001[Music] please rise from the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance of the United States of America according to we do rollovers Teresa president Michelle branches here Julie here Ralph Frozen Al here Luisa here [Music] all right let's start with some recognitions so Dr Christie is the leader of Rogers Park principal 2023 recipient of the exceptional principal award by the Connecticut Association of Latino administrators and superintendents congratulations [Applause] thank you so much this is no more than anyone this has never earned alone into the amazing administrative staff I have of his presence Natalia and an absolute stunning array of teachers and staff members a couple which are here if it's retiring but it doesn't it became anything down to schools without a collaborative effort and I really appreciate all of you for allowing me to serve the
002students of Danbury as a Danbury parent my whole very dear in my heart what we do near me very proud to be a parent and educator and administrator and work for the city of education so I thank you all for us thank you [Applause] [Music] a couple things so Dr zalia number one we have an award for you so you can't go anywhere but for those in the audience who are not aware Dr Sylvia has a set is accepting or has accepted the exceptional principle award by the Connecticut Association of Latino administrators and superintendent wrote a little congratulate congratulatory don't be a person this is a fantastic achievement and a testament to your hard work and dedication to the students and Families and we look forward to seeing great things from you in the team
003in the years to come and we want to congratulate you again on behalf of the Board of Education and all the new students is available to thank you so much thank you foreign [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] so retirees so we want to begin with the recognition with the moment of Silence from Mr Richard Holmes uh Danbury High School social studies teacher who served for 30 years and Sally passed away on June 4th his son Kevin will be here to accept his certificate so just let's have a little an assignment before we meet up foreign [Music] that's all right guys thank you stay over here right there I'm not walking back and forth the whole night we'll stay here is it okay if I just say it sure um I think I think I'm not the only
004person who has had the pleasure of knowing um the Holmes family um I worked with uh Kevin's mom for many years at Broadview I had the pleasure of having Kevin in my class in sixth grade which is also my 9 11 classroom he's in my homeroom so it was a forever bond with what happened that day um but perhaps the longest standing relationship that I've had has been the one with Mr Holmes who I both work with as a colleague in the social studies department but also he helped shape me as an administrator and I say that tongue and cheek because the amount of um changes at the social studies Department endured while I was a new administrator and with the experience of Mr Holmes you know we always had this relationship where we kind
005of questioned everything that was coming down the line and it was very protective of the teachers the teaching profession making sure that whatever we were putting out had the best interest of not just the students but also took into account teacher perspective and teacher feedback and so we developed a very great relationship we engaged in tremendous dialogue he helped to develop my thinking particularly in the field of social studies I'll be forever grateful I know Mr Donovan gave a wonderful tribute at graduation to him he was always coaching everyone on the field in the classroom administrators and we just want to say we are sorry for your loss father left a definite influence on many folks here not just the students but with the staff as well [Applause] Rosemary clay ECC preschool said secretary 42
006years thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] if I enjoyed yes I did yeah what [Applause] Ellen Kelly great playing school nurse 26 years [Applause] Geraldine defonzo Shelter Rock secretary 27 years [Applause] this is what it's like congratulations [Applause] so Julie winding up thank you let's look over at Michelle when we're done [Applause] [Music] foreign [Laughter] [Applause] ice cream sauce thank you very much test nursing coordinator 12 years [Applause] you okay Michelle all right thank you Linda Richard DHS said parent 27 years [Applause] thank you [Laughter] foreign thank you so much thank you [Applause] is there anybody else that did not RSVP that is here oh no I will read off the rest of the retirees that were unable to attend this evening Susan de Matteo DHS science teacher 18 years Beth Foster DHS math teacher 20
007years men given Stanley Rupp nurse 11 years Carol Linden cup DHS social worker 25 years Patricia Gonzalez DHS World Language Department had nine years Susan Corey Paddock South Street said teacher 24 years Darlene colwitz Broadview middle teacher 16 years custodian 19 years Mary Ellen Owens great playing teachers 17 years Maria Rivera Shelter Rock ESL bilingual para 27 years his insurance King Street Intermediate grade 5 teacher 27 years Maria Sorrentino AIS Spanish teacher 19 years and Karen tomasini Morris Street Kitchen manager 30 years [Applause] I just want to say once again congratulations and thank you for your service and some of these years here on this list and that that's some hard times yeah uh so I just want to say all right thank you so much and um you know just always realize that the
008impact that he makes on the students every day and after the power of breaking school and you know my kids have been many times in their Scouts office and it's always nice to know uh in the schools that someone cares like you guys do is to stay somewhere from this small it's because you care about what you're doing and we really appreciate them and um just want to say thank you [Applause] foreign return and I said on many negotiation teams with work to always brought a pleasant attitude to those meetings and we all worked together to do what's best for our nurses and I just want to say thank you Ellie it was a pleasure knowing you and please stay around don't go nowhere and to um Kathy or doctor when Cobra hit we had
009all the extra board meetings you were always there [Applause] for any other reporters so I have not had the I haven't been as fortunate some of my colleagues who have been to have had the established relationship is relationships with some of my colleagues have to disabled but I I can tell you in the five years that I've been here it was not one day that I walked into Charles Rock Elementary School and despite my title as an assistant Superintendent at the time or at no point did I walk into Great Plain Elementary School despite my titles assistant superintendent at the time that I may not feel welcome in hours to respect for school communities so Jerry I want to thank you for always welcoming in that school I can only imagine where our families and
010kids felt every day when they walk into that office in La of course I'm a governor racing to go see the principal and I I can't tell you how appreciative I was I'll also see a friendly welcoming face at Great point every time I went there and perhaps our employees take these things for granted is truly appreciated I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank you both Kathy as you're walking up here I have it in five years and as you're walking it's I feel like 50 years in front of me I was like oh my God foreign and maybe it's because 2019 and 20 20 21 21 22 at the beginning I you know I've been in schools like everyone in this room for a long time and I think in this profession
011we have taken for granted the work of the school nurse not to mention the supervisor of School nurses and I very quickly this entire school system relied on the expertise in your office and the expertise in the nurses offices around this school district I want to thank you for your leadership during that time give feedback we have steady leadership during that time when we needed it most we all went to you for guidance and support guides guys because we were all struggling with this unique unique and I I could not imagine having anyone else in our corner but you can so I just want to thank you foreign [Music] I know I showered you with some flowers earlier this morning at our admin council meeting but I just want to say publicly in front of
012the board in our school Community I want to also thank you for putting leadership at Paramount Elementary School top up the challenges that we had at building this school year I also know this what everyone does not know is that you have on top of meeting the needs of our regular Learners in the school district we also have a very unique special education program at that school as well and you know never without a complaint always positive always trying to keep yourself inspired that is appreciated and will certainly be missed and I want to thank you for your leadership and service through the school Community thank you so much thank you and I'm going to the American panel for a minute and she helped me with some really bad math right I think we got
013these numbers right I just want to read a note for if you remember our retirees in the audience so on the behalf of the Board of Education and the meeting students and families we have inspired you have inspired and supported and motivated over the years I want to say thank you thank you for everything you've done for us our kids our families and our school community thank you for over 460 years of collective service of never ending patient motivation and persistence and helping us grow as a school community congratulations on your retirement you will be missed thank you thank you all right so feel free to stay for the rest of the meeting if you might and really don't want to see this we're really essential off with some really uh intriguing self-care but thank
014you guys again for uh for all you do and we appreciate it thank you um [Music] all right so move on to public participation did you sign up so more welcome smallish participation asks that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them but Ward will not permit any expression of personal complaints to defamatory comments about the Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Danbury public school system is there anyone on that list anyone who didn't sign up like to speak okay moving along okay so we can take care of the world Jamaica Promotion Center [Music] Board of Education approve the items on the consent calendar exhibits 23-37-23-94 as recommended certificate discussion [Music] any opposed receptions between
015the donation the formation it's all included yeah but you said 394 5. okay 23.95 so we have to make a motion on that as well Amanda he can amend them amend the motion the big motion that we amend emotion is that what I say yeah okay [Music] um okay let's start with uh start on the sideworld today Julie can you remember age by law action items a by law 93 21 time place and notice of meaning promotion and divorce of Education suspend through the January 15 24. foreign [Music] regular meetings that requires one more meeting and the second one is the Wednesday of each month to allow for a pilot program of a monthly monthly workshop and we will you know a massage me as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 23-16
016page 27. okay a second discussion [Music] no I mean I I just want to take a general I mean we try to do the Workshop would be the kind of all together it seems like it was the same thing so I don't know I mean [Music] that's all I'm saying it is participation recognitions and the same thing pretty much so I'm hoping to uh you know any suggestions so we had a conversation about this about this policy meeting we have conversation about this at the policy meeting and I think the census was that this private program had not gone long enough for us to really evaluate it we do share similar observations which is that the Workshop format was pretty close to the meeting format which made it hard for us to sort of differentiate
017between the two um I think the intent here was just to give space so that if we wanted to continue using this format we could do that we you know we came up against the deadline for it so this is the question of extending it or reverting back to the old format so in this motion the question is to extended so I guess we'll put it up for a call to anyone else doesn't have anything so bad all right all in favor okay if somebody knows extensions okay of course can you read the exposure education 2023 that's 2024 meeting scheduled that the Board of Education of political Board of Education meeting scheduled for 23-24 in accordance with 23-97. any discussion yes my discussion would be my question is if we're going to have a work
018once so on a month and and the regular board meeting once I would like for the board to have at least an idea of what's that upcoming Workshop is going to be and you know we might you might want to talk about the static blue we might want to talk about eels so I think to get a sense as to what we were sort of wanting to do as a board uh and then it does compromise with you and to pretend we can move on to act that's the only reason that you know I have a question about I'm looking forward so having some kind of a proposed topic yes ahead of time yes yeah some kind of lay them out like if we don't know that's good we have two of three you could
019we could bring too and you mean that says you know this is going to be the the workshop for January and if everybody's a group we use that as a workshop to me it feels like there's no input for the board to say we need to discuss this or do I make sense 100 yeah okay yeah I had some of the feedback which is I would love for us to have some way to a cold core members to get some ideas and kind of put them together and see you know what would be peaceful to use workshops um you know going back to what we were talking about before with you know that observation of the format the workshop and for the meetings is very similar um Maya chain and I'm just I'm saying this
020for a clarification too is to make sure I understand what Workshop it's really supposed to have like a central Focus like an idea that we're sitting down to talk about late last night when we had the Career Academy Workshop so I'm hoping you know I I know that there were some concerns expressed um you know about making sure we were providing Advocate space for the public to participate to make sure we're hearing from our student representatives and every every uh time that we got together here as a board um I'm not opposed to messing with that format necessarily but it does make it a little bit confusing and I think if we had a focus for those workshops it would help us sort of differentiate between their function and a little bit better I agree
021so we don't have to change anything in that motion um anyone else after the same thing let's bring it to multiple all those in favor um May 2023 financial report notioned that the Board of Education except the May 2023 financial report in accordance with 23-98 I'm second now okay any discussion all those in favor aye are you opposed of sentence okay can you do the next one action item D education specifications for Early Childhood Center I'll make a motion at the Board of Education approve the education specifications dated May 26 2023 for the Early Childhood Center as recommended by the sites facilities committee on May 30th 2023 and in accordance with exhibit 23-99 by Bridget a discussion hi are you closed interceptions Jesse can you read the next one sure I motion yeah I imagine
022that the education specification for Danbury High School lab recruitment promotion that the Board of Education approves education justification today in May 26 2023 for the Danbury High School science lab Improvement as recommended by the site and facility committee on May 30th 2023 and in accordance with 23-100 page 5100 see a discussion superintendent support will be right along thank you foreign format and that this Cooper was seeking to thrive so our meeting the boys might recall made a requests for a meeting on June 26th the rationale economy was to discuss the very thing that is going to talk about before it might recall really trying to find out from the board members what's most important for you to hear about during our Workshop sessions and it was my hope to elicit feedback from you to make
023sure that we can um focus our presentations of course so so that's more this would also help us my hope is also to present to the board through the Strategic plan identify and focus areas for 23-24 school year with all of that said and I spoke with before I can't imagine Professor this morning I think it was this one um and asking respectfully understanding how challenging these last couple of weeks have been and how demanding the schedules have been these last couple of weeks not to mention months not to mention so time we've actually come out before hearings it doesn't matter to my team and I whether we meet June 26th or in August it's important to me however to just make sure we start the school year typically we go through a process where
024the board is approving goals in November respectfully I'm asking if we can start with the goals to kick off the school year and and then also elicit this feedback from you prior to the school yourself and so we can either do this June 26th it's a business I'm starting with we don't have to meet you in 26 I think these last couple of months have been a lot if we're still asking you to come out for some additional hearings before beyond the school year now and so if the board would like to push this back to August you know or either early September as we before we start school or in September before our first board meeting the team and I will be happy to do to do so so just throw that out there
025to start out the part of that rationale was that that on top of this week next week was if things can develop over the summer that we might want to address before the school starts in that meeting and come up with some topics but I asked him to mention it and I'm not making the decision myself I put it out there to everyone if they were okay with pushing it because who who knows what evolves over the summer so that's kind of what what we're thinking so if it's okay with everyone else um to push it it's okay with me it's okay with Kevin but if there's any resistance then we'll just just FYI would be able not why we were going to change it but um yeah so cancel the 26th yes so like
026I don't get upset but we wouldn't even 26th and then it is developed because we already want to discuss certain things that are current for the 26th and then we wouldn't consider possibly if there is a good amount of you know change that happens or then meet again in August to prepare or to finish up because it might be like a lot better that's just I mean like I said I'm okay either way I will be there so so I mean I mean not God could okay I just want to ask where a clarified questions make sure to make sure Monday meeting I thought was goals for the next school year correct yes okay thanks so much factors like we did this show okay and the reason I'm asking that question is also because one
027of the things that we've discussed is board self-evaluation which I know would normally take place in that September or October November we know as well is it possible that we could use that meeting at crisis to sort of set the goals in motion for next year with the idea that coming coming back after the summer that we might be able to revisit that and just look at it again or is this like a formal approval process that we're talking about taking place on the 26th so they the intention behind me was to recommend to the board goals for 23-24 again with the Strategic plan they identified priorities for 22 23. so we would go back to students playing again and identify the Kobe name because of course we was expected to be 24. does it
028necessarily mean that's what would be put out on doing workshops in superintendent updates and so we will start there and then kind of part two of that elicit feedback from the board members want to think you would like to hear from my office regarding ongoing updates whether it be their workshops or anywhere else does that help out yeah two-part of identifying those recommended goals for next year 23 24. we get attractive for the plan and then part two elicit from the board having some priorities for presentation so it's working for 24 School okay um personally I think it's a good idea for us to be on the buffet and District to do this work just to get ourselves a framework I think that makes it easier when we come back after summer not doing this
029kind of work to have a starting place and it doesn't really hope that we can't kind of revise and go through things again but I think there's a fair intuitive people are willing to be everyone else feel the same way yes [Music] I think the the leader on the 26th we're going to talk about goals between 22 23 we killed that this boy has had a word within the vast years we once we end our June last few meeting we're done until unless something fun time so I would say unless there's an emergency why me and bill July in Orange and I know June to 26th but you know we all have been busy um you know the 23-24 goals who are still working on 22-23 goals and you know there's a meeting coming up
030with the chairperson and the vice chair and myself so I would say and I'm comfortable with not having to meet on 26th the chairperson in the back chair and the chair of the superintendent evaluation committed meet and do what we need to do and uh that's the superintendent feel like those 23-24 goals really have to be discussed before school ends starts the end of August and the correct so our first meeting is and I think and by us having that one workshop and one board meeting in September I think you have the authority to move that board meeting up to that Workshop me personally you know 26 is up so we're going to get a general consensus yes yes yes okay so uh I don't know I'll tell you something oh I already have it
031okay so we have one two three rational work study uh Mississippi chair for that committee so ultimately I think the decision rests with her so yep I think that's the way it's the list so okay yeah that's what I'm saying so let's say it's a more workshop with with a component I think it got listed correct okay I think because when we originally came up with that meeting and superintendents evaluation meeting we we talked about two things two different things we talked about super it's myself and Lauren meeting with Kevin after um the worksheet was complete yes so Nan workshops have completed for those that turn them in correct okay so then we cannot get a meeting with the superintendo advocate July that first person in July so I had the question to come why
032what are we number 26 I'm gonna sit down then we can evaluate the worksheets that people have turned over both the term put time to turn in there so I think there was a two part to that meeting that was the first part of going on and going over some some goals for Kevin in this office specifically and that's why we we had it for a month in 2017. so I I don't think it was a superintense evaluation to any meeting it was just kind of piggyback off the yeah yeah no no the words yours so the general consensus is yes for Monday I'll be here for that time okay all right so Kathy so next on the list is academies of Danbury test survey so Danbury High School after the most recent visit to
033Nebraska to team that feedback from some experts I have that school net School District at our course selection slash Lottery process we still kind of caught up in kind of the vernacular that we use here at the district and we've been encourage not to use the term Lottery is going to talk about that a little bit but also want to talk about just overall why the tests are made of we had kids engage in that process so important kind of understand better understand what we're trying to accomplish yourself sure so um yeah so a little bit towards the end of the school year uh Dan and I and the team talked a little bit about um you know sort of the impending process and you know given a scale of Danbury High School how large
034it is that it would be really great to get a sense of a where students are at in terms of selection so that we've pre-planned and do some work but also to kind of pressure test the team in understanding like how do we handle scenarios when we've got x amount of kids we want a certain slot and yeah um just share with everyone when the real certainly will go out to students so that's next year um mid-winter we'll be doing that um so the real survey for Danbury High School uh for that for that lottery selection selection Lottery process and I'll address that term in a second um we'll take place next year so this was just a test survey that we were wanting to Garner the student interest this year before they left for
035school to see what their interests are you know if you were to pick today in pick an academy or a pathway where are the students interests followed additionally again going back that it was also meant to do a little bit of a pressure test in our team to see how we respond to different scenarios that would play out so that we could actually be ready and to make sure that we didn't have any blind spots on how students were perceiving these academies of our Pathways so we wanted to do that we did it the Dan implemented the last week of school sort of the last date which was the last day he only had 200 students that actually filled it out um so we're a little disappointed that we didn't get the full blown a
036number of students to actually complete it um so but it did reveal it did show us a little bit about um initially just cursory look at some of where the students selected in terms of academies um in the different Pathways so an information is still coming in there was the survey was put together in also in a Spanish Portuguese as well and so um that needs to be added to the initial that you sort of did a little bit about cursory tabulation that needs to be added into that into that aggregate number um and then our goal is also to sit down with um with his team who we heard about when we went to Nebraska as Mr Boston stated who supported the lottery process if you will um there in terms of helping the
037school to disaggregate the data as it comes in because it gets complicated when you have a student first stroke second choice third choice fourth choice and um the process in the Museum of the algorithms that take place to fill slots so it's almost in some ways like scheduling courses at the high school right when one fills and then you go to the next and the next and the next um and if there's any constraints in the schedule those get worked out and get accounted for so we recognize that we get support with that process um and so we just made some initial contact with the team that that's that it's uh too bad do that if you charge that or that we're going to be using after the fall I'll address the lottery term um
038that we've been using um and sort of the new understanding about sort of the the perception of the randomness of a lottery and and really in reality we are giving students a very deliberate course in College and Career Readiness we are putting them through the cases of understanding everything about the academies the pathways that the career trajectories salaries available local jobs um you heard a little bit about Youth Science when you focus in management I just want to clarify about Youth Science and what that is so it's a curricular resource and support to support students who are learning about College and Career Readiness it does in fact not replace Naviance I want to be clear about that another maybe a little bit of misunderstanding about Naviance which is another system that we use which is
039geared more towards the College Planning it's really a 612 program and all different Kelly's in the guidance a very important program in our district it's not going away but there are one of the components that I hate um that we're going to be looking at in there is whether or not we're going to activate all the the aptitude components in that because you science does a lot of that but it does it with an industry Focus which is wonderful and so the base the base uh model of you science the base resource is only about three thousand dollars it's a great deal again it's it's a course resource there's another level up of Youth Science it's kind of like the um you know the better version if you will and it helps us to track
040industry credentials and students can actually take a little micro credentialing assessments right in the system itself so we can track those pieces for kids and encourage them to to get even more familiar with with those career clusters in those areas so um it's new to us it's it's widely used in a lot of the academies that we have seen you heard Nashville has used it and other academies that we have visited as well so um we're excited to use it the students will get introduced with me about halfway through that first course on the teachers will be trained we've already got a few teachers that were introduced to it we had experiencing small Pilots with um with Ace and reach and the students there and um quite shocking and interesting to see just unfortunately how
041disconnected students are to careers and education and what's available to them and so this is definitely going to be something that's going to be very informative and and very much needed for our students and I think that they're going to get a lot of out of it so um but back to the survey um we'll get that information too and certainly be you know happy to share that you you can glean um you know where some of the students interests like and it's only around 200 students and we're going to have some conversations about what that data means it's a sort of stuff is there a question or should I just what was the um if you had the industry if you get the industry package on this program you said 3 000 for the
042initiative yeah it's about six thousand yep still very reasonable pay through by Perkins it's a it's a Perkins eligible you're welcome so next on the update is the school survey initial results and I say initial results still fine-tuning the data that I wanted there was some requests about the school survey the results that went out to our families and students so I just want to share some where this funny email that we said I don't know we need to send it to send it to the email that was requested that's how it was requested yeah so in the in the survey there were what we did was we disaggregated the data and ooped it by the Strategic plan and so I'll remove the questions of the teaching and learning do the questions on the original
043client given our challenges post pandemic it certainly will chronicled in this space around chronic absenteeism suspensions in our district despite their dysfunctions in our district our biggest concerns uh post pandemic would continue to be school five and some of the areas the vast majority of the questions and school climate and teaching and learning in amongst elementary students and it was over 2400 responses that we had and those responses I've been teaching and learning all in the fours and fives for being the highest score five I'm sorry five being a high score and four pm in second High School where we did not rate as well as we would have liked and I think this speaks to um the work the continued work that my team and I and administrator is a teacher we need to
044engage in across this district is school fighting middle school students and high school students particularly there were five areas where we scored the lowest and I like the showrooms so at this school students talk about the importance of understanding the wrong feelings and it feels as well I feel safe at this school I think most students feel safe at this school I feel like I'm part of a caring community at my school I'm hopeful I'm sorry I am hopeful about my future the last one I hope about my future actually we scored High across the city so for item five and those other areas in regards to safety and how kids feel when they feel connected to their school Community or not are in the lower threes and and that speaks to our ongoing work
045Kelly I'm sorry I'm going to ask you to speak to some of our plans for the next year I know I had discussions with the board about and there was a requests to talk about the code of conduct revisiting the code conduct with all of our families and making sure it was a check off and essential conversations about expectations across the school system so we have indeed talked to the principles about that expectations for next year but we've actually also talked about some people in our work as well that will that will be part of our Focus there for the 23 24 Kelly thank you Mr Boston okay so can you hear me okay [Music] okay better all right um thank you so we had talked about um doing uh better spread out of the
046code of contracts and so making sure one of our goals for next year will be to make sure that system is made we have a day of review of the code of conduct so that all students are aware of expectations it's something that's acknowledged and celebrated across the district and then we also have parents acknowledge and sign off on the quota side option this conversation really was sparked by some of our expulsion conversations and making sure that everyone within our community is explicitly aware of the roles and what needs to happen but that's one small slice based on the survey results that you just heard from Mr Walston we are noticing that kids feeling connected engaged and supported at school is an area that we need to grow on and so we're going to be
047doing a preschool through eighth grade PBIS and that's positive behavioral interventions and supports so it's a research-based model in which we set school-wide expectations as a so each school will identify a team of approximately five to seven staff members that will include Administration Representatives people Services representative classroom teacher representative and other key School Personnel so the principals are working on identifying those individuals within their building and they will engage in that District level training with crack which is one of the Regional Education Service Centers there will be five days of training across next school year on helping schools to rebuild the systems and structures within their school environment so that there's common expectations across everyone across students across families across staff so everything from the way you walk in the hall to the way you
048carry yourself in the cafeteria is or the way you interact with your peers on the playground everything is explicitly taught to our students and I think it's really important to remember post pandemic we have a lot of kids that have lost out on two plus years of kind of the earlier years I've studied foreign this training will then go into the second and third year and it will tear off to be a few less days it'll be three to four days in year two and then three three days of full trade full days of training and you're free for a large districts so we're breaking up our training cohort groups into two groups um so that we can deliver the training without um you know taking too many staff out of out of the building
049across the system and what this training will do is help to work with our schools to build their own structures we're not going to dictate as a district the way in which great plane you know walks through the hallways versus exactly Rock right they're going to have to come up with that as a school Community inclusive apparent input inclusive of student input but we feel it's really really important that we we go back to the foundation and really set those strategies um so every school will identify the team that team will be explicitly trained and then it will be their job admission to train everyone else within their school community staff students um the other part that we'll do along with that is that they focus on our chronic absenteeism you've heard that um you
050know discipline and chronic absenteeism rights have gone up um since the pandemic um and we feel that re-establishing that Baseline will help to um to to remedy some of those and we'll refocus our students uh time and attention on learning which is which is our ultimate goal um so those are a few things that we're doing across the year are training teams for the PBIS industry will be inclusive of similar team members to The Chronic absenteeism so all of this is done in in cohesion and collaboration um and then of course Kevin and the cabinet will also be trained at the district level so we can support and Implement that across the school and then the second thing that we'll be doing um and I think you've heard me talk about a little bit of
051this earlier in the years the aperture system it is a social emotional screener um that is fun funded through the State Department of Education so there is no cost to the school district the state department event puts out some trainings and again there will be a lead team from the school the state PBIS team that will be trained in aperture it is a screening tool that can be used with all students and then if flags are raised on any child that starts having a potential need it could be that they're too introverted they're having difficulty making connections with friends it could be that we're seeing some conduct problems it could be a wide array of things and we're really looking at that from a skills-based perspective not as a deficit what skills does this kid
052need to learn so that they can feel better engage make friendships be connected with staff and so it does a basic screener as a universal for everyone and then students that that have some areas that we need to build and support there is a more thorough assessment that can be completed and it gives it gives us data to track social emotional skills over time for student um so this will be another piece that is used kind of in conjunction these multiple pieces working together to better support the social emotional needs of our students um so that will be rolled out the aperture assessment system will be done three times next year um on our students uh K-8 it is not available at the preschool level just yet but from kindergarten through eighth grade um and
053then we'll do some highlights with the high school because it's a different assessment for high school age students and that will help our teams to look at how we can better put interventions and supports in place for kids is it like a like a like it's allowance it's a teacher rating assessment so yeah so it is uh the teacher that knows the student best so typically at the elementary level it would be the classroom teacher um but let's say if we ask the student data is reviewed let's say we all have our unique perspectives right it is research based so it is a common way to assess behavioral and behaviors of kids um so if you're the classroom teacher and you take it and I look at the results and go that doesn't really fit
054Cara I can also give it to miss Cooper who can read it and then it's a collective reading so we can get multiple staff members which we will probably need to do particularly when there's needs of kids we often see that you know maybe class that's run one way versus a class that's run a little bit differently kids perform differently in those environments and they respond differently but the intentionality of it is to do a screener by a teacher the beauty of it is only takes a couple of minutes like two minutes per kid um and it can and then we can dive deeper if needed and the deeper dive can be inclusive of multiple staff members completing that as a team okay thank you very much the last item on the update is financial
055forecasting really 23 24 school year so just wanted to I know we approve the um the last Financial .org May and I just want to make the board of projecting that we will have four or five hundred thousand dollars perhaps that we can use toward pre-paying some things for the 23-24 school year this is millions of dollars short of what we were hoping that we would have in our possession at this time when we made these projections in the fall of November 2022. at that time the board Might Recall we had a number of agencies throughout this District primarily amongst a paraprofessional group but at that time we still had a lot of teach vacancies as well and we had projected John if you remember the number of what we thought we would have at
056that time at the end of the school year I think probably close to 4 million when you found public insurance and some other questions thank you and so with that and going into our budget season we had our budget was a two-part and we had a 9 million dollar ask Ed with close to 3.7 3.8 million dollars in which we would pre-pay a number of items for 23.24 things like pre-purchasing laptops Chromebooks for the next school year purchasing supplies pre-purchasing and perhaps at a savings of Transportation contract purchasing um copy machines at various schools and doing that this year so that we did not have to pull it out of next year's budget and yes we experienced some safety we've been nowhere close to what we had about in addition some of the claims that
057we had anticipated would increase had actually increased at almost 100 of 1.5 million a week which again eight into some of our anticipated savings at the end of school when we were awarded the nine million dollars this year we're still very grateful for that number I just want to bring the board back to our monies that we had in the piggy bank from Nintendo which were close to 10 million dollars about 9899 when we came back to school full time the board Might Recall we dipped into those savings last year last year's budget I think that was 2.8 earlier than Southwest 2-4 baby thank you and um given our strategy to try to prepay some things out of this budget but a 23 24 school year there was a need now to go back to
058tap those same Reserves that we did not spend during the 1920 school year and school was closed for March until during the 2021 school year when we were home for the first half and in school part-time in the second half and uh just to also remind the board and I know this is not something that would share a lot probably to reach the nine million dollar budget the city actually dipped 2.8 million to our Reserves to come up with the Night video and we had I believe we talked about this through our finance community meeting set with the city of Danbury informed them of our intention to go back and formally request 3.8 million dollars to pre-purchase as originally had planned for the next school year we just thought of it this leaves us and
059I know we have talked about this kind of at noisy over the last couple years we knew we were essentially using a credit card that would expire really soon unlike most districts in the state of Connecticut we continue to experience enrollment and to continue to experience enrollment growth while other districts around us and throughout the state are experiencing the client evolvement we paid for enrollment with Facebook we paid for staff with expiring money is over these last few years in 1920 when we had 2.5 million in our budget in 2021 when we got 12 million dollars in our budget just reminded for the board it costs five five and a half million just to turn our budget over pay the same people without one additional teacher if it costs five to five and a half
060million dollars just to turn it over if we have growth meaning enrolling growth it means we need more teachers on top of the five five and a half million ages costs just to turn the lights off in the Middle School this year we were able to address some of that growth the five and a half they typically to turn the lights on plus the 13 and a half teachers that we had in the budget plus the budget also paid 22 million dollars of estitude people that we had at us too I'm mentioning this because it's just a reminder again we have 8.5 million dollars of people dedicated to what they granted will be expiring in June 2024 and undoubtedly we'll be faced with some tough decisions this time next year you know well before this
061image reps with that said right so it's it's not all blooming we a couple of weeks ago Governor Milan it was an announcement about his budget and that 150 million dollars will be made available to school districts across the state of Connecticut as you might imagine so it's actually here at the time for a leading uh and in preparation for our finance committee meeting and saw me kind of cheering at the time when I received the email we are still trying to unpack and understand exactly what that means for Danbury in terms of additional lines for for Danbury public schools we typically see in our alliance increase between 1.7 and 2 million dollars annually that essentially gives us allows us to pay for the staff that's in there and gives us a couple hundred thousand
062dollars every year for any additional animations we are expecting a bump for the first year but then as I understand the email it will be a 25 Bond in 24 25. and then in 25-26 there will be a 56 month John and I are still trying to nail down exactly what 25 of what means and 56 of what weeks it's our understanding by 25 26 we would see an additional 8 million dollars but we don't know if that's it eight on top of the typical two that we normally get or that's eight in total so those are some things we're still trying to finalize we didn't speak with some folks with a state finance project and including some of our own lobbyists that's been working hard with us as well so we're still trying to
063nail down exactly what that is but the good news is that there are additional monies and revenues coming into the school district not as fast as we need them but there will be additional monies coming in it won't exactly line up with S3 is expiring but the following year there will be additional monies in the following year after that there will be additional bonus so I if it was important that I shared that good news followed by some of the less good news that we're going to have to address and so that you're going to have to have loopy faces of decision for next year and so I wanted to end on that note not to impress everyone I was excited and I think Mrs will tell you when I received the email and remain
064excited and quite frankly optimistic but we just don't have the clarity that we need right now to plan around uh the 150 million dollars as part of the government's budget so once I had that clarity certainly will not wait for a meeting to show that update but we just don't know at this time of that because what will be left in the future right so we have to get some clearance from our insurance carrier John uh exactly what how much money is happening up here typically there's always monies available for Jim please fill in the gaps yeah um can you hear me okay the uh yeah we met with the town finance director Dan Garrett representative mayor's office to talk about exactly that what what do they need to keep for our self-insurance program that's
065what we're getting a number for but um we we think what the city will want to leave in the reserve is something between four and five million dollars uh they they would like to leave not just what's required a little more than that because it look makes our the city balance sheet look stronger if they're doing a little more than they have to and that's uh looks good to the rating agencies so we're we're looking um you know for guidance from from Dan Garrick and they've been very supportive so far John was there a subsequent meeting to know why I attended uh not yet but we're still uh Yellowstone because it's still too early to mention the possible creative ways creative Revenue that does not becoming does that means no no I I don't think
066so I I would add um you know that um they did ask us uh to go back and look at our utility budgets for next year uh when we established shows back in February remember inflation was high electricity prices for high propane was high not only have they come down a little bit since then but the city purchasing agents chick Volpe has locked in some low prices for the rest of the year that were lower and multi-pledged in force so we've told them well we'll see what we can trim there we're trying to uh you know tell tighten our belts as much as we can so here's what we've done but um we still need some similar assistance that stuff approach and that seems to uh be agreeable to the city of personnel I was
067also referring to uh by the creative program where there will be cameras on school buses if you run if you're driving a vehicle and you run across a new trespass against the school bus while they're dropping off children they've got you and you anticipated revenue for the city of Danbury was possibly over one million dollars a year you know a little a little like little sunshine everywhere out there now in yes it is okay thank you any discussion so Forge your personal report we'll just give uh I'd like to say um thank you to everyone or members and uh just I mean this has been a crazy year I've been on for a little while and I was always my school career but uh you know it's it's time to change things if not more
068difficult and I think um a good team here in here and really work through some of the issues issues you know ran pretty well it was still meetings and discussions but overall I think um you know we all have the best interest of the district and the kids in the district in mind so I have to thank everybody for that effort and um I like a an offer at this time with any report members like comments or anything um Christian Church okay Mr Russo thank you cheers running pastors hours third and pass week I I had the privilege to attend many graduation ceremonies and with the overwhelming support of our board in attendees I attended with three middle schools Danbury High School and I'm saving the best to last I attended John Weber in the
069Ace graduation and boy they were actually 12 students graduating from that program and an excellent job that Mr Weber and his team did I questioned and I saw that before each graduate came up a speech was given by a member of the staff member of the team we had a graduate came up and gave and and spoke my first impression was possibly it was uh a string a stretch on these these kids but that the other side of the coin learning learning to argue a point for both sides thank you very much Joe mcsilver um John Weber and his staff Had Each graduate speak to stress their their expansion for dealing with life beyond school and they did each graduate performed uh and I proud of all our teachers our administrations and staff to support
070them but special kudos for uh Mr Weber and his team including I think there's a Mr Malone at back and there's a science teacher who might want to not want to be named who lives two doors down for me granted she introduced one of the graduates and uh I want to thank you all thank you I just want to thank Mr Wilson and the administration for the health visit we had with the NFL contingency that came up to talk about with their experience growing the program down there and help us grow the program up here I just I really appreciate that opportunity made some good connections we got some good answers to these questions we've had and I really appreciate that effort especially at the end of the very busy year so thank you very
071much thank you speak into my point see Michael can we get a thank you note excited by us to send to them to the National national office I think I will work I would work with Jim uh have you given any thought to voice of evaluation uh the time we need that towards some evaluation done before the election in November and that's a recommendation that's been from the cable office every year how about uh Tuesday June 27th 27th okay okay no but I'm thinking about yeah because I think we it hasn't been done in a couple years right yeah about two years okay so typically when when do you when you do that I remember when we did it years ago was right back in September what yeah so because it said if I was
072you know a new state because the whole entrance is get reaction from the current board members the document that comes with that right and yeah yeah so if you know when we have an election and Kate always recommended that you do it before you're my team you know so you know I mean you've done more more evaluations than anybody here so I think September is probably the best time right okay that kind of evaluation what is it how many meetings you attend how many explosions you do you know smile at them it's basically how well we work together how well we work with the administration um how well we you know um to address issues how well we you know do this area in some you know respect one another how we it's a good
073it's a good thing um you know to do as as a group kind of you know to get everybody's feeling down but it's very subjective of course it's not hardcore so let me there'll be a question like um how do you feel the board chair and is this how do you feel the members uh chairs of committees do that um you know so there's different different questions and and every answer or survey do suggest ions and we review it as important yes one correct correct okay yeah yeah so yeah yeah yeah so we're not going to say Michelle takes too many pictures or Ralph told me about those dogs too much yeah yeah we're not going to say it um [Music] um okay okay so the curriculum committee will be having at least one if
074not a couple meetings over the summer um to get the schedule just so we can continue this because as they said they're here all summer so instead of just hammering us with everything that we need to know um in September we'll have one or two depending what's happening to cash out all right so let's get a motion to enter into executive session okay a second okay