Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] I turn that thank good evening everybody no it's just um I'd like to call the uh regular meeting of the Brookfield board of education for Wednesday October 18th 2023 to order um please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the FL of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay we have all seven members of our our board here today and before we jump into the agenda I'd like to say a couple of things about our membership uh first um we didn't do this last meeting and I and I kicked myself because I felt we should have and uh and I'd like to do it now um Sharon bhau who's been a member

002with us for the last two years um due to personal reasons had to resign after uh in the early part of September and uh and I just want to publicly acknowledge Sharon and all the hard work she did on this board of education and uh you know all of you see what we do here at meetings but that's the tip of the iceberg I mean Sharon served on multiple interview committees on uh Union negotiations on subcommittees and was always a vocal participant speaking her own mind at our meetings here she was a hugely valuable uh member of our committee and I think all of us uh will miss her um on this committee and we wish her well so offer any any the other board members anything they'd like to add to that okay so

003Sharon thank you I'd also like to introduce Mrs halah hanani who's joined us here tonight Hala um Hala um is uh we've met over the last couple of weeks um uh to appoint uh uh Hala to uh serve out the remaining two years of the term and for those of you who don't know when a um uh when uh somebody uh resigns from the Board of Education or any other board uh the remaining members of the board uh actually appoint the successor until the next election with the timing of what this was they had missed the timing for this this November's election so Mrs herani will serve until November of 2025 and uh we unanimously and wholeheartedly uh uh uh appointed Mrs herani who brings a huge amount of uh experience uh both life experience

004uh professional experience in education and professional experience in the business world uh to this board and uh had we had a fabulous interview with Mrs Sani so Hala welcome to the board thank you I'm really glad to be here thank you okay with that we are going to uh jump in um and our first item on the agenda tonight is the student Spotlight for Candlewood Lake Elementary School Dr bril would you like to say a couple of opening remarks thank you Mr Beldon um I'd like to First invite Dr peps saski up to get ready for introductions of uh his team coming up here um and this is not only the first Spotlight of the new school year but it is the first ever historic Spotlight of Candlewood Lake Elementary School so Mr Dr excuse

005me pep sasi please take over thank you and along those lines it will be the best CS Spotlight ever so uh I reached out to staff and I said it's it's C's time to do the spotlight and one of my we call them super staff because they are all superstars D Pearson who is amazing getting a little choked up de you're so amazing and I'm out of breath uh so de who models you know we talked about the Brookfield se de models that on a daily basis and had this amazing opportunity for collaboration with the upper school and the lower school and we're always looking for those opportunities so without further Ado D Pearson to introduce you and your crew and the awesome Media Center book buddy extravagant that you've [Applause] created right I'm short

006I'm G to move this down um thank you so much for having us I do want to go through I believe we have a little slides we have a few slides that I'll put through um as as we're speaking today first of all I wanted to say thank you for having us here thank you for everything you've done to get us this amazing new beautiful school it's fantastic um my friends that are here with me today we have you guys going to introduce yourselves right we have Anna Clifford and what grade are you in Anna uh I'm in fourth grade Okay evan Jack and I'm in fifth grade Elijah heing and I'm in fth gradey and I'm inade our wonderful new primary librarian Nicole Guerrera who came from the high school thank you for giving

007her to us she's fantastic um actually has parent teacher conference is tonight with her daughter so she was not able to be here but she really wanted to um so what we did is we tried to find a way that we can make our huge building feel more like a like small neighborhoods that do things together and one of the great ways we can do that is in the media center because we have this stairwell that connects our spaces so Nicole was struggling with how to get Littles how how to get the little kids book shopping and how to do it nice well what if I bring my upper grades down we have the same schedule I'll bring a class down and we'll start a little book buddy program well it really took off I've

008got phone calls from parents I've got emails from parents and teachers saying this is the kids can't stop talking about it they absolutely love it so to in tell you a little bit more about it Anna is going to tell you what we are doing an I wanted to come over here I I'm going to kind of slip through slides while you do that we are going downstairs and helping the kindergarten first grade and second graders shop for books teaching how to use a shelf marker learn where books are in the new library and how to check out a book and reading with our buddies next we have Evan who's going to tell you how we are doing our program we are we go downstairs and wait on the stage we meet our buddies and

009introduce ourselves we ask them what type of book they would like and then we help them find it we are trying to we try reading some to see if they like it or not before we check the books out then we take the Shelf markers and either check out the book or look for something else all right now now Eli is going to tell you why we decided to do this program it's great to be able to help someone else with book shopping and reading it's a big school and a big new library it could be scary and confusing if you had to do it alone it helps us feel connected to each other it it teaches us responsibility when we help someone else and finally Elena is going to tell you about some of

010the results we've gotten and the reactions we've had to the program um so I think that the little kids really like it and uh I'm noticing that having someone older than them is is going to make it easier for them and U make them feel more comfortable in the new library and I and when the Buddies read in funny voices I think it makes the reading fun for them I think the coolest part about having about being a buddy is um in the hallways or whenever they see you they smile and they wave and they say hi and it makes the uh older kids feel appreciated and important does anyone have any questions for the kids about what we're doing does anyone have any questions for the kids about what we're doing how do you

011become a book buddy how did how did you get recruited um there you go we're usually in a line and whoever comes up next they um usually um pick a Budd that's next in line so we we've been doing it as whole classes so if I have a fifth grade they might pair with a first grade or a second grade it's wh whomever our schedules align with Cole and I um and then let's see no you guys are so your fourth grade is your we have first grade you have a first grade kindergarten kindergarten your kindergarten and Elena what about you a kindergarten kindergarten and okay so I'm gonna ask a question what's the biggest challenge you've had so far sometimes they don't always come up to the microphone yeah sometimes they don't always know

012what book they want so we don't we're not used to like the library down there so we have to look through look for the Shelf markers and Elena what else I bet you have something to add to that um so sometimes they have they can pick a stuff animal and um sometimes while we're reading the book they ask if they could change their stuan get up and um and um sometimes um they forget where they put their book uh their shelf marker or um they don't put it in and then they forget where to put their book bag did you have something Anna I think it's a little hard because it's a new library and you wouldn't know where any of the books are you have something to add um and also um the kids

013um sometimes choose out two complicated books for their grade and um they don't know how to read it except they still choose it anyway maybe mom or dad will read it at home right yeah and by the way everything the kids generate everything they said today today were those were their words that they generated just with some questions that I asked them so I've I've got I always tell people I have the best job in the world I love what I do every day and this is why are you guys having fun all right can I ask one more question sure what are some of the favorite books that you recommend to the younger students we get a lot of um dinosaur and Lego books so um Mo Willams and the pigeons the like that

014don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus um I think they mostly choose short books like elephant and piggy um usually they pick um my book buddy picked um Lego or space and now they the little littles want to know when they get to come upstairs and shop and I said when you're in third grade all right thanks guys you did a great job thank you guys great job Candlewood Lake Cubs nice work on the first Spotlight thank you D you know when we design that and I remember you guys first uh brought us a picture of what the libraries would look like with that internal stairwell I you know it's amazing how quickly that has connected the upper and the lower it is it really is amazing and and kudos to miss Pearson because she

015was a big part of we have mentioned over the years user groups and so our teachers working to help design the school and give input to The Architects D was incred part of of the upper and the lower Library so thank you Dave great job thank you guys another another round of applause for the guys all right next up on our agenda is public comment um the Board of Education welcomes public comment each speaker has up to three minutes and for those of you were speaking I got my handy dandy little hourglasses I don't I don't go crazy on it but it's a visual cue for whoever's speaking uh um at the start of every meeting we have a maximum of 20 minutes allotted for a comment on any item that's included on the agenda

016and at the end of every regular meeting we have time that's allotted for any item that's within the board's broad jurisdiction um which and and that would include any overflow time if we needed to um discussion of school individual School Personnel individual students or individual members of the board is prohibited so we have two people signed up and uh I will call you up to uh make your comments and uh and I just need your name and address before you address the board so first us up is Omar good evening my name is Omar Nar and I'm a freshman here at Brookfield High School today I would like to add advocate for a long awaited change in our school calendar including and as a school holiday in all Brookfield schools and are two significant religious

017and cultural holidays celebrated by 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide marks the end of Ramadan a month of fasting prayer reflection and expressing support for the less fortunate a feast celebrate sacrifice and obedience to God I believe that recognizing and celebrating and as a school holiday is a matter of religious accommodation and an opportunity to promote inclusivity diversity and an understanding within our school Community it is important to acknowledge the diversity within Brookfield Community we live in a society that values and celebrates cultural differences our schools should create an environment where every student students feel respected and includ included regarded of their regardless of their background or beliefs recognizing and as a school holiday is a step towards demonstrating our commitment to diversity to diversity and inclusivity neighboring towns such as Waterberry Bridgeport Trumbo and Fairfield have

018already adopted these as school holidays other states have also implemented this holiday including New York and New Jersey making and school holidays will send a powerful message to our school students and their families that the religious beliefs and that the religious beliefs are respected and valued this creates a sense of belonging and encourages a positive relationship between the district and the Muslim Community it shows that we care about the well-being of all berkfield students and their ability to practice their faith without feeling excluded or burdened by academic responsibilities additionally having and as a school holiday can be seen as an education opportunity just like other religious holidays such as Hanukah Rashana and Christmas it allows students of all backgrounds to learn about this holiday's Traditions customs and significance it promotes cultural awareness and understanding by

019learning about and celebrating different cultural religious holidays we equip our students with a broader perspective and the ability to interact with people from various backgrounds with empathy and respect I understand that some may be concerned about the potential impact on our school calendar however it is worth noting that we already observe various holidays and breaks throughout the year for different cultural and historical reasons I believe adding and to this list is a matter of fairness and continuation of our tradition and of recognizing and celebrating diversity I believe recognizing and as a districtwide holiday is a step in the right direction it aligns with our community values of inclusivity and diversity promotes understanding among the students of Brookfield and sends a message of regard to the Muslims within our schools let us Embrace this opportunity opportunity

020to strengthen our community and encourage a more inclusive learning environment for all thank you thank you okay our next speaker is uh Mariana good evening my name is miam Aziz I am a youth leader at the alh mosque Omar and his family attend I'm an author poet and member of the E Coalition me Omar and many of the students today in your school district are second generation American Muslims born after September 11 my generation is still haunted by this horrific attack and we have to endure fear anxiety and emotional distress starting from as young as Elementary School we feel a deep otherness in the way we are treated and the racist remarks that are constantly being made leading to Muslim Students wanting to hide and creating a struggle with their identity the rise of islamophobia

021and bullying and hate my brothers and I faced at school LED my parents to homeschool us after we attended a few years of school at elementary level I found myself at the age of 11 wanting to dismantle bullying I used my words to author a children's book and visited many school libraries including here in Brookfield and towns nearby to read to children and teach a message of kindness and inclusion unfortunately the horrific war in the Middle East and the constant stream of news is contributing to a rise of hate and islamophobia that has made our parents more than ever before concerned about our safety since some of our children are seeing an increase in of bullying and hostility from peers across different school districts a six-year-old Muslim boy in Chicago was murdered with 26 stabo

0222 days ago by his neighbor with law enforcement characterizing this as a hate crime another man was charged with terrorism on October 16th for threatening to hunt down all Arab and Dearborn with all of this animosity recognizing the two eids as school holidays goes beyond simply accommodating religious practices it provides an opportunity to promote cultural awareness and understanding among students of all backgrounds by celebrating diverse holidays we encourage dialogue and an environment of inclusivity allowing students to learn about different cultures and traditions and nurturing and appreciation for diversity also also research research shows that students are better positioned to S succeed academically feel a sense of belonging and retain a healthy state of well-being in school climates that Embrace students diverse backgrounds schools across the US are increasingly moving to recognize Eid as New York

023City was the first big city school district in 2015 to close its Public School in observance of the holidays other districts in New Jersey Florida Cali California Philadelphia Vermont Ohio Missouri and many other states began to recognize the holiday as well Connecticut is not an exception with Fairfield Bridgeport Trumbo Stamford Norwalk and Waterberry all taking off for both Eid holidays the E holiday has been recognized in many districts as far as back as 1990s when schools closed for the religious occasion in Detroit the Brookfield district has been exemplary in the past in being inclusive generous and comp passionate Brookfield students of the Leo Club worked with a youth at the alhada Islamic Center not more than 10 minutes away from this high school to help refugees in Connecticut Brookfield was one of the first towns

024in the area to welcome refugees and help them resettle in the early 80s the Muslim Community in the Brookfield area would gather at the Brookfield Library to prepare before any of the four mosques in the area existed the character traits of leadership that Brookfield showcased could build a world of peace that is needed now we urge you to continue showing leadership of kindness inclusion and understanding by considering the eat holidays as off in your school district thank you thank [Applause] you okay um we will be coming back to school calendar as a topic on our agenda later um so um we'll we heard you so um all right so Ava you ready to give us a report hi is this on I hope everyone's doing well tonight I have a report to give about what's

025going on at the high school we kind of have a have had a busy month this past month so starting with some things that happened in the past couple weeks um seniors painted their parking spots um they came last week all the designs were pre-approved by Mr Buckley along with student government who help to coordinate this entire event I think it looks really nice um I didn't do I'm not super artistically inclined so I didn't do my parking spot but um my some of my friends did it and they really enjoyed it um on October 6th the senior class went on a trip to Lake compounds um our class advisers Mrs how and Mrs negre coordinated this event it was a lot of fun and everyone had a really good time um we had the

026club Fair a couple weeks ago too which was another great successful event um all the clubs that I'm in we had a lot lot of new memberships and a lot of clubs are using like QR codes and other types of Technology um to have people join their group me or join their Google Classroom um in an easy and convenient way so some events that are happening currently are coming up this week is Spirit Week um our themes for this week are USA day twin day today was on Wednesdays we were pink pink out for breast cancer awareness um Adam Sandler day and blue and gold day um on Friday we have our pep rally at the end of the day that's always a great school spirit event all the sports do some games and everything

027um also on Friday night is the homecoming Carnival before the football game um some clubs will come and do little small booths with little games or fundraisers there's usually a dunk tank um with some teachers and the homecoming dance is on the TW October 28th at the am room the tickets just went on sale um a lot of seniors including myself are really busy with college applications but we have a great counseling staff we have a college and career counselor Mrs Usher who's a great resource I know she's meeting with students back to back over the past couple weeks um along with the rest of the counseling department who's just getting all the letters of recommendation and transcripts all in line for everyone um some things that we're all adjusting to with this start of

028the school year um even though it's somehow already been like a month and a half um the new school start time we're getting some feedback from students some people really like it um some people don't love it it's really mixed feelings from what I've been hearing from students um cuz I know it gets difficult um with everything interfering if they have Athletics or work commitments um the roof construction finished up a couple weeks ago so the counseling and social studies Wing is back open and the new field and track are all done the track was just they just had the ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday um in terms of Athletics we have uh our football homecoming game a home game on this Friday um and like I said last time I'm the senior captain of the

029dance team team so I can speak a little bit about that we're doing some fundraisers we're selling pom poms at the football game and we're doing a trivia night fundraiser too um we're doing a lot combined with cheer it's like a school spirit promotion so we're performing with them at the game on Friday and finally I can talk a little bit about the clubs I'm in I'm in National Honors Society so we're getting our year started off everyone's getting their community service opportunities in line and the National Honor Society does a tutoring program every year where we help students um who might be struggling in their classes so that whole program is getting coordinated we're learning all about um the importance of like having a good relationship with the student and just some tips on

030how to make tutoring successful um I'm also in Spanish Honor Society and we right now our current project we're doing a booth at the homecoming Carnival which is a Hispanic food sampler so everyone's making some foods and we'll bring them to the fair on Friday and finally I'm in the Brookfield youth commission which is more more of a government level School group um we're running the candidate Forum on October 24th um where we'll um students are able to have a little question and answer session we pre-approve all the questions beforehand um and they're able to hear from the people running for positions in the Board of Ed Board of Selectmen and board of Finance um and going along with that the other week Mr Banda presented a slideshow at ilt about just what our local

031government does to give some background um before this event and that went really well it was nice because it was a remote event everyone just did it individually in their own classroom projected on the board it was like a Google meeting so we didn't have to get coordinate getting all the students in one room and that went really well and I think that brings me to the end of my report thank you so much does anybody have any questions for any questions for Ava I have a question for the um meet the candidates is the youth commission coming up with the questions or is there an opportunity for people to submit questions yeah so um Mr dula who is one of the adult advisor on youth commission sent out a Google form to all the

032Brookfield students after the presentation about local government um and that had like a ranking of what students think are the most uh relevant or important issues to them that they want to hear from all the candidates and then students also had um the opportunity to say like specific questions that they wanted so from the data from that uh Google form we compiled like the most frequent questions or like grouped them together um in maybe a more broader range um so we just had a meeting today where we Consolidated all those and we have like two or three questions per board of AD Board of Select Min and board of Finance um for each of their designated responsibilities whatever the questions um aligned with great awesome I can't wait I have a question um aside from

033the Meet the candidates event is the youth commission planning or could they do anything about maybe encouraging students to tell their parents to make sure that they vote I we don't have any projects like that in the works but I think that's a really good idea um just getting involved because we do a lot about like youth getting involved with like Civic engagement and everything but obviously voting is such an important thing I think that would be really beneficial so I can defin itely bring that up at our next meeting yeah great great any other questions Ava thank you again for a great report no problem thank you so much for having me okay next up is written correspondence hi Chris Dickson and Melissa Jagger wrote regarding the board vacancy Anna preny wrote regarding a

034concern Shannon Riley wrote regarding parent communication Greg preny wrote regarding grievances Austin Montero wrote regarding a petition and the VAC VY process Andy Korea wrote regarding process concerns and advice on filling the vacancy and a foyer request Deborah C wrote regarding Sports Transportation issues and Christina Zimmerman wrote regarding school start times okay thank you uh next up is approval of board minutes I'll move that the board approve the minutes from the regular meeting on September 20th and the special meeting on October 5th and the special meeting on October 12th second okay it's moved and seconded uh uh any questions or comments on the minutes okay all in favor of approving the minutes please say I I I okay uh all right superintendent update Dr burill I'll turn it over to you all right thank you

035Mr beldin um so congratulations and welcome Miss herani very nice to have you here welcome um I also uh hope everybody noticed and I know Dr P alluded to it a little bit the uh really the exemplification of the Brookfield seas and portrait of The Graduate work from our strategic plan and uh just the uh all of our students tonight who spoke in all different capacities they're really incredible and a lot of great learning going on in our schools I'm so excited um couple of things I wanted to just touch base with you on tonight um as an uh update uh regarding our Brookfield Board of Education subcommittee our security task force we'll be be meeting on October 26 at the end of the month for our first meeting of the school year our really

036um main topics for that meeting um one will be um how we're doing with Candlewood Lake Elementary School as we open it up uh Staffing in general specifically Staffing in security and our SRO uh the police chief will be there the uh Kelsey our SRO will be there we're just going to have a nice conversation with Dr pep saski about that Mr Renda is also invited because we want to talk about um the evacuation plan for whiner middle school regarding iroy and some of the work they're doing over there with natural gas we want to make sure we're up to date on our plans uh in also related to security it's uh really happy to share that our Brookfield all hazards plan which is is a annual plan we need to update for the district

037and all of the schools this year obviously having the one elementary school so we had to build a brand new plan uh is complete signed off on by all of our uh emergency responder leaders in town and we'll be submitting that to the state uh quite soon um and we work directly with a consultant from the uh Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security so we really have a well done and upto-date plan I thank our principles and Mrs gramling and Mr Caldwell for really working hard on that in addition to that I spent some time uh this morning at a uh emergency planning scenario event with Sarah Palmer our new uh uh crisis uh manager for the town and we were with police chief and Fire Chief and all of our First Responders and

038it was really a great meeting to make sure we're all communicating we went through a couple of scenarios so it was good opportunity to meet with those folks um and connect the school in with town planning a really exciting opportunity the districtwide PTO is being revitalized have to thank Mrs Newman uh the PTO president of BHS she's really spearheading getting uh all three schools together um in early November we're actually going to meet with the three principales and we're going to talk about some things that we'll talk about later today such as uh beautifying and updating our schools uh parent and student and uh faculty engagement and some other activities so we're really really excited about that um and I'm just so so uh appreciative of all their dedication because they're they're going to be

039putting in a lot of time and they're really enthusiastic along with our principles to move things forward uh Mr Roland our special ed director and I attended uh Brookfield cares Community Forum last week on Thursday uh there uh Mrs uh Sturm provided the ass asset inventory results that the board heard a while back from the asset survey that the kids uh took last fall and we really got a lot of good Community input as to some things the town could do or the town could uh students and families could Avail themselves of services from the town uh in support of those uh needs that are demonstrated in that particular survey so that was just really a nice event and I thank bill for attending uh in Brookville cares for all their dedication there um I'm

040actually right now it would be ho us to bring up Bill uh if Mr Roland could come up I'd like him to give a quick special education update pupil services update on strategic plan uh work for the Department itself and progress on uh the recommendations from the last correct report and let us know a little bit about what's upcoming in the next month sure thank you Dr Burl good evening members of the board um just to to start with um earlier this month we had our uh initial uh special ed PTO meeting uh septo uh right here in this room was very well attended with many parents um got a chance to meet and greet with many parents I haven't met and many parents I have met um we talked about concerns and questions they

041had we talked about future topics including strategies for for uh parents at home who have students with disabilities bringing in some guest speakers who can help speak about um behavioral strategies in general um the IEP process CT saids um and it was a very good give and take of uh ideas that parents had ideas that I had and just speaking to the future of collaborating with families and communicating with families and it was an excellent chance to have uh a large group of people in one room to kind of hear their concerns uh in general Also earlier this month during our professional development uh as it was noted in the CCT report in terms of professional development for um IEPs and IEP writing we began our year-long IEP quality training which is a partnership with

042that Advance we had two Consultants come in again to this very room with our special education department and walk through how to write appropriate goals and objectives they also folded in some of the new features in CT sets because as you know uh the state's uh IEP system switched from IEP direct which a lot of us use to uh CT saids that has a lot of updates on a regular basis there there are changes almost weekly that the state is giving us um talked about how to write more appropriate goals how to do progress monitoring data collection things like that which we're going to continue on in terms of professional development during the year the important part with data collection and progress monitoring is it gives our parents opportunities to see how their children are

043reaching their goals and objectives not just anecdotally but through trials of four out of five times uh the student will be able to read specific words or take a specific behavioral Choice that's appropriate and positive those things parents have been asking for in terms of I want to know how often it happens where it happens how it happens and through our professional development we're writing goals that will allow uh PPT meetings to be even more collaborative so that the the teams can share uh that information not just anecdotally as in your child's doing well in class they're doing really well what does that look like and so data collection was a piece of that um in terms of building visits uh as the correct report spoke about communication I'm in regular contact with um the

044principls as well as the staff and the teachers in the building it gives me great pleasure to go into classrooms and see the students learning and and engaging and in conjunction with that when I receive a call from a parent or um um speaking with parents at PTO meetings or just in even at the Brookfield cares uh meeting it's my ability to say oh I met your son I met your daughter I saw them in the class they were doing great doing this or this and it just gives me the ability to connect with parents more having a connection with their children in the schools that's also a piece of the of the CCT report that I've been um working on excuse me I'm sorry and finally the Strategic plan um earlier at the septo

045meeting earlier this month I welcome parents to join we have a group of parents that are going to be joining us next week for our uh initial meeting meting for the Strategic plan to lay out a framework uh a vision and kind of gather feedback on what the framework should look like going forward we have several teachers uh related services staff from all three buildings uh also joining us so it's going to be a great opportunity for us to get together and align special education plans with the existing District strategic plan so that's just my kind of a a brief maybe not so brief overview of of uh the last couple months since and in the month since um I presented to you last time so I thank you for the opportunity this evening and

046can you tell us about the next board meeting who's going to be here yes so so um spoiler alert at the next board meeting um we have Dr Coro uh who was here last year speaking about the correct program review the special ed District review she's collaborated with us on a second piece which you were aware of in terms of specialized program reviews in District and out of District programming um in terms of what we can do uh internally to not only uh assist and support our students in District but look at the out of District placements and what the satisfaction is for those placements as well as kind of laying the groundwork and seeds for what can we do to build some of those existing services in District again early days but for November

04715th I'll be presenting more about what I spoke about tonight and Dr Corville will be presenting her report that uh I spoke about with her since uh I I was on board but in the last couple weeks it's become a draft form we're working through it and be ready to present it to you on at the November 15th board meeting thank you any questions for Bill while he's up here good all right okay thank you Bill thanks everybody uh next on my superintendent report I'd like to in uh invite up BHS principal Mark Banda uh while it is uh remains at the school level there was a book challenge right before the end of the school year um and Mark in the Mark put together a committee and uh he's going to share a brief

048overview of the results thank you Dr bril uh so we met uh on the book fun home a uh family tragic comic uh we the committee officially made its decision uh now two weeks ago I think or end of last week I think was when it was finally published um but we went through a similar process what we did with the previous book that was uh Rec up for reconsideration uh I convened a committee we did change the makeup of the committee this time around so there were some people that were the same from the previous one uh we also invited uh two different teachers and one different um student services professional somebody else came so we had three different people on the committee from where we had the first time around uh we spent

049time in the first meeting September 7th um orienting to the process and to the terms of what the challenge was uh about we went through the actual challenge itself and then distributed the book and set a meeting uh the second meeting was September 28th uh it was rescheduled from September 18th um you know because we had some water issues and had to leave the building early so uh that was why that happened on September 28th and then that was a a robust discussion uh and so we decided that we needed more time uh to continue the conversation so we had another meeting uh to continue the discussion on uh October 4th went through in detail the reconsideration Forum from start to finish um and then came up with our final decision we voted anonymously so

050the people could U feel comfortable the decision at that point I did not vote but the committee of six it was a five to1 decision five to ones saying that there we take no action and the book remains in the collection uh one person did say uh that they thought the book should uh be removed from the collection so I forwarded that information uh and also a report to the superintendent uh into the group that submitted the reconsideration report uh leaving it now at this point and there hands to determine if they would like to take the next step which would be to reach out to the superintendent to continue the process if they'd like to um and I'm that's where we're at a standstill at this point thank you much welcome any followup questions

051for Mark so I just want to according to our policy your decision stands unless it's further challenged correct correct that's why that's why want to make sure we're all clear thank you Mr you made a decision that's why I uh prefaced uh Mike before inviting Mark up here to let everybody know that it's at the school level at this point well it's not at this point that the the school made a decision yeah so that's so it's it's that unless there's a further challenge right so I just I got we got to make sure it's not viewed as just a step along the way correct right the decision we' like to have the decisions taken at the school level if we can I'm really glad that you brought in six professionals plus yourself into that

052discussion so and we'll have to see if there's a further challenge yep so so at this point the book does remain in the collection so thank thank you Mr B for the the overview um just quick question so the person that challenged they were told all this information and then Mr B sent it directly to the folks and they were told that if they had a further challenge to okay yeah they they're very aware of the process yeah so was you Mr BL you ran the committee because you didn't you didn't get a you didn't vote so I facil facilitated the committee so I'm the one who did all the the led the discussion asked questions went through the things that you know look in board policy and those sorts of things if there was

053a need to go to a like a tiebreaking vote then I would absolutely have done that thank you okay thank you all right okay have just a couple more items I wanted to give a uh overview of a couple of uh key items uh I think folks might be waiting with baited breath on regarding Candlewood Lake in terms of us getting ready to have it the project fully completed um as we know there's a lot of interior finish work that's being uh completed um and then the exterior grounds driveway parking lot there's still a lot of work that's that's going on there uh the first thing I want to let everybody know I'm going to walk through three three holidays that are upcoming it's some lines for us to remember things playscapes um are ordered

054manufactured and ready to be delivered um until the installer is on site you don't deliver the playscapes that's how that works it's all part and partial so the playscapes are um due to come to us Halloween week which is that dece uh October 31st November 1st that week um and then it's about a twoe installation process as we understand so I know Dave and the team are very excited over there the kids while they're playing in those areas I think they're imagining where the playscapes are they can't wait to be go get going on that uh secondly um in terms of the parking lot and driveway let's think about Thanksgiving when the asphalt plants close we are very hopeful that the um not only the debris clearing of the demolition of Huckleberry and there's only

055some foundation work left I understand probably about 10 work days of finishing up the demolition of the remaining Foundation um the drain work is being done the soft soils are being removed those kinds of things um then they really start on the parking lot build of that north parking lot um so that's the right side of the building for people who are picturing the school and the site um when the north lot uh is uh uh done curved and asphalted that plan is supposed to be prior to to Thanksgiving which is around the time asphalt plants close if we have a very mild fall that could go into the first week in December if it gets snowy and cold that they close earlier it all depends on the on our Connecticut weather so um that's

056the plan is I would love to see that done so we could have good clear areas for plowing in the winter but also have our faculty staff um closer to the building not have to be in that temporary Lot close that's a long walk in and also have a um larger and clearer path not only for buses but for our parent to pick up and drop off so that's that's the second piece of information the third piece uh is a lot of folks are asking when are we going to be able to get the public in there and and do a building uh dedication ribbon cutting which I can't wait to do I'm so looking forward to really having that formal celebration there are two really big projects in addition to the uh kind of

057finished trim work that's going on everywhere those are the bleachers in the gym and the main stairwell all that tazzo flooring both jobs require the uh the contractors to be there for multi mle days um with a lot of setup and it's just not efficient for them to set up and then break down and then have to reset up the next day while school is in session for evening work so those are those jobs are scheduled to be done over the Christmas break um my hope would be that when we come back from the Christmas break the uh the winter recess we would be able to um start to think about when we're going to schedule that building dedication um so th those are the biggies uh for um Candlewood Lake and then and I'm

058shared some things with Miss herani the other day Mrs herani the other day um we all know that we're going to have four new board members um uh for the December F uh December 6th Board of Education meeting after the election and so uh both Lisa and I worked with cab we've ordered the uh initial uh welcome board packet from cab um the principles are updating their annual uh organizational charts so it's very easy for board members to understand the whole Dynamic of the uh of the uh District um and we also have a lot of legislation that occurred in the last couple of years so we have a legislative document that we want to share with the board members as well so they could really see you know the things that we were recently

059implementing things that we might will have to implement because with with the budget coming up in the next fiscal year and then down the road another year or two from now what's what's uh coming down the Horizon so we want to make sure our uh board members are set up for Success ready to go because the first board meeting in December is a really big board meeting I uh present the budget recommendation for 2425 and as we know our budget is uh in in the area of $50 million that's a lot of responsibility for seven board members and we want to make sure we'll have joy and Rosa with us who are the veterans but we'll have uh Miss herani who just getting started and a bunch of new board members so we want to

060make sure everybody's ready to go um speaking of that just as a forecast for the evening there's a lot of reports that'll come out tonight the case load report the enrollment report the achievement report Capital planning report that we're going to go through tonight all of those feed into planning for next year's work and so that budget presentation in December will really be a function of what we start to talk about tonight so just I want everybody to kind of frame this a very important meeting in that regard finally it's not on the uh superintendent report but I do want to share that uh Dr man and I uh got to meet with uh the track coaches and Mr Baldwin uh Mr Conlin uh put some drone video together and took some pictures for us

061we got to be with the student athletes yesterday we christened with a ribbon cutting for the opening of the track the track student athletes were down there and they took their first uh ceremonial lap if you will so we're just so excited we thank the facilities committee and we thank the NBC for all the hard work on the locker room the field the track and that if you want to take a look when you get a chance the new concrete slab is down for the tennis courts as well so a lot of great work is going on then they got to eat pizza yes lots of pizza then burn it I saw that in the picture yeah and that's all I have for tonight so thank you for your time um relative to preparing for

062new board members and a big meeting on December 6th it strikes me that we should have a uh uh what do we call them a retreat ret a retreat in November so we can have the existing board with the new board members we could have there's going to be so many new board members it's chance to have existing like the board chairs walk through what does our committee do right so that is that they established new committees they're not walking in cold right um talk a little bit about foia with our our attorney get to know um the principal so could you take a to-do to start checking on date availability in November um that to do that and I would suggest that once we establish a date we can attend that uh that you

063reach out to all the candidates and check to see that they can attend and there are six candidates out there so we'll do the four of them will be elected okay I would also suggest because we did it when I first became a board member but that was we haven't done it since um is reaching out to Dan and see if he's available um because I remember giving him a lot him giving us a lot of really good advice in terms of like like what's legally our responsibility and sure that would be a great resource to have there yep yeah we just saw a plan to do it I just don't want to wait until after that December 6th meeting and you have some existing board members I mean I could picture Debbie talking about

064what do you do in policy and Mike talking about what do we do in Cape and it's a great education with some of the experience we have right um to walk through that with all the board members there both new and old right it's a nice transition Lisa and I float some dates we'll talk to Dan Murphy we'll get it all see we can get together in the next couple days yep that would be great thank you okay thank you any questions for Dr bro okay thanks everyone so we're move on to subcommittee reports um Mike you've got two of them so I'll let you just do both of them okay it'll be pretty quick too uh as the September 18th meeting uh was largely a presentation on the Desa results which we got at

065the previous board meeting so uh in is very in detail thank you Dr man for that uh very in-depth presentation the Des results were uh the inaugural Administration so there's one in September or sorry not September there was one in the spring there's going to be one in the fall and we're going to do another one in the spring uh the review of curriculum projects at the CLE uh the development of the ELA reading program K through2 and the three through five uh illustrative math programs being implemented that's going to sound familiar in a second uh the uh whiskin middle school projects uh more Ela from 6th 7th and 8th grade a review of non-fiction material uh units and a PE Wellness uh adjustment to the curriculum but based off the time frame of uh

066of the new school schedule now that the school is now grades 6 through 8 uh and then we had a presentation incorporating new text the AP environmental science and AP World History books that we approved environmental was a few Ms ago but AP was uh the AP World History was like two meetings ago and then we had one last week via Zoom uh and Dr man's going to go over a lot of that findings today so I'm not going to go into too de uh too deep a detail uh Dr man Dr farious sorry Dr man Mrs farious presented a preview on annual spring testing results SBA ngss and the SATs so covering the uh elementary school middle school and high school and then we got an update on the curriculum uh instruction the AP

067statistic textbook there is no update it's just going to be a new addition uh so that's that's nice that we're using a book that already is uh checks a lot of boxes uh we went next on professional development the professional development day was October 9th uh and major topics were pathway pathway again is aligning all of the schools elementary through High School in their curriculum and some specific illuster of math U professional learning uh for grad three for five bringing that back and that's the highlights okay any questions for Mike okay thank you Mike all right uh policy and Communications okay uh the policy and Communications committee met on September 20th um it was just Amy and I with Dr burill and Lisa gramling because uh Sharon had already left at that point and we

068did not have a new member so Amy and I trudged onward um we really spent a lot of time the bulk of the time talking about the two policies that are actually part of our agenda tonight so uh like Mike I won't go into too much detail now but we um really finished our discussion on policy 61 6251 survey of students we had been we had asked um attorney Murphy for some clarification on a couple points that we had been waiting for so we got that feedback from Dr burill and finalized um how we wanted to handle that policy so that's in the packet for tonight and then um we continue our discussions on policy 6563 School library media um in response to the petition that we received from Brookfield Children's Advocacy Council um we

069reviewed the information that we heard from Mr Banda and Miss um Jen Roa at our August 16th meeting and made a couple um adjustments to the regulation for policy 6563 which again we'll talk about later and then um Dr burill updated us on the ribbon cutting ceremonies and everything he talked about just a few minutes ago for clees and we um talked a little bit about public engagement efforts and the healthy school start times so that was it okay any questions for Debbie all right next is facilities Joy okay we met on October 1st so a lot of updates the GU swing roof here at the high school the RO is near completion pretty much finished up on September 27th we're just waiting for some exterior flashing which is expected any day now um interior

070ceiling tiles will need to be replaced oh your mic's not on oh mic's not on Joy sorry should I start again I'll start again so we met on October 1st um update on the guidance Wing roof here at the high school it's near completion it finished up on on September 27th we're just waiting for some exterior flashing which it is expected any day now interior ceiling tiles will need to be replaced and we should have an estimate for that soon and but we need to be really clear about where that money is coming from for this that the media center here uh we're looking to review the bid specifications with marks Cubo since the structural and roof work specifications drove up the price we're hoping to do that by next week some Capital project updates

071the bathrooms at the high school school and paving at the high school middle school is complete yay it's exciting uh security the high school wrapped up the door alarm project on October 1st and whis skiner was scheduled for the following day United alarm came out and installed the touch pads for the security door alarms uh the locker room here at the high school is nearly complete some mill work is needed some door hardware and lock cores have been ordered are and are in transit the boiler feed here at the high school it's finished and ready to be used update for CES CES the keys documents and reports have all been turned over to the town and some new business we reviewed the capital reports and recommendations also the 10-year Capital plan all these reports and

072recomendations were based on the review of the building conditions study provided by Marx a Cubo so it's important to mention that BHS and whis skiner are an overall solid condition with proper maintenance over time the buildings will continue to serve our community well so the focus moving forward will be on roof Replacements ceiling tiles unit ventilators funding for an engineering study for AC funding for architectural services for conceptual design schematics oil tank removal bathroom Renovations a rooftop AC unit to the BMS system and a boiler replacement so only a few things but Casey will uh go into more detail later in the agenda so I don't want to talk too much about it she's got a wonderful presentation to follow any questions for Joy we'll get those done real quick okay okay um so now

073that's it uh well let's do the consent agenda so consent agenda I will move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda which are new hires and resignations second Dr any comments on the consent I do not have any I just had a question um I see that for resignations only one is being replaced so the other Paras will they be replaced those positions or do we have anyone inter I can't give you a direct answer on that TR what I would tell you is there as as we all know going through these each month there's a lot of puts and takes so it could be a timing issue as we look at this in terms of alignment so we have position control and we're going through all of that but we could

074check that specific question for you um but I can't give you that answer right now okay but if we have an open position we typically po to fill it absolutely I was very excited to see Mrs stabil coming back oh yes you know I probably should say that so um there there is um and uh this has to do with uh you know our uh frankly our um teacher shortage in Connecticut and across the nation that we are able to weather because of the kind of community we are and um areas like technology and Spanish um or World Language I should say um and special education uh physics are areas that are shortage areas and very hard to find people uh in Brookfield thankfully uh we have um uh a u um a contract that's

075valued by those from the outside uh in terms of what is collectively bargained for teachers and so uh those folks who sometimes may want to return or are uh veteran teachers um it's still is a positive uh decision for them to come back to us or to transition from another District Maybe a little further east of our location uh and come join us so we're really excited to have Mrs back and uh you know when she was doing her paperwork I got a big fat hug and it was really nice to see her so she is starting quite soon right uh Dave over started she actually started she actually started that's right so we're really excited to have her there and uh we also just recently hired a veteran uh special education teacher that'll be

076joining us in the next couple of weeks to fill that uh the opening over at the elementary school as well so I should have said something thank you did we ever um consider asking teachers that have retired to come back you know kind of temporarily we sometimes uh we do sometimes have teachers who have retired who do come back and help us out in some of these interim areas uh most aren't looking for long-term uh placements temporarily they like temporary and if if they could have Tuesday Wednesday Thursday they really like that um but it's great to have them back when they come back and the kids love seeing them so and I don't know New York just um amended their regulation for enl certification MH um it's can you can have get a temporary

077certification because it's an area that is such in high demand I need so you just need to take the state test and if you pass it you can be certified in enl so I don't know if that was something that ktic is looking to Institute or there are there are some opportunities for cross certifications uh here in Connecticut to do just what you're talking about where you take the state test and are able to pass uh additionally we have something it's a process we have called a daap when a educator has um a particular degree or a particular speciality they can we can help them if we really want them to come on to our team we work with the state and they can provide a temporary certification while they work on their formal certification

078so we do have mechanisms like that in Connecticut do you have anything else to add I was just going to say that we actually have have we have two um teachers who just received their daap um who started with us in the very beginning of the year and we just got um the state must be churning out these daps in the last week CU we they got them all processed very quickly so yeah so so we do and those are in special education so we we're excited about those employees yeah so so we continue you know we're we're very fortunate we continue to weather the teacher shortage um there was just a news story The the other day I saw and um just here in Connecticut and uh our neighbor Danberry and some of even

079our other Suburban areas are still having difficulty filling positions and we're in a very fortunate position right now and just to clarify because I know sometimes we get into our jargony oh deap is District shortage area permit alphabet soup my apologies thank you Anna it's my shout out to Dr Mike any other comments on the this is the most comments on a consent agenda that I think we've had since I've been Mrs stel we're glad you're back there you go she heard us any other comments or questions all right all in favor of approving the consent agenda please say I yes okay um so funny all right um i' just like to before we jump into new business I'd like to make a a motion to adjust our agenda a little bit if you guys

080are okay um considering we have uh public speakers and family members who are here to hear about what we're doing on calendar I'd like to in respect for the fact that we have students here move that to the next item on our agenda from old business up to new business uh that's one secondly uh Item B under old business I'd like to move up into new the last item in new business the survey of students that's showing in here as a second read because uh we talked about it once before long long time ago I think we need to bring it back to being a first read and starting that process again so I'd like to move it up to new business as a first read if you're okay and then Amy and that's the

081only motion and then Amy uh uh on item G I think you when you make the motion note that it's a first read right on that one cuz it that wasn't in the draft motion um so a motion to move uh the calendar up to the next item and the item B to item I in new business second seconded and seconded all in favor okay so we're going to adjust the calendar here all right so next up is school calendar and uh Dr bril I'll uh let you give us an update from our last discussion sure so at our uh last meeting uh we presented the calendar just as a reminder for everybody we have a calendar committee uh that annually we work with made up of secretaries teachers administrators and uh others in the

082district we've received a lot of tremendous input and input from all of those groups is reflected on this calendar um the other anecdotal input that we had from families and staff was they love starting after Labor Day this year so we took all of that into account with our typical calendar um typical holidays uh typical breaks Etc uh PLC days professional development days and developed what what you saw last month um there was uh there was the only feedback uh from board members over the last month was to um put some color on the calendar for uh the indication of uh uh conferences and early dismissals those kind of things so uh Lisa thank you for finding a color that wasn't already used so we could discern um and that that's what we have uh

083and uh it's really with the board now to decide and this is probably a month or two earlier than we typically uhing the calendar forward we had the opportunity uh with timing this year so I thought we'd Bring It Forward last month so let me uh we had a public speaker this evening right two public speakers this evening thank you both for speaking to us um have has your committee had a chance to deal with this before it came to us on the board uh no we followed the the traditional calendar that Brookfield has followed I understand so you this issue had not been brought to you or the committee cor no all right so can I think we should probably forthrightly address that right and think about it uh with the right group of

084people and I I I don't know about you all but i' if we have time I'd like to table this and come back to it with after you've had a chance to digest this is that a fair approach yeah it just it would be helpful to get some clarity like what that would look like what would be the dates of the what would the dates in the 2024 25 I actually did look at it um the first eat holiday is April 9th which is the Wednesday before our traditional April break the second eat holiday of the year uh is June 17th is that correct is that correct which is after school dis for next year you're talking about yeah for the calendar that for 25 yep so April 9th is in the middle of the

085week beforeand so and then June 17th is after it's after the end of the school year unless we have snow days unless we have snow days or Plumbing days and in this I didn't have a chance since it was just left for us today do we actually have the dates for all the coming years in here um cuz it was a 22-year report I got to I got to I I will say it was a 22-year report that's great to have but I don't but there were no dates listed so um I think we hyper it by accident but we can forward you the actual link maybe like through email or something so you have the um website that has all the does it varies by year okay so I think you should send it

086to Dr BR because if the board asks I will bring it to the committee so thank you so yeah that'd be great there's also a couple things I would like to know um and I don't know if it's if we're privy to that kind of information um but I would like to know the proportion of our student population that may celebrate these holidays I don't know if that's information we could gather because we don't really collect that information the other thing I would like to know um and this is sort of talking to anybody out there that does celebrate these holidays um if it's more valuable to encourage our um District leaders Administration some people at the school to purposefully on these holidays um incorporate education about them culturally their significance if that's more meaningful

087to you um and of course I would also strongly support giving a every accommodation possible to anybody you know that um needn't be in school that day because they're celebrating um I would like to know if what would be more valuable to to the people that that do observe these holidays so in the Muslim um Community we the day we go to the mosque we meet people we meet family it's a day of rest and celebration so I think the Muslim Community would prefer I'm just from my personal experience having the day off and then if we had maybe like some sort of incorporation of Education the week before if that was something that you guys are interested in um just so that students would know what it is um that would be fine with

088us too but um also like if it's stated on the calendar the specific holiday and uh students have that day off I think a lot of students or parents that look at the calendar the school calendar will search up what the what the holiday is and learn about it a little bit about it themselves um yeah that's just my personal would you mind sending those comments over to Dr bur as well so that collectively when he talks with his committee he can filter that information up to us sure thank you thank you so I think to build off what Rosa said you know for example it's veterans say it's not right it's correct kind of a different but it's a similar comparison like it's just been very it's been great for the students to stay

089in school and learn about it and do all these celebrations and things like that to honor that day which is nice a nice way to um honor the and celebrate the the holiday also there was there was a lot of school districts that were mentioned I remember Trumble something down here Trumble Waterberry Bridgeport um maybe we reach out to them and how they hey we decide this because of or get their calendar get their calendar yeah it's in the news too can sear it in the news y yeah we ought to do it in a more formal way though I think how many school districts are doing it uh and what what uh you know how do they make the decision what uh deposit isn't the negatives right it's always it's always useful sounds like

090the board is going to ask me to do that formally I think I think you're going formally asked I'm going to be very candid um I might not have anything ready for next month uh just giving people schedules we will try but I'll do my best but I don't know that we're going to be able to have it ready for next month when do we need to finalize the calendar we've we've um approved this calendar in my this is my ninth year here I think one year it was in either February or late February early March very late but in another year maybe even last year November it was done so I mean it's really up to the board um well it would be good to actually also have the new members of the board

091be part of the desion process it's a calendar that they will live with so like if it goes into early December that doesn't bother me to tell you the truth so um good I'd rather do it right and uh and it was nice we had the bones of the the calendar bones of the C great good feedback from everybody else's feedback that starting after Labor Day and still ending on June 13th that's a that's a good calendar so sure um so okay and uh and we'll go from there all right okay happy to do so I will make a motion that the board table this item I just have one thing okay go ahead um tiny little thing for Lisa um I see with the new colors for conferences I don't see the purple conferences

092added on the calendar itself I see the green but the fall ones aren't in October and November yep you are correct all right okay good catch thank you arts and crafts good arts and CRA go scrapbooking after later tonight um I had the big box of Crayolas you have the big box of Crayolas you know the colors all right I make a motion that this item be tabled uh pending The Comeback on the um on the E and Al second all in favor hi okay we wanted to get that done so that students can go home get homework done and go to bed unless you want to stay but uh um please stay if you'd like and uh we will come back to this uh just watch our agenda um we will we'll discuss it

093at the next time we talk about school calendar thank you all for coming all right next up is the district enrollment report all right and this is an action that we receive a report from the superintendent anything have to be read in or I can start I want to make sure we're good okay so um annually uh as of October 1st um and it's October 1st in all of our school districts in the state because that's when the state likes us to take our snapshot in individual school districts for our student enrollment um we bring this to the board obviously student enrollment impacts is has the greatest impact on our staffing uh plans and our budgeting um and we typically have uh on this report four years um together for everybody to have a a

094little brief history to analyze and uh the board has had this since Friday in their board packet to take a look at um uh we also uh make sure that not only we do our school in grade enrollment we also take a look at um our students who are outplaced and take a snap snapshot students uh place out of District in addition to the high need areas of free and reduced lunch our multilanguage Learners and special education students so it's a comprehensive uh document that uh the public will be able to uh read uh online everything has been posted um so as you can see different than in years past uh Lisa and I uh worked on combining our older Huckleberry uh Center School and fifth grade data uh to make a Candlewood Lake report

095for everybody to take a look at and just did a compare by grade there you can see um and in total our enrollment uh right now is 1,16 students at Candlewood Lake Elementary school that does include prek that's 29 total more students in those grades than we had last year in those grades um at whiskin ear um you can see that we are um down to three grades so changed so I modified the whis skiner report from four grades to three and so you have your grade level comparison there and we're approximately from last year that the data isn't there but it's about 200 less kids per you know per grade so uh We've right sized whiskin at 591 students if we compare it to the three grades last year um it's uh it's less

096by uh by about 12 students and then at the high school we are very so we're pretty so we're up a little bit at the elementary level uh quite steady at the middle school level like I said we're down 12 students this particular year and um comparing just three grades not four and then at the high school um we're very steady we're only net down one student at the high school at 871 for our four grades at the high school um in on campus in total we have 2568 students for a net of 16 more students than last year at this time our students that are educated off of Campus uh is right now 29 students that's three less than last year um that number has always hovered around 30 um and again there's lots

097of puts and takes with students programs changing kids graduating those qualifying for uh necessary Services out of District uh etc etc um grand total students uh that the district is responsible for um is 2597 which is up 14 from a year ago um I do want to um before I get into the high the students who are identified as high needs it's important to know because we're going to talk about a kindergarten policy about that September one date uh uh date that the the legislation is recently put out for next year if in this year's and I'm just going to say it now and then we'll talk about it again current kindergarten class where we have 163 students if the new kindergarten legislation was applied this year where students couldn't go to school if they're

098born September 1st or later um that would be 45 students of our we looked at the birthdays of our 163 kids that's 27% of the kids talk about an impact on families and specifically our families that are planning for next year I'll talk about it uh when we get to policy there's a waver that's required in the legislation as well as an assessment the state has given us really no guidance on that we're waiting for guidance from the state department of Ed to help us all with that because bethl new town uh Brookfield we really shouldn't we should have similar things we're looking for we shouldn't have different assessments but at the end of the day the students are going to be our students no matter when they start so we need to be thinking

099they are Brookfield kids how do we best educate them and right now um we just don't have enough information so as we speak I want everybody to know as we look at enrollment there's there's not some automatic oh Kindergarten is going to be 27% less kids next year it's we have to plan differently and have less kindergarten teachers can't go there right now because the reality is there's a a very high likelihood that we will have those students with us through a waiver process through an assessment process Etc and parents certainly can make their choices all the way up to the child's seven years old so there's a lot to talk about we'll talk a little bit more about that but I wanted to mention it because enrollment is a big deal and it's a

100big number and like I said this is a big impact on families we're here to support our families and our students so we need to be mindful of that I'm going to jump into the bottom of the chart that I shared with you um in our high need area and these are uh State Department uh state of Connecticut identified areas the high need areas it's really important to think about the Dynamics of our community and how things have been changing um I'll start with our multilanguage Learners um we have 114 students identified as uh MLS this year that's up 16 students from last year which seems like a lot and it is percentage wise but the net that we're up because you need to think about frankly what a great job our multilanguage team does

101with our students with last year's number of 98 students we exited from the program 20 kids so 20 kids received Services last year they did so well we exited from a program so 20 went out 20 came in and another 16 is what you see there so it's a net 36 new students qualifying for services so that's a that's a huge it's 30% increase really net when you look at that so the the Dynamics of the community are changing so there's a lot of services there and we will be talking um about the the need for uh bilingual services in Portuguese because that language has also increased to 20 at kandlewood Lake and when you have 20 the next year you have to have a bilingual program so that's another piece uh to our planning

102for the budget uh you'll see that in the budget and priorities and assumptions document the next uh area I want to look at is free and reduced lunch um free and reduced lunch 6 133 students out of our 2600 are qualified for free and reduced lunch um that means their families are struggling and they're coming from uh struggling situations right now and uh that's up 70 students from last year so you could do the math on that that is a significant increase and we obviously know that language is a barrier to learning in a different language and certainly uh coming from an impoverished or challenging or traumatic situation is another barrier to learning so there's a lot of work we're doing with these uh particular students in addition to that um which is an interesting

103number that stayed steady is our students that are identified with special needs if you look at that over the last four years that number is really spoton uh in terms of identification 363 total students identified with special needs last year 365 this year an increase of two students um so there was a lot of talk about people uh through uh anecdotal thinking conversations that lots more kids because of the pandemic or any other reason we're qualifying that numberers stayed the same again students uh uh testing out students testing in and those kinds of things um so it's really really interesting when you start to look at these numbers so I just wanted to highlight a couple of things and I don't know if anybody has any things they ahas they may have noticed or uh

104questions they may have I don't know if we have the numbers do we have how many students are attending the magnet school like chog you know we could get that uh information for you but those students are not technically enrolled with us so they're not our students we have no access to their power school information or anything like that once parents choose for their kids to go there they're not our students AIS students when they come back they're they're our students again they're disenrolled and I guess it's helpful to know those numbers because they could come back yeah we can get those for I actually I want to think top of my chog might be about 13 kids there right now usually I couldn't tell you AIS off the top of my head though and

105then how many are homeschool I know you give us a report you'll get a home school report uh next month yeah it just seems pertinent to put that information on here yeah we haven't done that in the past but I certainly can get that information to you absolutely I wouldn't put it in our formal report because they're not our enrollment so but I think it's important that we have that in our budget book right as we you know bring forward our our plans okay thank you for that you're very welcome any other questions from anyone on the board on this or observations this is where we obviously derive class size and how we allocate staff so that's why it's so important to share this uh early in the year okay we'll move on to the

106next item uh next is special services case load the action here is to receive a report uh from Bill Roland and so as Bill comes to the podium um what's really important and we must acknowledge when I was sharing about the ident students identified with special needs as a a steady number what you'll see in the numbers that Mr Roland presents tonight is our case load numbers and our ratios really are are strong and that's because of this board's investment in uh people services and special education over the years I mean for a long period of time adding a special education teacher in a year a social worker recently whatever it might be and so you'll see um through this report uh again it's an annual report that the board receives and again it's about

107staff allocation and what we need for our kids we're really in a fortunate Place uh with this area of this particular department so bill please take it away thank you Dr BR and again I want to Echo Dr bur's sentiment that I'm great ful for the investment that the board has put in to our our special education services and programs as you can see uh as I'll go through the numbers um the case loads are uh appropriate and acceptable there's one area I want to explain and and that will be on on page two it seems disperate but it's not when I when I explain the the population there um the case loads across the board we'll start with with Candlewood Lake where um from preschool through K5 um you know case loads in in

108prek are 6.67 round off to seven um in K5 the the average case load is about 20 uh with six teachers our exceptional Learning Center which is a specialized program that includes both a K2 level and a 35 level with teachers with two teachers one for each level uh the average case load is 98 and these are high needs students uh with multiple needs um that are being um Serv not only through the teachers there but as you see through the related Services uh folks that I will get to as we go down the um down the list and finally again another specialized program at CES the social emotional program where there is one teacher with also multiple service providers uh supporting that classroom uh eight uh students and again High needs uh high intensity

109but also um very intensive Services as well so the the the case loads at at kandlewood Lake are consistent with the investment that the board has made and with the the mission and vision of the district as well as our need to provide uh high quality special education services to these to these students as we move to to whis skaner again you can see in in the 6 through eight level uh case loads are on average I'm going to round up to about 10 that's a really good uh case load size um given the amount of teachers and the the team-based approach in each grade level um that they can reach them and they can work with and collaborate with the general education teachers in terms of modifying and uh uh differentiating the instruction for

110those students uh in collaboration with the case managers again the exceptional Learning Center the ELC program at wisener one teacher five students again with with multiple supports of related services and Pars in the room uh again case lootus 5 one teacher uh and the SE program there again one teacher seven students but again as with candle as with Candlewood Lake Elementary these are high need students high intensity um requiring uh a more intensive approach in terms of time and attention and specialized instruction at the high school you'll see that again as we switch from a middle school to to the high school the the vision changes a little bit as case managers I was a case manager at high school for most of my career you know an average case of 16 is really acceptable

111because you're working with students in multiple classes you're working with multiple content teachers but also you're working in sort of a resource setting in order to help uh differentiate that instruction work with the the general education teachers on how to modify that in their classrooms uh and different models and approaches so again talking uh from a perspective of somebody who once had 30 on their case load uh 16 is an acceptable uh and reasonable amount for uh case managers to be able ble to navigate collaborate and and work with the related service providers and the general education teachers and the life skills as with the ELC and social emotional programs in in whiner and CES one teacher six students again High needs multiple service providers multiple needs being addressed excuse me so those case loads

112for teachers are remarkably consistent and in in line with what we would expect again given the investment that the board has made we move on to the related service providers uh speech language Pathologists and uh speech language Pathologists work in a variety of contexts including uh working one-on-one with students in some cases working in a social skills group and collaborating with uh social work or school psych uh in order to kind of work on the expressive and receptive language that that students use on a daily basis uh their service time can include that one-on-one it can also include uh pushing into a classroom and it can also include collaboration time so for the students at CES uh case loads are around 24 that again is reasonable within the scope of what a speech language pathologist

113does on a daily basis in terms of who they're working with it's not necessarily working with students all day as a as a classroom teacher might but pushing in collaborating working in small groups uh and so it varies on a on a daily basis and the case loads reflect that as well uh at whiner again two um speech language Pathologists for a case load of 36 as students move um up from from elementary into a middle and high school uh often times speech services will be reduced or the time will be reduced in terms of you might have a larger case load but again smaller chunks of time with those students As you move on same piece with the high school where we have one and a half and again case loads of 28 and

11420 and I want to mention this as I move through this um these are these case loads are done collabora collaboratively um with each other and with the supervisors and with with program staff in order to divide up what who who is who's has the most need who's better suited with one versus the other and so making an equitable uh division of these case loads is also part of making sure the student students get what they need and that one staff member is not overloaded in in favor of another and I say that as we move towards um school pyes and social workers so School psychologists perform a variety of roles as you know in buildings uh not just performing uh trianal and referral testing initial referrals but also working on counseling and again School

115psychologists are collaborating with supervisors principes case managers counselors um and they they provide a variety of services to a variety of constituencies within the building including the students um including observations including data collection including kind of professional development working with teachers on strategies that might work for a student um reinforcing Behavior plans during um kind of collaboration time things like that so if we look at the at the um number of staff and the number of students who either have IEP special education counseling or 504 counseling as an accommodation um the case loads are again ranging from 28 to 44 um with 32 uh and a half divided at CES I want to speak for a second to the districtwide uh school psychologist at the botb she is not only considered a bit of a

116floater in terms of the seven that she has within District but she's also uh helping across the district and she's also the person that I turn to for District uh referrals testing and and checking in on the services there and collaborating with the ad of District placements so while it seems that her case load is low it's really not in terms of the the services that she provides uh both districtwide and to our students who are in out of District placements so I've talked about this in in multiple ways on page one and half of page two if you look at the social work um division in CES it looks incredibly disperate that there is that it's it's uneven uh but it's really not and I'll explain that when Social Work consult or or uh

117one-on-one counseling the 110 is for students who have um I'll give a range you might see a social worker once or twice a week 20 minutes 30 minutes at a time for specific goals and objectives in your IEP the 38 are the more intensive students uh so the social worker at CES that has 38 those 38 are the ones that I mentioned on page one which are intensive need um behaviorally challenged um in terms of needing more intensive Services more frequently so if we look at the 110 versus the 38 again this was done collaboratively so it's not like we divided up and said you get 110 you get 30 it's based on need based on what the students need and based on the program that programs that are available to the students there and

118how we can best um service and provide services to these students uh in an appropriate way whis skaner there is there is one with a case load of 26 and at uh at the high school again divided pretty evenly 24 and 26 but again I think when you talk about elementary um you're also talking about students who are newly identified uh Services might be more um there might be more services discussed at that point as students get older some will still require the multiple Services some might not so you might see a a a waning of services based on need at that point as well finally um some of some of our unsung staff members who do an amazing job uh OT and PT occupational therapy and physical therapy I just draw your attention for

119one second to the uh acronym Koda I know Dr bro was talking about alphabet soup before and I if I laps into jargon I apologize in advance Kota is certified occupational therapy assistant they work under uh the occupational therapist in terms of providing support and in terms of providing those services so that we you know we have those Services being provided under the guidance and supervision of an OT without having an extra OT in the budget or or uh required through IEPs the Koda is is entirely appropriate um for these Services um sometimes they are less intense sometimes they are the ones that require student that might require more of a consult and again in a lot of cases with OT and PT it might be a consult where you're working on how the availability

120of services would look like in the classroom what can a teacher do um so in terms of direct service and in terms of indirect service the case loads for these are also appropriate across all three schools and including a coda who can be um divided between the two schools in terms of providing those services that are almost and I say this in terms of just numbers spill over but they are getting the same quality services that other students are getting from the from the OT officially and finally uh our physical therapist has uh is a point8 but has a case load of 31 again it's a combination of direct service indirect service and consult so again these are numbers that are within range and speaking to directors in other um in other districts um we

121are fortunate and I am grateful that the investment that's been put in to these services and these staff members have resulted in acceptable an acceptable range and we are not struggling to try to figure out how we're going to manage uh an explosion of of new students we're not there we have a consistent case load and in terms of um the ability of the all of these staff members to collaborate within each building and be part of the team and as you know that's something that we've wanted to make sure happened more frequently this year and uh the collaboration that I've seen as I go into the schools and visit with the principles and the classrooms um these are all folks that are working very hard to support our students and doing an admirable job

122of providing the services they're uh mandated in their IEPs thank you Bill right open questions goad so I just want to be clear so average case load is that how many students they're servicing or are they considered or you lumping that in with the case management could I ask a clarifying question which which case loads would you be looking at because I can tell you well in general any well so you're saying yeah so for a teacher uh if if I'm if I'm a special education teacher my case load is 20 I have 20 IEPs that I'm working on and collaborating with uh it could be at CLS it's a grade level or it could be I'm pushing into classrooms or I'm co- teing so in terms of a case load for teaching that's what

123that would look like right so oh okay so a speech language pathologist so yeah that and that's that's where it gets a little different in terms of speech language pathologist can provide services in multiple areas as you know um it can be one-on-one it can be a social skills group that's collaborating depending on the goals in the IEP they also can do observations in the classroom to kind of see what the instruction is and what the students um uh abilities within their goals and objectives are and then work on those in in a social skills group or in oneon-one or in in a a small group working on a goal that can then be um integrated into the classroom in collaborating with the with the Genet teacher so essentially it's who they service right correct

124what degree it depends correct and and again and it's it's more fluid than it may even look because when we start talking about related Services it takes many forms and it takes many shapes whereas with a case manager as a teacher you have your case load and you have your hours that you're servicing with um related services within a PPT sometimes it can take the form of we're going to do this through consult we're going to do this through pushin we're going to do this through um collaboration we're going to do this in a small group we're going to do this in um a combination with social work so again related Services has a little different um take on it than than a general General special education case manager would so I guess so so

125for school psychologists let's say so at the high school so do they have 44 IEP that they with with goals in there that are behavioral um counseling um in terms of seeing students um for counseling they might say like bill needs uh 30 minutes twice a week and I am one of 44 that they might see in the course of a given week or in some cases it might not be weekly it might be once a month it might be a check-in it might be every two weeks but so that student let's say that one student Mr Bill sure might also have speech and language absolutely so who's the case manager so or it depends so if a if a student is receiving special education services as academic goals and objectives the teacher is the

126case manager and then collaborates with the related Services there are students who receive let's say speech only and so the the the case manager in that case would be the the speech P speech and more often than not the social worker is not the case manager because it's usually in conjunction with the academic goals and objectives so to give a a long answer to an appropriate and short question it's um it depends on which way the service is going if it's academic the case manager is the one who is kind of conducting the orchestra okay managing that and if it's something individual um it's it's a little different okay and my last question was like does all of this fall within the guidelines and recommendations of the correct report yes yes yes they do yes

127and and again in speaking with Dr corvo in preparation for November uh we also reviewed this last week just to give her kind of a sense of where we were at in terms of the other things I was doing and this does fall in line with what she was recommending okay great thank you so just a followup to that um are there any of these that are approaching the high end of the range or or are is everything fairly comfortable everything's fairly comfortable I mean I you know I think when you're looking at numbers it's difficult for us standing apart and looking at numbers to tease out what a what a 20 a case load of 20 looks like what a case load of 15 looks like unless we're looking at Specialized programs in which

128case we're looking at something intensive I don't see anything in here that that is um beyond what would be an average range um you know the the average range within a special ed teachers world can be anywhere from 15 to 25 is a case man like I said it did 31 year um that's another story for another time but um when we're talking about average case loads you are given a case load that is manageable in order for you to collaborate with those general education teachers and related services and all of the other pieces of the students program which you want to make sure again as I said before you're collecting data you're communicating with parents so you're looking at 2020 is reasonable okay thanks thank you I had actually two questions the first one

129is very broad it's are you having any difficulty delivering the services that are in kids IEPs and 504s no 504 actually no we are we had a uh I had a discussion with counselors last week about 504s and we're planning some PD for admin as well as staff in terms of what accommodations could look like in the classroom so but those are all in place it's just my question is are you having any staffing issues in delivering Services no okay I figured it was a yes no question and then the second question was just a numbers question I noticed that in the special ed teachers the average case load for K5 was 20 68 was 9.7 and 912 was 16.2 N I heard what you said about the high school uh it it spreads out

130a little bit and that's okay I just was curious if the 20 it was odd to see the the CES number to be higher case loow than the middle school and I just was curious if you comment yeah I mean I I can get more information on it for you but I do think that when the model changes from an elementary to a middle to a high the case load numbers where 20 you might be dealing with and working with 20 kids in a grade level um as you move up you might be dealing with a lower case load but you're dealing with more teachers okay so that there's a there's a a difference in the 20 that you're working with let's say in fourth grade you're dealing with maybe two teachers that you're working

131alongside with as a high school case manager when I had a case load of let's say 15 of those 15 it was I had a science teacher I had an English teach I had different kids you had multiple teachers for each multiple teachers at multiple levels in multiple grade levels so got it that can that the lower case load doesn't necessarily mean a lower amount of work work and and which direction you're going in I got it I got it okay I I understand a little bit point I'm sorry are you done yep um to that point it might be not that you have time to do this but um it might be more valuable to have instead of just average case load numbers because we've talked a lot about trying to understand and unpack

132what that really means is to have some kind of like a weight value you know like instead of like a teed almost a tiered system in a way like assigning so that we can see okay each each person has an about the same like weight you know what I mean that's a great idea that's actually effort that goes or the amount of hours or work that goes into and the intensity of the surfaces and things like that because it gets a little subjective because you can you can kind of like feather the numbers up or down depending on you know like you just said you know if there's um you know related services or and I think Rosa that that's a great point you make and Bill you might not even be aware of this

133Al you've had a lot of EXP in other districts a number of years ago we actually internally we didn't go advertising it but we did weight values when we were really trying to uh equitably divide up the intensity of student needs among staff in a way that would make sure we were delivering on the IEP which reminder for the public and everybody else here IEP stands for individual education plan and that's why when Bill is trying to answer um it can become quite confusing quite fast and almost as if is is he really answering the question because there's a lot there and I thank you Bill for your time tonight because uh it is individual but we're servicing 2,600 kids and you know nearly 400 students with IEPs so all of that scheduling all of

134that individual work is not only complicated but it's complex um the other piece I I know that Dr P and Mr Banda certainly are eyeing the special education teachers at whiskin ear saying hm I'm looking at my average there Dean do you want to send anybody over to me so we do need to remind everybody that special education teachers and many of these servic providers are are certified prek to 12 or K to 12 so they're very flexible in each during even during the year not just at the beginning of each year we could move staff around as student needs change um or um I'll just leave it at that so there's there is flexibility in this to that regard which is why it boiled down to me of are we able to deliver the

135services in the IEPs you know if the answer to that is yes I'm generally okay if it's too if there's too much staff I would have a different reaction but uh but uh in the end I find the average is sometimes hard to understand because of the variety of big and little and different mixes of things sure and there was there was in the end it comes down to Services exactly can we deliver the services there was a time here at meetings like this where we're getting into budget season and we were really using this data to fight for lowering these case loads we had we can go back to the one year there was some huge case loads speech speech and language teachers with 40 50 kids on their case load uh special education

136teachers getting near that 30 range well into the 20 so we we we have made incredible strides and I can't than the community in the board enough for supporting that okay any other questions on this report okay thank you Bill thanks Bill okay next item on our agenda is uh grants approval there's a motion on this one no test scores oh did I oh test scores I'm sorry next is test scores I went so too fast I went right pass the biggest item on the agenda and if you don't mind I'm going to move around so I can look at the screen and it's really important as Dr man begins to initiate her presentation as a reminder that our our main focus last year we had really two big folky and uh one was learning

137recovery coming out of the pandemic and uh our faculty and staff uh in Administration really worked incredibly hard all year um and generally there are some really exciting uh areas of significant cohort Improvement that we're um really proud of and there's obviously a couple of areas that we'll be sharing with you um there's still plenty of work to do K through 12 and uh we're prepared to do that but we're really excited about the strides we've made um and uh in learning recovery and we're going to continue to work on that as we go how's that sorry I'm getting um advice on whether I should turn off or Keep On The Lights Mr Beldon do you have a preference I would turn them off okay very okay very light for someon project very pale interesting

138okay well thank you very much and I know I'm standing in the dark so I look a little little enigmatic here but um as Dr bril was saying you know I was thinking about last year uh my the title of my presentation was establishing the Baseline and that Not only was because I was I was new so it was establishing my Baseline but also because it was really our first opportunity to get kind of a um you know a sense of where we were after resetting um post pandemic so now this is this year I'm excited to deliver kind of now this annual update on student achievement with test scores uh State Testing um but also to kind of show some more of the details about how the Strategic plan will provide a foundation for

139um what we're going to do in terms of of kind of specifically aligning to student achievement in reaction to these this data um and I just want to uh reiterate that you know there so this is specific to the state data and so everything we're talking about tonight is um kind of within that context however um we also want to make sure we're continuing to think about and align to our our five-year strategic plan so the overall uh the overview of the presentation tonight is kind of in two chunks um the first is the high stakes testing achievement scores and the takeaways from those so we will be going over these smarter balanced assessments or sbas for both Ela and math as well as cohort comparisons from 2122 so um you know kind of looking

140at where our students are doing in terms of their growth uh from third to Fourth 5ifth to 6th Etc as well as the Next Generation uh science standards assessment results that's the ngss and then the SAT results both for uh evidence-based reading and writing as well as math um and then we'll think about kind of the some the responses to this data in particular and that will lead us into our um the next steps in terms of alignment to from the school level the district imp implementation plan um for the Strategic plan so our school Improvement plans as they align to uh the district strategic plan so just to kind of reiterate we brought this idea uh to forward to the board in the summertime at our a at our August meeting about uh being

141grounded in purpose and um but also inspired by Vision so if we're going back to kind of that narrative Arc that we looked at last year kind of refresh ing now we're turning the page to a new chapter um and that you know so at the beginning we're really that grounded in purpose is the adoption of our our strategic plan of action so really where are we um and where do we want to go in terms of um you know kind of that sense making and envisioning and order to lead us to our our in Inspiration which is the to establish a worldclass school experience for our students for our community and a place where everyone can Thrive um and the way we're kind of working on that is by looking at pieces of data

142such as this as well as looking at our current School practices thinking about the Continuum of curriculum instruction and assessment and then how we can support our uh our professional staff throughout all of that in order to make them their uh be able to deliver the best instruction possible so our first uh major uh accountability Stakes high stakes test is the smarter balance assessment or SBA and there as just as a reminder uh we went over this last year and I know that you've heard about it many times prior to that it is in two content areas Ela English language arts and math um the SBA is administered in the spring time uh during a window of um time to all students in grades 3 through 8 and then it is scored on um four

143different achievement levels from does not meet approaching to meets and exceeds and our goal is always to get all of our students to those meats and or exceeds level um because we know that they have the that they have that capacity so we want to help them realize that capacity so these are our um Ela our English language arts uh grade our um percentage results at met or exceeded for students in grades 3 through eight so on the Le hand side is just a snapshot the visual um uh graphic on the right hand side and again I know that you folks can't see that over there but and you probably can't see it because it's in the dark um so I will just go through uh quickly that our third graders were at 56.7% met

144exceeded fourth graders at 56.1 fifth grade was at 67.2 student uh percentage of students were met exceeded sixth grade was at 66.7 7th grade was at 66.8 and e8th grade was at 55.3 um but what I want to also point out is where our growth was so you'll see third grade from 2022 into fourth uh was pretty much the same 56.1 the fifth graders uh when they were in the year before and uh fourth grade they uh were at 58.6 and they grew to 67.2 our our sixth graders gr Grew From 49.5% of students meeting or exceeding the year before to 66.7 um and then sixth graders to seventh Grew From 59.1 to 66.8 seventh grade um fell by just over two percentage points from 57.7 in 7th grade to 55.3 um so we've seen

145some some nice growth in many of those grades we're definitely interested in why there was kind of a stagnation with uh the fourth graders and also with those current um ninth graders now those eighth graders last year um but and we also are what I wanted to point out that growth and also identify the fact that we are not satisfied with these percentages we we believe strongly that our students can achieve um much greater than this but we are proud of the work that they did and that's a testament to the hard work of our teachers last year using a variety of um methods which I'll get into in a little bit so here are the um SBA scores by uh for math by grade and again rather than going through every single one I

146will just go with the growth index um so for our fourth graders the year prior to um in when they were in third grade they were at 58.6 and they grew just about two percentage points to 60.2 our fifth graders uh had a slight dip from 52.1% the year in while they were in fourth grade to 46.9 when they were in fifth grade here's a huge success story our sixth graders when they were in fifth grade they were at 28.3% uh meeting or exceeding they grew to 62.8% so they go they all they more than doubled their um capacity at met exceeded exceeded the seventh graders grew slightly from 54.4 to 56.8 and then our eighth graders also grew slightly from 43.5% to 46.6 so again just looking at that data there are some definite

147issues that we want to look at and dig into a little bit and we also want to continue to work on the um the strategies that we implemented last year um to see even greater growth as we move forward for our next Generation Science assessment um they as a reminder this is given to all students in the springtime in fifth 8th and 11th grades um and it is based on the uh standards that were um rolled out in roughly 2015 2016 and I'm just kind of as a reminder for next Generation science standards they are uh the whole they are predicated on a phenomenon-based experiential learning uh approach so rather than kind of Stand and Deliver um science information to students the concept is that students discover based on phenomenon so they have full units

148uh around a phenomenon based uh approach so um it starts kind of more with an essential question such as you know what why do hurricanes happen and then students go and figure out all of the science behind that concept so it is much more experiential which has an impact on the assessment um in terms of the way the assessment is uh created and then also delivered so it is um an Adaptive assessment and it is also these are also all uh computer based as we have they always have been um so our achievement by grade level um again and these are not comparisons because these aren't cohort comparisons um but our in 2023 our uh fifth grade students they were at 70.1% met are exceeded the previous years fifth graders were at 51.9% so again

149those students who had never taken an assessment like this before um because they were they had there was no assessments given in their third or fourth grade this was their first goar around but last year's students in fifth grade um were at 70.1% last year's eighth graders were at 60.8% up uh slightly from the year before where the eighth graders were at 50 5 4% and then our 11th graders were at 45.9% down from the year prior um when they when this the students who graduated last year were at 57.6% at met exceeded okay so now we're going to get into our last uh standardized assessment that the state uses um and again these are all state assigned assessments that we are you know beholden to um so the SAT has been was chosen about

150roughly uh 9 years ago I say Mr Blanda um when cap went away when the Connecticut uh academic performance test went away and um the state of Connecticut was very interested in trying to I don't know what that was was trying to um uh figure out the best way to continue standardized measurements for our students um so it is administered to all 11th grade students similar to um the SAT historically um across uh Connecticut in March of each year as part of the testing regimen um their students are tested in into General well three general areas I suppose but two bunched into two assessment tests evidence-based reading and writing and then math um the scores continue to range and as they have historically from 400 to 1600 um however I want to just point out

151that last year's assessments were was the first time that the SAT was conducted online um this year it's and the but the PSAT which we administer to our students um in 8th 9th 10th and 11th um as well as Middle School uh was not given online so it was the traditional paper and pencil test and then in the springtime it was not only administered online it was also similar to the SBA and the ne Next Generation Science assessment uh schools were offered the opportunity to do it within a range a window time time frame um which kind of uh changed the way that we or it it we we altered the way we have delivered the test historically because we were trying to figure out the best way to administer to our students um so

152I would but I also want to point out the last bullet on here before I get into the text box which is that according to the website Fair test 85% of school of second post-secondary schools colleges and universities continue to be test optional for either sat or act so that means that 85% of the class of the schools across our country do not require a standardized measure for admissions they students can elect to send them but they are not a requirement and I will say that as a parent of someone who just went through this process last year I didn't buy it I thought it was kind of a whole you know rout R row to um you know still continue to weed kids out but going through the process and really exploring these admissions

153office they genuinely do not require it it is often used for um uh after post uh post acceptance um for scholarships or for honors colleges or that kind of thing but it is not it truly is not a measure or part of the package when they're when students are applying um so I think that a lot of these things have impacted and we've see across actually if you look at the data across the state many uh school districts had some varying uh results with their from their baseline from the year before um so I'm going to talk a little bit when we get into it and Mr Banda can join me um after the presentation about talking about the test format and the administration um so rather than uh than having it all the students

154do it on one testing day where every comes everyone comes in and sits for the SAT uh the school the B BHS staff decided to try during ilt time or through ilt uh pardon me not during the time but through ilt um that different cohorts of students would take the test over a series of days so one group would do it one day another group would do it another day um which I'm not sure if that had any kind of anecdotally we're we're trying to collect some information from our students who are current seniors um about whether that had an impact um but that I I suspect uh did have an impact on how our students viewed the test going in again this is just a range um College Board which is the uh organization

155that runs the SAT um looks at uh Readiness or um you know for post-secondary uh schooling and so if a student scores Below in um evidence-based reading and writing 450 then they are considered not necessary neily that the uh they have less success at postsecondary than if they're at 460 or above and then for math um if they achieve 510 or above then they have greater success in college according to their correlational data so for our evidence-based reading and writing our students in 11th grade last year they were at 67.4% either met or exceeded so again at that um that post that higher range um with an average score of 522 the state average just for context is 52.4 uh of students met or exceeded in evidence-based reading and writing excuse me with an average

156score of 493 um for our SAT Math our students uh were at 40.6% so 40.6% were met or exceeded for uh the uh a for SAT Math with an average score of 514 and that's compared to the state average 34.1% with an average score of 482 so let's do a little bit of comparison um from previous years and again these are not cohorts these are just previous year data so um the the seniors who graduated last year when they took the sat in the spring of 2022 which was paper and pencil and was traditional um our evidence-based reading and writing students that there are 73.3% uh met or exceeded that goal versus last year's uh Juniors who were at 67.4 so again you can kind of see the comparison in terms of the total uh

157the average score our math our students in math from 2022 in the traditional uh setting were at 50% of them met or exceeded and that dropped to 40.6% so we really have some questions about what's going on with our students because our goal is to prepare our students so well that it doesn't matter what assessment or test or challenge they face that they're always going to be so regardless of the State uh throwing out a new test or regardless of college board changing the way that they administer a test our students are prepared to meet that challenge regardless so we know that we have work to do uh where with regard to that and building that student efficacy as well as being able to perform at any given place so that leads me into this

158kind of what are what are the takeaways the summation um at the elementary and middle levels uh we're making good progress but like I said we still have work to do we are not satisfied with being in the 60 to low 70% range we know our students have the potential and we know our teachers are working really hard to help them realize that potential so there are some a variety of ways that uh the schools are are working on their school Improvement plans to align with the expectations of the district strategic plan um and some of those include the implementation thank you very much to the board for uh adopting the new instructional tool of illustrative math um we also have on here and we do write them out in later on but interim assessment

159blocks we talked about this uh a bit last year um but the interim assessment blocks are releas are uh are uh tools released by the state that are directly aligned to the smarter balanced assessment um that can be used not only as formative assessments for teachers to see where their students are as benchmarks as they bleed up through the um school year but also really more importantly instructional Tools in a very meaningful and intentional way um last year whis skiner staff really focused in on using interim assessment blocks this year as part of the school Improvement plan which you'll see um from CES that is one of the strategies that they're going to be implementing um in terms of science we need to kind of do a deep dive particularly at that 8th and 11th

160grade so what's happening where our you know our fifth graders really made strides and I have some um some kind of ideas behind that you know really taking the time um to align to the Next Generation science standards in a very you know kind of um to roll that out in a very strategic way um and really looking at where our eighth graders are in terms of this looking at the curriculum that we have and the instructional approach we we use and then again at the 11th grade um this year we have seen our 11th graders even in terms of their uh what they're looking at taking you know how many students take physics versus take environmental science or U those kinds of things is there a good a better way to have a scope

161and sequence so we're working with Mr Hill um on looking at that and and kind of analyzing that as far as the SATs you know we there's no no question about it the scores are not where they should be um particularly in math and we want to as I said again uh figure out what the reason is for that we also understand that this is one measurement there are a variety of impacts on uh you know kind of the culture around sat that probably have influence our our students um scores however as I said if our goal is that our students are so well prepared it doesn't matter what you throw at them then it won't matter what they that what we throw at them um and we will address this both through instruction and

162tast test day Logistics you know we kind of learned from the approach last year um this year both through PSAT which of course um was last week and there oh it's next week okay well the good news is it wasn't last week when the first day of um the window the entire uh College Board site crashed and so everybody had to deal with that at Trumble High School I know that for a fact um so at least we they worked out all the Kinks so our kids are going to benefit from that but they are all going to take it on the same day and um at the same time uh and then however and I know Mr Banda is anxious to mention this so I'm going to do it first um but this year

163one of the differences with the SAT is that it is adaptive so similar to how the SBA um it as you do as you perform as you go through the test it will adjust the questions that you are being asked college board has now decided to change that and make the SAT an Adaptive test as well so um our students will so you all start in the same kind of at the same point and then depending on how you are responding you will get different uh questions so it's become an Adaptive test for the SAT so that's going to be another thing to consider and um there's not a lot of information that we have yet on how that is going to roll out so we'll be kind of um doing our best to preview

164that before it comes out um and then again cons Cons considering the uh Continuum of the K12 uh correlation with correlation performance not just how our students are doing over time but also the Continuum of curriculum instruction and assessment and how we can Shore up that Continuum so again our kids can perform to their best in any given situation I'd like to ask Mrs FAS to come up um to talk a little bit about some of the K8 things that we're doing and don't want to trip so I'm going to go that way this is what dropped good evening thank to Dr man for inviting me up to speak about the um some additional actions um that we've been taking in uh k through eight so in terms of curricular and instructional um adjustments or

165basically that's relating to teaching and learning um I know Dr man already spoke um at length about the illustrative math um Dr Mike spoke about it as well from the cap meeting so I won't belabor the point but um the illustrative math program that we've uh implemented in grades uh 4 through 8 have really um allowed our mathematicians to Grapple with math um it's very um collaborative and it really um engages kids in um really constructing meaning and new learning from relevant um experiences so um the feedback that we're getting from teachers and from students are very positive and our math coach has been working um every day in the classrooms um with the teachers um we are going to be piloting also in grades K through three at least one unit um as well

166and we have some uh training in that area as well which I'll talk about in the next slide um so in terms of instructional coaching integration as as you all know um our instructional coaches really help to support teachers from really basically moving from research or professional learning um into practice into implementing in the classroom so it's really a job embedded professional development that really affords um teachers the opportunity to learn um together in collaboration with the coaches um and in terms of assessment approaches based on the right to read legislation U mandates from the state we needed to um look at our assessment systems as well as our um reading programs to in order to look at the um approved menu of options that are available to us we elected uh mclass Dibbles um

167and the math assessments the mclass Dibbles are really not that much different than the uh reading assessments we've been using for the last you know fiveish years at the elementary level um there are a couple of additional tests that really um are a little bit better at giving us some uh greater information um in terms of word reading fluency which deals with really more high frequency words and uh decoding so those are new Universal screeners and some progress monitoring tool as well as uh Dr man already spoke about the uh interim assessment blocks um and we're looking forward to be really um digging a little bit deeper at the elementary level and using those in grades um three through five as a formative assessment which Dr man um uh spoke about as well informative assessments

168basically something to inform instruction versus summative which is really at the end of a unit um or a year such as the state assessments um and we continue to focus focus on um supporting all of our subgroups and um I know that uh Dr Brill spoke in his superintendent report about um the designated um High needs populations and we continue to look at um servicing all of our students whether um High needs or non-h high needs um let's move this I can't even see it's so dark all right uh so we continues to also leverage professional development certainly we're committed to talent development and developing our professional because obviously to get to the students we need to make sure that our teachers are equipped with what they need in order to support and serve the

169students um as best as possible so uh the PD Pathways I'm not going to get too in depth with that because it's forthcoming on an on an ex slide um but that was conceived of by the professional development and evaluation committee PC which is comprised of Administrators teachers um and really the teachers um have really taken a leadership role in this and facilitate um with the um administrators um that are on the teams as well um the uh eight different Pathways that are aligned to the Strategic plan uh also in terms of some Grant funds that we're using to support professional development in both reading and math um based one of them is the right to read Grant which again I spoke about that legislation um that we're um making sure that we're um adhering

170to and uh We've uh actually embarked on the first uh kickoff of our letters training today um to prepare for science of reading um instructional tool integration which is really um a reading program um that will be coming to you all with um hopes of uh being able to get uh for the 2024 and 2025 um school year and letters stands for language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling uh illustrative math um K8 PD um for orientation and the integration um of the K8 math uh tool and we already had uh one halfday training um for grades three through five and we have another um two halfday trainings coming up and uh the instructional coaching PD to support the instructional approaches districtwide so we've also invested some um time in providing some PD for

171instructional coaches um so that they can um really be working very effectively and efficiently with the teachers all right allow me please do there you go thank you all right so as I said um we're this you know this is kind of the second part but it's all within the context of uh our our student achievement data um so as we move through the school Improvement plans that I'm really going to highlight um the aspects that are directly related to uh student achievement data so you've seen this before this is our one pager I'm not going to ask everybody I'm certainly not going to read it but I'm not because I'm not going to read to readers and you have it in your packet um you're going to so this is our regular one pager

172that we use to as our alignment document but what the reason I wanted to put this up here is because you'll see one of the kind of just aspects of alignment that uh the principls came up with was to actually structure their school Improvement plans the overview of their school impr Improvement plans in the same format as the one-pager so for Candlewood Lake Elementary um the differences are in the different colors right so their uh mission is for Candlewood Lake um and then the bottom band where we have our uh you know our kind of action plan for this year that is the real P portion of the school Improvement plan um so what is highlighted that you will be able to see with your uh phone cameras or phone uh um flashlights is that

173uh as part of the um aspect of student achievement uh data the CES folks will be really focusing and on purposely purposefully incorporating iabs within the 35 curriculum and instruction so um that's kind of one of the direct alignments to the student achievement data results that we have seen at whis andir as I as I mentioned earlier last year there was a very strong P strong push led by Dean and the instructional coaches to very intentionally incorporate the interim assessment blocks um as both formative checkpoints and instructional tools and they are going to continue to integrate the iabs as formative checkpoints for student mastery incidentally I was at the performance matters Workshop at the state level last week and um they are they continuously are revamping the efficacy and the the um effectiveness of the

174interim assessment blocks in math Ela and Next Generation science standards and they actually are able to see um um they actually can monitor not by necessarily District but in general um by subject how many iabs are used because it is also done through the uh website and last year um there were over 10,000 uh more than that probably I don't even remember the the number but many many many um iabs were used last year which is a huge increase over the time that they have uh used interal assessment blocks another focus of the middle of the middle school is to look to create vertical alignment of Standards to build off of each other each year and that um is not only aligned to the district uh uh implementation plan but it also is it will

175um nicely mirror what we're doing through the PD Pathways which I'll speak about in just a minute oh sorry then at the high school um you know along with all the other focuses in terms of making um meaningful and authentic connections for students uh they're going to be exploring uh uh ways to create instructional assessment context to meet the needs of students so that's specifically designed um and as I said if we PR prepare our students um to the best of their ability then no matter what we throw at them they'll be um able to perform and then really also establishing successful testing environments for the high high stakes testing including ngss PSATs SATs APS Etc so then this is the um what we mentioned earlier uh throughout the kind of end of the summer

176into the beginning of the school year and what I really wanted to kind of highlight as one of the direct alignments to um not only assessing our student achievement data but also our overall uh District Improvement plan so um as Debbie mentioned the profess profal development and evaluation committee last year was really looking at the making our PD time that the board so generously offers us meaningful and intentional to directly support the work of um teachers so that we can impact students in the highest leverage possible and so um we came up with one of the things that we heard this idea that it's very difficult for teachers to know exactly where um their kids what their kids were doing earlier or where their kids are going to so under the idea and I know

177that spoke about this at Cape last year and that um Dr Mike reported on it with um some minutes uh from Springtime meetings but we came up with these eight different Pathways um one of them is the is really outlining and defining the dispositions of the Brookfield Seas the portrait of The Graduate and fleshing that out um which will be the kind of backbone and infrastructure of everything that we do it's heavily uh focused on in our uh strategic plan it will I believe strongly that it will have a high impact on our student experience and therefore our student uh performances on achievement another one I wanted to highlight is our curriculum exploration so in this pathway teachers are from prek through 12 having the opportunity to have discussions with each other about the purpose

178of curriculum how it serves as the backbone of assessment and our instruction and so um that's just those are just two examples that I highlighted but you can see that all of these really do kind of align directly not only to student achievement um results but also to our strategic plan so back to the beginning right and um I didn't have the uh principles come up to talk about their own uh sips but they are here to answer any questions so as you're getting ready with your questions please don't forget that crowd over there on the side um but just we wanted to really kind of you know remind everybody that our ultimate goal is to help students develop the skills aligned to the Brookfield Seas so that they are prepared for Life Learning work

179Beyond school and any challenge that is thrown their way and academic preparation is a huge part of that and that is what our our main Jam is and that's what we're focused on our strategic plan is um where we are grounded in our purpose but we are inspired by the vision of becoming a worldclass school district and we are excited about the work that is ahead of us and we um look forward to your questions and I'll turn on the lights because now you buddy blink your eyes a little bit thank you Dr man now you have it right there so thank you just remind me again uh what grades are using Smithsonian Smithsonian um are 8th grade k k K8 K8 okay so you said something really useful oh good in there particular more

180useful than the presentation on the data which is we want all our kids to be prepared for anything that's thrown at them the scores in the SBA in the in the 60% I'll just use that as a round number probably not there how do you use the standardized test to drive culture change that would help the kids get into the 75s and then into the 80s and into of the '90s on those I just I just I'm just I'm trying I'm struggling with how do you grab that and then use it to drive well I think that that's it's a really good question and it's important to REM to consider the context right so it is a good kind of jumping off point um and I know that that's what the principles do at the

181beginning of each year um to kind of again kind of establish that Baseline but we also and teachers are very aware of this it is data that is by that time 4 to 6 months old um it is also a snapshot in time and so it is a good um kind of frame of reference and because it's standardized and all of our students have to take it across the state um it's an opportunity for us to kind of just get that General sense of of where Brook Field is um but it also gives us the opportunity to kind of dig into the more individual pieces and collect more relevant data and um timely data so such as through mclass or through interm assessment blocks um or individual uh course assessments that are in the high

182school um in order to really it's more of that it it helps us focus in on it so it helps us Inspire teachers to um identify that oh we really have some work to do here um and then get more relevant data that can then spur on the is our is our interim testing you know the the spot testing that we do through the year is it was it telling us the same things that we saw in the in the more high stakes testing at the end of the year I I not anybody want to come up and join me I mean were we seeing 2third of onethird of the kids just not achieving um as we went through the year were our interim saying oh no we're doing really well and then we were

183surprised that that's I guess the question I was having so the way it the way it works is it's not we don't give it a big S like a big test so it's correlated the same way I guess you could say it's based on more on topics so it may be like on adding fractions or something like that we didn't we use it in different ways some of the times we would use them for students to just do a couple of the problems to get a sense like we do a problem of the day I'm thinking like with math because it's concrete and that's I was a math teacher um and we would do things like that um so we didn't necessarily use it as kids are coming in today and they're going to take

184a 30 minute test you know or anything like that wasn't I wasn't asking I wasn't asking that I was asking are we were getting indications that kids were not me not getting there it depend on what it was it was it could be so so the way I'm looking at it is we noticed that kids uh had a hard time with numbers six seven and 8 so then our teachers would look at that say okay what are those questions asking how was it in context so what then we do is then change instructionally what we're doing you know it's not about getting that answer correct it was more about understanding part partially the the way that the test is the questions are written what is the type of question they're asking because that that's really

185big too in that we had a conversation the other day in um Happ to be in the math department meeting that we need to use our questions for our regular assess I'm not even talking IBS to be similar to Smarter Balance testing questions so I guess my point to you is that there's nothing that's a real correlation we didn't notice that you know the kids 60% of the kids were passing doing well on this this part of the tester or that I I guess I could say and we didn't use them in the entirety is what I was I think I would just also add that we didn't really have a universal screener that we felt was um Direct ly an indicator of where students were going to be we used star last year um

186but that was uh the the teachers did not see the um direct correlations in the the way that they that we were administering it um or the the results that we were getting rather um and so we didn't have like an indication going into um March through May when the tests were given um that we were only at 60% for any given topic I would think that if you did regular spot testing on topics and things like that you would have with data analysis said oh I've got a third of my kids are are struggling right they're they're over and over and over again not not achieving and they're probably going to have a problem at the end of the year it's not anyone it's not a summative right we know that but you would

187have at least been able to look at data and said oh yeah there's something coming and uh and I would think that that would then dictate Behavior with a high bar that says how do we really bring in the troops to help and I think maybe maybe to to I I have a feeling um Dean may not have known exactly where you were going this Bob and I think the direction is in terms of intervention work additional reading support additional math support for students when you think about your srbi or now mtss you know in terms of sorry for the alphabet suit but that's the intervention that that we do with the extra and additional support for students when you think of your percentage of students in a grade level you know is it 5%

188of the kids 10% of the kids is it more students than that you know nearing 20% of the population in any given grade that's having some trouble and that alone that throughout the year as you continue to work with them and they continue to make progress sometimes the kids make a lot of progress but they're still not at a place where they're going to perform at the end of the year so were we looking at you know if 70% of our kids are hitting the goal was there 30% 10% 20% that maybe Deb you're looking at answer that question yeah I mean yeah you're you're asking um the same questions quite frankly that we were asking of ourselves and each other um looking at this data at the elementary level the universal screeners that we

189use are really giving us information relative to reading foundational skills right in terms of decoding being able to lift print you know off of um paper to read so that's not going to give us the same type of information right at grade three and four where they're taking these you know the summi of State tests because that's reading to learn right so it's it's different in terms of then the skills that they're that they need are background knowledge um and comprehension right so in terms of at the elementary school that's one of the reasons why we're looking at these focused interim assessment blocks because quite frankly at the elementary level um there's more work to do to integrate those into instruction and into curriculum because these summative tests are really giving you information about curriculum

190and instruction um it's not really where where you can use for student um data really um in terms of these tests so we really kind of need to look at um really what we refer to as tier one in the multi-tiered systems of supports which is really your core General um instruction because you know an effective core instruction really you should have 80 to 85% of your students meeting goal right so when you have 60 70% then you need to look at the effectiveness of core instruction which is why we're looking at um you know new programs new curricular programs um in terms of the math and in terms of the reading um that in the reading curriculums that we're going to be looking at are going to be able to incorporate the uh word

191study as well as vocabulary comprehension all the you know the Big Five areas of reading into the reading Block versus having a word study block and then a reading block where then students are learning skills in isolation and don't necessarily transfer those skills into context so what we're going to be looking at is using the coaching as we spoke on on those slides I think 15 and 16 um to use the the coaches to really help with um taking the um you know taking this professional development and helping teachers to then embed it into the core instruction so the focus is on Effectiveness in in the core and then also looking at your tear 2 tear three as Dr bro was saying in terms of your all of your multi-tiered systems of supports um to

192really look at as at effectiveness of instruction so those are the kinds of reports that we can get in the mclass tibbles um and those are the kinds of reports that we're going to be looking at and working with teachers and coaching with teachers um and using all of our support service staff as well as well in terms of um the multil language the multilingual multilanguage Learners uh staff to also work with us um and support teachers um as well that's very promising to me because uh you know we've spent over the eight years I've been on this board everything has been going all the PD has been going to getting everyone lined up on standards how do you build curriculum around standards how do you assess against standards how do you take actions when

193kids are not achieving on those standards I mean it has been extensive investment that we've done on this um and I do know where kids are coming out of Co right now so it's still it takes a couple years to see the decline it takes going to take a couple years to come out and I'll go back to my first question is how do you incorporate the thought that uh Dr man had which is we want all our kids to be able to uh add work at a high enough level that they can be ready for just about anything and I've got to figure the iabs or any other tools that we're using are driving the actions and and that's what I'm not feeling yet right is where do I need to bring in uh

194extra help where do I need uh uh really sit down with a teacher and say oh we we you know I'm seeing a trend right you know you got a third of your classes struggling right um and it might be an individual teacher it might be a group of teachers I I don't know but that data Centric how do I and and I'm not a teach to the test kind of guy and I'm not a you can't and and I'm not a I'm not I don't think there's a a a silver bullet that says here's how you fix things but I just think that when you set a high standard there's a set of actions that are different than when you're setting a when you're when you're driving to a 60 something percent I I

195totally agree and it's got to be much more incisive and more more uh here's how I'm going to go bring all everybody else and and some of the actions that we are taking that weren't necessarily in the slide I think also speak to what you're talking about um just systems and structures that support a data informed right and a DAT and a outcom driven model so during um plc's which is professional learning communities which is where we have teachers that come together to collaborate and and uh you know on a number of different things um once a month at uh kwood Lake Elementary School PLC meetings are going to be dedicated really talking about multi-tiered systems of supports looking at data again the coaches really coaching in um to the data and supporting teachers um

196with that as well I mean as as you all know you know some of you are teachers um some of you no teachers um the job of a classroom teacher an elementary teacher is very challenging you've got every single subject area that you're teaching um with a very uh Dynamic and diverse set of students um so we're going to be looking at um having conversations about differentiation right um so that all students can access the curriculum um we're excited about the math curriculum and it's it really is um you know uh some positive feedback in terms of really helping students to construct new meaning um in relevant contexts and we're excited about getting in a new rooting program and some of the other things that we are working on um that we haven't really Illustrated

197here is really also working to try to integrate social studies and um science into the ELA because one of the things I think also that could be contributing to some of the um data that we're seeing is um again we've worked so hard on teaching kids how to read how to decode um but we now we have to work on helping with background knowledge because if students don't have um you know a lot of background knowledge and experiences um it's hard for them when they're reading a text with unfamiliar words um or in contexts that they have no background knowledge for um so social studies is the perfect content area that can really introduce a lot of background knowledge and a lot of the texts that are in some of these summi of um you

198know tests are in fact social studies related so if the students aren't don't have the background knowledge it's going to be harder for them to make meaning of text um so those are the kinds of things that we have to look at and make sure that we're including in instruction and the other piece with the iabs is as teachers are getting more familiar with the iabs which is basically the blueprint of the summi of exam um there are some AAA moments right it's like wow this is what kids have to be able to do so we have to make sure that not just the curriculum is supporting that but that the instruction and what the kids are going to be doing in class each day and being exposed to excuse me I'm losing my voice

199um is helping them to be successful so it's not teaching to the test it's making sure that they have opportunities um in curriculum instruction and assessment to be able to understand and learn basically and be and be a creative and critical thinker right and those Brookfield seats to help them to be successful when they have to put together skills that they've learned in isolation into real world context and I and I think I want to go back to Bob's original question he asked about how do you how do you inspire and drive that change and something um that I've seen this year that I haven't seen since prior to the pandemic is an uh an inspiration uh in a lot of our faculty um it's it's very clean and different year I think Dr man

200has been here for a year and had an opportunity to really establish trust um I think bringing the staff together of Candlewood Lake right sizing the middle school all of these pieces has kind of brought on you know its own stresses but also its own excitement and I'm I'm feeling that and hearing that anecdotally so I don't know if that Anna you could talk to a little bit because she didn't spend a lot of time on the pathways and the teachers are owning the PD they're creating the PD they're coming up with the concept and so I think think that ownership is also inspiring that um excitement and motivation that aha that you're talking about as well Deb well and I I I appreciate that I do want to make sure that thanks okay um

201to that the the idea that this all you know everything is kind of part and parcel of the larger hole which is going to help uh create this environment that we want for our students but just to kind of get back to what U Mr beldin asked um the two points that I wanted to make is that um as far as the teaching to the test or um you know that kind of thing you know we want to make sure we are teaching based on standards and the test is based on standards and so if we are doing that in a really with a high fidelity and strong impactful way um and that and that means that regardless of whether it's an internal assessment block or a teacher created or or team created assessment if

202we can look at where our students are struggling and know our a third of our kids or you know 40% of our kids are struggling in this particular standard then we can dig into that and that whether that means through intervention or Tutors or support or that tier one everybody gets that depending on what the particular standard is you're doing you're just doing standardized uh standards based reporting for parents now so you ought to just jump out right who's who's achieving standards the other thing I wanted to mention is that last year was really the first year that the Middle School used um interm assessment blocks so that was really that orientation and getting used to using it as an instruction instructional informative tool and this year is really the the year that they can

203dig into really look at those now that they're they're clear on kind of the connection between the standards and those interm assessment blocks now they can start really analyzing that data on a more realtime basis okay so I have a second question sure right hopefully it's not as long as the first question in your SBA you had a couple of grade levels that were red right you showed the co cohort movement which by the way was really useful because you could see a lot of good movement uh coming out of uh Co right on many of the grade LS we had a couple though that were going the wrong way what are you doing Special to dig into those specific red areas so I will call up um Dr P and Mr Renda to talk

204a little bit about their uh School Improvement plans because those kind of directly correlate just like it to focus in on that was a 8th grade I was going to say English and fifth grade math if I remember gradea fifth gradea too e8th grade ELA that went down by 2.4 percentage points and fifth grade math and then the fifth grade math that went which are now high schoolers 8th graders are now e graders are now high schoolers correct right and the fifth graders are now sixth graders so um do you want to speak specifically or no well eighth graders I'm like my e so for the eighth grade that went down well this one here it was fourth to fifth could speak to it so is that the one you're talking about you're talking about

205this one so one where she these are our current these are current ninth graders yep so I mean you can see honestly they went down um a couple percentage points um I'm trying to remember when we looked if it what the big difference was I mean a lot of times we try to look at students that in the cohort how many kids were at goal last year are go at goal again and what's interesting sometimes when you look at those things we have kids that just make goal like you know what I mean they're like they're right on that that cusp and then the following year they may go down to here so it's not like a big huge decrease I'm not saying it's all the kids but sometimes we see it like that when

206we just barely make it here our numbers a little bit higher but there's about 10 or 15 kids that are right on that cusp that with one or two problems wrong they can bump down below so I I can't speak specifically um to the those two percentage points but um I I I don't know how else to well I'm going to say it differently I'm going to say it differently because this we're talking about eighth graders and so n they're in nth grade they're in ninth grade so Mark what are we doing about special supports for that group who declined in our reporting at the coming out of middle school and now are ninth graders who might be finding themselves in a whole new environment and struggling do we have we identified who they are

207and are we getting them the help they need so uh a couple things so you know knowing that they're eighth graders TP nth graders excuse me typically you know we don't spend a lot of time with SBA data and identifying the individual kids right that's typically we're looking at um you know our screeners that we may use or our PSAT data that sort of thing um that being said in terms of what we can what we do for our nth graders in particular um there are a significant number of interventions that we have um I think you know we're already seeing some of these issues are coming up we have we do have weekly meetings um which are srbi meetings which we identify would teachers bring forward kids that might be struggling so even though

208we haven't I couldn't say you know we took the list of students from Dean and looked at those specifically they're they've already surfaced right in a short amount of time and so then now we're implementing different interventions whether it be working with the math interventionist our reading specialist we actually expanded um knowing that we were going that we saw some of these concerns in both math and in literacy we expanded our literacy program and we changed it from what it was in previous years so it's now touching more than just students that have IEPs we're now working with kids that have identified reading struggles so our um Dr Spencer who is our Humanities curriculum specialist actually worked with our reading specialist to work with the reading specialist down the at the eth grade to talk

209about incoming kids and identify those kids we also for kids that are typically struggling a little U more in some of the math areas we actually do a um it's a it's a um they have their algebra one class they have right but they'll also have um a uh foundations in algebra like a an actual double block essentially so that first semester of the school year to get them started started to get them Prime for those deficient skills that they may have they're in foundations of algebra as well at the same time taking Algebra 1 so it reinforces Concepts to make sure that Foundation is better so while we haven't explicitly done that and that's something I'm writing down going yeah we need to be better about ident we know who those kids are they've

210already floated to the top and we can access some information as well through uh edite secure right which we have access to which is a different level than Ed site that the public can see edite secure allows us to really dig a little deeper into specific kids so we can pull some of that information but we those kids have come to the top and so we have some interventions in place already srbi meets every week you know we're having these conversations with school counselors that are brought up um you know based looking on grades and performance on assessments so they're they're coming and we're giving them some intervention but it's always an area that we need to improve on I mean and that that um articulation between Dr Spencer and the Middle School reading teachers

211just started happening last year right they they've been having like generalized conversations it's more been with the um the conversations have generally been between reading teachers right and there's there's a limited amount of things that they a reading teacher reading specialist is able to do I can have a conversation with joy to say okay they're coming up to you and that's great unless we have a structure in place from the administration side that's going to say okay let's do something to address some of those issues otherwise you're just doing the same thing you've been doing and so that's where Dr Spencer being more involved in that literacy program this year has helped expand it to touch to be able to reach to more kids do we get information on what specific standards kids are struggling

212with off the back of these Summit of Assessments no no I know we do in New York I mean been St the standards of the from the tests I would think that we should right um so they don't give us that level of um of detail from on on edite secure we used to get that you know we used to get the the soaz report from the PSATs that's but that went by the wayside a long time ago so we don't even get that but I my understanding is that the new PSAT is going to have a performance report um similar to that summary of of um academic skills I think kids coming out of 8th grade and into n9th grade that would be extraordinarily useful information as you think about where what support you

213have to put in on day one as well as um yes right as well as the initial you know screener assessments and and observations of teachers but go ahead about P um we're going to find out a lot more about the PSAT and the SAT this is the first time this adaptive test is being given okay um you know so it is it's no next week on Wednesday next week on Wednesday um you know it speaks to a lot of different things as the College Board struggles to remain relevant in a lot of ways um the state has adopted as their test but when you see what you saw up there in terms of 85% of schools are saying it's really not that big it's not a factor necessarily uh I think one of the

214challenges you see the SAT has dropped the time it takes to take the test all four sections 2 hours and 14 minutes start to finish wow so that's that is from down from 4 and a half 1.5 and a half hours so that is the entirety of the SAT and the PSAT is now 2 hours and 14 minutes that's two sections for Math and two sections for evidence-based reading and writing it's and the way they're giving it is everybody gets that initial module with a mix of hard and easy questions the way they're calling it and then based on how you do on that first section then they kick you over to another module and based on how you're answering those questions it'll go harder and easier what that's the structure it's been explained to

215us is how it's supposed to work I don't know how they're coming up with the score I don't know what magic elfs is somewhere that's going to have the algorithm to make it happen but they're going to come out with something that's going to have a score um and the information we're going to get from that we'll see I'll probably get it earlier because my own child took it um so I'll be able to get some of that information and play around with it and see in the back end but um it's going to be interesting because the SAT is going to be the same way in the spring so um these kids have been through multiple iterations of a test that just continues to it's three different versions paper and then computer and then

216adaptive computer so I'm also going to ask Mark to quickly talk about the um some information that the the school counselors are gathering um based on some feedback that we got from Cape last week yeah so we started uh I got some feedback from uh Dr man from the cap meeting uh so I actually put out a survey to seniors I think I have 83 responses at this point uh asking various questions on the SAT PSAT and the NGS test specifically to our seniors the class of 2024 it's an anonymous who this this group here so it's an anonymous survey you don't have to put their names there's no expectation um there's a little bit of we behind it because the principal does send it out so I hope that there you know more kids

217are answering it which is helpful um but the questions range from um you know their attitude towards taking the test uh specific questions about uh did you feel prepared questions about cour workk did you feel your coursework really helped you uh prepare for the test what did you do to improve like once you had your scores what you know so it's going to give us some some points and some information to see where what areas we can improve in one that I will share is quite interesting and specifically with the SAT of those 78 kids or so that answered the the survey close to 75% of the students said they they did not send those their SAT scores to any school or college nor did they plan to and I and the other combination is

218or they super scored meaning they took one test one section more appropriately so 75% of the kids that responded so far said they had no it was so I'm and listen I I want to be completely transparent I get sick to my stomach when I look at these scores and you know I keep going back you know we often say oh we know that kid's a smart kid that's that kid's a smart kid and it s it's like a feeling it's a gut but I I know what's going on in classes I know the alignment to standards in terms of teaching I know where a curriculum is right right and it teaches heart of algebra expression of ideas words and like it we teach our kids those things so where like what happens in that

219translation from the content and the skills we know we're teaching them that I can see and I can talk about administrators who also going to classes and so it's there but it's not being translated so that's what Dr man was getting to as well and talking about the seriousness taking it all at once putting some you know they're not going to take the test for me as much as I would like them to say take it seriously it really matters I have to go in front of the board next October and have another conversation about this it's not necessarily going to matter to them but they will take other tests right there are other tests that kids are going to take as much as I we don't want to teach the test and I appreciate

220that statement we don't want to teach the test we know it's standards aligned but at the same time they have to recognize and help we need help them find that balance to understand in life there are going to be higher Stakes tests right there are going to be times to take assessments like this doesn't matter whether you're in a trade or you're in a career these things happen you think about the test to become an electrician or there's you know to become a journeyman like my father father-in-law is it's an extensive test so when we brought last year we brought midterms back and finals because we started talking about we got rid of it and kids didn't have the stamina to take the test they didn't have the comfortability with taking such a large volume

221right that had such you know waight on their on on their grade and so we saw when we brought those back there's a lot of consternation but it was important for kids to get used to taking those kinds of tests because they still do exist so we have to find that balance between the importance of yes I know you may not need it for college I I I can't just have that number of 85% and say it really matters but the skill of taking the test the pride in saying it shows what I know um and you never know it might help you to that end get a scholarship right it might help you do those other things so you know and it makes my next October a little bit easier if we do better

222too but that is we're we're trying to find that teenage brain and I that's why I went back I'll go back to that conversation about sat the fact they shortened the test means kids don't have the stamina anymore they're just not doing it they can't sit for a 4H hour test they won't and so there's a lot of things that we're doing on our end um once we get the results back from the PSAT next week going to have a lot more um we've already done I've spent I did a whole session uh with the Juniors I know uh Ava talked about the the um youth commission that I did that session with them about the foundations of government did a very similar one last week about uh the PSAT and getting us all set

223and ready to go for the applications and those things we have another one next Tuesday the day before the test we're doing an inperson conversation when I talk about we're going to amp up and make it you know important and have kids understand is what it's about you'll see more of that as we continue to go through okay thank you thank you thanks M anybody else I pushed on a couple of points and it took a long time I'm just going to say um you didn't want to It Up is on is it on now okay um as as I was listening to you uh talking about going to digital and you know everything that you've said um one thing about the digital is that kids can't go back and change an answer they can't

224go back so um that's one huge difference between paper and pencil and digital that's one thing the other thing is I'm going to agree with Mark Banda because my other thought immediately was if you look at the SAT scores um and the percentages in the high school and you compare that even to the elementary and middle schools it's a huge difference and there's a reason for that and the reason is just that what's the incentive you know if the if the colleges don't care about it I don't really feel like taking it what's the incentive so I guess I would just throw out what is the incentive and it's it's really nice to talk about we're going to make them feel like hey this is important in life and whatnot but um there might be

225some answers to some more tangible incentives and I'm not talking about like you get a candy bar you get some money I'm not talking about that I'm talking about portrait of The Graduate or making making it some uh you know something along the lines of it may be a graduation requirement to get to a certain um level something that's that's going to matter and um because I I agree you said we know they can do it well we know they can do it so then there's a gap between what we think they know they can do and what we've seen happening in the classrooms and what these test scores are showing and I really think the answer is that um kids and I'm just talking from experience they just don't see the relevance or the

226importance of of so what if I I'm not going to send it to colleges anyway and then the only other thing I would say is that um in terms of incorporating into the curriculum not necessarily teaching to the test but exposing them to format um and so that I think uh has uh you know what I've seen is that that helps tremendously if you're not compared to the if you're not prepared for the kinds of questions um or the format that that already puts you at a disadvantage um and I I said that was going to be my last one but I do have something lastly um lastly that there the the test does divide I've seen it where it does divide into the standards so you can get that information um I know we've

227used it to take a look at very specific questions and what that question is measuring which standard it's hitting and if there is a deficit then uh into the curriculum well let's let's see if we can address those specific standards so um that's it thank you I just wanted to ask I'm curious to with the um I think the number that jumped out at me and probably everyone else was that 40% for the SAT is there any data with their PSAT scores that they took is there any the the math for yeah the current seniors here here's an information that's going to surprise you they went up from their PSAT in nth grade they consistently went up PSAT 9th grade was I forget the level I have it written down up again the 10th grade

228and then up again to the so that is a jump with benchmarks even shifting as you continue to go up and they continue to go up so um it was an interesting um Dynamic to look at it from that perspective when you look at it the 40 was shocking and um if you can imagine the hole that um uh Mr Hill is wearing in his office as he just paces and circles trying to figure out what we're going to do next with math um because he sees that and owns that but it was interesting to see that that definite change um across there so it actually was an increase thank you okay anyone else well this kind of goes back back to what you were saying Bob is that there's one thing I've learned on

229the on being part of the cape committee is that this is very Dynamic uh constantly so this for example the star assessment now we're switching to mclass Dibbles it's finding the information from the assessment to work off so me I mean I might be over set my balance on but the star data wasn't great and that's what we were using for I don't know how how much before I got here yeah before I got here too so data wasn't great now we have m-class dibles now we have better data okay good so it's I think that that's a a part of this uh another another U thing I want to bring up excuse me throat's really dry is that the teachers are being assessed differently now so it's not I think this was your it's

230not so much punitive so much is focused on growth um and so that doesn't make it softer in my opinion I I didn't think I didn't get that from what you were saying uh but assessment of the teach teachers going back to teaching the test this might that'll be interesting to see what goes forward now that teachers aren't assessed so heavily on on Raw data and rather rather on growth so this just goes back to my first one it's very Dynamic and everything is kind of interrelated for sure yeah and we haven't quite made that switch completely yet but this is that transition year um where but teachers have for the last couple years been able to focus um more uh Less on student learning outcomes that are solidly quantitative they can also incorporate those

231qualitative goals so that is also something to to consider and maybe help guide teachers to really dig into this information and how can that inform some of their their instructional goals um can you explain and maybe at not at the high school level but obviously at the elementary and middle school level how formative assessments are used like I know um Mr Endo was talking about how like if a kid takes a a topical test and it's um you know they get all the a few questions that are you know assessing multiplication of fractions right and so the teacher then goes and um you know adjusts instruction is that Revisited with the student like are they reassess so that we can actually see that the alteration in instruction has worked yep okay so I mean the

232whole idea is and I appreciate you saying like I I'm a big believer and too they need to understand the format types of questions there are things like that but based on something like that we the teachers would give that that data the excuse me the assessment get the data from it do maybe reteaching it may not be the whole entire class it may be the class dependent it could be a small group and some of our interventions like Dr bril was saying are specific to that and then what they do is they assess because you don't want don't always want to give the same exact type of question right just you want to give similar types of questions because they're going to be different anyway in the ESC so then what they do is

233they'll say maybe give them five questions just to to see where they are based on what they retaught I guess is the way I look at but they don't necessarily give the same exact thing and actually isn't the same thing when you do take it again it is different and and the way that the multi-tiered systems of support works is that you know if you do an assessment um a formative assessment adjust your instruction continue um kind of focusing on the development of that student and that student continues to struggle with that particular standard or that particular strand that's where a tier 2 intervention may be and you're saying that we're identifying or we're able to identify more students so that they can get multi-tiered instruction because I think that that to me still sounds

234like it's a very small percentage of our overall student population right I mean you can't take half of the student class and give them tier 2 instruction right which you wouldn't do Under the multi-tiered systems of support um need something more but that's where we have to adjust our instruction right so we have to right yeah so that's that's where that so um they're related but it's not as though once you have a student who doesn't get something you kick them up into tier two and say well I don't I don't know what your problem is you're got to go figure it out on your own with a with an interventionist it's okay so how am I going to adjust my instruction based on the needs and the differentiation so it's not necessarily the entire

235class but um differentiating um between among your students and then But continuing to keep an eye on them so that those the students who really are need some more they continue to be in tier one but they also need some you know intervention at tier two so and there there we're you know we're kind of like talking about all these different things in terms of m-class Dibbles or arcadians at the older grades or um multi-tiered systems of support or interim assessment blocks these are all you know in a kind of a comprehensive approach these are all used to to support this effort right so it's not one single thing that's going to do the trick it's going to be a a looking at and as Debbie talked about those data teams those PLC is really

236digging into that information at the um Elementary School and also the team meetings at the middle school and srbi throughout looking at those um that those data points for students and you feel that those changes at least at this juncture is enough to improve these you know we believe strong in this plan and that we are going to you know address the the variety of of concerns that this that some of this data is bringing to us but also the Readiness for learning that our Stu that we see in our students and also the the progress that we're seeing on our students so yes this is one of these pieces but we're looking we're also continuing to look at the whole picture um and we can definitely guarantee the process and we are hoping that

237we are going and we're going to we're going to focus on the interim information so that we can continue to monitor the progress MH so we should see another big step next year that's what we're going we're going to see that's what we're shooting for the other thing I just want to mention I'll close with this I didn't say shoot for yeah I want us to set a high bar that's the goal absolutely and last year at this time I talked about it and Anna talked about it today academic Focus focusing on our core subjects and making sure we're making those strides and through a major initiative the IBS there was significant growth in those grades that we saw and that's a strategy that worked we're going to continue with that and Dave is adopting

238that down at the elementary level I like that it is a it is a foundational key strategy what is um the homework policy at um maybe the middle school I know in in elementary school it's kind of teacher specific but is there is it like that at the middle school as well when you say homework policy meaning General uh like you say an hour to an hour and a half at each at each grade level yeah I mean I I am also aware of the fact that the culture of high stakes testing extends well beyond the school walls and there's a whole familial like you know culture in terms of I mean I know there's a lot of parents that are just dead against high stakes testing and they don't um they really don't push

239the rigor of of these types of tests and maybe School in general and that can also lead to I think some of the complacency but um I'm I'm thinking if there was if we're expecting more out of our students that they will rise to the occasion um and so I was just curious as to you know how can we increase the rigor of of things that students have to do in all grade levels well I I look at it I mean you increases the rigor in the classroom when you're there giving homework doesn't in my eyes doesn't necessarily increase increase rigor right because again depending on you know what the assignment is that you're bringing home are they finishing something is it is it um practicing the skill or something I believe in that obviously

240um but it's not something like you know I look at things like in math is it if the kid could do 10 of them does do they really need to do 20 of them if they can get you know that Concept 10 of them 10 of them correct um but we don't have like again we have a time like an hour to an hour and a half we have kids that I think what you just said we have kids that will spend hours on homework then we have other kids that will you know kids that we're we're keeping after school to try to make sure that they do the homework so we we have all those variances but that doesn't change I guess my point is that doesn't change I'm not not giving homework because

241I'm worried about the kid who's not doing homework I guess is my point we don't do that just because of that number we we give homework when it's necessary and it's necessary to go back over the lesson Andor necessary for something that might be the next day's lesson or down the road okay so not just to give homework to give homework okay guys purposeful thank you D oh thank you is there any other questions that we should do tonight should we move on I think we can move on we've let let you stand up there long enough keep on pushing this is I'm going to repeat something I said last year this has to be the number one priority in our school district and sometimes it doesn't feel that way because there's so many other

242things that come in right and uh and you whatever support you need to make this successful you got the board's 100% behind you thank you that's appreciate that's definitely number one priority for me every day yeah I got that okay so we're going to move on to um this time we'll move on to Grants approval go ahead Amy I will move that the board approve the attached list of Grants as recommended by the Director of Business and operations Casey de and superintendent Dr John Burell second moved and seconded um okay Casey do you want to give us a brief overview of what this is or John you have it I just need a microphone oh so I'm sorry sorry um yeah so these are um primarily entitlement grants that we um receive every year um

243this is I guess this is something that the the board has requested um annually um and to to approve and adopt um what is new here is the arpa right to read Grant which has been mentioned earlier um thanks to Anna and her team Dr Dr man and her team for securing that grant that was a competitive Grant um these are Mo most of these grants are two Spann uh two years so they won't all be expended um in this fiscal year but um yeah if there's any questions I'd be happy to answer there's no other significant changes in the content of these no okay and these grants are incorporated as you know uh Grant Line yeah and the grants L to the budget yep and just to clarify the the right to read Grant

244was a response from the St State um so it's actually not competitive it's just an interim um you know kind of entitlement they just in in response to uh the Hue and cry of how expensive it was going to be to incorporate the new reading programs um and so that's why it's actually an interesting date uh December 23 to December 24 um is a strange or 20 22 par of me to December 24 um is a weird timing but it was basically because they want schools district to be able to roll in their new purchases that are quite so this is specifically aimed then at rolling out this new curriculum the K3 reading okay cuz that's not the way it reads here this sounds about I guess it does so I'm sorry it does okay

245there any questions on the grants no okay all in favor of approving hi hi all right we'll go on to the next item which is budgets assumptions and priorities ities this is an action to receive the budget assumptions and priorities document yes so um given given the late hour I'll I'll kind of ask how much detail you'd like me to go in I could kind of highlight this um as we prepare I don't why don't you hit the these are very similar to we what we've done every year so just what's new sure so the first page the assumptions sets the stage for the budget and Frames it out but it's not new so I think for this board as a veteran board we can skip through that um if you go to the second

246page um where it says curricular instruction assess and assessment excuse me there are a number of things that are continues uh in terms of continuing the investment in curricular tools of a digital nature digital texts um and the support for technology in the classroom uh in addition to that we continue to support professional learning um some of the new pieces are um talking about supporting uh various uh Frameworks in curricul ulum uh and in professional development all based on everything we talked about tonight in addition to that we talk about supporting findings uh from recommendations from the correct report uh and the secondary correct report that's coming out in November as well as the special education strategic plan also supporting our uh K3 reading uh material purchase K3 uh math materials purchase in addition to

247that I had mentioned during my enrollment report number 10 that this year uh we literally have 20 students at kwood Lake Elementary School who uh their first language is Portuguese which will necessitate an adjustment in our um multilanguage learner um FTE so we're examining how we might be able to deliver that next year programmatically so that'll be something that comes up in the budget discussion in December John H how available are Portuguese multi- um they're all the this area of certification is extremely extremely it was hard enough with Spanish I just an extra year to find Spanish um uh a Spanish bilingual teacher so the the one thing we do have is we did some Forward Thinking uh two summers ago when we were hiring someone in a different position and we found out that

248they were certified as a bilingual Portuguese teacher so that helped their candidacy quite well in addition to their certification we were seeking at that time at that time so um that's probably where we might first yes yes we're we're always trying to look around the corner uh for the community uh the others is um any any um results from the uhal assessments that we've done uh Dr man talked about the Des assessment results of the initial assessment this year um anything we find that we want to adjust in our uh budget and our resources for the kids we'll do that and then in addition to that I talked about um and we'll have it in under policy I talked about um the kindergarten legislation and if there's going to be an impact on the budget

249with that uh that's curriculum instruction assessment the next page uh gets into leadership and uh operation and Facilities we continue to work with our leadership development to build capacity um in ensuring that we uh develop engaging instructional practices we're just talking about that all evening in addition to that really working on that culture of belonging in the climate we build in our um uh in our schools uh in addition to that Mike talked about and it's a big part of I think what I'm seeing when I talk about that inspiration and motivation and excitement from the the teachers that I'm seeing um cl to what Mike was talking about with teacher evaluation and the big changes you know the last Dozen Years was very challenging with the high stakes ratings that we were giving teachers

250and we're obligated under the law to do that um with the state department but now with that changing there's a albatross I think that's been a feeling of relief from our teachers um and so um we want to support the new model and there's a lot of work that's already ongoing in that under operations and facilities and we'll talk a lot about that when we get to Casey's report on the capital plan um continue to uh support our technology again in terms of the investment in Chromebooks uh we're going to have to M maintain our new website that we'll get this year next year um there's some uh operational monies that need to be put aside for continuing to update our infrastructure such as servers and so forth um Eric is leading a technology strategic

251plan with that committee and so there um there's going to be some uh items from Eric that come forward uh for our budget for that um of course uh anything to do with uh utilizing K policy services to support the work we've been doing for many years to update our policy manual the ARP Esser Grant number seven is probably our biggest investment going into next year next year is the Final Phase in to the operational budget of the ARP Esser Grant and we use that mainly with summer school and our instructional coaches and so for the coming year as we plan this year for next year we have to um have the Final Phase in of our technology integration specialist compensation gets rolled into the budget summer school gets rolled into the budget all of

252it there's a math tutor um and a 0.5 occupational therapist um and that was talked about actually in uh Bill's report tonight so those need to get phased into the operational bu was about 200 and something thousand 20 230,000 maybe something like that oh it's 210 okay so there you go yep um and then we have to there is another uh piece that we're going to be looking at over the next couple of months is before I present the budget which is uh we're evaluating the the model uh that we have in the human resources department and we may come to you with a different proposal on a bit of a re organization there um of course the CIA Athletic program review uh a number of steps have been taken uh to get that review

253underway since last spring the visit will be between the fall and the uh winter semester and then from there we'll get the rest of those recommendations we will bring that report to the board and share that um and so any resources that uh we need to bring forward we will continue to support um the results of our insurance company kerma that provided a full security uh uh program review for us and we went over that last year with the security task force a lot of the Investments are in the capital plan but there are some training uh and other human factor things we need to do uh to continue to maintain um our very safe and secure schools uh continue to work with Parks and Rec Department on our facilities um I am going to

254bring forward a uh uh a dollar figure for an enrollment study next year you know the big changes we made in the district it's time for another enroll full comprehensive enrollment study and um we're also looking Casey's going to talk to this 13 and 14 increasing our maintenance budget to really be proactive at whis skiner and at uh Brookfield High School and so there's a there's a whole comprehensive kind of exciting concept Joy was talking to that the other day at our last week at our facilities committee and so was Bob so I'll save that for Casey's report tonight that's the priority so this is really th this document is the harbinger of what's to come in our budget planning in December any comments all right let's move on thank you I just have actually

255one comment on um the page that on operations and Facilities number 11 continue to advocate for a collaborative action plan with parks and wreck for the upgrade of grounds athletic fields and Facilities I I mean I'm not sure what that really I don't know what the backstory is when you say continue to Advocate but I would love to see that be a more actionable thing like develop an action plan and like where does it stand and why are we just advocating it sort of sounds like we're saying you know someday we'd like better fields or well there's there's you've heard a lot about concession stands a lot about more bathrooms a lot of those things and I can't develop a plan for a town agency so it's I've got a it's important that it's a

256priority that as the leader of the school district we support that uh Laura has been incredible uh our new parks and rec director obviously you can see the work that has been going on these were obviously P projects that were in the pipeline um but there are upgrades we still need uh and so that's it's it's a statement um of advocacy okay um and and does that include um replacing the fields that were lost when that's part of the uh Candlewood Lake Project okay the whis fields and the fields that were at Huckleberry and that whole that's a whole field study that's part of the Candlewood Lake Project working with Parks Parks and Rec and the NBC are technically collaborating and in charge of that project okay but existing Fields like the the backgirl softball

257field here is not included in that it would right now like that drainage project is is not funded it's something we've been asking for yeah because the fields get wet then you have to cancel games and it just is I'm very familiar very so John I'm thinking it would be powerful to have a integrated ground rounds plan that maybe Laura and or Paul you know with Casey's leadership they bring in a here's what the grounds plan so we get a chance to review it and give direct input and they right now there's been we've been so focused on the fields Outback Laura may be actually starting to really work on that now in terms of the capital investment as we're working on the capital investment on our side i' love to have something that we

258could show to our families that says here is everything that's out there and here is what we're doing and yes this is owned by parks and wreck and this is owned by the schools and this is owned by the uh the plan but we talk around it a lot well and I think the concrete actions especially as we focus on the secondary work because let's be candid we finally got our school in place albeit the especially the exterior is not finished yet but we're in and that took s years of hard work a lot of work we'll leave leave it at that um I don't have enough hair for another new school project I can tell you that it's that kind of a project but it's time we all know and we're really excited about

259it we talked about our facilities last week and Casey will talk to it today to really get focused on not only the schools themselves but taking a look at our grounds and and continue to develop that so it's all part and partial that we tend to not talk about the grounds because it's not our budget and I think we ought to make it an an event there right we just may make it an event right I agree so that's that questions on this one nope okay um so next up is uh the 10-year Capital plan and then we have one two three first reads on uh on policies and John if you're okay I'm going to defer the executive session to a future date sure okay with that yep yeah I just figur it's getting

260it's getting late you get drive thank you it's fine with me I'm sensitive to that all right you got a better blue I did I learned can you see it from is it better okay I'm going to come around though okay and you Al you also have copies of the slides um at your at your seat so I think this has been really teed up very nicely for me I think everybody including um Ava our student rep who gave the the guidance Wing roof a shout out that was that was good um so I'm here tonight to talk to you about the 10-year prioritized prioritized capital projects and some facility upgrade opportunities that that come along with that before I talk about the specifics of what the plan looks like going forward I think it's

261really important just to talk about and make mention of the fact that there was a lot of work and and thoughtful forward thinking that was um already taken place by this board of education particularly the facilities committee um even before the new school was completed um knowing that the new school will be opening this year the board um very thoughtfully um decided to make an investment in a um building facil build building condition study um which uh began in February of 20 2023 this year uh when they when you all engag Mark sakubo um to peror the building condition study of whiner middle school and berkfield high school in May um Marx Kubo completed all their site work um very intensive um uh uh detailed work um at each facility inside outside the building is

262looking at all the Mechanicals the the grounds um in any um exterior work that needs to be completed and those studies were presented the to the facilities committee um in July of 23 so I arrived in September and I think the first day I was told you're going to meet with Mr Caldwell and you're going to go through all these reports and and really get to know them um which was a really exciting uh first project for me to tackle um Mr Caldwell and I spend a lot of time together um in the in the month of September really teasing out um the details of those building conditions reports for both the middle school and the high school and we pulled out um any items that we believed could be incorporated and absorbed into our

263operating budget and the importance of that is because it makes um maintaining the the buildings a top priority annually year-over-year it's being really proactive about maintaining um the good parts of the school that we already have the other part of that is the larger capital projects um and that's what the focus um this evening is going to be but um as Dr Burl pointed out um the operating pieces will be um discussed during during the budget so these two building condition studies serve as the basis for the the 10-year Capital Improvement plan um there are some diff some differences you're going to have access to all of the detailed reports from Mark zbo um which you'll know are slightly different from what we proposed in the 10 10year Capital plan there were items on there

264such as you'll see oil tanks that didn't make it into the marks thebo report but we are aware because they have been carried forward on our existing 10year plan um that they are in need of replacement so the good news from these reports is that the building the buildings are as Joey pointed out in solid shape um they are generally in good condition overall so there's no need to build a new high school or middle school there's no need for a renovate as new project but it will require you know significant investment um into these buildings to maintain what we have and improve you know the needs of the infrastructure um so that the buildings can continue to serve Brookfield students um for decades to come but there's more good news which was talked about

265um quite a bit this evening um thanks to the J support of Brookfield taxpayers so much work has already been done over the last 5 years to address the capital needs at whiner and the high school over the Last 5 Years whis skiner um saw Paving projects curbing repairs security upgrades an upgraded building management system an electrical service upgrade which is still in progress um and the exterior wall of the gym was also replaced Brookfield High School saw a lot of the same projects completed um Paving concrete repairs uh security upgrades a new building management system the boys locker renovation which is very near completion um new tennis courts track and fields which talks speaks to what we were just talking about about cor incorporating the um the whole campus of our schools that Park

266and re wreck is very involved with um those are really exciting uh projects that impact our students um the guidance wing and office roof replacement and bathroom refurbishments we've currently updated five bathrooms in the high school to date so some exciting pictures uh of the ribbon cutting was that just yesterday yesterday yesterday at the at the new track um and it's really important to note that that while these are not as we said Board of Ed capital ests and projects they do serve the the community and our students and it's so important that we do have um an engagement with the the larger Community to see these projects come to to come to completion so where does that lead us um in the over the next 10 years we've put together a plan that costs

267roughly $12 million sounds very expensive it's much much less expensive than a new high school or a new Middle School um whiner middle School built in 1970 um it had uh several Renovations um in its history between 1981 and 2001 it's approximately 117,000 Square ft things that this building needs over the next uh 10 years improvements to the roof to the windows and doors this is all what the envelope of the building is which is really critical because if you have a secure envelope nothing inside will be damaged so that's that's an important thing to tackle um sooner rather than later if you have issues interior for whiskin we're looking at a gym floor ceiling tiles as we as we move along and replace roofs mechanically uh whis skaner needs a new boiler uh an

268oil tank needs to be uh removed and replaced this plan does include a domestic water service upgrade um as you know the facilities committee has been looking at some water issues off and on over sometime so this would um alleviate that recurring issue um H HVAC equipment upgrades unit ventilators fire alarm control panel fire pump and controller and this also doesn't address a Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrade um in some of the outy years Brookfield High School built in 1959 um a little bit of a higher investment over 10 years uh just under n um just under $7 million this building has had a couple of Renovations several Renovations between 1962 and 2007 um and it's just under 200,000 sare ft it needs a lot of the same um upgrades and maintenance as uh whis skiner does

269the the the envelope of the building addressing roofs windows and and doors interior we're going to continue improving restrooms try to keep that pattern of two to three restrooms year-over-year um it does make a big impact um I think to students when they just have a fresh restroom um and it and it and that's good um mechanically a lot of a lot of the same things oil tank as well is is scheduled to be replaced over the next 10 years HVAC equipment unit ventilators lighting fire alarm control panel retr commissioning of mechanics Mechanicals and you'll see that the retr commissioning of the Mechanicals is pushed back a little bit farther in the plan because some of the Mechanicals first need to be um upgraded and or or fixed um mechanically from that perspective and also

270a Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrade at the high school so that's what we need to do um to keep the you know the facilities um in in good working order um but what we started talking about at the facilities um committee meeting and which is an exciting part of um what is being proposed in the year one of the capital um plan is this opportunity to improve the overall experience for brookfield's middle and high school students by pairing what we already know are needed capital projects with facility upgrades to enhance the look and feel of whiner middle school and Brook field high school so this is this is um well let's this is a $50,000 request um in the first year of the capital plan for architectural services to develop a conceptual design plan with the goal

271of incorporating these projects into the needed Capital repairs and they don't all have to be costly we were sort of um spitballing a lot of these different ideas um in the in the committee um it can be as simple as having the architect come through and understanding that we need to replace this whole section of Windows in this time time frame well what is that what is the suggestion for the fenestration anybody the arrangement of windows and doors on that facade that might bring in more natural light or might give it a more welcoming appeal so while in this Capital plan there are not specific Investments requested in the out years for what those projects may be because a lot of that work is going to be informed by the needs of the computer community

272and Dr bur mentioned that the districtwide PTO is is being um restarted they'll they'll probably have a a big say in that um students in the community so that could be a really really exciting um start to to an investment to really make make Brookfield High School the flagship school and and and improve this um this whole experience for for students and the community um all right so you do have the draft Capital plans in your board packets and I'm going to try to open them here um oh no all right well you have the packets in you have the the the um I'm not signed in this me that's okay um you have the plans in your in your um board packets and you'll you'll notice that there are there are two color codes

273I'm sorry the color of the the one section doesn't show up too well in these um in these these photoc copies but rest assured um the um the link that you'll see online is very clearly labeled what I've done in the 10year plan is I've paired um uh Capital requests that all have to do with say the conceptual design investment so that would be a plan would come out of that investment that $50,000 investment in a um conceptual design and so what would inform that is all of those areas that you see in blue the timing of perhaps all of those window replacements or the timing of where we address Lighting in the in the building as we go so while while these are the the recommended investments from the Marx akubo report the timing

274of them might be informed a little bit differently based on the outcome of this initial investment in the architectural services does everybody follow me there okay there's a whole another um another section of items that are going to be informed they're they're really related to the envelope and the HVAC of the building if we replace a roof section then we have air handlers and um unit you know V there's so many different you know all the mechanical stuff that goes on the roof right you want to address that all together and so um the Marx a Cubo report is recommending that we invest um $25,000 in each of our buildings for an engineering um design for a feasibility um study to see about adding air conditioning to all the areas of the building that currently

275do not have air conditioning and so that would inform whether you know we do this section of roof and we have to work to do integrate that air conditioning Improvement as well so all of those things are grouped that way for that reason as well all the items on the bottom they are not highlighted those are sort of a standalone projects um and they are um placed in this Capital plan based on the recommendations of Mark cbo's report and also what we know to be true of the needs of the building is there any specific questions on any of these items that I can answer so these aren't necessarily grouped in priority order they're really no they are they are they are in priority order um the way they are laid out right now is

276is the priority that that the building conditions study recommends okay all I'm suggesting is that if there are um if the engineering design for the the air conditioning um feasibility plan says it's best to do um this section of air conditioning we may the timing of some of those roof repairs might be just shuffled a bit um but the way it's laid out right here is exactly how um the Marx a Kubo is recommending and all of these costs do include a 3% escalation Factor year-over-year um they also include so in the window replacements in the marks Au Cubo report you may see you'll see a different you will see a different number for the window replacement but further down in their um spreadsheet you'll see that they also recommend 20% contingency for the window

277replacements and a 30% factor for um vendor mobilization profit margin all that stuff so anytime there's a recommend recommended um add-on to that project I it is Incorporated in these numbers you'll also notice that in the early years of the roof replacement for example in year one of the plan um it is recommended to replace um the library roof here at the high school that number is different from the number that you'll see in the Marx a Kubo plan because we just did the guidance Wing roof and and that was needed that was highly damaged needed to be completely torn off um you know in insulation replaced I use that square footage price to figure the the um the cost to do this roof as well it's roughly the same square footage um but I

278did base it on the square footage price of the guidance swing roof because that's the most up-to-date number we have and we know that this roof is in comparable shape to what the guidance room uh Wing roof was the other the outer years of the roof Replacements it's a much lower square footage cost because those roofs aren't in quite as bad shape um those are not um intended to be full tear down to you know see through like the guidance swing was right and it's not replaced with as thick of an insulation Mark sakubo said you can increase the insulation the spec of the project will impact the square footage price but they recommended because those roofs are not in as bad shape and if you build in over time a continuous um roof maintenance

279plan you can just you can use that dollar amount to just replace sections as you go so you'll see a little bit of of difference in these numbers versus what the Marx AO report reads any other questions so just to be clear the goal of air conditioning all the schools is the goal is here but the dollars to enact that goal are not in here yet or are they um so I think there is there is money to do all the unit ventilators it's I think it's more of the ducting work any any connecting and I am not I am not a facilities expert so you'll have to forgive me some but um all the ducting work to connect all the parts is is likely not in here that would be informed by the engineering

280design but the replacement of um a lot of the the heavy equipment the rooftop units um a lot of those HVAC units are Incorporated in here to be replaced either at the end of their useful life but it's just hooking hooking them up into um and I don't know the difference between honestly a rooftop condenser and an air conditioning condenser right like so there there could be differences there it's a capacity question so it's we may have air conditioning units today but they don't cool the whole building so do we have enough we don't have the money and to expand our amount of air conditioning stud will inform that will that correct there's no new air conditioning units in this plan it's replacing uh what we currently have that's right good question one thing that

281stood out to me from a safety perspective was the fire alarm control panel for 337,000 but it's out in year five yep so there's no issues with that right now that is just the projected end of its useful life it may be that we can we get to year five and that may be able to be moved out another year or two if it's if it's in very good working order so they the the study really went through all of our Mechanicals all of our systems all looked at all of our roofs all of our doors and said based on what we're seeing based on the the information and data we have on all of these pieces of equipment how much longer how much longer life do they have and so that's where this um

282replacement Falls in this it does not mean that there's anything wrong with it today at all yeah because if if there was we would move that up to a sooner year of course yeah I guess just because it said the Manu manufacturer discontinued it makes me think there's a better one well it probably is probably is there like there likely is um it's discontinuous not being manufactured anymore it doesn't mean that it it um it doesn't it's not to imply that it doesn't still function you know perfectly fine but I could see why that would that would raise a a flag for you yep any other questions so uh has the town given us any indication of when they need this plan from us uh not I have not received any indication yet I know

283there's a capital um Capital committee that has has it has not been reformed it's not I didn't think so um I think that I whenever that is reformed I think we'll have more information on when on when they're looking at Marsha and I have been in in um in conversation she knows that you know we're working on this and she was helpful to give me the historical um information on what the requests have been um Over The Last 5 Years um from the board for these capital projects okay so at this point we've just had we're receiving this report we're discussing it but we don't have to approve it until it's more closer to being needed is that a fair I that's that's a that's a fair point if the facility committee um and you

284know having gone over this a little bit more of a fine tooth we spent more time last week along with the board is comfortable with this report at this point we certainly can approve it to move it forward because November is the timing typically when the town needs it that's something what what I'm thinking John is uh you know you're continuing to work on things and you know give it a chance before we lock it down we ought to approve it as close to when it's just needed there's new learning right there's new information that comes or issues that arise yeah so if we approved it in the October meeting or even the November meeting it would be a opportunity I'm sorry this is the October meeting in the November meeting or even if they're

285not ready in November and they want it in December right we could do it there depending because I'd hate to lock in and then have you come in say after amend it right that's all and we are in a great place as you can see we have a very comprehensive report here based on uh mark Kubo and all the other work we' put in so um we're ready to go on it but uh things are changing all the time so we could flex and adjust as we get closer and we don't have that date from the town yet and just to be clear these are not especially even in the year one um you know Capital requests these are not estimates from vendors to to perform the specific work I just want to be super

286clear on that um this is estimates that that was G provided to us by Marx aubo and also what we like I said with the roofs right like what we know currently um so there there can be some some changes there and so I think yeah probably ought to think about um how do we flesh out um some of the higher ticket items for year one because they will the board of finance will want that by the time they get to their evaluation of the budget um which is of course in March right so we have some time to work that but uh but I do think they are all always asking do you have any documentation that you've gone out and ask people to get you a up to- dat cost and how much

287contingency do you have and things like that so it's probably worth thinking about how to kick that off and frankly not having that town date Bob to your point it just gives us the gift of time to do some of that vendor some okay local pricing on this stuff so unless there's any other questions we'll take this as input to us and uh we'll we'll keep it on the old business in case there's any updates thank you thanks Casey everyone okay with that yep all right all right um so we've got three uh policies and I'll just remind everyone these are all first reads so and uh for the public who's listening the the process we have on policies is we get it we get it from the policy committee as a first read we

288can talk at about it at a high level here but that gives the board a chance in the next month to give input and so when we meet a month from now we would then go do final approval it also gives the public a chance to look at what we're looking at and also give input as well so the time is about giving the board a chance to look at it and also the public a chance to see what's being brought to the board um so I think um well we'll do those one at a time so each one of them has a motion and uh then Debbie I'll turn it over to you to give a level overview I will move that the board approve new policy number 5112 ages of attendance as recommended

289by the policy and communication subcommittee second okay moved in second and Debbie for a first read oh this is for a first read right you said that right did you say for first read or no didn't say it on there should say first read oh yeah this says to approve so yeah no we have to approve it as a first read as a first read okay okay so just I'll move that we amend the uh motion that was just made to include for a first read I'll second the amendment all in favor of the amendment I I okay so it's now an amended motion so go ahead okay so um John touched on this earlier and this is a new policy that we are required to enact based on changes to the Connecticut General statute

290regarding ages of attendance for CH uh children entering kindergarten um the law says now that children must be five by September 1st to enter kindergarten so we are recommending that we do a straight adoption of Cab's policy um it's very straightforward it establishes you know all the required dates and the requirements for residency um so we didn't make any changes or see the need to make make any modifications to Cab's policy really and I think Dr burill will go into some more detail about the context of it and the implications but really the purpose of it is to make sure that we're supporting the families who maybe had planned on sending their children to kindergarten um so we we have some more work to do that John will sort of talk about but we thought

291it was important to get the policy in the pipeline and get moving on it rather than delaying that you want so I'll recap some of what I talked before um talked about before this is it's a huge impact in Connecticut I mean it's a it's a it's a full sweeping change and like I said if our current kindergarten class uh parents had to experience this 45 kids out of our 160 plus students uh would not be eligible um this year which is 27% of the class obviously enrollment impacts um uh Staffing uh but in addition to that there are caveats from the State Department of Education that we're looking for guidance on because there excuse me there are caveats in the legislation that talk about a specific assessment without giving us any guidance on what

292that assessment is uh also an opportunity for the the district to provide a waiver um under particular conditions November 1st we're attending a workshop Ed Advance is putting on to help understand that we anticipate over the next couple of weeks we know we we are made to understand that the state department is meeting literally as as we speak uh over the next couple of weeks to determine and give some guidance for us um like many of the things from the csde there's sometimes contradictory information convoluted information um competing information so we hope we get some clarity on that um and I'm working with my colleagues in the Western Connecticut superintendent group to try to understand this um but in speaking with Council um the advice was let's get the the policy moving forward we could

293always go back in and make any adjustments we need once we have the policy in place um but it does Drive budget decisions so it's really important we know sooner than later um and we need to be able to communicate with our families um given what's the the caveat people actually go out go and read the legislation I do not think this is going to be like the B5 by January 1st rule that has been in Connecticut where that is absolutely a hard line um this is going to be a very very um Gray Line um that we're going to need to think about and work with so there's a lot to it thank you so structurally I'm just thinking policy structure is it possible for us to adopt this policy and have you incorporate

294details of how we would do assessments and things like that into an accompanying regulation that is a possibility cuz that might be an easy way for for us to adopt a policy but then you put the next level down on how are we going to handle waivers how are we going to handle uh exceptions how we going to handle assessments and if I know that in another you know month or so we could stay on our typical schedule it might take through December to have that information but we could have this in the me that sets the Baseline policy right I think that might be a structure that would work so all right so I think the policy is much more simple than a regulation and how we're going to actually implement this and the

295impact on our community y yeah okay um Debbie when do you need input by um our next policy meeting is before our next regular board meeting on November 15th so I was thinking if we could get comments the Friday before which I think is the 10th okay so input input to Debbie by November nov 10th on all of these right okay I don't know if it's it's not really specific commentary I just in reading this I just found to be incredibly wordy but um I mean it's not convoluted or anything but I don't know if because it's not convoluted it might just be easier to just adopt the entire policy as is but it is just excessively wory lawyer wrote it C tends to have wordy uh wordy policies but it really is I don't

296want to call it a monopoly but that's that's who we work with and that who you know that's our can Association of boards of Education where we get our root policies from foundational doc okay all in favor of accepting this one as a first read please say I hi hi any opposed all right we'll move on okay you want to move on to the next one the next one is uh approval regulation number 6563 School library media I will move that the board approve approve regulation 6563 School library media for a first reading as recommended by the policy and communication subcommittee second moved and seconded that me okay um this one we've been batting around for some time um the the actual policy doesn't have um changes to it but it's the regulation that has

297um some changes that we are recommending based on the petition that we received from the child advocacy group um they're minor changes but they are um bouncing between two copies here I think Lisa highlighted the one's in yellow and one's in green and one's in green right so um this was again based on some requests that were made of us through the petition and also based on the feedback from our um library media specialist okay any discussions on that I did send you by the way my thoughts on edits and things like that today I copi the board so you all had a copy of what I was suggesting so is there is there a reason why we're approving a regulation the policy the regulation in the addendum have been part of in some policies

298like bullying and it happens to be in this particular one that this has been the board's purview to give Administration very clear and specific direction of how to handle and implement the policy okay so that's why General regulations are approved by John but on this one I think we've had a we did when we did the updates you know um what two years ago now right we were looking at all of them together as a group I think these are pretty simple changes m y okay any other comments on this all in favor of accepting it as a first read I yep and uh the third item is survey of students I will move that the board approve policy number 61 16251 survey of students for a first read is recommended by the policy and

299Communications subcommittee second moved and seconded um uh Debbie okay this is another one that's been around for quite a while we actually made we went through several rounds and made pretty significant changes to our previous policy um going back almost a year um but then C right after I think we did a first first read the next day C had a sample policy that was a little clearer sent us a brand new policy um so we tweaked it a bit and we asked for some input from Council and um some clarity on things and so what you have here is that final version based on um Dan's input and what was presented to us from C recommended from cab so we all feel pretty good about it um it does you'll see there are forms

300attached that clearly um allow parents the right to opt out of surveys or provide consent for surveys so we think we covered um all the bases that parents and board members um had concerns about okay my not thank you all right any discussion tonight all right all in favor of accepting it as a first read please say I I okay same dates right yep okay so so this one I'll just remind everyone it's been a very sensitive point for us and I do think we all ought to read all through all of these library books this one read them very carefully uh because they have been hot hot spots in uh in town and I fully expect the five the January 1 U start date is going to be a hot spot in the town

301before we're done soing out is a hot spot huh well there was big discussion about opt in opt out um on the on the uh Brookville care survey right um you know do you you know do you do you do it as a I I have the right to opt out of it or do I have to ask everybody to opt in um and so we had a lot of discussion about that I want to say earlyer this year or late last year I and also providing parents an opportunity to see surveys before they're administered yeah more opportunities to see surveys before they do have the opportunity but more flexibility in the hours and things like that right okay that's it for our main agenda there's nobody here for public comment we at 11:00 at

302night we've scared them all away um next up is three main points um I was thinking that there's a lot here I was thinking that uh the special services case load report was important to summarize as well as um Dr man's standardized test scores and school Improvement Plan update and then I thought maybe I would try to combine the 2425 budget assumptions and the capital project discussion sort of I I would just do the capital project okay I would too yeah okay those the budget assumption is a standard document we'll we'll talk we'll talk about that 10 times before we're done yeah then it's just it's just the uh capital projects yeah oh and I think just getting the message out that the schools are the two schools are solid right aren't going to need

303to build a new school in there is I think there's so many people go around this town talking about we're going to have to no now we built that one school we're going to go build two more right it's and that's not true so unless John wants to do John wants to head the project well John doesn't have any hair left there's no hair there's no hair left he had more hair he would okay okay great all right and up uh upcoming events okay I don't does anyone know I had this Brookfield student showcase is that still going on at JJ stocks on Friday I don't know yeah that was on my radar but I didn't get it from any of the secretaries didn't when I yeah so that's maybe that maybe there was low

304turnout because of that on the 24th though we do have the youth commission candidate Forum um which is here at 700 p.m. and on the 25th is the meet the candidates event at the whiner um cafeteria I believe at 7:00 p.m. there's a trunk retreat at the volunteer fire department on the 28th election day is Tuesday November 7th and there is no school for students on that day um CES has the book fair coming up next week October 19th to the 27th starting this week actually and early release for conferences next week the 25th 26th and 27th and whiskin has the wathon tomorrow the book fair October 23rd to the 27th and they also have conferences and an early release on November 15th and 16th and as we said before BHS has the homecoming Carnival

305in game this Friday October 20th the homecoming dance at the Amber Room the 28th and they also have conferences with an early release on November 15th and 16th that's all I have okay okay so that's it for our meeting tonight I want to thank everybody who was watching for uh sticking in there this was probably one of our longer meetings that we've uh I think had with this board for a while um and meeting first meeting right God bless you um and uh without unless there's an objection we are adjourned thank you are we having our next meeting at C going to right there [Music]