001of uh so I think trauma could look very different for many different children right so for some it would just be a straight idea of like children who are dealing with abuse it might be children who are moving on a regular basis and they're dealing with um loss of friendships it could be children who have lost an adult in their lives recently it could be children that have dealt with significant illness children that have dealt and been unhomed for a period of time all of those sorts of things children who could be experiencing divorce all of those things that could be creating a challenge for a child that isn't necessarily going to be reflected in like standard academic instruction and we want to try and think about how we can make sure that we're supporting
002those students when they're coming into school and taking their needs into account so that they feel comfortable they have trusted adults and they know how to communicate with those adults in The Bu okay yeah thanks you got so um what data do we have for this so in 2021 um as part of the work that we did as a district we had um many folks from around the district coming together to um to discuss um Equity as a districtwide committee and out of that um we gave a survey to our staff um and we had found that um for uh confidence in terms of the knowledge of um Equity terms uh people felt more confident but then when it came to feeling comfortable and understanding and expert around um different Affinity groups that was more
003difficult for people and they had less confidence we also saw that folks um that staff in general felt more confident talking with colleagues um they felt less confident um having discussions with students um and even less talking with families and so from that that really bore out some of the next steps and actions that we're taking as a group um to really try and think about the work that we need to do as a staff um and then translate that over to really be an excellent group of adults for all children who come through our doors hi um I'm Laura Stokes I teach Design Lab here and I also um run the talent in gifted program that's called Eureka um so here's some data that kind of enforces why we have an equity group and
004why Dei which is diversity equ inclusion is very important at PCS so we looked at data from 2019 to 20 so that school year and then this current school year 2023 to 2024 so over the span of five years the differences in population of students so if you see you'll see like El students um that doubled basically in percentage um for reduce lunch looks like the percentage dropped but we actually our student population increased and so there's actually seven more students that qualified for lunch um students receiving special education services increased by quite a bit same thing with students with plans also inre so our needs of our students increased which is why this is something that kind of proves why we need to make sure that we meet the needs of all of these
005students um more data would be so same years we're looking at the last five years um racial diversity so you can see the numbers um and overall basically what this is saying is that from 2019 to 2020 there were um 63 students that were considered non-white and now in 2023 2024 there's 93 so that's increased by 30 students um so again this is more data wide equity and making sure these students are represented and comfortable in our school hi I'm Becca gra I'm a kindergarten teacher here at PCS um So based off of all that information that Tom gave about our previous survey data saying that staff doesn't particularly feel super comfortable talking about equity and then knowing that our our student population has changed here's what we're doing to combat that here at BCS
006um we have decided that as a staff we need to get better at having those types of conversations um and understanding our students having those understanding to meet them where they are and to meet our colleagues where we are so we started out a um newsletter monthly newsletter from the equity team that highlights a different affinity group each month so for example we did one after the holidays on religion and how we can incorporate religion into the school and how we can talk about different things and where different students might so that they feel comfortable in our classrooms being different or whatever um and this information is for staff only it's not going out to students right now um it's giving teachers resources to learn about these different Affinity groups it's giving them more um
007webinars things that they can look at to try and just get their understanding level of these different Affinity groups um so we can have those conversations as a staff um we are building our larger subcommittee so we have our small steering committe equity we've asked other members of the school to join that committee to try and get you know feelers out there to the rest of the staff so they have a a say in these kinds of things um we decided that we do need to spiral back because our staff has changed so much over the last few years that we need to have these kinds of conversations again and take that survey that we took back in 2020 2019 2020 um to see if people are still feeling the same way about diversity and
008equity and the needs that we have there and then um St necessary to build a greater staff capacity okay so this is curriculum instruction and this first part I'm going to share I data um which really relates back to the first goal in third goal um in curriculum instruction and also sorry on third grade teacher um so this next slide is the five five level placement for I ready um Ela which is primarily reading and so the top bar shows the winter scores from this year um for ELA and the Bottom bar shows um the fall scor so just to highlight students have improved significantly you can tell um so it's hard to see there but mid or above level in ela impr from 100 students in the fall to 203 students um in the
009winter level which is the just plain green without the spashes in it um improved from 82 students in the fall to2 students in the winter and then our yellow which is one grade level below our red which is two grade levels below and then our slash is our more levels below has decreased so students are making Ina and same is true for again the green with the slashes through it improved the green has improve and the yellow and red and there's also a correlation Andrea H who can't was talking to IR representatives and they were saying that there's a correlation between um students that fall in that mid um and have it perform and then this is the three patient so it just shows on level below and then well below um Ela L and
010this is the same kind of data but math again each level broken down okay good evening everybody I'm JV for and what you're seeing here is how I already indicates growth so it indicates growth in two ways talks about typical growth and then it talks about stretch growth so typical growth is the average growth of students at each grade Baseline placement level whereas stretch growth is the growth recommended to put students who are performing below grade level on a path towards proficiency and to put on grade level students on a path towards Advanced proficiency levels so what you're actually seeing there is a sample of a student report which we call teer facing means that the teacher sees it and then it's up for him to decide if they want to share it with parents
011or with students okay so what you're seeing is you're seeing growth in ela and math and it's important to remember that the percentage progress you're seeing is a median number so fora that median percentage is 107% and median percentage for math is 71% so at this point they expect 50% at this point I expect them to be reaching growth 50% ients benchmarks is there predetermined levels how is that decided not just to teach your personal V or is there a benchmark so ready so we do have benchmarks that we're looking for so words like Jenna was referring to we have bid on grade level that we have early grade level so usually around time you said when you get that teacher snap the teacher makes the determination bed combination of a couple of things so
012part of this work that we use so when we think about like how do we use the data right so teachers are are getting this data but they're not just working on it in isolation we have our data team process so every week each grade level team is coming together and looking at data and so this would be just one one data point right so we might have for ELA we might have a data point that would indicate something and you see a student you say wow Tom's not making the growth that we want to see this is one assessment do we have other data that would indicate that time is also struggling so we have something like our dibles uh screener we might look at that for decoding then I'm as a teacher I'm
013giving different Assessments in the classroom I go well on I ready Tom might be struggling dibles is looking okay what's his what's his classroom data looking like if that's also something that's struggling then we're saying all right as a group we're seeing this data say there's something that's not working for Tom and then as a team we talk about that and determine is that something where we might want to reach out to say Andrea's team and say we need a consult here I'm looking at Tom everything's not great you know how am I going to help him out she works with him and then we reach out to families to say hey we got some data and we've reached out to the team we're going to take a look at that closer Tom's going to
014be on some will let you know how that goes so we try and get parents involved as soon as we can if we see data that's concerning but we don't just use one point because it could be a false Canary in the colan right a child might struggle like you might have a second graded and they're working on a computer and they do the I'm yeah like oh man it's snow today recess right and so you want to be able to get a whole picture of a child okay that makes a little more sense the whole process and then you would take that and the te get together was an intervention or whatever you're going to do from there yeah and then if a child's in intervention we have a whole schedule so every six
015weeks we come together and we have a process to be able to discuss every child that's in intervention whether or not we need to increase their program decrease it change it um and what progress we're seeing based on both the folks in intervention and the classroom that makes a little more sense you got I want to ask a question going to wait till the end but Sean had a touch on here um did it change then from prior to where you're not sending these home to All Families it's now teacher choice to do that you said like teachers can choose whether or not to share this report out is that so what I'm saying is that that's teacher facing they see that report and and there is a letter that goes home to parents as
016well that talks about generally their outcome for all yeah so we have yep so we have the family report for already that should be going home at both um both conference times um but sometimes there's you know families might want to know more specific about how their child's doing um and we can share that out on our level it gets even more specific to domains and we can really take a look at that on a domain specific level for each individual child and talk about like where we're seeing either growth or lack thereof and then how we're trying to address that okay so every every family will get their their beginning year report their mid report and then end of year at some point whether sent home or at conference time now is this when
017was this report sent out did the parents received this recently not yet we're still we're still working on so we want to make sure that we got all of our process together um in terms of that we've got March conferences coming up so we're looking to really Target that for our mid year so the way we have the initial um Benchmark and then we typically share that out at our initial conferences and then we have our winter Benchmark and we share that out of our second conference okay so we'll be getting that within the next couple weeks then uh March conferences are 24th and 5th okay this slide is showing us um based upon our five level placement there the growth that has been made in ela since our fall Benchmark and as you can
018see there's a l growth taking place at all levels but particularly at those levels that are one or more levels below Benchmark and then for math we're also seeing growth at all levels but particularly uh at the gr levels that are vulnerable indicating that we are targeting those students that are struggling okay I'm Sher director special services curriculum instruction and I'll be speaking to you about professional learning so this is another area that we're focusing Mr re spoke earlier about how important the people are and how important it is to help them grow professionally in all many different areas so we're continually trying to work on this so in the survey I want to highlight two of the areas here because for the most part it was pretty good we have a couple areas we're
019working on one is the opportunities for individualized professional development so we are at 55% there that's something that we've really been trying to work on we have purchased a professional Library where there's Pathways that people can choose as well is really trying to work on the specialty areas because it's a little bit trickier for someone who's teaching PE and art and there's only one of them so versus a grade level it's a little bit um easier when you have other people doing the same thing that you do to talk and grow from each other as um and then the next part with the administration um working on having regular timely and helpful feedback so we're working continually on this to try and improve and we actually have an outside consultant working with us to help
020sure that we're aligning and growing ourselves to help the teachers even more and then the last part the climate of collaboration it's not just the communicating between each other it's learning from each other growing being on committees teams all of those working together and this is what we're doing to work on for the data we've been focused on small group instruction as well as science of reading professional development of small groups you've heard me talk at pre prior um Board of Ed meetings about having literacy have come in to work with teachers working with two grade levels at a time and having that as a focus with them so they're really getting that professional learning handson in their classroom with their grade level Partners um and then we also have started some extended data team
021time some feedback came from teachers you know they by the time you drop off your class you start talking and really getting into things it's time to go pick them up again so we've built in some times to have extended time so they can dig even deeper into the data to make those changes for students and then um monitoring our mtss process which was the intervention that we spoke about and so that's great but like where do we go from here because I think if you're standing still you're moving backwards and so it's really important that what we're doing is we're really trying to improve right better today than yesterday and better tomorrow so on the equity side we're working on building those relationships right it's difficult to have some of those conversations if you
022don't have that full and committed trust to the people around you so we're really trying to be able to build that as a team as a group we're continuing to create and present those newsletters we're also getting feedback on what we feel um staff would mean we're getting feedback from our staff and subcommittees and then we're researching potential outside providers to provide um potentially outside work in both developing relationships and staff training around equity um for social emotional learning we're reviewing revising that behavioral process our climate committee is talking about this on a regular basis it's the top of the agenda as we look at it around data everything that you're seeing here we talk about on a monthly basis in that climate committee um we're also researching trauma informed in tier one Behavior practices
023to implement schoolwide and then also determining a professional learning plan and then for high quality instruction we're continuing that work focusing on data collection for small group instruction we're implementing that um in and we're implementing that work and that professional development with um with folks through literacy how um and with Rob and Moore for math uh and then also we're researching the mtss process and really looking at how we can improve that along the way um so we've got a lot of things that we're doing and a lot of things that we're looking at as we move forward and I think that really gets back to the idea of this strategic plan so we had a 5-year strategic plan clearly some things have happened along the way but it doesn't away that that was important
024work and it's an important need for our district and so that's our charge and then now our job is to think as we're starting to move through these what other aspects of that do we need to address based on what we're seeing from our staff from our families and from our students and then I think ultimately which will probably also Encompass um several members of the board if you look right we're coming up on the end of this strategic plan so what we see as we're getting through now what we've been able to get to what we might not have been able to address yet and what we see as potential new needs for the district will really drive that next that next strategic plan so um it's really that's our job here is that
025the Strategic plan is a really excellent guiding document but then our job is to really take that and turn it into boots on the ground support teachers and put them in the best place to be successful and support students in all aspects of their their roles and their lives here at school so um that's what we've got any other questions um thanks for the ones great yeah I got a couple yeah and we'll do this by the numbers because that's just the way I process stuff sure how many periods are there in the average day periods how many how many classroom sessions are there so when we think are you talking how when's the teacher let's start with this one then teachers are supposed to be in the building from when to when 8:15 to
0263:20 to 3:30 okay how many classroom sessions do they have in that period meaning like English readings corre so we typically have about a 90 minute block for ELA um we have about an hour block for Math and then we have um a half hour for morning meeting and about 45 minutes for science and social studies and then another 20 to 25 minutes for uh win or intervention time okay you just mentioned it how much time during a day between 7 and 3:15 are spent in meetings I depend as opposed to classroom it depends teacher to teacher so sometimes we would have um meetings that we would need for um for say like a student who has an IEP and we would meet with that family and that classroom teacher would need to be in
027that meeting it's not necessarily something that would be every day it would be something that would fluctuate across the year but there seem to be a lot of Team meetings about developing these programs so how much time in the day typically yeah typically those are happening before and after school hours we're not meeting during the school hours to interrupt instructional time so like if I think about climate so it's not deducting from instructional time there is some time when we meet for when we think about the intervention process so for the intervention process because there's several staff members that we need and it's really essential right because something like climate committee I can't be like margerie you must show up to climate committee right she volunteering cuz she's amazing and she's on climate committee but
028if I do need her in a meeting about a particular student that she's seeing that would have to be during time we make sure that we get coverage for for staff like classroom teachers and things that way but typically it's fairly small blocks of time okay thank you welcome I have a question yeah um so what is the process I mean we talk about these um you know testing to evaluate kids and teachers yeah can determine where children need help in terms of maybe the opposite if you know parents are approaching the teacher yeah and saying you know I have a concern yeah you know maybe they notice a dyslexia of some sort or something what is the process for that being addressed and getting the child to help when it's initiated by the parent
029yeah really good question so I think you know so we so um I think it depends on what the concern is it's brought by the parent right so sometimes um we might have a parent that's coming in and they have a concern about a student and um and how they're presenting as a person their behavior something that they might be noticing that's different about their AET or something that way um and for that we have what's called our Behavior Support team and so every Friday we're meeting as a behavior support team and we take a look at if we've had Behavior referrals right Tom's Tom's been having an off week we've had three different referrals for him let's talk what's going on in Tom's life or we just Tom's teacher let us know that his
030folks called and they said hey Tom's coming home he's crying last couple of days something's up with him we're not sure let's talk about Tom and what's going on with him or he's come to us and he said listen I I've been having a really rough go or the teacher might be coming and saying I'm seeing Tom and he seems really frustrated so we have all those different ways that that data comes to behavor support and then we reach out to either the teacher or the family and let them know hey this is what we're going to do is our next steps that way and we keep them informed along the way if it's academics yeah so if it's academics we take a look at what does that data say so they might say hey
031I'm really worried about my child right and so we look and they say Tom's really struggling with this or that and then we look at how that child is presenting in terms of their data at school and if we're starting to see something that's similar in that Trend then we would go along through that consultation process so I would say the parent can request to be to have their child evaluated by intervention or when how does it how does that process go our first step wouldn't necessarily be to go to evaluation um our first step would be able to would be to take a look at the data that we have then based on that if we see something that would be a similar Trend what we would do is we would ask that teacher
032to fill out what's called a consultation form they would say what is the data that I see what have I done so far to try and support that student and then someone from the curriculum team would reach out maybe talk with them and say hey I've seen you've done X Y and Z with Tom have you tried this and this and this no I haven't okay try some of those strategies out we're going to check in with you in a few weeks and see if they're successful if they are well great we've we've built a better mous trap right if they aren't then that's telling us we need to do more and then from that we would go and say this might be a student that we need to refer um in our um mtss
033process and say maybe this student need some additional support and intervention and we would say what is the data that shows that they're not growing in that typical education classroom and then how can we support them which we would consider so typical education so ased you speak tier one right then an intervention might be tier two where you'd be going to your typical class and then getting additional support from either the classroom teacher on a regular basis during that intervention time or with the intervention team during that intervention time and then we monitor right every six weeks we come back to the table and say how's Tom doing we've been giving him this intervention is his data improving is it not at what point does it reach um you know where there needs to be
034um additional testing and referrals to outside good question so I'll take it from there for the next step so if the mtss process had concerns or not see because they're tracking all the time if they're not seeing the progress and they've changed the intervention and increased the intervention and they're not seeing that then they might make a referral to the Special Education team have what's called a planning placement team meeting and at that point the team looks at the data to determine what are the next steps and you would ask the question what happens if parent has concerns about that obviously the best thing to do is to do the whole process but if that is not working and someone a parent has a right to request planning placement team meeting but that meeting they
035might get together and say this child has had no intervention we're seeing the data and they're looking like they're doing okay or they may say yes we have concerns do parents know that they have that option do they know it's they can ask do they know the process for asking for that I can't speak for every parent but I know it's on the website it's in our procedural safeguards that we have out there anyone who calls with any questions to me I explain the process I know Tom do the same and we explain to teachers too if anyone has any questions with that um the best practice would be to go through the ntsss process because if a child um were to go through the plan process one of the questions we have to roll
036out is did the child respond to intervention so um that's an important piece of that what is NSS process it's basically multi system of support thank sorry Sean that's that's [Music] our yeah and the challenge right and the challenge is it's the Goldilocks theory of trying to find intervention right you don't want to do too much you don't want to do too little you want to make sure that you're getting that child the right amount of support so that they're not missing additional tier one instruction to go and do something but also that they're not struggling so much with that tier one instruction that we're not helping them enough so they can be successful I just wanted to follow I can't think what it's called but we get as a parent right at the beginning
037of every year you get a handbook or a a manual something what yes thingy and that includes the information correct that you were talking about the process is really strong and works really well so if parents have concerns usually that's our first you know talk to the teacher look at the data because it might be that parents are concerned that their child is actually developmentally developing appropriately for that age group but they're just not sure sometimes it's not as obvious yeah and the other and the other part is that we don't just wait around so um as we go through every Benchmark series we have specific time to not about in that data team cycle where um teachers haveon time and so we're using that to look at the The Benchmark reading data and The
038Benchmark math data to say here are all the kids that we've got here's the data that we've got who's in intervention who's getting support who might be showing some flags and isn't getting support what are we doing for those kids and making sure that we're not the losing a kid proverbially through the cracks we're trying to make sure that we catch everybody as soon as we possibly can easy small solve small problems these are the people that make it work right boots on the ground right and so it's good people knowing the data knowing the information knowing the process and doing the hard work right it's the hard work um and so I'm really proud of the folks who are here because it takes it takes a lot of effort um and I think it
039takes a lot of courage to stand up as Leaders amongst your colleagues and say listen this is what we're going to do as a district um so there's some really great people here who are leaving a really great charge so I'm really grateful for that um thank you for your questions thank you for coming in to present thank you you know seanj and okay all right thank you PTR report state your name and let's go good evening everyone uh my name is Melissa zaldo I'm PTO president and I'm mom of a fourth grader in class um so we've had quite a busy few weeks since last meeting um as we as that meeting was ending up we were gearing up for our Fun Run um it was very well received I came and watched the
040fourth graders ran and they transformed the gym into a glowe run the kids had a fantastic time um proud to say we brought in quite a bit of money from that um over brought in um over $16,000 and the PTO spent 2,000 to bring that on so we netted $144,000 um so the next steps for that we brought that in for playground enhancements um so we're looking forward to working with uh Administration um on the next steps on getting some playground and adaptive equipment out there on the playground um the event culminated um every student that was brought into any type of monetary donation didn't matter how small name was entered into a raffle and one student from each grade and one staff member um won the chance to hie Mr in the face there
041are pictures up on our Facebook page so if you haven't seen it I highly recommend check it out the students loved it um so overall was a great event we're like I said we're going to start looking at on how to spend that money to enhance our playground make it more adapted um also on February 3rd was our family night at Quin ofak University hockey the PTO was able to purchase 100 tickets at a really reduced rate and so families were able to go out and um watch Quinn ofak Crush Dartmouth I guess it was four Z I don't know anything about hockey but I guess that's a really good score um and then on the n9th last Friday uh we held our sweetheart dance here at the school um the decoration first I want
042to say thank you to Janette Sao uh Nicole Kennedy and jeie house for planning the event I I know some of the board members were at that event it was the gym the hallway out here looked amazing um I would thank U Milton Jackson for being our DJ he had those kids he had everybody out on that dance floor like dancing all night long um we also worked with Stephanie Wells from uh rainbow Farms to make bers and corsages available for purchase prior to that event um I would say huge thank you to everyone who volunteered before after and during the event and I also want to shout out to the Bethany funer fire department um in order to have events in the school we have to have fire watch and we work with them
043um I know I saw a couple of them so huge thank you to the fir for helping out that event and then today for Valentine's Day myself and two other my board members um were in the cafeteria during lunch and we handed out um popsicles to all the students um they LED them and to email Trum as I was leaving we do have some extras so if the staff wants them they're in the freezer in the staff room um the kids absolutely love that um so what we have going forward is tomorrow is our February it's going to be held here in the library at 6 PM like I said we'll be discussing um a lot of discussion about um how to spend that money from the fund run and also some of our um
044uping spring events also on March 6th we're having another restaurant night with the Antonios all you have to do is call place an order say you're at the PTO and they going to donate a portion of that back to the PTO also coming up on uh March 8th uh we're hosting our family bingo night um I believe the hour is going be from 5:30 to 8 um registration should be coming soon um we're going to work with brand of pizza where P where families can pre-order Pizza have p sit in the cafeteria go play some Bingo take a break um and then go play some more Bingo um we have some great prizes we have tickets to the Connecticut Science Center gift cards to milkcraft worth ice cream and a whole bunch of others uh
045registration for that should be coming up soon also coming up in March is our um teacher appreciation dinner uh the PTO provides dinner for the staff during uh their evening conferences because they're here like day and I know it's great appreci I don't know what they're having yet um we'll probably find that out tomorrow but um if people want to donate we'll have a link out for that as well also um just looking a little further ahead um we're starting planning for our spring playing um that's going to be the Friday before Memorial Day we also have um our Quin quasi uh family night coming up the weekend before that and um our yard goats family game I can double check on the date but those are all coming up at this BR as well
046thank you thank you very much all right we come to the public comment portion of the program Board of Education welcomes public comment individuals or groups May address the board concerning any subject which is within the board's jurisdiction 3 minutes will be allocated to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to each subject matter the speaker is requested to State their name and address are there anybody here or is there anybody here um who would like to make a public comment M Alo report um please state your name and address okay sorry you want need my address you just need to write it down um yeah just write it down okay um Melissa zalo um I did forget to mention in my report um I was here like I said for the students um
047lunch periods I was so impressed with how those kids behaved all during lunch um from from when the kindergarteners all the way up through the sixth graders um I've heard stories as a parent like sometimes lunch isn't always optimal but from what I saw from those kids today they were all well behaved they were respectful um some said Thank you some didn't which is fine I get it but I just wanted to share that with the staff that their behavior was absolutely that's today right yeah that was today all tired from snow day I just want exha what's that sledding exha see what it's like tomorrow and Thursday or Friday thank you any members of the public any other members of the public going once going twice all right approval of minutes January 10th 2024
048does anybody have any comments errors and or omissions do I have a motion to approve the minutes make a motion second you have a town all those in favor all right motion carries unanimously committee reports we'll start with curriculum uh curriculum met um a week ago um just looking at my phone I kind of recap my notes Here uh Mrs Kel reported on the recent upcoming PD offerings for staff um working with literacy on how to provide professional development in the area in the area of reading for k6 and the Team Summit Math teachers are working with Ed Advance um Cas will provided an update regarding midyear benchmarks I'm sure she's going to touch on some of these things in her report um Mr re whale presented an overview of the midyear I ready Benchmark
049data for the school and in March we will get an update on the 5th grade Team Summit math any questions comments thank you Angel Finance um Amy's not here I can either defer to you or I can do it okay Finance report uh general education salary and projections that's on the uh it's on the fifth or sixth page of your package okay um general education salaries you'll notice has a surplus of $4,560 General occas supp wi is sh a deficit of 8386 due to additional report customizations with power school and an increase in cost for QuickBook software for our sub accounts general education other um slight deficit of $1,500 due to accessory replacements for student technology general education now showing a surplus of 30, $681 which is still largely due to salary adjustments uh for
050new hires and such special ed all special Edge salary lines have been adjusted to reflect a surplus of $103 which is lower than last month due to Paris adjustments and higher sub costs all other spec at items remain status quo special education ends this month with a surplus of 19,000 $162 operation salaries remain status quo from last month uh there's no change there's still 26,000 in the red um operations benefits is now showing a surplus of 26,1 150 due to adjustments made to our workman's comp anticipated costs Services is also now showing a surplus of 3980 due to adjustments made to our quarterly lap cyber insurance and under underground storage tank policy invoices all other accounts remain status quo so operations in overhead now ends the month with a budget surplus of 3670 the overall
051budget is now showing a surplus of 53,56 this is still largely due to savings found in salaries and benefits once Brandy completes her cleanup and scrub of accounts we anticipate the number will increase but departments are still actively spending and numbers are still too hard to pinpoint where exactly [Applause] land questions and K will give a discussion during her um presentation about the new budget about the the board budget okay policy yeah you me policy committee met last night oh wait a minute I need a motion to approve the finance committee meeting the finance committee report report second all in favor I I all right sorry go ahead s okay so the uh the policy committee met last night and we're adjusting to not having to Carpenter curate the agenda and so on so uh
052there was some things that were a little different and uh what I was trying to point out to the committee was uh some purpose of the of that comes out of bylaws and uh bylaw 9000 specifically uh that the purpose of the Board of Ed is or one of the responsibilities let's say is to carry out the mandates of the Connecticut General statutes through policy and uh when doing so you're supposed to hear and consider facts and recommendations so I've been concentrating on trying to carry out the mandates and in so doing um pointing out inconsistencies that uh have been concerned and trying to straighten those out and specifically the terminology of using the word mandate and using it carefully because I think we could all agree that mandate means it's required by law so
053when we use it we want to make sure that it's uh in context and and uh we're not mixing recommendations with mandates or calling recommendations mandates different things like that because I think it got a little mixed up along the way so you'll see in the next month's meeting there will be three policies that will be mandated policies with mandated revisions and there's some guidance that came from Chipman good that we could add in but I think we should keep guidance in the regulation section as opposed to putting it into the policy section because you know policy is supposed to you know give our aspiration so to speak and the regulation is how to carry it out so if the attorneys are giving us guidance that's I think it would be better placed within the
054regulation and there is some uh practices that have shown that within the body of policies that BCS has is just inconsistent sometimes we do and sometimes we don't so tried to get that consistency as well uh hearing and considering facts and recommendations I was happy to find that Shipman and Goodwin in their policy portal they actually provide uh written comments on their revised language and explain the the reasons for it whether it be change of law or guidance on implementation so what I included in the policy packet were excerpts from shipment and goodwi so that we had those recommendations with us and reviewing what the policy was doing and uh I intend to do that in the future as it applies and I also think it's important that the superintendent be a part of forming
055the the the policy committee agenda and uh as long as Kay is willing to meet with me you know once a month or so uh we can uh sit down and prioritize the needs of the school and hear her recommendations because she's a very important voice in this uh she sees things that you know aren't going to come out of cave or in a good way so that that'll help keep us on track so uh without getting too technical I hope I haven't gone into too much I'm hoping that this will provide the board a good premise and platform and uh so we can uh make thoughtful future policy adoptions and we'll see how it goes next month you'll have a few policies in front we can all discuss pluses and minuses of of putting
056guidance in the policy as opposed to into the regulation that was a debate that we had in the policy committee which didn't get resolved I don't know if I lost everybody or if that made sense no so so you're making progress you're shaking out the The Kinks in the in the procedure true and you're relatively satisfied with the advice that you're getting from shipment and good well let me back up that's maybe the wrong thing to say but so far it appears that the recommendations are in line with what we're supposed to be doing well yeah that's you know their policy Services is responding to changes in law and so they are the primary source for determining the Mandate stuff well your question you you had some questions regarding them versus cab and Cab's mandate
057versus policy and well I'm sorry that still hasn't shaken out yet and you know I don't think we're going to be able to shake it out I think the world is just a very unsettled place it's reflective in these two lists because if you take a look at the list from K for their required or mandated policies and you compare it with the one from Shipman and Goodwin they bear a little resemblance to each other quite honestly that it's it's remarkable how different they are and which one should we be giving more weight to we all right so cave will fairly consistently not always uh put a disclaimer in that you know they're not the the board's legal counsel and they defer to legal counsel so Shipman and Goodwin is the primary source for mandates
058but at the same time I don't see all the policies that we need in shipment and Goodwin either so you know I'm not so I suggesting that their list may be complete and maybe they're working on it I don't know but you know going to either policy service and starting to inquire about this I don't think I think they play probably play dodgeball hot potato and we wouldn't get a straight answer and and a lot of these things are evolving constantly and that is just the way the world is lately and so it's not anybody's fault it's just the I'm not looking for fault I'm just looking for guidance from a perspective of fault however I would think that following the mandates of our legal council would somewhat indemnify and insulate us from any liability
059should our policy run ay of mandate we could lean on our attorney's advice and from a perspective of saying we've done our due diligence we follow the advice of legal counsel whom we hire to put us on that path no one expects us to be legal experts right we hire a legal expert no and what you say is valid you know that would be my concern of taking a mandate that they tell us like listen we think it in your best interest at a board of ed to add this to your policy manual because this is how we read the mandates coming from the state if we choose to not add those mandates to our policy manual and add them second and I and I I'm not quite sure I understand adding them as a
060regulation as opposed to a policy change EJ if I may we were I'm on the policy committee as well and we had a a very um a very active discussion and while we didn't solve anything I think we had a lot out of that we kind of figured out where we were some of those questions that were coming up we've kind of I think organize it a little bit that we could potentially bring some a question like this up to the to the board at some point one of the things that one of the takeways that I got out of this is Shipman and Goodwin is looking at so there are State mandates and there's specific man language that comes from the state mandate that has to be in policy shipment and good one is
061taking that and writing it up for us I think some of the issue that and so correct me if I'm wrong is shipment and good one starting to put some of their own language in that so the question that arose from this is should we just have the policy as is written from the state and that's it and not have shipment and Goodwins sort of extra information in there they guided they they guided information in there or should that be part of our policy and I think that's what we were kind of debating last night in that conversation um you know I think that we were in we were all bringing up different concerns of you know one way or the other trying to weigh out the pros and the cons of that but ultimately
062that is that is the question there is State policy guidelines that have to be in there shipment and Goodwin did you know they're the lawyers they wrote up their legal stance on it but it has more language in it or I don't want to say modified language but additional language than what the state has put out so I think that was the the sort of of the debate is should we just have the language from the state and that's it or should we be taking Shipman and Goodwin's language and putting that into policy or should it be removed or should it be just moved over to regulations versus in policy and that was we did have discussions about C but I think ultimately we ended on like focusing on the lawyers specifically with the state
063mandates in our conversations last night right and well it's specifically where they they they come out and they say they're providing guidance that's not requ by law okay so we have to you know when we're and it's the use of the word mandate okay so if we get a mandated policy with a with a mandated revision we shouldn't be intermingling those things with guidance recommendations and opinions okay it should be strictly the Mandate okay and if we want to put in their guidance and and definitions and and examples and all this terminology that comes with it we can but we have to recognize it as a recommendation and not a mandate one of the things you may want be careful with our label and I don't think we have to have all man we can
064have policies that we put in place that aren't necessarily mandates correct we can still do that need to be careful of the labeling so that we know what the choices are yes all right because when something comes in it says it's mandated that should be the result of a change in the law okay that you know the for instance I'm using that you'll see next month is this is all the non-discrimination policies you know so they added a protected class for um sexual abuse victims no domestic AB victims so the there's a mandate to make a change but the language is not necessarily congruent to the mandated change so we could say it's a mandated change with some added verbage what you may want to take a look at I think one of the things
065that may solve your problem is when you go into the Connecticut General statutes to to research something it gives you what the statute says and I'll use something that I'm very familiar with in zoning regulations they give you the statute then underneath the statute they give you the history and the history could be in four five six eight places in other words going back as far as the statute how it was changed this time and I think you may want to approach to policy the same way if you're going to recommend a policy change then where did the language come from and what it impacts you see what I'm saying in other words it gives you some brief ex doesn't have to be a a doctrinal dissertation it can only be you know a couple
066of sentences but it puts everything into context and it explains what the policy is for how is arrive that and what it governs that may be something you want to look at because that would solve some of your problem is you know okay this policy is not a mandated policy it's a recommended policy and here's what the recommendation was and here's what we're doing do you see what I'm saying I do and and mostly what I'm trying to do is keep us from being misled by by marking these things mandated and that's what I'm saying is I think you want to have a not a disclaimer but I think just a one or two sentence explanation of why we're doing this policy and where it came from where the language came this language is verbatim
067ship Good's uh recommendation you know or this is verbatim from the state uh Board of Education paragraph I you know whatever chapter and verse but just a one or two sentence explanation on what we're looking at and why we're looking at well I think you have a couple issues going on I think we have statutory mandatory you're going to do it we also have best practices part which is what Shipman and good ones are doing and you have cave which is giving you Professional Standards so you clearly have three different areas that you're going at this way the statute should be the statute that is mandated all the other policies are either going to be a professional standard or a best practice and I think those are the areas you should be looking at the
068attorney's point of view should be whatever the statute says if we're going to do other policies then it should be either a professional standard or it should be a best practice and they are three distinctive things in my world OSHA is a state mandate the National Fire Protection Association is our professional standard we are held to those two things but they are one is you're going to do the one is I strongly recommend you doing this and I think that's the difference between the attorney and Cave reading the cave stuff but that's why you give an a small explanation no I'm not saying you're wrong but I just I think we need to be careful because there are three distinctive things exactly right and what I'm trying to avoid is just something mate and thinking
069that we don't have a choice or that we can't you know question anything it's just like rubber stamp off we go so I don't want to to see that happen but you know you have mandated policies with recommended revisions or recommended policies with mandated revisions I mean you it can make you a little crazy I know but I think you got I think it's going to take a little time to that out so it's not going to be done this week you be a process you know what I'm trying to do is you know do something consistently and orderly so that we all know what we're getting and uh specifically not to be misled by labeling and that's and that's why I suggest you you when you when you come up with something just a
070one or two line explanation of what we're looking at okay so you know as as a board I think we could all agree that mandate means it's leg legally required I think you know we can all agree on that I'm not positive uh but uh you know board policy according to another byw is supposed to be you know telling us what will be done and the administrative regulations are supposed to tell us how it will be done so you know when Shipman and Goodwin comes up with guidance okay this was the the Crux of of the discussion so they have guidance it's not required by law you know that's point it's not required by law but we're giving you guidance that would be a best practice okay so that's not mandate correct that's a best
071practice so this this is where you know we were discussing do we put it in the policy or should it go in the regulation you know see I was of the mind that it should go into the regulation to you know implement the purposes of the policy well I think I think the better question ask K is how many state regulations do we follow under that are mandated factually mandated by the Board of Ed or state statute do we have any idea I don't have that number does it ex because I don't I don't even know honestly where I would begin to look at that because to Susan's point the amount of legislation that has come out just last year alone it it just being compiled so so Sean let me give you an example
072use OSHA as an example right so if there's an OSHA regulation of something with you have to have fire suppression equipment available in a particular room with a certain square footage if you're going to have a an active stove okay what to give this as the best example but outside of Education what Shipman and Goodwin then came in and said well we want to Define what fire suppression really means it means you could have a fire blanket or you could have this or you could have this or you could have that but technically it's not part of the of the actual mandate that came out but Shipman and Goodwin saying we're really recommending you put this language in here that was some of the source of the of the debate last night well should that
073not be in the policy because OSHA didn't say that so why are why are our attorneys adding that in it should not be there I don't want to question to me if the attorneys their job is to cover us if they're saying it should be there there's probably a good reason for it C is a different story if that's something with regulations that we want to have discussion about about best practices but if we're talking about them trying to cover us from getting sued because we didn't identify what fire suppression meant and then all of a sudden we thought we had the right thing in there and then we didn't I would I would be less likely to question our attorneys on saying that we know better than I would C that was sort of
074my stance on it CES it we ended up getting cab out of the conversation last night we started to focus on the attorneys I don't want I personally don't think our group should say yeah I don't want to follow the attorney's language because I feel like we open the town of Bethany up to potential lawsuits doing that now whether or not it needs to be in the regulation or as a policy I think you know we can have that discussion I think that policies don't have to just be the state mandated language only so I think we could have put some of that language in policies if we choose to and I think that's where we have to listen to our attorneys and say okay should this be a policy or should it not be
075why why are you we can ask them why are they recommending it and not just take it on Blind Faith but I do think we potentially open ourselves up if we start disregarding shipment and good one I agree with you I'm I suggesting that we disregard them okay so please don't misunderstand I'm just concentrating on the labeling so that we know what we're making a decision on what is mandated and what is not okay they they threw in these guidance recommendations and so the question comes is are those best used in the regulation or or is it necessary to put in policy okay so that's what that's really what it came down to can we posit that question to the attorney and say listen you've made recommendations based on this mandate do you do you
076recommend that we put them in the policy or do you think they're best placed in our regulations we could I mean want to perhaps that might all you know alleviate the discrepancy and then you could label them however you want when you put them in front of us but I should also add make your life make your head spin just a little bit more okay that they changed this PO all right so the policy we're discussing was the one in the December uh board meeting packet okay that's the policy with all the language okay the policy that I brought to the the committee last night has like 1% of that language in there because most of it was guidance but since that time Shipman and Goodwin has updated their policy again you know so we're
077already out of date by even looking at the December version so you know they keep they re they rewriting this thing it's a moving Target my suggest my suggestion would be to concentrate on a point in time put it on a piece of paper we'll take a look at it discuss it and then decide to go from there and if it has to be changed into some future date then we change it but we should start the process to see what shakes out don't just try to do it all one shot just pick one or two and you said the one that's what I've been doing then that's Pi the three non-discrimination then fine then next month um you know the policy committee is going to meet before the Board of Ed meeting no no
078no oh okay yeah policy not a monthly meeting oh but I do but I think what we did as a committee last night right so we we talked through these these policies and we do have both the sort of the strip down version and the version with more language in them and I I think it's in some ways it's good that we have a few just a few policies to talk about the first time so that we can as a group sort of come to a consensus about how we want to approach them I also like this is I think as a group we're starting to get a better sense of of what our priorities are in this process and where we're heading I think having the actual policy in front of us rather than
079the hypotheticals is actually going to make it easier now that we've started this we have we'll have something concrete to look bring it back bring it up next month what I'm going to suggest because I I didn't get a chance to last night sorry but in the policy committee meeting I would have thought of this but it didn't get in there because it got late I was thinking maybe we should propose to the board okay we can call it the mandated version okay which is what the shenon referred to as a strip down okay because it there's just not a lot to put in there okay very specifically adding a protected class for the most part there's one different so we could call that the mandated policy then we could have the other version that
080was in December and call that a recommended policy then do it that way and and let's just give us something to start with and you know we should consider whether or not we want to put all that into the policy or into the regulation that accompanies the policy exactly and that's what Shannon to to Shannon's point I think that's a great way to start okay like you know you know the the the the the Journey of a Thousand Miles starts with one step let's just take one step that's what I was trying to do that's why we only got three number and that's a great way to do it and and and Shannon's idea of coming basis let's try it that way for next month okay all right that way we can all get on
081the same page yeah perfect all right thank you guys we appreciate it all the the change in age five which is which is we realize it's a it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a tough place to be well you know the change in A5 are in age five for kindergarten there you know C and Shipman and goodwi they can't agree on that either and I guess there's more changes possibly coming down it's and so there's more changes possibly coming down a lot of people don't want to implement it yet they created all that chaos that they're going to back you we have these professional you know Services okay but they are only model policy Services okay they just claim all over the place that you know you got to do your own thing
082okay and it's not like bring something next month and we'll okay see what she looks like all right thank you for your time sorry to no this this was we knew was going to be a a difficult area because there is so much to it and there is exactly what you guys were the three of you were talking about is that you know you've got so much conflicting information it's not going to get better unfortunately have to for ourselves in this all right unfinished uh business the approval of the superintendent's proposed spending plan K you're on sure so I won't take you through all the slides I won't make you suffer through that but I did put at your uh station today uh just some highlighted some boarded points um the same way which I
083presented to the board of Finance when we went before them back on February 2 it outlines that the key drivers are the contracts and benefits you know that we negotiated the new teacher contract that weighs into this um some of the challenges with the increase in enrollment inflation those are some of the things that we're trying to to adjust for um the budget Journey contractual and benefit obligations for leveled Services started us at an 8.11 increase up to a summit of 99.59% our final requested increase at this time as the result of conservative Grant offsets is at 5 . 44% which is $41,250 in comparison to the overall requested increase for 2324 this proposal is an additional $149,500 of budg in my lifetime but you know usually you get the you know how you do
084your monthly report or the monthly financial report and you got a line by line and this goes up this goes down blah blah blah and you know we see the budget once it gets on to that report is is there such a thing in existence for this budget do you have a line by line like that I'm trying to think it'd be in bry's computer software program okay all right and so does the finance committee work with you on on helping to develop this or do you present to the finance committee I present to the finance committee okay and then but we we also went over to two meetings ago yeah we also went over a a a a synopsis I mean we can break this thing down on inin item but the idea is
085the big drivers are uh I get the overall I just you know if somebody was interested in the detail yeah if you if you if you were interested in detail I'm sure Brandy has this broken down into a a concise sheet if you're interested okay all right just curious because we get and I like the presentation the overall and and I get all that just you know if you want we can put a I I can ask K to put together a presentation that will put us all to sleep I mean it's not what more engaging than that I was just asking if it I've never found those numbers to be I guess she has a blank one of these Yeah well yeah we can if if you want to see something like that a
0862024 2025 line already filled you can you you can do if if you want we can do that that's relatively simple yeah because that's just a comparison of last year to this year item by item but you've got something similar to that in our regular um board breakdown but if it means some that's why we asked two meetings ago so that if anybody wanted additional information we can provide it I sorry I didn't think of it oh okay well did is it going to stop you from voting on the budget no okay if you want the information I can add it to a weekly well I'll have you want it to no okay oh I I say so gets to a copy how is your budget proposal received at the finance committee I think it
087went very well we had a very nice discussion uh they asked some questions um in terms of why there were some of the increases that existed and that was that was it you're back here I'm still here so yeah there's not much there there really isn't much place to trim on this thing I mean it it it is the difference between mandated it's contractual you know some of the stuff is contractual and we're stuck but I think the board on board of Finance understands that and um you know I I I thought K and everybody did a brandy did a great job on the presentation and I agree with you I think it was well received it may not be you know it's not they may not be happy about a five and a quarter
088percent but there's really there's not a lot of fluff in there there's not any fluff in there they were here for the negotiations they were here for the negotiations yeah so that that's why I emphasize that you know a big hunk of this is the teacher salary increases there's nothing we can do about that so I guess the next step is do we have to hold a vote on whether we accept this so we need a motion to accept K's um the superintendent's um proposed spending plan for 2425 and this is what we'll go with to the town so move Angelo and Sean second any discussion any further discussion all those in favor I unanimous new business none administrative reports superintendent all right so on your table you'll find the enrollment summaries for 2122 22
08923 uh and for this year we did start the school year with 445 students as of January 31st 2024 our current enrollment is now 450 students any questions on the enrollment before I continue we just keep moving in all right for a Personnel update Vincent condo will take over our vacant fourth grade position uh for the rest of this year he joined our team this week he was actually here this morning at our staff meeting uh he'll spend this week working alongside this the current long-term substitute who's in the classroom as part of the transition uh and his most recent teaching experience was in in Sonia Claire diadamo am I saying that correctly CLA deama will take over our vacant special education position for the for this year uh she comes to us from the
090unity University of Rhode Island and her most recent teaching experiences have been in chesher we haven't set a firm date just yet but we're hoping it will be as early as the Wednesday after the fake Break 2 the 21st um and then tomorrow I will be interviewing a finalist for our open pair of professional position where are we would staff that would make us fully staffed that so right now we're down one pair of professional correct [Music] okay any other questions all right and then just an update on the kindergarten entry yes it is a moving Target no nobody really loves it um people like the idea of the kindergarten age being moved to five it puts us in line with all the other states it's more developmentally appropriate for students at that point um
091what people aren't loving is the legislated appeals process um that they added into the language required it's mandated right that's it's in the public act right um what to your I think question that you were asking Sean is is is it going to happen are they going to back down it will more than likely not change anything for the 2425 school year but for 2526 the hope is that they will remove the appeal um because the appeals process is what makes the implementation of this very challenging it actually flies kind of in the face of saying that children should be five to go to kindergarten but if you want you can have them tested and then we can say yes or no to have them come to kindergarten so at this time we've actually received
092only seven requests for additional information with regards to the appeals process um for students who will not meet the September 1 2024 enrollment date for kindergarten birth dates for those requesting an appeal or an evaluation range from the poor kiddo who's got a September 2nd birthday all the way to somebody who has a December 22nd birthday yeah welome so it's a wide range we have September 2nd and September 4th kids within that that one week October 1st October 3rd November 16th December 11th and December 22nd so kind of a range there we can kind of see again the the 2 and the 4th of September that that that kind of stinks right but for the student who's December 22nd they're you know kind of hoping that the appeal will work in their favor and or
093that they'll just make it five by January 1 because I think that's what they were probably intending to do um but those families those seven families are going to be contacted next month to schedule the required evaluation to determine if the child is developed is appropriate to be uh admitted into kindergarten even though they do not me the age requirement because it's mandated that we do so any questions so have you figured out how you're going to yes we're we we're working out the process for the for the evaluation yeah all right yeah and there's nothing that says that you know a child that appeals and goes through this evaluation this is a conversation that the superintendent groups have have been having is you may put a child through this evaluation process and the child
094will say not get into because they won't do well in the evaluation they don't get into kindergarten there's no appeal of the appeal right so we'll go through this process and if if it's determined that the child is not developmentally appropriate based on the evaluation for kindergarten the answer is no and the parent can't appeal that so does csde give you anything on appropriate no so there's no guidance from them no guidance from them on what is appropriate no guidance for them on the appeals process outside of the fact that the letter needs to go to Mr re and the person conducting the evaluation must be a certified staff member of of the board of education so it's not like we can contract out and have an agency come in and test all of the
095students so so what is the testing process consist I'd rather not put it out in public because I don't want people to try to teach to what the assessment is going to be but there's there's a process where they will come in there'll be some information that we gather from parents there'll be an evaluation of the child and then our school-based team will evaluate and review the result results of that and say okay you know be like that Indiana Jones movie you just lay out like six cups and you ask the kid to pick one and they got to pick the right one or they turn the stone well what sh one prior to and districts are and so the the in the spirit of this this legislation it was supposed to kind of level
096the playing field across all districts but you have honestly some districts saying okay we're going to evaluate students here's your evaluation show me a phone iPhone and Droid right doesn't matter which one the child picks so long as they pick the phone and don't lick the wall they get in and others are saying no we're going to have this really strict you know assessment it's going to be a standardized assessment it's going to be this it's going to be that there's no appeal there's probably no chance that some of the kids are even going to be remotely close to passing it because they're not in favor of letting the kids in so the fact that the state gave no additional guidance in terms of what assessments should be used or what that should look like
097um has not made things they want the rule but they don't want want to have the accountability for it so they put it on the districts correct shame there give the appeal then would solve that problem right so not having the appeal would make things very easy because even though it's you know I would feel horribly for the person with the September 2nd birthday I could stand fast and and say the law is you must be by September 1 you must be five your birthday is September 2nd I'm sorry but there's that appeal so we'll do what we're required to do all right moving right along are you done yes I'm done thank you okay uh director of special services Cheryl you're on thank you um for professional development I know Mr M talked about
098um things I'll just go into a little bit more detail we continued our work with literacy how and we're going to be continuing throughout the year Focus so far has been on oral discourse and vocabulary and the feedback so far has been very positive um to this appr approach to professional learning and we're doing that in grades K to six rotating in teams of two grades per session and our Math teachers in grades five six have been working with a consultant from an advance looking to bundle the standards selecting the best resource in addition they've been working on problem solving um and again the teachers have shared some positive feedback for this style of professional learning because they're really working closely and in the classroom um planning all the phases of learning and uh for
099curriculum we've talked about we completed our midyear benchmark assessments and teams are really analyzing the data right now that's all I have for today okay thank you uh Tom reach whales you're on all right so um you know you heard from us that we've just completed the winter Benchmark um also since our uh our last meeting we had our Winter concert on the 17th really excited to get um choir and band going again I think that having and Katrina um really taking each of their respective expertise is really translated into some excellent U musicianship uh our January community meeting as you heard was the 26th we had uh kindness and uh presentations from kindergarten on kindness and Martin Luther King Junior Day uh I also received eight pies to the face there are videos and
100pictures of all um what kind of pie uh it was it was uh shaving cream because uh I I came in in my tuxedo because if you're going to get pied in the face you need to be dressed appropriately um it's classic uh my dry cleaner does not appreciate it um we're working on uh getting our midyear goal meetings with staff uh scheduled up right now uh and our drama club has uh started since last we met and we had 80 kids sign up uh so so yep yeah so the first rehearsal had all 80 children there we are a victim of our own success uh so we have so many kids that were really trying to think about now as we move forward how we might actually think about parsing that out and maybe
101having um one particular program next year for some of our younger students and then thinking about um how we might split that out it's just a lot of kids which is a good problem to have um so we're really excited about that uh February community meeting this month is going to be focused on building relationships um and we have a parent academy uh that's going to be taking place on the 29th of February it's going to be focusing on supporting families uh around student mental health and specifically anxiety so um Ariel uh lasin our school social worker um and uh Miss nathman are going to be focusing on supporting families that way we're really excited for that uh and then uh we also have our Invention Convention coming up that's going to be taking place
102in early March so a lot of really great things going on for kids uh we're running into the problem now with after school things that we're running out of dates so we've got you know we've got the kids going to CCD on on Monday and then Tuesday we've got choir and then Wednesday we've got band and you know we've got boost and drama club and Lego Club and gems and there's a lot of stuff going on for kids uh so a lot of really great opportunities for kids to be you know getting great work during the school day and enrichmond after school so we're busy any questions or anything I do he do me a favor yeah take me on the Journey of a fifth grader at BCS yeah what do they have for teachers
103peras take me on a JY explain their day to me all right so you got a fifth grader and they're going to come in they're getting dropped off they come around to the circle they're going to come in and they're going to go in um the door right here they're going to get to their lockers and go into class when they come into class they're going to do lunch count and attendance then at 8:45 BNN goes on the air they're going to see BNN from about 8:45 until about 8:51 at about 8:51 until 9:15 920 they're going to have morning meeting we're going to focus on a tier one um strategy for the entire class around building Community Connection maybe we're talking about how to build connections with adults to have that second trusted adult
104because I'm in Mrs hemp's class and she is my human but I really don't necessarily feel comfortable with a lot of other adults how can I build those relationships and connections with other adults right at that point that student is going to go um and they're going to transition to their first class so they might go over same teacher or different teacher uh they rotate Yep they're going to rotate so that work the whole thing all right so as a class right at at that time we shift out um and they're going to go over um to say uh Mrs tishy they're going to go in and they're going to have an 80-minute period for um for math they're going to go into math they're going to have a mini lesson some independent practice probably
105some small group work they're going to do some problem solving and they might go on to I ready and get some work done on their my path they might go on to asath get some Fact Practice after that 80-minute period they're going to go to a second 80 minute period could be either Ela science or social studies they're every day yep they're going to go every day so they they have the same first period the same second and second period typically um and then say their third period so sorry their second period is going to be another 80-minute block Y at 12:05 they're going to go over to specials they've got six rotating specials those are art music PE Spanish uh and then two versions of Design Lab so um so we've got Ron uh
106defasio who is focusing on a lot of um a lot of uh presentation and um problem solving in here and then um and then Laura Stokes who is working on in the uh maker space so they go to that special until 1245 at 12:45 they go to lunch 12:45 to 1:20 they have lunch lunch 1:20 to 150 they have recess at 150 they come back in they'll have a third period they're going as a class to that third period meaning who they start at home room typically yes yep and then um and then from there that's going to take them to the end of the day that's going to be 310 at 310 305 310 they're going to pack up and then the bell's going to dismiss from there they're going to dismiss out to
107potentially an after school thing like choir band Lego Club drama club name it or they'll get on the bus get picked back up and go home so if they receive Support Services due the day how does that work into that yeah it's a really good question so it depends on the kid okay but typically what we try and do is we try and line up that support with the class that they're needing support in right so if I'm an ELA kid right and I'm going and uh I'm I have a need an instruction for for reading we're going to try and have that intervention come on the back half of that reading block right because the front half of that's going to be that tier one instruction time I'm going to teach you something new
108in the fifth grade curriculum and then I'm going to have that time where I want you to work and do that independently right and so for a kid that we know might need additional support that independent time could be really difficult for them so that intervention might look several different ways it might be Tom Reed swell a fifth grade teacher is going to give that particular intervention right there because it's not a very high need there and it's something that a classroom teacher can provide um several times a week it might be something that they're going out and working um with uh M stole who's one of our our members of the curriculum team one of our instructional AIDS right they might be going out three times a week in a tier 2 intervention it
109might be a tier three intervention where they're going out on a regular basis every day with say Miss stole or Mrs a or someone that way or it might be something where they're working um with uh Carrie Pacini who's our special ed teacher um supporting students in fifth and sixth grade same thing that would be also for say like math we'd really try and Target that back half of that math block sometimes what we're seeing the challenge for some kids is they have multiple needs and so we're trying to make sure that we're getting them all those interventions with having the least amount of impact to their tier one instruction so so what does a typical fifth grader have interaction with their with teachers and faculty during that day do they have interaction with three
110teachers no pairs what what do they have interaction with well it's so typical like think tier one student no interventions you'd have your home room teacher you'd have so would be would be either right so it' either be um right Mr Yuan Mrs hemperly or Mrs tishy Right so you'd have home room so you'd have one classroom teacher then second in ela let's take someone who's in Mr yuan's class they'd have Jason Yuan they'd have Brook hemperly and J tishy at a minimum they're going to have three classroom teachers and one specialist every day and then if they're in intervention they might have one or two interventionists or in special ed they would have a special ed teacher who would be working with them typically Mrs Pacini it depends student to student depending on student
111need they might have um one or possibly two par professionals who might support them through some of those interventions um but it it really depends student to student that's very specific to a particular child's case now within the fifth grade team have we had changes in teachers or faculty this year or is everybody been status quo since the beginning that changes yes for sorry yes for science so on an off day so think on so think AB on an a day you would have those three students those three periods and you'd have social studies on your b day you would have um Alyssa garula who would be science so you'd still have you'd still have tishy and math hemperly in reading and then you'd have say Home Room for Yan and you'd have science for
112garula so could either be three or four right but the same and Gul came in we started in September with we are currently at in the fifth grade with the exception of science science science teacher left in September science uh yeah we brought in we brought in um midall so how is everything working out currently in the fifth grade everything's status quo everything is good I think it it okay we had we had a hypothesis that we needed to be able to take a look and try and find greater time for Math and I think what we're seeing both on the way in which we're approach coaching math in fifth grade and the time that we've been able to put on task for that we're seeing some really strong results comparative year over um so
113the kids came in with that initial Benchmark in the fall um they were off by about two percentile points last year it was 48 this year it was 50% in the green and they've gone um last year we got them to 60% this year we've got 70% of the green um and I think it was 72 on the the chart you had up there earlier uh it's 72 uh it's 72 overall when I look at fifth grade we went we went uh 50 we went from 50 to 70 so far substantial grow yeah significant and that's without the added time no that is that is with the added time because that's that's with us really trying to focus and Ure that we got we got that hour plus block of math every single day so
114you got to think they get Ela math science or social studies Ela math science or social studies so we're guaranteeing we get that large chunk of ela and math every day Saul asked you another question what leads you to believe that we need more support to math in the fifth grade how did you make that determination historical well a combination so historical um what we've seen across the state um and and what we've seen across many districts as a as a significant um drop off in test scores into fifth grade and what we've anecdotally seen here um a lot of what we've seen so we've really been digging into like why right because we see the data and then the question is why and so we've really been looking at it there's a lot of
115things that that work as rules that then don't necessarily apply as you start getting higher and higher right so you say well like the bigger number is bigger well a fourth isn't bigger than a third because four is bigger than three but when you look at it no it's not anymore right and so we're really flipping things on their head in fifth grade and we're running into a lot of kids especially even like this year where we'll say all right so here's this new right we're taking the way that we've been thinking about math and we're going to apply it in a new way in are like no but that's not the way this is the way and we go that was the way now as we're looking at it we're applying this way and
116so we're really looking at ensuring that not only in fifth grade we're getting kids ready for those standards but also making sure that prior to that we're not setting kids up for a rule that expires when we get to say negative numbers right you're going to do a subtraction problem you put the bigger number on top you subtract the smaller number if I have $10 and I spend 20 I don't put the bigger number on top you do in my house it's a rough budget but you know what I mean like so there's some of those things that that expire that way and so we're trying to both attack that math thinking and build flexible problem solvers and think about what may get in the way of those kids what might be a roadblock as
117they're approaching that in fifth grade to set them up for greater success so the difference between fourth grade math and fifth grade math where they're at right now in the beginning year is that a significant growth for the kids to catch up with or is it kind of like a slow building process or is it there's a this rapid change from fourth to fifth I think we're seeing growth so we're seeing growth in all grades from from the fall to the winter I think that what we've typically seen is that going from fourth to 5ifth cohorts that may have seen seemed really strong in fourth grade haven't been as strong with the fifth grade standards in curriculum and so what we're really trying to do is think about how we can ensure that kids are
118really good computers but also really good problem solvers and thinkers because you've got to be able to just you it's like reading you can't just read the words you have to read and understand what the words are saying you can't just add the numbers you have to be able to do something with that addition subtraction multiplication and division and so we're starting to see them needing to apply a lot more of that approaching those standards in fifth grade and the more that we can get flexible thinkers there and kids that are thinking about it from a problem solving standpoint the the better we're seeing them them do on you know overall overall a as mathematicians but then as it translates to you know standardized scores but historically we see trouble with that that that round
119up okay yeah y so that was our struggle yeah a little bit yeah and I think it's one of those that you know historically I think you know and I'll say it all the time as a former stem coach it's always been acceptable to say socially I'm just not good at math but nobody walks around and goes I'm just not a good reader I can't read right but it's socially acceptable like it gets a laugh I'm just not a number guy right so we're trying to really counteract that and be like why do kids get to that thinking and a lot of times it's because they've built this one thinking and then it gets turned on their head and so they give up and they go well math is impossible and so we're trying to
120say no Math's just it's a different way of thinking so historically we see that change between fourth and fifth there's a big when we look at a lot of those rules we've been looking at them a lot of them fall apart in fifth grade and then again a lot of them start to fall apart into seventh grade as you go that way Sean we had bunch of the data presentations over the last so many years there's been that continual like trying to figure out why there's that drop that's part of the reason why like the curriculum committee we had suggested an update on we know they implemented some changes so that's why the next curriculum committee that that's what we asked for we're going to get an update on where that fifth grade math stands
121with some of the changes they they've made fifth grade math steam Summit how that whole model is working yeah can can I ask a followup as well I'm I'm just something that you that you just said really resonated with me that we know know that for for fifth graders um you know there's a lot of other things going on with them right socially developmentally um I have one of home um she's lovely I have a six-year-old if you want to trade good thanks um but I'm curious that I know that we have a lot of really good measurements of how they're doing on sort of like the standardized assessments of math do is do we have any way of measuring these like attitudes and I'm think and maybe I'm thinking this particularly as the parent
122of a girl but I know a lot there's a lot of research that attitudes are start to differ between girls and boys at this age do we do we have a way to measure that and so that we know how our how well our changes are succeeding sort of on the test but do we have any sense of how well our changes are changing those attitudes yeah so margorie Nome who is not here would say thank you so much for asking that question so that I would say the short answer is yes and no so yes we do around overall attitudes for students no not particularly directed towards math so when we look at that Desa assessment that we talked about from the steering committee presentation part of that is really looking at where students
123have strengths and where they may have weaknesses now again it's an adult facing rubric right I look and I say here's Tom you know how is he with all of these different things one of the things that we've seen as an overall weakness of students in general is goal directed behavior and that's not like I need to set a goal and reach it but it's also like what do people who are goal directed do they persevere through challenges they think flexibly about a problem all of those things they see the steps to reach from point A to point B and so if you're a kid in math and before point A to point B was take the first number take the second number put them together now it's take the first number analyze what is
124that first number take the second number analyze what that is determine what you're actually doing with those now I have to think more flexibly and I have a lot more steps and so I think that that's part of it and when you talk with Jess tishy she notices that in a lot of students is um the the the you know the psychologist will call it Rock brain right you get stuck you're a rock like it is what it is is what it is and so that's part of what we're trying to counteract is to say it might have been but here's some ways to really kind of build you as a flexible thinker and so we're we're thinking about that overall for the school and then very specifically for Team Summit because we're seeing some
125of that come through in terms of math thinking and so thenc so overall for the school specifically in Team Summit and then within Team Summit kids specifically around math yeah I think that's what we've really been that's some of the beauty of the data team process is that that's really where we've gotten to in our conversations is we've looked at the desk and we've gone wow gold directed behavior and then we've been like then we talk about what does that actually look like when we say that like kids have a deficit in go directed Behavior or they don't have a strength in go directed behavior and then thinking about what's the opposite so what does a a student who has a strength in that look like and then how do we get those other kids
126there this is I don't know it I guess there's really no polite way to say it that's okay but in fifth grade in math period yeah there's always been since I can remember sure the old joke that girls were better at math and men in certain grades you know in the younger grades that the the girls did better in math then as you got into the the the the high school and the college it it started to flip around is that something that's demonstrative in other words is there a is there truly a um a difference or is it just something that's perceived I mean I I would say that the challenge of it is that I think sometimes young girls are are are are living in an overall community that turns into a self-fulfilling
127prophecy right and so the challenge is that right is that is that we need to as a collective ensure that they have role models that they see themselves as strong mathematicians right and so I think the beauty is that they have two very strong women who are there as their Math teachers who aren't sitting there going hey you know like I'm the science and humani people they're going no math is cool like I'm the math you know I'm the math nerd I really like numbers and so I think that that's a first part to it and that I think a lot of times what you have is if you have really good role models that way then kids can see themselves as having really good efficacy in that area and if not I think you
128run the risk of having a self-fulfilling prophecy to say quote unquote girls aren't good at math and then they're worrying am I one of those girls that isn't good at math maybe I'm one of those girls that's not good at math is math really hard for girls and not boys and all of a sudden you have that pressure of not fulfilling that stereotype and that can be really burdensome and so we're really trying to counteract that both with strong instruction good role models and really thinking about how we can build those strategies so that they can feel successful when they hit that road block thank you welcome anything else thank you I think that was a very um very informative discussion I'm very happy with that I appreciate the care to our instruction uh I
129thought it was well done and I thought it was well uh it's something we needed to hear everybody El set moving right along Chairman's report two things number one Sean had mentioned at the last meeting about trying to get the teachers here maybe once or twice a year to do a a presentation on what's cooking uh to that end Kay and I met with um Kim Walton and Jamie Bowen from the teachers and that discussion is ongoing and uh we hope to have something to report either next month or the month after but we did have that disc we started that discussion I was thrilled tonight when they were all here what's that I love when all the features come in well then you hear it right from the horses not what's going on okay
130good uh second thing um as many of you know there was an incident with a burned Bagel about two weeks ago and and um part what Bagel gate Bagel gate and Jesus I hate that part of the uh even though I've used it I apologize I dig R um part of what came out of that is there's some confusion about uh response and hanging the bbfd the Bethany volunteer fire department out um so to that end Kay sent out an invitation this morning to herself Tom Reed Swale um Rich kogil uh Brent chiarelli sha Uh Kevin from uh facilities uh myself Dave Miriam and sea um fire marshal uh Dave what Steve Steve soua for a zoom meeting uh next week to discuss in short what happened was the alarm was pulled the alarm was
131cancelled bbfd uh wasn't notified so there was a little bit of confusion um thank God there was nothing serious and it appeared to be more a miscommunication than anything else but to that end um we're going to have a a discussion among the principal parties to make sure that doesn't happen again you got the invitation to R I didn't look at my email yet today okay well you were on was there uh if there's anybody else from the from the from the board that wants to be involved in this thing you're more than welcome I'll have uh K send you a link it's next Friday uh the 23rd at 10:30 in the morning that's assuming everybody can make it but we got at least the the the particulars who are uh K Tom excuse me
132uh the first selectman would like to be on that list is that what you're asking sure can you put the first selectman on the list list it's a lot of people to fine-tune protocols what's that it's a lot of people to fine-tune the protocols no that's it's the the bottom line is that the protocol is the alarm gets pulled and bvfd takes over that's the protocol all right yeah I just want to caution you that if you're going to have all the board members present they'll have to have it as a posted meting for open meeting and that's why I'm saying if anybody wants to attend it'll have to be changed post it'll have to be changed to a post so just it has a level of uh of complexity and that's three that's three
133members or more and right now there's two if Mr CFO joins the meeting it becomes well but Sean is Jo yeah yeah then my suggestion is post it I hate like hell doing that this this seems like a lot of Overkill to just say how come you missed the phone call well this really seems like this is requested I got a phone call this was requested I'm doing what was requested you know we don't want it to happen again there's a number of people that feel that there was a breakdown and that um it could have been a lot worse uh Now's the Time to do it over something as innocuous as a burnt Bagel we don't want to be doing this as an after I 100% agree with you that you should do it
134but I don't think you need that many people to do it the whole board there the first select woman the fire fire department the fire marshal the you need the fire Marsh you need the Fire Marshall you need the volunteer fire department you need the principal you need the superintendent and if you have a board member then if you're the board member that's taking care of that then I think there there's your team Sean is head of facilities who should be there because he handles facilities Okay Kevin should be there because Kevin is our facilities person Dave Maran is a uh Town police officer who should be there because he's also a safety officer the fire marshal should be there because he's the guy who clears the building you know and I'm opening it up
135to any board member because that's the what we should be doing I'm not going to tell a board member they can't attend a meeting okay so this is now a public meeting there's nothing you can do about it we we kept it to a d minimum who someone pulled the post station who reset the post can can okay we've already started just give a brief front down so there was a burnt Bagel um that in in one of the places and as somebody was in the hallway they smelled smoke sure and they smelled something that was burning not being able to easily identify what it is they pulled the pole station and we evacuated the building MH and then somewhere in between the evacuation of the building where when the alarm goes off the alarm
136company is supposed to notify bvf date right they didn't get that notification so we evacuated the building Dave Miriam was here we were you know the cast of V her was all here um the alarm was turned off we came back into the building fire marshall Susa came he inspected the building he said I really would have you know wished you guys had wa waited for me to come back inside but you didn't okay um let me have a time in front of the staff I'll just give them reminders of what is appropriate evacuation and return procedures never hurts to have him back in front of the staff so we agreed to do that with Fire Marshall Souza and that's it so the people that are on the invite list I think are the minimum
137that we need other than for select woman I um alarm company didn't call well and and soal station can I yeah the whole question they waiting for the 911 tap to is who canell the fire department and so are we going to speak freely John or no you're going have a public meeting now so you may as well set meeting for the only reason the fire department found out about it was Dave Mar and called looking for the fire department yeah someone should have been like com so the bottom line is so the bottom line there's something happened and it's fortunate there was only a burned Bagel sure and let's iron this out now rather than waiting till we lose a wing or something God forbid so is is this kind of overkill for having
138this many people I don't think so well it sounds like the one person one of the people that's not in the list then is somebody from the alarm company right well we're not sure where that came from that's in the process of being right now that's something entirely different and the alarm company only only uh only uh notifies that they have really no no purpose in this other than notifying the volunteer fire department which is the thing they got dropped right alarm company calls dispatch yeah dispatch calls BBF and if someone from here calls the alarm company says you can cancel as a false alarm they call dispatch and they say dispatch we're getting reports from the school it's a false alarm then they'll call bvfd and say hey we're getting reports from the school
139it's a false alarm bvfd is still going to come to confir we're just going to lower the alarm know the interesting part is is CSP knew about the firearm at the school that's how the day staff at the fire department found out the firearm was going off because they listened to CSP and they're standing there going why aren't we going and they're calling the Dispatch Center going what's going on at the school oh that alarm was cancelled so they're trying to figure out how all that transpired they're waiting apparently for the 911 tape since we're speaking fre that sounds like a problem at dispatch that may very well be but in the meantime in the interest of not seeing this happen again yes in the in the interest of getting a protocol ironed out it's
140better to air on the side of caution you know a half an hour meeting May solve a lot of issues can I ask a question though that after hearing some of this though no if this leads to any individual that made a mistake and now becomes a Personnel matter in a discussion it evidentiary I don't think it's going that far I think what it's going to happen meeing to you know what I mean if if it's a public discussion and then all of a sudden it turns into an individual Personnel I'm not look I'm not looking to establish blame I'm looking to establish procedure and I think that's all the fire department is looking for yeah which I think is a good meeting but if we make it a public meeting it's not a hey
141let's figure out what happened and then we can report on what it is if the if it becomes a Personnel discussion that's public it needs to be closed but that's what that's what I'm saying so if we say we're going to have a full board meeting if it becomes a Personnel discussion then I think we shut the thing down and we approach it differently and I don't think but I I'm not I'm not seeing this is coming as a Personnel issue we won't know until we don't know until it starts and that's why if I have to shut the thing down and you know hey guys we can't do this like this then we do it but right now the way I see this is not so much as fact finding but to just establish
142a protocol so that this doesn't happen again you know at the very least what comes out of it is oh the Fire Marshall clears the building well and we we have to we have to get something right and I think what the whole thing too is what I think is we're missing with this is the fire department has a 10 to 12 minute reflex time to anything you do so if they cancel the call no one's coming and then someone walks upstairs cuz the kids want outside oh and it's happened upstairs we had a fire upstairs in the second floor and someone finds something it canceled it now you got that 10 to 12 minute reflex time that's back into play now you're 15 minutes into this thing so it it does matter that we
143make sure everybody's on the same page and and that's why I said I'm not looking at this as a personel matter I'm working this as a procedural matter if it D Deen degenerates into a personal matter then it shuts down and we go a different route but this I'm I'm looking at this as amiable I'm looking this as a discussion and maybe establish a couple of procedures and if we have to put them in writing we put them in writing but I'm not looking at saying well Kevin you didn't make the phone call or David you didn't make the phone call or the fire marshal didn't make the phone call that's not what this is about this is about to ensure that the next time this happens there's a polic a procedure whatever you want
144to call it in place that everybody is notified correctly promptly and with no confusion that's all fair I have another question though for K if we have a public meeting on BCS evacuation procedures is that become problematic from a school safety standpoint we're telling the public how which exits we're evacuating from and that kind of thing versus that's not what this meeting's for but it's going to come up we have to talk about if we're talking about a procedures John Paul you have to that's what we're talking about is we're talking it's my understanding this is strictly a notice this is not a mechanics mechanics has already been established the school established a mechanics for how to evacuate a school a long time ago this is not a mechanics this is a notice this is
145so the FY volunteer fire department doesn't get hung out the dry again I I think I do think I'm not debating whether we this like conversation needs to happen I'm just my concern is I think this is a procedural matter that should be within the the small group that it entails not this first discussion should not be an entire town meeting it's not a question of a town meeting it's question of we now have three members of the board I won't go you take care of it I don't think it should be a full board thing I think you're right Sean if Sean's in the facility or you as the chair goes I think that's appropriate yeah but Joe says he wants to go if it's going to turn into a public meeting I think
146I think the end result is all they're looking for is to put everybody on the same page I don't think that's what I'm saying I agree with as well how the kids are leaving the building where they're going it's like hey look the firearm goes off during school hours please look around if you have a fireing ability call 911 and police tell them that because it trips a whole another Matrix and the response if you guys have nothing that's great call them back and tell them that so someone can come here walk the building reset the alarm and walk away I think it's all they want that's and that's and that's what I Envision and that's what I Envision yes I do not Envision this is saying you know how you evacuate a school where
147you're going that's already been established at the start of the school year and we're not discussing that that isn't the discussion public information that isn't the discussion what the discussion is is what happened the breakdown of communication and to make sure it doesn't happen again that's all okay so cancel cancel the public meeting thank you John no problem I do get your concerns though but I don't think that's what they're looking for no I know it's not I guess in the discuss somebody ask a question with you know someone gets up and now there's a public comment part and somebody starts asking questions and there's response I just don't want to make sure we're not setting ourselves up for Yes I I want to make sure we get to the point of exactly what you
148said needs to get done that procedural piece and it doesn't get sidetracked by having it won't other components that's there's there's one component as far as I'm concerned there's one component and one component only and I believe when I tell you they're not drifting I think it's just going to be a very clear and concise me so everybody is on the same and nobody in here you know I know all the players personally and I think no one here is looking to place blame I think everybody is just wanting to make sure that thank God there was just only a burnt Bagel you know and and that's sometimes these are good time these are these are good to have out sometimes these kinds of things lead to a positive change you know like like they
149said to me when I got the first phone call about it was you guys have fire drills and the Firearms going off the fire Dr pull up it's like hey hi fire drill day and no one told them so you know that I think they want to address that issue too so we'll we will discuss it but this is not a this is this is not a uh let's find fault and hang somebody excuse me this is not a let's find fault and uh and assign blame and you know castigate something that's not what this is about this is only procedure ual you know were errors made sure they were mad when I got the first phone call well like I said this is procedural and that's the way it's going to stay this is
150not personal no or personal and I will ensure that it stays that way anything else so that's all I've got to report correspondence public comments second go round going once going twice sold American motion to adjourn second all in favor Happy Valentine's Day Happy Valentine's Day turn