001oh post read that arms allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indice order arms house right Face Forward March okay see roll call I'm president Teresa pres here ke here glis here Dr Lauren here Anita here Rich here Julie here okay thank you public participation the board welcomes the board welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers May either offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of person person complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system I need a motion to accept the consent C I make the motion
002motion made by ask you read the consent count you read the entire motion make the that the Board of Education approve the consent calendar exhib exhibits 24-1 169 through 24173 as recommended second motion made by Al second by Kate all those in favor of the motion can I hear I oppose motion so Carri do we have um educational staff here to represent good evening everyone I'm here tonight to provide an update on some of the positive initiatives taking place across our district highlighting the incredible work our principles and staff are doing to Foster welcoming and supportive School environments promoting a positive school clate has been a key priority at all levels and I'm excited to share some of the ways our schools are celebrating student achievements enhancing collaboration and creating inclusive spaces for Learning and
003growth from elementary to high school we are seeing meaningful efforts to ensure every student feels recognized and supported at all levels across the district principles have been working hard to create positive School climates through a variety of initiatives many schools are focusing on celebrating students who demonstrate strong attendance embodying core values and contribute to a positive School environment these celebrations whether through recognition ceremonies student of the month programs or fun activities like breakfast of champions are helping to build a culture of achievement and belonging in addition to student recognition schools are engaging staff through collaborative activities spotlighting the experience and skills of betterer teachers and fostering teamwork among newer Educators restorative practices such as morning circles are being implemented to strengthen relationships and address conf benefiting both students and staff at the K8 level we're
004putting into practice all the great strategies we learned and planned for in our PBIS teams training during last year at the high school level we're seeing a continued focus on promoting sportsmanship tolerance and respect among students with recognition from external organizations for these efforts the use of core values PBIS strategies and restorative practices has led to noce schable improvements in student Behavior engagement and overall morality across the district these efforts show a deep commitment to creating an inclusive supportive and celebratory atmosphere for both students and staff at every school in the district led by the dedicated administrators in collaboration with teachers and SCH staff thank you so much thank you thank you do we have an our students here tonight yes good evening Board of x members cabinet and community members thank you for allowing
005me to represent and speak on behalf of the Alternative Center for exellence on Friday September 27th it's held its annual beginning of the year Community Building day at the day started in a whole school Circle led by John and Anthony next guidance groups engaged in team building activities and challenges like the human KN the hulao pass the ski walk the Tower of Power and gance pyramid pictures lunch was hamburgers and hot dogs from the gr and after lunch students had time to inter with each other meet dream patchs and our a scarecrow the city center Danberry or play in a kickball game it was a great day to build our community and Forge New friendship Ace he Humanities Department gr level Benchmark on Wednesday October 2nd the ace Humanities department has created a benchmark schoy
006classroom that the entire student body participates in based on your highest grade level in English and social studies thank you face Humanity department for all your diligent work on this schoolwide learning Activity The Benchmark process takes place during a 4our block and students will have an opportunity to demonstrate their skill level with regards to their tasks after the benchmarks are completed Ace offered enrichment flexes for students and staff it was a great day filled with both hard work and team Mo the first Ace parents night was held on Tuesday October 1st at 6:00 p.m. parents and students began the evening together to hear about upcoming events and school goals for the 2024 2025 school year after the parents and students had the opportunity to follow their student schedule and meet with a staff on Monday
007October 7th a small group ofa's environmental science classes visited conversation center to attend rare and remarkable program aimed at teaching students about endangered or threaten species local to Connecticut and those that are a special concern students participated in games and activities geared to identified species as well as working with small teams to stimulate what would happen if a few species can or numbers decline a letter to govern go lont was drafted to ask to keep local species in mind making policies in our state especially in regarding those which are already in students and staff have the option to sign if they wanted to on Friday on Friday October 18th Melissa Pella and DJ will be taking eight students to a Dodge poetry clest students will have the opportunity to experience live spoken word as well
008as participate in writing workshops and meet with great well-known Co wrers H will be administrating our our schoolwide PSAT for 9th 10th and 11th graders on Wednesday October 16th a special thanks to Kyle and Diana for their hard work and plan of the day on our com day our seniors will be transported to DHS to participate in senior activities uring on that day after senior activities at DHS seniors will welome to a for guest speaker Scott bar for from n Valley Community College who will be speaking for the to the administration process of 2025 graduating seniors and our last one is during our time led by danela Diana Anda the students at Ace are creating for dream catchers to bring the C here the cancer center at Amber this is the fifth Ace school project
009with have kind and encouraging s written messages for the cancer patients caregivers and staff to read we plan to deliver these dream catchers on Thursday October 31st once delivered they will decorate the waiting room at F thank you for allowing us to share what is going on at our a family and have a nice evening stay healthy and remain a strong thank you for coming here and and giving us your for a uh first of all before you leave I would like for you to identify yourself so we could all hear your names okay and I know it's not easy getting up and you want to just say what you want to say and sit down but we want to be able to know your name when you come up before so okay my name
010is Ariana West and I am a senior ATO nice to meet you it's nice to meet you as well my name is Al and I am a junior at nice to meet you and thank you again uh before we move on in the agenda and um we had a donation here and it was part of the uh consent calendar and I would just like for that donation to be read out loudly and we we accepted that donation but I think it's very uh wellbeing that we acknowledge someone when they send some and do something for our children in our school system so Louisa would you read the U donation yes um accept we accepted a donation of $14,000 for the rich from the Richard J Moore family for the installation of a new scoreboard at
011Dam High School okay thank we move on down the agenda oh I'm we have um public participation uh Michelle Michael Michael sorry good evening good evening thank you for taking the time today so my name is michaelo and my wife Danielo um lifelong attic residency in denbur for the last 13 years um I have two daughters that go to uh that go to the danur school system I old this uh is a softare in high school high honors top 20 and I just have to commend the job that Dy High School does um and very appreciate about that um but for today I just wanted to bring for some concerns I had for my daughter Chloe hero she's in the seventh grade at Broadview Middle School cluster 4 um just to give you some background
012on my daughter she's driven she is a high honor student um and I'll give you the example that what she did last year she did a project on natural disasters for fire I when I was in probably wait till the last minute to do it she started working on it the first day she started working on the first day spent 3 hours a day probably 15 hours total to the fantastic job earn 100 science clo um where my concerns lie is we're about 40 days into the school year plus her minus and she's without a science teacher so she's had Subs mix and imch heading in documents you know kids playing your phone things like that um we brought forth our concerns to the administration we met both virtually in person open house uh most
013recently I sent an email um with my recommendations because I'm not getting Solutions um related to um so I said that to vice principal the superintendent and the mayor about 10 days to go not expecting an immediate response but still waiting for that response um but I just want to bring forth my concerns um because I don't want to fail my daughter and I do appear feel that if I don't take action um it could be a failure of my daughter as Administration we're failing her and everybody else in those classes um so I just wanted to that uh we just like to say we don't dialogue back and forth with you but we appreciate you bringing uh your concerns for your child to the board so um the superintendent will have someone contact you
014okay and and get get the information that she needs to um sort of work out this problem thank no just try to do our best you thank you thank you anyone else uh want to address the board see yes um in connection with the uh we didn't have a representative from the D High School um I learned I think one week no they don't they come second oh the second have the second there isn't there a week coming uh like a restaurant week uh where the money is going to part of the was it PTO or the where the high school gr yes it's it's like restaurant month or something like that one night a week is it this week yeah sorry it's this whole week so like it's different restaurants you can eat at
015and they donate back to the high school I thought that was important oh okay thank you thank you all right okay good evening let's go here you okay um okay uh this evening we'd like to welcome Melissa hanquin uh up you want to come on up and and get situated canel get your mic going Melissa is uh the executive director of the dbre collective this has been a really important work group for our school system members of our school system but also local organizations around town who are um building sort of a coalition of the willing to help chip away at some um some big issues that are kind of persistent uh for the school community and also community at large so uh I will turn it over to Melissa and she'll go over the
016work that the collective is engaging in thank you thank [Music] you let me just test this out okay great well good evening everyone board and community members um I'm so happy to be here again um at Dr C state name is Hanan I'm executive director of the D Collective um we are a new wish organization as of the last year that has launched here in danburry um and I want to just share a little about the work we've been doing and also extend an invitation to the board members as well as community members to get involved in work we're doing so if I can have you direct your attention to the screen I have a presentation um that will help give some visuals for some of the work that we're doing so I'm going to
017uh get through the material uh pretty concisely so I just want to start at the beginning if there's anything that I'm going through too quickly or that you have questions about you can definitely reach out to me we also have this presentation um included in the agenda and we also have it on our website okay so what is the D Collective we are a nonprofit Cradle to Career Collective impact organization that means that we are focusing on improving outcomes for young people from fredal when they're born and really before um in the prenal stage supporting families all the way up to career and whatever um young people are doing when they are done with high school um and moving on to the next stage in their life we are a collective impact organization which means
018that we follow a model for Community organization called Collective contest which means that we believe in bringing together stakeholders from our community and allowing community members to co-create solutions to the challenges we see in our community um Collective impact means as you can um probably tell from the the words it means that we're working collaboratively and collectively to make a difference we fall under the United Way of coastal Western Connecticut they serve as our backbone organization and support with many backend operations we believe that having them as our backbone is really helpful because they are a trusted organization here in Dany and across Coastal and Western Connecticut we are also a new member of the national strive together Cradle to Career Network this is a network of over 70 or ganizations across the country who
019are doing similar work to what we're doing here at D Collective and we are new members as of about two weeks ago so that has been uh several months in the make but we're really excited to join the community of five Cradle to Career Collective impact organizations here in Connecticut and the five of us do represent um some of the largest uh cities here in Connecticut we are um independent of the public schools and the City of Danbury but I always mention that we are in very close partnership with those institutions as well as with other nonprofit organizations and our community members here in danburry we know that it is so important for any Grassroots uh effort to have a good relationship with those institutions so we're really thrilled that over the last year we've
020been able to build that relationship um and with many of the folks here sitting in this room today and finally we are all about advancing Equity by learning together aligning and integrating our actions to achieve systems change so we are really looking at the big picture of why our young people face challenges and what we can do to take a systems level approach to solve them so just to State our mission um something that's really exciting about our mission and vision is that these were co-created with our community members so this was part of the multi-month process where our community members who were engaged in colletive came together and thought really um hard about what we wanted to stand for and what our goals would be so our mission is led by the community we
021work collectively to Foster positive measurable and sustainable life outcomes for dried children families and young adults and our vision of a perfect world is one in which all danur children the families and young adults have full and Equitable access to opportunities to be successful and thrive in life so during um so we launched officially in November of 2023 but prior to that there was a group of folks here in Danberry who came together and were doing a lot of the work on the back end to get us off the ground and something that happened in that initial year was doing focus groups with parents young people and community members we did A needs assessment to identify what the biggest priorities would be for our work because as you can imagine Cradle to Career Continuum is
022very large and we can FOC our efforts in many different places but the three priorities you see up on the screen right now were selected by our community and those are chronic absenteeism and learner engagement early childhood education and youth mental health these are particularly um important coming out of the co pandemic that's something we heard a lot from parents and so um we just want to you know make sure that these are the three that we are prioritizing right now that doesn't mean that we will always prze those but we are all about being responsive to our community and um changing as we need to um I'm going to skip through a little bit of the history and future um but this is all available again on our website and in the packet that
023you received as part of the agenda I will pause here for just um a highlight of some of the Milestones that we have accomplished together so right now we have over 50 individuals in janary who have signed our membership agreement that means that they are publicly committed to the work we're doing and that membership agreement is a way that um to outline really what our priorities are and how we will work together as a community so 50 people have signed on to that and we also have over 130 individuals who are engaging with the dam collective in some way whether it be as um a working group member which are focused on those three topics I mentioned or if they're receiving our newsletter and wanting to learn more so some of the Milestones I want
024to call out because again um I'm here speaking on behalf of our Collective there are many voices there we have our nonprofit Partners our city Partners schools partners and most importantly I would say is our community member and parent Partners who are coming and showing up every month in our working groups they are telling us what they think and so the Milestones I'm sharing today are really on behalf of the good work that everyone has done together I think it also demonstrates what's possible when we do work in using and Collective impact model so I'll run through these pretty quickly and then I want to open up four questions so first of all back in March of this year we hosted a winter convening for all of our members bringing together over 60 individuals um
025to one night where we were learning about what Collective impact is we heard from some of our elected officials joined working groups and parents were able to voice their opinions in breakout groups in May and leading into the summer we were able ble to secure some additional funding from um private and corporate family foundations that is an ongoing um effort that we are engaging in as you can imagine with nonprofit organizations that's part of the work every day supporting uh finding those support systems we also have joined the Connecticut Cradle to Career Coalition which um means we join our sister organizations bridor prospers Norwalk act Stanford Cradle to career and Water Bar Bri to success and in that coalition we are very much focused on um advocating for state level policy and Civic infrastructure that
026will benefit not just danburry um families but also families across the state we're also fortunate to be able to learn from those folks who have been doing this for 5 10 15 years while we are very new to it in August our chronic absenteeism and learner engagement working group published an attendance toolkit and parent brochure to support education on the importance of regular School attendance one of our goals for that group is to um contribute to reducing the percentage of students who are chronically absent in Den public schools and our goal within the next two years is to reduce to the pre-co rates of 7 8% of students chronically absent of course with the goal of getting to as low and Upp as possible that toolkit is now out in the world and there are
027a lot of ways that you as board members and our community members can share the information to ensure that all families feel supported in helping their their children get to school every day and feel like they're going to a place that is Welling and exciting to be at and then finally we um you know moving forward we are really looking at building our infrastructure getting more community and parent voice eventually want to get more youth voices we had a really great opportunity in the last two months to host some youth conversations with about 20 young people in Danbury who shared with one of our foundation Partners The Importance of Being connected and what their hopes and dreams are we hope that the voices that our D students shared will be elevated to the state level
028as the 19k commission on disconnected youth um just today released their report on what strategies we can take as a state to reconnect young people and so um we really are excited that D very young voices will be included in that conversation so with that my call to action for the group is um to really spread the word about work we're doing to parents and community members and to young people your students we really want to make sure that we have a representative body of folks who are coming in sharing their concerns we know that people who are facing challenges um often times know the best way to solve those and so we just really want to make sure we're bringing those people into our space um we strive for it to be a welcoming
029and inclusive space a safe space so um that is my call to action I also would um encourage you all to take a look at our attendance toolkit so that you can also um get very well versed in the language we're using around attendance so with that I'll stop but I welcome any questions and thank you again for the um opportunity to speak today uh where did we get the attendance tool kick information yes so I can share that we also um have it up on our website our website is hosted under the way of must Connecticut's webite but I can certainly share the link so that everyone has access to it we do have the toolkit in three languages as well English uh Spanish and Portuguese Mr yes hi how do you get the
030message out to the general public as to what you're doing uh so that the the work that you've done uh relative to at least one of the categories the absenteeism how is that given out to the public with the parents educating thank you educating the parents that it's important to send the uh the children to school as well as uh the the cultural differences that we have in Den how do you meet those challenges yes so we are building on the networks of trusted Messengers here in the community so some of the communities that we have tapped into are the community Messengers program out of United Way we are also tapping into some of the um d Public Schools offerings to parents including parent c um and pep so really tapping into what already exists
031we know that the way that people get their information is from trusted neighbors and community members so we as a collective really are reaching out through those Avenues um in terms of The Chronic asent as a toolkit we are doing targeted trainings with different groups so over the summer we did a group um training with our full Collective we are also targeting um um coaches for sports leagues and activities we are going to be doing a training with Early Childhood providers in two weeks so if there is a group that you feel would benefit from receiving a direct training we would be happy to come out and do that we're also utilizing the Train the trainer model where we are equipping our members to go out and train their communities as well in terms of
032our broader Outreach with the collective um I'm excited to share that we are building our marketing so we um are just now on social media so that we know that will be um a place that we can leverage relationships and get the word out um and also with our Global News organizations as well thank you I have a a few questions um and it's based on um what are the expectations that we should have um based on the colle grow I mean when can we expect tangible results from the collective that's one main question I'm going to say them all so um that's one when you say um um you guys are being partnered with different organizations and you get this um feedback from them and you said you guys are training um how exactly
033what is that base training that you guys are giving away Bas apps in face because I think that everybody has clear within um d Public Schools or um within um what you guys provide from the initial um Point um starting point because I believe that this was something brought out last year right and we never got pretty much much about I know this is like a pretty much overview of everything but I mean I know that is a lot of information and a lot of questioning but when can we expect results from this and I mean only like um get to train I mean um those individuals within their Collective when parents would actually understand that this is important or how you guys are contributing to that part um for the Denver public school system
034sure thank you and I'm sorry for no please no it's helpful so I'm actually going to oh sorry I think my presentation not sure if it's still available um I just wanted to show everyone what the brochure is that we put out around around chronic absenteeism um because I do think that is one example of a tangible result that we have accomplished in that working group so I will start by saying in our three working groups we are really focused on first diagnosing what the issues are surrounding those topics that includes those parent and youth focus groups um it includes discussion and bringing people into the conversation to make sure that we have everyone who's part of the ecosystem in D so that's kind of the first step our early childhood and mental health um
035groups are in that stage right now and so they are identifying what tangible results that they would like to see as a group one thing with the youth mental health group that we are working on is producing an asset map which would show um anyone who's looking at it in damate all of the different s resources that exist for different topics um that was something we heard from a lot of our members that it was really hard for parents and uh community members to navigate the many different resources that exist um I I should say we 100% believe that there are aming things happening in danburry and so our role is to really tap in and um make sure that we're leveraging those things and bringing people together to make sure they're aware of them
036in terms of chronic absenteeism um up on the screen right now is the brochure that we the first page of the brochure that we have published as a group so just imagine it folded three times um the goal of this trifold and it has been going out to to students and families through the schools and through our partner organizations the goal really is to First increase awareness we want to make sure we're all speaking the same language around attendant because um like you mentioned Rich there are many different reasons why students might be chronically absent and so we did um you know we wanted to make sure everyone's speaking the same language so you'll see here in the middle we have some language around who can support families and students it might be obvious to
037some people who are reading it but maybe not so obvious to others so it really is like you said starting from a baseline on the second page we have some um definitions around what chronic absenteeism is we know that if um a student is missing you know one day or two days per month it might not seem like a lot they're missing but it adds up to what chronic absenteeism is 18 days 126 instructional hours so this is just really putting it on paper what the problem is and how we can support that the final um comment that I'll say we are building our um data infrastructure which means we're working with our other partners in bridport and Stanford to make sure that we are both collecting and analyzing data everything we do as it
038was um mentioned in our missioning vision needs to be data driven so we are looking into ways that we can build that infrastructure so we can actually track our outcomes this group for example um set very definitive goals around what we would like chronic aesm to look like in the next two years so that group does have their um numerical goals but again those other two working groups are defining what they'll do yes I'm sorry I have two more questions my apologies um when you approach um when you said that you have are been creating awareness to organizations um I think that brought this um to the bo members and um last year um I have kids also uh Middle School age um organizations such as dentists doctors they plan ahead on um kids um
039scheduling in the mornings so these create apps and as well so that's one question if you have been um able to address those issues with within the organizations that provide the services to the community that's one and the other one is um how can parents know the differences maybe this is something more for you Dr how will they know the difference about chronic ABM if they go ahead and they say um listen I have like a family emergency or I'm going on vacation or something came up and I'm going to be out for a week and I cannot leave my child LEL so will that fall in the same category or because I know is that even though parents might call ahead would you get also um the on the um report card absent so
040I don't know if there a difference on in there thank you that be all it's a good question um so so all an absence is an absence is an absence so if you're missing school you're missing hours you're missing content um not only is it challenging for the student to make that up it's also challenging for the teacher to try to catch that student up as well and it's it's disruptive for the classroom so so you know one of the the goals and if you remember this is one of our proposed goals for the board and the district as well um together that we would promote um the ideals of the collective and what's so powerful about it is that so it's not so much that Melissa herself is doing that that work she's creating
041the conditions for Community agencies and groups to come together to talk about ways that we can strategize how do we tap our assets that we already have in the dist in the in the community um and how do we align our messaging so The Chronic absenteeism group was kind of first out of the gate so that group moved fairly quickly they often and they were able to to get together and U create the messaging The Branding and the common definition so when we say chronic absenteeism what does that mean it doesn't count I'm not intentionally keeping my child out of school I I have I'm going on a vacation and that's important to my family or I have to go visit family or I have to go out of the country because the the the
042time of year that that I need to do that so the goal is to increase the awareness about the effects of that in the hopes that maybe we make some different choices now also there could be some mitigating situations that a family's going through maybe they're having transportation issues maybe there's a there's something going on at home um part of our leap grant that we have right now what's so CR crucial about that is that folks are making contact with so if Teresa is has been out already uh it's the first month of school and she's been missing for 2 or 3 days we're we're going to make contact with Teresa's parents and hopefully Teresa to make sure that there's nothing going on to explain why this is so important and that we really would
043like to see Teresa back in school as soon as possible because we don't want that to affect her learning so it's really about creating the a the the the Forum and the conditions for the community agencies to get together to align where and when we can Target um this messaging when I had the superintendent meet the superintendent event on the 21st um if you recall I stuck a few of the slides from the toolkit in there to keep the common message uh you know going and to make sure that whenever we have an opportunity to get in front of parents we're bringing in those those messages and that's consistent over and over again so um hopefully the results for us will be that through this Collective work that we're doing uh between the phone calls
044the messaging um hearing it in the school system hearing it on the ball field from your coach because he knows that you've been out and we saying the same thing um or other work groups um that that eventually those numbers will come down because there's there shared understanding about the impact of that to re um have you also uh thought about the cellone use in schools we have not but I will say that in the youth mental health working group um the topic of social media bullying and increased anxiety and depression has come up many times from bul parents and community members in the group so it's not been something we have talked about specifically but that's been um social media certainly has come up as a concern okay Richard has a question on then
045I just want to say that I been part of this group since it's Inception working with the the absente group the awareness is one of the key things that we were focusing on uh the the key concept here was we put in a lot work as to find out what created this and why it was created and until you point about the various medical appointments we have it is a a an issue that they're done principally in the morning um the the other thing that played an important part was the cultural differences I remember Emmanuel coming in and explaining the the the culture that when people come here from different countries what they're accustomed to not necessarily ours so there was a lot of time that was spent going into to the different causes that
046would do this so that they could identify them and then essentially go out and I want to say attack them but then to to make the awareness as to what you should do and how you can prevent this I remember one of the sessions we had was to try to to uh engage in conversation with the medical providers so that they could be a little bit more flexible and make these appointments you know outside of School uh School District but there was a lot of research work that went into the particularly when I was involved was the absentee group and I'm sure the other two categories were done as much but it's awareness and that's why I asked before to explain how we get this message out and and then work with it was important
047that the board of education at that time prior to car uh Kevin wson uh had attended these meetings uh and it was important that we had the representations of the district as well as the mayor from the city representing so that we had a Buy in to this particular program um and it it's apparently successful but it's going to take some time thank you commissioner I just want to comment too I'm on the committee Lissa and and Rich and uh it's been really a great experience uh the only thing I don't see that was mentioned that we did actually spend a lot of time on is in incorporating the student and getting the student to be excited about being in school so that has to do with that character that Emanuel help to design and
048the different stages that the character goes through and I know you're looking to kind of reinforce that through social media um but also what was exciting was bringing in the Board of Ed to try to help with that communication or trying to assist in what we were talking about medical um concerns or you know trying to get to and from school and how possibly you know we can use um students that maybe are doing uh have a lot of doctor's appointments as part of their you know um life and um how we can reinforce that how we can help with that communication so it it's really been a great great program I know we were I think at 24% absenteeism after Co last I heard we were around 17 so um I just obviously feel
049that this is a great program and it's going to get out community so thank you another question basically dat D um can we tell probably from next year can we tell the difference on um what is um sickness for the kids right cuz I know that prior to now everybody did not send their kids either they have cold or so it was based on that data that most so that we took abs and now those St should be C down are we going to be able to see the difference because I know that now say oh no my kid just have two I want understand anything so can we compare those to what used to be pre pandemic and post pandemic um based on a specific signs without the pic yeah I'll put it over
050to theend yes definitely so part of the messaging and in the training in the toolkit is a recognition that you know there was a point in time when the child had a sniffle in the co during the p and birth no keep him home and so we're trying to now break that cycle of the you know with the opposite like come on get your get your shoes in we go to school you're fine uh unless there's a fever or there's something very definitive so it's really about the mindset and sort of the retraining around um the School attendance and also we you know we have some some hot spots kindergarten right some people uh parents don't always see that as a mandatory thing but it does have an effect on on children uh nth grade
051is another Hot Zone 12th graders um tend to tend to also be out a lot so um you know we're working on that and we certainly have pre and post pandemic data and a lot of the work that we're doing now is is getting back to pre-pandemic levels that's the goal let's at least get back there and then set some new goals once we get there thank you yeah and I I would just say I would love to look at um to segregated data as well around the reason for individual absences because we have been targeting our work based on um the age groups that superintendent mentioned as well as different schools that have different Trends and so one thing that the group is really interested in is looking how many absences are due to
052Ill versus some other reason so that's something that we love to consider in the future thank you any other questions meliss on behalf of the board I certainly appreciate you coming and doing your presentation thank you very much have a good night thank you for standing committee I'm going to start with sites and Facilities we're scheduled to have our first uh sites and Facilities meeting on October 17th um it'll be on site at danor high school and we will be having a kind of interactive meeting we're going to take a tour of all the improvements that have been done over the summer and talk about uh plans moving forward and uh what's on the agenda so hope to see everybody there thank you community relations um so I don't have any update from the last
053meeting um but our next meeting is tomorrow evening at 6m thank you can I something to the just for little um I was ask to the chair just to see if we can meet on some of the housing of just to give you an update they are looking into some of their facilities to see when we as a board might be able to go and introduce yourself like a say um get to know each other mingle up and get to know the community so once I have theate I will pass it on to Katie and from there on she will be able to give you more information thank you um so we had a meeting uh last week at we um and we talked about a couple policies that we will see on tonight's action
054uh items our next meeting will be November 6th okay thank you br oh it's the next finance committee meeting is October 16th at 6: p.m. curriculum so we just had a curriculum committee um committee meeting tonight we learned about the district accountability index and we will be going over that as more information comes out from the state and thank you for the presentation for the committee tonight well done um GL I don't know if this is the appropriate time or further down but um Kate and I are both PTO Reps for more Street school and they sent us some information good okay um so moris Street schools sent an email to Kate and I um and they're having their annual Halloween festivities Harvest sorry thank you on October 18th and they're having a trunk or
055treat that same night in the parking lot at 7:30 to 7:45 and they're looking for people to come and do their trunk and hand out candy cuz they don't have enough volunteers for that so they would like us to pass it on to the board of that if any anyone is available um October 18th from 7:30 to 7:45 let us know we can get you in touch with the folks 15 minutes 15 minutes until yeah um that's the trunk retreat part theet yeah um we can get you in touch with the folks at more street thank you this is not a standing committee but we both serve on the committee instead of putting it at the end I want to um we are PTO representative um Juanita and myself so we have decided that one
056month she's going to do the report and I'm going to do the report so why need to issue your turn and I thought for the first meeting that it would be our chairperson but that was changed the Citywide PTO um met on Monday October 7th um we had the honor of hearing the [Music] presentation uh hearing the presentation on the Dy Collective so um it was great to hear it again this evening at the board meeting um um many of the schools reported out D High School uh brw Middle School um AIS Shelter Rock uh Westside Middle School all reported out the events that they are having in their upcoming events and um the superintendent reported also to cypto and we want to when we talk about keeping um or speaking the same language delivering
057the same message um every time I get a chance I try to use our theme which is the best Urban District in the state of can County um and so that was put out there at citywi P also also one of the things that the superintendent mentioned which I think um was very important for the parents to hear is that we are beginning to move into a reset mode and so that's districtwide and where pandemic is passed and how do we move forward um the uh citywi p is looking for suggestions for guest speakers to speak at their meetings if you have any suggestions please that myself or chair person Cooper not and we will pass that on we did report um regarding the board that we are um participating in trainings weind them about
058the upcoming um budget season and also emphasizing as we have in our board meetings is to have our parents and students review The District's code of conduct it's just really important again that same message continues to go out um and U our chairperson thank the D parents and of course the school pto's for continuing to engage in the success of our students thank [Music] you anyone have any questions how do you get an invite to it used to be anybody I when they the work done on the zoom any any board member uh could attend the meeting in addition to the superintendent and the designated board person who was assigned to it but times have changed and may it was Co and they restricted it with Zoom uh as my understanding just the PTO members
059or or heads uh as well as chair so I had other board members who want to participate in take advantage of uh the information relative to I also discussed that with Tim and uh he said that he was right there he was directing his um uh as far as opening it up the people that are on the say to invited people that's who he was inviting on the meeting day off he does not open his meetings up even though you I will give him a call and and see has things change but the people that are there that sits around the table are people that b and I was selected by this board to sit on that committee okay so if outside people want to uh if you want to t a call give him
060a call okay I can't I can't undo what he has in M action items action item B A I make the motion that the Board of Education pursuant to Public Act 2445 authorize the establishment of a non-aps account where a year-end budget surplus may be deposited not to exceed 2% of the the operating budget with your superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer has authorized signers to the account in accordance to the Public Law Public Act motion made by Al could I hear a second second uh any questions any comments yes yes I obviously in favor of this one of two questions I have one should there be a policy on this issue I'm not sure whether you should or shouldn't but I do suggest strongly that there' be a procedure relative to the operation of
061this particular bank account its internal controls and also my suggestion would be that the sums of money that we're talking about should be invested not in speculative stuff but you have fairly safe investment of money market CDs um so that they be uh invested and you don't lose the money on it but very important to have a procedure relative to the accountability the accounting on this Etc K uh I just want to Echo the idea that we have um sort of an internal mechanism for monitoring those funds um you I want to make sure we have I want to Echo Mr U janell's comments that we have an internal mechanism to monitor those funds and how they're they're going to how be ear marked um if that if that money is going to be used
062in a particular budget cycle thank you um Mike did you have anything additional Teresa Teresa I'm concerned about you uh the gentleman the last uh board meeting he said to earmark the funds which I find correctly uh that's a good idea but I don't want to see open uh purchase requisitions going into the next fiscal year that's what I'm concerned about uh that those funds say it comes from last year's budget that and we have left over and you put it into to the account does that go under the new budget or is it still under the old budget PR or po that's my concern I don't want to see I I would like to see the books closed in a timely fashion not something uh dragging on through the year Michael you want to
063answer that yeah so um it is uh I guess not practical to have all the POS closed at year end just because um there are certain items that are open that we might not have received an invoice for um those typically do get closed out um in a timely fashion but the the Surplus that we're talking about would be above and beyond any of the POS um or encumbrances that are that are there should be above that um and in a perfect world we wouldn't have U the Surplus at all every thank you okay I think just so that I'm correcting my understanding though this that that amount once it goes into a non-aps me non-expiring account that it's not necessarily part of of of the budget coming up for the year it's it's an
064account that that money can sit in that account and be used in subsequent budget years so it's not necessarily tied to this budget year you can use it during this budget year if you need to but if you don't and you use it three years down the road that that's that's okay as well I S I'm looking for Mike's headshake on thank you so so in other words we have a dollar left over from last year and you could put it in the account up to 2% so it doesn't go back to the city correct thank you one um having sat in a um Financial workshop with C just a couple of days ago this actual topic came up and a couple of the suggestions that they have was to um make a decision whether
065it's going to be a separate account or an existing account just it seems like it's going to be separate onto the um they also suggested that you have a um something in your policies to align with that that actually outlines what kind of what Rich was saying accountability who sign that sort of thing and they also suggested that so that um we are transparent and upfront that we also make sure that we let our city council understand that this this is not extra money so when we ask for funding and so when we talk about earmarking it some of the suggestions that some of the um presenters gave was have have some kind of um examples of how that money might be used and one of the suggestions was is every district is struggling with
066um the amount of money that we use for out placing some of our special students and they thought that's a wonderful idea that you have that backup fund you never know when that expense which is sometimes very high and unexpected might come up yes we had uh was it $700,000 left over in this last budget is that money going to go into yes do we have ear marks or anything not the 715 thank you yes Mr my suggestion would be is was part of this write up procedures is that would be presented with monthly financial statements uh to include this so your financial statements would include your operational accounting your Grant accounting and then another accounting for this particular fund so all of the monies that come under our perview are segregated uh highlighted segregated
067by by by its type and you have the reporting un accountability for it um and it it just makes it clean presentation for that but that could be done in the descriptions of the process the procedure how you can do this well I'm sure our financial Financial person in charge have already thought about that and the superintendent yes I just want to make sure understand that 2% can Choice up or down depending on how much will be the budget right or not because if we say like 2 years from now the budget is goes up let's say we use that 2% for any reason we put that money back but doesn't necessarily have to be the same amount that was Prior right it will be 2% based on the Surplus that we have of the
068budget number of the budget for that year that's right that and that will change for me yes thank you can those funds be used those I don't want to say extra because everybody just think that the extra is just hanging [Music] around if we need additional people in certain places can we use that money to put people in those places to the best of my knowledge it's not limited okay okay can I just mention just one thing you know we do have part of the you know the expense of moving into the new Academy is still yet a bit unknown right you have whatever doesn't get accounted for in an FF package you know we'll we'll know what gets k kick back when it gets accepted through the state we're going to have to fund
069that Library get that Media Center um filled with books and so there's going to be some expenses um as we move in there so you know there's a lot of probably great reasons and things that we can spend the money on but um my guess is that some of that will go to helping us get that the doors open on the high school w Teresa can we move that money that the city's been holding for us for the last few years that extra money that was spent or was not spent and we returned it to the city can we move that into that yeah any other questions motion on the floor has been moved in second all in favor I motion so Carri action item B St of Connecticut Inc student transportation agreement motion that
070the Board of Education approved the agreement with sta of Connecticut Inc to provide student transportation from the first day of school in the school year 2025 through 202 26 through and including the last day of school in the school year 2 2029 through 2030 in accordance with 24-1 176 motion made got M sh second second second La any question concerning the motion yes Mr J again I'd like to State a a well job done by by ad and Mike in the data that was presented several meetings ago supporting this particular contract um the financial data when I went through it the cumulative effect of these increases if I remember correctly was like 3 $3.3 million over the course of the 5 years and the cost of those 10 additional buses was $786,000 it was also
071interesting in the array of 18 different districts that were provided there were only four districts and when I looked at them there were very small districts that had rates that were better than ours so it was an excellent job in negotiation for this particular contract so again congratulations to the negotiating team whoever they were uh to to get this contract done any other question motion made by um Michelle second second second by all in favor could I hear I I all opposed I so car to rec action I see policy 3542 de point 43- food service charging policy motion that the Board of Education accept for first reading policy 3542 decimal 43- food service charging policy as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 24- 177 motion made by Teresa could I hear
072a second second second by Kate any question concerning that policy seeing n all in favor can I hear I I oppose I so have it is Mr janelli Richard uh action item D compensation central office exempt staff non bargaining unit employees a motion that the Board of Education except for the first reading policy 2/42 40.2 compens ation central office exempt staff brackets non bargaining unit employees close brackets as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 24- 178 motion made by Mr jelli could I hear second second second advis any question concerning this policy yes one um I would like to um state that I will be submitting um wording and recommending a change in this policy I will have that at the next policy meeting on November 6 if there's any board member
073um who is interested in that area please point to attend Kate so procedurally um what has happened is that the policy passed out of committee and was recommended for first read to the board and now this evening is up for a vote for first read by the board um the only way at this point to make adjustments would be if the consensus on at the board here was to withdraw the motion and then kick this policy back to the committee level my understanding is is it's a first reading so the board can accept this for a first reading you still have a policy committee at no whenever you have it but what I'm saying is any board member can they have an idea or something they want to change they still have the priv Privileges
074to do so correct so they can do it at the committee meeting or bring it at the board meeting so I guess my question is if um board member Harris wants to bring it to the policy committee which I'm totally amenable to we have to make sure that that appears on the agenda for that policy committee meeting is that correct yes yes okay I just wanted to make sure I understood because honestly this is this is the first time on the word that we've actually um talked about having a change up the first read to a policy so I just want to make sure I'm F we right we're here to accept this motion as a first reading my my clear understanding at any time the policy and any policy brought before the board member
075it's not the final reading there can be adjustments made am I right here so we're here tonight to accept the the recommendation from the policy committee to accept this as a first reading only yes I attended the the policy meeting on this although I wasn't a Committee Member but part of the conversation was and I think at the end was if there there was questions relative to language um I I think it was asked that they voted to to the chairperson which I did so with that consideration would that those variations on the theme of language changes uh would that be discussed at your next policy meeting based on the information you got from the different members if I I did not get anything in writing from anybody on this particular policy so if I
076do then I'm happy to add it to the agenda but I need to have ADV shows up on agenda in order to follow that same night I sent you my word on that I already said it that's okay okay I don't know if I received it okay F I was just wondering about the process on when it would be the the wording and then how do you resolve something like that I mean if I could have a different wording or different language or different different thought process than any The Other Board member 18 or anybody else who wants to make a change so is that then discussed in the committee meeting amongst committee members to then decide what you want to select so if it appears on the agenda and and folks have submitted um
077stuff to me then I will absolutely bring forward all the the variations that are are given so that we can have a conversation about it and sort of discuss you know who the consensus of the committee is um and then move forward from there okay thank you yes M I just wanted to mention this is one of the policies that wasn't required right this is something as proposed correction so than motion very clear to accept the first reading okay and then it goes back to committee M so typically and and this is just my own experience here so if I'm if I'm incorrect um please correct me but after it goes for first read it does not go back to the committee unless somebody requests specifically to BR back well they're doing that so so
078I'm trying to get through the first reading so there's a motion on the floor to accept this as the first reading right so I think if it has to go back to them then we can can't approve it right no no it can it can be approved I just want to clarify just so that I the motion correct the motion's on the table it's been seconded if we approve the first read for this it will not necessarily be discussed and this is just a general just a general conversation it would not necessarily go back to the policy committee unless like Miss era said she would like to bring it up for conversation policy meeting and we'll certainly do so we can bring those but we can bring those concerns back at the next board meeting
079and discuss them because it's going to be the second reading where we're going to approve um I'm profess to think I'm I'm just sitting here thinking about when we've had this situation before and it's been quite a while um so what I would recommend is that you can certainly accept for the reading today um the policy as written and then you may um at the second reading entertain further discussion about changes to that policy that may come up in the policy committing meeting I think what you're struggling to figure out is where is the Forum in which you're going to have that discussion so you could have it here in this Forum on the second reading um which I think would take the form of a motion to amend it or a motion not to
080approve it at all um to to go to your point about whether it's a mandatory policy or not but that I think would happen after this first reading so if you want to go back to the policy committee for guidance on that and have them make a recommendation at the second reading I think you can do that but I also think it would be appropriate for you to make a motion to amend it at the S meeting as well so perhaps the easiest way to do this is for me to make a motion to actually remove um this motion to put before the to remove it and send it back to the committee at first for first reading you could I think it might be more expeditious though to read it the first time here
081then send it back to policy come otherwise if you do the way you're suggesting withraw it go back going to go back to that policy committee hopefully it makes it on this agenda maybe not and then you've got another first read and another second read I think it might just be more expeditious to just want to make sure that we don't run into anything um procedure wise that says oh sorry you accepted the first reading therefore you got to move along with the first reading that you accepted it's official official we have not the second and I understand that it slows the process down but if I'm not mistaken that we have until the budget the presentation of the budget to make sure that we have all of our ducks with this policy so if
082we're if we're in Orin to accept this as a first we I'd like to just tell me if I'm out of order I'd like to U make a motion to remove this first motion of a first reading and send it back to policy committee review and resubmit as a first reading I I don't know that there is a motion to withraw I think you would vote right right there's a motion for a first read you vote all those in favor of the first read say I all those not say n and the motion would then fail but I don't think there would be a motion are we I'm sorry M yeah I don't want to believe this like and I apologize if I'm if I'm approaching this the wrong way I just want to make
083sure I understand just hypothetical this let's say that the motion carries this evening we look at the first read my intention based on what you said this evening around is to bring it back to the policy committeee for for conversation do I understand correctly Kim that if that happens and we go back to a conversation with policy committee level and there are changes made either we withdraw the policy or make adjustments to the policy if it was to come back to the board would it be for first gred that time or I think it depends if you're going to completely eliminate it I that's issue if you're going to change a sentence then I think what you would do is come back and when it comes up for the second read someone move to amend
084policy with the following language upon recommendation of the policy committee or not recommendation of the policy committee you know your your role I think is a policy committee's advisory um and that once you get that motion here that part of the problems of the whole board would be to tweak the content of it if you don't pass it as Amendment okay am thank you so if we vote on it to do the first read but do we need another vote then to send it back to the am [Music] it have to bring it have to bring it back to to and I have that request to be add to the agenda yeah but when's the second read isn't that usually at the next meeting the next next meeting yeah and the policies in nov so
085it's after there's nothing saying that has to be on that next agenda so given given what we need to said this evening I'm ined to just say we're not going to put it on that next agenda have our policy meeting and talk about okay know laori and thank you Kim you know I sit on enough committes to sort you know we've had this happen before and I think the most thing the most way to to follow this is to accept the first reading and then committ can take up the extra other things that's going into so the motion was made by Richard second by who jul jul sh all in favor I hear I I oppose as okay thank you superintendent report okay I'm try to move through sense in their room here okay um
086so we already had a d reflective presentation again thank you um very much Alissa for that and um I'd like to I'm going to skip around a little bit and I'm going to ask Kim to talk about the Connecticut Innovation cohort partnership um as you know we've been been part it's part of the board goals um and our goals collectively is to you know think about and make improvements in our retention efforts and our staffing um it's been an ongoing discussion that we've been having um we had an opportunity to join um an innovation cohort partnership and I would like for Kim to talk a little bit about what that entails and I might benefit by that one sure so um Sor here um so we have um joined a an Innova What's called the
087Connecticut Innovation cohort our partner in this is the Center for Public research and Leadership and that's a group that comes out of Columbia um and they're in charge this Center for leadership and and basically strategic Consulting is to work they work with public Boards of Education um on different kinds of leadership challenges leadership goals and they have drafted this 2-year program a 2-year cohort um and we are part of the second cohort um called the Connecticut Innovation cohort last year's cohort um focused on some um some issues around Improvement of school design like um full year school for example or how to deal with retention Improvement Problems by certification changes so they were advisory on things like how could we ease some of the certification rules to do short areas so they focused in that
088first Innovation cohort on those topics um they have put us into their second cohort now with nine nine other districts um and part of our challenge what we want to really work on with them are is the Recruitment and Retention strategies and their focus is try to help all of us in the coldo to identify obstacles to recruiting and um finding teachers particularly in shortage areas and to try to craft meaningful um solutions to those problems so we've met with them for the first time already to kind of sketch out where we are um where we see ourselves as a district and the next steps with them and I've been working with their director is to identify people in the district to um go ahead and start talking about some of the challenges and obstacles
089we found particularly to recruitment of teachers um it is a really nice fit for us in our priorities with our increasing educator diversity plan it is also um a really nice um Synergy for us on trying to find more special ed and Par educator special teachers and parent Educators in particular so um what we're going to do now is we're going to use them in the first step which is our gathering artifacts you heard me talk a couple weeks ago about um we're going out into our schools and we are gathering artifacts and hiring what kinds of things do you do when you interview is there a demo lesson what do you do in the Dems and what kinds of um questions you ask who sits on the Committees how do you screen applicants all
090of those artifacts are starting to come in now into my office where they're being warehoused by um my newest member I think I mentioned to you Alex P um who came to replace um Chelsea rig who left us a while ago he is starting to gather a lot of these materials we're then going to use the partners that we have in Columbia to not only look at um what we've retained what we've gathered but also how can we Infuse those with some other materials that will help us to build um not only a stronger in process that focuses attention on shortage areas and and diversity but also how can we um kind of work with the other members of the cport to identify what some of the obstacles are that we all been having so
091um that we're in the real infancy stages of this we're getting to no you stage um and we have um managed to connect the the um Columbia folks with some District leaders in our group and they're now starting to talk with how can we support how can we best help support this work so um you'll hear I think regular upat for us periodically and how we're doing with that but it's going to be a right now audit and assessment stage they're looking at our structures they're looking at our staff look at our numbers um and they're helping us to add bu obstacles thank you any questions uh do we have other districts using this um Cort yeah so there there was a I think we're like Stratford I don't know if more work is in
092it New Haven was involved in it I'd have to get the I have to go back and get the list but um we had an interview for it so I had to interview and go through a process uh to see what our level of investment is in this type of work um and so you really kind of uh self self-imposed right you go it's they're helping us scrutinize our own processes and then in return we'll you know be able to offer our suggestions where we're struggling that Collective information um gets used in an advis advisory capacity to departments that deal with the certification at the state level teacher preparation programs um so they're they're helping us but we're also feeding them sort of the big ticket items that we need moved at the state level
093to make some changes so it's going to a mutually beneficial partnership okay moving right on um the next one to pull up my notes uh Mike is could not be here tonight had family matter um but we uh through you know we've been working and he's been establishing some strong relationships with B ringer I think the last time that he was here he mentioned um about the stem days that have been organized in addition to that uh through Bo ringer uh We've onboarded big brothers or will be on boarding big brothers and big sisters um that they have uh they'll be helping us with approximately 10 students so it's not a big capacity initiative um but they're mentors from boow ringer who will come in and work with our kids uh during the week um
094through Mentor Flex we'll be oneon-one we'll do some career initiatives and they'll get kids excited about um careers in in science and stem field so we're excited about that it's kind of a small step um to Growing it out but it's a big brother big big sister partnership using boow ringer um professionals as mentors so um next time Mike comes in maybe we'll have them talk a little bit more about that those are my notes um from him and then the last piece tonight is really just to give this group a little bit of a status update on the audit um so I will turn that over to Mike to just give us a brief summary of where we're at please yes thank you I'll try to be as concise as possible um the 2022
095AIT um we have been working on uh last year when I started I'm excited to say we've completed um as far as uh DPS is concerned there was only one um note I guess you'd say that the Auditors had and that was just acknowledging the fact that there was a a breach um that impacted the district but other than that there was no findings of any significance uh the 2023 audit is currently underway there are three parts to the audit um one is the uh audit of the EFS for the old1 uh there is the single audit and then there is the audit of the Ci's financials the EFS audit for 2023 was actually already performed so that that's already been done um the audit of the the single audit the state single audit is
096currently underway we met with the Auditors today um between um it's a joint effort between DPS and the city uh DPS has approximately 61% of of that audit submitted completed uh and we're working with the audit Auditors for those uh last items that they're going to ask for so they they can test many of them are um salary items that are outstanding which take a little bit of time to to pull it's a little bit cumbersome um the other two audits uh or the other audit I should say kind of broken up into two sections the first is the planning section and then the next is the field work and while a lot of the work can be done contemporaneously most of the work is done planning and then is moved into the field work
097so for planning as of today we have just about 70% of of uh of the requests in uh some of those requests come back with um subsequent requests uh that we fill on an as need a basis um and then once that's complete we'll start on on the field work we actually have already started on the field work and fulfilled about 20% of it um the city was gracious enough to give us uh some assistance joean who's here with us uh last month uh from the city who's been um doing a fantastic job there getting getting their audit stuff done has been helping us um just about every afternoon here um to try to catch up since um we were a little bit down staff in the beginning of the year in July uh didn't
098the city appropriate $200,000 to help us get uh more help for you yeah so we are um we are use uh utilizing CLA um CLA is an audit firm that audits any other districts um we're using them in a consultancy capacity to help us along um there uh there was talk about um perhaps some temp work um but everyone uh at the table didn't feel like that was the best because temps take very long time to get them up to speed we thought that the best approach um including the the mayor thought the best approach would be to utilize CLA and more of their assets which we currently offer and that's part of the the additional appropriation oh Julie then I come back okay um when you think that would be we have like a
099time frame to be done with all the audits that we have outstanding audit and moving forward how can we I me I know that you have a shortage on out or how we can prevent from falling behind a how can we prevent this from happening again yeah two great questions so uh the first one the 2023 B um is slated for um December time frame um and that was um it's talked about and agreed upon by RSM who is the actual aitor um and a in the city um once that uh audit is complete um they go into the the third portion of the TIC which is their reporting so they issue us a report with any significant finding um once that's completed we'll move into the 2024 one um based upon um this year
100um I would say that uh it's going to be about 5 months would be my my estimate for the 2024 once uh once we begin it um the second part to your question is how do we avoid this going forward um I think now that RSM has been in our auditor for quite sometime U I will have two audit well actually three years of audit under my belt for DPS and we are now currently um staff with two additional people that we didn't have in the beginning um but in many places that I've worked um part of the role that I sit in now is making sure that as we perform the work as the year goes on we've identified things that we know the Auditors are going to look for this is you know
101not going to be our first rodeo so starting to um prepare that documentation before the audit is even discussed having that ready for the audit so that when they do have these requests we're not scrambling around and trying to run reports and back into numbers they've already been uh saved in place waiting so that we need to hand it to the ERS um that's a significant Time Savings are we are they still doing Zoom for these uh readings requests yeah and a lot of the audit firms it's not just RSM but a lot of them are um similar to us um the the accounting industry the a industry is finding it very hard to find staff um so one of the things that um is attractive is being able to work remotely so they do
102have staff uh RSM specifically but other firms as well um all around America so it's very hard to get them them in uh I know last year um that was one of the things that John commented on and RSM said that they would be happy to try to accommodate and get someone here if we were willing to um to pay the expense so um it's kind of a a move thank you okay just uh one last tidbit here so we did mention about the donation for the scoreboard but uh Denbury High School will have the dedication to the SC scoreboard um at for the homecoming game on October 25th and so the dedication will be at 650 before the game and so you'll be getting an invitation for that for from either Dan or car
103pompan we're still working that out and um there'll be a reception for the family who donated at 5:30 I'm not quite sure if we're all going to that or not um so I'll get some clarity but but most certainly the dedication uh at 650 okay I believe so the scoreboard yes sorry dedication to the scoreboard I think that's the game against West no are you serious won be there I won't be here because I'll be in Kentucky with 42 k and I wanted to do the tailgate he's not going to be here I'm good we need U uh we need a board member uh for an exposion hearing tomorrow and you know we need one if one can't do it the other can do I need two people to sort of you know we catching
104me in my traffic so we have a maybe and maybe one other if the Maybe Can't sh yeah I I would go with somebody else I will be the backup of the backup if I I have to I'm at work so it's going to be tough for me I'm not going to be able to 4:00 you can do it by phone just to help out we have two people I just can't I go from doctor's office at 3:30 get I'm me do my best GL to to do that okay that one is with a translator right yeah and that one that he you need a translator right so that one might extend a little bit more have something what was that tonight no that was no we is going to be done by 6 okay
105yeah so just if Michelle can't do just yeah thank you thank you and Louis my report is very brief remember next week October the 15th at 6:00 okay as we um get together as board members please check your emails please check your emails okay read the material and I know sometimes we all are working and we have other duties uh try to glance over your material like I do sometime 230 at the morning and and go over your material okay and um again I'm going to stress that it's very important that we work together as a unit we're not here to bash anyone make anyone look um like they don't know what they're doing we are a team to work together and to make this District the best District it can be okay that's all
106I have to say and make a motion to ader so