001[clears throat] Ready, I'm calling to order the committee on the instructions support services committee on Wednesday, March 25th at 5:40. Apologize for the delayed start. I take complete credit or responsibility. Um is late. I'm good. And we've got in Um with joining me tonight, Mr. Medina and Mr. uh Benavente Granados. And then also joining the members of the committee, we have Um Maritza Estremara Jimenez. Woodson. I'm Jonathan Woodson. I'm just here to observe. Mr. Woodson, I'm Henry Woodson. And then joining me here is uh Joe Sokolovic. And then we have the the superintendent, yes. Superintendent Avery. Okay. And then um first item on the agenda is to approve the minutes of January 28th, which was the last time we met. Uh can I have a motion to approve the minutes? So moved. Moved by Mr.
002Medina. I'll second that motion. All in favor say I. I. I. Minutes are approved. Um Second item on the agenda is referral to the full board for approval of a multicultural magnet school overnight field trip on May 6th through 8th, 2026 to the outdoor classroom in Lakeside, Connecticut. Are you speaking on this tonight? I'm speaking, yes. Would introduce yourself to the meeting and I'll say >> I don't know where to look. There or there? Um You can look at me, you can look over there. Okay, thank you. Awesome, thank you. Good evening, everybody. My name is Corina Star. I am the science teacher at Multicultural Magnet School for a grade seven and eight. Um I'm also the coordinator of the outdoor classroom, our yearly seventh grade field trip to outdoor classroom, formerly known as Nature's
003Classroom. I am here to ask for your approval for our field trip. Um this is a great field trip for our students uh because they love First off, they love going on this field trip. They come back and they want to go back next year, but we're only doing it for seventh grade. Um it is a great and unique unique opportunity for our students to learn science um while exploring the outdoors. Uh not only that, but um they're building community, they're learning about um resources and resource availability. So, overall, it's a really great field trip. Um we're going to be doing it for three uh days this year cuz I also have a little one, so unfortunately, we couldn't do it for five days. Um but I'm I I personally am looking forward to be
004doing this field trip uh and I know my students are also looking forward to be doing it. I have here Cameron, one of my students who would like to speak uh for himself and his peers. Cameron. Good evening. My name is Cameron Cox and I'm a student in seventh grade at Multicultural Magnet School. And today, I'll be speaking on behalf of myself and my fellow classmates on why I think we should go on the outdoor classroom field trip. Um I think that you should consider approving this field trip because it would be a new experience to learn about nature in a way we would not be able to learn about in the classroom. And this [clears throat] field trip will teach us responsibility and and teamwork. For many of us, this field trip will be
005a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will remember and carry with us throughout many trips. I think that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening. If you have any questions, we're open to your questions. I'm going to ask the basic question that uh I'm assuming uh that this trip has been properly vetted. If you will. The permission slips are done. >> Yes, we have everything. I have the Yes, everything was submitted to Dr. Plass, who's our principal, and he submitted all the necessary paperwork to uh the necessary committees. Uh everything was signed, phone numbers. Yes, everything is here. And the husband. Are you the overriding authority? Who is Who is confirming that it is all approved? >> I am. I am. We are We are streamlining things. Uh we used to book it all this
006stuff, we don't need to. We are assuming that when she says it is, then it is. Um and that's good enough for me. Um and you young man, I I absolutely hope you have a great time. There is nothing nicer than getting out there and and doing the things you young men will be doing. Um are there any questions from any members of the committee? Mr. Medina. Thank you, chair. To the chair, I just want to more of a comment than a question. I think you hit the the nail on the head in making sure that we have our checklist to make sure we can see that. I think uh those that are within the room, I'll be there shortly that uh that confirm all those checklists have been done. Just to make sure that
007we meet our responsibility, but also I want to commend the staff uh and the principal that uh advocated with the kids and to find out if somebody wants to come and make a presentation to the young man that's here in the room, which I'll meet very shortly. Just want to congratulate you and thank you for for coming and presenting to us and sharing your opinion. Uh those that are in the grades lower than you are going to be able to see this and use this as a platform and as a um a push that way they can also come. So, I I I applaud your staff and your principal and your teacher that decided to get somebody and your willingness and your parents' willingness to help us uh hear from you guys. So, I just
008want to thank you. I look forward to hearing back from you. Like I always tell all our staff and our students, I look forward to hearing back from you on your trip and um have a safe one and enjoy. Look forward to making our vote. Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Manahan. Um other members of the board. Mr. Sokolovic. Yeah, I'd just like to add on to what Mr. Medina said. And I'd like to give an additional compliment to our student cuz he does something I still struggle with. Uh you were reading your testimony, you kept looking up at the audience. While I find myself, I always struggle when I'm reading, I forget [clears throat] to look up. And I'm just reading straight off the paper and I'm mumbling. You did very well to maintain eye
009contact and that's something a lot of people struggle with, especially myself. So, thank you. Thank you. And those those were all his words. Like I didn't Oh, I have no I have no doubt about that. I have no doubt about this. Students know how to speak for themselves very well. Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Estremara Jimenez, Mr. Woodson. Hearing none, uh I'll take a motion to approve uh the trip. So moved. Moved by Mr. Medina. I'll second that motion. Um all in favor say I. I. I. Any Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion passes. Hope you enjoy your trip. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. We You are free to go. Thank you so much. Enjoy the beginning of the agenda. Go home. And uh our next uh item on the agenda is
010a referral to the full board for the approval of the High Horizons Magnet School overnight field trip 5th, 2026 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I'll take Manahan. I'm High Horizons. So, Brian C. Carbone. Mr. Gooding is out today. Um Uh I started out with Helen Moran 28 years ago at the beautiful times like me uh at uh Dunbar. And she didn't have a program in the tag program. Each year we'd go to They'd take one grade, they'd go to They'd go to New York. One grade would DC. One grade One grade would go to Philly. When she left for um Cooper School um 27 years ago, uh she brought me over there. And when she interviewed me, she said, "Will you take our students to Washington, DC?" And you know, if it wasn't my wife who let
011me, I was all for that. And so, we started at that point, we started taking them going to Washington, DC every year at $375 the first trip. And then the following year, we took our kids to Philadelphia. So, we we take seventh and eighth graders because it just it just uh I can't fill a bus with just one grade. So, we've got to point now where where this year is Philadelphia. Um and then before we do a one-day trip to the New York City and the Statue of Liberty and 9/11 Memorial. And then the um next year we'll go to a Boston for one-day trip. So, we uh we give our students the opportunity to see um uh see you know, major cities in in our in our northeast northeast region. Um it is a
012it's educational but it's also fun. And kids kids go go to go on the trip, they're going to get two nights in a hotel. And for their parents for for their bank account, they're going to get they're going to be in be where the Constitution was written. Uh it's a great field trip and the Declaration was written. And um it it brings to life the things that our kids have learned in And I'm I'm they actually eighth grade it's a culminating activity for everything they've learned in seventh grade. It it prepares them for next year and so when they're in eighth grade um the stuff is going to seem real easy. Um it's a wonderful trip. It's it's the best three days of the year. And we'll do them too. Since um again I'm just
013I'll say thing I before if I may to the chair. Uh everything was vetted and everything that they're sharing the transportation, all that stuff has been vetted and checked on. The first I was missing one the parent I was missing one permission slip. And they let me know and we were told that you cannot get to this meeting if if it wasn't perfectly vetted. So, if somebody's here they were just testing them to see if they were ready on the toes. And uh as as we discussed on that week on Perfect. Thank you very much. Look forward to hearing back from staff one and or their students. Appreciate it. Can't wait to get the first one in. Good job. Any other questions? Any questions from any of the non-members? I'll take a motion to approve
014this. So moved. Second Mr. Medina. Moved by Mr. Medina, second by Mr. Bennett. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion passes. Okay, have a wonderful time. Thank you. Okay. Now, I'm I'm way over the time. Okay. The high attendance student base. Okay. Um I I believe Dr. Avery, you're up. Our next item on the agenda is a presentation on Connecticut State Department of Ed support. It's not going to be a presentation. I just wanted to give the board uh an update Mr. uh Traynor regarding uh the work that's being done in district with the two state technical assistance teams. Uh I call them team one and team two. Uh team one is the first initial technical assistance uh team uh that started with the district probably back in I don't even have the
015exact date, but they've been with the district for over six months now working through internal, you know, um process and procedures, uh you know, dealing with special education, uh our district transportation, and just your basic operational features that need needed assistance. And so uh I call that team boots on the ground uh because they are members of um uh the Connecticut community that's in-house with us, you know, once or twice a week. Uh they they're working with um uh district leadership uh again on special education, you know, areas, uh transportation areas, and just just your basic protocols and things that we need to do. Um and and I can tell you that team uh that consists of uh Dave, Dave, and Ed, uh they've done a good job of trying to keep us connected and
016together on the day-to-day operations of the district. Um and very very excited to say that I've made tremendous progress uh with their with their assistance. Um and then just a couple months ago um the commissioner um added a second team. I call those my virtual team members. Uh they have been working with um the district and working uh to complete uh the 34 recommendations from the forensic audit. Um they are they're more uh process and procedural, you know, uh support they've been giving us on making sure sure we take all 34 recommendations and we're working through process and procedures and efficiency opportunities to uh streamline the work that we're doing um with within the district uh on again process and procedures to effectively address the the needs that were brought up through the forensic audit.
017Um that team is is working side by side with with the HR department, special education department, and transportation department uh to try to come up with process and procedures and manuals that we could establish within the district uh to be able to work through some of those uh recommendations to make sure that we don't fall back into old ways of doing business. Uh and uh at the end of this process and hopefully by uh the end of school, the end of June we'll have special education manuals and and process materials to work through uh with staff to make sure that these protocols are are being adhered to and that we have a process of updating these manuals uh on a yearly basis. Uh that's special education protocol manuals that will be uh presented to teacher
018and to administrators at campus level. There is departmental um you know, manuals and process and procedures that are going to be developed in the HR, you know, department and the finance department uh in the the budget and in purchasing uh divisions as well. Uh again, these are process and procedure things that you know, should have already been in place, but I think, you know, over the years through the different, you know, administration changes, uh things just did was just not, you know, uh followed up on and make sure that we're actually uh connecting and doing those things. The other overarching thing that the um the team two is working with the with with my team is to help to streamline policies uh that need to be updated in uh HR, finance, uh business process and
019procedures, all those things. So, they are working uh with Christian and myself to make sure those policies that in that directly impact HR, finance, uh all those things are, you know, established and written down and then being able to be followed. And so uh I I'm pleased to say uh today that uh they have done a great deal of work uh making sure that those internal process and procedures are done. Uh we still have, you know, quite a bit of work to still do, uh but I think at the end of the day, at the end of the school year, we'll have all those things um summed up and ready to go uh and uh established. Uh so as we start the new school year, we'll have a a process and procedural uh opportunities to
020do really good work moving forward in the district uh and I'm exact I'm very very excited. So, at this point, I'll take any questions that you guys may have uh and then we can roll this over hopefully to give the full board a report um and I'll have a little bit more detail for the full board as we move forward. So, uh Mr. Traynor, I'll turn back to you. Um that was to the committee. I have a question. Through you Madam Chair. Um sir sir chair, sorry. Uh do we Mr. Traynor Through you, sir. I don't have my device. Do we have a do did they set up a calendar yet on on what's the next steps? Um I know we here I know they here, but we don't know where we are in their
021process as far as you know, where's where's the end or what's the end goal uh to them? Well, I I think the ultimate end goal is to make sure all 34 recommendations are addressed uh and there's a solution for each each one of those 34 recommendations. And my hope my hope is that they're out of the district by the end of June. Uh I don't I hadn't got any clarification from the state if that's going to be the case, but I'm thinking that's, you know, when we first initiated, you know, with both of the uh teams, team one was going to be finishing up in January of this past January, but they've extended it out to June. Uh and I think the when you look at the contract uh for the second team, they are
022they also are to be completed by June. Uh and so that that's why I said by June, they should be out of the district and then we will sum that up. Uh and usually what will happen with that, they'll do a a a total report that will go to the board uh to make sure that all those things are adhered to. Uh in addition to some of the requirements on the other side that the board is required to do. Uh so, as long as both sides of the house meets their priorities and their goals to get things completed, I think then they will release, but they're not going to let us know until all those things are done. I know there's a few policy items that they're pushing the board to complete. I think you've
023completed a good 80 to 85% of them all, but they're still a couple of things that will be brought to the board over the next at least the next month. Uh we'll have a lot of those. I think the 2000 series has to be done, uh 4000 series. So, there's a couple of other things that we're in the process of bringing to the board over the next couple of weeks and to the policy committee over the next couple of weeks. Uh and so that we can make sure that we meet that June deadline. Uh and I think they're communicating with Jennifer. I'm not 100% sure, but Jennifer like uh board chair could provide you with that additional update, Mr. Medina, uh if you request that. Yeah, I just I'll look forward to our regular meeting
024and maybe you can you gave me a good number, 80 85% as far as the policies concerned. Uh I know you mentioned the 34. I would like to know where are we? You know, you can do that at the full board meeting tonight. Where are we with that 34? Are we completed already 15? Are we completed, you know, how are we doing? And then what else are we I would love for the board to have a checklist to for us to know where we need before we need it done. You know, what I mean? Um so, that'll be good for us uh and or to all the chairs of the committees to know where we are that we can be actively working on that and following up with you guys also to get that work
025done. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome, sir. Thank you. Please. Um I have one question um that I don't think we ever got a final answer to. Uh with the with the team one, the OG, the old guys. Uh-huh. Uh I didn't find >> [laughter] >> Um Team one. Team one, yeah. The there was a fourth. Um and um we never got her report. Did we? Uh I never received it and if the board chair never received it, you guys probably didn't receive it. So, we probably did not get that. They I think they they have forgotten Yes, sir, it was. I will I think between um board chair Jennifer Perez and myself, we may just need to put that in writing and ask for that again because they kept saying that they
026were getting it, they're getting it, they're getting it, but they never got it. Uh the uh the team one will be in the district on Friday. So, I will make that request again. Uh my my weekly meeting with the deputy commissioner was canceled for Friday, so I'm not going to be meeting with him on Friday. Uh you know, and that's the other part of it I forgot to add that I have a meeting with the deputy chief the deputy uh commissioner uh Charlie Hughes every month on Fri I mean every week on Friday and the lead for both of those technical assistance team is also on that call. So, it's myself, Dave Irwin, and Joanne Cox uh and the deputy commissioner. We we meet in order to make sure those 34 recommendations are being taken
027care of. We don't We don't really engage in what um uh requirements that's left over with the board. Uh that goes through the board chair. So, I I I don't That's something that I think you if I were you, Mr. Traynor, make that request of Jennifer as a referral uh and then she can make a formal request to him to make sure that the board is making sure they're getting everything they need as well. And I can you know, I can also follow up with Jennifer as well. So, uh if you don't mind doing that, I think that would if we can meet in the middle with both of them to give you guys a full report on everything, uh I think we can make that happen. But the But the But the fourth person
028is is um has been She has never made another attempt to be part of uh this technical assistance team as far as I know since we had that last, you know, um request made probably I'm not sure if it's been a long time ago when we had those public um public um meetings within the district that she was spearheading. I hadn't heard anything since then. Uh and so um I I too would love to get my hands on that report as well, sir. Well, you just anticipated my next question. Which is that she's not around anymore. I I I I couldn't answer that question for you, sir. But to the best of our knowledge, to the best of our knowledge, she's no longer a participating member of the technical assistance team. Uh that is my
029uh regulations as well. So, I have not seen her since that day. >> we would know, trust me. >> [laughter] >> So, yes. Okay. Uh Mr. Sikolowic. Yes, um we talked about uh our responsibilities of board and the state technical assistance team and what they've told us so far, where we are on the checklist. Where is the state technical assistance team on it and team two? One of their responsibilities is is not only to get us functioning properly, but also look at our finances. And this is the pointed question I asked team two when they were before us. Have you ever informed the district that they were underfunded, they needed more funding to carry out their program there? And the answer was yes. Is there any of the teams carrying out that duty and realized
030that we actually need more money and speaking to that to the commissioner and to the governor's office because no matter how many efficiencies efficiencies we gain through this process, it's not going to make up for the shortcomings of the state funding formula and all this money that we're short. And if they don't emphatically say that when they get out when they get out of here that they've done everything they can, but they're still 30 40 million dollars short of whatever short we are, I don't think they would be doing their job and they would be doing a disservice to the state of Connecticut and the city of Bridgeport. Thank you for that question cuz you you're spot on, Mr. Sikolowic. I thank you for, you know, bringing that up. And I can tell you they
031have not publicly said that to me nor any member of my team when it comes to, you know, the underfunding piece, but they do see, you know, those those those unique experiences and things that we're dealing with in our district, you know, regarding how we're allocating dollars to certain areas. Now, they're still making us go through the exercise of uh reducing that those budgets, reducing transportation budgets, reducing special ed budgets, reducing out-of-district placements budgets. So, those efficiencies, you know, that we're looking at, we're finding some some some savings, but you're correct. It's not going to be enough savings that's going to give us the 60 the 40 to 60 million dollars that we need within our district. But what is going What it is doing for us though, uh Mr. Sikolowic, is that it's really
032making us streamline our processes and our procedures uh and making sure before we allocate a dollar for anything that we're paying for in this district, we got to make sure that we understand why we're spending the money on it. And and I think sometimes in a large organization like Bridgeport, sometimes you get free willy with somebody else's money. Uh and sometimes you got to come back within the system and that's kind of what we're doing, going back into the system and making sure that the processes to get a service allocated to a student, you know, um there's a process that you have to understand why we giving this, you know, this this related service, do the kid we qualify for the related service? And when you apply a related service, the the related service has
033to have a a mechanism where you come back and you evaluate the effectiveness of of that decision. And we haven't really done that very well in the district. And so, we we've set up protocols to say if we gave a kid a related service for transportation and or a one-to-one para, our job within our district is to once we assign that that one-to-one para, we have the obligation to make sure that we're monitoring progress monitoring that particular service that's being provided. It's not just a free-for-all and then and within 6 months of that service being provided, we should be able to have an analysis of that all the individual things that we provided, you know, related services to, we should as a district, as a campus, as as as a department of special education, should
034be able to understand it was that was that related service effective or not? If it's not effective, what do we do by going back to PPT and evaluating that? Again, that whole process was just really wasn't done efficiently. We we we did it here and there, but we have to constantly do that. So, that's the kind of process and protocols that we're that we're working on for the efficiency side of the house. and I think it's a good exercise. I think we sometimes forget about it but I think that's something that you know leadership should be doing every single time we make those decisions and so but again we don't they have not said that you are correct with that and I'm not for sure if they would even say that you know and that's
035maybe something that the board chair could request or have them come back to another meeting and then and then the board could collectively ask those questions face-to-face. I think that's probably a little bit we can even invite them to a committee meeting if we like to Mr. Traber as a referral back to the committee for them to come to the committee and then come to the full board each individual team can do that and I think that's a great recommendation to be able to put on the table for you guys. Well Yeah absolutely agree with everything you say. I am very big fiscal conservative not only with special education and all these other services but as far even even our purchasing of supplies we should be we should be making sure we get the biggest
036bang for the buck. It's especially important in our district because unlike Greenwich Westport we don't have dollars to spare. We're about 40% under funded in total so we can't afford every dollar that's wasted is even more impactful than it would be in a well-funded district like Greenwich and Westport so we've definitely got to have this two-pronged approach get our funding and once the funding is here spend it responsibly responsible responsibly with oversight. Thank you. And and and and one last point I want to add to your your comment as well and I think that's really what the state is trying to do you know is to make sure if we were to get additional dollars we will have you know systems and process procedures and efficiency opportunities to make sure that that doesn't fall to
037the wayside and I think we're building that and I think my team truly understands the exercise that we're doing there's yes there's a lot of work but I think it's work that's truly needed that's going to help us beneficial along the way down the line so again it's it's a two-pronged perspective I get it but my job as superintendent is to make sure that we sum it up and that we we truly understand where we are and we know what we have to do there's a lot of training that has to come about when we get it all in place and that's what this team the executive team is working on trying to do as we you know go into the summer and lead into the next school year all these things have to be
038trained and we have to kind of put it back to our staff to make sure that we're doing the right thing so it's good work it's a lot of work but I I just felt the need to bring it back to you guys into the full board so you understand that we're not just you know twirling our thumbs up here we're working and it's been really good meaningful work as well. But you guys have been doing an awesome job I really appreciate y'all and um just to reiterate the final point this is not a situation that's unique to Bridgeport with 120 something other districts that are suffering from underfunding and it's not due to inefficiencies in the day so if it if it was due to inefficiencies we'd be suffering from this problem. Factual truth
039absolutely. You said that the last time. However let's go back to the to the point that I think we need to zero in on which is at a critical point in the very near future the false narrative that our problem is misspending money not lack of money needs to be shot down quickly because the real problem in Bridgeport is lack of funding not misspending money and so there has been this false narrative way too long you can you can you can go through our books and go through our spending and our management and find ways that we can be better managers of our funds but the bottom line is we've never had enough funds for decades and if we're you know the the decisions are going to be made in the next four to six
040weeks as to how much funds we're going to have next year and that narrative serves no purpose and we need to be able to have these experts that the state department of Ed has assigned to work with you to say unquestionably there were problems that needed to be dealt with but those problems are being addressed. The bottom line is the system doesn't have enough resources to accomplish the bottom the mission of educating the children of Bridgeport. And that's the problem in Bridgeport. Now I'm not speaking to the bigger picture that Mr. Scofield just referenced of how many other districts are suffering the same problem in this state that doesn't take care of the children in the poorer districts but in Bridgeport speaking to our district and our problem we have a team of experts who
041have been looking at the the situation with a fine-tooth comb. And their conclusion is critical to us making the point. They can very much say this district cannot cannot accomplish its state-mandated mission without an an infusion of more money than is being proposed by either the city or the state. And that's where we will need to get them to appear before us. You're not the one that needs to put the screws to them to answer that question. But we do need to ask those questions and and insist on getting an answer to those questions on the record. Mr. Traber so what I'll do on my side of it I will I will make that request on your behalf and I'll and I'll talk to the board chair and Ms. Perez and have her make that
042request on your behalf because I think you're right and I appreciate you saying in saying what you just said you know I think it needs to be asked of by board to them and see them squirm I guess you can say I don't think you're going to get that response that you want to hear but I think it's an opportunity to put them in front of you to get to see what kind of answer you get I think that's important and I will I'll draft that email up and I'll make sure that when I send it to the deputy commissioner I will make sure Jennifer Perez is in that CC regarding the request that's been made of me to you to them and I think we can make it work and make it happen. We
043need to get an answer with integrity. I I'm with you 100% I'm with you. Just integrity that's it. Honesty and integrity. What then? Were there any other questions from any of the other board members present? Did you have anything else Dr. Anthony? I'm good thank you. Mr. Traber Yes Mr. Wilson. I don't have any questions but I'm going to >> [clears throat] >> well as the as the you know chair of the policy committee I'm going to mention and reiterate what council told to us at the last meeting we had about comments from people that are not part of the committee and and and and debating stuff and you know this stuff should be thought of that this stuff should be you know the way that it's be debated on at the regular meeting so
044I just want to reiterate that again or I'm not going to sit here and not say anything and act like you know she her word doesn't mean anything cuz it does so just want to run that by you while I'm sitting here. Thank you. Your comment is so noted Mr. Wilson. Um Dr. Anthony was there anything else? Mr. Scofield I'm good thank you thank you chair. Um now item five on the agenda is um a pres exploration to include Eid al-Fitr as a district holiday um we have I just this past Friday celebrated Eid al-Fitr as a holiday to mark the end of Ramadan um and had the day off um we were asked uh this past year uh to explore adding another holiday, uh Eid al-Fitr. What? Uh I Thank you for your uh
045asking for action. Um, and uh So, uh I put it on the agenda as I said I would do. Um, we need to look at it. Um, what I wanted to do was start with how many holidays we have now. Um, do we know that? Off the top of my head, I do not. Uh, I had asked that we have this discussion because I wanted to have it in the context of how many holidays we currently have. Um, so I The exploration of adding a holiday to me Yeah, I can pull Uh, I have a I have a I have my school calendar. But I wanted to have this discussion in the context of what we're doing. Okay, good. Thank you. And in the context of our student body. So, Are you thinking about adding
046it for this current school year or looking forward for next year? I Given that we just voted on a new calendar, I don't think we'll be able to have it this next calendar year. Is that the '27-'28? Uh, it seems like it, I think. But, um what I want to do is you know, we have uh you just saw even the current the this past year's weather, right? Uh and the number of snow days we had, we had a difficult decision we had to make um about adding days uh and taking days off. Um, and so we we I wanted to look at how many holidays we have already. How many what what adding another one would do to the overall school year. Um, and then um uh I wanted to look at our student
047population demographics of the student population to see whether this would be justifiable based on the percentage of students we have that uh would be affected by that are directly affected by Uh, I don't know if you did that for the first one. We didn't we didn't I just asked a simple question. I saw online right now. Just did you do that for the first one? Well, it's not a simple answer because Fine. >> the demographics are not collected on a level for years. So, that would be the information got to be inputted in another way. I'm not sure that I can answer that. Yes or no, did you do that for the first one? I was not here. Not you. I'm asking you both. You know first and then I'll first and then I'll wait
048until I'm done with my turn to speak here. I need some information clarity. Okay, what I would like to know is the demographics of the effect of the Muslim population of our student body. It would uh this holiday would be how much of meaningful to Um, we have just added a Hindi holiday. Um that one Muslim holiday. Um, we have two Jewish holidays. We have three six, one, one Christmas, Easter, major Christian holidays. And then we have three kings day. I don't know if you want to call it Christian holiday. Um, but that's also a Puerto Rican holiday, huh? State Oh, I think we're counting on three kings day. Oh. You have it already for next year. That's what I talked to Lorraine and confirmed that. We do have it on March 9th. That holiday
049is in the school calendar, right? Yes. No. >> That is the other one. That's uh That's it. That's the other one. Okay. That's Eid al-Fitr. Yep. What day is that one that we're counting on? That's it. Well, next year I think it's in Which day? January? >> It changes. It's based on a lunar calendar. Hey Siri, what is Eid al-Fitr next year? May 17th. [clears throat] >> It's Friday, the 1st of January, 2027. Yeah, May 17th, Monday. That would be this year's. 2027. Okay, 2027. Got you. May. Yeah, Monday, May 17th. It starts on the 16th, that's right? It goes through the 17th or something. That's on top? On top. In the '26-'27 calendar, it appears that we have 27 holidays. Another Breaks, holidays, not breaks. Just want to know holidays right now. Yeah, you're
050saying 27 days off. Which includes some holidays. In the fall semester, we don't have that. Or I would say Italian Heritage We have Italian Heritage. Yes. Thanksgiving. We have Thanksgiving. It's not a holiday. It's not a holiday? No, we won't. Three kings. Three kings. What about the Christmas that we don't do? That falls in the winter recess. But we do Do you want to count winter recess? Well, yeah, I understand what you're saying then. If winter recess includes New Year's and Christmas Then we have Good Friday and Eid al-Fitr. >> Why are you counting that? Thanksgiving for What is that again? We do with Good Good Friday. >> Good Friday is uh Still tied into the spring break this year? It must be part of It is part of the spring break that goes yet
051it's not here. It's probably the 15th. I'm sorry, not 16th. Not next year. Oh, Good Friday is in March. Yeah. Oh, Good Friday is on the 26th. It's early. They changed our schedule to coincide with the others. That's right. One, two, three. Six. We don't have August. Seven, eight, nine. Which Which ones are you counting? >> I have Labor Day, Yom Kippur. Well, Labor Day is a national holiday, It's a holiday. But It's a holiday, right? So, do you want to count everything that is a holiday because we were trying to do religious or secular? Well, I'm just >> Okay. I'm just counting holidays. >> Holidays, then Yeah, how many days are we not having school because it's a holiday? Okay. That's really what I'm looking at. Then Wednesday I understand you're believing we're still
052living in la-la land with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day because they're part of bigger breaks in our schedules. Um, President's Day Um I didn't count President's Day just because it's only a weekend now. >> Yes. Um, so I did count that. Um Six, seven, nine, 10. 10 for next year. But this one is ways because they don't have on this one. >> We don't Do we have the uh Is Is uh Is the Hindi Hindi holiday >> It's not here because it's on a Sunday next year. And also we don't have uh Rosh Hashanah because that's also on a Sunday. So, then we get Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Are we including all of President's Day weekend or we counting that as one? Well, I'm counting President's Day simply because it's it's there, but hey
053Part of the week like it's a lot of Thanksgiving break. I mean I mean it used to be a week off, but it's not. It's just a long weekend. On Rosh Hashanah, what's the name of the Hindu holiday? Diwali. Diwali. It was a day off last year, but coming Yes. We went this year last. It was a Monday November 20th. I know you took it. No, but it was a day off for last year. It's only one day out of the year. So, do we have um It's a former chair of policy committee. Do we have any policy on adding holidays? If it's already anti-specific As far as any specific like instructions on how to go about it or something like that. I mean I would suggest that you ask I would I would think
054just asking him he was former chair. I don't Yeah, but I didn't see anything, but I I would think that it would be the same thing as every other thing that we had a thing. It's it's They voted on the full board to find out what it was to do. So, thank you. Do you know Do we have any policy on adding What are the vacation rules of the calendar here? No. Good question. So, we could see if we go over to the calendar. I think 8 o'clock is the All right, it's the non-aggression we got to be If you want to add it, first just keep it to yourself, man. And let me know when it's my turn to Well, we're talking about how many days off we have for 12-month employees. And beneficial.
055Hey, Joe. Hey. Also, just wanted to mention Juneteenth. If we vote later, that will that will be a holiday, too. June 19th, and so we need to make sure. It's on Saturday. It's Friday. Coming up. Like it's a Monday the following year. I think we got what the state and I got to get state Department of Education what days all those holidays to find out from them since those are our guidelines. Get that from them. Also, to find out that we have anything. I don't think there's any Okay, I was just curious if there was curious if if since Joe went through this once if he had any if there was any policy to guide it or if he wants No, like I said, the only policy we have is organization idea about this discussion,
056too, Joe. Yeah, no. That's done by hand and by organization that way. Um okay. Um and so I would also like to get the demographics. I appreciate everybody. I'm going to bring anything out of the committee. Do Albert or Billy, do you have any other thoughts on this? I know anything that I was just trying to share my own right now is just to find out what the other districts are doing to find out, you know, I know we're unique, but I also want to find out what the other district neighboring town are doing when it comes to this. Um so, I look forward to hearing them that part of the discussion. No. Since this was my referral, I got a lot of background on this. Mechanisms that we used to approve holidays is through
057calendar. This is how we did it last time. The whole calendar actually needs to be looked at actually in order to implement this because we've got old holidays, and we do have new recent relatively new five-day weekends for other things that could also be utilized if it is deemed if it's the will of the committee and the board to approve this holiday as a There are, I believe, two districts that as of last I checked it was two districts that had both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as days off along with Diwali. I can't recall them off the top of my head, but they do exist, and where there's a will, there's a way. You've got a calendar that hasn't been updated as far as holidays, and looking at demographics, and the problem with looking
058at demographics is when you look at the religious demographics, you've got to extrapolate through the number of basically mosques, churches, synagogues, people who attend them to back into that number. You got to reach out to the Islamic community and the memberships and Jewish community because it is illegal to ask somebody their religious affiliation in a school setting, so we would never be able to get that number. That's a question that they used the last time we tried to approve it to get it started. They asked the students to come back with more demographic information. But it's basically just an equitable thing. When you're Um somebody just made the point that next year if the Jewish holiday moves, there's two Jewish holidays. We've got about three Christian holidays. Demographics when you back into them. Muslim religion
059is the second largest in the city of Bridgeport on the student level. So, they have the least amount of holidays. So, it was inequitable for them to only have one, while some have three, and some have two being the second largest religion. And going to equity, you go to look at the Mr. Medina talked about going to the state. There's some state holidays that are protected by law and statute. For example, uh Christmas. You'll get a state statute that will say the holiday that last week of December where a holiday falls shall never be changed or something something to that effect. So, it's protect protected by law. Christian holiday is protected by law. Yeah. These don't Um I think in the name of equity, we need to look at this. I think we actually do
060need to look at the full calendar, and because the days are there, and we do have to consider winter because the the there's some when we got a five-day five-day President's Day weekend where it used to be three days. So, that's two days right there that can absolutely be looked at. We've got a shifting demographic of um religions. Even though we can't look at them, we can definitely make the assumption that uh children who would be celebrating Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are significantly significantly less than our Islamic population. So, these these are all things that No hurry to get this done because it's it is a something we can look at. And we also need to check in with Dr. Avery and how hard it would be to shift the calendar as it currently
061stands to add his day and if the board doesn't doesn't create an additional burden upon him. Um since it's something It's not It's not going to get done today, then like you said, it needs more exploration. Thank you. Any other comments? >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Avery? Uh yes, sir. Thank you. Uh thank you for uh the discussion, guys. Uh I think there's a there's a lot more involved around the calendar development. We We We do a lot of different groups internal and uh unionized to kind of make sure that it aligns to, you know, all the needs of the district, but I think having the deeper conversation, looking at other districts, and see how our area school districts around our areas and what they're doing with this particular holiday, I think we can do
062a little bit more research before the next meeting, and and hopefully kind of give those those stats to you, the committee and the board to to really kind of dive deeper into that. So, we will definitely do that for you, and and then give the board a little bit more factual data to to to make a better decision if this is something that the board wants to do. We can definitely do that for you. So, I'm I've been listening, so um we will definitely rally the troops, margin team. PJ is is the one in the district that really been spearheading the calendar development, and so I would like to kind of get him and the teams that he brought together to to finalize this past approval by the board, and then we will we can
063definitely look at that. So, we'll keep it open-ended, and then we'll figure out how we're going to bring it back to you guys to make a solid decision, okay? Thank you. Anybody else? Others? Thank you, everybody. That's all right. We don't need to discuss and talk about that, but I just want to put it for the right person you can guide me prepare. One of the holidays I would like to be be putting this on calendar. One very important day that I said in the last education meeting, Veteran's Day. All right, Veteran's Day. That's very important. You know, I know we got holiday, but this one I feel like I said last time, this is the people fighting and dying for us, for our country. You know, and we need to respect that as a
064I have a family members and our via family, too. So, that holiday is very important for me, very very important. I just want to put that on the record. We don't need to discuss this. You know, not to be able to bring it to the committee and into the board. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I I know I just want to be clear about one thing. And I It it is really important to me to be clear about this. Uh Memorial Day is for the veterans that died for our country. People confuse these holidays. Memorial Day is for veterans that died for our country. Veterans Day is to honor all the people that served our country in the military, past the But any any less respect to those people. My father was one of those
065people. He served. He died at the age of 92. Served in a war. Did not die in that service. So, Veterans Day is to honor the people that served and fortunately didn't die in that service. Um so, um people have strong opinions one way or the other and I respect your opinion on that, Mr. uh that I have here, Harris, but I just want to it's always important that people get confused in that discussion. Um but we do have a holiday called Memorial Day that we do have we do take a you know we do have that holiday every year. And that is for the ones that they they veterans that served and died in service. Um and then we have Veterans Day to honor the rest of them who thank God did not die
066in that service. Um So, and we can debate whether or not they should have that day off, too, or we as we currently practice uh hopefully do things in in in in class in school to pay respect to them. Um as we did in my class every year. Um so, that's a question whether you what the best way to do it, but let's just be clear about the holiday. Um there's people getting confused. I think you're 100% correct. Like I was just saying down in the cafeteria, so they're two different things. So, we cannot be used, not the same thing. So, it's two different things. Are you going to let David >> served and died. I just want to be clear that No, I understand. We have that holiday and people confuse those two holidays.
067Yeah, I understand. Please listen to me. So, you just be clear about these two holidays, too. Um So, um uh it's fine with me that we take a look at the holidays as a as a big picture question. Um I asked about whether we have any policy at all about how we look at holidays. Um uh There is a third rail question in there that we need to take a look at. Um we missed Mr. Scalone raised it um but we should discuss how many holidays. I I don't believe uh Mr. Scalone was correct about Presidents' Day. I believe that actually is Mr. Scalone, will you finish my sentence? I'm looking at a paper, sir. I'm sorry for offending You don't have the right to speak. I didn't say you offended me. I pointed out
068you're not correct. That's not offended. That's a question of being correct or not. You're now interrupting again, Mr. Scalone. I didn't interrupt you when you were speaking. So, you're again interrupting. And I will take away your right to speak at these meetings if that's what you want to do. Okay, Kristen. Now you don't have the right to speak in my meeting, Mr. Scalone. Cuz you have now been rude. But I believe that the entire February week off used to be in conjunction with Presidents' Day. Um when we had the whole week off. And as one who took advantage of that week to go see my father, the veteran in San Diego County I enjoyed that week off. Um and it was in conjunction with Presidents' Day week weekend. Uh and then we shortened it to
069a long weekend which made a trip to California all the harder to spend time with my father, the veteran. So, that was my point. We didn't lengthen the weekend. We shortened the week. Um but I do think that we need to take a look at the longer week. I mean, the calendar, the question of holidays and what holidays are appropriate. And I would appreciate whatever information we can pull together on demographics, on holidays that we have. I recognize what you said, Dr. Avery is correct. The negotiations with the bargaining units. Um the coordination as we did this year with uh the neighboring districts and what their schedules are. Um all those factors that we take into effect. At one point the state tried to mandate that. They found it impossible to mandate that. Um that
070was a failure. Um but we we do the best we can and we'll take a look at that in conjunction with this question of trying to see if we can reasonably offer uh this second holiday. Um of um Eid al-Adha uh to our students. And so, for now I'll take motion to table this item. I think it's an action item. I agree. Um all in favor? >> Aye. Aye. And this item will be tabled. We'll continue this discussion at the next meeting. And the next item on the agenda is uh a preliminary discussion of professional learning plans for 26-27. Dr. Hughes, I believe that was you. Me? Uh we I shared with with the uh committee the surveys that we did for administrators. We did two separate surveys, administrators and teachers. We uh extended the
071time for the survey so that we could enable administrators to leave time of their uh school-based professional development days. So, we had some decent uh participation in the surveys. We had over 100 administrators. And we had approximately 600 teachers, which was probably one of the better um number of respondents. In summary, both teachers and the administrators agreed on um three things we desperately need, that being differentiation all students multilingual learners strategies and curriculum content, pacing, and the instructional framework as as a package. So, then then our team has now put together a sketch of what those days, and I want to share the days with you now. Tentatively, the administrators are going to be August 18th-23rd. Our new teachers, August 17th to the 19th. And our all teachers, August 21st, 24th, and 25th. This would
072enable the teachers to have their first day in the in the school with their teams and the last day before students start with their teams. Um we are looking at different varieties of presentation for the teachers. We had initially high hopes that we would have coaches uh coming on board. That it's not doesn't appear to be what I was reality that I was hoping for. So, now we're doing alternatives. So, we'll over those three teacher days, it will probably come out looking like a staggered um so, all teachers will not have professional development all on the same day. At the same time, it'll be staggered so we can tailor their needs. We're trying to look at our teacher cohorts as our new teachers and teachers with less than 5 years experience, which is our support
073is this year 43% of our teacher population, and then our veterans teacher with the understanding and the recognition that every group, every cohort has different needs. Within those three cohorts, you're going to have further differentiation needed for special education, related services um content, etc. So, I just wanted to give you update that we you know, we're being sure to include our principals and teachers in as we as we put together these programs uh for the new year. And when we get the final calendar, we'll bring that to you. Um Questions from members of the committee? Um through the chair. When was this survey I see there you there was a survey there. When was that survey done? Thank you Mr. Traynor, it's me. Oh no, to you. I'm sorry. It's March March 20th. The date
074is on the So that was the actual day of the survey? That's when it closed. Okay, that's what I was asking. The day of the service. We opened the survey. It was open for over 2 weeks. So it ended on the 20th of March. Open for 2 weeks, got it. I find with surveys that if you leave too long of a period it it it becomes yesterday's news. So we try to give it as short a time as possible. We also try, especially for our teachers, to have administrators allow time for teacher completion in their faculty meetings. Everybody was great. They did so. We had a great a great [clears throat] response. Thank you. I'll save my my questions for once I review all that stuff. I unfortunately didn't have time to review that as
075it was just give it put out the that thing on Monday, so but thank you very much. You're welcome. Let me get your I'm okay. Thank you. Um with the still hope that we have coaches that notwithstanding um I assume that we would be leaning on veteran teachers, you know, using veteran teachers then to help with the some of this Well, [clears throat] part of the it issue is that our the con you know we've we've asked the teachers what they want to hear. Right. What the need is. We know from our walk-throughs that we've done as a as a team that we have about 32% of our classrooms that we've been in that have evidence of any any differential differentiation whatsoever. And we know that this in particular is an area of struggle. Now
076we're also concurrently we're doing curriculum writing that teachers are are going to be involved in in all of our content areas. ELA uh math early childhood, social studies, and the arts even though we don't have a director for those. Um and so from a content standpoint, it will be the directors delivering that. We are currently in the process of talking to the state to see if they have any expertise that they would like to share with us for the multilingual learner differentiation um as well as as the other. Our our directors have already done what we call pop-up PDs, so they're recorded 10-minute video. You know, here in N A for instance, teacher team in here in HMH, this is where you'll find differentiation for struggling learners, for our multilingual learners. And they did another
07710-minute pop-up PD where here's here's a lesson plan. Here's how I'm putting those differentiation strategies in. Uh and every every content area basically has done that that work Dr. Vega as well. Um so whether we and the other issue is because teachers are on vacation during the summer and planning for that can be um an issue for them. So for I I believe for this year we're going to be relying on the content directors and our in-house expertise for for delivery. Now during the year we have the the the P deck which we're we're officially on the on the committee now, so we'll I'm hoping to see some joint collaboration as we plan the year. We might use some of our people for new teacher training. It helps. >> Yes. The because that sometimes it
078really works when we bring our veteran teachers. Do we still have that? Um >> we are with the with the Yes. We're taking that back to the board. >> and we're doing a 3-day training for our new teachers, so that is when we want the veterans. Yes. Yeah. But yeah, that's more what I was referring to and then within the buildings you know, just presence of the veteran teachers. I I know because um Dr. Hughes and I were talking about This year is my This year, sorry. When I was talking about what was the percentage right now? 43%. Right. You want to elaborate on that? Less than 5 years experience. >> Right. We Right. I imagine we have And and so we're we're we're having trouble. We've always had trouble and it's been exaggerated in
079the last few years with retention. And so having I mean there was a day when my floor at Blackham had five or 10 teachers with 15 to 25 years experience. It's not there anymore. Um and that's a a resource that people don't understand. So we just wanted to give you an update snapshot where we are with curriculum writing and professional learning. Yep. Um and then uh any other questions from anybody? Um okay, and Tesha, sorry. Through the chair, you had your hand raised for like 30 seconds. No problem. Didn't see it. Did you look up? Right next to you. I looked that way and then I looked that way and then I looked that way and then I looked that way and then I caught it out of the corner of my eye as I
080on. Thank you. Through the chair, just I'm the type that words matter and you know, I'd rather put the question out there and state it out there than not state um because I know when I went through caves uh you know, training that they gave before and this year and everything, there are some programs that the state that the state already approved for certain things, so I would suggest that reach out to through caveman No, good. But if I don't say it out there, then I won't be comfortable cuz I didn't say it. So I'd rather say it and go through the thing because there are some things, so I appreciate it hearing that right away that oh, I have because I just wanted to know that for myself. I don't want to leave here
081without that being said or answered cuz I know that there was a lot of things that were in that already in the state, already took care of it, and already uh you know, paid for it. All we need to do is use them and the state already paid for it. So any little bit would help and if we don't need it I would hate for to not use it and then need it and then not have it available at the same time. So let's use everything that they already took care of for us and even if one teacher takes advantage of that, that's good enough for me because we're taking advantage of and we're using the resources that we have that are free to the district. Thank you. Dr. Avery. Yeah, through the chair uh
082through the chair, I let me let me emphasize something to committee members. This is my lane. I'm very very astute in making sure that this uh Medina Mr. Medina, you brought that to my attention a long time ago. I told you what we what we do with those programs. Not every single program that the state puts out is beneficial to our kids. Uh our kids learn differently and we have to make sure we maximize how and what those programs are used for. And some of those programs are not fit for every single um uh type of child in the state of Connecticut. And yes, when you get those generic programs like that, sometimes we have to modify it so much in order to make it work for our kids. Uh and that's my job and
083my team's job to vet that out. Uh and so uh I think, you know, from from my perspective, we look at those and we scrutinize those to the best of our ability. So I I can reassure you that we're looking at that. Um I I I wanted, you know, uh Ms. Hughes to bring this, you know, topic too because it it is over the last year or so it's been an issue about can our teachers Previous administration didn't think our teachers were capable of uh writing curriculum, but I can tell you our teachers are well equipped to make uh to write curriculum cuz they did it this summer and they did a really fantastic job on it. So uh we're going to use them as best possible because this year you didn't hear anything about
084curriculum because our teachers wrote it, guys. Uh and we're maximizing that and so we're very excited about it. Uh I'm excited about future opportunities uh not only from what the state provides but sometimes we we have to pick and choose our own uh devices to in in curriculum to use and and we're doing that very well. Uh you got Mr. you know, Tito right there. Uh you got, you know, Dr. Vega right there. Uh and those are huge two huge content areas, ELA and math. Uh and they can tell you what they're doing with teachers to in order to kind of, you know, strengthen their expertise. Uh we have a lot of young teachers and so we have to set that stage for them and we do that very very well and I'm very proud
085to say that. Uh and so uh again, we we're hope hopefully uh Mr. Traynor we'll bring more of these types of updates back to the board because there needs to be a focus on academics in this district. We don't do that enough. Uh and if we equip you guys with what we're using, then you can then you can scrutinize us a little bit about the effectiveness of those program evaluations that we do. We should be doing every single year. How well is it working for us? And if it's not, we got to get rid of it and do something different with it. So, uh we're we're way ahead of the game and I'm excited about that. I think our teachers are excited about us using utilizing them for it. Uh so, uh we're on the
086right track. Let's keep it moving. Keep the focus of on children and academic growth. Uh that's going to get us where we need to be over the next couple of years. So, thank you for that. Absolutely. Thank you for that answer and I would like to say that, please try to um if possible and when possible to highlight that for us. I would love to hear some of those teachers so would love to hear some of those curriculum come up forward even if it's just information. That way we can uh celebrate those staff and those teachers and those campuses that are leading. That way every campus doesn't have to invent a new wheel. If it's working, we can share it. So, I I want to hear more of that. So, I appreciate you adding that
087to this this discussion. Thank you. Good job. Um Okay. Uh next on the agenda, we have a discussion report on media test results in math, ELA, and pre-K. Dr. Figgers will present on ELA first. Ms. Planas on math and Ms. Davis on our pre-K. Get the whole lineup. Get the lineup. And I just want to say I really do want to give a shout out to our content directors. Um I I I noted in December collectively they've been in over 520 classrooms. This is working with principals. These are the school the individual school visits working with principals, coaching teachers, doing support wherever they're needed. And we are we are small but we are mighty. We're getting our numbers in which I'll have next week for the January through March the cumulative. But I would well
088say that they're doing probably each had in excess of over 200 maybe 230 coaching experiences per content director. So, my hats off to them and all their all their good work they've they've done this year. Excellent. Good evening everyone. I hope you're well. Um I'm here to share with you the mid-year uh literacy progress which focuses mostly on our reading skills within the district. Um these results will help help us make uh decisions on the curriculum as we just discussed. Uh also look for areas for growth and to adjust our instruction throughout the year. Uh so, first we're going to be looking at the Dibels beginning of year versus the middle of the school year. Uh this test was given in February for the middle of the school year and we are looking at the
089composite score which is actually made up of several different parts which includes our um phonics, fluency, and accuracy scores. And what you'll see and what our goal of course is always to shrink the red and to grow the green and the blue. And so, in here you'll see this is K through uh sixth grade and you'll see that we have grown our blue and we did move our green kids into our blue and that our red remained uh stagnant. And so, that's one of the things that we look at and we make adjustments throughout the year. Just to make sure that we all have the same page. BOY is beginning of school year? >> BOY is beginning of school year and MOY is middle of school year. I'm trying to get it get it up.
090Thank you. Got it. Um and so, what we've done uh with our coaches uh with the Agree and our foundational skills curriculum is we're looking at where our areas of growth are and then we're zeroing in on that with our teachers and talking about how we can improve our phonics instruction. One of the things that we've talked about it most recently is making sure that every um classroom is using phonemic awareness part of the lesson within our Wonders curriculum in combination with our Agree uh lessons. Would you explain what Agree is? I'm not familiar. Literacy this is the work that that helps with literacy that she's referring to coaches. It's the Hill for Literacy that she's referring to. The work that we're doing with them. They they come in, they meet with our teachers individually,
091they meet with us, they meet with principals. So, we're we're doing a lot of that discussion and looking at the curriculum. And the Agree is the curriculum piece of it and the Hill is the organization working with us. And they're at Hill is at every school, correct? Correct. Um so, we have been we have seen some growth in the green and the blue. We're using this information on a daily basis for progress monitoring those students that are in the red. Uh we are forming small groups for instruction on the areas that they need and in making sure there's targeted instruction throughout the school day and most importantly that is helping us to respond to their needs in the moment. Dr. Figgers Yes. I'm not seeing the growth. In the blue and the green only. Uh
092our red is flat. And then the green if I say that I think it's really less. So, if you combine the 23 and 11%, you'll see that got us to 34 and now we're at um 36. Right, because you got a 3% growth in blue. Correct. And so, the 3% loss in in green. Correct. So, The yellow though shrunk. Yes. Cuz we we moved kids over But you haven't dropped in the total number of kids taking the test. That is true. So, there's a 3% drop in the yellow and a slight drop in the number of kids taking yellow and blue and green. Yeah. Okay. Overall in the entire district. Yes. Yeah. And then when you look at the fifth grade [clears throat] So, this is our seventh through 12th grade. Uh this one is
093a little bit different. What you'll see is the red is below five plus years and then you're going to actually look at the light green and the dark green for at grade or above. And Reading Plus focuses on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and stamina. And we did see some growth in the green. This assessment is going to help us uh with differentiating instruction as well. It also monitors whether students are on track for grade level reading. We're looking for that green to increase so that above and at level combined we're looking to increase while decreasing the below grade levels which is the yellow through red. There we see a substantial growth in green. Yes. Not so much the light green, the dark green. Mhm. And so, with Reading Plus um there is a direct correlation with
094work that the students are doing in their small groups and with their um personalized uh instruction through the computer. So, we do have the students working on lessons about 20 minutes a day uh six no more than 60 minutes a week which then shows the growth. And we have seen growth in all of the areas um based on what they need. So, the way Reading Plus works is by the end of the year and the students are supposed to do 80 lessons throughout the school year through the platform. We monitor and watch to see where they are. 40 is where they would have been in February completing 40 lessons and when you show that there is direct correlation to gaining years growth if they reach the um the 80 lessons. So, this program is monitoring
095all year and progress monitoring all year where the Dibels is given three times a year and there is not a computer programming that that the kids are working on throughout the year that's connected to that. How was the district doing um with that said, they you said they got 80 where the midpoints so we should be seeing most of them around 40 or over more. How are we doing as a district with those numbers right now? As far as the completing those you know, being in the the lessons? Yes. Um I can't give you an overall number right now, but I can get it for you. Um but we are on track. We are also looking at the schools that haven't gotten to that 40 and what the uh Reading Plus people and I are
096working on is saying, "Okay, if they haven't hit the 40, where can they get by the end of the year?" And it's it's not now rushed through to try to get to 80. They take it at their own pacing. So, some some kids we all have different playlists really. So, I might have a lesson that only takes me 5 minutes based on what I need and someone else may have a plan where they have to do two lessons and that might take 15 minutes depending on what which area I'm working on. So, it depends on where they're scoring. So, if I'm scoring high, I'm going to have a different lesson than someone who might need support in say vocabulary. And I'm also and having working with that pop-up PD and with the teachers on what
097the offline offerings are reading class, which are things like writing prompts and also offline practice that students can do. So it is not all on computer all the time. And when we do our win period and we break out for small group instruction, when my students come to me, I should be grouping them on what they need. So if three students need assistance with their vocabulary, they're going to come to me at the same time for about 15 minutes. We're going to do a lesson together on that and then they may go back and do some independent work or a different station of work. I was told to I know there was a question that comes before as I've been called. How were the classroom being equipped with computers? Like Are there laptops or all
098or is there only you know a certain number of say they have 25 students, they have 10 computers and it's just kind of like a shift. How was that before? That's a good question. Our resource schools are one to one. Every child has one. But we're we're again trying to say we don't we don't want instruction solely on a computer. We want teachers teaching. And they do [clears throat] they do this work when they're doing their small group instruction. So if I have six kids, the other 18 might be doing different stations, doing different work. But one of the problems that was mentioned in the previous discussion was the percentage of teachers who need help with differentiation. Yeah. The classroom issues he's talking about is you know identifying the three kids who need to come
099into this room Mhm. Okay. So you do that function and differentiate them. And that's supporting our multilingual learners too who for anything they might do pre-teaching. So they might have the pre-teaching with me first before I even send them off to another station to do other work so that they can do that work while I'm meeting with another third. And so the pop-up PD and conversations have been about how to structure that win period or that win time within a period cuz it's different at the high school level and the middle school level. How do we do that and put students in front of us because the research says it's 66% of the time students do better in small group instruction. They're more willing to participate than say 125 pairs of eyes on me someone.
100So I want to know that our high schools are implementing They are small group instruction within their block period. I attended Harding's a common planning time for the math department. They've they've got small group lesson plans for the you know it's it's a plan those small what those small groups look like in in their block. I also attended um uh Columbus's common planning time. They're doing the same So it's you know if we need to build we're building up steam. And and differentiation challenges are not just in Bridgeport, it's across you know many schools cuz it's challenging. It's challenging when you have different learners with different needs. Well and and it's more challenging in a larger class. Mhm. Larger class with also different levels of students and so you know if you have 25 or
10127 kids, I mean a group of four or five. I mean how many groups of five do you Larger class with different levels of students. Multilanguage learners also. But we are working but with it that is has been our push and I think and I wanted to add what you know what our content directors are doing. Dr. Ortiz and I have been meeting with our principals again on the same thing. The message is the same. We're very happy to see it. Yes, that's what we are doing. So they are doing the same thing. They are supporting their teachers. At the end of the day we want to make sure that the teachers have the tools so they are able to you know deliver that to the students. So we've been all working together. I like
102those two words that word push and word pull you said cuz we got to keep them moving and sometimes they get down and they just a little visit and then support and let them to know that we got eyes and ears because I didn't I haven't got that many calls from people saying different things that I've had in the year before before I was part of the board and when I was part of the board and I haven't got a lot things about questions and all that stuff and you know so it's been I was glad to hear nothing. That was intentional because one of the things that we recognized last year was that there was too much. There was too We were hitting teachers with too many things and we had a really So
103we really tried to be very focused, very specific and very targeted. It with teachers using State Department of Education's turn around walk-through checklist. Every teacher has a copy. They know exactly what >> [clears throat] >> their principals are looking for, what we look for when we go into classrooms, the discussions that we have. So that that was a very intentional move to just you know sometimes too much. You know you're being bombarded in all angles and it's just too much. Especially when 43% of your teachers are you know sometimes less experienced. And a lot of the work I've been doing with coaching some of our newer teachers is actually where in the book do I find this? What am I focusing on when I'm looking at the teacher's edition? So making sure that we're communicating
104and then helping them find where it is and then implement it in the classroom. I have one more slide. So these are the interim assessment blocks that we are providing. You'll see that there's over 22,000 that have been given this year because these are broken down into the different domains that we have here in the district. I'm sorry in the state on the SBAC SBA test. And so that test is broken down into reading and then also writing, research and listening. And so we are focusing on the reading this year along with the the research in the IABs that we're giving. We focused on reading for information and reading for literature because most of the tests, about 50% of it is focused on the reading. And so we've also been using these IABs to inform
105the instruction we're doing on comprehension. Where our students have struggling the most, we look at the weakest questions, we look at the strongest questions. I've done this work with the middle school teachers as well in data team meetings in trying to say okay, if this is what we're focused on, how are we going to implement it in the classroom? In our newsletter I put out ideas that focus on inference. This month month was on details and next month will be author's purpose. So we're always trying to communicate the same message out to all of the teachers. Focus on the instruction within Wonders, which is our textbook in K through six and then study sync seventh and eighth grade in our novels in ninth to 12th. And so here we had about 50% of our students
106that have been taking these interim assessments that are below. We have 40% who are on target to should meet grade level. This is a little bit different than the SBAC and green that are at or above at this moment. And so this these are given through 338. And our work curriculum wise for as we go into it next year is to start to implement these more directly into the curriculum where they make sense. So our next slide just shows you how we've taken this information. You're going to see the next >> move on. Before we move that slide So looking at this number and I'm here glad I didn't have to ask the question because you said the red is the red you're under, 40 is they're meeting or just meeting and then 10% okay.
107So >> At or above. At or above. And this is our midterm if I understand correctly. So where are we right now or what is being implemented right now or being talked about with you guys um to change that? Yeah. That's actually what's on the Okay, got it. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, I would put you right Let me let me just that if that holds Yeah. is a substantial improvement. Right. From last year? Right. And if this holds, that's a substantial improvement. Okay. And so what data I'm looking at I'm just looking at that right now so I'm not saying last year. It's saying half of our children are at level. They're they are moving towards at level. So on the IABs they don't do the blue. On the SBAC they do the 4321.
108On the interims we have just the regular on three. The use of the giving the interims cuz it's exposing kids to language. The teachers also get itemized corrected list by student of you know Little Marge and Tito, they need help with question questions like number one. Cheryl and Sangita might need help with questions like two and so they can take that then with their it it helps them support their small group instruction. And I I did I worked with the teacher in October on this and they have implemented putting in an SBAC question each week into their daily assignments and we actually saw that teacher saw great growth. And so like you're saying, sharing that out with other teachers, building on that strategy, that is something that has been something we're talking about. We looked
109at those four those questions as you said, we came up with these four areas of focus for instruction. Um and then Pat started to build that into the professional learning for this year, not next year, this year with our pop-ups on multilingual, the differentiation on the WIN period. I've spoken at several of the high schools about how to do that at the secondary level. We've put out pop-up PDs for the elementaries. Um and we've done things like interactive read-alouds. So, we're we're taking this information that we're getting from the middle of the year and implementing it right away. That's all right. I understand why. By the way, but it's why I hate standardized testing. Yeah, but it's not the only way. >> Excuse me, but the test I'm teaching to the standards. Teaching to the
110standardized testing. Not teaching to what the child wants to learn. Well, just name what you're doing. You're doing what you're supposed to do. Like, get it. But And quick comment, you an editorial report. Excellent. Beth. Beth. So, that that was it? Oh, okay. Then, go ahead. I thought you were going to stop. Okay. And then the Go on to my colleague. I said I'll I'll I'll make a comment if you would to the chair. Um unless you know who's who's in charge of this room, but um just for all the presenters and all that stuff, my name is William Medina. I'm the board member that love to have papers in front of them. So, whenever you do have a paper, please have a a copy for me. I'm sure it What happened this time, but
111I just want to share that you guys know what we've been working in the in the background and um get the support that I Miss Hughes provided this for me on Monday night. Sorry. So, it's a um like the hard copy, too. Oh, yeah. And And then you'll need to do this. I'll sort of No, anyway, Danielle aware. Next, move on. Miss Hughes provided And this I think this I'm going to do. Now, everybody knows. You're okay. You're You're okay. He's done. [laughter] Yeah, we're we're sharing. We're sharing. No, they Yeah, I'll get one later. Thank you. Okay. You know, I'll follow you tonight on the board. Okay. Last. Yeah, information doesn't seem to be like you confirming that it's not in the board. I don't want to say it cuz I didn't want to
112confirm I didn't want to stand by Danielle I I thought she I thought she did. No, that's why I said I don't believe it is, but he just confirmed it. I didn't want to make that comment, but yeah, he did and said it's not in the board. As I say, he's he's only about revenge. And you can see some of I will vote I think that's meeting enough. Show your money. Most of the agenda on March And then fine. It's all good. Oh, we saw it on the website. Saw it on the website portal. I printed it from the website, but I don't know about the I think it's a good word. Say it again. From where? From the website. >> Okay. It's not our portal, so >> I know, that's what I said. >>
113I mean. Good word. It's not our portal. Not in portal. It seems to All right, you know, you're good. And meeting of these four planet directors of mathematics Uh it's my honor to present in front of you today. Uh This is a comprehensive overview of uh our district mathematics progress through the middle of the year. Um As you probably heard before, our primary assessment tool is the NWEA MAP Growth. Now, all those soup uh the the letter soup, let me tell you what it means. Uh NWEA is the Northwest Evaluation Association. Uh and MAP is the Measure of Academic Progress. This is a nationally recognized assessment um which which is adaptive. Uh it mimics what ASPIRE does, which is it's adaptive and moves up and down depending on how students answer questions. Been around since
1141977. In the year 2000 uh with the um coming out of Common Core, uh they started uh doing updates to the assessment every 5 years to try to target how close we could reach, you know, um we like predicting uh how close we are to ASPIRE. So, every 5 years they um they do an evaluation of the program, they look at all the students that take the test, and they compare the ASPIRE scores of those sets, and they revise their norms to make sure that they could predict they have a good precision um predictive aspect for ASPIRE. Uh N S A T. So, it as part of their their assessment, one of the um if you look at each one of the students, you'll see a curve of how close they are getting to the
115ASPIRE growth. So, it's a fantastic assessment, and we're lucky to have it due to the fact that we have HMH uh Into Math as part of the program, and they're they're owned by HMH, so it's great to have it. Um this assessment looks at two two two areas, the growth as well as achievement. Growth in the in the sense that it looks at how much students improve between one assessment and the other. And achievement, it looks at the performance compared to the national norms. So, we see both. We see the growth of students and the and the achievement. And in this slide, you're going to see our focus has been in growth because in order for you to hit achievement, meaning in order for you to get to um the end of that marathon, you
116have to grow. You have to run uh 3 miles first, 4 miles then, 10 miles until you get to like 20-mile marathon or whatever uh it is for a marathon. I've never ran a marathon before, so I could never tell you. Um but you could then see uh in terms of growth, we actually look at both, growth and achievement. But because um we want to make sure that our students are on track, we first look at growth. So, here's the growth of all our students K through 12. Now, mind you, um there are some uh grade levels like 11 and 12 where um we had less significantly less students than in other areas. But what you'll see from these scores, uh well, first of all, let me tell you uh you could see in your
117in your packet that the red is the low, right? It's it's uh it's low growth. The orange is below average growth. The yellow is average growth. The green is high average growth, and the blue is high growth. So, we want students, in order for them to make it uh to to show uh to narrow the gap, we want to see students in the green and the blue when we get the reports. Meaning, we want them to um show high average to high growth. Anyone in the yellow, yeah, that's okay. But if you want to make a real dent and narrow the gap, you want to see students in that orange and I'm sorry, in that green and in that blue. Um What you will see from these scores is some celebrations is that kindergarten and
118grade nine demonstrated the strongest performance. And this is great to see because we want students when they come into school to to to be growing. I I tell when I meet with principals, I tell them that their school should be growing at 50% or more. That's our goal, 50% or more. And the higher it is, the better. And what you see throughout the district as we look at each of the schools is that there are many growing at 50% or more in different grade levels. Uh so, we're in the right right um you know, way to to show uh to narrow that gap, to to be able to say, you know, we're going to right time. Um we want to make sure that we continue to grow. Uh and I and I joke around that
119I'll retire when uh at least 50% of our students are uh meeting at or above uh you know, the norm, the the the percentage. So, that will be for for a for a little while, but um I would love I would love to see our district shine like all the districts around us. Um Grade nine is very important because grade nine is also transition year. You know, and for years we've seen grade nine drop. And we are seeing now that if you if you look at that bar, that grade nine is almost at the same level as kindergarten, which is fantastic. And seven and eight follow very closely. And part of that reason is because we're focusing on ensuring that we have The first thing is we want to make sure that we have um
120certified teachers in every single seventh and eighth grade class. And for years, we've we haven't had that. We've had a lot of permanent subs in those classes. So, finding those teachers, ensuring that we have programs like we had last year, uh we developed a program where um we had a cross-certification path. And we had teachers that actually took the test, and if they passed that that test, they were able to acquire that certification. So, so teachers that had that background mathematics were able to then teach mathematics as a result from that test. We had um you know, two or three teachers that that passed the assessment and were able to be certified and now teaching math in our department. So, we want to make sure that every single student is taught by a certified teacher
121of mathematics. Um Yesterday I went to UConn, and some of us went to UConn to do some recruiting. And I had about five I was excited cuz saw five or six teachers in math. You know, they were certified in math and they were almost ready to be ready to to teach. So I was telling them, you know, come come to Bridgeport. You know, we we we will uh we'll make it happen. And so we had we had some great great great teachers there and I was I was very excited, very thrilled. Uh You know, can I just add something? >> Also, you should know that as of last year our ninth grade algebra one went from a semester to semesters. And so we did the same thing this year and I do think that that
122that jump in in the ability is attributable to giving them the gift of time. That's great. That was my next point here. Now we went from from you know, one semester where we condensed the entire work to a full year long where we gave students the opportunity to develop their skills and ask questions and master different skills throughout. So that that was a great change and I I I echo what Miss Hughes was saying. Um we do have some targeted areas and you can see them and they're very clear. It's right down the middle, you know, that fourth, fifth and sixth grade. I was a fifth grade teacher for my first five years in Bridgeport and I know I have a colleague that was a fourth grade teacher. And fifth grade? And fifth also, yeah.
123Um So so we know how difficult it is, how many standards are in those grade levels. They have a lot of standards and a lot of key skills. And so we're working because what you don't see there is who they are. You see, we have a lot of change in those grade levels. We have a lot of new people in those grade levels. And so and so that makes a difference and it reflects on that data. And so we work a lot with those grade levels and we're going to be continuing to focus in those grade levels like we're doing with the others. Um You also you also have a grade 11. Uh one of the things that we've looked at grade 11 is uh we have a lot of conversation with principals ensuring that
124they have at least one math course in that third year. Because sometimes they take they students take two math courses sophomore year and no math course the third year. So when they take the um the SAT, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, um you know, they they don't they don't they forget everything that that because they haven't had the math. So we're doing two things. We're talking to principals to ensure and counselors to ensure that they have uh math throughout, you know, the the three years. And we're also using encouraging students to continue to use Khan Academy, uh which is probably one of the best uh practice programs that there is for SAT. So at least they can keep their their hands in the in the money. You know, we could we could have them uh continue
125to practice SAT skills and um and so forth. At that point, Tito, I have a question. Mr. Planas, excuse me. It was fine. I apologize to the public. Me and uh Mr. Planas go way back back in Central High School marching band at Central High School online. So I apologize to the public to look at him and our family's been friends for many years. So I apologize to the public and no disrespect to Mr. Planas. Um That being said, what you just mentioned about that they're taking that math first and second year and then the junior year they tend to taking math. And we're looking at that right now because of them taking that you know, the SATs and again, that's the way already they're not involved in math. So it's like so the fourth
126thing went out the window, let's say. They're not active with that. They're not working that aspect in their brain. Um what is being sought to change outside of what you just mentioned because you did mention one thing was trying to add a math function uh to thing. Is that a state requirement? How many years of math you got to have? Two? Maybe only three. Three? Three three courses. Three courses? Three courses. So you have the algebra one full year, right? Um and then you have algebra two. Now the algebra one counts as two courses. So technically we're we're you know, uh but then you have you could take from the combined uh there's a combined uh what do you call it? Uh uh uh like a STEM courses. There's a there's a number that you
127could pick from. Um but in in essence uh what when you look at those Remember, this test was given in January. So in essence, some of these students are not taking the second math course because the math course starts the third week in January. You know what I mean? So they might have not taken that math course at the beginning before this test. And that's why you see some throughout. And when you when you see some of the students and you start looking at the data, you'll see you'll see what's going on. You'll see oh what Yeah, >> And they take a math the first thing. And my thought went right away is like, okay, how can we help the counselors to guide them to make sure they have another math or to change the
128way we're giving them those courses to make sure that they are taking it at when they need it or when it's important because if we can find out a way to figure that out outside of adding more math classes into their curriculum, let's say. Um just the way we're handling that because I got to figure that out because if it's important for them when they're going into their senior and they're going into college that they take those tests and do well in it because it opens up doors. So that's what keeps the thought just figure out what can we do to support them and figure out what how can we encourage them to do more counselors to that part to encourage students to take something and then what can they take? So that was my
129thought. That's what I was trying to put out. That's a great question. You know, I think I think if they're using Khan Academy for that first semester and they're taking a math course the second semester or vice versa, that that will keep them into. So so we're tracking that. I think all the principals are game for that. To be honest with you, they're already looking at this. All the principals look at this data and I know the executive directors and and Miss Hughes, you know, they they're asking, you know, what are we going to do to to improve this data, what things are you doing and asking questions about it, which is essential. So we're we're working on it. Um I I think you'll see a difference, you know, in the coming years because we're
130working together. This is probably as tight as I've been here 31 years. You know, this team is small but mighty like Miss Hughes says. Uh we're very close. Um I wanted I wanted to um ask what The Khan Academy thing though, is it a course or is it just extracurricular? And if so, what what motivation do they have to take to use it if Good question. You know, some schools, like for example, BMA, they have a competition. For them it's a competition, you know, they they look at the data. He uh Mr. Liv is always talking about the data. He's always talking about the data. In fact, he just won second place in a uh in Khan Academy competition. Um but but it it happens differently in all the schools. So so it's a matter
131of having conversation and continuing to to see and see how we could uh illuminate you know, more students to be using the program. Yeah, the question is what motivates them to use it? Yeah, because what do you I understand the problem you're saying is they're not they're not fluent in math as they approach the test because they haven't been using it. So the Khan Academy becomes something to keep them fluent. But then what motivates them to use it? Um and how do we motivate them to use it to maintain their fluency? I I think that one of the best things that is happening is principals know how to use the um you know, they they're becoming aware of how to use the engine to look at the data. Um they are they're constantly asking those
132quite the same questions that you're asking. Uh throughout. So so they're working hard in this regard. Um again, it's just a matter of time. This is we got rid of Khan Academy. This is the first year that we're bringing back. And they have had a lot of changes. So we are we're getting back into the routine of what we used to do in the past. And uh the second slide has to do with the interim assessment block. And the beauty of this marriage, this having um a standardized measure and uh this is actually the standardized measure, be honest with you, but it's this is an on level standardized measure is that this is created by the same people that created the the DES back. So by having an assessment that mimics the DES back like
133Miss Hughes said, um we're basically uh providing that opportunity for students to to to to see parts of the test and experience part of the test. When I talk to teachers, we talk about three areas uh when they look at those questions. We talk about the language, the vocabulary that's used in the test. We use about the computer function. You know, because some of part of the test you have to move some things or you have to click on these things. And by students having that access and using these assessments, they're exposed to that. And part of the the the kicker for this is is not to just give the assessments, but the most important part is to teach with the assessment. So teach the students um those those fundamentals. If if you see students
134that bombed out in uh question number two, you know, in question number two had a lot of things that you have to move, obviously you have to sit down with your students and and uh and and bring that together and show them how to move different things. And the last thing is the type of questions. See, when we were growing up, you had an ABCD question and you had only one answer. Now, you you could have multiple answers. You could have multiple parts. And so, our kids have to be exposed to those things. And so, part of using this assessment is not just to assess students, is to teach them about those things. Is to use it to teach um the language of SBAC. And you know what? And SBAC mimics a lot of different
135assessments that we'll have in life, to be honest with you. So, you know, you will see uh college entry assessment and you'll see SAT. They're they're they're looking alike. So, by them having this exposure in the lower grades, it will give them an edge when they get to upper grades. So, what you see here is first of all, I want to tell you that we actually I compare it to um this is the total overall and you've heard about the different areas. Now, I looked at last year's scores cuz I um I looked at last year's scores and what we saw last year is we had 52% of our students in the green. This year we have 51% of students. And to be honest with you, um we used a couple of tougher assessments this
136time around than last time around. And what I mean by that is, although we used some what we call FIABs, which are focused, we used a lot more actual interim assessments than we did last year. Last year we used a lot more of the focus. Now, the focus are just on a content area. And the IABs tend to be about areas spread out. So, they have more material. Okay. So, last year's assessments were a little bit easier than this year's assessments and we still show growth. 52% last year, 51% this year. 35% last year in that yellow, 33%. Uh it's good that it's lower. And then we had 13 last year and this year we have 13% in the green. So, it's exciting to see this. Um it's hard to make growth in this assessment
137when it's on level. But because we're focusing so much on growth, we we are and and not just any growth. And we're not we don't want to grow students one year. We we need to go beyond one year. Um and last but not least, um we're focusing on providing an acceleration model. And we call that WIN. What I need. And you probably have heard that before. Uh when Miss Hughes spoke about it, uh this year this is my goal, my focus has been my own personal goal is to ensure that our schools have a productive WIN block. Because during that WIN is where we help students accelerate to move on. Um when implemented correctly, this is this is a a fast way of moving students with the intention of helping them on whatever they're teaching
138during that lesson. So, we're not just trying to go back to fourth grade work in high school. We're focusing on okay, I'm teaching solving equations. What things does student need right now to access that instruction? And so, that's what the WIN block is. We use all the assessment of the the our our book. For example, we have an Are You Ready, which is the pre-skills. Um and we want to we just we just help them move forward. And that says we have module assessment at the end and so forth. So, so all together, we're we're making we're making gains. We're making gains. We're obviously not moving as fast as we want to, but we're moving in the right direction. And I think the best part is we're all working together. And we're working very hard
139to ensure that our students get what they need. Mr. Chair, I just want to say thank you again. Um you used some words that are I'm very fond of. So, um and I know this is your baby. And and this is your That has been your passion and to go on this journey that's why you are where you are and and I know that, you know, you're making your family very proud continuing because this is your passion. So, again, I words matter to me. When you use the word target and you have an area that you're working on and you're focused on, great. Um when you talk about growth, the kids are not going to have any achievement without growth. This is actually written down in the uh the state you know, education website. That's
140what they want to see student growth. Um So, I know there's been some challenges, but I know like you said, I thank you for going back and searching your numbers as far as last year. Um because it does matter. I don't know how many students took it last year, but that's for me, you know, we see it and and we just Math was my baby. It's always been my my baby. Um my nieces and nephews even in Florida, I sit down with them on on Facebook live and go into problems and teaching them and going back and I'm like, "Damn, I haven't done this since, you know, oh Today is fun. I know where my babies are and I know where my skills were. Word problems always saying when you're talking about that all that
141moving thing and trying to find out what is the question because there's so many moving parts, it's great. And and Miss Hughes mentioned very keenly that I loved also was that she said that once we find all that, you know, Jimmy and Stephanie and and and Mark are are needing area to stay well, you know, what? They're going to form that group. And now we're going to teach them this cuz that's where they're their low ones want to push them up. So, I love that. So, thank you very much again for your uh presentation and and for your numbers. They need numbers that small, but I can see them. And um and I definitely want to see, you know, that target area get hit, you know, cuz I know a lot of times when it
142comes to reading, we talk about grades one, two, and three and we have a you know, if they statistic out here about them those goals, but in math, I see the way the numbers when they're jumping from one that you mentioned eighth grade to ninth grade, that there is a big jump, a nice jump, especially in the green that went up, you know, and then more kids are are they're less red even. And then orange to the same, but 19% now in the green in the yellow and then even the green and things like that. I love to hit the red and orange because again, we want to move them on and we want to see those numbers lower. We all would like. So, I thank you and I thank you applaud the staff and
143the teachers that are backing you up and and buying into this because the numbers are going to show. They really are. We're doing it and it takes a couple years to get something moving, but we're moving. This is moving. So, I appreciate you guys all all. Thank you. Honorable. Very simple. Thank you and you see I'm very far following. Thank you, Mr. Bonas. Early childhood. I heard you loud and clear. I need some coffee. Oh, you have it. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay. So, I'm Lucy Davis, director of early childhood. Um and I'm just going to highlight some of uh the results for our pre-K three and pre-K four Brigance assessment. Um this assessment provides an early look at children's development um across critical areas of readiness, which would be language, literacy, fine motor, um
144well, fine motor and gross motor, so motor development, social emotional skills, and numeracy. And what we can see by the results, if you want to go to the next slide, um is that we've made some really steady progress and growth. Um you know, we can see that from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year that we've really shifted across uh all areas and shown some tremendous growth um for our three- and four-year-olds. And something that we want to keep in mind when we're looking at this data is um that it's showing us where students um where and how students are developing. We can look at this assessment and break it down even further to look at the physical development, language development, and academic development. So, it really is a guide as
145to how we're going to um provide instructional strategies and practices within the classrooms. Um something that's been a goal of mine for the last few years that I've been in this position is to get um the teachers involved in looking at this and taking a deeper dive into this um data so that we're really using it as a tool to help drive the instruction. Um and you know, many of our schools have only one pre-K teacher, sometimes two. So, really creating opportunities for them to work together to talk about what this data means and what we can do as far as the instructional practices to help students um students grow and develop. And really so that they have the skills and the foundation that they need going into kindergarten. Um to go to the next
146slide, we can just see again we have beginning of the year and middle of the year. And this chart shows um in a nice chart how things have progressed um and over time. It also will show you on the bottom how many students were assessed. So, at the beginning of the year we had 722 uh pre-K students in three pre-K three and pre-K four that were assessed. And then in the middle of the year we actually had more students, 778 that were um that were assessed. And you'll see that um orange is students that were below um below level. And just um to kind of further talk about that, it's not necessarily a of their inability. Like I said, this assessment provides us with opportunities to highlight where we need to provide instructional strategies for
147growth. Um so, it helps us develop those appropriate supports as children grow their language skills and their academic skills and their physical development skills, as well. So, what you can see is that the orange is shrinking and the green and the blue are growing. Um so, it's, you know, headed in the right direction and exactly what we want to see as we look at um these skills over time. I want to thank all of you all for being here. Um next time I would love to see those two graphs in different pages. It's just very small and they they but when I was reading the number in the first page, I was just I wrote the word amen. Mhm. I mean, we're looking at numbers that, like you said, you know, if you increase with
148the with an increase of numbers that were taking it compared to the beginning of the year to be 56, but more students were taking it, but still they went from, you know, from 47.1 to 56.3. The the below, you know, was 52% and it went to 43, so it was like dropped 10 points right there. The at also went went up, so, you know, there was some growth here, but also it doubled when you looked at the above. That's why I wrote amen right away. But then when you look at um your your I think I think the word right word is demographic. When you look at the our population of our students, and you can see the the great numbers of, you know, how everyone everyone or not everyone increased and moved forward and
149and and saw it sometimes even doubled, uh especially in the Asian and Hispanic community. That was amazing great numbers and the way they shifted. It it's you know, applause to the teachers and staff and students because they're doing and yourselves here. Um they're they're a reflection of you guys. So, if I applaud the students and the teachers, it's a double applause for you guys. That way you know that's the way I take it. So, if you don't take that way, I don't know, but this is the way I see it. I applaud the teachers and students because they're doing the work. So, I um I thank you. And something you'll notice even when we look at this and we see um you know, the zero growth for um the Asian population, it there was no
150growth in our at or above, but there's a significant shift of students that were at that moved into the above. Oh, I might I knew you even brought that zero, right? That zero to again, the growth was a zero. So, what she mentioned was it went from at 62.5% that went to putting it here and and above in the beginning of school was 12.5. >> Mhm. They actually almost switched that. The at took the 12.5 and the above went up to 62.5. So, that's that's growth. That's what you know, that is See, if you And the complexity of this assessment also changes over time as children turn three, four, and five years old, the complexity changes to meet the developmental milestones. They move that bar, I know. They move that bar, I get it, but
151we got to move with it, so I appreciate that. Thank you, chair. I have a question on the second screen. Mhm. Um what's the date on the second graph? The date this was after the um the second assessment, which would be end of January. So, the first was September and middle of the year is January. I am correct. It's not there, right? Correct. The the print is tiny, but I didn't I cut the page. Ours is meeting quick. No, no, it's it's it's not there. Mhm. Excellent. I had to put case full. Any more questions? Excellent. This is all very exciting all three of you. Thank you for coming in and doing this tonight. Um we are moving in the direction of the things going on in our district and let's pray that appropriate um
152entities that they come up with the resources to allow us to continue our mission uh in the in the right fashion. Um but in the meanwhile, notwithstanding what those entities do, we need to be pushing hard to give what our children deserve because we all know that given the opportunity, they can succeed succeed quite nicely. And that's what you've demonstrated tonight. If we provide them that opportunity, our children will succeed. Thrive. Um and that's that's more than anything what I get out of the report you've given us tonight is the continued belief that if our children get the opportunity, our children will succeed in life and and and show the world what they can do. Um we just have the need to be able to provide them the opportunity. So, thank you all very much
153for this report tonight. Nice to be able to look at this. Um I'm going to move this right along. Um I had asked in January that we put two items on this agenda. Um the first item eight, a discussion on cell phones. Um it says in parentheses on the agenda tonight it's a current legislative item. If you have followed it in the news at all, it's a hot ticket item up in Hartford. Uh there are two sides being hotly debated in Hartford. There is the side that says let the district decide and there's the side that says mandated. Um uh I had been at a CEA uh legislative breakfast a few weeks ago where the teachers articulated very strongly they wanted to mandate no phones in school. Um I saw a number of legislators from
154different districts who expressed the uh political side and we heard at game functions uh that we wanted to. Um uh board of ed who wanted to say let the board of ed decide. Um I uh when I asked to put it on the agenda in January and just to discuss, uh it was before this uh legislation legislative session had begun. Uh given what's going on in Hartford, um I am going to ask that this item be referred to the policy committee, Mr. Woodson, and you can deal with it there. Uh so, it's more appropriate given that debate in Hartford that this be an item that we deal with in our policy committee, but frankly, it's all going to depend on what they decide up in Hartford. So, I would suggest that it be referred to
155the policy committee and um I would take a motion to refer this to the policy committee. Gentlemen. Second. Second. Uh I didn't confirm. Okay. So, somebody want to make that motion? Thank you. Um Mr. Medina seconds it. So, we'll refer this to the policy committee. Dr. Avery, on the motion. Uh yes, sir. I just kind of want to kind of emphasize I I agree with you 100% uh that this item and the item that you're going to bring up here next, uh I think both of those need to be referred back to the policy committee. There is a lot of conversation and we're going to get some direct legal guidance from the state of Connecticut on uh the phone uh topic and the AI topic. Uh so, I want to make sure that we're clear
156on that. Uh I I do want to refer the board back to um I mean, I I can wait till the next item comes up to to address that concern that I have on that, as well, Mr. uh Traynor, but the going going back to the policy committee for this item is perfect. I I appreciate that cuz there's going to be a lot more conversation around it. And I'm following it, as well, as as long as as as well as the other uh school superintendents in Connecticut uh because it is a hot topic and uh they've done a lot of trial runs across other districts across Connecticut. Good, bad, or indifferent, we'll have that information before us uh to guide the work that we're going to have to do on this. Uh I, too, have
157had several uh meetings with a groups of print of of teachers uh regarding cell phones in the classrooms. I've been getting, you know, anecdotal information from them, as well, as we start the journey of uh developing policy around it. Uh so, it's going to be a good deep conversation and we're going to have to do a lot more community input on this one. Uh and I think it's important for us to kind of seek that out. So, I'm I'm I appreciate you referring it back to policy and uh we'll have a a lot more deeper conversations around it, I think. So, good deal. Thank you. Mr. Medina. Yes, definitely. Yeah, and I um I thank you, Dr. Avery, because you just also reminded me that uh when we were at the cave being the hill,
158there was some talk about it and Mr. Traynor said and there was one particular district was that already had some policy and I reached out to her then and and and asked her, "Can you send me over that policy?" So, I'll definitely will share it with Mr. Woodson if he's still online. And with you, once she sends it over, I don't know if they reached out to you, but I asked them because I we don't I don't think we should reinvent the wheel. And there was thinking because they it was been at According to her, um it was at no cost. So, they're not doing anything that is costly. I know some district, they're doing policies, they're doing these different things, but this district did it. They've been doing it. Um the high schools and
159the elementary did it at different times. Uh they let the campus do it in their discussion. They let the campus do it in their time line, let's say. So, it worked good, I hear. So, I would love to hear it read what they put on paper on that so we can see and see how we can mimic it or make it work for us. But, um as soon as I have it, I'll pass it over to you guys. But, I'm waiting for that still, I believe. So, I'll double check my emails again. But, definitely something that we should talk about it and decide it. I'm hearing teachers are they want this. They they they really do, which is to my surprise. Um I think I thought they were they were not thinking. Uh I know
160we do have to tackle something with you guys. Uh and in the community level because I know there's some schools, I don't know if it's all, they use their cell phones for passes uh as far as when they're in the going to the back to the restroom and stuff like that. So, we really have to figure out um you know, how we want to implement this and how and what, you know, phase. Uh and possibly even you know, have a couple discussion in the AI committee and Lincoln AI committee for a month or two and figure out what we can uh do together. Say, that's referred. Oh, I know. I But, again, my my um my words state and record that even if we had to do that, that we can get community involved in
161this discussion and parents involved in the discussion because really the just the policy might not be the complete answer for us because we want to hear from the community also because parents are going to have to have a say uh 100% before my brother says something here to my left. Parents are going to have to have a say on this, unfortunately, because they are the people that we're serving and I want to hear their concerns and how they can see that it's going to be, you know, if that's the one here from the other district. So, um I'll send you that as soon as I have it and then I'll start working on fishing for that information that I thought I would have it by now. So, unfortunately, I don't. Um Through the chair. Thank
162you, Stu. Mr. Fallon. No, Mr. Traynor. Okay. Okay. We did. So, uh on the motion, all in favor moving to referring it to policy. I. I. Okay. Uh Dr. Avery, I am not going to agree with you about the second one. Um but, I am going to move to table it tonight because of the hour. Um this is a sacred evening and uh right at this moment uh a sacred event is occurring and I'm missing it. Um Those of us that understand and appreciate American culture, this is opening day. It's happening. That's true. And through through the chair >> [clears throat] >> It happens to be my team. It is happening with So, Netflix. Anthony, through that through the through the chair, can I can I Just one second. I I just wanted to say
163I I am happy at some point to to engage in a discussion about whether uh policy is the appropriate place to refer as it as it probably is or not arguably um artificial intelligence. But, I did want to engage in a conversation um about it. And what it entails. I I understand what a cell phone entails. But, what artificial intelligence entails and how it affects the classroom and how it affects learning and how it impacts learning um that's a whole different kettle of fish than how a cell phone impacts our classrooms. Um and I can understand and comprehend how a cell phone impacts our school and our learning and our classroom. But, how artificial intelligence does is a much bigger, broader um deal or discussion. So, I am going to retain the right to have
164that discussion in my committee before it gets referred to another committee where it might be more appropriate for us to consider a policy. Um but, that policy and that discussion would be beyond my control at that point. Yes, sir. Can I Can I Can I add value to what you just said? >> Yes. Yes. Yes, sir. I I want to bring it to the board's attention that we already You guys approved a policy back in May of 20 May 27th of 2025 and we have a standard AI policy in district currently as we speak. Uh I want to bring it to your attention so that, you know, in between this meeting and your next meeting, Mr. Traynor, I think I want you guys to put your eyes on it. It's policy 6401. Uh it was
165approved back May of 20 May 27th, 2025. It gives that general focus for AI and what AI is going to um be instructive in the in the in the district. Uh so, I think it will be, you know, uh the for you for everyone to do their due diligence as we come back to the next appropriate time to talk in depth. I think surveying the district, surveying parents, surveying doing all those things to to make sure that we're clear about how how AI is going to be used. But, it's already established. It's there. I just think we need to kind of take a deeper dive. I I I researched that a little bit more that today. I'll talk with the technology department. Uh and when those policies were approved last year, they they lumped all
166of that in the acceptable use technology policy. Uh those were part of the model policies, I think that cave provided the district last year. Uh and the board did approve that already. So, we I think we just need to take a deeper dive. I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention uh and so that we can have a deeper conversation about it as well, okay? Okay. I appreciate that. I would certainly take a look at that. I don't think that's what I'm really talking about, but I I think that it it's relevant to what I'm talking about, certainly. It has impact It has uh applicability to what I want to talk about. But, what I'm trying to do is broaden the conversation so that we all have a better understanding of what it is
167cuz I just don't think any of us really understand what it is that it's already here and impacting our learning. Is really what I'm getting at. I agree. 100%. That's the discussion that I'm going to have is how is it affecting us already that we don't even understand. And the we, I include myself. You know, old-timers like me as well as >> Me, too. Me, too, sir. Me, too. So, I'm still learning as well. So, we're all in that learning mode. >> to do is engender a conversation that I think we're going to be having over the next few years. It's not just a policy. It's beyond the policy. So, that's why I'm saying it doesn't have to happen tonight. It's it's an ongoing conversation, if you will. Beyond the policy. So, Yes, sir. Through
168the chair. Uh I'd like to make a motion to uh move discussion on AI use by the district staff and student to uh to the next table table into the next instruction and support services meeting. Second. Thank you. Um all in favor? I. Motion passes. And one I was going to ask you if you were going to vote that again. You got it. Um And I I I agree. I, too. Make a motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? I. The meeting is adjourned at 8:08. >> And as someone pointed out, for those of us that appreciate