Special Meeting of the Bridgeport Board of Education - Training Session Monday, May 19

001begins to the inverse special meeting of the board of education. It's Monday, May 19th and it is 6:36. In attendance we have I'm Jennif we have Albert Benan Joseph medina esamero menz Andre Woodson Dr. Avery in person and um online we have Aisha Castner, Rob Traver, and we're joined by Nick and Jody. Well, you know what? I always forget your name. Their last name was your last name. I was like, I'm not going to say Nick's last name. Joey Bald. Cool. I got but we typically stop at the 99 restaurant on our way up here because one yeah only the best that's a step up from McDonald's which is what we did the first time at the office date [Music] night more than I do my wife so we're Today we're going to go over

002the fifth uh full word training um and it's uh refining our board's goals. So I'll give it over to you. Okay. So um actually what we'll get to that in a second. What I thought I'd just start is um Joey and I talked about this. We like to start with just kind of a a a status check. Um you know we have some feelings about where we've seen progress made and all that but it's really important to hear what you have to say. Um so open-ended question um how are you feeling about where you are right now both in regards to the training but just um you know we all know why you're here and in terms of have you seen some progress how do you feel about where we go so I'm leaving that

003open and I don't want to do any we don't want to talk we want to hear and forgive me on someone else is gonna have to point out for Aisha or Robert if you guys raise your hand somebody's gonna have to find out for us because my back's per day and I apologize for that. Uh Mr. Mayor Minutes, um I think we've created efficiencies especially in the board meetings. Um a very notable example is um the policies of I think two weeks ago we ran through maybe like close to 10 policies within like 30 minutes and Dr. um so I think we're definitely seeing some efficiencies come from the screening. he was going to show I can say I'm learning a lot I be as my second turn I learned more that want to start

004in the beginning you know five years back and I having that like I'm ready of course not ready but I'm saying I'm ready to whatever's going on whatever's happened you know communicate you know work was out there very very well you know it's open communication is much better I feel the board working much better you to respect the communication, you know, and I'm learning. I'm learning. I feel so good. I'm really proud. Thank you guys for here. I'm very, you know, I'm appreciate that. We take credit. We need it. I need it. So, I'm glad for that. Yeah, it's a little bit hard to separate what was happening anyway, change of leadership to what we're gaining from this. But it does it does have a lot of value for the community because community is seeing

005this is what we should have been doing all along that the roles of roles and of each the superintendent and the board that we are in charge of the budget. That was not clear before to maybe some of the board and some of the community being put that we're picking on somebody when we weren't. We're going actually trying to do our jobs and carry out our rules and and it shows and we're getting a lot out of this and the board has calmed down a lot but that's also because everybody has a chance to speak which was happening anyway and a lot of this stuff was happening anyway and a lot of the state's critiques are kind of a stretch to find something of what what isn't happening now the good day is coming to

006digging up a lot of um administrative inefficiencies that we haven't been privy to as a board which is very which is going to be very helpful in the future going forward. Now we know we have to look in certain departments at what had reports. So good progress is good progress. Yeah. No. Oh no, it's no reflection on you guys. No, we're really we're riding the wave of of the good things that are happening. Yeah. The timing couldn't be better for you guys and then you guys would have come at this point last year. I was here at this point last year. Yeah. As far as the action that you guys are doing. Yeah. You know, I know you guys you welcomed it from the day one that I met you. This is my second year.

007They were it was very clear that you were willing and able and and okay open door for you guys to come in and do more training. No one took you to that old old leadership. So, you know, I appreciate your presence. I think I've you know, I'm the Bible man. So you I'll read John John chapter 10 this week and read it nine months from now and I'll get something else out of it. So every training for me I can always learn something new. Some of the things I've known before and I've learned before um and some of the work that we were doing before you guys came some of this work we were starting to do amongst ourselves. So it kind of like just speeded it up with us. So I appreciate you guys.

008Um you know I I couldn't say more kudos to our board chair. um you know, she's been side by side with us and with her. We've had wonderful conversations with other board members that we didn't have last year. So, it's been a it's been a plus all around because of the new leadership that we have. So, um but you guys definitely pushed us up the hill a lot with this show. Yes, sir. Yeah. Know, but I just want to point out last year this live stream cost us an extra 45 minutes and this year you just said, "Are you live streaming Joe?" And I'm sure we're gonna move on. else online. Do you have any questions or any comments? Any com I'm sorry. Yes. I heard somebody say my name. I I apologize. If you

009have any comments, you can share. I don't I don't have any comments at all. Thank you. Yes. Oh, you have um I I I want to agree that there is like deficiencies that we're working on and while um there are I think we still have a long way to go in terms of that. Um but we have some things set in place for the next few months to hopefully get us there. Um and we'll see tonight with even with the um recommended changes or revisions to our our board goals and kind of speed things up for us, things that we were planning to do anyways. Um I do think that we'll see what happens still. I'm still hoping that no matter what we're doing in the training, it continues. Um there there are still some

010concerns I have with um roles and responsibilities for instance. Um and I think that's something we have to revisit a few time. We'll we'll have to revisit um and I know I talked to you about that Nick and put that up in future after these trainings. Um, and and this not gonna I I don't think this is something that after six training we can we we should as my opinion I think we I think Nick and Jod and can come back in and continue working with us not necessarily as a mandate mistake but as a for the board to kind of continue guiding us and making sure we're efficient. Yeah. Um I I I want to just change one word because efficient is a word I don't appreciate a whole lot. Factor effective better word.

011Um just in terms because efficient if you got out a little early tonight effective in my mind is when we're doing something that makes a difference and I see you're ready for that. I see this board really starting to think about how can we do this more effectively. Um when the state intervened in Windham, New London, they on a lighter level intervened in um Norwalk, they required those districts to um they gave Windom and Winchester and New London special mask, but they also required them to go through lighthouse training. And that was two years of very intensive training that we did for them through the state. um is not something that we have plans to do because it's very expensive. The state funded those because we had a team of about five different consultants that

012we worked with and again two full years every other month. So it was a huge commitment but it made a difference. So all I can say is that if we decide to spend three, four times a year, however much time you could stand us, um we could find a whole lot of ways to help to give you more effective. So, um, we're committed to do that. The one thing we may have to talk about at some point is, um, we do all of our field service work, most of our field service work as part of your membership. If it starts to get really intense, we may want to go to the state, see if they'll help support some of that. Um, those before I come to, but we're going to do our very best to

013continue to provide you everything you need. And the only thing I would add is just going to your point, Jennifer, that that and come coming at this as a person who was a superintendent feeling voice position. It was always important no matter what we're talking about to always look at it from the perspective of roles and responsibilities. So it's not like you're going to get a roles and responsibilities workshop and then figure out how that's all going to work together. But everything whether it has to do with board decorum and buying budget um anything related to staffing it's all going to be looked at through the lens of what is the superintendent supposed to do what is the board supposed to do when superintendent lay back and be supported when's the board and and take

014and when's the board take charge and when's the board lend support for the superintendent and to make sure that that that conversation is always being addressed and sometimes in a way even during a board meeting you know something occurs to to be able to go back and say safely that let's go let's look at our roles and responsibility training whose responsibility is to address this issue as it comes up deal with it when it comes up at any given time that's really critical then we can dig deeper in any of those areas but as you as a board decide you know maybe we'd like to do a little more in this area that I know for me I think I think the the openness to to try to figure out a new game plan has

015been, you know, kind of refreshing for me. I mean, because I w I watched from the outside in in one year and now that I'm in the world now, I have to take a different lens of it. So, I think with you guys being here, the states being here, I think everybody is trying is have sat back and and try, okay, let's try to do this differently and let's figure out a better way to do it collectively. I think I've seen a little bit of that though there's a lot more of that that that's needed. Uh um I did have a chance to peek through some of the recommendations from the state and for me that's what superintendent boards are supposed to do anyway. what we get ready to lay out. That's what I'm experienced

016with doing and it's it's a very joyful opportunity because you see kids progressing not about the adults but it's what are we doing the work in order to impact the learning of kids and so when you start doing that collectively because that's what the job of the superintendent is is to how do we improve instructional capacity building within our district to impact kids right the daytoday operational pieces is where we go together between us and the board to make the system function right. But when you don't see that, then you don't see the combination of it all flowing together to work in combination to impact kids. Uh because we haven't impact kids in a long time in this district to get kids up. And so we we got to see gains academically, but if the

017system isn't built to build to build up on gains, you're never going to get there. So that's what we have to do together and that's the hardest part in terms of shiny objects. I always looked at again my role as a superintendent was to keep the board away from trailing at those shiny objects and to stick with the hard work. And again there are a lot of boards and superintendents that that prefer the drama. It's easier you know it's more it's more entertaining more engaging and there are winners and there are losers and we're right in it and we created our own mythologies around it but and And the the the the tough work is tough and it requires you to sort of focus on just keeping all the drama out of it and focusing

018on it's got a budget done. Let's make sure it's it's a budget that supports needs of kids. Let's have that battle. Let's fight it out. Let's let's look at our viable. Let's make sure that we have everything in place to to do what we need to do as part. Thank you for that. Um, we may revisit this down the road sometime and see if if you've seen any long-term changes because really right now we're looking for your reaction to things that have just happened, but to actually ask in 6 months, you know, did it make a difference? I think it'll be an interesting question to ask you ponder. Um, so we have two kind of plans for this evening. The first one we figured originally might take a couple hours. I'm not sure that it

019will anymore. Um performance goals which um we've seen copies of and you have set in front of you as well. And then we developed a little worksheet for each of those goals which would talk about um what are some of the strategies with each of those strategies? What would the timeline be? What would the board's role be and the superintendent's role be? And what evidence of completion? Frankly, the report that the state sent today, at least I got today copied, they make recommendations that of things they would like to see and frankly there's so much overlap that we might want to start with what they recommend and then but I want to also say if there's anything else that this board feels should also because they're making like these are things minimum statements but I've

020heard you all talk more and more about we want to do better. We may find that there may be a couple areas that you want to have further conversation about. Maybe set a couple extra goals. But um in my mind, I think if we start with goal one, talk about um what the expectation was. Let's look at the state language. Does that fulfill your need or do you also want to continue having a further conversation about that? So if that makes sense. Uh first goal was to establish district vision for improvement of the Bridgeport public schools. Um originally there was a discussion of the board would set some short-term goals and then um leading up to after superintendent has chosen to go into a long-term strategic plan. what the state recommended um by August 1st,

0212025 and prior to developing a district vision for improvement, the board will develop and distribute community surveys and host at least four community forums at separate geographic locations across the city facilitated by the board chair or an outside facilitator external to the district to gather input for the design of the vision for improvement. You got your hand up staff. Yeah, because we weren't doing this with um another group national group that is the board's responsibility to drive this. We we come up with the questions for the survey for the community. Correct. I'm saying the board will develop and we could do we could get input from the superintendent but it's a board driven goals and objective that we have to come to. Yes. What if I come from the superintendent? Of course. I see this

022as a collaborative, right? As do I. But um we we are the ones that got to go out into the community. We are the ones that got to knock the door and we are the ones that are basically just like the budget. It's collaborative effort, but it's our basically ends up in our wheelhouse. Yeah, that's what is written as the board. Yeah. No, just being a clarificate because a lot of times you'll see in these documents they use the board and Bridgeport public schools interchangeably. And I guess a lot of confusion between board members, the public, and even different administrations that I've been through, they conflate all three. When they talk about the board of education, sometimes they're talking about superintendent. When they talk about the board of education, sometimes they're talking about the board.

023When sometimes when they talk about public schools, they're talking about the board's actions. So, so if it it's all so it pays to have that clarity of um language and purpose especially now in position we're in so we're clear on the role especially as we're developing roles and responsibilities to realize that the language is intentional when it says board especially when it comes to state statutes and such like that in the media and colloally it's used interchangeable I think that's a point well take I know that an obvious example would be budget processes. The superintendent develops his budget. He develops it with his team. He gets input from the board, present it to the to the full board as a as a as a budget. Board the board looks at it. They don't you might

024ask some clarifying questions just so they understand it. But then they they then convenes to my view to the finance committee with the superintendent. So you go over optic code by optic code and you figure it out and then you vote it out of the finance committee to the full board again when the full board has a chance to take the superintendent's budget. Now it's going to be the board's budget and so the board then sells it. So the superintendent sells it to you works with you. So he goes from the leadership to the support when it becomes the board's adopted budget and you you leave it on a particular here. the board shall discuss it, possibly amend it and then it becomes the board's budget. Yeah, you skip you skipped the whole board. Absolutely.

025Well, it's important. It's a process. So, well, and to your point there, I mean, it says you shall develop surveys. There's really no discussion here about who's going to see that that is taking place, who's going to put the questions together. So there is a little bit of work in identifying who's going to do what. Um and the other part I would say is in terms of the community forums um who's going to typically something like that you're going to have some questions and ask people to respond. Um I think that while Joe you're absolutely right that it's the board vision the board that votes on the vision um without input from superintendent and most importantly his staff how do you figure out where we're going to go if we're not even sure where we

026are right now senry um I'm sorry follow question the these definitely got to be publicly noticed because they're they're going to be board meetings unlike the superintendent's forums where we just showed up and it was the superintendent running. This is more of a boardled thing. So, it has to be publicly noticed and right these are community meetings. You'd want to have them noticed posted. I just facilitated two for Wallingford where they had um special they're talking about closing one of their two high schools and consolidating the one from two and there's a lot of anxiety in the community about that. So, they held two forums. This was just on the edspecs for the new building by the way. wasn't even the decision that as theoretically was been made two years ago. Um but they wanted

027to make sure that the community felt that. So they were board meetings. The board sat like this. They had microphones. They invited people to come up and share their thoughts on the edge fast. Several of them wanted to watch in high schools. Um and they asked me to facilitate that just to keep it so the board could stay um you know listening with the train. So that was similar situation, but somebody had to post the questions and get that to respond. And would you suggest a a more interactive forum or just a list more of a listening? Um the problem with interactive is yeah is that it's interactive and and I say this with a lot of affection. I see a board where members like to talk more to the community than to listen to

028the community. So I think it would be really important to make this about listening to them. You could then come together after your forums and meet together and say what did we get out of this or what does this mean for the Bridgeport public schools? But this is a chance to hear from them. So I would say more of one person speaking at a time plus if you break out in smaller groups who's reporting all of this information only three of you might hear it instead of all of you. So this that would be my idea of just it's a community forum but you can say we have some questions first question is follow etc. So any time I I guess my question would be who's going to be responsible for putting these surveys together

029and then distributing it with a timeline of August 1. Um it doesn't say to collect them but it says you have to distribute them by August 1. So, um, that's a couple of months. Um, I'm going to suggest that probably because of the convenience of having staff to do it that the superintendent would be the one to pull it together. But how do we get the questions or um that probably another answer probably and go ahead. Well, I I don't want to dominate that. No, just uh to s suggestions how we handle a lot of things and um don't necessarily take another meeting. We could all send individual questions to the superintendent and we'll see. He'll he'll find some he may be able to find some overlapping questions and commonalities and may some maybe some

030unique questions and he could probably pull that all together to get I'm not trying to give you possibilities but if the most efficient way to go about it and then add a few of his own because especially with the tight timeline. So we so and and again your point is well taken. Anybody can send Dr. Angry questions I think should be on it. Um there are examples of community surveys but again this is to help you develop the vision. So I think it's some actually a lot of open-ended questions. What do you think we need to focus on? Where where are the concerns we have right now with Bridgeport public school? We might also look at the thought exchange is such a powerful tool. So I know you're using it the second but using it

031at the first iteration and getting input from your community to then allow these meetings that you have with the community to test those ideas out. So so again through thought exchange process you're going to identify maybe 30 or 40 different ideas but you'll also get a chance to see which ones get the most stars and which ones really runs to the top. You'll be able to instead of just going to these community meetings and just saying, "What do you guys think about our vision?" You can ask them specific questions about what came back from thought exchange. How do you feel about this? This was one of the most highly rated thoughts regarding our vision. What are your thoughts on that? So they can find your process. I know us we can do survey we can

032make you know question you know something like that and we can do but I would love suggest and I would like to hear from people from my side people with parents staff principles because they saying that we you know they know we're going to do a survey we know what we want but we know what we're going to say or what we're going to ask but I like to hurt people want to say outside teachers parents you know staff principles you know they can not go crazy I know they people going to go crazy saying But you can take which one you know is more important which one similar the other one you know get send it to the chair of Dr. Avery. So for me there's value people said for me. So you're saying

033they're going in the community to get questions then we're going to ask of the and then they can send it you know us whatever to Dr. we can figure out what question be good so we can be ready to do this form you know. And I'm I'm only pushing back a little bit because part of me likes that. But you're on a short timeline and you want the survey out longer and if you have too long a process to even develop the survey, then that's going to cut short the time to get results. And I I think I guess I'd like to leave it to you to some extent to try to figure out and again logistically back in the best position to say well I can have staff pull this together by weeks you

034know a week a month whatever in order to get it going. Um, so I I I don't know that you want the board managing the process as much as making sure that the questions are appropriate because I I know I know parents when they see service is launch they're not because I have experience in I know that they go to the survey they go to the point what they want and you know we we exactly we we know what we want what they want especially today you know hard so it's time to go to short strong short survey you know to the point you know not to many because they're going to get bored. They say this is too much. Nine questions it down. Mhm. A whole few. My my idea I guess just um

035thinking like the survey should be out longer than I was like or that's as long put it out there for and hopefully maybe um if we can develop our question by the end of this month then we can hopefully put a survey out by first second week of June and then um possibly do u the forums throughout the summer in July. I um you know possible suggestion for you because um I think the beginning of June is doable for a draft. Yeah. On June second we're going to have a communications expert here to talk to you about communicating community. So if we could get him a copy of the draft questions ahead of time, he could also help you respond to that and finetune it. So I think getting Chris from involved in that meeting.

036Yeah. limited summer meetings. We can really focus on the forums. Yeah. And that, you know, it helps that before we can spread it out that way. Obviously, the summer time will be off and whatnot. We can somebody like some of the board can be at, you know, some meeting, especially the wear and tear on me superintendent because he he's going to want to be there, I'm sure, and um he's got to be every meeting. So, we'll have to we'll figure that out through that. The other thing too is thinking about meeting with your community or want to go to the thought exchange group all the content coming up and any of your activities parents are coming to your schools. You may be able to integrate or or figure out a way of using those opportunities

037as ways to get information from parents when they're coming to your schools. Yeah. Anybody else? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I just talk about support with Mr. Ben's idea because I I I I do like it and I do appreciate the timeline thing, but we could always circle back. There's no nothing locking us into this one survey in the beginning. We could circle back and gain the information that we get from the public at the community forums and put together another survey afterwards or just you know there's going to be time we're going to get into the goals and that could be an additional this be all going to work. It's not just this year. We're going to win social for understand what you're trying to do. The other thing that is supposed to be forthcoming

038um in talking to um Charlotte Hughes at the state, they did a bunch of surveys of your community and those results are supposed to be available soon. Now, I asked him if it would be available to our consultant because he he knows communication and it would be helpful for him to see those survey results. They promised that if they're available, he will get them and I'm assuming that everyone will get them. So, there may be some something in those comments um from all the surveys they've done that might also trigger some ideas for you. So traver mute sir this survey that we're talking about is in regard to what exactly cost we're going to be surveying who for What? Oh, do you have the document in front of you? The the No, not it should

039be on the portal. It's in the email I sent earlier. It's the um looks like this. I I was at the doctor this afternoon. Yeah, just check your email. There's a there's a the highlights were um email from me this morning or early afternoon of uh the state on the goals and that that's what we're looking at now. But to answer your question, it's um they they sent back um what you call revisions or feedback feedback on our goals and u one of them was to have a committee forums this summer to help establish our vision. Ah okay. This is not the this is not the uh facility stuff. This is the a different purpose. Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. Oh, I just I could look at the little worksheet that have here. If we

040look at that first one as one, establish the survey. Um survey August 1st is the timeline. Board's role is to make sure that the questions to finalize the questions. the superintendent's role really to organize this process and the evidence of completion would be the survey results. If I'm missing anything, but thinking I I would look at the board the state department of ed maybe I didn't rehearse this general idea this is wrong. I saw this as an opportunity for the state department of medicine just but you force you to pin pin pin things down a bit. So if you look at by August 1st 2025 saying you're committing to a date you're committing to a process you're committing to a number of meetings. I I think if you made a strong justification for changing any

041of this but still pinning yourselves then I don't see this necessarily as being s%. I think you can add to it you can change things around a little bit to meet your needs but this is really my view this feedback I I was getting oh you want it down and and I think they would say yes to that. The only question that we don't have an answer to or any question that we don't have an answer to is do they mean August 1st is like this is a drop dead date that if certain things aren't done by then we're going to make other decisions or is this just it's an appropriate timeline. Um and as I say the way I leave the question um by August 1 you will develop and distribute. I'm not sure

042that it necessar and at the community forums but it doesn't necessarily say that well collected that they have been reported back. So that I would say the hard part is getting it organized and sent out. You might be able to allow a week or two for returns and then putting the data in. Yeah, I was actually going to comment on that because that's just to have the forums just to have the surveys, but we'll actually have to have a sit down workshop or meeting on actually just developing the vision based on the results. So that would probably, you know, be later in the month of August. Yeah. Um, and they didn't pin that to you anywhere in terms of a day to establish vision. Um, and I I guess to in my mind, I'm not

043sure where they are with that because as we've talked about before, to go into a full-blown strategic plan, for example, prior to finalizing superintendent search, it's kind of a secret because you want that person's input um to be part of that. So, I'm not sure. That's why I haven't heard them say must have a plan by such and such a date. Yeah, they just say you'll have put data collection together for August 1. Um well question slashconern. So we talk about having community forums in the summer. A lot of people go out for vacation. So my concern is we're not really going to have a representative picture of the community. we might have some some forms where we have limited attendance and it's because people are going away. So, I just kind of want to

044set expectations that yes, our intention is to get as many responses and all of that, but those forms might be lightly attended. And I I've thought about that too. um especially in past board forums where I attended and um we've had like before I was on the board of the the the budget forums and I was one of like three in the room. So, you know, those those are things that have happened in the past and have limited attendance. So, um I think getting the word out there and and seeing and then also work with our community partners. How can we get um them involved to really help us boost attendance um on those things? They have a lot of summer camps and stuff in the schools. Almost half the schools probably going there during

045the summer time. So they have the ability to be able to capture some feedback from those were there. Yeah, that's good. Realistically, we push we push and advocate. We can communicate. Turnout is dependent upon the people. Dri has hosted several community forums. He has been excellent at communicating, pushing them, putting them out on parent square. We just recently devastated our district with cuts. The last community forum I think had under 30 or 40 people and that is through no fault of us, no fault of the district, no fault of anybody. We can lead a host to water, but we cannot make them drink. Today was a very good turnout in Harford. We had a couple hundred people because it is it is what it is. Advocacy and outreach is hit and miss. It's not not

046really dependent upon the outreach. I mean, we're showing that effort for the outreach. Fine. Because the state board of education don't even have that much turn out at their board meetings either most of the time unless it's something really really dire. So, so they can't fault us for not having turnout. I guess I would say also because there's going two weeks by then you should have a lot done in terms of prepar preparations. Yes, next time we'll also have I'm sure a lot to say about how we can get people to come. This seems really good. I he was Boston public schools and they did a lot of work getting community involved. So he'll probably be able to add to the conversation when we get to that so we can hold some of this still

047then. I agree. I just I I know we we talk almost everything is almost about community and stuff. Of course, because they're why we here, but just hoping that everything that we do is driven by the community and by data, you know, I mean, you know, if we're not we're only going to have like, you know, five 10% of community. Just we could we could take that into consideration, but a lot mostly everything that we do should be driven with data. you know, that's going to tell us exactly how to what we need to act and what we need to do. I mean, we got data on everything. We we got plenty of data that that and and information is not the problem. So, so and we'll hold some of that. This question too is

048about that and in fact your recommendation involves famine. Very very important point though because absolutely right you can't set a goal because I feel I feel we should do this or I think you should do that today shows that this is what we need. You could conceivably find parents coming to you and say I don't think you should do this but your professional staff might say well in order to achieve a certain level of skill set we have to do this. So that's the difficult spot you'll find yourselves in. But you can't make decisions like that without data because without data you say I think you're wrong. You're not going to remain elected official for long. But if you have data to support your positions that helps a lot. So it's very important point and

049again if you have concerts coming up end of the year school activities already preparing to come. You're not going to be only 5% of your parents from you know they made it to June come to these various events. So at those events, if you have laptops set up with thought exchange questions, the media centers or libraries or you know other areas you have the principal who announces the the chorus coming on stage before you leave today, please take five minutes to ask some really important questions for the board, their computer set up. It's all self-explanatory and those kinds of multimodal ways of of getting those kinds of inputs. parent don't go to have the time and ability to go to an evening meeting may be there for 10 15 minutes to answer questions that might

050be helpful to you. I also think um with the forums you know the superintendent to help with that by maybe getting the packs involved because we have there there's there's some very active packs in the district and there's others that we work with. we can get them, you know, to like shoot a email to their parents like, "Hey, come out through, you know, the forum." I think that could be helpful cuz like I think that's probably something where we lacked a little bit in the past. I'm not sure if we actually utilize the facts the way we we should. Yeah, I think you were a point. Um, even with what we just accomplished today in Harford, I think I have two or three calls about the event. There was those phone calls that went out.

051I don't know how that Oh, yeah. But that was the experience where I'm singing but it was a actual audio recording which was a me very impressive because I've never those before. Uh I got some state I just know did but that was that was I think and I was like I got another email I got another so I think I had two or three that I got called. So that was very informative parents listen this is towards girls better than emails I think. Yes sir. Albert one more. I I feel that they will come out. Why? Because they see the change. They see what we're doing. They see we fight for our kids. They see we want our kids to be funded. And as you know the border with that they communicate. They see

052I really they open now that my phone did not stop. My two did not stop test message. I can show you how they proud. They said good. You know the board was over there. They got every they see Facebook live. We the history today you know and I'm very glad that we go and you know all the people out there they see they see people do that we always say they watching us and trust me they watching us very good and I know the parent they will come out because as Miss Perry said um sometimes we got for they come forward their parents we are the ones that come the the room is full because they see what we doing before they don't want to come because we want to give the information out the

053way supposed to be you know it's not lack of communication this But now our doors open, policy is open that day is in 24/7. We don't stop in us the board member too. You know, we do our thing, we communicate, we do Facebook live, everything, you know, communicate, communication with the pack leaders, they're very happy, you know, the communication going out to Bridgeport very good. The state, they know what we doing and I believe we planning very good. I know parents that will come out, you know, because they know what we want. They know what Friday Park is. So I I want to make sure we get to all the questions kind of would it make sense um from your original goal to replace the language in terms of the plan to just incorporate that

054bullet number one from the state because that is correct. It's an action you know who's going to be doing what? Um I would say that there's a couple sub things under there you might need to talk about like that Dr. everybody. Well, I'm going to say June 2nd, which is when we'll be back talking about communication to at least have some kind of draft available. Not even necessarily a formal draft, but a series of questions and potential actions, run it through Chris, just for some feedback, and then with the idea that I would say between then and the middle of June at least that you distribute surveys. If that seems doable. Yeah, with the two two week in increments. Yeah. And so that and as far as the um if you establish or potential dates

055for community surveys, um that gives you some time to plan. I would say those should be scheduled. I know summer's in the way, but they're going to be in the summer. I mean whether you try to do a couple on a weekend for those people who are working at night, couple evenings geographically around the city so that people have a chance to go somewhere close. I leave that to you I think to come up with what you think the particulars ought to be and we can if you have something as a sort of draft plan for the second we can also have Chris look at that and just offer some advice on how we could tweak that to make that a little better. Is that what about the dates for the forums? That's where That's

056where I was going. Yeah. Okay. Should they be um July? Did they say they said by August? By August 1st. So if you figure maybe two in July, three in July, one the end of June, two in June, two in July, or four in July. I guess I'd leave it to you, but with the idea that you'd have to have them before August 1st. And then taking into account summer's vacations. I don't know who you'd want there other than board members. probably somebody from staff sounds like. So um so if we substitute the actions for now although you might say number two is that at the appropriate time establish a comprehensive strategic planning process because I think that long term is where you belong. I think you had it in here six months after, right?

057And that gives time for us to like do within that hiring that hire. So then we can get like a SWAT analysis done and then all all the other things that go strategic plan we have time to do that right then and take your time with that. A lot of community work, a lot of data gathering. Um and Dr. bravery is going to be pulling a lot of that together for you based on the second goal. All right, so these all really duct tap them together quite well. Okay, so that takes care of number one. Number two, um and Dr. Avery had already already suggested use of thought exchange um to pull together from staff recommendations P3 areas focus on student achievement by May 19th. um that still works well with the state's expectation that

058you will receive a presentation of staff recommendations by August 1st. So that gives you even a little more time if you want to compress that out a little bit. Although I guess staff will be away some for the summer. I think we can send that a survey out to staff, a comprehensive one for the for the for the for the district. So we'll we'll probably end up getting some of those that information from staff I think in the next two weeks. So it may be perfect timing for pulling some of those things out. So their expectation August 1st you'll receive a presentation on recommendations which could align with the work that you that you've already got the approach basically. And then um the other part and this is I think more something well maybe through

059bylaws got talking about having dedicated time at each regular board meeting to talk about student achievement. Um that's probably the best way you're going to actually codify that otherwise it could slip through the cracks. And again I would look at number two and I would it's it's really going to be critical that you pick three high leverage areas. So it really is going to require significant expertise from completion. You don't want to just simply um you already have the the you know the safe report card around high school. Is there anything there SAT performance or or attendance chronic attendant absenteeism or whatever reports you're getting from the state already might be a key critical leverage point that you want to focus in on terms of improvement effort. I would also look at key areas like

060third grade reading the point where you're looking at kids going from learn to read to reading to learn. I look at algebra as a gateway math course for higher higher mathematics. I would really focus in on key leverage points so that you can as a district not not have 12 different things that you're you you're tracing and trying to track down and chase but three things that you're that really if you get it right that would impact three or four other things. in your recommendation if or the recommendation is save every meeting every regular every regular meeting um specifically those three items and just keep it to those or I in terms of every meeting I would I would talk about what what are our efforts in looking at if you're looking at algebra or

061you're looking at third grade reading you would want to know as a board what are our what what efforts are we employing to to improve our reading scores in third grade What kinds of assessments are students getting? What kind of in-house assessments are we providing? You can you can look at attendance, you know, or chronic chronic absism. Those types of things are kind of constantly flowing dayto day. So you can pick out a few things, but and even with reading or math or science school, you can still do and we can help with that because that's one of the things that we're going to be doing a lot lot more focus on as well is what are we doing academically and how we're measuring what we're doing academically. So it fits right into what we're

062going to be doing anyway. So, it's an easy conversation for us to have, you know, especially to to teach you guys how to do it in order to be able to flip the roles a little bit. Maybe this first semester we can do it and second semester we can teach the board how to look at the data and interpret the data back to the community. So there's there's different ways we can do that, which I think is really kind of good that if it's even on here because we're going to be doing the same thing that data needs to be out in front of this community and the board at all times. Every time we have a public meeting, we should be showing and sharing what progress we're making, even if it's baby steps. It's

063okay. If you if you change the trajectory in algebra scores and third grade read scores and your chronic acetism rates, you can those things will affect your social studies performance, science performance. Now kids are reading more non-fiction. They're improving their reading skills. So again coming from I was a language arts person, I was a language arts director. I was that's my area of real interest. It was really the the the key indicator for me was third grade. And if we could change if we can see improvement in third grade reading scores, I I could feel I could sleep at night thinking that that's going going to have a positive impact on other things in my my district. Yeah, this one this one's basically in my mind an easy fix. This definitely is part of the

064uh order business on the agenda. We've already got like bullet points of everything and commonalities of the agenda under the superintendent's report. We could probably put a subset a student achievement and data reported by the superintendent and that that would that would satisfy this and they can integrate the three he or she can integrate the three um points whatever they come up with doesn't have to be delineated that we need to do this and this and that. We don't got to go through the whole step the agenda. Correct. Yes. That's that's written in the agenda. That's already by already. And um if there's something right and if there's something right and if there's something um that's not given that the board wants, we could always um refer. Yeah, I was going to say I think

065it's important to hit the three priorities every time, but there's also other things that are going to be data is going to be coming in central office. There's maybe some tests that just came back and you need to hear as much of that as you can. So, but the idea that board meetings are more about learning about children learning than they are about the killer bees, buses, budgets, buildings, all the rest, all the other that that was I like's point that that really does it builds muscle memory for the board that if you're looking at those three things and that's what you're discussing, you you it's a transferable skill to look at science and other assessments that are happening in and we could even we could even refine bullet points And I mean for if

066you want to put A, B, and Z for the three points that he comes up with, that's we already have it already done pretty much. And it's just really focusing in on, you know, what the state of Connecticut, you know, measures for school districts. And so the smart balance piece is already there. It talks about math, science, social studies, bilingual ed, uh career career college, college and career goals. you talk about product absenteeism uh and suspension rates. So those are critical areas of data sources that the state of Connecticut wants you that's why they grade you. And so if you if we stay focused on those areas, those are the things that we we've already kind of made up, you know, goals of what we want to achieve for next year for the district, right?

067And so it's already pretty much because we have to pre-plan this anyway. So, it's already done. We just have to kind of merge it into the day-to-day practices of what we do. And it's a it's an easy thing to do. Yeah. I would just my only comment would be that if you're looking at three go back to the good to great you know that the hedgehog principle you are going to be completely devoted to looking at three key indicators that you you if your bet would be if we get these three three things right we're going to see bigger advance enhancement in other areas that that that's the hedgehog that those are three we're focusing as board we're going to do dog in our pursuit of that doesn't mean that we have to look at

068at the um No, but I think you make a good point though because but but what you have to look at is that you have these seven or eight little criteria that the state measures but like you said you go back through and say okay from these data sources if we do these it's almost the theory of action if we do these things this will happen right and so because when you look at suspension rates if you keep kids in school you know you're going to have more kids connected to your math science social studies curriculum because they're not suspended in and not getting the curriculum, right? So, if you do this, then this will happen. So, we can take those initiatives and or data points and say if we do these three things out

069of all of these, although we keep focused on all of them, then we're going to get the biggest bang for our buck, right? If you're committed to lowering your chronic absenteeism because the student is going to see that the school is invested in me. They're calling me. They're making sure I'm coming to school. they care about me and when kids feel like they're being cared for, they perform better, right? But then you look at what is the district investing in. Say if we're going to do a math goal, well, we have to look at our math curriculum. We got to look at the teachers in the classroom teaching the lesson, right? All these different things are focused in on those three points. So, it makes sense, right? It's not just one thing and you're going

070to get it done. There's so many underlying things. And that's what superintendents do, guys. We look at all these things to make the system work, right? And so, but the board makes the goal and then we have to hit that goal, right? And then if some things don't hit the goal, then you need to get your new superintendent because they're not doing the work if they don't have the means and the resources to get that done, right? So, that's listen to the superintendent say, "Hey, we need these things to hit these goals. So, can you make sure that we get this?" And that's that's the collaboration that we we have to add and we can do it that way. So yeah. So uh one more and then I want to suggest something. Yeah, I I

071agree with Dr. Avery that we should definitely have all that data. But um if we're going to include it to your point about the three data points, we need three measurable data points that are measurable at every other board meeting. Yeah. Me too. So so we got to the comprehensive report. Yes, definitely. and definitely satisfy our state banding right here. Yeah. So what I'm going to suggest for the um action steps for this goal, one take Dr. Avery's language about thought exchange in developing the three key areas of focus. Um May 19th by August 1st the the board will receive a presentation from the super. I think to blend those two paragraphs together and I'm happy to take that on if you want or somebody else can do that. Okay. Um and then the second

072one um the only thing I would add um number two the board leader uh dedicate time etc by drafting them into the board bylaws. I would just draw the connection between those expectations and codifying them in bylaws and that will be done by August 1st. Well, I won't speak for the policy committee, but um I think that the we mean policy machine. Yeah. To attend in a meeting that's pretty good. But I I think that that what the date is specific date is in there or not that the expectation is that the policy the bylaw will reflect the board's desire to have student data at every regular board meeting. I will reward that. That that's huge. It is huge. That's the difference between boards that lead and boards that manage. Boards that lead are talking

073about students learning because that's what this is all about. I did suggest that maybe maybe not August 1, I would have one only because we have all these other like maybe because we're not going to have regular board meetings until the end of August. So, you know, maybe by the first board meeting like of the year. Maybe that year because the the first board meeting of the year is the book. week of August. I want to say or fourth week of August. The first board meeting in August. Just change the wording to that. Yeah. Board meeting August 25th. First board meeting where that will be that doesn't approve the byp and again not privy to why they they put August 1, but as long as because it's a by you receive a presentation, it doesn't

074say that you will have done anything with it at that. Yeah. that regularly scheduled. So that'll be the first regularly scheduled. So I think we got that. All right. So I know enough here to get that straightened out. Yes. Not going to put that in. I'm just going to do first first. Okay. Third um insurance responsibility. Um I'm looking at Dr. The original I had no hand. Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. My hand. Oh, your hand wasn't up. Yeah. Go ahead. My hand was like this. Sorry. I was doing it like this. Can't see you. You have a hand up. Go ahead. I was going like this. Uh just on that one alone, I would renew my request of constancy and repetition that we receive the superintendence report in advance of board meetings so that we

075can look at the data in advance. That's all. Thank you. Your recommendation is that that be included in the language to be updated in the bylaws. If we're going to update the bylaws, I want to put it in the bylaws. It It's my understanding is general practice among most CABE members. Um standard practice among most CABE members and uh um at the various conventions I've been to. Uh that's what I've been told by CA membersh. And um so I'm just recommending that it it be included in our packet. It was done in by past superintendent here. Um and it should be as as a part of our packets so that we have a chance to review the data before we go into the board meeting so that we can look at it. Good point. that

076bravery. It said, "Develop and implement a comprehensive budget plan that ensures fiscal responsibility and sustainability for the next five years. State included um by September 1st, the board will conduct an initial review of comprehensive budget binder developed by the superintendent in advance of 2026 budget season adopt by October 2025. I guess the question I would ask is when you're talking about a budget finder, is that the draft budget format? Question for because it seems like presenting a board budget in September would be as close to possible. One of the things that is hit talked about is that he's going to help develop, you know, process and the procedures for developing the budget, timelines, all that stuff. You know, very comprehensive. So, that's I think is what they're referring to binder. Yeah. But we haven't had

077a chance to sit long enough to talk a little about that the in and out of what that binder is, but I've seen one similar to what he's talking about, uh, which will be very helpful. Planning manual. Yes. more like a planning manual, expectations of who's going to do what, what time, and you know that kind of thing. What meetings will be held, that kind of all of that comprehensively laid out. In the past we've had like one sheet like I December will have this but we have to be a form in January but I think this is more intense for what I and I I'm suspecting to some extent while you may be aware of what that is that this is really for administration to lay out the work they have to do whereas

078what you're talking about is really your calendar. Oh I'm sorry. So that that's just my point that the one pager really talks about the board's timeline rather than the in-depth review that Dr. talking about, but they both are important. Yeah. So are we travers? Yeah, it sounds like a wish list to me. Um, I mean, is this like saying that we're hoping to have this much money or is this is this a realistic plan as to how much money? We're not talking about the dollars and cents. We're talking about the procedures and processes to ensure that they're being done in a fiscally responsible way. Ah, okay. I misunderstood. I I I have the paper now in front of me and I'm I'm I'm reading it and not I don't see it as procedures. Um, so

079this is just how we're going to do it. The timeline that we already thought we had. Okay, I'm good. The timeline you're going to be part of the timeline is the superintendent is developing a budget. You know, he's meeting with department people. He's looking at resources in a district, what his needs are. He then brings that then at one point he brings that his superintendent budget that represents his needs and the district's professional opinion what he needs. He presents that to the full board. He sort of half hour of PowerPoint and 30 slides. This is these are our goal our vision we hope to achieve. These are the the new purchases. This is we come in with a level budget. Yep. his thing and then the board hears it, asks clarifying questions. Then it convenes

080to the finance committee where the finance committee meets four or five times with his committee to look at object codes, look at increases. Why are we seeing a 30% increase in this account and all those questions superintendent with his team will bring a special ed person in to answer those questions about special education? Why 60% increase in these accounts? and and then then at that point after those workshops in the finance committee's due diligence goes to the full board for a conversation and a vote. So superintendent budget now becomes the board budget and then that so no surprises that's that's the manual that's what the the community sees your city council sees and what gets turned over to city council. These are the increases. These are the main points we need to look at. Here

081are the accounts that are going up and where it all stands. Then it's the city council's job to to take the mayor's job to figure out what those numbers are. Why are we seeing a why the board's asking for an 8% increase or a 12% increase? What are the drivers in that budget increase? So that that's what I see in terms of a manual that will help everyone understand what the process is and what the timeline is for all of this. So that you expect the superintendent in November or December to do his we should call him pipelines. You know this is this is the proposal. This what we're asking for to you now and then we can appoint the finance committee knows that by this date we have to have our workshop completed by

082this date. somebody goes to the full board so they can vote by this date and basically you work backwards from the moment where the the council votes in the budget and they work backwards. That's what I see and basically the expectation is that you will have that initial review of that binder by September 1st without the binder by October 20. And the bind might include like worksheets for departments to to fill out personnel requests and national and we're changing the way they budgeted the last couple years. We're not going to budget the way we're doing that. We're giving all that back to the campuses a little bit. So that's going to be a little different process. So we have to work those pro those procedural things out moving forward before we implement things. So and

083that's where your communication person could be really important to you to help communicate to your departments as to why this thing will look different and so you understand that just asking you to do things differently for the sake of doing things differently but this will ultimately get us to six hour workshop said three-hour workshop to do um yes John yeah I'm just just on the budget um we we do have comprehensive timeline that we need to probably maybe adopt that adopt that as policy because right now it's always proposed timelines and we've got relatively consistent timelines with the city council with the state and we know we don't know what but um just want to point out that this is not saying we have to have a budget in place by these dates looking at

084the binder and the plan just so we don't get lost you get there time to get correct I asked when I saw binder did that didn't mean complete budget Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So I make sure that's one of the things we're lacking in the district is that people should be able to kind of get a guy to do the work. Absolutely. We got so much turnover, you know, and and so it's you have to have something to follow, right? So that's really what they're helping internally do in HR, in finance, in purchasing, just having something to to fall back on. When you have all those procedures in place, it's going to make your life as an educator. Yes. Because that's why you kind of in this job, not to manage budgets and all that

085other stuff. Yes. And and I was suggest going back into the timeline to develop that the um binder and the framework that you make and just guide that. There might be a couple adjustments that need to be made because of uh shifting timelines on the city council. I think they feel kind of is like a little skewed. So we might need need to push the timeline up or down some a little bit. But is if we got that framework with the timeline, we know and quarterly reports are going to be important as well going forward because we can look at that last quarterly report I think October in developing and we can see where we are in October for pre-planning for the next budgeting with actual. So to Dr. Gregory, um, is Ed going to

086be helping with any proposed policy work too in terms of re what should be policy based on how he's going to guide through the development of the manual. Yeah. So, yes, probably. So, okay. And then working in conjunction with Jody. Yeah. Because I'd like to get out of the weeds for a bit, got a plan. Um, but the second part to the goal, I think the first part we figured out. Second part is review and update policies and outline board's oversight. Um and between Ed, Dr. Avery, Jody, Lily, um working with policy committee should be able to fine-tune that and by July 1, they're talking about reviewing that and and so I think we need a policy in place now. I'm not sure if we have one specifically on what they're asking for. It's they're

087all over the place. I think we need to like we probably need support now. So again, I think Bryce and I talked earlier before the meeting. So I wanted to talk to him offline to talk to when it comes to the 3000 series with your with your non instructional operations. You want to really there's a fine line between the accountability piece that you have and allowing the superintendent to operate the district. So those are the kinds of things I want to work with the superintendent on to ensure that I don't want to simply make take things for granted or make assumptions about what are the appropriate thresholds for boards to approve certain things or for the superintendent to do certain things. So I'm happy to provide you input on it. And with that is that

088I'm think about the timeline for that if if we have to follow the July 1. Do you think that's something that can be done by then? Um the last regular board meeting in June is June 9. Um and then kind of I guess everything after that is all special meetings. So any committee meetings after that is like there could be a committee meeting a policy that same week but it's after the board meeting. So we would have to kind of schedule another meeting to approve that policy, right? Um, and that would leave us with only like two weeks to do that. So, well, you mentioned having a special meeting if you needed it. We need it. Yeah. So, but do we think that this timeline would work to have it done by I have a

089meeting with with super a two hour zoom meeting where he has the 3000 series. I have the 3000 series. I already have things that I would want to ask questions about and I think we could two of us can come up with recommended language for budget ch for changes in policy related to budget that would be that he would then be bring to you with the rationale and and support necessary trying to make a suggestion that rather than send it through the committee and all of this is is a lot and it's two steps committee therefore for creating a temporary a high committee of the whole of the board to implement the states recommendations to discuss it. So we can skip a step and move a little more efficient effectively. That's fair. Thank you. I'm

090sorry. In other words, you're talking about waving the first reading and treating it like a No, basically waving the subcommittee going to a subcommittee because we're going to have to discuss anyway. And there you there's usually five people at the policy committee anyway. So we got a quarum at those committees where if all five agree it's basically going to be a policy anyway but after the first meeting it seems like that would be expeditious people would be this board chair and policy chair but but but but if that's favorable perhaps it could be on the agenda for the next regular meeting to create that committee take forward with that so we can knock this out. So, um, as far as the last part, review update policies, blah, blah, blah. We kind of talked about that.

091Jod's going to work on that with Dr. Ray. Oh, I'm sorry. It says we'll have we'll conduct a review by electors, but we don't have to adopt it until August, right? So, we might not even have vote on it until later on, right? And it doesn't even say at the beginning of August because it's August and that regular board meeting. So we can as long as you guys are sitting up and doing the review and and would be here in a board meeting maybe you don't necessarily need to exact the policy to bring back. Yeah, I would say thank you everything in place for this school year and start the process. So that's so this language will cover that. So again, I'll collect the thoughts to look at the strategies for that goal. We're over

092halfway done. So um improve the working relationship of board members and the superintendent again we're back to buying laws. You know each your goal was create a culture where constructive criticism was valued and used as a tool for growth and development. Um the state said by July 1st you will adopt bylaw and expectation for board member decorum during meetings. Board will also develop and adopt a method by which the board will respond to members who violate the decorum standards. The board will not fail to uphold I guess to sort of their expectation in terms of performance the board will not be able to uphold the adopted bylaw standard as adopted through January 26. So they want to just see the board following the bylaws that are adopted by July 1st. Yeah. And again, I'm going

093to your bylaws and the question the overall question I would ask you is do your bylaws isn't currently written and have been recently adopted for the old board [Music] meeting. No, I think that we discussed the first time we had this meeting during the second training was where we should establish a bylaw with norms and um expectations of the board board forum. I think that's something that has to happen. So, okay, that basically well it's already exists within the Bus. We've got processes that we're seeing is we supposed to act civily intermediates. That's all that's already written into the Bus. The pro the problem is the bylaws weren't being enforced. They weren't being followed. So I think maybe a better way to possibly go would be to maybe a resolution to strictly adhere to our

094bylaws as far as and hold ourselves accountable just recommmit ourselves to the bylaws as they exist. didn't like there was a there was one of the training where you showed us a contract like a kind of a that's something I was looking at like a to implement where it's like a it's a bylaw with our expectations specifically so yeah it's with it's throughout the bylaws but here are the spec specifics and you know that's so you could adopt as a board either call it code conduct call that's our meeting norms um establishing in during our meetings this is how we will behave you know outside meetings this is how we behave any of these rules I mean I I see their expectation is that some of these are actually codified I think when you have

095to look at a rule like this as if I do this I'll be punished we've lost sight of white board of education because we shouldn't need to have norms that are so strict that you violated the rule you're being punished shame on us if we allow ourselves to do that. I think to expedite can and Jody, do can you have some samples from other districts that they use? I think it's easier to just to grab it, look at it and say, "Hey, yes, no, maybe combine whatever it that would be better a few codes of conduct. Can I kind of briefly say I apologize?" because we do have one. I want to make sure that you guys understand that we do have one. Yes, there it is. We do have one. It's both page. This

096is one of the things that I've always wanted to say. Let's do a reset. Let's sit down as a board and read as a board. Just have a little thing and just read the the bylaws together because unfortunately we have board that has never read these bylaws. I'm three generation deep in these bylaws. Even when I came as a board member and the very first meeting after my swearing in in December 1st, December 11, they threw the Bibles and blew it against out the window. 911, you know, and this is the thing that it it should and you said it right in the beginning when you hit this point about things about how do we make sure that we are that the state wants to see that we're working within our final. Nothing can be

097worked outside of that. And that is huge because then we will hold each other accountable. saying, "No, this is what he said and every single one of us are accountable to that final." So, I want to ask a question because I hear this saying a lot. I use it myself all the time. We're going to hold ourselves accountable. What does that actually Yeah. like power and I hope the absolutely you're talking about I think our votes our votes censorship won't have to go straight to censure. Like we we as a we as a board we go censure is not a essential. We got to go through the trial and we can decide how to censure the person. We can just censure and just say they're censoring or we can implement as a board anything within

098our powers and duties. Stripper committees. Um we can't for speaking rights. Um there's a couple of different things. If you're an officer an officer acts out of character or something like that, they could be stripped of that office in Duke and that's all written in here. We've we've got procedures to have trigger go and hold people accountable. That's there. It just has never been used. No, I'll leave. But I guess the question I have is they're sort of specific. We'll adopt bylaws and expectations for decorum if if you already have bylaws that do that. And I think Joey has the ability to share some ideas because we talked about conduct and there might be some better language, but the expectation is that this board will follow the bylaws. When we don't follow the bylaws, we

099will hold ourselves accountable. What that means depends on what your language currently says or what the updated policy may say later. I don't want to adjudicate that tonight. We don't have need to and that's what the board chair said that we can at the beginning sit down come to that agreement have those points of you know comment and have each board member sign and that's what some do I mean there's there's bylaws and then this code of conduct which is in a meeting this is how we will behave it doesn't hurt to print out a copy of that with a space for every board member and have somebody sign it read it and sign it once a year every beginning of every school year that first meeting and end of October or August or early

100September we used to start these um we are going to hold ourselves to this we're going to reiterate it we stand by these some even do that with the code of ethics which is too I think um all right so again I want to keep us moving to make sure we get through all this work um you also had to establish a calendar for reviewing the district policy manual starting with mandated policies and bylaws that's ongoing. I'm sorry this okay I just want to finish this sentence and we'll go to Mr. Traver um the board will not okay this is same thing the board will conduct a first review of a calendar for updating board policies and adopt such calendar so again I don't know Jody when you're working then if you're talking about a

101calendar I know you've been sort of doing as many as again each meeting but I don't know while you're pondering that let me see what Mr. Traver has to say I I think that I think that there it's worth looking at code of conduct for a simpler method of um u rebuking a colleague whose behavior crosses the line. We have a a very serious way of rebuking a colleague, but occasionally it would be easier to just note that a colleague has gone over a line and leave it at that. And maybe, you know, we we don't really have we have a a serious censoring process which involves going to trial. Um but maybe if there was a way to simply rebuke them uh with a simple vote when we think that they have gone over

102the line that would that's kind of where I was getting at too because our cens to jump straight to censure when they're doing you know something it's it's so like if there's something written like that's not as essenti you have to go through the session and go through and put on the it's so much more we could just like nip it right then and there and hopefully boil salad boil I take no I take offense to that. Well, that's not a point of order. No, no, no. Yeah, exactly. But now, now if you and I Joe, I wasn't done. So, I still have the floor. So, I I'm going to hold the floor. Yes. and just simply say in in our student policy and in the concept of just cause in labor relations concept is

103to um you know sort of give minimal rebuke. Um in the interest of trying to encourage good behavior and in encouraging good behavior with minimal rebuke you you try and move the board into a better behavior pattern. Um uh and then you know if you have to get to the more serious uh rebukes of suspensions or censorships or uh uh you know terminations then we get to those down the line. So I I just think we might want to take a look at our our policy from that point of view. So So Joe what Joe did he's saying border border then I would say out of border. Yeah. you know, that's that's the that's the rebuke, but necessar not necessarily everybody's following. That's my point, you know. So, I I don't know. I think there's

104but if I hit off, this would be a another meeting somewhere down the road where we have a session like this where we talk about your meetings and behavior. Yeah. And it's what do we expect when we're in a meeting? We will listen to each other. We will not defame each other. We will talk nice, however you want to say it. And then when you agree to that code of cond, code of conduct or bu meeting norms, whatever you want to call it, once the board has said these are our meeting norms, any violation of that code of conduct is then out of order. So as chair, you can say according to our code of conduct, you're not supposed to do this, you did that. You know, I want to just remind you that behavior

105is not acceptable. If it continues, then you have to escalate. And that's gets into what more of a policy. But I lots of boards have meeting rooms and it's you know I'm going to listen to we'll listen to each other. We're going to hear each other. We will not over talk over each other etc. So no no Mr. Ch were you done? Yes. Okay. But but the first time it was quite intentional. Um that is how we hold each other accountable. Uh Mr. Kuso just pointed out that now I'm in fact correct. If we do that religiously at the board meeting and the chair calls out or I raise a point of border or anybody can raise a point to board when one board member speaking over another board member or being disrespectful or rude

106any board member may raise that up. If we follow that religiously through Robert's rules and Robert's rules of order and religiously administer our meetings like that, no matter who's doing it, whether it's a favorite person or not, and with fidelity, we do that, we will have more official readings and we will be accountable to Mr. Traver's point, not going to the extreme of cens. Right. So, so that requires a certain bit of work on everybody's part because I have observed meetings here, not with this chair where the chair says point of order. Not a point of somebody says point of order. It's not a point of order. Yes, it is a point of order. No, it isn't a point of order. Point of and this goes out for 15 20 minutes until you recess or

107end the meeting. So, there has to be some level of accountability on all of your parts to accept that or when there are an order and called out for stop talking. Joe said point of order. They keep going back. Yes. States is point of order. You say that's not a valid point of order. I'm moving you out of order. Instead of yelling yes, it is point of order, he could say, I move uh I challenge the decision of the chair and then the board votes to decide is he out of order or not. And then it's dead. Yeah. Win or lose, it's dead rather than 40 minutes of back and forth. Becomes vote. But it gets back to we have to depend on each other to be honest with them. The work is about the

108children. It's not about me get me winning. Yeah. And so become the smartest or honest person in the room. All right. So for four um okay so making a lot of progress with with the policy adoption. So policies you need to you have a list of those policies but I can use this language here for the goal with the understanding that's in process. Right. Yes. Right. And then finally um review board committee structure to ensure effective use of board staff time and effort. that came out clear in a lot of different ways. Um, in terms of how much time you're spending of each other, how much you're killing your superintendent with all this extra work. Um, and then if your board meetings are still four and a half hours and something's not working right, but

109do you have a recommended we talked about subcommittee structure? Do you have amongst as a collective body a recommendation as to what kind of subcommittee structure you want? I know I know what I've heard is that the structure changes fairly regularly. There are a lot of different subcommittees and you're looking to create a more consistent subcommittee structure with fewer subcommittees. I personally liked um when you had that presentation about you know um you know having standing committees so finance committee uh currently our state like low VR standing committ language out there would be policy finance facilities and acade or instruction support those are four committees so what's it policy facilities the personnel I also like the idea of that possibly being an ad especially Right now we're doing such a like the master it makes

110sense for it to be a change committee because we have something but that might be one of those ad hoc cities and I know everybody doesn't agree with that that's we have to discuss thoroughly basic findings there's a consensus around those too yeah and instruction is sensing instruction you reinforce yeah facilities Now instead of facilities which is more specific like how about sort of like operation which gets into a broader bandwidth and and facilities be separate depending on what your facilities projects are. Yeah. And it's sort of I think facilities right now they sort of like operational right now we we throw in nutrition there. We you know there's so just renaming it would probably operational. Yeah. So if we opportunity to create adop committees that like for instance like the personnel committee we're not

111always hiring. So like do we need that to be a committee that could be a committee of the whole or you know. Yeah. And and how many I'm trying to think of because most don't have a personnel committee except during negotiations. Yeah. That's a side one. So my committee is policies and personnel. So if something comes up with personnel guess where it's gone into positive everything that we've been working throughout this year all been strictly policy policy no this team has been a wonderful team effort with uh with the administration to get all this stuff done they've done the most leg we just executed like it's supposed to be they do the work we execute it we put it on forward it's just been you know so so I talked to the superintendent about a

112calendar for policy um implement policy adoption. So that Okay. Exactly. So let me ask this question. So let me give you so so every board of education in the state of Connecticut has approved a a diversity diversity appointment that go you go ahead. Not not not not integrating schools but a staff diversity hiring hiring plan. So every every school district in the state of Connecticut has to have a plan in place that goes to the state department of education for further approval. Um what committee would would be responsible for understanding what that plan is getting input into that plan to for the superintendent for the full board to vote on that plan. I think in current committees would be policy personnel. Yep. Or I agree. or or the I would say instruction and uh and

113instruction and support services. Wait, we see you. Okay, go ahead. I got it. Thank you. I always I would say instruction and support services because that's more hiring teachers and recruitment in more specific areas of my previous district would would cover that personnel. So that's why I was kind of pushing on that. Well, that's why I'm like, do we necessarily need if that's a once a year thing and we're in a hiring breeze, like what are we actually agree most personnel issues are superintendent issues and need it's it's controlled by, you know, there's a lot of privacy issues and a lot of things that you can't share with the board about issues related to personnel. But if you feel as though there are when personnel matters come to the board around ground things that you

114have to sign off on plan you have to sign off on if you if there's a place if there's a bucket that that falls under policy finance instruction support and operations if you're comfortable with that that's good enough for good standing committees and and and and the buckets are big enough to take on any of those um issues that that you need deliberate over as a as a committee and then that what your deliberations would then be brought to the full board with discussion and approval if necessary. Would we and then we'll go to Mr. Chair, but would we necessarily like would we probably need a bylaw to create if if need like is but I think the expectation is that you have a policy that addresses subcommittee. So rather than trying to fix that

115tonight Yeah. is to um back to the policy committee to work on a bylaw that talks about committee structure. So again, Jody's got examples of what other towns do. Um I know I worked with Shelton where they used to have nine subcommittees and they went down with three. Yeah. Teaching, learning, facilities, and budget and um policy and they and everything else. And because here's the one thing we haven't talked about. There's a lot of stuff that ends up going in subcommittee. it would be better served if you had a policy so that they don't have to bring it to us up here. And there's an awful lot of stuff that we we have a meeting to vote on it because we didn't have it in our policy. But the policy does two things. One, it

116takes it off somebody's plate, but second, it creates um consistency. So, anybody that further ever runs into that problem again, they have guidance and policy and it takes it away from the board. Four and a half hour meetings might be four hours. they get the minutes instead because you're spending all of yourself all these long meetings and is it helping you and it's probably not there because you have an awful lot of digging out to do um but this is where you this is your goal I think ultimately is how do we act more like a board of education instead of um or a governing board rather than a management board. A lot of the decisions you're probably making right now really suited for management. Yeah. Leadership. So, so my task will be to provide

117the superintendent code of ethics policies. Um policies on ad hoc committee creation look at language around that defines the the four standing policies that you want to have and provide all the superintendent share. And as far as the goal goes, basically we're going to do what we said here. Um, working with Dave. Yeah. I mean, you said send the policy and calendar will to share with that calendar so that I can Oh, that's for above five. Establish a calendar. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. that calendar from the policy. Mr. Mr. Trey, are you waving your hand? Yes. Yes. My my hand is up. Um um I've always been uh perplexed in the new reconfiguration. We went from 9 to 7 to three to four and um we had a a parents and family committee. Um Albert chaired

118that and it dealt a lot with uh the pack PTSO stuff. Um and that got put under instruction and support services. Um, so it's in my committee and it creates a lot of of extra work in my committee and and it's legitimate important work. I'm not meaning to suggest otherwise. Um, but it it it's not an it's not instruction. It's it's a it's a different vein of work. So, I'm just curious what you have uh Jody or or Nick seen done with that area uh in other districts. Yeah. Can I ask something in relation to that? What's the in other districts? What's the board involved impact? cuz here like here in the past we had a committee that talked about tax stuff and really of from what I saw in the B it's really not

119our business and so we have a whole committee on something that's not our business and I understand that we support the tax but it really we're overstepping I think when we when we have to bring tax stuff in they have their own bylaws and and they're separate a separate separately governed um bodies there's really well it's first I've actually heard of a board that involved in it. It's not familiar with that. It's a board with a board bible only and I don't think it's I'm not sure in our Ivy B. I might need to say that but I think Joe has no right to to be clear first. um stu the students and families committing co so much more suspension and expul susp suspension and expulsions um bullying reports uh we we receive bullying reports

120and stay on top of those things because you got you got to understand how very unique we board is and I like to over 160 something districts we've had years where we had to look at we're not overseeing the packs we're overseeing the admin administration of the packs. We've had years where people weren't expend weren't spending one dollar in their title one funds. The function of our financial oversight, but seeing it as it does has to do with students and achievements. If the principles and the faculties weren't working together, that shows by spending zero dollars in your budget. So with that committee overseeing that portion, we could find out from the superintendent why the school isn't spending any money, why they're not holding any events, what have you. That's not interfering with, you know, that's

121not interfering with the pack and PTSO. We're like, why hasn't the building held one parent event for the whole entire year? And what is going on here? Because we've had 0%. I mean, when Albert first going, we we had a lot. We had probably four or five schools that didn't spend a dime by March. And if you're not if you're not if you feed the people, they're coming out. And that that that was one of the functions of the things just to oversee because we don't have a district back. We're trying to get that back up. But they they need a little help. But suspensions and expulsions, bullying, and all all these things that affect students. We used to have students bring before us. Uh we had a green recycling initiative and before um the

122diversity, equity, and inclusion committee was formed, they would have brought us an an item of their warning for Eid Alpha would have fell under that, but there was a diversity, equity, inclusion committee where it fell under because it was a better fit because it was Eid. So this could be student items, but I guess I'm still not feeling Yeah, except it's a board subcommittee. Yeah. almost nothing that you've mentioned really falls under the perview of the board directly. So, we're not supposed to receive suspension explosive reports. We're not supposed to receive bullying reports. We're supposed to let it just pretend we don't see schools schools with zero bullying reports and not raise that up in the public. See, where it affects student achievement and there's a direct connection between student achievement that should be in

123the teaching and learning call committee. Again, what Mr. trigger just said he has so much on his committee he can't get to it all. So it's being neglected by not having there's a difference between getting a quarterly report. No no hold on one minute one minute. I apologize. We'll get to you in just I I think like like you said a quarter report but also um quarter report but also things like we just said earlier like some things don't have to go through committee that we are putting through committee like field trips like if we had a policy for that and how to do it. I'm throwing field trips out there but like there's so many other things too that we might like we're taking four hours of committee because we're going through five field

124trips. Good example too. And I think that's where we get to the managing versus school boards approving field trip. That's if you have policies what a big field trip looks like the principal should be able to make that decision or superintendent but do boards have to maybe out of state maybe not maybe that's out of state. That's the only ones we do. It's out of state to buy any wrong. So, so but and again, we're trying to fix fix it tonight and we don't have to. All we have to say is that the board is making it a making it a goal by July 1st uh to adopt a bylaw dressing subcommittee structures where he'll have this conversation. So just want to understand it's finance finance instruction and operations right now facilities operate like looking

125at operations it's called facilities you want to call it operation facilities right now it's called facilities that's what it's called the name of the one that you're getting I have um okay poly finance question for board and operation yeah those are for you I want to make Sure. It's a thin policy. I think you're out of operations to cover like a dozen specific facilities to cover anything that falls in that review. We can change it all. In my mind, facilities was more ad hoc based on what was planning to do. Yeah. Versus an operations. We just called it finance committee and it had handled facility that handled operations, you know, and budget during budget season. But um how do you do it? And that again you'll articulate that in the policy. What can be helpful

126is to actually sort of break down what do all your committees do and say will you do this? Well, you know what? Maybe a policy would keep you from having to do that or will you do this? Well, is that more appropriate to do here? That kind of conversation down the road I think would be very helpful to And Joe gave us an example of that um of like what the committee like you gave that to us um three meetings ago. And so something like that within the bias I think will be helpful like so we know the basically the goal is being yeah this is supposed to be covering um and then guess I'm sorry I saw I started with my last point first and I didn't get to the original point. Yeah I'm

127sorry. I mischaracterized something he said I believe but um far as the personnel we we got to have something we got to have something with personnel because we've got policies and procedures and hiring practices and procedures that are all embedded within the um personnel such as we got to have interviews by the policy by the personnel committee got to interview X amount of number of people and then make the recommendation. So I I would suggest we just write into the bylaws that um the personnel committee shall be a committee the whole meeting as needed. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Something simple on the board agenda. Yeah. Rather than being funneled to a committee that you only bring out once in a while if it's occasional thing just another thing that is presented to the board. I'll do

128the same thing with with um suspension. I I would agree the board should absolutely be aware of the number of suspensions, expulsions and whether it's quarterly report or by annual report. But the board should this from its oversight role have an interest in in issues really student discipline on the schools but is there a committee that's really sitting there studying it or is that what your administration? Yes. And be reporting. Yes, Jody. I still have the floor and yes, we are doing an in-depth study on we started with sped which I was intrigued to see the state suggest that we weren't paying attention to this stuff. We were in we just completed a rather in-depth study having commented and brought to the attention of the administration our concerns over the suspension rates for the special

129ed students and have worked out a plan for the next year which we're meeting with them on this coming week um to present at the next committee meeting next week um for taking steps to um address the problem in next coming year. Um, and while we were at it, we noticed an in um the inordinate number of black male suspension rates um that we wanted to take a closer look at which we're in the process of taking a closer look at. So we do we are in fact studying them based on the reports that were provided to us by the administration. So, one way to think about this as well is again it's it's really a critical area of of interest for for your for your district. Can one thing rather than having it as

130a board committee or just simply a board um group looking at this? Should you have or would you want to consider having a district um sis oversight committee? It would be made up of a board member, a couple of administrators, a couple of teachers who look at the data and and examine it with the level of scrutiny that you you're discussing, Bob, and and to and to report back to the board on on what what the district oversight discipline oversight committee is is looking at the the the amounts of suspensions, reasons for suspensions, um addressing addressing the addressing the suspensions, um number of expulsions, all all those various things that you're looking at. Would you be better off as a having that as a superintendent function to develop a committee that would have board representation

131to have oversight on that that data those data points and re make recommendations to the full board? Fair question. So again, that that's not something we have to answer tonight, but but rather be simply a sole board um group committee. It could be a district committee looking at that. It's a fair question that we might discuss at Thursday's at next week's meeting. Thank you, Joe. Yeah, we we've we've had those in the past with males of color ad hoc committee, but what we found is we got to notice them anyway. And if it's meeting, well, it's a multi-regularly look at these things anyway. We're in fact creating committee. Well, you sent one board member. So, yeah, we're not talking about a board subcommittee though. This is by the administration to pres to examine the data,

132examine the information, then present it to the board. Yeah. For example, many districts have attendance committees. They look at absenteeism. They have teachers on it. They have administrators on it. They have a board member on it. They have a community member on it. But their job is to look at all the attendance data and to get their and get those minds around it from different perspectives to see what what are the issues impacting student attendance. What what what are the things we could be doing differently? How can we be engaging our students more? So in that in that information we go back to the full board for a presentation, board discussion, provide board input, but it's not a board function to study attendance. nor should it be necessarily a board function to look at student

133discipline. That's why you buy your superintendent. That's why he should be looking broadbased in terms of engaging his community so to really study this issue and provide you his best thinking on this and because I'm okay. We've had this sounds like a similar conversation we've had around special education and we see what kind of situation we are in special education right now because these conversations were happening outside the purview of the board outside of board committees and things get left behind when they're not public a lot of times not not knocking any particular administration it just does not get resolved. So, so in my mind, the board needs to estab sort of sideline to the budget process, but part of that is it's more of the administ it sounds like there's a whole lot of

134stuff in central office that needs addressing. Oh, yeah. So, it's it's you should have full confidence with your central office staff working the way it's supposed to be working that you will be presented with information as you need it about special education, about student perform behavior, etc., etc. What you have now is a disconnect. They're working on that. They're going to develop those things. You need to be at some point be able to let go of some of that knowing that you have the trust in the system that it'll work. I realize that can't happen quite yet, right? Oh yeah, I I I I just need to raise this up. This is not directed at current administration. This is right. I I just want to be clear on because this is systemic going back probably

13520 30 years in these districts. But to my point, Joe, then it's that your this board is taking on responsibilities it shouldn't have to because there's been a vacuum in the appropriate places for that to be taken place. So what we're trying to do is get from where wherever we are right now to here. And to get here, we have to have the processes in place that you will become aware of. Dr. Raven will talk about here's how we know whether our special education services are being done the way they're expected to be done. Once you receive that kind of information, then you should be able to develop a level of trust that you might not have right now. And it's not I I've said this all along, it's not the superintendent, it's the superintendency.

136And then the other point though is and the board does have direct oversight over at least one aspect of special education finance your finance committee, right? You should be able every every month you should be getting an update on the amount of money you spend on out placements and transportation costs and other things. And you should be tracking that budget against the the board approved budget and the town budget and and be concerned about overages and where you're going to where you going to take money out of certain accounts to cover those overages in special education and use and use all that data to develop your next budget. I don't any of you going to figure out ways of cutting those costs because you're having more in-house programs and developing more um more more SRBI

137kinds of programs to keep kids out of special education. Whatever your strategies are, you're you're working with data to to inform your process moving forward and holding your superintendent accountable for those programs. But as a finance committee, you're looking at those numbers. You're asking questions about those numbers. Mr. You you made a very good point because you you talked a little bit about Hold on, Mr. You talked about the board really getting involved in things that probably really shouldn't be involved. It is an administrative role. When you go back to to goal number two and you got you got your list of things that you're paying attention to. Everything that we do operationally is part of that. You can pick the top three of those things, but every every other aspect of what you're talking

138about, special ed, the hiring, everything that we do is part of those same goals that you're going to set anyway in your strategic plan, your short-term, long-term plan. Everything that you're doing is there. And you know, but Joe makes a point that they haven't done that in years. So over the last 20 years, look at the progress that you've made in this district, you know, and the reason why because there was not focus on what kids are doing dayto day, you know, and there's too much messing going on. Let us do a job. Let us do what we're trained to do and I think things will work really, really, really well, you know. But they the board's not used to doing that because they got so much noise back here. They won't let the superintendent

139focus on the work. I just want to work, you know, to improve kids perspectives. So give me the opportunity to do that. You can't judge me for what everybody else did before me. I had no control over that, you know. I'm a different person. I'm a different leader. We have different people in this district that's trying to do the right thing, you know, but it's discouraging because the way they got the system locked down as a board, we have no way. We have no place to go. What the state's trying to do is free up a little bit of that. Give us the responsibility back to us. Let us show you that we can do this collectively. And it's a partnership. It's just not the superintendent. I'm not a demanding kind of person. don't do

140that. It's all a collaborative piece and it works really really well. And so I think we got to let that go. Let the past go and say, "Okay, how are we going to make the future better?" Right? This is what we're doing right here. So I I'm I'm I'm loving this. You have superintendent role board role. So the more you can articulate that um it's a fair responsibility, right? But you know, Dr. In fairness though, it's understandable why there's been a lack of choice. So somehow you part of your job isn't just to make sure these processes and procedures are in place, but to make sure the board is aware that these processes and procedures are taking care of your concerns. Yes. And that's a communication that has to take place. and and and the

141final point. Um I don't believe it. Okay. One point we'll take out. Um the state coming in as a potential board takeover and the board elected board being removed from office, but there will still be a hired superintendent. So the city will lose its elected officials if we don't hold the superintendent accountable and do our role as the superintendent's nine members supervisory team and holding him accountable for what we're supposed to hold him accountable for. So we can't recite that he is accountable to us and we are accountable to the community and the registration and I heard nothing. Yeah. Yeah. No, you know it's always beable. That's what you're paying me to do to hold me accountable. I don't respect that. That's okay. Supposed to be the other one removed nine people from his desk.

142All I wanted to say my original my original point which Joe took and ran with in a completely different direction is that in looking at the how the committees are structured I asked the question about how some things were structured and we need to think about how we want to structure our committees. Um our committee f function just fine. Um we were presented a problem uh that we became that came to our attention with regard to special ed students and discipline. It came to our attention. We had the data from this from the administration which verified that information. A parent came to us. The information was verified with the administration's information. We had a constructive discussion or two with the commi at with at the committee level with the administrators working with our committee. We

143developed a plan for how to deal with it and everyone was happy with that plan. We're now working on nailing down that plan so that when we start the next school year, everybody's on the same, you know, everybody's moving in the same direction so that we don't start the new school year in chaos. We start the new school year, everybody moving in the same direction so that we don't have this problem in the next school year. So I the problem worked well and and the administration was responsive. Um so I'm I'm not raising it as a problem. I'm I think it went well. Um and uh don't you Albert? Yeah. So uh I I think it went very well and in the course of it in looking at the data that was provided to us

144we found another problem which we're in the process of trying to resolve that problem too with regard to the u high percentage of of of suspensions for black males. So and and there we're having constructive discussion too as to how why and where that problem exists and and where we can resolve that and there may be better ways to deal with it like you suggested setting up a subcommittee to make it more efficient. Um I would agree with you about that and we sort of did that because between meetings we held a subcommittee meeting of our own. Um but without calling it that but did work. Um I'm just saying and you know our meetings because of the volume of work we have between instruction and support services. Our meetings are long. Our meetings are

145not a couple hours long. Our meetings are three or four hours long. That's the concern I have. And yeah, I think just just generally I think again we have what the board has can always consider is what's an administrative task and what's a board task. And again, I'm not I'm not arguing or questioning the success of it. But I think it's more geared towards trying to figure out how to get them back down to a couple hours. Yeah. Well, again, I'm not I'm effective, not efficient. I I go along with Nate, but I think again From my experience, there if there's a problem with special education, the board can certainly be aware of it because it's being brought to the board's attention. But the board's role would be to say to the superintendent, there's a

146concern being brought up about special education, here are the concerns, is your team aware of it? Is your team working on it? and can your team provide some kind of uh presentation to the board so we more fully understand what what the the administration is seeing around special education and then the board can certainly say we like we have concerns about this this and this can can and we direct the superintendent to go back to with his team and develop a plan that addresses these issues with special education and report back to the board about what the team is doing and the progress it's seeing. So the board's always performing. You're in the balcony looking at oversight. You're not developing a plan to improve special education for the district. The superintendent again, but that sets

147the minutes from a retired superintendent. I want to do a reality check. Yeah. So I think we've captured language for all five of these goals. I will rework them and get them to Dr. Gregory and to Jen tomorrow appointment in the morning that I get to as soon as I get back in the office which will I think satisfy not only the intent of what the state was looking for but hope we will be much better position to move forward. um you can align with some of the information on the public both the survey and the uh community forums to talk to our advisor or communications person at our next meeting. Just had a little guidance from him on how that could become more effective. He's really good at that kind of stuff. Um, in

148the meantime, Jody will be working on a variety of areas in terms of bylaws, um, policies, f you'll be working with that on the financial part of it, which I think will eventually be worked on with Jody. I think the two of you are talking about getting together and going through some shared models with the superintendent by tomorrow. And we'll we'll also schedule a meeting where we can talk specifically about policy related to budgeting. So, um, we have two options for right now. Um, originally I figured this would take a couple hours and we made it pretty good. Um, for this last hour, um, have any of you heard of a guy named Simon Synynic? Simon Synynic. Um, he's really big on how successful organizations focus on why they exist rather than what they do.

149It's a 8 minute video which we're prepared to show you and then we can talk about that with the idea of can we come up with what is the why of the bridge ports because in this conversation it might go a little longer. So, I'm throwing it up to you as do you want to try to do it tonight or do we want to maybe shove that for another time to work the extra hour or um have a little extra time? I know they've been out all day. Yeah, that's right. You all day, too. Um but I don't care. I want to do that. It's a good video. Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't we let's not go with the idea we're going to come up with the Y tonight, but let's watch the

150video, maybe talk a little about it. We're here. So, it's after this after the meeting as well. We could talk to watch it again ourselves. Yeah, it's a it's a TED talk. We're we're um connected through Ted on online because I forgot my laptop which had the video on it. But we can get you the link. [Music] or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example, why is Apple so innovative? Year after year after year after year, they're more innovative than all their competition, and yet they're just a computer company. They're just like everyone else. They have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media. Then why is it that they seem to

151have something different? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement? He wasn't the only man who suffered in a pre-Ivil rights America and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day. Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out controlled powered man flight when there were certainly other teams who were better qualified, better funded, and they didn't achieve powered man flight, and the Wright brothers beat them to it. There's something else at play here. About three and a half years ago, I made a discovery. And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thought the world worked. And it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it. As it turns out, there's a pattern. As it turns out, all

152the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers, they all think, act, and communicate the exact same way. And it's the complete opposite to everyone else. All I did was codify it. And it's probably the world's simplest idea. I call it the golden circle. Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do. 100%. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiating value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP, but very very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by I don't mean to

153make a profit. That's a result. It's always a result. By why I mean what's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspire or inspired organizations, regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act, and communicate from the inside out. Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this. We make great computers.

154They're beautifully designed, simple to use, and userfriendly. Want to buy one? Me. And that's how most of us communicate. That's how most marketing is done. That's how most sales is done. And that's how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do. We say how we're different or how we better. And we expect some sort of behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here's our new law firm. Uh, we have the best lawyers with the biggest clients. We have, you know, we always perform for our clients, do business with us. Here's our new car. It gets great gas mileage. It has, you know, leather seats by our car. But it's uninspiring. Here's how Apple actually communicates. Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way

155we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and userfriendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? Totally different, right? You ready to buy a computer from me? All I did was reverse the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don't buy what you do. People buy why you do it. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This explains why every single person in this room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But we're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple or a phone from Apple or a DVR from Apple. But as I said before, Apple's just a computer company. There's nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their

156competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat screen TVs. They're eminently qualified to make flat screen TVs. They've been making flat screen monitors for years. Nobody bought one. And Dell Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs and they make great quality products and they can make perfectly well-designed products and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company? But we do it every day. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with anybody, with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with

157people who believe what you believe. Here's the best part. None of what I'm telling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenants of biology, not psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down, what you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our homo sapien brain, our neoortex, corresponds with the what level? The neoortex is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains. And our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-m and it has no capacity for language. In other words, when we communicate

158from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn't drive behavior. When we communicate from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures and you say, "I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right." Why would we use that verb? It doesn't feel right. Because the part of the brain that controls decision-m doesn't control language. And the best we can muster up is I don't know. It just doesn't feel right. Or sometimes you say

159you're leading with your heart or you're leading with your soul. Well, I hate to break it to you, those aren't other body parts controlling your behavior. It's all happening here in your limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-m and not language. But if you don't know why you do what you do and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will anybody how will you ever get people to to to to vote for you or buy something from you or more importantly be loyal and want to be a part of what it is what that you do? Again, the goal is not just to sell people who need what you have. The goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not just to

160hire people who need a job. It's to hire people who believe what you believe. I always say that, you know, there's uh if you if you if you um hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they work for you with blood and sweat and tears. And nowhere nowhere else is there a better example of this than with the Wright brothers. Most people don't know about Samuel Perpont Langley. And back in the early 20th century, the pursuit of powered man flight was like the dotcom of the day. Everybody was trying it. And Samuel Puront Langley had what we assume to be the recipe for success. I mean even now you ask people why did your product or why did

161your company fail and people always give you the per same permutation of the same three things under capitalized the wrong people bad market conditions. It's always the same three things. So let's explore that. Samuel Pupont Langley was given $50,000 by the War Department to figure out this flying machine. Money was no problem. He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the Smithsonian and was extremely well-connected. He knew all the big minds of the day. He hired the best minds money could find and the market conditions were fantastic. The New York Times followed him around everywhere and everyone was rooting for Langley. And how come we've never heard of Samuel Peront Langley? A few hundred miles away in Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright. They had none of what we consider to be the recipe

162for success. They had no money. They paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop. Not a single person on the Wright brothers team had a college education. Not even Orville or Wilbur. And the New York Times followed them around nowhere. The difference was Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine, it'll change the course of the world. Samuel Pupont Langley was different. He wanted to be rich and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of the result. He was in pursuit of the riches and lo and behold, look what happened. The people who believed in the Wright brothers dream worked with them with blood and sweat and tears. The others just worked for

163the paycheck. And they tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went out, they would have to take five sets of parts because that's how many times they would crash before they came in for supper. And eventually on December 17th, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight. And no one was there to even experience it. We found out about it a few days later. And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing, the day the Wright brothers took flight, he quit. He could have said, "That's an amazing discovery, guys. Now I will improve upon your technology." But he didn't. He wasn't first. He didn't get rich. He didn't get famous. So, he quit. People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. And if you talk about what you believe,

164you will attract those who believe what you believe. Well, why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion of innovation. And if you don't know the law, you definitely know the terminology. The first two and a half% of our population are our innovators. The next 13 and a half% of our population are our early adopters. The next 34% are your early majority, your late majority, and your lagards. The only reason these people buy touchtone phones is because you can't buy rotary phones [Music] anymore. We all sit at various places at various times on the scale. What the law of diffusion of innovation tells us is that if you want mass market success or mass market acceptance of an idea, you cannot have it until you achieve

165this tipping point between 15 and 18% market penetration and then the system tips. And I love asking businesses, what's your conversion on new business? And they love to tell you, oh, it's about 10% proudly. Well, you can trip over 10% of the customers. We all have about 10% who just get it. That's how we describe them, right? That's like that gut feeling. Oh, they just get it. The problem is how do you find the ones that just get it before you're doing business with them versus the ones who don't get it? So, it's this here, this little gap that you have to close, as Jeffrey Moore calls it, crossing the chasm. Because you see, the early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first. And these guys, the innovators and the

166early adopters, they're comfortable making those gut decisions. They're more comfortable making those intuitive decisions that are driven by what they believe about the world and not just what product is available. These are the people who stood online for 6 hours to buy an iPhone when they first came out when you could have just walked into the store the next week and bought one off the shelf. These are the people who spent $40,000 on flat screen TVs when they first came out even though the technology was substandard. And by the way, they didn't do it because the technology was so great. They did it for themselves. It's because they wanted to be first. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. In fact,

167people will do the things that prove what they believe. The reason that person bought the iPhone on the first in the first six hours or stood in line for six hours was because of what they believed about the world and how they wanted everybody to see them. They were first. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. So let me give you a famous example, a famous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion of innovation. First, the famous failure. It's a commercial example. As we said before a second ago, the recipe for success is money and the right people and the right market conditions, right? You should have success. Then look at from the time to came out about eight or nine years ago to this current day,

168they are the single highest quality product on the market. Hands down, there is no dispute. They were extremely wellunded. Market conditions were fantastic. I mean, we use to as a verb. I to stuff on my piece of junk time on a DVR all the time. But to a commercial failure, they've never made money. And when they went IPO, their stock was at about $30 or $40 and then plummeted. And it's never traded above 10. In fact, I don't think it's even traded above six except for a couple of little spikes. Because you see, when to launched their product, they told us all what they had. They said, "We have a product that pauses live TV, skips commercials, rewinds live TV, and memorizes your viewing habits without you even asking." And the cynical majority said, "We

169don't believe you. We don't need it. We don't like it. You're scaring us." What if they had said, "If you're the kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect of your life, boy, do we have a product for you." It pauses live TV, skips commercials, memorizes your viewing habits, etc., etc. People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe. Now, let me give you a successful example of the law of diffusion of innovation. In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people showed up on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak. They sent out no invitations and there was no website to check the date. How do you do that? Well, Dr. King wasn't the

170only man in America who was the who was a great orator. He wasn't the only man in America who suffered in a pre-Ivil rights America. In fact, some of his ideas were bad. But he had a gift. He didn't go around telling people what needed to change in America. He He went around and told people what he believed. I believe. I believe. I believe. He told people. And people who believed what he believed took his cause and they made it their own. And they told people. And some of those people uh created structures to get the word out to even more people. And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up on the right day, on the right time to hear him speak. How many of them showed up for him? Zero. They showed up for

171themselves. It's what they believed about America that got them to travel on a bus for eight hours to stand in the sun in Washington for in the middle of August. It's what they believed. And it wasn't about black versus white. 25% of the audience was white. Dr. King believed that there were two types of laws in this world. Those that are made by a higher authority authority and those that are made by man. And not until all the laws that are made by man are consistent with the laws that are made by the higher authority will we live in a just world. It just so happens that the civil rights movement was the perfect thing to help him bring his cause to life. We followed not him, not for him, but for ourselves. And by

172the way, he gave the I have a dream speech, not the I have a plan [Music] speech. Listen to politicians now with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They're not inspiring anybody because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they're individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it's those who start with why that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them. Okay. [Music] question. Okay. I believe again what I want to think about for next time because we're going to be stretching for time, I think. Um, but the idea of this

173board of education coming up, why Bridgeport Public Schools, what is your why? Why does this system exist? and be thinking about that because at some point especially as you're going into a vision you're going to be talking about establishing your district vision plan whatever you end up doing um if the more focused you are what that what your purpose is and and the exercise of coming up with nine people who agree to something wouldn't have tried this with you six months ago um I'm not sure you were ready I think you might be ready Now I think you're talking to each other better. You're listening to each other better. I think you have a more greater sense of purpose. And that's what this is all about. How we have a purpose. Did you have a

174yet he says something very important? I believe but you you when he said the people didn't come for him, right? People don't come for him. They go because they believe that us we um um like right now we give the message to the parents community you know believe they will come they don't come for us they don't come because we leaders you know they come because they believe you know what we're going to do. So that message very very that part you know hit me very strong there and a lot of that and it's that's an excellent thing you talk about hopefully we'll cover some of that in our next when we talk about communication and the idea because it's you have to establish that vision you have to establish that line but then you

175have to figure out how to communicate it so everybody else buys into it you know if Apple sat there and said we believe in you know breaking molds and and being unique and all those other things, but then they didn't get up and let people know what their message was. They would never sold a computer. So, I mean, it's it's a boat. But it starts with that. I've worked with some boards that come up with some really intriguing wise. In one case, it took them an hour and a half to come up with it, which is why I don't want to start tonight because I'll be more tired. But thinking about it because I think at some point soon that would be a really good way to do continue your continue your progress from managing

176a district to leading a district. I think a lot of it starts with what do you believe? You know why why do you sit at this table? What what's driving you? But we can't have nine individuals doing nine different things and expect everybody to buy into what the board's doing. So come up with a common denominator. What is something that you all believe in? And what's that? Why live? And Mr. Traber, it looks like your hand is up. And you're muted. Can't hear you, sir. I will not try and continue that discussion tonight. I will simply end on a fun historical note. Um, the first inflight was from Bridgeport. His name was Gustaf Whitehead. He is buried in Lakeside Cemetery across from Harding High School and his headstone was given by the Connecticut Auto Aeronautical

177Engineer Society uh in recognition of his achievement. This is a source of great pride to those of us in Connecticut and Bridgeport. Um, so just a minor historical point that we can then build on here. That's awesome. Thank you for reminding us of that. That's excellent. Um, so we'll have the bigger discussion at the next meeting. I'd also point out I don't know but where he said on that certain date when they had the first power band flight. I don't know if you heard the background something. They must have been at an airport or I heard plane flying over right at the right moment. Yes. And I'd also plead guilty to owning a Dell PDA back when they first came out. Actually, 10 times better than any other PDA, including the uh um but unfortunately

178they didn't sell enough of them to make it work. I still have mine in the box somewhere, but it doesn't work. I'm with you. I'm with you on the I'm with you on the Dell. Yeah, that little I think. No, no, I'm sorry. I went with Gateway back in those days. Same same concept though. Yes. Right. Anybody want to say anything for the good of the order or shall we all start backing up? Back up. You did a lot of good work tonight. So move second. All right. We're all better.