Board of Education Meeting

001that's a thumbs up basically um good evening I'm going to call to order now the regular meeting of the bfield board of education for Wednesday October 16th would everybody please um rise if you're able and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all okay and in terms of roll call since we have so many people here and a new face or two I'm going to go ahead um around the table and just indicate who all everybody is here who all that means so uh Dr man is here and Dr burill this is Casey diot Stephanie Sakura Rosa Fernandez and Wendy Youngblood this is Joy Greenstein

002Sarah dine Rob fetto Ain Scalera and soon we will be introducing the newest member of our larger board um Melissa Baines so everyone's here and we're going to start this evening we have a fantastic uh student Spotlight from Candlewood Lake Elementary School so um who is here to uh help us through that hi Dr P sorry and you brought some friends awesome I do have to apologize I'm losing my voice rapidly but I needed to be here tonight to introduce to my climate coordinators J pink and Laura Miller and our CSS Watch The Wire is the microphone no like it's there's nothing on the screen thanks guys so I'm Laura Miller as mentioned before and we are here um as climate coordinators for uh CS and we are here to talk about Cubs clubs and

003what Cubs clubs are is kind of a new program that we started last year we had our first meeting last June so we wanted to share a little bit about what that is and then let two of our Cubs clubs members talk about um the club as well oh sorry um so essentially Dr P came to us with an idea he said hey um I've heard of this um is this crazy and we said yes let's do it um so Cubs Club is a vertical group of students so in our school knowing that we have prek 5 um we wanted to build a bigger sense of community so one of the ways that we do that is through Cubs club we take kids from kindergarten to fifth grade and we assign them into a club

004with an advisor and essentially what happens is you get about approximately two kids per grade level into these clubs um they meet once a month and then the club the idea is that the club will stay together for the duration of that child's stay at kandlewood Lake Elementary School so the kids that they meet in the club will they'll know all the way until they you know go to whis skiner in sixth grade um all right um so it's giving like we said it's giving an opportunity for the big kids to take on a leadership role with the younger kids um it's giving the little kids an opportunity to to meet some of the bigger kids uh we've seen and talked to a lot of the members of the Cubs clubs they see each other

005sometimes like in the library and passing or at dismissal at the end of the day so they're making these new friendships um and then eventually we have like the rest of the year mapped out mapped out with what we're going to be doing and we'll be um reinforcing some of our Behavior expectations during this time and working in a lot of Social and emotional learning as well like we said we're meeting once a month it's during our PLC Block it's going to be about 45 minutes during that time um and we're a lot of teachers have like decided to take pictures of their cubs Club every year to see how the kids are growing and the new kids joining us the new kindergartner is joining us this was our first meeting of the year we

006did an activity um a lot of teachers in the beginning of the year read the book to their class our class as a family about building relationships and community and then the author of that book just came out with a second um book in this series called our school as a family so every Cubs club uh read or listened to that book together and we talked about um how our school is like a bigger sense of a community outside the classroom yeah we let the kids um brainstorm and talk about like the ways in which school is a family and then we made all of their responses into like a little book um and the idea is that we'll put this in the library um some of the adorable ones were like our school is

007a family because there is love um our school is a family because we help each other our school is a family um because we're respectful and then like little you know kindergarten pictures that are Just Simply Adorable um but so that was kind of like our first meeting um and then as we build our club throughout the year we're kind of scaffold and grow upon you know those social emotional and build those relationships um we brought two friends with us today that have also without us telling them they had to wrote speeches so if you girls want to go ahead ready you want to go first so we have Lennon Lennon is a fifth grader hi my name is Lennon Lynch and I'm a fifth grader at kandlewood Lake Elementary School I love Cubs Club

008because it makes the school a better Community because all the fifth graders get to hang out with the kindergarteners first graders second graders and every and so on and it seems like the little kids really seem to enjoy hanging out with the older kids and that's why I think it's really [Applause] fun all right Emma and we have Emma who's also a fifth grader hi my name is Emma Hoffman and I'm a fifth grader at CES I think cubs Club has built a stronger and better Community within CS the thing I like most is you get to meet at least two kids in each grade and the younger students deel develop positive relationships with the older students I really enjoy being a positive Ro M for all students thank you so we're going to continue

009to meet once a month at CES and continue to build our school Community thank you girls thanks so much [Applause] thank you very much Miss Pink and Miss Miller and if you would like to bring your friends back to report later in the year we would love to see them so um now we're going to move to uh public comment um we have um uh we have not as long a list as I would think seeing all the number here um but I'll take you through the PES of if if you're new here about what public comment's about so the Board of Ed uh welcomes public comment speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board um at the start of the of each regular meeting a maximum of 20 minutes

010is allotted for comment on any items included on the agenda for that meeting at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item which is within the board's jurisdiction but uh didn't fit into the first amount of time um discussion of school Personnel individualized students or of individual members of the board is prohibit IED um and if that occurs then the speaker is called the speaker's comment is called out of order and they are um redirected toward the the um agenda item for which they signed up to speak all right so with that um Mrs Rice you are first and you um ask to speak on public comment yes hi Denise rice 3 old Hemlock Road for the past two years I've been speaking a public comment Main fighting for

011special ed but also for teachers and staff I've had to be very careful on how I phrase things when I'm up here because parents because as parents while it says public comment is welcome we've been shut down dead in our tracks even if we are in a gray area sometimes we have been shut down even if we're not in a gray area but it's interpreted as such I feel this is a good time to remind everyone of some of the highlights each Speaker gets 3 minutes we get chopped off right there discuss of school Personnel individual students or board members is prohibited even if you beat around the bush in addition a memo went out to employees entitled employee speech in first amendment that went around like wildfire there's a section I'm going to quote

012so it can't be said that I picked apart a section of the statement for my benefit the question was what are some ways a public employees personal speech might be disruptive and thus be subject to regulations or discipline every situation will need to be considered and possibly addressed based on the specific facts and circumstances it issue but when evaluating the effect of a public employees speech including speech on social media relevant factors can include whether and to what extent the speech interferes with the school district's operations or employees ability to perform job duties undermines a legitimate Mission or obligation of the school district or creates disharmony among colleagues or impedes relation ships with students parents or school and Community now while we all know the gray area to this is every situation needs to be

013considered leaving open the unfair subjective punishment or non-punishment depending on agreement with the forces above not fair but true public comment is more cut and dry there's an alternative to public comment if you need to go out of the boundary of the rules you can write to the board of that you can speak freely and not worry about any of the rules I'm really hoping cuz I knew this crowd was going to be here that the board and the district will honor both their email and their um rules regarding public comment and it affects everyone not just the parents that are constantly shut down thank you thank you Mrs Rice um next we have uh Bob Bon who is going to speak on um School Improvement and climate hello Bob Beldon seven Red Barn Lane

014and prior board chair um good evening uh good to see you all and uh tonight I'm speaking on climate surveys and if you're okay I'm going to read my thoughts so I'm clear and not just speak off the cuff you know there have been recent comments here at this meeting in emails and on social media regarding the climate survey at CES from last spring I've had a chance to read those results and the written comments from the CES staff some of the members of the public have been calling for heads to roll because of the survey despite roughly 2third of the survey being positive and onethird not so positive you know I spent 42 years in Industry 38 of them in management we did surveys like this every single year I've seen positive surveys I've

015seen negative surveys and I've seen all sorts in between the CLA survey is one that's in the in between category it's not I mean a negative survey would be 5% positive positive survey would be close to 100 first and foremost the most important thing with surveys is that you take all issues raised big or small and you treat them very seriously our staff wants to be heard when they take these surveys and they want to see actions being taken I've had a chance to meet with Dr P and with Dr Burell about this topic and it seems that they're doing just that they're uh I applaud them for being active in response to the survey and in dealing with the issues that were raised but I also know that as leadership you don't take AB

016abrupt and aggressive Personnel actions based on a single survey uh you support your management you coach your management you ask them to turn the ship around and then you survey again as a senior leader it is critical that both staff and man management here that you are supporting them on this journey and applaud progress when a survey is redone a year later I would urge you as a board to be vocal in your support of your team to both staff and administration they deserve your positivity in this sort of Journey I urge you to push back on calls to take aggressive and abrupt management action it is the worst thing you could do I would remind you that two-thirds of the staff is positive at CES and the goal is to be 100% positive so

017management needs to both reinforce the enforce the positivity for the staff that are happy and address the issues for those that are not and finally I'd urge you to remember that 2023 and 24 was very trying year for CES with construction still going on at the new school while working out the Kinks created by combining staff from three different schools it's a journey it takes time as a board utilize your voice help the team on this I've gotten to know the clas team a lot of them are here um they're a really great group thank you Mr Beldon I'm just one sentence they're uh um they're really great group staff and management alike great things lie ahead for clas I'm conf thank [Applause] you um Mrs cese um speaking on public comment actually um I

018planned on speaking on public comment and I'm going to go a little rogue here hold on hold on Miss so so what what is your topic then um I'm actually speaking on the same topic that Mr Beldon just spoke on so the the 9918 um School climate Okay thank you School climate so um Deborah C 21 medal View Drive thank you I was planning on speaking on policy but I'm going to go Rogue here so I have nothing planned I just find it very ironic um not last year the year before yeah last year the year before the school year before um the this new school was even um finished and the teachers were in the other school myself Mrs scare and a group of other parents Champion for specialed students and in doing so

019we oftentimes came up to speak about things um and some of the atrocities that were going on within special ed um things have now taken a little bit bit of a turn with Mr Rand here but at the time we spoke out we championed at that time for students it turned and evolved into teachers and pars reaching out to us we came before the board you were not here at the time a couple others this was the old board including Mr Beldon and we came up and we spoke with Mrs Scalera on pretty much verbatim quotes that teachers were sending to us messaging us on Facebook please keep up with the good work we were running a Facebook page at the time please let them listen to you please speak up for us this is

020what's going on here complete climate everything I'm like shaking right now because not one time did anybody from the board stop and say hey what is going on here let me see those quotes there were Pages we only get three minutes we had Parents lined up because we were exceeding our three minutes on quotes regarding climate this was before a survey so I find it just ironic that now we have to you know you know listen and everything else but the no one wanted to listen when two years ago we were talking about it so I just think it's time that we do listen to teachers we do listen to pars we do listen to what's going on in the schools I do know I'm personal friends with Miss glair she's a champion for teachers

021and students so I don't know what's going on here but when I see these signs it's very upsetting because I can tell you there's a lot of us here that have been doing that thank you thank you Mrs C um point to clarification how long have we been doing the climate surveys since I've been here we've been doing annual surveys as far as I you know I'd have to go back and look at the exact but it's been a long time all of us in Connecticut have been doing climate surveys by law and then different districts may have done that on their own conducted uh but it's been a good number of years we've been doing surveys thank you okay thank you um next uh Mr patrino um to speak on uh School Improvement plan

022and climate Mr Pino when you um get up we'll ask you to State your uh residence as well please Dennis patrino uh my residence is New Milford Connecticut is this on there we go New Milford Connecticut 20 Concord way as president of the Brookfield Education Association I'm proud to represent hundreds of professional Educators who go the extra m for our students every day our teachers bring a tremendous set of skills energy and experience to the work they do in their classrooms I recognize that importance of that work and the professionals who carry it out I ask this board to stand up and do the same the climate in our schools is a very important part of our education many of the discussions in this room have unfairly targeted our dedicated teachers setting a tone that

023disrespects them disin diminishes their contributions and make takes aim at their professional judgment this is unaccept acceptable not only does this kind of negative speech and behavior violate the spirit of the Connecticut association's Board of ethics for education but it also sets a poor example for our students Brookfield deserves much better we want a strong positive climate in our schools the community as well and our students we cannot have that without respectful productive dialogue comments by board members like I don't trust that an educator would respect that and do that in a non-judgmental way disrespect respects all Educators and their professionalism these board members who make these inappropriate comments and statements like this without being corrected is also unacceptable and it is hurtful to the school climate I I ask each member of this board

024to review the policies established by cab and follow them with Fidelity to better our school climate they include supporting and protecting School personnel as they perform their duties referring complaints through the appropriate chain of command within the system and never using a position on the board for personal gain or partisan political groups as Educators dedicated to fostering a positive and productive learning environment for our students we feel compelled to address our growing concerns regarding these ethics and professionalisms displayed by members of the board in recent meetings we have observed behaviors and decisions that undermine the trust and collaboration essential for school communities climate and success actions that lack transparency and disregard for stakeholders input can diminish morale among staff and erode the confidence parents and students place in our educational system in addition as a

025union we have rights to discuss information with our members that are private and actions taken in this past week by members of the board soliciting our private Union Communications regarding Union business from multiple members is unacceptable in every way and terrible for school climate we believe that ethical leadership is vital in setting a positive example for our students we urge the board to Prior prioritize Integrity accountability and open communication and by doing so we can work together to create an environment that supports both our Educators and our students we appreciate your attention to this matter and hope for constructive dialogue to address these concerns as you know positive climate needs to start at the top thank you Mr patrino next we have Mrs Korea Irene Korea U to speak on school climate and policies heing

026Korea 45 West whiner Road um tonight the board will be entering an executive session to discuss the role of the board and self- evaluation the role of the board is to enforce an update policy provide safe schools adequate buildings and a budget updating policy has been moving at a snail's pace a bullying policy took four years to update but the board updated a staff tuition policy in one reading to accommodate one to two staff members when several board members decided to tackle the policies and move move full steam ahead some other board members grumbled that it's too much work tonight you will hear a presentation on school climate I assume you have all read the Panorama surveys from last spring a lot of work needs to be done at CES the plan presented by administration

027at the last Boe meeting was nothing substantial to deal with the real issues it talked about the teacher evaluation plan smartphone protocols facility updates mostly items not dealing directly with the main issues I asked the board to sit back and reflect on how to move the district forward by creating a nurturing and productive environment for both students and staff stop going through the motions and ask the tough questions and tackle the real issues head on with Vigor and I would just like to had um I know Miss rice asked that all the speakers be treated fairly and Mr Beldon did mention two names and nobody stopped him from talking and that's unfair because we are we are stopped instantly if we do that thank you thank you very much Mrs Korea um finally for um

028public comment is um Logan celander to speak on budget um I wrote down for a budget but I did want to do a quick shout out if I can about the cell phone policy which is I just wanted to say a big thank you for that I think when we went to all of our open houses particularly BHS we heard from teacher after teacher what a difference it's made in the classroom so I just wanted to publicly thank the board the administration all the teachers for your support in making that happen because I think that was a very important [Music] change um oh sorry I never SE Logan cender 46 sub two Road South um but I did want to talk about the budget knowing budget season is coming too um I wanted to ask

029the board for more communication and Outreach about the budget process timeline and the budget itself and I think this needs to start soon this includes how when and what you communicate um with the community The Hope being that an engages the community more uh gives you the feedback that you need for the budget and ultimately prepares a budget that passes the first time and avoids a second vote the cost of a second vote um and then the ensuing budget cuts that end up happening from that so for example the how um I think there should be more opportunities for informal conversation these could be with board and admin or maybe through a network of Representatives that could feed up to the board um another example of what the round table that you guys guys do

030every year um I think it has great intentions I've been to it before when I can make it I am usually the only Community member there or one of two community members there and I think part of the reason is because people don't really know what the round table is the lurb that describes it is not entirely clear I think if people knew that you were literally sitting in this room with every administrator and every board member here and you can say I'd like to see this program happen I think this needs to change I'd like to see this happen in the budget you might get more people here because that is the chance and you need to hear those voices now not in April when it's too late to make those kind of changes

031to the budget and so the one starting now really um I was thinking you could sort of break the budget down into more digestible pieces maybe it could be something to parent square that once a week you can send out here's some information about the budget so here's some information about the state mandated costs and why we have to do it and what's included in it here's the information about other pieces that we have to include um contracted rates all those kind of things and break it down piece by piece so you can explain it a little bit better to people so they understand it more than just the the detailed line items that are there um so thank you for your time for your consideration and hopefully we can have some more communication around

032the budget going forward thank you Mrs Soler that was super valuable um thanks to everybody uh who participated in public comment this evening um I understand there's there there's one um comment at the end as well but let's we'll just jump right in now and we're going to start with meeting our um student representative um Melissa Baines do you have a report for us great um hello um so I'm going to share a little bit um in terms of Athletics first and then dive into student government and some other things that have been happening at the high school recently um so on October 2nd athletic advisory hosted Class Act night at Chick-fil-A where students could sign the pledge um basically promising good sportsmanship at any home games to receive free admission to home games and

033a t-shirt um and then for more things towards athletic advisory um they attended a field trip last week Tuesday um to the Michaels cup sportsmanship banquet where they received the Michaels cup award again um in addition to this Vanessa Greenstein a member of the cic student representative board and a senior here at Brookfield High School presented to the 800 kids in attendance um in terms of like the natural disasters that have been occurring um in the South athletic advisory student government and bethl high school are teaming together to collect donations for victims of of hurricane Helen and Melton in North Carolina and Florida were're specifically teaming with Asheville public schools in North Carolina working with their high school student government to facilitate these donation requests um the Executive Board of student government attended a field

034trip to the president Symposium Symposium in Hartford Connecticut uh where they learned about different Student Government associations around Connecticut and the different events that they tend to um I had the privilege of attending their meeting on September 27th where they discussed their upcoming events such as homecoming which occurred October 5th and it ended up being a huge success with over 400 students in attendance um and then in terms of just things this week uh freshman sophomores and juniors took the PSAT yesterday um and then also Student Government announced a fall senior field trip to Lake compounds next Friday for their Phantom Fest so yeah B do you have any questions for Melissa or exact team no no all right you're off the H thanks so much welcome a great job welcome okay so now let's

035move to written correspondence actually maybe maybe pause for a quick second someone we treat other way we at home so okay you're ready awesome let's do it the following people have emailed the Board of Education since the last meeting on September 18th Brian Buckman Elementary recess Juan El Coker BPS school security I'm sorry Stephanie can you wait once I can't I can barely hear you I'm sorry this side is kind of tough should I keep going can I keep going I don't y go I don't think that okay lyanna hanger comment concern on the Panorama school climate survey Denise rice spring survey and school budget Irene Korea BOE agenda and Exhibits and Cape subcommittee meeting class size Andy Korea student privacy concerns from CES staff survey District management failures CES climate remediation failure to respond

036to town press release October 2nd special meeting minutes and Cape subcommittee meeting class eyes Steve Dunn S&P Global raing letter and Report awesome thank you okay um so now we're going to move to item eight approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 9824 special meeting 10224 I'll second that is there any discussion um so I don't know if we want to look at it separately but um I'm willing to approve the regular meeting minutes on 9:18 but um I will not be voting to approve the special meeting on 102 um can you uh talk to us about your thinking there please sure so past practice um minutes have always have never been reported this way policy states that minutes are reported as what was

037done at the meting not specifically what was dated so these minutes are not reflective of that policy practice that we've had um if we all are in full agreement that this should be presented as a full narrative then let's upload the transcript or hear everybody's side um because it's clearly one-sided I don't think anybody everybody's talking points were equally represented I'll be happy to provide my notes of what I stated um happy to talk more about it if you want to engage in the conversation further so are you looking to um amend the motion are you looking to amend the um the special meeting minutes yeah amend the special meeting minutes uh is so is there are you going to move to amend the current motion what how do you want to amend it what

038do you want to say well that's going to be some undertaking it's nothing that why what like what do you disagree with because these are as so I'll repeat again it's clearly one-sided it's not do you why do hold on please don't please don't speak over sorry um there's a couple things I would request that Wendy's notes that she read from verbatim be attached um and I had notes also in writing that that could be attached also and I just feel like that's clearly one-sided it it was not a clear representation of what happened during the meeting and that's not past practice that's not what we do that's in the policy clearly states that it it's just supposed to say what was what was covered what was done at the meeting not specifically what was

039stated it's pretty much a narrative of what was talked about and that's not what we've done past practice and what is stated in policy um Stephanie would you like the floor um I just am curious to know where you think it is not accurate and if you've read my minutes from previous policy meetings you'll see that they are pretty similar I'm probably more detailed than need to be but it's never been a problem before well that's policy this was a special meeting but it's not a discussion that I can pinpoint because there's lots of things to pinpoint so at this time I'm not willing to approve the minute the special meeting minutes okay but if you brought if you have problems with them and you're not willing to discuss them I don't understand where the

040problems are I guess how can I we sorry go ahead Ros um our bylaw 9326 um specifically mentions uh item 10 that all motions and their resolutions and their disposition will be specifically mentioned apart from just listing all votes extensions and absentees that disposition part is important it means to provide the mood or the inclinations the contextual information regarding our board actions when we have our meetings recorded such as this one this is not as important but since this meeting was recorded procedure was Highly Questionable the topic was highly controversial recording this information regarding board members positions I think is vitally important so I don't understand why we are going or why you are uh advocating for reducing the transparency of that meeting and further I would urge the chair to direct Miss Greenstein to

041put a motion on the floor to amend or or just direct her to vote so I think um that I am willing to um certainly I can I can uh transfer to um the board secretary my notes um from that meeting I'm happy to have them attached although I do believe they're reflected in the narrative um yeah we have a a really packed um agenda this evening so I'm gonna um I'm going to ask you would you care to amend the motion um to make some change to the special meeting minutes or shall we just proceed with the vote I think just proceed with the vote all right um I just just one point go ahead um I'm not looking to take transparency away I was looking to add information just just to be clear

042put a motion on the floor the motion is on the floor yeah a motion is on the floor a motion to amend I said let's I said I'm willing to to I'll second enough no no no no no no no hold on hold on um I'm willing to vote on the motion as is okay let's let's do that I said all right so we have a motion on the floor that the board approved the minutes listed below as recommended um is there further discussion about this all right all in favor of approving the minutes listed as recommended say I I I all oppose say nay nay okay so the motion um the minutes are not approved all right next we're going to move to the uh next item superintendence update okay thank you Wendy excuse

043me um I broke it into a couple of sections teaching and learning engagement and notifications um in regards to teaching and learning uh some exciting things going on um the Historical Society has met with Mrs FAS and Dr Spencer along with our social studies coach Jen shush and they're looking at ways to integrate the resource of the Historical Society um into some of the the units uh in first third and eth grade uh areas of Veterans Day and diversity day can be used um uh among other ideas so we just want to let you know that that community resource is really being incorporated into the work we do um into the classroom and for a number of years now um the uh uh historic Society has been visiting and conducting assemblies and really uh making

044old Brookfield come alive for the kids so it's been really really nice um in terms of our newly hired k through eight classroom teachers Mrs FAS um is actually any of the brand new teachers uh to the district Mrs FAS is uh directly supervising and working with them coaching mentoring that kind of a thing um so she's got regular meeting scheduled with them and it's important for me to let the board know that that's going on um and again Mrs fies is our director of instruction uh on October 10th um the instructional coaches had professional development um with uh our uh liaison from Ed Advance um and they're working on an instructional Playbook and that's something we will be working on for the course of the year it's a it's a deliverable actually is one

045of the things I talk about my goals uh that you guys will look at later on tonight uh in terms of professional learning on the 14th we really had some great energy there um letters training uh occurred uh 17 of our K through 4 Teachers uh were working with um the science of reading training uh with the new uh CK La luster of Math training was going on and also the the push with our partnership with Boston College in reflective intelligence um we actually had Tim Klein our keynote uh was down here for training of the facilitators and then uh our participants got some uh uh inauguration into what training will look like down the road an and I were able to bounce around from school to school working with those folks uh to kind

046of kick off the morning so uh a lot of tremendous anecdotal feedback uh directly from teachers saying it's some of the that PD specifically was some of the best PD they've had in years so they were really excited about it it's great energy so um we'll keep that momentum going um next uh under engagement just to let everybody know we did conduct clees tours um on the 26th I think we had a little over 20 people come on September 26 and last week on October 10th uh around 40 plus people uh attended uh and I have to thank um uh Dr P Taran Mr Beldon Stephanie others who conducted tours really really appreciate that uh speaks met on also on October 10th uh that's the uh student parent uh educator advisory Council to uh superintendent

047uh focused on recycling efforts and the work Casey's doing with meeting with custodians and working with the parents and how we're going to do our especially our food recycling this year and really kicking planning now kicking off after the holiday break the winter break um and also getting feedback on parent square and feedback on uh the new website I actually in my weekend updated on Friday shared that with the board all of all the minutes from the speaks meeting and then the other thing we're working on um Anna and I um talked with our principles about doing uh kind of a concept called skip level meetings where as part of climate we actually sit in on the principal meetings that they're holding their instructional leadership meetings and their academic meetings uh uh academic Improvement planning

048meetings data team meetings and listen you know to the staff and exactly what's going on certainly offer our feedback if we can uh but really listen so we continue to have our our finger on the pulse making that extra effort as we talked about uh last month so that's important uh notifications just as a reminder um and this relates to security task force which is meeting tomorrow morning um the swatting uh episode uh from back on September 25th um we have a really uh incredible opportunity working with Eric and a Gentleman uh named Don Beal who has some uh anti- swatting technology uh he works with the um uh Center for school safety some of you have met Amry burnhard he's come to some of our um uh uh security task force meetings Amry uh

049put us in touch with him uh Don's like I said Don has some of the the only software um and relatable Hardware that uh this technology can work in the chief is quite interested Chief pesi uh so much so that we've actually um the folks at New Town you know as you know as Regional uh districts and police departments talk quite a bit the new town chief uh and their head of security is actually going to join us um at task force tomorrow the the um uh don is going to join us uh I think he's out of Florida so he's actually going to join us uh via VIA zoom and we're just excited to learn about this it's an opportunity um and what's uh works for us is our Capital money for security if

050we decide to go in this direction there is funds there that we can work on but we'll work that through the committee um and certainly talk with the finance committee eventually about that um and I believe I mentioned the finance committee last week uh the other advisory that went out it's it's a standard uh the annual winter weather advisory uh it's a little crisp this week uh nothing Us New England New englanders can't handle but making sure everybody's ready with especially with the younger kids with plans for uh if there's an early dismissal uh knowing uh how we're going to communicate we have parents Square so it's even quicker and easier and more convenient um and it really details things out it's posted on the website it was it was put out on uh parents

051Square so just a reminder for everybody there we have to have plans because especially at the elementary school um or the middle school where sometimes parents are really rushing to get coverage and daycare uh care off the bus or pick up at the school there's just not capacity at the schools to make all kinds of individual changes so you really want those plans in place uh before the winter weather hits um and then the last one it was actually referenced in public comment um based on feedback from uh parents uh and staff uh on kind of confusion and not knowing the rules of the road uh in terms of uh employee speech and how it fits in with freedom of speech and where are you an employee and where do you actually have you know

052free speech and how does it get regulated um it was important for me to bring that topic to policy committee uh a few weeks ago we actually had a uh a meeting before the September 18th board meeting where we talked with one of our new attorneys from Shipman and Goodwin gave us some really interesting uh advice on that uh we talked about considering a policy uh the attorney advised in a different way that perhaps a memo for me would be a better way to go and resultantly um together we produced that uh frequently asked questions document um and it was really in response to um uh personal display in classrooms that that were brought to uh administration's attention at the beginning of the year and in addition to that um in election season we're hitting

053a conclusion of election season and we know uh things could be very partisan um and you know whether it's clubs in school or teachers talking about controversial things um it's important for for folks to have guidelines and have some knowledge and uh we also put the legal references in there so that was the intention of it had nothing to do with stifling anybody's speech um although I understand some people are taking it that way it was more to help educate and provide some guidelines for for everyone um so that's uh the last piece on notification and then finally um I Heard SNP uh mentioned Stephanie the email from Mr Dunn really good news for the town uh still has its AAA rating and um the comment the the main comment was I wish there was

054a higher than AAA rating so that's really good for the town uh and a lot of mention of the Board of Education and what we're doing in terms of collaboration and you know our our financial backing here so you know kudos to everyone you know uh for for working hard on that and Casey and I were actually fortunate enough to um uh kind of be in this the summit the the summit of meeting there um and talk uh about how we do things and uh I think that was quite important so U uh and thanks to Marsha for all her work obviously and the board and board of finance and everyone else so can I make one mention just back to the uh reflective intelligence um we have just so just the kind of concrete

055numbers of people who are involved across the three schools we have 127 uh teachers or and/or administrators or par Educators who have signed up to either be facilitators or practitioners of that 12763 were trained as facilitators on Monday um so they worked directly with uh Tim Klein and his colleagues from Boston College um and so it's 57 at BHS 29 at WMS and 41 at CLE um and so and there are many people who particularly at CES who expressed a lot of interest in doing it but they also have letters training and IM and CA and all that so they have deferred for a year but we're really excited about the fact that more than half of our certified faculty are involved so that's really exciting and Anna thank you sometimes I you know I

056I want to exercise brevity given the length of our meetings so thank you for the extra detail on that does anybody have any questions I do um sure uh regarding the winter weather advisory you know I was looking through um Mrs Abo's um document that she put together about the multiple language Learners and families and how we're using parent Square parents Square to uh communicate with them have we what kind of feedback have you gotten from our um multilanguage or non-native English-speaking families is parent Square working out do do we know do we have a sense of that yet because I know that um we have a avilability For What 100 languages languages um what's that looking like in practice so far I think uh I I can't quote the number on that but what

057we could do is get those numbers for you on on how many parents have actually signed up for it and how that's going out in the translatable to your point we can definitely get that information but I don't I can't tell you that it was such a cool um feature right of the platform and there's obviously a need for it sure um you'll see that tonight with Katherine's uh report sure right right yeah okay thank you thank you we'll we'll dig in on that before you can get back to um did anybody else have a question I just had a comment kind of SL question for the uh employee speech and First Amendment memo I thought it was great it was really clear it was really helpful um I thought it was outlined perfectly was

058there any feedback or how was it received was it well received or you the only the honestly the only feedback I heard was from an elected official who said a few of his friends who happen to be on the receiving end of that said that I'm trying to stifle their speech that was how it was it was taken which was sad but certainly wasn't intended that way uh other than that I haven't had any good bad or ugly nothing at all and I haven't heard from the principles on you know if there was any feedback and we just had a meeting where we were talking about it but there was no direct feedback okay from anybody anything else okay let's go to subcommittee reports um first up is policy uh so Dr BR actually sort

059of covered um our last policy meeting on September 19th but oh um yeah um I think we're going to need to move to make that change do we have to like formally move to amend that or can we just Lisa can we just change that that's just a type okay thank you very much right okay so forgive me September 18th uh was a executive session um with attorney um Dorian tonetti from Shipman and Goodwin and the executive session was to discuss the attorney client privileged memorandum regarding legal advice concerning employee speech related to policy member uh matters and Dr brell as indicated in the Friday email update and here continued to collaborate with attorney anetti and um sent out that email to the staff um and then we had uh decided to put a new

060policy on the agenda for today's meeting um and that will be forthcoming okay so um then cap to meeting okay yep we had two meetings first one was on September 25th so we discussed at length um the high school class siiz report for this school year we identified some sections of courses that are above our Board of Ed guidelines um and are at Andor are at Max C capacity so those courses are algebra honors there's two sections because there were three last year um AP Calculus AP Computer Science honors Earth and energy Essentials there's three sections French three there's 32 students because French three and French honors combined um and span oh AP human Geo personal finance there six sections Spanish two honors there's three sections and Spanish three and four um it was expressed

061from the World Language Department that there's a prolonged need for additional teachers or sections specifically with French we currently have two sections of French in seventh grade and two in e8th grade and and um we're going to need to accommodate that for the eighth graders coming up it was also identified by the stem department chair that one physics teacher is not sustainable so we're increasing in numbers in physics and this has been a trend in five or more sections of physics so it's important to know that there also been has been an increase in math requests we thoroughly reviewed data from the spring 2024 final exams in the core content areas including number of student exemptions so 93 and above is your your exempt we identified the course grade breakdown uh 59.4 and below is

062an F 59.5 to 62.4 is a D minus 62.5 to 66.4 is a d and 66.5 to 69.4 is a D+ so we identified three main core content areas in which there were a lot of final exam failures math uh Algebra 1 Algebra 2 algebra two honors Algebra 2A and geometry and the second area was science biology chemistry chemistry honors Earth Energy and there's also foreign language Spanish 2 Spanish 3 Spanish 4 although we can't directly correlate the results from the spring final exams to the current class sizes um there will be a correlation between this year's class siiz data and midterm exams which all students are required to take so we can make that correlation when it comes um we also spent some time discussing possible improving possibly improving our exam policy um currently

063all students in grades 9 through 12 with a 93 or above are exempt for final exams so do we still support this what are the teachers expressing some teachers are expressing that they're not in favor of the exemption for underclass students it was noted that by adding final exams back in We'll add another lay of rigor we have an average of about 30 student opt outs um and for some it's motivation right they're excited to be able to opt out so it's motivation for them but for some um teachers have mentioned that it's leads to a decreased selfworth when many of their peers are out essentially out for the summer and done um so we expressed a need to kind of relook at this policy moving forward especially with colleges now requiring or more more

064requiring SAT scores to be um reported we engage engaged in a reflection on the initial um teacher feedback on cell phone Pro protocols including reclaimed instructional minutes the new cell phone policy has positively impacted teaching and learning classes students are more attentive engaged and less distracted they are more present and collaborating more although there were some concerns expressed and recommended recommendations for some changes to the policy overall has been well received by the staff so that was our one meeting and then we had another one on October 9th um we did get a presentation preview by Dr man and Miss farias which we she will do later on in the agenda when she gives a student achievement report so I won't um get into detail about that but she we will look at how our

065students performed on AP exams SATs Smarter Balance assessments and the Next Generation science standards and she'll talk about next steps and plans moving forward um but according to the data Trends are showing a need for more important in math so that's important for our board to to know we did have a World Language I asked for us to have a World Language discussion um Mr brao stated that there's like we said before an uptick in French it was bigger even before the French Exchange program because someone had to ask that um we have 49 students in e8th grade taking French so two sections one of 24 one of 25 so we're we're probably going to need to budget for maybe a point4 or 6 or ask a teacher to take an extra class for next

066year we did um have some initial discussions regarding the K8 World language program um it was made clear that there's no quantitative data for the early years we asked for many comebacks um for example what the schedule at each grade level looks like the outline of our model what's the scope and sequence of the curriculum at each grade level um number of students that receive sealed by literacy in high school what's the long-term impact and how many of our students are continuing with language in high school we also requested stamp data that's a test that the foreign Lang the students who take foreign language take um data in regards to the sealed by literacy maybe College trends for language and gathering information and maybe canvasing other neighborhood districts on their programs and models um and

067specifically speaking with ASAS to find out about their model and how proficient their students are when they transfer to our district I think Dr man mentioned made a really good point she said that as a board we really need to develop a goal for the world language program like what what is our goal is it to increase proficiency is it just exposure to culture or is it more of a Phil philosophical approach um Dr Manda mentioned that maybe this this exploration phase may take up to a year and also we have to work on creating a vision for sixth grade Spanish and look look take a deeper dive into social studies because that is kind of um we lose some instructional time with social studies to um to meet that World Language component so do

068the teachers have the ability to get through the social study standards especially in fourth fifth and sixth grade given the um world language program that we have in place so does anybody have any questions I know we went over a lot I have a quick question um regarding the exams when you say some teachers are expressing they're not in favor of exemption what's like some is that like a significant amount a few we don't have like an exact number but I it the definitely the tide is changing because colleges now are really requiring SATs we have to look at the ri the rigor of what we're expecting of our students we're just require them midterms and based on test scores we may need to look at that as being one component to help prepare our

069students to be better test takers and be more prepared for final exams and things like that and in college be College and Career ready yeah if I could just add to that um the the the teachers have been kind of watching closely as we came back with exams because remember the high school was not giving any exams for a couple years post pandemic so two years ago was the first year that they reinstituted uh exams for courses and they extended the exemption policy from senior year down through all classes um to again to kind of ease back into the idea of uh summi of you know comprehensive exams um and so that's been practice for the last two years but uh there there is kind of some question about whether that's kind of developmentally appropriate

070you know academically appropriate for younger kids you could conceivably based on that go through high school and never take a final exam um so really does that serve our students well um and you know is it kind of establishing that that comprehensive concept of seeing a uh class all the way through from Soup To Nuts from the beginning of this me of the Year through the end um so as as Joy mentioned all students have to take midterms um but some classes are only for you know like one semester so those classes they are able to be exempt so so would you keep the exemption policy for seniors that is yes that has not been necessarily part of the conversation but that this would really be you know this is really kind of a a

071high school um exploration and something that the teachers really have to you know the teachers and departments will be looking into this year they had come they had started talking about that last year so the administration is very well aware and they uh they're going to be working on that throughout this year okay um are there other questions or comments I do have a question so just looking at um some of the grades in science I know that um I had asked for data for um science and social studies specific at the high school level um because those are our two areas that are not co-taught in any grade um you know 9 through 12 so I was really curious as to see how many students really are struggling at the academic level and is

072there something that we can do to support them better on you know we're supporting them in math and English um but is there a need for more support in those academic classes especially social studies and science for grad so um I'm still kind of I'm waiting on that data but um I do know that those sections are not co-taught so you know if you have a student who is dyslexic and struggling reading right and they have a special reading support and they have a reading class and they're supported in math their reading doesn't go away in social studies and science so how are they fairing um in those classes without supports and you know classes size as big as they are so I'm just really kind of interested to seeing if you know our students

073need a little bit more supports in some of those areas okay so are you looking for final exam grades or I mean sorry final grades to overall or because we just looked at the exam grades we didn't look at course grades yeah at at kbo certainly I mean we get General I'll Circle back cuz I know I sent um an email like I thought we got those out to you but if there was something that was missing we talk that through and get yeah no it just um it didn't it didn't list like how many are students struggling and and at what level I mean if you have a student you know are we supporting a student who's you know flying in a d right could we better support them in a class could they

074be one section that's co-taught um so we can support students with a heavy need um for so I might invite uh Mr Bland up just to talk a little bit about the mtss process at the high school because um you know sometimes uh you know historically serby or now mtss um has been something that's been a tough nut to crack for high school folks but um at BHS I have to say I'm I'm really impressed with um now or yeah yeah no you you can you can talk now if you want just in terms of if you want to just address the the idea of co-taught versus um if there are individual uh uh needs for students you know those are definitely considered during like that would be something that would be an mtss process

075uh would be definitely part of that so I don't know if that's yeah I think my concern is that um co-taught like specifically you'll see it on a child's IEP especially at you know the Middle School level we don't offer those classes so are what are we doing with those students that benefited from a co-taught model in middle school and they benefit from a co-top model in English and math but we don't support them in their other classes and I'm just curious if there's a need um for that so actually we could also have Mr Roland come up just to kind of talk about the development of um how you know students can student needs can be addressed but um yeah I think that those are good questions but um in terms of meeting the

076needs of students if they had been in a co- talk class earlier um one of the expect expectations would be that we would continue to meet whatever the needs are on an I but um you know whether that is means that we need to add Co caught or not um could you just talk a little bit about the model for co- teing well and it's not necessarily an IEP right so a child on a 504 can also qualify for coau if their disability um impacts them so it just it's just something that I tossed around it's not specific to anything my children experien but I just I found it very interesting that we have no sections 9 through 12 in science or stud yeah I I I think the easiest way to start is make

077sure this is on all right e easiest way to start is to say uh that it is a sheer numbers game unfortunately uh when it comes to math and English those are the two classes or the courses or the areas that we connect we want to make sure that we push in because historically that's what it been was I inherited that when I came here 10 years ago it continues to be that way um for science and social studies um one of the lucky things we have is yes certainly we do have par professional support in those classes um it is not the same as a co- teer however I will say um for some of those courses in particularly science and soci studies the the core pairs that are in there are pretty fantastic

078um they've been doing this for a while they know the content really well um they're while they're not certified teachers sure I also don't want diminish their role and their role as a pair because they do a fantastic job with kids and what they so they're also there to support so we do offer adult support and the IPS are written as such knowing in the transition from 8th grade to the high school that in those two areas we do not have um uh special ed teachers that are co- teing with a regular ed teacher uh we did make the move a couple years ago um for some of the students that um may be struggling the most um in particular we do now uh we have a uh a co-taught applied class in science and

079social studies uh we did make that change because we thought that was really necessary to try to do that um but you know we're constantly working on differentiation you know to try to support all the needs of kids and we do have a pretty robust srbi RTI what like wherever you are you call it different things can I get us to call it something different uh now it's mtss is what we want to use now which includes social emotional Rob's laughing because he knows like everything it just we all know it just keeps changing right but the concept is we have these weekly meetings and and teachers are allowed to bring people up um and in those classes you're going to have you're right a mix of students that may have an IP that may

080have a 504 the combinations that may be related to their learning or may just be something other need that they have and then um students without services are also there so it's it's a mix um and when we schedule in the summer we look to see who those kids are not just the ones that have 504s and IPS but who might be the best mix and try to really it's a lot of massaging in the in the in the summer to get it ready but that's generally what we do but we do have some more certainly things other than getting more teachers like yeah you know like that it's kind of where we are for now thank you thank you for that explanation okay let's move to facilities then I'm sorry yes facilities thank you

081all right uh so we met on on October 7th um everybody was there myself Stephanie Sarah Dr Dr bril Casey and Dan cwell um as for school du reports uh there are a few there were a few that were on there that were 20 plus days open we did I did question him about that and they he did explain that they there were notes added to them that they are being worked on they're not being ignored the reason why they're open is because they just haven't been officially closed out but they are being attention is being shown to them as far as a capital projects update we have uh the boys locker room um um diversity is going to be return to address two remaining open items uh the BHS Library AC um fnf mechanical

082has been awarded the project uh the equipment has been ordered and should arrive after the new year uh danet said this should be uh completed by April 30th of 2025 um a sally port is being installed and we learned what that is can you Casey where is it being installed exactly I didn't add that part you oh thank you in the athletic L um we got an update of pricing from the gordian group 4 3,375 it'll be the BM BMP will be the general contractor on this project um a few days before construction we anticipate and work should be completed uh while school is in session it w it won't disrupt anything border repairs at BHS representatives from etton and all state construction have been on site for the repairs uh boilers for two boilers

0832 and three uh Dan did reach out to uh this week to see if the quotes are available um there's a classroom door that need to be replaced in the science um it's been ordered and will be installed by Tom Schultz once it's received we had a water bottle Filling Station installed by Tom Schultz as well at the middle school um athletic storage room at WMS we have a contractor filling out a permit uh with the town so work can begin as soon as that is approved uh for the oil tank uh Dan reported that we have uh we have an estimate for the underground survey of $1,000 and Dan is to reach out to CCA for more project specs um the rep expectations at work will begin uh after school is out in June

084um the floor for for the Middle School uh the RPS be uh to released preit meeting is set for actually happen on the 14th did that meeting happen yes I believe so so right y uh demolition of Portables at WMS this project is uh managed by NBC 15 bids received will be reviewed by NBC at their next meeting um as for new business we had a solo presentation I don't know if there's anything Casey or Stephanie want to add for the solar presentation I know we're all gung-ho about the solar considering the price of electric so uh we're good on that as far as a miscellaneous discussion um uh Casey had shed a drafted the proposal for the capital request list for 2025 2026 and our Focus will be on the heating system at BHS

085which is outdated it's old we've walked the building we've checked it out and it's obviously something that we definitely need to uh upgrade um we also discussed moving the uh meeting up to get uh for the capital request list can be reviewed prior to the next presentation and uh we will also be getting uh which I forgot to add to notes we'll be getting an updated list on CES uh issues that are open that are not showing up on dude School dude reports but Dan assured us that we'll get the list of what needs to be done and um and we'll follow up to him on that report so we'll get that the next meeting we're supposed to anyway aw and Rob as a follow up on that Casey and I when we had our

086um last Monday meeting with uh Steve uh dun and Marsha we have our our weekly we talked about you know Steve having direct contact with the NBC and Mr czecho to you know secure that list from OMG um and do a compare you know what is OMG saying is done what is the NBC saying hey it's not done to our standard and and and let's get some clarification on that this is something you know we've been clamoring for for a long time to finish this project up and it's still in the contractor's hands from to to my so it's just a matter of getting them to fill it out finishing it and updating us when it's going to be finished and the NBC is is the body in charge of the actual physical construction of

087the the school so it's it's not the Board of Ed or or even the superintendent you know at this point it's it's with the NBC and we need them to do that there are things that have been handed off to building maintenance so and those things Dan Caldwell and his team are handling of course so um if I may um I had written to the facilities Committee in September um about this and because I'm in communication with of Finance who has now taken pretty big interest in this um and I I can't stress enough that I think that be it is true the MBC is still in charge of this project but we're occupying the building and anything that's not communicated perfectly it's going to fall through the cracks we're going to end up having

088to fix it out of our own budget so I think it's I really just really think you guys need like a joint meeting NBC Board of Ed you know um om you know like get everybody on the same page um the board of Finance has recently tasked us with reporting that comprehensive list of everything that's not yet done um and they're very supportive like they're they're willing to say Hey you know if we need to you know financially support this to speed it up like let's do it but let's do it right so the support is there but we need to make sure like as sort of shepherds of those you know potential dollars um that we're going to manage it well so I don't think we can like totally take a backseat I think

089we actually need to start taking a bigger role in making sure that those items are checked off big and small and Rose if I may just to add to that so um I believe it was last week OMG and the NBC sat down in a room I believe with legal counsel to talk to each other um and I believe Mr Dunn was present while I can't speak to the content of that meeting I don't know that it was that productive I can say that so that's happening um Mr Rooney reached out to me I think yesterday um or Monday um for the board of Finance to be able to take a tour of the building which they can take a tour anytime they want I offered individual tours if they would like that to take

090you know if that's more convenient or the whole group wants to go um so um we are taking I want you I didn't want I don't want my comments to be taken as we're we're taking a back seat we're being as proactive as we can but even with the NBC and OMG in the same room we're not getting agreement on this final list and it's very very frustrating as you can imagine um for someone who everybody looks to um as to when's the building going to be finished and you know also gets the blame for that you know and also gets the credit for nice things so I mean it's not a complaint when I say that but it's extreme it's excruciatingly frustrating this this like last 5% get done privie to some of those

091meetings and I totally appreciate the sentiments but um I think we just like you know it just it turns into like also because our you know Board of Ed staff are in the building their their information is not getting up to them because they're sort of like walled off in in their meetings yeah a couple things to that and so uh Mr czecho did put out there in my last conversation with him they meet on once a month on Tuesdays the the meetings are published the minutes are public any he he would love to see Board of Ed members Board of Finance members Board of Select members attend once in a while send a representative so they could see the the ongoings the other thing is we invited Mr czecho and he was gracious enough

092to accept for staff to understand the building you know there might there there's some some rationale to things that have probably have been communicated but not necessarily in an efficacious way for that particular you know sum as a particular audience so we already put together an and Dave put together a um a Google doc where now staff could start uploading some questions they have so Paul could have it in advance and on November 5th at 1:00 we've arranged for him to go in and answer the questions we actually uh invite Eric to be there too because a lot of this interface is with technology and there's some questions so we are doing that too so there is a lot of proactive going on I'll be it again excruciating in terms of the frustration why isn't

093this just done at this point I get it I get it um Rob two quick things one maybe you and I can connect together to to like Advance this I'm willing to go to the NBC meeting um and but I I'd like to talk with you to make that count you know what I mean um also I just wanted to say thank you to the members of the facilities committee for moving your meeting uh thank you because it would be great if we can get that report for our next meeting 30th so thanks a bunch guys just have a question yes the athletic storage room at the whiner is that like a new room or something that's being built is that space that regained or um it's actually a little section of a hallway that

094just goes to an exit that is not um a necessary egress there's still plenty of egress um Mr Caldwell has spoken with um Fire Marshall in the town where we the approval for all that it's essentially right outside of the um the gymnasium and um in the hallway is a door to a storage closet and then exterior doors so we're essentially going to re repurpose that door to the storage closet and build a wall so that that entire area can be storage um because right now either the equipment has to be stored well it's got to be stored in half of the gym and then the gymnasium can't be used for the it's int and purpose because it can't really be it can't be in the hallway as per fire code so um this will

095really um do a world of difference in that it's us the space that's being recover abely there we saw we saw the stretch yeah it's um we do have estimates it's it's it it will work in our budget okay absolutely yep um and kind of this kind of piggy piggy backs off what Rosa said but so the demolition of the portable so that's the NBC project right yep so who's kind of being the liais on with that so they had the the the 15 bids I think it was so that's being uh determined by the purchasing agent right now right and then like kind of seeing that through seeing that so so the bids the bids were received um the our purchasing agent sent them to both us and the MBC and the NBC said

096they will uh review the bids and and the proposals at their next meeting and make a determination to award award the contract and um but it is it is overseen by the MBC and they're communicating through with you or they will be yeah they will be once it starts yeah we haven't we haven't done it yet but we made it very clear that that um it it it shouldn't be a lengthy job right but it's getting you know the summer was the ideal time to do it when we didn't have a lot of kids in the building um is it something that could be done over a long weekend is it more of a winter break kind of a project it certainly is not going to be I won't permit it to be done while

097school is in session that's for sure um and to bring the equipment on site and you know get everything ready it it takes it takes some time so I I don't want to say this or be the harbinger of any kind of uh bad news but this may be something that takes all the way till the summer I don't know um or it's an April break project or a winter break project we'll see and to Ella elaborate on that a little bit more joy so there there have been some some um some some work that had to take place even before uh the rfps you know were were put together or the bids were put together such as environmental testing right we had to coordinate that and so that the way that worked was um

098biders came in they would ask uh request for information to our purchasing agent who was overseeing the RFP and um Mr kaidos would uh notify us and the NBC that these are some of the questions and even tekon who was part of part of all of this part of the building project they had put the plans together for the demolition um and so it's a coordination of yes Mr Caldwell we will will set up the Environmental Testing that needs to take place provided that we have the approval from the NBC who is overseeing it so it is it is um there is a lot of oversight by a lot of different entities we are working together to to make sure that everything um is is moving forward um so yeah and I know the status

099of the boys locker room those are two like yep so um items that have and actually believe I did speak with Mr Baldwin about one of the items was an electrical outlet for a a a TV unit above the lockers that's been um addressed so I believe it's just two locks on offices that need to um accurate lock we have the quotes they just need to come back and and swap out those I that's been long a while yep and again it it it goes too so now we are taking that like we're we're just we're going to address those issues um because at this point whether it was part of the scope of the project or not it has to get done and we're and that's what we're doing okay so okay let's move

100to finance uh reports okay uh we met on the 10th of October uh we reviewed the check registers and we didn't have any questions but um it is important to note that um there were a couple instances noted of um check fraud that were identified thankfully um this didn't do any harm uh to the district it was rectified quickly um but going forward the district's going to be more um we're going to further tighten the information that's released publicly such as check numbers and such um in the financial report you'll notice um there is quite a big month-to-month change uh in our budget overrun uh most of that is coming from in uh increased outof District transportation specifically related to the mckin vento ACT um which protects students that are experiencing home life uh displacement

101um we're required to provide displaced students with Transportation back to Brookfield schools um this is projected to cost us around $150,000 um but we are obviously hopeful that those situations improve um during the year which would bring that figure down um next we voted to approve uh budget transfers in several line items um that's going to help ensure that the current Year's budget is as accurate as possible um which will in turn improve the accuracy of the construction of next year's budget um and we also talked about perhaps maybe doing it again in January or February um in hopes that we can kind of really um you know kind of catch up and update the budget one last time before other Town approvals take place and we can really kind of maybe catch any areas

102that might need um Improvement so that was it similar to last year we yes okay the timing is just sooner this year so that we're doing it before the budget process starts y any questions there I just had a quick question for the BHS golf cart the club car is that like a replacement of that or it's to fix it uh no it was um it is a new purchase that was in the budget last year okay let's move to the consent agenda then I move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda as recommended new hires transfers res designations retiring September financials 2024 and budget transfers um all in favor any opposed okay so passes if I could just make a special note uh congratulate Deb bur you will be retiring at

103the end of the month many years of service so we congratulate Deb and we were able to you know connect with her at the start of the Year here and that's wonderful thank you Debbie Burch okay we're going to move to new business and um we're delighted to welcome uh Ron Jeffy to the Podium to talk about Brookfield cares attitudes and behavior survey well thank you for having me and thank you to the board of ed the schools the administration for the uh the years of support um we couldn't do this without that kind of support um I'm here to talk tonight about the attitude and behavior survey uh this is something we have done periodically with the schools with students um this is a survey uh developed by uh not by us individually uh

104but this is uh you know it's put together by search Institute which is a National Organization there are literally tens of thousands of school systems across the country that take advantage of this even within our little local region here I think there are 40 school districts who uh who do who do use use the attitude and behavior survey uh the first time we did it was 2009 uh we have done it 2011 2013 2016 2019 and most recently 20122 and so it is time for us to begin to talk about the next survey uh so I'm basically here to ask the board to begin to have discussions about when would be a good time uh we would you know welcome the opportunity to begin to talk to uh both the uh the high school and

105the middle school about the survey and how we can implement it most effectively uh it's it's certainly an incredibly valuable tool uh not just for for us but for the you know the students the staff the parents uh I can't tell you how how much uh what kind of response we've really gotten from parents who didn't know they needed this kind of information but we're glad than they got it one story that I I do tell is you know years ago making a presentation at Center School uh from Brookfield cares starting the presentation you know why am I here why am I talking to you about some of these issues and the real answer is uh your child may not be exposed to it now but not only is it coming down the pike but

106they're going over to friend's houses where some of these issues are in fact occurring and so you need to be aware and years later I was at another present at another event and a woman who I did not know comes up to me and says you don't know me but I was at one of your Center school presentations and I can't thank you enough and it's really it's the information you know that we get from the attitude and behavior survey that really helps us focus on what's what's what our students are really telling us is happening in their lives and the reason we think it's important uh to do it on a regular periodic basis is to really you know track what's happening track the changes track the progress we're making look for new things

107that are happening in the environment that we may not have seen coming but this will tell us so that's why I'm [Music] here um I have a question for you is there a uh time of year that you all have found particularly advantageous to administer um the survey instrument um you we've done it at different times of year sometime yeah I I think there are two trains of thought about when to do it you know one train of thought is uh let's do the the survey earlier in the year so that you know by time we get the information back we can actually you know use some of that during the year another train of thought is well let's do it towards the end of the year when you I I don't think there's a

108hard answer to that I think it's it's a discussion to have who TS to be the point uh persons within um their respective buildings like at the high school is it typically the guidance SL counseling departments well we we work we work with with guidance we work with uh with the principles we work with you know whoever the uh the schools want us to work with to coordinate thank you so yeah at this point we'll we'll just be initiating conversation about it um could you tell me just a little bit about um I believe it's a a specific Institute that has created this instrument search Institute the search in Institute um I'm not a uh I don't have encyclopedic knowledge of them uh you know I'd be happy to give you more information you can

109certainly go online and take a look um you know the uh the you know but what they have found over the years is that you know they they report you know certainly we get the Raw results of the surve but they also report it based on assets and they have found that the more assets a you know a child or a community has you know the less likely the child is to fall into troubled Behavior whatever that troubled Behavior may be um and so you know it's you know all I can tell you is this is uh it's it is probably the most accepted student survey in the country at least the one that I'm aware of thank you other questions folks I think one of the things we'll do as a as a district

110with with the the leadership team is initiate a conversation with Ron maybe Ron invite you in for a meeting because as we know two years ago there was some controversy and and concern from parents about some of the questions that were asked so we want to be very clear on that um the Educators actually run and this something we can not for tonight to talk about but just to mention to you talking with the search Institute is there a more truncated survey because of the length of it uh in the attention span 150 plus questions for younger students so there was some concern there I don't know if it can be changed but something just to talk about but the care survey does offers us a lot of valuable information as Ron talks we do

111have a new survey policy we want to make sure that it the this fits within the scope of the policy as well and um so we're as always ready to move forward with uh with learning as much as we can about our kids and the the periodic every couple of years um information we get on the assets um is really helpful you know one thing that that both the board and the administration be aware of should be aware of of is that if we have specific issues that we would like to have added to the survey they are more than happy to work with us on that for example a couple of years ago when vaping was just beginning to be an issue we asked for Vaping questions and so they added them specifically for

112us and so you know they're very they're very responsive in that way I would say I don't know if there's been discussions but Zen would be one to add to on absolutely good one it's a big thing social add something real quick is that okay hi um my name is carolan Murphy um just real quick too I think that something's really insightful about this survey is that it lets us know what the trends are going on in the schools and something we found out with the most recent survey in 2022 was that eating disordered behavior and symptoms have increased in the middle school and high school so it helped us focus on what our Target is as a coalition and also as Educators parents Etc of like what are we teaching our kids as far

113as diets and what's healthy what's not healthy so I think it's just really insightful across the board in general so I think that's important M well I'm I'm Sorry Miss Murphy yeah how are you connect to the I'm a volunteer as well we're with Brookfield car gotcha thank you so much okay really appreciate that okay awesome I think it's important to assure the folks that are watching in the board um one of the pieces to the survey policy was making sure we had enough lead time for parents to be communicated with and have time to review any surveys um but like I said two years ago specifically it was the care survey in question so um those are assurances that we've U documented now and we have articulated so um we'll keep that in mind

114but Ron maybe maybe within the month we could start getting together as a team here talk talk through some of this great okay thank you very much thank you thank you very much okay um now we're going to talk about the um baa uh contract and before before you um read the motion I just wanted to uh take a second because this was um recently organized and I wanted to uh give a shout out and a big thank you to the members of the baa headed by Mr Blanda um but also um with represented by a number of folks who are here um and to uh Jo Greenstein Sarah dine um the executive team here um who with me represented the boa Boe an um Kaiser who was from the BF um we all worked

115together to um try to reach uh mutually satisfying agreement here so anyway I just wanted to say thanks for that Stephanie sorry I lost my page I move that the board approve the successor contract between the Brookfield Board of Education and the Brookfield administrators Association um is there any discussion no but I will say I like this summary of supervision oh yes I'm sorry I'm supposed to be discuss I hope that was helpful we asked our new attorneys if they could do that for us and say can you put it in a chart and said absolutely we'll be happy to do that for you right I'm sorry I dropped the ball I was meant to to to inform everybody that was very nice of them to do yes thank you okay um so this is

116a just for everybody to know this is a three-year contract um with the um the administrators um Union it's got um Insurance Provisions it's got um salary upticks um it's got the the creation of um an annuity uh we clarified and simplified the language about leave and then clarified um some items having to do with uh the classification hierarchy uh connected to reduction in force classifications so um these were hammered out over a series of meetings um I think it was summer it's all a blur now summer to fall we didn't expect right right right um and then uh we finally reached an agreement so we have a motion on the table um all in favor of approving the successor contract between the um Boe and the baa uh please signify by saying I I

117any opposed all right so it passes unanimously great thanks guys okay so then we are going to move um to uh receiving a report about multilingual learners but I didn't see Mrs AO is she so Catherine is not able to make it tonight so Anna is going to pinch it um before Anna goes as we roll in um and that's her flexibility and dexterity so thank you Anna for doing that um the reports that like everything we present like everything it feeds in into the resource allocation eventually that we will need um whether we need to add reallocate um delete whatever it might be to that end we really start at this meeting and you'll see in the no the second October meeting and in the November meeting various reports bill goes after this with

118case load report these are straight reports data and numbers that are feeding into our greater perspective of how we're going to construct the budget that will be presented on December 4th so it's really important these next three meetings really a lot of that the Cadence of the year of all these reports so for example there's Aaron was talking about class size a little bit earli that report will be um at the next meeting right the formal class in the enrollment report and those kinds of things which obviously um there's cost to and we have to put our Resources with so I'll stop there and turn it over to Anna thank you well thanks um so hi everyone this is just a warmup for me for a couple more minutes um so just I mean this

119is fairly straightforward but I just want to point out some of the actual highlights as well as highlighted a few of the other pieces um and so as you can see at the top of the report uh we our current enrollment um is for K12 across the District of students who qualify as U MultiLing multilingual Learners is 122 this is a plus of eight from uh total students from last year um and so it's just kind of important to recognize that you know our the needs of our students are continue continue to be there um and there are a variety of different 12 different uh types of language other than other than English as you can see all the list on the right hand side um in that box um but just to draw your

120attention to um the you know the greatest areas of need are at CES in terms of bilingual program as a reminder um if any one school has a total number of 20 students or more that is considered um a cohort and that uh requires the district to have a bilingual program to serve the needs of those students we if you remember last year we put into the budget a 0.5 bi uh bilingual for Portuguese teacher um so Point halftime FTE we were unable to find um a a teacher in that area bilingual Portuguese is particularly difficult we do have members of our faculty and staff who do um speak uh Portuguese fluently they are and we actually repurpose that FTE that that portion of the budget to um have a full-time multilingual Portuguese speaking par

121educator and so that par educator is working directly with the bilingual Spanish program um and serving the needs of students there um so that's how we're and that is uh completely acceptable by the state as long as you provide that you you show that you've gone through all the appropriate steps to work to try to get um a certified educator in that position and then if you can't this is the uh the kind of backup if you you may remember that um the 22 23 year we had the same situ ation with Spanish language we could not find a bilingual Spanish language teacher when it was at Huckleberry that was where the need was at that point and so we um service the needs of those students through our Spanish speaking our Spanish teachers as

122well as uh par par Educators that year so this is kind of following in that same footsteps um we M we're maintaining last year we were at 20 students at CES who uh spoke Portuguese as their primary language we still have the same number um I don't know if it's the same actual kids but the same number in terms of students who speak Portuguese and our number um in Spanish has gone from 40 to 45 um so or maybe it was 42 last year but it's it is steadily increasing so CES is the only School in the district that based on the cohort requires a bilingual program or two bilingual programs um and as a reminder uh the students um in the who any of the multil language students across the district will continue to

123take the last links uh which is a test that essentially sort of you know addresses or assesses where their um language capacity is in in various modes So reading writing speaking listening um and then depending on the outcome of those of those surveys that's where or that that assessment that's will determine if they need to continue as a multilanguage learner or they can um graduate out so it's also one of the reasons that you see that you have fewer kids as they get older because they've had more instruction um and more experience and time here so um but just kind of going back to that parent Square question you know you can see that there clearly is a need in our community for um multiple different languages um including uh erdu and I'm pretty sure

124parents Square includes erdu um and so uh it's it's great that we have that tool where parents can um opt into that so and we'll certainly come back with how many of our um families are choosing to use those languages thank you Anna much appreciated than sure my pleasure you got on base with that nice well done well done you we'll see you again yeah so we're going to move now to um getting an update from Mr Roland um for watching home director of special services for special education talk to us about special services right now good evening everyone um as I came to you last year in October I come to you this year with uh numbers that you received last week about our our case loads across the district including our related Services

125um our total special education students in the district are 348 that's down from last year but I would caution to not necessarily look at a number from year to year because as you know referrals come in students graduate move on so it's it's kind of a different count than you might have otherwise um I'd like to go through the three schools and then go through the related services and then take any questions you might have so if we look at uh Candlewood Lake um we have three prek um with an average of 8 and a3d students in each making sure that um in K5 we are currently hiring for a a teacher so as you can see with the average case SL we based it both on five teachers and six teachers we're in the

126process of hiring um in that case with 81 students and the case loads you can see um our ELC programs at both uh Candlewood Lake and whiskin near uh including our social emotional are well staffed and have a low uh population so that we can have good onetoone services and and uh close closely monitored teaching and and instruction um so in terms of the the case loads at whiner six teachers 72 students with an average case load of 12 and as you're seeing the case loads are are relatively um stable but I'm going to have something to to speak to later on as we look into related Services um at the high school from grades 9 to 12 um seven teachers 104 averages out to 15 uh our life skills class has six and again

127as students move from one school to the other I would then say that you're going to see those numbers shift and as they move into transition you'll also see those numbers shift um in terms of speech language pathologists across the district um I would also like to say that when we're looking at speech language and when we're looking at OT later on we're looking at not only direct service but also consult so when we look at these numbers these are combinations of um direct Service as well as consult with teachers um at CES we have uh average case loads from K5 about 22 and a half prek about 24 be well average of 24 and that's that's a number that we're continuing to look at at sker the average is 192 and at BHS uh

128average is 29 and A3 and I would also say let's factor in the specialized programs when we're looking at these School psychologists now School psychologists are doing more evaluations then they aren't necessarily counseling uh some have a piece of a counseling load but you'll see that the social workers by and large do a lot of the counseling if not all the counseling so when we're looking at numbers from clas to WMS and BHS I would I'll ask you to look at the evaluations because that also rolls out as referrals come in as the triennials come in so that from year to year you might see different numbers and think why are they up why are they down it comes down to the number of students that are in those grades at that time with uh

129triennials um I'd like you to focus a bit on on school social workers and especially at CS um in conversations with Dr Pepsi and and Dr burill and Dr man we've looked at the need at CES for uh what the students need and if you look at the average case load of 29 a half there are no hard and fast mandates on what the actual case load should be but it starts to look a little high when we start talking about what students need and what the the role of a social worker is in a building especially a K5 so there is a uh FTE that is out there that we would like to propose to hire that and fill that as Within additional social worker at CES uh we feel that that would not

130only reduce the case load but would provide additional uh mental health and behavioral support within the building and that's based on conversations with our teachers with our mental health staff and Dr P and his team there Bill Bill if before we go on and not to to stop his presentation get into a conversation yet just to let everybody know there was a uh in looking at very low case loads at the middle school there was a special education teacher who resigned uh over the summer uh bill and the team were looking at do we do we really need to given the case loads need to backfill that position at whis skiner or look at needs at Sil yes that we we saw were growing we I've talked to the finance committee about this already we've

131held on hiring that FTE whether and and what we're exactly going to use that for we wanted the school year to get underway new students to move in students to move out and really settle in and now six seven weeks in uh bill and the team's recommendation at CS is we really could use that FTE that we have in the budget uh instead of for an additional special education teacher for a social worker what that would do was take our case loads from almost 30 for two social workers at the elementary school balancing you know uh three different grade levels uh upper and lower house to two um uh to 20 per uh uh 20 on a case load of three social workers taking two grades each so I just wanted to be clear on

132that that's where we're at and thinking about that uh bill and I talked about him mentioning that tonight given this presentation and talking about driving the budget but that's in this current budget certainly need to convene a meeting with Personnel negotiations committee talk about that a little further so we can get a recommendation and move forward with that but it's not a new it's not a new FTE it's already in the budget so if we we let's ask questions after but Bill continue thank you for that clarification Dr BR um and we we looked at at school psychologist and again we talked about evaluations and we talked about social workers and the where the case loads fall there and again I think you talk about different intensities of needs throughout all three schools um when

133we talk about bcbas which as you know are very specialized um unique and specific uh service that's provided by uh these board certified Behavior analysts um two at CES and one who floats between um WMS and BHS their average case Lo is about 16 and 2/3 close to 17 and again that is a combination of consult and direct service so when we're looking at this it's it's a combin of those two and then with the occupational therapist and physical therapists we have two at CES um and again consult and direct service the average case load is 34 um we have a a a halftime 0.5 OT with a Koda a certified occupational therapy assistant who works under the occupational therapist and the combination of those two between whis skiner and um BHS is 26 and

134we have A8 physical therapist who works throughout the district and her case load is 21 bill before we move forward to questions can you talk a little bit about because there's there's a high number there at the high school with the evaluations for the school psychologist correct talk to us a little bit about um our partnership with that advance and the services they're able to offer sure I and I may have mentioned this earlier in maybe my July presentation but I'd like to repeat it um Ed Advance has offered districts uh at no charge to districts uh school psychology to take in any overload or or or um spillover of evaluations that districts have and in some years you may have fewer than 52 at the high school but Ed Advance has reached out to

135all of our all the districts that they represent and we are one of them to offer uh free school psychologist evaluations for them to come in and do the testing um we have availed ourselves of that for both the fall and the spring as we look at what our numbers are and where we need them um and it's not that we are um asking for a bulk but we're making sure that if referrals come in and evaluations need to be done it may not be now but it might be later in November we might start to see as the marking period ends grades come in questions arise from from mtss and from parents and from teachers should we evaluate and for that we want to have um you know the the availability of extra school

136psychologist should we need them that's fantastic thank you Bill that's great thank you thanks everyone um I have a couple questions actually if you could stay there um I just want to understand the the CES social workers um so there's two there now and there is a position opened for a third no there is two two fdes assigned as social workers to CS we had two ready to go one decided they needed to move on so they resigned so we've had one social worker okay which that's where where you get that 59 for the case Lo they they've been managing for the first 6 weeks of school okay okay so we're about to fill as I understand corre we've got the timing on that get that second social worker what I was talking about is

137this extra FTE that we're moving we transfer from whiskin to CES it was in in the department of special education and use it as a social worker given the data um in the needs okay but so a third third okay that woulding that would bring the average instead of 60 um so when you're looking at sort of average case loads you know what kind of guidelines are you sort of basing off of or is it really just kind of like a well really depends because every student is so different I think underneath this as we're looking at averages we're also looking at service hours yeah so that if you're looking at at students in an average case load within that you're also looking at again there's no mandates there's no state they must there must

138be this case load but I think you look at um where the data was from a year ago from two years ago but you also have conversations with the staff where you're saying how heavy is the case hold right now looking talking to the supervisors talking to the principles and saying is there a need and in some cases the conversation becomes it might look like there's a need but there's really more consult maybe that's coming in versus direct service so in terms of data it might be more anecdotal in terms of what the need is and what the IEP and what the ppts bring up in terms of what a student might need a student might not need OT one year but it turns that they move from let's say Elementary to middle and the

139evaluations turn that it would it would benefit them so again it's difficult to quantify sometimes and I and I hate that because you want to give I want to give you and and and the public the data but there's also a fluidity to special education that shifts from year to year and shifts from student to student and their needs I think another piece rose on that question that's important as Dr corvo talked about with the c Audits and she came up and actually talked about looking at the IEPs and counting the hours the service hours that you talk about and then do you have enough staff to cover those service hours that you're assigning that many students to one person so that that's another that's a hard piece of that's the underpinning and it's it's

140hard to put that into like average service hours because it wouldn't be so but that is that is part of the the thought process that we have when we're talking about what we're going to do and who where we're going to put people and and how we're going to service the kids okay great so uh for BHS like evaluations for school psychologist so that's that's pretty clear they have to write 52 evaluations for the annuals that happens every year no the evaluations would be every three years the trianal the tri yes so but again that's where the numbers shift from year to year so if you have trienal or frankly if you're also looking at initials so the initials that are coming in that may come in at a high school level those plus trianal

141but you know you know who those students are so you can break it out by how so how many triennials are needed this year right you could break that out cuz that's a really high number but it would be more clear if that was broken out into I can certainly what that psychologist has to do this year right um and then I'm I'm not like totally I'm glad that we have that service for from C but like is that a guarantee I would imagine that all districts are reaching out to adavance sorry from adavance for that service I think every district has had it offer to them I think based on their Staffing and what the needs are and what the evaluations are in any given year right I guess the question maybe could break

142that down I go further with your question have we been denied when we've asked at Advance for any support no okay I think that you know I want to get that clear the other piece too is where it's lighter at another school the school psychologists don't have to be married to one school so the middle school psychologist School psychologist or the district school psychologist or the elementary can go and help out there yeah that's just tricky cuz they don't know the students AB oh no the advanced people don't either so no that's another layer yeah no there's there's all that and we're trying to be good stewards of the taxpayers money as well so there's there's a lot of balancing that goes into this for sure I have a question too just at whis skiner

143um with um the social worker I mean their case load is 38 I mean if we're looking at cutting it down I mean they're almost where we are at C offering another one so coulder we are we are having conversations about that Ono as well because that's pretty high I mean middle school historically um I think I think there's always and I mean to interrupt there's always that underpinning of service hours too what that looks like and there could be more check-ins there and again I can get you that information but I think the numbers do tell multiple stories based on what we're what we're looking at so but I'd be happy to to get more details for you and bring got back it was just a high number yeah nope and Fair Point well

144I think that's a valid concern especially at the middle school level that can be broken down I mean you know what the IP says as far as hours so what does that what does that Cas look like as far as hours I I guess we would want that broken down further as an area to look at we can we can certainly do that thank you and whisk nearer will stay now we we have two right but two schools psychologists but one is going out right so we'll still keep and that school psychologist is also part of our district wide and out of District as well I had no idea so that's yeah she is the sort of se but also Additionally the out of District the one at whiskin yeah the the the the one

145who's going out on two one of the two okay well I have to say I was one that had um an evaluation from one school to another cuz it just was and it was actually really neat for the school psychologist to be able to do it because she doesn't typically see them in three years right so she was able to see it again bringing great information Hasen okay do you have any feeling about the pool of applicants whether if we go out there we're going to get any people for which position any um social workers we've had spectacular candidates for social work oh great yep and I think the ones that we that we have hired this year are among the just in general in terms of of teachers have been terrific have we had

146any discussions about um what we can do proactively to retain the social workers this has been a high turnover no but we could I think that's that's a fair question okay um I just wanted to say um thank you for the care uh and um Precision you put into this this really was a useful um document to help me I don't want to speak for other people but help me understand um the apportionment of resources and where the pressure points are and um I really appreciated that so thank you and thank you Dr Youngblood and thank you to the members of the board Dr bur Dr man um it it again the fluidity of special ed makes it sometimes challenging to try to give hard numbers but I appreciate your feedback and we'll Endeavor to

147add those pieces to what we're working on awesome thank you Bill is scheduled to come back in November so yes and I know Aaron you're involved with strategic planning and all that so that that will be part of that presentation all right so um Dr man we're going to hear from you again about student achievement and I just like to make a couple of comments as Dr man gets herself ready on the laptop um I think uh just kind of setting this up the context for this evening um it's important to know that not only will you see this is this is a report on the actual achievement data it's followed immediately by it really could be one report the school Improvement plans what each principal is putting in place you know with input obviously

148from their staff and their their their teachers and and the whole gang um the a few of you were at the convocation um we talked a little bit uh about the uh professional development day on Monday you saw a lot of energy here tonight um they're really focused on finding meaning in their work our teachers and um what you'll see tonight is the alignment from the Strategic plan uh to the board priorities that were articulated to me at the end of of the year in terms of things the board asked Meda to make as high priority Focus areas um as well as kind of turning those into District goals principal goals the school Improvement plans all the way to the new teacher evaluation system it's all linked together climate is a lynchpin of that if

149people are finding meaning in their work and they're feeling good about their work and they're feeling supported I think it's pretty much common sense that they're going to uh do quite well well so that coherence has been brought through and you'll see that throughout tonight so Anna please thank you thank you and um I also just wanted to um well thank thank you all for uh allowing me this time to once again go through uh the this one dipstick measure of our student um of measuring our students achievement um I did have the opportunity last week as uh Miss Greenstein said about uh to present to Cape so a few members were able to give me some good feedback so I made some adjustments based on that feedback um and you know as has been

150mentioned in the past this this we have historically done this um the Sip presentations as part of this but given the um kind of the robustness of the Sip presentations we wanted to kind of tease them out a little bit so while this is a little bit um more concise this year uh you know I it is it still highlights this one uh Time One Moment In Time for um our students so this is the the student the spring student um assessment report essentially this data will be part of a more comprehensive uh report that I will give to you as soon as we get the information um from the state department the Next Generation accountability uh report which is a much more comprehensive uh larger three more threedimensional view of what of how our

151district is doing and how our individual schools are doing um so this data will be a part of that but uh it this one we always like to highlight kind of where we are just to use this as our um kind of consistent measure from year to year in this area yeah so tonight um I'll be going over um I think I I always go kind of you know we we tend to go elementary up so this time we're going to kind of go High School backwards um so we'll start off with the uh advanced placement uh results um and from college board and some information from college board some of which you have already heard about through uh Dr bur's Friday uh Communications to the board we'll also go over the evidence-based reading and

152writing and math sat results um um and then we'll move into the smarter balance results in ela and math uh for grades 3 through 8 and then um finish up with the Next Generation science standards which are assessed in grades 5 8 and 11 and then I'll talk briefly kind of again this is more of like a 10,000 foot view um about the plans moving forward and how those aligned to the um individual School Improvement plans that you're going to hear about after this presentation so once again just to kind of give us our context you know we continue to be grounded in purpose which is kind of evidenced or symbolized by our onepage strategic Planner on your left um and then inspired by Vision this is the you know the draft uh version of

153our portrait of a learner portrait of a graduate we're still working on the verbiage um for our school and it's really you know as a reminder this is really the vision for it's our North Star it's what we want our students starting in prek Ork whenever they join us all the way through post High School to really uh you know kind of strive to achieve so um that social change maker collaborator and Communicator caring citizen critical and creative thinker um and definitely some consistent themes but some adjustments based on um the work of the pathway last year so the first uh piece of data that I'd like to go through is the AP exam uh data so as a reminder our students uh can start taking AP AP uh classes or college level classes our

154BHS offers uh this level of class to starting freshman year depending on um the subject area I did a historical a four-year historical kind of look back because that kind of is post-pandemic information and uh kind of is the most you know most uh closely aligned to where we are now um and so I wanted to call your attention just to kind of explain the graph the green uh bar is the total number of tests taken in our um in our with in our school so in for example in 2021 we had 518 tests uh taken last year we had 594 those 594 tests last year are were taken by this blue graph which is the 305 total students um who took an AP class and took the exam so these 305 May took on

155average about 1.75 uh tests so anywhere between one to probably three or four depending on the number of AP classes that the students were were in and of those 305 students 240 of them achieved a three or better on any number of their tests so if I took three tests and I got a four on one of them and a two on the other I am still part of this graph because I I I achieved three or better on that one test so we don't really know it's hard to break down exactly of those 240 students how many of them got specific three four or five but I'm going to have some more data um more specific data on the next slide um but that's really that's really good news that our students of of

156those 305 um the majority of them achieved a three or better just for um everyone's edification three or better is what college board um kind of designates as what should earn college credit or what is college in college ready just as a caveat that's College board's um kind of expectation many school schools will only honor depending on the subject and it really is subject specific you know if you look at the at any given schools um list of the the uh um credit that they accept it might be a four in AP US History but it's a three in AP Government so it really depends on the school um and then still many other schools don't even kind of acknowledge the um AP uh uh process they may use it for course advancement so you

157may not have to start at the first level of an English course or a social studies course or a science course but you can't exempt yourself all together so it's very dependent on the school so we don't we're not worried about that so much but that's just information based on these results of this year in 2024 um BHS earned a commodation as an AP honor rooll school and that's because the number of students who took the number of tests they did that they did and earned a three or better on the total number of tests so that's really good news that our kids are doing so well this is a um graph that I kind of added based on the feedback from Cape last week so again that green bar that green graph of 594

158student 594 tests the breakdown in terms of where the that data Falls is that of the three are better you know so we had 67 and 88 student uh tests respectively be in that lower level which is not considered College ready one or two um there were 139 tests that scored a three but 207 and then 108 respectively four and five so that's really good news that that that total of the 240 from the slide before the majority of them are four or fives so it's not just that they're kind of squeaking by we don't have you know 210 getting threes we have a lot of kids getting um you know getting those higher uh those higher scores so that's really impressive um especially considering that for example uh AP human geo geography is a

159freshman is a course taken during freshman year um so pretty impressive all right so the connection to the our our Connecticut new SAT day I feel like every time I'm up here I'm giving more information about the changes in sat um that's because they are constantly changing um based on whatever the needs are of the uh college board and the um post-secondary uh schools so up until last year two years ago they went online right sat were given online for the first time but they were still the same sat that we were kind of used to in years past there were three three parts to each side for the evidence-based reading and writing and the math they were the 4 and a half hour long to 5 and a half hour long test um depending

160on um you know what the what the need was um or if you know a student could actually be sitting there for the majority of a day if they had extended time um at this so then this year this past spring the um it stayed online but the difference this year is now it is adaptive so it um is only two modules per different subject so erw and math are now only two modules the first module for each of them determines the type of module that the second one is so students depending on how they do in the first module will get different in will get a whole different test you know one student to the next um and again because our kids are very invested and very very Savvy they have figured it out

161and um whether they are super scoring which means they're really focused on just one side of the of the assessment so they're just doing erw on one sitting and then just focusing on math in another um that was something we saw kind of a couple years ago um now the kids again we're talking a lot about kind of you know preparedness and uh kind of mental health um students know if they get an easier version in the second module h i just bombb the module because now things are too easy for me I'm flying through this that must mean that the adaptiveness is um giving me easier modules so that's it's again there's there's the jury's out on you know how relevant this data can be for college readiness um but as was mentioned earlier

162we have many more schools that are going back to for their again their admissions purposes lots of different reasons um this is an important test it's becoming more and more important you know we went through a dip there where it was less important um in terms of post col uh plans but it's becoming more and more important and so we're going to have to adapt to that no pun intended um with our SAT prep with our students because they're already worried about it and working on it so here's the historical data again um not complete Apples to Apples I would say more like an apples to pair kind of contrast um because this is the first year of adaptive um SAT but this is the erw uh results so um and again this is based

163on the um what college board considers meeting are exceeding as far as um their kind of cut score so this year and that also adjusts slightly each year this year meeting or exceeding for college board on the erw was uh a total score of 480 um so 71.2% of our students that's this column right here uh met that or exceeded that um and again these are this year's seniors versus 54.8 for the state um and historically you know that kind of ratio has been pretty consistent um with our students versus the versus the state the math um does not look as as good as that um but we also see that there's this so at this year 38.4% of our students uh our Juniors who are now seniors uh met or exceeded that range is

164530 so remember erw was 480 this kind of cut score is 530 um and versus the state which was 29.5 I will draw your attention to the fact that um just as as BHS uh results have the Brookfield results have gone down so have the states um kind of precipitously uh a little bit more in fact all right so now we move on to our 3 through eight smarter balanced assessment uh smarter balance is also a uh Ela and math so not evidence-based reading and writing but um English language arts and math it's administered to all students in the springtime and 3 through eight I will also just mention that almost all of the well all of the uh State assessments at this point rather than having an actual day that is designated across the

165state or even a week now there's a range and it can be anywhere from mid-march to the middle or end of May um and so the different schools um you know depending on the the needs that they have and the way that they can you know all of these need Wi-Fi and need um you know tech technology so we need to kind of strategize across the district but most of them are um you know we we figure out the logistics uh based on those windows um same as in years past we have four levels of achievement meet or exceeded is a three or four um and that's what we're always kind of aiming for um so this is the ELA uh results and so again we we want the nice thing about the smarter balance

166is that we can do cohort we can look at cohorts across time right and so what we have here and I want to thank U Mrs Fus for putting together this chart because I think that the color uh alignment shows um some nice it's just easier to see so this is this year's this past sum past Spring's results so our third graders 50% of them met or exceeded um the SBA the fourth graders 62% met or exceeded the SBA and Ela fifth grade was at 60% sixth grade was at 69% 7th grade at 65% and our current freshmen last year's eighth graders were at 68% um and so as you can see and those cohorts are kind of you know being they're fairly consistent trending up slightly from the 2122 which was just the post

167pandemic so that's good news right that was the first year that we really assessed after the pandemic um but you know we're but these are not scores that we are happy with we still want to get our students to be um more consistently um many more of them um above meeting or exceeding and here are the math scores the same exact um kind of you know approach towards the towards this data and so 2324 is in the far right hand column and uh you can go down third graders were at 58% again at meteor meteor exceeding our fourth graders were at 65% last year was the first year that we 4th through 8th instituted um illustrative math so um was a transition year uh for that fifth grade was at 38% um which is of

168major concern um so you'll see that that cohort went from fourth grade at 61% down to 38% in fifth grade however the fifth graders went from from two years ago went from 47% up to 64% so there's some and we have some ideas about what's going on with that um our seventh graders were at 58% and then our current ninth graders who were eighth graders last year where 57% um met or exceeded so math is clearly an area that we need to um continue to focus on one of the things that we've spoken about with uh the uh CES folks um is the is in fifth grade uh there the standards are very very robust and um the time for instruction um is need there needs to be a little bit more time and in

169instruction the the State Department of Education suggests 60 to 90 minutes and we don't c l have quite that that amount of time in fifth grade um and with the adjustments to CES and the opportunities to really kind of as we've always kind of said right size the middle school and bring the um fifth grade into an appropriate fifth grade model those are some areas that we're really looking for and uh looking forward to kind of adjusting throughout this year in preparation for further changes but Dr P is going to talk a little bit about that our next Generation science standard is just kind of one Standalone uh because there we can't do cohort adjustments because it's only every 3 years um so but generally speaking fifth grade was at 61% 8th grade is 68%

170and 11th grade at 61% so you can see that that's you know we're kind of in that um ballpark for all three uh areas of um subject um but we need to think about what are the ways that we're going to push the bar move that bar further up so here are some of our uh General plans of action so as you know we have um brought in over the last two years some pretty heavy duty Tools in um these two areas at C at the elementary and um up through the Middle School for Math so this this year CK is being instituted so the um core core knowledge language arts in grades K through three with the plan right now for next year to incorporate it in grades four and five um as you

171may remember when we first uh introduced illustrative math our plan was a two-year roll out it's now taking a three-year roll out mainly because of the the um very heavy lift that the K through3 teachers are um doing K through2 teachers are um are doing CK this year third grade half of them last year did Implement a lot of the I of the illustrative math so this year all of third grade is doing illustrative math up through 8th grade and next year K2 will Implement illustrative math So the plan right now is for K through five to be doing cka and illustrative math next year we may have to make some adjustments based on where the fourth and fifth grade is particularly in that fifth grade math so if fifth grade math is still a

172real area and we're really really laser focused in on that CK may have to wait another year for fifth grade we'll have to kind of see um there the social stud studies standards have changed they have been readjusted um and so our uh social studies um instructional coach Jen shat has been worked really hard over the the summer to not only readjust the scope and sequence of our curriculum but also worked very intentionally with cohorts of teachers in the elementary school to make sure that they were prepared to weave in those new standards and they could really kind of have a vision for how they wanted to um to in include that in their instruction similarly with science standards those have been readjusted over the last couple years and um Rachel Cohen has worked hard

173uh readjusting uh those standards as well as well as working very very diligently with teachers particularly in the elementary school um and then as I mentioned we are really reflecting on and reviewing the instructional time um for you know the schedule in general for fourth and fifth grade um some instructional uh approaches and interventions as Dr burill U mentioned earlier you know the instructional coaches are focused in this year as a cohort creating an instructional Playbook and so that instructional Playbook is essentially kind of their um bag of tricks in terms of helping teachers with different uh approaches to instruction so whether it's for use of formative assessment or um differentiated instruction and within all of those areas those kind of larger areas there will be specifical specific instruction and assessment aspects broken down this

174is not something this is not a Playbook that you hand over to teachers and say have at it it is what the instructional coach uses to go through with the teacher as part of a coaching cycle um to say okay so based on what you're telling me and the needs of your students right now this might be a really good instructional approach to look at so let's dig into this do a little bit of research together and then we come up with a student learning plan together so um it is something that is deliverable we'll be able to give to you but it's not I just don't want there to be a misunderstanding that it's like something we just hand out um it's not a standalone kind of how-to book um we will continue to

175uh implement the instructional assessment blocks which are the state department released uh um assessment tools for math Ela and Science and then our continued use of benchmark assessments beginning of the year data um to and middle of the Year data and end of the year data to review present levels um specifically at CES for to make sure that we have an idea of not only with our multi-tiered systems of support at all three different schools but most importantly really what are those tier one instructional um goals that we really or instructional approaches that we need to hone in on so that all students in all classes are getting the highest level of instruction and um academic experience from from their classes um at BHS and again Mr bland is going to talk a little bit

176further about this um there have been adjustments to the to math preparation through an inhouse digital tool that the uh department chair is working on not only creating but rolling out um and and working on with his with his teachers um and in the humanities area for we also have um created you may remember last year Cape approved a new uh college algebra course which is kind of that interim course for juniors um who are not quite ready for pre-calculus but are um you know have gone through Algebra 2 and kind of need that extra re um reaffirmation of those skills and the SAT Math is all about particularly about algebra and specifically Algebra 2 skills um on the humanity side there will be there's formal there they did this last year but it was

177not they kind of have readjusted um and uh are going to give more time to this a little bit further lead time formal inclusion of sat strategies particularly given the fact that it is adaptive and it's so heavily based in Reading um and really some appropriate approaches to approaching the test um in English and social studies courses and also um prior to the SAT day which is going to be the beginning of April this year um and based on PSAT results and last year we did not assess the n9th and tth graders with PSAT but this year as you heard um from our student representative we did have uh all 9th 10th and 11th graders take the PSAT the PSAT is a is um you know again it is a practice SAT but for 11th

178graders it is that National Merit qualifier um so really historically the 11th graders are the ones who take the test because they get naturally entered into the National Merit um uh competition but as we have talked about this is a top priority it'll be highlighted through the sips um as Dr burill mentioned in the beginning this is um everything is co is kind of integrated together right so we um this this is one snapshot in time it's really important data it's data that our teachers and our department chairs and our administrators take and kind of really comprehensively review and then also monitor so that they can see how kids are doing throughout the year through the standardized assessments but also those in-house assessments and also as you heard from the beginning um you know from

179the student Spotlight we have to make sure that our kids feel like they are in a place where they're going to be successful where they are able to um perform to their highest level and they know that their teachers have done everything that they can to prepare them to be successful on the day of the assessment and and in their classes and for the next year and to become contributing citizens of society which is that portrait of The Graduate kind of thing so it's really important to look at this individually but then also kind of comprehensively in terms of how our academic focus is uh is laser focused on that but also our School climate our school culture um and all of the things that we've been talking about throughout the fall ties us back

180to that being that grounded in purpose we are constantly reflecting back on our our strategic plan that was adopted by the board in the spring of 2023 and making sure that we are working toward honoring those you know those guidance that guidance that we that was set forward for us um throughout all of this stuff so uh I've just I always you know want to just highlight a few of those things so the idea of the portrait of The Graduate those domains and descriptors um that will be the Cornerstone of everything that we are doing um rigorous alignment to standards based curriculum that is continues to be our focus in terms of that curricular aspect as you may remember that curriculum instruction and assessment Continuum is so important and then obviously our uh Brookfield p

181po uh main vision for our students and that is it for me but I'm happy to take any questions question I just have a quick question about um a possible action plan with with math um with the scores and all of this is there any thought of incorporating more fact fluency in addition to rolling out the UST of mass because I know it doesn't allow for much which is just some of that practice that rope practice that I think so I think that um the the main there there's definitely going to be you know an integration that's like last year what we did in terms of not throwing the baby out with the bath water um the main thing I think that we have to really dig into and yes there can certainly be that

182instructional level that we could get into um is the time on task the teaching time so really looking at our at our schedule and making sure that we have the time because right now we're struggling to get through an illustrative math um full lesson uh and so if we can Shore that up and then there's also I mean but certainly at those tier at that tier 2 level or even during the morning meeting time or those other things where there can be kind of found time 10 minutes 20 minutes here that's those are the kinds of things that we could certainly incorporate and and they're they're talking about that at the elementary level and at the middle school level on a regular basis through their instructional leadership teams and with the instructional coaches and those

183kinds of things do you know what the turnaround time for the PS results are that changes a a bunch okay it's not it's not the same when that comes out can we get that and kind of do like a mirror with the esack well we can look at fifth grade I mean e8th grade into nth grade right that and then look at um maybe also then looking at midterms once that rolls out looking at that data too we could certainly do that at at a at a cape level and then decide what we wanted to bring up to back I'm sorry is the is that testing back yet yeah that's what this that this was from the spring this is so esack is always in the spring we be put Oh you mean in terms

184of student reports we have not we have not gotten all that loaded up to yeah I was just curious as where our students were yeah so the student reports are going to be coming out by the end of the month um we'll be loading like we did last year we load them into docil loock um through power school and then we'll let teachers or uh parents know when that is coming that's forthcoming I just wanted to say I thought that that was really also well done and though the way that these are are working together I think helps us appreciate um if I can call this the micro which it isn't really but also with the macro so thanks a bunch my pleasure that was awesome okay so that means that we are moving uh

185to the school Improvement plan updates um did you guys already do rock paper scissors no they they have it already all loaded up here I'm pretty sure so um does that mean well for the folks at home you're about to see the The Traveling Show so I'm going to help Dave here excellent well he actually uh challenged me to a wrestling match to go first and no I I feel like I maybe would be able to read about three lines so Mr blend has agreed to read my class school Improvement plan for me all right so good thing I saw a part of this yesterday uh we prepped so I know a little bit about this which is a good thing um as you know that there's been obviously a lot of conversation about uh

186CLA School climate uh and so Dr pepas has outlined a bunch of these different things um you know first of all is the PBIS positive behavior intervention support system um you know that we've been a ruler district for some time now uh we continue to do that uh they have a great initiative called classy coins uh it's something that I saw in the office the other day I think you did you meet your goal they met their goal so it was nice to see I saw the line there's a debate like do they have to get to the line does it go over the line I heard that um and so it looked like they did meet their their Mark with Classy coins so uh the continue reinforcement of that positive uh behavior is fantastic

187um you heard tonight already about the Cubs clubs uh you great presentation about student Spotlight there's other things in terms of Buddy readers maker Space Buddies um these are peer mentorship programs we know that that connection between upper and lower grades is really key uh you'll hear about in my Pres a little bit about some of the things we're going to do at the high school and you also hear what they're already doing at the middle school as well so you'll see a lot of trends of uh connection from uh CES all the way through to the high school some new things we're doing some things they've already been doing so that's uh fantastic um we're visiting the pause lessons like explicitly teaching those you know you have a very large building with a whole

188lot of kids and a lot of different grades we always want to make sure at that level that you're teaching appropriate behavior right how to walk respectfully in the classrooms and hallways how to not trip over rocks um cafeteria bathrooms and buses right and getting that common language is really important so that it's the same for everybody so the expectations whether you're being talked to by a first grade teacher in One Wing or the fifth grade teacher somewhere else that common language is really huge so they're on the same level you can use those same words and it's help for the kids to understand uh also obviously continue to work the ruler approach approach excuse me um when we get to a point we talk about the blueprint um and also having students resolve their

189regulated motions and resolve conflict right so that ruler approach is embedded in there um administrator check-ins during grade level plc's I'm not entirely sure how often those happen to grade level plcs days once every six days those are once every six days and just while I'm still have some speaking voice uh staff climate surveys we're working with Ed Advance uh you know to to eron's point that you had made at a previous meeting teachers need a place where we they're guaranteed to feel comfortable expressing the opinions not wait till the end of the year uh so by working with Ed Advance we're going to do this class staff climate surveys throughout the year um climate team uh sponsoring staff bonding activities throughout the year I was very jealous we were at the high school uh

190for uh our professional learning day high school is at high school is at CS for the professional learning day and there was this potluck going on and now my teachers are jealous and so now we're talking about what we're going to do here right so it was it was a nice thing to see that they did that could I please make it clear that we did share what high school we didn't right go away this is our pilot let's be clear yes that we were allowed to partake um but it was it was it was a lot of food it was a ton of food um you're going you heard a lot already tonight and you'll continue to hear the work through all three of the presentations about the reflective intelligence work we're doing with

191Boston College um and Tim Klein who's been associated with every top-notch University I feel like across the country quite frankly um you know we had a great first day uh for all the um all the facil fa ators I couldn't think of the word I always get facilitators and practitioners that was a lot of the training on Monday Tuesday what day mon I don't know what day of the week it is um he's the one sick and I so it was on so we had full day training for all the facilitators um at CES uh and then the practitioners also got to start working on some of their goals and things they might work on and then we'll be looking at November 5th to actually spend some time with facilitators working with the practitioners for

192some of that reflective intelligence work which is just fantastic when you think about the number of teachers that have signed up to be a part of that um really they want to find purpose in their life and their work and it's it's really helpful uh and then there is uh CL CES connects which is Staff information document shared every six days it's based on that PLC rotation that Dave talked about before so it's shared after that to kind of coincide with here's the meeting and here's the the followup from there parent engagement um this makes me want to be an elementary principal organized familyfriendly School events such as family arts and crafts nights Gatherings classroom celebrations mystery readers I know one of my staff members is really was asking today how I she can get

193over to read to one of the teachers uh to one of the classes um band's and chorus concerts which I have to say last year for those of you at the board meeting when you heard they were fantastic um that was just amazing to listen to them um and I always love a good science fair and variety show uh art shows as well something I didn't even know you were doing um the other thing is PTO monthly meetings what they found is alternating between uh mornings and evenings allows for more participation for parents right that's a really important piece for for parent engagement to get everybody you possibly can so alternating every once in a while you get a different group different perspectives really looking to collect everything from everybody um presentation slides for parents

194on interpreting assessment data and supporting student learning at home I remember when my children were in elementary school which wasn't all that long ago and I thought I knew everything that I knew as an educator and then I got some I really didn't know what it all meant uh and even sometimes when we sit there and I during these board the presentations when uh we talk about data team stuff here at District level I often have questions right a lot of acronyms a lot of growth targets um you know and there's things I still don't know so it' be absolutely helpful for parents to be able to have that um I think you know conducting a survey to identify barriers to engagement in areas of Interest that's something you're going to see also I think

195in both of our presentations as well um we want to bring PE parents in and try to find a way it's a little harder at the high school level parents often times want to say you know we're going to take a step back and let you do it at the elementary it's a little bit different so with all the possible opportunities and everybody wants to be involved what's the best way to do that um the bi-weekly School newsletter that's every other week uh with uh updates and highlights and the 100% use of parent Square by all staff for communications sent home it's a great new tool and we're continuing to exploring all those different things that we're doing there um this is where you're going to start to lose me a little bit but K3

196core knowledge language arts and 35 illustrative math programs uh that's CK I've heard a lot of that's how I've usually heard it and so when I see it spelled out oh I get that now cka I was kind of nodding a lot and understanding now core knowledge language arts and illustrative math which you've heard about implementing those programs um the mtss multi-tiered support services um for those of you that don't know and I think we've talked about that term a lot um it really well works out if you see literacy math and behavior right it's all those things typically RTI srbi was really focused on those academic things mtss actually brings in the behavior piece as well um you know looking at Benchmark assessment scores um you know previous Benchmark assessment scores and current Benchmark

197assessment scores uh you saw we do a lot of data analysis uh at every level and that continues at CES um I guess looking to implement more math time in grades four and five um that's something that Sarah was talking about a little bit too concerns of yeah and I I really want to drive that point in home that we do not have enough math instructional time right now and we're working with our teachers and our coaches and our instructional leadership team to get more math time so uh next time you hear from me and it would be nice if we came back and did an update uh on how our sips are going you're going to hear more math time in fourth and fifth grade yeah you know effectively using the iabs which with

198the interim assessment blocks those are through Smarter Balance those are things that we can use and we've been used them for a couple different years now um and seeing some success with that to continue to use that um the instructional coaches Partnerships um you know improve instruction at tier one and tier one plus you know that tier that basic level of instruction that all kids get you know often times uh there can be a misnomer a misunderstanding that um when you work at the tier one level there's a lot of flexibility and differentiation that has to happen at that level you don't automatically go right to that next level of tier two these um you know and sending kids out different places there's a lot of stuff that teachers can do in the classroom themselves

199um having a PLC meeting facilitated by instructional coaches is obviously very helpful uh and then monthly instructional leadership team meetings um to review Data Systems and structures uh obviously we all have professional learning goals as well um you're going to see a lot of familiarity and similarities across the three schools with this providing dedicated time on Wednesday meetings and schedule PD um you know we have the faculty are now in this embarking on this and started this week really developing their own growth personal growth plans which is something something that a lot of times it's been you you give it to me the administrator evaluator gives it to me and you know we just kind of do it sometimes they have ideas this is such a much more collaborative but really teachers are driving their

200own goals which is fantastic so they need the time to do that so whether whether it's scheduled PD time we had this past week on Monday uh some of the time it's going to happen on November 5th our Wednesday after school meeting some of those are leveraged to do some of that same work um and the classroom observations as well uh that's going to be different for us as evaluators we used to typically go in and watch a classroom and it was you know I'm going to come watch your third grade math lesson whatever it may be for Dave um and you take notes and you provide feedback on that lesson now we're orienting that and uh organizing our thoughts so we're going into to watch the third grade math lesson with a focus on

201what your goals actually are instead of just out of nowhere and just writing about things so there's this through line starts to emerge and we can actually support teachers better through their work um and then continue to share professional development opportunities um because they're going to there's a lot of different opportunities I know I have a couple people that have gone out already I'll talk about that myself but I know um they're going to continue to do that at CES as well if I could just as Dean is transitioning up um just kind of reiterate what uh Mark and and uh Dave were sharing you know the the integration when we were talking about the integration of all of these things um I'm not sure and I know that we have some Educators on here

202so you probably understand but I'm not sure um that the general public understands how impactful um EV valuation plan is on climate um not just for teachers but for the entire school for the administrators and for everybody else up until this past year we've had flexibility since the pandemic which has been nice except it's been a little nebulous and when it's nebulous it causes a little bit of consternation right people get a little uneasy what exactly does this mean am I going to get evaluated what what are they looking for um prior to that when it was a very um accountability driven kind of onerous heavy-handed approach it had a significant impact and it did not have the desired impact that the um state was looking for um but it really did set up this

203kind of um this compliance-driven uh situation and it did not it was not particularly efficacious and it certainly didn't help uh with how teachers felt like they were being fulfilled um one of the pieces of the climate survey that I was really interested in from last year was the professional learning uh feedback uh because we did this big very very big focus and preparation for what we knew was coming down the pike with teacher evaluation um on that on those Pathways where people had a little bit more voice and choice in what they were doing there was also consistency across the the whole year and there was that focus on K12 vertical articulation but still even despite those efforts people did not feel there were I think that our our um results were in the

20460% range 65% 68% % of people felt like that was relevant professional learning for them which meant that over 30% did not feel like that um that's significant so having a new teacher valuation plan that again and the state very astutely um adjusted and pivoted so that this is really about teachers feeling like they can learn and grow based on the needs of their students who show up every day um but having a lot more voice and choice there um that has a huge impact on the fact that teachers feel not only like they have ownership but that they have investment and the work that they are doing is personally relevant to them and it happens to be that a big part of our teachers are focusing in on that personal relevance work with the

205Boston College work that we're doing so I just wanted to reiterate that it is certainly something that um all three of our principles have chosen that and it may or may not be their professional goal because it doesn't have to be their professional goal they can choose something else but all three of them were trained as facilitators the other day and um as I said it's just been hugely hugely positive the feedback that we're getting thank you for letting I ask a question really quick are you finding that teachers this year are using the instructional coaches more and are they become because we had talked at the end of last year about how only a small percentage of teachers had found it especially at CES sort of like how to use them with this new

206the way that you've laid out what they're in charge of have you found that more teachers are utilizing them in the way that you intended so um I'm gonna I'd like to table that question because uh we're going to get more information November where I can probably maybe the December meeting we'll have the uh survey results but we had talked at Cape about resurveying in November After People set their goals because that's where we'll see the kind of more concrete data um anecdotally they are continuing to be more and more integrated into the work um and it's K8 because those are that's where we have coaches we don't have coaches at the high school so um but yeah we are we um they have always been involved in a curriculum and um and kind of

207curriculum Specialists as well as that instructional piece but there is a lot more integration continuing to happen you know when that kid goes to the nurse right and realizes they got out of the test because they went to the nurse go back Dean has a stomach ache all of a sudden and so now no I'm kidding I told him he did such a great job I thought he would he would help me out too Dave you need to go home Dr Pips asked yeah good bye bye cuz you're kind of we love you but go ahead know that now it's my's turn far away from every and I and I am here to talk about have a good night um to talk about whis's school Improvement plan and before I start again you will see

208a through line in a lot of in in many of the slides we may have worded things differently um but again it's that whole idea is as we were working together like Mark said it was soting when he came up here like we knew each other's presentation pretty much because we were we were trying to work together obviously but to be able to plan and present uh for you today so same same uh types of slides we have the school climate some of the areas I just wanted to highlight is uh we have our WMS School climate committee we're going to have we have monthly meetings with with um with that group I did come to one of the last board meetings I spoke a little bit about um how I was excited about our

209web program it's uh where everyone belongs is our sixth grade orientation and the lessons that um our eighth grade students are delivering to our sixth graders has been a real a great success and with that we also started our unplugged hour which is for our seventh and eighth graders around it's a social tech-free activity um whether it's um playing games board games puzzles learning more about Taylor uh Swift's era uh or tour whatever you want to call it whatever it may be walking around the building whatever it may be again we're trying to really push home that that idea of we talked about our cell phones being put away and um enjoying some time with staff that they haven't had maybe or or even would have we have um seventh grade teachers that have eighth

210grade students who they didn't even have last year again kind of that that through line of from um from clees about kind of like an advisory in a sense so um not sure if it'll continue like they talked about every year the same group because we want to give some choice to the kids but again it's been a great start to that utilize the ruler like we talked about that approach when working with students and creating opportunities for obviously for any of their social emotional growth uh me principal meets with the WMS student council quarterly to encourage student voice uh conduct our annual I know Dave Dr Pepi spoke about our um annual student staff and fames climate surveys and getting the feedback from that analyzing our results and I did put on there also

211thought exchange and Ed advance to some of the the group that we're going to be working with as we uh move forward especially with all of the new legislation and updates that are coming forward increase participation engagement in after school clubs inter Scholastic Sports band indoor course I did speak to the number of students that are in our banded course program and again it's just it's just so great to see that because we all know when kids participate the more students that participate in after school clubs they feel um you know more it's more important to them to be at school and to feel part of um of the school so that's been a great uh success so far this year uh also highlight and celebrate student and staff uh success stories I do that

212at our faculty meetings but also in our newsletter again because when we have a lot of great things that are going on and we try to do our best to highlight those parent engagement uh utilizing parent Square as they said to communicate with families throughout the school year and that's not just me myself but I do put out the newsletter with events activities celebrate again student staff student and staff successes but also with our teachers utilizing that to uh communicate more with our with our parents so I that I think I've seen a a great um I just think of almost every day I I get everybody's that anyone that puts something out I get it on my feed and and I told uh Will Smith our sixth grade science teacher it's like almost every

213day do you at the gy it's like pictures of what they're doing today it's really awesome it's really great and just you know kind of it's a whole idea of having parents as part of the conversations with your students about what they're learning it's a great way to do that um also inviting parents to WMS for informative workshops things that again we've talked about these things in the past but more around social media or peer relationships organizational skills Etc we recently sent home a Google form uh to families about the interest in a speaker on raising healthy capable and resilient middle schoolers um also interest in future topics that that we would have and again you could see them up there about communication connection engagement technology use I just sent home something today an article

214tonight about being able to talk to your kids about social media when should you get it and how you should um talk to them about the use of it homework and academic support toxic achievement cultures mental health and emotional well-being I know that's always been you know as we continue to talk about that in school climate parent well-being and self-care interestingly a good handful parents have have clicked on that as interest I don't know if it's going to be one of the winners but um we all know we we talk about all the time even with our staff we have to be we ourselves as a as as parents have to be well in understanding how our feelings and what's going on in our life to be able to also model for our kids so

215I we thought that was a really um significant one and then one of them made me laugh was chores and household responsibilities what do people think about that um PTO monthly meetings alternating similar to what Dave uh what Mark had said about CS alternating between mornings and night time we've been doing that um for some years again just to be able to get more people there because if they're working during the day they can't make it they can make the night and vice versa we know because night's a little bit crazy too so if they can make it during the day that's even better for them student experiences and outcomes um again just as evaluators that we have and we were talking about the growth plans but just instructional strategies we continue to talk about

216if you haven't you've heard us say it in the past at some of the meetings about the gradual release of responsibility model it's just in how we we develop our lessons on a daily basis with our teachers with learning targets background knowledge so on and so forth modeling guided practice and then obviously giving feedback to students and discourse but then independent practice we do this I do we do you do right we need to get to the you do because they have to be able to do it independently right so that's uh something again we continue to uh and our instructional coaches continue to um do that or talk about those things in their department meetings utilize our instructional coaches and and also with Administration to help in creating and executing the certified staffs each

217of their uh individual growth plans through collaboration and obtaining resources which I'll talk a little bit later utilizing our reading and math tutors through our Title One Grant which is huge is helps us to create small groups based on our aadience Benchmark results um or even our formative assessments that we do for specific areas because that is important in helping us they're a part of um our mtss process and obviously students that are struggling in areas or standards or whatever it may be we have we have those also besides our regular intervention so that's a that's a huge Plus for us continue to incorporate we've done this for years uh the last few years with smarter balance and uh NGS has interm assessment blocks uh we're going to continue to do that and obviously we

218want to adjust instructional strategies and also also use it for our interventions based on certain standards or areas of challenge or weaknesses that we see in kids and I think I've said this before but when you when you have those types of questions uh excuse me um with these assessments there's all certain types of questions the way they ask them um you know when we tell the kids and we we laugh about every time I well I do I laugh every time I say it like you need to read the directions well I didn't know I need to put two things well what did it say in the directions oh yeah pick two of the following right math teacher I hear you over there um so again it's something so simp simple and we do

219talk about giving kids I always say I'm a baseball guy say you got to give them at bats you got to let them see it because it's silly when students would get a problem wrong when they actually know how to do it but they didn't read the directions right and again that's something simplistic I know but I think it's it's it's important to make sure we do consistent use of our mtss uh same thing as as Dr baski was talking about in there because obviously it helps us to guide our intervention decisions that we have and and you know for for future use I identifying students at the highest risk for needing additional support with a focus on academic emotional attendance issues which something I know Dr burilla talked about about how our attendants we

220had a big push for our attendants at at all the levels and our numbers have have helped tremendously but when I say that there and create an action plan through our atrisk monthly meeting is we have an atrisk monthly meeting with myself with the our mental health staff with our nurses with our uh school resource officer and administration and DEA students and we we talk about some of our students that are at the highest risk for needing this support based on obviously again like I said academics the emotional needs attendance issues and other things that uh anecdotal stuff that you know their their visits to the guidance counselor their visits to the nurse's office things like that and we try to put together an action plan based on the information that we know and also

221obviously making sure that we're we are meeting with the students but also reaching out to families that are in need create opport unities for our um obviously for all students but our M multilanguage Learners students to access support and Remediation during class time and elt we've done that before with during elt time and some of the pushing but this year we also have changed a little bit with our schedule where our um our teacher is also pulling students during a UNH time similar to what we do in math and reading where students may be pulled out of a special for a short period of time we are doing that also with our um M MLL teacher so to be able to have a longer period of time in a longer period of time meaning minutes

222but also a longer period of time going along that they're able to work um in small groups with students so that we're hoping that that will help to uh change a little bit portrait of a graduate I know we're uh Mark I'm sure we'll be talking about it but continue to incorporate opportunities in our lessons to plan for students to have these experiences we've talked about Dr man talked about you know with our strategic plan and Dr burill about being critical uh you know caring citizens critical and creative thinkers communicators and collaborators and social change makers what does that look like as we continue to as our staff continues to put together with our curriculum but also our daily lessons what can we do to make a make a change uh WS student showcase I

223thought was pretty cool to uh since we talked about the numbers in our music programs they um our music department is putting something together where students can register and sign up it's kind of like a talent show and that's going to be in November 8th at WS so students uh can register to get up and it could be any type of you know musical Thing it actually be reading poems whatever it may be that there's their talent in that aspect um they're going to we're going to try this is something new we're going to do um again to kind of showcase our students uh provide social emotional support for our students families with our WS mental health staff counselor classroom lessons providing resources and informative speakers and our new WS Wellness room uh we have

224put in a bef Grant similar to I think what the high school started to put together just an area where we um where students where we have we we haven't have it yet where it's going to be scheduled there's going to be someone in there every um class period I think but some schools try to do we don't have we can't do that right now but what we're doing is our mental health staff are using that utilizing that to run groups and have areas where students you know can kind of chill when when when they may need it so um that's something that we're excited about that's going we have a room we started it but it's not too pretty yet like I want I want it to look nice nice um so and and

225I have to I give a lot of credit and I should say I apologize to our counselors because they're they're the ones who put that that Grant in and the amount of work that they have done uh specifically I know Rachel jabber had reached out to some she was looking online she was looking online for schools that are doing it and she's like here Mr Dean come here come here look at this how cool is this one and she goes I'm calling this guy right now I'm like oh that's she got a hold of him he was tell he he called her back he show he told her how he got all these different things things from like a board that has where you go like this with your hands and it just the sensory

226aspect of it and different furniture that they have so it's it's it was really it's it's I have to say I give all the credit to our counselors and mental Mental Health social workers and school psychologists because they've been a big part of putting this together so I I can honestly say I can't take any of that credit um and lastly professional learning similar exactly to what uh Dr pipasi and you know Mark had spoke about it's being able to have that professional learning growth plan specific to what they that staff wants to wor work on we're giving them that dedicated time our observations and feedback obviously specific to that and like like Mark said it's going to be specific to whatever they choose we're not just going in you know on any hey I'll

227go in on Thursday to your core 3 class it's not going to be like that which is a good thing again providing resources and advertising workshops courses so on and so forth and just being able to to help them as they um as they go forward on the growth plan now Europe any questions anybody want to hang out the wellness room yes when it's done let me know no questions all right thank you very much all right so on to our school Improvement plan at Brookfield High School um really start by just going through a couple different School climate things this is broken up into two slides yeah there's two School climate slides um we do have monthly uh School climate committee meetings they're made up of um teach two students from each grade uh

228as well as teacher representatives and parent representative as well um and those School climate meetings so you know the structure of those they're really structured so that students can have a voice in the beginning of the meeting oftentimes there may be things that we want to discuss as a faculty um specific to uh certain situations that maybe privacy would be important for the kids not to know everything that's going on so they can speak in the first part of the meeting and they're there for the majority of it and they step out the one we had in in September as you can imagine was um unfortunately very it was shortly after um we had the swatting instant here on the 25th so that really kind of took the entire uh duration of the meeting kids

229were very concerned and wanted to talk about school safety and clim like that's what they felt so we're using the entire meeting to really have that conversation um you know we are going to be doing um you know a pre- and post climate survey you'll see further down there um we're working in conjunction with the we're going to become a no place for hate school uh which is uh it's not a a a thing that you just get to say oh we are and use the badge you actually have to go through a multi-step process to become a no place forid school and actually apply there's certain benchmarks of things you have to do um so they the the team that's working on this Dr Spencer and Mrs nelo who's one of our school counselors

230um and Dr Spencer is in charge of the humanities Department uh they've recruited a uh a a steering committee for lack of a better term and they're working on the different benchmarks they have to hit they want to hit throughout the year to actually officially make our application to become a no place for hate school so it's a pretty robust process there is a student survey that's part of that that's something that I've always uh we did them in drips and drabs and other times um you know we always do the staff and the uh family surveys every year um but it's really important to get the the feedback from the students right and so we're going to be doing that as well uh and we're going to coordinate that with the no place for

231hate survey and so we're going to leverage that work in school climate no place for hate there are two separate groups entities but they're going to work hand in hand with a lot of different things um there's a newly formed principal advisory Council which is going to be formed of students there is uh a student actually came to me um I was very proud a sophomore and said uh Mr Blanda I really don't like your no cell phone and ilt Rule and I said okay um what do you think of it she goes well out out of respect I want you to know that I'm create a a change.org survey and I'm putting it out and you know how do you feel about that and and I said you absolutely should do that and I

232support it 100% put it out there let's get the input from um the students we're going to come back uh and have another conversation um and then we started talking about how that next next leverage step is you know often times I hear from um there's only certain kids I hear from right so this is a student that I've never met with before who came up out of nowhere and wanted to have this conversation and so she's going to be my go-to as a sophomore to really try to collect other kids that could be part of a principal's advisory Council so I can hear uh more voices um from the different kids uh so that's one thing that you'll be seeing um you already heard about the Ed Advance um thought uh exchange uh that

233we'll be working on um student government and other clubs activities to promote engagement social interactions uh one of the big things that it was a club Fair this year again um which was just to get kids identified as to the different things that are going on in the building um and you'll hear more about some other social interactions that we're working on uh for the kids uh we're actually um you heard it from Melissa Baines a little bit and she shared about the fundraising piece that we're looking to do for Asheville and uh down in Florida um she didn't she left out the friendly bet that is existing between us and bethl high school um so the way we have a big uh we have a football game on Friday night it actually is Beth's

234homecoming game a little worried they're going to have a big crowd I'm sure cuz they're undefeated we're undefeated but whatever School raises more money on Friday night the oppos if let's say bethl wins well then myself Student Government adviser and Mr baldman will have to wear bethl gear which is not that hard for me cuz I live there but um my son will be happy but we're going to have to wear it to the Powderpuff football game and at school that one day so it was this little friendly bet we have between each other and vice versa we raise more money they'll be wearing Brookfield stuff um so those sorts of things and the kids are really excited about the different things that we can do to help raise money and engage in the community

235um the our yearbook adviser Mr Stein Biser came up to me and said you know we need to find a better way to get more um on demand pictures and um stuff for the yearbook and I really want to celebrate some positive so he created a shared drive that staff can upload inform like upload pictures to things like uh a club goes for a hike or the math team just competed last week like those sorts of pictures I don't often and you know I don't often get pictures of the math League of the math team competing right we don't share those but it' be great to be able to do that and I know they do take pictures so we have this repository so I'll be putting that some more stuff out in the coming

236weeks in our newsletters um the other part was uh staff advisory Council it kind of was it came out of the students that were saying we need to hear more voices and the same thing with the Bea who has a their PR reps that meet with me monthly um that really talk about contractual and Union issues there are more things that go on a building besides just contractual and Union issues so having the input of not just the teachers and the faculty but also of PA professionals and the secretaries custodians they're all feeling different things so we want to make sure we listen and address those uh parent Square um is what a communication tool it actually is as when we're barely dipping our toes in in some of the things that it is capable

237of doing um you know I know there was a reference to some of the two-way messaging um I think it was uh Dr Jung was talking about um the MLL piece right and so that you can work in this in their native in their home language which is fantastic find that very helpful uh it even translates post automatically in our former communication tool we'd have to hit a translate button and it would be based on it often didn't work all that well uh this just naturally does it which is fantastic um you know we'll be scheduling parent teacher conferences we're working on the subtleties of that it'll be through parent Square this year um which is happening at the middle and high school dean and I working on something weekly newsletters permission slips volunteer forms

238and the part I'm excited about is attendance reporting it's going to automate it a little bit for parents so parents would be able to um if a student is out for a particular day you'll get a notice in parents square and through that actual notification with a link that will expire you can submit the excuse note right through there so that sort of thing to really help parents you can get engaged with this and so um PTO meeting last night well I didn't see the final minutes because I was unfortunately not able to attend um but the uh my sister principal did go we're looking to host quarterly family engagement night so that was one of the things they're working on um you know by based on input from PTO and surveys uh you know

239obviously PTO and I know Mr baldum goes the all sports booster club meetings as well so really engagement from that perspective student experiences and outcomes there's a few things to talk about Port of grad is that big picture piece um I continue to be a part of that committee that's going to continue to work to look at our next steps um our plan this year is to conduct learning walks to really identify grade level learning progression so that means us going to different buildings in different places and seeing what going on so we can really pinpoint those sorts of actions connected to all the different attributes that we're really looking for that is the next step in the process we're going to we're going to do that this year uh dual enrollment articulations um that's

240something that we're always looking to do college board is an interesting group but we also have other options you don't always have to take AP courses we can also offer dual enrollment they're getting a little more tricky with some of their expectations for what they want their uh teachers to actually have master's degrees in certain levels um depending on where it goes there's even mention of a competency test for to give like the college wanted to give one of our teachers a competency test for a course that they've been teaching for however many years and clearly know it I was in a math class I'm looking at Sarah she knows um sometimes that can be but they're questioning so it's a great opportunity in a dual enrollment course for a student to be able to

241leave um that particular class with an actual College transcript right and credits which is fantastic AP doesn't always guarantee that um and Anna talked about that that a little bit so we're looking to continue to expand those articulations in fact Westcon is really coming around they've reached to us about more about pre-cal because they noticed that southern had we were looking we exploring Southern somebody must have said something now Westcon is like we want to be party so it's it's a competition but a good way that's going to benefit kids as we look to expand those opportunities um we also want to host um AP dual enrollment information sessions because as I'm explaining this to you we realize parents don't often know and kids don't often know exactly what this means what's the difference AP

242and dual enrollment uh what does it mean for you long term uh Mrs Usher when our college and career counselor is very helpful and can explain some of those things um she's done a lot of work she is also an admissions officer for a college out west somewhere um so she really understands what that looks like in an application there's a lot of kids are thinking about those things but we wanted kids kids and families to have a really good um perspective moving forward uh Joy asked a great question about when we're going to get those P results not soon enough I mean they just did it yesterday we tested and Kudos at this point should out to Rosa hopcroft who is the school counseling secretary organized really the PSAT with uh with uh my

243support we tested 591 students across three grades yesterday all with um devices the Wi-Fi maintained and stayed nothing fell out all those things that I was having nightmares about when I woke up at 2:00 in the morning um there's a really weird me like chasing kids down uh stairs telling them to get there it was it was very odd um but it all worked out well but you think about it that ends up being 96.25% of those 9th 10th and 11th grade students took the PSAT which is amazing um so that was fantastic we'll get that information and then use it right away as soon as it comes um and that's one of the things that I met with when I met with my Humanities and stem Department shairs in terms of English and and

244math really those two course areas and uh the PSAT and sat we talked about ownership of the process we can't just say yes the scores are low let's try to do the same thing we have to do some we have to do something different um and Mr Hill really in his digital um perspective as as Dr man talked about has already created these digital sat style and he's giving them to these core courses and kids are taking that and getting feedback and we're he's he's already working very hard on that um you also see that there's we're in corporating PSAT and sat style questions remember I did give this to all the teachers at the beginning of the school year they were really happy with me when I gave them their practice sat um and

245it's not always just about the styl and type of questions sometimes it's about uh the approach right and so approach taking a high stakes test like that um I this the response I got he's going to be so mad from my son who took the PSAT today how did it go okay English good math not so good that's what I got from him and I talked to him later on I said what does that mean he goes yeah after the first couple questions in math I was just really frust frustrated and yeah I said forget it like awesome so as much as you know we do this as adults and as parents and we try to coach our kids to do it they there is it's it's going to be an interesting Road um but

246uh we we can certainly do more in terms of how to having helping the kids understand the importance of this test I actually had a couple sophomores say do I really need to take this test what does it matter for me we don't really have any other sort of like standardized Benchmark across the board that gives us how kids are performing Rel to other students and it's a very helpful tool um you know uh I did want to share though too some results that just came out so just so you know um AP um you know that Dr man talked a lot about what that AP honor roll means they just shared some of the other additional informations to what that means so we're recognized as a as overall as a we are the silver

247level of the AP honor role um and we also got an AP All Access award so we scored subset over in College culture um that's 64% of our students um took at least one AP course so that was really cool um so across their four years it's at least 64% of our kids to get to gold level it's 65 which is one student we were one student away from reaching gold on that one we did get gold in college credit which means that um of the students that took AP at least um they got at least a three or higher on at least one AP test we're at 47 7% that puts us if we wanted to get to the Platinum level you know which is 50 we would need a flux of six students

248and then we're at the Platinum level for college optimization um which has to do with at least taking uh five total exams uh across their four-year career um so that was we just got that official that's what our actual rankings were from that perspective um then also you see provide social emotional support for students through student family support team School counseling ilt lessons Civic social worker in the wellness room Dean talked about it our school counseling department and our student support services are fantastic here at the high school they do a ton of work we realize that more than just having that serby M MTS serby conversation before really talking about mtss there was such real there's such needs emotionally for kids and behaviorally that we actually separated them out and we're looking at student

249family support team so the team decided we need who says this we need more meting but we needed them to talk about kids to get results right so we created the student family support team having the Civic uh group is amazing what they do in the wellness room I was looking at statistics they just did they do an infographic for me every year so there's a sign in when you go into the Wellness room downstairs not every kid always does sign in 1,724 signin last year to the wellness room and that's those kids that actually signed in some kids you can imagine Breeze right by it um you know and then just looking at the other things that they do like some of our counselors not on five the kids students that don't have a

250504 plan or a um let's say an IEP that require counseling sometimes those have counseling goals 88 students they see informally right they have regular appointments on there so they are really focusing hard on supporting our kids at all different levels you heard about um uh Cubs right at what is it called Cubs yeah Cub Club at um CES you heard about web which is something that Dean applied for last year with the bef web's counterpart of the high school is link crew right so we're going to develop that I've actually signed I budgeted for it this year so I already paid for the training we have two teachers going out to be trained to be link crew leaders it's a three-day training where it's very intensive they'll come back we'll start recruiting link leaders

251and it'll be it'll help create a a formal High School transition program for incoming nth graders so they have that person that they meet one or two people in small groups when they start the high school those kids will run the orientation and then throughout the course of the year there's touch points of different events throughout the rest of the course of the year so they'll have that through line which is fantastic and then professional learning uh this is going to be a lot of the same stuff that you've heard already um you know that dedicated time has been great um you know the reviews of practice I'm excited to actually go in and have a real specific Focus um you know sometimes if you're either on the end of being observed or you're the

252Observer we were trained to initially at one point point to script and write every single thing anybody ever said walked around often times it wasn't that helpful for feedback we're excited as administrators to be able to connect things directly to growth um and then I have people going to workshops already people are like you see NCT and ncss that's the National Council of teachers of English and then the National Council of social studies those are conferences in Boston we have people presenting at both at these national conferences um or want to go to them uh we have teachers that are going to some co- teing workshops we have our newest co- teing Partnerships um you know we have a partnership that has our MLL teacher um for the uh for the middle and high school

253and our reading specialist are going to this co- teing training together that's offered by cir as well as one of our newest Partnerships for our new special education teacher that came on this year and the English teacher that he works with they're going as pairs to help improve that um co- teing piece and these are things that they want to do right so we're seeing the faculty are being more engaged I have 50 the training that we talked about on Monday where we had the the facilitator training they broke us up into two groups one group was the high school right we were just our own group because there's so many people that want to facilitate and then when Dr man and I met today to start looking at groups think of the certified staff

254I think there's 80 something 84 85 certified staff 52 have signed up to be a part of this purpose and reflective practitioner work so they're really excited about that it's it's I'm excited about it um and yeah that's what I have for you [Music] today questions for Mr blenda thank you very much sir I just have um yeah just one thing sure um I thought that was really comprehensive you know I appreciated a lot of the actionable items um I was just hoping at least for the parent engagement piece I think that's a challenge like you said um it just makes me sad like when I go to open house even the sports meeting parent teacher conferences like it's there's no one around you know it's it was yeah so although you know I respect

255the parents Square that's you know District sure initiative and the PTO meetings no one shows up to those either um and I worry that no one's going to come to the family engagement nights yeah you know I know in large drove so I'm hoping that we can have more of a like a more reflective or different mindset like shift what what can we really do to you know get parents involved and yeah be more active and it's it's a a fantastic point right and you saw that was one of the lightest slides that I had right because it's one of the things I think I struggle with frankly the most is what's how do I get more parents involved and it doesn't necessarily have to be them being here right physically in the space you

256know sometimes you can measure parent engagement by the engagement with with teachers right and I could say I think there's certain teachers in this building that do a really good job and have really high parent engagement right um so I think I also have to be mindful of that and think of different ways other than just hosting an event right um I felt that I went to parent when I went to parent conferences for my son at the high school it was it felt light and I said to the principal this seems like numbers are low and it's it was it was I don't know it was something that I'm it's almost like it feels like it's a trend they're tend to be stepping back from those in person like virtual is a world that

257we are living in now and given the option to do that I think people like to do that and the inperson just seems to be stepping back so what else can we do right or what what can I offer that'll get people more involved in their kids typically if it's something related to post-secondary at college right people want to know right um but we found that even hosting like some of those financial aid nights that we used to host in person people stopped coming to those and then we offer them virtually and then everybody comes because they can sit home and do those things so I think yeah absolutely Joy there's things that I that and I'm open to any ideas and thoughts I've got a couple High School parents here I'm at or former

258High School parents um current inform forer I'm open to any ideas absolutely if anybody has things and I'll continue to brainstorm and and try to figure out what else we can do to engage parents and get them in the building so um or just be engaged in their students learning I think that's the other part too it's may not always have to be in the building but engage them in their students path or growth good I think the parent engagement with the staff piece is important too like yeah for open house it's just so rushed it's so quick and then you're trying to navigate around the building and then for parent teacher conference is it's like you only get really 5 minutes to sit down with teacher so there's never really an opportunity to engage

259with the teachers and they have so many teachers and you really don't even get to meet with all of them right um so I mean I definitely have some ideas I think that given the opportunity to give and I gave a lot of those ideas in the survey when I filled it out um but or even opportunities to have like Gatherings mhm you know with parent and um their child student in the school like a back to school barbecue or something for a or like something that brings us together to fundraise for you know people down south or whatnot right um those kind of opportunities yeah I would say at the high school level it's it's alarming you know um I went into actually I think our biggest um class that we went into was

260three in English and the teacher was really excited that there was three parents so I mean and I've seen it just you know I go to whis skyer and there's nowhere to sit you know so I think when our kids are little right we're really excited to get there and meet the teacher and see the classroom and everybody's life is busy but I think you know especially at the high school level I mean I would love to see um just more parent involvement right um we think that our kids get older and they have their license and they don't need us and realistically um they need us more but to Joy's point you know the structure of you know you're walk through the hallways and it's 10 minutes and it's not about your kid and

261then when you do have time to talk about your kid it's seven minutes if you're lucky right in the transition so do we look at structure right do we look at something different an alternative to that yeah Absol I'm open to looking at some different ideas yeah thank you okay thank you that was awesome really appreciate the effort that went into that gentlemen um you guys are doing great stuff okay so we're moving to item G um in new business and this is this is something I I think I emailed you guys about this a couple of days ago we um potentially are scoring a coup getting uh Tom Mooney um for an hour to come and talk to us about um roles and responsibilities which we've identified as important for us um here's the

262thing that with consideration of we know we're going to have a pack schedule that evening and we also know that um you for one Robert drive from far away and it's hard to get here prior to 6:30 so um the board meetings regular meetings have to start at 7 um what I need to know is if you guys would agree to um scheduling a special meeting from 6:30 to 7:00 here um that would be filmed and um Tom Mooney has um an approach he's done a zillion trainings so he has a scenario based approach um that I think would be really helpful because it puts you in the weeds of like okay here's the scenario how do you how do you work through it um and then so we would do that till 7 then

263uh stop the special meeting transition to the regular meeting and continue for half an hour because we have an hour of his time um this would also let the public see um what we're paying for what the public is paying for because he is as um everybody says about this guy he is literally the person who wrote the book on Connecticut school law um so we couldn't get any better um so we have him for an hour and it's a little unorthodox but it would the training would basically run from 6:30 to 7:30 with that Interruption to start the regular meting meeting and then he would be here for half an hour and then we would continue with the regular meeting so um I think we would need to move to have a special meeting

264do you guys have questions about this I guess I'm just un sure I'm just not understanding the scenario like what's actually going to be happening ah okay so it's a training for board members um about roles and responsibilities and he described to me how he typically does them and I was like yeah that sounds awesome um the it's just the tricky thing he said initially could we do 7 to 8 o'clock but that seemed to me not ideal because we would be pushing back um not only the Public's viewing but everybody who's going to be presenting we'd be pushing everybody back to wait for us and I don't I I didn't think that this needed to be in executive session um we're not going to be reviewing our goals we're just going to be talking

265about and responsibilities so um it is a little bit of a curveball with timing but it's a wonderful opportunity for us and I really think we should jump on it um I talked to him about a number of dates and this is the one that he said he could make what's the cost associated with it ah it's part of our sng um yeah like provided we don't have to pay anything for it and um I feel like I don't know if those renew annually or if it's like a 10hour thing that we just sort of chip away at but this would be one of those hours so what does he do from 700 to 7:30 just don't continue to sit here I don't know if he would sit like we pull up an extra chair

266for him or he'd sit in the middle or whatever we um and he would continue to lead the the training for us so we're we're starting the meeting at 7:30 at 7 so it sounds like it would be in two parts right split by the beginning of the regular meeting is that correct right so the so the the first half hour of the regular meeting would be a continuation of our training and it would give the public an opportunity to see um to to see what we go through kind of like an inner look um and from one of the state's renowned experts so Wendy are just looking at the agenda would it be sort of like we would start the meeting go to like the student representative update and then the first agenda item

267would be this second half of the I I I think we would do I like I I've never done this before so I don't know if there's like a protocol but so like how how I would suggest doing it is call to order Pledge of Allegiance roll call then continue a training literally the very be 30 minutes it would be like 10 cuz that isn't 30 minutes now no that's like one minute yeah I mean right so like it wouldn't be that's what I'm trying to get clarity on so the continuation wouldn't necessarily be 7:30 because if we're depending on where we put it on the agenda it could be like it's the very first item right right after roll call oh right okay you the way you had said it was special meeting 6:30

268to 7 then regular meeting 700 to 7:30 he would continue till 7:30 but he he'd be first he'd be the first essentially the first or second item on the agenda after to just keep keep it going so 1 hour total one hour training and then it's because it's roll into the standard pie of the this yeah this is just a way of of utilizing our time really I mean this is just like it's a half hour special meeting because sure we could make a 1H hour just make it all in special meeting but it would be difficult for Rob to get here so I'll make it don't worry if I have to call in or call well then I mean to to avoid to avoid the bump of it we could do a special meeting

269from 6:00 to 7:00 um and then then things would flow more smoothly I just didn't want to wall you out I'll make it by six okay and so if Mr Mooney can make it by 6 would that be okay with you guys that we can we move to have a special meeting from 6:00 to 7: to I don't even know if we need motion for it we had that meeting with um Mr Caruso and right so the name mrus and it was like set for two hours and after two hours there are still a lot of open items that we've never gone back to so if we just have an hour I just feel like we're going to be left hanging again ah um I can understand um what you're saying there um I think

270Mr Mooney um like literally I think he's done hundreds of these um training sessions um and they are for us to reflect on roles and responsibilities and like I said they're they're hemmed in by these scenarios that are really realistic that he's seen across the course of his practice so I don't know maybe we wouldn't get all six scenarios or something maybe we would only talk about four of them so um I think like the the I think we should that's fine if we want to do a special meeting 6:00 to 7: but then if he's not available at 6 then let's be okay with going 6:30 to 7:30 for his training half hour of that would be special meeting the the next half hour of that would be technically in the regular meeting right

271next day's Halloween yes as a teacher what is it the day after the day after is Halloween um well I I I feel like we could we could snip and trim a little bit this is a really good opportunity for us to like I can't um imagine why we would um have have the chance to see um I can't imagine why we would have the chance to to have Tom Mooney come and talk with us and then not jump at that opportunity so um I we motion okay need we don't okay all right right on so then um I'll so I'll schedule it for 6 if he's available and that will it'll just be cleaner that way okay great thanks everybody okay so let's move now to Old business um we've got the um approval

272of the calendar here and it's um I I what I'd like to say is it's already um pretty late so if we if we feel if we get a sense from each other like okay we're all ready to act on this this then awesome if not we could table it to uh a later meeting um so with that you want to before before you start talking can I just add one piece of information it doesn't change the calendar at all but just I I wanted to let you know that um Mr Roland and I have been working with the PD with the uh par Educators on PD time and um while we don't have to technically formally put it on the calendar we do we would like to add um an indication as to which

273day we would be adding for the par Educators the State Department of Education as of last year came out with a requirement that you um that districts have to provide 18 hours of professional development for par Educators and um our current regular calendar doesn't really reflect the time there we are working it in with early dismissals with you know kind of um back to school nights and those kinds of things or uh parent conferences but we would add the just along with the PD day on the 4th of November would would just have that language of ABA and Par educator so I just didn't want you folks to it's it's not substantive I just wanted to let you know PD day but we just put put in the language Educators also have PD the same

274exactly like the 28th and 29th of August says that's just what would also go on as the fourth need another color I don't know I it all I don't know if I can do the color I'm not the color late we don't want to ask for she's in chur so what I just wanted to mention again this is it might be a reason to table it it might just be something to inform you in my conversations with uh members of the public and friends and people who are affected by the calendar one of the things as much as the whether or not we should have the days off or not that came up was the first week of school being pushed there are no um programs there's like parks and wreck ends their programs 2

275weeks before there's no summer schools because uh summer camps because other districts have already started so is that something that we as a district could look at maybe asking parks and wre to have something that week or love someone bringing that feedback to me thank you it's the first I've heard of that we love getting feedback I've gotten zero feedback in the month since I presented this love that idea I could talk with Laura Laura loves to build programs with Dan and perhaps they would build extra time in excellent so it was one of those like awesome idea to help we put the wants continue with the after Labor Day feedb we love that it starts after Labor Day we like the later start however there are parents who are bur Gap super feedback yeah

276great thank you for bringing that up I'll call Laura tomorrow so will you um do you want me to make the motion make the motion and then we can have discussion and see if we're going to move forward to table uh sure I move that the board approve the 2025 2026 school calendar calendar as recommended by the calendar committee and the superintendent Dr John brell second awesome so discussion folks all right if I may start um I I mentioned this before um I'm not going to like belabor the point but um I would prefer that we hold school on every day that's not permitted uh not prohibited by state or federal law which includes uh Columbus Day and rashash Shana on on this particular calendar um I would be prepared to equally recognize more religious

277holidays that more accurately reflect the population of our students um but I do understand that that's not practical um and there might not even be favor on this board so um I am appealing to my fellow board members tonight um to consider holding school on more days um not only because it provides an earlier release in June by a couple days um it provides more midyear instructional time fewer School weeks with instructional disruption um and it does clarify that the board is not selectively choosing religious holidays to observe um I understand I may be in the minority on this but that is my view and my suggestion so that your proposal is about um the September 23rd and the October October 13th and the second is and oer 23 Columbus Day so three three specific

278days Rosa on this specific calendar okay we so 13th is a PD day so we'd have to if the board I mean yeah if the board was favorable to this concept then we would have to rethink the PD day so i' have to come back with a version depending on what the cons if the board votes on what the proposal is or with modifications we'd have to work through that's not something then you'd have to just find another PD today somewhere else oh yeah but it's not something at 10:30 at night you do so we want to you know thoughtfully look at the but then it does I mean in that case like you're right it doesn't I thought it could have sworn on the last doesn't mean it can't be done whatever the board's

279consensus is it's more about like students in desks so whether it's on it's not on Columbus Day or it's on some other day doesn't that doesn't really matter so if if that's if that's the case if you know if col Columbus Day is the 13th of October then I'm fine with that as a PD day because there's Anna just mentioned February we already have it you know compared to the traditional week off in February we have a truncated kind of President's Day weekend that's a you know four days when you include Saturday and Sunday perhaps there's a day there where kids could have off that's kind of familyfriendly and we have a PD day there um but there's ideas that we need to you know on a good night's sleep probably go through before we

280bring a proposal to the board if that's where the board's going to go were you're fixed enough that you could vote on approving this calendar or not or would you like to table and um have more time I we have a motion on the floor to to approve this calendar I mean I'm okay with it okay with it I just think it's a long summer for our kids that receive Services um because they're only in summer school for you know a short period of time and it's a long summer and there's a lot of regression with our identifi so another thing if if that's it's more feedback right so it's been a month since I proposed that thank you for that feedback I look right over to Bill that's something we could consider there's a

281cost to that cuz we have to pay staff but perhaps we extend extended school year by a week if that's possible yeah because it used to be longer but it just I mean I just worry about you know our most vulnerable population um because you don't have camps readily available you know if if a parent of you know a severely um disabled child um needs to look at summer camp they're looking at providing a par you know there's not very many camps that these kids can go to and the regression when you have a child that is so below grade level I mean Days Make a Difference um so I also you know if it's going to be a long one is there something that we can do proactively to provide parents with instruction to

282try and mitigate you know um the summer slide also maybe besides the um parks and wreck partnering in the YMCA there might be some opportunity there I mean it was a long summer I mean mine don't go to camp and it's fine right and they came back fine but um there are some parents that had a very very tough time sum and that that is an important issue but I don't know that we can't we can't um solve that here can I say one more thing so in in um referring to what Rosa is talking about I in talking to some members of the public there is um mixed feedback and I'm curious what I know teachers were involved in the calendar committee do teachers feel like those two days off are disruptive to the

283work but to the um school week because I know a lot of parents that I had talked to feel like those two days off are difficult in the middle of a school week um and are also for equity and so one of the things that came up was well if we take those two days off and put them back at the end of the year then that creates a more Equitable for for anyone who celebrates anything um we're also in favor of the inclusion of the Muslim holidays in that same sort of vein but it came up that like well what about someone who celebrates like the Spring Equinox or just things it it becomes a question of like what are we actually going to consider um and so it became clear to me that

284in in the people that I spoke to it seems like taking the two days off is a a consideration of work week and we're interested in how the teachers feel about instruction time yeah so so the the feedback from the committee there there wasn't feedback on disruption to the week so I can tell you that certainly um as a parent my kids are in college now uh grad one graduated and one's in college you know I'm not living that anymore but certainly lived it for the 13 years they were in public school um watching my wife with her uh she's a teacher many of you know that and uh her district has 10 early dispens days and a host of these kind of holidays it's very challenging so I can imagine for parents I always

285say when she tells me she has another early dismissal with you know her meetings my God how are the parents you know tolerating this it's 10 plus days it's unbelievable um so I get it um I understand the equity piece certainly um uh use the word practical Rosa maybe that's something the Board needs to consider I need to consider uh the committee needs to consider um because we you know the continuity of weeks that's something we've talked about for forever uh in this District so again we we can if that's a consensus from the board and the board doesn't want to approve the calendar as is tonight we can go back and bring bring another version back based on your feedback for approval I don't know that we lack consensus I feel like um it

286seems like folks are ready to vote Yes No Okay do you feel like you want more time Mo on table so whatever the board would like would you I mean I I I've expressed how I will vote so okay um so uh all in favor of um of approving the um school calendar for next year as recommended by the calendar committee and the superintendent um say I I I um those oppose n okay so it passes 43 okay um now we're going to move to Old business I mean we're going to move to the next um item sorry uh which is public comment Mrs Korea okay um all right then with with that three main points I know maybe we should get the audience to vote on the three main points um just to en

287liven everybody's um so three main points uh so I have the um number one as the CES Cub Club student Spotlight number two as the student achievement report and number three as the school Improvement plan updates sounds awesome you guys agree what was to oh I am I can take it all right do we have upcoming events drop it off at the office it's very yeah um and we have no upcoming events as not reported on from the previous meeting okay right on so thank you very much for everyone um who has watched at home and who was here this evening thanks so much uh we are going to enter into executive session to um talk about superintendent's goals our evaluation and some privileged attorney client information have a motion so I move that the

288board enter into executive session to discuss and approve the superintendent goals and the board's evaluation and discussion of privileged attourney client information regarding Boe roles and responsibilities second all in favor all right thanks