Board of Education Special Meeting - July 22, 2025

001That is um Robin, seconded by Greg. All those in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. We are back in session. Um we'll start with the approval of the minutes. May I have a motion to approve the following the minutes of the special and regular meetings held on June 24th, 2025. That's Robin, seconded by Dave. All those in favor. Um, that's unanimous. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to discussion, presentations, discussions, and possible actions. We'll start with discussion on long-term fiscal planning in the fiscal year 27 budget. And I will um take that directly to you um Eric and Rich. >> Okay. Hope everybody had a good lunch. Um so obviously uh a week in I've done some early learning on the budget process and some of the drivers and what we envision today to be um

002which has really put together some helpful information as we think from that 30,000 uh feet view at an early state uh of time where we are and what some of the more significant drivers and challenges that we will be facing once we get into the budget process. So, I don't necessarily see this as us getting into a meat of a discussion about the building of the budget yet. We're not there yet, but this is certainly to sort of put things on the radar for discussion at a later point and things that we'll be having to navigate as we build this proposed budget for FY27. So, Rich, take it away. Thank you. So, um obviously the biggest part of the uh budget for next year um remains unknown and that is the teacher contract which expires

003at the end of the um current fiscal year. Um I would imagine our settlement will be roughly in line what we've seen in the past. And so if we look at what that would be, you're looking at probably something in the range of 1.85 to 2% of your actual budget. So if nothing else changes, your budget's probably going to go up by 1.85 to 2% depending on where that settlement is. Obviously, we have other union agreements with the administrator, the custodians, the maintenance, the parish, the nurses, and the secretaries. That's about threequarters of a point as well. And so, just with those two items, you're at about a 2.6. Um something that we've obviously talked a lot about in the last few years, it's health insurance. Um in the last three years, we got a

004seven, we got almost a 14, and almost a 12. If you're looking um at health insurance, you know, every point is roughly $150,000. So, depending on where health insurance goes. So, if you're looking at like kind of an average of where we've been in the last three years, you're looking at 10%. Um, a lot will depend on how our claims look. Um, plan design looks. Um, but a 10% increase with the same headcount, you're looking at another 1.2% on your budget as well. Um, so the things obviously add up quickly. Uh, we do have some grants that are uh set to expire. Um, Teen Talk was funded partially in this current school year through a grant that will expire. If the board wishes to continue that program at the middle school, it'll have to fund

005that gap. Uh the wellness corner at the high school, um it started in a grant, then was one-third in the board's budget, uh and two/3s in a grant. This year it's two/3s in the board's budget, one third in a grant. Next year, if it's continue, it'll have to be fully funded by the board's budget. Uh and then currently title two and title three have been rescended by the federal government. That money is on pause. Um title two is $32,000, so it's a small portion of our budget. uh but it does fund uh professional development. So that remains rescended. Um that is a budgetary gap as well. In the last budget cycle, we did have some reductions for technology. Um if we were to just follow the standard replacement cycle, that's a $690,000 increase to the

006budget or a half a point on the budget. And that's really for defer deferrals of aging equipment. And we did include um chart of our peers, what we spend, we do spend less than our peers on infrastructure for technology. Um though the one highlight is new Kanan does fund theirs at capital and we'll talk about that a little bit. Um home to school transportation next uh next year will be year three of a 5-year contract and that'll result in another almost quarter of a point increase on the budget. So just looking at those items in in isolation, you're already at a 4.6% increase. It doesn't uh consider anything to do with special education. And then we obviously have some small contractual increases like the fetch property, the garbage contract, utilities, and any unfunded mandates that

007might exist. Um while there aren't just increases, we do have some savings. So, uh deductible changes to insurance plans will have some savings. Um additional state aid for excess cost, we've kind of seen that fluctuate over time. though, even with the additional $40 million, if claims do go up, that reimbursement will go down. Some of the legislation that's been passed that we talked about earlier this um this year, like the um the state schedule for pricing, that's going to drive special ed costs up not down. Um and so when we look at that more money in excess cost might not necessarily mean a higher reimbursement because if prices go up because there are now caps on what out of district placements can charge that creates shortages in facilities. Shortages in facilities mean they have to

008go elsewhere with some non-state approved uh agency or uh places that can raise costs. Um so those are things that could potentially work against us. We've highlighted salary schedule changes that we've negotiated with our unions, whether the custodians, the paras, uh the secretaries. Um cumulative those uh those salary schedules have saved over a million dollars for the district. Um just about $1.1 million. And so we are seeing more individuals towards those programs as people leave the district. You know, in the past, we've talked about programs. Um and so those are things that'll have to be considered whether it's the transition program. Uh there was talk of communications coordinator uh or continuing the reading program in grades three through five. Those would all add to the budget as well above that 4.6. Um on the capital

009side uh we are just starting the uh study of Middle Sex that was approved for the fiscal 26 budget. Um depending on the outcome of that study that's likely to make a recommendation in excess of $50 million to deal with that facility. Um and then the high school. Um the high school is starting to age and as we've shown in the capital budget, you know, in the next five years, you are looking at things like new roofs, new turf, new HVAC. Um all those things at a minimum will probably cost about $15 million over the next five years. So you have at least, you know, 65 plus million in capital needs just in those two buildings. Um we've talked a little bit about some items that could be considered long term. I know in the

010past whether it's the transition program or other things uh in district special um out of district tuition remains a volatile area it's been about a million dollar increase each year for the last two years. Um so whether or not we should have programs in house it is important to know that not all in district programs are going to save money. Um if we look at what the average tuition is it's about $90,000. The average cost of a para is $85,000. So depending on if the program needs to be a par professional that might not actually save any money. Um you also have a space constraints. Um you might not have the space within your existing seven buildings to house programs like that which means then you might have to find alternative space like Fitch. So

011anytime you have to get an alternative site that means more cost is added as well. And then transportation challenges more students that we bring in district not all students out of district receive transportation. If we bring them in district, our existing fleet might not be able to support them and we do have a limit on how many vehicles we can have based on the special permit. We did highlight that technology um so some districts like New Kanan do uh budget technology equipment and capital. Uh there are pros and cons to this. Uh financially it would help offset your budget in the first year. The downside is you do lose control over those items and some of that does impact the education. So for example, if you were to have all your technology in capital, for

012whatever reason, the town decides to cut Chromebooks in grade five, that means immediately your onetoone program at the elementary school goes away. So one of two things either has to happen. You have to adapt in a short time to decide how you're going to operate without onetoone at the elementary schools or then you're going to have to essentially cut something out of your operating budget to fund those items that got cut. So you lose that flexibility when you move items in capital. The town also has a threshold set of $5,000 for an item and so not all technology items uh meet that threshold. Uh we've talked about in the past the non-lapsing account. Some districts do utilize a non-lapsing account which are savings accured from a prior year. Um they are typically better used when

013you have uh one-time expenses like technology or facility repairs, textbooks, things like that. They work best in communities and towns where there's full buyin. So, not just full buy in from a board of ed, from the board of finance, the RTM, so that it doesn't become looked at as a pot of money that uh could be taken from either entity. You really, you really have to have buyin if it's going to work. Um, we've also talked about a bus depot. A bus depot is not something you're going to be able to implement on the short term, as we discussed in May. Um, it's likely something that would have to be uh implemented off cycle. Uh it's not as if you created bus depot tomorrow for students going to move all their buses there and give

014you a big credit. That's not going to happen. And you would not be able to get a uh another company to start the school year in such short notice. Um so that you know is kind of where we stand currently. Uh it is still early being July. Uh and we do typically start the budget processes. I hope >> Rich I believe this came up at the last meeting but the change uh with busing in Greenwich what are the implica if any for us not necessarily short term because I don't believe there are but long term does that change the landscape in the area with regard to busing >> sure so it doesn't have an impact on us uh first student prior to the change in Greenwich had I believe three locks in Stanford that they

015utilized uh for us for Stanford a little bit for Greenwich um Greenwich made the choice choice to move away from first student because of cost implications. So they move to DATco. Um you know for us long term if we were to see let's say Stanford also leave. Um whether or not for a student would want to remain here um >> just for us >> could be concerning because we would be essentially their only game in town to have a depot there and our depot is partially shared with buses from Stanford. So if Stanford said okay we're going to go away from first student we're going to go to DACO 2. that could put pressure on us. Um, and obviously we would have a big concern because there are not a lot of opportunities for other

016bus companies here. Um, but there is no short-term uh issues right now. >> You know what their cycle? >> I would have to check. Um, >> so if we based on where our contract is and we were to um start to do a study, what what's the timing if it worked out well that we would acquire a piece of property like are we talking two years from now or? >> So we would put out so you're going into uh the fiscal 27 budget would be year three of five. >> Okay. Um, so typically you would put a bid out in the fall of the year before it expires. So that would be fiscal 29. So that fall right before that budget. Um, and you would want to include in that bid the fact that you

017had a depot. So if you were to get it, >> sorry, fall of 28. >> Uh, so the fall of 28 so that you would implement in 29 I believe it is. Um, so you'd want to be able to put in the bid that we have a depot, which means you're going to have to carry that depot without any buses actually on it for a period of time. So if let's say you had a depot in the fall of 28, you're not using it at that point and you're getting ready to use it for summer of 29. >> Okay? >> So you're going to have a period of no use essentially for that deep uh and then to be able to advertise the fact that we now do have a depot and we'd want to

018have it effectively utilized July 1st. >> Right. And then my question chair, where do we stand in discussions in terms of capital prioritization as a town? And how do we get this uh them to start looking at that like because it seems like a no-brainer strategically that this should be significantly considered as a capital priority for the town. >> So like how do we see this through now? >> We're all aware of it. I think actually having timeline actually a great depth so that we understand what time so that the town can actually model it appropriately. >> Oh, thank you, Jeeoff. Um, so sorry, what I was saying is, uh, uh, the selectman and the PNZ are aware, this is the port of finance that we need a bus depot. We think it's advantageous to

019have one. The next step I think would be to communicate this new timeline so that they could model it in their own uh capital planning and see how it how it stacks up um and understand a little better you know the notion that we have to carry it etc. >> And what about a costbenefit analysis like what can the timing be there to u or own you know own versus lease if you will or >> so I mean we we uh I did provide uh Dr. Adley previous the previous I think it was in June a comparison of what other districts have in terms of whether they have a depot they don't have a depot what are they paying um you know it is in that 4 to $500,000 you know annualized savings uh based

020on the difference of the daily rate um that those communities pay versus us um >> you said yeah go ahead >> so the difference between the communities that have a bus depot versus that don't so us for example the difference in the daily rate for them is about $400 to $500,000 um in aggregate in total across what we would have as 25 buses. So the the issue is going to be whether or not once we if we were to get one and we were to put out a bid, how many competitive bids do we get? Um one of the things that we're seeing so for a student for example, they were bought by a private equity. Um and since that happened a lot of the prices have risen dramatically. Um you know that's one of

021the reasons chose to make the switch to Datco. Um will we get a DACA who's interested who in the past has said we won't bid because we don't have any where to park buses. Would we get an STA to bid who's Wilton for example? Um so the more competition we can have obviously the better that will be um in terms of leverage and even even once getting those bid negotiating with those various ventures and essentially pitting the three of them against each other to see where we come in. >> I think I think in fact we you were going to put that together so we could >> I did provide that to Dr. Adley. Okay, great. So maybe you could take a look at it and then we can put it in a package with

022the timeline, a recommended timeline and send it over there to the Salman and the >> Going back to the DGCO. You said that person the the Greenwich and Stanford and Darianne all have the same lot. So does DACO have a separate lot now for Greenwich? >> So they don't have the same lot. They have uh different lots in Stanford that they rented for students. So they have a lot that provides just for Stanford. They have a lot that provides for Austin, a portion of Stanford, and they had another lot that supported a portion of Greenwich. um that lot was terminated. The lease with that lot for student was terminated. And so Greenwich does have other spots where they park, but they have a lot of buses when we compare to us, not just because they're

023bigger, but they also have a lot of private schools. And in Connecticut, you are responsible for busing private school students as a board of education. Um and so they are using a different facility. >> Oh, sorry, Rich. Can you just remind me where New Kanan parks all their buses? They park them at the high school. All of >> They do park them all at the high school and then at the elementary uh so they're all propane and then at the elementary school they have a propane filling station. >> Got it. Thanks, Richard. >> Joanna, this is about the bus depot. Is that okay? Um whenever we do talk about finances and planning for the future, I feel like we often get stuck with the idea that or just even taking it back to the what

024we were talking about before lunch. I don't feel like there's a lot of trust between boards. Maybe we talk to each other and we're and you know and then on the basic level like we're not lying to each other, but I feel like we are sometimes don't have the ability to be like we need to do X and we're going to put money in a non account for that or however we decide to do that and then we all move on. I feel like there's this sense of distrust or punishment or if we do one thing that they haven't uh you know that we think is best for uh the town um we get second guessed by them um and also the RTF not just board of finance. So I'm just wondering how do we

025solve that problem so that we can plan without constantly worrying what the other uh governing bodies are going to do. I have some thoughts, but I think this is a good board discussion. Um, I think one of the things is the stronger we are early before the budget so we don't all open our budget and say, "Oh, surprise." I think that's one piece. I think we've also been working on explicitly communicating better so that things like talking about the bus depot, talking about sidewalks, um, continuing those kinds of communications across boards. Um uh I think also um figuring out on the bus depot is a very good example of us um not presenting a finished product but inviting them into the decision-m so that they can see what the costbenefit analysis is and and there

026can be some mutual problem solving so there's a feeling of ownership. I think that's another way that doesn't work in every case because we don't really want co-pro solving on on everything we do. Um um and I think also, you know, I think this year's budget was a lot better than the one before. We were all in nine different directions and this year we did make some choices and some trade-offs, but making sure that we're tighter on our own decision-m so that it stands up to to scrutiny. Um but I think I'd go back to um the conversation earlier about trust and that just takes time. um uh to build, but I I welcome some other thoughts on um on that. Um I I don't think it's all one way. I you know, I've given

027some examples of things that we could do on our end, but um I think there has to be a mutual commitment to building trust. Um >> yeah, I mean you that last point you just hit, you know, they have to communicate backwards too in terms of what they see as the fiscal uh status of the town and and give some guidance, guidelines, whatever you want to call it. Um it's really tough to go in with a black box and not really understanding that other one-third of the town budget, what constraints that the whole town budget, you know, because again, we don't get into the financing costs. I mean actually it's carried on the town side. So I think communication and and some feedback and back and forth and you know since my tenure we've moved

028up this discussion to this day now. Um and I think it's been truly helpful to to um communicate the landscape that we're facing. We still have differences of opinion how we should um present that to the community and the other boards but I think that will continue to get reconciled. So, um, those are my >> Dave. >> So, I would just say speaking to the tension, um, stepping back not as a board member, but as a resident in town, I see that as a feature, not a bug. We want to have people scrutinizing what we're doing. We want to have people challenging us, making sure we're presenting good ideas and good analytics and how we got to our decision. And so, with board of finance with their, you know, remitt to really just look at

029the numbers, I would expect them to challenge us. So, expect RTM to do the same. Um, so to me that's that's actually I think a good point. But I think we can have comedy and we could have good working relationships with them. And I think the trust issue we've been kicking around a little bit today kind of works in two ways. One is we're dealing in a relationship. You're going to build trust over time and earn that. The other is if you're in a transaction, you basically have to decide you're taking a leap of faith and trusting or you're not taking that leap of faith and trusting. And so I think as we start to transition here from taking a leap of faith and trusting what we're going to do moving forward and then demonstrate

030over time that competency, then I think the comedy between the boards will be there. And I hope they still challenges us and make sure we're doing good thinking and working hard to come to our results. But I don't see that as a problem. I see that as a a challenge of benefits everybody. >> I don't disagree with you. I just I I hope that the other bodies can get to that why that we are all hoping for, right? and not and taking that fire hose out of their hands and getting to that higher level. If this is why school district needs XYZ, not you know the the $42.72 cents cost. So if we can raise that conversation up ourselves, hopefully they will in turn raise their conversation with them. I >> I think another thing

031that it's worth us being aware of is how much of the budget we actually are. I'm not sure that I think around this table we know that but I'm not sure that everybody knows we we are the biggest driver of the town budget by you know a large margin. We're we're up to up to threequarters of it if you count debt. Um so understanding that and there is no line item veto on our budget. So because there's no line item veto it creates a little bit of a different relationship than what the board of selectman has because there is line item veto on their budget. So I think that does create some tension that we have to navigate. Um >> scrutiny um and sometimes that scrutiny includes tension and and there I do agree that

032there is some natural tension that's natural and appropriate. Um but um as long as our work stands the test of time and again I I think thinking about I think one thing we can all do on all sides of this table is think continue to think a lot about buyin from our fellow government party parties from the community um understanding that we need time to roll things out and and kick the tires. It's hard to do publicly. I mean, to your point, Greg, that everything we do is public and then um you know, it's hard to kick the tires in that in that way. So, we to balance it a little bit, but it's a good question. Um, I think on some of the longer term things such as a but a bus depot, if

033we are able to come up with a good cost analysis, a costbenefit analysis that shows realistically the savings over time, >> I I do have a sense that the board of finance and board of selectmen would buy into that and the RTM would buy into that because in the past when we were able to show the effectiveness of some of the the programs for instance the outsourcing or insourcing ing on some of the special education transportation. I mean, when we put together the analysis and do that work, I I do think that they will work with us and partner with us because they understand the longer term benefits even though it might allow it might be a cost outlay in the short term. I just feel like we have to have that trust. Dave, >>

034I was just one minor followup which is pretty obvious, but I would expect from finance if we, you know, spend half a million dollars today to save half a million dollars in five years. Obviously, right now in today's money means different things, I would expect we're probably going to have to go to that sort of level of diligence and provide that. >> Yes. >> I I think diligence when there there's two things. There's I think actually being a little better at the strategic thinking and spending a lot less time on >> I'll call it the $50 um and doing a lot better job with the strate strategic piece will build trust and then the other side though is that when we do have a proposal that needs to get through the other boards. Another good

035the bus depot plus I think our um middle school will be another good example making sure that we've really kicked all the tires on that ourselves before it gets out of our hands. Go ahead. Yeah, just one quick followup just in terms of the communication with the board of finance. I I know we normally don't do it till later. >> Yeah. >> And I I'm sure they dislike surprises as much as we do. >> Yeah. >> I don't know when we're thinking through this whatever this process should look like going forwards. However, we can get them involved earlier >> may be beneficial so that they're not surprised and that way when they go into their board finance meeting, everybody kind of already knows what the answer is. And when you say get them involved, can

036you be a little more specific about what you mean? >> Well, like we're, you know, we're already getting some somewhat indirect of here here's some big drivers what's going to happen this year. So, we're eyes we're starting to get eyes wide open of like, wow, this could be big number, >> right? >> How can we move things around to try to to shape that? But I don't know if they're watching the meeting and taking notes or not. >> They'll be I'm sure they are. Yeah, they they're usually informed. >> Having having maybe more informal conversations earlier might help with the process. >> Yeah, I think they were pretty like some of them were pretty well informed um going in. Um but but I think >> maybe it's just soliciting direct feedback >> without it being

037public feedback. >> Without it being public. Yeah. Dennis, >> going back to the bus depot, I'm just I'm thinking of it as more of a risk avoidance, if that's the right term, of that, you know, how do we now that Greenwich is no longer in the equation. Newan does their own busing. We we have Norwok as our only partner maybe left and and Stanford. If Stanford goes somewhere else, we're we're left literally on an island. And you know we have to we have to have that risk avoidance of not being able to bust the children to school. >> Do you have that in the memo already that that set of of factors? >> Uh so when I gave the memo was prior to the whole Greenwich certainly add the biggest obstacle for the community in

038terms of getting a bus depot is is a residential community. Buses are very loud at a narrow day that people don't want them to be very loud. >> Yeah. Um, and so even like Norwok, I know Norwok has a depot, but they don't have space to lend additional buses on their depot. >> If it got to the point where Stanford student first student gave us their 90day out, we had no buses and you're going to effectively have to pay probably five to 10 times more to have people bus in from others on a daily basis. Take what? >> Yeah, that's my point though. You said we have to avoid that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we might be able to rent something in a neighboring community, right? >> Yeah. I mean, the the easiest one

039is Stanford because they do have like an industrial zone which is why the depot are there. Um the lot in Norwalk is a little bit different. They actually didn't have a depot for the longest time and they ended up getting one. Um but abundance of space on that lot. You can imagine Nora being a big district has a lot of >> Okay. Anyway, thank you for adding that. That's great. Additional color. Thank you, Dennis, for the point. >> And going back, sorry, the technology, we're we're so low. Is that because we went to bring your own device or is that something >> No, a lot of it has to do with deferrals that have been made in previous budget cycles. Um, we we do tend to lengthen out the time in which we hold devices.

040I mean, we have devices in the district that are 15, 16, 17, 18 years old. um that they're not operating great, but when you have tight budget cycles, that does tend to be a place where you try to um get some reductions. Uh you know, a district like Darianne should probably be in that, you know, 6 to 7% of your budget on equipment um and infrastructure. Um it's not uncommon for people to complain in the district about, you know, a device running slowly and that is in large part just because of the age of the devices. What is that 22 represent? Is that a one year? Is that an average? >> That's the current year. What is our nor what is our normal rate? >> Uh it's usually closer to that point four you I

041mean you're really closer to where like Wilton is. Um you have not really been at that 7% where Richfield and New Kanan have been. Uh New Kanan I mean they do put theirs in capital and they're pretty consistent around $800,000 a year. Again, if you put technology equipment in capitals, you you give line item veto to to the other boards in town. And so, you have to understand that risk that's there. Um, >> what's the benefit? >> So, the benefit it it doesn't create that fluctuation that we have. So, if we were to look into next year and you were to just approve what's in the standard replacement cycle, I mean, you have a half a point on your budget before anything's even done, right? And so, you have those ups and downs and you

042have those peaks. It's not uncommon in the past where, you know, technology has seen either a quarter of a point or a half a point on the budget's total increase. Whereas, if you put it in capital, you kind of have that same, let's call it $800,000 every year. Um, you know, you're buying Chromebooks and you know, you're buying Vonics or laptops or whatever those devices might be, you get a little bit more consistency and you avoid those peaks and valleys. But in a year maybe where um budget's tight and uh the town is looking to reduce expenses for whatever reason it might be um similar to a couple years ago when the paving at token got cut. You know there is nothing preventing them from saying we're cutting the grade five Chromebooks. And at that

043point if that was the example onetoone at the elementary schools is is gone. Um, and so the board of ed would have to decide, do we want to operate without that onetoone at the elementary schools or do we want to then between May and June try to figure out how to reconcile out whatever we need to get those >> in your operating budget. >> Correct. Dave. >> So I guess um just thinking through the technology um Eric, what are we going to hear on sort of your philosophy on technology or where we should be thinking about that or what the direction is maybe to strategically inform how we should be figuring what this number ought to look like. >> I'll need a lot more information before I could weigh. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, I think

044that it's an important conversation to have. I mean we have to look at it in terms of what is technology for operation sake and what is it for instructional uh purposes and I think that's an important conversation for us to have and to bring back. >> Thank you. I think it would be helpful to see that um maybe not maybe not exactly at the same time maybe there but in tandem understand maybe a couple years of of uh forecasts because um I think it's helpful to understand the impacts on the bottom line and if it's you know consistently it should be around you know uh 6 to 7 um then we talk about that as a consistent number but if the way we've structured it we're going to have um uh fluctuations. This might be

045an example of where we want to have a conversation with our partners about the best way to fund it. Um so maybe John, that's something you guys can look at in finance. >> Got two more meetings. >> So >> well then two more. You got two two more to figure out when to look at it. >> Rich, just a silly question maybe, but the threshold of $5,000 you say is a capital item. Is that like a Chromebook is one item or the the lot of Chromebooks is one item. >> So it's the item. >> So one one Chromebook. >> So you can't you can't do five. So fifth grade Chromebook example or not? >> The town could choose to make that change, right? So there's no like law that says um it has to be

046like an individual item or it has to be the pool. But the town's kind of like process for what they consider capital is $5,000 for the item and a useful life. I think it's I think it's about four years. Um, so they could choose to make that change and other communities have made that change as well. Like Norwok, for example, made the decision that uh when they buy textbooks, as an example, because they are such a large district, when they buy a new reading program, it's in the millions of dollars. And so they they choose to put that as a capital expense and they take it out of non-recurring capital. The town here could choose to to do that. Um, but based on what their guidance is for capital now, the Chromebook would >> Okay.

047>> Thank you, >> Robin. Since New Canon has technology in their capital, do you know what their threshold is? >> I would have to ask. >> Okay. Anyone else on this memo? All right. Thank you all for the information. That was extremely helpful to see. All right, with that we'll move on to um the discussion on the board of education goals for 2526. >> So I uh primed this conversation earlier in the the discussion around the text and thinking about the kinds of goals that I would recommend that the board be considering. So what's in your packet and what I think is being displayed up here. So there currently there are when I when I picked apart and spent some time with Amy looking at the goals for the district and the board together there

048were three goals that seemed to me to be absolutely right in the wheelhouse of the board governance. uh goals three, four, and five are existing goals from the strategic plan that I would recommend consideration as standalone board of education goals. In addition, there were two other goals that I also think are correctly in the location and the responsibility of the board of education. the first being um the successful implementation of a superintendent search and finding a new superintendent and the second being um successful and timely contract negotiations. So that being said, I certainly just want to open it up for a discussion. that to me as I was looking through the strategic plan thinking about what should be in the helicopter and who should be holding the hose. These are helicopter items and I think

049they're most appropriate to be the goals for the board and I do think the board should have standalone goals as opposed to the district goals which should be the fire hose goals that are in the strategic plan. So open to discussion. Obviously, these are drafts. Um, these are things I pulled and then put some things together and would welcome any additional discussion, thoughts, word smithing. >> Okay. Any any thoughts? Are we all generally in agreement with this direction as this this defines how we're describing our work for the next year? >> To me, this makes a lot of sense. It's very clear. It's very um easy to digest for those people that are wondering what does the board do versus what does the district do. Um it seems to make a lot of sense. I

050have questions about the specifics but if people want to talk about the overall >> Okay, let's sure. Let's stay with the generally. Yes, Katie and then Robin. >> Um thank you for putting this together and I appreciate the redirection because I've always found the steps a little a bit confusing. Um, I do like looking at this, you know, as a one-pager and sort of thinking about the next year and what does, you know, almost as like a summary of like what what as a board of ed member are your priorities? What are you going to spend the next year doing? And, you know, only a portion of us are on the negotiating team. So, that goal is is off for, you know, more than half of the board. So, that leaves the other two. And

051looking at the superintendent search, you know, we have two people who are chairing the organization and communication of that. So that lands on their plate a bit more. Um, and we've outsourced that. Um, so then that leaves us with the budget season. And I actually worry sometimes that the concepts of the board of ed gets boiled down to just the budget um, as opposed to one component of it. So I guess my question is, you know, where does some of the more day-to-day stuff and day-to-day is not the right word because that implies operations and that's not our but you know where like where do we find the the rest of our responsibilities and kind of that stewardship and oversight for kids? Well, you could identify them as call out goals for those things, but

052those are the normal regular expectations of the board's function. So, policy, we wouldn't create a goal around policy because that's your statutory responsibility is policy. I mean, those kinds of things, there is a tremendous amount of work of the board. But when I think of goals, those are specific call out things that are most important for this one year. And I do I unless I'm misunderstanding there are chairs for the search committee but ultimately doesn't the entire board when you get to the process of the hiring that would be the entire board and frankly in the world of boards of education the most important thing you will do in your service as a board is hire a superintendent. So I I would say that it is a pretty significant piece because even behind the scenes

053there's a big piece that you've outsourced which is the gathering of information to me board members working to get people to show up at those forums to complete the surveys. I think those are critically important pieces for board members to take on whether or not they're on the chairs of the search committee. But um you know I think there's a lot that is in the responsibility of the board that wouldn't be specific called out goals and these would be annual obviously you know you accomplish goal one that's going to be replaced um you know it it could be around the superintendent's entry. It could be around meeting structure. It could be around a lot of things and some of these are huge. You know when you think about goal number five that's a huge goal.

054you think about going one number four, you're going to roll into a goal around the middle school um pretty shortly after this or that's going to expand um beyond the middle school study to middle school action. >> So hopefully that answers the question, but um >> Greg, I'm sorry. >> I I like the list. Um thanks for pulling it together. My question was like this this is definitely a great list for us as a board. Um, is there like a different list that we get to see that's more like district goals? So, I just like so the implementation of inter reading. >> Yep. >> Like that's not on this list, but that's not for the board. >> That's not for the board. That's for us and your oversight over that is inherent in your responsibility.

055So, Right. Right. >> the district goals will still be the Wedi goals, but this just clarifies >> what's in your wheelhouse and what's in ours. Great. Yeah, that's >> Robin I he Greg my my question was similar to Greg's just that the over the because when we do our self-evaluation the first question is you know do you feel as a board that you have you know helped to improve student growth and achievement or you know whatever it was which was really has to do more with the strategic goal number one in our strategic plan. Um, so I just want to verify and I appreciate I I agree with these goals which are in a way more operational in nature for the board of ed just in terms of what we really need to get done.

056But just to confirm we still would be working hand inand to ensure that those district goals and strategic plan are >> that's your your responsibility is the oversight of that. So it's our job to deliver. It's your job to make sure that we're delivering. >> That was really my question. Thank you. John, >> so just to be clear, negotiations we just execute, but we get guidance from the entire board and we seek that guidance. So we'll be coming back, you know, numerous times and getting feedback and if we're going off on a little bit of wrong direction that the consensus of the board bring us back and direct us elsewhere. So that's a pretty important responsibility for all of us. Um the other question is do should we put a bus depot on this as

057a as a distinct um >> we could broaden broaden >> I would I would I would suggest we do that get it out there >> particularly because it looks like in the long-term financial planning you also have high school. So while over a year basis the only thing we'll be doing from a vote perspective is likely to be middle school >> right >> um we should be communicating about the others >> and then that would be modified you know if a high school study is added in fiscal 27 that would be certainly be something because in the world I live a lot many goals keep rolling and they just get modified and transitioned. Obviously, goal one is not one that you would roll, but pretty much all the others >> hopefully. >> One and two.

058Yeah, >> we're going to be optimistic. >> You could I feel like you could lop that into goal four key capital projects. >> Yeah, capital projects. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Sarah, did you have some specific? I'm going to hold my question because I had a fire hose in my hand. >> You get a cold start. >> Okay. So, we won't be voting on these tonight, but we would be. So, if there you have interim thoughts, please send them in. that we could in the next meeting with the officers, we could finalize any language and bring another draft because there are certain things um you know I I've heard the communication plan is finalized and I've heard we're not sure it's completely finalized. So I had it in here and it you know

059those kinds of things we want to clarify before going forward. So okay. Okay, discussion on >> I just want to clarify that um somehow my outlook changed its formatting and I didn't see the updated material so I was not aware of four and five. So thank you um Eric for completing the board's work with those >> um discussion on board of education strategic plan for 2526 So Amy, I'm going to let you run with this one. Um, uh, Amy has been trying to orient me on on how this has been processed and discussed in the past and so she's agreed to take the lead here, which I greatly appreciate. >> Thank you, Dr. B. Look how fast you are. Thank you so much. What you have on the screen now, everyone, is the um, strategic

060plan from the June 10th meeting that was updated. And what I had explained to Dr. burn is during the board retreat in July year-over-year um we've typically removed any of the items that were complete or we've taken off the prior year. So prior this time last year we had year three and four during the retreat we settled on year four and then finalized in the fall meeting. So um right now as a cabinet we'll continue to orient Dr. Dr. Burn and we will um put our focus on the items that were in year five. Um however I would like to provide just a highle overview on some things that I think um especially from a teaching and learning perspective where we need to major shift shift some of our focus. So in the June the

061June 10th version that everyone has seen from from the spring update for enhancing teaching and learning um March and I have been working on that continued implementation of the revised educator and evaluator support plan. So that will shift in the strategic plan and again these are the fire of those details. Um, we are going to not use Temple anymore as our software program. So, we're going to be orienting the staff so that we've been able to find efficiencies. We'll be using the Google suite. Um, we also though need to do some continued work with our administrative leadership team on providing high quality feedback and sharpening the focus on what does highquality instructional practice look like. As we make a shift to our K3 literacy new resource that will be incredibly important because again program agnostic

062we really want to be focusing on high quality instructional practices and outcomes. Um as you know in the strategic plan in the past we had um actions around play-based learning. Happy to report as we talked about um in June we have already developed some curriculum in that area. There are now updates around implementing that curriculum and really um during the break before there were some first grade staff up there working curriculum writing and one of the things we talked about was strengthening the articulation between K and one so that the kindergarten teachers really know where kids are going in grade one and the first grade teachers really know what experience. So that work needs to shift and continue in its evolution. Um, thinking about PLC's, there is continued work in the district that needs to

063take place around strengthening district protocols for PLC's. And while we're um having some additional time this year for the K through literacy work, we've talked about obviously we'll need to have an intentional plan for grades four and five. And it is also time for us to take a look at how those PLC's are functioning at the middle school and high school. So that's an example of some shift and continued evolution of the work that will take place in goal one. Um in addition to the K3 literacy piece, we're no longer piloting. We're actually going to go into year one implementation. And that will require us to think about what's going to happen with grades four and five. How do we scope that out? What does that mean for our current fourth and fifth graders like

064in this next year ahead? And then what does that mean for our continued work we think about building a very strong literacy program preschool through grade 12 plus? Um, so those are kind of the big highlights. There are some other pieces um that I would like us to consider. I think um from a teaching and learning perspective, science um somebody pointed out before, maybe it was you Joanna, literacy is incredibly important. We have these other areas too. Maybe it was in the early portion of the interview. Um how do we not let those things fall off the plate? There's some work that we need to do in the area of science that I'd like us to think about assessments and how we look at how we're assessing students and embedding those into the curriculum. So

065these are some areas where again enhancing teaching and learning fire those kind of details but important for the board to understand. We think about that deep learning from the chapter that we just read. Um we have invested a lot of money as a board and as a community in the global learning comments with the HHR projects and so when you when you have those types of new spaces you need to be thinking about what are the curriculum shifts that need to happen and what are the instructional shifts what should instruction look like in those spaces. So I think the board should expect that you'll see some of those pieces um and enhancing the teaching and learning goal one when we come back. I know that the board had also asked about like handwriting and um

066typing. So these are pieces again that are kind of expanding literacy considerations that should be again in the evolution of the next um part of as as we revise goal one and um AI literacy. So um that's going to be incredibly important and something that we'll see across content areas. So, those are just some examples of things that as a cabinet we need to discuss, we need to discuss with the rest of our staff. We'll have an administrative retreat August 14th and things that we'll be looking forward to coming back to the board with to get the board's reaction and feedback. Um, with regard to curricula, um, with with the literacy pilot in K3, this year will be a heavy year and focusing just I wouldn't say just implementing with fidelity, but implementing with integrity,

067really focusing our conversation on instruction. I would anticipate that throughout this year we'll be taking note on any shifts that we need to make from a curriculum perspective in the year ahead. Shirley and I are working um really closely together to provide Gilling Camp training. So that will be a goal that kind of um it's throughout goal one when we think about really the instruction piece and the curriculum piece um what we're building as far as an or Gillingham type academy for our staff in general education and special education staff. So again, I'm hoping that the board sees that there this is work that's continued from previous iteration of the strategic plan on the MTSS framework. A quick update on that, we have developed a handbook that will guide the staff in implementing um a

068more robust MTSS um implementation across the district. Especially right now, we're going to focus on elementary and middle school grades K through eight. So that will be something that you know we we'll be going from revising and expanding the KA SRBI protocols to an MTSS framework and really thinking about how do we introduce the handbook and what that is and provide professional learning for staff. How do we make sure that we're matching assessment and assessment practices to that framework so that we are really utilizing data and sharing data points with um the board and stakeholders to make good strong effective instructional decisions and curricular decisions. So, those are some of the kind of big shifts um in in goal one. Um and then I would say, you know, we'll have a continued effort uh with

069the instructional rounds, let's job embedded professional learning opportunities. But something else I'd like us to consider and we'll continue to talk about is how do we ensure that our teachers are having time in one another's classrooms. So, um, thinking about, uh, lab classrooms and such, so that especially as we're implementing a new program, staff can see firsthand peers engaging in high quality instructional practices. And because we had our staff involved in that pilot work last year, we have some staff that do have a year of experience with this new resource. So, we really want to be able to capitalize on that. So, um, I I can take any questions about goal one, but my intent here was to kind of show you how some of the shifts of the work will take place. Some of

070the work will kind of fall off. Like, we're no longer embedded. We're no longer implementing a new teacher program. It's not new. So, what we really need to do now is sharpen the focus on how are we identifying high quality instructional practices and how are we improving the quality feedback that administrators are giving staff so that there's change in instructional practice. So this is my goal to kind of show you what's falling off and the evolution of the work as we continue. I'm happy to take any questions on goal one and where I can continue. The other goals are probably fast a faster update because you know I could talk about teaching forever. >> Any questions on goal one? Greg, >> just one quick one. Um you listed a few um new areas. I think

071you said handwriting AI. Is there is there like a broader list that you're considering like I know within handwriting cursive and is like something that people have thought about re like reinccorporating into elementary school. Is there like a list of things that you're thinking about including? And then are there also conversely to that areas that you might consider removing from curriculum potentially in the future where you're saying hey this is either outdated or not of interest for our students. like seeing what that broader list looks like and like why you say one should be added versus >> like all those changes will be helpful. >> Yeah, I I appreciate that, Greg. And you'll hear that, you know, some things go are fabs, you know, like do you give spelling tests like you used to back

072in the day? Probably when we were all in school, right? What's the place of handwriting and cursive? Is there any value for that? Kids have to actually learn to sign a document. You hear people talk about all of these things. I think something that will be critically important is when we're thinking about discussing literacy, really thinking broadly, what do we mean by that? And even beyond that, part of literacy is speaking. How are we addressing those standards with kids? So, you can anticipate that the curriculum committee on those things will continue to be discussed. Another piece um that I didn't mention before, but is certainly on my notes here. Um as you know, we've talked about executive functioning, right? And primarily thinking about ELP, how does that happen in our early learning program in kindergarten?

073And the board has requested that we come forward um sharing more information about executive functioning and how that's integrated throughout the school day at the different levels. So I do have I always have a running list and the priorities on that list shift that they shift according to you know the priority of the work within a strategic plan but also responsibly what we see the needs are in our schools with input from our staff. >> Makes sense. Thank you >> Katie. >> Um thank you Amy. I really like the way you went over this. I feel like you touched on so many things that are on my mind in like a very quick overview and I can tell from looking at the screen that you have all the detail to back it up which doesn't

074surprise me. So, thank you for that. You know, to Greg's point, I do wonder um and I'm thinking out loud here like on the spot, so please um feel free to tell me if this is not helpful to you, but specifically in terms of curriculum, I think that there are so many aspects that we have interest in and we want to talk about and maybe in an effort to to know that we're coming back to those conversations and know where I wonder if it would be beneficial to kind of have that like list of topics that we hope to get for the year where the curriculum subcommittee could kind of see and maybe it is fluctuating where they go on priorities and I don't know if that makes you nervous and you prefer to have

075your own list and not share it with us but I do kind of wonder if we can see you know as a board that we are going to talk about typing or you know whatever at some point if that doesn't help us avoid coming back to it at all the wrong moments. So just a thought about that particular subject. >> I I can appreciate that. It definitely does not make me nervous. All of my lists are very public and um what I would say to you is something that I noticed my first year um in this work here in Darienne was it seemed to me that the curriculum items and the board agenda items with regard to teaching and learning were kind of carryover or hold over year to year. was like, well, you know,

076and I'm making this up right now, September's mathematics and and October is science and there were kind of broad topics that were just kind of scheduled over the course of the year. What I've tried to do and certainly K3 literacy was a huge part of the work of the board and administration the past year. Um, I've tried to to bring things up in order to kind of prepare for the budget and to forecast some of the priority work on the on the instructional side, the instructional part of the division. So, um, that doesn't make me nervous at all. I I do have a list. I'm happy to talk with Dr. Burn um on how we might communicate that with the board. I tend to um think through, you know, more than just the the month

077and the weeks ahead. So, I think it makes sense for um us to kind of work on that together. And I think Dr. Dr. Bern and I have already talked a little bit about that where I think he and I are both accustomed to kind of having a plan that falls in line with um the academic year calendar and the fiscal calendar, capital improvement plan calendar because all of these pieces connect just like we were reading about here, right? Thinking systemically, we want to think about how those other parts of our work connect with what we're executing for teaching and learning. So in in in short, it does not make me nervous at all. It's something that I will talk with Dr. B. Okay, goal two, please. >> Okay, goal two, fostering a culture that

078promotes wellness, diversity, and inclusion. Um, as you know, we took the uh elements that were involved in the DEI report uh which largely I think the greatest focus there had to do with um different groups that were performing um different subgroups performing at different levels. Um there's a lot of work in that plan that had to do with MTSS and um literacy. So I think some of the work that we're engaging in again with having or Gillingham type academy um and thinking about our work um together in general ed special education science um is is going to be really important. Something that there's not been a lot of conversation about here but is something that is legislated and important for us to think about is the work on restorative practices. I think um we have

079a lot of work to do not only with our staff but also with the the parent community about that. That's something that I know through Dr. Dad parents have asked about last year helping parents to understand and families to understand what is restorative practices? What does that mean in classroom setting with our youngest students at the elementary level all the way up through the high school. So that's something that um I think will be will evolve a little bit. As you know, we spent a lot of time discussing the tech um the cell phone personal device guidelines across the school district. And so um they'll this goal will have to evolve a little bit as we implement year one um in grades 9 through um 11 really because our 12th graders have a different plan.

080This work should also evolve a bit because um back two years ago I guess public schools was not administering an annual climate survey and we know that that's legislated. We know it is something that we're doing now where we're surveying annually uh staff students and our children and about their school experiences. And so something that um we need to do is make sure that there's really clear communication about what is in what that survey data is and how that's impacting the work of developing a climate plan within the school and how do we communicate that not only internally to our children and our staff but to our families. um that should really be a source of how we promote family partnership um across you know not just the academic domains but in all parts of

081our work in a school in a school setting. So I would expect that that's how that goal will evolve a little bit and um I will also say that I will continue to come forward and and seek support for professional learning for universal design for learning and that's where um from a curriculum perspective this goal um really does touch on making sure that we're providing access for all learners and learners of all profiles and admittedly that's an area of work for me and a lot of I have a lot of learning to do there and I know that my colleagues feel the same way. Um, Shirley and I will both look to each other to be experts there. And I think we realize neither one of us is, just like many other people in our

082field. So that's that's an area of of learning for us and our colleagues and something that I would expect should stay on this plan and be a part of our future if I don't have budget conversations. Um, and I think that's those are the highlights of goal two. >> Any questions about goal two? >> Okay, goal. Okay, go over ahead. >> Although we're not experts in universal design for learning, I do want to say that is a consideration all the choices we made. Interreading also has resources and ways for all students to access the way we're designing small group instruction within the general education population has room for access. So although we're not formally trained and we hope to do that so everyone in the in the entire K through 12 community has that um

083it's in our thinking when we plan as we move forward with the choices we've made recently in terms of literacy in terms of instruction and and professional learning >> and in terms of having a multiensory approach to teaching foundational literacy skills sounds >> as a as an OG. >> Okay, good. Now for goal three. >> Okay, goal three. developing a balanced definition of student success or vision of the graduate. Um so statutoily students in grades six through 12 um in the state of Connecticut should have a student success plan and that is part of ensuring that all students have programming that will meet their needs for post-secary success. So this is something again in my analysis in my time here um during public schools an area where um I would say we are behind in

084our work. Um obviously again this past year was a lot of focus on the elementary level K3 um I have to shift some focus there 612 there should be a connection with um student success plans and what's happening in our advisory and our school counseling program. So again that's making sure that our students are ready for post-secary success whatever path they take. So while we want to and just like this article that Dr. burn had us read was talking about full in six C's and thank you Robin I was so happy that someone made the connection to vision of a graduate there while that's important in the next iteration of our work is really ensuring that our curriculum outlines where where in different subject areas and learning experiences can our children demonstrate progress using those

085higher order thinking skills so that they're not just giving back content but they're really demonstrating for example problem solving through curiosity and such that's a piece of The other piece of it is this um bit about the student success plans. So I will um the board can you know be sure that I'll be coming back with C Kathy Auster our um count our director of school counseling and ensuring that we're communicating what those student success plans are. That should be again something that really strengthens school family community partnership and parent partnership. Parents should be heavily involved in a child's student success plan. So that would be something that I would like to see and I would recommend we would add here as we evolve goal area three. >> Joanna, I just want to say thank

086you for that. Um over the especially when I was in CDSP a couple years ago, a lot of uh commentary from parents was that there was no student success plan or the transitional planning in general was very lacking. Um so this is a great step forward. Thank you. >> I'm really um I'm really passionate about that. I mean, aside from the fact that it is legislated and I'm a mom of four very different kids, four different profiles of learners, it's it's I think what makes the work a little bit more tangible than saying like globally vision of the graduate. I think it really helps parents and kids see how they're applying those types of skills and how they're thinking forward, right, about their next steps always and learning. So, thank you for that. Um, okay,

087that's the that's the big um I think evolution of goal three. >> Thank you. Other questions, comments? >> No. Okay. >> And colleagues, please jump in anytime here. Goal area four is around expanding the professional capacity of staff. Um, this reminds me of the article that we just read, thinking about how different actions that we take in different parts of our work are related to or have an impact on other areas. Right? So the more we invest in the professional capacity of staff that really from a professional learning perspective maybe on the teaching and learning side there's a direct impact there to the human resource side right so that's where like how does how does the teaching and learning strategy match the HR strategy how are we um investing in our staff so that they're

088staying here they feel that they're invested in they're engaged in their own learnings that has an impact on the fiscal side right when we're when we're thinking about turnover savings and such so I just want to point that out that this is in the strategic plan administratively we should be able to have conversation with the board about how these parts of our work are connected and be demonstrating that um the professional capacity of staff one of the things that we did this past year was um implement the aspiring leader program and of March if you have any comments about that it was really well attended we had I think more than about maybe 30 staff members from all grade levels different schools they've indicated interest of having a year two and we'll have to consider

089um you know at what rate and pace do we cons continue something like that? Sometimes doing it annually you run out of people you wait two or three years but I I think that there might still be interest for a repeat um cohort cohort to year one and this next year. Um one of my goals and hopes and focus areas and priorities for this goal would be how we leverage PDK. I think one of the things that we tried to do last year was really focus on building teacher leadership and finding opportunities for teacher leadership in the district. Again, I think that's a way that you retain staff when you're engaging them and having autonomy and voice in the work. So, one of the things I would like to do is um involve PEK and

090I Barry and I uh and March have all talked about this and thinking about how we look at professional learning, how we do a needs assessment for professional learning, how we provide feedback for professional learning, and how we use um some of the skill and expertise within the district to advance professional learning among our colleagues. So I think the role of PEC in many school systems is is really usually falls short and it's just focusing on the teacher evaluation and administrator evaluation plan. Really the intention is for it to be more robust and more focused on largely professional learning across the year from goal setting to strengthen um instructional practice through observations and other kind of trainings that we offer to our staff. So that's um a way that I would like to see this

091this full evolve. And again, um Marge and I have some work to do with our colleagues with regard to getting um our Google of um forms and docs so that we can have a rep repository really for staff evaluation um because that's an important thing to have high quality written feedback. Um I don't know Marge, do you have anything else you want to say about that for? >> No. >> Okay. Um I do want to thank uh not only the administration but the board for um the support and investment in instructional rounds that has been really largely teacher led and been um successful in schools as far as teachers learning from one another and practice um and that will continue. Goal area five, this was where um in June you heard about the elements of

092the communications plan that were embedded into this goal similar as we did with um the plan the DEI plan. I think it's really wise to have lots of plans out there and really consolidate and streamline the work. Um so that will continue. There are some things that um you know h happen or have already um been taken care of like Dr. Burn mentioned before finalizing the communication plan. So that should evolve differently um in the next iteration of the strategic plan what that looks like. Um there is some work with the website that's happening. We've talked about um ensuring that um for example when we think about the department chairs and their work with curriculum I know we've had some conversation around the syllabi or different courses. So that's something I'll be talking with them

093about when they return in the fall and something that we'll be working on over the course of the new school year. Um making those those pieces of our work really transparent and accessible um to kids and to families and to our and to our staff so that we all know what's happening. If you're in, you know, an a global um studies course, doesn't shouldn't matter which teacher you have. There needs to be an assured experience and a common experience while we also allow room for teachers to innovate because we want to be continuing to improve practice classroom by classroom. So these goals um those communication goals will be continue to be embedded here and um and I and there is obviously some work with regard to policy that we heard from attorney before that we'll

094have to embed the next iteration of this plan. >> And Amy, if I could jump in. Um communication had come up in almost all of our conversations last week and this is something that I'll be digging into shortly. We wanted to get to today and get everything laid out for a really productive retreat. so far and communication is an immediate uh top priority for me and to begin that process. So, we'll be jumping into that pretty quickly and having further discussion. >> Any questions on this goal? >> Great. Thank you. >> Goal six, improving school facilities for student safety. Um there's some information here around the emergency and safety planning. So, I I know that um in Dr. Burns work with Leon and Rich. There will likely be an evolution of that action step for

095our administrative team. We've already discussed in these overarching board goals that are more um systemic some of the more dance floor work or fire hose work. We'll have to have some updates here around not only HHR but the evolution of this um as indicated by like for example the Middle Sex project um and what we just identified before as far as adding on perhaps like the bus depot. So that might be something that um we see goal area six is a very abbreviated one. So that's probably the big um shift in the next evolution of the work for goal six. >> Okay, keep going please. >> All right, go area 7 improving technology to support teaching and learning. And I did hear Dr. Burn before talk about kind of looking at technology from the infrastructure

096kind of hardware side and also the instructional side. And that's something that I feel like um Mr. Maguire has really he's presented to the board many times and I think in the board has asked really great questions. Technology is obviously ever evolving and something that this this goal should evolve as well but something I think that we need to be committed to being okay with our work like this is this messy work right instructional technology is not static and it's moving really quickly. Um, one of the things that I would like to say here is with regard to AI and I think right you were just asking about this. We do have AI guidance that again is as good as the technology today which who knows six months from now how drastically different that could

097look. That needs to be an ongoing conversation with administration, our staff and the board. Um however we also have to think about how we're talking with parents, staff and children about the implications of assist of I AI and um the impact to teaching and learning. So that would be something that I would expect would evolve differently in this goal. Um, additionally, um, we had talked about here and I had mentioned before the library media, um, work and the learning commons. Um, we have some work to do in the area of technology and STEM, especially also with the gifted programming which has been largely really humanities based. Um, we did revise curriculum this past summer. Actually, there was a curriculum team working this past week on the library media curriculum. so that we'll have a scope

098and sequence for um elementary um curriculum when we start um library media when we start the new school year and um we have had pretty extensive training in Aspen for administration um and that that should continue. One of the things I think we need to pay attention to is ensuring that we're crossraining staff so that more than one person knows how to do something when it comes to something as major as you know using the software to implement the schedule. So um that is something that needs to be a focus in the year ahead. Um and I think there we're also rich um and I with the tech department kind of looking at are there any other capabilities in Aspen that that we just have not utilized yet that might create some more coherence and

099streamline some other parts of our work. For example, how we house and store data, student data. So that's something that we'll be looking into into the year ahead. And the 7B is more the infrastructure and hardware stuff which is super important but far less interesting to me. I like the instructional side. I'm happy to um take any questions on goal set. >> Dave, >> so I guess two questions. One is looking at the infrastructure. Rich, when we look at the tech number, do you bifurcate this out in terms of what's stuff that lives in the walls and stuff that people carry around and use? >> We do. I mean, mo a lot of what we need are the things that people carry around. Okay. Um but there are the things in the walls like access

100points like things in the ceiling, things like that that we do need um that are on the replacement site. Is there would that be a heavy lift to >> and then um Amy I guess going back to the conversation we had about AI month or so ago when I forget when we had that presentation a lot of us focused on just sort of watching and seeing what's going on and what people are doing. Um do you have any thoughts on like when maybe we should get our hands dirty and innovate and play around a little bit? So um one I know that there were some things that during even the budget process we we had wanted to explore but didn't quite make it. Um I would say that you know we are we are getting

101our hands messy um and working some teachers are doing that more comfortably than others. So when you say um thinking that it would be helpful for the board to see some of what we're doing in classrooms. I'm just curious because a lot of that conversation was well we're watching and we're seeing and we're think like >> you know I'm I'm happy to hear that some teachers are getting in there and innovating and playing around. Um and I guess you know you do want to watch and learn and study. You want to say we're doing all AI curriculum tomorrow like that probably would be bad. Um so >> thanks for recognizing >> I appreciate that. I've been here a while scrubbing off but um no seriously the the question is like are we going to start

102trying to get people to have more familiarity get people to innovate? get people more comfortable or are we still just not there? What are you thinking about that timeline? Because I'm not saying we should go headlong into anything, but I'm just can't watch forever. As you mentioned, it's evolving pretty quickly. >> Right. Right. So, right. If we're watching forever, we're going to miss it. It's right. We're going to be left behind. So, um I I think one of the things that I would like to talk with um Dr. Burn and the rest of our administrative colleagues about is also how we can engage with students as partners to help, you know, students can lead the way in a lot of that um in a lot of that effort. So I I certainly wouldn't say this

103should be just a sit back and watch year. Um I think that you know thinking about in a meeting but again I'd like to see how we engage students as partners in that. >> I I would suggest that and and not knowing anything about where we are with AI yet. Um we need to at least if we have not yet established the framework and guidelines from which any work in AI would occur. Um there are some natural uh safeguards around privacy that exist in some places that in AI don't with plat some platforms. So there are some that are very specific to the educational space and I think we want to clarify what those are first. So what are our values? What is consistent with u the vision of graduate? What are our guidelines going

104forward? And if we can put those things together, that could be helpful in launching any kind of innovation and experimentation with AI while protecting students privacy and making sure it's completely appropriate for any kind of use. So just to follow up if I may on that, we've been talking about privacy, we've talked about licenses, we've talked about software that's used and what goes where and where does student data go, who owns it, what's going on with the different vendors. That's been a conversation for a long time around here. So I appreciate your concern there. I guess what I would ask is do you see or I guess what I should also add is we do have policies regarding student privacy and other things up at the board level. Obviously there's administrative policies. Are you thinking

105this is an admin initiative initially or you looking for the board to do policies to guide that as a first step? >> I I would think more I I'll certainly look at the board policies but I think it's more guidelines for how to use. I don't necessarily think it's needing additional board policies though. >> Thank you. And in fairness that those policines I should say those guidelines have been drafted but have not been really socialized as much with the staff other than the staff that helped to develop them. So we have work to do in that area. >> I think the board to Dave's questions the board would value knowing that there is a pretty um systematic approach Yeah. in this area and I think it needs to be reflected pretty clearly in the strategic

106plan. >> Thank you. Oh, sorry guys. Um, Greg and then Katie. >> Um, just along the same lines on the AI topic, I do think I don't know if it's a board thing or an administrative thing, just in terms of developing an actual philosophy around AI and how we want to approach it, I think is probably the first step before we start forming policies. And >> I agree with you. I think that has to be within the or at least as part of the conversation around guidelines that I agree you have to start there. >> Katie, that was my clarification question as well. If we were talking about academic use of AI, something specifically to put in front of students, whether it's something for staff as well, and just kind of like what we think

107that that frame >> should all come from there. >> Exactly. Yeah. >> Yeah. because there may be incredible applications of AI that we could use on an administrative and operations side of things that don't require that same level of analysis before we put an application in the hands of kids. >> So I think that that vision that sort of those guidelines are critically important before jumping to anything. >> Good. Anything else on this topic, Dennis? on the on just this topic or the overall plan. >> Go away. Fire away. >> So my question is to Dr. burn up that you know this the plan we've developed or we have you know is there a is there anything missing or or things you don't think we need to have here and then b going back to

108the the self-evaluation one of the comments was that we have a vision of five years our five years is up what are we doing to me this is a living document and I don't think enhancing teaching and learning building having safe facilities are going to change in the next five years so how do we how do we work with a strategic plan that has it, you know, should it have an expiration date or should it just be massaged every every year or so? >> That is a great question and and one that's quite philosophical in the world of people's beliefs around strategic planning. Some school leaders will say we need to start from scratch every year as you already heard as I was talking about the goals. to me um strategic plans, goals, they all

109evolve and then they should not change much. It one of the lines in one of the sections today was it included the words focus, focus, focus in the same sentence. I don't know if you all recall seeing that, but what ends up causing trouble for school districts and boards of education is we end up playing whack-a-ole with everything. And what we need to do and that's why you would want a strategic plan is to be very clear and narrow in what our work is and how we're going to go about doing it. So to me, if I was the person that was saying, "All right, we need to update the strategic plan for 2026," u I would start with the existing plan. See where are we with every did we accomplish everything that we set

110out as a goal and are we able to say this is something that should move out of the plan and something else replaces it? But it would be through an analytical process to make that determination. So hopefully that answers that part of the question. >> I think but like my question is you think that you would ever have enhanced teaching and learning where you need to get rid of enhanced teaching and learning. >> I would never building building facilities and making sure that they're up to date. I mean you need those are bedrocks of education. I >> I agree. I agree with you 100%. And and that gets to the debate of what are regular goals that you should have as a school district versus do you need something like a strategic plan in this

111structure. And I think that's an approach that someone decided at some point five plus years ago that we're going to do this. So I I think that's a later conversation. With regard to do I think anything's missing, I don't know the answer to that yet. Um my guess is in looking at the range of goals, just about anything we would need to do as a school district could fall in one of those buckets in one of those areas within these strategies. The reality is, are we missing something? We probably are missing something in there and that's something for us to figure out and add to it. And are there things that need to drop off? Sure, there are going to be things that need to drop off, but it should be a living document that

112can evolve that way naturally as you're going through it, but when you take a full sort of re-evaluation and fresh look at a strategic, if it's every five years that you're updating it, it should be update and iterate, not unless you're getting rid of it completely and just sticking to to regular goals. But, but I think that's a later conversation. But there's good really good stuff in here. Really good stuff. Anything else on the strategic plan for the moment? Okay. All right. So, this will come back. Um, thank you Amy for leading us through it. >> Uh, we'll move to an update on enrollment on enrollment for the 2025 2026 school year scheduling and discussion and possible action on setting elementary class sections. Rich. Uh so we are requesting to set 106 elementary uh classroom

113sections based on current enrollment. Uh we would ask to have the ability for the superintendent to break 107th section uh between now and mid August if one of those four uh sections that we've highlighted that are close to tipping do tip. Uh currently enrollment is down 21 students from last year. Um we did highlight uh we had 126 withdrawals uh which contributed to the reduction in enrollment. uh 94 were students moving for to uh either private or proial schools and then 31 students who left the district. Um overall enrollment was down to projection by 69 and again uh compared to last year down 21. Uh the one school district that did see a gain in enrollment was Royal. Uh and that was largely driven in part of some of the new developments. As I mentioned

114earlier, we do have a couple of sections that are close to tipping. homes kindergarten really is the one that um if we were to break a a 107th section it would likely be that that is one student away from tipping and typically if you're going to add students at this stage of the game it's probably going to be in kindergarten uh homes third homes fourth and then token uh fourth are all within three students of tipping uh overall uh kindergarten ended up being one less than projected first was one greater than projected and fourth was uh one below projected Joe. >> Oh, sorry. Hey, Sarah. Thank you. >> Um, so we're one, this is one under budget, >> correct? So, one under budget with the caveat that if we do tip in one of those

115four sections that I mentioned that the superintendent would have the ability to break. >> So, I'm just clarifying for the motion that if we were to approve this, it would it's still a net neutral. if we at >> Joanna what if two tip >> so typically in the in the past if that were to happen we would break that second right so let's say if two sections in homes broke kindergarten and first grade broke we would tip superintendent would send out a notification that uh we've tipped and we've added to 108 we would carry one of those sections as a deficit because we've only budgeted 107 and then at some point during the year We'd bring recommended transfers either in part or in whole depending on how the year shook out to cover that section.

116>> Thank you, >> Katie. Thank you. Um I wanted to ask um if we were any additional details about the 51 students who are leaving MMS for private and parochial school. >> So we don't have any uh specific reasons as to why they left. Um, I would say in terms of the the withdrawals, not necessarily just middle school, but across the seven schools, it's about 15% higher than it has been in the past, which is why our net migration is down as opposed to previous years. So, we have a reduction of students of 21. We were anticipating to be about plus one, I think it was overall. So, it is slightly higher. We do tend to see uh more students leaving uh the district for private appropriate schools in middle school as opposed to any

117of the others. Typically, it is in eighth grade when they get ready to go to high school. They might end up going to that uh private or parochial schools. The one grade that we actually see migration in typically is senior year where they actually come back if they get kind of get that darian diploma. Uh so that's the one grade where we see persistence ratios above 100 whereas in middle school we do tend to see the persistence ratios below. >> And I would just add in other districts now in Chapua Ry similar transition. we would have families that would move prior to middle school or right at middle school and then actually return to the district for high school. So, it's not unheard of. I think it's worth investigating a little bit, but it is

118pretty common to see people choose to go to a a different kind of setting for middle school and then come back to the district potentially beyond that. >> I appreciate that context. I would be interested to know if we've broken out um this number to see if it if it is in fact largely you know eighth grade students who are going somewhere different for high school or if there's another thing especially given that um the past two budget cycles have made some significant changes at the middle school level. I think this is an important checks and balance for us to just look and see um you know again with that systems lens at like where we might be seeing effects of um budgetary implications. I don't know if we can draw a straight line to

119budgetary implications. Um but but I wasn't suggesting that it would be a direct causation, but I do think that we need to be looking at lots of places that it shows up. You know, when and I think that um if there's an anomaly in particular, it's important for us to look and say what factors might be contributing. >> Sure, >> Dennis. >> Yeah. This is is this the first year we've seen this granularity of detail on transfers to private school or no? because I'm >> so we didn't um in the past we've given like an aggregate number like a 100 students left and 100 came back in. Uh we did break it out this year to include uh by school. I mean, and I don't want to get into the weeds, but I'm to to

120Katie's point about Middle Sex. I'm I'm curious about Oxridge being 11 students with a brand new school and all of this. And to me, I mean, it could be just two families decided to go to private school. So, it's not a large number, but year-on-year trends. I'd be interested to kind of understand, you know, why they're leaving and what we could do better to m to keep those children in school or what or is it a lost cause for us to try to keep them? But to try to get to the underlying details and I don't know if we ask those questions or is it just they've left and it's gone. >> Yeah. I don't believe they usually say like why are you leaving? It's usually I'm leaving because I you know moving out of

121town or I've decided to go to X Y and Z private school. >> Yeah moves also. It's not right. These are moves out of district. >> No there's a separate >> so there's another chart below it where it's 31 were actually leaving Darian. They've moved to another community. But in terms of the persistence ratio, um, it's been higher than usual, right? We we were having almost nobody move. This this again, there could be stuff in it. I'm not suggesting we should ignore it, but this looks more like a normal. >> So, it's about 15% higher than it has been typically in the last 10 years. Usually, the migration in and the migration out >> are relatively close. Um, it was a little bit wider this year, I would say, in the last few years. >>

122Okay. And most of that is the middle school number. >> Uh, correct. Though the middle school number is always the >> the high one, >> the highest one of the of the typical district. >> Robin, >> um, I'm just looking at the the Darian High School like 9th grade had a negative 31 variance. Was it a simil similar level for the nth grade last year? because I know a lot of kids also are reclassing more and more as they leave 8th grade and then they repeat 8th grade at a private school >> and then they come back. So I'm just wondering if that's also becoming a trend because that's actually higher than the middle school. You know we had negative seven in sixth grade seven and seventh. >> Uh so higher than projection but I'd

123have to check uh what it was in the previous years. I was just curious if that might be and that's something that you can't necessarily counteract potentially. >> Okay, Joanna. So, I know we can't get the details of, you know, why each family left, but it might be helpful just to have historical data. If it's 49, you know, moved to the middle school, left the middle school last year, do one this year, that's not much of a change. So, we could just have like five years. Do we do we monitor the reclass phenomenon? >> I think that's probably hard to >> do. We monitor the reclassing people. >> Well, you know, they you could see when they left and if they come back, >> well, we weren't in the right or something. >> I'm sure

124we could pull that data. I don't know if we actually like heavily monitor it. Um, but I'm sure we could pull it. >> But some don't come back. They just stay at a private school. So, I mean, I think that also is happening more and more at a high school level. Okay. What else? >> Oh, just one other question, Joel. Um, with Royal, the nine new students that were due to the new developments, did our projections because usually they've been pretty on target with anticipating, you know, how our fluctu how fluctuations will change with the new developments. That seems like a pretty high. >> It was a little higher than anticipated. >> Yeah. >> Um, in the past and it's one of the reasons why Royal now broke a fourth section. Um, Royal has historically

125been three sections, you know, K through five for quite a period of time. I think my entire tenure here. Um, so it was a little bit higher and it's one of the reasons why you're actually seeing Royal kind of creep up to homes in terms of uh overall population. >> I I'm just raising these from a budget perspective as we go forward with the enrollment studies just to make sure that we have >> Yep. So, we would have another we would have another enrollment study presented in November. >> Okay. Thank you. Also, it's worth this group knowing that you build buildings on an 8-year projection. And so, Royal is two classrooms less than everyone else. So, if we continue to see growth in that building, um they have only 22 classrooms. Everyone else has 24

126general education classrooms. Um you can't overbuild. Um, so that's the problem with new builds popping up in different areas is sometimes it's just exciting to have a new building like Oxridge and other times um it's it's a change in the the building makeup. >> Okay. Um we're Oh, do you have a motion? I'll read it. We have a motion to approve 106 elementary class sections based on the current enrollment for the 2025 2026 school year. Um with the understanding that if a section pops um staff will respond accordingly. That's John seconded by Sarah. All those in favor that's unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Further discussion and proposed action on proposed schedule of 2026 regular board of education meetings and 2526 subcommittee meetings. >> Okay, I think this is >> this is just a quick item just

127that's included in the packet. The meetings that were discussed prior to my arrival just um if that's the intention to move forward with these, they're all laid out. Dave, >> so stealing Greg's thunder um a little bit um just looking through notably the subcommittee meetings. I mean, I was a strong proponent when we set up the subcommittees and I think they've done great work. I just have to question um looking at the meeting count that we have. Do do we really need some of these every month or should we think about maybe a quarterly cadence for the subcommittees going forward? >> Good question. I think facilities could go into a quarterly case. That was actually one of my questions about the goals is that he said the restructuring or something of >> streamlining the work

128of subcommittee. So that was one of my questions. >> Maybe too because you're almost done with the audit, but you can see >> I don't know if that works for finance. I mean maybe a little more around budget time but the rest of the year. >> Yeah. I mean we do the monthlies. So >> yeah, I think finance is monthly but >> Okay. >> Um but I think >> but listen, they run five minutes at some time so it's not that big of a lift. >> So just throw it out. And I guess since I opened the can of worms, just the overall meeting count, maybe we could think about moving forward. I don't know the right format, but this is the retreat, so I'm putting it out there. Maybe we should think about >>

129Everybody knows my view. >> Pardon? >> I think everybody knows my view. >> Katie, um I would not be in favor of reducing the number of curriculum meetings. I think that there's a lot of substance that goes on there. I think there's it's a great opportunity. Um, great >> facilities. I was frustrated this past year that we never held one. Um, so if reducing the number means that we're going to hold them, that would be great. Uh, but I do think that it's problematic to have a subcommittee that doesn't that only exists on paper. I think it's a good idea to move quarterly facilities to quarterly because there's just not it's not that big a lift right now. Um, but just take a look at the cadence because for example, it's important to meet around

130the budget time and then you'll have the middle school to think about also. Um Dave, maybe you could look at policy and and talk to Marge and just see what's left on the audit and see if that could be a um quarterly cadence. And then I I would agree with leaving curriculum and finance. Yes, Robin. >> Um I I agree with curriculum and finance still monthly because there is a lot that we do cover. Um but policy I we do apparently have all these new Connecticut laws that I believe policies are also going to be upcoming. So, isn't the is it possible to just have the schedule and then if you don't really need to meet, you can just cancel or >> or will the >> We do that or we could spin one up.

131>> I mean, we have to wait for shipment and good one. I just checked. They don't have any of the updated policies yet. So, as far as the audit goes, we're pretty much done. I've spoke to um Dr. Burn about a couple that are hanging, but until shipment and good, we don't need to meet. >> Okay. You can add Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, so in terms of taking a vote, I think we're fine on the regular board of ed meetings. Um, and you we can either do um the tentative schedule of monthly committee meetings as amended as or we can bring it back another round and do a consent. >> Why don't we my ideas out? Um what if we can come back with the subcommittee for to do quarterly for for facilities

132and policy and then if we if David Myers decide that there are a lot of policies that policy committee needs to look at then we can throw a special meeting on. Um but I think maybe that makes more sense. >> I would agree with that. >> So we're going to approve it as amended with with the with understanding. Well, yeah. I mean, do we need the dates or did do we not just with that if we all understand that's being amended quarterly? Does that >> Okay. So, let's have that one come back and I'll just have a motion to approve the proposed schedule of 2026 regular board of education meetings >> and for the next meeting we could have the other >> Yeah. adjust. >> So, John's John is and Jo is a second. All

133those in favor just for the regular meetings. >> Oh, I just had a question on those >> on the regular meetings. >> Yeah. Just I was just looking at the dates is like do we have a summer retreat scheduled for that? Is that one of those meetings >> we used? Um >> we had June 23rd and I see July 28th and >> so that's that's what we did last year was we just used that. So this year was the date July 22nd was our July meeting. So it would be July 28th next year. If you do it the same way but the retreat >> that's sort of what I was asking is that you is is it regular meeting or is it the retreat? Are we >> um Yeah, it's a good question. This we've

134changed the practice without changing the calendar. So, um it we always did have a meeting at the end of July and that's what this is. Um the retreat is a different meeting which is why it's warned as a special meeting. Um >> so do do we need both? >> Yeah, different people feel differently about that I think from what I understand. But um Joanna, did you have something? >> Oh, I was just going to say that u past couple years what Dr. Adley had done was just collapse the regular meeting and the special meeting, >> right? Um, but I um think we could wait to decide to do that to see where we are as a board, you know, depending on what's going on next year. My >> my suggestion would be to anticipate that

135you want to have a a retreat and thinking about the structure as we talked earlier with your new superintendent. I think that will be critically important and then have a meeting for agenda item purposes as a separate occurrence. So whether it's that you have the retreat in the day and then you have a special meeting at the end of it and you do the agenda items that you need to, I think that would be a good consideration. But I do think you want to plan for a a retreat with your new leader for next year. >> I also Dr. B, will you mind just like you've been a lot of board meetings. Is is this cadence similar to what you've seen >> twice a month? Yeah. Yeah. There are some that I I've seen once

136a month in some places, but in districts similar to Darianne, it's typically twice a month. >> Robin, um the July meeting because next year it could could you move it to July 21st because that that would be four weeks after the June meeting and also I don't know it just seems like in the past years that's been more of the timing of the if it does turn into an all day retreat as well. Just question if people want to move it to the 21st, we can >> or not. >> It was on the It's on the fourth. >> It's the fourth week. Yeah. Because usually what they do with with the two and a four-week cadence, they do the fourth week of the month and the second week of the month. But >> it's fine.

137>> And there's definitely saying with whoever the new superintendent is next year that we can't change that. >> You can change it. >> Yeah. >> You can just bring it back and change it if you need to. Um, you just need 30 days to keep it a regular meeting. >> Okay. So, I'll finish the vote. All those in favor? >> Okay. >> This is just the regular meeting schedule. >> Regular meeting. >> So, that's parent. Oh, it's everybody. Okay. All right. The committee schedule will come back next month. Okay. The update on the board member handbook. >> So, um, we had a conversation. Uh, Katie and I had a conversation. We're going to have a follow-up meeting. I've actually got my hands on some other board of education handbooks to do a comparison of and

138then we'll come back to the board. I think we're looking at uh it's either next week or the week after that we have some tentative times on the calendar to to have that conversation. then we'll be back to the rest of the board. >> All right. Personnel report. March. >> Personnel report. Um we're dealing with many fewer um vacancies this year and we um have filled all but five right now. The biggest area for us right now where we're having difficulties is special education and support services, specifically the social worker. We did fill the psychologist. And unfortunately, I just got a text from Westport that they're taking one of our elementary teachers. So, the hiring season is not over yet, but um special education is a shortage area in extreme this year. >> Okay. How

139many spots do we have open? Do we know? >> Two at the high school with the ruler of a third >> and one at the school. >> Okay. Um >> can I just say yes, go ahead. What what are the turnover uh implications you're at right now as you you >> in terms of dollar wise right now? Um we're pretty close. We're a little uh short. Um primarily because the middle school two teachers would believe through the four out of five. Currently Matt has met that target. Spanish has not yet. So that area is a little bit short, but we're pretty close to what we expect to be. We have five more outstanding. So there's certainly a chance. >> So turnover savings rate on budget. Yeah. >> Okay. Um followup action items. So it's in

140here. Uh the from the last time we added a fall update to the on the um about the middle school schedule. Um Dr. Dr. Burn's going to take a look at religious holiday protocols and follow up probably with a memo to start just to understand what how that gets handled in other spots and then we just talked about the board handbook. Um there were a couple of things from today's >> Subcommittee is coming back. Cas do you have a list there? >> I don't have it >> right there. Okay. Yes, that's fine. Well, we'll just take a look next meeting and make sure that it's all there. Thank you for taking notes. Um, all right, public comment. But as a reminder, with the technical issues that we were experiencing today, we are only taking public

141comment from those in the room. And we actually don't have anybody in the room. Um, so I will move uh thank you again to everybody who attended today, staff and the board. And I'll have a motion to adjurnn to executive session for the purpose of discussion concerning non-affffiliated employees contracts pursuant to Connecticut general statute 126A. Uh Sarah seconded by Joanna. All those in favor. That is