001Okay. Uh, it is 6 o'clock and I'd like to call the East Line Board of Ed regular meeting to order. The April 7th meeting to order. Uh, first order of business. For those of you can stand and stand for the budget, please stop. The flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty, and justice for all. It was great having a pat. So, thanks everyone uh for coming. Uh we have a a number of special recognitions that we're going to do right off the bat. And I do want to thank our um state representative Nick Venet for coming and and he's going to do a couple recognitions and we're going to go on to others, but I'll turn it over to Jeff to Yeah,
002I'm going to turn it right over to Kevin. We'll get things moving along. Kevin's gonna give our first introduction right to uh Representative Mes. Good evening everybody. Thank you for having us. and it is it almost feels like my interview again while this but thank you for having us as we celebrate two incredible student athletes for their amazingments this past year. Before we get to them, I just wanted to give you some highlights from the winter season at the high school. We had 247 athletes compete in 10 varsity sports season starting in late November running into the middle of February. It's very, very busy winter. We had three teams capture ECC regular season championships, boys indoor track, women's epic fencing, and for the first time in school history, our wrestling team captured their first outright
003regular season ECC championship. Boys indoor track and women's epencing that total of tournament titles for slime this school year and two seasons to seven. um with a promising spring starting uh this past Saturday. One team that I I would like to highlight, particularly proud of to share with you this evening, is the resurgence of our unified sports program. Um they competed uh this winter. We had a few basketball games and a tournament that they competed in. We were very disappointed to have to cancel their senior night um that we had planned, but rest assured we will certainly reschedule that next year. It happened to be the only snow day that we had here. So, that was unfortunate, but they're thrilled to able to have a coach. They're thrilled to have a team. They've been working
004really hard and they're gearing up for spring season. Uh for spring sports, pretty typical start. Um it's been raining in case you haven't noticed. So, um we had three regular uh scheduled games today that we had to postpone. We did have four teams start the regular season this past Saturday and everybody else will be starting this week if it can stop raining. A total of 396 athletes signed up to compete in 12 different offerings this spring. So again, tremendous participation by our student athletes, our coaches, and the community. It's really um it's it's great to see uh that that amount of participation. Now for our special recognitions tonight, we celebrate the amazing accomplishments of two New England champions. It's always difficult for me to wrap my brain around that accomplishment. When you say that, think
005about that for a moment. These are two of the best at what they do in all of New England across any size school of all the students. Incredibly impressive. I've observed both of them closely in school and in sports. Hardworking barely touches the surface of how I would describe their work ethic. Coach Flynn describes Sam as one of the hardest working individuals he's ever coached and he has had a long line of outstanding runners. Lincoln started his wrestling career at a young 126 pound freshman wrestler coming in with the goal of setting career wins record East Line four years later and about a 100 pounds muscle he did just that surpassing our school record their accomplishments go well beyond that this time I'd like to turn it over to represent representative Nick Manipaste to share
006more about Sam and London. Of course, thank you all for having me here, guys. I think at this rate I'm going to be here every month to give out, but I'm okay with that. So, I want to start off with Evaness. This is a I'm Representative Nick Menipace. I'm very happy to be presenting these awards. Apparently, I had a couple extra in there, but uh we're just going to be sticking with these two for that one as well. And then to bring this one, but I'm also going to Salem right after this to present awards for them as well. So, it's a April is a popular month for awards presentations, I guess. But I wanted to congratulate both of these young men uh baits on their uh well their accomplishments on behalf of the general
007assembly. So I don't know if uh Sam wants to come up first. I'd love to be able to have him right here. Oh, I didn't realize you're sitting right next to me. All right, Sam. So I wanted to be able to tell this. Nice to meet you. Uh excuse me. I was told at the first I have to make sure I read the whole thing for this one. So, this is uh by hereby known to all that the Connecticut House of Representatives hereby offer sincerest congratulations to Sam Leon in recognition of your exceptional performance in winning the 1600 New England Championship in Boston. Your talent, perseverance, and commitment to excellence have earned you the prestigious title. We celebrate your achievements and look forward to your continued sex in the future. And I wanted to make
008sure I added to that the Eastern Connecticut Championships for the thousandth meter, the 16th00th meter, and then for the championship for the 2024 2025 class doublem or is it mm state championship cross country team as well as the 200 2023 class M indoor track 4x 800 relay that would not fit all on the citation, right? So the entire membership extends its very best wishes on this memorable occasion. Express the hope for your continued success given this the 7th day of April 2025 at the state capital of Hartford, Connecticut by both the speaker of the house Matt Ritter, by Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas, myself uh excuse me for my own nameace and the entire general assembly. Thank you so much Sam and congratulations. Sorry, we'll get we'll do individual one first. All right. Want to
009get off? You're good. You stand up there. All right. Thanks again. Okay. think on this one. So, our next person we was just talking about for this as well is Lincoln Carlson. So, Lincoln, if you want to come right up here, man, I've got these for you. All right. So, Lincoln, this is very similar thing to what I just said before, but still very much want to congratulate you, man. So, on behalf of the General Assembly, uh, be it hereby known to all that the Connecticut House of Representatives hereby offers a sincerest congratulations to Lincoln Carlson in recognition of your outstanding achievements and winning the 250 lb Wrestling Open state championship for the second consecutive year. And we actually did get second going because it didn't all fit on the first part. The 190 state
010championship for the second consecutive year as well. You got that right. Right. Oh, I was 75. Ah, okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I definitely am an not an expert on a lot of these ones. And we had one more I believe in there for it where the state champion championship and the New England championship and I don't know if that's the same part the class L state championship as well. All right, forgive me on that one. All right. Your hard work and determination have set a remarkable standard of excellence in wrestling and you continue to aspire others with your unwaver commitment to success. The entire membership extends its very best wishes on this memorable occasion and expresses the hope for continued success given this day the 7th day of April 2025 at the state capital Hartford
011Connecticut by both Matt Ritter Speaker of the House Stephanie Thomas secretary of state myself uh representative Menipace and the entire general assembly. Congratulations Lincoln. Make sure you get up here. Thanks again. Want to be able to mention these people. Congratulations both uh Sam and Lincoln. uh you know a lot of hard work. It's not what also happens in the meets or the the races or the the meets. It's all the hard work that goes in that people don't see that I know you guys put hours of time in to get to the level that you did. So it's great and and that commitment to anything is is fantastic. So congratulations to both of you. Thank you. Mr. Ravage, one quick one to be able to add to. We apparently had a little bit of wires
012crossing this. I have some additional citations. They are not here. So, I just wanted to make sure that we recognize them and I will make sure that we're back for the next time when we're able to have this because we do have these dated for today. But I just wanted to make sure we recognize Sean McCaui, um Mikey Tempano, Jonathan Harms, and Madlock. Congratulations all. Kevin, do you know what each one of them Oh, I do have their citations on here is for I honestly just want to get them backed, but we're going to have them back at the recognized. I'm sorry for that. Apparently, we didn't get that one quite encouraged, but I did want to make sure that they recognized that they're also very well accomplished student athletes here. We have halfway student.
013Okay. Hello everyone. I'm back. So, um, we've been recognizing Pathways Community Partners. We've had a a lot of great community partners grow with us these last few years. The reason we've had these partnerships is because usually, especially out of the box in a pilot program, we send out our best. And tonight we have two of the students who have been with us for every single pathways program that's been invented in the district. Um, Thomas and Anthony Geel. I just want to talk talk guys a little bit. So, I mean, there's a huge list, but I'm not, you know, so we really kind of started off with these guys. Um well our LTI program, our learning through interest program, uh these guys were a part of and that's shifting to a cooperative work um experience program
014next year. But these guys have maintained some relationships in the community that are prized to us. Um Scott Bowden, Nyanic, um Port Nyanic was in here earlier. We have a one of the currently doing an internship with him. We have Monaco Ford which is kind of a staple for us which um we have another um brother working at as well. So keeping those um working relationships are really important to us. They're high in internships and because of the character of these guys we can continue to have these role. So some of the things that we started with these two the Ferman's garage um after school program it was kind of an experiment. Didn't know what we're going to do. both brothers were there. Turned out to be a great success. Um it's been moving forward
015ever since. Um a military vehicle repair class. So we do that over at Campnet. Uh Army National Guard people uh work with us. They strip down a Humvee. They put it back together. Didn't know how it's going to work. Worked out great. We have these two boys again to thank as being the front runners um of representing East Lime High School. Um, Carpenters Union with the welding collaborations. We've done Porter and Chester with the trades collaborations, Mystic Seapport collaboration, boat for next generation electric boat program. These guys have taken part of a big one. Norwich Technical High School afterchool program. It's a huge commitment and these guys did it for us. They were the first out there. I didn't know what it was going to look like. They did a great job. Uh, one is
016just renewing their OSHA 10 certification this year. Um, so it's been great. Um, again, Monica Ford, Port Nyanic, and you know, kind of wrap it up in a way. Um, we decided to try a Ferman's uh garage early bird program where the kids had to show up at 6:30 a.m. ready to work, be on task, go for it, and then be back here on time. These guys did. So these guys showed up, represented East Lime High School in the way we want to be represented and because of that we're moving forward with these programs. So these two boys have been there the whole way. Mr. Crowley actually LTI and C.WE teacher, he's been with them the whole journey as well. So um we're really proud of these guys. I don't know if mom or dad
017wanted to make any comments. You don't have to. If you do, that's fine. I just say thank you to staff the opportunity that it's given my boys. I'm super proud of them. Thanks for representing the town and school so well. Should be proud of yourselves. Thank you all. It's a takes a village to All right. You come on up. We got a couple awards for you. for Thomas and Anthony Gishel. Um, one of their favorite teachers, Mr. Breing, working on these as well as those cool mugs you have. Um, both boys for their outstanding role in contributing to Pathways programs at East Lime High School. Again, these guys really made this program work for everyone. And moving forward, how many years? It's because of these two kids really helped us put everything together. So, they
018did a phenomenal job. There a few words, so we're just going to take a picture. Seeing you out in action out there, and you guys are really such a a pride. Thank you so much. a success. Enjoyed our time watching you work. Absolutely. Thanks again. Nice job. As we prepare for the next Anthony and Thomas, thank you. Pathways is a really important part of our programming in in East Lime. It's evolved over the past few years and Dave's through Dave's leadership and obviously Jeff and Anelise and others. But having the students who lead and drive that these community partners who want to help us, but they have to they have to get something too like and that you guys are doing that uh which opens the door for for the rest of our students. So
019really appreciate all that you do. Now we move on. We have a biking val. I'm gonna call on Mr. Provo. Mr. Provos is going to introduce uh our valor recipient for uh Yes, I am. Um we have good good evening everyone. Thank you uh for having us this evening. Uh we have Amy Lloyd with us uh this evening and we are going to recognize her. But before I do that, I'm going to have Stephanie Cunningham come up. Um, and she is going to explain a little bit about the materials we're going to give to you to kind of look through while I do the recognition piece. So, Stephanie Cunningham. Good evening. First of all, I can't think of a more deserving individual than Amy Lloyd. She is dedicated, compassionate. Um, her demeanor is amazing for
020all the students and staff that she works with. I She's amazing. I could go on for hours, but I won't. Um, uh, Mr. Provos is going to speak in a moment, but I wanted to share some of the examples that Amy has, um, made for our student. Um, this is a weekly communication book that Amy created for our student. Um, our student is non-speaking, so she's not necessarily able to go home and tell parents about her week, and Amy being a mom of five girls, is very empathetic towards that and is very passionate about that whole school communication. Um, so if you open this up and I'll pass this along and you listen. There are three voice recordings. Um, you use a student's voice so it sounds like a student. Um, Amy uses tactiles as
021our student uses feeling and touch. So, um, she could press the button and play it with her parents. And right here is a QR code and I have a bunch of them. Um, I got parent permission so feel free to scan them. There are weekly videos of our student participating in activities with her peers so parents can actually see what she is doing during the school week. It's phenomenal. Um on every page there are tactile objects that represent an activity that our student participated in. Um the goal of the book is for the student and parents to sit together and go through this with our student feeling the objects to relate to the activity that they participated in. So you can see all of this some examples of her work. And the last page is
022um her parents can record what they did on the weekend and it could be shared during morning meeting. So it's really wonderful book. Um in addition, there's some more QR codes. If you'd like to scan and watch a video, please feel free. Um and then in addition just to this um her creativity and making sure that all the students are included in activities. This was a wit and wisdom end of module assessment for kindergarten. The kindergarten students had to write a story. Um so Amy and her student work together um using tactile objects for each story element. Um this is a way for her student to feel included in the classroom. Um she did this on her own like came up with all these different tile tactile objects and I was just like wow this
023is amazing amazing for her. Um, and then this is their current unit. She made a tactile oil lamp and a light bulb. So, I mean, just amazing. Like I said, I could go on and on, but I'll let Mr. Provost do that um as I pass these around. And you guys want to dismiss at this time. Thank you, Stephanie. Appreciate that. Um, but So that's um some of the examples of some of the work that Amy's done. Um and uh I hope you enjoy looking through those. So uh Amy um it is with pride and admiration that I congratulate you on receiving the Viking Valor Award. This recognition is a direct reflection on your exceptional care, dedication, and the positive impact that you have had on the student that you work with every day. Your
024ability to create a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment. Your student speaks volumes about your commitment to her well-being. Whether through your attention to her needs, your thoughtful planning and ability to adapt and modify, you have shown that you are deeply invested in her success both socially and personally. Your organizational skills ensure that every detail is accounted for and your focus on safety and comfort guarantees that your student is the best possible in the best possible environment to learn and to grow. But beyond all of this, it is your kindness, patience, and empathy that truly stand out. You have a rare gift for making students feel valued, recognized, and respected, which has made a lasting positive impact on their lives. Your hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed, and this award is welld deserved in
025recognition for your tireless efforts. You exemplify the very best qualities of an educator and we are incredibly grateful for all that you do for our students. Congratulations once again, Amy, and thank you for your incredible work. We have a uh come out here. Uh we want to present you with a valor award. Um, it's been a pleasure interacting with you. Amy has been an advocate. Thank you. There you go. You want to Your five daughters back and Patrick right here. I coached Patrick in football so many years ago, right? Oh, sorry. Amy, do you want you want to introduce your family while you're here? Oh, yeah. husband Pat. My oldest daughter Gracie is a senior. She was here last month, I think, getting something. Mia is a sophomore. Brooke is in eighth grade. Angie's in
026sixth grade. And little Eevee is in third grade. Yeah. Maxed it out. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Um, do you want or Mr. Pro? I'll take Yeah. When you guys are done, two minutes. Yeah. Let me uh yeah, let me see if I can should be able to hold on to them. I don't think unless they need Let me see if I can scan them. Okay, that completes uh special if you guys want to sit there and you don't have that's up to you. Um next item of business is public comment. Any public comment? Uh if you could just state your name, address and uh about three minutes. Hi everybody. I'm Nyla Caser. Um I live at Figby South Edgewood Road in Niantic. Um good evening members of the board, Superintendent Newton and
027community members. Um again, my name is Nyla Casar and I am a parent and vice president of the East Line Middle School PTA. I'm here tonight to share some concerns that have been raised by many family members in our district regarding a few key topics. Um, student le conferences, middle school athletics, district logo, survey transparency, and a few others. First and foremost, our student led conferences. While I appreciate the intent behind giving student ownership of their learning, many parents have expressed that these conferences are not the best use of time. Surveys were given regarding studentled conferences and yet those results were never shared with parents. Even as parents asked for the results, they were told and I quote, "I appreciate the effort to gather input for the studentled conferences. However, at this time I won't
028be able to facilitate parent responses for this request. As parents who actively monitor grades and assignments through Google Classroom and the parent portal, I don't I feel that we don't gain enough insight from studentled conferences. More importantly, we miss the opportunity to have direct conversations with teachers about our children's behavior, their social development, and their effort. Things that are not reflected on the report cards. The current model combined with multiple half days feels excessive and lacking in depth. My child spends a minimum of two classes, two class periods per subject prior to both sets of conferences filling out his own reflection on how he feels he is doing. He doesn't meet with his teacher to discuss his rationale for the numbers he gives himself. There is no meeting where they get to see and tell
029him how they are feeling and whether his learning is felt the same way. When asked why he gave himself a two when I did meet with him in one of the areas, he stated, "Well, I haven't given myself a two in any of the other areas, so I thought I should give myself a two somewhere. Otherwise, it feels like I'm bragging about what I can do." Is this really what we're trying to teach the kids with studentled conferences? I'm simply asking and along with other parents that this process be revisited and improved to create more meaningful dialogue between parents and educators. A second topic is coaching and athletics. Parents have been surprised to learn that while coaching contracts include assistant positions at the middle school level, all the assistant coaches at the middle school levels
030are volunteers. This has led to issues like students who are being turned away from track due to capacity. Additionally, some coaches have been told that they won't get paid. If there is a budgeted or contractual structure in place, I feel it needs to be followed. Sports are more than extracurricular. They support physical and emotional health and we want to ensure that every student who wants to participate has the opportunity. So, I am hoping to see greater investment and clarity in this area. Third, the Viking logo. There has been a lot of confusion in the community about our school's logo and the branding of this logo. I don't believe there was any confusion until this year. The logo appears to have changed, but families, sports teams, and students, including my own, were not part of the
031process, and we are still uncertain as to what our logo is. As someone who does the ordering for East Lime Youth Basketball, I have been told the logo was changed and then changed again within this past year. What is our logo? What are we doing with it? I understand the intent to streamline branding, but it's concerning that changes were made without wider input, especially at a time when the budget is tight and continues to raise questions about budget priorities as the rebranding is happening during a time of financial strain in other areas. Survey data transparency. Many parents took the time to fill out Satchel Paul surveys separately for multiple schools, including myself. Yet when the results were shared, they were presented as a combined report, which I feel is diluting the unique voices and needs
032of each building. It's hard to support improvement when we don't know what feedback came from which school. We are asking for greater transparency and school specific data in the future so we can support improvement efforts with clarity and accuracy so that we can have more meaningful discussions. And finally, the parent advisory committee. Many parents don't even know when these meetings with the superintendent take place or how to join the committee. It feels like only a select group is included and we're unsure how the topics are even chosen when they meet. Is there a way to allow broader parent input before these meetings? And can the parents who are selected be given time to truly speak and represent their concerns from the community? We're not asking for more meetings, just more visibility and a way to
033ensure that all voices are heard because we've been told if we have concerns to come here. I would rather not come here all the time to speak to be honest. In closing, I want to acknowledge and thank all of you, our educators and our administrators, for the time, the energy, and the heart that everyone puts into our schools. I truly do. These concerns are being shared with the hope that we can continue to strengthen our schools through greater transparency, collaboration, and community voice. Thank you. Thank you. Additional public comment. Public comment. Name and address. Hi, I'm EM Raycraft. I live at 19 Upper Walnut Hill Road. Um I have a son Mary. He's a fifth grader at Elms. And then um my son um Luca is a kindergarten at Flanders. So I've been playing close
034attention to the budget discussions. Um really appreciate the the frank and transparent conversations um and communication that I've had with the board. Um so I did watch the deliberations with the board of finance. Um and I just wanted to make sure my voice was heard. I'm very disappointed to hear um the reductions and my concern is that the discussion was really focused um from the board on from the board of finance on on class size. Um and I understand that there's been recognition for this town and for the school system and I'm concerned that if those class sizes change that those that recognition will still not be there. Um, additionally, my concern was that um, what was communicated was populations being reduced. Um, and there was the conclusion that like dynamic staffing suggestions um, are
035are very very feasible. My concern about that was from an actual implementation perspective um, as opposed to, you know, numbers on a paper that can be moved around and shuffled without regards to experience, competencies, and qualifications. Uh but my primary reason for speaking is again I want to make sure that um my priority is the third first grade teacher at Flanders for next year. So I've spoken to that before. Just want to make sure that that's all I had. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any further public comment? Public comment. Public comment. Okay, we'll close public comment for tonight. Move on to special reports. We do not have a selectman representative. Uh so we'll move on to consent. Uh we have a lot under consent. If you recall, we're trying to move things that are
036generally more procedural. We generally agree upon to consent. So you see there's a lot of items in there. If there are is anything that you are not are have questions on or want to pull off, we can always pull off and discuss. But that's kind of Let's have a question. Um H and I normally we have to like say those out specifically. Is it okay that they're in the consent agenda? Is there approved? Have a motion for In the past we've had to read them word for word. I just wanted to make sure. Does someone make a motion to approve the consent? Like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Iain passes. So there was regular meeting. For those of you at home,
037there were regular meeting minutes. There was committee of the whole meeting minutes. There was a donation from the East Lime High School Hall of Fame to the East Lime High School football team to purchase a sled and some other uh football equipment. We had second review of policies in the 2000 3,000 4,000 and 5,000 series. Then we had our uh annual health healthy food certification on healthy food option and healthy food certification statement on food and beverage exemption. Um okay so moving on to the next topic. I think we have a crowd in the hallway. Uh we move discussion uh for the elementary school principal presentation. Uh no. Yeah. You want to I think start off. Do you want me to start the autograph? Okay. Start. Show me. All right. Um we do have perfect
038PowerPoint. Hello. Good evening. Uh we're really excited to be here today. Um as all three elementary schools coming together to share about our work at the elementary level. Uh we've organized our presentation into four categories uh each align with the board of ed goals. Um so first we're going to update you on our partnership for pathways. So Mr. Fosulo started talking about it and we're really excited that it went down to the elementary level. Um then you'll hear from staff and students in the areas of culture and climate, high impact teaching and DEI. All right. So that's a picture of our fourth graders engaging in a circuit activity um which is one of the core trades electrical um in the pathways program. So you may recall we previously shared about our partnership with EB. Uh
039the pathway program aims to introduce students to maritime manufacturing and over the course of six weeks our students learned about the six core trades through instruction and handson activities. Um all materials and supplies were delivered to each of our schools and the learning sessions were led um by Goodwin College instructure in partnership with electric boat. So as I mentioned all three of the schools engaged we are finishing um this week is our last one at uh Flanders and Niantic Center Lily be engaged at the start of the year. Um so these are just some pictures so you can get a glimpse into uh the six weeks of instruction. So this first uh session was cartisian divers and basically it taught students about buoyancy. Um so they created these water bottles and dropped in the divers
040and based on how much pressure was put on the bottle um it was a little activity and they were trying to hook each other. So they loved that and they got to take home all of the activities from each of the sessions. Um so the second one was cheese whiz welding. It was um I didn't even know cheese whiz was still a thing, but they really enjoyed it and it worked really well to cement everything together. So that was introducing them to welding as a core trade. Uh then they created periscopes, snap circuits, uh and every student uh got to take home a snap circuit to try at home, which was really exciting. And then submarines was this past week. And then our final one coming up next is soap carving, which has to do
041with design. um elements. So, we've had a really great time with the partnership and look forward to doing it in the future. Uh so, next up we have Niantic Center. Should be should be us all kids, right? Okay. So, um our goal uh Nanic Center, so just to kind of give you a little preface of what's happening here, um each one of our schools um took one of the goals from the school improvement um plan. So, Niantic Center will be covering culture and climate and part of the culture and climate initiative is the um social emotional learning. And so we thought we'd bring um forward um play-based learning which we piloted last year in kindergarten and we're also piloting in first grade this year. So I'm going to just give you a quick kind of
042definition of what that is so that you have some idea when we start going through this um what it is. So play-based learning uh is an educational approach that incorporates play as a central component of the learning process. It recognizes that children learn best through active engagement and exploration in a meaningful enjoyable context. As children play, they engage their imagination. They take risks and they learn problem solving to support their development. So, as I said, um we piloted this in kindergarten last year. It's fully being implemented um play-based learning in kindergarten this year across the district. And we also have uh a pilot going on in first grade across the district. And so tonight we have Rachel Alfred from kindergarten with us. Um and I think she's going to lead us off. And then we
043have Jill Thompson from first grade and she's going to explain what's happening in her classroom and introduce you to a few of our first grade friends. So I'm going to turn it over to them. Well, teach kindergarten. So, um, last year I participated in the purposeful play pilot in my kindergarten classroom and was thrilled to see all the ways that children learned through play. In addition to academics, as children play, they improve their executive functioning skills and social competence skills at the same time. Children are working on sharing, self-regulation, staying on task, cognitive flexibility when trying and retrying to solve problems, weighing strategies, and friendship skills, just to name a few. This year, I was able to take all the strategies that I learned in the pilot and further focus and align my play with
044other topics that I'm teaching throughout the day. Throughout this year, I've been working with a team including Anelise, literacy coaches, um, our play coach to directly align ideas for play-based experiences to state standards in reading, science, social studies, and math. They also fit directly in with our new witten wisdom curriculum. And this work to integrate play with academics to be accessed on the learning hub and used by teachers across the district. For example, the first Witten wisdom module in kindergarten is all about the five senses. And I was able to create many play experiences, experimenting and exploring the five senses. Children could guess the scent in a scent jar. They could listen to figure out hidden items, find matching textures, play I spy. The children then used their knowledge of the senses and the body
045parts associated with them to create a vet clinic where they could check the senses of their stuffed animals they were caring for. Through the clinic, children were practicing reading site words on a checklist to screen their animals. learning about community members through different roles in a clinic like a receptionist, doctor or patient and reinforcing their knowledge of the five senses. At the same time, they were working on social competency skills like conflict resolution, communication, and sharing by deciding who would take which role in what animal they would treat. The children love the opportunity to play learn through play. As you can see in the slides, um so let me explain a little bit what you're seeing. In my class, we have four play centers. Discovery, building, dramatic play, and art. The activities change about once
046a week so that everyone has an opportunity to experience all the choices. In our art center, we frequently are using recycled materials to make props to be used in our dramatic play area. For instance, after we read The Three Little Pigs in Wit and Wisdom, children drew the various settings of the story, made props like masks, chimneys, food, bricks, and they absolutely loved retelling that story when they were in the dramatic play area. That same week in the building center, the students were given a challenge to build the pig's houses out of actual sticks, straws, and bricks, which were blocks, and see if they could build a structure that wouldn't fall over when blown by a fan. These type of activities allow children to plan an idea, experiment with trial and error, work through frustration,
047and construct a structure that won't fall down. As the weeks go by, I frequently or the week goes by, I frequently see their ideas get more complex as they tried different things, and observe what works, doesn't work. One week, uh, children were prompted to build a bridge for the three Billy Goats gruff to cross. At the beginning of the week, most children were just peing putting pieces flat on the table to represent their bridge because they weren't sure how to keep a structure up with support. I showed them several examples of real bridges, and they used those images to make bigger, more complex bridges. Each day, I'd hear them work together to decide when and where they would need to add support. By the end of the week, they were making large structures, then retelling
048the story using little goats to cross the bridge. Play is also incredibly inclusive. Children who speak very little English, struggle academically, or have physical disabilities can all feel included and work together on work on their own level. As a teacher, I take the time during play to work alongside the children, asking questions, helping create new challenges, and helping them plan their ideas. So, as you can see, it is a wonderful way to deepen their knowledge and meet academic standards in a fun and engaging way. But equally important is all the executive functioning skills and social emotional skills that kids learn through this program which is going too further to explain Jill Thompson a first grade teacher at Niantic Center. So I thought it would be helpful to share what a typical play-based learning session would
049look like along with some of the challenges that we have encountered while implementing it with my two very capable assistants who will help introduce in a moment. So during play-based learning time our class sit together on the rug and I introduce the choices available for the week very similar to what Rachel had mentioned. Monday, I explain the week the week's options which remain the same throughout the week and I ask each child to think of their first, second, and third choice. So, we're working on cognitive flexibility here. It sounds like it's obvious. You're given a choice of things. You would choose your first one and then think about your other options, but when you're six and seven years old, it's really hard. So when we first implemented this that was one of the main struggles
050we had or challenges was I didn't get my first choice and how do I react to that and it can be a big problem so a big reaction in the classroom. We had to learn and practice skills such as keeping multiple choices in mind coping with not getting our first or second or sometimes third choice and being flexible. We talk a lot about bending like a palm tree and not being rigid like a an oak tree. So, as I said, really tough skills to develop when you're six or seven. And you're used to being able to play with the first toy that you pick up. Through practice, we have greatly improved, huge improvements. So, now the students are able to make choices, manage their emotions when they don't get their top pick. We use a
051visual chart that displays the children's names and their photographs to show which order in which they make their choices. And this changes every day who gets to choose first. So that's another situation they have to plan through is I might get my be the first person to choose today, but that means tomorrow I'm the last out of 16. It's another thing to have to cope with. The goal of this system is to reduce stress and to help um the friends plan ahead, allowing for smoother decision- making process. Once they've chosen their center, they write a quick play plan by completing the sentence, I will. And then they plan. We've just started this. They plan what they plan to do in that sector. They don't have to stick to it. I'm not that strict. So then
052the play begins, which is the fun part. However, for the first few months, this was challenging. Learning how to listen to others, how to share, take turns, solve conflict and communicate effectively is really hard work for me and the kids. So these are executive functioning skills which are essential life skills and what better way to learn them through play. Play provides a natural opportunity for children to practice and master these abilities in a really meaningful way. These social emotional skills will serve them for a lifetime. If you think about in the future, the AI will assist with many tasks. You can ask it to solve a math problem, write a paper, compose an email, but it doesn't teach us how to navigate relationships, express feelings, or resolve conflict. Being able to self-regulate and say, "I
053didn't like that you did that," or, "I want to play with that toy." Work through that situation, is a critical skill for all ages. In class, we use specific books, which I'll show you in a moment, and resources that help the students develop these abilities. This was something that when I started to to pilot it, it didn't happen in every class, but when I started in our classroom, we felt it was really important to work on those skills from the get- go, and it's really helped. So, I've invited two friends with me to show some of the things and how we use them. First though, I'm going to pass around, can you have that over there? I'm going to strip it up on. So, this is the She can come here. This is one of
054the You know what that is? This is a book that I have hanging. Levi, this is Levi and this is Hollis and they are first grade friends. They are experts playing learning. Also going to pass around the solution kit that has been made for kindergarten class. And this is has all the same pictures that have in the one that I passed around to you, but they've been put in here and there's a timer and the kids can come over and pick this up and choose which solution to use so we can hand that right as well. We also have a book that we read that's called problem solvers. And at the beginning of the year, do you remember reading this? We read this to teach us that when you're playing or working with other people,
055sometimes you come across a problem and that's okay. We're all different in our class, aren't we? We all like different things. And we need to learn the skills of what to do if you come the problem or conflict. Okay. So, Levi, what's your favorite thing that you like to do in play based learning? Building. What do you like to build with? Legos. Legos. Call us. What do you like to do? [Music] Inspires my brain to like a little different things. And that was one of your choices today, wasn't it? So, we're going to do a little scenario. Imagine that I am one of you. Okay. Who would you like me to be? Let's pretend that I'm Miss Thompson, but I'm your age. So, if we all chose the same center for play-based learning, what do
056you think we're going to choose? Discovery. So, maybe Tinker Toys like we had today. Yeah. So, our one of our choices today was Discovery and it was to build a a um 3D creation with Tinker Toys. So, imagine I come and join your group and you have this great plan in mind and I say, "I don't want to do that. How could you help me? What would you do? What could you use in the classroom that might help safely stop together? And how do you know? Are you looking through this to find those solutions for help? Absolutely. What do you think, Levi? Which one of those strategies have you used before? What did that one say? Ask nicely. So, this gives you some ideas if you're if you're playing with a friend and they don't
057have the same play plan as you sometimes use those strategies to help. If you want to play with then you can play with Do you find that these are helpful? Yeah. And where do we have these in the classroom? um can have them like different places like we have them near the common corner like one near the like extra we Yeah, absolutely. So we have these hanging around the classroom. We have those little ones on the window for recess. We just put some on the window so that all the friends outside at recess who are not in our class but throughout the whole school have the strategies that they can look at as well. Because it's not just in the classroom we have conflict, is it? It's have it when we're playing outside. Anything else
058you want to say about play based learning? Inspire us to work together like figure out how to solve a problem. You had a question. Have a question. No, not at all. Thank you so much. It was beautiful and it's just so fun to see it. It makes you want to go back to the classroom, right? Um, I'm wondering about the materials. Is that part of the witten wisdom program? Do they have do they provide all those visuals and tactiles and manipulatives that you use to develop the learning centers that we don't have to align it to whiten wisdom. We just choose different parts of the day that we might align it to. Sometimes it's math, sometimes it's wisdom, sometimes it can be to do with the the foundation skills that we're learning. So a lot
059of the materials we have are materials we might have in the classroom anyway as classroom teachers or we might use our PT money to purchase things. Are you meaning these ones were provided by purposeful play if that's by whom? You mean these materials or the stuff material? I'm sorry. This is through the person purposeful play coach. Yes. is principal play coach. Melanie Melanie Smith from Eastcon is the we consult with Eastcon to support our purposeful play work here. Um she's an expert in play which is the best job ever. But she's been phenomenal. She's been with us for two years. She supported the K pilot, the KFLUL implementation this year, the grade one pilot this year, and hopefully she'll continue to support the work as we move it up through K2 K2. So those materials
060are all provided through the expert in play at Eastcon. That's correct. and she gives you all those visuals and gives you the instruction and gives you the model basically for how to navigate through the system when there's possibly a conflict or difference of opinion and which was just one aspect that my class found this year. So I've that's why I spoke about that part but she's given us training sessions as well and taught us how to implement the whole aspect of it. This was just one part and these are all available through our learning hub. We can download them and print them all these. There's many other components too that so the visual charts that she was talking about, a visual schedule, um a morning message, there's a whole bunch of other components that she's
061trained us on that we implement throughout the day. What's your favorite part of it? I like the discovery, the how, like I said, like how they go from the beginning week till the end of the week and they love it. and and she's also very big on um you crop making. So in not needing so many materials just using recycled materials. So right now in my classroom we're doing the past and the kids are make spending days creating wells and a porch swing and all these out of recycled materials and they're amazing. So I love seeing that creativity. My favorite part is seeing you can teach the kids something from the curriculum and then you see them actually use it through play and they expand their knowledge on it and show you what they've learned.
062We're doing 3D shapes at the moment. So, a lot of them is related to that, but they don't think they're sitting in a classroom learning. They're learning so much more through playing and integrating and learning from each other. Just seeing it all come full circle. So, you're seeing them exemplify the learning and adapting it into other environments. so much. Beautiful. Thank you. So, um, next up, uh, we will be talking about high impact teaching strategies. that has been a goal over the past couple of years and we wanted to um give the board an opportunity to get a glimpse into what a classroom would look like and how the implementation of our Whiten Wisdom um program really embeds high impact uh teaching strategies throughout uh every lesson. So um I'd like to have um Rachel
063Plunkett, third grade teacher at Flanders and Lisa Bedril will come up um and lead you through wisdom stuff. Hi, good evening everyone. Thank you for having us. My name is Rachel Plunkett. I'm a third grade teacher here at Flanders and our students are currently almost finishing up their second module of the Wit and Wisdom curriculum. And the name of the third grade unit is outer space. In every module, the students participate in a Socratic seminar, which is a highly engaging effective discussion protocol. And during the seminar, the students engage in studentled textbased academic conversations. They practice speaking and listening skills to express what they have learned from our core texts and from their written work. In the beginning of the year, the students were explicitly taught the components of a Socratic seminar and they learned
064sentence frames to guide their thinking and discussion. And throughout each module, they learn to agree and disagree respectfully. And this fosters a comfortable environment where they feel free to express their thoughts. The Socratic seminar routine occurs three times per module and it precedes a focusing task question. This process helps students prepare their responses by gathering evidence and orally rehearsing their thoughts before completing the written component of that focusing task question. The seminar is organized around a question designed to challenge students thinking to support their discussion. They collect textual evidence prior. They jot down notes and ideas and then they share their um thoughts with a peer before the whole group discussion. The teacher starts by posing the opening questions and then students participate in the collaborative conversation. They use text evidence and module vocabulary while
065practicing their active speaking and listening skills. At the conclusion, students have the opportunity to debrief and reflect on their participation. They know any goals they might have achieved and ones to work on for the future. And tonight you'll observe our third graders, Alexander, Amaly, Connor, Elizabeth, Amelia, and Shelby. And they're going to participate and engage in an authentic Socratic seminar. And these students are going to be hearing this question for the first time. And it will be led by my grade level partner, Lisa Vajra. I'm going to set my timer for five minutes. I'm just going to kind of I'm going to capture um what we're talking about. And your question for today is would you or would you not want to be an astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission? I would not I would
066not want to be on the Apollo 11 mission because it is dangerous and we made crash. I disagree with Shelby because um it would actually help us um boost up our knowledge about the space about on the moon and we could also um know new things about the moon like the gravity the um atmosphere the different like things about the moon craters the and what the moon rocks are. I agree with you Connor because space is a very mysterious thing. Physics don't apply to space because it is different from Earth. There is no gravity and it is very cold at some certain places and very hot at some places. I agree with Shelby because um I I wouldn't want to be on the Apollo 11 mission. First of all, because I miss my family and
067second of all because um be like really Can you please um be a little more specific? Um I could run out of the air tank or like um for like the base suit could break and then like I disagree with Amelia and Shelby because yes it is dangerous but it was historical specific about a test in like a science lab and also um historical I agree with you Elizabeth because is very dangerous but what happens if we new galaxies and we learn what mysterious objects are in space if they're actually real. I disagree with Alex because um you could run out of fuel and it could be really dangerous and it's unknown because you don't know what um you would um do on the following. So um some things were unknown like um they um
068almost ran out of fuel. I agree with Amaly because if you did run out of fuel and weren't able to get to the moon in time then you could fall and you could never go back to the earth. So, actually, I might change my mind and might probably say it might be a little like way too dangerous to think. I agree with Connor and Amaly because um like the Apollo mission if we were on it, it wouldn't have already happened and we wouldn't know what actually happened. It might it might have happened totally different from what the Apollo 11 mission actually happened. [Music] Conor and Amelia and it said in the book they only know one thing means death know what you're saying shortly but what happens if we learn there is new life a
069size on Earth what happens if we find a new galaxy that has new life that we can study I agree with Alex because that would actually be a good idea cuz if we went to another galaxy like the Andromeda galaxy, then we could go inside of the galaxy and we could actually learn about the different planets in there and see if there's actually one with life. So if something bad happens in our solar system, we could actually go to the Andromeda galaxy and we could actually build more life, make it habitable for other other life forms to be on other galaxies and universes. I think it wouldn't be as dangerous because astronauts train um when they go in because if they didn't train, they wouldn't know. you wouldn't have any idea of what's to I
070sort of agree with Elizabeth, but like what if um something doesn't go how they were trained to do something and like they weren't trained for the thing that happened and and like wouldn't know how to like fix what happened. But then again, there are specialized training for astronauts to do in those situations. Like if they run out of fuel, they can have they they could have a emergency escape pod so they can survive while exploring the moon. There might not be a success. We learned about stuff, but at least they will save the astronaut's lives. Agreed. Thank you. Good job. Great job. And this is what wisdom is all about. This is ex this is exactly what you would see if you walked into any third grade classroom. This engagement, this level of interest has
071just been really amazing. Um I'm going to be talking about crosscurricular connections now um that our third graders have engaged in. Um we're just learning about space as Mrs. Plunkett was said and I'm going to discuss um the crosscurricular connections that our kids made when they were learning about um the sea. So um so our essential question for the sea was why do people explore um the sea and in the end students really realized that it was because people and scientists were very curious. Um I want to definitely highlight this book right here. Um it's one of our core texts. It's called Giant Squid Searching for a Sea Monster by Mary Serulo and Clyde Roer. Um, and I also want to highlight three- tiered learning. It's an approach that allows our students to make connections
072personally, locally, and globally. And it helps them to identify the through line between content so that their learning is much more meaningful. So, after reading Giant Squid, students learned about Dr. Roer and Dr. Kubadera, and they're both ocean scientists and squid experts. They were very curious about these mysterious creatures, which led them to continue to seek out squid for decades. They finally were able to capture a photo of a live giant squid in its national habitat in 2004. We took a a three- tiered learning approach, like I said. And so, our three- tiered learning personal connection was with Cassie and Ryan Dubrule. Um, their family owns the fishing vessel, the the Blackhawk, um, here in Niantic. and they came to third grade and they discussed the human interactions with the sea from the perspective of
073the family's experiences both professionally and educationally and they used that lens through the um a sustainable practice and stewardship. Um our next learning connection was our local learning connection and that was with Dana Traerico. She was a Flanders a former Flanders all-star. She's a former East High School student. Um she came back to visit our third graders this year. Um, and she is a shark scientist. She focuses on ray and science, uh, ray and shark conservation. Um, so at the end of her talk, the kids asked her like what made her become a shark scientist. And she really um, she talked about how living here and growing up here in East Line was really important to her. And so having access to the Nic Bay and the Long Island Sound really pursued her passion for
074water. And she was able to continue to fulfill that passion and her curiosity around sharks. So she took both of them together and now she's a shark scientist. So it was nice to hear that um authentic perspective where our kids are really engaging with um real scientists. And our global connection was with um Yuya Nishida. He is a PhD candidate student at Michigan State University. We were able to zoom in with him. Um the kids got to see him working in his lab. Uh they were able to ask really great questions. They were actually able to see and understand his research. um where he collected his specimens from and um they even got to see a real live baby squid like just happened to be like sorting ink and stuff. So, it's pretty exciting. And
075um but I think what we really learned from him more than anything else was that again it was his passion for water and his curiosity around these sephopods that really kind of helped him continue to further and look for his research and still work on that. Um, I'm really excited that we're continuing to partner with Yuya and Dana next year. They will continue to come back and engage with us at Flanders. Um, so I'm really excited about that. And, um, I would really just love to end our presentation tonight with a quote um, from Jacqu Kustoau. And it says, I'd like to end Oh, that's me. I'm sorry. It says, "The sea once it casts its spell holds one in its net of wonder forever." And so the kids learned about Jacuz's Dough. And I
076just think that this three- tiered learning that we're doing that's really making the meaning um their learning very meaningful for them has really kind of shifted and again right it's all from this one book and um as you can see this was a connections map that I made with my classroom and so it kind of helped our kids to be able to see those through lines and really understand how wit and wisdom can drive their learning. It's so much, but it provides multiple opportunities for them to be working with multiple standards at the same time throughout their day. So, it's not just taught in isolation. So, thank you. and children. Great. Good evening. Um so Haynes was asked to speak to um the progress made um to the diversity, equity, and inclusion goal uh work
077this year. And so, um, I am joined by four of our incredible colleagues, um, who are going to speak to, um, some some of those, uh, tonight. Um, so I'll have you Grant go to the next slide, and I'll introduce, uh, who we have here. So, uh, first up will be, um, Cheryl McGee, who's a third grade teacher, uh, and serves as a representative on the, um, districtwide and building based, uh, DEI subcommittee. Um we also are joined by uh Chris Pendar, kindergarten teacher uh who is part of the first the OG cohort one um uh uh committee and then um sort of an offshoot of our um SEAL committee um was formed a building based uh beautifification committee is sort of what we're calling it. Um and that is going to be um something
078that Emily Felis, our art teacher and Alicia Rose, our occupational therapists um are going to speak to. So um with that I'm gonna have Cheryl come on up. All right, good evening everyone. I am Tremi and I teach uh third grade. So I am here to share the important work that we are doing at the elementary level to foster a more inclusive and reflective learning environment through our windows, mirrors and doors. Um activities that the elementary DEI committees have presented to staff. As educators, we understand that schools are more than just places of learning. They are communities where every student and staff member should feel valued, seen, and heard. Um, the windows, doors, and mirrors framework serves as a powerful guide in achieving this goal. So, the windows provide uh staff with a view into
079experiences, cultures, and perspectives that are different from their own. Mirrors reflect their own identities, helping them feel acknowledged and represented. The doors open opportunities for meaningful dialogue, action, and change. To strengthen this work, we have incorporated real life scenarios from within the district's elementary schools into our staff meetings. We highlight these scenarios and these situations that have occurred in our schools, providing an opportunity for educators to analyze them, discuss their impact, and collaboratively develop solutions. This practice allows us to move beyond discussions and directly address the realities our students and staff uh face daily. By engaging in these exercises, we're fostering a culture of understanding and responsiveness, ensuring that our policies and practices align with the needs of our diverse school community. It's our belief that through our reflection, discussions, action, we can create a
080learning environment where all our students thrive. Um, I invite your continued support in these efforts to make our district a place where every student and educator feels empowered and included. Thank you. Yeah, you're up. Hi, I'm Christa and I'm here to speak a little bit about our cohort work. Um, specifically the shadowing experience, but I'll kind of build some background and what led us eventually to the shadowing experience. So, two years ago, it was sent out to staff not just at Lily B. Hannes, but districtwide and all staff. So whether that was administrators um you know we got to work with the superintendent, assistant superintendent, building admin um to speech pathologists, multilingual teachers and classroom teachers all congregating together to really discuss diversity, equity, inclusion and how we can make our schools and classroom um
081supportive for the learners that we have in our Eastland community. Um so the first year really looked a lot of defining our why. Why are we here? What is important to discuss? um and the meaning behind the work. Um we talked about something called courageous conversations. And so when you're having difficult conversations with colleagues or um within the community or just even with students, right? And again, we're seeing how that social emotional learning through play. That idea of having courageous conversations um can kind of navigate through and everyone can grow from. So we practiced some courageous conversation scenarios. We talked about the four different components. Some people are coming at it from a moral standpoint or some people are more of an intellectual thinker um or maybe they're more emotional behind something or um coming
082at from like a social lens. How is this going to affect the people around me? So um that's one of the work we did. We talked a lot about um diversity, equity, and inclusion, what it means to actually create equity within our schools. And really that's each child receiving um what they need to develop to their fullest potential. And I think as educators, that's what we want to do every day. Every child comes in with so much positivity and beauty and skills and knowledge and how can we really foster that and give each child individually what they need to be better and grow throughout their time in Islam and beyond. Um, also we talked a little bit about cultural humility and understanding um, where people are coming from and rather than just assuming we know
083somebody, really taking the time and getting to know what their culture means to them. Again, for our staff, for our students, um, uh, because it might mean something different to everybody. And so that has been a really cool experience, too. So even within our cohort, you know, we've each gotten to share and connect and um understand each other's stories and the points that we're coming to the table with, which has been uh created a really cool community. So with all that work in year one, we've moved into year two and we really wanted to get into our schools and see what is it like to be an ESIM student. Um there we call it kind of street data, right? Getting actually into the classroom. I think as teachers we intentionally plan experiences but oftentimes we
084might not know what it would be like to be on the other side receiving those experiences. So we intentionally planned um that process and we as admin or teachers or multilingual teachers got to or social workers got to go into the classroom as mainly middle and high school students. We also had some that were going in as elementary school students. Um so in the pre-planning we really um talked about what we wanted to see. We wanted um a vast variety of experiences within the schools, right? We wanted to know like what would it what is it like you know for a student who maybe is class president and taking a heavy AP course load and what is it like for a student who you know just moved here from another country and might not speak
085English. What are all those experiences like? So, we intentionally um thought and generated some ideas of students and families that we had personal connections to as well. They were encouraged and um communicated with the entire time. You know, we reached out to them and said, "Hey, we really want this opportunity to know what it's like to be, you know, in your shoes if they're the student or in your child's shoes um for the day." And um it was really well supported. So, with that, we did kind of like a pre-questnire. We got to know our student. Um I was an eighth grader for the day at um middle school which was scary to go back to middle school for me personally. Um but so I got to kind of know the student and you know
086really just be like you are the leader and I am here to just observe. And so we navigated through you know all sorts of different classes. I took a French quiz. I used a saw. I sat in middle school lunch. I you know did did all of that. I was um they were questioning whether I was a new student or not. I had like you know just all that kind of real authentic social experiences um and just got to kind of immerse myself and from then we all came back around the table and we're kind of in that process still now but it wasn't just like oh this was a fun there's intentionality and we're actually looking for grows and looking ways to change the day-to-day for our students based on what we saw and
087felt and what we heard from our student body and then adapt and change as educators and leaders moving forward. So, you know, maybe it was like, oh, wow, we noticed that kind of consecutively. It seemed there was a lot of sitting. So, maybe how are ways we can like be more active throughout the day or um, you know, different experiences. If a student, you know, didn't speak English, what are some really great strategies? Hey, I saw, you know, this classroom did this and that really helped that student or what are other ways we can support them navigate um, different times. So uh kind of yeah just taking all of those intentionally planning and we do reach back out to students as well again they are in the process we say hey you know this is
088what we heard this is what we observed and this is what we want to try and change for you to make your experience better so um I it's been a really great experience there is another cohort behind us that have started the first year work this year and so the goal is that more and more people will be trained and participate and each year we can kind of continue Hello, I am Emily Feltus. I am the art teacher at Lily B. Haynes. And in the last year, I've been working on adding murals to our school. We started out kind of slow on the We were just outside where the planter is. Um I painted a bunch of trees on that and it actually created quite the buzz. Everybody was very excited. it looked like an
089elementary school. So then from there we decided that we should have um a subcommittee from the SEAL committee and I started painting some murals with third and fourth graders which was really fun and also a little nerve-wracking to give an eight-year-old a late paint. Um but they did great. And then we um moved on from there. We have a huge welcome wall in our main um hallway and that's been really fun. Brian, I was hoping you could tell the story about what you do when you're talking to students. Yeah. So, um it's really it was not planned. It was just sort of something that um has grown out of it, but um you know, students experience conflict and sometimes it does take on um that tint. And so when we are walking just naturally back
090to class or around the building, um it's a really great talking point to be able to say, "Hey, look, you know, we've got a really rich, uh, you know, student body here, and this is something that, um, we embrace, and you know, we don't tolerate, you know, any kind of, um, teasing around any of those, um, you know, diverse backgrounds. Um, and it really it I think the impact of it to have the visual for how and I mean, it's an expansive mural, too. Um, so I think that it really does uh carry with it quite an impact. So we ended up um working with the high schoolers. Rachel Reading was very very helpful. She helped us cut out um vinyl letters that say welcome and then in another language, welcome. And then we identify
091which language it is. There's over 30 languages that are spoken by our students at Lilybe Hannes um or by staff members. So it's just a way to make everybody feel included and to feel welcome. Um, and then our other goals are just to add color and some whimsy to our very white walls. So, I prepared this video. Um, it's about three minutes long showing all the murals that have been created so far. And we have a lot more to come now that we have the beautifification committee. There is a lot of excitement and a lot of ideas and people stopping me in the halls and saying like, "Oh, how about this here and this here?" And then I've got other kids saying, "Are you gonna paint this whole school?" And I said, "Yeah." So, if
092we can start the video here. Here's special day. about this. Does this look familiar? like [Music] sentiment that it wasn't this mural before. That's what they're talking about. He chimes in. Well, at least it's here for this our last year. versus our last you want to come up and talk about what's to come. I'm Alicia Rose. I'm an occupational therapists and also serve on the elementary DEI committee. And um I'm a really big fan of the interactive piece and creating some learning through what's in our hallways. And you know, lots of kids get sent for motor breaks and movement breaks and to enrich and have some self-guided kind of interaction and learning would be really awesome for our big white walls. So, what's to come is um our thought is to have we have these
093big labels outside our classrooms and there's a lot of students that use visuals in our room, but we want to kind of neaten it up, tidy it up, and make it more kind of universal. So, we're going to begin to include some simple universal symbols um that supports learning and access for students learning to read, students learning English as a second language, and those students who use visual schedules and communication devices. Um, the label also includes a QR code that will provide quick access to translate locations to all other languages spoken in our community for family tours, school events, and just daily learning. Um, going on to the sensory path, we don't yet have a sensory path. So, it seems a right place for the occupational therapists and the physical therapists to work together to
094have a meaningful, thoughtful movement plan to improve focus and learning upon return to the classroom. We're looking to provide visual, tactile, prop receptive, and vestibular input to enhance learning. And it'll be centrally located so teachers have an option to have an outside their room um activity that can just be a quick break and return back to learning. And then next, educational activities for um slide would be interactive things. So Cara Arnold is our math person at Lilybe and she does a phenomenal job during um math week and this has been a big hit for a couple years. So we're going to make it a real thing and going to extend the learning. So there's a lot of differentiated kind of learning. So real good visual and cognitive skills building there. And then next we have
095cognitive motor activities. So we know incorporating movement into educational activities further enhances learning. But also there is research that says including cognitive tasks into just movement breaks calming creates calming and refocusing at a quicker rate. So um doing things like wall push-up stations which may will vary in height and color. They'll provide math reading and social emotional learning tasks. we can switch them out, continue the learning, not habituate to anything that's up there. And then as well, I brought the other photos just to say that we're going to incorporate and provide activities for preK through fourth grade, as well as our varied abilities and learning styles at our school. And then last, come back to that social emotional learning and acceptance and inclusivity, we're going to look to have some affirmation stations. So those mirrors
096that can teach those students to have self-awareness to promote positive self-t talk and we know that those are powerful in building self-regulation skills and resilience. And then as well we want to continue to incorporate our choose love elements and also to have um thoughtful places to remind kids of our schoolwide expectations and to kind of promote our thoughts of kindness, respect, and responsibility. Yeah. So, we sort of uh covered a lot of different uh areas, not all just DEI, but obviously the work that we do um does that from time to time, right? It all kind of blends together. So, um I don't know if there are any questions about any component that we'd went over tonight, but um just want to thank, you know, not only uh the Lily Behains team, but also the
097Flanders Center teams for uh their collaboration here tonight. Great. I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I'm blown away by all three elementary schools and everything that they showed us tonight. It's absolutely amazing the things that's happening in our schools. So, thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for your support. I'd like to say we're I know we're not allowed to. It's nice to see what goes on in the classroom. It really for me it gives me a goal to work towards in the sense of gosh by supporting the school and supporting these activities and whoever the still in a state of shock the young woman in all the sequence using the word did she say inspire yes inspire I don't think I knew that kindergarten I was lucky if I
098knew my again thank you for bringing the classroom to the board meeting it is in my opinion it's greatly greatly appreciated you know what we Great. Thanks. You know, emphasize that as well, getting to see happen in front of us. We're far away from it, especially some our kids are through school. Some some of them are still in, but um so we're a little farther away. So getting to see some of this really is helpful. So the more you can do that when you do come to us, I think that's really appreciated. Really is. Thanks. Thanks so much. Is it possible for to get copy match to this of the slide deck they put in? Yeah. Um Chris is on and and Grant if we can just make sure the slide decks that they presented.
099I was going to include it in the minutes. No problem. Oh, I'll attach them. Yep. We put those in and we can put in the weekly update as well. So you can take some more time just if you want. Last numbers. Was that a multiplication table? Yeah. So they're teaching that again or did they ever stop teaching? I don't know. They just teach it different. It's different. It's different how they get to they get the same numbers. The number change. Okay. Uh, next order we have a discussion and action. We have a school calendar revision 2024 2025 school year. Jeff mentioned this at our last meeting. Yes. Yeah. So, we uh just to review for for the public um getting some various feedback as well uh just on making this change. Uh, as we know,
100we uh we've only used one uh snow day or inclement weather day this year. Um May 23rd is supposed to be a uh our last snowflake day. So uh we wanted and as I mentioned at the last meeting or meeting before, we want to make that day a half day of school, which will allow it to become a school day and allow additional planning time uh or prep work for teachers to have um that afternoon as we wind down the school year. their final goal um development and data collection and then we would make the last since that becomes a school day then we can bring the last day of school to June 13th Friday rather than the last day of school right now being Monday June 16th so we could end the school year
101on Friday versus Monday and come back on Monday. So we've adjusted the calendar so you can see it in there. Um and if the board of ed uh agreed you will make the motions on the calendar and approve the calendars the district. So if we agree, we can push that out to parents uh this week uh and make sure everybody is aware of that uh that adjustment. Questions? Has um safe brad committee been notified of the change in date? I've not heard from them yet um this year, so I'm not sure how far along. So I want to try and move this along pretty quickly. Um usually they reach out in mid April or so. Um I don't know, Mr. Kit is on. Have you heard from the safe grad committee at all, Mr. Kid?
102Not on uh not as of late, Jeff. No. Um and not on this topic. Not on this. Okay. All right. So, you haven't heard anything. Mr. Kid is on. Have you heard from the city? We've got an audio loop happening. That's all right. Did you hear me, J? High school graduation. Friday night the 13th rather than Monday the 16th. Okay. I I think we probably even if we didn't do this let's say for instance you know we have a freak storm of some sort and we have to between now and the end of the year we have to close school I would still look because we have a 100 seniors will have done 181 days I would still recommend we have graduation on Friday night and move them to 180 days so either way graduation
103naked on Friday night now absent we have two or three inclement weather days or something happens a freak storm or buildings have to close or something that would be a different Sorry. As of right now, there's a graduation on Friday night. The middle school would be Thursday night. [Music] Oh, okay. Um I move to approve the revised calendar 25 school year as presented. Second. Further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. oppose abstain and calendar is revised. Okay, we'll send that out to Thank you. Okay. Um, next topic is for discussion, the 2025 budget updates and timeline of meetings. Um, so I thought I'd spend a few minutes just to make sure we're all on the same page of where we are, what what's ahead, as well as kind of what happened at the
104the board of finance meeting, and then maybe talk about our objective of today and then potentially after today. So, first the the calendar, we have a meeting today. Um, the public hearing is on the 28th. So between now and the 28th and for the purpose of today's discussion I think we need to give the public our community our parents or uh staff members an idea of based on and I'll talk a little bit more about like the board of finances but based on the the savings that they're required that they're required what the implications are of that. Um, I'll talk more about that, but between now and the 28th before the public hearing, the public needs to know what's the what's the impact of uh of the savings that that we're being required or being
105asked for. There is a chance on the 28th that the board of finance changes and and we have a different number after that. Um and then but for now that and then referendum is I can't remember May 22 May 22nd 2 May 22nd um so be between then and May between the public hearing and finance finalizing number and 22nd we do need to finalize our our plan for budget for the 25 26 school here in terms of so so in as we discuss this we need to decide if we need to meet other times we don't really have many meetings but this is our only meeting in April right now that's scheduled which is why we asked for a potential meeting on the 21st if needed um just to get it on people's calendars but
106we really don't have another meeting I think until May 16th or I I don't somewhere in that miday I'm in terms of the board of finance. Um, you know, my perspective, what I heard, but interested in others, um, the the town overall, um, I think was was in a challenging position, uh, approaching a high bill rate increase at 28 or approaching three. the board of finance. I don't know where they ended up on the town budget versus the board of ed budget. Um I think they're actually having further deliberations today on that. Um the board of finance there was lots of they had lots of qu from my perspective they had lots of questions on the high school. Um it was felt like that was a lot of the direction of the questions that they
107had. um understanding class sizes and uh number of number of teachers what's happened over the past five and student ch how what's the student population change been over the last number of years uh asking about AP classes and other classes and how many classes we have a lot of questions about the high school the initial um yes initial I guess proposal was I don't it was like two and a half 2.1 million 2 but then there's the 15 the way they did it was a little confusing with the 15 it was over two we'll just say it was over two million it was a big number um that one did not pass and then um for all intents and purposes they did it if we weren't at the meeting it's much cleaner If you were
108at the meeting and you heard it, it's a little confusing because they took the health care savings out. They took that savings and voted on that and then they took another savings. The way we're going to talk about it is our baseline is 6.72. That's what we proposed is say that what they're asking for is one a.5 million less than the 6.72. Let's not worry about the, you know, as part of that, there's a $150,000 savings in the health care because we only need 9% versus 11%. So, we have another 1.35 to find. Um, but that's, I think, the easiest way to look at it. Our baseline is 6.72. There is a million and a half um savings that they're asking um of us um to come down by. to only grow at 422 4.22.
109Um so in terms of our discussion today, I feel that um and interested in in everyone's thoughts that we do need to let the public understand the implications of if we are going to come down by 1.5 million, what does that mean? because I don't I don't think there's any way uh someone would know what that means. Um is that a lot? Is it a little is that easy to do? Is it hard to do? And that's where I think we need to come up with um ideas at least or some things of of what that would get to approach to one and a half. If we if we don't get to one and a half or or we have questions or we want more research done, we want more feedback, that's when the 21st
110comes into play because I think it's okay if if we discuss it at a high level today and on the 21st there's it's still a week before the public hearing. So we can I think we can give some ideas of what we're looking at and and then on the 21st be a little more direct on okay if it's a million and a half this is this is what we're going to have to do to get there. Um I'll pause there and just see let me just add an important piece of that is I want to make sure I'm communicating I want to communicate out to staff and parents this week and then I want to do it again before the 28th so that week. So that's if there is a meeting on the 21st, use
111that information as a final commute out communication out um reminder public meeting location time etc. Any questions on process or kind of what we're hoping to accomplish today and then we can go into today but process it might be a meant for later. Okay, we're talking about communications and communicating to the public and I would like us to see us align around sort of the lens that we're looking through guiding principles or criteria what is important to this board thinking about um you know realizing this one one I think yeah one savings Um, so I'm not sure where the discussion kind of fits in. I think I mean we can have that now because I think it's important. You know, I think I've heard general from folks is is just is about the things that
112would have the least impact on on students or on education is kind of a priority. um lens, but if there's other things to to kind of prioritize and and make if you have any ideas or others have ideas. I mean, I think so. We've been talking a lot about um class sizes. Um and you know I think maybe along is utilization rates or think about it kind of from that lens as well. Um, and where you have some discretionary versus other thoughts? So, so maybe in terms of the first step, we there were some questions um sent in from board of end members to to Jeff um who provided um some input in terms of questions and and maybe um maybe uh a place to start. There were so many questions about the high school
113from the um a lot of questions of the board of finance from the board of finance whether at the meeting or prior to the meeting um does seem like it's an area that maybe worth we can start there or we can start from I'm happy to do either way. We can start asking questions of high school specific, then we could talk about middle school specific, then we could talk about uh elementary, and then we could talk broadly, or we can start broadly. If if people have a preference, I'm happy to go either. And just a reminder, too, any of those board of finance questions that we responded to, we sent them all of you as well. So, you have if you want to, you know, refer back to or in the next two, whatever it
114might be. So, we're not going to discuss these. Oh, we can. Yeah. Yeah. Great. We have that be a starting point. I think uh and Joe, if you want to start there or or elsewhere, maybe I Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm just looking. I guess what stuck out at me and I read it very quickly is about the chart. I think it's on page two about minus one no change minus one point. I just want to be sure. I'm assuming you're talking about reduction staff. So that's elementary and it's already in it was in the 6.72. Okay. Yes. The only reduction was minus one etc. Okay. Because fourth grade would have had 13 or 14 and we put it up to 18 month five which balanced that out. There was no impact anybody because we had
115a retirement. So that right now is the only change. So that's what that chart reflects. Now we can use that chart. wanted to say we wanted to say reduce another one somewhere we can calculate that out. It gets very tricky at the elementary level because you know we have two or three teachers some often at each grade level. So if you use one the number skyrockets you add one the number you know that sort of thing. So that's the the only tricky part um that with having two or three teachers at those levels. I have one other question about uh high school. It just it looked like our maybe uh my expectations are set wrong, but the class sizes seemed small for high school classes. Uh I mean, which is great. I have no complaints.
116And my child was in in school right now, but I don't know. Is that what they're I'm assuming I'm assuming seeing and questioning. And that was some of the questioning. Yes, we had received from the board of finance. They' asked for some comparison. um we didn't have a lot of time to try and grab as many comparison. We were able to capture a handful of other other districts. Okay. Um so yes, that was what we did uh did them for average, you know, average class sizes. I did get a chance to ask a couple of board chairs from their most of us and um in terms of their high school class sizes the few IS and of three um 20 to 22 is kind of pretty much where they are. Mhm. We're kind of in
117that 15 16ish range. Most of our class sizes and some of those districts are dur a a high or low. I don't know which way to say it, but uh yeah. Um so, so that was telling to me. Um say that again. So in some districts that are very wealthier D still I guess they don't even but if we're still D yeah it doesn't really we consider D. You're saying ABCs have larger class sizes. Yes. Yeah. Even in wealthier districts they have class sizes that are more like 20 to 20. Uh and we're 15 16. The other piece of data on the high school discussed as well is I think over the past five years there we've um high school number of students has come down 135ish and our teacher level I think up. So
118our students are down 135. What's the ratio? What's the current ratio? Do we have 15 to 16 or 1 to 15? Yeah, it's a little hard. You do the exact math. It's not doesn't come that way. But if you look at the classes and you go, it's like 15 16. If you look at faculty versus student that be one way of doing it or Yeah, that gets Yeah. Yeah. But if we for me I think is like if we look in a classroom how many students there's a teacher and how many students and it's like 156. Some are some are much are are lower than that and some are higher than that. We get to around that 15 16. So comment at the highest level before we really kind of get into this further and
119given all of the discussions we've had about um watching the elementary numbers here again and I think we've seen that before and having it kind of alongside the conversation that we're starting to have now about high school numbers and looking at you know what's most versus least impactful. It seems like any impact to the elementary school is going to be kind of working position to our guiding principles of impact to students. Yeah. So, um maybe a way to start um these are so just so everybody knows these are going to be really hard discussions and it you know it's we're talking about in people impacting people's jobs and and at a million and a half I don't think we can look and we're gonna look and we'll take any advice people have. U but I
120I think it's going to be really hard not impact people's jobs to come up to 4.5 million. Um when when we I guess the two things that can minimize the impact on people's jobs is one is the option for early retirement and two is how many open positions do we have at paras teacher secretary I think custodians we've said for standards. Yeah. Yeah. Building sizes are changing. There's Yeah, that's that's been my understanding. So, we have So, those are two way places where we could have to figure out how to make it work. But early retirement or um moving or reducing open slots would result in savings without impacting people's jobs. So maybe a start with early retirements. We talked about that a few times and offering, but we've had mixed on whether pe how
121many people would actually qualify and there's maybe not a lot. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on um you know we did or what we could do or how we could do it. Yeah, we we've um we've done more recently we've done for secretaries um for custodians. Last year we had some secretaries that uh um that took uh a retirement uh package that the district offered. We were thinking if we were going to offer one and has kind of combed through the numbers, we would have to decide, you know, is it set at a certain age where anybody above the age using a number 62 or 58 uh whatever it might be um would have the option to take it. You could do like a $20,000 payout over two years or three
122years or insurance coverage. So, they could continue insurance coverage for a two-year period paying their portion based off of what the contractual is. Um there's where that kind of either or. Uh now whatever we if we did push something out, we have to keep in mind the fact that you know anybody who has already told us they're retiring is going to receive that or would receive that. So um right up the gate we're already paying something out either insurance or a payment. We need some other people to to uh to take that as well. And we have two people who have identified as retirees. Yeah, there's there's Yeah, there's there's three retirees um certified staff retirees. I remember it's two elementary and the one high school is the cam. Exactly. Technology T. Yeah. And didn't
123we just get one today? It wasn't a retirement. There was a Lizzy Okay. Unless something new that came through that I wasn't that. No, not here. Yeah. Tol. Oh yes, correct. Sorry. So that's that's four, right? So there is a fourth. Sorry. Just recently got a fourth teachers, but that's a position that obviously we we absolutely have to replace with our ML numbers being. So So just so I understand. So the 20,000 So these the four retirees just using the 20,000 because it's easier to calculate. We're at a negative 80,000 to where our baseline our baseline 6.72 does not include that. So that's an incremental 80,000 we would have we have to find through the retirement through the other early hopefully through the other early retirement. Exactly. That would help us spread out over two
124years like we would. So it would be basically 40. Yeah. 40 this year, right? 40 this year, 40. Okay. Yeah. Although you'd have to already in the 40,000 we'd have to find that in the savings from other individuals who might take it often we hire um don't hire or we hire at at lower. Do we have any idea is there five people eligible who could be eligible depending on the criteria? Is it 10? Is it already? So, um yeah, hold on. I'm looking at my spreadsheet. Um to kind of lay it out which one you thought. Yeah. So, I think my I I would you I would say 60 I say would be um like the criteria that I would just you know it could be anyone could take it, right? It does they don't
125have to be but um yeah. So we don't have to set age necessarily to it. Um so if someone argument sake is 55 and they want to take an early retirement they would lose a lot significant amount of so it would be really hard for someone 55. Yeah that would be an early retirement. Yeah. Mariani, you're gonna come up with I I trying so we can understand what Jeff in terms of the benefit was the the I I just did it but I I was over 60 and had the full amount of time so I didn't really look at the other pieces of the puzzle. But if you're you know 55 but have 30 years in, you know, is it still you still you're still taking a big hit. It's 2% every year that you
126lose. Uh the magic number really is that, you know, age 60 um and that or that 35 years that 35 years, but the 55. Um so we have Okay. So there's not a lot of people that are going to have 35 years and not be 60. Exactly. Couple you. But that's pretty Yeah, you have to start right out of the random. We're all random insurance for two years. Yeah. So, we have 23 individuals that are over 60 years old. You know, it just seems like 60 seems like a more reasonable. And do they need a certain number of years of do we know do we know what their years of service is that? I don't I mean I have what years of service they have with East Lime, but if they worked somewhere else that
127information some people I wouldn't have that information. if you had it if if you don't have it readily of the 23 and I know you only have the eastline years of service how many are like 25 years or something. Um, [Music] so are 25, 23, 25. I have a few that are Are these parents or teachers? And these are all certified staff. These are all teachers. Oh, hold on. I when I did the Ohio analysis, so I do have So I have anyone have So of those only two. So four of those people have a total of 30 plus years of service. 23. And then we have some that are at 25 23. When you say total to so you did have I did I when I I forgot that we did the um analysis
128for the Ohio back and we decided it was just too expensive to do. I had someone in my office pull from the TRB statements. Now if they had service in another state or whatever that I wouldn't group two is like you only have four that have over 30 years that's not a big problem. So, can maybe if that's something, can we just firm up that data because I think if it's if we think there's really only four that can qualify. I mean, we can still do it, but that's not going to solve too much of the four. They're not all gonna they're probably not all going to take it. Maybe none of Yeah, might not. Um, we and and if none are going to take it, we just we're going to dig ourselves a $40,000
129hole this year. Yeah. One of the people that is at the top, she already is retiring. And I think, you know, bringing them the canoe contract that starts next year too for teachers, that's not necessarily um we did what we needed to do to get them where they need to be, but that's not helping too because it's been a bump. I think people are saying, "Oh, I'm going to stand for a couple more years of years." That's where like the next three years we're going to be in a I think we're going to have a slew of folks that going to be looking to retire. It's just it's not necessarily there right now. And I do worry it's a bit of a which are gainable and eligible. So, so I think what we see what
130others say I think it would be helpful kind of Jeff and Elise if you had some if you could do some analytics and give us some idea of you know if we're talking about three I guess because one already entire that if that's where really think of the the pool size is three I think that that's important information for us to have if the pool size was 20. Not 20. Yeah, I know. But if it was um right, that that would say, hey, that that seems like well, some of the even if one in four take it, that's definitely a worthwhile endeavor. If it's three, that's a discussion we have to have. And I I think Jeff just made a really good point. If you've if you enjoy your job and and you have the
131ability to, you know, increase your retirement by sticking on for a few more years because salaries are finally getting in line with where they should be. That's a tough one to take advantage. Yeah, so we we can try and we can go over this list that I have. Yeah, I can put that would be great. Yeah. So then the other So in terms of open positions, it sounds like now maybe there's so let's talk teachers first. So teachers we had we were do when we did our 6.72 there was an open teacher position at the elementary school that we did. That's the NIC center one. Okay. Yeah. So removing that. How many open positions at the elementary level? Let's just say do we have we get to here without people losing their Yeah. You just
132open but so so people have already either they're retiring or people have resigned. So two there's one. Yeah. wanted uh and wanted uh and then at the middle school the middle school middle school we we high school just had one uh technology well we actually but at the high school we just received word that another individual who's a 6 is leaving so and that's a math so not you know Mr. on not filling. Yeah, we got two other individual individuals at the high school level who might be interested in going from a 1.0 down to a six somewhere in that realm too. So, the high school core area those are those have materialized very recently. And then paras we when we did our 6.72 we eliminated five pars open rolls correct. I think there were
13314 open rolls at the time. There'd be like n I I know it's in flux but there's around nine open rolls. No, there's still 14. I mean there would be nine left with the five cut. Well, we we eliminated five. So I can't I don't want to double count. Yeah. So if they say the five, we've already decided we've eliminated there's nine other open roles that are left give or take. I assume I don't want to assume but saying nine would be impact I guess. What what would be the impact? Maybe if you can articulate. Can I ask him? Yeah, we we've talked a little bit about it. There's a few more positions that potenti but you know, yeah, I mean from year to year kids change grade levels, they change buildings, new kids move
134in, you know, so the parish shift around a little bit. So it's a little early to say, you know, where those open positions would still be when the new school year would begin. Um, but anything beyond the five is definitely impacting current programming, I guess I would say. And then for uh were there any open secretary positions? There's no open ones. I'm sorry to to keep track of my head. You said so there's four people retiring and of those four people retiring, two of them we had already planned on not filling the position. No, one only one. Only one so far. Yeah. In our 6.7. So theoretically, we've got 300,000 roughly if we didn't fill those and nobody lost their job. Yes. But if I understand one of those is that technology teacher at the
135high school which we can't it's not a funible and the other one right but it's a you know theoretically someone could move into his position and teach out a certification or whatever I don't know I'm just there's there ways to with that certification area it's just a matter of I don't know if you can see yeah yeah I understand it's not of the other one though is two that needs of the four is the ML teacher that we need to uh we need to fill maybe the numbers we just added teacher I think was last year there were four maintain those three we need to maintain our three for sure the numbers in meeting those requirements so doesn't leave us yeah a lot of not a lot of yeah I happen to know one I
136don't know if they're interested tomorrow. Come home from the meeting. Sorry, hun. You're working over here now. Yeah. Glad you got that certification. Yeah. Sorry. Yep. We should not be using that. You're right. Uh, so everybody's Yeah. So in terms of opportunities for savings, so maybe keep keep going down this path. So we have early retirements. We'll get more information, but the would be pretty small. We have couple open roles at the elementary school which right two are open which we would have to um spend look at class sizes and see if we're comfortable um with the impact to class sizes if we eliminate those open we don't fill those open roles. So that that's an area for savings. Um but it could impact um directly impact student learning as we might be pushing our
137forward guidelines in terms of class size. Harris are you already took five there's nine open the secretary there's zero open have 60,000 that you guys voted a carpet at the high school and carpet at the middle school so that was something in the budget but so you have that's right good so that's what I was going to go to next so there was 15 what are the other things that we could do that are not impacting people's roles that we could do potentially find savings. So you said there was there's 15 for carpeting at the high school and 45 for carpeting at the middle school. A total of 60,000. One of those a fire hazard at the high school. I think the high school one was. I'm not I don't think it was thearium. Oh
138yeah. I don't know if that whole 15 Oh, is this here? I don't know if that whole 15 was or the planetarium may have been other rooms as well. So the carpeting at the high school, Chris, the planetarium. Oh, no. It's multiple rooms. It's multiple rooms. So if it was just the planetarium, do you know what? Sorry. I don't know the but it is multiple rooms. So there might be five to 10 grand there. Yeah. This is this. So the capital improvement stuff we can't that can't be part of that because it's a different way it's budgeted is different. It's not part of our cash. It's either cash or they bond for it. Yeah. But yeah, it's not there's no way to So let's just say if we didn't do carpeting at the middle school
139plus the high school is about 50k give or take there any what other non staff related you could look at supplementals um y non sports or athletic supplementals. So the team leaders, curriculum fellows right now, you know, Anise has a a handful of curriculum fellows who work with her. We have team leaders. So um one person that kind of one teacher person who oversees the grade level and is the go-to for that grade level sort of those individually they all get a stipen one at each at each grade level. How many team leaders are there then? Well, so there's one at each grade level. Um I don't have the exact number. You wouldn't want to get rid of them all. That's for sure. But the idea and I'm just one do two. That's what I'm
140saying. Maybe there's an idea of you have one that that covers two grade levels for the stipen. So you're cutting the cost you know in in half. That's just a you know you know roughly what that stipen is. That's about what 4,000 look it up. Yeah. If we if we kind of cut it in half we calculated out to roughly about $40,000 in savings. get a stipen as well. Yeah. Do they have a full teacher? They do. Yeah. This is on top of their teacher teacher duties. Yeah. What other things have we talked about? What remember when we talked about it? We said really it's the administration, it's staff, it's it's not the board, it's you guys who need to not you need to but are the ones who could most clearly and judiciously suggest
141possible cuts rather than having it come from like we're like 60,000 feet. You know, I I feel like I don't know, but I feel like Yeah, these people know. So, we Yeah. So, we could do that in a couple ways. One is on the 21st ask each of the building leaders principles to come and say non staff related what savings that you could come up with. We can do that. We can give them targets or rough targets to say this is not for real. I'm just throwing out 50,000 per school. I'm not proposing that or 10,000 per school or $500 per school, whatever the number is. And just say what would it mean to save that amount? People have thoughts. To me, that seems the most reasonable. I mean, none of this is easy. I
142think staff seems the most difficult maybe is the right word or the most harsh. So, other ways of figuring it out. That's kind of what I would feel most comfortable with. Two things with that. Part of the problem is we we've done some of that work and already made some of those reductions already to kind of get it down to that 6.72. [Music] Um, two points for that and I suppose to say well one one thing I I assume that if sorry I keep looking at you but if I look at the Nanic center budget 80 plus percent or say people 80 90% some only have $70,000. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the people and the and the and that is your supplies and your I mean there's not money there but yeah so that's when I
143threw out 50 when I said 50,000 I knew there wasn't 50,000 but it might be 3,000 or 5,000 or something and maybe as you get to the middle school and the high school bigger buildings bigger things maybe there's a bit more but um do we want to ask Jeff and the administrators to come up with ideas for save non staff related savings or you know I'm so I'm going to kind of add on to what it said we have to be creative about this means mean cutting staff cutting teachers has to be the last resort we cannot cannot I don't want to go there I I don't want to have that conversation without having the conversation about well have we have we looked at everything which is not staff related before we go there so
144I don't want to even have the conversation about staff mean eliminating open position fair game means it's it's not impacting anybody right now future we will see but but you know mean in the past I've I've kind of in whenever we have had this conversation I' I've been advocate of us looking in keywords with with with the administrators kind of looking at what what can be done you know even $3,000 $5,000 here and there eventually will add up to what our target is you know whether we get there or not is a different discussion but I think we do need to do that so you know I I I am I am an advocate of that again we have to be creative you know we have in the past we have talked about maybe we
145need to reduce the bus routes again I don't know if that that will count. But I'm I'm just throwing out stuff. You know, we we may have to go let go of some traditions with respect to sports and and and other things that that that are that are that are eventually a cost to the town. Maybe we have to look into those things. So, we'll have to be creative and and I don't think we have done that yet. Not I'm not I'm not saying that, you know, mean now is the time we have to do that. Thanks Vivic and and I think so what we can do to firm that up you could ask each of the administrator each of the sorry each of the principles to say come back with a list of savings
146and ideas and it could be AC you know elementary schools you can look across elementary schools you could look see if you have ideas at the middle school or high school or whatever um Um you guys can can do that. Also asking Kevin or coup to say what can we do at the sport at sports um those what are some ideas we all have to make decisions on on which we prioritize as higher or lower which is more impactful on students or not students or whatever. Um but we need the data and the information to be able to do that. Um well so I I appreciate it thinking of like no we still need to be creative but fortunately we don't have a lot of time with the timeline that we have is you know
147we have might have one and three days before the the board of finance um final final deliberations uh deliver the thing I would say about like you know looking more about like the supplies and like the very limited like I don't know if you want to call discretionary like things that we can like not that are people that like what you say that we caught like paper and things like that. I know in many years ago we we've done that and what happens is the teachers or the parents and everything. They're not putting that out on their own money because they need that, you know, like like we had the presentation here about like the things that they do with while the kids like doing recyclable things. Those are the things that are in our
148budget like that like impact the classroom. maybe not a person, but it'll probably still happen to some degree, but we're shifting the cost on our chairs and our staff that work here because they I know I know many of them and they feel so strongly that like they will use their own money for that and I don't you know I don't want to also the burden of them because it's an unintended consequence of having those things pleasing. I know this has been asked and answered, but I'm just gonna ask it again anyway. Is it possible for us to get the line by line budget? Is the town anywhere closer to being done for their audit that we can get the line by line print out? I always know when I'm looking for things to cut.
149The line by line always helps. I can get a it's not going to be not going to look pretty. I can get a line by line budget self format that is not it's not it'll I I'll try to tweak it so that it looks you mean it's not going to be pretty I don't I don't have I don't have the ability to to uh run any reports format it's formatted the formatting I say it's not going to be spreadsheet no it's not going to be right it's not going to be like the reports. You're used to seeing where everything's formatted. It's neat. It's clean. I don't have an ability to run any of those. You can put it in an Excel spreadsheet. I export it to Excel, but it doesn't export. Um because the intent
150isn't, you know, the Excel intent is more for things that I would use it for. So, it works for me, but it's not a great description and the cost. It does. It has what Jamie is looking for. It's just not super not as pretty as the It's not as clear. It's not formatting. I can get some formatting. Um I'll put some formatting in it. Put some grid lines in it and it'll be it'll be a little bit easier. But um to your question, I no I don't think it's any they're any further because usually that when I'm help it it is it we sent it to all of us. Yeah. No. Pay for play sports. I should have said it. I should have said it. What about pay for play sport? That's uh where parents
151pay in some schools in Eastern Connecticut. Parent might pay $300 to have their child participate in the spring sports or fall sports. This is like an automatic fee incremental to equipment that they're sports, you know, so they're team buy their own bats, the lacrosse team buy their own helmets and sticks, the you all that that stuff is is a burden on the parent. We we did an analysis three to five years agoish um to show the impact on what parents are paying uh is pretty significant. uh what parents are paying uh for for sports and outside of what we're paying our coaches and and say this I'm just being the devil's advocate right now I mean I won't tell you how much I laid out for cheerleading but what I will say is when a
152lot of times when we don't have the funds in the school a lot of a lot of times my perception is this shouldn't be the standard is reaching to have supportive parents who will and I'm not asking them to do this now to support us, you know, if there's some special project going on or something. And I'm not saying that's the answer to our question, but I'm just throwing out things to think of. I don't know what else we can do. It's exactly like Estan said about you're just shifting. That's all That's all we're doing. It's all we're doing. I'm just saying we have some nice sources. We have great teachers and we have great It's not going to help. I just had a thought. It's not I'm just curious um next year with um
153next year's budget based on staff and our current contract. What does that increase look like without being able to foresee what um inflationary cost of that 2627 budget? Yeah. Did you guys look at that? No, not not yet. I don't think um I will say this is my own impression please. Well, this is just my impression from hearing that meeting at the board of finance and hearing the challenges in the town. I don't think we're getting higher than three or 4% a year budgets. I mean, that's I think we need to think that that's kind of what our growth is going to be at three or 4%. I think getting getting back to that question, are we already beyond that next year just with the staff that we have and with the contract that we
154have with the staff you roll over the staff alone? Yeah, you're talking three or four% in negotiations right now. We don't know. So yeah. So, you know, essentially we did the right thing, you know, on the surface by correcting our pay scale, but now we can't afford to honor our pay scale. You've gone the right way this way, but we can't afford. Exactly. One thing though if we compare so when we compare ourselves to other districts we pay we're low we were low we were low paying and hopefully we're back. No I I understand that. What I will say our class sizes at the high school compared to other districts we have smaller class sizes. That's just I understand it. And unfortunately, we don't have a aging population that's in retirement mode to help us
155out, right? So, we got to do it in a if if we have to do this, it's going to impact people looking to find jobs. So, that's what So, so that's what I'm trying and that's what I'm trying to see is we have to find 1.35 million. We found 150,000 through healthcare. So, so we're down to 1.35. And if you say, okay, you know, we don't do the carpeting, it's 50k. There's some stipens. I'm just going to round it to 50k. Uh at the 100k, maybe some of the open slots were open to remove. Maybe there's another 200k there or something like that. You're talking about the retirement. Yeah. That that if we decide not to hire those open sides, maybe there's a couple hundredk we can find there. That's like 400k. Let's say we
156ask and you know everybody comes back and maybe there's another 100k, right? We still got we still got like 800,000 8 to 900,000 to go and and that's I think that's that's why I was make I wanted to kind of because the early retire if we had early retirements but it doesn't sound like that might help a little but might not help much. So I think we're probably at that there's 800,000 to 900,000 that we're going to have to find. Um the you know again we pay for play sports probably brings in like 20 30,000 you know something like that. I mean there's things that we should look at and we will look at everything but I don't think what doesn't think we're still going to be at a point where I don't know how
157to how to get to the 15 or 135 without having an impact to staff. I think if there is a way and anybody has ideas, I just I'm just trying to come up with what are all the options we could have other than impacting staff and maybe get a half a million dollars. Yeah. The the the only thing, you know, so unfortunately the way that they avoided it the last they impacted in another way by freezing the salary salary. Right. So, you know, it's a lose or lose, right? So, um you know, and that is horrible because, you know, you're that's a, you know, in some ways I think that's worse. I I I would struggle with that because we were already very low. Yeah. So, everybody else is going to move up. That would
158cause us to be low. Yeah. Now, at some point there's going to be a day of reckoning that we're going to just have to I I I think that it that that is worse. That that comes to your point like what's the next year look like in the year? It's like, well, at some point we're going to have to have like a 7% increase because otherwise we're just so far from everybody. Yeah. Or, you know, we just got lucky and everybody retired and our numbers all worked out and they retired in the right areas and all. that share like the tech teacher with another school district so you wouldn't have to hire position. The reality is they're not going to find anyone anyway. Probably full-time. You need we need a full-time person. But, you know,
159I was even thinking that like, you know, do you do you uh wait a year till somebody else retires in another area, then fill that position. But then then the program numbers drop and then you never then you just lose program and it doesn't get rebuilt and that's not a good way to go. You know if there was somebody else in the building that was well certified but there's not too many people. And if there's someone who wanted to teach that who was probably could teach outside your area for a year or something you might be able to do that. I don't know if there's anyone in the building that would like to teach that stuff. It's the it's the catch. Yeah. Is there anyone interested? I would I you have to ask. I I
160wouldn't say anticipate it, but you never know. Is it something you can ask in forever sort of thing temporary temporary you got to pay the piper at some point bringing them back. He or she wants to be certified subjectification. Yeah. You know, it's a that's a that's that's an unlikely situation, but you never know who's in the building. Who knows? Somebody just wanted to try something different. Okay. So, maybe let everybody kind of stew and think about that for a little bit because but there was one question that did come up several people I think is just understand I think the literacy and math coaching and that model. Maybe just if you can talk a little bit about the impact. I know we we talked about the math coaches. It felt like for three or
161four years before we finally did make that investment. It'd be good. We have any data that shows the impact or talk through at least qualitatively the impact. Yeah, we um we've had some really good success at the elementary level. start some was in the we talk about next or you know bring it into this discussion too with the um or uh goals um that we had set this year. Um middle school we've struggled a bit because we haven't had a consistency in that coaching position be some of the reflection as to why we're not seeing that level of of growth. Um high school has just kind of gotten off off the ground. So that can be an area we can look at. back to the elementary where we're really seeing the growth where the coaches
162are helping out and you can chime in too that that lower grouping of students that have struggled over time. We're seeing that gap diminish which is important. Um we're starting to move those students and there's where that having direct instructional support is really starting to engage. Yeah, I mean we're in terms of closing that gap we're seeing that across all three levels. Um but the intensity of the coaching model looks different depending on the level for a lot of different I would say the intensity of the coaching model is most intense at the um or has been consistently most intense at the elementary level and we've come and shared that data with you both in literacy and in math and we are in a space where we're looking at actually beating out some of our
163precoid numbers and if you think about that from uh closing the gap and learning loss perspective. Our last COVID cohort is in fifth grade right now. Um our our COVID kindergarteners are in fifth grade right now. So we are still seeing some really um some learning some evidence of learning loss there. Um and we're al we're still seeing some of those that data trend that we've seen many year over the course of you know my career here um and before that dip from four to five but I have to say the coaching model at the middle school um we have a really strong person in that position we've had two really strong people in that position both of which have gone out on maternity leave which you know so that's inconsistency of implementation of model
164because we fill those positions when folks go out. So, it's really hard to tell. And then at the high school level with the coaching model, um you know, Maggie Gross is um teaching sections of math. So, she's not a 1.0 full-time coach. and with uh coach matern excuse me math maternity leaves at the high school. She's been picking up additional sections to um cover that because math positions are very hard to fill when long-term subs go out. So they they've actually that has come into um our b has been our benefit in being able to have a strong mass substitute our person in that in place. Um but you know we we really have seen the impact of student achievement as a result of that coaching model um most significantly at the elementary level and
165then we more consistently have had um support in that ELA. I shared with you our SAT scores. I mean we are we are knocking it out of the park in East Line when it comes to both literacy and math. I know we're we're showing a 50 percentile of meeting proficiency, but that's 30% higher than the state average, you know, and I haven't been able to do any dirt. These test scores just came out. They're hot off the press, but you know, I'm I'm chomping at the bit to get in there and do some more digging around that data. Um, elementary is still a puzzle, which is why I would say that's where we need it the most because we know it works and we've seen it. um say elementary school. You meant middle school. I
166meant middle. But I am I could tell you can tell I'm I am I've talked to Jeff about this. I'm very puzzled and um frustrated at what we're seeing in terms of lack of impact or results in math at the middle school. kids are growing from fall to from their fall um benchmark to the middle of the year, from where they are in the fall to where they are now, everybody's grown um in math. But when we look at year-to-year cohort, we're losing gains. And so it I'm I am really concerned about that and I'm working with the middle school on again coming back around the table. We've changed some variables. we've seen some level of success but not the kind of success that I know eslime can see and so um I do attribute
167that to some inconsistencies in our support uh but we also have to take a closer look so um coaches coaches are an extension of my office's work and what we're trying to do to close gaps and support student achievement I know we are looking in some spaces where we could capt ure um or take advantage of some you know retirements and um be more efficient with staffing in that area um because I do think there's room for efficiency but I do see I do think and I know and I've shown I've demonstrated to the board how successful that model can be students have benefited from it thank you the whole idea though for bringing in the coaches to help the coaches improve the instruction for the faculty. Correct. And how long does that take? How
168long does it take our teachers, our certified teachers have the competencies to be able to do what the coaches are doing? At what point do they start to mold into that same coach that they saw and worked with? working with students too though I think forget right now they should all be doing it dynamically and growing and developing that I think that's that was model that was what we talked about when it was first presented I I think honestly from my own personal professional experience I I I think it happens consistently all of the time I don't think it's a model that you live without um you know people if you think about a coaching model in general. People have life coaches. Um we have, you know, I have mentors myself in the position that
169I'm in. We're constantly trying to get better and improve. The problem is that it's not sustainable financially according to what we're hearing. Power level. That's the problem. If they can't pick it up and start to do it because they're certified teachers, they're master level teachers. All of them are master level teachers. We have new teachers who are had to be a national level teacher to teach them. Don't necessarily know if you've got an expert teacher. We have we have we have a range of brand new teachers we're bringing in. We're onboarding them even new teachers to Eastline. We're onboarding them to the East Line way. That never goes away. We constantly have, you know, a certain level of staff turnover that we're supporting on their in terms of onboarding them and supporting them and understanding
170the curriculum. I mean the the the literacy coaches this year at the elementary level have been instrumental in supporting teachers in the implementation of that new program. Instrumental and we have been a you we have been able to do what you saw tonight first and foremost because of our students and teachers but really our literacy coaches have been there every step along the way and supporting that implementation. I don't know how we would have been a been able to do it so successfully this year without them. What's next? I mean there's there's always something coming, right? We know that this in education it's continuously ever evolving and changing and coaches help to support us to be out in front of researchbased practices. um you know, whatever state mandates are coming our way, new curriculum implementation,
171they're there to help support that. I feel very passionate about the model. I I don't Every district across the state has coaches. I don't think there's ever a model where we're trying to phase out our coaching model. So, let's say 30. Um people are okay going on the 21st. I don't think we're going to get to resolution. Okay. Can we send our ideas? Like I'm just coming up with ideas and I know you want to close. Send them to both of you. Yeah. Let me let me see if I I'm going to try to close, but I challenge me on the close. Um so I I think we need a few things. one is I think we have to ask the principles and Kevin and if there's anyone else um to say if we were
172looking for 10 or 20 20% savings on non-staff costs well Chris too and yeah Chris and Kim Kim too but I was gonna add a separate question for Kim so I was holding Kim separate But uh yeah, Chris as well. Um I guess uh Chris Urban separate so we can't that that that doesn't count. Um um I don't know 20%. I mean we're not going to take we might not take it all but we need to understand like what are what are we what are the impacts of what's we don't do the carpets? What if we don't do the paint job? What if we don't do the Yeah. So for Chris, it's the carpeting and the other stuff. What if we don't do some big bigger projects for the principles of your non-staff costs? I'm
173picking out a number of 20%. I'm I have no idea what the right I'll second your 20%. Okay, that's that's that's at least a baseline. I think we'll go and see what we do. I mean, I hate to even ask, but um, you know, it's been recognized that we have a lot of time and I think there's strong alignment and completely aligned with like the absolute last case scenario. um like the approach that we're taking and you add Kevin on so just add Kevin to I said Kevin just you know equal opportunity yeah everyone um and I think because it was touched on and then there were questions posed around class sizes at the high school, the options. I would I have like a very fuzzy picture of what the implications of that look like.
174I'm going to get to that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let me finish. Yeah, let me finish because I'm definitely going to touch that. So, I want to try. So if 20% non-staff related costs um stipens would be in is is an option. Um staff meaning you know people who have roles. So if there's some stipens or something that you think you could find savings that would be so for every everyone um to look at that. Um for Chris it's big projects like the carpeting and things like that. For him you know nine there's nine remaining open slots that we haven't already removed if what would be the impact of four more. So that's $100,000 if you did or more. We need to understand what the impact is. Um yeah um not right now but if
175you you can provide that to us. Uh yeah, you have time to think about it. Um and what the impact would be of that. We're trying to make a big list of stuff and then you can then we can pick and choose what we think is is the least impactful. Um but if we don't make a big list, then we can't make decisions. I also think it's important to the public sees that we're making list too that we didn't just go straight to this and you know how come you didn't dig deeper in in those other areas. I agree. I think that was really uncomfortable a few years ago when we had teachers storming in here save our jobs. That was not that was not fun. Yeah, that was difficult. So to the next point
176though is everything that we just described doesn't get us to 1.35 billion. It doesn't even get us it gets us again hundreds of thousands let's say three to $500,000. Oh, there's one other. I think we should see for the two open elementary school positions. If you could decide where if we were to take the two out, where's the place you would take them out and what's the impact of class size for those two? So, just make the um if I my recollection I have in front of me was like Flanner's second grade might be a little on the average maybe it was one of the second grade classes. I don't remember. It might stay within the guidelines even if we add it here. I don't remember exactly, but look at if if there's two open
177slots there. So, let's at least look, we may not want to do it, but we should look. The only thing left then is I think um finding savings through staff. If anybody has any other ideas or open to hear anything else, but I think there's 7 to $900,000 that we still need to find. Well, my proposal, please challenge me. This is just We got a lot of questions at the high school. We got a lot of questions about the high school and the the numbers when you compare do look like our class sizes are low. That's what the board of finance was asking. It just seems I think we should um Jeff and Henry got to reduce seven to nine positions. That's a big number, but I don't know what else to say. We we
178may not take all of those, but we need a number to be able to make it make decisions because if we just find we just ask for stuff to go to 1.35, so that is the decision. Um so we need things so we can make choices. So, um, and then um I think we should guess for the secretaries couple three position secretaries. I don't I don't know. We need something. Jamie had it first. Oh, sorry. I just had a question about the high school. If I was looking at that graph, I'm assum I'm I'm assuming I don't like to do that, but I'm assuming that some of those are anomalies like uh the one 11 one11s that those are maybe like independent studies that we're not really having a class with one student in them.
179Yeah, we're not one to sign now trying to combine some classes but still the minds are because I was I was looking at a lot of ones and a lot of twos and I'm assuming we are not carrying classes with correct only one to student teacher ratios that and there's some class I think studies you saw all the and there's some with like three or four or something like but they're journalism I think they're but they're combined into a teacher deceiving to look at those little ones, but there are there are some small ones. I'm not questioning that. Yeah, but it was 1111 reserve and that was going to be my point and question like that because I have this spreadsheet open right now and like there are some like there are like eight four
180people in one class and like I don't I know that that's not reality but that's skewing our overall numbers though like so like maybe get a true like of those how many of those are combined and how many is just one section like has like three of those so that because it really makes us look add especially when they're like break down by subject you go English math and so on that removes a number of the anomalies but in if I looked at because I did take I did some analytics so I took English and I took the advanced CCP previously a called a level and I took that honors and AP. So, I didn't do the CCP. I didn't do other but I took those three levels and we're and just average those out.
181We're like at 15 those classes. I think part of that rationer reason too is remember years back the middle school we did reduce a whole ka we had that bubble bubble went up to the high school kids but we didn't do we haven't done any adjustments at the high school level part of the piece that I think if we had retirements we would have exactly done it but we haven't had it sounds like we're not going to be having anytime soon the next three years yeah we switched to doggy years or something. So an idea they feel that way. So if we said say nine at the high school and what the impact would be not saying we're going to do that but I think we need enough I think we should have three secretaries
182three or four. Not saying we're going to administrative wise. We didn't look at that piece of the puzzle. Well, yeah. And that we've talked a little bit about that as well. Um, you know, it it changed, you know, in our in our numbers. Um, see, you know, special education especially, you know, the number of special education students going up, the requirements for PPT meetings to be run, supports of students in the classroom. I'm not sure if there's if there's room there. We we've looked at it. um pathways has taken off. I think if we don't talk about that. No. Yeah, it's everything's out there. Can we get a list of just everybody? I mean, we're looking at everything else. We're looking at secretaries. We're looking at Right. Why aren't we looking at any Why aren't
183we having that bring it up? We got to look administrate because it's 17 and a half 17 and a half and 17 and a half of which we have a model with principles as if we don't change that eats up a lot but let's at least get the list so we all understand what that is and this is the makeup and then yeah this is the impact of what that would look like and then Um, I would like you can hear where what we're talking about and at least I mean we we invested in I would hate to not keep the I I felt like I personally I fought it for a few years and Yes, I remember that. Yeah. and you you you made a really good compelling case and then I went all
184in. We need this. So I personally, again just saying how I feel is I don't want to stop that if if that was the right thing. However, we're now going to have to make a decision because it's either we have larger elementary class sizes. Do we by removing open slots? Do we reduce the coach model? Do we have more reductions at the high school? Do we remove some secretaries? Do we take out some administration? I mean, these are the tough decisions. So, I don't know how I mean, how would how do you articulate like having a math coach and I'm not looking for an answer now, but you have a math coach, literacy coach, but our class size might be 20 in a elementary or or you'd be at, you know, 14 in an elementary
185school classroom and you'd have one less coach or something. Those are I think those are the things that we're going to have to Yeah. decide. I mean ultimately it comes down to a question of impact on programming. Yeah. An influence of impact on programming. Um you know so we can we can we can explore that. We can explore you know what's the impact of having going from 18 to 20 in a classroom versus having a sustained embedded professional development model that supports district initiative year-over-year. What's the impact on program? I think I think it was said several times before. I think you guys are you guys know this better than we know it. I mean we're some of us know it better than all of others but I mean you guys know so like if
186we had to save just say we have to save 100,000 would you increase class size or would you remove a coach? I might look at doing a little bit of both. I I also think that I don't think that any one space or place should should carry the burden of this type of cut. I think when you're when you're dealing with a one and a half million dollar cut as the board is doing right now, you're taking a a you know a bird's eyee view in terms of how can we distribute this loss across multiple departments so that it doesn't fall on the shoulders in one space or place. And so I I think the board's approach is the right one. Um but I don't I I would I would be I would caution the
187board to look in one place or space and think well that's going to have least impact on something because you I think that's why we've always we can we can build the balance but you know that's where we needed you know some feedback as to where you kind of were leading. I also think that's where we need to turn to the administrators to, you know, exactly to show us, you know, we're taking the hit. This is what the hit looks like at this building. This is what the hit would look like at this building. You know, this and it and and and we need to be honest because we're all on the same team. Exactly. We all want try to school district uh make it look one way or another. We got to say this
188is this is the way it is. You know, the plate we've been given. It's the platter that we have. It's it's it's all we have. It's what we have to do. I mean, to pull that through. It's I mean, we're asking for the implications, but then but then what what's the plan? Yeah. Let me just one more thing and then it's good. No, no, no, no. That's okay. So, because we did not do any middle school, we didn't ask for any uh a staff anything. So, for elementary, we have a couple open positions. Uh, for high school, we talked nine or whatever. I said, I think nine. Um, middle school, their class sizes, I think, are at 22 or something like that. 23 24 at least the one that I'm 24 to 25 students. reason
189not saying anything at the middle school is their numbers are already kind of at we when we reduced that ka they bumped up exactly so I just want to make sure that that's clear as well it's not that we're forgetting about them it's like their numbers is there something at the middle school that we need to look at that hasn't been on the table yet we asked for 20% non-staff right is there anything else I think we need to ask that question yeah so Claudia Yeah, if you have any ideas, uh please just uh come up with anything you just go back being the way that it is. If you cut a teacher, it affects the four teacher EVA system. So then you can't operate the KA system without a teacher. That's how we've built
190the middle school. Yeah. Right. If there's one teacher that's reduced, the whole team is gone. about the middle school and dispanding the kas if anybody can hear me then you might have more leeway with teachers and class we consider because I would I would certainly support that I don't what I don't think it's something to be considered now I'm just saying it's just I think this idea capture any savings now but but I'm just saying it's a thought because like when we redistricted we tried to student population but with the kas being you have four four teachers you can't really do much bigger picture. But if you disband it and kind of worked it around, you could work with class sizes a little differently. It's just a No, it's a good I think it's really
191important and I think these are the things if we kind of fall back and say we're only going to be growing if we're going to grow at three or 4% if that's just a rough assumption over the not for now maybe over all this hanging over our heads. It's trying to think of is there things we can do differently um how how we handcuffed at the middle school with the key system. So then um to Alisa's point okay so we get this information. So I I guess what I'm thinking is if we get all this information over the next couple weeks on the 21st I think we need to come up with a plan to say this is how we get to 1.5 and um go back because that's not what I Oh yeah yeah
192yeah when I said and then what it's really more in understanding the implications and I mean I think we're getting at it right where we're talking about approaching things differently of flexibility and understanding you know if if we're reducing what do we do with that cut how do we make um the whether it's the model or the way the instruction is provided so we know if we're losing something doing the implications of it. So, it's kind of how do you mitate how do you mitigate some of the offset? Yeah. Oh, sorry to go back. No, no, that's a boring. No, sorry. Yeah. What process that I had? And so if I fall back on the calendar, we meet if we meet the 20 need to come up with a plan one and a half. Now
193again, things could change at the public hearing. They could lower it that we can always fall back. Um but assuming it's stayed at at one and a half, I think we need to make sure the public knows after 21st what that will be. they can bring up at the public hearing. The one piece that I feel like I'm missing is we won't have a public comment prior to the public hearing and after the 21st or even after the public hearing like if we finalize like at some point we don't meet again till miday 19th 19th May 19th and the town meeting is the 12th Let's figure out where we get to on the 21st, I think, and we'll we'll go from there. But just I just want to put that in people's heads of like
194we don't meet again till the 19th. I don't know if somehow and we can reach out to PTAs and and stuff to try to hear from parents and and maybe we just need to get out and and hear from people just to say here's what we decide and just if people have other ideas but it's hard for the public but you kind of want to say if you have ideas it's got to also have the offset of it's zero sum. So if you say I don't want you to do that, you got to say well then what's the thing that we're going to do to find because we don't want to do this either. The thing you know the public are going to come and and you said on how it impacts them direct you
195know you can't do this because I've got a middle schooler. can't do this because I've got a I don't think they're going to come here and say, "Hey, I got a great idea to solve your problem." I don't know. The only thing, you know, in the history of this, a few people have thrown out, well, we let them vote down the budget and add more. That's ever happened in any town, anywhere. If the budget gets rejected, I think they always go we will get a deeper reduction, not we won't money back. I don't Yeah, I don't think I think the assumption is it was voted down because it's too popular to bifurcate. It's confusing. Yes. So, um, so people hope where we are and what we need to do. It's 9:00. Um, my recommendation is
196we defer ABLE the board of ed goals discussion. We're going to meet on the 21st. Fresher than anyway. Is that okay? Yes. We need to vote on that. the vote on tableing. You make a motion. I make a motion just in case. I make a motion that we table or defer the goals review to the 2421. I'll second of that. Discussion. All those in favor say I. Opposed. We'll move on to equity. So then we have administrative reports. Oh, just real real quick. Just enjoy. We we March was board of event appreciation month. So, there's cards on the table from kids. Um, we engraved the engraver here at the high school. So, we just wanted to have those because we didn't we had a meeting in the very beginning of March and then didn't have
197anything. So, thank you. Thank you for all you did the work that you're putting in. So, take some cards home. We need to uh and is there anything else on the on the 21st? Can this just be the only item on our agenda? Now goals and Can we do budget first? First the goals. I think we start this budget talk at 8:00. It's just 7 o'clock. We had Yeah, a lot today. Um, so we had uh we had an FFO meeting. Well, that's great. It's perfect. No, no, you really want me to say no. Say something. Uh, we talked about the refund, the pool. We talked about the budget. This year's budget's tight. Yeah. And we also talked about the 10-year uh plan, capital improvement plan. If you all really want to go into detail,
198you can go into our app that we use for our board meetings and look at the look at the meeting section for FFO and pull everything up and read it. I apologize. It's been a long anything. Uh NSBA was this past weekend in Atlanta. Leonard was officially elected as president-elect with his office April 11th to 26 in San Antonio. U Mary will actually give him his presidency. So it will be very um a lot happen. I'm trying to make it fast. We can cover a little bit on on the 21st if there's more stuff. Uh maybe we'll put like a board comments in and we can cover stuff. Uh Lauren, I have a meeting on Thursday as the next meeting. Um uh personal actually board comments future agenda items hearing none. Does anyone want to
199make a motion to adjurnn? Second. All those in favor say I. Great job tonight. Abstain. Uh,