Board of Education Meeting

001um it's good to see you and uh we'll call the meeting to order at uh 7:04 sorry um for the delay but um thanks for your patience okay so before we get started please um stand please join me stand let's say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 great we'll jump right into the roll call um we have um AIS here um Joy Greenstein um Rob Robert fetto Sarah Divine Stephanie sakur Rosa Fernandez I'm Wendy Young Blood we have halah harani and then we have the executive team Mrs Casey diot Dr John burill and Dr Anna man um and and a pretty good crowd so thanks for turning

002out everybody um we we are going to begin with um public comment no we're going to yes we're going to begin with public comment sorry I had to shuffle my papers so um we have two folks signed up for public comment and as you know um we're going to begin with uh just a reminder of our protocols the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input uh to the board and this timer is not to be sassy it's just to keep the meeting moving um at the start of each regular meeting a maximum of 20 minutes is allotted for comment on any item included on the agenda for that meeting at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item within

003the board's jurisdiction discussion of school Personnel individual students or individual members of the board is prohibited um so for folks who have signed up for public comment please give your name and address before you um address the board and thank you very much so um Mrs scal you're first Aon SLA 5 Jackson Drive Professional Service the Professional Service process is very loose clearly you can choose to bid start over Aaron Scalera 5 Jackson Drive professional the Professional Service process seems very loose clearly that you can choose to bid but it's not required do they have a contract when was the contract initiated extended at whose discretion just because Brookfield has a long-standing policy and our procedure doesn't mean it's necessarily right as far as far as I'm concerned a competitive process ensures the school and

004the taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck so to speak I can imagine any I would imagine any item not under Professional Services there's a number such as 10,000 that that would be required to go out to bid I'm asking that legal is an item that's looked at heading back to the legal services this is a huge line item it grows from my understanding lawyers are required by the rules of professional conduct to have retainer agreement so I assume attorney Murphy and attorney chenny have them I'm curious where that can be found as taxpayers of Brookfield have the right to know how these actual fees are split among attorneys when public money is being expended or allocated when I asked a specific question on when the last time legal was actually sent out

005to bid it could not be found what I know is that attorney Murphy has been on our payroll since 2008 and attorney chinny since 2011 15 and 12 years is a long time that Brookfield has been complacent what I heard at the last meeting is it likely won't save money it's not all about money there might be legal firms out there that can actually better suit the district we can get back to basics and actually do what we're all here to do which is support our kids thank you pleas on okay uh Andy Korea 45 West Road I sent the board a email um regarding Legal Services two pages that covers kind of the governance aspect of like why we should not only go out to bid but we should immediately fire the two lawyers

006that we have um we have eight pages of backup of history of the past 5 years of um legal concerns that have been lawyers have been utilized to cover up um misconduct of Administrators and staff so it's kind of an no-brainer you need to send it out to bid um the reason why you would typically send something out to bid is to ensure that you have the best service best serviceability um it's not about the lowest rate I think we have one of the lowest uh the lowest biders but they do the district's lowest bidding so I encourage the board to read through not only the two-page email but the backup that shows the the concerns of how the district has used um lawyers to cover up issues as it relates to the um governance

007as it um and public comment um this public comment time is the boards to receive input so it has been used as a way to stifle comment um by by putting it kind of at the end having parents wait um but also by not being able to discuss board members or particularly senior members of the administration there have been items that parents have written to the board and the board has ignored not responded not addressed and that's why some of this these governance issues have persisted it's actually a violation of our first amendment rights to not be able to come up here and say you know XYZ board member did the following or you know this particular Administration right administrator has been informed and they didn't follow the law I have sent emails to administrators

008and said your staff is not following the law and explained in detail and said please supervise your staff and follow the law uh one of those instances was a PPT meeting that didn't occur for eight months that's a clear violation of the law of a students rights but I can't go up there and tell you exactly who did it who didn't respond right what I have to do is hire a lawyer and then fight lawyers that if you go look at how they've acted out in the public right some of our lawyers have done awful things to the public the cases that they've taken and how they've acted they've taken one of them has taken um parents to do to Due Process make them get a lawyer to go to due process and not even

009show up to Due Process that's publicly available information we should not be hiring these lawyers and the board should the and can you could make a motion to add an agenda item as long as you have five people that agree to it and you could fire the lawyers tonight so that's it thank you very much for your input okay so um we will move to uh hearing from our student representative David K oh sorry hi I hope you're all doing well today and had a great holiday break the past week I don't have too many updates cuz like I just said we're just getting back to school after break so everyone's readjusting a little bit um but what we just had before break we had a little half of a spirit week so we did

010some nice winter and holiday spirit days which is fun um going on right now um all the seniors they're submitting all their forms for their caps and gowns and the graduation date has been set that's going to be June 15th and it's going to be on the BHS backfield or the front field sorry um midterms are coming up they're going to be January 2 2nd through 26 um and I'm pretty sure they're repeating it again this year um the master year midterms event so that's when um we have some student tutors and students there to help other um students their peers who are trying to study it's just like a little study session and that happens in the library and I think they're going to be doing that again um and they also provide some

011resources for tips on how to stay relaxed and less stressed during midterms time um and yeah along with that teach are just starting to prepare for that too um for athletics I don't have too many updates but um two basketball players Katherine Sosi and Shane Weber just became part of the 10,000 Point Club so they scored their 1,000 points in their High School Crews which I think is pretty amazing um for the clubs I'm in uh for National Honor Society like I talked about last time we're still doing our tutoring program every week and we're planning for the Mother's Day 5K that'll happen in the spring um and finally for Spanish Honor Society we're getting some materials organized to help tutor other students um in Spanish classes for midterms as well as the ongoing um

012English as a second language students tutoring program that we do and there's a community service opportunity for students in Spanish Honor Society with helping Spanish teachers grade their multiple choice during midterms and that's all I have for this week thank you I have a question for you Eva um and you might not know and that's that's okay but how well attended are the student tutoring sessions um for National Honor Society so they happen every Tuesday and Thursday and I've only ever gone a couple times they're pretty well attended I think it's a great program and yeah students basically will just reach out to like their counselor or their teacher um who will then contact the tutor coordinators of National Honor Society and I've gone and there's Pro there are probably I'd say like 10 to

01312 pairs of uh NHS tutors and students um and I think it's just a really great environment so yeah they're pretty well attended thank you yeah of course actually I have a question to piggyback on that is the um is the ESL tutoring similar in structure or is it more informal do you know anything about that that um the ESL tutoring I haven't done um but yeah that's a Spanish Honor Society focused one that one's a little different I'm not exactly sure what like setting that happens in um but I also know that the Spanish Honor Society students will also um help and peer counseling students help to tour those um kids when they first come to the school I do think that tutoring happens in like a little bit of a different um maybe

014a different setting where there's not a bunch of other people around just for like the communication um but yeah that's another great program thanks yeah of course any other questions um no other questions fora all right um so the next agenda item is written correspondence Stephanie um we have three Irene Korea wrote two emails one concerning the budget and one concerning student attendance and Andy Korea wrote regarding Legal Services okay thank you um the next uh item on the agenda is the approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended budget round table from 12223 regular meeting from second okay so the approval of minutes has been moved and seconded are there um questions or comments about this particular item um so all in favor of approval please

015say I I I okay so that is unanimous thank you very much um the motion passes the minutes are approved okay so now we have the superintendent's uh update Dr bril all right thank you Dr Youngblood uh Happy New Year to everyone good evening um really I have a very brief um superintendent report as it's been four school days since we last met when you actually think about it um so just so everybody knows Wendy and I did talk about getting a second board retreat uh scheduled we just haven't you know when we're looking at all the different budget hearings and roundtables and holiday schedule um we don't have a date solidified yet but we'll be working with Lisa on that um uh as well as some of the communications she put forward earlier today

016uh in setting up uh the schedule the facilities meeting for the facility subcommittee um just for as a reminder for everybody is next Tuesday um uh the 9th of January so that's still off schedule as the committee tries to get on schedule but it's on for next Tuesday so everybody knows that I just want to make sure that was communicated and then my final update is regarding Candlewood Lake there's just there was a lot of punch list fine tuning going on over the break so I wanted everybody to know there's a lot of what punch list you know the punch list you go through you not it's called a punch list no what what is what is we call a checklist that might help you a checklist like a checklist checklist is fine okay um

017having having said that the checklist uh the the the fine-tuning pieces of you know trim work and all other kinds of things so just to give a quick update to everybody uh Dave and I actually did a walk through yesterday um and we had confirmation that the all the classroom flags have the brackets have been installed the flags are up we're excited about that we've been waiting for that for quite a long time bleach bleachers are installed the gym pads for the walls are installed um and Stage curtains on both sides multi-purpose room cafeteria have been installed um most of of the trim work has been completed on the different trees and other trim areas and benches and so forth um there final touches to go but really a lot of progress was made the

018majority of motorized window shades on the very high windows in the large spaces have been completed um and as I communicated to you over the break the north parking lot uh is about 3 weeks behind in terms of having it available for faculty and staff uh so they don't have to have that long walk from the temporary parking lot so in about 3 or 4 weeks we should have um if anybody takes a over to the school and looks through the fence you can see how much progress has been made uh but there's still uh that compaction of the process stone that still needs to be done there um in terms of technology I have to really thank uh Eric and his team as well as our vendors um a lot of great work was

019done over the break for canwood Lake in terms of Technology uh the L system in the gym um that work will be finished this week and hopefully um workable for the teachers next week um digital signage is up all over the school now uh the multi-purpose room and gross motor rooms um the initial floor projector install just started um and we think it'll be done by the end of the week um permanent live streaming um technology is being installed this week so you notice how we had some of the microphone issues La last month when we were at uh kwood Lake for the board meeting that work is the infrastructure work is going on um and then tremendous news at whiskin ear the last four of the 40 smartboards have been installed and now all

020the classrooms in the entire school district have the interactive Smartboard so we're super excited about that thank Eric for all the work it's taken years to get us there uh in in the the board as an organization to give us that support and of course the community so um really really excited about that and that's my report for this evening okay um two quick things first of all folks who are um in the audience thank you so much for coming out but please um keep in mind that um we're having a discussion here and I don't know if anybody else has auditory distraction issues but I certainly do and um so if you if you need to talk um please do it in like a whisper whisper the second thing is I don't know if

021you guys have heard um usually one person at work or everybody at work has that one friend who's like the pseudo meteorologist right we certainly have one at our school um this might be the first big snow test for CES for the weekend you mean yeah um could you talk about any of the the the chatter about how to prepare or um where all the snow going where's all the snow going to go because the community may want to no like so so what are the what are the plans if we get hit hard like the kids are hoping as a as a reminder parks and wreck handles our parking lots for us and helps with the sidewalks our custodians handle entryways the bridges and so forth at CS we know the routine here and

022at whiner um but actually Mrs Dia and uh Dan Caldwell have been working directly with parks and recx so she could talk a little bit to that sure where we um Parks Rec was able to obtain a handheld brine machine you know the brine is that liquid uh snow melt that you see on the street sometimes before the snow comes um so we have that available for the entryways the the um stamp concrete Bridges at CS um we are looking to obtain a um a brine machine I don't know what it's called but it's a it's a much larger piece of equipment more in the 22 to $26,000 range that would be used exclusively at CS to do all the sidewalks there's a lot of concrete sidewalks in that area or at that um campus

023and so um we are looking because it's only going to be part of um CES and the needs for for that building in particular we're hoping that the budget of um the building project itself can cover that cost um so we're working you know with with folks that um that will hopefully be able to assist in getting that accomplished but um the even though the parking lots not complete um the um there has been asphalt buildup around all the um what do they call pipes the pipes sticking out right so that it will be smoother for you know um par for the plows there's um designated areas where they can dump the snow um and so uh fingers crossed and hopefully it's good that it's going to happen on a weekend right so we have

024a test run first and and as a reminder for everyone that that's why we have delays and we have that that 2-hour delay we actually have an emergency 3-hour delay if we really need to go there um this happens to be falling on a Sunday but it's the job of parks and rec and let's let's not forget yeah it's a larger School parks and W doesn't have to plow Huckleberry they don't have to plow Center School and actually there's uh I think an ambulance barn or some other entities in town that they're no longer plowing they have a separate service for that so they could put all of their efforts uh you know obviously at whiskin in the high school but we have our our our time piece too so whiskin and the high school

025at the same time now so there's not a delay anymore so they've got to deploy their resources at the same time so they've had plenty of time to work on their plan uh in addition to that Casey mentioned working with the NBC and the the project budget to get the equipment we need the parks and rec department and and uh Mr calwell we've been talking about this and at working with the NBC for quite a long time you know asking for certain equipment and so forth so it's not as though winter just came you know now and we're thinking about it this is requests that have been made have been made year and a half ago so I mean there's been a lot of preparation going into this so we're uh we we're planned for

026the best and we anticipate the best good so hopefully parents and kids watching at home uh will know that the the plan is in place to take care of the snow um so the next item on the well thank you very much Dr BR for your report sure question for John I know I asked this last meeting about the flag pull outside yes and um you said it was contingent on the parking lot but and I thought about it when I thought about our own FL flag pole at my school it's not in the parking lot it's like on the sidewalk so the way where where's it planning on going I'll get you the map design the you're facing the school South lot north lot and in between there's driveway and also walkway that's going

027to be designed and where that walkway goes which is stamped concrete is where the flag PO is going to go so that's a part of all that design and now that the temperatures are the way they are they can't continue the work so that's why all right so the next item on the agenda um is a subcommittee report and so we have a report from the finance subcommittee um from January 2nd so Roso as chair would you share please from December 18th from December 18th yeah um yes so we met on December 18th at least we've been meeting a lot since then but um so and this particular meeting was uh a special meeting just to discuss or be part of our discussion of the budget review um so throughout this Pro starting in the

028beginning of December uh the finance committee constructed that questions document that I had mentioned um several times and has been contributing questions to that and then at each special meeting which has been held weekly since then um we go over any of the questions that have come up since then so that is that was really all we did on that particular meeting was just go over some of those um budget questions so um and that document will be made um publicly available as soon as the board is done contributing to it and we adopt our budget so that was it great thank you um and so before we move to the next item on the agenda uh I I've been remiss um we had a um we had the public budget Forum here that began

029at six o'clock an hour before the meeting and we um talked pretty extensively about um budgetary issues that were connected to class sizes and so um before this meeting started uh we could probably talk about that there though oh do you want to do it during there okay so so stay tuned that's coming um let's move then to the to item number 10 um on the agenda it's the consent agenda uh I move that the board approve the items listed on the consent agenda as recommended transfers and new hires uh do we have a second for this motion Wendy can I just say one thing yes please um the uh there was a decision made um Mrs lenise who's transferring from being an ABA perah to a special education secretary at the high school actually

030started this week as of yesterday so the second not the 8th wonderful okay well that's that's all I had thank you okay so we have a second for this motion um all in favor of approving the consent agenda say I hi okay um so it passes unanimously and thank you um so now we'll move on to new business um we have a teams presentation um from the teams stands for Teacher education and mentoring and this will be presented by WMS assistant principal uh principal Ed Bednar and CES assistant principal Dr Danielle is it rud rud is how you say yes great so wheny I may okay so before we introduce uh Ed uh to to get started on his presentation um it was important to share first of all that uh Dr rud is quite

031ill so she could not make it tonight and so is Mrs Griffin she's not able to make it tonight so so um and so everybody knows Mr bner is the whis one of the whis is the whiskin assistant principal now not one of them anymore the assistant principal at whiskin a and Mrs Griffin is one of the assistant principles at uh the high school and Dr rud is one of the assistant principles at Candlewood Lake so um we have all three schools represented in the mentoring program for our beginning teachers um a lot of times uh we look at our system principles and say all they do is discipline what else do they do um well they are educational leaders they do a lot well Beyond discipline um uh there's supervision uh of faculty and

032staff there's evaluation of faculty and staff um and certainly the mentoring work they do and professional development work they do tonight you'll learn a little bit about a required program called team for beginning teachers um and how we really take it uh I think kind of uniquely to a next level in terms of the the work we do with our teachers and uh uh we're pretty excited about it Anna did you want to add anything before turning it over to Ed um I I don't think right now I want to just kind of because I'm probably going to add more at the end or as we go but um I just want to one of the things that's nice team has been something that the you know it's been a state expectation for about 10

033years now but it has evolved from other um and those of us who have been certified for multiple years had to do with other certification processes such as best best program which was not best um but this one of the nice things about team is that kind of continuous and ongoing professional development and support program for new teachers but it Al also offers um as Dr bril said you know the opportunity for educational for administrators to continue to be educational leaders and also veteran teachers to provide that mentorship for um our you know for our profession development um it's not just professional development it's the profession you know the development of our profession as Educators um and really you know is all in service of creating the best educational experience for our kids so with

034that we're going to hear from Mr berar thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk about our teacher and education mentoring program here in Brookfield uh we do have a unique program in certain ways and in other ways we are fulfilling our obligations for the state right but I think some of the things I'm going to share with you that are unique to our district are pretty interesting so uh this is a big encompassing program there's a lot of moving parts to so I'm going to do my best to kind of get through it and tell you um most of the pieces uh succinctly so I am the district facilitator I do run the kind of the entire PR program Danielle uh does help me with that piece she will do certain kind of

035pieces and I'll actually ask her for help in certain areas and she'll she'll help me Susan Griffin runs module five which is something I'm going to talk to everybody about pretty soon and let you know what module five exactly is we also have a team Coordinating Committee it's called the TCC committee and that is made up of teachers and administrators throughout the district it's volunteer for teachers and administrators uh that we get on this board and what we do is we kind of oversee the program we review it uh periodically see if we need to make any changes make sure we're meeting the state mandates make sure that our program is is is consistent and is working well for our beginning teachers and our mentors so uh the mission of team this is the Connecticut

036State Department of Education mission for team so that we're under that umbrella of the State Department of Education the promo Excellence equity and high achieve eff foran students by engaging teachers in purposeful expiration and professional practice through guided support and personal reflection you're going to see me touching on a few of those points as I'm going through this you'll hear the personal reflection piece multiple times professional practice piece as I'm kind of going through um the steps in what we do here in Brookfield the goals of the team program there are some very specific goals uh one of the main goals especially is to provide that support for our beginning teachers these are new teachers who are just jumping into into the profession and and and it's probably I would say the heart of team

037is essentially that piece of it which is that Mentor support and I'll talk again I'll talk a little more about that too also to ease the beginning teachers transition into the profession uh and to help us retain effective teachers develop teachers who are reflective practitioners you'll see in some of the modules they're going to do how they do a reflection and they're able to reflect on the practice what worked and what did not work uh help cultivate understanding the professional responsibility of an educator there is uh that encompasses a lot of what we do but particularly module 5 is something I'm going to talk about that that is a professional code of ethics for teachers uh Foster Collaborative Learning communities for all Educators the collaborative piece is huge in team and you'll hear that also

038provide excellent teachers the opportunity to develop as educational leaders that's the mentor piece okay so there's a lot of people who are part of the team program uh there's the beginning teachers who hold an initial educator certificate or an interim initial certificate uh that's Any teacher in the entire state of Connecticut who has that certification is going to be in the team program there are a few small exceptions here and there uh certain areas perhaps might have a smaller degree of participation in team I really don't need to get into specifics about it but it's like certain unique areas like perhaps a culinary might have uh complete less modules than everybody else uh so there are a few areas that are unique but in general it's your teachers with certification initial certification who are going

039to be part of team they need to complete team in order to move on and get their provisional certification I am the district facilitator I run the program I the one who kind of connects with the state too and the state database and make sure that all our teachers are uploaded into database that they're getting everything completed on time that they're completing their module on time that mentors are putting in their hours and those types of things uh our trained mentors which are current Brookfield teachers those are different teachers from each of the buildings in different subject areas we try to make sure we have a variety of teachers trained in different areas so that when we have the opportunity to take on new teachers we have mentors who could actually work with them okay

040uh another piece that mentors could do which maybe I'm jumping a little bit here but I I want to mention it because I think it's an important piece and that is that mentors can also take on student teachers and that I believe that that is hugely important for the district as a whole and for this program because I I I strongly believe my philosophy is that schools that teach teachers are better schools okay so and that is a piece that I'm frequently trying to do I'm frequently trying to connect the state will reach out to me or colleges will reach out to me through the state and I will try to connect those student teachers with mentors in the district who are uh who are eligible to become their their team teacher their Mentor teacher

041okay actually officially cooperating teacher all right um building administrators are part of this I we already mentioned the assistant principles in each of the buildings the principles also play a role in approving uh approving certain papers and items and topics that that the beginning teachers are doing uh principles also help with the help me and help all of us with the the mentors and and uh we have a process where we actually request mentors and teachers apply for it and we go through their application and then decide who who we need who's going to fit our needs and uh become a mentor I mentioned the team Coordinating Committee already uh the State Department of Education obviously right we're under that umbrella uh uh the rest right the Regional Education Service Centers they do work with

042us in terms of training for teachers I do a yearly uh District facilitator update where I meet with uh the heads of team from the state and as well as uh their even their technical people are there going over their website and I meet with them we talk about the new updates we talk about any new laws that were going on uh we talk about training of teachers things that might have changed in the program so I go through that piece piece with our resks and uh pretty much at Advance in Lichfield is typically the one that kind of handles that for us they might also be the ones who train our Mentor teachers they might be the ones who uh train um somebody like me District facilitator and also involved in the review process

043which is something I'll I'll talk about soon too we don't have to use at Advance you could use any in the state but typically our our regional our regional service center is at Advance which and they're great they're fantastic the design of the team program so imagine you're a beginning teacher you're you're starting your first year uh and then I end up having a meeting with them at the very beginning of the year when they start in a district I have another meeting with them about a month into the year where we get into a little more detail uh a lot more detail than we would obviously get into tonight but we talk about what the modules that they required to do are the modules are classroom environment planning and instruction assessment and professional responsibilities

044uh there is a a little bit of difference between these modules I'll talk about it as I kind of move on and explain what the modules are to you so for modules one through four uh the planning instruction assessment environment piece um teachers have to write reflection papers they have to choose their topic they do this in conjunction with their Mentor teacher they choose a certain topic and then they have to do research on that particular topic they have to make a proposal The Proposal submitted online it goes to their principal the principal has to approve their paper uh they then begin to write they actually have to go through the process of implementing that module right which is student learning based it's what can I do to improve my practice in some way based

045on Research that they've done um in some manner uh they they continue to work with their their Mentor teacher on that and they will end up submitting a final reflection paper for the state that reflection paper is is a mandatory piece of this requirement for the state now one of the things uh that's very very I I think unique to berkfield I know it's Unique to Berfield because I go to the meetings and we talk about what everybody's doing and typically most are doing the same types of things okay and there's always a lot of questions about what we're doing in Brookfield because it's Unique and and that Unique Piece is where I said everybody submits a reflection paper in Brookfield that's true everyone submits a reflection paper in all of the State uh but

046in all the state that reflection paper uh at least in most cases there there are some variations on this but that reflection paper is submitted by the teacher and it goes out to some person they don't know who then reads that reflection paper comments on it says you've passed or you haven't passed submits it back electronically and then the teacher has the opportunity they either pass it and they're done or they're told to redo their reflection paper in Brookfield we got together as a team for uh the team Coordinating Committee and we said we want to try something a little different as long as it's approved by the state and it was approved I submitted the proposal and we got it approved and that is instead of just submitting a reflection paper and letting some

047unknown kind of person out there score it we have our teachers submit the reflection paper which goes into our our queue so we have that reflection paper but they also take what they've learned on their reflection paper with the main topics being what I listed here which is what did you learn how did you learn it and what impact did it have on your practice and on your students those really are kind of like the bullet points for what they're presenting at their presentation and we have a presentation at the end of every year where our new teachers all get together if if we had a a large number of new teachers um we might break it into two groups but typically we do try to get it into a a full District so that

048we could have our high school teachers with our elementary teachers with our Middle School teachers so typically we try to get them all together and every single teacher who is there as a beginning teacher who has complet their modules during the year we'll do a brief presentation on their module uh typically it takes them about 5 to 6 minutes and they will go through and they will talk specifically about what they what these bullet points are right what did you learn how did you learn it did you did you read books did you work with your Mentor teachers did you work with your colleagues did you collaborate typically it's all of those things right did you Prof 10 professional development that's a piece of it all of these things are kind of put into this

049uh and then and then obviously the impact it has on your students right that's the most important thing at the end of the day is how is it impacting students there's that the teachers have to bring data that's a piece of it you know this number of students uh uh if it's classroom environment and perhaps it's it's learning about uh classroom management it could be number of minutes on task when I started you know I was losing time kids weren't on task I implemented these practices that I learned through research and through working with my collaborating with my colleagues and working with my cooperating teacher or my my mentor teacher I mean and I I now have this many more minutes of actual work time for my students because I'm not wasting time doing other

050things so these are the types of things they're presenting and with actual data with it and it gives us the opportunity because we'll have we'll have uh members of the team Coordinating Committee will be are the ones who are at the presentations so it'll give us the opportunity to ask them questions where when a when something is submitted to some person who they don't know there's no there's no opportunity to ask questions it's submitted it's either all right or it's wrong you got to fix things you got to resubmit it you got to redo it gives us the opportunity to ask some questions if we feel there's areas that that perhaps the teacher didn't cover enough of uh I'll give you one quick example A lot of times when teachers are talking about planning the

051planning modu ual they'll sometimes delve into instruction what they did versus what they planned so this gives us the opportunity to ask these questions to the teachers and get that out of them and make sure we're covering and they're covering all the all the areas they need to pass the module if for some reason they don't pass the module they have the opportunity to come back and present to a small group from the uh Team Coordinating Committee or if they choose to they could they could uh they could go ahead and present the following year at the full presentation but we don't usually have that happen usually it's going to be a group from them and then we're able to give them feedback like this is what you're missing and you need to cover this

052and you know perhaps your data wasn't solid enough you know you need a little more data and it gives them the opportunity to go back get that bring it to us present it pass the module and and kind of move on in the team process okay so each module is pretty uh it's pretty detailed I did give you the basics of what they're looking for in the module uh as well as the kind of the check off points where the principles are checking off and mentors are working on it the reflection piece um but it does take them a good amount of time I mean they could be on one particular module they could be planning for months and then implementing for weeks okay as well as the followup behind that module and Gathering data

053so it is pretty extensive for new teachers it's a pretty extensive process which is why it's so important they have their mentors to help them right module five is completely and totally different from the other four modules module five focuses on uh the code of professional responsibility for teachers it essentially is just a facilitated conversation there's no reflection paper that goes along with it it really is that you are attending two conversations over a period of two years that you are in team you're typically given three years to complete team but the goal is to get team done in two years for for beinging teachers so over those two years we offer four module five conversations so they just need to attend two out of those four over two years those module five conversations are

054run by Susan Griffin and she has a bank to choose from from the state that covers a wide variety of topics that are often pretty interesting in terms of new teachers and and things they might go through some that we don't even think about uh use of social networks well what is it like now that you're a teacher and you have Facebook page right things like that uh electronic communications with students and families what's appropriate what's not appropriate student confidentiality uh Hot Topic uh and other topics that are related to ethical issues and things like that so uh she will go through that conversation we'll invite Mentor teachers to attend with them and we're able to have like a facilitated conversation around uh the idea of these type of ethical personal responsibility issues for teachers

055okay so again that's really just uh they do have to just attend those conversations be part of the conversations to cover module five okay mentoring I touched on mentoring a little as we went but I just wanted to give it its own kind of slide because it really is is the heart of the program for team uh our Mentor teachers uh again they're volunteer teachers who I'll put out an email to all staff and I'll say we're looking for new mentors in order to be a mentor you're going to be trained for three days you're going to uh you need to be open to taking in student teachers you need to be open to working with our beginning teachers and you're going to have certain responsibilities right you're essentially a lot of these things right

056a coach you're helping motivate your new teachers you're supporting them okay you have to take your training you're giving advice all right all these different things that kind of roll into it so it really is a hugely important role for teachers in the district it also gives a lot of teachers the opportunity to step up who want to be leaders you know they want to do something more in the district they don't want to just be teaching in their classroom they you know by themselves in a silo which is not something we do here in Brookfield but it gives them an opportunity to kind of step up and do something a little more right they could become involved okay become more involved and and work with work with other teachers um so again that's pretty

057much the heart of our program um it is a continuous Improvement a practice of continuous Improvement um there's an ongoing professional learning I'm some of the things I didn't even touch on were the fact that uh Mentor teachers have to get retrained consistently as they go so this is not something where they do the training one time and then you're a mentor for the rest of your life you have to do training it's every three years I think it is I think three years or so uh they have to do updated training online uh and if they if they don't get that training completed they're no long an eligible Mentor in our district they're actually kind of taken off the list in order to become a eligible Mentor they would actually have to retrain for

058the 3 days okay which we don't want to happen so I'm frequently I'm the person who reaches out to Mentor teachers to say you got to train soon you got 6 months you get that going okay and most of them are great because they want to do it so um they're G to they're going to jump right in and get that done as soon as they can uh obviously the piece of improving Student Success right the whole point of the modules is Teachers learning all right through the process and helping their students improve uh connected to our strategic plan I mean even if you just saw the previous slide to this slide right support a culture of continuous Improvement I mean it's not like I chose I actually chose that prior slide before I even

059thought about the Strategic plan that was just what was in the slide right because it's all connected the professional development piece the research based instruction uh all the process we're going through the things I told them told you about them going through the modules and researching and learning and going through working with colleagues so there is the collaboration piece right all of this is kind of connected so sometimes it's good to kind of bring that back and just see those connections uh there was a survey done this is a state survey this is not us there was a state survey done to team teachers asking them uh about the particular program and again this went out to everybody for team and they got a lot of good responses and this was this is probably about

060a good three or four years ago so probably due for another uh but 2.6% I'm not going to read through all of them right but that it positively influenced their practice help connect them connect recognize the link between new learning and impact on students made them a more reflective educator there's that reflection piece they have to do right that they're revising and they're going over with their Mentor so at the end of the day they've gotten some good feedback about the team program from the state and then to couple that with the fact that I think we're doing it even a little better in Brookfield I think and some ways where where we're doing the presentations uh I I think we're in a good spot right now for team so that's about it I think

061I covered everything I wanted to cover I'm certainly open the questions I don't know if Anna wants to jump in and add anything John the only thing I just wanted to kind of yeah thank you very much I think that was a super comprehensive um presentation um and as you could see from uh Mr bednar's presentation this is really kind of based in the theory of research right like I mean that's the idea is that teachers these teachers are working to do some preliminary research after they set their goals within the framework of their module and then um do their research and then put that research into action and see what they kind of get um with the support the continuous support of the mentors um and so it's a it's a I was going

062to I was wrote down collaboration because that's exactly you know it's kind of embodying our Brookfield C's um with our teachers um it also enhances the vertical articulation as um Mr bnar said based on that presentation piece at the end which is something that the pathways kind of has has adopted I've talked a little bit about the PD the professional development Pathways this year that our PC um committee our professional development and um evaluation committee uh focused on for our professional learning plan for this year um it was definitely partially influenced and inspired by the team process and the thing I think is most interesting um is that the new guidelines for Teacher evaluation from that are set forth by the state which have just recently changed and are everybody is developing their new adjusted

063teacher evaluation plans um is really kind of inspired directly from this concept rather than the high stakes accountability that we have just kind of come from the last 10 years um from that the state had adopted in 2011 um there wasn't a lot of uh really good data to show that that would improved teaching and learning whereas this program does show that there's there's there's really positive change with you know to really supporting teachers so um as we are we actually are embarking on our creating our new uh teacher evaluation uh and and professional uh support program starting next week with the pedc team and it's um definitely influenced and inspired by this program so um and the last thing I wanted to say is that as uh Ed mentioned with the mentors it provides

064an opportunity a lot of our mentors actually um Susan Griffin has uh engaged uh Lori Moses is one of our English teachers at the high school and she um is pursuing her uh degree her her certification in um Administration and so she had partnered with Susan for the opportunity to help lead these module discussions so it's just another opportunity for her to develop professionally as she's leading a team module discussion um as she's pursuing her certification so there are opportunities to kind of abound um for our both our veteran teachers and our beginning teachers so those are the last little pieces and now discount um the benefits of Veteran teachers working with new teachers and all the ideas and new strategies they bring to the table you got it um is there so can a

065mentor be anyone who has gone through this or is there a a minimum number of years of experience or something that a a mentor teacher has to have a mentor could essentially be anyone who goes through this uh typically it's going to be someone with a professional C certification uh but anyone could be going through this process and and become a mentor and you like a mix of you know some of the like freshly graduated or and also all the way up to the sort of Veteran teachers it very much is it very much is yeah I had a teacher who essentially really just went through the program and she very eagerly immediately jumped back in and said I want to be a mentor teacher and she is and and and she was pretty recently

066so very fresh you know but but very uh very excited and and and really happy to be part of the program and she's actually uh a a mentor teacher this year yeah we had a new teacher who came in and we connected those two so it's working great she's interested in a student teacher too I think uh she very well might be yeah yeah I have a question um um when do teachers do this extra work do they have common planning time baked into the schedule uh essentially this is this is above and beyond yeah and you said it's volunteer it's well it's volunteer it's a stip in position but it's but it is volunteer to do it to do it does this does this feed in I mean I I'm I while you were

067talking Dr man I was and you Mr bigar I was thinking about like how do I say this without sounding like a jerk I mean this is a lot to to to do this and uh is there I mean to Joy's Point veterans can get rejuven rejuvenated with their own practice but it is you're taking on a big job in addition to other challenges like we were talking earlier about you know the pressures of grading of timely grading it's it's very very difficult so does being a mentor um factor into uh some of the professional responsibilities accolades that might appear with an annual evaluation yes yeah absolutely I mean I know that I my person person Al when I evaluate uh teachers in my my end of year evaluation I do mention whether or not

068they're a mentor and whether or not they have uh um worked with a work with a teacher when a cooperating teacher work with a new teacher and not that it's an issue but to to address on the other side of it that's the positive side um if we noticed that this was taking too much time away um the mentoring from their actual classroom teaching that would be a supervisory conversation um and we would we reserve the right to deny that opportunity as well so that's all part of the holistic plan and I'm sure it is a mix I mean essentially the teachers that are doing their modules and they're planning for their instruction are going to they're going to be doing some of that and what they regularly do right right um but there should

069be focused on what they're working on right um but then there is also absolutely a component of after school hours time and hours you got to put in to to get through get through a lot of this there is a lot of work yeah and one of the beauties of this upcoming um teacher evaluation model and I I even kind of hesitate to call it teacher evaluation it's teacher evaluation and support and growth model um is that this is the kind of thing that could become a goal of a teacher to to really focus in on um as a mentor not only as a you know the nice thing is that now these first beginning teachers are going to be able to marry both their team goals and their support and growth goals they can

070be the same thing one and the same um but also a mentor teacher could say I'm going to be working with you know Anna a nth grade English teacher this year and my goal is to work on on helping support her and adopting part of those instructional practices or assessment practices or whatever the case may be um and also collaborate with that person so that that person can come in and watch me I can go in and watch they know it can now become that the focus whereas before everything was bifurcated and in silos and you could not a teacher would not a mentor teacher would not be able to also use that as a goal um it may overlap but you could not actually officially set it as a goal so I'm excited to

071see that the state is recognizing the power of support and growth and coaching rather than just high stakes accountability so I think that that's a good thing are there other questions or comments and I just want to also mention that speaking of kind of stiens in time this is part just inclusive of Mr bednar's um job responsibilities and he is enthusiastically took it over you know has Tak it over long before I got here and I was thrilled to be able to how many years now it seven years years I was thrilled there was someone so aped and excited about it when I got here thanks for saying that all right thank you that's great thank you very much much appreciated thank you okay so I believe this concludes new business yes all right so

072we're going to move on to Old business now I can talk about my Maya COA um so for uh people who are watching at home we had uh 6 PM budget public forum and uh we used that time to to have a pretty robust conversation and we felt that it was important enough that that you not miss it I don't even know where the camera is it's up there okay great okay all right so we we we didn't want you to miss the Highlight so I'm going to start off but also ask fellow board members to to chime in um for things that I might um Overlook so the main points um this was a conversation that was started by Joy was about class size and how especially at BHS in the math and business

073classes um we have a number of um classes that are over our stated guidelines and um and so this we asked um principal Banda for um some data and he's going to take a closer look at class sizes and um and uh I don't know that we could weave this in for this year but but as a budgetary consideration um I think the turnaround time is going to be too tight but um we uh are also going to be getting some midterm exam data so we will have some data points to be um able to discern the impact of higher class sizes at least for these few data points so um oh also um noteworthy principal blenda said he was not aware of um uh he didn't have a data chain of um complaints for

074students about uh their difficulty accessing extra help in these particular curricular areas areas so he said he was going to be um checking in with um some of his team leaders and support staff to get a better sense of what they're hearing from students and whether or not students needs are being met um let's see oh also uh the guidelines for class size were adopted in uh 2009 so that's something that the board may be revisiting um for 2024 um there's a new Math course for seniors and we're not sure how the the integration of that new course will be affecting um class size so that remains to be seen um and then we had we had uh conversations about I'll call it the tension between what the community wants in terms of support for

075kids I mean we all want that um and then the teachers contract and the budgetary pressures that are there because we all want a a budget that we can wrap our arms around so there's a little bit of tension inherent in that and so we'll be discussing more and asking for more data and getting updates from um the staff so what what um should I add I think that covered it covered it thank you too Stephanie for the awesome notes okay so well can I are you moving on on the budget I I have okay I I just wanted to add something um on the budget um so the finance subcommittee which is sort of acting as our budget committee um is going to be meeting two more times right two more times once during

076our regular meeting which will be next week and then once more after that um but we have really looked at our we we divvied up the budget um into thirds and we've took a deep dive into each one of those and we're really kind of coming to the end of that process so we have contributed all of our questions to the questions document and I think the goal um really is to at our at our next probably um well before we bring the the budget to all of you guys um is to kind of feel really comfortable sort of giving our committee recommendation that we support this budget so I would just use sort of encourage our other board members to really look at that questions document see if it raises any other additional questions

077that you might have um and and contribute to it like you can you can add to that document as well um and Casey looks at it frequently and you know we review all the answers and you'll be able to get um that and then that that document again becomes this public document that um helps us advocate for for the budget once we um adopt it so um we're getting really to the end of that process so I know I think our our hope is that we can actually adopt that budget or be ready to vote for it um on the 17th 17th yeah so some of you guys we've seen you in on the document um and uh since that time I mean I don't know if you've been in recently um but since that

078time um uh Casey has added a a ton more data explanation she's provided hyperlinks um so that you can go to like the she says you know there's information in the contract she's linking the contract there so so you can go in and really really um dig deeply and I think that that can give confidence to our neighbors um in the community that you know this is not a a passive pass on the budget like this is this is serious scrutiny um and some of the numbers are fluctuating could you talk just a smidge about that please just one quick thing um did we read the action to get into Old business of the budget to talk about the budget yet we don't know I wasn't sure if we did or we wanted to I

079didn't want us to miss that just to make sure we're moving along on the agenda yes so yes old business I think we she did say old business and then okay I just want to make sure you're comfortable with where we're at okay okay very good action it's not motion it's an action okay so some of the areas of the budget that are still in flux and we're we're waiting on some finer U refinement of the numbers um a lot of that has to do with um insurance numbers uh we have what is um in the budget right now is a 7% increase in our health insurance um which is based on an estimate provided by we were in the state part partnership plan um and they have webinars monthly to give us updates on

080where they're thinking that the increase is going to uh Trend and right now they give us an estimate of 4 to 7% the budget is reflecting a 7% increase so we're being conservative there we hope um uh other you know workman's comp disability insurance all of those insurance premiums we do not have fine numbers on those yet so those are all estimates um our oil and gas prices diesel um costs fuel costs those are also estimates um we budget those very closely with the town uh we you know I talk with um Marsha the the town controller and we've both agreed to to do a 10% increase over our current year prices on oil and gas right now it's trending lower than even what we're currently paying this this year so we are hoping to

081see um some positive gains in that area um trying to think any other that's really everything else is is pretty firmed up um I think a point that you know um where Casey says we stay aligned with the town it's very important we have the same insurance program as health insurance program as the town so that is exactly the same on the town side it's 7% right now hopefully it comes in lower and then that's why we budget conservatively with that uh other things Eric is also with some of his technology estim he'll be fine-tuning um the vendors get back to him with more fine-tuned uh actual numbers and then uh we we budget conservatively and hopefully it's lower so uh before the board if we have the numbers before the board votes to adopt

082the budget um we obviously would lower those uh we could do that in real time right here um bring that information to you um but again the the budget process uh you know Monroe presented last night but the districts are starting to present now you know the board's had the budget for I think 6 weeks now uh we presented 5 weeks ago uh to the to the public and I presented to the board and the public um but it's still early in the Connecticut budget process most of us approve our town budgets and our school budgets in May um there's going to be fine-tuning throughout the process even after the board adopts it and we always you know if insurance comes in a lot less it happened last year we had a really nice uh

083really good news we're going to lower the budget it's so if the board adopts a 6.3% or or or whatever if operational areas or other pressures come during the next couple of months we'll still be addressing those at board meetings and making those adjustments uh in real time as we go and working together with our colleagues on the town side Board of selectman board of Finance y that's an important piece for everybody to know it's a long time a lot of process here some some other areas thank you for giving me that pause some other areas are um we are uh putting together juwels our uh purchasing agent is putting together an RFP to go out to bid for our garbage um and recycling service um we're looking to perhaps combine that with the town

084we use different um vendors for that service right now but we're hoping to find some savings there um and also uh water and sewer those uh numbers from um from the town are not in yet so those are also waiting but awesome yeah okay well we hope it's awesome yes and there's one more thing I just wanted to mention um in in terms of the budget and how sort of it's It's constructed um I know that you guys all know that you know sort of year after year we always talk about this one sort of volatile issue in our budget which is you know special education outplacement tuition and transportation um and you know some people might wonder why why we budget the way we do as opposed to well we're always over budget why

085don't we put some more money in the budget um that was a this is a very sort of um years in the making agreement that has been done in cooperation with the board of Finance um the agreement ment was to budget for the students that you know you will have and so that is what we do however the Cooperative agreement is that that contingency so if we run over budget the town is holding that they would like to keep as much money in the sort of rainy day fund as possible and that helps the town's Financial Health but there is a Cooperative agreement that you know we're not going to you know start taking away from our regular opper operations to cover special education outplacement tuition or Transportation so um though it keeps coming up

086it is simply Our obligation to report on that so just wanted to make sure that that's sort of clear because that'll probably continue to be a very volatile part of the budget so okay did you want to add anything no was okay great okay so um that brings us uh then if if we have no further comments or questions okay Jo us sorry please I know it was brought up in an email but it was a question I had as well um you know given our positive path moving forward in the area of special ed um how important to you feel that IEP compliance coordinator is needed moving forward maybe you can speak to that well I bill why don't you come to the podium I think you know given the correct report and the

087importance of compliance and qual the writing of quality IEPs and the PD that uh bill is leading and also bringing into district and I would say that that the IP compliance coordinator this year has been an invaluable resource in terms of having a history of working with the teams and being able to help Implement those recommendations from the correct report in conjunction with the whole department so in terms of her uh in in her position working on how the goals are written what the the the Mastery should look like and things like that I've been really encouraged by having that on board and in in Prior districts I know we've had compliance supervisors and compliance people but I think um having her in the having that position as a resource for all three schools not

088just she's based out of whiskin but she's worked on coaching in all the in the other two schools um has been a really welcome addition to what we need to do with the correct report so do you think so so that's great that we're getting all this formal training this year um you think another year of that is still needed or necessary if because once you're trained right the expectation is that yeah I mean I I could I'd like to maybe reflect on it and get back to you a little bit more but I also would say that once we're doing the IEP quality training which we're in the process of doing that with that advance and having the IEP compliance person on board working with the teams I would want to make sure and

089ensure going for forward that it's firmed up and that we're not sliding backwards for the foreseeable future and that's just that's just my opinion my thought at this time and I could certainly get more information on what that could look like with the IP compliance person and without and with our given structure of corre supervisor absolutely and that's that's something that we're always looking at too is what are the roles of everyone within this and having being new to the still new the position 6 months in I can look at what the model looks like and who does what what the role rols are and where you know we can refine that and where we can improve on that process CU at some at some point we have to take the support away right we

090can't just like an IEP just you're moving towards independent so I I wouldn't disagree with you on that okay thank you very much appreciate that thanks Bill okay so um all right I believe then we're moving to uh I wanted to bring up another thing sorry please go ahead um I think it it would be Co of us not to you know talk about the legal services and I put it in the document to um and to get some of those questions answered I don't know if you can answer those tonight but um one was the last time we went out to bid um is it a yearly contract who renews the contract for Legal Services I think it's definitely something that an area that we need to look at as far as the budget

091goes um is this a a thing that that belongs in um committee is this a thing that that's um like I I would think that for us to have this kind of conversation uh we need and I don't mean to sound flimsy but uh a little bit more education about um standard practices I I this is like a newish area to me and so I'd like to be uh better educated what what is the protocol here is this like is this a typically for a committee probably not I would probably say like John would probably be able to gather that information or John and Casey together would be able to gather that information and report back to the whatever questions you have we can answer and like I said um last month at the board

092meeting if the board desires to go out to bid provide the direction to the superintendent and we'll go out to bid it's not require it's not required to go out the bid if we're pleased with the services of the uh firm then we're pleased with the services of the firm but the general um Canan escalera um which attorney Murphy works for that firm has been with the district since 2008 it's not a requirement to go out to bid for Legal Services uh however um if the board so desires to look into different pricing different firms that that's absolutely the prerogative of of the Board of Education because the attorney is the board's attorney right and also the labor attorney and so that's that's that's our main um Legal Services is through attorney Murphy and then

093our special education attorney who is attorney chenny is a very small portion of the the the budget um okay I feel I feel like we have had um some uh strong opinions voiced here and we need um some we need to uh I I would like to educate myself further on I hate to say but like both sides here and so could we table this and and um put it on the agenda for the next meeting so what I would what I would suggest is I mean we haven't formally made a motion anyway so so it's okay we can have we can ask for whatever information we need um what I would suggest is have everybody here sort of what do you need to in order to decide not whether well really to decide whether

094or not we go out to bid and I would say then we we can put that on an agenda in a few in a well and and I think we have the Q&A Doc and I think Joy you said I see question so we could put questions in there and we can get you the like to make a motion to um direct the superintendent to go out to bed for legal services and I a second um shall we have some discussion before we vote or I don't think we have enough information so I will not I will be abstaining but we can call vote if you want um I again I I don't feel like motion seconded so we have to vote I think there's I think there's some information that came into us very

095late today I think it was it was uh made clear in our um opening public comments and I think we we need I would personally like to be able to look at those documents um and to read uh the information I don't feel like I'm prepared to to go there right now without having all of that information I agree so then just so we know so our next meeting is January 17th and I'm not comfortable voting on a budget that on the 17th until we have all that information can discuss it so then we would probably have to meet um uh on the 24th yeah we'll have a special meeting then okay um but there is a motion with a second so okay so then um can I'd like to have the language of the

096motion um the the language of the motion is you would like to um direct the superintendent to to direct the superintendent to bid to bid for for the legal services um so do we have Clarity there I know it was a little jumbly um to direct the superintendent to bid out for legal service Services correct oh okay I have a question about that motion because a nay vote would be no don't do it but I don't I don't want to do a nay or a n I just need more information is all I'm saying so you can abstain if you don't have enough information okay I feel in the same space yeah that yeah um I think it's important we got a lot of information today um I'd like to investigate the other side um

097as well and um and so so with that uh yeah I think I I would be abstaining I think that won't leave us with a quorum that's all right just I would just call the vote call the vote all right so um all in favor of um of the motion putting Legal Services out to bid say I I okay all opposed abstentions okay so we have two I votes zero nay votes and five exstension coming from fetto sakur Fernandez young blood and Irani thank you everyone um we will continue to work on this um important question okay does that then conclude old business any other budget question yes it does okay have public on it okay so we're going to move to um to item 13 which is public comment um the board welcomes public

098comment um each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board at the end of this of each regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item with the board's jur within the board's jurisdiction discussion of school Personnel individual students or of individual members of the board is prohibited we have one person signed up for public comment um that is Mr Korea so when you are ready is on Andy Korea 45 West C Road um so I'd recommend the board email um in the email there's a board educa a board by law 9115 that I like um it's a policy of the board that um the superintendent and the board need to do an annual evaluation of Legal Services um I don't think that's happened in many years I have

099written to the board in the past and asked them to do just that and they haven't right um before you move forward I think you should get some evaluations now you don't have to have the administration go out to bid um the board can do it itself and I would recommend doing that I would recommend the board choosing um their own attorney the chair can hire an attorney um and has the budget to do so and I would recommend the chair hire an attorney um to evaluate our existing attorneys and look at some of the past cases and ask is this the sort of services we would want and I gave you eight pages of backup there's no way I know more than 30% of what's out there so there's probably more cases the board

100could solicit input from the public if there's parents that have concerns with how the district has ever interacted with the board they could contact that attorney and that would be a great way to involve the public in choosing an attorney that would work for the district and not necessarily individual staff members um so um as you move forward that that would that was what I would recommend um similarly a separate um uh governance issue I'd recommend the Boe email address is essentially um a distribution list and when you send an email to the Boe email address it sends uh that email to each member of the Board of Education but it sends an email to non-members of the Board of Education and from a Governor's perspective I would think that the board should direct um

101the administration to not copy non-board members because the board manages a superintendent from from a um span of control and management theory if somebody would to have an issue that um they want to go to the superintendent's boss they can't do so with without informing the superintendent it and it that this is true of the current occupant or future occupants and from a management control theory um you shouldn't be doing that you you don't do that in any other scenario right so I would recommend that the U the board directs the super the superintendent to take himself and other staff members off the Boe email address and from a standpoint of just Joe Q public or Jane Q public they go and type type in Boe email address they wouldn't expect that they would be

102sending it to anybody other than members of the Board of Education thank you very much for your and the documents from earlier today okay so um I believe then we are um moving to the next item on the agenda three main points so so we've had sorry we've had um some robust disc um discussion here tonight um Stephanie what did you capture and then we'll see if other folks want to add or um modify three main points yep so my uh recommendations I guess would be the superintendent update um the finance report that would also incl include the committee update and the public comment update from the finance uh meeting at 6 o'cl um and then the team's presentation okay what do you what do you guys think about that like when you I would

103just title the finance report thing just budget budget okay really a robust it wasn't really a robust um agenda so yeah options not a lot of choice yeah I think that that word's going to be coming up a lot you know the only main points y okay um so so are we are you good on that I am look how good you are getting at that okay yes please um so in terms of uh the next item on the agenda agenda uh upcoming events so we've got the finance subcommittee meeting Monday at 6:30 correct Monday the 8th Finance is 5:30 yeah 5:30 oh 5:30 5:30 switch till February okay sorry Robert you got to drive it break next speed to join us it's all good okay thank you um and then again on finance committee

104subcommittee will be meeting Tuesday January 16th right no or did we did we we had a schedule conflict with that we're just meeting that one more time okay okay okay and we we will discuss on the 8th which is next Monday if we need to meet on the 16th okay okay okay okay depending on how much Workshop we get done okay um and then the next board meeting will be Wednesday January 17th here 7 o'clock are there other important items for upcoming events students midterms was there going to be another meeting on 2th that that gets would typically get determined on the 17th the regular me if we need to if the board's comfortable adopting the budget that night they'll adopt the 17th if board isn't comfortable then you could table you could take a

105vote whatever you decide to do and bring it to the but we do I would uh strongly encourage the board that any later than the 24th is problematic given the timeline of having to get it to Mr Dunn by the following Wednesday January 31st by Town Charter we must get it there and frankly Casey and I and Joan and the team need to be able to get the work done to have the budget prepared and we need those work days to get it done after the 24th before the 31st so will the agenda on the 17th include continued discussion oh the old business the budget will still be there and so I can't encourage enough if you have questions ask and we'll do everything we can in our power over the next two weeks to

106make sure you have what you need to be comfortable voting on the 17 if you're not then you're not but uh we want everybody to have the info they need okay are there other points to discuss all right great job team if there are no objections this meeting is adjourned at 8:25 thank you everyone and thanks everyone who is watching and thanks to the people who turned out to see