001yeah call the meeting of the board of education for September 12th to order welcome everybody tonight and we'll start off as we usually do with the Pledge of Allegiance Simona lead us in that with flags behind us thank you in the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you all um welcome to a little bit different format you're going to see tonight as we move forward um so we're going to get right into it uh we're going to go right into the administrative reports which starts off with the superintendent uh I'm sorry which starts off with me uh as the chair so um again welcome this is our first you know school time hello Felicia how are
002you I just saw that you were on uh is anybody else on with Felicia okay um and Felicia if you want to inject something just raise your hand up or Carol see it if you want to say anything thank you um so uh a couple of things that I'm pretty proud of I'm pretty proud of that we had our meeting on the 28th our Retreat meeting and uh I think that set a great tone uh going forward and we had shipping and Goodman Goodwin uh be able to give us some some board pointers of what we should be doing going forward I was most pleased and I think we'll continue to refine that is the board evaluation I think it's important that we go through that self-evaluation period uh at every meeting at every year
003once a year and so uh I think that was a pretty successful day I want to congratulate the superintendent on a very successful convocation that evening uh the next day I'm sorry the day before that Thursday a very successful convocation I think we got off to the right foot as a school district this year um I want to again just acknowledge the the work of the board of education is going to be going forward uh we're going to really dive into the subcommittee work which is uh tonight Joe scheidler was a chair of uh policy this morning we had a board of Finance meeting with Russell Bush as our chair of finance and of course Erica is our chair of curriculum so we'll be leaning on our our committees to do more of the work
004going forward and uh I want to thank the chairs for their help I would encourage the other members of those uh of those subcommittees uh to help them out what we learned with shipping a Goodwin is even though I've been attending the meetings I'm really not a member of those uh those committees so the committee where I'm there to listen and to add support as much as I can but it's the work of the people that are on the committee that's going to be so important in your packet tonight I want to just point out I think this is so important I was talking to the superintendent about it Dr Grossman the vision of a graduate because I think is bored sometimes we we get away from some of the things that the the the
005foundational things that we're here to make sure happens and I had um I asked Connie to put this in the packet because I think it's great to refer to this especially as the first meeting of technically the school year of the vision of a graduate and what we're driving to do as a team Administration teachers and uh and the Board of Education to make sure that our graduates are a creative thinker communicator a collaborator a critical thinker in a compassionate citizen those five ingredients are so important and that's what we're going to continue to focus on as we go forward now now along with these things on the 24th through 25th at our Retreat meeting we adopted the board's goals and the board's goals align with these things okay these elements So for anybody that's
006listening to home or anybody that has not seen the board goals I would ask you to go on our website they are posted because tonight you're going to hear from our superintendent about uh his strategy for and his methods for helping the board achieve those goals so I would just ask you to remember that and other than that those are the only things that I wanted to bring to the board's attention tonight okay any any questions for the chair anything I said Felicia you're good okay perfect then I will now turn it over to Dr Grossman for the superintendent's announcements good evening welcome to everyone welcome to your official board meeting for the 23-24 school year I want to welcome Mrs Olson Mrs Le Pain and Mrs Johnson uh tonight who are going to speak
007about our summer school programming we welcomed our Canton Intermediate School and Cherry Brook primary school preschool students back last week it was so exciting to see our youngest Learners come back to school I just ironic I want to congratulate our can Public Schools teacher of the year Miss Ashley Le Pain who's here this this evening who we honored at our convocation I want to congratulate our canton's parent educator a year at Tyrone Jemison it was exciting to honor those two individuals and I believe it's in October Mrs Le Pain will be honored by the the state of Connecticut at a function at the Bushnell in your package you have a form for the Kent middle school PTO mum sale so if you'd like to buy some mums and benefit the Canton Middle School you could
008do that if you need any help on how to order it the form is a little bit complex just reach out to Claudia tomorrow and she'd be more than happy to help you out our upcoming open house curriculum nights Cherrybrook primary school is this week 6 p.m to 7 30 p.m Canton High School is this week September 14th 6 30 P.M to 8 P.M Canton Middle School is 6 00 P.M to 8 P.M on September 20th in Canton Intermediate School 5 30 to 7 30 p.m on September 21st which all these dates are listed in your packet we provided for you a calendar of events so if there's things that you have supportive education member want to attend we thought that would be something that would be interest to you there'll be an early release
009on Friday this Friday September 15th for professional development with a focus on social emotional learning very exciting that the Canton High School Community tag sale I believe this is to benefit the uh can parents for music will be on a mattress sale we'll be on Saturday September 23rd in the parking lot from 9 00 a.m to 2 P.M meetings have been held over the past couple weeks regarding the space issue at Cherry Brook primary school we are working with the town and planning on the possibility of installing module classrooms at the school in the future this is something that will be an ongoing topic and I'll continue to update you at future board meetings and especially at our finance and Facilities committee meeting so we're just in the process of looking at that I would
010have never thought that with last week's unusual heat that we would have been testing out our emergency system as you know if you're a family member that has a student in the district and we did send the communications to the the board we did Institute a text system last week by a school messenger that it is really quick we don't need to send out voice messages we send out that text and people get it and they were able to sign up so it was a good way of really communicating to the public what was going on within our schools and in a quick way with the text messaging the next regular scheduled board meeting is October 10th I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent thank
011you Dr Grossman we move forward with the assistant superintendent's report Mr Bishop thank you chair Daniels in your packet you'll see a colorful sheet entitled uh Canton High School New England Association of schools and colleges report brief if you'll recall last year there was a visit by the New England Association in school of schools and colleges also known as niask they come as a visiting committee to be able to provide an evaluation a peer evaluation of the operations of the school uh it's uh niosk is an independent voluntary non-profit organization it partners with over 1500 Public Schools it's accreditation process is well respected effective and a time-tested methodology what it does is it it engages in partnership with a school to be able to review a number of indicators for Effective professional practice and engages
012the the school community in reflecting on their practice and then presenting information to this visiting group the visiting group then does some additional fact-finding and investigation Cooperative work together and then provides recommendations and feedback back to the high school you can see on the front the standards that are part of the principles of effective practice learning culture student learning professional practice learning support and learning resources and underneath each of those standards are descriptors of effective practice as well the schools use that to be able to evaluate their their work and reflect on their performance we were very pleased to be able to get results back from the commission of public schools at niask at their June 25th 2023 meeting they reviewed the decennial accreditation report from the recent visit to Canton High School and voted
013to award the school a continued accreditation in the New England Association of schools and colleges I have there listed the number of accommodations and recommendations for us to continue to be able to reflect on the work of a good school is never done so there are some things that we're excited to be able to continue this good work moving forward with at the end of this year we will have a report brief that we will provide to niask giving them a sense of where we are in our continued work and where we're going with some of our future work um we're very we're very excited about where we are and the high school has done an exceptional job moving forward uh addition I'd like to be able to share how excited we were to participate
014in the science of reading master class which was uh held in partnership with uh caps and Connecticut Department of Education uh Canton is a number one of a number of districts who are participating in this master class and it continues to support us in our doubling down on supporting effective reading instruction for our youngest planners I'll take any questions if there are any right now any questions for the assistant superintendent I will say this on behalf of the board I took the liberty of sending a um a note to Dr Kidwell and Mr depipo just complimenting them and congratulating them on a great report from the niask visits and uh that they had met um the many of the uh the points that they had they had mentioned in their uh in their overview so
015I think they did a great job I know there's a lot of pressure and stress on that so I I congratulated on that on that and thank you for the report Mr Bishop okay moving along uh Mrs muskowski oh I'm sorry they skipped over that story so uh welcome uh again uh Simone you're you're now the uh the senior of the group yeah and uh Maggie welcome to your first meeting I know Juliana has a uh has a I hope we're successful there so who would like to lead on the student report um so this year we kind of uh created a new system for doing a student report and we decided because there's three Representatives that make sense for like each of us to kind of tackle one school and like reach out and
016do the work of like reaching out to the administration there to find out like um events that are kind of less known to the public things that are like hidden gems almost that are exciting to share um so I'll be reporting on behalf of um the Canton middle and high school I'll be reporting on CIS who Juliana will be reporting on Sherry Brook but we'll cover her report for right now great yeah so I think that's a great uh strategy and plan I think the board would be very interested in how that all comes together yeah I'm excited I think it'll be good so to start I'll start with the Ken middle and high school but we have had a great start to our school year we're excited to be back and I'm excited and
017this year so far we've just had like very smooth transition and we I think one positive thing that we've brought to the community was the bulletin board in the front which I know many teachers saw during convocation um and I'm not sure if you saw it after convocation anyone here but the students added stars that had adjectives on them that represented um our community and the positive advantages that representative um and also yesterday on 9 11 we had 400 United States flags out to represent 400 firefighters that lost their lives so very good uh Community intermediate school started off the 2023 the 2024 school year on a really good note uh some items of excitement are their play on the Taylor Swift swifties being CIS nifties uh sixth graders made a great made friendship bracelets
018for the third for the fourth and fifth graders and they completed a fire drill and a code red and math has started their first units of multiplicative thinking expression equations and volume and geometry very good yes and I'm just going to read what Giuliana had written um Cherryville Primary School had a wonderful and happy starts the 2023-2024 school year the PTO provided a red carpet carpet entrance for this Cherrywood Primary School students on the first day of school um they also had their first school meeting on Friday September 1st all the staff introduced themselves to the students kindergarteners are recognized as our newest members too the Trevor primary school team and our third graders were recognized as our newest School leaders our new mascot was introduced and students learn about the positive cards our mascot
019and the positive cards are part of our culture climate and work this year the focus is first week and for the next week's October primary school is to build classroom community and learning routines very good that's a great report any questions for the student reps I think that's going to work well Dr Grossman yeah one of the things that we're going to allow the students to to do is when we do our board walks when we go around on those dates the school that each one of them has so Maggie will come with us on the camp Intermediate School walk so she'll be able to walk with us and then Juliana will be able to come to Cherry Brook and what they may do is switch halfway during the the school year so they could
020experience going to the the different schools so they can get it from a lens from a student perspective as they're walking with you that's great very good thank you for the reports Mrs miskowski thank you 31 notice a new a new look a new way of looking at the financials with like I think you're gonna really love it because um I think it's a great format uh I did go over the results with the finance committee this morning uh where they accepted the financials uh most importantly um the results as you know we're doing a full year forecast each month uh and it gets revised as we go along uh so right now for the end of August we are forecasting 34 000 in the black overall uh which is a hundred thousand dollar difference
021from last month so last month we were actually reporting uh a little bit of unfavorability uh but we were able to make some of that up with some of our our staff being none of our items Russell [Music] do you want to comment on today's meeting at today's meeting you know we approved August 2023 financials like Donna said Dominic has stolen my thunder here uh just working off of a new format it's much easier to understand very happy with it and I think the biggest highlight that one dimensional really does appear this time that we are seeing on the page excellent that's good to hear I know we'll dive into that further and also to let the board members notice a little bit of a roller coaster ride we're positive this month I think I
022just want to compliment you on the report and that it is I think um very understandable I think the board of Finance would be very pleased with it thank you good work on that thank you thank you very much Mr Daniels if I could just comment please do so and one of the things that as you move superintendent coming in that I had to task um Mrs musikowski with was I didn't understand the the budget a little bit when I walked in there was some things that it just wasn't clear to me and I'm a forecast person and I know that the Board of Education wants to forecast out I know the board of Finance wants to forecast out so the the reports that we are doing now really forecasts out to the the dollar
023of where we're at at that moment in time but also forecasting what our year end would be so one of the things that the Board of Education needs to know is where we are at this moment time and as Mrs misakowski said it's thirty four thousand dollars in the black last month when we reported to the finance committee and to the board Finance we were 65 000 in the red so when you go through the the template that we have with our sheets it's showing exactly what offset to get us into the black and and those are the things that you want to know and how we're going to forecast out for the the remainder of the year so for example if you look at the sheet you'll notice that we know that in substitutes
024we're going to be underfunded we know that so we're already showing forecasted out a 68 000 loss and substitutes but we know that there's another line item that is offsetting that sixty eight thousand dollars in the red that's what we're calling forecasting a budget and moving forward really trying to predict where we're going to be at the end of the year rather than say well we'll see in a month where we're going to be it's we're giving Real Time Financial reports so I I also have to commend Mrs Mrs Kelsey because it is a complete paradigm shift that we've been working with um Russell on to make sure that our finance committee would understand it and we actually prepped the board of Finance last month that when we meet on Monday we'll be presenting um
025this way among it so thank you perfect you know I I'd like to say on the flying inches I mean it truly is one of the cores of the board of education's work if you feel uncomfortable and I I have to tell you when I first came on the board it took me three years I didn't open my mouth when it came to finance for the first two years because for what Dr Grossman said this goes back my first stint but it it's something to really uh it's hard sometimes to absorb everything so if you're not feeling totally comfortable I'd open this up to any board member and I haven't mentioned it to superintendent but uh please give him a call because he and Donna can sit down with you and walk you through it
026uh so that you are comfortable it'd be great to have every board member feeling very comfortable with with the finances especially as we go through the next budget cycle I think that would make things a lot easier so I just open up to every board member to be able to do that okay any questions on what was just said from the finance committee Felicia you're good board members are good I was just going to ask is this this is this page is like the Highlight in my mom that we used to know so we're still going to keep going on yeah great okay so that leads us to public comment so as we go forward with public comment I just want to mention that uh public comment is really for the Board of Education to
027get input from the public it's it's another um it's another method for us to to be fully transparent with the public on everything that we're doing um but we do limit it to three minutes um because there may be topics some nights that people can go on forever but we do try to limit for three minutes and it's been suggested that we time those three minutes and I try to be a little bit lenient on that but we do we do try to keep it within three minutes and the other thing is and I get this question a lot in public is why aren't you commenting on what somebody says to us as they stand up in the podium and give us comment the reason being is because under Freedom of Information the topics that
028were asked or the comments that are made or the suggestions that are made are not on our board agenda so we it would not be appropriate for us to comment on that that's why we listen there may be a comment from the chair a little bit back and forth maybe there's a misunderstanding that can happen but for the most part we're just going to listen to public comments and we'll take that back and it may show up in a future date on an agenda uh on something that we need to really address more uh appropriately so having said those things we'll open it up to public comment we'll of course go to our folks online and then we'll go to anyone in the audience that has a public comment sure so if you're joining us
029online tonight and you'd like to make public comment you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature Zoom it should be on the bottom of your screen and I will call on you by your Zoom name I don't have any raised hands okay so if anybody in the audience would like to make a public comment I'd ask you to stand go to the podium give us your name and your address that's board policy so anybody no Julia no all right I'll say something it doesn't ask me directly what you just talked about right it could be anything that you want to comment on well I just have a compliment to give so so just just give your name for the board and your address um Julia LaCroix team Morgan Road thank you um and
030excuse me for the name pronunciation I believe it's Mr Amery the principal I just wanted to give a compliment um so I am a I was a student at Kent and I was an employee in Canada now a first-time mom of a kindergartner and I just really appreciate all his effort in making the kindergarten specifically parents feel welcome and you know he made phone calls to every single parent this summer and that was not only one parent but moms and the dads and um just his communication overall the first week about you know when the buses are leaving the school we got an email every day telling us this bus left at this time and these buses left at this time and it was really helpful and I really just appreciated his welcoming to Cherry
031Brook it's nice you to come and say that by the way those types of compliments there's no time limit you can go on so everybody knows we're not going to limit those just just kidding just kidding okay thank you for those comments Julia anyone else in the in the audience like the comment okay thank you under old business it appears that we have none under new business we have with us Mrs Watson Mrs Olson Mrs laplane Mrs Mrs Le Pain Mrs Johnson and I want to recognize in the audience also Mr Moore our uh principal at CIS I don't think you're here for the summer program but I would like to turn it over to you folks Dr Grossman do you want to um anything you want to say or Mr Bishop to lead this
032off I I just want to thank the board of education for the support for our summer Academy work that we've been able to uh put in place over the past number of years as you recall um we have previously talked about what the summer slide looks like and what that what that feels like for students if you wouldn't mind going just to the the next slide there that would be great uh we'll be highlighting our K5 Summer Academy our CMS Steam summer academy and our High School Credit Recovery next slide for me real quick but uh the the concept of a summer slide is something that is that is is real that we see in in research and one of the best things that we can do to be able to support our students who
033are at risk of regression or or challenges and moving forward is to be able to provide them with continuous learning and structured focused continued learning throughout our summer programs uh the board has been a phenomenal in supporting this program as we have grown it from the from the ground up and I'd like to be able to have the opportunity for uh several of our leaders of this program this summer to be able to share with us so if we could go ahead and have um Mrs Watson and Miss Johnson go ahead and stand they LED together our K5 program and be able to share some highlights for our K5 Learning Academy you do have a document in your um in your folder as well with some of the highlights which are up on the board
034as well okay um so thank you um I'm Chris P Johnson for those of you who don't know me um and we're thrilled for the opportunity to talk to you today just about to report out on Summer Academy programming but also to celebrate the successes that we had in the summer um yes our program is meant to prevent summerslide and help students maintain skills but more than that it's really around pinpointing priority skills for each grade level that will help that student be successful the following year and supporting students to grow in those areas more than just the academics we also focus on social emotional health of students through structured socialization with morning meetings and closing circles unstructured play through recess where we integrate with our extended school year program and our small group work
035that really is the base of the academics for the program we find that that helps students feel successful more often and we can celebrate those successes that really boosts students confidence and prepares them to tackle hard tasks part of our program also is building and collaboration and creativity through our steam program where students each day engage in Science and Arts and again that's integrated with our extended school year program so we're really proud of not just preventing summer slide but the ways that we're really bolstering students over the summer to feel successful and yes it's summer but still feel joyful being at school this year our numbers have grown so we service 66 students who this year Rose to first through sixth grade we ran 16 total sessions over the course of four weeks they
036just ran in the morning for four mornings a week um I'm really proud to I think for both of us of the the Summer Academy staff that we have listed here so it's Kathy and myself as directors but we had a handful of exceptional classroom teachers who chose to join us this summer um many of whom were returning for a second or third year in a row which really speaks volumes about how our Educators value the Summer Academy program and what that does for students and we're thankful that after a long school year they gave up their time and talent to be with us half of the names up there are actually paraprofessionals and tutors and I would love to name them each and give them the accolades they deserve but because of the pairs
037and tutors that we have as part of our program we're able to run that small group work and give that one-on-one feedback to kids on a daily basis and that's why in 16 short sessions we were able to see growth for almost every student who is a part of our program so we're really proud of the team that we had on board can I just say something real quick that team I I had a chance to visit with Christy a couple times I came because my my one of my grandchildren attended I of course I was the uh the driver but the the teachers are so energetic here it is the summer they're so energetic Smiles on their faces kids with smiles on their faces glad to be there I just have to tell you
038that program is just a wonderful program and you do a great both of you do a great job with it and we'll get to the other programs but I'm just very proud of that program I want to thank you both for coordinating that and taking that the way you did you do a wonderful job um so as Christy said we prioritized uh specific goals on both Ela and math across our four different cohorts that we had um we conducted weekly check-ins with students to collect those data points and you know we kind of talked about the the really the goal of Summer Academy is to maintain skills so we saw maintenance of skills for all students but what's I think really amazing you talked about between 95 and 90 of seven percent of students not
039only maintained but they display growth um and at least one of the prioritized skills for most of the students it was more than one skill for some of them it was all of them um so we got to see him four short weeks really a ton of growth and I think you know the data points are amazing to work out um what's even more amazing is the conversations we had with both students and parents um you know fans were saying well you know my kid my kid feels more ready to tackle the next school year um even from the students themselves hey how do you feel about summer Academy um do you like it and one kid said you know it it just keeps my brain fresh and I was like no that's literally the
040reason yes that is and not only that we were we were able to move students along the Continuum of learning very good um so lots of good things are happening behind the scene at Summer Academy so one of our goals is really thinking about how can we be transparent about that and thoughtful about how we communicate that to families and the community so a piece of what we did was weekly Communications to families that participated in Summer Academy detailing the curriculum and special activities that happened in each of the classrooms as well as the themes that all students participated in through Steam through their arts and science projects we also as Kathy said we're collecting data the entire time that's how we adjust instruction and meet students exactly where they are which is why we
041see that group and we don't keep that data to ourselves at the end we put together progress reports and share those out with families so they can see student growth across all four weeks in ela and then pre to post data each week in math really our big goal in sharing this is that parents can celebrate student effort and the successes that students had over the summer and so thinking about communication that was a big part of the work that we did as well as you can see from these photos the students you know there were not a lack of smiles throughout the whole day um they were happy they were really able to feel successful throughout the entire day um the teachers were able to meet the students where they were moved them along
042um they were engaged in meaningful tasks meaningful small group whole group steam um you know there were tons of moments for collaboration not no land on each other but you know across programs with esy we went together for steam activities um we came together for recess you know sort of that play component as well and just to just to interject there too Psy is our extended school year program which is typically something that is required by an individualized education plan an IEP so what was what was great was to be able to take our extended school program um as a part of our special education program and then our summer program and be able to have those those two groups be able to work in a really vibrant group was fantastic um so we're always
043assessing our current state and thinking about how to outgrow ourselves in the service of students so as we think forward we'll be thinking about how to expand the highly trained staff that we work with you know I spoke a lot about that team that we created and we realized the adults that we have in a room really are going to impact student growth um continuing to collaborate as John said between extended school year and our program we're housed in the same building and had the war we can overlap I think the more we'll pool our resources and be effective also evaluating the curriculum and structures that we use each year the needs of our students change so it'll be really important to look at the data from this year and reassess the curriculum that we
044use I know this year alone we adjusted some of our priority goals and adjusted some of our assessments based on what we knew students needed and we wanted to Target so we'll do that again if given the opportunity and then researching opportunities for extended engagement throughout the day there were certain families that unfortunately didn't send their child to Summer Academy just because of the time frame of programming so being thoughtful about that and thinking about resources within the community to expand some connections may help us and the students that we're serving within the program the last one but overall we just want to thank the board for your continued support and the community the parent feedback was incredible um and you know we appreciated the work that we were able to do as well yeah
045any questions today were they there [Music] okay yeah Crystal thank you terrific program terrific job you guys did uh is it by invitation to be in the program or open enrollment or High invitation please um that are below the launch Mark in certain areas we know those priority skills that we'll be tackling and so we're looking across the data to see what would be the pocket of students who would benefit from the program that were were provided we had 66 inches in a mile which is great were you sold out was there room for two five twenty more or we didn't turn anybody away um I don't have the exact number on me that I know is more than double that that we're invited to Summer Academy and that's pretty typical that we invite over
046150 students and we're getting like I said 66 is the most we've had so far um so we're definitely identifying students who would benefit from it these are the families that are responding yes this works for our schedule over the summer and my child wants to participate and last one if you had X that would make the program so much better what would X be or is it you know you're happy where it's it right now I mean we continue to assess the program and think about it I know that we'll still have meetings kind of looking under what happened this summer and how we want to move forward so TBD we'll go back to you on that one thank you thank you thank you thank you first we have to break for a minute
047and get the latest soccer score if we could Juliana and I'll get right back to John Joanna uh we won nice who did you play uh and Maggie told me that you played yesterday correct and you beat we just finished today today and who did you beat wonderful and as they were walking off great John you were going to say something I I wanted to to thank both of our our wonderful staff for sharing that and then also invite our Middle School steam staff to be able to share as well that's actually a pain and Miss Tina Olson excellent once again congratulations on teacher of the year thank you thank you um hi my name is Miss Ashley Levine and this is my lovely uh co-teacher Tina Olson um so this kind of came out
048of a brainchild of talking with Jeff and where are students at what do they need in terms of a summer program and so my crazy brain came up with a summer scene fair and my goal was really a cross-curricular connection where you know any student can really be engaged in learning and have it feel more like fun than learning and so we kind of came up with this whole sort of two-week program where students are investigating they're carrying out an experiment on their own and then ultimately what they were going to come up with was sort of an old school like science fair where they had their trifold board and they were going to be community members there but they were able to share their thinking and share their learning and um so for our
049first we had two sessions each one was um two weeks long so we had uh two hours or three hours a day 8 30 to 11 30 and we saw 12 students in our first session which interestingly mainly was eighth graders with a few SEC seventh graders and then in our second session we had 10 students and most of them were seventh graders and only a few eighth graders so definitely both had a different sort of feel to them and we were able to kind of focus on some different skills kind of knowing where seventh graders were going to be going and where 8th graders are going to be going in their eighth grade year and and um it was really great program if we go into the next slide we can kind of talk
050a little bit about some of the outcomes so first I kind of wanted to talk about the seventh graders Comfort coming into the school year it was great at orientation they were giving us high fives our students that were already as part of the program they were showing kids where the bathroom was and it was really great to see that feeling of comfort I know where the office is already I don't need to ask the teacher for it and even in my classes now as I'm kind of going over a few of the things we've already talked about even today I had a student kind of smile like him he goes I learned this already and so it was kind of really great to have that measurable outcome of that Comfort level and so a
051couple things that we sort of tailored our things around was identifying variables so how and science scientists work and how they think writing high quality procedures and graphing data and being able to kind of learn from an experiment after carrying it out to tell others about what they learned so they were actually able to choose from an experiment from a very long list we kind of tried to tell our experiments all different kinds of levels of curiosity learning and all students were successful in completing a summer fair board and it was just a really great experience for students we saw them resetting their relationship with school and learning a little bit once they realized that grade component was out of the way we kind of saw them relax a little bit they were able to
052kind of fall into learning and loving it a little bit more and kind of asking questions in a very low stakes way because there was so few students in the class they were able to really kind of ask questions and make mistakes without having that pressure of being in the regular Ed classroom during the school year and our next slide there's a couple of pictures there's some of our scientists so lots of different experiments going on we had bubble gum chewing we had airplanes growing in the classic Cooper towel brand experiment and then in our next slide we also Incorporated some team building activities so getting all students to work together through some you know fun little things such as like our tennis ball game and flipping the tarp and just for them to kind
053of get acquainted with each other and team build along ways that everybody was working on their own experiments and kind of a segmented way in groups but they were all able to come together for an hour of that day to sort of just have that nice summer fun too kind of almost like a summer camp kind of feel to it and then in our next slide we had the scene fair so both of our sessions ended in a a scene barely invited family members to come in community members to have students just talk science to them what they learned boy was it a powerful experience as a science teacher I'd always wanted to see this happen and I just like my heart best when I saw students having parents chewing um jelly beans but what
054flavor is it and just really having so much fun and connection with the community and them being able to talk science and really act like a scientist and it was a really powerful experience and so I just wanted to thank all of the the parents and the families that came you know at the end of their session to you know really dive into the experiments of not only their students but other students as well and showing support to everybody and our our Administration who came as well to kind of take time out of their day and it was a great way for students to see their principal again and see their superintendent and have them also do experiments so it was really great and then I think in our last slide we have some future
055opportunities and before I talk about future opportunities I do want to say how great it was when one student worked that I think you and said where's the rubric what are we being rated on and when she said there is no vertebrate those kids Dove so much deeper interestingly into their investigation and they really played around more and experimented more and I think it truly was because they're just doing this for their own learning and for their own fun and um you know that was just that was very impactful for me to see um that sometimes you know I I get it when you reverse reasons we need all that but um just learning to learn and it was was really great to see students um engaging in that um and so for future opportunities
056um we would love to expand the attendance we had a total I forgot what you said but about 22 or 23 kids um coming so we'd love to see more the students that attended were um we invited students initially and those recommendations were given from the sixth grade team and seventh grade teams for students that would benefit from an enrichment experience um and then from there we opened it up to the entire School the entire section seventh grade um so that's where you know our population came from so we'd love to see that grow this is just the first year this has happened so um you know we'd love to see that in the future and you know possibly bringing in some of these veteran um scientists to come in next year uh as Role
057Models or as um you know a little bit of co-leading we have a couple students that were really um strong with their presentations and with their their thought processes and and so it would be fun to incorporate them as peers and peer leaders um and we'd also love to maybe think about partnering with the community a little bit more we have a lot of buying of materials that I think we could reach out to other uh businesses and you know just expand you know their connections between the community and the school that way a little bit and and furthering Partnerships there very good how about questions when are the children notified or invited to go to this and is that enough lead time for their parents to work around their schedules [Music] had about five
058or six weeks before the program actually actually started to kind of figure out which and we had two sessions for them to choose from and we kind of ultimately figured out that structure so that it kind of gave more flexibility like if there were vacations in the beginning of the summer maybe they could use this type other questions so I would just add that um as you look at next year I Mr scheibler's question is there anything that the board can do to better support you number one and number two is you look for more financing potentially that may not be budgeted the Canton Education Foundation is a great place for both groups to come to help fund an initiative or a project that you have so I'll mentioned that to you but is there
059any anything that the board you're looking for the board to help you with or support you're in I your support is very much appreciated um I think as we move forward I think you know we'll work you know with Mr Bishop to see right now I can't think of anything glaring that we need you know your continued support and and funding on the program there's no cost to the students so that's right and you know that makes it very accessible to all right um so yeah keep that Education Foundation in mind yeah yeah and being a successful first year program I'm excited to kind of see where it goes and through Word of Mouth students kind of sharing you know summer scheme is fun you know I hope that it would be a great turnout
060and Mr uh Moore is asking us to invite you next year to come and taste jumping so okay we'll accept that too next year you can come to the summer school Fair thank you yeah thank you the four of you represent why we have the best teachers in Connecticut you represent yourselves very well and we're so proud of our teachers so thank you very much for your time tonight and coming out and taking time away from your families thank you okay questions okay that will lead us to the uh superintendent annual goals so I'll turn this over back to Dr Grossman super thank you so much well it gives me pleasure to present to the the superintendent goals this evening I've been working on these goals since I was hired as your superintendent of schools
061in January on my off time really thinking about where I believed that the Canton Public Schools should go and with your support it made it a little bit easier when the board adopted goals at your board of education Retreat so in the board packet that was sent out last week I did provide you the superintendent goals for the 23-24 school year so I'm going to go through those this evening and you'll notice that the superintendent goals are completely aligned with the six Canton Board of Education goal areas that we have what you'll also notice over the next few months is when the schools present their continuous Improvement plans that they will also be aligned to the Board of Education goals and then what you also notice in the continuous Improvement plans that the departmental goals
062at the school level will be aligned with the Board of Education goals so it's a priority that everything that we're doing across the district will align with the Board of Education goals so board goal area one student growth and achievement six of the specific superintendent goals that I'll really be focusing on with student growth and achievement is that I'll be taking a hard look and already have on our student achievement data and our gaps for all our student populations and analyze strategies to improve student achievement with administrative team and data teams already are being formed across the district in particular we will work to improve our math student achievement across all areas that is an area that is a gap within the Canton Public Schools we'll continue to assess our current and future practices in
063the area of special education Services one of the things that we will work on is working with the canned Middle School administration on the development of the schedule to better meet the needs of our students work with the Kent Middle School administration to participate with his State as a Connecticut State Department of Education Commissioners Network School we've discussed this before that Kent Middle School has offered the opportunity as a school area focused to be part of the commissioner's Network so I will be assisting with that and as Mr Bishop said in his report today we will be working with the Cherry Brook School administration and staff on the implementation of the science reading master class that is a selective group that I asked Mr Bishop in the spring to apply for and with some of
064the networking that I have in the state of Connecticut the Canton Public Schools was accepted board goal area two Partnerships and Community engagement I could say that we will advance and assist the Board of Education in the development of new board goals we're looking to work with the canned Public Schools community on the development of the new can Public Schools strategic plan with an anticipated release in the fall of 2024 enhance the climate and culture across the district by building positive relationships and increasing presence and the schools so excited to hear that we've already started to hit a positive culture with our kindergarten students that we need to hit our kindergarten students really hard because for some of them it's our first their first entrance into the canned Public Schools maintain a high level of
065communication and visibility within the community last week hopefully showed how I will communicate with this community maintain the Board of Education policies and develop policies which align with local state and federal guidelines you'll hear a little of that when Mr schadler reports based upon our policy committee continue to develop a clear understanding of responsibilities expectations and communication systems to promote an effective Superintendent of Schools Board of Education working relationship the board will only be as good as I am and I will only be as good as the Board of Education meet with Business Leaders Civic leaders Faith leaders political leaders police and other community leaders to promote the success of the canned public schools that is happening and has already happened and we'll continue to happen board goal area Financial stability and efficient operations work
066with the business manager to obtain all state and federal grants that are offered to the Canton Public Schools review Financial projections allocations and process used to develop the annual budget it will look different this year than it looked in the past work uh develop a budget that supports the goals the board's goals District Mission and reflective of the economic climate I'm very aware of where we are within the the camp Public Schools community in the can Community regarding our economic climate work with the director of facilities to enhance and the overall Aesthetics functionality and the safety of the prep premises through effective maintenance Renovations and Landscaping initiatives work with the town on possible building projects to assess space issues across the district and work with the Board of Education which is going on right now
067with negotiations for our Education Association of Canton Canton Federation of educational personnels in UE Local 22 School custodians our learning environment and belonging goal area well we're looking to continue to do is coordinate a community engagement form forms that focus on community needs particularly in the area of Technology safety and social emotional learning ensure the developmental development of thoughtfully constructive effective strategy by school leaders to promote positive in school climate and integrate restorative practices where appropriate I promise you if we don't have good school climate and schools student achievement will not rise so we need to make sure that we have good school climate in schools and most importantly that I take very seriously is to Contin continue to implement and revise the Canton Public Schools emergency operation plan that is our safety plan embracing
068equity it is our goal to bring to the board and to develop and implement the Canton Public Schools equity and belonging plan I anticipate that coming to the board in October or November support minority recruitment by collaborating with correct teacher and service program that is to increase our teaching staff and a representative of minority population and partner with the state and the correct teacher and surface program participate with members of the staff and the Board of Education professional learning on equity and belonging and one of the things that I really want to talk to our students about is investigate the best the development of a teacher minority recruitment program with current students in our canned Public Schools so I want to start recruiting our own students to be our teachers of the future in the
069Canton Public Schools there's no there's no better recruitment ground than right here within our schools with our freshmen through our senior students and our Workforce Development I like that new name Erica just so you know we changed that Workforce Development I I will strive to Mentor model professional leadership for our administrative team members and for those of you that don't know I will participate by state appointment in the commission on children on the commission on women children seniors equity and opportunity I chair the commission on children for the state of Connecticut I chair the early the chair of the Cap's Early Childhood State committee and I chair the capital region pre-k through 12 safety and Emergency Management committee so my goal will be to still chair those committees um I believe that's really good for
070the town of Canton is really good for Workforce Development I'll take any questions at this time on the superintendent of calls questions for the superintendent okay no so thank you Jordan he's asking for any questions very good I appreciate all the concise and very specific things that you have listed I think we're off to a great start I just have one question um the equity and belonging plan is the is that going to be a committee or who's developing right now we're doing it this is um Jones uh our director of family engagement and Mr Bishop are developing this plan and it'll be something that will be talked about at this level and with constituents with the administrative team broad level goals really specific to where we feel we need to go as a district
071with equity and belonging that's one of the things that we lacked within the canned public schools that we had forums in the past but there was real no focus of what is the end game and what do we want that it's not a mad game I apologize using that but what are our results that we're looking for that are that are measurable that really sets the the work that we need to to do in that area so Mrs Jones has actually been working with Mr Bishop on that since last spring so okay thank you Felicia you good I'm good thank you any other questions yep Cindy sure so under uh student growth and achievement the first section Jordan yes number four about the the talks about Canton middle school and the development of his schedule
072to better meet the needs of students do you just don't like the school days yeah so so what I've learned from watching the the board meetings last year and then speaking to Mr Bishop and speaking to Mr Moore is that there was talk last year to look at the middle school schedule and it was done during budget season if I remember positions were possibly cut and one of the things that is going to be in Mr Moore's continuous Improvement plan is to look at the middle school schedule so my job will be to assist Mr Moore and Mr Bishop in looking at the schedule that will best suit our Middle School students yeah Mr Moore has been preparing us for that for I think for two years you've talked about that so uh planting the
073seeds I think so very very good any other questions for Dr Grossman just a comment uh it's a it's an impressive list Jordan it's a comprehensive list and one of the best parts of it it certainly addresses the goals we adopted IT addresses them in a fashion that's that's clearly measurable uh that when we we get to the spring I'm turning the winter end again in the spring uh you'll be able to bring us okay and the the issue you raised it's great to have an equity plan but it doesn't mean anything unless you can see here here are the steps we took in here is how we got there right and that's a theme throughout everything you've written here and I think it's really impressive thank you so what I I miss that and
074I'm glad Mr scheidler set me up like he's been doing for 25 years is that um I will report back to you in the spring with the the same type of document but it will literally take each one of these and give you one or two sentences of where what we accomplish based upon each one of those strategy areas so instead of a two-page document you'll probably have a five page document that really summarizes each one of these things that we have thank you John okay thank you for that report very good uh let's now move into the um our standing committees and we'll start with Finance if there's any further comment Russell that you'd like to make no I think I'm good okay thank you uh Mr scheidler on policy it's I think Lou
075mentioned the beginning of the meeting we met uh tonight at 9 30. anybody's welcome with me before each meeting and the more input the better um the policies are overwhelming there is an endless list of policies required by state law there are many other policies that we feel are important aren't necessarily required but a good idea and Jordan uh I believe at the uh Retreat suggests that we might want to look at uh a rewrite of many of our policies courtesy of shipping and Goodwin policies that they've written they've taken a lot of the policies that we've had in every other District in the state has had and they've made sure they're in line with state law they updated the legislature as you probably know at each session adds more ads and changes ads and
076changes as it changes very very difficult to come up with and we've done a lot of work on policy in the last six seven eight and fifteen years and we haven't we haven't been Ableton uh it's it's just too complex so what we're going to propose at the October meeting is going to ask the board to vote on a motion which would set aside Sunset all of our current policies and replace them with uh shipment and Goodman's policies which addresses the endless list of legal requirements in addition to that there are maybe a couple of dozen uh policies that aren't required by state law and all shipment of government doses they provide the state required policies and we're going to ask them ask to to include them with the required policies and if we go
077that route if you adopt that then those policies the ones that aren't written by ship and government written by us through Cape they'll be referred to shipment a good one for review there's maybe some changes we need to make it's a major undertaking and but well if we go that route it will make sure we're legally responsible and legally protected and our policies will be current because every year they update them and and uh allow us to keep some recommended policies that aren't required by state law make sure they're also in line with with the best practice questions from Mr scheidler I think it's a good move I think that it minimizes risk and it allows us to become current in a lot of ways on policies that you know that are in the Crypt
078we've never even looked at again so uh it's just too daunting of a task for us to get to every policy and make sure it's updated I think uh Mr Sheldon might have mentioned this but shipping and Goodwin obviously stands behind the policy so if there was ever an issue they defend us because it's their policy so minimize this town risk by the way I just want to mention uh Finance meets at 8 A.M on the same day as our meeting so if you want to make a finance committee meeting or if you want to zoom in that's at 8 A.M Mr shadler's meetings on policy occurs he mentioned at 5 30 on policy on uh board night so those two meetings we kind of get done in one day now Erica is our chair
079of curriculum what would you like to uh report I know you haven't had a meeting when's your next meeting our first meeting for the year is September 27th at 9 00 A.M and that is here uh yeah yeah that'll be here so I will report back at the October meetings perfect and uh We've formalized these a little bit more so there are there are agendas that are being printed if you want to see the agenda there's also these meetings are open to the public obviously and uh miniature uh very good minutes are being kept if you want to see what's going on in any of the committee meetings if you happen to miss it okay uh on Communications and by the way I want to mention the curriculum is curriculum and technology so we we
080made the board change uh a while ago so it is curriculum and Technology that's handled by uh that committee on Communications militias are um are liaison into Kira and um public Publications and so on and so forth I don't know uh please is there anything you want to talk about on Communications no update right now um John Kiera and I will be um communicating kind of getting together soon but we don't have anything set right now perfect okay thank you for that all right um board member announcements is is the next I'm sorry calendar of events I did write down in um so in your in your packet um you see the calendar events which is right after back to Grossman's uh goals uh just for your own notes I'm very pleased to say that
081we've gone to one meeting a month where we can there will be a meeting uh there'll be a month or two where there might be two meetings as we get into the budget so we've gone to one meeting a month and um obviously it's listed here um and I'll make mention that our next meeting is on the 10th just to to mark your uh your calendars and then um there's District events uh that I wanted to um Point your attention to also for your carriers foreign October 4th will be our first walk through um Canton High School so that will go approximately 10 30 to 12 30. you could stay as long as you want Drew will Mr Pippa will have a agenda for us to follow um coaches may be coming in instructional coaches
082Department chairs but then we're going to go to classrooms Claudia in the next couple weeks will send out an email to see who could come on that day because if we have a quorum we will have to post the meeting as a board meeting if two of you come we may not have to post that because we wouldn't have a quorum but if there's four of you it will be a board meeting that we will have on that day so Claudia will reach out to you is the goal to get as many board members as possible at each walkthrough or it's open up to the whole entire board so if we can get nine board members to come but we know some people have to work that they may not be able to come but
083if there's a day let's say you can't make it that day to the high school but you really want to go to the high school we could arrange but that will just be a formal walk through we'll if we get enough board members that day Mr dingles will have to bring the board into the conference room call the meeting to order there'll be an agenda and we'll we'll go from there and then we'll adjourn the meeting after that because if there's enough board members we have to do that but I'll confirm that with the attorney about pretty sure okay the only other thing for your calendar in your in your packet is the uh Cave caps convention Felicia and I went last year extremely informative great messages uh great speakers um if you'd like to
084attend I already um I've already put in my um my registration so I'll be attending and um if anybody would like to attend just make sure you let Claudia know and she'll make sure you're registered for it the board takes care of the registration okay and that's November 17th and 18th okay uh moving on to board member announcements does anybody want to make an announcement on anything specific John anything in your world that you hear about anything that we've missed something we should be going to thinking about great okay Mr Scheider I know this is the appropriate time I've been to uh a lot of convocations a lot more than I care to count up uh and I have to say this year's convocation if it wasn't the most outstanding one I've been to it
085certainly is a top one or two uh that it's set a tone uh the energy was palpable the excitement was there um it was an exceptionally good way to begin the school year and that's attributable to the the gentleman who organized it and uh I just wanted to to share that thought and to thank you for a great start to the year I heard a lot of a lot of money engaging conversation that I've been to so that's great to hear yeah has he shown you the movie oh yeah yeah oh yeah that's the local rental store anybody that wants if they can get it or we can give you the link online okay okay um board actionizers so just that this is a new item added to the agenda so I'll explain it um
086this would be for the secretary so this would be Kim that if there was an action item that was directed towards the administration to find out um that that's when it would be reported it would go into the minutes so um Mrs Nardi tomorrow would be working on that and we would get back I would either put it in my weekly update to the board or I would report back to the board next next month um I didn't count any um action items for tonight I don't know if you did um but I don't think there was anything that needed to um come back but I don't I knew that was on the Jenna Camp I didn't have the opportunity to speak to Kim I think that's a bad thing that that's what it is
087just to bring us back as a summary is there anything that we need to come back to the board in I didn't write down anything that needed to come back to the board um either in a weekly report or next month okay all right uh we move on to recommended actions the first is the uh well it's the consent agenda which uh has the approval of the minutes for June 20th 2023 and August 25 2023 you have those in your kids along with this motion we are also going to and you all have the Board of Education meeting dates uh which is different than what we had before we're going down to that one meeting date for you to uh log into your uh calendars and I think you can see tonight we've streamlined it
088I think we're on a pretty good Pace uh we should be done here before even uh 8 30 so I think going to one meeting a month and being getting out of here at a reasonable time is uh is is good work by the board and the superintendent and the administrative team so can I have a motion that the camp board of education proved the consent agenda hold on I hope there's a couple of things so we're going to talk about B but there's a separate I have separate motions so I'm gonna go I'm going to run into A1 at it yeah I'm gonna do one at a time so uh motion move the Canton Board of Education approved the consent agenda thank you Cindy so nice here and thank you Peggy for a second
089any any discussion of the consent agenda all those in favor I proposed that's uh eight we have eight tonight eight eight oh right okay thank you for that all right the second thing that you have here is uh the the um uh Ed z097 thank you seven all right [Music] well Felicia's eight right sorry yeah she can of course yeah yeah okay um the second is uh the agreement for Child Nutrition program do you want to comment in like that I don't know what what's that for again that's to change the the for the name oh right the name right removing uh former superintendency yeah reviewing several people that were no longer employed right exactly it's removing their names through me with the Child Nutrition program it's very basic so the motion would read move
090that the Canton Board of Education revised the authorized signers of the ed099 form removing prior superintendent schools Kevin the case and adding the current superintendent of schools Jordan e Grossman can I have a motion to that regard thank you Peggy second is Erica thank you very much any discussion on that very basic very simple all those in favor I opposed none okay so that passes 8-0 the final thing that we bring to your attention tonight is the approval of the Canton middle school trip to Washington DC uh which will take place on April 26 2023 through April 28 2023 it's an annual uh trip I I don't think there's any uh issues with that but um any questions regarding that don't just comment really sure Mr Daniels so I asked Mr Moore in in your
091packet there is a description of the trip the the trip is very similar to a very successful trip to Washington DC in the spring this trip is a three-day two-night trip that that is different than it was prior to coven and what we learned in several surrounding districts did the same exact trip Kent was actually the first one to to do it and we learned that the three-day two-night trip was very successful um for kids some kids that have never been away from home kids got to go to the the see the same spots that we did in a four-day trip and so that is the recommendation by the administration I support it regarding chaperones uh Mr more will be looking at chaperones uh with Mrs Olson I think is the the teacher lead regarding
092chaperones that will be on the trip looking at teachers if we need parents we'll we'll solicit that also but this is a great trip and I know that this is a trip that our students would look forward to in approving it tonight will allow Mr Moore Mrs Olson to um get it started and start talking to parents and students about it thank you thank you I'll accept emotion at the Canton Board of Education approved the Canton middle school trip to Washington DC from April 26 2023 through April 28 2023. I have that motion thank you Joe first Joe second Peggy now entertain any discussion comments questions all right is there help for students who can't afford this yes so through the PTL and other measures that we have great questions absolutely any other questions yes
093yeah I just um obviously it was very successful before and I appreciate Mr Moore continuing this um was there any discussion or feedback from parents about or students like there's a lot that they cover and I understand why it's shortened and I you know and that was there any discussion about having a day or no no right like hit the best spot I asked Mr Moore that and I actually asked my previous District that because the same question came up because it was always looking forward it's a it's a full day and very similar to what kids do right now believe it or not it's just in Washington DC but I I think it just hits the The Sweep spot where what um kids can handle right now and where our staff is and where
094parents are I think there were there were no complaints from kids or staff that the trip wasn't long enough it just felt right they got to do what they got to do and yeah could they go for five days could they go for six they can but the purpose of the trip is to expose children to number one for some of them being away from their homes for the first time and number two exposing them to a place that they might not have ever been to our nation's capital and then the possibility of saying to themselves I want to go back here again yeah so they're hitting it and from a curriculum standpoint they're hitting everything that we would like them to have and they were able to follow the they were it looks like
095an amazing trip my son actually didn't get to go because it was covered um a weekend um as a family uh but my um my question is um do you decide on like which memorials or museums to visit based on the curriculum Mr Moore that that's certainly a part of it um and so yeah it's a it's a mix of getting curricular highlights as well as making a functional and logistically feasible trip right in terms of where things are uh honestly I think DC does a really nice job of setting themselves up as a place for visitors so you'll see that a lot of this just kind of follows geographically yeah and then teachers um also connect with you'll be seeing these things and then they can make the curricular connection so it's a mix
096of we want to see things that highlight what is curricularly and just like as American citizens right important right so there's some decision making there and then there's also some additional teaching that goes along with you know we didn't cover I don't think we don't hit the Korean War but that Memorial is powerful right and so there's some teaching that goes along with you're about to see this thing so it is a two-way street yeah you good are there any changes from how things were done last year best to the plan for this year it is very similar and tweaked in some small areas to make it even tighter more efficient in some spaces but I'd say we've largely mimicked a successful trip of last year okay having a first and second closing out the
097uh the questions uh all those in favor aye opposed so we're at 8-0 that concludes the business of the Board of Education tonight I want to thank the board members for their service and the Reps for being here the administration team the teachers that came out the public that came out uh and I especially want to thank you board for your commitment to Kansas kids and making our education system best it could be with that I'll take a motion to adjourn at um 8 20 8 20 p.m I have a motion to adjourn thank you Cindy thank you Kim on the second any any discussion all those in favor aye opposed we are adjourned thank you everybody