001right all right let's call the meetings order at uh 701 thank you pose in arms pledge allegiance [Music] to the Republic for which it stands one nation [Music] foreign ER arms post s right face forward March foreign here Bridget here Julie here Brad Russell absent and Luisa here so recognition is tonight spotlighting School West Side Middle School Academy okay all right hello everyone thank you for having us tonight my name is Michael Flynn I am the on-prem assistant principal at Westside Middle School Academy Mrs blue our principal and leader I wanted to be here tonight but unfortunately due to circumstances Beyond her control she cannot be here but I know she really wanted to be here tonight We Have Allison Tran behind me Maya Johnson E.J Mathis for part of the National Junior Honor Society
002and Mrs Barlow our magnet coach at Westside Middle School to live behind me the two students will be speaking towards the end uh so tonight is our Spotlight on West Side Middle School Academy and the first thing I would like to point out and uh the screen up there is our original School logo the West Side Warrior Crest and mascot which was created by our by our resident artist and art teacher Mr DG of diazepi as we started the year Mrs blue and I focus on a simple model for the staff and students of simple safe and successful so SQ we wanted to keep things straightforward and simple a lot of things have gone on uh during the summer we stress school safety the first few months and wanted everyone to feel successful with their
003hard work this stands for the significant loss of our commute of our school community that experience during the summer along with the fall and from the school's founding principle Mrs blue and I wanted to highlight this model to the change lost and uncertainty many were experiencing with the change going on at West Side um so we it was really critical for us to start the school year in a positive tone and with the help of Mr autop a seventh grade teacher at a school uh we here's a sample of a video that he created uh the first week of school in order to set a positive tone the first week of school year [Music] not spending time with my friends I talk to people about my issues trying to have a good attitude that usually
004just call my friend go to someone that you rely on to talk about how how you feel so they can try to make it make you feel better hey you don't make it bad take a sad day and make it better remember to love into your heart then you can start to make it better so you can catch the entire video on our school website uh Mr Alta took the song from day two to hey you about the differences everyone can make in their own lives and reflecting on the school year ahead of them um Mrs blue and I along with the staff have also set strong academic tone by reviewing data with the staff and taking deeper analytic Dives in order to be aware of student strengths and weaknesses so I'm sure that's kind
005of hard to see up there I'm looking at my glasses but I think you'll get the main point along with taking deeper Dives with this task we included to students and a lot of analyzing their own performances I think you find that a lot of kids are really curious about how they did instead of taking a lot of these assessments tests or whatever and then they moving on not knowing exactly what happened they really do want to know what happened and they do want to be part of the process and what I do like about the i-Ready assessment that you've heard a lot about instead of a pass fail assessment where they get 70 or 80 percent it doesn't really work that way it gives them a point where they start and it's a win
006as long as they show growth so they get attainable successes that they can reach and when you meet with them you can give them those expectations for the next time so we included a lot of the kids and discussions whether it's their counseling advisory classes or wherever we could uh so they can be part of this process and take more ownership over their own education which I think is a big big important thing for kids to be able to do especially and to Middle School onward uh we push for double digit games and we were very happy to see that in January and the end in the January i-Ready test West Side students showed a total growth of 122 percent in reading and 67 uh growth in math so maybe it's hard to see there
007but what you want to see across each grade level is the fall test and you want to see big growth in the January tests and the green increases showing a lot of growth and more importantly those red ones decrease showing less kids being in that category uh Mrs blue and I have also focused on school climate and culture yes we want to keep it simple safe and successful but we want it to have a positive work environment where people simply are comfort that they're comfortable in a good work environment and they get along we focus on recognition collaboration appreciation design and teamwork and uh it's hard to see maybe there but on the top left hand corner you can see a teacher recognizing teacher bulletin board where teachers write remarks spotlighting another colleague uh and
008for the last meeting of the year we had a team building competition where the staff built gingerbread houses and through this event you saw creativity competitiveness but more importantly bonding take place and finally Mrs blue and I wanted to make ourselves accessible this year and approachable so we can listen to all concerns on time and encourage an environment the teachers can teach and students can learn from there you can also see samples of the gingerbread houses that the teachers built and competed with we also have been Relentless with improving student culture as well you will hear Mrs blue along with many staff members constantly referred to Sr squared which it basically means be safe be responsible and I mean be safe be respectful and be responsible the beginning of the year we saw a lot
009of major referrals especially in October and on the top left there it kind of shows the referrals by month and there were 115 in October 52 in November 44 in December going down and there was a little uptick in January to 91 but the main difference was that more of them for minor referrals as opposed to many of the major referrals that did happen in October um we use also West Side Awards let me get a sample of those here kind of like the little reward system used at West Side West Side awards are given for positive behavior right here and positive actions and which is a system where they can cash in five of these Awards and then they receive a coin I don't know where my uh West Side coin is but they
010get a coin and for every four coins they can trade it in for a West Side duck and then they can trade three West Side Dutch and receive some West Side swag so it's a way to get them involved and reward them for their positive behaviors along for every single one of these West Side awards given their names are also entered in a wheel of names and for every entry so they've received six entries in a month their names are put in six times in that month and uh we all get together and during advisory classes which at West Side they're kind of like counseling classes or SEL classes social emotional learning classes uh we all watch the will spin and six winners are chosen one for every grade and Academy and they can win
011small gift cards for Panera Dunkin Donuts Amazon and more and the kids get very excited at that time um and we also use restorative justice with involving a lot of the kids in peer mediations where they hear problems and try to come to resolutions after hearing both arguments of all parties involved yeah this one right here I think I went ahead and there's a sign of the be respectful be be safe be respectful be responsible and on the top right you see the referrals on the bottom uh excuse me left you see the West Side awards given in each grade so we've kind of strive for a five to one ratio five awards for every referral and when I mentioned uh that poster or that trade-in this is listed all over the school and it
012kind of gives you an idea of what kids trade in for their five tickets to Four Points to three ducks and then they can receive their swag at the end so you'll see these posted throughout the school uh as far as clubs activities and special events at West Side that we have musical theater and this year we're going to be doing a performance of The Lion King so I'm very excited they've been practicing I've been hearing the singing in the background from my office so I can't wait to see that also it says blue would kill me if I didn't mention these three-time award-winning literary and art magazines from West Side Warriors Middle School Magazine it says two years ago so I can pass this on so you guys can take a glance they kind
013of cover short stories poems and artworks from this uh from the kids and Mrs blue meets with the kids on Mondays and they have this award-winning Middle School Magazine which is a big pride and joy for her we have a yearbook like many of the other schools and girls who code and you can see them right there in the median center after one of their meetings uh we have the student council the National Junior Honor Society peer mediators and the exploration competitions and those are some samples of the competitions we've had we have days where they compete judges come in parents come in they look at the exhibits kids give presentations uh their judge under presentations and their project the hypothesis are either trying to prove or the history events that they're discussing about and
014they're not your common events um but finally uh I have two several Junior Honor Society students I have Allison Tran with us here today so she can come up or because she's going to speak a couple words about West Side along with the Maya Johnson and EJ Mathis so I'll give him the microphone right now hello we are um three of the officers at our school's National Junior Honor Society I'm the president Allison Alex Tran um to my left is Maya Johnson who is the vice president and to my right is EJ Mathis who is the secretary and so we were asked you today to talk about some things that we love about our school and I think that three of us um would definitely agree that it is about the community for various reasons
015personally I really love and admire the amount of diversity that is in our community as well as the strong bonds that I have formed and maintained during my time at last time um for me all my life and faced racial discrimination of any kind and I was especially worried about returning to middle school after Covenant hit because um I'm sure you guys know such a situations but at West Side I've been there for two years one year being deducted for covid and I've never really faced any major racial um concerns and I'm also a peer mediator at our school and I've only been called down once for a situation and so it wasn't really a safe place where we didn't have to worry about any problems that could go on with our day with loving
016staff who are very kind and appealing to our academic strengths and needs and our friends who are there for us to support us emotionally and academically and I feel it's been one of the greatest times in my life where I've been able to grow movies [Applause] so as you can see those are three exceptional students that we probably could expect big things in the future to come they impress every day and they're part of the leadership at west side and I'm very proud of them finally Mrs blue really wanted to celebrate cultures at West Side this year and she used a grant that allowed us to have five different cultural nights those are the tickets sent out for invitations for the parents her along with Mrs Cabrera are apparently liaison and a strong force in
017making these nights happen invited many of our parent population to the West Side to celebrate cultures it allowed many parents to come to the school who had never been we received many parents who mentioned how welcome they felt in our community and school and thus hopefully encourage many of them to be active participants in their children's school life because they are truly welcomed and neighboring so I'll finish up with a sample of these nights inviting you to have a glimpse of our cultural celebrations where we had Teachers Community leaders and some state representatives attended tonight is the spotlight on the west side but really a spotlight on Danbury schools since we all meet plan and strive for the same goals across the district here's a glimpse of that same district goal seen through West Side
018Middle School's eyes [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so thank you for having us tonight and like many of the uh values from Danbury public schools the community cultures and one Community strong thank you for having us tonight [Applause] Mr Flynn when there's an event like that and I see some food over there send send invites to the board as well absolutely middle school and successful one of the only thing is representing your school in his district very well and really appreciate you coming out tonight and I really have a lot of proud parents in the audience so thank you for coming out and joining the journey thank you thank you very much so next is uh public participation the four welcomes mode participation and asset
019speakers please limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer objective comments our school operations and programs that concern that the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints with inflammatory comments about the Board of Education personnel and students nor has any person connected with the Danbury school system first person for our soon solar saw sorry good evening first of all I'd like to start by saying that I am terrible public speaker I hate being in front of people so I apologize in advance if I get emotional skip around a little bit um it's a little bit ironic that I'm following that I did not know that was happening this evening but I'm here to express some concerns that I have and that I just wanted to share with all of you um my
020son is a student at West Side let's go a sixth grader um and we've been having a lot of issues I've got a lot of meetings with the school Personnel Mr Flynn and I spoke many times um I have copied you in many of the emails uh Mr Watson um and so my son's complaint is that he has not been being challenged hi um I understand the my background is in education I know a lot of teachers in the Danbury public school system personally from multiple schools in the district um so in diving into some of his issues I've noticed they're pretty much district-wide the students that are being reached right now that the focus is on is the students that are not performing where they need to be performing unfortunately we've worked very hard
021with my son to get him where he is and he wants to learn he's eager to learn and it sounds as though and I've been many meetings with the school that all that is going on in the classroom is a lot of i-Ready and my path in Computer Learning Khan Academy videos and very little teacher LED or teacher driven lessons um he is doing very well academically but that's not engaging him he's not the child that comes home and sits on the computer and is engaged that way at home playing games he likes he does it in short sense not for entire class periods not for a six hour school day or whatever it is um I was told that he spent the first three months of school relearning the fifth grade curriculum in math
022I was told by his math teacher and Rachel Saunders that that is because only 13 kids were ready for the sixth grade level to begin that he tested above it but what about those 13 kids for three months they had to sit there and do fifth grade work and he would come home with packets with a hundred problems saying you know I mean if you know 25 you know 100. um you know 30 seconds left I'm sorry all right so why are we creating positions we're setting our teachers up for failure all right we're creating all these Chief positions all these six figure salary administrative positions why do we put some paraprofessionals in every classroom to help the teachers you're giving teachers 25 students at 25 different levels to teach how can they do that
023you're setting them up for failure you have college educated professionals teach your principals have advanced degrees and you need babysitters for them I think that's something that you guys need to discuss and look into you know there's a way to do this you know I have my kids I have an older son also who had an IEP you and I have met and spoke on many occasions because his needs aren't being met when my younger son was in third grade for three months they went without an SLP and I was fortunate that my son was able to verbalize that to me and to tell me but no the school didn't notify anyone my son made up his sessions because I advocated for him but what about those kids who aren't being advocated for you have
024a lot of children being left behind and Danbury not just below kids the High kids every child deserves an education and every child should be challenged and engaged sitting in a classroom on a computer without dialogue debate conversation discussion that's where kids learn most seeing that there's different ways to solve problems to have a discussion back and forth those are the skills that are going to get them far and left not sitting on a computer thank you that's that's your time thanks up is um Aguero Butler all right good evening everybody my son um Kate Butler he's a student at Danbury High School so I just wanted to come here because I have some concerns um my concern is my son's safety at the University High School there's um a lot going on it's a
025lot of kids I don't I feel like there's not enough staff in protection in the game you can't so you know just a little back story is that my son has been targeted and bullied since we got here six years ago from New York he's never had a problem business education in New York he was loved we got here and as soon as we got here there was a problem um he's he's getting suspended for fight for fighting or taking up for herself when he's hit he hits back and that's what we taught him to do we used to protect himself at all costs he has a Divine he had to move right to protect himself so he's being suspended when he fights back so my concern is his future I've met with a probation
026office sir in Bridgeport Connecticut I asked for a mediation through and I have not heard back from their office I've left two messages so I assume he's overall um and in Danbury High School like I my son of course we taught he gives me insight into what's going on there day to day and it's a lot going on here day to day like kids are bringing 100 bottles of History to school kids are vaping in the bathrooms there's fights almost daily and then my poor son is being targeted he's not a bad kid he has had great grades throughout his history he had great grades starting out this year until he got suspended for taking up for himself so I'll keep it short that's my concern thank you can I just add one real quick
02722 minutes sure I just want to kick back on what my wife was saying sir of safety in school well you say just say your name put it into the record my name is William so my wife want to express herself about the concerns of safety you have over over 3 700 kids at that High School and it's not enough staff to secure all these students in the school so what can we do what are we going to do are we really concerned about our kids getting their education or them getting in trouble and ended up getting sent to uh Juvenile Court that's not helping the kids down the pipeline that's not showing the kids how to do things and hinder themselves and conduct themselves a lot better so we need a a strategy a
028class or something that could teach these kids on how to behave yourself because it's not they don't just come from home it takes a village to raise a child you know so at the end of the day is the the amount of stabbing on the standard there's not a lot of people that want to apply for jobs these days if it didn't change but the safety of our kids these parents putting the kids to school each and every day and the parents will feel comfortable having their kids in the school system without worrying about them getting shot stabbed or killed or worrying about drugs somebody's selling them drugs or seeing alcohol bottles in the back I was a custodian with the Danbury school I said it myself I've seen kids and I smelled the cigarettes
029and the marijuana in the school so I'm bringing it to your attention today and I'm hoping that you guys could um really look into that and handle that situation as soon as possible thank you very much for yourself thank you all right is anyone else in the audience that did not sign up that wants to say something effects just before we get into the consent calendar I wanted to do one quick housekeeping note of two things one um can we make sure everybody speaks into the mic when we're communicating we've heard some feedback from the YouTube streaming and some other places that people aren't hearing um what we're saying and also are you saying speaking from the mic please and also um in with the respect to everyone here at the at the table when
030just don't shout out if you have a question let's just wait until we're called on and please don't talk over another member now I'm guilty of I'll make a disclaimer I'm guilty of having done that before many times that sometimes as you know I don't think what I'm going to say it comes right out but I I apologize but if we can do that and also let's we could try to keep the side conversations to just a little a little housekeeping tip okay so you can set calendar or can you make a motion that the Board of Education approved the items on the content calendar exhibits 23-26 through 23-29 as recommended attention by Lauren second by Bridget is there any discussion um [Music] and intersections so educational Representatives [Music] that was part of the first
031you have to read yeah yeah okay so uh student Representatives anyone here from from DHS posted um hi I'm Jennifer Souza I am a treasurer of the board at hi I'm Daniel alone I am the vice president and today we're going to be speaking about what has been going on for the month of January and February at Taylor high school so in January 25th we started the second semester we've also started using link that which is a digital Hall Pass system and it's broken so that students don't have to carry passes through the bathroom and have a digital who describe to Seattle Washington school or if they're trying to get them on the blocks um Key Club is selling creations with Valentine's Day and all the funds practice to be going to Heart Attack um
032February funplexes have been designed by DHS prepared leadership students and mostly our Valentine's Day related themes such as teachers meetings teacher work group was redone and is now completed with the course for change project Grant and wallet repainted a new Financial response our winter sports are now moving into our Championship season with our girls cheerleading team actually building their scx we also had a very successful Memorial where we raised money for cancer research we also are continuing to push seniors include their FAFSA with a few years ago waiting for their college decisions coming out we have a daughter that happened at the month with everyone's working with their pasta and they can do an airplane Pros our principal practice this month is going to be digital our Cap City projects this semester happens which has
033been encouraging students to be more engaged with their Community with one project um of having a drive for your governance hygiene products and they've been able to donate that applicants shelters and rehearsal is underway for our new school play which is Once Upon a mattress [Music] that our club fair is coming up in March was when we invite all the incoming freshmen for next year and we have all of our clubs set up in the cafeteria and we have them talk about the different ways that we can do the DHS community we also have the Strategic primary Cafe which is our real pageant that we haven't done in a while which is being hosted by energy NHS and the fundraised money for platform constructive certificate but the only thing that's been going on so far
034thank you so much thank you thank you anyone here from Ace yes [Music] foreign [Music] because it was true you're working on a collaborative project censoring around employment movement and reduce those children spread the board so the broader than the cereal by the struggle for civil rights in America and we'll come and be your question will says Daniella Esposito's creative writing children's literature flies as a lot of Liberty with this Constance is a very great class at Mossberg uh just collaborations to provide a clear creators with their reading buddy students to be with them an opportunities [Music] and recognize the employment role they can have as a mentor last semester in my local news stories which I refrigerated and coming to our meeting in January to help it students foreign [Music] projects [Music] are welcome
035the nine English students we began on January 26th as well as the sisters who are visiting the answer you and the next week on the other side for two organized after school program for students investors they addressed in cosmetology Collision Repair culinary arts age of manufacturing the society students participating in the program by myself included every Monday and Wednesday three to five after school this opportunity last but not least the best parents made of this world is from Monday February 13th from five to seven it's an opportunity for new families coming into the tour of the building on this new students and also become the new procedures [Music] what which trade are you participating in bring it it was awesome thank you for allowing me to share what's been going on Facebook with his family
036and yes be strong thank you thank you Ezekiel did I just ask the question the date for the uh parents tonight [Music] okay hey kids could you solve the fact that yeah I just want to say thank you for coming out representative Ace it's not easy uh sitting in front of people that you don't know it's going to get better and better and I just want to say thank you don't be afraid we're here to support you okay when is it gonna get easier what's it going to get easier I'm still having trouble okay so action items Richard can you read uh action item a policy five one one eight two point one only students motion that the Board of Education except your second reading is adoption policy 5118 foreign discussion all those in favor
037aye opposed motion Terrace can you read me [Music] 5144-14 physical exercise and assessment of students move that a board of education except the second reading and Adoption of positive 5144.4 physical exercise and this amendment a student that's recommended by the policy so many in accordance with 23-31 Continental any discussion all those in favor May opposed and the interceptions motion campus Luisa can you read sick that the Board of Education except for second reading and adoption policy 5144 right two use of exclusionary timeout as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 23-32 said motion made by Teresa second mattress Cooper any discussion all those in favor um [Music] superintendents 2023-24 fiscal year budget motion that the board of education has got the superintendent's 2023-24 fiscal year budget and the amount of 150 million dollars
038as presented for submission to the mayor as required by City Charter in accordance with 23-33 second one mostly made by Teresa seconded by Miss Cooper any discussion I know Kate medicine okay yep thank you Mr Karen um I just wanted to say that I support this budget I think the the finance committee voted to support his budget um if it was up to me I think we would ask for more money I my sense is that we are doing what we think is a reasonable ask from the city we are finding ways to save the district money when I analyze the dollars that we take in for our total budget across 35 of all of these Services have been provided for students how come from grant money and that's pretty amazing concerning we do not
039have a dedicated grant writer so I'm just uh hope that we will all support this budget both here and with the council members who will eventually be voted toward in on this and Advocate with the mayor who also will be putting forward our budget and uh just encourage everybody to to support and control and again I would support and even higher budget than this thanks so much okay any other discussion so just a quick comment I I certainly uh support uh superintendent budget uh that's our role as a board members whether it be lack of this lacking we should we should our leader win between a budget to us opposite on this award 31 huge and I have never known about one incident where we had half report that was not support the superintendent budget
040and I think it tells something about us as individuals because it's not about the superintendo whoever it's about what we need to make sure that the children need to make sure that our district is ranked and what we ask for most of the time is just minimum to get back each year each year this year and I surely uh agree with okay if we could get more we will ask for more what we can ask for more but we we know what the reality is and I have that support her comments all the way thank you any other discussion okay all those in front of the national energy [Music] roll call I didn't hear everybody the first time around so we can roll call you know Teresa yes Michelle yes Kate yes Gladys yes Lauren
041yes Bridget yes Julie yes Ralph yes Louisa yes any opposed any obstacles all right so no presentation superintendence report yes sir so a couple of items on the secretino report I'm going to ask Dr casimero to speak to the school calendar first it's closed calendar available for adoption at our next meeting but I've asked Dr Kessler to try to speak to some of the highlights in the calendar first and Dr B can you go to the accident that I'm going to give my update list thank you um so compared to I've sort of review a couple of maybe comparisons from last year to this year I've been to maybe highlight some of the changes so you'll see that in this current our current calendar we had four professional development days up front and starting to
042be professional development of days up front in this particular calendar with feedback that we've received from principals and staff we've added we've went with two professional development days in August to start the year and then move that Thursday into into May so that we have another full day before the year wraps up to work with our to work with our staff so we did get some feedback on that so you'll see that it's a little bit of a change from what we normally do when we start the school year in addition to that you'll note that the this year's current calendar has six early dismissal days the current version of 2324 that you've seen part of you has one additional early this way in there so there is one additional day it's from a particular
043no we'll take a look at the April the placement of the April vacation this particular school year that we're in now April vacation included Good Friday and um and and float into the second week of April and the calendar that you have in front of you we have a publication placed in the third week and that was based on sort of a regional analysis of what other districts were also doing um other than that it's a fairly standard calendar at the end with the exception of the additional early dismissal day and the positioning of our larger professional development days the reason why the traditional yeah so we're heading into we actually had more at one point and went back to a more convinced model because we did add we didn't stack some of our professional
044learning in the front of the school year but we're heading into in the reading program implementation that we're going to be heading into there's rollouts of Assessments that are still kind of ongoing staff needs in time for collaboration we've got ahead and focus on on data this year in particular we've been working on that but more so now than ever our teachers need to understand diagnostically how to plan for their students instructionally and what them having conversations around on our curriculum for sure we've increased it's really only by one extra day but certainly is needed in many different departments and groups that are kind of vying for some time to work in those different content areas oh my school uh did we have input from the teachers unit and saying uh and looking at the
045cabinet yes we did this group okay teachers and they were in favor yes yes it was impressive thank you are there any other questions on the calendar the goal is to have two years of calendars out we used to do that on a regular basis and cobit we got away from producing for producing two years I think it's all for families um so if if the board is comfortable with this calendar the way that it is and once this gets approved or should it get approved we'll produce another calendar for for a further year out that looks similar so we can get that moving a little bit more quickly get back on cycle thank you so the next item superintendo's goal update goal five meaningful collaboration share some quick updates relative to the strategy plan
046and we are ready for you I thank you everyone for tonight this is a really exciting night so Grace Molina is my assistant director and she's actually minor chain okay the class that we just started tonight with our Spanish cat group so as she is sitting in the back we're just making sure the class is going okay and everyone is totally online so you can forward in here so as our typical setup for all of our PowerPoints is our vision and our mission we just want to remind you of that in our equity and diversity policy our six priorities you see that the work that we do work is underneath the meaningful collaboration part of the Strategic plan so let's jump right into it I know that we've had a long night and so we
047want to we want to talk about this quickly so we have certain things that are ongoing for our families so we have 18 full time school-based Liaisons that are creating that bridge between families and school they're also undergoing PD on our normal half day Tuesdays that care just referenced and we are working towards the nasty family engagement core competencies that is the National Standard here in the United States so I'm always willing to share that piece of work with you and the work that our Liaisons are doing but great successes that we're seeing in the schools we saw a great demonstration of it tonight with the different nights that west side has had they talked about the family is on there she's done a great job really promoting that and supporting the school and all
048the families there to be part of that as well as a community other things that are Liaisons do in schools is reach out for services for families and we have some that are doing actually home visits with families too for voting grant that Mrs trucius is running next one is Our Family University programs and so all of our parent training is under a family University concept and so you can go to our website at any point and look at all the different workshops that's going on we aim for at least a workshop every other week if not every week coming up next Monday night will be storytelling and advocacy go hand in hand this is part of a series that we've been offering to help educate our parents about how to advocate for the budget
049and so they will be very happy families will be in the community that the budget has passed and it's ready to go on to the mayor's office because they too have input into the budget certainly the budget addresses some of the needs that they felt that they needed ongoing services that we do on a daily basis or a weekly basis is the Connecticut Food Truck comes to elsewhere school and that Services several of our schools and our families and community members as well as the Stop and Shop program that we now have four pantries that are set up in our schools for family to receive Food and we are just about ready to sign a contract with a group that is going to provide weekend backpacks for those other schools so more on that once
050that's set in stoked we continue to work with the ritual VNA Health through a private grant that they've received to service our families who do not have insurance to be able to get physicals quickly to get their students in our schools and so anywhere there on a monthly basis we see 10 to 15 families to get the students in school and then we do a vaccination catch up to not be the idea overall our resources and referrals and that's just families that come looking for services we're about just over a thousand families that have come to the center since the beginning part of the school year and so because we're a trusted place for trusted entity in Danbury the word of mouth spreads very quickly go see what they used to call me missing and
051now they call me something different but go see Miss Anna she has the resources that you need and families come out and look for food they look for medical insurance and things like that so um they reach out for you know preschool all kinds of stuff and then probably our big highlight that we do um every month or morning and afternoon session is our coffee with Kevin we've reached over 250 families with that since we started that a year ago and we're going live um now we're going to get away from zoom and so it will be held on a Saturday morning the 20th and 25th of this month at the center so please feel free to come out for coffee with Kevin it's going to be so nice to have the families actually there
052in person all right accomplishments that we've had we're really really proud of these um I know that you were all um invited and thank you for those folks that came last Friday night we graduated 55. families and our people through our Tech program are people empowering people that was a classic English Spanish and in Portuguese each one of those were families that graduated or people who graduated will work in teams now I'm your community project and so I was going to ask Grace to just say a couple words about our community projects need the time limit because I could talk yeah okay no um it's amazing that our our class is given an opportunity to choose a topic that's important to have something they're passionate about and we narrow those down to five different topics
053and so we have a group that is working to feed the Homeless and Danbury from this community we have another group who would like to partner with the school lunch Department here to learn more about nutrition and educate families on proper nutrition for their children we have another group that would like to provide service or activities for families on those school closures and how um so seeing that need and wanting to think of that we also have another group who would like to run a series of workshops on financial literacy for families in all languages from basic financial planning to homeowning to credit monitoring which is really great so and we have so many others as they begin to meet and have alumni meetings in the next few months other ideas and projects they'd like
054to bring but those are the ones we're going to in the next few months thank you so in addition to the folks that are on the screen right now taking the Spanish pep class we have 21 adults some husband and wife's enrolled in our parents supporting educational Excellency right now so we're really excited about that class as well back in December many of you attended our family University and thank you to the board for having a table there I think it was a great feedback table for you to be able to dialogue with our families and to get feedback from our families so they had their second Saturday this past Saturday they came back to the center we targeted right this for this first time we targeted our families who took the math Workshop so
055what we're looking at and what we're working towards is a very different model of working with our families and finding what's going to work best with our families to up their engagement with their students to increase their score so we've worked with Melissa Nadu who has been wonderful to work with and so I just want to read a couple comments that families gave when they came back on Saturday morning and then I'll give you some of the good data these sessions make me feel welcome to ask more questions when talking to my son's teacher awesome behavioral change for a family that they feel comfortable speaking with their teachers I realize now how I can understand my what my child is learning with the report and graphs I'm worried my daughter wouldn't impress but I'm seeing
056them in the report she is next one we see math all the time now around us we name shapes in there count the size he made a square into two triangles the other day without me showing him and then lastly I learned many strategies that I use at home all the time I started to use a ruler to measure and compare things around the house I see my younger son getting involved and he's able to answer those questions and so that type of behavior changes exactly what we want to see so the families receive the I ready report in December that also received a new eye grading report when they came back this past Saturday and so time wise what parents have locked in and to show us is they went from two minutes a
057week on their child's homework to at least 13 minutes a week supporting and working actively with their children and math I know that doesn't seem like a block but when families start off with zero amount of time working with their students an extra 13 minutes is huge okay we're going to build and increase that things that we've seen other behavioral changes and count objects with my child pray before they actually were at the workshop they took a survey we saw 46 post 77 that's a 31 chance uh change that families now are showing other things that we saw ask about number order with my child what number comes before 9 15 increase I compare numbers with my child 15 I add and subtract with my child to 15 and lastly I name ships with my
058child such as the street sign is a tribe so that that for us is a small data pool it's small numbers but it's showing that families want to change their uh engagement with their students and so we're going to look at how we can expand this model with them enough on that that source of accomplishment parent square is one of our biggest accomplishments and parent square is the new uh bi-directional communication they replaced our robocalls I'm sure you're all getting them because every every one of our board members are on the list as well as our cabinet members if you want to get it shut off just call Grace she can help you with that but we really feel that it's something that's really really happening to date and the these stats are from June
05924th of last year we've sent out 23 000 32 direct messages to our families smart alerts 443 and we've had Parents use the interface to book calendar events fill out forms share photos secure documents that go off their families volunteer requests for families say I'll come in and volunteer take polls and permission forms we have um 5609 parent interactions with their students and so part of what we found with parent Square was that once a child's in a class the teacher sets up a class and the parent can interface with that teacher and that's where that 5609 figure comes from a parent interacting from their with their teachers so that for that across that's huge lastly for accomplishments our new promise program at Grace's tape and the lead on we've reached over 900 families and
060that now is part of the registration process when you come to Danbury schools it used to be optional now they register online they bring their paperwork in if their child needs to be ESL tested they do the testing and they go right over to our new person called Our Community Connector and she signs them up for their class we found such value in the programs and the feedback that we received from all the parents that we thought we just absolutely had to make that program in the mandatory program last thing up there you'll see that we have about 55 parents right now enrolled in our birthday play groups both at Cottage Street and at work Street throughout Family Resource everywhere and so lastly coming up we have coffee with Kevin um our parent one will
061be on the 25th as we said before we're expanding that to include dates for teachers paraprofessionals our secretaries custodial kitchen nurse and other staff in our schools uh Mr Walston feels that it's super important that we have that dialogue and create that create that space for that open dialogue uh pep is already going next Monday night we have that workshop on storytellings and that will be both virtual and in person at the black box we are supporting the work of Dr casimiro and her team with the academies and helping get that word out for Community informational meetings we have a new family University uh Family University coming up on March 25th and unlike our first one that was just our pre-k through um second grade this one will be pre-k through our senior year at
062high school and then lastly we have our preschool and summer Community Fair on March 6 at Rogers Park and the March 25th is also so that's it our office is busy all the time it's great to see the families come in share their concerns look for resources um things like that and we're really happy with your way and thank you for all of your support um here at the community Endeavors that we take on thank you thank you very much and I I want to thank you for the graduation ceremony that we had last week it was an amazing event my board chair was able to go with a great evening it's I mean it was like we had so many people here like people opening up to school then 87. so I just want
063to thank you for um all the organization and complaining that it's tough to pull that off so I just want to thank you both thank you I like the second that uh you guys did a great great job um you know just just I say this every time the passion that ain't got to show and it was people born like jet like extremely happy going through it and you just see you know the the connections so we really happy to be there thank you thank you and last but not least for superintendent updates first I would like to just kind of rewind the reward I don't know if everyone is aware doing is it around this time two years ago March 2020 the district was planning a trip with that time Dr Sal at that
064time made a mark trip to Nashville for a study of the national the academies in Nashville part of the opportunity and part of the rationale for the visit at that time was to visit in see the schools see the district and be in a room with other districts and Civic leaders talk about some of the benefits of a collaborative partnership with folks in the business community and really just kind of see the merits of this program unfortunately that did not happen it was actually scheduled just before the pandemic and they ended up canceling the trip you've heard Dr casimiro and Kelly shoes actually report out on a trip to Nebraska I believe it was two months ago and they had a wonderful visit there but this visit it was a new visit now in March
065March 6th through the 8th it's if you can we will actually prepare or provide a website link for the board in our community to also see foreign booked like there's a wait list because there are districts around the entire country who are trying to get to Nashville to learn about the academies so we are registered through the work of this office uh currently I'll be ready we are currently scheduled to go from Monday to 6 March 6 to the 8th the mayor has agreed to join us mayor Esposito councilman Perkins has agreed to also attend and there is another person for the mayor's office who is planning to attend Dr casimiro Brent Dean and I will also be in attendance and again it's planned for district and Civic leaders other districts like ours will also
066The Independents were anticipating they will be led by an organization that works with the academies at Nashville and kind of walk us through again the Arts of the program so we're hoping introducing the model to the mayor and someone from the council that this will really help to excite them about the prospects of moving forward with this plan and really looking forward to coming back and Reporting out to the board and providing even more updates about not only what it means academically but then civically in the from the business perspective what this potentially would mean so with that it's from the sixth to the eighth I learned about two weeks ago that the agenda called for us to stay until 2 30 which means we cannot get a flight any earlier than 2 30 because
067we have to be at for the degree minutes of 2 30. much to my surprise that's Wednesday and so I was planning to leave Wednesday morning and be back for the board meeting this is my long way of requesting if we can move the board meetings to March 9th we did take the Liberty to also reach out to Kate to see if that board Workshop can be provided on on March 9th as well and Nick is also available that day so I just want to one share that we have this exciting opportunity to join the mayor's office and someone from the council in Nashville for those three days it's a action-packed agenda I mean they from 6 30 in the morning until seven eight o'clock at night I mean we're like in meetings and workshops
068and visits all day and then even the last day they're keeping us for the improvements at 2 30 in the afternoon and then most of us I think everyone is leaving I think I found like a six o'clock fight coming back home but then the second part is a request which I know it's uncharacteristic just so you know um there is a city council meeting that Tuesday the mayor is going to miss they already moving accounts meetings that Thursday of that there just so you know that they will make house payments instead of 10. um so the so the mayor and the other council person can't be there so just thought I'd also share that information question how big is how big is Nebraska and National disease I don't remember okay so Nebraska and Nashville
069is very lucky it's very similar yeah so we went to we went to Nebraska yeah it mirrored sort of what we have here and one of the reasons we still went to the school in terms of diversity yes and National is very diverse as well I think Teresa's question was about the size the terms of student population yeah 3 500 approximately and they had two campuses that were operated very similarly to our plans where you're part of one Comprehensive High School with two locations and they were in the hospital building a third location as well [Music] in Nashville how big is the school system uh it's a very large school system there's many many high schools and they're all very large down there as well um they're different they're all a little bit different and
070I can certainly share this study study visit link um on the Academy national Hub site for you and you can explore all the different schools that are down there they're very very large it's National National Library it's bigger than any District we have to say because it's pretty large we're often mean in Russian that's what I was going to ask can we get a motion to change this meeting um no no we do all the group but I don't think anymore okay is everybody okay with changing it to a Thursday November probably uh March 19th yeah we'll post it as a special movie it's not one of the regularly scheduled all right everybody good okay great nothing else okay I'm sorry I was just like to say um to um our superintendent and care and
071I know she did our Lord package and she put us all the information on the package I I like the idea of the superintendent grows what place and we all can determen our minds and and our mission statement because we sort of got away from that at one point not even having Clinic so looking at it on your front pages and then when we get to the superintendent evaluation when we sort of know what we're looking at you know what those goals are you might have to go back and forth trying to understand them a little bit and and certainly think that everything Carol does and my last year um I was listening to the news and if I don't have this right smile equipment there's a 15 million dollar security Grant after listening to
072what's going on and things and in our schools there's a 15 million dollar uh uh Grant that's coming to Connecticut and uh all schools came through 12 countifying and I think the deadline for the application is March 31st as for a K-12 schools as for our children centers and preschool so I'm not sure the superintendo knows anything about that Grant I received an email Monday or Tuesday about you know History channel has come to the state of the net thank you Lord for sharing that yes so interestingly enough I think I received about three or four messages that the minute it was made available um Dr Siegler and Rich Torres director of security are on it to make sure that we have a submission in time for you to meet that March 31st for sure
073thank you so much thank you okay so a board chairperson's report I have a couple of things um first public participation I know we don't return any questions or engage with the person participating uh I'd like to get when someone comes in front of the board as public participation you know Express concerns obviously we get concerned I'd like a follow-up I know you guys follow up but once they come in front of us I'd like to know what happens after that and I think the board would be interested in seeing what you know you have two concerned parents obviously upset uh you know whether he's saying they reached out to the school stuff like that I'm not concerned about that I'm concerned about what happens from here so I like to get out of I
074saw you ran out there camera and stuff like that so I'd like to get an update just I know you guys are on it but we need to know that you guys are on it so if you can just give us a report I mean I know there are some safety concerns um so that might be in Mike's Department Rich starred as the part of the week we like to get an update on some stuff that that when they bring more just um what's what's uh what comes up that's okay okay along with that I'd like to know what happened to that field trip Eis field trip uh came to us was a couple months ago thank you sorry is that nature center I'm not making natural stops from a parent came in from area
075that they we couldn't they couldn't do it but they thought um I think you did explain that at one of the meetings yeah they just didn't have any teacher participation uh to do it so they can't do it yes so there's no other alternative to getting them there is no other options yeah the the school look for Alternatives or alternative trips and experiences for students the Nature's Classroom the way the school and public schools have experienced in the past no there's not another way to do what we've done in the past at the school along with the principal along with the staff now imagine soon parents as well work together to try to find other Alternatives in terms of alternative experiences because the Nature's Classroom which means our staff has to stay overnight and provide
076that supervision and that is not an option so next I just want to I know I was not here I don't think so I just want to thank everyone the finance committee and everyone Sue Wilson and John everybody who participated in that that process I know it's not a fun thing and I think you guys really went into a deep uh deeper than before uh years past that that I want to thank everybody for for doing that um he also thought and tasks so we appreciate the work you guys do mind you know that so my last thing is workshops so we had a workshop today um and I think so it was an hour workshop with the 59 minute presentation so it's a little difficult to get questions in and really drill down on
077some of the concerns and I think that's what the workshop I'd like to see the workshop model like we did with the Finance Workshop and stuff where we can really get into um you know the deeper questions and have some time because you get a presentation and um in a board meeting and it's 15 it's 20 minutes and we're all interested in time we're doing 10 different other things sometimes it's full of information that he can understand on purpose but who knows so I asked Kevin to talk to Kevin and maybe some different options some workshops to really answer some of the questions that we have so he's going to look into it I don't know subset that might be a king question down the line if we substitute something for something else and really
078spend the time on an issue because I know people especially with the Academy I mean I had some other questions and I think some other people have some other questions and we just couldn't get all the information that wants out believe me I'm not looking to have more meetings that's really not what we're looking at doing really here so I'm trying to get a happy medium in between you know if you know if everyone's receptive to it I think I think we we that extra information instead of just a presentation we'll see you next time I'm having a hard time with that sure so I proposed to Ralph recently on the island given this conversation closer up recently the idea of adding one board meeting per month and then one Workshop the board meeting would
079require action and we would keep it so it's action only evening second meeting could be a workshop where we could engage in discussion our presentations would be in that evening maybe more than 60 minutes but it would also be now our award meeting is go very fast you know unless we have a lot of people as part of public publication my work in districts where this has been effective doesn't mean it's perfect it has been effective most more importantly it allows for opportunities throughout just gave an example allows for opportunities for the board to dig in Ebro on questions and provide for an opportunity for open dialogue no different than we had last night in the finance meeting or previous meetings in committee meetings so just wanted to share that we have had the conversation
080about you know are we required to have two board meetings a month I'm confident that to know and ask him I think we're just required to have one per month and for those of you one District most recently that I was interested in water various years ago but it's a very effective model for them I don't want to look at their tapes at any time is actually it functions very well but the workshop piece it allows us to do what we do and that is make sure we have the open dialogue and get to the bottom of some of the very questions that is also probably very beneficial for our families it might be coming to watch and be a part that's it I just want to say that that's a very thoughtful approach and
081very interested in trying the new model very well to all of us and we're really facilitate about communication between more and more interesting so thank you both for you yeah we're floating it out now just to supply but I want to bring it out to everybody it's just you know to be out there with you we don't like it can we go back twice a month Boe meeting I mean it's not going to be set or start right format otherwise so on the other side of the board table with the lights are on during the school day we're known for having pilots in this District and so we're going to be we would welcome the idea of having a pilot and make the grass of the remaining of this year the board is interested and
082if it goes well so we can be brief at the end of the school year if it goes well we can continue next year it does it we brought back to our old ways all right so to be continued and that's all I really have on board chair versus report any report committee committees or you know communication or sort of anything PTO meetings um Cara sent out today the information on the asapc I grew up a couple board members asked about it she sent it out earlier in the year but she just kind of resent it out today just making sure everybody got that and then the other Cara and I are working on a new date for curriculum we are holding off of the 16th care is just waiting for confirmation from AEP with
083the presenters or the people that will be answering questions from us and we'll get back to everyone of the day so it is not going to be next Thursday but we'll get back to you with that information and then Michelle and I are continuing to do other school visits do you want to talk about it this time uh yes it's been great we were just over at uh King Street by Mary so we've actually hit I think about six or seven schools by now um everybody seems to be really excited with the I ready program and the principals they've shown us a lot of their achievement already their scene which is great they're excited about it a lot of them won't be my path Mary but it's really good that we've been able to be
084able to discuss these sites and maintenance and some certain areas that might need to be addressed that just become it's just becoming were familiar and he you know again the connections that we're making this great and just each school has their own identity and it's just great to see how they make it work which whatever you know special circumstance that they might be addressing at that school so it's really just going to be a pleasure I think it's wonderful you're doing this um so I think it's wonderful that you're going to the schools I think reporting back is fantastic I'm just uh I'm interested in what the protocol is to say Terry and I would like to visit these uh this year I don't want to overwhelm the schools with the amount of time that
085they spend more of that members so is there a protocol for how to do this so that we can also visit some schools command or Supply but not move well in the schools right so my suggestion would be more than two people at a time don't do it try to go you know pair up or one person but when you call Cara or email Karen to set up the appointment with with the school to go so you know you just don't show them because so they have the time and and the attention so you schedule everything through Canada make the appointments to the school you know through the school and um you know you just go from there follow-up question for you so if I were to email Karen's I'm interested in the other school
086is it okay to send it out to the rest of the board to see if I would like to accompany me and how many people can they take a time I know that there's some concerns about having too many of us if that becomes a meeting but what is what is including about your voice I wouldn't know more than two people oh Mr Williams we've had some experience with it together um how does the district feel about the board members going you know together to the schools I mean I don't want to be disruptive to what their job and what they're doing so I want to be respectful to them and you know when is the best time of the year to visit when is when is better for them if we wanted to short
087answer is it doesn't matter no I mean it's no I mean yeah that's a great question um I love Kara wants to answer but or Kevin wants to answer but it's so I I do think it's important to just just go back to something that Bridget said about overwhelming in principles um in the report out maybe his Cara can keep track for us like how many what schools have been visited and so Dan can see Michelle and Lauren been seeing four more board members and visit different parts of the school it may not matter um but if three different board member groups are going to see I think they would love to have you sure but he could also be overwhelmed to Bridges point about you know I just this is my third tour with
088board members in the last couple months so maybe I can just say Sarah Peter to sing a tally for us in the meantime so that we're not overwhelming the whole subscribing one school in particular just make sure that we're spread out and I'm assuming we're not good every single school and every board member is going to see every single school so maybe I could just ask therapy to just kind of say these in schools that have been visited these ones that still have not been and then I could just help spread myself without you'll eventually get to all of them I think it's overwhelming for more than two people to go I think the protocol has been you want to attend a school and it did happen one time two individuals they decided they were
089going to go to the school and they have an alarm that particular day and foreign if you want to go to the school call and set up the appointment with Carol and let her have the conversation with your principal and get back to you and give that you know beautiful because it did happen and they didn't know that the two board members were against it so you know we have to just can't look at I'm going to get in my car and go today I don't see anything wrong with it I just don't think that to go there unexpected this other thing and you don't want to be in a conversation um and I don't want to be there but you don't want to get into a conversation about you know what you're doing as
090a Boardman what the leadership is doing what the teacher knew is doing if there's a new problem that you're interested in that particular school I don't see anything wrong on this so you can understand that program more so when it comes to the board you can say okay now I know what they're talking about foreign I just want to say every school that Michelle and I have gone into the principal has said thank you for coming um you know the exception of coven well because of code they haven't seen board members and they have encouraged us to reach out to the rest of you for you to come into their schools and yes it's time out of their day yes it's an interruption but they are encouraging board members to come to their schools we
091like Michelle said we've been to six or seven schools and they every single principal has said tell them to come visit me yeah or just come whenever you want right around just come so right so welcome the fact that we are engaged there but go through camera and you know it's Kevin's Kevin's call and everything but they want us there so don't not try to visit if you want to reach out and I mean Michelle and I are going on Mondays and Thursdays that's our that's our deal that's what we do um but they want us in their schools they want us they want to show off their schools they want us to see classrooms and their teachers and the teacher space is light up when you walk in their classrooms and it's it's they
092want us there yeah just oh my go on camera and setting up the right setting up the game anything else from anyone oh sorry that's okay that's not how it is so every month that we come in here's new car the driver wants attention to how fantastic our students our program is within the different public schools and the fantastic amazing works that shut up on a monthly basis here it's overwhelming the amount of talent that our students have and I just want to say thank you to all the schools that are participatory and bringing this these beautiful Works to work to Boardman follow us towards and I would love to know who and which school right so if we could get a script up that maybe we can you know the talent that's it was
093just amazing you know anything else it's Teresa I just want to point out uh a couple months ago we gathered down and two steps and did the mosaics now we filled it in those are up on the building in case uh folks haven't seen them I was expecting a little bit more blacks and I don't know if there's going to be more blacks but I recognize the one I did so I just wanted to point that out that they're up on that building on White Street corner of the laundromat there across from ice cream and intersection of White Street and I wasn't going to believe so and you want to stop me stop I'll never stop because I'm a little concerned that we as a group attend William at some point we don't sort of
094support one another as a group and I was I I don't want to say this because I was never heard when we offer of care person that just left to represent a district between union and we presented her with flowers and no one let me know and I know I had a conversation with you that it was done at the last minute but the phone calls that I got after that that people were watching of what was going on why is it that everybody inside the door wasn't even actually not interested all I could say is that I was not asked to donate and we're about to donate it why we didn't take pictures without going to jail person [Music] whatever it is and I felt a little not comfortable because I was not a
095part of the communication even though it was last minute I would have still gave my money to help basketball and I just want to say just sitting here doing I just felt like we as a group was not working as a group and sharing things together I haven't been on this board because I'm a Democrat I think people have supported me for 31 years and if I lived to see November it'll be 32 years because I tried my best to do the right things not all of it has been right to support children and I believe all children can move I believe we have a great educational system here being there and we have young people older teachers and everyone's trying to work together to make sure that our students are A1 students when you
096vote for me vote for me because and I hope that someone that we can stop that it's not about the Democrats reporting that the Republican or republican Captain Bills so them can do what we have to do we should be working for all the educational goals about us and I'm just saying I truly respect the riches uh you know it was an accident a chair person and now she didn't want to go so when we do something like that we have to improve on and I think because I was really upset because I did not want anyone to feel that I did not hear that we go any bracelet that I wasn't asked so yeah I woke we had our conversation about it so I'm not going to comment on it what we talked about
097but a lot of people so if anybody else wants to make a comment I just want to point out I didn't know of it as well until I saw the flowers and I also offered to uh to pay my share and Route very graciously accepted the responsibility that's all I'm going to say because I didn't know as well thank you I will say um Ralph defense add me to no reason I mean to my understanding it came from the bottom of his heart to do it personally like a personal it was it was on behalf of the board the cards said the Board of Education next time uh when I'm when I leave please don't give me any flowers because any problems yeah I'm saying not my intention to upset anyone just I didn't send
098out a bulletin and I was going to that after half of the boards to give Rachel some club and I did offer if we can remember if we want to go back to the videotape I did offer anyone to make any comments to Rachel that's all I'm going to say and uh if that's all the comments on the flowers I like emotions sorry all right thank you so much thanks so much um I I just wanted I had a couple questions kind of two part of the first was I noticed that we're getting Communications directly across the mayor's office and I just wanted to understand the protocol there because in these past years we've typically receive Communications through our reporting secretary um from any outside obviously I I don't know what continually goes through camera
099I don't know what you can talk what we're talking about yeah we got yeah I got to communication from uh you know I appreciate getting that information again it's just for me it's a I want to make sure that this is being handled appropriately so um I just want to try and understand what the question Paul is maybe that's a kid question um you've always pushed all information through the reporting secretary so anything that gets distributed has always gone through her any conversations usually have to walk through youth as the chair would you say it okay you're saying there was an email directly from someone to the whole board yeah I think the monthly updates on uh [Music] yeah yeah but that's okay right okay is it just I I haven't seen it so I
100don't know what you're talking about I can show you oh it's are you talking about the calendar of events for the city council yeah oh yeah yeah I've seen that but some someone can can email the whole sure I mean all your emails are all public you know and sometimes you do get any numbers yes there isn't you know there isn't really a way to stop that it's just directly from okay I just I just love learning because obviously it's a it's like an organization um the other question I have seems about sort of what the procedure is for uh support participation in larger [Music] than that it's amazing things distributed into the community um I did see a press release that came out from the city which included in Board of Education like this
101and it was on something that um I don't recall we've been receiving any kind of communication about um and I just was uh trying to get a sense of like how that would work if there are you know mechanisms in place for us to communicate directly with the marriage office from the city council or the zoning commission or whoever um when something like that is happening that I I was surprised by it I did not know that was going on nobody contacted me about it or had any kind of conversation um so I was just surprised to see it okay so is the question what um what mode of informational you know that access that people have directly to the reward or I mean I guess if it's if it's related to more than stuff
102I would just assume that all uh the members of the Board of Education would be pretty too uh the information and I certainly didn't see anything before I saw that question do you know what Chris released it was yeah uh it was put out by the city and it was about a coalition of scope frontal City we were making a requested governor's office oh well that means Casino oh yeah that's the letter to get more money foreign [Music] call is here for for situations where um you know foreign [Music] identity exists there and people are not you know acting as individuals but rather as representatives of this group that we would all be privy to the information and conversation in advance of you know some kind of release like that happening we we've had that
103before and I think the rule has always been you know part of what you have to do on your own is parse through whether you're representing your own personal belief on something or if you remember speaking on behalf of the board you really can't or shouldn't individually speak on behalf of the board without going through the board chair I mean that's always been that's just a way to control kind of 11 different voices um and and but that's always been with the divided and I mean I think when you I don't know exactly what the content was but if it's something that's particularly controversial or or discussion worthy or engage in the whole Community I think what I have seen board chairs do in the past is just generally admonish that please you know make
104sure that you are clear that you are representing your own personal opinion about something as opposed to speaking up right it's like when a member goes to a city council meeting and brings up something um as a person but they happen to be on the board or a community event where someone gives information who might be attending their Community event um it is their personal opinion they do not speak uh on behalf of the full board so I think what that that's a clarification I think what Kate's talking about was was individuals part of a group some happen to be on the board some happen to be City officials some happen to me other other people um that were included in espresso really so lovely and thank you for putting that up and I think
105that's always a disclaimer when you know two board members go visit a school and they go here it's they're not they're they're there as Board of Education representatives and any conversations they have and it should be safe and taken in the context of that individual reward of what matters is so um yeah we only have three months and there's 14 years I just want to make sure that it is clear that every single government over here has that independent voice is that clear I mean regardless of what political party is right if I drink perfect thank you as long as it's like I said I just can't spray it up is that we are speaking from your own personal opinion but you happen to be on the board so any Board of communications that come
106as a board would come to the chair but obviously if you go to the graduation on Friday night and you're having a conversation it's it's just I think the clarification to Kim's point is that you know to make sure people know it's it's uh as the individual might happen to be a board member of therapy yeah and people can always have that comma board member at the end of your name with anything that you said even if you're very clear that you're an individual right I guess the reason I'm asking this question I apologize I know I'm not cutting it wrong the reason I'm asking this question is because um I did I did make the mistake when I uh was first on the board of speaking in front of the city council about the
107budget and I identified myself as a board of education member and did not explicitly say I am speaking as an individual and I was appropriately admonished for that because as Kim stated you know you have to you you have to offer that disclaimer so my question is on the press release where board members are identified by their Title First and their name and this is going out as a formal release from the city I'm trying to understand the Nuance of how we're having this conversation here and how that applies to something like that which just happened because if I if I'm you know advocating for the budget in front of city council as a board of education member I would feel that that is you know somewhat under the purview of my responsibility in the
108Board of Education member it is our job to advocate for the schools and advocate for the money and the resources available for our schools but it clearly was not appropriate and that you know so I'm just trying to understand the Nuance here and how this situation might be you know different from what I'm what my experience was previously so but not not to cut you off for the interests of time since we do that executive session I think if if Kim if Kate can reach out to you directly and try to find out um you know if you could answer any of her questions and then just uh you know let me know so if there's anything I have to let the whole board know that will be great is that okay Ken I want
109to cut you off when we have to get into executive session no I understand but that's okay with man I just want to make sure everybody's informed so who you know find out you know that there's some some information that needs to be coming to everybody I assume the camera really did that to you and people share with everybody so that's fine with me absolutely all right thank you Keith thank you can I get a motion to exit thank you probably session always okay second is Julie all in favor um so I have no motion to go into executive sessions