001you stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the United States of America the stand na before we sit I would just like there's a lot of sickness and death that's going around in the country we have Mr janelli who is not with us and has been on the board for a long time he lost his brother-in-law so I just would like to thank him for his service on the board and just giving uh sympathy to him and his family at this time so we're just going to take a few minutes of silence thank you all roll call pres Terry president Michelle here Kate here here Mary here Lauren here Monita here Rich Julie here thank you next on the agenda is uh Spotlight your school pmro [Applause] get close hello okay perfect um thank
002you for having me this evening I first want to thank Hans Bardo our media specialist teacher he helped me put together the presentation where you're going to see this evening so thank you so much Hans I also want to thank my staff that's here and those who are w't able to make it this evening temp would not be the school it is if it wasn't for all of them so I'm extremely grateful for my staff my students and my family without further Ado here you go [Music] [Laughter] [Music] welcome viewers I'm here with Dr P to talk to you about our wonderful School hello thank you so much for having me on your show today welome the first question is what is the make school so P get home to about roughly around 367 amazing
003Learners that number changes daily um we have about 21 students identify as Asian 34 that identify as black roughly around 142 that identify as Hispanic 12 that identify as American Indian one as a Pacific Islander 32 who are multi-race and about 125 who identify as white um something that need to see St [Music] we have about 112 ml Learners so roughly around 31% of our population are mllo students our school is incredible that transitions nicely to our first segment of the dayy the numbers um as you can see here this is our next Generation account accountability index which is determined by the state of Connecticut um for over the past couple of years Penbrook has been trending downward little by little fortunately in last year our 22 23 24 school year um we increased a
004bit we are now at 61.4% some of the indicators that led to some success last year was our chronic absenteeism rate our fitness scores our math growth and especially our elll growth when looking at our espa scores for the 23 24 school year and comparing them from the year before what you will see here is in blue is how Danbury public school is doing and Penbrook and comparison to danber public school as a whole we're looking at third grade you see that in 2 23 we were at 19% proficient um and now in third grade last year 23 24 we are now at 28% proficiency um when looking at fourth grade the previous year we were at 26% proficiency um and unfortunately we did go down a bit where we are at 19% proficiency last
005year for 23 24 and looking at our fifth graders um our fifth grade in 2223 was at 18% % proficiency and we did increase to 25% proficiency when looking at it more closely as a rough cohorting meeting comparing how the fourth graders did in 2223 on espa in comparison to how they performed in fifth grade in 23 24 on espa what you will see in blue um we had 19% Proficiency in fourth grade in the 22 23 school year um and then and they were at 25 that same group which is a rough cohort was at 25% proficient in 23 24 school year um however that is a rough c-port so we can't say exactly how students are doing from one year to the next when looking at our math proficiency we are performing better
006in math than we are in ela um when looking at third grade the 2223 school year we were at 33% Prof proficient um we did have a small decline um we were at 30% proficient last year in third grade when looking at fourth grade in the 2223 school year you'll see that we were at 23% Proficiency in 2223 school year and we grew to 37% proficiency at the 23rd 24th school year in fourth grade which is great growth um when looking at fifth grade what you will see is the year before we were at 17% Prof efficiency in the 22 23 school year and then in the 23rd 24th school year last year we went we grew to 25% proficiency and once again the blue is Danbury public school district um and the red is
007Penbrook so I'm comparing Penbrook compared to the Danbury public school district when looking at penr specifically and doing a rough cohort um this obviously um brings out some concerns as far as how our fourth graders are performing from fourth grade to fifth grade so what you'll see in the blue in fourth grade um we had about 33% Proficiency in the 22 23 school year um and then that same group in red in the 22 2 23 24 school year their proficiency rate dropped to 25% um and that is definitely something we are looking at on a school level um achievement scores um what you will see here is we actually increased the students who were proficient um we went from a roughly around 10% proficiency rate in the 2223 school year to about 177% proficiency
008rate in the 23 24 school year what you will also see is we decreased the number of students at the beginning level in the 2223 school year we were at 27% students who were scoring beginning on L links and we were able to decrease that number to 20% um of students scoring at the beginning level on last links When comparing our L links growth from the 23 school year to the 24 school year what you see here is we had some significant growth um more in literacy than in oral but overall we had some great growth um in the 22nd 23rd school year we had about 49% of our average percent Target achieved for last year we had about 73% um average percent Target achieved so that is a significant amount of growth about 25%
009growth um from one year to the next when looking at our oral scores we had about 52% Target achieved average percent Target achieved in the 2223 school year and we increased that roughly about 10% to this last school year 23 24 to about 62% the average percent Target achieved um and we're hoping to continue that into this school year when looking at our chronic absenteeism data what you will see from the 2223 school year to last year the 23 24 school year our attendance rate previously was around 93% um and we were able to increase that percentage point last year to 94% our overall chronic absenteeism rate the previous year was around 19% um and we did see a positive decline in our chronic absenteeism rate to roughly about 16% um the population we're still
010trying to work on is our students with disability um their chronic absenteeism rate is still relatively high at Penbrook our current for the 2425 school year um our current absenteeism rate is 15% so we moving in a much positive direction and our current attend rate is um 94.3% so roughly about where we were at the previous year thank you Dr pres that definitely breaks down our population lets us know a bit a little bit more about our school I came tell us more about where we are now so where is BG Elementary School at today on our most recent reading midyear Benchmark we saw a decrease of the number of students who are three or more grade levels below so we went from 26% um below grade level three more grade levels below to 15%
011in when we took the test in December and we increased the number of our students who are mid or at grade level from 9% from the beginning of the year to 14% we also saw that a median percent progress to its typical growth for our school was 59% we're looking at math we actually decreased the number of students who are three or more grade levels below from 11% to 8% and increase the number of students who were mid or above grade level from 3% in the beginning of the year to 9% um at this point in the year and our Medi progress towards typical growth is 48% additionally looking at comparing our beginning of the year to middle of the Year dibles data what you see here is relatively for the most part we are
012slowly increasing the number of students who are at grade level or above benchmark while slowly decreasing the number of students who are well below Benchmark this data is a little similar to what our data looks like at this point last year um and then at the end of the year we did see some great success so I'm not booly concerned about where we're at at the middle of the year and when looking at our early data which is through our art reading program this is preparing our data from 2023 24 February to where we're at this point in February 2425 school year so rough cording it looking at our kindergarten students at this point last year and where they're at as first graders this year we see a slight increase of our students at proficient
013are above so last year the kindergarteners were about 48% proficient this year there we have about 50% proficiency um looking at our first graders we had about 47.1% proficiency at this point last year there's been a small decline um we're now we're seeing about 40% proficiency this year as second graders um that's partially due to the change in standards or the increase in difficulty and standards in second grade um when looking at our second graders and their proficiency last year there was 16% Proficiency in second grade last year compared to this year as their third graders we have 47% Proficiency in third grade which is great success some of the steps I'm taking as a ible to leverage assets for school Improvement schuling monitoring our ear data um providing teachers a day every two weeks
014to update their school based data so that when we are looking at ear data that it's real time data um we are going to Ru out div both progress monitoring we have't been doing that consistently this year we will be doing that moving forward um and our third fourth and fifth grade teachers have been utilizing the I ready standard Mastery assessments um to assess how their students are doing on achieving those standards and then utilizing the resources afterwards to drive small group instruction and ensure students are meeting our standards additionally trying to capitalize on PLC time during the school day and during building PD time this has been critical it hasn't been consistent due to sub coverage but this is definitely a critical piece to ensure that while teachers have time to look at data
015they also have an opportunity to do something with the information in front of them and then lastly is intentional support making sure that teachers after they've had the time to look at the data than half time in PLC to look at their lessons and figure out what they're going to do they are then intentionally adding those supports during their lesson whole group instruction and also during their small group instruction wow how did you do it we know that we're life long Learners here at P but we still have some improvements to make let's take a look at where we're going so where is P going um our hope as a collective staff is to ensure that not only our students are able to read and write and do math and engage in science and social
016studies at grade level but to also leave as caring kind respectful responsible and Problem Solver and problem solvers in the future um and so what are we doing to get our students there so one thing that we are doing is really focusing on strengthening our tier one instruction in ela to ensure that all of our students develop strong reading comprehension critical thinking and writing skills we have implemented the art Core Curriculum K5 and this year last year we rolled it out K3 um and this year we are rolling it out 45 and we are really focusing on making sure that our students are meeting with their teachers in small group conferencing um at a minimum of once if not more Within in a 14-day cycle additionally constantly looking at where our students individual reading levels
017are and if they need to be pushed to the next level so that they have access to Grapple with grade level or above grade level content what we are also doing is we have really this Relentless focus on data um we are constantly looking at our ear data which is our individual reading level data we are constantly looking at our dibl data we are also rolling out the Dibbles progress monitoring um where teachers are progress monitoring our students from one Dibbles assessment to the next to see are the our students who are well below Benchmark growing and if they're not what decisions or what um instructional ruls do our teachers need to make to address those significant skill gaps to our support our Learners as they move through the grade levels um in three four
018and five we have also um ruled out the I ready standard Mastery assessment um and that has been very powerful because it allows our teachers to see how our students are progressing with the standards um to see if they're able to actually um score proficient on standards and if they're not then what do the teachers need to do within small group setting and in their core of instruction to be able to support those Learners and being able to access the standards and I shouldn't say access the standards but mastered the standards additionally we are trying to incorporate PLC time or more PLC time so um more recently last year we were able to have more consistent PLC time um from the district level this year um that has been a little bit slow to start
019but we are able to do some of it during the school day more recently it started in February and we're also embedding that during building PD time to ensure that our teachers have time to talk as a grade level as far as what are some good practices each teacher is turn King that can be replicated and other classes to support students in meeting their academic success and intentional support so we are also making sure that we are embedding um intentional supports in lessons so while not only looking at small group instruction but looking at what are the what what can teachers do during whole group instruction to support all Learners to make sure that we are not only meeting our students who are below grade level but also supporting our students stud who are at
020and above grade level you know liby we took a deep look at where we were as a school and that's what we've been using so far to drive us as far as where we want to go you Dr PR along with our staff and students make our school amazing thank you so much you know one of those very special teachers actually received teacher of the year here at pen Elementary School yes our very young missone the pictures don't do this amazing teacher Justice we have our very own Gabby speed in the field to mron I'm here with mron thank you for being here with us we want to know how long have you been I've been teaching in sanbury for almost 19 years but I've been here at P for 16 of those years and
021we love you thank you I love being here what do you love about K the thing I love most about K is our community that we have built I feel like we are a p family and when you walk down the mall you see students helping each other taking each other's hand and getting them where they need to go those days staff members supporting each other to The Good the Bad and everything in between and there's so much love and compassion for each other so Henri is a great place to learn and a beautiful place to be thank you Miss back to live we have amazing teachers but do we also have amazing students we sure do liby we just actually had our spelling be here which was amazing do you want to see a
022clip uh of course let's put it up on the screen all right friends here we are with some highlights from pmr's second Annual Spelling be competition we had many students that were in the spelling be Club but unfortunately only eight of them could participate due to that nasty glue it's been going around we know they work very hard during this competition and oh what a competition it was it was a long competition 14 rounds so we're just going to cut right to the highlights and they went back and forth over the next several rounds like their lives depended on let Zia as she spells the word snavi can you believe SN yeah I can't even can't even spell it myself she do she she worked really hard did a wonderful job but now it's just
023down to our final two Kaden and Tatiana kayen and Tatiana both fifth graders in our school that have been do in the spell me club for a while and they went back and forth uh then that was when Kaden stepped up and spelled his final word and tested n t e s t i n e s and he get in our boy kid um so K our 2025 K Brook Elementary School spelling me Champion a huge thank you to Mrs Robertson who uh volunteered much of her time uh before school for the last several weeks getting all these participants ready for their big day uh it was a huge success and we are already gearing up and excited for next year's FY B competition and good luck to our friend kayen up in Hartford as
024you can see lizy we have a lot going on and that's not all here's yes of course there is more we have a variety of academic programs for example we currently have our chess club going on they're going to be competing at the end of the year we also have our morning MLL support group um we also have a third grade academic success group going on and um next year my goal is to add a math clock program that's wonderful Dr brez it's time to move on to the last portion of our show now I see you brought some students with the what are they going to share um these students are going to be talking to you about our PBIS program as well as some other key initiatives that are going on we are
025so happy to share our key initiatives with everyone this year we imp wanted PBIS in our school to help improve our community our school qualities come from the banders in front of our Val this year we are focusing on respect responsibility and curing when we started the year each class came up with a poster show what these qualities look like in different areas but that's not all we also instituted our token economy to go with our PBIS when teachers see students doing the right thing being responsible resp for they can give them one or more Kimber books as a thank you any adult that works in our school system can provide the book but you know what my favorite part of the book is what spending it of course each teacher has a shop that
026they set up where the students can sprend their pepper books either on items or privileges in the classroom like being mini teacher or having much to help with this we also have a positivity crew our mission is to collaborate with the School each month to amplify student voices Drive positive change and a f and Foster a stronger more inclusive School Community we have students from different grade levels primary through intermediate and we talk about how we can improve our school making real changes finally we have our event we have all sorts of fun things we do at P during school and after school we've been lucky to have MTH signs come in for the grades three four and five in October we have spectacular after school as well as a movie night we look forward
027to our third annual Multicultural night and there's so much more that we wish we could share here at pbrook we really are a community of problem solvers and lifelong REM and we appreciate how everyone supports our B their show P spotlight entprise anything else that's it thank you so much for having me liby wel H is caring school together for the AC success of [Applause] all here yeah amazing job to say he did get a little except with me because I kept changing my outfit hair's different and I never wear my hair down he's said no I just want to for you leave for a second you know there's been an incredible shift in the culture around data use of data the and um I love seeing how the staff is digging into to that
028and I know there's been a lot of conversations been super collaborative with um some of our district folks um so the the the interest and passion that you have in the improvement process for Penbrook is very evident and uh we look forward to more growth over time uh with your three year leadership so thank you very much [Applause] we're going to move on down the agenda public participation the board welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the denur public school system thank you if anyone would like to come before
029the board and did not son she could you do so now okay okay there's a sheet in the back no she's not the first one no no no we have someone ahead of you okay our first uh speaker is Erica f evening board I'm here tonight to express concern about the negative experience my daughter and I have had since she transferring from Beth Public Schools district over to danre public school district I attended to register her the week of January 27 in order to expedite the process however I was told I couldn't start the process until she was fully withdrawn from be Public School District because of the delay and their enrollment process my daughter wasn't given a start date until February 19th 2025 and although her doctors and Healthcare team have given the school
030district anle documentation stating why my daughter needs door too Transportation because of her health issues uh they have still denied her such Transportation which in turn has made her Miss 13 days of school which is a violation of her right to public education I have reached out several times to a number of employees at the Board of Education includ superintendent they had not responded with an adequate solution I felt as if my daughter was being treated unfairly due to her multiple health issues My Hope for tonight is that someone from the board intervene and assists with a favorable resolution to this matter thank you for your time thank you hello my name is alen boys and I'm the Danbury resident and member of the Danbury concert Association all volunteer board of directors uh thank you
031for inviting me to speak this evening on behalf of the esteemed 100-year-old Danberry concert Association not to be confused with the Danberry Music Center we bring world class classical music to D excuse me could you speak to the mic just a look we can't okay thank you thank you thank you should I start over yes okay it's minute okay hello my name is Ellen J I'm a danburry resident and member of the danburry concert Association all volunteer board of directors thank you for inviting me to speak this evening on behalf of the esteemed 100-year-old danburry concert Association not to be confused with the danburry music center we bring world class classical music to Danberry four concerts in the annual series two in the fall two in the spring on weekend afternoons the Danbury cultural commission
032has awarded the DCA a grant which provides for all danburry students to attend at no cost this is a huge gift to Danberry for Danberry students no advaned ticketing is necessary for the students should they have a schedule conflict casual attire and due to attention spans we feel that third graders through 12th graders are best suited to attend there is an intermission and a buffet re SE after the performance so that the musicians and attendees can meet and talk I have witnessed many artists high five young people who approach them with words of encouragement as they describe their personal musical Journeys the artists are at times young child prodigies who a student may see as a role model I have personally witnessed non-music Orient students become dedicated to music with such exposure the direct correlation
033between music and excellence in math and sciences is well documented not to mention the side benefit of relaxation the Performing artists Marvel at the outstanding Acoustics at the Westcon Visual and Performing Art Center stating that they wish they lived closer to be able to practice in the Concert Hall some have returned to record there hearing these world-renowned musicians play as Steinway piano or a strat of various violin as they perform on stage in advance of Lincoln Center Carn Hall and the world's most esteemed concert Halls since absolutely spellbinding in order to comply with the grant requirements and get the word to parents and students parents where all principles and teachers including music and chorus teachers it is necessary that I send a flyer or its equivalent uh in advance of each concert in the manner
034that you see fit I await instructions on that and I am to go between happily to bring music to the students of dard Sunday March 16th which is coming up quickly at 3 the DCA host hosts for the first time two opera singers from the Metropolitan Opera uh they are the sought after tener and soprano Zach oreski and Catherine Le she has done Queen of the Night 300 times and people thrown to her performances for those students who are Singers This may interest them Saturday June 7th three is the SXF world renowned musicians with a stram wind in rasb thank you very much no thank you thank you Ellen and through our K12 our supervisor minor supervisor will'll coordinate and get those flyers out and make sure that all our students arew of the opportunity
035and thank you so much sure thank we move on down the agenda the inent K Michelle motion that the Board of Education approve the consent calendar ex 25 through 12 25 through 17 motion made by Michelle could I hear second second second it by Julie any question concerning consent C seeing none all in favor can I hear I any oppose motion so care anyone who would like to come before the board that's on our education staff good evening everyone how are you tonight to see everyone um so I'm going to talk a little bit about another side of pmro tonight a few moments ago you were privileged to see a small window into the wonderful tool that I'm so very proud to work at for the past 21 years I've come before you tonight not
036only as the president of the teachers union but also as someone who has seen the changes of pem over the past two decades more importantly I come as an advocate for our students especially our students with disabilities those who meet us most sitting behind me of course are representatives of the most dedicated staff of pem school and they're also here to advocate for Urgent improvements to our school so we're here to request immediate action to to address some of the critical issues within our self-contained special education programming we're facing overwhelming challenges within our special education program that are affecting our entire School community and severely impacting the working and learning conditions for all of our staff and students we cannot ask our students many of whom already face immense obstacles to learn in an environment
037that does not fully meet their needs it's unacceptable that in 2025 we have a school in our district where critical support services are falling short our educators are passionate about serving our students with significant needs but the current conditions are making it severely challenging to provide them with the education and support that they need over time continued expansion of our self-contained special education classrooms at pbrook without a necessary increase in Staffing care professional support training and resources has created an unsustainable situation for both students and staff PG special education program has grown but without the necessary resources to keep up our self-contained classrooms are overcrowded with some exceeding 14 students far beyond the recommended limits Staffing shortages mean teachers and par par professionals are stretch thin making it harder to provide the individualized instruction and
038behavioral support that our students require these challenges don't just impact special education classrooms they affect the entire School general education teachers are stepping in Daily to help during crisis situations leading to often frequent interruptions and instruction this impacts all of our Learners as a result of consistently being over extended and under supported our staff are experiencing burnout stress and high turnover making it even harder to maintain a safe and consistent learning environment for our students despite all these challenges our principal our wonderful principal does an incredible job supporting both students and our staff she leads lead us with dedication and Care always putting the needs of the school first the needs of our students first she's a terrific role model for our staff without her we would be in a far more critical situation she
039cannot do this alone she needs the additional support of an assistant principal resources to manage the growing demands of special education program and the support of the district to restructure the size of our program at P while still working to support the Brader commity we know that Solutions exist and we really want to work together to create a program that truly meets the needs of all of our students so this is our request partnership for Action our Educators want to work together with the district to rebuild a sustainable and effective special education program at p district is lucky you already have a tremendous asset of our dedicated staff we want to rebuild the program to become Innovative and cutting Edge like it once was so what are we asking for a reduction in the number
040of self-contained special education classrooms smaller manageable special education class sizes that align with national recommendations assistant principal to help lead and support the special education program reliable pair professional staffing that we can count on daily and a fully staff team of par PA professionals to meet our student needs and training and development for this essential Staffing we would like a clear and actionable plan for improvement for our 25 26 school year with input from the Educators we're not asking for luxuries we just asking for what our school deserves every child regardless of their abilities has their right to an environment that is safe inclusive and and conducive to learning we know that our school district Danberry has always prided itself on being a community that cares for all of its students now is the time
041to turn that care into action we believe every one of our students deserves School environment where they can Thrive and every educator at P deserves the support they need to make that happen I urge this board to prioritize these improvements and work collaboratively with us to create that learning environment that we envision thank you for that part I do have one other part to um talk to you about so this afternoon um our Nea danburry Union honored um our Educators during Black History Month and we decided to honor two specific Educators so this is happy news um we honored Jamie pope from Rod Middle School who is a special education teacher and we honored Milda elante from Rogers Park who is a teacher there both of these teachers exemplify Stellar um Stellar Role Models they
042act Stellar role models for our our our students and they are people that we've identified as leaders in our community um we celebrated Black History Month today because we wanted to talk about amongst ourselves as colleagues the story of um black history being our American history and we wanted to have a discussion an open collaborative discussion about how our American history is a story of resilience Brilliance and achievement in the face of adversity and we found ourselves having a collaborative discussion about some of the things that are happening in our country today and we just wanted to make a point tonight that we truly believe as Educators that diversity equity and inclusion are not bad words they are words we should be proud of and they are words that this District embodies Public Schools embody
043diversity equity and inclusion so we don't want this trend that's going on in our country to trickle down to our beloved District we want to make sure all of our students are supported we want to make sure that now more than ever we're reminding ourselves that our communities our public education itself is a symbol of diversity equity and inclusion and it's one of the few institutions built on the promise that every child no matter their race their background or their zip code deserves access to knowledge opportunity and a fair shot of success so thank you very much for your time and I hope you enjoyed the rest of your evening and thank you [Applause] [Music] I in our students here tonight from the high school e Ace move on down the agenda okay [Music] superintendent
044okay good evening again um so I just want to thank again um Ellen ell I had you further down under the superintendent report so I apologize for not giving you the warmest welcome when you came up to the pH I wasn't quite sure we had not met before so um but uh thank you again for for the opportunity for our students um um aside from that we've got a couple things on our agenda tonight um just things that have been happening sort of in reference to some of the things that Aon has mentioned um we'll first talk a little bit about the immigration concerns and response so we had a um a board meeting that was canceled a couple of weeks ago and at the at the in in even just a few weeks back
045I think the tension around um immigration um issues was a little bit more intense than it is at the current day at the moment um but I'll talk to you a little bit about where still a very intense situation but I'm sort of where we've been so um danber has responded in kind to some of the initiatives that have come down um we have communicated to our our community to our staff um our position on um um if should ice approach um our school district and how we should handle that um there's a lot of ANS in the community there still is but there was a lot of angs particularly in schools on how to handle um certain instances should should they occur um and once we were able to communicate um very clearly where
046our stance was and what our protocol was a lot of the some of the tension not all of it came down a little bit people really just wanted to know how do I respond in this situation and where is the district's position on this um so we had taken some time to um talk with our administrative staff on more than one occasion um and then they and then turn key the communication to their staff to relay um the protocols that we have in place uh and the security measures that we have in place um should there be um any sort of situation or interaction with immigration officials um and so uh we have um a lot of stressors in the community and in the schools in the first couple of weeks we had um some
047of our absenteeism rates um shot up we had a few days where um it was very apparent that have had a significant effect on our our families and our students and and of course our staff as well um in subsequent weeks things have calmed down a little bit although the stressors in the community are very real and very present um but we haven't had any um instances or uh occurrences to date here so far and uh we hope that that continues to be the case um moving forward that we um it's not something that we have to um interact with on a school basis or on a daily basis so um we're moving moving forward with that but I want to thank the staff uh the administrative staff School staff for their response uh and
048the way that they've been um uh handling the the the tensions as of late the next item up here the next item really has to do with uh Federal changes and even even again two weeks back um we've been kind of working through a series of um issuance of Grant freezes and then unfreezing um and then letters that we received from the office of civil rights around Dei and kind of ceasing activities around Dei and then today just really before the board meeting and it's not included in the packet you get another letter clarification letter from the um the state of Connecticut State Board of Education from the office of C regarding the office of civil rights dear colleague letter clarifying Connecticut's position if you will um an interpretation of the letter that was sent
049out the the open deer colleague letter um that was circulated um and so really it's about um whether or not school districts should terminate Dei programs within a 14-day window and providing Clarity around that and I'll read you just a simp of what it says to kind of show you where we are today and we've been writing the roller coaster of kind of the federal information as been coming out um but the previous letter that was just issued um Connecticut is saying the letter does not order schools and districts to to terminate Dei programs within 14 days what it does warn against is a Dei program that gives preference to certain racial groups uh and teach students that certain racial groups be unique moral burdens and others do not in other words an educational entity
050gives preferential or adverse treatment to any student or body of students based on their race color or national origin either through a Dei initiative or otherwise and that if that disparity in treatment deprives a student or body of students and educational benefit then it's in violation of title six so it's not necessarily that everybody has to stop all programs it's really if you're creating something that um is decisions that are based on race whether you're hiring whether you're making certain decisions that are based on race um so it's a little bit more of a defined subset within the umbrella of De I um the state of Connecticut has said that federal law prohibits um any officer or employee from the federal government from using a grant contract or cooperative agreement as a means of mandating
051directing or controlling a state U and that Federal funding cannot be terminated without specific multi-step legal process that includes the opportunity for hearing and so on and so forth so there's been a lot of questions coming my way about is our funding going to be cut off um do we stop certain programs we have increasing educator diversity Pro uh uh plan that's a that is legislative legislatively mandated by the state of Connecticut and so things like this have been on the minds of superintendents um we're concerned about funding we're concerned about programs that are legis that we are legislatively required to to implement um and in our last meeting um with the commissioner and with their attorneys um they said keep going with the increasing educator diversity uh Grant keep going with our educator increasing
052educator diversity um plant that we have with the state um and that um you know that funding is is it remains intact those programs do not say to hire base on race it's really about creating a pool um in our school system to make sure that we're um continuing to to open up our school system to um to the diversity that we have here so we're continuing to um understand the Federal laws and the changes and the updates that come in but um we've been told by the city of Connecticut to to carry on with some of the programs that we have here um as a board we still have to review some of our policies and things um that are that we have in play um against some of the other um federal information
053that's coming out so um we're going to continue to do that we're going to continue to interpret information that comes to us um we're not going to knee-jerk uh in in any any hard Direction per se but like I said within within one week we received uh two different letters that contradict uh one another so as a board we'll work together to interpret that and um review and revise some of our policies that needed over time up um the board survey update so um as you know a few weeks back the board um put together a survey we sent it up to staff to collect information around climate and we give a little bit of a summary of that so the the board was interested in what are we doing well where are things that
054we can grow how we can we further support you and um the the sort of General themes that emerged out of that um the idea that we need better resources that came up kind of petty uh throughout the the survey um a concern around class size case and case loads that are high across the district um that we have a complex student population that creates challenges uh that we need to work through crowding in schools um some cases there was uh survey responses around needing more PD but then also needing less PD um and more prep so that was kind of interesting to see um that we have a lot of initiatives that we're dealing with right now we need to celebrate success more um create a positive culture um better support the schools enforce
055the discipline code of conduct in many ways um eliminate those cell phones uh the need to increase funding and then um probably by and large that came out on the positive was that uh diversity is our strength and that teachers and our staff are highly dedicated so diversity is our superpower here um and that came that came through very evident uh in our in our survey so um we'll use that survey as a springboard for planning as always we look at for those um thingses that emerged and that helps us plan strategic planning for the next year it also helps um different departments and different uh schools um that also look at this information and help them plan accordingly uh to things that are happening in their building that may be pertinent to what we
056see coming out of these survey so that is the budget timeline um the next thing on our list here is the Post University student opportunity um so very excited um to finally announce that we have a fully a full articulation of Post University for our students um and students are able to take college courses they're um they start next week um the are 8we cycles and we have 181 students registered already that wanted to challenge themselves the path the courses that exist through post um many of them were intentionally aligned to uh feed into their Pathways so it could be a county could be cyber security um so we're excited about that we had about 300 students show up to the flex period to learn more about it and I think it will pick up
057over time um as we uh continue to increase uh more exposure around it and word gets out that it wasn't so bad and uh I challenged myself and I was able to begin a college transcrip in high school so I think that that will be um something that we're going to grow over time and we'll have multiple articulations across many universities and post is really just our our first one yes just a quick question about what grade levels are participating now yeah so it's open to open to everyone um we have actually P up my little notes Here post um I'll give you a couple extra little tidbits about it so the credits are under post that account towards the DHS graduation requirements um the post grades are treated as transfer credits they don't count
058towards DHS GPA um we have some ESL classes in there as well and um I believe they're open to all students is Julian here they're open to all we didn't limit it I don't know yeah okay he's at the high school level so I don't think we limited it but I just wanted to make sure that we don't senior senior preference first and then backing down to freshman that's usually what we do but um it's pretty it's pretty open and we have uh we have 181 students that are registered and ready to ready to start so so it's it's great it's a great opportunity yeah and we we have room to offer some more um and that's funded through our alliance one of our alliance strategies you have a question yes uh the transfers uh
059credits are they towards their major or towards just elected credit right now they're just towards elected because they they don't declare a major per se but they can be absolutely placed towards that as they if they decide to go to post but also the credits transfer so it's it's a great deal what kind of savings are we looking at because this is so it's not it's not so much about the savings although some kids can graduate early with this because the credits can be applied toward DHS graduation so students can accelerate and graduate early by taking you know as many credits as they you know that we have available so it's a limited pool if you remember we had a deco program D early college and so it was a limited group of students that
060sort of have access to this pool of money and what we did when we designed theem is the intention was to spread that out across allies and all Pathways so that anybody who wanted to take those college credits had full access to that so there really are no barriers to this I guess what I meant was um savings for families like when you're going to pce like oh absolutely so these courses are about thank you for clarifying these courses are about $150 for a three credit course you cannot go anywhere and take a college course for $350 um some of the schools that we're talking to now at Southern their courses are $50 for three credit course so we're continuing to to communicate with with area universities to build and partner with us I have
061some Communications happening right now at the college level um about creating ladder programs to Academy and pathway models like our so kids can hitch their ladder their wagon onto an associates degree that is very specific right now for example very quickly Westcon has one associate um degree it's a liberal arts degree I would love to see in our own backyard that we have about 10 or 12 associate degrees that are specific to very career focused areas so an accounting Associates um you know healthcare related Associates engineering certificates at the associate level they exist with embedded industry credentials but we start some of that coursework at Denbury High School through our Pathways so we pitch kids on to an associates and can go on for B significant savings yeah absolutely are there any other questions okay
062and then the last one is AIS enrollment update so um the at the ladder is officially closed uh for D students We are continuing to leave it open for families who live outside of theber uh for their for for those who are interested in having their uh child attend we had about 484 total applicants 440 applicants were Danberry families the remaining 4 two were from out of District Brookfield New Fairfield New Milford B Ready New Town Waterberry and Woodberry um seats were extended to 35 applicants um but we're unable to offer seats to all 42 um because the there was an agreement with the town um they can't go over a certain cap in some cases um we are still very concerned about our ratio um our numbers are not where they need to be
063and they are are in Decline uh we have stepped up some um radio announcements um Mike Cel thank you very much he's working on TV uh advertisements we have um brochures that have been going out we've been Distributing to just about everybody that we can think of um but there is a decline in the number of um surrounding Town students that are interested in in coming um so we have some serious conversations that will need to take place in the in the coming year or two about how we um continue to enroll in that in that school right now we're under enrolled so that's a tough uh pill to swallow in a school system that is maxed out everywhere else so we we we have some decisions to make in the probably in the near
064future uh about the state right now we have we went down to two kindergartens we had three last year at those that when we go down to two that meant this year we rolled up to having going two first grades right now we're struggling to keep to fill uh two kindergarten classroom for next year with the way that the data is rolling in now and that's not good so um we can't keep that pattern up the building would be severely under ened and it would be a detriment to our own dbre KS not not having those seats so um we did put in the budget a part-time recruiter um to work with families to go directly out to the communities our principal has done um has done some of that going to the board I
065have worked with superintendent um but we're not getting the bites that we that we have the F so so we'll continue to monitor that and um leave the um magnet Lottery open for non- dandry families um for as long as we can and hopefully some of that will change a little bit so not the best news a quick question do we have any feedback as to from the surrounding towns as to why they're losing interest well so Transportation first of all is not included um they can come from anywhere so we do have some transp I think we have a bus in um in bethl and we have one in the mil one that goes up the region 7 Up group 7 in in Milford but it's mostly you know Brookfield used to send they
066opened up a brand new 8 or 900 seat um Elementary School it's absolutely beautiful can like if your kids go there yeah um it's gorgeous and that that hurt quite a bit um New Milford is popular they they continue to send to us um New Fairfield nothing not so much um in terms of high interest and ba we have a couple from ba but um you know we started advertising you know to Greater body you know staff any staff members want to bring their students from out of town um that's fine I have uh you know talked to uh Westcom I thought it' be a great um benefit for any Westcon staff member who especially that end of the campus and wanted to bring their children um but we're just not we're just not getting
067in moment um I do think some of the surrounding towns that have built near our schools that has not help so do we um so this any of our spent do into AIS yes what is it self-contained resource it's just mostly resource all resource students um there currently and um we to service both dber residents and any of our surrounding districts um if a student is accepted with special needs we also provide special education services from for students from sending districts um and there is a compensation um Arrangement between the sending district and us to help support some of the cost that and so I just mentioned that as a um um a possible suggestion for the numbers that we heard from e thank you any other questions for the superintendent thank you we going
068to move on down to the agenda board standing committees I'm going to start with communal relations okay uh the committee uh this past Monday um we discussed some upcoming events uh that the board could potentially be participating in um um that includes just two days in throut right now we probably see some kind of notification email 4: there's Early Childhood um uh fair I guess that has a bunch of different providers um that's at Rogers Park 12 26 there's a family University day again at Rogers Park i' love to see some board representation there but again that'll come forward um we also heard from Dr cig about some state level legislative efforts that our Administration is participating in um I don't know if anybody else saw there was an email that came through from C
069with a call to action requesting that board of it U members uh specifically C members um reach out to the governor's office in support of the $40 million allotment for special ed excess uh costs um so if you have a moment to shoot a quick email there's a link directly in that uh that that was sent by K it's very easy to do um and then we also talked a little bit about uh budget advocacy and trying to plan an inperson event uh for um uh the for Dr kmir to kind of go over the ins and outs of the budget like we did last year um but that's also being discussed as well we we may end up doing um Zoom events or something similar depends on the time curriculum M um we just
070had a curriculum meeting tonight and we went over um we had a really great presentation about um Ai and different um different avenues that are helpful and harmful so it was really it was a really great meeting thank you the presentation was it was thank we going to do uh do you have anything for finance uh you'll see that there are minutes here that are attached from um Teresa which were excellent 30 long minutes very thorough so thank you um so I will just kind of do a brief recap um we have on tonight's meeting the approval of the January Finance report um we discussed the closure of the 2023 audit which we are still waiting for some uh final recording account um and then um else we talk about uh we talked a little
071bit about uh Federal funding situation and we also talked a little bit about budget advocacy but again I do encourage everybody to read those notes they were very so thank you I just um I omitted to I skipped over an item on the budget Timeline under the superintendent report I did not um discuss that but just uh for the General Public on Tuesday April 1st the mayor presents the proposed budget to city council uh the week of April 7th the date is still yet to be determined but ad hoc um there's an ad hoc where the committee appointed to make a recommendation on the mayor's proposed education budget will'll ask us questions and we'll make our presentation that week um the week of April 21st date still TBD um there's a public Hearing in Committee
072of the whole which is the council to address and discuss the mayor's propos budget and then on Tuesday May 6th the city council will discuss and vote on the budget so there's just some dates coming up there but I didn't want to I didn't want to reference something um that was not in the necessarily in the the agenda but has since emerged um and that is um the closure of the 23 audit and Mike and I attended a meeting at City Hall um where the where the that finally came to a a conclusion a closure um there was a significant Surplus on the side for that year and Mike and I are going to have some more conversations about uh why that occurred or what how that occurred um so that as an organization we
073make sure that we're doing everything that we can to be efficient and as transparent possible um but then you know my greater concern is um and our greater concern is understanding how that Surplus if at all has impacted the budgets moving forward so we'll know that the conclusion of the 24 audit um how that if that amount is still in there and um you know as we approach we look at our own budget right now you know we have to ask ourselves um you know if that is still there are there adjustments that need to be made and if so um we'll do that in the time that when it's the right time to do that um but we're still in a process of understanding um how that Surplus affects the subsequent budgets that we're
074attached to it can you tell us what that Surplus is um I believe there's a number give a number uh yes it's uh 7 7.5 yeah any other um Mike do you have anything um do you want to bring for the board from the committee meeting that was not brought up here uh no I believe Kate um already covered it but just to mention that we did uh finish the 23 audit um we'll be starting the 24 audit as soon as there's an engagement letter signed with RSM and City okay thank you wasn't there um a mention that it would take about 6 months yes so we did get correspondence from you regarding list and that you still had questions that it had been closed out I had gotten a different number of 9 million
075I hearing and um certain areas that it Surplus looks like it came from um and so when are we because my understanding from what you had written was that you were kind of trying to digest it and it was going to take possibly the next audit to come up with the answers that's 6 months from now so I was under the impression that an audit gets done and then we get answers so when we get to sit down and you it board yeah so so the document yes I'm right with you the document itself is has not been made public so there there needs to be I need to sit um with Auditors to understand um and I want to sit obviously collaboration with the city to to kind of look at that myself and
076so that at that audit meeting that we were at it was more of a high level summary in that section um and kind of close the books they're going to open up the 24 audit soon from what I understand L be a kick off that but I um have to we have to set up a meeting to digest once that document is made public um so that I can understand and work with the Auditors I'm not I don't you know I don't have the same inside Insider knowledge as the Auditors do of course as to those members I'm just wondering when you get these answers will you bring it to the board before it goes to city council before they make these decisions will you explain what CU we were here during this process it
077looks like came out with you know under Healthcare which was the main driver for a lot of us going back to city council so I want some clear understanding of what has happened I know as a general I went to the ad hoc and again there's a little bit of discrepancies right now just us sitting here in what numbers I heard sure so I just want to make sure that we will have the opportunity to sit down that's exact whatever it is AB and have a conversation before we go and we're Council yeah thank you much real quick just by uneducated opinion I do not like these Auditors so if we have to sign another contract with them I'm not for that's my two cents thank you ter that's it that was it our last
078meeting was on uh February 5th and we will see a bunch of those policies on tonight's meeting I just want to highlight policy 51311 which is about electronic devices um that one is uh our our cellone policy so I hope everybody's had a chance to look over we spent considerable time that policy um and we took uh information from the ad hoc committee that was formed of um teachers uh administrators parents um and Comm community members uh we took a lot of information from uh the feedback that they gave us and try to um make sure that this policy really reflects um what the community is looking for um our next policy meeting is March 5th thank you sites and facility Louis thank you um we just had our last sites uh and Facilities meeting
079on Monday evening um we had members of the City ad hoc join us um in our continued efforts uh collaborating with the city on working through lot of our sites and Facilities issues that are have been late our schools um Mike also went over a lot of preparers and um we had a robust conversation um from our committee members on you know moving forward how we can improve the communication within the committee and also with the ad hoc committee I believe we have an ad hoc tentatively scheduled for March and then we will have a sites meeting in April so I encourage everybody for that as soon as they get a date on the ad hoc I encourage everybody to go because it really is a good good way good way for us to kind
080of brings that conversation March 24th March 24th is the at yes and so are we using the ad hoc in place of the March sites and Facilities meetings in BO we didn't have we were going to do a March meeting but we postponed it to April because we are going to do a tour of the academy so that got postponed to so in place so then we have this the atop in St and so the April M sites and Facilities Board of Ed committee will me meeting is now about the building it will be at the Academy yes and we will be touring the academy yes and so the tour will be the meeting or will we be able to have a committee meeting as we did when we did our D High School tour
081was an official meeting and we did conduct action items and Terry was our little note keeper through the whole tour um so it is an official meeting so the committee should attend because we don't have Forum then we don't we were unable to have the meeting so yes we will be able to ask the questions we will have people there on site to you know and if there's any action items we usually kind of meet Afters to take care of that so yes any other questions sorry and so I just need to uh go on record as being opposed to either dropping the March sites and Facilities committee meeting or um having the April meeting at the Academy God bless you thank you for our sites and Facilities committee to give a tour so I
082just want to go on record as being opposed to canceling our March meeting and for having our April meeting um for touring the academy an our meeting after that I was sure I got the last I can't hear you J I Need You To now I need to know what my apologies I said I wasn't sure understand what it was expressed in the last line okay so our um March Board of Ed sites and Facilities committee meeting for March has been cancelled our April Board of Ed sites and Facilities committee is now meeting at the high school in April okay to tour the high school uh I mean just for the new building um I think that that should be a separate um tour if the board wants to go rather than coupling it with
083our sites and Facilities committee Board of meeting I just want to say we don't have scheduled monthly meetings um the when glattus put the meetings together they were not done monthly they're quarterly so um you know we don't have monthly meetings scheduled I can call a meeting if I need to as the committee chair but our board chair has set the schedule and in that schedule we were not put in for monthly meetings so there's concern I would like the chairperson myself superintendent and Mike the work out uh for March if there's a possibility of a date is that okay okay we move then we're going to action item a uh Louisa could you read the complete action item yes motion that the Board of Education to accept the following School construction Pro projects as
084complete and authorize the superintendent of school to certify and execute the d-49 F form as recommended by the sites and Facilities committee and in accordance with 03446 E A RR danber High School 034 0150 EA Ellsworth Avenue School addition 0151 be Ellsworth Avenue School education administrative registration motion made by Louis second second are there in question we had questions and discussion about this so if there's anyone that did not attend the meeting and want to ask a question you have you can do it at this time if not all those in favor other the motion could I hear I I oppose motion so car uh action item B Kate I'll make a motion that the Board of Education accept the 2025 January financial report as recommended by the finance committee and in accordance with exhibit
08525-23 motion made by Kate could I hear second second seconded by Al any questions seeing none all in favor of the motion could I hear I I motions so car Teresa action item C policy 5112 students ages of attendance SL Admissions and placement motion that the Board of Education accept for first reading policy 5112 students ages of attendance SL Admissions and placement as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 25-24 motion May about to Res could I hear a second second and motion made made by um Teresa second by air any questions all in favor could I hear I I opposed motion carried Lauren action item D motion that the Board of Education accept for the first reading policy 1 um 5113 attendance and excuses as recommended by the policy Committee in accordance
086with 25-25 motion made by Lauren could I hear a second second second it by Kate any question all in favor could I hear I I oppose motion so carried i l um can I just go back to the student ages of attendance thing real quick or is that too late can we come back well let me get through the motion okay sorry and I make the motion that the Board of Education accept the first reading of policy 51132 treny as recommended by the policy Committee in accordance with 25-26 motion made by a secondment by Teresa any question concerning the policy see seeing none all in favor could I hear I I motion so Carri Dr crony policy number F policy letter policy number of educ ac1 electronic devices as reced by the policy committee and
087in accordance with uh motion made by DR croner could I hear second second by Teresa uh any questions all in favor could I hear I I and oppose motion so car um uh the policy C uh the uh age of attendance uh the question of waivers we didn't address that um not go ahead yeah um the question of waivers it does talk about the specific age of attendance that's automatic or entitled um under this policy uh so it's the mandates that are legally required by law which is why the um date of birth for students uh Chang to September 1st you must be five by September 1st um if are you okay with me sharing just the waiver process this year um there is a process that if you are five between September 2nd and
088the end of December that you can apply we actually I going to caution the use of the term waiver it's really called early entry to kindergarten last year there was a w process because it was the first year of the legislative change of the date of birth for entry to kindergarten um now it's saying if you believe your child who is turning five in the coming months um may be kindergarten ready and that really is the standard so socially emotionally academically behaviorally and so forth um then you can apply for an assessment um and you have to write a letter to uh the central office leadership team your child would then have to participate in an assessment which would look at academic social emotional um in an inventory of um some behavioral uh assessments uh
089to see if in fact it would be advantageous to that child to start kindergarten early um so that letter is as part of another statute not covered in this policy um and we are following that this year our website has been updated for the um for that assessment process um and so far I believe we've received seven requests I think should we update our policy I would not update this policy if we want to do something additional in another policy and I can get back to you on exactly which one I would recommend you add something different thank you any other question so um the assessment who does that and where how does that all break down sure um it will be conducted by a certified teacher so um we are looking to either uh
090we are actually in the process of posting for that position so probably a preschool and or kindergarten certified teacher um and then it will be reviewed by an administrator um and what we are looking is that students are scoring at the 5year or older Mark even on the date of assessment even though they will be several months prior to to that okay thank you any other news that anyone want to bring before the board at this time yes I just wanted record to to our chair Relations Committee I was able to attend U Dr k s last Friday I didn't actually um assist our committee meeting on Monday but I just wanted to report it since I'm new on the relations commune I'm glad to be a part of that um I just you know
091we the and and thank you for we got this U electronic device policy over a big hurdle um I you know when uh some of our folks were were watching the the last policy meeting and we had some discussion at the secondary level um which Kelly and I engaged in conversation around um the RS that would you know you would Implement at the at the high school level and the Middle School level and what those would look like um and we had a conversation around the idea that in some cases if we get to so let's just say if the high school went cell phone free right or it was locked up would our regs be more strict than our policy and so we have a meeting with the secondary principles Kelly and I just
092to talk it through a little bit more to really think through what a cell phone um with the cell phone policy in practice how that would play out and the changes that we'd want to see happen and then make sure that the the RS that we have aren in conflict with a policy that would be put in place so we're going to talk that through a little bit more before the second read and if we come with you know anything substantial that changes out of that we'll bring it back to the to the board have you ever done a cost analysis uh for getting the Yoda pouches very expensive yes but um I mean just for the high school sake yeah so some of the ideas that have come up um are around the discussion
093has been that it'd be very difficult to tell the students just keep it in your pocket keep it out of side or keep it in the back because that policy exists now and so um there's more more lean way more lean now than there was even at the beginning of the year to locking the devices up in some some way achiev fashion I mean best case scenario you don't bring them in and they're in the locker or they're in you know they you don't take them out but um that unless they're locked up that the students will continue to use them and it would be continue to be a battle with the teacher so um so that's where we're going to have some conversations around um around that the younger parches I think they're about
094$25 a piece um if I remember correctly times almost 4,000 students um so you know we' eliminated them we have two middle schools that completely eliminated them and they're gone and there's no there's nothing um and that's that's great and so we just we're trying to come around the high school and what that's going to look like in a way that works but there's way more Lean Like I said now to get to getting rid of them people are fed up we'd like to be able to implement whatever we do the policy communicate it before the end of the year and start really fresh at the beginning of the school year um for next year we're kind of late in the game this year um but I think you know we want to talk it
095through a little bit more okay the pouches you're say around $25 what does the cost for the UNM magnification centers I mean is that you know where you go oh the magnets yeah that all has to be installed I mean on top cost inclusive which I'm just wondering if we could get um maybe a local um Corporation to help a you know donation and start a sauce on the right possible there was there was time get a get a figure you know okay this is what it would cost installation and uh product we're going to we're going to look at we're going to look at all that I it is it is quite expensive some of the the Locking plastic cases in the you know that in the room are far less expensive way to
096go but there's you know there's problems with that as well you know somebody has to have the key had to come back to the home room and they have to have a home room to come back to so we're gonna that's what the meeting is about we're going to talk through all those things because we want to make sure we're going to do this um and we're going to restrict um and again I think heading into the policy there was more favor to uh letting the kids still keep them on them but just control it more but that has that has swung in a different direction yeah reading more and more and seeing even the legislature yeah so we're going to discuss the the technical aspects of of executing a policy and come back to
097this group if you can get the solid figure I'd be interested in hearing it thank you so um the district I'm working out working in and um what we did this year is a district bought pockets for each class it's like 30 40 36 or 30 it's about 36 pockets and uh the students have been told that as soon as that second bell rings every cell phone must be in that pocket to in include iPods what what wrist watches or whatever and I got to say that going over going been been in school a little over a half a year uh I see the the attention is better um you know I personally in my class within the last 15 minutes I let them to grab their phone because I know when you teach a
09890-minute class they're anxious to to get it um even when they ask to go to the bathroom they don't take the phones with them okay uh so from my perspective from my experience this year so far it's working is it 100% work it no but it's working much better than the last few years and I think that's most cost effective is the pouches uh and you know the teacher is going to have to enforce to make sure that uh that the phones are are in the pocket but it's working did you my comment is not related to this conversation that's happening um I just want to talk about a couple events that I had been to at one of the schools okay so uh I went to um West Side Middle School for two different
099events one was for the history day and one was for the science and engineering Fair um and I just want to report back uh both were phenomenal I know that there's another event that's happening tomorrow morning as well I'm not able to attend that one but I just want want to say a special thank you to um the instructor who coordinates all that which was Nancy Baro over at w School the programs are fantastic it's a great opportunity to have some interaction with the students um and I think it's a benefit to them as well to see that there are folks in the community who are coming in to to visit with them to see what they're up here it's very exciting to see that work thank you I would like with the board M
100when we get invitation and if you can at least let me know that you're going I would appreciate it okay because I can't go to all of them so I would just like to you know know if the board is C that's my own plan okay yes Teresa um are you want to report I went to the spelling B at RPL and that was fun was a lot of fun and also at the DHS PTO we had a presentation from the counselor about the new um like student College transcript software and she did it by zoom and unfortunately she had technical difficulties and it was unfortunate she explained it but I I felt bad because some of the parents I was sitting with they came from work they were hoping to get uh you know
101feedback on this new uh a software that their children are going to be using and parents as well and I felt bad that there wasn't uh technical uh support for this this counsel so that's that was my take on that any other remarks or anything on Monday that be event cover okay nothing else board chairperson report I would like to remind all of our board members when you receive uh notice for a meeting just click on yes or no and this way car know whether you're coming or not and I know some of you go out of your way to send an email and you know let me know personally or let Carol know and we appreciate that because she's she's been trying to see how many people when we have I mean if we
102going to have a home okay I I I want to give thanks to Dan be high school scho B they attended the Dr manther King program at my church on the 17th we had the cancer I think on the 15th whenever November the 16th and it was the kids that always come and they're so well prepared and Mr Alonso he just those kids are just remarkable and he got up and the other U man that the other gentleman I'm sorry Mr I think it's Patrol that yeah yeah okay and forgive me for mispronouncing your name he had the Jazz SP so I think it was about 18 of them at home they came they ate they socialized and they went out and they just showed off in our church and we love them you know
103Mr alons had asked me back in uh May a graduation or June are we coming to the New Hope and I said well I can't say yes or no because we have an inter Minister and so I met with her and she gave me the okay we put it together and the church just love her and the church was saying how well mannered they are and when they come they come and act nice like young teenagers yeah so and I appreciate um the superintendent Carol and Kelly down at the bus company because they have been doing this for over 20 years taking the the resources from the bus and giving that bus to us for and I really want thank you so thank you good experience with kids uh that's all that I have to
104say um April no is it March March 4th next week we have a busy week some of us we having our superintendent evaluation committee so all of you that can you know please attend the meeting okay okay 6:00 here that's all that I have I need if there's nothing else I need motion to enter into executive session I make the motion motion made by all favor it's seconded by Michelle all in favor motion so car do we need a break 5 minutes 3 minutes okay 3 [Music] minutes give check cell phon like kids like a bunch of kids know right great now I'm noticing at home so 91 I just need her for a second