001meeting order at 7:02 stand for plge of [Music] Allegiance and that was added today allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all so we could just speak a little louder so we can be heard all the way around around since microphones La Teresa present Michelle here Kate present gladus is here but not here Lauren here Jesse here Bridget here Julie here present Al here Louisa here okay favorite part public participation anyone here for public participation no for once going twice gone thank you so much okay so count Bri would you read the first uh motion motion the Board of Education approve the items on consent calendar exhibits 23-1 through through 23-12 as recommended second motion made
002by Bridget seconded by Kate any discussion those in favor I any opposed any extensions motion carries all right flying through this here Representatives doesn't look like it no presentation thank God uh action items um so a action item a I make a motion that the Board of Education accept the September financial report in accordance with 23-12 made by Warren second second by Mr Russo any discussion all those in favor any oppos any exensions okay sounds good Lis you read the next one yes um additional appropriation request motion that the Board of Education requests a $400,000 an additional appropriation City Charter section 7-9 f for unanticipated special educ ation expenses resulting from Public Act 23- 317 an act concerning resources and support services for persons with an intellectual or developmental disability extending the age for providing
003special education services effective July 1 2023 as recommended by the finance committee in accordance with 23- second second by motion made by Louisa second by G any discussion I just reading the paper that the count we're asking to take it from or is that something we don't need to deal with at this time are we asking to take it from the school reserves or the city's oh yeah that was John Kevin go ahead or is that up for the city to decide where it comes from well uh two things speak up John we have no no uh mics um the way it's worded now we're asking it to come from the city Surplus but um a presedent may be a year ago when we asked for money for the um deductible for the insurance uh
004here at the high school when we had the Gin FL problem he asked for $250,000 also from Surplus um the mayor's office with the City Finance director felt it would be better coming from reserves so by the time it got to the city council had change a little bit um I think it's certainly um within their call if they want to take it from one place versus the other I think we'd be Indi where they take it uh indifferent possibly accept it I'd rather have it not come from our $5 million po of gold the way it's ordered right now is not okay thank you any other further discussion so I'm not clear Happ what I'm not clear what the funds will come from at the end of the day where say city hall or
005where we at where are we where are we asking what what where we going to get the money from where you asking to get the money from okay um so um the city has two sources of funds uh one is the city Surplus itself or fund balance uh with the most recent audit that was the undesignated part of that for things like this was about $21 million at close of the books that's one place and that it's Ed presently we're asking it to be drawn down from there uh the Second Source they have is on the city balance sheet are reserved specifically earmarked for educational purposes um we talk we'll talk about that in the next one uh but they could take that if they decided um it's up to the city council uh to
006release either of those thank you okay so any other discussion so I have a quick question John do we know um when the city council will tell this which um which one they will take and by when can we get access to this money well the um the agenda for the city council are set by the mayor's office so um we would know officially when that agenda is released how it's worded but I would imagine any change to what we're recommending uh they would talk to us first about that so um depending when they're getting the item ready I'm sure we here any further discussion okay all those in favor any oppos obain one exstension from Russo that's it Teresa can you read the c c education Reserve funds request motion that the Board of
007Education requests the use of educational Reserve funds in the amount of 202,00 $274 for unanticipated technology expenses as recommended by the finance committee and in accordance with 23-23 motion Teresa second by Julie any discussion all in favor I any opposed any exensions okay motion how can you read please superintendent gos 2023-2024 Sy motion that the Board of Education approve the superintendent goals 2023-2024 school year in accordance with exhibit 23-1 124 motion made by Al I second a motion second by Miss Cooper any discussion all those in favor I any opposed any exensions all right so before the superintendent report I'd like to um we see some student Representatives here would like to invite them up to speak and it might be some public participation that we missed and I ran over too quick um so
008I like to want to see as well okay so for starters um some of you recognize me from last time I'm Serena the vice president of Denver's Board of Governors um I'm Maya I'm the board of Governor secretary um as secretary I do a lot of communicating information to staffs and students I manage the social media accounts for our school and make flyers for all the events I also communicate with clubs and administrators to make sure all the events go smoothly at DHS so recently we just had our spirit week and homecoming week um it's two weeks ago um we had Barbie vers Oppenheimer we had Jersey vers Jersey Shore we had our class color day and we had orange and blue day um participation was really well from both students and faculty um our
009Instagram story featured reposts from dozens of students each day to Showcase their school spirit um speaking of Instagram our social media is going really well we have nearly 1,900 followers and it's a great great way to communicate with students and it's getting more students involved and engaged we also um had over 1 million views on our Tik Tok and we even had Microsoft comment that they really liked our homecoming so that was really cool it was verified um we also had a peep rally Thursday which is the class color day it was incredibly successful and amazing participation from in spirit from all the classes um the homecoming football game went well um de won in overtime um we had a homecoming court and royalty were crowned during halftime um the homecoming dance was themed Tangled
010in our memories after the movie Tangled um tickets were sold online this year in pric at $20 with nearly all 1,000 of them selling out um DHS and a students were allowed to attend homecoming to ensure the safety of students during the dance we also had a food truck this year the El Taco Loco and students loved it and the vendor earned a ton of money too um we also had the band Jamberry the same day as homecoming which featured like 10 plus schools that went very well um we're thinking about organizing possibly a winter dance to boost spirit all year round and allow for um the kids that were at band to attend the dance because last time they had a miss it for their Jamber um and all of this is of course
011thanks to our Bel advisers Miss Smith and miss spiron and anyone who helped them out they really helped us out by directing like you know us and what to do and we wouldn't have been we wouldn't have been able to make all of it possible without them and also a lot of thanks to all the teachers and faculty that helped us out you know directed kids at the pep rally sha the homecoming helped me set up the homecoming decorations cuz I I did need a little help with that I wasn't tall enough um and also the band for sacrificing like you know their time to go to the one School Dance is for all grades they did a spectacular job and that's why we want to do like that's why I specifically want this extra
012dance for them and for everyone else of course and we also put together a bog committee to help us with all these events and we do plan on utilizing them in the future but this time they helped us a lot with you know planning and decorating the pet rally along with decorating home and obviously huge T huge thanks to the custodians because they were the ones who helped us clean up and I had to clean up beforehand it was not fun so I can't even imagine cleaning up afterwards without all their big V machines so that was amazing aside from that we had our PSAT day it was October 18th and and freshman sophomores and juniors had to report to their assigned classrooms and take their digital PSAT which I admit there were some shortcomings
013because you know technical difficulties but it went well for it it went pretty well and during this time seniors um they had the option to arrive late but the seniors that got there they went the cafeteria we did our annual senior picture where we sit on the PES they take the big picture gets framed and we also took the one where we're like for we're formed into our um like the 2024 so that went really well and then we did our little senior mural with the handprints alongside it so senior events have been up we've been doing pretty good they were expected to go back to class at 11:00 and I saw a lot of seniors back but I also know that a lot of seniors weren't back so that's that but I do think
014that we did the best or like the senior class officers did the best they could to control that there are also a lot of other class events like um tomorrow the seniors are having a movie night and even the freshmen are getting set up we had our freshman elections today during our flex period and they should be closing by this Friday and a freshman Forum to help them get adjusted into High School aware of certain issues will be on October 30th which is in 5 days and it'll discuss very sensitive but important topics like awareness regarding vaping and the Damage it does to your health and also Suicide Prevention on a lier note our fall sports are wrapping up a lot of sports have had their senior nights which I believe is their last home
015game yeah okay so that means and we've had a lot of senior nights so far which means that a lot of sports teams have already had their last home game there isn't too much after that so the season is wrapping up and that includes football we have our last home game I believe tomorrow I mean not tomorrow the day after tomorrow and it's going to be a pick out in honor of breast cancer awareness and there's going to be a big sale during it lots of good stuff um and lastly in sports news our Danberry cross country team got second place in FCX which is basically the Fairfield County Athletic Conference so it's very impressive um also the PTO has been organizing a lot of fundraisers each week there's a certain restaurant where if you
016go to them during this specific um during a specific time frame and you mentioned DHS or VHS PTO Restaurant Week they'll donate um a percentage of the proceeds to the DHS PTO fun fact the last one is today so if you're a little hungry after this um pppa Sports Cafe mention DHS and they will they will give some of the proceeds to DHS PTO and that money is going to go towards teacher and staff appreciation along with Raffles gifts and prizes for the seniors and parent teacher conferences are going to be right before Thanksgiving break on Monday November 20th and Tuesday November 21st and there's also a lot of events coming up to support you know seniors like me that are applying to college like a financial aid night on December 8th and line by
017line fast f assistant which is a huge help and that's out there advertised through student Square parents Square should be going to all the students and parents emails so that's an option out there for them we just had a virtual caller tonight it went wow there was like like over a hundred people in attendance um and that was this Monday I believe um so yeah um aside from that the missed out policy which I know you guys were very curious about last time it seems to be shaping out well I do see a lot less people in the Halls still people in the Halls regardless but it's been a lot better especially compared to last year so that's a big plus um and that pretty much w up all DHS news anything that happened going
018forward so um you have any questions you Havey answer them I think you covered it impressive very impressive very detailed report thank youate that Serena and Maya thank you both thank you for joining us have a great night thank you want to stick around I got a it gets fun after that are you want to P us just tell us you're going to P yeah thank you bye thank you thank you all right so we we'll jump to public participation so the board welcomes public participation and asks that speakers please limit their comments to 3 minutes speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit an expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education Personnel in students nor against any person connected with
019danburry public school system and we'll just I have a name here um Tara R Raymond Del Raymond Del okay and at at the 2 minute 30 Mark we'll give you a warning 30 seconds left okay um good evening my name is Tara Raymond Deli um I'm a parent of two girls in pemrick elementary school a kindergartner and a second grader um my profession I'm a school psychologist with over 20 years in education so I'm bringing both fronts to my statement tonight um I was able to speak with Mr walon yesterday regarding the recent events regarding the pemrick investigation um while I do appreciate his time and his willingness to speak to me I did feel the need to voice my concerns to the board of ed as well last year you heard a plea of
020so many distraught parents beging for faster action and more urgency taken when looking into the bomb threats made to our school you heard stories about how children were being traumatized by these events it's now 10 months later and the outcome of investigation has devastated our community our children were left in a building with who with an adult who repeatedly threatened their safety someone who they were told that they could trust for months on end as a community as a district we cannot accept this and as a parent I am appalled that the district and the board allowed this to happen the district is charged with the heavy weight of keeping thousands of precious defenseless lives safe as well as those dedicated teachers and staff members that work with them every day we can't fix what
021happened but we can use this experience to grow grow while I do understand the unlikelihood of this happening again the daily threat of school violence is very real in our country we have the chance now to use this experience Sandy Hook yaldi Coline they were all tragedies that upon reflection had red flags identified let's not wait until Danberry is faced with an unimag unimaginable Devastation to improve we need the district and the board to take action so that this never happens again I urge the board and the district to increase security at Pembrook so that our students are safe while this individual has been released on bail in addition increase the emotional support to the students who are still dealing with the fear that this will happen again at school sending an email stating that
022support is available is simply not enough aside from the loss of trust we also lost our sense of community while I'm very happy to have P principal Perez leading Pembrook there has to be more done at the district level to support the school to rebuild what was broken increased communication with the families that Pembrook would be a start it's now it was not until almost 3 months later and four bomb threats that a meeting was held to address parent concerns during which we were faced with a combative board who showed no compassion or empathy we were promised weekly updates which ended within weeks of our meeting I urge the board to take this opportunity to review our districtwide safety protocols and communication with the families within the district we should accept nothing less than the
023highest level of urgency and response when one of our buildings is threatened this applies to any Authority that we may be working with our Administration teams and our staff as a parent I'm more than happy to assist in any way possible with any safety plans and I would appreciate any opportunity if there are building safety committees to be a part of that thank you there's only one name on the list is there anyone else that like to say anything okay thank you very much all right superintendent report okay we have three items as part of the update this evening one of them is regarding our budget calendar that was previously reviewed with our finance committee um and so I wanted to underscore for the month of November for the board November 1st starts really some
024activity that we're we're going to see it's really going to play a role in informing our ask and request for the 24 25 school year um until we have a sites and Facilities meeting on November 1st in which we plan to talk about projected enrollment uh facilities and projects technology and any security upgrades for the 2425 school year um you will also see uh we have carved out um I will be meeting with the leadership team at our next meeting regarding um reviewing our separate costs associated with the academies of danburry model um and so we will make sure we have that for our budget as usly requested and as part of uh superintendent's goals in the um later in U November uh we will have a draft of our request uh by looking to
025try to have this in your hands by November 10th ahead of the finance committee meeting um so that we can have an opportunity to review the draft budget presentation um and my goal really is to make sure the board as currently constituted has an opportunity to review the budget requests what we anticipate the request to be for 2525 school year um and so I think no I know in your packet you may not have theor version but in your packet you have the budget calendar and I just wanted to take this opportunity to walk you through some of the upcoming events you know there have been some discussions about grants and um associated with our budget for next year the toward the end gra the and and so where it says budget presentation the team
026and I will be working on the actual presentation and Gathering all the um details that we need to inform requests for 2425 um and again we will like to have that available uh for our finance committee meeting on the 14th and have an opportunity to review it in small group um and then uh be prepared to share our anticipated request for the 25 2425 school year at our Monday board meeting ahead of thanksg so I wanted to start there um and if I can board chair I can go through these three I'm happy to take any questions after I have um previously had talked about um and this is really an effort to try to secure a talent um given the um shortages and staff that we have across the district uh we are looking
027to partner with the Connecticut teacher residency program um I had a meeting with this group last week Kelly Tres and I um I think it was a really good meeting really informative meeting um I just received an executive summary about the program yesterday so I will forward that to the board's detention so you can have more information um I shared information in the previous communication with the board but I just want to now that we're here together tonight give you a little bit more update on what the program offers um so essentially what happens in the Connecticut teacher Residency program um they are helping us find people who have a bachelor's degree and it's kind of an alternate um rout for certification like program and so um people who have a bachelor's degree um they
028would be partnered we would partner through this program um they would help them get certification and um they will have the instructions to help them get CER vacation the commitment from the district is that we would hire these people at no no less than $50,000 um and I'm sorry $65,000 including benefits um it was salary 29,000 Plus benefits and we it could be higher if needed and then there's also a stien attached to the um Dam Public Schools teacher that would serve as the mentor um essentially the student teaching placement right so the cost the cost of the district I think we estimated it would be about $65,000 per person after fees after our cost associated with the program benefits Etc um and so um our quick math on this you know we could be
029in anywhere between $450 to5 00,000 um the board uh should know um there is actually a grant uh specifically that can be specifically leveraged for this purpose um and so we have every tend to think that um when we submit an application for this Pro using this program as one of the major major leverage points we think it's going to be accepted um so we will have some further updates for the board uh really soon but we're really excited about the program potentially what it can offer um we think we have we know that we have some path Professionals in the system now that we hope will be interested in the program um but you know there's also some opportunity to try to secure some talent in the region uh for people might be interested
030in coming to this profession um there and there are some nice incentives that Associated um with the program um they so if we have par professionals who are making 25 $28,000 number one it's an opportunity for them to be supported um and um hopefully this will address some retention efforts um that you know some goals that we have as well as a district um so really excited more information to come um some of the concrete next steps some of the concrete next steps um the expectation is after reviewing the contract agreement uh we would sign they would sign um and then we would have some some of those immediate next steps we'll get into the community I think January starts the cycle for this next cohort so we would like to get something secured before
031this next cycle because this could potentially mean something for a difference for us as soon as September the beginning of this school year um so really excited about that we'll have more information to follow and as I said I just received an executive summary from uh the representative from The Residency program I'll be sharing that with the board with some supporting materials um last but not least and just is a reminder um and I also want to speak about the parents who just left um just as a reminder the cmy of Danberry um Phase 2 construction update and walk through is on Thursday October 26 um I believe invitation right invitation has been extended to the board um and so just want to make sure if you did not have an under calendar make sure
032you have under calendar and it's 11:00 um at in front of the car building yes well it is in the front of the building yes yes it's in the back of the campus but it's in the front of the building that's corre that's and so last but not least I know we just had um a really concerned parent who just left um and we had along with um so it was Tara and jod had both on a call yesterday a zoom call yesterday and both had expressed uh really concerns about the process and the fact that um this information was released in a news article um last weekend ahead of the press release for the police department and ahead of our notice uh from the school district and as I shared um yesterday um in
033our meeting and certainly if we had an opportunity to do it over we would um going into to the arrest of this person um we had an agreement with the police department um that we would um side by side send out a press release and a notice to our families and the community and the agreement was the police department would go first and then we would go immediately second and uh we knew that she was going to be this person was going to be arrested ahead of our planned um notice to the community um and frankly did not anticipate that they we would have this article will release the weekend prior to Monday um and so I did share that with the family it certainly was unfortunate that the information was released before we could
034push out the information um and then you'll notice um if you look back kind of the timeline um on Monday I believe it was Monday afternoon the police department released their their letter their press release um and as as planned we had sent out our notice to the families um and um I believe it was a day later we had sent a follow-up letter uh to our pck families specifically making sure there was an invitation extended to them um if there were any any additional supports that we could provide for that Community um that the district was available to do so obviously through the principal um and then we would try to make sure we would deoy supports to that building um and so I we also had talked about um and I think one
035and I don't know if this was clear this evening um and I certainly understand the parents point and I'm sure some other the parents at pbrook feel the same way um and the question was um posed to me you know why was this person allowed to stay on if they were a suspect as part of the investigation um and I you know I clarified at that time and I know in the timeline in the newspaper um kind of share um the investigation timeline obviously it was missing a lot of pieces as part of that timeline but the reality is we didn't have absolute certainty until what well into um we didn't have certainty until this summer um when was it I'm sorry so we didn't have the the certainty that we needed um we had
036suspects um and there's an investigation unfolding and um I understand in the conversation with parents regarding the safety and Welfare of their children there's not really much I can say at that moment that's going to provide any comfort and I totally understood that um and I and I still understand that um we were working we were no longer the lead investigator in this in this case um it was made clear to us and I as I shared with the family um that once the um a someone outside of a child became a suspect uh we were no longer the lead investigator on the case um and so because of that we would take a near lead and waiting for information to come back before we made any Personnel moves here in the district uh we
037stayed in constant communication with the police department throughout this process um and in fact asked questions about um not really asking for permission to make a Personnel move uh but making sure we worked in collaboration cooperation with them uh before we made an HR Personnel life move um and so I I just wanted to also talk to share with the board that I know we've had some discussions in executive session as well about this um and so so I I don't really going to hear anything new this evening um but certainly I understand the parents and their frustrations and their concerns um and we did have a conversation as as both moms oh Jody didn't speak but as Tara had shared this tonight question um I'm pretty upset that they seem to think that the
038Board of Ed what was the tun they used was and not compassionate yeah I mean where did that come from from I mean we're not allowed to say anything when they're in uh speaking and I I I I'm just floored I'm just fled at that impression and I'm very very upset now I'm very upset so let me ask a question so what have we in the light of of you know it coming out and information what have we done at the school level to help offer support proactively had a meeting we school I'm talking about now it's out the person was arrested it's the school started it's out there what what have we done as a district right now proactively to I'm talking to anybody I'm not directing I'm not directing it to you Kelly
039I'm just looking at that so what have we done proactively to help support the staff the students I mean more security I mean what what what what have we done so we ahead of number one ahead of the press release um it was important for us to make sure we were at the school um to speak with staff um and which is what I did um along with the team um and um principal perz of course was in attendance um but frankly all this happened prior to her assuming the leadership role at the building but obviously she was there um and so we had an opportunity to talk to the staff um make them aware of the um press releasee that was about to go out um and and frankly um I think much like
040our entire penro Community uh they were upset and I think folks needed time to kind of digest what they had just heard uh because they like our parents who you heard frustration from tonight uh were also disappointed um frustrated upset I think mean there's a number of different words I think we can use to um Express they felt um but we also that evening that afternoon let them know that um you know through Dana Dana Perez the principal obviously if there's any support that we can provide for staff uh we're certainly here to make sure staff is deployed to help to support them um Penbrook um during the time of all of this um and just to remind the board we upgraded our technology and security um upgrades we made security upgrades during the Christmas
041break of that year um and so all that new technology is in place at the building uh we still continue to have an additional safety Advocate at that school um understanding that um it's a priority understand it's still a sensitive time on that campus um so those um those security measures and those supports are still in place at the building um as I had mentioned in a conversation with the parents yesterday um you know we had also spoke with um principal EO prior to her retiring and got feedback from her and the staff um about you know some of their additional needs to help keep the community safe um as you might recall we had a number of evacuations in that building unfortunate evacuations obviously U but we also had students outside who were outside
042in inclement weather outside for extended periods of time um and so it was important you know as per the principes that time uh to make sure that we had resources for staff to keep kids warm to keep keep our kids sheltered make sure that they were dry if there was if it was wet outside uh make sure the um evacuation plan was reviewed to make sure students were not uh pushed back into the snow or in places that were unsafe for them um so all those things were reviewed um post evacuation plans and um last but not least additional radios were purchased for the staff there um the board may not may or may not know we have a lot of par professionals at the school supporting students as well as teacher staff um and
043so additional radios will also afforded um to the principal and her staff um and to to just just help improve Communications over at the campus and Kelly I don't know if you had anything else you wanted to offer but I just want to make sure I she before we go on any further let let me let me just rephrase the question right after it was released that they found a suspect and she was arrested and removed from the building were there any additional additional um school psychologist counselors anything anything sent to the school to help with the you know the the uh stress and and you know stuff that's non-security related I know one safety Advocate does that make a difference probably not but um the the the psychological part of it that that that
044that's what I I meant we we went over as Mr wson said met with the staff um the cabinet uh Team uh we also had um increased presence in the building to meet with staff oneon-one um or in small groups um and then follow up for both staff and families in the days following so in the I have so many questions but um so you met with the families or the the staff to tell them this was happening but then we wait a whole weekend and and the families find out put the staff new on Friday and then no that's not the timeline but is that you're I'm I'm we're not supposed to ask your question but we can't address you directly a Q&A inside the meeting we apologize sorry but to my understanding that's
045what the parents felt happen and that's not what happened okay so we we went over to speak to the staff on Monday uh Monday afternoon we had a special kind of emergency meeting okay and this was ahead of the communication we just ahead of the communication we sent out um to the entire School Community um really just I think we shared it with the board on Monday and then we shared it with the right after we sent it out to the board we went over to the staff and person and spoke to them um and then of course the entire Community received the letter okay and then we push out an additional communication to the specifically for a pen parents I believe it was the next there okay so then just a quick followup up
046to that kind of Ralph's question you were there in the days immediately following this release but are we still in the school helping the families not just the staff helping and then are we helping the children that were at one point suspects that were brought in that were questioned are they getting any additional supports because that's a big deal for a kid that was questioned and quizzed and then questioned again so they also need to feel secure now and and then they went through that questioning so there's a lot of pieces and are we taking care of all of those pieces in addition to the staff and an extra radio I I'll I'll go first and so I I I think and I I was I was mentioning this earlier um I think we have
047to rely on the school for any supports that are needed at that building um and that that that invitation has been extended uh to principal Perez um and so um you know part of our message to staff that day um certainly and and our invitation to families at home um if they feel the need that um their children need additional support at the school mean additional meaning beyond the social workers school psychologist could provideed that building um and we've done this before and you know we will make sure um those additional supports are provided to the school um Kelly her team has done this before and if if the if there's a demand for it and the requests are made we'll make sure that they're out there but we have not heard many through uh
048principal Perez yet and if they come we we will make sure we have resources available so so they're here and if we have parents here there's parents that sorry there's parents that aren't talking and maybe principal Perez being that she's new in her position and she can handle it and I know that we have confidence in her that maybe we need to support supp her a little more and maybe she isn't comfortable reaching we don't know but we need to be there is my so I'm going to be done brid is there an opportunity um to adjust the curriculum on the K through five level just at pamber so that I know that we um have time each week uh for um social work time is there an opportunity to increase that time a little
049bit so that we can schoolwide not pinpointed to any particular question to um address some of this uh through the curriculum we already have infrastructure that's already there is is there a plan for that or is that something that we can do and I think Kelly as you um I just want to add quickly um we we started this we were intentional about this immediately after the incident um and trying to be proactive um about building community in a way through activities at the school um and so I I just want to remind you of that you know before you answer kill so so just on the support level just um we have two uh School psychologists and a social worker that are at Penbrook as regular assignments um which is more PPS staff than
050typical and part of that is due to some of the special programming that's housed within that building um so principal PR for those of you that that are not aware is also a former school counselor so has a pup Services background um and so she's been an instrumental support um I know between myself Mr Walston other members of the cabinet there's been daily ongoing communication if not multiple times a day um also inclusive of the chief of school so we are constantly checking in so for example who are we seeing as far as students how many requests are we getting as far as parents what staff members are needing support who needs additional follow-up support is that person best served to be a member of the Penbrook School Community or someone else and that is
051where we've brought in an extra um extra outside resources it's a it's a damber Public Schools employee but someone that's not typically assigned to penr to provide additional support so that has been done um the and will continue to be done we we have not found the need to have the person there consistently every day as we've addressed the needs um but um principal Perez is aware that at a moment's notice if she needs additional support we will push that in as we do in many schools across across the district when there's a crisis situation that resolves rises I should say um the other thing is uh the messaging to the staff was you know uh we we need to rebuild repair and I think that was said with the families um lean on each
052other and provide support I will tell you after the meeting that we had um many of our staff members kind of gathered together with groups that they were close to right and had conversations and many of us myself included pushed into those to to check in on people to have support there were followup conversations outside you you have to judge what people need in that moment um the message from Principal Perez has been to make sure that kids are feeling safe to take care of those social emotional needs in the classroom to seek out the outside support if so needed um at any moment to not be afraid to call and and seek out an outside resource um and so so that piece is there have we altered or changed the curriculum no not at
053this point in time um and um and also to make sure that we're continuing to educate and hold high expectations while taking care of that social emotional needs it's that balance right between addressing the needs as they arise and making sure that we provide consistency and normaly for our children um can I make one recommendation maybe um maybe hold a board of bed meeting at the school one night uh showing our support that way it seems like they think we're disengaged from all of this and I feel really bad what she said and I'm just thinking that hold a meeting there show that we care just by to yeah I'm going to say I'm very upset as well um because we did have a meeting at Penbrook and board members were asked to attend and
054we did and we got a lot of the information like the parents did I know that we've had executive meetings and meetings you know sidebar and always brought up what's going on with penber now the whole reason that we I think there's a lack of communication is it's under investigation was a lot of the time we didn't not get any real you know information because it was in process so you know I think that there is um a disconnect in understanding what the role of the bo was I mean as far as we are concerned we knew that as a parent how difficult it is to go every day go back to so when we actually had our meeting I was like make sure you reach out to the Citywide PTO Christy specifically and like
055let her know as soon as we were allowed to release information I remember making that stat so it's it's you know we we take it personally because we are we were worried and are still worried I'm on sites and Facilities been working with Mike we added a whole new um part to uh the program that we were developing for the security to make sure that we had the ability to reunite when these situations happened and they were outside and we could count people and who was going to you know really spent a lot of time in trying to you know some of the issues that we saw were happening and some obviously they're you know physical um the emotional obviously you know as you were saying it's kind of complicated but we feel your your
056pain and so you know I think that's why we're taking it personally because you know we're parents and we understand and you know whatever we can do call please our lines are available to speak to you if you don't feel like you're getting heard um that's why we're here you're sitting here for that reason so I want to thank you for bringing it out because if you don't we don't know so thank you and thank you for the time and I like to say if I was talking directly to someone the people that are here um you know I would say I mean obviously I was at that meeting and I I'd like to just say that um if it was my kid school um you guys were fairly calm well but we're not talking
057anyone specific Penbrook parents were fairly calm at that meeting based off of the lack of information that we provided uh I I would be well let's not say what I would do but um we were frustrated in the fact that we had very little information to provide because of the investigation and we were told by police other places other um institutions that were involved to kind of not don't say try to say something without saying anything and that that's a problem so anything we said that night my opinion didn't really help because we really didn't say much the only thing we could say and sometimes we don't do a good job of doing it and and is that we understand and we we we we felt for the situation but you know you can't and
058you know it's it was difficult believe it or not was difficult for us as well because we're sitting there and we want to go there to try to show you that at the highest level I mean we're the Board of Ed wo we're the highest level that we do care and we're trying to do everything that we could have done at the time with the information and and what we were allowed to say now being there just being there and kind of talking to everybody apparently didn't help much so I apologize for that but you know we did you know we we we we do care it's just you know I I don't I don't know else to say but I was talking to somebody else I I think going back we didn't want to
059wait until we had more and I think we were all there and really didn't know what to say to be honest and it was just trying to be I got you I got you all right I got you all right I'm out here for three more weeks let me say what I got to say all right me too Ral so just I me mean laughing now it's not really funny so I'm just saying is I understand but I I can't say I feel the way you feel because I'm not in it but the Pembrook Community is a strong Community I've been around a long time I mean my mom used to work at the school years ago it's a strong community so you guys were a lot calmer than I I think I would have
060been in a situation like that so we do appreciate that and you guys from what I understand I know Dana very well and even before that guys pulled together as a community uh School community and that says a lot about the P so I don't know if there was an apology in there somewhere but you know I I I'm just saying that at the time we thought we were doing we did whatever we can do thinking it would help but apparently it did so I guess I am apologizing for that go ahead thank you Ralph I'm also here for four weeks is that all us all right um Kevin is I was also at that meeting with Ralph where we uh engaged PE community and and I know it was frustrating for them because we
061could only share what you could share and I didn't even know all because if you shared more you would compromise the investigation and the person wouldn't have been brought to D Justice because the investigation would have been compromised so I I understand your intent I understand your actions and I understand the frustration of the parents being having six kids myself um there was a question I got today on the phone about uh once this person of interest was developed as a person of interest the delay and removing them from from the school I I had no direct answer I referred hopefully that they will contact your office I gave them the police officer side is unless there's probable cause for an arrest and you have mere suspicion you might if you defame someone's character that
062you're the only thing you could probably have done different maybe putting on paid administrative we but that may have compromised the investigation and they wouldn't been brought to Justice which is thank you thank you board chair for giving me my 30 seconds you're welcome now have we taken the opportunity to reassess our security protocols with without going into detail because that's not something we should share publicly but have we taken the opportunity to reassess since the arrest yeah thank you for that question um so in addition we do have an extra Advocate there we have I'm in almost daily contact with dber Police Department about a number of other issues happening just around the community making judgments about whether that's going to affect us um I've requested increased patrol around Penbrook especially since this news
063broke a few weeks ago so there's regularly control going through there especially around you know the peak times kids are kind of com going because that's when they're outside the building uh and we've had now two different meetings with the Police Department emergency services M's office as well as the recommendation of this board that we get back in touch with FCI because we had had a relationship with them back several years ago that I think just sort of petered out so we've now brought them back into the conversation too about having a potential evacuation site there should students need to leave the school we've also engaged T Farm which is just adjacent to the school as another potential evacuation site of students need to leave and we working closely with principal press on just rethinking
064her entire safety plan to correct some of these these you know potential gaps um additionally while going through this process we've identified certain things like fence areas places where Gates need to be um and potentially some sheltered areas that we're going to be looking at more closely so that we can build them into the budget and make sure they're priorities for the next budget cycle thank you yes go ahead um trying to get my thoughts together for pimbrook and the pimbrook family students parents um I don't know how to say how I would act react if that had happened to me but I guess what I would like to say from what I've heard and what Michael had just said I was going to ask about increased security how you if there's something going on
065with leadership there that we're not comfortable of how can we improve it how and it's not just hopefully that never happen to anyone of our other schrews what are we going to do moving forward to make those parents those students because at that young age constantly questioning questioning it mixes up a student so you have to have someone psychology or whatever you got say what we need to help those parents and help those students so pinook has happened we knew as board members there's certain information that we couldn't give out we know what the FBI and all these other people were doing okay and at certain point when we're giving the okay to talk about something that's when we talk about to the G I would like to know what are we going to do
066moving forward is there somehow that we can increase when we get to the hiring process and I know a lot of things don't come out until that person get in that position but somewhere there's a mark somewhere when people start doing things that we think that are not normal behavior where does it start at and where do we look at it as a district is it hiring testing what do we do to make it better and make sure that it does not happen to any of of our other schools can can you just talk about the the background check and stuff that we do when we hire people right um so we're required and we do um run background checks on anyone that's going to work with kids and that background check includes not only
067finger printing um which goes through the FBI system so we'll see any kind of convictions um have anywhere Nationwide it's also local um we also do a DCF check and these things are all required um by St offro when we do our hiring um and the DCF check requires the applicant to sign a release to say you know these are the people Liv in my household and DCF runs their check to see if these people are on the register or there's anything else that would be up that um in this case without kind of going into too long this was long-term employee so this was not something that would have you know I'm not sure what we would be looking for in the hiring process but it's not something that for this person anything would
068have shown up I will say that there are many times um that that particularly Kelly and I will partner together when we see um Behavior that's concerning from any member of our staff it could be a mental health issue it could be a physical issue it could be a a harassment environment issue any one of those things um obviously because we're so big those tend to come through a building administrator or a supervisor or a coworker um you know I serve as also your TP n officer so people who have concerns about the behavior of others in the workplace towards them um could be violence could be um you know harassment of some kind so those are all things that will intervene as part of the regular employment process so conduct an investigation do some
069counseling partner together with Kelly and her team to figure out if there's anything we need to be looking at so so it's it's a complicated thing um because you do have that bucket of new hires and you know a fingerprint or a background check is only going to tell us somebody that's got a background um so there's not much we can do with that we don't do any other kind of testing um you don't we don't do any kind of profiling or anything like that so so um we do check references um everyone is required to everyone who's a hiring person involved in the hiring process is required to make contact with several references um and often times we'll get some final hiring reports and I'll go back to administrator during the hiring and say
070I need you to try to find you know a more current reference or somebody from the employment process so we do what we can to find out at higher and then the second ball wax if you will is people who've been here you know for a long time and and people do go through different crises in their lives that causes behavior that you know we may or may not see coming and we try to identify and intervene not just with discipline but also with we have a very strong EAP program so if people are really struggling we try to get them employee assistants um or urge them to to work with employee assistants we've also pulled Union reps in with some people to say gee you know we could partner with you to kind of
071get some help for somebody who's really struggling so it it's complicated but it's really um it's event driven often times we're reacting rather than proactive and that's just because we can only you know respond to what we say thank Jesse has so do we currently have any type of program or Pro protocol MH to I I guess you should say prevent mental you know Health like if if somebody notices that somebody seems a little off there's a protocol that play to kind of alert and have that person maybe go see someone that can evaluate them right so we can't require people to do that but um he cannot um sometimes what will what will often happen is in the course of an investigation where we're trying to figure out what's happening with someone um and
072again we may be partnering with some of the PPS staff in a building um but we do and I do regularly work with these Union reps to say Hey you know this might be a good time for them to call if you go to my.com and everybody has access whether you buy our plan or not you have access to that and they have all sorts of now there's proliferation of resources so you could do virtual meetings you can do phone calls they can you up with you know people that you could go and see in person and there's a whole range of of things I can't require anybody to do that but I certainly can urge it and we have done that on many an occasion here and I think to great success I think
073it's been a pretty effective addition we've had that program for maybe five years um and and we see a lot more people now accessing it one of the things we do annually is we look at our insurance plan and instance impact um and we've seen that there are a lot more people in the district that are accessing those resources so um we also try to push out regular programming so through the benefits office in my office um our benefits coordinator will try to push out webinars or you know today's this month's mental health month and here's a webinar you might find interesting so we try to kind of get as many resources as we can out for our employees part because it's just good practice um it's a good benefit to be able to offer
074people and I think that um what used to be the thing that no one wanted to access because they didn't want anyone to know lots more people access now so I think that's a good thank you Teresa um were there in hindsight were there any red flags for this particular person I didn't say so nothing that came to anybody's attention just curious quick question do we have any idea how this um L to the newspapers prior to the the information they releas right I I I think because it's Public public available information the the news Times accessed the arrest warrant and the arrest warrant came through the judicial system and is a public document and so all of the timeline everything was pulled directly out of the arrest yeah so they shared exactly what was
075in that that's why it was detailed the way it was we we only released statement and and repeated that this will be our only statement so um moving forward do we have a way to prevent in case God forbid something like this happens again to prevent that the news I mean the conference the information that we're going to release hit the news first prior to the the information that you will release to this right so thanks for that question Julie because when I met with um moms yesterday um um upon reflection I think I would have pushed back on the police department a little bit more and say the minute an arrest is made Let's push out a press release right now yeah um and instead there was a little bit of time in between
076the actual arrest and um the press release going down so hopefully we'll never happen have anything like this again U but if there is cuz we you know we did work in collaboration this entire process um but upon reflection I think we would have been best to those an arrest get it out first um there was a couple of other moves that we needed to make ahead of this meeting um that we could not pull off so all the stars did not align uh but given the events that we're talking about this evening we would have been it would have been better to release it immediately I think that I don't know how much that would help but it certainly would have I think it would have been better received coming from us first the
077no doubt about it thank you take the last question from Michelle but I want to move on from this but I just want to say before that is anybody who's wanted to stick around and after the meeting ask any questions individually uh we're here for that so I just have one question and I know that you know we found out who was responsible through fingerprints right and there were a few suspects did everybody get fingerprinted that was suspected I think we had I had heard something like some of them participated maybe one or two did not so I don't I don't know if it's accurate we had a few suspects yeah I don't know that we can really answer that I mean the police drove that whole process so we we um our only role
078was to conduct kind of verbal interviews as we were trying to figure out this situation but the police were fully responsible for eliciting asking for a securing who they're going to you know was part of their investigation it was not it so theer I know all the answers okay so that is not in our wheelhouse that's the police and how the suspect whatever is okay thank you appreciate that all right Kevin you have anything else on the superintendent's report I do I just want to um publicly thank um Carie who had a deal with me setting this stuff up um for gladus celebration uh I'm sure it was not easy for her so thank you cara if you're home watching this and and Barry and and sedexo and his group putting on uh a nice
079spread and really did a great job with that and uh and for everyone who who spoke and was there to help us celebrate Miss Cooper um I think it was a great event and I think um and it's welld deserved Miss Cooper so um I'm just glad that you enjoyed it and uh if anyone else wants to make any comments before we adure Teresa and thank you Ralph for the ice cream yes it was yeah I just wanted to congratulate the office of family school and Community Partnerships they did a parent University program on Saturday um over at Rogers Park it was really a nice event uh well attended um it's a great opportunity for families um to learn a little bit more about how our District's working uh at that particular event they had
080uh fin cial uh literacy and College Planning program uh they did a reading and math literacy program so that parents could learn about the curriculum for young students who are starting out in the schools um they had a special education uh expert there who is uh sharing information about how to um get services for your students uh there's drug and alcohol use prevention program um a program about dealing with bullying um so I just would encourage um you know families who are looking to get a better handle on how the schools handle different things and looking to get a little bit more involved um there's going to be another one scheduled for April 6th 2024 that's the next one so we hope you'll be there Al you have something yes one last round of applause
081for gra scooper anything else motion toour think I like to a motion to adjourn second by