001this meeting to order this meeting of the Cheshire Board of Education policy subcommittee Miss jaczynski call the roll please sure Mr grippo here Ms Rosenberg and Mr White here okay sounds like we have a quorum oh yes we do sorry um I'll rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign okay uh Dr Sullen is there any um public comment from our previous meeting or current meeting uh no there is not okay um then I guess we'll move into um item three which is a review of policies for discussion and possible first reading um so I guess uh Dr Solon I'll hand that over to you sure um
002I'll present screen if you guys don't mind uh so everybody at home can see the policies that we're discussing uh the first item is a revision of current policy that focuses on instruction and curriculum uh the reason for this change the actual original policy was adopted in 1997 uh and as you can imagine there have been updates uh in terms of law since that time and where you're going to see it is really uh predominantly from eight down uh that's where the greatest changes are though there were additions since 1997 in number four and of course this entire time we've been following the law but it hasn't necessarily been reflected in this policy so we needed to add the African-American and black studies which along with the Puerto Rican and Latino studies which was adopted
003by Connecticut uh this is the pilot year which we've been participating in next year will be required offer um and you know it's been a successful class at CHS a number of students taking that course uh Native American studies my statue is supposed to be offered for next year unfortunately there hasn't been any draft curriculum or anything shared is it's related to that I do know people are working on it but we haven't seen anything uh at this time uh and then you know the other stuff is things that we've already engaged in computer programming that we offer several World languages in vocational education at the secondary level so this is really a formal statement of what we already provide uh just updating the policy manual to reflect that foreign so as far as the
004so as far as Native American studies go the the curriculum is there supposed to be a uh a draft curriculum coming down from Hartford or from the state department of Ed yeah sde that is supposed to like they did for the Black and Latino studies um unfortunately that hasn't been produced yet you know I think you guys know that there's been a lot going on the sde with um pretty lean staff there so that we haven't seen that yet but hopefully soon it's hard to offer a course when it hasn't been very clear about whether it will be a semester a year you know what if the course entails it's hard to drum up interest um particularly as you guys know that the ever increasing course requirements make elective opportunities more limited because there's only
005so many hours of the day so we'll see what what comes of that I know Sam has a question um yeah just uh before I go to Sam so as far as the curriculum goes there is that um I guess I I suppose it would be uh uh also appropriate to apply to uh African-American studies and Puerto Rican Latino studies it was that is it like a skeleton like a curriculum that comes down from Hartford and then our staff gets to kind of fill it out with items that we feel are appropriate or is that it's whatever Hartford gives and then we find uh books and materials that kind of go uh yeah that's that's a great question Adam it's interesting with the black and Latino studies class I would call it the opposite of
006a skeleton it was so dense there was so much material that it's really impossible um to get through it uh in a year so uh that's a situation where there were a lot of resources that had to be pared down um and uh that's what we've been doing through this this year so I don't know what the Native American studies will look like it'd be great to have it be more of a like you said skeletal framework that we can elaborate or both upon at the end of the day I mean we we still have the capacity to adapt uh even with the black and Latino study we we couldn't offer it all nobody could offer it all in a year and that's the way it was designed so I think that feedback's been heard
007at the state level so uh to be determined I guess with back to the Native American studies and then that would go through curriculum eventually yes absolutely and I know that the curriculum committee has seen the you know presentations From Dawn and Aaron who are teaching the Black and Latino studies I know Tony's daughter actually took the class so there's a lot of folks that are in a little number of kids their option for the kids and you know our feedback is that it's really tough as I was saying about the number of required classes if we want to make elective classes more attractive to students to take a full year full credit uh it can be tough to add that into uh already packed schedule but you know what we haven't seen what the
008plan is yet with the proposal is which then would increase our comp we'd have to consider the increase in our teaching complement and so forth too yeah it would probably come in you know the expense of another elective course that maybe doesn't have a high enough enrollment unfortunately you know there's a lot of horse trading that occurs when you get to the end of the period when all of our students enter all of their elective course offerings and require of course offerings where we're trying to determine how many sections can we offer of each course and where I appreciate you know in a perfect world we'd be able to offer every class but there just aren't enough hours in the day there aren't enough sections that and so um we try and accommodate the vast
009majority and generally we're really good about that and if uh certainly I know that when situations arise let's say you're a senior and you have a burning desire and your schedule maybe even by your choice doesn't allow you to accommodate an elective maybe I really wanted to take the Black and Latino studies class but it falls the same period as the the only AP Physics section that I really really need to take for my major but and so we'll work with students to say all right how can we do some sort of independent study is there an online course or are we really try and accommodate particularly uh the the older our students are you know you start to run out of opportunities so this really just reflects what the law requires us to offer
010and we do this and more so um so is the intention then to have the Native American studies course to be a competing course with the uh black and Latino studies course it's not not to be meant to be combined into words they'd be independent of one another so if they were ended up being full-year courses then you would potentially have to use two two years to to take both essentially yeah because it'd be really tough to fit two full-year elective classes into a typical schedule that already has math English science social studies and a world language for many of our students and then two elective courses on top of that with PE and health requirements um it's tough gotcha okay um are there any other questions or comments on this Tim thanks thanks Adam
011there you go seriously like in general is the idea to take any of these courses and bake them into other courses that you have like not necessarily next year but long term um no um you know they're there there is some overlap with some of them um but most of them are basically independent of each other we've looked at at options of combining classes like fulfilling uh certain uh Health requirements through things like psychology but that's the state prohibits that so you know that there's a pretty clear distinctive uh paths here okay all right I was just curious thank you yeah good question I mean we've certainly explored that I just yeah the thing that went through my mind is you know maybe history was written in a certain way and it comes to light
012that uh Pythagoras was the second person to write the Pythagorean theorem I I have no idea that that really was where I was just coming from as we you know as Society it looks at this more and understands uh history could be you know have more to it um that's where that's all I was thinking about thank you yeah I guess that is a good point that that uh perhaps some of the revelations that might be uncovered in those courses would not make it to the mainstream history courses or that's that's sort of unknown at this point I'm not making that you know our standard history courses right you know a typical curriculum and I and I think you know you'll hear amongst curriculum people I know Sam will appreciate the the line that you
013know curriculum is a living breathing document you know that people say that all the time I hate that hokey phrase but it what they're trying to say is that I think what you guys are just pointing out that it's always changing things are always evolving and you know whether it's Pythagorean's Theorem or Fred's theorem or whoever came out you know we have to adapt when the new as new information comes to light I think you see some of that in this um this policy where they talk about things like climate change you know I know that's something you're passionate about Tim and you know this is you know something that we have to explore and continue give new information evolves and how do we make sure that's reflected in what we provide for our kids
014thank you and um and just to be clear these are electives right there oh those classes are elective yeah okay at the secondary level yes okay is it what because I know some of the some of the items in the policy the way they're written they're specifically say secondary yes so I wasn't sure if they needed to be um specific or not or if they're meant to be open-ended yeah I think it's meant to be you know open-ended in the K-12 environment like the the uh the curriculum that was put out by the state for the African-American and plaque and Latino studies that that was specifically prescribed for a High School population so most of this stuff is is frankly High School population right and they're always adjusting when students received career Edge so you
015know transition planning is supposed to start in like sixth grade now so career career education and that that was something that's I guess relatively newer as you look at this like math has always been there trying to think but right and so that's the these curriculum changes derive from state law correct not just necessarily administrative directive from Department of Ed this is like the law passed first and now this is not enacted through the yeah so we all understand the audience understands that it's not just state of uh you know Department of Ed saying uh let's teach this now it's the the legislature debated and passed that law signed by the governor and then right now we're enacting into our policy okay how this feels familiar uh what's with 6142 because I think we had
016spent because I I think I saw 6142 was revised in 2020 which means that we had kind of had this discussion before it feels like and uh um and I wasn't entirely sure what the differences were between the two there's really no difference it's just how they're uh where they fall in our policy manual and uh the context right right so yeah basically say the same thing right um okay I see him go ahead just real quick this doesn't call I don't know if it coincides with the teaching of the Holocaust and general side policy isn't there a policy on that too Dr Solon yeah that um that's in I was in for 2020 definitely yeah that I believe is indicated um in number nine for the okay this this uh 6140 revised draft includes
017social studies citizenship economics geography government history and Holocaust and genocide education and awareness but you know I mean dating back to 2005 when I was an assistant principal at Dodd and we were you know we were taking kids to the Holocaust Museum and teaching them about the the genocide and Darfur with if you're a global citizen you're aware of these things that occur you know it's a global issue that our kids should be aware of um okay is there any other comment on okay um I guess we can move on to 6142 okay is um Adam I already mentioned this is going to feel eerily similar to 6140 and you can see the highlighted section that's added down here that's uh talks about you can see is you know Sam just mentioned Holocaust genocide education
018awareness but then these are new uh expectations that it were added the Asian American and Pacific Islander will cross-reference that I saw that earlier and I noticed it wasn't in 6140 so we'll cross-reference that and make sure that that piece was added it needs to be in the other because I thought that was relatively new I think that's just um that's after the African-American and black studies was added but we'll take a look back and confirm that for the second reading but in essence as I was saying this is what was uh added in recent years uh aapi would also be a full year competing course not sure but we're not sure if that's a full year um or a half year like the Native American I haven't seen the Asian American Pacific Islander studies
019either is that not yet we don't know yet the Native American is definitely should be offered per the the statute for September 23. I don't know about the Asian Pacific Islander one because I think it reads July 1 21. it does here but I I'm not sure that that's accurate I want to double check that all right Sam go ahead I think you had your hand up no I that's what I was trying to point out is the 2021 just to my knowledge I believe the Asian American was supposed to be like 25 26 and on top of that it's supposed to cover K-12 not just secondary but again I could be just a API or are you the API yeah that's strange that uh but that one would but not the others yeah and
020well you know they all go through the legislative process and it's [Music] um it's it's you know there's not a consistency I think that's one of the frustrating you know experiences that we have within education and uh on Boards of education so I guess it passed through the 2022 session yep I'm trying to see real quick where it's PA 1912 is that a legislative reference uh yeah Public Act 1912. and I'm looking through and as Sam said that's uh K-12 with the AAA uh Pi studies unfortunately the bill is 50 pages long so for me to be able to find it off the top of my head uh quickly looking through it's um 1912 is 50 50 pages long the the bill with the aapi is not in 1912 the Black and Latino studies was
021but the uh bill with the um Asian-American Pacific Islanders as public act 22-80 so that's why I I do want to make a reference check on that and make sure that's ironed out there's so many semicolons in that sentence or that paragraph It's hard to know what the references are what what things are referencing maybe that needs to be broken out a little bit perhaps yes you know yeah now whereas is uh is this thing there right so yeah we'll uh we'll clean this one up for our next meeting but I think at the end of the day you know I can verify that aapi black and Latino Puerto Rican uh studies are all new inclusions yeah I think I think we could agree on that yeah when they are I mean the state like
022I said still hasn't put out anything on uh Native American or Asian American studies so when it comes to fruition your guess is as good as mine but this is but yeah I think it'd be good to know when they begin and and uh what the the depth and breadth of the uh right yeah and that'll be reviewed obviously by our curriculum committee as well yeah okay I think something something to be proud of is I think we're the first state that's moving this stuff forward you know the definitely the aapi yeah that I know Tim you got uh your hand up yes uh thank you Adam so just to be clear so that the state is going to tell us the the term or the length of each course and when it starts by
023requirement yes and we don't have the aapi or Native American out there okay the only thing that struck struck me as something to consider do you happen to remember I don't know if we still offered do you happen to remember the class pegs do we have it still I'm sorry did you say eggs pegs Adam's got to remember pegs pegs no I'm not familiar with that politics it was sophomore it was sophomore year social studies basically it was uh politics economics government and sociology the I'm not sure if you offer any classes right now or any courses right now that are less than a half less than a semester but it was actually broken down by quarter it might be a starting point I don't know just a thought yeah we only offer quarter uh
024classes in health um okay so you do it yeah the the uh it's like putting a puzzle together though you know if you it's hard to take a quarter class unless you've got something else to balance off with and right now they're balanced off with PE um so what I so what I'm not sure about the health classes but the way pegs was designed it was a full credit class it was whatever we did at that point you know five days a week called four days a week now um but it would uh yeah it was it was it was a the full period every day of the week for the entire year for one quarter each but I'm just thinking something like the aapi and the Native American studies do it as a half
025semester do it as each of them one quarter um if there's a teacher who's interested and you can start building up a curriculum and building up some sort of interest in the course just a thought yeah you know I'll email you at bill that references the aapi it is uh slated to begin July 1 2025. so so it's a ways off yeah and I still I think we still have to hold off on whether it should be a half year or a full year course based on the state yeah yeah that we won't know but usually in here we don't identify the lengths of the course or the number of credits there is a different policy that indicates the number of credits that students need for each course so yeah my only point was it
026could be offered before it's mandatory anyway for something that does not meet the requirements but just to try to get it the ball rolling on it that's all I think the the benefit of waiting that we we've seen is you get a lot of resources that were curated um so is a starting point as opposed to building the the plane and then trying to find you know fly it then yeah no first movers can be tough you can win and you can lose too yeah and then you build you spend all this time money and energy creating a curriculum that you think is great and then the state put something else out says you have to teach X Y or Z and it's like oh as well thank you sure um so should we excuse
027me move this to a first reading or do we want to wait until uh we have that paragraph cleared up or I guess we can kind of do it at the same time I suppose let's take a seat yeah I see if there's something that like is substantive to clear up we just do it at the second reading yeah okay yeah it's a relatively minor adjustment plus if we don't do it now we're going to be right up against the end of the year anyway yeah I think my preference would be to just move it forward and then if you guys don't mind and then we can make that those relatively minor adjustments uh you know we pull from the cave so I'm a little surprised that they didn't have that updated but we'll uh
028we'll double check it and go from there yeah I mean I'm comfortable with this I prefer to just move it forward and keep it going all right um then I will uh make a motion uh to move UH 60 61 for let me get that correct names here um oh these are those are the actual names this is just curriculum and basic instruction yes okay I'm not too jazzy yeah I was like oh okay um so uh move uh policy number 6140 curriculum and 6142 basic instruction uh to a first reading is there a second do I see a hand uh Tim second um any discussion on the motion Sam so we'll just do modifications at the second read then I just want Clarity in well I don't know this well this wasn't the first
029reading though it wasn't on the agenda as the first reading so technically the okay the next one be the first reading officially this is really discussion impossible first reading so this would be a first reading okay all right which gives us the flexibility of yeah we still have two more to make adjustments okay thank you okay I think you know Thursday when we give the curriculum report he'd say that you know we're in the process of updating some dates but just you know this is what is evolving stay tuned for final yeah okay um any other discussion or questions um all right seeing none um all in favor it is unanimous all right thank you and um we will move on to two policies for a third reading Dr Solon thank you if you recall
030I mean this one was the the ultimate formality that the board had adopted our goals in the fall but it's this is a unique situation where the board adopts our goals and then we have to put them into the policy manual so uh if you recall our focus is on complex thinking and social emotional learning that that really hasn't changed uh and these are the The Guiding principles the vision of The Graduate I know this will obviously all look familiar and then we're taking out the old goals that we have the the 16 goals that you know as I've often pointed out even working in the district for a long time nobody could tell you what the 16 goals were uh but you know now certainly people are really familiar with complex thinking and social
031emotional learning and then our performance standards were updated uh because I'm sure you'll remember Adam through the uh personalized learning task force several years ago we had many meetings with a really dedicated crew who spent a lot of time updating that and taking feedback from the community is we did this last time around as well uh including the business Community your community that parents and staff and students so that's why you know I feel really strongly about these because it really is reflective of the the thoughts of our our community any comments or questions okay great I don't have any either so the next one uh again you know by the time we get to a third reading I feel it I don't wanna bore you but uh we have the third reading around uh
032nepotism and it reflects some updates within the law you'll see you know again we took out civil unions because they no longer live exist in Connecticut uh and then the big one is for purpose of this policy of formant shall be considered a supervisor because there's a specific carve out that Foreman are not considered supervisors and and when we further press that we learned that you could build that into your specific policy and so we ultimately made that change any questions or comments no okay um well then that being said uh make a motion to move uh policy zero zero two five strategic goals uh performance standards and four one one two dot eight slash four two one two dot eight nepotism employment of relatives um to a third and final reading and for a
033consideration by the full board is there a second 10 seconds um any discussion or comment seeing none all in favor it's unanimous great um let's see uh Dr Solon do we have anything under other I know I don't have anything we do not okay um I'll let someone else entertain a motion for a German for our all entertain a motion for a German Sam seconds okay oh oh wait wait wait hold on let's not get ahead of ourselves Sam go ahead I just for uh is there any way that I've sewn Just for future meetings we can and kind of visit the equity policy I don't believe we have one we do not yeah yeah typically I mean if you talk to the chair and the uh of the committee we could add that to
034the agenda do we have um what would the equity policy be referencing something from Cabe there are drafts there are certainly draft Equity um I would point out while we're considering that I mean this is I know this is a different policy altogether but there's also a civility policy that we had talked about at one point that's the only reason I bring it up again is not to just really overdo it but to indicate uh if you recall earlier this year we were cited by cave as being a board with exemplary practices and uh one of those things is I'm always trying to see if we can do a little bit better one of the things that would Elevate us to the next tier of that recognition is a civility policy as well so certainly
035you know Mr grippo and you know Miss Rosenberg if you guys want to talk about adding anything potentially certainly not to lead you out to because Sam brought it up you know there's uh there's room there we could certainly add that to the agenda as far as civility policy is that something we've looked up before um we did and I think this this group uh at the time felt it was worth review and then uh I think just because of what we were going through at the time there was a concern that and I know it wasn't the intent of this group that it might be perceived as us trying to stifle public comment I think right now we're we're operating in a different environment than we were uh two years ago when we were
036you know initially looking at that it was a you know when we were in the throes of uh mask again and all that other stuff uh and so you know maybe now we're in a different place to consider that uh and it might be interpreted differently perhaps you know food for thought Food For Thought yes I need to share those with you guys um ASAP and that way it'll give you an idea of what we're talking about to determine whether or not you feel it should be added to the agenda I think it I think it'd be good especially with all the work that Tony's doing on the cave side to promote you know the civility practices and so forth I think we're in position now to try to move that forward you know yet
037again I think this group thought that before it was just a sensitivity that it not be and I'll certainly send those to the you guys and you can take a look at those drafts and then determine if you want to add that to the agenda or not yeah on the on the civility thing I'll just mention that I mean my recollection was there were kind of two pieces to it there was staff and then elected officials and the staff is the bigger concern for me for me personally as one of seven board members I kind of feel like as much as I don't like what happened a year ago and I think this is our anniversary right now this Thursday's meeting um you know if someone wants to come to a meeting and point the
038finger at me and be very very direct about what I'm doing wrong in their opinion I think that's I think that's appropriate it depends exactly where it goes and that's that's what's difficult for me defining that but I definitely have a lower tolerance for um staff being mistreated than myself personally sure anyway that that was part of where I was coming from on it that's it for me yeah so um you know we'll uh we'll pull up some drafts and we'll see what we have and you know kind of go from there so um there we go nice move I'm gonna go I'm gonna watch this video back just to see if the thumb pops up on the screen during the video playback uh anyhow um all right well that being said um I will
039now officially uh entertain a motion to adjourn is there a second 10 seconds um all right all in favor we are adjourned thank you good night everybody Happy Valentine's Day