001going to the roll call to me and most of you have known me for a long time and those that don't know me I think it's the most appropriate thing if you don't want to be a part of this just go to mute there's no way that I could be on this board as many years that I have been on this point has worked with as many youth that I have worked with in my in my church and I recognize what can happen I think you just muted again we lost you Gladys we lost you it may be it may be her connection oh yeah I don't think she knew it let me see no she's not on mute it has an open mic [Music] and I don't want to have to go through that
002with my grandchildren my son Gladys you may have to repeat that I missed you a friend other than you lived worked in the community and recognized okay I just wanted for a Jewish boy and his family I don't want to have to talk to my grandchildren the way I talked to my son about what do you do when the policeman stopped you and he's 37 so that was 37 years so I just want to take if you don't want to do it you can mute to whatever you want to do we're not gonna take 8 minutes 46 seconds like the policeman just his neck down that his knee on his neck we just want to take a few moments and just bow our heads for a few minutes or however you wanna look at me
003and stuck to you we just want to take a few moments hope our world would change when we talk racism and the color of people's skin thank you thank you all so very much of course Joe Britain Rachel Solinsky yeah [ __ ] never here Gladys cool yeah Lauren Daly here Joe de Silva was here he may have had a technical it's probably trying to work his way back in yes okay thank you sorry about that guys that's okay Catherine Houston hair rich Ginelli here Cathy Molinaro here al Russo he's here and Amy's Polina yeah thank you yes each year that when we go through our accountabilities work which is based on student achievement levels closing the achievement gap or exceeding performance levels we we've been very fortunate with our faculty and our principals for their leadership
004we've had two or three-year the past three four years we've had six or seven schools of distinction it's done on the back a lot of hard work and thoughtfulness from the principal's and what the teachers work and support from parents I'm just exceedingly impressed with the results I can't tell you enough going around the state when we do get enquiries how are you guys doing well you know that you can't replace hard work and and working smart and these principals and their faculty epitomize that and I'm just so proud to be a part of their team I'd like to run we have many from central office that support them as well so I'd like to go through the list if it's okay we'll start with Hayes down with Stefanie firm and Stephanie are you here
005I am here I'm just so proud of Hayes Todd this is our third time being recognized as a school a distinction we work really hard we dig into the data we follow all the various curricula and it's exciting when it pays off so we're really really proud thank you you welcome congratulations and by the way the board has purchased a flag for him did you get yours delivered yet yes I did thank you oh great so you'll have three and over at no Ridge primary it was done exceedingly well exceptionally not only in terms of school distinction but they're in the upper echelon what achievement and dr. Mary Cronin dr. growing here is there anybody from no Ridge here tonight we'll pass on our congratulations that's their third or fourth time as well South Street
006School Carmen Fergus Carmen in south street and I thank everyone especially dr. Tsao and the administrative council with teachers everybody because this is definitely a team effort and I'm very honored and privileged to be representing South Street with this wonderful prestigious award and recognition thank you congratula and Great Plains Keisha Smith plane and support of our community our parents as well as central office so we're glad for the past three years that we were able to not only just have performance this year I mean growth but also to have outstanding performance so thank you a lot of hard work to get your flag okay is that telling you something they leave me okay we've got elves Ellsworth a new school Marni Durkin morning hi everyone how are you good to see everyone thank you for
007your time and thank you for this recognition just as my colleague said it's certainly an honor but it's also an honor that goes to the testament of the hard work and dedication of the staff the students and the families advance work that in school so thank you steadly rough school learning sir look good evening everyone I just really want to thank the entire district for all the support that you have given us throughout the past few years I just want to also mention all the coaches from the language arts coaches and the math coaches without them our staff couldn't do it as well and the support that they give our teachers is a testament to all the hard work that we've all been doing these past few years so to move our students forward not
008only educationally but academically and also in the social way and I just want to thank everybody for your support thank you okay just get a message I can't like Oh Western Canada International Studies with Chris Rush the magnet school he can't get into the meeting Chris did you get in just trying to get any having some trouble getting in dr. Sal I know dr. Cronyn was having a hard time getting - no okay well if they get in well if you don't mind we'll recognize them gladly okay so maybe you could text them Lenny and tell them if they can I'm gonna call them right now great maybe we can get them in that makes seven when they get in we are cut across and I am here okay do we have any comments and
009before we got to public participation yes we have one it is Diana wah she is a parent of two children in the Danbury Public Schools system she stated I have a few suggestions I would like to present her an email sent to us by our school I write this as a stay-at-home mom so I understand working parents may or may not be able to accommodate my suggestions because the Danbury school district is so large I suggest a survey on people with a list of school options of their students future education platform my suggestions is dits distance learning with the option the child goes into school about one to two times a week to check in in person with smaller groups in their class but do the majority of their work virtually what I envision is
010almost like a homeschool co-op where the students would follow Danbury public schools curriculum I understand that this will not work for all students those students that have a stay-at-home parent or grandparent or babysitter and Excel and distance learning it could lower the numbers of people in our school buildings at one given time instead of having to triple the number of teachers or other resources to make classes smaller I also have a suggestion for the DPS school drop-off and pickup system those who are interested in dropping off picking up their children from school instead of taking the bus would reduce the number of students on buses this may take some restructuring of the drop-off picking a bus times but would reduce interaction for our particular school you have to park and physically walk into the school
011which is even harder when you have other younger children however if there was a pickup drop-off line the students would be directed right to their car this also eliminates people in the buildings and that is the only public participation for tonight okay sorry Kate no problem we all work together all right due to the unique nature of the kovat 19 crisis and the limitations of technology members of the public who are Danbury residents are invited to send brief comments and questions via email in advance to dps underscore public comment underscore BOE at Danbury k12 dot CT dot us thank you sure make a motion that the Board of Education approves the items on the consent calendar exhibit 20-16 3 through exhibit 20 - 65 as recommended [Music] yes britain i reach out to listening aye
012aye Gladys Cooper aye Lauren Daly you're on mute learned that she might be phrasing I thank you Joe de Silva I Katherine costume ah Richard Gianelli I am Owen arrow I al Russo Ami's ballina classes have a confirmation of the 11 eyes the motion so hey employee representative I'm not sure is anyone here we have I don't know if Christy's here or if Aaron's here do I have any students present tonight no we're going to let me just double-check no we have no presentations we have some discussions we're going to equate our presentation so right action items sure I'll make a motion that the Board of Education approved the 2020 - 2021 Board of Education meeting dates in accordance with exhibit 20 they're 66 motion made my case sucked it any questions discussion concerning our
013next meeting Joe Britain I Rachel to listing Kate kinetic I Gladys Cooper i Lauren Daly aye Georgia silver all right Catherine Ashton i Richard Ginelli i Kathy Molinaro al Russa I name is Benina I we have 11 hours and the motion so care I yes madam chairman you're going with like a kind of regarding action item D okay if the board would just entertain my request and I you know this budget has been iterative and development has been very different and unusual and as of last Friday we had intended simply to have a discussion tonight things changed radically Friday evening which allowed us to put it on the agenda I think in getting the information out late and as as being such a complicated budget I would request it be removed and that the board
014consider having the workshop and then at the next board meeting giving people time to think about it because it is comprehensive then take a vote on it I think it might be for other questions that according them as may have that may be the best way to do it I respectfully ask for it to be removed from this evening's agenda thank you very much did you say Katherine you want about the superintendent's evaluation motion yes that the Board of Education approved the 2019 2020 superintendent's evaluation is recommended by the superintendent evaluation committee the motion made by Kathy Amy second about the motion no see Joe Britton aye Rachel - listen take another I Gladys Cooper hey Lauren Daly aye jotta silver I Catherine option I rich knowing I Cathy Molinaro I al Russo all right
015Amy spoolie no I care [Music] let's start with the registration Roman you know what happened to us last year so we're monitoring but going on this computer system we have a better sense of the number of registrants that are awaiting so I Kevin do you have anything not date on did you like sure sure so an update for the board it in the community I have great big news Danbury is still a popular place to live and so we've been monitoring enrollment in a district from grades 1 through 12 candy garden we don't have a handle on or did not have a handle on until we start to get enrollment we have learned in the last couple of weeks that our enrollment is right on target with last year in kindergarten so around this time
016last year we had over 600 kindergarteners we now have 720 and so we are right on pace with the same kindergarten numbers that we had last year and and my understanding is in previous years we have gotten a rush from other countries into the district typically in July in August and then another wave in in January and so we should probably anticipate high kindergarten umbers as we have in years past okay dr. Sol or Kevin yeah this is Richard wouldn't you think that with the current virus situation and restriction on travels that the influx from other countries wouldn't be as great this year as it has and as we had experience last year so mr. Gianelli that's why the smile is on my face because I thought it was going to slow down registrations today
017and my understanding is in the and Mike and Mike I don't want to say concern because I'm excited that folks that continue to come into the community but if we get a wave in August and anticipating that travel restrictions are going to be lifted as we get close and closer to the fall I think we should anticipate another wave of some sort hopefully not as you know as logical wave as we had last summer but it appears that our kidding card numbers are going to stay steady for sure thank you surprising I'm sure Kevin just just cuz I'm not sure I want to make sure I have analogy right our kindergarten numbers are right where they were last year is that the June number last year or the September oh my god we got a
018lot of extra people the question for clarification right on pace with June from last year okay so we're on pace we're not we're not on the accelerated where we got to but we're I basically were okay right thank you ask a clarifying question appreciate that's a the good news as they said to the board as they come in and the youngsters register we have now a very solid collection process so our big challenge quite frankly is to go through and do Schedule D our testing of the youngsters you know with all the restrictions that we have but that is going to go much smoother so we have a better handle on things where's the testing being done now where will it be done we were just going now I was just gonna say so mr.
019Gianelli as you know in years past we've had testing taking place at Osborn Street we were exploring other options right now a nearby school is one of the one and one of the options that are on the table at Ellsworth we still have some logistics to work through but those are one of the options that we're considering there's more space more space with families even by appointment is more space with people to spread out we just think that might be the safest option there to go to go with thank you thank you Kevin as long as you talk consumer school update sure sure so so summer school update we are moving to ward with beginning to wrap up our summer numbers and so information is coming in regarding the request for a k5 and so
020we have two people leading that effort some I'm a school leader is leading that effort and trying to finalize staffing for summer school I'll be it in a distance learning environment the same thing with sixty and then of course 912 will be finalized after grading has taken place at the high school at the middle school we are also finalizing and so as we begin to look at report cards and finalize those recommendations but we all have a different team working on staffing and in that associating that staffing with the request for summer school as we revisit and look at report cards etc so staffing will be in place and finalized soon letters have gone out to families from k5 and we're looking you know trying to get back those acceptance letters the same thing with
021the middle school and then summer school for high school is kind of business as usual except it would be in a distance-learning presentation or experience will be starting July 6 we had we if the the High School in years past has had an acceleration acceleration program and a required additional week so they will be starting one week prior but everyone else will be starting July 6 and all online platform Kelly anything with special education will be done virtually this year we typically have about 330 students with special needs that attend the program registration for the program is still open and ongoing and will continue until we start but we've had about 220 parents that have responded and I'm glad to say that only about 10 percent have denied you know not not only to participate
022in the online learning platform this summer and so we expect the participation to be pretty solid throughout the summer where we're a little bit of a modified schedule because it would be done virtually and how to best support all of our students particularly our neediest students in that environment so we'll be doing a lot of small group some one-on-one related services and we will be scheduling blocks of time individualized to each student families will be communicated exactly what that schedule looks like it'll remain consistent throughout the 20 days that esy bronze and we'll also be supporting their learning with some online learning platform and lessons supported us elementary support for students in the Google classroom so that in our date summer school start the same day as the regular ed summer school July 6 and
023it will run for five weeks so it'll end on August 6th there was there a question Amy do you have a question of Kevin was there someone who's asking Rachel I'm sorry I'm sorry so k5 is in person or is that also virtual that is also yes and are we giving preference to our high needs students or virtual no summer school in general okay at the k5 level that we basically determine it by students who are substantially deficient so we have invited this year over 1,800 students who qualify within that range and we have about not little under 900 that have accepted the registration for the summer so we're now matching the groups of students to and hiring teachers accordingly but it is virtual we are focusing in a phonetics comprehension building fluency in the
024literacy side but we're also doing mathematics this year the kids are invited based on their literacy cut scores and that's kind of her state of Connecticut guidelines but we're also adding in an hour of mathematics as well because kids tend to struggle in both so it will be supplementing and doing a little bit more this year because this is the most we up we've we've had in awhile we've widened the net a bit on who we're inviting we've saved a little bit on transportation costs so we're extending it out to a little bit to more students the other thing to add piggyback on what you're saying Cara is that you know the staffing is pretty different when we operate in this kind of an environment so for example we don't need to staff with nurses
025we don't need as many tutors or special ed perros we don't need the safety advocates so we're finding that the budget is flexible for us which is allowing us to open it to more students and right now we're up around I would say with just under a hundred teachers in the elementary level and a significant chunk we're just finalizing at the secondary level again all virtual onboarding and virtual scheduling so it's so far knock on wood it seems to be going pretty smoothly dr. Tsao not necessarily with summer school I'm assuming you finished but I just noticed that Mary Cronin is is logged on and before you get to to her after you've finished I had a question for I think was Kara somebody called me and asked me what other guidance counselor's do and
026I told them they did what they normally do and tune in today and I would have there would be more specific as to what they normally do so with that talked about it we entry plan some of the things that are going on yeah you know what people are doing this time dr. Cronyn merry new year so dr. kameen is having trouble she signed on but her computers frozen so she just she sent me a text message and she would like me to read it um she said that she's sorry her computer froze she could see in here everyone um she wants the board to know how pleased thankful for all the hard work from her students parents and teachers they made her very proud and it was a great retirement gift to go out
027with a school of distinction congratulations Mary its Chris on it it's Christmas Chris is having trouble I tried texting him and it's going right to voicemail so my guess is that he must have some Wi-Fi issues and I also tried calling him so not sure what's going on looks like we're trying to reinvent there's some kind of a problem yeah I did did we invite him calling him one more time let me just as we before we move on I did send out a message on as from the district on June 3rd regarding the George Floyd in murder that happened in Minnesota it's been a drying time no doubt I think Kelly has worked with our support staff if it's impacting youngsters or families that needed some support and I thank her for that not
028being in school it's very difficult to know you know who needs that support but certainly if you do the marches and our youngsters we haven't have a chapter of black lives matters the high school the last four years or a respectful group talking about the culture of how others are treated or mistreated and how we as a community in Danbury can be better accepting of our differences and proud of them and they've been participating in the activities I'm sure it'll be I know with care we talked about literature inclusion into our curriculum and things that we need to be doing I'm sure again it's the first step but it was just a shout out to all of our our community that were concerned and we're here to support everyone that during this tough time so
029when I think about us for the moment sings yes hey this is Chris from AI yes sorry oh that's all right Chris I just real quick I want to say thank you to everyone I'm very grateful for the amazing staff family students colleagues leaders that we have a very talented teachers an awesome cool climate very high expectations and the most importantly amount of trust and that seems to lead to great student achievement so thank you to everyone and I'm sorry for interrupting the meeting glad you got in Chris congratulations Thank You congratulations so I did want to make that message that I did send it out so I also along those lines I was working on something and I pretty close to having a open Town Meeting that'll be on on on a zoom meeting
030Town Meeting on the 22nd of June at six o'clock we're working out the details but right now and then we'll be talking about as that parent had indicated in the beginning some preferences folks may have regarding re-entry next fall we have surveys that have gone out and we'll be looking at those to focus on questions so I have it scheduled right now on June 22nd from 6:00 to 7:00 on unzoom so well more information to come on that thank you yeah move the discussion yes okay so sit back strap in because we don't know where we're going on this thing I say that in Canada but very concerned I've said to the cabinet stop planning because they were just going absolutely crazy thinking the what-if scenarios there are some foundational things that we need to
031do about cleaning about budgeting purchasing and that we are ongoing with Courtney I couldn't even speak to that but the actual plans for next year I will say they've been iterative to the is an understatement they change daily as of last Friday we had some good indication that it would be a blended with X amount of days for elementary and this is learning for the secondary and Carey you'll be glad to know today there was some changes in that that I'm hearing now with because there's been a real recognition that 169 pounds particularly the Urban's have some unique needs not only the resource wise but space wise and you know they need different accommodations so we are just looking at two scenarios of what we understand may have been and that is with the elementary
032having a greater presence in school with the secondary on more of a distance learning format personnel is working on names it with social distancing you can imagine each of our classroom if we're perfectly symmetrically divided by 26 we could probably have we've run some models maybe 13 or 14 to most in a classroom 920 square feet typically so on the two classrooms or every group which means we'll have two folks that are supervising we're still working through that the busing is a whole nother overlay Courtney is working with the bus company the expectation that a there'll be a staff person on the buses with youngsters the number of students that can write on the bus cleanliness cleaning of the bus picking up of students where to pick them up all of those things have to
033be worked out all with and this board has my position has been much more conservative with what I think what happened with safety but I think there is a real push to bring back folks on some limited basis so tonight I thought I'd have Kevin talk about some of the things that he's working through with with the area Cara can chime in with things that she's doing curriculum eyes and I've got Kelly and Courtney as well so why don't we go with Kevin first sow sow sow sow you collaborate mostly what I was going to say but I will add I think I shared with the board in our last meeting we were waiting for additional feedback from the state from in the governor's office to provide some further guidance on for a reentry plan
034in September and so at that time you recall we were hoping to receive something as soon as Friday since that Friday we have learned that we're hoping now to get something for me to end of June on something official from the state it's part of my seat with the with the it advanced advisory group to the commissioner this is a regional group with an advanced the the recommend been to recommendations that have come out from these two different teams that I've been on with that advance one that the first advisory group that I was meeting with in which there's a an advisory group from every from every risk throughout the state of Connecticut those that those meetings have been suspended until further information from the governor's office so that's one secondly in the most recent
035advisory group that I've joined we went in with the purpose to develop a framework for back to school model that would be that would serve as a template for schools in this respective region and so and so right now we have a template for a plan and that plan includes kinds of non-negotiables in every single area you know including how we're going to welcome back students prioritizing students with IEP s and English language learners students you know non negotiables and how we're going to support the needs of students to social emotional well-being of students and staff non-negotiables for visitors to the school's non-negotiables or physical space and set up in classrooms non-negotiables and it just be my last time to go to annona Gulch most or you know how we're going to distribute food to
036students during the school day and then and then within all of those respective buckets each school district will then identify the strategies that's that's appropriate for it for their school district and so to that end we've been meeting with subcommittees so as you guys know we've had a bigger bigger committee of like 25 30 30 people covering you know from a teacher or two from administrators to Health Department personnel personnel from the fire department you police etc but we've also had a number of follow-up subcommittee meetings on to identify the appropriate mitigation strategies to make sure everyone's safe and so we've had three or four meetings with the Operations Group there's an Operations Group particularly specifically for the bus and so we've met with you know folks from the personnel from the + depart Transportation
037Department to make sure we've landed on the appropriate strategies to keep staff safe most importantly keeps kids kids safe we're still waiting for further guidance from the state so we can talk about a plan for a pickup and what that would look like how many runs we would have to make how many buses we would need et cetera we've also met with a contingent from our music department to talk about how we're going to appropriately clean our instruments and make sure that's done in a safe manner I mean also waiting for further guidance from the state to know to learn if we can even play those instruments in the classrooms you know also met with buildings and grounds people and it's an operation as people within a district with buildings and grounds people from the
038city to talk about what does this mean for recess how are we going to handling all of these common spaces or touch my children and how we're going to mitigate the risk in those scenarios so we melt this subcommittee there and just give you an example you know this thing has continued to grow antennas as we try to land on the strategies to keep everything safe but but as asal mentioned earlier we're continuing to talk about how we're going to sanitize how we're going to sanitize you know common use spaces classrooms etc but we really need some some some definitive language from the state so that we can pull all of this together so once we have that and right now we're beginning to work on a model that's SL mentioned earlier where our secondary
039students are working more continue to work in the distance learning format and our younger students will be in school you know a number of days a week until we're beginning to look at what that would look like what that would cost for for staffing what this means for transportation once we get those particulars I think we'll be able to run with this so we're looking forward to it I was also had an opportunity to get as part of my seat on the advisory team get us a short little at the feedback from students and what they have said during this online distance learning format and then we learned I learned during my first meeting that they were also going to invite in the experts in the curriculum instruction field so doctor kisum arrow is gonna
040speak to that and talk about what she learned when she attended two sessions so similar to to Kevin's regional planning meeting there is a there is a parallel group that needs to talk about the curriculum instruction implications and how to adjust Mis environment and responsive and one of the probably the most important factors heading into the fall is going to be feedback that we received along the way from teachers teachers parents principals and EMA students themselves I'm not sure I'm gonna put a little link in here on the on the chat if that works but I'm gonna I'm gonna share my screen for just a moment because I think that the board might want to spend some time you know not today but perusing a site that that the that was sort of commissioned by
041the state to solicit student feedback from quite a wide background students and so if you can see this let me know can you all see this yes okay great so what this is let me just hide my view here okay so what this is and again I'll make sure that this is in the minutes and I also shared it in the chat the link students across the state over 18,000 students were asked the question if learning from home were to be part of school next year what changes could be made to make it more engaging and effective for students and so this is called a thought exchange and so what happens is a thought exchange usually asks just one question and participants can write down as many thoughts can jot down as many thoughts as
042they have that they felt was important in answering the essential question and then these same participants get to go back into the same survey and they get to rate other students thoughts that that resonated with them that they thought was important or that spoke to them and so in the thought exchange it ranks all of the top thoughts from all of the 18000 participants and categorizes them into emerging themes and this is what I thought was kind of interesting as the top themes so the bar graphs across looked pretty flat but what these represents are the of all of those responses and four hundred and thirty three thousand or so opportunities to review those font review and rate those responses these are some of the the ones that kept surfacing the most and had the
043most ratings per se so if we start over here I'm just going to go through the first four because I think they're ones that are repeated in some of the other themes but for example students when it came to the theme of video a lot of students wanted to make sure that that's teachers were using videos to explain the steps and the problems and directions that they were receiving and this there are boatloads of really direct student feedback in here they want deeper explanations of work they want more teacher interaction I wish there's more video content with my teacher live lessons from the classroom teachers so these are really powerful statements from students and there's lots of them and I'm in the process of reading through all of these and I've already taken lots of
044notes you click on another one again folks can play with this at their leisure but it talks about how students felt about the workload and whether something was busy work or whether it was important and and the types of assignments that work best or didn't work best lots of students creating interaction from their teachers more interaction the more the better so I will make sure that these are in that this link are is definitely in the minutes but it's definitely an important survey that I think that we would be silly not to spend some time taking a look at and making sure that student voice across the state is embedded in in any changes that we make for next year and so that was actually for grades 5 through 12 and so the younger students
045of course there were some folks who answered for younger students and you could see them in there as well mostly gauge that your upper elementary to middle school in high school level students so that was some of that and we spent some time going through that as a group and also spent some time talking about the professional development needs of teachers and how we make that shift as a result of some of our conversations our area rests which is at Advance we look together to put some ideas on the table for the types of regional professional development that will be needed that not just Danbury teachers but the teachers and the surrounding districts can participate in as well to help us continue to make this shift so on the curricular side of things I'll try
046to be brief we're gonna be looking at our fall units of study and we're going to be identifying what are the priority standards that really need we need to spend additional time on those are your foundation or your gateway standards so what are what are some standards that are maybe more nuanced or not as foundational nature week it's where we can spend a little less time on so that we can double down in areas where kids may have had some gaps as a result of the spring this year they'll be looking at that and the last piece with the curriculum units also with Ed advance they are producing or in the final stages of producing two to three week units of study that focus on social-emotional learning in the fall and for grades K 2
047K 2 3 5 6 8 and they are working on similar for 9 12 and what these units do again they focus on high leverage standards but they also introduce content and topics that get students talking academic in nature but it gets students talking naturally organically about their feelings about with what has been going on with what it's been happening in their lives how they've responded how their families are doing it brings in a lot of art it brings in some music it brings in English and like English standards and mathematic standards and science standards but it gives opportunities very cleverly gives kids opportunities to have conversation to kind of build connections again with their classmates and with the teacher so it's very nicely and a lot of the other surrounding districts are very interested
048in as well so as soon as those are ready we're going to take as much deeper look because we definitely want to make sure that we're leading in the fall with social-emotional learning and that we're responsive to students and sort of honoring where they've been and where we need to get them to go so we'll be making some interesting Kelly talk about what we're thinking about our your areas and also Kelly you might want to talk about the discussion yeah briefly about our thinking on the calendar for this year as long as you're up there um one of the areas that I've been focusing on heavily through their entry plan is to kind of piggyback off what Kara's that is the social-emotional piece um I I don't think it comes as a surprise to anyone
049here that the social-emotional issues of our students and their families during this time period has been exceedingly you know increasing exacerbated across multiple areas um so one of the things that we are looking at is whole staff training on some of these social emotional issues and really how to respond to different students and support families during this time so building on some of the resiliency that we've done piggybacking off of our school climate and restorative practices and work that we've done in previous two years to lay the groundwork to kind of further people's understanding of kids that are coming from different backgrounds and really how to support them through this time a particular component of the training will be to focus on kovat and also some of the social justice that we're seeing in the
050related issues that are impacting kids so we're trying to infuse that in the meantime I'll just segue a little bit back to mr. dinelli's question related for the school counselors school counselors school social psychologists would all be you know kind of critical and paramount to this work during this time you know each of them has really been working on supporting students and supporting families and so you know everything from how to access food to how to access you know housing to food stamps all those different resources within the community have been a preponderance of their work during this time I'm in addition our school counselors I know that was a particular question on everything that they were doing before scheduling we self just kids for classes for next year we still had to determine who
051graduated and met the credit requirements we still need to spend College recommendations and transcripts and all of those types of things continued but we also really did a lot of outreach with some small groups some one-on-one counseling sessions with students and probably a little bit differently than what we typically do with the younger students it's not a lot of time moving actually not with students but with their parents and so while we always partner with parents it was different in the fact that we were providing a lot of education and direct teaching to families on how to support issues with children in the home during this time because we didn't have access to them for the past you know a few months so those are some of the issues we've been working on is really
052just how to support and leverage all staff and equip them with the tools during this time because we know kids are gonna come in um some are gonna return just like they left and others are going to return and need different levels of support and our primary focus has been identifying those children that need the support and getting them to them we've also contemplated and we're looking into doing some social-emotional screeners which would help us further our work to identify children I'm in families that may need additional levels of support during this time so that's in its initial stages of kind of investigation um moving into the calendar and why that relates is that in order to kind of prepare stuff for the social-emotional issues um some of just the school safety and how to
053access nursing and what to do during different things as we transition back in we're going to have to do a lot of training in the fall before children even walk in the buildings um and so what we are proposing to do is take our two professional development days from later in the school year so one of them is the election day and November and the second one is the May PD day which I believe was May 28th don't quote me on the exact day I'm in to front-load them both at the beginning of the school year so to move them up the in front of the three days that staff typically ternt return before kids that would give us five days of work with teachers should teachers need to attention to the classrooms receive training
054go over protocols you know get the curriculum updates that they need and kind of how you know the transition into second grade it may look a little bit different this year you may be covering some of the first grade content I'm and so forth so we would like to propose to all of you that we move those two PD days to front-load the time that we have with staff to do really critical training for them and in order to bring them back and also look into procedures and policies for staff for next year regarding leaves and one of the Kim has been doing some work in there also going through and making tallies our faculty and support staff can maybe you want to talk a little bit about that yeah so we've been doing a
055couple of different things one we've been trying as best we can to anticipate what we think some of these broader guidelines are going to look like so we've been taking a close look at the composition of our staff whether we think that you know we have certain percentage of them of them that may be invulnerable risk categories that we need to really think carefully about what that means for them and also my team has focused a lot on social emotional needs of our staff coming back one of the things we've talked about is that there will be a certain level of fear not just for students but for our employees coming back to work and we've tried to leverage the the product that we've got our EAP plan which you'll remember we've been talking about
056for quite a long time it's starting to see some real traction now so we're gonna work with our partners at Cigna to make sure that we've got sufficient resources for our teams as they come back to work so that they have an outlet not only to deal with some of their own personal social emotional issues but also to give them some other tools to deal with the students that are on their student support teams we're also rolling out a module that we've used all spring now of professional development that is online it's through a product called master teacher and it has gotten just rave reviews we're just finishing up a Survey Monkey now to see how it was received by our folks but there were components of it that were not just how to work
057with kids on literacy but also how to deal with de-escalating situations to work on emotional issues with kids in support with support of the teachers and obviously the direction of the teachers so we've been able to actually spend some time you know there's a silver lining always we've had some time to work with our non-certified staff and to work with these other providers like Cigna to leverage what we have bring kind of a holistic approach to how we're training our employees as well and we've just feedback so hopefully we'll have some results to bring to you back when that comes and I think you know until we can get some definitive broad-stroke guidelines about what the flaw looks like we're trying to get our summer teams in and staffed and to try to anticipate as
058best we can so that we can be nimble enough to pivot as as these decisions start to become reality nimble in terms right coordinate some of the things that you working with PPE and other things that with Jobert kim said about being nimble and being able to pivot so that's sort of one of them at the forefront of everything we're doing with the budget and what we're doing operations with the facility and the security officers as Kevin mentioned under his leadership we're coming together as groups and we're not waiting for the guidance we're anticipating the guidance and how that'll suit fit danbury because we're unique and we want to be able to have everything that we can possibly think about planned out ahead of time so that when the scenario comes we're ready for it
059so from having a budget that you know has I think you'll see when we go into the committee when we would go into the workshop as the Finance Committee saw the other day that we've built a budget that does prudent as we can with a bit of ability to move around depending on what the state guidance is that's you know using our resources as effectively as we can thinking through every scenario with all the experts at the table so we've met as Kevin mentioned with the bus teams you know they're contractors but there are experts so we've talked through every scenario from like kids waiting on the corner they get on the bus you know and they arrive at school every possible scenario we can think through and we're also costing those things out to
060see what's realistic and what's not so working with you know Barry Sodexo with the food services company to think through all the scenarios with with the lunch and getting their feedback and rich Albert's been you know even the upsell mentioned the other day he's gone into the classrooms and moved around the desks to figure out how many kids safely fit based on what we assumed the guidance to be now you know we've through with the security officers with them what it would look like about my you know for somebody entering the building and what safety measures and protocols we need to put in place based on what we know now not waiting for the guidance just so we're like Kevin said we're even talking to people in the specials about what they would need to
061do with instruments and if that's even going to be a possibility so I hope people will see that when we walk through all the budget detail with the larger group and I welcome any any questions also thank you the only thing I will add CIC Athletic Association made some decisions about next fall it sounds like don't have seasons but it may be very limited spectators well as that develops we'll know more but that's the co-curricular activity is that one that we're monitoring one last payment we also have a list of all the things we might need to purchase so we've got a priority list that's ready to go because I know we'll have to be cute you know they'll be other districts buying whatever the supplies that are needed so every you know Kathy O'Dowd
062from Kelly's group is thinking through what we might need medically we've purchased some of that already so no touch thermometers for example the sanitizing supplies we've purchased as much as we can now you know and we've got a list of things that should we need to do them you know we're ready to go because we've sourced the best possible materials so that's another thing we're doing that's all we have at this point thank you thank you yeah Kim this probably you're probably the best person to to answer this question you know referencing on they're bringing the teaching staff and the regular staff back in and I'm wondering sort of what what's going to be the operating policy around teachers or staff or maybe how risk and maybe you're not gonna be comfortable coming back into
063the buildings right so what I'm hoping is that we're gonna get some additional guidance you might be aware that there have been some changes to the FMLA rules in light specifically of the kovat crisis one obvious example is people who have difficulty with childcare issues because of the crisis and the shutdown have certain FMLA protections now that would not otherwise have existed so I'm hopeful that we're going to get some guidance about those high risk groups and what that means for them at the time that we come back my guess is that it may look something like the kind of inquiry we do with disabilities what kind of reasonable accommodations can we provide to people who are in high-risk groups but I think it's really it's kind of a jump all right now and everybody's
064kind of waiting to see if we can get any at least broad stroke guidelines I'm encouraged that at least if we're just talking about an age group cutoff I think we're in pretty good shape with that but I think you know we won't know if there's other for example if someone has a serious health condition that makes them vulnerable we can't ask that question so I work in a the law contemplates a dialogue with those people about what their concerns are what their medical conditions are and how can we accommodate so it's going to end up being fairly case-by-case but I think that the hybrid model is one that's going to roll out in so many different scenarios I would imagine it's also going to impact staffing as well it's and Kelly I'd just quick
065question for you because it pertains to students it's sort of a similar question in that I'm certain we have students in our district who you know have underlying health conditions where return to schools not to be possible for them and I'm just wondering if you have a sense of how that might impact you know our budget around special education because I assume it would fall under there we have a typical protocol anytime that students need what's called homebound instruction so basically have medical needs that preclude them from coming to school due to safety um do you anticipate that that number might go up slightly on however typically in the past we've done a one-on-one tutor that goes to the home to provide instruction or we contract with a hospital say if a child is in
066that is in a hospital facility receiving some type of treatment under this model if we're not wanting to send a kid to school um for example I've worked with a couple families already and they have agreed to do the virtual learning and we can actually do several students in a group so I actually think we may be able to do it in a very a little bit of an adjusted fashion giving them some time to work with other children that are around their same ability level and receiving the same type of services um you know as much as possible so they can get some social interaction with yours because that's that's everything I'm hearing from parents is they're scared to send them to school for obvious medical reasons but you want them to still have
067connections with peers and with teachers so we're trying to treat it in that fashion I'm sorry I'm not too too concerned from a budgetary standpoint I think we can be creative in the way that we provide those adjustments and services but certainly we're going to get them Thank You Claudia yes uh this is for Kara Kara this isn't so much a question as a comment um the distance only went really well my kids actually did really good at it my daughter really thrived at it probably because she's got a great teacher the one thing that both of my kids wanted it I'm just passing this on as a dad anecdote was the more interaction more of the google meets more of that they loved it it my son's only eight so there were days where
068he just wasn't interested and whenever he had one of those that really fired him up and my daughter loved being able to talk to her friends and all that so I think that that was really important I know we can't do synchronous learning I know that doesn't work it would be great if we could figure out a way to make it work but more of that would certainly be good so that is something that's come across from from from all angle that was a key piece and so you know we've had some very nice conversations with the Union with teachers with coaches with the staff with principals and you know although this all everyone agrees that the interaction is is so key and especially you know we're gonna head into another long stretch here in
069the fall you're gonna be feeling this again and you know how do we rebuild those communities those classroom communities make you know try to try to replicate and the kids are craving not just the student to teacher interaction but the student and you know that they're technologically there are ways to do that and we have to come around how to do that safely and and get everybody to feel comfortable with that legally so we're working on it you know you can you could probably expect to see it you know some more guidelines around that for the fall for I call it distance learning 2.0 Kelly and Ivan we want to see happen for the fall and and but so recognizing that this is unusual this is not no typical distance learning that this is this
070is learning under duress if you will yeah that friend component is so important like gets the coaster dance classes by zoom so she gets more of it my son you can't do baseball by zoom so much I appreciate the feedback very much sometimes we forget that our new teachers also need to get you know have the PD and the interaction with their new colleagues they're brand-new to our district so we actually have really had our heads together trying to figure out what his new teacher orientation look like and how do we put them into virtual classrooms so that they can meet their peers and meet their team members and get them up to speed on some skills that they may not be ready for yet that are all new to them because they're coming right
071out of school mention your idea what we've done is again in the nimble and pivot we ordinarily would send welcome to the district weather and this letter is going to link to a Google classroom that we've set up for them it's got a hot link to all of our resources and it's going to ask them to download or purchase on their own some of the materials that we have used in the past so that they can be prepared for virtual discussion groups in the first few days of new teacher orientation so it's going to be a very robust set of materials kind of like when your high schooler complains about the summer work they have to do in anticipation of the fall it's gonna look very much like that and our new teachers are really
072going to be held to task with some reading materials and some study materials so that when they come in they can be ready to engage with it's gonna be a whole new thing for us it's just gonna be a whole new world for them I'm Cisco question yes so I love the nimble and pivot I mean dr. Sal started off by saying well we kind of stopped planning until we really know and then you all go into these very extensive plans that at least you all looking and working really hard on it we so appreciate it but the five days PD I mean sounds like great but that's like a whole week of coming in to school how are the teachers what's a sense about the teachers are they we talked with them today in
073because we do the calendar consultation with them they've recognized a tremendous need for this we also we have been working for two three years of that I call a blended PD where we don't have to be at work in order to do it but if we could create these modules they can do them on another time so the physical presence isn't important there's a time and the skills that risk and to go after so they were very very very supportive of it okay good thanks they see the real need yeah I mean I would think they would I just want to know when they can come in and set up their classrooms and you know what is it gonna look like they're planners they want the time particularly yes like even things like can I
074get a whiteboard for my living room so that if I have to do this versus I mean you know they're all they're all lifelong learners are teachers and so they're as interested in acquiring all these new tools as everybody else what it's been most impressive and I live in a different district that has looked very different in terms of distance learning than ours this danbury core of teachers has been they've been enthusiastic learners to each other you know they've each been running either running a PD session to share their tips or something like that so I think you all should should be very proud of their willingness to engage and this lifelong learning that they've all committed to as a career anyway very successful for them so for the board as I said to you
075in the beginning it's it's not that we have stopped playing it's the planning for two days a week versus five days a week but the things that we're talking about tonight will be applicable to all and that those are the essence of our planning so we drill down if they say x and y then we'll start counting classrooms and you know put that in but all these other things have to have discussion prior to even knowing that so I appreciate all the hard work that's going on thank you very much and thank you dr. Sara I don't think any boy remember that's listening that have been some since we have started these mean can say that you're not working hard so we can't say that we just want to thank you for the hard work
076that you're doing and hard work we noticed gonna come up here so just keep us informed and just keep everybody safe so we can keep doing what we need to do for the district Thank You chairperson report I have a very short report everybody know I'm quick on words but I'd like to say what I believe and feel what's right I want think Catherine high person while working along with me make sure that we had some representation for our 2020 graduates from Denver High School on last Friday morning Amy L especially dr. Sal Rachel and myself and thank careful we'll make sure that we had the banner and everything was in place and it was a beautiful up there and I really enjoyed it and I just want to thank you all for being there
077to support our class of 2020 from Denver high school thank you again and that is my report on board chair reporting yes okay I just got an email saying that on June 15 at 6 p.m. there's a 20 taskforce meeting so again that's June 15th at 6 p.m. and also sandy Sanchez from Westside gives me and she does our recording minutes she gives me a monthly update about what's happening at Westside and there were several virtual ceremonies there was a sixth-grade orientation on May 21st that went really well my son was a part of that helped to give the orientation while my daughter was there as as a incoming sixth grader so it was pretty special and very well done there was an award ceremony on June 4th and there will be a moving up
078ceremony on and all of these if you search for so I did come in there very well so I just want to I just want to mention two things I can't there was something last week I couldn't but Lauren can you mention it for dr. Cronyn I just thought it'd be appropriate I know Kevin was able to get there yes thank you so dr. Cronyn is retiring and so we had a little afraid for her um surprised her and it was it was tough to get her there but we finally got her there and we drove her around Miller Ridge primary and Westside middle school we drove her back and forth between the two schools and we had the staff and late retired teachers or whatever park at her school her family parked in between
079the two schools at the soccer field and then parents and families from past and present Park done at Westside there was a great attendance everybody decorated their cars and she cried the entire time and was so thankful so we're just happy we were able to do that for her and it was just it was an amazing day and I'm thankful to Colleen gelati on sawmill john p AK for helping us put it together and my husband for driving the hay wagon and just so we over the next three days we have high school graduation wednesday thursday friday hopefully it won't be raining on thursday that is it thank you for the [Laughter] second-most your so care we're staying on this site right now i think we're leaving we have a new link we have a
080new link can I just clarify something note do we have to come back into this session afterwards to do the adjournment I don't think we can get back into this session once we leave it I'll have to do the adjournment from ok the technological glitches all right