BOE Meeting 11 12 24

001uh meeting tonight because we have our students with us and that is the highlight of uh what we do as board members tonight so uh we're glad there's going to be some awards out um the other thing you're going to hear here tonight you're going to hear some reports from both me the superintendent and then you're going to hear uh another report from uh Mr Bishop our assistant superintendent who's going to share some data about our schools uh and our progress there so it's going to be a really good meeting tonight I hope you'll be able to stay through the reports and then uh Mr Moore is also going to give us a little bit of report on uh cms's uh Improvement plan how we're doing there so with that said we're going to start

002off the meeting with the uh Pledge of Allegiance it'll be led by Juliana who's going to lead us on the pledge stand and join us I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and Justice okay we start our meeting with public comment anybody that can wants to stand up and talk about anything you can come to the podium we ask you to keep your comments we ask you to keep them usually around 3 minutes you can speak on any topic we only ask that you give your name and your address so would anybody uh in the audience like to speak in public comment on the agenda or off the agenda for tonight okay thank you very much anybody online I

003do have one raised hand from Aubrey so I'm you allow Aubrey to call hi Aubrey you want to just state your name and your adders for the record please hi can you all hear me okay we can okay perfect this is Aubrey Blatchley 39 Bart Drive I apologize I wanted to be there in person but um I have kids with conflicting Sports schedules tonight um off the agenda I just wanted to thank the administration at Canton Intermediate School for a job well done on the Veterans Day celebration it was a really thoughtful celebration it was Tastefully done and it was just a really overall special event um I did write the board so I won't take up too much of your time with what I wrote I got my comments in very late in the

004day today um I apologize but there were some important and significant updates in the last week that do impact policy numbers 4021 and 5030 which are on tonight's agenda for the board um so the first issue um obviously since the board last discussed these policy changes president Trump's been elected and president Trump has indicated that he will um reverse the Title Nine changes that were written by um President Biden earlier this year um so for that reason alone I think um it's worth pressing pause on making any policy changes while we see how that plays out additionally since you guys last met um the district court in Kansas uh which you might recall had issued an injunction barring certain School barring schools from implementing the title n changes if um children within the district had

005parents who are members of some of the parties involved in that litigation and I did check the docket today and saw that Canton High School and the Canton School District are identified on the list of schools that have been enjoined by that federal court from adopting the policy changes um so I did want the board to be aware of that before they consider it night um and it does raise some other questions that I had previously raised about um what the board can do to check the to make sure there aren't any other schools that are enjoined I know this list is periodically updated so it's not an exhaustive list um and how this plays out overall in terms of if the board adopts a policy is going to have different policies at different schools

006and what liability if any does that expose our district to if we have different policies at different schools so for example students or staff at one school could be subject to discipline for something that they would not be subject to discipline for at a different School in our district and then also in the last week um I'm sure you saw that the United States district court in Connecticut issued an opinion in the Su lawsuit which we are involved in denying the motion to dismiss the title 9 discrimination claim brought against our school district and others um and I just it's a lengthy opinion I wanted to make sure the board had it and took time to read it um I do understand that the board's position may be that it is a different iteration of

007Title 9 than involved with these policy changes but I think both this lawsuit and the policy changes that are being considered all touch upon title n they all involve Title 9 at the heart and um I I wanted the board to be aware of it and consider it and the implications before it acted on these policies um and lastly I just I appreciate that these are all complex issues so again um I didn't mean to send a late email but I know there were a lot of developments in the last week that touch on the policies you're considering tonight thank you thanks thank you Aubrey thank you for your comments we appreciate you anything else online for public comment I do not have any other hands okay hearing no others I'll close public comment and

008we'll move right to um administrative reports so Chairman's report so tonight I just want to acknowledge some things mostly in my report I want to acknowledge the PTO for the uh the work that they do in helping enrich and enhance the things that uh go on in our school system uh in particular I want to mention uh their Fright Night on 10:25 I think that was a success I think Mr Sol and had problem one of the best displays that she usually does but it was uh it was a wonderful uh event and thank you P second thing is uh on 116 the Board of Education met at Canton middle school for a continuous Improvement Plan update and you'll be hearing more about that today for the rest of the board that could make it

009but I I want to uh make the point to the board of how important CIP meetings are because it's there and I've often said that while the board does not run the school system we do make sure the school system is run well and that's our opportunity to make sure that everything is being run well I thought Mr Mo did a wonderful job we're going to hear more about that later some very uh good things uh I know but U I just want to acknowledge how well that went uh F uh another uh piece I wanted to um mention how well the building principles communicate with the public every week uh Cherry primary school with the at CIS with the star guide CMS with the scene and CHS with the newsletter right there everybody in

010the community is getting all the information they need that the principls and some of their administrative staff take the time to put together that report and I think it has a lot of great information so if you're not reading it and the board should be but everybody in the community I think uh the principles do such a great job being transparent and giving us that information I also want to mention uh what a great job the uh the high school did with uh big rock on Candy Mountain that was a hysterical play it was well done please pass on the board's compliments on that if you had a chance to make it uh I was there Friday night and it was packed um and really the the students did a wonderful job so I want

011to uh make sure that we uh we get that message out to them uh finally uh or second finally um I want to acknowledge a wonderful event that we had on Veterans Day those ceremonies at Cherrybrook at C uh CIS at CMS and at CHS all four schools took the time to really honor our vets as we should a while back when I first came on the board of Selectmen I mean on the first uh on the board of education Veterans Day was a day off and what we missed during Veterans Day is the opportunity to teach our children about what our vets had done for them and now we have this very moving ceremony at all four schools that uh are impressive and they are inspiring and they are moving for our children to

012see and be with our vets to have breakfast with them and to talk to them and to interview them so I just want to say what a wonderful job our schools did in doing that and um I want to thank them for the attention and the detail that went in into it um I was able to attend two of the ceremonies uh at at CMS and at uh CIS and it was just wonderful and um really moving and I think all the parents and vets and grandparents that attended uh walked away with the same feeling it's really a special day uh as far as the board chair goes I wanted to mention I will be a cave this weekend I'm a delegate on Thursday uh I'll be at the meeting on Friday and Saturday along

013with our superintendent and we've been selected to uh do a uh presentation on school safety uh we'll be there with our chief of police and our head of security uh uh school security Sean Cole and uh I'm I'm looking forward to that finally two dates I want to mention to the board uh there is a board of Finance meeting on Monday 11:18 uh and that is at 6:30 are they at 7:00 and there will be a meeting of CIP for our first capital Improvement uh meeting which uh Mr Bush is part of that with myself and that will be on Tuesday at 10 a.m. uh in the uh third floor uh conference room at Town Hall so that is the excuse me that is the uh chair's report I'll move now to the superintendent schools

014super thank you Mr Daniels good evening everyone it's great to see everyone here welcome to Mr Moore and our outstanding Kent Middle School students we're very excited to honor you for your accomplishments last spring this summer and and this fall as Mr Dango said I had the opportunity with members of my team to attend all the Veterans Day ceremonies at the schools yesterday and as Mr Daniel said we had at least 25 vets at the the middle school over 40 at the Cher Brook Primary School in CIS the high school does a little bit different of a program where they do interviews with veterans so it's more personal to them but just to see some veterans that have been coming to our schools when we used to have the Veterans Day breakfast for over 20

015years and feel a part of our community is something really special um also want to congratulate the Big Rock Candy Mountain very enjoyable uh production and I had the pleasure of going on Thursday evening and one of our students that was here that was honored in the fall had one of the leads in the play and it was as good as he was here was even better the the other night um so congratulations to director Miss uh Mrs Michelle Taylor also had the opportunity last week to go to The Bushel with Mr Amry and our Teacher of the Year Kelly Thal who was honored as the Kon Public Schools teacher of the year but as we shared with the community and with the board she was also named a semifinalist for Canton up for State

016teacher the year which is a tremendous Honor on Wednesday November 6th the National Honor Society inducted 22 members and I wasn't able to attend because I was at the bush but I believe our own Maggie Bishop was selected and Lucas was selected into uh the National Honors Society so congratulations to our student two student board members for being selected just a reminder to the community that we are starting conferences this week for the Middle School High School is this week because the first quarter ended our elementary K through6 will be in December in align with the end of the trimester for elementary schools many exciting events coming up next week on uh Tuesday night we have our Kon High School instrumental concert on November 25th we have our kanton High School Coral concert so those

017are two exciting events that begin our our concert season we have a curriculum committee meeting on November 27th I believe at 9:00 a.m. districtwide early release 27th of November and then the holiday recess on 28 and 29 of November and our next regular scheduled uh special meeting for the Board of Education will be Tuesday December 10th I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent no Russell good okay thank you very much for that report Mr Bishop assistant superintendent report and I'll step up to the podium I I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak with the board tonight to be able to share this information on behalf of the on behalf of the district but I would also say to to the community and to

018the students uh this is going to be a celebration of a lot of your hard work too uh the excellent work that you've done but also to our our caregiv our partners on on all you've done to be able to partner with us as well so I'm thrilled to be able to share with you all what we refer to as the uh District performance index and school performance index it's essentially the uh the report card that the state provides schools we received that just this past week and I wanted to be sure to be able to provide you with an update on the uh operations of our school so this is referred to as the Connecticut Next Generation accountability system for districts and schools it takes 12 different components to be able to put together

019a perspective on each individual School and then together all of a school district uh the state has worked really hard to be able to develop this system A system that understands that a student is more than a test score and a school or district is more than just the average of those scores it focuses on a broader set of indicators that will guard against narrowing the curriculum to just what's tested and it makes more local practitioners see their contributions reflected in the accountability system uh so we're really excited to be able to share the growth that we've seen over time with this it's important for you to be able to know the 12 indicators and here you can go through all 12 quickly here uh academic achievement is absolutely one of them uh but I'll

020tell you that academic growth uh that is one that is uh doubly value so one of the things that the state is doing a great job with is is valuing the fact that every kid whether they're at proficiency or not yet that they are continuing to be able to grow and gives uh gives credit for that uh additionally it looks at a assessment participation rate chronic absenteeism it's important to be able to have students in school postsecondary preparation and Readiness and then graduation on track in nth grade graduation for a four-year adjusted cohort and graduation for a six-year adjusted cohort and then the postsecondary entrance rate physical fitness and arts access so it's a very comprehensive if you look at this it's a very comprehensive report that provides a profile of an individual District you

021take a look at this there's a lot of data here and I'll try to be able to simplify it for you and I want you to pay attention to the colors the colors are green a lot of green across the board if you look at a number of the different elements there you'll see you'll see double digit growth that we see and we're incredibly proud of that that's incredibly hard work that our administrative team has has engaged in that's incredibly hard work that our our staff have engaged in that's hard work that our students have been a part of and our parents and Guardians as well we see tremendous growth in the area of chronic absenteeism particularly our high need students High need students are those who have an IEP low maybe low socioeconomic status

022or limited English proficiency or multilanguage learner uh so absenteeism was a great growth for us additionally we're very proud to be one of the districts with the highest growth in uh math uh math growth overall with an 8.2 and a 19.3 so these come together to be able to develop our uh school performance index on the very bottom there you'll see where we've trapped over time with the 75.3 the 74.7 and representing last year the 2324 school year can't comes out with an 81.6 so tremendous growth U over 10% growth um for us to be able to move from last year into this year I'll move on to the next with another colorful chart for you the chart showcases a comparison of Canton to what we refer to as demographic reference groups now the demographic

023reference group uh takes the size and the uh the relative means of an area district and groups them with similar others now the state has starts to move away from that but the state uh the Connecticut state finance project still does work with that to be able to find where districts are are matching with each other uh we had been uh up through last year in dur GRC uh and uh this last year we moved into drg durg B so what I want you to be able to see there is as you look uh dur B from 22 to 23 was 79.2 to 81.48% but if you look at us now at 81.6 we are outpacing the average of our demographic reference group in dur B we're outpacing the average in dur C we are

024outpacing our area average and far out pacing the state Mr Bishop could you just for the group because they can't see the small type who are the schools in dir B who are we competing against oh great question dirby includes Canton or I'm sorry a yes Canton Avon Brookfield chesher Fairfield Farmington Glastonberry Greenwich Guilford Monroe Oxford reading Regional District 5 regional district 15 Rocky Hill Simsbury South Windsor Trumble West Hartford and Woodbridge so a strong group that we are a part of there and thrilled to be able to see that we are outperforming the average there uh it's important to be able to know for us as well um we're in the middle we're ranking in the middle of the dir average for us but outrank uh outrank the overall dir B uh average compared

025to dur SE canton's p d Canton far out sees the dur and just for everyone to be able to know had we continued to be in that group Canton actually would have been the top scoring District by DPI in Dury had we remained in there so it it's great to be able to see that that growth for us looking at individual schools then Mr Bishop can I I'm sorry to interrupt you but why did we move from uh seated be what what's the criteria great great question with that um the Connecticut State School Finance project looks at area means so wealth within the area uh wealth per capita means within a district and they take similarly abled districts to be able to lump them together with those demographics to to make a determination so C

026had been in dur uh dur C and now had moved actually up to dur V thank you y thank you for the clarifying opportunity there so a couple things from from the school perspective with this Canton High School outpaces area school performance indexes the average area school performance index and it outpaces the average dur performance index so when we look at our area for high schools and our demographic reference group our high school is outpacing those average scores and middle school I'm so glad that you're here Ken Middle School improves 10.9 points they outpace the area average for middle schools for the school performance index they outpaced the dur average for school performance index and I'm incredibly proud to say that Canton Middle School is now the top scoring Middle School in the Farmington [Applause]

027B the story does not stop there Intermediate School improved 11.4 points showing greatr and at our foundation Cherry Brook primary school has been named a school of Distinction by the state of Connecticut as a school of great [Applause] growth and Canton we continue to work in each school to cultivate the growth of each and every student one student at a time we are proud of our growth from the past year we're grateful for Dr Grossman's leadership and the support of our Board of Education we're happy to celebrate this one mark in our journey and are excited about all the work that we know is still yet to come we know we will continue to work diligently in support of all of Canton students but we thank you for your support and look forward to celebrating

028the great things that are ahead for us here in C I'll take any questions out of my office questions for Mr Bishop any comments so I'll say on behalf of the board I think uh this illustrates that we are on the right track uh as a district in each one of our schools great leadership by the administration and our principles uh and at the end of the day um the town makes an investment in us with their budgets year after year and it's our job to provide a return on investment and I think this clearly shows that the budgets that we've had approved and the money that the town has provided to our school district has had an impact and I My Hope Is that as we go through the next few budget cycles that

029we continue with this kind of trajectory going forward because it's really uh those Investments are indicative of the progress that we're making and um as as a board of education I have to tell you how pleased we are with those grades and I know one year does not make a district but we're going to Revel in this year and we're going to be we're going to celebrate because we are firing off on all Cinders so thank you for that report and we're still hungry thank Youk [Applause] good so no no celebration no balloons no uh no no cookies we still have work to do okay all right let's uh let's move along all right uh student representative so glad you're here um I know Maggie I'm looking at you and I'm thinking about field hockey

030and how close we came but uh anyways who'd like to start with the student reports tonight I can start it off um I'll be reporting on CIS so I had the opportunity to interview two grade students about what's been happening at CIS and one told me that the school gathered for veterany assembly where her grandmother and other veterans from the community came in to speak and meet with students at the end of October on the 25th NHS members and volunteers came in help the Fright Night including trunk Retreat and a Haunted Hallway which the student said she loved they also held their character carve off where each student carved a desireable Lin in the image of a character she told me about a field trip that the fifth grade took to go see the wild

031robot and a trip that some graders took to go fishing on a boat there is also an upcoming field trip to the historical interactive Museum of serridge village for the fourth grade she said it's been a busy month but she's been having a lot of fun I spoke to another student as well who told me about how he's been learning about multiplication and participating in book clubs like reading Wonder s students have had the opportunity in their in their annual Mo collection giving students a chance to share their voice and castler vat sixth graders created R Goldberg machines and fifth graders engaged in their annual presentation from and C the student council ran a successful World Series food drive with the Yankees winning by five food items and all items were donated to the Kon

032food bank it's been a very exciting and busy month that's great good report Juliana you want to go yes um so I will be reporting on Cherry Brook so earlier this year uh the chair physical education teachers uh Miss Arma and and Mr Barnes worked together to prepare the fall field day which went super successful and helped build the school Community it also helped promote Fitness and healthy habits early in the year additionally on October 31st the kindergarteners took a little field trip their Halloween parade and they come they came and visit the middle school and the high school and they also visited uh Mills Pond this is great I know that high schoolers love seeing them um in addition um Miss Kelly Fel uh the canton's 2024 2025 teacher of the year um in

033addition to being canton's teacher of the year uh was also a semi finalist for the Connecticut teacher of the year and on Wednesday November 6th uh at the bual theater uh Miss bariel was ined by her family Dr Gman and Mr Emory and they were able to celebrate her achievements uh last week uh third grade visited the americ American Mar project project in Winstead uh students enjoyed a tour of a museum and had Hands-On activities that related to the museum in school and then finally as we kind of said uh yesterday chubra Primary School celebrate Veterans Day um it was a very special day at chra as students were able to honor the veterans and come together as a community to overall honor what they have sered thanks Juliana very good Lucas all right I'm

034going to be reporting on both the middle and high school so both of them to start some similarities uh both schools just had the end of quarter one and Heritage would be this week for both schools then for the high school most fall Sports have ended with girls volleyball actually making a historic run where they hosted a home game and they made the quarterfinals all fall sports teams that we have at Ken high school but did actually make the state tournament showing that we um pretty quality then football still has three remaining non-tournament games to play before they enter the tournament uh the play uh big rocket Candy Mountain was a huge success with very large attendance on all three showings and a huge thank you to miss Taylor who put it all together model

035un had a very successful weekend at Yukon and many of the students are looking forward to the uart and Yale events coming up in future hubs the Veterans Day celebration at the high school was um highlighted by four local veterans who share their experiences with the entire School their words were received by the student body and adults watching thank you to Maggie the president of Road Katha for helping organize that moving on to the middle school there was recently a Winding Trail fi trip which was a huge success with all students learing team building activities and enjoying their time and they also had their veterans veterans day assembly which is another huge success they recognized around 30 local veterans for their service fantastic very good any questions for our student reps I I have a

036question what's our um do we know what our spring play is yet or our musical do we know uh it's SpongeBob SpongeBob SpongeBob something look forward to okay thank you for that report besides Mr Bishop's highlight report and I didn't think we can get any better than that we now move over to Mr Moore and we're going to do a camp celebrates because we have a lot of ah sorry I'm sorry I was getting all excited for Jeff I'm looking at him there but I know you have you have news for too so let's go with the business the business management report I'm sorry okay well I will be brief okay um our overall forecast for the month ending October 31st is um U we're at an unfavorable uh forecast of 464,000 but that is

037um almost $100,000 better than the previous month general education forecasted to be um favorable 55,000 which is better than last month by 22,000 and special education forecasted although to be unfavorable 519,000 we are $775,000 better than the previous month some of the categories that contribute to that salaries and benefits which is slightly better this month than last month by 25,000 um purchase Services um also slightly better although still over budget um that is a special education related account um transportation and tuition um for special education out of District students um still over budget but better than last month one area of concern is facilities repairs and maintenance uh we are projected to be over budget at this point about 42,000 um we have had several large repairs hot water heater at um C High School

038um CIS and chry Brook both had sections of boilers that needed to be replaced as we um prepared to turn the heat on um those um are typically CIP items but had to come out of the operations budget this year um so those are um some areas of concern um but other than that um it's I'm happy to report um a a forecast that was better than last month that's great I I know you might have some questions on finance and I know Mr going to make a comment from from the finance Comm committee meeting so we're going I'll hold your questions for finance if you don't mind until we get to the uh finance committee reports and then we can dive in is that all right so that meet everybody's okay all right having

039said that then we'll turn to Mr Moore in Camp celebrates all right good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity to be here um I want to thank the uh audience that joined and came here most of you for can celebrates but I am glad that we went through many of those business items first because the accomplishments that they're they're detailing and the growth that they're talking about are both for you and because of you none of that happens without you so I'm so glad that you were able to be here for the first part of that meeting um and I give credit to the teachers the staff of Canton middle school and every student there uh that's contributed to all those wonderful things we've been able to highlight so far for K celebrates though

040I'm honored to have the opportunity to recognize some of the many accomplishments of Canton middle school students the last time I had the opportunity to come before you for cant celebrates was last April so in preparation for tonight I thought about some of the things that happened at the end of last year over the summer and at the start of this year so I'm lucky to celebrate some current CMS students but also I've got some freshmen here some current freshmen because they we got some accomplishments from the end of their 8ighth grade year so first some outstanding athletic accomplishments um as you know Canton middle school offers several Sports here at the school level but we also partner with the town of Canton to offer a full spectrum a wide array of sports and so

041uh baseball for example is organized by the town but many CMS students are are are members so let's see I think we've got enough space here I'll have the group come down and then we can talk about it members of the K junior baseball team join me up in this area let's get the baseball team down [Applause] here standing I'll have you up here for just a minute you got a minute in you all right all right so this is the Canton Jr baseball team from 2024 and this incredible group showed tenacity and sportsmanship throughout last season their coach John Cottingham here tonight noted that they always play for each other and that camaraderie paid off this summer when they won you know the state championship they beat summers in the Little League Junior Division

042and I'll note that they're the first Canton team to win a little league state championship in any division so congratulations to them on being St champion [Applause] not every member of the team is here with us tonight but I'll read the names of all who are on the team and if you're here when I call your name step forward and accept your certificate so Luc Stager Jaden [Applause] Diaz m morbo [Applause] Jack [Music] [Applause] Kemp Jack Kelly Cole coningham Kyle rossie Shay flarity and Michael River just [Applause] boys let's turn around come on up here so your parents can take a picture of you so turn around we'll do you first and then we'll have the board stand up again so parents you could whoever you want [Music] okay everybody got that coaches you want

043to get in there okay and why don't we have the boys maybe you could step back and then maybe the board can come ccle this is just [Music] not guys why don't we go to that Cor how long expect [Music] thank you guys congratulations conratulations [Applause] as they sit I need to shout outle also on the team I [Applause] and Jack Kennedy my CTS all out of and Jack Ken I owe a couple of Cs congratulations to the team all right continuing Athletics could I have the members of the girls outdoor track team from last season come on up same thing same format right here in this [Applause] space so I I talk about you for moment so uh again we have a team from the end of last year um so there's current e8th

044and ninth graders with us uh this was our outdoor track team from last year and I'm pleased to honor them tonight because of their incredible season in which their coaches highlighted their positivity their support for one another and the work that they put in to improve the season ended with the Woodbury Invitational which is a large Championship meet and there were some incredible individual performances and a strong team showing across the board this resulted in a pretty stunning upset for a team of our size they placed third they hit the podium they were the third place finish at the Woodbury Invitational and I can tell that with these great athletes these great people track program is po to be strong at both the middle and high school level for years to come so congratulations them

045on the third place all right same as before if you were here I'm going to recognize you with your certificate so an gay Valentina Palomo Ana Johnson Caleb burning Charlotte Davis is [Applause] here Charlotte Brown Ella heartley [Applause] Jil mallum Ella Sullivan Ava Celia Kira Nei Jessica kinsky Christina kinsky Sophia [Applause] devasi Ava [Music] [Applause] Carmen Haley [Applause] wetz and Riley mson [Applause] I get you all right order ladies why don't we go right over into that corner you'll take your picture and then the board will come on over [Music] okay Board of Education [Music] [Applause] everybody good all right so turning to a a smaller group and with some exceptional academic achievements uh I am wondering if we have here tonight do we have um so Jaden can I you back up here Jaden

046Diaz Michael up Ry Robinson here and Michaela Goodwin com I'll talk I'll talk slow I'll talk slow so these students I've invited here tonight because of an incredible academic achievement so each spring we take the smarter balance assessment and um the smarter balance assessment is one measure of students overall success in school of how they're doing and I always tell students that you are not this test this test does not define you however J however when You Face challenges in life how you meet those challenges that does Define that is a huge part of who you are and so um when the test comes out families get a report and it highlights their performance level and I think um it does a pretty poor job of highlighting their growth like Mr Bishop highlighted K Middle

047School showed some exceptional growth and the report that families get doesn't really highlight that growth metric so I dive into that data and I look at what students were expected to do from year to year so for example if you take a test in sixth grade it says an expected growth would be 100 points the students standing behind me made about 4 100% growth in excess of their expected growth so what was predicted from how they did one year they blew those targets out of the water so these are strong students and their dedication their commitment and the way they Rose to that challenge resulting them in exceeding their targets by 3 to 400% that is incredible it stands out amongst their peers and it deserves to be honored so with that being said congratulations

048on your academic achievement and your exceptional growth Jaden Diaz [Applause] Michael [Applause] deante and Riley Robinson we can do right up here you're come with quick picture opportunity we get let's do you three first so parents Guardians grandparents okay back [Music] we good job hey finally I'd like to end with the Arts um as you know Kon is an incredible music Community for as long as I can remember we've been recognized as one of the best communities for music education and I have a group of students here who recently wowed the audience at Yukon uh to the coral members who performed at the acba conference Jo me up here we're are coral students come on up [Applause] all right so the students here um sang recently at the acda conference that's the American coral Directors

049Association and they hosted their fall conference at Yukon a few weeks ago Mr Brian Jones our course director is a composer in residence for that organization uh an award-winning one at that he deserves to be recognized on his own accord and these students were members of the Premier choir that uh that went to that Middle School performance so they collaborated and learned an original composition they LED their fellow singers from across the state and in perform and they performed an original composition by Mr Jones an absolutely incredible experience they blw the uh the audience there and the uh fellow artists and residents out of the water they can tell that this is a strong music community and these are some exceptionally talented singers and I'm excited by their artistic accomplishment and the future for music

050and the Arts in Canton so I've got some recognition for their participation and excellence in the Arts let's see Archer Heath tan [Applause] Smith let's see Stella Corwin Laura [Applause] Petty Ella Goodwin [Applause] right also on there s Cal Riley mson Chloe Harrington I'll Olivia angle Adella Castillo and also here able to join tonight Hugo e congratulations [Applause] wonderful you're right here we'll get you a picture okay why come back a little [Music] bit thank you guys thank you Mr Moore thank you that is the highlight of our meetings when we have this opportunity to celebrate our our students and all their Great accomplishments so we're GNA move right into uh we're g to continue with Mr Moore yeah we're going to continue with Mr Moore who's going to give the board for those of

051you that weren't there but he's going to give a brief update of the continuous Improvement plan [Music] all right so um included in your packet I've uh previously distributed our full continuous Improvement plan and um essentially uh Mr Bishop was highlighting earlier the one growth that we have made at a school as a school and we are incredibly proud of that uh but also are very planful and very excited to keep taking steps to continue on that path um if I were to summarize the focus areas for Canton Middle School this year it is that we have reorganized some of the ways that our teams operate addressing culture climate attendance and operations we also uh are doing some heavy investing and heavy lifting in curriculum writing and standards alignment and we're using some uh introducing

052some common highle strategies across classrooms and across the school such as uh the writing of and use of learning targets so that's how I would summarize it to go into the action steps some priority ones that align to our district and board goals in the area of student growth and achievement um we are going to first of all of course Implement our turnaround plan we've bring a three-year plan that we will see through with Fidelity and the data share earlier shows that we are I like the way you said it we're on the right path so we will continue to commit to our turnaround work um and those key points that I mentioned are the priority areas for that first year we will uh conduct regular data team meetings uh we have some great data

053available to us through Investments that you have made in in uh in in technology and in assessments we will utilize that to make sure we're teaching students in a targeted and effective way we'll write those learning targets I told you about earlier and provide lessons to students helping them with their executive functioning the world is busy they have a lot on their plates and we're more dedicated than ever before and more purposeful than ever before in helping them stay on top of their work uh and uh and their lives so we'll support them in that way in the area of Partnerships and Community engagement you're going to hear from the PTO shortly we're going to continue our great partnership with them um many of the best things that we do are because the PTO allows

054us to say yes to those wonderful ideas we'll continue to strengthen the Canton Harford connection so all of our students and families are welcomed here and um partner literally with community members to pull off wonderful events like the wellness day which will be upcoming for financial sustainability we'll make sure to budget uh informed by projections uh being mindful of the updating of books and materials and utilize uh our grant funding to further our turnaround work so there's a lot of budget management there that goes into uh making wise purchases now and preparing us to be uh healthy and solvent moving forward um in the coming years our learning environment and belonging the action steps will be to incorporate resiliency of lessons into advisory we have a newly reformed School climate team that is getting in

055front of students with myself as one of the teachers um to provide resiliency lessons to students thinking about what's relevant to them and having those tough conversations around uh friendship and organization and balancing the their their workload so we're doing that on a regular basis we're embedding the CMS way and vision of a graduate into our lessons and all that we do and as I mentioned earlier some of those reorganized structures to proactively promote student engagement and raise their performance to continue to embrace Equity we will always Empower student voice Equity is having a space for all voices at the table and that includes our students so we continue to expand opportunities there in incorporate Equitable teaching practices into all that we do it's not a particular thing it's more of a lens that if

056we're being Equitable we're thinking about all of our practices including instruction and and access and opportunities so we're thinking about that at all times um and I mentioned our revised School climate team that has a member of the district Equity team serving on it so that that lens is on as we think about our school climate and finally all of this requires a a continued investment in our Workforce in our teachers in our staff in in all of us actually I count myself as someone who's learning and growing a lot this year but um as we take care of our teachers and our staff we will facilitate data team work making sense of all the data and numbers in front of us so that we can turn that into meaningful things for students we'll engage

057in the revised teacher evaluation process uh which we're really excited about which is making having teachers set meaningful goals for their own personal growth so it will have a greater impact on students will provide a lot of professional development your middle school teacher are working very hard um sitting in um um meetings that are more like learning sessions uh staff meetings that are becoming professional development so that we can improve in our Focus areas especially utilizing high quality learning targets and finally we will um help our Workforce the development will come in the area of ongoing curriculum writing and standards alignment there's a few areas where the state's recommended alignment of Standards has shifted in recent years and we need to stay current with that uh so that most heavily impacts our human ities Department

058uh but we're looking at our curriculum schoolwide so that we can make sure that what we're teaching is the right thing at the right time in the right order so that students can be getting what they need and be prepared for high school so those are a few of the key priority areas that we are implementing and will see through the work course this year to make sure that that trajectory that you heard about earlier continues at C Middle School I'm happy to take any questions so I will say you questions um the the ability for us to walk through the school after having this presentation and with the treatments and strategies being employed in in some of the classrooms was really valuable I know Kim mentioned it to me there's nothing like being able

059to sit through the uh sit in the classroom and see what's happening in the way that they're aligning our goals and strategies um and the things that they're doing consistently across the board is really uh pretty impressive so I I thought really walking through was really great so with that any questions for Mr Moore on what just went through and of course he'll be back here in the spring we'll have another opportunity again for a walk through and and to see how the progress that we've made from from Fall to uh to spring so questions I have one we we know how we were feeling with the walk through and the results and obviously the information that John shared tonight and the students we got to like really talk to the students and you see

060how engaged they were but how is the staff feeling like do they know about the the you know the growth that the school has made and how are they feeling about this continuous improv you know plan yeah I I don't I would I would want to speak for them so you you actually were able to meet and speak to some of the teachers during your walk through um from a instructional lens I think something that we've done this year is we're pointing in a common Direction so we know what we've literally defined what high quality instruction looks like a k Middle School which we've been doing but it's nice to have those efforts coales so I think we feel focused uh I think teachers are working extremely hard but it pays off when you go

061into classrooms and you can see all right we've been working on learning targets and this is the positive impact that it has on student engagement and student learning so to see those numbers and to be able to discuss those which yeah absolutely we know those we that's cause for celebration and I think it it motivates us to keep going with taking all the great things that we've been doing and further refining and further committing to them so that can be all students right all all students being well known and well taught so I think it we we're feeling very motivated by the steps that we've taken so far thank you yeah I have a question just a couple of quick comments uh first of all was a terrific morning uh spoke so highly about you

062your staff is doing and what the results are with the students that it seems to me that you've reorganized and organized your committees and your teams very purposefully uh and likely very effectively as well I'm will tell with that it certainly seemed like it's up to a great start I'm going to repeat what L said you talk about highly effective strategies you talk about a couple in particular um I visited a dozen classrooms and it was evidence uh exactly as described in 11 of those 12 classes in 12 uh that's pretty impressive to see that even in some of the rooms that that the uh learning outcomes and the couple things you mentioned there they're permanently attached to the to the board it's on people's minds right away um it was uh it seems like

063you're making the most out of the assistance from the state in your own initiative so great job appreciate that thank you good job have a quick question sure um congrats I seen the numbers I mean numbers don't lie but I was just curious as the principal of the school you reflect back what has been your most person like your personal thing that you're most proud of aside from just looking at numbers alone sure yeah the the numbers tell us tell a story so what's the story behind it right um well I think that my proud what I'm proud of is the alignment that we have I think that we we have an amazing team of teachers and we've always been we're blessed with amazing students and I think people have been working really hard and

064what happened when we started to align with the turnaround efforts and we what happened a year ago that wasn't happening two years ago was that self-reflective study so we met with purpose we self-reflected with purpose I heard more teacher voice and input on things like the priority areas that was written actually right here In This Very Room by the staff of C midle school so to lead people through that collecting of the voices and then tearing it down and saying but what's really going to move us forward to see that that conversation led to these outcomes right so we did this and to like lead through that as person satisfying full for me and and hopefully for the staff as well so I think that that work with purpose to gather the collective voices and

065make those decisions together like we commit to doing these things so because we think they will move us forward and didn't see that they did yeah very satisfying thank you very much Jeff thank you for the opportunity to brag about my awesome school well I'm going to give you another chance to brag about your your PTO yeah because you want to make the introduction to our so uh can midle school right so in a school that's only two years long uh right your your your your parent group is also only two grade levels of families and so I've always been humbled with a small But Mighty team of PTO members that again like so without an active PTO we could do what we need to for students but we can do more than what we

066need and we can do what we want we can do what we dream because we have a supportive PTO and so to tell you about some of those things I'm glad to introduce our PTO president Beth Kennedy Mrs Kennedy thank you for sitting so patiently through our meeting I don't I'm not sure I was sitting so patiently that's fair well I was watching like my entire target audience skate out the back door so hey this is what we see every meeting I'll chase them down some other time so my name is be Kennedy I am a member of the CMS PTO it's my second year um and my other uh member of the board is Courtney Vincent who is here tonight um we are um yeah like a parent Le volunteer organization that supports the

067school supports the kids educational experience we try to fill in the gaps and provide things that might not be available to them otherwise to really you know um broaden their educational experience in a positive way so we have we manage a $60,000 budget currently our primary source of funds is the lobster Loop which I don't know if any of you have participated in I will not be running in that ever but I do help volunteer um we sell flowers we do a mom sale in the fall which is amazing if you've never participated in that you shed the flowers are great so good we sell spirit wear we have restaurant fundraisers and we also get parent donations and then our uses of the funds um are in two major categories one I would say is

068like educational programs so we support things like U scholarships for the 8th grade DC trip for Kids U families who need it we also support programs that teachers request like there's a Connecticut Humane Society program that comes in and teaches the seventh grade science classes about Gene selection so that's a really that's a cool thing that we can offer and then teachers are also able to make individual requests to us maybe they need a printer maybe they want a speaker maybe they're looking for ping pong um equipment to have you know a positive Community Building event within the school so we're able to support those things um we budget substantially more than this but we spent about $2,500 on teacher requests last year and we budget about $5,000 to support DC scholarship trips um and

069then we also do what I would consider to be school community building projects so um things that support the the community within the school among the students between students and staff um so we support um the PBX program for example by um providing prizes for students and staff as part of you know the positive reinforcement we support the seventh grade and eighth grade moving up and promotion ceremonies we um things like ping pong tournament that I mentioned before we also help student council requests if there's a dance we help P the DJ you know little things like that that just kind of make it easier um so that's the general that's the general scoop of what we do I did want to um speak about um Mr Moore he does such a fantastic job he

070is always prepared and super enthusiastic at our meetings and as I'm going to mention in a moment we do have a problem with membership um last year and this year were really struggling to get parents to get involved and um Jeff's preparedness for the meetings and his thoughtfulness about what the school is looking for is so helpful to us and it keeps us informed especially because we have such low parent participation right now it helps us respond to the needs of all of the students because we don't have adequate representation from parents um representing the entire student body right now which is unfortunate but Jeff really fills in those gaps and I'm so appreciative of his hard work so thank you thank you yeah um so if I could just have a minute to like

071lecture um to any of the parents who are listening the PTO like I mentioned is an independent parent/guardian type volunteer organization um but more than just that it's like a critical in my opinion a critical opportunity to make a connection with the school staff with the teachers with other parents and really add a special Dynamic to your child's educational experience um I think from everything we know kids with parents who are involved in school statistically do better academically they have better behavioral issues they have better social relationships and parents who make the effort to be involved in school have a better understanding of what's happening in school what the teachers are facing and a better context for what their kids are talking about when they come home so I would just really encourage any parents

072who are listening please consider being involved in the PTO if you can't be a board member consider participating or volunteering for a particular event we have so many events throughout the year I was King up I think we have 20 or 30 different events that we do throughout the year there's a million different ways to participate it's a small amount of time I can tell you I am a single mom I have full-time job and I'm the president of PTO and I you know I'm at every board meeting it's not a huge it's not a huge investment of time um so just really understand that we need help to continue to provide these opportunities we are now a board of two and I think we have 20 or 25 members of the PTO I mean

073there are at least 200 families at the school that's a very very small participation rate so I would just really encourage people to consider just taking a little bit of time to try to reach out there are benefits to the school but there's also enormous benefits to your child and and to you um so that's it happy to take any questions how can the Board of Education better support or help you I don't know it's a good it's a good I really think I think it's helpful to have a dialogue like if we were able to have a DI dialog and perhaps the perhaps the way to do that would be for us to build better relationships with the pto's you know at Cherrybrook and the PTO at CIS I know they do a great

074job is there PTO actually same problems that you're experiencing there is no PTO at the high school which is indicative of you know a systemic issue with parent um involvement so maybe there's a way for your um pulit or your you know voice to be able to encourage parents like is there a way to educate parents about the value of participating um and to help people understand that it I think people feel like it's going to be such an overwhelming amount of time and everyone's struggling now right everyone's struggling with this hustle culture exhaustion you know trying to do all the things kids do a million things you're trying to reach all these places so one thing that we are doing is we're trying to pull our existing members and other parents to find out

075for example when meeting would be more accessible for people so currently we need you know like this a Wednesday morning once a month at 8: a.m. that's challenging for people you know who work so but how do you find a time in the evening to do it because you know like the kids who just were on the baseball team they were running back downstairs to go to basketball practice downstairs like there's just a million things that they're trying to do so um I think maybe having an open line of communication I'd love to talk to you more to the group more about how we can work together to try to improve that because I don't see a positive growth Arc you know and I think it's such a valuable it's such a valuable um resource

076for the school for the kid maybe we can help with the recruitment yeah that would be great good any questions Mr Kennedy just have a quick thought or two first of all thank you so much for what you do the PTO is a really vital to the success of a school and and it's a great way for as you said for parents to kids probably don't want you in school but it's a way to be there and talk the teachers and the principal and so forth and then and and the buying funds you ra is very impressive and the activities you're get involved is very impressive uh sometimes I think parents get PTO out after five or six years after sixth grade and and they don't want that again but if you appeal to them

077on would you sign up for one thing here's is his you know the promotion night the file sale whatever it is uh and that's all we're going to ask I can ask you to come to meetings or any of that stuff um you might have more success getting folks to yeah it's interesting I think we're struggling but one thing I would say in in this like postco world one of the things that's most valuable about participating in the PTO is that you do get access to the School volunteering in those events means you get to be in the school doing something and you see the way the school is functioning that is not available to people you know to like parents generally the school does not feel open anymore to parents um as a matter

078of practice so there's that and then I would also say I think the kids actually do really like it when their parents are there like my daughter's here she loves it when I'm at school doing something for the she like a mil she wants to come tell me things she wants me to bring her a snack whatever it is you know but I think they do appreciate it I do agree with you I do think as you get to like these older grades typically parents are there's a lot of things that are that are asked of our parents especially for younger kids like Elementary School age kids right like I always think about the end of the year I know if you all are familiar with this but the end of the year it's like

079you get like 47 different events you got to dress them in purple one day and then they have to be clowns and then they have to bring a book and it's just it's a lot um but I think what I would say is the middle school and high school age right I think kids generally tend to push us away but that's also like when they need us the most to be there you know and so holding that space finding a way this is a very sort of like separate like justifiable explainable way to be like I'm in the school it's not for you I'm in the school you know to do this event um I think it's a really it's a nice way to do it I think what we struggle with in terms of

080getting people to participate in events actually is awareness in some ways um because we have a hard time reaching out directly to individual you know to individual parents but that is I appreciate your your advice and that is something that we're pushing just trying to to get access to people like catch their air for just a minute to get them to come and do something yeah I always wonder why we don't have a PT like a high school we have random parents who will left to organize in the community but there's no formalized I think partly the booster club does quite a bit at the high school level so it's a matter of where do you want to be in there's only so many parents and so many kids play fors yeah any other questions

081thank you so much for your thank you for all you do we'll try to help great I appreciate it thanks very much than you okay all right so in in your packets um tonight we're having a conversation on a goal number two of our strategic plan which is Partnerships with the community um your kit looks like this so uh we made I think we made the revisions to goal number one that was suggested uh at the last meeting right yeah go yeah why don't you so why don't we uh go to board goal number two that's in your packet U this is Revis from the one that we emailed you last week the administrators met last week and we have we had a minor change so I I think we would go through it the

082same way that we did it last time with Hannah making any suggestions that anyone as we have an email from a board member mler who uh Mr Bishop will if you could pull up that email that will give a couple of the suggestions that she had so board goal number two the the goal is the same enhance communication Pathways for students staff and community in order to build responsive supportive and connections for all this relates a little bit to the PT conversation that you you just had but we have uh number letter A develop a communication plan which infuses the use of technology to engage families and stakeholders for the purpose of gathering input providing information and increasing transparency to support student learning I know board member Mohler had a suggestion M Mohler shared uh

083her recommendation to replace communication plan which infuses the use of Technology to communication plan that strategically uses technology and a rationale she gave rationale for that I believe she did she did okay so she said if you read that again JN replace um infuses the use of technology to uh strategically uses technology I think that makes sense yeah I do too does anybody else have any comments on letter A everybody good with letter A okay and remember we're not about how we're going to do this that's what the next 5 years is going to be the how um B this the input means feedback right you bet you bet is there other ways that you plan to get feedback other than just technology well it it's saying strategically uses technology so that will be one

084of the means that we use it it could be any type of feedback could be meeting with parents yeah that's like Focus B establish Pathways for family engagement in schools to provide resources support information to parents and Guardians this would align exactly with the PTO conversation out through that that that could be something that would be embedded in the school Improvement plan of how they can increase PTO membership have not for this one would you have input also in this one or no I I would think there totally would be inut in it yes meaning would you add establish Pathways for family engagement and input or I don't know what's that not sure if it it's applicable to this or not I it's talking about something different yeah we have been put an a which

085would definitely filter into all of them for sure this is engage Pathways and creates Pathways for parents to be involved more into the schools is a communication Pathways it could be but also provide them resources that they may need support that they may need and information so being more uh more communicative from a standpoint of providing information to uh families if you remember I had in there in the beginning to established family engagement centers but the administrative teams that Jord the ACT gave them the answer of establishing that that could be a result of be that we establish cers with the school that's way that we choose to go what is you want to know what his Pathways me yeah communication like you know or it's just open to Tri me might be volunteering in

086first grade but it might be going to parent conferences and another grade well I think that's what the indicators would be so when the principles if you remember they'll take the board goal number two and then they'll look at letter b and they'll say what are we going to do to establish those Pathways to the the schools so for example established Pathways for family engagement schools I think Kim you said something about what would you say you just said it you just said something that would give an example school May it might be like kindergarten first grade volunteering correct so another greatest conferen correct so the principles may have within their plan that the kindergarten parents come in twice a week or something to start a kindergart so that would be the me correct could

087be to establish a a PT at I'm not really sure that's the work for the next 5 years does that make sense it does yes and then the communication plan that we used to have a communication plan Mr Bishop actually found it we haven't had one in I think I wrote the last one yeah yeah so we have to rewrite the communication plan so that would be a um C everybody good with B Okay C create purposeful programming that builds a builds connection with students alumni faculty families in the community this one excites me CU I don't think we do enough program strikes using on phras what do you mean by that for example what goes in my head is what type of programming could we develop for alumni we don't tap our Alum we

088used do but we don't tap our alumni enough so what are some specific programming that we may be able to do for alumni what go ahead it's purposeful and necessary I mean you create program that builds connections with students my facult it's like an education you have have obje everything has have obje can't just do something you think so purpos less programing so you could just say create program take out purposeful want to take out purposeful sure that what y everybody good with see D increased opportunities for student mentoring internship and Service Learning straightforward we could do a better job not a better job we can increase opportunities for kids okay e opportunities for open dialogue between students staff and community members through forms disc discussion groups and informal gatherings I think board member mher

089had something on that she did and she she recommended right at the beginning shift from create to increase she said there a district we've created opportunities for open dialogue however as we reflect we know there's always room for I like that I like that we don't do a lot now can we add the word Partnerships to D where I don't know increase the opportunities for student mentoring internships Service Learning and Partnerships with whom um within within students within staff within Community I I don't see it but okay can't DN just be combined that they're increasing opportunities for student for the first part and to open dialog between student staff community members fors special form I think what the administrative team was trying to do is separate d& because they want to provide this is D

090is specifically for students for mentoring internships service learning to provide them opportunities to do that and that the Partnerships would be through the student mentoring the internship and the surface learning I I think it gets a little bit too big when we combine d and e e is we want to get feedback from people in increased opportunities to to get that feedback or maybe the create opportunities for open dialogue maybe it's create Partnerships and opportunities for open dialogue between say that again like an e add partnership there create Partnerships and opportunities for open dialogue between students staff and community members through forums discussion grps in informal Gathering so we have I'm just cre Partnerships and opportunities and increase opportunities that would work create Partnerships and increase opportunities that would totally work that's fine so you

091get that H create Partnerships and increase opportun yeah I think they are separate groups but when you put increas opportunity then increase opportunity and I could give more reasons of Partnerships but I don't think you need to no you you got it in there so he would re create Partnerships and increase opportunities really good with that so that that's A3 not a big one but there's a lot of work to do there over the next five years for sure and again remember that what's going to happen now is that when this plan is done and I Envision at the pace that we're going it's a good Pace we probably have a strategic plan that you'll vote on in maybe June May or June that the administrators when they do their continuous Improvement plans they'll be

092able to do right this and that every meeting you'll be able to open up our nice book and be able to say check things off what are we doing so everybody's good with uh goal number two or yeah board goal number two we'll we'll come back we'll make those changes and then we did give you and I think we just need to keep reminding you to go back and look at board goal number one um and we'll do the same thing um I don't I don't think we need to go through because we'll spend once we go through all of them we'll go through everything again board goal number one board goal the the five goals that we have the six goals that we have we we'll go through and then we'll highlight the changes

093that we made but I think it's important for every meeting for us to put in um each goal that we went over and then the ultimate thing that I was discussing with the administrators is after the board gets their draft plan done I think it'd be really important for a board member to come with me to the The Faculty a faculty meeting and and share this strategic plan out and to get their input not to go one by one but we would send them we would send them well I think what's really important is it's a board of education strategic plan you need to work through it yourselves and then present it to um it's right now with the community anybody can chime inut then go back to the staff when you all feel comfortable

094with it and then you can get some feedback and then I I think it be really important for the the chair Vice chair or somebody for the board of AD to go and meet with the staff support of Education strategic plan but I would think that' be sometime like I said at the pace we're going we'll probably hit the the staffs in April maybe um and we'll go from there everybody good with that okay thank you all we'll work on board goal number three in December question I raised last about citizenship and digital citizenship where does that call I I think we got to go through every single goal and then back to that question and really analyze it because I don't know if it fits in board goal number one yet or board go

095I know it doesn't fit in board role number two um the question is does it go any place else or do we have to get it in board role number one so I think y I think every single time you bring that one up if you don't mind there you go that's the whole purpose good job good job and I would encourage you that if you speak to anybody in the community that you show what we've done for board goal number one board goal number two and if they have any feedback that that's a good way to do it okay moving right along we're going to go to committee reports let's go back to finance because Anna gave an excellent report and there are some things in there that you may have a question on

096um there's some places that we uh we're under and we over so um anybody have any questions for and Russell maybe you want to just highlight today's Finance meeting a little bit you could give some points and then take questions please okay y we met this morning at 8:30 finance committee business we approved up finance committee meeting minutes from last month we went through some financials that Hann presented earlier today approved those uh we did have discussions about uh preschool rates that we're going to circle back on uh next month because there was some back very Val questions the building ground committee briefly touched on regarding the Oilers at CIS some other dishwasher issues and items that have popped out um the other item that we discussed Mr Bishop is going to be meeting with

097the new CAO regarding Cherry Brook uh what our plans are for addition Portables how we've got where we are and the next steps um Mr Gro Dr Gman discussed uh kindergarten projections for next year uh I think we're we getting some more information on that soon and um Anna pointed out U I thought I thought it was wory attention again that because some of these repairs because we didn't get really any dollars in CIP last year and there was some thought that there' be some bonding the fact of the matter is these repairs are coming out of uh operating which uh you know dings us on the uh on the Jed side uh which makes it uh kind of tough and you want to make any other further comments about um the finance thank you

098I don't want to leave you out board members any questions on the finances more to come and remind me we're only two months into true operating you know we had July and August and now July you know when we're truly into school in session so more to come on that okay along uh policy Mr shy we met before the meeting tonight um we asked the administration to come back with cell phone propos cell phone regulations 9- 12 at K to 8 the cell phone regulations are off and Away beginning of day to the end of the day that also was some some discussion tonight and a lengthy discussion back and forth with what the administration is tentatively proposing haven't made any final decisions yet uh we uh raised the issue of should we just consider

099no cell phones 9 through 12 as some schools have of locking them up in those couches and what Happ is in expense uh administration at this point is leaning towards uh your cell phone is goes in the cell phone hotel at the beginning of each class I think I mentioned that last time and you guys are looking at me awfully hard right now at the beginning of each class uh they don't come out till class is over um and then students would have access to them between classes at lunchtime question study hall is still up in the air a little bit um and this would be implemented if it's implemented in this fashion would be implemented uh starting at the second semester so that be time for Administration has discussed the cell phone is faculty

100with some students as well uh and looking for a solution that will improve learning in the classroom uh and not be looked at as Draconian unless we have to go that way down the road so what I imagine they will they will have a test period with some new regulations which they'll inform us of in uh December they in part what we had to St difficult questions uh and then implement the plan to start second semester and see where it goes if it works great it doesn't work go back to the drawing board and something new can start again uh in August which is a much better time to start anything that would be uh significant um question about uh chook isn't an issue there are I guess is the occasional student in chook that

101has a phone but it's very minor uh four to six are we we asked that we threw it the concept of just don't bring School period they not welcome on campus I don't know how anybody feels about that um there was some discussion of that uh and seven and8 is off in way we asked to get some feedback from the principles as to the yes that's the policy those are the regulations kids looking up there a constant battle doesn't seem to be what we ask for some more discussion on that John did I get that summarized reasonably well correct and then just the buos right and the we're reviewing the B laws as you know we looked at three of them today um I would find them some places one on setting the agenda one

102on minutes and one on for and we have the shipment of Goodwin suggested bylaws we made some changes to make them a little bit more along the lines of what we want you got and we'll be uh uh giving them all to when we get done sometime in the next couple of months if you to look at ask questions about before it's not a ton it's not like the policy book where it was page after page after page it's 15 20 pages and most of the pages are just half a page so not not anywhere near the drawer of last year so I'm going to go to questions you have a question Kim you want to you want to chat for a minute yeah I mean I can send an email with my thoughts or

103I can be brief um I only would be I just had a couple comments when I was at the policy meeting and you know these people are doing a great job for here early long night I don't want to hear anymore but uh you mentioned watches in the policy meeting but not right now that was a question but are we are we voting on what the high school staff is presenting to the policy meeting or no is this a board policy that we're adopting or is this a Pon High School only policy that they're adopt we adopted a policy last year and we reviewed that policy at the last meeting and we're comfortable with it and it sets down with General guidelines and then we ask the principles to propose regulations to enforce it so

104we're going to vote on those we can usually don't regulations if we vote on the regulations for example and we get to June and Drew and R decide it just didn't work well they couldn't change them until we met again to revote the regulations and I don't think we want to tie their hands they certainly listened to us pretty hard uh it would be a vote if it if it was for example if we wanted to go to a cell phone free campus that's a board vote if we keep if we keep it the way it is then they're providing us with information on how they're going to enforce the policy well I think because it's just two members of the policy commit committee and that's a limited number compared to our other committees we

105usually have more representation you know I I heard what was said at the the meeting tonight and my concerns are um if anybody knows me personally I'm very anti- technology I really am however this isn't about me it's not it's not what I think it's about what's best for kids and what what our constituents are saying in the community and I've listened to both I've listened to 50% saying you know keep it off and away and 50% say no cell phones but I like to live in reality and the real reality is we are we are asking students to do something immediately and and I although I agree phone should be off in away and if I had if it was up to me I would take them would have never implemented we wouldn't be

106giving kids phones until college but I two things I question one have we ever tried in good faith to do off and away at the high school and I asked that because I know that it's not been off and Away there are classes where students can use them there's some they can use for listening music some can do playlists some can do that and I think it sends mixed signals to to students it's like you're looking at young children be the same way it's a behavior issue and to me it's like about behavior modification more so than about technology even though that's the issue I think if we haven't tried off and Away to Fidelity for at least a short period of time I would think that would be where you would start but I'm

107not you know the high school friend schools to deal with this and I think this this is very complicated I think it's complicated for teachers I think it's complicated for students and complicated for parents because we're battling this at home every single day if you have a student with a phone or an iPad or any technology is a real issue across the country um we the other thing is they mentioned in the policy tonight that they would start in January and roll and you know do it then I'm wondering if they try off in a way explain to the students the serious of the issue and let them practice self-regulation with kids you have to give them an opportunity to explain it give an and then if that doesn't work then in August go to

108the plan that was my thinking you know the new schooler go to the plan they presented and then the other thing is if we're going to ask students to be off and away or you know I think our culture in our country this is not a Canon issue but everywhere we perpetuate the the screen addiction these students have high blueit their grading portal their emails from the school their school schedule school apps grade grade level apps uh if they're playing sports the they perpetuate having an Instagram account for related to their sports team um all those things are on their cell phones if we want children to stop using technology and we have to stop piping in all of the stuff that perpetuates the useage of it so that's just more of a global issue

109but I think they go to together I think I don't think we're trying to get them to stop using technology we're looking we're looking to pause so that they can be more um focused in the classroom try to stop technology no but to limit if we're asking them to not use these things when the Tool I think there's tools on their phone that they use during the school day and so it's like we put the cart before the horse or right the parameters the guidelines and that's just a cultural issue we're all struggling think like just like a cherry book years ago they put thr books in with no you know with no plan because the state's moving faster than we could keep up with with the State Testing it's kind just reminds me of

110that again that you know I question if it's been ever done to Fidel that's it that's all so what I would say is that they're going to come back the CHS uh principles will will be back come to that meeting let's let's hear we're not anything so well at least this way the members of I would say question I forgot in I not I forgot to ask it about the school Community coaches to clubs and all communicate constantly through social media so I asked that question the first meeting of what do we need the cell phones for if they have their Chromebooks and I believe Mr Bishop said there is nothing that they would need their cell phones for the Chromebooks Sur f suffices for all of that so I think B sports like after

111school using instram I don't know how they Instagram I guess we have to look into that more and what those requirements are but I believe they can get on all of that on their we would not be taking away from there sure Erica um to condense my thought um I do respect Kim's position but I will say um I have heard from either students the disruption of of selfing classes especially when they're not want to feel like they're outing like their peer like doing something or being disruptive they just want to go go with the flow so it does disrupt the learning we also say I have two um of my daughters that are in private school and high schools and I've seen the benefits of checking phones in the classroom one of the added

112benefits of students which I know it's an added cost is a charging portal we all know that teers don't often charge their phones so they're off the dead so the benefit of checking the phone when you go to the classroom is the folks getting charged Fe to and they grabb their phone on the way out um it's been really effective for for both I have a freshman and a junior in two separate schools and it works great so that's speak great feedback thank you ER I just wanted to you know I was at policy and sat through that and I the the main thought that I wanted to share was that I it's it's hard it's hard to come up with a policy with two people working on it and um and we had some

113people come for public comment and um that largely had children at Cherrybrook and I I think making a policy for kindergarteners is extremely different from what would be appropriate for a senior in high school and you know by and large Cherry but parents are for you know obviously for no devices at all and um it's just a different reality for high schoolers and so I think that's good point something that we need to be c yeah we got I'm sorry go ahead guys yeah um I would just say about the sports issue and like Communication in terms of that I know a lot of students use remind or group me and those are absolutely only on your phone and I know most students don't really use Instagram or communication through Sports it's mostly like a

114game Day post and like sharing that I telling people to come to games that's not so much the issue for communication it's more that I get my communication with my coaches through group me and remind and they more so use email to communicate to parents as like a weekly thing like these are our matches these are our practices but with weather things those change really fast and that's like the only way we can get communication I would also add I know you mentioned like we could use our Chromebooks to get access to like Instagram or stuff like that we can't do that Spotify too I know a lot of students say like they like to listen to music but school school Chromebooks block Spotify or apple music anything like that um and currently I'm taking

115a BHS course I'm taking AP Psychology and a lot of our stuff is honestly blocked by our school computers so in school I often use my phone in study halls so I can watch videos that are blocked by our school computers the videos aren't inappropriate it's just our school computers often block just random stuff I mean if psychology is talking about the brain I don't know if it's something like that and it gets blocked but I often have to use my phone to do my curriculum online I know this is a long but it would would have been helpful and it would be helpful to have you meeting yeah it's said 5:00 if you stomach that December 10th that be great I as well take PHS class I take K economics and many of the

116videos that I need to watch every week are also blocked so I if either having to allocate time at home um which then makes my time that I have in school it makes it uh like there's no use to it because I'm just sitting there and I usually go on my other workout done outside of school and at that time I'm just using honestly it's it's wasted talking my friends I mean it's a nice break in the day but it's not actually what that time supposed to use for which is that AP economics class so I do think phones are are useful because I mean those are days when my phone is dead that that I'm using that I talk to my friends and stuff but when it's not I do use it to watch

117those videos that are required for that class and as well just a general observation that I have I mean I'm in many like accelera classes and i' I've realized that in classes where students really truly care about their learning and are focused already phones are more of a tool than a distraction like for example in my AP Chemistry Class A lot of the time we will end up be helping we'll help mad out uh with maybe setting up a lab or or like say you finish your work early you're going to help set up a ladder clean up an old ladder wash some dishes for her maybe and that all counts towards science National honest Society hours and we always use our she allows us to take her phone out quickly just write in a

118little note that's say this this I know um some students uses use their Bon or agendas and I understand that obviously the goal is to create a policy that's going to work schoolwide and help students focus more in every single class but I just think it's a it's a necessary point to make that in classes where students truly do care about their learning and are there to learn they're they're ready phones are not a distraction they're War thank you John same thing I said to uh julan and Magie be good to hear from you what we heard from on the board through emails and public comment was overwhelmingly from parents with very young children uh what Drew and what Mr depo and M Kidwell have heard from are parents of you guys and it's a

119different message right so we need to hear both messages to look at what what those what ours are blocking if they're blocking educational things they actually need to do St I would love the opportunity to be able to speak into that very very briefly Mrs T your point about do students have access to the things that they need during the during the school day during the academic school day absolutely I think n brought up a really good point about remind being one of the um the recommended resources that we have for that so for the school workor that they have absolutely for VHS I'm glad that we brought that up I think one of the things that we have struggled with in uh with Mr Fury moving um he is the point person for VHS

120and so whenever something like that pops up he has been the mechanism to be able to support it so I'm glad that you're sharing that but I would love love for you to be able to talk with high school administration about that because we're we actively work to be able to make sure that those things um have access to that and there's there's rationale for why there there is protection out there for for uh some of the operations with that but I would really ask you to be able to talk with high school administration to be able to help you with that and then moving forward I know Mr depa was posted for that uh position as the VHS coordinator to be able to help with those types of things to make sure that you

121have access to so I think I think hearing all this inut and taking what Erica said uh to heart that this is a big deal and it's U maybe bigger than just the policy committee maybe what we need is so everybody because the way that the committee works and Kim got cut today um you get public comment but it's really the committee that to work on this maybe we should have a special meeting the board so the board can everybody can add their input rather than just in a a public comment type setting so let me discuss this further with superintendent see and and Mr Bishop on what's the best way to approach this going forward I know we talked about maybe a special meeting but I think we're all in agreement we don't want

122cell phone disruption we all agree on that it's just what is the most so I think I'll open this up more to the board to get bigger input Erica to your point so let let me talk with uh Dr Gman and Mr Bishop and we'll go from there okay all right and then uh curriculum so curriculum yes we met in October and um there were two main things um we discussed we did a text book review for the AP environmental science um class that was due for a updated textbook um that was approved and and then we did also had a presentation by uh Mr Amry Mrs woods and Mrs Watson they they uh presented to us and did a great job reviewing for Kim and I we were there The Benchmark Advance program for

123Cherry Brook grades K through3 uh it's a program it's an advanced Core curriculum that meets the needs of the areas where we are a little bit weaker in those grades and um they've done some very thorough work gone to see in other schools and um at some point when we do uh when we have them here to our board meeting they're going to elaborate on it for the larger board Kim anything you want to ask no it's pretty much the program to replace Columbia readers and Writers Workshop which is what the state recommended we look for alternative programming so this is what's what is proved by the state and is the rec core reading and writing well you know the Hispanic awareness biologic awareness all the components that were missing from Columbia initially yeah so

124they've done what sounds like the staff has vetted it worked very hard done a lot of time energy to get to this point so will it be a big cost to change it I can jump in on that um the answer is yes there's a cost that comes with all of these things um and I think that this is something that's good to be able to share with the uh um State Legislature as well to be able to advocate for things um we do have a a small grant that is uh out there for us to be able to um support the initial m and we're thrilled to be able to have a publisher to partner with who working very creatively with us to limit the impact of that uh that cost immediately for us

125and be able to to truncate that over five years yeah with the state asking us to change it would be helpful for their financial support it would be helpful to have more I would anything else uh just our next meetings uh like Dr BR said November 27th a.m okay anything on anything on technology um um well we're meeting tomorrow um that's the technology strategic planning yeah okay tomorrow's so um I can report back next month on that okay thank you very much yeah and then communication yes um we met on October 28th um we discussed four key points uh one was the student at the center video um that was released at that point had 176 views it was also distributed as a district communication and featured in each of the school's newsletters can also

126be found on the website the valley Prest newsletter deadline was the beginning of this month the print release date is set for November 15th the newsletter will also be available digitally on the website as well as distributed by each School in their newsletter to reach and engage more of our school member School community members um number three we uh discussed school specific updates that are included in the newsletter so we have we featured something for each School so for Cherry Brook the science reading curriculum for um Canton Intermediate School Learning environment belonging Middle School's information on Commissioners Network um Kon high school early college and credit options and then the all the new staff district will also be focused um and then for feedback and engagement there has been positive feedback received that the schools

127are effectively engaging with communication strategies um we also wanted to share an email for those Within District that want to voice their opinion or share feedback as it relates to communication and how we can communicate more effectively and that email address is Communications at canas schools.org oh great uh next meeting is Monday November 25th meetings are always the last Monday of the month at thank you very much any questions on Communications I'm excited to see the uh newsletter come out that should be great it last Monday of the month a virtual I'm sorry virtual or in person virtual 1 p.m. and and just so everyone else communication has always so communication was a committee one point so it's more of a working group but it is open for anybody to attend anybody that of I'm

128going to uh plan is to make this more advisory and not a formal committee so they don't have to really post an agenda so everybody can attend and give whatever input they'd like and then is still report back to the board there'll be more advisory than anything else okay all right thank you very much for those reports in your kit you have a calendar of events um the superintendent also gave you a couple dates to think about the N coming up um any questions on the calendar of events are coming up for October uh November and December post those on your bulleting boards okay um all right so um we're going to move towards recommended uh actions uh we're going to move that the camp board of education remove the October 88 2024 minutes from

129the consent agenda um there's a little bit of a change that has to go in there uh relative to attendance that somehow uh ge was left off we're going to fix that but it has to because it's amended we're going to vote to do that so if I have a motion to move you can't Board of Education move the October 8 20124 minutes from the can from the consent agenda motion thank you Kim Second Joe any discussion on that any concerns all those in favor I unanimous that's 80 okay the second is is that the same or is 70 sorry 7 okay so now we're going to we're going to move to approve that the cam Board of Education approved the amended minutes of October 8 2024 to reflect the board member Jordan tant was

130president at that meeting motion Kim thank you second Jordan any discussion everybody understanding all those in favor I I seven okay 70 okay all right um motion that camp board of education now approve the consent agenda is provided motion thank you Jordan thank you Erica for a second yeah uh any questions consent agenda we're good on uh everybody's listed all those in favor I opposed okay all right in your kid uh you have the uh the Board of Education um school calendar for the 2526 school year sen your kit this is a first reading we'll come back at it um and I think uh you any comments on this so just want to comment briefly about the calendar for 2526 as Mr Tang said this first read some highlights August we will again uh bring

131our seniors in a day earlier like we did this year it was successful so you can see the star on August 27th the seniors will come in on August 27th with the rest of the population starting on October 28th so we'll do programming just like we did um this year with our seniors with graduation being for our seniors on June 12th and but they will end their 182 day their 182nd day is June 11th so they'll be out on the 11th but they'll come back for a Friday graduation because according to the contract teachers contract they have 182 days and then our rest of the student population K through 11 will start on the 28th and their final day would be June 12th if we don't have any emergency closing days the rest of the

132calendar is relatively the the same calendar that you approved for uh this year with us aligning with the 182 uh days of of school that is according to the teachers contract and then the first three days um which we agreed with in the bargaining group is professional development for the the teachers the first three days any questions yes September 19th can I just be a is that a typo that little arrow should go to a slash is it's actually not a half day where everybody leaves it's a professional development day you see that Friday September 19th he would match the bullet points that are listed for it should be like slash not an not an arrow the til the little yeah and and then my next question comment is um I've heard some concerns in

133the community about the Cherry Brook CIS conference days being different than the middle school and high school so I guess the question is have you had well they haven't had it this hasn't happened so until that's happened I'd be concerned about voting on this calendar because I'd like to know successful it was for parents students teachers at those schools to have it be different and I've heard you know parents work schedules they're having to take off six days versus three why would parents have to take off six days well I've heard because if you have a child let's just say you have a child what middle school high school right now and they need any super Vision there those kids are home half day so this week there's three half days for those kids and

134then if you have children in the other school you are taking those three days I guess December what aren evenings students so you're you're saying that a parent that may have a chair BR parent that they would need supervision for their seventh and eighth grader also is anybody understanding what happens when well no I'm hearing what you're saying so if let me go back as I said last year it was very deliberate by the administration um for this year for confence because teachers actually requested at the elementary at the elementary level and at the high school level that it was in between so it was late for the high school because their quarter ended and then the trimester for the elementary schools doesn't end till that December time frame so what was happening is the

135elementary conf were happening too early to provide feedback of where kids were in the high school it was happening in the middle school was happening too late for the feedback so that was a deliberate change that the teachers were recommending and administration was recommending I've also had POS are you supposed to be all I was going to say is like I'm sure there's pros and cons everything so i' just like to know after what a his feedback is and what the feedback is for the school yeah so I reached out yeah I reached out today to the administrators to see and yesterday to see CU I had one parent give me call that was just confused on she actually thought her kids had half days um this today but she thought her kids had six

136half days but it was just Jered Brook um and I asked the the principls if they received any feedback from any parent regarding and up until now they haven't received received any feedback relative to the to the schedule the conference in themselves we we wouldn't know that till um December 2nd third and fourth we wouldn't vote on this to the 10 so we will definitely have feedback of how it went those out for sure I did have on some positive feedback to share even though I do recall doing this I got mixed up and thought that the had half day I speak to the staff um at CIS and they said they've had a few parents um say that they liked that it was separate because they have kids in both schools and it makes

137it easier to kind of focus on those um conferences and then December focus on the conferences for the other students so they did have some positive feedback that so we're moving this with a with a small modification for the September 19th yeah first reading K's absolutely right that we have to uh change the Tilda and that we'll come back to kin's point we come back with feedback at our next meeting to see if we heard anything um from the teachers or parents what they um thought on that and um I've not heard um but I would encourage anybody in the community that it is a child care issue relative to the middle school children or high school children watching their younger children at at Cherry Brook in Intermediate School during that the summer time that

138that's a realistic concern that we brought up as a administrative team it's not probably the other way around where we need to watch the middle school kids but you're 100% right that the older kids may have been watching the younger kids no I wasn't saying they're watching I was saying it's total of six half days but depends where your children fall it might be six for some families y okay so let let's take a motion to uh move this uh the 2025 26 Public Schools district calendar with a modification on the 19th as a first reading first reading motion thank you Kim Joe thank you Joe any further discussion on the calendar all those in favor I oppos okay so we move that along now I'll take a motion um in your in your packet

139you have the 2025 Board of Education meeting dates we skip the tri board minutes and the approval of the financials for October 31st sorry it's we did did thank you well no that's part of the consent agenda okay so is the approval of the financials also okay sorry I just want thank you sorry no that's a good question um so now we're going to go to the 2025 Board of Education meeting dates which you have on the other side of the calendar it also lists the uh the policy curriculum and uh Finance subcommittee meetings is this we're adopting or is this a per meeting this would be would be adop we're adopting so we're adopting before we handed these out in the summer this is just to make that starting in December December or January

140that our meetings would not have to be special meetings because our on the ADV of the attorney to approve it at a November meeting so here we are approving it at a November meeting okay so can I get a motion to approve the 2025 Board of Education subcommittee and meeting dates and welcome dates thank you did you have a question you sorry okay first Jordan second from Felicia any further questions all those in favor I okay I'm going to table U I'm going to table the revision to policy 421 4021 prohibition of sex discrimination including sex bias harassment I'm also going to table uh the approval of revision to policy 530 prohibition of sex discrimination including sex biased harassment students I'll bring that back to the board um going to check you have some legal

141uh questions to uh just little toy so we're going to table that okay all right with that I'm going to move Board of Education enter into session at uh 8:37 uh p.m. uh inviting the superintendent and the assistant superintendent uh to be here for the purposes of a districtwide school safety update which we're required to do annually so this will be your update you guys are all set thank you for attending tonight can I have a motion thank you Kim thank you you John a second all those in favor all thank you for coming tonight appreciate it okay we're going to we're going to move over here this isn't going to be it's a quick update on safety okay we'll be back I said