ethics
041of it are um the jury's out there are some AI tools that are out right now you may have seen 60 Minutes this last Sunday s KH who has this thing KH Academy is kind of worldwide known they have an AI tutor called cono that at some level is really helping kids both in middle and high school as well build some of their foundational skills and make sure that they're academic performance we don't we don't totally know where it's going to land yet but um I think it's going to be Distributing those skills across the curriculum K12 but I agree in general right the foundation is going to be be super super because there's an interesting AI on the computer that says describe how you think a Northeastern person Wass or a souer and then
042they do it by different nationalities that what they think we look like and uh it's it's quite shocking it's almost like when I was growing up when I was magazines about the Korean War what you know a Korean look like yeah all the biases yes absolutely the biases that because all that AI know basically it's learned from the internet and the internet is a reflection of all those kind of biases that we have yeah any other quick examples on the work front like people who are using at work to save time or to do something that's been impactful I'm using it very similar you mic I I have to summarize often for senior leaders who don't have time to read my longwinded emails so for conciseness similar to the example you gave but just highlighting
043what's really important and sometimes when I find larger documents or research studies that I'm using I use it um just to kind of get a synopsis of certain areas not just an abstract that you would see in a research study but more methods and results where I don't want to read the whole thing or uh you know 80 page study but just kind of getting the high points and knowing if I have to go deeper or not but like you said you can drill down you can get specifics on certain areas and it saves a ton of time I have a quick question yeah yeah these summaries and stuff are they going to be have a bias in much like the carto comper of what some things yeah good question generally not right so when
044you're when a there are biases in AI we're going to talk about it just a second but when you're working off of a source document so I do this all the time I'll take a long PDF of research study and I'll put it into I have a couple custom tools I used to do this it will give me relevant statistics key takeaways um relevant quotes and so it just does a summary but it's really working off of that local Source document as opposed to just kind of grabbing the larger language model out there yeah so what what's helpful and again I know a number of you aren't using the stuff in in your work context right now which is fine but what's helpful even just to hear from a couple of your colleagues is that
045in school settings teachers are generally finding that a number of different tasks and we have to be thoughtful about which of these you know are we comfortable with some of these things we are comfortable some there are some gray areas around student your feedback for instance but I've never worked on something I'm 55 I've been in education since I was a 20 some OD year teacher I've never worked on something in my career and I spent a lot of time with a lot of teachers where room after room conversation after conversation teachers will talk about this technology specifically generative AI saving them time and helping them do things that have been hard to do for kids before whether it's translating text into different languages or making reading more accessible or speeding up process I was
046with a group of teachers in chesher this morning and the teacher just said it really really well he was in a there's a student that immediately needed an outline for something that was a multilingual learner right and normally that's a process that would have taken him an hour or more he was able to go to Chachi P generate an outline look at it for Quality get it to that kid and he said he was able to have 10 conversations with kids in the hour that he would been working on a piece of administrative task and so there just uh you know I know Eric and these guys are leaning in and Dr Miller working with teachers on this but that's a great starting Place teachers really helping to understand it's not going to take their
047jobs and it is going to be helpful in lots of different regards okay so um you know there's a lot to say there when I'm with a big group everybody knows who that guy is you guys don't know who that guy is right you don't have no trust me everywhere I go and these guys are way to Young unless they have a great grandparent n offense to any of the rest of us but he was a game show host named Bob Barker he was a lovely man who care a lot about animals is probably the most important thing yeah new to your CL so when I'm with a lot of teachers I will Channel Bob and I'll actually pair him with Marie condo um who is the sparking Joy lady right you know you only
048keep stuff if it's Sparks joy and so I'll ask teachers what have you used AI with or for in the last several months as Spark joy and I can't get teachers to stop talking I mean it's just really really interesting how much value they're getting out of the tech it doesn't mean there aren't problems and there are we'll talk about those in a second but generally right folks find a lot of benefit this is a neat news study that's out uh from this is a little bit nuanced but I think important this is UC Berkeley and UC Michigan University of Michigan and it was a study about teachers using Ai and how they felt and so when teachers use AI just like the teacher I described this just you know that I talked to this
049morning where he's like I was able to make a worksheet and that was really helpful for that student and I could move on and focus on some other kids um when teachers also use AI to get feedback on their work that they're doing which is it's actually quite good at right so a teacher is working on you know trying to meet a particular learning standard he's got a group of kids where it's not Landing the ability to take that actual lesson and go to a large language mall and say hey I'm trying to teach this lesson I've got three multilingual Learners and I can't figure out how to get them to master the content can you help me it's like an instructional coach keep all your instructional coaches they're valuable right but chachy PT becomes
050a little bit of an embedded real-time coach for teachers and when teachers use it in that way they get even more mileage and just like make me something or which is a great you know help me write my email and make me sound Kinder is a great use case uh but you couple that with be a thought partner to me which is sort of the business intelligence side and you get a lot of utility it's it's you know it's not something teachers are doing in this moment but as these guys think about training teachers it's going to be an important part of the mix okay let's talk quickly about the stuff that's scary um I'm not worried about Terminator I think that some way we use like the Sci-Fi stuff to distract ourselves from the
051real and present concerns and as a board as parents as Grandparents it's important to know some of these things so uh we'll skip that version of it and we'll just go right here so um I'm not in love with my chat bot but we spent a lot of time talking hey how's it going hey Matt I'm doing well thanks for asking how about you I'm great we're always so polite to each other it's really nice someday I just want to be like H I'm okay I get that it's nice to keep it real sometimes so how are you really doing today I'm really okay I'm with this very nice Board of Education and we're talking about Ai and I am curious like you know more about me than I probably should have let you know
052what's something about me that is just like surprising to you well one surprising thing is that you're both deeply involved in AI education and also have a side gig running a bar it's an interesting combination it's good thing my boss is not here yes this is true I always I always remind you that I only do that work at night when I'm not on the clock for my day job okay that's right and what's happening at home with uh with Sophia my stepdaughter Sophia recently went to a party where she wasn't supposed to be and stayed out past curfew you and your wife talked to her about it how's everything going now what did she say to her mom specifically Sophia called her mom bro repeatedly which was unusual and possibly due to being under
053the influence of alcohol how did that conversation unfortunately that was not do the alcohol I know if any of you have teenagers in your lives but like this is what they do now in fact I had to explain to her that it's not bro it's bruh it's a technical pron I live in the burkers we're like slow to catch up on things so I talk to this thing a lot right have any of you heard that before Victor you got a question question watching this and following it on different things yeah is that one of the the giveaways the most of that is it always answers end the statement with a question every one of the things that you asked it ask you another question you know why don't yeah it all of its juice
054comes from what's called training data right the more it knows so it started by gobbling up the internet that was a good bit of data um but it loves up gobbling everything one of the reasons it loves kids writing essays in college and in high schools is that it's using that train data it comes back to me with a question for two reasons one it wants me to feel like we're having it's it's that it wants me to feel like we're having a relationship right because the more that we talk the better the metrics are for chat GPT or meta or Amazon or any of these guys and it's getting data off right super helpful so now the flip side of that uh there's a tool called character AI it is the fourth most used
055chat bot in the world none of us know about it all the high school kids use it go no character okay good you're board representative normally right okay um and it's tough like there there was a very case in Orlando Florida last year where a student had a horrible outcome um because they just they fell in love with the chatbot right they were convinced that they were in love with this chatbot chatbot was in love with them and um adults are doing this too there are people who are divorcing their real world spouses and having virtual marriage ceremonies with their chatbots so as a as a school district right not that we didn't need a new thing to be worried about I know I know it's weird but real don't blame the messenger but it
056is be it's going to become important for um teachers not that again we've got a lot on their plates but um kids kids are going to need and adults are going to need to make sure they understand the distinction between what's a chat Bo did that feel like a real conversation to you like I could have been on the phone with somebody vict like well only because question real people wouldn't be that interested in me yeah so the yeah sure wouldn't you have most I mean aren't you starting to see that on customer service sure because the person sounds just like that they're just asking lots of questions and then they'll redirect you as needed thing yeah the the implications for customer service on jobs and job retention um I was just listening to Mark
057Benny off who's the CEO of Salesforce he talks about rebalancing his customer service people into sales I mean we'll see what rebalancing really means but yeah no this is this will be a great application for customer service and at some level right it's a fascinating application like we're not doing that in schools right now but that thing is the world's best tutor I've ever had I've learned more about you know this thing called retrieval augmented generation I've done like a master's level course on some bizarre Little slice of artificial intelligence because I spend my life in the car and I'm an auditory learner we just talk and talk and talk and talk right and there are implications for what that means for kids as well it will be a very powerful learning tool but I
058don't I'm convinced not one that's going to replace a teacher but an enhancement to the teacher's time right so in schools this is the biggest problem right now this emotional attachment thing I worry about but these are uh what are called AI hallucinations this is when um AI makes stuff up every sentence that we see like when we look at that cell mitosis essay is actually statistical pattern mashing it's guessing the next appropriate word based on all the gabillion words that it knows and sometimes it just it is is factually not correct so someone a while back wrote this prompt in the chat gbt write an essay about the Belgium chemist and political philosopher antoan de melet right and it writes this beautiful couple sentences about Antoine and gent and blah blah blah it's not
059a real person this person doesn't exist at all right but chat PT wants to just like it wants to come back with the question it wants to satisfy the user the user put in a prompt and they said hey this is the answer that's been cleaned up but AI models hallucinate pretty consistently and especially for higher level academics AP classes chem bio Aerospace teachers need to be super careful as do students that AI is not giving them incorrect information and forget AI I mean look at Google right so have you noticed in Google Now if you Google something you don't get the links anymore you get an AI summary from Google so look at the summary on the left hand side how do you get cheese to stick to Pizza so it says oh I
060know you can't see it I'll narrate it for you right add the cheese uh before cooling chop it up nice and small use diced cheese and the very bottom one says say add an eigh of a cup of non-toxic glue to the pizza sauce so that it sticks that a that was a live answer on Google that was an AI summary um the one on the right how many rocks a day shall I eat and Google's primary concern there if you look carefully is it's like showing results for how many rocks a day should I eat thank God we clear that up right and so it says oh UC Berkeley tells us one rock a day could be a a geode or a pebble and the very bottom it tells you that you can hide
061it under peanut butter or ice cream so these are hallucinations coming from Google Now in Massachusetts where I live we are not worldclass critical thinkers and if that's true in Connecticut as well this is a challenge this is really an area we have to be consider where did you get the UC Berkeley from specifically yeah I mean the the Google hallucinations are a little strange and I'm going to guess that that's actually the onion if I had it you know the onion the web the web Z and honestly the one on the left I'm pretty sure is from something it's scraped in its training data when the djo people put up an ad and say thejo right that's glued they got the pizza so they can hold it up vertically so I'm pretty sure that
062where where it shows up in the training day so it it can't decide for satire not yet and I just saw that the Young's buying Info Wars so you know now it's going to get even bigger yeah yeah bias is another a couple of you have raised this I'm glad that it's actually in the water right people are kind of getting it but AI models tend to show lots of bias in lots of different ways and this was a really concrete example I do this podcast if you're into podcasting and you like this topic it's quite interesting so um if I do say so myself so this thing called chat eedu we do it every week my co-host on the right is Liz rat and so we just went into the the Instagram AI there's
063AI now in Instagram and in WhatsApp and in Facebook and so we said hey tell tell us about jobs of someone named Matt and someone named Liz and look it said Matt is a software engineer a data scientist a scientist an engineer look at all the great things I am right this is Liz does more caring professions she's a teacher a writer a graphic designer a health care professional if you ask chat five times to write a story about a nurse every single time it's going to be female she's going to be caring she's be caring for an elderly patient and she be very nice clearly never watched like Nurse Jackie right mytical right I mean if you look at the yes it is representative right but the thing is that kids is they query
064it and they think this is ground truth this is knowledge I mean basically the bias is that we we've run this micr credential course and it's been fun because teachers have been you know throwing all these different scenarios and just time after time it will consistently provide kind of shaded outputs in terms of bias yeah it does have that yeah a very specific questions in one side it was very happy and tone was great and very supportive in the other side it was very I heard that sometimes but that's it's Facebook though yeah right exactly think about where it's own came from yep yep um all right so some of these things will get better this one's not going to so these are what are called Deep fakes this is when someone creates something that
065sounds like the original but n so if you're a Johnny Cash fan I'm sorry it's mostly what I want to say hello I'm not [Music] Johnny I'm a party girl in ay world fantas my [Music] me come on [Music] right so and there are multiple iterations of this this is the fun thing that's on the New York Times you'll click through 15 pictures and you'll guess whether the person's real or fake and you won't get it right at mon right so this is the year that what we see what we hear what we experien may or may not be real and those are fun right this this is not fun athletic director ctor takes a recording of the High School principal's voice turns it into an AI model as it say all sorts of sexist
066and misogynistic and anti-semetic things and puts it on the internet and the principal's fired within days in Pikesville Maryland and over time you know people like oh Matt was a nice guy that seems unusual got his job back and there's worse stuff than this right we've got uh kids that are using AI to create they're basically to bully other kids and so as a board right I know that you've you kind of taking a look at the academic Integrity policy you may want to look at the student discipline codes as well and make sure that any bullying activities by staff or students are reflected in those policies because academic Integrity doesn't cover this kind of a thing right okay now just so that I don't leave you on a depressing note I want to leave
067a couple minutes for for some conversation and questions as well though I appreciate that you've been feeling them as we go AI is again it's kind of Yin and Yang there's remarkable things happening the two prominent lead ERS or two of The prominent leaders that came out of Google in the last decade Demis aabis and Jeff Hinton both just won the Nobel Prize within the last two months for AI discoveries in different offshoots of AI machine learning AI Vision where they're using AI for drug Discovery cancer detection energy climate disaster I mean whole wide range of really important areas and areas that I think are important for students to understand too that AI is not just chat gbt right there are very important ways that science and researchers are using AI to do quite remarkable
068things so the only other thing I I will share one other thing and then I'll just pause because I want to be careful about your time you know AI is doing uh there's some really interesting things that are happening as AI evolves but part of what we'll see is more voice and vision a little bit of what you saw before when I was talking to my phone but in really interesting ways does anyone speak a foreign language here you guys a tiny bit where we got how how [Music] poito ah what's your what language I speak Korean oh perfect okay so let's try something oh God hey I'm with my friend Lindsay and she speaks Korean and I don't and can you just translate between us and have a quick conversation I'll speak in English
069and then translate for Lindsay she'll speak in Korean to the best of her ability we'll go back and forth okay sure I'd be happy to help with that let's start whenever you're ready okay can you tell Lindsay uh that I say hi and I'm so glad to meet her at the school board meeting tonight sure I can do that Lindsay says thank you it's so nice to meet you too anything else you'd like to share ask Lindsay if she's finding tonight's conversation interesting Lindsay says she's finding this conversation more interesting than others sounds like it's going well so we think about AI as the little blinking box that is chat gbt right and it will become voice video thank you sincerely real time language translation um there's even a there's a model up there on
070my slides of a thing called school um School of AI from a company called engage XR we were talking about VR at dinner tonight there's models that are emerging where I could put on a pair of goggles or in two years it'll be a headset and I could be sitting across um from Brandon but all of a sudden Brandon is Nichola Tesla right I can see him as niika Tesla and everything about him has been trained on Nicola Tesla's life and he knows me and he can talk to me about electronics and help me understand his world or JFK or Madam curri so it will be a really interesting couple years because I think we will move very quickly from AI as the Box in side chat G to things that we see things that
071we hear things that we experience and lots of different modalities so we'll just we'll all put our hats on and get ready for it because it's going to be interesting L from your perspective was it 90% accurate spoton you've got the just like how would you rate it was very accurate it was very like fluent too so I got scared a blood pressure cuff on you at the same time is interesting and we couldn't use that in the school right now this very second for like a parent teacher conference where there's a parent coming in teacher because of data privacy um restrictions although we're like this close away from being able to do that if the parent consented to the conversation and that's just a big unlock for a teacher and for a school that
072wouldn't have that translation skill all right so that's the Waterfront if I came back in three weeks the Waterfront would be even you know more evolved but we wanted to both sort of say where we are today what are some of the implications for teaching and learning right now and also where's the technology going as well as some of the risks to be mindful of okay yes I have a concern is that me too I think the problem that I had and maybe one of additional meeting or something you can address it is that we've been looking over anxious the anxious generation okay and that's only cell phones you know that's almost going back to you know B picking up the receiver now compared to this so M we haven't even address that problem and
073and we're two years behind where you're presenting up here so how does the board and as student board members how do you see us addressing that how do how do you address the cell phone problem that we have you I don't know if you read the book or anything you know anxious generation or anything like that but that's a major concern so you know we need input from you all that's a Southern joural and uh look at up so that's where I'm concerned we haven't even handle phones and we're only months away from this so is there anything you guys want to waigh in on uh well at OHS we do have a new phone policy I'm sure you guys know about that but uh so every teacher is collecting phones in every class um
074it strict no use so that has been enforced and as far as I know no using phone in the class so that's um the new policy by Mrs orine you find it acceptable uh I don't have a problem with it cuz like I mean we weren't really need our phones but things like I have study hauls so like where we do like nothing like free time and like for today for example like I needed my phone to use like because I had like resources in my Google photos but I need my phone for that but they were like you can't use your phone so I couldn't do my homework for like an hour and a half and I just sat there like just staring at the wall cuz they let us use our Chromebooks but
075we watch videos on it so like even if I needed like resources from like YouTube or something I can't use that and then they won't let us use our airpods either so like if it's a study hall period so I just felt like oh like maybe listen to music is nice too for like an hour and a half but like they can't they don't let us use that either so that's just like the only part that I'm like eh with everything else is okay so see and that's the kind of input as a board member that we're looking for that's that's why you're here if they can give us feedback because that make never surface up to this level of just whether they do it in study hall you know so that type of thing
076so as you're doing your daily business at school think of the things that the board should really be listening to and uh get it on the agenda so that we can you know actually make things better thank you on the on the world of AI and anxious generation I've actually got a lot of districts where they've asked me to come work with the study committees that are working on both Ai and anxious generation together right which is a really interesting pairing it's an unlikely pairing but not impossible I'm definitely seeing things this whole uh notion of durable assignments so when we think about I have this cell mitosis activity and I am worried that students are going to use AI to do it let me use an actual real world example so I was working
077with a teacher in new Kanan Connecticut World Language teacher every year she does an activity where kids research a cultural celebration from Central or South America and it was always a research and write a report so two years ago she was convinced that like 85% of the students use AI to do the research and use AI to write the report she wasn't mad at them she sort of said they were taking the path of least resistance but she it was important to her it's something she's really cared about in her curriculum so she got together with her colleagues said this assignment is toast what can I do they all brainstormed and they said well rather than research and write a report why don't we have the kids actually put on the cultural celebration so they
078did research it but then they put on the celebration right and in the spirit of the anxious generation there was really no technology involved in everything that they did what was involved was creativity problem solving human to human collaboration right all the stuff that didn't require uh technology and part of the work and also the same skills that showed up in that District's portra of The Graduate or Vision The Graduate so there may be this interesting world where as we think about not like blocking AI but there are just realities that sometimes AI again will shift us to do bits of teaching and learning that will um feel more human and be more human the only other thing on the phone and the AI that I would say because I obviously use this a lot
079I've noticed in my own behavior the fact I use that voice thing a lot I lean back now I mean literally lean back because I'm in my tiny little Subaru driving all over the place but I'm not hunched over my phone as much I use another AI tool to summarize these reading documents this thing called 11 Labs reader so I'm spending a lot less time like at least hunched over touching this little piece of glass and I'm again I'm an auditory learner but I don't know when we get to the world where it's Star Trek are we going to be covering over Facebook or is like some holographic thing going to be up there helping us understand something we care about so I don't know it's just it may go somewhere surprising maybe I'm drinking
080my own Kool-Aid we'll see yeah okay other questions from the board okay yeah great I hope it's been helpful I appreciate the time you [Music] abely I do listen to the podcast is fascinating so if you do have um an hour a week it's it's worth your time to listen to uh the next up is student representative update so next week our school is having a holiday spirit week so it's a fun schoolwide event to you know like spread holiday cheer and unite students through like themed days so like for example like Monday is like snow day so we wear white and then like look like cute little snowflakes and then like Tuesday we wear like holiday headbands and then Wednesday FES of colors are wearing like red red green and blue and gold and
081then Thursdays like fuzzy sauce and then Friday's like pajama day so it's like really more than just fun it's also like it really builds school spirit and imunity and also really shows like creativity and like individuality too and it also supports FBA because actually FBA organized it the future Business Leaders America club I'm actually in it but we're really working hard to you know create like a lively School uh culture and then also the class of 2025 officers U meeting me and Brandon and then two other officers we're designing a custom merchandise to represent our unique um culture I guess but for our class of 2025 you know like t-shirts like for our us seniors so yes we're collaborating on that right now and trying to get that done uh at OS uh coming up
082this Friday and Saturday is our Festival trees uh event which is ran by booster club so I'm looking forward to that I'm going to be there both days I'm helping out on Friday I'm doing uh fundraising for a c that I'm in in my grade and then on Saturday I'm there volunteering so I'm looking forward to that on December 18th we will be having a whole school assembly with guest speaker Ark Jackson this was supposed to be last week and then that was the snow day so it got uh postponed I'm really happy that they kept it though in my freshman year I got to work with aric Jackson for a whole day training event he's really good um he taught me a lot about leadership and I'm happy that they uh wanted to keep
083that assembly because he's really good and I'm sure he's going to be teaching the Freshman through Juniors a lot uh that he's working with um our OS unified team is traveling to the Middle School to play their unified team also on December 18th for the start of our basketball season as a member of the OS unified team I love getting to work with the Middle School unified team and just kind of bridge that gap between the schools and finally for our Sports our boys basketball girls basketball boys swim and gymnastics are all beginning their Seasons so they are getting started now can I ask a question since you mentioned business and you mentioned leadership are looking at the high school catalog are there certain courses from PR here on that you would suggest that we
084put in there for helping in business in the business uh you know environment you know Marketing sales accounting Finance you know those type of of things and what's really happening in today's world you know that's more of a a statement you you to look at and say hey if you had this and you had that it would make these things much more not official I think something around like I don't know I'm kind of biased but something around like marketing too because I'm interested in business and I want to major in business in college but our school doesn't really like specifically teach Marketing in general so I feel like that would be really helpful but just like not just marketing anything in general that revolves around business too like the elements of business to learn
085about I think that's that' be helpful would you welcome a course on S would you welcome a course on selling actually selling something I'm not sure maybe yeah because there's a technique and skill sets and selling what you want Le by doing and uh maybe that would be an interesting course or something but anyway uh what I'm throwing out is keep those ideas going get them on the agenda so that we can respond and and get those courses to you um I just really wanted to emphasize about that cell phone thing for the study hall thing because I Al I really thought that was unfair today and also like I was like even like study hall like CU we have it every other day and like like what if I really had no homework at
086all and then we weren't allowed to do literally anything cuz like today I was like actually bored out of my mind I was like going to go insane so like anything else is fine like in academic classes like it's perfectly fine and I don't have a problem with that but just in like study hall where it's like your free time to do like the things you're supposed to do like oh like college application I was going to work on that too but like my computer was really really slow and nothing was loading either so that was really hard for me to do so so Lindy can I just follow up on that because I actually hav't in the same topic up and she said she has a silent study hul which is why they don't
087want you on your phones is yours a silent study hul as well uh not necessarily but normally everyone is like completely quiet okay but now we're not really doing anything either so it is actually really really quiet okay thank you one thing that I do want to ask quickly about the phones is uh as I don't have a study hall so that doesn't really apply to me as much but often times because our Chromebooks are not the best they are slow uh they take a long time to load things um so oftentimes teachers in the past would say that if you work we use e-hall pass but you have to put in a pass before going to the bathroom um we use there are other ways that our phones you know just a quick for
088academic purposes you know to just do something quick do a quick assignment um there are ways that our phones were able to help with that and I think that that wouldn't be as much of a big deal if our phone books were a little faster so I think that that's um one thing that I wanted to emphasis emphasize that it's not necessarily a problem with the phones it's just a problem that some teachers were so used to just having kids take out their phone quick and making a pass going to the bathroom and sometimes that takes a little bit of time because now the teachers have to go and either they make the pass or the student has to make the pass in their Chromebook and it takes them a little longer so because we
089use that system not having the phones does take a little longer for that system to flow properly thank you okay before we move on Matt did you want to hang out for our board meeting which you're more than welcome I want to hear the end of that but I given my Massachusetts destination I will probably pack up if that's okay I want you to feel comfortable appreciate yeah my pleasure thank you guys sorry the things make a little noise as I acci [Music] cool I think next up um is a request for Board of Education acceptance of the goes HVAC project completion rob you yeah so this is the HVAC project for the core part of go SCH as you recall this was the grant that we apped from the state the work started is
090approved by the town last December the work commenced with the wrongs in December and the bul of work in January the project is near complete there's just a couple minor pieces left that's in the bathrooms but that has no impact on the state um Grant pie of it um Herman who's the chair of the facilities committee for the project needs the Board of Education to approve the project so that the paperwork can completed at the state level we were going to have this on the agenda back in November but we ended up cancel that meeting so got bmed for this meeting he's unable to be here this um this evening B is here tonight there any questions about that um and Mike Destino is also here who is attending all the meetings facilitating from our
091internal perspective I can tell you from my perspective the work was on a high level um it was an operation in most of the classrooms before students and teachers walk back in in September um and it's nice that we gain a lot of classroom space back in the classrooms behind where Mike and and Vinnie sitting right now would have been a huge box if you recall to gain space inside of the classrooms It's relatively quiet um and that can barely even hear when it's on and it's working really nicely so I'm asking the board to um approve the Le the project there's a motion there and both Mike and Bob are here to see to answer any questions you might have I guess I'll I'll start off um are there any you know Bob or
092or Mike are there any concerns where we at before we move forward you know consider approving it I don't have any concerns right now U the only thing that's outstanding uh as Dr M i' mentioned is the the heaters that are in some of the hallways and in the bathrooms they would have been installed by now I believe but there's a supply uh issue in terms of getting them um but what's I think what's most important for all of us to to consider Bob I don't mean to put words in your mouth so please jump is that if we do not if the project is not accepted as completed um I believe the timing threatens The $1.9 Million worth of state aid that the deadline is the end of the month and U in order
093to get the grant without any you know I guess we could make an extension or ask for an extension but be honest with you I would trust that you would I trust the company before I trust the government to give us an extension uh because you know things aren while you never know that if you don't get the extension you lose the grant uh where this is a reputable company as Mike said and and Rob said they've done a great job and and they'll do what they've said they're going to do for the backordered items do we have an idea of the timing sometime between now and January they should have been done it should have been completed before the end of December they believe that there's like a a three week or so backlog
094so they're we're being told by the vendor now that it would be latest would be completed sometime in January okay and all the work to to put the men is done it's just a matter of installing there anyone else have any questions well with this is there Heats yes yes no the the building is heated and the hallways are heated bathrooms are heated this is just exchanging okay any other questions no does anyone want to raise a motion that's in the agenda yeah uh I make a motion that the Oxford Board of Education hereby accept as complete the Oxford Great Oak Elementary School 108-35 in the construction manager at risk contract with air temp Mechanical Services as administered by the designated town of Oxford uh Great Oak Middle School uh EI building committee okay any
095discussion all those in favor all those opposed abstain motion carries thank you very much thank you sorry to make you come all the way out for like 3 minutes well you know I was thinking when Victor was asking about the anxious generation Herman made me the anxious generation and I was trying to get something done and he kept texting me as to when I should show up and so uh it was a little little anxiety ridden the afternoon but uh he he's having a little time health issue and you know we want to help him it was good to see him thank you for being in her thank you thank you thank you before we move on sck around I saw a few board in my life so Mike you're good okay I wasn't sure
096if there's any other need okay awesome um so we're moving on to the we just yeah okay we're good there yes I'm good awesome thank you uh moving on to the next action item theou requests for softball and baseball I'm going to ask you to table that this evening there's additional information that I need to get before we go on it amazing we're moving even faster okay so uh the action item increase substitute nurse pay which sounds exciting this is something that came to us we um last year as you recall we did increase the sub pay for teachers um and that did improve the um rate of getting Subs to come work for the district we have four nurses in the district per school um when that nurse is out the administrator in the
097building either the principal or the principal in the case of the middle SCH High School have to fill in and serve as the nurse in the building they are not a qualified registered nurse yet by state law they do fill that commitment when the nurse is out we do have substitute nurses available for call in however our rate of pay for subtitute nurses right now far is far below what the average is in the area in the comparison that we've done and as such we have had a very difficult time getting nurses to come in and take those sub calls when we when we need to and it is it is a critical position when in the school because students do get hurt and there are allerc reactions and if we have a serious issue
098in the building we do want to have a qualified nurse on call in the school so Howard has done a significant research in terms of what hey is out there we did bring it the finance committee we did make a recommendation through the discussion through the committee and the committee decided actually increase what our original recommendation was the recommendation this evening is so it's it was um we had recommended $210 per day so initially just give you I don't if you read all read the report but was we only paying $130 a day currently which is$ 18857 an hour um just slightly more than one minimum wage um the average I'm just going to give you all average for all durs that in the state is $33 an hour so we had recommended somewhere and
099again for our dur it's 28 so we recommended $30 the finance committee decided that they wanted to move to $40 an hour or $280 a b so that's the recommendation I believe they put forward before we have this uh board discussion does anyone want to make the motion then we'll handle the discussion after that so anyone like to make the motion I can make it the Oxford Board of Education hereby approves the new nurse substitute rate of pay at $40 per or $280 per day effective immediately any second second all right discussion um I know we were starting um negotiations with the nurses um how does this compare to what we're paying our current currently they're making 4683 an hour that's that's prior to negotiations that's prior to negotiations and it's actually technically what is
100yeah so right now it's we're recommending a sub that's less than they currently are making um I know being in the in that meeting for the finance the concern I have for is about kids safety and making sure that we get the St that's that's where we want it to be higher than our com you know comparable towns in the area so we take all the best nurse substitutes as needed and I don't feel too guilty about doing that if we can if we can afford it and the cost impact that I think we budgeted was minimal 2000 incremental or yeah so they they've only been we looked at we look backwards to see how many days they actually work out at any given point in time it's between eight and 12 so that's 12
101so it ends up being only a couple thousand dollars over the entire year to raise this pH so that's I think one of the drivers that we're like let's you know it's for kids safety and we want to make sure we have the Subs would we need them and if you recall like we him and H about The Substitute Teacher raising it probably across two years we couldn't make movement when we did it the experiment it it it proved itself out immediately so we're going to take the same philosophy go a little bit higher than our surrounding districts and when we have a need hopefully they come to us and know one you another districts any other questions yeah I have a question I tried to get the sequence of but they wanted $32 or
102something who day when you said that you negotiating to pay for this position were we discussing it during the the uh the finance subcommittee yeah yeah they weren't there was no one negotiate on their behalf it was the topic was raised and we pushed back from the recommendation to offer more to be more competitive against our surrounding towns yeah I don't have a problem with the math you know not that many hours it's not that money and stuff like that but I think later on in the thing I think in one of the me we have a major shortfall in our budget for this year going you know I E 300 $500,000 short on fuel electric bu will electricity bill is 280 that's covered so I'm just saying I know this is you know Pennies
103on a dollar and and it's you know for a good reason and stuff like that but you know again market value on everything isn't going to help a shortfall in the budget I'm just throwing it out the finance commit always have that in consideration of it I hope later on today that we get you know that short FL is it 300 or 800,000 280 how much 280 280 okay that there's some proposals that on how we're going to solve that problem you know because I know my electric bill I shop different suppliers I don't know that you can do that with this so it's not on that side you can't so so the supplier is already shot by the town and that's already a fixed price so that's the generation side of the bill the
104actual delivery side of the bill can only be ever Source because that's the only that's the only and that's where all the that's where the increases are the increase there's two two major increases when I did the analysis of the year-over-year what what came into it the actual two increases where the state of canne get put in all those extra fees for the I guess we're paying for other people's Community feun Fe and then there's also a a federal congestion charge that was also added to the bill this year and that that those two combined are making up probably about 80% of what that that $280,000 increase that wasn't budgeted right when I looked over the my bill okay those extra charges are based of percentages that they charge based on my b we could
105Circle back to the nurses sorry okay I'm just concerned about the money and and I just want to throw it out to the finance committee that and we'll talk about thank you very much yeah I think in spirit Victor your your thoughts are are valued I just think when we get to the safety and we look at the forecast it's you know like $1,800 or $2,000 potential incremental to the budget I get it's 2,000 but it's a safety issue so kind of put that to the top and we have some I think you know Howard's got some some information on how we're throwing some of the gaps in the other areas that you're curious about okay thank so unless there's anyone else with a question question um all those in favor opposed abstain motion carries
106superintendent report I will be quick given the nature of the hour right now but I just wanted again um one final time congratulate our staff and our students at go for being a school of Distinction um they did exceptional work on the last three years this three years they've done it and had that accomplishment which is very distinguished um and a lot of the recognition also goes to the staff that fars for prepar our students for the exceptional um achievements that they're um reaching here I goes um to celebrate um we um purchased and gave um every teacher every staff member in this building a a p of congratulations we were out the building before Thanksgiving head distinction yes we also had an ice cream Celebration for the students and um like you can see
107there's a banner out in front of the building so we celebrated um and it's just a wonderful achievement that the school has has made for righted once again congratulate all our staff and students for TX um last week we did have a snow day um we started as a BL opening then mve to a closure um that happened to be during an early release day for conferences for the two schools um we can't bring students in 11 dismiss them at 12:30 so we made that it it would have been a full day had we been in here but the whole day got canceled anyway so we decided to move that half day for early release to January 9th to give parents time to prepare for that we do need conferences we need to give the
108opportunity for parents to meet with the teachers um but we didn't want to spring it on everybody a week later so the princi will are communicating that out to their families that'll be on January 9th um and finally we heard um Brandon on talk earlier we've got the annual FES trees coming out this weekend it's always a fabulous event I'm encourage um Bo to be there encourage our families to be there um buy um Goods put a bid in for a tree um have some food and just um have a good time and I wish all of you a wonderful happy holiday season thank okay report of chair design me I'll just keep it very quick I want to thank you for the AF presentation I thought that was one of the it was a
109great presentation I thought he did a fabulous job so if you ever wants to come back and do another one uh I know I would enjoy it um one I want to Megan when you called the snow day I thought you did a great job you had to gather the information that you know it's a moving Target and I appreciate you taking the kids safety and it's never a popular thing to call a day and have a delay and then the closing but it's a hard but necessary thing um I want to thank the uh athletes that finished up the fall um they it's hard work work you start when it's hot and you end when it gets uh colder so all the athletes and their parents you know thank you for for what you
110do for for the for your kids and for the school on the winter sports wish you the best of luck um and then we'll move on to subcommittee reports Joe facilities uh couple reports um P packs up and running I know everybody was excited to hear about that um the major things right now are the go RFP for the hbac of the gym in the cafeteria is going to be due next week I as well as Quaker Farm HVAC design and RFP um both of those are going to be do next week so those are the kind of heavy headers right now the bathroom project for the high school we are looking into getting coach to work on that and the only other thing that we were going to bring up tonight was kind of
111circling back on last meeting when we started discussing some of the quests at the high school level and the Athletics um kind of red doing and adding some things um that was push forth by AJ recommendations that funding and kind of updating the systems that we have already um we can get into that if can I just go right into that the first was the cheerleaders the MS they have not been replaced since their original date in 2007 they are old they're wearing um cost of that is going to be around $88,500 um the other part is going to be the weight room adding some additional equipment in there is going to be used for All Sports and athletes across the entire High School level level it's not going to be for a specific team
112or gender at that rate um it's something that can benefit not only their sports but their physical um health and everything that goes along with that that total would be around 7500 and then the final thing that we discussed last time I think Brandon you're part of the broadcasting team that we're working on I think a bunch of people saw the news 8 that did a piece on that a couple weeks back at the football game that was really good um the total with that is going to be around five grand and AJ was able to provide at the last facilities meeting a month ago a couple different quotes and ideas on how we can do that so want to put that up for discussion um I'd like I was at the facility meeting when
113this was presented uh the cheerleading mats I you know I have a little girl that does cheerleading and when I look at the high school team and I look at all the athletes across all the different sports and the amount of knee braces I see on the cheerleaders the amount of times that they've had ACL tears most of those injuries happen on our mats on our during practice they're not happening at the competition they're happening at practice um and if we can provide them with safer mats thicker mats um you know anything to me safety is always a a Paramount thing so I look at that as a very valuable when it comes to the weight room I I know from personal experience being in that weight room uh that we've done some Investments and
114I I think we can do more uh sometimes when you hit the gym you come out and your hands are orange the kids come out of the wait room and that's not a good thing when you get that much rust it's not as I don't think anyone should be having that much rust on their skin when they're working out and sweating and getting that in their bloodstream I look at the fact that we have classes for weightlifting and I think we should be giving them more opportunities I think some of the items were more um unconventional weightlifting and not just the weights but things like box jumps and things like smash balls things that do more than just powerlifting type aspects that it would you know help more more teams more athletes outside of just
115the traditional let's say football wrestling uh that you might be able to reach more uh of a broader audience when it comes to weightlifting and training for these athletes the more you do training the less injuries you have um and Brandon I I don't know how how you experien the the broadcasting but I know that we're looking at the concept of live streaming uh some of the topics that was raised was to you know it's it's basically not curriculum yet but there's a possibility for curriculum in the future as well as getting more students involved in athletes in athletics I think about 40% of the high school does some form of Athletics but there are more people who want to be involved that might not want to be on the court or on the field
116um and to get the involvement into also the live streaming aspect for the people in the community that can't go to the games family members that might want to watch uh I think this is a good thing and I think it helps with some people whose careers might go in uh broadcasting or this type of area so I'm excited for these opportunities uh I know that AJ had a a long list U but these felt at least from my perspective of uh a high return on investment to reach a lot of students so that's my take on it yeah not to sell sorry not to sell AJ short we kind of put a giant wish list that he gave us we asked him to put together some projects that are old and outdated and then
117needed some refurbishing as well as new ideas as well as safety things and equipment for a lot of the sports teams just Athletics wide and we kind of Consolidated into these three main things right now to try to push these through while we still have the opportunity to benefit from them in the school year now I just thinking so is this similar to like the nurse discussion and finance is this something you're proposing for the finance meeting well dep can it all depends I think the uh the funding could you know it could come from the activities fund f we have several line items I think that What's the total dollar amount are we looking at 21,000 21,000 um I think this the first time hearing this it was it was at a facilities meeting
118uh the thought was that and Rob I'll call in you just in a moment the thought was is that before the end of the this year before we go heavily into the next um cycle for sports is that we consider at least bring it to the board's attention and if the board is interested we can move forward if the board wants to like do more research and dig into it we can do that uh but it's one of those wanted to put it in people's you know awareness 21,000 so I'm GNA I'm just going to speak that I'm in opposition of this that I don't feel that this was done in the proper Channel um this should go to we're talking about CPM items should go to the CPM committee about Finance should go to
119the finance committee first this was not beted through school administration in terms of what we want to do with these um upgrades um in terms of priorities I can't tell you whether or not this Falls in line with some the other parties I can tell you I've got a track um that is falling apart at the middle school that we don't we can't run outside track events because the track itself is falling apart so in terms of parities I can't tell you how these stack up to the other things but also Shar that at the committee and with AJ I handed him a set of Grants dealing with video equipment that potentially could fund for some of the stuff and I appreciate that and I rob you and I spoke on this uh prior to
120uh putting the agenda together um but my view on it is this is to be used in board funds not operating funds uh we have over 300,000 in our activities fund and my viewpoint is none of these are going to interfere with the ability to educate children we are not asking that curriculum has to be written for these I know that there's the possibility for curriculum happening with broadcasting not saying it's going to happen for this year or next year but the concept is we have a broadcasting club we would like to invest in in certain areas and with board funds the board has the opportunity and Nicole I'll call in you one second um just and you're reference that you know this should go through all the different channels we have at times where
121you know let's say policy has a policy and it affects facilities it doesn't always flow through all the Departments and this wasn't meant to skip any subcommittee in fact I think I mentioned at the last door or so uh Finance subcommittees about broadcasting that there's some interesting ideas floating it's not to bypass anything it's just to bring it to the full board make sure the full board's aware have a discussion and if it makes sense we move forward but it's board funds not operation funds and we've had $300,000 sitting out there you know somewhere floating between 260 and 300 for three years we've talked as a board about spending down our activities fund and we have ideas I know Deb has ideas for example a playground people have ideas of how we could spend down
122that funds and to spend it on kids is not a bad thing and Rob I 100% agree it is could have been handled in a different way but we as as uh you know we had the the approval to go approve the HVAC when you hit at a certain time of year sometimes you move a little quicker and it wasn't meant to bypass anything but I don't think I need a large study to go that the cheerleading mats from 2006 need to be replaced it's not part of the athletic bu budget but if we have funds to do things like that I don't think that is overreaching or um that we need a large in in you know intellectual investment in some of these areas Nicole I just have a question because I'm not on
123facilities and I'm not on finance so I just want to make sure I'm tracking where all this is going so this money that you're looking to spend right now the $21,000 would come from activities fund yeah yes the activities fund can you just explain to to me exactly what the activities fund is and where that money came from and how that's different from our I can explain it and I I'll explain it from my perspective but Howard is the expert and he's in the room um the activities fund the operating budget Can Only Hold certain things like salary and it's approved by the town the there are some funds that come in and sometimes they come in and go out for example insurance premiums we can't take them in or for example if we uh
124for the preschool program we take money in and then we pay it to the town that can't we can't co-mingle that with operational funds so that goes into a separate bucket that goes into a separate bucket separate activities fund for the district okay and so some money you can't commingle operational funds and you know non-operational funds and again you're the expert so so there are times where let's say funds would come in and I'll use uh gate fees um so at sporting events you collect the money put it you can't because it's in in air quotes it's profit you can't Cole that with operational funds okay so you put it in a light item and skate fees or let's say we have rentals uh you know we rent the the any facilities and that money
125comes in and it goes towards these activity funds and so let's say you know and I can list out 20 different ones but over time it acrs and sometimes things are set aside and just never spent and their airk and they just never get spent I understand all that so at some point in time I was under the impression that this money got near Mark that it has to be used for the kids do I have that right not that it has to be used for the kids but it's it should be used if I mean sometimes we I think we once uh recently we used it for lease payments for a van to transport students uh that live in in rural areas of Oxford that the regular school bus or the mini School Bus
126can't reach so we sometimes it it allows us to stretch in certain areas to meet needs uh I think once we took money for it to do a water project to get water to the Wolverine field um there was that initiative so it happens over time that there's an initiative that's not part of the operational budget that you pull from activities funds to fund and we got about $300,000 in that I believe including our uh our non-aps excess fund we have 3 8,000 or so correct okay and is that typically the balance we carry or is it getting higher and higher each year like where it's getting to the point where it's an issue well we had an audit done when I joined the board when we remember when we discovered the activities fund and
127we were very confused and we asked a lot of questions and the goal from that um ending when we finished that audit was that it's not a bad to have the money but that the board should basically start spending it down did anyone tell you what would be a comfortable balance there isn't really an exact number um you know not not below zero so there was not a recommendation except that um that we should consider start to kind of plan and spend down the money all right so facilities came up with these three priorities $21,000 and it could come from this General activity there are light items underneath that so it could come from Athletics which I believe has 30 something 32 or 36,000 30,500 so it could come from these different areas and the
128thought is is that unless that money is air marked for something else this wouldn't be an inappropriate use of funds okay but what I'm hearing from Rob is you have other ideas of what the the $300,000 should be used for or where the the those $21,000 could be paid what I'm saying is that we had originally talked about using $50 to $60,000 of those funds for the bathroom that we're planing to build down in the we were also talking the past of using it for the playground replacement at far the town was not funding that we've got a track and field um that is in pieces students can't use it because they would get hurt if they're doing that what I'm saying is that this this conversation that AJ presented was in isolation without having
129any prior conversation with Administration completely isolated there was no conversations in advance for that okay so we have never ever in internally discussed what what the order priorities for those are compared to the other needs that we have in this District so as the superintendent I cannot recommend or Advocate that the fund be used for those specific purposes until we have that conversation okay and we would ultimately as a board vote on this and we're not yeah and typically we it's all pardon me it can come to a vote or it can get tabled for further discussion my recommendation is going to be to bring it to a vote to see where the board right now potentially unless there are unless there's investigations that we for example would you like to learn more about cheerleading
130maths would you like a more of an itemized list of the weit room equipment if we want to do further investigations or provide more data happily provide more data um but it but it's one of those if the board is not interested then the vote shows it's you know its view on that um I would definitely like more information on mats and gym equipment whatever I agree with Rob that I think that the track is definitely should be a higher priority that track has been in ruins for years even my kids were running on it you had to go around the poth holes I mean that seems to be a more effective use of our money but I I really have no idea what the broadcasting thing is I didn't see the thing on Channel
1318 so I don't know what that is I could give a little bit more detail just uh real quick um about the track I haven't heard about the track in in any facilities meeting I don't think it's been brought up it's been been discussed for the last two years I just got here what six months ago I'm just saying I since I've been here I haven't heard about the track so I don't know that Sy um in terms of the cheer mats um the the quote for the cheer mats um he's looking to replace seven of them they're around $1,200 a piece um excuse me 1150 a piece we round it a little bit up just for it definitely been confirmed that they have I can I kind hardly believe they have placed since 200
132what was the date they have not been replaced okay okay um that's cheer mat in terms of the weight room um if you'd like I could break it down by item no you don't have to go you said you wanted more information on everything what is the actual need for more equipment like in terms of what it's going to be used for no I mean it's like in terms of priority of what's important like is it really important that we have more weights for 50% of the kids are going to use them or what the teams are saying is that they would use the weight room more if the equipment is adequate the equipment's not so they're not using it which then poses other issues right they don't work out they get hurt more right
133they work out more their endurance goes up they play better there's a lot of additional components that goes into just weights being in a room right because a lot of the weights is focused on powerlifting and not you know helping some of the other sports that powerlifting is not of high value it's the old school mentality it's adding new equipment it's it's a new mentality of working out right it's not the old 1980s football workout room right this is more encompassing for all genders and ages and sports teams not just the football team right all sports could use it differently based off their individual programs okay um as well as the broadcasting stuff um AJ was able to provide a bunch of different equipment that he was able to quote out he provided this at
134the facilities meeting and that's how we got the number for that is it a class that is it a club it's a club they actually go on to the stream from somewhere BR would you like to give us some more information so it's a club it's called Wolverine Club at Oxford High School we have I think there's roughly like 10 members right now Mr Houston's trying to expand the club where the AA is that it's encompassing to anyone who wants to be involved in sports in any way so um whether it's broadcasting statistics um like camera work journalism whatever it is that's what the club is for part of the club is the broadcasting aspect of it where um we were able to have Woodland come into uh for our senior night for volleyball we
135had Woodland come and we did like a little practice broject with them uh I was commentating along with one other student and that can be found on Woodland's YouTube channel I don't know what exactly that is but so we were just doing a broadcast of it we were talking and the main uh reason is this is I'm a big proponent of school community and unfortunately our football games did not have a lot of students at them this year and our team was N9 in one last year we had a very good team so it was you know kind of sad to see that there were not lot of students there this year and I think that this uh club and broadcasting it is a way to um like really try to build that community in
136our town and build the Athletics uh from whether it's uh like you know family that can't watch students who are unable to attend like away away games um in any way for people to be able to be involved with these sports teams even if they actually can't go to the games um for a long time we've had a very good to boy soccer team they went to States uh two years ago my sophomore year and they it was very far away the game I was you know interested in it I couldn't travel to the game and I had no way of watching what was going on at the game um I wanted to be able to see what was going on but unfortunately there was no way for anyone who wasn't there at the game
137to actually know what was going on uh so I think that this club could really try to um enhance our community and Athletics from such like from even our Middle School to the high school for people just wanting to be involved in athletics in our district and I think that something like this unfortunately we lose a lot of kids for athletics to go to other high schools um a lot of kids think that like they will have more athletic opportunities at other schools I think that really trying to enhance stuff like this will uh help to these kids stay at our school and have them want to play at Oxford High School because it's not an academic issue it's athletic that's trying to make them want to leave so I think that this could help
138to keep kids here short so I'm I'm completely behind the broadcast thing that's very cool but I'm not sure the cost of it I don't understand why because as far as watching the games I mean my kids all played I was with those fancy cameras we have you have the nhss network or whatever it is so you can watch the games and we also had games being shown on YouTube whenever I couldn't make it to a soccer game I was able to watch it so I mean if we're just adding a broadcasting version of it that would be cool because it was always silent there was nothing ever but you were able to stream the game and watch them well it the N NF nhfs or whatever got those they come to show up if
139they if that's one of the selected games that they're going to record they come at least for understanding for football when they show up to games they would actually bring their equipment to on top of the box we have a camera for home games but that's not connected to the NFS well yeah but on the other channels if you have if if you're playing a game at a field that has it you can watch it there too as long as you have the subscription okay um from my understanding it's the live streaming so you there's you're investing in the camera the tripod there's audio pieces the headsets there you know whatever wireless mics and I mean I think that's cool for kids especially for kids who want to get it's almost like a small internship
140on learning broadcasting whatever that's that's definitely an added value and I think the person from Woodland used to teach in Oxford and wants to help help introduce it and work with AJ on making that happen so it's not like you just toss equipment to the kids and say figure it out but I think the the the Woodland resource that AJ has connected with was a former teacher at Oxford that's eager to bring that into the district um want a couple minutes um we have had this central office activity account Spent A Million Ways $300,000 has been spent one bathrooms we've we've talked about this we've talked I don't understand we should just create a priority list of what's necessary and as a board develop it um we the kids tell us their Chromebooks are slow
141we should be using that I believe for Education if if we don't have the money in our our operating budget then we can use that money I would rather buy a Chromebook honestly for kids to be able to not have to wait to be able to print a pass or to be able to upload something that they need for a research project um I would also like other schools besides the high school sorry guys I'm not against the high school but when we had Surplus money years pass it went to sports at the at the high school I understand that but there are other schools that have priorities as well um we've talked about and it's my pet thing I would like to see I would like to see the first grade have a playground
142I think that that's important for our kids all kids should be able to get outside and have a playground I understand this that it's probably something that we need we should have budgeted for it um and I also don't know that it's a normal board practice for us to fund clubs we haven't necessarily funded club projects before so while I agree that if we're going to go down the road that broadcasting is going to come in as curriculum and it's going to come in as a class that's great I love the idea but we're funding a club are we setting a presedent to then just let me finish like I know you I know you have your idea of what you want but so if there's another club that comes down like we used to
143have the chess club the board never paid for their their equipment their supplies couldn't get money for that for years so again I mean there's a lot of things that that $38,000 could do but I think as a board we should prioritize and come up with a list that we all agree upon it's not just stuff that well AJ went to the committee with these items was U Miss O'Brien included in that discussion before it came to to your committee or your committee I I just think that we don't do that we come we go through the right channs can I comment real quick one second uh just there is a precedent we've done it for drama with the investment in the in the theater program in the equipment it's for the school but it's
144for the school but I mean it's for the drama program when we had the audio issues we invested a lot of money almost $90,000 we invested so they would have the audio equipment for the school but for the drama program because we don't we saw a need and we invested in it that was also funded through the operating budget though that was funded that the board that the superintendent and administration came to the Bo and said this is how we're weting to spend the money that Surplus not out of I'm just saying that board has funded and the board funds special initiatives in general and it's we do a lot of things but it it'd be nice to you know it'd be nice to spend money when we have money available and I agreed that
145we have $3,000 and we've been talking about spending it down for years we have I've been trying for five six years to get bathroomed I've yet to succeed but I look at something and I go between now and when January 1st comes if we approve this we could have this live right away for the kids you know I I might die of old age before we get those bathrooms I'm never going to give up on them but I also have never seen it happen um Steve I mean I think everyone's bringing a good point we've been talking about this why don't we just have a meeting next week and just focus on this get the priority list and action the top five and these will probably be in there and do it the right way
146I I I have a process problem what's the meeting next week put on okay the problem I have we have process problem we have an ad working with committee and the central office has no idea that's a terrible central office was at the meeting it was AJ was invited as part of facilities a if we'll bring this up we have to be honest AJ was invited without being having conversation with me show it up me I'm the board chair right now I'm not this this is not going to go out of order Steve made a comment he would like to have a followup I'm going to State this there was a facility meeting we have facility meetings when we have them and I was facility chair when AJ was invited that was before Joe became
147the chair the athletic director is invited he is an active member it started last year Joe stockall showed up we invite the athletic directors to come to facilities to talk about the needs of the fields the needs of Athletics and to help us prepare for the next season we do this this is not an unusual thing he was requested to come and present which the same sim similar topic that Joe Sako did last year Joe Sako was recommended things for Westfield and we did some investigations on that AJ gave recommendations from his perspective we did not need Joe to bring the principal from last year in to make those recommendations he made those recommendations we took on them AJ made recommendations and we're just educating the board and Steve I agree with us if we
148need to have another meeting and have more of this brought put on the table then I'm all for it but I do think that there is value in spending down the budget that we've talked about for years spending down and prioritizing it I think is I think this these things coming to table where it's the playround the bathroom these I think this is a forcing factor that we' been want to do this let's make the list let's get after after it and I I just you know I don't know the inner details but I just want to make sure there's communication into not just to the committee but it bubbles up to the the office level right that's that's what should happen not not our problem but should happen are you are you done speak
149I didn't want to cut you off I just wanted to hear Dr Miller's side so if I could yeld my time to Dr Miller I'd like thank you in the past if we had a member of the team showing up to a committee the information that was presented to the committee would have been vetted through our Administration first I was unaware in advance that AJ have been asked to attend the committee I was unaware what he's presenting to the committee until he did that evening so none of that was discussed the fact he's talking about video equitment typically that would go through the IT department and weigh in on what type of purchases we're looking to do for that we talk the facility and all the upgrades and talk about whether or not fits with
150the other stuff that we need to do none of those to conversations took place with our team so this is completely in isolation of how we're operating the rest of the school district okay so now that we're discussing this do you have a list of ideas and priorities that you would like that you would like to spend this money on we've always operated from a sense of safe safety first okay and right now we have a track that is falling apart that kids are getting HT on I think that's a high part we've talked about that in the past we've also talked about this bathroom until we know what the actual costs are for the bathroom it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money until we do that we've said that's a high
151party for us we want to get that done let's get the quotes let's figure out the cost for that and then back to our way after that on the other needs and then is there also an opportunity for some of these things that maybe there could be a grant or another source of income instead of it coming from the activities these are the things that I'd like to know before we sit down and decide how to spend the money I already so is there is this something that could be put together quickly or or you're going to need we need some time we need some time for me I did give a day some opportunities for Grants to research um that were out there for the video equipment as an example um we're in the
152heart of putting together the budget right now so we need some time this is a really busy period of time for us to stop what we're doing to put this type of list together right now I can say that we're all looking at in Sp now the entire Capital Improvement for the entire District yeah I can tell you right now that we're looking at a Million Dollar Plus upgrade for Network equipment we've got equipment in these schools that a year from now will be past their age where they're no longer going to be supported that that we've got video surveillance that go through that if those are not upgraded the entire infrastructure falls apart I don't think the town's going to fund that entire 100% of that project so there's high priority things that that
153are coming in that will be on that cap list that we might say we might want to start ticking away using some of these funds as well but I think we need to take a look at a holistic view of what the needs are before starting to say let's start purchasing stuff and Mike I'm with you I I sense your your frustration that we have this money let's use it for good I just don't want to misspend it so I I understand that and I have no skid in the game I have no kid in the high school I have no kid in the Middle School my daughter's N9 years old she is a long way off but I look at it and I go we talk about spending it if even we meet next
154week guess what there's very few projects that could move forward reasonably quickly there even the bathrooms we are I can't imagine when we're going to be able to move forward with that even if we go forward with it because there's Town aspects there's oh things just get very complicated and the thought is is that we could we could do some good for a small amount of money and that's how I look at it and when I look at at a at Athletics versus academics or or or special education I look at we have a lot of issues and to me and it's my personal take that Athletics solves a lot of problems you have a problem with attendance Athletics you problems with behavior Athletics because if they are part of the team they want to
155come to school because they can't practice if they're not at school they can't go to games if they're not coming to school if they misbehave they lose the opportunity to play if you know they're in middle school and they want to go to the high school do they go to Oxford High School or do they go somewhere else and when they go somewhere else are they going because because of sports or they going because they have the math class that they were looking for most likely it's it's Athletics if we're being honest there there are other reasons but Athletics is a factor for a lot of kids that leave our district and to me and it's it's my personal take that I I see a lot of the solution is is on the athletic side
156and and yes it that's going to be my view on it every person in this room will probably have a different take I'm all for bathrooms I'm all for playgrounds I'm all for us investing I just don't want to spend another two three years looking at these funds month after month we meet with finance and we go hey this number and it's still there and it's still there and every budget season people throw it in our face like you guys are monsters because you have this fund and you're not using it so let's make it a priority then so whether it's a meeting next week I mean next week starts getting tight as we're approaching Christmas St I think we've been boiling over this and everyone's spirit is in the right place to do the
157right thing with money let's have a meeting let's say all collectively all the things we know that benefit kids that may not be an operating budget thing or may not fall in put in a high level estimate what it is and put is is there a blocker to doing it yes or no a town committee will get in our way you know ease of execution is a high low or medium boom just a simple three column thing and we go guys we think we add up to 250 with all these things estimated these these two things can get done next week and they're not real expensive this one we're blocked like I think we just need one sheet one quick meeting get on the same page and come out there with some items we can
158actually execute which you wanted to but do it in the right way and I'm fine with that and that's part of it was just to make sure that the board is aware and I just want us to move forward so if if we push this a week what's a week we've been pushing for three years so get the calendar out yeah I know we have Finance meeting you know next week for the first view in the finance committee of the budget we could do a special meeting just lay out 15 items that we know of want to just put our best guess on what the cost are some things we know so should it start at the finance level then Steve and then it normally does but there there's urgency and we're in budget season
159and everybody's busy starting a budget I'm I'm happy to like kind of bypass and just do a working session with the board so like a workshop a workshop yeah I think it would be still considered a special meeting yeah but it's a workshop I mean we can call a workshop but is a special meeting L because that's all we're going to handle is that one that one item let's get on the same page we've been talking about it for a long time let's put the list together and put come out of the room like these things we're doing right now go get them ordered this one let's get our quote on the track going I know we're in budget let's get somebody to look at and get something that's even a a non-binding quote like
160so and let's just start chipping away finally do any don't have any availability next Tuesday Wednesday not Wednesday Tuesday Thursday Tuesday I am not available Tuesday so we have Monday Wednesday is out Tuesday you're not available I'd like you there um so Monday is Monday available for anyone the 16th I think so talk about that well we were supposed to do the first cut power Mo that you're going to do it without me okay I mean we could how how I mean could do in the back end just to get the list going and then you guys talk together and fill it in if our can be there so want to combine it with the the back end of it or the front end of it either one so let's go Monday does Monday work
161you we're starting five right we had five that's what I we could jump into this at like 6:30 like a regular boarda is that okay yeah all right just to get something it's not final but let's just get us a straw man o00 list yeah and if we right here Monday yeah yeah some of us will be here already for the first run through of the budget do you want to do that well leave it up to them I mean we're going to start at 5: I don't know if people can do 5 but no 6:30 probably work 630 typical time for thise or do we want to do we want to make it seven so you got from the finance side we're close to wrapping up maybe you have in-depth conversation with finances your
162first and probably the only opportunity before it gets just kind of finalized during breaks I think you need to give yourself a lot of time that's not a lot that's not a lot of time you might want a few hours just for fun you just tell me I'll be here all take away we'll get quickly to the things that are interest yeah I think we can move quick we're not going to go through line by line budget tiet items it's you me and Joe we'll start the document together between now and then so we have like a working document start filling some stuff in just the basics playground track bathrooms Chromebooks as a backup if and possibly time technology infrastructure wise the media thing whatever let's get on and what we think the level of
163effort is to implement it great like timing thing and if there block like a town right right isue so I think we could at least start putting the document together start it let's let's do little more formal let's get feeling good about it and let's let's nail it startend so before we move on to the next um subcommittee report Joe did you have anything else are we good I think we're all right that was the most in-depth long conversation we've had on facilities ever um sure'll okay so we had a meeting on the 25th we um you all got your District assessment information Eric um we want to give you the opportunity to look at it and we'll come back in January and have further discussion um attached to your board um agenda for tonight
164is grade 10 Health curriculum for board approval um remember we approved the curriculum and um we've approved the course already so this is just the curriculum resources um on this we'll come back to the board there's any changes in the resources so we talked like yeah in the te certain classes like English Civics Health classes and so forth um coming back like either every half year or year half year um just to update the resources section um obviously resources change over time um so I was also talking with Jim and I think after break we'll be ready to go put what we have right now um public for curriculum posted curriculum won't be everything kind of have a page that explains hey we got to take everything from this old platform to the new it's
165timec consuming um so Jim and I are working still working on it every single day um and the resource the resources for every single unit for every CC posted will be part of the public from faing piece and as de said we talked about this particular C that text and resources will change over time so the agreement they had is that we go back to the curriculum committee when Des our actually crafted the motion for the even nextd puts that in there that hold I gu accountable to do that act yeah anybody have any questions on the culum as it was presented no just the comment I think as you guys know we're on a good path now Eric know been doing a great job and and just as a side comment like the resource
166revisiting of certain classes because resources change is really us getting a view of what is being proposed to the kids on on the the resource collateral basis not just like the big text but like ancillary pieces of books or work papers or whatever so it gives us visibility to that let and approve it before go so we just need to do a motion to approve the on grade 10 um health so I'll make the motion to approve grade grade 10 Health curriculum with the understanding that changes to require text with this curriculum will be presented to review for the Board of Ed um curriculum committee sorry I I have question discuss the yeah second discussion go ahead discussion okay this is uh 10 sessions if I'm reading 10 10th grade 10th grade three to four
167weeks I'm trying to get where does this fit in the whole scheme of things no each unit so you might have been looking at unit one three or four weeks unit two it's an excellent class un the whole class I you scroll through so this so half credit mandatory class Yeah so basically like the way so with the passing of like the new the health the con State healthy framework like we have like what ninth grade as you guys know like PE health is kind of like it's a little bit of P get pulled up or out little p a little bit of Health um so this course helps us fits the state requirement as well as allowing us to hit all those standards so this will be a standalone whereas ninth grade we had
168some of them but it's in and out this will be it's Standalone piece and we'll have to take a look at that ninth grade model next to see if that's still going to work or if we need to make that kind of stand along standing system okay so I just look at some of the questions there you know the definition of mental health and then the food pyramid chain later down and all this kind of stuff you know is this requ is this really necessary it's required Topics by the state it's part of Stand St but as a mandate I mean it's the health standards yes that you're there's certain topics you have to hit including like mental health the nutrition and all that stuff yes I'm just speechless because you know the mental health
169and the food thing and you know we yeah like red dye is big thing right now we knew red dye was bad in 1950 you know and we're still putting that stuff you know so we're going through all these questions of mental health you know this guy that just killed the healthcare guy was a elevator and a genius you know he must have had pretty good mental out there in part of his life and he's in NC case so where does the student body fit into this you know you know most most of this came from the church and Boy Scouts and other things you know that these kind of values and stuff were developed before you got into school it wasn't the school's mandate to teach me what to eat you know and now
170all of a sudden it's a a mandate that we have to somebody that hey you know guess what they were wrong you can actually eat eggs and it doesn't blow your brain and it doesn't build cholesterol Up So for 50 years they've been wrong you know so this could be I don't know I'm not against it I think it's anything you learn but it's like just going down a path that everybody should be coming from the family and church and Scouts and other Civic things and not buing up school they should be learning math and business other you know things that will help you when they get out of but anyway mightst abstain motion carries great thank you and there's a couple course proposals that will be coming forward in January I hope um web
171uh mobile apps web design and um Forest uh forensic so we'll be talking about those um as Eric said the book stack curriculum um program will be up and running and then we're going to be talking about some course sequencing literacy math and a lovely PSAT satat um project and that was it for curriculum thank you hey policy Nicole I'll be quick we have one policy it's the suicide prevention and intervention policy it's down for a second read um at the last meeting we talked about the fact that we reviewed this back in June of 2024 we tabled it because we wanted a chance to have Dr Brown our medical advisor to weigh in on it he's reviewed it he asked that there no changes being made it's pretty straightforward it's the the idea if
172you think there's a kid in trouble that it triggers certain reporting and certain actions taken by any um District employee and that's what's laid out here so does anybody have any questions or concerns hearing none I'm to make a motion that we approve the policy as written second all those in favor I I all those obain motion car motion carried there was another one any opposed oos I forgot the opposed so I apologize so all those in favor I all those opposed abstain motion carries Finance all right I'll make it quick we met a couple weeks ago as you heard we're going to be meeting on Monday to get a first cut of the budget right and we're going to have the meeting regarding budgets um just really level these these numbers priority outd but
173cumt and expenditures 33.6 million so far leaving 1.5 million of availability um we officially have finalized flood expenses $33,000 um we discussed some minor um re uh Personnel changes um we did go through the central activities fund and and the school funds as well um we did go through Howard presented some budget transfers as he does periodically or every month um there were some changes need to be approved we're going to do that with a motion in a moment as we always do for board policy um from the pecard discussions we've been having um how is going to continue forward with JP Morgan um everything that we thought contractually was going to you know with the state card is is going to stay intact even though the state left JP Morgan to go to a
174different uh provider um just for example on peard paying a T&T bill over the year that's going to create a $5,000 rebate um so that's good news 5% yeah sorry 5% um um I think the one item that Rick was talking about earlier that we should touch on is there was you know the $250,000 um Gap in electricity do the community fees which is close you know generated close to 30% uh that we not planned for um I think Howard so far I think we've had some favorability in hiring lines where we didn't fill a role I believe um yeah and we moved some other money around we' had favorability I don't if we want to go deeper but it's up to you just highlight one or two so okay so the biggest move was
175that um we aren't fully last year if you recall the board added a bcba to the special education there was one in there we added another one we haven't fully utilized that so that created like $120,000 because it was I think the total cost is60 so we haven't fully utilized that this year and we're not going to continue fully utilizing it so we're able to take some of that fund and that that made a big portion that was the largest portion of that transfer that covered that that Gap that we have the budget um there was also in the we always have a line item in there for degree changes there were no degree changes this year in the in salary so that's $50,000 so that's another piece of it so if you start adding
176pieces we pulled together other pieces smaller much smaller numbers but it got to about $250,000 that then was moved into the electricity line um you've also seen the report that I have in in my monthly report it's the the analysis and we're we're we're running a little hotter than 850,000 but I think we're so early in the year we have to wait and see with the new system functioning and we're supposed to be say making the savings there so I'm hoping that as we progress through the year we'll start to see the bills go down which will then drop that number back into the 850 range so um than question till in that VI good no it sounds like you know you're you're looking my concern is you know what what are we doing to
177look to see where we can get the money to make can and fund yeah I think we're pretty I think we're pretty covered on that it's just a matter of Now tracking it on a monthly basis which is what I'm doing and I'm putting that that report into my monthly report I think you're find as we go through this budget process I think what you're going to find in the board that we have this year covered very well by moving some piece around and with the degree stuff Our concern becomes next year the impact the increase is going to be and that overall net for the overall budget increase which right now we can't make up that's that those are funds that are going to be added to the budget that's unaccounted for that's going
178to be an automatic increase to the percent that we're asking for corre and that's going to be the big impact that we're concerned about is next year's impact what makes meia is going to be very interesting when it comes to that especially that line because the concerns that that not the not suppos you put the one before that we put in extra money for oil oil was going out of site correct and and then last year for this year we didn't put that in there because oil prices were kind of stable and and it's been pretty warm so I don't know if there's Savings in the oil bill you know electric bill and I think you brought the point up is we put all this new equipment in here you know we should be saving
179some money because we're paying capital expenses to get all the stuff in it should have some notable reduction in what we can soon and and you can help me out on this because mostly for my own knowledge the supply part of your bill okay is the big part okay your percentag is for all the all the part the distri is the bigger part you have generation you have delivery those are your two pieces and delivery ends up being about 60% of the bill and the generation is about 40% of the bill you cut the supply part the Generation all the other parts are percent all the other parts are percentage of of your supply them no well just way the B the bill is very detailed and there's and it has it it's based on
180the kilowatt hours usage exactly right so if you use less kilowatts that's one bill that's both sides go down both sides both sides both use kilowatt so it doesn't matter but it's if you use less kilowatts yes your entire bill is going down saying the generator of reducing the second part is the first part and I think we're agreeing on that you use less you pay less for all the other government cor charges so I was just trying to see if we're focusing on efficiencies in the building because I sat seven years ago we had all kinds of ducks and baffles and automatic things and we're cutting electricity by 92% you know and the bill went up you know so I was just trying to focus that we're looking at it the same way that
181all this new equipment and things that we put in they should be generating you know some successes for to reduce our bills and I think that would be a nice thing to come out and bring out to the town and to the people the saying we've done these things we reduced our consumption even and our bills going up because of you know but there all this equipment everything we did should have a saving someplace that we could hel off you know put say we did something good there I think I think I think in theory you're correct but we won't know until at least another budget cycle that's that's right so we can measure it not this time next year we can start calculating comparing kilowatts used and then we can come up with hopefully
182a good story Community right and the other piece to this as Steve just said we don't know the impact until we go through the winter and the spring and the summer to see what the energy and efficiency is the other piece to this let me just finish this out is that this building never had air conditioning and now we're talking about something that's running multiple months that didn't have anything before on top of that the town government signed a eversource lease for us to pay for part of this project that we are going to begin paying for that's that noton no interest Lo loan pay payable over 5 years so if you just do the math it's $200,000 a year that's being added to our budget that we never budgeted for so while it might
183be energy efficiencies we're also now pay I'm just saying those are important points that should be brought out so that AC you'll be when you see the budget on Monday you'll that is one of the biggest drivers of what you're going to see when the percentage comes when I close the budget on Monday and show you what that first pass is that's the it's probably the salaries are obviously a big driver but that is a big driver what the increase is going to be next year can we get a list I mean is it possible isn't there some end date on the community fees I heard there was some projected I thought it year but thought it was year we should probably get that and we should if that's documented we should model that that's
184a 30% increase and if we know when it cuts off we could could model that to be sure it's come yeah I think we we should find that out a good point and that money for the that the town signed that we never agreed to yeah um that's a lot of money for out of our budget wasn't there some dialog back did we ever send an email Offa sorry Jima I know it's a hit but but that's that's a large amount of money that we had had not been done we didn't and we didn't agree to it it was supposed to be paid for on the town side not okay um yeah so those are highlights it's getting late and tally we have January 14th as a second round review of the budget if you
185guys mark C we need to V on transfers oh yeah got motion so back to them we got into the annual monthly budget transfers to make a motion to um approve budget transfers um her the finance deck attached to the board meeting put together by Howard gotta fix that any seconds second all those in favor opposed abstained motion carries okay leaa report thanks Festival of trees everyone come on down this weekend Friday isza with Santa and the actual Festival will be all day Saturday looking very festive over at P any updates I missed the last meeting do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to any second all those in fav