001a meeting called order here at 6 PM our policy meeting I want to thank everybody for joining us today and thanks to uh to Kim and Kelly for putting together a an agenda for us to work on right um so we have uh two different items today and I'm not sure which of you would like to take the lead here we'll start with number one buy lows of the board series 9000 with our policy on suspension of policies special laws or administrative regulations right um so I'll take that one I think it's relatively brief um as all of you will recall at the last meeting um there was an agreement to Pilot a new system where we would have one board meeting a month and one Workshop a month so in order to do that
002um we do have some bylaws and I'm just going to share my screen here um anybody see that whoa okay yes whoa was it too big okay um so this is your bylaw about regular meetings and if you'll see down here at C normally the board shall schedule regular meetings on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month of the year except during July and August um there will be one meeting each month if necessary so rather than amend your bylaws to remove this or to change it since you're running a pilot my recommendation to you is that you alert the board for a two-thirds vote to suspend such part of this paragraph C as to say um and you can you can choose which one I'm not sure it matters um suspended the part
003that says either the fourth Wednesday or the second Wednesday and what you need to do is you simply need to stay in the record at the next board meeting the rationale and the duration so the rationale would be in order to run a pilot to test running a regular meeting and a workshop each month and the duration would be through the end of this school year at which time if you decide to continue on we can move to amend your bylaws formally for the next year or if you decide you don't want to continue with the pilot we'll simply restore back to this language a little bit of a full reality but there it is and I do know um and just uh speaking uh with superintendent Walston and I know the board chair had
004requested that we bring this up for information at the upcoming board meeting and then a vote to take place at the meeting thereafter so that everyone could be aware of it if we put something in writing next meeting and just review it for information and then the following meeting an official vote could happen looking for from you today is sort of consensus amongst yourself to make that recommendation to the board and then at the board meeting I think probably the easiest would be for one of you that's sitting here tonight to make the motion to suspend so much of bylaw um I don't see the number there but that point see right so much of it as refers to the fourth meeting um say or if you want to do the second meeting I don't
005think it matters um to suspend so much of it is the fourth Wednesday um and then when you go to the board meeting having made that motion you will need to State for the purposes of running the pilot to run a workshop for the duration of the end of the school year and then um a two-thirds vote so uh can I just ask real quick if we don't know whether or not uh I'm assuming that um uh the chair would make the decision about whether it be the second or the fourth Wednesday so if we were to make a recommendation you know from this committee out to the board um would we have to get specific with the language right now as we're taking that motion or so the the the technical answer is it
006no you don't need to make that decision now we can clear that up for the motion at the board on the next board meeting um but also I don't know if you picked one or the other and we held it on the other I don't there's often not a remedy for these kind of things it's you know really the point of taking one away so I think why don't you make the recommendation to do to suspend either the second or the fourth you can make that recommendation to the board and then by the time we get to the board meeting we can consult with Ralph and ask him if he has a preference okay all right can I uh does anyone have any questions okay um can I entertain a motion to make that recommendation
007to the board that we uh ask for either the second or the fourth Wednesday I make a motion thank you Terry may I have a second please I'll second that Thank You Bridget all those in favor hi hi motion passes great can I I just want to show one thing to you because I thought this was interesting um and you might find it helpful as we go through the process but this is I think it's hartford's schedule and what I liked about it is it's got the workshops listed and it's got the regular meetings listed and they publish this as their calendar you can see right here where they put a note for the mid-year review and executive session but I just thought it was a really nice way to kind of organize it so
008um we're not the only purple to do this model but um I liked this format we might think about something like that nice yeah I think that's very clear it kind of lays out very directly for everybody which is nice okay thank you okay thanks Kim okay um sorry Kate no you go ahead go ahead Kelly I was gonna jump in for the next one um so the next one is a is a two-parter um these are regulation changes that we're making um so they uh the regulations fall underneath policies um which detail out more specific District procedures um so while the policy committee is not typically one to set regulations and vote on regulations we do want to make you aware of some systematic changes that we'd like to make and then make a
009recommendation to review it with a full board um so the first one and I'll share my screen in a moment but the first one speaks to um the Danbury High School graduation rate fireman so you guys know we spent a lot of time talking about the increases in graduation requirements um to 25 credits and we've also spent time talking about how a student really needs to remain on track by passing all of their classes to remain on track for graduation I mean really has just a very limited window for a slip up or a Miss of credit opportunities um and so one of the things we spent a lot of time talking about is are there additional ways that we can afford uh students credit um for High School courses um and there is one
010regulation change that we would like to make and that would be to make the recommendation um that we are afforded the opportunity to bring credits for courses that are taken at the eighth grade level that are of high school equivalent um so what I mean by that and what we would like to see happen um beginning next school year is for the algebra one and the Spanish one curriculum they are the same at the eighth grade level that they are at the 9th or 10th grade level if you were to take it in high school and if a student is taking that course as an eighth grader that they would receive the credit towards their High School graduation on their transcript the caveat to that and it is in alignment with ours with our current
011regulations is that that while they would while they would gain the one credit for passing that class as an eighth grader it would have no bearing on GPA a or class rank as we do not allow those things to happen outside of outside of Danbury High School so they could you know knock off a graduation requirement towards Spanish for example um and they would show and be reflected on their transcript that they passed that course and they receive Credit in that course but it would have no weight or bearing ultimately on their class rank or GPA because they are not currently a high school student so I'll pause right there um and see and I'm here to answer questions uh Cara is also here to answer some questions but we wanted to open it up
012for some discussion and see if there were questions thoughts feedback on that thank you Kelly any questions yes thank you so are we going to include um as part of that uh the two years of Chinese at the west side middle school because I know the kids who successfully complete year one seventh grade and eighth grade go into year two they're mandated they can't start Chinese one at the high school they have to go right into Chinese too so would that be included as well sure sure so right now um we're looking to have World Language as part of as part of this um but we're also going to have a discussion yes we're also going to have a discussion around sort of the sequencing and ordering in middle school so once um you know
013if the board approves once we are able to change the regulations we're then going to um take a look at the World Language sequencing and patterns because we want to be able to obviously create the opportunity at the other end for students in high school when we increase the World Language graduation requirement up to two credits um you know probably about two years ago when we started to have this conversation around graduation requirements we knew we wanted to revisit the Middle School component because the state granted that that flexibility so um in general World Language which also includes French actually um as well would be included in in this and so once we're able to do this then we're going to take a look at the sequencing in middle school so that um we're offering
014the full equivalent so that students yes in in Chinese in French and in Spanish would be able to to get that World Language accredit at least one under their belt on the way up to the high school the other nice thing that it does is it allows a student um who's really into the language to continue to advance all the way through um upon graduation so while it's great um on the on one end to acquire that credit um it's also nice to be able to accelerate to accelerate a little bit especially if there's a passion in that area so so that is nice and it opens up a little bit of room um if not language it opens up room in the student schedule for um potentially maybe some Academy electives that might that
015they also may be interested um so just because it um it's a World Language um regulation doesn't mean it doesn't open up some other other things on the other end which is which is part of why we're we would like to pursue it because it creates a variety of opportunities for kids and if I could just add we're looking to start with and thank you for asking the clarifying question I use Spanish as that is probably the most common but it would be be any world language course but to start with the math and the World Language and then look and see how it goes and possibly expand as we look to change you know some of our programming and courses there may be another applicable course that comes in the future and we would
016certainly update the board on that as well Teresa thank you very much Terry Kelly just answered my question thank you thank you the algebra one course I'm sorry Teresa go ahead yeah so it's just those two areas right now right right now that's the that's the only thing that we can see on the you know foreseeable in the Horizon right now that we think would match because we wanted to make sure that it's it is the same course taught um and that it you know that there's crossover there so right now our world language courses and just like algebra one would be would fall into that into that bucket so if anything else were to emerge we would certainly Circle back and again we're looking at Middle School sequencing in general around the world language
017because we think that we can offer students a more streamlined approach wonderful thank you are there any other questions um about the update to the regulation related to the credit earning for 8th graders that's slightly off-topic question for me do we have any students at the middle school level who are going into the high school building for classes on occasion we have we've had for example a student um taking geometry and we've usually lined it up to be a first period course um you know it is few and far between but we do have some opportunities there as well so um it's not it's not unprecedented that we have not had a child take a college course as an I'm sorry a high school course correct we have high schoolers that take college courses but
018a high school level course at the middle school level okay thank you um anyone else have any questions any non-committee members have any questions all right so oh go ahead Gladys um got on sort of late but I think it's an excellent idea uh my question is you're going to start 23 24 school year uh with this and um hopefully we can get some type of feedback as to how it's working within the system so I just wanted to make a comment about that okay I think it's a great idea I don't know all the ins and outs about it but you people uh have the degrees and have the knowledge to make sure that this worked for our students thank you thank you Miss Cooper and yes we are um planning to implement it
019for the start of next school year um and we can certainly bring back information to the board on the number of students who took the courses and those that have earned credit at the eighth grade level I think that would be good information for you to have thank you so we're going to make a recommendation that this information be shared with the board is that correct correct Just for information yeah all right yeah can I have a motion then if there are no other questions I'd like to make sure you want a second yes okay so uh moved by Michelle to make a recommendation to the board for review and seconded by Bridget and and then um Kate if I could just go over one other part there was a part two on them sorry
020no no no we needed to make them a separate recommendation so no thank you um a quick quote real quick I'm sorry uh all those in favor please any opposed all right motion to create sorry about that I apologize I did not mean to interject I'm sorry no problem no problem at all so the the second part to it and we're not um we're not ready to make any formal proposal just yet um but along the same lines and looking at what we're doing at both the middle and high school related um to credits course requirements and so forth as we um continue to uh offer increased opportunities for students um one of the one of the I'm sorry one of the regs that we're looking at is our advanced placement courses um and currently
021um if you uh there is a 10-day window for all courses at Danbury High School um that you have to drop a course um so for example if you take an elective course or a math course and you determine within the first 10 days of the semester um that it's not a match or a fit to you you are allowed to change courses to pick another course that might be more applicable um that also applies to our advanced placement classes if after that 10-day window expires you determine that you don't want to take the advanced placement course anymore our current regulation and it's in our core it's linked to our course of study guide at the high school requires you to receive a withdrawal while failing so it's a WF um and so we feel
022that that is an equity issue uh that we would like to look at uh changing again for the fall um uh Cara has started along with a few members of her team on doing some as well as the guidance department on doing some investigations of how do other districts handle this right around the area um our policy has been in place I couldn't give you an exact date but for as long as Kev or I can remember um and so uh we think it's time to relook at it look at it in two parts first is what should be the window that a child is allowed to withdraw out of the class and it does have some implications on scheduling and availability so it can't be a large window but particularly related to the um
023about you know to the advanced placement courses should it be expanded by a week or so possibly so that's one question we have and then the second question is there are some opportunities where a student could very similar to like how colleges do it you could get just a w which indicates that you are passing the class while you decided to withdraw so it could be that you know maybe the third month of school rolls around in your in an advanced placement Cal course and you just decide that the workload is too much and you might decide to go into an honors level or College Prep um that you could withdraw out of that class let's say you had a c it would just be reflected on your transcript as a w not that you
024were failing the course while you withdrew um and so we do think that that's something in addition that we should look into so we're trying to formalize exactly um kind of what we think would meet the needs of all students to make it fair and Equitable so that we still encourage students to take those courses um but we also allow some latitude if a child um sometimes we find they bite off maybe a little bit more than they can chew and if they need to make those changes that there's an accountability because what we don't want to see is over enrollment in the courses where kids just think they can come out at any time and that That Could That Could lead to a loss of credit there may not be other courses available it
025could have a trickle-down effect but also that we're allowing students and encouraging them to take the opportunity with some safeguards in place we do not feel that we should change the policy in the existing school I'm sorry the regulations and the existing school year I use those words interchangeably and I should not hear the regulations in the existing school year because we've been holding those those rules forward since the start of the year but we think it's appropriate time to relook to revamp and put them in place similar to the credit attainment for the beginning of next school year so it's really more of an informational update for this group and we'd like to come back at the next meeting with some more formalized recommendations for the changes to our regulations so I don't know
026care if there was anything additional that you wanted to add no Kelly thank you did a great job explaining all that um that we we definitely feel that you know there are there might be some room um to make our policy just a little bit our regulation actually just a little bit um less harsh um you know if we've had an instance uh you know at recently where we had a student who desperately wanted to withdraw you know from a course um and but had you know in an 80 um and it just seemed that the WF didn't seem quite uh appropriate uh in that in that instance and um you know to act to help our students with college competitiveness and transcript analysis that um you know that could that could actually harm be
027harmful uh to students during the college application process so um we need to balance you know this is why we need to spend some time looking at it and checking out with um of our surrounding um towns are also doing uh with this um there's also on the flip side to this you know a situation sometimes where students um so some of the reasons why the policies are so strict sometimes students will load up in the their senior year nap courses send transcripts out and then peel back on those later and so we have to be very careful that we're you know that we have integrity in our process and that and that we you know that were that were Guided by the by the right principles here so um we would like to do
028some due diligence investigate what surrounding towns are doing schools similar to ours in scale and come back to this group with a recommendation and I don't think there'll be sweeping changes but simply just a little more grace and space for students to make those decisions without it doing um undue harm and Kate if if I could just ask one of the things and I certainly want to answer questions but one of the things that we would like to see come out of this meeting today is an update to the to the board Just for information on that we're having this conversation and currently looking at tweaks to in this particular area thank you appreciate that direction um Terry go ahead I appreciate the heads up uh are really not for changing it right now but
029I would be interested in hearing um what you find out from other schools um concerning this thank you for your efforts absolutely any other questions hi Michelle yeah um so would you be looking into how the Career Academy and how that program is going to be set up because I know we started talking about that and how you know you would change the academy because it would kind of be rolling in almost when we would be getting ready to get into the career academies right so is that going to be considered at this part of the process or right so so um and just to just to reiterate that we're not looking to change it for this year especially because then you have students who the rule would have applied for and then some to
030which it would not and it would be a sticky situation so we want to avoid that but this would be for the for the next school year um and so that would be clear to all students going in with the what the regulations are um and again it's not really it's it's not exactly Academy specific so much as it is um that that the advanced placement courses carry um a very high level of rigor but also High a higher weighted GPA Factor so um it's really making sure that when a student takes those courses so if you if you don't do well in an AP course um and if you're failing that GPA Factor can really really take a do a number on your overall G EPA because it's weighted at a much higher weight
031than say a college prep course and so so so while it's not specifically an academy focused um uh issue it's really more about um you know some some issues that we've been presented with internally that that really haven't sit well with us as a parent as a you know as someone who's counseling students um but then also you know making sure that our students are have competitive college applications but they're also still held accountable for I signed up for this rigorous course course that I'm going to take it so it's really less about the academy more just about making sure that our that our regulations are fair to students and that we provide enough space for them to hold a hold them accountable but also to not um to hurt them in that process so
032this would be just to clarify specific to AP courses AP courses AP courses that we're talking about here correct yes I'm sorry I thought it was not clear yes yeah I do have one other question so in both of the cases that you guys talked about the examples you talked about um where you know a student is maintaining uh you know a c in the class or B in the class um what about a case where the student is not maintaining that level grade so so yeah that would be part of it is one of the things that we're thinking okay is to do just a straight withdraw if you are passing the class and then a withdrawal failure if you are not passing the class so those are things like I said we're looking
033into right now regardless of status of where you're at when you withdraw from the class it's always counted as a withdrawal you're all failing the WF on the transcript are there any other questions about this Terry just be clear you're looking towards the 23-24 year that is correct for any changes okay no changes and I want to be very clear on that no changes we're more than halfway through the school year um so we don't think it would be fair to all students as the rule has been applied to you know many already um so we this would be for the start of next school year so it won't be retroactive that's correct it would go into place for the start of the 23-24 school year so it's weighted well going up but take away
034the weight going down okay any other questions on this any questions from non-committee members okay so I'm looking for a recommendation to include this with information for the next board meeting to let them know that this is uh being worked on they have a motion for that please I'll make that motion Thank You Bridget may I have a second please second thank you Michelle all those in favor aye any opposed all right motion passes thank you everyone thank you very much uh Kelly Kim and Kara appreciate you guys helping us with this conversation tonight um and um as far as the Horizon for our next policy meeting um I don't know if you guys have that together yet um but I just wanted to check and see if there's anything we can we can and
035should expect from you um so Kim if you want to jump in as well um right now we're still working on putting together for our next policy committee um there are a couple additional policies that are still outstanding that we still need to add in per arcade audit um and then as we discussed at the last meeting formerly kind of working our way through uh by Series so we're not quite there for the series yet um but a few outstanding policies um one of them for example being something like our Title IX we also have evaluations and supervision of coaches there's a couple additional policies from that cave audit that we still need to tighten up and then we would be ready to go for a review from A to Z I should say for
036for all of our series well thank you very much there's a lot of um help we need like clerical support that we're having trouble pulling somebody to do it so that's part of the issue too is just getting the mass moved getting there is that something that came offers support with or is this outside of their realm outside it's internal so um we need to look at the Cabe updates and audits along with some of our policies that date back to the 90s and make sure that when we're bringing them all to you that we're not missing any outstanding policy that's been in place you know that hasn't been voted out and so it's taking us quite a bit of time to go through that um and working with some additional clerical support as Kim
037mentioned just to make sure that when we present a series to you we're presenting everything that we have on record you may vote to remove some policies which you have per you know purview to do that are no longer applicable um and some some are still going to need some significant updates so before we go through series by series um we're trying to kind of plug some holes right now um and then do a comprehensive review that makes very good sense and thank you for breaking that down for all of us so we have a good understanding alongside you Terry go ahead uh for clerical help if you need any help um in the I could do evenings so I'm going back to work next week so if you need help I could weekends or
038evenings or early morning thank you that is very sweet to offer we will we will work through with our teams uh but we we appreciate the offer sure thanks Teresa all right does anyone have any other questions I'm going to need help with soon so yeah that's a lot more pleasant um does anyone else have any other questions or comments before we close out the meeting all right seeing none I will look for a motion to adjourn please I moved to sorry Richard Terry beat you to it do you want to second that sure Thank You seconded by Bridget all those in favor hi all right we are adjourned at 6 28 p.m thank you everybody for being here and thank you again Kelly Cara and Kim for helping us leave