Board of Education Meeting - January 10, 2023

001thank you start that over again good evening everyone I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Board of Education to order the next regular Board of Education meeting is on Tuesday January 24th at 7 30 PM in the board meeting room my comments will be brief I just want to extend a big thank you to everyone that attended Super Saturday I think it was a very productive day as always thanks to our partners on board of Finance RTM education RTM FNB cdsp and CPAC and for the public that commented we averaged about 35 38 people on Zoom we had a packed house here um while we had a lot of good questions and a lot of good conversation and we ended about 10-15 minutes over schedules so I think success in the end we've

002got a lot of follow-up that the administration's working through and uh we'll continue we'll start going through some of those questions this evening and then we've got meetings over the next couple of weeks with some of our partners and we'll continue to move through the budget process but again thank you for all that participated in Saturday so we've got a full schedule this evening some exciting presentations on HHR so we'll keep things moving Michelle will move to public comment good evening when anyone in person like to make a public comment you'll have up to three minutes to comment please state your name and address hi Diane Urban 10 Crane Road um I am the cdsp Dei and Outreach chair tonight these comments are my own though they are influenced by what I hear in this

003position I'd have to say it's disheartening to see that one mention of diversity Equity inclusion in the proposed budget is in the light item in RC 19 which would dedicate some consulting services to Dei award goal two of the Strategic plan is fostering a culture that supports Wellness diversity and inclusion as we have rightfully put focus on the mental health needs of our students and staff this year I will reiterate the mental health and Dei are not mutually exclusive I'm reminding you all that you also have a responsibility to address the extremely damaging experiences our students have shared with you at this Podium and podium in October 2021 that they've endured within our schools and while there may be funds for Consulting the lion item says the dollar amount is also for professional development an

004elementary math instruction where is their space for recommendations put forth as a result of the district to EI team's Equity audit how do we put the equity statement into action this budget proposal will place the Dei team in year three and while there remains work to be done as far as understanding the underlying inequities in our district there is a clear and immediate need to put some structure and guidance in place to support our students and teachers tonight's material is the winter 2023 update says PTO is partnering with schools to provide diverse enrichment opportunities and parent programming yet this has proved extremely challenging for many of our schools Dei chairs we are sometimes without PTO executive board support building Administration support and or District level support we've asked the administration for direction and support a

005clear communication down to the building level that DPS does expect diverse enrichment opportunities so it's disappointing to see the proposed budget come with little to no articulation of how DPS will continue Dei work according to the district's strategic goal it remains challenging to encourage and support an inclusive School Community without a Clear Vision of what that looks like holistically thank you for speaking this evening anyone else in the audience Michelle anyone on Zoom Michelle Lee you are unmuted and recognized go ahead Michelle good evening can you hear us yes yes good go ahead my name is Max Lee and I live at 47 rolling hand Road and I go to Henley School and I'm in first grade and it's not right to taunt people with trust because they're different and use a real life true

006story that I'll never forget so two people did this to me Chinese eyes and it hurt my feelings because I feel it they made me feel like I didn't belong and Darian should support d d e i to help to help kids learn that it's wrong to make kids feel bad just because of their race thanks for listening thank you very much for speaking this evening thank you anyone else on Zoom Michelle there are no raised hands at this time thank you we'll move on to the superintendent's report sure come on up hi um Armel Jacobs 12 Fish happy New Year everyone uh just a real quick uh word to incorporate and I want to say that I fully agree and have experienced all the things that Diane was reporting um the people here who

007I think some of you have asked us to show up for this stuff uh we're burning out real hard and honestly it feels like that's the strategy um and I'm sorry I'm like all choked up because like Max is just such a sweetheart and my kid has been in his class for the last two years and she has experienced similar things um her skin is white but mine isn't and when I go in there it's painfully obvious and the kids have lots of questions and the teachers need to be empowered to deal with those situations so um you know we we need help from the top we need help from you guys um so that you can empower the teachers to deal with those scenarios so that kids like my kid kids like Max and

008even all of the like white kids in this District that have these questions they need some guidance here um so I I hope you hear that call that's all I'm here to say thanks thank you for speaking this evening we move on to the superintendent's report good evening everybody and the board chair said thank you for everybody's contributions uh to the Saturday budget Workshop uh I know our students will talk about the exams I just want to wish them well as the High School exam schedule this week I won't say any more than that I'm sure they can they can give the update uh regarding budget questions thank you to cdsp CPAC and the various rtms uh that contributed to the questions uh tonight we'll go through the Board of Education uh Q A's responses

009excuse me and um by Friday we will have distributed to cdsp CPAC and uh Board of finance and the rtms uh the responses to their questions so uh next week come from pretty thick and fast uh Tuesday night uh because Molly's is a holiday uh so what they will have those responses uh by Friday uh we've been feverishly working on them and uh I think we'll be good to go by uh by this Friday so we'll forward to those two the respective parties and the borders as well in time for the Tuesday meeting I do want to recognize um it would be a bit just before the holiday and it went to the uh curriculum committee but I just want to share it in front of the of the full board the I create uh

0102022 as a Regional High School art activation and competition and I just want to recognize um Charlotte Curran uh who's I believe is a senior for her escaping the pandemic painting which is absolutely phenomenal um uh that placed uh first place uh second place with uh Thomas clearly and that was uh Solas which is another unbelievable piece of artwork and Sarah Jackson painting was selected as part of the 20 uh 2022 National winners Exhibition at the U.S Congress Hall of Representatives in Washington and DC so just want to congratulate those particular students uh Jacqueline and the staff for all they do in the area of the Arts congratulations today we launched this social emotional learning portal so if you haven't seen it and you have your phone on here you can certainly go to that

011right now if you would like to do that I think it's under District information and that was presented today to our curriculum committee and it's available uh for our members of our community to peruse Friday is a professional development day across the district where we focus on Cater 2 reading and elementary mathematics uh Connecticut said uh middle school will be doing right excuse me at the defamation League training with the staff some aspect work and departmental work with High School uh we'll be focused on our departmental units of work and assessments PLC work and some of legal updates we're pleased that uh Leon kolokowski uh that's our director of security uh joined us yesterday uh so Liam started and we look forward to planning informational Center Sessions for our parents at each of the schools

012and we'll communicate those accordingly thank you to the members of the robotics team on Saturday uh January 7th of the first robotics team traveled to Wolcott to get the first robotics uh competition kickoff students have six weeks to build the robot in this competition which is a worldwide competition I just mentioned to the board that there is a Cabe area legislative breakfast that's for region six which is our region here it's on Jan January 19th Thursday there are a variety of meetings on that day so it'll be difficult to attend if anybody is free would like to attendee let me know I'll certainly uh sign you up there are a couple of upcoming meetings at Board of Ed special meeting uh which is next uh Tuesday January 24th the communications committee as a reminder has

013been canceled finance committee and Facilities currently scheduled for January 19th I'm almost start at 8 30 and we'll start at 9 and policy committee on Friday January 20th and finally schools closed on Monday uh January 18th in honor and recognition of the contributions of Dr King thank you we'll move on to the student Representatives reports John raskoff and swaha chakra bardi are you studying for exams while you're yep here good evening everyone so as everyone has mentioned this week and next week our exam week at DHS so um one of the major successes actually was last Thursday the darianne chapter of the National Honor Society and the Blue Wave anchors at Darien co-sponsored the cocoa and cram session for all of the freshmen to study that was last Thursday January 5th we had more than

014twice the number of students attending compared to last time which was before covid so that represents an increase in interest not just rebounding from Kobe which is cool um and then the midterm schedule itself midterm started today and will continue until next Thursday thank you John um also the Scholastic art Awards which is separate to what Dr adley mentioned um I just want to just bring that microphone as close to you as possible thank you um the Connecticut Regional Awards came out yesterday on the 9th and several students from Darien High School uh got accepted works that will be showcased in Hartford um and also the Darien High School student government is hosting a Snowball Dance for all grades um on the 27th and it features a special performance by the winners of the Battle

015of the Bands so that's great thank you I wish you and all your uh other students and Friends good luck on your thanks we'll move on to approval of minutes may have a motion to approve the following minutes of the special meeting um held on December 13 2022 minutes of the regular meeting held on December 13 2022 and minutes of the special meeting held on December 13 2022. Julie best second by eighteen families in favor unanimous with everyone here thank you move on to board committee reports Julie um Sarah [Laughter] um so the curriculum committee met this morning um we're going to bookend our days in this our day in this room we talked about math acceleration which um was a topic that will come to the full board um maybe the 24th maybe after

016that um and then we also touched on we talked about the SEL curriculum and got an update of what's going on now there's a lot of really good work that's been done both around the math acceleration process and ideas as well as SEO so I encourage you all to watch them good thank you Sarah any other important committee reports right now okay good thank you we'll move on to presentations and discussions I think the topic of one of the big topics of this evening presentation and discussion and possible action on Henley homes and Royal Design development documents and estimates got our friends here from kg D and I'll turn it over to Jill McCannon Julie turned me off um you turn this off this morning thank you very much um Travis is here he's going

017to focus on um the really the differences between what we saw in the conceptual design presentation not that long ago and what we have for you tonight just so you understand what's changing we are looking for an approval by the end of the evening um we also have uh Chris price my co-chair and Eric's uh co-person over at pnz tonight talking particularly about drainage at Henley and homes but talking more more broadly um so we're we're double teaming and thank you to Dave Martin for being in this room uh with us here at Bowie so I'll turn it over Travis he's going to go pretty fast through the presentation understanding that we do have a big meeting tonight yep my goal is 20 minutes uh Joe Candace is also with uh pnz so um I'll

018try to handle any uh technical storm water questions but we should just be I think you're better off here traffic yeah I agree with you um I think Eric and I fought for this one just just so the board's references there's a slight tweak to one of these uh slides from what you got so we'll we'll post this one after the meeting yeah I think we just updated a rendering or two yeah okay so yep good evening happy New Year Travis Schnell with kg D Architects and as Jill stated the goal of this is really to focus on the differences between the schematic drawings and these DD documents design development documents yeah and so yes we're looking for approval to move forward with construction documents which this the team is already engaged in um we

019do have a permit submission uh beginning of February so moving on so a brief rundown of tonight we're going to look at the exterior designs that changed between SD and DD we're going to have a quick stormwater discussion and update and the changes there that they're currently presenting over at pnz we're going to look at interior design this includes mostly updated renderings and we had a follow we had did have a follow-up meeting earlier today with faculty so some of those will be revised further and then we'll touch base on the budget and review the next steps so jump into exterior um at hinley there were a few changes based on the recommendations by The District's traffic consultant uh the first one over here at Post Road the curb cut going on the Post Road

020that is going to change to an exit only a right turn exit only that was also after preliminary discussions with the state and there will also be an island in the center there oops um that's to further encourage people not to make left turns um the other revision is the extended Bus Loop driveway um it's still a larger Bus Loop but it's extended further to the South the whole Bus Loop is shifted to the South and that is to maintain a parent entry and exit point also per the recommendation of the traffic consultant and travel in and out of that would be limited during dismissal and arrival the other items we looked at were the main entrance and the student entrance off of the Bus Loop and some of these were per some initial ARB

021comments and discussion with uh the building committee and the district um generally speaking at the main entrance there's only minor enhancements here that include landscaping and sidewalk upgrades some more shrubs and trees but generally not much going on here changing the paving yeah exactly this scent there you go there is going to be an insert of papers in the center and you will get a refresh of the sidewalks and the landscape so it might not on certain things I think if anyone wants to jump in so it might not just be in this picture but uh at Oxbridge we spent a lot of time and we've spent a lot of time around security so any ballasts or bumpers or whatever across here since this is there's kids walking here and so I think it's something

022something we should look at we haven't discussed that drop-offs and Pickups that we have whatever you want to call them ballasts bumpers I think um Oxford you'd be a good example to look at in terms of how we did it yeah right at the front there and where the buses are too uh the Bus drop off um we are proceeding with the original proposed Plaza design that you see over here on the right um the left shows an alternative option that we looked at after um some ARB comments but on further conversations with the administration and with the building committee the preference really is for the original design shown on the right which does have a larger uh Plaza entrance um this was kind of a less formal tone down approach um and everyone wants

023to proceed with this this approach here on the right part of the part of the feedback was that you know this is very Grand and the other entrance on the other side is not quite as grand um you know one of the things that we're finding as a committee is we have a specific scope um so we weren't scoped to renovate the entire building we were scoped to renovate components of it uh this entry because the library was on it is part of our scope uh we did talk about the difference you know maybe trying to downscale as you see on the left right um to make the two entrances more in line for some comments from ARB but in discussions with Administration and open Vista and better traffic patterns for students and staff was

024strongly preferred so we are going to stay with our original design of the one on the right right but you're not changing the entrance to the school we are not changing no the main entrance stays as the previous slideshow this is just for the student uh arrival and dismissal from the buses but that is part of why we took another look at the Landscaping in the front of Henley to try and build these Spruce it up yep Spruce it up and still keep that as the you know the overall main entrance but this is handling a large volume of students coming up so we thought it was warranted to have that larger Plaza because what happens with the smaller Pathways and indirect Pathways they find their way to the front entrance and they end up

025really eroding the grass anyway so we thought it was still worthwhile to have that larger Plaza there it's also about our scenario for Safety and Security and supervision okay then uh moving on to homes over here this this shows the the original Curtis property development um that we had proposed in the schematic plan that was greatly reduced after we were listening to neighbor input um the original plan had a larger parking lot over here extension and it had a an above ground storm water basin and this is the access drive so after receiving the feedback from the neighbors we went back to the drawing board on that and there was been a lot of back and forth with our engineer and pnz and uh the town engineers and this is currently the revised plan it

026eliminates the additional parking lot at the Curtis parcel so there's no additional spaces there in lieu of that we have just increased a couple of several parking spaces that are less impactful and that their extensions off of your already paved areas additionally we shifted the above ground basins to a below ground infiltration system that's on the fields that made a couple of movements one was located over here that was going to kind of be in the way of construction work so we further moved it into the field this was also a preference by both the neighbors and by the district it is at the end of the day easier to maintain and has less of a potential of becoming an eyesore because it's all all below the surface yeah the campus um in the original

027location was very close to the building we decided not to put a pond that close to the building and then as we know that uh you can use almost no pesticides appropriately on school campuses so there was some discussion particularly over a pond located that closely to uh the school population so it's been moved to the back and and put underground again for a variety of reasons including ointment safety that's all and then I think while you're in the presentation you'll walk through the efficacy of it yep and uh additionally here you know it's just the overall goal was less disturbance in the wooded area and then moving on to the main entrance this is the existing entrance and we have what you'll see on the next slide there's a new main entrance coming out

028of the corner to give it more prominence and a connecting Corridor over to the new music Edition see here and this is the current design this change from the original designs more contemporary flat roof and Butterfly structure that was presented during SD it's now a more traditional pitched roof design that we think and the board uh and the building committee and administration agrees with that fits better into the character of the campus and the neighborhood um and this was also in response to some ARB comments you'll see that the entrance is more prominent um right now you know on the older design it was kind of tucked into the corner and wasn't very clear and here it comes out a little further you'll see a little better down here and just a more prominent feature

029so we think this will work well and the roof will be a synthetic slate to better match with the existing homes building and this is an overall aerial again you can see the entrance coming out and this entrance upgrade is kind of part of the security upgrade and part of enhancing the flow um as you enter the building this just shows some general uh landscape updates again plantings along the perimeter some trees and updated new sidewalk as needed again with an insert paver insert at deployments and we will look at definitely putting bollards along along and uh so you know there are follow-up ARB meetings where we'll be showing them these as well we'll also be looking to downplay this Old Entrance here and playing with either paint colors lightly to just downplay that as

030an entrance so it competes less with the new the new entrance okay and next up is Royal there really weren't major changes since schematic design to the site here so this is just uh for reference showing you where reminding you where the two editions are and the library bump out Edition and the new Courtyard one item that we are continuing to look at is possible enhancements to the main entrance to give that a greater presence that was beyond the scope of the Ed specs but based on some ARB comments we're going to look at some options and review that with the building committee and we will get back to you with updates I might say that a little bit differently you'll forgive me if there is time and money remaining that's the project progresses that's

031an area where we might look at being able to do some enhancements yeah that's correct to clarify we are still looking at a design for that but to proceed with that design it would have to be within the budget and time frame later in the process it won't be a part of our initial construction design or ARB can write a check for it right but I didn't say that and this is just a reference just a reminder of the exterior rendering um of the field side again no major updates just further refinement working with the landscape architect on the the courtyard so originally in this view if you go into the center Courtyard and you go to that bump out where you've got expansion for learning Commons in your courtyard one of the views I

032saw way back when were bump outs across the building we've got issues with classroom size up there so how is that being addressed we'll see that in the internal schematics or well yes we've wide in the rooms so we've shifted some interior walls you know we've used the new additions to kind of move program into there to right size those and then the yes there's some internal shifts of spaces to to make that work so yeah a lot of those were under where that library is now coming out it's actually a lot of those were undersized classrooms right they were Now using stuff like you just said right um and then we have Renovations in other spots okay moving on to a little more detail into the stormwater most of that we've touched on but

033at hindley we updated this storm water after again hearing responses from the neighbor we want neighbors we did want to reduce Peak flow that was occurring towards the South and try to get the system to drain towards near water which the original proposal was not doing the original proposal also had an above ground detention Basin so after looking at that further and taking it to the the recommendations and the preferences by the administration and building committee we are now locating these basins also Underground to match what we're doing at the under other campuses so now all storm water is underground detention basins and we were able to you know get the pitches we need to get it over to near water this has been reviewed with the town it is also um their preference um

034the majority is going to near water a second Basin was added to just help reduce the flow to near water um but there is also additional some additional or split flow here that still goes over um to the wetlands to the South and that was a request specifically by DPW that you need to keep the wetlands kind of charged with runoff and that was the major change at Henley I think there's been some tweaks in in this further and those are being in more detail that we don't have to go into that's at the other meeting this evening and homes again this just reiterates that this was shifted this is plan is rotated Curtis property was up here so that above ground Basin has now been shifted to the underground infiltration tanks um below the

035field additionally after hearing comments uh from Neighbors over on the west side we there is an existing structure here that tends to clog and overflow so we are adding a curtain drain along the length of that property line and replacing the structure to be a little more robust with a double great system so it'll reduce the chances of clogging and it'll just increase the overall area that surface water can be gathered and then taken by the system if you're asked about drainage when you're out you know having your Thursday evening cocktail um you can say we had to do drainage because we increased the sizes of campuses so that you know that queued us up for a code um to be code we had to increase our drainage but we have used a 100 Year

036standard the town standard is a 50-year standard so we're pretty comfortable that we have done our utmost uh to really accommodate you know as best we can the needs of uh being a watershed community and actually these designs are above and beyond the town requirements these are uh one uh yeah designed for 100 Year storms all right next we're going to jump into some of the the renderings that we're working on again some of these will be uh you know further refined after comments we received today by faculty and just in general with the interior design you know all these layouts were based on meetings that we had with faculty user groups so we take their input we go back and forth with that and we show them the plans and we keep refining we

037wanted to make sure there was consistency in design between the three schools but you know we're also looking to add specific moments that you know bring out the specific character of each School and we do always want to keep in mind the layout and the materials just need to contribute to the overall goals of creating inspiring places to learn we utilize color and we want warmth and playful materials in order to do that um we're always considering the long-term use and sustainability along with ease of maintenance for your facilities to be able to maintain the buildings and a lot of these will be shared materials across the three buildings so it just makes again maintenance easier addict stock easier to to make any fixes later down the road um and finally you know the goal

038is to keep spaces as flexible as possible so we utilize Furniture um versus permanent built-ins in order to achieve that okay so just in general you'll the slides you're going to see now are that the classrooms the music rooms and the art rooms are all fairly similar both in layout and in materials um so the next or just the kind of a typical layout they don't show specifically ones at each school but they give you a flavor of what the team is working on and then we'll go through the learning common spaces which are a little more unique in their layout um this is a typical classroom showing the teacher wall here I should say a typical new classroom that shows the teacher wall here with the Whiteboard and the Smart Board it also shows

039in the previous exterior renderings you notice there were some of those bump out bay windows so that is what this Nook is surrounded in wood trim the ceilings will be acoustic ceiling tile with indirect direct LED linear lighting high efficiency the flooring will be a luxury vinyl tile which is a more durable updated version of final tiles and there will be some cubby Millwork along the wall behind us can I have a view yep looking the other way you have built-in case work with a sink in every classroom um and there will be opportunities for accent walls painted accent walls the furniture you see here is just a placeholder for reference to get a sense of scale and layout we do still have to go through all the furniture with the district over here is

040a typical music room notice that in the music rooms and the libraries they do have larger expanses of window to bring in natural light they are generally larger spaces with larger program functions you have a pitched ceiling here to kind of open up that space and give you more light the ceiling here is a wood look a metal wood look acoustic ceiling again with the same linear direct and direct lights there'll be some acoustic treatment on the wall the space the storage space is per the district's per faculty's requirements the house of different instruments and generally the center is going to be kept open for both rehearsals and behind us here is where they gather in the beginning of the day and there'll be a sink and casework on the other wall and over here

041again you have the teaching wall with the ViewSonic board and the Whiteboard and of course the Boomwhackers over around the corner foreign again the high Windows brings a lot of natural light into those art rooms the back wall would be an accent wall here we show acoustical ceiling tiles in lieu of the metal ceiling tiles we wanted to show both option as the metal wood look ceiling tiles are a good chunk more money so this is a good area to save some money and go with the the white acoustic ceiling tiles which sounds like the direction will likely be header heading to better spend that money elsewhere that's more needed um again this layout and storage needs are based on feedback from faculty there's the built-in case work in the back with a with a

042hand sink and then a double larger kind of slop sync for the artwork and this would be either Henley or Royal that's right um and behind us that you don't see is it kind of where the kids come into Gathering space and the teaching wall so nothing has changed uh in these plans but we just have the plans here for reference in case there are any questions grunt jumping into the learning Commons at hindley first this is the new learning Commons again the fields are up in this direction here so this is your window wall here and this is your Bump out there and your and you're entering the space off of the new corridor and the Upper Floor for reference you'll see all those rooms in purple they have some instances where you are

043where some of these walls are shifting to create right size classroom conditions a little dark here but this is the interior view of the hindley library this we would like to keep the stick would look metal ceiling since this is a more prominent space being the the learning Commons and again this is the large window wall with the wide views out and to the playing fields and you get a lot of natural light in there to the left this is the bump out kind of reading Nook where you see some tiered seating there and it looks a little dark that's because it's an angle where you're seeing the the vertical fins that help with solar control shading and this is the entry desk again we will have carpet in these spaces with painted walls and

044a lot of movable furniture all per faculty librarian Direction and the libraries in general are kind of focused on these learning different learning and age group zones and that's how the spaces are laid out you can see there's a in this version there is a classroom Nook over here with a teaching wall and behind us there is a um yep behind us there's a little maker Zone that kids can do some more like Robotics and Lego work this will include casework storage and a sink in each School and then the door back here is access to the Green Room that each school will also have for recording sessions okay next up is homes again no real changes to the plan to remind everyone the learning Commons stays in its current location um we do change

045the entrance location so it's more direct and prominent off of the main lobby and we do make a bump out uh extension into the new Courtyard and make a new exit from the library to the exterior was there a decision there to put a basement in there on that back part of that building yes that houses mechanical equipment and also functions as much needed storage space same thing with below the music wing and that keeps that helps to minimize the uh the the HVAC equipment that goes on the roof so this is the interior view of the homes learning Commons these views are go these are the views through the new edition bump out that go out to the new Courtyard space so right now these are large window openings in the current Library so

046they would be modified to become these openings into that space and we would reinstall clear story windows up top yeah if I remember there was a temporary room that was sort of built inside the library and a bunch of conduit that all goes well awesome yeah that existing yeah room is kind of off on this side so we're opening up we're opening up this whole main space and instead we're putting the smaller rooms here in the back corner and we will build out an unfinished space up above so you don't have an awkward condition like you have now where you have these office spaces but it's in a double height space and you just end up with a dust collector and a wasted space on the ceiling yeah and yes it doesn't mean that there's

047no longer an entrance on that hallway because I'm looking at the previous Planet there there used to be a door going into that so that's the movement the newest version as of now that's been removed because we do have two ways out one is through here to to the lobby and it's a more prominent entrance because right now it is a Securities route that you got to go around and then find the entrance so it's more prominent than you enter right into the main space and then there's a second way out to Courtyard but we will be reviewing this with the district's security team and seeing if another exit is needed back here right now these three spaces um include the librarian work Zone storage room and the Green Room which this is all happening

048off screen kind of to the left of us in this View whatever happened was there a question with the gym and the foundation and all that how do we make out with that so we are this wall this will be a double wall we're building a new wall in front of that and packing it with acoustic material that'll keep the direct sound at Bay um and we are still working with an acoustician now to deal with whether or not we have to make a cut in the slab to prevent the vibrations from carrying through from the gym it's a it's a little more complicated than just cutting the slab because there are some constructional concerns there you can't completely cut the slab and have it separated from the existing footing that's likely there so we

049need to look at it a little further but we heard it loud and clear today while we were meeting for three hours in this room with faculty as kids were playing in in the gym basketball so yes similarly uh at in Lane just not to go back for a second there is a uh the instrumental music is right next to the art room are similar considered range is being made to so for example Advantage nursing yes so and it I'll touch on it later with the estimate but yes we have specific acoustic control walls that kind of wrap the perimeter of the music rooms um not and between the music rooms not to the corridor um because that's less important but yes to other program spaces um so finishing this off uh we're gonna we're

050gonna redo kind of the trim but we want to keep the look similar here so this is going to be new uh wood trim to kind of match the existing and we're gonna we're gonna keep these wrapped beams that are currently existing these are actually part of the truss Roof System you'll have an opportunity for a teaching wall over here with a small breakout classroom space and then we will likely line these upper panels with acoustic treatment and again similar carpet that you'll see in the other buildings that also helps with Acoustics and then that addition helps with some of the breakout zones for the different age reading age groups and then rolling on into Royal so the Royal Library this is the existing that was here that's been removed so if you recall we

051are taking over this whole side of the hallway and we do have another bump out here in the blue that's the new portion of it that does extend into um the outdoor Courtyard and in this setup you do it well it is a an odd set up it's a little more tricky the benefits are that you do get kind of more separated zones for the uh the louder activities so from your classroom to your maker space and that allows for more of a centralized reading and larger group space so this is walking into the doors from um the hallway into the world learning Commons you'll see this view out is into the new Courtyard and so that's that bump out extension where there will be several different zones for the different age groups uh book

052collections and we're still this is just an example of furniture options that you can have fun kind of furniture elements in the space um as the mechanical equipment in existing conditions allow we are going to try to maximize areas that we can enlarge the ceiling space to increase the volume there you'll see some acoustic treatments on the walls that we are still working on the details and again some carpet throughout in the background there you'll see a movable wall to separate the breakout classroom function and this is just a closer up view of that classroom space within the library these walls can slide open and allow for a larger space when you have larger functions in there okay um so these are just a series of scope summary slides a lot of stuff that we've

053already reviewed it's just for your reference we don't need to go into the details here keep it moving we do have this for if anyone wants to go back and just re-examine the work that's being done and now we can get yes in um Royal the transition on the first floor where we had the steps by the cafeteria existing how was that resolved to level it or ramps or outside that is remaining as are you talking about here yeah exactly there's no change to that condition related stairs it'll remain as stairs it'll remain a stairs yes okay I think we were unable to adjust it I thought it was discussion of a ramp at one point or yeah yeah but I think the pitch it would have to be a significant ramp that and you

054can't have doors from classrooms opening onto the ramp so it's that's a really tough condition and you know to be frank it was outside of the Ed specs and and not worth that that effort at this time because you would you would lose access to rooms and it would be tricky to get into your main spaces there with the length of that ramp thank you service drive that's there would there be a high school Under the Bridge again Valerie Valerie followers I think so I think the takeaway from this evening will be to go look at about yeah I think out of all the things I thought we'd discussed tonight bollards was not one of them but we're in a security frame yeah oh you're talking about the that access drive that goes around back

055for the deliveries and garbage directly off the particles so the event you can see people driving around parking around here the issue there is they haven't figured out at the high school too it's the same thing that who has the key you have to make sure the fire department has the key those things that's more for fire access somebody yeah not knowing whether they're closer I mean our expectations is that would be chained off during normal operating hours and that facilities would have to control when that's opening and and limit deliveries at certain times yep before we go into the budget discussion can I ask like these kind of questions um the furniture in the old classrooms that is currently there is that staying that's not part of the budget to replace that furniture right

056the new furniture is only going in the new classrooms correct it's only Furniture in the new spaces okay um the homes taking away the parking lot on the Curtis property and putting in those two other you know smaller satellite parking is that does that give us the same amount of spaces that would have been on the Curtis property yes if we were still at that like uh 95 was our Target um I'd have to confirm that but I think we are in that 90 to 95 I think it's about 92 yeah the best model so it's a couple lists but okay um staying on homes that so Royal and Henley have a maker space it looks like Holmes does not is there a way to or is there making Space Incorporated in the Holmes has

057a maker space it's in the corner kind of where the uh in the back corner we just didn't have a rendering of it yet I just wanted to make sure that they were all happy but all the libraries have similar program by Design okay um I also just curious about the teachers in fact Lilly said today like there was their General theme of when they saw this oh they they are very pleased with the progress of the work and we love their feedback because it really just makes our job a lot easier so I wish my kids were still at home so this is beautiful foreign to the numbers sure okay so just like we did at the end of SD we had the same two uh estimators one was our independent uh Nasco Construction

058Services and the other was Ong APC so this table shows the comparison between the two teams and really how generally they were um in alignment with each other and close to the budget so the good news there is that it confirms that both estimators we're interpreting the documents in the same way and they're coming in very close to each other so a brief summary there overall Henley is a slightly under budget between 600 000 and 1.4 million depending on which estimate you're looking at homes uh was a little over budget that's 1.8 to 2 million over Royal is between 700 000 and 1.4 million under so as a combined total the takeaway is that you know the the Project's in a good place with where we are with this design and design development right Platinum

059bollards yeah I would drive up the cost well that you know they do make ones that electronically receive you'll see at the courthouses yeah we've looked at them all right and just to explain this a little further specifically takeaways on why homes was a little over budget so the music Edition along with that connecting Corridor and entry were kind of added to the project scope but that was in order to realize the true goals of the Ed specs and where they best fit within the program of the school when you factor into right size in classrooms and providing appropriate adjacencies ideally you do not want music rooms you know right next to um classrooms so it's good to have them off to the side there um and the main entrance did need to be more

060prominent and it does create just a more efficient and secure entry point into the school homes also started as the lowest um budget so this is really just bringing into alignment with the other buildings and there was some additional cost to site work in response to neighbor comments because moving all those basins to underground was more money than the above ground systems and to keep in mind the project during DD is holding contingency monies so design contingency with all the products combined is still three million dollars that slowly is drawn down as we progress with the work so I think right now that was um five percent and as we move into CDs that number will go down to zero and be absorbed into the projects so right now that's like about a million dollars

061that would get absorbed into the homes overage um there's currently an allowance for abatement that's two million dollars and that's not based on an actual report yet because we're still expecting that in the middle of January and that'll give us a more refined picture of what those costs are um so there there's a good chance that number comes down a little bit and then there's always escalation built in um to these projects at a eight percent per year rate so I think this last one we're getting closer to the actual construction start so it's between the four and five percent that was being carried um and then the owner you guys are carrying still three million dollars contingency on top of that we do we are carrying some alternates that if everything comes in well

062that we can um go with the cafeterias at hindley and Royal um we'll receive new acoustic ceilings and lighting can you explain what an alternate is please before you say they will receive just just so that we don't have people walk outside yeah yes we carry these through the project so they're kind of submitted with State they go out to bid with the contractors and they give us a sep a broken out price for those items so we can easily see what those numbers are in relationship to the bottom line number for the main project and if the main project comes in under budget we can simply award those alternates as we see fit to the project and we can pick and choose which ones would go into the project while maintaining the budget and

063so that lists the alternative the cafeterias that's 275 000 ad um I think Holmes is getting the upgrade anyway because it needs to based on the MEP work that's going on there we have a green roof at Henley over the flat roof portion of the new addition that's a 250 000 ad those would look metal ceilings that we currently had priced in the art rooms in the music rooms um it would be a 250 000 savings if we went to act which is likely what we're going to show as the uh base Baseline approach and then the front entrances are kind of tpd depending on um what we see at Royal and inly sorry Dennis the Royal I understood because you mentioned that the Henley I thought well I if I remember I don't hey

064I don't know what the front entrance of Henley you're referring to because I thought the front entrance was widened to allow better it is it's not or is that the is it the other entry it's the other entrance going uh yeah going beyond that kind of General enhancement with the landscaping and the we are going to do grades to the main yeah we are going to do the curbing in the Landscaping yes this would be something beyond that okay again sort of in response to some of the feedback but it's Fourth on the list right and while the top three will likely be included in as alternates in the document that last one's kind of an up in the air one depending on where we land with that it likely will not be an alternate

065no let's say we're going to have it designed yeah I mean we went through the whole wood look metal ceilings at Oxbridge um you know I think the cafeterias where kids spend time that should be a priority in terms of lighting bright Airy uh agree if the front entrances make sense and there's some I don't know if there's anything from a security standpoint that you've talked through there but I I would focus on the cafeterias and uh the front entrances of Dallas I would agree those wood look metal ceilings are the lowest on that list and we can even revisit with the building committee if they even need to be listed as an alternate going forward um and this key line items here this is just uh back and forth items that we looked at

066as a team on further reducing costs um so after these estimates came back we went back and tried to identify the unsuitable soils to make sure we're on the same page there which I think we are so these numbers reflect the current soil conditions that need to occur uh and unsuitable soils means what Travis unsuitable soils means like poor poor backfill that happened on that site um you can't build on top of it because it's not structurally capable of supporting the new edition so when you go to excavate for it you have to excavate down get it all out of there and go back with structural film it's not cheap but OMG is carrying money to do that based on this is why we have a Geotech report done during the design phase to determine

067these locations um it's like the old septic system we found the Box Ridge steps well you have to remediate all that before you can build on top of it yeah good um all right what's next yeah we briefly we you know did make the change to the underground inflation infiltration system some of that has to be reflected in the budget uh we're reducing greatly the underpinning adjacent to new basements um so we're able to step that Foundation rather than um digging underneath the New Foundations and it's a little complicated procedure you can't undermine the existing foundations when you build a new building right next to it so we're trying to build the new basements further off so you don't have to build underneath the new the existing foundations um so that'll reflect some reductions in

068the current estimates um again just generally trying to maximize the steel make it the most efficient to keep those costs down um reducing acoustic partitions between the music rooms to just where they're most impactful between rooms they're not needed as much from the corridor to the room um and then looking at how we can reduce storefront glass and use cheaper systems in that area but overall we think you know the estimates really are in a good place for this level and stage of development and we recommend proceeding with CDs don't forget you'll have another round of estimates to look at when we're done with CDs um not done with CDs but when we get the kind of an 85 percent estimate out at the beginning of February so just to quickly go through those next

069steps like I said we have the concurrent pnz meeting hopefully that's going well over there there's going to be a whole lot of series of phasing meetings with Ong to figure out how the interior is being phased so that's broken out over a series of meetings over the next four to five weeks as needed then we do have follow-up ARB meeting on the 17th follow-up homes meeting on the 24th tonight's just hindley and Royal um and then our next big Target is February 3rd to submit to the town for permit and for Ong to do another round of estimate submissions um account permit gets the ball rolling we need them to review it before we can go on and continue with the state Grant application process we still need to have our design development review

070with State that'll happen mid-February um then in late March we will have a pre-conformance review with the state that's when they review the documents and say that they're good to go for bid and end of April is our anticipated um bid date and that's it that's a thank you brief rundown yeah great any work with questions comments confident with David Martin working on the numbers we'll get there and the president's been set Public Works under budget Oxbridge under budget no pressure thank you for all your work David to the whole committee Jill Chris thank you for the hours and days having been there with oxridge it is literally almost every day something going on with HHR so into the principles the administration Kevin Alan rich I know that you're involved in all this too so

071thank you this is just a yeoman's effort to renovate three schools and we're still finishing the building of Oxford so thank you all and Travis thank you yep thank you guys great thank you very much um in front of me everyone's trying to move everything along all right we'll move to may I have a motion to approve the Henley homes and Royal Design development documents and estimates as presented this evening Dennis second Julie Dennis motion Julie second all those in favor this could unanimous As you move forward thank you thank you Jill nice presentation thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Travis we will move on to a curriculum update 2023 2024 curriculum priorities Dr tranberg great good evening everyone now for the teaching and learning that will fill these beautiful new

072spaces yeah so the presentation this evening is really broken down into three chunks first on our guiding documents um some specific content that we're looking at for uh 2023 2024 and our goal is to continue to enhance communication regarding curriculum and instruction across the district uh as always we're making connections to the mission and vision as we're developing our plans and I think we're tonight about whether it's science of reading math acceleration integration of ASL expansion of Mandarin we're really looking at preparing our students for all the exciting things that they have in their future one of the important guiding documents and you've seen this graphic before these are the three things that we really go to to Anchor our work with curriculum and instruction those are the standards and Frameworks so all content areas

073all grade levels um curriculum is based on standards and Frameworks that are usually Federal their Federal standards and then the state has standards that they've adopted that are identical or pretty similar and then we use those to develop our curriculum we have our vision of The Graduate and of course we have our strategic plan had the vision of The Graduate those competencies of Integrity communication creativity curiosity empathy and interdependence are those guiding principles of the vision of The Graduate and if you remember the in the Strategic plan we have all of those competencies that that fall under those so what we're working on and the expectation of the ask is when you have a vision of The Graduate that you ask the question of well what are you doing to measure this how are you

074bringing this to life for uh your students so since we have the language developed for really sixth through 12th grade we're bringing a committee back together some members that were on it before and some new members to really work on well what's the parallel language because if you look at how it was written for maybe a senior or Junior to understand that's not necessarily the same language that a kindergartner might understand when we're trying to create those guaranteed experiences for them so that's an immediate next step for us and then actually integrating them in our curriculum is a really important goal so for the six through twelve we do have all the language embedded so as new units of instruction are being developed we can make those connections where those competencies are being addressed this

075morning we had a great discussion on mathematics acceleration so for several years this has been a request of the community and most recently as a result of the gifted education program evaluation that the board heard in June of 2021 there was a consideration to look closer at opportunities for math acceleration so a committee did that for about a year and a half and there is a three-tiered recommendation that starts with differentiation which is addressing the teaching and learning with the students in front of you through planning instruction and assessment on a regular basis the idea of compacting so focusing on those grade level standards within in mathematics but giving students an opportunity to go deeper and enrich the learning with the grade level standards and then the third is acceleration for students who might be

076ready to move Beyond those grade level standards the example that we all know when it comes to math is when we look at fifth to sixth grade we have 6 grade math we have sixth grade advanced math and then we have sixth grade accelerated math so that's where acceleration has existed the plan that we'll talk about in Greater detail in an upcoming meeting uh because this is has been such a a big deal for a while uh we'll take a closer look and I'll explain uh some more of the exciting things behind the math acceleration the science of reading is also a big Focus for curriculum I'm not sure how close you followed the discussion that's been happening but there's a lot out there on the science of reading this comes from the right to

077read legislation that happened in 2020 and the idea is the state would like to provide some oversight to districts accountability to districts and at the same time support districts and they did that by establishing a task force so to speak at the state level they have identified programs that they are suggesting that districts use as well as universal screeners and they're offering to provide supports to help districts make that happen if districts are not adopting one of the programs that the state is recommending you have an opportunity to complete a waiver which we've indicated that we are going to complete a waiver and the waivers are due next month and we know that uh all districts must notify I believe it's by Friday of this week the state whether or not they're completing a waiver

078asking for a delay for financial reasons or if they're adopting one of the programs that the state approved um in the meantime we have been addressing the science of reading as you know we're Teachers College has been our our our core document but we've also supplemented that through hegarty and Foundations because we share the belief that to fully address the science of reading the teachers College units of study are not enough even though the new units of study which we've purchased do have a more robust uh component related to phonics we are still taking an approach to make sure we are looking at some of those other resources as well in World Language as you know from some of our recent meetings uh what we'll be working on with curriculum this year is developing uh

079our first American sign language course which hopefully will be the first of the Continuum of other courses uh Mandarin is a continuation of the sixth grade course going to seventh for those students because students when they choose a language at the middle school they're really committing to a language for three years and the third is we have our third grade Spanish uh they're working with IXL this year which is a technology to support enrichment that provides some immediate feedback one of the challenges that happens with World Language instruction in general is you learn most when you're engaged in actually speaking the language and interacting and when you're in a class you don't always have the opportunity to to talk the entire time so this gives that opportunity for um some students who are ready for

080a little push with Spanish instructions for Visual and Performing Arts we're going to take uh Advantage so to speak of our partnership with Tri-State how we are due for a Tri-State visit next year and we are going to focus our visit on a program evaluation for uh Visual and Performing Arts so the guiding question that we've been working on we're in the process of putting that that team together the steering committee for that visit is how can the darien Public Schools provide access to an Innovative Arts education that prepares all students today to thrive in a changing world tomorrow notice the the coupling of our vision with what we would like the Tri-State visit to do and if you haven't seen a Tri-State visit we would welcome teachers and administrators from a Consortium of tri-states

081three states it's New Jersey districts New York districts and Connecticut districts mostly Fairfield County Westchester County Bergen County area districts send a team and it's like a mini niask visit focused on a problem of practice rather than being focused on an entire visit on how's your school doing in library and media exciting to see these these new spaces but what we're looking at especially for K2 because that's where students have guaranteed time in the library for instructional purposes is developing some curriculum that gives them guaranteed experiences to start to develop those skills and Technology I'm early on the other piece is aligning to the iste standards so the SD standards are the international technology standards that it hasn't taken solid footing yet but we keep hearing there's going to be an expectation that all content

082areas also have to show how technology standards are being supported in those in those disciplines so the good news is with our new curriculum platform we have the space to do that but there hasn't been any guidance on that yet some other big things we are waiting for are the social studies standards update so I know you've heard me say this for I think a year uh we were supposed to have the new standards a year ago we just don't have them yet uh once we have those social study standards there's really going to be a most pressing need to update social studies at the elementary level we are still working on our ngss alignment because that's a big lift Elementary health education there was some work done several years ago with the scope in

083sequence that work needs to continue as well the gifted education curriculum is another recommendation that came from our program evaluation in 2021 there will be a more full report on gifted education update coming I think it is in February to the full board our teaching and learning principles which is a recommendation for from our strategic plan it's a year too so we want to have those done by the end of this year and continuing to refine our processes for the curriculum development process and approval process uh regarding Communication in general this is just highlighting this is all that has happened on the curriculum committee since our first meeting in December of 2021 and it also shows what what's happening in our February meeting which there's the gifted education update there but we have had a

084chance to uh walk through almost every content area and the department chairs presented uh program updates and we're actually starting that cycle again with getting the annual update from them as we move into the spring so I think those meetings have been productive and for the curriculum nerd and me uh enjoyable because you get to talk about teaching and learning for a solid hour plus uh the other piece that we're continuing to refine with communication is our curriculum website so we've updated that completely it has things from contact information to who you go to for Department information the actual curriculum is there some parent resources and recent presentations are there and our teaching and learning committees we've also launched as Dr adley mentioned uh this morning our social emotional learning page of the website too

085so you can access that through District information and there's information for teachers there's information for families there's a general landing page and that also includes all of the resources that we're using and information about ruler uh we're trying to also increase our transparency by moving all of the curriculum to the edge of Planet 21 platform which we are in this is really it feels like we've been doing it for a while but it's really only our first year uh this has gone really well so far um I think I presented a four-year plan to you I I think four years is it's I don't think it's going to take four years at the rate we're moving so that's exciting and we'll have a consistent look and approach to all the units of study so over

086time it'll be clear what you're looking at whether you're looking at a kindergarten unit of study or an AP Calculus unit of study so that's exciting and I'm glad to answer any questions that was like the Cliff's Notes of a year in the quick thank you Chris appreciate it forward questions comments Katie thank you um Chris I just wanted to come back to a question that came up Saturday regarding the budget in terms of professional development um in talking about the science of reading and the right to read legislation one of the ways that we said that we're addressing the science of reading approaches to align our PD to it so I have to ask the question again about reinvesting in Teachers College um and and and what other options there might be in terms

087of other training um you know in the special education RC there was a level one Wilson and I think we have a very small number of Staff members that are trained in that and I'm wondering if we might not um look at having our general education in K through to K through two teachers um have some more training and some of the OG type things um if you can just speak to professional development and science of reading so in general and surely feel free to add into what I'm saying there are many trainings for specialized reading programs that is not how reading instruction is delivered during full group instruction uh so while having some trainings could be helpful yes I could see that and I'm certainly not opposed to making sure our teachers are as

088trained as possible and as skilled as possible and supporting students and the instruction they need the question that that I would ask is if there are concerns regarding the district practices around how we're addressing the science of reading there doesn't seem to be I'll phrase it this way I'll phrase it in the positive our students do incredibly well we have we have strong readers and when we have students who struggle we have strong Intervention Program we have robust supports through our special education program so I feel like we are addressing those needs to the programs that we have um the spirit of this legislation uh comes from addressing disparities that exist in uh populations that uh don't this came out this morning as well they don't profile like our district does so to after years

089of commitment to a program and it doesn't matter that it's been years years committed to a program that's been successful where students are reading um it it doesn't make sense to me to Pivot if we feel like we're addressing what might what those gaps might be what those gaps are that have been identified um just because because it doesn't how our district is performing isn't matching um why the legislation exists foreign for the direct reading instruction Katie to your question we have worked with general education teachers and training them also we have one in the high school actually that we trained in Wilson uh did a Wilson one level search also um could have been two years ago I'm not quite sure I lost a year but recently within the last two or three years

090um there was one other one that also we supported in um in the elementary levels many of the srbi srbi reading specialist instructional are also trained in either OG or Wilson I don't want to speak without looking at the numbers Marge that we have um but there are several who are trained and again because it's small group instruction it's discrete and direct reading instruction which tends to be delivered in small groups whether it's in special design instruction for children who do have IEPs or for children who are given um certain levels of either level two or three of srbi thank you Sarah no go ahead one more thing the we've also changed our approach with working with our staff Developers for the past few years where we're coming in and they're offering us PD based

091on exactly what we're asking them for and we're also giving teachers opportunities to choose areas of focus where they feel like they need additional help and support as well so right now our focus is on addressing the science of reading that's clear these staff developers who are incredibly talented are very qualified to work on the principles of the science of reading without going too deep into everything that's happened with the with the legislation at the TC units of study were not an approved curriculum because they evaluated the old TC units of study we have new units of study that do more comprehensively address products so it's been tough because we're trying to stay positive and stay focused on the good work that we're doing and not go into well what might have been wrong with

092all of these processes that happened and why the legislation exists and how it exists uh so we're going to go forward with the waiver show the good work that we're doing and there is an adjustment we have to make with an additional Universal screener but other than that we're feeling pretty confident that we're in a good place and there are at least 50 if not over 60 percent of the districts that are similarly positioned to where we are good thank you Chris Sarah I'm just going to pick up a little bit more on what you were saying at one point you had said that just want to pick on the waiver because I'm I'm still I mean I feel like I'm pretty involved in this situation and I still am unclear the waiver doesn't just

093give a you know a freebie year right can you give it a little more color around what the waiver actually does for us so the waiver um gives districts an opportunity to present their program address a series of questions on how you are addressing the science of reading how you're measuring it uh the waiver also requires that districts provide ample data to show that your students are growing if the waiver is not approved then you have to choose one of these other programs if you choose one of these other programs it's going to be past our budget timeline to say we need a new reading program now so you have an opportunity to apply for a one-year extension before implementation the programs that we've looked at we have all of the approved programs we ordered

094them to look at them and review them and we're looking at a potential cost of 500 to 750 000 for a new reading program and if our waiver is approved what does that do for us does that mean that this we're good at infinitum or we will have to revisit that says that as the state been clear about that or not that it's been as clear as there is no direct oversight but districts can be audited at any time to show how they are fulfilling their obligation that's that's how the legislation currently reads when they approve the waivers they can certainly do other things because the state can require things that are not necessarily legislative requirements but this has been so far unfunded even though we are hearing that money will be available but the

095money that's available will unlikely make it to our district is what it sounds like government at its best at one point there was talk I mean between Dr Adeline and Dr chamber that there potentially was like a Consortium of Durga districts that were applying for the waiver is it still individual I mean it still has to be individual right but yes it has to be individual uh we did reach out to our rescue to see if they would provide some support uh but they're in a unique position as well because rests are responsible in supporting districts and delivering what the state's asking them to do uh so there is many of us are working together so even though we have to complete individual waivers we're talking to each other on a regular basis that's curriculum

096leaders across the point being we're not an outlier oh absolutely not we're we're actually in the majority right uh it's so that's the situation now thank you Chris I want to talk a little bit more about the Visual and Performing Arts slide um about what exactly is happening there um I'm particularly interested in the Performing Arts side of it um but a vision a lot of kids self-select into that and so what I'd love to understand is whether or not we'll we're looking at opportunities for kids who might not naturally self-select or who may not have access under traditional selection criteria to participate in the Performing Arts I would be very interested yeah so we get to design one of the great things about a Tri-State visit is you design your visit and you're asking

097them to look at what opportunities could exist for students that you're not currently seeing and the visual art and and music have been welcoming and inviting spaces for all students that's one of the Hallmarks of those programs uh and knowing who the people are that are directing and coordinating those programs I know that's an interest of theirs as we go into yes this visit great thanks Katie thank you just to come back to the reading I wanted to follow up um and I want to be clear that I'm not arguing for against waivers or the state program that's an enormous conversation that we couldn't even excuse me we couldn't even begin to to fully get into tonight um I specifically want to talk about the curriculum and Darien and how it works um so I

098have a couple of follow-up questions um you know anecdotally for years I've been hearing from elementary teachers and administrators that they're unhappy with Teachers College that it's that it's not enough to provide them with things same thing for parents um and then I'm curious about how um I'm curious about how how we go back and we serve students that are of let's say the pre-fundations era right um you know our our high school students right now none of them ever received foundations and even foundations predates hegarty and while it's great that we evolve and we learn more what about the rest of our students um you know surely in response like I appreciate that that we do have professional development and that we do have a couple people but you know I have to say

099that one person at the high school and one person at another school does not make me feel confident when we have 4 500 students um I have I have questions about um our writing curriculum a lot of times we talk about reading and we say our kids can read um I understand that darianne is is incredibly fortunate in the resources that have and that we're a high performing District but that doesn't mean that we don't have deficiencies and that we can't do things better so when we talk about our kids can read where does the writing fit into that um you know the writing I have to say is another thing anecdotally that I'm carrying quite a bit of in the high school and the middle school and and from parents you know just looking

100over proofreading something and and sort of being appalled at some of the basic sentence structure and grammar rules that aren't being followed and and maybe aren't being um standardized in a strict manner in terms of capitalization punctuation those types of things so um my question to you is is one how do we go back to students that might have deficits before curriculum evolves and two how does the writing curriculum fall into this so one of the budget asks for fy24 are the new units of study for writing which similar to reading it addresses some of the updated research so that's something that we would look to do as far as students who might have deficits for any reason that's why we have intervention processes that exist so and that and I'm not I'm just giving

101a hypothetical because I I don't know for sure but if a student had a gap um as a result of any instruction that they had the design of the SRB srbi processes would catch that and if that process doesn't fulfill the deficit that they had then we would keep moving up through our Continuum of services to make sure we're providing that support appropriately um the as far as the mechanics of writing uh in my conversations with Mr genasco and I and I won't speak too much to this without him weighing in that's something he's always always looking at so whether it's finding ways to incorporate more vocabulary and if you look at some of the technology that we're using uh to do that as well um how do you incorporate grammar because English instructions different

102than it was back when I was in school we had a grammar book right and you had your literature book and you had your Journal you had all of these different components that are that that's it just doesn't look the same right now uh but I would want to be specific about what are the actual concerns about what are students not doing because the data that we have have shows our students do incredibly well uh so I'm glad to address it but I would want to make sure I'm looking at data to respond to and I would ask Katie maybe you know some good questions there maybe work with Sarah from the curriculum committee standpoint and maybe some of those things can come up through the curriculum yes and we haven't talked about writing very

103much we've talked about readings at the time in January I think it's January 2021 we did a reading presentation and then again in December 21. good thank you for 22. sorry yeah my question was going to be around the schedule you have here for the bom curriculum committee and I see that last February 22nd English update was provided you mentioned we're going to restart the cycle again so you may address my question but touch is similar to what KDs which is a if you have at this time but you know where do we stand with explicit instruction in English grammar sentence structure graphing sentences punctuation I hated that book back when I was in third and fourth grade but I use it every day and I I you know when you know I I have

104heard from several students going through SATs acts where they get in the class when they get in the room and they're looking colon semicolon they have no clue and they've come up through the daring system so it doesn't encourage me that the changes and then it doesn't look the way it did uh doesn't convince me that that particular aspect is being done well it's my understanding of the teacher's college feels that that should be explicitly taught um I think that's something we really need to look at given the experiences we're having here thank you thanks Steve and I'll just I'll talk to Mr janoska when he comes for the next presentation we'll address that and I do think it's line number one on the rc19 textbook request is the new style writing style guide so

105it's certainly something that we don't pretend so the style guide's not there if you don't know the foundation which comes later and that's good thank you thanks Dave good all right thank you we'll move on to an update on implementation of the district's strategic plan board goals and diversity Equity inclusion Dr adley and Dr tranberg uh so I will excuse me just hit the highlights of this um certainly and then we're going to add up for questions uh a structure around the board goals and the Strategic plan the diversity accurate inclusion is woven between the board goals and the Strategic plan uh the way this is set out is each of the goals and the Strategic work that the board has uh outlined in the design of their goals and these are the the updates

106from between the fall and uh this past winter I'll just speak real quickly to again highlights and I won't leave anything out consciously or otherwise um I'll certainly happy to come back to things if if the board would like to do that um but I mean the main scenario here that maximize Safety and Security we've done a lot as you know um around the security where our director of Securities just started yesterday all the work that the board has done and the review of uh our interventions for ssos and track your security uh they have come to Federation I have a call tomorrow by uh checking in with Karma as to where our report is and we have had the administrative feedback on that uh has been given to uh Karma we had met with

107them and provided that so we're just awaiting the final report I should receive an update on that tomorrow uh the completion of monthly drills of the new alerta system up and running and the security needs as addressed through the fi-24 budget and we've done a lot of discussion uh this year around Safety and Security if you want probably deposit Mr chairman I just made sure we can go call the gold that's fine any questions with respect to board goal one Alan I I think we're going to have at some point an update on sort of just a pre-implementation update is that on the 24th so what before we start finally hiring ssos and before we start putting them into schools a pre-implementation what your plan is we talked about just the time of hiring of

108training of communication yes okay teacher communication School parent student kind of how that all looks okay thank you thank you all right go ahead yeah so this is a mental health Wellness of of students and staff again it may seem redundant a little bit in terms of the topics but it's not surprising because they're the goals there the things that we've been working with the resources that the board uh has supported so um I would hope along the way there are there there's I won't I won't call it redundancy yes it's it's actually doing what uh we said and she said mental health director has been hired we're continuing to work uh with the times mental health task force in particular uh the behavioral health subcommittee that continues to be up and running and we

109serve on that uh we have we thank the PTO for their work on bringing uh Mark Brackett here I've done a lot of work on the right of SEL and ruler uh the universal screener we talked about this morning actually at the curriculum committee meeting uh we the ADL is actually working with the Middle School uh this uh Friday as we continue the work and support for our staff and our students those those are we just released today at the Sal uh website I'll pause there questions on board gold too Julie um thank you uh doctor that's just the last bullet there facilitated SEL meetings for parents across elementary schools what what were those I think that was uh um stroller Mr rule like the Sal workshops and I believe every elementary school did a

110parent coffee on ruler I believe it was every school but I can confirm uh year two of the strategic plan so that this was the board goal of uh just to oversight oversee the year two of that particular plan as some of that was through uh the work that I have done and we have discussed some of that in the mid-year evaluation uh follow-up uh we have scheduled these these strategic plan updates and provide regular award updates we've tried to align and support the budget to add the Strategic goals themselves anything on board full three Julie thank you um but we have here strategic work to revised strategic plan to meet District needs I think that wasn't as needed or if needed item as I recall but we I I appreciate that we refer regularly

111to how things align with the Strategic plan what I don't feel we do as often is start at the Strategic plan and say are there any of these things that we need to make sure we're coming back to more so I don't know when or where but I think it would be a valuable exercise to spend some time just on the Strategic plan pulling out of instead of kind of putting things into it if that makes any sense at all um just rather than these are our items and this is how they align this is our plan and are we are we act doing actionable things on all of the items included in it uh I would say that work with work uh both ways Julie um yes some of it align um but others

112comes directly out of professional development uh the work of the Dei so so from those strategies and from those actions that are outlined and we're actually trying to check boxes are are we doing those actions are we are we following through with uh those icons that are coming directly from the strategy or from the action right but I understand yes and I'm not suggesting that we're not doing things and keeping with the Strategic plan I think just to keep ourselves honest as an exercise it's a value to go back through the plan in total and make sure that we're considering all pieces and um not not every meeting not every month just at some point maybe on a Saturday there you go on a Saturday would be perfect I think Julie my follow-up to that

113would be I think and Jill and I have talked about this is that I think where you're heading is that we agreed that that strategic document was a living document and so I think rather than constantly referencing back to the document or I know we're not just checking boxes but where where does that strategic document need to change you know based on some things that have changed for us so I think that it would be a good exercise anything else on board goal three to enhance the district Communications uh we know that with the work of the the committee and the establishment of the committee uh the update of the district website for social emotional learning um one of the areas where I don't think that we and I'll take responsibility for this um the

114idea of this as much of the celebration of of students and staff achievements um that's something I think I need to calibrate again in the second semester here how to move forward with that a little bit but you can see the things that have pointed out here questions sure Katie sorry um I just want to I guess I want to go back to goal two I was trying to see it yeah I um I was trying to see how this might all come together um and I see that you reference that the DI component of this is embedded into gold two which makes sense when we're talking about um the mental health and well-being of um of our community but I have to ask specifically um where where we think that we're at with that

115and maybe if we're if we are at a place where we'd hope to be um and the work that we need to do public comment tonight um looking at the budget and locality or strategic plannable too okay we're there yet I'm sorry maybe did I jump yeah I think you said that uh year two implementation of the Strategic plan board goal three but it will come in a strategic plan okay yeah it's all good and anything else on board goal for communications the communications subcommittee meeting rescheduled or is it just are we just moving to the next one uh so uh we will move to the next one we will send out a template to board members and ask with directions of how to complete that it'll also go to staff members that will sort

116of uh we'll take a little bit of an audit from where we stand with communication from your input if we can get the raw data from you and then we just we can tidy it up and then the next meeting is February 15th to answer your question all right so we'll move on to strategic plan goal one uh so uh from this burden and Hanson to teach and learning we've done a lot in terms of working with the pdot committee and providing uh solicit and meaningful feedback to them um uh and providing in order to provide them with the professional development that they need uh the work of the teaching teaching and learning principles uh that work has been ongoing and the feedback has been offered uh has been provided uh from the staff we

117have we've got in our math consultant we've worked with some math Consultants along the way here uh this particular fall we've had visitors from Netherlands which come to observe our gifted education program and we'll continue with the uh the gifted report to guide the work and also once we get to the um uh the committee I'll talk about that anything else Chris I'll just point out uh the state is also sponsoring uh Steve they're you know they're sponsoring SD certification which is typically 800 a person for teachers to get uh certified and have the SD endorsement so we have 20 teachers and administrators going through that process right now I'm one of them I did not realize that the 40 hours of work that they said it would be would actually be 40 hours of

118work so I am learning quite a bit through the process welcome aboard Dave just checking in your previous comment Duke um I'm not a big fan of living documents uh that being said in terms of strategic plan we want to like crack open some of what we have and take a look at it and have that be work done by the board versus the prior work that was done with the hinky consultant I would welcome that opportunity thank you so a strategic goal called goal two we talk about the wellness diversity and inclusion um clearly the work uh for the health and wellness of our students is is Paramount and the board has under mental health and social emotional learning the board has supported that particular work uh we've talked about Mark Brackett coming here

119so on so forth the note and those types of experiences our staff was here this morning and talking about how they're supporting SEL from uh Pre-K right uh through uh 12th grade uh I will say it in the in the and the area of Dei and to address your Acadian also for some comments uh that we're here tonight let me say this it's um it wasn't that long ago where our young people were in front of us and it was not long ago where we have Painful experiences they're not easy to get over and they're they're not easy ages to deal with and there's just doesn't we just don't heal just after a couple of months of that and I want to command the staff and the members of the community for their support for

120our young people through this process because it it continues to be ongoing in the area of Dei is hard work difficult work I look at I look at my community members and I applaud them for stay in the course but I know how frustrating they can be I know how difficult it can be but we must stay the course from my perspective our teachers must feel and our students must feel supported first and foremost by me them by the their administrative teams and also I think by our board it's completely important that they feel that way it's difficult work and we are going to and we have we have the States along the way but we can't crucified people for making mistakes in a very difficult Arena so it's important that we we sustain our

121efforts I understand some people may not think it's fast enough quick enough um it's never going to be a quick process but I I applaud those people who and I think we're collectively as a group as a board and as a community members and as a staff have the courage and professional welcome patient to do the work and we'll we'll sustain that work and it's important to continue it for our young people so while it may be frustrating and I can understand the frustration maybe of some of our Dei committees or otherwise um I'm very hopeful that the work of the major Committee of the eye Committee of the district uh will bring forth powerful recommendations to have for us to move forward on so I'll leave it I'll leave it open without questions on

122that strategic plan goal too thank you thank you um it's difficult to even to put the question together um so thank you for bearing with me um I appreciate your comments Dr adley about looking back to where we've been um and and how we go forward and and I think that you're exactly right that it is a long and difficult road that you know we kind of have to be committed to to walking together um and I think part of the reason why I apologize again for mine this step with the the board goals but the two the two really are tied right if you know the board wants to support the mental well-being of our students that is tied to the Strategic plan goal for promoting wellness and and Di is a component of

123that so so I guess my my question is um to you and and and I I like the bullets and it's a good reminder of where we've been but as we're in budget season you know do we have enough resources built in to to continue the work in a meaningful way and are we looking at areas of of supporting you know the the ptos I think have been really really trying so hard to to put you know Grassroots committees um in within the schools working with people but I can imagine that they they need quite a bit of guidance um and the principles are have always worked so well with the ptos and been grateful but again this is just a massive topic and undertaking um so um I certainly don't have the answers but

124I I think it behooves us to to keep asking the questions and looking you know are we doing enough is there another area um you know are there people that are hurting and and things that um that we might be able to step in um to before before they escalate thank you Katie thank you any other questions did you go playing goal three I'll just point to the uh this third goal of the work of the high school and preparation for his accreditation visit uh in 24. I'll say that the main thing that we're trying to do here is just initially got started is really the committee that works we'll look at the elementary version of this interpretation of it because it's important to The Graduate it's meant to be worked on from kindergarten through

125uh 12th grade so uh that that is really getting that that committed pleasure uh completely established and up and running uh the committee is it has been established but we have to just get it operationalized that's the main thing for now questions yeah actually the fall 2022 update Sports undergraduate competencies and better in the new edu planet 21. where's the evaluation component that's a great question so the way that we've embedded each of those competencies you would choose those competencies when the actual performance task or assessment that you're using within that unit aligns to that competition so if you have there are I think there's 48 or 49 total competencies um you're not going to have more than hopefully one that would exist within a unit to say that what we're doing in this course

126uh aligns and supports it we're hoping not to create 95 new assignments to measure the portrait of The Graduate we want to show this is where we already are are doing this so I guess the assessment question is asking and I don't remember all of them either but the one that kind of sticks out was something along the lines of like speaks with a loud and authoritative or takes completely somehow speaks effectively or with presence or something along those lines but how do I know that a teacher taught a kid how to do that it wasn't the parent it wasn't a grandparent it wasn't a coach how do I have any idea is to move into portrait The Graduate that our teachers are actually imparting these skills these vague areas as opposed to like thinking

127the math tests and something that says multiplication that's easy because it probably wasn't a soccer coach who taught how do I do the evaluation with these sort of vacuous goals that we've established so when one of those competencies is identified within that unit would be the expectation that there's an instructional component that would cause you to be measuring it within that unit but how do we tie that back that was delivered by the teacher I guess that would apply to anything like some kids come to school and can already read but the so even those a student might already have a skill there's a range of skills that come with like public speaking that's a good that's a really good example some people have natural abilities to just Stand and Deliver without instruction other people

128need to go over the skills but just like everything that has standards we would have some type of a rubric or measurement tool that would say this is the expectation and some students like with math acceleration some students can demonstrate the skill after five minutes of instruction some could have demonstrated without any minutes of instructions she made the aptitude the capacity but probably kids aren't sitting by themselves trying to figure out how to divide fractions like that's probably an instructional unit so you can tie that back pretty clearly so the goals here just seem like they don't have the same sort of direct tie-in and that's what's concerned me about the portion graduate effort from the beginning is how do we have accountability and how do we assess the actual impact that the teachers are

129making as we deliver on these goals foreign Chris are you going to talk about Vision because you've got some implementation work that's coming up is that something that maybe are you going to talk in front of curriculum again in the near future and is that an area that you could answer yeah so the next step would be when we have the parallel language developed for Elementary uh because ultimately it goes back to the endpoint so if you're not measuring what you have for your vision of The Graduate what's the why do you have that um so yes it's I would say it's the most important part okay thank you and will you bring some examples because I I you know I'm listening to you abstract right now yes for sure yes thank you all good

130questions we'll move on to strategic plan goal four uh so this is primarily based on uh providing professional development for staff based on their on on their feedback but here's an example where uh the strategy is to track and retain diverse Educators I believe a manifestation of that is directly our teacher contract that's exactly what it does now you could say it aligns to that or it's just driven from this it isn't a life document right um it doesn't just sit in the sitting on the shelf um we try to regularly review not just for these meetings are we moving in that direction I'm so pleased that uh the boards work Along on along this particular on this topic of uh the teacher contract actually was designed to to do exactly just that to attract

131and retain um uh our teacher and staff have support them and so that was another big um a big example here of of how we've done that in this particular in this particular strategic goal I won't read all the separate ones but questions uh the communication uh all right sorry I I hesitated um you haven't we just talked about it we have on there at the bottom of the Wilson training can we just have an update of the status of who in our like in terms of numbers not people but what how deep that training in Wilson is just so we have a we're commonly conversant ly yeah we spoke about this on Saturday we have seven currently who are going for um level one certification and I did say that I prepare a memorandum

132to Dr athlete to share with the board um the scope of of how my teachers are trained in and learning what levels they are great um in both General and special education thank you uh so the the communication system and effective Communications clearly we will always be able to do better than what we're doing um but again uh this was addressing the board goal um that proceeded that this particular section that the work of the actual board committee and some of the examples that I've shared tonight from the SEL website and so on okay can I say under under strategical sex like that we we did we did the presentation tonight but I couldn't be any more excited for young people and for our families of the work that we see these things um but

133to see them to come to life in these buildings and to realize what we've accomplished together as a community uh for our young people and our youngest children is just it's tremendously exciting for me as a superintendent um I I just want to assure the board and the community members who are here and online it is for our staff too uh they're excited about this these uh the facilities that uh we're providing both to them and to to our students uh I just want to overlook that those are major things those are major accomplishments uh heavy lifts along the way and um I'm not waiting for generations of kids to go through before they experience them so uh thank you to the board and to the members of our community for the support of the

134particular projects and this really sort of talks to some of those Milestones along the way good questions or comments so along the technology to support teaching learning of course we have the edu planet um we've had a new wireless network excuse me a new wireless network that um uh We've rolled either which means that wash our John go to all the universities around the place they can they can log back and no matter where they go we are using that particular Network um I will say that I know we had a real light of of the teacher devices to the teachers of byd but the actual Boi itself uh the implementation of it has gone uh successful a lovely I won't read everything but those are just a couple of things as your voice Fades

135yeah I just wanted to follow up on some of the conversation around from Saturday around the the rollout to the teachers um and I understand that you know we kind of settled that a large difference was that it was a new technology versus just an upgrade but I am curious given um you know the the anecdotal stories that we heard about that kind of difficult time perhaps maybe just how we're looking at Lessons Learned From that in order to better future rollouts and um prevent such problems from going and we don't need to go into it necessarily but we think it's worth highlighting that that um it's great to look at our goals and to acknowledge our Milestones but it's also important to look at maybe where we made a misstep in order to prevent

136future things from happening again we would recognize that we've done that we have done an internal review of of particularly the role like uh to the teacher staff at the high school for the new devices yes we've done that just real quick I'm going to the winter 23 uh roll forward on the iPad Pro I thought I could be remembering strong I thought we had a discussion last year about why we're giving two devices out to the high school teachers and we said we're just going to do one so are we still going forward or did we agree to give two devices we did agree too okay yes we did all right thanks and my that item specifically connects to Katie's question on what did you learn from the last thing that happened um we

137did a more controlled gave it to a group of teachers asked for feedback they did troubleshooting with the device they made a tip sheet so when that happens we won't have a reoccurrence and we did we did make with not only to a review we did meet the staff to talk about the real light yes yeah just on this on this topic especially I think and it was brought up on Saturday and I think Julie kind of referenced it as well tonight is I think we need to also bring in the metrics of because a lot of this is rolling out implementation expanding I think we need to bring back and say evaluate what these prop what these programs are and how well or not they are succeeding especially in this in this uh strategic

138plan and maybe we as a board need to take that up as a as a meeting or or at least give some guidance to you to as to what we're expecting or maybe you come back to us and we pick through it but I think we need an agenda item maybe specifically to that well it may also be it may also include what the board chairman is often said about what's the implementation of the student instructional level of the teacher level good thanks Dennis good all right thank you everyone sure thank you thank you for bearing with me I'm sorry one more I just want to go back for one quick second to go for I was holding it trying that strategic plan go for expanding unprofessional capacity of the staff um I I appreciate

139that most of the focus on this is about professional capacity as in terms of of learning more curriculum and methods and and and ways to implement um but I do just want to ask about the capacity of our staff and how we might be supporting them in terms of of their their them as whole people and employees and how their jobs have grown in difficulty exponentially and and just the the challenges that the field is facing um and the ways that we see that when it comes to attrition so I'm just curious if if there is either something that might be in here worth highlighting or something to think about in the future about other ways that we can make sure that our staff has the capacity to just take in all the different nuances

140that come with their job and and be able to come back every day um I'll comment on a March wants to say anything I will just check us another opportunity just as a tracking routine even diverse Educators right and some people may have said in the budget and it was tough dilemma for me personally um profession as a superintendent that uh the teaching residence program maybe didn't align to that or that was going away from that it's not just a straight line but it doesn't mean to say we're going away from it I will say that Iraq I appreciate your recognition of of the challenges of the teaching profession right now and we'll probably simplifying it right but certainly uh continue to work on the on the working conditions and the climate uh within the

141the district and any time where we have an opportunity to vocally or otherwise actually support our staff this is not an easy District to work on those will be the works of the DEA present right um and that is right and it's challenging um and there's a lot of scrutiny and sometimes there's a lot of Christmas right um so as long as there's a balance of support and they've and that we maintain an end uh that our staff feel supported by the superintendent their Administration uh their principals uh and members of the board that is the biggest thing that that we could give to any of the teachers um yes other things but um you can give them resources and uh uh instructional materials and so on and so forth is not a thorough important

142things but the actual support to do the work uh they feel fundamentally supported to do the work and have an opportunity to take some risks along the way I think that's the thing that they would feel most appreciative often will be most uh helpful to them haven't said that uh Marge if you want to add anything else that you can well no I think some of the things that we gave in the teachers contract have gone a long way to create a positive working environment and as long as Dr adley opened the door a little bit in the exit interviews that I've been conducting recently they're having a very difficult time with the demands being made on them by the parents and the tone that's being used with them and I struggled with whether to

143say it publicly but it's becoming an increasingly common theme in exit interviews and I I'm not sure what to do about it except to name it in public thank you elaborate on that a little bit March in terms of what what per se the parents demands that are far exceeding what they're used to in the past you know I mean I have specific you know if a deadline is November 15th or something for the college the parent will call and demand it on October 15th and you know they don't know they don't know what to do and just kind of the tone and you know I know we're all feeling stressed after covid but um you know I can go back and look at my notes and get specific things but yeah I don't want

144you to tip anything yeah yeah just be curious to know what the nature of it is and you know one comment I've heard you know a concern of some parents is that we're giving them too much Beyond just teaching some of them want to just teach they don't want to be guidance counselors they don't be psychologists they don't want to be doing a lot of these others initiatives that we've hoisted on them and so that's adding to some of the demanding I don't know if that's something you've heard or if that's something you're looking at I have but that doesn't mean it's not true but I haven't heard that I think what they'd like to do also is like keep me in the classroom don't be pulled me up for administrative trivia stuff I think

145they're um Mr Brown I think they'll be very uh committed to doing SEL work mental health work but but when we drag them out or disruptions or otherwise I think those are things that are challenging for them they want to be in the classroom with the kids all the time and rightly so and even some of our professional development is a it's a conundrum it pulls them out from the very place where you want them to be so that that continues to be a minister of challenge as far as thank you thanks Marge we will move on to follow-up discussion on January 7th board meeting questions on 2023 2024 proposed Board of Education Dr Adeline so thank you for the discourse on Saturday it was extremely helpful I want to appreciate um the principles and

146anybody else who contribute to this and particularly the cabinet and Mr rutle and so on for putting together the responses to the for the board questions again for the members who who are here uh the other respective organizations and committees will get their responses I'll copy the board those two uh by Friday so you'll see here we've responded to each of these I won't re read each of them if we want to go through them pause and move on I can maybe talk to you highlights if for one or two or otherwise but you can see the the descriptions that we have for the most part the the mental health Team talk and so on uh was part of a presentation most of those questions are for at the 24th uh so we'll prepare those

147along with anything or most things from Fitch will be a presentation on the 24th so Mr chair if you if you would like to just go through them sequentially or whatever the board preferences we can go through let's just go through uh page one I mean some we this just came to us at the end of the day really so um I don't know if anyone's read them or we want to do it as a takeaway and we'll be more prepared at the next meeting yeah I just have one question yeah sure so the um the psychologist caseload the the link that's in this document is to the same what was given to us before can we get a little more I mean the mean we talked about the when this is people like can

148we get a little more detail about are there some that have six are there some that have 76 like I I would love to get an idea of how the actual caseload for each psychologist I don't know how much work that is to do but I just I mean just name it I don't mean the person but but yeah I just I think it would be helpful just so we have an idea of what each person is actually doing in what department or which level Dave just a quick follow-up to that request I believe when we originally approved the additional psychologist we had sort of a calendar view of meetings for a week for somebody with anonymized in a day well I think it was a week or two but yeah that would that be

149helpful as well it could uh just by way this is the way this is designed um it makes there will be the confusion too the question numbers are just in the left and the second column is the RC's and it may not come in order for me because that's the way it came on Saturday sure good and the board members have any questions between the high and did this go out to um uh border finance cdsp and RTM no I want the board history at first and I I would send it out to them word post it yeah yeah on uh question one I I see that under PE and health you're looking for an average class size of 22. um which I know that um I actually wanted to understand what the what the

150um spread would be to have a little bit of a better sense just because I want to understand whether I want to keep in compliance with our class size model and so average doesn't help me understand if we hit highs and lows I get that you're trying to model it and it's not actual enrollment but just wanted to understand that please Julie um just a few quick questions one is a calendar question we have that the board of Finance final vote is on Tuesday April 6th but I'm pretty sure April 6th is a Thursday and there are board of Finance meetings scheduled on both that Tuesday and the Thursday so we should clarify that um and then it might just glance through this quickly is this all of the robotics answers that we're getting so

151far or is there these are the robotic responses if the board I'm trying not to give a like a lot of presentation to you I mean if you want a presentation that's fine we can do that okay um but we thought we would answer the questions and and see if that's the prices then fine if it doesn't it would certainly understood thank you thanks Julie Dennis no okay so they the April 6th maintenance is the same as a pro that uh that we have on the actual calendar of the um budget calendar that was published so is that a different day yeah somehow none of us ever caught it what April 6th is a Thursday and not a Tuesday but they do like I said they have meetings on both the Tuesday and the Thursday

152so we'll check what I think is correct um right so we'll look through these and anything we can email into myself or Sarah or Dylan or continue is there any if there's any more clarity or all right good if our students have any questions about it you can also our sit and Reps you can certain email sure all right is that any other questions on the board calendar okay um personality report is there for your review March um special ed teacher special at para science teacher kind of tough losing people in January right so the special ed para is a good story she's going to do her practicum to become a school counselor so that's a that's a great that's great news then we can hire back we will go looking for her and and

153yeah the other two are it's hard but they're working on it okay what's your pipeline like for hires normally there would have been a group of people who graduated in December but we haven't seen that this year yeah all right anything you need resource-wise keep pushing out advertisements and people contacting universities and okay we keep finding people to interview right okay I know it's in the budget but just to be clear this resignation of this special ed teacher is strapping a department that was already a little tight in special ed resources correct the department chair as I understand it is trying well we've had we've had medical leaves also in teachers leaving so those teachers have been covering all year long for people okay so Marge just for my own um these folks the one

154the science teacher resigned on the 21st do we have what's our commit they have to stay 30 days 30 calendar days 30 calendar days so that should be I can't that's their last day these days are their last days okay okay thanks good all right with that um I will move back over to public comment anyone in the audience anyone on Zoom Michelle if anyone on Zoom would like to public comment please use the raised hand Icon Barry Palmer thank you hi Barry well I'm trying to uh start my video here okay we figured I would um chime in and I didn't have anything prepared but I think the conversation towards the end there um drifted a little bit into my territory um you know it is challenging to say publicly that they're ha they're

155one of the reasons teachers do leave is because of the pressures uh from um parents and I will say the vast vast majority of my dealings with parents have been very positive but I there is a bit of a reputation with Darian and similar towns that when you go there often the warning is watch out for those parents um when I I caught in another Fairfield County District that's not quite as um affluent as Darian but uh pretty pretty affluent too and when I told people where I was going I can't really get congratulations I got look out for those parents so I do think that is important for the community to know that's part of the rep reputation of of the of the district um with that said and I have had some difficult

156challenging conversations with parents the vast majority are positive but um I wouldn't just you know I wanted to to kind of back up what Marge said there there's also a fear sometimes that Administration might not necessarily back us up with with challenging parents so I think that's important feedback for them to have too and sometimes it's perception versus reality right um I would like I'm pretty sure administrators would think they they tend to you know um hold the line uh as best as they can too so I want to be fair to everyone involved with that I don't want um the takeaway to be like oh the parents are terrible and Darien because that's not the case again the vast majority are very positive but the there are some some doozies I think that pretty

157much every teacher in the district will tell you they've experienced that do stick out and over time can have um it could get trying so it can be a difficult District to work in sometimes as much as I love it and I can't left another tenured position from a great District to come here so it just it kind of comes with the territory of teaching here so I just figured I'd throw in my two cents on that thank you guys for all your hard work on the budget too um anyone else on Zoom there are no more raised hands at this time okay we have a motion to adjourn Julie second Katie all those in favor thank you everyone