001I call the Cheshire Board of Education to order at 7:50 on May 18th. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It will be about 10 minutes. So, Dr. Sullivan, [snorts] you want to begin the meeting? Yes. Thank you very much. So, um The first item on our agenda this evening is a opportunity to meet with Beata Solodusky. It It will become more refined with time, that pronunciation. Um but, uh Beata was the successful candidate through our uh interviewing process that was um pretty rigorous and uh we went through um No. No, Sam's No. Sam just uh is texting me and she's in the waiting room for
002this, but I don't see her in this one. I'm not sure which waiting room she's in. Let me just check this. That's all. I would deal with the letter in that one. >> Our board chair works for the Stratford Board of Education and does a lot of adult ed work at night, so yes, so she's um able to join us remotely, but want to try it. Here we go. Let's see. How many snow days you have in Avon right now? I don't know. I think we have How many snow days you get there? We had five, possibly six, but definitely have three left. >> we had four. What's the elevation in Avon, do you know? Um Not that you would know. >> What's the elevation of Avon? Wow, there's I thought we had tough questions,
003Tim. Cheshire is 400 ft, Prospect is 900 ft. They get a lot more snow up there. Don't drive through Prospect if you're coming from Avon or wherever you're coming from. Yeah, I'm not sure but it is a consideration because of the Avon Mountain, you know, we have to be prepared for a lot of different conditions, so. I've I've spent some time up in uh uh Can- Canaan and Norfolk. The elevation is I think it's I think it's up to there. Oh no, this is past there. You get right up into there. It's like I think it's about 2,000 ft where I've gone. There's some great hiking up there. Oh yeah, yeah. Do you know of Mountain by chance? Do you know Great Mountain by chance? Fair >> Yeah, um further up in the watershed, but
004I wouldn't be surprised if you get significantly more snow days than we do. Yeah. So, we'll give her a shout here cuz I just emailed her the link again and she She accepted it, but I don't see her. Only has me in the meeting. Did you say you texted her? Yeah. Okay. We've been texting back and forth. >> Okay. Trying to get her connected into the meeting. Thank you. I thought you were telling me something important. Well, that's important. You're right. So, like 10:04. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hold on. Oh, yeah. You got it. Yeah. So, she's going to be back and she gave me about six different dates because that team wants to go over and see, so she's going Yeah. But, I think it's a good opportunity for us, you know. Yeah. Yeah,
005the teachers loved it. Sounds good. And with them, Tumwater and CTE are in national insurance and the concert series. So, I just did So, different people who are in All right, there we go. I appreciate it. So. Hi Sam. I'm coming from my phone cuz apparently my computer doesn't want to sign in. Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't know what um what the disconnect was, but I appreciate you jumping in uh via your phone. Uh we just got started and I wanted to introduce to you Beata Seleziowsky uh who was our successful candidate after going through um several rounds of interviews. Um then there was a talent portion and all other sorts of things. We had um we had to do couple of different uh exercises including evaluating and I uh series of evaluations and IEPs
006um to provide feedback on that process. Um Beata is currently a uh school psychologist in Avon uh at Pine Grove Elementary School where she is also the PPT chair since um um when she uh was hired in Avon. Um Prior to that, she served as a school psychologist at Hebron Avenue School in Glastonbury for uh 5 and 1/2 years before you making move to Avon. And prior to that, for a year she was a school psychologist in Manchester at um the elementary schools there at um Bowers, Buckley, and Highland uh K-5 schools. Um so, she brings Highland experience which is half about, uh, here. But, um um, I wanted to, uh, really highlight why, uh, she rose to the top for us as a candidate. Uh, first of all, she has extensive elementary school special
007education experience. And one of the questions we asked her was about, well, you've been a school psychologist, uh, you know, what what what do you say to people who, usually teachers would say, "Well, you've never been a a classroom teacher, you don't know." Or a special ed teacher. Um, she gave a a great response to that in the sense that, you know, she's had to manage, uh, a real diversity of special education students' needs, classrooms, uh, and family needs, different backgrounds, uh, that have, you know, positioned her to, uh, have a a really strong knowledge of the breadth of needs that that kids experience. And uh, far be it from Marlene as I and I as, uh, school counselors from, you know, being told people can't, uh, lead outside of their area. Once you get
008into a leadership position, you're always dealing with, uh, more diverse, uh, almost always dealing with more diverse professionals than you did previously. So, um, aside from that, her, uh, her interpersonal way, um, the way that she was able to express herself, um, eloquently, confidently, but also, uh, in a disarming way, was really welcome. And I think reflected the culture we have here in working with our colleagues but also with parents to be able to um you know, share in a way that's that's um genuine um and supportive uh and that those were some of the the highlights of why uh ultimately she was our successful candidate. So, I wanted to give Biata an opportunity to kind of introduce herself as well. Um I know I just kind of gave you the the 30,000-ft view of
009her resume, but to give you a little bit more about maybe why she was interested in coming to Cheshire uh and how her background ties into this leadership role uh and then we can just engage in some dialogue after that. Biata? Thank you. It's very nice to meet all of you. Um I um it it's probably ironic to say I love being a school psychologist when you are considering making a move um to a a different role um but I have really found a lot of satisfaction in working with kids, um consulting with classroom teachers on how we can differentiate for the kids, um forming relationships with families, um and being a member of a team where we have to make some some difficult decisions about eligibility and um what's right for kids and what
010kids need um knowing that everyone on the team doesn't always agree on the answer to those questions. Uh so, I really enjoy the work that I do. Um when I transferred to Avon, um the PPT chair role um was um offered and um that allowed for a lot of personal and professional growth for me um in the sense that um I really took on a leadership role um of the special ed department in my school. And I really valued that experience because to your point, I was outnumbered. I was outnumbered by um special ed teachers and related service providers on the team, and I had to really work to unite us and and um help to move us forward in work that we do. Um so, I really um enjoyed that challenge um and I
011think it's prepared me well for this role. Um the reason I um became interested in this position is that I'm really passionate about building capacity in confidence teams, and I see that uh see this up as an opportunity to do that in Cheshire. So, I'm really excited. Sam, were you able to hear okay now we got the din of the air conditioner in the background, the pump? Uh that's a lot of fun. But, um I I don't know if you guys have any questions for Viatta or wanted to or I could just ask some questions to help kind of illuminate her background a little bit more. Um you guys have any questions before I kick off a little bit? No, go ahead. Sam, anything that >> you can jump in with questions if you have
012any, Jim. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. No, I mean, if you're going to run through I just have kind of a question on the timing of the various positions. Um cuz you stayed in Cheshire, which I find is the most diverse both your resume, but you were only there for a year. Direct to much white suburbia. Sure. So, um truth be told, the reason for that change um had to do with the the demands of being a school psychologist in three schools. And I was really looking for a comprehensive role, um and to do that in three schools at the same time was challenging. Um at the time in Manchester, school psychologists um were only evaluators. They weren't consultants, they weren't um providing counseling services. And so, that didn't match what I was looking for in
013a in a position long term. So, when the position opened up um in a nearby town that would allow me to be full-time in a school in one school um and really provide comprehensive services, um that was the impetus for my for my change. Yeah, so you know, we we had talked about the different stops in um Yeah, there's career and um And certainly uh had reference calls um and the people in Avon uh where she's been for the last 6 years obviously are uh devastated to to see her moving on um and then this is is certainly a shift back to um moving between different schools um at a different point in your career. I don't know if you want to tell me about that at all. Sure. Um I do uh given that
014it's a different um job description, um I think it's exciting to change between schools now because you really can see um what works for one team and what skills that they have or where we have opportunities for internal professional growth that we can leverage at one school versus another. So, um in this sense, I think it's a um benefit to be split between schools. You got to tell us So, when you were the split between schools was when you were in New Britain? No, how about that? >> first year as a school psychologist. So, first year in Manchester, traveling between schools. Got it. Got it. And a tester basically. And then she said the ability to collaborate and uh support students, families, and staff uh is pretty limited uh when you're exclusively doing evaluations and
015jumping for the next building. Um so, can you tell us about a um maybe something that you're working on now or uh in the last couple of years that you're proudest of in terms of your moving the the group forward? Sure. Um I would say the work I've done with my team um is something that I'm really proud of. My team has had a lot of turnover um in in the time that I've been there. Um we have had uh staff members come from other districts. We've had a baby boom, so we've had multiple teachers on maternity leave every year with you know long-term sub coverage. Um and yet within that time we've had to really tackle the realities of of rising prevalence of special ed um accommodations um and and rising needs um and
016how do we help those kids access as our best scores for the time being and our performance within my needs. So, we were really looking to see um what can we how can we enhance what we do to help um increase um the performance of our kids in the way they're accessing what's going on in school. Um and not just academically but in terms of their relationships and their executive functioning skills. Um so, I would I think I'm most proud of the work that I've done with my team to help us have the difficult conversations um about service and our delivery models and case management and time out of the classroom and and where we're going to get the impact of the for our kids on the services that we're providing. So, difficult conversations um
017in order to move us forward. When you talk about that team, who are who specifically are you referring to and what roles? So, our team has 13 full-time members um plus some part-time members um that are in my building one day a week. So, we have five specialized teachers um in my building, one of whom runs a specialized program in my building. Um we have one full-time speech pathologist and two part-time speech pathologists. Um we have one and a half social workers. Um myself as a school psychologist, um an occupational therapist, physical therapist, um as well as a full-time BCBA um who splits between us and then another school. Um so really a wide variety of um skill sets um that have helped um to resolve them. >> [clears throat] >> So what are you
018planning kind of for your entrance plan coming in? I I've been thinking about that because um when you have um Christina Sherwood moving on to a another position in district, you have to make the assumption that she was well-respected and well-regarded in the work that she did. And so I think it's really an opportunity to um get to know her, get to know her style, and pick her brain about what was working um in in the elementary schools, and where um she sees capacity to grow. Um you know, I certainly realize that she and I are not the same person. Um and so um there you know, that will come with change, um but I think it's a really neat opportunity to learn from her um and see the momentum that's been built in the
019schools over the past few years, um and to work together to build capacity of the teams Um at the onset I I would really love to get to know the teachers and get to know the kids and spend some time in their classrooms, not just in the specialized programs, but also in the general education classes. And at ESY, um getting to know getting to know the kids, the populations, um the support models um that exist in district. Time observing. And can you tell us a little bit about your um experience in the Aspiring Leaders? Sure. Um that um, I really enjoyed that program this year because um, it really defines my personality um, of continuous learning. Um, I did the PPTLI program a few years ago, the PPT Leadership Institute, and so this seemed a
020natural progression of that. Um, one of the things I really enjoy about the Aspiring Leaders program is that they uh, bring in a lot of former directors and administrators um, have us learn from them um, and have us learn from them about um, the work that they did in their districts and leadership and leverage practices. Um, so um, it really has inspired me um, to continue to want to grow and to learn. Yeah, but it's um, what I thought you had said a few minutes ago was that the special ed population either in your current school was the same Mhm. um, or statewide the population is growing. Mhm. Is that So, I thought what Robin Adams said a few years ago in one of the budget one of the budget meetings was and I could
021be getting this drastically wrong, but I thought she said 15% of the population was special ed. I asked her to compare it to the state. She said we were on par with the state and I thought we were still at 15% as of like this year. So, I didn't actually think it was growing, but what you had spoken to or what Robin Adams spoken to I thought was uh, kids moving through the system. So, kids would be getting uh, testing out and then new kids test in. I'm just curious trying to reconcile what I thought I heard you say with what I thought I understood. Yeah. And I could be way off base on this. Just trying to >> Yeah. So, for Cheshire Mhm. um, we used to have around 10% and that number has
022steadily climbed. The percentage of across state is also steadily climbed. I think statewide we're encroaching like 18% or something. And we're under that. We are under that. So maybe I maybe I'm recalling her saying that we were consistent with the state rather than a question about growth. It was simply consistent Yeah. And and actually better than the state averages are Lower than the Yeah. Our our identification rate is lower than the state average. But it has gone from a lower percentage of the overall population to a higher percentage over time. And that is very consistent with what the state has experienced for myriad reasons. From you know, doctors being better at diagnosing things earlier. Think of autism for example is a much different diagnosis today than it was 20 years ago. And our knowledge of
023that medically gets diagnosed earlier. So we have you know, advocates and the like push for identification in a different way than used to happen. I think what we're good at is when those concerns are raised in the system, trying to work through interventions to determine to what degree does a student respond to these interventions. If they're responsive then you know, we don't get to a point where we're identifying kids at the same rate. But certainly our rate is gotten higher over time like the state has. So have you been involved with I'm sorry. We No, I just said thank you. That's all. on MTSS plan? And so, what does yours look like and Sure. I've been involved in a myriad of ways. I've been involved directly as a school psychologist, um there to talk about
024a child's behavioral or social emotional needs or executive functioning needs and troubleshooting with the team about strategies and what's working and what isn't working and what we can leverage in the classroom. I've also been involved as PPT chair, you know, having conversations about rate of progress as we're looking to determine whether or not a child is making sufficient progress in intervention or whether we should be making referrals to special education. I'm really digging into the academic data and looking to see um if we can find a root cause for that or whether or not it's time to take the next step. So, I've been involved in in both capacities and I've enjoyed that. I enjoy the the troubleshooting, the the hypothesis building you know, what what's working for a child and where where can we
025leverage some strategies to help them to to make progress in in whatever domain they're struggling with. Okay, so I mean the the big piece of MTSS or SRBI or whatever you want to call it today um is tier one instruction that's high quality. Your background obviously is as a school psychologist. So, how do you reconcile that with talking to teachers about strategies and what high quality instruction should look like? Because if we don't have that in tier one, if we don't have those teachers diversifying, right? and differentiating for kids, I mean, you have a lot ending up on the other end, so. I very much agree and I think it's something that we've struggled with in the really looking at how we're differentiating in the classroom before we jump to requiring additional supports and and
026taking a look at um what small group instruction might look like in the classroom, um what how the teacher is differentiating for the child because you're right, if we if we don't do tier one well, all of a sudden that triangle um becomes lopsided. Um and I think it's um it's something that we need to go backwards with in in some ways. You know, I think as we refine what tier two and tier three practices are, um in some ways we've lost sight of how can we differentiate within the classrooms? What does UDL look like? Um and so I think going back to those basics is is really important to meet the needs of all kids because if we think about our special needs population, that's general education students first. That's really where all of
027their instruction should be happening. That, you know, their classroom teacher should be the one who's owning their instruction. Um and if you don't have that and if you have the special ed teacher or paraprofessional coming in and owning that instruction, um are they really accessing the curriculum in the same way? Talk to me a little bit about co-teaching. Sure. Yeah, especially in tier one, right? Or wherever, even tier two. What does that look like in your mind? How are you you know, keep it going here? Professional development, what would that look like? >> Sure. Um I have found that co-teaching um has a different definition depending on who you speak to. Um and and then they think they're doing it and they're doing it well, um but when you really peel back the layers of
028what they're talking about, they might be talking about pushing into the classroom as opposed to actual co-teaching. Um I will be honest, I I don't know that I've often seen co-teaching work well at the elementary level with um the um with the attempts that we tried um because when I think about co-teaching, I really think about merging skill sets of a classroom teacher and a special educator. Um and more often than not, I've seen the special ed teacher or the paraprofessional really taking over the um the education of the child that they're pushing in for. So, I'm I'm curious about what models look like in Cheshire um and if you guys have found a way to make co-teaching work um at the elementary level. But, I think that anything that we can do to help
029kids find success in the general education classroom um is is a priority. Yeah, that's why we spend um a lot of time coming back to the student You don't teach kids how to uh fish how to swim by taking them out of the pool or kids how to swim by taking them out of the pool. A fish doesn't learn how to swim by coming out of the pond. You know, that that mentality. And um you know, the uh co-teaching is often um one teach, one observe or one teach, one help the student the identified kids um and perhaps over support. And um with the best intentions. And so, that's the kind of place that we try to uh spend more time on uh working with Robin and and Christina. Um you know, and and those
030guys obviously weren't general education teachers either, but we're really good at supporting our special education staff at what do you What's your role in the room? And supporting the the gen ed teacher with scaffolding that supports all learners is a is a big part of that. Sam, do you have anything uh Kicking Sorry, it's still that I knew here. That's okay. I think I just have kind of two questions just to get us uh more or less yeah, this is a it all um what you what you see yourself as greatest strength as a leader and on the flip side what you feel you're still in a growth and Sure. I think one of my greatest strengths as a leader um I comes from my school psychology background. I think I'm a reflective listener um
031and I think you need to be um whether it's working with a school team or sitting in a contentious PPT um you need to to listen to listen to different viewpoints um to take into consideration what families or staff members are talking about um what concerns they have, what barriers they see. Um I think if you um rush to judge or jump in with opinions or statements of you know what you know whatever the the meeting is um you're not going to build that relationship and I think special ed is a business of relationships, right? We we do hard work. Our staff does does you know a difficult job every day and differentiating for kids and um really trying to um capitalize the time that they have and so I think relationships are what support
032and and build capacity of teams. So I I think that listening element is critical and and and in some ways I think I might have mentioned this during my interviews, I think it's it's just as important um as a background in special education and a skill set of you know understanding the laws and ethics behind the work that we do. Um my greatest challenge or something that I would like to continue to work on. Um I think sometimes um I like to help others too much. Um and jump in um and if I see uh that someone is is struggling or needs help with something, I'm I'm quick to offer help um and sometimes have to take a step back to say perhaps the better way for them to grow is if if we did
033it together as opposed to my jumping in and helping um in that capacity. So, um that's something that I think this opportunity would really um help me to to grow with it as a leader. Um because in the roles that I've had, not just as a school psychologist, but PPT chair, I have been that voice and and that um support for my teams. Um and um when you hear team members talking about being strapped for time or not knowing how to do something, sometimes it's tempting to say I can help you and I know I can do it quickly, um but that isn't the way that they're going to learn. It's not any different than scaffolding for the kids, right? Um so, um in some ways, it's ironic that that's something I'd like to work
034on. You teach a man to fish rather than hand them one. Yes. I had to get out from that last fish metaphor, didn't >> [laughter] >> Anyway, um any other questions for Beata or Heather? And I've just gone back to your comment you know some of the challenges within the data and more and more based just trying to visualize how you would tackle the durations. So, if you know if you see tension among staff, kind of walk us through how you address that, right? You're breaking up. You got that, yeah. Just a little bit there. I I was just going to kind of throw a quick scenario that to kind of understand how you would walk through um just like a situation. You know, you're always going to have disagreements like you mentioned before. So,
035if there's tension among staff members or on teams, how do you approach it? Sure. Um it in in a number of ways. I I think the first is by setting the tone, right? You know, remaining professional, maintaining, you know, decorum, staying calm, you know, not not letting my my voice rise even if inside I might be feeling um feelings, um but I think setting the tone for a meeting comes um from verbal and nonverbal communication. Um I think it also comes from that reflective listening. Really, you know, saying to someone, "I'm I hear you saying X, Y, or Z are concerns for me. Can you give me any more information about that?" Um because whether we realize it or not, so often it does appear that there are two sides to a table, um right?
036And so, I I think I try to um minimize that divide whenever I can. Um there was a year, I want to say it was 3 years ago, we had 20 parent referrals by Thanksgiving break at my one school alone. Um and there were you know, a multitude of reasons for it, um but it was it was a great year of reflection and and learning for my team and what my speech pathologist came to me that year and said, "We've had that had to have a lot of really difficult conversations. We have had to say no to a lot of initial evaluations because they weren't warranted. We didn't suspect a disability. And yet, you did it in a way that still validated a parent's concerns without dismissing their concerns just because they didn't meet criteria
037for the next step forward." Um and I um I really appreciated that feedback, um because as I mentioned, it's not just about knowing the the legal and ethical parts of this job, um it's building relationships with teams and families. That's important. And so, how we do that, um I think helps us to have those difficult conversations. On that same breath though, you know, sometimes depending on what teacher it is, you do find that maybe teacher with this implementation accommodations. So, what steps do you take then? Sure. So, that's the teacher's not implementing the accommodations? Right. There's a implementation and therefore not doing what is sort of Sure. Um, I would hope that I would find that out before going into a meeting. Um, but that's not always the case. Um, but I think it it's
038really um, it's about looking at barriers. You know, what what is it that's holding a teacher back from um, providing those accommodations? Is it that um, she does she needs more modeling and explanation for how to do it? Um, is it that it's a philosophical, you know, disagreement about why it's her job to differentiate um, or to provide accommodations? So, you know, kind of taking a step back and and observing and having those conversations and getting at the why, the why there's a breakdown, um, would help to guide that for me. Um, that's not I wish that that was a unique scenario, but it's not. And and you know, when we think about differentiating for kids, it's not just in their grade level classroom, but it's in their unified arts classrooms. Um, and that's where
039providing accommodations becomes critical but challenging. Um, so I I think having those honest conversations and looking at the why is important. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Two. All right. Obviously, I'm not an educator. I'm not the questions. I'm just a dad. Yeah. Right. We have a lot of just dads around here that we have to make sure we do right by. And I think that, you know, that's one of the things that um, was was nice about Beyond the Book when I kind of opened with the beginning is that, you know, uh, there used to be a time and I think we're we've gotten better at this where you would sit in a PPT and hear a lot of ed jargon. Uh and a lot of uh you know, talk that was not uh easily
040accessible by the layperson. Uh and that's really who our parents are coming into this for the most part that they don't know uh what these tests are and what they measure and what that translates to and what's quote average and different and so um in the interview process we thought that uh Beyond did a really nice job of being able to articulate um even more sophisticated issues in a way that's accessible for for everybody in the room. Um and and considerate of everybody in the room. So, um Beyond will will look forward to seeing you on Thursday. We really appreciate you being here today. Uh and I don't know if anybody has any, you know, parting thoughts before we can dismiss Beyond and move on to the next item on the agenda. Yeah, thought that
041just crossed my mind. So, I've I've been on board for a few years and one thing I've heard a couple of times is for parents who are think their child should be [snorts] in special ed and the schools deem it not to be the case. And being able to being able to explain in layman's terms, not just what the answer is, but the process that leads to it and the sort of relative uh sort of relative explanation about yes, this is your child and you're making an analogy to this child, but here the differences in what we'll call a hypothetical child, cuz you're not going to talk about that kid, but if they bring it up, it it ends up getting brought up in conversation, but just being able to do that in layman's terms,
042I think is it would be super valuable for parents to just be able to understand. Because there will be because I've I've heard from parents who are not happy about it. And I think it's up to us to explain to families why, right? If they're not eligible for an evaluation or an IEP or certain level of service that they want, you know, or seeking for their child. It's not about us being gatekeepers. It's about us educating families on the decisions that we're making and why and it's not in their child's best interest um to to receive whatever programming they're seeking for their child, right? Um that changes the tone of the meeting from no, your child isn't eligible for X, Y, or Z to here's why and here's why and here's what we can offer
043your child, you know, based on what they do need or what they qualify for. Um so, I agree with you. It that took a shift for me um as I was going through my career I I always complained, I don't want to be a gatekeeper. I don't want to sit there and just keep saying no. Um and then I found it really empowering to then um change my mindset about what my role is in meetings and how I can help to educate families um on the process and what their kids need um and and what their kids' strengths are, too. You know, so often our meetings are um about what's not going well, but if we can leverage strengths a child has, that helps to make that conversation um be more productive, too. That's interesting
044because we'll see both sides of that equation, not just from families who want additional services, but we will also occasionally see families who reject all services when you know, we have a lot of data and evidence to suggest the child would benefit or qualify for services. So, in both cases, you're trying to connect with families and articulate you know, the reasoning behind that and and really hope hopefully create better outcomes for kids, but um Anyway, yeah, thank you. >> question. Go ahead. As PPT sharing you made me think about something. Have you had a lot of requests for independent educational vows? And what does that process look like? Sure. Um We, you know, we we state that they will hear within 10 days in writing from the meeting. Um so, it's not a decision we
045make on the spot in the meeting. If they make it in the meeting, um if they make it, you know, after a meeting and and you know, put their request in writing, um we say the same thing. You'll hear back um in writing from us within 10 days. Um it's something that our team has conversation with central office administration about um to see what the impetus is. Is it that the parent is questioning whether or not our evaluations are comprehensive? Um or um is it just that they disagree with the eligibility decision and it doesn't have to do with our actual evaluations? Um so, we've had a number of different responses, right? We've had to um honor some requests. Um we have negotiated others to say, "You don't really disagree with our evaluations. Your you
046know, your concern is um eligibility or this or OT is your primary concern." To see um you know, what their um hope is out of the process. Um but we've also had to take a close look and and say, "Our evaluations were comprehensive. Our decision making was um we we disagree with the request and you know, that that means that we have to file for due process." Um so, it's really taking a a hard look at um our data and the decision making that we did to figure out which of those avenues we're going to take. Have you um experienced a lot of requests for out-of-district placements? Um I would say the population that we've experienced that the most with um are are kids on the spectrum It's pretty significant needs. Um, and sometimes we,
047um, rec- recommend that to families before they come um, requesting it themselves. Um, and then other times we have to have conversations with families about why we think it is the right time or why we don't think it's the right time and why we feel like the child is is making meaningful progress in with our instruction and on their IEP um, and therefore it's not the right time. Um, so again, we've had a a number of different avenues that we've taken through those conversations. Um, we've also, to Jess' point, had conversations with families about thinking our recommendation and families um, not being on board with the idea um, about placement. Um, and really having to, um, explain the logic and and why the child um, why we can't meet the child's needs in district. So,
048I've been at both ends of that conversation. >> What about dyslexia? Have you had a lot of questions about pursuing them? Sure. I would say we've had more requests for IEs related to dyslexia than requests for outplacement. I think some of the Oh, I didn't mean outplacement. I just meant for a diagnosis. Absolutely. And I think some of that has come um, with us realizing we need to do PD PD for our staff on what comprehensive evaluations look like for literacy. Um, PD about what specialized instruction is for reading. Um, and educating families, too. Um, you know, there there's, you know, frequently in the media you hear about dyslexia, but really what you're hearing about are myths related to dyslexia. Um, and so it's really educating um, stakeholders on what the profile of dyslexia looks
049like, what best best practices are for specialized instruction related to dyslexia. Um, but also how where that significant gap is. Not every child with dyslexia requires accommodations or an IEP. And so that's where many of the difficult conversations lay in those gray areas. And it goes back to that high quality journal. Teaching them Okay. All right. Well, Biatas, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming in. Uh we'll look forward to seeing you across the street um Thursday. Do Are we voting on Thursday? Yeah. Do we want to make a motion to recommend this to the >> Yeah. Okay. Make a Do I hear a recommendation? I make a motion to recommend to the full board to appoint Biatas appoint Biatas to the supervisor of special education. to the supervisor of special ed. elementary Second
050it. Any more discussion? No. All in favor? Thank you. I'll [laughter] be back on Thursday. Thank you. It's great to see you all again. I think Thanks again, Biatas. Bye. Yeah. I mean just uh Something like that. Say I want to Google the elevation of Avon. Um she's on top of it. So, it actually The elevation rises when you get up there. Oh, I know. When you get up there and I'm not sure Yeah, I'm not Yeah, I'm not sure exactly where Avon is located in the hills. I'll tell you what the elevation of It's I know Prospect is, but I've had the conversation with Bob Chatfield, the mayor up there. I think I've I've had the conversation with him. They literally get a Yeah, Prospect far more snow than we do here just because
051of the 500-ft elevation change. Yeah, yeah. That's not surprising. But anyway, Um So, our next item for discussion was the the shifts that we were uh discussing last week at our meeting and wanted to you know, I think as much as people understood it, wanted to try and let it breathe a little bit and come back and talk about, you know, what we envision for these different roles. Um I was talking to Embry earlier about um You want I'm sorry. I handed out Yeah, a couple Oh. Here's the rant. Oh, we're good. Yeah. This is Is this the last item on the agenda? Just curious. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Um And Sam, I just handed out what I shared via email earlier. Um you have those those two, right? I printed those for you earlier.
052Oh, those. I can run and grab them. Are those your copies? I'm No, I had it multiple copies. So, um just to re- recap the idea was um given the redistricting of our staff and students that um it we believed with Kim retiring uh that it made sense to the director principal Yes, thank you. Um have a more balanced principal-assistant principal ratios across the district uh and you know, with the population it um Barnum being significantly higher than it was at at Chapman um and that our early childhood program has about 100 students in it in total. Um but there are there are significant number of kids that are AM or PM in that group. Um on certain days Uh no, certain Yeah, only certain days um for other groups that go Monday through Thursday,
053and not on Friday, that um it made sense for us to assign a building administrator, or two in in the case of Barnum, to oversee the early childhood program, but we still [snorts] thought it was very important to have somebody with um what's relatively niche knowledge around early childhood uh development uh and the special education needs of students in the grade level. So, as I was thinking of a parallel to this sort of role, I previously shared um the you know, the idea of it being like a RAM position, where RAMs are very involved in the data, teacher coaching, um professional development of our staff at the elementary schools, or um as Marlene and I had talked a little bit earlier, you know, almost like some of the things department chairs do, except department chairs
054teach uh during the day. This position would not be a teaching position, nor would it be an evaluation position. It would uh revolve around uh coaching, serving as a family liaison, um being able to support the trans trans uh transitions between things like birth to three and our uh pre-K programming, um and then ultimately our pre-K programming to K programming uh uh with our staff. They This role doesn't do evaluations, um but it is is involved in things like hiring, um para scheduling, um as I said before, coaching, collaborating with our teachers on the ground in that early childhood program. Because it is really important for our students' success. And um you know, long-term, short-term student success. But also, you know, early intervention is really powerful um for that success. And it does support students
055our ability to retain kids in our school system um as they they go on rather than looking at outplacements. So, um that's kind of a rough overview. Marlene, did I any points that I didn't hit that you want to talk >> I as I look at this and I look at something like the Smart Start grants, I think about our department chair who is heavily involved in the program's grant. Mhm. Right? They have oversight from the assistant principal and Dr. Reed. This person would run the point on that Smart Start grant. They would have supervision from the building principal um or the assistant principal in the case if we're talking about Dr. Reed. I think that um I think here we need to take out It says evaluating of staff. I was wondering why people
056were saying this person evaluates staff. >> it. And I'm like, they don't evaluate. They're not going to evaluate anyone. So, collaborate with building administration to support the hiring and evaluation of staff. Yeah, I Yeah. No, that's >> think the emphasis there was more on the collaboration part with the evaluation, you know, supporting the coaching, not the evaluation. So, I think it says supporting new staff. Yeah, that's So, the evaluation the evaluation piece is certainly confusing in there cuz that was not our intention. >> Right. Um I'm sorry. How far down in the bullets are? >> It's um 1 2 3 4 >> Collaborate. There's two collaborates in the middle. >> 10. So, collaborate I have four things highlighted [clears throat] that I want to talk about. Let's talk about those. Okay. But I see that
057one in a um a um Coordinate the Smart Start grant and attend related state meetings. >> Yeah. I think that's administrative. I mean coordinating the Smart Start grant. I know what you're saying that um her business might be >> But this isn't a department chair, so to speak. I mean, I look at a department's chair as kind of a different level than this person. I I I wouldn't want someone else if I'm the superintendent. I'm not. Um They don't coordinating pre Well, preschool application process Yeah, I don't want them submitting the Smart Start grant. >> comes to me and Jeff. Yeah, ultimately that gets evaluated by central office. >> you're going to have I'm sorry. If you're going to have this person and an administrator and an assistant that assistant or one of these other
058people should be going to those state meetings. I that's just my interpretation of it. I mean With the Smart Start grant, we're probably talking about one or two a year on the Smart Start >> about meetings with the Office of Early Childhood, right? I mean, representing Treasure out there in that Yeah. arena. I think the assistant I mean, the sup- the principal can send the assistant principal. I wouldn't send a teacher. Right. But um Mary, I I agree to some respects because uh I think there's also a need for somebody in that role to also understand what's coming down the pipe from early childhood and a lot of times we do get called to attend I have teachers who attend some of these collaborative meetings. So, I don't want to leave out something like that
059because again, you know, I don't know Jeff, but I I it would at least open up to like if any of the administrators aren't able to attend, this person should be able to attend, too. Well, I think you know, cuz this is new, right? For all of us. Um and it's going to be new more than likely for people appointed to this role or or uh assistant superintendent or excuse me, assistant principal or principal um likely new. I think initially at the very least, I would probably want both people to attend if they could so that there's a deep understanding of what like the expectations are. Uh I appreciate your point about administrators representing the school system. That's a that's a good point. Um because in fact, I mean, that's really what you're doing when
060you go there. Um and I I agree that um the admin's admin side should probably be representing us. I also think that the teacher, you know, if available should be at that one at least initially, too, so that there's a real clear understanding of like what state expectations are. So, we have two people taking it in and processing as much as we've done this before. Spark starts been around for 10 years now for us. I I also when we were drafting this, so we were talking it through, I'm seeing that we have an immediate hole to fill. And that we have a brand new building next year. And I know what the principal's going to need to do next year. So, I'm trying to look at how do we provide enough support in this transition
061year? And so, writing this to make sure that it's clear what might be asked of that person. And and not not being 100% on who the what that assistant principal will look like, I think a lot of these things are going to layer and be over overlapped, but to not put in here that someone might have to go to one of these meetings in a year where it's we're transitioning to a new building, I would see more than just this person attending, but I would also want to make sure that it was it was available in the job description, so not that the person we hire would say, "Oh, I'm not going. That's not in my job description." You know, but just sort of make sure that all these bases are covered. I know, but
062when I look at the whole picture of it, and you know, you just put out to hire, right, a supervisor, and you've got 70 applications, and you know, ended up with a few people left if they went through the process. I don't think there's a lack of people out there that have the kind of um you know, will have the kind of requirements that we want. Like you said, this is a new building. So, I'm looking at it from it is a new building. I want everything to go smoothly Yes. this first year and not wait to see what we might need or what we don't need. Um I I I would put in an assistant principal possible you know, who has um special ed certification. >> No. No. No, I'm saying the person that
063comes in because this is a brand new concept, right, for Cheshire. Darcy was Darcy, right? I mean, everyone knew Darcy. It's preschool. everyone around the state knew that. Now you're having it attached to a building. Yeah. Right there is a little different for some people, right? To understand. So, I'm not saying that I know how many students there's going to be at the new school, and we want to make sure we have the principal and his assistant principal working as a team to get that off the ground. But then we also have this little island over here, right? Yeah. So, this person, I still don't agree with these things being in there like requirements, but I'd have no problem with that person going to an OEC meeting, right? Yeah. With someone. But I think that
064assistant Could hire for an assistant who has these things. The assistant could have the certification in special ed. Tons of people out there have certifications special ed, never use it. They're you know general ed administrators or principals or assistant principals. But I think having that also kind of quiets those people out there, teachers and the public, and families who've depended on Darcy for years and years to take their little ones, right? Who came out through birth to three or whatever. They would want some I would want someone in that building who has that background or at least has that certification and can grow. And this person would actually be under those two, right? Yeah. I mean you're going to have a principal, assistant principal, and then this lead. But you also have reading specialists. Do
065you have a RAM there? Yeah. Right? You have other people there. Coordinated supports. And I I couldn't agree with you more about how it's mission critical for me to sustain the exemplary uh practices and history that we have there. And I appreciate, you know, your thoughts on how we could support ensuring that that takes place. With this specific bullet, I changed the wording to be work with building leadership to support the coordination of the Smart Start grant and related state meetings. And I took out the intent to Marlene's point, we get 3 years in with the same person and they've got this like the back of their hand. Then they could go. Right? But this Yeah, you're going by yourself. We'll see you later. Yeah, yeah, I And I think some of that >> You
066know, even the NAEYC accreditation. Sure. Yeah, and and It's not easy, you know. Diane's done the NAEYC accreditation before. It So, I I do know that. >> Yeah, and I I, you know, I guess Marlene and I could hit Powerball tomorrow and I'd love to Good luck telling you we'd still be here, but like Tim and I are [clears throat] in a NAEYC, too. But any of us would still be here. But um But I think, you know, um we also are deeply vested in making sure that it's maybe not an island anymore, but peninsula off the main, you know, part of the school that is closely supervised and well cared for cared for, especially in this transition. And I hear you saying that it's important to you to have you know, that that we
067don't, you know, put this person out on an island. Um and I totally agree with that, whoever we hire. Now, we could end up hiring a teacher leader who's been a Smart Start coordinator in another district for 14 years and you know, that becomes less an issue. But we don't want to write job descriptions that that paint us into corners around that either. So, um your your at that point, but I know you had a couple of other things. >> next one was to support the hiring and evaluating of staff. Yeah, that one I totally understand and I've made that adjustment there as well. Um collaborate with building administration to support the hiring um and coaching of of certified and non-certified staff. Um I don't know, to manage the budget for early childhood program. I
068mean, I think I think these key responsibilities are a lot for a teacher-like person. Uh because I mean, I'm envisioning them in their classrooms a lot too, right? Yeah, doing some coaching and and support. Now again, that's collaborate with the building administration to manage the budget. We wouldn't put it on just their shoulders and say good luck. I mean, we don't really even do that with the principals. Um there are a lot of guardrails in place to ensure that you know, we're we're meeting our budgetary Right. limitations, I guess. Right. You know, the reports are prior and time. I mean, we do that. >> Draw down. Um Yeah. This assistant principal I thought we had talked about it one point. Um that they would actually be located in that wing. No, we hadn't talked about
069that. Um because you know, at the time we were thinking of K would be there. Exactly. So, I mean, there is the facility there. There is a Yeah, there is office space there. Uh And we also talked about this person kind of being the early childhood pre-K K12. Is that one? Yeah, potentially that was with Kim. And actually, you know, we didn't really love that. As much as we might see flaws in this we saw more flaws in that model. Because we felt like there were just too many cooks in the kitchen at that point and then in a leadership model that was dramatically different than what we see in our other three schools. And it it is And even that's not fully supportive of the early childhood environment either. So we felt like by
070installing a full-time non-teaching responsibility person in that space that they're really the conduit with administration, teachers, parents. But administration has full oversight of this including evaluation of our staff. And you know, ultimately they're the person responsible for the budget. You know, they're going to work closely RAMs and department chairs, you know, oversee make budgetary recommendations decisions. Yeah. Are RAMs writing grants? >> They might. No, the RAMs are not currently but our our department chairs in the past have. >> But we haven't had recently grants for RAMs to even write. No. So it's not germane to what they do. It's germane to what the high school folks do because in their job Because of the Perkins grant or something that's specific to that. Just to parse that a little bit more, if you were thinking of
071a grant and you wanted someone to write the grant you wouldn't give it to a ramp, but if a ramp found a grant they said I really want this, do you stop them from doing it? Or yeah. >> Money to them? Money? No, no, but ultimately it would ultimately get sent back to you and then you're the name that's >> We'd probably collaborate on it together. Yeah, that's I think I'm just I think it's It's a different kind of grant than this one though. Okay, okay. This is a that's a collective grant you're talking about. This is an operational annual >> It's a requirement. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I yeah, I was just going to give officer of early childhood, you know, money the distributions there. If I may one question just to be
072clear, Emery, um you were talking about, if I heard you correctly, a certification for special ed being a benefit, which makes sense. Were you talking about what Jeff is proposing right now for the assistant principal? I'm talking about the assistant principal having that extra little certification. >> But not for his ramp equivalent. No. But they they might have it, but that That person is either that person's either special ed Oh, yeah, because this is or pre-k and early childhood. The pre-k is driven by special ed. Right. It's integrated. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so they they they need to have that background. Yeah, I would say that it's it's clearly not exclusively identified kids in our pre-k program. >> No, but the existence of Darcy Darcy becomes a special ed and that is sort of
073mainstream. >> At least today it is, yeah. I mean, at one point it was all the kindergarten kids in district two, but it's obviously not that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Did the former, like the last couple of principals to Darcy, do you to your knowledge did they have a special ed certification? You know, I don't think so. But I I can't definitively say yes or no on that. >> I Barbara and Gina Barbara Stern, I don't believe I don't think either of them did. But, I I I can't say definitively now, but I don't think either of them did. But, they, you know, had developed a lot of experience with the population over time, yeah. Certainly, I would consider them all expert in that area. Because that was really their entire population for the
074years that they were the principal, but you know, and I think to Anne Marie's point, that's, you know, benefited our our kids. Uh and this will take a tag team approach uh to deliver the same results. But, you had mentioned some you had mentioned four, and I want to make sure I get to all four, Anne Marie. So, the grant the then there was the uh So, coordinate the preschool. >> that we talked about. >> you'd changed, yeah. Budget, that that one is collaborate with the building administration to manage the budget. They're They're not wholly responsible for that budget. They're going to work together with the the building administration on that. So, they'll make fiscal decisions to manage the budget. >> that it should say manage the budget. They are >> collaborate with building Well,
075I think of manage the budget, I think of like keeping an eye on the store or on like where Like, it's >> want to make sure we're not hemorrhaging. We can't >> sure that you have um when you're, you know, looking at Well, the tuition rate hasn't changed in how many years. You're making sure that the secretary is following up on getting the tuition payments in, right? And that secretary down there is doing And if it's not happening, then an administrator is involved. But But I'm thinking of like managing the budget from a perspective of well, 18 18 we don't have 18 teachers, but teachers are requesting we want to buy $5,000 in blocks. You're not just saying like blanketly, "Sure, go ahead." You're taking a look at All right, what's our instructional supply number
076for that? Let's let's talk about this and manage it in that way or, you know, not just adding paraeducators because somebody made a request one day, you know, or you know, that that sort of When I think of managing the budget, I think of taking a look at what are what is our budget, how much are we spending, are we staying within those guidelines? See, I don't think that's this person's responsibility, but I could be wrong. For that small group, yeah. >> Yeah. And we do have that with department chairs um that have teaching responsibilities um and have leadership responsibilities. And I think there's a this there's a little bit of a transition point here, too, from where you have a teacher who oversees birth to three and does all of this and more Right.
077in terms of >> another person you have there. exclusively dedicated to birth to three, which You want to talk about a niche? Like those people are Bill Lowers for the state home visit coordination. Like that is wildly different with a insane insane amount of bureaucracy tied to it through the state level. Mhm. So, it's interesting that we have that teacher leader doing that. And does all of those meetings. It's not It's It's not the department chair, and it's not that person. It's not her and this is like such a unique position. And then I wouldn't be shocked if we have to make changes to this after time once we've put our feet on the ground a little bit with it and seen how it's going. I'm sure some things will be great. And I just
078don't want to I want to start off with what's you know, our best educated uh plan and try and hire for that, but then not adjust job description based on the person who currently holds the job, but based on what the needs are. Is this the teacher's union? I'm sorry. Is this the teacher's union? Yeah. Well, are you going to have issues with the by-laws later with you know, if it doesn't align? No, that's a management right, but um you know, I've already talked to the teacher's union about this position and had positive feedback about it being a full-time teacher without the teacher like the classroom teaching responsibilities and the time to facilitate this. Um cuz there is there's a fair amount here, but you're you also don't have teaching responsibility. Um so, you're full-time
079down in in that wing supporting this this crew. So, I wanted to get to that point. >> Thank you, Sam. You What I just heard you say is you've had a conversation with the teacher's union about this. >> Yeah. Do you need to have a conversation with the administrators union about it? Well, we've already shared that Yeah, we had a conversation about them, too, and we've shared it the um job description with them and asked them for feedback. Uh because what goes through my mind is as soon as this position gets put in place, there's a demand to make it an administrator. Well, does that like does that mean anything? Or is it we already talked to the two unions and this we believe is right. >> Yeah, I think this Yeah, in talking to
080both groups, this um is that line between, you know, being a teacher and an administrator, much like our RAM positions are, and um that's why I went to the RAM position, cuz this one doesn't have any teaching responsibility. Um so, I think it is feathered between the two. Okay. Um you know, it's kind of a camel of the two. It's not really an administrator, it's not really just a teacher kind of thing. Um it it is that blend. Uh and we don't want to overwhelm the person and put too much on their plate. So, I you know, again, I appreciate what Ann Marie is saying. Um but and that's why I think we use some qualifying language, like assist in the implementation of ongoing development and accreditation efforts. Not wholly responsible for. Mhm. Um we
081need we need administrators, you know, ultimately responsible for that, but this person, because they live in that space full-time every day, needs to have a significant voice in that process. Um So, are there other folks with this specialist title? No. >> Literacy specialist. Oh, yeah. Math specialist. Um Yeah, we had the two with the elementary degrees. >> specialist. Well, that was different. Yeah, it's it's Yes, the [clears throat] technology specialist, but that position is Yeah. evolved way beyond it what it ever was. It was somebody who was just coaching teachers when we first started that like 15 years ago into like now you're responsible for an insane amount of software in the district and data. No, I just didn't want to make another new title. But since we use specialist >> have specialist, do we?
082And the math thing and reading. And the early childhood, too. We didn't want to go with RAM, reading and math Yeah. Yeah, specialist. Um I guess we called them specialists, but that title is kind of We called them RAMs. Reading and math specialist is what it used to be, you know, but that's kind of evolved. And I would just add at the end, too, other responsibilities as directed by administration. I always put that in on there. >> Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, but on that line The uh uh special ed certs may not or early childhood preferred to what we get, but also um and we'll talk to Kevin who's the admin union president, but I think they would waive the internal posting period. We don't have anybody that Yeah. would you know It
083would be a a fiscal impact for them to take a lower position. Um And so we'd be able to post externally right away and we'd probably send that via Parent Square we use now to put it out to the people with relevant certification 192. Which position is this? This is for this for the AP after this gets So this gets approved and that means now we're going to an AP at Barnum. Yes. For for Barnum or Norton depending on the pool who we get it but we would post an AP position. If we don't have what we love in that AP this person might you know if they don't have a special ed background or early childhood it would behoove us to take you know an AP that we have and immerse them in the
084process sooner rather than later because well it depends on an elementary AP because sometimes we we think well the person's under contract and they're going to need to move but usually an elementary AP is not an admin already so they're not a 12-month employee so they they have more flexibility over the summer to join us. But we'll look at the pool at that point go back to you know personnel and we engage in the interview process. So is there an ESY program? There is. So who going to oversee it? This summer? To be determined. Right now we have Russ Sinkeler who oversees half the ESY um for the intensive ed program older kids but for the younger kids Christina and I are having that conversation this morning trying to flush that out. >> Okay. Any
085other questions before we uh wrap up on this? >> You didn't give us an assistant principal. No. >> No. Okay. Cuz the assistant principal is assistant principal. >> Right. But >> But you're going to >> And then our special ed or the child welfare >> Yeah. Well, because I Well. Any other questions on this one? Um yeah, so I have a general question on this. If we What you're So, this goes back to the meeting Was it last week? What you're doing is proposing the creation of a new position for I'll just call it $100,000, $150,000 including benefits. I don't know what it is. That's a choice we're making, and the choice that we were discussing that was being discussed at the board of ed last week was alternatives, alternative uses of this funding. So,
086I want to be careful that it's not um an addition of FTE anywhere. Okay. Oh, because this is the Darcy principal position effectively getting shifted over here. And save $18,000 in that process, by the way, by hiring an assistant principal. This position is a teacher position paid for by high school social social studies teacher taking the library position and not backfilling the >> [clears throat] >> um social studies. So, there's in this shift a net savings of about $20,000. Okay. That's not why we're doing it, though. You know, we're doing it to improve the supervision, programming, you know, and all the supports. Cuz that doesn't make that doesn't make any sense to me. Cuz this impacts not just Burnham. Okay. But if we hire full-time assistant principal at Burnham, then we'll have a full-time assistant
087principal at Norton now, as well. So everyone will have one. So right, exactly. So for all four elementary schools have full-time AP and principal now. It supports with data analysis, coaching, teacher evaluation, uh you know, parent access, SRBI. To have those people and again, I I hearken back to COVID when we got COVID money and invested there, and that has certainly supported our growth. Um to have that. So this doesn't change our FTE at all. It just changes how they're assigned. Um and we feel like that'll help all of our students. But this whoever is the admin team at Burnham will have a special program under their watch, which is not necessarily unique. The needs of the special program are certainly unique relative to other special programs we have, whether it be behavioral at at
088dual language program, or I should say social emotional in the bridge program, or intensive ed at Highland or Norton. It'll be different than those. And it's and it's super important, and we feel like a full-time teacher to support that coordination is with these credentials will be very helpful. For the kids, the staff, the parents, and the editing team there. So, there's a few There's a few There's a few positions here that are moving around. I'm wondering about the early childhood specialist. Does that directly impact the other schools or I'm thinking it only directly impacts the early ed center at Barnum. >> It does. Yeah, it does. Okay, cuz the argument being made last week >> Right. May I ask about taking the money and just putting it into instructional supplies. Right. Or Or >> STEM
089person Or right? I mean, that's that's one argument, too. Um I'm just wondering >> Or Or uh elementary Spanish, I think he he said. So, um do I think those things would be great to add? Absolutely. >> What's the argument for this relative to the other things? I guess that's what >> The argument for this is that this um this uh population is very unique um with incredibly sensitive needs. Um and that having a full-time person dedicated to that can pretty significantly influence outcomes for those kids. Uh so, this person's dedicated to that and working in collaboration with our admin team to try and ensure the best outcomes for these students as they matriculate up. The The uh academic outcome impact is is very high. Uh the fiscal impact is very high if we don't
090do it well when kids are first entering our school system. Because if they first enter the school system and just say they got incompletely diagnosed for something, and then it just becomes It's compounded problems >> much more costly cuz there's a lot more interventions later on that >> Yes. potentially could have been avoided if it was identified saying pre-K. >> That's what we try and avoid you know to the greatest extent we can and you know having a lot of eyes on that um is helpful. And still people that are involved in that process is is really important in our opinion. Now you know are instructional supplies important and valuable? Absolutely. But you know part of dealing with our budget especially when there's a crunch is all right where do we in our professional opinion
091feel the dollars are best spent and I'm giving you that recommendation. Now of course the board could say tomorrow well you know let's not do this and let's cut two other positions and we'll have a STEM person at at the high school. I think that's valuable. It's just not what we feel right now is the best application of money but you know I don't make that decision. I make recommendations. Yeah no no no I understand. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Okay. So will the new person who we're hiring as a supervisor of elementary will they oversee Darcy too? They'll be involved the same way that Christina was involved um you know in in supporting that program. Supporting Darcy? Are you talking about the the pre-K program? Yes. >> Okay. Just to be clear. Okay. I
092was like wait before I keep Darcy for the next job because Although the thought crossed my mind at one point about like could we do five smart starts and so the five transition Um jacked up the tuition by the way when I say that it's uh more than enough to cover enrollment and generate revenue. It's still less than what daycare providers would charge, but first of all, I'm not sure we have the volume to do that. Keeping that building open, that building's an abomination. That would be terrible. And third, like I don't want to inadvertently put daycare providers in town out of business. Um it just doesn't make sense. So a lot of good reasons not to do that, but that was the first one that popped into my head cuz we're always thinking about
093what what could we get. I mean, what is going to happen to Chat- um Darcy? Yeah, Darcy. Yeah, so the town is still evaluating that and the Chatham property. So, I think they've hired uh or retained, I should say, uh uh To- Toby Brunberg um to evaluate those properties. He's a realtor in town and uh he's made suggestions in terms of what the value of those properties are. And uh it's ultimately up to the council to make the determination when we hand the keys over on Jan- January 1st, like what do they want to do with those buildings cuz at that point they're theirs. And they've asked us, you know, what there's nothing you're not going to need those buildings in like 2 weeks, right? Like if And you know, the reality is that they're
094in such a a place physically that you know, they're just not a great option even if we did need something. But I mean, what was it? Office of Civil Rights. >> Yeah, OCR, yeah. 15 years ago that Chatham had to go. Yeah. And cuz I was I think I I think I was still on the council when that happened. And my reaction was uh huh and Yeah. It's not easy. >> made clear that it's like no Not exactly. This is this is a to-do list that we expect to happen and 15 years later >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It didn't have to have to happen overnight. It does It took us a while but you know, here we are. I I wouldn't recommend going back to those places. Um but I again, we don't foresee the
095need. We spent a lot of time looking at it. Could they improve a 10-story high-rise tomorrow and yeah, I mean I guess theoretically. But We need more houses. Yeah, we need more residential. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you guys for the feedback and the guidance on this. We appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. That's all right. So, that is just saying thank you for the guidance and feedback on these. And uh we'll talk about it with the full board on Thursday. Okay. We just need a motion. >> Need a motion. Do we need a motion? Motion. >> Motion. For to adjourn? To adjourn. Uh yeah, motion to adjourn. Second it. All in favor. Same dog and pony show already. Yeah. Bye guys. Adios.