001policy subcommittee meeting on June 6 2023 Ms josinski please call the roll sure Mr grippo here miss Rosenberg here Mr White Mr chairman you have a quorum great um all rise for the pledge I think we have a flag it's been a while sorry oh wait there's a flag right behind you yeah there's one behind you yeah I pledge allegiance to this flag of the United States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well we lucked out there Jeff thank you I need all the help I can give these days buddy was that a new flag I don't remember that in the past no the flag's been here we just supplemented it with the massive waving flag that we like to use
002on remote meetings but clearly I am out of practice as it relates to my my virtual meeting skills uh has been a while um let's see audience do we have an audience this week last couple we have no sir we haven't had any audience comment or anything like that okay I don't know that this uh agenda had the same attraction maybe that some of the other comment on the other issues that um well Jeff I guess we'll move to uh uh review of the staff travel policy I have to apologize I absolutely dropped the ball on this um I have not drafted that policy uh it would you know I think it would be close to mimicking what we do for staff um I could give you a thousand and one reasons why I didn't
003get to that but it slipped my mind and I didn't review that part of the agenda today so I absolutely apologize um ironically it comes at the same time that um our Korean visitors from last month have invited me to speak at a conference in South Korea in August before school starts um so I think we'll probably be talking about that as a board down the road but um I did not I neglected to put together a draft policy for that so my sincere apologies okay um all right so we will uh we'll table that and you know I guess we could just as with many other things that occur in the district we can always informally uh uh Act right or not informative you know we can take a vote or discuss it in
004public that way we'll pretend this if it was enacted I suppose sure I'll discuss that with the chairman peregini or I'm sure he's aware or he will be aware he's not actually team up this week and of the Myriad of of things that we've been doing here at the end I have not even had a chance to talk to him yet I outed myself given the fact that the policy was up yeah okay um well we'll move on to let's see instructional Arrangements teachers aides so this is um you know a policy that we reviewed before I'll present screen here in a moment is that 61.59 yes yes it is Jeff point one thank you can you folk see that on the screen yes yes yes okay so this is the one um if you
005recall that we had some questions about and uh I checked with Cabe who indicated that uh the section that I added here and read about detailed information was more than sufficient um actually you know came take on this was you know questioning whether or not we even needed the policy because law would supersede anything we had in the policy anyway um but you know that's that's up to us I I would recommend we keep it we already have it it's just another piece of information yeah can we have someone calling in it's me um oh okay thanks Sam uh okay uh so so this was we we looked at this already yes yes okay yeah all it is is just clarifying you know the uh Title One AIDS have to have a certain credential um
006and that's you know professional Revolution Title One money and it's outlined here but because of the fact that teacher Aid and para educator and the the terms seem to be used almost interchangeably and neither of them fit the job description that you know we would assign to them locally we added this uh the statement to make it more clear gotcha yes that does make it more clear yeah just let's you know take the guesswork out of it we we just indicated that piece about you know if you want to know what these people do consult the contract right okay um I know Sam can't see her screen right now so um we'll move on to the next one but if uh Sam wants to come back after then we can do that um I guess
007we'll move on to the uh surveys of students so this one um we reviewed as I reviewed it again uh there I wanted to make this one point of clarification so this a lot of this survey is written about uh surveys that are federally funded and for federal funded surveys you need to have a active consent which means that the parent signs a letter that says we're going to you know permit our child to take the survey um it should be okay in addition no student may without active parental consent for federally funded or without active or passive parental consent for other surveys so if if CPS administers a survey per the law we don't need the parent to sign a letter per se um if and that's you know part of the law what
008I did though based on our conversation from last time was add this component down here and this talks about uh us notifying parents of surveys at the beginning of the year so we don't I never in my career whether it be is a principal or superintendent can I ever remember administering a federal survey for anything um the likelihood of that is you know incredibly rare I would say this part though down at the the bottom that's highlighted uh we do administer per state law the safe School climate survey every year so the district will include the month in the year because you have to send out uh information um like the federal surveys that we have planned or anything like that at the beginning of the year I know that we're going to give the
009safe School climate survey uh every other year so at the beginning of the year we will send out the survey that includes the month and year that the safe School climate survey will be administered in the annual notification so next year we aren't giving it um unless the Law changes we wouldn't be giving it so we could send out a notification that the next safe School climate survey is scheduled to be administered in March of 2020 five I guess it would be um but if it's for that year if we're going to administer that survey uh that we will notify parents weekly for three weeks preceding the administration of their right to review the survey and or opt out so what I mean by that is if we're giving the survey if we have the
010survey student survey plan for March 14th well we would send information about the survey on March 7th um whatever February 28th and February 21st that this survey is coming up if you want to review it you can do so at this location um or if you want to opt out you can do so I wanted to you know I think it based on the conversation I think this capture is what we had talked about at the last meeting but certainly you know it's just my draft um yeah no I think that covers it um I guess my my only question would be that um this section I know there's a section about the board being able to review the questions for federally funded surveys um and we wanted something for this school kind of survey
011as well so I don't know how that needed to be yeah what we can add a sentence that says you know um with respect to the school climate survey uh that the you know that will be reviewed by the uh curriculum committee of the board three months before the administration yeah at least three months does that make sense because I definitely think it should be a subcommittee uh level that way you could take the time if there's any problem so let's do this um foreign it's almost like um let's say you get somebody to invest some money take care of other people investing your money at all you know what I mean like you're telling them to get your address um I think this should also be approved in there somewhere so like the committee
012we only want to be clear that it's required by law some questions have to be asked by law so um you know I don't know that I mean I I know they could approve but it's so it's review and provide feedback um but what's the mechanism of uh uh the final final draft I guess on questions um not required by law no it's more of the um um just a review of the FI of the final form right like uh where like weren't there supposed to be questions that were different for grade levels and that sort of thing so that would be part of that review a few months in advance of the survey right you know I I think that those things would be instituted and shared back with the committee or the full
013board at that point okay um removes the approval process and the law says that we can approve the questions the law dictates what questions that are required they don't do a great job of it to be honest with you right but it also says that the boy or the boy or the board must review or the board can review if I recall correctly because I know that there was some there was some uh some latitude there that's a second here let's pull something up because yeah like you said it was um the law is vague as to the content a lot a lot of the content of the questions a lot and when I asked when I asked them face when I asked the state they were like yeah you have to ask these required
014questions right but unfortunately like you know there's no policing of that there's no no direction right if I don't work I I don't recall seeing specific questions laid out in the law oh it's not in the law right no it's one of those things that I'm sure the law said you know you have to um the the sde will develop a survey or something like that so much of the law is written that way I'm just looking here fine and I really you know I know we don't like to take too much time on each one and do research in the moment but we'd really like to have this in place for the start of next year so right Captain we have a sample of you know at least meeting the minimum requirements of to
015satisfy the law or I'd like to see at least a sample so it says the bill makes changes this was when it was original that uh a biennial Statewide School climate survey that they're going to develop one um and it says by August 1st 2021 to publish on its website the model policy in in school climate survey the collaborative develops that is not there tell you right now I've searched the website up and down I emailed them because I think to kind of Adam's point is I'd feel a little more comfortable if we as established those the questions and review them provide feedback to ensure that in essence we have vetted it to follow what the law says at minimum right yeah I'm looking quickly back on my emails to see because I don't even
016know if there was a phrase in there about educationally appropriate you know like uh I don't even know if that's the right phrase uh per you know educationally appropriate per you know certain age groups because that's kind of where we ran into a problem this year um the email that I have from the Connecticut State Department of Ed says um the the questions are from 2020 2012. um there is current proposed legislation um they were going to go back and check with Folks at csde around any other resources but um that I didn't hear back from them and it says as far as an opt-out survey is anonymous but I wouldn't see why you could not enact an opt out option so let me show you here I think I have the website the questions
017in this thread because I mean because at the same time once we uh review and approve then those are the questions that the parents would be able to uh also look at right because then we give them the right in this policy to review any uh survey questions being administered in writing like isn't there something right yeah they have the right right so it would be like whatever in the year they're being ministered at some point in the fall like you would present this with what you would feel as the you know final version of the questions and then the subcommittee would would uh would review and then present to the full board I would think right it'd be something to that effect yeah you know I mean I'm I'm comfortable yeah I'm comfortable with
018saying review and approve um because I think at that time because it's not like we'd be coming up with the questions right it's just more like staff has presented the questions with the proposed you know choices or whatever however they're going to be you know you know proposing answers and stuff and then then they're reviewed you know that's kind of just there's that line of accountability established yeah and um the reality is the board could approve whatever they want if it breaks the law we can't do it per se right like this goes back to the whole Mass issue so I think when we present it is as I just said you know in the email exchange I had with uh sde earlier this spring you know they mentioned the fact that the this law
019is under review and it may change and you know I don't I've kind of given up on reviewing a lot of the the laws at this point in the game because they change every 10 minutes and then you'll read the implementer bill and everything you thought was out was in and vice versa um so I I follow certain things but this one's been a tougher one until they pass anything so I I think we can say um review provide feedback and approve the survey at least three months prior to Administration you guys okay with that and obviously I mean if there's some sort of question that's either previously been identified in the law or or by the committee that was required by the law um or if uh something changes in this law we'll be
020able to you know Mark those questions when we go to the committee right um and I do but I do I think it should be um a past maybe passed by the subcommittee and approved by the full board that way then the board gets a copy and then you you know you have it as an agenda item and vote on it um what we're doing there or would it be a report well yeah what we're doing there is now you're voting on it you think when trying to think just in terms of our protocols so huh if it's just an instance where the state law is vague and gives us latitude yeah what do we take um and I'm just trying to you know remain somewhat consistent with our current practices uh and think this
021through for a second in terms of the approval process so the curriculum committee approves it then the board approves it right under that hype make their report saying we went through the questions we find them agreeable what if the board you know board only has to approve it for three right uh right yeah there would be no super majority are we it would be like a motion coming from policy right who would be you know motion to approve that's what I was thinking too like reading a typical protocol on this thing yeah so it would be approving the crit the uh climate survey through curriculum as presented yeah that would be the initial that would be the initial motion um and then you know if there's Shenanigans after that so be it I guess right
022amend the motion well so be it to a degree but then we're ultimately required to administer it legally anyway right so then so then the motion you know would would have to read something like uh you know uh as approved and uh uh some reference to state law I guess you know kind of put a like a little extra zing in it yeah you know because that that's saying like staff went through constructed the questions curriculum committee reviewed and approved uh and that as far as curriculum committee is concerned everything is is uh copacetic and ready to go right and that would be the motion you know in a nutshell you have a hard time believing that it would pass the curriculum committee and fail at the board multiple times before that's what I mean
023that's what I mean right I have a hard time believing it but crazy things happen we've been there yeah I'm just trying to you know think of potentials um well I mean once it's emotional you know once you're in the discussion and everything and you know there's a Latitude there and things get wild I mean we made it through we made it through because I'm brainstorming do we say that if it fails the board on three attempts in order to comply with law we would give the previous administer you know previous version or you know I I just I don't want to lose sight of the fact that ultimately we have to give the survey one way or the other uh whether it's approved or not and again I think it would be wildly unlikely
024that the committee would maybe I'm overthinking this and maybe we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get to it if we ever get to it I doubt we will but the committee passes it and then the board doesn't pass it and that happens you can't just filibuster the school climate survey we have to administer one that's all I'm thinking well I don't I don't think you'd be able to filibuster it like I don't think one person and if it's a majority right not not like I mean I meant just drag it out drag it out drag it out like if well you'd have to have four votes to drag it out or to have it right right yeah you need to have four votes right I mean at that point it's at that point it's
025the will see I I like that three three fails that's I I find that interesting I don't know if that breaks any kind of rules with Robert's Rules or anything um but uh don't forget about the time constraint because what you're saying is three months prior so does that means that we have to revisit I don't know yeah you go back out you get feedback you go back to the curriculum committee that's why I think it's really unlikely if if four people voted against it it would have to be well if it failed three times then you have to have a special meeting right that just to pass that I mean essentially right that's that's what that's what it would come down to if it was like something so contentious that it failed three votes
026you know when you couldn't work it out I kind of like your suggestion Jeffs with the mechanism on making sure that we administer eventually administer something yeah and I think you know honestly we still haven't evaluated all the results but I really don't foresee the gender question which was the the question that was the lightning rod um being on the early you know childhood uh surveys again I think we would make that recommendation I think it would pass but you know I'm we're right when you write policy it's until somebody changes the policy so it could be a long time and you guys have seen policies from the 90s so right you know if we build that in we can always change it um this is a a first cut it's something like this well
027then I I think maybe three uh three failed votes and then build in a deadline what you know like what about uh one week because then because when the when the board votes in there and they're voting on that third round if they got to a third round right right and then policy says well all right if this fails you have to have a meeting within one week to solve this issue because of the time constraints to then allow the proper you know just uh the what would be the construction of the actual the final uh survey and then and then building in time for parents to be able to review you know that way there's that mechanism that's built in you know and then people read will read the pause and go wow something
028was really wild with this survey at some point when they read that that big mechanism in there honestly if if something anyway right yeah what the hell happened to create this but um you know it's uh but I think it's it is it's a good uh it might be a good mechanism to have just in case I mean right now I just uh you know counting votes on my head I don't think that would happen how crazy or not they might be right so I think that having a backstop is would be a good idea thank you okay so if it um fails three votes with the full board then what transpires we review revert to um so the previous year or we have a special meeting would have to be called within one week
029to resolve the issue and then we'll bring you know and then we'll we'll bring this up at the next business meetings yeah everyone feels about that right well you know I'm going to email them immediately after this you know yeah so they see it so what if you don't come up with a resolution after within this special meeting though Adam that's it's still deadlocked um yeah well that's that's the uh we have to right that that's the right yeah that's kind of the point right if it can if it can't be resolved at that point we need new board members and we'll give last year's survey right so okay so the fallback we need a workshop at that point yeah yeah so at that point then you're working on a swing vote in public which
030is fine you know wait we've done that before a long time ago Jeff wait right we'd have public meetings where you had had a swing boat you'd have no idea where the hell it was going yeah decide in real time um you guys can see that now right yes so the safe School climate survey must be administered in accordance with this with the state of Connecticut Law the curriculum committee will review provide feedback and approve the survey at least three months prior to Administration the full board will review and vote on the survey if it fails three votes with the full board a special meeting will be called the one within one week to resolve the issue the district will uh include the month year you know that's the part where the cursor is linking
031there did we want to indicate you know if it can't be resolved at that special meeting it'll it'll revert to last year's version I mean it just shows that you have you can't not do it and you can't repeatedly vote it down to not do it no I think it's it's that the the policy is giving the approval to the board it's the board's responsibility to solve the issue yeah in that in that fight in that extra meeting you know at least that's how I feel about it I don't know believe it as is yeah I'm fine with that and then you know it'll go to the the the board will look at it and then we'll have we'll have comment um you know when uh at our next business meeting well our next meeting
032is going to be don't forget June 29th 6 30 6 o'clock before other meeting um so we wait a minute are we bringing this forward as a first so I think what we were hoping to do was to have something in place for next year the more I think about it however um the reality is we're not going to be administering the survey next year at all if the law stays the same we might be better off sharing this with the board and taking it up in the fall I don't know how you guys feel I mean I'm not opposed to moving forward as we have it but if we want it in place for the fall what would have to happen is you refer this policy to the full board um the board feels
033for good cause that it should be adopted after the first reading if they have five affirmative votes they can waive a second third reading no no that wasn't that wasn't oh no I I thought we were because like you said since it's not this isn't really a policy that would be relevant for another year and a half now we can just keep moving on with the process right yeah um but well but the other part of the policy would be very relevant to the beginning of the year right because it'd be part of your packet for any other yeah but you know what I mean because it's law I'll send something out anyway that says we don't have any federal surveys you know but um the law anyway and if we keep going you know
034in our normal process you count through so we could probably hopefully have a third reading approved by September yeah right you can get all this because we already had one reading so this will be the second reading if we do it in June and then you know well we can do a policy meeting in September I mean whether or not it's a I would rather have more time to have people put eyes on it and give feedback right but I mean once we move if we get this if we move this to a second reading and the board looks at it in June the third the the next policy meeting we're going to occur to August so there's technically a full month uh actually yeah there would be for review for anyone else who wanted
035to review it before we had our meeting anyway because our our policy meeting probably wouldn't occur until the second half of August anyway right right um so I know I'll be on vacation in August yeah we usually don't do it until until September anyway yeah yeah so yeah I think that'll be as long as it's not going to mess up any of your uh your forms for you know like the the big p you know check here and approve 100 forms yeah the parent packet you know parents seem to like that yeah right as opposed to putting their Hancock on 706 pieces of paper that are required by our legislature absolutely anyway for our attorney um so let's do that then I I appreciate that let's let's roll with it as is we'll send it
036out to the board um you know now say here's what we crafted look for you know if you have feedback reach out to you guys and and me and um we'll we'll go from there we'll we'll do a second reading at the next uh at the 29th when we meet okay all right sounds good um so do you want to move or do you want to do all the Motions at the end yeah no um I I got I got messed up because I I forgot we didn't have a first reading uh this time so uh Sam if you don't mind I guess I'll I'll make motions for these does that sound good yeah okay um uh so uh move for a second reading um policy number 6159.1 instructional Arrangements teachers aides and policy 6162.51
037surveys of students student privacy um is there a second second um okay any additional discussion um seeing none um all in favor to move to a second reading hi all right is unanimous of those present okay thank you Jeff will move to uh third reading um the first one is um 422 um again this is something that we reviewed it's the title one school-wide programs um that just language that we had to include okay I'm teacher aides and paraprofessionals pronounced certified gee why don't I remember this one but uh this one doesn't feel familiar um visit the Atwell employees part or is it this is all new entirely it's all new I mean we already have job descriptions that were approved and everything oh is this uh it was this um Sam were you discussing
038something like this in your in at your school system like this yeah you had a problem there or there was a problem there or something um because we um the positions were short-term but they still conflicted with so we hired kindergarten aides and some other um you know responsibilities for very similar to our cias so then the cia's pushed back and so on so but I guess we got away with it because the AIDS are temporary so I don't know how this is going to work Jeff if depending on which language you would go with right yeah I think it boils down to whether or not you create a position like and that doesn't mean so we have a few hundred IAS to look we already have that position it's not like and then if
039hiring another IA is not creating a new position um that's a job that already exists uh but maybe the work around there was some sort of temporary Coach position then I think you'd have to deal with your your unions on that too but um we don't really have any issues as far as this stuff goes where we are right now and I think if you're creating a position you'd consult with that particular Union yeah to tease out any of the responsibilities I think for us it was a rushed move yeah so it's where the days you know of covid um the other item we had was uh this is the uh for students on homebound not a homebound uh homeschooled excuse me share this one it's like the the clean break policy yeah right so
040we're not allowing students who are homeschooled to go part-time and that it says participation in extracurricular activities is governed by ciac but that's only for 9 through 12. cic doesn't do middle school so um we added that statement below okay it's kind of consistent with a shift that a number of districts are making yeah this one's in I think is a simple move forward yeah so that was it for the two third reading ones Oh I thought there were three there was that was a second oh it's it's the second one is so long it bounces down to a third line yeah yeah okay um uh move for a third reading um policy four two two two teachers aides paraprofessionals and policy 6172.3 educational instruction under parental Direction homeschooling is there a second second is
041there any discussion or any further discussions um seeing none all in favor aye unanimous of those present okay fantastic um and uh under other anything under other I have nothing Sam other um I think just for me Jeff I I honestly just skimmed through the equity policy you sent from cave it's lengthy yeah um so I'd like a little more time to kind of do it you know dive into that yeah we knew that we weren't I mean initially we had even thought about having this meeting earlier in the day which was going to really put us up against the the time crunch with the CEF event and so we kind of streamlined the the uh agenda but in the fall we can go back to that and um you know any sort of um
042civility policy um so I have context on that that policy was 23 pages long are there different sections pertaining to different things or is it all the same thing that actually that packet I sent you with the diversity Equity that was lit a bunch of different versions oh there are versions yeah oh okay so it's not one policy that's you know a volume on its own it's just that it provides a lot of different options okay well I'll read it with that so I'll try and find out the breaks are and it'll say it'll say like another version or consideration or something does each one end with the references at the end okay so when we see the references then the next one is yeah then you know it's chunked up yeah okay is the
043first um section the first pages I think the first three pages or four pages um is that is that the preferred one or like you know like are they ordered in any particular way are there uh well had some been adopted by some systems and some not or anything like that or these are just out there like Abe these are written by cave or or um yeah and you're right some of them are are uh taken from others and if there's one that's taken from another District uh there is often a reference at the bottom of what district it was taken from okay it's not always but often they they put that reference on there um and I think you know for us in terms of uh uh preferred you know ours is kind of
044drawn from some of those different ones written on our own with uh committee that we have that that that's what we shared initially right with the committee right okay but certainly I mean the summer is a good time to take a step back and review I mean like you said it's pretty voluminous review that information take a look at what we have and reflect on it it'll come back in the fall and see what makes sense some beach reading yes yeah I like to do the comparisons and Waters yeah um yeah okay um seeing there's no uh uh no other issues under other I will uh make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn is there a second a second all in favor aye all right we are adjourned thank you everyone