001okay March 30th right March 30th 2023 Ms josinski call the roll sure Mr Griffin here Mr White here Mr Rosenberg Mr chairman you have a corner great I'll stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States good evening everyone um can we just list the guests please Luther Miller Transportation manager great thank you um so uh we always have public comment at the beginning we have a couple minutes tonight would you like to speak before the policy committee yes okay go ahead um do they need a microphone or do you want to sit at the you can sit and roll up okay just so when people are watching the film they can hear it too oh all right single I live at 240 Burge court it's my husband Steve Alexander
002240 birdsport yeah so um we're pretty much here today so we have two uh twin boys that go to do a little school um they're second graders and they currently are on a bus um they're on a bus for this school year because we did the I just want to try to get the terminology correct uh the available seat petition um we're here today to discuss we would like them to permanently be um on a bus you know moving forward this bus to not have to do a seat petition every single year um we are exactly according to um Google Maps we are exactly one mile from the school um so we are considered walkers and we're pretty much here to just discuss getting permanently on the bus not being considered Walkers um 2021-22 we
003did a seed petition um we received the bus for the entire school year 22-23 we did the petition he did not receive a bus until September 19th which is a Monday so first couple weeks of school um we didn't have a bus and we're looking for the stop at sort of Ridge North and sorga Mill it's bus number three right we don't want to have like a so where was this sorghum work sorghum oh the bus stop they currently go to is sorghum Ridge North and sorgha Mill technically the stock market um so what we've been doing throughout the school years is kind of kind of we look at the transportation policy the Board of Ed policy which states that accommodation shall be provided if the route that they have to walk is unsafe so
004they have to walk down through Mountain so um Carrie has sent a number of pictures um to the board in which school was not closed um and the road was extremely icy Mountain was covered in snow and it just wasn't safe for two seven girls to walk um so that's number one we have those photos I have them on my phone and I have the email I can shoot them over to you guys with the specific dates and times that those were taken I think we got them yes yes December January just um they wouldn't I mean No Man's Land I I think there's no house there I don't know who so front downstairs is it homeowners association yeah some of it is but then once you get on mountains it would be the resident
005yeah there's no resident there so many months yeah but however it's at 7 24 7 whatever in the morning um you don't really have to shovel by then so they would be walking that hazardous I think it's uh 24 hours yeah yeah yeah we have like a one day so um this was a light winter Carrie and I are both Educators uh so one day we had a cancellation and Cheshire did not so we were able to take pictures of like um and it was not walkable it's not passable um your way to school that day yeah okay yeah so that's that's why we took the pictures yeah no I guess it's kind of unsafe for um younger children to walk no less you know so that's is that sidewalk there now is it the
006like cement concrete sidewalk because at one point it was the asphalt tart uh it might be um it's concrete now you know what I'm talking about it was asphalt and then in addition so we started looking at some of the other policy information um there are two stops uh one is Beechwood Court which is right across the street from us um new development they're exactly one mile according to Google Maps as well um so question is why do they get a bus and we don't it's according to Google Maps we're exactly a mile away yeah so I'm just I don't read anything into this but I'm just trying to be clear on this you're okay so you're on burrage right so you're saying from your street address yes to do is similar is the equivalent
007of at least the first house on Beechwood I don't know what the um GPS is because technically to be honest with you the furthest house on bird court is 1.1 mile for the South yeah it's 270 it's a tannenbaum's house it's 1.1 mile okay I mean I don't know how it works you know like the other thing the other thing I'm thinking about um I don't know how it applies in this situation but I do recall a very specific Court decided Court ruling probably 15 or 20 years ago where somebody ran for office in Greenwich and they paid property taxes in Stanford and the ruling literally came down to where somebody's head hit the pillow in the house this is this is what it came down to so I'm just thinking I mean if we're
008talking about where your head hits the pillow it's probably farther up a little bit past the mile I was just we're just looking to basically just not have to continue so there's there's two separate pieces here in order to not petition living inside of the walking Zone from the perspective of the policy committee they don't say all right well this street yes the street no petition not petition whatever the policy would change if the policy committee wanted to make a change to reduce the walking distance um let's say 0.75 or 0.5 the the blind State Statute is I think it's a mile and a half right yeah so for the kindergarteners yeah the state the state recommends and I have the info the state recommends mild for kindergarten uh to three I believe it is
009and then four to six a mile and a half and then from um uh seven to twelve is two times with Travis who were well under but the um so if the policy committee chose to reduce the walking distance obviously that would address this specific issue and maybe others around town what I'm wondering about though is the state law what are the what's point to point and by the way these are recommendations sure sure the state does not you know one of the few things they haven't mandated yet and so the the state gives guidance on this sure and I think it was issued in 2012 or something or 2002 maybe it was a long time ago and it's just a recommendation the uh board has the authority to establish walking versus bussing distances is
010has been you know indicated our K walking distance is a half mile beyond that it's a mile and that's to the nearest stop or the school um yeah you asked about the point to point so the point to point is the edge of the residential property to with to 100 feet to the nearest entrance of the school so it's actually so from the bottom of your driveway just in a situation it's a hundred it's one mile and a hundred feet it's one mile in in that one mile is based on the edge of the driveway to within a hundred feet of the closest entrance way to the school yeah so it's a mile and one 100 feet no no 100 feet less than a month right it's my it's so it's within 100 feet of
011the nearest thing it's it's where you guys right so from the nearest entrance started from the school when you say entrance you're not talking to driveway so I was noticed on a driveway so you're talking the doors I'm talking the door correct okay correct that's how it's that's typically how it's it's calculated so I'm just curious is that that's how it's defined in state does it does it say that the edge of the property is the way it's defined um it it no it says it I believe it says the nearest border of the residential property which could be the drive week through the driveway even though it may be a little closer or a little yeah a little closer by you know because of the the actual border of the property but we do
012the edge of the driveway to a hundred feet and from the way or from the from the nearest entrance way so so if we're talking so we said we're talking two different things so so unsafe walking conditions if you're uh inside that walking Zone the process we use to determine uh whether or not it's a safe walking condition is the parallel files from a petition to us that says this is not and so you know when people are inside that uh that guidance and there's a unsafe walking condition they file it gets reviewed so if there's not things like crosswalks you know we're not making you cross Route 10 even though it's you know within the walking distance or something like that you could live right across the street from Highland having you know stuff
013like that that gets reviewed by the police department okay um they make recommendations to us about the safety of that path and then the decision gets made as to whether or not a bus is assigned if the bus is not assigned and the parent petitions that it would be an accommodations hearing where you would go meet with a an attorney who comes in and hears the you know whether or not it was appropriate decision um the the policy into this is that you know these guys on the on the board and then obviously the Fuller board would make a decision about reducing the walking distance you know determine if they want to change that threshold for any grade level you know that's like I said that's not statutorily bound it's uh it's you know up
014to local control to make that decision if I could just kind of address one thing because I'm sure the school building committee yeah there you go so I know the request is to you know not have to file that available secret Edition but the issue that we have with that is we're not sure what the bus routes or if there will be an available seat year to year I know it's inconvenient you know what I can tell you is you know we'll prioritize yours just file it early it's not even available because here's the thing we don't know what enrollment is until so that's my other question for you then there are children on barcledge right so they also have to petition then there's some children on the other end of sorghum they also so
015what's the process for that who get who gets chosen well I don't know that you've ever had a situation where we didn't have it available I know Luther was able to bring in a larger bus actually yeah we had enough room in the afternoon but not in the morning and I guess like our our question is so beachwood's of newer Road and they're the same but they are on the bus so I guess I don't want to get them kicked off or whatever I don't really care at this point I'm just like that's interesting right so one of the things that goes on is not only is the distance taken into the consideration age of the student we're out there walking as it relates to this to the to the Rogue um that side of
016the road has no sidewalks up until this year there was no crosswalk so if you notice down at the other end there's a crosswalk yeah I see those kids every day now that there's a crosswalk there there is now a debate that those kids yeah probably Walkers right now where do we go with it we're in that discussion so you can go down Mountain Road we have a very schizophrenic sidewalk pattern on Mount Road we have sidewalks and some of those kids are Walkers right because there is no sidewalk there is no side yeah now that being said sidewalks do not determine a walking area a walking area can be the grass the edge of the road but we make determinations based on the geography of the neighborhood the traffic and make determinations that you
017know yes could they walk sure do we want them to whereas on your side of the road you have a sidewalk the whole way right yeah it's like I know like Cliff Edge Circle has the stuff okay so again you're now talking about crossing right absolutely yeah so those are guys I said we're not here to be like oh we want other kids off the bus at all we just want we don't want to have to do a seat position everyone here and that chance that we don't get that we don't that we don't get it that we don't get on the bus and then we have to make other accommodations yeah but I don't believe the sidewalk makes it all the way from Cliff Edge to the new crosswalk the Sidewalk Ends that's part
018of the problem on Mountain Road is we have sidewalks then they end so they can't get to that crosswalk without getting into the street that's part of the and I understand where you would find that doesn't sound right because you're less than a mile but we have we make those judgment calls I believe me I would love to have everybody want that's a mile out would it would you know it we would with the challenges we have with bus drivers just having enough yeah no I know it's I gave you a bus driver back yeah I just stopped thankfully because I got on the bus well because you were giving me a special eyebuster yeah so I mean we do try and be reasonable and act responsibly I understand your request I mean the only
019thing I could say is you know we'll take a look at your request year after year and then we'll judge it failure Lutheran figures it out he's really really good no we just don't want to go the other route because our other route is the other busing for our child so yeah um effectively is more for the district and although I can't guarantee it we have 15 new 77 passenger buses that's right which is what we needed to accommodate you folks yeah that's that those Auburn Place 71 passengers and by the way just because it says 77 right so what is the magic number there it's basically 50 to us two to a c now we can fit three to a c we prefer not to do that and on the bus that we have
020now for you folks in the morning I believe there's 62 in the afternoon there's 58. yeah so we don't like to go over 55 because the little guys we can fit three to the front yeah you're not getting three sixth graders you know sitting comfortably and safely in the rear you mentioned there's a like a petition in terms of the safety issue that's somewhere on the website that's the accommodation petition whether you're available so when I click on those it asks for a request so I just do I request that then to open that it's a Google doc the Google Doc opens and it says you cannot access us request for Access no use print itself could you try to open it yesterday so they're all being updated that's why they're being updated right now
021okay perfect so yeah so the accommodation yeah we'll fill that out and then just just instructions yeah yeah and you know if you're looking at that at the start of the school year I would include those photos no it was a light winter yeah too so yeah oops no I mean like I said and Luther was great we you know we called a couple times just to touch base and be like hey is there a kids and then we were able to figure out who's not coming who is coming and we got on the bus and um like I said it's just it would be easier if we just knew we were going to be on the bus because certainly there's greater Peace of Mind than having a guarantee yeah um and you know this
022Luther said I mean we're evaluating stops again on some of the your neighbors they're now that crosswalks have been added and things have been updated um and then you know when do we usually have a sense of when bus routes are squared away early August mid-august week of August if we it all depends on registrations right yeah so and our biggest problem is the high school so we do we do know the elementary schools earlier but not much earlier yeah it does yeah like there's a lot of new development a lot of houses on your boss in the end of June last year early July at 43 kids yeah why August we went to 62. yeah I remember that because of the late the late registrations late registrations hurt us yeah there's a lot of
023houses judging how many buses we need in and it does change every year right every year generally we we don't always keep the same stops and that that tends to upset people but if there's just less students you know trying to build this establish fruits so kids aren't waiting as long yeah but I'm not saying we're changing yours but you know it's just a question of you know we wrap it based on what's there that's a very established neighborhood yes it's an established neighborhood we typically have the the reasonably large amount of kids yeah well I mean we're all do a little basically yeah but but even as a age out of there oh yeah that's that's so we have had it's a talent we've had actually a box come in a few years ago
024that came in off of um Higgins Higgins and came up and looped around it what's the lower Bellamy yeah look around Bellamy and that looked out there just to take that girl yeah that was when I first started maybe eight or nine years yeah that would make sense because those kids are in high school high school in college that would be like the whole season because there were so many kids up there yeah yeah so we just wanted to touch base because the email is just the pain yeah it's like just yeah you know so now we know what to do with the photos and where to go from there um when the C position comes out which I feel like so we asked for them by June June 15th okay July 23rd but what
025we do with them is we kind of put a check mark next to the names and they sit there until we get a um start getting an idea of the count of eligible students okay then we kind of start filtering them in and we do do them first come first serve okay so you get it in it goes on top okay which we have some already how do we have them it doesn't even have the data on it they're doing the same thing that you guys are doing no no you there's the there's an event the available seat you can get to oh you know why because they're redoing so the available seat now has blank space you can put in your own dates and except that's that's what it is that we're updating the
026other foreign um so this was obviously um for discussion you can review the policy and if we want to add it if there's anything you want to tweak I don't even Luther has seen some things that he's thought about so we'll review it again before the next meeting and you guys can take a look at it and if you want to add it you know I'll touch base with you about the agenda um I I think I would reading if we wanted to I mean I think I would uh because just because you know they're talking about you know if you've made a petition I know there have been several parents this year that have have had extensive petitions and to do it year over year because it sounded like some of the parents that
027have come back to us are current available seat right so you know we can't guarantee that you have an available seat and so we know next year's place it is these are people by policy who don't live you know in the busing area they live in the walking area right and so they ask if there's an available seat we you know if we decide I guess we could decide once you're granted an available seat you have it for the life of your entire time in the elementary school you know students move in and stuff that you know that's adding adding seats that's adding people to the bus which may ultimately impact costs right because you'd have to add pretty much in other routes and also to cover the kids and to be fair you know
028has been said we're almost able to meet every single available seat petition it takes a lot of doing but we try and jump through those hoops and make it happen so in the past we haven't added additional routes to make it happen is my point I I think we denied three this year now they were only denied in the AM to start we were able to accommodate the afternoon and ultimately with the bigger bus we were able to accommodate amn team I believe there were two other uh families that we had that then I completely one was in Doolittle one was Norton and that was it we're either at the one mile Mark they were over okay so here's my question for you if it's okay Adam yeah could you would this be difficult to
029look at the total potential impact of not changing the distance but just tweaking our rule for the point of measurement to what distance yeah like if you're changing the rule you're changing the distance why would you like to change the distance all right so let me try to think this through like to the driver I mean ultimately uh if we if it's easier for us frankly to tell you if we made it three quarters of a mile across the border it's expensive no I don't know I don't know it's gonna cost money if so it's hard to say at this stage of the game so let's just take next year it probably wouldn't have that much of an impact what is our elementary school population grows it could have a major impact but we just
030don't know sure no I get it we just don't know but every year is is a is a crap shooting until we know where every student until every student's registered and we know where they live and and let's tell in the future there is my point is you can't do that I mean one of the things that is prevented us from having to add bus routes is the god population we're able to shift Don buses to other second tier Local Schools such as Doolittle and Chapman because they're on the same schedule correct but as our as we know our population especially at the Doolittle Highland and Chapman locations are growing and as the kids that we have now shift into dot we won't have that luxury we will be adding buses so if you do
031begin to reduce the walking distances that could impact even more buses but we just don't know but those buses will be electric so yeah the serious question on a related note how many more buses can you put into the Depot right now no electric vehicles how many more buses can you put in there we really have no room so we have to expand the depot we it's so I've got an acre for right yeah oh yeah we got a lot so we have the space okay so you're good on that I've been here 12 years and it was discussed 10 years before I got here and there it's the room that it's the the land that runs from it runs uh east of the the bus depot there's a wooded area it almost doubles the
032size of the property okay um so that's going to be a capital Improvement at some point this year next year or something yeah okay okay can we get a secret for that I just remember remember 180 000. the state gave us the property oh okay so yeah I think we're good there oh hello expansion I think when that was the we updated the trailer this year oh maybe that was it actually I think there is some money earmarked for the experience too because that trail that trailer uh it's actually that goes they own it um they took the old one out and put a new one and that's part of their contract right but I do believe that that was a cost to them of a hundred and that might have been in the contract
033oh so maybe that's okay yeah just got yeah well I mean yeah if you have any suggestions for improvements we certainly like to hear them for our next meeting yeah you know just since we're talking about walking areas the one so our policies are very old they haven't changed in years and one of the problems that our policies create is that this difference between kindergarten students and first grade and up and the policy was created when we had Darcy only as a kindergarten location so that walking distance was a half a mile now we now literally have issues where we have a kindergarten student going split house right same house who was eligible but their first grade sibling is not so they have to file an available civilization or whatever that that in that case
034comes to mind so yeah it does create some challenges at Vin and Luther have been trying to take a look at this and and uh understand the physical implications if we make adjustments so I'm thinking it'll probably be on the next agenda but right my understanding is that uh Ben always talks about that you have this special software that sounds making something magical magical software so we don't the software we presently use is 25 years old and is not as special as it may sound we have purchased new software that will give us a lot more um capabilities in the future with adding um GPS directional GPS on the bus for the drivers we have a lot of spare drivers that come into town they have no idea where they're going and this will allow
035parents to track the bus so they will know if it's delayed look the software needs to be implemented and worked it's not going as quickly as I would like it but it needs to be I'm hoping to have it fully operational by next September and get a year on it before the contract's up and then when the contract comes up we can add maybe somebody's bells and whistles that should help parents in the future because I think that um maybe you know if you disagree um an analysis of like what it looks like if you reduce the 0.75 it may be uh and then also an analysis since we're only a few years out when those schools shift over to Marion and and then you have a larger Norton like what what do those bus
036routes look like as far as uh especially in the Marion Area where it's going to be very good you know because you have the condo complexes and no sidewalks um what does that look like uh when that school opens three years yesterday when I said when that new school out on Marion and Jarvis is built make sure there's sidewalks in one mile in all directions that's that's the challenge if if walking considerations aren't taken into account when that school was built you'll be busting kids from courier Woods which is 300 yards away yeah you don't want kids walking on Jarvis the road sidewalks no issues they recently put those sidewalks in at the top of one of your going down to the bike path those should be connected right to that school so that that
037whole street going up to that neighborhood otherwise you'll have you'll need 10 buses just to accommodate that area never mind the rest of the district that is assigned to it it'll be amazing those that that whole area has why would you need additional buses not to get into the weeds but why would you need additional buses if they're all headed out towards uh wherever they go Highland now why would you need additional buses because of it because of the um uh developments that are going on up there if you go down bearing you've got developments going on yeah those sides those kids would all continue to be those kids will have to be bossed while we're still dealing with the rest of the district that's now going to you know we're we're just gonna go
038do a little so those are those are new kids but I think an Apples to Apples is Chapman shuts down all those Walkers become Busters right right so that's the Apples to Apples kids or buses right they should become widers because there aren't the sidewalks yeah yeah the Marion Road I agree 100 I want the sidewalks there and yeah the development is there I've heard there's some houses out there yeah some nice Redevelopment but but I mean if I was a parent I would not want to I would never let my kid walk on Marion right now that's probably where that the new development down on um right on Route 10 and 691 it's probably where those kids are going to go right new school it's what 75 kids so the um the new uh
039evaluation of redistricting we consulted with a you know the same firm that did the last demographic study and the uh the proposed redistricting and they said that that should be available in 2025. uh that we should be doing that in 2025 you know it's if you read District now you could run into real issues um and we still have some flexibility with the new people who come online I mentioned the last board meeting that we're taking that group on off of dickerman and just moving that neighborhood to chat room to try and ease the overcrowding island before we get you know too much before next year and before people start moving in there um have any of those houses open yet no not not the ones off the dickerman okay when did they when do
040they start going on should be they're up there are a lot of them when do kids move in these are condos um like right at the beginning of the street as you pull out on the left they're just kind of putting a lot of finishing touches on that last time I was out two weeks ago it was an active construction area and they're not ready to move it but by the end of the summer no doubt so that we're probably not getting any new kids this school year no I bet before the school year ends they'll be in it I don't know about that I yeah I mean I think it's it's not going to be a big number of parents who are going to move their kids first and we were working with around
041that so it seems like that's more of an over the summer thing I mean next school year yeah yeah I don't think we'll see a lot at the beginning but I think by the end of this next school year we'll be filled yeah but then in August actually they're starting to move in so so two people so one more question on this the one mile the couple who are here before they said they're right at the one mile Mark I don't know exactly how precise that is but here's my question how is our policy written is it less than one mile or equal to or less than one mile it's just one mile one mile that's all it says they are 0.92 Miles driveway to 100 feet oh okay so they're 0.92 miles 0.92 miles
042and that's always becomes an issue for anybody that's right on the edge because depending on how you you measure it driving your car I understand what you're saying and this is just one way of looking at this they do not because it's a regular 100 80 60 foot Drive yeah it's not a big driveway okay okay we have um we use the gis map the town GIS map circuit we can actually draw a path and get the actual measurement yeah and the measurement from the edge of their driveway to approximately 100 feet to the closest door and Doolittle was 0.92 okay and so their route would be down sorghum a Long Mountain and then up Cornwall to Doolittle right no they're on wait it's perfect off a mountain uh Birds is off of sort of
043so it's garlic is awesome right because the pictures they showed was that that that corner they're showing foreign right and that's that yeah that forested area that and that's someone that's all going to be homeowners association because barclayage and sorghum Mill that's the same development homeowners association somebody's doing it contracted it's not usually it's not just somebody you're just gonna look it up hopefully yeah someone's responsible yeah okay yeah I mean if you want to if you want to discuss it further get more information yeah no yeah I would like to get more information I think the you know it if we just took these guys at face value and didn't expect or anything else in moving kindergarten to three quarters of a mile in first through six is three quarters a mile would be
044okay but looking long term you might want to make it all alone we're gonna yeah we're going to want to take a look at it that's what I think you and Ben should take a look at particularly as it relates to Marion and Jarvis you know because we're making a decision you know to implement let's say 23 24 um and 26 27 is dramatically different the one good thing is it looks like homework the farm was bought by bizuto so I don't see them developing in its neighborhoods God forbid if that was developed as a neighborhood that's all right I'm sorry I'm just looking at the map the gis map and it says open space there is a home on barclayage so at the corner of barclaysian Mountain that has a property but the stretch
045between barclayage and sorghum Mill probably two-thirds of it is open space right would be done by contractor which would be yeah homeowners association yeah yeah now there's two different so there's two different groups that two different people or entity that would be in control of that sidewalk there yeah two different homeowners associations no it looks like it's a homeowner as one property and then the homeowner's association is two-thirds of that stretchy sidewalk um actually no it's um it's even more than that it's that whole when you go up sort of Mill so you're driving down Mountain Road you turn up Silver Mill that big stretch of woods on both sides both sides are open space before you get up to the houses so the property start where you start to see the houses yeah so
046it could be two separate yes associations hmm when the school planning is doing the sidewalks they're going to need the hair for me [Laughter] thank you guys all right thank you because sidewalks you know they're always so well received here right yes yes yeah all right so this is really more or less something I just wanted to bring your to your attention because uh in years past that hasn't been much of an issue um but this year you'll likely hear people Express frustration um around this policy basically we established attendance areas which is zones for the elementary schools right and um people can ask the board you know mean they send me a letter and they say well I live in Norton you're familiar with the process oh yeah yeah yeah yeah right yeah but
047I I live in another neighborhood sometimes people move or sometimes whatever I I still I want my child to attend school in a different area than the one I live and historically I I don't even remember ever declining one it's the superintendent's prerogative based on Space to accommodate that we require those families to provide their own transportation however um because we just don't have the resources to there's depending on the school there could be like 25 kids that go to Highland or live in Highland but go to another Elementary School and the numbers oddly enough they balance out almost perfectly even um however we're in a position now where we have 852 students at Highland we're bursting at the seams doodle so for new requests that come in I'm probably going to have to decline
048a request to send my child to Highland this summer and what we've done is in the past we're because we've been understanding understandably more flexible we've kind of taken them on like a rolling basis you send it to us we generally send you an approval and you're good um this year I've told people we're going to hold all these things until after April break end of April then we're going to start to review them to look at the enrollment in each building and try and make the best decision you can um so you know sometimes for child care issues I want my kid to go here there or whatever um we may not necessarily be able to accommodate 30 additional students at Highland if you've already been enrolled there I'm not going to pull you
049out though so if if your child's been going to Highland for the last 40 years on one of these things I'm not going to pull them out to do the last two at another building you know it's just we want to try and maintain that continuity but adding new ones is going to be hard as many points so is this a policy question are you just informing us informing you just a discussion I I wanted you to be aware of it because you know it'll likely come up we're going to do our best to accommodate all the requests so what kind of accommodation is that then so it's not uh a student who lived in the area and then moved across town and still wants to stay at that school what sort of situation is
050this are these new new people yeah new people to the community or and they just heard that they that Highland has you know whatever they like all the time oh yeah our elementary schools have different two different things right right right so you know yeah this time is better than not nine o'clock or whatever it is a later start yeah you know I want my child to go to the chatting because that helps my work schedule or something right right you know those are the requests for new people that we get um if you moved across town I would still try and honor your child to attend the school they've been attending since kindergarten right um but if you're new it's a new request uh I may not be able to accommodate that and you
051know I just want you to be aware of that I have zero problem with that I mean it's unfortunate but yeah there's this seems to me it's driven in large part by increasing enrollment which is an issue we've had in front of us for several years now right and we're trying to solve it with school modernization so it's unfortunate but it's just the reality of the situation if this was three years ago or three years from now it might be a different answer right but at this moment in time that's why that's the and it kind of depends where if you're trying to get out of Highland you're pretty much guaranteed all right you're approved if you're trying to get into maybe not sure you know we're gonna have to sit down and evaluate the
052totality of the situation in front of us at May and April under the May and make decisions and when that happens you know I'll certainly update the board before that but yeah I take it the sixth grade population in Highland is not disproportionately large to the rest of the school because I think Norton and fourth and sixth grade are large yeah no that's I'm still gonna have a big number yeah no thank you sound like we're gonna have all this space when they leave yeah so I just want you to be aware of it thank you yep um the next one is a legal Edition this is very straightforward uh basically it's driven by title one which is federal law we receive federal funds to provide intervention supports not a lot this is actually very
053little uh back in the day we also only give it to Darcy to be honest with it because it was I mean it's not a lot of money if you're a title one IA you have to meet certain credentials per federal law we already need those credentials so this is just kind of a a moot point but it just isn't the additional training that that's the next one oh okay gotcha so this is just this just mirrors the yes the requirements for title one okay wait a second pair of Educators it says I'm just thinking that only the board May abolish a position that hit has created right we don't really I mean this is my perspective on it as a board we don't create any of these positions for teachers or teachers it's like
054you've come to us on some stuff I think more if it's a national current position uh-huh the board like so if I wanted to create a brand new position perfect example is Ryan Murphy's um you know Community coordinating position that we have and that was new we didn't ever have that position before God so I came to you the board approved that position a classroom teacher in third grade you know we already have that position that's just the number of third grade teachers we had or whatever so for example if um we saw a bump in enrollment at Norton third grade right over the summer and you know we have the discretion administratively to say oh my God we can't have 28 kids in class yeah yeah we um we add a third grade position
055that's not a new position it's not a new job okay so the way it's we have a lot of third grade teachers it's just you know modifying the numbers this is like a brand new role um if we were to abolish title one para Educators only the board could take that action if we so we're not yeah anymore yeah that's that's not gonna happen this is different from my role in the council because I mean if we were adding two new police officers it was not a new position right right the council vote on it yeah a new head count change yeah exactly but that's not what we do here no yeah okay because I we have questions when we had to hire we had a student woman who had substantial needs that required a
056one-to-one para educator we had to create a new we had to hire a new person for that you know that has to happen all the time and we reduce staff to all the time if that was yeah a board meeting every time we did it no no no yeah that would be all we'd be doing there's a lot of flux so the next one is Adam was mentioning uh this is that bigger there we go this is the one that uh references professional development time for para Educators and I hate to do this it's almost like what we did a couple of years ago at Adam when we were going through that um the graduation requirements for high schoolers the state kept changing it every seven minutes right there's already um legislation to change this
057so we'll adopt it and then in July we'll change it again but um the the uh teacher aids in Para educators it just kind of outlines the work of those individuals it outlines uh the requirements that they need to have so example two years of study uh in higher ed to secure and associates degree is that in a contract yes we have stuff outlined in contract about including like an associate's degree yeah okay I'll grab the contract no I'm just curious like if we wanted to change the policy would we even be able to change that part of the policies what I'm curious about if it's in the contracted the contract would supersede yeah yeah okay okay so again this is for the title one para professionals they have to meet those standards um and
058this is all you know been recently online so here's an example of things that could change exceptions to these requirements act as translators so I mean it's saying basically you could have a title one para educator who doesn't have an associate's degree for the purpose of translation services too in the state right now is going through you may have heard of the legislation around requiring school districts to provide translation services at all ppts and things as needed you know I would think that districts would really try and do that anyway what we use is an online service because you know finding a mandarin translator is not like on every street corner and so we we do this very cost effective and efficient way to do it this year was the first time we were able
059to successfully integrate that into our parent conferences in the fall and it's you know it's a real blessing because we have a lot of growth in our population of ell students but um ironically not a lot of growth in our ell Adult Ed yeah so off the top of your head do you know how how many parents Define it how you want parents households parent-teacher conference where the language is a barrier either a hundred percent or you're just using this as a tool like I know there's more than one oh yeah definitely but is it in the dozens or hundreds that have to be that information okay I'll ask Ryan no that's that's fine it's not I'm curiosity it's a quick question um Jeff do we have to change the title of this because if
060you're an educator yeah I mean um because they that teachers Aid is no longer used right it's not or I don't know if it's accepted term you know whatever but it seems like we're going to para educator yeah that's a good question I want to review that uh we had teacher aids but those are they work in the cafeteria with playground AIDS so that's a different race yeah so teachers Aid in this instance does not reference a teacher's aid in a cafeteria setting this references para Educators in a classroom setting right because it's specifically well it does talk about non-instructional duties in an education education so teachers aides also have to have an associate's degree and two years of education and additional training now our future aides cafeteria um AIDS they don't that's not required
061okay required so right we'll take a look at that and um so should we hold off or is should we not something okay moving forward and then um amend as needed in the next reading okay um because I mean you can talk about lunchroom duties here yeah seems to be mixing the two though and yeah and I think that's part of that is probably because of the federal language so I want to try and hash that out because the the reference the title one pair of professionals those a bit of a hybrid here so we'll we'll take a look at that and then the next part was what you were talking about out of the 18 hours of um professional development and you know we have permitted we have utilized most districts have there is
062a Litany of required professional development um or on online learning or however you want to look at it even I have to watch the bloodborne pathogen video every year um DCF is required every three years there's an extensive video of sexual harassment annually um there's there are a number of these PDS that were required to engage in that take many hours and um the state is now saying that that cannot be part of The Proposal that those mandated trainings can't be part of the 18 hours so we're looking to work through that process see what happens the latest mandated training for all people that work in the school is a two-hour in-person only um educational seminar on basically how to identify and intervene with sex trafficking um you know obviously all of us want to
063do everything we can to um we want to stop that we all care about children two hours for all of our employees every three years for the same session is a pretty substantial commitment I mean start starting to sound like you'll have to push the school year out a little more and add in like almost like a full day professional development yeah right I mean we've already done a lot in the sense that we dedicate several hours in the course of our first three days and we say here's what you can use this for mandated training or we release the videos in in August for the new year and say if you watch them in advance because you have to take tests online and you yeah you know files you away or whatever if you
064want to do it now those three hours are yours when you come in and then you know people do a lot of collaboration time because they don't want to sit there in a blazing hot school for three hours watching these videos so they try and knock them out at home and then come in and collaborate and do other things you know does that have to go through the contract no but this this wouldn't require a contract renegotiation or anything like that no we would have because I mean if you're adding a date of the school year or well effectively yeah effectively putting another eight hours 186 days 185 so 180 days five days or professional development three of those occur in August one occurs in November one occurs in March so it'd be a significant
065cost because then it wouldn't be it would be an additional day in the contract now right and so right what's our teacher salary budget line is that 40 million you got to take it's a lot I I was going to guess 40 million so it's actually 200 200 000 a year let's say um God conservatively 30 million right and divide that by 186 one hundredths one just divided by 185 that'll be the number of days you'd be adding yeah right and that would be the cost It's gotta be close to 200. 162 thousand dollars so that we could do mandated training behind a video I'm curious and and I I realize this is obviously a very sensitive topic but have you in your time here in Cheshire have you ever encountered anything that you would
066even remotely describe as sex trafficking in 18 years I have experienced one situation that was really almost unexplicable but not definitively anything like sex trafficking yeah okay the individual who's over 18 years old so okay I mean whether than that I'm not saying that it's not that this is not an issue that 80 years old but it's not that this is not an issue for Connecticut but it doesn't sound like and like that particular training is you know I um I mean that's this is not like it's a topic that's like people are unaware of yeah and we're all mandated reporters and we know to look out for those sort of sort of probably be precursors um but you know two hours in person every three years is a pretty substantial commitment what I'm also
067trying to get your child to be able to read or you know well adjusted socially and emotionally and everything else I can understand I can understand that the Mandate on the sexual harassment I mean to me in classic case is Andrew Cuomo you know he's his Governor he's like I'm just a touchy-feely guy okay but it depends on who the person is it's receiving it if that's appropriate or not so I understand the sexual harassment being something that people could learn more about and it is relevant this one just doesn't sound like it's relationship between the probability [Music] the cost to us to do this professional development is fairly significant yeah relative to the likelihood of engaging in an issue like that yeah it's like you know unfortunately in the aftermath of Nashville there are
068people who would want us to have an SRO with an AR-15 in the school there is an incredible financial and emotional cost of having of uniformed individual you know heavily armed capability the the well there is a potential risk involved you know it's not every day it's not of course I say that across Connecticut um it's it's too regular Across America once is too much but the emotional cost is more than I'm worried about than the fiscal cost of adding that sort of support and this this has a real fiscal cost to us running this PD um and the likelihood is to your point pretty slow yeah okay um anyway so for that I mean it really kind of feels like this one needs a rewrite because it seems like it needs to be divided
069into maybe two sections or to just yeah I mean it's already two sections I'm sorry it's already two sections but to differentiate because like again it says teachers aides but it doesn't really mean teachers AIDS needs needs to do this 13 hours right it's fair educators you know so I mean because because it sounds potential it could be a significant change after the first reading which I guess is yeah I kind of don't like the it's fine we can just review it as a first reading next time around honestly it probably isn't the worst idea because law may be codified by the time we get to the second reading and give us a chance to yeah so why don't we do that okay if you're comfortable we'll just when yeah when it's session end in
070May or I want to say it's June like 6th or something June 6th but if we don't do it right by the second meeting right yeah yeah so so we could just not make a motion to move this one forward right okay you know right okay the last item is homeschooling um there's a there's was an issue in another town a few months ago with a student who was attending in another School and wanted to play Middle School sports at their home school and the superintendent in my mind understandably so prohibited that the other kids in the school wanted to play and then the middle school stuff is not overseen by the ciac high school stuff is but they've got us thinking about you know homeschool requests for partial participation I think I've had that
071many times over the years and we've always rejected that whether I was a principal or a um a superintendent for a variety of reasons so if Sparky's homeschooled they have different or no vaccination requirements is one another is that the law says clearly you know you don't have to as a public school system entertain people coming and going another issue we have is around student discipline um you know so or grades uh if you're participating in one um one course let's say having you follow our schedule is a challenge um our position has always been you're homeschooled or you're not not the hybrid piece for some of the reasons I just mentioned so this it would be a revision to our policy to provide more clarity uh around that so we say that it may
072attend on a part-time basis only where a Tempe does not interfere directly or directly you know that sets up just a debating um that the partial seems contradictory anyway I mean to at least from people I know who homeschool their kids they don't really want any part of right that's the point right The Homeschool your kids but I think there's uh from my perspective I would prefer clarity that we don't do that right this leaves that well it provides a two-way street you're allowed to homeschool your kids right but you can't access the resources is that what this is saying what we would be saying is you're homeschooled or you're not right you're not coming part-time or you know doing the after school activities I couldn't see foresee a real issue with particularly around vaccination
073status which is God knows a hot button issue these days you don't you aren't required to have any vaccinations if you're homeschooled you are if you're Public School so now we're going to debate vaccinations that's what people will come in and the policy and they just would feel much more comfortable clearly stating you're homeschooled or you're not the part the other partners crossed out is participation in extracurricular activities is government you know by regulations the cic that I don't know that we need that in the policy and they only govern 9 through 12. they don't have anything to do with middle school so you know if we're saying you're homeschooled and you're not what ciec does is irrelevant I mean all those Ci's at the high schooler ever said well I want to play the
074cic wouldn't let you So currently or in the past have let's say at the high school level have we had homeschooled kids participate in in high school sports we have not pocic doesn't like it oh they don't like not at the high school level right so but you know we've had requests not a lot you know let's not get crazy here maybe a couple one a year to do things with the the middle in high school typically not not really so much at the Elementary grades I just want clearer policy around it right now it's our discretion and we don't haven't done it for the 18 years I've worked here I think there's a lot of present there if we could just change the policy it makes life more black and white moving forward that's
075where I'm coming from with regard to the vaccination I'm curious about that um what is the state law on that right now because it was a big to do this is before coven there's nothing to do over 93 at Highland and there was a religious exemption right and so I mean are we supposed to be at 100 because I'm thinking we do have kids unless the law changed we do have kids on the schools we don't have vaccinations anyway um not really anymore okay is very limited because the state um I think they've grandfathered it I want to remember but they no longer permit the religious oh okay moral exemption stuff so the numbers of people that don't have full vaccination status will certainly dwindle over time there was a real flat start of this
076legislative process that people were alleging that we were going to require that we the state of Connecticut was going to require coveted vaccinations but that's not accurate there was no request from dph to do so okay so that so the first point you're saying makes sense to me I mean you want to take medical I guess I guess I would think that a medical exemption would still apply in that situation it does but you know I'm talking about in relation to this oh yeah you're saying vaccination but if you're at home if you're a homeschooled kid what I'm saying is you're homeschooled yeah you made that decision to homeschool so I'm just gonna I want to parse this a little bit sure um what what services what benefits funding is provided to St Bridget's buses
077we pay for books nursing um do we do some special ed services do we do any of that for homeschool homeschool wouldn't have any transportation books we do nothing nothing right because I kind of feel like I mean I understand where you're coming from and I I'm feeling like this is a non-issue but I kind of also feel like there's a little bit of a double standard there like what would be the difference between Saint Bridget's and homeschooled that's what the state um requires of us to provide that for parochial for parochial school the state does not require offer and private oh so Chester Academy will be the same thing but they don't they know that they've never made a request okay so the state requires it for those schools but not for homeschooling correct
078okay got it okay yeah so it's okay any other questions no um then I will move that um policy number 422 teachers AIDS slash paraprofessionals and um policy 6172.3 educational instruction under parental Direction homeschooling be moved to a first reading second any discussion no all in favor unanimous of those present thank you and um while you're out while you're outside of the room um we discussed that there's going to be some additional alterations to 61.59 yeah the uh so we're gonna we're gonna leave that one for now yeah okay thank you um the the other two are second readings that we've already you know taken a look at um if you recall this is the one that we were talking about where Asian um Pacific Islander studies uh was integrated we added that piece about
079because there was some question about what year that was going to kick in if you remember for my last conversation so that's 25 26 school year uh Native American studies is effective the upcoming school year I want to say the state I can't remember if the state released it or it's impending a model curriculum on that I could get for Black and Latino studies let's just say you have a very lone Roman on the Native American studies a very wide very low yeah yeah okay yeah can you I can't remember where this dance are we allowed to do video learning where you could team up with a couple other school districts and offer a course because that was prohibited I think at one point wasn't it because of covid it got outlawed and the prohibition
080is that you can't do dual instruction which means you can't have kids in front of you and kids online at the same time except under certain circumstances which the last this current uh legislative session is trying to modify again but um at Cheshire high school we have we go and have historically gone out of our way to accommodate student interest so when I was principal there we designed a protocol based off of policy we had that outlines these various circumstances by which we'll even pay for you to take an online class okay so let's say you know Sparky took calculus in fifth grade or something by the time they get to Cheshire High School they've tapped out all the math we will still provide one math class to you to take online and we've had
081kids take class at Stanford or whatever like we've um you know done all sorts of stuff we will also you know work with other districts we've worked with community colleges to to provide access to courses so absolutely we will if there is an interest a real dedication to do that we will accommodate that do we solve the ram phones or uh what were those things called the uh we have the entire classroom set where wasn't it the Amplified classroom Amplified classrooms do we still have those of course and do we still use them to share with other schools or how is that because you said that you couldn't teach a class and remote kids at the same time so yeah so but the rampla flag classrooms if you will they are microphone systems that Connect
082into the speakers like we have in the ceiling and the teacher will wear that and just broadcast in the room that has real benefits as well so he's using on the lecture halls or something or no regular classrooms really yeah yeah isn't that oh yeah good morning class yeah yeah now it's it's not up that high but it's it's high enough that kids throughout the room can all clearly hear um what's happening at the front of the room is that a is that again not to get into the weeds but if uh a student had like uh hearing aids or something could they like use Bluetooth that there's something to tap into the system like you could have phone or I don't know that's what I'm aware of so just being help them here right
083it would just make it clearer and more audible wherever they are so you know in the day if you will the student with a hearing impairment they'd be pinned to that front row right in a class in this classroom they have the same flexibility as every other challenge yeah yeah well hopefully you still use that you get that dual use back because if I recall when the remote learning was happening those classrooms were the best to have for remote they were incredible because the audio was great the presentation was great and the kids were better to follow the student was at home to hear them yeah like they were right next to you and some classes you know it's through this the you know teachers computer speaker at the front of the room and hard
084to hear these are crystal clear through the ceiling you could hear it it was tremendous that's really cool it's great technology hopefully yeah you know yeah definitely one of the coolest things we did during code Yeah question so there's Clarity around these now when do you um when do you do class sign up at the high school already in progress yeah already done actually so do you have a sense of how many students are taking those classes do you have a fight class I don't at this time I I could get that you know I know the they're they're finalizing that so here's my only question so we've got these new mandated classes sure we'd probably have until the enrollment happens we probably don't have a good idea of how many students will actually enroll
085they're mandated to be offered um okay you know if you don't have enough enrollment you don't run it but oh you know for the black oh really yeah oh so if only one if one kid signs up for Native American studies you don't actually have to offer it yeah we're not running it got it okay all right so so um items 10 and 11 African-American black studies and Puerto Rican Latino studies is combined to one full year class currently correct Native American studies is also supposed to be a full year class correct or not I think that was one of our questions and the and the Asian American or uh aapi um Asian American classic I the state is putting together a model curriculum models okay so you don't know yet if those are each
086gonna separately be see I I wouldn't think those would be two uh populations or two cultures to be combined into one class right like well I don't know why the other one is either technically but well this the state they don't really pay attention um to the the there's a disconnect between interest and reality and essentially you know to to use a visual if your hand represents how many classes you can take in the course of your high school education in every class is a great thing to add to your hand eventually you're going to start dropping grapes there's no there's a there's a limit to what you can do I got a pretty big hand the the classes that they keep adding the requirements so the latest one is um uh pers excuse me
087personal finance now I'm a huge proponent of that uh we began requiring that when I was high school principal so you offer at the middle school which is great we offer it yeah it's just a powerful when you think about the financial issues our country has and the skills that kids need to be successful it was just um I couldn't understand why we weren't making that a requirement at the high school it's a very popular class kids get a lot out of it um but the state is now going to require it which okay that's fine I think it was our prerogative to do it but how many things are you going to require and I mean that's going to be a requirement like we do these are required to be offered but you know
088the the number of requirements that they keep adding make it so that all you're going to be able to do is the requirements at some point because there's just not enough hours in the day so that's the great part about high school is you can have someone else you get a little exposure yeah right you take different courses of interesting the consistent you know this is a good idea we need to offer it we need all right it's one thing to offer it's not easy but it's one thing to offer the mandates on the courses is what's tough and then this is another additional mandate that's required I hope it Giants with what we're doing so as far as we know then aapi and Native American will remain separate correct from each other but possibly
089and unknown if it's full year currently right and again something's hitting me about the Native American studies but I don't think that they did Issue the model curriculum yet right in the model curriculum is what's going to create the syllabus right pretty much you know I can't remember ever signing up for a course where I didn't first see the syllabus it just makes no sense course description would be nice even okay the second is a follow-up to this one that require this is all the required oh yeah the ones and there's the language again Asian American specific calendar studies beginning 2025 um Puerto Rican Latino commencing 2021 Native American 2023 and then the other courses that are required to be offered we already have we already offer you know uh computer programming and American Sign
090Language so not the belabor the point but the policy is separating African-American and Puerto Rican Latino studies but the ma what was it the model the model curriculum combines the two they do okay so that's from this from the state department of Ed combines to two into one course right even though we separate them here and this is kind of taken right from language okay all right just I just wanted that point of clarification all right okay yeah fair question so that's just that's the only adjustment in here and now it's really all statutory yeah language okay so um any further questions on that um move uh to uh move for a second reading um policy number 6140 curriculum and 6142 basic instruction um is there a second second any discussion no uh all in
091favor unanimous of those present fantastic um okay well uh we're on to item six other um I have no other at this time Tim does not Sam is not here so we moved to a German on paper oh go ahead make the motion motion to return I will second all in favor all right we are adjourned at 7 58. thank you everybody um