001e okay good morning everyone today is Monday December 21st and I'm going to call this special meeting to order un fortunately Duke Denine could not be with us today so um Deborah Richie me will be running the meeting today so we'll move on to the second item which is the strategic planning good morning everyone uh thank you uh for accommodating this meeting I thought it was particularly important as to you as a group uh to continue the good work that's been done and to try and give a we bit of dedicated time and I um I know it's hard to separate probably dedicated time to this to Christmas shop and else in between um but thank you for your time today it's it's great to see this uh start to come to fruition uh after
002basically a year work worth of work so today we have a good opportunity for the board to review uh make comments revise um and just look at the next steps forward with us so again I thank you for for uh this morning particularly getting up early to actually share some comments about it and with that I'll invite uh Richard from Virginia Richard's going to lead us through the document remotely and Richard I don't see you oh I do see you good morning T rich thank you for joining us good morning and is a pleasure to be with you all it has been a a long uh process and it is exciting to be coming towards the end of this I just want to a couple process slides here what we're trying to do today is
003solicit feedback on a completed um but still yet draft strategic plan capture any edits and suggestions along the way today we're going to uh take careful notes of your feedback suggestions try to keep crafting it getting it finalized and where possible reach any agreement so if there things that you're ready to sign off on we'll capture those and and go on this is the visual representation of the process that the superintendent shared with you before we began the strategic planning process this was the kind of vision for how this would unfold and we've uh though the timeline changed directly as a response to co we've basically followed this process so early on there was an engagement with the board to make sure that the board laid out the parameters of the strategic planning clarified outcomes
004process uh clarified the relationship between the board and a steering committee and also gave advice and Counsel on how to form that steering committee then we did create create a strategic planning steering committee that had representation of the board but also had representation of Staff uh faculty Administration uh community and students and that group worked over the better part of the last year to take stock of the uh of the district's work that's in the next part the conduct needs assessment to uh examine the super intendant 90-day entry plan results to collect some additional feedback in terms of focus groups look at any artifacts and data that were available basically just to take a solid look at how things are going in darianne and think about what that might mean uh then the seering committee
005went about uh a kind of uh systematic process for for reviewing Mission Vision value use for starting to create goal areas a small number that the district might pursue in the in the next five years and made sure that a parallel process with the portrait of The Graduate that was going on the high schools was in sync and lined up and then this last the second to last Ray here at the bottom is what's been going on for the last several weeks where uh based upon the guidance of the steering committee and work that had been done up to that point that the board had already reviewed we uh the the kind of team in darianne looked at each of these goal areas and we put together some experts inside the the district and they
006came up with kind of smaller Grain Lines of work that would have to happen uh in order to achieve the the goal areas that were articulated so what what basically what are the strategies and what do we know has to happen and then ultimately we're at this last part of the um process we're in a process where we want you to uh make sure that your fingerprints are on this that you understand everything that's in this and that you're in agreement because ultimately from the very beginning you were the policymaking body and the body that would um that would okay and approve this proposal or this draft uh and the steering committee was advisory to them so that's where we are I just thought it was useful to take a few minutes to remind us
007of the process because it has been arrested a couple of times because of um um because of Co so now just in terms of what we'd like to do going forward for the rest of this special meeting of the board is and this is my proposal to you and I'll just check in with you to see if this is okay I suggest that we walk through part by part and uh hear your comments if you have specific suggestions we'll try to capture those if you are as a body in agreement on those we're going to try to capture those agreements and we'll move on past them and if there are places where we can't quite resolve where there there are lines of suggestion but there might need to be some more thinking we'll capture the
008suggestions we'll take them offline and we'll bring back another revised point of information yes uh Miss Richie aren't we isn't this really a first read I don't see anything on for Action I'm not sure what we're going to approve or come to agreement on today we're having having a discussion on this Dave so I think it's important that the board have input before we take any action know there is there is no action but it is a review of the process and I think it makes sense to give suggestions nothing that's to be voted on but I think we should have a good robust discussion about this document that's F I just heard we know coming to agree agement and moving on to things where people agree today I didn't think that was the purpose
009of this meeting so that's what I'm looking to clarify me Dr lemons can clarified by his word use of agreement but I think a formal agreement wouldn't be moved by the board until we get the final document so I think he just means we're discussing and hopefully coming to a consensus before we formalize the document yes my my apologies uh for for uh introducing any confusion there I I wasn't under the um impression that you were moving and making formal votes on this today either I just assumed that as we were going through if it was clear that everyone uh was in agreement in particular parts then when we came back at a later time we'd already know that there's there seems to be some consensus on those parts and we can focus on the
010parts where we really need to weigh in and resolve um different opinions if there are are you are you okay Dave I I mean honestly no um but I guess we'll see how it goes and that's to say that when we see the first um action item on this it doesn't mean it will be a final version of the document so we can anticipate if the board wants to have further discussion as it becomes an action item doesn't mean the first time we see it we're going to finalize it but I do think we need to have a Rob robust discuss question so that down the line when we get that document we're along in the process and we're not starting from scratch so I think people should feel free to give their input suggestions
011at this yeah and I I honestly I thought this was kind of the process of turning over to the board this work product and then the work the board would take it and start working with it and adopting it uh and and having that robust discussion um the idea that we're going to you know dust off any language the point of having it at a a final draft uh then to move to action um I didn't realize that was the purpose of this meeting that we're going to be at that much of having refined finished product um I really thought this was our first look at what had happened over the past year and taking it away and starting our work I think to some degree it can be be something the same just looking
012for just contextual context uh back from how certain things resonate and so on so forth and U I think we'll probably get to the process you're talking right Mr BR thank you so I'm going to come out of this um and the last thing I will say on that point is that that I maybe I'm just using the wrong words but that is what I I was assuming today was we're not trying to reach conclusion or anything like that we're just trying to begin to capture your thinking in the process so I'm going to bring up the uh or me just pause there to see if there any other comments about process proc yeah thank you um Richard would you mind clarifying for us um two points about the process one the actual scope of
013this document so if we come into something that isn't in here who who does this document affect is it just the district is it the board what's that relationship so that we understand where um you know where work that we might see being there or not being there whether it would belong on this document um and then the second thing if you would talk to um is in our process of going through this you know we're looking to make sure that the mission the vision and the values also align with the work that's set up in the Strategic plan and how as board members do you think that um we best can do that crosswalk uh so some of the the values in particular we see represented throughout the plan and others are not mentioned
014by name for example um and that might be okay but um I just would love some advice from you about how you would cross walket as a board member at this stage you mind if I ask could you clarify your first question I'm not sure I fully understand what you're asking sure so um there's for example some work that we had set up going into the previous year that we had planned for the uh 20 uh 2021 school year that uh got put off it doesn't necessarily show up in the Strategic plan or there could be work that we're thinking about doing so two examples of that would be um some of the work that uh Richard Rich rle had defined about looking at his back office and how that functions um another example of
015that is we currently have a goal around our media and Outreach strategy which um we could do some work on this year but those kinds of goals usually are multiple years in in duration I don't necessarily see them mentioned here but those goals you know do belong with the district in some ways but belong with the board in in other places or maybe somebody out here has a policy goal or um you know something else that might have a heavy board so I'm just a heavy board I'm just curious about as we go through this document um what is the the scope of of the work is this just for things that the administration does I you know can you can you help us with that sometimes we get into a little bit of a
016of a who's who does the document represent so I think typically the Strategic plans like this in districts across Connecticut tend to focus primarily on the work of administration faculty and staff they they might also have some there might be some goals that are policy in nature or have some policy implications I think it's also true that strategic plans don't hold everything that districts do because it would be impossible to identify and to articulate all of the work that's going on so I think that they represent some sense of here are some new areas of focus in order to drive Improvement forward but I I I think that it probably makes sense for the superintendent to weigh in on uh how much of the work that's not articulated ought to get pushed in and are
017there design principles that might help us make decisions about what gets included in this document itself and what gets captured somewhere else dad Dad sorry I don't know how to raise hands on this happen to be on um I I think I think we're confusing two things just to kind of streamline for today the goal at least as I understand it the goals that we have listed today are not necessarily all of our board goals they're the goals as they relate to the Strategic plan which is what this um meeting is warned for and I I would agree with Dr lemons that if the board decides on other goals and annual by annual or going forward we can always do that but I think today's meeting and how it's warned is specifically to goals as
018they relate to implementing the Strategic plan so I think if we Veer too far out of that we're going to be a little bit all over the place but Jill I think that there's still probably good board goals that then can be incorporated and how we do that it will be W with a however we Define the Strategic plan so so I think when we talk board goals versus Board like goals listed here they're two separate things right and the Strategic plan is the blueprint and we work off of that blueprint and feed other goals using that blueprint so I would defer to Dr ABY at this point yeah the only thing I would say is that um to Jill's point that we had some of the goals that I would bring back for board
019consideration uh annually will feed from this uh because you don't have the time processes or other wayse to do you know lots of other uh sort of systems with it however it doesn't mean to say there's something's not in this that's not a priority or won't get done either administratively or through board work together that's not the case and the only other thing I'd mentioned Jill is that the communication here was directly come in goal number five so that one was uh very consciously included there so um so there are things that will be done administratively there are things that will be done through other board goals but the board goals generally will St from these goals as we try to do the work every year does that answer your questions Jill yes I I
020think it's important that we as a board understand how these documents interrelate that there's not two separate processes one is the Strategic plan and the other is is goals there could be work that is is uh you know not captured in the Strategic plan but I do think most of that's sort of the point of planning is is to set up your work over time not to have two separate processes so I think as a board before we sign off on this document we need to be very clear about what this the purpose of this deliverable and then what anything subsidiary uh that comes from this would or would not look like so that we're clear about how this gets used um and defines our work and the work of the admin thank you I
021I I just fin a comment I do think that's important because this is going to guide uh our work collectively yours of the board my is administ team so so yes okay unless there are other questions I'm going to share the screen bring up the document I believe you already have copies of it but that way we'll have a a common visual reference and I can capture notes as we walk through and just Dr lemons as we go through the document how would you like the discussion do you want us to discuss each point or would you like to wait and do goal a one or goal one first and discuss it or do you want to do the individual sub goals how would you just so I know how to proceed forward I think
022we ought to go Section by section so the first section would be the the three kind of um foundational documents vision mission core value which the board has seen before on a couple of occasions but be worth to have some conversation and then we could have I would suggest conversation about each of those goal areas one which would include any of the subgoal areas and and I and what I'll try to do mostly is to capture the thinking I think if you would help keep the the conversation going and make sure that everyone's called upon and I will try to capture any of the ideas that are emerging that might need to be documented and and brought into another version okay thank you thank you Richard are we allowed to make edits or tweaks is
023that what you're looking for from us Kati that's Katie sorry Katie I'm back sorry I would say yes absolutely if it if we're getting into um if it's really small yeah just in terms of the amount of time that you have what I would suggest is write it down and send it to us but if it's real make sure that we have it and we get those tweaks but if it's something that kind of changes the the nature what we're talking about or is subsi of that's the kind of work we ought to focus on today since it's your first cut through okay how do we send it to you sorry you can send um you can send an email well how about through the I'm sorry so we should go through Duke through the
024chair and he can take all the comments and forward them all thanks D great so uh this is the working draft that we have an articulation of the of the Fantastic folks who were on the strategic planning committee a lot of credit to them and then we have three doc three statements that you have seen before and it makes sense to pause and not gloss over those but to Jill's Point these become anchors for the rest of the work and and we should see some alignment you would you would hope that the goals that you're pursuing are linked to what you see as your your mission and what you're trying to accomplish as your vision and are consistent with your statements of value so uh and I think you have these in front of you
025and we to have some conversation if there if there are points of question or um conversation Around Mission Vision or core values does anyone have any comments questions on those three things those three items I can't see people so you'll um so I guess this goes back a little bit to process like I I think there's so much information here how do you want us to start I mean so so my you know I think we're all going to have reactions to mission and vision um I don't know tell us tell us how you want to start or do you just kind of want our raw thoughts Richard I would love just to hear your raw thoughts okay well then clearly I have so so Dev if you don't mind [Laughter] I'll um I I
026guess what kind of the vision reads a little awkward to me and and you know I I don't mean that grammatically I think I think part of what I'm concerned about is we've lost a little bit of the schools exist for children idea um and I don't know how anyone else feels or if they feel that that's Incorporated in other places um but I I like the idea that we're preparing students but but when we when our our vision included our mission included that schools exist for children it wasn't just that we were prepping students they had they had agency in and of themselves with schools and I I do as I read through this document I felt like that was missing a little bit and I know that this is kind of to inform
027the adults on how to proceed but I think it's a little dangerous to to lose that student agency um I don't know maybe the best way to get it in there but I'd be open to everybody's thoughts no I I do agree with that Tara and again I agree with you that I don't have the phrase phraseology that would work in that particular section but I do think that that children exist schools exist for children is one of our core values and I don't want I don't want that get to get lost and if if it's reflected somehow but I maybe it needs to be reflected in a more obvious way and I don't know how other board members chime in for a second so Richard and Jill my as we went through this in
028our in our groups we sort of I think nett it out and correct me if I'm wrong that our vision statement was going to be sort of overarching broader bigger and our mission was sort of going to um illuminate the vision and sort of get more into the details so I think we really need to look at them together to your point Tera does that do vision and Mission together sort of C capture what you're talking about and if not is Mission not the place to sort of maybe tweak a little then or is it both I'm just throwing that out there so so where I would say both them yes um the vision talks about preparing all students um I think we're the we're the group over time was leaning in terms of the
029the student aspect was the first line of inspiring a love of learning for students basically right put the words students in there I think that's the part of the mission that really got a lot a lot of discussion because that's also difficult to measure but uh there was a lot of consensus on basically what you're saying there was an aspect of this that we didn't want to lose and that's kind of how they captured in the in the opening phrase so I guess and maybe just because linguistically these things matter to me and so maybe it's overly nerdy of me I just feel like everything we're doing are the adults having action and and I don't see the agency of of kids right so we're inspiring a love of learning we're preparing versus schools exist
030for children there's a part of that that the schools innately um children have have a home there or you know I don't mean home I'm sorry I'm I'll keep drinking coffee and I'll come up with a better word but I do think that all of this seems very top down and I'd love to get students in there somehow it's just my opinion and and I think the nine of us can talk about it or you can all be reading it very differently than me but I think schools exist for children really give children standing and here children are always on the receiving are receiving and and that's the kind of the dichotomy I'm trying to come up with a balance would would the use of the word students in the mission statement help reach that
031goal Tara maybe I'm reading it do you have any suggestions on where you'd put it well I mean listen they're fine to me I'm just trying to facilitate your thought you know based on what you said um and you know for students or or inspiring students love of learning developing of critical think you know just just the use of the word somewhere in there um I mean just going off what Miss oan said I mean inspiring is kind of a weak verb developing stronger but it's not that strong um we have Innovative modifying creators I don't know why you need to mod why I don't know how you have in non-innovative creators seems like a strange modifier um I mean we could spend an awful lot of time on this language which is why I
032was trying to figure out what we're trying to do here in this meeting because I mean this this sentence alone could be a few hours of conversation well Dave I and I heard you in the beginning I think part of what we're doing is so many people have spent so many time on this this is now the board because at the end of the day this will be ours and that's kind of the balance we've been looking to find um but I I don't think it's a word choice thing that I'm after here um I think it's more that I'm just missing the idea of what a public schools really do right and and actually Co what we've been seeing is everyone has different ideas of what Public Schools do and so what do the
033daram public schools do for our children and part of that is what are how do they relate directly to kids so yes we deliver work down have expectations and produce something our portrait of The Graduate at the end but where do our students have agency and and maybe it can just be a thought we go we don't have to like solve the problem now if we can have that in the back of our heads as we go through this but that's schools exist for children to me made children tied schools and children here this is all what we're doing I think yeah no I think exist is very key there because it really forms how we act and everything I think our role here should be more than just inspiring um and when you look
034at that you know if your schools exist then everything you do is motivated to them here inspiring what does that mean you you know you make somebody think about school a little bit I don't know what that means but there's a lot more action there's a lot more to your word agency uh in schools exist for kids and that puts a bigger burden on us and I think you know our our objective is to even Inspire so I I think you're right we do have a very strong good statement in that school's excess for children I'm not sure I'm seeing anything like that straight in this and we and obviously we this is not final version so we can continue this and as we get the document early 2021 we can maybe try to formalize
035it a little bit more if there's going to be a change to it there are other places in the document where even under administrative uh action steps in terms of teaching and learning where we have to Define expectation for adults and also for uh for our students and also the whole vision of the graduate but yeah I I I hear the comment I I think because it's such a strong statement school's exist for children we don't want it buried in the document I'm hearing that some on the board wouldn't want it buried in the document I think it's something that maybe needs to come out in the mission and vision a little bit better I I agree and I think like everything we've learned not everyone's going to read through the core values and sort
036of the qualifying P documents that sort of explain the work I think tera's right I think you know perhaps it's something that Richard and a couple people could go back and work on on separately and bring back to the board I I don't know that to Dave Brown's point we need to spend all of our time now but knowing that it's something we want to incorporate perhaps we could get a subgroup to opine on it yeah and I would agree with that Katie and again just to to um San's Point earlier I mean it's written a little strange who are compassionate and CRI contributing so does compassionate modify citizens or contributing modifies compassion I'm just not sure where how this is really drafted and but I I do think we have a gating question which
037is this really a strong enough statement based on I mean it seems like a downgrade from what we had in a way so I agree with shutting down the conversation and moving it forward in a different way but um Richard would you mind reminding everyone of just the purpose of a mission and a vision just so we're all again on the same page um and how they tend to function today so thank you for the the question traditionally a mission statement describes the kind of what you see as the core function of the organization this is our our main business and the vision statement tends to be that if everything is going perfectly here's what we would see as a result maybe not in just because of what you accomplished through your mission but um
038it's the bigger aspiration you're trying to bring about the bigger outcomes you're trying to bring about and so you put those two together you've got a a statement that clearly anchors this is what we do other people might do other things but this is what we do and here's the reason we do it in terms of pursuing the vision can I just step in as a point of order um right now people are just sort of jumping in and throwing their ideas on the table which is great but it's causing for me I need to make sure that I'm acknowledging and calling on people so we could just raise hands or just say hey I I know Dave Brown doesn't have video but just do it in a more um organized fashion rather than everybody
039I just want to make sure everybody gets to speak and we're not all trying to speak at the same time so thank you guys moving on okay any other U this is fantastic this is the kind of feedback we wanted to elicit are there any other reactions to mission Mission Vision and um Andor core values I see Jill's hand Richard the question I had asked is a series of questions I'll bump together sorry um was as we go through the strap plan and the meat of it um how should we be thinking about the crosswalk with core values so for example where where does where do we see Innovation how do we make sure that Innovation exists in a meaningful way in the meat of what we've done in the document um you know I
040some of the values like wellness I see very explicitly but some of the others um are less so collaboration certainly underpins a lot of things but you know as as I just want to make sure that excuse me where work is needed um it exists in the strp plan and how how would you recommend that we think about that I I do not have a um a scientific explanation for that I think what you're actually doing is is the model so I would just ask that as we read through that we keep coming back and we're crosswalking to these foundational documents and asking ourselves does this thing that we are articulating perhaps in goal three or strategy three does it line up with who we want to be what we say we do and what
041we're trying to bring about so I also think it's probably worthwhile Dr L just to re reiterate what the core values are far as I see them they are beliefs and Collective commitments uh that we're making and how we do the work they're not exclusive from the expectations from the children um from our students they will be shown in qu of The Graduate also so these will roll over um but but this is how we go about our work so I just wanted to sort of like just name that you know just trying to create a little bit of space so anybody who um has reactions even if you're not sure what you want to do with them but if you want to raise questions or just react to these and if not we'll move
042on in further into the document I don't see everybody so if someone can someone has a question they just want TOA Dad it's Tara um I just have a question and how how these get um written that they're are they in a rank order is it random do we do it alphabetically because I know it sounds silly but I think it's important to at least when we put these out I I assume all of these core values are equal but I think that that might be something we need to to be clear on so there Dr lemons the these core values are all equal correct yes I think there was some thinking among the steering U committee about order but it wasn't scientific it was just making and and there wasn't a one comes before
043the other becomes before the other so if there are suggestions of an order that makes sense whether it's alphabetical or in some other approach I love to hear it well alphabetical is obviously easiest way to go about it but Dr so my only suggestion at the time when the committee was walking through it um I didn't the rest of them in the order was one thing but one that uh uh I would like to suggest go first is the one that is first after that um the safety physically socially all of that I think is is our first always our first priority but beyond that they weren't rank in any capacity Tera right and I think I'm G this is Sarah I'm going to jump in um I think that as we were creating this
044these lists of core values I think the committee felt the the advisory committee felt strongly that Wellness was an overarching theme of everything and that's why it was put at the top but everything else was uh what Dr edley said was equal so then then I would find some way to reflect that if if and and the board has to decide if Wellness is the is its top core value and and I have no objection to that but then I would list list the others um I know it sounds silly but like as I read this my first reaction is we have respect and civility at the bottom and if we're talking about overall Wellness I think that that's a core component we want our kids to teach because that contributes to Wellness so I
045started to wonder why is it at the bottom and I just think that maybe you want to consider going alphabetical like wellness is your umbrella and then going alphabetical or something but right now it looks like there's a rank order as someone who's just reading the document um and I think that that's maybe problematic well it could cause confusion as to if there are prior some are priorities over others so I think if Wellness is the overarching core value and then the others come underneath an alphabetical order I don't know how others feel I don't see any other hands raised so you can take that and move forward from there back up so within the planning within the steering committee after the needs assessment there was quite a bit of discussion and work to identify
046a small number of priority areas trying to make sure that the district wasn't trying to accomplish everything in the world Under the Sun in the coming years these came to be known as goal areas they're broad statements of the things the district's going to work on underneath there are strategies uh that were also articulated among the steering committee members then the actions the second column was with the additional thinking of administration and staff to try to say how What would it really take What U to deliver on the strategy so uh re questions reactions to goal area one which is the broad Enterprise of enhancing teaching and learning which has three uh strategies developing a shared vision of teaching and learning uh revising creating curricula that are designed to responsibly represent diverse perspectives as well
047as meet individual learning needs and aligning job embedded professional learning opportunities to support growth and development in identified areas so questions reactions my reaction sorry to jump in but my reaction to this particular goal area is it's there's a lot of meat here in terms of curriculum changes and it jumped out to me that as you develop this goal was a thought that there should be a curriculum committee for the board to help navigate this process I'm not sure um superintendent do you remember whether there was a a specific thought about an ongoing uh sitting committee well C certainly the use of the PC committee was going to be involved there and it's um it sort of plays a dual role but allow Christopher he's thinking of the same well and PC is profession development
048what does that stand for and what type of committee is that a board committee or it's a it's a um staff committee and it does for professional development curriculum and it stands for professional development and what's the E it's professional development and evaluation committee okay the evaluation comes from the idea is coupling professional development with the teacher evaluation plan so those are the two major components of that committee and I'm I'm just going to jump in if I may following Miss Richie the question here is we do have some of these acronyms we have different programs and action items is we're sitting here not knowing what they what they are it's kind of hard for us to evaluate again back to why we should maybe you know take delivery and come back with questions and
049not get to anything today but I would hope at least for an executive summary for any program or something here that's mentioned because it's kind of hard to evaluate um in the dark Jill um Richard in terms of um can you help me understand some of the alignment so we set up um you know of course core values for the district and here we've got District principles of teaching and learning a little later in the Strategic plan we have some values coming out a portrait of a graduate I understand these are all important this is all important work but can you help me understand how these things align um with one another so in an Ideal World world you have a portrait of The Graduate that's speaking to the the quality of the person who's
050walking across the stage at graduation that is much more robust than a collection of course credits that they've accumulated over four years think that's that's the spirit of a portrait of The Graduate would want uh that portrait of The Graduate to have some alignment to what you stand for in your in your mission and vision and we've been having conversations across these two working committees and you would also hope that what's going on in the classroom is helping to get students to that outcome so that the vision that begins to emerge for high quality teaching and learning and gets to um starts to be formalized for the district is directly in alignment to your portrait of The Graduate and then also your your vision and Mission so what then are the inputs to the district
051principles on teaching and learning learning maybe that's a question for Alan but how how is that being uh determined so under under onea and let Chris talk to some of it if you want um the idea there is that you would develop uh principles of teaching and learning that talk about guaranteed expectations for for children under what the teacher expectations would be and also uh guaranteed experiences uh for children what their expectations would be that's the typically looks like I don't want to I don't want to forecast the outcome of that committee completely but that's what look like Christopher under his committee under 1B has talked about a formal review of the cric process and he they would articulate that just to go back to David's comments that's what what would come out of that
052a formal process of of critical review process um in there talks about uh including diversity as a as an aspect of the curriculum development view of it so um that type of thing Chris do you want to talk about any more of it or um I would just add that there's certainly an attempt for an for alignment within that goal and starting with clearly defining principles of teaching and learning the idea there would be that's such a broad teaching and learning is a it's a big statement there's lots of research about what good teaching and learning is um so as a district it's very helpful and I would say essential that when we're talking about what we mean by our principles that we're using the same language to talk about that and then that becomes
053a Cornerstone to what our teacher evaluation plan is so once we have that language identified that would be 1A then we're creating curriculum that's reflective of that language through uh our a revision process and an audit process that's one b and then one C we're aligning our professional development to support those principles it's really it's a language um a language calibration I would say you see tera's hand sorry um but to be clear some of this we already do what we're doing is codifying it because I mean we've seen so much curriculum alignment so much documentation and and maybe we can improve it I agree Chris it is you know every year in education there's new research and you have to stay Dynamic and adaptive but I just don't want anyone thinking that we don't
054currently adapt have documents I mean Dr Silva talked about it all the time Chris M tranberg has talked about it um in his crazy environment that he's come into but I think we need to just for anyone listening it's not that we don't currently do curriculum review it's not currently that we're not doing alignment we're just looking at ways to codify and do it even better and that's a good comment P because that runs through all of these goals where you could you have that CM question and certainly we're not um we're not suggesting that and the idea just continuous Improvement I appreciate that this is also where annual goals you'll see more specific annual goals to support these things um just if I may following up on Miss amman's comment you know in terms
055of codifying some of that and that you we do do a number of these things I mean I'm just looking at the statute 1710 220e that says every school district shall obl obligatory language there uh establish a school District curriculum committee uh and I think Miss Richie touched on this earlier I think that has to be part of our discussion is where's our curriculum committee um that the board's established and how does that fit in I think that's going to be a necessary part of um reviewing that question and having that be something that exists and having has an active part in working through these materials I'm sorry it is common that board of EDS do have curriculum committees not every Board of Ed has one but I think if we're going to be doing
056a sub substantial amount of work on curriculum the board should be considering something like that go ahead ter so this this has come up many many times throughout districts and and even in our own because we used to have a curriculum committee and we do and we the the board has heard curriculum as a committee of the whole um the the board can decide to do something different but Dave that exact statute has been discussed at the board level um it's an important statute New Kanan had a big discussion about it two years ago we've had had big discussions about it but to be clear we are in compliance with the board uh with the statute we work as a committee of the whole when it comes to curriculum um and if the board chooses
057to go a different route that is but that was considered a far more effective route than our prior curriculum committee um which existed prior to me even coming on the board so um just in satisfying the statute we we currently do satisfy the statute and and again Tera trying I'm not trying to say we're not doing it anything I'm just saying that um you know that is the requirement and if we're going to get into some heavy work here I think that's the proper to do it and whether we spin out uh a subcommittee or whether we do it as a whole that's fine but I it does need to be dealt with uh at a curriculum level and I think that's for a discussion at another time at this point I think we should
058sort of steer back to what the document that we're looking at and as we move along in the process down the road if the board feels it's necessary to constitute a curriculum committee we will have that discussion but let's get back the document we're looking at today thanks guys any more on goal number one I see Jill's hand up um this is probably really for Chris or Allan but uh so the under 1B the develop this back to the curriculum formalized curriculum review audit process so we had I think some a sort of a every couple of years iteration and then we moved to a responsive curriculum model is this are you looking at reviewing what we have in place and coming up with a new model is that how I read that I'd like
059to understand please what that uh language what you're looking at and what what your output it a checklist but is it a different model no I would say it's still a responsive curriculum revision model but when in order to determine what is going to be revised it would be against um a tool to use and say so we're looking at all of the units with against the same standards for when we would revise and why so again it's just formalizing the process a b thank you I see Jill again so this is also where I have a question about um it probably belongs in a couple of places but about um you know some of the values so here you know we specifically call out um looking at differentiation and looking at um divers social
060cultural and racial perspectives do we want to be looking at Innovation for example throughout the district and and taking a look at how well we score on on that value as part of this process or collaboration so you're asking does the board want to weave in that core value into this 1B sorry you're muted thank you yes um you know it could be I'm that's what I'm asking um I know some of that goes underneath the the portrait of a graduate and a balanced definition of Student Success so I'm also asking uh Richard and Allen in terms of how the document is constructed um you know whether or not some of that's already captured inside of the portrait of a graduate work I just want to make sure that you know we've taken the time
061to define those as as core values that we are um making sure that we actually are upholding those values so I I think that there's um the I think that in the creation of those there was the assumption that it would be that all these things would connect back together but the fact that it but I think it's it's definitely under the purview of the board to say we need to call it out more explicitly if you feel it needs to be um laid out there a little bit more overtly so I also see those values sort of like an umbrella for a lot all of these goals uh those values on umbrella touch on literally every goal and goal number three is particularly uh particularly talks about those particular attributes and would be integrated
062in those attributes anyone else have all one comments questions before we move on Jill so the units of study with differentiated instructional plans can you give us some con context for what you mean by differentiated I know that we certainly as a district have had a lot of conversations about differentiation and it's it's a value in our parent Community um so while this is a fairly specific action item I think it's it's a value in the community so I'd like to understand um with a little more detail what the intent is there so the idea there would be in the learning plan portion of our curriculum document it would there would be in a with intentionality a place to show different ways that students May uh demonstrate learning of that standard so not only in
063how it's assessed but how teachers plan for that and how it's taught um so right now I know we talk about differentiation in pretty general terms but we want to make sure we're defining what the guaranteed experiences are and expectations related to those standards and how we might provide different ways for students students to show um Mastery of that learning just to follow up on that Chris does that mean that we'll be looking at potentially more accelerated learning at the elementary and middle school level or is it just um using the same learning model that we have in place now I know I for parents that I talked to some of them really would like to see more accelerated math for instance at the higher Elementary level I would say it's not the intent to
064do that but it certainly leaves the space to have those conversations that what I learned from the strategic planning committee was that there was some desire to have those conversations but that's not um the work of of how a curriculum template looks is not supposed to um be The Driver of of that conversation understood okay Carol so I'm a little confused um I feel like what we're now doing is drilling down into like the the um to kind of the pedagogy of of how we're how we're doing this I'm not sure that that's strategic plan level um especially as we're going through the goal um because you know Chris how you define differentiate the board might say we want to make sure differentiation is defined right but how you define that I don't know that
065any of the nine of us up here have the skill to Define differentiation so I feel like we're now digging down really deep almost into the professional educator territory rather than staying in the Strategic plan territory and this this actually um T I think that's a great point the this came up quite a bit in strategic planning when we would kind of go into these um into these areas very specifically because people on the committee had some deep interest in some of these areas uh so my comment and this would be Richard or Dr adley to respond was you want the Strategic plan to provide the space for the district to do the work that it needs to do it's not saying exactly um what is being done but we know that we know what
066desires exist within the community we know that as a learning organization we need to be flexible but at the same time we want the Strategic plan to shape the path in order to accomplish what that work is so that's that's the language that I had used with with my committee because it did come up quite a bit in goal number one charlee go ahead Charlie thank you and I know we're not going into the granular but I did want to um to address Miss Richie's comment also the notion of demonstrating how children learn and looking at differentiation would be for all Learners we're looking at learning differences as well as accelerated learning so it would be all Learners in our school thanks Charli I I do think T you're right in the sense it does
067get D into the the the administrative part of it so the idea of like enhancing teaching and learning over the five years with these sort of those B major strategies I mean that's the big umbrella for me in terms of Mr superintendent the minister of Team collectively of the board are we are is there evidence of us improving teach and learning this is some of Minister stuff to try and get that some of it um and you build on that and yes so yes it's not just this right understood can we move on one or de question sure comment so going going to 1B and kind of building on what Jill says it seems like we're calling out the diverse social cultural and racial perspectives um but also not to me I also struggle with
068year two we're developing a formalized review curriculum review and year one we're just diversifying so it feels like to me we're going Ready Aim Shoot and or ready shoot aim and then and then in Year two're we're finally aiming and figuring out what we're aiming at it seems backwards to me and and to Jill's point I think it should be more than just racial culture perspectives and build on other parts of our core values there so I would say for for T oh sorry oh okay sorry j right go ahead um one more question kind of in the in the question of how things get represented so picking up on Charley's point there often is work in special education that doesn't that is a bit specialized and doesn't necessarily fall easily in the in the
069grander edicts of a strategic plan it would be captured but how for example if we're looking at which we have been you know developing our our behavioral response and that was actually srbi and uh special education but when we have things that that are like that where you have a degree of specificity um how are you incorporating that within the plan um because again it may not rise to that high level uh but the work would still be happening so where do we see it charie go I think Jill what you'd see it is in the PD You' see it in training teachers training teachers all teachers General and special education teachers to be able to look at modalities and ways of instruction so you see that under PD um also in curriculum development you
070go into different learning um communities you would look at how to take any adaptive um literature you might need or to use technology to really support the same kind of standard for all students but being able to adapt it to a level they can access can we move on to goal two okay Dr lemons thank you so goal two focused on culture fostering a culture that promotes Wellness diversity and inclusion there were a few strategies for this and then obviously some action strategies creating a caring School climate that promotes Wellness engaging stakeholders in the practice of embracing diversity equity and inclusion and ensuring District values are operationalized across all all schools we's see I'm sorry I'm skipped skipped into three there so I was moving past so it's those two strategies for fostering culture creating
071a caring School climate and then engaging stakeholders in the practice of embracing diversity Equity inclusion uh these two areas came out of the steering committee and the actions again come from a group of Educators in the system trying to figure out how would we formalize those strategies into actions reactions questions comments Jo under 2A you have the exploratory committee to examine the district's practices of grading grade reporting and course placement and leveling um I understand it as written but what is the purpose of that are we looking to change how those work or are we looking to understand their impact on students I would say it has to be a bit of both um for it to appear it's because in the committee it came up as a concern in in different areas um so
072that assumption is there but I think we would want to mine a little bit more data to to make sure that we're moving appropriately and then make changes if it's if it's deemed necessary there but this also does tie back to those earlier comments that you made Joel trying to trying to represent some of of that work that was coming clearly out of the committee I had a question for Mr lamman if I may um there were some questions asked by some community members regarding Connecticut Center for school change which offers on its website among Services uh section social justice and Equity uh there was previously a our core belief section since removed from the website but uh some of the language that remains seems to Echo some of the language we have in 2B
073uh and I'm just trying to understand how did the perspective of your organization you know what is that generally and how does that fit into uh what this plan is here I appreciate the question Mr Brown the um the Connecticut Center for school change provides a a broad battery of capacity Building Services as they partner with districts equity and social justice is is one of those um and in terms of the work that we were doing with darianne we were here as facilitators of strategic planning so the the content of all of these areas come directly from the steering committee not from the Connecticut Center for school change S um I will just say that this is something that the 27 of us talked about at length at multiple meetings and that um it was
074felt very strongly that this should be included and and in here so um I don't think it came from from Dr Levens Cara hasn't the state also said the diversity curriculum must be included in the next few years so this is actually in alignment with um with State mandates as well correct yes yeah we also have a district obligation to to share how we are reducing social um and raal isolation um every year we're we're meant to do that this that's the whole idea of diversity came out from the kids came out from the staff from the community came out through this process uh and hence it was pulled out in this capacity but I can sure you it's not influenced by Dr lemon's work that this was organic through my superintendance report by um
075plan also so um and I mean think about recently all the kids right but it's very powerful message whenever you have our Alum coming back and I'm sure some of these uh preparations that they would like to see experiences happen at the school system and so on not again that anything is that but just to to continue to work on that I I just have a question on the the phrase systemic inequities because it it can be used broadly or more specifically so um there are many different systemic inequities so what were the main focus of when you brought this phrase in what was your main focus fall process of the committee I can whoever wants to answer that I can jump in first I would say um talking about systemic inequities tends to be
076the the language used um when this work is being done so it's systemic in the broadest sense um and you look big and then you try to see how how does our local system um align or not with those larger systemic pie those larger systemic inequities and that's what we use to to address them and it's uh and it's through data that we would do that not arbitrarily so essentially essentially it would look at what are the stories what are the data what are the practices uh that impact participation and outcomes for all stents okay across all mediums in other words across academics corre extracurriculars and that's so I'm trying to it's going to be embedded in everything corre okay that's that's where my question Tara question so I would just say I mean I
077think this is one place where the board could show real leadership like this is a national conversation this is a local conversation it only behooves us to to tackle this in the best way we can with the data we receive and and again I think this is part of a strategic plan right you don't have all the actual what is going to happen on Tuesday with this but as the issues face us we're we're committed to tackling them and we're committing to tackle them in a a thoughtful way so I think this is where you know the D Daran could be a real Leader by really codifying that this is something that we are willing to examine um to to Deb's Point systematic inequities exist in lots of different ways and lots of different um
078with lots of different effects and so this is one of the strongest parts of the document I think and I think the committee did a really nice job on it um I just wonder if we could brought in the language a little bit I think that um when I think about disability and the change from learning disability to uh learning difference you know I think it is important to take on things that need to be taken on but I don't want us to only think about diversity equity and inclusion in terms of uh inequity um I think that there's kind of back to our original point of inspiring whether or not everyone likes that language um and that's okay um there's there's a a real positive aspect to to embracing diversity inequity and inclusion which
079doesn't show up as much in the action and I think words matter so I particularly around this topic so I would ask us just to broaden that language a little bit Jill do you have a suggestion on what that would be yeah are you talking about within the language under strategy I'm under I'm under action I think the you know you're you're setting up a scope for establish a diversity and Equity team to do what I think addressing systemic inequities is is you know there's there's a place for that we'll have that discussion um but what else are they addressing um and and really I think um you know what are you addressing from a from a we can further discuss Deb sorry Deb Jill do you have a suggestion because I don't know that
080I'm fully grasping your request and so if you have a suggestion for a phrase just even if it's not one we stick with it'll help me conceptualize what you're looking at so go ahead Dr adley so so maybe I can try and help if I'm trying to think what I don't know if I'm thinking what is thinking but to me it's it's it's potentially I'm trying to interpret what you're saying is it potentially could impact um any any groups of marginalized students in some capacity right um it it it could be students with significant learning needs it could be um our gay lesbian students it could be um just any group um uh free free introduced meals it could are there any groups that are through the staff and through the the discussion potentially um
081are marginalized in some capacity and we could do begin do with the data with the stories suggest uh that they that in some capacity we can be doing better for them or not am i c that right Jo or not yes I think that's part of it um Alan and thank you for that and maybe um Shirley could help me a little bit here um but just I think that when we talk about marginalized students we want to talk about them in a way that's real but we also want to talk about them in a way that that doesn't make them feel marginalized by our very speech go ahead Charli you don't have to raise your hand and and I just just want to say that we probably when we go back and with all
082of the information and suggestions from the board members today we probably can go back and look because in the goal area I know it does under 2B it does use the term Embrace just to support what you're suggesting but I think also in the goal area too in the actual the um overarching goal which is to foster a culture that promotes Wellness I think if that were to embrace Wellness diversity inclusion um and I don't know if the word inclusion captures what you're what you're what you're trying to um Express I also I'm wondering if that's the best word to describe it so maybe inclusion is not the word maybe there's another way to look at that language also but I think the two Notions we can go back with of looking at embracing and
083looking at what inclusion you know a way to really capture that would that be helpful Jill yes and I agree on both counts thank you okay John I I think uh you guys just grasped it there's academic inclusion and social inclusion right and that that's kind of what you're trying to solidify there so so I'm a little worried that we're watering down this topic okay I think that what we're what we're looking at and and I hear surely what you're saying inclusion that's goal area too Jill I think your concern correct me if I'm wrong was under to be the action item right the idea of systematic inequities and that was your concern the use of the language inequities that what I was kind of asking do you have a different term there that would
084capture what you're talking about I'm not asking for that language to be removed I'm asking for an augmentation so I want additional language so that we have also the positive um so that I and I again I don't I don't have a specific suggestion at this moment um but I think your concern perhaps is that I'm trying to remove it and I'm not no no it's not my concern that's why I originally asked but then Alan jumped in I just wanted to make sure what what were you looking to do so we knew where we were looking to go um to be clear you feel there should be additive language under this action item that addresses your concerns more completely yes I think the action sets up I know there's a goal but action appears
085to set up a a work what the what work the committee needs to do and again I I understand the addressing systemic inequities but I think we've worked hard in special education to to not just see people as marginalized or disabled so I just want us to apply that same discipline here when we think about setting up the work of a committee so I think what Jill's asking for is some sort of seesaw balance between the idea of an inequity and inclusion of all Learners as equals right like their learning difference doesn't in inherently make them unequal it's how we go about their education right and do we see their education as being equal inequities right it's educational inequities but but that that was my question it it was what are we looking to do
086here because I think we kind of we went back up to goal area too so it's in 2B we're looking to find that balance um I would agree with Mrs mamman that I I would wouldn't want to remove systematic inequities because I don't think you want to water down the action but I do understand the need to balance it so that people don't inherently feel unequal right right that's a good point and that's something that we can use and um continue to build on as we develop the final docum anything else on goal two okay shall we move on to number three so goal area three Focus this is in many ways was the through line for every conversation that we had with the steering committee from the very first time that they came together
087there was this want to make sure that there was there was real balance in how students were exposed to education what was valued what the were desired outcomes would be and so the goal area became articulated as developing a balanced definition of Student Success Through the portrait of the graduates was an explicit place where they wanted connect to that that Vision that portrait that was coming out from the other committee and we have uh three different strategies one ensuring District values are operationalized across all schools some want to make sure that there was explicit ways for this work to Cascade down into schools develop systems to measure and form and enhance implementation of the portrait of the graduates I think the group was saying it's not just enough to have a portrait of The Graduate
088and hope that it happens but there has to there have to be systems in place to know whether you're making progress on that and then lastly have to take stock of all of the work going on inside the district curricular School programming Student Life to ensure a focus on service citizenship post-secondary opportunities to have a broader stance of um making sure that all those were fun funneling towards that balanced definition of Student Success obviously a number of actions under each of these that have uh that the staff administrators staff have been working on so reactions questions thoughts I had a brief question and this may be something that doesn't fit here so if I where I don't belong just let me know this will be a later discussion I apologize I just am questioning or
089have a question with the port to The Graduate and I know that's still a work in progress and I haven't been part of it so maybe this will come later but but when I see this what I don't know is I understand we want to modify our policies and practices I don't understand how this feedback loop works with the practices or with the portra of The Graduate excuse me in essence right now if we have grades and we have teachers and we have certain grades and certain SAT scores you can in theory tie that back to the performance of the teaching with the the portrait of The Graduate how do we tie back the performance of the teachers in in in creating this portrait so I just don't see how we're able to measure um
090the impact of our you know teaching and of our curriculum and how that works into the end product and again that may be information that's coming I apologize but we we were asked for just impact and or you know input and responses to these prompts when I see por of The Graduate I just don't know how we measure the implementation of this from our our staff and our curriculum I think that that's a a a really insightful question and I can uh I can answer from the Viewpoint of what other districts are doing I think darian's early into its Journey with with porra The Graduate as you were pointing out Mr Brown uh what some districts have done to is is that they've created opportunities along the educational curriculum or Contin for students to demonstrate
091where they whether they've achieved Mastery on whatever the skill competency or disposition and they have created for example Performance tasks that help to make students thinking visible and therefore the work of of faculty and staff visible along that and they they create benchmarks so here's where we expect students to demonstrate competency on this disposition that's laid out in the portrait of The Graduate and at this grade level here's how much they will have changed and they they create a mechan a system of um of ways to monitor for that very purpose because often districts don't have when they first come up with a portrait of The Graduate they often don't have a way of monitoring measuring and and really there is no feedback loop that that fits in the The Districts that I see making
092quite a bit of pro progress on this and where they're leveraging portraits of The Graduate quite artfully to push the work is where they've created mechanisms for that feedback loop that you're asking about and Dr Lemon just to build on that can you give us some examples of what the benchmarks and demonstrated um results could look like some more in the end result we don't know what the portrait final portrait of The Graduate is at this point but what would those benchmarks look like for us to use as assessment so the uh they tend to in the form of performance tasks where it they're they're not pen and paper tests per se there students are being asked to demonstrate something for example there might be a high school where student where one of the portrait
093of The Graduate competencies and dispositions is the ability to collaborate and solving a problem so the at the 10th grade this High School in the spring takes its science and social studies classes puts them together and puts them in the midst of an interdisciplinary project where students are randomly assigned to small groups and over the course of the semester they have to come up with a solution to the problem that's been formed to them and they have to both solve the problem but they also have to evolve as a group and then at the end of the group they have to reflect on what they've learned about collaborating they have to demonstrate that they in fact elaborated they have to and they have to evaluate their colleagues I've seen that done but there are lots
094of ways that that's happened my my uh son is in a district that does this and one of the things that uh is they weave it into everything one of the more provocative experiences I've had with Mo own son is where he said hey would you mind and he was a midyear freshman he said would you mind reviewing this essay for me I said what do you mean because I was a little surprised because my son doesn't usually bring me things and say help me at it and he would had been charged as all freshmen were charged at the semester first end of first semester to identify two competencies articulated in The Portrait of the graduate and to identify how they had learned and grown in those first four months of the school year and
095he was had written this sympathic essay where he recognized he he wasn't collaborating particularly well and it and had gotten in trouble and he was becoming a deficit in his collaboration with his team I'm sure he would love me telling everybody in darianne about this so that it's recorded but uh it was This brilliant moment where he had to step back and reflect not just on each individual course but how was he growing as an individual so there are lots of examples but most of them tend to uh connect to per some system of performance assessments that are woven organically into the um into the school calendar so if I could just make a week connection another like another example might be you could have culminating culminating experiences at the end of each School level
096grade five 8 and 12 that assesses how we do it moving forward and then I just want to make a a we connection back to goal one as David said so how do we if if we want students to be innovators um and collaborators and problem solvers back on teaching and learning when we're defining teaching and learning what the teachers are doing what the curriculum is you can't just do that without making sure those things are in place so that's sort of sort of a connection through through it all any other questions comments on goal three excuse I just had um on 3C and the you speak leverage the values this is under the action leverage the values associated with the for The Graduate to enhance student service and citizenship and I was curious if
097the committee had a a vision for that or ideas about that and how would how would we Foster that in the Darian Public Schools I'll just be simple and say that is the work okay I mean I have ideas that's why yeah that that's just that is the work okay great thanks so if we're done with oh Jill sorry just have a question for the board if 3C we don't have to answer it today um but that we do want to focus on service citizenship and post-secondary opportunities um I just think the board should reflect on that before signing off T so I agree and it's not that I'm opposed to it and I understand um for some students specifically that they post-se secondary opportunities are actually a really a legal if not a moral
098mandate but I I think we need to we need to really focus on what do postsecondary opportunities mean and what's again our role as a public school um I just think that that's a tricky but important conversation so you're looking more of a definition of what is meant by postsecondary opportunities no I what I'm looking for is if we go back to our vision statement right now as it is it's we're preparing kids for the changing world tomorrow so clearly we're saying we're preparing them to go out currently we talk about going out into society and be a participating member postsecondary opportunities I I think we need to know what that means because that seems um more narrow than going out into society and you know preparing to be productive members that post-secondary I I'd
099like yeah maybe it's a definition sorry Deb as I talk through it but I agree with Jill even though we might be coming at it at different ways what does that mean I want to be really careful that what we're not saying is well we're preparing all kids to go to college that might not be all kids college path you know college might not be their path is it our job to prepare kids for trades and that's a really laudable um path but is that our job like I I just think we need to know what we mean by that post-secondary opportunities versus what we have now which is to go out to be participating members of society and maybe those are the same things but it feels a little more narrow to me and
100and that could be my own interpretation I'm open to it but I I agree at least with that one with Mrs Mamon that we we should press upon it a bit to understand what that means perhaps Dr lemons or Dr ad can yeah it's not I I agree car it's not meant to be that narrow okay yeah I think I think that the steering committee was hoping that it would be interpreted broadly purposely not not post-secondary opportunities as necessarily Collegiate just to make yeah so I guess that's where I'm kind of stuck is in terms of going out into society like you know we have our our military services contacts every year US every year trade organizations I I that I'm I'm struggling and and again maybe it's just me maybe it's my issues with
101language but I would like to explore it a little bit more so charlee did you want to add something I just I believe the intention also of the language ter was also about exactly what um Richard was saying was about the broadness of post-secondary it's what do we how do we prepare students for whatever their choices are after they graduate um or within that time so it was the broadness is if it is postsecondary for college experience if it is for work if it is a year off whatever the broadness is of what we're doing and how we prepare them um to move on to whatever their choice um of pro secondary experience is it wasn't to limit it was really to be that broad so it may be vocational you know it may be
102Workforce um it may be time off but is really to look at the broadness of that as we look at our students so just a question to those who are on the committee because I know we now we have several people um board members and staff did we look at that prior language we have of preparing students to go out into um so and be participating members of society and how that differs from this current language and was there anything meant different by it Jill I'll I'll speak specifically to that phrase for a second Tara um one of the drivers for that phrase was the cultural focus in this town on getting into college um and we were looking to broaden you know again part of that broadening the definition of success and broadening the
103idea of what a post-secondary opportunity might be um this actually is one of those things that came from one of our students and and that student spoke very compellingly on uh that cultural Focus within deran so so if we haven't captured that it's important to know that because that was one of the drivers here specifically for that phrase um in terms of of looking at you know what we have certainly we did uh look at at the existing documentation as part of the process um but I I can't speak too specifically why that was why we didn't hold that language I can add just a little bit to that Tara there was whenever we were talking about um almost obligations that it sounded like we were making kids feel like they have to contribute to
104society or to the world world or so every time anything came up like that it was um it was very hard to reach consensus in our group um as to what language to use because it made it sound like um I think someone used the word intrinsic earlier it's like trying to balance the intrinsic value of school so students are positioned to do whatever they would like to do instead of putting it on them of what was expected for them to do not sure if I'm saying that that well but that's um I just remember coming lot I I think you're saying it great I'm not sure how that balances with citizenship which inherently has an obligation to it right if you're a citizen you have an obligation to your Society so I I don't
105I don't know that again it's just me one of nine reading it but I think the idea of um part of the reason in in my understanding of public schools is that we spend money and time and all this on our citizen R because we want kids to go out and chase their dreams but there also is an obligation like we educate people so that they are able to knowledgeably um participate in the world around them so and and so I think there is a bit of an obligation in there or or at least the intent of public schools was to have an informed citizenry so that so that I don't know Chris is laughing because I think he knows what I'm trying to say but I I sometimes in this world obligation feels differently
106but in terms of the context of a public school and citizenry I think obligation is less of a burden to bear and more of a responsibility and so I I totally agree getting away from what Jill referenced and and I think she's saying the committee you know you have an obligation to go out and do something for us but there is a sort of responsibility in being a citizen and a responsibility to an educ for which the community has invested in um so I I wouldn't want to Veer too far from that it's not it's like I tell my own kids it's not just whatever makes you happy there's some responsibility in there as well so if we could find a good way to balance that or maybe tease that out a bit I think
107that that would be valuable so we can work on that as we get the document for the board anything else on goal three so we'll move on to number four so goal area four was about making sure that you continued to support a world class professional staff the I think that it was the belief that you have an amazing uh collection of Educators who are within Darian public schools and it was to make sure that you continue to grow your existing professionals that you continue to recruit and retain the best professionals so it was a making sure that you're making the the correlate investments in your professional Capital that you're so that they can uh deliver on everything that you've articulated before so expanding the professional capacity of staff is is how it's stated as
108the goal area the 4A exploring ways to improve the district's professional learning culture and practices so is making sure to try to go at the the actual working conditions and the ways of supporting teachers as uh they develop ensuring that the professional Learning System promotes continuous growth and support and then uh attracting and retaining diverse Educators that emerged in the conversation uh relatively early in the discourse of the planning committee and then evaluate and adapt current onboarding system to identify additional supports for teachers including informal mentors it's making sure as you do uh attract and higher that you have um a robust system that brings them Health in a healthy way into the community and then obviously number of actions that were articulated by the team in order to accomplish that so questions comments feedback
109Dr lemons could you just um the acronym RC under 4C could you just spell that out for me since I don't know what that stands for uh so the um the state set up a few decades ago Regional Education Service Centers resks to provide um cross District capacity and kind of to basically pull resources and be able to provide high quality resources to entire regions I'm not sure of I'm not sure which is your risk Dr adley we have okay okay questions on go four anything so I have one under 4B under the action item offer differentiated professional learning that allows teachers to balance professional personal professional learning needs and districts initiatives my question is I didn't love that phrase but aren't those two things tied together somewhat I mean they're not mutually exclusive correct
110I mean they should the goals should those two goals should align yes um this this the secret of that is in the sweet spot uh and the Effy part where you feel it's not uncommon here or anywhere else right for a staff member to think what he or she needs versus what the district needs are different and when you have that in inherently a staff member uh may not or under those situations feel as if they're major particularly M so uh we know in goal setting and research would tell us that if uh the teacher the staff member is invested in their own goals and those are supported um those are the best types of of goals so the secret is getting in the line and matching that to the to the teacher goals as
111well which you may think well if it's curriculum isn't that the case anyway well it's just not quite as simple as that but but that's The Sweet Spot we're looking for anything else on goal four I don't see anything so we will move on to goal five so go five in many ways is about uh systems development and making sure that there's an infrastructure for carrying out the work that you want to carry out the the goal was articulated by the steering committee as developing and enhancing systems to promote efficiency coherence and communication strategy 5A establish effective and open lines of communication among all stakeholders this was a big part of the discourse with the steering committee making sure that communication was going well uh align District's guiding documents and Communications with his mission vision
112core values to Foster coherence I think the idea here was to make sure that uh once the board had adopted some version of those statements that they began to penetrate through the organization they began to show up whether it was in um reports or other for other documents that were being shared with the with the um Community John so when we uh talk about stakeholders in 5A are we talking stakeholders within the school Community or is it beyond that within the broader Daran Community if I remember accurately and I ask anybody who was else I think it was broad stakeholders I think there was quite a bit of thought about communication within the community I mean within the education community and without within the EMB entire town community remember so oh I'm sorry I just
113gonna follow up my bad um so if we could just if we could just clarify that a little further put a note for you know so we don't have to ask that question again that'd be great so this goes back to some of what Mr Brown was talking about the goal area five based on the action items it looks like the goal is actually developing and enhancing systems to promote efficiency and coherence in communication we have and communication um but as written it feels to me like efficiency is a goal coherence is a goal communication is a goal and so but the action items all seem to be around communication so I'm just just a question because efficiency in and of itself as a goal here seems odd um I I oh sorry j go
114ahead by my recollection when when the goal initially started out uh it was truly to look at efficiency coherence and communication that this this goal came from um looking at kind of the entire District operational structure and where we might need to to improve um so I kind of think to that end um some of the work that rich was doing arguably could go underneath this goal in terms of rethinking how his Finance back office functions um if we're going to continue with that work based on how the goal is written that's probably where I would put it um and I think it's big enough and important enough work that I would like to see it in in a strp plan because I think um but anyway but to your point I believe it was
115meant to be more expansive as it was originally drafted uh what is here is Communications and that's fine if we want to stay Communications then I think we could change the language of a goal so my question around it wise brought it up I think of efficiency is a um left undefined is a very tricky goal for a school system and it can be co-opted to mean too many things so I would need to understand as if this is going to be a goal in and of itself broadly because efficiency efficiency can go poorly in some areas and efficiency can be great in other areas so I if this is a standalone goal especially coherence seems to go with communication it but I would really need to understand efficiency before I would approve that as
116part of a strategic plan um within a school system I would think the way it is WR written um this may actually be one of the and I'm not suggesting we we do all this but uh this may actually be one of the goal areas where you can literally D I say drop out that word of efficiency um potentially but I need you know people to come well I do agree with Tara because it's in the the title of the goal but I don't know how it pertains to what the action is within the goal and it seems to be if we're going to be using efficiency it might need to be separated out into something yeah and to Jill's point it was meant by the committee as a broader area for a goal I'm
117willing to hear that but I need to know what that means this at the moment all I see is efficiency within communication I'm totally happy with that because an efficiency is defined but well and we can change it to say efficient communication but when you just use it as a standalone word it becomes a very broad broadly defined term so if we want that's great but so what I don't want to do is I don't want to you know discount what the committee was after but maybe Jill Sarah Katie Shirley someone can tell me what people meant by efficiency here this when it was originally conceived this had a lot to do with the transition from um sort of more traditional kind of mom and popish operational structures to more sophisticated operational structures and that
118that does comprise a lot of things it's what your back office looks like in terms of what computer systems you use how they integrate with others how your um you know how your uh communication is a part of that but how you know data talks to data how systems talk to systems uh so not having you know making sure that you're um um it's you know why I'm asking questions about alignment you wouldn't have values at the elementary school that didn't match values at the at the high school you we stripped out the that last part and put it into a separate goal so this really should be looking at sort of the work of the district more central office um and how we are moving to a more sophisticated means of operation again whether
119it's in systems and pro systems and processes for the most part um so Tara to clarify we were in different groups working on different Shirley and I were on well right Shirley we were on Wellness culture y culture Wellness whatever came out so it may be best to go back Richard could go back to the group that was sort of teasing this area out I don't think Sarah you were on it right no and Jill you were you on this one Jill no no I wasn't that may be helpful for Richard to go back and sort of just I know we have notes and stuff on that um just to how it got where it is now so that would be kind of as long as someone could help Define that to me because I
120hear what everyone's saying but I can educate a child efficiently but not well I can communicate efficiently but not well and I do think if what we're looking at as a more sophisticated system which I would argue with a hundred million do budget we should have at this point right and or we should be working towards if we don't then a more sophisticated business management system is a clearer goal than efficiency because efficiency like I said can be a positive or A negative I can do a lot of things efficiently but not well and so without defining it that term is problematic for me and the significantly so yeah I think it's good to see what they what the sort of Genesis of their of their conversation was around this to see to make sure
121we're capturing and understanding what it is they meant to put forward in this area Miss akman I hear you and I agree with efficiency my only thought in response would be efficiency is not just from the school even though this is our goals and objectives but we need to be conscious of efficiency for the users of that communication um so there's sort of a we need to keep that perspective in mind as we review this so yeah we yes we could have a system that's efficiently sending out 100 emails to each parent each day it's not going to do anything so we need to keep in perspective that you know it's the efficiency of the user as well good job yeah I just looked up the word efficient because some of tera's comments got me
122thinking and it's usually word worded in a positive manner you know to to to reach positive goals in a well organized and competent way so just um just so as we dig into some of this language it's it's helpful to understand the true meaning behind it yeah true and I think that's why it's so important that we Define it and we Define our intent with it because I do think um it's meant that way but in practice we could have someone saying well I can find a more efficient way for you to educate that child but I think in some of our most complicated cases that wouldn't achieve our other goals um so I just think we need to Define it so maybe it's going back to that group maybe it's as a board what
123do we want to do with this word do we want to tease it out more um I understand Mrs mammon's point about a more sophisticated management system I think that's in some ways more specific and Powerful um but I'm uncomfortable not knowing this word means in a strategic plan Sarah so I think am I yeah so I think that the part of the definition of it was more like streamlining like we're just there information is in five different places currently can we streamline that to have it just be in in one place so that whatever stakeholder is looking for whatever information that it's easily found um and it just I think that's the that's the intent of the word efficiency rather than you know the negative commentation so to Sarah uh Mrs parent choice and
124Mr Brown's point I understand those and agree with both of those as they relate to communication and that's why I was asking is efficiency a goal on its own or is it related to communication and I think that's where some of Mr Brown's points earlier were powerful on how we word things so efficiency in terms of communication I'm very comfortable that's not how this goal reads to me at the moment it it reades a standalone and I think that's what Jill's saying whatever this group was efficiency in and of itself was Standalone so we should tease that out and I think the the intent of this group and while I was not part of this group just in there reporting back was that it was efficiency in communication not necessarily efficiency in other areas so
125Sarah and Jill have different perspectives even being on the group on what it meant so Richard maybe you could I I will I all of this is incredibly useful feedback what I will do is is go back to all them all the notes from meetings and all the reporting out I do think that at times the the group was really focused on Communications and pro that probably Aid up the majority of the thinking time there was also some want for it to be not just Communications but I think that the the emphasis on Communications is why there's a little bit of tension and are we talking just about Communications are we talking about other systems and how does efficiency play in so we will we will do that I I'm wondering given that there are
126two more areas that are not yet visited but we're coming close to the end would it be possible to get guidance from the board in terms of how you want to proceed after today's session do you want a smaller do you want um Alan Chris and myself to go off and to incorporate what you've suggested or document it do you want a subcommittee of the board to review all of this feedback and bring it together I I guess I'm trying to I'm looking for some guidance of what how you want to pursue the um continued conversation and the continued work towards a refined document well the first question I would have is I'm sort of anticipating um to get the board's pleasure if they want to continue for a we bit because you're doing good
127work here as far as I con turn um that might be the first question um unless I'm missing something about your availability Richard or not I can I I am supposed to be going into another meeting but I can uh I can stay on till 10:15 does the board want to continue the discussion to try to get through the rest of the goals I would sorry get through the rest of them so that we have the feedback that Richard needs or however we're going to attack it how we're going to go forward I think we try to jam through the next two goals okay so we can stay on until 10:15 if everybody's in agreement I see no one that is opposed to that so let's continue on but to Richard's point I think we
128should be really clear on the next step why don't we talk until 10:05 and then from 101 10:05 to 10:15 agree to next steps I like Jill's suggestion yeah and I think what the Board needs to see the the complete document and um continue the discussion so if there are things that need to be modified we would get them modified but let's continue on with Goal five are we on goal six we two more goal areas left goal area six is about facilities improving school facilities for student safety and access to learning uh and this one is just a single strategy ensure that the configuration and condition of the district's physical facilities provide secure and supportive environments for teaching and learning I think there was a want to make sure that both safety in teaching
129and learning were Incorporated within this and that there there was work and and there was also an acknowledgement that there was work the board has been doing for a long time and is continuing to do in terms of facilities so I'll come out of share mode in order to capture suggestions feedback questions I would just argue the first and the last Point um I think the last Point Mr Lynch does very well and consistently and then the first one I think we may be a little beyond that so I'm not sure whether those two need to remain and you're talking Dave about complete the AR architectural study to remove the Portables and evaluate the school libraries uh yeah so I I mean we've we've done the architectural I believe so I think we're a little
130Beyond architectural per se the scope with that word and then exploring energy conservation practice I think Mr Lynch does that all day so I'm not sure how that would be a different different than what we're already doing well I see Mike on I mean maybe Mike can speak to that I know Mike does many things all day I don't want to limit what he does but I know that's one of doing that but um I don't know if he wants to add anything there but I guess I guess the the board can consider those points did you want me to comment de sure I mean specific I I wanted to kind of get the explored the energy conservation practices because I really haven't had that discussion with either uh Dr adley and and rich rle
131or with the uh District facilities committee document it might Foster more dialogue so just to be sure like you requested you you would like this phrase to be contained in this go uh yes please thank you very much Mr Lynch thank you any other questions comments on goal six I don't see any I I just had a quick one on the um the measures the completion of a five-year building condition survey so it's with contained within years one to five is there was there any thought to when the committee thought that should take place it seems to be a very broad range of time I'm trying to see where you're looking um under measures and it's on the under the first well it's under goal six completion of the fiveyear building condition survey I think
132what we tried to do so is that sort of the master plan Revisited is that what we looking at yes in many ways yes and was there any thought to it just there seems to be a lot going on when it would make sense to have that completed or is it just within that one to five years at any point we're thinking of the the the 2021 202 school year okay so maybe that's like year one two okay thank you thanks Mike anything else on goal six so I guess we can move on to goal seven so goal seven at one point there was talk about this being linked with facilities and and the steering committee uh and the team ultimately extracted it from uh the facilities to to put technology as a seventh goal
133in and of itself so improving technology to support teaching and learning goal 7A ensure strategic utilization of technology to enrich support and Inspire teaching and learning 7B establish and manage a secure reliable and dynamic technology system for Effective and efficient District Operations uh so the 7A is really that technology that's driving teaching and learning and 7B is all of the technology that uh might be running in the back office but the the essential work that technology has to do to help promote an effective organization John I was just wondering how the committee thought about how this might overlap with goal area five when we were talking about efficiency in systems and that sort of thing so there where it says efficiencies this was my group um that that's more back office uh I'm sorry not
134even back office but the like the network infrastru structure it infrastructure so you're looking to make sure that you have all of the hardware that you need and that the Ws and lands and whatever we use today um so that differs from data management systems and goal area five or I mean in goal area five well it doesn't have to it doesn't have to yes I I think really I think we need a a place for data management systems and if we want to put it here in seven that's fine um that's also an appropriate place just depends on what the driver is if the driver is the you know the anyway I guess I guess I would try to delineate or combine you know if there is overlap that would be my recommendation so
135I think um I I a couple thoughts on this and and and John thank you because that's my exact point with efficiency efficiency and technology is is probably a great spot to put efficiency um I also think with the data management some of that that's around teaching and learning might go to how we manage our students needs it might need to show up in both goals right one is a need base for teaching and learning and one is a technological base um and my only thing on this goal seven is are we limiting ourselves by saying improving technology right because once you improve upon it are you done or should it really be that you're ensuring robust technology because that's a more enduring goal to me and and you're always you're always kind of chasing
136that goal rather than improving we could improve tomorrow and be like oh we satisfied right but I don't think that's what the intent of this goal so those would be my three thoughts around this goal and I just add on that like when I looked at this I I wanted to know are we continually assessing the hardware that the district is using and if there are ways to improve upon that how does that tie into the this specific goal because that that aspect of technology is continually changing and not to say that we should be continually changing our type of Technology but we should be continually assessing whether it is the most efficient and effective technology for the district um I'm looking at 7B especially but both 7A and 7B and you when we look
137at the networking infrastructure and the wires and the different routers and devices that are throughout the building bus um I know facilities has always looked at the actual buildings themselves but we've you know dealt many times with the wiring and the HVAC and many of the other systems that are in the buildings um as we think about moving forward and who's going to look at this it would seem we may want to as a board think about looking at the role of the facilities subcommittee uh as it exists and maybe some of our traditional things as technology has evolved some of these discussions maybe properly belong in that subgroup to do a lot of this work um in terms of facilities and systems and what the overall infrastructure is that gets built the same way
138we would do the actual you brick and mortar buildings um so in terms of next steps I'm throwing that out there um that that's what jumps to mind as I'm reviewing this Jill because to all of the points made before technology does under underpin a lot of what we do there was a there was a debate at the at the steering committee about whether or not we should pull technology out as an isolated goal or or not um and so some of these questions are very reasonable and the board may decide um that you know it doesn't want technology to sit as a goal the way that it does today I think you know for example 7B could be a part of an efficient if we broaden goal 5 7B could be a part of
139an efficient system um so to that end I think I think the overall question is of course technology underlies all of these things do you want it isolated as its own body of work or do you want it embedded um by function where it belongs um again the steering committee made the decision to pull it out because of its relative importance both on a on a uh a financial and a level of effort an impact scale um so all do all of those statements are true I'll just add one in that that um the the goal itself was u reconfigured a number of times um and proov it may not be the actual U scriptor we need um but there was a sense from my entry plan through all the discussions we had that there
140were areas in in this area that we really did want to improve on um but that being said all the comments of board have made are real appropriate for this I I I personally do think it should be a separate goal because over the past few months we've seen how essential technology is and to ensure that we have a robust system in place for our students I I think I still want it to be a standalone goal so I would agree with um Deb and and I'm assuming Jill since you were on this committee that this should be a standalone goal I think that technology is something we're learning about so quickly and and given covid its role in education is now probably forever changed um and So eventually it may dissipate between all other
141goal areas but at this point there's still so much learning to do and financial investment involved in it that I think it's it's probably important to get it to get the goal right but to have it as a standalone goal Jill you're sorry have to unmute thank you this question applies to multiple goals and and Richard has heard me ask it before as of a couple others but um I'd love to see us explicitly in this plan take some time to reflect on the learnings from covid I think we have learnings in technology we have learnings in teaching and learning and perhaps other places um and while I'm sure that's intended in all of the work the Administration has set up for the next couple of years I think it's so important that I'd love
142to see it recognized in this plan anything else on goal seven I don't see anybody's hands raised so did we want to take a moment to just talk about next step and someone mentioned a a subcommittee maybe that was Dr lemons I can't remember who but do we want the full board to see another round of this document what what are the what is the view of the board in terms of The Next Step John so I just wanted to give you my personal view on how I viewed today and I was quiet because I was just absorbing more than um you know contributing because it was our first read as Mr Brown pointed out so you know I'd love to use the next few weeks to reflect on this discussion kind of look at
143it now with the perspective that was given by the members that sat on the Strategic committee um I would suggest that you know Dr adley um you know Chris and Dr lemons like look at this and and in in our comments and kind of compile them if they could over that time frame um you know I I I kind of take a step back and this is really important to Allan and Chris this document because that's going to guide them you know we hired them to execute and we you know this is going to be our adopted plan but this is a tool that they're going to use for years to come so I'd love to come back to the next meeting with their strong recommendations around some of the comments that we made and
144then we can all um I guess the last the last point I would make is maybe I suggest our subcommittee is those that sat on the Strategic IC planning committee um and try to get down to the meaning of some of this um and then as a board we would react to their um changes and recommendations Tara so I agree with most of what John um recommended there I think Alan and Chris and and Richard if you could go back and kind of synthesize what we do I do think that this has sat in subcommittees for a long time and this is the decision of the board and so I think we could go one of two ways um I think either we have another special meeting because this really can't be embedded in a
145Tuesday night meeting or a budget meeting it's just too much and we do it as the nine of us because the nine of us have to do this or I would suggest a committee that that wasn't the steering committee because they've sat with this for so long and the Board needs eyes I'm less inclined to go that way I actually think at this point it's a commit the board as a committee should do this um with um you know correlating what what you guys heard today but I think at some point and and please I appreciate all the work that the the strategic planning committee has come but but that wasn't a group really we really put together we assigned members to so I think at this point the nine of us have to kind
146of wrap our hands around it so I would either do it as my first suggestion would be for the nine of us to get back together as a special meeting with some um pulling together some of this information but if we need a subcommittee I would at least recommend that you have some new voices in there um because you're going to need the board to come to consensus on this so Tara just to be clear so we know what your view is your view is really a special meeting that is your preference my preference would be a special meeting with the nine of us and I know it's laborious during budget season but I do think the nine of us have to come to consensus on this so we could have a committee report back
147to us but it it's just another step at this point sorry and I agree Tara I I didn't verbalize it well I just thought the three that had worked on the Strategic plan could impart their opinions of some of the questions of the content how it was derived to Dr lemons and Dr adley to better inform them as they kind of develop some of the changes and modifications but I agree I think I think all nine of us should get together for a special meeting okay so thank you Katie oh hi um I agree that it should be the nine of us I I'm wondering for efficiency's sake if would be helpful for Richard Allan and maybe Chris to redline some of the areas where we've raised some questions and start the process of editing
148for us to review it just gives us a launching pad to start discussions next time that's a great idea were you looking to have that in advance so something yes okay so something in advance of the next special yeah just sort of synthesize our thoughts and maybe get us going so we can just sort of start at those places and and see where we were and what you guys have synthesized from what we've said today okay so Katie you're you're also in agreement with a a special meeting of the full board okay thank you oh Dave go ahead Dave sorry um I would also argue for a special meeting um I would argue against efficiency here which is weird but the reason for that is is we have five to 10 years this is going
149to be our guid post the administration um if we have to spend a few meetings if we have to spend five or six you know I don't want to but if we do uh I think this is something people should get in and fight and it's going to take a lot of time we need to get this right so I don't think this is something we can bang through in a meeting or a couple meetings it may take longer um and I think that's an important consideration that it should be something that's done uh in a thoughtful and and perhaps drawn out process so I just want to LEAP to get this done just to get it done people spent a year on this it's going to guide for a long time and I think
150we need to take the time and put that in as a board thanks Dave Sarah Jill do you I I would just agree that you know going back to a subc committee doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense it just adds another step I think if we can all work as the nine of us um and have Chris and Allan um and Dr lemons go back um with what we've talked about today and you know edit revise and then come back to us would be great okay Dennis and Joel does that sound good to you okay thank you and Dr Aly just I just wanted to make a comment thanks to Richard um I wish you could kick this mask off tonight because honestly this this work um uh I appreciate all your
151feedback this works exciting to me um because the big goals the the general areas that people spent time on U the guid documents and Sal information Vision goals um I'm excited about the opportunities that that that that may provide the district yourselves as a board and ultimately to our children um because that provides a uh for me if I had a nice framework to continue the next level of work so I just want to let you know I'm excited about that um I know we we're in the details and the week this morning but I appreciate that because we have to U but anyway I want to appreciate your time and uh Devotion to this and I'm excited about the what the product will do and actually the work that it will generate yes thank
152you Dr lemons and thank a big thank you to the whole the strategic planning committee for all their hard work bringing this document to the board um so we can move on to the next agenda item thank you Dr lemons for your time thank you for all of your feedback this is incredible for moving it forward thank you um so the next agenda item is public comment good morning if you would like to speak during public comment please click the participants icon on 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 number appears when it is your turn to speak the facilitator will identify you and announce that you're unmuted for public comments
153once recognized and unmuted please state your name and address you will have up to three minutes to comment there are no raised hands at this time okay thank you so can I have a motion to adjourn John seconded by Sarah all in favor that's unanimous thank you every holidays everybody happy holidays bye I want to make sure you