001e e e a conversation uh that was uh you know I thought went uh really well in terms of you know talking about some of the things that some of the strategies we need to use and also talking about some of the messaging that we have to use um and uh I appreciate everybody turning in responses to carara and uh and you know to car thank you to Cara even though she's not on here right now for um making the arrangements both for this meeting and also relaying that information to us so I did send over a spreadsheet to um Mr Walston and and gladus and Amy were both copied on that um I'd like to go ahead and I'm gonna pull up that that spreadsheet so we can kind of you know sort of
002talk around that um to to kick this off um I did get an update from Joe Brittain he submitted some information to me as well so uh you'll see his info on here let me just get this screen share going [Music] here so can everybody see that no not yet yet let's see if it goes through here now we can oh it did of course I of course I just let me try that one more time sorry guys okay now we can see it you can see it okay um so you know starting up at the top here we've got uh you know feedback from five of our members I'm hoping that Lauren uh will also chime in on this uh just so we get a good representative sample but you can see that there's
003a lot of overlap here in terms of what each of us thinks is important um you know I think it goes without saying that we have to Center this conversation around the budget so I I do see that you know um you know throughout the five here have budget listed as as their one of their main priorities the whole conversation we're having is about that so um when you look at what the overlap is for particular uh subjects on the budget the big ticket items and the big things that people feel are going to be important to be able to understand and explain to others special education supports which obviously takes up a a big amount of our resources um elel and ESL supports again and um you know and and these are things that
004even the state recognizes and its weight for the ECS formulas that those are uh really um areas of Education where districts have to spend more money in order to provide the level of service that those students need so um I think that that will help in terms of us being able to relay those costs um and concerns to uh folks in Danbury um the socio emotional supports also came up and you know that I understand that I looked at these and and kind of took things that I thought were kind of overlapping and maybe just used a little bit of different language depending on who was putting that information together um and kind of condense these topics a little bit so if you feel that um we need to handle the specifics like that supporting
005that supporting piece of it expand on that we can certainly do that as we start to um DHS accreditation was another piece of this um and that was you know how do we make sure that we keep the high school uh functional so that those diplomas our kids walk out with mean something um and then the last area was curricular supports um you know and that's that's uh speaking mostly to the the things we have to purchase so that our kids uh instruction process can continue things like the science kits for example that I know uh you know they've been doing sort of a rolling process with that where they're doing one grade at a time and purchasing science kits to be able to share with the kids and that's that's sort of an ongoing
006process so I think helping people understand that we can't just purchase all of the curricular materials we need um and even though we would like to be able to do that I think it is a very strong uh point to bring forward here so I'm just wondering if anybody has any feedback on the meain subjects here that we're we seem to be focusing on or if they have a different perspective on this I can't see everybody's faces so uh don't wait for me to recognize you just jump in Okay small typ just know sorry the type is so small oh sorry Dr s let me see if I can zoom in here just me you know you're you the only one brave enough to mention it though so I will now I can I will
007give you the credit all right let's see well I mean just just from uh my perception and this is not news to you that item the the the seal and ESL are are very high high priorities um most of your funding tip that we have been getting has been asking us to focus on our L's and closing the Gap and as you know that we have the highest numbers and the social emotional Kelly and the group have been doing a good job with it but that's a very high priority and in your current budget um we've added you know um um workers and non-classroom Personnel to help that so I I think those are too um not easy but that that resonates with everyone you know in terms of that um so I and the
008curricular support um we have been very deric only because we haven't had money to do it I think it's nice to um be able to set aside money and Courtney did it for us last year and Cara was so appreciative she was able a problem was not having the money trying to get people to work of the pandemic you know but that's a that's so that's a that's a real need and if you notice in your budget one of the recommendations from Cara um has been to um extend her central office folks so they are present during the summer to do this work and it's minor money so we have you know we have a captive audience and leaders so those are areas you already have started and uh we're okay with that um so
009I I I think all of those things um are uh that Amy mentioned and of course the restorative practice um so I think everything there I don't want to say easy talk but um they have a good narrative behind them I agree Dr s um and I just wanted to thank you and an me for coordinating um a piece that that Anne sent over to me um which was sort of to provide a contrast between what the need is and what we've specifically put into the budget to address that need I think that's a really great way to frame the conversation um and and we talked a little bit about this last meeting but it's this idea of saying we heard you we hear the requests you're making and what you need from us and
010this is you know how we're trying to plan and response to that um all right so I'm just going to scroll down here a little bit and talk a little bit about some of these things at the bottom here um this first section with the notes here um you know I think these are things these are sort of like larger picture things that we're going to be hoping to communicate to the the public um you know core services are our priority and that's always been behind the decision making as far as you know this is the money that we have to deal with and this is the number of students we have to to deal with so these are the number of teachers we need to have in the classroom um that's something that um
011you know you've emphasized many times over the the time that I've been here Dr s um and I think that that's something that you know kids see day in and day out so obviously we're going to speak to that and speak to the enrollment increases that we've been experiencing in the last decade um that's that's a big you know piece of being able to have these conversations with people um you know it's one thing to talk about Danbury growing and putting in new buildings and the kind of stuff that we've seen going on as far as development it's another thing to talk about the actual infrastructure needs that we have and specifically what that looks like in a school environment the infrastructure we're talking about isn't just space it's staff members and we haven't really
012been able to keep Pace with the growth that we've experienced um and specifically in the socio emotional supports which I know you know Amy you've brought that up a number of times at different board meetings you know how are we going to provide those supports for students um you know and and the counselors which you know we've had counselors come in and testify that their workload is just beyond what they can reasonably handle um so talking about that planning for growth um piece of it I think is a really important thing for board members to have a good handle on um because it's not just you know we're going to immediately implement the number of additional staff members that we need it's we recognize that there's a process here to build up our staff and
013that's something that Dr Dr casmo talked about as well we can't do this all in one big push for the Career Academy there has to be a gradual layering of these additional positions um one area that I think I'm certainly going to need some help on and I'm not sure you know who's comfortable sort of diving into this but how's the budget going to impact taxes um if if we were to look at you know an increase to the overall City budget what's that going to mean for taxpayers in danb yeah I started to work Al did ask a question about that is Al here yeah I see Al and um I put together something just very broad um and then you know we didn't include it in the PowerPoint because it didn't tell kind
014of the story we would have wanted to have told at the time but it is a a decently significant impact on taxpayer local taxpayers um just a rough look at it initi when Al ask me to look at it it's about a 6% increase you know to raise $14 million um um based on the FY like last year's assessed value Grand list assessed value um which would translate into roughly about a $220 bill I think if I'm not mistaken Al per you know Homeowner of a home valued at about 220k but but if there's anybody here that wants to work with me on that I'm happy to provide some data and information um and we can figure out how to talk about that you know thanks Courtney I think that that's going to be a
015really again that's that's a piece that people are going to ask about and want to know about um and I think what we need to think about you know know as uh committee members as board members is how do we help folks understand that that extra $220 or maybe that's going to be an extra $300 in their tax bill what does that translate in terms of services that we can provide for our students and even beyond that why why what will those services do to propel our students um one thing that came back that we got feedback from the high school about was that the lack of counselors there providing support for um college decisionmaking and scholarship uh opportunities and um just the kind of support that students need as they're choosing what they're going
016to do After High School um you know that's that's the value of the education that you're receiving at the local level it's supposed to prep prepare you for the future and yet when we're getting to that last stage of things where kids are really getting ready to go out into the world able to provide that really critical support especially for kids who maybe don't have that support at home and they're doing this on their own and trying to choose a path so um know one of the things that you have going now forward which I think is um a real gem for us as a district and is when they construct the structure and Amy could probably speak to this as well of the portrait of The Graduate it articulates exactly what you said um
017in terms of the product that we're going to produce and a pathway but when you build this this branding and our budget you could use the those I think it's five areas of of of the what we expect of the graduates when we break it down and then have all of these as part of that so there's a Nexus to the budget and to The Graduate um you know so that it's the 360 this is not a it's not episodic and that Str in thinking of that if I were here that's what I would start moving towards so that then the story becomes the story of everything it's not just about the money it's about what's going to happen with the resources as we Define as a product when you leave danburry schools that now
018becomes the narrative so I think that's that might one something you guys might want to think about that's a good framework I'm just gonna make a that's a good idea Dr s those five what those five areas kind of defines everything we're talking about here yeah agreed Kevin I know you know those five areas off the top of your head yes and I believe there are six um but I I don't give me a second and I'll put my hand on it I have to go over to my papers I have to go look at my papers are good support I know critical thinking is one we gotta make huh we got to make it into an acronym yeah that's right that'll do it gotta figure one out when we get when we see yeah
019Kate yes well Kevin's looking for that well I have it yeah hey Rich how are you okay s you we keep mentioning about the $1 13 million budget and I'm really concerned that we don't really you know I'm concerned that we're asking for $13 million and we get $10 million in our back pocket with this cares too manyy I mean we've got to be able to come up and and you know if you were talking to the city say how are we going to spend this 10 million you know we're not looking to get $13 million from you during a crisis period like this when we have $10 million that we're going to offset on certain things so we've got to be able to take that 10 million and say what of the 10 million
020we can apply against against the 13 not that we're going to have a shortfall but then come down with a legitimate number that we're asking the city for otherwise I mean you're not going to spend 10 million dollars to buy masks and and and all the other stuff dividers uh unless you're going to put air conditioning in every every school million Rich the 10 million the 10 million were to go to Pand pandemic migration strategies explicitly to try to attack achievement gaps that's a big portion of it along with some others but just as you mentioned this today um the we just I think I sent it to Cara and the group we just got a something from the state department late this afternoon about four o'clock with A needs assessment so we have to
021we have to look do the needs assessment to define the areas that you're talking about right now you know in terms of what what's going to be appropriate and then do what Courtney did last year graded to the budget and the alliance Grant to make this a 360 but it has we have to go through the Ste assessment as we to identify it I think like what what s's talking about like I think rich is we're I think one of the things we can say is we're looking at sustainability we're not just looking at next year if if we don't invest in the students and we count on this funding that's one time the taxpayers and everybody else is going to be that much worse off in two or three years we're bu building a
022future investment for the community but like and I know that's just a bullet point and that's a broad statement and I understand what you're saying and I think we do need to go through that exercise that you suggested to look at what of this budget can be sustained and supported through other funding sources as we did last year but I also think we really do have to think about the sustainability because if the city doesn't make the right investment now they're going to be that much worse off in two or three years and I think we need to talk to people about that because this is what we've been doing every year you know saying well and that and we're in a hole and the hole will get bigger and and it is about the
023sustainability and it's about getting to the place we need to be when we open the academy and when we you know can realize some of the gains of the portrait of a graduate and things like that I understand that they're playing Devil's Advocate you know I'm not looking for A10 million Cliff to say that we use the10 million dollar you know against the budget and then we have subsequent um charges year after year what I'm saying is that I firmly believe in the budget there are onetime items in there that could be applied against the10 million and that with some gray areas we can utilize that $10 million against something else to reduce the amount that we're asking the city for asking the city I I agree this is our budget and we we need
024it but asking the city for $13 million now they're going to laugh at US unless we're upfront with them and say look we're going to work with you we've got this money we're you know legally we can apply it against here so it's reducing the city's impact and we're only asking you for X number of dollars but this is our budget and explain to them how we've applied it I mean I I think we have to be upfront and also with the board is to you know we can't continue to to to play hide and seek it's like last year we you know very creative with the braided f fing and and year after year we get cut and we go through the generations of utilizing the es uh the uh Alliance money and and
025doing our other gimmicks and people think that you know we're we're just fooling them because we've got an overstated budget but I I think the way times are now rather than the city government just laughing us out of the office for $13 million I think we've we've got a up with a conscientious way to do the braiding this year and show them our work papers and say this is what we need So Courtney can I ask a quick question about the sr2 funds because I think this is what rich is driving at uh and and I understand this is supposed to specifically be used to to deal with pandemic related uh achievement issues but is it specific to only curriculum and to that kind of work or is it also can it be used for
026like Capital Improvements and that kind of thing so you know looking at like the high school so yeah there's a broad rate there's like five you know pillars to it and one of which does include newly it wasn't in Sesser one but HVAC and you know safety enhancements which could Encompass a lot of things that we would do there it's it's an option um I would just be a little careful because the we we haven't decided yet what we wanted to prioritize to do with that funding but I would just also say that yes a lot of the new items that we put forward could conceivably be you know utilized in that under that grant funding source do you know what I mean so the counseling is appropriate I just but those are salaries right
027those are like operating costs so I'm not clear as to whether or not that would be covered by the sr2 stuff it could be if you utilize the strategy where you rolled it into alliance which is why it's a little complicated because right the state is right now proposing freezing our alliance funding for the two years and then it would go back to 2021 levels in 2024 so that would cause us a big problem um so yeah there's like some moving Target parts and most of our investments this year were Staffing you know there's a big investment in curriculum but um a majority of our asks were related to Staffing right yeah and that's something that's going to be operating cost going forward so regardless of what happens with the the braided funding this year
028um we still have to account for that going forward all right and that's what I kind I wanted to get at um I don't I I don't want to get too far in the Weeds on this stuff because I think our our job here is a little bit broader than than working out and hashing out the specifics which I think you know Rich I'd certainly be open to having you know a conversation offline about that um and maybe we can we can speak with Courtney directly and set up something that just sort of go through that from a financial perspective but um you know in terms of the work we have to do here um I think you know we have and and it may be impacted by that conversation in the interest of moving
029forward I think you know we need to look at what our strategies are going to be um in narrowing down these five points that we we have above here the idea was to give everybody um you know some information about how to talk about these things in a in a way that will help whatever audience you happen to be in front of um so I think that you know we can we should start you know working on why these things are important and why we asked for them in the budget um that's one piece of this I think the other piece is we need to sort of revisit you know what we're looking to do uh with using different methods um Sterling was nice enough to send over um some information some videos for us
030to take a look at um I think that's going to be a good way to reach people you know through social media with like shorter bits of information that they're receiving um we've also talked about you know presenting to different groups so you can see under the notes here I'm starting a column of different groups that we could network with I'd like to hear from everybody in the group about different groups that they could reach out to um and make a presentation to I'd like to build that list out and make sure that we're um Crossing off all these names um Dr me I think you probably have some information we could add here um so I'm not sure what the best way is if we could share this document I could put it up
031as a Google Google doc or um maybe somebody else you know maybe Cara could put up as a Google doc for us all to be able to access um I have it already I will add to it absolutely okay that would be great I just think you know we need to we need to sort of um pin down exactly the groups that we're looking to get in front of um we also talked about uh you know putting together a one pager or a visual representation of this stuff we're we're sort of approaching this point in the committee where I think some of this work is going to have to be done outside of the actual Meeting hours so that you know maybe two or three of us are going to partner with an administrative member
032um and sort of come up with a concept to bring back to the group and introduce and I'm wondering you know if folks are amenable to participating in that way no one what's to work with me Kate I will work with you Kevin and then you will get very tired of me very quickly you're gonna be surprised he already put together some things so absolutely yeah awesome okay um he just so you know Richard was able to get get us to go and speak at the at a club so maybe one of the things you could do is keep some kind of a I don't want log about who who we're going out to just so that we we know that who's going where yes I think that's a great idea and that's what I
033that's that's what I was going with with making a list of these group group you have us going to there was a men's club they have about 170 members they said is it um jury specific Rich under other some resignation I I believe so I'm not 100% sure I just belong to the the book club but uh I'm not sure whether it's Danbury takes into different towns okay um interest was in the high school Civics and stuff like that basically Civics and what what programs they taught in the high school it didn't sound like they were too pleased in what was being taught because they don't know exactly you're exactly right you're exactly right that's why that's why I thought it was a great opportunity for you to set them straight rich is my manager
034what are you getting paid for [Laughter] this I I think that brings up a point though Rich which is that it's helpful for us to know you know whoever is connected to whatever speak with it's helpful for us to know what's important to them because that's going to change the tone of the pitch we're making no you're right and it's it's also you I often say when you talk to somebody it's know your audience so you know in a particular audience like we were talking earlier last week it was for the elderly group and focus points on how education you know would benefit those in in a community that doesn't have children or Community where you've got senior citizens worry about tax increases and what the budget and supporting education uh does for them but
035uh and Courtney was nice enough to send me an article which I thought you know was really good hit the nail on the head in terms of being able to identify a lot the areas but get getting back to your your five points are is it your intent that each of us take us each of us take one of these subject matters and then be the person who does the the presentation when we go out and do presentations um you know I I kind of have mixed feelings on it in the in One Way Rich I think that's a great way to do it because it allows somebody to sort of take a deep dive into the material and really know it very well and so be able to share it in that way but
036I also think that these subjects are going to be broad enough that they may come up over the course of a meeting with any group um and it would be in our best interest I think as as presenters to be able to address any one of them you know in a in a reasonable way there might be maybe one area that you may feel more passionate about and so that's that's the area that you kind of focus your attention on because the groups you're working with that's that's the interest level as well but I do think being able to speak to each of these because each one of them represents a substantial portion of the budget um yeah we just have to make sure uh Kate that we're you know when we're the individual is
037is talking on the same you know the same points as you know that we're all on the same page is what I'm trying to say you if I go out as an administ as a superintendent I've got you know I'm I'm speaking for the district um and representing the board right I think we need to be mindful that as we get you get a narrative that I hate to use this word so don't take it in a pejorative way the company line you know I don't mean it to you know be bad but you know it's not Sal's position on uh El and the type of support but it's the district's focus on what we what we're doing at as a district that would be my only caution because that could create um misinformation yes
038so we we got to figure way how to you know develop the N said before and I think we we have to stress and and again as Courtney mentioned the fact that we've got to be able to sustain these budgets you know it's that we can no longer affect the the DraStic cuts that we've been you know getting in the past and I keep saying that's eroded the foundation you know at this point here we've got to be able to sustain the particular budgets that we ask for in order to provide the ultimate outcome and achievements that we're looking to get from this you know again we should be able to answer a question what am I getting from my money you know I go back to a return on investment if I'm investing in
039higher property taxes or I'm investing in voting for your budget what am I get getting for it you know and and part of it can be the conceptual part of the conversation of the building of the portrait of a graduate that you have this particular individual that you you know has been developed in Danbury uh if you want to use that as the ultimate tier as the the achievement that we're looking to do so I I think is one of the questions we should be able to answer is you know what's my return on investment in in in investing in in the budget and and supporting the budget yeah I think those are good points rich thank you I'm sorry I'm just filling in a few gaps here while we're talking to make sure I'm
040capturing some of this um Kate could I ask a question of course GL go ahead um as we all um you know this committe is going out talking to very groups I would think as board members it would be more beneficial to us because we all speak to different groups and and we all speak at uh different ways and I think glattus I'm so sorry I lost your your uh I lost your sound here gladus you're you're not on gladus I'm not hearing your sound I'm sorry okay and uh because at some point a couple of years ago that sort of hit us in the face so you know I'm over here talking to this group and I say one thing and then you know then we come back and find out well okay that's
041not uh how we should be doing this or that's not the right information if you can't give someone or have the information that you really need uh you know you just say that I will get back to you in some type of form but I think if you can come up with um a narrative oh that's what you want to use a strip that's being handed out to all of us to you know to present I think it would be more beneficial as a group to go out and speak to these different groups that's just me yeah no I think that's very helpful gladus um and and that sort of speaks to what we were talking about before which is to you know um Dr Cell you know saying that we need to have sort
042of like a district a district Focus um you know something that we're all you know kind of supporting rather than um trying to interpret for people um so in terms of like building out a narrative uh or you know some kind of structure by which to talk about these mean subjects here uh do folks have any idea about how they they would like to go about that work I'll make a recommendation my recommendation would be to have each of the committee members select one of the main subject items do what they feel is is is a writeup on it you know review it with the others if it's approved share it with the other committee members so again everybody should be attuned to the similar talking points and if somebody who's dealing with social emotional
043also can speak to accreditation because he's already or she's already been scripted or briefed about what that person is going to say so that we all have the same talking points and I think by divvying it divvying up the the the main subjects if this is what we agree we're going to focus on it would make the task a lot shorter and we can come back with you know some drafts of it so he can show it to the administration because they're the ones who are the pros basically you know to to give us the guidance on this yeah I think that's a great idea rich and then we can sort of we can sort of you know take the show on the road to say and then maybe somebody could set up a meeting
044with somebody and we do our first you know it's like a Broadway show you do it Off Broadway pick our gental audience first yes before you go to the city council and hit Broadway for the you know for big time yeah but that that might be easier and it gets each of us involved in the project itself um and then I you know with the notes of what what we come up with uh we just pass them on to other people so that there's a uniformity in there yeah and I think that that's going to be helpful too in terms of developing these other avenues of reaching people you know building that consistent messaging um hitting on the same points so that they're resonating because you know and I don't know who's familiar with this
045but there's like a concept of how many touches you have to have with a person in communication in order for them to start to either take interest in it or notice it um and so you know I'm sort of approaching it from that standpoint it's not just going to be us going and speaking to these groups it's also going to be they're seeing a video on social media that Echoes some of the same information they're getting a one-page document that you know with an infographic on it that that you know visually represents a lot of the same content uses the same kind of language because I think part of our obstacle here is reaching out to the public and you know the certainly the administration members but many of us board members too have been
046around this language for a long time which is very academic and easy for us to sort of interpret is it's not like that for other people and we kind of get lost in our own bubble because we're just so used to speaking that way so um so go ahead kin yeah okay if I can interject I just wantan to I Mr janell's Point that he's making earlier I think I I I feel like we need to agree on who our constituency groups are that we want to get in front of and so and then once we agree to those groups Mr janelli would say I'd be very comfortable to join Administration to go present with that group right so from the inid side we would have a consistent voice on our side going out in
047front of the community and then Mr janelli would say oh I'll join Kevin and Courtney for that group Miss Cooper will say I I have enrolled in this community I'll join for this one Amy would say oh I have this one I know them up you know and so they would be the people to get us in the door make us feel welcomed and wanted in that community and and then I think you have the consistent voice on the admin side and so if Mr janelli feels comfortable in front of this group right and so with Courtney and Mr janelli and I were all you know having this conversation or s at another meeting you know with Miss Cooper in Courtney and and I I feel like we need a consistent voice on admin side
048and then it's the board that helps us open the door to get to the community so you know like maybe you guys are introducing us to the community maybe it's hey you know Dr Pascarella is here to speak to you and I don't know maybe Amy speaks you know fluid Portuguese and she opens the door welcomes and invites us into the Portuguese Community as an example um I mean those are my thoughts anyway and Kate just so you know Courtney an um and then my one of my offsprings um helped put together a graphic um and so we based on the in our last meeting we talked about about the idea of this one pager and so I I would like to show it to the team for a reaction um but I also want
049to say um and and we based the one pager on the five um priorities that we talked about but I think we learned quickly Courtney found an amazing kind of four pager which kind of summed up a lot of things that we said we wanted to touch on but but the document was somewhat dense with a lot of info like really packed in there but I I I I feel like as a team right here we need to agree maybe we do want to Le the community with a one pager but it needs to be based on something a little bit longer because I don't think we're going to be able to squeeze everything in that one page and so I'll just give you an example and I'll share you know for some reactions tonight
050just to get us started and Kayla's amazing I she's she did a great little job with this she's amazing so the so over here on the left hand side this is what it looks like in its entirety and is this big enough for everyone to see yeah put my glasses on yeah all right so again this is how the whole piece looks here but I'm just gonna go from top to the bottom so it's I mean Courtney an and I were just trying to think about just something to grab folks attention um the text box we couldn't we just couldn't fit with so much in there but here are the five priorities that we talked about this actually could be hyperlink to any PowerPoint we want right now you'll see this will be Courtney's PowerPoint
051however if we wanna if we want a PowerPoint to go on a road with that five or eight page PowerPoint could be right here in the middle and then I'll go back here and so then an explanation for each Focus area will be in the bands underneath and then the cost associated with each area would be here right and then this language we may have to you know massage the language a little bit but we just wanted something in there for the team to look at some of this language probably looks familiar because this is some of the language that Courtney had on a PowerPoint so I'll just kind of scroll through I love this the color coding here too yeah that's fantastic cool she's so talented this was Kayla uh kev's daughter she's so
052talented Kevin my suggestion Dr Sal Courtney is is an an is maybe to utilize this concept too and add it to our budget presentation you know not the the the numeric one but the the other you know the the book where you've got the charts and the graphs it is to put this in there too this is is is a top page this is very catchy yeah yeah yeah and then each of the supporting things somewhere in here Mr J somewhere in the PowerPoint itself exactly okay I got like have each of those pieces of the pie start the section and make it as simple as we want so that red piece social emotional and then we talk you know whatever even if it's just one page like I think that's a great idea yeah
053thematic you know I like it so we would so um from another piece and Courtney I'm gonna um flip over to the tab that you found y y sure that other District yeah we so and Courtney and I we spent a lot of time on this one but this was an I thought an amazing framework until you'll see so there are four pages in total um um apparently there is other ways that we can show this we can show it where it kind of flips Pages you just had to press the button so instead of it being four consecutive Pages it would just be one page press a button it will flip like this so it doesn't look like there it look it will continue to look like there's just one document um but in
054this presentation they pretty much condense Courtney's entire PowerPoint in four pages and you'll get an idea what I mean so this is the the entire community and then all of the FTE and a a quick benefit or rationale why and that's you know not very different from some of the Courtney's presentations we we don't do this kind of breakdown here but this is a comparison of districts and kind of where we are so if we think something like that is important they talk about a focus on facilities here so we could also do something like this in a four or five pager in addition and then we can reiterate the priorities here if we wanted to is this something that we could this is fantastic we could leave this behind is a handout so to
055say we could we could you know um that's great one of the things you Kevin and think about and is maybe put the hyperlinks to some of these videos that we're looking at to bring it alive um that would be a A Real Fine comprehensive way of involving the the the the actual folks affected while we tell the story I I like the whole con either one I like the design and the story if we brand it with the same colors and the same wording like if it's whether the wording is invest in our community future or whatever the wording is if all of our various campaigns hit that language and the colors you know that were then you know we could appeal and it will be a similar kind of thing I think that
056would be good yeah that consistency will help so one of our parents in the community um called right after Courtney's budget presentation that we had at our board meeting a couple weeks ago um and and and he as as as part of a strategy he just thought it was important so I I just want to give him credit he thought it was important that we do something like this make sure we leave some type of call I know we've also talked about this but leave some type of call to action for the community and so in this District they did a really nice job let your voice be heard and this is what they wanted their Community to do go out it's a little different language but go out to Town Council you know speak
057to the board of ed um and you know let your voice beat her we want to hear from you at the board meeting and tell them what meeting to come to you know in terms of how they can support I like that then they also had the dates for the actual presentation and so we just didn't have enough we ran out of space but we wanted to borrow that idea and and so we'll we'll modify this a little bit if you like this idea and make this bigger so that call the action I think the call of action probably should have a similar we might make this a little smaller make the entire do thing a little smaller so this can be bigger because I think that's important for us yeah so K it's it's
058not in the Google Doc so I'll have to send everyone a hard copy if they want to see it um but I I for me anyway I think I need feedback on how you'd like for us to proceed an Courtney and I you know we can modify this and you know why I have some expertise here try to benefit from it change and modify this PDF Uh Kevin so you could email it around okay okay I didn't really yeah I love it um I I you know this is the kind of thing that that is exactly what I was trying to put my finger on last last week um you know something that's very visually appealing and breaks it down in a very um direct way you know that's that's I think what we need
059to you know be putting in people's hands um you know those and and like you said like having a more detailed breakdown of this stuff available for people who who want that additional information um but this is like the Broadway to reach a bunch of people I just want to go back to one thing you said Kevin um which is talking about the different groups that we might be Pres presenting my original thought was let's compile a list of everybody that we know it sounds like though that maybe we would be better off figuring out like who we want to focus on and how we're going to try to reach those groups a good point I like that as a strategy it's so effective to have people testify I'm hoping that they do it as
060public do you know what I mean it's so effective to have some strong Community Voices talking about the impact of this you know Kate over the years the where we have the least um amount of speaking to um the the critical issues is at the town meeting we have the lease one or two get up and you know to we could talk to the PTO you could talk to the you know to to to the Hispanic Center uh but people just need to get up at that meeting in ways in positive ways not because accusing folks you know where that goes right but in positive ways of a need is where I've been very disappointed over the years um you we we should have representation better and it shouldn't just be a board member or
061a teacher it shouldn't because they look at us as being you know it's it's we have a paral reason but other folks that we could get up and speak um that that just can't that's got to be I think Kevin's point of of having the the focus of which that would be a high yeah that on my list over what I view that's the place where we we just don't get the message to them so over the last couple of weeks we have seen or last couple of months um many more families come out because they can do it virtually they don't have to worry about child care they don't need to worry about having their families out late at night and so I think it's our opportunity to capture them and give them a
062script to be able to come and speak for um supporting the budget I think having it at a time and a long enough period of time not just the 30 minutes would be beneficial to us and as well as we have some newer groups in danburry that have advocated for education in different ways in Danbury that we could ask now to um speak on behalf of this budget because it is going to um we share their values for their children I gotta go and this budget speaks to those values and so I think we can get U more folks on board um with really good effective targeted Outreach um to the different groups and I I was also wondering about um whether or not we could get the council or the education Committee of the
063council to be amable to that kind of a meeting um because Courtney they they wouldn't do that there's two places as you know well you didn't do it last year year I don't know where they're going to do this typically that's why I'm saying it yeah you have the you know you have the whole convening of the the entire group where it's presented and then um then they're going to have a subcommittee you know of about six members where that's that's what's going to happen and that's like and then they make they usually typically have one meeting and they make a recommendation to the whole group um so those are the two opportunities that that we have oh we used I don't know happen this year yeah I was concerned in the virtual world that
064they unless we ask for it they might continue to say okay we're going to just do that virtual approval of the budget but maybe we say build that good Community will and allow it to be you know a zoom if there if it's still considered unsafe at that point in April who knows you know but at least allow there to be some way of public participation that's not just like we do with letters writing in if we ask for it do you know what I mean if it's going to be inevitable that it might be because they haven't even scheduled it yet because of that reason the lack of clarity around right maybe yeah s maybe you could ask Joe Cavo as to what his his thoughts are what his plans are for this year
065and I like your presentation Kevin because I think at any at the C at the subcommittee meeting because it's going to be virtual we can come up with a nice presentation on you know on a a a presentation as opposed to just going there and handing out the Leaf book as we have in the past yeah using you know using uh the concepts that we just talked about but I'd like to go back to an for a minute and and you point and Kevin's point about what groups do we can't cover everybody so maybe we select the number of groups of five groups what groups do we feel we want to contact uh that we want to to go out and and you know educate them as to what we're doing and hopefully get their
066support or or do you think it's better just to hit everybody I don't you know I say I say five because times limitation and to do it by video is another scheduling problem what do you think of what do you think of the groups and and the amount of groups well you got to go to the Citywide PTO I would think yes okay well that's on our that's already on the list of one of the peoples yeah I added some other to the list too so I don't Kate if you want to pull the list up I think it's important go to the churches Senior Citizen Center is closed but they are publishing a newsletter so um we could get something in that I think we have to take um the opportunity to be able
067to um can I just ask you something just just my own understanding every time we do these things we say senior citizen all all the years I've gone there I've seen one one senior citizen get up and and you know what I'm just I'm not saying it's a waste of time so please I'm not trying to be discourteous I just don't know the value of going to the seniors I just I just don't their center is closed right now so they only put things in their newsletter to send out yeah no I'm just I'm saying as a strategy yeah I I don't think it you know Dr s i I hear what you're saying I don't think it necessarily does has any uh impact directly in that way um it's you know from my perspective
068it's just sort of a larger um you know inclusion of everybody in the community um that's a group that often gets neglected um and cut out of conversations so I think there's a benefit to trying to open that conversation up um but I don't expect to yield any actual results of people showing up at the meeting and you know speaking in support of the education budget so I don't think we should focus a lot of attention there but um I do want I do think we should include that that population of people I can see going to them to talk about the speakers Bureau about what we're doing but the budget idea is just you know they're on fixed incomes yeah it's not gonna go anywhere that's all yeah can you refresh this page because
069I added a whole bunch of other things sorry this is I I this is mine and it might not I I made a copy so maybe I should take mine down Kate might Kates might be more up to date uh I do not have it on Google Docs I just have it on my uh spreadsheet that's that's what I had posted did you want me to put something post something different in because I was using the original one that Kate had shared I took the sheet that you shared and I added to the bottom of it I can just read off the groups lead which is our Latinos um for danber Education um our play groups 21st century um Family Programs P constituent group danur women so wait I'm sorry an is that one one
070big thing 20 the play groups is the 21st century the play groups are separate from the 21st century program yeah um women's league of Danbury Mom's Club social media groups we've got some wonderful ones with pres on Facebook right now Portuguese Center and then I'd like to work with Ari Rosenberg through Arc I've already spoken to him about um some other programming but then through the CH through that would be uh information distributed to the churches I heard Portuguese C I didn't hear what you said after that yes yes what did you say after them oh arc Arc Association yeah is that religious yes religious Community Association of religious Association of religious community community you said something else though end didn't you 21st century play group the women's league Portuguese Center was there one more
071right PG constituent group okay I had I did put the Danbury senior Cent Center Senior Center down Danbury women's league women's league of Danbury it's actually New Fairfield Danbury group but they're very active Mom's Club we actually have two mom's clubs here in Danbury and then the social media groups yeah get them out there that's what y I mean the other thing we can also do is to hold some open forums if we'd like to spend some time you know one or two nights or a Saturday morning and one night um inviting folks to come into an open meeting to learn about what we're proposing in the budget yeah I think that's a great idea and I think also just to educate them about how to be involved next year too you know building the
072momentum for the budget build so including that as part of a topic like this is about the future of your schools it's not just about this year's budget so if we can engage them earlier next year through focus groups and through you know getting their connections this year that would be really really wonderful correct and what about parents the special education kids we absolutely we care here in town yeah they would be another one we could yeah we care w c P HR yeah the p parent leadership yep I've got P got plti on there okay pltr so not how do we draw down I mean this is a lot of groups and you know if we had a lot of time maybe throughout the course of the year we can continue this project not
073just during the budget season I think it's a it's a year-long project you know it's not just a one time and then you drop it it's a constant conject set yeah I mean I think there's an education process that's going to go on here Rich um you know that that I would hope we can extend beyond just the budget cycle because a lot of this this this is a lot of information to throw at people all at once so Community are we capturing the business community Through the P group um just I just know you know that you were talking about engaging the in terms of the Career Academy and seeing the benefits of the to you know the denber community as a whole so like Chamber of Commerce kind of thing chamber yeah what
074do you think I don't know maybe for a future I don't know for this go around but I think for the future the chamber I don't think you know but maybe maybe in tandem with like the development of the Career Academy as that starts to unfold yeah yeah most of of these groups have a digital newsletter so at least it wouldn't be bad in getting the information in their hands and hopefully sending it out in their newsletter if we don't do a presentation for their group I think we need to do a multi-prong on this to get the information out I'd also um you know love to see the Hamlet Hub or the news times or the tribuna to do uh another article in the budget too yeah oh yeah that's a great idea is
075that did I spell that right no yes and what's that isn't there um a Portuguese newsletter as well is there some um the tribuna is three three languages oh okay got it so do do we just I mean this is a nice list and we could use this list as a starting point for let's say the duration of the year but for right now let's say in a short term to support the budget do you want to select a number of these organizations that we could Target our our uh presentation to and try to set up uh meetings [Music] with yes yeah I think the Tribune is a great one to start with what else I can hardly see some wait a second mean the Trib and I'm wondering if it makes the most sense
076for you to help us seeing when folks are because I'm assuming we're doing all of these virtually and I I don't know I don't know who who who otherwise is going to be able to connect to be able to get them you know get get to make them available for meetings um I I don't mean volunteer you but I'm just no that's right I mean I look at four or five of them and I have like weekly contact with them or oversee some of the programming within them so our 21st centuries our play groups um the Morris Street group um we have all you know Citywide I think that's a easy Citywide yeah to get the information out there I think you know go back to that two-prong approach how about the Denbury students and
077plti I think Katherine's still in charge of plti isn't it yeah absolutely they're on there yeah because I I think they're good advocates for us in the plti and didn't I feel like we had churches on the original document we did African-American church and then also our Brazilian church in town okay I put on Arc because Ari is willing to send out information to all the churches we certainly could Target the ones that we have presented out before right but we but we're hoping with Arc that they're gonna go back and speak to them about this I don't know if they're gonna go back and speak to them about supporting our true true so I would put on the Emanuel Church New Hope is that the one we went to in yes Emanuel e e
078u Main Street in denber that can help this out yeah but just a comment Arc is not going to to f the information to all the African-American church it's more than just one African-American church in D here uh and and uh you know if you want me to get you the name of them you know if you're going to talk to parents uh those churches have parents in there and it's it's uh there about four more different African-American churches that came there or more I think that's important for us yeah I think as many of those um th those institutions that we can have an audience with the better so miss Cooper would it be best to ask for the education division of NCP or just the NCP um I would deal with the education
079Committee of the NAACP okay and this way they can spread the information to the to those pars within their group okay in community and some of those people are Community people yeah what about the hord the hord foundation yeah is there a specific Church in African-American Community we should Target I I mean I know there's more than one so and I know you have the list well you have um Mount Pleasant am Zion Church on R right on row on Rowan Street we have um Victory Victory Christian Center at uh Eden drive and the church going up Stony Hill on the right hand side we have another church on uh Liberty Street Street that's african-amer there's another one on Main Street um I have to get the name I know the young Pastor okay um
080there's one more on William Street I can't think of the name of it all right all right so so then there three plus and were you talking about bethl in bethl yeah I'm trying to think the p Tree Hill WN Hill Walnut Hill but there's another one right past Target on the right hand side he a I know I can't think of the name is that the name of the church no but you you g me street names got it you worked with him Kevin just recently we went um when he was on Federal Road we presented and it was him and his wife that was running church is it West it's Wes Johnson oh oh Wesley okay I don't remember his name of the church though I know Pastor Johnson but I don't remember
081the name of I think listening I think it's on Federal Road it wasn't he moved oh okay I think he's he's close on that Stony Hill now I'd also though Ann you have proba had these connections but i' certainly could do the women's groups of Danberry Mom Mom's Club you know I've been involved with those before but so Kate I know you had talked about um you know perhaps meeting weekly just giv a sense of urgency urgency um how H how would you like I mean because Ann and I behind the scenes can start working on something here sure do do you want us to come back maybe with you know the first five or six and set up the first five or six and see how that plays with people's calendars um I know
082Amy was just offering some groups she could work with do we want to lead this meeting with hey this is who I would like to work with and we can work on those first as a priority for the committee um I like that idea Kevin I just um I'm a little bit nervous about getting ahead of the content that we're presenting that's my only concern I think we need to pin that up before we actually schedule and and maybe that's the wrong way to approach it because obviously it's gonna take a little bit of time and coordinating with these groups even if it gives us a couple of weeks I would like to think we can well even a month from now I mean we have a couple months before it has to be approved
083um yeah and I know we haven't really talked about you know do we want momentum going into when the budget is going to be approved I'm not sure what's the best way to approach this you know do we want all the momentum closer to the end and have you know so part of that is like you know I was thinking about that as you were bringing up the the action item at the bottom of that graphic there uh because I think there's some benefit from my position from my you know perspective that if people are emailing the mayor and the city council members in advance of this actually being presented um so that they're aware that people are focused and paying attention on this information and are looking for what's going to happen when it's
084introduced um you know I think that that kind of thing would would help build some moment going into public hearings and that kind of thing and what about like asking for a letter of support too you know and sometimes like in AC campaigns and I don't know if this qualifies but like what I've what I've seen before is we sometimes draft a letter that people can then sign so it's easier you know for them and they can add text if they want to um if we get a ton of people to a template of some kind yeah yeah yeah I like that idea Courtney um I'm not sure you know we'd have obviously be careful about the wording there but um yeah I I think we should I think we should try to encourage people
085to communicate in that way especially not knowing how the the you know public hearing part of this is going to you know yeah up going and you know with awareness too that in Danbury you cannot submit public comments unless there's an agenda item specific to what you want to talk about so um between now and April when the budget actually is released um there's not going to be an opportunity you know at city council to have any kind of public presence and even to tell them too I don't know what your thoughts are on this but like part of the mini campaign could be also to contact your state you know because there there's a process with the assembly and the Senate and the governor before adoption of the state budget and you know and
086especially on that ECS funding piece with they're trying to freeze um I think that's another area where we could you know bring folks in um Again part of this is I don't want to overwhelm people with too much information so um you know I think we're just going to have to evaluate that as we go forward and figure out what we think folks can process reasonably um in terms of the next meeting um we're we're about an hour and 15 into this one um and I think we're kind of winding down unless I'm misreading this situation um but I think you know I i' like to talk about what our next actions our next steps are going to be you know we left with an assignment last week I'd like to leave with one this
087week um and my thought is that uh Amy and Rich if you guys could each pick uh one of the main subjects that you would like to kind of delve into and understand and then be able to present that uh to the rest of us so talking points around whatever that area is okay I'll go with social emotional of course all right okay Rich do you have a preference on category here bring it back up again um I can read them off special special education um ESL and El supports DHS accreditation and curriculum supports M take the the uh English language support okay this one I could bring Augusta as my Advocate yeah uh rich I think if you're gonna take that when you talk to either Cara or austo the new e program is
088something that we should speak to because it's new it's vibrant and it's exciting that would be something concrete that's the elel achieve Dr s yes yeah I I would start with that it's that at least I'll be thinking about it and he's a good one to talk to it's they got some good information and for me with social emotional who would I contact if I wanted to Kelly Kelly Kelly okay that's Kelly has she she's organized a lot of the PD and she can kind of your structure okay excellent thank you and Kate you know what you can do is just assign the other two uh you select one and assign the other two to Joe and and the other ones this way we can get started yeah maybe to the point of an and
089Kevin reaching out it might be a bad idea for them to start now and and you know between the contacts and setting up dates maybe going out two three weeks from now that's what yeah that's what Mr won was yeah you know during the period that we're doing our homework they could set up the appointments for us this way we don't start three weeks later and have to wait a further three weeks yeah yeah I think that's right Rich um and Kevin thank you for for making that point earlier um May I just clarify one thing before we go uh so with this with the talking points is it something that's going to be more brief than Courtney's presentation is that the idea or is it is the idea to be able to explain and
090answer any question that someone might ask that's really that's really the goal I think Amy um but in terms of putting the information together that you're going to share with each of us you know part of part of what I think we need to do is just look at the some of the language that's being used and I I hate to harp on this point I just really I really feel strongly that part we have to make this information accessible and part of doing that is pulling out the language that is going to trip people up if they don't understand what we're trying to explain to them then we may as well not be standing in front of them yeah grab to what grabs on to you because what makes s what what interests you
091is going to be interesting to other people correct and in your own words yeah right right okay thank you yeah and if you have questions about like how to explain it fiscally you know I can I could give you that that backdrop you know what I mean if if you want to know the bullet point like 10 of it is on you know 50% on personnel and whatever you have questions on about the fiscal piece that oh don't worry you'll be hearing from me um Dr won I just want to follow up with you guys on these groups here I don't know if that's what you're gonna bring up Kevin if you have something else sorry well I I I think logistically I'm I'm not understanding and maybe I'm just missing something so if Mr
092janelli is focusing on one of those buckets from the wheel and he goes out and you know adopts one of these communities go speak to who's speaking to those other areas when he goes to speak to that group he's going to be speaking to them all Kevin but the idea is that each one of us board me board members is going to take one of those categories to be able to come back to the table here and explain it to the other board members okay so and to work up some information you know condensed informations so that we're not all doing the same work so in this so in that model then there wouldn't be anyone from admin from the district accompanying you guys is that what I'm hearing no I I still think it's
093good idea disagree I I disagree if we going out speaking to a group I think someone from Administration should be alone with that person I I I really think uh to have a board member just go speak to 100 uh concern men you don't do it on your own you take someone from Administration to go with you whoever you know you're talking about budget you take uh you know Court you know not alone well she's taking over yeah I think what Kate was saying was just putting it into more layman's terms which is a beautiful thing and then we and then we we Circle it back to the big points like with that nice colorcoded pie chart that Kayla did you know I love it yeah I think you know part of this Kevin we're
094talking about this in a very conceptual way right now but the idea is that the board members are going to come up with you know these these uh breakdowns for each of these categories we're going to assemble information kind of based around that that everybody can use when they go to do a presentation but I I like the idea of an administrative member being there to support that process um and I think it helps strengthen that connection directly to the schools I mean we're at the end of the day the board members are still just elected Citizens We're not you know educational experts and I think having you guys there to um you know help provide you know some of the the stickier pieces that this is going to be helpful yeah I think we
095just create the interest and the lead and and the administration there to back up the detail right and to go through the specifics in other words you know create the enthusiasm the excitement we're sort of the the front you know the First Act coming in before the main act and and then the and then the administration goes in and and does what they they do do well because you're gonna get at the stories like you you've been talking about the stories it would be so helpful if you get the stories whether it's because you're talking the Cara or a student or Dan you know you'll get those stories that support those pieces right and then maybe that'll be that' be amazing yeah now I like Sal's idea about ultimately at some point connecting this to
096portrait of a graduate and I think if there's a way that if we can sneak that concept into our talks now to get that word out to the community as well as we're trying to do this it it might be good um no yeah if Courtney Kevin and I can continue to work on these uh the one pager and the graphic that Kayla did that's what we're thinking we're thinking very forward yeah you know what does the district look like what what is it going to need how are we building this how are we building the schools to where they need to be and the marketing campaign around that yeah exactly so the p is is so critical it's critical mass to the this whole project so um let us keep building out this graphic
097and then um if you like the other one too we could also do that one um you know one is very techy where we can click people can click on it and other pieces uh link to Courtney's um PowerPoint can come up where the other one is more would be more of a paper that people could read um whether we use it as a onepage or mail or something like that for f yeah and I can make that power Point stylized in that similar way you know so we just start from what Kayla built then we have like I said we build on that four pager or whatever and then a PowerPoint and you guys can take what pieces you need or want right like when we all do this together to present but I
098think we'll just have a common I think it's great a common um Kevin and an do you want us to narrow down which groups we think we should be trying to to get appointments with first or is that something you guys feel comfortable doing I'm comfortable with doing that Anna you yeah I am too I think I think a a a email note individually out to each one talking about what the committee would like to do over the next few weeks and that we're inviting them to be part of this Venture with us um I think we'll um solicit their interest in what we're doing because it's benefiting all the children in the community um and so I think we can make make some inroads there great any last thoughts I love the brochure I
099think it's beautiful me too thank you well thanks everybody appreciate you being here and um uh we'll uh schedule another meeting um I'll be in touch with Cara actually I'll be in touch with each of you to talk about your availability all right what do you call it um Kate why don't we just we're all here you want to set up for next what are we in next Thursday so we keep the momentum going rather rather than just waste time you know later on because we're all here the 25th works for me if it works for you guys I I just picked Thursday just that it was a week from now but is that okay with everybody it's not okay with me but I'll have my assignment done will you be able to have uh
100Mr wson and and uh an and uh Courtney is that a good time for them yes I'll make it work could we do a half an hour earlier that's uh danam works that night we're talking about educa or not education um equity and the whole covid-19 in that discussion plus we're doing a focus group through the Charles Spanish group through Mo Street at 7 so 5:30 would would be okay for you we could yeah that would be great great would it be K it be moved to the next Thursday uh so that's the 4th of March there yeah yeah I don't see why not I mean I think some of this communication can happen via email too is that okay with everybody else here we wait say we're not gonna meet next week but meet
101on the 4th yes I think that's what we're trying to do fine with me and and you know again that does not preclude us trying to work out some of these details offline so right So Courtney Ann and I will look to um expand the PowerPoint so so it's more appropriate for the presentation itself and we'll f- tune the one pager so the one pager could still be available as a one page document to leave behind but in terms of a presentation that probably be more like five to eight pages will condense Courtney's overall big PowerPoint and uh and we'll make sure the themes are consistent to the one pager make it look good hopefully get folks attention that would be great thank you and uh in the meantime we'll do our work uh you
102know translating all this stuff and uh coming back to the the group ready to share that information yeah and I I also shared your feedback about the um videos um and so um Kate and so Ann had some suggestions so we'll Circle back together with that piece too and be ready to talk to about that next and I'm available whenever you guys want to talk about that just give me a heads up I'm happy to have a phone conversation okay oh great so we we'll take you up on that Kate sounds good yeah we'll take care that thank you so much can I have a motion to adjourn please I make a moot go ahead I make a motion to adjourn thank you second y Thank you Rich all in favor hi hi have a
103good night everyone thank you see you Mr