001all right good evening I'm Christine Bourne superintendent and I'm going to call the weathers field April 16th meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and we're going to start um first with a moment of silence in honor of Chief Darren scalding passed away unexpectedly this um this past week so we just take a moment of silence [Music] okay I know our our thoughts are with family and and Friends of um the svings and I think it's okay to announce the services this Saturday here at the school at 11 a.m. so all are welcome okay um we're going to start with um reorganization tonight and I am going to take take nominations for the chairperson now move emry redond for chair and Marie do you accept yes are there any other nominations all right then we'll vote
002on an Marie as chairperson of the weather shield School Board okay I I I sorry Sarah all right and then I will turn the meeting over to and okay all right thank you everybody um up next we have the nomination for vice chair person and I would like to nominate Mark you accept my nomination are there any other nominations or all right I will take a vote all in favor of Mark being the vice Chair say I I I I okay um Becky if you're online just so you know Sarah can't vote today um she's not yet uh sworn in so that's why we only have four v um see um up next we have the nomination and election of three wssu Representatives um I need to be one of them as board chair um
003so we have two other positions available um I would like to nominate Sarah for one of those positions but I believe we have to hold off on voting on that if we all agree she accepts accept I accept okay and I also like nomin Mark I do are there any other nominations for board okay um so right now we're going to vote on and I and we will have a special meeting to vote on Sarah at a later date so um we're voting on Mark and I for our our WSU Representatives all in favor say I I right and that's unanimous or you call it un sure okay um up next we have the nomination for representa representative to the Su bargaining Council and is this um this is um is that for teachers and
004for staff uh yeah for negotiations so we usually so right now Vincent is it because we're negotiating staff correct next year would I mean we're negotiating teachers right now and so next year we'll be negotiating staff so we can we can nominate Vincent for that position can oh not sure it will I I don't know if I can you mean legally or oh correct that is correct thank you I can't either you can't either okay so we are limited in our choices uh Mark you can because it's a different agreement so for support staff you could okay can we stick with the position that I can't [Laughter] because um they will Sports staff will start in the fall likely yeah and teachers will hopefully be done by the end of the school year okay do
005either of our other two MERS have family [Music] no um I mean I can do it if you guys don't want to but if you want to let me know it's really fun it's really exciting one of you have an interest in called couple hours monthly right yeah couple hours month and it's usually usually over Zoom right or uh it's a hybrid hybrid typically yep so you can come remotely um we've taken an extra some extra time on the teacher contract we're fixing some things that have been needing fixing for a while so wouldn't normally take this long no you don't have to just ask me if you want to all right so um nom I nominate Mar for SC bargaining counc okay accept all in favor say I and that's unanimous um we need
006to designate a Trent officer and we usually designate chief chief Daniels um is everybody good with that okay um do we need to vote on that you do okay so all in favor of having Chief Daniels as our Trent officer say hi um we need to designate official newspapers and I guess we usually do the Valley News and Eagle times so I'll make a motion for the Valley News and Eagle times does anybody else have any other suggestions for local Publications yeah sometimes we thought about maybe adding like an online but I don't know what do we do anything shoer um no not usually some of the other districts use the remont standard standard we can always add as we go along does it cost do they charge money for or often okay yeah I
007think just keeping the current so um I'll make a motion for the Valley News and eal times to be our official newspapers all in favor say hi hi um we need to establish a regular time place and date of the monthly meeting um is the is everybody okay with our usual it's the second Tuesday at 6:30 School hybrid y okay so I'll make a motion for second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 hybrid at the school and online all in favor say hi Oh and actually we need to adopt the robber tools for small War which we've been using so it's basically Robert's rules except for a little relaxed and you only need um one motion you don't need a second good uh it's just easier for small boys to work that way is every
008in favor of adopting the Roberts rules for small bo say I I okay that pass as well um oh also I almost forgot we need to um elect someone for the select board on Vincent are you interested in continuing that s okay right I will nominate Vincent for select for all the favor say hi also unanimous is that everything it's okayer I don't know it's not topic did I skip clerk oh it's not on here it's not okay cler um so Vincent has been doing Clerk and will St okay okay I will nominate Vincent for clerk any other nominations so we may want to hold that vote until we war that not on the agenda oh it's not on the agenda so we can do that at the special meeting okay so we'll add that
009can we do theel on or is that not yeah because that's that's a um special thing right okay all right so we'll vote we'll vote those and um and Sarah a meeting you yeah okay all right sorry about that I didn't notice that that wasn't on there okay um are there any changes or additions to the agenda hearing none I'll move on to the approval of the minutes from the March 12th meeting um I actually didn't have a chance to read these I'm [Music] sorry okay I'm going to postpone that meeting the minutes okay heally um is there any public participation any online notive John Arison is on and he has raised okay John representative John Arison okay I I'll fit this in wherever I want to talk about the yield whip Bill a little
010bit does it fit in now or not now was good okay I mean it's all right yep go ahead okay the all important yield Bill uh it voted out a committee today beyond the notice calendar tomorrow and voted on Thursday I anticipate a robust debate um just an FYI I think uh you should be aware that the money part of it has to be voted out before we can leave Mont pillar so that and all the other money bills we have to complete that work period And I the numbers are a little bit better than we advertised on December but they're still not great 9,846 um for property and birth versus 15,440 last year and then income sensitivity 10,660 versus 17,37 last year but the component of that that's a little bit misleading is that
011your equalized pupils is a lot higher so uh I'm sure ed'll do the math and and then you'll have a better idea of exactly the impact um I think we all knew that the numbers wouldn't would be wouldn't be great uh but when you figure in the how much how many more students you're accounting for at that price or or that yield number it's a little bit better than we anticipated um as far as the language in the yield Bill there I've talked to several different people um some people are are totally opposed to the whole concept that that's been presented my concern is or one of my concerns is that this um it was put together rather hastily um under pressure um the composition of the uh members I'm not particularly excited about and
012whenever you put something together in haste it it tends to be prone to mistakes um I still get an open mind on whether or not to support the bill I know there's been uh talk from uh many school districts I think it's coming from the superintendent Association and uh that that it's not great um I anticipate the the let's put it this way we're starting at 9:30 which is three hours earlier than usual on Thursday because I think they anticipate an endless barrage of amendments so I think we'll know a lot better on Thursday afternoon uh how that bill is going to come out and of course then it still goes over to the Senate it's still prone to more changes so all I can say is sit tight crunch the numbers that you got
013and there's still school districts that don't have approved budgets Springfields was voted today I have no idea came out one other thing that that I'm um researching and maybe Christine can give a definitive answer but the high school tuition I've heard people I've heard numerous people have said you can question and ask for support um the the schools to support their number I've also heard that you pay what they tell you and then at the end of the year you get some money back and I don't know which is true um I've been told that that they um quite often will pad their numbers significantly anyway before I leave here in May I want to know the answer to that definitively exactly how it works since we're ascending Town any questions that's about it no
014uh any questions no we don't have any questions John thank you very much appreciate you're letting us know okay um now we have student presentation of planning no not this week y okay um administrative report all right thank you very much so our administrative report for this month first off I'd like to thank our weather Community for passing our budget thank you very much the support um then I always off with Jamie she's ready to go I'm ready to go I'll keep it relatively brief thank you for having me I'm Jamie Richardson so I don't know that we've officially met but you know we share a same name but we're Kindred in that way I think already so I'm currently the PTO president and so uh first I want to thank harrie for taking over
015for me last last month and really talking about nearly a quarter's worth of the work that we had done as we went through the winter so thank you care for um taking that heavy load for us um we have a couple of big things that uh just we just held our March Madness calendar raffle awesome success again this year we had our adult comedy show hilarious night held at the Common Man wonderful um event for us and we're looking forward to uh doing that again next year um it's testing season for our kiddos and so we always deploy testing kits for our students and stuff um and just kind of helps them get through those difficult hours of the day when they need a little fidget or they need a piece of gum or something
016so we have them uh those are deployed um and so they'll be used all throughout the testing season isn't that sad it's a season I'm sorry to all of you um who have who have to do it but we're doing our best to try and support our kiddos and our staff um something that's huge that uh we're so excited we talked about is our uh digital sign that we um have had wonderful financial support U from our community um as well as an enormous Grant um funded uh part of that project and if all goes right in the world that sign will be delivered tomorrow at some point I can't believe that that's almost happening so don't get too excited it won't be flashing on Thursday uh but it will be safely stored until we
017can um install it sometime um in the next couple of months so our goal is to have that ready uh by the beginning of school next year if it happens before that that's great but either way it's the time is you know less than 24 hours potentially away from it arriving here on school ground so we're so excited to deploy that project um just before this meeting some of you saw we were having our annual calendar meeting we're already planning for next year we um are do a lot of things every single month and it's good for us to get a years head start on some of that planning and to put our budget together because we come in August to present to all of you for approval of our calendar and we just want
018to make sure that we um have a a good plan and a robust schedule so we're pretty excited about what we have uh planned for next year we have things like staff appreciation week which is coming in early May it's one of our favorite events that we do uh for our school we decorate and there's lots of food and lots of support and you know lots of food um and coffee and things of that nature so I'm motivated by food so that's you know where I Chine in uh but anyway so we also have our spring apparel sale which ends tomorrow so if you need swag everybody online if you need weather field gear make sure that you take a peek at that and get that order tonight uh or at least by the end
019of the day tomorrow uh we are going to have our spring booster Booth here for our baseball games those games tend to be the most popular and appreciated for us to sling hot dogs and popcorn so we are going to be here for um there those home games weather permitting we won't be standing in the rain so hopefully we have a wonderful spring um baseball softball season um and just because I think it's good to put it on the calendar we do have our date for Pod Drop uh and we may have already told you but that is going to be Friday September 20th if you approve our calendar U for next year if you want to approve that date now you can can did they already prove it oh See's really holding it down
020she takes on so much more she really owns half my memory bank too she's very organized she really is she really really is so um lots of things still going on as we uh wind down the Year we're participating in field day and like you said staff appreciation we have some um yard signs for our graduating eighth graders that we're doing as an oper kind of like those um senior science that you see around graduating seniors we're doing it for the eighth graders we think that's a nice way to celebrate those kiddos so families will be able to order a yard sign and stake it in their yard and proudly represent their uh graduating eighth graders so information about that will be coming out probably at the end of the week if we uh if
021we can so um just a great end of our year I can't believe we're talking about the end of the year but and we're also talking about next year so I think that's the highlights of what we got going on now we just want to thank you all for your support um and be looking for that nice fancy sign as soon as we possibly can so thank you all right so final numbers for the spring athletic season uh track and field has 26 athletes which is a continuously growing number that is fantastic we have a new coach coming on this year um Sean and I'm not sure how to say if it's Messner or Meisner um he is a independently uh successful running coach so uh he trains big-time athletes across the country and he
022lives in Perkinsville and is wanting to devote some time to the you so uh the MC nton Marina and Nate um logically will be moving on as their daughter will be graduating e8th grade this year so it's away Along With Mr santangelo and Alex gon to continue the track program and hopefully cross country as well um there is uh sadly only one softball team and it is seventh and eighth grade and there are 16 athletes and that's a great team um baseball has well over 70 um athletes and that is not we don't have a seventh and eighth grade baseball team so that's still a lot of numbers that's feeding our program so we're in a bit of a slump this year um numbers wise but I think it's going to rebound nicely um our
023field work is scheduled to uh get fully underway um John SD BJ's husband has uh volunteered to help us out with some equipment to really prepare the fields this week and then Sunday um we will be able to finish up the spring prep so we'll be ready to go for our first home games next week um and I think that's all I have really awesome thank you all right Finn um so first off uh we have testing this week um it's testing week we had testing a couple weeks ago for science for the eighth grade and fifth grade great yeah um and this week we're doing math testing we just had it today and we're doing some more tomorrow and I think it's next week that we're doing English testing so yeah I think that's
024Tuesday and Wednesday y all right yeah and so we have I think we're going to talk more on it later but we have the play coming up um you the beast that's coming in 10 days I believe uh the eighth grade field trip is coming up that's in June um we we have the chance to uh go to um Burlington and do all sorts of fun things that day uh leadership day um we have with um uh just like all sorts of like great things planned and like really good presentations uh we also have um fundraising for the uh e8th grade field trip that we have give baskets and we're going to have themed stuff so there's movie basket that's really fun um 8th grade graduation is coming up on June 10th yeah 11 okay
025yeah um so eth grade will graduate and he will be does that include you yes yeah we'll be off to high school next year yeah my where you going to High School uh Kim Academy sure yeah so uh Kim Union um I'm going to high school there it's a very nice campus we have um you were stent AP right oh yeah sorry you're right I was I was a day off thank you you how people you know the gift baskets and stuff how can oh um I think there should be a letter coming out soon um that is going to be sent to parents parents can go around and gather things for this basket there there will be a list of baskets like what baskets are there's like a gardening one so parents can go
026to Like Home Depot and get like sunflower seeds or something that so thank you Ben all right so like f mentioned we we do have our play coming up and students rehearsing and the show is coming together quite nicely so we appreciate all of the hard work it is an incredible undertaking for everybody that is involved and when you set the bar up here you have to keep it up here or higher so we are um you know we set it pretty high last year so I know they're working diligently and working hard on it I know the kids um my daughter came home today and said yeah rehearsal was a lot better today so like she was a little bit more calm so she's been a little stressed out so it's coming together so
027we're excited um we we are doing a preview for Heartland for those students that participated in the play that Heartland had we went over there to be able to see them they're coming over here on that Friday and we're doing a preview for the school next Friday the 26 and the show is Friday the 26 at 7 and Saturday the 27th at 2 and those dates are correct leader of me this month we're focusing on have ceriz so been mentioned leadership day it's coming in may we did get that approval for the early release day on May 24th thank you again and so there is going to be a funpack day so I'm not trying to stress people out too much between now and after testing then I'll stress them out with what we're going
028to be doing on those days for leadership day but it's an opportunity for kids to really showcase what we've done here at school um we're starting off the morning with a with an assembly where they're showing off the Arts and then having an art show and then opportunities to go and visit some of the classrooms and see some of the things the kids have done so it's really sort of a Showcase of a year and then it gives the the chance for the staff afterwards by having students do a picnic lunch and go home with their families then it gives our staff an opportunity to um come back and talk about what went well and how we can improve on it for the following year so it's a really awesome opportunity to showcase what's the
029DAT again for that May 24th it's from 8 to 12ish 8:30 one parents we get parents the opportunity to go get coffee and come back coffee is good I'll give anybody my order um student L conferences so um students and staff participated and parents obviously participated in the student L conferences during the week of March 25th to 29th so there was a feedback form for families to be able to give some feedback we had 22 families that did fill out that form that was a districtwide form um and the the it was mixed reviews so some people really love them other people thought it would be nice to have a hybrid model of a little bit of both in between and other people said no we just want to go back to regular conferences so
030it gives us some really good valuable information to be able to look at and be able to determine what we want to do next year how we can improve on it what we can do so some parents gave some great suggestions too about maybe doing part of the student Lo conferences during the Showcase type opportunity so we'll see what we can do with that and I always appreciate that feedback so I was able to get that over it so I'll share that a little bit more with staff and see what the plan is for next year anytime you try something new there's going to be some bumps in the road before you get it smoo like Finn mentioned we did start BT cap last um the week before we started went on break so that
031was for Fifth and eth grade for science this week for math is grades 3 through eight and then next week is English language arts grades 3 through eight we should all be done by April 26 have it all wrapped up nice in a bow and be done with it and then testing season will be over um but we do have a few more days after that for makeups for students that were unable to make it we just had a couple today that were weren't here at school so we'll get those makeups done because technically we have until May the 3D to get those done but I'd like to get them done before that I'm sure Mrs H would too all right safety drills um we did do our fire drill last month and um our
032fire drill was really great for the kids because they're in the usual spot and we just sort of let them see what they would do and it was it was a certain grade level that came out first and there was a big mound of snow because we actually had snow remember that white stuff that we get sometimes and there's a big Mount of snow where everybody stopped so the kids who were leading s stopped for a second and hesitated and then they're like oh and then they walked further down the parking lot into a clearing and we're able to get the entire School further from the building so it was great to be able to see kids thinking in the moment being able to do exactly what we want them to do and do it
033pretty flawlessly so I love it I thought it was great um kindergarten registration we had that the Friday before um we went on spring break so April 5th great job team on doing that it's a lot of work for our kindergarten staff and everybody else who's involved but it's an awesome day to be able to meet the new kindergarteners and also meet the families and get a lot of information and also try to get parents pumping up PTO quite a bit and trying to get more parent volunteers for PTO so we have a lot of kindergarten parents that they're going to be reaching out to you Jamie um we have 23 incoming kindergarten stud students on the books right now 18 of those families attended and the other ones we have been in contact with
034reasons why they couldn't make it there but excited to have our young Panthers in the building and then we will be having May 14th we have Panther Cub night where they get to come in and visit the school as well solar eclipse you had the opportunity something you know happened sort of major last Monday with the solar ecliff it was pretty awesome I ended up staying here um in weatherfield so I went out to the proctor Library had set up this at Perkinsville school so I saw some of our students that were safely watching the solar cook with their solar glasses so I was honestly sort of like like do I really want to go but we had friends that had come from California and they're like Vermont's one of the best places to see
035it at and as we drove Saturday we were heading up to B area we knew that like everybody was driving up there so I don't know if anybody else went there but we were just up there for a day trip and came back but then we went on Monday and it was pretty amazing like they had telescopes out there just to be able to see in the darkness and of the chill that came over you it was it was a little freaky and I guess people were talking about how their animals freaked out a little bit but it was great to see our students there and thank you again to the Proctor library for providing all that stuff out there so that people could see it safely because I wasn't sure if we'd be able
036to see it I did not have solar classes all right enrollment for fy4 so this is our attendance for the month so we had an overall attendance this was from March 13th through March or through April 16th through today so 18 days so we had an average daily of attendance of 93.6% our highest grade level was 8ighth grade again our eighth graders really love to come to school they really love it so they had 96.4 one% um so we'll just focus on how high eth grade was that was great um hiring update so we are still looking for that um Spanish or foreign language teacher for this year even though it's not on the books for next year part of our contract agreement was to make sure that we were looking for that and then
037we did post positions today for our elementary positions that are open so anybody wants to teach elementary school upcoming events testing on there we have our PRI assembly next Friday um right before we do Beauty and the Beast so next Friday is a really busy day here because we have private assembly we have the preview and then Beauty and the Beast that night uh May 1st is an early release day for all students across the Su May 14th is Panther night and then May 24th is our leadership day early release day for students and that is it for me and I'm going to turn it over to right thank you Brian um as always my report my full report is linked so you're you're welcome to take a look at it I'm just going to
038share a few highlights and doesn't work on um as I have done all your I'm reporting out on the previous month's um question of the month results and next one I'll bring back some of the um Student Life conference data that was that was the question of the month for this year but for March it was um what what are you proud of about your school and um I was really touched by some of the things that I read from from our community members and parents and caregivers and it was mainly the the uh the feedback was incredibly positive about our staff and how um how much they care and how hard they work um and so it was just really and I know that to be true so it was very um it was
039great for me to read but I think it's worth me just sharing a couple of the bullets um bold staff who take risks to do the right thing for kids the community events were also mentioned um frequently the focus on community belonging and the outdoors amazing teachers that love our students and strive to see them succeed at any goal they want to accomplish response times from leadership looking into student concerns raised also General communication with teachers about my kids respectively from their grades the sense of community uplifting our student athletes the close Community the way everyone knows everyone I like that you can't be anonymous in the schools it feels it feels really it feels really for our kids to have connections and relationships that span the school in clear support and love for the
040students and their learning so the the results were very very positive um which was nice to hear we're doing some things right still still work to do but we're doing doing a lot right um uh the other big thing we've been working on lately and I've talked about this at the Su level meeting we're trying to create uh really some strong robust hiring practices that are inclusive so there is a team that meets um pretty regularly and it is made up of Larry Da our um Director of Finance and operations myself Tracy Price our coordinator of diversity equity and inclusion and Tina Canfield our HR um director and we really just tried to bring consistency across the guu in terms of what the practices look like what the interview questions are um what the look
041fors are for those interview questions what the um uh reference questions are it it's really just to take as much bias out of the process as we can and make the best hres possible so there's a document link that you're welcome to look at um that gives you more information on the practices we've been working on it'll it it's going to take us a while but we we've made a good good Headway on it um next month's question as I shared is is about student Le conference caregiver feedback we did um survey the staff as well so it' be interesting to hear their feedback on how those went and then the cord Le financials are attached they are um let me just look if you click on that Brian it'll open I think they're in
042the portal as well just click right there no no I have to be oh sorry um I can I can can well he's on a different tab I think so um they are uh I spoke to Larry today total revenues um oh hold on let me just look at this um year-to dat revenues are 5,316 , 248 and total expenditures are um 63554 34 that's a 19.5% difference and that is because all the projected Revenue has not come in yet so he said there's nothing to be worried about in terms of the financials this month or this quarter and I do believe the next part is goes to Angie she's going to talk a little bit about up on my report last month so last uh time I talked about our next actions developing final
043quarter lesson guidance um our plans for summer scope review uh for ELA and math and then Gathering a priority feedback completing program requirements and supporting struggling students were the two main issues that we have come to our attention so next slide please so developing final quarter lesson guidance we have sh shared out Eureka squared lesson guidance um with third and fourth grade level teachers and we are working on fifth grade um and the CK lesson guidance is going out in the April newsletters and then we encourage teachers to reach out to the CIA CIA team if there are any questions you can hit the return did that third button up it didn't that's okay um and continuing that we have a curricul um we had a Patty had a curriculum meeting with a third grade
044team here in the building and that was offered to other grade levels the next slide is about our summer scope review as part of our Ela work that we have received a grant through um that's an ARP Esser funds the ARP Esser funds were uh given for recovery and they expire in September and so we applied for a grant to help us do that work and that we will be getting more information out to teachers um soon and Gathering priority feedback we have the May 1st early release day that we are planning um to discuss CA and Eureka squared implementation we're collaborate collaborating with the instructional coaches and the interventionists um to make sure that we are using that time to meet our teachers needs and once again this is our our um contact information
045for Patty and I please reach out if you have any questions all right thank you and that is it for rep does anyone have any questions or comments on the administrative rep right um we will move on to items for discussion um first budget which um very happy about that the Lu more more lucky ones um I'm going to actually I'm G leave special ed followup for last because we're probably going to have to include that with the executive session a bit so um so let's do follow no we don't need because we already went over the drama club update which is that there's going to be beauty and the beast junior Here April 26th and 27th 700 p.m. on the 26th and 2: p.m. on the 27th um so I just um I'm thinking
046that in every meeting I'm going to kind of go over just one of our policies or something like that and the first one that I wanted to do was public participation um which I don't know if you all have a copy of this um we don't you won't have it in front of you right now you might have gotten one last year we this I had just something I have but if anybody wants one um we can make copies um it's the su's policy on public participation in meetings and um the policy is is that it's the policy of the Windsor Southeast supervisory Union board and its member districts Heartland mutne and weatherfield to engage in public participation at its meetings background public participation is very important to successful function of the Windsor Southeast supervisory
047Union board the board wants to carry out its business with the benefit of public input and expertise it also wants to keep the public informed and up to dat on what is happening in the community schools that said public participation is not a public debate or Forum it is a period during which members of the public May voice concerns to their board members and have them heard remediation may follow as appropriate but not at the time of the comments further it is a transgression of the law for individuals to preclude the board from exercising the conduct of a public meeting um implementation reasonable rules of participation may be used to ensure that meetings are conducted in an orderly fashion and that the business at hand is completed in a timely manner such rules may take
048into consideration such things as length of each speaker's presentation and the number of times each speaker May comment um persons who may address the board any District resident School staff members students and parents individuals who have been requested by the superintendent or the board to be present on a given subject persons who are directly affected by matters on the board agenda and or others at the discretion of the board public comment on agenda items the chair will ask for comments on the agenda items be before action is taken by the board when when the number of people wishing to speak is large the board May authorize the chair to use the speaker list members of the public will be given an opportunity to sign the speaker list indicating which agenda item will be addressed we've
049never had that want to speak but it's good to have a policy about it just in case um so public input on items not on the agenda there will be time set aside for public input on items not on the agenda at every regular special or emergency meeting of the board um the time allotted for this item will be assigned by the chair or the person responsible for organizing the agenda the chair shall rule out of order any presentation to the board which breaches the privacy or other rights of students parents or School Employees or which does not comply with the board policy on complaints participants are not allowed to seed remaining time to other participants if a participant's comments exceed the allotted time allotted time they may submit their full or remaining comments to
050the board in writing written comments may not necessarily become part of the public record every posted agenda will include instructions on submitting written comments to the board the board will not comment on public participation except to intercede on a declaration of clearly untrue facts or if the matter may be addressed by an existing policy if a matter requires followup the board may add it as a future agenda item or may seek clarification or answer from the administration the board chair has the responsibility and the right to impose consequences language not tolerated obscenity defamation threats none of which are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution the board may vote to extend public comment period the board will start every public comment section by sharing purpose and expectations and the consequences of violation
051if in action continues the chair may call for a brief recess or inform the speaker that their opportunity to provide comment has ended or failure to follow policy if necessary the chair may call for removal from the podium or meeting but not because because of a disagreement with the substance of the comments the chair May close public comment portion of the meeting May pause the meeting or the board may end the meeting so that that's in general our policy public okay um so now we'll move back to the special ad followup and I believe Christine has comments on that yep I know there there have been some questions um relating to the two support staff positions that were locally funded at weatherfield that were cut um when we had to resin the budget and how
052those positions um could become special ed pos position so I just I tked Katie to start with um and she always does this at the beginning of the year she has to for Budget budgeting purposes figure out the needs of all the kids in the Su but I asked her to do it for for just weather's field um and we're not going to go into great detail because we don't want to break any confidentiality rules so we won't get specific by classroom but overview of the school so at this point in time and this uh I just want everybody to know that this is always an ebb and flow there are kids that um move in there are kids that move out there are kids that have um IEP reviews and the services change so
053it's always an EV and flow um the numbers are always in EV and flow but currently the need is um the need is for 5.2 FTE positions for one-on-one support for students in this building and there is a need for six um FTE for small group supports according to the IP minutes and that's a total of 11.2 FTE actual numbers here in the building are at this point 12.2 Su funded FTE which is um a little more than necessary but when the needs change we don't like to let people go we hold on to them as best we can and sometimes have to shuffle and if I'm watching this Katie feel free to speak up um so uh weatherfield as you know currently has four locally funded support staff members that will be two in
054next year's budget and it it's come up a lot um so I just wanted to reiterate that some of the Su funded positions support staff positions are in classrooms and they're supporting both special special needs students special education students and non-s special education students and vice versa is true so that we're we're here for all kids all of us are here for all kids so there is crossover um so we um when uh we started talking talking about the opportunity for staff members to apply for Su support staff positions um I went to Tina Camp build and HR and Katie as well and we have not been fully staffed in support staff positions in this Su in three years which is not a good thing um as of I think last week or two weeks
055ago at the end of last week yes we are fully staffed we've had some applicants and and hire them um so at this time the what we have to do is uh we have to post the positions at the Su level because the Su is a different employer different entity so we legally have to post post jobs um to to hire anybody from any other District within the SE currently we've offered contracts across the Su and support staff members have until April 30th to return those contracts um we are optimistic that there will be people that are not returning they're in the past that's always been the case people um people go elsewhere people Elevate in their careers become teachers and leave positions open and so we we we anticipate that we're optimistic about that
056but as I said before there's no guarantee and I know that's not what people want to hear um and we do have to follow this process and so we're very very optimistic that we will have positions but it's just like right now we're in a waiting game until those contracts are returned we know what what what we have open and what we don't so I'm happy to take questions I just want to be very careful that I'm not breaking any confidentiality that's all and Katie is here to answer any questions do you want to add anything oh you had it covered very well thank you does anyone have any questions I have a couple um so if the positions are filed at the Su level then what does that mean for here at weatherfield because
057I'm specifically interested in making sure we have full coverage here here in weather so as so you say as of last week positions were filled but where is where is the support set because I know that we are short so so I'll I'll just say what I know and Katie can chime in according to when she did the math of all the people all of all the special ed minutes required by IEPs and the number of minutes based on the staff members in the building whether's field is currently not understaffed in special ed they're overstaffed by one full-time FTE I think there have been um there have been times when Services have not been able to be delivered because staff have been absent from the building we don't have Subs to cover those um absences
058but I will divert Katie if I'm speaking in correctly so that you're accurate on what is on IEPs is we are fully staffed for um within the Su and that includes here um so the the use of Staff some staff are in classrooms possibly longer than what might be on an IEP and we're looking at that too um to make sure that if we have minutes that we're missing elsewhere that those minutes are covered for students I think that's part of that EV and flow that happens um with students on a daily basis so according to what we have um we we do have the staff members sometimes we have to relook at how they're allocated and we take an opportunity to do that pretty frequently um more questions I just disagree but um waiting
059to hear more I guess yeah I I just I don't see that so I I disagree but I will continue to look into it okay um I I do have a couple of comments on this subject too um it's centered more around I think the operation of this board and maybe how things are presented to us um clearly and we had a discussion about these Cuts about to change what's already been done but I'm looking to shed light on the fact that I felt like that we were supporting these Paras um that are being cut from our budget being absorbed to the SE we were supporting them in I sort of felt like we that they were going to be offer jobs like they weren't going to go through a process so I think that
060the ethics of the situation should come into question for this board because I for one I'm not sure how anyone else feels in this board but I for one may have second guess my vote uh if I knew things were going to go this way any questions comments about that I mean I agree I brought it up on two separate meetings that I was not okay with the Paras being cut um I did realize that it did give us almost $100,000 which which I questioned at the town meeting um but I just it was reiterated over and over that they could reapply at the Su level we have all these Physicians and now I'm hearing they're full but I also know that that's not always the case so um there's just a lot of gray
061area and yeah it doesn't feel good yeah I get that and I I apologize if that was conveyed on my part that certainly wasn't an intent of mine we have been under staffed for three years and we um anticipate openings so when that was said that was an honest that was an honest statement um it was a misleading situation I think that's the term that we're thinking of or at least I'm thinking of is that it felt like a misleading situation it felt like like it isal like this is going to be you know oh it's GNA work out they're gonna get hu let's get them in there now you know I mean you can we can watch the meetings and get that sense and my comment is that should not be happening at this
062meeting if you don't have a plan don't talk about it like that you know it's it it's we didn't guarantee I know you didn't guarantee that these folks would have jobs when they left here um I don't know how long they've been here but they I've seen them I know them it's been pretty critical component of the staff here so yes I understand why those cuts were made they were necessary in the times uh but I believe the administration misled this board on what was actually going to take place can I ask what changed about the data that led us from being under staffed to being fully staffed so I'm sorry if you if you covered that but I just didn't we're dealing with two different years okay so at the time when we were
063asked historically we have positions open after people return contracts right that is true yeah I I in any any job I've been and ever there's always and that has been true here so that isn't misleading that is historically what has happened this year for this fiscal year we still had open openings we weren't talking about this year we were talking about next year for we're budgeting for next year this year we had some people leave we had a student move in for example that caused a domino where we combination of factors where we were able to to hire and as of this moment today the open positions we had are now filled that could change tomorrow I mean and that is not unusual in any Su at this point for any level staff M level
064so I think there's a difference between this year yes there were positions that I needed to fill for this year for next year optimistically speaking we have always had positions open after contracts R so I I I I think I I want to just differentiate between what has happened this year what we were speaking to was for next year I understand so is are is the window for application still open for this year no we have anyone who's inquired after I found out that the last person hired signed their contract and came in I and I wait till literally Tina sees them and gets them in to finish the last steps because we have had people not come back to do to the last steps right so this is the same process as it is
065with standard education said it is it is no different um and so so yes so as of right now and I've been as transparent as humanly possible with um with this those positions have been filled anyone who was in the queue who had also applied who I had said you know we're interviewing and I I've emailed them and said our positions have been filled um I think everything's off of newsletters and everything else um because I keep the ads up until we actually get somebody in in the in the building so um that's and that is the first time we haven't been having a running ad all actually for several years um for next year no ads have been put out for next year I have no idea until as Christine explained and we don't
066for any education position teacher par par professional until contracts are returned we do a little reminder did you forget and then we'll have for support staff positions the way um the sport contract reads we have to internally post for five days internally we can take those people and then follow our process um and we don't have to go external if we have individuals internally and that's the process according to the squat Staff Master agreement um so there's there is that as well that we're making sure we're following and checking with Tina along the way to make sure that we're honoring um our agreements that way so if those positions Stay full based off of so right now you say you're full for next year no we're full for this for this year okay so what
067about next year I with the two you won't contct but say the contracts all come in and everyone's stayed on as planned then what does that mean specifically since we didn't budget for two we cut two sport staff um potential hires off the Su budget as well so so but that's not really true we did the Su the Su yeah I know yes but the Su out of the special education budget we had budgeted for four additional um I we do have incoming students it's a I'm going to be Hest sometime special it is crystal ball moment um on who's coming in you saw IND coming kindergarteners and then there's kids who move in so if every contract comes back and every support staff member comes back with the kids I know about right now
068with the IEP minutes I know about right now then there would not be a position open the likelihood of any of that happening kids move in kids move out um IEP minutes change plans change and staff change the variables there's no guarantees but I actually can say one of the guarantees is something's going to change that will Domino to affect Staffing one way or the other um um that's just and if if students move in or if minutes change and we have not um budgeted enough positions we still have to hire them legally um it just depends on what the what the minute requirements are the service requirements so that's um well I guess that's what I'm getting at is that if there're there's still needs there's still needs by IEPs and there's still Care
069Professionals that are needed what what is the process of that because then we would need could possibly need multiple more we would hire yeah that would be the we would we would advertise and hire for additional staff okay what's the process well it still has to be warned inhouse first for five days so it's still the same process as it always was okay when when will we know about contracts coming back April 30th come back support we do a couple of Tina does do a little ludge to anybody who is not and said are you intending not to return it or if you are you have till I think she usually gives 24 48 hours just in case people are human this is a wonderful um place to work where that's honored um and after
070that then we would know what those positions are and then we would post them so there's more clarity in two weeks yes that's what we're looking at that's that is um that is the plan I specifically opened up my comment about the at least myself and previous board members and possibly other members on this Bo feeling like the discussion that we had regarding these Cuts was that there's confidence that these two individuals will have a job at the SU likely return to this school so I want to just say that the confidence that you two Christine and Brian projected onto this board into the public that meeting was misleading that felt misleading to some board members so that was my point was that it felt like this was a signed deal even though you said
071there no guarantees we we all heard that I understand that okay but way things went okay where it was misleading and it felt like it was a confident decision and there were sidebars that took place after this meeting that also boosted the confidence that these individuals uh would get what they deserved for that um I would say that I think we owe the administration a couple of weeks here to have I felt I know but my own my own opinion of the situation is that I would like to give them the time until the till the contracts come back because I don't feel like we need to make a judgment well I'm not I'm not asking for anything to be changed I'm making a comment about how the meeting went and Vincent I will apologize
072if that's the way it came across that was certainly not my intent if if uh if I sounded confident I I was confident and I still am confident um so I didn't it wasn't an intentional misleading and I do apologize if that that's the way I [Music] felt okay I just wanted to Circle back um K you said that there are currently 11.2 FTE needs is that this year yes and currently we're at 12.2 sta FTE correct for this year correct is there an indication of how much how many minutes are being served by the two pair regular Ed pairs that are being eliminated because by brain is telling me that would automatically create two openings that's part of the some of the minutes that you have of special education support staff who are also
073supporting general education minutes um so the um we did not go by person by person we went by with what was on IEPs yeah no I I'm just clarifying so we so by by individuals that are funded by su funds looking at individuals and matching the FTE we would have enough individuals to with Su funded staff to um meet the service minutes on IEPs you wouldn't be Shortline no we would not I guess cuz we're head one right now correct by yes we're head one right now it is how we're it's how people's days sugar out losing two puts you down one I that's but that's not how it works okay do you have any data the ratio can you state your name sorry Christina Hughes um do you have like data to show like
074how much of the special ed people are providing regular Ed time whereas the two regular EDS are providing 99% special ed time I I we did not break down everybody's time studies um for example we do those every um for two weeks uh per year um in part because we when I do budgeting and when we plan for Staffing It Is by IEP minutes that it's driven not by other duties and other things going on so by IEP minutes that is what we're legally obligated to do and plan for financially um the Staffing is there how it again comes out in everyone's schedule looks different um and with act 173 how we're doing our funding system that that is allowed to have it being locally funded staff as well as um Su funded staff so
075we did not um break it down by everyone's individual schedule because there there are times people are in classrooms that are not on IEPs I know I just don't think it's about 99% of their time which I do know those two positions right now are 99% of the time specializ so I just don't see how with the numbers you take away those two positions like Carrie and other people are saying I know it looks like we've got it there but I don't agree that we have it in the school system I think good practice we I said very early on we need to look at where everybody is and if it's not on an IP minutes then maybe they shouldn't be where they are and and we and that's that but that's for for all
076and then that's something that some districts have done um where we have not done that here where we're you only have a special ed staff person in a room for the exact minutes on that IEP and then they have to move to another room we've had more flexibility in our Su um to balance things out um so that more students have that benefit of having an additional adult um but by minutes alone and that's what we in need to look at that's what I was asked to look [Music] at I my one last question is um is there ever times when students are not yet fully on an IEP with designated services but are receiving special ed support while that process is going through yeah that I think that happens with both support staff special
077Educators interventionists um we support all kids at any stage of where they are so that also happens and that's absorbed with full-time employee ahead on minutes with students not receiving Services still isn't adding up for me that just that that is a struggle for me personally to have uh services not being provided when we're one full-time equivalent ahead and cut in two parents so that as a public comment as a parent of children that need to receive services that they are not this doesn't matter up okay um go ahead four powers yep um does the 12.2 FTE include the two that have been cut from the budget currently it does not though those are not the weather spied ones no just Su up this year and this year they're on our budget they're not on
078the Su budget okay so then if if they were to be be released from their current contract and the students that they are working with would need to have a person with them would they be able to be hired then so through the Su as an Su employee not this year's budget we would need to look at allocating the Su funded staff to fill those minutes okay by by cutting those two position you're saying we still would have like if weather or if they walked out today they're saying that those we would still have enough people to cover all the IEP minutes it's we'd have enough FTE to cover all of the students I minutes yes and that would be reexamining where everybody is for every minute of the day and reallocating what everybody what
079every FTE 12.2 FTE is doing in special education to do that it so it it's difficult um I I know that cutting any staff is difficult um but well the most difficult part I think is that they were assured pretty much that they would have a job coming into next year and I think that that is the most difficult part for all of us to take when you have good reliable employees why would you not fight as hard as you possibly could to maintain and retain those [Music] employees just a comment okay sry um are there any more comments from the board no okay um so do we think we need to go into executive session to discuss anym about this matter that's we have you guys have any questions that you think would need
080to be answered in executive [Music] session i s have one I'd like to talk about the Su that's it okay and that's contracts um so um BSA a okay all right um I will take a motion um but actually let's let's set the next agenda first before we go into executive session y so the next meeting is May 14th May 14th CH same oh so people would like to get here early you can experience our new kindergarten families that's my okay PL May refreshments and will is that do we need to have meeting be a little bit later or no it goes from 6 it goes from 5 to 6 okay gives us an opportunity still meeting with parents and then so 6:30 pm on May 14th and that will be hybrid um let's see
081so what what do we need to have on the agenda we need to talk about our board retreat yeah okay so let's talk about the board retreat how we want to do that this year um we received an agenda for that did you see that it yeah just out yeah I don't like oh I don't remember yeah I think that was just anr calendar post or something well she in our work plan we have The Retreat on June 11th the June meeting and she in the calendar at 6:30 and I said it's going to start much earlier so you should probably let people know okay so that's what it was changing calar can set whatever we want we can figure it out next um and also if anybody has any ideas of anything they'd like
082to know more about um I was thinking that we should know more about uh reasons for going into executive session um it the rules changed a lot recently our interpretation or yeah so um so it sounds so it seems like that might be something that would be good to I don't know engag in a reading yeah we can we can look at the the sure that's one if anybody has any other ideas please contact me with those um something else that I recently did find out is that um only I should be emailing all the members of the board if any of you have anything to say you need to only email that come from only email me um actually's husband um mentioned that uh for boards but only the only the chair is supposed
083to yeah and you should only be communicating about um like setting a time to meet or yeah something yeah we need to cut back on oura talk um and you shouldn't reply to all yeah don't reply all right don't yeah um the kind of the rules of boards is is that we can talk amongst each other one one um once since we're only a board of five once we have three people together talking about anything that should be a word meeting it's open it's under open meeting law we could talk about that yeah let's talk about the open meeting law um so yeah so open meeting law and um and also uh executive session way yeah but it's just it's just something that we need to be aware of because people are watching us and
084we need to be more care I know it's a small school and these are the rules and it's yeah and it's it's hard for us not to also run into each other sometimes yeah I just have a question so like tonight you just read us a policy is that what you're going to be just continuing to do or are you going to adopt some different policies or just reiterate just sort of like a learning opportunity for everybody okay um yeah we're not we adopt policies at the Su level and these are these are based on Statue oh I know um but yeah so if anybody has any other things with regards to boards that they are confused about or feel like they need to know more about um oh and also um the theba is
085having a new member Academy um which I've already told Deborah about it's May 6th and 15th from 5:30 to 7: it's webinar style um so if anyone's interested in that that will I'm sure have a lot of great information for old and new members so um that would be a great thing I'm I'm GNA participate in it so um you always pick up little things that you didn't think you know so um and uh let's see anything else through the agenda we make sure that we have the select board LS on and oh that's going to be for our special meeting that's for the that's going to be with the special meeting um yeah we go we have to have that before the next Su board meeting so which is Monday yeah so you think
086you can you get B to this week okay and just let me know as soon as you do and then or let me know if you know what day you're planning to go we could actually schedule the meeting for them that night or you can just when you get some um because I think we have we still have to get 24 hours notice uh for special meeting 48 emergency 24 okay so if if Sarah lets me know tomorrow when she'll be able to get down there we can Friday evening okay or even Monday before the board oh yeah we could just that's true we could just meet really quickly before okay that's a good idea um any other uh items for the agenda for next month um if is not included uh in Brian's report
087or um the superintendent's report is it is it reasonable to ask for a uh number of contracts returned in the positive or negative um since we'll have passed that y a I can take care of that one yeah okay all right everybody's good okay um and then theed oh that's right um yeah so that's very important um next month's meeting we're going to have a dedication of the Bell to [Music] Ginger when in the agenda would you like that I think we should probably at the beginning right I think she might be having some family members coming for that and we don't want to make them sit through our whole meeting they have that up at the top okay okay um so I'd like to make a motion to enter executive session anyone have any
088y or Powers again may I just ask a question um for the executive session will there be any motions or votes that will we have to come out of it and I there's nothing to vote on with regards to it just update no yeah we can't make any contract changes or change any budgets that I've already passed or anything like that so there's nothing we can change you should say why we're going we're going into we we already did um but it's 313a BSA 3131 a yeah and that's contracts y okay thank you everybody s thank you we haveck we can actually we can go into the car keys and our pocket books and lock the door so just love to grab and run