001I'm going to call the order uh now that Beth has joined us. Thank you, Beth number seven. Um of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, it is 602. Um our first meeting in the uh Windsor House. Very exciting. Um changes to the agenda. Katie Hearn could not be here tonight. And what else did you add? Oh, we have some hiring. We have hiring today. Yeah. Yeah. So, that will go into the motions for discussion. Um, okay. Approval of the minutes, uh, April 28th, 2025. I do have my name. I don't know. They are well written and concise. Um, is there I will take a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Second. Okay. Um, any discussion? Okay. All in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. I. I. Um, they are approved. Moving right on
002to public participation. Uh public comment is not legally required. We believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns over issues. Through these meetings, our board models for our students, how to conduct public discourse, and that the board and members of our community can approach controversial issues in a civil and constructive manner and can demonstrate mutual respect. Having said that, please note that the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed for discussion. Please start by identifying yourself and what town you reside in. So the floor is open for public comment or participation again. Why does it go up? My first comment is Nancy has joined us digitally really quite well this time. Congratulations. Larry was sitting next to me. He said again any announcements
003from the board. Oh, let's see what that the prom Yeah. happen. And then today at um uh Albert Bridge, there was Touch a Truck. Yeah. With all the large equipment out and Oh, the wonderful music festival. Uh the bands and stuff. Were you there? I looked for you cuz sometimes Yeah. I made it to the um the what the 6 through 12. Middle school. Yeah. Middle and high school. I didn't make it to the great school, but yeah, it was amazing. This was Yeah. Yeah. Really really I was very very impressed with the band even though there there might be just one instrument on a part. They were obviously musicians and he the um music that he chose was quite um sophisticated and I it was very very exciting. Okay. I don't have anything except
004that it's been raining and uh I hope some of my tomato plants survive. Um not public policy discussion of active hate or first one. I will take a motion to approve C43 which is southeast supervisory active hate policy. So moved. We have a second. Second. Second. Um, any discussion? John, I'd like to just clarify something I made uh during second reading about uh first amendment rights. I'm going to give an extreme example that I had in mind. if the district or the SU employed a person that was part of a hate group but did not bring that agenda into our environment then uh but it still could trigger complaint from parents and my feeling would be that that wouldn't fall under our jurisdiction that the hate policy is written uh extends beyond the school boundaries
005And I I don't have any problem with that. Well, um yeah, I I I think it it I believe the procedure would clarify that. But if a member of staff has some belief that doesn't impact the um the educational environment in the process of the school, this policy would not be applicable because yeah that so that's the piece that you know does it disrupt the educational environment. So even if a student has a particular opinion that they they um expound on and that opinion doesn't disrupt the educational um environment or the educational process, this wouldn't apply either. So, it it's it's when those actions disrupt the educational environment. And um I don't know if you're aware, John, but there was an incident um earlier in the school year that um would have defined as an
006act of hate and there were consequences for the students and it severely disrupted um the educational safety, the educational well-being and the educational process of a certain number of students. Um and that's one reason that this policy has been um created. But you're absolutely right. Um and in and in in my reading this again today, it is this is we had this done by lawyers. This is not um the business policy. It's not a policy that we created. Um we had a legal stand create this and I have to admit it is really tight. Um, that's fine. I just wanted to clarify because I know there was a a post from a person that was watching the meeting last time and I just want if they're there, if they're watching today, I just wanted to
007make sure they understood and I think you you explained it perfectly. Yeah. And so yeah, we we we've had we've had issues with um yeah, we've had issues with this and I'm hoping this would this policy will give administrators u the direction needed to better deal with these situations and also to give us clarity of when the school can and can't um intervene. Is there any other discussion? Thank you, John. Okay, we're going to take a what's called ask people to vote. It is a straw roll call. Roll call. Okay. Heather here. No. Uh Nicole here. Yeah. Yeah. She's in person. Oh my goodness. I'm right in front of you. Nicole, how do you vote? You step right in like a ninja. Bet. I Ann Marie. No. Okay. John. Hi. Uh, Sarah, hi Davis. Hi,
008Nancy. Hi, Elizabeth. I'm sorry, Bill, but what are we voting on? Oh, uh, the, um, policy uh, act of hate C43. Why are we voting on this now? Because this is the third reading. I know, but are we're not going to do the rest of the meeting first? This is Uh this is uh policy discussion comes after public participation. Okay. Sorry. Um I about Megan. Hi. Okay. And Nancy. Hi again. Okay. Okay. And I am an I. I got distracted by the surprise. Yeah. No, about listen about six months ago we I flipped things around. Beginning of the year. Beginning of the year. Yeah. Your goals. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. Um D4 title one comparability. Um this is the second reading. Um I have to admit I'm still rather confused by it, but we have
009Angie here. Miss Loo here to explain away and I I have it as part of my presentation. Okay. To I have examples. Um so I don't know if you want to how you want to handle that. I can certainly well we can show some we can wait to to clarify does but at this point does anyone have any specific questions for for regarding this policy so maybe when Angie comes to her presentation she will be more aware I'm I'm still confused about the the policy requiring uh title one services in non-title one schools if one so I think my presentation will clarify but something you need to know right away is that ABS is not included because they have less than 100 students so they're not included in the comparability calculation okay and that might
010help because then our other three schools are title one schools okay Yes. My question is, are we talking about the supervisory union or are we talking about the school districts? Talking about the school buildings. Yeah. Right. But who's the overarching entity? Who's qualifying? And so I read it as the districts. And so Hartland doesn't have any other buildings. Yeah. The only um it's the LEA. So the SU So the SU So if one school in the SU qualifies, all the other schools have to be the same thing. No, no, it it will become clear when because it's not because it's clear. You might be thinking everybody and it's not everybody's. Let I can I think I'll clarify it. Um I got one I looked up data one easy thing is a comma after a space
011after the word escaping. You know and then and then I I have another question but I'm I'm assuming it will be answered in your presentation. So, and we got one more reading of this, so I'm not too Yeah. Yeah. Elizabeth, thanks, Bill. Um, I wondered whether it would be possible to push this until after Angie's presentation and then vote on it. We're not going to vote today. This is the second reading. So, okay. I thought we would open it up for discussion so we can ask our questions and get them out. And uh so um just for fun I can throw my question out because it's very simple and you can just tell me whether it will be addressed. I think my and it's my question I had last time just the use of the
012word district in this document. That's what I was is does it refer because I've seen it interchangeably used because the SU owns title one like stuff. When it says district in here, I'm assuming it means the SU. In that second school district, the title one funds the school district in which the school is located shall provide comparable services. They are saying supervisory union that's interchangeable with supervisory union. Okay. And you could change that language if I think we should. I think we should change it because we have those two levels separate and and the supervisory union is responsible for providing evidence to the state that we are within the comparability range. Awesome. Thank you. Dr. Can you circle your suggestion for any other discussion? I I I say I look forward to anti explanation. Uh,
013defi animal dissection. Um, man, I'm at a meeting. Any discussion? Hello. I'm at a meeting. I actually read the statute today and so this basically highlights the statute. on my office. Any other discussion? She's not taking no F1 travel reimbursement policy. Um, again, second reading. This is I think this has to do with financial state law as well, I think. But I'm not I don't know if it's statute, but it's it's it's federal statute. We have to provide language. Yeah, you have to provide violence. So, and it's it's it's well written. Simple. Yeah. Administrative report. Christine, moving right along. [Music] First, she just got here. completely. You were invisible to me. She snuck in behind you. And that means that I was somewhat quiet, which is impressive for me. You I'll lean back. All right.
014It is the merry month of May as Angie's been saying all month. It's been very very a very busy month and the weather has not been nice. So it feels like everybody's a little bit cranky, but um we're getting close to end of the year. Uh so I'd just like to start out a little bit of highlights for some of our our strategic plan goals. So you heard Nancy mention the prom. There is one picture in the center there. There was a pivot last minute to go inside and the decorations were pretty uh beautiful. That doesn't capture it well. We had one um one of the back panels actually fell. Were you there? No. That fell right before the kids walked out. So there were I think three uh high school um males that came
015out with ladders and fixed it right right away. So um they they they were pretty awesome. Um so prom went off without a hitch. Everybody had a great time. Um, we had a a play at Windsor this past month. It was Alice in Wonderland, which was pretty awesome. Students did a great job. Um, it was an interesting play to try to to follow, but they did they did a great job. Um the the picture in the uh in the right hand corner is our older students and they organized a greenup day activity with the younger students which was really wellreceived and well planned and um I think the the younger students really look up to the older students and it's an opportunity for them to partner together. And then I just had to capture this
016is um Marina Brown, one of our SEIs at H Heartland and she's been there. I hired her a long time ago and she is just an amazing um human and she really builds strong relationships with kids and helps impact the culture in our school. So just saw her working with a student and um wanted to capture that. And we do have really great SEI across the SU and we're fortunate to have them help us. um student success and engagement. We had some Albert Bridge students. Oops, I didn't switch the slide for you. Um who attended uh the fourth and fifth grade state choir concert up at the corner. And there's a picture of them and they um they they according to Jennifer, I wasn't able to go, but they did a great job and had
017had a great time with a bunch of other um students from across the state. Uh we've got students in the righthand corner at Weathersfield. They're preparing for their leadership day which is coming up um I think this Friday actually which the students really plan and facilitate the most of the day and Hartland is going to try one this year at the end of the year as well. Uh Mr. Martz um awarding a student with a a monthly um award, Pride Award, and those are H Heartland kindergarteners in the middle learning all about how the lungs work. And what a great uh activity their kindergarten teacher provided um showing them how the lungs work. So, that was pretty pretty great to see. Um for communication we have been working well um Larry has been working with
018Brooke on a draft communication plan. It's really for internal use but um it's in development. Should be done um by the fall. We were just looking at it recently. Uh it is the end of the year. It is a busy time as I shared. We are in the thick of hiring. We have had pretty good success across the SU in filling positions. This is what we have left to fill. um theater. Miss Warner is leaving us. We are very sad about that. Um she does have a very long commute and it's just she needs to be closer to home. So yeah, uh Kate has reported that she has some good final candidates. So uh we're we're happy about that. Awesome. Yeah. Uh Katie has uh a school psych and three support staff um members to
019hire. Middle school science at Weathersfield is an open position and we have a sixth grade math and science and a middle school counselor at Winter Middle School. So, that's all we have left to hire. Um, we've been onboarding and using our protocols for hiring, which has been really good. Uh, Larry reports that the fiscal year rollover and audit prep are underway. He's working with his team to make sure that's all smooth. And we've got our final early release day for professional development on May 23rd. We will be doing some data dives looking at our star data um and seeing how how we've progressed and h helping us set goals for next year. Staff will have time for some transition meetings between teachers and um the kindergarten team is working on curriculum there. They've been um
020meeting and working with administration second half of the year really trying to make the curricular programs that we have more play-based. And so we just need to make sure we're doing that consistently with a process. So they've been working on that, which is pretty exciting. Whenever you can make learning through play happen, you you do it. It's super impactful, especially at that grade level. Um I wanted to report that we have um received 80% of our title funds and so we were able to issue the contracts for our four interventionists that are paid out of title one primarily. So, we're not sure yet if we're going to receive the additional 20% of the funds. So, we're holding off on filling the curriculum and instruction specialist position. So, we're hoping those funds come in and we
021can advertise, but we are just not that we're not confident enough to hire somebody without knowing. So, and is that due to federal instability or Yeah, for sure. Um, so just to update you, I did send a letter today. I think you all received it. Um but H454 came out of Senate Finance Thursday evening. There we do have some concern superintendent association the VSBA superintendent I think staff parents that have some concerns with the bill as written. Some of the key concerns are um that the bill really underfunds public education doesn't really address the real cost drivers of of the rising costs healthcare being one of them. We've heard I think I heard a 23% increase next year. You've heard any different bill. Um and you know sorry um it's Elizabeth. Hi Elizabeth. Just so
022you know um the uh Visbbit contract was Visbet. No, the uh VHI contract was renegotiated and uh it will it will actually wind up saving money this year. I did not hear that Friday. That's great. Thank you. Good news. It's supposed to go down to a 3% increase. Wow. How are they doing that? Do you know? That's incredible. Guess I shouldn't question it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Elizabeth. I did not know that. Appreciate that. Um just some other concerns about the um proposed H454. There are um deep cuts to education and the bill looks uh it locks future spending to this year's level and applies a limited inflation index that does not account for well I guess healthcare's off the table um but other core costs. it will for some districts to make some deep
023cuts to essential services education educators support staff administrators as well as academic and co-curricular programs. Um and some taxpayers will face steep increases. So I did lay out in the letter that uh I think it's on this page uh Hartland would be uh looking at cutting $2 million out of their budget which decimates their school. I I just don't I don't even know how that happens. I don't know how we have a school left. That's it's essentially 20 people. So we're the biggest school. So um anyway there uh uh amount of scutney would be in the current formula and I did I heard um Friday that the um the per pupil cost which was around $14,800 when the bill came out of Senate finance they they took CTE out of the weights which will lower
024that base rate uh additionally so it'll be less than 148 but um it does impact Weathersfield as well with a funding loss of of roughly 170,000 or more. So, um it also takes local control away from communities to vote on their budgets and replacing that control with centralized state decision-m which is a concern. Um and it the other major thing that most people are taking issue with is the Senate um proposes replacing the House's skilled and educationally experienced subcommittee with an all legislator task force to guide school district redesign which would politicize a process that demands education expertise and community representation. um not having educator voice at the table when you are transforming education and redistricting um doesn't seem like a sound decision. So those are the those are the biggies that have been coming
025out of um our meetings. Elizabeth, go ahead. Thanks. Um, I would also um add that uh uh it the the Senate version of the bill speeds the timeline up to um which is really shoddy. Yeah. Speeds timeline up to uh implementing everything next year. Not next school year, but next calendar year. Yeah. um which is a lot to undertake, especially when the um I watched the Senate Finance Committees vote on the bill and not one of them was confident or there was one person who was confident in the bill and that was Scott Beck and that's because he was sort of the mastermind behind the the uh the finance part of it. But um nobody else was confident in it. They all held their nose and two people on the committee felt that the burden
026being voted out by the Senate um would lay the legislature bare for uh uh lawsuits having to do with um the big decision. Yeah. Is is Beck um one of the legislators who is um from an independent school background a little bit? He's from St. Johnsbury. Okay. Um, so there's that as well. It was very weird. It was weird watching that that or there was two meetings, but it was weird watching those two meetings because it was clear that there were two members of the committee, one who has been on the committee for about a dozen years, uh, one who just got to the committee but served on House Education for about six years. And neither one of them really had a full understanding of education funding. Interesting. So, what I've heard, and Elizabeth, maybe
027you maybe you know because you're closer to it, um the I thought Chelsea said there'd be a a third vote in the Senate and then if it passes that vote, um it is likely to go to conference committee. Is that accurate? Uh yeah, it goes to the Senate floor on Wednesday. Okay. Um and uh it will 100% go to conference committee if it passes the Senate. It's not it's not entirely sure that it will pass the Senate. Um and it's really not entirely sure that uh anything will come out of it this year. Okay. Well, if you hear anything, let us know. Well, I I will I will just say that uh uh when it goes to conference committee, um which would be on Thursday. Yeah, that is the time to write as many letters
028as possible to the legislators who will be on the conference committee. Three from the House, three from the Senate. Um and because all of the people who would be on that conference committee are really susceptible to um public input. Will you know who those people are on Wednesday? It'll be the chairs from the education um and money committees. So probably the chairs of House and Senate Education, the chair of uh House Ways and Means, the chair of House uh appropriations. Okay. And then likewise the the same on the Senate. Okay. All right. Thank you. Is it better to write letters before it even goes to like because this proposal is there's two these are two opportunities. One is uh definitely now and then the second one which is equally as important is the to the
029uh conference committee. But I' I'd be glad to um tell you, Christine, who's on the conference committee when it's decided. That would be great. It's always it's always the same usual suspects, so there there won't be any surprises. Um but if you could then send that out to everybody, I think that would be helpful. Okay, I will definitely do that. Okay, just a little bit of PCB information. We've just learned for schools scheduled for P PCB testing. That was us this summer. Um after June 2024 that have not tested yet, future testing will occur in scheduled order as funding becomes available um for initial indoor air quality testing. I've heard there is no money available at this point. So, I think we're on hold at the moment. Um but I'll keep you posted. And then
030just a couple of federal updates. Um I'm trying to keep up. So, the president did release his fiscal year uh skinny budget um recently. We know that Congress has to review that and then ultimately draft their own appropriations bill and they need 60 votes to pass. Um but just I hold kind of what what the impact might be for early childhood and K12 education. So, those are the um changes proposed currently. So there's decreases to preschool development grants. Head Start has not not changed. Child care and development block grant hasn't changed. There are increased funds for charter schools as you can see. Title one's preserved, but we're not sure about title two, which is um where we fund some of our positions. Um there's a K12 simplified funding program um which is consolidating 18 programs
031but decreases no funding cuts to um IDEIDA which is good news but cuts to um English language acquisition and equity assistance centers and migrant education programs pretty significant decreases. So, I will um continue to read everything that comes across my my desk um around the federal updates. Uh just for you, some important dates. We do have on May 29th at 7 p.m. a webinar. It's going to be led by um Laura Pascal. She was our consultant for um for um our inclusivity consultant around um our gender inclusivity consultant who's been working with us. She did um some surveying and did uh some interviews and she is going to share some of that and she'll have a student with her and I don't know Tracy if you want to say any more about that. Thought Tracy
032was on the she I am. Yeah. Hey. Um, yeah, I think she she won't be sharing as much about the survey findings as she will she's responding to what she noticed from the community in response. There are a lot of questions that people have about athletics, especially transgender students and and athletics. So, she uh has a transgender student who came and did an inservice day for us who is also an athlete who is courageous enough to join that webinar with her. Excellent. So, that went out in my newsletter, but we should probably, you know, advertise it widely um for next week. Um 21st of May, there's a high school fine art showcase at 6 PM, which you're all invited to. And senior night is June 4th in the gymnasium. And then I've listed all the
033graduations um as well. So those are um things that are coming up and there's a lot more going on at the schools, but a lot of it field trips and field um field days and those types of things. But um and that concludes we'll stop sharing and turn over to Angie who has the second part of the admin report tonight. Angie, you can share your screen, right? working on it. Working on um I've been trying to get that pin off the screen and on my own device I just had to tap it. So, it's I whatever the owl like I tapped out of the screen completely. It doesn't show on. There you go. Oh, okay. Just wanted to uh give you a little brief synopsis of the work that was done this year and in
034particular focusing on um the curriculum work with um grade level teams and um some unified arts uh teacher uh work that we've done. So with K5, um this also gives you a sense of what how our meetings were. Uh we repeat data meetings three times a year. That's our what we use our early release days for. Um they had an instructional planning on part of those days. Uh we had 18 folks take part in the LGAP additive reasoning workshop that Patty Gray um led. was four days and they managed to do that um between October and December. Um was fantastic. That was with K5 teachers. Uh grade alike groups worked on well K5 for CKLA and K uh 8 for uh math reviewing and planning on the November day. That was a full day in
035service. We had self-directed learning p uh peppered into a few extra days there. um that I is something that I instilled with my team in um I think I looked back at the records it was 2019 was our first self-directed learning day. Um DEI day uh was the marvelous um day that Tracy and her team planned for us and all staff participated in that. And Christine mentioned kindergarten um looking at play-based instructional strategies. Um and they're piloting a unit this spring to replace a CKLA unit. And we're looking at how to make sure that the objectives that are part of the um program are indeed um addressed in the play-based learning unit. They're using actually using a unit that was designed um several years ago when teachers were were encouraged to um create universal uh
036interdisciplinary units uh over the summer 68. Again, there's a lot of overlap here. Um oops, the O gap additive reasoning shouldn't be up there. They worked on curriculum maps proficiencies and assessments in the November inservice which uh was designed to give them a heads up of what is to come for FY26. Um and then of course the self-directed learning and the DEI day the same. Our 912 folks worked on their proficiency based learning. I think the performance-based system was a day that the teams were given to work um on their own on their performance-based assessments. Um and then they did March intensive planning um during the March early release. That wasn't supposed to be 68. Did I go backward? Unified arts. So I had an extra slide in there. Uh this slide just kind of
037shows you some of the things that various members of our related arts or unified arts teams have been doing during um inservice time. chronic the chronic absentee project as the wellness team is looking at that and and one of the things I think they're moving forward with Christine is a add-on to powers school to help yeah um help improve communication for students who who um are challenged with chronic absenteeism. Um they also um are using some of their EPSDT funds to um pay uh small stipens to staff members who are interested in being engagement coaches. So there'll be people that will help the families of students who are really struggling with absenteeism. So maybe on that our school counselors have been twice a year we give our social emotional screener the panorama screen screener which
038we are no longer going to keep for next year because their prices uh their model changed which is what happened with another software program and then the price increases dramatically and um we think that there could be a better tool out there. Um they've also looked at SEAL curriculum, social emotional learning curriculum. Um the nurses come together in the fall to really support each other in that state report writing and their SNAP is the program that they use to um to gather their student data. Um and then they also uh were working many of them were involved in the chronic absenteeism project. So they use that time to do that. Um the library media specialists I think we're are going to have a steam program in every some version of a steam program in every
039school school and they supported each other in that work. Uh visual arts teachers requested a power school grading uh workshop. Uh there was the district concert playing planning usually takes a few extra days for our music teachers and of course they all had self-directed learning and participated in the DEI day. Oopsie. What am I doing? I hit the wrong button. Okay. Title one comparability. What it is annual report that we submit to the agency of education. It is submitted by November 1st. And the reason that they have it submitted then is so that if you have to make any corrections or adjustments for the remainder of that school year because you're not within the comparability ratios, then you can do so. Um, it ensures that Title One dollars are used to supplement, not supplant. We
040want our Title One dollars um to to add to our programs, not be uh not take place of dollars that they would normally get. If if we are comparable, then our dollars that are local, state and local funds are equitably or comparably distributed. um it's based on a calculation that could look at grant grades span by grades span. So um if we had a we had three K5 schools, we could look at that. We do look at grades span by grades span because we look at K8 K8 K8 and then 912 is a separate uh span and um or it could be looked at by a school by school basis. It just depends. And you can uh I'm going to show you the worksheet that I submitted last year and you they want you to
041be able to satisfy this. So they give you a couple different options for how to calculate that number. Fortunately, we didn't have to explore those other options because our grades span by grade span worked for us. Um and it simply answers the question, are the resources comparable across the LEA and all schools? Well, you may be wondering what are those um what are the things that they're looking at the so we report in the fall and then the data is collected at the same time. So if I'm preparing the report in October, I want to collect all the student enrollment data and the staff FTE on the same date. So I'm comparing what staffing we had on that date to the number of students that we had on that date. And then a as I
042mentioned earlier the school that has less than 100 students is excluded from report. Okay. So this this uh slide has a lot of text on it but I wanted you to understand what staff are included. So it's only staff positions that are funded with state and local funds. It's only those staff members who have responsibilities for directly supporting instruction at the school level. And the FTE or the full-time equivalent is adjusted for instructional staff who are shared across buildings. So down in the little print below, and I'll just read some of these. These are teachers like general education classroom teachers, unified arts teachers, world language teachers, library media specialists, school-based instructional coaches, principles, assistant principles, school counselors with instructional responsibilities, instructional or classroom paras who are nonsp special education funded because you uh I want
043to remind you that special education funds are federal dollars and we do not need to include them in our comparability report. Our instructional coaches are also title one funded. So they would not be included in our as uh the staffing the instructional staff for this report excluding uh staff who are paid with federal funds, special education staff, English learner teachers, behavioral specialists, title one interventionists, our school psychologists, the custodial staff, maintenance staff, admin assistants, food services staff, and nurses. Some of our nurses um may or may not have instructional responsibility. So if they had a portion of their job that was instructional responsibility, you probably like some do health uh do instruction for the health um standards. So um they they would probably we would probably have to include that. So let me summarize this
044really quick. From what I'm hearing really this policy is to make sure that nontitle one funds are equivalent. Yeah. Okay. basically essentially yes instruction or instruction instruction but the the issue I have is that that polic policy doesn't make it clear because when you read the policy it reads as if they're talking about title one funds are equivalent between buildings that's what it reads as so and so this makes sense okay the policy doesn't make sense good so I'm glad it's providing some clarity yes thank you Um, so the calculation is done and I'll demonstrate what how the uh form the sheet works in a second. You enter the school data on the same date. You take those numbers from the same date. I get the data from Tina Canfield, our HR person. Um, the
045table automatically pulls information from one tab to the tab that does the comparability um, ratio. And again, ABS is exempt because they have fewer than 100 students. So there the two bullets represent the two different uh ways that we could look at it and then there are some other things you can do too. Um so we're sort of a combination of bullet one and bullet two because um if the LEA includes both title one and non-title one schools which we do um excuse me uh my phone is ringing sorry about that. um the each school must have a ratio that is less than or equal to 110% of the non-title schools. But our non-title one school has fewer than 100 students. So in essence, we are really using the top bullet because all our title
046one schools um the LEA uses the schools that are compared are all title one schools. So, um I wanted to share with you the um the sheet that I use and I have a hard copy here so you can look at the numbers a little bit easier. I think and I am going to let shrink that a little bit. And I apologize for those who are viewing this on the screen. It's probably very small. This is just the instructions. Then on this tab is, and this tab is not shown on the sheet that I handed out. Um, this chat tab is just where I put in our information, our student enrollment, the local staff. Let me see if I can't um blow this up a little bit for you so you can see. Okay, so
047student enrollment um and then the the instructional staff. And so you can see here that we have parts of people We don't literally add parts of people. It's just their full-time equivalent is split up. Okay. Then these numbers, which you can see that our ABS Albert Bridge School is down here because they're excluded. And then these numbers come onto this sheet and they determine the comparability. Okay. So to just kind of play with a little bit, I think this helped me to understand it a little bit better. What if our student enrollment suddenly goes up and we don't have any changes in staff. So say we get an influx of 20 students at H Heartland, then our student staff ratio increases. We want that student staff ratio to be between 90 and 110%. So you
048can see how down here it's Hartland goes to sorry there H Heartland now the student ratio is 8.06. 06 but and that is smack in the middle of 90% and 110%. Let me undo that. Now, say for example, we decide to put a new program in and we hire four more staff people. So, we'd be at 35. And then you can see how that changes. But not just Hartland. That change also impacts Weathersfield. So you can see how knowing this at the at the beginning of the year, we would want to make sure that we could put in adjustments if that were the case. They didn't have this slick tool before last year. So um I I don't really know how accurate our comparability report was before last year. We did the best we could,
049but um this is the tool we used. Does anybody have any questions about how that works? No. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense now. Yeah, it makes sense now. I think policy needs a sentence. Policy doesn't make sense. Policy. Yeah. Okay. Well, I I I think that clarifying in the policy what funding has to be compatible comparable. Okay. Um, and it should only take a sentence certification. And it you might also want to say clarify that it's in instructional staff. Yeah. Who are only funded with state and local funds, right? And that helps us not to panic. Right. And and even to clarify that it doesn't include special ed staff. Yeah. Yes. Uh I'm just trying to get a sentence. So you want to clarify which staff are involved in the report. Yes. No, in in the
050policy. Okay. Um and in the report. So that's that's kind of right there. So Angie, you and I can work on that. Yeah. Okay. Put it on our list. That was helpful though. Yeah. Thank you. Anything else, Angie? Sorry, I didn't think about it last time. Right. Um, no, I'm all set. Thank you. It's amazing how when you know what you're talking about, the assumption is that everyone kind of knows what they're talking about and uh I do that all the time. You're like, right. But then when you explain it so simply, it's like there is an assurance that in the comparability report they talk about the assurance that we have a policy, right, that ensures comparability, right? And the simple fact of it is that they want to make sure that if you're taking
051Title One funds, you're not using that Title One funds for um instructional spending that should come from state and local governments. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Uh algebra one for eighth grade students. How about did we animal dissection? We went over those. Angie just talked about that one in the report. Yeah, but Katie is not okay. Available today. Good. Okay. Um, so, um, I'm not 100% sure this needs a motion or I think it does. Okay. It was something that we voted on sui. I don't remember if we voted on an SUI, but it was definitely an SU program program. So I a decision was made by the board. A decision was made to support it and then the member districts also had to support I think that first year that uh like the member districts helped
052pay transportation. Do you remember if transportation ever build to the schools? Still do or if it was a shared expense or maybe paid it that first year. Transportation's at the school. It gets build back in. Yes. Let's open it up for discussion and maybe that'll give me a clear idea what the motion should be. Yeah. What is like what are we What's the question? What's the question? I mean, I know we've talked about it in our districts, but what are what would we potentially even be voting on right now? um to just continue um the funding for transportation and the funding suyide for a joint algebra um a program. Yeah. It's not that we're changing anything. We're just saying, "Oh, we're not going to do this anymore." Um and that's at the high school. It
053is at the high school. And there are we've been doing that for a couple years. Five years. Five years. Yeah. The there are schools, high schools that issue a high school credit if the classes taken at Wor High School has to be taught by a high school teacher in a accredited high school. Some high schools um don't. It just depends. But um the benefit being the kids go into high school already having the algebra credit which allows them to take additional higher math classes in their high school career. I think um it was presented at the last Weathersfield board meeting. Um so some of the some of the concerns that have arisen from the um program the students are buster in the morning or or they're dropped off and um we've um worked really hard
054to coordinate our schedules across the SU. So math is the first period of the day for our eighth graders. So, the students that are at Windsor are missing eighth grade math. And there are some concerns that when you miss eighth grade math, you're missing some core um math components that are important that you don't cover in algebra. So, that has been brought up. Um but the kids also miss some advisory um opportunities. They typically miss the monthly assemblies because those happen usually right at the beginning of the day and they're not in the school. So it was brought up from there. Brian brought it to his board. Um they were in support of offering algebra to students who would like it during an elective time using um VTDLC which is an online um math program.
055Um pretty much self-directed. There's some some support but it's it's pretty self-directed. Um Hartland, it was brought at the last meeting. Uh Heather Vanata was there. She's a math high school math teacher at Woodstock. Oh, she's here. Oh, good. Heather, I didn't see you. And I know there were some concerns and I know that she and Lindsay met and talked about um how it could look, how we could support our students. So, Heather, if you want to Lindsay, if you want to share your thoughts, I think that would be helpful. Is Lindsay here or is it just me? It's the Heather Show. It's the Heather Show. Okay. Hi everyone. Um, so Lindsay and I and Michael Schaefer had a very long conversation um about what this could look like and it really comes down to
056a few things. We talked about sort of the need for if you know eighth grade students need an algebra class. Um, and also we had the conversation about like scheduling. And so it seems like in H Heartland what would make this really difficult is the scheduling of kids. And what I mean like they it seems like it's really hard to have kids um take algebra at H Heartland due to scheduling. um staffing and staffing like that's it it seems like that seems to be the hard part. And so what we came up with as a potential plan is that if Windsor did stick with the algebra one, um then students could do algebra 1 at Windsor, but then during their 30 minutes of I don't know what they call like their choice time or electives,
057I guess, um could take online um, grade 8 mathematics so that they weren't missing out on that piece because there's a lot of content in eighth grade math that you miss out on if you're algebra 1 class is not a combination grade 8 algebra. And so like I know at Woodstock kids who take grade 8 algebra they're doing both at the same time and it's it's a lot but they are being taught both standards at the same time. So I while I would love to just have H Heartland have their own sort of algebra like grade eight algebra class. It seems like at this moment, at least for next year, I don't know if we can do it because between staffing and scheduling, it seems a little impossible. And I I want to speak up,
058but Heather's not speaking for the Heartland board. She's talking as an individual right now because we I'm hearing this for the first time. Yeah. So, and I think there are other board members that are concerned that H Heartland has not had a follow-up conversation about this. Um, because there are board members that felt pretty strongly that kids should continue to have access to algebra. Um, I think that's what she's saying though. Yeah. It's and so I mean, but it would still take an agreement that Yeah. Right. But but we haven't had that discussion at our board level yet. No, we haven't. So, I don't think it's fair for the three of us to come and vote on something when our board hasn't even made a decision as a board. No, that that wasn't that wasn't
059what this was all about. I was just recapping my meeting with Lindsay Perkins to say like, you know, like at this time we like we don't have enough information to go forth. We were we were waiting for um like because I that's what I don't know what this vote is is this vote for you know we're not going to have a vote. We're not okay I I thinking from the the Windsor perspective because this impacts the Windsor students as well. I think the path forward would be to have the all the teachers involved in eighth grade math from all the three districts get together and discuss what could be created. I mean I understand that transportation I was presented with it as that you know transportation is a real issue. it takes a lot of
060time which is absolutely true but at the same time I also agree with the fact that um students who take algebra as eighth graders are missing out on some core skills that are presented in eighth grade math. Uh, but there should be some sort of way to create a U SU program that um either um supports eighth grade math with an algebra one credit. Who kids who can do that and even possibly uh looking at funding to expand algebra uh into the summer somewhat. um to have, you know, a two-eek class or whatever it would involve as well as some independent studies, but I think that's up to the math professionals to to have a discussion. I I like that plan. Yeah. So, in terms of um and we can we can do that. Um
061typically, the way we've run it um we've used different measures to see if kids were ready. Um, and we're using um, star testing. We used star testing last year. We plan to use star testing again this year. Um, and I guess, you know, Angie's office has been the one that's coordinated and communicated with families and parents and got permission. Um, so how do you want us to proceed? It's just late in the game. Yeah. School like getting the teachers together to make this decision. I has implications to Kate. It has implications to Kate and her schedule because she's holding a a spot. Go ahead, Kate. You I think you raised your hand. No, that's what I was going to say is um we're we're happy here always to share our resources with everyone in the
062district, whether it be the field or the the um theater or in this case algebra. The feedback that I'm getting from parents is mixed. Um, one, and as a parent, as a parent of an eighth grader, I understand their concerns that they're missing out the transportation piece. They're missing out on large pieces of what feels really important to their eighth grade year, and I get that. Um, I just want to be clear that Windsor didn't start this discussion. We're always happy to host, but it does uh we already have to work around our schedule with two other schools within our building. So, it is late in the game to make major changes that would impact our schedule. So, we're always willing to come to the table and happy to help, but the impact of scheduling
063is great. So, it it would need to be a decision rather quickly. So, well, I um I hear what you're saying, Kate, and um I agree with you. It is quite late in the game. At the same time, I would encourage having those discussions even though it may not impact next year. Um so, do do we proceed as we have to see who wants to participate or who's who can participate this year while we make the decision about next year? I think that makes the most sense is because Wesfield hasn't fully discussed it. Hartland hasn't fully discussed it. Weatherfield has discussed it. Okay. And they have granted permission for Brian to Okay. BTBLC which I think okay is okay either way, right? We don't I mean we have it available for those that right want
064to partake but there's their hand up. Hey Marie. Yeah, I just wanted to say that yes, we we had fully discussed it at Weathersfield and we feel like we've come up with a really good solution where our eighth graders will have the opportunity to have both eighth grade math and algebra 1 and it's it's okay if they do that and we still offer Yeah. the program to Hartland students at this point. I think that's up to Hartland. So yeah, I mean until we discuss it further. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean I'll note just for the people in the room, this is our micro class that's coming through. We only have 15 kids in the entire class. Maybe 16. Yeah. And so the number of kids that we're going to be sending to algebra is going
065to be equally tiny. Um Lindsay thinks four or five. Yeah. So it may like to speak to Kate, it may make sense to just hold them in with another class that's already happening, especially if we're not going to be sharing a class with others. Yeah, that's good to know because what had happened is that it grew so big that we had to provide two separate sections which kind of defeated the purpose of meeting each other because the Windsor kids stay with Windsor and the Heartland and Weatherfield uh went together. So that is good to know. Five, four or five is easy to fold into a mix. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then in in the interim, we'll get the math teachers together and come up with a plan. I mean, it really makes sense to kind
066of look at this globally. Yeah. And that takes time. You can't It's I mean, there's been over the years there's been mixed information coming out about whether or not high schools are honoring the high school credit. And David was adamant, Dave Baker was adamant that if they if a student had a high school transcript that shows that they had passed that class that it should count as one of their math, it would be like any other student transferring into high school and it would count as a math credit. And we've heard mixed uh feedback that that is not happening in all the schools of our receiving students. Uh so that would I would encourage the committee that's working on this to yeah really get some straight answers on that. Uh Lindsay did that for the
067Hartland meeting. So they they Hartford gives them a high school credit. Uh Hanover does not. Woodstock does not. Um they they give them they put them in they put them in the next class but they don't give them the high school credit. They still have to do four credit. So it's a Windsor and Hart and Hartland Hartford do Yeah. I don't think the credit is a big motivator. I think the the schedule of high school math that allows them to be able to take upper level math classes as a senior or it takes them allows them to take upper level classes as a freshman, sophomore, so forth. It's really difficult to get to calculus if you start at algebra 1 as a freshman, right? And that's to double up on math, right? I'll speak for
068the engineers. If you don't get to calculus in high school, you're behind. Yeah. Because you already have to take four to five classes per term as an engineer. Yeah. And so now you're adding another one and it just snowballs in a really ugly way. Amy, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's also when when they can take it as an eighth grader, it provides an opportunity if the student is a a math student that they can go on and take math at Dartmouth their senior year. Yay. Yeah. Sorry, must have double clicked. Um, I just wanted to say that um, yeah, as someone who had two, uh, students that did the advanced math and, um, one actually did way more than math one before ninth grade, but um, I mean, algebra one, but um, the credits didn't matter
069at all. I mean, if they're into math and they're going to be an engineer, they're going to get way more than four credits of math through the year through their high school years anyway, one more credit matters not. Like I think Cooper ended up like eight math credits and Daxton already has like seven math credits. They don't need that extra credit. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think we got a plan. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um buyers. Yes, I am speaking for Katie. She um would would have been here tonight but had a family um emergency that she had to handle. So, uh she is bringing Matt Bean to be uh the 56 Windsor special educator. Um Matt comes with some experience. He's currently in Claremont as a special educator and was a pair professional prior
070to that for I think seven or eight years if I recall. So he's very excited to come to Windsor. He had options and he chose us. So I think that um is awesome. So that's one. Uh the next is Michelle Springer. She is going to work in the ACE program. So, we are very very very thrilled to have a second full-time teacher in the ACE program that has been um something we've been trying to fill for the past uh at least three and maybe four years. So, we do have a an amazing teacher that's um been developing and running the program. That's Amanda Clark. um she had part-time help this year, but the person that's helping her, Frank, um is he retired, but came in to help us develop the community outreach part of the
071program, but but he is actually really retiring and he's hiking the long trail. So, we were able to uh hire or bring Michelle Springer to you tonight for approval. She will be full-time, which is what the program needs, the classroom needs. So, excited about that. And then the third person is Emily Shangle. She is going to be um an OT for us and she is moving here uh I think from outside of Philadelphia. Um I met with her. She's moving here. She's very excited to come to Windsor. She wants to be in the community with her partner and so um we feel very fortunate to have these special education professionals to bring to you tonight. Okay. I will take a motion to hire Matt Bean, Michelle Springer, and Emily Shangle for the Windsor Southeast uh
072special ed staffing department. Um so moved. Second. Okay. Um Davis, how do you vote? I. Nancy, I. Elizabeth, I. Amy, hi. Megan I Heather I All right Nicole I Beth I and Marie I John I Sarah hi and I am an I. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, do we have a need for executive session? Are you going to do those last two uh policies that that you skipped over? We did those. We did. I think you might have been on the You were Yeah. Yeah. You did them that. Yeah. Well, the title one was a punt, which was a very good choice. What did you decide about the dissection? And the animal dissection, there was no discussion and travel reimbursement, there was no discussion. So, perfect. Okay. I will take a
073motion to conclude the um Windsor Southeast Supervisory Board meeting. I'll move second. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Thank you very much. When is our retreat scheduled for? August 18th. August uh August 18th. So, we have a regular meeting next month. Um, thank you. No meeting in July in August. Okay.