11/10/21 Danbury Board of Education Meeting

001right thank you you may be seated okay will you do the wrong call please certainly justin britton he's absent rachel chaleski yeah kate canetta here gladys cooper here lauren daley here joe da silva here catherine here rich janelli here kathy molinaro she's out absent al russo here amy spelino here thank you kate would you go ahead and follow the script for public participation and see do we have any comments that needs to be added to the agenda the board welcomes public participation and asks that comments be limited to three minutes the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about board of education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the danbury public school system

002danbury residents are also invited to send brief comments and questions via email in advance to dps underscore public comment underscore boe at danbury.k12.ct.us thank you i understand we have no comments tonight uh no no news and i think do we have any comments would you read the comments please thank you this email is from jeremy brown i hope all as well i'm reaching out as a devoted parent to two girls who currently attend hendrick elementary school i grew up in new york and was used to science being a huge part of learning as it contributes to reading and mathematics i'm reaching out because i have i feel having a science fair and more science than that's where kids in elementary school is important science fair clears provider students the opportunity to apply scientific practices i

003would increase the skills of presentation and increase the interest of the subject students having the ability to showcase themselves is highly important to find it highly unfortunate that it's not made important what kind of message is being sent to kids that are not allowing them to have this kids go to music band and orchestra and then prepare for a winter concert but about the kids who love science and want to showcase that and then the science fair is brought back into your time thank you so we have do we have anyone in the uh orders that would like to dress the board at this time now move on uh to our action item uh kate can you make a board for the consent captain i'll make a motion at the board of education approve the

004items on the consent calendar exhibits through 21-116-21-1 as recommended second second of motion made by kate segment by joseph silver and then the questions concerning the excellent yes just um just a couple errors on the policy um committee minutes just um the date november 13th is wrong it was november 3rd and um these are written by kate right to just a little bit more sorry these are these were written by kate and not kathy the signature on the bottom and the date is wrong at the top okay okay we'll have that correction there that correction should be put in the next uh meeting package okay okay any other corrections saying none kate will you do the roll call rachel celeski aye gladys cooper yes lauren daley aye joe da silva all right catherine hodgston hi

005rich janelli epstein al russo aye amy spolino motion self-care thank you um we're gonna move on down the agenda do we have anyone from our education staff to come before the board tonight seeing none we have our beautiful young students all sitting at the table we're so happy that you're here with us today okay you want to start off [Applause] [Music] building will be hosting our annual meetings [Music] the event is made possible by collaboration with local businesses and the support of the danvers public school the event will be held outside yeah they will never be on the side and ace would like to publicly thank ups for providing us with attempt to hold our event we would also like to thank rob manilow for coordinating efforts at the city culinary program chef mario and

006psych culinary students and principal president ace would also like to publicly thank students for providing all the services for the event ace would also like to thank sue from cooper's sports cafe for providing the hot boxes for the events we will provide the option of getting meals and to go over recently participated in a local election voting project students researched the platform on both their candidates and created posters that line the halls at ace in an effort to encourage students to become informed voters and involve themselves in the community statements of support from students were sent to each candidate congratulations to both candidates for a well-run in guidance classes this week students participated in activities to design how to get designed and recognize the sac space and contributions of our veterans activities range from researching

007branches of the military viewing inspirational videos and exploring organization periods to support [Applause] ace would like to publicly recognize delany for being voted the recipient of the october ace of hearts award to the caring nature to students and staff alike ace would also like to publicly recognize larissa medeiros as the recipient of the october aces phase award winner from the strong academic drive and pursuit for graduation lastly we would like to recognize our october students of the month for their academic performance as well as their ability to constantly demonstrate the ace behavioral expectations congrats to the october winners jayla batista and tyler sharer thank you for allowing us to share what's going on with our ace family down on 26th lucas avenue stay safe everyone and remain a strong okay so my name is tana

008gown this is eric parker i'm the vice president of the bmc and he's president um so greg and i partook in organizing spirit week which was october 25th i believe in 29th um the turnout was relatively well and there was good participation this year and we also had a senior sunday that same week on thursday so basically what we do is senior sunrise um we get there at around like 6 45 um there are bagels and we just wait for the sunrise to rise um and it was pretty fun there was also a big participation there um the career one just ended and greg and i since we're seniors we're one foot down our senior year um and class englishman's recruiting leadership started and some of the flexibility like layers of paint cupcake wars dodgeball

009i know i was telling the other day it was like the normal thing um it was just a really fun way to get more participation very flexed the korean rotc has fled chives and the boys and girls soccer both won their first round of stocking states the parking lot and hallways have become less crowded people seem to have figured out on our alternative throughout such as the bridge on third hi all thank you for having us um in the coming weeks parent teacher conferences on november 22nd and 23rd denver high school begins dismissing early and the 24th is closed for thanksgiving grade um recently the portion of a graduate has been reviewed in peer leadership classes students have conducted their own research to understand the progress that's been made and just in general what um

010the porsche graduate is in the coming weeks staff is going to be conducting their first round of hatter's heroes the hatter hero is a student who's been nominated by staff member for doing awesome things not just in the class but also being kind of the halls having a good attitude just being an overall good role model um staff can also be nominated for a headers heroes as a matter of fact the first staff member that's being nominated as a hatter hero is mr billy anderson who's the head of custodial staff we wanted to come out and let him know that we appreciate him and his staff for always making sure to provide us a safe environment to learn in and lastly seniors are involved in the fafsa challenge organized by the state it's just a

011friendly competition to encourage seniors to fill out that past as we are applying for college these months thank you on behalf of the board we certainly would like to thank you for taking time from your studies to come and inform us as to what's going on at your school on behalf of the board we certainly appreciate you if you would like to stay you can stay if you would like to leave we'll give you the opportunity to do now okay before i do is any board members have any questions can i just ask her yes can you just repeat uh the thanksgiving um event is happening tuesday november 23rd is that right thank you so much any other questions again thank you thank you thank you thank you [Music] action um action item a uh

012richard you want to do action item a sure i make a motion uh that the board of education approved revised policy 1250 visits to the schools as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with 21-120 promotion made by rachel put out here second or second segmented by kate in a discussion concerning that policy rachel or anyone okay okay mr walsh okay no i don't have anything good okay so uh kate will do the roller coaster rachel aye kate canetta i gladys cooper yes lauren daley yes joe da silva aye catherine hodgson aye richie nelly aye al russo aye amy spellino aye thank you motion so cares lauren would you do action item b please for me i make a motion that the board of education repeal um policy 6114.81 emergency suspension of policy during

013pandemic as recommended by the policy committee and in accordance with um 21-121 thank you i lost a spot thank you my emotion made by lauren could i hear a second second exactly okay okay [Music] and the concerning that policy and it's a sculpture yes kate i know we talked about this at the policy meeting and i i um at the time i didn't really have anything to say about it um but now i'm i'm kind of just wondering obviously we have to i'm not even sure really if any of this came into play the way that things were managed i don't recall dr sal making use of any functions that we wouldn't have approved anyways my only hesitation is just that they're just now starting the vaccination process with kids and i wonder if it's

014just prudent to wait for like two more months just to give folks a window to go through that vaccination process with their kids if they choose to do that maybe it's extra and we don't need to do that but i wanted to just mention sort of that thought that crossed my mind so the policy really doesn't change much of you know the operations as far as the board goes i mean the um the decision making falls with the superintendent with or without the policy and of course anything coming from the governor as far as executive orders trump's whatever we do as far as policy anyway this is just kind of i think clearing some confusion um this was for me this policy was a way to insert ourselves into the decision-making process where again it

015ultimately falls with the superintendent with or without the policy so i don't know kevin if you have anything you'd like to share or or speak to right so and and i believe i some of my thoughts on this during our policy meetings i i feel uh very comfortable with the repeal itself you know their their this policy provides some authorities number one to weigh policies in general i don't think we're in a place right now with why when my office needs to be granted those powers there are one or two things in the in the policy that the board might appreciate looking back on it uh the fact that we can waive um some of our rights to go through vendors and go through the vendor process in the bidding process um just given the

016delays on products coming into the district it could help us expedite some things um it's a very different time now from last year i'm comfortable with the repeal there's an answer question yes thank you and that was one of my questions no other questions okay eliza will you kate will you do the roll call rachel toleski hi kate canetta i gladys cooper yes lauren daley aye joe da silva aye catherine hodgson hi rich giannelli hi al russo hi amy spelina aye thank you the motion is so caring and we're going to have a presentation on testing yes so i'm been looking forward to this evening i feel like getting the year started academically and having conversations academically about where we are as a district and so while miss wanza gets ready for the presentation first

017i'd just like to share with the board in the community that the presentation itself directly connected to the superintendent's goals around goal one goal one being student learning and achievement college and career readiness for all students we've identified a number of action items that help us realize that goal but this evening really is about sharing where we are as a district with standardized testing during during last year cara is going to explain to you that the data that we typically rely on from the state quite frankly is unreliable that data from the state nonetheless we still have data to report as we all know our families our kids um there are only a couple of districts in the state of connecticut that had their kids working remotely as much as we did so for the

018first half of the year last year our kids worked remotely on the second half of the year they were in hybrid and in terms of where they were administered the exam they had the option of taking exams at home and so there's a sense of unreliability there in that space and then some some of our students came in to take the test um carol will explain uh because we've struggled with this quite quite frankly um i think our parents learned quickly that coming in to take the test sbac exam was not a one-dayer you know you had to come in for a series of days and i think there was some exhaustion with coming in and so we lost we lost some participation because of that um again speaks to the unreliable data that you're

019going to see um cara is also going to share some state kind of side-by-side comparisons we're not very different from the state but we're nowhere close where we should be and typically are but again we still have struggling with even if that data is even reliable enough to speak to but i think what is going to be clear across the state of connecticut is everyone suffered academically last year with the loss of learning time and cara i will get out the way so you can make your presentation evening everyone it's nice to see everyone in person again um so kevin spoke to um the uh the goals that you also are discussing tonight or received a copy of um previously one goal um one a and one b are the academic goals that we developed

020testing reports and reporting out during this school year for the board to stay apprised of what's going on academically so um as a part of always the context of our reporting we think about the demographics of our students and how that's changing over time and emerging um and and evolving uh this year overall um our priorities lunch status which is 53 reminding you that we are direct certification and that families don't individually fill out clearance anymore most schools so that's if they receive certain benefits throughout the state that they are directly certified as pre-reduced lunch in most of our schools so um that number is slightly decreased from last year but not necessarily reflective of the poverty rate of our of our student body um our ell percentage is um up from the previous year

021and over time if you look at since 1819 and 1920 just last year we were at 28 we're now at 32 and i'll talk a little bit more when we move to student account about what that means at individual levels um particularly drawing attention to the k5 eol percentage we have 44 of our students at the k5 level are considered current l students that does not include students who are previously identified in l as now and then test it out on the lost links um so and then 32 percent of our students at the 612 level again there's also um this fed population the students with disabilities is up to 14 um i did break it out as to the count just so you know what those numbers look like when you break it out

022so if you want to reference back i know i'd love to look at this stuff but i think we want to particularly to know in the in the bottom right hand corner is our total count for the district as of october 1. as you know the october 1 collection the state collection is integral in the types of grants that we receive and so that is what we go by for our number you should know that we have ongoing enrollment our registration center is still very active we're receiving receiving students daily as of today our number is 11 960. so that is the change within just over a month and we have about 100 students who are pending in process of completing their paperwork so we certainly will will reach the 12 000 threshold very shortly

023and that doesn't take into account necessarily the influx that we often see in the january months the january month and winter months one thing to note i i think is an interesting fact that we need to kind of keep we talked a little bit about the ell percentage at the case high level which directly impacts construction but also at january high school the count for students that are identified as multi-language learners is 692 this year just in 2018-19 which was really our last tested year before this past year we only had 434 so it's a drastic increase to the amount of students that we're servicing at the high school level in addition our kindergarten number which is broken out on a different side or i could provide as a follow-up but it is currently 935

024compared to our 820 is last year so certainly some folks have held their kindergartener from greater than pandemic here they've enrolled as a kindergartener and some have enrolled as first graders so that's that number kind of has increased in both and interspersive possible grade levels um to know also this account but if you look at it from a percentage perspective um our our fan our students who identify as hispanic or latino um is up to 60 of our student body and that's a center percentage point increase from last year hello okay just to make it a little more readable for you for you all this is kind of our pre-k broken out we don't identify students as english language learners until they hit kindergarten that's why that's not on this slide um and certainly we

025have our special education preschool classrooms which are the reason why those numbers are when we're looking at the k5 this is our account and what we're looking at across all schools just so you can there's some level of comparability to no particular schools of um morris street park south street and eis all of their elo populations are above of their school students 612. um this is kind of a breakout a little more typical than what we see but again an increase in percentage of our ell decrease of our premium research so what we move into first and kevin spoke to this administration spoke to this earlier around um what what we expected or didn't expect of the smarter balance assessment as you know we test students in grades um three through eight using the s

026back which is um what connecticut uses as a benchmark testing for students um it was it was not administered during the 1920s school year due to the pandemic and school closure or remote learning and it was administered remotely and in person during the 2021 school year both years have been waived as a part of the usde's waiver that connecticut sought to make it not tied to the accountability index so it is not tied to our district performance index our school performance index and those pieces but um they still are reporting out the results so one thing to just be super cautious about and the state really reiterates quite a bit is that these these test results should be taking the context of which they were taken so some students took it remotely some in person

027as far as the our district 68 were in person and 32 percent were remote the connecticut overall is at 88 in person and 12 remote so our numbers are slightly higher but that mimics what our our remote student population looked like um let's see so we'll just jump right into it um our students overall as a what the state refers to as the instructional learning model for the year so that means the way that students attended were they mostly in person were they considered hybrid or they considered mostly vermont danbury public school district was considered mostly remote because the amount of membership days that students were promoted so even though we know we switched to hybrid in most places mid-year when you look at the number of days the percentage of students spent remotely that's

028why it's reported out that way so one of the things that um we saw at the elementary level this particular data is not cohorted so this means how did third grade do um on in 2017 18 18 19 and then 20-21 obviously it's not reported out for 1920 so it skips a year um so in general you can see that our we were pretty stable for a couple years of where we were with our outcomes but in general around a 20 percentage point decreased at elementary level for the achievement um now this isn't covered overlooked so this is just how our third grade typically performs in the achievement um let's see so another case to consider is that this state overall did not see a significant change in results from students who took it remotely

029and or in person in ela except for the third grade and we saw the same trend students who actually took it remotely scored higher um and so one of the the things that they're considering is the moment of the test and or was it really one straight achievement they're doing more research about them so we moved to six eight there was not a significant drop at the elementary level but sixth grade um with the lower grade level we saw a more significant drop but um you know at in the eighth grade only five point four percent is dropping again those those scores particularly eighth grade hover around the same place over time now this is a rough cohort so this is like how particular not a direct student match but how students on that grade

030level performed as a rough cohort so that means that if you take those six that current sixth grade who took it in the spring that's the current sixth grade when they took it in 1819 and they were fourth graders at that point because they didn't take it as fifth graders and then how they performed as third graders so you could do more of a comparability of what the learning loss was possibly around achievement for that grade level as it relates to grade level standards um for this let's see so just remembering between the green and the blue that's a two year gap right so like they took it or by the time they took it again they they hadn't seen the test it was like their second year um okay so um never seen a

031proficiency for all tested grades this is by subgroup just a reminder it's on the previous or the full slide our high needs students which the state uses quite a bit to determine how students are doing um that have um that are either english language learners identified students with disabilities as well as free reduced lunch students so in that group you can meet all three students or you can you can be in all three categories or you could just be in one okay so um it's just considered a heidi group um and this is how students did um reported out not cohorted at all so just kind of how that's over time as a district as a whole um moving into math it was um also the csd reported out that across connecticut there was more

032significant loss in math so um when we're considering what our numbers look like um around between a 22 percent a drop up to a 31.52 back to a 25 we're really looking at there was the same trend that the state was seeing a more significant loss for the students in mathematics and that is grades three through five um also they saw more significant change and difference for students who took it remotely enough compared to students who took it in person again they're going to come back with some more research around that um so these students again in six to eight it was less of a loss but there's lower proficiency overall when you consider the years over time when we move to the rough cohort trend um we have uh okay so um similarly this

033is where we were obviously there was a dramatic um change in sex screen and and considered significant for their students when we consider how they did over time again that's a two-year gap from when they took the previous test and then um this is the subgroup piece so again this is students being tested at grade level standards for their particular grade but overall the district as an aggregate the the next assessment that was used or was administered in the spring was the next generation science standard we only had one previous year data um and that was in 1819 it was not administered in 1920 so the results of the two years are side by side noting that there's a gap in between it was interesting that grade eight with the same exact proficiency scores um

034uh between 1819 and 2021. the next generation science standards assessment is only administered in 5th 8th and 11th grade um we saw a similar trend as the state and that test participation was much lower with our remote students compared to our in person um and and what mr walston talked about previously around the challenges of students who were in remote attendance and having to come in school and take it and and those pieces um you know or if you remotely proctored but it was much lower participation rates for those students and then the the levels which students performed at and account and percentage are on the left um finally the she as a requirement for an accountability next for our district and the high school um grade 11 um which had less participate in the

035sap school day that's connected to a requirement on just a couple facts about the s.a.t um it was we did not have an sat school day in 1920 but it but we did um administer it in person only in 2021 and um so there's just a little bit of information around benchmarks here one thing to consider so sometimes we you know there's a way of looking at it regarding um average means for and things like that but the way the state looks at it is how students are hitting particular benchmarks the state of connecticut to develop those benchmarks to say whether or not our student was hitting the proficiency level they actually did a study around students performance in college a freshman year of college and how those students scored or what grades they received

036c or better in their english and math courses to consider whether the benchmark was correlated in this point we use the benchmark to consider similarly to report out as we do this right so um in this case we saw a ten percent drop point for our whole group and just a three percent in our map and then you can see the difference in particular um groups and finally this is the place where we do have the direct side by side comparison i thought it was interesting to know although this data is public it's not reported out as a state so typically you'd be able to go on to ed site and they would have the data that you can look up in this case for expect as well as sat it's not reported out that

037way this year because they're being very careful to not compare um in-person testing remote testing different demographics and subgroups how what instructional learning model students are in so it's very specific the way you can make comparisons so guarantee that for you to be a very immense report um but they um so we try to go with a little more of a higher level level aggregate but this is our probably one of our best comparisons to say since we were considered fully or mostly remote during the 2021 school year how did our students do compared to the state so we don't have reporting features for the other two models but we had um for levels three and four which considered is at the benchmark for the sat we saw a similar trend of the state so

038they were at 48.8 we were at 40 their math was at 25.2 and we were at 19.4 so considering the instructional model being similar that students were mostly remote that's probably one of the better comparisons that we can say what our students did side by side with the state overall and just to considerations for outcomes and i just took the directives and the guidance they were giving us right and so we want to just make sure we're careful to give context to this data to consider the instructional model for the students what how they were learning were they in attendance in person were they in attendance remote and then how they tested certainly we're developing you know protocols and systems within our school district to address more formatively what students need as far as instruction

039as well as using iads and other forms of assessment like the dibbles and in other you know a lot of different places to see how we can support students considering their experience during the pandemic um and so some of those things are on the last slide and dr kazamaro can certainly speak to them as they a lot of them stem from the work with the um administrators and the principals thanks karen i just want to um the data this year in particular was quite intense to go through and make some comparisons but my care has been certainly a gift to us over the last couple years but in terms of analyzing this recent round of data um thank you very much um so the current ongoing market some of this we spoke about in the

040last board meeting or two in terms of our ability through esser to be able to purchase and acquire some programs and some resources that we haven't had in the past um so these are these are outlined here um you know when it comes to our k5 literacy um even prior to to the pandemic we had identified a need to really um increase the structured phonics uh in our you know elementary schools and so as a result we did research and selected the reader program that is slowly being implemented in terms of the development and the rollout of that we've been working hard on the intervention and the alignment if you remember we made a shift with adding student support specialists into every school so that there was a connection to tier and intervention to ensure

041that we bolstered those areas and at the same time we redesigned the coaching plan so we had coaches that were dedicated to coaching and student support specialists to work with students prior to that they were doing kind of both um and having you know it really spread quite thin with that and so we've redesigned that we think that that will yield some results over time of course the coaches are very critical to improving tier one instruction that prevents some of the things that turn up in interventions holes and gaps and so we have to balance both um and that has really been the plan of the of the attack everything else up there in terms of the math and literacy are really programmatic shifts um that we've made with the idea that our population is

042changing and so how do we select more universally designed materials to reach our populations of students so that we are making sure that we're purchasing resources and acquiring resources that have a high level of differentiation already embedded at the start um to help with the teachers and making those selections um and so we are also still you may even remember a few years ago we started departmentalizing uh in some areas that is still continuing uh even in this in this environment so we are um we tend to use some of the departmentalization to do a little bit of field testing and piloting of some new things and that has been successful um and and it works well in some schools based on the consistency of the makeup of the schools how many grade levels they

043have and sort of the um the makeup and of the grade level in general we've been tracking and monitoring how those who are doing departmentalization is going we'd like to get a little more time and data around that before we decide if that's something that we want to grow out across the district but the high schools you know there's a pretty big academy action plan uh in place for the next four years and so we we really believe as you know that that's something that's going to help increase engagement will help with our graduation rates it's going to help reduce graduates that are going to be uh career ready um when they exit um so that's that in itself is a is a grand plan um for which you know we're hoping that you know

044achievement follows um some of these some of these initiatives um humanities we're continuing with professional development we've been focusing on project-based learning over the last couple of years um grade level text and close reading so really raising the level of rigor but at the same time helping students staying with students to help them unpack complex texts i mentioned a little bit about the interventions these are not necessarily new the exception of the do the math and the sips programs that are up there and that's really just about deepening our understanding of interventions not just purchasing a program but knowing when to apply an intervention for the right time at the right moment as students need them so really getting better at diagnosing what the issue is and then prescribing the right academic course of treatment

045if you will when it comes to students we have had struggled with mathematics in the district for a while the best way to get to that is to get at the bottom from the bottom to the top so we're going to start with kindergarten and roll out what we believe will be a better aligned system for teaching mathematics and for developing having students understand those math teachers understand mathematical practices and then students really digging deep into understanding sort of the conceptual side of math that maybe will help with sort of this building the foundation across the k-12 continuum someone mentioned science tonight and one of the comments happy to report that we are very much rolling out the 3-5 science um again slow i mentioned that the last board meetings that we are working towards

046towards that and we're trying to really be sensitive to the needs of teachers and the time that's taken right now with students but that is very much still on the docket and we have lots of new and exciting units and supplies and experiments that kids will be diving into this year that have been great interim caravans were mentioned interim assessment blocks they just will explain about what those are and so these are smaller snippets of the uh assessment that we can have students take in smaller chunks and then deconstruct those problems with students once we get the results it's a little bit more of a formative use of assessment um before we get to sort of the bigger summative side right so how do we how can we break down some of these skill sets

047and help students understand how to attack some of the problems and how do we embed some of those skills a little bit more in our curriculum over time so we are also going slowly with that but math has been using those and we're looking to expand that into the on the literacy side um professional development election not that we've been doing election of math for about two years now um and we hope to the two worlds will meet so rolling back rolling up from k2 and backwards from six eight so that we have a whole continuum across um we've been working on geometry and all the uh algebra alignments and then melissa they do shout out to her she's doing a lot of great work with that and working with the teachers and then probably

048one of the larger shifts that we made is really switching the way that we approach esl in our district and making sure that it's a systemic eld english language development across the school day and and really concentrating on what those services look like to make sure that we're delivering highly efficiently targeted uh uh curriculum to to our second language learners uh we've bolstered down on our newcomers program that's a program that was a pilot a few years ago has now become sort of standard when our newcomers come in that there's a specific curriculum that's special for them um as really kind of entry-level um separating them and making sure that that they have that they have different needs than a student who's been here for a year or so who was acquired much more we

049work on health standards inside of coaching health standards are really to help teachers guide teachers on what's appropriate for an esl student in particular classes science coaching are the strategies that we use with our esl students that are great for all kids but critical for being for esl students and of course continuing working on the alignment and doing a lot of monitoring and we'll be rolling up um the elg which is our eld program two six through eight so we just started putting together an action plan for that um you know again going slowly with a lot here um but but but still moving forward and um you know obviously you know the data tonight is uh you know we'll look at it and take you back a bit um especially when you're in my

050role uh we've been working hard to make very incremental improvements over the course and so over time you know our data looked better right now you know we take it very seriously there's a lot of work to do but we take the data in context and we continue with the plans that we've had in place and we work to kind of strengthen the and deepen those with our staff any questions are there any questions okay um i just want to ask i was looking at the rough cohort trend data for the ela pro you know versus the math and the drop-off to the math seems much more substantial i'm just wondering if you guys have any thoughts about why that is yeah you know um you know we looked at that as well um you

051know and it was definitely an ouch moment yeah when you see it um you know we've had some conversations about that math is math is really um day-to-day building right and so when you're when there are gaps in that things tend to fall maybe a little bit harder than literacy which tends to spire a little bit more to draw on as opposed to some tests of math but it's hard to say in this in particular um with this data it's hard to you know the context of when students take the test and um overall it is difficult to surmise um but something you know we haven't had our math data has not been terrific and so when you don't have a solid foundation to begin with you tend to become a little bit more volatile

052and vulnerable in those areas thank you yes mr janelle here and to takara to carry whichever camera was happening on your first schedule the district percentages and the enrollments the last comment in the future is it possible to just put comparisons for the totals of prior years maybe the last two years and then anybody wants to drill down to the differences and go into it sure and then my second question is the in the absence of 20 20 a year from now when you're looking at the data what's a good perspective to relate it to i mean the 21 year is sort of a conglomerate of a whole bunch of questions so you take it as you said with a lot of indian windows that created issues but if you have a let's say a

053normal year as we're hoping this year would be the how do you measure then success or failure against what years so i would say there's a couple different ways and and one of the pieces is the ibps that kara focused on earlier the smaller block assessments that are used in the classroom to really drill down and save students progress towards the standards so using that to supplement the data is very important the second piece is that typically the state reports out on the student's growth so and it's very specific if i scored a level one between a certain range of my scale score i'm expected to grow a certain amount of points they couldn't do that because we didn't take it last year but now there's going to be some level of comparability moving forward

054that's a lot of times around our schools of recognition that we've gotten schools of distinction highly recognized by the state by our growth of the student achievement i say that we're really going to have to look deeply at what the student's journey has been particularly related to their scale score and then how they grew within the past year so it's very specific they give us great targets around that so it helps us to really see yes there was a flip in data but this is how the student was growing before have they picked up on that growth again the state also this past year they they did not report at both scores due to the fact they didn't take it in 1920 but they did their own projections on what students looked like at the

055end of 1819 and then how they scored in 2021 and when you look at the state as an aggregate the lowest achievement levels did not grow as much and that's actually very atypical so we actually typically see those students growing the most and so we kind of really mimic that with the state's results so considering that that those students with lower proficiency levels didn't grow as much we need to take that into context and then see now that we're back in person are students trying to hit their growth targets again they may be at lower achievement levels but are they moving a full year's worth my final question would be then during the course of the current year are you able to then advise the board of any any any data or progress or let's

056say be positive progress we're making on these individual assessments and however you group them would it be done periodically whether it be quarterly or you have to wait one calendar per calendar year for one school year to to combine all those two to accumulate all that data and then put it into an assessment so we certainly have the only comparability to the large summative testing that's standardized is to wait a year right but we are doing other universal screeners and that's required by the state and for our alliance funding and other pieces and for just good informed instruction um that we that we could if i sit with dr casper and mr wilson around like what would be appropriate to report out to the board because we are doing um certainly the teachers are working

057hard and assessing students to see where they are to to meet their needs and then for planning purposes from a departmental level you have the dibbles we saw our administering star 6-12 but you know considering these are students who are coming back to school you know full-time in person for the first time there's some level of fatigue around what they're able to perform so just not asking too much and really wanting to sit with the instruction with the students for a while we're really trying to focus on those four-minute assessments too so certainly it is requested we've talked about testing reports that we're going to address later in the year around graduation college and career readiness if there's a mid-year report we can certainly speak to them okay thank you very much both of you

058thank you are there any other questions i i just wanted to ask cara and cara for some dr casamaro first um cara i believe in our last meeting you talked about the legislation around k5 literacy with the reading and just i guess my first wondering is for the board and for the public maybe make the connections to kind of our next steps around this work uh why it's so meaningful and and how this might help although it might not help us right now this year uh but why it's gonna be so important moving forward kind of landing on the right literacy readings program sure so so right now you know learn a little bit about you know we had started to do some small pilots this is some other curriculum uh that we thought was

059very standards-based um and and rigorous but but accessible that universal design that we spoke with earlier um and so we're going to continue to kind of pilot uh on a small side right now because going larger that makes a lot of sense right now to do that given everything that's going on but we're we're gonna hold a little bit um the intention is to to obviously to do uh a deepening of our k5 literacy program it has started with being a reader program which is really the foundational literacy component uh which you know prior to uh pandemic and all that when we had you know kind of the literacy committee and digging deep into some of the data realizing that we had some holes in our programming and we had some resources that were more

060than 15 years old with citizen components and spread out over time and maybe not necessarily you know well well folks were well versed in this so it started with uh making sure that we had a structured literacy program to begin with just which was the selection of the vegan reader program um but also how did you marry that with um with a rigorous you know comprehension program and rigorous other components to literacy that meets the needs of our learners and our learners have changed over time in terms of what their needs are and so the right to read legislation which i mentioned last time that we were here that group goes to group in harper that will be putting out a recommendation for reading free programs that districts will have to back into and so

061we're a little bit of a pause before we push any further on any material selection or gathering committees until that information is published at that time we'll gather our folks then we'll take a deep dive into um to our next steps in terms of our approach but we would like to definitely continue to improve what we're doing with the k5 literacy in particular especially around the fact that we have so many esl students and so many of our esl students percentage why start with us in you know in our lowest grades and so we really need to address address that work thank you and dr just just one more thing departmentalization and for the board members who may not be aware what that is and for our families at home that don't know what that

062is i know we've experienced some success with some of our schools can you just walk them through what that means sure so whereas a typical classroom teacher at the elementary school would teach all the components of a literacy program and teach science per se mathematics we do writing in the day if you have four teachers across a grade level then in in a departmentalization model you would have t students moving throughout the four teachers through the day who's one teacher focusing on the math one teacher focusing on um you know the reading one maybe potentially the writing or science um and so the in theory it allows the wellness theory but in practice it does well the teacher to concentrate a little bit more um in those areas and and focus and plan um it

063it also you know there's there's some there's some pros and cons to it one uh it's you know we'd like to make sure that teachers are kind of connecting material in an interdisciplinary way making those connections throughout the day it's a little bit harder for her to do when the kids are separate but at the same time students on the student side especially in fourth and fifth grade and only one school is doing in third grade um you know students get a chance to interact with other teachers sometimes slightly different expectations and things that they have to do they have to navigate for teachers which sort of tends to raise the level of independence a little bit more quickly at the elementary level and also they get to know more more of the teachers in

064this school there's a lot of benefits to it as well and so you know weirds where it's happening right now ais off street shelter that is you know they they like it and the teachers feel that it's beneficial and the kids seem to be responding well to it um the tricky part about it is that it doesn't it's not equal everywhere right so it's not something you just roll up and roll out without a lot of care planning because every school is different and this configuration across the grade level looks differently um so but that is happening and where it is happening and folks are quite pleased with it is moving still faster so um we had a school that was doing some looping um and so right when the pandemic took hold it was

065also at the time that the principle changed in that in that one location as well and so i think there are some some practices that they took that are good in terms of the full looping um you know that probably be the discussion in the spring about whether or not that's going to occur again thank you doctor sorry sorry my question and and thought as i look at the s.a.t data there's three groups that are very very low so i guess my question would be how do we at some point because if my understanding is right we're they're taking the sots and we're preparing these young people for college am i correct and those these numbers and these three particular groups are very very low so yeah and again improving tier 1 instruction across the

066district is the number one way to raise achievement for all students um and so you know that is a it's a continuation of our time students are taking those assessments and at the high school level um they have had our whole you know experience of curriculum so as we continue to make those improvements and work on that um the achievement levels of our students should rise rise we are there's a lot of alignment still a lot of alignment works but still left to do in terms of some of the skills that are on the sat and how we leave those in our preparations with curriculum and um but also you know we're in the process too with the fortune of the graduate of really reassessing what we're doing or teaching the courses we're providing um

067and the engagement just you know even just beyond the um the english language arts and the mathematics sides of things that are really you know meant to create a well-rounded student um so those you know that's all part of the improvement efforts and when you engage kids more in the curriculum all things rise as a result of that okay yes jeff um correct me from wrong sats were generally waived for students entering college fall 20 and fall 21. right so the preponderance of colleges did not record did we see a concomitant decline in perhaps preparation for the for the essay team in other words i might take it but i'm not going to prep for it i'm not going to take a study class i'm not going to take a review like what was going

068on were the psats the most pressing for sound and i'm sure there was a collective side across the 16 year old scope and 17 year olds of the landscape of knowing that the sats my graduating niece last spring was not upset that they were hard nevertheless it is an important indicator for college and career readiness and it's something that we do take take very seriously um and we'll continue to continue to stay focused on okay are there any other questions thank you carol thank you superintendent thank you miss cooper so one a b and c of the superintendent's report are really three quick updates for the board and also for the community so i'll start with west side academy lottery the the lottery opened for west side november 1st and closes on november 15th to

069date we've had a little over 1 000 families participate in the lottery so very excited about the participation thus far and and and hope will continue to have a rush through the weekend before it closes this is our first year opening up in the fall if our families are not aware and our board is not aware we were having challenges with scheduling having the lottery open in february and so we would continue to get feedback from our families throughout the spring oftentimes throughout the summer trying to nail down what academy families wanted to choose whether it was global studies or stem it made more sense for us to open up the lottery in the fall so we can solidify scheduling and the principals can go into the center and students and families can go into

070the summer knowing what academy they were in so we're very really excited and happy about that move uh and again we have over 1 000 families who have participated already how that compares to previous year's applications yes and so and so we we've had 12 to 1300 um the last time i had spoke to miss stanton so we we see these numbers being around the same um by november 15. thank you thank you so citywide pto uh we have our next citywide pto on december 6th and at the last meeting i had shared with citywide pto that i had uh met with representatives from food services food services sodexo we had a very good meeting it was kind of a welcome to the new superintendency some folks from regional office came to speak to me

071it was a great meeting one of the things i asked for from this sodexo was to meet with our families and make sure our families have an opportunity to inform the development of a menu at our schools and so i'm expecting barry and a representative from sodexo at our next meeting on december 6th at that time they're going to walk families who are there that evening the process in which we can have a representatives from k5 and elementary so they can inform the development of the school menu the same will happen at the middle school my understanding is there is one at the high school but i want to make sure that's revisited as well and then we will figure out how to promote this to make sure we get participation from students and families

072and staff as well i heard concerns about the quality of our food in my short time as a superintendent and i just want to make sure that our kids and our families and quite frankly our staff have a say in the menu and i think that i'm hoping that might help inequality and just kind of you know the just the overall um happiness with the meals that are served every day so that that's certainly a good start i i hope for us um and i'm hoping it'll be also great participation for my families and and students as well and um c on the superintendent's report legislative agenda um just wanted to make the board aware i am planning to meet with ryan bingham next week our lobbyists on behalf of the city and the school

073district um brian will be working with us to put together a legislative agenda to address some of our initiatives one of them that has been on the agenda for the last two years and that is really knocking on the state's door again and asking them to accelerate the alliance payments to to our school district i think we have a pretty good story to tell and a pretty good case to make for that acceleration um you heard cara tonight given that enrollment update and it's not just about the enrollment itself but it's the the families that are coming across our registration camera um that makes us a little more unique than most of the states in the state of connecticut we have the highest percentage of ell learners in the state of connecticut and our needs

074are quite frankly uniquely different from other school districts so you know after speaking with ryan he felt pretty optimistic that hey maybe this could be the time politically we're going into an election year so that might also help us so we're going to strategize with him and have a draft of an agenda legislative agenda uh for the board to see for the city obviously they also play a role in uh and and you know hopefully we'll be a little luckier this time that we have been in the last couple of years so i'm looking forward and excited about this process d grant funded positions and reorganization so on monday evening at the finance meeting i shared with the finance committee committee and other members of the board we had an opportunity to attend i shared

075with them that we were looking to leverage some of the monies from our alliance our alliance grant to purchase position to bring in positions to support specifically our k5 schools across the district and that evening i had also shared we were looking to bring in [Music] positions to support support staff to support our four largest schools those schools under this allocation would receive 140 000 each our 10 elementary schools that not qualify as large i mean they're all large but our other 10 schools would receive 70 000 allocation of this plan in addition we would be looking at a plan where we would bring in four assistant principals at those elementary schools and i just want to walk the board and the community through this plan again so one we receive every year we receive

076and i don't want to take this for granted i'm appreciative of the fact that we receive an increase from alliance every year but it was approximately 2.5 million this year we had we budgeted for about one point i'm sorry about 700 000 of those monies for all the items that number one contractual obligations um contracts that are already in the alliance and other things that we had ordered or purchased but the 1.8 million was for staff that was still undecided we i appeal to the state and acts can we have some time to make some decisions on these positions so that we can better understand the impact of covet and the pandemic and now that our picture is a little clearer we've come up with a plan that we feel like is going to better

077serve our school district and so those support staff positions um the way we are planning this um the schools with 70 000 allocation 70 000 allocation 140 000 allocation we will come up with options for those schools we will certainly be working with them aside as if they can work independently of the school district um they will have three three three different positions that they'll be able to use to help support learning at their respective schools a position we call school climate specialist you might recall this position being proposed in a budget last year to help with lower level discipline issues in the building that do not rise to the level of suspension that other positioners are paraprofessionals who can push into classrooms and provide support and then the other position is student support specialist

078this position all three of these positions currently exist in a school district the student support specialist can push in this is a certified teacher who can push into classrooms and provide intervention support again this position currently exists at our k5 level so under this plan we'll be increasing it and having more academic support intervention support at the k5 level and then last but not least are the four assistant principals i know this has been something we've talked about quite a bit over the last couple of years what i shared in the finance meeting on monday mr roose i appreciate you asking this question about teachers and staff we on monday evening we we've hired close to 100 additional staff certified staff the majority of them being teachers close to 20 now at the high school

079and and continuing to climb mostly because of what carawanza reported this evening my enrollment has mostly hit the high school this year that's where we've seen the biggest the biggest bump this year and so as part of our asset 3 budget i believe we had budgeted 16 teachers at the high school and 15 elementary teachers across the system those were just teachers this is not including esl and ell staff this is not including special ed teachers this is not including social workers and guidance counselors and student support i'm sorry and not other pps staff we've we've hired many without increasing in any way our administrative staff across the district and so what what has happened we know that their the needs are greater than ever in our classrooms uh we need someone to be able

080to pick up the phone when a teacher calls um and and and the calls are coming more than ever uh across the schools and so the principals need help um but our staff needs help right so someone needs to be available uh when the teachers reach out so we're seeing this plan particularly starting with our biggest schools obviously park avenue is our biggest elementary school in the district they currently have an assistant principal but and i believe i was asked the question you know what was that magic number that we had recommended last year during the budgeting process in which a school would receive an assistant principal and i believe that number was 450 we have several schools a number of elementary schools over that number and so sadly rough and sadly rough and shelter

081rock are two of those schools that are certainly over that number [Applause] hayes town is at 417 and counting and given the special ed program at that building um highly recommending that that's also one of the schools and i believe ellsworth is the other school that is all over 450 and they'll probably be even higher than that next year when we open up those additional sections at the building so i am and then the fourth um assistant principal i'm strongly recommending that we have someone like i said we have someone at park avenue right now and if we can bring in four more then that would mean our three other biggest elementary schools get support and then under this model anyway perhaps we can have an assistant principal provide support and a number of buildings

082to provide the support quite functionally the builders need what we're finding and i don't think this comes as no surprise to everyone in this room um our high school this is not to suggest they don't need help but but dan has a compliment of assistant principals department heads uh two deans at his disposal um and he has a team we can also rely on um not to the same level of capacity but our middle school principals have also a team that they can rely on and our principles are on the highway they they immediately they have to go to kelly's support staff and count on social workers and school psychologists but meanwhile they have to provide their own related services in the building and they too are stretched just i just want to provide some

083rationale behind the decisions and so i just wanted to update the board and assure the board that financially we're okay because the alliance funds are reoccurring funds right and certainly we would prefer to have the alliance funds for programming and innovative things some of the things that you saw on the screen that carrick had presented previously and that and these things would come from operating budget but we we don't have the time to wait right now we need to provide support um so that we don't continue to see the data that was just displayed on the screen and then last but last but not least as i have a quick pause is talk about the reorganization um in the letter that i shared with the board a couple of days ago and so frequency previously

084i'm sorry and so just to summarize the positions and the monies uh where it's coming from the handout that i added to your packet at the end that just kind of summarizes where those monies are coming from but last but not least the reorganization in district office so one i i want to start by thanking the board members district office and principals and administrators who participated in the organizational study that was conducted i believe about a month now a month ago now we received feedback from the study and we received the report the report was prepared and emailed to the attention we shared the report with our administrators our president of the teachers union also participated in it i shared it with the nea obviously our dsa members participated and shared the report with them

085and i know that you also participated in the study and shared it with the board there were a couple of interesting very interesting things in the report um that i felt was that certainly informed our recommendations and in my recommendations that i would like to talk to you about this evening the the consultant strongly recommended and now this is the second study in a row um the first one was dr sal and prior to me being higher caribbean height and urban role a couple of other physicians being hired it was strongly recommended that the district have either a director of k5 and 612 or some position intentionally supervising the areas of k5612 and so we didn't have exactly that model applied prior to my arrival dr casimiro and i actually split the supervision and we

086kind of took half schools i took half schools and it i would just say our principles didn't get the support that they needed because we we too were already stretched just by design um in the second organization the most recent one that you have in front of you this evening this consultant group also strongly recommended intentionally someone supervising and supporting these areas however his recommendation is that there's an assistant superintendent of k5 and assistant superintendent of 612. he also mentioned in his report that he felt like he understood um the the ramifications of that decision and recommendation but felt like aspirationally this is something that the district should be aspiring to be with that said i didn't feel like we were ready for an assistant superintendent k5 and 612 and and i'd like to walk

087you through more one i just want to start with um dr casimiro kelly truces who have been here a long time in very key critical conditions in the district um i felt like it was time to elevate both of these positions number one i don't want either of them to go anywhere let me just be clear right so this is a retention move selfishly to me two i think it's an investment that the district and the board should be making in both of these positions and elevating those roles so i'm just going to start there i i am happy to um increase their responsibilities to um to to to to to justify the elevation but quite frankly they've been operating as assistant superintendents in this district anyway particularly given their responsibility i went into this

088model favoring the idea of a chief chiefs across the system after the report i had to step back and begin to reassess my thought process given that the last two reports now are strongly recommended recommending supports intentionally for k5 and 612 instead of assistant superintendents at that level um we've decided i've decided along with with the cabinet and getting feedback from the report is to have a chief of schools k5 and so on that diagram in the circle you'll see a k5 to the left 612 to the right and then underneath on the bottom left hand corner you'll see a position called chief strategy and operations officer i'll talk you through that one in a second and then to the right of that document you'll see a physician chief finance officer our chief finance officer

089and executive director of the budget sitting at the table was up this evening very happy about their arrival just want to publish and say that again and then at the top of the diagram um is our chief talent officer in legal counsel to the board so this is the cabinet and we have three vacant positions that i am looking forward to um balancing out this team i also just want to talk to the board in the community quite frankly about uh the finances for these positions because i know whenever we talk about positions uh there's always monies associated with that and i totally understand and appreciate that um but i just want to walk to walk the board through and this is also in the powerpoint presentation on the last slide um and and and

090so there there are three things i just want to walk the board through and that's one we had a position called and i believe i called it curriculum administrator but it's actually district administrator k-5 that position was paid out of title 1 when i first arrived here 1819. that position still available in the district between the 1920 school year and then that position was taken out because anna rocco was moved to one of our elementary schools but the vacancy sack and the items still the positions remain budgeted and has sat unfilled since then that position was a hundred and fifty hundred fifty five thousand dollars so that was one prior to dr sal leaving last year this was after bought me head or courtney lovers had already resigned from her position dr sal had proposed

091strongly and budgeted accordingly that we remove facilities and operations out of the finance office just kind of given the increased number of staff in this district alone never mind the challenges that we were having in the finance office that just felt like it was time to remove facilities and operations out and we budgeted for chief operations officer i'm i'm sharing this with you because between the office and the salary in my office that i just vacated the vacated position in title 1 that has remained unfilled for the last year and a half and then operation position we just budgeted it's a three for three swap in in budget neutral so the three positions that were previously budgeted budgeted are about 500 000 um into three positions that we're looking to implant implement are about 500

092000 so i just wanted to walk the board through um that whole process and just kind of like you may not have had this level of detail before but i just wanted to walk you through and just so you can understand where the monies are coming from there was a request made at our finance meeting on monday and just just just trying to get a better understanding of the grants in general i have two two solid members of the team in the finance department and so i know we've already shared our general budget monthly we will make sure that the grants are also shared monthly so that everyone could be walking step by step with us as we're going through this planning process so that the board has in the community has a better understanding

093of where our monies are coming from and how we'll be planning moving forward and quite frankly i think it's also really good going into the budget season just kind of having a really good understanding of where we are so just wanted to share that update i would imagine there's probably some feedback or some questions uh so i'm happy to answer them if i can what were the three positions that you said they made up the 500 the district admin for the k5 and your vacant from the assistant super and what was the third chief operations officer that south budgeted for that doctor budget for last year so fair to say we're just changing the title for a couple of previously existing positions yes rearranging where they are on the chart that's right that's fine in

094terms of just one comment earlier in terms of the assistant principles as kim can probably tell you that that will make our existing administrators very happy the biggest thing they talked to us about when we were doing the contract was they need help they need support um especially the elementary principles and that was i mean they knew that we couldn't solve that with the with the contract they weren't asking us to do it but this is definitely something they need and they for sure said that was one of the biggest problems was just eating all right i'm sure they'll appreciate you coming tonight thank you so just to be clear um the um the finance department which had operations underneath it and and we knew that was you know a ginormous just undertaking for one

095person and so that's why we extended an offer to um bring on mr miranda and so now this is kind of a third a third position to that to that department i mean i would split in two but i mean if you're looking at finance and operations we've now added a third right so not exactly so we unfortunately when we in this finance office transition or fortunately for us we had two positions in the finance department that left us and that was courtney and donna so donna accepted the head job in one of the smaller districts in connecticut she was making close to a hundred thousand dollars and courtney was making around 180 180 and so when we brought ed i'm sorry ed miranda and john spang that swap was pretty much cost neutral without

096going into those details that swap was pretty much cost neutral but these two gentlemen specifically really to bring in to shore up our finance department payroll grants and and the grants are significant particularly with the so one cares in exit two and three and really just making sure we're positioned well moving forward so just a little different and and and by the way um folks in my cabin have asked the same question the same way so we haven't had to clarify thank you for that thank you so much cooper if there are no more questions i just have one more item um and and that is the screening state guideline and it's four um and kathy i want to thank you for joining us this evening um but before kathy comes up i just want

097to start by saying um you know there have been a lot of positives and quite frankly challenges from the pandemic i think one of the positives is that i have a great deal a great deal of appreciation um for a lot of the units in our organization that quite frankly we don't see and i think we just take for granted as a school system so during the pandemic at the height of the pandemic we had food services coming in every day when people were scared to come out of their house and and work in public we had safety advocates outside delivering food when we when folks were women and coming in our school buildings we had schools custodians coming in every day and whenever we were going to open they were getting our buildings ready

098and and i mean we rely on these people every single day to keep the operations of our buildings open um transportation we kept them whole during this process and found jobs for them to do and they were delivering food and i i mean we just take these units and these departments kind of for granted in the school system and then i think there's another department that we've all we've always taken for granted like the nurses in our schools and the nurses in our schools quite frankly like kind of in the shadows like all of these physicians and units kind of like the heroes in the shadows because we haven't had to really rely on them in the way we've had to rely on them in these last two years i i know dr sal whether

099it was remotely or in person when we had to you know just continue to profoundly just think kathy publicly so i i just want to make sure before we get started and ask her to just do one more thing today hopefully you don't have to do anything when you get home it is one just share our just overall appreciation to all the nurses across the district as we continue to have a shortage in that unit and that's not the only one in the school district but we have a shortage there for a team right now we're asking to do go over and beyond um and then the representative of that group is here this evening to talk about an update for screening stay options for families to kind of keep our kids in school but

100i also just want to take this opportunity to thank kathy because she's just worked i can't even tell you how many days and hours i get emails i get text messages um here's another quarantine this is the update um i just found out new information from the state i mean this is when everyone else is working doing normal hours you know and i think the cabinet will all test to we get all these emails and texts on saturdays there's a football game on sunday up here comes an email from kathy i'm watching 60 minutes well here comes an email from kathy and this is this is kind of her what her life has been like since covert so i just want to thank you and then just let you know we do have a microphone

101up there so you can walk us through the screen and stuff thank you guys yes mr also will be out of line for us to stand and give the nurses a round of applause thank you [Music] good evening everyone um thank you very much for the recognition um it's truly appreciated the nurses have been part of a very value team throughout the district and i know i greatly appreciate your recognition thank you so as we move forward through this pandemic um i just want to review tonight a new option that is being offered to districts that the government announced last week called screen stay our main focus continues to be on vaccinations now have the opportunity for five to eleven-year-olds to receive those vaccines um i'm very happy to tell you that beginning on monday

102we will be offering clinics in all of our elementary and one of the three middle schools where sixth graders are now eligible we continue to have a very valued partnership with our local health department and along with them and with the hospital starting on they will monday two elementary schools per day um immunization and we're very excited to be able to offer this to our students and hopefully that's one more step and again through this mandate but in the meantime the government has offered us the option to adopt a screen stay program with the goal again temporary organization but with the goal being able to allow children to spend more time at school rather than there are some very specific guidelines that will make this appropriate um it won't be possible for all students but

103i think it's a definite step forward so i just want to review the steps a little bit with tonight so under the screen stay um this will apply to students and staff as well who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and will allow them to remain in school after they have close contact with so the criteria for this um is that the contact has to occur during the school day okay it does not apply if a student is exposed to extracurricular activity sports program birthday party it has to be in the schools on the buses as long as everyone has been masked contact tester may be synthetic so those that would not support my screen today approach if it occurred during scholastic um or athletic activity other than supervised physical medication um during social interactions birthday

104parties get togethers it's because in our schools we've been very strong with mitigation strategies we have not seen the spread of schools but those same mitigation strategies on existing community and that's what we're seeing is still out of the community but it is not spreading in our schools so therefore there's you know interactions any situation where the student has not been able to consistently air mass we know that since our special needs population staff is um in order for students to be eligible for this for the staff as well um they have to read and understand all of these guidelines they have to affirm that they will agree to screen their child from symptoms every day before coming to school for 14 days and even though our quarantine period has been 10 days we know

105that the incubation period is up to 14 days so they would need to confirm with the one-time signature that they will find us to do this and they used to remain at home if they start to become symptomatic and then they would fall into our acceptance quality and this applies to in-person learning only it does not apply to athletics extracurricular activities so if we have a student that is eligible for this they can come to school they can have their in-person learning but they would not be participating in their extracurricular activities they would normally gain warranty and we know there's a higher risk of transmission through those types of activities so and the students who are eligible to come to school really should not participate in what we call aerosol generating activities and that being

106playing with instruments choir singing any type of protective speech so why have um one of these shows is about this now we know that these frequently few quarantines have been a great burden to our students and to our families it has had some very negative effects this will provide some immediate relief without a lot of operational planning immediately it is a temporary submission while we do probably getting modified for the murals vaccinated the community base they're a little steady right now but they're certainly not anywhere where we were a year ago so this is a good opportunity to move forward we know that our mitigation strategies are very strong and that's been evidenced so we've developed a form with that statement that parents do we have any idea when the schedule will be out before

107when those school clinics are going to take which schools are which days um [Applause] kathy i guess my wondering is uh that this may impact the family sooner rather than later and so one i'm assuming this is something we can put up on the website for our families to reference and so is this something now because i'm sure our parents gonna say hey what about screen and stay i want my kid to be in school and i'm assuming we'll have to go through a process with to make them aware of if they're eligible for screening stay and not eligible for screening stay so that would occur if there was an have an exposure case we do the contact tracing and you can identify um who is the close contact that they met this criteria typically

108that happens during the school day the merits.com any other questions yeah yes rachel this is something that we're going to implement i mean this is um optional for districts right so it sounds like we're gonna i i think it's in our best interest that we have an option to get more kids in school if they don't have to stay home to quarantine it gets more kids in front of their teachers so dr casamaro can be happy about their results and all of us can be but i i know that maybe it's going to require some clarification for some families because everyone will not qualify however i think we need to get started and if it were a situation where a student did yes families generally complying with the quarantine are they like not sending their

109kid back to school the next day and stuff like that are they generally complying so far um yes generally they are there's sometimes in the robocall and email um are not answered so you have had children show up the next day but then kathy i've heard from um two people that there's been children that come to school with maybe a sniffle or something and they are told that they have to go home um and then the next day if they come in one in particular came to school and there was a red you know on power school or whatever on her attendance that she had to be checked and it was quite a big deal that her dad had to come pick her up take her to get a copic test and then she wasn't

110allowed to come back to school for the next day and again more kind of um pressure on the parents to leave work and i think and just that whole idea about i know we're still in a pandemic but there is the common cold and it doesn't have a fever with it and doesn't have covered symptoms with it so having i'm sure it's very challenging how and then i know that maybe there's not even i'm not sure but if we have a nurse in every school every hour how are we able to manage this so we follow addendum 5 in terms of when a child is symptomatic whether they've been exposed whether they're symptomatic and not been exposed the problem with probit is there's not any one two or three specific symptoms i've seen children test

111positive no symptoms i've seen children test positive only have a simple i've seen children's has a positive who never had a fever and we've seen children who just have some gi symptoms so it's it's very very so what we do is we follow identified and if the nurse assesses that child and determined that they feel they are ill the parents have two options they can get a negative photo test or they can consult with their health care provider and they can provide us with an alternative diagnosis and yes the common goal still exists seasonal attitudes exist but i think the work the nurses have done some very successful you know schools so i know that's a burden for parents health and safety first thank you yes you know so kevin the notification to the parents

112would be put on the website is there a better mechanism to alert them to that there has been a change um and to look at the website you know perhaps many people just you know during the course of their lives don't really check the website periodically is it possible that maybe at the next city-wide if you haven't done it here make the announcement and fill it out filter it out through the city-wide and have the individual ptos get back to the schools and work it that way um i just say if it's a new i want to say policy that's a good word um that people should be aware of it as opposed to going on a website and reading it let them know it's there i don't know how to do it it's just

113the thought process is to to reach out and let people know that there's a change and this is where you can find the information forward i i appreciate the thought um i i will make sure i speak to dr anne meade and figure out a way on how to get this out of those media pages one um and then also see if we can't push out a robocall to our families to make them aware of the update because we don't want families to find out the first time that they're they might potentially have to quarantine so we can make our families aware bring their attention to the website so i appreciate that recommendation thank you any other questions come in yes not pertaining to the screening stay but um going backward a little bit to

114the legislative agenda i know we've asked for an acceleration um you know for several years but is it worth i'm just gonna throw this out there just um pushing for what we're fully owed you know to fully fund the ecs formula once and for all um you know two and a half million is nothing to sneeze at but we're due 25 million you know at the end of the day and that's to fund the kids that we have now not not in 2028 so just just a thought there when you so it's totally great totally great i'll make that request and then also um you mentioned the high school you know not really needing classroom supports but was there any um discussion or requests for safety advocates i know you know behavior has been a

115bit of an issue since coming back to school from the pandemic so just just curious there so not specifically right now however we still have a couple of vacant positions so we certainly want to fill those out we also hired a school climate specialist as per the sf3 plan last year and so that additional safe safety-like support has been provided at the school as well but to begin with we want to make sure that we fully make sure that the advocate staff is fully staffed and certainly during this time now or whatever i think we have to continue to revisit safety just kind of given the vast number of students here so but uh principal donovan and i have not talked about that specifically this year other than just making sure he's fully staffed which

116is something we're working on but like to your point just kind of given the number of students yes okay again kathy on behalf of the board thank you 2021 2022 so until it goes [Applause] so and for this year like years previously we revised the goals a little bit based on kind of where we are as a district but just in terms of process we did not change make any significant changes to the goals that this board has seen the last few years however we have and so the same buckets are still the same student learning and achievement for college and career readiness fall students the next one being family school and community partnerships fiscal responsibility planning for growth and talent acquisition and organizational systems for learning is opportunity and equity and so those are

117the four the five big areas for us as a district um and then you'll see the their goals parked underneath each one and so we focused on the first one tonight when i'm talking about the presentation increasing increasing equity and access to rigorous curriculum so dr casamiro talked about you know the need to address programming across the system k-12 whether that's literacy or high school curriculum programming at 9 12. increase staff capacity to support the improvement of tier one and so you've heard about the need of professional development in a lot of that training that's already taken place without pog work and then moving on to the next one family school and community partnerships there's a an effort being made to help to increase what communication looks like in the school district so a big

118focus for us this year will be starting the process to launch a website before the school year is over and then also launching parent square which is a social media platform where our families can communicate with schools and staff throughout the district and and so some of those are some of our big items in goal 2 2a and then until we develop family education opportunities to empower families and this is really about making sure that our families are empowered and dr andy working with families and kind of partnering with our ptli organization as an example and so we're working with catherine tucker and he's kind of like the second half of that work making sure that our families are kind of understand the board of ed processes understand how to access the school principle better

119understand how to access the website and parents fair when we get this launch understand the resources available at the school and understand that the liaison is a bridge to their parents and to the school itself so these are some of the things that we're trying to work through with our families as part of our network of national network of partnership schools and then you'll under each one is kind of like evidence under each area so again that's not different from what we've done in years past i know there's continuing to be an ask about a multi-year budget game so mr spain will be working on as part of the budget season this year um obviously we have a number of grants that play a role in that budget as well i know for this for

120this board there's concerns about the financial cliff and so in year one of um mr spang's arrival you know we'll be talking all of those kind of strategies to make sure we're in a good place at the end of the 24-25 school year um just and again i'm just picking off some of the highlights here and then i know another strategy we had talked about dr sal was here and then also my work with the community relations committee and there was a request to make sure that we're partnered with the city and having some type of committee form to start talking about our growth realities uh talking about the needs for new schools possibly um the academy making sure we can have a staff for the academy like making sure we come up with a

121concrete solutions to some of these joint problems that we share including strategies to try to get like this legislative agenda right now trying to escalate the payments to the city and to the school district from the alliance grant so those are just some of the examples and so just making sure we're intentionally working toward those goals organizational systems for learning opportunity and equity and this is um and i'm looking at carol wanza who's straight in front of me and dr castamero and kelly trousers to my left the district data team which is you know we're trying to unpack the data that you saw tonight we've been looking at that now for the last month and also talking about programming and decisions that we have to make to help improve student outcomes across the district which

122of course also include professional development for staff so those those meetings are not only happening but we're also trying to figure out who needs to be layered into the conversations so that we can better empower our schools and our departments to help improve our comfortable kids and stuff and then and i'll just go to the 4b with the last highlight this is really just coming up with a multi-year action plan for the school district for the launching of the new high school and so dr kasamir and her team they put together a multi-multi-layered action plan we were just looking at it briefly at cabinet on this past monday it's been available prior to cabinet adult monday but it's just kind of reminder of some of the benchmarks we need to hit to be able to

123open up that building uh and and that reminds me by the way um i will be asking probably in january when a new board forms um or actually john probably makes sense for us to talk about this at the next meeting we're going to need a building committee we need to bring the building committee back together again to one just make sure we have an update and the handle on the progress or lack thereof at the matrix but also speak to some um needs quite frankly for danbury high school this building if we're going to open up this building at 20. open up our academies in 2425 so it's it's really going to be necessary for us to pull that building committee back together again number one just kind of get some updates on the

124work around the matrix we had a lot of discussions with architects in the state um at the beginning of this school year uh but we have not spoken really to anyone from the city or the state um all the architects since then so we just feel like it's time to get everyone back at the table and just making sure we're still okay for 24.25 because this building is busting at the seams uh john did you want to add something to your okay only that we uh richard johnson and i met with antonio uh this week uh to talk about some of those things and about um we raised the idea of him coming in front of us here and making a presentation on exactly where things are he's very agreeable to that and he also

125indicated that things are still on schedule for a summer of 2024 turnover call thank you john and last but not least connected to the academy and launching of the new building is posting for the position of academy director and this position would be kind of a new idea for our school district but this this position specifically is would be charged with developing partnerships in our danbury in greater danbury community to make sure our kids have relevant experiences outside of danbury high school so we're really excited about that part and i'll ask cara to kind of speak to what she's learned when she's visited particularly the nashville the academies there and how they leverage this position i had some experience with the position similar to this in new york city um somewhat relevant but i think

126more relevant we've talked about the nashville position because this is really exciting for us because it really brings to life potentially what what what this can really mean for our kids in our staff sure so the position um and again we you know through their experiences in national learn the value uh kind of the return on investment with a physician that's of this magnitude so basically it's really to you know eight we have six academies and 24 pathways and each of those will need equipment we're going to need to connect kids to different uh internships externships shadowing experiences bringing in experts from the field into danbury high schools across the academies to speak to our kids to partner with teachers to develop curriculum so there's a lot of coordination um that needs to be involved

127and also a lot of facilitation with area businesses uh in order to get this work started um i've been meeting with as many folks as i can people of interest every day um someone will bring me something mr chanelli you know there's always another opportunity and there's tons of opportunity out there um having the time um to really meet with folks and say what can you do to provide something for a district there are we want to make sure that you know income donations uh scholarships um alignments to to to get to job sharing experiences um how can we help our somewhat helpful broker those partnerships with businesses corporations that are really ready to connect we just need to facilitate of that of that relationship and that process and that can't wait until the academy

128opens in 2024 that work it has to be um it has already started and it has to be systemic and ongoing and it has to build so that we're ready you know for when when we open up so um really having someone with business experience business savvy relationship builder um and and someone who can understand the work of the school system and embrace the vision that we have um is important but also you know there's a financial component to this as well we really need to sustain and support these academies and pathways and grow them out so in addition to just the businesses there's university partnerships that need to be developed we talked about early college experiences so not just isolated to deco one program or you know if you get the ticket to get

129in you get these experiences but how do we bring early college experiences across all the pathways and open it up to everybody so there's some articulations that need to happen with community colleges with universities with other areas that are providing opportunities for certifications and all kinds of wonderful things that are that are out there so it's really someone's going to collaborate and or help organize and build that over time we're also missing out on you know some opportunities to develop a foundation with which businesses can can engage with us and support us financially as well for those who want to do that and again this is a position that can help to to get that going and to spark that for us so we're excited about that and really it'll be a key leverage point

130for the development of the academies thank you thank you so that's it for me miss cooper and i thought there any questions about the goals are there any questions um open discussion about the superintendent goals i just have a yes question so um i heard parent square mentioned for months now and you keep saying when it launches um i currently have parent square for my child who doesn't attend danbury public schools and my child who still is in danbury public schools in the last maybe three weeks he showed up in my parents square notification as an active student um so i was just wondering if we haven't gone live yet why are our students in it or like what where do we stand and when is the live process happening if my child's already not

131that i care but if he's already enrolled in it so we're working you know you know what my question is yeah i i'm a little taken back to the price i'm sorry did you say you received a notification so he's registered so when i go into myself so my oldest son goes to abbott and i went into his settings to adjust something and my youngest son is registered in paris for parents square through danbury public schools okay okay i can explain that i'm sorry i thought you said you received a notification no no no no okay because that would have been a problem with the principles yes all right absolutely so okay so um what what has happened over the last couple of months uh because yes we're working hard to get this good parent's

132goal launched um in january as well okay january and so as part of the background work on this um we need to and cara is very well aware of this we have to upload all of our student management information into parent square in order to position the district um for notifications of families the notifications for our students and so you're in a unique situation because you have another challenge in it so that's why you're able to see your son in there okay but in the background we're working working with the data department trying to get this ready um so that's why you're seeing that okay i was getting nervous because i guess that does make sense because yes it would make sense that you would see him so we have probably just a couple of

133unique situations where families would see them right but otherwise i was just i was surprised because with powerschool you can't have two students in different schools connect on the same device we have to have one device for one and one device for the other but then parents where it was kind of nice that they could both be on my phone versus a tablet in the phone you know so that was actually thank you for mentioning that because that was actually one of the selling points from the platform for our families who have kids in multiple schools they kind of go to a menu and choose that could be another couple of days so thank you for mentioning i appreciate that clarification she made me nervous thank you okay um rachel i have a suggestion in

134in that next year or shortly a few weeks there will be a turn over the board and you'll have new members which part of their responsibility would be to evaluate you based on your your your goals would it be a worthwhile idea to have a presentation starting with the strategic plan of the district because i think a strategic plan allows people to know where you're going it shouldn't not only accomplish the current year but again as we did with the finances multi-year then aligning your goals with the strategic plan how it fits in align the portrait of a graduate with the strategic plan so you've got a top strategic plan and you can see what these different components that are being developed that is two that i just mentioned in addition to the the budget

135and the multi-year budget how it all aligns with the growth and the strategic plan of where you're going with you know with the district in in the near future so it puts everything into a comprehensive type of framework and then i think it gives a better understanding as to the total picture just a suggestion thank you uh we will work on that i i feel like it's a conversation cabinet and i have had before so thank you right um just a question about the order and your first goal um we just heard it explained that tier one instruction um you know to strengthen that theoretically lessens the need for intervention and it's kind of flipped here i mean it's all in the same top goal but um just any i don't know why it wouldn't

136be reversed um so just a thought there um other things we used to see um dates and specific assessments when you have the data report listed i don't i can't remember if that was you know in setting the goal or came after um and then a thing one thing that um the board kind of struggles with always is um having something measurable when we go and complete the assessment at the end of the year i recall one year i believe we requested you know a 10 [Music] um increase in student achievement across all old grades or something like that and i don't know where the 10 percent came from but something like that just to consider um and also with your your pog updates perhaps um dates or time frame for those updates would be

137helpful i would even add include you know your organizational study if it makes sense as evidence and perhaps you know talent acquisition and growth and then the board historically has always talked about technology and you know having gone through the pandemic you know that that really you know increase the the tech we have for students so maybe maintaining maintaining that technology of you know a ratio of one to one or whatever it is just just some thoughts there to consider it would be helpful for us you know something that would be helpful for us at the end of this process okay thank you thank you any other suggestions are there any board communications or comments yes i'd like to make a statement yes since i will be stepping down soon um of course i've written

138it down because i do best that way so if you will just listen to me for the next few minutes i know it's late and time for us to go but i just want to say to everyone here that it's been a privilege to serve on the danbury board of education for the last four years i've had the pleasure of being part of a board that worked well together through the unprecedented times of the pandemic i've also enjoyed the benefit of working with an outstanding administration and extremely dedicated teachers school staff as mr walston recently stated our team is second to none helping children to become all they were born to be was my main motivation for running for the seat as our new superintendent stated in his reopening letter we want to offer all

139opportunities for all learners in the danbury public school system this is what our portrait of the graduate work has been all about the district has been faced with the challenging task of getting our children back to school in person as we all know as we here tonight and many of our previous meetings the pandemic has taken a mental toll on everyone especially our children though excited to be back in school with their teachers and classmates many students are struggling with social skills and regulating emotions and dealing with lots of frustrations as you all know the administration and the board are aware of these demanding times our children are facing and with funding from the state and the needs of our students the needs of our students are being addressed with more counselors and coaches as

140you have talked about tonight if we want them to strive and excel academically then we must address the social emotional concerns first as we all continue this process i see another impending threat to our children's well-being it will need continued dedication and watchfulness for our kids and i'm referring to critical race theory over the summer i saw books with these ideologies already circulating in our schools i believe critical race theory is a destructive ideology and is not in our children's best interest it will hinder their growth and affect their social and emotional development here's an example from a parent in another school district and its effect on her child my seven-year-old first grader went from a normal functioning sweet child to one who will literally crumble at the slightest challenge and word when this material

141was introduced she became very upset and started coming home asking very pointed questions about who is she and if she is a bad person she told me mom i'm white my friend is brown i need to apologize to him for being white because white people have done bad things to people with brown skin this was a result of several books that were presented to the class from the wits and wisdom curriculum the mother states this curriculum has destroyed her daughter's self-esteem and created a world in which she is fraught with anxiety her daughter is now in counseling to work through the constant awful thoughts and feelings she's plagued by bordering on suicidal due to the nature of material taught in his books the story of dr martin luther king and is his i have a

142dream speech is beautiful and uplifting this is the world that the danbury public school system has lived in we all love the diversity of danbury 45 languages spoken at danbury high our students are colorblind can we strive to be better to understand more and be more sensitive to each person's background yes certainly but this crt curriculum is far more harmful than helpful it's depressing it's dark and it's divisive as martin luther king's niece alvita king states we're not separate races there's only one human race so i know from working with this superb team in danbury that their intentions hold on are always to do what's best for our children together we must carefully consider what curriculums we will choose as we move forward parents i urge you to come back to the school board meetings

143they are in person and they are open to the public get educated let your voice be heard your input is very important at this time it is in the best interest of our students that we all be well informed and unified in our desires for the direction and education of our children so they can become all they were born and destined to be thank you i'm going to miss everybody thank you amy board chairperson report um briefly uh our next meeting is november the 23rd uh it will be our last meeting here at the black box theater if it's not gonna i hope they have the heat on that time because it's cold okay uh we'll be here on november 23rd okay uh two board members you know that at our annual meeting we do

144a little love token to certain peoples so uh i'm asking you guys if you can't do it tonight uh kathy has requested she gets the little gifts for everyone uh everyone to donate ten dollars if you don't have it tonight can we have it on the 23rd so she won't have to run out to the last and the last bit okay and if you want to call her person she's not feeling well but if you want to talk to her person have some other arrangement you want to get it to her just do that okay okay um if there's nothing else i'll entertain a motion to a jerk move by mister by ourselves