SU Board Meeting - April 24th, 2023

001I'm going to call this it is 6 31. I'm going to call this meeting of the Windsor Southeast supervisory Union School Board to order um any we have an introduction bill yes I know I was trying to get in that and and in touch with uh Hudson I was hoping that he would do the introduction if you felt comfortable doing it sure I can do that okay so now yes so Mount has got any school board appointed a new member on Friday and we're very pleased to welcome Megan Reed for the remainder of the one-year term welcome Megan [Applause] and uh we all are very excited to have Megan on board the mountas school board and she will make a wonderful addition so welcome Megan thank you um any changes additions to the agenda Christine

002I just want to add under items for Action the approval of the coordinator of diversity equity and inclusion okay uh I'm actually gonna move that up to a okay because I think that's pretty important yeah and exciting very exciting okay yeah are there any other additions okay um approval of the minutes they didn't have time to read the minutes from last Su meeting I do a motion to approve the need of the minutes of the left Facebook meeting okay thank you that was that was Rebecca who seconded Elizabeth okay Elizabeth any discussion about it okay uh I'm gonna go around the room here as best I can um I should probably have a list of names but I can uh I'll make do beth Roy aye uh Christine Osgood is she she's not on the

003board no I didn't think so I'm like Davis uh mark I um Colleen I yeah Elizabeth and uh no Rebecca Rebecca okay thank you and uh Megan okay A wise choice am I meeting am I missing anyone as I start my list of school board members yes Nancy Nancy oh my goodness Nancy I I see you're in person now I really feel guilty goodness okay um the eyes have it and we're going to move on to uh public participation 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 and that the board and members of our community can approach constant controversial issues in a civil and

004constructive 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 do we have any public participation hearing none um we are going to move on to the administrative reports yeah you kind of faded out there for a second yes okay well I'm going to get us started and then hand over um to Angie and then Brittany so we have a shared report tonight um share my screen all right we'll get started um so uh I don't know if any of you took the survey but we did put out a survey for parent-teacher conferences and we had pretty pretty strong response a hundred and uh we had more

005than 122 I thought oops what goodness sorry about that I'm going to click on it so you can see the results it'll come up let me just share this top instead give me one second yes thank you for your patience while it loads either [Music] too I could I can make it bigger Nancy don't you worry hold on there we go okay this works come on okay so I can make it a little bit later on the screen too okay so we had 137 responses which is pretty good how did those responses correspond with uh proportion of schools you know what I like I said I did not find whatever percent language six percent 9.5 is Albert bridge and there's that what is that proportional to oh I would guess I didn't figure out the

006map but it's got to be pretty close yeah so we had a really good response um in general more responses for pre-k 5 which we have more pre-k5 kids so that makes sense um did the format of the conference meet your needs 88.3 uh percent said yes and 11 said no um there were a few comments about uh you know there was opportunity for comment I don't have the comments for you tonight because I want the staff to get those first uh did the times offered for conferences meet your needs so I'm pleased with that I think teachers are trying to be really accommodating and with the remote option it really really does help actually hearing a lot of parents so that works um did the content of the conference assessment data information on how

007your child is performing on standards help you gain an understanding of how your child is doing in academic areas 91.2 percent said yes 8.8 no um did you leave the conference feeling like you had a good understanding where your child is at academically socially emotionally and behaviorally we did a scale there and um so roughly more than 80 percent uh in the threes and fours which is good um this one I was curious about did you leave the conference with concrete strategies on how to support your child because most parents want to know what they can do at home 84.7 said yes and 15.3 said no so we've got some work to do there I think um and you'll and that was the last question that were again comments I think um Britney's going to

008talk a little bit about some of the data things that we're going to be doing which is really going to give parents some concrete examples of where their kids are at and what they can do to support them at home at home so we're excited about that so I was thrilled that we had such a good good response on that survey okay go back to the screen um we had um John Broderick last Monday come and speak this was a collaboration between Mount Ascutney um Paul Voldemort Trinity Church say his name wrong and the school yes he had seen John speak and brought him to us and John came to speak to us he does that free of charge he comes he tells his story which is about his own family his own child's struggle

009with mental health and how he has really um spent the last seven years speaking to kids and and adults all over the Northeast and he had some really sound advice for us around social emotional learning and what he thinks we can do to address some of the mental health the Mental Health crisis that we're dealing with and he was really practical and he said get devices out of the hands of children you learn social emotional learning Face to Face by talking to each other um so and he recognizes that would be a very big ask but um you know are there ways we can limit it and I think at a recent meeting a Community member suggested no cell phones in school so we'll talk about that um he suggested he said one of the

010biggest things that um that are a thing that is plaguing kids is they're over scheduled kids today are over scheduled he said his advice is you know kids that you know especially middle and younger shouldn't be on traveling teams they should plan teams but they shouldn't be on buses for two hours to get to a place to play a game they they have a lot on their plates and they're really stressed out um he also made a comment about um grading where it's changed so parents have have immediate access to how students are doing and that is really stressful on kids because they don't have a chance to actually you know go and see the teacher and work on things before their parents who have very good intentions and want to support their kids and

011want to see them succeed um that that causes angst with kids and stress so so and we do that it was like an aha moment I was like oh my God we do we do do that so it was a good um it was a really good uh um speech that night talking he's a very good presenter we didn't get a big turnout which he said happens all over the place I mean he he said Christine will be lucky if we get four we got seven that night but he also had an opportunity to speak to the kids during the day which was good so yeah so it was good and he suggested um that we consider showing a film called chasing childhood which um Melanie Sheen from Mount ascotny and I are going to

012meet and talk about it's a pub it would be a public viewing it would there's a cost to it but um it it talks about these issues so I just wanted to update you yeah yeah which is which is what we struggling and then you know at a time when mental health is a really big issue with our kids right now yeah yeah that you know yeah okay um we had a I just wanted to briefly let you know we had the administrators we were able to bring in the vpa they do um a lot of leadership training and they model it from the center um of creative leadership what is vpa Vermont principles Association I'm sorry I gotta be careful with my acronyms so yeah so the administrator spent today in this room you

013might notice the familiar scenery um and we had a professional development opportunity to help us develop our leadership skills um and the workshop was called better conversations every day and some of the things we practice we're listening to understand asking powerful questions asking Challenge and supportive questions and setting up accountability systems to help us move these skills forward in our practice because we know that they will help improve the cultures in our schools so um it was a great it was one of you know one of the principals said it was one of the best trainings she'd been at so it was worth it's hard to be out for the day when you're an administrator but it was worth it so um and then I just wanted to update you on where we're at with

014educational Equity the audit is complete Angie and I met with um the one of the Consultants from insight for just an overview of the results we then met with Mary again in our educational consultant to take a preliminary look and to figure out how we're going to roll it out to staff in the and how we're going to unpack it with the board and and we talked briefly about maybe summer Retreat would be a good time for that so um so we'll get that prepared and then I am so pleased to present our our uh coordinator of diversity equity and inclusion she signed her contract today so I can share tonight um Tracy Price is coming to us from Portland she's got a BA in psychology from the University of Vermont and a master of

015arts from the University of Maryland College she has worked um as an educational director she worked for the gray Family Foundation which was an environmental literacy program as a coordinator she worked for the North American Association for Environmental Education so she's been in teaching roles which is great she's been in systems and then she's worked for the center for diversity and the environment as a consultant in Portland Oregon she's worked for um multi the Multicultural collaborative as a consultant and for the center for equity and inclusion as a senior equity and inclusion consultant so she comes to us with a wealth of experience and she's going to be wonderful so I'll ask for that approval later on in the meeting but um thrilled to get her thrilled together um she's going to be just great

016and full time so she's got a flexible start date because she's moving across the country but she'll be in place by August 1st at the latest no all the way across the country and they so they have to find housing and yeah so okay um the quarterly report of course Larry walked out the door um so the good news is um we are in the Black as you can see and the um Early Childhood fund has got a balance of eighteen hundred dollars which is great we're kind of right on target there Food Services is in the red a bit and that is due to um the cost of food and those um if you remember the the support staff contract that was negotiated after the budget so there's some increase there but um overall

017we're doing well and if you have any specific questions the man has arrived you can look at it certainly okay and these were put on the board when when we talk about the cost of food I know that I'm hearing that it's called yeah yeah so the 110 000 roughly 117 000 that food is in the red half of that roughly 50 000 is the food which you'll see on the revenue side we will get some of that back remember it's the third quarter on the fourth quarter okay and uh the other half is remember when we built the budget in October in November of 21. right from fiscal year 23 which is where we are now that was before the negotiated settlement for the support staff which was a more generous increase to bring

018them up to other um like positions in the Upper Valley so there's no new ftes as so half of it is food and the other half is the raise and we will get some back on the revenue side for the food yeah okay um the only other thing under my report which is not on there is students on the school boards because Heartland and Weathersfield have um they're going to do it they're creating a processing and you know determining which kid so it'll happen just hasn't happened yet oh bill has his hand up sorry Bill oh just flexing my hand but are we talking about uh students on the Su school board or the local school boards local at this point I think and there was a there was a talk of would one of

019those I think this happened would one of those students come to a nesting board on a rotating basis or do I have that right what I recall and is that we had wanted the local districts to go through their process to decide whether they wanted to and then get students onto their boards and once that had happened we were going to move forward and kind of figure out what it would look like to bring students up every once in a while or yeah okay Davis's perception is exactly how I remember it thank you Davis they should have I think their goal is to have students in place for the fall and they've developing a process for Middle School which is a little bit different than high school so is that um do we have I

020don't know is it policy or process something written through that because I think okay we have a process I've shared it with that we used Amanda Scott and I shared it with um the principals at those schools but they're tweaking it to make it it's similar but yeah all right and I'm going to turn the screen over to Angie who is going to deliver the curriculum and instruction report I'm not sure I did that right we'll see it might be showing my present yes please eat those page these are famous thank you I can't seem to click on Sharon Town cookies to the right I can't smell them because I want them I'm sorry Angie's and no sugar right now oh yeah I try to avoid sugar and that is really too bad bye everyone

021um the future the looking back at 22 23 work in CIA we are far from over for the end of the year but we will be sharing with you some of our wins this year as um as we look forward to the last eight weeks of school so um so this might look exactly like the fall presentation which I doubt you remember but it is it's I just I thought I'd use the same format so I'm going to talk about these things and this will be important I'll share this on the curriculum website so that anybody that is joining us um in the recording can find this on the CIA website so the first thing I want to talk about is the curriculum work that we have slated in the fall and um the remote

022work across the supervisor Union didn't serve our faculty very well at all and they were quite overwhelmed with it and requested I think it was early October if we could do this in a different way so what we landed on was that they would um opt for the least time so I could bring teams of teachers to the Su for release time for projects um that in and of itself also presented its own challenges in terms of getting people out of the classroom and having substitutes the unified Arts team did determine that they wanted to continue to work and they have been meeting um a few times two to three times a month since the work that will be completed by the end of the year is the alignment project for our learning expectations this

023is also we might hear this referred to as transferable skills but because we have our portion of graduate competencies and our leader in me seven habits we want to align the language in our transferable skills in our learning expectations to these two things and then the proficiency-based work um is going to be moved into this summer so that we can have that completed to or or have it started so that we can complete it um throughout the year in fy24 one of the things that you're going to hear Patty gray who is remote talk about in a little bit is the curriculum adoption process for our Ela and math programs so I thought I would share with you a little bit about that process phase one is the research and review process then we pilot

024programs we select the pilots that we are going to do um and then we actually conduct a pilot um and then it's the adoption and implementation um phase if if they decide that they want to move forward with the pilot of course if the pilot doesn't move forward then we it's a reiterated process and we've had that as well in recent years with our um we did that with the exact path we piloted it then we had the first year of adoption and then we decided that it wasn't working for us so we went back to the table and we we have since adopted star the star assessment for that yes Elizabeth um later in our agenda would you rather ask questions about this now we're waiting until later um uh if you want me

025to get through the whole process I'll describe the first the phases and then if you want to ask questions that would probably flow nicer okay um so I'm just going to tell you a little bit about each phase the research and review phase we look at that's instructional practices related to the content area we look at potential programs we solicit suggestions from the experts from other districts and from teachers as appropriate we conduct an internal review of the programs that we're currently um using and then we um convene a committee and we talk with the ad team about the adoption timeline so that's the research and review phase the second phase is the actual selection of programs to Pilot so we can be in a committee they generate a list of the critical components what

026do what is important to us and then they review proposed programs to answer the following questions those program meet our goals looking at our strategic plan does it meet the proficiency standards does it align in other words does it align with what we have for proficiencies and what the agency of Education says that we have to have in our curriculum does the program contain the critical components identified by the committee um does the program Provide support or support explicit instructions so that not only are there demonstrationalized lessons guided practice collaboration and independent work is the program Equitable anti-racist culturally responsible anti-discriminating and inclusive branch of the education standards and then finally does it align with the other content areas excuse me so and thirdly we summarize the committee's findings and make a final recommendation recommendation

027regarding whether or not what uh weather and what we are going to Pilot so the um the decision is made and then shared so finally during the adoption and implementation plan phase we plan what the implementation is going to look like including how teachers will be supported and what training will be included we implement the program and then we provide ongoing support for teachers and administrators in the use of the program other things that we need to consider in the whole process and you may have noticed that the parent and student involvement piece has I missed that that should also be in the adoption phase once we adopt something we're going to want once we pilot something we're going to want to get student and parent feedback and Patty will talk a little bit more

028about how she's doing that with our two pilots um two recent Pilots so we want to make sure that we have intervention resources as part of the full pilot so we get a sense of how we support our struggling Learners and also our Learners who are maybe functioning Beyond grade level that's just as important um we want to know how we're going to budget for the pilot um we want to discuss about we want a discussion about piloting more than one program um when the committee is unable to narrow the choice we would want to look at more than one program that is often the case when you're piloting that um Patty will address that more when she talks about that choice in the two current programs and then we want to consider the budgetary

029impact and the long-term sustainability if anything what we're finding is that during our last curriculum adoption phase in 2015 those were open source programs and yes there was a cost associated with getting teacher manuals and things like that but for math for example we have the teacher manuals and those were used probably two or three years and then teachers just started copying everything so they had spent hours at the computer company everything um but new programs that we're looking at everything is purchased so workbooks teacher manuals a dish supplemental materials that's all purchased um and it's a large budget impact has a large budgetary impact we want to make sure that an assessment is part of our plan and then the test pilot design we want to ensure that teachers are getting a broad enough

030view of the pilot so they can determine if it's going to work for us and then a full pilot includes the implementation plan the ways that the program will be supported in the classroom specifically because you want the program to be successful so we are going to support our teachers um in a way that is sustainable and meaningful for them other priorities in the CIA office has been instructional leadership Leader in Me implementation and our work with Mike Nicholson on the south of German learning I have some exciting news to report for that so for instructional leadership this year we were going to um last fall and talked about doing inquiry Cycles with the principles and what we have found works best with the principles is um meeting Christine and I meet together with them

031we look at any issues that they may be having we talk about um we try to solve those problems together then we are looking we're going around and looking at instruction we're going into the classrooms we have we collect data on student agency and then we look at the data together and say what do we what's what's working what's not working and how can we address what's not working um the emphasis is really on the data and also on leader and me implementation Leader in Me implementation we continue to work with our coach Barb wintner in fact she's coming the third week of May to be in the buildings in all our buildings working with teacher teams and other staff as they discuss the deeper implementation of core one and core two um the Court

032we are coordinating the implementation of Laramie more so across the buildings than we had in the past we realized that this was a piece that was that was necessary if we want our teacher or our grade level teams to be proceeding in a similar fashion um and we were probably a little bit all over the place for a while but we're actually coming together and we're more we have more in common more things that have been implemented this also has helped us to figure out where our our buildings need support so that we can take full advantage of having the leader and meet coaches and having the training so we have one more um training on all staff training and that look K-8 staff training in January um for core three and we're looking at

033the various practices in each of the they call it core one two and three it's really just the phases um of development so the first um core which we got trained in last year was adult learning the practices are adult learning and modeling direct teaching the seven habits to the students um creating a leadership environment when you walk into a leader in me school you should get a sense that you are in a leader in me school so we're working on that we continue to work on that and then leadership roles in the classroom and we're also working on leadership roles across the school so when you walk into uh school and you're greeted by students who then offer to show you to where you're going or give you a tour of the building it's

034it's so fun it really is courtship do is more about setting up that culture of academics and integrating the habits into actually what we're doing on a daily so it's setting up um the student Lighthouse teams which are our schools are in various stages of that students I think have been identified in teams um formed in some of the schools and others they're they're um talking with students about it and then the work that the students will do will start in the fall and but we have had some leader Rising events having like that terms where students have actually planned the event they have support of an adult but we just had a we had a dance April 7th the 618 that the students um organized and planned on their own with this supported their

035faculty advisor but the kids did the work um the other piece of Core 2 is student leadership portfolios this is a portfolio that goes from a description of who the student is um to what their wildly important goals are what their learning opportunities have been it's really a reflective um a reflected collection of of evidence of what they have done across the year in their academics and in their um in their social emotional learning the gonna look through like a cast like this is what I've done this is where I'm at the opportunity the student leadership portfolios when should we get fully rolling on them and I think you might remember Anna Brooks um presented um in one of Christine's um one of her reports Anna Brooks it was a first grade teacher at Heartland

036was talking about doing the leadership portfolio so there's students so she started last fall and students get used to talking about themselves from the perspective of this Leader in Me portfolio and they present it and they talk about their learning and who they are as a person in their in their parent-teacher conferences so I've asked the teams I asked the K-5 team and the 618 to imagine student-led conferences in FY 24. at the end of March which is when student conferences are next I mean parent conferences are and you have your students very comfortable talking about their leadership portfolio in some fashion and then I've asked them to backward plan what has to be in place in order for our students to feel confident that they can talk about themselves in a conference to their

037parents to their to the people that care the most about them um and so that's that's what we've been doing with the teams and that's a goal for all students that's a goals yes core three is going to talk more about its student-led conferences so in January we'll learn more about the ins and outs of student-led conferences Harlan's been doing student-led conferences for years so but they have what they haven't had is that portfolio so they'll have that portfolio in there to help guide the conference I remember when we did them years ago it was like well now we have to train the kids to talk about it so it was like well this is a task that I did for English uh oh this was a report social studies and there was no depth

038to the conversation the leadership portfolios um provide that structure for students to then be able to really talk about who they are as a learner um as a leader as a person um so the question Angie I I just want to point out to the board that we're coming up on 35 minutes um and I want to make sure that um that um we have enough time for um uh Brittany to do her data report anything left that Larry wants to go over and that we have enough time for uh board um board discussion and board action so I just want to point that out thank you self-determined learning the big news with self-determined learning is that we brought this team to the ascd in the self-determined learning Summit at the end of March and

039we are going to be meeting on May 5th when Mike Nicholson is here to talk about how we're going to use that learning and move our system forward self to German learning I have a whole presentation here about dance management and our cfp monitoring which I will not get into the biggest things about the monitoring for title I've been the brands manager for six years this is the first time I've experienced the monitoring is that we just have to tighten up the ways that we communicate and involve our families um in the process of writing our plans and time and reviewing our plans those are the big takeaways for that of course there's more a little bit more information on that and if you want if you have questions please reach out to me and

040I have to talk about that I've got a quick question the uncfp monitoring um it says McKinney Bento homeless communication so um McKinney vento is par there is funding in the um Consolidated Federal program Grant and the there is certain communication about what we do to support students our experiencing homelessness so um those like for example there's information posters that we're supposed to have posted all over in in in public places at Lake Hospital bulletin boards around the community and we don't have that so we have to um work on generating a flyer and then getting them posted across the across all of our communities so that people know how to access that information uh that support and also we'll put it on our website okay oh nice okay um then Patty will talk about

041the um after Britney's done talking Patty will give you a little update on the on the um Pilots sorry Brittany okay just tell me when so I just wanted to let you know about Frontline that's something we adopted uh Frontline professional group last year and this year as a result we were able to offer 48 different learning opportunities for our staff in-house throughout the school year um we had 48 requests come through for courses for credit and 60 requests for workshops and things like that so um that was pretty exciting that we were able to access all of that information and provide all those learning opportunities let me go to the next slide [Music] um the next couple slides that you're gonna see are uh all from edu climber um edu climber we adopted uh

042recently actually and we've been setting it up it is going to be our new data warehouse in place of performance matters um there's a lot of different components to it um we're able to easily sync all of our data in and it creates all of these beautiful charts for me so I don't have to do it in spreadsheets anymore which makes myself very happy um and then we will be using it primarily for one RSU data reports to supporting Equity inclusion work we can run all of all of the reports in one system reporting our grants and our strategic plan in leader in Eagles next year we hope to use edu climber um our interventionists can go in and assign students interventions and then do progress monitoring directly in the system and see all the

043data in one shot and then after that we'll use it for all of our mtss documentation with all staff so it's pretty exciting um so I divided this up into our different strategic plan goals so we're going to start with Student Success and engagement you can go next the first chart is about our average daily attendance so that's one that I report out on every time I report there are two different categories that get run in Magic climber one is the orange one which is coming over directly from PowerSchool that's just saying we're the students in the building or not at some point in time the other one I actually like better because it actually analyzes the data in terms of by period so if a student was late it counts against them being in

044school for that rate um if they you know miss out on uh they were on a field trip if they missed out on something in class it's just all things taking away from class time which is also really important so I compared both on here you can go to the next slide um so our track my progress this is the growth rates from Winter to Winter um I've reported on this before and an average growth rate would be 1.0 so we are hovering right around that for the most part it has kind of averaged out compared to during that first time when we were back from covid where we had this massive growth um awesome to see and now we're kind of evening out which is which is also okay next well wait yes go

045back there for a second yeah there's something glaring on here uh how how do we account for the negative growth in math and the extreme growth in the LA is angry yeah that's a great question I don't have an answer to that right now I think one thing that that makes that analysis really tricky is the curriculum piece I think once we have a very common and consistent curriculum we're better going to be able to see what you know factor out some of those things but right now um it's a little all over the place so it's hard to really pinpoint the why of some of these things are we changing aren't you changing the math curriculum uh we're updating the math curriculum yes so this is so okay and then you were moving from

046one to another because yeah we have Eureka and we are updating it to the newest version of Eureka so it's not a new curriculum per se but certainly um you know it's definitely a more aligned with research-based things things like that that just it's really uh provides more resources just up to date and we have we've had Eureka for quite some time now yeah the last thing yourself [Music] Christine is is everyone else unable to hear Christine okay yeah I was looking at other people's faces and uh Nicole and Katie are very good at projecting their feelings sorry I can be louder though yeah okay I'll be louder okay um so this report came from edge of climber and basically this took in all of our track my progress data and I was allowed to

047set a goal so you so it'll track your goals automatically that you set in there the goal for leader in me that we had was 79 of our students would be average or high on the track my progress so this is where where we fell um and you can see that Gap is closing a little bit every single time so that's pretty exciting um we didn't I did not put the math goal on there because I also wanted to see you to see a report of what it would look like if you saw everything um instead of just that that highs in average um and one thing that's kind of neat with Edge climber is if I were in the system and I hovered over these you could select them and it'll drill down even

048further into each category so if I selected the green for the winter data it'll go in and show you the students in the green you can sign them to interventions and so on and so forth so it's kind of neat next um I was asked to report the middle level survey data which I did before do you feel like you have control over what or how you're learning I want to explain this one really quickly so it's divided by school district and the plus or minus the Little Numbers at the top above each one shows the comparison to the first time that we took the the assessment so um this is like like so AGS 68 of them said sometimes which is 10 higher than the last time we gave this assessment does that make

049sense okay yeah next slide culture and Wellness um this is our Panorama data I know it's super duper small um but you know I know you're going to be given this slideshow um so this just kind of shows where things fell in terms of social emotional regulation reported by the students as well as well-being and challenging feelings value uh incidents by month so as you know we have a new system called MBA uh Behavior logging in power school edge of climber also pulls in all of that data so you can see that right along with your academic data and you can see kind of the trend I mean the dip really kind of makes sense we had a lot of breaks in December and February however January stayed low and we didn't have breaks so

050um and then it went slightly up and this was run uh as of yeah April 5th that's why April's so low yeah it wasn't over Yep this is our hhb substantiated cases also log yes what's hhb harassment hazing and bullying thank you yep so all substantiated cases and again an edge of climber if I were to click on any one of those little numbers it would drill down for me and kind of give me more details about all of those in every school this is across the across the whole yep um It's a combination of both it's substantiated meaning they were investigated and bound to have occurred yep next I just wanted to give a quick update on assessments so we are adopting Renaissance star which is really really exciting um it is going to

051replace track my progress and pause the panel for the upcoming school year um both you know traffic progress really needed to be updated in terms of what we were getting for it was not what we needed anymore we really needed star which drills down into things it gets all the way down to the standards it gives the amount of reports it gives is phenomenal and FMP really does not align with the science of reading so we wanted a system that kind of did both and star does that which is great it also gives family reports um and there is potential that they have a parent portal uh that would be a wave so once we get used to the reports and we get used to interpreting them as as a teaching staff hopefully we'll be

052able to roll that out to parents edge of climbers also um in beta testing for a parent portal as well so that would be all data not just star um um let's see sorry I'm trying to move quickly for bill um VT cap is coming up we're starting tomorrow um and I love our timeline actually because all the other schools got to go first and I got all the little tips and tricks on what went well and what did not so hopefully it'll go a little bit smoother for us and that's just a repeat of the edge of climber information that I kind of already went through what is VT cap the Vermont State Testing that it used to be S backs yes yes is that the shorter ones it is not shorter I'm not

053sure they said that and it is it is they just announced it a few months ago yes this one that's also giving a lot of people at the bell and a lot of stress yes that's accurate Valley News yes yes so but we are gonna do okay I think I think it'll Circle and this is just a list of some of the summer projects that I'll be working on um we're very very much focused on trying to hold on to the new staff that we get by providing a lot more support including um a Google classroom and onboarding a better onboarding process a website that has kind of all the need to knows right in there and supporting and coaching we have an mtss teams where we're going to be merging special education and our

054mtss coordinators together which is really exciting that'll be some work that we're doing this summer and then a lot of setup and customization for Edge and climber so we can get that moving yeah see this can you just go a little bit more into what what exactly has changed and onboarding in the coming year like what you're looking yeah so I think part of it is with with Frontline that has helped a lot so um just a very simple thing is communication across all the different people that need to know when somebody new gets on board and so Tina now puts it in the system as soon as an email is created I get an email uh Ryan dower gets an email and we can all we can set them up in all of the

055other systems testing systems whatever it might be um right away make sure they get computers things along that line those lines um we are what's in there all the paperwork's in there we have the possibility of doing training and kind of some of those essential trainings really early on in the hiring process so that we don't have to bombard them with that right before school starts when they need to be learning other important things like curriculum and stuff like that we have a timeline set up so that they can get all of that information over time instead of right before school starts which is a big complaint um we have a variety of different options for support you know coaching principles all of these things were happening and now we're systematizing them um so that

056we have we make sure that all of the information gets communicated really clearly do you still do mentoring yep we do yep that's part of it that's part of the coaching piece of that um we're going to do the principles will have a staggered meeting with with all new staff um for the first several months of school the mentors who are assigning everybody a buddy this year which is just a simple like stop in and give them a cup of coffee you know something just make them feel welcome um there's one other piece to that what am I missing instructional coaches instructional coaches yes instructional coaches that was the fourth um and then their teams so we'll make sure that every each one of those people have a list of all the things that they're

057supposed to cover with new staff and a timeline to do so awesome thanks yeah no problem is that it crazy I think that's it I don't know that was a lot uh no I think I got it okay great we're good yeah so now um Patty if you want to uh come on yeah sure you can skip to the next one Angie and I'll be really brief um I know you have a lot of other things to cover so I know you heard about the Eureka math squared pilot it back in the fall we've had a really successful year with the pilot it had some bumps mostly with technology at the beginning and so the the bottom line is the pilot committee is recommending adoption and so that decision will go to add team tomorrow

058this is little um a little cart before the horse because we're I'm actually talking to that team tomorrow about it but um that is the recommendation and we've collected feedback we're currently collecting feedback from parents and students and it's been very positive all of the feedback that we've gotten um and again this is an updated program from the original Eureka it is um much more aligned with udl practices uh diversity and Equity practices and so we're very hopeful that um this will roll out really really well and we're planning supports for teachers for next year in terms of training and ongoing supports during the school year Angie you can skip to the next if you don't mind and then also we are running an Ela Pilots we went through all of that process that Angie

059outlined earlier we identified Ela as being in need because we've had a very um unequitable system for ELA within our SU um and so we started looking at that earlier in the year we did the research uh we convened the committee the committee looked at the research for best practices and science science of reading and identified I had done some research on programs that are highly regarded and are aligned with all of the criteria that we were looking at and I brought those to the pilot team and they decided to Pilot One program um which was the amplify ckla at the K5 level and then amplify Ela at the 68 level and then we had our regular meetings and a support in the classroom while teachers were teaching it and implementing it and the K5

060ckla has been a very positive experience the parent feedback is also very positive we had um unfortunately we started with two teachers at the six eight level piloting the ELA program and we had one Dropout unfortunately so we had insufficient evidence and experience with the 68 Ela to move that program forward to ad team for as a recommendation so we will not be moving that one forward but we will be moving the K5 ckla forward to ad team tomorrow and they will make the final decision as to what we do with both the Eureka squared and the amplify ckla and then this is just outlines the summer work that I need to get done in terms of if we do move forward with adoption the purchasing organizing delivering um being available for teachers over the

061summer at different times so they have someone supporting them and becoming familiar with the materials and then planning the trainings for both programs and creating a system of support during next year um in both working with instructional coaches and interventionists and team leaders so that we have a successful rollout and that's it thanks Angie so I just want to say thank you um I think every department head probably says us but I do have the best team in the Su Brittany and Patty uh get the work done and we make a great team so thank you can I do may I ask a couple of questions okay well I guess that's up to Bill I don't know yes yes um go ahead Elizabeth [Music] sorry Angie if I'm going to go back I didn't have

062a chance to ask you any questions but uh what are the seven habits in later in me um being pro at their be proactive um synergize put first things first um speak first to understand see first to understand what does as synergize mean synergize means you take care of your and your own oh synergize means working together that energy and then sharpening the saw is about really taking care of yourself like is there any environment in which we use less violent language than sharpening this song no I I mean that's the term it's that's used I don't know uh it's often equated with balance taking care of yourself your emotional needs your um physical needs you're sharpening this on yeah Leader in Me a program and just in what you were talking about today the

063the uh leadership portfolio how is it altered for neurodivergent students I would think I mean that would be the portfolio is for the student so however the student chooses to represent themselves not only there's paper but there's also a digital version where they can use a variety in media to represent their they're learning who they are as a person their goals um and it would be just like any other project that a student could be supported with how they how they show who they are so I guess what I'm like I I don't I apologize for constantly questioning later the later in me program but I I constantly have questions about the leader of me program and uh I I don't know that or I don't uh what happens when a student doesn't want to

064be a leader [Music] we're School Board leaders right you guys are School Board leaders I'm a curriculum leader it's not necessarily I'm a leader out in front of other people I'm leading myself so it's not that a student has to like stand up in front of the class and and go in out into the community and say you know I'm leading the group it's it's not necessarily that it's personal leadership personal responsibility that's that's what it means I don't know if Katie's gonna jump into this as well but I I think it's important to point out that Leader in Me From what I understand it isn't just teaching leadership skills it's a social emotional training curriculum as well um so I think that's important to point out Katie Okay then if it is a social

065emotional curriculum how does it dovetail with uh cpf the collaborative problem solving seek first to understand is collaborative problem solving it's listening to the other person and stay also stating your concerns so that I mean that's the one habit that really comes to mind being proactive advocating for yourself yeah I think one thing that I hold on Davis Katie had something to add I actually I think Angie nailed it um and with both responses to Elizabeth's question um and I can say from watching this work in conjunction with students developing their own learning that are incredibly neurodivergent um and how they each take their own unique approach to it within whole class lessons within individual lessons within just individual process conversations it it's highly adaptable to each student and I think that that's where we

066were seeing it on an individual basis all the time um so that that was my only two sense to add to what Angie said thank you Katie Davis sure yeah and actually Andrew that's kind of what I was going to throw out there and I I understand um Elizabeth we're kind of the initial question came from too because I think that this program um and really a lot of the discourse around the the way that we conceptualize leadership the mental model is shifted in that conversation from being leadership in a hierarchical sense where like the leaders are the people near the top of the hierarchy to a concept of shared leadership or personal leadership so I think it's it can be tough because we have this cultural concept of what leader means whereas in this

067kind of new mental model of it leadership is more about self-actualization and ownership over your own behaviors and like building knowledge skills and attitudes to to own that agency that's that's the best way I understand it and as much as I and I'll admit my I think my skepticism around programs mostly has to come with the I think it can be rough when you're making leadership seeing like a proprietary thing although I think of this framework what I've seen it it's it's definitely dulled some of my skepticisms on it it seems like there's been a lot of really good outcomes so far from what I've seen but uh yeah it's uh it reflects what you see in um in a lot of professional organizational culture now too so I think that that's a good thing

068to familiarize students who are moving into all different areas of the workforce with uh you know at younger ages because it's definitely accessible to very young students so so Elizabeth's question here gives me to a good transition Point um towards discussion and as we start the discussion section I want to point out one of the reasons I I I highlighted time and that's because I I realize that the administrators have a lot of things to share and everything that they're sharing is extremely important and and very fascinating um at the same time things like what Elizabeth asks are also extremely important for the development of board understanding and and Community understanding and so that you know coming from a history of of uh really um uh leadership through verbiage that this Su has struggled with

069in the past several years um I I'd like to have that time um for board business opportunities for interactions in discussion within the administrative reports as well as time for items of discussion and items for Action so that's why I brought it up my goal is not to make sure that you know you rush through anything but if you're given a certain amount of time think about you know how much you can actually present in a useful meaning with that I'm going to be quiet and we're going to go on um a windsor Southie supervised employees living in an Su Town bringing children to the school in the district where they work I can just refresh what I brought to the to the board last month I think it was and the legal advice would

070be this could still raise a claim of unfair practice as you remember the um advice was not to let um parents who lived in other towns bring their bring their children to our school um the lawyer said it's less complicated but uh he still recommends that it um there's some there could be some challenges to that and I want to be really open and honest about those so if you are a staff member and you live in Windsor but you work in Heartland the ask is can you bring your child to Heartland with you to work which would be a lovely benefit to be honest with you I I taught in the school my kids went to and it was it was just a special um time but um I lived in the town so

071there wasn't that so you need to you need to know that yes our special education costs are at the Esther level so that is not a that is not an issue but our 504 costs and accommodations and there are costs for 504s are local those come out of the local budgets um and there are also occasions when we have students who need additional supports uh which we try not to go this route but we have done it as a principal I did it there were students who needed one-on-one support staff members without um being on an IEP and those costs are local so you just need to know um kind of some of the things that could happen if you open open up um the Su to this and I do call it a benefit

072I think it is a benefit for some people but the choice is up to you I know I think in Hartford Bill maybe you can speak to this I think it's allowed but but there's a approval process I believe yeah and I I think this is definitely something that we could investigate but um take it rather slow um because one reason I say this is because we already have a um policy in place for parents to apply and um even though they're not um employees and the of course the final final decision is up to the principal and then up to the superintendent um but we do allow other people to apply and so I think there's a possibility to work through this but it's not something that we're gonna get finished before the next

073contract negotiation um and I think it would probably have to be part of that contract if it is going to be considered a benefit so um most likely we have a two or three year window to kind of look at this um at the same time these parents who are staff members still can apply through the normal process of of a parent um if there is a need but it can't be based upon because they're a staff member anyone else have discussions on this well I think that um I've seen you have mentioned that we really only had like two or three cases uh are we looking at it's large enough it's going to be dependent on the year to be honest with you yeah it's not a it's a fluid number um I think

074there's probably more than two or three I don't think I've done the math on it um it was more of a consideration of the the first ask letting staff who live in other communities um to be able to bring their children to work with them and that's a hard no we're not going to do that so this was this this this hasn't come up from staff to be honest with you this was just a follow-up question with the legal counsel so I don't think it's a huge concern right now and I think taking time and working through it is a good idea yeah I would agree with Colleen Colleen has her hand up so from just so I'm sure I understand so from outside of our district no longer that's not on the table if

075it ever was I don't know if it was um but within our district we we already have kind of a process in place I'm just kind of saying what bill just said but but clarifying for myself how I went my hands up for how long is that window of time between now and negotiation um four years is that right Christine we got um next year is the last year of their contract right okay um yeah so we'd be negotiating for 2026 I believe yes yeah versus 2024 okay school year 20 Sy 26 instead of next year which is sy25 yeah that's why I mean school year trying to help with the acronyms yeah yeah so we'll just continue to investigate and and keep it on the table I'll put it on the negotiations list though

076as as a parent who I was allowed to do that I when I worked at pomford it was a agreement for that individual District to allow them to come and that was nothing that was written in the contract nothing official uh but they allowed it because the cost to uh the school was was not significant um eventually they got rid of it because of the legal difficulties of it but having my own children in the school really was a benefit um you know I had my son in my classroom and he was an ass um but I was able to you know be there for them and lead them through that um but still um I had my both my daughters there as well and so being able to to spend more time with them

077and be very aware of their education what's a benefit for me so I I don't mind investigating this very slowly so anything anybody else have a comment or question about this it's a benefit depending on the day yeah if you're a parent you know that I had my both my boys in my classroom too and one workout and the other yeah I pointed at my son one day it was a very difficult class it was it was 12 boys and two girls and the boys were not easy boys but I pointed at them said you know what Young William you're the only one in this room that I can legally beat so let's just pull it together oh that had no phase on him whatsoever that was that didn't work at all um uh curriculum

078approval process um sort of I I think Angie covered a lot of a lot of the process I think you know one question would be because this is a funding issue at what stage um would this be brought where is where is the board in this process now um okay I guess that's one question I have and if anyone else has any questions they can chime in all right my question would be where does the board want to be in the process yeah I guess okay let me let me take a step back because we do have new board members okay and um I I'd like to congratulate all of us for having a new superintendent but in the past there was a feeling that um the board had a feeling that things were done

079and then we were told about them after the fact okay so as a board member who has gone through the history and other boards this is not just me there's that fear of that still happening um and we just want to make sure that we are working collaboratively with with the school issue um to move things forward so so Angie's question is a really honest question um where do we want to fit in when it comes to new programs and new curriculum does anybody have something they want to add um Elizabeth and it Rebecca is that you next to Elizabeth yeah okay I joined the board when we when we were in the process of adopting Eureka and also um yeah um and there was a whole we were involved in that process and I

080felt really at the time I felt really inspired about uh uh the idea of having kids at Albert Bridge have the same curriculum as the kids in Windsor and so they would actually why wouldn't you send your kid to Windsor if we're all using the same curriculum and it advances Beyond uh eighth grade I I it was a very exciting prospect to me and I trumpeted it wherever I went and so I I uh I urge you to consider involving the board in your discussions and and nothing not that we have to have extra meetings not that we have to do extra stuff but I urge you to consider involving the board in uh the decision making process that's my first comment and then I'll come back can I can I ask more questions am

081I going to be able to ask four questions Elizabeth you have the floor right now okay uh I also wondered whether um so that was why I asked for this to be on the board on the um agenda for tonight I also wondered uh when do you consider um you said that one of your considerations was uh the um Equity standards currently or that they yeah they are pretty standards currently included in the recommendations from act one to the State Board of Education and I wondered whether what kind of an equity a lends like formalized Equity lens you use um when you look at an Ela or math um curriculum I uh before anyone answers that I want to point out that that is a unusually difficult question to answer and um then you say

082here's the lens that we're using if you don't have a formalized lens that you're using you should have them right so so so Elizabeth I'm just opening up a window that if they if the administration wants to take a time to to to create a an organized answer then you know that's fine but if if any of them want to to jump in that's fine as well you know right here right now I want to make sure that the administration is comfortable with saying I'd like to get back to you on that okay give me some time to organize it so I can present this in a intelligent way um that's that's the only reason I threw that out there Elizabeth it is a great question that you're asking um and I want everyone and

083I'd like an answer but I'd like a well thought out answer I have I have an answer um after that I I just want to point out that I said that we've this language from the education quality standards the the words they use and I don't have it right on my screen and I don't have it committed to memory but the word anti-racist diverse whatever that is that is language right from the education quality standards now funny you should ask that question about the lens because we met with Christina and I met with uh as she stated earlier with Mary and we were talking about how do we have these discussions with staff and how do we make the conversation about Equity just the conversation we have in every aspect of the work that we

084do and we were using the equity lens tool that the um the Vermont principles Association and my AOE has on their website so I I think as the faculty become more Adept at that at asking those questions because they I would imagine part of the work of the equity of bringing the equity audit to fruition are the recommendations to fruition would be helping our faculty also be able to look at their curriculum materials which are often developed and chosen by them like we might give the program if they would add in their own things and embellish it but they would learn how to ask themselves those questions to be more reflective on on from an equity standpoint on the materials that they're choosing I have a just a simple question and I'm sure I must

085have missed it earlier but who sound like a massage we need a pilot that we need new Ela I can understand the math but um so that that decision was made because we recognized that during the pandemic that our language arts curriculum was all over the place that there was no equity across the supervisory Union the curriculum office the um the principles they had various teachers we were unable to hand a brand new teacher a teacher move to our district a program um we have we have materials and a drive that we can give them access to but um it's not the same as handing them a program that's complete our e our English language trance program was awesome the Wheatley was not a curriculum it was a theme-based outline basically then we had foundations

086for teaching um for our phonics and what was the other pieces we didn't have there wasn't no there was not a vocabulary program with that there was not a writing component to the Wheatley so there were various pieces that we never did that I mean it a couple years ago I I had teachers requesting writing programs so we started looking at writing programs and then it morphed into so usually yeah from the bottom up so yeah um this I feel like very much came from teachers requesting and that's not true in all our schools online Junior um I want to touch base uh um Angie I think you answered that very well uh Rebecca had a question if she still has a question and then I'd like to have Beth weigh-in um well I I

087think you answered some of my questions he said it's similar to what Nancy asked I was wondering you know who is on this curriculum um um team that decides and what is the process now I I also want to um sort of support what Bill said and I think that the board should be involved in the curriculum process and I say that because as a teacher as a guidance counselor for close to 20 years I remember curriculum coming to teachers and lots of times you know it's like oh here we go again a new curriculum you know and they would change like every three years many times staff did not have the input um and so um one of my frustrations in Larry may remember in the budget conversations we were having as I'm saying

088well how long did they have this program and now they're moving to a new program and so that gets lost and I think it's really important information especially when you are looking at budget and saying well this has only been around for a couple of years and um so I think it is important to be part of that conversation um because you know I've lived it I've seen it um and um on the other hand on teachers weren't always very happy when all of a sudden we have a new curriculum that we're going to be working on um but if there is that conversation where there is that input the more people I think that maybe at the end when we decide okay this is the curriculum this is the pilot these are the folks

089that have been involved in making these decisions it'll be a little bit smoother but I I I do have questions you know um and I know that you there needs to be a pilot in some areas just for improvement alone I mean we can't stay but just for improvement to continue to grow but um yeah how that process happens it's so important and not only to to you know for the board but I think for the community because I think if anyone gets lost in this is the parent the board probably can grasped some of this a little bit easier but it's the parents who really are like okay where are they going now with my child so I think it is an important um piece for the board to be involved and engaged in

090and informed that make your dreams and um thanks um oh hold on calling can you make sure everything's okay I have to run up to make sure that my seven-year-old isn't still listening to Harry Potter okay I'll be back in two minutes yeah um I can't say I agree with a lot of those statements around board involvement and curriculum decisions that really seems like a solid line stepping over when our job is policy um I want to be informed in the sense of like I feel fully informed on what's going on with the math curriculum how it's being moved forward who's reviewing what in great um I am a professional educator and I do not feel it's my place as a board member to be giving saying oh you shouldn't go with this curriculum or

091you should go with this curriculum that seem does not seem like a board decision whatsoever um in my mind it's very much I want I want to know if things are changing I want to hear the background of why um but I really don't think we can say yay or nay toward curriculum change in that sense that doesn't seem like our if it's something going against a policy like it's a blatantly racist curriculum then yeah it goes against a policy but if it's not going against a policy then that's not doesn't that is not our job um we do not dictate curriculum we dictate policy um so I would just be really really clear on what we where we stand in that um as we move forward with curriculum decisions yeah thank you Beth and

092I think um I feel that Angie's point there right off the bat what what role do we want to play um is right for more discussion as a board um because it there is that fine line of you know what our role is and how much we want to be involved any other discussion because I think we should we have a couple policies Davis yeah I think maybe the the commonality that I'm hearing between the perspectives on this is that whether we're saying the board is is inserting ourselves into it or whether we're you know not I feel like there's probably and then correct Rome is there General agreement that we want to understand what's happening with the curriculum process and just have a little bit more of a window into it yes uh but

093not necessarily from a decision-making perspective yes okay I know we just lost it but uh there is a privacy curriculum development and coordination in place which is pretty um you know the supervisory Union board shall be responsible for establishing a supervisory union-wide Curriculum by either developing the curriculum or assisting member school districts to develop it jointly I mean it's pretty broad I mean I mean and the budget piece is and the budget piece is yours for sure so it sounds like we want to be very mindful that we are keeping the board informed all along the way I mean I have to applaud the department because we didn't have a curriculum adoption process in place before this year we did not so it's new and evolving and we know we we've gone through it and

094that we've we've talked about some adjustments to that process already um so it's it's um it's exciting it's necessary and I hear you Rebecca because I was in the classroom for many years this curriculum is from 2015 I believe yeah 2015. so it's time it's not culturally responsive in many ways it's not I mean these are not evidence-based it's not scientific so I think most most curriculum review processes are five years at the latest to kind of really it doesn't mean you adopt something you review it you look at it you make sure that it is still responsive and that it's you know been updated and that it's research-based still because you know everybody's coming out with new things all the time you know the science changes all the time our understanding of brain development

095changes all the time so we want to make sure that we're also happening that while being mindful of we can't do everything and we can't change everything every year you know like trying to get on a cycle right now bill can you hear still I can see I'm moving on c22 um student Athletics clubs and activities as everyone had a chance to read this um anyone have any comments about it um it's pretty boiler's plate but um but it's I think it's an important policy in that it does lay out I think we had something I'd have to look in the past that something that touched upon this but it was not this um in depth I think you're right yeah I've had a chance to read it and I agree I think it is

096um pretty in-depth and I I think it it's great in the way that it it really covers clubs that's that are monitored by the by the students themselves clubs that are monitored by the school um if someone wanted to have a club the question um who would they address you know that and and we would monitor that I I think it does a really nice job of I agreeing yeah yeah yeah and especially at the end it really leaves a lot of process creation for administration um deciding a student's eligibility with regards to education Equity where the principal comes in uh when a youth athlete can no longer participate so forth and so on for health concerns um so I think I encourage everyone to to go through it and I think we call this

097a first reading uh Davis yeah the only comment I would add is that um you know in addition to what you were saying about there being some flexibility in there around what how you know building administrators are interpreting this and building procedures to go with the policy um I I appreciated how student-centric it was um you know it really and I think that that that's something that's worth codifying in these kind of policies it's great that it's a boilerplate and we don't need to fine-tune it too much to have it have that Focus um but I think and particularly and I think Christine you mentioned like there was some kind of topical reason that this was timely at least in the last yeah School District but I think the focus on there being these clubs

098there are four students that are supported by teachers building that framework and then codifying how if you want to have Community participation which I think is incredibly important because we all want to be building these strong Bridges between Community organizations and and our student organizations but really setting some some uh boundaries and guidelines around that yeah yeah just so there's like there's not it's not a big open question and gray areas there are some set it's a policy that points pretty directly towards the procedures we would set so I uh yeah I think this is fantastic yeah thank you Davis uh a22 is that next let me look at it yes second reading okay uh we have a whole um a whole policy regarding uh student homelessness that I think was passed last week or

099last month after I left the meeting but um uh I think that we should add housing status onto the list of uh groups that shall not be discriminated against in paragraph or characters okay yeah it does not discriminate on the basis of yeah and housing status I think yeah I'd agree with that okay I think that's a very intelligent Edition yeah and Bill I think this is actually our our third and maybe final reading of this because we had a second reading in February let me look back this this says it's a second reading is this wrong I think we didn't get to the February reading because you were interviewing superintendent oh is that what it was and then we came and then we get to all of them last month because we were over

100time so I think that's a mistake on on Laura's part yeah we were intending to read it then I don't think we did yeah yeah I think this is this is the only second time I remember reading it we'll bring it back um Beth actually was just listening to a something on the radio today that they are trying to have um a new protected class of individuals and those are like differently bodied people so people of all sizes as being and so there was just a report talking about how they're working toward making that as a protected class because there's no rules around discriminating on with overweight people um and that you can fire someone or Port limitations on their employment status on their weight and not and have that that is totally legal so

101that's something to consider that we could add to it Beth what what terminology I don't know I forget what it was it was an NPR story I can look it up it was just on NPR this this afternoon ageism I don't know what it was it was almost like differently body formed or something like it was I forget what it was um but I can I mean I can look it up but it's just something to consider that I was just just thought of today when I was listening to the radio it's pretty cool yeah okay second reading any other discussion on this statement bias uh and our third reading for uh proficiency D1 proficiency based graduation requirements let's see where where did I open it up and Bill this is the one where I

102think on our first reading we made that decision in the second paragraph that the wse Su will not use credits correct correct okay that will not use credits as part of our graduation requirement we it doesn't mean that we can't gather credits yeah and that was I remember we had a really good discussion about it saying it's very it is a very narrow description of how we are not using credits which is not to say that we are not using credits at all as a yeah got it yeah okay um is there any additional uh discussion to this I think we've had some healthy discussion but I am if anyone has anything they wanted to add um or questions from new board members they're always welcome okay items for action uh I'm sorry before we

103go to items for Action Bill sure I just have two two comments that I wanted to make in the area of uh policy one was a request for us to uh go back have among our next policies to review uh be our Firearms policy which hasn't been touched since 2019 and really I read it today and it's quite Arcane okay I I think that's a wonderful idea and the second one was uh uh I also was looking at the policy on homeless students which I again I've left the meeting too early to be able to uh speak to last month but um I noticed at the end of that and at the end of um thank you quite a few of our policies of quite a few of our policies called for procedures to be

104written I'm working on it and I wondered whether we could ask you to come back to us on a regular basis with procedures that have been contributed yes we have um I think and I think you're all you all have access to the spreadsheet where I'm linking them um the draft but I can bring I mean we've got them almost done not quite so I had Lori go through every policy and pull out where it says the superintendent or designee will create um procedures and have just been slowly chipping away so I'm happy then I'm happy to that would be I would really appreciate that so so Christine I I think maybe as not that I want to add to the administrative report but maybe if you spread them out and do one set of

105procedures a uh Su meeting that would be that's a great idea the goal is that you know the ones that aren't just purely administrative will be on the website for both transparency at all everybody so once I share them with you and we get that approval we can just start put them in the portal somehow yeah that's a great idea bill I'm not sure we have to actually you know Christine you didn't mean that we would have to approve them no you the board doesn't approve them right I didn't think so okay Davis take a look at them make comments yeah I just realized that they exist yeah the comment before we and to close on the uh proficiency-based uh graduation requirements I just wanted to kind of throw out there for the record again

106because I know that we have had some kind of spirit of discussion on this board and with community members it's just worth noting again that this is a requirement that is coming down from the state level correct it's already it's worth a reminder because I understand it is a pretty big you know again it's another shift in mental model that is coming with this higher level policy and and we are doing our best job to translate what we are required to do into something that is actionable and is going to right be implementable yeah the state wanted us to do it in you know what six months or two years I can't remember what timeline they they gained to schools but it was not doable so yeah I'm hoping by the end of this decade

107um that it will be a solid process especially with what the state's supposed to be doing to assist us so yeah and I think that that's why I brought up the again that very narrow definition here is just to be very clear we are not doing away with credits right now we are keeping something that is familiar to people you know to our parents our students our faculty while starting to build up the process of saying they exist but that is not the Criterion by which we are measuring the our graduation requirements besides the fact that because we are a um border SU um it would be a complete disaster when a student moves from as as a sophomore moves from uh Windsor to Lebanon into Hampshire is a credit based state if those dater

108points weren't in his transcript um it would cost such chaos that um yeah okay thanks yep thank you Davis for bringing that up um okay third reading um items for action and uh item for Action it also includes the proficiency base but first I wanted to do um approval for the uh equity and diversity coordinator position um so I will take a motion to wouldn't really be a point would it to approve the hiring of um Tracy Price Tracy price as the Windsor Southeast supervisory Union uh coordinator uh coordinator for equity in diversity is that the exact title or diversity equity and inclusion okay Davis so moves Davis second Nancy is there any discussion well I'd like to say congratulations to uh the administration for for finding a candidate in in hiring a candidate um

109will go around uh Colleen how do you hi Nicole hi Beth I Davis hi Nancy hi Elizabeth I Rebecca hi Anne-Marie I mark I Jamie Jamie here okay and uh I am an eye Megan did you you forgot Megan Megan Megan how do you vote we couldn't quite hear you thank you and let me put Megan in my list here insert row above not below welcome Megan welcome Megan um uh a22 notice of non-discrimination um so you want to bring that one back though for a third read that's when we talked about yeah I think so yeah yeah okay um I do I do want to bring that back D1 proficiency based graduation requirements do I have a motion to approve this don't move second okay any discussion as as Davis pointed out there has

110been some robust discussion on this I think we've come a long way uh Megan how do you vote okay Mark I Anne-Marie I uh Rebecca Elizabeth aye Nancy hi Davis I Beth I Nicole hi Colleen I and I am an i okay that passes and we're down to setting the next agenda okay uh Bill I've got I I think on the next or for the next agenda we need to talk about replacing Amy on the vsba board yes I have contacted them and um I've got the process of what needs to happen so I I agree with you did we have any other like liaison appointments on this level or is that all on on uh local level or something we do have to do it because it's on our next agenda okay cool that

111I'm good I'd just like to quickly say that if those of you who are still at home if you could possibly come you'll really like it this was my first time in person is really nice my wife will be home at least I hope so yeah [Laughter] I did make an attempt the the only person that I could call because this is a long night was my son bill and he um quite conveniently came up with a really good excuse um vsb board there was something that do we want to have a discussion as a board during a meeting about after a month what our role would be um in curriculum development just to touch base with it not necessarily to come up with it a um a decision but to voice our opinion about

112after a month of sitting on it if anyone has have any objection to that I think it's a great idea to have a discussion about it yeah likewise board role and curriculum uh adoption process yes okay and we'll do Bill I've got Firearms as a first read I'll find that one yeah second read for the Student Activities and a third read for the notice of non-discrimination is that what you have yep so I'll put item fraction we'll probably probably be ready for a22 non-discrimination to adopt it okay yeah um is there anything time based because we're coming up to um May we've got we'll have Larry's end-of-year financial report right next one not the end of the year the finance and operations finance and operations right okay um and I will have an item for

113Action uh we close the r e rate our RFP bid process which I'll explain in my report but they'll just need to be a motion on that we'll call it e-rate motion and I'll have it for you Bill I'll send it to you via email before the meeting to be ready uh Elizabeth has her hand up my hand up Bill okay yeah you're not always in front Elizabeth um is there what did we plan to have a uh discussion about four goals or a um a board retreat where we could talk about our goals for the next year so that our individual boards can tie those goals to the Su goals does that make sense what yeah I don't think it should be next meeting but um I think at some point I yeah I

114I think that's a great idea to sort of tie that all together it might that might be an early summer meeting so we can talk about dates next month yeah yeah okay is there like a board retreat it would be a board retreat I don't know if the SC board has typically done that in the last time yeah we usually have it in may actually okay so that'll be an item for Action determined date for asking and if we uh one thing on my mind is um and it may fit in well with the board retreat is to have a even a short presentation by the food department um on how things are going and if they're if they're cooking and want to attend that that might be um a good sort of review on

115their perspective how things are going anything that's missing do they need anything else um Beth yeah and I think I was essentially having a similar thought and I'm not sure when we'll hear about Universal meals for next year or not so I think just I would love to hear like if we're not doing Universal meals what's our plan moving forward um because we as a as a board we could budget and and make Universal meals just for our our district if we really wanted to yeah as well but or even come up with a different criteria to addition to uh yeah but I don't know Statewide when that decision is being made I don't know yeah when that is but I think having a plan in place and I'd love to understand that so we

116can not be caught off guard and support it did I really want a summary about how our food director feels that the things are going Beth that's the final decision it passed through the house inside the Senate and it should the decision should be made in the next week or two it has to be made in the next week or two yeah oh great then we'll we'll know by next meeting yeah not necessarily unless if if the governor vetoes it oh quiet down bill I know he's not he's not really in favor of it he said why should we be paying for wealthy children's meals like oh how has he not gotten it after all these years but anyway hey Bill just so you know part of Larry's report will be food service next month

117right and and um if you want follow-up from Craig on that we're happy to yeah you know but I I I think after the school Year's done and we it you know or near the end if if he could just kind of summarize how we thought the year went um not not a whole lot but I I like hearing from him um at least once a year uh kind of keep us in touch and seeing if there's anything that we can do as a board to support him in his crew okay I've got okay okay you'd be happy to do that yeah um is Monday and you know um Kate and Colleen are online but it's Monday a good day for board members to go in and um we just I wasn't sure if it

118was just in general well um yeah go in and have lunch with the kids come in during the lunch time sure because yeah sometimes Monday adults eat free adulties free on Wednesdays in Heartland okay over the next couple weeks it will be a little interesting in the buildings because we're doing the testing and so scheduling is all over the place and it's not a typical day um over the next several weeks so just be mindful of the Wednesday thing is a benefit yeah oh okay read it I don't know the staff really really appreciate it okay okay anyway to you I have one other thing um I'm wondering if the other board chairs of Heartland and um Wethersfield mind is in my role as a board chair if I've come to one of your meetings

119um and and just be there as a public member I loved it okay if I just show up and I'm like hey okay I don't think they're allowed to stop you Bill [Laughter] because it's gonna have to be planning on my part and so um meaning like at six I say to my wife I'm gonna go to Heartland to go join a meeting that's the amount of planning and so without asking you have to say that at 5 30. okay good to know okay thank you um I will uh take a motion to adjourn this meeting 28. good job Bill okay second the move second uh do we want to just do a Voice vote all in favor say aye aye aye have a great night good night