001Chairman, you have a quorum. Thank you. Stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand for it. One nation, indivisible, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Forgot about that. That nice touch, Jeff. Very nice. There it is. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, it's funny you say that, Adam. I, you know, add that nice touch and then I I forget how out of practice we are postco with trying to be anywhere near in sync on this and flipping back and forth. But, um, I'm like, do we stand? Do we not stand? I I don't know. And I was like, I'm glad that we're rusty there. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, um we have three policies tonight that are all legal in nature. Um two of them
002reflect changes in law and we would have to basically not basically I mean we have to follow them anyway effective July 1 in one case actually in two cases. And so, you know, I shared with you previously how we fasttrack a policy per board um regulations. And um we can adopt a policy the normal way, which we will be able to do with one of the policies because this will be a third reading before the board meeting on June 30th. But one it'll be the first reading and another it'll be the second reading. And so it says after the policy committee refers uh a proposal to the board the proposed policy or amended policy the board the board can conclude for good cause the policy a policy should be adopted after the first meeting. It
003just basically takes five affirmative votes after the first meeting. Um and then um you you uh excuse me after the first reading. I'm just double checking this, but I can't min Let me see if I jump over this way. No, I won't. Won't let me. I can't read what it says, Carol, in that last. I know I sent it to the board, but um can you read that? Sure. It says, "An additional formal vote with at least four affirmative votes of the board is required to adopt the policy as proposed or amended." So, that would be after the five votes to fasttrack it. So we did it once before and I believe we did them both in one meeting. So we did the fasttrack vote and then after that we did the the vote to
004approve the the policy. Yeah. So so basically what we're saying is with five votes we're agreeing as a board that we're going to fasttrack this. Then on the second vote if we have four affirmative votes we adopt the policy. So that can be done on June 30th at our business meeting assuming we have five people there to do it and that's that's for the service animal one. Right. So let me give you a little bit of background on that. I will share screen here. Um as I open up the service animal policy now this is law. this is statutory that you we have to provide this. Um so in essence there's a difference between just want to hit some highlights for you. There's a difference between a service animal and a comfort animal. Um, so
005for example, if you um, you know, just if a if your uh, dog makes you feel good or whatever, you can't bring that in. A service animal is per the law, a dog that has been individually trained to work or perform tasks of an individual with a disability. And then it outlines what some of those areas might be and some of the um the idea that it's there to mitigate the impact of the uh the disability. But to be very clear, service animals do not include any other species of animal except for and I see Mark's laughing except for a miniature horse. Um, and then it outlines under what specific uh I see Adam's face the like I I don't know that I've ever seen a miniature horse in public to be honest with you.
006I think the probability of seeing one as a service animal would be pretty small. But if that's what a student needed and we could meet the that that animal could meet the the criteria outlined in the law, then in that case we would permit that animal. So um this has become more relevant because we do have a student um entering the district next year who does have a service animal. Again, that animal is a dog and not a miniature horse. But um so trained animals are invited into the building uh under the following circumstances. And these are the various uh criteria under which a student um could be accommodated with a service animal. So the basically the way that it works is that the individual needing the service animal submits paperwork which is included in
007this document that that's been shared with you um outlining what the needs are and attesting that the animal meets those criteria. the district would then inform families in that building that there is a service animal and if there's any sort of issues, we work those out. Um it's it's our experience having dogs and some other animals in the in the building um for many years now that what we we get more requests for kids to spend more time with the dog than away from the dogs um at all grade levels by a long shot. So I'm not worried about this necessarily creating a real disruption for our kids. Like I said, we've had a pretty canine friendly environment, if you will, over the last, you know, um well, really since COVID, um where we've had
008many more service, not service, comfort animals in the building and sometimes service animals with a handler for other reasons. But um basically um the the policy goes on to really outline what's required. So the owner of handler is responsible for all these different elements um one through five there. And again, this I I'm outlining this for you because you're probably not familiar with it, not because you have a choice. This is federal law that we have to follow, period. So, that's why I say, you know, I'm I'm pretty comfortable fasttracking it because we can't decide not to follow the law. Um, and so we if we're going to adopt the policy around this, then this is the the law that has to be followed. Jeff, um, is there any minimum age? No. In this? No.
009So, what you're Because the the the animals that you've referenced previously were brought in by adult handlers for the most part. Am I correct on that? Right. Now, you're talking about a student guided uh service animal for themselves, right? So the student um you'll see in some of the criteria listed here. So the request for service animal to accompany the student in the facility. So the animal has been professionally trained, right? The animal has been taught how to work with the child. And in that case as well, um we fully envision the family probably the principal and teacher as well working with the you know working with one another to understand the parameters for the dog. In this case like I said it was a dog. I've met the dog, you know, um, you know,
010very docel, uh, but in the process of finalizing the training for, um, for assistance. Um, and, you know, if they don't if they don't pass the training for assistance, then they wouldn't be permitted to work with that specific child. Um and so I I am pretty comfortable after reviewing everything um that the age group the the service animal criteria will work for the kids that are in need of the service. You know what I mean? they they have with the training of the the minimum service and animal standards would require the animal and student to be able to work together effectively. Um, and it's not an animal where because again it's a service animal, it'd be like um you know a blind person with a cane. You wouldn't walk up and say, "Hey, can I
011hold your cane? Can I touch your cane?" Same thing here with the service animal. You You don't You don't go up to pet the dog and do those things. We've already started working with the principal on how do we educate children because you're going to see this dog and people want want to touch the dog because it's just the natural attraction that, you know, our kids have to to animals. Um, so we're looking at strategies to support the school um to provide other opportunities for kids to engage if they and their families would like animals. Um, Jeff, can I interrupt you quickly? Yep. Which school is this animal that we know of going into? You know, I'd rather not talk about it in public because, you know, I I mean, I guess it will be
012public next year, but I don't want No, that's fine. identify kids. But um you know whether that's our biggest school or smallest school um you know the the animal had to have been trained to do this work in a public setting. Um well I was also going to say the handler the student also has had training with the right the dog. So so have we had this situation before? Have we had service animals for our students? It's a good question, Mark. I can't recall a student ever having a service animal. And we don't obviously we don't have a policy right now on that either. We don't. And I think the only reason we have a policy here is to concisely put in one place anybody who asks the question like why is this kid able
013to have a dog or why is it because it's the law I we can easily point them back to this service animal policy rather than them you know doing some sort of web search and god knows what they find and you know this is this is the law is outline in the policy. So, so Jeff, I was looking at the the legal references um because you had mentioned it was federal law, but it sort of is, right? Because the references are, you know, two major federal and and state. Yeah. Right. So, while Yeah. I mean, the federal side, excuse me, um looks to be, you know, laws that have been on the books for a long time. It doesn't say when the final rule became the final rule for I think it was ADA. So
014I don't know if it was final rule from like this six months ago or whatever. So I'm just wondering what's pushing this besides a student need um is it an is does this state law just come out of this current session that no pushes? This has nothing to do with our legislative session or anything like that. This is this is entirely 100% and exclusively because of the fact that I know with 100% certainty we will have a student next year who requires a service animal. Okay. So with that, jeez, spology or something. Uh, with that being said, so is there a way that we can add a few more restrictions because it the the whole policy is kind of even though there's roadblocks, I guess, or stopping points, we'll call it. Um, is there a
015way to to tighten up the language a little bit so that I mean, like, do we have to have miniature horse in there? Do is there other guidelines that we can add to it that make it very specific to um a a a need so it's not abused? It's like is there is is there a way to do that? Um probably not. Um because you know those are some of the same questions that I thought when we um when I first reviewed this like the idea of a miniature horse could be a real distraction but the miniature horse is codified in the law like that is permitted under law. Now, the likelihood of you being able to find a miniature horse service animal trained who meets the other criteria, like that's that's really pretty slim.
016But, um I I don't see a situation where uh everybody's going to go out and try and get a dog um or they can't. I mean, it doesn't get abused because this a certified service animal is hard to come by. That's what I'm saying. And this um individual who's coming to us came from another district where I've talked to the people in that district and it it wasn't an issue for them either. the the you know the problem with us saying you can't have a uh like I said you can't have a a horse or something. No, the law says you can have a horse like so we would get sued and lose that. So you don't have cons. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, I was just So, so um you don't have concerns about
017uh let's say so if a student comes in with a with a service animal, I guess that's a teachable moment for the other students. Um is there any uh push back from teachers or teacher unions on like okay now I have a service animal in in my room. Am I responsible for that uh service animal? Like who's responsible for the service animal? Even though they may be certified and all that, is it the minor child who is? Yes. Yes. Yeah, they are. And um I think uh that in this case um I don't know that that the animal would be with the child all day every day. Um there are situations that would require the use without going into too much of the individual needs of the student um that you know we would need
018the support of a dog with or would benefit from the support of the dog. I like I said too, I think it's important for us to work with the faculty um to try and identify people who are more comfortable doing this. Um to your point, Adam, like not everybody might be comfortable with this. Uh but it doesn't mean we can't have it. I mean, there might be some people that are uncomfortable with a a child who only speaks a different language, but this is what our people do. They they find a way to make it work and support the child. And um I have full confidence that they do the same thing in this instance. And they're the child's gonna have a 504, you know, an IEP where they have to they have to we
019have to service his needs anyway or her needs anyway and right part of that's part of the the plan, right? Yeah. I mean, this is uh not something that I think that was entered into lightly. Um, like I said, that the this is already part of the child's plan from another district. I know they didn't enter into it lately. Um, and they have not had issues, but I don't know how frequent the dog has been used there. I Well, I know it's not been frequent. Okay. So moving forward, do we we will send this out to the other board members and let them know that we're planning to fasttrack it? Is that Yes. How you will proceed? and Adam, if there are any specific questions like that you want to send to me, um, or
020any of you guys want to send to me or anybody on the board wants to send to me, I have a a meeting scheduled with Rebecca Goldberg, one of our attorneys, on the 23rd already, uh, to discuss something else. I could I could run it any specific questions that maybe we didn't cover tonight, I could run past her. So, I'll put that out to everybody on the board either tonight or tomorrow. And if you have any questions, just shoot them my way and we'll get them answered on the 23rd. I'll get that right back out to you. So, you know, the information is already in hand for the 30th. Great. I'll do that. But again, like even if the board said, "No way. We're not approving this on the 30th." It's the law. We'd still
021have to follow it anyway. So, I mean, it's up to you. So, so do we need to do anything with this now or are you just gonna Yeah, you would vote to move it forward for first reading. Okay. Uh motion. So moved. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Okay. I'm like a half hand. That's like Yeah. Sorry. It was very reluctant. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I you know, uh, Adam, I'd be lying if I told you like I mean, I am a huge dog person, dog friend. And, um, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have any concerns or reservations when this first crossed my desk. It's like, oh my god. And I I'm I called Pet Partners and brought the dogs in postcoid like you know definitely but to know that a student would
022have to navigate this and our teachers would have to navigate this all day every day. Um certainly there were some questions there and I definitely feel much better after doing some of that that work. But let's get any other questions let's from the full board and we'll kick it back out. Um the next policy is something that you guys have already seen um as well. This is for a second reading. Uh suspension and expulsion due process. The only um change here was that we had to change the definition of bullying because that changed under the law. Everything else remains the same. So this was the old definition of bullying which you recall and this is the new one sentence. Bullying means unwanted and aggressive behavior among children in grades kindergarten through 12 inclusive that involves
023a real or perceived power imbalance. So that that is the definition adopted by the state of Connecticut. Um and so we have to change our policy to reflect the state definition. I'll add again I'll add this to the email that I put out tonight or tomorrow morning to the board. If anybody has any questions, let me know. But again, this is a this one's a legislative change. Um, just like the next policy is a a legal change and our policy should follow the the definitions in the law. Jeff, does this one um are you proposing this one be fasttracked as well? Right. Because it goes into effect July 1st. So these would be the two that we would fast track. The next one is this one we were kind of waiting on as the next
024one we dragged our feet a little bit. Just we timed that out for July 1. Um because the legislative session there was a lot of conversation about does it get pushed back again? Do we you know and we've all been there before where we adopt the policy and then the next year it changes. We revise it. we revised like seemingly every year graduation um gets revised and this is the first year like there hasn't been talk of the graduation stuff but um so I kind of held off on these a little bit but it it is going into effect for July 1. So this is So we looked at this policy a few months ago. So it it made it through unchanged. They nothing changed on it. What that's I I guess they made so
025many changes last year that they Yeah. decided not to. So, I don't know if you want to follow form from the first one and make a um motion to move that forward for a second reading. So, moved. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? So the third and the third and final policy is the overall Connecticut safe school climate policy which um was adopted at the state. Pull that up. I think we're gonna um as a board probably spend more time with this um perhaps over the summer or in the fall kind of outlining the adjustments. I think I shared with you a PowerPoint when we first looked at this. It was something like 150 slides long and it really went through all of the history of bullying laws and school climate laws, excuse
026me. Um the whole the whole thing here you can see like the bullying definition that was updated. But um this is where I think you may know uh we discussed the fact that we have a new safe school climate survey that was put out by the state that came out of this. Um there it's a very similar process with respect to uh having a safe school climate committee at the building and district level or excuse me just the building level where you have to have defined representatives on that committee. they identify um goals um that that you then uh follow through on those and at the end of the year regroup and how are we doing? So, it's a very similar process to what goes on now, but again, um there's defined membership of that
027committee. Now, we I know we talked about that. Um you still have a district level uh person like Marlene is our current safe school climate coordinator. Um and then there's a leader at the building which is typically our principal. In some cases, it's an assistant principal. Um, it outlines what they do. Here's the committee. Has to have the building leader. Has to be a teacher who is selected by the union um appropriately uh demographically representative group of students at the school. Uh you have to invite uh families uh of students enrolled. So that there should be um adults that that have children in the school. And I got to be honest with you, one of the hardest things that we'll face is finding people who are available. So then two members of the school community,
028that could be other people um aside from those. So you could have a school counselor, let's say, on it or a secretary if you wanted or something like that. And then the they're responsible for the development of the goals, schedules, the survey, everything like that, even though a lot of that's coordinated through the district. Um, but they really focus on the building level and what do we need to f do there. I don't know. We haven't had a board meeting a few since Marlene reviewed some um of the preliminary data from our safe school climate survey. But the number of people who responded to the survey was really disappointing in terms of the the um parents and we think it's just kind of the timing of it in the spring like people were tapped out.
029We have better luck with a captive audience. Um, so when we do it at things like openhouse, but that it's still kind of early in the year, for example, openhouse. I mean, you've been there a month. Um, it's still relevant, but you know, we we'd like to try and get data at maybe different points during the year. And, um, participation is really important. even though, you know, we'll put it out, we'll send emails, it's just people don't take the time, um I think we could do a better job of indicating it's it's only like 12 questions. It's not like um really deep the survey. So, um we hope that we can get more feedback on that. So, it starts July 1 by law. Again, you know, we have to adopt it. Um and then we
030design a a plan based on you know what's going on. The training stuff we've already talked about that you know boards have to provide resources to do this training but we've been doing this since 2016. Um so that's not an issue. Um and again we have to allocate adequate resources. It's it's part of what we do in our PD anyway. And then it outlines the the safe school climate standards. We have to adopt policies that promote a sound school environment, develops academic, social, emotional, ethical, civic, and intellectual skills. All stuff that we already do. So there's not stuff here that's going to be like, "Oh my god, we we have to do what now?" Um it's it's pretty uh reflective I would say of of what we already uh work on and aspire to. So
031part of the conversation that we've been having though is when we would administer it because apparently when you administer the survey is not part is is not prescribed. Correct. Yeah, it's not. And um so the uh original we did it in the spring. We've historically done it in the spring and we like I said, we didn't get great responses on it. Um we wanted better responses. So now we're going to try and administer it again in the fall. I do three times a year if we have to. I mean, what do we do to get the data? Yeah. I just I think doing it in the fall, especially for a school like Dodd, is doesn't make a whole lot of sense because you've either got kids who have just got to Dodd or they're kids
032who are leaving at the end of the year. But we, you know, we can we can filter results by grade level, too. And so I mean I think there's always when you when you do this and you get survey data I think there's always something that you can find from it. Um it's it's worth having the information. It's for me it's a balance of the amount of time and energy to administer a survey or you know do something like this or assessments if you will relative to the benefit. Um, and I think, you know, we would need to do it in October to see what the benefit was in October. If we get way better participation, all right, then I think it's probably worth our time and energy because it's going to give us good
033data about what we can improve on. um if we get abysmal uh response rate then I think we just got to look again like how do we change this cycle and how do we how do we get better response rates from people? Um Jeff, so when you say spring, do you mean March? Do you mean April? I think we did it I think we did it in April because when's our is our spring break in April? Yes. So yeah, I'm guessing you did it before spring break, I'm assuming. Yeah, I don't remember the exact date, Adam. Because I'm just I'm just thinking like just this school year, right? I was just thinking about my personal experience. It's like basically if if it occurs before spring break, I would think there would be much more engagement
034than after spring break because then all that late spring stuff is happening. uh where before spring break it's sort of like everyone's still sort of locked in you know yeah you know uh not not eye towards the end of the tunnel sort of thing. Yeah. You don't see the light until April break. Just my thought. I don't know if it's if it's going to be if it's going to be left up to you and your staff or if it's the curriculum committee discusses it or something like that. I don't know. Um well I I made the recommendation to Marlene who brought it to the curriculum committee that you know like I just wasn't happy with the the volume uh the number of result or the number of responses and again the results weren't bad. It
035was just like is it really telling you anything if you know you only get 4% of your parents responding? I don't I'm throwing that number out. I don't know if it was exactly 4%. But it wasn't it was low and you know you can't really make great predictions um based on a low response rate. So we want to make sure that we're doing this right and doing right by our kids and communities. So let's try it again in October. Let's see what sort of response rate we get. And you know if it's much better then maybe we do it every year at that time of year or maybe we do it then and in the spring. But um I think it's important to try and get the data beyond the fact that it's statutoily required.
036And then uh secondly um so this was the policy where I think we had a lengthy discussion about the the investigation form. Um was there any it doesn't look like there are any changes made to it. I'm guessing that's statutory, right? Was there any clarification on that? don't the they told us like the form is not required statutoily. Now I have a a conference on Thursday at Bertram and Moses uh the law firm that we use where they're going to go through all the legal stuff but um they said so far what I've heard is you don't have to use that exact form but you have to ask all the questions on the form. So like I don't know why we would reinvent it. So, you know, it's a very lawyerly answer. Yeah. It's like
037you don't have to use that one. You can move them around in order perhaps if it makes you feel good. I don't know. So, I I don't know. I think hopefully I'll find out more on Thursday. Okay. So, this would be a third and final reading that we have to implement again by law anyway. So, yeah, third and final reading. But then if we if we want to adjust the form or if we we we receive enlightenment from our attorneys then we can adjust that in the fall or something like that. Sure. Revisit it. Sure. Yeah. Because right because wasn't there some legal terms Mark about wasn't assault and right. Yes. Aggressive uh behavior or something like that. You know what? I thought I emailed Floyd about that and I might have had it queued
038up for last week or whenever we were going to meet and we had to cancel. Um I can't remember if it was Floyd or um Yep. Yeah, I do. I have it right here except my computer is physical violence if I recall. Yes. So, I just have to plug in before my computer has like zero warning. You have to respond like somebody just launched a grenade in your direction, you know. Okay. Feel like I just diffused a bomb. Um, all right. So Floyd said it's a this is basically a state designed form. I have to assume the term assault was meant to be consistent with the reporting requirements under Connecticut general statutes that require that physical assaults be reported. Well not defined there seems to be to me we're talking about the criminal definition as
039I'm not familiar with any other definition. Um but again like we have this meeting on Thursday where we can try and get some more insight on you know what what is this? There were a lot of reservations raised across the state about this definition and I don't know if it was just there were so many other legislative priorities this year or there's school climate law fatigue which we have having sat through many iterations of this policy over the years. It just didn't get addressed. So we'll find out more on Thursday. Okay. So, we'll push this through and pending what you find out on Thursday, we'll we'll uh discuss it further, I guess, before before we vote on it as a full board. Yeah, we could hold another quick meeting if we want to do something
040like that or um I could just send you an update and you guys can decide if there's any sort of gamechanging info that I guess we could definitely hold a meeting in that case. But if there's not, maybe you don't bother. Like Adam said, we come back in the fall and look at it. Um, but right now, like the items that we have, all three items on this agenda agenda are legally driven. We have no choice but to follow them. So, so is this another one July 1st? This is what we're following anyway. Yes. The last two, the the bullying definition and this school climate are codified in state law July one. Okay. So, we're adopting in the nick of time. Are you asking for a motion, Mr. Chair? Yes, I am. So moved. All
041right. Any further discussion? Oh, I'm sorry. Second, Adam. Thank you. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. In that case, there's only one other motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second by Adam. Thank you. We are adjourned. All right. All right. All right. Thank you guys. eyes.