001received this in advance of the meeting so could you um Mr won just read through you don't have both of these Rachel 6171 and no this is in the agenda I think am I mistaken it was the you had a link in the agenda the Blue [Music] Link yeah I think carara shared this with every I didn't share it directly I think Carol poo shared it with everyone she emailed us revised a revised agenda on Tuesday and the policies were linked on there so yeah oh I see yeah made me nervous I didn't think to click on the link oh okay was my yeah because I did it right after we talked Rachel yesterday okay see I asked car to do it I should say and I apologized I was coming from it that you
002had already read the policy if I was I'm sorry for that it's pretty straightforward it's okay yeah yes no I I see it in its entirety now y I feel better about that and so the appropriate language would read Kelly if I'm hearing you correctly who is between the ages of and so this needs to be replaced with in accordance with okay that is correct and wherever it says that throughout in each P every paragraph except for the um so in the second paragraph the third paragraph and then um the last paragraph would have to would have to be changed and and I'm happy to go in and tweak the wording to that I just wanted to make sure that everyone was okay before I did that I mean it sounds like we all are
003okay with that are there any objections from the committee no okay I just have one one other question um Kevin every time we bring this to the board it goes before us lately it's gone before us um to vote on every single time instead of the first reading the second reading and then we finally vote on the on the last reading and when we vote on the first and second I always feel like we're voting to accept it and I guess I'm not understanding why we we don't just put it on the board agenda for the first reading and then people come back with objections or if they have any and then it goes on for the second reading and everybody comes back with objections if they have any and then it goes before the
004board in its final stages for a final vote so why are we why are we changing that I'm not sure what we changed we changed it to be we vote on it every single time there the first reading the second reading and the third reading and I always feel like we're voting to accept it on the first and second reading I think we're accepting the the first reading as a first reading right but not as a not as a vote to approve it it was just like right but it's never it's it was never that way no we didn't it that way no but as long as we're understanding that I don't know I just feel like I'm voting to accept it that's all because it's never really clear that we're accepting the first reading
005in in my head could be just my head well I I do I don't remember the discussion but I do remember a board meeting um Kathy actually I think you raised this question yeah I don't remember I don't remember how it was resolved in the meeting right now it wasn't I don't even think it was answered okay it's just a question I don't know whether it's something new that that came down that we have to vote on every single reading yeah it's nothing that I've imp that I've introduced new that's for sure I mean my in my experience it's been first reading and so it's first reading available for the board to review but also for the public to see right and review and then a second reading for the board to review and it's
006public to see correct and then if there's no updates and then it's approved there you go still talking about really three three readings I look at and and again we go back to the very first reading to bring it to the board the board look at it okay and we accept that the board had brought this to uh the committee has brought this to the board the second one is if there's any corrections to be made and you have to uh make a motion to accept those Corrections okay as a group this is my understanding from what you know we have been if there are if there are any yes a long time C they used to just bring us the first reading we look at it accept and then the second reading uh if
007there was no correction we accepted the recommendation okay okay did you hear me or I got shut off yep I heard you yeah that's my understanding as well and I can go back and re and look at the bylaws and you know review that again just to make sure I I think it's actually we only need second two readings but I can I'll confirm and see what our bylaws say it's two readings and then you accept on the third on the third part yeah okay but when you if you really think about it if there's any correction that has to be made you have to accept that at that second reading in order for it to come into the third reading where the full board accept the corrections okay we we'll get it cleared up
008okay thank you okay so kayy and I we will make these updates as discussed and I put some comments in these two areas for right now so these sentences will be place within accordance with state law state and federal Kevin yeah state and federal okay yeah both we have to follow both okay and there's it stated again in the last paragraph thank you I have my hard copy that I've wrote all over as well so I will bring that when we when we do it okay okay so are the committee members okay to bring this recommended um version of this policy to the full board yeah yes yes yes any objections okay so it passes it will be on the agend on the agenda for our next meeting okay thank you next one so the
009next policy is 6159 this is individualized instruction and there are actually two policies for consideration um [Music] Kell you w to start off with which one you want to recommend and just but we can it's up to you how you want to handle it sorry that's okay thank you Kevin um so you'll see uh the the first section is on instruction and then the second section is on referral um so I am going to recommend that you scroll down a little bit to the second the another version of the policy and the reason for that is the um individualized educational program the instructional piece this reiterates what we talked about in the last policy that the school district shall comply with all state and federal laws concerning the provision of free and appropriate public education
010to students with disabilities um this summarizes the previous policy that we just talked about that outlines the eligibility so I think you can just move right into the referral process which is really the intent of additional information in this policy um so I would recommend that because we just went through the previous policy um and you'll find the first the first recommendation of in the paragraph the two paragraphs above are um very similar to what we just um talked about in policy 6171 that I think we can Briefly summarize and then move into the next section which is on the referral process um and again the same recommendations here rather than listing out the Age 3 to 22 so now I'm in the first paragraph um related to referral I think it's the fourth line
011down um that we use the same language in accordance with state and federal law and that Kelly excuse me could you make the um uh lettering a little bit bigger for my old eyes please absolutely thank you oh boy not a problem so I don't know if there's question I can explain kind of the rationale behind this policy this is um letting families know uh that we are here to provide um uh evaluations for students that are suspected of having disabilities um and again those ages right now would be between the age of three and up to the 22nd birthday for certain students that were deemed eligible um and this talks about the process in which families are entitled to go through if they suspect their student or their child I'm sorry of having having
012a disability um it then reiterates um that students remain eligible once found um up until either they graduate or potentially up until the 22nd birthday and again that is determined uh by the planning and place placement team or PPT process um and because as we discussed in the previous policy that we know that that is going through um the second Circuit Court of Appeals right now that decision um that that could change and so I think it's best to just use um the state and federal law as in accordance with state and federal law for the ages of student eligibility in the event that that changes it would protect us and indicate to the public that we follow all state and federal guidance so Kelly any piece of the first version or just the second
013I am just recommending the second thank you Kelly it's Jo just yes correct me correct me wrong we're required to do all of this stuff anyway whether we had a policy or not because this is just basically setting out federal and state law anyway right correct and so the the legal guidance on this is because we're required to do it anyways less is more when it comes to this and just reference your state and federal laws yep it's always safest to do that more you say the harder no no but the more you say the more more places you have where somebody can take issue with what you've said correct and because we know there's the potential for this this particular guidance to change I just think it's it's best and most advisable to do
014this I didn't know Rachel you had asked previously if I was recommending anything from the first recommended policy was there anything in the prior two paragraphs that you thought wasn't covered in the previous policy or later in this one no no I just just for clarity okay um are there any questions from Committee Member okay um can we vote to move this to the full board as as [Music] recommended yes yes yes yes absolutely thank you any objection opposition concern okay move thank you very much thank you Kelly thanks Co so the next policy just going back to the agenda is policy 1312 community relations and appeals and this brings us to here it is so I just W I'm sorry let let me first just make the board aware uh we had a case
015a few years ago in in office of civil rights case with um and a and and in one of the Resolute the potential resolutions of that case we had a family who um looked to make a com a complaint about our extended learning program and uh what we learned after the investigation they didn't have a formal way um their argument was they didn't have a formal way to file their complaint um as a as as a as a resolution to the to the to the um to the complaint um we decided we agreed that we would have the board um adopt a policy uh where our families can formally uh make appeals um if they have an issue with an issue of concern with one of our staff members or employees in a district and
016so community relations policy 1312 allows for that provides that opportunity um and although this wasn't not required as as a condition of that agreement um there's also another opportunity for families to U file a former complaint with the superintendent regarding any board policies as well well so I want to share those two for the board's consideration so this is the first one it's pretty straightforward um for those of you who have seen it for the first time the board encourages parents and Danbury families to express their concerns with the danburry school system or its employees to the appropriate administrative Personnel when motivated by a sincere desire to improve the quality of danburry public schools educational program complant should first present concerns regarding board employee performance directly to the employee involved in an event to resolve
017the matter with the employee directly however complaintants not satisfied with the employees response to their concerns may also feel free to communicate such concerns directly to the employes immediate supervisor by completing and filing form 1312 which I'll show you momentarily citizen or family concern reporting form in emergency situations when complaintants have a concern that impacts on the current safety or Integrity of dries d Public Schools or its students and staff complaintants may address such concerns immediately and directly with the appropriate administrators and or the superintendent of schools without regard to the prior procedures when a complaint appropriately raises a concern with an administrator the administrator will take the steps that he or she deems appropriate to investigate and to resolve the situation and to refer to it to the appropriate level of such investigational resolution
018failure to do so will be considered a violation of this policy and could result in an appropriate dislar action here are some legal references and then underneath sorry let me scroll down a little bit faster and here's the form uh that will be made available for our families um and I'll have to speak to car and Gina and figure out where this can go on the district website so it's available for families so straightforward form available you know made available by cab parents will include their name if there a students involved their concern staff members involved detailed statement and they would submit that to my office and I put it in there exactly who that need to submit it to um so I I just thought I'd start there for some reaction um Rachel would
019you prefer that I walk you through the next policy now and just talk about both you want do one at a time I think so it's short and sweet okay okay and so the next one after the form and and this is pretty straightforward complaints about board policies should be directed to the superintendent of schools complaints complaints shall be in writing and sign stating the specific objections to the policies the superintendent shall review any complaint and conduct whatever study or investigation he or she deems appropriate the superintendent then shall then submit the complaint and his and her recommendation to the board the board May review the the review the policy amend or refer the policy for review if necessary or repeal the policy if appropriate and notified and complaint of the action taken then that's
020that's the end you know kind of short and sweet but again they could use the same form um to record their concerns um in this you know here would be the procedure for that process are there any questions from committee members um yeah I got quickly Kevin um the the first policy the 0.1 policy is opposed to two we don't have we do we not currently have anything like this in place do we not current I mean do we not currently have any policy about complaints so Joe we had a policy about complaints and but according to C we didn't have this one and when we were looking at when we were looking at this policy we felt like this one was most appropriate to meet the needs of the complaint that was filed that
021was filed with us I my main concern is just are we inviting them by way of this policy are we making it are we inviting complaints right um that's just my question and I understand that and I appreciate the concern too um and just one thing on the second part of this the second piece um the board the superintendent reviews the complaint and the policy and makes a recommendation of the board the last sentence the board May then review the policy amend or refer the policy for review if necessary repeal the policy if appropriate the board may also do nothing I think we need to clarify in there that the board doesn't have to do anything um because the board establishes I mean the board can the superintendent May recommend not doing anything the superintendent
022May superintendent May recommend changing the policy we may say no um I I I don't know I don't I'm not wed to any particular language in there on how we do that it may just be something as simple as the board May then review the complaint and the policy and then either retain the policy or amend the policy or whatever I'm not I'm not sure I'm wed to the language I can play with it a little bit and email it to you after the meeting okay email it to the members and email it to you after the meeting if you want that was just my thought there is we make we we don't have to do anything at all and I think we may want to make that clear here I mean it doesn't say
023we have to here or it doesn't say we we don't have to or anything but we should make it clear that we don't just so it's not ambiguous this way nobody screams and yells that we don't change something that was it thanks thank you thank you Rachel sure thank you Joe um just wondering if we could clear it up tonight though so [Music] um I mean it does say if necessary and if appropriate and notify the complainant of the action or inaction taken I'm doesn't sound good I was just going to say and say if nothing is you know if the board does not feel any action is required they are not required to do so or is appropriate that you could add a sent them I wonder if you could play with the language
024a little more simply though and just say the board May then review the policy amend or refer the policy for review if um you know if so uh determined you know in other words is sort of leaving it under the jurisdiction of the board to make that assessment I'm sorry are you saying determined period if so determined period yeah I guess you'd have to add repeal up further and then how would what would be the next sentence again I can just bold it and see if you like the way it feels and you can come back and change it a suggestion um now this probably flies in the face of Kate's keep it simple because when was the last time a lawyer wrote anything and kept it simple um maybe we just need an extra
025sentence to the effect of the board is under no obligation to accept the superintendent's recommendation Andor change the policy as a result of the complaint or recommendation I'm that may be more than we want that may be more than we want the board is of no obligation to change the the board is under no obligation to accept the superintendent's recommendation Andor change the policy change any policy as a result of a complaint or recommendation and I'm not wted to that please word Smith that to death guys that may be overly lawyering it's been known to happen you know so in thisio too much yeah I think it is and it's an it's it's got a negative connotation to it yeah it does it's kind of mean-spirited yeah um I'm trying to I'm trying to make
026it unambiguous but you're right it is a little it's a little in your is okay but I we may want to I mean the tone may may not be good the board may I mean it's a very as it was written it's very it's it's not holding us to anything it's the board May then no it's not review the policy amend or refer the policy for review if necessary or repeal the policy if appropriate and of the how about the board May comma if it deems it if it chooses comma then review the policy or something or May the board May comma but is not obligated to then review the policy or something something like that yeah but not obligated to yeah I like that or they must consider like you must consider it but
027you're not obligated to do anything actually I don't think any I don't think we can say must because I don't think we can bind a future board on what they have to consider or not the board may but not obligated to review the policy and then or refer the but is not obligated to yeah I think I think we need the is but is not yeah but is under no obligation to yeah would that might work it might be better thank you for playing scrier Kevin it's not a problem Kevin can I just make one suggestion um you stated here that it must be signed I just think you need to put a signature line on that form so that okay okay I'll I'll add this and a date yes good idea I think in
028that sentence where it says the board May comma but is under no obligation to I think we need a comma after the two right here Joe I think so does that read better yes I think so I yeah I think I think that works okay okay and and that's not as in your face and um Kevin when we spoke you said you had um looked around at other what other districts had and there were some similar to this floating around right right so this one um was actually similar to one in Ellington um for some reason that one came up a few times when I was looking up policies on appeals and and so I had had you know certainly used those but this is straight from c um but Elton for again for some
029reason is one that came up a few times when I continue to try to Google and do a couple of searches um for the 1312 but there were a couple of districts that had the both 1312 and 131 12.2 were they similar yes yes they pretty much adopted the language from cap they did okay so I will go back here and if it's okay I'll just say that we'll go to item number I'm sorry Rachel did you need to speak to are committee members comfortable with bringing this to the full board can I have a vote Yes yes any obligations I mean obligations opposition Jo Joe said we're not obligated got that word on my brain okay great need like a lawyer's note just like a mom's note or something so this will go to
030um the agenda at our next meeting for our first reading okay thank you Mr Walston all right thank you so the last one is cave audit and next steps I'm G to close this out so I can see you and speak to you um we have and it's it's been a while since we've you know outside of our emergency policies it's been a while since we have um reconvened as a board to focus on policies um in preparation for this meeting today I was trying to get in touch with cave because U for for those of you who may recall um we had partnered with C went in contract with cape um policies and I'm sorry cap um to work on our policies um they conducted an audit for us I believe it was 2019
031now um and and you know we received the feedback from the audit and um they revealed you know the outstanding policies um you know we were pretty much in um you know we pretty much had all of the policies uh that were mandated by the district and but they did have a number of recommended policies for us they broke it down by series um and then as caves processed they literally push out hard copies of the series one series at a time so I get 100 hundreds of copies in my office and now I have thousands of copies of my office because it's you know they contined to mail them over the last several months um so I have I have reached out to cave and asked them if number one the policies that are
032have already been approved that this board has approved over the years um because part of the agreement is not only will they conduct the audit uh but they would also post our policies online so that those could be reflected electronically um the agreement that we had entered in with them was once the entire series all the serieses are completed then they would posted online and so the question I have asked and I I just left a message yesterday so forgive me um so I'm still waiting to get back uh to Vinnie but um the the question that I left for him is can we start posting the policies that we already have approved post them now and then perhaps monthly we can update anything that the board has approved and continue to post that up
033online um that our our our online system to access the policies electronically I would imagine or frustration for the public uh because they're frustrating for us as employees in the district um and it's really we're kind of limited by you know by our by our own system right now and so um we're asking Vinnie to get some help it's probably going to it could be at an additional cost um because now they would be working to upload these things monthly so I will find out what that cost might be I'm not going to um I'm not gonna suggest that he charge us more but I'm anticipating that the cost will be more um because it's it's very different than doing it all at once versus doing it monthly um but if it's okay with the
034board I am going to ask vny what the cost would be so at least all of our work can be reflected into the man you know into our database um and then after we you know every month as we continue to complete policies we can have them updated online for everyone to see um I I also need to get some feedback from the board and Rachel and um Kathy uh Miss Cooper so just before this the new the board turned over and we had some new faces on the board welcome um we had I I remember R and Li we were sitting in that conference room with a whole series of policies I mean I I mean I I regret now like I Pro probably overwhelmed everyone on the subcommittee that's probably why they didn't
035come back and and I brought hundreds of policies and ped books for everyone and and and then we start and and aggressively and and I regret that now I had a conversation with Rachel about this yesterday um and regretfully I think tried to overwhelm and it was a little bit too ambitious in trying to get too many policies approved at once and so but I do need to get a feel from this board from this committee uh what do you feel like we have an appetite for um certainly some policies like tonight can move a little faster um um uh I'll just say this quickly and and Rachel will probably smile when I mention this we had a conversation with the previous board and there was we had three meetings we couldn't agree on well
036the board the committee couldn't agree on whether or not board members can participate electronically or not and and and and the committee felt strongly some felt strongly they should and some felt strongly that they should be there um and you know meanwhile a year later here here all of us are you know participating in this in this platform um but I'm I don't wanna this is my long way of saying I don't want to introduce five or eight policies and it be counterproductive and so is five a good number is should we stay in the three to five Zone and I don't know Rachel maybe I think we had a good process going we can kind of review what those are and so if you say hey we can do all five I think this
037looks good and I I I just want to get a feel of what this board might feel comfortable this committee might feel comfortable with I have my thoughts but I'd like to open it up to others first maybe it just depends on what what they are some policies are going to be quicker than others some are short some are we got to do it anyway guys it's the law other ones maybe it requires more conversation so maybe we have to kind of pick and choose and cherry pick you know there may be one where we're going to get one you know if it's electronic access to meetings when we're live that's going to engender a lot of conversation maybe that's the only one we do that month if we have five that are like the
038ones we did tonight we could we could have done 10 of these right I mean it's you know no problem how good are we at predicting which of those policies are gonna elicit that kind of conversation well that's the that's the challenge now ain't it so I wonder if there's like a procedural thing that we could do Rachel in the meetings where we say like okay we've had you know X number minutes of conversation and it seems like people are you know we need a longer conversation about it so we're going to table it for table it so that we have like a certain number that we line up each time and then if if we run into like a roadblock policy because you know we're just having trouble working it out we just table
039it and yeah that sounds reasonable sounds like a good plan Kathy you had something to say I just think that as the chairperson you know what our bandwidth is you should you know determine which ones would take a really long time to discuss and come to an agreement you can guess the train Rex a good guess at the training okay yeah so maybe that's some free work that heaven and I can do before we bring it to the the committee um I think like shooting for five but I mean it all depends and let's review them before we put the agenda together um and then if we have to table you know well we can decide to do that during our our [Music] meeting I think that was a good suggestion Kate thank you Mr
040wat since nobody asked me c I I I like the idea of three to five you keep your time within an hour hour 15 minutes and um not to go over if you feel like you're gonna get stalemate like Joe said we just uh tap it until the next time uh but work on three to five each meeting and see where we go sounds good okay so 15 every meeting you got it Miss Cooper five hours straight holiday committee meeting I love it okay thank you I have a very large coffee cup I'll have it ready absolutely thank you um and so we want to continue with our we had a I thought we had a good system you know before everything came to a halt in March um a year ago so um if
041we could continue our once uh a month a first Wednesday of the month um at 6: PM um and to continue the audit um was there lost my train of thought um was there anything else no it was those three this evening um I'll have some more information from Vinnie um and I can come back and see if there's an additional cost to that request see if we can get them posted immediately instead of waiting till they're all done keev Kevin if they were gonna post them for us anyway they're still posting the same amount of stuff they're just spending 20 minutes now instead of of seven hours in a year so if they try to charge us more maybe we push back on that a little bit okay I appreciate it Joe just a
042thought no I agree I agree may not go anywhere I agree nor nor does it make sense for a board to have to wait until the entire process is completed anyway um but s negotiated a really good price so as as he's really good at great yeah that'd be nice to have them online it's our our um Antiquated system is you know frustrating for board members as well um and when I first came on the board I was given a you know um a a hard copy of some of the manual but it wasn't complete and I didn't I wasn't aware of that at the time um so I I mean I have some old old policies but I don't I don't even know if they're uh they've been updated since then so that would
043be nice to have and to easily navigate so appreciate that work on it absolutely anything else from um committee members or or Mr wson Mr that's it for me okay a motion to adjourn so moved a second hi all in hi me now 6:49 thank you everyone good good night everybody coer thank you thank you thank you Kelly thank you Rachel have a good night everyone thank you bye bye