001good evening um welcome to the board of education uh policy subcommittee it is uh i believe february 8th at 6 30 p.m um uh miss jacinsky uh the roll call please yes let's see mr grippo here mr white here mr rosenberg mr chairman you have a quorum great thank you um i'll rise for the pledge i don't know mr sullivan were you ready with a flag i am oh fantastic somewhere here this i'm gonna wait though i'll wait i i think we finished by the time we got the flag up last night no pressure of course okay 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 [Music] okay you know dr sullin um
002with if the governor's executive orders expire at the end of this month right 15 then on the oh on the 15th so we can't hold these meetings anymore after the 15th i mean virtually that's a really good question that i'm not sure i will look into that very good question as i we were working on some policies last year thinking oh well we're probably not going to need them and you know all that kind of stuff and here we are and you know sometimes subcommittee meetings are better this way because you record everything you know the audio is better for your presentation kind of works out better so i guess maybe we'll have to add that's the agenda for next month i guess yeah it's a good question we'll look into it yeah okay um
003so for this evening um um i guess we'll begin with a public comment does there any public comment on any policy uh on the agenda that we are going to be reviewing this evening no sir okay and i guess we'll go to the uh first revised policy now so my understanding are these all um legislative changes that we're reviewing this evening right they're all driven by um legislation okay great well then i guess i'll uh hand the meeting over to you all right so the first uh policy on the agenda is one one zero one uh a it is communications with the public the original um the last time it was updated was 1997 and i'd like to think that our communications have dramatically evolved since that time you can see in the policy some
004of the uh changes that were made number three here that was redlined basically is still relevant it's just addressed further down and so what you see here in the the gray highlighted much of that is driven from actually nine down is legislatively driven uh number eight we just updated for uh well now excuse me that's legislatively driven too um it's stuff that i mean obviously we've offered conferences multiple times a year you know certainly since you know after 1997 but what's really different is that it really addresses these periods of remote learning which at this point is moot but it's in the law even though remote learning isn't allowed by law yet so um i don't know i guess this is a preemptive and we're required to have it in our policy as i said
005even though it's not in the law yet um okay um is there any comment on uh this policy revision mr white i think you're muted uh with regard to drop-in hours and home visits number eight is that like for special ed or or special situations so uh communication a home in school regular two-way meaningful communication and it it outlines a variety of strategies so options okay drop in hours for parents not requirement but it's um a variety of options okay no that's fine i mean because i know we have the parent teacher conferences at least twice a year i think it's october and march yeah that's all i was wondering about yeah and also the the at-home visit struck me as time consuming to say the least no and i can i can see situations
006working yeah it's very rare yeah okay yeah door-to-door administration is ultra time consuming i guess it's good that it sort of codifies a remote meeting because i don't know if that was there before you know i don't know if it was necessary um but to have a teacher conference you know via google meet or something like that you know that is one of the silver linings you know adam you open talking about the benefits of the remote meeting i know tim you've been a proponent of that in terms of flexibility for board members and public participation and so there are some silver linings from the pandemic and the remote conference is definitely one of them um wanna move on to number two yeah uh uh do we have to oh yeah we don't have to
007do anything yet right okay they're all first yeah yeah okay so the second one i feel like this is a deja vu moment for us adam because you and i have talked about this on numerous occasions the graduation requirements oh again here we are again yes uh definitely a deja vu moment and i want to get down to really the new language um and it's reflective of the school student success plans uh the honor after july 2022 the um success plan shall to the extent that it doesn't conflict with career choices including academic planets compliance with the board's challenging curriculum policy so basically student success plans are something we start sixth seventh grade with students they go through career exposure and choices to give them interest inventories and we use that ultimately as students enter
008and matriculate through high school to be able to [Music] select coursework and maybe at some point college interests but um basically this is saying that it should the student success plan should kind of correlate with graduation requirements and um that's you know the part that mr zinski there is is highlighting um and so i mean that's pretty straightforward but it's required by law um and then uh this was just an error that we saw in the policy where it said that graduation date this is recent change in law the graduation date for students and grades can be 180 days from the first day school so what that allows a district to do is if they wanted to set the graduation date on a friday let's say on the 181st days or the 180th day of
009school if we had multiple snow days that carried the school year into next week you could still have the seniors graduate on that day i think it's great in theory in practice it's really difficult to say all right this is going to be your graduation day even though we have five snow days well then you have to really reconfigure final exams and everything else it makes it uh really challenging so what we've been doing this year with the three snow days we've had is just add days on to the end of the year and we'll set the date to give enough time to reasonably plan and if there's a flukey storm or something that closes school we'd still hold it on that day that we planned but we don't have to worry about the possibility
010of it being four days or something like that um so with the 88th day does that mean i'm sorry yes 188th day so does that mean zero because we're required by law in the if not 88 correct it's a little confusing because the student calendar we're required to have 180 days of school that could be half days whatever just contact days teachers however in their contract have 185 days so they work the five days where we don't have kids you know a few days before a day after the year and some professional development in the middle so it's the one one eight zero one hundred eightieth day yeah from the first day absolutely gotcha gotcha okay so those are pretty simple changes but there are changes so we we have to bring it forward um
011the uh i guess uh comment i had is so when it's listing um career and academic choices is this um language that we put in of course this is the legislative language this is the legislative language that's more like a stem language and then uh yeah so the student success plans um when the students are developing them usually with a school counselor um you can't select a whole bunch of courses that have nothing to do with the the curriculum policy [Music] you can't say well i'm gonna take four cat uh classes in petting cats well yeah that's great but that's not gonna help you graduate you know um i use an intentionally absurd example there to drive home the point but you can't you have to have coursework and experiences that align and allow you
012to graduate oh sorry so it's aligned to the core curriculum then well allowing to graduation requirements okay because i was thinking specifically about perhaps adding in uh the word trades or or manufacturing and i wasn't sure if that's yeah that that is a cor that path which we have uh pathways for trade work in in our schools that is matriculating you toward graduation so that would comply so do we need to list that or is that this is like um uh not excluding or i forgot what's the the legal legalese not inclusive or right yeah it's it's not i mean there's not exclusionary language in here okay um so you know anything that supports the matriculation toward uh graduation is acceptable and i wouldn't wanna um single items out for fear of excluding other items
013you know just being open anything that helps you get to graduation that's part that can be part of your plan got you okay tim any comment yeah no thank you uh well thanks for clarifying that because i was wondering about it it's i actually it doesn't make me really comfortable when it just like singles that out it kind of steers kids in that direction and i get it it's stem i think there's probably you know good job opportunities in those fields but it's still it's like go do these don't think about the other stuff anyway um i do have a question on this topic although it's not what we're discussing right now and i didn't read through that i didn't see it in the policy um do we have anything that requires four years of
014attendance or do we just have the 22 credit rule in order to graduate it's uh just based on it and i okay good i say that just for anybody who might be watching it for you too jeff just understand um i'm not a believer that every student needs to be in high school for four years and if somebody was done with everything in three and a half and it was the right situation for that student i'd be perfectly comfortable with the student graduating at that time i think a lot of students probably four years is is good but not necessarily all so i'm glad that we don't have a four year requirement in there and it's just the credits get the credits then you can be done yeah it's a rare bird but we've done
015it yeah good no and yeah i'm not saying it's common by any means but i could i could definitely see the situation where it it could be the the best option for students that's that's all for me awesome thank you is that like the kid genius clause it's honestly it's it's not it's that's not my thinking i actually was i actually was sort of like pushing it about 20 years ago when i was still on that when i was on the council but um one of the people who came to the meeting back then was jerry brittingham and he kind of agreed with me at least to you know the former board chair he kind of agreed with me at least to the extent that he didn't go into college not every student does he
016went in the military and it's just i i just i i don't like the idea and i you know i hear it from people sometimes where it's four years of high school and then go to college and i think that's great for a lot but there are other pathways to your life to success so that's all i was thinking and it's not it's not just it's not just the g yes it could be anybody well that that would also open if um like if a student didn't make it to graduation they dropped out or or whatever you know life got in the way so that's if they came back for their ged it's that sort of lays out that for that requirement for adult education correct yeah yeah certainly pick up those core content areas
017uh ged is a little bit of a different angle but you would okay um take whatever credits were accrued and you're right pick up there there's also something called the credit diploma program which is a more traditional pathway adam like you're talking about ged is a little bit different in terms of just being exam based uh in preparation for passing that exam gotcha but the credit also program would be exactly what you're talking about well so you don't necessarily have to take courses to get your your diploma you just have to pass an exam that's but okay yeah you know i i don't consider myself a ged expert but as i understand it you once you reach a certain age you can take the exam okay gotcha um all right i guess um are there
018any other questions tim no i'm good sure sam is probably amassing her questions for the end i'm guessing um all right jeff let's continue on okay so the next item is uh grading systems in the law required information on weighted grades uh and we did have information in our policy already around weighted grades and everything that's highlighted there is required um a lot of it was in our handbook or mixture of policy we're just calling it out specifically as the um the law required okay obviously when kids enroll um you know i actually am just finishing up that process with my own son it's crystal clear uh certainly in cheshire's handbook and in powerschool what classes the weighting of those classes etc that you're enrolling in so we do make that clear in a number
019of areas for students and families in the in like i said power school and in the handbook in the course selection guide so it's already there so in instance we did not specifically say we were in favor of weighted grading in our policy exactly yeah this this would be validating that that you're so what a weighted grading protocol takes courses that are more rigorous let's say ece or ap courses and gives them a higher grade point average for the purpose of uh you know gpa calculation so you'll have a weighted grade calculation just recognizes those courses that are harder right okay tim yeah so i haven't i have not been involved in this discussion before my kids aren't there yet and this far i don't know i don't think we had it when i graduated
020in 1990 what are the so what what are the um drawbacks to the weighted grading what's the counter argument to it i mean because to me on the surface it sounds good but i'm sure there's got to be some drawbacks to it right sure so um you could hear that it's not necessarily fair that a student who has a greater capacity gets a benefit of taking a more rigorous course but generally speaking across connecticut it's adopted practice as a matter of fact i don't know of a school system that doesn't have any weighted grading um it incentivizes students to take more rigorous coursework and therefore we see it is is beneficial um and it does support the like i said the gpa when you do do that okay is it now and also is this
021something you said we're we're required to put this in by state law or the counter the weighted average is required by state law i thought when we started the meeting you said all these basically were driven by yeah this is this is a statutory change to include this in your in your policy language okay so to we have to include the language assuming we have weighted grades but if the board chose to not have it that's an option and then there would this would not exist correct the law just says if you have it you need to have in the policy right okay all right okay i mean you just have to be clear about it and this is this is a first reading right yes yeah okay yeah you know what i'll do for
022the next reading is get you guys the you know kind of the courses that i'll show you through our handbook how it's outlined yeah i mean i'm comfortable with this it just kind of strikes me that as when we started talking about it that there would be some people who would be uh not in favor of it i'm not saying myself but i just want to know yeah i guess the potential exists so yeah when we come back next time i'll i'll pull you the classes and uh give you some more information on it okay yeah i'm comfortable moving forward that at this point yeah first reading okay um okay next policy this one's gonna feel eerily familiar as well seeing as we just uh worked on this i don't get the date i think
023it was just last year yeah oh yeah yeah june 3rd 2021. so more updates for us um let's see again it's all pretty straightforward the gist of this update is that it wasn't uh expressly identifying birth to three qualified personnel now obviously in the cheshire public schools we hold those people in great reverence we're the only birth to three program housed in a school system in connecticut and so these are our people making these recommendations at ppt's uh they're more than qualified to make those recommendations and so where where you see these policies updated it's to expressly indicate that you know we have to give them a voice at the table for uh ppt's you know the individualized education plan meetings that we have so you know you'll see here in the gray it's specifically
024calling out birth to three [Music] the other item is something that you know you guys are familiar with the transition component shifted from 16 years of age to 14 years of age the other thing that's not necessarily i don't think specifically called out here though it goes to age 22 that was a change in the law so basically when we have an individualized education plan meeting for a 14 year old student we invite them to the ppt we ask about their interests in you know high school to post-graduate educational programming or options you know like you said earlier tim it could be trades it could be the military it could be a variety of different things and we start that planning process where it used to be 16 is now 14. so a lot of
025the old language was stricken and the state tightened it up to just this language here okay uh going back to the um first section on birth the three um there's revised and have the right to have such recommendation made so that to have to have the right does that is that part of the uh legislation yes okay it's usually you know right that's like a that's a strong word so if you have a right for something just for something they have the right to make a recommendation uh anybody can make a recommendation not anybody but the people involved in the planning and placement team meeting can make recommendations um even you know we'll have outside therapists or evaluators make recommendations and we can we the team then gives that recommendation due weight and incorporates it
026into the development of the plan what it's saying here and i think was the case in other communities perhaps that don't have birth to three the birth to three person was kind of being excluded from the ppt meetings and this is requiring districts to bring that person to the table again not so much a cheshire issue because they're our employees we're holding the ppt at the early intervention center so it's it's kind of a moot point for us this has been part of our practice you know as long as darcy school has been around but for other communities that may not necessarily follow this okay tim any comment no that's good okay okay and uh last item today is another you know statutory update uh oh uh jeff i have actually uh are we were
027you moving on from from 61-59 yeah is that or is that okay i actually i had one more question i'm sorry um at the end i made it down to the end where it's talking about um a student in a technical education or career school um so can you just explain that that process and and why is is this new to require a ppt or or maybe you could explain that process a little bit absolutely so the ppt itself is not a requirement within special education if your child is identified within special education you must have on an annual basis a review of that child's plan you review the goals the objectives in that plan and progress being made toward those goals in that process now at the age of 14 you have to consider
028transition goals for that child that could mean could mean high school programming goals maybe the child wants to be an author so we're going to consider that in the formulation of our goals in course selection for that child maybe the child wants to go to a trade school or something like that then you can you know formulate goals around those that transition plan but starting at the age of 14 every year when you review that child's plan unless they're exited you have to incorporate those transition goals skills that will support that child's growth toward whatever that goal may be does that make sense yeah and so i i think maybe that's misunderstanding i i want the way i read it um because i guess i didn't read the paragraph before it and i was reading
029as if anyone who wanted to any student who wanted to enter a technical a school or a trade school like that they would have to have a ppt done before they they left and i was like that that felt pains right so it's only if they were in special education already yeah okay okay all right that makes more sense okay okay so the i'm good the last item then is um regarding the fafsa this would be a new policy that the state is adopting um we do a lot within the high school guidance department as sam could probably tell you to support students that are interested in seeking federal aid as a matter of fact we were acknowledged by the state last year for the high completion rate that we have for the fafsa the
030fafsa is an application that students that are looking for state finance or federal financial aid when they enroll in college need to fill out and then you know you get feedback then about whether or not you're eligible for financial aid so our district actually is on the state department of ed on a roll for districts that have the highest completion rates for the fafsa form so it's something that we do pretty well already and this is just what they're trying to do at the state level is really drive fafsa uh incompletion so you know again for us a lot like the the birth to three inclusion it's something that we're already warmly embracing and it's really part of our practice already so this isn't really going to impact us at all yeah i definitely agree
031dr solomon i mean you know there's so much intensive support in ensuring that students along the way receive the guidance so that the completion rate is at 100 so we we've had a lot of success with this and i i definitely agree that the state is trying to codify this across the board um uh for me um i guess i'm just slightly confused as to the purpose of making it a policy if it's something that we in that we do already and that are successful in is there is it just this is again i saw the statutory reference at the bottom it's just because statutory reference status that's totally required right so at least they're telling us we have to do something we already do yeah that yeah at least that's good i think faker
032would be happy about that yeah that this is not a mandate that she'll disagree with right now and we're not reinventing the wheel because we already invented the wheel so i i am i am curious about it jeff um so fafsa i know what it is it's not just college it's also graduate school because i only graduated 2015 and i'm still paying my fafsa loans um it looks like adam is too yep um is the does this actually have a target rate of a hundred percent of graduating students no there's not a target rating okay uh for a hundred percent because clearly a 100 of our kids don't go to college and i'd be shy you'd have to have a really small district uh where that's the case but uh it's you know basically we
033want to do as well as we can with students who are looking to attend a college you know have that experience so no i think that i think that's great for the students who college is right for them when they're leaving high school i think it's great i think the financial awareness and um because you know there's there's you know there's people out there who'll take advantage and uh you know give you a give you a loan not too many questions asked with a 25 interest rate and it just and people get killed get absolutely hammered it's i mean it's a real problem that exists in the us and whatever we can do to minimize that with what you're already doing i think that's great it's just it's what you said this is for students
034who are going on to college it's not for it's not necessarily for every student though so thank you for that yeah so you know i just looked up real quick um that i knew that we i thought it was last year that we were acknowledged i actually sent the board a letter on september 17th of this year that the state has recognized chs for their rapid growth and fafsa application completion gives our students and their families access to greater financial aid opportunities as they head to college [Music] also acknowledging the fact that we see hsr graduates have a very high persistence rate meaning once you go to college um you you stay there that we do a great job with our kids to allow them to continue you know they have the skills to matriculate
035on so um that's kind of where we are um okay um mrs rosenberg did you have any questions or comments on the other policies i know you'd i hopped on no i did peruse them earlier on before the meeting and i think we're pretty much you know again the language is pretty clear on the other ones um so i no i didn't thank you though okay um so jeff i according to the agenda looks like uh that's it yes all right so uh we need a motion for a first reading would that be correct yes okay um mrs rosenberg motion seconds okay all right well um how about this i'll uh i'll do the uh i'll make the motion um because i think we have to i have to read it specifically so um i
036move that uh policies uh 1101.1 community relations instruction graduation requirements 61 46.1 instruction grading systems 6159 instruction individ individualized education program and sixth in policy number 6148 instruction uh fafsa completion program uh be moved uh to the board to the board of education for a first reading so now a second second oh sorry okay i'm gonna give sam the second because she was trying to read it before all right so sam has sex thank you you're very kind is there is there any uh is there any uh discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor aye it is unanimous fantastic can i ask a question do oh yeah do we have anything on policy agenda not tonight but anything else out there that's that we had read at least once or twice before i
037thought there was at least one thing no nothing out there okay yeah nothing outstanding okay okay and then just a comment to sam i'm not sure if you heard the part of the meeting but when we kicked it off we were slightly off topic off agenda but it was relevant i think remote meetings may actually go the way of the dodo when the executive order does so jeff's going to look into that to see where that stands uh in in past meetings uh i'm not sure you may have seen meetings in the past but one thing that's been uh i think it would be valuable to have continued remote meetings particularly for committee meetings where generally you don't have a lot of people turn out and we can also get it on video so people
038can see it after the fact right it just gives more i agree it gives more access to those that you know have either passing by you know transportation and i used to get stuck in traffic sometimes so um i think appointments or whatever the case may be right well i have another screen with the other uh meeting on so this gives me the opportunity to play double agent right now yeah now the other yeah the other thing that crossed my mind in doing a remote meetings is if just you know one or two night fewer nights out per month and you might have a different pool of people who want to run for office even right i think i think it's valuable if we can continue it but we'll find out and uh jeff if
039i recall we do have some draft uh policy on this if i you because we reviewed it last year i think yeah and we tabled it so um we do have some stuff to kind of build on so yeah if it looks like we can continue on then uh i would definitely like to maybe put on the agenda for next month so we could start reviewing it again and see where we are absolutely okay um [Music] all right so there is no other items on this agenda i would like to entertain a motion to adjourn okay tim so moved uh sam second great all in favor aye all right it is unanimous we are adjourned thank you everyone good night everyone