001It is now 5:31 and I would like to welcome you to the special meeting of the Bristol Board of Education. Please stand for the national or for the I know I always do that. Our first item on the agenda tonight is going to be the presentation of the climate survey result trends by AFT. And we will call up the first person. I think it will be Mike. Who's the first person for AFT that's gonna speak tonight? Okay. So, we'll have Mike Reynolds. But before you speak, Mike, I just wanted to have Maria actually talk a little bit about the survey and kind of how it developed. So, I'm sorry. We're so close. Um and this is really briefly because I'm not sure if you were going to share a little bit about how um the
002collaboration started but um through the relational leadership forum that Dr. Borgero and Henderson led. Um there was projects if you will I did attend last year and had the opportunity to work with some leaders in family engagement relational leadership and we started to talk about how we would engage all stakeholders and um we've been having conversations with leadership and educators throughout the district find ways to really make sure all voices were heard and honored validated and in a in an organic way but also in a way where people felt um that there would be space for honest feedback and feedback that was open-ended and through conversation with frontline staff in the district. Um kind of discovered what staff wasn't exactly comfortable with and that was really surveys that were connected to emails. I just wanted
003there to be completely anonymous way to submit feedback and occur and that's really where this came from. We worked with Ben Henderson to develop an open-ended survey which really was just three questions and I think Mike Reynolds would probably be able to share more about that. But it was a collaborative approach to the work and we did try to work with all of the unions um to ensure that as many people in the district and school community would have opportunities hopefully in honest in a way that um in a way that they were your turn. Thank you. Sorry about that. um as Maria said. So when we had talked I think I mean I don't know the exact date or timeline but Maria had reached out to me or we had had three other conversations
004maybe in the summer early fall about surveying Bristol teachers. So, in the past, BFT officers, myself and Steuarts, have just heard that people don't give honest feedback on surveys because they're without an anonymous survey. They're worried about whether it's retaliation, retribution, or just don't want to put their name to it. It's on the computer. They don't trust even when they'll say, "Well, we're not collecting email addresses." They're like, "If it's on the computer and it's through a Google account, why would it not be?" And then there are some identifying questions. So, one of the things that um when I expressed to Maria about the survey is not have an identifying question because we have in the past could give examples, I just don't want to have them off the top of my head where um
005uh someone would find out and be like, well, they said they were grade two and they're at this school. There's three of them. which three would and then all of a sudden there'd be like a surprise walkthrough Monday morning in their room or like you know stairs or anything like that. So like we really wanted to make sure that it was anonymous after even after there's always reservations in doing surveys because people always like to attack or like how do I know this is accurate or what where did you get that from or you know what's going to happen with that survey. So like in keeping it open-ended we didn't want it to be biased. I didn't want it to seem like, you know, we didn't want to put any questions forth to make it
006seem like, well, we were targeting anybody or we want to make it like we're going to get the answers that we want. That normally happens if you do a multiple choice survey or a lot of surveys like the AFT recently did a survey and it was like 97% of teachers all across the board because you could get those answers when they do a multiplechoice survey in asking staff. So, that's the reason we went with the open-ended. Then we want to kind of keep it where the teacher the voice the administrator voice a parent voice a custodian voice. So we didn't want to make it specific because this was going to go to all staff. After talking to Maria I had reached out to Scott Kadet who's the principal of BAPS Chad who is uh the
007president for the custodians pairs and cafeteria workers and said we're going to be eventually doing the survey. um we're going to administer the survey each of the buildings and um we would like everybody to do it. I gave copies of the surveys so that they could be given. So some people chose to show up in the library and do it on and during the Wednesday meeting time. Other people chose to do it on their own and hand it in, you know, to a BFT steward, uh BC officer or myself. Um, you know, at the top of the survey when the officers and myself went and we talked to staff, we said, "We're looking for open, honest feedback. It's going to be anonymous. We don't want this to go, this isn't something that was meant to
008go public like other surveys. If you're going to make real changes and you want people to to say things and to trust, like one of the most important things is to protect people and to make sure that it's anonymous." um people felt comfortable with us handing it out and collecting it because they felt like there was a greater chance that would remain anonymous. Um we got more more surveys handed back to us than we did people who voted on the contract. That's how that's how wellreceived it was. People in most of the buildings and you could call up each of the BFT officers, but I know in my building when it was administrator for 20 minutes you couldn't hear anybody talking. everybody was just writing. Um, and for anybody in education, that's that's really big
009for 20 minutes for anybody to be quietly writing. Um, on on the survey, like the way that Maria and I had gone back and forth about the way to um, present it and what to write on it to make sure that people felt like this, you know, because another part of our survey is if I give a survey, hey, is everybody happy? And a lot of people come back, well, what am I going to do about it? Like, what are we going to do about it? We wanted like to come up with like real solutions, but we want people to know that this isn't just a survey that's going to be given and then it's just going to sit in a briefcase, which we do have them in a briefcase, and no one's going to
010look at it. That everyone's going to have a chance to see and we're going to look to come up with real solutions. So on it, we put we are seeking your candid and constructive feedback to help us identify our district strengths and areas of needed improvement. Every opinion is valuable and all feedback is welcome. There are three open-ended survey questions. Your answers are confidential and be used to inform the work of the district. The purpose of this survey is to promote transparency and openness. Survey results will be used as a framework for district improvement and prioritizing necessary changes in the areas of highest need. The deeper understanding, the greater the outcomes. Thank you. Then there were three questions. Question number one, if there were no limitations or barriers, what would be the ideal personal p
011What would the ideal Bristol public school district look like to you? Question two, what are we doing well? Question three, what can we do better? Now, keeping it open-ended like that, we didn't corner anybody into the answers we wanted. It kept it open like what are we doing well meant depends who you are. They could some people talked about their buildings, some people talked about, you know, their classrooms, some people talked about OTL, some people talked about board of ed, some people talked about admin administrators. It was just kept open. Like once again, we were looking to target anybody and it was going to be done by everyone. Um, from there, we kind of figured as officers, we took a look at, you know, and it's over I don't I don't think we had a
012final count on it, but I believe we're well over 500. Could count them all right now if we really wanted me to. Um, with that, I will show the surveys because I know that there's some people are like, "These aren't real. This is fake." I'll show you all the surveys. You can look at the handwriting. It wasn't me. I didn't write them all. Um when we took a look at it, we kind of went with like well based on our conversations with people from the buildings and and talking to people after the surveys and know what we know from our perspective because when we name the top five trends, obviously anybody could look at it with a different perspective and there's going to be there's a ton of trends on there. You're looking at over
013500 people who wrote to those open-ended questions. what we felt and we found and not only myself and um the eight officers, nine of us, we brought it to each of the building stewards. I emailed it to everybody in the staff to see if anybody would fire back. That's not true. Nobody said that's not true. People had a couple more things that they wanted to add. Um but they did not no one said it wasn't true. All of the stewards said that would be the top five in my building. Not one. And you could ver ask any building steward. And um we do have a building steward here, two gold stewards here who could who could verify and confirm that I did say that for all the fake news people out there, the wonderful world
014of Facebook that loves to say things that they have sources, which everybody has sources. Um top five trends in surveys. So our number one was lack of teacher input, ownership, and autonomy. We could give specific examples if anybody has any questions on it, but I will go through like all the five trends and then give like a paragraph summary. Number two, discipline. Lack of adequate consequences given to students. And that wasn't just about um discipline like behavior problems. It's also like discipline in a classroom for students who don't do work. Like commonly in surveys, we' see like, well, I have to pass a kid even though they have like a 20. I have to give a kid a 50 even though they have a zero. Um, and then obviously there were some that had to
015do with behavioral concerns. Once again, we weren't looking. This is this wasn't about like saying who to blame. This is about this is the issues that we're having. We want to have open honest feedback and be constructive and we want real solutions. Then this is what we're seeing and this is what we're hearing. Number three, micromanagement of teachers. Teachers need need more time, respect and be treated like professionals and decisions should be made in the best interest of our students. That was the most common thing we saw just throughout like probably almost every survey. Number four, lack of real teacher input in curricular decision making and lack of creativity and flexibility to be creative in the classroom with curriculum instruction. So commonly a lot of things that we did see in the survey and like
016just to give you like an example would that be like teachers would kind of have like well I don't really know if we should be teaching or not and they're like oh thanks for thanks for letting us know but we're doing it. Um hey I don't think we should be giving a test at this time. My kids haven't even learned that. Well that's what we have to do so we're doing it. Thank you though. Thank you. Um I really want to be working with my students right now. Can I do curriculum on a Wednesday meeting? No. Wednesday meetings are too valuable because we're going to be teaching you about something that you've probably done 55 times, but we're going to pull you from your room. Biggest thing with high school teachers is anybody who has
017a student who's in AP class, high school teachers would be pulled to go work on curriculum one to two weeks before the AP exam, which is the most crucial time for them to get in the last information their students who are looking for a college credit and happen to be stressing out and now their teacher is not going to be there. And all of these concerns we voiced and it's kind of met with thank you. Thank you for sharing. Uh we're going to do it anyway. And then number five, laws and concerns with the evaluation system. The state provided a basic evaluation basic evaluation system to all districts and OTL added several unnecessary layers to it. The teachers in for example the teachers in the exploration phase which is typically our newest teachers are burdened
018with the most documentation and work at this phase. This is particularly burdensome because they're already going through the state system of team. So it's almost like they got to do team and now they're doing an evaluation system and they're a brand new teacher is learn learning a brand new curriculum and in a brand new profession. And to summarize, in addition to the five trends, the surveys responses showed a clear concern for students. That the constraints put on teachers, including materials, timing, and pacing of lessons, does not allow them to serve the students before them. That the lack of discipline and consequence disrupts the education of all students. Our teachers are educated, experienced, and highly trained. They are overwhelmingly asking to be trusted and respected as professionals. And just for sake of drama, I'll bring up
019the surveys. Oh, should have been kept lock and key. I don't know where the Where's the camera on this thing? What the camera? These are the surveys. And so you could see these surveys were filled out at every single building, every single Bristol public school, all handwritten um and anonymous. But if anybody has any questions, any of the other B officers want to say anything in terms of sharing the survey too. Just want to add like one thing too. You know, a lot of teachers when I did send out the trends would like everyone to see the surveys and you know, we're you know, we just don't want anything to go because people there are think there's specific people named in it and we just don't want anybody I can't I can't put those in
020a briefcase. Um there teachers would like everyone to everyone that that is in this room to see it and to read through them because there are a lot of things that like a lot of people said to me, well that wasn't you know how come you didn't say this? How come you're not going to say this? There's more to it than that. We just don't want something to go public. We didn't feel like it's fair. I don't think a teacher did this to be like oh I'm going to go get that person and target anybody. We just wanted it to do to be real solutions. Everybody wants it to be better inside the schools. There's not one survey that was like this stinks. I don't want to be here. It was more like here's what
021we think is happening and we really want to have changes happen and we want it better for the students and for everyone who comes into this building so they could be successful. So, we will, you know, we will, we are open to anybody seeing it and we encourage every single board commissioner um and obviously um Superintendent White and Deputy Superintendent Hawk to also look through all the surveys. I will open it up to questions if anyone has any questions. Everybody hear me? Are we recording or are we on um Yes, absolutely. Okay. Doesn't sound very loud. Um so um I I hate to put you on the spotlight, but I I need to know um out of all it seems like a lot of the issues that we're seeing here are are related to just
022not being able to know, right? Um so from a a solutions based aspect again I like spot you said you guys yeah I think a lot of a lot of things that we saw in I don't want to speak for like every single teacher even though I am speaking for every single teacher but a lot of things that we saw in the surveys were like I'm just not trusted like if I say hey this is what I think the kids need that that's pushed aside. If I say I don't think we should be teaching that, it's just pushed aside. If you say I don't why are we giving this test when I haven't taught this and you're told because we have to give it, you know? So like I think teachers are just looking like
023well if I'm the person who's working with the kids all the time. I know those kids best. Shouldn't I be the one who has the loudest voice? And what we find the loudest voice is OTL. OTL is basically like this is what we're going to do. That's office and teaching and learning. Sorry for anybody that doesn't know the acronym. This is kind of like what we're going to do and this is and because this is what we read a study or I went to, you know, a week in Colorado and learned this and so now you're going to do it. Whether you think it works here in Bristol, Connecticut and even though you've been here for 27 years and you've been teaching in Bristol for 27 years, here's what this study shows. And like I
024think that's what a like a lot of what we're getting um from teachers was like trust let's see that my that's my gong the gong in me. Um I just want to tell the commissioners people online are having a hard time hearing the questions so when we talk was having difficulty. It sounds better now right? Yeah I I can hear a lot better. So like that that's that's kind of it like trust me we're not saying like we're we say it and you do it but we're saying like shouldn't our voices be like teachers don't feel like they're heard and that was why almost 600 people filled out that survey. You wouldn't get 600 people to fill it out if they're like I feel like my voice is being heard. Yeah. It seemed like like
025the response you had was seemed like, you know, to me like the teachers were like, you know, like ask um do you think that like some of the studies that that are done, you know, it all looks good like when it's, you know, done like on a on a macro level, but like on on a micro level, like you know, like you know, with like town of Bristol saying, do you think that maybe um some of those surveys or those studies that they do that um may that necessarily translate well to like a smaller town like Bristol or Yeah, I mean I could just as a from the perspective of this actually is my 27th year teaching. Um every year and even during the year I know what works for the kids. So like but
026then I show up next year and I'm like, "Oh, let me try this." And it doesn't. I don't keep doing I don't I'm not like, "Well, I'm just going to do all the same lessons." Like every year I change my lessons to fit the kids in front of me. So it's for a lot of teachers it's disheartening when you're like well I know the kids that are in front of me and you're told no this is going to work and you're like no I know that this is you're going to do this and like I feel like that's what teachers are if you're seeing your cry the cry is trust me I know these kids I know what's best I'm working with them and and I feel like this is what needs to be done
027and you're told no you don't know and you're going to do this and if you don't do it. You know, for teachers who don't do what they're supposed to, their life turns into like, I'm going to show up in your room and then we're going to watch you and then I'm going to have comments like, "Well, you should have done this. How come, you know, when you were teaching that, did you think of this, this, this, and that?" And the teacher's like, "Well, yeah, but" and they're like, "Well, you know, next time I just like to see you do that." But it's not like as much as like an open conversation as you think. It's just more like, "Hey, go, you know, do that the next time. Next time we come and see you." We're
028hoping to see that. where I think a lot of teachers would think like, well, there's a reason, you know, like you don't know what happened. Like, you showed up for 10 minutes, but you didn't see what happened 25 minutes before that. You didn't see what happened last week. You don't know four or five of those kids in the room and like kind of like what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. You're just judging me and basing everything on a 10minute walkthrough. Yeah. And my experience has always been like when it comes to like walkthroughs like that, it's it's not the same. It's like everybody's like, you know, getting a little bit better. Oh, right. You know, like students in particular. So, they're not, I think, seeing like what the teachers seeing the room. Yeah.
029Four people walk in with like that they don't the kids don't know. They're all, believe me, they're all like, "Yeah, they all set up Illustrator, you know, see other people come in." Um, do you think that like a uh do you think like a like a workshop or something like that like if if they're going to be talking about like hey these are the policies that um the programs that we want to um class level um do you think that a workshop to discuss that you know find out what best suits the students needs for that given class is would that be productive do you think? We we've done that. But that's the problem is like you'll do it and teachers have voiced their opinion. Listen. Yeah. And a lot of times they just gave
030up. It's hard to get anybody to go to anything anymore because they're like why? Yeah. Why am I going to go to something where I voiced it and I wasn't listened to? Right. Um yeah. So um as far as like as far as discipline, I I noticed that that was one of the other too. Um what's going on there? Is is discipline becoming a uh in not even like necessarily fights but just like attention and stuff like that is that yeah I don't want to get like into too much detail because I know like anything I say um I just think that discipline over the years has changed right and like one of the biggest things I've been in Bristol for 27 years and even with my children's schools is because of and you know
031we don't want to I'm not going to I'm not blaming like an administrator I'm not blaming Bristol I'm going to blame like the state and even the federal government because a lot of things that get passed down, right? So like one of the biggest changes we saw as teachers was when they started to tie attendance to um funding. So like a big thing that you would see is like well it went from like hey you're here to learn to what can we do to get you to come to school and how can we keep you here? Well, then you're saying like, well, lower the expectations because we want them to stay in the classroom and we want them to come to school. And that sends a different message to kids than when I first started
032teaching in Bristol, which is like, hey, education, you need to value education. Education is really important. And you know, for everybody in this room, and we're all here to learn and like I think like once, as everybody in this room could attest to, you start tying funding to something, you know what's going to happen. And I think that's when we saw, so I don't want to go back how many years it's been, but it's probably been a downward, you know, slope of 10 years of, you know, just building upon building is built upon itself. So like if you you know kids kids are very intuitive right and they they kind of like year after year start to realize like oh so those are rules are optional like I commonly in sixth grade you know hear
033from kids like so you don't have to do that and that's not something you want right it's like oh you don't have to follow the law and and so I think like that's kind of the problem and Um it's there's no easy solution. I wish like if we could all sit in a room and we could come up with it because there's so much that goes into it, but like 10 years ago discipline would have come up, right? So this isn't like a a now problem. We've just seen it kind of like get worse and there's so many factors that go into it and that's one of the things that like teachers would like to see or be at a table to come up with like real solutions. speaking as a uh higher student. Um
034you know I would say that you know the teachers that that engage me the most that fun and fascinating were the were the classes that I I actually look forward to going to teachers that made me well sit there and write notes all day I yeah I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. Um, but I mean, you know, so I that's food for thought, I guess. But, um, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. And that's that's one of the things where you say like we heard from kindergarten teachers who were doing playtime that they were told you can't do playtime even though the state required play time. I'm like, well, we're going to do playtime is reading. And they're like, well, that's not because Otto decided we need every second to be learning. Like,
035so if they come and do a walkthrough and they're like, what were you doing? Something fun. What part of the curriculum is that? Because you're not following the curriculum. Well, you're not following the curriculum. That's going to be a problem. Oh, I guess we'll be doing walkthroughs. Some teachers who are brand new teachers, you think they're going to go off the curriculum when somebody comes in every second and they're checking them. So, you know, when you were in school, I'm sure you're a teacher who was trusted and said, "Hey, these kids need a break right now and I'm going to give them a break." But there wasn't someone who was coming to check and say, "It's 10:25 and you were supposed to be doing literacy and I see that you're not." So, like, how come
036you're not doing it right now? And that's like kind of like when teachers say, "Trust me." Well, you these kids needed a five minute break. If I give a kid a five minute break or a 10-minute break, I can guarantee you that those kids are going to be more focused during whatever lesson that you're talking about, then this the what you have us doing right now, which is go go go go. Right. And it's like they just keep taking away, right? Well, we're going to cut recess. When I started in Bristol, they had two recesses. And that then we went down to one recess and then your time at recess is cut because by the time you got to line them up or you got to do this, they're only out there for 15 minutes.
037Then you go inside the the classroom and and and what they'll sell is OTL. We got to be rigorous. And you know, it's like rigorous at your job. And I always say to people, you want you want it to be rigorous. So like at your job, are you on the are you learning or working for all five straight hours? Cuz all my friends have clearly said no. But that's what they're expecting in school and they're not trusting the teacher to say I know when they need a break. I know when something Hey, can I what? Whoa, you can't do something. Was that part of the curriculum cuz where were where were you doing some adding something that was going to be interesting and fascinating because that doesn't go with what we're trying to teach. Where
038teachers used to have more that's where autonomy would come and that's more where teachers felt like they're they were trusted. somebody wouldn't walk by and say, "I you can't do that." And I think that's kind of like a lot of times teachers will think it's the gotcha, right? Somebody's waiting to get them to to to find them find when they're not doing what they're supposed to. So, Mr. I appreciate this been a very fascinating discussion. I appreciate it. Yeah. No, I mean it is I do apologize for taking all that time, but um thank you so much. Anybody else? Thank you, Russ. Anyone else in the room have any questions? Um, so I really appreciate that. I feel like I trust my kids teachers. So when they told me my child was I know my
039Mrs. Rutles had Yes. had your son, right? They all stay on task every um I appreciate that. Um, what do you think this? Yeah, I mean I mean Jessica my I never feel Jessica if you want to speak you have to go up to the mic because there's people online so you have to be on the microphone or they can't hear you. This is Jessica Dumat. So I think with the last um administration it really started incrementally um and it really the learning walks kind of started it where you felt like oh the learning walks are for us all to learn. That's what we we used to do as a district. We as teachers would say oh I heard you do this great thing during math I'd love to see you I heard you started
040math workshop I'll come see you and it was just like literally for you to learn from each other. That was great. Then and our coaches were there for us to coach. And I'm not going to get on the coach topic too much, but then they started uh utilizing the coaches in the learning box. And then it was supervisors in the learning box. Then it's your very biggest boss, the superintendent coming with an entourage of people. It was 12 people one time teaching. That's a lot of people watching. And then we started to get the checks. You know what we're going to check off when we come in? This is our look fors. And those look fors got to be more and more and more. And I think that really started with our last group and
041we started to see a lot of supervisory positions pop up. So there were more people to watch. So then you just felt watched and as teachers we want to do our best job. So at first you're like I'm all in. I'm going to do it. I'm gonna you know I'm all into this. But then you like we said we've all been part of PDC curriculum meetings. We've given feedback. We have a feedback form in our documents where we can say this didn't work or this felt wrong. Um and those weren't listened to. And then even conversations where I was like, "Oh, this video or this science experiment." I'm going to tell you how micromanaged it was. I'm going to give you one small example. In kindergarten, the plant the plant and animal unit was always
042like we did in spring because that's the garden season. And so then it got moved somehow. I thought it was a mistake. It got moved to the middle of winter and I thought, well, they just didn't notice. They put force in motion in, you know, the spring and I said, could I move it? And they said, we'll ask. And then they said, no. And so they gave us uh goldfish and they all froze in the classroom. He died. And it's hard to send a kid home with a plant in the middle of winter, too. What are they going to do with? So it I mean it's so small that that change was so I mean it wouldn't have harmed anyone and it would have enriched the experience for the kids if they had it in
043the growing season. They can bring home that plant for Mother's Day and they can all plant it. And then they sent me pictures during the summer. Look how high my bean plant is. Look at my sunflower. It's it's to the point where even the education, the quality of the education and the joy you might have felt in my classroom was changed. Thank you. We still plant a sunflower every spring in my house after a kindergarten tradition started at VPS. Oh, that's so lovely to hear. Um I'm wondering too if the the use of electronics right it's now with testing and everything is there a concern even it's done as fourth grade that there's information so you you stay on the same schedule I said you know neighboring classrooms to not share your math test yeah
044technology is definitely but you know we're um constraints on the teachers because um it's hard to meet you got first you're managing a group of whatever grades you're teaching but now you're managing them on a computer and you know I don't know for me but and I'm sure a lot of teachers they're so good it's hard to catch them they're like flying from this to that they can like I learned everything most of what I've learned about technology from the kids in sixth grade and them telling you so like you know that that definitely plays a factor like That's why I mean it's not some one easy solution you know personally went one to one one to one during COVID and we stayed onetoone and you know like a lot of what we do unfortunately
045and as teachers tell you is you know there's a lot of stressors on the ESPback IEB scores because they're comparative so it's like oh let's compare us to all of everybody at work oh your school how come your school your grade I won't name a specific grade because I don't want to be correct in naming something they probably happen, but you know, and say your school in your grade took this IB or this test and this school over here took it. Well, how come they're so much better than you? Well, here's what we're going to do. We have a plan and without knowing the kids, without talking to the teachers, it's we're just going to come and we're going to do, you know, some walkthroughs and then and you're going to have to do this
046because you must not be implementing what we said that this group scored higher than that group. And it's like doing those comparisons that obviously aren't fair because you don't even know the group of kids. You can't compare one school to another school. You can't even compare one class sometimes to another class. Like I teach four classes. If I give an assessment, it's four different grades, but I'm in there so I could actually tell you exactly why the scores are the way that they are. But when you're just basing it on, well, I looked at the data. And that's the danger. And like one of the biggest things that as teachers are here is when you base things on like data and you're always talking about data and achievement and another reason why we want to
047do an open because I could have came up here and spewed you a whole bunch of data but what is that going to do right because I data could be manipulated right data could be made to look one way and see another way you know I challenge the board because I have heard our OTL say you got to see the student achievement but I talked to high school teachers and they said, "Why don't you go take take a look at students who pass AP classes and take a look at students who are are proficient in a on AP and who are um I think it's what they call proficient on the SAT are proficient on the ASAT. So, if we really were going in the right direction and we were doing everything we're supposed to
048and you're taking a kid in kindergarten, you're saying, "Look at how they're excelling. Oh, look at them in first grade." and then they get to high school and then all of a sudden you go look at those scores and then how come there's such a dip? Because you shouldn't see that dip. You should this program and everything that they're saying and this is where teachers are started to really question it because the high school teachers are coming down to the middle school teachers going like what what is going on? Like what are you doing? And then middle school is like it's not us. What are you doing in ele? And then elementary is like well they're just we're just doing what they were told to do. And like that's kind of like what you know
049we're seeing and you know data is data. Appreciate you touching on that topic because that was going to be kind of along my next question is how do we keep the same um high standards right and also strike a balance. Yeah. I just think in like, you know, like I don't tell, you know, as a as a sixth grade teacher, it's like for me, I wouldn't go to like a high school teacher and say, "Here, hey, here's what you should do." Nor do I think they should be coming and telling me, "Hey, here's what you should do because I'm working in middle school. I understand those sixth graders really well. They understand the topic. They And that's where we're saying trusted teachers, professionals." Another thing when you were asking where the change happened, you know,
050I believe one of the books I read as a kid was A Wrinkle In Time and every kid would be outside bouncing the basketball at the same time. That's kind of like what elementary teachers feel like. They're supposed to all be on the same schedule. So, like if one person's not bouncing that basketball, everybody stops, goes inside, and whoever is not bouncing the basketball the way they're supposed to or mis dribbles it, you better watch out cuz you're going to be talked to. And I think that's not the kind of climate, right, that you I would want like my child in. And it's definitely not the climate that you know is something that you'd say as a teacher like hey that's somewhere where they trust me and they value me as you know as like
051we said before like we're dealing with people some of our teachers have doctorates like six years every single one of them besides the newer ones have masters. Shouldn't we be trusted? That if I'm not bouncing the basketball the way that you want me to bounce the basketball, that there's a reason and that you should trust that reason and not come at me or write me an email or a note or they do a blanket statement. Then the administrator has to figure out who it is. And then the administrator is going to have to come in and talk to you about it and be like, "Well, you know, you weren't doing what everybody else is doing." And we really need to make sure that everybody bounces the basketball the same. And that's kind of like where
052Jessica's coming from. And and we we really see it like in elementary school. It's not really there. This is where my children are. And it's a it's a large school. Classrooms are 20 size. This is her classroom. And some of our smaller elementary teachers don't have as large classroom. So she looks a little Thank you. So does anyone else have any questions in the room? And if you do, please speak into the microphone because we're still getting uh feedback saying that they can't hear people online. Can you hear me? They can hear you. Yeah, I can hear. You're right in the microphone. Perfect. I just want to make sure I'm heard. Yeah, you're heard. Yes. To the chair. Yes. Commissioner Antonio. I'm going to Somebody gets online. Give Mr. Tia something they can hear me.
053I can hear you. Okay. Great. Thank you. Uh thank you for the feedback. It's very important. It's important to hear from all the constituencies district. um appreciate the surveys. I appreciate the work behind trying to get done and the format in which you chose to do it. I could completely understand all the reasons that you were given. Um I also want to say that you know the state does develop a curricular framework and the board of ed one of their main responsibilities is you know um approving curriculum along with a few others that you mentioned. So the board does rely on an office of teaching and learning that that has the professional skill set to develop the curriculum to meet the state standards so that the board can be ensured that our district children. So
054I I I understand that that's got to be a hard task to do. Um and we do need to rely on those professionals still. So hopefully going forward uh there'll be a way where feedback could be shared constructively on both sides have to say you know without OTL here to have their voice either you know it seems a little um you know maybe we'll hear from them as well about the feedback that was given I want everybody to be able to sort of defend their positions but it's great to I'm sure I'm sure I'll see him tomorrow to walk through so Um so anyway so I guess what I'm saying is that both roles are very um they they do have defined characteristics of how they're supposed to know education based on the frameworks that
055are um and I hope there's room for improvement in all areas right because that's what we're always striving for no no you know things we aren't operating perfectly in right so if you have a good feedback it's constructive and constructive things are brought forward and there's a good arena for those things to be addressed. I hope that that's what comes out of this for both and the teachers. Um, I will say I I'm glad you brought up the data because the performance um the way it was presented to us after CO um the CO situation that Bristol statistically at least what we were shown um did did not bear as close as some of our other districts and I think everybody should take credit. um that was not something we've seen to overcome and I
056do think that there's residual challenges from you know maybe learning loss in those years for some kids they're never going to get that time back you know so we'll have to continue to you know make sure that um we fulfill our mission of those students being college ready right so thank you for your feedback I do appreciate it very lightly I want to also just say publicly that um when the surveys were turned into uh the vice chair that I know at least myself had immediately made arrangements to look at them or attempted to make arrangements. So I just want you to know that commissioners did want to look at them. No. Yeah, I am aware. I tried to make arrangements to look at them but um we were told that took them back. Yeah,
057we just got a little nervous because I just didn't, like I said, I didn't want some of the things that I'm saying right right now that came from teachers to go on like Facebook and be posted before like, you know, and not just everybody here at the same time. You know what I mean? Because then it's like someone's going to say like, well, I didn't want my respon and like I know that it's crazy, but some people think like they're going to know my handwriting. They're going to know my handwriting. They're going to know it was me. And like, so when it's coming from me, like I feel like a lot of teachers feel like safer in the voice, right? Um I'm not going to reveal I don't even know who did it, but they
058just feel like it it's coming from me. you know, I'm hopefully trusted by, you know, mostly all of the teachers to deliver the message, but like if it ends up right anywhere or like somebody sees it, some people were just nervous about it, right? I got a lot of like I don't want this to go public. I don't I didn't know that, you know, I it's going to go out there and I name somebody. what if they know it today type thing and that and that's why we really wanted to protect protect the confidentiality of everybody who did it because you know I promised you know every teacher like this will be anonymous and that's why we got so many like if you look at all the previous surveys that are done you won't even
059come clo you probably get not even close to the amount of surveys you have almost 600 or 600 I mean I I would love to count them but usually I get to about 20 and I'm like, you know, is there any other way to like count this? I think you were you were at like 550 and then you got another couple spools that came in. I mean, if I I So, so that's I don't want I don't want to give you a number because then somebody counts it and then they're like, "Oh man, the kids what what's his counting skills?" In that light of question though, I just wanted you to be aware that when that survey was being conducted was commissioners to see efforts were made to try to do so unfortunately you know
060I waited over a week for a response and in that time um taking so I just that to be clear I know you had shared a little bit at the prior meeting um I don't I I actually saw the exact three questions on a uh local social media post before I even knew what they were. So, I can tell you that if the surveys were never allowed to be shown to the commissioners, at least not me, uh I don't know who could have posted those questions on social media. So, actually, I shared the questions with you when I emailed everyone on uh the day that there was another survey that surfaced. So, in an email, you received those questions before anything was posted on Facebook. Well, I don't know that you know Facebook. Oh, maybe
061I may not because you know what? I don't know who's in the room right now who's posting us on Facebook. I think there might be someone here. But anyway, I'm not it's I'm just saying what I'm trying to clarify accepted as commissioners. We've made attempts to try to review the feedback. We weren't some commissioners. speak for myself. You haven't been allowed to see the feed. So, if you're still interested in to take a look at them with you, I feel a need to defend myself right now um because there's some erroneous information. Nobody was withheld access to these documents. No, I had said that he came and collected them. I didn't say I didn't call and I didn't say a single I reached out to every commissioner in the same email and I advised that
062I was in receipt of the surveys. I then said I was going to be working with central office which I immediately did to find space and time for the surveys to be reviewed in the interim. I think it may have even been the same night. A BAPS survey was posted online which raised the antenna of people in this room. At such time, conversations were then shared with concerns about breach of confidentiality and a need to protect the integrity of the survey and those who took the survey potentially so it wouldn't be viewed as it was done under the guise of confidentiality. in the interim still I was working with central office to find space. I had advised um Mr. Reynolds that people had reached out and we wanted to try to move a process forward.
063We had conversations about the way to do that. Once there were concerns deeper concerns about confidentiality um Mr. Reynolds requested the surveys back. I want to make it clear that there was no one commissioner who had access over another commissioner. Information went out with the exception of chair ponds to everybody at the same time. I just want to make sure that there's not an undertone of withholding survey information. That was the feeling I was getting. And if it was misplaced, I apologize. But I want to make it clear that that was not what h what happened. There was in in the spirit of transparency from the very moment that we wanted to have a survey was to create a a space for all people's voices to be heard because feedback was not feeling like it
064was getting to the right places. So we wanted to create that space. I am a very open person. I make sure people have access to information and I respond it in a very timely manner to people. If something is being worked on, then it's being worked on, but there is always a response to people. And if if the response didn't come as quickly as somebody had hoped for, I apologize for that right away. I just wanted to make it clear that nobody was denied access to the information. And the moment that it was requested that the surveys be returned because of concern and breach and confidentiality, I felt it was the right thing obviously to relinquish the surveys back to so I'm sorry you felt that that was targeted towards you. I'm just trying they
065did facts. I'm just trying to say something back. I sent an email. We tried to say couldn't. It was space of time in between when they you gave the custody of the paper surveys to a a board officer and the arrangements were taking some time. I had originally requested if they could be scanned and I understood that they couldn't. So I understood that and then I also received the email back saying you took them back. It's really just stating a bunch of facts that we tried in the interim when there was custody of those surveys with a board leadership but you took them back. So I'm looking forward to whatever type of environment would be agreeable to anyone to be able to take a look at some I'm just asking again for an opportunity if
066I may if I may to the chair wait no one second please I just want to stop you I'm sorry um in the interest of time more things to do I just add one okay one second I'm just going to say that we are going to move past that scenario we understand that they were made available and then BFT decided to address confidentiality. Absolutely. I'm just going to address why too just so everybody understands why there might have been a panic among the teachers. I can't I can't think of when the last time a paper survey was done, but we did do a paper survey that was open-ended. I was not the president. Um, we gave it to the BFT gave it to West Bristol and Green Hills. The board asked to see it. The
067president at the time said, "We're going to show it to you, but we don't want this to get out." The president gave it to the board at the time. And the board made copies, sent it to I don't know who, but teachers showed up at school and all of the surveys were in a room and their administrator at one of the buildings was like, "You're going to go in there and I want to know who said what." And every single one of those surveys, you're going to go through. And let me tell you, I was on the union at the time and I went there and based the teachers after that release and trust was lost in the board of ed, trust was lost in the teachers union, trust was lost in administration, trust was
068lost in, you know, everybody with it. So like when that BAP survey hit public, that's why it was like a panic because if that happened again, I mean it wasn't going to happen like on my my watch if I could. That's why we got the big briefcase and big show of it just to show like we just want to make sure we that something like that wouldn't happen again. Okay. So now um everyone in the room has spoke except for Lori. Uh and we have two people online. So I want to make sure that people get to have their questions asked. Do you have any questions? It was just Yes, they will be available. I mean we'll come up. I mean I would love to to hand the surveys. It's just tr Yeah. I don't
069I don't It's not that I don't trust the board. It's just because of what happened in the past, you know what I mean? It's hard to, you know, you get burned once, it's hard to be like, "Oh, let me So, that would be that would be my question if I made it through the chair." Um, you know, and again, I I appreciate what you're doing. I totally get it. You're trying to respect the the teachers privacy and and best process. I get that. Um, what would be the best um scenario or the best process we could go through? Yeah, I think because at the end of the day, we can't fix it if we don't know what's broken. No, I we definitely want to show them. I think like I think that we should just
070we should have invite me and I'll bring the surveys and Could we reach out to you? Maybe sit in your office, you know? Yeah. Whatever. Whatever works. Cell phones just sit with you, you know, and just check your cell phones at the door. Yeah. Yeah. Can I have one of the scans that the principles are getting? We have the wands. The wands. We have the wand. No. Yeah. Absolutely. Because like I said, there are a lot of teachers like I want people to see. I want people to see sure what was and you know that was the intent of it. So and you might look at it and not and and like one of the things I'm saying too and I've said to a lot of teachers I'm not saying that the five trends that
071we came up with it's it's nine officers and 30 30 some odd stewards. It is you wouldn't see something else. You might see some another trend because you're looking at from a different perspective. And I do want to mention that it was not just teachers who took it. Yes. was mostly teachers but there was administrators, janitors, cafeteria workers, pair of professionals, everyone in the building was provided that secretaries and so I did read through many of them. Um, and I didn't take any pictures. And I have such a tremendous respect for the amount of time people spent really being thoughtful and sharing, you know, the things that are really going well, the things that they could do better if we had more money, which would be great. Um, and then also the things that they
072struggle with. And in each class or in each school, those things really varied. I didn't see um, anybody really bash people. I really respected the fact that you when you handed these out in the classrooms you said don't talk about people and the majority of them I'd say 99% of them don't have a name in them. Yeah. We didn't want to target anybody and I also missed out one part is I had actually also called Superintendent White and said I was going to be doing the survey. Showed her the survey to make sure she was okay with it. Asked if we could have Wednesday meeting time to do it for 20 minutes because we figured we get the most participation if it was during a Wednesday. asked for it to be at the beginning of
073the Wednesday because we thought we'd get the most participation if it was at the beginning of the Wednesday meeting with that um me you know if not all you know mostly every teacher was appreciative a lot of teachers put on what are we doing well just asking us to write our you know one of the trends I didn't see that I saw over and over again and I know that maybe it wasn't probably the focus of it as much as understanding education and how children can be educated better and how teachers could be trusted was the building facilities. A lot of people were like, "We need a better roof or we need more supplies, band-aids, you know, things that are small, but they're not small when you're in the trenches, right?" And so I did
074listen to that and I did appreciate that. But we have two commissioners online, uh, Commissioner Bula and, uh, Commissioner Tagella. Do do either of you have any questions? Hello, this is Jill. Um, I have some questions. Um, but Dante, whatever order you want to go in if you have questions is fine by me. Ladies first. Thank you. Um, I think my question is really focused around they can hear it online. So Jill just said she would like to ask some questions and Dante said ladies first. So I if I can hear the question I can repeat it for people in the room. Okay. Are you able to hear me okay or no? I I can hear you. Joe, you can hear me? Okay. Um my question is really around how can we use this information
075in a really meaningful trusting way. Um, I think it was touched upon earlier the importance of um, really utilizing the feedback when provided in a survey and I would really like to continue conversations and come up with a plan on how we can best use the information to inform the decisions and the work going forward. Um, and you know, I think I I would be remiss if I didn't touch upon just even the dynamic in our conversations tonight. I think it highlights the importance of trust and how we really have to focus on building that trust amongst us as a group and therefore you know then carrying it out to the the partners and the community that we work with because you know just even in our conversation it was clear to me that there's
076a huge lack of trust and I think that's an area that we can focus on and I would really love to bring the focus of the conversations tonight back to the feedback provided in those surveys and how we can utilize it best going how we can best utilize it going forward. I think I'm gonna let Mr. Reynolds recap your question. Sorry. Um basically it was we we gave this survey and where do we go from here? Like how do we let everyone who complete that survey know that we are going to you know work towards real solutions. So you know commissioner G Antonio had said like everybody has different jobs right we're not looking to attack anybody. I didn't name things. That's just because it was in the survey. Um, real conver, you know, real
077solutions mean like you have to have like real open honest conversations, right? And I think the first step is already taken when you gave the survey. The second step is that we're going public right now, right? So now it's out there and now the third is having like those real conversations and involving everybody, right? This isn't just about, you know, teachers or this isn't like about any of us in this room. This is about if we really want to do what's best for students and kids and what's in the school, we need to listen to everybody, right? The students also have a voice, too. And I'm sure if you I talked to students all the time and and a lot of what we're saying, they would back up and they would support. If you have
078kids at home and you ask them and they heard this, they'd be like, "Absolutely. Absolutely what you're saying, you know, was was true." Um, and you know, there's no simple solution. It's not like we could just sit here and be like, "Oh, this is going to be easy. We're just going to solve it. It's going to take a long time." And like part of it is that, you know, we're going to trust. And, you know, the next part of it for me was like going back to the way it used to be in Bristol when I first started where like there was a framework, right? There was a curriculum, but it wasn't like you have to do that. Like you have to do every single person has to do the same thing cuz your kids
079are different in different grade different classrooms in a grade level in the same school. And what happened to like the students in front of you are the most important? Well, you know, but you got to do what we want because if they are the most important and you're listening to the teacher who's in front of them and I'm sure the administrator who's been in that room would back it up too and they're saying something different and you're still saying everybody's got to do the same thing. That's where the teachers are saying there's lack of teacher input, there's lack of teacher autonomy and we're not being trusted like professionals because teachers were saying that. teachers have said that and and it didn't go well for them or they weren't listened to and like that's what we're
080kind of saying like put the trust back into the buildings right have an L that says here's our framework here's the curriculum this is what we feel is best but you as administrators you as teachers you as pair of professionals you as all that staff of the building you know those kids the best so use this framework to do what you think is best for the kids in your building. And that's where I think like if you started to do things like that, if like walkthroughs were more like, hey, you know what we really liked you were doing was this instead of a lot of times it's, you know, to teachers it's just a stressful environment. I it's not stressful for me just because I've been around for so long but for a lot of
081teachers to think like everything they say or do is being looked at and then you know over the time they've seen that like whether you want to say it's being used against them or not and we could go back and forth. We know that like there are times like the they were they were not doing what they were supposed to and they better get on the same page or or they're not going to be working in Bristol kind of be the message they would get. So we have uh Commissioner Carlson is uh here and he doesn't have any comments for Right. Oh now you do. Okay. Okay. Good. He just wants to keep me up here. Everybody, all the officers, first he told me, all the officers are nervous that I'm off script as soon
082as they realize this was going to be a question to answer. I think everybody, if we could do a survey of them right now, open-ended, I I will say I I think it's coming through. We do have to trust the teachers more. Uh curriculum should cover a good part of the day, but not all of it. I have a granddaughter in a school and they're flexible. She has a paraprofessional working in the classroom teaching her Chinese because because my my granddaughter is learning Chinese and she's in kindergarten. Again, take advantage of abilities of the teachers and and and you know, don't don't follow an exact minute-by-minute curriculum and and we do need to trust the teachers. Yeah. And and like I said and and we're not saying just trust only the teachers like we're obviously
083saying you know trust the people who are working with the working with the children and that includes like administrators and parents and the custodians know the kids too like believe me and I think that's that's where we're and I do think that we do pay um you know or engage and do some sort of incentive for teachers to actually help write curriculum at times. Am I correct? Yes. And so I I love that idea that they're trained, they're professionals, and they are giving back uh to the way that things are designed. I don't know how often it happens or if it's if there's, you know, more opportunities for that, but I think it's important to recognize that everyone is playing a part. That's really essential and knowing each kid because that's what we're here for
084as board members. We were elected to make sure that every single student in this district has access to a free and equitable education, high quality. And what that means is we have to trust that the teachers know what that means for each and every kid. We don't know what that means for each and every kid because we don't know every kid, but we know that you do. And we know that the people who are in the classroom with those kids every day have the best ability to design what is best for each and every kid. And I think maybe getting back to those basics is what I'm hearing this survey say is we really need to value that. We still have Commissioner Tagriello online. Do you have any comments or questions? Yeah, I have a
085few comments if I may. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Is that I hear you. Okay. Good. Um well, first I wanted to thank the BFT for taking the time to u come before us um in this public forum and and talk to what I think was a really comprehensive um survey. You know, I noted at the outset of the remarks um there was, you know, comments about fake news and and folks weaponizing social media um with respect to this issue. And I have to say that, you know, it speaks volumes that we have folks who will come to this room and be cross-examined about the information that they're willing to present and stand by. And I I think that, you know, I just wanted to say this that, you know, Facebook sources are not
086real sources and that the real sources are the ones who are willing to um share information and have an actual conversation about how we can move this district forward in the right direction for the kids. And so I really applaud the efforts tonight. I know that not everyone's going to agree with some of the results in the survey. There may be people in BFT who don't agree with some of the results tonight, but I also want to say that if Mike came up to this podium and said all the things that the majority of the union disagreed with, he would have a revolt on his hands. So I think we can trust that, you know, he is saying things that do reflect what his membership is telling him. And I think that that's incredibly important.
087Um, another thing is that we had five um, uh, I think themes or priorities that were mentioned um, on the offset and I think it was mentioned um, by another speaker, but it really seems that these issues are systemic. These issues aren't something that was built in the last year or the last couple of months or even the last couple of years. And I think part of what we heard as well is that, you know, people aren't always willing to do these surveys. I've been on the board for four years and this is the first time that the union has come before us to present us information. I think that's an incredibly powerful statement. I also think the statement that this was probably the biggest bit of participation that they've seen having some uh history
088with doing surveys in the past. Um, I will say this that, you know, to me a lot of this comes down to, uh, district leadership and hearing this. I'm not saying everyone has to agree with with what the conclusions are, but leadership requires visibility and collaboration, and those seem to be two things that we're missing when we hear about lack of teacher input, lack of discipline, um, lack or flaws with the evaluation system. So, those are all things about that would require collaboration and visibility. Um, and I truly appreciate this and you know, um, I know there were some anecdotal things and I appreciated the clarification that we're not or the teachers aren't here to, you know, talk bad about an individual or an administrator or even a group of uh, professional folks. I think
089that what they're looking for and what the results reflect based on what we've been told is that they also want to be respected and be at the table, too. And I think that it's incredibly important for this board to think about as it moves forward. um and as we um select uh new leadership in the district and what they have to reflect on as the needs of our teachers. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner Tagello. Uh in in conclusion, I I want to say that today I I had um my 12:00 agenda review with with the administrators and it's once a month and we go through what will be on the agenda. And when we got to the consent agenda, the question was, "How many teacher resignations do we have this month?" And
090I've been on the board for almost 6 years. And this is the first month on the board that we have zero teacher resignations. And when I look at the data and I see that we have lost 33% of our teachers over the past the last two years of the previous administration. And now we have numbers that are a tenth of that, a fifth of that, I'm not sure, like barely numbers. Um, I I I feel like you're being heard. I feel like you're What I'm seeing is people feeling more able to have those tough conversations, advocate for what they need in their classrooms, and to be heard. I also received uh not through the process of confidentiality, but just outside of that process uh letters of recommendations for the current superintendent from three of the
091unions uh or or statements at least. uh BFT gave a a letter, but then the other two unions gave statements saying uh one of them said that out of all of the superintendents in 26 years or or or not that this is the the one that listens the most and that here's even if it is not an idea that can be put into fluition, it was heard and if it can happen, it happens. And so just being heard I think I mean as students they want to be heard. As parents we want to be heard. As teachers you want to be heard. As administrators you want to be heard. As parent everyone just really wants to understand that they're a part of this big comprehensive system that has the student in the center. And I
092think change is hard. And when we change systems there's resistance. There's people who want to make up stories that aren't true and demonize people who don't deserve to be demons. I don't think you deserve to be a demon, but um I know you've taken your fair share of hits these days and I recognize that and I uh want to applaud you for being brave and for standing up for the people that you have taken. I don't know. Do you take an oath to be the president of the teachers union? Not really sure. Yeah. Yeah. Is it an oath? Well, you took your oath. You are standing in your power and I really appreciate the honesty, uh, the integrity, the ability to come forward today and speak your truth and not fear retaliation because there's no
093retaliation with this board. There's no retaliation with this administration. And you're you're appreciated. Yeah. And I'm just going to end with one quick just to go along with you said, you know, in talking to like teachers and hearing from teachers and I know the BFT officers here could say it. This is it's not um this is the first time as teachers we feel like we have a board that's open to hearing us and it's not just hearing us but just valuing our opinion because there's a lot of times where like oh we hear you and we we want to listen to you but they don't really value what you're saying. They just want to pretend like, oh yeah, we talked to the union, but we were talked to. We were not talked with. And this
094is the first time where I feel like we feel like we have a seat at the table, which is an important seat. And we're not asking to, you know, throw blame anywhere, have, you know, control. We're just asking like we'd like to sit at the table and have our opinions valued. And I thank you for the opportunity because this is the first time in my 27 years that a survey like this has been done and that a board and a superintendent and a deputy superintendent have been open to listening and valuing your opinion and wanting to know and wanting to come up with real solutions. So we Thank you. Anyone else in BFT that has any comments? Okay. Well, then we are going to move to the next item on the agenda, which is to
095vote to convene into executive session for the purpose of uh discussion concerning Brian Burke versus Bristol Board of Education litigation civil case, discussion concerning the appointment and employment contract for a deputy superintendent, and discussion concerning the appointment and employment contract for a superintendent of schools. I know there have been uh some noise that we are going to come back into the session and appoint a superintendent or a deputy superintendent. That is not happening tonight. We are just going in to discuss contracts and we will also be discussing uh number 3A uh the litigation. So I don't want to make people wait around to uh hear us come back and think that we're going to pull a sneak attack on everyone. That would never happen. We are certainly not going to do that tonight. So if
096I could have a motion. Eric is always great for a motion. Motion to move to executive session. I have a question. Second. I have a question. Motion has been made and seconded. Oh, sorry. Is anyone joining us in executive session or is it just us? Uh, I need to invite attorney James Talberg and attorney Tom Mooney into executive session. And is that just for part A to discuss the litigation? It's only for part A. Okay. When we talk about the litigation? Okay. Eric, can you amend the motion to include the invitees and that it's only for part A? Thank you. Yes. Amended. Want to second the amendment? I second the amendment. Okay. made and amended. We're going to do a roll call vote because we have two people online. Uh, Commissioner Anderson, yes. Commissioner Ozen
097Rosenowski. Commissioner Gantonio, yes. Commissioner Dan Gorder, yes. Commissioner Carlson, Commissioner Per Simmons, Commissioner Fitz Bula, yes. And Commissioner Tagriello, yes. And my vote is yes. So unanimously we will move into executive session. If we could have a new link sent to the two board members online so they can join in executive session. Thank you so much. test. Test Test, test, test. there. Hello. What's testing. Can you hear that, Jeff? testing. Okay. Okay, it is 8:20 and we are now back in session. I mean, move back in. Make the motion we move back into regular session. Second. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? I I There's no no votes were taken in executive session. No votes were taken in executive session. Okay. Now, I will need a motion to approve. I move to approve
098settlement of the action entitled Brian Burke versus Bristol Board of Education. uh as recommended by legal council and to authorize the care with any necessary documents. Uh Commissioner Chagriello seconded. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Uh with no other items on the agenda, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.