0017 o'clock we're going to start and call the meeting to order. So we'll start with pledge of allegiance. >> Dylan, you want to start us off? >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> 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. >> Thank you. All right. So start with chairman update. Good evening. I hope everybody is staying warm. It's cold out there. As an update to the board and the community, I wanted to share that the BOE chairs from Putnham, Palert, Woodstock, and Thompson met on Sunday. We discussed how best to engage our legislators regarding economic cost sharing and special education costs. Superintendent Steve Rio, I hope I pronounced that correctly, of Putnham has drafted a letter
002for our regional superintendent and board of ed chairs to sign. Superintendent Smith and I will do so once it's finalized. In addition, each town is going to be preparing a letter to be signed by its full board of education, board of selectment, and board of finance to address individual community concerns. As I've stated before, advocacy must come from all levels. In that same spirit, we'll provide preprinted letters at the town budget hearing. Nicola Krinowski of the board of finance and I will also host additional signing opportunities for residents who are interested in making their voices heard. We also discussed opportunities to share services among districts. Superintendent Smith's taking the lead on gathering information from each district's pupil services director to identify in-house services across districts with the goal of exploring cost sharing opportunities and reducing
003expenses where possible. I also want to directly address the concerns raised about a recent survey. To be clear, the district did send notice of the survey to all families and students who would receive it through our standard communication channels. The message was delivered and the information was made available. Superintendent Smith has also stated that going forward, additional reminders will be sent out. We do understand that everybody is busy and emails can sometimes be overlooked. However, when we share important information, we rely on families to review it. Participation is a shared responsibility and we value our partnership with families and expect our communication efforts and community engagement to work hand in hand to support our students in schools. We thank you for your continued involvement and support. And then we'll move on to citizens comments and
004we'll start in the Zoom. None. All right. and we'll start in the room. Please state your name, address, and you have three minutes. >> Seth Deja, 210 Pompeia Road. I have some questions about that survey. Whenever there's a survey that goes out for anything in the school, we are inundated with emails, text messages, voicemails for days before a survey. This gets hidden in the newsletter. So, a few of the things you decided were okay to ask my 11-year-old daughter. How many times in the past 12 months have you carried a knife or gun for protection? How many times have you tried to kill yourself? 11 years old. How many times have you used heroin or meth? When you have sex, do you use a condom, an IUD, other type of birth control? All you thought
005that this was appropriate. Shame on all of you who thought that this was appropriate. Thank you. So my name is Aba Pashitka Group and I have only one question for you Miss um Superintendent Smith. My uh child is uh autistic um and he is um HDHD. So I am wondering what do you know about kids who are on you know have um HDD? Nothing. you leading the whole district of Thompson. I >> I'm having a hard time hearing you, but it's not a bad >> Do you want me to come closer? >> You can talk. >> Okay. So, my son is 13 years old child who is autistic and he is HDHD. My question for you is what do you know about kids who are who have HDHD and who are autistics? >> I know
006a lot about students who have ADHD. >> Do you know that kids who are on who have ADHD? Excuse me. I'm Polish. English is my second one language and I'm very nervous. So my son is 30% behind mentally you know so you decide that my son who is 13 but actually 9 years old was appropriate age appropriate to take that test that survey. I know you respond to my email saying that you know the survey and the form was in the email and I had the right to output him or whatever say that you know I don't want him to take that survey but you put that email in regular updates I am working 16 hours a week okay to make sure that my kids get all the services I had to hire advocate because
007the school never listened to me. Okay. So for him to get IP, I have to hire I advocate and make sure that my kids get all the services that they deserve. So I don't have time to regular to uh read regular emails. My son brought a form like permission to come in for a bowl like a dance ball, but he didn't bring uh permission to take the survey. So that's my question. Who approved that survey? And I would like the answers because my son is only 9 years old mentally. So I just want to know who approved that survey. >> So I'm going to state it's citizens comments, not citizens back and forth. >> I do need you to state your address though for the comment section. Uh, it's one uh 1402 Thompson Road in
008Thompson. >> Thank you. >> Any other citizens comments? >> But you still didn't answer my question. >> She's not going to >> because it's citizens comments, not question and answer. >> Okay. But you need to answer my question. >> Matt Delet, 10 Valley Drive. I've got two kids in the school system. So, I've got an elementary student who's and I've got a middle school student who's 12. So, I am a very busy working dad, right? Um, I pay close attention to my kids schooling, their social well-being, their health in general. This crap does not belong in our school. I'm going to tell you straight up. You want to do this for the high school with this survey, you know what, fine. It's probably more appropriate for high school. Kids in high school have a lot
009of a lot of issues. Some of the questions in here, I don't think are even appropriate for high school. I'm going to tell you, my 11-year-old, uh, my 12-year-old came home that night and asked me about heroin, sex, all kinds of illicit drugs, drinking, bringing weapons to school, suicide, all things that were absolutely foreign to him before your stupid survey. I'm going to tell you point blank, this is sexual harassment for a 12-year-old. If it happens again, I will absolutely be going to the state police with this. Do not do this again. This was irrational beyond anything I've ever seen. This was so the letter said it was to develop a suicide prevention program for the district and it examines young people's perceptions of their strengths, supports and skills that are essential for se success
010in school and life. What's the highest level of schooling your father or stepfather or male foster parent or guardian completed? I don't really think that goes to that effort or to that point. Have you ever had sexual intercourse gone all the way made love? When you have sex, how often do you and your partner use a birth control method such as birth control, pills, depo provera shot, an implant, ring patch, male or female condom, foam, diaphragm, or IUD? What are you asking a 12-year-old this for? My 9-year-old will be 10 in the middle school. This better not come across his desk. You said it's anonymous, but they did it on their computers. that IP address can be traced back to the kids. I guarantee it. It's not anonymous. This um SECRA or whatever the the
011the Serak has ties to DCF. If a kid puts a a comment on there that he thinks is funny or she thinks is funny, I'm willing to bet somehow a referral goes to DCF. This is just garbage. I would love to know what funding we actually get from this SERAK organization. I called them today and they can't tell me. What they can tell me is that it's not direct funding. It helps in training and things like that for the faculty and staff. Great. I'm all for you guys getting training. The the staff getting training. Um, I don't think asking young kids that are well below age about sex and drugs and all this other stuff is really necessary to obtain grant funding for CPR training and things like that. I urge you to take another
012look at this. Do not do this again, please. Thank you. >> Any other citizens comments? >> Can I make a citizen comment? >> No, you have four member comments. Student Lee is on report. >> What? >> It's okay. >> Okay. Um, on a happier note, some events we have coming up are FBA week this week, which is a fundraiser the FBA program is running. Um, where students can pay a dollar to participate in different events. Today we did a challenge where you put an Oreo in your forehead and you got to get it in your mouth. Paid like 10 bucks and I just ended up eating all the Oreos and but raised 10 bucks so that's cool. Uh, we also have progress reports coming out soon. There's student council meetings. The TSLT inservice is coming
013up. The NIASK visit, the annual serial challenge again is starting up, which is really exciting. We have a new goal, higher than ever, that we're hoping to um hoping to achieve. The Pops concert, our final uh music concert is coming up in believe it's March. So, that's something exciting to look forward to. uh the schoolwide SAT also in March only it's about a month away now so a little scary midnight madness a very fun event where if you don't know students all get together and we have a fun time we play a bunch of games there's a bunch of snacks and everything and we stay at the school from around 6:00 to midnight cost 10 20 bucks it's a great fundraiser super fun um more council meetings Willy Wonka the play come out very fun
014play can tell you personally Um, NHS inductions for those who have got offers, they received them last week, I believe. Um, local government day is coming up. Quarter 3 ends in the end of March. More student council meetings, more reports. Um, recently we hosted a seventh grade shadow day where students from the Thompson Middle School, seventh graders specifically, got to come up to the high school and experience a day with high schoolers. So, I personally had two kids with me. They got to follow me throughout my uh second period day in our Tiger Blocks where they got to see all the cool things we have to offer as a school. And personally, my kids said they had a lot more interest in our school after seeing how much they could do here. So, I think
015that was a major success, and I'm looking forward to doing that again next year. Um, some other news and highlights. We had our mock elections for our local government day on the 30th where students gave speeches on why they believe they would be a good fit for positions in our local government. Uh, it was a very fun event. I didn't win, but I tried. um the TSLT retreat. We're all going to get together in a nice little cabin in the woods and sleep in. Sounds scary though, but we're going to talk a lot of business there. It's basically like a big long meeting and a big sleepover with a lot of fun snacks and fun activities. So, I I personally loved it last year and I'm sure everyone's going to enjoy it this year. Uh
016the NASC visit is coming in March. Um I'm not really sure what they're doing. doesn't say much, but they're listening. So, that's really good. Um, they're gonna we're going to share student work and perspectives and basically elaborate on what we here are doing at TMHS. Um, sports talk, rough season for the boys. Um, boys basketball team, one and 13, I believe. You know, we're trying. We're rebuilding. We have a big team. We're starting three freshman this year, so we're hoping in a couple years we'll build and be good. The girls basketball team, similar struggles. They faced a lot of injuries, losing a lot of good players, unfortunately. Um, but we're all still fighting through. On a better note, though, boys and girls indoor track has been doing pretty good. There was six of our athletes
017selected to go to ECC's, which if you do not know is kind of in a way a semifinal meet where only a select few get in. And one student, Caleb Leaport, got selected to go to states, which is like the final where all the best kids from the state get together and compete. And I'm rooting for him. I think he can win. >> He does the 55 if anyone's wondering. >> Um, student voice forms. So, student voice forms are forms that all students can submit where our faculty along with members of TSLT and most other groups such as the board of ed, the board of finance, uh, governance council and a lot of other groups in the school. We all get together and we review these forms by the average common student and we bring
018their concerns to you, the board of ed, um, to see if any of their concerns can be addressed. I don't believe we have any to address today, but if anyone has any, if anyone's listening, I'd be happy to introduce them to the board. Just got to submit them. But um that's all I have to report. Thank you. >> Thank you, D. >> Any questions for the student leaison? >> All right, finance director report. always nervous to move that thing. >> Uh revised budget hasn't changed at $21.8 million. Uh year-to- date spending. Uh this is all as you guys know as of the end of uh July at January. Uh $12.3 million or 56.3% of the budget. A little bit behind where we were in the prior year. year-to- date incumbrances 9.5 million uh slightly ahead
019of where we were last year. Uh right now projected spending of 21.7 million or 99.8% of the budget. Um please remember we're a little over halfway through the year. So that's very uh draft at the moment. Uh you'll notice some of the numbers moved around uh from last month. Uh, one of the biggest changes was, uh, we revised our estimated 2026 special ed excess cost amount down from 140,000 to 62,000. That was a redone calculation by Dr. Jones uh, based on the specific students um, that that that special ed excess cost applies to. Um, so that's really a function of, as you guys well know, the increased threshold, reimbursement threshold this year, uh, coupled with the increased reimbursement. Of course, if you raise the threshold high enough, they're not going to be reimbursing you on
020anything. So, that's really what you're seeing rippling through the numbers. As we discussed last month, we did apply the EDA IDA funds and the seed grant uh to come up with these numbers, too. Uh two departments projected to be over budget, pupil services at $467,000. Uh that's up uh almost $200,000 from when we talked last month. And it's really a function of the change I just mentioned on the special ed excess cost as well as adding in the expected costs. You'll remember there were students we had to consider for next year's budget. We had to increase the budget for those students. Well, those students are here this year. So there's also a current year impact. Um, so when we look at the expected expenditures for those students for the current year plus the decrease in
021special ed excess costs, that's really the primary drivers of the increase in the projected deficit in pupil services. Um, so you see that it's at at $624,000 for out of district placements uh and $79,000 related to RBT uh spending. Um the good story in special ed continues to be transportation. That's running a bit lower than budgeted and that's helping to offset some of these items. Uh and then of course uh yes at the end there which won't change. Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Facilities update Mr. Burch. He's there. >> I wonder if the mic's too far. Can he hear you? >> No, he's trying to me. There he is. >> All right. Hello everybody. >> Hello. >> So, I don't really have too much different to tell you tonight. Um, it it's still pretty
022much the same things for us. most of the most of the time. We still work on the HVAC project every day, working the kinks out of it. It is uh getting better bit by bit. Uh we spent a little bit of time the past week or so moving snow around. Seems no matter where we move it, it's in the wrong place, but we just we just keep doing that. Um and really other than that, that has taken up all of our time in the since we met last met. Is there an update on the roof leak that occurred this weekend? >> So, so, so that that roof leak that has occurred this weekend is uh it's just a a phenomenon of the way the building was built in 1986. When you have extremely deep snow
023on the gym roof combined with high winds, snow blows up into the smoke vent and there it melts and drips on the floor. Uh until we go up and shovel the roof vent off and uh I would say in the past 20 years, it's probably happened four or five times. >> Okay. >> But everything's taken care of at this point. >> It is. Thank you. >> We made snow angels while we were up there. >> As long as we're not struggling too close to the edges, >> guys. >> Justin, >> I've got two. >> Okay. >> Uh, one is on the generator. Um, I know it's crappy time of year, but um, have we do we have any update on that? >> So, there's there's really nothing new on the generator at this point. The
024generator uh, seems to be fine. It runs every Wednesday. Uh it's been performing well. We haven't noticed any uh significant coolant loss and we are still looking at having some uh deeper evaluation done April vacation. >> Okay. And my second question is are we looking at with and don't anybody get mad at me in the room. Are we looking at dealing with snow load on the roofs with the impending storms coming up? >> So, so at this at this point, the snow load that we have on the roof at this point is probably about 50% of what it was in 2014 when we had to close school because of the heavy snow load. The the storm's coming up. Uh it looks like maybe uh another inch or so tomorrow night and then a little bit
025at the end of the week. I don't particularly see it as being a a threat at this time. Uh you know, when we had issues in the past with snow load, we were getting hammered with uh heavy storms day after day. >> Okay. Just want to keep it in our front view window because March isn't even here yet. Thank you. >> Any other questions for Mr. Burch? >> Thank you, Mr. Burch. We're going to move on to approval of minutes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for the special meeting in March, I'm sorry, January 5th, the regular meeting January 12th, the special meeting January 21st, and the joint meeting of January 28th. >> I'll second. Any discussion? One comment. Was >> the joint meeting January 28, 2026. Was that forwarded to the BOF
026recording secretary as well? >> Okay. Can we just note that on there somewhere then, >> please? Heather. >> And can I can I get a copy of the the latest and greatest um spreadsheet, the financial spreadsheet from that meeting that had the FTS and all that? You had the updated version, >> right? Yeah. >> Sure. She needs the 22 draft. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion on the minutes? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Any abstensions? Motion passes. All right. Subcommittee update. Finance >> finance subcommittee met. Uh, and there are bold business items that are going to come up. Do we are we doing that? Do you just want an update on what we did during the >> Yes, please. Um the finance subcommittee
027advised to send the uh 2020 FY25 budget overage from special education of somewhere around $67,000 to the board of finance as is. Uh finance subcommittee also advised the use of the unrestricted non-lapsing for the serving line and the steamer at uh7,284 for the serving line. And I added in the $2,000 for electrical for that and then 32,893 for the steamer. Um it's the recommendation is going to be to uh a lot that entire amount and if we do get discounted equipment um that will revise that at that point. But the superintendent has authorization is the finance subcommittee is is recommending that the superintendent have up to that amount to spend on that equipment as is. Um we're we also advised the table the lockers pending the drip allocation in June July time frame right it
028was it was June right or July >> so uh that is the update from the finance subcommittee >> thank you Justin >> sorry Justin did you say that the serving line and the steamer from the non-laps >> from the unrestricted >> non-restricted nonlaps correct >> unrestricted non lapsing. Sorry. VOE control. >> Yeah. Gotcha. Thank you. >> Um which let me I full transparency on that one. It will leave us uh seven right around 7,000 uh sorry strike that 5,000 in the negative on that but the drip funding should clear the rest of that which we're guaranteed. It's just till June and we want to get the equipment on order so that it's installed over the summer. So >> any questions on the finance of any other questions? Nope. All right. Superintendent report. >> So, um
029I believe that you have um our um excitement here in the district. Uh Alyssa Lynch uh was awarded the VFW uh teacher of the year for the entire state of Connecticut. I believe she's online. >> There she is. Wait. And I believe the chisen has something special for you, Alyssa. >> Your very own certificate. >> Ah, thank you. Well, listen, I appreciate that because they spelled my name wrong on the one from the state. So, >> I check it. >> Did you check that? >> It's It's spelled right here. >> Thank you so much. I don't know how else to say thank you. You do a phenomenal job in your classroom and it's nice to see that recognition come to a teacher who puts in an awful lot of work. So, thank you for what
030you do for us. >> Thank you. I listen, I am a proud proud proud PMHS alum. Thompson public schools K through 12. Coming back to teach in the school district that did so much for me means more than I think that I could ever say. I love being able to have an opportunity to have any kind of impact on the community that has raised me into the woman that I am. And I am very very blessed with the amazing administration and the board of ed who support us, our BFW in town. And I'm very very very grateful for this award. This was a complete shock. In fact, when they called me on New Year's Eve, I thought it was spam and I hung up on them and they did leave me the voicemail, thank God.
031So, I was able I called my dad first and I was like, "Do you think this is real?" And he's like, "Call them back right now." But I am just so very grateful and I am very honored to be even recognized even just in the town of Thompson would have been enough, but the state of Connecticut was like above and beyond. So, I just want to say thank you to Melinda, thank you to Kim and Becky. I am just very very grateful. >> Thank you. Enrollment update. >> So our enrollment went down by one student this month. Um at Marriott Fisher we have 326 students. That was down two students from the previous month. Our middle school has been holding steady over the past few months at 280 students. And we have an additional student
032at Turtle Memorial High School. So that total is at 169 for a grand total of 776 students in our district. That doesn't include all of the other students that the district does pay tuition and additional supports for transportation which is located on your um sheet. But those total up to about um where's that total number? >> Yeah, 70 students. So, uh, take that 776 and add those 70 students, uh, that the town of Thompson is financially responsible for in one way or the other, transportation, tuition, or both. >> Thank you. Any questions on the enrollment report, move along to career pathways coordinator update. >> So, I am pleased to introduce to the board um, Michelle Walworth. Michelle is the uh career pathway coordinator that was hired this year with alliance grant funding. If you uh
033recall um we had a guidance counselor in that role last year um and we chose to go for someone that had some experience with workforce development. Um I know that uh Michelle put together a needy presentation um but she is going to tell you about her activities that she started here. she has hit the ground running and I couldn't be more pleased with the work that's coming out of that office. Thank you. Very glad to be here. So, um, really quickly about me, I live in Griswald and, um, for the last few years, I was working with another company and this was one of my schools that I was contracted to visit. So, I've been familiar with um Torlot for the last two years and understanding your student needs and being able to get to
034know Melinda better and Kim and Mike Joyce and work tight with um these folks. And so, yes, hitting the ground running to get going. Let's see if this works here. It did. All right. So, when I first got here, um Superintendent Smith said to me, "Your mission is to make sure that every student leaves here with a career plan." And we've been digging deep um as Melinda says, we're building the plan as we fly it and trying to come up with um all kinds of initiatives, plans, motivations, and activities to engage our students. All right. So, when I first got here, I started thinking really quickly about what do we need to do to engage our students? They need to learn about their careers. We want them to engage with work-based learning opportunities. I'm doing
035workshops and meetings with students. I'm getting to know them better. And I'm continuing doing employability skills, which is something I had done with the previous company that I was with to help get our students career ready. All right, zipping through. When I first got here, I met with Kim Stiglets, our guidance counselor, and she and I sat down, looked at every single senior, and picked out which students we thought might need a little bit more motivation or help, career awareness, career planning. And those are for my seniors, I have 24 out of our 45 or so students that I call being on my case load. And we already identified our juniors. I have 20 out of the 37. These are typically students who haven't really committed yet to go into a college or we know
036college isn't for them. They may be a better candidate for a trade school, um, hands-on position, or just really aren't sure where they want to go. As I continue to engage with our students, I track every single student in a spreadsheet as to when I've met with them. This allows me at a glance to say, "Oh, I haven't met with so and so in a while. Maybe I should go find this person in a tiger block and engage with them. So, I keep really copious notes so I know where I'm at at all times. These notes and these case notes that I have are shared with the guidance counselor and also any case managers. They use this information for IEPs and PPTs just to always know where our students needs are and how they're being
037met. All right. So during the fall, I had to build a lot of resources and came in and created activities and worksheets, tire block engagements. Um, we're going to talk a little bit about it. I built a new website, uh, career development website, which we have tied on to our, um, Tor Memorial High School website has a ton of resources there. And I've been meeting with the seniors and I started doing this in more group settings so it was a little bit more comfortable for them, starting to ask them what they wanted to do a little bit later, what their needs were. And as I've gotten to um meet them and understand them, it's simple things and simple engagements. When I see them in the hall, how you doing? Did you get your resume? You
038applied for that job. Did you hear back? Do you need more help? And um being able to work in such a small school really this It's it's great actually because they get this one-on-one attention that if I had maybe 500 kids, I wouldn't know all the students by name. So, I do love being here at Torlot for that uh particular aspect. Um we um I've been visiting the manufacturing um shops and construction shops, working with our hands-on learners to understand what their needs are. I work very closely with Mike. We share a lot of information. Um, I'll be going on to PD development on Wednesday to talk about more manufacturing jobs, how to encourage kids to get to the skilled trades, one-on-one meetings. I won't go through all of this because it's all there. This
039we're not we don't really have time, but I do encourage you to take a peek um off of our uh Torlat Memorial High School page. If you go down to departments, you'll see career development, and under that page uh you'll see a lot of links. Um, I came up with some career planning resources, a lot of information about the career clusters because kids just don't know what they don't know. So, giving them opportunities to explore the types of jobs out there, the skills required, the training they can get, and then tying that into how to a lot can offer these resources for students to be successful. That's where this very preliminary first project I worked on when I came here was was I needed a big resource for all my students to be able to
040engage with and I use it in the classroom um with students. It has assessments, quizzes, skills. So again, I'll let you do that over the next system. All right. So moving on to spring. Um the fall was all about building the resources and making connections with the teachers, the staff, um and of course our students and understanding their needs. Now we're hitting the ground running. We I just did resumes with students, gave them all the resources for that. We're going to be talking about interviewing skills, how to apply, where to look for jobs. um working with Cindy Woulette is amazing which you know she does um the senior capstone classes and she's invited me into those capstone classes to give employability lessons and those can be anything again from the resumes and some real practical
041skills to more of the soft skills which could be professional conduct, time management, organizational skills. Um a big one is adaptability and resilience in the workforce. That's a main um factor that all the employers tell us. All of our new employees need to have adaptability. Um, job searching, work-based learning. This next page is going to talk a little bit more about the um, well, we'll we'll get to that in a minute. We'll talk about some of these initiatives. Um, getting in again and building an entire kind of program and a lot of resources. I have bulletin boards going on. The uh, engaging Google classrooms with students. I'm always trying to find ways to put myself in front of the student should be accessible. My door stays open except when it's chilly. Sometimes I close it,
042but um the door is open. Students pop in and out all the time. I came up with an idea to do a dress for success closet. I admit that that was based on um Griswald. I worked in Griswald public schools for a while. And the dress for success closet is just to offer students nice dress shirts and maybe um some casual business clothes so mom and dad don't have to go out and buy a $35 shirt that the kids going to wear once or twice. I have some suit jackets and we received a lot of donations from the community which I'm very thankful for and my shelves are stocked right now. So, I'm really in good good shape with that. So, thank you to the community and everybody who's listening out there. Um, bringing in
043guest speakers, guest speakers to talk to our students about career awareness and the different pathways we have is something that I've really been um engaging with this semester for our students. We just had EB in yesterday. I have spiral coming in in a few weeks. Um we're going to be doing career readiness and also talking about um the career pathways. Just taking a peek and seeing what else. There's a lot of information on there. Um I'm tying career development and to the employability skills like I said to the senior capstone. So that's been a real gift to be able to go right into the classroom and maybe give like a 30 minute um lesson with the students um activities exploration. Here's our workbased learning opportunities. As you can see by this, I'm not going to
044read them all, but just about every month we have had some sort of engagement um with work-based learning opportunities. Whether it's job shadows, guest speakers, going to a career fair, these have all been done with in partnership with Mike Joyce, Kim Steglettz, Cindy Boulette. So we work together very tightly to bring uh awareness in all shapes and forms of a pathways and career choices to our students and as you can see there's a lot of diversity in there as to what we're offering. Um, and that's something I'm going to continue to build, like I said, bringing in more guest speakers, um, to really engage with those pathways of the students. All right. One of the big things I took over this year was the job shadows. And job shadows is a graduation requirement that the
045students need to complete. Um, they talk about this during their capstone showcase, and it kind of went a little bit by the wayside, um, only because they didn't have anybody to really monitor it. But now that I'm here, I revamped the whole program, updated the documents, made it a little bit more succinct, and I'm also a resource for students to help them engage with a more meaningful job shadow instead of, well, I need a job shadow, so I'll just go down and work, you know, out in a garden. You know, the point of a job shadow is to get them experience in a career choice. Let them see what it's about, ask questions, network, and meet a professional. Uh so really working hard on the job shadows to make more meaningful connections with the community.
046I was on uh WINY radio also looking for partnerships and um trying to get uh I'm working with the alumni right now too to get a little bit more partnerships in for that to mostly in the skilled trades. It's really hard to observe in skilled trades for obvious reasons, liabilities and such, but if we can get guest speakers in and folks just to uh offer really great Q&A sessions, it would count as a job shadow of sorts because it's allowing the kids to have awareness of certain trades. All right, moving along. So, I just came up with this in the last few weeks, thinking ahead to what I have accomplished over the fall, what I'm going into for the spring, and what I want it to look for next year. This little circle is what
047I came up with. We want to recruit our middle school students into Thompson um in Torlot Middle School, Torlot Memorial High School. And the way to do that is to give the students awareness of the pathways here, but also awareness of career choices. Once they know and they're interested in certain career choices, we can say, "Guess what? We have a pathway for that." And we have supports to help you right here in Thompson so you could be successful. We want to engage with the students um for more career uh like I said, the guest speakers, work site tours, career fairs. The development is the students being able to work up through a pathway. They can start in welding one, they like it, they move up to welding two, welding three, retaining them into the district
048and eventually the outcome is that every student leaves Thompson with um a plan in place. All right. So, this is getting lengthy, so I'm just going to skip through. I'm going to invite you to take a look at this. But for freshmen, the number one mission for me is awareness. awareness of the pathways, awareness of careers, looking for um some um activities and engagement for them. I don't do as much with the freshmen right now for obvious reasons. They're acclimating. I didn't really meet with them at all during the fall. Um but next year I'll be doing just a little bit more touching, you know, to just kind of get them familiar with what we got going on and the opportunities. Sophomores, we're doing a more awareness and engagement. those students are going to be
049invited to career fairs, might have some guest speakers. They have the maturity maybe to start really thinking about more uh where their paths going. I don't expect to ask a 14-year-old necessarily, you know, what are you going to be when you grow up? Kind of want them to acclimate to the school and take advantage of everything we have to offer. And then as sophomores, we can really start engaging them with their some career choices and pathways. Now, it's when it gets real, right, Dylan? So Dylan had joined me on a healthcare uh tour. We went over to QCC. It was a career fair and a lot of uh vendors, if you will, there, a lot of businesses and got to meet with them. We had some exploration um things that we got to do. It
050was kind of fun. Um so bringing starting to engage with our juniors to bring them out to some real world work-based learning activities. And again, it's that awareness, engagement, and development of them in their pathways here at Torlot. and pushing for that outcome. Their outcomes as they have a plan, they know where they're going. Last but not least is the development and the outcome of the seniors. So, my seniors are high priority on my list and right now I'm just engaging with them in any way I can. I have uh like I said, career readiness, we have work site tours, we have career fairs coming up, um career presentation, readiness skills. I'm going to be doing individual um meetings with students. I do have certain students that I'm know really aren't sure yet and those
051students are still going to leave a plan. So that's where we're at. Then going over to the middle school, just started the outreach and awareness and recruitment with the middle school this week or I should say last week and it's been wonderful. So much positive energy there. really excited about that and we are brainstorming all kinds of ideas and opportunities to get the students to understand what Torlot is doing to understand what I do and how we can help them explore ideas and creative pathways for them and um hopefully keep them in the district because we have a lot to offer coming up soon. A lot of great ideas. We're talking about eye exploration days, maybe a pathway expo, some work-based learning opportunities. If I have a guest speaker and we know that our tech
052kids are really hands-on, which they are, I'm going to invite them up to talk to a guest speaker um to so they can hear a little bit more about that. I apologize for skipping through, but I know it's late. And then, um, last but not least, here a couple photos of some of my wonderful people. This is something I came up with this year which was a career pathways spotlight to kind of share the good news that our pathways are going with and our wonderful students who are engaging and these kids are great. They you ask them these questions. They have wonderful answers and they've taken advantage of a lot of the opportunities we have here. The top two students on the right went to the boat program with me at EB. Um actually it
053was at New England Tech. That was five hours coming and going for two nights. And those two kids did that for two nights with me. Bottom picture is alumni from two years ago. Um Jordan Butler and Patricia came back and talked to our CNAs. So that peer-topeer engagement was huge and looking to do more sorts of engagement with that. Now that you have a career development uh coordinator, I've got an office. So that's my little piece of the world. Very proud of my little office. I've made bulletin boards. I do graphic design. So, I made that graphic on the left and printed it as a poster. And last but not least, for more information, there's my QR codes. So, that was the Reader's Digest kind of sort of version. So, thank you. >> Does anybody
054have any questions before? >> Heather, you had your hand up first. >> I don't have a question, but I wanted to tell you that I really like the student spotlight things. I think you should keep doing those because I think putting a face to to the program is also helpful and it and it makes it more personal. >> Makes it real. >> Yes. And I also love your ideas about the middle school and finding ways to kind of engage them more and >> kind of give the students and maybe most importantly the parents um you know more knowledge as to what what we have to offer. >> So one of the things we were talking about too was possibly me visiting during the coffee hours or putting sort of that spotlight u maybe into the
055newsletters for middle school more bridging the gap about u pathways and opportunities for our students career awareness. >> Nice work Matt. two questions or >> yeah questions I guess you say um >> do you teach things like interviewing skills like eye contact and not mumbling? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> I I interview a lot of uh college students for internships and stuff and >> man >> I know >> yeah I'm aware I uh I worked with a bunch of other schools uh too prior to this and that was always the conversation how to dress how to how to look. know, you don't need to wear a suit if you're going to apply, you know, at EB, but you still want to look nice and um just have professional level skills, first impressions, the
056whole thing. >> And oh, I think it's just Oh, what what percentage and I don't know who knows what percentage of kids right now, juniors and seniors anyway, you think are on a college track versus a career track? I think career track is huge right now and I think it's important. I've always thought it's important. my kid went to Ellis. Um >> my son graduated from Georgia Tech >> and and you know it's it's it's important and we need more of it and so what do you think >> about half so about half um which I said I had about 20 or so kids on my case load those were kids that we did we identified that weren't going to go into um college so they need career awareness and advancement so we're looking at
057about half right right now. >> Okay. >> So that's that's why I have a job. >> Yeah. >> And thank you. >> Thank you. out. It's It's very needed. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> All right. Move on to old business. >> All right. Um we're skipping B. Right. So, um, we're looking for an approval of expenditures as described by Justin and from the unrestricted non-lapsing account. >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second it. >> Official motion. >> An official motion would be good. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the expenditures for move them down. um the serving line and the steamer and possibly we'll look at the lockers in June and July uh from the non-lapsing account. >> Can you move that from the unrestricted >> from the unrestricted
058non-lapsing account? >> I will second that. >> And Matt seconds it. Any discussion? >> Yeah. Can we stick a dollar amount on? >> Oh, >> sorry. I'm doing the math right now. Just make sure I have it right. >> Mhm. >> Uh >> I don't know what the lockers were. It's 70,000 for the serving, 32,000 for the steamer as of now. >> Uh what were the lockers? >> Yeah. So, it's a total of uh sorry, it's a total of 1031 174 less the locker. So, the serving line and the steamer comes. >> It's just the 103 174 >> 103 174 with the >> No, but the lock No, we're not doing We're not worrying about the lockers right now, though. >> No, I know. The serving line was 68. >> 70,000 >> that we have
059to code for plus the two gives it 70. >> Yep. >> Plus $32,000 for the steamer, >> right? Yeah, >> that would be the >> gives it 103174. >> Okay. All right, that's fine. >> All right. So, Kathleen adjusted her motion to include the dollars. Matt, you still second? >> Yep. >> You good? >> Yep. I'm fine. >> You sure? >> Okay, >> I'm happy. >> All right. Any other discussion? All right. Since we're voting on money, we'll go around the table. Justin, >> yes. >> Heather, >> yes. >> Matt, >> yes. >> Kristen, >> yes. >> Amanda, >> yes. >> Rick, >> yes. >> Daniela, >> yes. >> Kathleen, >> yes. >> And I'll vote yes. So, that's unanimous. All right. And then we were not making any further motions in regarding to number
060B. Does anybody have any new business? >> Yes, >> Justin. >> I would like the board of ed to uh put to the policy committee a policy on student survey specifically focusing on uh perpa or protection of people rights amendment, please. And I'd like to take I'd like the policy committee to take that as a priority. as soon as possible. Uh there is a CAB outline for it that I already looked up, so it should be pretty cut and dry from CAB with a little bit of review from the policy committee. And uh instead of it appears from my quick review of the CA policy, it appears that it is an optin in Connecticut versus an opt out. So that's the way Cape has it >> for student surveys going forward. >> Okay. >> That
061>> we have a meeting coming up >> on March 2nd. >> Yes. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Do we need a motion to move that to policy? >> Make that motion. >> No. >> All right. Um, I will make a motion that we were sent to the the policy committee as a priority that student surveys, a policy, our policy on student surveys um be revised or reviewed um to reflect the optin versus opt out to to comply with or to reflect the Connecticut state um regulation. >> Okay. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Justin seconds. >> All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Any abstensions? >> I >> He's going to >> I'm still very concerned about the comments from the citizens and what was in
062the survey, how it flowed through. I never heard about it. I heard something about the surveys parents hadn't contacted us back, but it's like that never came up in any discussion here. So, I don't know how that is handled and then how it got put forth to be sent out. I I feel bad hearing about 12 year old and 13year-old >> 11 >> getting 11s getting those kinds of questions, >> right? But see, if they have the optin ability, if they don't see it, if you know because they're busy or whatever, then their child won't get the survey. >> So, that was missing in the current. >> We don't as my quick review, we don't >> we don't currently have a policy. >> Sorry. Yeah, we don't currently have a a policy on student surveys.
063The CAB framework that I quickly looked up was uh it's the pupil protection protection of pupil rights amendment. >> Um and it specifically focuses on opt in for surveys like we were uh like just happened. Um so it allows if basically it says if you don't see it and you didn't sign it, your student doesn't have to take it. Mhm. >> Can I ask the superintendent kind of how this was? >> So, right now, we're just voting to go and design that. >> Okay. >> That was designed by an outside firm. >> All right. >> Okay. That was supposed to concentrate on helping students with you explain it. Part of our partnership with Sierra is that um data collection, right? Uh we are in a uh suicide prevention program with them. We're in year two.
064Um we've received a lot of training from faculty, staff, and students around suicide prevention. If you all recall, we had the QPR training here. >> Um Justin is right. There isn't a sur there isn't a policy um related to surveys. Um because we are in partnership with Sierra. Um that was a survey, an attitudes and behavior survey that's nationally normed. Um that we sent out. Um, I looked at that survey. There are questions on that survey that are certainly questionable. That's why we sent out a letter. It's why we posted them on the website. The I in talking to parents um they understood all of that. They are more concerned that we didn't send out another reminder um about the opt out. Um optin makes more sense then therefore um that takes that away. Mhm.
065>> That's I think that's where the >> we'll discuss our policy. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any correspondence? >> I haven't received any. >> Okay. Second session of citizens comments. We'll start in the room this time. We'll go backwards. Any citizens comments in the room? same as last time. Name, address, please. >> Y uh M Beth Asu. Uh I will say the career development thing. My uh middle school student uh has enjoyed this. So that's working really well. He uh came home probably about a week ago talking about he's going to be learning how to solder and things like that. So that's great. Like to see that. Um, a few things on the survey. Thank you. I think that's a great first step uh to to have that done and opt in
066rather than opting out and trying to not that you tried to hide it in weekly updates, but as a busy parent, I'm going to gloss over that. Typically, I read your updates. Um, I happen to be starting two companies last week or the prior week and I didn't see it. Uh, that being said, I think you're missing the point. I might have misunderstood your comments. I wasn't upset about a specific notification being sent out. I was specific that you were asking my 12-year-old about sexual things and drugs and suicide in a survey. The optin, great first step. Really think you should consider the content of those surveys. to your point. Um, >> very appropriate the way this one was done. >> It's appropriate. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other citizens
067comments in the room? >> Citizens comments on Zoom. >> Looks like there's >> Cindy. Hi. >> Your name and address, please. >> Uh, Cynthia Basis, 79 Hangstrom Road. Thank you. >> Okay. So, I I I was a little upset about the survey like a lot of these other people are talking about. Um I like I'm going to kind of repeat what some of some of the parents said that you know um I it it was sent out. Yes, it was. But it was sent out in the weekly updates and like something with such strong language and such major subjects. I feel should have been sent out so the parents can get a heads up and hey like maybe letting the children know, hey, you're going to be taking a survey and there might be these
068questions that you know may not be you know you're aware of. I mean, you want to inform our our children. Don't you want to have the right answers and they understand? Yes. I think some of those questions were not appropriate for some age. I'm a realist here. I know there's children doing things that they shouldn't be doing at this age and some know more than they should, but it's, you know, some parents want to keep that, you know, for when they're older. Now my question is I know we did this now because um it was for a grant and we need money as everyone knows especially all of you on the board there. We need money now with this survey. What was the grant money? How much was it for and what would it do?
069Um, are we are I was able to take one of these courses and I found it very veryformational and I thought to myself, boy, maybe these kids could understand this better. then they they could look out for signs and whatnot to help their friends which I have to say personally my son has had a few friends where the subject has come up and they are in middle school. So that's one thing. Um you know how much is this grant that we did in doing this survey? What is it going to do? And then also, how many parents did opt out that did see this? So, as I had told the previous citizen, it's citizens comments, not back and forth, but if you email Superintendent Smith, she'll be able to provide you that information. >> Yeah,
070because I I was on this last time and I thought this was questions, too. I'm sorry I must have mi been mis misinformed. So okay. Um then then okay we're not going back and forth. I as a parent and as a parent of three children and you know somebody in the community if there are going to be further surveys I would like and I know many other parents would like a direct email not you know over here a direct like that like it has been been done in the past. Um I just you know and are there going to be surveys with these more serious questions too? I mean, all right, that's my piece. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other citizens comments online? Go once. Go twice. >> There's something in the chat. What
071is the chat? >> That's old. >> All right. >> No additional citizens comments. Do you have a motion to uh board member comments? My apologies, Danielle. Um, so for the parents who are upset, I'm a board member. I have multiple children that attend our schools. I too did miss this. I was not happy. I understand the survey. Um, but I missed it. Right. Okay. And I'm a board member sitting here representing our school. I also missed it. So, none of you should feel hurt that you missed it because I too as a board member missed it. I would have opted out at least for one of my children. Um, these are topics that I want to have the conversation with my kids on first. I do know that they have health and I do know
072that there have been topics they've had deer, right? So, they are aware of drugs. They are aware of alcohol. They are aware just from friends. Um, but I just want you parents to know that I, as a board member, also missed this communication. You're not alone. Um, I made the mistake, too. And I hope that helps you guys feel a little bit better that if you did miss it, I did, too. >> Any other board member comments, Justin? So our job on the BOE is we're the executive board over the superintendent and we are the policymaking body for the Thompson public school district. The remedy for what happened and we can't take back what happened the remedy for what happened is to put policy in place to make sure it doesn't happen again. Um, I
073think one of the things that we as a board and what I am going to do a lot more moving forward is try to be more proactive with policy. So when there is controversial potential topics coming up, try to head it off with a a policy that may make it a softer landing. Um, but I I think that when issues come up in the district, it needs to be a reminder that we are a policy making body and that we are the executive body over the superintendent, not necessarily down at the administrator or teacher or granular school level. So, um, I think we're by by putting a policy in place on on the student surveys, I think we're making a a good first step. >> Any other cit uh board of ed member comments? >>
074Rick, >> do we know of any other near-term surveys of this type this year or anything? >> No. >> Be a concern. Okay. Thank you, >> Kristen. Um, I just wanted to say that I appreciated the addition of the cafeteria updates to the packet. So, I think that Deb is doing phenomenal and I really liked seeing all those numbers. That was kind of new for um that information. And also, I want to thank Danielle for your minutes are amazing. and I sit on a lot of boards and a lot of committees and I've read thousands of notes and they're not always, you know, as comprehensive. So, I appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other board of ed member comments? If no, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to second. >>
075Quick. >> Done. Back to my boot.