001regular schedu board Education meeting for Monday March 4 March 10th 2025 please stand for the pl of Allegiance we have Chris T ja clar Tyron Harris Vanessa Jenkins Jo and we have our student thank you for being here thank you we have no amendments to the agenda this evening so with that being said do I have a motion to approve our regular board Education meeting minutes for February 10th 2025 have a motion a second all in favor discussions nice it thank you do have a motion to approve our special board Education meeting minutes for February 12 2025 motion have a second all in favor any discussions eyes have it thank you are there oh do I have a motion to approve R board Education meeting minutes for February 26 2025 a motion a second all
002in favor discussion we have a discussion action item for our previous minutes so I just have a question with regards to the previous minutes for the February 26th I think that was the budget The Joint meeting um in the minutes it says attended none and I'm not sure what that means and also um I do not see Jac's name anywhere on here so I don't know if we need toct that okay so bring add those uh Jac's name and the num part thank you make those edits are there any rank communication the board yes the uh only thing is we want to encourage parents to register their kids for kindergarten it's coming up soon so please do so all right thank you for that secretary and now our student representative Savannah come on down our
003supera representative good evening everyone um during the past month and upcoming in this month um the student Advisory Board took a field trip to the Connecticut Association of student council's annual convention at Woodland High School Miss Buck was awarded with an excellence and Advising award for her work with amazing service and Leadership within our student councils students had the opportunity to work with likeminded high school students in service and Leadership Workshops the Chinese Club held their first Chinese games afternoon on March 7th students participated in different cultural activities after school to help support the trip to China in 2026 SAT prep sessions have begun and will continue throughout March ending with the cram jam on April 1st over 25 students have participated in the after school sessions thus far there will be an informational meeting
004for the China trip planned for spring of 2026 with East Harford high school and CA students parents will be able to come and ask questions about the trip as well as learn about the payment schedule and itinerary this will be on March 12th at 6 p.m. if anyone's interested the interact Club is hosting an Asian cultural night at 6 p.m. on March 21st students will be able to engage in different activities from around Asia and there will be catered food that is included with the entrance fee another wellness clinic will be held on March 28th and we will be hosting a bad Minon CL bad Minon clinic and helping our students stay active beyond their physical education class requirements on March 22nd our biomedical Club will be participating in a biomedical competition at Yukon 50
005of our students will be competing against other schools to win different challenges in physics chemistry biology and more that is all I have for you guys today thank you are there any questions for San there are none uh is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak at this time see enough turn over to our superintendent Mr Thomas Anderson good evening good evening good evening thank you it's been a long day it's been much warmer outside so we should be a little bit proud of that here in March first what I want to do is in over here at Sunset Middle School I'm going to invite Miss Turner assistant principal up to just give us some greetings and share a little bit about sunset I am really loud all right good evening it is
006my pleasure to welcome the Board of Education to Sunset Ridge Middle School we're happy to host you here tonight uh my name is Alex Turner I'm the assistant principal and the IB coordinator here at Sunset so at Sunset our mission is clear we strive to promote academic excellence and Social Development through the IB learner profile we offer rigorous student centered learning experiences that prepare our students for a rapidly changing world we take pride in fostering International mindedness by encouraging our students to consider diverse perspectives and empowering them to make a difference in the world through service and action trust me it is no small Fe to convince a middle schooler that there is in fact a world outside of themselves um so together with your support we are really creating a community here at this
007school that not only values education but seeks to inspire students to be compassionate thoughtful and engaged Global Citizens so thank you for your continued dedication to this program this is a huge part of you know what you have believed in and Contin to support and we're excited to continue developing our program um I'll share a anecdotal funny story with you about two weeks ago I had a seventh grade student come up to me and say Miss Turner we need to talk and I said okay that could go a lot of different directions right and they said do you guys remember we're only 12 I'm going to my math class and I'm asked to do all this really hard stuff and the teacher is not telling me the answer I have to communicate with the people
008next to me and work it out with this group of kids the math is so hard and then I go to community time and you expect me to change the world and so it was really hilarious uh to hear a 12-year-old's perspective of what we do here but in a nutshell he was able to protest but also you could see that he liked it kind of encapsulate what we do and what we believe in and so you know our students are really challenged at Sunset and we are so amazed at how they rise to the occasion time and time again um in May you'll all receive an invitation to this very cafeteria and it will look much different than it looks right now uh the students will present their it we call it our IV
009showcase they'll present their Community projects that they've worked on all year our eighth grade students um it's a very big day for them so we hope you'll be able to attend and see what impact the students chose to make in our community and Beyond so I'm not sure if anyone had any questions about the IB Program or anything that you wanted to know no I did such a great job encapsulating it all that you really get what Suns that's about that's good okay well I thank you for being here tonight and hope you have a great meeting thank you very much so as we get to some of the other key points I think it's always important and being able to be in the schools physically and see what happened here and have people administrators
010with staff from the building to be able to show I think that speaks volumes about what is actually occurring versus us just sharing short pictures and those type of things so thank you again so again always sharing what our goals are I think it's important for us to kind of stay focused on that you welcome some key agenda items that we will cover this evening but the next item is we have several of our student athletes here and I'm going to invite up is our athletic director Mr St J come up and do some speaking introductions re we know because I gotta make sure you're on screen all right my introduction is gonna be very brief I'm gonna bring over our indoor and outdoor track coach Mark Brown Coach Brown he has his assistance here
011with him I'm coach rth and Coach Jay so Coach Brown will give a brief overview of These Fine Young athletes we've had Coach Brown been with us for longer than I've been there over 15 plus years and he's been coaching track for a long time um and and track is one of those tricky Sports I really didn't start getting it till this year probably and I'm still learning it it's just the time that you commit to track is ridiculous right sometimes a track meets start at 6 am they leave the school and they're not back till 11: o' at night so um that's a long Saturday I don't think any of us work that long in any at any given moment so I'm goingon to stop talking and bring Coach Brown up so he can
012do the introductions good evening how everybody doing today my name is Coach Brown coach over at East Harford High School I've been employee for East town of East Harford for over 28 years now um one of the main things ID like to talk about with uh first individual that ID like to introduce to you guys is um this gentleman came to us um his freshman year um he started running track and he was coach on the Tage this coach Jay um our hurler coach came to us from Yukon um and he really kind of bought into our program and did everything that we asked him to do um his fresh year he accomplished you know great things um he went to Nationals and um he placed eighth overall in the nation as a freshman which
013was a great task and we didn't have we never had something like that at East Harford he was the first one to actually do it um now it's his junior year um he's now currently ranked number one in the class dou L which is a large school high schools in Connecticut he's number one in that he's also ranked number one in state of Connecticut and he's currently ranked number 15 in nation in the 55 meter hurdles i' would like to bring up Mr Davon Johnson the other individual I'm G let her her coach who uh put a lot of work in she's been with us for two years um but I'm going let her coach um is very very proud of her introduc so this young lady she's well I just found out she was
014with the program for three years and she started as a runner and everybody tried to push her in my direction but she wanted to jum she want to do everything but throw and then she came to me her junior year and she just worked relentlessly and I didn't go way she wanted and she just put well indoor her first outdoor season she became a state champion and then she came back this her second indoor season now she's a state champion again um she's again number one in um number two in Connecticut and she's number 32 in the country so it's just uh you know I Testament to her hard work and her dedication so um I just wanted to present to you guys Rihanna barose on top of that she also boasts a 4.1 gbaa
015at Sia in addition to all the hardw work that she does so she's the perfect example of what a student at should be this works this works perfect your all right ready really and we we definitely appreciate our student athletes being able to attend tonight but I guess when look at how we balance the Athletics along with being a student I think some people forget that sometimes that the focus is about being a student athlete and it's it's a testament to several years of work throughout a strong athletic tradition in terer and so what they continue to do is just you know it's amazing to have the national rankings that they have and the next group that we are believeing that I was just told that they had a meet this past weekend so our
016wrestlers who actually won again I believe that's five that's their five class championships this year they also won five championships last year and Mrs senu said that they had a meet so we appreciate apprciate that they probably need to be home resting up studying because again it is the student part of the athletic that we want to make sure that they're taking care of their other business but we didn't want to recognize those young men as well because these are again the time and energy that is spent I think some individuals may not have an appreciation for just the amount of balance when you're doing any type of extracurricular combined with doing well in the classroom so again we appreciate them and giving that recognition and you know we'll be the touch base with them
017time next part is as always you want to do our staff Spotlight our first one is Stacey porch assistant principal at East Harford high school and we hadn't had administrators recognized before and there was a question and my thought was whoever we feel is deserving to be recognized that's what we should do we shouldn't pull back because it's an administrator and not someone else in the building so I think Stacey's probably our first industry I'm Stacy for I am the grade 11 assistant principal at East Harford High School I taught English here for about 18 years um and then I was asked to step in as a AP in an interim role for for a year then I got the job for real at the end of my 19th year here and I've been doing
018this for 5 years now it's always different and I think that's what makes it so exciting you know the days are never the same so you just got to kind of move and pivot and change direction and do what you need to do to meet the needs of the kids Stacy's commitment to the Hornet Community is unrivaled um she comes in here she's the first one here every day and when she's here she's uh building strong supportive relationships she builds those relationships with students as well as our staff members she's not afraid to have difficult conversations and she can do those because she has great relationships with our students and our staff and our families we go with the kids from 9 through 12 so it really helps kind of knowing what's going on in
019their lives and knowing their stories I use a lot of humor a lot of sarcasm with the kids they like to be able to have somebody here that they can kind of be real with and talk to but at the same time hold them accountable I just feel like you know somehow I'm making a difference you know and it might just be in one kid or two kids you know I want the kids to look back on their High School experience and say it wasn't so bad you know I remember my AP I didn't ever remember who my APS were you know they were just kind of people that were there you heard of but you never saw so I make sure I'm out there I'm visible I know who I am good we appreciate
020Miss porch and our next so the topic about which I've been asked to speak okay good morning come on in my name is Javier I'm the administrative assistant here at May Elementary School I've been in the role a couple years and it's been a blast I started as a tutor and I would cover for the secretary when she was uh at her lunch because I uh speak Spanish so I thought it would be a nice addition to have and I just really like the role so typical day is dealing with attendance uh schedule for the principal you know uh coverage making sure just the day-to-day things like the printer and everything is working fine for the teachers anything that the principal needs anything that the teachers need we are that you know that resource they
021can say like I don't know who can helping with this well that's that's where we can step in we can find out I can honestly say the school does not function properly without him he knows the in andout of the school like the back of his hand um the relationships he has teachers with the students with the staff are amazing it's nice to be able to step into a place where it feels safe it feels welcoming and that's what we try to um have here for families and um part of that is is is being friendly and being happy being you know bringing a little Joy he has the ability to calm parents down and talk to them and make them feel heard and validated and then he gets all the answers and he won't
022stop until he helped the look in someone's face when they realize that something that they really worried about something that stressed them out that now is no longer a problem you know that that to me is a nice feeling thank you we think it's important every meeting to recognize them but really do other things throughout so it just doesn't seem as though it's just something that we do I appreciate again Laura for being taking the time to put these together and put in the you know the time and actually the care into it because these are the people that make our school system you know what it is and I think it's very important to Ure that we continue recognizing and knowing that there's meaning behind it versus just an activity and being able to
023do that we're going to get to the healthy food certification a little bit later that's another agenda item so I want to touch on a couple of other things as we're doing a lot of work with so we think about AI or artificial intelligence we have to think about what comes to mind and what makes people a little fearful of what is transpiring in our world when it comes to the technology so we are one of seven districts that was selected in Conneticut to be a part of the AI pilot by the Department of Education and we will be underway in terms of being able to Pilot a couple tools at the middle school level and I believe at the high school level but I want to do this evening is just just share a
024little bit about not so much about where we are but what we're doing in terms of recognizing implementing what are going to be our you know our rules and regulations basically about how it goes we have an AI committee that meets and they're digging deeply into how we're going to implement the pirate how we're going to do some of those things but also what is it that we need to do we know this is an area that continues to continues to evolve so we're not looking to create a concrete statement or policy at the moment because every couple of months there's something new coming out what are the tools what are the platforms that we're going to use all staff and students are already sign off on a user agreement to have access or utilize
025the school's computer computers as Hardware but also for any software so some of those things are already in place but just really being able to share you know a few points about what it is that we're trying to do you know we talk about being here at Sunset Ridge and we talk about the IV profile and all the different adjectives that are used but really thinking about we want to be able to use this being intentional with you know the educational part the skill development and you know we want our student to be be more of the creators versus being on the side and having other people create the processes and we're not ready and that's a huge thing for me when I mentioned before about social capital and having our students be the drivers
026of it as opposed to we're going to be the buy standards so as we're out in front of this taking advantage the pilot comes with about $100,000 to pay for any of the tools that we're going to use as part of that pilot but again like I said understanding what the role is of AI so when we come up with our statement of purpose we are listing which tool TOS can be used like for example chat GPT so that'll be something that once we go through finalize our position statement share that with all the administrators they've already given feedback so it is today Monday on on Wednesday we have a district leadership team meeting where we will share the final document that's already had feedback to kind of see where we are with that but
027again like I said it's pretty fluid to make sure we can make those changes make those changes throughout but really getting it where I was on a panel I guess almost a little over a week ago now but talking about how AI impacts certain communities and those type of things and it's where who has the access and that's what it comes down to who has access in the beginning how are we making sure that things are ethical what are the privacy laws and we've implemented we put it this way we didn't have to implement privacy because we already have it so what we need to do is expanding it and making sure it's capturing that the information that is being put into you know the AI system no matter what the tool is is not
028going to violate any of our students rights or our staff being able to share information that shouldn't be shared so we capturing all of those pieces and again you know the Strategic collaboration they being Equity focus in terms of what's Equitable for everyone another area of focus is to partner with a lot of the tech companies the colleges universities so those are the things that are coming to make sure that we are well equipped we don't know what we should be teaching for some students to learn how to really code or or create and develop the AI program so those are areas where we need to be out in front of it and get with our work Workforce Development Partners seeing what the college and colleges and universities are doing seeing what from a technical
029standpoint some of the other non- colleges are doing about this part of process and also we think about advocating for making sure that my m concern is our AAR for community and how are we being equipped so we have the hardware but again what does it come down to as far as understanding the mindset and getting us all on the same page about what is it that we want to do with you know AI artificial intelligence and how it can be used as a tool and just one last point about it is I think in the beginning individuals think that well we can't use x y and z because students are going to cheat my thought is well let's channel that and switch it around so that way they know how to use it effectively
030so the level of communication is there so it's not something that's being seen as where they're not supposed to use it and we know I've heard it on the news today and everyone's celebrating in some communities about today was the first day that middle school students in some places had to put their phones in the pouches and they didn't have access to them during the day and my thought is okay that's one way of handling it but we need to embrace the technology figure out ways of how we make sure individuals know this is not the appropriate time but in this classroom during this assignment this is what you're going to be able to do this is what we're going to dictate that you have to do and so as you're thinking about AI it's
031really the same thing so as long as you have an open mind and we're willing to dig into the space and really see what's there then we will stay out in front of it so what we will be doing like I said we'll share position statement we'll finalize and do all these things with the rest of our administrators on Wednesday so there's about 60 people that will have more input on it because it's going to impact the schools immediately and the next step we want to be able to do over the next few days is open up some of those tools so our teachers and other staff will have access to them and that's what it's about first it's about giving the teachers the access to kind of see what they can use the tools
032for to expedite time to be creative and then we'll pull the students in to see okay the teachers need it for this then we know exactly what those rules and those parameters need to be to make sure that it is you know Equitable access for everyone I know that was a lot but I kind of want to just put some of that out there any questions um so just curious in regards to the AI so the first phase that private phase is only for teachers so the the question was this in cases the first phase the the pilot for the teachers so actually well yes and no but it will be used with students in the classroom and then question is are you guys going to allow teachers the freedom to use AI to develop
033to help support right curriculum assessments lesson plans like have you guys had discuss so also we plan to use it to allow teachers to dig deeply into creating creating curriculum writing lessons and those type of things and assessments so what we're doing with the pilot is to determine what it is that we should use it for so I don't want to say no we're not going to because I think when we have individuals who are probably using it at home already to help them be creative and doing some of those things exactly so it's really about making sure the security so we think of an assessment making sure the test security is there and how all those pieces work and I think over the next couple months I'll be able to share more more once
034once they've started implementing and really seeing what direction they feel they need in the classroom student engagement feed yes so part question is is part of the pilot to get student engagement and feedback or get feedback from students during that part of the process yes that that's really what the driver will be it'll be the teachers in the classroom but it's going to to come from the students as far as what are the needs that they have because that's really when we're talking about revising curriculum or creating new curriculum it really is all based on what do we think the students need at that time okay and like I said we'll be giving more updates and in the future I will have some other teammates discussing and sharing more the details as well so what
035I want to do now just quickly I I share a lot about our learning walks and so this is just to kind of give a few highlights and some of the information that that is there and again it's a team it's a little bit different than it had been in the past so the learning walk really touches on all aspects of the district so you have someone representing the English language learner Department speci education social studies MTH across the board there's a team that will go in so for example if you come into Sunset you can end up having as many as 18 different individuals broken up into smaller teams the object when we think of it in a in a simp way it's almost like having an audit done of your building so we
036have this team you're able to come in and depending upon the number of teams you can end up seeing almost every classroom in the building with that so each each visit lasts about 5 to seven minutes which in a grand scheme of things you can think that may not be that long of a time but when you're in there and you're making looking at Trends and patterns there's a lot you can see during that time but also remember it's a snapshot it's not for the purpose of a district learning walk it's non evaluative so the individuals coming in are not coming in to evaluate the teachers that they're see they're not even coming in to make judgments they we coming in in the way I'm going to say the way it's supposed to be because
037this is my belief and how we're going to stick to it is we're coming in and we're being objective and we're only sharing what we see now when the team is done and the administrator who supports that principle who works directly with that principle if there are some other conversations they want to have about what they saw or questions at the principal may say hey well did you actually see this those are other conversations that are there but again it's not a valuative and there's a briefing in the beginning of the the beginning of the walk so we gather say in a room like this well a little smaller but we G gather collectively and really focus on the principal sharing what their priorities are for the walk so they want us to look for
038teacher talk or student talk or the levels of Engagement the type of questioning that's going on is there proximity it you know control so to speak where are students moving around is the adult moving around and again what does that level of Engagement really look like so the principles will share what their priorities are we already have District level priorities but the district level priorities are to reflect what we want to see in our buildings so they're not separate they are they are similar however when we come to a building there may be other things that they want us to be able to see and feel sometimes it could be the climate and that could be when you're going from classroom to classroom in the hallway during passing time what does that look and feel
039like so I share that because there are lots of other areas that are on here and it also comes down to I know we use the word glows and grows but it's about growth it's about getting better it's really about you know what is that specific criteria so there is a process so it's not coming in and it's just things are shared that have nothing to do with the content that's there and it's not it's also not a opportunity there is an opportunity when we need to speak and share accurately what we see so it's not about coming in and not sharing things that may need Improvement that's part of the process but it really is about being objective and not judgmental when you're coming in thought I had another at the end so just
040going through quickly this is what we end up seeing I I share some pictures with the board as I do these weekly notes but again it's always hard for individuals because you never can get into the buildings all the time but these are these are our classrooms I was pleased when I saw that because that furniture came from Pratt Whitney so it was good we thought it wouldn't fit anywhere but the class in the technology area and the tech area at the high school being able to create another Style of seating which sometimes may think is not that big of a deal but it is when we think about our workspaces and for students to be able to have that type of access so again we talk about handson I had a video of that
041but I'll I'll spare you when you was driving around that'll be the next time so again just touching again so the the visits capture all schools and like I said there's anywhere from 15 to 20 members the school the classes visited and one big change for this year is that all classrooms are visited I believe every classroom no matter the subject is an academic classroom so whether we're going to Art and music English whatever it is if we're going to see students at recess to me all of that counts because it speaks to what happens at a school during the day everything's a learning opportunity whether we're doing lunch duty and we come through and we see what's happening there so I didn't have an official number but I know we're well over so we
042see the number of walks that were done October November and then the number of walks that were done recently so that's about 700 honestly that's a low number because it's not counting all of the departmental walks when they come for the math department they go and see their classrooms and they team up and they walk around and again this is just District it doesn't include the school-based teams doing their walks so just to be clear we're thinking right now in March individuals probably have seen cl to about 5,000 classrooms so when we're sharing about what's happening in our buildings my expectation is that our teams are well in tune to what's there it's not about anyone going in and telling and directing a teacher what to do no that's not what it is but where
043are we because we are if we're not teaching a class we are support staff and when we look at the learning walks that's what it's about seeing what our Trends and patterns are and then it also leans toward when we're talking during the budget season we're saying here are the areas of priorities that we have but we're speaking from firsthand experience of being able to see what's happening in those classrooms any question about learning walks are really powerful can you remind me um which framework do we use to evaluate teachers the CCT or I know we we did did our CCT CCT so then the learning walks are align are they aligned so yes they're aligned however like I said they're not a value to right so we use the domains and all of the
044and being from different states everyone has different names for it so yeah and then like um because I think the average number is five per classroom in regards to the groups do you guys go in like with clipboard or you guys just we we mix most people go in with a clipboard I go in and take all my notes in my phone so I look at it where we all at this point should know what good instruction looks like and so we have the domains but yes we do go with the clipboards they break it out by domain and we kind of focus on certain domains when we go so you're modeling your phone it makes it easier when I when I send the information back send the information back also that's how I get
045all those pictures too so when you guys go into the classroom how that re by folks in class it's it's well received I think one they are already used to individuals coming in and the one thing I try to continue to emphasize and then act like it when you go in is to I go in and I sit you know some of them are taller than I am anyway so I can sit down you kind of blend in but you go in where it's not you don't want to come across as being you know when you're standing sometimes so we try to do those things and and blend in but no matter what we do if we're not delivering the message and it's coming back to the principle where it's nonjudgmental and we're there as
046support and not to look for something that's wrong and sometimes that takes time but I think we had already had somewhat of a process in place but of course in a new person coming in it takes a moment to get people to you know make sure that that's what we're doing so that's how we had to refined the process this year to have it where you know it built on what was already there but really having it where we were we talked about it more and it was had more individuals on the teams and we continue to speak the same language and maintain the level of being non-judgmental what kind of data are you expecting to come out done like what kind of dat so for this there's a lot more of the anecdotal data
047because we can do you know we have information on benchmark assessments and all the other numerical data that we can see but it's really about seeing what the trends and patterns are so again if we think of something basic like student engagement how do you define that we can Define it many many ways because you can walk into a classroom and and a student may look disengaged a head may be down but you ask them a question they've been paying attention they've been writing everything down so some of it is how do we Define what we're looking for and making sure you know it is a it is a fair process so I say that the data piece having those conversations has been a huge part and just being aligned in our thinking and our
048vocabulary about what we talk about thank you thank you and I want to make sure we all remember that's why I put a little bit later that it is women's History Month which is March we know that we shouldn't have to designate certain times of the year to make sure we're celebrating and recognizing people all the time and but I thought it was worth mentioning in here just in terms of because it hasn't been around all that long when you think of the actual time period from we say 1987 so again just as we think about how we recognize how we support our our young ladies you know I have a daughter and it's when you think about having a daughter than with two sons it makes you you know be more mindful of when
049we talk about careers and Pathways and those type of things what are we doing and especially in the world that we're digging deeply into with AI and the science piece and coding it can't just be you know trendy things to say okay well we want girl you know the you know girls code it's like okay that's all finding good but are we really doing it in our classrooms across the board and why is it something special versus just embedding it and making sure it's something that's part of what we should be doing at all time and just to highlight a couple things so last week we had our America read Across America event which you can see on the left and then we had a press conference with Governor Lamont so they never give us
050much time to prepare for to prepare for those but we're always going to be good sports we think it's great that they pick East Harford to be able to come in you came in he signed the bill that is giving another $40 million to special education resources just to be clear for everyone who's listening we're not getting the $40 million we get a very you know small part of it as we should because it's spread out to lots of different lots of different communities but again I say that because I'm one where I never want to disrupt the school but Mr Pierce is great we knew that you know the media center at the East Harford Middle School would be a great opportunity for them to be there so they did come sign the bill
051and we also had have the chair of one of the state reps is one of our teachers at Woodland and she's a chair of the special education committee so that's a helpful a helpful Point as well and that is all I have question I know that it's it's really good that we're initiating these conversations right it's a fun special my biggest concern is that although like money is going to come to different municipalities special has there been like any discussion around long term this is just one like I'm afraid that we might end up hiring people to support special needs like I know probably might not have the answer but that's big question and so the question focuses on basically when the grant money comes how long is it going to last how are we
052going to maintain it going into the future the amount that's coming through this which I said it's a great number to hear that it's 4 million but when it's broken out it's not something that we would do in terms of increasing Staffing based on that amount yeah and and and and the other piece is we continue to I'm a proponent of getting as many of our children to stay in District that we can serve now granted I've said it before they're we're not going to be a to serve all of our children that have special needs are going to be some that they have to go to the placements out then that's a best situation for them but really looking to see what programs can we have within district and reinvest some of that funding
053that we're sending out so it's almost where it's it's never going to be a wash but instead of asking for more funding we're retaining some money that we would have otherwise spent because it's already allocated in the budget that makes sense yeah thank you with that being said moving on to new business a review and approve our 2025 2026 Head Start selection criteria down good evening's working um I'm here to see your board approval for the 2025 um Head Start selection criteria um The Head Start program must annually establish selection criteria that weighs the prioritization of the selection of the participants based on the community needs um identified within the community needs assessment um of the performance standards and this selection criteria includes Public Assistance uh family income disability uh parental status employment status education
054status and family status um the federal poverty guidelines are also noted on the document for your reference and the community needs assessment does not warrant any changes to the selection criteria that was established last year during the 2324 school year um so last spring based on the community needs assessment um it did not warrant any particular updates so for this particular 2025 Head Start selection criteria it's no different than last year thank you for just so this uh this is the community needs assessments that went out so I agree with the program so don't take it wrong but all this like here like I'm a husband I'm married I have two kids everything on this selection like this criteria goes against me like as a community member it feels I'm being punished I'm not successful
055but I'm above the poverty guidelines it feels like I'm being punished for being married having a kid I mean going by here you get more points than BCF is involved in your like and and Matt you're not wrong and I know that you and I have had this conversation before and other conversations about the EC relative to Head Start and these are these are these are standards that are set forth by Head Start in order for us to be able to receive the funds and so to your point yes um you know unfortunately the more disadvantaged the family is um the more points that they receive for eligibility for entry into the actual program so you're not wrong in what you're saying no I know we talked about expanding the program it's just I think
056you get more children when you do expand it because you're only allowed a certain number I just I just want it eligible for everybody you know it shouldn't go off of this criteria in my eyes I mean the state and federal above me but soon you know what they the parents want their children to learn and full four five years old we live in East Harford let them learn right just don't agree with this I understand and then and also to your point regarding hackam as a whole the head start funding is really only one source of funding because it is comprised of four total funding sources that don't necessarily go by this particular criteria this is Head Start specifically and again to your point we have had so many conversations about expanding um preschool
057educational experiences for our three and four-year-olds Beyond hackam it's something that I know that our superintendent is very interested in it would require more conversations in terms of the funding sources that we would have available to be able to expand that Beyond hackam but I always appreciate your comments and your questions and your passion around preschool because I know that your little one there is having a good experience I I know I'm getting off track and everything but so true story so I got my my son into racing you know yay don't get anybody involved in as yeah but anyways he was the only student mind you he's in the seminar he's been going yesterday he graduated the instructor and everybody said Your son's a most well behaved kid mind you it was four and
058a half year olds to 12 year olds he was listening and everything I was like I like like that was Miss goell taught him everything he was focused he was learning and I was watching like in the back he really was it's amazing like what you guys have done with my son my daughter she's still the devil is he still singing It's funny we put an end to that one trust me I heard enough good morning songs thank you for thank you for uh your words of encouraging man always encouraging us but uh thank you for that mat Chris go ahead what's the ratio for Head Start to as far as how many kids do they take head start funding versus like a traditional I guess I don't want to give you the wrong figure
059so I can definitely get you that information absolutely else see that dou motion to approve our 2025 2026 Head Start selection criteria motion a second all in favor discussion have it thank you I seea come on down for the review and approval of our CT healthy food certification so we have uh we have two certifications that will be approving tonight uh so the floor is yours to great thank you good evening everybody tonight I'm bringing forth two food certifications first I'm seeking an approval to continue our participation in the national school lunch program while inuring compliance with the Connecticut nutrition standards this certification encompasses all food sold to students separate for for the reimbursable meals in fiscal year 24 our adherence uh to the to the nutrition standards yielded $773,000 and we are committed to
060maintaining this compliance moving forward thank you uh so first one any questions before we move on to the next all right with that being said I have a motion to approve our healthy food certification first item number two Motion in a second all in favor eyes have it thank you next great so now I am requesting a waiver the approval um this waiver will allow East Harford public schools to sell foods that do not align with the Connecticut nutrition standard this waiver will be applicable for sales in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or the weekend the sale at the location of the event and foods and beverages that are not sold in a vending machine or school store so a concession stand or a fundraiser any questions
061we all right I'll give uh the honors to miss Vanessa Jenkins to call this motion this is her baby so moved thank you have a motion to Second all in favor all oppos discuss all have it thank you to you next do I have a motion to approve the appointment of Selena gonzale to the fill the vacancy of Mr Patrick Bots as our next education board member um finishing out his term for FY 25 have a motion have a second all in favor I have uh so we we uh the Democratic party did select a new candidate to fill our uh to fill Patrick Bin's position she will be smor in tomorrow at town uh clerk's office and she'll be here at our next board meeting and her orientation will be I believe March oh
062the name is her name is asina gilen anyone else are there any comments or questions by board members Vanessa thank you yes um first of all I just wanted to say that um we had a curriculum committee meeting my first as chair and something that came out of that committee is um we were hoping that I was hoping that when um you know these meetings are public right so when anyone who needs to look at minutes from previous meetings that especially for this particular meeting or any meeting that has a subcommittee meeting that has proposals attached that those proposals are attached to the minutes so people can actually see what the votes were for so I'm we're working on that hopefully the the next time um you know because I went to look back to
063see what the minutes were for the last meeting which was probably about a year ago um and I saw new courses but I did not see the proposals attached and it's important to see those proposals so we're hoping that we can get that attach and it was a it was a great it was a great meeting other than that so thank you anyone else are there any topics for future agendas there a motion to a journ motion a second all in favor eyes have it thank you have a good night everyone