001yesterday what was it Ella leaves a month from yesterday she does kind of so she knows she's not on a weight level correct okay yeah so they can't she hasn't officially gotten a dorm assignment but because she but because she hasn't gotten notification she's on a wait list that means she's somewhere on campus that's good that's a really hard yeah we're live foreign [Music] thank you everyone for your patience um we are back so I'd like to welcome uh Miss Doran our director of Food Services to give us our food services update awesome thank you um I am just here this evening to provide a very quick update on the status of free meals so for the duration of the pandemic we've been able to provide meals free of charge breakfast and lunch to all
002the students in the Watertown School District when we come back from winter vacation so starting Tuesday January 3rd unfortunately that is coming to an end and we will be but we'll be back to the traditional paid reduced and free meal system so the way free meals just so you have a little bit of background work this year is the state gave us 321 thousand dollars to cover meals as far into the school year as we were able to um capturing the meals from September October and November we serve 37 297 breakfast 755 lunches and based on those projections we know that our funds are going to be um used up at the end of December so we have sent out our preliminary email to All Families to let them know of this we will send
003out a few additional emails this month and then right before we come back from break break reminding families of this we are of course encouraging and promoting the free and reduced lunch application because families that fill out the application and qualify for either free or reduced price meals will of course continue to receive those benefits the cost for meals when we come back in January is something that we discussed at a board meeting last spring but just as a reminder the costs for an elementary breakfast is 1.75 Elementary lunch is three dollars secondary breakfast is two dollars and 25 cents and a secondary lunch is three dollars and fifty cents um in addition to promoting the free and reduced lunch application we are also reminding and encouraging families to load funds onto their child's account
004through the my school box which most people are familiar with because that is the easiest way to make sure that your child has money for lunch um breakfast or lunch every day so that is all that I have to say about free and reduced meals we will keep trying to get the word out we want to get as many families to qualify to get the benefits that they're able to get any questions on the meal prices or this transition or free and reduced lunch applications thank you Mr and joining board members have any questions or comments yes what happens as we transition to students whose parents because they haven't for a while loaded those funds on or kids are left without funding for lunch is there a plan in place for so the state of
005Connecticut required our district to have a charge policy which was something that we worked on last year Dr Villanueva and I and our cabinet team um students will be permitted in those types of situations to charge their breakfast or lunch and then we have a series of procedures that will reach out to the family send home the free and reduced lunch application and go through um the motion with the family to try to get things good on the back end but we will still absolutely be feeding all of the children you know in in that moment and not lunch shaming is the term that we're will not be one shaming anyone so there's some proactive and reactive ways to go about our charging policy the proactive ways are right now Emily and her interns will
006obviously continue on with promoting the free and reduced lunch applications but also to go through our my school books accounts and to say alert alert we can send them straight through our my school books platform to say that you have a low balance that'll give families just a reminder and an inkling to put some funds into there then on the reactive side sometimes we do have students who will go into arrears and when that happens there's continual communication but ultimately um need to feed our students yes the board members through the chair I do have a question um it's my understanding that these forms are sent to parents at the beginning of the school year and that if they received Freer to reduce lunch in the past they will get it again without having to
007fill out the form again is that true that is not true so when you apply it is only for that school year so families do need to reapply each year we did send home copies of the application with to students at the beginning of the year the first week of school in my emails I've included the link in all of our school secretaries have copies of the application so if they're Fielding phone calls they can get it home something new this year is we have a platform called my school apps which is an opportunity for families to fill out the free and reduce the same application but directly online and then it comes right to my office so it just cuts out a little bit of that processing time of the child having to bring
008it in the teacher having to get it to my office and then it going through that process the my school apps platform we started the beginning of this school year and we received 155 applications through that platform so it is being well utilized and I think a lot of families all the feedback that I've heard is that's a very user-friendly platform to submit it but to answer your question they will need to reapply if someone's not sure what their meal status is we've been encouraging them to call my office but the best thing to do if you're not sure is just submit the application again because it doesn't hurt to put it on file again thank you any other board members have any questions or comments I just had a comment I mean would it
009be who of the district just to send out a reminder email again is there a way to like check the box hey I did receive this and we're good to go type of thing Emily will and I know she's continuing to so we can continue to send out more blasts yeah yeah just um maybe even but what box just so I understand what your idea is because I'm open to any ideas because we're I know I'm personally inundated with a million emails but something like this which is important for a response back in some way like just to check the box like hey I read this we're good or hey I read this I'm sending what I need to back in so I'm of them it's almost like you know like when you have to
010scroll then you have to check just to be like hey we did receive this okay so just to give Clarity I mean that that was my thought so I don't know if we have the ability to to do acknowledgments but what I was gonna say was um to go and look at the the email stats right the open rates and things like that to see what the impact is engage is it being open because I think pretty quick you're going to have a have an indication if only five percent are opening the email chances are most people aren't aren't seeing it or getting it right and we can rethink it um or rethink other ways to try and get the information in front of them the other thing I was going to add was if
011it's possible um on each school's page to put a quick blurb with a link in either a special message or the button to the right page or something I'm a big fan of what I call drip marketing if you put it in lots of different places they'll eventually recognize it and pick up on it say oh that applies to me maybe I should do something maybe I should read that um so just some food for thought so Emily and Michael I'm sure that you guys can figure out some good ways to go ahead and operationalize this thank you seven different ways seven different times yeah yeah any other board members questions or comments awesome thank you Mr storm thank you thank you all right um gender agenda item J uh presentation of the csde required
012reading curricula program for pre-k through third grade Dr B all right wonderful thank you um so this is something that's been um in the works with the Connecticut State Department of Education for some time and went up to largest legislation last year and it was essentially passed um it's Public Act number 21-2 section um let's see 10-14 HH and 14 um II or two and ultimately what it is is a discussion about reading programs and how we teach reading inside of public school districts um and basically what has come to fruition here is that beginning July 1st 2023 all school districts in the state of Connecticut must use one of I believe seven or six uh reading programs as approved by the Connecticut State Department of Education um just to give a little background on
013it inside your packet you received on the weekend just the guidelines they use to actually vet the six or so programs and then tonight I handed out two more documents here I was just going to talk a little bit about the five components of reading which this is just contextually based on then the six programs so in a very reductive and short kind of synopsis of what's been happening in the world of literacy this is a century-long kind of debate of how we teach reading to children whether we do it through um things like phonics and uh and kind of being able to decode reading or if we're teaching reading through literature for reading for meaning as you know as humans we don't just decode words we also have to understand what we're reading and
014so there's a balance of Two And so over a time span of more than 100 years there have been two camps of how we go about teaching reading and every so often in education the pendulum swings and one Camp kind of wins out of what the flavor of the day is and how we teach reading um so we're kind of at that Crux now and what's happening here is that again still the same thing Rings true is that in order to be a good reader and literate reader and and you know all the components of reading we need to make sure that we are teaching reading in a way that includes and you'll see in the second document here the five components which includes phonological awareness and I'm going to throw out some really technical
015terms here our literacy people will know them um the average person I don't think typically thinks about phonemic awareness but there's one of the terms so teaching reading typically includes phonological awareness skills phonemic awareness um skills the study of words phonetically and then also the ability to read fluently the ability to have a wide and vast vocabulary and then finally the ability to be able to comprehend what it is that you're reading when you look at the legislation I don't think anybody would disagree that all of those five components need to be part of a robust and sound literacy experience um where we seem to be having a little rub here is that we are now obligated to choose one of only six or seven options um this has become a very Hot Topic in
016the state of Connecticut and you will see that of our 169 school districts a number of superintendents as well as educators are just puzzled around why we have only six or seven to choose from as there are many resources out there in the world of literacy that would help us achieve the five components of reading um in the end I see always both sides of the argument one is that we do have some students who are not meeting reading proficiency and we have students like that in our district as well and so sometimes there is a way to say hey well here's a program we know it works everybody do it and then everybody should be okay but we also know on the other hand that look at any natural standard deviation curve you'll always
017have camps on either end of that curve of students who won't be met with any off-the-shelf program and so in that respect right now there is a back and forth going on with the State Department of Education as well as the superintendent's organizations to say give back a little bit of autonomy to the school district so that school districts can choose what resources we can utilize to fulfill those five components um the other kind of just layer on top of this because we are rule followers here and I Look to Lisa fekity because she's our partner here in curriculum you know we did our due diligence and taking a look at at least just at the very surface level how much some of these would cost for the number of students we have here in
018our district and of course it's not a unilateral decision that we would make on our own we would bring it to the curriculum Council we would bring leveled Educators from all of our buildings to come together and vet these programs but the one that particularly Lisa and I really kind of gravitate towards was almost 800 000 for just our district alone and you know that our district is only um three primary and elementary schools so a lot a district like Waterbury where they have lots of schools um you know it's just a matter of scale as to what that price looks like so it's very costly as well so I wanted to bring it to the board's attention that it is something that is in legislation now that needs to be in place by January
0191st uh June 1st sorry July 1st 2023 however we are doing our due diligence fiscally you will see it show up in my superintendent's proposed budget because that is something we'll need to plan for but there is a lot of context going back and forth right now and so I will continue to bring the board up to speed on where um they finally land I do hope that maybe there is an opportunity to face some things in we are kind of in a unique unique situation now for our district as well because we are up for a need of new resources so we're actually at a good time it's just a matter of do we have to choose from one of the six or seven can we not go to some other choices um and
020that's that's what this is about so I'll let you read through some of these through the chair um thank you thank you um question Dr Villanueva how does this affect um the special needs Community because I know those children there's definitely not a one-size-fits all in any way shape or form absolutely I know my son goes through three reading programs I mean what's pieced together to help him alone let alone all the other children um so how does that affect what they're trying to do on a high level absolutely and I think there's again and I'm not going to be able to represent every perspective out there because there's many there's also a very large contingent of students who have who are part families who have students who have dyslexia yes and the world of
021the science of reading and systematic reading programs is a very very important part of the student's life if they have dyslexia so in this respect you will see some programs that say this is a systematic reading program it will help your child with dyslexia in that respective but if you were a parent who had a student with that disability you would surely want that particular program but again those are our students who may or may not fall right in the scope of things and so a program like this I would say in my best opinion to share with the board would not be sufficient for all students I do think you would grab you know a good portion of your students but you wouldn't hit everybody and that's why it's so important to have an
022array of resources because every one of our students has a different way of learning particularly if we're in Special Needs population thank you the way I look at it as well is that that's like your core instruction and all kids get exposed to some form of that core instruction and then the things that you may need to do to achieve mastering with students is is beyond the core instruction many of the programs also do have built-in differentiation or the ability to drop down to lower grade levels so that enables a teacher in the classroom to differentiate um but then there's also programs that are just designed for kids that need that tier three or special needs students with dyslexia and we do also offer those kinds of programs as well so I think this program
023would offer everybody just a nice any one of them really would offer a nice systematic way to teach all kids have them be exposed to core instruction and then anything else that they would need we would also provide Dr V before I open up to other board members um when you started looking at these six or seven approved did you also look at outside of that and and is there other resources available that we could accomplish the same things and if so what's the cost comparison if you happen to know that right and so yes I would I would call that a la carte and so when we saw the very heavy price tag you know there is again something very nice to be able to just pick the Box off the shelf however when
024you have that type of price tag how do we do this for um perhaps a different price point there are definitely programs out there that we can purchase there's also training we can give our faculty to do the same types of things with students that can assist with this I was actually surprised that certain programs didn't show up on the list and that it was down to the six or seven um so the answer is yes I think we can piece piece together other resources to to achieve what they're trying to achieve as well any other board members have questions or comments Dr Villanueva you said that you and other superintendents are going back to them and finding out why it has to be these six or seven and the heavy cost involved since there
025is such a large cost involved can you find out why they don't care about reporting on the data I mean there is we're spending we're going to be potentially spending a lot of money but yet they're not requiring any reporting on the metrics I find that odd yep and I I can certainly ask that I mean certainly right now um we have requested the rubric and it's actually in the guideline package in your packet as to how they vetted the six that came up with the six or seven and you'll see that there's a rubric back there that kind of shows what um they use however we don't know what some of the other programs or these actually scored um so that's definitely something I can certainly ask for I think overall the data Earth
026metrics is to see everybody's scores improve in literacy um I'm sure that's probably on the way next to request that any other board members so my closing thought is um you know kind of a 30 000 foot um overview which is it amazes me at the the more stuff that comes down from state and federal department of education more mandates more expense why why are our outcomes flat or going the wrong way you would think with all of this money and technology and Brilliant thinkers that we would see exponential growth in our educational program and it and it's just not the case and it's not just Watertown it's across the state um and I'm a firm believer of getting back to basics um I think Simplicity um and recurring programming you know for lack of
027a better term Hammer's at home with kids you know whether it's reading and literacy or it's math you know addition subtraction multiplication tables you know how long it took my my son to learn multiplication tables just because of how it's mind-boggling and so you know I would be a big proponent obviously the friendly reminder to this board is we are agents of this state right we we must follow the State Department of Education um but I would be interested in in weaving our curriculum um accordingly to fit with what we know will work what will help move the needle for our kids um keep us compliant but also that's that's fiscally responsible um and my closing thought is um you know I feel so strongly about that and the fact that the state wants to
028literally throw an a three-quarters of a million plus unfunded mandate on us anybody any reminder where our budget is currently Mr catuccio Right we we need you know we can't buy uniforms right but they want to throw that down at us if anybody is interested I am happy to do another letter to the education committee because they still haven't responded to the one we sent in the spring let alone acknowledged it um so I will put that out there I believe it's our duty to not only be Advocates at this table but also to be voices um to the state because enough is enough if we're not happy with what's coming down I think it's our responsibility to to be a voice and if we know other boards of Education members in other towns to
029to let them know that they should speak up as well all right I will step off of that soapbox let me go back to okay um agenda hey items for discussion so at the board's November 14th regular meeting we voted on an action item to accept a donation from the Water Oak Community Women's Club consisting of an annual subscription of the heroes of Liberty book series for each of the Watertown Elementary School libraries while the motion passed to accept the donation it has raised questions from board members and so we wanted to take wanted to continue the dialogue on that topic tonight to begin Dr Villanueva will review the process for accepting donations from the public and the applicable board policies that are taken into consideration the board members will have the opportunity to ask
030Dr V questions about the process upon completion of that review we will move into a discussion about the heroes of Liberty series specifically to start that discussion I will ask Miss Lawton and Miss helion to comment first and provide insight and Clarity on their concerns board members will then be able to respond accordingly while this will be a dialogue I would like to remind board members to not speak until I have recognized you so that we can allow each board member to speak freely and uninterrupted and allow board members to clearly hear all that is being said Dr V turn it over to you so in your packets uh policies the first one because we're talking about the acceptance of a donation is policy 3020 from our business series and ultimately this is just talking
031about any type of gift or Grant or a bequest to the district and so the donation would fall under that and ultimate ultimately what we're seeing here is that anything that's valued of 500 or under would meet the criteria of the regulations that are on the back of the policy in your packet there and again it does give over um some autonomy to the superintendent in consultation with you know the buildings in which our donations go to discuss how it would be most suitable to work in our school district so that is what the business gift grants and requests to the district policy is about the second bundle and you'll see a number of policies but they're all under non-discrimination I wanted to also bring up just very importantly that under community board operations students
032Personnel um did you don't think I'm probably missing one we have a non-discrimination policy and so um something that I certainly would lead through if we were going through any regulations is that if we have anything that is being donated um I would want to always make sure that we aren't um you know going over on our non-discrimination policy and again just to the first paragraph in that 11 40 is the most basic statement to say that it is the policy of the Board of Education that any form of discrimination harassment on the basis of race religion color national origin ancestry alien and sex sexual orientation marital status age disability pregnancy gender identity or expression veteran status or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law is prohibited whether by students born employees or
033third parties subject to the control of the board so that is something that is important to our district and I do believe I won't speak for everybody but on behalf of the board that is one of our most important policies here in our district the last policy that I I put in here um as part of this discussion is actually the Student Activity funds policy now donations don't always go into Student Activity funds but sometimes they do and typically when they do go into school actually sorry not students but School activity funds um the superintendent again or the designee which is typically the principal serves not only as a treasurer of the school activity fund But ultimately has some ability to think about the operations of how those donations and funds can be utilized appropriately
034in their building and or District so I just thought those three kind of bundles of policies would be important as the board engaged in conversation this evening and I just wanted to put it out there so that you have the specific language around donation thank you Dr V so um as it relates to donation of content material um written written resources books magazines periodicals Etc typically um the value is not going to be 500 or more right it might be a couple of books here and there so if I understand this each building administrator would have oversight of um review to ensure that it is appropriate um for that school um so so typically I'm not going to be able to capture every single instance because there have been many donations to our school districts
035we're we are also a school district that accepts fundraising and donations I would say more so than some other districts who have more stringent policies on that so I would say that typically when donations come in um it is more it's an it's an open open-ended way of which donations are created so they will say here's two hundred dollars um being given to the uh theater club for the use of the Alice in Wonderland play and I'm just arbitrarily made that up then it would be up to the folks who manage that account to be able to say okay well we need theater curtains and so that 200 will be put towards that and then the letter is given to the person who's donating typically um donations that come in aren't as pointed unless it's
036an actual like an instrument which you'll see on tonight's agenda sometimes like we have tools going into our shop things of that nature but when it comes to the operational kind of resources of the school typically it's coming as a monetary amount for a particular group or event Zone and so forth but if there is a physical note donation non-monetary the intent is that whether it be the building administrator Library staff before putting it out in the library would simply do a cursory review to Sure help ensure it's you know the intent is that it's appropriate for that school sure yes okay do any board members have any questions or comments for Dr V hearing none I would like to turn it over to miss Helene Miss Lawton and um for their initial comments and
037go from there watch some of all this online together to have some visual of kind of some of the concerns so that it clarifies it's not coming from our mouths what the concerns were and I'm glad we're able to talk all together because I think there was some misunderstanding an initial review when we accepted the gift just from kind of initial review of the website of Heroes of Liberty that's where the term anti-wolt came from it was not any of our language but it was one of the ways directly on the heroes of Liberty website in kind of purviewing what this subscription entailed that's where that language came from so it was advertised directly as counter I think it was countering cancer culture anti-wolf some of the concern was not from the literature itself or
038you know if you want to have the who the biographies are about is really not a concern I have not read them that was less of a concern rather than the fact that this has come before the board we voted to align ourselves and approve it and some of the very strong language in messaging that comes if you look kind of even through those screen graphs some of the messaging that you'll see in there outrightly accuses schools there's language in there as Educators School brainwashing woke to post teachers it has very strong anti-scholastic book language and when we compare it to some of the policy from tonight you know in accepting gifts grants requests to the district we want to have a purpose consistent with the purpose of the school district not endorse any business
039or product their messaging and Mission and towards the end of those make it clear we have made it our mission to create an alternative to the Deluge of mind-numbing woke propaganda goes on to ask families to sign a petition against Scholastic book and I think more importantly too in further research is when you mention the anti-discrimination policies we have for personnel and student students there's some slides in there also I'll just read it quickly what happens when a tail a tale a story exposes a child to mental illness and tries to tell him or her that choosing craziness and distorting their own sexuality is really salvation so that further goes on and says that they're referencing that is a book about a transgender child we wouldn't allow a school to offer our children a pornographic
040magazine why would we allow the woke to puss um to offer that so there's pretty strong language they are calling lgbtq children referring to that as mental illness and craziness I just think since it has come it's a subscription it's an ongoing gift and one hour that has come up before the board so we look and we kind of review things and we want to feel like we're aligning ourselves with what we're publicly accepting given that it does have such a strong outrightly stated Mission and kind of a almost anti kind of undermining Educators it does have language involving anti-lgbtq sentiment which is in contradiction with our anti-discrimination policies it's not only not about who the biographies themselves but it's I think it raises questions and we want to stand and say you know we're
041you know this is something that we are supporting and we want an anti-educator Mission um being introduced into our schools Miss helian did you have anything you want to add um no I think Alissa said most of it and these slides I think say it all that's why we took some screenshots um again it just shows the message in that we have had the concerns about that schools you know this messaging is very much anti-schools accusatory of our educators of brainwashing um and that they are you know abusing their Authority basically with our children says in there at one point um and just talks about um you know that basically that you can't be trusted to send your kid to school and I just don't think that um aligning like Liz said as a board
042to something that is this much against what we as a board of ed should be you know valued you know as a value in what our um what we our our mission here basically as a board is to back our education systems and provide for our kids and education system that is fair and um this just goes completely against I think what we should be standing for as a board of education so to back it I feel like is contradictory and it shouldn't be something that we align ourselves with and like Liz said even with these guidelines about gifts there are three that I could highlight right now that go somewhat against this gift because someone goes against whether it's not to imply endorsement of any business or product conflict of any provisions of the
043school code or public law pose cons and it should have a purpose consistent with the purpose of the school district I don't think that that has a purpose in line with our district and again it's not necessarily about the books we don't we haven't read those so we don't know yet what's what kind of material those are um the more concerning thing is we're accepting this these books the subscription basically that's what at least accepted a subscription from a company um that it's clear on and and we're saying that we accept this gift from them and all their messaging all their um promotional videos go completely against what we should be standing for as a board of education thank you both for that Clarity um before I um turn over to board members so we're
044talking about their their online presence their their logs they're on their videos their online content correct it we're not talking about the books we haven't seen the books so we don't know we can only go off of what the they okay so my my concern is the donation was for the books books of Harriet Tubman and Thomas South and Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and right [Music] um and so I don't I don't let me pivot for a second Dr V is there any plan that you're aware of to link to any of this content on on our websites or to promote anything other than putting these books in our libraries because they were donated so I haven't actually received anything as a yet uh right so historically I don't think we would ever put
045anything on our website's linking to a vendor outside of a curriculum based effort and so my my concern is that we're having a conversation of of books that haven't been reviewed and we're talking about something that the district will never even put out in the public space so are we really potentially violating any of our policies with with these books we haven't seen the books but I'm imagining also that the books have some sort of like Heroes of Liberty labels on them my concern again is we're saying that we approve these things it's linked to that we don't know what's in the books I guess my I have no problems with having biographies about those peop those individuals but why can't we go back to I mean and maybe this is a question for Miss
046palumba I I'm just curious what was the dis like was there a reason behind this company being chosen for the gift of responder I'm a part of the watero community Women's Club which is made of women from Watertown Oakville area of all Races colors Creeds religions backgrounds um and the books were vetted there's also one of our members who is also a member of the wall of Honor here at the high school we provide scholarships to high school students and it was a way of we to honor a child who passed away and the family was in full agreeance with let's do do books Let's input her name in the books as a memorial to her um that's all there is to it um I question it's it's sad that you haven't read the books
047because they're fantastic the ones that we've read so far um so I don't see that any books going forward would go off the rails No One's Gonna say hey that Hitler he's a great chap that's not happening um you're questioning this this publisher have you gone through the library and questioned every other publisher what is their stance you haven't so I just feel that this is a little misdirection here we should be talking about the books it's about public figures who've persevered had obstacles they needed to overcome diversity issues and it's all shown in a positive manner if you just opened up some of these books and read them you would understand that so if I may uh I want to clarify your question as part of the vetting process was was a decision made
048on these books because of the publisher or because of the books because books and all the different ranges of people that they covered like sorry no no I just want to clarify that's not really like what I guess my question is like were you aware of the messaging that they send when you chose this Publishing Company because I I feel like we can get those same biographies probably from other publishing companies that don't necessarily I feel like go against and like so so yeah the school that aren't against schools and Educators and I guess talk I mean they really talk badly about schools and Educators and tell you you can't be trusted so I guess my question is like why this Publishing Company when we could get those biographies from another publication company yes okay
049it's we didn't choose a publishing company we chose books that were geared towards elementary school children and they are books that they wouldn't really have access to like saying there are no children's books geared towards Margaret Thatcher there are zero books geared towards are the women in our um Supreme Court or latest Supreme Court Justice there is not zero were you aware of the messaging that I had before you guys chose this company we don't choose publishing companies and their messaging we choose the books well the subscription is for a publishing company so it's not it's for the book series that the motion says that okay it's for the book series it's for the book series but it you're you're subscribing to this Publishing Company no we're subscribing to the book series right from the
050publishing company so I I don't have the first clue what the publisher or the president of McGraw-Hill says I don't have the first clue nor do I care do I care about the book that they have put out that's in our library yes I do I care about those books and what they have to say I could care less with their president CEO what they say I care about the content what is is it age appropriate and that's what I care about can I ask a clarifying question of course um I guess my clarification my understanding one is that this the heroes of Liberty is only this series that we are accepting a subscription for and I guess too for my own clarification if we're accepting a subscription ongoing from a company who's kind of
051stating that's their mission so it's not just a you know isolated book and this is the only books that they make does that make any difference in kind of looking at um you know whether there's a purpose consistent with the purposes of the school district I guess my concern is kind of looking for more clear expressing more clarification is for accepting this as a board in a public setting and saying we accept this when this is everything that they've kind of stated does that put us in a position where we're kind of saying um like yes we're in agreement with that and that's where my concern comes from because then if somebody does go and look and just types in just as we did Heroes of Liberty it's exclusively this book series all of the
052same um language is going to come up for anybody else that looks oh yeah the Board of Education approved this we're good with having this ongoing subscription for x amount of time to continue to contribute to our schools and that's where I would have an area of concern for you know that we're as a board of educational lining and accepting that subscription does it give it could potentially give the appearance that we're aligning with that mission so are you proposing that the Watertown Board of Education develop a policy where any time a book is brought in that we vet the publisher and if there's anything questionable we will not accept anything from that publisher my understanding of this is it's not just that it's a publisher it's a subscription and this is the only series
053that they produce this is all we're accepting are these books this series with that said it also goes to if if a book were to come in and either a building principal or a library staff member felt it was questionable they're empowered to not put it on the Shelf they're actually responsible and if I'm Mis misstating please let me know but I would like to think that our District staff that that specialize in those areas and have ultimate responsibility have the power to say yeah we we this is questionable and bring it to and Mrs faculty a Dr V and and vet it before it's put out there I would hope that's being done with with all books that are coming in I'm not sure it is but that that's hopeful and so if the
054books beyond what is listed on their website now let's say hey let's say they they do one on Donald Trump okay and it comes in if if it is whatever makes it inappropriate for our elementary schools they're empowered to not put it on the shelves and so I think we have to rely on our District staff to vet what goes in front of our children and if it's brought to our attention that there's something inappropriate then we as a board have a responsibility to oversee how it's addressed and deemed do we need to do more do we actually have to create a more a more um focused policy but as I will say to people who will make generic statements about listen we all know there's stuff out there there have been plenty of examples
055of educators not doing right things is it common no but we know it's out there but what I say to people in the public is I don't want to hear your Twitter and Facebook talking points if you have a legitimate documented concern of Watertown Public Schools then you bring it to the teacher the building principal the superintendent and it will go through the chain of command if it gets up to to the board then we decide where to go do we need to have um uh you know a policy and labor committee do we need to look at an existing policy and tweak it do we feel that there is no policy and so we have to create one um that's that's our job as far as oversight but I think if we were to
056go and research every publisher and their staff and and who their authors are at the end of the day we're probably we're probably gonna have Barren shelves because let's be honest every publisher probably has something hidden somewhere so I think as a board we should focus our attention on what physically comes into our schools because we can't stop anybody from going out on the internet they might find it regardless if they look at the book or not yeah so please go ahead I just want to say though I feel like somebody giving a donation of a book and dropping off at the library or whatever and leaving it for a donation to me is very different than what we're approving or agreeing to because what the gift said was we were agreeing to accepting a
057subscription from a publishing company that's the only reason the publishing company is like on the table here excuse me is because like that's how it was presented as a subscription from this Publishing Company it wasn't like it was you know we didn't it didn't come and say here we have some biography books that we're going to get to the library that are on Harriet Tubman and all these other people President Lincoln all that Abraham Lincoln whatever um it was presented as a subscription to a company so again it goes back to these points these bullet points that we have here in front of us of whether so if I may interject can you show me where we mentioned the Publisher's name in the motion or the the introduction book series yeah that is the publisher
058Heroes of Liberty but if you if you go to so that's why again it seems like it's but if you go to heroesofliberty.com also an endorsement to they all chose the books so I mean on the front page I'm gonna I'm gonna look at the other areas on the website you find these other things again so then for me my problem is then we're aligning ourselves with accepting this subscription of a company and it's very clear their message so to me it feels different than just saying here's some books we dropped off their biographies whatever then we're accepting the subscription of this company and or you know publishing company and so we agree with it so if we just accept it if they dropped off two piles of books would be good it might be
059different yeah because I don't think I would be saying like I agree with this Heroes of Liberty what's there like I cannot I can't feel good about accepting a gift that sits here and bad mouths schools and Educators and tells you you can't have you can't your children can't you can't trust that your children are being closer towards the bottom after the books um you know that you can't trust that parents can't trust our schools and our Educators with their kids like I just don't see how we as a board can say that's okay I'm gonna open up to any other board members have any comments I do I have a comment I have a lot of comments right now so so I just want to say um we're hearing one side of the story
060about heroes of Liberty so if you actually go to their website and read through their blogs their blogs do paint a broader picture they're not just cherry picking talking points and I just want just for the record here you know half of this country feels one way half of this country feels another way we're in the midst of a great political divide and what has come out of kovid is parents are understanding and seeing a lot more of what's happening because of remote learning so through that there have been some concerns shown and heroes of Liberty came about as a way to not be preachy or political they came about as a way to have a series of books that were unbiased because in the publishing world there's a lot of bias and and that's
061with with most things there's going to be bias so they wanted to avoid political bias and focus on providing children with positive role models while promoting the ideas of Freedom Liberty perseverance resilience we've talked about the lives of all these people like Harriet Tubman Clara bar and Thomas Soule I have the book series in my home they're phenomenal um it's it's just a wonderful wonderful series for children and they're not against teachers or Educators but what they are they have a problem with and with many parents in this country do again we're 50 50 divided is when there are Educators that do force their political beliefs and biases on students you know teachers and educators are not there to indoctrinate or be political activists they're there to educate our children and we have amazing teachers
062in Watertown and no one is saying that this is happening here but there have been many many instances across the country of this happening this series came about as a way to just cut through that and just give good education good good biographies to the kids you know um they run a Blog on their website and that can be shared on multiple platforms many you know some such as heartwarming stories to share with your family this Christmas why are children in Classic Hair stories with a focus on life lessons with positive role models books to teach younger children good values traditional games and activities to kill screen time so that kids are out there playing you know we talk about this whole anti-woke thing and you know we talk about this but really what it
063comes down to is they don't want to have political activism in the classroom and we seem to see that more and more so one of the blogs mentions how do you protect your child from political activism okay and personal ideology so how do you do that you do that by strengthening um and building trust with your child by giving your child attention by using warmth and empathy and being consistent with clear boundaries now I'm not sure how all of that is a problem but it seems to be a problem because I don't want Educators to be political activists they're there to teach okay that is the important thing um you know they go on to other topics I'm not going to get into other topics here today but the books promote an idea of Freedom
064Liberty and perseverance and you know we we talk about the fact that you know because we're talking about a slippery slope when it comes to censoring and book Banning and talking about these things because again you know you may not have a problem with the books but you have a problem with the publisher when if we decide to vet and talk about every single publishing company that would be next to Impossible because you know whose idea of what is morally right and what is morally wrong we all come from a different perspective and a different point of view but you know we have to think about these things um do we need to take a closer look at books that contain political bias and divisive topics maybe um but I think the most important thing
065that we need for our students is is building character traits of perseverance and resilience that should be just as important as the basics which we talked about earlier tonight of Reading Writing and arithmetic they need these skills for life more so than anything else and that is the core of what this book series is really about the Publishers about they're not against teachers they're not against the school system they're against political activism and ideology um no students should know the political points of view of any of our Educators they shouldn't know anything personal about our Educators they're there to do a job and teach that is the problem and you have one half of this country feeling one way and one half of this country feeling the other way and I think that's a little
066clear here but I think we should take it at face value to what the intent of the series is um some of these books are already in the library they're already in our libraries in the school system we've donated them already so you know if the problem is the publisher we don't want a subscription I'm very sure the water world Women's Club will just buy the books and drop them off we can do that too so that's my point of view thank you MRSA that's asking I'm gonna quote Dr V both sides I think that we have to remember and Mr chair you said before about us being agents of the state that we're not a political board I think that because of the advertisement that came with this and because it does present um
067the views of as as Ms Fresca said you know the divide one side against the other how do we as a board enable our kids and our families to have both sides feel heard and the only way we can be non-political is by allowing both sides that opportunity you know I think having this dialogue that you know now is on record is important because we at this table offer or or display both sides and I think that how we work together to come up with decisions that are good for our students is more important than saying one side is right or one side is wrong I think that we have this part from the blog that clearly does paint a picture but I think we have to look at the content and say we didn't
068know that all of this was out there but the books present a Viewpoint that should be accessible to families and students who want to read about that the same way and I I'm I'm going to just take a little bit of everybody tonight but when Miss fresh has said about a slippery slope I think part of the inability to have civil discourse and we talked about this before is that everybody feels like they have to be right and I think we have an opportunity to say everybody has a voice and that's the non-discrimination part that I see you know that discrimination comes in a whole lot of different ways and if we don't listen and we don't take the time to allow differences of opinions and viewpoints to be accessible and I do agree like
069I don't think you need to have a sign in your classroom that depicts something you need to teach I get that but I also think that kids should have the opportunities see both sides and not feel like so that's where I'm struggling with this like I don't feel like as a board I think it's great that we brought this here but I don't feel that as a board we can say that a book in our library or something shouldn't be there we have jurisdiction over curriculum and what's taught in the classroom but those materials that supplement our growth as thinkers I think are very important so that's where I sit like do I do I like the political piece comes first before we can even look at the books no but it's it's like throwing
070the baby and I'm going to use a little throwing the baby out with the bathwater like let's look at the substance of the materials and recognize that we don't agree on how this makes it look like we're taking sides that's my soapbox thank you Miss Hoskin any other board members have any comments well let me just say I think uh I I quite agree with Karen and what Christine said as well I I think we really do have to separate ourselves from the publisher and the books um maybe a poor example I love Ben and Jerry's truck with Chase buy them all the time but I don't like Ben and Jerry's political philosophy at all but I still buy their ice cream and drink their milkshakes uh the books and the books I like your
071idea of maybe someone could buy the books and donate them to the library and then we're not connected with them we just have the books uh Rob I know you said we don't know what the political philosophy is of Ohio Publishers but we still buy the books right so and I I can fully understand our friends on the other aisle uh this is very far right obviously and I think Fox News promotes them as well so it's very far right I would agree but the books or biographies and everyone that's read them said they're great I know then what do you think Cindy well I agree with you know the comments brought for us by Karen um that we have to be very careful where we try to make the Divide um who are we
072to say what's right or wrong it's a shame that this publisher has this out there I'm actually kind of glad that there's only very few likes on there for this but um I think the value of the books themselves to teach about these public figures that played such important roles in the history of our country especially for the age group is very important uh we can you know we can go back and ask if they don't mind donating the books themselves without having any name of the publisher itself just donate the books in the child's name as a wonderful memory so I will ask first Miss Paloma is that something that would be amenable oh yeah okay yes quick comment um I just didn't get a chance to talk oh I'm sorry no it's good
073to hear from anybody on the topic I know it's a challenging one but personally I I view it it was a subscription which was the gift I believe that was the the terminology there um you know and to me what my issue was is that it does imply an endorsement by taking a subscription I would just encourage all board members to actually watch the video and it came at an opportune time just because I watched that video after this we accepted it there and it was to me it's that puts us at ends with our own policy I just got done talking about bullying and harassment in our schools and in the promotional video on that page there I believe they use the term uh woke crybabies this is right in that main video they're
074endorsing the product there so that's my main conflict with it I feel that it does put it set odds with uh some of our own codes there thank you so yeah I just had a quick question is that the only video no I watched most of them did you watch the John Stossel one I don't know if I watched the John stuff so I did these a few weeks back there I did watch most of them and I did see because you'll see there are very different videos out there I encourage you to um I I would but that I went off for their main one that was the focal one when you scroll down and I encourage please all board members watch that video um but again I did not read the books I
075would I would love to read the books themselves there but this was for a subscription the the gift was for the books okay I want to make that very clear the gifts were in memory of a student it is the donation is the books not the publisher but the books the biography was it a subscription though that was the one I think it was used so you know listen I think I think I think we're in agreement I think we're in agreement that we we are apolitical we don't want undue influence on either side so would it be acceptable if the watero community Women's Club made the donation of the books and we either rescind the previous motion and have a new motion for a donation of the books and we can even describe which
076books we'll pull the books that are right on that are currently listed and that way we're accepting the donation of those 12 books um and I think it achieves the we we don't have a perceived um relationship or recommendation or tie or anything else to the publisher and we just keep it at the books I think we're all in agreement that's the intent there was no intent of of trying to slide in any you know internet influence on kids we wanted books in the in the school so I think would that be okay if we did something like that I don't have again I don't have issues with biographies I think the alarming part and if I can quote myself from our last me trusts our Educators to make sure we're providing resources that are
077appropriate I still do but again I think this was important to have this conversation from everybody on the record because it puts it out there so there is no miscommunication that when somebody sees in town times we've accepted humor Heroes of Liberty the Board of Education wants what and Googles and says this so I think I feel better that we had this conversation as a board on the record as to where we stand that that's not the goal that's not wasn't the intent we're on the same page that we're not trying nope like nobody's trying to push an agenda biographies are not the issue or censorship um but that it's just aligning us being cautious of how what messaging we're aligning ourselves with as a board has been the concern so yeah I don't I
078personally don't have issue with instituting biographies it was more aligning ourselves in that way with the messaging in the way that the motion was made the way it was come about and and shared publicly fair enough Miss hillian are you okay with us either rescinding or I have to look at Robert's rules to figure out the best way to go about it but either ascending or amending the motion um to not accept the subscription but accept the books yeah I would feel way more comfortable if we take the subscription out of it okay we're not aligning ourselves subscription was the word I I took me an issue with that okay um on this side anybody opposed to taking those steps okay so we will work on that for the the next board meeting um just
079got to figure out the logistics of if we need to rescind it completely or just amend the motion whatever's going to be cleanest so thank you everyone um I appreciate uh that dialogue and I think we're all on the same page as far as you know what it is that we want um in our schools okay foreign yes um we received a letter from Chief verniger and Dr B was able to get it all out to us in regards to the Tower Road entrance here at the high school and their involvement in terms of interviews so that is the only communication that we've received thank you committee reports back to you Miss Hoskin curriculum in the instruction none at this time Mr validity policy and labor thank you Mr chair we had a discussion on
080uh policies open discussion here on policy 3020 and then also got into the administrative regulations 3020r uh had a review of our policy 1140 and 1140r and uh the Personnel 4099 discrimination 490r sorry about this and 50 70. other than that no other updates at this time great just to add on to that we will be um an executive's disc uh executive session um uh at the tail end of our meeting we'll be uh discussing the working agreement between the board and the Watertown administrators unit so that will fall under the labor piece sir budget and finance thank you Dr V for Grant applications and literally looking under every thank you hello last minute meeting yeah and thank you board members for for jumping on uh for for that special meeting um Mr cavallas facilities
081PBC operations uh no report tonight Mr chairman thank you and Miss palumba governance Community engagement uh no report at this time but I do want to inform everyone that I will be sending out a reminder to families on the Facebook page to fill out the lunch forms awesome um okay um board chair report um I typically don't have much to say but when I do I have a lot to say so um there's always a lot going on in our district however I'm not sure most truly understand the depths of activity from the outside Watertown public schools are simply Educators however deep down within we are a business a business whose product Services educating the children of Watertown and Oakville it seems simple enough however here's a brief list of what is being worked on
082on a daily basis Staffing increases in enrollment increases in the need for special education services traffic pattern studies curriculum from the state Facilities Management Capital Improvement projects School climate at five different schools being an employer managing and following State legislation that it could impact our district curriculum review and development and of course the budget and navigating how we pay for it all and of course teaching our children and managing the many personalities that enter our schools each day from a board member perspective we have bi-weekly meetings throughout much of the year we have subcommittee meetings and the occasional special meeting to tackle time sensitive action items we have conversations with parents and Community leaders we keep a pulse on what is impacting education in our state and around the country and we do all of
083this voluntarily as we begin to close out 2022 I would like to thank my fellow board members Dr Villanueva her administrative team and all of our teachers and staff across our great district for continuing to give selflessly to our children regardless of what holiday you celebrate may you and your family celebrate together happily and healthfully may this time of year afford you time to rest relax to count the many blessings that you have and recharge so that we can hit the ground running in 2023. thank you Merry Christmas um all right agenda o action items okay um Miss Anita gregorsky Middlebury donated multiple picture frames to the Watertown High School art Department do I have a motion accept the generous donation of multiple picture frames to the Watertown High School art Department valued at two
084thousand dollars from Miss Anita gregorski and that a letter of appreciation be sent to the donor thank you Miss Phelan do you have a second I'll second that thank you Mr cavallis any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed of sentience motion carries Mr Mrs Johnson of Morris Connecticut donated a really BB trumpet oh B-flat I was I knew I was going to get it wrong uh a B-flat trumpet to the Watertown instrumental program at an estimated value of 1 295 so I have a motion yes Mr chair I believe that the Board of Education except the generous donation of a B-flat trumpet to the Watertown instrumental program valued at 1295 from Mr and Mrs Johnson and that a letter of appreciation be sent to the donor thank you Miss first I do have
085a second thank you miss palumba any discussion all those in favor I opposed abstentions motion carries the Italian family of Watertown donated a Yamaha trombone to the Watertown instrumental program at an estimated value of 1 499 so I have a motion yes uh Mr chair I moved to the Board of Education accepted Jones donation of Yama trombone valued at 1499 from the McGowan family and then a letter of appreciation be sent to the donor thank you Mr cavallas do I have a second a second that motion thank you Miss Phelan any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed abstentions motion carries all right um future agenda items and board member comments any board members have any future agenda items or board member comments hearing none all right um we will we need to go
086into executive session um for discussion regarding the working agreement between the Watertown Board of Education and the Watertown administrative associ administrators Association do I have a motion yes Mr chair I move that the board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing the working agreement between the Watertown Board of Education and the Watertown administrators Association attending the executive session will be Rob Makowski Chris the palumba Karen hosking John gavalas Cindy Phelan Kathy hillion Liz Lawton Dr Allison Villanueva and myself Jason malagudi thank you Mr malagudi do I have a second foreign any discussion all those in favor