001Dr Mead and Dr Sealy joining us this evening thank you so much for for being here I appreciate it um so I will turn this over to Dr Mead I think is going to start with a discussion about uh a family resource table at the December 10th event okay good evening early in the morning we are having our first of this year's Family University we've held this in previous years in our schools this year is a little bit different previous years we've always targeted all of our families but uh based on the needs of our students we wanted to really Target our preschool through grade two families um to come to this and so we're working with our curriculum coordinators our math and our literacy Specialists to develop workshops for the parents to um take
002to learn how they can best support their students learning at home while the students are in another section of the building with animal Embassy a puppet show a magic show arts and crafts all kinds of things like that part of the family University um day and we're done by one o'clock so it's you know fairly early come in at eight have breakfast with your family separate go to the first keynote Workshop that will be Kevin this year talking about a little bit about his goals in the budget then they'll break off and go into their different workshops is uh we have about a half an hour uh mid-morning where we're asking some of our Community Partners to come in and share resources with our family and I would like to invite the Board of Education
003to have a table to continue to meet the public and for the public to have opportunities to meet the board members and so that's my invite tonight I will get a formal letter out um to our chairperson um and then you know whoever would like to be there we welcome you all um to come for the entire morning if you'd like but on that one half an hour it's it's about a half an hour to 45 minutes um that will have open vendors um and resource tables there for our families so Dr me can you just uh remind me what time that is that half hour 45 minutes um it's between probably 10 10 15 and 11 o'clock okay so we'll say 10 to 11. yeah yeah absolutely absolutely thank you yeah and thank you
004for that invitation um just wondering from the folks who are on the call here is that a date that works for you to participate you don't mind yep so it's December 10th from uh 10 to 11 A.M yes I'm good so I'm gonna put it down that one's good excellent good and where did we say this was this is going to be at Rogers Park Middle School so put us down that sounds good great beautiful and the event around that will go till what time um we we open up probably about quarter of eight and we're done by one okay yeah so it's a full morning okay yeah it is a full morning parents will get to choose two out of the four choices on workshops um so there's a social emotional literacy Math and
005Science awesome Yep is there coffee there's Breakfast with coffee yes absolutely absolutely yeah it's really important for us to start off the morning with a family is all eating together and then the kids go off and do their activities while the families um spend time with our curriculum folks and um and each Workshop will be done in English Spanish and Portuguese and they'll leave with bags of goodies to take home and um work with their children at their house magnetic letters with a cookie sheet because many of our refrigerators now don't hold magnets anymore so we'll Supply a cookie sheet for them they'll leave with books they'll leave with other math manipulatives and other writing materials as well yeah that's awesome it's good it sounds like a great event yeah um I think you have
006agenda item number two as well Dr Mead and that was um discussion about the learning engagement opportunities around the upcoming budget [Music] back a couple weeks ago bang was able to provide you the 23 budget calendar and along with looking at the dates on that and speaking with cabinet Dr selig and of course our superintendent um we decided that we would go ahead and work with Erica Haynes who is from the state um it's a private organization or it's actually a non-profit organization the school and state finance project they have the most up-to-date information about the funding streams how funding works and they've taken a step further where they've really worked with what do families need to know to be active and really effective change agents around budgets in schools and so Erica and her
007folks will be coming down for a couple of different um events that we'll be having we do start off you know Kevin has already started to talk about budget I know in the board meeting the finance committee last night there was even a question and I think the timeline has been reviewed as well but um and then I know that Kevin was at Citywide PTO on uh Monday night and so that will be the first um what do families want from um the budget what are they what's important to them for their students to make sure that we include in the budget and that will start with uh Citywide PTO meaning we'll then go to the next week where we'll have kind of a dual purpose um Community listening Forum from the families that will
008invite everyone in the district it'll be via Zoom I think we may try to do it in person but I think via Zoom might be best um where we'll again ask that questions you know where do parents want to see money be spent in our schools and so we'll elicit that response from families also at that point Erica will be there and she will do a half an hour presentation for our families on exactly what is read my notes here because she's given me some good stuff to talk about um talking um about um what you really care about out loud telling your story telling your family's story about what's really important to you and then the state funding streams and so she'll give us kind of a budget 101 quickly and then really you
009know getting families to think about how do you tell your story um because this year's approach is going to be a little bit different with our budget we're really looking at a student-centered approach for how we design the budget and so it's going to be really really important for families to hear that and be able to articulate their needs for their students um and then uh you know the rest of December is kind of lost to the holidays and so we we know families are super super busy at that that point so we'll pick up again in January with more workshops uh keys to successful advocacy and more on telling your story and so I'm just outlining these dates now and confirming them with her but it will have different opportunities it'll be you know
010listening because we're in the December and early January we'll still be working on that putting that budget together and then um we really want to um get families or or have families have the tools that they need to be able to advocate for the budget be able to feel very comfortable about talking um at city council which will be very important about sharing this information with their neighbors and other elected officials and things like that so the more empowerment we can do the more families will be able to really be effective during this next year so that's a little bit about what's going on with that so are there any questions or thoughts or other opportunities yeah just quickly say those dates for the the first one which is what do the parents want and
011then the community do you have dates or are we yeah yeah so they um the very first day is actually at a Citywide PTO meeting on December 5th okay and then we go right back to the next week to December 12th or the following week and that will be the community Forum the listening Forum of what families want and that's where Erica will do that half an hour workshop for families about the estate and local funding streams and how to talk about what you're doing and then we'll move into more dates into into January and where are they being held we're not sure if they're going to be in person right now or Zoom we have found that we've had really good results with these Zoom meetings um I was really excited to say that
012in your board meeting last week you had 68 families watching and so that that's huge that's you know a larger number than we've seen um you know when we talk about you know arranging child care and the family's driving time to get there and rushing from work we're really finding that Zoom has become very very effective with getting our parents out and spending time so we may make this virtual or we may do a combination of both I know I won't be in town on the fifth I'll be out of it so people are aware um but yeah let me know what the 12th is at the time thank you yeah and can I just clarify Dr V that um Eric is going to be speaking at that Citywide PTO meeting is that right um
013no that city-wide PTO more meeting I I don't think she's coming down for that I believe that's Kevin and his um John Spang or Eddie Miranda actually doing that presentation okay I'll check on that but yeah I don't I don't have her down for coming down to um for that but she might okay yeah thank you I will check any other questions all right we are moving right along here um the last conversation we're have on the agenda here is ongoing Outreach forums to promote the Danbury Career Academy I think Dr selig this is yours yeah and this is more just to kind of open up to the group and I know you had some thoughts on it Kate you and I talked a little bit about some ideas that we had um so we'd
014originally thought about using one of the um parent University events on in November um to do this but the more we thought about it and talked through it it just it just really felt shoehorned in there um and like we were sort of forcing it into a place that didn't belong with the you know granted it would have been a sort of you know ready you know made audience but it just it just didn't feel right so we pulled back on that and we wanted to again just kind of come back to think about different forms and and you know you know Avenues to to introduce Brent Dean to the community whether it's parents or you know business folks or Chamber of Commerce people the education Community we just want to make sure he's you
015know people know his face and who he is and you know what he does and you know his his piece in the you know in establishing Partnerships with the Career Academy is just too important we just want to make sure he's not you know um you know flying under the radar so we really wanted to think a little bit more broadly with the whole group about different places we can you know kind of present him out and maybe do some you know panel mod or you know moderated panels or q and A's or um even just places he could get up and you know maybe talk for 10 minutes about about you know what we're trying to accomplish and um you know open up some some you know some networks for for him to to
016explore you know new training opportunities curriculum what have you so I'll leave it there and if anybody you know has any anything to start you know throw out there please please jump in Julie hi Julie hi I'm sorry that I'm late um but based on the same surgery that you were talking I would say the uh City centers has quite a few um activities during the month of um December and those are good for the found those are going to be um surrounded by family in general terms so you should reach out to uh Lazaro I believe he can help you out with that great and if I get to know anything else maybe I I I'll let you guys know okay I'll reach out to you offline for a few more details perfect thank
017you is there any way we can um we could speak to Brent to find out what Avenues he might be trying to develop and maybe we have you know what I mean maybe a personal connection to somebody in that industry or you know like I'm really sure I've seen him a lot but I've never really gotten down to the roots of what is it you're looking like which boxes are you looking to try to check so maybe if he could like jump on or just to speak with us to know like you know what I'm saying like who we might know to get those Avenues started because I really have no idea what he's looking for or or really what the need is that he wants to fill right away I don't know just a
018suggestion yeah some of that will dovetail right with um the curriculum work that Dr kazimero is doing is that right oh yeah definitely yeah it'll all it'll all ultimately funnel into the curriculum piece so it might be a good idea to have uh both of them are for that conversation because I I think you know Brent will certainly appreciate any help we can lend him um I just want to make sure also that we're we're talking about the idea of you know how to expand Community knowledge about what the Career Academy is because I think you know Brent is certainly an integral part of that and we want to do everything we can to assist you know the the work he's going to be doing connecting um business and industry to our schools but we
019also I think have some work to do as far as helping just keep the Community Danbury understand what it is that we're trying to do with when we say wall-to-wall academies what that means and what that looks like mm-hmm so I guess in in that way like Dr selig um we talked he talked we talked a little bit about um some kind of forum which I think is still um a good idea what do you guys think about that um but it's a great idea that we do need to kind of if we want to help push them along you're absolutely right curriculum and this relation community relations need to both be on that same page so I I think it's a great idea because we all know a lot of people we might be
020able to you know yeah start you know what I mean engaging in those conversations I know I'm not really sure what direction we're going in as far as that you know like what I need to how I can help yeah so I mean just a standalone event you know just a Tuesday night at uh you know one of the schools and we just get the word out okay is that something we'd want to we want what we want to try to do that before the holidays or maybe wait till January February yes that was going to be my question if we're trying to push uh how I mean if we're trying to push activities by the end of this year or up at the beginning of next one because everybody should be pretty much stuff
021in between the holidays and all this so we don't have much time between days and weeks I might suggest that we wait for this until January I think that's just a better time we can start to Market it at the beginning of December and then again through newsletters uh Kevin's newsletter or um chats with Kevin and just different things that we mail out and send out to our parents I know that in Kevin's uh letter that went out last week yes last week um there was more about the Career Academy in there I have a second page on that that I will go ahead and combine those two together and then work with Cara and Brent to do a really good one pager on what is the Career Academy and then we can build off
022of that and I know that Cara um and Brent will will be returning their their way right now at a conference but they'll be coming back with even more ideas on how to present this out to the public and then we'll work with them to make sure we get it out in all the different languages and that might be a opportune um night to have in person at you know one of the middle schools or at the high school right I rather concur with Anne I think between now until after the students come back from the Christmas holidays parents minds are elsewhere they have enough to think about and we this way that might be a little Lull in the activity file and we can engage them and hold their attention a little bit longer
023it also gives us some time to formulate the The Forum a little bit but you know more cohesively um I do think also it would be helpful to you know to your point earlier Dr Mead it would be great for us to do both an in-person forum and if that you know is successful then also doing perhaps a forum on Zoom um you know to give better access especially if we're looking at winter time and there's weather and they're not interested in them being out so great so I'm looking ahead at the calendar we have January 18th slated as our next committee meeting so for that one maybe we asked Dr casimiro and Brent to join us to talk through it and then we aim to do something within the week or two following I'm
024sorry say that again Mr Dr selig we have January 18th slated as our next committee meeting so we invite Dr casimiro and Brent to that meeting we can talk through some of just you know General issues but also to Michelle's point you know if there's any friction points that they're finding or you know places they're trying to get access to um and then we can have the you know the first of these in the in the couple weeks right after that sounds great okay they're ready you know Mike's on the board over there so I think you know as long as we kind of know or even if we put it on parent Square because you know there's a lot of parents that have a lot of these connections as well so somehow trying to
025incorporate that with what what you were saying about what is the Career Academy then how can you help you know how can you know because basically this is Grassroots right so maybe that's a great way to try to engage them as well you know or maybe you have like a team like this week we're going to be working on this Academy you know who do we know I don't know how we break it up but yeah yeah it's another tool yeah that'd be a fun way to use parent Square too just kind of like an alcohol you know anybody have friends that are you know dentists yeah all right okay good yeah any other questions or thoughts Lauren Rachel anything I think I'm good okay all right good as well thank you well this is
026a very quick meeting but I really appreciate everybody making a little bit of time and we'll let you go early could I just get a motion to adjourn please okay second okay all those in favor bye all right thank you so much everyone