001screen isn't that weird five it's being recorded uh officially begin this meeting all this meeting to order at 6:33 on this wonderful day of 1023 2023 um any changes additions to the agenda hearing none I will take a motion to approve the minutes of September 25th so moved second re okay um any discussion comments of the agenda of the minutes uh all in favor of approving the September 255th meeting please say I I hi hi all oppose say nay any extensions okay and I am ey public participation is completely unorganized and I got here early too public comment is not legally required but 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
002and 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 in what town you reside in we have any public comment paen and not a public comment but an announcement that I will not be seeking reelection um this coming year oh you will be missed call thank you yeah just trying to make it official so okay thank you anybody else have a public comment or bad news Okay col I will um my public comment is I say col it it's been a pleasure um working with you on this s board um and you will be solely
003missed but I wish you the best of luck with future endeavors thank you I have really enjoyed it and just kind of a mix of reasons kids are getting older we've got senior year coming up it's not any nothing nothing that is making me leave or anything I will I will miss doing it life goes on um administrative report we G start with Tracy tonight okay all right see am I sharing your screen or you sharing your screen uh if you don't yeah you Angie I co-hosted you in case somebody's trying to get in okay so uh everybody hear me okay okay um so I just want to start by prefacing the next 20 25 minutes by saying we are having a conversation about race and racism and we are trying to do that in
00420 to 25 minutes so there are a lot of limitations with trying to do that um the way that I the way that I was thinking about this was okay yes I can give an update on where we're at with the anti-racism policy the board's also requested right um some common language shared understanding so how are we going to talk about this anti-ra policy if we have differing ideas about race and racism so thought hey that's an opportunity to talk about this and I just want to underscore how 20 to 25 minutes is really not a lot of time to do that this conversation can bring up lots of different feelings emotions I want to encourage everybody as we're having this conversation to take care of yourselves uh I don't ever know or pretend to
005know how this is going to land with everybody and there's a lot to unpack this and so um we're going to try and keep it to the 20 25 minutes and where I could I pulled language that already exists within this policy so it shouldn't be things especially for the board that you're unfamiliar with um I also know that there are a lot of different ideas and opinions about this and and the the best resource I can say is if you have not watched and I can share this with y'all J smooth has a 19 minute TED Talk uh where he talks about race and racism and one of the things he says in there is that it was the dance partner designed to trip us up and I I really feel that is true
006the dance partner designed to trip us up um so with all that said again just noting uh there's an opportunity to continue conversations I'm open available to meet with board members uh members of the community I encourage that I mean this is like this is not a time for us to be isolated in our own beliefs you know part of the reason I do this work is because it's the conversations that we need to be having and so I invite those uh both in this meeting and outside of it anytime okay so with that let's uh roll through a couple updates um so we have with the equity audit we have some all staff follow-ups coming uh this Wednesday is the first one that's going to be at Weathersfield the idea for that is to
007um really start to engage with teachers and staff around um what they may already be doing that helps to support you know some of the findings with the equity audit no surprise a lot of that also aligns with the anti-racism policy also aligns with the equity policy right there's lots of puzzle pieces that come together so those follow-ups are starting this Wednesday um next SL would be great and we also started doing some um Monday meetings this is just open time at different schools so far uh today was actually the second one in Albert Bridge so this is just just a time for teachers uh to come together on school-based teams um just to start talking about what's happening with diversity Equity inclusion where are their opportunities what are the needs all that kind of
008stuff so those are some things that are happening currently all right so board discussion this is where we get into the update on the anti-racism policy and I did send out some pre-work uh maybe folks were able to engage in it or not again this is a very uh complex conversation that we're having in a short time so um I think the the first question is really um if anybody would be willing to share what is your understanding of what race is what is race my understanding of race is that it is a it is human construct in which people are grouped by color of their skin and um Geographic locations that they originated from for sh it's a human construct geographic location it's not in all cases I just note that but yes any
009other thoughts what is race I I think race is I'm trying to be clear with this that is a um um a situ and a situation that has sort of place places some groups um in a position that can be imbalanced or unb you you know so it it kind of becomes a um um a factor in determining um determining eligibility for resources I mean that is really not what I was thinking but I mean the more I think about it yeah determining eligibility for Access for resources um and so it's been set up it's been you know it's like been created on some level yeah I think um unless anyone is burning to add in here I think both both of your comments are really I think the both end right race on one
010hand is a social political construct it was something that was designed it wasn't we didn't always have race in this country I mean you can look back into like early early parts of Jamestown like race wasn't a thing yet it was a thing that was like it kind of was like co-created with capitalism like separating people by right distinctions in skin color and and other other um group factors so on one hand it's like race was this madeup construct and on the other hand the experience of race is profoundly real so it's it's it's a it's a both and um and it's it's messy it's hard to talk about it's probably one of the harder isms and things for us to talk about so if we can get good at talking about race and racism
011we can probably get good at talking about a lot of things that are uncomfortable I just wanted to add that I thought that part of racism was cultural too breaking up uh the cultures I think they're they're related they're definitely related this is where yeah this is where I was like the 20 25 minutes is probably not a lot enough time for us to really unpack all of this but I think for the purpose of this conversation it's really understanding that race is something that was a social political construct and it's it's it's not that we are we're we're biologically the same as humans right we're like 99.5% the same I think penguins have twice as much genetic diversity as humans fruit fli have like 500 times and they all look the same right I
012mean there's more genetic diversity in places where people look the same like there's more genetic diversity in countries where people look the same so it's like again for the purpose of our conversation hold on to these two things the both hand race is a made up Social political construct and the experience of race is also profoundly real okay so uh genetic variability is a direct component of uh time and humans modern humans are relatively shortly species they're not that old champanes basically are twice as old as we are and they have about twice as much genetic variability um the other thing that's extremely important is to understand that how important human constructs are to us as people uh one of the most important one is of course uh the economic system which is a complete
013human construct okay so when I look at things whether or not it is a factual or if it's a human construct I have something called the um raccoon test if you present something to a raccoon if it really doesn't recognize what you're doing hand a raccoon a $100 bill okay what are they going to do with it are they going to take it and then cash it in for you know 100 snakers bars no they're going to chew it and look push of the something money is a human construct same thing as as human race is a construct is a raccoon going to run away someone of color faster than someone who is fation no not really they're just because it's a person to so yeah it's complex we'll say that right it's definitely complex
014uh yeah so it's it's made up and it's real in the in the so let's uh roll through okay so thoughts on and the next slide is just the it's the definition of a I will say a definition of race again for the purpose of our our conversation and our work together would you like the ACLU definition so uh and there are many more comp more complicated definitions than this one yeah okay so this is what we just talked about it's a social political construct based on physical characteristics such as hair texture bone structure skin color okay that is that is race if you haven't watched the first part of um race the power of an illusion it is a great resource in understanding race they they describe a lot about race and pseudoscience and
015all of that that was part of it okay so next up in this is what is racism any thoughts about racism so we talked about what race is what about racism what are your thoughts on that also in the glossery of the anti-racism policy yeah Davis I I think at least one element of it is ascribing Val uh higher or lower value to groups of people based on the characteristics uh you know outlined in the definition of race that you just show thank you for that and can I ask a followup Davis um you you said like is how would you describe what is the what is that um can you be more specific I mean I guess kind of getting getting back to some of the thoughts that we heard earlier like the atmology
016of the word race right is it by using the term race and like that term coming up what like something around five 600 years ago in that range it it creates otherness between people that look different you know ascribing different races that there's this great this great degree of difference between somebody like with you know light skin who like looks like me or somebody with darker skin and Cur your hair who maybe doesn't look quite so much like me and ascribing a higher value to one group and a lower value to another group historically typically the folks who look like me get ascribe the higher value the other folks can ascribe the lower value um and the use of that term race implies that there is some fundamental deep difference right like two different species
017almost because that's like by definitively that's what that term race would mean right like you know a a cat and a dog are different races like in the more kind of scientific definition whereas the the sociopolitical definition that you went over like you said it's real because it's this idea that's been around in society for several hundred years now but as a biological thing it is it is inaccurate at best thank you for engaging with that followup Davis appreciate it so yeah I mean racism is essentially talking about there's a there's a hierarchy that exists and again this is like I know that there are people who will Who will debate this and we can debate it but it's looking at patterns if we were to look at patterns patterns and policies in the in
018these United States over time there is a pattern that occurs across race I mean you can even see and if at some point y'all want to do an activity we can look at like different aspects of a timeline but it's looking at patterns over time there those patterns have been representative of a hierarchy I mean you if you had to describe the folks who wrote our constitution I mean how would you describe their physical attributes white older men yeah so it's like this hierarchy exists not only along race but along a lot of other aspects too okay and that's what we mean when we're talking about a system right a system of race L and Davis thank you for for sharing what you did it's like there's a hierarchy that was based uh advantaging white
019people within this system and the social political movement of other folks of color basically like could move up or down this hierarchy based on whatever the need for for the political or social will was at any given time in our history yeah well if you look at um something that most people can understand and that is housing and you look at redlining right and Banks were very involved in um allow o making allowing for mortgages to folks that were more from one group than they were from another group right I I mean that was so clear and there's so much research on that that I think that helps some people understand what do you mean yeah it's pretty clear why maybe there's a there's not as large a population of individuals any individual of color
020or folks that have been marginalized that have that do not have um um ownership of housing right why was that yeah Banks were complicit in saying oh okay if you checked off that box you're not eligible for for this um support from us right it was about access and opportunity Abol creating access and opportunity patterns of who had access and opportunity and I also want to note that this Arrangement it doesn't mean that every white person has privilege and and advantages right I know that there are a lot of white people who don't feel who don't feel that and we're not saying that every single person has this experience we're saying the way the system was designed it was constructed with this hierarchy on a repeat of of patterns over time right and the thing
021is if you really look at it this is not actually working for most people in this country right it was like a few years ago uh Pew the Pew Foundation came out with a report that the only demograph before Co with increasing mortality rates in this country if you had to guess who do you think it was white men white men and they added white women to that right so it's it's saying that like if this design was constructed in a way to Advantage white people it doesn't mean that it's actually working out that way right there are patterns it's it's anyway it's complicated but the point is it's not really working out for many of us in this design probably one of the most prevalent racist policies um is education funding around property taxes
022because that allows for a huge disparity of Educational Funding even within the same state yeah even Brown versus the Board of Education you know it was like that was that was actually there's a great um podcast I can share on that which is uh it just sort of demystifies some of what was actually happening in Brown versus Board of Education which was not what I my understanding of it was it basically eliminated a lot of of black teachers especially who are also centers of their Community from being able to continue to to work in education so anyway a lot lot a lot to talk about so we're gonna like put a pit in this we talked about what racism is racism Again by this way of thinking about it and again this was directly from
023the anti-racism policy this was not my language this was not my choice of definition this was what is in the policy um and and from what we just talked about right it's looking at those patterns over time um that that is this hierarchy that privileges again not every white person feels like they have some advantage and privilege in this uh we certainly know that um economics like socioeconomics play a huge part um as well as other identities okay so with this we can we can also unpack a little bit um if you go to the next um slide uh which is like when we're thinking about all the ways again this is also included in the anti-racism policy is the ways that that that that racism can show up it can be institutional right there
024can be policies there can be practices there can be procedures this is like you know the the US government has made lots of different policies over the years these would be examples of institutional racism voting laws voting laws right uh cultural racism they're the narratives that persist around groups of people cultural narratives are what somehow justify individual acts of racism there's a lot again to unpack in this the most timely example I can offer is what's happening in Israel and Palestine we are seeing the impacts of all three of these kinds of racism playing out right there are culturally racist narratives about who Palestinians are that de humanizes them to the point where individuals act out in racist ways we wouldn't see a six-year-old boy in this country you know being murdered by somebody for
025for being Palestinian if these culturally racist ideas right and these institutional acts and policies all weren't working together so these all work together they reinforce like I mean you you can think of lots of different examples examples right about um how is it that we have spent so much money as a nation building a wall between the United States and Mexico if we didn't all also have culturally racist narratives that exist about Mexicans right it just wouldn't it would be so it would be such a dissonance these things work together they reinforce each other they're in yeah anyway so these are the different ways that racism can play out thinking about maybe I'll pause for just a second there and see if there's questions comments yes so your one example is that you just did
026is the the wall which I agree it's very racist to build a wall between two countries that really doesn't need to have a wall but um how do you separate that cultural uh racism from um the racism of skin tone it's all part of it that's all it's all interconnected cultural so cultural racism the okay so you're not talking about cultural racism you're talking about the cultural Narrative of racism yes so racism can be cultural you can have cultural racism which is about narrative ideas beliefs values about groups of people of a certain color Yes okay or gender I mean you can yeah this can play out in different ways when we're talking about racism though it's specific to race right so so we have cult against women then couldn't be that would not be
027racist that would be sexist seist but we have that too like you can use the same insti cultural individual framework for looking at how seisms so I'm just defining your chart there that institutional cultural individual aren't types of racism but those are structures of racism uh I think yes okay I mean you can have individual acts of racism yes so that's where individual comes from right you can but the thing is and we get stuck there we get stuck arguing about who's racist who's not like all this and it actually distracts us from recognizing how this is playing out in cultural and institutional ways we're never going to address the ways that institutional racism shows up if we're if we're only having a conversation that's individual to individual and I think that's the first thing
028people think of when I'm not a racist that's how we to think of it you know y because I didn't do I didn't do anything bad I didn't have any of those and the system of racism doesn't even need us to be racist because it is racist so it's going to continue to perpetuate and the status quo of those policies and systems are racism we don't have to do anything for racism to persist yeah well I think have exist though David um yes had a question go yes no that's good I put my hand down my comic about institutional racism is um there are policies earlier you mentioned about there are policies in place that that literally promote institutional races as you just said we don't even have to participate in it there are already
029policies that take care of that which is why I think that we as a board really need to you know pay attention to the policies that we do put in place because um they have these unintentional can have these unintentional effects that we don't even see it because we're looking at it you know through black and white lenses and just saying no it's and it's it's really deeper than a black and white L absolutely and that's a great segue into looking at the anti-racism policy and where we're at with that so we'll just keep rolling along and I think the next slide just is is lifting the definition right we talked about what racism is so what anti-racism is and maybe we can just scroll through because I think this one was also right from
030the the the policy right is the practice of identifying challenging and changing the value structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism so it's looking at where are we disrupting where are we disrupting the status quo otherwise that's those patterns are what are going to continue to repeat so if we look at the anti-racism policy through these same lenses right through institutional through cultural and through individual then we can get a sense of like are we actually doing the work to disrupt it on all three levels and so that's how I structured this report and I'll just share yeah if you don't mind advancing another slide or two so this is if we were to look at everything that was in the anti-racism policy some of the themes right some of the themes around institutional um
031were to provide ongoing capacity building training and support right creates systems for reporting tracking repairing harm these are all things that can be done in the institutional level cultural level is building and sustaining safer braver spaces deepening engagement with families and communities right ensuring that curriculum is inclusive representative of diverse groups all the things that have to do with beliefs narratives all of that stuff is part of cultur on an individual level what the anti-racism policy I think is seeking to do is to help develop um and and uh develop help help put into practice and so that individuals are embodied some of these anti-racist understanding skills and so that across the Su we are understanding and using common language and an equity or reflective culture so this was just a way of looking at
032again it's like what is racism and how is this anti-racism actually disrupting what it is and this is a way to break it down and to see are we actually doing all of these things because often times people canum like the institutional policies you can see them cultural is a little more nebulous and cultural is a harder one to actually name an address and so it's important to really lift that up okay is this make sense yes okay good um why don't we see the next slide shows okay so where are we at in all of these areas and we're actually doing a lot of things in these areas right um one I was just talking about how it's like our tracking and Reporting System right we now have like educ climber which you can
033sort by demographics so there are ways for us to now actually look at um how like students are doing right along and actually pull out demographics because before we weren't able to actually look at that we couldn't see you know where those differences were happening so um just a number of things happening I mentioned we're having these school-based Monday meetings uh exploring the development of like an equity ticket or bias incident reporting that could work collaboratively with The Hazing harassment bullying reporting trying to have some conversations and figure out what we can do there um looking at how we can track progress on the equity audit over time training professional development that's all part of institutional so this is all ongoing right uh cultural we're looking at um this is where that alignment Elizabeth comes
034in with act one is is looking at how are we teaching to these new inclusive educational quality standards um there's a course that the education Justice Coalition of Vermont is leading to help do that so we're going to participate in that and see how we can continue to deail all these things um it's basically a way of making sure that curriculum is more inclusive and Equitable uh so there's there's a lot I mean there's a lot that's happening that we're exploring y'all can see on the slide it connects to even some of the work that we're doing with Center for educational leadership um and centering student stories right that's going to help going to help change the culture it's going to help us uh create more inclusive narratives about people's experiences especially about students who
035are furthest from Justice and then on an individual level you know again it's looking at this also has alignment with things we're doing with leader and me there are all the habits that we're integrating into the schools right that connect directly uh to what we would want to see I think from this anti-racism policy so anyway this is a lot of work in progress in process um um and then I think that there's a lot of information here I know we're already at like about 25 minutes so I just want to pause like I don't know check in where are Folks at what are you thinking 28 minutes 17 seconds colen what's up I just want to thank you for this material I really um went through um the reference or the resources material was
036really great for me and I really like this [Music] um list of how what you're doing and how things are going and I appreciate you and that's it that's all I wanted to thank you you will definitely be missed Elizabeth still got a little while I also wanted to can you hear me okay yeah yeah I also wanted to say thank you I've been really um hoping for this the the kind of um cross tracking of all these different efforts and it's really nice to be able to see it all in one place and so thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you for the encouragement to do that update as we were required to do in the policy so and there's more to come from this like hoping from this there's that
037next level step which is like institutional what does this mean for like for teachers for you know it's like just keep for students keep breaking it out a little bit more so we can see how that stuff all winds up did you have something yeah I I I I also want to thank you but I I'm looking forward to that next step I'm looking forward to kind of getting a um an understanding of how you know that weather feeli you know conversation you know um comes out and the Heartland and and wisor and so on and so forth I also want to thank you because um I really look at our strategic plan and um it was a plan that was put together by our community our teachers our superintendent and um what I'm seeing
038and hearing right now is something that is clearly in our strategic plan this was um something that our community decided this is where we want to go with our educational system and and I just want to remind everyone you know if you just look at strategic plan number two um um four where it says the seu will conduct the diversity audit to determine if gaps exist between Su policies slash practices um uh SE portrait of um and a healthy culture and you know um that whole piece um um explored the need for a Dei statement that represents dsu's stance in issues related to diversity equity and inclusion and if appropriate adopted as a board policy which we've done through but it's coming alive now I mean you know it's like we've had these conversations we've
039had these steps we we just continue to be moving and it's coming alive and so I think you're and I know that you'll say it's not me alone but it's you know being breath is being put into it so I do want to thank you and those Folks at the different schools that are working alongside of you and our superintendent to um bring this professional development to us yeah okay quick input from Davis and then we are gonna move on okay thank and I'll make it quick though um now I this race is an incredibly difficult subject matter to condense into 20 25 minutes and I think that this was a I think you did a fantastic job with that and I just wanted to kind of throw in my observation that I I appreciate
040the the amount of intersectionality in this approach to explaining how the constructive race has impacted society and you continue to impact society today and how essentially without getting too long-winded About It by by applying policies like this anti-racism policy it has intersectional benefits as well when you are addressing where people come from where like their lived experience is coming from you know meeting people where they are at and ra being such a large sort of Monolithic construct I think that that that is the domain in which that it makes sense for this to come from but it also you have the ability in this kind of policy to address things like economic disadvantage um you know like any any host of other kinds of marginalization that you know when we can effectively address those things
041then we are better able in our educational settings and I think in society at large to to really meet people as people and like have I think the the kind of more Equitable egalitarian society that I think that you know folks really want to exist in and want to see happen so I think uh again it's a tough concept very difficult to plug in 20 minutes um but I I think that this is a good a good start and I appreciate it thanks y okay good yes all right quick question here as because are you going to jump into procedures I'm going to jump into this yes I am okay so I'm I'm having issues finding the procedures they're not in the portal until they're reviewed at at the board level then they get added
042to the policy that they go with so how can you read them ahead of time they're not they should be in the packet they should be in your board packet each each time here it go okay you go okay okay once it's approved then okay they don't get they don't get approved by the board they questions or comments yeah certainly thank you for that so these two are pretty um they're not that complicated but I'm happy to take questions or comments if you have any so one is the um I'm sharing the right screen yes procedur on home study students and the second is procedures for student attendance so those are bound by some trcy protocols and um policies and most of this is um dictated by law yeah yeah screen these are two easy
043ones to write so and if you have just wait for a second are there any comments or questions from people that saw them already Yes wel computer I'm assuming the ADM codes are appropriately applied to all of these yeah is it 03 for athletics it's ridiculous yeah okay I'm gonna move on but you welcome to reach out um so this is just a kind of an FY and to feel if the Su board is interested um the Manis scotney school board has been working on some enduring materials which I think is a wonderful idea um Davis really spearheaded uh a process for appointment of board members when a board member resigns and those are those are being kept in a board enduring materials folder in their portal in that in that M Scot's board portal
044so is that something the Su board would like to pursue as well and if so we can we can share resources if appropriate or they can live in the Su portal if they are applicable to all our boards just wanted to get a feel for your thoughts on that it looks like Davis would like to comment that's okay yeah I don't think I'm gonna sck anyone with this but I think it's a good idea um the other the the other thing I would throw in there and kind of the the high level of of where this attach like connects with the defining some of the more variable elements of that process for appointment I think that something else that kind of connects to this is as the M Scotti Schoolboard did when a sort of
045Novel process came up or something where there is that variability um I think it would make sense also for the Su board to engage in similar practice when when a process that doesn't come up as part of regular everyday business or monthly business hits us and we have to approach it I think even if it goes swimmingly and there are not problems it's worth just doing a quick at the very least doing a plus Delta of it you know in a meeting saying what went well what didn't go well are there any kind of gray areas that popped up where there isn't really good enduring materials available online from States or agencies or other municipalities where we might want to generate some of our own enduring materials because that that process was really the the
046Genesis of doing this atting school district level um I generally think it's good practice it's something that organizations of all types use all the time just to make sure that you know those those gaps aren't persisting when they arise um I just wanted to un plug for that too yep so where would this board enduring material where would it live it would live in um for now the Mount Ascutney school board when you click on that and you go in there it's a I call them folders my husband says they're files but whatever they look like folders me there will be one called enduring materials and they'll live in there okay so if there if the Su board would like to do that as well we put one in the Su um portal for access
047the other the other thing that I asked Lori to put in there um Elizabeth and I did a training this spring on open meeting one public records which was very informative so I've asked Lori to put that that whole slide deck in there um because it applies to open meeting one public record so um so think about it I don't think it hurts I think it would be great to even have some um materials on onboarding new board members what do we do what's our process what materials do we give them right yeah so I'm gonna move on quick comment and Marie based upon law I don't believe that uh within the procedure whether an absentee is excused or unexcused it it doesn't matter okay in the in the sorry my bra was moveed forward
048you're still there in the student attendance procedure in the attendance procedure based upon state law okay um that five days of unexcused that has been updated in state law and it may not be actually state law may be in uh for M school board procedure I don't know which it is but okay is it is it updated in the try protocol The Windsor County insury protocol probably I don't think it is because that's what we used yeah okay um I I'll touch Bas with you after they to get the details on okay uh is it okay anarie has hand up yeah yeah I just wanted to say that I I really like the idea of having the you know the the the those materials sort of kept in one place where we can all refer
049back to them because it sort of seems like we're always kind of Reinventing the wheel every time something comes up so it'd be great to have a resource you could just point to and know what you got to do thanks and uh Davis has his hand up Bill is that okay sure oh thanks Bill gota wait for you to recognize me um uh yeah I just wanted to throw out the the mental model around that too that I kind of forgot to mentioned before it's really institutional memory right I think that it can be challenging on smallish local boards like this when when individuals end up with a lot of this knowledge and we end up leaning on them without actually recording it you know we I think we've seen the difficulties that can come
050when when a member of the board either doesn't run again lose an election or resigns if we're not preserving those materials and those processes in some written accessible ways not only for the board but for members of the community it it it creates issues right it creates misunderstanding it creates wasteful hor processes so that's that's another way I think of thinking that might might be in my mind that's maybe the optimal way of thinking is that we're building institutional memory that transcends the individuals in this space uh so when at some point none of us are here and some other folks are doing this there's there's some precedent or something you can you can reference that says hey this may not be outlined clearly in statute and you know the AOE might not have a
051tool for this but we have we have gone through this we've done a little plus Delta and here are our recommendations for how this you know process XY or Z should run yeah thanks Davis okay um Angie's gonna do a quick curriculum implementation update is it okay I just talk right from here you can hear me okay um so uh these slides are I I slightly updated I think uh from the end of September our board meeting then but I just wanted to give you some uh updates on how it's going uh many thanks to Patty gray who worked tirelessly over the summer to make sure that our materials were delivered we're still dealing with some materials that haven't been received um but um that's more about we we ordered 10% more and they we
052need more because some schools got a lot more kids than we we talking with so that's not a bad problem to have um we have uh created a support system through our building based instructional coaches uh at currently the position at Heartland is still open so Patty and I are are helping support the Heartland teachers as well um and what that means is that we meet monthly with the instructional coaches Patty meets uh regularly uh with the instructional coaches to talk about the program and issues with the program that are coming up on how and how to best support teachers as they implement the new program core knowledge um language arts is being implemented K5 and Eureka squared which is the next edition of Eureka is being Implement K8 uh we offered uh a day
053of training on August 28th we offered a halfday uh building opportunity for building collab cross building collaboration on October 20th and we also offered weekly Synergy achievement teams which was a coin phrase to describe how that time is to be used working in building based teams to support one another as we try to figure out what's the best way to implement this program now I want to be totally clear it is hard and our teachers are doing a lot of the heavy lifting and they are asking a lot of questions they're noticing when things are not working and when things are are working and I'm I'm very proud to say that they are speaking up about it and we are doing the best we can right now to try to support this implementation because not
054only does it take I think the the common wisdom is that it's three years when you implement a new program before you really start to see um it feeling like it's actually taking hold we are dealing with kiddos that you know three or four years ago was Co and the coid disruption and the uh levels in a classroom that a classroom always had a level of um you know a wide range of student abilities that range is even even broader than ever before and so some of the challenges that have been brought to our attention is that it's really hard to figure out how to support students who are two three four grade four grades below um where the curriculum is expecting them to be able to perform so those that's the big challenge that
055we're dealing with right now Synergy teams um we have uh responded to feedback from teachers who were feeling that it was the weekly meetings were too much so we um we decided to focus only on language arts implementation especially since Eureka squared is not new if they if you taught here last year you taught with eure math or you were a pilot teacher so um Eureka Square squared is not completely different um from what was their last year so we're focusing on ckla and we are meeting building based team groups once a month and then having a a monthly training based on on a topic that is pertinent to the staff um specific to the program okay thanks take questions pH yes go ahead Elizabeth thank you uh I apologize for being camera off but
056I'm got a a uh shoty um internet connection unfortunately but uh a couple of questions one is um is there will there be a point at which the board will be able to receive a synopsis or some kind of presentation of what is in the new curricula and uh also that would be totally up to the board um I'd like to request that and uh also I I would like to know how when you're implementing a new Ela curriculum how that dovetails with the the um uh anti-racism curriculum stuff um whether that training is going on simultaneously or um in conjunction or H how does that work I I can share some something that we've been talking about is like next summer it'd be great if we could bring teachers you know pay bunch of
057teachers who have the interest in coming together for a week but before school starts to actually provide feedback on like here's what's missing like here's where it doesn't align right with the new education quality standards like here's this piece that just doesn't like doesn't fit right can we replace this with something else that's that uh that aligns better with our desire to teach more Equitable and inclusive curriculum so we're hoping like that stuff I've been I've been talking to some teachers about I know there was big feedback on Friday so um I think it's going to be over time we're going to figure out how we can support teachers in identifying some of those promising practices and ways that they're integrating more um diverse perspectives and Equity inclusion into the curriculum I think it's a
058it's an ongoing conversation as well especially since after a year we don't expect our teachers will have will have implemented everything in the program it's just not possible and so after two years and three years every year they use it they're going to find ways that um you know what works really well what's not working well where they need to beef up resources or where they need to change what's in the program and and become uh uh more Adept at identifying what what is best for for our kids based on our goals Megan do you have something quick yeah I'm just I'm I don't know how quick it is but if it can't be answered now that's okay but I want to get it out there I am nervous like when you say the range
059of is broader like that is really um kind of scary to me to think about that these students are like getting that far behind and what does that look like and are we asking for more support in the budget to be able to support these teachers and students in this I guess like it's concerning yes supporting instructional coaching which is is essentially on the job training on the job support right now currently we have the equivalent of one instructional coach at Weathersfield that's we have two halftime instructional coaches one in math and one in language arts at Windsor School we have the equivalent of one and a half instructional coaches two of those are title um funded halftime instructional coaches halftime interventionists and then we have a locally funded halftime interventionist halftime instructional coach Heartland
060has a halftime instructional coach instructional coaching is one of the best ways that we can support teachers who to support children so that they can use the most um effective instructional practices in their classrooms and the more we support instructional coaching and build that model I think that is our answer to helping our students um get where they need to go I think one thing to be careful of when you start looking at uh a a a broadening difference between students is especially in a beginning of a cycle of a new assessment um platform is the difference due to broadening uh skill levels between syst systems between students or is it a broadening uh difference between students because of improved assessment uh strategies and my guess is you have not used star enough to that
061and I mean and then also understanding how the program and star work together and right um how how we can find out what certain parts of CK really show up as improvements in in star or the other way around I just want to say something really quick though it it is really quick um can I yes okay um I I I just hope that um Katie is involved in in this conversation because I I hear um instructional support and and I know that you're looking at students with various needs and I and to some degree I know that they're different but on the other hand you know um um I I don't clearly understand those differences so I I just think it's important to really be able to you know not suddenly have this incredible
062um amount of instructional support which I think is important without having a conversation with with Kate you know in terms of these are our students these are the needs of all of our students to answer really quick we're I'm involved in all of the continue movement our muled system of supports yes so with that even though Elizabeth has a raised hand I I have a very quick question um Angie you you uh listed the schools that have instructional support coaches does Albert because you didn't thank you yes I forgot sorry Elizabeth thank you for bringing that to my attention Albert Bridge has a model where they have instructional coaches who are working beyond the contracted obligation and meeting with teachers outside the contracted hours for a stien so there are three um wonderful Educators there
063who have raised their hands to do that work and they're supporting their colleagues in that fashion okay that's great thank you um I'm wondering seeing we have transitioned to mtss if it would be all right with Larry if we hit up Katie Qui first want okay go ahead oh okay that wasn't the end but I but I'm just going to tell you it's fine the question of the month results are there for you to look at okay the next question I'm going to fix the question that I botched this month you botched well yeah I think I botched it so it's gonna just because I want it to get to get it right I just want to show you and you didn't respond to my email yes I did really yeah I said yeah I
064screwed that up fix it I unless I didn't hit so I want to make sure it's right and then we can move on so yeah this is we really want to know what they're using and I asked what they what their preferences were and then we're going to add on how often they're using power school because we thought that was important so that's good um I'm gonna pass this out we're not going to discuss it tonight it's a strategic plan report card how we're doing on each of the strategies and if you don't like this format let me know and we'll do it a different way so I will give these to you and I'll pull up ky's report and Bill I appreciate you keeping us on track it's hard when there's yeah lots of
065us all right Katie you're on let me share the screen quick questions can turn into long answers I know I got that thank you lar y all right so this is um our first of two reports for this year um our slogan um as to follow along with the Su belonging um our office staff came up with this earlier uh partly because we keep saying to each other we've got this so we've got this together all students all staff all staff all students are still trying to figure out how to put that on t-shirts and um Learning Without Limits so this year we're trying to Encompass that and put things into action pretty exciting um my next slide every year the state of Vermont sends out a parent survey um they mail it to us
066uh to parents um they've asked us to make sure that we let every no so um this is the results for 2022 we will may have the results for 2023 sometime anywhere between November and February is when they usually come out so um we I wanted to highlight some of the aspects this is a scale um from one to four if you want to look closer you can um so um the they um toned it down from previous years mostly it's about parent engagement and how we are incorporating um families in our process students in our process how they understand it how they feel supported um Lots about communication um overall we did really well um the scores here on that first page are uh High threes mid to high threes um on our next
067one slide um and I tried to try really hard to figure out how to link the PDF to this but I couldn't manage to do it um we there were a few of the areas that we flagged this year for improvement so I'll read the ones that have the arrows um my child special education staff School District provides opportunities for me to strengthen my knowledge about prek through 12 special education issues such as parent training seminars information sessions news lges Etc and one thing I should mention this is every student on an IEP whether they are in one of our buildings or they are in a school choice of Hartford or Handover or in a placement that we've put them so it's every child um who receives um services in special education so this reflects
068many different parent views for May maybe schools that we as a board sitting here you are not necessarily responsible for their educational programming um so that ended up being um we had 2.56 on that scale and the second one there that we flagged my child special education staff School District connects me to prek through grade 12 Community Partners and organizations for additional resources to extend learning opportunities across environments um that also came out that was um in the mid tws as well and then the last one which is 18 I was informed about the survey before it arrived which was better than the year prior um we had 41.7% um so we turned these three into our Focus for a little bit for last year we were already on the trajectory and the little and
069we're definitely continuing it for this year and that trajectory um I'll tell if you do the next slide Christine thanks um we par this is one of the big pieces of the survey that we're really proud of um parents reported that our Su facilitated parental involvement so overall when I came in 19 uh FY 1920 um school year 1920 excuse me it's late and theyve had a lot of coffee 2019 2020 um you might remember we had a little pandemic start and Clos school they sailed the survey out that spring and expected people to respond they didn't um so we had 26% of our families of the thing of them sent out that facil it was not good plus it was the pre previous survey they've now shortened it and made it much more palatable
070um so last year of the fy21 school year the we were 78.3 eight% of facilitated parental involvement and then this um fy22 we've exceeded the Statewide Target of 86% so part of that has been some of the changes that we've made um which is the next slide um what are we doing as a result so each spring we are sending out emails to every parent um I'm not harassing them I promise but there's at least two that come from me saying hey this is coming to an inbox near you you can fill it out online um you can fill it out through the the mail that comes through um we're asking principales are putting it in their newsletter Christine put it in their newsletter um if they can't get one they email the state so
071and I know people are getting them because they're commenting on it which is great so we're trying to do that and we're also not muddying the waters by giving out any other surveys during the year because this one that I just showed you H as high stakes for us it counts towards our monitoring and how the state measures how we're doing that was my question yes so we don't I have been asked to send out others and I'm like I don't want to because if we do then maybe people won't answer this one and this one counts it comes back on the data that we received back for our local determination that we get every year um and the questions are good we can use them it's good stuff um we so um sorry oh
072wait that too fast too fast I have so not got through most of that so those are the first two bullets last year we started offering some coffee hours we're trying to find a sweet spot for that special needs support center um Special Olympics we are looking to expand those offerings and connect people to more Community Resources that's probably one of the biggest things we do individually at meetings is talk to parents about what's out there um especially middle school high schools or those transition times and our early Elementary folks um and that'll come in in a little bit here um high school students attending or now we're really really really working on them attending new meetings and that has we're starting a small revolution in one class um where they're now convincing everybody else
073to go so the students being engaged me parents are engaged and the feedback from that has been great this year um working on self-determined learning with peers uh working towards peer mentoring and special education those are the big pieces of connecting more kids and families to other kids and families and that's one of the things that families have asked for individually at meetings um the feelings of isolation not being feeling connected to others um and is something that we are working on which ties in here um we are in the very beginning stages we last year we started talking to families about this creating a parent advisory Council except I'd like to call it the um special education family collaboration Council a because many of our families are not comprised primarily of parents in a
074traditional sense that we think that's parents it's grandparents Aunts Uncles Guardians you name it we've got it um and the feedback from families has been do we have time to collaborate we want to work with each other as a community and we also want to work with the school and to make things better um so I have families that are interested we have some documents we're starting there are two started in the state one up north and one to our South in Babar I've been talking to both about sort how they got this going and it would be family L um so we get some more of that within the next couple of months as we figure out how to move forward with those with some Community Partners helping us build that Council so um
075and that hits on one of the areas sorry um one of the areas on our survey um and the other has and this is where some of the community there's a lot more Community agencies out there for collaboration with our Middle School to high school students and I had three meetings last week with different partners and we're going to continue partnering with them as well um so looking at our family engagement survey and our and those results um kind of backtracking the Community Partnerships and making sure families feel as though they're part of the process but also part of the larger picture of our community is our goal um and it'll be a few years goal um so um any questions about that uh the high school students attending their meetings I I think that's
076pretty awesome pretty important also and you're right it's if the students are coming home and talking about their um that connection parents are going to listen and hear I think that's powerful and some of the kids who have gone the other day I walked in and one kid burst into the room and said I had to go to a meeting with Miss Katie did you know what we did and told everybody it was hysterical and it was great because then the other kids like wait we can do that and we it's something I've done for years but it had not and maybe it's co and everything else that kind of hit it fell by the wayside we're working on making sure middle school students are invited and it's always a parent permission but the older
077students would like to work with newly identified students in the process as well as younger students on how they can be more involved so we can do it with them versus at them that's my line I tell kids to give to come is that we want to do it with you not at you and even if you come and you don't say a word you're there and you know and most of the time they all end up talking anyway which is pretty cool Al I think it's it's important because I remember so many meetings where some students would be there and the adults would be talking about what is it that they should be doing and many times the students would not saying a word and I'm being like so who's going back to the
078classroom to do what you know and so I'm really glad to hear that they are engaged and they're being asked to participate y it's it's pretty important and it is part you've heard all last year and this fall when we passed our transition plans it's a large part of those transition plans is learning your advocacy skills for yourself as you get ready for your post high school years so it all ties in together um our next slide see can't what it is um there was a request to just look to take look at our early childhood data over time and so this turned out to be kind of an interesting task Betsy my administrative assistant and I were trying to figure out a way to sort our data so um our core early mtss system
079in early childhood involves and it's pretty seamless and we've been doing it for years our Early Child staff here fancy right there um our early childhood team meets um weekly to discuss all the students which is wonderful they are very tight-knit group our partner programs um also identify students and if we're already there we pick up kids anyway so whether a formal referral has been made or not and we're tracking progress It's been um worked really well throughout um the years um the go ahead Triple E yes okay so early yes Early Child um early ECP Early Childhood programs and then Early Child special education we've got our new letters for instead of Triple A um I know welcome to New acronyms um we do frequently have students referred by their Physicians um their teachers
080uh grandparents actually frequently will call and help get the ball rolling for their children or their grandchildren even other children are involved which is pretty cool um the and then they go through child find and our usual evaluation process even if they don't qualify we typically end up picking them up for services anyway informally um we um that includes observation consultations evaluations referral to Specialists because sometimes it's not us it's other things that the family needed um we s serve as that clearing house um then we are working on services like we do for a third grader services for a predetermined amount of time and track with that with our data it's a very small number of kids every year maybe one or two that kind of fall into that camp um but what we
081thought we would do is we started tracking and I realized we went up from the students we've had in in early childhood special ed uh fy20 was 25 to go to now fy2 three we have 34 students identified in early childhood special head um we've looked at students who have exited during those years um So within you know again we're going up in our numbers um one of the things and I I believe um it was at a earlier meeting last year looking at students over time that exited and for what if let's say it's the fifth grader exited this year did they get receive Early Childhood Services and may that show that there was some success because early intervention showed they exited um what we are going to start doing because there was not
082an easy way to sort this data believeing we tried to look at exits is starting now when students exit um we are going to have another column saying whether they received Early Childhood special services or not or emss Services um for example this last year 12 students graduated who received Services only one of those students ever received Early Childhood Services so um we were able to do a little bit just see if we could kind of tease out the data but moving forward we'll be able to have a thir column looking at students exited at along any point and see what they um if they received Early Childhood Services any questions on the early mtss I I I I I have a question um I I think it was last year or the year before
083um that I heard or understood that there was a higher percentage of students that were either on that entered the school system that were either on the Spectrum or um which meant that they all received an IP correct and I'm just wondering if there's been a change in that this year that that just kind of remain uh neutral or did it go up or did it go down we still see a bubble of students who are early identified um as being on Spectrum that's still we we had an exceptional bubble of the same age group come through um the numbers being there that whether students are moving in um or come up through Early Childhood we're actually identifying several um as we come through I think I mentioned before we now have the capacity to
084do our own screening and evaluation using the same tools um one of the tests that Dar Hitchcock uses we trained our school psychologists to use it so we don't have to wait for a dhmc appointment um which is pretty which is great oh yeah um for the especially those threes and fours that come in that may not have had any early childhood experience prior so I think the the bubble doesn't seem to be as pronounced in one grade but it's certainly we are seeing an increase um and students identify better screening tools and um families follow being able to follow through with it I think it's been super helpful but I believe that if a child is identified on the spectrum they automatically are identified as an i no um it's interesting with the with
085development delay for Early Childhood it's more more likely that they would versus another delay because it's considered a different category yeah so um it is much higher likelihood but yes we do have students especially as they're older who may be identified on the Spectrum who do not qualify um although we now have different some more measures that we can actually go for um with our new evaluation tools our new evaluation requirements for functional skills more so than just academic so we can we've expanded that um okay next slide Christine I think and I think this might be our last one if I remember correctly language um Christine the last one is a language one so there we go um I am not Britney I'm just G to put that out there I tried really hard
086to make this side this and I say that with lots of admiration because she always man just to make everything look super clear and crisp um I wanted to start thinking we've been working with students so one of the things um I'm working with Kiren kisten Hinton who's our SLP um and the Windsor School teaching a group of middle and high school students social communication each week and we're talking about social communication and language and how our language matters and in Tracy and sort of as we have um become more aware of language use wanted to thinking about um have every bit of just putting out there how we're framing how we're talking about individuals disabilities and even as I did this there's some inconsistencies we tend we the move movement within um talking about
087individuals with disabilities you hear a lot person first person first you talk about there's an individual with a disability like fredes special education services versus St student Fred um that you'll notice the first one says Sally is autistic and there's a star next to it their Asters for and autistic Sally so there are three um groups individuals of U categories of people or um Affinity groups however we want to kind of put that individuals who identify as um being on Spectrum um individuals who are deaf or harder hearing or individuals with um different sidedness tend to because that those three affect how they view the world tend to be um using their ability first versus person first autistic Sally I'm blind student I'm a hearing impaired student because of so and even in within the
088community that tends to be the majority of individuals would prefer to be um ability first then person but even within that there's some argument or arguments is not the right word there may be some individuals who are not comfortable with that um so one of the things we've been talking to students about is how do you ask how do you how do you do this because we will be learning within that group I mentioned about our own learning profiles um First Learning in general about them with all individuals and then each student will be learning about their own so that they can help advocate for themselves and also be more aware of how to talk about that within their own community of Learners um that they identify with as well so um you'll see here
089that we've you know J has speech intervention versus speech disabl Jamila um we tend to use the term learning difference um unique learning profile um the that you how Megan understands your disability versus understands your you learning profile um things about parking spaces uh handicap parking spaces versus Ada parking Americans with Disabilities at parking and we've slowly kind of getting to the that language um and this not just student we have over three not just students who um may have IEPs we have over 300 students who are either on an IEP 504 or a student support plan um within the Su in addition to staff with accommodation plans due to their differing abilities too um we've uh postco um right not postco right in the middle of Co whenever when lots of people needed accommodations
090we started an ADA committee so we made sure we were consistent with everyone and lots of good work came out of that so staff has come forward on what they may need um so um I thought this would be just a time to thetail some of that thinking into our own thinking as we move forward this year um and we'll be working with us and students with us changing their language and hopefully then it trickles to parents and other community members that's it did you not do some of this I think two years ago I think it was postco when kids were beginning to come back into the school and I think you I think you put together language and and put it on the outside playground I I don't remember but I I I
091thought you did our communication boards yes yes um which locally the special needs support center is trying to convince um the town of Hartford actually in their playground and Rex to put them in so we're working with them to see if we can figure out how to help them do that so yes that has gotten out cool I appreciate this I really do thank you ktie and Y you demand all right are you gonna share your own screen sure okay okay um first uh just want to let everybody know it's more informational that the financials the first quarter financials were put for for this fiscal year and to uh the board portal the Monday after October 1st um not much to say about those other than it's very early um but they're there if you
092want to see it nothing's you know happened yet we'll get more uh information as we get the third and fourth quarter as usual now we're going to talk about next fiscal year so we're always uh you know straddling three different fiscal years last fiscal year 23 this current fiscal year is 24 and 25 next fisc year uh the budget committee um there Rebecca to my right and Colleen Spence who we will miss greatly so we're going to need a representative from Hartland uh Talk Amongst yourselves uh to be on the budget committee uh Jamie Turner um our superintendent and myself and we've had several meetings working on this uh work in between the meetings and following up and uh making sure that they vetted everything before you guys saw it also I want to step
093back I think um Rebecca brought this up at the last talking about what the Su is and um you know I was thinking about it it's you know it's a lot of language but basically it's sharing uh the Su is sharing and we were talking last Su board meeting about how great would it be if we could share the uh nurses or the health teacher and um you know and I think it comes easy to us because we share a superintendent we share a DE orator we share a special ed director rather than having three districts with three superintendents and three Dei coordinators and three it directors and so on so forth um three curriculum directors this is a much more efficient way to do business uh we also want to make sure we tied
094in everything in the budget with the Strategic uh plan and make sure we uh the ones you know without creating a complete crazy bullet list uh surface a few of those uh the leader of me curriculum the assessment plan uh uh Tracy and Angie spoke to uh learning inspired the star which Bill already mentioned um School of Home coordinators uh the new Ela math curriculum that you heard earlier tonight about from Angie uh this is our um our main goal this year is uh culture and staff student wellness and uh that includes uh Tracy and Equity has now in the general fund this year she's in the s in sr3 but as we talked about last fiscal year this position would be moved to the general fund for fiscal year 25 and that's in the
095budget that's the only additional FTE in the fiscal year 25 budget um for admin and operations leader and me student Lighthouse team Panorama data uh Child Nutrition very popular among our staff is free lunch Wednesday uh talk space for is an app um released by The Agency of education for uh wellness and mental health for our staff um information communication uh uh Christine is doing H that with superintendent's Corner we're looking to add SMS um we're in the early stages of that but that was talked about the previous uh question that Christine had we have to do a letter out to parents first to have them opt in then we add their SMS they'll get a text saying do you want to opt in for information from Windsor Southeast suu they say reply with a
096Y you probably got those texts before and then um and then in the future they will uh get a text uh from the superintendent uh whether that'll be the next superintendent's Corner the one after that I'm working with school Messenger on uh which by the way just got B by to school um and uh so um we're working on that I did test it earlier I was the only one who got the text as I helped it in but uh I did test it earlier uh our data leader which is uh Britney um is in the general fund and that's information communication we did that last year uh Communications um a website redesigned for this summer the communication specialist uh it was achieved via attrition it's not an additional FTE um we had a retirement
097and uh we hope to make that person um full-time next year to replace that uh if you go through right here this is a pie chart showing um the budget by account code so the account code is usually what most people think of the budget when it comes to supplies or wages and benefits or contractor Services as you can see a big part of that is transportation which is at the Su level and tuition which is about the same as trans a little bit more the transportation is um almost entirely special ed at the Su level at the local level you'll see tuition for those with school choice and as revenue for B School District uh function is what we think of when we think of like uh departments uh so for example uh Central
098Services that would be um uh Christine um Dei would be instructional support and uh curriculum um sped administrative I think speaks for itself student transportation again is under a function there direct instruction that is mostly uh special ed which makes up a large part of the Su budget and a large part of the direct instruction um the only one outside of Special Ed I believe that would be direct instruction would be elll under curriculum El uh English language lears uh so the total budget uh for fiscal year 25 we're proposing tonight is 13, 26582 that's a 5.39% increase uh with special ed and a 3.86 percentage of the increase for non-ss special admin and operations um so how does that compare to previous years it's uh the rate of increase is down uh from last
099year and uh previous years except for 23 which was last year um and then I broke that out so if you look at this chart um and then I move forward you can see I broke out that all these uh columns I broke out from Special Ed and admin and operations special ed being the red admin operations being the blue that big jump you see in fiscal year 22 that's when um we put uh Transportation at the Su level and zeroed it out of your local budgets and then what year did we add U maintenance and maintenance maintenance is still uh local locally funded really yeah yes we've uh we've talked a lot about it okay um um the problem and I and I frankly would personally be on board with that in Zana local
100budgets where we usually get caught up is from an assessment point of view is how do we assess that out I have some thoughts uh maybe we'd go with square footage acreage or some other ways but um there's significantly more buildings and operations at Mount Ascutney than the other schools muty School District than the other schools um there is uh it's kind of a sharing system that goes on now that uh amount of School District does receive maybe this is what you're thinking of does receive revenue from wetherfield in Heartland okay to amount of Scutt but it's not they're not Su positions um what does this mean for your assessments so a question that comes up a lot this was in the superintendent's Corner uh superintendent's Corner last Friday was uh how much of our
101budgets are the Su so I broke it out uh your local budgets you know plus minus 1% depending on the district is uh 70% or so of your expenditure dollar and um special education as you can see is 16% Food Services 1.3% Early Childhood is roughly 2% admin and operations which is pretty much everything in the general fund non special ed is 99.6% and then to give you another look how would this look uh again as part of your dollar would be um the local budget s special education s edmin and operations which includes the business office curriculum Dei HR superintendent IT services and transportation is that dine Early Childhood Program again that 2.2% I didn't cut off and do fractions of a penny in Food Services this is really really wonderful are terrific quick
102question um do you have a particular um formula that you're using this year to anticipate um professional staff contract increases and uh wages and benefits of yeah so um so I chose a percentage um that I that I feel comfortable with as preparing for the budget not knowing I don't I don't think we should talk about it right I don't want to be accused of of um negotiating against ourselves right um but I had to pick a number that is inine line with the numbers I've hit historically and um and I feel comfortable with the the budget number I picked for wages there's very few the uh any teacher contract negotiations that um when when it when hopefully we have a negotiated contract with all the work you're doing bill the big uh percentage of
103that will be at the local level it will not be the Su budget at the Su budget there's very few contracted teachers it's it's basically 11 to 12 at special ed give or take um uh that are 5111 and then account code 5111 and then elll and then um but it's all the special ed teachers it's all the special ed teachers but what I'm saying is relative to muty or weatherfield or Heartland there's significantly more teachers at the local level yes yes yeah so what I'm I guess what I'm saying is whatever uh conservative number I picked would not uh change the bottom line of this budget too much because there's so few teachers most of the people in the Su as a as an FTE basis are either admin at will or non-teacher support
104staff staff uh equalize uh do you want to take questions now or you want me to finish I'd like you to finish okay yeah equalize pupil history so one thing that um we've been seeing a trend and I think this shows it well is that um man scotney has been kind of staying level over the years Mount scotney School District that's the green line up top which pays most of the Su assessment uh heartland's has been going down and weather skild has been going up roughly so um that as many of you know we break out the assessment based on equalized pupil count for all the um assessments except for Food Service which we base on the actual student M count so what this means is even if the budget were flat Med steel would
105pay more um in addition in the uh everything I shared out October 10th I also added a tab at the far right of the um all the budget information called the weather steeld question which basically was a question um that I wanted to look into on behalf of weatherfield and Jamie Turner who is on the budget committee and her question would be uh what if what would our assessment B had um we had the exact same eucalize pupil as last year and it was roughly $300,000 and another way to put that is almost 40 a little over 40% of the entire difference is based on the fact that we this Fields has more students relative to the other districts which is a good thing they still pay the least amount uh of the Su assessment
106which you'll see on the next slide um which is a total amount uh by District as you can see uh Harland pays 2.7 well scy pays almost 4 million a little over 4 million and weatherfield would be paying 2.3 uh million I only have a couple more slides to go uh next would be the budget timeline so as we're uh just to give you an idea where we are that lighter blue I know it doesn't look so great right here but that lighter blue is um is uh where we are today and so we're about halfway through the budget process process and we want to uh um lock this budget in and start working on the local budgets in November December so we can get everything ready for a town meeting everything below that lesser
107blue is all all the work that's been gone up to now by the budget committee and the Su so are you you want to you g to keep going and take questions I just wanted to I mean obviously Larry has done an incredible job on this presentation with the help of the budget committee and I just want to thank them because I think it's a lot of work um and he and he's really done a good job I mean the the rate increase rate is down from last year so we do feel really good about the budget um hoping the board may consider uh approving it this evening if they're ready um it would just help the local budgets get started so and everything I presented tonight has been at the uh on the board
108portal and all the backup documentation the spreadsheet s and the charts and everything have been up on the Su website and the board portal as of October 10th questions be yeah thanks um I believe all our coid funding funding is is done right for next year like our Esra funding it depends uh it ends September 30th 2024 so like for example Summer Academy which still have one more go of it great so um I guess my question is like what is what is discontinuing being funded because of lack of erra funds um I guess is my first question like is there positions or programs that are no longer moving forward because we because it's in at the Su level right um kindergarten interventionist uh the positions that are s funded are going to be absorbed
109in local budgets is my understanding uh that's two positions at Weathersfield two at Harland and um they are currently unfilled at Windsor um the leader in me uh is absorbed into the Su curriculum budget um I think what else are the some of the big ones Dei is locally uh is moving to Su budget um what else SCH coordinator Panama which is in your budget now your Panorama Panorama is GNA go into the curriculum software budget yeah um we are hope W would is being completely Sr funded this year so it it was last year half we are hope I mean half Esser and half Medicaid yeah so it could possibly become Medicaid and um the me think think think um I know there's the curriculum materials curriculum materials we we uh put uh Esser
110we put Weathersfield and Albert Bridge into the um into Esser last year because we could use title funds to pay for Windsor and Heartland and we have added um curriculum supplies into the Su curriculum budget for Math and Ela um and those the medic the the HRS uh Mental Health commission will'll probably go back to Katie to idab and Summer Academy right now we are looking at being able to partially fund what we've done in the past so there is a another summer uh summer school grant that is available to to us that um the deadline is in January that we are going to apply for to um to run a really exciting summer program and as of today we may be eligible for more funds from that act 112 as well I think one
111thing goad what well I think I was I think one thing that the Su board is whole that did that was very smart was um we added in the 203 24 budget uh the data coordinator and then the Dei coordinator proposal in tonight's budget for 25 so it wasn't all yeah no I recognize that and then also I think Summer Academy would be for fiscal year 26 conversation yeah um and I guess my follow up to that so it sounds like we are hope is not fully funded for this coming year for fy2 yeah no so I think I mean so I would say I would say that I I as a board member I would want that resource in for our students I don't know if I'm allowed to say that um but I
112and I guess I all throw it out there to the administration and the Su staff of like what what did you pull out like that I mean I don't think the increas is is very large but it's just like makes me wonder like did you feel there were any sacrifices that you made that you were like oh gosh I really wish we could have that that no you know I don't know like with strategic plan uh goal three I think again I think it was intelligent to use to do the communication specialist by attrition and uh I think whenever we can do that that's Smart Financial s but you're also but the person that you're losing was obviously a needed position I would assume so you are losing an Su position but gaining it in
113a different way is that right you got it yeah so basically I can talk a little freely about it it's a it's the IT department and I have uh moved some things around within the IT department uh for example I took over the state reporting um that used to be Ryan now I'm doing that I took that off his plate we're taking some other website stuff off his plate so that we can uh move some things around I'm doing some tickets so that uh we can get by without that additional Tech and we have a plan for this Communications person to do to equal a 1.0 that it would do other things other than just the website which is not a 1.0 it's probably closer to a 04.5 yeah and so I think it's just
114a matter of sound management to kind of move some things around and keep everybody going without um being overstaffed great yeah no I just don't want ever to have a feeling that that the Su is is just just getting by you know like that that you feel supported in those decisions that you you have what you need to do the great work you're doing that's all thanks Beth thanks Beth yeah David Davis uh yeah I think Beth uh covered a little bit about what I was gonna ask about as far as uh you know funding for positions going way so I appreciate you going to detail on that um just a general note and I mean I think you're to be singing your Praises by now Larry but I I really appreciate the variety of
115different visuals that you used to get that information out there I I particularly was taken back by the uh the coin page there I I mean it seems simple but it really is in alignment with some of the goals that we set at the Su Retreat about making sure that that the information that we present here that can be very complex is comprehensible to us and to our community members and even to our students um because when we have that shared understanding we're we're better able to participate in this so I truly thank you for putting that together and thanks to everybody else who's uh put a lot of hard work into uh to putting this Su budget together really appreciate it so based upon time I'm going to move things along here but I'm
116gonna throw out a question not necessarily a voting question but I want your your general opinion um either we can vote on the budget tonight um the other option I'm going to put out there is that for us to hold a special meeting to vote on it um so really all depends on how comfortable you are I don't want to wait for and I don't think Larry wants to wait until next Su Bud budget to approve the budget next Su meeting to approve the budget is sort of stack things up um so I'm not sure what more we need to know or what more questions we need to ask thank you Nancy I'm comfortable with voting tonight okay I'm also comfortable I with I'm voting tonight does anyone have an opposing position or would like
117to chime in on where they're at okay and we take a motion to approve the Su budget of Larry hold actually wait one second I did propose that that um we are hope be put fully in the budget so I don't know if I don't know what that expense looks like I don't so I have no idea if that's something we can do so that's something I don't know so we funded it um we funded it last year half Medicaid half uh Esser we funded it fully this year about 121 year um is what we funded and that's roughly what we funded last year too half Esser half Medicaid yeah and we're hoping um we're not expensing those Medicaid funds this year we're hoping to to um build that pool of money up with the
118hope of of covering we are hope next year in okay thank you Christine y I'm good okay thank you be great question though Beth I will take a motion to approve the Su budget of 13,260 582 so so move second Rebecca any discussion okay let's see how good I can gr around the uh the names here Beth how do you vote I Davis hi Elizabeth I Megan hi amarie hi Pauline I is there anyone online that I do not see at this time I think you got them Nancy I Rebecca I and I am an i ites un thank you done a beauti um yes I was gonna ask too uh items for discussion followed by a motion I will take a motion to approve uh B22 public complaint about Personnel happy to do it
119I do it all the time anyone so moved do we have a second awesome okay thank you Nancy um any discussions or I can start off all the all all the changes that I asked for has been included and it's pretty straightforward uh I like how it's read we've worked on this a time and you good with the definition we added that I am with the definition especially seeing I'm the one who sued it yeah okay um any other discussion okay uh be how do you vote I Davis I Elizabeth I Megan I and Marie I Pauline I Nancy hi Rebecca I and I am an i okay thank you thank you we can work on procedures for this one now huh we can work on the procedures now it's yes yeah c28 um I
120am not going to take motion on this just because I I think there's a lot of more work to be done um the difference between the uh the yellow and the um and heart for peace uh one example that I'm confused about is um you know are we required to change transcripts upon request only only with the Le uh only if the if it's a legal request right right but the the italics is pretty clear about that the Harford one isn't quite clear so I'm okay sort of and I don't know if Chris you and I want to we should get together and sort of that out and work on it okay does does anyone object to moving on to another reading of this no thank you y new communal disease mitigation measures for students
121and staff um I will take a motion to approve this um policy motion um to approve communicable disease mitigation measures for students and staff I think we talked about this and St that it was pretty not boiler plate but I mean yeah there's not a lot of Wiggle for right right it's not it's not something that we can really change was that a motion I know it was not sorry I I misheard my apologies now she was asking a question yeah yeah so Davis do you want to make the motion I I guess my question does anybody want to make a motion to approve the um I so Move Motion it okay second okay sove is the word you want any discussion Nancy Nancy Rebecca brought up the question is is this the one that
122we've been looking at and the answer is yes it's I don't want to call it boiler plate but there's really nothing that we could logically change as non-medical professionals unless we have a medical professional here would like to object to some portion of it any other discussion okay let's start outside here Rebecca hi Nancy hi Beth I Davis hi Elizabeth I Megan I an Marie I paen I and I am an I so that has passed now let start working on procedures y um a20 board meetings agenda preparation and distribution so moved right and so a motion ncy have moved and we've gone over this quite bit yeah um anyone second it second second okay any discussion about it no okay go around the room uh Nancy hi Rebecca hi B hi Davis hi Elizabeth
123sorry is this the one about uh the um uh agenda preparation yes yes okay there's a typo ah thank you Elizabeth where is it do you know can you point it out uh it is we can find it if you don't have it in front of you Elizabeth I do have it where is it um I can't find it I can't find it I'm sorry that's okay we'll look for it I put a note on it can sure I vote I vote I pending pending correction yes thank you pending the correction um Megan I and Marine I I and I am and I pending finding and correcting the type that Elizabeth found M and I thank you all which one was that board meetings E20 E20 I have to say I haven't really looked at
124this it's hot off the press yes I need to take off so I'm hoping I'm not breaking Quorum I think we have enough right I need to go scattle with a kid good to see you all okay bye B this one I'd love to look at with Jim Taff too yes I think he might have some things to say about it or and I have not done that yet yeah so and I believe uh we've discussed c41 quite a bit tonight okay more to come I do believe Gracie okay um setting next agenda so on our work plan we've got um the FY 25 calendar I'll bring okay um got Tracy we've got the CIA report and my report we don't have and so I'll move forward the community use of school facilities um policy
125for a second read and and that's the only one we have a little bit transgender and the transgender y y Elizabeth thank you um uh Christine could you please look into the legality of um of uh asking people who are using the uh school facilities as a community um Community facility uh be required to to adhere to the rules that are applied during the day yes I will you I think it's pretty common to at least in the Harford that they adhere to all other policies yeah uh just want to make sure that it's that it's all square yeah thank you yep got it thanks Elizabeth can we also just touch basis um on the the the Strategic plan report card sure I can bring that back next time has been help good a chance
126I'm very excited that now I know where to find the procedures I've been going I've been going through the website trying to find them it's it's the link yeah I keep trying to hit the paper link here to have it open up oh yes so that's all I have I've got my report I'll bring back the report card of Strat plan the calendar Tracy's report CIA report and those two policies the transgender and Community use of schools if that's good I'm sure something else will come up well we do have the kindergarten one I have I saved that I put that on um December because we didn't have that many but I'm happy to bring it next month if you want okay well we're light on the policies yeah okay perfect get ahead y that
127one's pretty fun dry too oh it's 829 how did you do that it's amazing I don't know how I did it I definitely way over when it comes to the policies it it's I like making it very quick yeah me too yeah well it's a third reading on a lot of helps to read think beforehand yeah yeah I came 15 minutes early to read some of the poliy but we got into such a really interesting discussion we did and thank you very very much for passing the the budget tonight that's really helpful thank you much appreciated thank you okay so um do we need an executive session no no we will next time though I believe something you brought up to me I can do that yeah yeah I'd like to do it next time
128and um um I believe the point you made Larry about this topic is that uh you asked about having the executive session not just at the end but after another topic that you had to talk about I I could um I think in exec session we can we can talk about this yeah okay I don't think with the uh budget adopted I don't think it's necessary for the lad at the end okay okay yep perfect thank you talking about for next week take a motion to close to end this school board meeting so moved Davis second Colleen okay all in favor say I night