001Board of Education to order we could all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic okay we have five of our board members here tonight Bob is out of town on business and that was called away extenuating circumstances so first on our list we have the student spotlight for huckleberry Hill dr. booth they have principal Irish I know from huckleberry he'll come to the mic and get ready to present the student spotlight on the Socktober work that they did [Music] so my initial reaction was alright I'm good evening we are so proud of our third graders this year they have organized and participated in a fantastic community service project and we are so happy to tell you all about it
002the idea for this project started back in August at convocation while we were listening to dr. Maria Alcock dr. Alcock spoke about connecting students to their community she spoke about connecting the learning that was happening inside our classrooms to what was going on outside our classrooms and this idea really resonated with us a few weeks later while while planning for our social studies community unit we revisited the idea and talked about how we could use the social studies community unit to do just that connect our students to their community that's when we stumbled upon a community service project called Socktober Socktober was mostly made popular by kid presidents YouTube videos kid president talks to kids teachers and families about how to be awesome he encouraged people across the country to join together during the month
003of October to donate socks to homeless shelters and community members in need he calls the project's October in October and we are now going to show you that short clip that inspired us I don't think the volumes connected yes technology [Music] um so hi everybody so we had some reasons about why have you wanted to talk to her but really it all started with that video that just like Heather was saying it was so important for us and it really got us focus on our own research progress in class cuz we really learned from that that it really mattered that we could donate socks to our community in there or support our community which was really the driving question in our classrooms to make sure the students understand that they can have an impact in
004the world not just their community so we wanted to find a center in our community that could distribute socks for people who need them and that's why our research really came in we said in our recent research around some questions that really helped us identify the potential scent terms that we can give our donations to and these centers were really helpful for the community we wanted to discover what that really is that they do all the times and and we wanted to see if our donations could actually help them do a better job at their job so since our purpose was to explain why they were choosing one certain center over another we also have to persuade people to continue supporting that Center in the long term do lots of other similar projects and service
005that the students Transcom brainstorm together and so two of my students are here today Jack's in Quint and they're here to share all about what that looks like in our question here our classroom so Jack Oh Thomas and Caitlin are here to tell you about our class therefore we would like to avert into math and write [Music] as you can see the news October this October news sock track project was much more than just donating socks to community members in need it really was so much more than that thank you so much we're so proud of our third graders organizers have any questions or the teachers are for the students before they step down I just want to say thank you for doing a wonderful job and helping our community thank you thank you so
006much will this be the annual event to them do you think what was your favorite part socks at the end I think for Heather myself we just really love to work with our students and I know for myself getting them to really work together and really discuss their ideas I thought that was kind of amazing just so you didn't see them like really kind of almost shove me hey did a really great job that was really great I think bringing together having something that brought together the writing the reading the math in the social studies was really meaningful to be able to use one topic across the curriculum and something that the kids need was meeting fallen hmm thank you everybody my question where did you donate them and how did you get the socks
007there in my classroom or the two classes were there and we had that students explained to her what project was and kind of how we incorporated it into all the different subjects so that was actually invited for a tour as well so out of the two classrooms you received 677 pairs of socks are what the was this good the whole school [Music] because it ties to our I am so proud of you I really am that and you did terrific work thank you [Applause] [Music] this is Chloe aware of this I have no idea what happened no I don't know what this is okay so next we're gonna wait one minute for our very students [Music] next on the agenda we have public comment we have one person signed up for public comment of Oba
008Weitzman paraeducator could you please state name and address oh I'll go Iseman three hearthstone Drive Brookfield Connecticut if I bum fur I didn't know I was reading this till I walked in para educators their patience creativity organization ability to accept and understand the differences in each of our children and their ability to motivate identify appreciate and celebrate small victories or what make them different from the rest few things are more rewarding than knowing you have made an impact on the lives of children who were struggling to reach their full potential I'm sorry your gist we have a lot of kids who are struggling two years ago I wrote this poem for Sam's life skills teachers and paraprofessionals printed it framed it and gave to them as a gift it was written from Samantha's perspective I
009hope you like it - I McDevitt you grieve me every morning with a great big smile help me out of the car even if it takes a while I am a little girl who cannot hear or speak but still you understand me week after week I have more challenges than most other people you know but you never give up on me even if my progress is slow you helped me with my daily life skills helped me to succeed teach me how to sing and play adapt it to my special needs I am strong and happy I went to giggle and tease sometimes they may even drop down on my knees you work very hard every day help me learn and grow you are patient kind and loving this I wanted you to know it takes
010a special person to be a teacher and a paraeducator like you and my mommy and daddy are grateful for everything you do Micha McDevitt and to all our parents thank you is there anyone else public comment that would like to speak okay moving on then we have those students hello everyone since I last taught me about student cyberfield I've been very busy as the new month of November comes upon us occasions already says you cyber even a lot and let us join us coming from all set up in time the you guys this is each other's face this is something everyone in school to watch the game will be played right before I think now that everyone meant for a lot of involved in community given the term disallows need and then it all for
011a great cause that's our universe while I Drive over here the American Red Cross and we're able to to donate what to do or say and a lot of these you know giving up for the winter seasons overall thank you man you it's not like you to share your your minute ecologies gonna be giving their appreciated I'm summer so I recently asked that Providence College [Applause] - to give everything response came a day to do personís one from proceeding a request for an America study and victory little glance fragment a notion that the board approve with a minute is listed below I was recommended in 1718 and thank you sir I'm sure the project last month right after to all our people on earth this is our personal message that they really provided a great
012deal of information we have a new review for me prior to the calling in this new project this is this is for almost two years and we do page which is just numbers the news full right and like you're sort of leaving a lot of communications and they know I have the pleasure working here let's do the back one of our technology make sure that that's happening for everybody so Aaron Wallis really some of the attitudes what we have a communication first thing is we need the communication of 17th the morning after we had whatever five minutes meeting we should by Jeff from a Pecha context when I say minutes we also have the ability to watch on the end the livestream all the actual meeting and these are we also share that out the
013email the best news school project River field of ps4 work where anybody can email questions comments basically these questions they're answered and I'll share with you in a minute is so in any communications regarding in the music school project our markup abilities chatter we also shared out the website with the FAQ page as well as our Facebook page that we share in communications with which kind of include a take you fastest about the project in anything related to that it's a new school project the community we need to tell which again I said as opposed to this is why I'm saying this is what I say they started it now as the teacher to facility committee when we share the work of the strategic facility community couple people in the former standard presence of Lisa's
014YouTube videos immediately videos live trainings putting information about any to the schools all of the amenities that are under this project it was a student on a fugitive still use community to their and with home team and the update is from QA from we also share presentations that may be done all the way back all the way through to that superintendent is given that the board is given and anything anything needed to project is the archive to a point where the folks that were conducted prior keep running attack on with the teachers custodians ministers that information got out a school this is all from others again this is all related to the facilities community these were done by on all shared out ministry and then anytime we can have a particle video related to project
015I've been posting in it here on find everything they knew the society sure all shared over here on our Facebook page we choose the BSU school project and then book post regularly in fact we have our most recent one poses it with a fact about the originally a road map accessible design different facts again you're just back to the Q&A you're just a post about finding an NX q a so just creation out there this is website and Facebook page able circle through my site so you can go to work revealed OPM org I'm gonna be the Board of Education we are project for us doesn't rate because that website through there you can like like look follow along and uh this is we or these we are too many sources as a communication and
016it we didn't have any questions email so the departments and preparing getting prepared for that it was all use and we make sure our this was health three years the their parent frankly and or the presentation here with and very positive open and really impress with far really bored helping whining really [Music] we and we get an immediate weekend and then everybody one of those those clocks I think yesterday we had our day this incredibly high schools giving feedback to your team Fitzgerald thankful that the and then the next one is high school 12 some members were made the building plans are really happening individual for the agriculture high school at that time Brookfield like the neighboring districts here because of location had agreed to be a part of sending students to ship hog we
017continue to look into that in 2016 on when I was on board I was working with the board and we continued there was an updated resolution to make that agreement so we engaged in that the high school was sapote we were supposed to send kids for this fall but that part of Chef hog high school is not ready so our students went to Gnana as they typically do and it will be the school will be ready for fall of nineteen so next year's students can go there so our current eighth graders who are interested in agra agra science for high school will go to ship hog the students who are at an analogue right now our grandfather and we'll be able to stay at not a walk so just it's important for the board to
018know that i want to make sure that got out in public for everybody there is the tuition will remain the same but one thing that's that is going to you'll see in the budget on the December 5th and Ken is working on this is while we're still transporting students to not a walk and we share transportation with New Fairfield now we you may remember we say we achieved a lot of savings last spring with that and making that arrangement now we're also going to be sending some students to Shafak so that's gonna increase our transportation there a little bit and we're analyzing exactly what that might cost and we'll bring that to you next month and then the final part of my report excuse the length is our very lengthy almost 200 page state security
019plan which is called the All Hazards plan is due this first week of November and so then Caldwell has really been the spearhead on that and he's going around chasing down a few signatures police chiefs signature fire chief's signature First Selectman and like so we're getting those together and hopefully by the end of the week that's submitted to the state and that is all I have is there any questions well the students that are attending manaoag have the option of ship hog or not a lager will they stay my understanding and my understanding is is probably 98.5 percent on this one that the students who are in analog now while their grandfather's to stay there there isn't a choice they need to stay at not a walk and though who are in eighth grade now
020moving on to ship hog there is not a choice they have to go to ship hawk that's the way it's the the agriscience system pressing that out through the state resolution thank you okay thank you moving on we have subcommittee reports we can start with Kate okay so the Cape committee met on October 16th and one of the main items that we discussed was a pilot for a new text that would be used in grade 9 science and this would be for Earth and space science and it's exciting part about it is first that it would be of no cost to us which is exciting but the really important part is that it provides text but it also is going to provide a lot of materials for teachers to help them develop their curriculum and
021lessons within the classroom and mark Blanda presented to us and really shared the fact that there really the need for sort of resources and activities for the teachers to help fully develop that curriculum that this text would supply a lot of that so we were excited by the idea that we could use that for one year at no cost and then evaluate it and decide if that would be an appropriate text going forward dr. Ruby and mrs. Farias also updated us on all the curriculum writing that's been going on that a lot of teachers have been collaborating on the curriculum in all of the buildings a lot of work went on over the summer as well and there's a process in which that curriculum is submitted to missus various and to dr. Ruby and then
022dr. Alcott continues her work with that group it sounds like part of that was done just yesterday correct which sounds great and then dr. Ruby also updated us the work that the district is doing in terms of standards aligned assessment and really it's kind of part of the deep work that the district is doing to guarantee that our curriculum is aligned to assess to standards and then we're also assessing clearly those standards and really the next step from that would be how do we grade according to those standards as well and then what might the reporting look like and so this is we're in the initial phase of this work where we're really aligning standards for the k2 for literacy and math and that's kind of our first step but I think as that work
023progresses it would move up through the middle school and eventually the high school so that's a lot of important work but it takes time to do it correctly and then lastly dr. Ruby reported on a project she is working on with her yell yell fellowship and change making in social-emotional learning and she's reached out to local community preschools and she's going to provide them professional learning opportunities which was that was that just yesterday that was just yesterday introduced them to the ruler program so it's a great wait for our kids in preschool in the different preschools including our own to be prepared for that social-emotional learning as they enter into our district so I add to that it was a full house in the curriculum room at TSO because the we had teachers from Prince
024of Peace st. Joe's and Christian Life Academy and I think they had to end our own school of course and we invited each of the teams from the four schools to also bring parents so we had 34 people yesterday for PD and they were it was great because I think that we have strength in numbers if we if we're all working with preschoolers and they're the majority of those children that are in free schools that are not our setting are going to come to us and so to really set the foundation and help the schools not only implement social-emotional learning strategies to build children's skills and teacher skills in preschool but also have that filter up through their their grades so it was it was really good day and just hope you folks know we
025regularly invite the private schools to our PD some of the stuff that we do that's grant funded it's a illegal requirement but we invite them to come to whatever PD we're providing as long as there is a limitation if it's an outside provider on the number of people that come and that's it for the cape committee any questions for Joe moving on we have policy communications and there's two meetings associated that Rosen yeah yeah so our first meeting was on October 17th and we really are continuing our work with the 3000 series a couple other policies again if there's if there's any policies that sort of need immediate sort of attention to the word we sort of prioritize those first so dr. Benoit one of those policies through which was student assignment to classes for
026students that have been home school or that are coming from another district the committee had a couple of questions on that particular policy as well as another policy from the 3000 series sex offenders on school property which we currently we asked our legal counsel a couple of questions in terms of both of those policies they're coming through to firfer Street tonight so I can come in a little bit more on those later the rest of the 3000's there are I think six of them well there's three of them including the other two so there's gonna be six that are coming through for a first read tonight and then we took a deeper dive into the the rest of the and the special meeting was again to come back to those legal questions that we had
027regarding the sex offenders policy as well as the student assignment of classes so that work is ongoing in terms of communication we finalized the brochure actually we finalized it sort of at our retreat but that looks good and I think that'll be available community-wide there's some there if anybody wants to pick it up anything that I missed during the report we got the electronic communication that's out there on social media I got that piece out there no can't think of anything sure sure looks great yeah yeah a lot of work and Lisa was very happy when I stopped making Corrections at about 4 o'clock yesterday yes thank you Lisa thank you the only other subcommittee was the security task force which met on October 18th and really we kind of just went through two main
028things we we discussed a availability of grants for things that might happen there is a school Connecticut school security grant that's out there but really doesn't fund physicians or people that fund specific projects it's a competitive grant it's not a not a guarantee and we have to actually approve and expend the capital before we can even apply for the grant but we're looking out there for everything we can do as far as that that we anything we can fund via grants we're trying to shake every tree we can there otherwise I last time that based on all of the interviewing and discussions we had with administrators we identified some themes of areas that we thought might need addressing as far security during this meeting we took those and tried to formulate Alma's prioritized what we
029thought we needed what we thought didn't where we thought we were okay and where we needed to improve and then from there decided what might be built into the budget coming up for next year so we will see some of those recommendations yes December's presentation said unless there's any questions all right next we have the consent agenda recommend a motion that the board approved the items on the consent agenda is recommended new hires and resignations retirements any questions just like to congratulate the high school for hiring a world language teacher that was quite a struggle we know that in special education world language and some other areas are shortage areas and we were able to do that and we continued to look in a couple of other areas and have some pending interviews and we're
030really excited about opportunities there and then I just like to wish both Rachel okati and Bonnie Vogel a longtime teachers for us they are moving on and we're just really pleased with their performance and and their impact on the community over the last gosh looks like about 15 years each so we're really we're gonna miss them we're happy for them and wish them well 22 years of service in Brookfield all right any other discussion all in favor aye proposed right new business we have a class size report the way it's presented is the same way we presented it in the past couple years by school giving in the general education classes audience Center within we don't have any under or over the guidelines we have class size guidelines and 85% are within class ID guidelines
031and then four of the twenty six classes at the school are above the class guidelines which goes from 19 to 21 students and four classes have 22 students and the breakdown for each grade level is provided for you whisking here you can see the way we've presented it we have the guidelines up at the top for different guidelines we're fifth and sixth grade and seventh and eighth grade we have broken down by grades how many of the sections are above the recommended class size guidelines and then Dean and his team prepared more detailed information which you can see on the bottom of that second page of the report on to the third page he's without the sections all of the different content area domains eh all of the courses that we have in their bands
032physical education and health education and then the final page of the whisky near section has a chart where you can see exactly where detailed look at how many students in each grade are in the sections and what the percentage and percentage and sections that are above the target and this is giving you a historical look from 16 17 17 18 18 19 so you can see how things have trended over the past three years and of course Dean is available if you have any questions about wizkid here any questions following a sheet has the 453 and then the cork or and world language how many sections and this is once again looking at the data historically over the previous two years and the current year social studies in there's a lot of data there and
033sorry any time to have a look at it I mean we can always take questions by email right Dean seventh grade is the current seventh grade is the bubble class was that sort of always a bubble class since like just looks like in 1617 but it wasn't as dean that happen to be a big move in this summer - I think it was that was happen to be our big class and more kids moved into that grade level as well so there's water and then we certainly could get time to go through this in more detail they have questions we're happy to answer and then the final report is the report from the high school where the number of sections we have 57 sections of English 51 of math 55 a social studies 58 a
034science and then 32 a World Language and moving on down through the data is also are also presented there for career business are in music and mr. Blandon provided a chart on the second page of that report where you can see the historical data current year in the previous three years with the number of the change whether we went up and down in the number of sections so you can see just looking at the data particularly from the middle school in the high school I mean this is like takes a lot of management on the part of our administrators and those two schools to make sure that they're working with their guidance Department on creating classes to try to make things equitable that changes from here to here question with the business classes is it
035just that we have more students now taking the business class yeah it's really business classes because we have personal finance as a an actual requirement for goods to take that's why our numbers are higher okay and social studies is also higher on that end just so you know because what ends up happening is well we have the same number of teachers we have ten teachers you know senior year students sometimes have to double up and so it's the only course they have to do that because they need that semester of civics so often times kids will double up in let's say they'll take their senior year they might take ap psychology which is a full year plus they'll take another section of them to take American government so to do that so that's where the
036numbers are higher because often time kids seniors take two classes when they're seniors so that's why that number is higher than other sections because we just have to put more kids in it what I'm sorry I should have kept you up there exercise with them with some of these classes like math and social studies of language when you're pushing twenty nine thirty how many I mean you have how many are above but how many normally how many do we have of that class size approximately do you know I don't have that right with me I can whip that up thank you do we think that any of the class size information would have budget implications that we that would reveal that we need additional staff in any of the subject matters or we're meeting with
037Mr bland tomorrow so we'll find out a lot it for me sees that the numbers are any budget implications for that as far as we talked about the one we met today we talked about doing some creative things to you know utilize human resources in different ways to take care of some needs that we have particularly in providing remedial reading services we didn't have any requests for there's there's always gonna be some classes that are and if it's a Bob good one student we still call that above this wings to be on the guy yes Lina I to my recollection gene we don't have any classes where we have like five and six students above the guidelines in the class not in a court class not in a core class a court class yeah you
038know where those be some of the ones where we may have a paraprofessional scheduled or co-teaching going on special ed teachers that kind of thing once you come up team get that answer I don't have the numbers in front of me but I think I want to say I know our advanced math class and a couple the upper grades my feels the higher and there may be there may be a science class or two that's a little bit higher also and if you could think of it it's with certain schedules with with the way it is only is able to be a core three for an advanced math class so then that obviously it falls out in other places where you have to have a student in another class like if it's a French class
039we only have one French class for seventh grade or eighth grade so that's they're stuck to that so it only leaves these a couple up a couple other spots that are open so but it's not anything they're giving constraints where you see that it wouldn't warrant another teacher ya know so you know you have to look at the whole picture you wouldn't have a higher a whole new teacher because schedules required them to that they only fit into these classes so where one is at 28 on that team that court may if someone else is a 22 but it's a different subject again you know so it doesn't it wouldn't more a new teacher or another teacher for those the class size is when you look at all four schools it's a little it's not
040a little it's a lot different when you're looking at the class size of children in k or where as a self-contained classroom as opposed to in the middle school in high school where you're gonna see one class or two classes where you're you know three four maybe five students above the guidelines but that's not going to change your staffing on all of these where the numbers say target is that the target that's within the range or is this above the maximum of the range that we are aiming to be in at the target it's the tar so we're still with the number range but above target correct okay yeah within the guidelines yeah thanks T good you have like specific questions and email us except at the high school where we say when they're above
041the guidelines then we're actually above the guy then you're above the guy that's oh yeah yeah I'm getting the terminology straight yeah any other questions at this time okay that will move on to the eol by grade report okay and we're gonna invite Kevin to come up because she really has her finger on the pulse of everything that's going on and provided us with these data here we go so I'm chemin halle department chair for world languages and English language learners and I'm here to bring a little color to this black and white document a little context right so here as you'll see I did a comparison of our al population from year 1718 to 1819 and with regards to total elves in the district we had 98 as of October 2017 and October 2018
042now we have 111 which is about an 11 percent growth I know I received questions as to you know what are the factors that are impacting this growth and luckily I've been in meetings with many parents many families of potential al students where I'm able to ask that question and from the qualitative data that I've collected a number one reason and I think I'll be pretty pleased about this is that we're gaining a reputation for being one of the best districts around here in terms of providing individualized instruction to our students so parents hear this great news and they want that service for their child so they're coming from surrounding districts to our district for that reason also they have families that live within the district that encourage them to come they want to live
043near their families there's also job opportunities housing opportunities last year we also had students that were unfortunately displaced from the Hurricanes in Puerto Rico that we have them in our district so these reasons overall are not any different than from any person that would want to move to Brookfield also we're fortunate enough to have pretty comprehensive Yale team with our k12 TESOL teacher and our ell tutors currently we have two which we're gonna grow to three Yale tutors so we're able to more quickly identify else don't panic we're getting another PL tutor because we got our title three grant which is to support else and after talking to Kevin about the needs in the district it's not a lot of money we get a little over $12,000 but when we looked at our needs and
044where we could better support students we decided to write that grant and it was just approved earlier this week to hire an additional part time tutor so now this will be our third leatherhead to their board approved so it's just in why anybody say oh wait am i know where you got it wrong I'm just really excited about that so now if we take a look at person the data per school at center school in October 2017 we had 26 students where now we have 24 identified ELL students and if you take a look at the languages there's a difference there particularly because there's a difference in the demographics of the incoming kindergarten class this year so that's where that language increase came from at huckleberry we increased by 8 students and we decreased by
0454 languages at Wizkid ear increased by 3 students increased by 3 languages and at the high school we increased by 4 students and decreased by 1 language so now we're at total languages spoken at 22 so that's a one language decrease from last year that's where we are in addition I wanted to share some data so as part of the next-generation accountability report which if those of you who might not know what it is it's pretty much a set of indicators that tell a story of a school of how well a school is preparing school students for college career and life so it you know it's actually quite refreshing that the state of Connecticut is now adding less links data lost links is the Connecticut summative assessment the testing window is January to the first
046week of March here at Brookfield in in the wintertime we gave it at the end of January and we concluded at mid-february that's through collaboration with building administration we want to make sure that you know we're not interfering with of their testing and we're preparing our students well to ensure the best results so it's pretty refreshing that this is these results are going to be part of the next generation accountability report for our district and pretty much it's not being included in the 1718 data because the state recognizes that there is a shift in data which we will see because k2 students went from a paper-based model to a computer-based model which caused a dip in some scores so of course districts were like hey it's not fair so but we're gonna see the results
047anyway so pretty much what I did is I went on that site and I took a look at you know not only our district but the state of Connecticut derby districts and districts with the same amount of students the the same amount of the cohort that was tracked so pretty much what the state of Connecticut needs is at least 20 students in order to track this cohort and we had students our data is from huckleberry and whisk in year and as you can see because you know the demographics change sometimes they're else with our ELLs is somewhat of a revolving door with families moving in and out of the district so the fact that we had 68 students where we could track their data was pretty pretty good so if we take a look at
048the last links participation mastery trend just some highlights compared to the state of Connecticut surrounding districts and like I said Derby districts districts with a comparable number of cohorts we had a ninety nine participation rate the state of Connecticut had a ninety six point eight participation rate only three districts had higher rates than us Southington Bethel and Danbury but they also have their district cohort number was totally different than ours we ranked fourth highest in the percentage achieving mastery however our participation rate was higher than the top three districts so Brookfield had a higher participation rate than Glastonbury Avon and Cromwell so that being said and if you take a look at our students at mastery 18.3% compared to the state of Connecticut at nine point nine percent we were pretty pleased with those results
049next the state also broke the data down to literacy and oral growth reports so to put this in context the last links measures English language proficiency skills among the four skills which are speaking listening reading and writing so the literacy score is an average of reading and writing and the oral of speaking and listening so in terms of literacy when we compare ourselves to the state of Connecticut and similar school districts we had the highest growth rate and the highest average of target achieved for literacy growth so we were pretty pleased with those results in terms of the oral growth report compared to the state of Connecticut and surrounding districts Derby districts we had the sixth highest growth rate and highest average percentage of target achieved but if you take a look at the state
050of Connecticut according to and you compare it to us the state of Connecticut has a thirty four point two percent growth rate and aural growth and we had a forty three point three growth rate and so we're pretty excited about those results and overall I want to just remind everyone that the oral scores were affected by the transition from the computer-based English language proficiency testing so that's why speaking and listening scores and particularly went down with the last Lynx achievement so in order for students to exit the Yale program they have to have a four or five because you could get a level one two three four or five in each of those skills they need to have a four-hour five and reading writing and overall so if you take a look at reading Brookfield
051was the second highest and even though Glastonbury was higher had a lower rate of participation for writing we were also the second highest same thing Avon was a bit higher but a lower participation rate and overall Brookfield was the fourth highest and the three other schools had the three districts I should say had lower participation rates and once again compared to the state of Connecticut for reading we were at forty three point three percent whereas the state of Connecticut was at twenty point seven for writing 31.7% where the state of Connecticut was in nineteen point three and then for overall we were at thirty three point seven percent whereas the state of Connecticut was an 18 point two so that was pretty impressive for us so given this data I put together this action plan
052where I'm analyzing this data with principles and I was fortunate enough to analyze this data at the end of last school year which led to very careful placement of our else in the classroom so one of our weaknesses was that we had our ell population spread out amongst all the classrooms so we were fortunate enough to also sit down with dr. so Paula the principals and we talked about very careful placement of not only our ell students but our special education students so that was amazing we as an assault team were working to have a greater presence at each data team meeting as well as in our survey work and at ppts I was fortunate enough today to be part of two PB T's where we had translation services we made sure that the IEP
053s were aligned to the kelp standards so we're making sure that we're providing rigor to all of our Els regardless of their background like I said we're working with special education staff to align the IEP goals to the kelp standards we have the new is all team members k12 TESOL teacher and the soon-to-be 3l tutors we had a great PD day yesterday where we also analyzed this data and talked about our action plan how we're helping our students in the classroom we have a digital portfolio system where each pretty much each teacher each every staff member that works with each of our ell students has access to a digital portfolio system with this last links data with the appropriate linguistic supports for the students so and we also have this paper-based so we differentiate for
054our teachers just like we differentiate for our students we have an L progress monitoring system but I was fortunate enough to develop with the co-writer Margaret Stephens of the kelp standards because now that we have these anticipated growth targets for literacy and oral opponents on the lost links we want to make sure that we're monitoring their progress towards this growth target which we didn't have last year so that's the line to the kelp standards the Connecticut English language proficiency standards we're also making sure that the linguistic supports are tailored to each student's experience cultural and linguistic background and they're aligned to the cub standards it's very important we encourage you know we're a district that values by literacy so we encourage student learning not only in English but also in their first language and that
055really goes for all students not just seals particularly with the adoption I'll put a little plug in of the seal of bio literacy and then we have PD ongoing PD for our bps staff I'm working with each building principal to not just bring PD in terms of oh it's just an al you know aniele matter we're really working with case studies so for example if we bring PD on differentiation on chaired one instruction we have case studies we're planning to have case studies for special ed students what does it look like for a special ed student what does it look like for an ell student so we're really excited to integrate al PD in that way to make it really palpable for teachers practical for them so they don't see it as this is just
056another thing no this is just a natural way of teaching and best practice and last but not least we're strengthening our bonds with family and community members through outreach I know I'm working with principal diamond to bring a coffee with the principal and I'm gonna be working with the rest of the building leaders to provide these opportunities as well it's important to support our students not only inside the school but also outside of the school so really excited thank you thank you so you can see that since the past three years we've really like exponentially improved the services for English language learners and it's not to say that we you know if we had a wish list we wouldn't want to have another full-time certified TESOL teacher but I think that the decision that was
057made by the board last year when we had to make tough decisions to go with the two tutors instead of the full teacher has you know worked out very well and we have the data to prove it I can't you know this was just supposed to be you know the Elle report how many what languages but when I sat with Kevin and we had just gotten she's gotten all the data back and it just seemed like it was something that we've talked about so much as we've developed the program over the past three years that it was really worth having her take the time to share all this with you because it's all good news and we like good news so thank you so much thanks Kevin quema would it be possible to for the
058board to get a copy of the presentation just so we have the scores on there as well that'd be great thanks any other questions forgiven okay then we have the homeschool report so the home schools report just to be transparent it's the data that are presented in the homeschool report are data that represent our best efforts to produce a report parents are not obligated to respond to our inquiries and for new board members if you don't know you should know that the plans of study that are presented to us by parents are not something that we approve they basically just you know provide us with what they're doing some folks are involved in home-school networks where they're there's like a consortium of people that are working with an organization or a company but we don't
059have jurisdiction over what it is that is provided to home schoolers so what we do is we provide letters to we send out letters to the folks that we know or we think are homeschooling their children based on information that we have in our records and it's we send them a notice of intent for homeschooling form and that goes out annually and we request that they fill this form out return it to us and that wit has it's a suggested procedure we can't force people to do it so what we have is what I call currently available data which is I would not call the most reliable data but it's the data that we have so we have 13 students that are being homeschooled in our district according to the records that we have and
060they are identified as coming from eight field families and of these 13 students for whom we have information 10 Notice of Intent forms or returns completed parents do not have to complete the forms parents of 21 students that we sent out notices to did not respond to the notices and for three of the students parents did refute did respond but refused to complete the form so that all sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo it's very hard to keep track of to be honest with you so there is from the people who did complete an intent form we have the following data by grade level and so you can see the number of students that the 13 students that we have you know what rates their parents have placed them in we have information regarding to
061students being homeschooled but the parents did not provide us with grade levels so that's the honey school report I can tell you impressed you know please wait please let us know you know if you have your home schooling your child there's a form that they fill out for the curriculum and they they send it back in to us and then I sign it I look at it it's it's where I sign my name it says that this is not an approval it's just a basically an acknowledgement that we have it and we keep records on that and that's why the UM policy is so important because people decide to send their children back to school in high school to get a high school diploma Icicle Oklahoma actually means something and so it's very important that
062we have a policy that covers how we handle that questions to diffusion and the legal references are what covers this in our state standards are at the bottom thank dr. Ruby Carol thank you and next we have the special services caseload report everybody so I prepared a caseload report the first page as special education teachers and their caseloads so I want to point out a couple things to you about our caseloads our target for students with mild to moderate disabilities generally students with learning disabilities ADHD for mainstream from the further majority of their day is generally 1:15 so we're looking to have case so exact are around 15 our caseloads for students who are in our LC program which is our program that we have in three buildings for students with autism or other developmental
063disabilities or any other kind of specialized program is generally about one to eight last year in some of our programs we did have a larger particularly at center school we had I think 13 and our you'll see program by the end of the year so our numbers right now in that program are actually very reasonable they're below our target and it's looking very good our preschool program is quite large I want to point out to you that we've actually added two preschoolers since the last time I was up here to talk about the numbers and we have a couple registering this week so these are students who are turning 3 we're required to provide them with a free appropriate education by their third birthday so that number will increase throughout the rest of the year
064any questions about the special education targets it is typical for us to get a lot of referrals at huckleberry and it was skinnier over the course of the year generally a huckleberry is where we have the largest growth in caseloads our Brookfield high school caseload for our five teachers who are more of the resource model is quite large at this point in time first the average caseload for preschool that's for morning and afternoon so not there are not 32 students in the room so students have individualized programs based on their needs some may come twice a week some come three times a week some are here every day and so it's 32 total students this is not a breakdown of who's here Monday morning versus Tuesday afternoon so the students all have individualized schedule is
065based on their needs and we are with that probably looking at something something in the budget yes the this report really has significant budget implications yes okay any other questions about the special education teachers before we go onto the second page is there any the next page we've listed some of our related service areas I want to say that the caseloads for these really vary it's not just about the number of students it's often about the total number of hours of service so for example if you take a look at speech-language pathologists we have 61 students who have speech language services that Brookfield High School however those the number of service hours for those students is generally quite small and many of them have group service for many of them have social skills types of
066certain type of service where a group could be as large as eight to ten students and so it is is one person's job whereas at some of our elementary schools in our preschool program and for students who have significant disabilities there are a lot of service hours required so for speech-language pathologists we have a very large caseload at a center school we have two staff members they cannot carry a caseload of subhuman students so we actually do have contracted SLP services you have somebody who is supporting that has been in place for several years actually before I got here it's one of our other professional services because for about 15 to 20 hours a week because that caseload is so large we need that additional 15 to 20 hours in order to provide for the
067student IEP hours for school psychologists I've listed an extra column here for evaluations sometimes school psychologists carry they all care at counseling we have one per building we have two at whisk in here however that second is actually our the school psychologist who is consulting for our social-emotional programming so she is based out of whisking here however carries a smaller counseling case out there and is is almost on a daily basis at either huckleberry or the high school to support the social-emotional programs in those buildings and doing evaluations for those students and consultation so I point out the evaluations because that is often a very large part of a school psychologists job and if you look and see why with skinnier or they're fewer translates students on a school psychologist counseling caseload because we have
068quite a few evaluations that was skinnier so just want to point that out as an important component of understanding their true caseload social workers we do not have a social worker at centre school however our counseling caseload is is very easily managed by the one school psychologist in that building we have larger numbers of students with counseling at Brookfield high school and it was skinnier our counselors our school counselors actually provide IP and 504 counseling students for because those caseloads are so large that's an important component of their jobs I have an outlined their caseloads here because they have a very frankly important position as regular education staff members they provide developmental guidance and are pushing into classrooms and of course at the high school have a lot of other associated responsibilities but because of
069the size of our counseling caseload they almost all do i PR find for counseling for overflow student for students who don't necessarily fit on the social workers case low and then finally occupational therapy and physical therapy our occupational therapy caseloads are much more manageable this year so you do want to you know thank the board for that support last year - a Dakota which is a certified occupational therapy assistant our physical therapy case so it's actually grown by about six students this year we're still managing it with one staff member but again that's a reflection of our youngest population of students and the significance of the needs that they have you know you see the occupational therapy caseload is much more manageable but it's still pretty sturdy still large I frankly I'm not sure what
070we would have done had we not had more support we probably would have had to act with contracted services because it was so large it actually did not fit into the school week yeah I still think that's I mean 47.6 I still think that's a large number for caseload it is yeah so it's hard to have a target you know at a school like center school so let's talk about our youngest students when they have speech and language needs or occupational therapy needs generally they need some significant service hours so for example for speech and language pathologists at spener school for k1 I'd like that person to have about 20 students because that would translate into sort of a full week of of the typical hours that K or one student would have on their
071IEP whereas like I said for Brookfield high school students generally have much smaller hours but it's just sort of a different set up so for students who have significant disabilities or who are young they may have an hour a week of these types of services for students who are older they may have 15 minutes a month and it may be more of a check-in or a consultation type of model where this where the speech and language pathologist is just consulting with the teachers rather than direct service with the student for our for example psychologists and social workers we generally are looking for our target ten to twenty five students for counseling it depends on what other responsibilities that person has so it's a social worker at huckleberry is the only the County social worker in
072the school psychologists are the only counselors in the building where and they have to do a lot of things like respond to crises and help parents who just need help accessing community resource and that's not reflected here whereas there are school counselors I both whiskey and breakfast high school to support those types of things or those types of daily happenings and so they're able to to those people at the high school and middle school are able to carry a larger caseload of regular counseling I think that our arcade slits are comfortable I think the physical therapy caseload is the one that seems the most difficult to manage when we do that analysis of the hours so as the budget development process involves we talked about it at the last meeting certainly in preschool then as
073you can see by the caseload numbers that doctors Apollo's outlined the speech and language and and special ed the high school if you take a look at specialized well those are areas where we're really seriously considering staffing adjustments upward in those areas to service our students any questions thank you thanks Christine Hey moving on we have the CSTE revised recommended motion that the board approved the revised Eadie's 0 9 9 st DSC CSD a child nutrition program agreement as requested by director of business and operations can post ok so video 99 is an agreement where the Board of Education is telling the State Department of Education that we are participating in the National School Lunch Program and we will abide by all of the rules and regulations that we have doing many of the 15
074pages of this Agreement tell you what some of those are and some of the programs that don't apply to us but they've they used to be separate agreements for all of these programs and they just consolidated so we have to agree to it and then have to get the Secretary of the board to sign the document after the board of roses and the major revisions in this well it's just a bit consolidated under one agreement okay there's nothing nothing new it's really just that will agree to abide by all of their regulations we have to by law anyway forgive me for asking this question but it was talked about publicly and I just would like to have someone make it clear to our community if a family cannot afford food for their child it is
075provided and is not an item open to being cut from our budget correct food service program food service program is not any part but it does talk about in here about talking about students who are identified needing free and reduced lunch that's that's part of it can you could talk to that program that's the food is provided to them and we are reimbursed by the federal government for those meals but what the reimbursements within the food service program budget which is not part of what the taxpayers pay for right so it's nothing to do with the Board of Education we do not and we have not ever cut that from our budget correct okay thank you thanks for asking that that's a big point of clarification for folks yeah yeah it was very upsetting to
076me to hear that out loud that that information was given to our residents when it was totally inaccurate I'd never a venue not from us correct that's best correct that we've never been given that's why I'm asking to have it clarified on the television thank you any other discussions questions thank you okay moving on to the textbook pilot recommend a motion that the board approved the adoption of the HMH new earth and space science text as proposed by the Cape subcommittee and BHS principal mark Belinda thank you I guess I'll start I appreciate I believe you have some handouts one that I wish I had had that probably did a much more succinct and complete job than I did trying to explain this to the Cape committee we're excited as dr. Ruby and so many
077of us have talked before about the NGSS the implementation of the new science standards and all the challenges that go along with that we have an opportunity with HMH they've reached out to us to actually offer a free pilot for us to actually access resources the better part of a year which is exciting and because our teachers have really been looking for things there they're grasping at straws to put things together and HMA just come out with a really great product I have the teachers Edition here for anybody that wants to take a look at it but there's just so many things that you know the way NGSS is structured compared to how other textbooks and other resources we have where students are starting with phenomena and working on from there this book is set
078up that way it also organizes things so well for teachers to help them plan their lessons out accordingly to include not just the disciplinary core ideas the things the content you know the nouns and things need to know but also include skills and cross-cutting concepts with math and English language arts so they can really map out for kids where they're going and where the connections are and help them get there you know it also puts there's a lot of tools in there for students because we want to talk about self-directed learners you know certainly we have a responsibility as educators to teach our students but part of that responsibility is to help them learn to take ownership of their learning and there's resources in here throughout the digital and textbook versions that provide a lot
079of opportunities for students to take that initiative once they're coached and how they can use them I know there's some great things as far as even in a 1:1 environment something that I did not know that I just learned as part of the resource there's actually a HMH player app so that you can actually if you don't have in an online environment and a one-to-one device prom situation like we are here with all students ninth graders having Chromebooks or at least some version of a device if they brought their they can actually download the app that's on the chrome store it's on the iTunes they can actually download it and don't need to necessarily access the Internet they can actually have you know offline resources available to them as well and that's probably the nicest
080part about this there's also there's a print and an online version of this particular pilot so really what when it comes time down the road if we decide to recommend that this would be a particular product that we want to purchase you know HMHS come out and said basically we need to purchase a set of textbooks and then we can then get online resources for everyone else so we could actually move to a mostly digital environment which is fantastic given where we are here at the high school with a one-to-one and device environment so I'm really excited at the prospect that teachers are excited of the prospect of the resources that they have you know I think one of the things the teachers are also pretty excited about is you know we always talk about
081the test the endgame right and the NGSS is a brand new assessment last year was a pilot this year it's not going to be and it is a different type of test entirely and one of the things HMH is working to is continue to develop a database of performance-based assessments that are similar to what NGSS assessments will look like for kids teachers it's very hard for them to create those you know I know the doctor who's brought us through a couple and you may have seen the elementary samples and Cape but there's a lot of multiple variables that are expected of kids no longer is it select a B C or D they have to choose the variables let's say for example there's ten different variables but they can only do their a little graph
082online interactively they can only pick five so they have to be able to you know deliberate and decide okay which one makes the most sense come to the real conclusions for teachers to do that it's very difficult and this actually provides a nice resource you know for our teachers to help students better prepare for the types of assessments they're going to see when it comes now while I say well it comes to the test but the test is a good test and that it actually causes students instead of just memorizing facts they actually have the opportunity to critically analyze and come up with the best solution and their own rationale so that's why yes it's test related but it's also best practice what we want students would be critical thinkers in science and math so
083it's you know 399 so I like that price so we can start the pilot as soon as possible I mean HMH is willing to do that they could willing to start the pilot they'll give us about a year I did find out they will do on-site training as part of that thank you yeah my one that was one thing I told the Cape committee I would make sure I would find out they do provide on-site training for us if you know if we want it and of course we would to make sure to use this particular tool and it would go for about a year from the date of implementation that we would you know free of cost you know so there are some budgetary things I have to think about and planning for knowing
084that I'm meeting with the superintendent and a system done it tomorrow because that year we're looking at next November and then what I don't want to be left without a book so I'm also you know contemplating that how to best plan for that moving forward but the initial reaction from teachers and just looking at these resources they're pretty excited really colorful picture about what teachers are doing currently yes so share with the board what the teachers are doing now which is just they're compiling their own stuff I mean there was at this point there they're really operating because the curriculum has been redesigned to align with NGSS and knowing we don't have a book they're coming with things on their own they're searching internet resources they're looking out for you know looking at College websites
085and trying to pull in some things but it's it's really of the burden is on them to really go out and seek those resources rather than have something that's closed for them to access so I'm thinking about this when you know when I think about curriculum I want to think about assured experiences for all kids not like my student didn't get the same as your student because my students teacher you know is a great teacher but just doesn't have the ability to put things together Mattia should have to do that and so I think that while we are teeth obviously teaching that course that picking up the looking at the crosswalk on the alignment of where they are now and where this new text fits in you know I would think of this pilot not
086even though if they're offering it for a year not looking at it like that looking at it for like if you agree to it like from next week or you know like whenever we can get the training because you need the training first through the end of this year and then planning because you know all the reviews on this are exceptional making a plan in our budget that it's going to be like we typically do when we were piling things that it's going to be successful and that we're going to implement it next year and if it should turn out to be a disaster which is highly unlikely then we would have to be doing something anyway so you know I think that's how I look at it but that that concept of all students
087equity and having an assured experience for all our kids that it's not the luck of the draw what class you are in is important so we are voting on this hunt for the adoption of the program with the assumption that the pilot is going to be successful versus III I think that we can come back in the spring when we have data and and mr. Blanda and science teacher can provide us with an update on the success or not of the pilot and then we can make do a vote therefore you know the official adoption I think that I'm personally comfortable as I think you were mark with adopting getting the adoption of the pilot for right now and then coming back in the spring for a review but we would budget as though we
088were moving forward because we're gonna have to do something if this didn't work out the anyway unlikely that it's not gonna work I just I would I would be uncomfortable saying let's just plan for it make sure we need to build it into the budget but we probably do need to amend the motion just to approve the adoption of the pilot yes we she ate that so I will recommend a motion that the board approved the adoption of the pilot program the HMH new Earth and space science text as proposed by the keep subcommittee and BHS principal mark blameless yes yes okay any other discussion at all so we are voting on the amended motion to approve the pilot all in favor aye opposed thank you for your work on this Cape I can't mr.
089Burlando thank you dr. Ruby thank you thanks mark okay next we go into policies for firstfruits recommend a motion that the board approved the policies listed below for a first reading as recommended by the policy subcommittee Roza did you an exclusion yeah so um the first two before that you'll see on this list they're pretty straightforward so just like you know the other policies that you've gotten a chance to take a look at I think you'll have too much issue with those we didn't see any major issues in committee the last two on the list those are the ones that we had the second special policy meeting a couple of weeks ago because they had we had some questions we wanted to consult counsel with so the first one four three five one six point
090five sex offender property we currently do not have a policy on that so it's this is a really important one thing we need to put in place and we kind of went back and forth a little bit about some of the language because school the school property either very used for other purposes other than just for students including emergency shelters and things like that but really we went with the the very most conservative language in the policy and we thought that that was that was kind of best to kind of keep ourselves most protected policy five one two two student assignments subclasses that was the other one that we had a little bit of questions on a few questions regarding a possible of healed process and if we needed to have one in case a
091parent was dissatisfied with the placement that we had chosen for their student turns out that while we can put that language in the policy it is certainly not recommend herb it's not required that we have one and it probably would have had it would have had another step to the process so as it stands right now it is it's up to the discretion of administration and the principals and of course there's always an antenna but as I stand this council is taking a look at both of those they seem to be fine as their in so I think those maybe were the only questions that you might have also seen these are also cable line policies as well and so these and again to reiterate these are policies do we do not currently have so
092we're not revising or deleting the current policies that are here these are new ones okay okay and so with the first read see the second read all right Leonard right because we just have the second meeting okay and he has further discussions in those so maybe if if there is any glaring issues with these so should we say by the first week in December yeah okay when when does the winter you will meet we don't meet until before the second board man yeah so it would be the first week in December that okay any other questions all in favor I host thank you and keep you in the hot seat for old business yep oh no actually not yet oh yeah first we have new school building project again just a discussion as to where
093we're at with the school building project Eric gave us a great overview about what's happening digitally most importantly very happy to announce as I had sent to you all that the new school proposal was unanimously approved by the Board of Selectmen this past Monday and moves to the board of funds now board a Finance will start meeting to discuss and deliberate at their November 14th meeting we are provide Marsha Marian art the town business director had has put together a very detailed comprehensive financial impact regarding debt service that load what it means to the average taxpayer in different scenarios how we might be able to smooth the bump that were that we would see in tax implications for the the year or two that it would be greatest that information is going to be forwarded
094to the Board of Finance and as well as any other questions they may have and submit to us and we'll get to them so they have the most detailed informative information they can to start their discussions they're November perfect meeting other than that we have put together a fact sheet on the new school proposal that you all have had as well that we have something in hand now that we will be able to give out to people when we do start presentations and discussions so ever we'll have something in that any other additions questions it's exciting time keep moving forward okay now we cover Rosa again for the policy 3000 series recommend a motion that the board approved the following nine policies in the 3000 series for a final reading as recommended by the policy
095subcommittee first reading was on October 3rd 2018 all right so I didn't receive any questions or but it looked it looked through so so yeah again most of these policies we don't currently have [Music] in rows I haven't heard from any board members on those another thing ken has either okay okay so if there were no questions that I assume everyone was okay with what was presented at the first three correct all right so then all in favor aye opposed thank you um to the policy communications committee [Music] right now we have three main points I was thinking the yellow update scores an action plan yeah that's fantastic defined me I was thinking the science pilot and that's some great news and the other one I was thinking about is it's coming into budget season
096so budget implications you know staffing implications for the budget for the upcoming budget that might be one we want to consider do we although do we know what the staffing implications would be at this point we discussed it yeah clearly I mean it's in the areas of students with special needs whether that's in the speech area special education in preschool and you know we've talked about those publicly so yeah something making sure we're getting pretty concrete on that again we went through dr. ceballos budget on Monday so we have a pretty clear idea where we're going still have to fine-tune some numbers and consider the other budget implications as well from the schools I miss or something else I'm sorry I just wanted to put that out there as a thought okay all right great
097that was quick there Rosa won't be talking again on that to upcoming events okay so there's no school for students on Wednesday November 21st through Friday November 23rd for Thanksgiving break at Center elementary school picture retakes are on Thursday November 8th there's a PTO meeting on Tuesday November 13th from 9:30 to 10:30 at huckleberry there's a PTO meeting on Friday November 9th from 9:30 to 10:30 picture retakes are on Monday November 19th from 8:30 to 12:00 the book fair is on Friday November 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 and there's a PTO movie night on Friday November 30th from 6:30 to 9 the middle school there's a PTA meeting on Wednesday November 14th from 9:30 to 10:30 it's an early dismissal on Wednesday November 14th at 11:30 and there's parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday November 14th from
09812:15 to 2:45 it's also an early dismissal on Thursday November 15th at 11:30 11:30 for conferences as well and there's parent-teacher conferences on Thursday evening on November 15th from 6:30 to 8:30 the Harlem Wizards is on Saturday November 17th at 6:30 the rake and bake is on Saturday November 10th starting at 7:30 and at the high school also Club photos is on Tuesday November 13th from 1:30 to 3:30 I also reminded that the BEF Gala is next Friday the 16th so I tickets may have closed may not have closed check and see but if not they're gonna be closing very very soon yes thank you very much all right so then we just have an executive session recommend a motion that the board and turned to executive session for the purpose of discussing the lawsuit
099filed by former superintendent Anthony meeting thank you everyone for joining you have a great evening [Music] [Applause] [Music]