001this is the policy and instruction subcommittee for the East hatam Board of Education the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right [Music] um there are and I think most of you know this but I just want to get it on the record there are more things on the working dock than we are ever going to get to tonight um and the we may not even get to the things that are all on the agenda but um I wanted to just make the point that U this is a running document now and I delete stuff we finish and add stuff
002as we go along I add stuff basically when I have the time to do the research or the work and so that's why there's more than we've gotten to um and more than we're likely to get to tonight but one hopes that we'll get things done and the first thing on the agenda is policy nondiscrimination and um this is a another kind of offshoot if I remember correctly of the title 9 changes and stuff like that um my suggestion is that we adopt C's version of this and as is typical I have marked some uh pretty minor changes um some of which are just pro- foral like putting the name of the district where there was a blank that kind of thing um and I've also uh added the superintendent as someone who would or
003could be notified of certain situations um I think in a district this small we don't have layers and layers of administrative staff um what do we have I think five all told so it makes no sense not to have the superintendent at least pretty well directly notified in most situations even if um the superintendent is not directly involved all the time in working things out so um if you have any questions it's it you know I I followed the same procedure I've been using which is anything I'm added is in green type the cape stuff is in blue type anything I'm suggesting we delete is readed with a strike through I have a couple questions mostly for my own yeah understanding that's F so it's the district compliance officer or the superintendent of schools we
004don't have a district compliance we have to have one one we have to name one yeah it's law um I didn't fully understand that so um the nice lady on my right explained it to me how who designates that person and what's okay I'll just leave it to you I think you'll probably answer all my questions so in the budget for next year compliance is a priority Falls right with all of our policies but in particular this one really delineates what that compliance has to verify that is in line with legislation so who do you hire that person does the board hire that person you hire me and you hire it's like a staff M I basically hire everybody else works for me yeah superintendent normally I think um the hire recommends The Hires and
005the board does a sort of proor approval uh barring something really strange you know like she recommends a teacher and one person on the board knows something evil about that recommended teacher and brings it to the table other than something crazy like that so again for my understanding I apologize um once we have a compliance officer they are the person that handles everything and then the superintendent would step in if asked or needed okay cool and you know I I know I say this all time don't ever um feel like you have to apologize for asking questions because the worst thing that could possibly happen is that somebody who might happen to listen to this will find something out that they don't know either because you asked the same question they were thinking about so
006I consider that a public service don't worry about it um any other questions comments concerns yes uh on the first paragraph from basically non-discrimination in schools and classroom practices um just getting into it I people think it's redundant or get explained to but um removing the phrase gender identity or expression because we already have gender in there so it's just and my reason being is because if we're um if we're on the next on the next if we're um what is the word if that's going on the next thing it's it's basically we're saying without if we're acknowledging that as discrimination or is that saying the next paragraph when we talk about without discrimination um of counseling assistance employment Athletics is that to be understood that that would be saying of any ident if you
007identify as anything Athletics you know it could be either one um I think I can offer two suggestions in responses then I'm going to ask Dr Rito to check me and see if I know what I'm talking about here um first of all I believe that language is mandated in the law so does gender identity yep that's language mandated in law so it doesn't matter if we like it or not sure um the other thing is I don't think and again Dr deito would have to clarify but I don't think that there's a direct connection ction between that language and permission for um someone with a a different gender identity or expression getting onto a sports team that would typically be the opposite of what they are claiming they are you know so I I
008think of a if a young man who identifies as female um I don't think that that would require us to to let him play for example on a girls basketball team I don't know that but I don't think it would so to that point it just says the district shall provide to all students without discrimination offerings right offerings to particip all of that Athletics so we do offer all of that but the first point it was already in your in the original policy because it's it's written in law if you go back two pages yeah I saw yeah including G identity and expression that was already on the board it's already on the current policy it's not like something new they just changed the order of it sure it's just so that as a district
009we're not holding any of this against a student we serve or anybody that we serve that's that's really that we're not targeting them because of any of this so to your point uh Jim what you were saying is we're we're this necessarily doesn't that we could say on girl Sports now where would that be defined I don't know that it is defined in here that and and I think that's why I think it's open and I think Dr deo's point is well taken um we can't have a boy basketball team if we don't have a girls basketball team but that doesn't mean we have to let boys play on the girls basketball team those are two separate things and that's that's so okay and that's why I was just looking for clarification because I was
010just if thinking if if we're acknowledging that as part of discrimination if and then we're saying districts shall provide without discrimination you know Athletics it's just like me to believe that it was saying you kind of all intertwin it's it's it's just access just like the next sentence District shall provide equal access to Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups if they're asking to use the facilities they're included in here it's part of legislation so that's the language it's coming from it's not coming from this District just leads it to see that's how I was just you know assuming it's the way that it is laid out it's to say if okay if a you know a guy you know is identifying as a woman and then goes to says I want to go play
011on the girls volleyball team or whatnot then that would be discrimination not allow that again I'm not an attorney I don't think that's the case and part of the reason I don't think that's the case is that it doesn't expressly say that the other thing to note is that this already existed before what's happening politically um and the directive for any school district receiving funds is that we're not doing that that it's your biological sex is the team you can join right that's what we have to follow right right right so we just make sure they're line I just had a quick question too um just because I don't understand uh the this line where it's giving the the different categories is does the law state gender instead of sex why I'm just curious because
012that's what they wrote who the hell knows and I'm not being sarcastic to you I don't know why half the stuff gets written the way it does the only reason why it I'm asking is because you've got gender and then two two lines two words down it's gender identity so one is saying one denotes the actual sex from birth and then the other one is saying how you identify regard yourx at Birth and it's confusing to me because they're using them interchangeably I think it's an effort this is just my own thinking and I have no idea if I'm right I think it's part of the political correctness of the language and just taking the word sex out because that kind can give it a little more Nuance when that's has nothing to do with
013I just want understand this or that usage well and that's why originally that's why I was saying to strike it just because if we have already said gender was almost like I guess technically scien speaking there are inter individuals and other biological chromosomes that are happening in a body so I maybe just to do away with the binary and I just wanted to follow up and make sure um there are state and federal Pathways to either file AG grievance or to give um a pathway to either promote or not who plays on which sports team so this is just like a general thing that we follow and if there is individual the the in like persons or instances there's lawyers and Grievances and levels to take it to it's not just an open door saying
014you can come in regardless of who you are and who you identify as you don't get to choose what sports team you play for and I just didn't want to have that be some you know wishy-washy thing that might be able to be used if that was was perceived and I I think to be honest um because I'm I'm never going to mislead you I think it is Wishy washing and I think it probably does leave it open for someone to challenge it and say I identify as female and I want to play on the girls volleyball te um that doesn't mean they we have to let them um I think it also doesn't prevent us from letting them um that's why I feel somewhat safe because it's still letting us make some decisions here
015and then it becomes a question of are we willing to uh fight it out and and spend the money on attorneys if it comes to that well again the federal federal um directives are already in place for that very specific like that very specific one we all know and have seen that this in six months from now we have different federal and state guidance coming down from any way going any way with any language and when that happens we'll have to change it again so it doesn't say one way or the other it just it's left unaddressed and Bas and I think for our purposes right now we're all better off and happier um I think that if it did specify something someone was going to be mad about it you know someone was not
016going to like it that's fine again just going back to when I saw gender okay that's covered sexually covered cover and just almost seemed redundant I I think to some extent it is a little bit redundant I don't disagree with you um and just like I said with Jackie these are good questions there there are questions that people in the community will undoubtedly ask if they ever look at it someone will ask so it may it's healthy that we have the discussion and we have a point to say we actually had this conversation I'm not going to speak for other people but you can he what everybody said y okay um anything else folks forward covers my notes yeah um will we have to update this once we have a compliance officer similar to how
017we had to update the director people and use okay cool no this is this just names the office it it doesn't name the person okay which I think frankly makes a lot yeah I I will add one thing just in case anybody cares if you look at page five you'll see a bunch of things that are scratched out in the original model policy it's set up so you can choose which of these roles you're going to have due that yeah and I you know pick the one that seemed to make sense any other questions hearing no none can I have a motion to move this forward to the full board for a first hearing so second okay and any further discussion nope all right let's take a vote all in favor say I I I
018I okay um the next item is the uh suspension and expulsion policy for the district um the policy that we had is about 10 years old which in this business is sort of inent outdated yeah so again it becomes the same kind of thing um most of what is in the c um language uh I think makes sense for us and um again in an effort to prep and make us sufficient I went through and made some suggestions I don't think I made a lot I can't I I did this a while ago so I can't claim to remember exactly but it's the same thing whatever you know whatever um I'm suggesting we change I I uh put in green um I will add one detail before you guys really review it um in the
019law um it makes it clear that a single event can be called bullying yeah right when it started and I was an administrator at the time it had to be repeated and I think initially it even had to be repeated against the same person um and then it became repeated so if somebody was a bully uh one time to several people he's still a bully or she still a bully then it became it's only one event is enough to be called a bully um I prefer that understanding mostly because I want to preserve options for the school administration jod goler who you know revised this policy had it written as um repeated and I discussed it with him because it wasn't what I remembered in the law and he confirmed that it was something he
020he added based on his preference and he said that his concern was that the the focus on restorative justice as opposed to cumulative activity would get lost and I said well I'm concerned because I think there are possibly events where it's so bad the kid should be suspended should be removed for at some point from the community uh and I don't want the the administration to not have that option so I added some language to clarify that the board does support restorative justice that it is very much the preferred outcome and that suspension or expulsion would be a sort of last result for really serious stuff um I then sent that language to jod to get his feedback and he thought it was good I I got the impression he almost was thinking of adding
021it I don't know um so that's why you see sort of more green in some spots than you might otherwise see I also added um on page 27 a bullet point suggesting that not only should um the application of any discipline be fair in the sense that people aren't unfairly targeted because of race or religion or any of that but the opposite is also true I spent 15 years an assistant principal and I fought because I would not play the game and let the High School athletic uh star off the hook um and they got real mad at me and it was not pleasant for me but I held my line I actually suspended the front four of the hockey team the day of the state championship game because I saw them whipping on a
022kid who just happened to be walk by in the hallway and they didn't realize I was there I was right behind him and I saw one of the kids the captain swing his arm back and essentially punch the guy between the legs deliberately and I did not know at the time that that was the night of the game I knew that the game was coming up obviously but I didn't realize it was that night and I I got people screaming at me you got to let them play no I don't and I'm not going to so that language is because I was a little scarred from that experience having had it many times yep so I have a question regarding the conduct which may lead to dis disciplinary action that's one through 38 right and
02331 is the bullying thing which led to some of the changes right we have as a district other policies that lay out the rules of conduct we also have the student handbooks that lay out the rules of conduct is it repetitive do we need this extensive list of what could lead to disciplinary action and or suspension or expulsion if we already have our rules I think a a bunch of other places I I think if it's not stated outright in policy it leaves us up open to significant legal challenges we don't have it other places in policy the suspension and expulsion policy is that but I just I meant the the conduct I I know and I'm trying to say the susp ension and expulsion policy is the one that governs suspension and expulsion so
024saying that someone is doing a Bad Thing by doing X Y and Z and that they'll be sanctioned may not be enough to sustain a suspension or an expulsion if it's not in the suspension and expulsion policy this anchors the protocols and policies at the school level they refer to the district policy and that's what anchors what they do so this list is kind of all encompassing all-encompassing of like a minor infraction to a major infraction but they don't all this doesn't automatically give them all the same course of discipline correct because context matters so at the school level this protects the school to do what they need to do and they have all of the information regarding any instance and how to proceed so it doesn't pigeon hole so this isn't like telling okay
025if the student does this no this actually allows them to do what they need to do at the school level no it doesn't say You must do the f I I had a different it's a permission structure to do bro scope yeah um the the thing to look for Jackie in situations like that is you want to look to where it says the you know the exact language might be different but the administration shall when you see that that's a directive and if it said they shall expel a kid for X Y and Z then that's the case to my knowledge there are very few things there are some things where it is required that a student be expelled right that came for we the interesting thing is that if you look at it it
026also says except that the board can reduce it if they want to when they have at the school level when they suspend it'll reference the actual Board of Education policy and then provide some specific specific details for that situation but this is needed for them to be able to do their jobs when it's to that okay it's and it's what I hung my hat on on those occasions when they didn't want me to deal with kids that were misbehaving I'd look at and I'd say there's the policy talk to someone else tell them to rewrite the policy if you don't like it on page 31 I'm wondering under c one second under C where has second to last line there um athletic programs athletic events or did you want programs um limited to and then
027it starts to list but are not limited to right so right here athletic programs um should it be EV I did not write that okay that's cave language um and I would offer okay that um there may be a time I could imagine where a kid should not only be banned from the big game so to speak but should also be told you can't go to practice so I just want maybe parentheses or something programs or slash events yeah an athletic event dos fine with me kind of him that he could be going or they could be going even if it's they're not playing that's fine with me I don't mind changing that ending um the only thing I added there was graduation ceremonies because there are times where seniors misbehave very badly at the
028end of the year there is no sanction available and they need to be sanctioned and the only thing you can do is tell them they don't get to walk across the stage so that might be just ceremonies because we also have other events that fall under ceremonies that are not just graduation like eighth grade promotion ceremony there are other Banquets Awards like there are other celebratory events that aren't just and I know it says but are not limited to so um the only thing I I I'll say is that the reason I added that was because when when you're in a situation where someone's not being allowed to walk the stage there is tremendous pressure on the schools to not have that be the case and I thought it was important to have it called
029out as a as a possible outcome okay so maybe graduation comma ceremonies yeah because graduation by itself graduation we know what that means it's graduation about graduation and other ceremonies okay would that be okay that's fine that's fine can we go back and look at number four we look whatever you want on the same page sure so something kind of jumped out at me as I was reading through this and I was wondering because of some of the language here um and it's speaking to students who have caused a serious disruption or you know other physical harm self harm some serious Behavior here and one of the things that I recalled is that in Connecticut that schools are required to notify the parents and Guardians um if should it happen that the use of physical
030restraint or seclusion uh were to occur and the notice here only speaks to 24 hours and what I'm getting at is that maybe we should add some language that if uh the incident involved the use of physical restraint um or seclusion that this is not a physical restraint policy it's a suspension expulsion policy you have the policy you're working on yes I'm working on that wondering if that needs to be there or here it needs to be there this is specific to a student who ha whose misconduct the student decides to either harm themselves or cause physical harm to another person that's very different than an adult physically restraining somebody I think what you're talking about okay so this policy makes that distinction this is only for students that's what I needed to know yeah
031it's under um students and it's specific to suspension and expulsion of students yeah so that's something to know and it does not prevent the board from adopting a stricter uh notification policy in the event of seclusion or um restraint it doesn't you can put whatever you want in there and as long as the board says yeah we agree it's hunky DW and this does not prevent it they don't conflict because they're different this is for students the 5000s so can we go to page 32 uh item number three where it talks to obscene or profane language and display of pornographic images there was just legislation passed at the national level about the use of AI to alter someone's U physical appearance and I'm wondering if we should include that kind of language in here um
032adding that this also includes the use of AI I don't necessarily think that I would object to that I do think that however it gets done if it's depicting nudity or or you know pornograph pornographic or obscene images doesn't matter what the source is whether it's uh AI or not it's still verboten um didn't you cover that when we did a policy earlier in the year on I don't if it was technology in general or it's really I feel like there is a sort of vague generalized AI policy that we adopted through technology through technology um but it it was understood at the time that um it almost certainly would soon need to be updated as AI developed and we started to figure out and others started to figure out what it was all about
033so I it still says possession or display of images like it I think it includes so it would it I think it doesn't matter where they went to get it it it's if they're actually creation of it that's what I'm getting at well they're in possession right yeah it it's just like these folks who have um pornographic it you know pictures of little kids doesn't matter how they got it or where they got it the mere fact that they have it makes them in violation of the law and they can pay a pretty sttip penalty for that anything else folks on page 39 under item four hang on let me get item four okay is the word handicapping part of the law the way that it is that the language that's written into the law
034I cannot answer that question all I can tell you is that that's what's in Cave's version it made me feel icky when I went through it earlier um it's it's not kind of keeping it if it's written into the law that way that's one thing but if it's not I'd like to change that language to a more um keeping with the times term such as disability result the students's disability condition that's a good question ask you know it's interesting because even the word disability is considered right um sort of uh politically incorrect you're supposed to say differently abled um I know it keeps changing yeah it is it it is it keeps changing I do you have a preferred piece of language that you would like there if we could research that I'd appreciate it
035but I would either put differently abled or that's what I would prefer if that's the latest thing why not if it's if it is the latest um I you know we want to be sensitive to that no go ahead I just I just like quick Googled what is handicapping condition education just to see like what popped up and it looks like there's other towns in the state that have that language in their policies as well which is not to say that it is correct but it is point out that if if it's written in the law then well here's it is what it is here's what I'll suggest um as long as it's not illegal I have no problem making that change so I will do the research or um teres and I will get
036together and get in contact with an attorney if have to go that far and if it turns out it's legal I'll simply make the change and the Assumption will be that if we send it forward that I'm supposed to make that change um and if I can't write differently abled but I can change it do you want me to use um disabled that's fine well it was differently abled condition we should probably I don't want to say what term to use because at this point I don't have it in front of me I know the problem is that if we don't know what the term is we have to come back next month to deal with it I'll have to do a quick look up okay and the the terms here repeated that was all
037in CES yeah so that anything in BL anything is in blue comes from C okay so you you removed it but the law must say repeat it then no remember that's what I said to you um was the thing no he didn't make a mistake he made a choice Jody made a choice Choice he wanted to make sure that the focus was on restorative justice and he put a word in that was not required by state law okay um thank you remember when I Y I got you yeah this is but it's concave and they use the term handicap disability So in theory could say education students handicaps disabilties shall be considered before making it again my guess is that the term is in the current law which has not yet caught up to the
038social changes I don't know that but that would be my guess okay so you have differently abled ch challenged and handy capable but in this that I'm looking at Stanford's uh in Stanford's um let's see oh no that's not the right correction strike that commonly used terms preferred language used non-disabled or person without disability so it's person first language um wouldn't the word students in other subtitute for person so in other words this setting it would be let me go back to that section so you looked up their policy 5114 no I'm looking at uh you're not talking about Stanford uh the town no Stanford oh gotcha as the yep I got it College y University y they have an entire section of terms that are person first so I think the idea being that
039you know terms like differently abled can be received is condescending or offensive so we have to choose something well let's be fair if it's of sufficient concern we could say we're going to table this till next month I don't know if the concern about basically one word is sufficient to justify that delay I also don't know that I want that to be a Hil ey di on trying to persuade someone to move it forward you know we vote to like say we voted to bring it to the full board with the understanding that when we meet with the full board we will have the discussion of what that language should be and we could bring our ideas and have it be because I feel like that yeah I mean that's basically what I said before
040is let's agree to what we think is is the right thing and we'll bring that to the board and in the meantime I'll do the research um to find out what's acceptable if I don't have a clear response or if there's a variety of acceptable possible substitutions then we'll bring it and we'll say we got everything settled but this one line in this one spot and you know can we agree to something I'd be fine with that all right Sean you're okay like you were nodding oh yeah definit okay and I can get hold of Jody probably tomorrow to just find out if that's actually the language from the law um I have tried looking up recently on a different issue the actual statute and I couldn't get it to work I don't know if
041I'm dope or what this might be a good time to also share that typically we meet and then within days it's the board meeting and there's this rush to get like a manual out of all these policies and and it's a lot for folks to read in such a short amount of time so we did talk about not accelerating that and some of these might go on April just to be able to be thorough and not rushed because have some feedback that we're getting this might be one of those because it's that it's a pretty long policy very longy especially when we're we're looking at a phrasing it would be good to have the time um our next meeting is Wednesday is that am I the Board of Ed Mee that's what I mean yes
042um if I can get an answer that's definitive tomorrow would that lead enough time or is that still too short no all right so we're not going to move this forward anyway Kelly doesn't reach until Monday anyway so like yeah she's gone all week so yeah this particular policy I would yeah so we'll agree to figure that out and um we'll either put it on the April agenda for the full board or the April agenda for the policy committee and the May agenda for the full board right does that work yeah yeah it's only one policy moving forward and it's lengthy but it's only one that's probably somewhat digestible this is hug but when is this thick thank you so um I think we're in agreement on all that do I need to take an
043actual motion for that or is that just a discussion no not here you really don't need to do motions and and um subcommittees everything goes so you're good all right um the weapons and dangerous instruments policy um I put in the list because like um the suspension expulsion policy what we have is pretty old and um it just seemed to make sense um in order to keep things consistent because you know frankly especially now with the push toward restorative justice um having to do with weapons and dangerous instruments are really like primary reasons why you're going to get suspended or expelled anyway um and I don't think there's any language in here that's dependent on anything I will explain one thing if you look at page 51 you see where it's all in red that
044was the original language and then cab offered an alternative language to use instead if you wanted to and I chose to put that one in as the recommendation the lengthier one yeah and the reason for that is that again it comes from experience I had a situation where a student lost his temper um they used to use um short PVC piping and they blow into it they were called breathing tubes to build up their wind capacity for musical instruments and he got mad and he hurled one straight into a Cas kid's face and did so much damage with that one throw that the kid needed plastic surgery both inside and outside of his mouth so he got expelled but it wasn't something you'd normally think of as dangerous I mean it was a little piece
045of plastic pipe was nothing but the way it was used and that's the key the language at the time and it's still in here now how it is used threatened to be used or attempted to be used can curse can cause serious harm or death absolutely and I wanted to make sure that's stated yep sense so you're gonna request that the board delete 513 1.2 and adopt 513 1.7 if if uh I have agreement with with this committee yeah I am fine with that okay right so that'll be good I'm going to make a note real quick for myself so I don't screw it up any changes that anybody wants in that or is it all set just curious why and obious say this escapes version why there's no addition of intent well there is
046attempted to be used that's intent do you know what I mean I I do I think we've actually discussed this before where in your example there was no intent to harm another student I had a student and it happened and I feel like intent should be another consideration in this a couple things and then again I'll let Dr deito um weigh in here um in the situation if I remember the conversation in the situation I described to you I had a special needs student who um was working as a stage hand and the director needed something that he could that she could cut with and he whipped out a box cutter um that was a a weapon and under the law he should have been expelled we also knew that it was completely harmless of
047intent and we knew that he used it at work he came straight from work to the rehearsal and he just forgot to remove it from his pocket and then she needed something and he thought he was doing a good thing so he gave it to her um in that situation they avoided the expulsion which was required under law by deciding that it was a manifestation of his disability because he just forgot something and that was part of his disability um the key thing as far as the intent goes is because there was no belief that there was a intent to cause harm they made a point of running that manifestation determination and presenting it in such a way that it would come out with essentially the right answer and that's where the administration really has
048to do their job so this policy is written under the assumption that the admin would take intent into consideration instead of just having intent be an additional part of the policy I don't know that we could put intent as language into the policy this one is really governed by federal law am I correct in that yeah yeah and possession because it really does say that circumstances in which it is used or attempted or threatened to be used right a dangerous weapon is anything any device instrument it doesn't have to fall within the whole list of all the things we know of but there are situations like you described I dealt with a couple months back at the elementary level a student for um it was for Halloween wanted to dress up camouflage and took a
049parents bag not real realizing that there was an instrument in there not like a gun or anything like that but um obviously there was no intent didn't even know that the child was in possession of it until it accidentally stumbled across it as he's packing up so yeah no one is um gonna make up your intent at that point it's they got to process through they got to process through to make sure that it is clear that there is room for the understanding of including content and that it's not just very black and white step we're not a zero tolerance type of like there was a time right you could be four years old you'd ask something have zero tolerance and and there was no common sense right there was no common sense completely stupid
050at the time um and that was reaction to what was happening in society right so there are all these things that we learn from yeah when you think about it I walk around and I have one on me right now with a multi-tool on my hip because I'm constantly I with especially with the arthritis and my thumbs I'm constantly reaching for it for various things there's a knife blade in there that's pretty sharp I'm not gonna hurt anybody with it I don't even think about it but I probably ought to remember to not carry it with me especially after you just said all of that I mean think about it how often have we shown up to TSA and being like you have anything there no go for it and they're like here's your fiskers
051here's a box I'm like oh those are tools those aren't weapons but like they have to take them but like I'm not going to get arrested and kicked off flight so student I mean my seven-year-old R sticks he's got his Stu and like you know he thinks maybe he wants to show a friend and brings it to school and then you have toell because he brought it it need there needs okay so like right moment not just automatically going to the extremes for that's where we really have to be able to trust the school administration to apply all common sense oh and if and when we find out that's not happening that's when things get addressed with the superintendent and the superintendent either addresses it with the administrator involved or the board chairman is addressing
052it with the super involved right and and I think my concern is coming from the opposite I am have no concern that our administrators would not handle it that way my concern was will this policy force their hand to handle it no in a more no tolerance way like she said it's not zero there was a time she's right there was a time when that was the way it was but not now okay that I I remember correctly that was the environment with the situation I described to you where the kid had the box cutter at um at the rehearsal and that's why they had to use the manifestation in order to avoid expelling we were just lucky that he needed one so it was okay all right question yeah no I saying good good
053questions I thought he said quick question all right um uh it sounds like we don't have any more questions can we move this one forward to the board abut yes okay and we'll move this forward to the full board and the FAFSA policy um the financial aid form thing um is one that we do not have but but it's actually in U Cab's required policies in their core policy manual it's law and we don't have it it's still currently law it's brand new law that by we need to make sure we do this beginning with the class of 2027 that hasn't they just pushed it out a little bit no I understand that my and I apologize if I'm not being as tactful as I would be if I prepared this we are in a
054spot where things are being defunded other things are still being funded we're not sure where the department of education's going to lie does it make sense to do this now when like in two weeks it could we still might not know like FASA now grants are not being I I understand they're not state law oh this is State not federal even though FASA is the federal this isre state yes and and to be honest and I sort of mentioned this to you in the text when you asked me about it I think under the current environment almost everything we're doing is up for grabs and we're just going to have to keep moving forward and roll with the punches just like we did you know if you think about it we did all that work
055on the title 9 policies and then had it at a first read it was ready to be put into policy and we had to back up and do it over again because things changed from the time of the first read to what would have been the time of the second read it's just it's where we're living these days and it doesn't matter whether we like it or not it is what it is I know I'm just it's I think what has happened in this state is they found in certain districts where perhaps kids were not being guided to Fafa or even knew about it so it's an attempt to offer this information so that kids can really look and see oh I'll be able to get some assistance that's that's the intent of the Connecticut
056Law and it's interesting um because I just saw I didn't read the whole thing but I just saw an article um where it was talking about the fact that um there is a movement to not push all the kids in the world to go to four-year colleges oh oh yeah oh a very big mov that's almost diametrically opposed to this which is clearly aimed at pushing them all the fouryear colleges understood but it's not for everybody out there it is really important to know that you know there there are lots of ways to make a healthy living without being forced to go to college yeah um there has been I'll say it this way in in the recent past um a tendency for counselors school counselors and high schools to ignore all those options and
057try and get every single kid in the planet to go to a four-year School or to ignore the kid because you know they're not going to and I'm not saying that that happened particularly here yes it's definitely but I've seen it I I've definitely seen it and that's not good either all right so do we have any other questions about the Fafa policy um are we okay moving that forward to the full board yes just one more clarification just so I I think I understand FASA is is separate from private student loans correct so this is in no way leading seniors towards applying for private loans that they don't maybe don't understand the terms or the outcome of applying for private is very specific for the fedal yes last if they apply for it and
058they don't get it and they make a decision to go get a private loan um you know that becomes a different issue but this policy doesn't cause that to happen all right so we'll move that forward and now I get to shut up and let Dr D tell us some stuff about curriculum two remember last time we were together in the evening I did a little kind of overview of um processes of how we start to develop curriculum so tonight I want to provide you with a glimpse of a difference between a program and a curriculum because we do purchase program like we're in the midst of um really looking at the state reading programs that we're offered and what we're going to adopt and I did um invite um staff to come to actually
059share their process for their pilot um that they really started looking at last year right around the time for just before I came so they've been enthralled in it and I thought it' be good for the committee to at least hear about the process that they went through um so I'm going to pass out a glimpse of components for um a reading program so that you can see how much there is involved in Educators kind of studying because when you have no involvement and and what you might be using it really does require a concerted effort to annotate to highlight to really look at a full scope so a couple of pieces that I just I'm sharing with you this one about how can Educators use this resource have a little graphic there um provides
060like action steps so that the teacher before actually implementing the program understands how it was written and understands where to go to get information so this particular graphic talks about setting implementation goals um as an action step one action step two is studying the implementation guide action step three is understanding content stages so you have to really spend time with the materials so that you can deliver the instruction to the children the way it was intended um and so I wanted you to see that there is a lot of reading so what I just gave you when you turn the page is action one setting implementation goals and what's involved in that and how you set goals for your first year M right here okay wasn't sure y okay yep I'll give you a few
061minutes to kind of just just take it in as if you were the instructor and then the next when you get a chance you'll be looking at the progression of reading comprehension which is very detailed um synopsis about the standards and coherence will you at the full board meeting be able like have updates of how the new curriculum that has been in the school so far this year like updates and like things so the first thing I'm gonna have them come to this committee okay to do at least to share yeah we're going to set another meeting soon during the day um so that you can hear as a curriculum committee how theyve kind of processed through their pilot and technically we have to recommend approval or disapproval to the full board for whatever they
062bring to us um I don't think it's particularly common to recommend disapproval um it might be something more likely to be we think you should work on X Y and Z come back to us in a month or two or something like that um but technically the board has to approve curriculum it's in state law yeah I'm just excited I mean I know that there was the the the reading especially for the youngers the younger students and then needing to bring in new into comply and I know that everybody's been working like really hard and really excited and I'm excited I'm not worried about disapproving I'm excited to hear through the te like through the teachers and staff how they're implementing it with our with our students to just so we no because we only
063hear that like the scores we only hear you know that it needs to be changed I'm excited to to get all the get all the guts of it and how and what they're doing you'll hear about it you'll hear about it because um the way they did it they took one program really dug into it and all 16 teachers did it but then for the other I learned that only four teachers did it and it was not with that same level of depth so I then reached out to the publisher because they asked to get some more information so I'm going to work with those teachers who did both to really broaden the scope um of knowledge and understanding because so much was spent on one and so little was spent on the other and
064so we're we're going to try to we're going to bridge it we're going to bridge it but at least you'll hear what their process was just as a starting point so this is this is just a little like what you got was just a little bit of detail and you see how much reading you have to really put in the time and we want to elevate learning right so it does require study on the teacher's part to ele the learning for the kids so I just wanted you to have that Glimpse okay then I also lot before you go on y um this handout yes so this is the one that I said was they when there's um a program developed many times there's a lot of research and explanation to help frame how that
065program was developed this particular article that you have here in front of you is really talking about the progression of reading comprehension which is different than acquisition of reading like phonics being able to read words but comprehending what you're actually reading so again it gives a deep analysis and understanding because teachers aren't necessarily reading spe Specialists it takes different instruction different certification we have generalists typically in the classroom right I'm k6 CER that means I can teach anything all subjects k6 depending on their certification but they try to bridge that for teachers um so that they're developing the capacity of the adult so the adult can do the best instruction for the kids and this does require like I'd be providing Time ahead of time with training so that we can um do it well
066and not fumble in the process especially if it's a rigorous program if it's rigorous it requires that level of desire and hopefully Curiosity on the adult's part and not selecting something that's the easiest to implement there's a big difference and and and you know I'm about yes not having ceilings so it's worth digging into and you know and and correct me if I'm wrong here but um when I started my career in teaching they may not have had as many programs but there were teachers who had no understanding of curriculum they just did whatever the book said that's true and a a textbook even a written one is not a curriculum and it's it's a kind of a Mindless approach to instruction uh another way to look at what Dr Dorito was just talking about
067is that um the teachers and the administrators who are supporting the change have to invest the time and energy into what they're doing to make it meaningful um when I learned that there had been a tremendous investment in one program and a way less investment in the other one I was a less than happy camper um and I it's something we have to deal with she well she has to deal with we just have to watch it no that's why I spend time with the publisher because I really do want to make sure we're very um thoughtful about elevating learning for kids so I see a term in here repeated a few times and I don't really understand what it is okay um what is backward design approach oh yes that I love that go
068ahead are you sure I don't want to steal your thunder no it's not my thunder I didn't write it I wrote a lot of curriculum based on it but I didn't write it yeah Grant wig and J M yeah still around um so that is a way to write curriculum so you start with the end in mind and that's what it's about look at what kids are supposed to be able to do independently towards the end and you work your way backwards so if this is what they need to be able to do what instructional activities and sequencing of instruction am I going to put in place to ensure that all kids are going to be able to do that independently that's the backwards design okay and the other piece that's part of it is
069you say you know what does the kid need need to be able to understand or do or you know what is it the learning and then the second thing is what will constitute evidence that they've achieved that learning so you're writing a unit you come up with your assessment for the end of the unit as opposed to a teach teacher and again this is how it was during the majority of my career as opposed to a teacher saying well this month I taught the following things and I'm going to write a test to address those things because they might or might not have been what you should have been addressing or you might or might not have covered everything you needed to cover or they might or might not have actually learned what you needed
070them to learn and even then does the assessment does the test you've written actually test what it's supposed to you know um makes perfect sense okay we try so to transition a little bit um I'm G to pass out to you what an intro to a unit might look like it's real it's biology we're jumping out to high school jump in high school and nowadays there are within a curriculum there are links that will take you to the assessments that will take you to videos that will anchor whatever that particular lesson is about so it's not like before it was all these books you might have had a binder but then you had all these supplemental books and you would go to the different book to go get the assessments to go everything was tangible
071nowadays every there's so much that's digital right so that's what I wanted to sort of prepare you for because this is a sample of an introduction so it's a unit overview so I'm going to give you thank you um I have a question for you is there still a push um and this was probably a lot more important in a larger District like the one I worked in is there still a push to have common assessments so that oh absolutely those that's when you have more than one person teaching particular right yeah absolutely I'm such a geek I'm getting excited reading this I haven't done this in a long time that's wonderful you're going to go home happy I I am happy already It's So Co that the links are built right yeah and I
072mean there is a like I do have a a binder that has like it goes into the sequence right sequence one sequence two but even within those sequences there are links so I don't have it all in print but it is something that this is what I am aiming for for us so I wanted you to see it the reason I brought up science is because I did meet with the science department and the principal um regarding elevating science and the sequence and we're going to do mapping to develop our curriculum we're definitely going to revamp it and so I'm scheduling that say it again Heidi Haz Jack y so that's going to be happening so reading you're going to hear about and I had already prepped the science teachers that they will come as
073well so I'm hoping we we'll get one unit off the ground and at least we'll start with something for you to see um and then they can share and and I am doing all three of them um because even though it's they're writing and helping each other even if it's a subject I'm not necessarily teaching it feeds me right I'm going to be getting those kids the following year and I really should know and be aware of where the standards live and what to expect that they've learned before they come to me that's really how we kind of hold each other accountable in a positive way um as a professional learning Community it's great and and another one of the elements of backwards design is that you start out by assessing what your kids already
074know and can do so that you're addressing them where they are if the kid and and you see this sometimes if the kid already has a lot of the stuff mastered you're going to lose that kid because they going to be bored stiff all day in in class and some of them end up causing trouble um some of the times the way I solve behavior problems was to move kids into more challenging classes which is was sort of considered completely counterintuitive but it worked because then the kid had something to be interested it uh we have that ability at the middle and high school levels right to move students to more challenging levels we don't have anything like that at elementary school no no that's where like differentiation really comes in because if a student
075is gifted like if they're really gifted I'm open to putting them in the next grade if they're real like why would I keep them in that grade if they really are someone who's already been taught and somehow absorbed it that's how you truly um serve giftedness is not to do like just a little something over here on the side no if you're really gifted you you move along and so I I did have times where a student might be gifted in math for example and go to the different grade just for math instruction and then be and and the other in their normal grade for the rest of the subjects that's how we serve what the kids need y I like that there's all the in between stuff it's not just either you're where you're
076at you're at the next level it helps to address the factory model of Education which has existed in this country for years decades um they're not parts we don't stamp them um we don't get to pick which ones we get we don't get to look at raw materials and decide what's better quality and what we're willing to pay for we take all comers and we do what we can for them but first we have to know what they need I think I interrupted your thought process a minute ago I think what I was as I was reading through this I just I love the inclusive nature of it because you're meeting every child where they're at but the beauty of it is regardless of what level they're at they're in the same classroom they're learning
077the same material it's just being um adjusted for that child so that they can still participate in that classroom I love this I love this I definitely feel like I got chipped when I was in school it is like so much better today so much better it reminds me of the program that I was in with um Connecticut lend one of the things that they really wanted to impress Upon Us parents were that we were learning alongside doctors and audiologists and you know all advanced degree people and here we are coming in as Mom and Dad we might have a bachelor's degree but here we are learning how to synthesize how to do research how to conduct research all these components and what it proved was they just they met you where you were at
078and believed in you and said you can do this and we all walked away with a fellowship it was wonderful that's what we need for our children absolutely and again part of the factory model we slot kids into different levels and they end up sort of that's where they are for the rest of their lives God forbid you put them in the wrong level and by the way are we really surprised when the kids that get slotted into the best levels somehow now get better and better and better and the kids that get slotted into the lowest levels really sort of get worse and worse and the Gap widens yep are we suggesting that enriched education works better what a shock yeah that's a definite for sure preing is not it's not okay yeah you're
079welcome so that's good so you're like oh you're getting excited you won't just come to the meeting and be like oh we only have policy I'm not trying no when will that be that you're gonna have well I'm gonna we got fig check you know hopefully like maybe next Friday like you know within the school day if they can come for like an hour that would be great won't be next week that's conferences it might be in the morning I mean it might be because in the morning they don't have conferences look know next week are you busy next week is crazy it is for you oh because of the early dismissal early dismissal four days of early dismissal wedes unbelievable Wednesday THS oh yeah Wednesday with the board meeting I got all all three
080kids kids teachers and every special and like a 4our block back to a marathon runner here got them all in in one day and one well next Wednesday is the uh well next Wednesday is the day day on the hill yep guess it is so Dan The Hill in the morning come back go to multiple things I signed up to help clean up after things all that then the board meeting Cub I have to be nice she's my right to day on H could we just not do it next week well Jim is gonna be Jim's gonna reach out okay he'll reach out we'll make it work the one thing I can guarantee you guys um is that from my perspective it will not happen during the third week of March because that's when my
081son is getting married oh nice okay oh so if it's not next week it can't be the week after Friday next week is there's still another Friday Thursday or Friday is usually aough okay Friday might be best for you okay Jim is on it I think we're ready to I was gonna say are you are you all set here y yes all right in that case um I guess if we don't need motions um it's time to adjourn thank you thank you all very much for your effort your time thank you thank you once again we got a lot of work done it was good Dr Breo thank