Board of Education Meeting

001get started Sarah's got a million so I'm going to go ahead uh good evening everyone I'm going to go ahead and call to order the regular meeting of the Brookfield uh Board of Education it is 7 o'cl and today is Wednesday December um 18th thanks for joining us um so first please join me in Rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so in terms of roll call we are all here it it's wonderful to see everybody uh despite the rain and the yucky traffic um so we're going to start with public comment and um consistent with our mission to shape with the board's mission

002to shape policy produce a responsive and responsible budget and oversee the superintendent management of the schools uh the board welcomes public comment 3 minutes per speaker um when you get the podium please give your name and address speakers will address agenda items only um and will conform to the guidelines of policy 9325 basically just to be civil um because we share a desire to strengthen our schools and with that our community so let's proceed having said that I don't think I picked up the book Thank you [Music] okay great um Mrs Rice um you're here to talk about ESS [Music] awesome hi Denise rice 3 old Hemlock Road would help if I put my glasses on I worked for ESS as a sub and while I could have subbed in Brookfield I told them from

003day one I would not be taking Brookfield assignments because I have children in the district that I advocate for instead I chose New Milford um there are and have been a lot of moms that have subed in the district and worked for ESS and have not had a problem but one thing should be noted before considering this path as an ESS employee on page 17 of the substitute manual quotes all inquiries or concerns regarding your assignments must be directed exclusively to ESS management unquote I was told that since I was an ESS employee quote direct communication with The District staff is not permitted I explained that I was asking questions as a mom of a student in the district and that I never took assignments in Brookfield and they responded that it was in the

004agreement they were notified by the district that I inquired about a safety issue and it needed to go through them and please before anyone tries to do damage control it is said that the safety concern that was discussed was unfounded and we do know that there are others that are not even talked about out so whatever the day that I can't advocate for my kids due to a job is the day I don't keep the job so I quit at that spot on the spot but also keep in mind they being the district and ESS are expecting you as a parent to expect a company that has paid well over $600,000 a year by Brookfield to field your concerns with the district for you it seems to be very much a conflict of interest I'm

005sure not every parent has these problems but I did and it's something to seriously consider thank you thank you um Mrs Korea you um have signed up to talk about the facilities committee minutes Irene Korea 45 West whis near Road um I attended the facilities committee a couple uh weeks ago and they discussed uh snow removal equipment for CES um which I understand they need um and I'm not saying that they don't need it um there were a couple quotes giving and after I asked for the information one was for rentals one was for you know it's hard to understand the unit because I didn't have time to ask the facilities person more detail about it um but like two of them were from one of the most expensive places around here only because I

006know I have taken all my equipment there um there should have been three or four at least three quotes for purchasing equipment um when you're spending around you know $15,000 for a piece of equipment um I think that's fair for the taxpayers especially when you're transferring um they also transferred money from Building Maintenance um to purchase this um I don't know what that's coming from but especially our whiskey and BHS buildings are you know you know need repair I mean you walk through the athletic entrance the paint's peeling it's like things like that there you know I think money's getting taken away from those things so uh just take the timing to get at least I say three quotes from three different vendors around in the local area and not taking away from our maintenance

007from our other buildings that really need it that's all thank you thank you very much um next Alissa how are things going um from your perspective hello everyone um first I'm going to talk about Athletics as always um last Saturday we had the final playoff game for football at the Yukon Stadium um while they unfortunately lost by one point um they had a 100% like a season for the books um and we're named seed Runner ups for the Class M Championship so congratulations to them um and for me cuz I'm on the dance team it was a really good experience um having being able to dance on like a college Stadium while still in high school um student government and some members of Club Council attended a mock legislative session in Hartford yesterday uh where

008they learned valuable leadership skills to contribute to their future events um they debated with 10 other high schools and spoke with legislators and other government officials so that was a really cool opportunity um and then also in past meetings I spoke towards um a safe driving initiative that they were implementing here for students and parents parents um so last week in partnership with the Brookfield police department and a local mechanic shop um they installed it display which you probably all pass while driving here um just reminding us to be distraction free while driving um and then last night was the chorus and band concert um and they sang and played a lot of ballads that were holiday themed just to get us into the holiday spirit um as in addition to that yesterday climate committee

009during ilt um which is a group of students uh dedicated to creating a safe learning environment um for students so it's shared across grades um held a student forums which was completely like anomymous Anonymous and optional to fill out um for students during ilt where they can answer their honest opinions regarding School climate um and the answers for these forms will be used um for Provisions for making our school a no place for hate uh and then addition to this yesterday we also had a winter Workshop hosted by National Honors Society at CES um we're around like 40 Elementary schoolers participated in different stations and crafts and we got a lot of good feedback towards that um today and tomorrow during Al students um watched or will watch a presentation from the honic resources recovery

010Authority um in terms of how we as students in a school can do better with reducing our waste um and Recycling and they talked about a new initiative that we're going to take place in our school when we come back from break that's about it so happy holidays to [Music] everyone thank you Melissa thank you I just had a quick question um Melissa can answer this but can we see the results of the climate survey from the students you can that be shared out or um that's something that's happening at the high school it's it's separate from the climate survey we're working on as a district um I I have to see what it what it reveals in terms of the uh names we got to make sure we're careful with that I don't know

011what that climate survey looks like so perhaps the candy was a good touch any other questions for Melissa thanks so much have a great holiday take care Melissa thank you okay let's move to written correspondence Stephanie what do you [Music] have the following people have emailed the Board of Ed since the December 4th meeting Andy Korea costeffective additional item to add to the December 4th executive session and Boe minutes Corrections Dana Murphy thank you Board of Ed and BHS BHS staff Ryan Rudin concern at CES and Tony Carr BHS student athlete Transportation awesome let's move next to the approval of board minuts I move Mo that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 124 second um any discussion on this I think there needs to be um a few more changes

012so number two I don't know how it reads I only have the first I only have the November 4th thing in my packet but um it just says amending um 1312 complaint when went back it was it was regarding ethics violations so I don't know how it reads what um and then number five we changed it to climate and it was specific to District compliance with current legislation current climate legislation so I think the the second one um did remove the 1312 so that's right but how does it read because it just says I don't have any of those minutes with me the first public comment to remove 1312 no I have this no thanks it just says it's removing it but I don't have the meeting minutes to see what it [Music] says so

013um it it was so for removing it says amending the first public comment to remove 1312 complaint what does it say right because I think from that meeting um Mr Korea had said that he wanted his public comment like the part where it said he spoke at public comment to remove the reference to the 1312 complaint so we amended the first public comment portion of the minutes to remove the 1312 complaint right but I'm asking how it reads now because I don't have a copy of that all I have is it's amending the first public comment so how does it read when we remove 1312 um that his first public comment was about topic X I don't remember what it was but I can't vote on something well hold on it's it's a point of

014ification because we're not voting on the November 20th minutes we're voting on the December 4th minutes that's what I'm looking at right here that's what I have a question right so whatever that motion was on the November 20th is on those minutes this is just basically asking you did this capture what we wanted to edit on the November 20th minutes the November 20th minutes are not what we're voting on right now right they're already approved I'm looking at the December 4th one and I'm saying that number two it was ethics violations that's what was spoken about and five it says change 1312 complaint in the last public comment section to climate it was district non-compliance with current climate legislation so I'm just I just think if we're going to be you know accurate in what

015we're depicting in the minutes that's what was spoken about it was ethics and then non-compliance with current climate legislation so it I I believe I believe that um that to to tie these two points together that what Rose is saying is that the November 20th uh minutes which were already approved um we we removed the 1312 complaint and we left in the he spoke about ethics violations and then so for the fifth if you feel like this amendment number five is is inaccurate then we should has information so I pulled up the November 20th minutes as listed on our website and it says public comment Andie curia spoke about climate legislation so the the minutes that we amended had said he spoke about climate legislation and 1312 and the minutes the amendment we made was

016to take out 1312 so that's what it's now listed suggested okay right but I think in the future in order for us to vote on them we really should have both sets in front of us so we can compare but the approved minutes are they're approved so they're they're on the website so I understand that but I don't have it in front of me and you're asking me to vote on something that I don't have in front of me tonight but we're asking you to vote on Public Information so okay great then um so we have we have the motion on the table and we have the second all in favor of approving um the minutes from the regular meeting on the 4th please signify by saying I I I I any opposed so um

017uh Mrs Scalera and U Mrs Divine or nay on that guys it would help us out just to be fully accurate if you would um say nay awesome let's move to the next item which is the superintendent's report all right good evening everyone um and uh Melissa talked about the uh National Honor Society uh holiday uh fair and the shopping that the Cs students were able to uh engage in there's probably 30 beautiful pictures up there so please check out the Facebook page um I do want to start uh by saying tonight and just uh let everybody know that we are thinking about New Milford um New Milford High School uh will neeb and his family and uh obviously the horrible tragedy that happened uh the other night and we are thinking about them uh

018not only the high school but the district uh and special education department for counseling we've reached out uh to New Milford High and to the district to let them know any support they need we certainly will provide it um and we sent over some some flowers to the uh to the high school um you're you're welcome thank thank you for supporting that um I did want to share uh continuing to build on Melissa's report congratulations for a great football season you know all our all our teams this fall really did well on our individual athletes and so forth um and and uh it was great I I actually got to be up in uh the box and warmed up a little bit uh for the game and it was kind of fun to be up

019there but uh also thank the cheer team and the dance team as as she mentioned they they're just is always there and great support and do a tremendous job um under teaching and learning I want to let everybody know that we've been talking about the portrait of The Graduate uh on and on and on um that name uh the cape committee as well as the uh internal uh Team for portra of The Graduate has changed that name to Portrait of the learner um so that's there so we'll be calling that P going forward Port of the learner um and we really are excited uh January 15th mid January through February we're going to be um initiating uh walkthroughs for collabora uh collaborative um uh and calibration setting on the domains of our our C's or

020Brookfield seas and looking forward to the work on that um we will do that work and then come forward with all the work that's been building toward this uh hopefully March 5th we'll have a presentation for the board on the portrait of the learner how the domains are working what evidence we're seeing in classrooms and that kind of a thing so want everybody to know about that uh Dr man myself and Mr Banda were here in the media center uh earlier today and we got to visit with the a P research class Miss rocka's class and the kids were doing a great job they actually had a wedding ceremony to fully commit to their research question so uh she officiated that ceremony and it was a great time to engage and talk with the kids

021and it was just wonderful so uh kudos to the students and uh two proposals there were two proposals and the rest were all actual matrimony yeah there was matrimony and then actual proposal there was some engagements they had the candy Rings the whole thing it was great it was great they did a wonderful job um under uh business and operations uh just going to move through this tonight for everybody um I do want to address the Panic buttons issue um we've had a number of those at CES um and really to be very straightforward on that it's a con it's a very conspicuous location in terms of where it's located in the office I'm not going to say that out to the world um but it's it's too easy to bump into I'll just leave

022it at that um we' worked with the chief with technology over there with Eric and with Dr P and we're going to be looking with our maintenance team to uh relocate those within Arms Reach kind of a thing but not where a knee could bump it um or if a student needs a little TLC and happens to be near a desk or something that they could bump into it um and we'll get that resolved okay so I want everybody to know that we are on top of that um and the chief was great we got to him right away yesterday afternoon and he was back in touch with me under climate uh the upcoming surveys I did talk about this uh two weeks ago but I want to just reiterate there's going to be a

023number of communications that come out to families students and staff with the various surveys and inventories that we'll be conducting first uh we had our second meeting on Monday night with the start times committee the really great work going on there uh for student parent and faculty staff surveys that work has uh we're I guess near final version I'd say of that and Eric and I have dedicated some time carved it out tomorrow to kind of get it uh in Google form for survey form um I drafted a introductory letter and sent it to the committee today for consideration just for that opening letter we're thinking week of January 6th right away when we get back from the break to conduct that survey uh or those surveys excuse me the school climate thought exchange surveys

024uh that we've developed with Ed Advance uh Mrs ferious and I have been working on that along with uh the rest of the team grades 3 through 12 for students um and of course our parents and our faculty that survey or the thought exchange will be open um we're thinking the week of January 13th a parent letter for the student survey um informing parents about the students being surveyed will go out uh the I believe uh the week of January 6th so just so it gives everybody plenty of time to know that ask questions whatever it might be the Brookfield car's asset inventory we are looking at targeting the week of February 10th and uh again uh that's just 8th grade there's a separate survey for eth grade and then there's a high school level

025survey um we have some new questions on there on Zen use and also on social media use and distraction and some of the things we're working on with the anxious generation our cell phone work um we wanted to get some new information from the students uh on that uh that uh information I think we're shooting for January 17th getting a a note out to parents about that so they have plenty of time to inspect the survey what was that date um we're shooting for January 17th it's there um or somewhere around there to get it out and we're actually going to have a couple of late nights where we'll ask uh someone to put in a little overtime and be there so if a parent's working and needs to come in and inspect the survey

026CU we don't send them out electronically cuz we don't want to fool around assessment so we have that set up and the key on this everybody needs to know there is an opt out option right from the start if a parent doesn't want their child they just need to let the the the principal know um if a student as they're approaching or about to start the inventory isn't comfortable they can opt out then and even in the middle of it they can opt out then there is no no one's going to be in trouble I want the staff to know it's okay you don't have to force anybody um and uh we'll all do our best with that finally listening tours uh we did have Monday scheduled for whiskin year but we had the delay

027so we weren't able to conduct that particular listening visit with Lindsay from HR uh as well as Anna and me so you can see the dates there on the report uh will be January 3rd we'll be spending the day at the high school uh Candlewood Lake on January 10th and on January 31st at whiner that is all I have awesome I think it's great that you guys are um weaving in opportunities to ask students about their experience experiences and I just want to clarify one thing so the healthy St time survey is students going to be 9 through 12 sorry focused on Brookfield High School right yeah yeah yeah right it says Juniors and seniors well oh I thought we were doing Juniors and seniors no because it affects all we found that we realized

028it still affect the sophomores and then freshman can say it doesn't apply absolutely we can do whatever commit we're hoping we're going to make the grade level they have to enter their grade level like a demographic piece yeah we'll put the grade level in yeah we'll work on that tomorrow Eric and I and we'll let you guys take a look at it for proof read all right everything for the Brookfield cares um will go out all the information to the parents goes out through um parent Square I imagine it would be parent Square we're actually um taking one of the former letters we've used from a couple years ago with Mark and Dean to get that out so we'll work on that awesome great let's move then to subcommittee reports starting with facilities so we

029met on December 4th uh we were all there present myself Stephanie Sarah Casey and Dan um our first discussion was uh over new business which was for the um uh snow plow snow removal equipment for uh CES we did make a motion to the board um for old business um I didn't we inquired I inquired about the uh the amount of activity happening over at CES and to see where we are with that um the frustration levels are quite high with this as everyone knows um that we discussed uh excuse me that the staff had was discussed with the chair of the NBC last month um the update on capital projects we discussed which was to be uh the library air conditioning is on scheduled to be replaced um prior to the next cooling system

030our athletic entrance is underway new door hardware has been installed as of last week submitting a permit to the town um Dan is report uh Dan reported that cours have been received for bathroom updates at the high school and we uh Dan anticipates uh work taking place over Christmas break to update um two staff bathrooms uh Dan also reported there's been uh in touch with the vendor to have Team pricing on uh unit ventilators at WMS and BHS athletic storage closet at WMS has been delayed um something to do with the vendor obtaining a permit from the town and all that stuff uh roof projects have gone out to bid for the design phase of these projects and the cafeteria floor project has been awarded to Red Thread the work on this project will take

031place in June when school is out and for miscellaneous discussion we went over the Heat and the issues with it and how we are not going to have those problems moving forward aome just clarifying the cafeteria floor that's for BHS uh I'm sorry WMS yes sorry can anyone speak to um public comment l so why we're transferring that money from that line to take away from Building Maintenance would you sure so um I'd be happy to speak to that so there there is a need this need is essentially driven by all of like the exorbitant amount of sidewalks at CES um and the the various stamped concrete um around the entryways um and um so the idea here is that we're doing an internal transfer within the maintenance budget itself um the request is going

032from um maintenance repairs to maintenance equipment the long-term thinking on this is that we it will eventually be funded by um uh Capital funds um in conversations with um the town with uh Mr Dunn and Mrs Maran um they believe that if there's any um remaining funds in the CES building project itself um that those funds should be used for this project for this equipment because it is going to be a piece of equipment that is housed at CS only for CS um there are other there's there there's other ways that it could be funded through Capital but because we are the winter season is upon us right now um there is more of an of an urgency here to get this um purchased and and ordered um so in terms of the quotes certainly

033that we have internal um protocols and purchasing in place that we do require anything over $5,000 and under $20,000 requires three quotes a PO will not be approved without three different quotes um we did uh Mr calwell did obtain two quotes you know quickly um and then also pricing on rentals if we were to rent a an a piece of equipment um similar to this for the season um and so those are the those are the quotes that we looked at we took the um lowest quote that that was available at the time and the the motion that the committee um uh weighed in on was um an amount not to exceed that so certainly if there is better pricing somewhere else um and it's say $111,000 we would we would be going with that

034um it was just so again it's not not to exceed it does not tie us into what vendor is used to purchase this equipment um and again it's just an internal transfer we the purchase can't be made without the board's approval to transfer These funds because it is over a $10,000 transfer so it does need the board approval prior to um to being purchased I hope that answers your question yeah so essentially could be covered by funds that we still have remaining in the project capital or or or another Capital item that uh Capital project that has run yeah is is done and has add additional funds um we we are we are pretty confident that will be okay that will happen it's just in the immediate term to get this equipment um we had

035to do it this way and and big picture it's a great question Joy because big picture um this is something Chris ruse and parks and rec department has been asking for this kind of equipment for a long time knowing the sidewalk design of the school is over a mile of sidewalk that needs to be have snow removed so unlike a typical concrete very durable sidewalk that that doesn't have a beautiful look to it like the stamp CR that can be um uh Dam damaged a little more easily where if there's a foot of snow one of the Town trucks could just drop the plow and sweep it right off you can't do that at Candlewood Lake so um we need this equipment it's been asked for for a long time I know I I believe

036kind of the back backstory on the NBC if they really wanted to wait on this to see where they landed with the project because the project didn't con uh consider snow removal equipment so it wasn't like it was in there so that's part of the backstory here with this we all know that it snows every year everybody should be prepared this has been something we've been talking about for a while it wasn't as much of an issue last year because we had all asphalt Where the Sidewalk is now so so a plow truck could easily come through and sweep that out so just a little kind of the fundamental back story there and the the piece of equipment being considered for purchase is actually has three functions to it um there's different attach attachments that

037can be placed on it either a a PL little you know small blade prep plow a brush which would be really good for that stamped concrete so it doesn't get damaged um it also has a brine attachment so they can put drop you know um layers of brine to to prevent I it from icing and then a Salter as well so for for the amount of concrete or sidewalks um the amount you know the length that staff and students have to walk to get into the building um it would it would be worthwhile well one of the things that had been brought up by Mr calwell is the need to make sure that we SA safely clear the the sidewalks in an efficient amount of time so that a 2-hour delay doesn't turn into a

0383-hour delay because we couldn't clear the sidewalks which is why we felt like it was like kind of an important issue is the Briner that we purchased for CES last year going to be repurposed at another school it uh it very well could be um that brine that piece of equipment is a small handheld um equipment that you know is a walk behind and it lays down the brine it certainly could be um re you know repurposed for another building absolutely um just because it's it's on the consent agenda for our vote but um Sarah I noticed you were the only one that voted against it was there other information that perhaps you considered I just wanted to know what your opinion was before it just wasn't I just didn't have enough information to feel

039com comfortable to vote for it at the time oh okay right are we set on facilities then or we have other um comments okay thank you um so we're going to move to we've got two reports from the ad hoc um Healthy Start uh times committee so Ain yep so we the Healthy Start committee we met for the first time on December 9th um all of us are present Sarah Joy myself uh Dr burill uh Casey and Mr Baldwin um we just went through um a ton of data that was provided um when when this initially started years ago um and we were thumbing through um that as well as talking about budget um implications for the late start with um our three- tiered busing going to two-tiered busing um as well as the later

040start times um affecting with athletic transportation and our students having to leave early from the high school to attend athletic events um we also talked about um you know the start time change and students and whether they're getting to school which we know that they're getting to school but they're still actually they're tardy more often than they were prior to the start so that was the first meeting we just decided to divvy up who is going to do survey questions we're going to bring it back to the entire um committee to review um we met again on December 16th um and we went through each survey question um for the student survey the parent survey um and the teacher survey um and I think we got it to a point where you know we were

041all pretty confident that it was going to cover the questions or get answers to the questions that we were looking for so again we continue to um talk about just really Athletics and transportation um and we're going to Dr bur has the survey he's going to work with Mr Conlin um on getting the survey together we'll take a look at it it'll go out um when we get back from break um and we just look forward to looking at the data to seeing you know so where we go uh question um so might understand you're you're not you're not using the same survey questions so you're not essentially doing a pre-post thing because you're you're completely changing the survey is that accurate jum in yeah I wasn't here for so when and I did think

042about that when you mentioned it last time um and I thoroughly looked at the original survey and a lot of it was heavy on sleep right yeah yeah rightfully so right so it wouldn't be prudent to ask the same exact question because it's not going to yield the data that we're looking for how it's affecting our students there is a sleep question um you know students are getting more sleep if they um teachers well rested in the morning how the teach how the kids are first period but to ask those same ASA questions would not it's not going to give us the information that we're looking for to to see if how we need to proceive moving forward is that's a good use of the time as pushing them the start later so I mean

043what I would what I would urge the committee to understand is that the at the onset set of this initiative we aimed to take a very datadriven objective approach to and we even called it the healthy school start times because it was formulated from a Bas from a health standpoint and we had sleep you know adolescent Sleep Experts come here and tell us that you know this particular initiative AIDS in adolescent sleep so I'm if if there's other you know sort of ramifications of that being Athletics Transportation or cost bus drivers those are sort of additional data points to look at but I don't understand why you would ignore the science or why wouldn't you want to gather that data because that should be the basis of a rationale to do or not do something

044is you know is it so we do have questions that address sleep they're not exactly worded exactly yeah so we're at one for example we're asking the teachers are are the students more well rested than that first period class and that yeah that was I think something similar was on the will be as to the parents and the same question would be asked to the students um regarding I forget the the exact question that we asked the students but um we ask if they're getting more sleep and then how they feel I first period you know throughout the day maybe I don't know we had that in there so I I think that although I I do I value what you're saying we not devaluing the point of the science of sleep and also when

045I looked back at the what you the work that was originally done it was mentioned strongly that for this to work school had to start at at like 9:00 8 and that's what the experts said it was eight but I read nine I think it was nine for the youngest Learners I was reviewing the data today I was actually looking today too and it's actually some schools are bringing our elementary students in earlier so our high school students go in yes and that that was an option that we considered it would turned out to not be really feasible for this District to do it that way I just I mean just I think looking statistically I mean the American Academy pediatric says 70% 73% of our high school students don't get enough sleep I'm just

046curious how pushing it back 45 minutes is making kids sleep I mean my middle schooler is on the bus before my high schooler and sitting outside of the school for 20 minutes I'd be happy to call the Adolescent sleep expert and have him come back in and explain that well we have we have the presentations in the in the folder that Dr BR um shared with us um will we will the board uh will we be able to see the survey before it goes out I don't want to speak for the committee but I think the committee's plan is conduct the survey look at the results and then when ready bring a make a recommendation to the board okay that sound right I want to make yeah okay then we will review um the results

047at that time Aon is that it yep okay so uh security task force all right uh we met this um last Wednesday and um so uh we met at CES and um we toured the possible locations for a security gate similar to the one that we have at whis andir um this one would be and we made a motion um it passed unanimously to um to uh recommend the addition of a security gate kind of um on the north side of the building um where the the access road kind of goes around um around the back side of the building we also um while touring some of the playground areas um and it's really more of a maybe a facilities um sort of uh task but we were there and so we took a look

048at the area where there's um a lot of like uh playground balls that are going like down like kind of into like a little ditch um talked about like at least an immediate um solution of maybe like a temporary or like a silt type fence and that'll at least you know be something for right now um but maybe in the future talking about um you know like a community project for some nicer plantings or maybe a fence um and that got us kind of conversating about um maybe uh the addition of um a 4 to 6ft fence around the entire property um not enclosed but like a u around basically the entire property um and that was related to security it's something that uh Chief B is is a heavy advocate for um it's obviously

049not in the capital budget this year um so we will continue to talk about that um what it might look like what it might cost um and kind of make our recommendation for a possibility to add that in the next um capital budget um and Rosa if I may there haven't been any reported problems there was not right you knowbody walking through the woods or anything like that Huckleberry never had a fence on the property but it's something that Chief PGI is a little more conservative perhaps than uh Chief purcel was and so he thinks about these things and so it's his recommendation that if if we can consider it um the other thing is with the plant things that we're talking about on the South Side the the younger kids uh playscape playground areas

050um we also thought maybe a Girl Scout or a Boy Scout project so you know might be able with some plan things and could be a real Community kind of thing so lot of ideas going around yep um and the most important piece of information uh that came out of this meeting was um the committee softened their recommendations somewhat on our um earlier recommendation to prohibit the use of our schools for V voting um while we still don't like it when we just open our schools up on voting days um we somewhat soften that recommendation to say um you know at minimum when the school is in session for students so um cuz that got a lot of kind of attention um with you know the registar of Voters and the first selectman's office and

051some other people in public um and so you know we kind of want to make it clear that this is the security task force recommendation but um I think having a wider conversation with some other stakeholders will be important for us as a board to kind of weigh not just security but some of the other things that are important as well yeah this is this is a big issue that requires a lot of conversation not just among ourselves here but with other um Town entities um just as an aside today um at lunch you know I I work with Educators um who live all over the state and um I was like do you guys all vote in your in your schools and none of them did where do they go uh Senior Center um

052or town hall or community center community centers had mentioned that one of things uh our safety coordinator or emergency coordinator I don't know Sarah Sarah Palmer's actual position the title but she's saying that the state of Connecticut the register up at the state is actually they're starting to think about how they can get away from using the schools because of this exact issue they don't have any plan yet but they're aware of it uh the you know right you know officials up there so it's something to think about something to consider and um you know we have plenty of other options and you can use this one of the thoughts of the committee is use the schools but not when school is Saturday Fairfield uses Saturdays you know um we're closed for the the big

053Tuesday November election you know that we're closed anyway and the the PD is going on in the schools with adults you know with our staff but the students aren't there have the day off so that's the we don't want to we don't want to send any kind of message implied or otherwise that our schools are not safe places right you know what I mean and plus the taxpayers you know pay to build and maintain these buildings and they have Wi-Fi and they are Ada accessible and there are lots of reasons that schools make sense but then yeah um there are lots of reasons to yep continue the conversation I guess didn't this has just been top of mind for for me did anybody else want to say anything about this issue since we're chatting about

054it okay all right then um I I don't think we have minutes for the class size act ad hoc committee um we don't have on yeah I can pour those on I just forgot to P them but I can give a quick summary y if you want that'd be awesome thank you um on the 11th Wendy and Anna and I met um just to come up with a game plan um by January our next meeting we'll have our own research that we've looked through um in terms of other um recommendations on class size and other um districts what they do and kind of come up with a game plan um with I think the main purpose to rewrite the guidelines that I think were done in 2009 that we have just to kind of take

055a look at them see if we have to drill down at all um school by school and go from there and probably tie it all up by February wonderful thank you okay okay please okay we met on December 11th we received a presentation from Mr Hilt on the PSAT data um everybody has a link to that in your minutes online if you would like to see that but the biggest uh the most important takeaway is a slide that talks about his plan for improvement um so analyzing the tier one instructional practices condu conducting curriculum crosswalks incorporating um simulated testing experiences for students 9 through 11 in English and math work our es and kind of teaching and researching test taking strategies and leverage maybe ilt to teach those maybe work with the bookfi Learning Center

056and providing realtime standardized Benchmark data to inform future instruction so that's kind of his Mr Hill's five goals for improving PSAT scores and we also um he also talked about in one of the other slides historically what has been a challenge for our students in terms of different areas of Standards like craft and structure which is really the most challenging area um which is comprehension vocabulary and Analysis synthesis and reasoning skills also um knowing that advanced math so 30 T 32.5% of questions in 10th and 11th grade shifted from 20% in 9th grade so um a lot of those skills kind of building on those and trying to improve those targeting those areas um he did mention some important points that the test is now adaptive so there's not a lot there well there is

057no lack of item analysis so Mr Hill has begun developing homemade like to use that word homemade sat align tests that M1 has already G been given to the students and then additional tests based on that first initial test and prior tests and this homemade these homemade tests are uh release questions prior release questions his experience and Alignment to the curriculum and then he'll um provide that to the teachers and explanations and scoring guidelines and then our next sat day PSAT day will be April 1st so we'll have some data clarify that's the SAT oh sat sat right P wrot sat right April 1st PS will be given given in the fall of 2025 so Mr does anybody have any questions with that so far I I just want to know like I mean it's

058great that there's a plan is that going to be done for all high school students so these hem a tests yes have been given TOS okay yeah if I so if I could just clarify um this so the presentation um the all of those aspects that Mr Hill is focusing on yes are across uh 9th 10th and 11th and then obviously AP there's some AP alignment um in the various tests there or the various uh um courses um this was a this presentation as you click on it there's there are a lot of slides 37 slides I believe um and Mr Banda put that together comprehensively for for um both erw you know evidence-based reading and writing and uh the math and Mr Hill was there to speak specifically to the math and we mentioned

059that next time uh Dr Spencer can come and kind of speak a little bit to evidence-based reading and writing um and then and there but there's a lot of histo many of the slides I'd say the first 25 are data focused you know kind of really comparing cohorts comparing grades comparing so it is a comprehensive high school focus um when you look at it pay attention to the to the years because this year's 10th and 11th graders didn't take it um as freshman and sophmores you mean the Adaptive version the adap right well there was also we did we there was a gap in 23 for the younger grades the 11 the current seniors took it in 11th grade but the Freshman the current sophomores and juniors didn't take it in the fall of 2023

060um and that was not adaptive right the junior 2020 last last Falls was the first adaptive so the last time they took it was not so it makes a big difference um in terms of the experience and the way that they're talking about and that as as Joy said that's why there's no longer the summary of academic skills report the soas report which is what we used to get which would drill down to [Music] standards that and actually each line item of each uh each and you'd be able to tell how many kids got the question right how many kids got the question wrong which specific answers they chose instead so you can see if all your kids that got it wrong pick the same wrong answer they don't we don't have that anymore because

061it's a bunch of different questions so when they do take these tests in all their classes specifically with math if they need you know once Mr Hill looks at it and analyzes if a child is low enough is intervention going to be provided or is they going to get a different version of the test well right so his well the the mechanism that he's coming up with is not the only thing that is that they're not it's not the only focus of the class so this will be used more as formative assessments um and specifically to see where kids are so that they can then adapt instruction and you know base that tier one instruction um depending on you know what's going on this is you know it's really important as Educators that we do

062our best to bring together the sometimes disparate sides of you know the curriculum and the focus of what's going on in a specific course and what is being asked in the SAT um you know and as Joy also highlighted um when you get to the S uh versus the PSAT you know and the later years a third of it is advanced math which is past Algebra 2 so we have a lot of our students who even by junior year are not they're not there and so so it's you know you have to kind of manage the content piece but also the way that the questions are asked and and that kind of thing and the um the slides Joy are linked in the minute so anybody can go online see that good Joy you said

063the test is adapted meaning it adjust to their level as they go and he's making them homemade like that no no no he basically like a Google form that's what I thought with like a couple different types of questions right right right and then he adjusts it B on you say that something thinking it's like so his aren he tool yet but I think we could do I mean he deserves a a serious professional shout out um because that's great work he saw the results from last year and he has you know it's one of the main focuses that the entire admin um group has talked about you know it's really specifically the curriculum leaders the curriculum administrators of the high school have really kind of dug into these uh results and then the other

064part of the meeting uh we got a presentation from Miss various about illuster of math um because there was some recent negative media coverage so we brought that up um so she went over um some revisions that we need with the curriculum now that I am is our curc tool for grades 3 through eight uh we discussed the need to give students in elementary school more time in math and more on to complete the IM lessons with fideli um so they're going to kind of present that soon uh fluency practice is embedded in the lessons we talked a lot about fluency and they'll be built into other times and practiced through tools such ASL and then we received a quick update from the class size subcommittee like Sarah said they're in the beginning stages and

065they receive some information from surrounding schools on their class size ranges that was it awesome thank you so much let's move then to uh finance committee okay uh we last met on Thursday December 12th um after reviewing the check registers um which Casey actually got back to us very quickly the next day with all the questions that we had regarding those um we reviewed the financial report um there's very little change month to month um we saw some gains better um in the budget um in our excess cost Grant Revenue um and also special education transportation and then on the flip side um you know we're over in athletic Transportation as you know and long-term substitutes so overall kind of puts and takes and really not much change um we then talked about the superintendent's

066proposed budget and in particular um we assigned the 88 uh line items to each of our members and we will start meeting actually starting tomorrow uh weekly to go over um those line items um and we input the questions into the questions Doc and then we kind go over them at each meeting and you know maybe have a little back and forth and some followup questions um let's see um we did talk about pay rate guidelines which is on the agenda tonight so I'll skip over that um we briefly talked about uh a district credit card uh we had talked about this before in our finance committee um we will be using uh a credit card in District and we obviously this is not going to be like a regular use um type tyo card

067but really just for expenses um that don't um you know for vendors that don't accept other forms of payment so like online registrations things like that um still um per policy will be accompanied by purchase orders require double signature so there's a lot of financial controls in place um the credit card will physically be stored in one particular location at TSO um so uh that was just sort of an update on that and then um in miscellaneous discussion we did talk about um the budget transfer in regards to the uh snow clearing machine at CES um and oh just a point about the Student Activities account um that is currently being um accounted for in a platform called AA web and we'll be transferring that over to munis um starting in January and that's a

068small uh savings to to the district but it will also just you know sort of standardize accounting practices so um and then that was it right um and it's important to note that um nobody cried too much over the increase in athletic Transportation because it was because our teams did so well and also that tomorrow's finance committee meeting will be virtual yes 6:30 virtually the um agenda is posted so anybody's welcome to join okay awesome thank you so much M all right with that let's move uh to the consent agenda I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda as recommended new hires resignations November financials 2024 2025 budget transfer okay um any discussion on the consent agenda okay all in favor uh please say I I any opposed and any

069extensions all right so the consent agenda passes unanimously and and it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye would you like to do the honors to Mrs Griffin yeah 20 plus years of service and uh she is moving on um and we are very thankful for her service for all these years and wish her the best uh especially at this time of the year yeah indeed okay so now we move to new business and uh we have a presentation um from ESS say M have to say recommended action and we have to no we're good okay so um I like to invite Beth Beth and um be thank you beatric I'm so sorry um to the uh to the podium they uh Beth uh has met some of you already and ESS is

070our substitute uh uh service provider and they're going to do an overview of of what they do how they have uh fill rates how that's all working how they recruit and um I think the presentation's ready so Beth I'll let you start great thank you very much and thank you um for the opportunity thought I could be loud enough um you know years as a classroom teacher my voice usually projects but thank you for the opportunity uh to present to the Board of Education Dr burill Dr man faculty staff and of course the community of Brookfield I'm Beth Solaris and I'm a senior regional manager with ES um and I'm here with my colleague beatric andr who is the account manager who uh is assigned uh specifically to work with Brookfield public schools and their

071substitute program I think most of you are familiar with ESS but just quickly ESS is an Educational Staffing Company uh we partner with school districts to um manage their substitute programs recruiting hiring and managing the company has been around for 24 years we are currently partnered with 900 districts in 34 states across the country we've been partnered with Brookfield Public Schools since February of 2020 so we have very much enjoyed that partnership and continueed to collaborate and um work to not only build a strong substitute pool um but help with C savings when we're able uh to most effectively bring in coverages when we can um as you know education is being challenged by multiple things but some of the things that affect us are teacher shortages um and right now most districts in Connecticut

072are experiencing shortages for par professionals um which is also affecting our ability to attract and retain par professional substitutes however we continue to find ways to bring them in um mostly through our multifaceted recruiting efforts which um we will talk about more in detail just a little bit in the presentation despite these challenges though we do want to share some of our successes um through our presentation for the time period of September 1st through November 30th uh Brookfield schools requested 1,930 substitutes um and the request for Subs was up by 11.5% compared to last year so we are seeing increases in absences um and a little bit more than last year we were able to fill this year 1,26 of those requests that represents an increase from last year of 5.6% so through November 30th

073we did Place 68 more substitutes compared to last year we're averaging about 20 substitutes a day and will continue to work to uh increase that to date um from the start of this school year we have hired 21 additional substitutes to the pool I just want to note that any substitute we hired goes through the exact credentialing that the state mandates that the school district would use and we that's something we do take very seriously all the credentialing and background checks that the state requires um throughout the company and we even uh have placed with our company years ago internal Auditors that consistently go through every sub that we hire making sure that every account manager that is hiring has met all that criteria and accurately so um we're very proud to be that confident

074with our credentialing uh we also are looking to add to different lines of service bus monitors and custodians both of these positions being hard to fill and we're going to try to find some support for coverage uh for either vacancies or absences in these field we have a total substitute pool right now of 140 substitutes uh some of them work every day some of them work the minimum four days a month that we required the rest of them are somewhere in between we currently have 10 building based substitutes placed uh we have five long-term request Quest we have two currently placed and three that have been completed for this school year Quick Glance of the filled uh substitutes that we have placed this year and compared to last year you can see we did surpass

075last year in September and October uh not in this past November but our total still we have increased coverages from last year this is a pie chart showing the from the substitutes that we placed this is the breakup of employee types so we currently uh and have been placing for lunch recess monitors par professionals and teachers there are two um other positions that although we don't regularly Supply substitutes they were unique positions that temporarily required coverage that we were able to staff for the district so you can see that the majority of our placements are still with teachers and then after that pair of professionals uh a look at re uh fills by school so again 24 2024 and 2023 so you can see um how it the totals play out within the three schools

076now I would just like to give an overview of some of our recruiting and retention strategies and I'm going to let beatric present to you um she's the one who works um you know every day working on recruiting and managing our current substitute pool Beatrice thank you I'm going to walk around because I'll trip on the wires thanks Beth and thank you all so much for being here today so um part of my job as an account manager is to not only am I hiring and managing the subs but I'm also um recruiting locally actively uh to you know support Community jobs and bring some great folks on board so um in our pipelines right now we have 32 applicants that are in various stages of the application process um my job I meet with

077them oneon-one I help them through the application process like Beth said making sure that all of those clearances are complete um and then we do have six people that are on track to be hired by January so hopefully we'll get some great people on board then um on top of in-person recruiting events um we do have some school presence so we have our referal friend now hiring Flyers that get sent out to the schools often for the um you know flyer sharing with parents um we also have a direct ESS application link on the website um and Brookfield also often refers their retirees so we love bringing in um retired teachers to help with substituting um lastly we're on all of these different uh job boards to help expand our reach with um jobs oops

078okay great uh so here are some recruiting events that I've done recently just of this school year so um I went to the fall career fair that was held by Westcon um that's always great and bringing in some great um you know students that are interested in working in education I also Branch out to different community events so we had family fun field day over the summer best of Brookfield was in October um and then you know just some additional fairs and as you can also see we also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony which was beautiful um just a great way to before you get that I'm sorry to interrupt I do just want to add no I just want to I just want to add that because of the number of we're partnered with

07916 people in Connecticut and have multiple account managers so that we actually recruit at every state college and university um that even if it's not in the area because sometimes you know Brookfield residents are going to school maybe at Yukon or Fairfield University so we also and when we recruit we recruit for anybody interested in being a substitute so we do recruit at all of the state colleges universities um and also some of some of the private ones as well so these are the ones that um berri's attended personally but know that our recruiting efforts do go beyond what um sometimes she's involved in thank you Beth yes absolutely and I'll just add you know the purpose of these recruiting events not only are we spreading the word about ESS and bringing in some great

080applicants but I I also encourage people to you know maybe if they're not directly interested they can keep us in mind because we do have a referral program which is um you know beneficial not only for community members they can get a little extra pocket cash but it's also um you know District staff you're able to refer people over um and help boost our subpool okay oh yes uh yeah so I'll I'll get into it right now um the referral program is $100 so once you refer somebody over if it's successful you'll get a 100 bucks for every successful referral um some other initiatives and incentives that we have uh probably our most popular one the Kickstart incentive that's our reimbursement program so part of the credentialing that our substitutes need to go through is

081a fingerprint background check um and we fully reimburse this cost once they've uh you know started working with us um additionally we have have all sorts of other ways that we celebrate our substitutes hard work so we have Employee of the Month impact Awards um extra pay Friday so we know Fridays are high absence day hard to fill um and so we sometimes offer extra pay for those who work um on those days and then we also offer monthly giveaways for people who are working often um and those are both corporate wide uh and Statewide so a great way to celebrate all sorts of subs and these the incentives to our on ESS those are not things that we build you know the district for so they're just things that um part of what you

082know we do to motivate incentivize and than the themselves yes thank you um and let's see oh on top of all of these initiatives and incentives we also offer lower cost benefits to all of our subs um you know they can sign up for it and a 401k plan so just you know lots of support here um oh and I'll also add I substitutes are they have all sorts of trainings that go on during their application process so um if they ever felt like they needed some additional support we have all available professional development trainings to help them with their um position as well so um great well thank you so much for your continued partnership just thank you some questions questions sure we do me that's a quick one so your pool you said

083your pool for Brookfield is 140 Subs correct is that shared with other districts or that's just specific to Brookfield um there are some substitutes that are active in both districts I also manage New Milford so um there are some substitutes that hop around from both districts okay so just one just New Milford or there's other districts that that pool like consists of I I don't think many of the sub U many of the other substitutes travel farther than New Milford so it's either Brookfield or New Milford the time frame that you collected that data from was last year till this year right last year's September was that what it was from Oh I thought it was just just these months she they compared September October November of last year to September October November of this

084year yeah but the aggregate numbers were just from this semester so far yeah those 1930 a lot yeah yeah thank you ladies that was really informative appreciate welome thank you all very much thank you Beth thank you beatus appreciate [Music] it okay perfect thank you okay and so next we're going to hear um a um presentation from Dr man um on the Next Generation accountability update thank you so you all um in on the board should have a copy of the of the presentation um I'm just going to oh boy what's going on [Music] there hold [Music] please there it goes all right perfect thank you okay so members of the board have um I hope I think a fairly legible copy but um certainly and then this will also be available online um afterwards

085there are a few hyperlinks uh that I will call your attention to but uh I wanted to thank you once again for um allowing me to come back and give the Next Generation accountability report once again this is my third time up here with this report and this is the second of a two-part series of um the essentially the data from our schools as you know um in the fall bless you I always uh go over the student achievement scores which essentially is part of this report but this is the report that we look to Across the state to give us a more comprehensive and fully fleshed out kind of analysis of where our schools and our district um is kind of more comprehensively and so um I have some you know some information about

086about the actual report in the very first few slides now this offers us the opportunity to track progress over time similar to the student achievement but again in a more comprehensive way because there are multiple indicators there are 12 indicators um the focus of this and again this is essentially kind of like a school district and a and school's report card kind of annual report card how they're doing in these various indicators so it helps schools and districts make improvements to hone in Target on specific indicators but also look more comprehensively um it shows where our support is needed most and um kind of helps us identify more lwh hanging fruit as well as the more kind of multifaceted M the Myriad of of issues that can um really kind of stymy our progress as

087a district um it also however lets us recognize success of which you will see um some tonight and it will and it promotes transparency not only because it's comprehensive but also because it is that um consistent measure across the across the whole state the entire state uses this I mean this is generated from the state and um it gives us an opportunity to really kind of compare ourselves and see where we are to the state but also to other um similarly positioned districts uh as Dr BR said in the past this really is a holistic snapshot of the district and school performance and um our chief performance officer for the state AIT gopal gopala Krishnan um was quoted in a recent uh article when he presented his same exact presentation to the State Board of

088Education as saying that it goes beyond test scores to really provide a more holistic picture of any school or district and so um that might be a little bit self you know uh grandis there because this is ait's report but I think it's a a good point that he brings up so there are 12 indicators as I said it's a little bit more comprehensive than uh than just a straight 12 because uh some of these indicators are um broken into different sub parts um but the first uh few indicators have to do with academic achievement and academic growth all of which we've spoken about earlier um when we did the student achievement uh uh presentation earlier however this one also talks about assessment participation um chronic absenteeism which as you know was a huge Focus

089not only of our district but of the State uh in the last couple years post-secondary preparation and post-secondary res Readiness um those are both only High School indicators and so uh you'll see how I've kind of outlined those um later on in the in the presentation on track in ninth grade graduation which is actually also an eighth grade indicator so you'll see that in WMS and the BHS report and then a few more of the um indicators that are just at the high school are indicators 8 9 10 and 12 um so graduation 4E adjusted cohort graduation six-year adjusted cohort um so those are so the four-year adjusted cohort those are indicators that they track any student who enters the high school in n9th grade and goes all the way through to 12th grade so

090it does not account for students who transfer in or transfer out during their four years their regular cohort of four years the adjusted cohort of six-year are those students who we um serve all the way through P past a 4-year requisite time post-secondary entrance rate has to do with the students who graduate from Brookville High School and then enter into some sort of post-secondary uh program physical fitness has to do with all of the the the physical fitness tests that's tested at all of the different um levels and then Arts access is only at the high school and that has to do with the number of students who um it says access it's really who choose to participate in um an art a designated art class so here is uh the nitty-gritty this is the

091breakdown of our uh this is our whole District so the next couple slides have to do with our district and I compared them as I did last year to last to the previous year so as a reminder we get this information in early November that's when it's released by the state um and it is for the previous year so it's information from the previous year so these two columns are the 2022 2023 school year as compared to last year the 2023 2024 school year so as you uh may remember I I mentioned earlier that indicator one is all academic achievement it's broken down into six different uh areas though the first part is Ela performance uh index for all students and then Ela performance index for high need students so the state breaks those those

092that first 1A out um for English language arts so those are the performance are grades 3 through 8 and then 11 um as as monitored by the state test the first part the all students is EV all students regardless of designation um and then they break out the uh suc the performance index these are the percentage of kids who have reached uh you know who have reached Benchmark um and these the high need students High needs are categorized as students who um qualify as free and reduced lunch uh through are receiving special education services or um are multilanguage Learners and they may be more than just one of those things um so that's the so you'll see that we actually increased in our Ela performance index again this is performance it's not growth so it's

093not the cohort it's from the first from the year 2022 to the or the 23 to 24 um however you'll notice that we did not so I I highlighted in green and I know it's harder to see on your paper but you can kind of see it here um I highlighted in green any of the indicators where we did move up from 23 to 24 um if there is no indicator we either either were fairly flat or um fell slightly or um sometimes more than slightly but there there wasn't a huge gap except for that math academic growth which we'll get to in a minute so you'll see that it goes from Ela to math performance again all students and high need students we um remained fairly flat we fell a little bit with our

094high need students in terms of their performance and then our science all students um grew significantly went up 5% points um but our high need students uh went down slightly and I'll talk a little bit about that um in a couple slides the next section uh is is two uh it has to do with academic growth so this is only for grades three through eight because they cannot track the high school because the high school has a three-year gap between 8th grade and 11th grade when they take the SAT not to mention that the SBA and yeah can can the audience to talk a little bit less please this is a lot to to take again thank you please continue certainly um and so these indicators have to do with um growth over time for

095grades 3 through eight so that's monitoring the cohort as they move up so if you remember back to the October presentation I gave there was Mrs FAS gave us that nice graph which had the same you know um same colored bubbles that go through that's what that is essentially all right so um again you notice that our growth was not particularly we did not grow a lot from 2223 to 2324 if we go back to last year's presentation um that was where we had huge it's pretty significant um uh positive gains um so not totally surprising that we didn't grow but we also know that math particularly in the area of math that's been a focus of our conversations throughout the fall and as we heard earlier um at the high school we've already heard

096kind of what Mr Hill is focusing on all right so the next uh set of indicators this is the the last part of the main report card um and so you know I really want to again you can go through each one of those I want to call your attention to our our kind of biggest accomplishment which is chronic absenteeism um so it's the you'll notice that this uh indicator this is where you want to see much a much smaller number right so in 2223 we had 15.4% across the district that's this is one of those measures that's at all three schools K12 um that we have to make sure we're indicating our level of chronic absenteeism as a reminder chronic absenteeism is the is 10 missing 10% of the school year so by the

097end of the school year 18 or more days and so in 2223 15 and a half% of our whole student body met missed more than three weeks of school and um our students who are in high needs categories missed 20% so that's four or more weeks of school which is or I'm sorry it 20% missed those three or more weeks of school I want you to notice how significantly we improved last year that was um so we went from 15.4% um of chronic absenteeism for all students in 23 22 23 to 2 and a half% so we dropped significantly I will say that um if you do I have a link to uh the the uh State um indicators the state as a whole went down from 27% um of chronic ABS in ISM in

09822 23 to 177% so they also made great gains so this is something we're seeing across the the entire State um if you you may remember last spring um I think we mentioned in a superintendent update uh that there was a huge push from the state that school is better with you program um where they you know gave us all you know banners and cards and letters and you know kind of gave us the resources to communicate home and to communicate to kids how important it is to show up to school um well that effort really worked across the district it was not just at any one school all of the the all three schools The Chronic absenteeism came down okay so then these next ones and again I won't go necessarily through each one

099but you'll see where we went up in our um percent taking courses number five that is just a high school indicator that means that that more students took courses that were designated as college or career Readiness courses which might be an AP course it might be a CTE course that focuses on manufacturing it may be um anything that's designated by the St State as a college of career Readiness course um as your participation goes up sometimes your uh your results on AP tests for example may go down and that that uh number six um is specific to AP tests so passing um percent passing a AP exams or uh the CCR exams for us um on track to high school graduation that is a measurement that is both at the middle school and the high

100school so when we get into the individual school reports you'll see um because that has to do with e8th grade some of the eth grade students again the the state even though we don't award credit for high school in 8th grade some they some kids may take algebra for example and that's considered a high school course so that's how that um is uh com compiled but we went from 96.8 the year before to 98.6 so that has to do with our ninth graders last year 98.6 of them were on track to graduation which is great news um and then again we are pretty flat with our um with those other couple indicators um post-secondary entrance um went up 5% from our graduating class of 20123 to the graduating class of 2024 which means that uh

10185.4% of those students had some sort of entry into a post-secondary program that doesn't necessarily mean a two or four year college it might be a certification program bless you um it may be um you know some sort of other uh but it is a a a specific um educational experience postsecondary um and then excuse me and then our artarts access also went up 4% which again is number of or the reflective of students taking those courses um and our accountability index our total final score final answer um it went from 80.3% to 81.8 so the total score uh went down there so this is where we get into kind of the parts that um are not so green um our you know what we really when we dug into the results and and really

102started looking at the uh the data we noticed that um for another year um where our participation rate uh is really kind of dwindling and now again this is the entire District I'm going to get into the specific schools um in a minute but uh you know the the state sets a target of 95% participation rate they expect school districts to have 95% of their students participate in whatever the given test is whether it's SBA ngss or the SAT you'll notice that each one of our high needs uh cohorts was below that threshold um and with our uh all students we were just at the threshold for Science and just barely at the threshold for math um and slightly above for ELA which means that um parents are refusing to have their kids tested um

103and I know that we talked a little bit about this last year we did not have we were not under that threshold last year this year um you'll see that we were um particularly at the middle school that's really where what what brought us down um and with that another important um indicator is that the state really measures how students who now this is where that changes a little bit students who do not have high needs so remember all the indicators before were all students these are now students who do not have high needs as compared to students who do have high needs and those are those two far those two middle columns um and they compare those those uh performance rates and if the size of the Gap is one standard deviation greater than

104the um size of the gap for the state then you are marked as having an outlier and you notice that our um participation was pretty low in science and we um that is one of the contributors there are a couple different it's not just one thing ever in education as we know um but it is one of the reasons that we are identified as having a gap um in the area of science performance so this is and I'm I don't know if it's well it shows up better here it does not I don't know if it shows up great on your uh slides but you'll notice this is a our comparison districts right we've seen these same kind of districts are often kind of circulated just to give us some frame of reference um so

105this is a ranking this is kind of a a list in order of performance of the area districts over the last three years three years ago um the average of our comparison districts was 80.3 and we were at a 77.6 toward the lower s end of the district and that was again for 2122 last year or uh the year before last we moved up slightly we were much closer to the average um to the mean of our of our comparison districts the the mean was 8.6 and we were at an 80.3 so we were creeping up towards the middle now we're squarely in the middle right on the average and um we're looking to increase that to the top half next year all right so so um when you do have access to this online

106um you can click on this hyperlink and it'll take you to the Ed site um Ed Ed Ed site Next Generation site um and you can navigate through there and look at any school district that you choose you can look at any individual school that you're interested in um but you can look at all of our individual um reports at that site so I just want to make sure that people know what that access is when you get there and if you look at Candlewood Lake for example this is what you will see so you'll notice that um a couple things and it goes off the screen up there I noticed but um so I highlighted again because chronic absenteeism was really kind of like our main thing I highlighted chronic absenteeism as a um

107for each one of our schools um because the chronic absenteeism uh at clees was was really good only 1.8% of our all need of our all of our students were absent for um three or more weeks or almost four weeks and our high needs was at 2.1 so our kids are coming to school which is great the first year I got here when I looked back at the year before CES had very high chronic absenteeism um so it's really great that our our kids are coming to school um and again all of these indicators one through two we've talked about before um we've gone over those uh pretty significantly um the physical fitness assessment um I'm going to talk about that a little bit at the end but uh you know our participation rate was

108100% which is great kids are doing it but but they're not performing very well so we have to dig into that a little bit more um and so you'll notice if you go back to this the first one you notice that we're a category three in um which means that we were we were dropped down from a a category two um and that just the categories one and two kind of have to do with where you fall in the with your um average but if you have anything on this on this page whether it has to do with participation or an outlier you automatically get drop down a category so because CES has a gap with science they were dropped from a two a category two school to a category 3 School however the good

109news is our grades three through five are participating right our students are we have 100% of our students participating in science 96.5 of our students um with high needs in math are not are participating so that's we're still above the threshold and 97 and 98 up with the other um areas so um we're still you know we're working on and I can again I'll speak a little bit more to our science um toward the end of this so this kind of just shows you that those are those are the areas that we focus on all right so with whis skiner again our kids are coming to school that's great um our physical fitness is actually that's one of the higher ones in our district um we're at 52.2% almost all of our kids participate it

110but that's that's one of those areas that similar to Chronic absenteeism if we really really hone in and focus in on it um we believe we can make some pretty strong uh progress there um again there are Category 3 school and um you're going to see why on the next on the next slide so again we have a gap in our science performance um and that's again that standard deviation but this is really the kind of The Telltale part of the story every single area was below the threshold for participation and um I I remember the building Administration and the instructional coaches um calling me you know kind of incessantly last spring and asking for support and telling me everything that they're doing and they um were telling me that we're not going to have

111the participation rate uh it's not going to be above 95% um they did Outreach to individual you know students or to families um there was just a you know a there was a large refusal in that school for some reason um sth and eighth grade in particular and um of the seventh and eighth grade uh students who who did not take the test um most of them were in seventh and eighth grade but about half of the seventh grade refusals were students in the high needs category and about a third of the eighth graders who refused and it was mostly eighth grade students were in the high needs category so when we don't have students participating in these tests we can't really get good data as to where they really are and then have a

112true reflection of what's going on it's also one of the reasons that whis skiner went from a category 2 to a category 3 school and here's the high school so um as we talked about last last meeting the high school uh based on and this is where that that categorization comes from as a school of Distinction um it is a it is a category 2 because there was no participation problems at all you'll see that in a minute and um and and their overall score which is a little bit low on here can't quite see it oh I don't know why it's can you zoom out a little bit or no already okay yeah um yeah so it's 83.5 for the high school so 83.5 is uh one of the reasons that they're in that

113top they're they're in that top 10% of high schools in the state and they um are uh a school of Distinction so their school of Distinction is based on high performance and great Improvement um and that has to do with improving all over not just not just the state tests right because the SAT as we said earlier does not have any cohort data um but again the the uh The Chronic absenteeism the high school the year before in 2223 had significant needs in the area of chronic absenteeism and they really dug into that and focused in um it was a whole school effort so we're really proud of them for that and then also you'll notice here that for some reason we don't have that same issue with um we don't have any outliers which

114is great because I'll remind you that um nine years ago the school was a a focus school and it was because of those gaps that's what um if there are large outliers uh those large gaps then you become a focused school so they've not only reversed that but they've actually really improved um but the other thing is that there is no problem with participation so the students are taking the Next Generation science test and they're taking the SAT at the high school so we're trying to to really think about what does that mean what's going on is it a a communication concern is it that parents are nervous about um their middle schoolers you know not being prepared where does that where is that coming from um so there's a lot of uh kind of

115comparison this is really good information for us to be if if it was across the whole District that would be one problem since it's concentrated in one school that's a different problem and then also with the PSAT that we were talking about earlier um we had almost I think it was 98% participation rate 96% participation rate 9 through 11 so that same group of nth graders who didn't participate last year all participated in the PSAT this year not all but many more of them okay so um what are we doing to you know kind of continue our Improvement we talked about the Improvement that we've made with uh chronic absenteeism um so what are some and we also heard earlier uh from the cape uh report um some of the specifics that are happening at

116the High School for Math and uh we can talk a little bit about evidence-based reading and writing but overall and this is across kind of many of the of the schools or all three schools um we're going to continue to focus on the AC on addressing academic achievement of all students we talked earlier at the um budget Roundtable about kind of that tier one instruction that is the most important and impactful level of instruction and that's what we really need to shore up and we have to continue to look at the address the needs we do that by not just looking at this kind of stagnant data that is a is 6 months to a year old but also looking at regular B Benchmark data our students at um in the elementary school K3 do

117uh their Benchmark uh assessment is mclass mclass Dibbles for uh Ela and m-class math for um for math in K through three um for uh four and five it's a Cadance and then in the Middle School um there are some other aspects of other acadians is used at the um for ELA um and then there's a different math resource but the 8th grade does PSAT and this year 9th 10th and 11th all did PSAT as an initial um Benchmark so that's the fall Benchmark the uh at the elementary school we do mid you know middle of the year and end of the year the other thing that we used um a lot last year we started really um rolling out last year and we continue to use this year our interim uh assessment blocks which

118are released items from the uh state so they have interim assessment blocks for um for smarter Balan and for NextGen uh science so it doesn't help us with the PSAT or the SAT but it helps us with k or 3 through eight um and with NextGen 58 and and 11 um we continue to uh use our interventionists K through 8 we have uh a bunch of reading interventionists we have math interventionists um both at the middle and the elementary schools um and they're the ones who kind of focus on that tier 2 uh intervention right so all three of our schools have um multi-tiered systems of support teams mtss teams used to be response to intervention teams it's now changed to mtss because it's incorporate incorporates uh behavior and uh social emotional um but these

119are the teams that are regularly looking at not just it's similar to um the change you know with nextg accountability it's not just looking at academics it's looking at the whole child and so if there's a need um for intervention then that intervention may come from a math interventionist or a reading interventionist or a social worker or um a behaviorist or somebody who can step in and you know kind of address whatever the area is um the BHS administrator specifically curriculum coordinators are using this data to inform their instructional appro approaches and then crosswalking the curriculum um to make sure that they can kind of work backwards and make sure that they're addressing some of these not only the uh skills needed to take these attests we already talked a little bit about the Adaptive

120aspect it's a whole different kettle of fish um in terms of preparing for that and for students uh and I talked about that earlier but also making sure that we're Shoring up those skills for College and Career Readiness and um access to the Arts and making sure kids feel that they are um have the transferable skills to be able to take all of these different um you know these higher level courses that are considered uh College and Career writin courses um the stay wed focus is being monitored by the gen generation accountability system and that article I talked about ait's presentation that this article I think I think it will be accessible um it's through CT Insider so hopefully you can look at that all right so continuing on our Improvement and our approaches um

121one of the things that we've talked about a lot at Cape and um we will continue to focus on uh with the particularly the CES uh Administration is looking at our uh fourth and fifth grade schedule um which you know as you all know fifth grade used to be at the Middle School it followed a fairly traditional Middle School schedule and we're really seeing now not only with the implementation of illustrative math but also just being in the comprehensive Elementary School it is not um it's not serving our kids well we have double Block in ela but we don't have a double Block in math and we really need to make sure we kind of comprehensively look at the uh schedule so that our students who are still in elementary school and the fifth grade

122standards are written as such are getting the requisite time and appropriate amount of time for that um Lear learning um we'll continue to monitor attendance because the last thing we want to do is to start slip back slipping back in our chronic absenteeism um and communicate from the building and District level regarding the importance of participation as I said earlier we can't know the real situation if we don't have the information if we don't have the data and so um the best way for us to to get that is for kids to participate and for us to be able to help Monitor and support um that growth and development over time um we will always align to our district strategic plan of action and as you um all may remember earlier in this fall we

123are now looking toward District accreditation and so we'll be going through that comprehensive self-reflection in two years and so we can use uh the nas standards oops um that are also hyperlink here um to really help kind of focus Us in on that curriculum work that we're talking about and one of the reasons that we are really excited about the idea of having those curriculum teacher um leaders uh for next year so that we can really kind of hone in and focus in and make sure that we are getting our curriculum in line with our instruction and our assessment and so you know all of this kind of as I said this is a comprehensive report card for our district um but it also does align with a lot of the work that we're doing

124um over the course of this year and over the course of our 5 years with our district strategic plan um and you know we're just really excited to continue um working towards our portrait of the learner you notice that I did change up here with our P um and I'm happy to answer any questions I have a couple things um so is it okay if I start pleas please so I wanted to indicate I have a couple things the first that um there are a couple things I noticed that were really on the right track so the decrease in chronic absenteeism I think that's great I think I'm curious what I'm we as a board had indicated that was one of our priorities so I I'm really happy to see that that has actually made

125a difference but I'm curious besides the state campaign what do you think specifically anything whether it was the administration or teachers had done to sort of make that jump because it was a pretty significant jump I'm sure it's not just posters and things saying we care about you I mean what kind of things were implemented that you think make the biggest difference um it was really a concerted effort at all three schools um in terms of Outreach to monitoring students and Outreach to uh parents um and then at the high school you know when kids are absent asking kids what's going on where have you been um you know High School attendance is a little bit different because you take attendance at each period but then there's but the state still requires you to take

126that daily attendance so you have to pull from one of those um those blocks essentially um but it was really you know something that has just been a true focus it it was fortuitous timing really that the state was focusing on it and gave us these resources because that was also something we had identified at our uh administrative uh Council to really focus in on at the beginning of last school year so that's great I think that is a really that's a huge accomplishment yeah to have that really indicates that the one of the things that we had said is like how do we get the kids wanting to be there and that I feel like is and then talking about it with families too how important it is to be in school and have

127just having those pleasant nice conversations and it it works over time I think also having you know at CES having I mean first of all having a beautifuland new school um but also I think that having the support staff at CES having the um social emotional support staff between social workers and school psychologists and um behaviorists being able to make those connections with families you know that's really the the benefit of social workers is that they can make those connections with families and um kind of really help support the whole the whole scenario not just is the kid here or not well why isn't he here that's kind that's Outreach to the family so I think that was a big I love push that's great um the fact that the number of students taking AP

128classes and college prep classes that's fantastic do you know what might have motivated that jump I'm going to turn it over to Mr Bando do we have any is there like a big enrollment that's a big piece and you want to give a couple comments well yeah so I mean the college come no come um I'm just filling the air a little bit but um yeah I think that certainly it's you know we're kind of the the SAT piece definitely now that the pendulum is swinging back where many more colleges are requiring the SAT as part of the um of the application process is going to be an inherent motivator for students um but also as the SAT which is part of college board is aligned to AP advanced placement um classes and so um

129what kids if they're focused in on taking SATs and preparing for SATs they're may be more likely to take an AP um test not just take the class and that was one of the things that we saw but I'll yeah I think the the bringing back of the uh AP US History was a big one that was a new one that came back had been gone for some time uh due to low enrollment uh opening up uh AP Human Geography uh to some ninth graders was a huge thing too that also increased enrollment um and I think they ALS they also look at uh College and Career courses like dual enrollment and dual credit courses as well is Al are also part of that so the fact that we continue to to slowly but steadily

130expand those uh I think we'll continue to see more and more of that but those are generally one the things just the Open Enrollment the kids that want take more classes you know the the fact we have multiple sections of AP World History is a big deal right so kids want to continue taking these courses so we open enroll is a big piece but the fact that we've expanded a little bit in terms of different grades and areas and brought some classes back that we haven't had in some time so that was the second part of my question is there are there plans to continue to add courses every year or are you going to wait and kind of see how it plays out each enrollment period right it's it's a good question so like

131we you know we I would love to offer a lot more courses but I need a lot more teachers um you know to do that so it's it's a challenge from that perspective I mean we always there's there's courses that we offer in our program of studies that aren't necessarily signed up we don't get enough enrollment or interest or request for it so we don't run those um you know right now I won't be proposing any new AP courses I can tell you that um from that perspective for the new program of studies um but uh you know I think as as it evolves and changes and new things come up there's certain things that I won't do um like there's an AP pre-calculus course which um we've looked at that it doesn't really fit

132into our sequence of where it is and it doesn't offer really much more um so Mr Hill and I have talked extensively about AP pre-calculus um which really isn't a college level course like so it is but it isn't so it just seems like a I know Sarah's looking at me thinking they actually yes they have AP pre-calculus um nothing wrong with it people may benefit from that doesn't fit into our our scope and scheme for where our our students are generally here at the high school but the other thing that we have um we began to talk about at Cape and I think it was mentioned at a board meeting a couple board meetings ago um is expanding our dual enrollment so that students can earn college credit or even perhaps on a be

133on a pathway at the same time that they're earning their High School Credit and that is a big push from the state it's a big um it's one of and the nice thing it used to be really a a Yukon focused program um but many more schools are offering it now um and so you can have one course be a UB col you know dual enrollment while another course is a sacred heart or another course is um you know Fairfield so it depends and then what you essentially um what a student would do is graduate with multiple uh transcripts one from Yukon for six credits for you know Spanish let's say and then another one for um you know psychology if we were to get those so part A lot of it has to do

134with kind of rostering the teachers along with the classes I don't think our classes would have any problem it's really going through the bureaucracy of the it's the teacher certification that's the biggest issue is that they're looking for master's degree in their fields most often and most of our teachers do not have master's degrees in that specific field so for like a psychology right like you not don't necessarily have a Master's in psychology if you're a certified teacher there are some other areas where it's a little more flexible and you can get some of that stuff but yeah okay okay I just have one two more things actually will the fourth and fifth grade schedules be adjusted this year for Math and we are looking at some creative ways of working in some more math

135time um and then but the actual like comprehensive schedule adjustments which have to do with teaming and those kinds of things that'll be for next year yeah but we have already plans on trying to add in some more time okay and then lastly with the lack of participation is there anything that you need from us as a board is there anything that we can offer that we can Spearhead how do you see that improving and where do you see our place sort of in that go ahead now I was going to say thank you for asking the question I'm not sure I have an answer for that but it gives us food to you know food for thought and talk about that with the principles we're meeting right after the break because um certainly principales

136assistant superintendent superintendent the board we have the the bully pulpit to have communication out there to families um and we have our different networks and niches that we can work with so um you know I'm thinking this already how we can do that I don't have a definitive answer but I think it's a great idea and thanks for asking the question to ask the board for that help yeah I think I think it would be I know Mr Ren has done done a lot of direct communication with families and his staff has done that um it just hasn't given us enough fruit to get us to that 95% yeah yeah I mean I think the um you know having um our support staff and adding for example social workers like I said earlier um and

137you know a dean of students those kinds of things has been helpful and um continuing that kind of support so that we have the people people who are in the support positions um because classroom teachers don't have time to call to make sure that you know oh man Stephanie's not here today and we're doing SBA and she knew we were doing SBA and that so um it's you know it's really because these the other nice thing about these assessments is that it's not like a single day right we have windows so kids can make that that time we can make these tests up um so the participation rate is not because we had a you know kind of a flu issue on the first week of April and everybody missed it um we have lots

138of time so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get this participation rate up but um I think we just need you know to continue to support and get the bodies in the schools but like Anna said when she was up at the presentation last year's eighth graders where there was a a dir of participation same cohort of students in ninth grade participated in PSAT so we we don't know what the Gap is there why that is but it's something we can work on addressing thank you thank you Sarah did you want to say something oh no I'm good thank you um I wanted to piggyback I've been thinking about this for a while you and I had a conversation Dr man um a couple weeks ago about um uh math like how to

139solve the math I'll use the word crisis but the math challenge at the elementary level and you were explaining how you know the the curriculum that had that the district adopted just doesn't fit into the time frame that you know the that CES has and that I it's awesome to see you guys using this data um and you know making like immediate being immediately responsive but then also thinking about how to how to change this so the kids get the the time they need for this particular good quality math curriculum um and I I just think that this is a good opportunity for the district for parents in the district to see the coordination between building leadership and District leadership Based on data um and it's data we weren't happy to see but you know

140like this lets us know like okay this we have to take these steps you know because we can't take all the steps we want we don't have the time and the money but this is obviously an area of focus and Wendy it's it's something that needs to be said in in working to find that time the school day is still at the same length science needs to happen social studies needs to happen they have standards as well uh the students need to have their special classes so there is a there still has to be time for lunch uh we had a lot of conversation there was a lot of social media conversation at the beginning of the school year on recess time so I mean there's only so much time in the day um there

141is no magic bullet there's a lot of hard work and creativity that's going on right now with Dave and his team um and obviously we'll continue and you know we're we are we are humble enough to ask for outside help too folks at at Advance any experts around the state anywhere we can to get ideas visiting other schools you know and doing that kind of stuff so um we want to get it right for the kids and I want to also just highlight the the fact that um illustrative math I think has really highlighted for us yes then because of the way that the that the program is constructed um with the lessons that call for essentially 60 to 90 minutes um and we have 45 minutes um that but that is the reason it

142calls for that in fifth grade is because that is what the kind of expectation is so one of the reasons that with the previous program we were still see we haven't it it wasn't as though we were you know we have had a dip it has always really been tough in fourth and fifth grade and that's partly because this fifth grade schedule just does not match developmentally the need of where the kids are for sustained learning but also for what the standards kind of call for so um I think one of the kind of side benefits is in fact we kind of can hone in and say oh this illustrative math curriculum um has really helped us highlight we just are not we don't have enough time built into the schedule not to mention the

143change from middle school to Elementary and right sizing the element school so thank you Dr man thank you questions I just have a question with our high need students uh specifically with special education so you know you may have students who are not um necessarily functioning on their grade level so what does their test look like because as a parent I would have a hard time having my child take of course a test if they weren't on that level I mean it's not Mr Roland eron I want to get Mr Roland up here there's a there's a question about the standardized testing and the students who um may have special needs they take it at their level and yeah depends the IP not not take the typical standardized test what might a test look like

144talk about the alternate assessment there are two assessments there is a a a ctaa which is the alternate assessment so students who are um maybe in a in a very specialized highly specialized classroom would be for one of a better term exempt and there's a different sort of assessment that's given to them almost it used to be called the checklist it's not really the checklist anymore but it's a list of things that students can do uh and it's usually 1% of the district in any District that's um qualifying for that I think in terms of the participation rate Dr man and I want to look closer at the the students that are not in that 1% but also that are um I need special maybe not even in specialized programs but have special educ and

145what the what the factors are with that so but again there's a there is a not even a tiered system but that 1% of the alterate assessment would be very specialized programs like an ELC um like that and with that though there is an assessment that parents receive but it's very different it's sort of um skills maybe uh Independent Living skills life skills and and what they can do in terms of maybe counting uh money uh uh communication things like that so and as far as um other students kind of not that particular um you know cohort of students but students who are in the general special education population um you know they do take the the same SBA for example however um one of the nice things about SBA is that it isn't timed

146and so students are able to kind of take their time it's um they have the opportunity to use a variety of different online tools and um my response to the concerns which are very legitimate is that that where the PPT should come into place and really talk about what are the things leading up to the assessment that the student needs in order to be most acclimated and informed because um just not taking the test isn't going to make the problem go away it's going to kick the can down the road yeah I mean and one of sorry there's one more thing about the um the SBA grades three through eight is a state test and you know is is controlled kind of through the state but at the high school level the SAT is controlled

147through college any accommodations made are have to be done through college board is not by the school and so if if a parent or family becomes more familiar with the process of create you know get and also documents accommodations in the earlier grades they're going to have a much higher likelihood of getting accommodations through college board no and that makes sense I mean I don't have students on with accommodations for testing but you know the qu it begs to question some of our high need students or do they have ad qu accommodations in their plan for them to get through testing yeah you know do we have students who may need talk to teex do we have students who may need a computer to read for them I mean there's all these things that come

148into play and if parents aren't aware that accommodations can be made or they don't understand the accommodations it may be anxiety provoking to have your kids sit through a test that they may not be able to read and comprehend so I think you those are really thoughtful conversations that need to happen you know at PPT tables 100% And that's that's exactly what we would hope for and sort of speaking to that do you think in general parents have a real understanding of what this test is and and why it is given and where the results go is that maybe the disconnect so communication about the test could there be maybe an maybe the the lack of participation is an indication that people don't really like it's kind of that old school feeling of like my

149kid's going to be a number or um you know there's anxiety around this one thing is going to dictate how they go through their schooling like maybe there needs to be a I don't know a more parent workshop on it or something like that yeah some kind of communication that gives itations that go about it EES the anxiety in general right well I think and I don't know if Mr Renda wants to talk at all about um the communication that he the Yan's effort that he and his team took last year um I believe it was one of the uh Workshop opportunities at the parent University last year that um Mrs daera um uh on him so no sorry Nicole buckon Miss buckon um had uh organized um but I'm not sure if that if

150there were and I know that there were a lot of other Communications so thank you that that could be something that we need to do do again um because it has been years that we've been taking it um we do try to conversations I know um I make sure staff of parents are asking specifics we have like a kind of I want say a tagline but how to respond to questions like that obviously they could always reach out to to myself or any of our Administration Mr Berard or the teachers but um things I always try to tell tell the parents is that understanding that this is not a grade it doesn't affect them in any way it is actually it's there to help us with our curriculum as we've been talking about this helps

151us see the areas that students are struggling in as a whole more more as a whole and I see Sarah like like this because she probably says the same thing to her parents um but um I think it's one of those things where I come I I always think about kids need to be in these settings be prepared in these settings especially with our eighth grade last year I know Dr man brought it up I think it ended up being 23 of our eighth graders decided to uh um refuse to take the test so that means that over 10% of our kids I think was like 11 point something perc of the eighth grade didn't take it and my take with the parents when I talked to them was that they're going to have to

152get used to taking longer tests as they go to take the PSATs as they go to take the SATs as they go to take midterms as they go to take finals um those are things that kids have to be able to get the stamina to do um so that's another important issue and obviously we want to know how we're doing I mean that's one of the big things so I appreciate you saying that maybe it's a thing that we could look to put back out there what it's about I know at ppts they do talk about the um you know taking the smarter bounce and they will have the accommodations in there but I could also bring up to them that maybe we talk a little bit more specific to Aaron brought up you know

153speech to text you know we have we have one to one uh hand couple of readers but there there are certain things to qualify for those different uh obviously modifications um you you have to qualify for them it's not like we can just say we want this kid to have a you know a reader um so there are certain you know things that they have to be able to as part of their I to qualify um there so and even alternate settings like do we offer children yeah we yeah oh that is thank you bring it up because that's yeah I laugh because it is a very stressful time when we take it meaning the amount of time um and I think when Dr man said it's not a one-day test like oh kids were

154sick and they're two days in a row we have it spread it we we've tried different things we we we talked to the staff like what our thoughts are uh to kids because we would have it where eighth graders as they got older wanted to take multiple tests in one day but we were like okay the sixth grade just at the time fth they couldn't handle it like they we're we were like one and done now then our literacy and Math teachers we've changed it where they are giving the test themselves which takes over multiple days because we were finding that kids felt more um I don't want to say meant more to them but when the math teacher is going over like these are directions um and things like that that they like oh

155I I I want to try to do better on this test well that actually is is in research that's it shows that kids who test in the place that they are learning they do better that's across all the way up through college yep so we've we've actually we've tried different things we tried different schedules um and I think last one we've deal we got the biggest bang for the buff with the kids because listen it's hard and I feel like what's that in the spring in the spring but it's hard to for those students to to have that stem that we do the iibs but we don't do them for a longer period of times like that necessarily um so it is hard for them to do that so that's why we kind of broke

156it into you know like math one day literacy at a different day and then when that happens the amount of time Aaron brought up about um alternate settings I need to have spaces that they can do those things and I need to have people monitor those spaces so that's why it's it's a pretty Tech time any other questions all right question but um sorry really fast so Stephanie to your point I think we just need to let the parents know I mean if they're going to opt out they're not practicing test taking strategies they're not practicing you know those distractors on the multiple choice how to work work on that they're just anticipating the next time they have to take it the anxiety is shooting you through the even using the Desmos calculator all the

157Ed the IBS you know they that they can practice oh there's a calculator there's not a calculator yeah so valuable any of the conversations I have with parents is and I get the student is anxious but I'm trying to make them help them understand I'd rather have them do do it now where it doesn't I don't say doesn't matter to them as much when they when they start to take the SATs that means something a little bit more because those are going to colleges this isn't going to colleges and it doesn't affect their grade at all either so I mean we want kids to do their their best on it obviously um but I'd rather have them get get get a little stuck now than as they they you know so thank you Mr Rend

158okay let's move to the last item of new business um this is the approval of the pay rate guidelines I move that the board approve the pay rate guidelines as recommended by the finance subcommittee second okay um is there a discussion I um I know most people have had a chance to review um you guys have questions on this no did you want Casey to go through any of the highlights it seems like everybody is is pretty set and ready to roll J do do you feel like we have to no um with that um all in favor of approving the pay rate guidelines as recommended by the finance subcommittee please say I I I any nay okay any exensions all right so motion passes unanimously Now we move to Old business um the superintendent

159budget proposal so Dr Brill um I think everybody's read through your stuff you have any new information for us budget blast the budget so I know the finance committe is entertaining questions now I'm starting to ask questions really the only thing I had was a point clarification um and it was from questions that came up from finance committee to make sure um it's okay point of clarification um regarding the teaching positions eliminating the seven different positions that we talked about six of those were the instructional coaches um going to the curriculum teacher leader positions in my presentation I call them curriculum coordinators or curriculum special a because it's technically curriculum teacher leaders and I want to make sure people know teachers we didn't trade teacher positions for administrators or anything like that the administrators at

160the high school that are uh curriculum Specialists which is the same name so that's why that's my fault um is the stem Humanities and World Language multi lingual learner MP and and that yeah and if all of those terms were together for people that was explained in the blue text the doc that you were answering today yes that's right so to be clear the six instructional coaches that we're eliminating and then we're only going with four FTE are for curriculum teacher leaders okay and so that's that conceptually we'd have that conversation separately but just for nomenclature so everybody knows there's no there's no trading teacher positions for administrator positions at all there's no Administration being added it's all teacher positions we discussed those are stien did they would have a stien yeah just like the

161cre the coaches have had or the these curriculum teacher leaders have had in the past yes so those four positions are teaching or driving instruction for our students they're they're driving curriculum development in working with teachers and writing curriculum they're the same positions we've had in the past except we're reconfiguring them as stem and as Humanities so they so those four positions that we're saying are teachers are going to do just strictly curriculum work and teach or instruct our teachers making sure the the curriculum is the taught curriculum helping with the the assessments um but to be very Frank instructional coaches today we're acting as substitute teachers so they do work with students in not only intervening when they need to or if they need to be a sub when we have a shortage I

162just want you to know they don't just sit in a room and you know they're high futin all the time some people get that and I'm not suggesting you're saying that eron no but it's important they roll up their sleeves and work really hard and jump in with students when they need to so people just need to understand that um don't want them to have to do that but when there's a shortage and we can't you know our fill rate's up 5.6% this fall that's great more teachers are out this fall than last last fall so you know when these are these are things and I'm conflating a little bit here but it's important for people to know but my main point for budgetary is the elimination of the teaching positions we just traded to

163go to different teaching positions and there's a slide in there that explains in the in the PowerPoint but my use of the word curriculum coordinator was a mistake I should have said curriculum teacher leader that's all and I don't want anybody to be confused with that [Music] okay I don't know if there's any questions or maybe process or no I just wanted to I I sent everybody the question doc um and you know that's what the finance committee will primarily work off of but feel free to you know go through it yourself and um and put questions and you know we'll go over them in the finance committee and also here but yeah so you guys are off to a good start I saw your questions yours um and your answers you were they were

164they really helped especially people who are still developing their expertise in this areas uh you can learn a lot from those are there other questions about the budget right now okay we're going to move then to um second public comment um Mrs Fitzgerald [Music] Mrs get to the please say your name and your um street address please it's up I got it great thank you um so I'm Michelle Fitzgerald uh nine Tommy's Lane in Brookfield okay um so I'm here this evening to request that the Board of Education collaborate with evidence-based scientific models to better support the students in our district specifically those with aggressive behaviors including self-injury and those that ultimately result in restraints and seclusions um it's my hope that the board will investigate the current climate in our elementary school and consider

165new approaches such as the Sears model and the developmental therapies teaching models to better support our students and enhance the capacity of our Educators and our par professionals who are all struggling to meet the academic and social emotional needs of the students and have stated that they are exhausted their capacity at this time as a board member of the Brookfield special education PTO I have had the opportunity and privilege to speak with many other parents in our district who have reached out to seek support in their frustrations with the lack of knowledge techniques skill sets and approaches when working with our children in our exceptional Learning Centers and in our social emotional classrooms and yes even general education I'm urging the board to better train and prepare our staff to have more effective interventions better

166outcomes and save academic environments free from restraints and seclusions our District's current outplacement budget is nearly $3 million with more out placements looming in the coming months of early 2025 one outplacement can total as much as two teacher salaries or an overdue raise for PA professionals or even several additional parent professionals another outplacement can provide ongoing consultations for a few years for related service providers and staff who are at a loss and lack of skill set to integrate their services effectively when faced with a child who is disregulated ated of the students who have been recommended for outplacement I ask that the board investigate how many of them are in second grade or younger and why the kindergarten level at the kindergarten level we are already at a loss for options less than half through

167halfway through the year despite finding success in previous years of the parents who have reached out to our septo this Academic Year the numbers are alarming parents confirmed 30 plus seclusions for their one young child eight plus restraints for another seven plus for another and those do not include straints and seclusions that have ended an injury to staff or to students parents are struggling to ensure the safety of their children from the staff themselves and ultimately worry that the trauma from restraints and seclusions will cause further harm to our already delicate Little Learners I am asking the board to investigate the professional development of our staff around challenging behaviors and consider that whatever it is it's simply just not enough the cost is not investing the cost of not investing in our staff's capacity is

168more than financial as the increase in outplacement at much younger ages continues to increase but when those out placements hopefully return what do we have in place to support those students continuously more importantly I want to leave you with us the impact of providing these models and programs have been shown to improve students adaptive behaviors like following directions completing tasks independently communicating appropriately promoting self-regulation and a reduction of disruptive behaviors especially those that lead to restraints and seclusions we can do so much more with what we have when outplay placements truly become the last possible solution and I urge this board to explore that reality collaboratively with all of us thank you very much thank you Mrs Fitzgerald um can I what just a Sears model did you say just is that srts c e

169r TS and what was the other one uh it's D T can I I'm sorry she could show me yeah sorry so that's the starts model okay and it's dtt oh DT okay okay thank you sorry thank you Mr Korea it is your [Music] turn um Andy ker 45 West whisner Road so the topic of what I'm going to talk about is the district's failure to follow the current climate laws everybody got that and I will sprinkle in um a bit of the board's failure to record accurate minutes despite being told like seven plus times what I spoke about and having video okay so um the district is not and has not been following the climate law the current climate laws really came out of um 2012 and pre 2012 teen suicides and parents not

170being aware of bullying and then they got updated in 2019 um and then needed to be implemented 2021 July 2021 in October of 2021 there was an is in where they added uh adult adults to the definition of bullying in October 2021 this school district had an issue where uh kids were um harassed by a staff member and it wasn't um handled according to the law and I wrote to the board several times the investigation did not comply with law right when the law became effective okay in 2022 my current my my daughter that graduated recently was harassed by a member of the administration and I asked for an investigation and I quoted the law I never received a report I okay with the issues I have with my daughter I told you about um

171on the 20th I've I've reached out to the administration and asked for that report they said oh it was done was done by somebody who was an accomplice and a witness and but they can't find it now they can't find the report but it had to be provided to the federal government for an issue that the district has been being investigated by the Department of Justice so the the the report either exists or it doesn't the district should be able to have it because they either provided it to the Department of Justice or they didn't but if you can't find the report you have a statutory obligation to have it I don't I don't understand why you don't have the report now for what's going on with my daughter current daughter she the issues started

172on November 6th I came to the board and said in in a week and a half this hasn't been handled I got the report on December 6th so it took a month okay the conclu the report did not have the basic facts and there was more activity after that they could only report only went up to the 18 okay it didn't have the basic facts and the conclusions did not fit the basic facts yesterday I got a report for the second half of the retaliation that occurred because the the bullying and harassment wasn't taken care of and in the email here's the report there was I need hold on I need to send another report because there's more the issues the issues that they would not excuse me the issues that not excuse me you

173preached your three minutes sir I understand the bullying this is not the Forum to bring it is not well if the district fails or refuses to follow the law this is we need to cut the mic from the speaker please so you don't want to hear how you're not following the law and protecting kids speak speak to the say it say it right good night Mr Curry follow the law good night Mr follow the law I will not follow follow the board of Ethics yeah um I think I think you may need to be escorted Out Mr Korea well it kind of doesn't matter what you think I think you need follow up for anyone watching at home this is not the form the board does not take up individual um the matters of students

174this is not the form for parents to um bring those particular grievances um whereas they matter they are important this is not the forum for that the Board needs to maintain impartiality um in all student matters okay so um three main points sey what are your thoughts so I have number one being the upcoming survey info because I feel like disseminating that information is probably um getting that out as soon as possible would be a good idea the ESS presentation and the Next Generation accountability conversation what's the second one uh ESS the ESS presentation [Music] what do you guys think because we're not finished with the budget stuff right that was kind of thinking there wasn't really enough of an update to include that a climate thing s Reser it good idea Sur okay yes

175okay so upcoming events uh so just a reminder that winter break is December 22nd to January 1st and January 2nd and 3rd are school days and then January 17th is a half day day and January 20th is no school and I'll have more upcoming events when we get back then without objection we will adjourn at 9:17 p.m. thanks very much everyone have a good night and happy holidays