001don't you all join me in the uh in the Pledge of Allegiance if you would I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands One Nation nation under God indivisible invisible with liberty and justice okay nicely done okay um Bella how are you thanks for joining tonight I'm good how are you I'm good I'm good so do you want to give the student report this evening yes I can do that um so for past events um so Wednesday February 15th was the cbps fitness day um Monday February 20th and the 21st there was no school for the winter recess 24th was the CMS Black History Month movie afternoon Monday February 27th began the cbps read Across America week where myself and the rest of the cast
002of Seussical the musical at the high school were able on the Friday of that week to go read aloud to all the kids across all the grades of the school and it was a very good experience it was very fun and the kids definitely loved it and we were able to gain a lot of um audience I think for the musical um Monday that Monday as well was the grade one music performance uh Wednesday March 1st was the CHS Coral concert which went very well it was like Earth themed um Tuesday March 7th was early release for all schools and Friday March 10th and Saturday March 11th was the Middle School Northern Regional Festival where I know a few of our middle school music students were able to represent Canton for upcoming events Thursday March
00316th through Saturday March 18th is our High School Musical Seussical um the first performance Thursday night is going to be 7 P.M as well as Friday the following day and on Saturday it'll be at 2PM um it's a great show for kids if you have any kids or grandkids that you want to bring along it's that's definitely the target audience of the show um Tuesday March 21st through Thursday March 23rd will be the conferences for all the schools and within that time frame cbps will also be having their PTO book fair Monday March 27th is going to be the grade 2 music performance um Tuesday March 28th will be early release for all schools and preseason training for the high school spring Sports is expected to begin around March 27th and that is all I
004have for the report that's great um I know I I heard tomorrow if anybody's interested did our did our hockey team advance to the finals for tomorrow night they did so that is a Quinnipiac tomorrow it's it's been postponed uh due to the weather I believe to Monday thank you but we can double check and we'll talk with Kim Earth to make sure that we've got that information yeah because originally I think it was Thursday John but maybe today put a crimp in it so okay all right and everybody is excited about Seussical I know that I have my my tickets for my family Friday night we're gonna we're gonna do a um we're gonna do a little camp out I think and and barbecue in the parking lot or something so we're excited about
005it so any any questions for Bella okay Bella you're you're obviously you're welcome to stay but today it's very easy you don't have to get in the car go anywhere you just click off when you're ready how's that sound sounds good okay great okay um superintendent report Mr Case okay good evening everybody I hope everybody had a good day today and stayed safe I want to let you know that since our last meeting we had um our our annual kindergarten orientation for our new families entering kindergarten and this year we had one of the best turnouts ever we had over 100 families represented um we have currently 117 kindergarteners registered to attend kindergarten next year many of the 17 families who did not attend already have siblings in our school so we're wondering if that
006was one of the reasons they didn't attend but it was a a terrific night and I thank our kindergarten teachers and Abe Emery for leading that evening and doing a great job as a follow-up to Bellows report I also want to thank the members of the um of the cast of Seussical and also our National Honor Society members who came down to Cherry Brook and read in every classroom and the students you know really enjoyed uh listening to their the high schoolers asking them questions and uh so many of the high schoolers chose to read in their former teachers classroom so it was a great event enjoyed by teachers and students overall I want to let you know that we publicly announced that Abe Emery would be the administrator in charge at Cherry Brook primary
007school until further notice I'm very excited to let you know that we had our three coffee in conversation opportunities at each of the schools while we didn't get uh High attendance every one of our conversations had at least one parent who we enjoyed talking with answering questions with and gaining valuable feedback so um I really enjoyed that we even had um a session at LaSalle's and we had one parent join us there and I think our board members too who took time uh to attend um one of the sessions Lou thank you Joe thanks to you and Erica and Kim thanks to you as well we'll have another series of these um in a few weeks prior to the end of the school year our budget process continues I just wanted to remind you that
008tomorrow night we present the board of education budget to the town Board of Finance Claudia I'm going to put you on the spot um do you know what time that begins the question came up earlier I believe it's 6 :00 I'll let you know all right all right thank you very much yep no problem um so tomorrow night um Donna Lou John and I will be presenting our budget all of you are welcome and encouraged to attend at the community center to show your support I also want to let you know that um we are close to Hiring Our student and family engagement director so John Bishop did an outstanding job of um convening an interview team um to interview the candidates as you know we've been looking for the right person all year long
009uh we have finally found the right person for our district and we're currently in contract negotiations with that person so most likely um at either the March 28th meeting or the meeting in April we'll be able to uh to bring this person to you and hopefully this person will start in four weeks or so we're very close I want to let you know there are rescheduled diversity equity and inclusion Community Gathering which was supposed to be held tomorrow night will now be held on Wednesday April 19th at seven o'clock so please save that date foreign we're excited about that we held the district-wide safety meeting last week as we do once a month and uh Mr Bishop um chairs those meetings we'll spend some time in executive session looking in our security plan so that
010will be part of our agenda at our next meeting on March 28th a wonderful art show a week ago last Wednesday at the Canton Public Library so artwork from all the various levels in our school district were displayed in a very very uh impressive event it was um so well attended and I truly thank our teachers um preparing the artwork for displaying and actually displaying it at the library last week um on childhood anxiety really anxiety overall what are the are the characteristics program currently we have 106 students attending the public schools as a part of the choice program eight of the students will be graduating I am recommending for the next year that we continue to offer seats in kindergarten I'm recommending that we offer six seats uh for kindergartners next year which would
011bring our total number of choice students for next year to 104. this week um but I will um leave it there and see what questions or comments you have regarding my recommendation okay um I'm gonna back back up before we hit that and just ask if anybody has any questions on uh anything else that that the superintendent had to say um budget budget issues any of the other items I just kind of I just want to confirm that the meeting tomorrow night for Board of Finance begins at six per the agenda that was filed thank you thank you for that okay yeah so one question uh the hundred and Seventeen registered for kindergarten and where is that in terms of what you expected in terms of number of sections we're planned for yeah so um
012I believe we plan for 180 students so that's about nine students over uh what the projection is but certainly we will be able to absorb those students into the six sections that we um are planning for yeah that include the six right it does it does okay and and I know it's not unusual for kindergarten and Roman to increase over the summer uh when would we need a seventh section but I will get that information to you okay thanks anything else Joe hello thank you everybody is the number of um kindergartners is that affected does that affect how many open Choice students you're recommending or does that have no bearing on that it doesn't have a bearing normally we offer 10 seats over the past few years we have received um about five or six
013of the seats have been filled so I thought uh it would be proven to offer six seats um and then see if we could fill all of those we've we learned that students is it a bit more successful kindergarten or first grade the earlier the students begin with the Canton curriculum the more successful they are Kevin you'll you'll keep up to date but if you add those well it depends on how many you know take the seats but you'll keep the class size limit the policy within range if that goes over you would add another section remain policy okay thanks it's just go ahead Joe I'm sorry I'm sorry no no in the event that we had to add another section uh do we have room for it to Kevin that was to you yes
014yeah so we have one last third grade next year so we would have a classroom however we're planning to use that classroom yeah that's what I that's what I saw put the third grade class size at do you have those numbers yeah I'm sorry I don't have them right in front of me that's come up in the community about class size and I know we have um I think 18 students in third grade we're projecting 18 for next year so there's no change we're going from six sections of second grade to six sections foreign on that 117 and as Joe pointed out there's some likelihood that we'll pick up some students in the summer whether they're kindergarteners are not that's to be determined but if you picked up another five and you went to 122
015does that make that the biggest class to come through Canton at this point no no we've had classes with um more students than that yes okay so how does everybody feel about the uh the six I guess Kevin's looking for some guidance on that is that a vote Kevin or what is that just um I just um always like your input um does anybody feel strongly against that or any comment it says you know we've offered more seats than that but I think um knowing that it needs of our students at this point in the numbers of students and all the other ways next year okay well it sounds like everybody's uh okay with that so thank you I appreciate it Erica were you going to say something I was just I just had a
016thought how does that affect us uh budget wise yeah so it's it is okay thank you for asking that question anybody else hey um I'm just having a little bit of a hard time listening and following because um Kevin you're you are echoing again I didn't know if kyrad could troubleshoot that a little bit it's the voice of God Cindy that you're listening to so I can certainly try it the one thing try is just um check your audio settings right on your mute button click the arrow that looks up and then just make sure your microphone is um using your system or your computer microphone just check that and we'll try that as an option system if it doesn't you should try that yeah is that any better there you go you got it
017Cindy thank you and I'm very sorry Kara thank you for helping me troubleshoot so Cindy do you need me to repeat anything okay Kira that was amazing nice job kid what a great feature yeah okay I might have missed that are you proposing that we may have 122 in kindergarten next year um well 117 yeah we could yes so the 122 puts you out 20 perk no Kim that was me I was just projecting if he picked up another five students Kevin is proposing 117 of which six come from uh Choice okay yes but I I confuse things because I said we had a hundred families attend and 17 families didn't but the six seats are included in that 117 number so really it's only nine families that didn't but we're getting closer we're getting
018close to 20 per class is in our policy 16 to 18 per section let me review that because I want to make sure we don't go over our glass sizes so if you'll allow me just to review those numbers with the office staff make sure we've accounted for every uh kindergartner and I will assure you we won't go over the class size policy thank you yeah Kevin if we run into an issue with um class sizes do we then have the ability to reduce the number of choice seats to get down to the number we have to be at or we sort of contractually bound to take however many Choice seats we've we've put ourselves out there for right that's why I'm being very we are bound so that's why I'm being very careful about
019the number of seats that we offer anyone want to offer seats fill the seats and then tell the families know we don't have room now Kevin what's what's the kindergarten uh class size today this this group yes Mr Bishop do you have those numbers in front of you I do as I I look at um what our our data had been showing with us it's about 16 to 17 right now yeah 16 to 18 for grades K through one did you say we're at 116 for the class and we're at 16 to 18. no I said that we're at um between 16 and 17. and so our our October 1 numbers were 98 students October 1 so the first of October is the date that um that that data becomes uh true and actual for
020the state for us so that's that's the number of seats that we were reporting with that so that's what about a 13 increase in class size to next year we have we have those variances that happen over time um this uh current eighth grade class um has as is one of our larger that we've had in a number of years as well um so we've we've had the we've had the swells that have come through and again we've got a larger swell that's coming through in that a couple years with our kindergarten uh crew for uh 25 26. okay all right uh Kevin I think the board said that you can move forward with the uh the open choice declaration so we're good thank you double checks especially as as we transition into transitions you
021may want to check that tab again on your speaker your your reverberating again but okay um anything else for the superintendent at this point okay thank you chair report just uh a couple things one is a reminder that the uh joint Canton Avon Board of Education meeting is March 21st at 6 PM that's with Jeff Curry the co-chair of the education uh committee I you know I'm not really sure what we're going to get out of that um you know we're going to hear a lot of we're trying to do this and we're trying to do that um but I think it's good for us to be there and um you can ask your questions you'll be a question and answer this is posted like a regular meeting so I think the public is is
022uh will be invited I don't know if they can ask questions but they can certainly listen in but uh if you can make it on the 21st that would be great um the 328 meeting uh my question is on 3 28 when we do safety is that in lieu of policy does that start at six o'clock for executive session on 328 and is that in lieu of doing a policy meeting or is there a policy meeting also that night and is that earlier did we decide on that so we haven't sounded any better no but that's okay uh we haven't decided so Joe would you like to do the policy meeting and because there's things to go over a policy I I think Kevin wants to start safety uh safety should be the chief's going
023to come in so if he came in at 6 30 we our meeting starts at 6 15. Joe if you wanted to run policy at 5 30 or quarter to six I know it's inconvenient and it it uh gets into everybody's dinner time but um what's your pleasure Joe how do you want to handle it well I'm fine with 5 30 if the rest of the committee can make it at 5 30 it makes for a long night but it consolidates the going out part too we're looking at at the three pretty important policies right now so it's important to get input on them uh we're winding up the we'll be closing and I'm being able to bring to the whole board the selection of educational materials policy uh we're beginning a discussion of a
024controversial issues policy and we've been asked to take a look at the field trip policy so they're all fairly impactful so folks can't make it at 5 30 Peggy or Ryan I don't know Erica you came to the last one since March 28th you're talking about it is yes yeah I'm open I can do it so Claudia why don't we say policy at 5 30. Chief goes in at 6 30 and regular meeting at 7 15. so if you can all uh if you're not going to attend policy just please be there at 6 30. uh that's where you get your briefing on safety it's an executive session uh situation at uh it's from the CIA it's the Canton intelligence agency and we'll be taking it from there so okay I'll send the invite out
025to the chief of police right now great thank you um just just two quick comments one is uh the Justin Ginsburg thing from the Farmington Valley Health that Kevin mentioned was a powerful meeting and I I truly wish in my heart that more parents could come or click on that um you know I mentioned it to my own daughter I mentioned it to my wife I was I was thoroughly impressed um I think we got to keep that going I know it wasn't as well attended may have been uh maybe six people in the audience and I don't know uh maybe another six online but um I I think we got to promote that and we got to do it again because um I think parents are missing out on a really important thing especially
026when it comes to anxiety in your kids so I'm going to ask you guys um uh is we we uh make the next go-round with this I know there's going to be one more session right John uh with Justine yeah we're working on planning something for that yeah around around engagement with uh parental engagement with kids but I think we gotta think about how to do that a little bit different do the same session next year maybe do it just a little differently on how we report it maybe we do it on a per school basis uh get the PTO involved but I think it's that important so just wanted to mention that the other thing I wanted to mention is um I uh I used executive uh appointment um there's a bill coming up
027in in the um legislature uh and I've asked Kim to spearheaded uh I uh representative um curvos de gras um had sent it to us and said that she thought this was an important bill she was sponsoring it I'm going to ask him just to describe it uh briefly but Kim was nice enough with all that she's doing to pick up and to represent the board she was going to write um uh she was going to give a testimony written testimony and if if time permitted she was actually going to try to attend the session so Kim you want to give the board just a quick sure and thanks for that um for you and John for you know asking me to do this um I'm passionate about a lot of the things in this
028bill um it's a new bill like six eight eight four um just bullet points Statewide there's a Statewide minimum teacher salary um coveted pension benefit enhancement packet uh teacher tax credit that's 500 refundable income tax credit for teachers with an initial certificate there if there's discussion of eliminating the EDT PA standardized portfolio system for aspiring Educators and duty-free prep time educator Bill of Rights uh and the two areas which I'm writing testimony for or possibly going in person to do is um raising the kindergarten star age currently Connecticut is the only state with a cut off entry eight date of January 1st so children can come to school in Connecticut at age four and this has been a debate for years but most districts Most states are September 1st so they're proposing raising the date
029the entry date for children have to be five years old to start kindergarten um they have to be five by September 1st so I do support that proposal I am recommending that they phase it in over a few years um based on um you know you know financial reasons for families uh the impact it could have on school systems and uh child care providers uh to give a couple years of time for that but I do believe it's time that we change that date I know there's opposition on that and reading other people's testimonies as well but we have to be um aware of the academic challenges that we have imposed on kindergarten children and um you know there is a big difference between four-year-olds and six-year-olds and that's what we've had in Connecticut for
030a while so we would be more in line with with the other states another part of this is uh this is a big topic was um play-based learning personally um my opinion is I'm appalled that we even have to have a discussion and this is even in question about play bringing back play into schools I'm glad to see that this is on the docket to be um put in place but like I said it's it baffles me that we have to go back go back and say that we need to require play so the good news is that they want to require play-based learning to be incorporated in pre-K in kindergarten classrooms um permit play-based learning in grades one through five uh and that would have the Board of Education and there's a lot of
031a lot of jargon and a lot of stuff in in each in each thing but I'm recommending and supporting that we do um require play-based learning and and if you read through the fine print it talks about the majority of the day in Pre and pre preschool in kindergarten would be through play-based learning a variety of ways and they Define play they Define it as like free play uh purposeful play unstructured play and they do a nice job of breaking each area of play down and also there's a little area that to discuss is that this play would limit basically the use of Technology like it's still in there but it would be the play that they're talking about would be with a minimal uh use of I'm going off the top of my head
032of all this but would be a minimal use of Technology um which is very important as we know that Technology's increased but it should not be increasing in a Pre-K or kindergarten classroom in particular I am recommending they say that um they want to permit pallets the word permit play for grades uh one through five I wrote a a paragraph about the importance of play and and everything but I did I'm recommending that they require it for grades one through five if we if we say permit that's not holding anybody accountable and I really think it needs to be required we need to get play back into the classrooms we talk about the Mental Health crisis and all the anxiety and the statistics of increased suicide um you know this this a lot of things
033so I I go into great detail in my thing which I can share with any of you if you want about the importance of play and the impact of play and how it can um help so hopefully this this bill will pass um and that will impact us as far as the age eligibility for students but I don't think there will be a drastic change in numbers and I think that we need to also as a board you know look at look at what we're doing in our in our curriculum in K through five in particular with incorporating play so I know it's a lot and I spoke fast but I just wanted to get that information out there because I think this is important and I want to encourage our own teachers um to
034start doing this I went on and spent all day today a lot of time today looking at the other testimony you know a lot of people are from cea and there's represent you know Best Buy who's part of the Early Childhood you know um program but they take testimony from anybody our current teachers we should be encouraging you know I I mentioned it to a few Canton teachers as well and a lot of them would like to go but they're so dedicated with their time in the classroom but in order to make change I think they the you know I recommend if they actually listen to more stakeholders that we list that they these committee members and education committee members visit schools talk to students talk to parents talk talk to Educators retired teachers and
035the more stakeholders that are involved and they truly understand what's going on in our educational system thank you Kim so just just to be clear this uh Kim is I gave this to Clinton uh Kim because I know how passionate she was about many of these topics it's not that she is uh We've endorsed it as a board because we haven't she's speaking as a former educator and a board member and somebody who's very much on this so uh but in in the future when we get bills like this we as a board we need to Lobby on things that we think is as important as a board uh Eleni and John had brought this to our attention or to my attention and I thought Kim would be a perfect person I agree with the
036bill but none of you had a chance to read it and that's why it's not a b-o-boe endorsed uh situation but I'm glad that Kim spent the time researched it and um like I said she's very passionate about it so thank you Kim any questions for Kim on that [Music] in this area thanks thank you Kevin okay that leads us to uh committee reports and um Mr Charlotte you started to get into a little bit about it but is there anything else you want to say about I know we don't have any first readings today but uh looks like we settled your your agenda a little bit early but anything else you'd like to report no only just uh again the requests we had some folks join us that weren't on the committee last time
037was really helpful and if you're available at 5 30 uh uh that we'll send out all the materials to everybody uh to pre-read but if you're available at 5 30 the 28th that would be great thanks Joe I I just got to say that um listen every one of you are so valuable to this board and you do so many things uh especially on the committee's curriculum and finance but policy in particular there's a lot of reading that goes on and I want to thank Joe for the detail that he goes into in researching with Cade and matching up and doing the comparative analysis so when we come to the committee meetings um 90 of the work is done so thank you Joe for all that on policy it's a it's a key key part
038key element of what we do as a board so thank you Erica anything you want to report on curriculum yeah um we met a couple weeks ago thank you um Lou and Joe for coming because I agree it definitely adds when we have more people at the table um there were three uh things we reviewed and discussed uh the first one was the I wonder which is the steam-based Independent Learning celebration for students that replaced icer for those of you with older children that's what we're doing now at the younger grade levels so John gave us more information on I wonder and then we also did kind of a deep dive into the star assessments that uh staff are using in grades two through ten it was started two years ago and so we just
039got a lot more information about that those assessments and then the last thing we looked at was the waiver for for the fundations program that was put together by Chris woods and Kathy Watson and um to be submitted to the state I'm not sure if it's already been submitted or if it's going to be it has Erica it has okay so they put a lot of time and effort into this very a very thick packet that was submitted to the state so we are very grateful to them for this and um we were able to look at it and ask questions and that is the summary from curriculum thank you Erica and thank you for all your hard work on curriculum also so you're welcome um finally we have communications and community relations it's not
040really a committee um Kim was asking me for it but basically Kira is is running that and Felicia has been giving some guidance uh on the side but Kira I don't know if you want it to say anything about Communications and I know you have a newsletter coming up soon and uh why don't you take it from there sure sounds good yeah so I'm finishing up our newsletter um it's kind of a culmative um little thing John and I are coming up with the name going like Canton Community Connection um we have some little tidbits from each of our schools just talking about good things that have been going on and ways that schools have been impacting the community and that is going out it'll be digital and in print we're working on getting that
041out as soon as we possibly can other than that I've been keeping up with social media trying to get our events and things that are happening in the community on as many platforms as we can so cross posting Facebook Instagram John handles Twitter and also keeping things on the website so that we have everything everywhere um to try to reach as many people as we possibly can that's why we needed someone like you Kara we there's a lot to be done so thank you sure any questions for Kira okay um that leads us into public forum I don't know if anybody has joined us tonight they have so we we're going to have public forum um and public forum is open to the public for any comments or or things they'd like to talk about
042we we'd like to limit your comments to three minutes and and please don't feel badly the board does not respond in uh in public forum we take what you've said and we try to get back to you with answers or um we try to be as thoughtful as possible so um we will just uh you know digest most of that so um but if anybody has a public comment we'd be glad to listen and open it up right now so so you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature of zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name and allow you to talk I don't have any raised hands at the moment but I'll say it again if you're well I guess everyone's joining us online tonight um the raise hand
043feature Zoom is normally on the bottom of your screen if you're on a computer and you can go ahead and use that and I will call on your Zoom name if you'd like to make public comment this evening okay I don't have any well we're just thrilled that people are have joined us tonight and are listening in and getting some good information so thank you and you can always contact the board member or the superintendent directly for any questions okay um that leads us to information reports further information reports and that leads to Mr Bishop on your side of the house my side of the house I appreciate uh uh Erica and Kara sharing some of the information for us too and Joe as well um Eric I am going to piggyback on real quick
044too our waiver uh includes foundations uh the hegarty program as well as some new resources from um Teachers College as well so uh just to let you all know was it was better than 60 pages that these ladies were able to put together to be able to make this work uh for us so we hope to be able to hear back from the state soon um and uh be ready to be able to move ourselves forward there but uh I I am thrilled with the work that they've done in service of our students and our and our staff um did you mention their names I think I don't know if you mentioned Erica dated Chris woods and uh Kathy Watson right good one wonderful folks yeah thank you um and then another piece with us
045too for communications and community relations is looking at a communication strategic plan for us where we can start to identify some additional areas for us to move forward with to bring forward as we uh transition into the next year to to make sure that we are really um airing our goals well and uh reaching all of our Target it's for communication the one piece that I have for for you all tonight is just to be able to give you some information on our Canton celebrates program that will be coming up again for us uh what we'll do this time to be able to to split a little bit recognizing that we've got some olders and some younger's there um we'll have our younger students our elementary students will be going through first and then we'll
046have an intermission for there to be an opportunity for uh snacks and and celebration and then an opportunity for our older students to be recognized in in talking with uh your board leadership and and really thinking about things the the opportunity for you all to be able to be in interaction with our students with our families with our staff that's that's a main piece of what it's really all about so we wanted to find an opportunity to make sure that you had the opportunity to to hear and participate but then also be able to celebrate as well and we felt that splitting it up over um two sessions that evening would be a great way to be able to be um to meet the needs of of young families and young kids and also make
047sure that we've got a really purposeful evening ahead for us so and and Claudia May 2nd is just to confirm that is our date yep May 2nd thank you is that a 6 30 start or I think we spoke about it um starting at six that's great Johnny Kevin right six o'clock yep we'll we'll finalize those details um uh coming out this next month and make sure that everyone is uh ready to go but we're looking forward to it it's amazing to think that we're getting to that point where we're going to be looking back and celebrating on the uh celebrating the things from this year it's amazing to think that we're at this point so thank you all for all the work that you're doing we look forward to keeping it moving forward I'm
048sorry John any questions that was a good report John thank you everybody good with that celebrates I think that I think high school again that's the plan yes so I have a little bit a little side bet with John because I think this is going to be tight but uh we'll we'll see how it works out I'm hoping that I'm hoping he's right and I'm wrong it'll work it'll it'll work for the betterment of everyone yeah all right thank you John okay Donna Donna and uh Russell Russell we had uh we had a finance meeting today I thought Donna did a a great job in bringing us up to date um how would you like to uh Russell do you have any comments and then we can turn to Donna um no I think we
049could let it go go over to Donna and think that the key takeaway was that for the next Finance meeting we're gonna have uh some a little bit better projection of where we think the year is going to end up and how that's going to get sorted out you took away my steam so um there we have it uh next month um we I'm I'm actively working on a projection and I'll update that each month with a finance committee uh and they asked a lot of very insightful questions that a couple of questions that I have to answer over the next uh couple weeks or so but um I think I think I think we're good I think you know I'm not worried about anything yet uh for the end of the year right so
050as Russell said I think I think the picture is going to become clearer for everybody in in April so there's no uh no issues at all right right um recommended action so Mr case you want to run through the uh I apologize um okay can I have a first on the consent agenda please thank you Ryan if you have a second please thank you Cindy for the first and second any questions on the consent agenda issues thoughts okay then all those in favor just signify by raising your hand that'd be great and we have a um Ryan you're in on this right NATO right good okay so that passes um approval of the February uh financials is presented again um as Donna had indicated and you all probably got those in your packet right the
051financials go out to everybody yeah they did yeah okay so uh they have a first on that thank you Russell second Kim thank you very much any further questions for for uh Donna or Russell on the uh on the financials okay all those in favor I raise your hand please that's an 8-0 thanks so much okay and Mr Case drum roll please on this on next year's uh calendar thank you um tonight um [Music] we can I I think it just reverberates everybody okay or you want um next year listen to me sure just uh uh speaking broadly with this um the the calendar uh continues on with the number of instructional days that we have uh developed in the past but we've um continued to carry forward the professional development professional responsibility days that
052we have had over the the past um the past uh two years which our teachers are incredibly grateful for I think it's one of the things that in a really uh challenging Market helps us to be an outstanding district for supporting our staff um so we've we've maintained that um the one addition that we are proposing as at the beginning of the school year uh in starting each of the first two days as a half day early release for professional development this provides some additional time for our staff to be able to work and calibrate and uh reflect on who are the students who are coming in and working with them so that we can have a better uh sense of who those students are um and then being able to refine some of our
053practices uh right in the big right in the beginning of that school year in the midst of a very busy first week okay um I I like the idea of getting out on the seventh I mean uh that's when I was dating myself when I was a kid you never got out before the 21st of June it seemed like so uh uh that makes for a nice long vacation but we always went back after Labor Day that was always the uh the discussion so any questions on the calendar professional development days I don't have a question I just wanted to say I uh think that that's a good idea to you know one of the concerns we hear over the years is from parents is when the first day of school is on a Monday
054and especially for the younger kids five full days to start the year is tough so I'm happy to see that the first two are um half days yeah I misunderstood that I'm sorry Joe I misunderstood that it by the calendar the 24th and 25th of professional development days that's when the students are also starting no those two there's no school but then right the Monday Tuesday 28 and 29 are uh early release half days okay thank you that's correct thank you Erica I I still go ahead Kim sorry sorry I still don't understand why if we're requiring skill 180 school days and we go 183 why can't we can't meet in the middle and have a balance on that we know how much you know staff their staff shortages teacher burnout um you know the
055need for professional development so I'm I'm always asking this every year you know why can't we ever just continue to have the contract where the teachers are working but you know the students go a day or two less and the teachers have more professional development time that way but that's just you know I guess a personal opinion based on observation over the years in education and the needs the needs for teachers have more time and the students to have more mental health days okay thank you any other questions yeah I have one first I I agree with Erica regarding the first two days especially for kindergarten first grade then the transition year is fourth grade and seventh grade uh you know a lot of anxiety for a lot of kids for that so I think
056that's probably a good way to go I just want to have folks thought about December 22nd uh it's a short holiday break there in December and it's listed now as a full day I know the the Christmas holidays uh not till Monday but I'd sort of lean towards making that a half day just wondering what people think I would agree with you Joe on that one going half day Joe which which day are you talking about with the calendar Friday the 22nd uh is listed as a full day right now and it's a short as holiday breaks go it's a short one uh so I would I would support making that an early release day on the 22nd yeah usually an early release Kevin how do you feel about that I just said at the
057very least yes you froze for a minute Sydney that's all right I certainly could support that yes yeah I I agree with that I think you know it's a time there's a lot of celebrations um little things going on in the school so I think that's a good idea thank you any other questions concerns issues can have a motion to accept the calendar with the modification of the of December 22nd is a half day is the first reading Russell Erica thank you any further discussion all those in favor aye okay so we're on our way with that perfect okay so if you have any questions or concerns about the calendar over the next couple of weeks please let me know sure okay um board member comments issues were at that point anything on your mind
058anything uh any questions for the superintendent that uh maybe we didn't cover and I'm not opening up the I'm not opening up the whole thing but um any questions on your mind that uh you need answered it's the rollout for the um Mental Health Service phone call service started and do we have any numbers about kids who are maybe using it students um parental consent forms we've received and then find out how many students we'll report to you on March 28th thank you anything else folks okay there's an executive session here um Kevin is there anything you need to talk to the board about tonight very just very briefly okay