001call the role pres pres here [Music] here he was here a minute ago who oh thank you um if you we could all rise for the pledge of allei please I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands na God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay first on the agenda is our student Representatives Ella and Andrew you have a report for us hey everyone hope you've all had a great April so far um I can't believe we're almost towards the end of the school year which is uh we've got one full month left to school but um there's a lot been going on in April so far so uh first the Chester baseball team hosted a home game for Autism Awareness on April 8th versus West
002Haven the game held um had Raffles prizes and opportunities to donate to local organizations um the main one being sun moon and stars that which provides services to families who have children with autism the chesher high school robotics had a great weekend their alliance with teams 1099 and one 5142 placed them in fourth place in the playoffs and won them the industrial design award the team is currently ranked 23rd out of 185 teams in New England the CHS marching Ram band and band parents Association were recently recently recognized by the Southerton chure community YMCA at their annual meeting and awards dinner the groups were presented with their youth youth development award for service enhancing the youth the experience of Youth in chure Andy Conrad attended along with the BPA co-presidents amser and Denise tasus as
003well as well as their students who are both children at CHS and most and recently girls lacrosse became the first team to practice on the new turf at bartlam which began a new chapter in Cheshire Sports now moving on to some um some con congratulations to students and teachers at our school so we had a couple students who competed in the New Haven local section of the national chemistry Olympiad in mid-march James Boyd Jack de Joseph Daniel idala uland du dipd Raj Mony Matthew Reid Matthew Watson and Peggy Wang good luck to James and Peggy who placed top 10 in the New Haven County and and have qualified to compete in the National chemistry Olympia exam on April 13th at Quinnipiac the C Cas Connecticut Association of schools celebrated students receiving Fine Arts Awards Michael
004Anastasio and Maya katovich were the CHS recipients um so moving on to some teachers Gina curado was selected from over 1,800 teachers with for yukon's instructor award for excellence and course course instruction in her ECE Spanish class additionally my AP Physics teacher Mrs Barker was honored as a silver silver jubilee recipient for 25 years of ECE participation Miss Michelle katuchi was appointed by House Majority Leader Jason roas to the building education responsibility with greater Improvement net networks commission um at uh also known as Bergen because of her position as executive director for the Connecticut school counselor Association and her experience in public education recently 50 students from the CTE courses and Mecca Rams attended the manufacturer connection fair at the state capital the event organized by representative Liz linan ready Connecticut am and the State
005Office of manufacturing connected the new generation of innovators with Connecticut manufacturers who have booths and handon activities I think it was aming was an amazing event for students who are interested in going into engineering and Manufacturing and I was for forunate to attend and learn about these uh these different places um another congratulations to Mike Federico um the Connecticut Association of schools Cas friend of Education award was awarded to him for the Triple B sandwich buffalo chicken barbecue sauce and bacon and I urge you all to go try it um finally over April break there were two different uh major trips um one was through chorus who went to Virginia Beach and the other was through the Latin and Italian um language classes who went to Italy which I was a part of and I
006thought it was an amazing experience and something I'd recommend to other people to go do in the future hi everyone I missed you last month I hope everyone's doing well um on my end I have some things to report on right in the high school itself um in terms of some things going on for the whole District actually we recently hosted the elementary school and middle school leadership conferences through the peer Health Educators class run by Mr Dan Lee we had 94 Elementary School students from all of our schools and two schools from other towns and they came to the conference with team building activities um a video some guest speakers which were panelists at our school which was awesome we also had a middle school conference which hosted students from DOD as well as
007students from three other elementary schools um middle schools sorry in the area that had really similar activities and next week we have the high school leadership conference which will have adult panelists of very professional impressive people um people a guest speaker from the YMCA in Southington and various activities the National Guard will be bringing things it's a really big deal and we're really proud to have an event like this that can foster leadership in students at Chester high school and in surrounding towns in terms of some other things districtwide we hosted the eighth graders today and in the last two days at Chester high school for tours of the school to help prepare them for their next four years at Chester High School which is very exciting we also have Chapman School participating in the
008Ry of light challenge basically what this is is in honor through Pure Health also in honor of our teacher Coach Lee his son passed away many years ago and in his honor they have created the Ryan T Lee foundation and they sponsor many fundraisers throughout the year but specifically this one is at Chapman school students are participating in a poster making contest and the winners will receive money that will be used directly to go back into the Chapman School environment to help Foster kindness which of course is already there but to encourage students to continue to spread kindness and inclusivity in their school environment in terms of inclusivity we actually have this weekend for Best Buddies the second annual lacrosse event coming up this year it's going to be a two-part event with our group
009attending both a pasta dinner and the gaming Clinic uh so shout out to coach Mike dine and all of the lacrosse boys this event really helped us Kickstart other sporting events through Best Buddies which has been an honor and a great way to get more people involved in spreading our mission next up in some music related things uh like Andrew mentioned the chorus just went to Virginia Beach but this weekend the band is traveling to compete in Boston they also have a concert coming up on the 24th and there's course concert coming up on the 30th on April 29th the musical Mean Girls is up for some nominations through an organization called the sonheim so we'll be finding out if we were nominated for anything and if we will be attending a special Gala coming
010up in May so that will be hopefully exciting um some other things around chesher high school going on right now everyone is in the midst of preparing for AP exams and even though they're not until May our extremely dedicated teachers have already started making review packets before and after school review sessions to help prepare students and that has been a little bit scary but also good also students are going to be able in very early May going to be able to test for a seal of biliteracy on their diploma which is something that is newer and we're excited to be offering that in I think five languages which is very impressive and helpful for students graduating next week we also have the impact assembly which teaches students about the dangers of driving while under the
011influence and it is an interactive presentation that is assisted by the police and fire department and we've both attended last year and it's a very helpful and beneficial presentation so that will be good and lastly this weekend there's the chesher road race and numerous chesher High School clubs are volunteering to have water stations to show their support for the community and that is it on my end excellent thank you very much um any comments or questions from any members of the board for Ella or and or and K thank you uh thank you for your comments tonight this is not actually for them but it is directly related to what they said I think this is probably a question for Jeff or Marlene the I know we don't normally get an update on DOD we're
012sitting here right now did Dodd have any uh trips over the spring break I think so no no okay yeah that's not typical their their big trip is in May Washington right before uh Memorial Day weekend they go to Washington DC for three days okay so that's what everybody's focused on here got it thank you any other questions or comments for Ella and and Adam thank you um I just wanted to comment that thank you for all the the great reporting uh you've done uh through the year so far I just want to apologize for the small table that you have it's close but cozy Mark you're you're all good good I'm gonna ask um maybe an unfair question so uh Ella you reported on best buddies and inclusivity in particular and I'm wondering if
013you Andor Andrew um maybe both of you could just Enlighten us as to um why inclusivity is important to to a high school student I can start with this I might have no you can hear me now okay um so I can kind of start with this one I think that the importance of inclusivity in our high school environment and this also trickles down into the other schools is that students can't be the best version of themselves and they can't learn all of the material and create the social connections if they don't feel comfortable and safe in the school climate and feeling included and feeling supported by both students and staff is absolutely necessary for that um I've been with u so many students with um with intellectual and developmental disabilities since when it was
014at Chapman and elementary school and I feel like it's an amazing opportunity like it's it's amazing with what Cher High what CH high school has done for those students to um not I I'd say make them feel included but that's not the right wording um to include them with everyone else um have them be a part of all the sports teams treat them like other students in the school who don't have those disabilities that they have um so I think through best buddies and all the events we have at the treasure High School um I think it's amazing for them and for everyone else to learn and promote inclusivity here and throughout um everywhere else they they're they are thank you very much for your comments um I'm always interested in like a variety of
015insights on on topics and uh to know really what it means to high school students um is helpful thank you um I don't think we have anything else for you to so you know you're free to go if you have to but you're also welcome to hang around if you'd like to okay next on our agenda is a presentation which I will call on Mr White to present the school partnership award for Norton school okay the TV thank you so thank you Mr superintendent for giving me this these these kind words I appreciate it the school partnership award at sorry I'm getting old I need bifocals I think at this evening's meeting the recipient of the school partnership award for Norton school will be recognized oh wait sorry I told you I was um so
016I'd like to introduce Melissa rier did I say it okay okay M rier keeps Norton school a float with her donations of balloons at various times during the school year Miss rier has a daughter at Norton and when she has made aware of different activities she kindly donates the balloon displays from her own business some of the Creations have included a neon balloon arch for our PTA Bingo night a balloon display for her trick or trunk Booth during Halloween and an amazing black and white Dalmatian balloon arch in the front of the building for our 1001st day of school Miss riro adds to our Norton school festivities with her thoughtfulness and generosity the Board of Education thanks MS riro for going above and beyond for the students of chesher public schools [Applause] pleas than [Applause]
017uh next up on the agenda is public comment I would ask if anyone would like to uh address the Board of Ed um we have a microphone set up here and please come to the microphone State your name and address here in town and uh we'd love to hear from you good evening everybody you all know me Doug Noble 30 JY Court here in chesher um my questions are about the upcoming discussion on equity and diversity policy we already have a pretty robust program set by uh I believe it's in 2018 was re revised which kind of encompasses everything that we're talking about this evening and you know going through the policy I'm like H it's a little little wishy-washy here um so as a compliance officer I look at legal documents all the time
018and you know I'm looking at number item number seven here um it says Identify and remedy any practices including assessment that lead to an over representation of any one group of students EG based on color gender Etc well isn't that segregation didn't we fight that back in the' 60s with Ros of parks and now we're bringing that back again I mean this is ridiculous that is not what we're about here everyone's on an equal platform and we want to make sure people are on equal platform now put certain groups above others okay so that's that's that's a lawsuit open up here right here for the Town of Chester for that uh one issue and another one in here the district will employ Staffing Pro processes that support an Eng gender racial and gender diversity in
019its staff the superintendent shall provide annually to the board of a report on Staffing and efforts made to ensure that the staff represents the diversity and the student body and the community well isn't that hiring by race isn't that that's that's a total violation of the Equal Opportunity Act of 1972 signed by Richard Nixon so what are we doing here okay we already have a program in place and now we're going to open ourselves to a legal lawsuit and create racial tensions in this town it's ridiculous I have two young children in the school system I certainly don't want to be seeing this stuff thank you talk D 230 Oregon road so I also reread this um proposed change what struck me was on page two racism it's a prejudgment bias discrimination by an individual
020based on race individual racism includes implicit bias conscious and unconscious wait a minute are we going to have a Cadre of polygraph officials at the door to make sure that everyone has pure thoughts how do we know what's in one's unconscious sounds like a quantum entanglement to me so moving on we end up in implementation and responsibilities plans and procedures established shall include clear accountability for actions and oversight okay now does this mean we're going to have some type of re-education camps uh somehow we're going to have to get others to follow in line with the thought of the current day um I'm little confusing exactly what that oversight is so the general comment would be the more we talk about race and diversity and equality and all the rest the more we all think
021about it you know the world gets along quite well without the preoccupation of our minds on race and discrimination in gender it gets along just quite well we have to micromanage every little thing you know our students are young aren't they their C cbum hasn't even been perhaps be a kangaroo the next day and then we all have to call them Mr or Mr Kangaroo or whatever no we're endowed with certain sexual apparatus and that's the way it is let's just keep it simple folks you're getting way too deep thank you [Applause] good evening thank you for letting me speak it's good to see you all again um so in the interest of inclusivity and diversity um I'm going to read a short list um about 10 names or so I'd love you all to
022raise your hands if you've ever heard of them before um audience included this is multiart participatory faculty also if you want um Thomas Su okay good anyone on the board Shelby steel good how about Ian row okay Carol Swain okay uh Jennifer rice green uhuh Rob Henderson he's new on the list okay Glenn Lowry I'm yeah Glenn Lowry okay uh Coleman Hughes how about Janice Rogers Brown from California okay John mcarter okay um I understand that the board doesn't like to participate I'm hoping that's the reason why I didn't see more hands um FYI these are some of the most Count's most accomplished thinkers on race and relations race relations in America and they're Black and Hispanic they've argued that policy such as the one you're considering is not only unnecessary it's unnecessarily divisive if
023you aren't familiar with these people then you don't know as much about di the deie debate as you think you do this policy is a cut and pce from Canton Public Schools it is a prescription for a problem in that town you're now proposing that we adopt whole cloth without any data to demonstrate an established record of racism or bias to back it up this policy is not cheser we should have two complimentary goals in our district for both instruction and hiring excellence and Merit we're seeing the Fallout of diie policies everywhere incorpor ations like Google institutions like Harvard media Outlets like National Public Radio do you really want to bring this into our schools um do you want to bring in a policy that measures a group measures group representation rather than individual achievement
024the bottom line the treasure Board of Education should govern without prejudice or bias and our students should learn the same way my advice ensure the district has a rock solid anti-discrimination policy that it abides by the law and that it always acts justly then get down to the business of teaching our students facts virtues and the means by which to become productive individuals dedicated to the flourishing of family and Community now um if you could if I could just add one more thing about yesterday's ugly dust up on um Facebook and probably shouldn't go here but I'm going someone with malign intent um or a stream in a steeming heap of ignorance or both posted a gross lie open choice is a wildly positive program for everyone involved it is so successful I'd encourage the
025District administration and board to seek out even more opportunities for this kind of exchange parents put their kids on those buses at 5:30 in the morning every morning because they long for their kids to get the education that chesher provides the education that politicians in New Haven and and Hartford will not give them so they're seeking it here now and by the way a d policy would not have stopped that ugly post it would have happened anyway that's unfortunately the way some people think but given the immediate and Universal condemnation of that post one would would not be wrong to say that our current policies worked quite well thank you [Applause] so from for those that don't know me my name is Joe kulus I have two children within the district one in U actually
026both in high school uh Ella is going to graduate this year and Aiden is a freshman um I I just want to stand to uh support de eii policies within any board within any uh government agency uh within any Cor Corporation the the truth of the matter is when you look at individuals of color if you name any criteria any variable from in terms of health in terms of financial outcome in terms of representation in a variety of boards in terms of uh success at a variety of measures and this also includes women it's not just simply uh individuals of of different races um they always perform worse every single variable in research across the board so to make the argument that we have made uh enough progress putting into place things in the 1960s
027is simply not enough we need to do better we need to put into policies to make sure that representation occurs and that we can make sure that individuals do have the chances that so many of us have had so while I'm not going to support specifically any aspect of a partic particular policy I do want to say it is very important to consider these things consistently and thoroughly in any hiring or any educational policies thank [Applause] you hello my name is Pam Salomon 659 Cornwall Avenue I just want to say that I'm very confused maybe disappointed um and some of the board when I look at this policy I look at a repeat policy that we've been discussing for years and years we have everything in place already we have everything to the best of
028your ability to deal with any of these Dei issues we have anti-bullying policies put in place I feel if we're not following through there's no sense in adding more if we're not using Hardline data and we're just going by feelings you're hurting the kids right if we still have problems which we always will unfortunately bullying is a human nature thing that happens all our generations for everyone of us as kids including Now does not mean it's acceptable but if we're still having problems where you all feel that we really need another policy of the same nature that I'm going to call you out and say you're not really caring about these kids because we all know there's one answer and that is the parents have to be responsible I was at a meeting here a
029couple of months ago and one of your members mentioned that she did not believe in quote parent shaming if parent shaming means holding a parent responsible so that that child can grow up to have the most successful life both business socially personal relationships if that is considered parent shaming then I'm all for it it's time we start involving the parents if you need a new policy that policy needs to be parent-based and you all need to be not afraid to go down that Avenue you're having trouble with behavior in any way shape or form that parent comes into school there's no reason that parent can't take a day off of work can't sit beside their child until that child can behave appropriately if community service is needed then that parent should do it right alongside
030that child I implore you to stop being afraid of going down the parent route and separating these kids with these other policies you're putting things in their heads that aren't necessarily true and that's really what's more decis divisive and not really giving them the future that they really deserve they can easily have as long as we start embracing the parent side of it thank [Applause] you good evening Tom Bartley 60 Brigadoon Drive Chester Connecticut I think the last time that I was in this Auditorium my younger daughter was playing the trumpet on that stage we still have the trumpet but nobody plays it sadly you know we do have a specific example that we can actually begin to anticipate what this policy could do to this community and I think I want to run through
031it next year we're instituting a new stem program in the middle school I ran some some numbers um according to Niche which is a website that tracks statistics across all school districts and communities around the country it helps homeowners when they're purchasing uh their home homes our our student population is made up of 74% 9% white students 99.4% Asians 88.9% Hispanic 3.5% African-American 3.2% M multi-racial and then 1% other so I ran some numbers and I also took some time to read this policy a number of different times figuring out what the potential implications are of this policy and how we would implement the new stem program well I ran some numbers 50% of the population in this of the student population in our district are female when you do the statistics if we implement
032this policy my question to the board does that mean that we're going to limit the number of white boys who can participate in the new stem program to 37.5% that's part of the equity policy now begs the question if the answer is well yes Tom you're correct this policy will require that to be done then the community needs to know that right now if the answer is no of course not and I'm misreading this policy the community needs to know that also because we need to know how this is going to be implemented within the specifics of what we can anticipate next year if the answer is we haven't thought about it well that begs a different question as to why so in addition to that that specific stuff I think I want to key
033off of of some of the comments that were made before about the divisiveness this policy or similar policies have been implemented across many parts of the country we can name California Washington Virginia is an excellent example and what you see in the news is consistent conflict where communities are torn apart over arguments just like the one that we just talked about here well how we allocate programs across based on statistical analysis and perceived needs of equity as opposed to the individual qualities and capacities of the students and I think that's the challenge that this Equity policy and and the Dei policy in particular the EI this new policy in particular is really going to challenge not just the board but also the community I haven't been able to figure it out the answer I came
034up with was that yes based on this policy that's being proposed osed there are a percentage there's going to be a limit on a percentage of white males that can participate in the stem program the other thing I want to bring up is that there was a rush in 2020 to implement Dei policies across the country in both businesses and educational institutions and the country was an uproar on racial issues at that point and this Dei policy execution was something seen to be a remedy for what was perceived as a series of social ills particularly in 2020 when it really came to the light well here we are a few short years later and what's happened JP Morgan Chase Black Rock American Airlines Lowe's meta Tesla door Dash Lyft Home Depot Wayfair just to name
035a few large corporations which had rusted a apply these Dei policies of which this policy is a derivative are now backing off those policies because they've recognized the divisiveness and a costic impact on their organizations if we look across what's going on across the country multiple States multiple University Systems are now relooking at their Dei policies again of which this is a derivative because of the costic impact the Supreme Court and Harvard University can't even get it straight and yet here we are look to take this policy and superimpose it on a community that has been darn successful in educating its children I haven't been able to figure out the rationale I do figure out and I can speculate as the potential problems as I've just laid out through the stem issue now again if
036this board of education come out and take the broad language some of which is extraordinarily vague and figure out and explain to this community how we can begin to execute it and in a fashion that meets our community standards then of course perhaps we can agree with what's going on I can support diversity conversations hell I'm a corporate product myself I went through the training I know the value of understanding and recognizing people for who they are and the talents they bring to the table and knowing that perhaps I'm better off not hiring or promoting or actually looking for talent just because they look like me that's not what this is about this is about adopting policies that moving from Individual the valuing the individuals to valuing the group over the individual because all these
037policies are based on group analysis and group review what do we lose in that process we lose the student identity the identity of the individual which is what this this particular school district has been so successful in being able to do thank you for your time [Applause] good evening Robert ham 633 courland Circle and chesher some excellent comments out here tonight I also don't understand what we're trying to accomplish uh I see the Dei Mantra going across the country and I see us in chesher following when in fact I thought we were paying our superintendent and our our principles to lead I don't see that we're solving anything with a de Dei policy in fact I'll call it Dee because that's what it is it's diversity inclusion equity and it solves nothing as a taxpayer
038I resent it because I look across at my taxes being paid in the state and across the country for large organizations to hire people to say I'll divide you by the color of your skin I'll divide you by what you believe I will forget the fact that you're an American I'll forget the fact that we were all brought up to know and to be able to have the opportunity in this great country in which 56 signatories signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 pledging their lives their honor and their fortunes for an opportunity to succeed merit-based success by somebody getting around an an individual or a group of indiv of individuals saying I'll put in a policy and I'll try to make it better for those that are less well served number one that's racist
039and of itself to my opinion number two that's saying to those UND served groups if that's what you're pointing out they don't have the opportunity to do it they don't have the ability to do it that in itself is undercutting their abilities and basically telling a story that I don't like to hear u i look across at what we're doing today in terms of divisiveness as a nation and diie is a big piece of that in my opinion uh Doug Noble spoke about law suits I happen to see just today that there's a lawsuit the Supreme Court decided nine zip in a case called St Louis against mold and I won't go into the details other than the fact that basically what that case is doing is saying that the standards for lawsuits where policies
040for D are in place are now lowered to the point where nearly anybody could prove that they've been affected by a deie policy I don't think I've heard this in other forums inside cheser where we're concerned about lawsuits I've been in one Forum in this in this town where we were concerned about not standing up to the state for something that we as a town thought was abusive of our tax dollars and chesher I'd like to see us stand up and say folks let's stop spending money on silliness let's recognize that everybody is has individual rights they have their own individual god-given capabilities and to have a group of people say I know more than you do and I will then just help uh form this at tax dollar expense to be able to help
041make things easy for you I don't think that's the right way to do it the country was built on competition I am a pilot I served in the military and I I saw Merit work across all spectrums socioeconomic as well as ethnic spectrums and I don't think anybody in this room wants to get on an aircraft where diie is the sole criteria for a pilot I know I don't want to and I'm seeing what's going on in law schools I have many friends that are doctors and their children are going into med school and things like that and diie is taking over there where they have to have a statement of what they are going to do to make life better for D diversity and inclusion things like that we are weeding out Merit we
042are creating a society where we're going to be down to the lowest common denominator I'd like to see a stop it right here in chesher thank you for your [Applause] time hello Alicia he uh 1761 Tuttle Avenue I want to start by saying thank you faith for your comments on open choice I appreciate and agree with those um so I didn't actually read the policy before we came here I see people have papers so I'm just making some general comments about some things I think I hear people taking away a lot of different ideas from what is in the policy on paper and I think we have to see how these things are implemented so I heard people say re-education camps quotas elevating people not based on Merit divisiveness and I think we have to
043see how it's implemented because I don't think all of those things could be true um my general philosophy is that for inclusivity and Equity I think the basic idea is that if we have 50% female students we would expect something closer to that to be in stem classes let's say we have 10% black students we would expect there to be about that same representation in stem classes or advanced classes and my understanding of this is that that's the idea so if some barrier is standing in the way of classes or opportunities reflecting what the general population looks like then maybe we should look into that are they not being welcomed do they not know about these opportunities and that doesn't necessarily mean quotas I don't think I think if we believe as I do that
044all groups of people have similar levels of abilities talents and positive qualities like work ethic stick tutiven conscientiousness then we would expect those people to be represented in these different places and we don't need quotas we just need to understand what barriers May potentially be getting in the way so so I don't think we have to say that people are would be elevated despite Merit right I don't think if you say if we have someone other than who we would expect in that slot and we're trying to help them get there that they're getting there without their Merit without Merit I think that's actually not great to be jumping to that idea right and I don't think anyone has proposed that so I'm really interested to hear as time goes by how this is implemented
045so that's it thank [Applause] you Jane bait 454 Riverside Drive I am a 197 2 graduate of Smith college and I want to give you a glimpse of the utter failure of and Damage Done by Dei a few short years ago at Smith the matter was covered by the New York Times Forbes and other notable media Outlets since I do not have enough time to cover this thoroughly I have photo copied a New York Times article to fill in the Boe members on more of the details during the summer of 2018 when a young group of students was also in residents Sutton campus a cafeteria worker noticed a blacksmith college student was eating where she should not have been due to accommodating those younger students the cafeteria worker alerted a campus policeman who reminded the
046student where she should be eating as word got around both the cafeteria worker and the campus policeman were hounded mercilessly by students and administration including posting their pictures on Facebook where the students identified the pictures as being of racists resulting in the hospitalization of the cafeteria worker worker her lupus having been aggravated as well as her not being considered for future employment elsewhere due to to the negative PR by the students in the following months the college announced anti-bias training for all staff but there was no apology offered to the workers involved in the end a 35 page report from a law firm reported no discrimination A Smith economics professor James Miller summed things up this way quote my perception is that if you're on the wrong side of issues of identity politics you're not
047just mistaken you're evil in addition to that A Smith graduate jod Shaw who was employed by Smith at the time Dei was adopted was told she should not follow through with the plan to introduce new subject matter by rapping why because she's white during the last six of my 20 years teaching instrumental music here in chesher I happily spent time arranging finales filled with music around a particular theme the kids would enjoy for our spring concerts if our school system had been using Dei at that time since I am white I might not have been permitted to use Michael Jackson's Thriller to headline the medley of scary music that I titled scales from the Crypt nor could I have taught my students Anasazi a great piece for beginning bands and one they loved we would
048all do well to remember Martin Luther King Jr's efforts to focus us on character which helps unite us rather than the divisive matter of skin color and if all men are created equal why do you now seek to divide us to some sum up Dei is very likely to create an inhospitable and possibly dangerous School climate as well as to not broaden but rather excruciatingly limit students and teachers experiences thank you [Applause] evening everybody Mike Shen chesher I apologize for rehashing some of the points already made but here we go um I would like to call attention to a particular part of the equity and diversity policy that will be discussed tonight number seven quote identify and remedy any practices including assessment that lead to the over representation of any one group of students based
049on color gender Etc in areas such as special education discipline and under representation in programs such as gifted and talented honors classes and advanced placement end quote so I'd like to begin with some of the figures that people have already went over according to recent statistics there are 1300 students in chesher high school 76.7% white 11.42% asian 6.7 Hispanic 3.5 African-American 1.8% multiracial point2 Native American and 50 2% M female and the 48% male so I am curious as how you are going to address an over and under representation based on color or gender and the previous stated programs in particular when the policy calls out the assessment of a student let's use AP classes as an example in May 2023 289 chesher students took AP exams not everyone enrolled in AP course takes the
050AP tests but let's say just for argument 289 students enrolled in AP classes last year hypothetically if 60% of the students were white 35% of the students were Asian 2.5 Hispanic and 2.5 African-American how would you remedy these disparities that show over over representation of Asian students from my understanding when a student enrolls into AP class in chesher they must secure the teacher's approval when a teacher is assessing a student to give approval to take the AP course would they now be asked to not only evaluate a child's grades and prerequisites but would be asked to evaluate the student skin color what happens if there are limited spaces available for an AP course and decisions must be made will a white or Asian student that may have better grades in school records than a Hispanic
051or an African-American student be discriminated against because of their ethnicity when the latter student is approved because they are Black Or Hispanic and the former is not approved because they are white or Asian yes that is discrimination let's say this is let's say there's over representation of certain ethnicities ethnicities because not enough of the underrepresented classes may qualify for AP courses according to current assessment criteria are you going to lower the St standard of approval to register for such courses by doing so I can guarantee that a lot of the underrepresented classes that do meet current standards would view this as a racist act and an affront to their dignity it implies that they cannot reach the current standard because of the color of their skin I could spend at least an hour disecting the
052entirety of this vague new policy and give hypotheticals that in my opinion would prove that this policy promotes the very things it claims to be trying to prevent but I will end with how I began percentages 46% 52.1% and 47.9% 46% is the amount of cheser high students meeting math proficiency standards according to public school review website 52.1% 52.1% of the 280 Chester students that took the SATs last year met or exceeded math proficiency that means 47.9% of students did not meet math proficiency for an institution that claims it is one of the best in the state these figures are abysmal this board and administration should be focusing on these statistics you want to serve all students and CPS system to ensure they all have the advantage of a prestigious education start [Applause] there good
053evening board members my name is Thomas White I reside at 44 IES Hill Court when I heard that the uh the policy committee was reviewing a equity and diversity statement I took a look at a excuse me a um video of the meeting from uh of the committee and uh I noticed you know some were already very much uh in favor it seemed to me others were questioning some detail but my thought was and correct me if I'm wrong but uh is this a standalone statement or is this somehow a replacement of or an update of or a component of the uh cheser Public School Systems equal opportunity equal employment opportunity and equal uh education opportunity mission statement is it separate or an update um I assumed initially that it would be some sort of
054an update but clearly it's a freestanding uh statement uh I learned later also I always assume that anything that uh municipalities are doing are not necessarily something that they came up with it's often uh theer by the state legislature but I learned that uh this was not the case here it's not required it's something that apparently uh was introduced by the the new chair uh as a uh as a a goal and achievement and I assumed also I mean if it was required by the state legislature that there would be some some guidelines so instead what we my assumption was that uh this was somehow uh a uh guided to the uh the board as a requirement and I'm learning that it was not it was something that is somebody's uh perhaps Personal Agenda so
055I think we've heard some good points made here tonight uh and I just want to make a point that um uh the board should not be working on any group's Personal Agenda it should be something that's that's Rock Solid I mean the the statement that is already in place as far as equal employment education it's mostly boiler plate but it serves its purpose and there are so many laws in place to uh protect the children protect staff uh I just I'm just questioning whether this is something that the board should be spending its time on thank [Applause] you hi my name is Helen Wilson Brier Court in chesher 25 Brier Court I'd like to say some words to the other side since we're hearing mostly from uh I think think a view that is not
056the majority of you uh we live in an affluent Suburban town in Connecticut Connecticut is one of the most segregated States in um the country um there are reasons why we uh segregated mostly to do with lack of affordable housing I think anything that we can do uh to promote more equity in this town would enrich us studies have shown that students who uh are learning in a diverse welcoming Community do better um those are the studies on the other side that you haven't heard about tonight and um our kids are going to have to go out as mine did into the real world which is very diverse it's not 75% or 80% white so they need to learn how to uh live with other people and work with other people and go to school
057with other people they should be learning that right here in chesher before we send them out into the real world there's a reason why a lot of them don't come back to Cheshire after they finish school because it's you know it is not a diverse community and young people who aren't represented here tonight uh young people Embrace diversity they're not afraid of it uh it's it's the older population that is hanging on to this and let's be honest a lot of our white males who are somehow threatened by this as we see um they're afraid of it it's the young people who are not afraid of it so I I ask as the uh superintendent of schools and the Board of Education to stay strong and do what you're trying to do for the kids
058not for the old school uh town of of affluence thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak that's a lot taking multiple turns you know three minutes I'll be in like 30 seconds first of all I don't appreciate being called Old I'm only 46 and I'm I consider myself a younger population here in town secondly I'm pretty worldly I travel over oh yes I am excuse me well I'm be talking about your comments okay excuse me I don't appreciate being called Old first of all that's again a a rude comment secondly you know the assumption is that we're all white and you know you know not worldly I traveled probably more places around the world than most people in this room and I'm going to make that assumption how many in this
059room has gone to Mongolia okay how many have gone to China how many have gone to Israel let's go Hungary Croatia I'll keep going down the list okay so and not only that I was a history minor so the assumption is that I don't know anything about maybe African history I'm sure everyone here read you know the Epic ofal sundada Doug does this have something yes it does because the Assumption here is that people in this room are not diverse I think chesher does a great job in diversity and educating people I myself went through Prospect and I went through college and I learned a lot of diversity traveling around there studying all different races ethnicities I love it it's in my I just love doing it it's one of my favorite things to do
060and that's I'm here making a comment because I don't appreciate some of the assumptions that are made in this room thank you very much thank you um close uh we're closing off public comment at this point I think everyone who wanted to speak has addressed the board so thank you very much for um coming out tonight and addressing the board and we will move on with our agenda we have some business to take care of tonight reports of standing committees is next on our agenda I'm G to give you just a minute the first committee report will be ccul committee I'll ask excuse me we're conducting business now yeah you could walk out in the hall and conduct that business Michael say up he's he's hooking up here I will call call on an Marie
061cullinan to uh give us a report on the uh curriculum committee meeting good evening the curriculum um committee met on April 15th all members were present and um there are two um items that we'll be discussing this evening the first is approval of a textbook it's called Krueger's macroeconomics for the AP course it was reviewed by the high school math department um economics Department it was presented and reviewed by the curriculum committee um following the public viewing period which is over um it is in front of the Board of Ed tonight for approval so I will put the motion on the floor and then we can open it up for questions the motion reads that the Cheshire Board of Education approve the purchase of the textbook krugman's macroeconomic ics for the AP course as recommended
062by the curriculum committee do I have a second Mark seconds thank you um are there any questions or discussion for Miss Cullen and and maybe Marlene if it gets really into the weeds Tim you want to start us off thank you yeah so as soon as I as soon as I saw the name of the book from Paul Krugman I I got a little nervous um economics I think for most people is probably not a really hot topic but there is generally like two very different worldviews and let me preface actually I I will be supporting this tonight but I just want to ask a couple questions of the superintendent or maybe of Marlene I'm not sure um there there's from my perspective economics has two very different worldviews the worldview which dominates the world
063today is largely that of what I'll just call Fiat money which is generally supported by Paul Krugman there's an alternative economic theory called sound money the general idea as I see it is Fiat money means you can print as much money as you want sound money means it's backed by some sort of commodity you know 100 years ago we had a gold standard and I'm not endorsing a gold standard or anything like that and I wouldn't do that but basically the idea is in my view we should not be able to Simply have a couple of um I'm sure extremely well educated and intelligent people making these decisions on the money supply using Fiat money the problem I see with it we see it right here now today which is inflation we have a certain
064amount of goods in the world when you have a certain money supply related to it the cost is stable when you turn on the printing presses but the supply of goods stays the same all those goods become more expensive because there's more money chasing after it so generally speaking I prefer sound money over Fiat money Paul Krugman generally supports Fiat money so I see his name associated here so my question and I will support this because I am confident that this book is not about specifically what I'm talking about it's really about AP and kids taking an AP class to advance their understanding of Economics including at least the Fiat money but my question for the superintendent is when we teach this AP economics class is there um I presume there because this is Paul
065Krugman I presume the focus to whatever extent it is uh it would be on Fiat money over sound money does the course that we teach at least touch on sound money in some way with the idea being that kids would be aware of it and they could go off and research this stuff on their own time because I get where the world is and I'm not looking to change that right now by virtue of voting on this I'm comfortable voting on this but I just want to know are kids exposed to it at least as a concept so that they can think about it I'm going to pass that off to assistant superintendent salano who's had a lot of conversation with the business department about the nuances of macroeconomics thank you thanks so this just
066to clarify for for anyone this um is an AP course and it is tied very closely with um also the Yukon ECE Course and there is a very strict set of of criteria that they're looking at and it it really is a Basics even though it's AP this is a high school um early uh introductory type course so they're looking at basic economic Concepts economic indicators um the financial sector and uh folks have a copy of this um at the table and Mr White has one as well I I will say that there is very little dedicated to um Fiat money I could only find it on two pages page 207 and 216 and it's just a couple of sentences they do talk in the book about scarcity and stability and resistance to markets um
067while this book doesn't cover anything about kesian or or hyek Theory Keynesian sorry um they are it is a topic that is made um that the students are made aware of I can't say that it's made aware of by every single teacher who teaches the class but this is not a book on krugman's philosophy of Economics although his name is on that book um there are also three other authors and he's sort of listed there I'm not sure if being a Nobel Prize winner he is able to to sell more books for the company and that's why his name is associated with it but I find through thorough review and through talking with the other business department teachers who reviewed this that there isn't um a slant one way or another that it really is
068a a basic course they found nothing controversial and no specific Theory um I hope that helps yeah no I mean what I thought I heard you say is it does generally get touched on you're not sure about every teacher that teaches it but the idea is it does get touched on teacher are teachers are aware of it and hopefully they make the kids aware and and I'm not asking for anything more than that really just to expose kids to things that I view as being significant it's not I don't feel like it's a minor detail so with that I'm I'm happy thank you okay thanks thank you other questions or comments Adam um yeah I I just sort of wanted to to Echo Tim kind of covered a lot of what I was going to
069say um I wasn't going to get into sound money but uh uh just as a when I hear the name Paul Krugman I have an adverse reaction um but this is just meant to be an basically a macro 101 course that's taught at the high school level so you're talking about in elastic demand you know equilibrium that sort of General economic topics and nothing to more involved in that I'm assuming yeah they're not discussing the different theor this is really laying the foundation for that students who continue with this in college will definitely get into the otherist No Doubt okay thank you any other questions so we have a motion on the table that the chesher Board of Education approve the purchase of the textbook krugman's macroeconomics for the AP course all those in favor
070it's unanimous from those who are here thank you very much the second item that came out of um the frone committee was um the discussion of an outof country field trip the teacher who put the trip together has requested permission to take students to the Dominican Republic in April of 2025 Dr Solen has recommended approval of this request um although he does reserve the right to cancel the trip should n security issues warrant so the motion is that the cheser Board of Education approve the participation of chesher high school students in the educational field trip to the Dominican Republic from April 12th 20 2025 to April 20th 2025 do I have a second to that motion Mr White thank you um any discussion or questions on that item Mr grippo um I guess apologize for
071not watching the last meeting I guess this probably was fleshed out um so what is the educational benefit of going to the Dominican Republic sure so this is a trip run by Don Deo Don and her colleague teach the Black and Latino studies course last year they had taken a trip to Puerto Rico where where students were able to sort of have brought to life some of the concepts that they talked about in the class they're hoping to do that same type of thing in the Dominican Republic this trip also has a service component where they will be talking about some service experiences while they're there so it's both it's a both and um lots of colleges are looking for community service and Donn felt that this would be a a good way to incorporate
072both oh that that that's great to hear because I I I hear Dominican Republic and I I hear Sun and Fun you know so and and I think you it had mentioned before uh the Dr s about National Security I still don't quite understand how that Island Works how there can be so two just distinct countries one is a complete turmoil right now and one it's you can entertain vacations um so I I guess however that works it you you have an eye eye on the prize and you know you we have uh travel insurance and all that to cancel if needed I suppose if we correct okay could I could I add to that because I'm on the curriculum committee and we did discuss it I'm sure you did indeed in quite some detail
073and we asked all the questions I promise sure you did um there was also um Miss Deo also talked about an Eco uh side to this and marine biology ology and and that area also because that's a big part of their of their culture I just wanted to add that because I think that's important as well other questions uh so we have a motion on the on the table that the cheser Board of Education approve the participation of CHS students in the educational field trip to the Dominican Republic from April 12 2025 through April 20th 2025 uh all those in favor it's unanimous for those who are here do you have more for us miss col okay okay so we're moving moving on to finance I would toss this ball to Mr Mariana please I
074thought you would miss harrian good evening all the board members do have the financial report as of March 31st I will just tell you quickly that um we completed nine months of the budget year we um have expended or encumbered 90.6% so we have n97.9 million you know we're remaining in in the budget balance we uh in April which we're mid April now we've already begun work on year-end planning we um are preparing for our summer Works um our summer purchases we have been able to effectively manage the budget I have no concern about uh meeting our budget this year um I will just highlight two quick things that's in the written report one is that the special education uh outplaced tuition line which we know has been going over budget since January um we
075reported in March in this report that we would be over budget by 480,000 it actually improved a bit as we got through the first two weeks in April as we were able to reduce some of the incumbrances because um students um left a district so that's a little bit of an improvement and then on the Food Service program which I've been updating the board as to the negative balances and the report that I wrote the negative balance Ed was right around 20,000 it's actually dropped below 18,000 as of um this week so you know we continue our efforts to try and and collect any unpaid balance uh towards student lunch and really that is the um report on the finance side if you'd like I can do medical benefits and then ask a lot for
076for questions yeah would you do you want to wait to get any questions from either way your call let's take some questions okay on the first part of the report before we go to medical benefits any anything for Vin Mr Gro um yes I just wanted to um at the special education outplacement um did you say it improved or increased no improved improved it went down from 480 uh by about $100,000 so as of now we're about $380,000 negative instead of 480 negative okay all right because because it reads increase the 480 from 374 um said so so that was an update from March then from March to April that so that new the Improvement is from March to April correct okay thank you thank you and so is the unpaid meal balances apparently yes
077what was that Sor been here the unpaid meal balances improved from minus 20,000 to about just under minus 18,000 great okay thank you you're welcome Mr White thank you U so Vin you just with regard to the unpaid meals you continue to do everything that you can in your power to try to get those collected yes we are making calls sending out weekly uh notices to the parents um and again part of those calls is to encourage parents who might be eligible for free and reduced lunch meals to take advantage of that and as I had initially reported this several months ago the because we were trending up at a rapid Pace I was uh fearful that the unpaid balance would be in the neighborhood of 40 ,000 that is not going to happen at
078this point um you know we'll probably end the year somewhere around where we are hopefully a little bit better um we'll continue the efforts and we do so in a respectful manner um but you know parents that owe a balance we've made them aware and we've asked for them to pay those student meal balances okay thank you and also just um hope I hope that the long-term Supply contract generally solar to save money still on your radar just point reminding you it is um and I'll I'll answer that question with just a little bit of information that I haven't had an opportunity to tell you but um both the town and the board of EDS electric contracts expire in the fall October for the town November for the board we um have and we share
079the same consultant so we've um reached out to the consultant she's doing a um bid analysis right now I've asked if we can include in that analysis um you know not just one to three years but to go out 15 and 20 years if there are contracts available um whether they're solar or otherwise sure so um she's in the process of doing that and I we will have to hold a planning meeting when I excuse me have that information available sure so yes it's still on my radar thank you V okay Vin's going to move on to the medical medical benefits Reserve fund okay again board members have the report as of March 31st um as of the end of the month our Reserve balance increased this month by 122,500 , 369 um the claims
080this month though were 1.39 million so those claims were above the $1.1 million expected the reason our Reserve balance increased is because if you look at the top of the report you'll see that our prescription rebates year-to date total 51,000 562 so that that increased $175,000 this month it is part of what we expect to receive it's actually a little bit higher than we expected um and I will add one more piece of information that's not reflected in the March report and that is that we expect an additional $275,000 in stop-loss reimbursements and that will be added uh to our balance so if I factored that in right now it would take our um Reserve balance to about $2.2 million that would get us very very close to two months worth of claims you know
081so that is the good news that we are getting those reimbursements but the reason we're getting those reimbursements is we have seven claims uh that are above $175,000 so you know that is you know the bad news that we have some very large claims because you know we do have employees um or their dependents you know that have serious illness and that always affects our premiums for next year so you know we are um we did budget for an increase for next year and um you know other than that the you know I I do believe that we will meet what we intended to meet this year we started the year with a a Reserve balance of about 250,000 and I expect that we end this year with about $2 million in our Reserve are
082there any questions for VIN on this Mr Mr Mari go ahead Adam uh Vin uh I know it's I don't know if it was tonight or last night I know that the council is uh finalizing their budgets um had there been any discussion about medical benefits in general as will the will the system we have in place remain unchanged for the year going forward and that the allocations the allocation we expect for next year will remain pretty much consistent to what we're planning for well the council did his meeting this evening um Dr Solen and I were there for a portion of the meeting uh Dr Solen did present an overview of where we are with the budget and provided some updates uh medical the medical benefits um increased that we asked for for next
083year about 8% I don't think we should change that the council if they do reduce the budget as you know those whatever the council reduces is a on line reduction and that has to be applied to our account lines at the board level so I I certainly don't think we should touch that I think we're going to need exactly what we budgeted based on what we're seeing in in the trends I I think maybe I didn't answer the question or ask the question correctly I more meant was the council looking at any alternative systems to the ones that we're using now because I know every year we talk about oh did we go with the uh the full boat plan that you just buy from etner or whatever oh and versus our self-insured system that
084we use now I think that's that's more what I meant was there any thoughts changes there I know that we haven't initiated any sort of conversation like that every time we've examined it it's been substantially more expensive to go that route uh the real challenge here is the man management of the reserve fund and I did make a real point this evening about um indicating that the money we've budgeted on that line for next year reflects the Actuarial projection no more no less we're not trying to uh support the uh Reserve balance nor are we you know playing a little bit of risk with uh undercutting it so uh I think that the many times that VIN myself Sean Jim jascot we've had these conversations about how do we best make sure we budget this
085it always comes back to just fund the fund balance or the Actuarial projection uh no more no less and hopefully both sides can adhere to that and U we won't have any more you know turbulence in that that account thank you sure any other questions I have an easy one um you mentioned the 270,000 stoploss reimbursements that's expected when when does that usually come into our the it gets paid through the stoploss insurance company on a monthly basis so as those claims come in there's a process that's followed and that cash will come in it'll show up on the report um next month to the extent that the the town is responsible for adding that into the report that I provide to you but I know what the what is expected based on the claims
086I received so I guess what I was asking is March about when that happens it it happens monthly by the time you'll see that each month March April May we'll start to see that stoploss balance increase every month it starts though yes that's when when the number really goes up correct okay thank you Mr Mariana do you have anything else for us tonight for finance I do not excellent okay let's move on to Personnel committee and the chairperson Miss cullinan will give the Personnel report okay good evening again um we held an April 8 meeting for the um Personnel committee all members were present myself Mr perini Mr White uh Miss Rosenberg board chair was also present along with Dr Solen um the one agenda item was to review the um chesher Public Schools Connecticut
087increasing educat diversity plan um this plan came out of a committee of eight District team members who met many times over the course of the year um to discuss the policy um and Dr Solen explained um that the state of Connecticut requires districts to submit an increasing educator diversity plan prior to May 15th and that this plan needs to be formally approved by the Board of Education prior to submitt taking into consideration um a lot of the discourse this evening I'm going to before I put the motion on the floor I'm going to ask Dr Solen to give us um the context in which this plan was derived for chesher thank you Miss cullinan um as Miss cullin mentioned this is uh coming out of Public Act 23-1 167 requiring every Connecticut District to submit
088a plan uh that highlights recruiting hiring and retention of a diverse cand candidate pool our committee got together uh and there's a template that is required of school systems to complete and so we U were asked to develop a vision which indicates that jeser public schools aspires to provide our students with a highly qualified staff that reflects the racial ethnic and linguistic diversity of our students to best support their development is complex thinkers and social emotional Learners um and then if we uh establish Equitable practices for increas increasing racial ethnic and divers linguistic diversity of our Educators and will provide an inclusive Equitable environment that will provide opportunities for students to prepare for transition into a multicultural and diverse Society um Research indicates that um students perform better when the body the the teaching staff
089is reflects the diversity and the makeup of the student body uh our student body is approximately uh 80% white and uh 20% made of other uh races our teaching faculty however is about 97% white and so over the last many years we've engaged in a variety of practices to uh recruit and hire and retain the best possible people that are out there with particular efforts to try and recruit uh more diverse teaching staff that is more reflective of our student population and uh unfortunately you know like a lot of other communities we haven't been terribly successful in that uh respect um at this point it's frankly quite challenging to hire teachers of any racial background just teachers certified people period And so certainly we are uh as the the vision says to try and identify
090high qual high qual highly qualified staff that um is diverse in nature uh it it continues to be a goal for us there are strategies that we've identified that'll be available on our website um and you know we certainly hope that we can do better for our students by providing that high quality staff that's uh reflective of our student body thank you Dr Sol what I'd like to do now is put the motion on the floor for members of the Board of Education to have the opportunity to ask any questions moved that the Personnel Committee of the chesher Board of Education approve the increasing educator diversity plan for chesher and give the superintendent or their designate authority to make any necessary Neary plan revisions with the understanding that said revisions will be communicated to the
091Board of Education have a second to that motion Mr grippo uh any questions for Dr Solen or miss cinin Mr White thanks um I'm gonna start off with a comment um so it was this past Chris I I think the idea here is uh is a good one diversifying our Workforce the this past Christmas time my my son's uh our next door neighbor and also my son's best friend who happens to be African he came over to our house sometime in early December super excited and he showed me his new so they're in second grade the two of them he showed me their uh his new elf on a shelf and he was so excited when he spoke the words to me and he's the same color as me and it was to me it
092was extremely powerful and I I really it meant something to me back to the motion diversifying our Workforce I I do think that there's there is real Merit to it I like it and I will support this motion but I'm supporting it primarily because it's state law we're required to do something and I just have to point out what I mentioned during the meeting which makes no sense to me uh there's as far as I know there's no real way to uh measure and verify what we're doing here and I say that because this is all based on self-identification so I look at Society in general and I see people get celebrated when they self-identify as transgender um at the same time I've seen in the past few years a couple times since people have
093self-identified as black and they've been you know ripped apart in the media Senator Elizabeth Warren my recollection of her is self-identifying as Native American for stuff that happened decades ago and then more recently people saying huh what and there was a real problem I from my perspective for her in how she self-identified so it's really difficult for me to say that using self-identification is a is a good way to go about this but as I understand it that's really all this is I I can't look at somebody and say what they are I mean you can get an impression and what you think but to actually measure it and verify it in some sort of uh tool that would be governed by the state I just don't know how they're going to do it and
094that uh that makes me really kind of uncomfortable because we're going down a path and then are we going to be held accountable for this and I just don't understand how that would happen how that would work so again I'm going to support this but it really just doesn't make sense to me how this would be enforced thank you uh Mr grippo um I also will be supporting this motion uh because of the fact that it is a state law um I have concerned as to whether or not this usurps Federal equal opportunity hiring practices and law um but I guess we'll we'll set that aside for now um so I'm not sure which takes precedent um but uh I guess Mike the the question I have is there is a mention of a make
095sure I the Right box here something about a uh preh hiring committee so how is how do you propose that that is going to work is that part of the HR department is it the staff that is listed at the beginning of the document how what is the plan to what what is the purpose and and how does the pre hiring committee uh influence the hiring process uh that's really just more of a a gathering prior to hiring first of all we're required by law bless you to have uh all people who engage in hiring must uh all certified staff must watch a video on diversity uh and sensitivity and awareness then the meeting which we generally convene anyway prior to interviews we'll talk about you know what are we looking for in candidates um
096you know we we do that pretty much anyway so does so the pre hiring committee is not it's not the same as I'm assuming that this it would be the committee that's hiring okay yeah um and so does this rubric establish hiring goals as well no in terms of I mean there there is that or the our goal is to uh over time diversify our teaching staff to be reflective of our student body okay um which is what we've been trying to engage in for many years certainly right yeah okay I think yeah it's actually a three prong process around recruitment hiring and retention and we we see a trend um nationally about really retaining teachers so it's it develops on E on each piece of that like who you um crew who you hired
097and then are they a match for us and so was the law explicit or is it more as a lot of the law that's that's written is in vague and then it was left to you to yeah this figure out this is super open-ended like everything generated here came from us other than the the framework so you just sort of interpreted the best you could and then no we we established goals we uh did research and um had conversations with other districts we uh reviewed data um so it wasn't just you know top of Mind sort of uh spitballing but the template was provided by the state to every District we collectively you know filled in the strategies that we would felt like we could employ who would employ them and when they would be
098employed by um so yeah so I think maybe you answer just answer this question so the template it has a West Ed sort of graphic on the top so the template was supplied by the state but we did not use like a consultant to help facilitate uh you you and your staff basically came up with everything that's in here yeah it was myself Britney Culver uh Kim Taber Amy O'Brien John parisino Key Garden Nicole Griffin Angela latch rhr thank you and to answer the question federal law would Trump anything okay so we're doing our best that if and until Federal Law changes or says you can't do what we're doing federal law trumps everything state law so we know from title and then we worry about was it Title Nine right Title Nine yeah yeah
099Miss Mr eki so it's these are goals we're not establishing a quota system it is we want them to obviously we want the staff to reflect that the student body but there's no no quot system there's okay no yeah yeah it's good for us right yes I also just want to point out that it came out of our committee um stating that any necessary plan revisions need to come back to the board of ENT so there's oversight by the Board of Ed as to the plan and its implications for the town great thank you miss Colin and um I'm gonna have a conversation with with my friend Tim White because I I don't have a problem with people self-identifying because that's what we get to do we get to say who we are and how
100we identify based on how the world treats us so we're going to chat because I'd be really interested to know why that's problematic for you but we can do that off mic okay any other questions we have a motion on the table do we yeah um it has been moved that the chesher Board of Education approved the increasing educator diversity plan for chesher and give the superintendent or their design authority to make any necessary plan revisions with the understanding that said revisions will be communicated to the Board of Education all those in favor it's unanimous from those who are present tonight thank you Miss cinon do you have anything more for personnel thank you what is next on our list next up is policy committee I will call upon Mr eki to give the policy
101committee report and the readings of policies thank you uh we met on April 1st and spent a good part of our time discussing policy 0523 equity and diversity um it is a work in progress it is something that we spent uh a lot of time discussing um members of the committee have questions about uh definitions some of the language that's in there but you know we uh working with Dr Solen um this is a lot of this did come from Canton uh a lot of this did come from cab if I'm not mistaken as well um so it's out there again this we're having a first reading on that policy tonight um I'd like to thank everyone who came out to share their opinions and their input I I took a lot of notes and
102I have a lot of questions that that we will uh we will discuss um brought up a lot of good points so for the first reading of policies all I do is say that we're reading the first policies correct all right first reading of policy 0523 equity and diversity and policy number 6200 adult continuing education and there is no action required on those um we also have tonight the status level sports program it's the third reading and approval of that policy number 6145 point21 status level sports program I'm going to make a motion that the Board of Education give a third and final rating to policy number 6145 point21 status level sports program and direct the superintendent to put set policy into immediate effect do I have a second to that motion Mr grippo thank
103you uh what are your questions board members Mr grippa um I have no questions except a a comment that uh I think that uh we all we all work pretty hard on this uh status level policy um I think we uh we ironed out a lot of the uh the bumps in the road to to lay out a uh a great um I guess uh pathway for uh a team an aspiring team to become a Varsity Sport uh at the high school level and that this uh is a great framework uh for uh teams to use uh going forward uh to to do that so I'll be definitely supporting this thank you Mr grippo and I would add I agree with what you just said and um we have spent good time uh talking about
104this and making sure that we got everything included that needs to be included but I feel that the Simplicity of it is what makes it a really good policy it's easy to follow it's easy to understand it'll be easy for um teams to or potential teams to grasp what it is that we need to know and the reasons that we need to know that um Mr White yeah I may have missed it but did could we did you give like just a one minute recap of that framework it uh establishes what the prospective Sports need to do they need to have an established uh an established history they have to they have to uh provide rosters they have to okay uh demonstrate that they can be sustainable as Sports before we'll accept them got it
105thank you makes sense I just want to add one more thing I just wanted to thank Dr Solen and the athletic staff I believe who who worked on the policy Mr Perino and the uh uh the the policy and the question I guess it's the questionnaire I guess yeah we created a form for submission that um I think as an was alluding to really just walks you through the process of what you need to know and I appreciate the three of you with your thoughtful feedback it helped us uh create a a real clear policy that will um hopefully limit the amount of angst that people have to feel going forward in any sort of process like that and will put us on the cutting edges we are we are we are the now we
106will now be the model for the southern Connecticut conference everybody's going to come to us yeah nobody in the state apparently has one of these policies so they all said yeah when because when we were asking what do you have it's pretty typical in the policy world what do you have show me your cards nobody had any so now they all want to see what we have and they thought it was pretty good so okay are we ready for a vote on this motion um it has been moved that the chesher Board of Education give a third and final reading to policy 6145 21 status level sports program and direct the superintendent to put said policy into immediate effect all those in favor it's unanimous yeah before it's unanimous thank you I just had a
107question on the first reading if I could on reading of the first policies yeah yeah we can we can continue discussion on that then I think it's probably for the superintendent okay um so uh Adult Ed adult continuing ed uh as you know I am a bit of a pest on alternative Pathways post high school and one of the things I'm wondering about is in the past year or two I've spoken with a number of um mostly men who are in the trades probably in their 20s I've asked them about education opportunities for the trades and costs and one of the things I've been told is that you can go to the first thing I heard was you can go to a school and spend $25,000 and basically with a few years of apprenticeship and
108I'm sure I'm missing stuff here but you could become an E2 which basically means you're an electrician you can make good money with a relatively small investment at least relative to college but I've also talked to another electrician who was telling me he spent $6,000 to get the same education primarily via Adult Ed programs I don't think he said chesher I think he was saying in the valley someplace Antonia or Shelton he was doing something I'm just wondering what is what does our adult ed program offer in relation to entering the trades do we do anything and I I will tell you historically chesher did not have a trades based Adult Ed option um however I regret I don't know due to our partnership with Wallingford um when we partnered with Wallingford a lot of
109our options and opportunities expanded that's part of why we did it and I'm not aware if they have a a trades connection but I will certainly get that information and we can discuss it at the next meeting sure put it put it together for the next meeting yeah no thank you and and I don't even know if it's I don't know that it's even that high a priority my goal is to um increase public awareness of the opportunities that are out there and I'm not I didn't verify this anywhere I didn't go online and look at any Education costs or anything like this but this is what an electrician told me he did his similar sort of 18-month program probably over more years but it cost him $6,000 instead so not only is I guess
110I'm viewing becoming electrician or any of the trades as an alternative pathway but even within that pathway there's alternative there's uh multiple Pathways there that have differences in cost thank you Miss C Dr Sol would we be able to get some numbers as to how many Cheshire residents are actually taking part in the um ringford adulthood they have a extremely robust program and in particular I'd like to know the number of um GED students and ABA adult basic education students sure I don't think I want to say it was next to n zero I saw the data like a month ago maybe and but I I will double check that but it it never has been high for both yeah we've never had much of a a enrollment in the adult basic head or GED
111programs do you think that is in part I'm thinking GED because we have humus in school that so yeah if a students helps is um we do everything within our power and usually students uh are pref prefer to work through a pathway toward a traditional high school diploma in rare cases students May um deviate from that wingford also has a credit diploma program which you actually taught in for six years but um you know that that option is available too but in chesher most people don't pursue that uh they complete their traditional high school diploma you know sometimes at hon with tutoring um or whatever we need to do but I think that's a big part of it but we do certainly have people who move here after high school that maybe participate but I
112I know the number has historically been very though and I want to say it continued last data that I saw but I'll I'll definitely pull it I me I don't want to put more work on this but okay is it possible then those chesher residents who are participating in either of those two could we get some ages on them y because they're probably not typically what we do is uh the the highest rate of participation is in English learning uh opportunities but yeah yeah English learning just went up 27% throughout the state yeah it's de it's exploding yeah y even even K12 we have a large population growing I should say anything else for policy Mr grippo um Mr eki had alluded to our extensive discussion about the equity and diversity policy and our subcommittee
113meeting and um we all agreed um that the concerns that I had about the policy would be brought to the full board for discussion uh specifically the inclusion of the uh language uh in the racism definition to include uh imp implicit bias as well as unconscious and conscious um I'm guessing that means conscious and unconscious bias as well as the defin the inclusion of the definition of institutional racism um and that the board should consider whether or not those definitions should should continue to be included in this Equity policy and if they are um do they agree with the stipulation that this should be uh part of the um you know part eight of the policy also says that all students would be educated about the implications of this policy which means that they would
114then need to be educated about the defin about what unconscious and un what conscious and unconscious bias means as well as what institutional racism means and its implications so I uh you know we agreed that the rest of the board should um comment on that before we move further with the policy and that we wanted to get commentary unfortunately um uh Mrs Rosenberg and Mr peren Mr peren perini AR here tonight but um certainly Mrs Colin and uh Mr White are uh and we would certainly appreciate your feedback uh on the inclusion or exclusion of of those things in the policy Mr White sure thank you thanks Adam um yeah I as I've I think I've mentioned a board meetings before I'm not um I'm not particularly inclined to support the Dei policy um probably
115particular in relation to what Adam was just talking about uh I do think I do think that there is real value in what we already do in terms of Dei and to me the most the best example from my perspective is equity we have kids who come here to Cheshire from other countries who don't speak English and they need to learn to speak English so they're given extra help learning to speak English that most of the kids in the schools don't get and don't need so I do think that there's real Merit in uh Dei but I don't see the need for a policy and I'm like I said I'm not I'm just not particularly inclined to support it particularly in relation to what Adam was talking about a second ago thank you Mr White
116um Miss colan did you want to make a statement or reserve your comments for another time thank you um I actually would wanted to add something in light of um some of the discussion that we heard or some of the comments that we heard here tonight um because it during um policy meetings where we have been discussing it and we've been discussing it and looking at other policies and looking at um where they come from what other schools are doing what cab is recommending and cab lawyers are um also proposing some of the language or we're borrowing some of the language um from the Connecticut associations of boards of EDS um so what I wanted to say was there was a there's always this question in the back of our minds that do we need
117this policy and I heard it in comments tonight do we need this policy and I've thought a lot about it and I went out as we started these conversations I went out and I spoke to many people tried to get a good uh cross-section of people teachers Elementary High School school um parents uh future parents future Chester Public Schools people who are buying homes in chesher because they want to come to our schools and I really came to the conclusion that the question is not do we need this policy because there are parts of this policy in other documentation that we have um in our documents for um cheser Public Schools but the question maybe should be do we should we have a policy or do we want a policy and because I talked to
118several dozen people um the I arrived at that conclusion because after I asked um do we need a policy should we have a policy on equity and and diversity for chesher public schools my second question to everyone was I I by the way I got it unanimously across the board yes we should have a policy but the reasons for having a policy were varied uh there were a lot of reasons why people thought we should have a policy on equity and diversity and um I think it's enough to think that people um feel that they are supported when they make decisions when they have to talk when a teacher has to talk with a student because of an incident that may have happened at school that was race related those conversations are difficult and for
119a teacher to feel like there is a policy so I'm supported in what I'm about to say to this student it makes a difference uh there was a comment made tonight among somebody that uh said something like the more we talk about it the more we think about it I'm of the mind that we should be thinking about it we should be talking about it and we should be talking about it with our kids of all ages age appropriate conversations of course um but we should be talking about issues of race class and gender in our schools and we shouldn't be afraid of it uh somebody else made a comment that young people Embrace diversity um they understand the world that we're living in and and they want to know more about it and what
120better place than with guided conversations with um with our teachers and other Personnel that Personnel who feel supported because they know that as a school district we have a policy um that's as far as I'll go with this but I did want to address um why I'm working on this committee um to implement this equity and diversity policy I think it's important and if I if I may um yes you may the all of the things that you just spoke about I agree with and this policy does nothing to further those goals at all we have policies in place at the end of this very meeting if you go and watch the video Dr suen goes through the uh The Bullying form the Discrimination form and all of the laws that support everything all of
121the concerns that anyone who may be mistreated or uh is uh bullied or have a a racist act committed against them there are uh uh Tools in place teachers have training all the time to help support these students if something occurs um this uh policy is more punitive than aspirational and all it does is is is uh uh stoke the Ember that that we saw on Facebook this week um we you know we know the Ember is out there but this just takes a big giant flame to it a big giant uh uh fan into it uh when now we have to discuss what institutional racism is um which uh in my opinion uh reaches all the way back to potentially even the founding of this country if we want to talk about systems of
122government and economics uh institutional racism goes uh deep into all of those topics uh to to have to educate uh our our students about that when it's a dubious Topic at best um but you know I think the most the probably the best thing that's been said uh on this topic uh the best was I believe that there was a high school student or someone who claimed to be a high school student who posted on Facebook today about the um the the racist comment uh that was made by apparently a false comment there but uh about how that you know how our uh open Choice students are are well regarded and and that the whatever the incident was uh uh talked about never occurred uh but that the the the the the statement the phrase
123that stood out the most is that I think it was a female she said that we all bleed the same blood so I think that's what we should really think about um and not about putting implementing a a policy that that in my opinion seeks to divide instead of unite so that's what we should consider thank you Mr Grio I just I don't see that it's divisive and I don't see any talk of quotas and I don't see any talk of punishment abely that policy but we will be discussing it more in policy me Mr eky do you have more on policy for us I think we're good right now this this will uh we will continue to discuss this we will just so that people understand that was the first the first reading and
124we go through three readings and before we approve or disapprove um next on our agenda is approval of the minutes um you should have had access to and you should have in your packets the minutes um from which meetings just one March 21st April 11 March 21st and April 11th do I have a motion moved at the Tre Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on March 21st 2024 and April 11 2024 do I have a second Mr eki thank you and um any comments or changes that need to be made or no seeing none we have a motion that the chesher Board of Education approve the minutes from meetings held on March 21st 2024 and April 11th 2024 all in favor it's unanimous from those present tonight thank you very much um
125next we have correspondence Mr grippo do you have any correspondence to bring forward tonight I have no Corr respondents spring forward then we shall move on to the superintendent report M Dr s thank you very much Dr heran I'm going to keep this short and sweet uh I as we get toward the end of the year here got a cou we've got a couple of special visitors in the audience um and I just wanted to acknowledge them uh the young lady in the right with the beige sweater is Kristen Bruno she's my intern and has spent the year visiting the chure public schools uh she's a special education supervisor excuse me um early childhood education supervisor in Fairfield and sitting next to her I think by happen stance which is kind of funny is huny
126Young no she is a u visitor from all the way from Kang samando do province in South Korea she is an experienced uh Elementary educator and administrator and has been spending several months in Connecticut observing education and spending three days here with us uh we are very honored to have both you guys working with us um both of them came from a distance obviously we've got to give the nod to miss no she a little further travel there but uh thank you ladies for uh coming to our school system um just a couple of important dates coming up uh is part of an update on nextg school building committee April 30th I believe it's next Tuesday we have uh meetings set up for members of the community we specifically targeted everybody who lives within a
127mile of Norton school and everybody who lives within a mile of the North End property the corner of Maran in Jarvis to learn about the phase one of the construction plans for those two schools um we encourage anybody to come that meeting will be held at 7 o'clock in the Norton cafeteria again it's open to the broader Community but uh we'll be talking about the construction plans for this summer at those two locations uh the actual groundbreaking for construction won't really occur until till December but we do plan uh a fair amount of site work at both those locations and so we wanted to give the opportunity for members of the community to meet up if you can't make that date no worries please um go to our website the chesher public school website on
128the bottom lefthand corner says school modernization and there's a lot of information information shared on the 30th will be available on that site uh shortly thereafter I also want to invite folks to our May 2nd Board of Education meeting I know you're going to I want to steal your thunder talking about upcoming meetings but um school security is a a very important topic that uh our team has spent a lot of time on we uh subscribe to What's called the Alice strategy it's an acronym that stands for alert lockdown inform counter and evacuate uh we'll have information for the public uh we are finalizing a video to go out soon where we will be providing this training all of our staff for the last several years have been trained we are now uh in the
129process that got put off right before covid um and it's just taking us time to retool uh and we'll be educating the high school students throughout the rest of the remainder of this school year uh with a developmentally appropriate process and then um hopefully next year re-educating high school students and then uh pushing it down to Elementary all the way down to Elementary over the course of next year so uh just want to put that on people's radar that will be 7 o'clock at the treasure High School cafeteria and that's it for me thank you Dr Solen um questions for M Dr s yeah just a quick question uh Dr Solen on the April 30 meeting yes sir um is that going to be posted on your say I know members of my HOA are
130very interested in attending and so I I know if I can email something to them or to sure yeah we direct them to a website I put something that I mean Carol we wrote a letter and send it out we can sent it out we can easily put those letters up on our website um that notify people there were separate letters to the different communities but in essence the same details about the meeting and being held that time in place great yeah we'll put those on the website thank you thank you yeah thanks for bringing that up uh Adam I uh I got the one for Norton school district you got the one for uh the new school yes right because you've moved out of our district yes yes all all this time right um
131and I don't have those meetings or dates here but it's because they're limited to those communities that that um that April 30th meeting we did not include on this but that's why I really wanted to announce it to make sure that people were aware um the subsequent showcase meeting is listed on the upcoming meetings great and the Showcase meeting is uh the one on the Alice train yes okay what we're doing at cheser high so in place of the chair's update as I am standing in tonight as Vice chair I will um make an announcement of upcoming meetings on May 2nd 7 PM is the Board of EDS showcase meeting at the high school that Dr Solen was just talking about on school security and I have to wonder whether whiteboards are involved no not
132for this one because all the other showcases had white boards yeah we unfortunately have to do no math problems yeah we're not going to torture you have to do math you're done um on Monday May 6 at 7 pm is the policy committee meeting where we will be discussing probably um the second reading for the equity and diversity and um I would like the public to know that you are also invited to come to um any of our subcommittee meetings as well I think everybody should come to as many meetings as I go to so I'm inviting you on Monday May 13th at 7 pm is curriculum committee meeting and those both those meetings take place at humiston boardroom h school and on Thursday May 16th at 7:30 p.m. is our May Board of Ed
133business meeting that will be held in town council chambers so we're saying goodbye to DOD Middle School next month um May 27th should be noted is Memorial Day and schools across the district are and the offices are closed that day and the only item left then is adjournment could I get a motion to adjourn the meeting some Mo Mr grippo moves second Mr eki thank you um all those in favor it's unanimous thank you very much everyone