001uh November 9. I saw the meeting order at the special meeting of the Canton board of education for November 9th at 7 00 pm and um tonight Mary Broderick the cave consultant will be providing us with her feedback on the um on the survey that we've had and uh I don't want to I don't want to steal any of our Thunder but I I did do an article today for the um um for the value press so um apparently we did do all the board members by the way have this if not I know quality made copies okay okay so tonight we'll um we'll go over the uh the profile and the information that came back then we'll go into executive session to uh talk about next steps and uh hopefully everybody will be home
002early okay I'm trying to and right now she should be able to hello Mary hi there hi Mary how are you great thank you how are you great thank you for joining tonight we appreciate all the work that went into this well thank you it's they're all like mini dissertations I feel like but I have to say that your community um definitely wins the prize for the highest level of participation of any I have done so far so um because it seemed low like you and I talked about maybe extending and so thank you no it I mean I even much larger communities you rarely get um far over 200 so to come in with 325 participants is pretty um noteworthy especially a small community so congratulations on that you called our meeting to order
003tonight we have Joe scheidler with us in case you can't see Joe shot who's with us Russell Bush uh Felicia Jordan Erica Hayes Kim Sullivan and Peggy Steinway we're missing a couple board members but uh we we have a court group here and an upper Forum but there will be no votes uh tonight anyway but uh anyway so we thought uh we would just tonight we would review with you in public session the um leadership profile right would you be able to stay a little bit longer for uh in the executive session for a few questions um a little bit longer depends on sure I mean I I think we could probably yes yes okay that's great so with that with that said if you want to uh dig in and then what we'll do
004is we'll break for public forum after we um hear a little bit about the leadership profile see if there's any questions both online or in the audience and uh and then we'll go into executive session okay sounds great sounds great so I'm going to share my screen and I'll just run through the profile and if you find I'm just going with too much detail by all means stop me and we can um I can speed it up a little bit but especially for those who may not have had a chance to read it yet I'm not able to share my screen I thought joining am I able to share my screen can somebody make me a co-host somehow or does everybody have a copy of it and I'll just go ahead and talk through it
005oh we seem to have Frozen can you hear me oh can you hear me now yes oh good okay I somehow got Frozen um is it possible for me to be made co-host we are trying to do that oh I see I am now co-host that's great so I just thought it would be helpful for you to sort of see where I am as I'm reading through it not I'm not going to read the whole thing to you but I um again 800 325 was a really high participation rate um you'd see that 52 percent of those were parents um almost 14 percent aren't parents but are community members you did have some students which is great some administrators um 16 were teachers and eight and a half percent were support staff some of you
006um a couple of town officials and some Business Leaders so this 364 figure obviously is higher than the 325 but that's because people identified with a couple of groups so um the first thing we asked about was strengths of Canton both the community and the schools I have to say the responses in this area were tighter than I usually see you had a lot of agreement around these strengths you had 170 people um definitely the majority of your participants citing um your staff your and and citing your teachers as expert and dedicated and passionate and both the faculty and the support staff several mentioned the commitment to educating the whole child and how important that is and really knowing students really I mean that's something that really stood out to me as how well your
007faculty do in connecting with students and really knowing them deeply 32 talked about the administrators as a strength noting um that they are open to hearing the different perspectives of people within the system and working through conflicts they tend to be welcoming and accessible and they give clear direction to the district and they communicate effectively and Foster a collaborative culture that's really focused on what they ought to be focused on you had 153 who talked about some aspect of the program and most well 89 of those responses were talking about the overall program the the overall curriculum um described as strong um now I put things in quotes when I feel like they do speak to the volume of responses so when you see me using quotes it's because those are things that um kind
008of carried the herd of information student-centered and rigorous with high academic standards um the holistic approach the Innovative culture and positive School climate were mentioned um now 25 participants talked about a specific area of strength um and the one that got the most mentions there with 14 was music and some specified that it was K-12 and others didn't specify but just said music was really strong and then 11 talked about the high quality extracurricular opportunities and that included some sports um the next highest is this pace okay for everybody excellent okay um Community was the next highest strength the the next most cited with 86 people talking about the um schools themselves the community within the schools and the broader um town so it's it was hard to distinguish when they said Community which they
009were referring to but um they talked about the close-knit family atmosphere and being small But Mighty and that the the size which comes up in the next part also allows that sense of community um so there were 63 people who talked about the size being a great strength um and that skull smaller schools meant that connection that seems to be so important to the whole Community um having students well-known um both between students and with with staff and getting that individualized attention that comes from being a small community and then 21 of those 63 mentioned class size in particular 26 identified students as the greatest strength with their desire to succeed and their diversity of thought and and their ability to succeed and then 22 talked about parents being a great strength with their involvement
010and their support and engagement and partnership with the schools ten mentioned facilities and that and adequate resources to provide the program um and then ten mentioned a sense of safety okay so that's it for strengths and we'll go on to challenges um now again you will find that some areas are mentioned in both both places because people have different perspectives and some people sometimes your greatest strength is also your greatest Challenge and I think um the fact that program Rose to the top I was more about participants saying it's going to be really important for this new leader to make sure we don't lose ground and indeed that we continue to maintain and focus on high academic standards and important is there something as you go through this I just want to remind the board
011that um at some point probably this summer we're going to begin a strategic plan finally it's it's well overdue by a couple years a lot of the input that you're going to get here and challenges and positives uh are gonna are gonna play well we may not even have to do a survey we might be able to work from this document to get some of the real um strategic direction that you need to go in off of this so I just want to as you read through this I'd like you to think in that thought process a little bit thank you Mary yeah thank you okay um so again broadly just wanting to make sure that there is continued focus on um high quality programming um some some are asking for improvement in um District
012ranking and making sure that you continue to balance the needs of all the different stakeholders um that you continue to offer the robust curriculum and extracurricular opportunities for students um and then there were some specific areas that Drew mentioned there were 14 out of the 96 who said that there are challenges with curriculum that it needs to be more Innovative and relevant so you did hear some people saying that it's Innovation was a strength but obviously not everybody totally agrees with that um 11 of the 96 talked about special ed as a challenge um and noted increases in the identification of students and corollary higher spending rates and then the need to ensure that there's accessibility across the district now we're getting into lower numbers we had nine who talked about technology as a challenge
013and they wanted greater Proficiency in the tech as the tech industry is advancing and evolving and needing Educators to have the resources to keep up with that and then eight talked about the lingering effects of covid that's sort of aligned through a lot of this obviously the context for the Gathering of this information is moving out of covid we hope but it definitely appears in different ways in this study and again Staffing was viewed as a great strength but there were 83 people who identified some issue with staff and for the most part it's like every single School District in Connecticut staff are especially coming out of covid are um are really feeling the challenges of the time you know that there have been that they've been stretched to the Limit and there are shortages
014in hiring and that has also meant extra stress on the people who are filling in when people are out and that kind of thing needing to offer competitive compensation came up for a number of people especially for Paris it says for teachers and Paris and I would say we heard Paris loud and clear in in the study need to focus on professional development I think people are feeling that it's time to refocus attention on sorry on their um on staff development so that they can meet the changing and significant needs of Staff of sorry of students um and morale as I'm sure is no surprise to you has been affected by the many many continuing challenges of covid so the leader is going to need to continue to devote attention to ensuring that the culture
015and environment um is enough to really attract great people to work there and to ensure um that the also people mention wanting to make sure that the administrative team is in a position to really connect well with the broader community there were 51 people um and you know it's I actually put social and emotional health right under Behavior even though the numbers weren't quite as high and I in general you'll notice that these are in descending order of most mentioned but behavior and social and emotional mental health just went so much together that I had them next to one another here so 51 said that behavioral and discipline issues are going to be major challenges for a new leader um 15 specifically mentioned bullying both in school and online and then there that there are
016different the this is another thing I see in a variety of places but um because discipline by Nature needs to be different if a student's individualized education program specifies that there are different expectations for Behavior between the general population and and those students um so that inconsistency can rub people and I think that's part of what we're seeing here um and so I think we've covered all of that um 40 talked about social emotional and mental health issues now we know that those were issues with our youth before the pandemic but across the board we're seeing a ratcheting up in concern about students and staff and staff Mental Health um and we I think there's great appreciation that the district has made significant efforts to address those issues but that the growing need has just
017been overwhelming um funding and resources well facilities and resources we met were mentioned as a strength but there were 45 participants who think that it's going to be a challenge to Garner enough resources to address student need and continue to offer the robust program that you have been offering um the next we get into some of the what what I saw as pretty Stark political um camps in Canton with 40 43 participants um identified diversity equity and inclusion and the need to address the changing needs of students and then um there were 40 who reflected um or offered comments about the broad political divide um that the new leader will be confronted with um and the varied political influences on students and parents and schools 20 talked about political indoctrination and 10 talked specifically about
018politically divided parents and the increasing political divide one talked I mean again this is just one person's quote that the leader will will face standing up to those who might grandstand politically with the board and the need to navigate the current political climate and ensure students continue to be allowed to explore so that's an area where there was again you're not at all by any means alone in this this is something that we're seeing across the state and Across the Nation and the next challenge was a big drop to 10 saying that there are going to be space and Facilities needs uh I'm sorry There Were Ten who said it was a strength There are 16 who cite this as a challenge speaking of an aging infrastructure and facilities in need of upgrades um and
019again 22 found that parents were a strength but um as far as challenges go there were 14 who said that parents can be a significant challenge um and I think that political divide that was just described is um part of that concern about parents and finally there were 13 who talked about your growing enrollment as a challenge and fear of losing the community feel of a small District so that's that's it for um strengths and challenges and now we'll move into what people say that they're looking for in a new leader um this might be a little bit hard to absorb but people were asked for their top five um to rank their top five choices in in this from this list of desired expertise in a new superintendent and what you'll see is here
020in the these first two columns are people's first choices what they listed listed as number one and then the final two columns here are um and the the collection of people's top three choices so you'll see that first and foremost building trusting relationships with students staff and Community was cited by 90 people as their first choice and that's 28 of the participants in the survey and next came communicates and collaborates effectively in schools and Community with 78 or 24 percent and a big drop then to the next 41 people said that they wanted somebody who is knowledgeable I'm that their top priority would be somebody who's knowledgeable about educational trends if you look at the top three choices they're all still in the top ranking but now first and foremost is communicates and collaborates effectively
021and then builds trusting relationships and then knowledgeable again a big drop here and shares district-wide vision of Excellence isn't too far behind there so in terms of the qualities of a superintendent using the same process number one was keeping People's First Choice keeps students growth and well-being the primary focus yeah 24 or 77 participants select that one as their first choice um 73 said they want somebody trustworthy honest and respectful or 23 and then um 19 18 and a half 19 said accessible approachable and visible in schools and community and again there's a big drop to the next um levels and those are um you see it's it tightens up a little bit for the top two choices here but they Remain the top two choices and then approachable accessible and Community um invisible is
022in third place so those are all really important and all of these qualities and characteristics are really important in leadership but these speak to your needs specifically right now and what I did then was took comments from um the open-ended part of the survey and kind of placed them where they seem to belong under these areas so recognizing the importance of relationships it's just so critically important that relationships are number one and um the leader devoted to supporting the growth of students teach everybody needs to feel like the leader cares about their growth both students the teachers and staff and somebody who's really attuned to what's going on in the class in the schools and aware of all the variety of issues that are affecting students and their performance and their mental health and their
023safety um staff really need to feel appreciated these days and I'm sure you're all very much aware of that um the stresses on them have been so enormous um they want to know that there's a fair hiring practice that people are able to earn livable wages um the successful superintendent is going to show that that individual really appreciates them and cares about their growth and makes decisions that are embedded in empathy and compassion um supports their Grassroots ideas um and helps them to expand teachers expand their Horizons and contribute to the strengths of the school system they want somebody who's open and compassionate and fair and is able to Garner the trust of students staff in the community um some this person needs to be an expert listener which obviously is the first rule of
024a good communicator um somebody again who's caring and humble and invites a variety of perspectives and shares ideas and follows up on promises somebody who's able to collaborate well with staff and loves to hear their professional opinions um somebody is political you're definitely going to need somebody who's politically aware and yet not political but diplomatic um able to bridge the existing divides the political divides that are were very clear in gathering this these data um who's able to listen to parents and promote their involvement um and and simultaneously give staff the impression that their the staff are backed up as well but ensure that um the family experiences All Families experience a sense of belonging in the Canton Public Schools and somebody who's a good partner with other boards across town as well this person
025needs to be knowledgeable about educational Trends and best practices and how to Foster Innovation see the big picture um in ensuring students are healthy and energized to learn and able to energize teachers to teach uh really Savvy about proven educational Trends and Innovations including International Trends um really informed on current curriculum uh focused on the whole child supporting the Arts and other forms of of student learning and expression um somebody who has significant experience as a classroom teacher that was really important to a number of your participants with also this is a lot but a deep understanding of special education and of mental behavior on social and emotional health and somebody also who understands social media and its impact on students and staff and Families somebody who will think and problem solve creatively and openly
026and help the community navigate the divides and come together behind a common sense of direction you want somebody who understands the district's finances and is able to communicate the district needs very effectively to the community and able to support the information the plant has been in need um this person is going to keep students as the primary focus of their decision making somebody who cares about learning and understanding what each child needs to succeed somebody who can address student behaviors who cares about supporting the social and emotional needs of both students and staff and it is able to encourage and enforce consistent discipline and Foster a safe educational environment so this leader also needs to focus on mention the growth of Staff helping principals and other administrators to improve and expecting them to meet high
027quality standards so raising the bar for everybody um higher effective teachers obviously you want somebody trustworthy honest and respectful um somebody who's realistic and transparent and guided by your policies and protocols I think we've mentioned the word humble a couple of times but times but somebody who's humble and kind and deeply involved in the community and highly visible in schools so somebody who really gets energized by being around students somebody this person needs to have a great personality and sense of humor and be able to relate really well with students and adults and finally um your participants say you're looking for a strong leader with a positive outlook somebody who's intelligent and compassionate and uses great judgment and able to make confident decisions somebody who has a vision and the capability to improve the performance
028of the schools somebody who's resilient has a strong backbone has a lot of common sense and courage and finally you have a desire to have somebody who commits to Canton for the long term so that I will stop sharing that is the detail of your I suppose God actually created a person I mean what do we got here right I mean everybody that might be like that is dead in his heaven so well you know this this document can also really help whoever ends up taking the role be reminded of what it is that's going to be successful there so I mean this is a moment in time but probably some of these concepts are good to reflect on when you're in the role and thinking about what this community really needs or what the
029community thinks it needs um and and tailoring Behavior to those needs all right why don't we do this why don't we um why don't we open up for public forum and then we'll go to the board for questions you want to do in Reverse yeah okay so in public forum certainly North please um my name is Nora I'm okarski for those of you that don't know me and this is public comment um I'm not a resident of Canton so I'm here in my capacity as an EAC executive member I'm the pr R person which is the person that's essentially a contract interpreter looking at the teacher's contract uh they call it professional rights and responsibilities as a grievance chair um but I'm here in in the stead of Chris amini who couldn't be here um
030so the reason why I'm here though is because it's relative to your agenda tonight which is to select a superintendent and the EAC asks that in your process of considering who should be on your board or group to decide and make those decisions that the teachers the certified teacher members would be a part of that conversation um we know that the rubber meets the road with the student and teacher relationship in the classroom and we think it's very important that teachers be asked or called to serve in some capacity in the process of selecting a superintendent we're the ones who carry out the vision we're the ones who carry out is you're mentioning a street strategic plan so I think that would be in our view imperative that teachers be a part of the the
031equation in some form of fashion and so I just wanted to voice that on behalf of the EA state for this evening thank you great thank you Andrew do you want to mentioned yeah sure um I thought we're going to be speaking at the beginning uh the pro called the media we wanted you to hear the uh yeah um but I heard you say state your name and your own I'm sorry Andrew lab report my name is Brad thank you um I heard you saying earlier that the board's going to go into executive session shortly by pretty soon um but I want to say public comments I did fill out the survey but one thing I forgot to include in the survey and I wanted to come tonight to uh just to throw that little
032tip into the post a little tidbit in is that I didn't want the board to go into an executive session at any point to discuss the hiring new superintendent I don't understand why any part of this process needs to be secret my understanding is that the session I can't be in the room for any member of the public can't be in the room um as far as I know and it's starting to come wrong any minutes captured the executive session won't be public as well that's my understanding so I understand why any part of this hiring process needs to be in private this is a superintendent for the town we all pay taxes here some kids from school some of us are having a business school no longer to do um there's nothing to be
033nothing should be in private issue I'll be public even even the resumes of the uh perspective superintendents that we receive you know the resumes that we get even make those public you can blur out the public information you know the private information such as addressing phone number and such but even those resumes should be made public so the way everyone can see what the qualifications are of all the applicants you know knowing that will only choose one but really uh keep it uh keep everything transparent and um you know give everyone an opportunity to look and see what you all are doing in this process so that's all that thank you thank you Adrian thank you for those comments um no one else in the room so we'll open it up to um online um
034if you're attending online tonight and you'd like to make a public comment you can go ahead and use the raised hand feature of zoom and I will call on you by your name you can find the reasoning feature on the bottom of your screen no questions no raise cans okay well thank you then I'll close out the uh the public forum and um go to the board now um Peggy any questions about the profile anything uh um I mean it was pretty thorough a lot of a lot in there it's nothing we can really argue with no I think your comment of you know sort of like the perfect person or something so you know with all the different um all the different things um no I I think it sounds pretty good actually okay
035thank you Kim no other than I hope all board members are going to read through everything if you're not here and you know going to read the other documents that are sent and it's important that you know everybody I agree I am grateful that the air conditioning um Erica I don't think I have any questions for now Alicia I am too that's a question it's just one uh did anything jump out is particularly unusual or unexpected that maybe would be unique to this town as if you've done many of these searches so and anything that I think I was most struck by the political divide I mean I have seen that in a lot of places but um there was more expression of that through the survey responses than I have seen um we know
036it exists across this country and certainly across the state but I haven't heard it quite as honestly and um yeah and deeply felt as as in Canton but otherwise I I also think you had greater Unity about um sense of both strengths and challenges than usual and I do think the participation speaks to a commitment to the schools and um desire to weigh in on um on what you're looking for so I I think I actually felt really good about the Kenton public schools and just think it's really important that the new leader Have Eyes Wide Open about the political divides and the effort that he or she will need to make to try to bridge those divides I think the staff really needs that because I think staff are feeling pretty beaten up thank
037you everybody okay uh any other questions okay um we are going to move into executive session but I'll just mention one thing about expected session the reason one of the reasons why we go on an executive session is because we're going to be we will be talking about certain individuals that have asked for confidentiality because we could be upsetting a career if they know uh if their school district knows that we're talking about them or how that works that's just one part of why uh and and the state allows us under Personnel matters to be able to do that but I certainly this board will try to be as transparent and open is is possible because I think that's important too so I appreciate your comment so so with that I will say that we're
038going to move into executive session I need a motion for that and it'll be just the board of education at this point so Felicia and uh or Peggy okay so we will move into executive session at uh eight uh forty all any any further discussion on that first and second all those in favor aye opposed foreign body Mary Broderick which will be quick for you because I know you have some meetings just in case thank you