001our regular study board for Monday, May 5th. Please stand [Music] for God. [Music] have our student reps ready. Thank you. Uh, do you have a motion to approve our special board event meeting for April 2nd, 2025? Motion, a second. All in favor? Oppose? Have it. A motion to approve our special board education meeting for April 7th, 205. All in favor? Discussions? A motion to approve our regular board education meeting for April 7, 2025. All in favor of a motion to approve my special board meeting for April 22nd, 2012. Second in favor. Are there any amendments to the agenda? Yes. Um we have an amendment um to let's see move from um table to approve items 1 through 25 and then items through 12. Okay, so we have uh there are amendments to the agenda credit
002consent calendars for items 1 through 25. Item 26 which is bylaw 9321 time place and notice of meetings will be removed from the consent calendar for separate discussion and then including 2728 as part of tonight's agenda. So with that being said, do you have a motion to vote for a motion to approve our consent calendar? Motion a second. All in favor? Eyes have it. Thank you. Are there any written communications toward? Uh yes. Um let's see. Um, members of the East Harford Public Schools employees, all the employees are invited to join the town of East Harford employees farm share CSA program and um this it's a great program. The farm that they will be using is Kilaman Basset Farmstead LLC in Glastonberry. Um it's a great um opportunity for folks to be able to um
003buy into a local share half share of produce with our local farm. So if you have any questions and some of you may have already received um an email regarding this, but if you have any questions, please contact Terry Jones who is the benefits manager for the town of East Harford at tjones eastarc.gov. Thank you for that. All right, student representatives, come on up. Is there just the typical school district. Students are excelling. On April 24th, it was the strings concert 80 tests are going on from today through May 16th. Teacher appreciation week is also this week. There's ra going all week and celebrate the teachers each day event. So today is battle of the beads and teachers just trying to get those beads by each other rocks. Tuesday is wellness day. Wellness vendors and
004massages will be coming and a donut truck will be coming tomorrow. On Wednesday, there's an ice cream truck. On Thursday, staff appreciation breakfast and Friday is a square pizza truck. On May 1st is the was the spring band concert. And May 9th through May 10th is the grade inventation track meet at Eastern High School and on the schools will be so May 29th is the service and students who have certain hours will be attending. If you have 15 hours as you get if you have 30 hours get you have 50 hours as a train get and Mr. I would be in here and extra to celebrate. On May 21st, there's a scholarship breakfast. Any students who earn a scholarship are invited to this breakfast as a celebration. On May 22nd, Chinese honor society induction ceremony
005will be held. And on May 27th, the 64th annual top 20 dinner day dinner will be held. And they all get to invite a teacher, have an impact on them. and he gave a speech about current about their current path and their future plans. And then prom ticket sales started this week or last week and they will still be going later every month and then will be on. Thank you. Any questions for students? Thank you. Is there anyone from the public that wishes just to participate at [Music] this? I'll keep my comments brief. So, happy teacher appreciation week to our amazing teachers. Thank you for being the heart of our school. Your passion, creativity, and dedication is the life of every classroom. So, we are proud to have the best in the business, and we
006appreciate everything you do for our students. So, thank you. I'll turn it over to you, superintendent. Good evening. First, we will start off with Mr. Broer. So ask me to come up and share some words as a welcome. We'll probably be here at Goodwin this evening. Thank you. To welcome you to Goodwin School. We have a pair of fourth grade twins who'd like to say a few words. And then a pair of 13th grade twins who'd like to say a few words. All of them for Goodwin Gators. My name is Clara. Welcome to Goodwin School. I have been going to the school since I was in kindergarten. I think this is a great school because I have learned a lot and made a lot of friends and I was taught how to play the viola
007and the principal supports me and my family. And the teachers work hard to take care of us. [Music] My name is Kylie and I have been going to Goodwin School since I was in kindergarten. I think Goodwin School is a great school to go to because the teachers here are nice and they have a great principal. I am now in fourth grade in in Mrs. Paul's class. I also think Goodman School is a great school to go to because I have learned a lot including how to play the violin. I also made a lot of friends. Those are the all the reasons I think good news is a great school. All right. So, my name is Georgiana Zabroski and I'm in 13th grade at the University of Connecticut and I was at Goodwin. I was
008at J Goodwin Gator Gator Pride Strong. Um, and I so when Mr. Bur called and told us about this opportunity to come speak about Goodwin, um, my mom called me and told me she got a 622 number call coming in. She's like, "Oh my god, what did you do? Like, did you do something at the high school? They're just figuring out now like what happened?" And I was like, "I don't know." and we realized that Mrs. Broer just wanted to have us come in and speak about how great we a great experience we had at Goodwwind and how it really set us up for all of our success in high school. So to just share a little bit about myself um went to East Hartford public schools all my life. I have feel I feel
009like I have learned so much about education but also like social skills that a lot of my other friends who didn't go to East Park public schools maybe didn't get to experience. Um the involvement there is in East Harper public schools is just amazing. I feel like there's so many opportunities to take advantage of. Um and I just I was so happy to hear that my presence was wanted back here cuz for anyone who does not know I was a little troublemaker in um kindergarten through about maybe fourth grade. I was always in Mrs. Broer's office causing trouble. So I was surprised that I was welcomed back here with open arms. So I appreciate everyone giving me the opportunity to speak. Oh that's good. So this is my sister. Thank you for that lovely introduction.
010So my name is Cristiana Zimbroski. I graduated from Goodwin in 2017. Wore my Goodwin green today just for the occasion. Was also very excited to come back and talk. I believe that Goodwin was definitely one of the most fundamental aspects of my character in that its education had a very lasting impact on me. So, I attend Harvard University now and I actually wrote my college essay on my fourth grade and fifth grade teacher that I had at Goodwin, Miss Denor. And I haven't had the chance to share with her yet, but to sum it up, I basically just wrote about how that transformative experience I had in elementary school was so applicable. It led me into broader concepts like philosophy, which I plan on concentrating in now and English and how these skills that you
011learn at a young age are really transferable to your character in the future. And I really think that just sums up Goodwin as a whole that the fact that I remember it so fondly enough that I could write my college essay about it 8 years later, like when I would give it to teachers, I'd be like, "How do you even remember these memories so vividly?" All I can say is that it was just such a fond time in my life that it was something I felt compelled to write about. And it's something that I carry very close to my heart. I love revving East Harford everywhere I go. It's such a great opportunity in college to attend a school where people come from so many different backgrounds and I get to share that part of
012myself that is so unique and that so many people don't know about East Harper and I just get to tell its story over and over again to people I meet all across the country, all across the world. Again, it's something I'm so grateful for and I'm so grateful that I have such a fond memory. And I can only thank East Harford Public Schools for setting me up for success and being able to attend in an institution such as the one I attend now because I'm just so incredibly thankful for it. And I only have my education from this town. I've attended my whole life at schools here. So just really thankful. And I love public schools. So that's really my main point for today is just say thank you. So yeah, thank you very much
013girls. Thank you very much girls. She was lying about the troublemak. So Mrs. Jenkins knows I think this very same piano she was as a young man they used to play some tunes. We have the privilege to listen to David Verad Cruz who's going to play a nice little uh springtime song. Hope it's get us out of the rain mood and into the springtime mood. [Music] Baby. Hey. [Music] Thank you very much, Mr. Anything else you have to share? Thank you. Thank you very much. So this is the when we decided to try to do meetings in buildings, it like these are the this is the evidence that we want people to be able to see and hear and experience because these are the things that are happening in our schools on a daily basis.
014So being able to have the young ladies speak today and young gentlemen play the piano, this is what our school system is about. So again, we appreciate you putting that together and having them come. We know they have to leave because they have exams starting tomorrow, I think, in Chad in the hall. So just a few things as we get to the next piece. I know there again, as we normally do some of our recognition, we know we have a short video to share about this young lady, Josie Tedesco. [Music] Josie. I'm a fifth grader from Okonnell Elementary School in East Harford, Connecticut. Today I'll be making a yummy yogurt bowl. First step to make the yoga bowl, you have to wash your hands first. The ingredients you need for the yummy yoga bowl is
015yogurt, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and coconut. The first step to make your yoga bowl is to scoop the yogurt into your [Music] bowl. I am wearing a cutting glove to protect my fingers and a plastic glove for food safety. [Music] Next up, you will grab your strawberries and first you will wash your strawberries. And when you're done washing them, you will cut them next. Now, we will place the strawberries in the bowl. Next step is to grab your washed blueberries and put them in the bowl. Next step is to grab your banana, then peel it, and then we'll cut it. Next, we put the bananas in our yogurt bowl. For the last step, you will put the shredded coconut in your yoga [Music] bowl. And this is your yummy yoga bowl. I created this recipe because
016it had all my favorite foods in it and I wanted other people to try it. Yummy. So, Jodie is a finalist in the chef's competition. And as we bring the screen back up, we just want to remind everyone to go on to the website that you'll see in a second and vote for her by May 9th. Yes. So right there. So public voting is May 1st through the 9th as it ends at future chefs challenge.com. All right. And then we'll get into our normal spotlight. So, we have Jennifer Kelly, first grade teacher at Norris Elementary. Just reminding everyone, individuals have selected from their school leadership, from their principal or from someone else that's there in their department that recognize them for this opportunity to be showcased. Ready? You're going to tell me some words. Warm
017up your brains. I am Jen Kelly and I am a first grade teacher at Norris Elementary. I've been teaching for 20 years. I've done every grade level, bar four, and most of my career now has been as a first grade teacher. Our days are fun. Our days are filled with music and movement because I feel that that's one way that children can learn best. The students respond to that. They love how enthusiastic Mrs. Kelly is and how engaging she is. And she models that learning is fun and that learning is exciting. I sometimes say we're organized chaos. Um, but I am very structured and I like the students to be very structured and I just absolutely adore that spark that you can kind of see in their eyes when they learn something new. The growth
018you see from the beginning of first grade to the end, it's just night and day. You really see the kids become learners. She is a teacher who recognizes the importance of maximizing the time that she has with her students. She is a teacher who always gets the results. She is urgent. She is prepared. Every day she's looking for a new strategy to support students to get them to where they need to be. I love the students. I I couldn't do this if it wasn't for the kids. My goal is to, you know, help my students become the best that they can be. I look at school as a dress rehearsal for life. And I feel that the students are here to amass as much knowledge as they can and to make connections between that knowledge
019so that as they move forth they're confident and successful in anything that they do. This is the quickest way to clear out stuck poop. I have to poop but it feels stuck. Stop. Are you trying? If I do this in the future, we'll be embedding the videos in the PowerPoint. So, we're not going to watch some of these ads. So, next we'll have as it pops up is Steven Louie who's a lead maintainer for our building services team. And again, like we said, we try to balance the levels of recognition. My name is Steven Louie. I'm the lead maintainer for East Arbor Public Schools. It's been 25 years. I started November 1st of 2000, working nights as a custodian at the high school, transferred to Okonnell, and then a maintainer position opened up and I
020put in for that and I love it. We deal with almost every aspect of East Harbor Public Schools. It could be transportation of equipment. It could be repairs of the building. It can be plowing. We come in in the morning and we have our agenda and our agenda changes frequently and and we just roll with it. All the buildings will put in their building requests. So, he has to balance the time that he needs on the computer getting the crew set up and also doing all the work that he needs to do. He's still a pivotal part of the maintenance repair work. I try to prioritize on a safety basis and and and then necessity after that, but um I kind of don't stress too much. I just kind of can roll with things. Like
021if something comes across it, it it might be uh a little annoying, but guess what? We just have to deal with it and move through it. I have a great team between my guys, management, everybody works together. He's also very good with people. Whenever people call us most of the time, it's not because their day is going good. It's because their day is going bad. They need something fixed. They need something delivered. They're they're wondering where this is. They're wondering what about that. And he's always able to just handle it. very calm, very cool and courteous always. I like my job. I have a again a great team and the fact that we do something different every day. There's no monotony to this job. It's something different every single day. You're listening to Brain FM.
022We mix neuros. I think that people need to remember sometimes is that the individuals that take care of fixing things or preparing and being proactive and and getting it ready. It's a tremendous effort. It's a tremendous team and because if the lights and the boilers didn't work, we wouldn't be able to have a teaching and learning process. I think it's incredibly important that we kind of recognize everyone for all the roles that they play. And so I'm going to turn it over now to Ellen Yato. And I thought it was important because we talk about some of the results, but in terms of the the assessment overview. So, we're in May and it's important for individuals to know or remember that it's a testing window. So, we know that AP exams are going on at
023the high school level from the 5th until the 16th, but from the elementary middle schools, you have state testing. And I thought it was important to be able to hear some of this like this. Okay. Do I need the microphone or is everybody okay? Okay. Guaranteed. Okay. Better. Okay. Good evening everyone. This is an overview to kind of give a little bit of context to some of our spring state assessments. But in the world of teaching and learning, we always talk about curriculum assessment and instruction assessment provides many roles within our decision-m within our curriculum within how we help our students. So as we are going through we have um assessment types. So today we're really talking about the state assessments that you see at the bottom. But all of the assessment types are important.
024We have benchmark assessments, formative and summitive assessments, diagnostic assessments. These are all pieces that exist within our curriculum within our scope and sequence to align to our standards to figure out where our students are, where they need extra help. And benchmark assessments happen three times a year. And towards the end of the year, it makes it feel like it's very assessment heavy, but we are a very planful, very targeted, purposeful district. And what we do is we have an assessment calendar that runs preK through 12. And we get windows from the state. We have windows within our own benchmarking system so that students are experiencing assessment where it belongs within the teaching and learning. So part of the examples that are here, these are a lot of data points that you would hear like dibbles
025or the math skills assessment, the common lit assessments, our IABS, AP tests, um some diagnostic assessments that we use when we're looking to help students with specific skills in their learning trajectory. And that also informs our in intervention systems and our progress monitoring systems. And then our state assessments that are really the topic of this overview with SAT, Smarter Balanced, and GSS. They're all abbreviations and they all stand for um the different components that we assess our students on typically starting in grade three and above. They go from grade three all the way up through 12th grade. our state accountability assessments. We also have the Connecticut physical fitness assessment. It does fit into this under this umbrella. It fits into the testing window. It is an assessment that has entry all across the school year.
026Does have a cut off, but it allows us the entire school year to be able to get that accomplished. So this is really the crux of what we wanted to give an overview of as we look at the assessment schedule for the state assessments for the spring. And you notice that it kind of starts in at the January February timeline where we have our last links assessment and our Connecticut alternative assessment of English language proficiency. So those kind of start in the winter window. the state gives a very very wide window eastward edits and kind of reduces that into where it fits the best for our students so that we don't we're not too assessment heavy. We go into March where we're taking the next generation science standards assessment that they start out in grade
02711 and then we move through April and then the students in fifth and eighth grade take those as well. We have our SAT school day that happens in April as well as the beginning of our alternate assessments for Smarter Balanced with the Connecticut alternative assessment and the Connecticut alternate assessment for science. And then here now we're in May and we have our grades 3 through 8 taking alternate assessments, smarter balanced assessments and alternating by content. So they start they might start out with the ELA assessment and then the following week they would do the math assessment and then the following week they would do the math performance task. So if you bring it all the way down to the scope and the lens of perhaps a fifth grader that they're looking to take three different
028tests across about a 3-week period and then the previous month they would have taken their science test so that it doesn't feel test heavy. Uh, and then you also have the timing of these assessments, how long they take, and remembering that the Smarter Balance assessment is untimed. There's a time estimate. Students have as long as they need to complete that. That being said, the adults in the room are always monitoring because it's as much time as you need to skillfully and strategically complete the assessment. It's just not a never- ending loop. Um, so some of these assessments have they're all done on computers. Um the last links assessment also remember that that peaks in kind of starting in that January February timeline and that assesses reading, writing, speaking and listening. So there are four components
029of that state assessment. The important piece of what we do with this data is that we utilize the data results that we get as part of our next generation accountability system. That's the 12 indicators with which our district is rated and scored on. And we look at that assessment data. We look specifically at the achievement. We look at growth. We look at cohorts. And then that fits into our bigger picture of assessments. As we started with looking at formative assessments, benchmarking assessments. They all work together to give the profile of our learners. And that is how we can adjust any curriculum needs. We can figure out where we have any professional development needs for teachers. We can make sure that our curriculum and instruction efforts are as strong as they can be. Any questions? I
030don't have a question. I have a comment. Um, I want to commend you this year for putting together this the assessment sites, the purpose and the calendar because sometimes districts can get really caught up in over assessing students and not planning for and then there's testing. Um, so to be able to see the assessment sites like for example your diagnostic assessment is clear. You need to your support benchmark assessments. Um, one question that I had is the formative summitive assessments. How often are we giving teachers responding to look at that assessment to adjust? So, the big picture assessments when you're thinking about benchmarking and progress monitoring, there are systems in place where we look at those every every benchmarking window and then probably four weeks after that for progress monitoring. When you're talking about formative
031and summitive, summitative would be at the end of a unit or a segment of learning. Formative might be as we went along. When we watched the video of Mrs. Kelly, who's a first grade teacher, one of the things she was doing, she was doing a formative assessment with uh some foundations pieces. The students were marking words. So that's how she tracks during her lesson who had So that's kind of ongoing. So, if you have a an assessment that is that's finite, that has a beginning and an end, it is worked within your grade level time, so that during a grade level meeting, if you're at an elementary building, your coaches will support looking at the data. What does this mean? What do we need to do next? What may what might we need to review?
032We have built into our curriculum also buffer days for math as well as review days for ELA to be able to go back based on that data because it's never the same every year. We have to know where the students are and what we might need to review and then that kind of helps that trajectory because our curriculum maps and um the instructional plans that we have are solid and then the assessments help us make some specialized decisions for students. And it's I mean it it it's not as flexible as it sounds. I guess if that makes sense. It's very planned. Yes. So, but you you won't have to get to the end of a math unit and go I don't know what to do because I know I need two extra days with this.
033You would have it. So, you get to plan that as you're gathering that information on your students. And then we also have another time in the day at the elementary level where if there is that lingering skill that's still a problem, we do have a math opportunity block that we can put that into the rotation to review. So it is critical to look at all of these pieces of data. What are they telling us on behalf of our children and how we act? Thank you very much. And I'm going to ask Anna Capabo to come up. And I'll let Anna introduce herself as the title is very long. She does lots of things. Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Anna Cavaliano. I'm the supervisor of professional learning and evaluation here in East Yorker public
034schools. It's not too long as I meet this meeting. Um I have the pleasure tonight of presenting to you a revision process update on the vision of the graduate. So for those of you womaning many things over here so let's change those slides. Um, so for those of you who are not familiar with a vision of the graduate, just to set some quick context, a vision of the graduate is a framework um or statement that outlines skills, knowledge, attributes um and qualities of a school community um that really sets the tone for and exemplifies what every student should possess upon graduation. So really, it serves as a shared vision for student success. um critical for guiding curricular development, instruction, and assessment. So, it is our vision for where we want our graduates to end um
035after their tenure in East Harford public schools. So, why we engaged in a review process um for this year? Um first and foremost, the prior vision of the graduate was almost 10 years old. And as you are very aware um you know education changes rapidly. We needed our East Harford public schools vision of the graduates to reflect current 21st century skills evol evolving educational priorities and really to cement the district's commitment to preparing our future ready graduates. If you're familiar with our previous vision of the graduate, um, one piece that needed to change was that the prior vision of the graduate was summed as, um, verbs. There were verbs like build, begin, become. So, these were actions that we hoped the students would engage in. Um, but it didn't represent a vision of where we
036wanted the graduate to be at the end of their time at East Harford Public Schools and the attributes that we wanted them to possess. So the first step um actually and just to continue with our our purpose um as education has evolved um we have noticed that there are more things than just academic knowledge that are demanded of our students. We all know how important social emotional learning is um for you know our students for young people for adults as well and we know that success requires more than just academic knowledge. It demands critical thinking, communication, collaboration, adaptability, and information and technology competence. Um, it is on us as the schools and as a school system to ensure that our graduates are equipped to thrive in college, career, and life. Um, and in understanding, accepting
037and committing to these changes in the educational landscape, we too needed to evolve our vision of the graduate to reflect the changing landscape and to adapt our vision. So the first step in our process was to form a collaborative committee which I co-chair um with Matthew Ryan, principal of East Harford High School. So in forming our collaborative committee, we sought to engage as many members of the educational community as possible. So our committee which is quite large um included or includes rather since this is still a work in progress educators across grade levels and disciplines students from East Harford High School. We have two student representatives on the committee um and they are quite engaged and vocal which is amazing. Community members, we do have an East Harford public school parent as a member of
038our committee. Um school and district administrators and I am remiss for not including this on the the slides but our superintendent Thomas Sanderson is a member as well. Our second step in the process after we formed our collaborative committee was to examine the existing resources. So what was our current East Harford public schools vision of the graduate? We also exam examined exemplars from other districts. So what are some of the vision of graduate statements, learner profiles or um vision of global citizen statements that surrounding schools um in the state of Connecticut and in New England um have already produced. We also looked at research on future ready um competencies and global competencies. Many universities and colleges have put out statements to the public into schools of the attributes that they would like their incoming you
039know students to you know enter or metriculate their institutions having already gained. And so we looked at that as part of the committee to see what is it that colleges and careers are looking for in graduates. And then we examined those skills and the skills that would be needed for success in higher education, the workforce and to be members um of a global society. So those citizenship aspects as well. After we had examined these resources, we drafted and revised a new vision which again is a work in progress. Um we generated potential competencies. We conducted multiple rounds of feedback and edits. We engaged in focused discussions to ensure equity, clarity, and relevance. And we ensured that our final draft, which as of this morning is not final yet, this is still an ongoing process. Um,
040reflected shared values and priorities as we worked collaboratively. Um what you'll see on the slides are the emerging attributes that were accurate until this morning um when we again decided to revise and we do have another revision of the graduate uh meeting this Wednesday. So this is not a final draft. The final draft that you do see um you know will be formatted and that will be forthcoming at the end of this process. Um, but what you'll notice from these emerging attributes is as opposed to the verbs that were previously articulated in the vision of the graduate, these are now nouns. So these words embody who the student will be. Um, and then underneath each of these nouns like navigator, analyst, innovator or humanitarian, there are skills and attributes that then describe the noun. So
041for navigator, a student will be a navigator. That means they will be a self-motivated learner who takes initiative, is disciplined and strives for continuous improvement. A little further down, an innovator, okay, is a student who will be a creative innovator who applies imagination and creativity to develop innovative solutions to real world challenges. So again, these are the examples of the attributes that have emerged um from about a year of work as a committee, but this is not the final draft. Um we will be refining this even further based on feedback that we have gathered from both the committee um and from you know our partners within the school district. Our next steps um once we have finalized the vision first will be to share and promote so to communicate the revised vision of the graduate
042to students and families to teacher and school staff and to of course our community partners. After that, we will need to align our curriculum and instruction um because the vision of the graduate is where we want students to be at the end of their time in East Harford Public Schools. So, our curriculum and instruction needs to prepare them to become the students that we say they will be when they leave here. So, if we're going to revise our vision of the graduate, we too must revise our curriculum and make sure that the content that our educators are applying in the classroom, the assessments that we're giving, as Ellen just outlined, that they match the vision of the graduate. So, we don't have a mismatch between who we say students will be and what we do
043to prepare them for that end goal. In addition, we'll need to make sure that not just our curriculum and course offerings, but our learning experiences foster the vision of the graduate competencies. As I mentioned, one of the primary shifts in our vision of the graduate work is the emphasis on some of the social emotional learning aspects that may not currently be present in our schools. So, that will absolutely be learning experiences that we need to emphasize and embed in our work um in the the future year. and then embed the vision of the graduate in instructional practices, assessments, and our student reflection. At the end of this work, not finance yet. At the end of this work, the revised vision of the graduate will really become a foundation for our curriculum design, for our student
044goal setting, for our instructional improvement, and for the college and career readiness. So that together we will empower every student in EHPS to graduate ready to thrive. questions, comments. Um, this is exciting work and I'm glad that you mentioned the student curriculum. I would love to see this work um be uh or do like studentfriendly language even at the elementary levels. And how does that look from the school high school? Um, but this is this is something nice. Um, just a recommendation navigator. I was just like pioneer committee. I love that. I'm going to write that down. Um, and we are still words smmithing. I will say um maybe 50% of our time in the committee has been word smithing. Uh everyone has kind of an opinion on how they want it to look, but
045it's so amazing because we need to communicate in as few words as possible and and words are important. I was an ELA person, so words really matter. Um and we know that. So, I love that suggestion and I'm so happy that you brought up the elementary piece because one of the aspects of the vision of the graduate that was missing in our prior iterations is that the vision of the graduate stood for East Harford High School. Uh it did not embody and it it did not even stand for SA, one of our other 9 through 12 schools. It did not embody the vision of a student at East Harford Middle School. It did not embody a vision of a student at Goodwin Elementary. So when we formed our committee, the first thing we did was
046we brought in elementary leaders. We brought in elementary um representatives. We brought in middle school. So that this vision under the graduate represents a student of prek through 12. And we will absolutely work backwards to align the language so that any student can access this content and see themselves in the vision because that's what it's about. and even you know branching out into school and school even though they still both principles are on our committee. Thank you. T is going to come up. We have our finance update. Good evening everyone. Uh today I'm going to present the Q3 report. The Q3 report analyzes actual year-to-ate with incumbrances. Incumbrances meaning um expenses that we've allocated. However, we've not yet paid the invoices. Um, we tie that out with our actual forecasting as well, and we get
047a good year-to- date number, our projection. Right now, we're currently projecting to end smoothly and successfully with a $346,000 capital reserve. Some of the accounts that are making up that amount are staff vacancies. Currently, we are at $1.8 million in staff vacancies. That's 3.22% of the general budget. Um, our student services are over budget by 291,000. East Harford Public Schools is currently fiscally responsible for seven students that are residing in juvenile detention. So, when we're talking about staff vacancies, that savings is all going to be netted out with our overages. Um, next one is special education services and tuition. Private placement ended Q2 with uh students outplaced with 28 students out placed. Uh Q3 ended at 31 students out placed. So three additional students were out placed for uh magnet and private placements. Q2 ended
048at 389 students and Q3 ended at 394 students. That's totaling an over budget of $1 million in um out of placement services and tuition. Now, magnet tuition um is projected to bring in $617,000 in savings. This is mostly due to um the tuition being capped at 58% of fiscal year 24 expenses. So, that was a very big help for East Harper Public Schools. In addition, our magnet path grant is projected to come in at $2.6 million. That's a projection we would know um end of May really where that number lies. Utilities uh were netted out at zero electricity over budget. However, gas and water due to our um projects that facilities are doing are at a savings. Labor relations um legal fees have a high variability yeartoear with with unknown of what needs may arise.
049Currently the budget is $110,000. We have spent to date 89,000. So we have encumbered $32,000. However, we are projecting um just by trend analysis uh to be over by $52,000. So an additional 52,000 of unknown expenses are projected to come in. Woodland revenue is projected at uh to be under $1 million. Um we've talked about woodland uh and reporter but Q2 we ended at 44 out of outplace students coming in and Q3 we are at 41. Currently we are back to 44. So we gained our uh three students that we lost. We're going to keep this momentum going into fiscal year 26 and um to really get in the revenue that we've uh projected for woodland debt services in 2011. the town and the board joint efforts in an energy efficiency project. The board has
050had to pay around $600,000 yearly. Um, as you know, we've had a very challenging fiscal year 26 budget and uh due to all the cuts. So, in order to save the general budget, we prepaid our debt services for next year. This saved the general budget $70,000. So we paid currently $633,000. If we waited until 71 to do this payment, we would have paid $73,000. And that's all the interest payments. So again, we are projecting um to end the year at $346,000 in capital reserve and that would hopefully go to our facilities department and IT department for capital reserve projects. Any questions? Um for the 20 students that are the specialized students that are being have we had discussions about programing in the district outside William I guess I would love to see a [Music] placement
051between so that has been the lowest it's ever been. Last year this time uh we were at 45. So we have decreased it. Thank you to Dr. Ohouse and also Dr. House and his team have worked on many pro many uh programs for autism at Norris and we have been trying to bring students back. So this is the the best it's ever been but we will continue um to keep up the momentum and maybe Dr. Maybe it's a lack of my knowledge, but it would be great to know what these programs look like in the district. I would love to know what you're doing. And then my other question is a good basketball in this in this neighborhood school. They need to be updated here. The 346,000 in capital reserves, it will go to the
052hoops. I promise you. I'm adding it in. My question my question goes uh from a head start. We had a meeting was like week ago they were waiting for $177,41056 [Music] uh to be released from the federal government for the Head Start program. Um one, do we have a status on that? And two, do you have a game plan with uh if it doesn't get released what it's going to do with your end of year budget? So if it does not get I do not have a status. I could check on that. If it does not get released, then this $346,000 will be affected the capital reserve. So that will just reduce our potential savings to future projects. Okay. Thank you. move on. Thank you. Yeah, because with that we we know it's challenging for
053districts and other government entities across the country. And that's where we need the support and the push from board members, local elected officials, others to continue pushing to make sure that those funds are released. It doesn't matter how we're in the situation or why. this is where we are and we will have that's what I was saying we will have to cover that cost from our budget if those grant funds are are not released. Good. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. I get the clicker. I think the chair can get the mic. I'll get the clicker. We'll run through these next It's okay. I know you watch. So, as we look at and in and here the different pieces so far up to this point, we look at how our plan is about coherence
054and we talk about clarifying having clarity. How are we measuring things? What's most important? What's the level of accountability and what does that look like and how it stands? So when we talk about the vision of a graduate, but we also look at what is our strategic plan and how do all of these areas come together. We hear about finance and different programs that we've been working to add from a special education standpoint, but again, how are we measuring and how is everyone on the same page with that? So this is just part of, you know, our goal one, which is focuses focuses mostly on the academic side, but what are those outcomes that are there? Again, just thinking about our overall process. sharing this because as we're getting ready to close this year but
055go into next year in terms of all of our planning, what is our thought process? What are we thinking about? How is it that everything that we're hearing and seeing tonight contributing and and goes to part of that plan? Again, the focus I've shared this before, but we always want to reiterate that we don't make change for the sake of making change, but we have to continue to, you know, say don't make change for the sake of change. Not all change is destined to play out positively. We make it as we need it. We do not fix something that is not broken. The targeted data points. So these are 20 data points that school systems everywhere will have to touch. And so we look at the first one talking about literacy acquisition skills. We think
056about how that's measured. And if we go down a little bit to say number eight, course pass rate. So what are those gatekeeper courses? when we're talking about what our graduation rates are on number 10, but we can't get to graduation if we're not checking how students are doing along the way and what is the curriculum that they're being taught. How are we strengthening that and making sure that they're getting what they need? So again, as we go through here, PSAT, those other areas when we think about the metrics of getting into college, but the overall piece is how are we preparing students to maximize the choices and opportunities that they have. So I share this piece because as we're looking in our planning in our strategic plan process each of these 20 data points
057are what school systems everywhere should be looking at. Now there are far more we dig a little bit deeper but having these 20 has to say what are what's most impactful about what is here you know it's always good to have a visual so the progress and so again I'm always trying to show just because I can't bring you into the building so sometimes I try to bring it a little bit to you. So, we had one of our state legislators visit our school to see the tutoring program that we have and so we're getting them to try to support us to hopefully secure the funding that we have for the current year to be able to run the program next year. We know that the commissioner Tucker for the Department of Education had come
058in months earlier and again it's a it's a sticking point for them to make sure that they were able to see how the program works firsthand. And again, as we're just getting a visual of how things are working with our youngest and our smallest sites, but also we're at the high school just showing a lot of the programs. are career and technology, you know, programs that exist there, just the different opportunities that students go through the building, creating their own interviews and videos and those type of things, getting first experience. So, the lab that we have there, the Mac lab to again giving them that opportunity to shine and showcase the other talents that they have. Again, community partnership. We had a visit with the mayor being able to come because I think it's very
059important for those that vote on our budgets to be able to see what the need is and how it's being effectively used. And again, just in one of the other classrooms being able to see the hands-on experiences about the I'm not sure what part that is, but it's belongs in the engine. So, we're looking at the different things that students are being taught to being able to apply those skills. again, chief of police being able to get again more firsthand information. So the encounter with our police department is more on a positive side versus, you know, some of the negative things that we hear that happen in other places. So again, you saw the automotive piece, but also remembering and knowing that students still have the opportunity for some of the carpentry side of work
060that exists right now in the high school. And all of these these visuals are in the building. These aren't things that happened years ago or in some other building. These are in spaces that currently exist in our high school. And this young man has his robot that he's able to control with a remote control there. I'll save the video just but being able to see how they're doing things and you know that that very specific opportunity. Another young man explaining how his how his experiment was going to be working. So again, this car participated in a competition. I believe it was about almost two weeks ago at this point. And they improved from their finish. I I think it was in Lakeville, Connecticut. So a little bit further away. But you have competitors from all
061over the region. I believe there at least last year and I think this year again there was a team that comes from Canada that also participates. students did very well. They have to assess and troubleshoot anything that goes wrong with the car. So the adult is not supposed to engage in getting pizza, but to see it in action would be very good. So the next opportunity we have, we can invite everyone over. I want to highlight this piece because this is in the cultural arts building where we have our registration center and just collaborating with Italian giving us that space there. It is a huge upgrade because that carpet is on top of the concrete floor that was there before. So, we're thinking about the families who are entering the school system but also entering
062the town because on the opposite end that you can't see are other offices. I believe social services and the park and wreck is I think upstairs around the corner but all the opportunities that parents have when they come into that building to engage with others to take care of their resources. and another space that we're able to use, the former senior center. So, this was a workshop on customer service for all of the individuals that work in main offices and beyond. But just being able to have our own space to be able to do that has been a tremendous tremendous opportunity for us. And again, just, you know, I think it's always important as far as the extracurriculars that students participate in. We know we have a young man who this past weekend he was
063nationally ranked indoors in the hurdles and he did very well this this weekend has one of the fastest times in the state ever and has a couple of school records and I could say that he broke the intermediate hurdle school record which was the one that I've had since a long long long time. So it was very interesting for for him to be able to do that. So the other the other piece and now see if there are any questions again just some of the updates. We heard a lot of information this evening. wasn't able to put this in, but earlier today we had the adaptive PE I guess what we call it kind of a not so much a fair but students that were going to be outside field day but it was a
064field day in the gym because as we know it rained all day but the opportunity for those students to be in there and engage is is very encouraging. It's it's very exciting to be able to see them you know participate. They were in our schools from from across the district. We had the University of Hartford were the students that were in there supporting, you know, the the activities in those. And just one other reminder before I get to the college acceptances is the kindergarten welcome and backpack rally. I'm going to keep putting it out there August 6. So just so individuals remember, put that in your calendars, but also for kindergarten registration. We know we've been talking about it since February, but we need for our families, we need the word to be spread. So,
065we're getting a lot of it done now. So, we're not waiting until those days in August and coming up to the w coming down to the wire, I guess we could say. And this one last piece is again congratulating our seniors at this time of year and just listing as many of the schools that they've been accepted to. And it is we know that right now is there's a little it's a little over 50 but last year the number will creep up to acceptances where it gets anywhere from 90 to over 100 different colleges and universities across the country that our students are accepted to. We heard from the young ladies earlier that they spent their entire academic career in East Harvard public schools and we heard the way that they spoke about it. So
066I think we should always be encouraged and we have you know future that continues to be there. Any questions? I know that was a lot. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, we are now moving on to old business. So, we had approved the consent calendars for items 1 through 25. We're moving 26 and items 27 and 28. With that being said, do we have a motion to approve the items on tonight's consent calendar? Motion second. All in favor discussions. Eyes have it. Thank you. Now continuing on with old business. Uh policy 9321 uh was on table for first read time and place notice of meeting. So let me pull that up. [Music] It is on page 648. 648. If you pay a lot, maybe should All right. So this policy um is time in
067time in attendance for regular schedule board of ed meetings. Uh so there was a suggestion added um to this policy that reads all regular meetings with the board of education shall begin no earlier than 6:00 p.m. and shall adjourn no later than 9:00 p.m. unless extended of time certain by twothirds vote of board education members. all regular board education meeting shall be held at the Connecticut IB Academy. Uh unless another school is selected for the meeting, the location of each meeting will be noted in a posted agenda. So open it up for discussions, questions or comments about this policy. Um, so I I definitely think that the the time and the place I mean obviously we can try and move the the place but the time being that you know we're all doing this at
068a volunteer basis and that we are elected being in or getting here and the consensus was moving the time to an earlier time to bring family engagement to these meetings. This is the same group of people that we meet with every month. There's not really usually a good family engagement. There was talks about doing virtual options for parents to log in to remote to talk to us directly and stuff like that. But to move the time even earlier, it's not really doing anything because we don't have the family engagement that we want. And then us working obviously every day, it's very hard and difficult to get here for a 5:00 meeting at 5:30 or 6. You know, at the end of the day, I really truly think this should stay at the 7 o'clock point
069because I really truly don't see any family engagement other than the normal board officials or superintendent team. It really there's no other family enga engagement at this point. Uh there so uh noted. So, I just want to remind everyone that the the first sentence is very important in this policy where it says the board of ed board of education meetings shall not begin earlier than 6 p.m. is not saying that the time is going to be moved to 6:00 p.m. to 6:05. As of right now, the skill scheduled to be at 7:00 in June and August and September, October, etc. It's just saying the board should not start any earlier than 6:00 p.m. for a regular meeting. Anyone else? I think that the confusion too was um because it seemed as if when we go
070when we take our meetings to the community that they begin at 6:00 and I think that might have been a confusion. So they do not have to begin at 6:00. They can still continue at 7 o'clock when you take them into the community. So, I don't know if that clears anything up, but we should probably make some type of a movement to either um adjust this or readjust this um the new wording back to um 7:00 or keep it and with an understanding knowing that um our meetings as long as they don't start before 6. So, revising the language. I would just recommend revising the language um because I I'm in agreement with the seven start. And so for the revision, do we want to so do are we are we okay with the regular
071schedule shall not start no earlier than 6 or do we just want to say we should not start no earlier than seven? Seven. No, really. Okay. Okay. Okay. Up to discussion. Anyone else? Okay. So, it looks like there is going to is an amendment to this policy that all regular board education meetings should not begin no earlier than 700 p.m. and shall adjourn no later than 9:00 p.m. unless extended to time certain by 23 of the board of education. All regular meetings with the board shall begin will should be held at the Connecticut IB Academy unless the school is selected for a meeting and the location of the meeting will be posted on the agenda. Everybody good with that language? Okay. So, we have All right. So, we have you all in agreement with the
072language. Do I have a motion to approve the changes to policy 9321 to res to to reflect the board education meeting shall not begin no earlier than 700 p.m. All in favor? Oppose. Any discussions? Eyes have it. So for community members and let me see presses here. We will our goal is still to uh continue on with this road show where we will be going out into our schools to encourage families to participate. Mr. uh Superintendent Innocent um is looking into how we can stream it so that our families can also watch it um at home. So we will still continue on with this practice but with their understanding of where we're at. So going forward uh with this policy that was approved tonight um when we go out into the community schools to have
073our meetings they will begin at 7 p.m. Okay. Thank you. All right. Moving on to new business. The test going to be Tia will be for the review and approval of the contract finance director to execute on behalf of education. So some services. Oh. Oh, okay. Sorry. So, I'm here to ask for your approval to award a contract for substitute services. East Target public schools uses substitute services to provide temporary support on an as needed basis to fill staff vacancies. We engage in the RF we engaged in the RFP process in February and received seven responses. Our ranking of these vendors is based on the quality of the RFP responses, relevant experience, reference and pricing. We are looking to award a three-year contract with a 2-year extension to Kelly Services. Kelly is our current substitute
074service provider and has been our substitute provider for seven or 19 years. Kelly has provided excellent service with personalized account management, year-round recruiting to ensure that our schools are operating at full capacity. We are excited to continue our partnership and ask for your approval of this contract renewal. Motion to approve contract authorization services77-2 second. All in favor? Thank you. So this uh policies facilities meeting did meet on Tuesday we met uh we met looked over all of the contracts went over the plans and approved to be referred to tonight's uh board meeting for final approval by the full board. Mr. I send you we want to approve or you want Yes. You want to do an update? No. Since Jim's not here, I I can cover unless you're No, I think we're or um Chris
075there's three items that we were getting money back. That's correct. There was one award of a uh project that was the the high school. I'm okay with it. Yeah. So, essentially what what uh what uh Vanessa and Chris was uh talking through is um one of the recommendations from uh one board member Annabelle was to kind of recap what is discussed at our subcommittee meeting. So, at our subcommittee meeting uh let me go ahead and take it Chris or you want to do it? All right. So again, so we talked about the Annie Norris Elementary School abatement project. So again, uh that project was to uh do some abatement work over at Annie Norris Elementary School. Uh was a contractor that we are familiar with with good reviews. Um good uh success with that contractor.
076So we were comfortable moving forward. Same thing at the East Harland Middle School. Uh the Hawin uh steam tunnel, we saw pictures of some of us who was on a board uh maybe two years or three years ago. uh when we discovered there was a leak and then we discovered that there was a something going on with that that steam um abatement and we had to go through that project and there was some credited back to that work that was done and of course finally addressing um the East Harper High School library and media center HVAC roof replacement roof replacement topics another project that was been on the books for a while and I'm finally moving uh that project forward to to forward tonight so what I'll do is go I'll do approval for each
077of the items in lie of us trying to do it in one um one motion. Um so with that being said, do we have a motion to approve the Norris Elementary School floor debatement project? Have a motion to second. All in favor questions? Eyes have it. Thank you. Have a motion to approve the acceptance of the completion of project 0430251 East Hartford Middle School floor baitman state project. Have a motion a second. All in favor? I have it. Uh do I have a motion to approve project Hawin steam tunnel abatement project state project bid 043 0250. Motion a second. All in favor? Have it. Thank you. And do I have a motion to approve the war contract authorization for our East Harford School Library Media Center HVAC roof replacement state project HACN? Motion second. All
078in favor? Questions? Have it. All right. Are there any concerns or comments by board members? Sorry. I just wanted to share a brief story. This morning I went with Mr. Anderson to Norris Elementary School and when we went there uh the principal I can't pronounce the last sh sorry um for the staff the first thing that you see when you walk in there to the left on the bulletin board is how sweet it is to have a staff like you and like little candies and everything. and um she had a whole table set up with treats and then um she was so thrilled to tell me that um she did chocolate dip pretzels she's bringing in tomorrow. So there's a lot of appreciation over at Norris for the staff. Thank you for I have a
079question for Dr. House. Um do we participate in any special Olympics unified sports align with CAS? Yes, I think there has been discussion about expanding more so more so on the secondary level. Okay. It would be nice to expand it to elementary. I just attended the Special Olympics at Connor on Saturday and there were probably 15 elementary schools that participated across the state and it was just such a heartwarming event um to be able to spend just a couple of hours and to see kids helping each other and working through and it it it would just be a really nice opportunity for our students um to also be seen in a different environment knowing that we have 21% of our students. First of all, I want to say it's amazing being here in this school
080today. My two children started kindergarten here right on through East AR High School graduates. And it's just amazing what they've learned and what they have been able to accomplish to accomplish in life because of the lessons that they've learned here. And thank you, Mr. Rotor for being a principal that is involved with the students and and cares among the students. Thank you for that. And um to piggy back on what um Annabelle was saying regarding Special Olympics, the U Parks and Wreck has a great program, Special Olympics um project that happens during the during the summertime. Well, they actually do winter Olymp during the summertime and the commission on services for persons with disabilities is involved um with that. So, maybe it would be something that we could, you know, hook up with the parks
081and recck um any schools to see, you know, if there's any information or anything that we can share as a as a team, as a topic. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Are there any topics for future agendas? There see I have a motion to adjurnn. Motion second. All in [Music] favor. Thank you. Have a good night. See you in June at gra. So friendly.