Voluntown BOE Meeting 5/14/26

001Do we have Megan on for the recording? Mhm. Hi Megan. Hi, good evening. Okay. Well, we can call the Board of Education meeting, the main meeting, to order at 7:05. With that, we will rise to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> If you'd ever read our board meeting, I will read our Board of Education mission statement. The Wanaque Board of Education mission is to provide our students the skills essential to reach their highest potential in a safe environment for learning as they aspire to become responsible, respectful, and civic-minded members of society. We commit to help educate, challenge, and inspire each child

002to excel as lifelong learners who can adapt constructively in an ever-changing, multicultural, and technological world. Hi Lynn. >> [clears throat] >> Hi, come on in. Have a seat over there. Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome. Come over here. Maybe the students pick up those four chairs. It doesn't matter. You guys can come wherever. There's five or whatever. You guys can begin now. >> Who wants to get the sign-in sheet? >> [laughter] >> Is the top row full? >> [laughter] >> Yes, we'll do that after. Yeah, that would >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> All right. It works out well. It works. Oh, is Megan coming? She's They were just waiting for people. Oh, we're midway in the meeting. There's some more people coming. >> [clears throat] >> Hi. You guys can go right up there cuz you guys

003are cuz cuz the fun never stops. for the science fair that we were trying to close the door. Sorry. I guess if you're in charge of that, wow, that's >> [laughter] >> Aw. I think I'm going to So, we're going to start off with the student presentations. There's more chairs if you want to sit. It's up to you. >> [laughter] >> We can use That would be great. Yeah. Okay, so every year we um the junior high team selects two students um that exemplify specific criteria um including distinguished leadership in school activities and in daily life. All right? Um so, the first award goes to Kiyoshi Rosario. >> [applause] >> Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Sure, we'll do a picture at the end. Okay. >> [applause] >> And our second recipient of the Connecticut Association

004of Boards of Education Award is Michael Cruzio. >> [applause] [applause] >> Okay. So, the other award that we'll be giving out today is the Connecticut Association of Schools Scholar Leader Award. Trying to remember what I wrote here. Um so, [clears throat] um this uh middle-level Scholar Leader Award um is someone who demonstrates many qualities of a leader, someone who shines academically, um works very well with their peers, um is someone that, you know, is kind of a go-to person for the full staff. Um and we we um see this person as someone who um can do almost any task and is responsible. All right? So, uh the first recipient of this award is Callie Sanders. >> [applause] [applause] >> The second recipient uh is someone that just won the science fair for the second time

005in a row, She was a very well-rounded student and a leader within our school. She participates in um PTO events, the spelling bee, the National Junior Honor Society. These are all members of the National Junior Honor Society, by the way. And she has exemplary academic achievements, such as winning the science fair and so forth. She volunteers her time and she's a beloved member of our school community. So, this is for Michelle Cabrera. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Good job, follow her without loving you. Why don't you guys go that way? Scott, get in the picture, Scott. I'm ready. Thank you so much. >> [clears throat] >> Do you want to go right here? Underneath the board of family? Short? That works. And get the others in there. Scott, Scott, yeah, get in there, Scott. All ready?

006Okay. Are you two one? Okay, then I'll get in here. No, up behind you somewhere. >> [snorts] >> Perfect. Yeah. Awesome. Nice shot. Thank you. Refreshments. >> [applause] >> Good day. >> We're going to take a 5-minute break just to get some food and socialize a bit. Okay. Congratulations. Congrats, guys. We are calling the meeting back to order at 7:26. But, in the meantime, we did share a brief presentation to um some distinguished students in our 8th grade year. We just had a Cave and Pass Awards presentation. Meghan Glennon and um and Paige Kennedy and to react that um we're here to do the the celebration. So, we are honoring um um Michelle Cabrera and Hal Sanders and Kiyaki and Delo Leo and Michael Azikiwe. That was Yeah, something like that. I'm so bad with

007that. I can make it much better for graduation on that, but >> [laughter] >> we'll do all the things. Coming from a name that is very hard to say, I appreciate that. Um but, congratulations to the winners. And from there, we um we have a roll call. I think we are all present. We have all members here, right? Everyone's here, and Meghan is with us virtually. Excellent. Yep. And with that, um there were no public com- comments or correspondence, so we can move along to the consent agenda. If everyone had a chance to review that, are there any questions or do we have a motion to approve as presented? Make a motion. Second. On favor? I. Any nays? None heard. Motion passes. Moving to administration and district reports. It's the last month of the year.

008All right, so it's the final month of the I'm going to take my mask right now. Very long year. And that has happened. Um but we are in May. We recently had the sixth grade free dance, so that kind of starts the downward slide of like all the fun things that are happening. Um so we had that. PTO put on two great shows. I think you're going to find I talked about the first one um the last time, which was a STEM assembly, but it was set up inside the gym and we started really good classrooms through and they had like a building building challenge to do, so it was a great guy. He brought all the install materials in and they set up with the second one. I haven't posted pictures yet. Was um

009a reptile show because everybody got to hold snakes. So, we have lots of pictures of people holding snakes and all of these kinds of things. That was really a big hit. So that was PTO day. >> When was that? Um Monday. This past Monday. Yeah. Yeah. They were not reptiles. Yeah. I thought they were reptiles. I thought you brought snakes into this room. No. Today we couldn't He was in the hallway. >> [laughter] >> Um but it was really it was good. They didn't even have bunnies and other types of like little creatures, but um that was great. We did finish SBA. Um we have one or two students that still need to continue on with SBA. It closes on a certain date, so you have to make sure you just get that all of

010that in. We are doing our regular benchmark testing now, so that's all taking place at this time, finishing all of our data points. Um we are we're starting our preparation for the summer, so we do class lists and all those types of things that kind of get you out of the one year and into the next. Um As we look ahead, I did the did do the list of dates. So, that way then anybody was wondering about the dates on there, they're also online on our calendar. Um the biggest one will be graduation on June 15th, rain or shine. So, we'll be outside or inside if we have to. Um also our awards assembly for the end of the year is June 11th. So, June 11th, right around 10:00 or 10:30. All right. Well, thank

011you very much for the um rounding out the end of this year. I know it is just it takes the the whole entire village to get that done and and out of the longest winter we've ever known to man. So, it's a Yeah. And um And Night of the Arts is next week. You have to put a plug in for that. That's official. Can't forget that. May 20th? May 20th. Yep. And then after that will be track championships at NFA. That's pretty good. Good luck to track team or track team. Well, exciting times ahead. And of course, getting to chat with some of the eighth graders and then seeing the whole science fair. They do an amazing tremendous job on the science fair. We just um some of the board members were able to go

012through and take a look at all the projects and got to see the awarded ceremony. And it's um just really cool cool um research topics and they did they did such pride in what they do. They work out really hard on that. So, kudos to the It's the nostalgia cuz you remember when you did a science project when you were younger. It's a little bit more like 2.0 version now, but you know, you remember those things and the tri-fold and all that. I remember my mother dissected a fish very well. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> You know. Oh, you could just see how much they enjoy it. So, it's been You can tell that they're working. You can really absolutely The research element to it was And they're doing all that all the primary research and

013In the high school, you've got you know, almost every kid gets involved because there's only so many people to help them. And you're testing everybody within the building for your SRT, so Great. Well, thank you very much and we look forward to the upcoming events. Dr. Thompson? You've got I have a written report that's in your packet. I did I did update it as of today. The um census could be changed over the week. But the number of uh meetings that I've had today uh is a little higher It's a very busy month uh with a few regular uh meetings plus the transition meetings, which most of them are uh completed. They've gone pretty smoothly. Uh we've distributed um summer school letters to those students that uh qualify for that. And uh hopefully they'll come

014back in the time that they actually will be able to get started in June. Things are things are winding up and winding down at the same time. It's a busy time, but uh everyone's checking in and it's been it's been good. Do you have any questions so far as most What else can I give you? Um I have a question. So, with respect to our 12 plus kiddos Yeah. for next year, are any of them graduating or are they still Um enrolled in the 12 plus program? >> I have one that's um exiting because of age. Okay. And do we have any new kiddos enrolling into that program? I'd have to look back at my records. I don't think so. We've got to see if we have. I don't think we have any new kids.

015No, no new ones. Yeah, I was just curious about We did have some shifting students moving from one service to another one during that that time. Mhm. There's a company called Sharp. They provide vocational training for our students. So, family or students at the stage where they want to spend almost all of their time on-the-job training, Sharp provides that for us. >> And that was a new option that we had, right? That was new this year. It's new to our using it. Yes. And uh um we'll probably have at least one student using it next year. We had one student using it this year. That student's uh uh exiting because of the student's age. But another family um we had some conversations and we'll wrap it up with the PPC in a week or two.

016And they found it being it it fairly successful then? Being in that program. They do a really good job. It's it's it's most There's two two classes of students that benefit from that. One class being a student who is capable of competitive employment. And then uh they are an agency that works with the Department of Developmental Services. So, they also provide uh supportive uh on-the-job training for um people who are beyond the the age where the school system is helping and so they're that the family has a choice of how they use their allocation of funds and sharp is one of the agencies that they can work with. So if a student wants to work say three days a week and because of their social security benefits they're limited to how much money they can

017make so to speak then they work there. So sharp has been in business for a long time. I think they're doing a good I think they're doing a good job. They they provide either transportation to and from or they have a separate fee say the student can drive themselves to the work site. So it's they they break out their their fees so. Any questions for director Plaza? Thank you. Strada. So I want to tell you what I learned this evening. So number one caffeine does not help test taking. It degraded the test taking scores. Okay, keep that in mind. I did ask that of people. I did ask the student if I should make a rule for staff. He said he didn't think that'd go over very well. >> [laughter] >> He didn't like that.

018Now I did talk to your superintendent he will be eliminated. Okay. Um I did was with Michelle the winner of the science fair and she beat Heinz. And I learned that making it out of starch is better for the environment and it was stronger than making it out of Heinz. If you're looking to jump and see how high you can jump, stretch first. And do a little run. Some stretching. And then another aspect I should make a rule. Maybe. It's not funny. You know, teach your jumping. And colors I did ask the student who uh Noa, I believe, who um did a study on seeing what colors change the moods of people. And they asked her who we were going to decorate the whole and paint all the classrooms, what colors we paint them. The

019answer is yellow. Calming and happy. Hopefully happy. And then asking about what we were going to paint the locker rooms. Before games. What should we do? So [clears throat] it came up pretty traditional response. Boys, blue. Girls, pink. >> [laughter] >> So um those were my learnings for today. Uh uh and uh kids were fan- As I once said, the kids were fantastic. You know, it's a really good showing. And the process of the SLPs, I was able to participate in one. And they the kids were really I mean, they're into this. So this is a really good tradition. A lot of good learning. A lot so that that was pretty exciting. Um as Amy said, we're winding down. Um of course, when you wind down a school year, it kind of winds up the

020kids. So we have a winding down while we're winding up. It's pretty traditional. Um my years depending on how close to ending the first year. I'll hold on that till I finish. See. But um it it is it is a a pretty great place. I was describing this to the difference between Allamuchy and my old district to a few of my old colleagues. And I said the biggest difference is the family atmosphere. The the the wholesomeness of this place compared to uh where I've where any of the districts I've for putting small ones. And that's really quite a good part of the whole thing. That's true. Can I ask you how many parents were there? Tons. And I mean with their families, bringing all these kids and Yeah, and and I >> it's teaching all

021the kids. I thought it was great. It was great. And I've seen that with a lot of the other events. So, a lot of people show up. And like you'll come out to the school and kind of like a focal point of the community. So, that's a good thing to tap into in the in the district plan. So, which I can appreciate. It's really good. So, good stuff, Amy. Um I've got to do a quick update on the project, but that could also lead me right into the first old business. Right. You want me to just kind of flow? Yeah, unless you want >> There's a a sidebar topic Anything for me? Yeah, very good. Um Scott? Money's always good. Money's [laughter] good. Well, So, I have a couple some good news. Uh pretty much

022I have pretty much have good news today. budget-wise. So, the big one is um the state of Connecticut came forward with some more money. So, altogether Voluntown received a little over $250,000. New new money. The uh selectmen and we'll we'll work on how that's going to impact the the full budget. But in speaking with them and talking this through, I did make a request for the district. I said, "Looking at our numbers and looking at our maintenance numbers of our buses. We have two buses right now that are completely killing us." When they run, it's a good day. >> They run. But the money it's costing us with those two buses is a lot. So, in speaking with them in the capital budget, is it called capital budget? The Capital improvement >> Capital improvement budget,

023there's money for um two new buses on the lease purchase for the next five years. >> [clears throat] >> But that would that would put us to six new buses which really puts us in a great position and that will allow us potentially even in next year to either support the budget in some other way with some of the savings we might see in the maintenance. But then going forward to the future budget, we have even reduced that further as we budget. So this is a pretty big deal. To have six new buses out of our buses. That's a pretty good How many do you have total again? Uh six big buses and then some vans. So we're also doing very well on that on that note on the driver side. We had you know

024new driver that started. Another new driver that's committed to September. August. And another driver who's just about finishing to be a new driver. I I don't think it's Amy outside with a sign that >> [laughter] >> It sends out our contracts negotiation. And some months I want to say I'm signing checks for 68,000 in maintenance. Oh yeah, it's it's This was a bad month. Yeah. So so while the school district received $82,000 in new money we we don't have a direct need to take the 82,000s and add to the budget. If we did, I would have proposed already money to be used. Instead putting it this way really does help the district and and the whole town in doing that. So, we're really hoping for that. Uh budget vote uh next uh 26th. So, um

025that's one of the things that we'll be voting on as the capital So, that's that's good news for us. Um Tuesday night, Kate and I were invited to the selectmen's meeting uh because they had some questions for us. And most of the questions came from Sue, who had some questions about um how we go about looking at the decision uh in this particular case, the decision to move towards a psychologist versus the breakup of the people that we currently have. And why we might do that. So, it was great. I thought she asked very clear um important questions, and that also helped helped us in thinking about how we're preparing for the meeting on the 26th. As you know, we'll be doing a presentation on the 26th, and I've already started building a slide to

026showcase that exact issue, and show how whenever there's an opportunity to do better for equal or less, we should at least explore it. Doesn't mean we'll always do it, but we should explore it. And that's a really good example. And so, I'll have one or two slides on that, and then the rest of the slides I'll take uh modified examples of things you've seen already for that meeting. And uh I'm probably going to reach out to Brian next week, and maybe talk to him about how we're going to coordinate that night, cuz it's new for me, it's new for him. See how we can work together to do that. Um which leads me to just the overall partnership and collaboration we have with the town. Uh I don't know what it was. I don't even

027care what it was. What it is is is pretty awesome though. And that that I'll say. Like I I say this a lot, but Just cuz I don't know what I'm doing. But um it really it really is good to be able to pick up the phone and ask questions or have conversations. And we both do that, Brian and I. So, that's been very effective from my lens. Hopefully his lens as well, but I can speak on my own. Um as you know, we are we are posting a 1.99% increase. That was inclusive of all the things that we're trying to accomplish. I don't feel we've shortchanged the budget. I don't feel we've overspent. As I called it, I called it a clean budget. The budget is designed to do the things we needed to

028do. The money's been placed in the spots that it needs to be. And um hopefully next year we'll be in good shape. Other part of that, uh we have actually opened our 2% non-lapsing account at Sterling Bank. It is a savings account. Uh our interest level is somewhere in the 3%. So, better to do interest better to do um a savings I spoke with Mario, he's our he's our rep over there. If we do a savings account, we can't write checks. I don't want to write checks out of this account. This account isn't writing checks. If we have to move money, the money can be moved directly from that account through board action only. In other words, Scott can't go to the bank and say, "Hey, Mhm. over here." Any money it's it's the way

029the law is written. Any money that gets put in that account, which we with the end of the year, we will place money into that account. We decide how much money to place in. It's $20. >> [laughter] >> Hopefully a lot more than that. But um you put money in that account and then that's our account. To pull money out of the account is board action. So, I would propose a recommendation with a rationale. The rationale has to meet certain requirements by the law. And remember you had a policy on this you passed back in '24, I think. Um but we're opening the account now. Um >> [cough] >> I'm the signatory. I'm the signatory and Kirsten's the signatory. Darlene is not a signatory because she is um be the ones who who she'll be

030doing different things with the with the accounts, keeping the accounts, so we didn't want we didn't want her to be a signatory. And um signatory just means that those people can authorize. You never want it to be one person. So, we're in good shape there. The account will be earning, as I said, a little over 3% um and same as the account, that can be taken in and out at at will. And the board is allowed to remove that money next year and determine how they want to do it. You don't have to use any of that. You can leave it there as a as a cushion. You're allowed to do those things. That's the way it works. So, I won't know until probably mid-June how much I would recommend to put in. So, we're

031in the middle of doing all that as we go. The administration did receive my love letter that says we're not buying any more stuff unless it's essential. Of course, everyone's definition of essential I found is very different. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Killian believes everything is essential. I think he found new definitions of the word, actually. I think he wrote some definitions of the word. Uh the reality is um toilet paper, toilet paper, kind of essential. The various things that he does purchase out of ours. Um but fixing buses, things that we have to spend money on, but um right now I have a I have a stack of Amy's uh requests from our teachers on my desk like this. That is something we'll determine around that same mid-June time to determine what of that is

032purchased out of some of this year's money versus some of next year's money. It's a very normal process. You find that every year that way. You just kind of I just kind of wait to see where I am before I commit to that. None of it need is needed till August, so it'll get here on time anyway. So, we'll be on that, but um ultimately, remember May 26th is the meeting at the town. Hope everyone shows up. It is There's no referendum on the budget. The budget is um a vote in person. That's how it is. Um one question came up at the selectmen's meeting two meetings ago, Kate, right? And that question was at the meeting on the 26th, can you vote Can the town vote to move this to referendum? The answer is

033no. Cannot. So, this is not moving to referendum. This is where we are. Um I'm hopeful that people pass the budget. Obviously, I think we put together a honest, clean budget that um on the 26th we'll be presenting in a way that hopefully will be very clear. And I am open to whatever suggestions you have, by the way, on any presentation you've seen. If you think there's anything I should think of or do, uh very please reach out whenever whenever you want to do that. Um Kate answered answered some questions. We kind of tag team on the selectmen's questions and um got good feedback that that we kind of know we're going, right? And uh I feel we do. We also did reference to I did reference to reference the um >> [snorts] >> the

034March and April board meetings where Scott really does a very detailed presentation on some of the factual nitty-gritty lines that we had questions about and we kind of did our back and forth and he was able to answer those questions. um you know, cuz like people if they if well, people still might go like, "Let me see what what do you mean by line item 65?" or whatever, which is just that you know, they might have a question. Um but they'll know it's so back and forth that you will have the right answer for that and it's it's that it's better, but we might even just have a like you know, high-level you know, these are some of the the more um significant changes or you know, things of note. questions cuz you already had

035that in the budget addiction, but it was um but anybody that might be watching, we do have both in the March and the April meeting very detailed breakouts of where this budget has started and and where it is now. So. And on YouTube. Yeah, on YouTube. On YouTube. So, that that's kind of where we are. Um that's what's being floated on the 26th. It's the 1.99% and the extra 50,000 in capital. For the buses, remember that's on lease purchase. Obviously, two buses cost more than 50,000. But, instead of asking for 250,000 in one year, or you would have 50,000 helps us, I can supplement that with a few other thousand dollars to cover the full cost of the lease through reducing the maintenance cost to cover anything over 50. And that's how you do that,

036right? Cuz I'll reduce the maintenance for those I'm going to actually analyze the full cost of those two buses this year and reduce that by a percentage, apply that to the fees so the town doesn't have to pay more than the 50,000 for the buses. Then each year that money will sit in that account and cover it and in 5 years we'll own those buses. And in 5 years we'll actually own six buses At that point what you generally do, just so you're aware, remember I said it 5 years ago, is you determine your usage, the value of the buses at that time, and whether or not you just start over again. So, we we ran we ran in my previous district we ran never having a bus older than 5 years. That was our

037that was our number. And on a 5-year lease purchase you have a balloon payment sometimes at the end. This year we don't have a we didn't structure this as a balloon payment. In in 6 years we'll own the four that we bought. And if I do a 5-year on these, we'll own those after we'll own all six around the same time. At that time we determine how much they're costing us in maintenance, how much we can get for them, how much would new buses cost, and you make a determination. If the math works, you just continue the rotation without ever adding more money to the budget. That's how you generally rotate. If you get into that rhythm, your buses run, there's there's less confusion, less problem, less angst, and you're on safe buses continuously. So,

038letting buses roll until they're done isn't the desired option, and so I think we can we can move keep moving in this direction started by Adam last year. Has the specs been put together yet for the new ones or gone out to bid or any of that you know? No, cuz I can't wait until I have to wait until I have to go out to collection. >> But, we're going to do the specs. And the specs will be done and checked by all the pertinent people that need to do that. >> the people that need to be part of that discussion and be part of that discussion. Uh and that's how we'll do it. We'll go out to bid, or we'll go off state contract, depending on what's what's the better plan. And um I'm

039excited about that, because I can tell you that uh I Amy Amy feels the pressure more than I do, but when those buses are down, it's a scramble. We've had to shut down routes already this year because of the buses not being available. So, not only is it costly, it's just not the best option for kids to do this. So, really thankful to the selectmen for uh hearing that and um really jumping right on it with us. So. >> [clears throat] >> Um Scott, will you be looking if that if everything goes through, will you be looking I know we talked I think it was last meeting about exploring propane buses. Did we Is that something that you're thinking about exploring? >> not even So, I did. I explored propane buses. It's It's There's no

040reason to do it. Probably why you guys didn't do it last year. Um that does not solve the um emissions issue anyway. So, propane propane buses do not eliminate the requirement for electric buses still is not solved by propane buses. So, propane buses are um it's not really the desired way to go. The question is though, Megan, is going to be diesel or gas. That's more of the question that seems to be out there in in exploring this. Um but, we also are going to be talking to Green Bank. Green Bank is a company that basically takes care of all of this conversation about the bussing. And we're going to do all that before we go to bid. So, right now we've already kind of reached out to them to see what they're going to

041invite us to. Unfortunately, their whole game is electric. Uh electric buses might cost a little bit more for the town. So, that 50,000 might just need to be a little bit more um 800,000. Tiny bit for the two buses. Um yeah, just 800. They're not bad. 400,000 a bus is not too bad. Um and that doesn't include the infrastructure. Now, there's grants. There's grants. The problem with the problem with electric buses I don't want to get too much into this. The problem with electric buses is let's say you get grants to fund the entire project. In 10 years, you need new buses. What are you going to do when the grants are not going to come through again? What do you do? And if you buy all your buses at the same time, your entire

042fleet goes down at the same time. So, the idea of this generally would be you buy one, two at a time. And you stagger them in. The problem is it's so costly. Not to mention the idea of what has to be done with your infrastructure. Uh but on the infrastructure, though, Megan and and Val asked this question. We're also going to be exploring uh seeking tax. The question is gas or diesel? Like how this is You have both buses right now. You have gas and diesel. So, it's not so it's not so clean. The idea is get to one. And then you can bring your own tax. The idea like I said the other day, rolling up yellow buses into the station. That's we're paying a fortune. And I I have districts right now that

043have agreements that have multi-year agreements that they're they're still paying 280. Uh for diesel or and we're we're we're we're paying whatever the the rate on that. 170. 170, whatever it is. And this isn't exactly the cheapest place to go get gas right here. >> [clears throat] >> Right? This is not cheap gas. Not that they're all expensive, but you know, generally there's you explore. Like mean, to get the best prices, especially when you're building up lessons. So, I'm exploring the idea of sinking our own tanks. We're going to see, and then I would try to do that with the town. They have their own, but they have a little one. It wouldn't service us, so figuring out how we can do this together. But, um so all those things are in play. So, how

044what kind and all that, we haven't gotten there. We're making but the propane idea that I I thought it was going to be a good idea, doesn't seem like it's going to be the right move for us. So, that would be my long answer to that question. I appreciate it. Thanks. Yeah. >> [cough] >> Okay. Anything else for me for budget? All right. We'll see you all on the 26th. 26th, mark it down. And what was it? 7:00. With friends. 7:00. See if I need at least a dozen friends. All right. So, item number two on old business is the board of education administrative goals uh for 2026-27. I know um Amy kind of took a pass at the administrative piece. Um Do you feel comfortable with those as administrative goals? Are you good to

045talk about that? I would I would I would leave them with Amy's edits. Yeah. I looked at it. I just basically edited on what we done in the past. We just cleaned them up, took stuff out that really wasn't pertinent. You know, I mean, we can do our revamp again next year. What do other people, you know, like some examples of other, you know, districts? Just I'm getting just curious to see, you know. Yeah. You know, I don't know. This is all This is all I know, so Yeah. I mean, I don't know like what if >> [clears throat] >> I don't know. Again, my take might be a different, but anytime there's this many words, I think it just gets lost. It has a real I I think the idea of having three pages

046for administrative purposes is just not going to be as uh strong as as it is now. However, with the idea of moving towards a strategic plan, I don't think the idea would be to spend too much time on that right now. I really think um we come up with what we want to come up with for uh board, leave admin leave admin with Amy's edits cuz I I just think you it's better to tie everything into a larger picture. Right. So, Once we're comfortable with ours, I think you know they'll filter down. And that's why I was kind of working backwards because I'm like, if you feel good, I'm good with what this >> I mean, I mean, we can use them until then. Until we get there. You know. Nothing Nothing is not We'll

047do that by having this And and it takes me two hours with with your edits, the the idea of having all of it written right now, leave it. Like it's fine. Do that. I would put three two or three strong ones that are that are actionable at the top and make those your focus as we move forward, but then let the strategic plan be the thing that drives that going forward. That's how goals should come. You know, strategic plan, then you build out your goals, then each year you adjust your goals according to where you've met and where you haven't. And then that that that's a clean flowing structure that really has an opportunity to make impact rather than a bunch of words on a page that >> [clears throat] >> might not have the

048same level of impact even though important things are on the page. That's just how I That's how I look at it. I was thinking I took a stab at just knowing that we had kind of come to this one one-pager. Um so I went to the key version and um um There's a There's a philosophy that you can take like the you know your mission statement go and really you know your what we have now is a really good clean mission statement. We worked on that. Then you kind of do like full up philosophical goals and so I don't know we don't have copies of [clears throat] that do we? DD of the ones I sent you? Not yet. And then print it for everyone. >> We'll do that after our meeting at the end.

049But it's um there's philosophical goals which are kind of more in line with what this is like what our old ones but like cleaner just more cleaner bullet points of what the philosophy philosophical goals are but like and then there's like objective goals and those are more what Scott's talking about like the the the ones the the focal points we want to look to stay you know strategic on that year look back on see how we how we really do our board we go off of like what you know where we want to see measurable progress. You just turned them smart goals basically. >> Yeah, like that would be like the the the other the second half of it smart goals. >> Okay. Um so I'll share that with you. You guys can take a

050look at that um and see what you think. If we want to or we can just stick with this and you know just pick a couple but I figured that was like a cleaner segue into this until we get to our strategic plan and and do that. So. Um stay tuned to what you get on the handout. Yeah. >> Anything here though? No, I mean I'm good. So, you had this in your packet but I'm going to hand it out hand it out again so you have your meeting tips. Good one. This is what DD did for us so thank you DD for this. >> You're welcome. She went out to look for >> [clears throat] >> getting proposals back on strategic plan. So as we talked about strategic planning is something that is really

051vital for an organization not just the school organization. [clears throat] It allows a board to consider the sentiment of the community it serves. And then devise a plan to achieve certain elements. The pillars that come from this work won't be all that unfamiliar to everybody but each one of those pillars however comes out to be will be derived for and specific to Voluntown. Not anywhere else. Every town and every school system has its own personality and identity and needs to have that. So in in exploring that we learned and he put this into a beautiful chart for us that there were a wide range of costs associated with this. Now two of the costs one specifically I was really shocked at one I was pleasantly happy to see and then the other two were actually

052more aligned with what I expected. So the pleasantly happy to see was learned. That's a very very very reasonable amount of money for a strategic plan. The next one is a shock but we're not so sure how real that number is. That is former secretary of education Miguel Cardona and his his team. Now smart you have a name in Connecticut cuz you were the commissioner of Connecticut and you became the secretary of education open your company in Connecticut and make sure you hit a home run. I would I would imagine having his team would probably be an amazing opportunity. Just because of the name recognition alone it immediately gives you credibility. In the world. However, Dean and I talked about this today, the idea that um uh 10,000 plus. Yes. So, we would want to

053determine the actual cost. I get that back to you. And see if we're looking at 10,000 meaning 14,000 or 10,000 meaning 14,000. Um I believe due to our budgetary restrictions, the final two, I'm not going to mention the names, are probably out of the running. Even though they might do absolutely fantastic jobs, I just don't see us uh approaching it in that manner. Um So, really it it did come down to Oh, and by the way, Cave does not do this anymore. So, Cave does not offer a a strategic planning service. They offer workshops on what strategic planning is, but not actually doing a strategic plan. So, it looks like it really is is is down to a couple. And then the other choice is nobody. And there is still a third choice, which is

054nobody. Uh I am going to be 100% honest with you about this nobody idea, just to be clear. Uh while I've done strategic plans, I'm hired sometimes to do these kind of thing, it's not a hard thing for me to do. But but I'm superintendent. I'm also the business manager. Committing to a real appropriate strategic plan, I don't want that to fall. I really don't. So, while I'm not worried about the ability to do it, I am concerned that I would get sidetracked. To be honest. With that said, you can still say "Jim have to do it." I work at the pleasure of the board. I just want to throw that out there, that while that might be an obvious option to not spend any money. We went with the various talents that they had.

055Okay. I would do work on It wants to do a lot of the under work for you. You can't >> Yeah, that's not realistic to be honest. Volunteers are not the people you have do the under work. To be honest, this is not really an approach I would go with volunteers. Even elected volunteers um be the people that do that. And the the reason the other reason though, I'm going to be honest to why I would still recommend you do something else an outside agency is no bias. To me, that is the number one reason to not ever do your own strategic plan, no matter how big or small you are. You can bring in someone that has no bias. They don't come with any agenda. They come in with the agenda being do what's

056best for the community. Now, of course I would approach it the same way, but I can't say I would have no bias. And there's no way all of you could say you have no bias. There's just no way to do that. You can't have no bias if you're in that environment. So, um I I I I believe considering an outside option to do this work is your best bet. They have the tools. They have the teams. Uh I don't know how Learn is doing it for that price. It's pretty impressive. We will still talk to them more and see. But, my recommendation is to explore these two and try and get you more information. No decision has been made. But, we also I think we submitted in their packets they have the full The full

057Learn one and then a little bit on Cardona. So, this is a summary, but you have the actual Yeah. documents that were provided by the agencies. And I would suggest giving that a a run through see if that's what you're thinking about. And uh again, I I will be glad to do it. I will do a great job with it. I I think it would be strong to have another company, but I would say if the only options are that were the last two, I would just say, "Let's move on." What about that wilder company? Little firm or the other one? What did we Yes, it's impressive. It was Yeah. Oh, yeah. That That's not a good sign. No. No. No. Yeah. No. I was going to say I've been kindly reading about Cardona, so

058and it seems it's geared towards the high school and growing the manufacturing tracks that it I may be wrong about that. Well, we'll see. I mean if the board wants to authorize me to move forward and get more information, I can do that and have as much as I can for the next meeting. Or if the board prefers to not spend money here, then we can go that direction. And we'll We'll get it done and do a great job. So, whatever the board feels they like to Uh do you do you think it would be worth having a This is kind of new obviously new to me. Do you think it would be worth having them talk like talk to us, come in and present as to what like examples of what towns are doing

059in it like I guess I'm just curious are they you know cuz I'm I'm looking at this one it says focus groups. Is that like they're sending out surveys to parents? Are they asking you know teachers and parents to do focus groups in terms of um like what they'd like to see at the school. Maybe you know the answers to all these, but I I just am wondering if that's something that might be valuable. It's actually a very normal process to bring in uh finalists to present to the board before you select. That's not an uncommon request, Megan. Um and if that is the case, we would set that up if that's of interest to the board. And I would try to do that in the next board meeting so we can get things rolling

060before the school year. I think I do like the option of an unbiased opinion coming in and taking a look at the big picture versus doing it in-house, I think. Especially with LEARN, I mean, it it's a fairly reasonable price for that outside information. And we did, you know, obviously we we went through with the whole process of hiring a superintendent, which kind of when we what we kind of didn't know up and down how that process would go, but it was very nice to have a very clean, organized system of care to get through all of that, and that included organizational meetings. So, I mean, we we did a lot of work for that, and it was, you know, it did break the bank for us, you know, and we got great help. So.

061Jury's out. We'll see. >> [laughter] >> But at the same time, it included focus groups. It included, you know, a profile, you know, it doesn't it's not rocket science to what it is, but then there's follow-ups and there's always interviewing. There's a lot involved. I think there's there might be more back end of like the report creation generation of this, but I think that one's a little bit more. It's it's a good comparison because there are districts that choose to go and hire a superintendent by themselves. And then you're working with a board that may or may not have any expertise on it to do that kind of work. And that's a risk. Right? That's a risk because if you wind up doing going with a wrong situation, you know how hard it is to

062come back from that, right? So, um, this is a very similar process in that you do a lot of the similar work to Keith's point. [clears throat] To get to a a place where you are making decisions that are really community based. You had outside agencies do your strategic health and human services Every time Every time in New Jersey and how long did they stay with you? Last one And did they follow you for >> So so so anyone anyone who's coming is on price points that you'll that you'll determine you know what what extras or what layers. So the last one I the one I did in when I got to Millstone the second year same time we did the first year second year did the street plan. That one was a one year

063and then the second one was longer. That one was over two years because we hired them after the street plan was over implementation work. And a much more massive Much more massive. I would not I I do not see the implementation side needed at all. We we can do that. So this would really just be the building of a plan. I think I think the pricing will be on the lower side. I'm not looking to add the extra Okay. I've done all that. You know but both times I used a firm in California for one very expensive $75,000. And and the other one it was much much less expensive it was a smaller district. And then the one before that I did the majority of the work that consultant. Okay. That was that was So

064Now would this one have a consultant option or is that is it just >> For this price this is this this would probably be similar to that. So we we still have a lot of work to do in house. We still do a lot. Yes. And somebody doesn't come in and do it. Oh you still do a lot anyway. They're building a you said it it's a structure. The reports The reports are big. Right? That's a big deal. But if communities are involved, generally they want to see someone who it doesn't have a agenda. It's usually It's usually a good way to go with that. No one is not It's not Kate up there talking or me that might have an agenda up there talking. It's It's people who are just trying to get information.

065Like the whole The whole process is to is to glean information and then take that information and put together a package. I know you have experience with this. You have experience with the Did I hear that? No. Many years ago. >> community conversation Right. Oh, a couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah, I think I I think that's going to be one of our biggest hurdles is is how it's structured to actually get the the feedback which is extremely um I know we had that even with our last um go around with that stuff. Yeah. Two months out of search. It was just you know just getting people to get on the the online portal at that time at 7:00 to get their feedback. It was it it was a challenge. So we want to make sure

066we just factor in that for the cost of the bandwidth so to say that. And we have a highly mobile elderly population in town. Sure. >> Who laughs at 57 in town? They have different insights than this somebody with school age kids that are on the board. Though most of them are supportive of the school in general cuz their kids went there and everything. But meeting their needs kind of and kids what they're looking for for information is different than what the person with a child in preschool was looking for. So what I can tell you for an example uh in in in my last district while we had a company, I ran the focus groups. I I is they they it just it was more cost effective to not have them do everything. So

067being out there with them, supporting that, and getting people out there and and and doing that. uh It It saved It saved a lot of work on their part, which saved money, but it also shows that the district still invested in this. This isn't like just come out and we're going to sit back and you go. It's It's a combination. So, it's going to be work for everybody. But, if the prices really comes in at these numbers, that's doable. Like, our budget could handle that. Not the last ones. That would be insane. >> How many buses? You might need two buses. That'd be one. Two buses. Okay. Anyway, thanks again, DD, for putting this together. >> Yeah, thank you, DD. Um I'll reach out if there are any other questions or anything. And that's it,

068policy. What was this one then? Okay. Um Yeah, that's That's food for thought on on the district to district different. Um second readings we have here are um 1316.1, the public conduct at school activities. I know we were going to try to get this this I mean, make sure that Andrea looked at it, too. She looked at it. Yeah. Um did she have a specific um version of anything that she thought might be I don't think really um they talked a lot about the athletic director meetings about just They've been talking about this a lot, not just policy, but in general about the spectators, spectator behavior, that kind of stuff, um especially this year. So, I think collectively as a group, you know, the small schools and the large schools, you know, they're trying to

069just have a united front on what's expected at each whatever season it is. Um you know, she said that it's it's pretty standard to what they I'm going to say that so that policy is absolutely standard. >> Yeah. There's nothing I would highly recommend going with as it doesn't need more and it shouldn't have less. Right. The district needs the opportunity to say you cannot be here. Period. And and that's really what that policy is for. Cuz the rest of it we all know. Like everyone You got to remember everybody who goes to a sporting event or another kind of event knows exactly how to behave. Nobody does not No one doesn't know the rules. If they behave that way or not is different. But we all know. Like you know how to behave yourself

070in a Broadway show. You're generally not bringing and just crumpling papers in the middle of it. Like people know. We have super smart people here. People know how to behave. Whether they behave that way or not is a different story. So you just need a policy that gives the Board of Education the ability to say you can't be here. This is what we expect. And when you read when you read the two descriptions of what should be said at a game number two the concept of role model and saying that reminding everybody of that every time that's a great little I mean they did a good job on that. Like this is just what you say. >> That's the one I like because I like two or one. I I was like this is the

071Number two is my favorite. Okay. It talks about the learning the lessons and teamwork and I just I really like that version. Yeah, we'll go with two. Leave leave leave the note after halftime if that's a thing. No, not and then um You're usually fine. I mean you only would say that if if you have issues. Right. But if you do it right and we hold people accountable which I think that everyone No one wants to be in a disaster area. No one wants that. And I don't think I do we What we I don't think we need both things. I I I I When I was When I When I was a sixth grade teacher, I started off every class every year first day saying, "I have one rule. I have no rules." You

072all know what the rules are by sixth grade. There's not There's not We're not inventing new sixth grade rules that weren't there in fifth grade or fourth grade or third grade or second grade. You know how to behave. It's just a question of will you. So, you can post your signs. You can post We should send out notices saying, "Here's how our expectations are. Here's what we expect of everybody." >> That's in our athletic handbook, though, correct? Like, the parent handbook. This would just go in there? >> But, I guess not every spectator is a parent. I think I think you you you just need a mechanism that if you have to remove somebody in the off chance. Right. Do you >> I don't know. I mean, this like just this piece of paper in

073the the box in the front office that where you put like whatever your little Not that you know, the box box in the back, but like just having a little box back there just like that's by it. Look at your eyes. It's something that we know that they're opposing. And then, I think having something to say in the beginning is is just I think it fosters good you know, a good community environment. She did that a lot this year. She did that, yeah. So, it's easier inside basketball season. Yeah. Yeah. Outside I think it sets a tone. It says, "We care here." And we we want respect. You got that new walking stereo thing. Yeah, one of the gyms. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> The refs do that in my tournaments and other things. Yeah. Yeah.

074Okay. So, um with that, we will approve as amended where we will um or make a motion to approve as amended. They didn't want to approve it. Well, just choose as chosen selected version number two. We're getting rid of the old one. Um Is there a motion to do that? I'll second. I'll second. All in favor? I I I I I Any opposed? I heard. So, 5142 will safety preparation and response and after action. This is This is the plan. The rewrite of ones we looked at over and over and over again. This is the regulation. I know we just I think we already did the policy ourselves. >> And Gabe added this as a regulation to get the wording from an old policy 3516 on safe and secure school facilities. >> Right. They kind

075of consolidated They're mashing it all into one. So, we they did that already with the policy which is what we did. Um is there anything that we need to I mean, we can't really do anything with the regulation anyway. So, that's why it's It is what it is. Well, just >> [cough and clears throat] >> clarification. We own the regulation. There's no There's no such thing as a mandatory regulation. And every policy is not a regulation. However, with that said, there's so much in that regulation that generally meant to CYA stuff. So, it's fine. But if I was writing a regulation, it would be one page. Maybe a page and a half. We don't We don't have to do that. But it's it's just too It's too wordy. No No one is ever going to

076look at that for any purpose until there's a problem. Every year when you have to write your your school safety plan, you have to refer to all all of this stuff. So, just in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in future the board owns I'm not even sure Can I get the board owns it? I know the superintendent owns regulations. And boards can choose to adopt, can choose to vote on them or not. So, in other words, you don't have to The board doesn't even have to pass a reg. If you think about a policy, you're a policy-making body. Yes. You make a policy, then you hire a superintendent and say, "Show us the plan of how we're going to do that policy." That's a regulation. So, here's

077the policy. The things that educators always fight with states about is the state comes up with a rule with no mechanism of how to get to that rule. Right? So, if the board passes a policy that says all the walls have to be painted purple, then technically, we have to have a plan of how we're going to paint the walls purple. That's the regulation. That's how that works. Many boards adopt the regulations as part of a policy. This board does. We continue to do that. But, just don't think that cuz Kate wrote a 40-page regulation on how to brush your teeth, that that is what is required of the board to adopt. Is it What's your recommendation on looking at something together then? Policy and regulation at the same time so they work on the

078same things. I mean, I feel like we we did just look at this, I think. Yeah, but they it was Yeah, again, I can send it to the policy committee for you guys to look through the whole policy and this regulation. I think it's all different wording. This is kind of a little bit >> for like future. Like this one, I would go forward. No. I don't think you really want to dive in to start messing around with this. No. You know what I Cuz this talks about the all hazards plan. >> Just the the idea that you think about the the concept of what it's about. The board makes a policy. Right. You hire people to help design how we're going to make sure that policy comes to life. And that's what a board

079of a policy, you know, design board which is a board of a policy making body. Mhm. And you hire all these people to make that work. And then the board could always say, "We want to adopt every regulation. We want to confirm that we like your plan." Or you can say, "Nope, we don't like your plan. Tell us what the plan is, but we're okay with that." Either way is it 100% feasible. There's no right or wrong way to do that. But there's a just a whole lot of like reg- like I don't know. Just like >> Definitions of definitions. No, it's more like this is a you know, a nice to have way to say something to children. I mean, it's just descriptive in a more detailed way than I'm used to for regulations.

080This is a weird one to me. This This was a pretty expensive And this may be a silly question, but on the top we talked about rescinding a policy and then this would get added to a policy that already exists. And they're changing that personally. Yeah, they're they took the wording from and they're including it in with 5142. They're like like >> it in the regulation. In Is it They They put it in a regulation form. Again, I can email them and say, "Did you guys mean this to be a regulation or part of the policy?" You know, I can question it and see what they come back with and forward it policy committee to look through it all if you want. Yeah, I think we'll just table it and so we're >> That's area.

081I Yeah. It just kind of it does repeat a couple of the ones that we've seen before, but and then some of the prescriptive stuff that's just It's long, but again, like that last time when they did the whole policy, they were getting rid of three They put three policies into that one. So it covered a lot of different things and this This just another thing. They're like, "Oh, we want to add this in, too. So, they did it as a regulation. But, I can follow up and table it for the next meeting. Okay. Now, I'm used to like the state changing. I remember we got a concussion policy that came out a long time ago. And it was in operation for 2 years, and then we get a word that you have to change

082the policy. Why? Because they added cheerleaders. They had to go back to the whole entire policy and now add cheerleader wherever It was a long policy. I'm like, okay. So, we didn't >> Athletic policy didn't cover it? Didn't cover it. Cheerleader. [clears throat] And it's like when they do that, and they do things like we're going to move this policy into this policy and this policy. Sometimes I I'm not accusing, but just feel sometimes like somebody wrote it. Where they're not looking at the same work that you know Is this a I'm like, you already have a policies that do that. It's fine to try and clean things up. I don't know how a 40-page regulation cleans anything up. Especially when it's about your, you know, all out of plan that, you know, it's every

083year. We are like on baited breath of like what it says, because you have to follow it. Indeed. Right. Um so, that's that's the thing. If there was a change in law, then that would be the justification for what happened. It didn't make Mhm. Right. That's what I was probably looking for that. What are we doing this? Yeah, you know, but but but, you know, necessary to realize the importance of generative AI and how this is going to impact everything we do and how we impact and work with kids and all of that, and staff usage and student usage. It's it's I think we talked about it last time. It's massive. But, this is a good stuff. The policy itself is a good stuff. I think Megan, you still there, Megan? I am. I'm still

084here. You know, I would never miss policy, Scott. Uh Meg- Megan Megan has a good point, and she asked when will we implement? You can adopt a policy with an expected implementation of September 27th. You can't just have this because we passed a policy. The policy in this case, I would see as here's your guide, get us here. Because AI is way too big to just start saying go. And if you look at what it does, so there's a big thing in AI that is of concern to to educators, that's FERPA. That's the law about student data. And um you can't this policy says you cannot have a tool that distributes student data, that collects it and distributes it. So, you have to assess all that. So, anything you're using that has that potential has

085to then go through a process as determined by the policy. And that is superseded by law, anyway. So, really implementing AI, and I thought Megan's question was spot-on, is let us take some time, not put a policy in and pass a policy, but to consider really what this will look like in Volusia County Schools. I don't see a plan. >> is there to do that. This policy works, in my opinion, good enough for the students. Do some things you want to do differently, it's all good, but this gets us off in the right direction, too. So many gray areas in that. Yeah, that's the problem. I think the whole thing is a gray area. Yeah. But not nothing in education since will have the impact on education more than this. Look, I can't think of

086anything in my 35 years that comes close to what this could do. So, you think getting a policy set up and then we work on implementing the policy and the specifics for our school. Yeah. Is that And not not until a full year or two. We we we we work on that for next year. on the underpinning. Start building on the How's about professional development in there? Yeah. You can't do all that by I start school. Yeah. But we can do that with a plan by the start of September 2017. August 2017. All right, so it's September. August 2017. would be what I think is a reasonable plan. Amy, I haven't spent much time talking about that, but I think that's Does that sound Let's do it right now. Yeah. No. >> [laughter] >> We

087can get the board to adopt this policy and then we work from there. Yeah. Work out on Yeah, I think I think the board adopting the policy is like a good starting point, and then the policy obviously talks a lot about a committee, like an AI committee. And I think, you know, one of the reasons I asked regarding the timeline is because it would be good to maybe periodically at our board meetings have an update of kind of the status of the committee and the steps that are, you know, because this is really un- unchartered territory for all of us, really, right? So, um it allows time to work through it and really be thoughtful on the impacts of the decisions that are being made. Great. I think this is a good first step. All

088right. Yeah, I don't I Is everybody comfortable with this particular I mean, or does we want to take another one more meeting to just chip away at language? I think it's a good start. I would make a motion. We wanted to move on or is I don't I didn't find anything like too specific that I had. But to get I don't really understand anything when I'm reading. Okay. We can make changes to what we're doing. It's broad enough that it gives us the ability to move forward. I like it. I'm like the last regulation where they gave specific talking points. Yeah, like the last go to And they'll say You must talk like this to a student who is in a crisis. Right, right, right. Um All right, we've got You have a motion to

089second. Motion to second. All in favor. I. I. I can hear you good. Yes. Yep, I'm good. I'm good. Nodding your head doesn't work, Megan. >> [laughter] >> I'm heard. All in favor of the motion passes as a starting point with a um objective to kind of set a 8.7 Yeah, a timeline to to build this out. Or 8.7 I also see this probably will be a part of our strategic planning committee. This will show us That's good. Okay. Well, those are old business um pieces. The new business policy that's new is digital recording of students and staff. So, this is the first reading. Um we've been compiling some of our thoughts around this in the um [clears throat] in the policy committee. Um curious if there are any thoughts here from anyone else. Did

090I did I don't know. I I posed it that it really reads and I think it is more of from the staff's perspective Yeah, of doing any type of taping. And their you know, understanding of the media policies and and clearances that are given by permissions that are given by our parents and so forth. Um not to be confused with kids' version of the laptop private devices and their videoing of a school matter. Just to show the clear difference in that, a student who does that would be in violation of a different policy. A student cannot have a recording device anyway. The bell bell. So, if they were to do that, that would be potential disciplinary action. For a student to be even if it [clears throat] was something that was I mean, technically you

091can't record. And then so This is a >> Chromebooks. Huh? We have Chromebooks. They're not allowed to use or to record but that that you need you're going to need a student policy. Anyway, so I I just I I had you show me this and we would need to add a student's policy or adjust the AUP, the acceptable use policy, which is where that generally would show up. That talks about what a student is and is not allowed to do within any use of technologies and any way. Um certainly recording like generally in the high school where I've seen this happen way too many is a recording device. Even a planned recording of a fight. That's exciting. It It's I'm sure it happens It happens. And that's where not only the kids in the fight,

092but the recording kid sometimes gets a worse consequence than than the other than the other. So, um the idea of dealing with the student side of this is real. The this particular policy is basically in a nutshell um you need to all of which is you can't put student information out there without without approval from the family. [snorts] And you shouldn't be recording on anything anyways except for use for the school. It's very lenient. You know, you can just record things if you want. And the special ed component to that is real. Right. You know, so it's it's it's a common sense approach, which is don't do this unless you receive permission to do so. And really a teacher shouldn't be or any employee shouldn't be recording in situations where someone wanted to prove a

093point and they recorded the child to prove a point. What about for national board certification? Then it would be an approved setting, but if you do that and you're going to use it, you have to get permission from every student's family in there to do that. You can't just do that for national board certification without [clears throat] the approvals. With the approvals and the permission of the principal, you're totally good. It's just when you do this It's like you can't just decide to start recording something and then use that in some way because even for your own project for cuz you need to get permission first. So it's just about getting It's really just about FERPA and getting getting just doing it right. And that just means getting permission. And you know, you have a

094log in that you have you have a document in the office of all people that cannot cannot be in. So a teacher would generally know that in advance before they would make that decision. And if it was for national board cert and they're doing the the videoing associated with that, then you would you would >> Remove the child from the classroom. If that's was needed, they have refused to allow it. Uh, Amy, do they have their phones in the hallway in the classroom? Nobody. Yes. Well, that's all the staff. Do they collect them? Well, this is this is this is staff. Oh, I This is not students. >> um Yeah. That crossed my mind again. Where do they put them? No. >> [clears throat] >> It is interesting that the district issued devices that have

095stuff. >> Yeah. The thing that I'm I'm There's something that's practical. Maybe. The The staff are required to use district issued devices for all recording. So, I'm just thinking of things that like you know, you're you're Right now, they're taking for the kids. It's just like certain practices of the board. Well, it says you can use your must use your phone for two to a moment you can transfer it and then delete the right way. Yeah. Yeah. Which is fine. It's just That's why I'm like Well, the problem is though it goes up to a cloud that's not secured. If you're recording on a personal device, the school no longer has control of it. So, it's a it's a privacy concern. A board is in a better position to leave that in than to remove

096it. No, I I get what you're saying. I just We need to be careful to not Yeah, I was going to say I I I understand the perspective. I just I have a tough time with personal devices because we You got When I say we, like nobody can control somebody's personal cloud. That that That's the suggestion I guess to leave it as is because the board is more protected Okay. by saying you can't do this unless you do it on a district device. Correct. Exactly. Correct. There was that one additional I know Amy had answered the question regarding um that there was that second with the the cell phone that's Or is it Was it a cell phone or a personal device I think is what it referenced with um being deleted within 24 hours.

097Are you recommending that that stay in? That's what That's what number two really is. Right. Are we recommending that stay in or be removed? I'm recommending the board take every precaution to protect the board from any potential misuse. The more the more protections you have the better. Correct. >> covered it saying you cannot do what you did. It says it here. It's board policy. Anything you remove to lessen that just puts the board in more of a risky situation. Not that I believe we have too much to worry about, but you don't write policy at a whim. So, I agree with I believe I'm agreeing with you, Megan. Again, you're not scaring me now. No, I read the whole thing, so I think it was it's fine. No, I just I I just wanted cuz

098there again, I just wanted to clarify. So, you wanted you want to leave the policy as is with the 24-hour removal on that that number two. I would suggest, yes. Okay. That's what I was just trying to clarify and make sure I was understanding what you were saying. Well, this is first reading anyway, so if you wake up in the middle of the night and have strong feelings for the next meeting, we will continue discussion. Um I said I will say Didi and I talked about earlier today the idea of So, Didi pulled up the various things that could impact students and not really seeing as clear a statement as no recording. Right. So, we might want to come back. Yeah, we'll we'll do that. The student one additionally with the AUP is where I

099would put it. And that's because every every child they sign the AUP every year. Yeah. So, that's where would be the best place to put it. That way if it just picked your parents sign too. Yeah. So, that was everybody has signed whether they read it or not that are you know, we hope they do, but we can't make them read it, but that's where it would say this would be result in disciplinary action. Yeah, and that's I think that I think the parents look at that. But mostly cuz they know understand that kids especially junior high level they all Yeah. are starting to have cell phones, so Yeah. So that works for you. >> this is very clear what it is. >> a that's a revisit. Yep. Yeah. AUP. Yep. And the cell phone

100policy I think you've had another little I have that one, too. Yeah. But the AUP is where the signature is. You can adjust the cell phone policy and deal with the cell phone policy which is already built to built. Right. Then I think you wanted to add the middle school to that one. Oh, right. The We'll do that, too, but on the 5131 it it says "This includes class periods, lunch periods, elementary schools." Just >> So well, technically they're in elementary school. >> Mhm. Yeah. You never want to leave it open for someone to say, "Well, I'm an eighth grader, so I'm not in the elementary. You don't even call me junior high. So you call me junior school." How's it in this building doesn't mean I'm not that. So it's a it'll be a

101simple Yeah. it'll be a simple way to fix that. Easy fix. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Thank you for reminding me. Yeah. All right, so yeah, we'll have all the preschools have them. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Moving away from policy, we got personnel. Thank That's 15 minutes. So you all know. clock. All right. Personnels What do you want So we have a driver, Rose. We'll look for one motion for all three. The first one is Rose is a driver we have currently slated for the start of next school year. Um originally it's going to be this school year, but it looks like for the next school year. Um Sarah would be our van driver. She's the one I mentioned earlier was going through the process. Once all of that is settled, we'll probably start her up

102um and get her going. Um and we did have a resignation, as you know. Lydia um is going off to Johnson & Wales. We're very proud of her to be going to college. And Christine Driscoll, who is a current sub custodian, will be taking over. So, it's a So, win-win for us. Like, really really good. Now we just need that psychologist. >> [laughter] >> I got our arc has been assigned work. Um so, uh really good stuff. So, uh just keep the scene in motion for those Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None. Motion passes for those personnel updates. Um And then shared services? Yes, where we talked about working on We are still working on it. We're just trying to combine where we are looking at sharing services for various places. I'm

103not going to get too deep into all of the information, but we are Our goal, one of our goals and why I believe the board would another added committee would be to have a a shared service committee of the board. Um And I think the idea of considering opportunities to do this with both the town as well as with other districts, it's vital. I'll give you one of my strong thoughts on this that is not It's currently just here. It doesn't exist in the real world yet, but it's special education. And [snorts] it's about self-contained programming. I think it would be advantageous for many districts to consider working together to design schools that are designed to work with certain populations. Instead of out of district placements, you become a public school out of district placement.

104That has two major advantages. One is cost, but the most important one is a placement in a regular education environment instead of a special out of district placement that have no atypical students. And atypical development students as well. So, that would take a lot of work. I put it into the wind a little bit and it's just floating out there right now, but that's something I'm probably going to be looking to talk with my colleagues about and see if they're interested. I think I probably might talking about exactly that today in an interview with the specialized students. It's just it's it's Again, in the big district we were able to do that ourselves cuz we had that many kids, but these districts are are are way too small to have multiple different types of self-contained

105programming, but there's uh lots of need and lots of opportunities that exist to be able to share services and do better for kids for cheaper, which is a high priority. Can we do it better for cheaper? And I think this would be an opportunity to consider and start to build. Well, I mean they're already for special education supervisor and just saying that. Listen, you've already been offered a job. Uh you already turned me down once tonight, so >> [laughter] >> Put it out. Put it out there. We did offer her a formal we did offer her a position tonight as a board member. And I think that was automatic in the way we offered her a board member position. She can turn us down. So, that's just where we are. We're we're working together. Uh

106and I said before, working with the town and then working with some districts. And we talk about it every month with our collaborative districts. Uh we're looking at various ways to make this work. So, hopefully I'll be reporting before the end of the school year with something existing uh real stuff that we can put up there. And you started this topic with an idea that there might be a search committee. But is this what you're looking for like a subcommittee that would I think a subcommittee to the board would be This is a big deal and this is a way to strengthen ourselves uh while not spending more money doing so. And I think that that I I I see again that was uh one of the goals I put in to consider. So when

107it comes to the final goal work Okay. if that one survives, then that would become a goal of the board and then we could um institute that way. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Ready? Fine. That's about it. We have a regular meeting. Yeah. So um obviously we'll reiterate that the annual town meeting with voting on school and town budgets is May 26th, which is Tuesday after Memorial Day. So like you're going to have fun all weekend and you can come back on Tuesday and I'll be present. And the whole town will come out and we'll have a great discussion and and make a good vote. So If we make it Can I make an amendment to the motion next motion for executive to add personnel and add negotiations? Okay. And then um our next board

108of education is June 11th at 6:00 p.m. Okay. We're back at 6:00. I don't think there's any Are you having graduation? Yeah. Yeah. I think there's time at 6:00. So that's the that's Santa Fe's 12th is the 11th? >> Yeah. I'm sorry you have to miss the graduation. Oh, I know. I might miss it. I actually have that day. So We have three days. Yes. Yes. Really? Yeah. I don't know why they do I think they do on the 12th and the other town on the 11th. Oh. That's two down. Yeah. I'm just saying. Megan, are you here on the 11th? Policy is what you got. >> I'm saying I I really Yes, I I am planning on it. See, she knows I can't get it when she says >> I want every day. >>

109[laughter] >> It takes me too long to find the mute button. It's okay. All right, so that one's in question. We'll keep you posted on the the the next board meeting. We we probably I'm going to say we we going to need a board meeting around then. So, if we have to move the meeting, it's going to be somewhere around there. We're going to We're definitely going to need the meeting. Yes, 5. But, that's okay. We can be flexible on that. We will reach out and see what we can figure out then. Works for people. I know. Tuesdays are worse. So, then look for Friday Friday night at 8:00. That's where all That's every soccer practice. Friday at 8:00, come on. Like, what about the game on the >> Let's see if we Let's going

110to see if we can figure it out. If not, we'll leave it. But, let's see if we can. We have two members that can't. Let's see what we can do. We could do it at 9:00. I'm busy that night. Okay. Um okay. So, moving into executive session, um we need a motion to enter, uh inviting Superintendent Scott Baden for the purposes of discussion discussing the personnel as per state statute 1-206A. And B. And negotiations. And B. Motion. Second. All in favor. And that is at 8:51. Is there a real estate I can take over there? All in favor. I. I got it. All right. You guys need 2 minutes or not? We need to finish a minute. I know. I think we're good. That's how they work.