001to order roll call for cor sure Mr E here Dr her here Mr Griff here CH thank you stand for plge States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and jce for all just confirm call members of the audience just observing or got a comment um I do have comments regarding the equity and diversity specific two sections of it uh recommendation for edits okay so that was the time yep okay all right um I'm sorry uh name for the record Paul Orlowski thank you okay um do you need address to I'm sorry I think I have it from last meeting okay good uh when I was going through it uh the second paragraph uh of the document uh is essentially a definition of equity um
002which isn't in the definition section um but I think it's fine that the only only edit I would make in there is removing the word systemic um because I think removing that word and just saying barrier is more all-encompassing of potential issues um and as that is the only place that systemic barrier is in the document it would remove the need for the definition of systemic barriers in the definition section that uh you were working on yeah uh for paragraph three um it's basically a boilerplate statement about the anti-discrimination the only thing I would do there is uh instead of including the entire list I would just uh have it as discrimination on any basis will not be tolerated um because by listing things I think what you have the tendency to do is that
003then determines the only items that are considered discrimination uh uh bullet point three down below I would remove everything after all students pretty much the same reason because you give a list and that's going to dictate what uh what's considered bullet point 4 uh talks about the the diversity of the employee I would just strike that Al together for the reason I mentioned uh last time the the recent Supreme Court case there are lawsuits that are happening where um that could be construed as a quota and uh they would just avoid the potential for a lawsuit I'm sorry what P we on y um bullet point five bullet point 9 basically the same thing above they list only a few of the uh potential Target groups so I would revise those to be more allinclusive
004so if you're on number nine then you must go on the second list it goes to the next page five and N oh sorry right five five and n five and N uh yeah um I um board in board five talks about the type of training it's very specific to just like four or five areas where there's other types of uh conditions that uh staff might uh be better familiarized with and in bullet n uh it only speaks to racial ethnic or gender and there's more Target groups there um and then bullet 10 I would change racism with bias which I suggest uh when we were talking about the uh definitions last time because it's a more neutral term racism involves just one specific group where bias can apply to uh more groups and then
005uh as far as the definitions went uh educational Equity is nowhere in the document so there's no need to Define it there and under diversity and ethnicity the the language is kind of weird I don't think a group you can Define someone as part of a group by having characteristics um they're either in a group or they're not I mean the best example I can think of that is what what was that term again which which definition or diversity and ethnicity both lead out with people having characteristics of and like I said it it seems like odd language to use um you're because like I said you're either in a group or you're not um I know there was a woman out in I think it was Washington state that tried to claim she was
006African-American and she she tanned herself up and got a perm and that didn't fly too well and th those are really the only suggestions I have with edits within the document um the third section that you altered last time um as you said Dr S A lot of it was prescriptive and those were the issues that I had in there too and that's pretty much all I have for you thank you so much thank you you want to speak or okay just throw it out just throw it out thank you cuz now would be the time for [Music] that that was I was going to say that's what I heard when you rolling in Easy there Le foot all right so our discussion now um so we're reviewing uh policies for second reading 0523 equity
007and [Music] diversity um so Dr still sure so um is you may remember and Mr olowski just um kind of reminded us we made some adjustments in the last reading uh I sent you know the group's request info to the board of education and um uh the question I only question I got back was about uh systemic barriers I was asked what systemic barriers currently exist within CPS and my reply was you know if I was aware of systemic barriers we would remove them so I'm not aware of any um but certainly we would you know if we were to identify barriers and that's why we review data to uh try and understand where we're not meeting the needs of all of our students so um I can't say that I'm aware of any at
008the moment because would have we would have removed them already so well I mean it's possible that we have systemic barriers that are just so deeply embedded into a what we do every day as a as a nation that you know we can't address just for Cheshire Public Schools but you're you know what we have control over our yeah the barriers that we can identify right yeah so uh but I mean that's in my mind that's a reason for having definitions available so that you know when things come up we have a starting place for conversation so um you know just kind of quickly reviewing uh what we had changed last time uh we did take a look at the definitions there wasn't any feedback on this specific component um and just you know kind
009of as a piece of conversation here in terms of the timing um this is our last meeting of the year uh before the summer and this would be a second reading so I mean unless the the group really wanted to schedule another policy meeting to look at these two items uh they wouldn't typically be reviewed for adoption until next September so either there's time to gain more information or we should probably schedule another policy meeting in something like two weeks um if we're to have the board approve it for June cuz we're not going to approve have another policy meeting tomorrow night for or whatever what's time Monday before Thursday night's board meeting so well you can't anyway you need to have a reading at the board meeting it to be a yeah so I
010mean my thought would be that you know we're not going to be adopting this but uh I guess it gives us time also to gain a little bit more um information I don't recall why this is hanging out there um if we were considering making that a I don't know if anybody remembers that yeah I would suggested that instead of uh the racism I'm just going to make a comment then I would I would I would propose we have definitions for both well I I suggested that racism could be a sub def within there okay thank you did that the comment yes okay and the other um comment so we can read it Jeff at the bottom of page one it looks like for number seven we have an A and A B did anyone
011give any feedback on um not that I received preferring one over the other or so seven here yeah I think we could take care of that tonight couldn't we just have one I'm sure there are some other things we could clean up but uh yeah so you're saying Okay so this was one alternative this was the second alternative I think I mean yeah yep identify any practices that create disparate results among students who design remedies that support success for all second opport um alternative was identify any practices including assessment that lead to results that are markably different than the overall student population in areas such as special dis what he does is list them out yeah I mean this is just a little bit more specific in terms of how we would the areas we
012might consider looking to uh identify where practices might create the spare results how because I'm not familiar with all the policies and this is all new to me are we generally more specific by listing specific subgroups or is it more General probably more General okay I was going to say a 7A is more in line with the others right so I'm saying I think we we generally are General yeah so I'm typically I'm trying to remember what kind of comment discussion we were having when people thought maybe we should well I don't I don't recall if this could have been its own number at one point I don't know so is there something where we were trying to blend yeah yeah yeah yeah is there something in there that if we strike it out that
013we want to add to seven uh you know what I wouldn't say necessarily because I think these are uh not fully inclusive they are right right they are examples of areas that we would look um to identify disparate results but they're not exhaustive and for that reason I think we don't need to list them all Jeff what would you consider a a spirit result um well I mean you could look at enrollment if if so we had AP stats our um our male population is let's say 50% right it's probably a little bit lower than that but let's say it's 50% and if we had zero boys enrolled in AP stats um we would probably say well what's going on there Des possibly an enrollment is balance or that's an example okay yeah and that
014could be in I think you used um was it chemistry as an example yeah we had a really Oddball situation where we had a lot of girls in AP chem and not a lot of girls in AP stats um we look at standardized testing results uh to try and determine you know are there disparate results there for anything um so when you see something like that is um do you uh tend to recruit do you do you approach students who like hey you know maybe you like statistics because your math scores are good but you just maybe hadn't I don't know I mean is that what that means you know what I mean yeah you take steps to remedy it so you know um when students take the PSAT the uh results will give you
015a probability score of being successful on any variety of AP courses so I know as principal I have sent letters to families to say Hey you know you you could take this class you know the sometimes it's a question of confidence sometimes it's just like yeah I want to take that class fine you don't have to you don't have to uh but you know just when we see things that are uh outside of where they would typically be um or really different experiences for kids then we'll ask questions we don't railroad people and say sorry you know we got to get the you know mail enrollment up in AP stats and you qualify so good work you know uh we don't but we ask questions we try and figure out what what maybe created that
016in the first place where it was entirely female enrollment in AP stats is there is there something we're missing here we investigate these things and then you know uh offer appropriate solutions that don't you know Force kids into classes but so what can we do a good example might be if you had no people of color in your gifted and talented program then you'd have to go and look at how do we choose right who's in theal program and what's wrong with the way that we're yeah or how could we do it differently so that it's more inclusive of what our student like yeah I mean if if it was if if enrollment in any program like the math ex example being an example of this was widely different than our General Distribution then we're
017going to ask questions about it and we're going to I think this is really about awareness and uh taking the impetus to address it now you know I think we have been doing these things um but this this represents a a statement uh affirming that work and you know really projecting how important it is so to that end do we want want to stick that last sentence and when evident throw that up on the back half of number seven when evident the administration should take step point I I think that's a good point mark I don't know you guys add that CU you're that's just describing what you just you're right you're right yeah you intervene when you see it yeah and then we would strike this whole piece here I'm just going to indicate
018in the comments here that cuz we're going to forget yeah and I'm going to ask you to remind me what we talked about I don't remember yeah especially next year if we're looking at this after the summer uh yeah I have notes here actually we changed it we changed the over representation and the under representation to markedly different from the overall school okay cool um then we had this whole piece here was a question I know the systemic barriers you know I think mrowki just talked a about um we decided to strike the institutional racism piece um um we do talk about systemic barriers in the second paragraph Yes yeah the the last meeting we yes we have that we we looked to strike this institutional racism because it wasn't in the uh prior text
019and that's why we came up with suspend barriers and because that's not common household language either and right right I think it merits a definition it's also quite a bit um it's a more palatable definition than the one for institutional racism which is a little heavy so look back at the uh comments second paragraph um the the point was that um perhaps removing systemic could be considered that was a comment this evening so for the next paragraph um do we get our eles in trouble at all by listening race ethnicity gender sexual orientation religion or physical mental ability is there anybody forgetting should we just going to look up they have given us a list of what we had to put in there okay there's a legal let me see if I can find it
020okay gend identification should prob yeah although gend we can get legal Clarity on it okay okay and then again that would also looking at number three Mr lowski said because we're listing again so that should have probably a very similar wording actually I had a a comment on number three is whether or not it's necessary if we sort of have those topics covered in um Point number seven sort of under disate results um if since we sort of got rid of the specificity in number seven and then it sort of returns in number three whether or not three is actually needed if we want to maintain are we looking at same tone academic opportunities versus results can we combine them in some way you know if we're looking at the results and it's a function
021of opportunity yeah be addressing yeah um well is talking about practices three is talking about opportunity opportunities which are in my mind but all the examples that were given were about opportunity in I mean the reality would be results too uh and it says results right in here yeah um so your question Adam would that be identify any practices that create disparate results among students of or like regardless of this and do we include that in there in dump three or um yes because it's that's because it's like three is almost like the result of seven you know if you find disperate uh results then you would actively encourage you know something so should we stick something in seven a part of three that's encouraging the academic opportunity I like to to get the opportunities
022in there somehow so identify I also opportunities or results among students I also really like to work actively as opposed to just identify all right actively identify any practices and because that's what we do yeah uh create disparate opportunities or results among students regardless of these then we can check the legal whatever check the legal and just dump three yeah yeah cuz that the statement from three is basically any uh yeah discrim discrimination law or federal law we talked about last time that's all there you know okay so I wonder if the comment Trails it so the comment would be link [Music] delete this because R done it in the next sentence sure why it won't let me does that make sense [Applause] does make sense PLL it for was a question uh yeah SC
023I I think because we're required by law to have a diversity inclusion hiring plan and I'll check that legally so I guess my comment on number four was doesn't that conflict with what we've been trying to do because it says that we're we're trying to uh let a recruit recruit employee support retaining teachers that reflect the diversity of the student body but one of our problems is that our student body isn't super diverse oh we're still not close we're not Clos we're not so you could argue that perhaps our uh teachers are reflective of our current student population you can't no no no no so what I what I would argue is that you place uh on the second uh sentence there where it says Workforce that reflects instead replac with Workforce that improves the
024diversity of the and then instead a student body teacher population or something to that effect or is that a term that is problematic well the research is grounded in um the research is grounded in the benefit of diverse teaching population reflecting of your student population but I mean I think you're saying the same thing just putting well well it it's I think it's more truthful to what we're trying to do not because we're not really we're not trying to reflect our student population we're trying to have more diverse teachers so that we all learn more but I think I mean I think optimally we are trying to have it reflect our student population we're just not really good at it yet yeah like really and and I think uh we will assume some responsibility for
025that unfortunately it's also a function of the pool there just aren't enough diverse teachers in the pool for us to be able to to do that um I mean we are working on it but it's definitely slow and coming is a state I mean that's why every District in the state has to submit a plan and the district in the state is working actively to diversify the talent pool um that's a systemic barrier that's out of our control right yeah we just the people aren't there uh to hire um so why aren't the people why aren't the diverse people unfortunately nobody's going into teaching is part of the problem right now yeah even if even when we had lots of people going into teaching right yeah true they weren't diverse they weren't diverse yeah so
026did you want me to look at changing that back end of it or check check the legality of it first or both I I would argue that we should because I'm not sure if yeah either one is problematic whe because like because we are we are trying to uh like like we've said for like the last six years trying to hire uh more uh nonwhite teachers teachers of color uh for our because well now that we're required by law I guess but right but we are trying to do that anyhow yeah um but I'm just saying because it's not a reflection of the student body that would because that would be the reverse of what we're trying to do as I think it yeah but but our new policy yeah the the new requirement by
027the state yeah we should probably just take the language from that that would be a good idea exactly what I was going to say you know there's got to be a uh a short version of something similar to this okay work on that check the language from the diversity plan professional development yeah got some that's something we're doing already Yes or is there something else we're going to add um we've been provid I think we had indicated um like a when necessary maybe in the I want to say it was in these this group of 10 down here right here this should show off for improve cult there was I know in one of them we had indicated that you know we weren't looking to necessarily you know as appropriate I think would be good
028language to put in there to qualify it rather than just because is that not one of the training videos that um well for anybody that you anybody who sits at state law that anybody who sits on a hiring committee has to watch the diversity equity and inclusion video like on the unconscious bias but um I I meant don't all your teachers those not no because we do them yeah yeah we have a ly of videos that consider professional development from uh yeah could be um we can always just stick if you're already doing it continue to provide professional development yeah or it's actually mentioned in that when we struck out all 10 of those points in the second half it's actually mentioned in that par yeah but I I think what we were looking to
029do in that may not have written it in we crossed it out was to indicate you know as appropriate or as de necessary or so you know I'm not should we need that let's if we go to the top of the list in Cheshire Public Schools we to this is inspiration aspirational aspirational sorry yeah so we strive to we strive to provide professional development you add what when possible at the end aspirations we strive to isn't the same thing I guess yeah you're right you're right then it's we're not this is not writing a contract that every year we're going to provide that yeah so I think that you're right in that context it does make make it fair to do that I mean in my mind that's what this this whole policy is about
030it's it's a statement of our values at ches public schools and there are good reasons to have um have this visible there are lots of good reasons to have this visible more visible than it is right now even if we're doing some of these things you know as such I I think I understand the maybe the the idea of uh eliminating this but given that it is an aspirational and this is a diversity equity and inclusion policy I I would Advocate that I think it makes sense to retain those um definitions there those not those definitions those those uh identifications there those those audiences especially if we're going to you know get the the line the legality of it or whatever um the language of the what if what if we change um the word
031provide professional development to review professional development in order to strengthen because it sounds like we kind of do it and that way it would be a statement of more of a constant review that way you're not really committed to that specifically but but it's always looking to improve and update and you know depending on I like I like the stronger we strive to provide for professional development and the reason is we would be striving to review PD we probably have to review yeah we're always reviewing the um this one we were going to just check the the language the pretty broadly inclusive already number nine to n yeah actually can I ask about uh eight sure um just what is the promotion of equity what does that mean to me I guess it would mean
032equal opportunities for success will it be equality or Equity um and the supports that help students be successful if they don't have equal access equal access is I guess uh equality yeah and then when students aren't if they have equal access and students aren't getting equal results then we need to look at what has to happen to provide that support be Equity right that's the the definition in here so do we need the promotion of equity or could we just have to ensure equity for all students or equality for all students should we say you know educational Equity given that the definition is right down here yeah so are you changing to Ed educational Equity okay fair enough then nine create multiple Pathways to success this is the same sort of idea of the racial
033ethnic so again we'll go back to the uh legal so that was a little different racial ethnic and gender groups it's not as inclusive as the prior list here's the prior list yeah I'm wondering if it has to be or if it really is something different but I we won't know that until we see the language that we what are we doing to create the multiple Pathways what what does that mean in order to meet the needs of diverse students so uh class is an example yeah if you let's say we only had one criteria to identify going back to that uh class of all girls and AP stats let's say we only had one one strategy to identify students whether or not they were going to qualify for that level of course and we
034realized we had only girls in that class what maybe there's another pathway right so you know I remember many years ago working with the science department chair saying they were saying that students could only take this level of chemistry if they took a a pre-existing course like a a like a prerequisite and so instead and or actually the pre-exist the prerequisite by the way was a math class wasn't even a science class and so we designed uh we had low enrollment so we designed a math assessment as another Avenue to provide access um that supported the enrollment in the course um so providing a different pathway when you're seeing that you're not getting opportunities for kids is is another that's that's an example can I suggest getting rid of the word expect is it feels
035strange is it's almost like we were for some time assuming that they could not achieve and so now we're saying now we expect it because before we didn't expect it you know what I mean like if you get rid of that one word now it's now now it's a supported statement maybe worse yet we're striving to do that we're not even right doing it right just so yeah it's more and and I appreciate the sentiment about you know um because we talk about this in special education a lot or other you know that we feel like we're doing you a favor by uh reducing the load or the riger when you know you're not really helping anybody there necessarily um we need to give you different tools to access the same riger otherwise you're left
036behind and so um maybe there's a different way to frame this create multiple Pathways the means of of our students and actively uh encourage and support um and maybe that's all you need yeah yeah yeah High expect High academic achievement for yeah I agree there kill that one just like the old days two words stand that's right so we're going to go one word makes a difference so it's going to be actively encourage and support support yeah yeah so two words make a difference right you have to have proper that was a little so if you want to stick the end in between the other yeah thanks commit to Collective just aent instead of to collector responsibility within the district to address elimin actions yeah okay that's generic enough definitions we have diversity go back
037to this guy here allergies are been horrible can tell you right now I'm suffering so um uh just to go back to number 10 we're going to leave perpetuate racism and uh and that's going to that's more of a reference to the definition we have or is it a standalone word yeah I think that's related to the definition we have is being uh but I think we were looking at this part of it here this part of the definition yeah um I'd kind of like to review that with our multilanguage learner teacher um who kind of can help with some of the stuff periodically uh to see if there's the context for that that could be added or alternative language that we could explore on these terms if we are reaching out to legal for
038legal yeah definitions why don't we ask them for their def what they would think would be a definition for racism and what a definition for diversity is yeah I was going to ask where that definition came from and I think we've talked about it before I don't remember at this point I don't even know I don't it's been like I would like to say for the record I mon problem with that language it seems like the right definition for racist let's just see what the yeah let's see what the lawyer say you know you might be mean it we you might be sorry but you I don't know that we need a legal definition but it might be helpful for us and I think it would not not give us an out but give us
039an outside opinion that could yeah you know that we can provide us more information at least and and we can talk about so what about bias do we have a definition for bias sure in bullet point 10 where it says racism that is where I suggest the changing into bias um because then it uh expands what it covers this word which we talking about to all other forms of discrimination which discrimination is different than bias I think but if we defition bias yeah so we'll get some definitions on and then we go back and look at look at 10 to see if we should have great racism or bias or both or both well we do have both because we have all other forms of disc discrimination yeah um again review definition here yeah just
040as a little bit of an aside um where I come from as an educator and this is a chesa public schools policy I feel like this having this policy and having these definition also provides just a starting point for conversation should difficult conversations need to be had between students and teachers students and administrator uh teachers and administrators um I think it's really nice to have the definitions as a starting point for conversations then the last thing was what I guess we just adopted yeah I read through that I really like the italicized portion instead of having the one through yeah I think everybody felt pretty good about that part in the last meeting dumping the the bottom 10 and I didn't hear anything from any of the board otherwise so and that advice came from
041C correct I'm sorry that advice yes came from C we good so far we good with that poliy well I all I was going to say is because we made quite a few changes again should we pause the second reading and just kind of let it hang until there's a natural pause anyway we'll do a second reading we can't even do it so I mean I don't know how much more pause we need but we're already into September by the time we get to a third reading right but this third reading means it's usually you're not changing anything anymore right well in the third me the third meeting which the we have to have a poli meeting before the third reading anyway right so you know there there would be another policy meeting in in
042September so if we push this forward as a second reading we're going to meet again before we would send this right to the board for the third so the next time we would review this would be the first Monday roughly in September think is technically Labor Day Labor Day so it'll be the second Monday of and then the subsequent board meeting we would review it again so I mean I will send this out again to the full board and we'll discuss it Thursday to give people the heads up I feel like he cleaned up some did I think we're but there's a lot of work left to be done I mean you know so we have to I'll have to talk to proba Rebecca or that's her School District Operations if you recall is um
043the transportation policy and we went through and made a number of changes again these are all all the changes basically reflect our current practice uh and like this is a change in age for school transportation but that's not necessarily because we're changing our our desire of who we want to transport but because um the law has changed around who attends public schools now so we made that change um there were there was a lot of confusion around kindergarteners when this was designed really this policy when all kindergarteners went to Darcy school and now that we have kindergarteners in each of the elementary schools it creates a lot of frustration um so we just made the amendment to kindergarten sh not work walk further than a mile to school we're certainly conscious of where kids are
044we make the changes and um same here in the subsequent B is K through six now not one through six as a result of making that other change I feel like Z and Luther Luther went through this with a fine tooth comb presented it to us spent a lot of time on this I for one and happy to accept the changes that they went over with us on kind of don't need to this is where again we we're just making it more General we have a protocol that we engage in with the police department and um and uh Public Works and our staff to determine in the walking areas like if there's a any sort of you dispute over well my child's in a walking area but uh or the I don't like where the
045bus stop is or whatever there is a protocol outlined in here um these are just the those were just some of the steps we took that we cross out but those are still the in the um f where you petitioner um again we don't publish the roots in the newspaper we put an ad in the paper and then send out an email notification rather than postcards to parents Jeff yeah um just just to review the um I think that section eight right that we're talking about the Hazardous walking area yes so that entire section is reduced to superintendent designate shall consider grade levels will'll be using walking area right essentially superintendent shall consider or has the you know instead of having all of this it's just your office shall consider yeah so you're not arguing
046the the finer points of right the geometry character the roads yeah failure of HOA cuz frankly it's not it's I don't do that anyway you know um and Vin doesn't do it none of us like they were saying the other day we don't do this in isolation you know we have other professionals evaluate it um like some public yeah yeah who determine who give us a lot of feedback with Luther and then we go from there and there are some times when we move it and some other times when we don't but um um you know when that's reasonable we certainly do um these are just some things related to the notice that we don't do in the newspaper anymore or anything like that we just email it um still keeping the same timeline at
047least a week in advance of the school year um on Section 10 D is that school being added is that why it's highlighted yes yeah so that's like saying business days right so me obviously we try and do it as quickly as we can depending on the time of year I mean we always try to do it quickly but this was a clarification that um Luther really wanted it's well students taking seats on two buses and then we just right they explain the day pass and all that yeah I mean there are ways to take another bus but you can't basically hold a seat on two bus buses at the same time this is when he says hold the seat that's a permanent assign of what he's talking about right yeah which especially you know
048if it's Monday Tuesday Thursday of this week I'm going to do this and then next week I'm going to do that um it's really it's where it can be very confusing for the driver and mistakes get made that aren't good for kids you know so hold the seat on one bus and then we'll give you passes when you need to take the other one this is again the age group where the law changed about how old you have to be to attend and that we through special it up through 22 and I think that's about it so the second changes that's moved to a second reading is that with those changes made yes yeah cuz we adopted these changes in the um last in the last just want to make sure there's not any other
049subsidary change great do we need to make motions here to move these on for a second meeting right so you know that you can do that now or then where we would make a motion to move policy 0523 is amended 3541 School District Operations for a second reading does it have to be two second and thirding no thir has to be separ yeah you could do all the seconds at let's do the seconds now I make a motion is there a second to that Carol make my motion sound right I'll second all in favor then uh the third one this one was pretty straightforward if you recall we're not going to have adult in on CHS classes um adults and I don't know why this was part of it may enroll in a day class
050at CHS if space is available come on down when was that big bio I don't know they must have done it though I don't know it must have been done I don't and I Wasing pry so I they get buy since 2018 that's what I like to know what's yeah we looked at that in 2018 I don't know how we miss that we were we were doing 17 policies a night back in the day three hour sessions all were killer anyway so all right so that was the third one I don't know if anybody list any comments on that I make a motion that uh we move 6200 adult Contin education forward for a third reading all in favor okay anything else for discussion just like to say thank you for the courtesy of I
051guess waiting to start the meeting get here I for you guys would have started thank you appreciate that absolutely motion to adour so you good you're looking I'll second okay yeah you're study you're studying the agenda I want to make sure I'm just making sure we covered everything all right so uh all in favor we are adjourned