001welcome to tonight's meeting this is our November 7th meeting it's a Monday because tomorrow's election day so we meet this week we meet Monday this week and on Wednesday we also meet uh to go over no good that is it Monday no no today's Monday yeah okay Wednesday Monday and Wednesday okay we're just wondering so Peggy's online and um Felicia will be online thank you at least you had sick kids and Peggy's legs was uh bothering her Kim is next door at a soccer meeting and Ryan I suspect will be here he didn't tell me otherwise oh senior um okay so anyways uh so welcome to tonight's meeting we will uh end tonight's meeting with an executive session to talk about the Personnel matter um at the end so I'll be asking you to add
002that to the agenda afterwards um am I missing anything so far okay so then um I'm thrilled to have Khalil here and uh as I mentioned I was at uh I was in senior night to see the football team uh at an outstanding game against Morgan and Morgan used to be a perennial power and I used to coach so that was a that was a great game for you guys yeah we had a uh an interceptions callback I saw you ran a couple yeah I saw some nice tackles too so uh good job all right so if you wouldn't mind uh leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight anyways and then we'll get started yes remember the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
003with liberty and justice for all thank you okay um so our our format is uh we'll try to get some of the reports out of the way which will be the student report superintendent report and a chair report and we'll kick off with uh the little who will be giving the uh the student report tonight yes uh good I want to say good afternoon yes so actually I'm sorry I don't for everyone tonight the student reports that we've been gone too just because we didn't know that Bella or someone wouldn't be here but um I didn't know that but so for the past events the last 2023 had a black band fundraiser a couple weeks ago went very well I'm glad to say obviously I know um sorry uh to be High School um music
004Club had their uh mattress wonders they also passed which was that went fantastic as well this is going to be a little shorter just for that yes you're fine you're good um glad you're here of course yeah and then so that's kind of just different passing that's an upcoming the uh boys soccer actually had a game tonight for their first United States they actually won like 10-0 I want to sell oh wow uh field hockey has their first states around the states names to uh tomorrow tomorrow at four or tomorrow yeah tomorrow for uh the acapella Club had their first meetings day uh at the high school that is a new project um boys and girls and girls had their first names today and boys had their first meeting tomorrow a couple more fundraisers from
005the senior class there's going to be one in Simsbury coming up in within a month um after Thanksgiving and then um so that's kind of it for upcoming and ongoing uh oh also play afternoon tomorrow students are outside and then ongoing students are sort of all getting kind of hyped up for these kind of router States inventory on and we're in a really good Mission uh students are really um kind of getting enamored back into the uh clubs going out of school there's been a huge turnout for a lot of budget safe Club it's not a huge turnout which is great uh cata personal finance a lot of big questions going on um as well as student council has been recently meeting thinking ways to kind of uh get around and have another pep rally
006knowing again for the uh entire school just to get a lot of sort of cheer going on around the uh holiday season Jessica so boys uh boys soccer is in the tournament yes girls soccer yeah girl stock is going to turn back I believe they have their first game on the right I know they're playing summaries first round it's sometime this week oh a lot of questions yeah so um boys was first round I actually just landed I want to say 30 minutes okay and then uh field hockey's tomorrow we're waiting to see how the football team does you have to win out yeah okay thank you a lot explaining I want to say New Fairfield tomorrow okay yes so Mrs days do you think that um you know we keep talking about working on
007this uh mascot situation you think maybe in the next couple weeks you might be able to meet new student reps and see if they can begin starting to get some feedback on how we might be able to get a mascot replacement in 2023-24 uh season so that'd be my hope hey thank you very much good evening everybody great to see all of you tonight a few things to let you know that have happened since uh we met two weeks ago um Mr Bishop and I had the pleasure of attending a Hartford area superintendent's meeting last week where the um the head of Connecticut's Department of Homeland Security uh presented information on security plans for schools and it was great for both of us to get an update uh making sure that our schools district and
008school security plans are as up-to-date as possible and everything we heard we have included in our school security plan so it was a great affirmation um there was also a lot of discussion about school resource officers and the value of school resource officers so I'll be talking more about that at a future meeting uh as to what we learned but it was a great opportunity for both Mr Bishop and myself last week um Canton High School had their annual College chapter National Honor Society induction and I put in each of your packets tonight of the program so you could see uh the students who are newly inducted um I sent a note to what each of the students congratulating them uh this is quite an honor we have 20 students that were inducted into this
009year's Honor Society and I thank Mrs Cecile Mancini who's our high school advisor to the National Honor of society so when you have a minute please take a look at the program was really a well done ceremony more good news to report that the Connecticut High School coaches association has named coach Timothy O'Donnell the boys outdoor track and field um coach as Connecticut High School coaches association coach of the year for 20 and 22. so a big congratulations goes out to coach O'Donnell who spent many years of his life um coaching outdoor track and field he recently uh made the decision to step down from his coaching position so this is a great honor for him there is going to be a dinner to recognize him on November 22nd Tuesday night November 22nd and anyone
010is welcome to go um the website is listed here when you can purchase your tickets um I know I'll be attending and other administrators from our district will be attending um so if you'd like to attend uh please feel free to join us again you registered here pay for your ticket here and that's Tuesday night September 22nd also coming up this Friday as we all know is Veterans Day and Canton was one of the um first school districts to have school have students attend school on Veterans Day and one of the things I remember most when I started my position here in Canton was attending the Veterans Day ceremonies so post covet I'm thrilled to say that our ceremonies will continue and you are all welcome to attend our Veterans Day ceremonies at the high
011school level on Thursday November 10th our veterans will be invited into classes to speak to our students and we do that on the 10th because on the 11th most of the veterans are involved in ceremonies at the other schools in our district so let me just let you know what times those will be on Friday if you'd like to join us so beginning at eight o'clock at Canton Middle School on Friday morning will be Canton Middle School's Veterans Day commemorates commemoration at 9 30. Canton Intermediate School will have their ceremony and then at 1 30 in the afternoon Cherrybrook Primary School will have their ceremony Etc you're more than welcome to attend one or all of those and each school has a good number of veterans who look forward to coming back year after year
012I had the great opportunity two weeks ago to attend the field trip that the Canton Intermediate School students have been going on to the American mural project at Winston uh as I talked about two weeks ago um the American mural project is the largest collaborative piece of Arts in North America that happens to be in Winston it's been in the works for 22 years and so every um fourth fifth and sixth grader had the opportunity to visit the American mural project I had the opportunity to uh to attend with three fourth grade classes it was an outstanding visit students learned so much and the exciting part now is they're now going to be putting up a mural themselves at the Intermediate School um with a guest artist in Residence and the school is looking for
01330 guests 30 adult guests to participate with the students and I thank Mrs Corto sent you out an email about that you could click on the link and schedule yourself to uh to be an artist yourself so I just wanted to remind you to look for that and if you didn't get that letting you know we can make sure to resend that out but it's going to be a great project and it's a it's a chance for the entire Canton Intermediate School Community to come together to develop their own mural I want to let you know that um we have three applicants for our student and family engagement director Mr Bishop and I will be interviewed holding first round interviews to screen the candidates this week and then um hopefully uh the candidates can move
014forward to second round interviews where we will involve other uh stakeholders from our community so the good news is is we have three outstanding candidates on paper and we look forward to talking with them the other piece of good news is that Kira Lafave has been named our Communications coordinator congratulations thank you so much um Karen will be taking on those responsibilities along with her current responsibilities as we hire a new technology specialist some of what Kira has been doing will go to the new person so we're thrilled we've been able to work that out it does make sense since Kira is at every one of our board meetings and knows um what's going on within the district you can be looking for flyers and press releases that are coming from here so congratulations here
015we look forward to working with you in that capacity situations I also want to let you know that um this fall we're working on um two family events for um families who are part of our choice program and uh this coming Wednesday evening um in Bloomfield we have invited our families in the choice program at the middle school and high school level to attend a welcome event um and treat a Collier dickin dickenman will also be present and we look forward to an informal gathering with our families um to talk with them answer questions and really look forward to getting to know uh the families at a deeper level so we look forward to that we'll be holding one for our elementary families um within the next several weeks as well did I hear you
016say it's in Bloomfield okay not here though not here okay Jen can you talk about that why uh the decision was made yeah this was a recommended yeah this was a recommendation from um from from trita and the idea of being able to have a place that is and is splitting the difference between the two uh the two destinations um but also finding a destination that adds some some unique food and Flair to be able to to add a little bit more to the to the and environment as well so where do you get carbons no no we're actually at a place called omnis omnis kitchen okay she's got some some great um from what I understand some um uh some um Caribbean cooking and and some really good food there so excited to be
017able to have that as a first offering this year to be able to expand out onto uh I think that's fantastic vocational wise I know a lot of the times um what made when you're younger so let's give a lot of ones and a lot of the problem is probably just getting into events today and then I think the idea of cutting that business is quite literally the next time I ordered from Hartford so that's just being able to accommodate those those fans that's going to be a big turnout I think that sets up a lot of them kind of sets the course information against these Choice parents and these Choice families kind of lays The Garden of certain their future for these family tonight I'm happy to get it on appreciate the feedback thank
018you what's your name so this Wednesday night November 9th I know you're on the board meeting right and then finally um I will mentioned uh this this past Saturday um students involved in the Alice in Wonderland um production uh had a great little fundraiser with some of our families this Saturday morning and Alice in Wonderland will take place this upcoming week um I don't have the exact times available but just know that'll be happening I think Thursday or Thursday Friday and Saturdays right so if you're interested and would like tickets just like Claudia know and Claudia can help arrange for that so it's really exciting Michelle winok who is our new Drama teacher at the high school has taken this on and this is the second year in a row she's done a production which
019is separate from the high school musical we have some Mad Hatter cookies well my wife's like oh it's a tea party so I put a suit on and I look ridiculous thank you good for you thank you she was like no you have to contract oh you don't have to get dressed up so that's my report for tonight does anybody have any questions I have a couple points does anybody have any questions entertained anybody online Felicia or Peggy any questions for the superintendent no I'm good thank you so let's open our anti-bullying um is when is that program so it's next Monday night it's November 14th because I don't think we've publicized that very well so um John is sending out another reminder we uh John and I talked about that today and we'll send
020it out a few times this week did you get the power into yeah so we we have it out we had it out by a school messenger it's going out again tomorrow we've got it on our Facebook and our social our social media we can get the town to be able to send that out as well it's a good point next Monday night yeah at seven o'clock in our High School auditorium we're having Justine Ginsburg from Farmington Valley the Farmington Valley Health District um give a presentation Mr Bishop what is the exact title it's it's living in its um oh my goodness navigating the hybrid reality navigating a hybrid reality living in living in Two Worlds of students so understanding that we live in a physical reality and there's a digital world how this how
021this um idea of feedback and um engagement or distraction really has an impact on kids and how these incidents of of immune Behavior unkind Behavior and the the mindset that will develop with kids it includes both work that happens in schools but it also happens outside of the school as well and follows kids through their out School outside of school hours as well so it's it's really to be able to help um our community to be able to understand what's out there for kids and some of the things that we can all work proactively to do to be able to support them 7 PM 7 p.m and we're having it in person in through Zoom um another question oh what is the situation with uh adopted teacher that's going on I've gotten a few flyers
022on anybody else see that Kim you must have seen that right we're at conference we they can adopt the teacher to purchase like treats and goodies for adding school is that a teacher appreciation yeah things kind of yeah is that there's people live you know or well it was just oh just church I think Cherry Road but I thought sometimes CIS has done similar things but I know I I Don't Want to Miss a chance for the board to appreciate our teachers I don't know if there's something they usually like have it like the whole staff take each staff member is selected by a Community member I mean most typically it's a parent of the school but it could be anybody I mean we could not have students there and pick a parent to be
023a teacher assistant but there's no one there's no Gathering or reception for teachers okay all right and sometimes they do PTO does lunches or staff during conference okay I'm assuming that that might look like as well but thank you nothing for the board to participate in it right I mean there's nothing there are no Gatherings okay there's no any other questions I just have a suggestion on the um anti-bullying communication that in the attachment after you click on it so if there's a way for us to clearly communicate that there is a hybrid option maybe in the subject um I think that would be beneficial in engaging more community members and that link will have to go out obviously yeah we'll have it we'll have that posted on the the front page of our uh
024Canton Public Schools webpage that was our thought for that rather than having it be something that we would send out and they have people swarming in on the bed but we can absolutely yeah no I understand I'm just saying in in the in the communication like it has click that you wouldn't know that you have the option to attend virtually we can do that thanks Felicia yeah thanks Felicia so apparent um has asked me is there is it just for parents is it just for parents can students go students can come that's fine Justine is a very engaging presenter students but I will say that she is she's also a a realist with some of these things um so I would say that the targeted audience for this will be students who might have actual
025personal devices with them as well to be able to help them be be prepared more so than some of our younger students so um maybe six then above six days a month and I understand I do understand that very soon at younger ages who have those devices as well they're just okay thank you any other questions okay chair reports um just quickly who's going next week to the cave Forum I know I am anybody else going no you're not going thank you you wouldn't be playing in your football game tonight it's an overnight thing that's a different point Felicia you're going right I will be there yes Peggy are you going no no you're not going anywhere I was but I can't it's okay okay just just checking um the second thing I want to
026mention everybody is the survey results are in and uh we will get a full report from Mary Broderick on uh Wednesday at seven o'clock just uh interesting uh we had 325 uh folks that participated uh she tells me that's pretty good so I I actually you know considered I think I told you last time I was considering extending a week she said it wouldn't make a difference however the interesting thing about that is 52 of parents of that 325 52 came from parents and you'll get this data uh in a little while but 16 uh came from teachers only 16 of that 325 were teachers a little a little disappointed in the staff didn't participate more 14 of that number actually came from students so um interesting now I I have to I'm going to
027throw the board a little bit of a jab on this only board member only four board members participating in the service which is a little bit disappointing that only four board members uh took the time to fill out the survey so that that to me was a little bit um frustrating but anyways I understand that you know time gets away and I know I must have bugged my wife about six times to fill that survey out so I understand so um you'll hear more about the survey obviously on Wednesday and then we'll break into an executive session to talk about next steps as we move forward with uh with the search um but will we get um like anecdotal information as well like you know comments section we we see that or is it just
028going to be percentages no you will get that there's some this uh some of the information will be really uh for the board members to help with the search so we'll that that will be kind of called out but no you will have those comments and some of the things that both said as a matter of fact I think there's some interesting um statistics that we'll need to talk about uh when we begin to lay out what what the answers were so okay some indication there um foreign to uh Mr Case is um I'm part of a board chair puts it together where board chairs can ask other board chairs questions you know what are you doing about this there were some questions about student reps how many student reps should we have so board
029chairs can exchange information I noticed that many of the boards of Education have uh Liaisons to to particular School schools so Kim could be a liaison to uh the middle school and then Kim would report and if Jeff had some things back and forth Kim can report on that back to the board maybe Eric is of the high school so Kevin tells me at one time we had those Liaisons I'm thinking that I might go back to that for the 2023-2024 um the school year so just think about that and see you know we'll have more discussion on that as we go uh as we go on those are the only things that I had uh from from a board chairs any questions today concerns thoughts no okay so um after we give these reports
030we like to go to the public so you had a chance to hear some things maybe some ideas or thoughts uh that you wanted to exchange with um whether it be the student report superintendent or the chair but we'll open up now to um the public forum anybody that has anything for public forum would just ask you if you could keep it to three minutes um and therefore we'll open it up anyone online for public forum you can go ahead and use the raised hand feature public foreign okay hearing nothing on uh public formal close public forum thank you Kira okay um we're fortunate tonight to have Mr Moore here and um we've changed the format Mr Case was nice to know if we thought it was just too much to pack in and we
031really wanted a rough up Jeff pretty good I just did him so just a case thank you chair Daniels it is our pleasure tonight to have Mr Jeffrey Moore here principal uh Canton Middle School to talk about uh goals for this upcoming year and uh yesterday was a special day for Mr Moore what's his birthday so oh happy uh Happy Birthday to You Mr Moore congratulations thank you for being here tonight we had a good day just wanted to thank you again and thanks for having me today I appreciate it uh and I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about uh state of things at middle school and the wonderful work that we are we are doing um as we go through our presentation the first part I believe you will be consistent through
032many of the schools so I will just be going quickly reminding you that our work is uh is aligned with the missionary vision of our district um as well as our published Public School values and the vision of the graduates um just today as we are closing out the first quarter today is actually the first day of quarter two um we've infused uh aspects of the vision of a graduate into um citizenship codes that are embedded in the report card so this is language that we're actively using to be a part of our daily lives so this is also some Raymond towards we also just reviewed this as a faculty meeting this afternoon and how our school goals and the work um are aligned with the district areas of focus on and what I ask
033the staff is to say they think about how if these are the priorities for the district I hope that they have already seen how minutes time and energy are being dedicated to these areas when we were in agreement this is what we are working on and that's what when the work is given to the local level we're our work aligns with these during uh the work's also driven by some theories of action where the we have these district-wide theories of action uh shortly saying that we believe if our teaching is student-centered then students will achieve and they will become they will fulfill that vision of a graduate also that students remain at the core of the instruction at the end of any decision you're making it's about what's best for kids it's a district value
034it's a CMS value likewise if students are concluded if our school Community is inclusive and Equitable then all students will make progress towards achievement in an environment in which who you are is exactly who you should be and you're welcome for that again that school I did that just quickly because those are district uh slides and language that we are just reiterated probably by my colleagues I'm getting specifically to the Canton Middle School portion of this I would like to begin with this Photograph this is about recent student staff soccer game that took place last week last Thursday evenings we were absolutely blessed with Incredible weather uh 45 student players 17 staff members I'm really proud that that group of staff there on the right is a combination of classroom teachers custodians members of the
035IT team um and some of our broader educator Community um I I highlight that just because I think it represents something about Canton middle school and who the team is it's very inclusive it takes the whole team to make our school special and I'm so glad that that team came together to play uh and the students pulled out a five to four Victory with a buzzer beater goal five seconds to go however I would like to record to show that they cheated and I have a list of names I'd like to submit Mr Case is saying no that's Unbecoming so noted I'll uh I'll say that for another time but just a wonderful tradition that's come about in recent years and to see our community come out we have it seems to a special place
036and that's a special part of it so my presentation will uh quickly uh we'll recap where we've been with some historical data and then I'll bring you up to our goals and uh and show you some more specific data of the students right now about why we've chosen those targets and then talk you through the strategies by which I think we will make the growth that we need to make so first looking backwards here's historical data review of our academic performance at the top there is the smarter about s back is that smarter balanced assessment uh both seventh and eighth graders take it every every year and these are the this is the performance of seventh grade overtime and eighth grade over time Ela language arts on the top the math grid is on the
037bottom and so what you see is uh is for example just to walk you through the ELA the percent at goal or above in our seventh grade has traditionally been in either high 70s or right there around that 70 Mark there's that year excuse me I think that you're missing when we did not test when we were at home um and when we returned from that you see that Ela performance dropped 17 62 percent uh last year 62 at proficient or above in our seventh grade group grade eight in the mid 70s for several years before the cobit break and then we find ourselves at 68 in most recently 58 at proficient or above on the ELA so aspect assessment doing the same historical look back for math seventh grade in the mid 60s roughly
038until the covered break coming back in the uh 58 and then most recently 50 of students had performed at uh rebold Target or in a bond in eighth grade similarly math aspect performance in the mid mid to high 60s then we returned from covert Break um 48 last year 45 45. so that is our look back and obviously some numbers that we need to pay attention to there those are numbers go in the wrong direction but uh we're happy to have tools and and strategies that are going to make an impact on those so that's the look of that I also uh looking backwards and I'm looking at our school climate data our school climate survey results page spring we give students and families a school climate survey these are last year's results and we
039see a lot of things to be to be proud of here because I've arranged both lists uh breaking in from their um areas of strength these percents are the percent of positive responses students or families agreeing that those uh areas are positive at Kent Middle School and so you see up there at the top of which students either the rules and Norms their communication with teachers their connectedness to the school all very strong we see at the bottom of that list that social emotional security and respect for diversity are the greatest areas of needed however I put in uh numbers next to that to show that those are also areas where over the past couple years we have been recuperating points from some of the more tougher or darker times uh when those numbers kind
040of reached a low when we went home for we were on the way back up and then our families are very supportive of Canton middle school and we see school climate also um so see school climate as a top ranking area with school Communications school connectedness being their designated area of needs albeit still uh still feeling very strong with 84 or 85 positive response there Jeff would you prefer questions at the end or do you want it here's your bill so that and I'll pause there those are those last two slides are my historic look back and I'm happy to answer questions any questions so far for today um the aspectives aspect it's one day I get all that you know but then particularly in math uh you said are not what you want right
041is it is it just a covet hangover is it a curriculum issue is it an instruction issue I'm sure you've done some studying of it yeah so that answers complicated and I'd be giving you my best professional guess right the exact diagnosis of it is tough it's also not a candy issue right which I don't I take personal responsibility for it and own it as a Canton Middle School issue but the bottom line is that the these scores and approximately 10 drop has been seen in our area in some of our area colleagues and Nationwide the people are analyzing what uh you know what the impact of covid1 so covet hangover I think is the biggest part of it at Canton Middle School particularly the math we adopted a brand new math curriculum that really
042leaned on student collaboration and then within the first six months of implementing it canceled the PD for our teachers stopped having students interact with each other and so we this is the first year we've been with in which we can live Fidelity Implement a math curriculum that I believe is high quality what we've had to do an altered version of it for the past two two three years right but we're investing in it just today there's some great professional development happening with the teachers if that's one of the causes then we're dedicating time and energy to getting teachers if those Math teachers in with curriculum Specialists to say to analyze it to know it know it well so is that the sole reason for those math scores probably not but it's it's one that we
043can control and so I want to make sure that our our three Math teachers feel a masterful understanding of a curriculum that admittedly got derailed upon implementation I believe when we went home for cooking so I think that's a big piece of it um and um what I wanted to hear so it's a good answer in other areas like the curriculum documentation to see as an area of focus for me and reviewing it in its entirety and making sure that we're accelerating where we need to we're eliminating not dead space but anywhere that the curriculum can focus in on key areas uh and key areas like skills that will move students forward so we're doing that correctly as well so is there a significant percentage that you know just missed or you know two or
044three questions correct would have moved them into yeah right so the the charts and stuff that you can get into here we do have a lot of students that are near those bands right a lot of students on the cusp um and so yes we we looked at that and the star results that I'll get into in my next section can also speaks to how our students are right there and also mentioned and this is I don't I couldn't back this up quantitatively when you come into Canton Middle School we have brilliant students doing complicated work in in some cases these percentages don't match what I would say is our professional assessment of our students critical thinking skills right we've gotten competent kids that have been moving through our school system they're learning and growing
045and I'm really confident that they're the Next Generation and we'll be voting in an election cycle or two and taking control of things like so this I also think there's something going on with the test and where we are and it being an accurate reflection of the holistic picture but it is a challenge and even if it's if it's an impotent imperfect one if we we know our content if our curriculum is tight and our teachers are being Diagnostic and intentional then these these can and will come up so so would you say we've bottomed out here is this the bottom or do we have more or are we we're going to drop further I would I have no reason to anticipate a further drop it's uh it went as long as that history goes
046back on any of these cohorts which is coming up or our grades this is we've never been here and if I'm right that it is a result of A disruption to business as usual and we're getting back to doing things at a very professional level the data we're using the conversations we're having as Educators there's no reason to believe uh so again you can make a note on your phone to ask me at the end of oh I will in the summer I know but so we're the only the only place is to go up from here certainly my intent okay thank you what question on the school climate survey results the uh plus six and plus seven can you explain that a little bit so that yeah so we give that survey through Panorama
047and as we run that report it reminded me that last year's number of the students who said positively that the social they thought the social emotional security became Middle School was they agreed or strongly agreed that it was positive last year that number was 62 I'm sorry well the previous year right so spring I went to one 62 in Spring 22 68 of students felt that our social emotional Wellness was positive so that's a six point a notable six-point jump same thing with respect for diversity uh 21 in the 50s this year seven points jumped off into the 60s okay so that was spring to Spring spring 21 to 22. no that's an annual government okay thank you is it concerning that physical safety is only at 71 no and I can tell you why
048because that that number jumps out to me as well and you'll actually find uh one of the two questions that make up that that uh component in my areas of strength actual I feel safer than the building is in the 90s that is I have seen someone be pushed at school okay what is the social emotional security like you know a 68 for that is in the lower and comparative what do you attribute that to like you obviously know the question just broken down better than we do right now we have a little info on that I will and actually I would love to defer that to my goals where I actually show you the four questions that bring that down the lowest and my targets to go up to the road but I can
049show you the language but yes physical safety I can tell you exactly what it's only two questions one of them is I feel safe at school but the other one is I've seen someone be pushed at school yeah and that that response was low uh a lot of pushing going on yeah you've seen the size of our hallways no I think I think the ambiguity of that but if they were to ask about fights at school sure that our discipline reports that's not okay Middle School's not you know in safety course okay I'm sorry I have a question Alicia um so on the numbers drafts that don't have like the plus next to them does that signify that the percentages were similar last year or the same roughly again I I highlighted those because Panorama
050highlighted them to me um and so I if I put them next to each other I'm sure you would see some discrepancy but those were highlighted to me as notable areas of broke so I thought I would include them as well but uh it is uh fair to say that those other numbers are roughly in those similar ballparks fit from uh 21 to 22. okay thank you foreign Target here is um are our academic goals so this goal is uh simply that our students will improve their skills and the areas of reading and Mathematics this is a goal that I've kept consistent because it's broad enough to cover these vital skills they also correlate to the smarter balanced assessments which are language arts and math um given recent performance which I have on the next
051page so I'll get there in a second I believe that 80 of seventh graders I would like to see 80 of our seventh graders be at a profession or above on the smarter balance assessment and 70 of 8th graders scoring next four problems assessment in the spring and 23 math 70 of both grades uh given where uh where they were and where they are I think that seventh am 8th grade we're all getting up to 70 at coefficient or higher net or hired on the 23 Smarter Balance math assessment are ambitious but achievable tolerance and adjust it by that on the next slide where here you look at the cohort performance so this is diving into some of our historical data um and so if you try to go back and if you look at
052what my grade history performance and then this color performance they won't match because that was seventh grade over time right about 127th graders at any given year this is tracking the current seventh graders back to when they were third graders over time so this is them as a group so in the area of language arts the current seventh graders were have held in the mid 70s throughout now there's a little bit of flexibility in that number because it does not include anyone who's moved to town after third grade it's a pure covert that number is an accurately true cohort so it's roughly 83-ish students and the only reason I say issue is that either Seven eighth grade is different but it's roughly in the 80s of the students that have been here since third grade
053all the way through eight and then so that's a true cohort but they've stayed in the 70s and so I'm setting my target for them to beat 80 move off meanwhile create that cohort has been in the mid 70s and after the covid uh after the shutdown they had come back and held in the mid 60s so I'm setting the school-wide target for that grade to be at 70 uh proficient or above in the area of language arts below that is another piece of data to help us diagnose that this is star data star you may have heard from some of the other presentations I certainly taught you about it last year a tool that was introduced to Canton Public Schools last year we gave it three times last year it is a diagnostic formative
054assessment uh in the form of an Adaptive test so it gives kids questions and when they get it right it gives them a harder one when they get it right it gives them an easier one to try and find in the area of reading like an accurate measure of their reading level when we looked at our current seventh graders last year so including their performance as sixth graders you see that mid 60s so the projection from star that students would be performing as expected or better in the mid 60s things throughout their Sixth and then start of seventh grade eighth grade meanwhile say uh in the mid 60s in uh their seventh grade year otherwise holding steady in the mid 50s so that's a star measurement of if they were to take the smarter balance
055assessment right now they think that percentage would uh at goal or above so if I manage it so we have a downward Trend whether you're svac or your star there's a downward Trend correct you're hoping to hit a target of 80 you're going to grow by four percentage points and on the uh on the eighth grade you're going to try to hit 70 right so you're going to tell us later in the presentation how you think we can do that because that's quite a jump based on what the trend line is well so the so yes and I'll tell you the strategies that okay but it's also a combination of so something that intrigues me is the discrepancy between star and aspect performance which is something we're going to need to pay attention to over
056time and I was telling you in the spring we weren't quite sure how that was that would shake out because you need history with it so how come eighth grade as a cohort 65 last year 65 for a profession or better but stars in the spring of 22 so at the same time the day and with that group went out and got 65 Star said 59. right so that that's just an interesting Gap and I'm glad in that case that group outperformed what stuff said they would so start one piece of information and it informed some of our strategies but then they as a group in that 60s so I do think myself but star to me seems to be more accurate because you have a pure cohort on the S back which is a
057little bit of a tighter uh Groove so Stars more you know more Universal I guess you're right that is representing everyone who took it right you're right so um you know still the trend Line's not good either way right I mean it highlights uh it highlights a need to use tools like Star sure really know who the kids are something we can't get away with this year like when we say things like our struggling readers and we need to know who those students are and we need to be having an action plan for in my class I know where they are and because of that I'm doing this next okay so I I don't want to jump on your presentation go ahead because I want to hear the strategies and treatments we're going to use
058to drive to see these numbers in the spring make some moves towards your target goal absolutely um before I even do uh the strategies are similar similar review on math and so doing that kind of short and quickly because now it's a similar pattern and pass back call word on top is third graders the current seventh graders perform very shortly for that year 86 but then settled in in the mid 50s I Target them at 70 percent uh a gold or above the current eighth grade class in the 70s then there's that trend line 64-53 um that's aspect co-work performance I think 70 is still an ambitious Target for this one I want yeah it's a huge far and on Star we see that when you look and here's a here's a case where star
059is if if stars were representative start things more students are proficient in that than S back shows so they're going down to the star chart this is the current seventh graders looking at their performance in sixth grade 20 20 21 16 in the mid 60s and On The Rise upon their arrival the middle to Middle School 79 73 percent the current 8th graders 70s in the 60s holding there in the mid 60s at the start of this year Mr shiver help me um these are Big discrepancies between us back and star I mean I think how do you get a read I I don't know right and how do you factor in the learning loss and the time loss for the oh but I don't know how to do that either how to make sense
060out of it uh it looks like we peaked in third grade and and then we work our way down and you know we had two plus extraordinarily difficult and challenging years for sure not as shattered this isn't General uh but uh you're confident the star Assessments in the S back are testing the same things no you're not coming right now let me test the same things in the same star is an instructional tool right it's about it how predictive it is we don't yet know okay when I arrived Camden Middle School had much more experience with the SRI in the area of reading and that's probably something that you're more familiar with and that can Middle School teachers and reading Specialists could tell me with much high level of certainty SRI SRI performances like this
061Lexile scores like this tend to mean this on the smarter balance assessment right so a longer history there that we were more dialed in it did not uh other than being a predictor tool that uh did not necessarily offer information and insights into standards and skills that you could use to move students along so the move to Star is a wise one because this we can use and we dive into it and say what are the key areas of weakness and what do I do here's where Joe's at what's the next best thing to move forward so that is immediately valuable and those are the conversations we're having right now will it predict this year as back performance I I'll I will see I I predict that if stars on the incline s backflow as
062well because if you're reading better if your comprehension skills with your arithmetic is stronger it'll come out in the wash um but you're right that discrepancy is something that we don't have the perfect answer to your question too about about being able to read the two different points that it's um we are actually having some further training with star to be able to see exactly how to be able to dial in more of that adjust point about using it as a litmus to be able to see at a moment where we're at and what do we need to be able to focus on that's 100 of what star woods to be able to do give us that momentary sense of where we at how are our kids doing or what do we need to prioritize
063and then over time to Jazz Point as well to be able to look at are we seeing that grow are we seeing the areas where there were deficit before are we seeing those start to improve based on the instruction and the treatment that's what I want to hear but I can't I can't get that I can't pull that out of this um I'm frustrated with these numbers and targets that we don't know if we can hit because we don't know how to measure and I mean this is kind of frustrating uh how where we are here as a middle school seems to me if you want to be successful on the aspect that's and teaching to the test is a losing proposition as far as I'm concerned but you want to you want to teach
064challenging kids to be able to answer questions and solve problems that are related to the kinds of questions asked on the S back test not just repetition and drill cool but the phraseology and the setup of the of the reading and the and the math uh problems and questions needs to in some way be reflected on the suspect assessment if that's being successful that is important correct and you have to know you're doing that after how the games played and you know right so I I'm if star isn't giving you that then well you've been transfer to success on the other tests star seven right is similar in in that I just if I'm asked if it will if it has been a predictor then the answer is not with a trend line that I
065recognize yet but in addition to the iebs right the interim uh in the interim assessments which are made by the sort of balanced Consortium so students are being exposed to that that type well also balancing the fact that I do not want to become and I don't think you want your children to attend a test prep school right smarter balance is one thing and I believe that a well-rounded education that focuses on them being great people that are receiving a rigorous education will ride like it is a game and we'll we'll do well in the game if we're well prepared and we are getting really robust information on this time the conversations that we're having are the right ones to be having as education professionals but the excellent share the question of you know what
066is it as a predictor other than if the trend line is moving in the right direction I anticipate it will further the the summative assessment that is specified all this aside how do you how do you think we're going are we making progress how do you feel about it I believe they can middle school is having the best conversations we've had in a long time looking forward productive professional conversations where for a few years it's been about we are reactive taken care of Opera you know like a Hold Steady pattern because of the challenges we were up again this is a forward-looking forward moving staff in school staff motivated excited yes they feel that we got a plan in place and I would love to ask them and make sure they're down there you're the
067spokesman for those guys so energy is good and this is the work that we want to be doing okay what I am most proud of is that um Jeff and the staff more than ever are talking about visual students with this data that we have the star data is aligned with the standards in math and English language arts svac is debatable let's start the star data is aligned and it allows us to really focus in on those weaker areas students have and put a laser leg focus on that instruction at Jeff's professional development trainings with teachers there was just one held last week I believe and Jeff and the staff talked about individual students that's that's why the targets are so high we are very confident having an individual action plan for every student they
068will make progress okay definitely we've had many conversations about that that's that's some that sounds incredibly ambitious in a good way but so how do how do we take the individual student data and translate that into something that actually happens in the classroom how does that work you got to come to PD tomorrow that's exactly what we're doing tomorrow morning so so yeah it's a team um the PD that Mr Case was referencing what we did is we looked at how you can use star and classroom performance to look at your class and say where uh where is this class what is the next best thing that can make this class do better in addition to the curriculum because the challenge here you do have your curriculum that you need to progress the right we
069need to implement that with Fidelity but then also you need to be doing this like circling on top of the curriculum based upon skills what are the areas of need in math is division in fractions it's an area that trips students up and then obviously that's a Mainstay so fluency with division is holding our students back so how do you move through a geometry unit that you have to cover while practicing division so the last PD was looking at like that classroom level in individual student reports to figure out how could you literally how could you group students based upon an area of need that's been presented star showing it but then also teacher judgment and classroom assessments and make groups based upon that so in the middle of your geometry unit you pause on
070like a Friday and you do a refresh Friday activity instead of your traditional do now and you hit some fluency in a diagnostic area of need for the four groups for four different things so that's what we'll do tomorrow what we're going to do we're going to talk about those students who are right on the cusp we're going to talk about those kids that are in the middle they're on watch but they're not right yet projected to get into the proficiency band those are students who are sometimes they're not on either extreme of the bell curve so we're going to pop the hood up on those kids we're going to name them my name we're going to go into their data we're going to say what does this student need next to move them forward
071and then how do you differentiate for them or group within your class like what literally where are they in your sporting a period b period so you you dive into it we're taking advantage of the half days we've been provided the PD days that we're provided and half of them are being spent on curriculum documentation and review and the other half are being spent on who's the kid what do they need and uh and how does that impact your instruction and everyone ends with an action item of I'm doing this different in a period over the next two weeks based upon what I see in the data if I can jump in real quick too just to be able to to help um again show where some of this is coming into action so uh
072conversation with Christian grecular who is our math support um uh tutor so Chris is where your kids at how are they doing we were able to look at initial individual student within her tutorial to be able to see what their levels of Readiness or what their level of level of need was and then put the action plan together to say anybody's been following those kids individual individual settings in the Box along with certain focused instruction on the areas that they learned with support from Banks and what support from Sacramento Academy but some additional parallel work and then in three weeks she's going to do another assessment another quick dip of this to see how they've learned and that's the expectation that we're going to see that type of inflection move with those kids based on
073the need that they have we met with Lindsey Ramos who's a representative from prep she's an instructional specialist who specializes in illustrative math which is the uh the program that we had adopted prior to the pandemic and she worked with the team to look at the star report and say this is where it looks like our classes because star will show this is what the Readiness skills are for your class which you need to be able to to connect back in with so working with her she said okay based on your unit right now in unit two it looks like your kids are doing this and may be struggling here so she was able to connect us back with curricular resources that said all right we're going to pull in this piece to help Elevate
074those kids to keep moving them forward a bit so it's a feedback feed forward Loop that we keep trying to be able to work on with this to use all the tools to help us out so I just want to say you just said a few minutes ago I think it's fantastic I think that is the Cornerstone of can right there the idea that you're going into each child and you're figuring out what their needs are that can only happen in a small town and it's a resource and it's it's a value that you know I'm telling you not many other schools can have so that that alone to me that was very impressive so thank you for saying that and thank you John because you kind of highlighted it but I think that's fantastic
075how many math support tutors do you have okay well under the circumstances I know ordinarily is enough but is it now the one tutor right in the area of reading one two in the area of math would be sufficient but the flexibility with which I can get students in front of an intervention tutor is is not ideal at the moment so part of the reason that in the coming meetings we're going to talk and I want to share with you thoughts on the schedule for 23 24 and Beyond uh would be to increase that because right now I have I have the right people but some of the structures that we operate in we don't facilitate the level of nimble meaning and support that we that we need right now I mean students don't have
076a opening in their schedule to meet with the math tutor what we current right and that's why that's why we have a flex period right now that should that that creates opportunities so we're we're making it work right procedures are lifting it up on their shoulders and making it happen um but we can we can alter things organization that make it that this is just how we operate and a lot of what you know what you were just highlighting there that's star is a tool right and I don't even want to say as we mentioned all these cool things that it's doing it is the current tool that is doing something that can't middle school has always done the reason that cameos was based upon the team model is so that you can get together
077and talk about kids at that level so that has not changed what's happening right now with that I think is invigorating to staff is right now we're having the conversations that we have been paid to have right these are about curriculum our subject area our kids the data even I don't consider myself a data guy per se in terms of this chart is not why I teach right but this is very invigorating because that is a kid represented there and knowing where they're at and where they can go and this is what we're going to do professionally move it that is inspiring right and that is so that's very palpable interculture inclined okay so my goals might be ambitious but I'd rather be aiming towards them and make sure that we've definitely bottomed out and
078we're climbing out uh I'd love nothing more than to get these targets but I love your approach I think you can get there on that one by one taking each student each child individually I think you might get there that way I'm pressing helps them um so go going into this and I'll try to just highlight this this long list here um but the Strat the academic strategies that I think will uh get us there in addition to what we've talked about so the first point being the most obvious right star is a formative assessment that we will use throughout the year and I've told you about how I use uh the meeting time and professional development time that we have available to us to continue that process such as an endpoint two data analysis
079to inform instruction and adjusting a curriculum as needed I'm looking learning and behavioral data I like this question right for whom is this not working what do we need to do to meet their needs that's the that's the question that's driving each meeting uh in each data cycle we're making sure that we're doing a nice job with uh targeted interdisciplinary strategies we've noticed a trend when uh strategy is used across disciplines students do a better job of generalizing it this is not a candy phenomena but students very much Silo information in their brains this is how I write a science report is seen as different from how you write a social studies essay which on one hand they are but evidence is evidence and using evidence to support your claim is universal and when we
080layer those together and talk about claim evidence reasoning as a universal strategy when we talk about I squared or other uh or specifically penalized graphs and charts an area of need that we've noticed by analyzing the smarter balance data when we do those in Universal ways kids see that this is how you look at a chart no matter where it's coming at you from and that generalization I hope will yield better problem solving skills on a one-off test like the summative aspect accessories so um we were talking about PD and using rest Consultants to enhance the professionalism and Readiness of our staff to do do this work and know their curriculum particularly in the area of math um there's dedicated time for the curricular documentation and data analysis and I've asked teachers to do it
081and not give them the minutes uh focus on student-centered learning practices I did not think this was the year to do something in terms of brand new uh initiative something brand new out of left field this is a continuation of the student-centered learning that has been a focus for Canton Public Schools in Canton middle school for years just getting into it really deep into the into the weeds to differentiate the tools such as IXL nearpod and learning ally again we'll we'll take any tool that could possibly help a student on the individual level and help them grow and practice we are not going to solve this by putting kids in front of screens but if there is a tool that will help then diagnostically and appropriately will use it right but ultimately it's going to
082come down to kids being well known and well taught with a teacher that cares about them in front of them and I think that's the direction we're headed and that I guess to that last point there making sure that the student the intervention is as flexible as possible so students are getting what they need from the teachers they needed at the time that they need it so those are some of those instruction strategies any questions on those next we're going to move into our culture and climate goals and here I highlight uh um the artwork that was completed over the summer uh we have we felt that it was time to update some of the murals throughout the halls of Canyon Middle School and this is how involves you as you come up the stairs
083our Unity mural um and I just I loved capturing the progress of it over the course of the summer and I think it's appropriate that you are welcomed into Canton middle school with a message of unity who you are is exactly who you should be and you're going to be well known well taught and well accepted here for exactly that so with that my culture and climate goals I have two one for students one with the families and canvas will get to uh on that side you're seeing the questions that I'm specifically focusing because that is the language um as it as it is asked so my first goal for students is that they will feel increasingly respected and valued by their teachers and peers with a measurable Target of looking at it for 80
084of students will respond positively to the following questions and I've put their the four greatest areas of need um I'll read them out because I think it's relevant so what percent of students agree or strongly agree that students in this school respect each other differences that they will try to stop students from insulting or making fun of others that they treat each other with respect or that they're treated fairly regardless of who they are and so you see the percentage there and again Panorama highlighted for me some areas of growth I think that is two years of growth for anything but at a trend line in those responses being universally moving upward when you look at um there was one graph Mr Bishop you and I were looking at about five year six year trajectory
085of giving the survey and uh it's clear that uh the stressors of the world uh brought us to a bottoming out there but we are very much not at the bottom of our culture and climate uh in terms of how our students feel at school we are very much on the rebound in all areas but these remain areas of need and I want students to respond uh positively to these four questions in particular no [Music] um thank you I mean maybe curious as to like one or two strategies that we're using or doing okay um is that the third goal though or the second climate goal is related to parents in which I want 90 of our families to uh respond positively to those those questions uh ultimately I want them to feel updated on
086student progress and I want them to know what a valued member of our community they are as part of their kids education there's two specific questions that I thought were uh worth focusing on that uh ninety percent of humans would respond affirmatively that they feel welcomed or I'm sorry well informed about what's going on in school and welcomed here at school strategies to achieve those are continuing to lean upon the very uh the invaluable Middle School advisory program which continues uh that didn't go anywhere um throughout uh the the pandemic but it's uh it has remained just a backbone of God connected this within our school Community uh every kid knowing they have a trusted adult to go to um and I think part of the reason that our parent numbers are strong even though
087I want them to be stronger um I have so many examples of a time where a parent wasn't quite sure who to ask a question to so they started with their kids advisory teacher which is exactly the point you're not sure who to reach out to um start start there because that person knows your kid and can help get you the answer that you're working for so we will continue but we need to infuse more resiliency and social emotional learning into our advisory program before the pandemic we were doing a specific resilience and programming partnership with the Farmington Valley Health Center and we are currently working to develop new resources that can enhance the advisory program I don't want to take away what it is with competitions and team building and academic uh academic conversations
088but to achieve those responses to have students stand up for one another to respect each other's differences we do need to explicitly teach that role model and have those conversations and I think advisory is one of the key vehicles for that we also have a pretty robust uh PBIS so PBS is a positive behavior intervention and support and what it basically means is it's a philosophy by which you can't just tell kids to do the right thing can't just tell kids be nice because what does that actually mean what are what are the action steps towards kindness respect uh Equitable mindsets and then you have to you have to know first as the adults what you're looking for and then you need to teach it you need to celebrate it when you see it and
089then you can more confidently call it out when it's not happening so our PBIS team and myself have a year-long plan with monthly areas of focus ongoing celebrations for recognizing students when they're doing the right thing and monthly Town Halls where we bring students together highlight students of the month and uh highlight students of the month who are representing CMS wave and that their monthly areas of focus but we also have it's another teaching opportunity to say overseeing some of this so we're getting timely feedback back in front of kids uh based upon what we're seeing and what we think they need to hear from us so um making sure we continue to have competitions and events that promote inclusion respect and pride in our community um and increase the number of in-person events uh
090especially families wanting families to know have an increased opportunity to be on site in the hallways of the school and all of our teachers have set a goal relative to communication with families that I thought it was valuable for every teacher to have one of their professional goals be how am I staying in contact with families in a proactive way so um my theory is that if every teacher is focusing on that throughout the year and being held accountable to that parents will feel the welcomedess and they will feel the proactive communication so those are some of the the key areas key strategies any question numbers all good then as I near the end of my presentation I'm having to brag that we continue to have outstanding participation in sports and clubs for a small
091school the number of things we offer is is exceptional I have to highlight my colleagues at our fellow school another great benefit of a small school district is the ongoing collaboration between those schools um the the elementary Intermediate Middle and High School level we know what's happening in those schools and we really can think about smooth transitions between them and even I love uh it's going to come up at the end but I love the opportunity to talk to Mr Robin about how we can do things now and get kids excited to get to Middle School which isn't always the case but we can be doing work from the very Elementary level and the Middle School level across the bridges and build early relationships so I highlight my collaboration with my with my colleagues there
092I'm bragging about the return of DC and I appreciate your support there um ongoing and continuing Traditions that make our school a special place here is Mr Daniels uh students I wanted to highlight these very strong responses in their climate survey I feel welcome 91 I feel safe 91 and teachers help me understand why we're here in the smooth Mission our values our purpose 94 to good numbers so and then academically I'm bragging that our students are moving within the bell curve from urgent intervention to onwatch it's not enough to get them to the place where like that summative data looks at Golden above but we are seeing the shift and in the area of reading our students show a strength of reasoning and evidence which I think ties into an effect that we have
093that Universal strategy about the same evidence reasoning they also do a great job of determining Central ideas my priorities and this is where I'll close and then take any final questions about um are the curriculum documentation we need to review our curriculum invite years and have that be refreshed and up to date um that's obviously a living document so you never stop doing it but there's a concerted effort on it and you need to do it right now the continuation or the real deep focus on formative assessment data analysis I'll be coming on working on and we'll be coming forward with a scheduled proposal so we can continue to do the great things but more nibbly meet students individual needs instructionally we need to focus on the skills using explicit details inappropriate text structure and
094we need to do what I was telling you about in The Advisory program making sure we are explicitly and proactively teaching students skills around resiliency and uh um and respective behavior and discourse so those will be my school project events are it will continue to be my areas of focus for the year and uh as I was telling you about me and Mr Robin um you know I end here highlighting a costume parade that was held on Halloween where kindergarten students had the opportunity to come through both the middle and high school obviously this was done with the high school's support as well but uh Not only was this a great day for us but it uh we were really focusing on and we want to build a tradition where students can come and see
095their future School see the big kids we had uh so many siblings that came out and were able to say that's my younger brother my younger sister and soja a real reminder that we are a communion we're a pre-k through 12 community and it's all and we're all a part of the journey and I'm honored to be a part of that new the unique 7th and 8th grade years I know that we have work to do but I feel more confident than ever that I've got the right people doing the right work and I hope to show you in a quantitative sense not just a qualitative sense over time that that the work is paying off good job Jeff questions for Mr Moore um you have a comment um I just was looking at the
096um goal number two in the questions and just seeing those numbers um going from that 36 and 39 respectively up to um 52 and 62. I just want to commend you on your implementation on different um things for the students and you know with this program that you spoke about I think you were doing an equity group of students to just really move conversations on creating that environment and that um respect from each student to another so I just wanted to just you know commend you on that but I'd like to obviously see those numbers go up from that 52 and 62 but just seeing that they came up from 36 and 39 is pretty impressive so just wanted to point that out I appreciate that thanks Felicia Peggy anything for you uh no it
097sounds great and I especially like uh this ending slide with um kind of building Community nice board members so I I asked the two board members um Kim and Ryan you have children in Middle School how's it going pretty good on my end good happy camper good lost the seventh period of the eighth grade election though I thought we could pull all these Rings there Jeff I don't know but we talked about that my morals and values I was testing you so yeah no honestly everything's great um I've been impressed because you hear Middle School transition horror stories um but we found to be very supportive and and you know happy to be there so great job he gave a great speech by the way he needs running anything council speeches were so good Kim
098it's good okay and I have one generation you're very very positive experience you have a tough job there's no question you know you're at that that level where they're making that jump I think and uh like I said I'm so impressed that it's Mr Case pointed out that you know every student individually and you have a plan for that student and for me that that system also I'm rooting for your numbers and I look forward to seeing it in the spring but I think I think you're on the right track so thank you for your presentation tonight I appreciate it I appreciate your support I can't do it without you so I'll be I'll be working hard on here and so so I do have a question what can this board of education provide for
099the middle school that you don't have right now that we can maybe go after for you what I know I've seen your the things that you'd like but what can the board of education do for you so in specific terms as I this scheduled proposal which may include uh not major but they include FTE requests yeah and and some uh some of the provisions to courses if that is what it takes for me to have a schedule that I need to meet the needs of my kids for the years to come sure that may that may I know that asking for people and their four dollars uh is always something that needs to be done thoughtfully but this is a process we've undergone thoughtfully and so that will be that's a tangible thing that will
100be coming before you that um will be uh I've asked for your questions and dialogue and partnership but then ultimately the disappoint there right I look forward to seeing it and we look forward to backing you on whatever you need so appreciate it okay just in case anything else Jeff thank you to you and your entire staff for all your hard work working out we're we're talking about having a good time thank you staff for for all of us because I do appreciate it I know I know you're not a one-man band there so you have a lot of support with your teachers and your staff so yeah thank you thanks very much appreciate it okay that was a great presentation we move on to Donna oh me for my CIP yep all right um
101I put it on your desk hopefully or your table in front of you I hope everyone has one um I am recommending an action tonight uh we have a generator uh project at Canton High School the generator is uh already installed that was part of the CIP the capital Improvement plan um once it was installed uh we uh wanted to see if it had the capability or well we want to see if it has the capability of extending into some other circuits to that would inevitably be covered by the generator in case of an outage um and we think it's a good idea Tom Richardson thinks it's a good idea uh so that's something we'd like to do uh and it costs a 10 a little under ten thousand dollars to kind of figure all
102this out so we have the money in CIP if we reallocate some funds um and uh I'm making a recommendation tonight that we knew um well 9 271.35 from a cvtf file boring replacement project that is complete uh so that um it's kind of a no-brainer it's uh that's done and then in addition to that we just need another 248 dollars and change uh from a Russell was going to write that check right yeah from a miscellaneous CIP building projects but that's under the Board of Ed so that those two uh movements would enable us to go ahead and and get that done that's great so we we have that promotion at the end of the uh the finance committee looked at that Don explained it uh Joe Russell myself and Peggy were here and
103uh were in favor of it so thank you okay um John hey John quick question for you the new website is it oh is it because I I go to so we went to be able to that's a great question with much fanfare and excitement we uh stated that October 31st was going to be uh the day that we were going to launch the website uh but unfortunately there was a trick rather than a treat for us with that and we needed to work with Q send a little bit further to be able to um take care of some functionality issues we knew that um and I I really want to be able to give a lot of credit to Claudia and uh and Lynn young my assistant for doing some additional work we really
104want to make sure that it is community ready and that it continues to build confidence in the work that we do and how we do it there were a couple little uh um little Labs that weren't connected with each other so we have to go back and work with Q send a little bit more but it's close it's very close we just want to make sure that it's working the way that it needs to so hoping to be able to have it by parent teacher conferences not the answer that I wanted to necessarily give you but it is where we're at with that right now um a couple things quickly we did talk about the November 14th Community Workshop very excited for um Justine Ginsburg to be with us just in this a phenomenal community
105resource and she's also talked with us about having an additional um uh several additional follow-up events that we'll have so we'll we'll present uh information about that to the community on that night as well um but we're excited about that for a professional development days which are coming up um one thing that I'm very excited about and the work that that we do is uh we don't work we don't want to work in isolation um we have been doing a lot to be able to collaborate with other districts and so um understanding that our new physical education health and wellness standards have been have been uh presented to the world um we want to make sure that our staff have an opportunity to be able to work well with that so we're partnering with Simsbury
106and region 10 with a consultant from Central Connecticut state University to be able to review those new standards to be able to do some crosswalk work on what what are we meeting what do we still have opportunities to be able to work with and be able to get some additional training so in in a lot of these cases where we have Singleton folks who teach um in a in a small Department we want to give them a broader reach to be able to collaborate we're doing good work with that right now um I wanted to let you all know in the uh the situation with me reading legislation for the state our our regional Educational Service collaborative our our rest prep they have put together an event on the ninth that I'm going to be
107heading over to with um Kathy Watson one of our literacy Specialists from Cherry Brook to be able to do a review of the six approved State programs however I will say that the bureaucracy is still put in this and we're waiting to be able to see how the shift of these State's requirements may work themselves out through some additional lobbying from uh Cave and caps can I mention something on that please I kind of bubble up to me though is Columbia well thought out thought out with our with our teachers is you know is that is that accomplishing well we because some some you know you know put put this thing to bed is is the worst thing that ever happened yeah so I think I know there's a financial impact yeah the litmus test
108that I would say with it is I think I think people like the sense of um being able to have readers and Writers Workshop the workshop model of being able to work with kids that develop in a sense of a love for reading in the craft where we have an opportunity to be able to develop further is through some um structured literacy work there too so right now my mom was an educator for 40 years she talked about the pendulum swinging back and forth all the time the pendulum is moving again and somewhere in the middle of workshop and structured basal series is a sweet spot for us that that we would think of as like the Canton structured literacy so I I don't think I think there's opportunity to move beyond the um TC
109version that we've had in the past to be able to add some different elements to it should the state allow us so I think overall I think there's a Readiness and a understanding by our staff that we can and need to do more to be able to support our kids and there are resources that we have to be able to do that we just need to know what the state is going to let us do okay and this Foundation is going to move down to I know we started with third grade right so so well this this is the challenge for us right now with that the state is not allowing us to be able to have a program that would have multiple elements that would connect together right so so they might say sorry
110well currently they're saying no we can't bring something else in we've got to choose a program which is your robust then for us I wouldn't say it's a bust I think what we're doing is we're taking what we know about about structured literacy and we're taking some other resources that are brand agnostic and really supporting it we are taking um we are taking fundations and using that for what we would call our tier two or tier one plus what that means is those kids who might be struggling they get that support from tutors and we're having support that gets pushed into the classroom to take care of those as well so we're doing the best of both worlds while trying to wait for the state to be able to let us know what we can
111actually do but we're not going to be able to budget for foundations foundations in uh like second grade for example because we're up in here right now right I I don't know what things are going to look for us just yet okay okay it's frustrating for us because we want we feel like we've got some really good resources that are out there for us that we would like to be able to implement but we also know that there's a financial reality for us with these resources that we don't want to we don't want to shoot ourselves on the foot I get it okay so we're trying we're taking the principles and the resources and applying them in the best way that we can right now with with some other resources to support them okay thank
112you again it's not an answer that I necessarily want to be able to give but it is the reality we just get out of our way that's so much better off that and that that is not a um an unfamiliar tone from Lords and superintendent's offices around the state uh because we have things that will work I will say that when we come to a recommendation that will happen for you all it's going to be well thought out and pretty comprehensive we're working with uh we'll be working directly with West Hartford Simsbury Avon uh brand B region 10. we are regionalizing some work with Specialists from each district to do the hard lift of reviewing these resources and then we'll make our own recommendations based on what we need what is is not going to
113be a siled effort from us so um I feel very confident about that I just want to make sure that our teachers continue and our kids get the resources that they need where I will say that we are a win right now you committed extra dollars to be able to support A literacy specialist an additional literacy specialist that is paying off in students system next question God I don't I just to comment I don't get I try to get a lot out of my son every day when I get home like what'd you do at school today very difficult I hear about foundations every day and I hear it from my eyes I honestly don't really know what it means but it comes up in conversation every day you're talking to his sisters about it
114I don't know what you're doing but I hear Foundation every day and what I'll say is a lot of the elements that are a part of that are still being bred into the program and the professional development the there's the work that our literacy Specialists are doing with our teachers are preparing the way for more of that work for the future we just need the opportunity to be able to say yes so more to come um and then another kind of exciting piece is we try to be able to continue to expand our connections within our community um and with our our work with our new social studies units that we're piloting Bob vessel have been working very closely with a little bit about a project that we're hoping to be able to put into
115into uh the interest back into that museum hopefully bringing more families in and helping to be able to revitalize this sense of uh this resource that we have here so I want you to know that we're doing our work I I think it's important for you to hear that we're doing our work here we're doing our work with other districts and we're doing our work with Community agencies as well so that Historical Society is a gem at this time and every I think every class you know should have a time where they go to visit them well we're starting eight or five or eight to six it's just you guys doing field trips there we're gonna we're gonna do more to be able to make that happen and then you know ideally the the work
116is then to be able to have our high school students be able to work and to come goes into and help to support this work with our younger students as well again just what Mr Moore was talking about making this ecosystem of olders and younger is working together so but it is the foray that we're moving on and I'm pleased to be able to have another elected official working so closely with us to be able to be in support of that any questions for me it was a Brooklyn there's several of them who will pardon them uh with the curriculum uh related to the Historical Museum okay you'll probably have to hunt pretty far to find it but it's there and it used to be part of the ninth grade curriculum it was like a
117month-long unit or a weekend and I forget Northern Navy thank you thank you John appreciate it okay Mr Case consent agenda please okay tonight as part of the consent agenda you have the minutes from the October 25th um meetings as well as a letter of resignation from Maria sokola um who has resigned from Canton High School as a Spanish teacher she's been a Spanish teacher at Canton High School for the past couple of years she has moved on to a technical school to teach Spanish um so tonight you'll be accepting her resignation we've already hired a teacher um who has now uh taken over from mississaug um and it uh um we've tried to make it as smoother transition as possible how will that affect I know she was supposed to go on the Peru
118through is that okay I think she was one of the teachers yeah so someone else should be going in her place but I don't know who that is so I can check on that she wasn't doing it no she wasn't it was Mrs sabrizi but I think the two of them are gonna go [Music] but as we've talked about um the biggest shortage area there is right now is for Spanish teachers so many districts are paying top dollar they're not even following teachers contracts they're paying top dollar for Spanish teachers because there's no other way to get a Spanish teacher so um that's one of the reasons Mr sokola left but we were fortunate enough to hire someone so it's unfortunate you know to have teachers leave in the middle of the year but on
119the other hand it's nice to have teachers willing to come to Camp yeah to teach for us so she's now standing here she's great it was a good catch to be able to fill that spot so quickly Kevin nice job well thanks goes out to Mr dipipoff poker yeah absolutely thank you so that's the consent agenda for tonight and motion to prove the consent agenda please also thank you Karen thank you first and second all those in favor aye on the screen thank you unanimous perfect okay so we uh we're moving first reading on uh the opiate overdose prevention policy and revised Health assessment Mr scheidler you want to just give a highlights sure against the first reading so if you have questions I'd like to be finalized we wrote next to do uh the
120opioid uh overdose prevention is a new policy we don't have if you haven't before that allows our nurse to keep Narcan on hand uh in the event of an overdose I would say she's already doing that state will automate that legal a while back our policy would confirm this and set guidelines for the nurse there are numerous regulations that go with the policy that we chose not to include in the policy that there will be the nurse will keep track of those within the school they emphasize safety and training I've been actually part of the process you want to see those who certainly get them and bring them to you um second policies on immunizations about 16 months ago state law changed eliminating the religious exemption for students entering kindergarten after April 28 2021 I
121believe and this new proposed policy supports that law and implements that law which we have implemented for the best year plus already there also are some updated forms attached to that health forms that comply with new state regulations I know not everyone agrees with the state law but it is a state law and until it changes we're obligated to enforce it thanks John okay we'll take this in two parts so may I have a motion approved the first reading of policy 5141-213 opioid opioid overdose prevention thanks America and thank you Joe first and second any discussion on those further discussion I'm just going to say Evan Joe on policy is like unbelievable and I want to thank because I'm an ADHD guys so I read like four lines and then I'm on to something else
122but Joe goes through it and um these policies that we get let me tell you they are they are a plus because Joe went through it for the fine-tooth poem and makes his recommendation so thanks John okay uh first and second all those in favor hi okay Ryan I didn't see you good okay so that passes unanimously so the second one is policy 5141 S3 revised of the current policy the health assessment and immunization for immunizations um can I have a motion no thank you second thank you Russell first and second any conversation discussion on that policy yeah I'm going to reiterate my opposition to it right based on the state's roof probably not refusal but failure to provide you know alternative education options for students who have strong religious convictions um they basically have
123to choose between their religion and going to school I don't think that's right I don't think it's constitutional so I'm going to vote uh against this Mission I respect that okay right you know is anyone taken it to court yet I don't think it's been taking the court yet um but it certainly is the you know government has to prove a compelling interest in you know in contradicting a person amendment rights it would be okay yeah it'd be a very interesting Supreme Court case given its current makeup I feel pretty good about how they might come down on that but has not gone that way I'm not sure if there's anything bubbling up in the state right now but yeah okay any further conversation we have a first and a second all those in favor
124aye aye okay keep your hands up for a second one two three four five I've seen okay so I have I will opposed one opposed and one abstention so we have that for the record thank you thank you for your votes okay and then the Final Act uh before we um ask for a um to go into an executive session motion for executive session um reallocation to CIP points so it's in two parts so the first is we're going to move the decant Board of Education we allocate 9271.35 from Project number 048-00-992-5948 which is Cherry Brook Primary School tile flooring replacement the project to fund project number zero four eight Dash zero zero-996-59457 CH uh Canton High School generator project um so Russell so I have a motion on that second Erica any discussion questions
125for Donna further hearing none all those in favor aye aye okay were unanimous on that thank you okay so the second part of this is uh because we don't want Rosa to write a check for 248 dollars we're going to ask for an additional 248.65 should be moved from Project number 048-00-990-59455 CIP building project to fully funded project number 048-00-996-59457 the CHS generator project we have a motion on that right thank you I want to get you in a minute Felicia thank you all right you got a person in second any uh any conversation discussion questions for Donna hearing none all those in favor aye aye your name is okay thank you very much uh final part uh any board comments for tonight any thoughts concerns could you get the authority and the knowledge to
126control the temperature in this room oh my gosh last time it was like a long time yeah okay can you speak with them though they actually give you the ability to invest challenge okay so may I have any motion to move to Executive session and have the superintendent and John Bishop uh in the meeting please thank you Russell thank you Erica all those in favor aye good night so we're moving into executive session at um eight to 40 opponents right I'm sorry yeah no yeah it's 8 57 right