001here's your list of public there you got a couple coming in okay great welcome public all right um all right so we'll start tonight I mean we're gonna try to uh keep this moving we have a couple reports we've reconfigured again the the beginning of the meeting so that um we hit the reports out into the public so they have something to send your teeth and then we'll go to a public forum then we'll lead to our uh our reports from our um from staff and then to recommended actions we're going to add a executive session tonight which I hope will be brief on which will be again so having said all that we'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and calling you want to delete us thank you I pledge allegiance of the United
002States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for office thank you hey Ryan okay so we'll kick off with the student reports and I know that um I know that Jesus page and Mr Case have been working with you guys so we're interested to hear what do you have for us tonight foreign events we have on Saturday October 1st was the successful canned high school music mattress fundraiser to raise money for the Disney trip Wednesday October 5th there was no school Duty off before Friday October 7th there was an early release for all schools and Monday October 10th there was no school due to Columbus indigenous peoples um for upcoming events Wednesday October 12th is cbps and as well as CHS psct's Tuesday
003October 18th is going to be a half day for CMS and CHS on Saturday October 22nd which is going to be a CHS Disney Dazzle concert to fundraise for the future and ongoing fall School sports teams are continuing continuing with this season students involved with the high school football play Alice in Wonderland are preparing for their performance in November dates are provided below so Thursday November 10th at 7 pm Friday November 11th at 7 pm and Saturday November 12th at 12 pm it's ten dollars for adults and eight dollars great are you guys in it at all or I'm managing it you're managing it all right the director okay that's wonderful anything else you want to tell us God bless you anyway um I know that Mr Jones Brian Jones is coming back to me
004yes for chorus so um [Music] so I could use your help as you know we we have a survey out there and we want to get student input and um we're gonna we're gonna um every block of uh folks in town from teacher staff Board of Ed and just students in the community all being kind of compartmentalized so if you can help get that out with your um with the students and they can just click on the QR code there's a uh if they're not online they can't get it online uh Mrs uh Nardi will be able to give you the letter and you can maybe they're probably at the high school right Claudia they're all over they're all over yeah so all you need is that QR code but if you can help with
005that I'd appreciate it we'll check with you on the next uh next meeting I think we have until the 21st what's our next meeting um yeah till the 25th okay good so we'll have one more shot push that yeah yeah thanks any questions for the students further questions no great report thank you for coming and being here tonight when you have to leave you can just leave okay I don't want to hold you up from homework okay um we we do have um Cherry Brook um Jamie sent in a report she said unfortunately she's unable to read tonight's uh meeting uh but you wanted to give us some October updates they're hosting their this is Cherry but primary school PTO they're hosting their second annual classroom pumpkin decorating contest the last week in October and
006winners will be announced on Friday October 28th and their Cherrydale fundraiser kicks off this month as well this is a significant fundraiser for the PPO does anybody know what the Cherrydale is for a chance yeah it's the um company name of the fundraiser like wrapping paper oh they come in with all the needs okay Cherrydale okay it's the old um um Roger's company Janine fundraiser yes okay and then we had our first meeting of the children's for the children's fair this month and we are excited to begin the preparations for this huge Community event on June 2nd 2023 so the uh that's back that's a that's a lot of fun so that's the Cherry Brook PTO report and I know Andrew is here tonight so I'll let you uh on your report Adrian thank you
007and thanks for coming thanks um thank you to the board of education for the opportunity to update the community on the Canton middle school PTO since our last update our PTO has grown from 40 to 58 members thank you to our family for their support we keep our members engaged and informed with a welcome letter upon joining updates in the weekly CMS newsletter our own upcoming newsletter monthly meetings and frequent posts on our Canton middle school PTO Facebook page our goal is to reach 100 members this year a few recent and current events we'd like to share first in September we partnered with family-owned local Brunswick Farm on our second annual fall mom fundraiser we were happy to receive orders from 250 mom plans we recruited about a dozen volunteers and packed our cars that
008President and picked them up and deliver them to the middle school that was super fun as an expression of appreciation we raffled one of the mums to a CMS staff member and science teacher Forrest it's your Ola one a month as well as one of our cmspto members and that was Jennifer viola the clock next our second annual student versus staff soccer game is planned for November 3rd at the middle and Middle High School Turf from 6 to 7 PM Under The Lights we're sending out a Google form the family to sign up their students this week assign it for teachers listed out at the beginning of October we're inviting the middle school band to play the national anthem and the student council members to sell the concession we're partnering with a local girl scout
009troop to collect non-perishable items of admission to the game to be given to the camp food bank we have parent volunteers lined up to participate as coaches Russ and DJs third we're currently collecting new and definitely new puzzles and board games for CMS students to use during flex and study hall periods the collection will be maintained in the Canton Middle School library last year the Canton Public Library's teen librarian partnered with our school library on this initiative it was a success of the opportunity we'll be offered again this year so far we've collected about 40 games and puzzles and we'll be dropping them off to the school this week um we have a November conference week lunches and treats planned for our entire teaching team and all CNS staff we plan to run a Canton
010middle school apparel sale this fall to promote the school spirit and we continue to support teacher requests for items that enhance the learning experience of students and discuss info on these items at our monthly meetings or as needed finally we'd like to share a short video that we put together for curriculum night at the end of September it highlights some of our events we organize and support at the Canton middle school thank you again for your time tonight thank you sir with our sound [Music] it is foreign fantastic really good you know I I you hear me say quite a bit I talk about our children in our greatest treasure and then our teachers and our staff are excited but really our PTO is right there you know with them all the money that you
011raise to give back for our kids that you know we can't sometimes budget and support so thank you for all that hard work and it's a lot of hard work I know I'm thrilled that you now have 50 58 members you said right so considering the full you know and just things that people are excited about and you know not just fundraising we're really trying to create kids will remember that make them really excited about school so it's a lot more than just hungry thing about it sure but I didn't need it too so is there anything this board can do to support help um champion for you guys that you may need coming up and you may not have the answer today but you know we all are behind you we all have or
012had children in the system grandchildren in the system you know we want we want to be as much of a sport as we can any other questions for Andrea ptos I don't think I have any other reports right sure I got one yes if I don't make this announcement I might oh you're what I'm sorry you're kept out of the house right yeah this is for CIA all right all right so um tomorrow night um from four to eight there's a CIS PTO fundraiser at Chipotle uh the Chipotle over by the Canton shops yeah um 33 of um all event sales from from four to eight um go to the Canton CIS PTO um so it's great food to begin with and it's a great cause so if you're looking for something tomorrow night swing
013by the Chipotle and help out the can casptr how do they know that it's uh is there a way that we're supposed to differentiate ourselves as customers of the uh so I think um or is it just everything from that time slot if you're ordering online there's an online code okay um which you can see on the CIS Facebook page and uh I also say it right now in case folks are listening it's wvxl9aa but they'll definitely post it on the Facebook page tomorrow and um you know so it's a it's great food great cause um and and don't get me locked out of my house tonight so please go so I'm going to ask you a question you may not know but I'm excited about what's the who bash thing that they're doing at
014the end of the month oh they do this thing on Friday night yeah it's so much fun like yeah and then there'll be a lot more information about that in the coming days okay it's they do it really and it's for everybody and everybody yeah and they need parents to sign up they only have like one for help or yeah parents can sign up for like a parking spot I think there's just I'm for example I'm always late to sign up like I know I'm gonna do a bar I just haven't got online to register but it helps them for planning purposes sooner okay y'all do our part thank you anything else that's all I got okay anything on the ptos okay um so committee reports so I'm trying to put a little bit more
015emphasis on on the Committees and uh and the work that they do and so I really you know if you can make those committee meetings um I want to make them a bit of a Showcase in our meetings for uh what's going on at the committee level and things that we should be thinking about um for now and in the future so we'll start with uh curriculum which is now curriculum and technology that Erica handles anything that you'd like to report on or you need our help or the boards on while I was just going to tell you what we did at our last meeting I don't think there's anything that we we met last week and we were just kind of setting our schedule for the year and topics I was just going to
016read some highlights um of things we're going to plan to work on monitor implementation of Forefront and Link it which are programs of data collection and instructional planning tools um we're going to be reviewing the experiential learning experiences such as field trips play team building and community service continue to monitor the implementation of the social studies curriculum called inquiry Journeys at CIS review the middle school program needs to oversee the development of a book selection process for English curriculum develop and Implement implementation plan for for the Canton schools curriculum website to support alignment and transparency and lastly with the addition of the technology piece to our curriculum committee we will be having three technology meetings per school year where we can focus on District efforts related to technology infrastructure and instruction it's and all board
017members will be invited to attend and participate wow play that's just some that's not even all of it but as far as the technology dates those are we're thinking they're going to be November February and May and so if anybody that isn't currently on the curriculum committee would like to have input for the technology piece please come to those meetings okay that's great um I see Cindy just joined hi Cindy so if you have any questions we're just doing the committee reports you can just interrupt us sorry um I have a question for you so we've uh June Juneteenth is now a Federal holiday and they they you said that um per chance if the school was going to school up to the 19th of June there has to be a specific curriculum for that
018day relative to um Juneteenth in the history of it if you've given that any thought yeah we probably won't be in school but you have to prepare it yeah yeah we did we did it did come up briefly I'll let John answer that though and thank you the legislation we did a legislative review uh at our first meeting as well so we did review that as well um the the likelihood of us being in school on June 19th is is hopefully um it's hopefully less but regardless to be able to put together a program for that uh would be something that would we would be looking to to do in accommodation for that as well um so that's the loan um okay um please um assuming we won't be in school June 19th I mean
019it's very very likely that topic will be covered any place else that's a great question it's definitely within the the curriculum of our civil rights and Society course that we have right now that we've been running um and that's a that's a spot that I can confirm for you but I could look deeper for uh any other options as well and luckily would be in the American Ninja and I know that we've had this conversation before too of of learning about it um but finding out where we've got some additional ideas thanks Erica any other questions okay that leads us to policy and we have several things that we're going to be highlighting uh later in the meeting but Joe you wanna I'm sure you want me to go through the policies now or wait
020till we vote we can wait till we vote but anything specific that you want you know as far as goals and what you're trying to do and what's on the agenda and right there's a lot on the agenda that the legislature comes up with several items every year that we either have to consider or that we may consider if we decide to in addition we're going to try to take a look at policies that haven't been looked at in in 15 or more years I whether we're going to meet the second Tuesday of the month the second meeting Tuesday this is the fourth Tuesday of the month actually and anyone is more than welcome to attend at six o'clock right and the agenda with the attachment that goes out to everybody anyway so that you'll
021know what the this specific topic you're interested in or if there's a specific policy that you I think we ought to be taking a look at that maybe is not part of the new legislation I'll send an email to Kevin or me or both of us are Lou and we'll be happy to put that on an agenda right or if I won't go through tonight until later on yeah we'll give you a spot a little bit um just so everybody knows uh like tonight we we had the finance meeting at six o'clock so anybody that wants to attend that Finance meeting to hear more not always very Illuminating in her comments and uh we're getting ready for the um tri board meeting on Monday so you're invited to that that's always the first Tuesday or
022our first meeting which is the second Tuesday of the month and then as Joe just pointed out then um policy in our next meeting anybody that wants to come at six o'clock policy starts that's why our meetings have been bumped to 7 15 and then Erica with curriculum and Technology they have their meetings during the day because they're pulling in teachers and students and so on and so forth so it makes more sense to do that then so but any board member is always willing to to participate so I just think that okay and and our student reps by the way so you're always welcome to any of those committee meetings okay um that's in on on those two reports um we will report on finding it's after the tour also held his meeting tonight
023so um superintendent reports we moved right to uh Mr case thank you chair Daniels good evening everybody great to see all of you tonight I want to start off by letting you know that uh this is Hazel and I met with both Bella and Simone last Thursday along with Dr Kidwell our assistant principal at Canton High School this is the first of um of several meetings throughout the year we want to meet I think we decided on the first Thursday of every month I believe um so I wanted the board to know that so if the board has any ideas of items they want the students opinions on or voices of other students to be able to report back in between meetings you can let Mrs Hayes or myself know and we will talk with
024our students so our students have been great about reporting on the events that are taking place on a regular basis we talked about having Simone and Bella find out from the other schools what's happening as well because I know that's of great interest to the board and we're going to um find some special projects for both of you to do to help the board out in policy decisions and then we had a great decision I mean a great decision we have a great discussion on board policy what board policy is and how valuable our students input is when it comes to developing and implementing board policy so um all of you I know you know how outstanding uh Bella and Simone are and I was just more inspired than ever after meeting with new young
025ladies last Thursday so so glad you're here and we look forward to our continuing work together I'm also excited to let you know that Barbara McLean who is our new director of pupil Personnel Services I'm excited to let you know she will be starting with us on Monday November 14th in the meantime Laura O'Donnell is doing a great job as our interim director of pupil Personnel Services so she continues to work hard in that role and we look forward to having Barbara come on board in November um but she'll Barbara will also be spending um a few days with us between now and November to help with the transition so I think for the next few Mondays she'll be spending the entire day with us so we're excited about that that will ensure a smooth
026transition for us and Kevin Lawrence stays with us it's not going anywhere right Laura um we'll continue to be employed by us as a supervisor for the Elementary grades because we currently have a supervisor for the middle school and high school Laura will be that person's counterpart to assist us with supporting all of our students with special needs at CIS in Cherrybrook so we're excited about that as well it's a great point I want to report on progress we're making as far as our goals so um a couple weeks ago you approved my goals as superintendent one of the first goals is related to student achievement so Mr Bishop and I are working in collaboration with our principals as they prepare to report to you on their continuous Improvement plans the first meeting where that
027will happen will be our next meeting on Tuesday October 25th you will hear reports from Mr Robin from Cherrybrook primary school and also from Mrs Court foreign as requested they will be doing an executive summary and um they also have a template that will be similar for each presentation that's also what we've talked about during the whole setting time so we're working closely with them and we'll continue we'll wrap that up this week so that next Friday you will get that information on the 21st preparation for the 25th we're excited about those upcoming presentations we know they will be very valuable our goal related to implementing year two of our equity and diversity policy our goal this year is to solicit feedback from stakeholder focus groups um I have a date to share with you
028that our first Community Gathering will be on Wednesday night November 30th I would like all of you to please hold that date um this is a date I was able to confirm with our facilitators before I publicized that out to the community I just want to make sure it's good for board members who are interested in attending that will be our first Community Gathering of the school year live it will be um virtual but live it'll be through Zoom okay only through Zoom week being around the plans to do it through zooms that more people sure I could possibly attend we could do it just because I I don't know about you guys you see exchanges the faces you know you can I would prefer to do it as a hybrid if we could I
029don't know how you guys feel do you have a time frame is there a time set seven to nine it's great November 30th it's a Wednesday night so okay I could make it be the same same person facilitating the meeting so we will have Trina Collier Dickinson yep okay Trina will be back with us Shannon Holder will be back she's A diversity specialist with crack and um Shrek has hired a new person for their team and her name is Olivia for getting her last name so at least three um members from the correct team will be present there could be more depending on how many people come to the event and we're going to ask people to sign up ahead of time so we know how many people to know how many facilitators will need
030to do this effectively can they be live or have you not gotten the details live in terms of here Auditorium I'm sure they could I just right now we have planned on Zoom but I'll go back to them and work on the hybrid model to see who could be present who might be able to be through zoom in a virtual way our goal is to get as many people to attend as possible of course and then another goal make sure that our facilities are well maintained this year and as you know we made great strides over the summer with various projects one of the projects that is almost completed is the installation of a new generator at Canton High School so power had to be shut off throughout the building so we were able to
031do that I believe yesterday it was just yesterday during the school holiday but some final work has to be done [Music] um because that work was completed over the weekend our server was down so um we weren't able to get the financials out to you until today actually no they did not even go out today so you have them in your packet a hard copy I apologize for that in the future we'll make sure you get them a few days in advance the other project we're excited about is that we're replacing the partitions in the girls room at the at Canton High School do you remember a few meetings ago I think one of you mentioned uh how unclean I should say the partitions were in the girls restroom so thank you for mentioning it
032we're taking care of that that's going to be done very shortly so it's it's issues like that that you know when you mention it we take care of it so thank you make sure you ask for a new gymnasium yeah if he's going to be that accommodating right I think it's on the list it is on the list somewhere um I want to let the community know that we continue to look for a Communications coordinator this position is part-time and we're looking for a person to assist in the public relations and the communication of of district-wide issues please contact me or call me if anyone is interested in board members if you know anyone who might be interested please have them contact me and we can talk about the specifics but it is a part-time
033position and as soon as we find the right person we'll be thrilled this person will help us with our website Facebook page and writing some other explorers a couple of people that we are currently talking to thank you I also want to let you know that um we have scheduled um Justine Ginsburg from the Farmington Valley Health District to come and give a presentation on bullying not how to believe but anti-bullying what we can do when bullying occurs and she'll also continue her discussion on technology appropriate use of Technology what parents need to be aware of so the date of that is Monday night November 14th excellent it's the week of conferences we realize but conferences don't begin until Tuesday please save that date Monday November 14th and we'll be sure to get that date
034out to the community uh since it's a month away questions about that I was just going to say it'd be nice to maybe we can develop a poster to get those out make sure they're in all the community uh areas and and let's really promote that because we all heard how important the subject that is and I appreciate the fact that you were able to nail down the USB speaker that's wonderful thank you I thank Mr Bishop for that yeah they reported that in the capacity there's been some that you've had and it's like on file or on the website you know like parents can go back and watch it yeah or record it yeah I'm sure Mrs Ginsburg would allow us to do that so we could do that it's like I think it's
035helpful sent out too from you like saying like maybe it's two weeks later but whatever like it's great this was the link this is a link to the live recording of this topic if you missed it whether you live hmm to be determined we didn't get that far we could look at having a convertible he's trying to say the hybrid approach are you thinking here are you thinking in the uh high school every time haven't gotten her yet that's okay it depends if we do the hybrid I'm excited about yeah we'll have to figure out what room is passed for for facilitation what time is it today so can we talk about seven she's so great to listen to she is she's she's amazing she's very engaging in in person and invites a lot of
036um give and take with that too so she's she's wonderful and then finally um I just want to wish Keira a happy birthday oh our technology behind the scenes technology coordinator so a couple days happy birthday Cuba all right that's my report for tonight thank you okay thank you Kevin good report any questions for the superintendent and the uh on your mind do you want to mention no Cindy nope good okay I'm sorry I did have one more thing okay absolutely Simone you all might be familiar with her remembering her from the resilience grows here training that happened through through Middle School I that was the year I was in public I'm not sure but so this is very important sorry it's the last thing so it's related to our reading program our reading curriculum
037so you remember we had lengthy discussions last year especially during the budget process regarding the fact that the state was looking at the science of reading and what minimum programs would support What's called the science of reading that they would allow schools to implement after several months of studying several reading programs the state now has come out with their list they have six programs I believe Mr Bishop has been six approved I think it's five right now with another pending so five approved programs um our program is not one of the approved programs programs we use as you know Columbia University's Teachers College approach which several school districts around the state use I must ask the question how many I don't have that answer Mr Bishop do you know do you have an idea about
038how many school districts across Connecticut use Teachers College a tremendous number and and pivot on that only 12 districts responded that they use one of these five approved models out of a 122 that were surveyed so right so again to reiterate what Mr Bishop just said only 12 districts currently use one of these six programs so there's a lot of pushback now from Connecticut Association of boards of Education from our business officials from our superintendents because the cost of purchasing a new reading curriculum is in the thousands of dollars for us and one can only imagine larger districts how much that would cost so I would ask you to please stay tuned we continue to work with our lobbying groups and our state legislators to see what can be done with this the state is
039saying that beginning July 1st 2023 we need to have one of these reading curriculums in place however when you think about the amount of money that we have spent here in Canton and teachers professional development with teachers and other school districts that's a lot to give up and then to have to purchase new materials and provide a different type of training that's what we are all very concerned about right now so what does that mean for Canton right now we've held off on purchasing the new units of study for Teachers College however we have purchased the fundations material you'll remember that discussion last year foundations is on the list for a research-based reading program that aligns with the science of reading but we're holding off on the teachers College units right now we don't want
040to put money into something if we aren't going to be allowed to use it by the state I will say there is a process for a waiver it's a lot of work on our part but we are willing to proceed with that process if we need to to get a waiver from the state if they approve our waiver we have to submit quite a bit of documentation does anyone have any questions about that just just that um we can all be helpful on that let's get through this midterm election but as soon as we know who the State Rep the state senate is we have to Lobby our legislature on folks ourselves in sending letters because this is an expensive this could be a very expensive Venture for Canton in the fact that so many
041folks have been already trained on the Columbia program so it is a legislative issue it's not a state board of education issue so uh and the legislature doesn't go back into session until January so um we get to work hard because of that July deadline that'll be looming so we'll remind you of this again but I think we all got to participate in one of our cities on this one does any funding come on not to my knowledge Erica and also ultimately it makes the decision whether we will go ahead with a new program or apply for the waiver and when yes so you will talk about that in curriculum the curriculum technology committee we'll talk to you about that and the Board needs to make that decision whether or not we purchase a new
042curriculum or if we go ahead with a waiver we'll need your support either way on that it's a great question so we'll have to decide that this year right right now we're just staying put until we find out if this is actually going to happen or if there's enough if there are enough voices being heard if things may change there have already been a couple pivots on it uh even in just the past two weeks so we're staying tuned with this to make sure that we're ready to move the right leg one more thing for the curriculum yeah it's a big decision okay anything else no that's it any other questions please on the um tree Gathering are there other sessions planned for within the school year and if so how many are we looking
043at thank you Felicia so we're looking at four including the November including the November and I did set tentative dates um one in January one in March and one in May an equipment Kevin the bus cameras are they installed and operating so Donna I believe they are on order correct around a border it should be in in the next week or so and it will take a little bit of time to put them in like you know several days but uh soon okay concern surfacing about unsafe practices by drivers and Tool buses uh I have not heard anything further nothing new I haven't either okay good okay all right I'm going to zoom through I have five things for uh everybody tonight number one is with respect to the superintendent search the surveys rotten we
044already have over 175 uh responses back and this is going to go on for another um well today's the 11th we have another two weeks well 10 days so good response but not a great response so we need you know I'd like to see a thousand responses if we could so um so they are located you can take a picture of the QR code if somebody says they can't find it online uh Claudia's been great enough to put the QR code out the Letters Out in different locations in town so guys please talk to your uh friends and family members and post it on your Facebook site do whatever you can to get that survey done please that's number one number two last year we did not take a board picture of this beautiful board
045and I'd like to do that I'd like to have that picture done I haven't forgotten about it so if you guys um if we can all be here and I'll check with Peggy but if we can all be at the next meeting uh we'll take the picture right here we'll have our missions oh this is terrible we'll have our mission statement behind us and we can uh we can uh thank you Kevin foreign so we can have our mission statement behind us so just just keep that in mind I'll try to remind you Claudia remind you when the agenda goes out but if we don't have the whole board I'm going to hold on to picture I really like the whole board here next I need to hear from you guys on weather and and
046the student reps would be important to this okay talk about a project I need to know whether we want to pick up uh the warrior logo that we're doing the mascot and we've decided we're going to stay it was voted on the state with the warrior but we have no mascot we just have the black C now we have a lot of work going on we have the superintendent search I'm going to talk to you in a minute about uh building committee um component and you know we're putting more emphasis on the uh on the committee report so you have two choices we can take a pass or we can ask the students to kind of start Gathering what the students are thinking about as far as Warrior keeping Warrior what would what would a
047logo look like or a mascot look like so yeah I think it's like everyone thinks it's really important you know keep Warriors the word is doesn't have to necessarily have that connotation and so um we were thinking like you know we need we need a mascot because we don't resonate with anything if you don't have a mask but you can't you don't really have identity like as a school like you know other schools have um Granby has Bears which is like you know they're really excited about it that's their thing sure we're just the letter c right now exactly so definitely figuring that out so we could make sure so maybe you can check with Mrs Hayes and Mr Case on this and yeah we'll figure out a a way to start to gather some
048of that information and then the board can figure out whether they want to act on it this year or next year for uniforms and how we start to Brand ourselves yeah we'll definitely discuss that okay um I did allude to the uh to the building committee um we do need to form that Evan's going to be checking with uh and we're actually with them Thursday uh we're going to be talking about what the makeup of the building committee should look like what the charge will be but clearly we have a need um and we'll Define how we're going to move forward is it uh with a true uh Middle School does that does that mean um some changes or does Cherry Brook wherever wherever it is that's what that building committee will be charged with
049and starting to put together the uh the underpinnings of what what uh what we need to do so I just wanted to mention that the final thing I wanted to mention is and this is going to be this is going to sound a little crazy but it's coming for me so it's okay uh covet as we move forward everything I read about in my my business is telemedicine so I see a lot of advanced stuff so as we come off of Thanksgiving that they are counting on a rather large surge with with covid now it's not it's amicron it's not the uh the one that started off where we started off where people were they do expect people to still die but it's not as as bad as that so I wanted to ask Mr
050Bishop if we can start with flu and covet reports again as we move into the winter just so we know where we are relative to Staffing and students and here's the crazy idea and this speaks to maybe the 19th would it make sense uh to delay our opening after Thanksgiving to the following Wednesday Monday Tuesday off we add those to the end of the year I'm surprising you on this and I know I didn't say anything but but I you know it's just things that I've been reading about and that gives the surge if people are with their family members and they've traveled at that point it gives everybody a chance to see where they are rather than you come back to school on Monday and by Tuesday everybody's sick or everybody's starting to you
051know see where they are and I'm not I haven't proposed this but I'm wondering if we should think about it would that be something that would hopefully hold down tamper down so it's it's it's more of a week-long vacation at Thanksgiving but the days are tacked on or maybe we look at some other place for it and I'm just throwing that out and you can roll your eyes on me if you like but it's just a thought I'm not looking for an answer tonight but it may be something that we want to consider just to know if that would be helpful in in pampering it down before we go into Christmas and I don't remember the statistics last year John but what I think it would it was pretty impactful coming off of uh Thanksgiving
052yeah we saw that Spike everywhere uh after that holiday and and and every holiday with that really okay um trying to be able to figure out what that what that Spike looks like this year compared to last year which would be conjecture for us I don't know but um everybody here that we're thinking something to think about that's all so any any questions for me anything for the chair okay with that we finally go into public forum and we're a little bit ahead of schedule which I'm happy about so we have public forum for anybody that would like to speak and we'll let the audience go first and then Andrew you already said everything so I um okay so anybody online that would like to speak in public forum you are free to do so
053at this point just raise your hand and Kira will give you the nod for a three-minute spot yep so you can go ahead and use the raised hand feature Zoom it's on the bottom of your screen if you'd like to make public comment do so now I don't have any raised hands okay nobody's making fun of my suggestions so that's that's a good thing I'll get i'll get emails on that okay all right nothing from public forum we close out that and now we go to the finance reports and before I go to Donna Russell is there anything you want to say based on our meeting today anything you want to no problem other than I think we do need a forum it's Monday There's a hearing after you you received her before I'm sorry
054yeah can I say so the tri board is at six o'clock okay okay there's a student discipline hearing before the tribe coordinator so um that's at five o'clock and then the tri board meeting is at six and both in the community they're both here I I will not be here Felicia will be you don't know this yet Felicia will be here leading that meeting I have to be in Boston unfortunately so uh for the discipline meeting and then for the uh try board meeting Russell will be here to uh to help lead the finance side of things and some of the things we're doing but please show well um it is currently it's still on it's on five o'clock we'll know by the end of this week if it is canceled they'll certainly send that
055out immediately and then all you would have is the tri board meeting Donna do you want to make any uh highlight comments or on finance I'm good because like you said it's uh pretty much the same as last month I mean you have the uh Financial packet in front of you um and uh all I can say is it's early in the year and things are pretty consistent month over month right now so so so because of that we had talked about the finance meeting that we would probably be more uh tracking this more on a quarterly basis because on a monthly basis there's so many variables that change we're going to ask questions and they're going to say well that's going to change or that's going to increase that will decrease so we thought
056we'd do more on the quarterly basis on the financials for questions so okay all right any other questions on just in case do you want to comment on anything on the finances no only that uh as she always does gave you an executive summary the first page as uh Donna stated I just had one question how the first item that's the overlap of the UPS director and the interim director house or how much what well think of an over overlap visitor um it's pretty much going to stay that way uh because like it's kind of happens but like is it are they overlapping two weeks a month so two months the overlap was a month yeah it was August the month of August thank you I thought this was like the interim with the one
057we just hired so this is our previous uh director Dr mertica in the interrupt based upon payout of contractual benefits along with having an interim in place at the same time thank you for asking Donnie just want to tell us the good news though oh I'm sorry can you mentioned lunch what did you ever decide on that one on the free lunches yeah they expire on November yeah you brought that up I just didn't know what it was I think we decided it was too expensive to try to carry it out and there is a policy in place for folks that can't afford it we make sure that it's appropriate and easy access so right and there's there is a room around there that they may give us more money but nothing's decided yet so
058right now it's at November 11th I think it is for the end of freelance for all do you want to um are you thinking of something different or no I'm assuming they'll remind parents because they'll be oh first time absolutely you know in a long time that it's changing if it does go to what it's saying thank you get your Skippy now because it'll be so sold out that week so Kim will start communicating that soon we have a month to go so we'll start Community yeah they've been good already about some things like Plus numbers we get direct emails from the nutrition and services and Donna has some good news I have good news you do oh I do you mean about your heart uh yes um I thank the board for approving the
059position I did hire an administrative assistant slash accounting clerk I'm very excited and she will start November 7th uh and I'm just looking forward to it she's got a lot of great experience within this different school districts and knows our financial system uh platform and so I'm just very excited okay great news thank you all right uh and then on to Mr Bishop I have just a few things to be able to share with you all tonight um first of all it's a look back to uh October 7th uh that was a professional development day in which each of our schools focus on reviewing of student performance data and making goals and curriculum adjustments based on the information that they're seeing what we look at with that is that provides us a universal data set
060at the beginning of the school year to be able to make determinations about how we planned the the next swath of instruction for students and then where we'll come again is at the end of uh January beginning of February we'll do another kind of dipstick with that again to be able to see where our kids at adjust our priorities to be able to move forward and there are a couple uh key areas that we're looking to be able to to Really continue to to move the direction for our students but it was time well spent and time greatly appreciated from our board and our community to be able to support that um I also wanted to let you know that we've completed our professional development for our new website and even some of the um
061uh Corrections the suggestion suggestions that you all had from our last meeting we have to make those uh those come alive so it is now we can uh Canton Public Schools in Canton Connecticut uh and we were able to get Mr case's information on all of our administrative assistants have have been trained with us here thanks for being with us as well on that and uh we're really excited to be able to go live on that on 10 31 so happy Halloween we're hoping for the best hey John so on on the website because I was looking at it and I was looking at the school's website and even PTO functions it's hard sometimes to find out when a sporting event is when a different uh uh Coffee House event is other than the postings
062that they do so I think that that should be up front right out there because we want to promote what our students are doing and the events that they have and and that's actually a that's a point that was brought forward in some of our meetings as well about making sure that that important information important news that was coming up was easily accessible for folks so um in the website we'll have a strand for district news and information and then we'll also have a strand that uh that covers Board of Education information so updates on our meetings and whatnot then we'll also have a calendar that will have uh synced for all the actions all the interactions that we have across the district as well too so we're really we're excited about it we'll keep
063building it there's a lot of functionality for us to be able to work with there so oh it's right there thank you Karen yeah yeah and then under our calendar which is is one of our down at the bottom there you see a a district calendar piece that would be the place where you have to click on that see the district calendar at a glance then also be able to see the Google Calendar of everything that we have in place we just haven't synced that on there just yet I have to work on that with RIT so um we're excited we're excited about that um a couple other things I wanted to let you all know that uh this has been something that I've been excited about for a while this is a little pet
064project of mine but this is my coaching cabinet so uh in this uh last year you approved the extension of there's an additional literacy specialist at chamber Primary School in an additional math science coordinator position across our elementary with the the power of our numbers and the intellect that we have in these groups we meet every other um every other Friday as a working group to be able to do a book study on on coaching students Based on data based on standards to be able to drive student performance moving forward so that we all have a common platform to move off of with that but then also dig deeper into our data and talk K-12 about what it is that we're seeing and how do we look to be able to break out of some
065of our silos and be able to carry our work forward so it's been phenomenally powerful over the past two sessions that we have and we're looking forward to being able to scale that up and out as they lead across our K-12 department meetings as well so so those addition to staffs primarily were because we were flat in certain areas yeah we're expecting to see you know a trajectory that's that's uh coincides with with the additional staff so that that's correct that's correct and we have wonderful career we're we're very excited about that good uh and then the final piece is just uh we we did share information about our safety drills uh with our community and we've engaged in a number of safety drills so far again this is part of our state required uh
066but also a state required preparation but also preparation that we find um to be very valuable and ensuring that we take care of our school communities uh in the way that is best for them so we appreciate your support on those if there any questions at any point about any of those I'm happy to be able to work with you um I am continually grateful for the partnership that we have with the Canton Police Department uh our chief is outstanding in the work that he does with us we had a meeting with him today and a representative from the Western Connecticut State University School Safety Think Tank and we were able to talk through some of the issues that are presented within schools and continue to work to refine our our practices so we're we're
067very fortunate to have the the partnership that we do and foreign [Music] snow days was that ever decided about virtual and how many and we have success of them out of snow days great great question um the state legislature still has not made a determination in any any way that moves off of snow days are not allowed for uh virtual days are not allowed for snow days yeah there's always rumor uh but there's there's no determination on that yet you won't hear anything until January now until they go into new session so it's a kind of a shot so we just got to go with it as it is right now anything else for John any other questions thank you that was a very good report okay uh Mr Case the consent agenda please okay
068and this evening some consent agenda you have the minutes for uh your regular meeting of September 13th and a special and regular meetings of September 28th and you will see the rescinded motion and the new motion that was made in regards to Contracting for the superintendent of schools search survey so those are the only two items that are part of the consent agenda this evening okay can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda please thank you Felicia second thank you Joe all in favor aye aye Cindy's good okay that's unanimous thank you um approval of the U.N overnight trip that uh that Nora gave us a pretty good overview on you want to highlight that again Kevin it's in your it's in your uh deck but um if you have any questions so
069you you will recall at our last board meeting Laura McCarthy our social studies department chair provided an overview of the overnight trip proposal or Model United Nations uh taking place down in New Haven in January and you we did more of the dates I don't have them in front of me but but last time over those dates does anybody have any questions about that before you vote on it nope if you have a motion to uh to accept or to uh approve the um U.N trip as proposed thank you Erica first thank you Kim on a second any discussion any further discussion all those in favor aye aye unanimous thank you okay um I know you just got the financials tonight but the finance committee did get a chance to look it over there's nothing
070that's uh of uh nothing that sticks out but if you're not comfortable voting on it because you didn't have a chance to to review for beforehand I'm okay but um I don't think there's anything to everything you can't do approved tonight what's your feeling can we go ahead and uh you guys good with it okay if you have a motion then you accept the financial report is provided by Donna thank you Ryan second thank you Russell my first and second any other discussion on the financials nope all those in favor aye Cindy's good okay now I know that's unanimous I'm sorry Edo okay Joe can you give us an overview as we go through these policies we'll vote on them one at a time so you can um sure uh these are all first meetings
071first read so if you have any questions over the next two weeks of being a period to discuss them at the next meeting uh first policy is reporting child abuse to Black and sexual assault obviously very very important policy we want to protect our students want to protect our staff policy was adopted in 2001 it was advised in 2012 that the revision now is actually pretty small rather than the list you can see it in red on your copy rather than list everyone who's a mandated reporter we simply substituted that everybody employed by the school district is a mandated reporter and the new law now states that that policy has to be sent to All staff members every year and I you know some review as well by the administration I'll highlight a couple things
072in the process because it is a very very important policy all staff mandated reporters uh it's not up to us or to a staff member to do any investigation if there's a suspicion of any of those items DCF does the investigating we do not all employees continue to have to have background checks um that uh principal or the superintendent doesn't approve somebody making a report the mandated report makes the report lets the administrator know but the administrator can't say don't do that that's that's up to the staff member there's a we actually combined some of our previous information in our policy with what wasn't suggested for the new policy which is sort of a step-by-step process if you're a staff member who's concerned about making a report about an incident I hear the steps to
073follow here are the people to speak to and that sort of thing so we included that so it's handy for a staff member making a report um this initial training required for every staff member and also refresher training does it doesn't say how much refresher training how often how often is that Kevin we decided to do that annually okay maybe we should put that into the policy today is it in there I'm sorry if I missed it yeah it wasn't in the initial package now there'll be a refresher annually for all staff members very very good idea that wasn't required but that's what we want to do three years yeah there's just too much at risk for students and staff that's great questions about that it's quite lengthy really the bottom thank you Joe for
074going through all of that the the bottom line change in this policy is that we're adding the state is requiring us to add sexual assault so previously this policy read reporting of childhood child abuse and neglect the state's now requiring specifically that we add sexual assaults and our next policy defines all of that yes do you want to take these one at a time or uh can we first just Bunch them all to one motion or whatever is on the first one well if we can Bunch them a bunch of them right maybe yes okay Joe uh next policy is a new policy uh sexual abuse prevention education program uh that state law has required uh curriculum sexual abuse prevention since 2016 we don't have a policy requiring we will now if this policy is
075adopted um and it talks about mandated training for the staff and it also indicates that parents can opt out the questions I had Kevin I sent to you where would the curriculum be for parents about it to see it and what's the process for opting out and I'm going to um refer those questions to Mr Bishop who oversees our curriculum thank you Joe yeah absolutely so uh the at present some of the the content well I'm going to take it a step back I'm going to take it a step back broader first um the the implementation guidelines of this of this information asks districts to be responsible for the implementation of a program that is responsive to the needs of each community so from my understanding of the the initial development of this was it
076was an amalgamation of information that was put it in place based on have uh some some work that is done with npe including describing healthy and safe environments identifying trusted adults in the home uh school and Community who I can connect with but then there are also some elements that were more closely connected to the actual health and that would be at our high school program for that so that's where we have it living the explicit information about the abuse element that that happens within the 11th grade curriculum and then some additional elements of the um the different standards of accessing health information and resources self-management and healthy behaviors analyzing internal and external influences those things those things continue to be held throughout a broader perspective of the health curriculum so to to the short
077answer for it is for if parents wanted to be able to see what food it is there are elements of it in the 11th grade curriculum and I will say that our PE department is going to be doing a further review of their curriculum over the the next year and into next year as well um based on some of the new state guidelines that have come out as well so if I'm the parent of a first grader and I want to know what is being taught to my first grader about sexual abuse prevention sure so the answer to that is how to be a good how to be a good neighbor and I'll share something directly for that for you as well sure just I can find that online you you can contact the school
078to be able to have that information absolutely with that and and it is our goal to be able to have an overview of the curriculum for every one of our grades elementary through high school by the end of this year I was saying to Mr Bishop and I know this is Mr Bishop is when we talked Mr Bishop is suggesting that the curriculum committee get into the weeds and take a deep deep these standards and where they're taught yeah so just to remind all of you we are in the process of documenting our curriculum in a different format so that that will also be readily accessible on our website right now there's Atlas Rubicon Atlas Rubicon um but it's not totally updated at all areas that was a goal for us this year so this
079will be part of that work as well Joe just just for for example at a at like a first grade level one of the standards would be explain the importance of setting and respecting personal boundaries that's an element of this of this curriculum that that absolutely is a part of where we are describe and demonstrate appropriate ways to express feelings and uh and relationships with people that's a part of our PBIS move as well so um the explicit elements from what I understand are are developed further in our high school program any other adjustment we would be talking with the board about and the question you may be thinking about do our classrooms good night [Music] the question you might be asking yourself is do our classroom teachers teach this curriculum no they don't um
080we have our PE and health staff our school counselors our school social workers um those are the training Personnel that teach this curriculum well I think it's a very important curriculum and that it ought to be easily accessible to anyone who wants to know what's being taught what's my child learning about this and what age sounds to me like it's not yet but you're moving in that direction yeah I would say that we're moving in that direction Joe okay and we have a follow-up to that just to make sure we um I think now that we have a policy on that that's going to create more of a potential sense of urgency to get this um okay and then are we able to have it somewhere where parents can locate as opposed to passing through
081the district and having to request it yes absolutely that's the website that doesn't sound like this no not yet but it will be absolutely your question too will be all that will be on there right right instead of requests right yeah to correct okay all right and physical exercise and discipline experience okay this is the eighth and that last show pretty quick uh about two years ago the state uh mandated that students not be withheld okay to sex students not be not lose recess because they didn't do their homework and that sort of thing uh that's still the case what it says now is that if there are two recesses uh one of them a child can be held out of recess for once a week for I don't know homework that sort of thing
082yeah the only other time you can remove a child from recess is if they're a danger to themselves or to some other students and that's the idea that law has been in place at least two years Kevin right yeah it was just a slight change let me check two recesses any questions on that no and the last one uh it's been canton's practice to be sure that it was a rare exception all staff has a 30-minute lunch period it's now stakeable off so we required to have a policy that says all staff members probably 30 minute duty-free Lunch Period very thankful we already had that in place many districts scrambled this summer to redo their entire schedules because they only allowed staff 20 or 25 minute lunch breaks so we were only already doing that
083I mean yes but we didn't have a policy it was just there was no state law I believe it's in the teacher's contract in terms of Paris I don't know if it's in their contract but it is now and this says certified staff only I believe this is just certified staff I thought it was awesome and other circular correct certified staff so but then there's no change at all for us right okay so that makes it easy so I don't expect there's any questions so I'm going to ask for a motion for the first reading on reporting of child abuse neglect and sexual assault sexual abuse prevention and education programs physical exercise and discipline of students minimum duty-free lunch periods for teachers that's the motion we'll carry is the first reading for those four and
084I have that motion please thank you Joe and first thank you Erica it's a second any further discussion on those four again it'll come back to you at the next meeting if you want to take a deeper dive on this I just had one good question on the uh the uh sexual abuse prevention and education program is that a program that's given by the state like it's every District in the state doing now so so good good question as as in many things with the state what the state will do is they will provide guidance and then they'll provide um range of movement uh within that to be able to operate the recommendations that the state has are recommendations and then what they state with this is um that the programming should be responsive to
085the needs of each community and developmentally appropriate so the the each board of education has the opportunity to make um discernment about how they walk this out within their programs said answer your questions we'll be picking a program not necessarily a program will our staff will be looking at the framework doing a crossword walk with what we currently are doing to show the alignment and then be able to if we pull in any other curricula to support it then thank you to be able to showcase Cindy did you have a question did I see your hand or no did you have no good okay so I have a first and second we close out the discussion all those in favor aye it's eight okay eight on that all right uh final final piece before we
086go into an executive session uh any board member comments anything we can do better we haven't done we'd like to see changed and fixed so with that um I'm going to take a motion to adjourn this meeting and then just go into the next extension right sure but do I close off this meeting or is this meeting still ongoing with the executives okay you're not can I have a motion to go on the executive session to allow the superintendent on a Personnel manner motion thank you Russell thank you Joe first and second any discussion on that all those in favor aye opposed Cindy I'm going to call you so you can listen in you won't be able to see it that's all but you've seen this before all right good thank you Kira thank you
087Andrea