Special Board of Education Meeting - February 1, 2022

001getting all the comments and letters my recommendation would be as the governor and and and the legend as the governor goes through the process that you know the people to contact are really the governor's office and the folks up at hartford um to push your thoughts around the current mandate that's set to expire so with that yeah we will start out with public uh those folks that are in the auditorium and then we'll move to our friends who are on zoom it looks like we have about 39 folks on zoom not sure that's um everyone has their hand raised but we'll go there so we'll start to the right here and again michelle do you want to go over [Music] please click the raise hand option the facilitator will acknowledge and unmute each participant for

002all participants please state their name and address for the record blog each participant will have up to three minutes to comment we will start in person so we'll start to the right here thank you good evening i'm joanna walsh co-chair of the council of darian school parents i live at 17 pleasant street and have two children at henley and one at middlesex i am lori olson the other co-chair of the cdsp i live at 16 little brook road north i have three i have three children two dhs graduates and one currently at dhs we would like to begin tonight in review in 2017 cdsp co-chairs said for years cdsb has been covering many of the same things at these hearings the need for transparency accountability differentiation to meet all learners at their level smoother and

003more thoughtful transition planning between school levels and communication to parents in 2016 cdsp co-chairs also said as a parent body we value excellence but for years have settled on mediocrity band-aid solutions and following where other districts have led they continued our teachers and administrators are the foundation upon which success is built we are taking you on this walk down memory lane because many parents across the district feel we are on the edge of a precipice are we moving forward are we evolving and adapting as the world around us changes or are we re-litigating settled matters are we doing what's best for our students there are 4 728 students in the darien district does this budget with its proposed cuts truly enable us to meet the needs of all of them in the last 10 years

004darien public schools has had five superintendents in 2019 the board hired dr adley he brought with him a desire and determination to learn everything he could about our district what was working what was not what we were missing and what we needed in partnership with many stakeholders he developed the strategic plan which the board unanimous unanimously adopted now we've reached the implementation stage and members are abandoning ship before we've even left the dock instead of using the foundation darian has built to propel us in the right direction we keep hitting pause stop and rewind we don't even give the superintendent a chance to move us forward in fact some members of this board want to move us backwards indiscriminate budget cuts that are not discussed in public at the board table or that lack proper

005analysis will have a detrimental impact on all of our children again this is something cdsp flagged eight years ago please don't make us get up here again and repeat what we've been saying we applaud the board for asking questions debating issues and examining initiatives board members are elected to be the stewards of our children's education and oversight as a necessary part of that but throwing things down on the tracks to stop everything in its place is not good stewardship it's just stagnation our children are stuck between stations waiting for the tracks to be cleared at this rate they'll be waiting a very very long time we would like to close tonight by thanking and expressing our gratitude to our teachers principals administration and all who work to make darian schools public schools better thank you

006for giving of yourselves so tirelessly please remember schools exist for children we expect the board of education to put our students needs at the forefront of every decision thank you you're at time thank you for your comments tonight we'll move over next podium hi i'm stephanie maher at 49 christie hill road i'm reading this on behalf of lila buck june who is homesick tonight she lives at 12 du bois street and lila is one of the co-chairs of the darien high school parents association on behalf of the dhs pa we would like to speak in support of several items in the proposed budget that directly impacts students we strongly support the addition of the grant funded school psychologist at dhs as there is an increased need for social emotional support for psychologists provide valuable continuity

007allowing each psychologist to stay with a specific grade for all four years similar to the model currently used in our guidance department we also support the addition of the ssd coordinator testing accommodations and the number of students taking tests have increased significantly in may 2021 445 students took 943 ap exams and that doesn't include psat sat or any student with testing accommodations through an iep or 504 plan this small four thousand dollar site pen position would allow the director of guidance to focus on more impactful student related activities rather than spending hours coordinating standardized and ap testing we are in support of additional coaches for freshman field hockey and girls rugby currently freshman football freshman boys lacrosse and freshman boys soccer each have two assistant coaches we believe freshman girls should have the same opportunities

008to participate in their sports additionally we support reinstating the china exchange program this important dhs program helps to increase our students global and cultural awareness promoting diversity through immersive interactions with different cultures which corresponds to our strategic plan goals we have received considerable feedback from parents regarding the bring your own device proposal and are most and most are in favor of some type of choice this applies in particular students who currently use their ipads as well as to rising ninth graders who are not yet familiar with how different devices might be used in various classes perhaps a modified program can be implemented where students who do not use their ipads can return them saving money over the long term on replacement ipads another proposed change for the budget that affects dhs families is the shift

009of senior parking fees to the board of ed currently all senior activities and events are covered by those funds with this change the eleven thousand dollars would become out of pocket expenses for parents finally we would like to request that the board revisit the two mile radius policy bus radius policy since the bus contract is to be renegotiated in 2023 two miles is a long distance to carry a heavy backpack especially in the dark or rain this change would minimally affect the budget while significantly improving student safety since only two bus routes would be added if the radius was changed to one and a half miles in conclusion we ask for the support of these initiatives because they directly support our students and uphold darian's excellence in education we ask each member of the board

010to remember it's about the students that our schools exist for children thank you thank you for your comments this evening we'll go over to my right good evening i'm antoinette coles and i live at five hillside court i am the other co-chair of the darian high school parents association our schools are the best of the best in our town's biggest asset darian high school has achieved its number one ranking because of our amazing teachers administrators and the continued support of the board of ed yet we are saddened by the acts of hate and vandalism in our building as an organization we are committed to the work of diversity equity and inclusion and support the efforts of the administration our students want their school to be a place where everyone feels safe and appreciated where differences

011enrich us all it's time we address these issues through education as stated in the district's vision of the graduate our school's mission is to inspire a love of learning in all students so they develop as critical thinkers and innovative creators who contribute to the world with integrity and purpose beyond themselves but we cannot do this without our exceptional teachers administrators parents and board of ed members working together on that note we would like to address some of the administrative positions that were added to the board of ed cutlass that directly impact dhs students we encourage the board to discuss and invest efficiencies in the budget but not at the risk of sacrificing our superior schools as we have seen with so many decisions made by the board over the years it takes a great deal

012of time debate and research before a responsible vote can be made first we believe that three assistant principals are appropriate given the size of dhs student body and our current staffing alliance with the staffing ratios for this position at other derg a schools second our department chairs were put in place beginning in 2017 to address inconsistencies and to better align the transition from middle school to high school the department chairs devote their time and attention to the students by helping the teachers build consistency across content and grade level to better deliver curriculum additionally an athletic director is essential to oversee all of our top-notch sports teams a technology director is a crucial position to facilitate and integrate technology as a tool for learning in all our schools in conclusion we respectfully request that before any

013budget vote is held regarding these positions the board takes the time to request additional information from the administration about these well-established and important roles this feedback has never been publicly sought during the entire budget process thus far nor was any opportunity given for board of ed discussion on these proposed cuts durian high school is ranked top in the state for a reason we would like to be able to continue our town's long tradition of academic excellence thank you for speaking this evening we'll move to the left podium my left good evening my name is robin nelson and i live at 51 arrowhead way i am the cdsp rep for middlesex and dhs on behalf of the mpa i will be speaking in support of the middlesex budget which includes some exciting new programs that will

014not only expand our students learning but better prepare them for the transition to high school the first is genius hour an innovative new proposal to give all our students a chance to explore a topic that they choose to learn about genius hour builds critical independent thinking research and real world presentation skills additionally this program aligns with the high school asr three-year elective course opportunity by using flex periods only once per month genius hour will not impede our teacher's ability to deliver other curriculum modules like sel or hamper students ability to complete homework moreover this relatively low 9 000 investment provides a high return in student motivation and engagement we would also like to thank the foreign language department chair and administration for the proposed introduction of mandarin at middlesex which fulfills many years of feedback

015from students and parents offering mandarin in middle school aligns with our high school curriculum and other durga schools while increasing our students global and cultural perspectives it is important to note that much like the continued evolution of our k-12 spanish curriculum the department chair role will be critical to this three-year rollout in terms of ensuring appropriate curriculum progression from middle school to high school and potentially adding ap mandarin in future years similar to our spanish and french high school curriculum another important priority is our students safety and security this is why we support adding a second campus monitor given the size of the school this addition would enable coverage of the school's three floors plus the front security desk and would bring the student to monitor ratio down by 200. we also support adding unified

016intramural sports at middlesex the unified skills clinics have grown to 60 students introducing intramural sports would expand the program to three seasons and allow for competitions with other schools finally we wish to voice our support for continued dei efforts especially in light of the acts of vandalism and hate which have occurred at middlesex while there may be differing views among the parent community on specific initiatives we support the district's investment in building an inclusive equitable and diverse learning environment for all our children and invite parents continued involvement and feedback we appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of the middlesex proposed budget thank you for your efforts to ensure that darien schools maintain their reputation for excellence thank you for speaking this evening good evening my name is jackie nevin and i live at 47

017phillips lane i am the cdsp rep for homeschool where i have three students i am speaking tonight on behalf of all five elementary school pto's these remarks were written collaboratively with input from henley holmes oxford royal antony as you will see although we are five schools with individual communities we are committed to equity among all our buildings we support the 0.2 full-time employee addition at henley for a pe teacher the elementary schools are already stretched past their limit in the past few weeks administrators and multiple buildings have had to teach pe classes with the addition of the section at hindley next year the situation becomes completely untenable without this 0.2 fte some schools would have to double up to hold more than one class at a time with both classes sometimes sharing the gym if

018the common room isn't available in a district known for excellence pe classes taught by administrators or in half the gym are unacceptable we also support the addition of the 0.5 fte paraprofessionals at both homes and oxbridge paraprofessionals provide vital instructional behavioral and other support services to students in the classroom it is important to ensure that our schools are properly staffed to meet the needs of all students our parent communities support a robust elementary curriculum to provide a strong foundation for our youngest learners supplementation of the k-2 literacy program to reflect the advancements in phonics are important resources needed to achieve continued excellence in our elementary education elementary parents continue to prioritize the need for advanced math and expect to see expediency in the process to add that offering so that current students can benefit as

019soon as possible we also support the addition of one fte to the oxford custodial staff due to the 30 increase in space in the new building we are thankful the administration is addressing the needs of our facilities finally we wish to radiate reiterate the support for dei work at both the elementary school level and district-wide henley and oxridge have had outstanding experiences with their teachers and residents and we wish for the district to continue participation unfortunately we do not feel as appropriate to comment tonight on other specific proposed initiatives as we cannot find a consistent consensus among parents however the district however the district decides to bring dei work to darien in the future it must continue our five pto dei communities formed when parents came to us and asked us their ptos to create

020these groups we keep our school experiences equitable why wouldn't we want to make sure our individual student experiences are equitable too thank you for your time thank you for speaking this evening to my left thank you good evening my name is lisa serrusi and i live at 12 rings end road i'm a parent representative on the cdsp special education subcommittee which includes members from all building levels and every school within dps we are pleased to see that the administration is continually looking to improve the student experience in darien the constant re-evaluation of appropriate staffing and robust programming are paramount to ensuring positive student outcomes proposed staffing additions at the elementary and high school levels are necessary to meet the needs of our special learners paraprofessionals play a critical role in the general education classroom assisting

021both students and teachers they are essential to the success of all students and assist in their ability to access the curriculum within the classroom setting further they support the district's goal of inclusion of diverse learners at the high school the administration has identified a need for an additional speech language speech and language pathologist special ed teacher and school psychologist to support the increased level of support needed by our students darion high school cannot deliver appropriate services without these professionals and the addition of the school psychologist will have a meaningful impact on the school's ability to aid all students who are dealing with more issues than ever due to two years of pandemic related disruptions and troubling incidents of intolerance that continue to have a negative impact on their social and emotional health as we've heard

022multiple times this year from students we've also heard from our high school students administrators teachers and parents of the desire to create a community of acceptance regardless of race religion sexuality and gender the special education community looks forward to the implementation of the proposed dei curriculum as we hope that that progress will also improve the acceptance of our neuro-diverse students we have serious concerns about the proposed elimination of the grades 6-12 department chairs this is a detrimental step backwards and will have a negative impact on our middle and high school teachers and ultimately our students the students who have currently benefited from a meaningfully designed and consistently implemented curriculum across subjects and course levels including the comprehensive classes offered at dhs that are modified to meet student needs while aligning with the subject department's curriculum

023finally literacy skills are a topic that ignites conversation within our committee across all members regardless of whether they're parents of young elementary students or seniors improving the reading curriculum will not only strengthen young learners performance in elementary school but position them to be successful throughout the coming years in secondary level education and their professional endeavors nothing strong can be built upon a weak foundation we appreciate the time you have given to listening to our concerns and we look forward to continued collaboration among administration educators parents and you the board of education elected in good faith to represent the best interest of education in our town thank you thank you for speaking this evening good evening kerry vomaka 24 salt box lane with diane urban 10 crane road and washing vacarelli 29 bailey avenue we are

024here tonight in coordination with cdsp in the fall of 2020 each of the ptos launched its individual diversity equity and inclusion committees they reached out to their school communities through their wires and invited parents to join in sharing views and perspectives and to work together in support of dei efforts these pto dei committees are led by thoughtful and collaborative parents who love our town love our schools and care about enriching all of our students education and providing resources and support to the many parents who have expressed an interest in the dei topic over the past two years the feedback we received from many parents has been that they were encouraged and excited that dps was committed to the dei discussion and this work tonight we are speaking on behalf of many parents across our schools

025who believe that celebrating our students varied backgrounds gives strength depth and security to our community of learners and is foundational to all other aspects of learning we're here to support the efforts to create a community that welcomes and embraces the full range of human differences diversity as well as advocates for and advances opportunities and outcomes for all in our community equity and inclusion is how we recognize respect and welcome all differences to that end we support the darian public schools stated district goals and plans toward dei and are committed to providing constructive resources peer touch points and positive opportunities for our students and parents in collaboration with our school staff we are asking you to remember each daps student alumnus and staff member who has pleaded with you for change we urge you to recall

026how critically important it is that students feel represented and included in their learning experiences and that school staff are prepared to support them we want you to remember how hopeful and proud we were when this board of ed approved the strategic plan less than a year ago at your last boarding ed meeting you voted to approve the transfer of funds to expand the scope of the dei consultant's work and we are grateful that you are taking the needed action to realize the goals outlined in the strategic plan however this proposed budget cuts signal to us that not all board of ed members support this critical work it is a worthwhile investment to do the necessary work for the benefit of all dps students we need to be able to discuss and collaborate around this topic

027at a community level without trepidation a consultant will productively facilitate that conversation a monetary commitment to dei for the school year only assumes a quick fix with without ongoing support and collaboration how do we expect to deliver on the progress that is so needed and desired we will continue to be reactionary instead of proactive this work needs ongoing needs to be ongoing and will take years why not ensure that we are well equipped to have these conversations here as a community rather than delivering our students into the world without sufficient preparation i'm sorry you're at time thank you good evening my name is stacey ta and i live at 10 lane my name is deborah ritchie and i live at 16 stoney brook grove south we are the budget co-chairs for cdsp first we would

028like to thank dr adley mr rudel and all the people in the administration and staff that were helping the preparation and presentation of the fiscal year 23 budget on behalf of our students we would like to ask questions regarding the almost two million dollars in proposed cuts hopefully our questions can be addressed this evening last week members of the board of education proposed an almost fifty percent cut to the superintendent's proposed budget increase while some of the proposed items have been discussed in the past three weeks most have not the proposed cuts to district ftes have not been mentioned during the budget deliberations or in conversations leading up to the budget discussions these cuts would reduce the proposed quarterback budget increase from 3.9 to 2.1 percent just for a factual check the inflation rate is

0297 percent currently to those proposing the cuts what are the cuts meant to achieve what would the direct impact to our students be with the elimination of the athletic director at dhs department chairs the dhs assistant principal the director of technology there have been many discussions about curriculum over the past year how would the elimination of department chairs impact the derivative delivery of our curriculum the feedback on these roles has been positive since their implementation in dr adley's memorandum in tonight's packet he states that if the district provides athletics to students it is required to have someone in the administrator's union with administrators coaching and administrator certification without an athletic director at dhs what is the plan to fulfill this requirement ensure the safety of our athletes and equity amongst our teams so will the

030impact to our dhs students with the elimination of dhs assistant principal other durg-a schools have one administrator per grade why are only three needed at dhs can we manage a dynamic and innovative technology plan without a director of technology what is the reasoning for the proposed 10 salary cut for our superintendent dr adley an ad requires explanation as well how will the addition of open gov have a positive impact to our students and staff is a hundred thousand dollar computer program more important than a department chair ap or athletic director if drastic cuts are to save money please note that open choice is a revenue driver and removing that program from the budget causes our costs to increase to the administration how would this reduction to the proposed budget impact delivery of education in darien

031can our district function without department chairs an ap in at dhs an athletic director at dhs and a director of technology or the funding associated with these positions to all members of the board of ed we ask that you perform your due diligence are you confident that these cuts will not impact the delivery of education to our children do you feel the district can easily absorb this reduction without impacting academic excellence we support all efforts to achieve efficiencies in the delivery of that thank you for your time thank you very much for speaking [Music] go ahead sir thank you good evening john dunn 175 raymond street i'd like to briefly discuss the facts around hartford's open choice program open choice guarantees bigger class sizes in our elementary schools open choice guarantees resources being taken away

032from darien students and being given to norwalk students open choice guarantees more costs for darien taxpayers open choice guarantees going against the wishes of approximately one thousand of your constituents open choice is the wrong choice for dairy aim look what our students and our children have been through over the last two years of covet extended remote learning quarantines self-isolation wearing masks for seven to eight hours per day social distancing activities and school events changed or canceled eating in hallways because there isn't enough space in the cafeteria this has been incredibly disruptive to students of all ages and we still don't know what the long-lasting impacts will be durian students need to get back on track socially emotionally and academically it is essential for our elected board of ed members to get life back to normal

033for them rather than considering wide-ranging material changes to our public schools open choice should not be a priority the priority should be focusing on the return to normal for dairy and students on top of this hundreds of new apartments are being built in darien that will certainly increase school enrollment over the next few years this is in addition to the large influx of families of town as a result of coping these events will increase enrollment that are occurring while four out of five of our darien elementary schools are currently using portable units why would the board even consider bringing in non-resident students that would further increase class sizes when so many of our own students are in trailers the administration and the board should be focused on getting darien students in permanent classrooms and all

034portables removed from school grads and not focused on making things worse our board of ed members are elected to serve the best interests of darian students parents teachers and taxpayers i encourage all of them to do this by committing to get life back to normal for our children hartford's open choice program is the wrong choice for darian thank you for your time thanks for speaking this evening good sir thank you thanks duke good evening david vote 22 circle road 20-year resident parent of two children that went through the darien high school school system i want to stay for the record tonight my opposition to the cuts to the superintendent's budget specifically board member david brown and john cena's line items before i get to the long-term potential impact of the cuts i want to read

035a quote from former board of finance chairman and current selectmen john zagrotsky from may of 2021 in response to raising the first election salary by 5.5 percent mr zagrotsky stated and i quote after all it's a full-time job and reasonable compensation helps ensure that we attract good candidates to darien who work hard for us let me emphasize that last quarter part we want compensation to attract good candidates who work hard for us i agree with mr zakradsky's underlying premise darien should continually strive to attract talented people to work hard for our students and our community the superintendent the principals teachers and staff are all critical components of the success of darien's crown jewel the school district however unlike the first select person's role that can only be filled by a darian resident darien competes for

036educational talent against districts not just from connecticut but new jersey and new york the cuts proposed by david brown and john cena result in limited savings to taxpayers on a per household basis and sends a clear signal not only to our current school staff but also potential hires that darien does not value hard work educational pedigree and experience put yourself in the staff's position most people in this room would question their employer's support and pursue alternative options if their firm acted like certain members on the board of vet what mr brown and ceni appear to believe based on the cuts is that educating our children should be quote unquote value engineered code for projects to projects on the cheap that same philosophy also explains the persistent presence of portables at several of our elementary schools

037that should have been addressed years ago while the high school was built with insufficient classroom and other spaces like the cafeteria to meet the needs of students all to save a buck only to have long-term costs increase magnif mag excuse me materially if mr browningtini's goal is to financially kneecap the district and members of the staff i'm confident that the message was sent the net effect of removing the three largest proposed cuts from the budget saves each darian household just per year in property taxes while reducing morale educational outcomes and in the long term raises the risk that darien is a less desirable place to purchase real estate proponents of cutting the budget argue that lower property taxes are desirable for new home buyers however many communities in nasa and westchester counties with higher tax

038rates have demonstrably better educational outcomes faster appreciating asset values and notably shorter commutes to manhattan key factors that attract buyers if darien's schools are impacted it's not a leap to expect home buyers to shift interest toward these communities that have better schools and better appreciation potential not to mention shorter commutes a key quality of life after cobit if mr and brown and cd have their way with these cuts it will likely impact long-term values post covet if the average area in home price drops just one percent because of these cars right because you're out of time thank you mr chairman i'd like to ask the speaker a question no point of order it's a public hearing sir no i've asked that that's counsel it's a public hearing we're listening to the folks this evening can

039i ask the question after sure thank you hi hi thank you hi amy daniels 83 locus hill road i have a ninth grade son at the high school and a fifth grade daughter at tokenique i first want to thank all of you guys for the many many many hours that you spend on behalf of our children and our schools the board and also the administration and i have to add also the cdsp um and the many representatives that serve for them i'm disheartened to see funding of the dei initiatives on the proposed cut list in the short term darian's inability to embrace dei practices could hurt our children they risk not having the opportunity to see learn from and grow by exposure to different perspectives by not knowing classmates and community members that aren't as

040well off economically aren't as homogeneous and aren't as white as what they see now by staying in our dairy and bubble professionally i oversee marketing for a local education group that operates three schools as well as college consulting and day and boarding advisory services i can tell you firsthand that darian's possible resistance to dei initiatives is in direct opposition to what is happening in the real world in the real world colleges are reluctant to accept students from affluent towns who may not be able to play well with others they are looking for students who have been exposed to the diverse backgrounds that they are cultivating on their college campuses supplemental essay questions at many colleges demonstrate the premium that is placed on diversity college preparatory schools in fairfield and westchester counties have embraced dei initiatives

041for years as they have widely across the country this is not new work to them why should we care what private schools are doing we should care because the students that are applying from private schools are applying for the same spots as our dairy and high school seniors not funding this dei work puts darien students at a distinct disadvantage niask which as you know provides accreditation for aldarian schools requires that the school community provides a safe positive respectful and inclusive culture that ensures equity and honors diversity and identity of thought it's their first standard for accreditation as a public school that's the number one thing that they ask for all schools in their organization to look at equity diversity and inclusion are core values in our strategic plan i implore the board to fund the

042proposed dei initiatives accordingly it's time to burst our dairy and bubble and make strides to set shed the upsetting nickname of aryan darian that's used by outsiders to our community if you haven't heard of that nickname that is part of the darium bubble please don't stand in the way of this much needed progress thank you thanks for speaking this evening amy zurby nine more house drive transparency transparency has been a buzzword in the school community for a few years transparency on curriculum was widely discussed from september through the beginning of november of last year tonight you are going to hear about transparency of the budget process between super saturday and january 25th there were four board of ed meetings in which the board of ed and the community members could address items in the budget

043yet not one person mentioned important line items such as department chairs a dhs assistant principal consultants an athletic director and dues and membership fees ironically the people pounding their fists the loudest in the fall demanding transparency are the same ones who propose these cuts it appears that transparency is only important when it is expedient i believe that these cuts were both personal and political in nature and will damage our children's educational experience as you may recall prior to the appointment of department chairs teachers served as curriculum monitors at middlesex and curriculum coordinators at dhs they had to divide their time and efforts between curriculum and classes parents frequently complained about teaching inconsistencies and transition issues from middlesex to dhs since the hiring of department chairs i have seen greater consistency across class sections regarding assessments

044homework and projects we have also seen department chairs advocate for and complete initiatives such as overhauling our science curriculum to be in line with the next generation science standards expanding our world language program to add mandarin and middlesex and ap languages at the high school proposing dhs dhs trips abroad and improving stem at middlesex with project lead the way and new stem classes furthermore our department chairs are able to evaluate and train staff which is particularly helpful with new hires the department chairs ability to focus their attention on all students and all teachers in their respective departments enables the darien schools to continue on a path of excellence i'm sure that some of you are aware of the new attacks on open choice on social media and the continued spread of misinformation as you listen

045to public comment regarding open choice please consider the facts that you have learned over the past year on this important initiative say no to not in my town say no to separate but equal say yes to open choice thank you for speaking this evening please go ahead thank you hi susie flaherty six lake drive thank you so much for being here and thank you so much for all your hard work i really i've been so impressed lately um so i would like to discuss the open choice options on the budget uh many of the questions about open choice were answered at the last meeting and i won't waste your time by repeating what has already been debunked and what has already been clarified the public certainly has the right to bring up the same questions

046and concerns that have already been addressed if they missed it but i am confident that you are clear on the answers and that you that you have already been given and will proceed with facts as your guide moving forward a goal has been set to make this community and our school system more diverse darien has made some progress toward that goal participating in open choice with the 47 other connecticut school districts will keep us on the right track to meeting that goal many of the concerns people seem to have about open choice come from a place of uncertainty that nagging question what if is always plaguing us it's hard to get past those fears and embrace change especially when our kids are involved but if we truly want to see a more diverse and welcoming

047darian we should trust the facts and believe in ourselves the success of the open choice program speaks for itself i want to speak for darian i believe in the darien public school system i believe in the heart of darian and that it is strong i say we do this for the dairy and kids just as much as we do it for the norwalk kids this is a handful of kindergarteners we can handle this we can be better and involved simply by making space for these children to come to school here and just be kids with our kids i actually envy these five and six year olds my husband and i have had the benefit of a darian public school's education and so my children but these kindergarteners will benefit from more because they will get

048all that darian has to offer plus the educational advantages that come from a diverse classroom uh they will go off into the world with an experience that neither me nor my children have ever really had so i urge you to move forward with open choice thank you thank you for speaking this evening no one on the left we stay with the right alicia skinner cliff avenue first i would just like to say that i support diversity i did most of my schooling in the stanford public school system since moving to the u.s i think that the stanford school system is equal in terms of diversity to norwalk i went through the esl program and then went on to take honors and ap courses before going on to university the reason i am saying this is

049because we are painting a picture that darien is coming in to help kids from norwalk that if somehow we don't do the open choice program that those kids are going to be left behind and that they don't they won't have the same opportunities for the same future that is just not true i came to this country without being able to speak english i'm a byproduct of the stanford public school system many of my classmates myself included graduated and went on to some of this nation's best universities the framework at these schools exist to turn out great students there are ap classes there's honors classes and esl for foreign students like myself if a student has the desire and the will to learn you can graduate from the likes of norwalk or stanford school systems and

050go on to achieve great things the other misconception that people have who oppose open is that people who oppose open choice somehow don't want to allow those people into our school system again i think that is not true if open choice was available to kids in new canaan or greenwich i would still be against darien adopting open choice it is not the prudent thing to do right now over the last two years lots of education has been lost and our students lives continue to be disrupted and our kids need to be prioritized at this time i also don't believe that darian meets the criteria for open choice open choices presented by senator haskell would allow suburban school districts with a declining enrollment to voluntarily offer seats to students from overcrowded urban districts darien does not

051meet this definition we do not have declining enrollment we've had an influx of families that have moved to this town from new york city we have 280 condos coming online in the near future it is not prudent right now to take on additional children from outside of our district if we do not know how much space we have in our classrooms for the residents of this town i think everyone can agree that as class sizes grow and become larger the education will suffer i keep hearing over and over in these meetings how wonderful it would be for darion to be a leader specifically when it comes to implementing open choice i think what would be wonderful instead is for darien to be a leader and at the forefront of pushing hartford to give us back

052local control over our schools and for our kids lives to revert to normal so that that they can come out of the school system socially emotionally and educationally prepared for college i think that would make darien a leader thank you thanks for speaking this evening my name is natasha thomas i live at six mclaren road south i'm speaking as an individual um i happen to be a member of the executive board of the pto at royal as the special ed rep i have attended four to five meeting four to five in-person meetings a month since the beginning of september i have read through countless documents i have been in these meetings i've requested that the cdsp make their meetings available via zoom and increase the transparency i did not see that as a budget line

053item come up tonight my voice was not represented by the comments that were made tonight in fact the comments that were made tonight were so far off of the budget except for the woman who represented the elementary pto's who actually did speak about specific line items that i have to say the cdsp does not represent me and there are other parents that feel that way too the thank you the transparency um that they talk about and i can go you know dig down into the documents again this is not a conversation about cdsp it's specific but it is a public it's a public hearing and they've used this forum they've used this forum to push a political agenda and it's very transparent so please let me finish my comments it's specific to the budget the

054cdsb has no line item budget so open choice question specifically thank you open choice we do not have the facts that open choice what the revenue impact will be we know that it's ill-timed we know that it's not um it's not an either or we are either you know exclusionary um or we are you know care about people outside of the district um but it was represented by a budget chair that open choice is a revenue driver that is not a fact that does not represent the truth and i have to say that tonight i had no intention of making comments but this is beyond the pale thank you for speaking this evening hi i'm linda rowe of 26 behringer road i wanted to speak kind of what natasha just said on the comment that

055open choice was a positive financial gain for the town that is just not true um you know they say add a couple chairs here in the elementary school no big deal we have open spots available let's talk about when we get to the middle school simple fact 16 kids is an entire classroom so you can't sit here and say that there's no financial impact to our darien community and durian students all these parents here today don't want all of these cuts in the budget well i agree i don't want cuts in the budget either i want the best school system for my kids and so to sit here and say that open choice is not gonna have a cost is just is silly so take 16 students take 16 students the cost to educate a

056student here is we'll just take for simple numbers 20 000 it's more than that but take 20 000 take those 16 students call 17 000 times that for middle and high school you have 272 000 times seven years is one million nine hundred and four thousand and that's without special education thirteen percent of our student body has special education student costs 37 000 here in darien so take 13 of those and see how much that costs these costs keep adding up and adding up and adding up and these are just simple numbers if you start taking those 16 students and adding 16 students every year just look at middle and high school where you can simply say 16 students this entire class you have to hire an educator you have english you have math you

057have social studies you have science so how could this not be a cost it is it's a cost take high school you have four four years in high school our ratios 11 to 1 in the high school just for the four years if you take 16 kids each year that's 64 kids extra in our high school that's 5.82 teachers needed to keep our 11 1 ratio so please do the math and simple facts there will be a cost to our kids because we don't have an endless budget here in darian we'd all love to have an endless budget i want everything for our kids we all do we all want what's best for our children but to say there's no financial impact when people are sitting here saying we're going to cut kids ipads or

058we're going to cut this we want to cut this program we have to cut something it's not an endless budget and so this is going to be a cost and we don't have the room right now we have portables i can't even believe we're bringing this into discussion right now when we can't even have the room in our school systems for our own kids so i say no to open choice and i hope everyone else does too thank you for speaking this evening good evening everyone thank you um i'm laura pesh gray i live at 131 holmes avenue open choice as many of the people expressed tonight i am not in favor of and it's not the right choice for darien i'm not going to go into repeating what everyone else has said but i

059will say that i do support and recommend a smaller amount of dollars put towards the abc program and do it in a much smaller scale since we have almost 300 housing units many of those housing units we have no idea what bedroom capacity which we don't really understand or can't really estimate the number of children that are going to be influxed into our school system i think this is more of a practical solution which has already had a proven track record for those of you who don't know a better chance is a non-profit organization with the goal of helping more talented young people of color to become well educated by attending high achieving boarding day and public schools in the united states why is abc a more suitable fit it offers a selective process while

060weak as aryan residents can still achieve and increase that diversity that we're so um interested in increasing in our town the guidelines for applicants black african american asian american pacific islander latino hispanic native american or multiracial they have to be a citizen of the united states and the current program that's in our town now is um focused on high school applicants the ideal candidate for a better chance is there we cannot get into descriptions of other programs is there a budget question um no i will i will i will basically say that the criteria for this is that it looks at academic achievements it basically looks and also includes the right to use income which is exactly the factor that open source does not have as a criteria for eligibility there are two candidates currently

061that are at the abc in darien who are highlighted on their website one is attending lehigh university where she will compete on their track and field team and plans to major in architecture are we we need something pertaining to the budget or open choice but this is not a descriptor about abc house okay i think this is the smarter choice and the right choice for darien thank you thank you anyone else in the audience hey michelle you want to start out with zoom alex taylor you are unmuted and recognized hello i am alexandra taylor at fort behringer road and i am speaking on behalf of the special education parent advisory committee cpac this evening thank you to our administrators the board of education and teachers for all your hard work and dedication to all students

062for dhs cpac has been asking the administration to add sign language as a course offering to dh students for years many students with disabilities particularly those with language-based disability are not able to take a foreign language at the high school level establishing a course in sign language at the darian high school would provide accessibility to allow to a language to a large population of students and enable them to meet foreign language requirement needed to attend many colleges and universities our districts and our drg including greenwich and wilton offer asl in fact when students at wilton high school are surveyed 58 say that they would be interested in taking a year-long asl course and those interested 34 percent say they take it in place of another language and 66 percent say they would take asl in

063addition to the current foreign language we predict that darien students would just be just as if not more interested in asl in elementary we support administrators continuing relationship with literacy hour at the elp for the next school year early intervention is critical to students with reading disabilities we strongly urge you to consider expanding literacy how professional development focused on dyslexia identification to kindergarten and first graders professional development the impacts of the kovac kovic pandemic will be lasting we support improved mental health professional development for all educators we can encourage the district to survey all educators and paraphernalia professionals on what professional development they would be would find beneficial and share the results of the survey so the educators feel supported on an ongoing basis in addition we look forward to hearing the next steps for

064inclusion in elementary schools after marilyn's friend competes her completes her self-study at the elementary level we hope the district will also consider having maryland friend conduct professional development to the teams new to co-teaching at the middle and high school and team teaching at the high school level and while friend did train these teams and administrators and these models first began several years ago we believe updated training is wanted oriented on rc24 allocations since 2019 we've discussed that there are many general education support services included in 24 with a coven pandemic we believe that justifiably the need for general education supports in this area have expanded over time these include mental health services for general education elp fitch and students with 504 plans the budget transparency would be improved by including the percentage of time that

065is dedicated to students with ieps versus general education and the budget itemizations thank you very much for your time thanks for speaking this evening morgan you are unloaded and recognized can you hear us yes i can thank you very good thank you my name is beth morgan and i live at 35 hamilton lane my husband and i have lived in darien for almost 10 years we have two children in fifth grade at oxford and at third entering kindergarten in the fall i am speaking tonight to voice my support for open choice the hiring of ken shelton and all dei initiatives i grew up in a predominantly white suburb of boston in the 80s when the reversal of segregation was a top priority my town voluntarily joined a program called mecco which entailed the busing of

066boston students to schools in my town and others when and where there was space the fact that this existed i apologize for my children the fact that this existed 40 years ago yet is being so contested now in darien gives me pause the title used for the sensationalized fear-mongering petition going around is also disturbing why is open choice wrong for darian but right for towns like westport weston fairfield my hometown and many others what makes darian different is it our history of racism and bigotry is it the complacency we have demonstrated in the face of discrimination are we not ready to put a stop to the messages of hate emblazoned at our schools by children who think it's acceptable to hate on people of a different race religion gender sexuality etc i for one am

067ashamed of the perpetual science of bigotry in our town to continue to make national news i feel we as a community should all be embarrassed and dedicated to changing the narrative of our town for the sake of our kids i have heard some concerns that open choice may potentially increase class size i was one of the parents who spoke before the board of ed in the fall of 2020 about the fourth grade sections at oxford being over optimal size however this was corrected going forward and i applaud this board for listening and adding a safeguard to protect smaller class sizes further open choice students will only be placed in classes where there is space we are talking about four students per school after all this is hardly an influx of students regardless the benefit of

068any diversity in our children's lives far outweighs the potential of one extra student in their class i attended andover for high school and while it may not be a fair analogy because it is a private school what most people don't know is that andover's demographic is approximately fifty percent white and fifty percent of color this is compared to over ninety five percent at darien schools my experience as a teen was so much more rich and educational because of the diversity surrounding me at andover andover graduates go on to win nobel peace prizes lead nations cure diseases it cannot be denied that the wealth of diversity experienced during my most formative years helped to shape and enrich me it is important to note that this exposure to diversity is also something colleges are seeking out in

069applicants colleges have a vested interest in choosing students who can assimilate and thrive in a diverse world how do we teach our kids that that here with no diversity and dei with much deference to the board of ed i implore that it would be a mistake to continue to ignore the deep-rooted bigotry and lack of diversity in our town with open choice and dei initiatives we can accomplish so much to one reverse the history of discrimination and bigotry two infuse our children with much needed diversity that will enrich their education development and sense of community and three give underprivileged children and nearby communities an opportunity thank you miss morgan you're at time thank you for speaking this evening you were unmuted and recognized clara can you hear us yes can you hear me we can

070go ahead thank you hi um i'm clara sartori i live at 161 old kings highway south uh in darien and i am a member of the rtm uh education committee um the comments i'm going to make are my own i'm also a former member of the board of education so i hope you'll consider my thoughts um a little bit helpful um i'm sure you know that um i would like to share a few thoughts about stewardship known as the responsible overseeing and protection of something worth caring for and preserving as all of you know as a deliberative body and stewards of the town's schools the board of ed owes the community careful and thoughtful consideration of all of the superintendent's proposed programs and expenses for the coming year the board is expected to balance the

071needs of the town students with taxpayer affordability central to this mission is a respectful analysis of all the facts behind proposed expenses doing the homework required to understand and present reasoning for school programs and funding is indeed a formidable task for board members but it is the job they were elected to do no doubt this pro process requires thorough understanding of the budget and rigorous evaluations of programs including adjustment and at times elimination of programs as experts on the darien community the board of ed's examination of the budget is crucial to the continuation of excellent schools here in darien tough decisions are often necessary however when cuts are proposed they should be suggested with sensitivity to the implications for the students and the staff for the administration stewardship involves months in preparing this budget as

072they use their expertise to consider education friends suggest initiatives analyze staff needs and study enrollment projections all with the eye to meet all with an eye to meeting student needs therefore i would like to suggest that your suggestions for modifications in the budget include the rationale for the proposed cuts including possible ways of delivering the program at a lesser cost modifications with personnel implications should be suggested in executive session careless public conversations about personnel by the board will only result in poor morale and hamper future negotiations and recruitment efforts if a reduction in force is necessary it should be vetted before the budget process discussion of support for modification should be held in public session not in a caucus therian is extremely fortunate that the community generously supports its schools as an example the rtm

073has supported operations budgets without exception during the past several years and in the past three building projects there has been no call for referendum peter can you hear us i can hear you thank you so much and uh great go ahead thank you uh so um thank you uh dr adley members of the board of education i would like to uh thank each of you uh for your time your thoughtfulness your patience as we explored open choice there is likely not much more to be said that hasn't already been discussed and deliberated and considered since january when we started this discussion today's release of the national education association survey of teachers reminds us where we are in education today according to the nea survey 55 of teachers reported that they're planning to leave the profession

074or retire early this is up from 37 percent just this last august a huge climb in a short period of time as stated by nea president becky kringle so there have been massive shifts over the last two years that i'm not sure any of us really have started to comprehend we've had a lot of new families move into town many older residents have moved out younger residents have moved in and as people have said here before we've uh anticipating maybe about 300 new apartments in town we really should start thinking now about how we unwind the pandemic in both the school and society context just like a bad traffic accident that takes minutes to shut down a road but hours and hours later to get the traffic moving again the pandemic will take a long

075time to scale back and realign our economy our society and our schools there is necessary timelines to this recovery that we all need to consider much work needs to be done together administrators teachers parents and guardians we should accept this fact and not rushed into any pre-pandemic expectations or starting new programs or initiating new types of initiatives like open choice accomplishment of any pedagogical objectives have to be focused on the children in the classroom for example there will be certain children who will not initially feel comfortable without a mask some will need assistance socializing again others will feel deep pain of lost loved ones some other children will question the relevance of school given what we've all been through they will need our full support our full attention our children and our students they need

076us we should not assume that any of us will be ready to get back to normal because a definition of normal is changing the ripple effects of the period you're at time mr mcginnis thank you very much for speaking thank you much all more you are unmuted and recognized hi there um my name is emily salmore i live at three berry lean and um i just have a quick short and sweet um uh addition to what alicia skinner was saying um so i have two children at middlesex one is in sixth grade and one is in eighth grade we have one middle school in town and it's already quite crowded um i looked online today middlesex has 1123 students um each of the five norwalk middle schools has just over half of what middlesex has

077with um just a slightly lower a higher teacher history ratio by one student um so and each of them has a principal each of them has an auditorium all the facilities and the reason i know this is that i'm a substitute in norwalk public schools um so i am in the classroom i see that each of the rooms is equipped with smart boards with all the facilities that they need and i just can't for the life of me figure out why this program is being floated now in the time when we are a rapidly growing town we are a town that is growing as has been communicated many times with condos um with the growth and population from cobit um i just think it's the wrong thing for right now i'm not saying never um

078i really really would support the abc program to reiterate the earlier speaker i'm not going to go into it other than it's vetted it's privately funded and it's need and merit-based um i really think that darian can do better integrating the students that are already here um people you know students who are minority students of color who are already here we can do better without outside of school programming but this is wrong for our town i really urge board of ed members um to assign gravity in your decision making to this matter taking into account the long-term effects such as such a program open choice would have on darien the wrong choice for darion right now thank you thanks for speaking this evening kate can you hear us um we can hear you go ahead

079thank you hi everybody um kate bates 33 ridgely street thank you to the boe all for being there tonight uh thank you to our amazing teachers we are so lucky in darien to have some of the best teachers in the country and i'm grateful for them at all times um i just wanted to say i wasn't planning to speak tonight but i would like to just say i'm a no to open choice and a yes to a return to normalcy for our children as a realtor in darien our schools are our number one selling point small classes small town feel we are not greenwich nor work norwalk or stanford uh nor do we strive to be a small town tight-knit community is what my clients are looking for it is very hard to find that

080on the new england coast 50 minutes out of new york city kate is there anything specific to the budget uh no open choice on open choice okay so this is about open choice and it is about adding more children to our school outside of our district and that's what i'm talking about so um i also you know i listen to a lot of people speaking about bigotry in our town i don't see that at all i'm proud of darian i'm proud of the town that we are and i don't think if you're for or against open choice or if you're against open choice that you're against you know that you're a bigot i i'm just like confused at all of these you know all the people speaking against our town darien's an incredible town our

081our community is incredible uh the teachers are incredible open choice is the wrong choice right now for darien i think we need to get back to normalcy for our children we've had a rough couple of years and i just don't think this is the time for that kind of a change thank you thank you thanks for speaking this evening elizabeth can you hear us hi hi can you hear me yes we can go ahead thank you um elizabeth weilder 21 hq avenue i just wanted to voice my support for the dei program for the open choice program and for dr adley our teachers and all of our school staff who serve both our children and our community very well every day thank you for speaking this evening armel can you hear us we'll go to

082the next one and look for her on the way back sure hello you are unmuted and recognized hi so my name is paula cerdone and i am i live on uh 21 tower drive um so i am originally from brazil i moved to this town about 11 years ago i had all my three children here um and i have been i have gone through since the op all the way now my oldest one is in fifth grade and um i i have seen so much diversity here um i am part of the international group um i have many friends from many different cultures um i don't see uh that darien is a very uh segregated town i see that we are all present here and um i think we could do better and the way

083we treat each other here and uh if the schools would like to focus on the way we treat each other here but i don't think bringing more people from the outside will fix what the problems we have here right now um these kids that will come from other towns from the norwalk they will be exposed to the hostility and to the environment that we have if there is an environment that we're trying to fix um and that we will still have the same problem i don't think just exposure will do it i think there's a lot of education there's a lot of talk it's parent involvement is community involvement and i think that will make a big difference but bringing the other kids to the environment we have here hoping that this is going to

084be their secret recipe to fix our problems i do not believe so um i also think that um um we could do better in integrating the minority that we have here in town already um and um i mean i think that's that's the point i would like to make you know spend more of your time thank you so much for the work you're doing um the dei um i'm looking forward to see his ideas to see how it works in year one i hope that we can re-evaluate after he shows to us what he can do in one year uh and i really hope we can get something good out of the what he's going to bring but bringing other kids to the environment we have and the number of kids we have already in

085town it's not going to be good for them and not it's going to be good for us either thank you very much thank you thanks for speaking this evening can you hear me now yes we can thank you hear you and see you go ahead thank you okay my name is armelle jacobs i am 12 fitch um i want to say that i am against um the proposed cuts or any proposed cuts that would hinder any ongoing diversity equity and inclusion work i'm uh a little disturbed to hear so many people pop on and say that they're big fans of diversity but they just want the right diverse people people who've been selected i i don't think that that perspective is inclusive um so i wanted to say that i also wanted to say that

086i'm against the personnel cuts that were proposed by mr brown um i'll echo mr torrey's assertion that discussions of salary and those particulars should probably be done in executive session particularly in a climate where you know it's not an easy time to be working in a school district right now um we want to be able to make sure we're able to attract and retain the best talent um i i'll just say um i'm so grateful um to dr adley specifically and the whole team that's done just such a good job managing what is an absolute cataclysm like i we have been able to function fairly normally remain open almost throughout the entire time and i have to wonder what is actually motivating the proposed cut and salary when i think dr adley has done an

087incredible job making our town safe for our children to stay in school so i for one am thankful so that's what i wanted to say thanks thank you for speaking this evening steps iphone you are unmuted and recognized steph's iphone can you hear us yes hi can you hear me yes go ahead thank you hi um my name is stephanie desai i live at five mid brook lane um i have a child at royal and at middlesex i am speaking in support of the continued development of the dei program i didn't plan to speak tonight but i started to do a little googling to try to support my arguments and what i came across very quickly was that an inclusive classroom is a general education classroom where students with and without learning differences learn together

088inclusive classrooms are welcoming and support the diverse academic social emotional and communication needs of all students as a reminder diversity equity and inclusion in darien has been discussed as a part of the strategic plan since january 22 2020. students of alumni and families have been publicly calling for support and action for this program since 2020. therefore i ask that the boe continue to support this the dei initiative for the betterment of our chil of our schools and all of our children thank you thank you thanks for speaking this all evening good all right thank you everyone thanks for everyone that came um and spoke in public and thank you everyone that um participated on zoom thank you for all the feedback i think the board has listened all the comments um from all the folks

089that have spoken over the last couple of weeks and this evening so we'll continue to go back to do our work around the budget please don't hesitate to continue to call or send emails with your thoughts and we'll continue to move this forward with that we will move to item four further discussion and possible action on open choice program so we'll open it up to the board any further discussion or action any further discussion on open choice or any additional questions or information needed i'd like to make a motion sir sure mr ceni i'd like to make a motion that the darian board of education approved the darian public schools to participate in the open choice program with the participation from the norwalk school district okay do i have a second mrs ochman any discussion

090on that nope go ahead um i do so in in kind of looking about what our role is i think we've heard a lot of our role part of what the state board of education requires we do in statute is provide opportunities and i meant to pull it up but mr got the conversation going quickly um so i don't have it in front of me is it it requires that we make available to our students diverse interactions with students of diversity socioeconomic backgrounds and that is written into statute so i think one of the conversations is if we don't do this are we asking ourselves how are we meeting that requirement by statute um i think there's a lot of different things people could consider but right now this is the only thing we have

091on the table other than the teacher in residence the state comes back to us and says what are you doing to meet the statutory requirement this is it at the moment and i think we have to be prepared to ask ask and answer that hard question as we have this conversation are we meeting our statutory obligations thank you mrs zachman sorry i'll find the direct language if anyone has questions any additional comments or questions mrs parent well i guess i just wanted a little more clarity on there's so much of the public comment that we've heard over the past weeks have been financial and i went back and i listened to all the meetings and i went back to my notes and what struck me was that there are two board of finance members that

092publicly supported this program and said that they support the effort and that there was one which was which really stuck with me who is an administrator in a different district in the state that has open choice and i wrote down his quote it says we've had no problems this is only incremental cost provided you don't break any sections out-of-pocket costs are only a couple of thousand which is less than you'd be getting from the state so i would just like a little clarity from mr rudel or dr edley is that comment correct that these are incremental costs and that these this it's not the the millions that we're hearing from the public comment uh thank you we have been clear in the last presentation for open choice uh that uh through elementary school if we

093were taking the 16 students it would result in a positive balance of over two hundred thousand dollars and similarly if you would go if you if you play the students out cohort wise through the middle school for example uh that but also just in round numbers uh result in a hundred thousand dollars uh to the benefit so we don't see this as a negative a negative expenditure for the district mrs best thank you um just to go further i believe correct me if i'm wrong but one of the cuts on the table at the moment to cut the open choice program actually removes 38 000 in revenue for next year's budget if i'm correct with the 16 students um so i do feel like the finances now and moving forward we've discussed um pretty thoroughly

094uh and i feel like that information is there and thank you so much for all of that uh enrollment is another piece that we've heard quite a bit about and i just wanted to go back again to mr rudel's comments that not only are we not bringing in students to get us to full capacity but there's actually still quite a bit of room left in these sections as we look at our enrollment protections moving forward correct that's correct okay thank you very much um we have goals as a district around diversity and inclusion we have steps we're talking about taking but i think it's important for all of us to think about it as as pieces that are going to have to work together there's no one answer that's going to fix everything for us

095as a district so to me this is just another piece a reasonable to my way of thinking very small risk um piece to help us move the needle and help create a more inclusive and more diverse district here in darien so i can't see i can't see how it's not the right choice um timing is something we've heard quite a bit about timing's always difficult there's never a great time we're never going to have everything lined up portables are on their way out that's already happening we already know that so that's wonderful yes we have facilities needs but they're being addressed um we're not going back to normal we've all said that we all know that it's going to be a different normal so we can't wait until we get back to something that we

096recognize from the before time so that doesn't hold a lot of water um so i think we have a responsibility to give this a try i do think the timing is now and i think that we've we've heard a lot of concerns and we've had a lot of really valuable discussion and i think for me we've addressed the concerns thank you mrs best mrs zachman so i guess i i mrs best brings up a good point on the timing issue why now i guess as a board member as i look at you know my stewardship which is really the right word to be using on this um you know we've heard claims that class rises in kindergarten have just risen for the last nine years that's actually inaccurate and this board actually took action to

097lower class sizes to make sure that that we had small class sizes so if anything in the last six years since i've been on the board we've actually made classes smaller and in terms of remediation i will i will admit publicly i'm struggling with that we are receiving children as kindergartners there is no remediation per se that's the first time you begin your compulsory education in connecticut so if we were taking kids in any other grade level i might understand remediation and respectfully to the administration you know we talked a lot about covet remediation last year and outside of our grants we didn't put remediation money significantly in our budget so it can't be we're not going to fund remediation but we're really concerned about remediation i do think there are going to be effects

098we're going to see of our children coming back into school i do think as mrs best says we're going to be talking about a new normal i do think teachers administrators are our health care professionals are going to have to work with all of our students to reacclimate them into whatever this new normal is but the idea that we can't take kids in a kindergarten when they're beginning their schooling because of remediation i struggle with that i would understand it in in different grades but i struggle kindergarten is when you begin your compulsory education in connecticut i just think that we have an obligation i went up to hartford i testified against regionalization i made the argument that we could do it better ourselves if you let us and this is a choice program i

099think we're gonna have to answer the state if we turn down choice programs because they're going to say you said you could do it yourself and now you're not doing it um i do think this is the best way for us to safely wade into a choice and an area that we have maybe not been fully robust in and have maximum flexibility with how we handle it going forward i really would urge board members i think it's good in the long term and i think it gives us the maximum flexibility as a district that we need to really protect things like small class sizes mrs mckim um i actually do think that at another time open choice could be a worthwhile program for darien i do think i'd like to take a closer look it

100has the potential to be a revenue generator run the right way but it also has the potential to have some costs and i'd like to see some better modeling and some other actuals from other districts um but fundamentally where i come down as i don't think this is the year and so i won't be voting for it tonight but i do look forward to future conversations thank you thank you mrs mccowan mr ceni um i just remind this board that there are three budget control um positions in this year's budget so if we were so certain that we weren't going to trip class sizes i was the only one who proposed to cut down the two we still have two in there uh proposed in three three proposed by the administration so there is some

101uncertainty around the the class uh the number of sections two i was admittedly before uh for this program at the beginning but that was i think about over a year ago i am flip-flopping i will admit that um but i don't know what this new normal you guys speak of is i think we are going back to normal but i think we actually have to focus on our kids first i do want to focus on remediation if there is some we are seeing some increase in special ed services and the numbers there so i want to see this shake out i want to see the ripple effects of what we're doing to our kids by them being in mass seeing pictures of our elementary school kids at a cafeteria table one or two facing each

102other this is not anywhere close to the world that we're dealing with so it is not the right time to implement a program like this i will support it when i have better uh confidence that we are back to normal and i i do think we will get there i don't subscribe this new normal uh secondarily i do think we're gonna have a better view on what the uh demographic trends are around moving out in new york city and i i am in uh you know i know the three apartment uh complexes are coming along and a few others i'm confident that they're developed so it's gonna mitigate you know the number of families in terms of how they're developed and their sizes and the fact that some have about don't have bathtubs even but

103i think a lot has changed since this has been brought forth and i gave dr adley the heads up and i am i do hope this work will carry forward i do hope we'll get better information you know we are the we would be the only district new district subscribing to it in the norwex schools the other districts that are participating have already participated in just shifting kids danbury didn't play out either so there's some issues with the program but i think over the next 12 months as we do get back to normal and focus on getting our kids back to normal i'll have much more confidence in supporting a program like this but i will be voting though this evening thank you mr sini any other board questions or comments dr adley 180 yeah

104i mean i wouldn't mind thank you um and thank you for the community for your participation i do want to thank our board members um for participating with hand in hand with the community and thoughtfully reviewing the open choice program i firmly believe the open choice program is the right decision for our students and our community and now is the right time to participate having participated for over 20 years in the program i can tell you there'd be not a program cost effective or otherwise that you'll put in place and get get the benefit back for our students particular our alumni and current students have spoken passionately about the importance of recognizing increasing and celebrating diversity this is our opportunity to show our students that we are serious about supporting their voices that were serious

105about change and they were so serious about support and diversity and the goals of the strategic plan there is no point having a strategic plan if we're not going to try and support it our administration staff and most importantly our kids are watching tonight they're watching with hope they're watching with hope that our words will match our actions this is not an 80s decision and perhaps not even a popular decision but anything accomplished in life rarely is matters relating to finance space time and and are all legitimate issues but they have been addressed let's not kick the can down the road there is nothing that we have heard that should prevent us from moving forward i'm appealing to the board this board prides itself on getting things accomplished when it wants to and when it

106needs to the board has heard from the public and i'm sure you've heard from constituents privately yourselves and that you're challenged and perhaps even wrestling with the decision let us be leaders not simply passive followers on some such important matters this evening i asked the board passionately to make the courageous decision to support darian's participation in the open choice program for the benefit enrichment of all our darien students as well as those participating in the open choice thank you [Applause] so any other board questions or comments mr seaney i would just like to respond i'm not passively watching this dr hadley thank you thanks yes so i i would also like to say you know also compared to hearing some of the comments this evening i don't think that we're sitting back passively and i

107think that we need to be leaders in getting our town back to normal because i do not believe that we're anywhere near normal i've seen some of those similar photos it was the saddest thing i've seen seeing two and three kids sit at giant tables the um i don't even want to go into some of the issues going on at the high school with some of the kids i know we need to work on the mental health of our students yes stewardship but first to our town can you hold the applause mr chairman please we will hold applause please all right this is parents so i just want to respond to the our kids idea yes this board of education has a responsibility to darien's children but it also has a responsibility to the education

108of every child in the state and in this country if you guys think that 16 five-year-olds is going to affect the 4 700 other children i i just don't understand that argument from the public please thank you four children in an elementary school we're talking about this new normal and coming back out of covet every educator every administrator that has come before this board talking about this has said that this is the right decision for our children we need to trust the educators that we hire to lead this district thank you mrs parent mrs ackman i'm just i just think we need to be really forward thinking here we have an obligation by statute to expose our children to diverse teachers and diverse populations we are being presented with a choice program we told the

109state we could do it better ourselves and now we're saying we don't know we're listening to revenue conversations which is not proved out in any district where it's actually being utilized i've talked to many of them they don't understand why we're so hung up on this financial issue we really have to be like when we make this vote today we have an administration saying they can handle it we have teachers saying they can handle it but for some reason we're saying they're all wrong we know better you can't handle it i just think we need to be thoughtful because there are there are consequences to actions and when you vote today you really have to understand the importance of your vote and what you're doing thank you mr zachman any other board questions or comments

110mrs mccammon yep another comment i didn't make when i spoke earlier is that we've talked about this program as as a vehicle for diversity but the the uh survey is or excuse me the enrollment form or the lottery is not actually set up to um provide any sort of uh anything other than who applies so i think that we as a district have to talk about whether or not this could be a vehicle for diversity but that could be a natural outcome as opposed to an actual um something that definitively occurs and so i think that needs to be we need to talk about that i i i fundamentally feel that we as a board have stood behind and will continue to support behind stand behind the work of diversity we have supported the ei

111funding we've supported teachers and residents and we've agreed to many of us have talked about continuing this conversation i i respect um your passion on it dr adley and administration um i i respect the point of view that that i am trying to or or any of us are trying to override administration i'm not um but i have some concerns uh that i'd like to see addressed before we enter and again i think our community is exhausted as many are so i ask that going forward whether you agree with what i've said or disagreed that we continue to step together on this this journey that we all have a lot to talk about but it's really difficult and that some of us may look back in six months and say yes i was so on

112it or you know what i wish i'd done it differently we're making the decisions with the best we have in front of us and i hope as a community we will continue to work and move forward on this and other initiatives thank you mrs mckinnon i'll rep uh go ahead mrs best just one question before we do come to a vote if we are we voting on 16 students or we're voting on open choice moving forward for next year we're voting on the program okay so it's not locked at 16 no students okay just to to add on to that part i i do struggle with the point that potentially one one additional student per section of a kindergarten class is going to so dramatically over tax that teacher classroom etc um but it does

113seem like there's a real concern there so maybe maybe a slightly smaller number is the thank you mrs best i'll wrap it up and you know good again thank you to the whole board thank you to the audience those folks that have emailed us those folks that have participated in public comment and the public hearing i think we've had the debate um i think we've learned a lot from the debate and if i could just go back a little bit because i think it's important for the folks to hear that have participated and put their blood sweat and tears into getting their points across the hard work that the administration's done there's been some learnings here as to how we approach or look at a program like this how we roll it out how we

114introduce it how we talk about it how we look at the policy so i just want to make sure everyone understands that we've got a lot of lessons learned out of this process in how to look at programs like this on a go forward basis how to make sure everyone's participating and we're hearing everyone and how do we get all the facts lined up i think to some board members comments there are a lot of questions about the program all right in terms of goals and objectives there's questions as these students move through and get into high school so there's all those questions the one to think of one thing to think about when you look at a program like this whether it's open choice or another program is it's great to have those questions

115and thoughts but you also need to be at the table to participate and change the programs so whether it's this program or another program that's something to think about and then just from a high level a broad perspective i think the conversation has been good we value small class size we value our elementary schools and our neighborhood schools it's so important to us but every now and then we also have to think outside our borders and we love our town and we love our education system i've spent a lot of time up in hartford a lot of times speaking to legislators we are up there looking for grants and reimbursements on the elementary school we're building and we'll be up there sometime between now and june looking for more money to do the renovations on

116the three schools and remove the portables which was all put in place well over two years ago but we were moving forward with that work so something to think about or something that i've thought about and i've discussed it with my fellow board members is how do we want to control the conversation we throw around hartford and that word as like a fear-mongering word we are part of the connecticut department of education we're a public school system all right yes it's a tale of two states in many ways fairfield county and the rest of the state but i think we have to think about how do we want to control a conversation when regionalization comes down the path when funding comes down the path to reimburse us on some of the constructions and renovations that

117we're doing to these buildings and the one thing i think about is it's nice to go back to the state and say look we are participating in some of these programs cautiously and methodically because oh by the way we're also developing the town all right and we're building 300 plus units that are coming on board so while we want to participate we're going to test it we're going to pile it we're going to do it slowly all right because we do need to lead as a high funded high performing district it's important we're looked at the conference calls i participate the emails i get from other board chain board chairs we are looked at as a leader we're recognized as a leader through covid and that's from all the hard work from the administration from

118the parents and especially from our students but i think one thing to think about when we talk about how we're viewed or the conversations about a white wealthy town in fairfield county connecticut we also need to think how do we want to change that conversation how do we want to control it and so whether it's this program or another program we have a lot of good things to talk about in this town we are doing the right thing on affordable housing we're doing the right thing on inclusionary zoning and you add to that you know we're going to participate in a program like this and and the state starts saying all right we'll start pointing our fingers elsewhere because darien's figuring out to do it in a small way and cautiously and methodically but i

119think we also need to think about the conversation we want to have outside our walls our previous first selectmen our current first selection spent a lot of time at hartford on west cog and those other places like we're looked at and reviewed to lead and to do the right thing and but it's important that we listen to the parents in the community and i think that's where we've had the good debate so those are some points from me having participated in a lot of these meetings outside of town good any further questions or can i call a question excuse me can we call the question yes sure absolutely now we have to vote on yeah i didn't do it are we voting or yes so we'll move forward i had us i had a second

120we have a discussion so we'll move forward on a vote to move forward with the open choice program so that is julie best that is tara ochman david dineen and um sarah parent all right so the motion does not move forward so we are not moving forward with open choice so thank you again i think you have to finish the vote oh okay yeah thank you mrs zachman those voting against those voting not for open choice mr ceni mr brown mr moroney mrs mccammon and mrs worm all right good thank you i think we had no applause from the audience please all right we're trying to conduct business here and it's important um the debate has been had the conversation's been had we've listened we've learned we'll continue to move forward this program may come

121around again i think there's a consensus of the board that would like to continue to look at this program and move it forward i want to thank dr adley for continuing to try and prove um and build on the educational excellence that we have in darien but the board has taken a vote and spoken so we move forward and now we've got more work to do on the budget but again thank you everyone in public thank the parents the students and thank you to the whole board and the administration uh for doing the work and um taking the vote so we'll move forward we will move on to further review of the 2022-2023 superintendent's proposed budget and further discussion on fy23 proposed budget modifications under consideration so i know mr rudel has sent out a

122spreadsheet to everyone and has captured a lot of the work that was done at the previous meeting um so i'm sure mr rudolph you'll continue to capture any changes we have but again we'll this evening go rc by rc and see if there are any additional uh ad deletes or modifications um to the budget before we move to next week where we will motion to move forward on any of those ad cuts or deletes have a conversation vote and then get to the point of it becoming a board of ed budget any questions before we move forward all right good we will move on to um we will start out at rc1 um any changes adds or deletes to what's been put on the table or anything else we want to add or cut are

123we good on rc1 dude i'm sorry sure how are we proceeding are we going through these questions are we talking about like how do you how are we organizing this we're going through and if there's any further discussion or any ads or deletes that people want to add over and above that was what was put on the table last week okay all right anything else on rc one dude can i just ask questions sure mrs um so for instance the cut i put up i was told is contractual do we have to talk about that or just you can remove the cut no you have to have to actually go and remove the cut we didn't just already you just say i'd like to take the cut off on whatever it was you specifically thank

124you okay all right rc2 [Music] bear with me just a second rc2 fitch academy any ads deletes or conversation on fitch academy rc3 middlesex middle school anything with respect to our middlesex middle school we'll move into the elementary schools rc5 hinley thank you yes mr ceni uh since open choice wasn't approved i would ask the administration remove all the open choice related items good point so mr rudel um so that will be uh taken out and the budget will be cleaned next week correct okay good thank you mr sini so we'll move from or from henley to holmes sure mr maroney michonne so in in our packet in answering one of the questions about the physical education teachers it mentions that the extra section at henley is prompting the addition of the the 0.2 fte

125but in looking through our sections and unless i'm mistaken i don't think we've added any fps and in 2019 2018 we had 118 sections 20 1913 20 20 110 2109 and 22 were projected to be 108. so i'm not sure how we're adding more sections that we need more pe features i'm on page 62 with the enrollment summary report unless my sections are total school yeah that's total school but i'm a little confused you want to have that as a takeaway or no if you're going by section count there was an fte reduction in pe for i believe it was fy20 and that was the year that we built the schedule with the covid schedule which was less pe time and so that cut that reduction never needed to manifest itself and as we have

126this increased section and we're looking to build the schedule we need the 0.2 to make it work okay thank you mr maroney anything additional on homes anything on ox ridge excuse me anything on royal anything edition on tokenique and that would wrap up the elementary schools anything in rc11 athletic health and pdp anything we want to change from last week or anything we want to add or delete all right we will go on to rc 12 maintenance any changes from anything last week or anything additional it wants to be added or deleted sorry can we go back to 11. sure do we have the ability to remove the athletic director no by law we have to have an athletic director so should that cut be removed it can be if someone wants to ask for

127it to be removed if not we'll go through it from a motion standpoint at the next meeting okay all right thank you sister we'll move on to rc 12 maintenance anything additional anything updated or anything we want to do maintenance move on to rc 13 music anything additional we want to do on rc 13 music we'll move on to rc 14 art anything we want to do there rc 14 art we move on rc 15 technology anything we want to add or delete or conversation we want to have there rc15 technology we'll move on to rc 16 administration okay sure mrs worm um so i'd like to remove the cut line 16 i'm sorry 6 12 of 5 119 thank you mr swarm anything else administration mr brown is it on thank you mr brown

128row 600-11011 like to remove the 10 cut i proposed thank you mr brown anything else on administration we'll move on to rc 17 health anything in rc 17 health duke on um 16 i'm going to remove the ad of 50 000 legal on rc 16 administration you're going to remove the ad of 50 000. okay mr rudd will be good thank you thank you mrs ackman we're back to rc 17 health anything on health move on to rc 18 personnel rc 18 on personnel all right good thank you we'll move on to rc 19 curriculum any further discussion there or any ads or deletes rc19 curriculum we'll move on to rc 20 finance anything on rc20 finance we'll move on to rc 21 library and media anything in rc21 library and media move on to

129rc 22 technology education anything on rc 22 technology education we'll move on to rc 23 summer school making an rc 23 summer school anything in rc 24 special education anything anything on rc 25 fixed expenses thank you anything on rc 26 the early learning program good thank you rc28 coveted expenses and then we will move back to the capital budget before i go to the capital budget any rc's we need to go back to everyone's good sorry i guess i have to go back i had my questions based on the ad cut list on the bursar there were questions from um rtm fnb about the bursar and in the discussion it explained that we're the only district in our durg that uses school cash online and we're using two systems to to process one transaction

130essentially is there something better or different that we should be doing or so new canon used to use school cash online uh they did move away from it uh and they really just use the portal that's used to collect uh like deposits for the school lunch program which is my school books there um so new canaan uh weston and westport all have a 1.0 um munis unfortunately does not have a uh a system to collect revenue so there's no online payment feature within munis where we uh process credit card receipts or collect revenue from parents which is really what school cash online will eventually turn into which is just that portal that mechanism uh for school cash uh to collect revenue from parents for fundraisers and donations okay so their their setups have their limits

131also it's just a different situation than we're in correct and they have the they have the equivalent staff okay thank you that's it thank you guys all right we're done with the rc's we'll move on to capital anything specific to durian high school on capitol anything on middlesex middle school with respect to capital move on to the elementary schools anything on hindley anything on homes this ridge we're building a new school royal elementary and token move on to central office anything with respect to central office on capital we'll move on to district wide anything district wide on capital sure dr adley mr chairman if i may um if i have it right i don't think we removed from the list the assistant principal athletic director department church is that correct we have not so i'm

132just saying like i'm really worried that we get to meet in the next week and we vote these things out and even have having had a discussion about them these are some of the most talented dedicated staff members that you'll ever meet it was mentioned tonight i think mr mcginnis mentioned tonight about people leaving the profession can i tell you the number one reason people leave a profession over the years that have been consistent that people don't support staff members i don't know what you think honestly forgive me for a moment what do you think these staff members who are zooming in are thinking that's completely detrimental to the culture and the learning environment for our kids and what do you expect me to do like do you want to continue all the work that

133we got to get done we haven't even had that discussion i just can't imagine getting the next week and you're going to dismantle the structure that's serving the district so well for people who have put boards here who have gone before me superintendents have gone before me like let's not do a closed eye here i i i'm really apprehensive about next week sitting here like just waiting for me to build a choice and voting these people like i mean so we need to at some point we need to have like a discussion of where we're going with this because these people are in teaching and learning their supervision evaluation their curriculum oversight and development all the things that make the school system tick so well so i i just want to recognize that dynamic because

134i just can't imagine that we're going to move forward and just take a simple vote in these these issues mr brown point of information i thought we were making changes to the list tonight discussion would be next week was that not what you said at the start here too we can make this we can make decisions um we can pull stuff off this evening you can have a discussion about it next week they will move to a motion a second any further discussion and a vote so but we can make any changes to what's been proposed this evening also in terms of pulling some of this stuff off into dr adley's point we have not had a board discussion and no real work has been done or work has been ordered around any of these

135positions so i think dr adley makes a good point in terms of how the board usually goes forward with looking at or requesting work around a specific position the roles the responsibilities the impact to education and students so um you know there is an option to take them off this evening or they go to a motion and a vote next week mrs mccammon i will be clear i don't need any work on those items those are not cuts that i would be supporting thank you mrs mccann mr ceni yeah it was my understanding that we were responsible for removing or adding our own cuts this evening and i don't have i mean i would never support a lot of these cuts that dr adley mentioned i would just be careful about drawing parallels between our

136vote on open choice tonight and these proposals and i would just uh caution that that comparison being made but i have i hope they don't even get a second next week if they are not removed from the uh list mr senior mississippi respectfully frankfurter you really you said that recognized i very much appreciate the courtesy you extended to me but you also you also said that if you change your position i can't like i can't guarantee people around the table are not going to change a position next week and i just i just need to fly that further forward that's all but we did not vote on it sir so just want to be careful about drawing that mrs perrin i think people well understand my position on educators and our staff and i dr

137adley as an individual board member those i will have nothing to do with those pets the staff and these schools have my full support thank you mrs parent mrs best um similarly i i don't feel there's been anything put in front of us to discuss nothing has been said as to why we would consider these cuts how we would have the schools operate without them to me it's a non-starter these are not cuts i would support whatsoever thank you mrs best mrs achman so i will say to dr adley's concern i think for any staff members looking you have you've at least heard from board members here that they won't support it i won't support it either i will say that i think it is borderline irresponsible to when i have said this before to

138other board members when they've made cuts drastically without information i said it respectfully mr moroney knows when he cut freshman sports i said it was irresponsible to do it without further conversation we have had four budget meetings none of these areas were flagged were asked for information so i certainly will not be flip-flopping i'm firm in my stance that this is not something i will support and i certainly hope our educators out there hear that and our administrators and don't go looking for other jobs because there's plenty of other districts hiring and i ask you to have the patience to do this and and i really do wish for mr moroney i called him out and we've had this conversation with yours but mr brown i wish if there was a rationale you would at

139least let us know what the rationale is because there's been zero conversation on this thank you mrs zachman mr seaney i just want to be careful about calling people out because the vote on the entire budget was not unanimous last year thank you it wasn't i voted against it i voted against it because we didn't have coveted money or remediation money in the budget which we're now saying that we don't have because kids need remediation so it doesn't have to be unanimous we can debate the nine of us are supposed to debate and talk i have questions about cuts thank you mrs zachman thank you mr ceni so i would not i think there's further discussion on some of the new ftes that are proposed and i think we'll have further discussion on that this

140evening or next week i personally as a board member do not support any of those cuts and want to assure and make sure that our staff that's working so hard out there on a daily basis understands that there is a process to go through i know it creates anxiety it's not fair but there's also a process to bring stuff to the board and the board working collaboratively with the administration to do the work if there is a review to be had around programs or roles and responsibilities you know it's always done at the board table in terms of looking at that work doing that work getting feedback um you know from our community um so i'm hoping that's uh that's where it will go but uh none of these cuts have my individual support anyone

141else all right and yeah i just want to ask the board the the board of education the questions were submitted uh four of the questions uh were addressed last week and we put them in uh if the board wants to clarify the answers to some of the questions uh we can certainly do that or if you have i think there were ten of them if you've read them and they're happy enough that's okay yes mrs so i just say my questions on the bursar were answered so i can remove that cut as well okay you got that rich i also just you know i think a thank you to to the administration especially rich rudel um and all the administration they spent a lot of time answering questions from our partners at the board of

142finance rtm education rtmf b dr adley and i will be going uh this week to an rtm um budget fnb meeting and then shortly thereafter an rtm education meeting so thank you for all the questions they've submitted as they've gone through the process so and other partners that have submitted questions uh it's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes over and above the day job of educating our our students but they're all important questions and so those questions are all available and i think at this point all questions have been answered um so now we'll go do some of the work with some of those committees and uh it will go to the board of finance and they will have their public meeting also so we move on to next week where

143we will do our final round of any cuts or ads we will make a motion to vote on those second discussion and move forward to moving toward a board of ed budget any further questions or comments from the board all right thank you all uh those of you in the audience thank you all those on zoom for the tough conversation and the good debate much appreciated um i will move a motion to adjourn mrs mccammon second by mr ceni all those in favor that is unanimous thank you everyone have a good evening