001good evening everyone thanks for joining us after a a beautiful spring day i would like to call this regular meeting of the board of education order the next regular board of education meeting is on tuesday april 27th at 7 30 pm in the board meeting room again thank you all for joining us another great spring day uh chairperson's report i will make a couple of comments um a big thank you to the the darien health department um everyone at town hall a special thank you again to alicia kosuchi and uh the administration here we had another successful uh teacher second vaccination day last saturday so another milestone um in this cove year but a thank you to all that participated and helped organize that i believe from the first selectmen to the health department to
002our superintendent again to the nursing staff alicia kosuchi and company but thank you we accomplished that on saturday so we move forward um break is coming up i wish everyone a a healthy and safe break i would ask that you and i know dr adley will touch base on this uh just look at and remind yourself of the guidelines when it comes to travel while we've got a lot of people vaccinated i think we still need to use caution and follow some of those guidelines when traveling i would also ask too you know when it comes to your children if they are not feeling well or you are pending getting results from a test a cova test that you make sure you keep the students out of school and at home i know we want
003all our students in school and we've made so much progress and we're one of the leading districts we're having our children in school but if you're pending a cova test your child's not feeling well please keep them at home all right it's the best way to work through this and to continue challenging with testing and quarantining so i thank you for all that uh thank you also uh last night we moved forward uh the board of ed budget and the board of finance voted to move forward to the rtm the final piece of the budget process so the board of finance moved forward a board of ed budget of 106 million six hundred and twenty four thousand one hundred and ninety nine dollars so i want to thank the individual school leaders principals assistant principals
004teachers um dr adley the cabinet a special shout out to rich rudel uh a shout out to the board here for all the hard work during the budget season it's not an easy process it seems the minute we finish we start again but that's the process we go through so a lot of hard work a lot of good questions a lot of hard questions and a lot of work done to uh move the budget forward so thank you to the board of finance uh for all your questions for listening to us and moving that forward it continues to provide and invest in the end of our students and that's what's important we continue to move forward um next step on that is the rtm meeting which uh we'll make sure everyone knows the uh the
005timeline so with that i will move it over to public comment michelle good evening if you would like to speak during public comment please click the participants icon at the bottom of your zoom screen next click the raise hand option you will notice a blue hand icon appear in the upper corner of your screen where your face name and or number appears when it is your turn to speak the facilitator will identify you and announce that you are unmuted for public comment once recognized and unmuted please state your name and address you will have up to three minutes to comment jocelyn delancey you are unmuted and recognized hello everyone jocelyn delancey 110 commons park north stamford connecticut i just want to take a minute to thank the town especially alicia everybody involved the town residents
006who volunteered the teachers who volunteered thank you thank you for our vaccine clinic on saturday it was seamless it was safe and it was a wonderful feeling to get that second dose in um i also want to thank the town for the people who made positive comments and supported us um through our vaccine reactions and wished us well and our schools are now in a safer place because um darien made that a priority and so i can't thank you enough i think that teachers can't thank you enough for the ease and access of our um vaccine clinic thank you thank you uh to everyone involved uh that being said we are not out of the woods or on the other end of this pandemic and i just want to make a public plea to make
007sure that we are all still staying safe i know um all stakeholders teachers included we are feeling good we are feeling comfortable we are in school and we are doing well um but a quarantine for any student or teacher has an impact and it's heavy so when we go out and we make our choices please remember that while you might be vaccinated maybe somebody else isn't or maybe somebody's family member isn't and our students certainly aren't so let's just make sure that we stay safe we stay mindful um we stay kind and we stay happy so thank you so much darianne it is a pleasure and i am so proud to work here thank you thank you mrs delancey belinda fang you are unmuted and recognized hi can you hear me yes we can mrs
008fang uh good evening i'm belinda fang i live at 22 beach drive i'm coming to you tonight as a parent who acknowledges that in this pandemic school year we have already asked you to do the impossible however if i may make one more plea with you it is that you will please dedicate the time to look back and act forward look back at all of the awful hurtful and despicable instances of racism that have occurred in our schools and act forward in ensuring that our teachers are equipped in having the resources and training in knowing how to have these difficult conversations with our children in the classroom our students need to understand why racism has no place in our schools our town in our nation and in our lives there have been innumerable hate crimes
009that have occurred in our country the videos are extremely difficult to watch but i hope that you are noticing that many times that there are silent bystanders who do nothing to help and do nothing to stop the cycle the media is silent the leadership is silent and there is just painful silence all around i don't point this out to shame anyone but i hope that this stands out to you silent grown-ups don't come from out of nowhere we raise them it starts in our homes and it starts in our schools please do not be silent with my children please do not be afraid please work with us as parents none of us know what to say or even what to do but we know that silence cannot be the solution please do not shy away
010from having talks about racism unconscious bias or injustices because you want to spare my children anxiety clearly this silence comes at the expense of them inevitably growing up to be ignorant or worse yet indifferent adults will you please do this hard work with us will you please elaborate on what the district will do to ensure that diversity equity and inclusion are at the forefront of our children's education please help us take on this responsibility together thank you mrs bang rosheen beccarelli for unmuted and recognized mrs vicarelli can you hear us yes i can hear you i can't uh start my video but i'm happy to speak yeah please thank you oh sir okay yes um my husband joe and i are here we would like to amplify the perfect articulation that mrs fang just provided
011we support every word that she just shared and along with her and a number of other parents we are connecting the dots on the parent side as it relates to diversity equity and inclusion and figuring out together how we can find each other and determine what needs to be done and of course provide a mass to the school and the districts the district and the schools i should say to support you we are so pleased to have seen the strategic plan goal to support and encourage all shareholders to embrace diversity equity and inclusion and from our standpoint we're looking to understand what is going to be done about that next as mrs fing asked as well how are we going to establish a baseline what is the plan going to look like what are we
012going to measure there's a huge amount of pent-up demand i guess i could say from the parent side um again as we've recently connected the dots on this and we'd love to understand from the district how you propose to move this forward and what we can do to help with that we're behind you we understand that in our community it is not an easy process and we understand there's the potential for a lot of backlash but we're here and the best way forward in our view is to again band together and continue to make progress over time by by finding a way forward so um work here if there's anything else you have in the way of questions but on the parent side we will continue to push forward and provide suggestions and recommendations and
013we encourage you to come to us and partner with us as well in doing that so that we can support each other thank you mr mrs becker alley our pleasure can i ask you your address please oh yeah i apologize it's 29 bayley avenue and darien zero six eight two zero thank you so much have a good evening you too jennifer sherman you are unmuted and recognized jennifer sherman 10 sylvan road swastika found scratched on wall at darien school what happened last week cannot happen again and if it does we need to be better prepared to inform and support our children and equip our parents and teachers to leave our lead our students through an uncomfortable but important topic the right way after thinking about how diversity and inclusion fit into our darien community a
014community that i cherish and that i am very proud to be a part of i was elated to meet with one of the most inspired respectful and enlightened group of darien parents recently all who have raised their hands to lead our elementary school pto's diversity and inclusion efforts we have no agenda other than to make our schools a better and safer place to educate and prepare our students to understand and embrace the reality of diversity we are encouraged by the administration's commitment to fostering a culture that promotes wellness diversity and inclusion and we look forward to working with you on this thank you thank you very much mr sherman user m hi i don't know let's let me try to i'm trying to start the video but it's not working but can you hear me
015yes we can mrs lee okay hi now we can see you okay my name is michelle lee i live at southern berry lane in darien um i have three boys and um well we'll soon have three boys in the tokenique school and as many of you know the elementary schools ptos have established committees devoted to promoting diversity equity and inclusion among our school community while each school is developing initiatives unique to their school we aim to provide a space to support connect and engage on these topics and we're aligned on a vision for district-wide collaboration and communication events nationally and locally continue to illuminate the fact that silence will not achieve the change in progress we all hope to see for our community and beyond as these committees have connected over the last month to
016discuss ways that we can work together in this opportunity we'd like to express our hope that the board of ed will work with us in furthering these conversations and keeping it a priority i also just want to add that you know my three boys um they are third generation chinese korean amer americans they have never been to china or korea they um only speak english they don't they don't haven't had a chance to learn any chinese or korean um and you know this is the only home they know they they were born in stanford and we moved to darien two years ago and it it saddens me that um that despite america truly being their home that because of the way they look there are many people in this country and certainly i hope not
017in this community but you know unless we we discuss these issues i i i would want my kids to feel always welcome and and know that this is their home and that they belong here regardless of how they look and i can assure you that my children ask me about um you know diversity issues the way they look why they look different why people make certain comments why things are happening um all the time not my four-year-old but certainly my six and eight-year-olds and i i do hope that the board of ed will work with us on on furthering these efforts thank you very much thank you very much mrs lee there are no more raised hands at this time great thank you all for joining and thank you all for the public comment um
018before i move over to the superintendent's report i'd like to just make a quick um amendment to the agenda uh later on in the agenda under the personal action report we are going to uh appoint um the position director of elementary education so we'll have that appointment later on but i wanted to have a motion to amend the agenda mr moroney a second mrs achman all in favor that is unanimous and we will do that appointment during the par section of the meeting thank you very much moving on to the superintendent's report dr adley yes good evening everybody and um as our parents so eloquently said this past week we were saddened to learn about a swastika was being discovered at the holmes elementary school uh we do know from our past experiences the district
019and the community are not immune to issues of prejudice or discrimination sadly even at the elementary school level incense of this nature always require immediate and ongoing opportunities to educate particularly our younger students and to send an unequivocal message that such actions are wrong and are hurtful sentiments of hate racism and anti-semitism at any level in any form have no place in our schools i'm proud to say that the boards recently adopted vision mission volumes and goals specifically identified the importance of fostering a school culture that promotes integrity diversity inclusion and respect this will be an ongoing challenge and focus for the schools for the curriculum office and the principal at elementary school followed lately will be actually has followed up with instructional and educational experiences with the students with the use of our school
020psychologist we will continue to do so with looking at opportunities again to work with nccj and also the adl organization but this incident also serves as a reminder for all of us as adults as educators community members that we must be the role models for all our children providing guidance and education on such difficult bases of diversity prejudice and acceptance we will be committed to continue to partner with our ptos and the community at large in addressing these important issues for our children and to ensure that our schools are places where students are free to learn in a safe and welcoming environment i look at a couple of steps that the board and the administration has embraced as part of his plan that includes uh equity uh committees uh to initiate and continue the work
021uh training uh for our staff in that capacity uh and others and other action steps along the way so it i wanna reassure our community that this is a priority the board has identified that at a priority and we're going to work on it uh conscientiously uh and as a best manner as we can to present the the right role model for our kids it's interesting one of the things you learn well i guess my instance i don't want to go to parliament but one of the things i've learned through this pandemic is the voices the young people have spoken and particularly so our graduates their voices have risen in terms of providing feedback as to things that are important to them as they have moved on in the school system and this is one
022of those things that was identified but again thank you to our parents and to everyone who's committed to supporting a better environment for our kids uh again thank you for this as was mentioned to the staff vaccination clinic particularly health director alicia and all the volunteers i mean it just did a tremendous job and actually our teachers we volunteered uh through both of the sessions uh we even had a wee bit of violin music being planned but when it was when it was the titanic music we had to turn it off um but that was tremendous um we'll talk a little bit more about student vaccination clinics when we get to the next uh the next agenda item i'm pleased to share that the school district received the distinction of best one of the best
023communities for music education in 2021 congratulations to colin thompson and her staff that uh that recognition came from the mann foundation which is a philanthropic group uh that recognizes um the music industry we were one of 23 uh districts in connecticut and it's particularly pertinent given uh this particular year if you're going to earn something uh recognition uh it's it's pretty hard to do that in a pandemic year but thank you to uh to everyone in the department and monday we we had a little bit of a schedule change as you know i want to thank the parents for comedy schedule change at the royal elementary school middle school and the high school at the time of the decision to close the schools was primarily the distribution of absences that led to the closure of
024these schools and nearly all of the options were attributable to the second vaccination shot the high school continues to work on a couple of matters including the prom uh they are deciding between june 4th or 5th uh we hope to wrap that up before hopefully before the break um but uh they'll be meeting with the students and we'll settle on a time and date uh for one of those for one of those opportunities of course the fifth and we can tell you actually the middle school and the high school have sort of settled on some dates i'll let them share them out with their communities now that they have settled on some dates and i think you'll see some nice new traditions in there too uh the rollovers from coke would let them share those
025uh the dates will now be established for the elementary ceremonies uh so those and that information will be forthcoming uh the gsa club at the high school are planning activities to participate in pride month uh i will say that we had a discussion practically about the flag uh the flag will not fly on the flag post um but the gsa club are planning activities to participate in that in that month and we'll see what what the students are actually planning on doing what way they want to recognize it uh the darian music department we just mentioned them but they are gonna we're gonna have a couple of opportunities uh to perform outside so as we continue to expand some of these uh we can do so with the outside performances of with the appropriate mitigation
026strategies testing season is upon us at the end of april here we've got s backs and then uh clearly our the the uh sats ap exams and so on are happening for our upperclassmen and we wasted them well on that there's a lot going on in the district and we there's update on the middlesex principle search that that is we have applicants and the week of the 19th we will be interviewing uh congratulations uh to mary um michaelson on her announcement of retirement and we will be we have actually posted for that position and we're uh we have conducted interviews for the elementary assistant principle so um we're well on the way in the process parents are our parents staff members are part of those processes that the governor lamont did announce that there were
027two opportunities for state grants for school security and we will be a plan first for some of those we plan to apply for some of those and we'll keep the board apprised of that the gifted the evaluation program for the gifted is is underway and just by way of an update uh focus group maintenance class observations are presently uh taking place the rtm meeting is meeting tonight and uh if they have any questions given that was a conflict with our meeting uh they said that they would they would pass those on there's a couple of meetings coming up and um the meeting for the plan and zoning uh is tentatively planned for april 20th and that is to do with the basement so i'm just sort of taking the lead between the the planet's own
028rtm how we have to go through that particular process uh the first lagman and town administrator visited uh the offices down below and given that we're using those for storage also uh the request was just made to since we are using you might as well use the whole thing um so that was the request that went back to the board of selectmen i would ask we are looking to schedule i think it's tuesday that i'm actually 29th for the i'm looking for a date for the um public hearing and i think it's thursday the 29th if i haven't i don't see it on this schedule i have this money but it's meant to be i think thursday april 29th as a possible so we can look at that and i can send something like just
029to check on it but that that would be the date we propose to have the public hearing and with that i wish all the families an enjoyable safe and socially distant spring recess thank you dr bradley just to confirm that public hearing would be with respect to the the renovation of the three elementary schools hindley uh royal and holmes facilities project that has been moving forward thank you approval of minutes um just requested that the board approve the minutes of the regular meeting held on march 23rd 2021. i have a motion uh mrs parent second by mr moroney all those in favor that is unanimous thank you any board committee reports presentations and discussions uh darien public schools status update dr adler well there's a there's a lot there's a lot happening again this gives
030us the opportunity to reflect on a couple of things this evening and uh we may go around about uh each of these topics but there's a variety of things that we that we do need to discuss i have updated this from your most recent one because the most recent moment before we the long weekend so we've updated to reflect where we are as you know just by the updates that you get and we have an increases in the number of students contacts and the number of students who are being quarantined that is reflective of the state it's reflective of the county and as i just share with you this map used to be different right and um and if i were to show you like the couple of maps success in sequence you can see
031like furfield currently just just pushing up uh through the upper part of the state now you're back to red again was just an indication that we have significant challenges and um we're not already yet in fact uh the connecticut's department of public health are concerned about that pattern that were over 100 cases there so that's particularly uh challenging actually i say this in a tongue-in-cheek um and i don't mean to be dismissive about it but in some ways you're nearly safer to travel i say to connecticut i'm being in it at the minute in some ways right um i don't want to like be used against me in that regard but uh but there but there is some truth to that um so we just have to be very conscious of kind of where we
032are these are the numbers again for connecticut conversely and they have been steadily uh increasing uh here you can see just a wee picture of what we're talking about and those are significant changes particularly in the last couple of weeks in the most recent weeks the number of remote learners have has increased and that's only been reflected by the classes that have come in and out uh uh creates k and eight i think i think they were the only ones who didn't change too much and the others have changed significantly so we'll be it's just reflective of of people quarantining um requesting the quarantine and actually uh i actually remote learning also but most of them are just being requested to quarantine so so i'll just go back to just to talk about a couple
033of points um the staff and student vaccinations uh david anoff who's uh the health director said he'd be here about a quarter of eight or so so he may be here but i just want to recognize david and alicia uh there we are already uh behind the scenes we've done planning work with the department of public health we're not late to the scene with it uh we followed very closely in terms of preparation that we can we actually do these vaccinations for our students we cannot we've been told we cannot the state decided that they would vaccinate those districts that are alliance districts uh first uh they are having difficulty even projecting whether they're going to be able to get the visor vaccine uh an adult at a significant dose and when they would get
034that uh so the best that we can probably project is probably uh uh mid may and if david's here and alicia will be here they can sort of um just confirm those particular dates but uh we have passed on the information wherever we're just over 100 900 students who may be eligible to do that should they want to do that and we stand ready to uh provide those clinics we were talking about friday or saturdays we looked at a particular date but there's no point looking at that date get people all worked up that there's a date and then not being able to do it uh so until we get our permission i would just prefer the community just understand and where we stand ready to do it and um i thank david and alicia
035for for their state of readiness for that uh the tribal policy was changed on well saturday morning uh just as the way it goes or late friday uh as soon as you send something out uh the cbt issued something else the next day the main thing that they issued was the idea of your if you're fully vaccinated that you didn't need to quarantine um we have been we have been supporting and encouraging people to follow the cdc regulations as we have uh the connecticut department of public health as of our local health officials uh for us this is a wee bit of a conundrum um and there are some inconsistencies along the way uh we did just today conclude the survey for our staff to see how many people were traveling and we also did
036uh we sent out information today i think you saw that a survey to staff or to your parents to see how many students may need to be remote go remote learning if they have to vaccinate um or sorry if they have the quarantine uh when they come back because if that's the case our plan has been and is at the moment to do in-person learning but if that's not the case i don't want on over the weekend to have to shoot a little scrambling going on and teachers not knowing who to prepare for we have special needs students we have uh grouping patterns with it's just not a matter of like the last minute uh teachers do have to make some special preparations for how they do the instruction uh with all the students so
037we would like to advise them if that's the case by friday that to expect that these these are the students who may need to go remote learn like these are recommendations so a a parent may or may not decide to go along with recommendation that has been our practice to go along with the recommendations of the cdc again that's according to our health professionals this is according to the connecticut state department of health uh i called the epidemiologist two days ago alicia called the epidemiologist today they're strongly encouraging that we go down this this avenue and support these recommendations for health and safety so that is what we have been planning to do i really don't want to call someone at the last minute and say i can't cover classes right or we have to
038close goal hence we surveyed the staff to see how many people would be traveling because they would actually have to quarantine because they're not technically quarantined until the 17th and that's directive right from the state department of public health you need the 14 days afterwards to technically be qualified as a quarantine so if you travel if you travel and that time period before those 14 days are up you don't that doesn't qualify you for being quarantined you have to then sorry that doesn't qualify you for being vaccinated you have the quarantine thereafter which seems like there's so many inconsistencies um actually a couple of weeks ago when i know i've been vaccinated with the staff also i could travel to a nearby state stay there and come back and it was okay now i can't
039and i've had two shots uh so and that applies to our parents it applies to our teachers i i don't feel ethically and morally that we can recommend people not to go along the lines of supporting the recommendations the health and safety recommendations those are the ones that we have been following the whole way along the ones that our health officials are purporting to us uh so where does that leave us it leaves me with looking at fundamentally can i cover classes that's a main question i have to answer well why did you survey then the parents if i can get across the first bridge i don't want to be scrambling without the information about the children the children particularly the elementary schools will go home with their to-go bags they'll have their computers uh
040in the event that we have to make a decision now the decision will probably be made tomorrow in all likelihood uh given the information the data has come in from our staff and i'll meet with our public health officials so at the moment i'm planning in person but i will not be surprised if we have to go remote for the week that's a distinct possibility um but uh i just have to stay tuned for that for tomorrow and i would like to share uh whatever the situation is with our parents uh tomorrow evening i if you look around the respective schools a lot of them are going in person when i call the superintendents and ask them oh can you tell me how you're dealing with this some say i ignore it and some say
041well i'm just going to wait and see what what how many i don't want to wait and see i mean because i don't think i don't think we should do that or need to do that if we can avoid doing that uh so that's kind of where we are with the current status of that alicia um hopefully i have described that accurately is david here david is here oh yes okay so david have you if um if you want to speak to that any more than i have and the board may have a question or two i don't know um of me or of you or of any of us well i think you explain the situation very articulately and uh yeah it's um it's it's a tough as you say conundrum um lots of
042shoulds and woods from the state and uh it leaves us in a position of having to make some um you know pretty pretty tough on decisions on the fly um but um and it is sort of ironic as you said that uh connecticut has some of the highest positivity rates right now and destination states may be a lot less um risky than staying at home but the travel advisory is still something that we have to contend with so um it it does present an issue uh when we return and it was uh it was um if we were another week sooner with the vaccine to the teachers which we couldn't get in time um then you know it would be a different story with respect to teachers cut in their fully vaccinated uh and protection
043status but uh the reality is as you said uh they will not be fully vaccinated until vacation basically is over so they're still subject to quarantine upon return and as far as vaccine and vaccine for students alicia and i are working on that and we hope to have an announcement soon and i'll turn that over to alicia um alan since i spoke with you last um i received a call from the director of the chc clinics who have been doing some vaccination of students in our area they're doing norwalk i believe this weekend and then the weekend after that at stanford i might have that backwards but they're working with a few other school districts so the director is going to get back to me with the date um and i it gave her an
044initial number of 500 vaccines but it sounds to me like it will be easy to increase that number to whatever we think we need and they'll do a dedicated clinic at the lord and taylor uh location in stanford and then three weeks later anybody who signs up will have their second appointment at the exact same time just three weeks later so i think we've made some headway uh with getting a clinic for kids 16 17 and 18 years of age um this is not a clinic it's only for for students it's not a clinic for for other people in your homes um at this time it would just be for our high school students well that is absolutely hot off the press right there just about an hour ago i talked to her thank you
045alicia i will open it up for uh board questions or comments uh mrs stein hold on hi good evening um i would just reiterate what mr dineen mentioned in his opening um remarks tonight um about reminding parents that are awaiting test results to not send their kids to school could we have that in whatever communication you send out dr adley about spring break protocols i think a reminder does need to go out i've had a lot of questions about that and i just think sometimes in the volumes of stuff parents get we sort of need bright red in bold like just some some reminders because i think as the spring is hit things are relaxing parents and students you know we're all getting a little coveted fatigue but maybe some bullet points on the on
046the key essentials for students and parents thank you mr stein good points this is richie this is the april seventh one is motivation sorry okay i i i deliberately well deliberately haven't talked about teaching and learning we're going to but we'll talk about this issue thank you any further questions for uh alicia and david and thank you both for your time and thank you again for all the the hard work that you've done behind the scenes and um the clinics for the teachers and thank the teachers also that are listening in for participating but thank you both for your tireless efforts thank you so a question for me is is with the teachers now vaccinated or soon to be fully vaccinated do we have a for lack of a word and exit strategy for covid
047in the in the following months especially for the elementary students who will not be getting a vaccine will anything change in the months of may in june other than the teeth well the teachers will not have to be quarantined primarily currently that's that's the main chain mr murray um currently the the three feet for vaccination requirements our quarantine and requirements are still in place so that would be that would be the main the main thing is we're not going to have to quarantine our staff okay those are vaccinated this is parent thank you i just have a question for just clarification from david um admittedly i think i'm pretty on top of things and i was blindsided by these travel guidelines that were recently released um i just wanted to declare there is no way
048to test out of this travel quarantine recommendation correct um well excuse me the travel quarantine change the only change is to exempt those who've been quarantined uh or and i'm sorry that have been vaccinated from being quarantined otherwise the same status with respect to quarantining and testing does exist right but if my family were to travel over spring break if i were going to do what is recommended by the cdc i would have to have my children go remote for the week following right and they could not test out so we came back on friday and we tested the following tuesday five days later and it was negative they could not go back to school they would stay out the whole week as as i understand that the school policy has been 10 10 days
049right now i'm just saying by the state there's the state the state hasn't changed yeah the state hasn't changed that recommendation for those who are not vaccinated right that has not changed the only thing that's changed is for those who have been vaccinated i think that the cdc the state health department quotes the cdc's guidelines which are once you come home to quarantine for seven days and be tested somewhere between day three and five um and then even if you're negative at day three day four day five to remain in quarantine for the full seven days right that's that's the recommendation as i understand that if you travel international that's you know domestic if you travel internationally my understanding is you have to have a negative test before they will let you on the airplane
050to leave your country that you're visiting uh to return to the u.s and then it follows the cdc recommendations are again seven days with the test between day three and five even if it's negative to remain in quarantine for the full seven days mrs parent has there been any consideration i brought this up earlier this year about testing and i know we have not tested to this point um again it's another inconsistency with the guidelines if international travel requires a negative test to come in i can't travel to italy but i could drive to dc and have stricter stricter guidelines placed on me so is there any consideration giving if we are not remote the week following break could we test all the kids at day between three and five just to ensure that we
051are being safer than than we have been and we have an extra pot of money that we potentially may return to the state just curious if any thought has been given to that that has not been planned we haven't looked into testing all students now i'm not sure where the resources for that would come from well we have along the way we have right and along the way it was always felt that at that given time and place that one indicator that's not a guarantee like that was really the feedback from uh dr kennefact and dave and so on so along the way we have but not in this case okay thank you mrs ackman um so what i wanted to do uh ultimately ultimately i i believe the decision is going to be on
052how many staff members not just them how many staff members is the distribution of the staff members it's it's what role do they play so we have to analyze that tomorrow with our principles and i want to just reassure our parents and our board members that our principles do everything they can including covering classes themselves and administrators uh to make things work uh but there just comes a point where where it's not possible to do that uh so i wanted to make sure that you just heard a update from alicia we also had another update from the epidemiologist where we got here which sort of confirmed that uh no this is the position you still should be doing that so things change and i wanted to make sure whatever whatever model we were in we
053weren't scrambling then to get more information so for instance if tomorrow concludes that we think we can cover then i will also know by friday morning the children that uh are gonna go remote and therefore tell our staff before they leave right um so therefore they the the weekend before that we come back we don't have that scramble it may well be tomorrow that before the parents get the information in i might know the decision right so i recognize that but i didn't want to have to scramble on the other end i'll have to explain that to parents it'll probably get lost in translation a little bit but but i would i could i'll explain what i was trying to do right um both options are on the table at the moment and in order
054to plan for both options i need this information at least i thought that was the most responsible thing to do and honestly i still think that ethically and morally we've been we have been recommending the whole way along our staff our students our parents we follow the recommendations i don't think turn the blind eye is is ethically immorally right in this in terms of health and safety um [Music] so anyway that's and i know you're not asking me to do that so i would just ask that you know it's to me it's still a tight timeline to make a decision tomorrow get more feedback in on friday and then we're we're into the the holiday so i would just ask like whatever resources you need if we go remote to make sure these kids i
055think you've been through this drill before we've got up close to 600 kids remote but it seems like it's a tight timeline if we do go remote to make sure we get all those kids set up so just whatever resources you need or however you need to do it i just think the board would like to be a prize to that and let us know if there's something that you need to accomplish that uh currently the principles are all set with plans should should this be the case another decision i'm hopefully to make it tomorrow but it's friday morning to friday morning but it but i hope to make it tomorrow uh but principles are ready for for the students all right mrs zachman we are creating um i just think in some ways we
056need to look at the the position we're putting parents in schools are opening and no one at this table has ever debated that kids learn better in person yes on the same hand we're saying please respect the cdc guideline so you're making this choice that is is a really difficult one i guess the question be how many people are traveling and if we know those numbers and it's not feasible i i would urge energy administration to make a decision that doesn't put parents in a conflicting situation it's a it's a very sorry it's a very gray area and i'm a very black and white person and this is making me very uncomfortable being in the gray and making a call is it better to send my kids in school where i know they learn better
057or do i follow the guidelines that the cdc is putting in front of me it's uh it's a it's it i feel like it's almost the guidelines are more strict on families now than they were prior to so but these guidelines have been in place yes it happens that if you're vaccinating i mean that so that's where i'm really struggling is if this is new information no it's not no it's not the information and that is not the information we've been sending that regularly um just that people are now really outstanding right and it's also now is the time wherever like lots of people are going to travel right we've been dealing with it in smaller doses and um i would just say we're recommending that you follow that the cdc guidelines i've got my
058health professionals here telling me i've got the state department public health television that's what i think i uh currently have to advise people to do what they do yeah yeah maybe they do have a choice but all i can say recommend to follow the cdc guidelines so i agree i guess that's what i'm saying i think we all understand that the cdc or the health officials not the nine of us at this table but they are also recommendations so we are creating a situation where someone is making an individual choice for their family which i can respect the effects of which are felt by lots of families and teachers so there is a balance there that is a district at some point the district needs to make a decision and so i don't envy you
059i don't want to make that well there's no way than this one that's okay i don't think we i think we get the information we make a decision and again i think just to reiterate the point um when people come home and people are not feeling well or showing symptoms stay home if you're going through the process or making an appointment for a test before you get the test stay home i think that's the best course of action to protect everyone and continue to do the right thing so you you're working on the data in terms of teachers that are traveling so you'll have that tomorrow and understanding where you stand with that yeah well that's all i have it nice i'll submit it and i mean and i'll honestly i have not looked at
060it just yet i could come in late this afternoon and okay this is richard i just add and reiterate everybody the sooner we can get information to parents the better because obviously every friday is the break it begins and people are going to check out so i would just suggest that as soon as you can make and you're comfortable making that decision the better it is for our community to make sure that they have plans for when either we're back in school or remote and just as soon as we can have that decision get the better thank you thank you well lastly i just said this is not a board decision and i think we recognize that we all want kids in school we want our schools open so what you can do to maintain
061our schools open for the longest period of time and if that means we have small closures to maintain the rest of the year i mean there are choices here but i think he's a board we need to affirm we trust that you'll make the right decisions for the healthiest school year possible and i would say too i want to again recognize dave and stuff because we're one of the first schools out the door with the vaccinations believe it or not um in order to get all our staff vaccinated so um you know we couldn't have done that much earlier and just the way it falls i think it's just that gray area as everyone has said we're doing all the right things and in terms of school being open sports but we just have to
062continuously be careful and be cautious and make those decisions so any further yeah mrs stein fine question because i had some questions today about it when the survey went out if we do make the move to go remote next week for those families that aren't traveling will athletics still be running or after school programs if if you are quarant if you are a quarantine you can't play in athletics okay i understand that's another choice people are going to make yes right i just want to clarify it but other than that we will overrun but if school is remote and schools are not close oh yes extracurricular activities will continue much like the fall in the winter right good thank you any further questions for um david or alicia again thank you both for your time
063this evening and all your hard work appreciate it all right thank you thank you david for joining us thank you all right good night good night so i thought we would uh if you don't mind him a few minutes i'll just teach and learn some of the things that we're seeing um and then i'll have a concluding comment after uh mr tranberg's shares his remarks great thank you uh as mr naneen stated we've had a tremendous amount of time of in-person learning uh so when i think about this year and where we are and i have many successes to talk about uh part of it is because we have been in person all year so there's a national narrative that darien doesn't necessarily fit all the time because we've actually been in school um our
064work started back last summer in june when we were planning to open the school year as as a normal year but being prepared that that might not happen so we had an additional curriculum institute in august and at that time we really focused on prioritizing standards and deciding what is the most essential information that we need students to learn that turned out to yield some tremendous benefits because when we elementary results we are largely performing at or above grade level in math and literacy and all of our benchmark assessments we have one more assessment window this spring to look and to dig a little bit more closely and disaggregate that data but also make sure that we are on trend with how we performed in the past some reasons that that's happening as i've been
065working with the grade level leaders and the curriculum team to understand the why because even though we've been in school it has been a very different year teachers have expressed that they've really been able to target instruction in a new way think about planning with greater intention focused on questioning different ways of assessing and integrating instructional technology so when we ask that question of i think it's mrs mccammon's favorite question of what have we learned as a result of covid i've been asking teachers what have you done differently as a result of covet and i'm hearing a lot about the actual shifts that they've made in pedagogy and that's been really getting up that question in a different way the targeting instruction through the di blocks through zoom breakout rooms extra help sessions and what
066we've called boost groups have also been important ways to to really give students that need some extra support that instructional time similarly with the secondary level that secondary math is on track due to prioritizing standards and adjusting the scope and sequence and again really focusing on what are the most important standards so we're anticipating that students can start their next course right where they have the same with elementary and that acceleration workshop that i've mentioned several times we're starting next year with grade level standards and course level standards uh we will certainly fill in any of the places that we need to fill in but we're not going to operate in a deficit model because we don't need to operate the deficit model similarly in secondary english through writing conferences every everything indicates that students
067are are on trend with their writing and in world language through usually through zoom especially there's a lot more opportunities for one-on-one and teacher-to-student dialogue so they're able to actually converse with students in a different way and christina mauricio reported that we are on track to award the connected concealer by literacy to the largest group of graduating seniors since the program's inception so so all the things in the reports that i've received and looking ahead for me a big piece is establishing the new elementary curriculum team to help this planning i'm working with grade level leaders and department chairs who will similarly work with their teams so we can identify any concerns that they have so we can plan our summer curriculum writing institute to address those needs continuing to prioritize grade level standards is
068certainly a key and then thoughtful integration of sel and making sure we're embedding that across grade levels and disciplines so overall it's good really good news to report but definitely more uh data to dig into which i'll report out as as it becomes available great thank you for that update this is mccammon first of all i love the update thank you um but more specifically i know there were some questions you all received about um kids who are quarantining so they're some of what i ask may be more appropriate in response but i know we have some kids who are disproportionately impacted by those quarantines and that's just part of the deal um but have we found that we need to do anything differently to support the students educationally or social emotionally um as a
069result we're certainly anticipating especially for students that have a great period of remote learning that we need to train some staff with some look fors and listen for with students as they're coming in so dr mccarthy has uh has developed a plan and will work with our school psychologist who will then work with our teacher teams to make sure that they know what to look for and how to address that as we're starting the new year for sure thank you any further mrs dochman so as we talk about um sel and metrics and we have had our elementary school children and um i'm happy to say for as long as as long as we have but we've heard a lot about this diversity issue and we've heard a lot we even heard our speakers tonight
070about it we've also heard about kind of teaching and learning um where are we on that where are we on top you know talking to these kids or looking at how we're altering curriculum because we are facing really complex problems and not in just you know distinct instances but it seems to be over time so the the auditing so to speak and having a process of how we look at curriculum as we're going into writing and we started looking at different models and we'll definitely implement that as we go into curriculum writing this summer a big piece in how we talk as a community when it comes to equity work it's really important that a district develops their language as a community as to how they're going to talk about equity because there are many
071different ways and approaches and there's there's a foundation and a common understanding that we have to build and we have to measure where people are coming into the conversation and have a plan for not only educating our students but educating our staff so they're comfortable talking to students and developing a level of readiness within the community as well so it's very complicated it's i would say my greatest area of passion uh and i've done the work before but it takes a lot of thoughtful planning to make it happen and i love hearing the level of readiness on that that we heard tonight but that doesn't negate the heavy lift that it actually is no and and i i would agree with that and um but i think what especially one of the speakers said that
072was so powerful and we've heard before is well teaching these things can create anxiety in children and i i actually would agree with the speaker that it seems that not teaching these issues creates much deeper seated issues that have unhappy adults in the long run so it's it's difficult work but i think at this point i'd be very proud of this district to really dig into that and roll up our sleeves and um i think it goes hand in hand with our sel making all learners feel welcome so um i would just urge us to continue that work i know you are committed to it and so is dr adley but i think the board should on teaching and learning this is something we should keep coming back to are we doing it right can
073we do it better how can we best learn to address these complicated issues yes and i thank you all again for the strategic plan because it certainly shapes the path for us to do that work as a district and i agree with everything you're saying i think to mrs zachman's great points and to everything you just said uh mr tranberg i like the whole update that you gave on teaching and learning and maybe we can incorporate that into our regular update and then a line item or a breakout around the diversity and inclusion conversation we just had as that continues to develop in the district and in any input you can give us in terms of how and what you're doing with the the great pto organizations that have stepped up and want to contribute
074and help too that would be appreciated thank you as his parent i would just i think i think of the secretary who mentioned that the recent graduates of us have shared what their views are and strengths and weaknesses coming out of high school i think it's really important that the district consider moving forward that we are not only churning out great academic students we're not turning out great athletes but we're turning out good people and i think that we need to recognize that that is our number one goal and moving forward together with that is our as our priority also thank you matt i very much appreciate the the board's advocacy and support for the issue that we've been talking about thank you oh are you done i'm i think we're good thank you mr
075trump i just wanted to to mention just as as we continue to um talk about things we've learned and one of the things we're learning and actually going to try and continue so it's a heads up to the boards in that capacity the high school schedule so the high school schedule is a block schedule as you know uh we've experienced this year that i'll say it's been in the successful arena type thing um we'd like to use the c we have been current information that i have has remained the same from the state department a plan you need to be spaced out you need to have mitigation strategies plan for the first quarter that's the best and latest information i still have on that regard so if we're doing that that's an opportunity for the
076the uh the high school to continue the block schedule with an opportunity to really have the staff evaluate um let's call it its effectiveness right um if this is an opportunity it doesn't come along too often um because for staff uh for high school it's not particular not necessarily there but just in general it's a it's a very heated topic right um this has provided an opportunity to experience something that you may not have experienced really because it provided the opportunity uh and they were insightful enough to design something like this so they're going to continue the black schedule for the most part the way it it's in at the moment and use as an opportunity to evaluate should we do a black schedule moving forward after next year right um the pros and cons
077of it it will be more of an opportunity to uh have to evaluate in a truer sense because hopefully as we go along kids will be able to actually be in groups together we'll be able to work collaboratively together right now you're teaching a black schedule but the instructional practices are in the 1950s in the sense of structure just the way people kids are sitting um being a black schedule demands more independent work more collaborative work this will be an opportunity great opportunity for the staff to evaluate how well that's work and report back to the board and do an evaluation of it with the intent of either stand the same doing some sort of version of black or a black um for the following year uh so just it's just a nice opportunity and
078do know they're also evaluating i've had discussions about open ends and those types of things but um that the schedule thing because we have to move forward with the schedule right we do have to move forward with a schedule because kids need schedules and this is the time of year sort of to look at it so that is their intent um before if the board has uh questions otherwise i'd be happy to consider them or otherwise but i just want to provide them [Music] i do want to say to i do want to say to our children or our students right today they've been phenomenal now like okay so we've got a spring term in the middle of a spring term it tends to be who knows right but they've been very responsible and i
079give a lot of credit to that because the potential for for that not to be the case thank you mrs achman um can i just make a note that the board may need to take action if that's the intention for next year so maybe we could circle up and figure out if we need to take action because we might need a little more but in order to change that schedule there may be action so if that's if that continues to be your plan we should research what we might need to do if it continues to be found just to keep it as it is for next year a permanent block schedule i think at one point required action of the board maybe in this new environment it does not but if that's your goal we
080should just know what we need to do so we don't hinder it from a teaching and learning perspective good makes sense thanks for the point any other further comments or questions okay did we cover spectatorship and celebrations uh the celebrations i've just sort of talked about like trump's graduation uh the prom guidelines are meant and graduation guidelines believe it or not are meant to come out today tomorrow who knows right um but it's meant to come out and sorry i shouldn't be able to do that but it's meant to come out this week but but honestly i'm not sure if it does or hopefully it will then but the guidelines the sort of hints we've been getting along the way is it could be outside um i think the last time i was at the
081table i shared some things about the problem i don't just don't want to steal the high school thunder with the kids and the announcements that they're going to make so i just think as soon as the guidelines come out nothing major has changed from the guidelines we understand now locking in and just confirming those dates to the community would help um thank you mrs richie i'm sorry to go back but i just i pulled out our strategic plan and i noticed that it's establishing a diversity and equity team is part of that and so as we move along i guess i would like to know how that's coming into play with the process and is that team in place when will it be in place and how is it going to inform the work as
082we move along you don't need to answer it right now but that's just something else got it thank you it's going to be a good point as part of that kind of regular update thank you mrs richie okay um are we good dr adley yes mr chairman good thank you um moving along b further discussion on um fiscal year 22 budget you know we kicked it off uh talking about the board of finance has moved forward our budget um rtm education is meeting this evening i'm not sure if they will have any questions but they will submit them to us so we put this on here if there's any further discussion around the budget or the process going forward yes this is richie okay so john zagrotsky speaks very quickly and he spoke very quickly
083last night so i just wanted to get clarification about i know where we are on the operating budget but clarification and it's probably good for the public to know where we are on the capital side of things because some of the items are going to be bonded um so they they were actually taken out of our budget so they will appear in our bed one court is that correct and so by my account that was one point 1.15 million that were was pulled out that's the royal school roof and the holmes elementary hvac design those two items were pulled out of our budget because they're now gone so that would leave us at sorry you know math geek 1.1 1.1 it's 162 921 dollars want to make sure my math is ready thanks thanks mrs
084richie any other discussion on the budget good thank you thanks for everyone's hard work on that and thank you rich in the administration again um update on elementary middle school and high school enrollment for the 2021-2022 school year uh mr rudel uh well it's still early enrollment currently stands at 4580 students against a projection of 4604 students or 24 students below overall elementary sections are two below budget with kindergarten three below and then third grade one above at homes uh the third grade section in holmes was one of the one of the sections we identified during the budget of potentially tripping so we'd be at 104 versus 106. uh so we'll continue to monitor enrollment each month as the school the new school year gets closer uh to st class section rich could you just
085um go over those initial numbers you said again in terms of actual and projected uh so we have 4580 students correct against the projection of 4604 right so we're 24 under projection okay uh elementary wise we're three uh we're two sections below in the aggregate thank you any additional questions or discussions this is richard okay um so i'm just i just went back and looked at it was uh the there were four potential breaks three of which were at already at 22. so pretty close to but one of those has already basically broken that would be the holmes third grade class that's correct so we're already basically using one of our four um budget control positions hypothetically if this providing uh kindergarten enrollment meets projection we would have to use one potential budget um can
086you just clarify why so it seems to me like the holmes third grade at 66 you broke to four but the henley second is 66 and you it's still at three because the actual is still at 65 is that correct correct okay great thanks thank you mrs parent good thank you mr rudolph moving along first reading and discussion of proposed board of education policies 2700 retention of electronic records and information 2800 polls on destruction of electronic information and paper records 3175 code of conduct governing procurements under a federal award mrs stein and messiah good evening um for those of you who watched our policy committee meeting you know it was a very quick meeting because there was not much discussion these are pretty much proforma there was one question raised by mr brown um i
087haven't received any other questions to my knowledge from board members so i think mrs scion has an answer to mr brown's question even though he's not here i'll also make sure to follow up with him if you want to right mr brown had asked why um we were only adopting the code of conduct governing procurement under a federal award which is required by two cfr section 200.318 when there were other requirements so the other requirements in that federal regulation regard purchasing and shipment and goodwin literally 15 minutes ago sent out its revision to the model purchasing policy so we will bring that um to the board but there have been revisions we did have a purchasing policy in place but it's been updated recently or it will be updated great thank you and thank you
088both for all the work on this i know it's uh tireless going through policies and getting an update if there are no questions um i just want to also reiterate if you didn't watch her meeting uh dr adley marge and i had a discussion tara about a policy audit so finally sitting down and really calling through the old book the website and shipments model policies to make sure we have everything captured on our website so that's something that um marge and i offered to help her will go through um most likely over the summer when things are quieter so just for everyone's sort of planning yes jill has there been any thought or discussion about whether or not we would continue to use shipment i know that cabe has a pretty robust um sample policy
089guide that a lot of districts around us do use and that could also be advantageous i didn't know if that had ever been looked at so the the cave does have robust model policies but the additional support that shipman provides us is just invaluable i mean gwenzatun is an expert on everything the answer to every question i ask i don't think cape has that same support so just when in good doubt yes yes it moves would it be possible i'm just wondering if because it looks like a lot of our policies are coming directly from ship coming directly from shipment just wondering if there's any efficiency to be gained by sort of going through cave and then maybe clarifying the shipment where appropriate well we can also check through the cave right and we can
090do it right it's doctor updates that'll all come to light i think as you go good points i think it'll all come to light as you kind of go through this audit especially my question when we have this discussion is where is there a complete board of ed policy manual that we can cross-reference and then that provides us and puts us on a track with regular updates so i think that's what will come out of that work we do get we do get updates from from cave um so we can you we actually use those to cross reference a little bit also but but marge is right generally speaking i don't know if you've got if you got any sort of significant usually like dcf or policy or something uh even people who use cape
091cod go back to their their council thank you but we can cross-reference yes we can it's not a problem at all good points thank you again this is the first reading so as you go through them again any questions or comments please bring them back and then they'll be back for action thank you mr stein thank you miss stein moving along action on non-renewal of certified staff working under one-year contracts long-term substitutes and permanent building substitutes messiah the board of education reviewed in executive session the list of the long-term substitutes and permanent building substitutes which are the only positions up for non-renewal this year great so any questions or comments on that since it was reviewed we'll move right to emotion uh motion for the non-renewal of certified staff working under one-year contracts long-term substitutes
092and permanent building substitutes as presented by miss scion mrs stein second by mr moroney all those in favor that is unanimous thank you thank you action items personnel items miss march scion yes so as dr adley mentioned before um the sad news is mary michaelson's retirement although we wish her well but the exciting news is the appointment of kevin murray who is going to be an exciting addition to our facilities department i think he could be at some point the next director of facilities he is a superb professional and rich and i are thrilled and mike lynch thrilled to welcome him can you honestly say you can replace mr lynch [Music] he's macgyver i said someday but don't worry he'll be talking to me in the morning mr lynch to leave thank you marge that's
093good news to hire someone new as part of that team that's terrific um on appointments um we still have that as a first and a second in approval for the par the par so do i have a motion to approve the par thanks joe this is stein second by mrs achman all in favor that's unanimous thanks for keeping me on track and then appointments i have a motion to appoint julie droller as the director of elementary education mr moroney second by mrs ritchie all those in favor that is unanimous um congratulations from the board um thank you for all that you've done over at hindley this is an exciting uh new role for you and uh we wish you well and um how do i raise my hands babe what's that it wasn't her she's
094trying to speak oh okay i'll give you a moment mr stroller if you'd like to say something thank you so much for this opportunity i am honored and excited to be working with this wonderful group of educators parents and students and the board and can't wait to get started great thank you congratulations mr buller thank you [Music] uh we'll move over to public comment michelle good evening if you would like to make a public comment please use the raised hand option the facilitator will identify you and call you you will have up to three minutes to comment username owen you were unmuted and recognized hi my name is elizabeth drew sorry my uh my son has been using my computer for e-learning um he's currently in quarantine uh my name is elizabeth drew and i
095live at 14 dubois street um i'm just writing to express my concern about some things that i've heard about the children learning remotely after spring break our family with a kindergartner and a second grader at hinley each who has spent time in quarantine this month due to school exposure for a total of 20 days for our family has chosen to remain here over spring break so that we can send our kids to school safely we know the risks of being in school and we are experiencing them in real life as our kids have been in quarantine so much but school is essential while we recognize that some folks will be going away we do ask those parents to take into consideration keeping their children home our children deserve the right to in-person learning please allow
096them the opportunity to do so our teachers are vaccinated there is no reason our children especially our young elementary students should be sitting in front of a computer to e-learn thanks so much for your listening ears and constant work everyone thank you mrs drew there are no more raised hands at this time okay thank you all for the public comment earlier this year and just right now thank you very much with that promotion to adjourn uh mrs zachman second mr maroney all those in favor that is unanimous thank you everyone and have a good safe spring break thank you