9/18/24 Board of Education Workshop

001the United States of America stands na [Music] indivisible would you do talk sure here Julie here Monita here Kate here Louisa yes glis here Lauren here uh Dr Cronin absent Teresa Michelle here here perfect thank you m you're welcome at this point I'm going to turn hi how can we foret out camouflage at this point I'm going to turn it over to uh our superintendent thank you Ken can you just uh te me up I may have to move around a little bit which one would you um the organization [Music] thanks okay so um the organizational chart and I I've shared this previous viously in in um I think during the summer was the first time I may have shared it and we didn't quite get a chance to dig into it so I wanted

002to make sure that we had enough time to really answer questions um and and have some some clarification about um some of the restructure so as you know as a result of some of the um particularly most importantly the the not backfilling my role um we just we redistributed some functions um we're down now this isn't this really doesn't show up that wonderfully on here but um I'll have you trust the chart in front of you as I look at this chart here um that we are down a couple of positions and so even since you know uh June we've had to do some further kind of reshift resif thing and so um as you know we we lost our director of Academy Partnerships that that position is vacant then you have my position thank

003you so much Ken um is is also vacant we've redistributed uh a good number of those UH responsibilities and um I did want to point out I don't think it shows well on here that this is not a position that exists this was a position that I'd like to talk about at some point in the future um as well as the TBD under the human resource uh legal side as well and um with the understanding that we are quite budget challenged and it's not doesn't mean that we're requesting that for next year but that it's an opener for um maybe talking about how we need to you know have enough Staffing to be our most efficient self here in central office so um I did also provide the update in during the summer um kind

004of really just talking through some of the biggest shifts so I'll talk about the Two Chief positions um because those sort of Chang the most um along with Dr se's position really changed quite a bit um and and how we're have to move forward with that so we had a K5 chief of school and we had a k eight chief of school and the each were also ta so they were supervising principles across the district um last year and previous years I I had supervised the high school Kelly supervised uh Ace Program and reach an Endeavor um and uh Dr Rocco supervised the adult dead program so uh and also Mr Ro and Dr Rocco kind of equally co-shared a lot of responsibilities around committees and professional development um especially when it came to the

005principles and what was happening happening in the buildings and so they each sort of shared those responsibilities um for you know kind of coming out of of you know heading into this year um it was super critical uh for me and there was some I was you know a little bit of confusion for folks around the K5 K8 um at times and I think it lend itself to a little bit of is this a duplication um not so much internally we kind of had that straightened down but certainly externally um but one of our biggest Focus um and I think you kind of heard me start to talk about is the the need for driving that student achievement component and having a very clear line of communication with the principal supervision so that people are

006receiving uh similar messages and that um you know as we kind of from top to bottom that we have sort of a a control point in in some of that messages running concurrent with that is the need to backfill um my point so I ran sort of a between um sort of what was going on with the schools but also the curriculum learning and you know development assessment you name it uh large professional development projects and everything else that comes with being an assistant superintendent and so what we did was we um crafted a K12 chief of schools and performance so this position this person will drive the performance so those are your school Improvement plans really digging in um those are really helping folks to analyze assessment data um finding out where the blind

007spots are on the building making sure that all of the wheels and the gears are moving in the right direction and and creating a cycle of improvement around that and then um a as this person is doing this work and we're adjusting curriculum we're now looking at assessments we're looking to see how do we make tweaks to what we're providing as a district to support the work in the schools and so there's a lot of curriculum development assessment development um and support into the buildings to work with grade teams and plc's and so on and so forth um but once uh Mr Ro stops into a school and is working with principal and develops a cycle and a game plan Dr Rocco will be coming in to do coaching and to continue the work with

008that so um they will work collaboratively together so that we're kind of separating out the supervision and the coaching so you can have the evaluation of the supervision and the school Improvement piece but there are going to be some things that you might need to work with Dr Rock is going to help with some Executive coaching around that um but also the professional learning which is a huge bucket of of her responsibility so professional learnings everything from Team best training on boarding our new our teachers she will be doing um she leads arer our PC effort so that's the new teacher evaluation new administrator evaluation new evaluation across the system so that's a really huge initiative right now um and that is a committee driven andna leads that committee there there is a slew of

009other things um we have our teacher residents that we're working with with some of our University Partners um professional learning so coordinating the professional learning so we probably have a spreadsheet um 8 ising pages long of all the things that are happening in the district and so that as a coordinator of those efforts and in line with our um particularly in line with the goals that we've set out Anna will run point on on all of that work um she's also supervisor is adult education as well and so we really split those roles out created very specific Focus um and then I meet with with both of them and they meet with the team as well so there's a lot a lot of plenty of work for everybody um but this was a way of

010streamlining that work and having sort of a a point of of conversation across the board in terms of accountability and expectation um and that everybody's kind of pitching in on that so those are kind of how the Chiefs uh those the the the academic chiefs were were were realigned under uh Mike probably went through going through some of the most significant changes uh in terms of you know we lost the director Academy partnership we tried to reevaluate over the summer um as to how to best move that forward with given the budget challenges that we're also experiencing and the lift and so um Mike agreed to take on thank you uh the academy stuff he was always very interested anyways and was very supportive um but we immediately started getting contacted from a lot of

011our partners that we had started to develop relationships with and you know as we built quite a few already folks were reaching out and so um already Mike's off and running we've got some great stuff scheduled with bow ringer field trips coming up stem days going on so um we're going to continue to do that um Mike was doing sites and facilities and operations and Technology last year the goal was to slide that under Finance where it used to be the finance department um it's it's very difficult to do that right now given what's you know what what we're facing and what's going on so Mike has agreed to continue to to do that until there's a good point in time to do a hand off and things are a little bit uh a little

012bit less chaotic u in that Arena so um there's a ton of legislative stuff there's a ton of advocacy work that needs to happen I think that there were over 200 legislative changes for schools for school districts um that were just passed in the last round and so Mike will be helping us to sort through those things uh and get and get a handle on those he also lies with our city Partners as well um and and a lot of state things that are coming down at the state level enrollment trying to think of all the things that we just put under your security SEC oh my God security yeah Emergency Management which is a huge component uh and we as we uh had a budget reduction in the security coordinator position a lot of

013that work is Flowing directly right uh to Mike in terms of cameras safety Advocates and the school uh emergency plans and response so that's kind of how that was organized out uh there and under can think what were the other key ones oh um we're we're still going to continue to talk about sort of this this Lane here and the Special Ed I kind of put some notes um to the group to to to look at but in terms of sort of uh moving some things around in this department um between uh you know some of the roles but uh with the goal also of bringing in at some point a12 guidance of service staff m to help support and get our and coordinate the services um especially with the academ academy model coming on

014there's a tremendous need to for that guidance piece and that support and in the Years last couple of years we really struggled to get those guidance numbers up and running um uh and now that we have a decent amount thanks to the Kelly's recruitment kind counselors are very hard to find and to get to maintain um to to be able to you know help and assist with the coordination of those services and to to um make that that would be a K12 position but again budget aside um you know that is something that we we would love to see in the future um I need more of Kelly's time so we're still talking about how to reorganize um some of the some of that some of her work so that um we I have more

015Kelly uh at my disposal to help me with some of the Strategic plans Kelly's a phenomenal asset uh to in our district and we're trying to find a way to do to work on the program stuff at the same time support all of the work work so um you know there's right now the role hasn't shifted as much um but certainly shifted significantly over the last couple of years and then under the human resources side um in this it was last spring now that we talked about the need to kind of um discuss some of the roles and how those would interact with one another and whether we would you know separate some some duties to create a different line of of clarity and communication around HR and legal a lot of some of that

016has been a function of uh lack of having enough folks so you've got Kim think is a unicorn when it comes to the legal services of being an attorney and handling all of the HR um things that that happen uh in that department and so we're looking to create a different streamline to be able to Mally um handle the workflow that goes in there but also to sort of separate some of those things out now when you guys received this um this chart I had the TBD in there and Kim and I had since talked about you know what would what does it look like right now she well this isn't really totally reflect some stuff and we ended up moving a line or two I'm going to just pop that one up if you're

017okay I didn't want to start with that one and confuse anybody that I made any changes but I would like to pop up another a second version just briefly um so that you can see it more accurately reflects um the current Department as it stands now yes it's that right the backup one no I li underneath that Ed suggest yeah right theree that's not [Music] good access denied okay all that all that chart I will send it to I will send it to them all that chart has is the um there's a relationship between benefits and there's a dotted line to finance because finance and benefits work together but they also they also work in the human resource department um and it more accurately reflects that there's an HR director which is Kim and that

018there are HR generalists which there are three so um we'll be you know I'm inviting some future discussion on that as well because we did talk about that uh at the board level to talk about uh ways to support um adding a structure in that achieves the goals of the board okay um as you can see in the in the gold chart here so those are some of the major positions uh changes the you can see that I have technology and data now reporting to me teaching and learning Human Resources so we have a broad scope across the top that feeds up um the two cheap positions are now going report directly to me in the future um you know depending on how those positions change uh in the future uh they would report to

019an assistant superintendent and that person would oversee those two lanes which is school and curriculum okay trying to think if there's anything else that can I left off terms of AG no that's a lot any questions did you say that that TBD has a data line to finance so I'm really just I'm sorry to make you it should be no no no um it's the benefits of the coordinator it's the benefits coordinator that has a dotted line to finance because that those two work closely together okay yeah yes and the sites is now under Finance correct so that is the that's the ultimate goal was to return sites there but because we're in transition we're on boarding still um and we're frankly backlogged still from the summer with trying to keeping up with the audit

020um Mike is still going to continue um to support that and we're leaving Mike um no pun intended into the into that mix too slowly there's a lot of projects where we are we have a tremendous amount of projects that are ongoing and have been ongoing big projects and so historically it was that way to begin with it was quite yes yeah and you know we will need to you know we don't have any additional positions up there under Finance but it was clear this summer and even now that that's another department that that needs help you know Kim we we added some you know uh temporary staff to help you know that uh it's hard to it's going to be hard to see them go um when the audit's over because I you know

021that that was the department that that was really struggling um so we were able to add a little bit of time support but you know situationally the human resources department is the is the other department that is that has been struggling a little bit with sorry K to say that guys are doing a great job but the volume particularly this year has been incredible so um you know managing and managing all of that is has been been a bit you know our benefits coordinator how many how much money does she manage several multiple millions of dollars um and about 2,000 insurance for all health and wealth fair so health insurance but life insurance long-term disability she manages all of those alone yeah so there's not a lot of assistance um if you will you know

022kind of back up and so one of the things that we're we've experienced is that when someone leaves um you know there's no what's the word succession you know kind of built in you know an understudy an assistant um clerk if you will in those departments it makes it a little bit harder to to replace Mak it challenging and um even at vacation time it gets gets sticky yes Teresa oh sorry do we um ever do an exit survey yes we do do exit surveys yes um yes would it be not but would it be I have sort of an addend to to this setting forth your thoughts such as regarding the the the finance okay that historically sites was there and because of the feeling was it was too much for finance to handle

023we went here but we're moving it back uh maybe not that that much detail but the the stress it puts on the that department but that in the future lucky to explode that the same thing perhaps with with other departments that are that are overburdened that should be noted that they're overburdened and funding being available we're looking to to expand these particular yeah so thank you for bringing that up it's kind of embedded a little bit in in the goals which we'll get to maybe in the second half where I mentioned that I'd like to continue to analyze those those pieces and to make some suggestions around the Staffing particularly in finance but finance and HR have to work very closely together and so when you evaluate one you're really looking at both to see

024where how can we get this data to flow you know um you know together in in a way who's doing that and you know do we have enough people helping with that work because it's you know we we've grown substantially you know over the last you know couple years and you can make the same argument in the technology and data you know we're on to one now pre pandemic we had a handful of carts in each building and we pretty much the same staff that we have pre pandemic um managing all of the responsibilities around the maintenance of that upgrade software plac you name at distribution comment I or footnotes the point you're making now add it to supplemental cheer so you know rather than not rather that but in addition to having to read

025through all the bolds and stuff at least when you're looking at this schedule you can flict through sort of a summary behind and get your thoughts and what your your projection is to how to I agree I did include sort of kind of the vision of the positions and the packet so that there is some description there but it can never Encompass all the things that happen during a school day during the week and across the school year so okay um K Dr uh one of the one of the things that happened today manuals from about how we're managing school activity account is there any thought about creting documentation internally for these different positions respons I understand that's another Lev so right yeah we thank you for we started having those conversations and that is

026the goal of some of the Departments is to start to to to categorize that work and because of this issue of you know with the turnover especially making sure that we have have uh documentation and manuals we did did just start a an internal sheet for the School principles um opening school year closing the school year all the things that just happened but we take for granted when on board a new person that comes in and you know there's not enough it's difficult to support everybody in the first couple days of school at least they everybody has a manual on on what should happen so we're continuing to build that um we did just share that uh um I think maybe a few weeks ago with the the school leaders and we're going to continue

027to add to those Sak how many fire how many drills are you supposed to be doing how many so a lot of the safety procedures Mike loaded all of those in there um anything you know what's supposed to be in the cume folder you know what what records you're supposed to to save all those things that folks are responsible for that aren't always they're just kind of known internally institutionally but not necessarily written down for other people to to grab out so so we're working on that now we've started that work but it's going to be a while to get all of it in place but that's a goal that's a systems thing which is highight thank you yeah Michelle did you have a question yes um there was some discussion last year I'm going

028to say regarding the nonprofits transparency grants and the importance of that how are you handling that in this organizational chart to elaborate on the changes you've seen and you're looking to make can you Michelle can you just repeat that what sorry I'm just trying I'm walking over to hear you more clearly I said last year there was a lot of discussion regarding the grants the non profits and the the transparency of that of how that works and what changes that youve implemented to make that more clear and you know to lift it and to you know show where is that in this organizational chart sure so that's not necessarily in the chart per se as it is um my responsib to make sure that that happens so it wouldn't necessarily be reflected in the chart

029U but certainly um one of the things that you know similar to what we did with with Mike and and in the the finance department in the need to kind of have some training and to have some some protocol procedures put into place and have those documented um the same thing is happening with the grant so I do have a a document that has been started and we're also working you know we've had um some you know we've had some folks that are going to be uh viewing our information and giving us um their best practice feedback on what things should look like and so we'll use that information uh and what we learn from that to further refine procedures on how we uh how we proceed with grants so we've already had you know

030great Communications with the folks who touch the grants on the expectations but we'll have a more formal document ready after we amalgamate some of the information that we learn um and then uh we'll have a if you will a documentation of How It's how things resp to run So currently like you just mentioned we've got Mike in the cabinet what Cabinet member right now is is overseeing that process other than yourself just yourself or I know am is in the cabinet if every sure so every Grant um it has comes through the majority of Grants come through almost 99% come through need a superintendent final signature on those and so come through my desk it's my duty to go through the grant as as they're written and to look at those and review those and

031to make sure that they're um you know create assurances that they're in line with the grant um purposes and then they go off to the state um to so you know Kelly has a ton of grants that she does and she you know when she finalizes those those come to me and me has uh many grants as well she finalizes those um and we have you know we have planning planning discussions on what they most most of the grants flip year toe where the staff is the same the program is the same um it new grants obviously are more scrutinized than uh just a continual grant that happens from to year those come through superintendent's office they go to the state and then the state reviews every single Grant um it has to do a

032a f has to do a cdsse approval and then a fiscal approval as well but you know I'm certainly happy to answer more of those questions yeah I think I mean I know a lot of that you say but what I'm saying is specifically regarding what we've discussed in the past with the conflict of interest and making sure that that that is looked upon not so much as going to the state but as much as inhouse and that's what I'm looking to see in this organizational chart I thought you had mentioned that a few weeks out we would have more information that right and that right and that was an update I provided to you yesterday so when we we'll get to a few weeks out we'll we'll apprise the board of the of those

033results okay so just not yet made the organization being discussed correct that review is is still being had but there's no indication right now that there's any significant issue according to a recent check-in so um but again I want to make sure that we're you know we'll we have I can answer some more questions you know through glattus I'd be happy to do that to make sure that we get to everything else that's on the on the agenda because I know that when we had met last we had all the conditions about how we were moving forward that this was going to be incorporated as part of the superintendent evaluation so I wasn't going to be going through glus I used to be going through to you as a group and as at this kind

034of a setting is that my misunder um I I don't think I'm clear I thought these were the sessions that we were discussing these things well for the superintendent evaluation discussion just isn't this part of that s conversation if we're talking about organizational charts and and this was part of you know yep and and I and I have addressed yes and I have addressed um that that request and and I will be able to produce for you in a few weeks the results of of that I thought you just said as a late late check in there was no issue that's that's correct that is that yes and I can elaborate that on that when we do an update perhaps very good I'm I'm very interested in that thank you any other questions I just

035have um as as we talk about GRS and I think I have mentioned it several times at board meeting and again I'm not no Financial person uh and I think it was enlighten me uh how they do it I don't know and I know grants come in that most of them expire within a year all the grants that come into the school system um do they come in at a certain time and do you list them all so that we as a board can know that we have 800 grants for D public schools and whatever and who yes so the the grants do come in all the time different at different points in the year different Cycles some uh most of them though open up you know in the summer or the late summer for

036the beginning of the school year so all your title grants uh your alliance grants so some of your bigger grants will open at the beginning of the school year uh and then we work to to populate those and make make those adjustments um grants can have oneyear expiration grants can have a uh they could be on a 2-year cycle we have a lot of Grants on a two-year cycle uh we have grants that end in June with the fiscal year we have grants that end in December December 30th and so it makes a little challenging to keep to keep track of them all but um it ranges and uh yes we do have a list that I that usually gets reported out through findings okay follow um following up on our chair's question I think

037it also came up last year when we talked about grants um do all of the grants come through um our Central ad no not well well what I mean is um apply for manag recorded they should Etc occasionally um you know that there's the uh you'll see like these Mary Fitz scants and things like that that will circulate that are designated directly for teachers sometimes the city has put out a couple of rant like applications and so in those instances uh teachers can apply directly uh we've had some had some conflict with some of that in the past and we've tried to communicate uh a little bit better on that if you apply for something you know uh for that you want to use in your classroom and you win it let's say you win

038a $5,000 Grant and you you want to buy this uh great software that to use with the kids and then you purchase it and it's you know it's it's great except it doesn't work with our computer you're now expecting the technology department to fix the issue so then sometimes occasionally so we try to be as proactive as possible making sure that if you do something like that um and again they're usually small grants that you seek the permission of the technology department you collaborate and it make sure that it it's in line with the curriculum and all of those things so we do we do we do have a that in a limited way so is um in relation to the organ organizational chart all of those that are are listed programs um any grants

039received by those programs come through they have to go through central office the CDs CDs won't approve them until they're approved here well so there is like a chart or some yes kind of information and I know it gets reported to finance but would you be able to share with the board that chart of what br's working who's working on it when it was submitted when it's going to be submitted all of that information or what what do you have what we have yes it's much easier thank you so whatever you have like what Grant they're applying for what Grant they want yes and what it's being put towards what you have yes okay I just want to be clear we're talking about the public school grants as an Lea and and what I think

040I maybe I'm going to tie that question is that we're that you're concerned that nonprofit that a nonprofit Grant is that where I'm not sure if that was going okay just just uh grants um within our district Public Schools ones that are that are benefiting from Grants correct um are applied for approved by managed by correct yes written on school time written while they're a School employee working for the schools whether it's nonprofit or school if it's a separate entity that I don't approve separate entity I know this saying while they're being paid by the school they should be grading School Grants not nonprofit grants it's it's definitely something we've discussed question not part of the organal Y uh Michelle have I just clar about I I don't think that that's an organizational chart issue

041as opposed to protocol procedure that you would like to see happen which we can once we get some feedback from an independent Outside Agency on who's who's doing a review of those things they'll provide guidance on best practice for us moving forward car if I could just add I think something that's important there are a lot of big grants that we know we're entitled to every year Alliance Ida your title grants things like that but for example there are smaller grants some are entitlement grants meaning you're going to receive it assuming you follow their guided lines and then there's competitive grants so recently I'll give an example mckin vento which supports our homeless students came about with a $50,000 Grant last month if you ask car it wasn't on her radar we're now eligible to

042apply for it I'm currently working on that Grant so there are smaller grants throughout the year that kind of pop up where if we can get an extra $50,000 to support you know uh transportation and resources for our students were going to go for it so I just want I think it's important to know that the big buckets and then those little smaller ones that come about it also has happened uh frequently with like um federal dollars for special education students if there are monies left over they will often times say if you would like to apply and they're very specific you want to improve your transition programs your autism programs your and and those are things you can apply for so I just think it's important to understand like we can give you a

043list and maybe in 3 weeks it might be slightly outdated because there's other things that come up but the big bucket grants are always kind of pretty consistent okay question um okay so there no more questions on the visual structure um you know and you have sort of the kind of the goal of what the positions you know are are going to capture um but again I mean this is you know as the the a coach you know Fields players in the best way that they have with the team right and so we have some strong players and very strong players and our team is you know we're a little Slimmer um but as we wear this on and as we you know over the course of the year um you know we may make

044some tweaks to those things based on a lot of different things so um this is this is the plan for this year as we kind of wear it on prise and we um you know certainly Circle back and and you know maybe solicit some discussion on it again okay okay okay um next get back up here the next document is really about the the goal and again uh we started to dig into this a little bit we sort of ran out of time in a board Workshop but You' had the document for a while so I'd like to move through that Ken like just steal you very speciic those are the boards I just need the one that says right there yes thank you very much thanks okay I'm going to fast forward um unless

045you want me to discuss it all vision and Mission and My Philosophy which yeah okay um which you know as if you read it you could see that I'm super passionate about you know starting fresh in Danberry with a different mindset and uh changing hearts and Minds about what it is what Danberry can be so uh we've been spending a lot of time with our leadership teams talking about that um really focusing in on what needs to you know what what's within their locus of control we don't have everything that we need all the time but what what is in our locus of control so we do um that is how we've really kicked off the year scroll down this is a little awkward compared to a uh slide deck but going to roll with

046it and of course our belief statement these are your belief statements these are Bo adopted and they're in in your policies um and I included those in there those are reflect um the Strategic goals I'm not going to go and read each one um but you have those in front of it the I will point out that these are the same goals that have been in play for a couple of years now and I believe your last strategic plan was uh that we said that that would run to 2027 if I have that correct we can fact check that on on the website it um but you know at any time if the board wants to reup their strategic plan and change the bigger goals you know that's something that we'll have to initiate um

047for those of you who who uh weren't here to experience it to arrive at these goals we spent an incredible amount of time having Community conversations soliciting feedback from at least I think we had 100 stakeholders you're you were there for that right yeah glus and the gr um soliciting feedback from different stakeholders teachers community business members Civic agencies so that would be a process that we would have to you know that we should and to do it well to engage in again so um but these are pretty solid if you look at a lot of other districts that are trying to make improvements these are not atypical uh type of of thing so but certainly open to some suggestions so we have goals around um teaching and learning which tend to be a more

048practical staff development um knowing that um we develop our educators good things will happen for kids everything's about the kids um so when you look at the goals and this is a good I think a good thing to hold us accountable for the year is that how how is all the work that we're doing going to benefit kids and our the conversations that we're having is it to benefit kids when we spend our time together our limited time together is it focused on on improving things for kids um Talent acquisition continuing to retain a Workforce that's going to be a big challenge for us as we move forward we've been struggling and so how do we how do shift our resources our efforts our time and attention um School climate um you know as things

049have gotten tougher digging into school climate becomes even more so important to make sure that we keeping up that morale and that folks are are productive and that we're tending to the social emotional growth meaningful collaboration how are we working with our families um to create those deeper engagement opportunities and then resource allocation which will be a huge Focus for us this year is how are we how are we organizing oursel to to best um attain our goals with the resources that we that we have um so some of the work plans so what falls under the big goals generally are your like what's the work for the year and some of this is a 2-year sometimes they they turn into 2year and we repeat so under the teaching and learning goal um Implement year

050one of newly articulated programs for the career Pathways so right now our kids are just experiencing the essentials curriculum so we're getting in there to monitor that that and we're going to be you know getting feedback on how that is going and making those adjustments um that the academy work is super important around articulating programs of career Pathways so we're still building those Pathways and doing that work um sustaining the science of reading Shi so we're rolling out the 45 this year we rolled out K3 it's a lot to manage both because the teachers still need a lot of support for the K3 uh we already saw some great gains in our kindergarten as a result of the implementation and we're super excited about that because the level of reg is here and so where

051we're seeing a little bit of Gap is is that the uh the program is K2 and so those third graders like there's a gap between two and three but we'll we'll get that once we get the program fully implemented um and that vertical articulation between K5 is critically important to create that sort of those seamless grade level um articulations across so uh we're very happy so far and the teachers are happy so rarely do you roll out a big program and uh we don't have a lot of uh gra the teachers have been phenomenal everyone's working very hard and and we're working hard to support them um so we'll be reporting out on how that's going over the year um I originally had this in over the summer support a collaborative team effort to reconceptualize

052and redesign the middle school program uh common experiences and this was really to get to that backward design for theems and we had J Steel in who came in to present to us um and it was really focused on you know how can we also incorporate the Middle School we're a little concerned about lifting this work this year um and so you know I have that highlighted because I think we can get some stuff done with outlining but I don't know how much we're actually going to be able to tackle so um you know there is quite a bit in here and so we may decide to you know um table table one or two items and I have some some highlights on that um not that we don't stop working at the middle school

053but just in terms of um professional resources that are going to be needed to do that maybe a little bit tougher um okay um design and communicate system of school Improvement and monitoring for the indicators of Student Success specifically for student achievement this is the most important indicator in the whole goal in my opinion outside of having a good a budget that's going to balance and that keeps us flush um I have a whole I'm not going to do it now Ken can I click on hang it I want to click on this um I I'll share this document with you um we're not going to do this tonight but one of the reasons why this is the most important uh 1.4 is because this is really how what we need to track and um

054Rita you made a a comment about on edite is that we just need to start improving the needle starts to go it's very difficult to say we're going to make 20% gains or we're going to make 10% gains and so it's like how do we get our systems in in gear and then how do we start moving out of this sort of pandemic slug so you know and it's tough cuz the resources are limited if you want to um if you want to uh make gains with student achievement closed gaps you need you need teachers uh student support Specialists and literacy leaders working with kids right to to help them Shore up some some things and get them a grade level so we're going to continue to still maximize the resources that we have in

055play I'm not going to go through the whole this whole presentation but this is a presentation I do want to I do want to work with you a lot of this information comes from that site um so I'd like to be able to go through that we're going to zoom out but I think one of our our workshops will be around this data where we're at where we're doing pretty good where we're not doing well and what we're going to focus our efforts on okay so um Ready or Not AI is everywhere and it has infiltrated our school system and we have to get on top of it we have started a district committee uh of just internal interested folks who are wanted to dig in we've had some outside consultations some at Advance partners

056that that wants to teach us um what what they know and how uh talk about applications for Education effective use I think it's going to be really helpful to do this uh as a district and I I welcome board participation to start to dig into this because it's going to inform the policies that you create around how we use this what we allow and and um which is going to be changing rapidly so um I'll just you know we'll talk more about a work plan of what this is going to look like but it involves definitely if you're interested having uh an expert come in and do a workshop with the with the board and I think you'll really enjoy it's fascinating fasting stuff yes uh you have twoyear goal and you didn't have that

057on our sorry uh yeah is that so it's two years yeah I think yes um you know one of conversation with J Jasmine who who is kind of heading this up um Ken we lost something here um with Gina Jasmine was that you know while there's so much excitement around it um part of the work plan that we sat down to craft together was about getting teachers to do AI assisted like lesson plans and resources so give you a quick example you could create a really incredible science lesson and an advanced text that's on grade level can be broken down into multiple reading levels for kids to help with differentiation and it's an instant resource and tool for a teacher to help with that um can take some lift and so that's how we see

058using it is how do we lift the things that have been heavy for us um not you know there's been Buzz around oh teachers are students are going to be cheating but it's really not about that it's how do we use it effectively to support education and Educators uh and administrators to to to lift some of the work and do it better um so we think that that's going to be a 2-year goal kind of star in spring so goal light if you will and I can articulate all this in little work plan um and those are things we'll use to monitor the evidence across the year and we'll dig into those U more um and you'll have access to that thanks my lifesaver thank you uh under staff development um the pck committee huge

059lift this year is around that pck uh Al I'm sure you're going through it right now already in it yeah knee deep in it and it's a big shift for every District uh every District's going through it um and Anna Rocko she Dr she's still here she's leading that effort we had to create a manual you approve that in the spring if you remember um spring was a bit of a blur but you did approve that plan and then we are training and implementing and we'll have cycles of improvement around that so we'll be reporting out on how that is going across across the year uh structures and systems uh to coordinate the scheduling of high quality professional PDS there's been a lot of work recently we started this kind of last year around Cal

060like making sure that what we're offering is balanced and that the trains aren't crashing and that we're not oversaturating um or missing anything in our professional learning plan for teachers um so we'll be laying this out and making sure that that that plan addresses the priorities in the in the Strategic plan but also the ones that are going to drive Improvement efforts um prioritize funding to support curricular trading PD in MLL if you remember uh we want a federal appropriation um to do some work FL on theem but also to support access in curriculum uh and instruction around second language Learners and so we have some training that'll be paid for with that Federal Grant That'll be there so we'll be working focusing efforts on that and Reporting out on that Talent acquisition Advanced marketing

061and recruitment strategies Partnerships with higher aded uh Regional teacher pipeline programs and expand the applican pool um a lot of this is also going to be embedded in the uh increasing uh educator diversity plan and so it's kind of one and the same like you know are do our staff members reflect our diversity we'll be looking at that we're going to be looking at more numbers around that going to be looking at the hiring process and we've got a plan in place to to to dig into that and we'll be reporting out on that as well um the implementing the diversity plan increasing diversity plan and collaboration with area Partners um those two probably could be combined uh really for E of things but uh celebrate the accomplishments of teachers this is another one that's

062also embeded in that in um increasing educator plan so how this helps with retention so how are we celebrating you as you know for the growth that you're making with the kids and the work that you're doing and um and making sure that we're acknowledging the work at at all levels in the system not just the teachers par Educators custodians um to make an effort around that this one is particularly focused on on the teaching staff uh research plan and executed administrative reorganization so that's part of the goal is that we enact this uh reorganization and we we wear it on for size and that we see if that's serving the needs of the system more questions after uh how far are we it's up to you I'm for glus I should say want me

063to take questions now okay so um for goal number three um it would be helpful to uh know if these are the same goals that were in place last year and so when you use words like Advance is it different than what we did last year are the strategies any different um and so it's and and that may be in the evidence a little bit later but certainly these I'm going to assume that we're not going to continue along the same lines without exploring new innovative ways of recruiting of partnering of expanding um because um as as we said before on Ed site you can go on and we certainly can look up and look at the ratio of our population versus um the diversity of our staff we can break it down by school

064um and we are not hitting the mark so I just want to know if these goals have they just stayed the same and moved from year to year so your your broader goal the goal statement has been has been the same and I those other the things that fall underneath it are kind of like the targets for the for the work year and so um there's been a lot of work recently around um identifying teacher pipeline programs bolstering those so we'll be focusing on those but I will say you know part of the part of the help with the HR department is in that recruitment to go out and get to go out and do we need to send somebody out the increasing education educator diversity Grant allows for some money around that and so

065we're going to be focusing some efforts on that uh but we don't have a full body dedicated to that that who's who's doing that fulltime in terms of yep and is there a um a new mandate in that area of De need well yeah we have the the increasing education or diversity plan is the call to action to to move but also if I could just point out bit is that one of the things that I think that we haven't I say that I think we're understanding more deeply even though we've experienced we live it every day is you know that it's not really just it's not just about race it's not just about ethnicity but it's this linguistic diversity too and we've been we've taken steps last year if you remember we uh wrote

066we wrote grants to train an entire Cadre of our current existing staff because bilingual staff so our our largest population in in Danberry right now that we're trying that we're serving is our Hispanic population that is the rapidly growing the the need for bilingual teachers particularly Spanish is extremely high and so we just don't have the staff they don't they're not out there and so we adopted last year we began to grow like we're growing our own program and we um trained 20 teachers uh to get their t-saw certification and we paid for that uh through reimbursement and so teachers took the test so we're we're creating our own so if you're a chemistry teacher and you want to get your t-a certificate we paid for that through the grant as a as a way

067to advance and recruit but with our own so so that that is very new that can I can I just add one more comment um so one of the things that we've been looking carefully at our districts our size comparable size and within their talent office or their um Chief Human Resources office there's basically three tranches one is human relations operations so how do you process how do you bring people in how do you do their benefits operational one is labor what are the contracts say who's negotiating contracts do you investigate Title 9 complaints how do you investigate complaints in the workplace how do you counsel um some of your supervisors to deal with staffs and the third trench is recruitment development and retention Harford has four people who do that Norwalk has four people

068people who do that just that part just that part and so what you have now in your organizational chart is me and three HR staff including the benefits who deal with Benefits certification onboarding unemployment support workers comp um um the outside litigation so when we get sued for a slip and fall we have insurance councel all of that is coming from me and and three administrative staff basically and so if we are talking about and the conversations I've had with Cara are these are large goals they're important goals about how do we look at Recruitment and Retention but we simply don't have the bandwidth to get there um you know we just we don't and and so when we're talking about establishing more robust uh programs and how do we bring these these students or

069these um ment or these uh teacher residents how do we bring them in how do we acclimate them how do we find them how do we make sure that they're comfortable who's their Mentor teacher who's monitoring them who's meeting with them as a court there's simply no one in our structure to do that right now and and that's really to your question Monita of course every year we refine we talk about these same goals but we're on the precipice now of of really making an even larger statement about how important this is to us and we don't have a person to do it I I I can't say it any other way than that can we add a person yes we'd love to add a person I mean you don't have a Dei officer you

070don't have a recruitment person you you yes well I think a recruitment first person first great but we also want to pay the safety atoc kids more money and we also want to do this just there's a lot places we need to just do and we need to figure out where that money comes from sorry L I didn't need to like jump in there but right you know there's a lot of places we need but we don't have the money to just do it is the push pull right so knowing that what we need having you know people willing you know like yes we we know we need to do this um but again you know like we've had you know Financial issues to audits we've got across the board but the but this was

071one that Kim and I have talked about you know I don't want Kim's probably been to my office about 12 times over this like we we got to get on this there's there's the yeah the super goalie we could really use happy you know Dancy then there's the we really need and want and then there's the this is what we got guys you it is super important we do I think we do a really good job at for the people who come to us that we are very uh we do a great job of making sure that we're selecting folks that reflect that that's an asset that that is an asset in our school system um and you know the retention piece we have to work on but it's it's not it's for everybody but

072also you know who needs what maybe something a little bit different here to to to to feel welcome in the school system and are we doing a good job with that and how do we monitor those things and check in on those so so we know that that there's work in here that needs to be done um the educ increasing educator University grant that they just released um you know we have emails out to say how much of this can we use for for a little bit of recruitment how much can we use for pro Affinity groups um so that we have so that we have new teachers who and it's for everybody an affinity group is for anybody but that we're able to support um conversations that you may not want to have in

073the school building about how things are going and that those are facilitated so we've got feelers out in those in those areas but they're stien it they're small things it's not a person or two that's driving that I'm going to go out and we're going to get and then we're going to check in and retain for the retention and meet with those we don't have that extra cou why were you Mr car point would it be worthwhile when this document gets Advanced to to to highlight those goals that are truly gos but due to financial constraints can't be accomplished or partially being done I think it's it becomes good because as a review in a couple of months to come when we're preparing the new budget it it would be a good document and a

074good indication good talking points just to justify our needs for more funding to say look in order for us to accomplish this particular objective or goal we need more Staffing to to do the following which would then result in you know higher higher expectations higher returns absolutely I mean we we should be doing that work you know the tricky part about this is that you know this is the work that should we should be doing right there's no question about that it is but it will always come down to some of the funding and the and and Kelly oh sorry is it okay yeah Reon go ahead go ahead I was just goingon to say some of it on like the recruitment end too like we look at the exit surveys and we talk about

075why people are leaving I'll use just two examples for example within my department school counselors their case loads are higher than our counterparts we have made Headway on reducing the counselor case loads particularly at the high school level we're making really good progress on that we still have room to grow at the middle school level so some of the feedback we're getting is case loads the answer to that is hiring more people we don't have the funding to do that similarly with school um I'm sorry speech and language pathologist um that is probably an area that we see one of the most significant levels of turnover in the special education really I would say in the district um at large and and the number one reason for that is case the answer to that is

076more bodies so we are I just want to bring that as like a we I think we know the answers that we need to implement for some of these problems not all of them um but for some of them but we are challenged by by the money and so while we always sit together and come up with these really innovative ideas I think if you said to US money is No Object go fix it and it's not all money but a lot of it is money and and we're our hands are are tied with a lot of those things so having those honest realistic conversations of what can we truly impact and change if someone is not feeling supported that's a different conversation versus my case load's too high and we don't have any money

077to hire more people those are two different buckets do we have sign up bonuses certain you know uh needed groups or GL you but forair professionals um there think there's like $800 sign of inv voice our what we pay per professionals is you know could be more competitive let's put it that way um but the what we'd like to do quite frankly is to have a um in the shortage areas to be able to do that but that is a that's a union negotiated um stipulation so in the past that has not been a you know not been a desirable um approach can certainly approach again so like for example Norwalk they give additional compensation for things like ESL Certification yeah that's a mandatory subject of bargaining so you have to bargain that with your

078teachers similarly with the Paras we had to bargain over the signing bonus and the the Paras were very amable to the signing bonus it doesn't seem to have made a difference but but so that kind of additional compensation is all something that isn't mandatory subject to bargaining so we have to get have to Norwalk scooped a lot of our Bilal norw we train them and they take them and a lot of districts and shortage areas are paying people higher up on the teacher salary so it's an identified shortage area and there are numerous Math Science school counselors special education and related Services um they start them if they're a year one teacher they start them with 5 years of credit so we can't compete with that when a year one teacher can start step six

079in another District J I want to ask but I'm not sure if you have questions a QA at the end yeah but definitely yeah we stopped here yeah I took a question that opened up yeah which happy to answer more so I just you know um glad that we're having this conversation because um one of our this is a high goal should be for our district um and this has been being warned and raised here in danburry this has been a sticky issue when we come to diver University racially and ethnically and so to have gone through a school system and not until I reach high school seeing a teacher who looked like me God it's heartbreaking so now that we've talked about the population here and I know that when we go to to

080hire that we are looking for the best the most confident etc etc but if we are not educated in keeping our eyes focused on um some of the uh emotional psychological uh needs of our students um by the mere encouraging them by who they see standing in front of them or in the hallway day in and day out it it's um I think we're doing a disservice to our students and so that's why um I enjoy this conversation I'm glad that it's open and people are contributing and hopefully it's an area that we will continue to focus on thank you agree with you important I'm going to uh I think I I think I got to 34 so I'm going to be down to school climate sorry for the page break um so this one

081is about promoting safe and supportive learning environments you're social emotional so the work plan there would be to promote an environment that creates a welcoming workplace where staff and students will safe and supported and so some of that you know we can get through through with survey information we have end of year um climate surveys that that get sent out so we will continue to monitor those and talk about the trends that emerge out of that and then as as we have based lines on what that looks like you know what do we need to do to improve and where do we need to improve okay uh Implement strategies to address chronic caponas in school um as you know we've partnered uh quite a bit and it's in another um another one of the uh

082uh one of the boxes around our de Collective work um and supporting that and so we have very good representation both in the district and Community Partners on that um but we have a tremendous amount of effort happening through the leap Grant um under Kelly's leadership with reducing chronic absenteeism and really um maintaining the systems um that um and the and the guidance for the folks who are involved to be reaching families and to stay on top of that it's like it's a constant like you can't back down the minute you back down we kind of lose ground and so uh the state actually across the state through the leap Grant and uh the the results have been very promising so they funded the grant again so we did re Kelly how much did we

083receive this year um just just about 300,000 right and so last year when we had to reduce uh the budget took the family lisons remaining ones we had to reduce some and put them in the Grant and they've been instrumental but also created um you know like stiens for other people to contact go out and contact and make we were able to carry over a little money from last year's Grant so we're a little bit over over the 300 but um it's been very effective it's about half of what we had in years yeah but they maintained it hope they continue so but it's the work and the staying on top of the work and checking the data which is super important um so we're going to stay on top of that um ensuring assistant

084approach to Positive Behavior Support so we've instituted we've trained everybody now in K8 on positive um PBIS um positive behavior support and so now we're asking through their school Improvement planning but also in the way that they're rolling that out this year that they're instituting the practices that they've learned so that um we are reducing suspensions expulsions and class disruptions we had a lot of expulsions last year and some issues um and we're trying to get a handle on that and so uh this is in sort of the you know kind of 1.2 stages of roll out in the schools we'll be monitoring that and Reporting out on how that's going as well okay uh design and Implement teacher leadership opportunities to increase voice Talent Development participation teacher leaders across the district so if you

085remember last year I proposed an idea to raise the voice of teachers and get them more involved in we have several stiens across the district uh you know dozens and dozens now um those postings um you know dozens and dozens thank you Kim will go up and teachers will be able to apply for those we've communicated our expectations around that um and so we'll have lots of teacher leaders in the in the building to assist with um the principal leadership but also to be role models and mentors and to help with some of the lift the work in the school so we're excited about that we'll be reporting out on how that's going as well and last meaningful collaboration redesign the high school website this one's highlighted we're um we're a little stuck on this

086one because there is a big Financial commitment to to it and as we start to put the budget together this fall and and finish the grants um you know this is going to be one of those if we can find a pocket of money in a grant um by the time we're done programming for the fall um we might be able to slip this in here but Mike do you want to explain a little bit about the cost and why this is kind of a little tricky so back before we read to the district website the district website and the high school website sat on a separate server all the other school sites were Google sites so when we took that District website off that other server and created our new site the new site

087was on a new server with the per with the group that designed it so now that danur High School site is the only one left on that old server we still have to pay an annual fee for for that hosting service so we want to get that off of there so we can stop paying that every year but also because now we have the academy starting we have dber West coming on board it really seems to be the right time to sort of do this refresh and make sure the the high school website is sort of serving both schools and then it's really kind of framed around the acmy and it just it's it looks a little dated it start it kind of feels like you know you know a yaku site from the early

0882000s so you know it's time for a refresh and and we want to redo it um but you know to Cara's point it we had it scoped out last year um it's about anywhere from $75 to $100,000 to have it rebuilt um we had we had it mapped they put the scope in there there um but that's also one part of it there's a tremendous amount of Labor that goes into this too um you have to constantly be editing material that goes in there there's a ton of Deb pages on that website a club page you know a club that started 5 years ago and just sort of withered away and then it's still sort of on the the the load of that website even though it's sort of not visible to anybody so it's

089coming through a lot of that stuff kind of figuring out what's relevant what can go what can get deleted um you know it's it's it's a lot of Labor and then you have to train the new users of the site too so everybody from you know somebody updating a football or basketball schedule to you know somebody who's going to be putting the you know the the uh the phone numbers and everything else on there too so it's it's it's a pretty heavy lift but um if we can find the money I do think it's one that's worth you know making the effort for this year okay um I know we got a BL Federal Federal yeah yep that it depends you know those those are a little harder to revise and they the recording is

090like a little I'm not going to say scary it's a little scary because it's it's um but we we can do a I'm pretty sure we can do a revision so if there's something that we're not doing or we can't get to in that Grant it is possible so the answer is it is possible yeah yeah but I think you know we might be able to tuck it in the Lance once we're done programming it um you know it's a $30 million Grant th000 or 100,000 in the scheme of that but we have to have it available and so but I think we I think we're going to you know put it in the parking lot and revisit it a little bit in the fall as we once we know where we are what's the

091annual fee that we're paying for the old website now about 12,000 bucks right so it's like you want want to do it right but you got to have the money to you know to do the big the big job yeah so it's a it's an annoying one of those things where you should be doing it right yes because you're paying the 12,000 pay 12,000 regardless and you don't want to invest in that website anymore you don't want to load all the all the new things in there because that all that's a lot of work want to load them on the new on a new site um okay uh support we kind of mentioned this before supporting the structures of collective impact um and this is where we'll start to get talk about when glus wants

092to uh gu will present I guess the board goals where kind of the work that we do together kind of crosses over a little bit um and I think that that's that's one of them is the collective impact um and then this uh this one here 54 implement the parent teacher home visiting model this is another one that recently as we were digging in um and I was talking to Ann this is where teachers get trained particularly kindergarten and first grade teachers we really wanted to see this happen they get trained and they go out and do home visits and welcome the families in right so make that those initial contacts and conversations so um we have to get willing teachers to do it and uh but we don't have a we don't have a

093line item right now but again this is one of those things that if we can get some money uh in there we're going to try to slip it in because these are you know once you get people kind of trained that you know the big expense is in the front end of it so it would be a good thing to do and it helps with some of our other goals as well so I I'll come back on those um establish yearlong calendar superintendent engagement opportunities kind of got started on that Saturday's a big day September 2st if you want to come out to Broadview um but we'll have a calendar and already the calendar's already kind of cooking and I think it's good to sit down and make sure that we've got our basis covered

094and we can develop that out and that helps with your goals my goals and our school system last uh section is under resource allocation create a plan in the city so this is where that get out early and start talking to the mayor about our needs um happy to do that we've had some initial conversations just to say hey this is important and we're all in agreeance it's important and I I'm very hopeful that we're going to have great communication and dialogue um on those things and uh you know there's a lot you know what's not on here there's a lot that's not on here so you know we have to move at the end of this year this entire building the building down the street the building across the hall we have to move

095uh it's a mega project uh Mike is going to be organizing that Mega project to move everybody to the the places where we have to go um deny High School scho also has to move um and all those teachers and their belongings and those things have to move and all the connections have to be made and then we have to see what equipment we're going to keep at DHS and what equipment has to go sharing things right and then um you know purchasing the things that and you have to make sure those feelings are all the feelings yes that is also part of it um but also too you know we'll find out what's covered in the in the bond package terms you know we submitted a lot of equipment requests and things that we're

096going to need but not everything is going to be eligible and so that'll become more clear across the year um so but we can use the money that that account that we talked about earlier uh for those expenses to get the cab ready okay but that's another big project uh that might be tackling U and we'll all be doing and also the goal too is to try to get reach an Endeavor into this into this building there's a cost for that too so we're trying to get a handle on that and see where how we can fit that in okay uh develop a three-year Financial Outlook talk about that one and review Financial operational efficiency so some of that has already started so the work this Summer that we did the work around the grants

097that's coming um and then you know how we do our budget planning process to make sure that we're you know that that we are really sure that we have it right uh and that everything's clear and transparent and that we've had time to dialog on those processes and continually work to improve those um so I'll be creating um you know continuing to build our our evidence around those practices okay so I think that's that's it I know that was a lot it's a dense document um to do that and questions I would leave it back up yes yes yes I have a quick question based on the keeping on staff how do you staff get to know um how they um apply for um existence um opportunities how can how can they know who they

098can reach in case they want to um keep on on the path toward certifications I mean how if I'm star begin and it's un employe DH and I want to know how do I get to know how can I take the next step sure so when when we have opportunities like so for example when we created the the the arel teacher certification program um I create drafted and very nice this is what it is this is the purpose of it please take advantage of if you want to sign up now's your time to do it that that information comes in so it goes out to all staff kind of all call and then we solicit everybody who's interested in there and then we begin communicating with that group from from that point um we've done

099that for multiple multiple things um so the tsaw one is is an example of that um we also did this recently with uh the CTE that's another one make sure I write that in there as as as our evidence that uh we are going to be needing more CTE teachers as we as this Academy grows and that's um you know your stem your career um tech technical education and it's a relatively uh obtainable easily obtainable certification you just need to have just you know teacher can get a cross endorsement now you can get a cross endorsement CTE you might have to recruit you um but what we did with that is you know there's a couple of workshops that are provided and then we'll pay for pay for that workshop for you to to do

100it and you have to take the test and we'll pay for your test and we'll get you certified we get you cross endorsed so again it's a grow your own program and we advertise that districtwide so we put out the information as as we create the opportunities and then somebody's designated so for example Melissa they do ran the CTE she had teachers in here for 4 workshops and she um got them ready for the test and she did that she did that in the district but it was advertised widely and on the same the same sentence um how do you follow up with people that have trying to find a job any public schools Kim do you want to take that one yeah sorry was a question how do we follow up with people okay

101so it depends on how they come in um some people just come in cold to Apple track and they apply for the jobs some people might be candidates that we talk to that might be available or better in a different position so I I talk to or I try I Endeavor to talk to every offer that we make to a certified staff member so I talk to about 140 people this year this summer talk to them um tell me about you you know where do you see yourself going is this the right position some people who don't get jobs might come back around and say hey I didn't get this one keep me in mind so I try to kind of keep that communication similar early we try to make sure that those administrators CU

102remember we're decentralized in hiring so the high school does their hiring the middle schools do their hiring so we try to encourage them also to give us feedback about big eyes of people that they might see like we've got several teachers who had left the district are coming back this year there are people that you know I called christe remember this teacher she worked for you what's your feedback on that so we try to kind of stay in touch with people that way it's definitely largely anecdotal um the other thing we do is um we push out to everybody that's got certification in a particular area kind of a marketing thing so that may be people that have applied T us before and didn't get it but we have this really great letter that we

103put together about the high school theis um I know Dr Zita did a great one about here's what Roger park is all about and we blast that out for my desertified staff so we have a number of ways they're all personal we all try to stay in touch with folks and circle back around um the people that I think are most for our conversations truly are our par Educators who we have tried really hard this year to Pivot a little bit on our marketing campaign so come for a job leave with a career is what we're trying to lead with so get those folks in I know Kelly and I several times a year we look at what the degree status is who's got a Bachelors who's got credits and we're looking at how do

104we create some assistance for them so that they can go and try to become certified teachers while not having to give up their job so that those are the kind of that row your own piece that we're trying to share with them opportunities on what to do next um the last thing I'll say is um the Delta aspirant program is another really good way of how we try to invent or create new opportunities for people that maybe they want to become administrators so you see all these Lead Teacher postings going up people that may just dip their toe into the administrator Waters see how they like it serve on committees and then may go into the Delta aspirant program apply to get into that program that we run internally that's all about how to become

105an administrator what are the things you need to know and and that program I think is starting to really gain some more traction publicly among our our folks about that's a great way to kind of get on the radar of somebody who wants to to step into an administrative position so um we tried kind of a a a throw it all out there approach and then really try to identify those folks that we really see as people that we'd love to keep in The District in a different capacity sorry a lot it's a lot of different thank you any other questions yes car possible getting back to your strategic plan is that once we've sort of adopted assuming that's that's work the superintendent goals or great today board goals Etc can we then look at

106the Strategic plan collectively and say that although it was written several years ago at this particular point you still feel we're on track or it's not maybe tweaking so that to to your your statement that was planned of several years ago but it it's evaluated each year as a as a living document right we do something like that we can yeah we and we could start with the goal statements is this goal statement capturing everything and sometimes they're just Nuance words you know like you know how do we how do we capture some things that we haven't quite gotten to yet so that the work plan underneath reflects the vision of the goal because the work plan is really how to how to some step in the chain to achieve some part of that goal

107that's above it and so if there's something missing in the goal it we might not be prompted to create work ples of it so it's always important to check thosee this way people don't get the feeling we do something just we the dust or something okay absolutely we had uh we've been here a long time our goal is to be out of here about 8:30 uh and since we're finishing up with the gal we want to look at the the uh board gal and the superintendent and I saw the talk we don't get through this tonight we going to get through it at the next meeting or the superintendent evaluation so uh you know no one only the three of us submitted something and we saw the tied it together and the superintendent said that

108she would like to see how these are going to mes with her goals and something that we might be able to take out that might be uh reflected in her goals that's repeating the same thing so you know and I'm going to give board members the opportunity if you know you didn't get a chance to add anything to these goals or you have something that you want to put in give us the opportunity to go over it again before we look at adoped okay everybody have it uh the first goal car do you want to say that how that's going to yeah I mean I just look at go one and see anything in there that's compared with your goals your six goals that is duplicated sure so um yeah and again these are your

109goals but you know looking at these and reviewing them I you know I think they're they're good um and I I think they're you know very appropriate I under the clarify so there's a couple things so some places are a very tight fit some places are more just generic but under the first one you know this is obviously a very board specific goal um and so that's kind of just cuts across all all Lanes so that's fine and then uh the second one again is another one that's very generic so you're going to help with all the goals so it doesn't I don't really start to make the tighter connections until we get down 3 through 7even so build a clear understanding of cabinet positions responsibilities and appropriate chain of command that ties directly with

1103.4 in my goals which deals with the reorganization so those those two things work very closely together and it's it's great that we're both you know going to be talking about those things over time um your goal number four improve board members understanding of District finances ties very nicely with 6.1 and 6.2 which deals with finances and resources so that's great that's going to be super important this year uh improving communication between board members between board superintendent and between the board and the public to improve culture overall culture uh of the board in transparency operations um that's this is a great discussion point on on what does that actually look like and what does that mean for you and what does that mean for me you know we may have had a couple of moments

111of bumping uh where we're like I thought this or I thought that and you know so how do we get how do we have those communication discussions on the table on how you need to be communicated with and and you know am I doing that for you and vice versa are we communicating well with one another so how do we do that um so that would be 4.1 in my opinion on on my goal sheet um number six create an awareness of chronic absentees and substance abuse that's a dead ringer for 4.2 and number seven it's your families are aware of their rights obligations and understanding of District discipline policy um and some of that can be accomplished through 5.5 which is the superintendent getting out there in the community and um us engaging with

112with folks and getting them to understand some of that will happen on Saturday when I talk a little bit about some of the things that um it's kids a little bit of trouble so I think there's some great connections there and you know again these are your goals um so I you know welcome any other discussion on ways to connect okay have nothing to add to the go okay well can I bring up about meeting at the riving tip why did you I I thought I was the chair person I just get let get up sorry GL we have an invitation to go up to the rton Teresa you want to explain uh as as somebody know we need to talk into the thank you as some of you might know um I live up

113at the riving on the west side of D and and it's a good uh sizable population and we have a clubhouse and um we've been invited to uh uh hold the meet and greet in the clubhouse uh we're looking at October 8th um that was the night we could get it's a Tuesday night um we would provide I would provide coffee and cookies and just invite the residents uh to uh meet us uh ask any questions and I didn't know if that was something the uh board would be interested doing you my only question is my 7 o00 my only question is excuse me my only question is are you inviting the full board and white what type of questions are going to come out of that meeting if the school board attends the meeting

114uh it just is it a social event or questions people your group in the Rivington want to put towards the book I think it was uh generally a meet and greet of our taxes the school budget is at least half our taxes not more and a lot of these people are from New York State uh they're not familiar with us uh local folks in general and this is a good opportunity to meet they can meet us ask questions very informal I was looking at it we could structure it the way we want uh it was just an opportunity that they don't give out too often um so we would wanted to seize the day and hopefully we can do something if not it's okay um and again my question is once we do this for

115your group who else that we have to do it for because somebody is going to find out well I I was looking at it as part of this five um to prove um what do you call communication between the board and the public and this is part of the public um I wasn't looking down the road I was just looking at my particular uh neighborhood uh and then we would put it on our calendar we would invite the rington people to come that's all I was looking at um but up if this is not something you would want to come on a Tuesday that's why we discussing we I brought it to the board and we want to decide if was something that you would like to do yes Kate so I I personally like

116to meet and GRE um I think that's a really important part of the work that we do as board members um the thoughts that are going through my head right now are um you know how do we how do we figure out who's going to be there that even to represent the board it's open to board um we have to be very careful about striping the line of whether or not it's a meeting and um so I just want to be conscious of that as we as we plan um and then the other part is just to sort of take a temperature with the other board members here um you know there's no saying what questions will come up and sometimes you know even in talking to folks you know oneon-one you can get a

117very difficult question that you know you may not be able to have answer or have the authority to answer um and I just want to make sure that if we're doing something as a group event like this that you know folks uh here at the table are going to be comfortable saying well you know I can't speak for the whole board or um you know I don't have a good answer for that but I I contract out some information for you because I think part of this too is just having some Awareness on our part that um we have to be very aware of how we're communicating it's very different in a group setting like that versus a one-on-one conversation in the supermarket you know you bump it to somebody so I just wanted to

118put that out there thanks Mr Janell Mrs Cooper and Terry the my feeling is not to do this in this function as a social function um and I can go the reasons why but I think it would be more beneficial at the time when we prepare our next budget because at that time one of the biggest problems we have is our Outreach to the public and how we do that and I think at that time if we have here and in invitation we have a group of people specifically to Enlighten them on the budget the trials and tribulations of our budget as well as us making a presentation to the city of ypto as well as us extending offers to other people in the community and know past years we've had it at the Greek

119Orthodox church we held functions there so I think in that setting it would be more appropriate to to do it as part of a um a a board uh a board educational process regarding the budget rather than the social event the meet and creete I just think that a little bit more backlash as to why this group you know why not me and we get into that nonsense when it serve more of a purpose we're making a budget we're making a budget presentation and need the input of the residents to support us and understand why we're asking for this money so I think at that particular point would serve more of a purpose and then we can field specific questions relative to to the the issue of finance and and School District Michelle yes um

120I think it's a great idea I have sat as the chair of community relations I've been in the meetings I've heard members right now say how can we for the last year engage and get the Board of Ed members to meet the community and this is an opportunity this isn't about I don't think finance and all that I thought this was a meet and greet and it could be as easy as what you do when we have our our uh meet and you know when we have the uh opponent the uh candidates present themselves have a microphone if you want to answer it answer it if you don't don't if you want it to be casual but we always talk about this and this is the opportunity that we're saying no we have to have

121it formalized and with a large group I mean obviously with what Kate said you have to be cognizant of it being uh a quorum or a meeting but to start now saying it's either in this venue we've had it in the past or let's get everything ready for the budget we're not talking about the budget we've talked about introducing and meeting the Board of Ed members no so I would like to attend as I attend almost any other community relations event that we have thank you um I think it's a great idea and and I understand that one particular group but if we open it up to where we created and do want every Ward like we do I think that will give the again we want to become transparent to the community we want

122to be able to reach out to the listen to the community yeah we listen to them all the time most of the time but there are like you know what TR is saying that you know rivon that side of the City there's a lot of New York working New Yorkers they they leave at you know 5 6 o'clock in the morning and they don't roll in until 7 they're really not involved with the Dynamics of our great City and uh I think that would be a great opportunity to especially if they have children you know there are a lot of a lot of parents out there do not want to put children in our public system in our Public Schools okay and we have to and because they don't feel com enough uh we're running

123that problem you know lower part of Fairfield County all right uh there are a lot of parents there to they're paying Public School U private schools because they don't feel they trust the public schools uh I think we have a great Public School System here I think getting out there and being transparent not being able uh being able to answer any questions they might have and just like Kate I agree with Kate if you don't know the answer just tell them I'm sorry I don't know I I'll get back to you give me yourself give me your uh email address and we'll have one of the cabinet members to answer the question and that's what public relations is all about and that that that will gain I think from my perspective from a leadership perspective

124is part of the culture that we're trying to build here uh being transparent and I think people will have more respect for that um I also agree it's a great idea and I agree with what Al said just hitting the different Comm community that may not be able to be connected with us or be you know be at our meetings or know what's going on um and also to Rich's point that you know it's a great idea for Budget season as well but if we start with maybe Teresa's group at budget season and then this group wants us and that group wants us but if we start now and all these groups see that we're available and we'll come to you and we'll be part of your community then at budget season you know we'll

125have a flow of maybe other groups that have already signed up or want us to be part of their their space instead of just you know having going to Teresa's group and then having this slew of places that come to us come to us and we can't fit 20 places in at budget season and then that's a problem so I think starting now would be a great idea and just setting that tone yes [Music] I am not opposed to the idea um but my suggestion would be is again we cannot uh Target one community in a city as vast as dam is so um if you're talking about reaching out to all the communities different communities in Danberry that would be a great idea um and I think that we have just as if you're

126inviting into the rington community then those meetings should be held in the communities where our families live and so our board members need to be also um willing to go to those Comm ities also I have question more so I am saying I understand what you're saying we have um large and I'm saying you know no we're not going to granted you have a um community room we are you willing to meet in in law Gardens are you willing to meet in eat and drive are you willing and I'm not talking about the it might be the school but it may not be La gens as Community um and so um that's a wonderful thing but we have pockets of communities that also need um the same introduction and the same fellowship and the same

127collaboration and the same knowledge and I'm sorry you you I just want to add to to you when you just go and this I mean you I can't hear you I just want to add yeah I mean if we don't take the first step if we don't engage any group who's doing the connections I mean at least somebody's trying I mean I'm not saying like Okay um let's not do this one but who's going to reach out to the Guardians who's going to reach out I mean who has the connection and who is actually going to do their Connection in order for all of us go around and pass and be I mean social but if we don't reach out to anybody and we don't do at least we don't do at least one move

128one step at a time we're never going to achieve anything I mean I'm not trying to take um take you a common cile but what I'm trying to say is that at least we I mean not we Teresa is trying to reach out at some point and if we don't as a group come together and say okay let's do this at this is one event let's try to make this second event let trying but nobody comes with nothing at the end of the day period that's what I want to say I'm not going we're not going to okay 8:30 okay this was a brief discussion we going to make up our mind this will not on the agenda so I'm not going to sit here all go around and this is a great discussion and

129that's part of community community relations what I would suggest is that and I agree with everyone's in here and I agree with Julian saying that we had to start somewhere uh there's nothing wrong with us marketing and saying hey um the come and meet the Board of Education members all right uh and Ward seven first aid is going to be in Rivington and the second one be a m plane uh M Ridge or Westside U Middle School uh com combine it with the PTO and say hey come and meet you know uh so that now you're spreading you're spreading me to the different parts of the city that you know uh people from milridge or can come or we can do something downtown to Ellsworth and you can get Lauren Gardens to come and so

130on I think you're moving around the different uh um different Wards uh different locations try to piggy back with the PTO that will help the PTO also to recruit and all that I I really think it's a great idea to start somewhere okay and then going to close it so I guess I'm thinking about it as like a reverse engineering thing where maybe we as a a board um you know pick out some dates that we're willing to do GRE opportunities like this um and then I don't know if we we you know offer that at large public to to come to those things we specify the place and then you know we come but I think you know part of this is like yes we need to start somewhere but we also need to

131have a road map for where we takeen from here we just have one uh particular event and then the board loses its motivation to continue with this work um that really isn't fair to anybody else who might want to have access to the same opportunity so I just want to make sure as we do this we do it in a sort of structured way that reinforces that we are here and committed to Contin to connect with people yes because I'm assuming I I will be at these so um just you know I think it's a great idea I but I also just in terms of planning it might be very propriate if I may suggest to move that to the community Relations Committee for further discussion to plan out something strategic around okay let's look

132at the catchment areas in our city and the different types and to come up with some targets and then to identify some dates that that that that work um make sure that we don't have any conflicts with those um but just to be also mindful of around budget season um when we you know find ourselves here four nights a week on certain things and make sure that we leave some space and time that we don't trap ourselves a little bit on some of the time front so just to be thoughtful about it I think it would be great to talk more about it and then as far as that particular date Teresa just I I'm available after 7:15 I think so like I I was mentioning um the U Clubhouse board is very um jealous

133of the time that they allow to outside grps and it is a testament that we were able to get evening um on hold for us and it is October 8th uh I don't know about the future but right now the October 8th is the deadline at the date that they've given us and if this is not what you want you want to discuss it more that's fine with me but I can't guarantee anything in the future after that they're very very strict AB Michelle yeah um I just I would go uh to the event and I just think that this is an invitation and I hope that we have invitations from other board members that they're able to get something up um or if you're not a board member and you have a friend who's

134like hey you know what I've got a big group we we' gone to events where there's only a couple of people that show up and all of us show up no one there so if have the opportunity where there's going to be a room full of people that are just interested in speaking to us but not you know yelling at us or anything and just have a nice conversation or we can Enlighten them on the process especially the Career Academy which is what we've been talking about I don't see why and I can totally agree with a you know we got to make sure that we follow the rules but I I hope that this is not a one off or a one and up but you know I know that glattus is very involved

135in the community her community I would love to be invited to that as well and I know Julie's got a big Comm I mean we could really actually get out there instead of bringing everyone to us and paying for daycare and paying for everything maybe we go and just drive to a different location and they're there so I I support it and um hope that we uh that we can move forward as a group I think community relations is a great place to try to map that out for us thank you for your comments from so what we're going to do is um the superintendent gave us a recommendation and those that wants to go uh to the rivon as board members on um Teresa invite we will do that okay uh and I hope

136that the community relation committee will sit down and map out the time because it is important uh to hit those communities and I know Eden drive has a community center I know that Laura Garden has a community center and we have to hit those places that some of us might not want to go in but you want to get the people so you know uh let's let's be honest cuz everybody don't want to go certain places you know so let's do our DU JM as board members and M let the community relation committee come up with and they don't have the right contact to deal with those people at the um the different agency you have people sitting on the board that can make the contact that you can go out there and do exactly

137what you're doing at the Rivington okay uh real quick the uh service pass it out to the board members so we can take it home and digest so we're going to do the eth that was the 15th but I that's that's you come a little bit thank you hone um so anybody who wants to come please let me know I we'll put it on our calendar at the clubhouse and we'll have October 8 October 8 7 o' and a Beat and GRE and could you look at this read it and we're going to uh work on it um to get you want to go real quick going to go over it at the board meeting and probably in October send it out so just just a quick overview if you don't mind okay on the

138questions right there's a star that means we're requiring them to fill out the that point the only one is not they're required to fill out is number 10 it's an optional for them all um when we send it out if we decide to send it out you'll be ominous so in other words we're not going to know who filled it out matter of fact somebody's already filled one out and then returned and I was trying to figure out who sent it I can't find it it wasn't me but so the point is it's already out there uh I already had one response what's it do we have to decide oh you said you said it out other I shared it among people but not the school system not the school system ipok misspoken I shared

139with some individuals someone has someone has filled out the questionnaire I was trying to figure out who was it because it's an an ominous cuz my I switch you know how it worked switch the buttoning to where you don't get any email addresses back no name huh people will fill it out if they yeah so just look at this and um we'll work on it at this board uh Kim I need to see okay I need a motion you know you got my motion to adjourn motion to adjourn I am 2 second second second about to thank you good night