Board of Education Meeting

001we good we're good good evening everyone um it's 7 o'clock so I'll call to order the regular meeting of the brook Hill Board of Ed uh this Wednesday February 19th at 7 o'clock and would you all please join me let's stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands Nation indivisible liberty and justice for all so um this is the first time we get to do something a little different from with roll call we have um all members of the um Board of Ed present in person except eron Scalera who has joined us virtually no by by phone by phone okay um and Melissa's here and Dr man can't be with us but Dr BR and Miss diat

002are here as well so um we're going to start with public comment are we good okay yeah I thought it was your phone okay gotcha oh yeah hold on one second I there's a um just one second I forgot to get out my notes on this okay um I wanted to say uh uh something about um public comment obviously the uh Board of Ed welcomes public comment um we had I made the decision um at the uh as I explained in our last meeting to suspend public comment due to the unruly behaviors uh that were uh disruptive and um uh quite concerning at the at and at the end of the December meeting um I made this decision um taking into consideration concerns expressed by our executive team members by the um staff who were

003present and at the advice of the chief of police um subsequently we heard from members of the public um with their thoughts on this and it was mixed there were some people who supported that move and some people who opposed it and I understood the reasoning on each side I consulted with um my fellow board members and have um added it back in and we trust uh that the public will um comport itself yourselves with dignity and uh respect that's what we ask of you um and with that let's move forward to the logistics so each speaker um shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board um we'll have a maximum of 20 minutes per topic and um at the end of the regular meeting time is allotted for comment on

004any item which is in within our uh jurisdiction but uh is not an agenda item so I have the list here and with that oh also when you come to the podium please give your name and address so the first um item on the agenda or the first person I'm sorry is Jillian Dy to speak about the budget Julian dhy 49 hopbrook Road after watching the budget deliberations that occur occurred during the January 15th meeting and reading the budget proposal questions and answer sheet where budget questions from the board are answered by the administration attending the December 18th budget round table and Board of Ed meeting and attending the December 4th meeting where the budget was presented it is clear that a great deal of deliberation went into the acceptance of the proposed budget it

005seems that board members who were unhappy with the outcome of the vote could have taken Dr bal's suggestion made at the end of the January 15th deliberation session to move the budget forward while awaiting clarification on the feasibility of specific proposals made to address a shortage of interventionists in CES and the high school no board member made that motion and the motion to present the budget as is to the board of finance and the board of selectman passed that should have been the end of it but a group of Board of Education members decided to release a statement to the press that they didn't agree with the budget vote this is contrary to Board of Education policy a policy that was voted on and approved earlier in the January 15th meeting I would like to

006thank the administration for putting forth a responsible budget that speaks to many mus haves and very few nice to haves I would like to thank the board for their hard work andamp deliberation on the budget and I would like to thank the board for voting to put that budget forward to the board of Selectmen and board of Finance now let's work to get it passed thank you for your comments um Brian M govern to speak about um executive session Brian McGovern three hover Ridge Road in Brookfield uh first of all thank you to our board members and our administrators you guys do a great job I'm really very happy with the education all three of my children have received this town and it's because of people like you thank you I made a freedom of

007information request uh last December on December 4th in the materials I received from that there are several messages from a board member that had gone to multiple teachers asking them to forward Communications to her violating labor laws and opening the town to possible litigation I understand it is Boe policy not to name individuals during public comment so I won't although it is in the materials as I was concerned about these actions I was also concerned the union for our teachers would be concerned with these actions so on February F 3rd I made another foi request this time requesting correspondents from the cea and the Boe I received those materials luckily enough today there is a ceased and deist order from the ca Unis serve representative saying in part I am writing on behalf of the

008Brickfield Education Association to formally demand that the Brookfield Board of Education immediately cease and assist all actions that interfere with the lawful activities of the Brookfield Education Association it has come to my attention that the school board has engaged in activities that infringe upon the rights of our Union and its members as protected under the Connecticut Labor re Relations Act chapter 561 he went on to say failure to comply with this demand will result in a union pursuing all available legal remedies to protect our rights and those of our members I'm concerned that one or more of the board members don't understand their job requirements and respectfully request the board investigate and then consider appropriate actions to correct this problem including including appropriate actions for the alleged board members thank you thank you thank you

009for your comment um Shannon Riley to speak about uh climate and culture good evening Shannon Riley 11 dear Run Road good evening members of the Board of Education I stand before you today to commend the chair woman and for her professionalism and steadfast commitment to adhering to the board policies particularly those outlined in your bylaws under Section 93 uh 9300 transaction of business in these challenging times it is easy for emotions to run high and for individuals to get caught up in the day-to-day matters of running our schools however the chairwoman has consistently demonstrated an understanding of the role of the board that the board must play at the governance level staying true to our mission of overseeing educational policy rather than getting mired in the operational details of schools as highlighted in your bylaws

010the board is called upon to concern itself with the questions of educational policy and not with administrative details concerning the Brookfield Public Schools operations the chairwoman has consistently exemplified this principle showing remarkable restraint and not overstepping into the administrative do domain she understands that the running of the schools is the responsibility of the administration and she has allowed them to do their jobs without interference this approach benefits our district by fostering a healthy division of responsibilities and preventing confusion in roles moreover at the recent after the recent release of the unsanctioned press release it would have been easy to engage in a public back and forth but instead of reacting the chairwoman chose a more measured approach refusing to get entangled in a tit fortat this is a true Testament to her leadership in line

011with the bylaws which emphasize that individual members shall make no com commitments for the board or issue orders for the board except when ex executing an assignment delegated by the board the chairwoman refused to let her personal opinions or emotions of the moment dictate the actions of the board as a whole her decision to remain Above The Fray reflects her deep understanding of our Collective responsibility as your Collective responsibility as the board instead of engaging in a public dispute she has shown that her your focus must remain on educational policy and the betterment of our students in schools her professionalism should be an example to to us all thank you madam chairwoman for your integrity your adherence to the bylaws and your unwavering commitment to the Brookfield Community I strongly believe that under your leadership

012we are on the right path and we will continue to move forward in a productive and respectful manner thank you thank you for your comments um Christine Erico I hope I said your name correctly yes um to speak about graduation yes thank you hello Christina rello 15b Richards Road good evening my name is Christina arello and I am the lead coordinator for the Brookfield High School grad party I've been involved in grad party since 2019 all three of my children graduated from BHS unfortunately only two of them were able to enjoy grad party as my son graduated during covid and regulations at that time wouldn't allow for it I'm here tonight to shed some light on what grad party is and what goes into making it happen grad party was created by parents in 1986

013to provide a safe fun-filled all night party that includes music food games dancing prizes and so much more right here in our high school building and has always been held on the night of graduation the doors open at 10 p.m. and the students enter the building to find it transformed to the point that they don't even realize they're still at school it gives our seniors one last night together as a class to celebrate celebrate each other at the end of their Brookfield education Journey typically we see about 80% of the seniors attend the event is 100% run by volunteers and donations and planning starts in September with over 200 people involved the days leading up to graduation are extremely important to us as we need as much time and access to the building to prepare

014it for the party ideally we would love to have at least three full days but are willing to work with something a little less but not too much less our hope this year is that the board will strongly consider voting to have graduation on Saturday June 21st this will help us accommodate the party and not disrupt what goes on in the building if the students are still here while we prepare thank you thank you for your comment um I'm sorry can I just say what a great job she does on the graad party I helped her out last year she does such a phenomenal job on the party and hope I'm not out of line but she did a great job really really great phenomenal job and a lot of hard goes into it thank

015you Chine um uh Aon Zimmer about budget uh Aaron Zimmer 50 obtuse Hill Road I was going to talk about about the budget and I will a little bit but um I sort of can't believe it a a member of the Board of Education breaking labor laws by meddling and private Communications of our teachers union this this may well get us sued and who's going to pay for for that we're we're going to pay for that meanwhile three of you issuing a press release which violates a bylaw that you just unanimously approved that creates this narrative that the budget was rubber stamped when the when the evidence just doesn't suggest that you got propos the budget early many meetings much opportunity for dialogue meetings open to the public for us to ask our questions and

016a 32 page document outlining all of your questions with answers from the administration one of you by the way had no questions no input whatsoever uh and then turned around and signed a press release accusing others of incompetency uh again it shouldn't be ignored that the board members who who were targeted in this attack did not issue a response they didn't get in the fry they just stayed focused on the work all this chaos and manufactured outrage the public attacks on other board members all because you didn't get a vote that you wanted this all feels like partisan power struggle which doesn't resonate well with the folks out there who aren't listening right now and who aren't in the face Facebook groups uh also 130 Plus hours spent on in just a few months uh

017responding to foi requests that's crazy our highest paid employees have to spend this much of their time especially when you know it's just a few people responsible for the the vast majority of these requests I I I recognize the importance of foi uh but this feels like a weaponization of it uh and the elephant in the room there are people usually who are are here who are mysteriously are not here tonight uh they would like to see us go shopping for a new superintendent uh but the way you all have gone about it has created this grossly toxic climate that no reasonable and talented superintendent would ever submit their resume here to come work for us here it's so bad that people who do support this Administration are too frightened to say it this is

018the example we're setting for our kids and I can already see the narrative make Dennis patrino the bad guy make our teachers the villains she was just asking the simple question no she was breaking the law that matters as the dad of a 5-year-old who's about to enter into this system this year and someone who I care more about than anyone on Earth I'm telling you I with our teachers who have been clear that you should improve your tone be less divisive and get more things done I'm with them please just knock all of this off off okay thanks thank you for your comment uh Laura Orban to speak about the budget I got it hi Laura Orban 95 Stony Hill Road um I am here in the unique position of having been involved with

019or managed every local campaign here um since 2011 I have knocked on thousands of doors and done a lot of listening to those residents and I just want to share with you a few things that I've learned in that time 43% of our town is unaffiliated the majority of the Town doesn't watch these meetings they're not in the Facebook group groups where people like to dissect the actions of our board members they don't know the rules in the processes of this board or any other they want to go to work send their kids to school and trust that the people on this and other boards are serving with the best intentions of our students in mind so the budget is one of the most important pieces of the job of this board when members of

020this board vote no and don't even make a motion to change the budget increase elements of it that's not serving with the best interest of the students in mind and then go on to issue a press release which is against board policy that press release actually being a lie to say that the board didn't have adequate time to deliberate and the public didn't have adequate time for Q&A that's factually inaccurate that's not serving the students and the residents of this town so I'm not sure why you would do those things if you're here to serve the students it seems like the kind of thing you would do if you have another motive these are not the actions of the people who were elected to serve the town it's actions that you have that you take

021if you are upset that you didn't get elected chair or vice chair if you have political motivations or are being urged to act at someone else's behest and it's not what the people of this town want it's not good for the students so to those of you who are not acting with those motivations in mind thank you for your service thank you for your comment um this sends the uh public comment there are no signups for second this evening so now we will hear um from Melissa what do you have for us hi I hope everyone had a pleasant President's Day weekend um it's good to be yeah it's um it's good to be back yeah um so I'm going to start off with Athletics per usual um January and February were filled with lots

022of s swc events so I want to extend my recognition to a few teams um varsity cheerleading and varsity gymnastics did play second in s swcs uh Varsity dance team placed third and boys track and field also had multiple metal placers for their events um so best of luck to all of them as they finish out their Seasons um in addition to that congrats to boys and girls basketball for finishing their season strong um and then various of our student athletes were recognized for the allc first team um so myself Sophia Meli Lucy McDonald Addison custado Giana corz Ali freeze Sierra Brennan and Charlotte bachia and as well four other track and field members um for Student Government they are currently in the process of planning for a spring pep rally slm March Madness tournament

023for students to participate in um for Sports badminton basketball and cornhole and the um final like games will be played during the pep rally and then next Tuesday the National Honor Society is hosting a blood drive for school and um for students and staff to participate in and we're looking to beat the 90 pints that we uh collected over during the fall and then during first semester a few meetings back I mentioned that we started the cultural ambassadors program between um CES and high school juniors and seniors um so I'm happy to announce that that was um renewed for this second semester um so it's a really great opportunity to participate in and I get to work in the same classroom that I was working in previously and Foster the bonds that I was creating

024with my students um and then lastly Leo Club is running a fundraiser collecting and distributing gently worn used or new shoes um during the school year and they will be collected in the front main office until March 31st that's it thank you can I ask a question yeah um about the the Leo Club Shoe Drive is this um kids shoes is it anybody shoes any yeah okay great thanks and Melissa there's boxes that all the schools set up right donations can go right to middle school and to the elementary I'm not sure okay we did yeah I'm getting the knot from the principal we there are set up there y so anywhere can donate yeah awesome thank you so much all right stepanie uh next item written correspondence what do we have the following people

025have emailed the board of ads since the last meeting Leslie rero Steve Dunn Donald Jones two emails Deborah K case Irene Korea five emails Andy Korea two emails Michelle Fitzgerald Sher stanowski three emails Denise rice three emails Christina Zimmerman two emails Michelle Sans wonderful thank you let's move now to um approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 1:15 2025 budget hearing 115 2025 okay okay so we have a motion and um and a second and because aon's um on the on the phone I'm going to ask is there any discussion like Aeron did you want to say anything about these minutes no okay um so Ain are you in favor of approving the minutes yeah I name and okay um Stephanie I Rosa hi

026I'm and I hi Sarah hi and Rob hi all right so that's uh it's you n motion passes minutes are approved um so now superintendent update Dr BR all right let's say ye thank you Dr Youngwood so um welcome back everybody it's been a while since we last met um I hope you're all staying warm in this uh unusually cold for the last couple of years winter that we've had uh so I wanted to start by going under our teaching and learning section we have a lot of exciting things going on so we have been engaging in learning walks with uh some of our uh staff and admins uh and specifically looking at the domains for the portrait of the learner on February 3rd and 4th we were at the high school on February 11th

027and 20th we were at CES and um we were supposed to be at the middle school last week but uh with that Thursday snow day or a delay it threw us off so February 26th and 27th next week we will be there and really looking to flesh out um the portrait of the learner uh as we go on March 5th I just want to remind I've reminded the board of this before but just as I like to kind of give the scope of the upcoming meetings on March uh 5th which is our next board meeting Dr man will present um updates on the portrait of the learner she'll have a presentation for the board and then on March 19th uh Mr Roland will um be pres presenting our department strategic plan for special education which

028is aligned excuse me with the crack recommendations so provide an update incorporated into that presentation I do have to thank U Mrs FAS our director of instruction and the fourth and fifth grade teachers and our our instructional coaches who all went on a walk uh walk through and visit to uh two of our uh Neighbors in the Waterberry Elementary School Watertown elementary schools excuse me um as everybody knows it's in the budget this year we have K3 first year implementation of ccla our new reading program we're budgeted for fourth and fifth grade implementation for next year and um we've been to reading and now we went to Watertown they're in their second year of full imp implementation C 5 so we really want to learn from their Journey if there's any mistakes we could avoid

029and they could teach us you know that kind of a thing so it was really a productive visit um and um there's a lot of Engagement and enthusiasm for the program from the um uh Watertown teachers um as I've heard feedback from from our K3 teachers as well under business and operations just a reminder for everybody we did have one uh emergency snow day thus far this year on February 6th that pushes our last day of school from Friday the 13th of June to now Monday June 16th and you'll hear from Mr Blanda later when we talk about uh graduation because that's everybody's starting to um frankly pressure the board members myself and Mr Banda when's graduation we need to get airplane tickets for Grandma and Aunt Sally and everything else so um we want

030to get that date on the calendar for everybody and Mr band will bring that forward to the board in a little while um have to thank uh Eric he signed us up for a free um from the um Connecticut education Network which provides our internet for school systems an independent cyber security assessment or audit if you will and it actually going to be done for the town and for the Board of Ed that's going to happen over April break so we're looking forward to results like any uh assessment or audit we reflect on things you'll get commendations and recommendations uh as we go forward to uh strengthen our cyber security an update um as as everybody knows with the the new uh uh with President Trump in and the new federal executive orders that have

031been coming out um it's been a flurry of activity as anybody would would know and we are making sure we can keep up as best we can um and seek uh legal advice uh at every move to make sure we are compliant with all um new legislation laws orders there has also been with Title One there's been a um a court order as well so I'll walk you through those most the most of these board members are familiar with but I thought I'd put it in one document for everybody in terms of what we've been um handling so uh back on January 24th um I updated the community there was some concerns about um ice and um immigration and how we might be handling that so we did have shipment and goodwind provided great guidance

032for us and so I I turned that into a letter that I sent to the community um so of course that's out there Title Nine there are changes um in the uh what the policy will look like but those changes hav't been codified yet however there was a decision uh this year in the fall we had a move to the two new 2024 regulations not policy actual regulations um with that Court decision that happened we had to move to the 2020 regulations go kind of go backwards so Mr Roland is our Title 9 coordinator so we did training with the administration and we have the shipment and Goodwin um regulations uh I've approved those they're posted on the website that's all up there um we do not have an update ated policy at this time

033and the advice for all the school districts is until you have a new policy put out there and are ready to bring It Forward um and be approved by the board follow the updated laws and and that will suffice um there also is an executive order titled in uh ending radical indoctrination in K12 schools um at this point we have been advised to hold until further clarification is provided um and pretty much the basis for that is um between there's there's federal laws that contradict each other as well as um Connecticut laws that are in contradiction and so forth there's a lot going on with the legislation and the attorney generals and that kind of stuff so right now shipment and Goodwin has put out some really great advice in terms of just paying attention

034to things if you have concerns seek the legal council on the specific matter um but there's really no room to make a move at this point we'll just continue to Monitor and wait and see and then we are a waiting legal uh legal guidance on two other matters one is expanding educational freedom and opportunities for families um meaning school choice uh there we don't have a that guidance document yet on that um and again that's family school choice I'm not sure there'll be a trickle down impact certainly on public schools but I don't know that there's a role for the school system or the board to play in that particular uh Federal order and then there's the one on no men in women's sports uh the C The Guiding um uh group or organization in

035the state for athletics uh again is seeking legal advice on that and awaiting uh more clar ver ification uh so just an FYI for everybody that's what's going on um and then there was another one uh something uh it was about Dei that came out I think it was directed at universities higher ed um it was not directed at K12 schools as far as a couple of us superintendent can tell and apparently that just came out over the weekend to the universities so if it affects K12 I'll let you know about it what's going on uh still in operations and business uh in the data while we've had a good number of absences across all three schools for kids who are sick the actual kids who've gone to the doctor and their parents have reported

036uh what they're sick from you could see we have nine from the flu one strep zero covid and one pneumonia now that was just taken at the end of last week um those numbers are low in terms of what we Common Sense would tell us the kids are suffering from uh and and staff as well uh during this cold and flu season but those are the actual Ed cases um and we're monitoring attendance closely of course and wishing everybody speedy recovery from any illness they may be suffering and then finally School climate engagement I just to remind uh everybody uh and I did update the board on this on January 16th we had our second uh speaks meeting of the Year speak stands for student parent educator advisory counsil to the superintendent we have four

037meetings per year and uh our second meeting was on the 16th of January we talked about the uh updates to the website how we could improve it uh parent Square in the impact it's having um all the work in recycling that's going on in the cafeterias I see some of our recycling folks over there um and also Casey thank you for all the hard work on that and implementing that with our principles who are with us tonight um and then the budget blasts and the effectiveness or areas we can improve in getting the budget blasts out there I think we've done 11 uh to date budget blasts for the community the next meeting of speaks will be on March 13th our Focus there will be budget engagement uh kind of revisiting cell phone protocols the

038anxious generation kind of check in how that's going uh from the parent perspective student perspective and certainly from uh the educator perspective septo met on February 4th that's the special education PTO uh Mr Roland uh worked with the septo leadership and they brought in a guest speaker Dr Ryan loss to speak about trauma uh he's the executive director of the Connecticut Behavioral Health Center in chesher and his talk was titled understanding behavior health issues and their impact on student learning and behavior um I was not able to 10 but I understand it was a very engaging presentation and and he may be brought back in again um and has made some good contacts uh with families that could use his assistance uh in terms of school climate we'll be talking a great deal about that

039tonight uh we have several presentations the principes are here to present their midyear climate survey data updates um but I did want to let everybody know uh we disseminated uh information uh regarding the uh survey for parents on January 10th um staff survey was conducted the week of of January 21st and the student survey the week of January 27th so we got a lot of great data you'll see some of it tonight uh Dr man uh and uh our assistant superintendent and Lindsay Marino our human resources coordinator and Lindsay is um still in her first year with us doing a great job she actually is joining us tonight where's Lindsay say hello Lindsay oh there you are right over there I'm looking for your orange jacket but now you're you don't have it on anymore

040um so the three of us were able to visit with uh each staff uh it was a volunteer opportunity for staff when had downtime at lunch a prep uh in between classes just to come say hello or really sit and engage on a on a topic that meant something to them uh we met with BHS on January 3rd we had 19 teachers and we spent the day um uh uh 19 staff and teachers um at the elementary school on the 10th we had 56 participants and on January 31 1st at the middle school with 25 participants um and we talked about the specific categories of teaching and learning business and operations and client engagement so we kind of wanted to frame that for everybody so you know business and operations you had a concern about

041security or the facilities Heating in the building whatever it might be talk to us about that obviously anything with curriculum instruction is teaching and learning um and anything with climate engagement is exactly what we we talk about uh also on uh engagement in climate uh it's important to let everybody know that our administrative team uh is working for each School actually working on recording uh and keeping track of all the efforts that they're putting forward with the staff and staff uh with with uh Administration everybody working together in terms of their climate teams recording um efforts to support teacher and staff efficacy and those key uh areas are communication collaboration and connection so anything that fits into that frame we're recording those uh particular activity or actions um I'll share that with the board later

042this spring and then finally uh Brookfield cares their asset inventory survey that'll be conducted this coming Monday the 24th um at uh the middle school just for the eighth graders and of course across all four grades in the high school dean and Mark have worked with their staff and uh cares to have not only opportunities during the school day for parents to come and inspect the survey um they parents are welcome to opt out if they're not comfortable some of the survey topics but also um there's been several evenings held at each school where Brookfield cares volunteer has been there uh with both uh surveys for parents to inspect um and that's all I have thank you John do you know how many parents have taken advantage of those Mr uh jaffy has been checking

043in with us it's been one or zero as far as I've heard but there may have been one in the last day or two oh marks one had one in the last evening so those are the evening ones and so any any during the uh daytime one Dean's had one during the daytime so far this we really tried to give a four-week window this time you know a couple of years ago it was a two we window and it just we don't think it was enough time for parents so we put made sure we had a four-week window out there for everybody Aon did you have any questions for um Dr Brill I do not okay anybody else thanks everyone all right so um now we have the the first of its kind um do

044you want to just do the the whole thing all right so we're g to have a building walk through update from um our own Rob petto um so you can give a little bit of the back story behind how you came to to do this we'll do good evening everyone um so I decided to do a little bit of a climate walk with um Dr barill and uh his team just to get a sense of what's going on in the schools um we hear a lot about climate at these meetings and uh the only way you really get a true sense is when you actually get a chance to walk around the school so luckily I had the opportunity to walk around and just give you some background of who I am um and what

045experience I have with it I'm a 25 years into in the New York City Department of Education and I've been uh um spending a lot of time in schools so to speak uh over the last 25 years all being in the city schools uh I started out in 2000 um as a PS ps75 as a computer teacher then I became a fifth grade classroom teacher in the same school and then I was also a basketball coach uh for that time that I was there I know it's uh 25 years as you as you can tell 2000 this my 25th year in the uh system and it's uh it's been quite AR uh I then I moved on to is- 131 in the Bronx I became I was also a computer teacher there I was running

046a brand new state state of thee art computer lab at the time which by now if you look at those computers they are ancient um but then I moved on from there and I became a ding I wanted to get my feet wet in the administrative World from there I moved on to the district office to become a school climate manager and yes if you want to know what a school climate manager does it is not just walking into the school and adjusting the thermostats I was able to go into 30 33 different schools and my role was to basically walk in get a feel for the building support the staff support the administration and support U staff students and uh parents with all things related to climate culture guidance and discipline so that's when

047I spent my time in the district office from there I became an AP of a Middle School uh and then I went back to the district office to become a student services manager and they come full circle from where I am today I currently the campus manager at the vand child's educational campus we have five high schools on campus and one of my roles that I do throughout the day is take care of the climate and culture of the building along along with the discipline and uh working alongside all the schools in the administration um throughout the day so what exactly is school climate well I took this straight from our vast paperwork that we have tonight School climate means the quality and character of the school life with a particular focus on the quality

048of the relationships within the school Community I can say right off the bat that I saw a number of positive relationships throughout my walk uh throughout my time in all three schools I spent about an hour in each one and yes I definitely saw a lot of positive relationships there um and which is based on patterns of people's experiences of school life and that reflects the Norms goals values interpersonal relationships teaching learning leadership practice and organizational structures within the school Community now yes that's a mouthful yes I did see a lot of that stuff and again a lot of the stuff that we see on paper you're not really going to see it unless you actually get a chance to walk through and experience it yourself so what exactly does that mean in a nutshell

049is basically a vibe that you get when you walk through the school similar to The Climate that you feel when you go outside we all know how freezing it is outside today and obviously the climate that you feel in the building is very similar to that it's a vibe that you get when you're walking through the schools it's a vibe that you get when you're on the ground and you get to see the relationships between the administration the teachers how are they communicating with each other and again it's just a feel that you get when you walk through the schools and on my first stop we went to BHS and I got to say it was a it was a phenomenal walk through the building um one of our first stops was at the uh

050an amazing College Corner that we have this map outlined all of the uh places throughout the country should say throughout the world where our graduates are currently attending college and the students that get to come in they get to see it it's good motivational piece and uh the councilors there were great and whole entire Corner was was phenomenal was very welcoming it looks like a great spot for students to go if they have any questions about college stuff I was also able to see some amazing artwork I'm not sure who's responsible for this piece but as I was walking through with Dr burill it caught my attention and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal as well as this beautiful piece of artwork as well it's in the same classroom again we I saw a lot

051of phenomenal pieces throughout I didn't want to take too many picts of everything to to bore you guys but I got I got a lot of the good stuff and uh big shout out to your Tech Teacher Jonathan uh neous hous um he uh the stuff that he's teaching our students and working with them on are phenomenal it's is such a phenomenal shop that we have downstairs that I wasn't even aware of it beautiful down there it's got all the skills that they basically need for post high school and uh and whether or not they're going to college and not he he uh had a nice chat with him in regards to the fields that are obviously in high need nowadays which is working with our hands and he's teaching them that so big shout

052out to him and I also know he's a vet so thank you for his service to our country my second stop was at our beautiful new CES um it was uh it was a very nice walk of course as you guys have all seen when you walk it get to the campus itself it's beautiful uh the common learning spaces outside of the classrooms were amazing I thought that was such a nice addition so that when you know students if they're not comfortable in the uh traditional learning environment they have an opportunity to go out step outside the room in a nice comfy area to um to do some work it was a very welcoming learning environment across the board uh we were very Lively lunch period with a lot of kids having fun doing what

053kids do at lunch and I saw one of our sro's having a great time with the students and interacting which again gives you that sense of school Community it was really really nice to see he's not just de just for that I was also able to see the Big Brother Big Sister program that we have in the media center um it's a beautiful media uh Media Center that we walk through uh the older grades are working alongside the uh uh younger grades and building solid relationships on the campus um we didn't speak too much about it but it was awesome seeing what they were doing and how they were working with them for my final stop I went to the Middle School of course I got to see my beautiful princess which is the highlight

054of the trip um what did the vibe feel like well it actually felt like a Middle School uh the the students were uh walking through the Halls on their way to class some were avoiding class and some were uh but you know Testament to uh to Mr Renda and his staff because he knew exactly who his kids were he knew exactly where they were going he knew exactly what answers they were giving as to why they weren't going through where they were supposed to go and it just reminded me of everything that I've been through uh as a middle school Dee heard from some students about a really cool Gold Rush assignment which uh which was fun um I I'm assuming they're still working on that I I think it was really fun thing that

055they were doing on a on a on a daily basis Mr Ren a quick funny story about Mr Rena as I was walking through uh the hall just to give you guys a sense of uh the kind of relationships Mr Renda has with his students um one of the students news to me one of the uh one of the students um saw us walking through the hall together and went up to him and the first thing he said to are you retiring Mr Renda who is this wondering who I am and true to form Mr Renda did what I would do and jokingly told of course yes I'm retired this is my replacement and if you got what caught my attention more than anything was the sheer look of how upset the young man was

056and again that's a testament to you Mr Renda and you know it it he really was legitimately upset and and I could tell you a joking but he didn't really pick up on it but uh it was uh it was quite an experience and again it really just shows what type of relationship our our admin have that that's kudos to everybody as well the the the bottom line to all three schools is that we're in good hands we're blessed we we have a very good school system when when my wife and I first moved here we didn't really know much about Brookfield but we were told that brookfield's got really good schools and turns out to be true you know of course we're not perfect everybody's got but no school is you know we have

057our our issues and that's what we here working on but overall we really are on good hands and the bottom line is that it was a really nice walk and uh it was fun and I just want to say thank you to Dean all the admin and everybody that received me well over there it was a nice walk thank you for what you guys do every day seriously shout out and uh we don't get enough credit as educator so cheers [Music] all thank you very much hey actually I have a question what what um prompted you to um to reach out to Dr bril and to me about this uh just all the talk that's going on about climate just really get a feel like I said it's only there's only so much that we

058get from the podium you know we had just to get a feel of really what's going on in schools so we on thanks was Lun New Year so city was closed okay so let's move then to the next item uh subcommittee reports so Sarah on the class size it was a pretty quick meeting we were just um finalizing the guidelines that will be coming up later um just a couple items that we discussed and it was a pretty quick meeting awesome let's move then to oh uh to policy at our special meeting on January 28th we were very productive and accomplished quite a lot we discussed Title 9 at length and Mr Bill Roland explained to the committe that the expansion of Title 9 has been rolled back and although the directive is to follow

059the 2020 Federal Regulations as Dr BR touched upon the 2022 Brookfield policy aligns with that mandate and so as Dr Brown mentioned he has already changed the regulation on the website and the school is operating under that regulation and the ship and Goodwin policy is on the agenda for a first read tonight we then began discussing the adoption of the Shipman and Goodwin Student survey and um PPR which is protection of pupil Rights Act policy um Dr Bell had a list of questions from committee members for shipment and Goodwin to clarify some things and we continued that discussion tonight in the policy committee and you will see that um on the next meeting's agenda for our first read joy eron and I have been viie the 3000 Series policies independently for several months and a

060very productive discussion resulted in the committee recommending several of the legally required and recommended policies be put on the agenda tonight for a first read so you'll see those on the consent agenda and Casey deti helped us understand how some of those policies and she continues to help us um compare to our current policies and the shipment and Goodwin uh purchasing purchasing policy for example spe specifically needs a more detailed conversation to be sure that we're not changing the way we operate in relation to the town so I'm pointing that out to make sure everyone is aware that we are being very thoughtful and thorough in our discussions of not only the 3,000 series but of all the policies we reviewing although we are moving at a quick Pace um we are trying to make

061sure that we do a lot of work on our own so that when we come together we feel comfortable with the information that's being presented for example tonight the um one of the things that we would like everyone to consider is policy 3110 budget procedures and line item transfers which also will absorve Brookville policy 3160 you'll have that on um the little graph that I give you for every policy review so you don't have to remember it uh but the adoption of this shipment and goodwi policy would add a quarterly report required to the board of bed to be formally presented at meetings which is different um than what we do right now currently it is a monthly report so the committee after discussion agreed that a quarterly report makes more sense and will be

062more robust painting a more complete picture of where the district is at um so that's one of the examples of how we discuss some of the changes that are going to be um made and we make sure with the administration that they're good with it and that they feel comfortable with it um Dr brell has been updating the board on the new mandates and the legislation surrounding the new school climate policy as you guys know and he gave us the cab policy that they have written the attorneys at Shipman and Goodwin did not write a policy because the state actually legislated that cab provide one so the principles were given time to review that c policy um it will replace our current Brookfield policy and Dr Burell reported to us that they are all comfortable

063with adopting the C policy as written and as a result of the committee's discussion around the importance of keeping our district aligned with the new state mandates the committee recommended that the cab School climate policy be put on tonight's agenda for a first read it's very robust I think you guys have seen it because Dr BR gave it to us all a few weeks ago um but make sure that that's one of the ones that you read thoroughly and just you know pay attention to um the details in there when we're looking for feedback yeah also that policy was linked in my November 20th presentation about the new legislation so we've had that for a while so it's it's the same one it hasn't Chang yeah so if you've read it there's nothing that has

064changed the committee has not made any changes we're comfortable with everything in the ases um and then lastly in the minutes for the meeting I asked for feedback to be given by the February TW by February 21st no sorry by February 24th on the first reads but I realize that's just next Monday and that's not likely enough time to review everything that we've included because some of the policies are a little bit meaty so I'm going to change that to Monday March 3rd um and that will give us enough time that will give the committee enough time to um review before our our March meeting and we met tonight and were able to get some policies on the next agenda um so we're we're going to be like uh what do you call it flip

065not flip-flopping but you know sort of we'll put these first reads on we'll put new first reads on for next week and then these will go or not next week next meeting and then these will go on for a second me so you said March 3rd Monday March 3D for the first reads that are on tonight's agenda thank you and you all will have one of your one of my little fancy graphs that will lay out because sometimes it's hard to know what the changes are when you're just getting the yeah um policies so if you have any questions this doesn't make sense please let me know um since you have it in front of you can you just tell me uh what number is the school climate policy do you do you recall uh

066the school climate policy is I mean I I I guess I can just see it when we get into it might have it right in front of you hold on let me find it's in the minutes I just don't have the minut no no no um School climate is oh here we are three 5131 911 okay great all right I'll star that one awesome thank you thank you sir so are you all set then that's it thank you thank you policy committee okay healthy school start time okay I'm going to give the update on that one um joy and Sarah asked me to give a a nice update here so I will try to be succinct for everybody the the um we had some follow-ups that we needed to uh review uh specifically uh from

067old business and that was we have to thank Casey and the bus company they did some work and um we wanted to take a look at if we went to a 720 uh start time at the the high school or or any school starting at 7:20 a.m. what would it look like for the uh pickup times on the bus and they were certainly quite early I'm not going to get into the details there we talked about that as a committee and also uh what would it look like in terms of timing and costs uh going to a three-tier bus system from the existing two-tier system so we followed up on that had some discussion and we're going to continue talking about that uh in addition to that um myself Mr Blanda and Mr Baldwin were

068asked to provide uh kind of our recommendation going forward as to where we thought we would land um I provided that memo to the full board and the and the committee everybody seen that um and uh the three of us really talked about digging in a little bit more on morning times as we're doing with the bus company in terms of one of the things we found in analyzing the the morning pickup times they're quite early given the later start time especially at the high school so we want to dig in a little bit more there and Casey's already had conversations with Allstar in terms of pushing them to see can can you move this later I mean part of this is not only the bio rhythms in the evening but getting more time for

069kids to have that opportunity to sleep in the morning so let's is there something more we can do there on that end mark Steve and I are actually going to meet this week we want to take a look at um the early dismissals from that last period and really analyze those and parse those out and I know Steve's done a really nice job tracking all of that but kind of force the issue on that area do we have to go this early you know ask those questions and really squeeze the lemon as it were to see what we can do um in that area um and so we're going to continue on that and um and also you know just thinking about scheduling and bigger picture stuff so we're going to talk about that this

070week bring those continued findings and those asks of the committee back to the committee on Monday the 24th um and we will have that conversation um as we as we get ready did I cover most of it okay so that's all I have at this point okay um Cape committee please Joy okay so we met on Wednesday February 12th we had two public comments um Aon Scara regarding midterm exams and Andy Korea regarding the real allocation of the Mastery based diploma credit we also discussed the um Brookfield High School program of studies so that's later on in our agenda as a possible motion so I'll kind of T just touch on that briefly so the minimum total credits needed for graduation is 25 most of our students graduate with 27 or 28 at our last

071meeting when the program of studies was presented and approved it wasn't really clear to the committee me members that the credit given back from the Mastery based diploma program that is now no longer was reallocated into the career and life skills bucket um we discussed that extensively regarding whether or not this credit should be reallocated as an additional credit from any category so the initial justification from an Administration was that it was most aligned with career and life skills um and when I asked if there were any disadvantages um they said there really Wen any disadvantages so we felt that students should be able to really determine their pathway and explore their interests so we ask that this revision revision be a recommendation brought to the full board today um and that will be later

072in the meeting for old business um so that's just some information to touch upon it until we get into a discussion later on we also discussed and got more clarity on class rank uh the state decided that we still need to have class rank especially for scholarships and students ask for it as well so we do have class Rank and have language and the program of studies about it our main change from last year to this year is recognizing the Latin honor System so the Latin n our system will recognize more students and we do do GPA as well colleges traditionally don't care too much about high school GPA um they really do their own GPA calculation so they want to really see the distribution of where they're falling within the class we went through

073mtss srbi um data that's attached some of your in your exhibit and we also reviewed the midterm exam data uh we just discussed some Trends and concerns which I'll go over in a minute um we did ask Mr Blanda for a comeback with data on which courses students were exempt from the exam because if it was a course in which the midterm was essentially a final exam because it's a halfe course um I would like to share some of the data and I could provide that for the board members if they'd like um so there were some areas that obviously need a lot of attention or Focus uh science math and foreign language I did some calculations on some of the focus areas and then did a further breakdown by specific courses and they're not

074just academic classes they're also honors and AP classes as well um so I really look forward to and I'll have Anna put it on the next Cape agenda for a followup on how you know we're working to address many of these gaps um for example math 15% of our students got a D or an F on their midterms so I considered not just F failing but D also not showing proficiency um you know some courses for concern are algebra algebra Essentials 43% of our students got an F Algebra 1 it's being very high um Algebra 2 geometry and geometry honors High percentages of D and Ms uh science was a real big area of focus as well um you know 70% of our students D and Fs biology biology AP biology honors chemistry chemistry honors

075and Earth and energy Essentials those were really some Focus areas as far as the courses specific courses especially a course like biology AP 44% of our students failed 50% got an FN a day uh social studies some areas Human Geography 9 11% psychology AP 24% of our students got a D or an f and United States history English was one of our strengths only 5% of our students are not showing proficiency uh English for being a focus area and World Language um French really stood out 75% of our students in French one got a D orn F all French Classes 29% Dr andf and all Spanish classes 9% with a focus on Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 so um it's apparent that we need some changes in the system um you know which is why

076I really supported us having more supports and pushing for more support in the area especially for Math and Science so I look forward to The Comebacks in our future Kate meetings did you want to say something I did I was just going to ask if Dr man will be when when she's is this going to be like maybe on a board agenda some point at this point I'm not sure I know that they're looking into it more at Cape so we haven't had a discussion about a board meeting about okay at this I would just I would you know I I'd want to understand like sort of her perspective of yeah you know how how do you assess the assessments themselves um you know so yeah thanks thank one of the things I noticed in

077going through that data was the oh go ahead Erin go ahead Aron um yeah can Joy or can Administration share the updated um data as far as the exemptions because the paperwork we got um didn't include the exemptions yeah that the data I shared included the exemptions no I know the one that you shared can you share that document oh the one I just read from yeah yeah thank you um eron is is that it that's it thank you um because uh I I was going to say um I mean the issues you raised certainly are alarming and I think Rose's suggestion about like you know are these standards based assessments how how do we know that they're um you know high quality um so we definitely need to look into that but I also

078noticed a pattern with the um exemptions in uh in a lot of these areas the numbers of a of students whose grades were so high that they didn't have to take the exam was um I think I think an un an untold part of this story um so it wasn't in English the numbers in English were were not of exemptions um and probably in some other areas but but there there are kids who are struggling in um many domains and the the midterms tell that story but it's really important that people hear that there are a lot of kids who are knocking it out of the park um and so um I I just want um people to know that we have we have a lot of good uh going on academically as well from

079that midterm report so along that those lines I just wanted to get clarification so the numbers that you gave were just specifically for midterms right correct okay so um is there or do we have those numbers for like where they end up at the end of the year so yeah so we got the midterms from last year also um and then we're going to ask for the finals once the finals come okay once they take them cuz it would be interesting to see a complete picture of you know where again where the Assessments in the middle fall versus sure how where they end up but you got to remember this is aggregate data as well right and so you know I but I I think isolating just midterms is a difficult like you were saying

080there's also the kids who are exempt and what does it mean you know if there's an exempt if there's um if the assessment is not a test so you know I feel like there's true a bigger picture to look at awesome well we look forward to Anna um taking us further down that road oh yeah go ahead no and I I think it's really important to note that the only um classes where kids um received exemptions or halfe classes because everybody had to take midterms so um the exemptions are our um you know halfe classes thank you for that that's an important clarification yeah I could just clarify so like for math algebra Essentials and statistics one were the only tests that had exemptions um for science anatomy and physiology one DNA science and biotechnology

081forensic science and zoology one and then for English it was just it was just creative writing that was it those are the main content areas okay all right let's move on to um the finance report okay uh we last met on Thursday the 13th um we went over the check registers which reviews all checks over $1,000 um there were several questions um regarding some of the items and a couple of follow-ups including um a list of all of the all of the things that fall under Professional Services so um we'll be getting that update shortly um and then I can actually send that out tonight Rosa sorry I do have it in mind perfect um and then we reviewed the uh January financials um I'm not going to go into the depth of them just

082because it's a lot it's not normally this detailed but because of where we're at in this particular budget cycle and also in the current year um I thought it was important that Casey provide a little bit more detail than we normally get on the financials um and there are some noticeable month-to-month changes um in particular in the first section of that report um you'll see that the outplacement um the our budget overage that is due to special education outplacement is up significantly from last month from what we reported so now now there is a $544,500 [Music] so it's important to note that the net number of students hasn't really changed significantly but the cost associated with the students has so that's an important um part of the conversation as we talk with the board of

083finance and the board of Selectmen um regarding a an upcoming special appropriation which I'll get to in a second um we also reported this data to the board of Finance um last week as well and this is our our net overage is more more than what they had set aside for their for the contingency um for the um the agreement that we had essentially outlined um which would cover overages and special education um they do believe that they are able to um creatively manage some funds on their side and um in addition to a budget freeze that I'll talk about a little bit tonight um we think we are just going to make budget wise but it is extremely tight um and that is essentially where we are at right now um there are additional

084accounts that are overrun um due to unexpected overages this is primarily r related to the mckin vento homeless assistance act um as well as a very large increase in our electricity delivery rate that I have been reporting about for months um this was reported after the initial budget creation sometime in the summer so we been tracking that overage um but it is a very significant Spike um and other accounts that are overrun generally fall within a manageable variance um considering budget underruns in several other accounts so really you know the the primary driver of um our budgetary issue this year is these unexpected overages and of course special education um the um we discussed needing to change how we budget for special education um as you know we we only budget for students that are

085known and for the needs that are known at the time of the budget creation but even now our adopted budget um is probably overrun significantly um just due to changes from last month when we adopted the budget for next year um so we need to engage the board of finance and the board of Selectmen in a deeper conversation about um budgeting more appropriately for speci special education because quite honestly we are underfunding it um and the money needs to not be held in a contingency on the town side is it's my belief that we need to at least budget in our own operating budget um for students uh the the costs associated with students that are at least of high likelihood of incurring those costs in the budget I think that is the very least

086we can do we know about these costs ahead of time um and it is in alignment with the advice that we get from our very capable professionals um so that is the conversation that's going to be ongoing and that um I hope we can all advocate for um and let's see oh Mr Roland was there to talk about some of these issues in special education um and he talked about the some of the costs that fall under that special uh professional Services um umbrella and also some future plans regarding the Strategic plan which um obviously we will get to next month uh in a more in-depth way but um he talked about you know his his goals of bringing more services inhouse in particular evaluation Services um and then hopefully maybe farther down the line

087it would be a very significant investment but hopefully bringing some transitional services um back inhouse as well or or developing a program that can service those students which would be um great in a number of ways not only to our budget but also to keep those students in our community which is which is always a goal I talked about a budget freeze or I mentioned a budget freeze earlier um that is due that is helping this overage um mostly to try to mitigate some of those unexpected costs um so Casey implemented um a budget freeze that yielded approximately $150,000 of net funds um those were reduced from very accounts um mostly Supply accounts not freezing things that our teachers and students need need um but maybe things that can be postponed um or things that

088we might not have to purchase this year um so um the board of Finance has indicated that with their other movements and other accounts that and our budget free that we should be in a good spot to cover um the overage right now and then lastly the budget transfers that are also on the consent agenda um we supported those budget transfers um which effectively move those monies from those various Frozen accounts into the accounts that need them so that even in our accounting software they cannot be overdrawn so that is generally the update um I do I can add that the legislator legislature is considering a $40 million package for for special education funding that would immediately help districts um this year and potentially next year um so we hope that continues um and if

089that comes through how much we'd expect to get is obviously unknown but anything at this point would be great and I'm sure we will keep you updated as soon as we hear anything anything else to add Casey got it um I was looking at that um at the cab announcement about that um I so it's going to be on Monday that the legislature is going to vote on this and um would I wanted to know and I sent you guys an email this evening I don't know if you saw it um how about we consider issuing a joint letter to our um legislators or to folks on that committee um Ian I need to know more about it I don't know if this is like being voted on in the whole house uh because then

090we could just reach out to our folks um saying that we urge them to vote for it yeah would that need to be sent out by the end of this week then right probably I mean it would just it would be an email so yeah yeah I would absolutely support that yeah um so I mean you have the email in your inbox you can let me know what you think about it thank you all right um let's move then to the consent [Music] agenda I move that the board approve the items listed below on the consent agenda as recommended transfers resignations bylaws for a final read tonight 9310 bylaws for a first read 9325 and 9211 policies for a first read 51 4544 51 31911 a new policy that would be added named 3517 35

09124.1 35 24.2 3541 and 35 42.434652 and that's at whiskin not at the high school so we will Lisa and I will adjust that but just so you know got that corrected for you um Ain are you ready to vote on uh the consent agenda I'm just I'm just looking at one thing okay so if you've got a discussion item there um please raise it [Applause] tell you what Ain I'm going to start at the other end of or did you have a question no I'm just pulling up a policy what did she say I'm pulling up a policy okay gotcha I'm going to give her a minute to do that as you guys think about how you vote it's a lot of reading I'm off set okay great um did you want to ask

092a question or are you prepared to vote on the consent to no I just I just couldn't remember which one we were talking about so I just wanted to go back and refresh my memory okay are you all set then yep okay so Erin uh how do you vote on the motion to approve the consent agenda I 7y I Rosa I Joy I Sarah I Rob I and I'm an i as well so that's uh the motion passes and the consent agenda is approved okay so moving on let's get into uh new business so Dr BR you have you're going to talk to us about teacher attendance yes yes great okay so um there's a it's I believe it's a five or is it a six five page memo uh that followed up on how

093our teachers are doing with attendance and the news is very good so I start with that that's the big picture takeaway from this I am not going to walk through this memo it is publicly available the board has seen it since Friday it's very detailed um the first page does kind of Look Backwards to July 17th when I presented this over the summer um and talked about the the 23 24 year right 23 24 yeah um and now we're in the 24 25 school year and we're doing a midyear check I have to thank um again our HR um supervisor Lindsay Marino for for helping me with the data and and putting this together um our teachers are critical they're front- facing we need them here um but just because they work 187 days doesn't

094mean they don't get sick during that 187 days um or have personal days they need to take for personal reasons that's why those are contractually approved for for them um so uh it's important to let everybody know if you look on the second page of the document um there is a chart which tracks from 2018 uh 19 school year through the present school year um attendance and our big goal was taking a look preco uh this past summer and seeing that in the 1819 year there was 11.7 days taken as either sick or personal this isn't long-term absences when people are off for a maternity leave or they have surgery or something these are like daily absences um and uh we were at 11.7 days per individual teacher on average um the 1920 and 2021

095years there was a lot of remote hybrid learning so you almost discount those years when we got back into regular schedule in 2122 through last year um we had noticed that that 11.7 average had jumped up to about 15 a half um and last year specifically it was at 15 that's 3 weeks of not having a teacher absolutely legitimate absences they're they're sick they take a personal day whatever the case may be but no matter what when you have 36 weeks of school missing three weeks is very very concerning and then it while this memo doesn't cover it because we're going to go to finance committee uh in March and talk about substitutes and how we're tracking that that's related as well it gets very expensive so there's the learning expense and the actual Financial

096cost here's the good thing we're tracking through mid year and as we compare to last year midy year um we are we are tracking quite well and we are on Pace for projecting that our teachers will be at an 11.5 uh missed days this year if it continues to track at this trend rate and I explain all of that and the charts are there to take a look at um and at this point in the year if you look at the third page there's a comparison July to December uh of last year compared to July December of this year that that Lindsay put together for us so there are a lot of uh things we are doing we have a new system for monitoring uh attendance on a on a bimonthly basis working with our

097teachers um working with our Paras as well um because they're they're front- facing and we need them with our students the principles are doing a nice job with our assistant principles on this um and they're working directly with HR uh We've automated some processes so it's a little easier to track and monitor um and we made it a priority I have to thank the teacher Union is here uh the leadership is here we've made it a priority in the summer it's been talked about at faculty meetings and collectively we all know it's important and we all are very understanding that people do get sick as well I mean just like I talked about earlier with with uh students who get sick schools are places where there's a lot of germs and so it's a lot

098of people together in one room um so um we're sensitive to that so we're tracking in the right direction we will let you know at the end of the year how we're doing if this pace continues um we're going to be in a good place we put a lot of uh um uh action steps in place to support the staff uh and to support the administration in making this work so so far so good and um again for the public if they're interested it's a very lengthy detailed document it is online and and the board has it I don't know if there's any questions I but it's long so I didn't want to read it to you I want just give you the highlights um I have a quick question so in looking at the

099new actions that you've taken this year um with the listening tours and the different implementations of the principles have um you know looked at implementing with their climate committees and leaders what do you think is do you have anist you do you have a feeling for what made the biggest difference do you feel like there's one thing that you could point to I think there's two things I think the the uh as you know half of our teachers are participating in reflective intelligence I think I think the um working with Boston College I think I think uh uh our presenter with Boston College is dynamic I think the process is very engaging for the staff that are involved in it and so I think that brings a and and and with that the sense from

100the admin team that we're focusing on climate we know it's important and we want to support our staff so I think that definitely could be one the other one is we're talking about it and what people need to remember is these are averages I'm giving you we have teachers that never miss a day they hav miss a day in 30 years so you know and then there's other other staff who for whatever reason are having a lot of of absences in a particular year they might be having a bad year family illness they're sick you know a lot of bad things can just happen to somebody in a given year so um I think the monitoring piece in checking in with teachers when the admin are working directly with their teachers and having more frequent

101conversations if there's a pattern they say you know I've seen you taken off in the last month three Mondays in a row you know and that's very unusual but that's something we need to address that that could be a pattern um or someone happened to just be sick that um or for whatever other reason we're seeing something it looks success if let's have a conversation how can we help um and so I think those two things kind of paying attention making it a goal paying attention to it and as we know what monit what gets monitored or gets done and then adding in reflective intelligence that's been a nice professional development piece that probably has given some good feeling and as as Rob would say Good Vibes so uh and so now that you're halfway

102through the year and you've sort of had an opportunity to implement some of the things that the board had made a priority at the end of last year do you feel like there's any one thing that you and the administration or the principles have pinpointed as something to move forward so like this one thing is working and we need to make sure we go further or I've had this idea that's outside the box but maybe we could try it has there been any of those discussions there's been a little bit of those discussions but what I will do is I will save that for the principles because they're going to talk about what they're doing I don't want to steal from they they have um highlights from their survey data um and and they don't

103want to just a little precursor for it there's probably 20 slides per principal given the survey so they don't want to bore you and go they're going to go through it um but really it's more kind of so what is this telling me and what are my actions going forward for the rest of the year that's basically I thanks for that question and there was also some areas that the board had asked us that I had brought up in the board had talked about hey maybe we could explore some other areas so there's some questions there with some responses on there so please to you know take a look I do give some substitute information for you as kind of salting the oats for further conversation okay thank you thank you very much and thanks

104to the teachers for really stepping up they've been great Ain did you have a question for Dr BR on that I do not okay anybody else any discussion on that okay let's move to um class eyes guidelines um we have a motion so yes oh sorry back to that paper okay I move that the board revise the class-size guidelines as recommended by assistant superintendent Dr Anna man and the class siiz ad hoc committee okay so we have a motion on the floor um to approve these new guidelines um and it's been seconded uh is there any discussion question go ahead I was just curious so we took the range we took the targets out or M so we took the targets out right right the old targets basically were the center of the range so

105it was sort of redundant so we decided it just clean it up a little bit to take the targets out okay I was just curious how did you come to these specific numbers is there like research guidelines or surrounding towns or like what what guided you in these numbers mostly the surrounding towns uh Dr man had brought us a lot of information from other districts and we compared um contrasted a lot of different districts and what they do and how they list their guidelines um and we also you know we had to adjust the schools from the old ones that were from uh 2009 um and just kind of make it look a little bit cleaner um but yeah basically just taking into consideration all of the information that Dr man had provided from other

106districts also you'll see that we kept the um the youngest Learners class sizes that that range small because that's what um I mean there's consensus in the research about that um studies done both within the US and abroad it's it's pretty much um Everybody agrees and so what does this do like longterm to how the classes are scheduled does it just give the principles more freedom to make the larger classes outside of our like strict guidelines or is there like a specific purpose in terms of like being such a wide range cuz it's like you know 21 to 26 I feel like is a significant sort of range so I'm just curious how what are like the long-term scheduling effects how does it affect like does it give the principal more freedom is it so

107that more students can be in the class like what was what's the like purpose of these particular numbers well I think because I'm looking at the old one too I think it might help um the elective un ah classes those ranges were more aligned with what we're seeing now so like business classes so increased business fed Health all increased by two so the max was 24 now to 26 okay um same with you know for whis skiner too was a 25 so increased by one I think like the core classes I think that was definitely on the lower side for at least the high school for high school numbers I think that original range was on the low side I would I would say as an educator um and Stephanie to to if I if

108I may to answer your question it's it's really their guidelines um so we we do want to hold to that upper end strictly as best we can and that's really what drives us when we're driving budget sections and those kind of you know sections for classes for for Budget um so this in the upper classes to Joy point in the high school and so forth um while on paper it looks as though it gives us a little more flexibility the reality is it was very challenging um and not realistic these these numbers uh class siiz ranges from 09 just weren't realistic in terms of how we Implement um the program across the board so I guess I what I'm asking like does this give the opportunity for more students to take that class I turn

109it off does that I guess that's where I'm going does it give like when when Dr Mando was talking in the beginning of year how it's difficult sometimes you don't have enough or you have to combine two classes is that kind of the purpose of this to Mark you're here you want to answer I don't want to answer yeah by the way you're Dr Banda so we expect a very good answer while Mark's walking up I know like most of our classes already have those numbers of students in them so I don't I don't think it would allow us to get put more kids in classes is to answer your question if that's accurate yeah essentially so appreciate the honorary doctorate um that's nice um it's our first it's my first I feel Sor no

110no I'm I'm appreciative of it that's great I'm gonna go home I'm gonna go home and tell my wife now so just it was such a good meeting yeah I appreciate and and so can you just restate your question to make sure that I get it I answer it correctly okay so at the beginning of the year he talked about how difficult it is to sort of like meet those ranges in scheduling you have to combine so does this range now give you the opportunity to put more kids in to expand the classes what we offer how does this affect your actual it it certainly gives us more realistic ranges of what we're looking for typically to what we have the class sizes so Joy's answer is correct right it gives us within that size

111there might be and I think the language the way it's written is um in certain I think that I can't remember the exact language at the very end it talks about uh what's that last sentence say some classes may be adjusted based on need content area so that is not a leverage of always doing it it feels like that's the adendum of the contract that says duties as assigned right that ends up there to say okay you can do it but that's in in a case where you really would absolutely need to do it but the majority of our classes are within that range already there might be one or two exceptions right where that could happen certainly um but I think it aligns with what we're looking for than yeah thank you than welcome

112okay um let's move on then to setting of The oops oh yeah sorry so many things happened um so uh Aon are you in favor of approving the class siiz uh guidelines as recommended by the committee yes um that's an i that's an i yes and uh Stephanie hi uh Rosa I Joy I Sarah hi and Rob hi and I'm an i as well so that's 70 great so now we move to um setting of the graduation date um we have another motion I move that the board set the graduation date for the class of 20125 as recommended by Brookfield High School principal Mark Banda oh have we jumped the shark a it do we need him up here to tell us come Mr Banda need Dr Banda well let's get yeah that down now

113Deja Vu I feel like I've been here before maybe maybe just unless you want to just resend the motion then we can have this discussion and then make the motion okay I resend the motion all right let's have the discuss okay uh so we really have two options on the table um the two options are Saturday the 14th or Saturday the 21st um you know this is a this is a difficult conversation to have because there there really is isn't any right answer in in so many ways right now if we set let's say the graduation date as the 14th and I'm not making my official oranization just saying we set the graduation date as the 14th the way our schedule currently is based on the snow days that we had is the last day

114of final exams would be the 13th that Friday before right does align relatively well with in terms of what the school you the operations of the school are concerned Monday is typically the makeup day that last day of school is a half day it's typically a makeup day so that fits the school schedule well right in terms of what we have but what happens if we have another snow day it is only mid-February that's a challenge then you start pushing things and we start having graduation and we'll have to upload move uh senior exams or things earlier right so weather is really the biggest challenge we have right now at this point um on the other end if we kept if we decided on the 14th that puts the grad party and Mr Rell already

115came up and and really shared you know her perspective and I appreciate that I work very well with Christine this is not this is is a very um you know collaborative and Cooperative relationship that we have trying to figure out the best way and we'll do anything and we've had this discussion you know there's been years in Co where we literally they rolled up polyvinyl in the hallways and it was that was set up and then like graduation came and we cut the things they all fell down and we put it up last minute the crew works really hard to do a really great thing for our graduating seniors having been there many years now my 10th this is going into my 10th year and I know many of you I've seen either worked it

116been there like I know people have been there and see the value in this so it is it's a tough thing I'm in a tough position um to try to figure out okay what do we do we push to the 21st that gives grad party plenty of time right to put that out there they have multiple days they'd have right now they would have you know let's say the last day of school if we had the makeup day they'd have four full days to set up and get ready we' have graduation that day and then they' go to the grad party afterwards that day um is that too much time between where we are with the end of school and you know I wish I could come with you with an adamant this is ex

117this is exactly what I want to do I'm frankly torn I don't know I'm torn with the side of I have the school operations to figure out and say okay this is the the 14th makes sense but it does not help grad party they're not it's going to be harder to get volunteers I have to move classrooms like it's it's going to be very difficult for them because they don't have time to set up the building to make it look and transform it the way it was intended to be um and the 21st maybe that's they'll have plenty of time to do that but does that affect anything in terms of families and I don't have the right answer I I I know it's on the agenda and I really wanted to say it and

118like this is going to be it I'm just being honestly Frank with you I I don't know the answer to this question I don't have the right answer and I know families are asking they have a right to know and they have a right to figure that out um I'm certainly I don't know if this is intended to be a discussion but kind of here we are like if anybody I'm I'm looking to the board just to get your perspective like to to what you think you we have parents on the board right I know we have parents on the board who may have graduating seniors I know that that I get that and there's there's all those different things to manage and we will have to make a decision you know I don't know

119if this is something we could go ahead and just for perspective and then I really do it would be great to hear from the board so there's two things because of our 39 year now coming up on 39 Year tradition if I did my math correctly of grad party on Saturday that puts us in a bit of a different we're locked in a little differently than school districts next to us who just have graduation whenever the last day of school is that's when graduation is during the week doesn't matter um so there there's that part of it the other part is honestly kind of just our own community pressure to be very honest with you the the amount of questions that keep when is gradu when is graduation when is graduation I see some smirks

120in the room um that that we need to get it on the agenda at least to have the discussion um you know I don't know that waiting another month is problematic but maybe it is for our community so we're we're very sensitive to that and so I appreciate Mark wanting to hear from the board at the end of the day I don't want to Short Change kids right they spent their four years here they've worked hard and I know how hard the gr party has worked all year already and continue to work so it's I just I'm not and and maybe we wait a little bit maybe that's and get more information I don't know get through another month of bad weather to have a better sense I don't know if that makes sense but

121like I said I'd love to hear from the board and get your perspectives any side one and the other I have two questions oh sorry Aon you want to go first no I I can go after you I just have a question for Mark um so my first question is going going to be along the lines of why don't why couldn't we consider doing it on Wednesday so that we don't have so much time I'm just curious has it ever been considered so Wednesday or Thursday right the other enjoy you might weigh in as a parent but okay like that's just I can talk that yeah that's one y and then the second question is um our next meeting is in two weeks not a month right and I maybe get through the ra what

122are the ramifications for the administration having to wait just two weeks to see if there snow cuz of things coming up I know we're going to be at graduation so it doesn't matter no no but I mean like getting in terms of like the community one needing today versus is two weeks feel like a reasonable amount where we can put it on the March typically the emergency days because of snow usually don't happen after March 15th I mean they could happen through March it does happen but the the further through the winter we get without taking a day off that's why I'm think maybe we could go we had a real crazy two weeks so of weather which looks like it's starting it's going to start warming up the next cycle so so to answer

123your F first question about doing grad party midweek that I don't know how that could ever happen just and because there is so much work that goes into that um and also clean up the next day the the the timing is set because that Saturday night people typically you have Sunday to recuperate from the 24 hours that you stay up right or those adults that come in for that second shift at 2: in the morning um it's it's a long night and I think challenging for people particularly that work because we have a lot of volunteers people that and you're not working in the weekend you people generally suck it up for that night on Saturday knowing they can kind of sleep in a little bit on Sunday and then go back to work on

124Monday doing a Wednesday would be a real challenge um in terms of time frame to you know listen I can certainly you know I have a PTO meeting tomorrow night at 6:00 you know I can certainly talk to my PTO as I look at my PTO president over there um it's something we can we can certainly discuss um and get some more perspective from the parent side from you there's definitely ways to collect more information um you know I we certainly could I don't think it hurts to wait two weeks three weeks I I I can certainly handle the questions they keep coming I get it but I also I don't want to wait too long and that's where we put it on the agenda to at least have the discussion today knowing that this

125could go the way of a conversation and then maybe punt to the next next meeting and get more information between and but anybody else have any Erin yeah yeah Mark the question I had is just um I know just from experience last year I had a child in classes that were um the majority of them were seniors and he had to take exams the week before so are our seniors taking exams when our other kids are because I was under the impr their grades had to be in so I just want to know if it does happen on the 14th as opposed to something else is it going to affect their um exams or are they still taking exams early yeah so you know to have to do officially because the the remember the the

126diplomas are signed by me the superintendent the board chair right so all those so this is means they've officially met all those requirements we want to make sure that their exams are done and their school year is finished even though the makeup exam date currently is next Monday we would have to have those kids take their exams before then to be fair I mean that that's the right way to do it it also puts us in terms of um of 180 day school year right like right now we have 182 days so that Monday is 182 um graduate we would the students will have completed even though there's an exam period if we graduated on Saturday the 14th 181 school days State requires minimum 180 right so we have to like at least be in

127so there there isn't a ton of Wier room um there but we they would have to take them early is essentially what they would have to do yeah but I mean I think I think my question is last year my son had to take exams a week before other exams were being taken so he was didn't have to go on the exam day so I think my question is are the seniors even going to school the week of exams realistically if they took exams the week before I think I it won't be the week before like I'm looking to push a day or two early like I can't I can't push a whole week ahead because that just completely takes them out of the cycle and it does screw up the um some of the

128Juniors the some of the things we experienced last year and trying to do Tom Marly really messed up some of the Juniors because they were taking it early and they were they really there so we we would look to move it up my question yeah are we doing stuff differently because I know mine did not have to go because we had to take an exam because it was mostly senior yeah we're we're not going to move it up as much as we had last year if we if you know if we had to move it early that's we' move it a day or two early not a week so personally for me I'm not seeing like a whole lot of like advantages to setting it on the 14th 21st it is I would be in

129favor of what that was that was a quick turn around y I mean I think this we can vote but I think we need more discussion no I mean yes so I'm personally not seeing a whole lot of advantages to having on the 14th it seems like there's a lot to cram in and like I mean we're we're talking about like a a week right and it leaves the grad party plenty of time for a setup and take down it leaves time for the 21st leaves time for maybe if we have a few extra snow days now if we did have like let's say three more snow days right and now the last day of school is the 19th so we're in trouble if we said it to the 14th we're in trouble cuz that's

130got to but would it How would affect the 21st like we wouldn't be like looking for like another week before graduation right still be but it would just make the grad party timetable crunched right and the grad the grad party timetable has been crunched before once or twice right you know then we've been parts of those things where it's been like okay and it's been a negotiation I I wouldn't say hostage I would say negotiation between Christine and I about how we're going to make sure when can I get in how can what time can I get in the building because I know they're eager to get the the room set up and those sorts of things but it is negoti they want as much time as possible gets them the ability if it was

131the 21st you know and even if we had two more snow days it we'd still be okay right yeah I would be in favor of the 21st I mean I think it like it leaves the most space it kind of makes it still to me make sense within the school year I mean after the end of the school year but I mean you know not significantly so so yeah but I'm also fine waiting another couple weeks if you if you that doesn't I think yeah yeah I'd be in favor of either waiting until our March 5th meeting 9th 5th whatever the next meeting is in two weeks or pushing it to the 21st and just having it have that one of the things I want to share that you know we don't necessarily have conversations

132about this because it's it's it's sensitive and it's um it's unpleasant to even have to think about but as a a former High School principal and longtime building administrator and of of course uh Anna would say say the same thing and I know Mark thinks the same thing um and it's what I wrestle with with delayed openings in snow days is teenage drivers and one of the things when you think about the statistics in the spring teenage drivers and I worry about finishing school on a 16th and having an entire week with no school and seniors being seniors and just being teenagers you know um and waiting for that graduation ceremony I get concerned about safety to be very honest with you and I think that's something that we just can't we we cannot not

133talk about as part of this decision-making process and that's why I think if if if the board in the community would be so patient to give us some more time I think we could come with a a a stronger recommendation in terms of our belief as what we think is the best course of action um I have a suggestion um could we and maybe Eric could uh answer this um is there a way that we could issue a parent Square poll to the parents of seniors um I think that would be an important data point I can do that yeah we can do I can do that do because um I mean kids start to work families travel there's a lot that happens that's the danger I see with the with the 21st I mean

134I don't know you have a senior I say I your lip she's like what do I want to say uh it's hard because I know the kids want to finish earlier right so um but I know that they would have to start their exams earlier right and they're going to be checked out um but selfishly the grad party you know that 21st would really help us out been painting all week um well that's a super important event they've they've really earned something and I I think 39th year like that that to me my fear is that they that someone and come you know if they're right far so much l yeah so far out I I do I was going to suggest the idea of pulling the senior parents that's something I can easily do

135yeah absolutely might be a way to go I mean I know my daughter would pick and I know what her friends would pick I'd also be C I think I know what the kids would do but I certainly I could pull the kids too I mean I think that I think we you're right I think we know where they would want to be but realistically there you know as parents and as you but things can happen with weather not just snow it can be rain you know we had last yeares so yeah it could that absolutely I don't want to be in that situation where right we're pushing the last day to 18th or 19th and then so so this actually is is helpful to to markk for sure and me that that you're interested

136in let's let's kind of see where we land in a couple of weeks and and come back to this if that if people could be patient about it then you know but know that we're really seriously thinking about it we're deliberating everybody's talking to each other um and being open and honest and we could add to our winter survey Extravaganza and continue to poll parents and and students um and get more information it would it would I would say if we can like cons if we can nail down in the March 5th meeting like just have a final Okay so Fair Stephanie rescinded the motion so there is currently no motion on the table are we are we okay to then uh move on great thank you for the opportunity just to Workshop that together

137rather than it's important all right so um now it's time for a school climate update all right so we will be hearing a midyear update from the principles you want to start do you want all right you mark you want to just keep rolling let me just get my notebook hold on that yeah I we all saw the me so while Mark's getting his notes just uh for everybody as as has been said uh many many many times uh School climate is a uh one of the three areas of fundamental Focus for the school year um the principles uh have worked with the administration and uh we worked with Ed Advance we have a new tool at no charge from Ed Advance thought exchange that has the three different surveys uh one for students one

138for uh staff and of course the one for parents the principles will they have a very similar format so once Mark goes through you'll get used to the Cadence like I said they won't spend a lot of time on each slide um but I think Mark maybe at the beginning just walk people through so they understand the format and then from there um really we'll talk about uh kind of where they're at what the survey results are telling them and what's it look like for the next couple of months so please mark as I get started not to prolong the meeting can I got a shout out for the new projector that's not off the side of the screen even know that's great right do you know how all the meetings you've been to where

139it's off the other side you can't see new projector that fits right in the so thank you to the technology department that's the little things that matter to me bothers me that type a person is kind of the they am so um you'll see similar presentations uh you know it's they're not mirrored you'll see some similarities certainly between the format but also some of the questions uh that we put out there uh but Dr Burl asked us to put this together uh for each school to kind of give a midyear School climate update so this was this pulls directly from my School Improvement plan um and highlighting five different things uh School climate meetings is the first bullet uh hosting those uh and being a part of those no place for hate school is an

140initiative from the Anti-Defamation League uh that we're planning on working on uh before knowing we're going to be doing thought exchange and all these other different things it was about make sure we survey students getting a preium post that's really important they're are biggest constituents they're with us every day the principal's advisory Council uh to meets monthly with me for students and then the staff advisory Council outside of the Bea PR and E format which is not a negative to that it's just it's something that looking to find a different way to collect information and so I'll be able to share some of that information today so this was the original School climate goals that came out of there we gave a thought exchange survey uh it went to students staff and families student survey

141just so you know we had 594 students um comp responded to the survey 526 actually completed it so it was open-ended you to answer every question so we got it's amazing the format and the tools that we have it takes all the data disaggregates it for you does it by question and so as the three principles know that we we met and had a conversation about what's the best way to share this information with the board and with the community and the thing that we came up with is all the questions have a general format where they ask um always often sometimes and never so those are the four categories typically and it was hard to really pick out because know we have a lot of slides to share and so we're going to try

142to go through these relatively quickly but what was the thing that really stuck with us the most and the conversation was like the highest percentage of neers those are the ones that are Mo we're most concerned with right and we talk about students one of the ones one of the questions you won't see on here and I think it's a good illustration do you enjoy coming to school right if I have however many percentage of kids saying always and often and then I've got let's say I've got 35% of the kids that say sometimes they're happy to be at school that to me is a win in so many ways cuz sometimes it is challenging to get to school and if a kid is accurately taking it the ones that say never that are never

143happy being those are the ones that were like okay that would be and so that kind of jumped off the page at our conversation to say let's let's try to analyze all this data and there's a ton of other things but we'll highlight the never so we did a never approach so we look to see which were the lowest amount of Nevers and which was the highest percentage of Nevers in each of the surveys so in students staff and and families so I'm going to highlight a couple of those um and they're broken down into categories right first category is perception of school now this is the student survey I have that little um bullet up there so you can see this is an area of recognition you see at top so this is something

144that we're that we have the fewest amount of Nevers I feel comfortable asking for help when needed only 40 kids now it's still a lot but that is our lowest amount of MERS that means the rest of those students sometimes often or always are responding saying they feel comfortable asking for help when needed so it's an area of recognition but it's also kind of area of growth because if there's 40 kids that feel they don't feel comfortable it's still something we have to talk about but this is our lowest never but an era we can grow is I'm eager to participate in class discussions so it's interesting how they're kind of connected right so yes the other one was a recognition but you can see there's there's still a through line there there is something

145there to go in a little bit deeper and so there's unfortunately 100 kids that said no they don't feel eager to participate in class discussions second category uh was perception of personal and school safety so this was an this is our best score teachers treat me with respect right always often sometimes the highest percentage lowest was 3% of the kids 15 kids said that teachers don't treat them with respect again I want that to be a 100 but we're going by the lowest number of Nevers and an area for growth students in my school will try to stop challenging behaviors um when I look at that the always and often I wish those were higher they're clearly not and a 100 kids saying that students in my school will never try to stop challenging behaviors

146is concerning to me so that's an area for growth and I will address these at the end I'll talk about a couple different things that we're going to do to address both the areas of growth and for recog second area was perception of learning for students an area of recognition for the students they said my teachers want to help all students learn I hate that that's at 16 but man look at that that's not bad a kid had a bad day because they didn't get the help their hand was raised teacher didn't get to them in time that could attribute to one that's a speculation but that is an area that you know looking at that and I will share this data with this with the staff as well in a coming meeting so this

147is an area of uh of recognition this is an area of growth my teachers checking with me to see if I understand the material right so we had 18% 93 kids said that teachers never check in with them um just understand the material sometimes often and always you can imagine as you take the Sur there's a lot of different perspectives kids are going to come to the table with and what one person feels they should get always or often or it there's a lot of interpretation um that can go into this but this is an area of growth we put it on there because this is the highest amount of Nevers in this case um so those are the three categories for students we surveyed the staff and staff 57 staff responded uh total with

14851 actually completing the whole thing start to finish um so an area of recognition in perception of school is relationship between students and teachers is good so all of all the people that responded nobody said never at the very least we sometimes often and always I think that's a great response relationship between students and teachers is good this one of the things you'll see a through line when you look at some of the other surveys as well the staff feels an area of growth is that student discipline practices are fair and consistent and so they felt that sometimes often always were there and never was uh 20% 11 people um now my staff there's certainly more than 57 staff I have in the building I think if all all said and done including staff is

149over a 100 um but with 51 completed that was the one that had the highest number of responses for that particular category perception perception of personal and school safety um I feel physically safe on school premises right we talk about the hierarchy of needs all the staff that responded to this question none of them said never that to me is a good thing sometimes I'd like that to creep up to the often and always right understanding but that is where we are for our recognition for staff about phys feeling physically safe area of growth I'm satisfied with the physical condition of the school facilities anybody who's been in the High School is not going to be surprised by the staff saying that is the highest amount they're never satisfied right at 29 but that is

150I think is while a small number responded across the board I think it's pretty indicative of what people experience you know here in this building perception of learning for staff here's an area that's good the current curriculum is conducive to producing a comprehensive education of students one person said never which interesting I don't know who answered that but most people are saying sometimes often and always that's an area of area of recognition we did a good job with that in terms of curriculum area for growth I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as a result of participating in PD so this is an interesting one you'll also see this as a through line in some of the other buildings as well uh I point this out um because there's a lot of different reasons that this

151could be but this is the perception of the staff feeling that way um I know that Dr man has shared this with the pck committee so they're aware of these survey results and some of the feedback there and I know they're continue to address that moving forward it's an area that they know about as well uh coming to parents the parent survey um I think most of you know we have 860 I think 862 students here in this building I had 48 parents respond and 43 completed it um start to finish so um numbers are going to be a little skewed but just in terms of the whole population but doesn't matter they took the survey we want to respond to it these are the people that put their information out there so in teaching

152and learning learning this is an area teachers are well qualified and knowledgeable in their subject areas they said sometimes often or always and a single person said they're never well qualified it's a good area that's something to be proud of um the school adequately supports my child's social emotional development this is an area where the high school they feel you know four four people um said that we never adequately support uh social emotional development um and there's obviously you can see the mix of sometimes often and always um but that's an area for growth for us in terms of school safety my child feels saf in school two people said never that's not again not a response that I want to have but is the lowest number um in terms of that area so that's

153actually area of recognition for us that only two people said never most people are saying but if you look at the majority it's often and always right so that to me when I look at that information is pretty important uh area for growth I am satisfied with the school's handling of unkind student Behavior start drawing some through lines right you see the staff at one point had talked about um one of their concerns was how uh information was how discipline was handled uh consistently there's a question about that there's also a question about when students talked about um feeling that they would step up and challenge somebody's Behavior so this is an area of growth the behavior and what we do um and how the staff perceive it students and staff it's important and something

154to address that's the highest area and communication and parents involvement um communication methods such as parents Square the new website used by the school are effective only one person said it's never effective um which was impressive and 26 people the majority of people answered always so that's an area to be proud of I know Dr burill is very happy that parent square and the website are helpful it it shows that and the area for growth the school encourages parental involvement and feedback and that's something I will certainly talk about when I talk about my next slide so we looked at all these different things looked at the school Improvement plan those areas that I talked about and I really I categorized them a couple different ways and so the key at the top talks about

155continuation adjustment and addition So based on the color of the verbs kind of tells you where we are so monthly School climate meetings continuing that that's in green that stuff we still meet every month we have we have parent Representatives we have student Representatives we have staff Representatives there's been some really good things that have come out of that group um and that addresses some of the concerns brought forward by students parents and staff you know in terms of climate uh unkind Behavior our students and we have uh eight students that serve on that committee two members from each grade level that all provide feedback about some of the things that they think are going well and ah there's also one student that's also on the no place for hate committee that sits on both

156so it's able to provide um perspective from both committees to able to share um you know and we've seen some improvements in certain areas but there's definitely areas that can continue to be improved um but that's something we're going to continue to do um no place for hate activities we continue to do those it's um we just had our our pledge which was interesting we hit a little bit it was um our no place for hate pledge which I thought would go over relatively well um and I had to sit back we didn't have as many kids signed as I thought they would quite frankly um and it was initially I was a little concerned because the last statement says I agree to support uh I will um not allow Brookfield High School or whatever

157be a place for hate think well yeah who wants to get in the concept of pledge and what that means and the actual action steps to uphold that we need to do more work with the kids so they understand what that means kids felt uncomfortable signing that pledge because they didn't know the action steps in order to carry those things out which I thought was pretty impressive at the end initially I was I don't know I wish but no it's we need to do more work so we're going to continue that we're going to continue some of these no place for hate activities and that continues that helps the students and the staff um end of year school student climate survey that's going to continue we know that's coming whether it's thought exchange there's also

158one for no place for hate the kids did a great job you saw they're the highest number you know 500 um I think it was 526 actually completed it which for high school kids is pretty amazing considering uh the numbers that are there and that's just going to give us more data about things that we can do to improve the school the adjustment is the biggest piece about revisit the principal's advisory Council for students to mean on a quarterly or as needed basis I've held one meeting so far was not attended at all kids didn't come so that's on me as the principal to better promote that and get more different constituent groups to be there so I can hear perspective other kids you know how this goes right you have a school climate committee

159meeting you know you know the kids that are going to volunteer to be a part of that and I want to hear from those kids I also want to hear from the kids that aren't represented at that table I need so I need to do a better job of getting that soliciting that information from those kids and finding different ways to do that um I have a plan through the cafeteria and our new school security guard so we have some some some good ideas there as how we're going to revisit that and meet that at least quarterly so some of this information these things that kids are concerned about because if they're not telling members students in the school climate committee or no place for hate committee they may need a vehicle directly to me

160and I need to find a better way to get them there the addition right the staff advisory Council that's something I put on my initial um School climate um School Improvement plan I haven't done it yet and that's because I felt one way I was like oh do I really need that maybe I don't I absolutely do need that right and that's something that I'm putting as an addition it's on my plan but it's moving forward I have a very good relationship with the pr uh committee I have two building reps that uh represent the Bea that are in my building we have our monthly meetings um I have a a good relationship people feel they can come forward and and have those conversations but what ends up happening is they're usually not contractual conversations

161it's become more climate and culture conversations so they feel comfortable the staff some Staff feel comfortable coming to me and some feel comfortable going to the building reps or the pr or some of the the the the leadership and that's good I want their their concerns to be out there but I also want to try to foster a climate where they can come to me or to the other administrators um and feel comfortable to have those conversations I don't know how that's going to go yet and it doesn't always I want people to know it doesn't always have to be a union thing there could be just general conversations I feel that I'm pretty connected to the staff but some events over the last week and some of the things we're trying new with attendance

162and some of the the concerns that were brought forward were things that I didn't see necessarily and I missed it and the implementation didn't go as we wanted it to go for some of the attendance protocols we're trying and so I got a lot of feedback and I'm like well this is really a climate and culture issue this is something that I need to do to better Outreach same thing with the kids for this principal's advisory same thing for the staff I need to find a better way for them to connect with me and feel comfortable putting that information out there I think one of the challenging questions that you saw was parental involvement in feedback at the high school that has been my challenge for all 25 years of my career how do we

163get parents involved in the community in the school community and provide feedback it doesn't always have to be um a traditional way like I know at our PTO meetings when I say it's myself Rebecca usually the three other officers and that's pretty much it for the Brookfield high school PTO and thank goodness they're there and helping occasion we get a random person that comes in but we hold these monthly meetings and parents aren't coming to PTO meetings they they're not doing that so what does parental involvement and feedback look like we really need to dig into that because if parents are saying that we're not doing that what what do you need from us to to feel better involved in your child's um schooling so that's why that addresses the parents and then the audit

164the social motion learning opportunities so I say audit because they do exist right we do do we have some social emotional learning um opportunities and curricul that does exist in School counseling and developmental guidance through our wellness program and a couple other things that we do it's not as um defined as the ruler program that you've seen in in the K8 um but clearly that's something and it doesn't matter to me that only 43 parents completed the survey and put that out there enough people said it it's something we absolutely have to take a look at so we're going to work with the school counseling department um um very they have their meetings their monthly their weekly meetings I meet with the school counseling director uh team leader every other week we're going to go

165through and look at some of these social emotion opportunities and see and really audit and see what are we doing well what could we add what are we missing and how can we push some other things forward so I try to go as quick as I could Dr BR I know it's a lot I know it's a long agenda you heard from me a lot of stuff and you have to hear two more schools so I appreciate you listening and certainly if you have any particular questions I'm happy to answer I just have um I know there was opportunities to provide notes y can we get that information that whole survey oh we didn't put it in there we will so what what we're going to do is so the survey what we can do

166is it generates a word cloud so it's not very helpful for you um so we're looking to find a way that when I generate the report here like through the thought exchange what it does is it provides a word cloud don't know why that's the default report which doesn't really help you or me or anybody else cuz like what comes up as you might see in from the let's say from the um from the parent survey might say communication is the biggest word because that's the one that it saw the most but it's 15 different things they're not all tied to good bad and different communication there is a way to print the list right and some of that feedb it literally the feedback was all it was it was almost this one says this

167needs to be that much better this one said it's perfect and fantastic I'm so glad it works that way right you know which is not surprising because it's typically what we get as we call through those but trying to get those so we're going to I I did mean to put that we did have that conversation I don't know if the other guys did it but put the link so you can see the actual open-ended responses as well um it just it's not helpful in the format that thought exchange prints it in it only comes in a wordcloud I can give you we'll give you every single one of those questions so you know all the questions all the percentages that's easy to do it's how to find that format from the word cloud so

168what we'll do is we'll link that joy into the presentation like I don't know I I'm not sure if it got linked into the other ones yet but it's easy enough to do that and then when we do the three main points and everything else we'll get it all distributed out we can put it all out together so you see the whole um sounds good I just want to say one more thing it wasn't really a question but you know I really appreciate you being very candid about um you're mentioning a lot of things that you you have to do but I really hope and I really sincerely mean this that your administrative team is part of your areas of growth that you want to improve because I think even little changes can go a

169really long way it's not just about you and of course you're the leader of the building but there's so many more other leaders of the building that can make a substantial difference in the climate culture of the school I and I appreciate that right I mean and I I think those have known me like I'm this is harder to if you know who I am I'm going to tell you what I think and and who I feel like you're right as a leader of the building it does come back to me but absolutely I do feel the support is there um from my administrative team at least and my teachers as well we're going to we're going to reopen those lines it's it's been it's been a rough go a little bit I want the

170teachers and the students to not only feel like they can come to you but go to the assistant principals or the GU counselors or counseling team right you know y thank you Mr blenda Mr Renda [Applause] good evening hello how are you tonight um I am very excited to come up and talk a little bit about our whisk Middle School uh midyear uh School climate updates so we'll start as Mark did he said like he did say that we are very similar in format and what we're going through but these were some of the areas that I had touched upon at the beginning of the year for our school Improvement plans um as you notice a lot of them are um focused around students um and not that they shouldn't be because that's why we're

171here uh but some of the programs I know and things that I know I was very excited about was I talked to you early in the year about our web program which is is a sixth grade orientation where students come in the summer and then also throughout the year we have lessons with some of our web leaders which are eighth graders which have been going really really great um I see some heads from our sixth grade parents like having a good time um and then what we did talk about was we have an unplugged hour which is a seventh for our seventh and eighth grade uh students that are not web leaders um as in Social uh opportunities and tech-free uh activities where students can do everything from being in the Taylor Swift Club to

172the walking Club um to the reading club or whatever it may be things that the students uh really enjoy to do um so those two have been great our WS School climate committee we have monthly meetings uh again working well and we talk about excuse me what is working well and also just plan or Implement different things and activities for students and for staff because again we all know as as part of a climate is everybody that's in the building what can we do um to have a little fun sometimes and with the staff it was interesting for Valentine's Day my the our um School climate committee came up with every if you had a heart in your pocket at the beginning they gave hearts out and if you went up to somebody said do

173you have a heart in your pocket you had to give up your heart at the end of the day whoever had the hearts won well I I was given a heart at about 8:00 in the morning and not one person asked me for my heart and I was like I'm a little offended by this but I did win a um there was a little lottery ticket and and we had a little fun so again little things like that I think that uh we do obviously for students but also for staff I think just keeps a good climate um within the schools all of the staff uh climate surveys we're talking about um we are going to be Mark said we are going to be sharing with our staff our staff have not seen these yet

174we are um talking about them here today but then obviously we will share with staff and then look to create some action plans based on the feedback that we um that we get from it and from them uh student council is is something that I know I meet with the student council I try to do it um every couple weeks um but what we do is we talk about anything from activities that are coming up fundraisers um they want to get back to doing dances which just it makes me laugh every time I hear that because for years it was like no but now I think the kids want to get back to which is fantastic um I've also talked with them about survey feedback with our student council and getting some ideas that they

175have and what do they what do they think about this um and then we'll be meeting again once this is all set I'll be meeting with them again to go over the uh student survey participation in after school sports and in our uh Bandon course I said to you early in the year we have um about a third of our students in chorus because we have about 600 students now we have 600 actually today but um a third of them uh in chorus and and another third that are in uh band there are some kids that go I think there's about 20 kids that do both but if you think about it a third of schools participate in those programs is is really awesome but on the opposite side with after school clubs and sports

176we have about 208 uh students that have been a part of those there are some repeats I'm going to be getting that information because I know there are some kids that may have been in also one Club um say the math team but also in another club or sport uh activity the reason I bring those things up because I know I've told you before I feel that being students uh when they feel a part of of school they feel something good to come to school to be a part of now granted being in courses during the day it's part of their classes it's not an after school activity but there are kids that just just the excitement that they have in things like that I think to um to perform and and be musical or

177whatever it may be even in our art classes any of the uh um UNH classes we have but also with the after school clubs is just being a part of something that is different maybe some different kids in the same idea of something that I really like whether it's math counts or the Art Club or whatever it may be and it also gives staff a different like some of our staff get really excited about even with unplugged hour I should say that they're with kids that they never see they never taught them they never you know but they have a connection with them um which I think is really uh really neat Charter Champions we talked a little about ruler but um as part of each grade level came up with uh Charter Champions these

178words that they have as part of their Charter for each grade level and what we do is um students are nominated now that I look at this it should say by staff or by students so we had we did a uh our web leaders went around to our classes and they um introduced it to all of the home rooms and what they show the students was that they can nominate there's a Google form that they can nominate a student and that the um reason behind it has to go by whatever is on the charter like if they're they are respectful they have to put what's the reason why they're nominating this student so again it holds a little bit more and what we do then is we try to share those with families because it's

179really cool when you hear about your son or your daughter is a charter champion because of this reason um one of the students was that um always looks out for other people you know like I say that's the best thing you could ever hear about your kid uh and in use of parent Comm uh parent Square Excuse excuse me to communicate uh events highlight great things that go on at WMS and any other needed U information with families all right survey reception of school the area of recognition again Mark told you the reason the the things that we went behind we um the idea with the data is there are 11 students that don't feel like I belong with my classmates that kills me when I hear that this was an area of recognition because

180that was the least amount that we had in any of the areas but um as most of you know like that to me I would love to know who those 11 students are to be able to have a conversation and and and sit down with them to find out more um but as you can see I mean there other numbers U and again sometime I think Mark made this out said before that I feel I belong my CL there's days that you do and maybe depending on the day you're taking a survey I don't feel I feel like my my best friends or my friends kind of let me down you know we never know but just the fact that that that there's 2% is uh is something that I wish was Zero um and

181then I this one I don't mean to say makes me laugh but I enjoy participating class discussions so we have 9% of by the way that we had 559 of our students and we have 600 so this is a really good number of responses 53 students said that they don't enjoy participating in class discussions so I'm like what so I I talked to my wife about it and my wife's like that would have been me now me I would have been in the always category probably um but again it all depends on the student there are kids students that don't feel comfortable sometimes talk in front of their friends we understand that but again um interesting um type of data that we need to look into perception of person personal and school safety I love

182this one teachers treat me with respect it is at 1% I hate to see that there's four that's Say Never um but if you notice there's a large amount of um students that say always and often um again that's something I know we we harp a lot on all the time um with our Stu with our staff to our students but also obviously within our um our staff meetings and things like that with from us as adults how we have to also model respect to students and then they would be respectful um obviously it would be easier for that respect back students of my school will try to stop challenging behaviors so again this is a little bit of an interesting one because 77 students say they never do it and I can see that

183there are students that feel like maybe no one will come to get their back if something's going on um and obviously in my mind both sometimes and never I I I it kills me to see 273 other students think only sometimes kids will do that I get the nature of the beast in middle school I don't want to stick out cuz I know if I say something then they're probably going to say something to me you know I wish it was something that we could um we could again not that we don't try to change it and interestingly in some of the uh questions the responses back from the students I am going to have a conversation with some of our with our eighth graders about many of uh not many a handful of students

184put and I'm guessing it was the Nevers here that eighth graders um something about being big and walking down the hallways and they like to make fun of us cuz we're smaller than them or they need to be kinder and things like that literally it's specifically States e8th grade so that's a little something that I'm going to be working with specifically telling the eth grade this is what they are saying about you so we need we I expect better um from you so perceptional learning teachers expect students uh to learn what is taught and again that goes a lot around expectations I feel if as a as an educator or as an adult if you have expectations I really do believe most of the time students will live up to them um you should see

185you could see that three students said never um again you that's something I wish we we had zero in those spots but as you can see a large number said often or always my teachers check to see if I understand what is being taught I think that was similar to one of the ones that Mark had in his area for growth we had 48 students um and then a larger number is 196 even sometimes again that's something that I'm going to bring up to my staff and all of us that are teachers I think you know sometimes we feel like we check in or whatever it may be but there are some either even comments from other from the students that do say I wish they would at least one time like come by me

186during the class and again we know when you got 20 some odd kids in the class it's hard to get to every single student um but again it's just something that I want to put in the in the staff's mind that we need to be cognizant of Staff survey perception of school relationships between students and teachers is good we had zero for that um as you can see I think the staff felt that they have pretty good um relationships with the students uh there were 64 responses on staff we have over 100 staff members um again this is 64 and it does not break down to whether teachers you know PA professionals secretaries um teachers at oh this was 0% too teachers at school are trusted to teach in the way they think best I

187think they feel that um you know obviously there's curriculum that needs to be followed but if we're do if we're teaching the curriculum the way John teaches it in his class maybe different maybe how than I teach it in my class per se um so it gives them that autonomy to be able to to you know be professionals area for growth student discipline practices are fair and consistent we have four staff members that say never uh and then 25 or 39% say sometimes and again I think sometimes that's a perception that um you know we may you know they don't we don't always share obviously if it's someone who who writes a referral we'll let them know what the uh response was but we don't it's not like we tell people we don't we don't

188share with them you know all the different types of um consequences that we do have and sometimes they don't know what is behind it so can I understand why people may say sometimes or never I could see that um obviously we don't want them to think that way but I could understand the perception on that school safety I feel physically safe on the premises that was great I think the large numbers absolutely feel safe which is great I'm satisfied with the physical conditions of the school facilities I think similar to what Mark said we have a larger number that um feel that uh the physical condition needs to be improved exceptional learning school meets The Learning needs of the students again we had zero uh for that one as an area of recognition um so

189those are good numbers there I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as a result of participating in PD there you know is is our area of growth I think sometimes I think as as uh professionals we may not see what the long outcome the outcome is in the long run um but I think a lot of the stuff even that Dr bro was talking about for the people that I know that I evaluate that are doing reflective intelligence have found it to be very reward rewarding because now we're actually getting to the phase of what we're doing more in the classroom uh which has been great but again it depends on what the person you know chooses and again going in the long run obviously when you do more of it you see more of a

190meaning for it or meaningful parents teaching and learning I feel satisfied with my child's academics performance the school year one parent and by the way there's 83 U parents that responded not a large number but of those 83 one said never um I think we had and as you can see we had higher numbers for uh often and always I feel welcome to participate in my child's education this one is a tough one for me I talked to my administrative team like we talk about um what does that really mean when we say what to welcome to participate in my child's education obviously we have conference time um they can set set of meetings uh with staff members or uh with with certain teachers or with team team of teachers um I think sometimes their

191perception is maybe that they're that uh we may not be reaching out to them to participate as much um I don't I don't know the exact uh reason behind it um but it's something obviously I think in an area that we want to try to to look into and and what does that mean to participate does it mean to more about their grades is it about the social emotional um so it's it's all dependent school safety this I like even though there's one I don't like there is one that says never but my child feels safe while in school as you can see a large number feel often or always I feel well informed about the school's policy and procedures uh five that said never um honestly this one was one of those on we

192talked about we do have a handbook at the beginning with all with the the the the different guidelines we have and the policies and procedures um feel well informed you know maybe it's because they the people that put never or sometimes feel that maybe we haven't uh had enough conversation about that I I don't know um but again I I can understand where someone might feel that way or didn't like I I I think sometimes I look at it as I feel well informed that they don't uh may not like the outcome that came of it um but again I think difference between well informed you're informed of it you may not like the response I I I'm not sure of that but again I think that's something an area that we need to work

193on parent involvement I feel comfortable reaching out to teachers and administrators with questions only one person said uh never again the larger numbers are within often and always which again is is a great thing opportunities to participate in school decision- making Pro processes uh relevant to my child uh never was that's the largest never that we had was eight parents felt that they weren't able to participate in decision- making I think that may be more towards a student that may need one of our special education students or medor reading students I'm not exactly sure um and or it could be we don't have many options for Choice meaning when you get to high school you have those different areas that you can go into as a middle school we don't necessarily have those besides our

194specials uh classes that we have and then as as Mark stated and Dave will be doing also we talked about actions for growth uh I talked about attending the Ws School climate uh committee meetings I do that uh when we have the our meetings create opportunities uh myself and also our administrative staff create opportunities for socialization I really feel that that is a real um big key this year for us and develop non-academic relationships with students again the amount of uh one of my sixth grade teachers today was talking about one of the web leaders every time she says he sees me in no hallway he's like Miss Campbell like and gets excited to see like that's a relationship that would have never happened um if if this wasn't a part of what we were

195doing with our um with our different types of that that is actually a web but also with our unplug hour obviously all these surveys that we're talking about continue to administer those at the end of the year meeting with student council like I talked about before and again giving this new survey feedback to them and and get their ideas because obviously they're the ones that are answering and we had such a large number of answerers which was great and some of the areas that they had picked which was pretty interesting we asked him one of the aspects that we could change um to make a better more of a better experience at whis here and I don't I don't have the number exactly but I would say probably a hundred of them were let us

196unban cell phones give us cell phones again let us have cell phones on our free time you know or or longer lunch and longer recess um which I get that would have been me too probably um but um again these are really it's it's interesting to get some feedback from the students to see what they're thinking in those areas this is this is on me uh something that we talked about schedule opportunity for parents to come in uh to WMS for informative workshops we had plan to do one in the fall in the spring the fall didn't happen so uh as we talking this addition meaning that we are still that's something that we are we were interested in doing like we did last year with the uh parent Workshop uh explore students and oh

197then I just put two here for now but obviously there's some more based on our our survey data but I'm thinking about exploring with students and staff what can we do for students to feel empowered to help in stopping those challenging behaviors in other students like what can we do to help students get the the verbiage to like what to say um you know uh I've had many conversations with parents over the years and students about what we can do in those in those in those times um but again it's hard when I'm sitting at a table and these things are happening for me to stick up and say something because I'm afraid that they may turn around and then do something back to me um so that's something I think you know we need

198to explore and also explore with staff on ways that we can check in with students more often to see if they understand what is being taught and again not that we don't do that I don't want people think we don't do that um but just other ways to find that each kid has I guess a voice in that and as much as you can um during a class time I did an observation today and the teacher was fantastic every single kid spoke at least once during that class and they had students and as they were um happened to be a Spanish class but as they were um as a teacher we called it speed dating they were going from uh conversational with students and then they'd move over to the next one and one of

199the kids says this speak dating kind of like that I guess um but um just little things like that and she had a chart and she was going around and checking that conversation that students were having so again those little things in those little areas and I also have likened it to with my staff before about just that L those little comments just that one time when I go over to and and whether I say are you okay or whether I help the student depends on what it is that student may feel that that you're you know you're checking it out again it all depends on the the student any questions I brought these up for just a quick one um is there a PTO as is there a PTO at whiskin yeah Y and

200Is the participation any better than I know pretty good ours is pretty good um definitely better than rebea works so hard ours is pretty good and I have to say now that you just said that if your your students came home today and talked about the assembly we had today I will be posting some pictures on that and also be my next newsletter um Mr Napoli who is in for um m buckton who was our DEA students um he he had this assembly at a school that he had worked at in the past and he brought it in it was like a game show well we knew the sixth graders would love I I don't know about eighth grade it all depends oh my gosh the eighth grade coming out of there one of the

201students I heard him say this is the best assembly we ever had it was all like game show like trivia um Simon says uh tug Wars um on scooters like all different things and the kids had an absolute blast and that's something for that the PTO has been really gracious about um you know giving us for the students so ask your students tonight when you go home they like awesome we will thank you thank you questions good Dr P coming up great you'll notice that Mr B all set out for Dean remember when Mr Banda was done with his presentation he pulled up yours remember [Music] that I got caught up there's no questions I wonder run who's thinking about the pictures on the assembly all right so thank you I once again my voice

202is is ding I have a three Elementary Boys in southberry so when you couple those germs with the germ The Candlewood my house is the perfect storm so if I start to talk in a whisper I'm going to have Mr band that come up perhaps but hopefully we won't do that let's see all right so first uh just to review the school approvement plan this year uh we the staff climate surveys of course we're going out uh midy year end a year we did our class coins reward system for students uh when they're caught showing pause pause is our little acronym for practice kindness act responsibly work hard and stay safe that's in all areas of the building uh when Mrs Gordon does assemblies a lot of time she'll have a pocket full of coins

203and kids are all excited as she throw the coins uh once they fill the jar in the main office we do the rewards uh so we've had a PJ Day movie day board games uh and bonus recesses so that's been awesome uh for you know kids getting excited and really showing their pause on a daily basis uh we have 100% of our staff using parents Square uh for community communication sent home we do the class connects which is my newsletter to staff every 6 days all the important highlights to improve the communication and then every PC block is attended by administrators and each grade level has a PLC block once every six days so for the student survey we had 498 students who responded 477 completed those uh this is grades three four and five

204who did it the perception of school I understand School expectations only 1% those seven students that was our lowest never which is nice to say of course we want our students to know what our expectations are and understand them I have fun during school assemblies was our highest never so there's 28 kids who who never have fun in an assembly and it's not granted we have over the 400 but that come on our our assemblies are fun so I but to the 28th are not so I would love to not that I who said that but I I i' like to you know we're still going through the 478 comments so maybe some of those comments are actually going to say well this particular assembly didn't wasn't the greatest ever I will say we had

205one today from a dentist and it was awesome kids were laughing and loving it so I would be hardpressed you know maybe we should have had that assembly before they did the survey perception of personal and school safety students are nice to teachers so only five of my students felt that they were never nice to our teachers so I'm glad that students feel like they are nice to our teach teachers as they should be uh our highest never I have a trusted adult other than one of my teachers I can go to with a problem so we have 37 students uh which higher than I want of course uh but when you think about it in fifth when they think other than my teachers you know in fifth grade and and with their specialist teachers

206there's a lot of teachers so really other than their teachers well they know that they can come to the admin or they can come to some of our mental health staff so even though we we' like to see that never number reduced uh the fact that you know we have this sometimes often or always that they they do feel at least they have the teacher and there is somebody else they can go to uh with the problem the perception of personal school safety my teachers want all of their students to do a good job learning so it it says 0% but there still have one student that said never so are you no uh but it's I think at 87% always so it really shows the students that they resp the teachers are are doing

207their thing and just doing a great job with their kids area for growth my teachers ask me if I understand the schoolwork so there were 40 kids uh who say that my teachers never ask me if I understand the school work so again that's something to consider but in the big picture you know that means that I've got you know the 24% 30% 38% the nice high number that teachers are asking if you understand the school work but again always the it's always cause for H why why do those 40 kids feel that way for the staff survey we had 78 responded uh 78 completed perception of school the relationship between students and teachers is good so that was our best never with 0% but it's definitely worth mentioning uh even though it wasn't our

208highest rating there was one response that said they're never happy to be in school so there's I am happy to be or generally happy to be in school there's only one person but that wasn't my highest number so I didn't include it there's also one person who said uh that never that teachers are trusted to teach in the way they think is best so maybe it's the same person I don't know but still it's pretty good but it wasn't our best never but I feel it was worth mentioning my input is solicited andalu in school decision-making processes we have the 26 NE uh that's not okay uh it's a high number but again is that teachers is that parz is that my secretary like who and I know it has to be anonymous so we

209can't really say my role in the school is because but it's I want to know like who who is feeling this way perceptional personal and school safety I am aware and can navigate the school safety policies and procedures that's great that only two people can never do that uh that better not be my classroom teachers who are saying that protocols and procedures for reporting safety related concerns are effective there's 11 staff who said never so again that's worth exploring like what is it uh about the reporting that you don't find effective perception of learning the current curriculum is conducive to providing a comprehensive education to the students only two said never uh I think that really speaks to our CA and IM and it's both really good program I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as

210a result of participating in PD uh I think that was also Deans I can't recall if it was marks as well but that's that was my highest number at 14 our parents we had 145 who responded 120 completed for teaching and learning teachers are well qualified and knowledgeable in their subject areas only one parent uh felt never the school provides adquate support for my child's learning needs would be my highest uh with the 10 being never Shameless plug for that additional math interventionist school safety my child feel safe while in school zero I know you had one Mr Renda but ours is zero not that it's a competition I'm satisfied with the school's handling of unkind student Behavior there were 10 that say nether uh again like who who was that is that was that

21110 people who didn't like that we work too hard on their child for the way that we handled that child on Behavior again we don't know communication parents involvement communication methods used by the school are effective only one person said never uh so you know kodos to parent square and I think it's a really nice convenient tool that we're all using I have opportunities to participate in school decision-making process is relevant to my child 18 said never uh I I will say I'm not happy that 18 feel that way but again worth exploring like what what particular decision-making processes are those 18 people interested in being a part of uh we look at PTO I think my PTO meetings are much better attended than middle and high school but that's just the nature of Elementary

212School parents are still want and kids want their parents to be in there so the actions for growth uh the greens our continuation I we will continue uh to with our weekly PLC grade level meetings uh attending them for admin uh we will continue to monitor Cubs clubs class coins in our pause lessons and we will administer the end of the year climate survey for student staff and parents we're going to modify the protocols for reporting safety related concerns as we review those uh with my Sr and our Safety Committee and then in my pink uh establish a class advisory Council that meets monthly to review the policies and procedures share concerns and plan for remediation if necessary uh the two climate coordinators have already solicited starting to fade have Al uh have begun that

213process and they solicited members for the climate it's a really nice balance we have classroom teachers we have mental health staff uh and app Paris who who are going to be part of the class advisory Council that will meet with me monthly and the other admins we initiated a class virtual suggestion box uh it's a Google form for anonymous feedback so every time that the class connects come out every six days there's a link uh totally Anonymous uh and it's basically it's a glows and grows what's going well and what's not going well um we're going to create a disciplinary referral form one that's a little more user friendly uh I know our climate coordinator is actually looking at uh this form that you can check the box and then as soon as you do

214the disciplinary referral it's either a disciplinary referral that they would like the parents to know about the behavior or they can click a box if it needs to go to the administration level and it'll immediately be emailed to uh the three admin once we complete that form and click it'll generate something that goes back to the teacher so the communication is always going to be in the link in the loop solicit staff parent input for decision- making when appropriate uh I already have a scheduling committee lined up for next year and I think what's really important is that it's comprised of the my teaching staff no admins on the committee it's like you I'll touch base with them of course uh monthly what what can I do what can I do support you do you

215want to go to a site visit uh and the end goal is that they're going to come up with two to three different schedules that we'll put before the staff uh so it's going to be staff are going to select what our schedule looks like next year fourth and fifth grade uh for teaming and teaching assignments teachers were solicited it's what is your preference what do you want that to look like next year so every teacher fourth and fifth grade got that voice and then we're going to send out a parent survey just to just get some feedback on engagement opportunities what would parents like to see more what would get you more into the school uh what types of decision-making process do you want to be involved in uh to hone in on that

216area and then we're going to audit our current disciplinary procedures uh to look at uh the way that we're you know why is it that we have that high number of never for we handle the mean Behavior adequately so we'll be doing that as well questions thank you sorry how many parents took the survey uh I think it was 145 145 oh 120 finished 120 finished 145 okay thank you sure and related to that could two parents take it from the same household if they have two different emails uh as long as long as if you had the link if you have a Google account so if Mom and Dad had separate Google accounts be able to take it with that link yep you can only take it one time per Google account yes so

217just as a reminder in terms of Cs um Dave I think you said 78 teachers or 71 finished the uh something like that um there's or staff I should say there's there's 200 staff at CS as we know it's a large school we have 1100 students just over 1100 students so half the students almost all of half the students three four and five did take the uh so it was a great turnout on the students um okay on the parents and uh you know maybe 25% of the um of the staff shout out to the WMS staff who took it at a really really high rate the staff at WMS took it at a really high high rate what was interesting on that though we had the most staff come to the listening sessions at

218CS so that was that was interesting to kind of look at those things thank you gentlemen very much for that yeah thank you very much um so uh before we move to Old business I know that I um had uh contacted each of you um individually to say that I U might act to add an agenda item um but and in um thinking more about that it's it's not necessary but I do want to give you a quick update and this sort of Segways into Old business because it's about um it's about voting in the schools and what that's going to look like like we took a vote in our January meeting right January meeting M um and uh uh but we we need to talk with other important bodies in the town about what

219that's going to look like so um that's what I wanted the motion to be like that we wouldn't take any action until we talk to the town and maybe the registar um but then there there's no we don't have any action planned for that so um the town somebody from the uh Board of Selectmen is going to come to the um to our next meeting and maybe we can get a register in here because we we need to have a more complete conversation about what this is going to look like because there are a lot of groups involved so anyway that's what I had wanted to say um and uh you'll have everybody will have a chance for a really good discussion on the 5th all right so moving to Old business um first item

220is about the uh next year program of studies I move that the board approve the edited clarification page five for the 2025 2026 program of studies as discussed and recommended by the cape subcommittee at its meeting on February 12th 2025 so we have a motion on the floor uh that's been seconded to approve the edits um to page five this is uh Joy reference this earlier about a minimum graduation requirements and just sort of a reclassification of one of the credits um so is there any discussion on this I would like to hear uh Mr Belinda's summary of it sure uh so uh Joy summarized it pretty well uh in terms of what uh the disc discussion was at Cape uh essentially there were some questions about um if we were going to be pigeon

221holing by saying the master based uh um diploma assessment was that one credit taking it and putting it in uh career and life skills which is where it was moved uh to career and life skills which includes courses like business um academic support um PE um and all those other types of courses from that perspective uh there was a question would it affect the enrollment in business courses in particular that was like a big a pretty large part of the conversation um because kids would be forced to take that um the reason that it was put in there was because in my mind when I made the decision to make that move it was Master based diploma assessment makes the most sense to be in career and life skills like making that um that being

222said putting it as a general elective that kids can take and typically kids are going to take uh two different half semester courses um it does open it up right so if kids chose to take um something outside of that particular cluster area it does give them some freedom of choice so um it's a little more than just semantics like because it really does it actually opens it up more for kids to have freedom of choice so uh that's why at the cape committee we had the discussion and you know it made sense to open it up so kids can have that that freedom to choose something else and there maybe there's something else in another department and they're not limited to just life skills career and life skills so that was the discussion and

223then eventually you said didn't you say that you were hoping this would become like a the portrait of the learner thank you yes absolutely so as we explore portrait of the learner and I know uh Dr BR talked about that a little bit as we doing some of these walkthroughs with portra the learner down the road what we'd like to get to eventually is some sort of um official project assessment that can incorporate that and and be able to that counts as a credit because that is really truly what we want kids to be able to do to demonstrate their learning over the course of many years progress towards the portrait to learner that is a great way to do it we don't have it yet so this is a good way to to to

224kind of fill that at this point not taking anything away from kids and they get they get actually more Choice okay Aaron did you have a question I don't think so I did not okay do you guys feel like you're ready to move to a vote okay so we have the motion on the floor to approve this edited clarification in the program of studies um Ain uh are you ready to vote y okay uh and what is your vote I Stephanie hi Rosa hi Joy hi Sarah hi Rob hi and I'm I as well so that's uh unanimous vote on um the change to the program of studies and thank you Mr Blanda very much okay so uh the final um bit of old business has to do with the um with our budget so

225uh who has something they would like to say about um the budget um I can add an a little bit of an update our our budget approval process has obviously been tweaked a little bit we were supposed to have a tri board meeting and then bunch of scheduling issues happen so um the tri board meeting is not going to happen but instead we will we will meet with the board of Selectmen first um that is actually tomorrow night um at 4:30 4:30 in the right here in the BHS Library Town Hall 209 okay yeah um and then we'll meet with the board of Finance in March I think it's is that March Monday March 3rd so it's we we've been doing the joint meeting for probably eight years now so it's just going back to

226the way it used to be you know go to board of selectman then go to board of Hope just for yeah maybe it's just an anomaly this year because of the uh scheduling issues right but uh yeah is there I don't have anything else really um just so you guys can hear it now um the the board of Selectmen um well I I think the budget could be uh sorry the presentation could be more truncated tomorrow because they have some specific uh topics they want to discuss so um I'll sort of accordion pleat down okay my portion of it and then and then we'll be able to talk numbers okay okay did they put did the board put something out how much they're reducing their budget by um so yes uh I think it's it's

227recommended about 170 net 170 less they're putting more Steve's recommending to put more money in to cover the increase in the uh health insurance cost that recently came in oh so the gross the budget is actually increased but it's a net reduction to programming or Staffing we have to take a look at because we're going to have to find $170,000 balance to cover that insurance okay so we're going to have to dig in and look at that which is what makes any pressure that we or any that we can do relative to the excess cost Grant makes it more um uh important are there other questions about the budget Ain did you have a question about the budget I do not okay all right so uh can we move on then yep all right let's

228do it uh so Stephanie with all of this what um comes to mind for you for the three main points of this evening's meeting um I think the grad date discussion and pushing the decision so that we can get that word out um the school climate update and I was thinking the program of studies update because it's kind of a significant change um interesting way that we're re classifying that yep those could work um for the three main points when you write it up uh about the the um graduation date could you please mention that that um Mr Bland will be sent sending out something to senior parents and so if they have an opinion it's really important that they um make their opinion known I think that'll go to students and parents separately be

229interesting I think that's what Mr BL was talking about oh okay on so are we all good with that for the okay so we we didn't have anybody sign up for second public comment um so what about upcoming events um I do not currently have any because I was on vacation and I sent that email out too late so I apologize I will have them all for March and April in two weeks okay so um uh that I I I'm not sure but I think that is going to conclude um the uh public session because um I'm going to move that we enter uh executive session um we have several items here um so I'm going to um go through the motion or we will will go through the motion and then um see if

230if uh we'll then act accordingly yeah then we'll vote okay so um actually Stephanie would you do the honors what would you like me [Music] to okay I recommend that the board enter into executive session for the purposes of one discussion regarding attorney client privileged communication regarding board complaint and board policy 13312 number two discussion regarding attorney client privileged communication regarding correspondence from the teachers union three discussion regarding performance of a board member four discussion and possible action regarding board complaint I will second that motion okay so I have a question yes um I don't know if Peter can speak to it or what does the 1312 qualify for executive session like who the thir the 1312 why does that qualify for executive session not so for the people who are here this is um

231Attorney Peter Mah he's the board's attorney hi Peter up it's on on okay so I don't want to give legal advice an open session but the the entirety of the memorandum with the legal advice would qualify for the privilege to go into executive session because I'm just used to typically like any 13 12s that come in we've done it publicly during the regular agenda so the the purpose of my memorandum is for me to give advice about the about the issue not adjudicate the underlying complaint okay who contacted you for legal regarding I wouldn't want to do this in an open session yeah any other questions okay but um actually you you will answer all of these all our questions in executive session correct yeah the memorandum okay awesome okay so we have a we

232have a motion on the floor and we have a second um is there other discussion okay Aon do you feel ready uh to vote on this Aon are you with [Music] us can you tell you what I'm gonna I'm gonna um it's just really hard because I didn't hear anything that was going on it's all muffled so I'm really not even sure what was discussed are you did you hear the um the motion yeah I heard the motion but none of the discussion so so the the um summary of the discussion is that um uh Pete Mah said that um he has legal memoranda to share with us in executive session and he he wasn't going to answer um some questions about the discussion in open session so that's that's pretty much the gist so

233um I'm going to uh ask you if you are um if you will uh vote to enter into executive session so what do you say yeah I guess okay Stephanie's that that's an hi uh Rosa hi Joy hi Sarah uh Rob hi and I'm I as well so we are 70 to enter executive session thank you everyone for attending um this concludes our the public portion of our meeting have a good night and D Aon I'm going to hang up and we're going to Redial you from the other room okay thank [Music] you so it is 9:54 [Music]