Board of Education Meeting January 20, 2026

001All right. Good evening. Calling to order the West Harford Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting for Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Um, Imani, can you please call the role? >> Miss Maramman >> here. >> Miss Yagalof >> present. >> Mr. Gagnan >> here. >> Miss Hers is dialing in by phone. >> Yeah, I'm here. >> Great. Thank you, >> Miss Jennifer. >> Mr. Mr. Weiner >> here. >> Miss Ble here. Mr. Goldman >> here. >> Kayla Jaw here. Bridget Fenie >> here. >> Thank you. And Bridget, can you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank

002you, Bridget. All right. Um, we have no revision to the agenda order. Um, so we will begin with public communications. And just, uh, to start off, first of all, happy new year. This is very exciting for the first uh, meeting of 2026. and you get me with a very lovely raspy voice because I've coming off of a cold. So, apologies for that. Um, but leading into public communications, um, this is a time for our the board of education to hear from the public um, all of your thoughts, questions, um, concerns, and suggestions. And, um, when you come to the podium, please give your name and town of residence. Each individual is allowed three minutes to speak. And please note that Ammani um will hold a yellow card when there is one minute remaining in your

003time and a red card when your time has expired. At that time, please conclude your remarks and respectfully take your seat. Um please be aware that we are actively listening while you make your remarks. However, it is a board of education policy that we don't respond to comments as they are being made. Um we will begin with comments on agenda items. And in looking at the signup list, um we don't have any, but I just want to list the agenda items. Um they are for this evening adoption of the um CIP 2026 2027 special education for West Harford public schools semianual restorative practices response report approval of the financial report period ending November 30th 2025 and approval of the minutes from the December 16th 2025 board of ed meeting. Is there anyone who has any

004comments for on agenda items that did not sign up? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to general comments. And we have one sign up here. Um, Britt Kian put on the general comment list. >> Good evening. My name is Brit Gillian. and I am a West Hartford resident and the parent of two Wall Kit students, a kindergartener and a fifth grader who is autistic. I'm speaking tonight both as a special needs parent and on behalf of the special education parent teacher organization, SEPTO. For those unfamiliar, Septto is just 1.5 years into its relaunch and full board transition. We now have five equal board members, over 125 members, and have hosted multiple events to support families across our community. In 2025, our focus was rebuilding, sharing Septto's mission, forming a partnership with people services, and

005hosting events like the Anxious Generation book, a school year kickoff night, miracle league trick-or- treat, and transition night. We also rallied at the state level around budget deficits and helped avoid significant cuts. This year, we've built on that momentum by adding an IEP workshop in partnership with CPAC, hosting coffee and connect events, and holding regular general meetings to share district updates and support families of children with IEPs, 504s, and other health or developmental needs. Septo has also gained a district-wide voice. We now have a seat on the parent teacher council and are working toward a dedicated Septto representative of every school's PTO. None of this would have happened without the early support of Melissa and Kelly during the 2023 20224 transition. They strongly encouraged the continuation of Septto helped us grow membership and connect with

006the right partners in town. Ahead of tonight's special education pre presentation, I want to sincerely thank Melissa and Kelly for their leadership, dedication, and transparency. I also invite the board to connect with SEPTA directly to learn more about our advocacy and our families. Our meetings and events are open to all. There are no dues or requirements and we welcome the entire community. Supporting students with diverse learning needs is complex and deeply important work. It requires collaboration, creativity, and thoughtful balancing of limited resources. As both a parent and a Septto board member, I've seen the challenges and the rewards of inclusive and robust special education. The relationship between SepTo and People Services is built on open communication, mutual respect, and a shared goal of helping every child reach their potential. Our administrators consistently make time to

007engage with families and work through difficult question and that makes a real difference. I hope the board especially its newer newer members will take time to engage with our people services team special education teachers and power professionals observe special education classrooms and programs and continue understanding why Hartford is viewed as a leader in this area while also identifying opportunities for growth and modernization. Septto looks forward to continuing our work with Kelly, Melissa, district administrators, the board of education, and the broader school community together in support of all learners. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any other individuals who would like to make a public comment? All right, moving on. Uh we will turn to non-staff communications and reports when we get an opportunity to hear from our student representatives on all the exciting things

008happening at Hall and Connor. So who would like to kick us off? >> Kayla. >> Okay, I'll start. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. I'm glad to be here again to share some updates from Hall. This week Hall students began midterm exams which will continue through Friday. The school is operating on a 2-hour delayed opening schedule due to the testing which marks the conclusion of first semester courses and the second semester will officially begin on Monday. Last Wednesday, hall principal Mrs. Isaacs held Titan talks during lunch waves. This initiative gave students the opportunity to meet with her and discuss school related concerns, ideas, and give positive feedback which serves as a meaningful way to help commun communication between students and administration. Hall students also represented the school proudly in the community. At the 30

00930th annual West Hartford Martin Luther King Jr. celebration held here at the town hall, hall student Neil Bona shared reflections on Dr. King's legacy. The event also featured speeches and musical performances. Last Sunday, hall students participated in the as school matchwits academic quiz show competition where they competed against Frontier Regional School. Looking ahead, on Wednesday, January 28th, parents of incoming 8th grade families will meet in the auditorium for grade 8 parent night. In addition, next Friday the 30th, Hall will hold a pep rally to promote school spirit. On the athletic side, winter sports are now in full swing. Hall and Connard boys hockey continues it continues its season, while this Thursday, Hall will hold a Hall versus Connor boys basketball game. Hall wrestling also hosted an all-day tournament last Saturday, welcoming teams from across the

010region. In music, auditions are soon to take place for Celisti and Coralier ensembles. Pops and jazz rehearsals have begun, marking a busy and productive period for hall music. Finally, in the performing arts, the theater department recently completed performances of Lord of the Flies, which was very wellreceived and showed strong student dedication. And that is all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kayla Bridget. [snorts] >> Uh, first of all, we'd like first of all, I'd like to wish you a happy new year from Connard and let you know mentors are underway, but that hasn't stopped Connor students busy lives. First up, a reminder that SAT Academy is coming. This academy provides test taking strategies, practice questions, and support to help students feel confident on test day. Students who attended the academy increased their scores by an average

011of 50 points, which is a pretty big deal. So, please be look out on signups for signups after break. Uh, thank you to all the students who had a valuable opportunity to share their feedback and ideas during DEN discussions and we are grateful and excited to keep hearing their thoughtful contributions and engagement. Uh big thank you goes out to Connard School Counseling and the National Honor Society as they hosted Coco and CRAM on Wednesday, January 14th. We'd also like to give special shout outs to Holly Diario, Heather Batti Dit, and Megan Cersimo for hosting. Uh up next for music and arts, Connor's music program will be performing their pops concert on the 27th, and we are excited to see the talent of our different musical groups on stage. Some select groups will also be hosting

012auditions for new members next year, so keep a eye out. Um, a really exciting update from Connard. They're all exciting, but this one we were all very um our Amnesty International event. So, thank you to President and Vice President of Amnesty International, Luke Kauki and Jacob Jackson. As students had the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion about human rights issues and participate in a letterw writing campaign advocating for global justice, students were also given the opportunity to ask thoughtful questions and interact directly with Connecticut's own Senator Blumenthal. We received very positive feedback with from the senator about Connard and to the impressive engagement of our students. Thank you as well to Michelle Pikkin, Kelly Casey, Megan Sashasimo, Jamie Gomez, and to Tim Rearen and the entire security team for their support in this event. Now,

013it's time because Valentine's Day is coming, people. And Connor students are getting ready to feel the love of the school community at our upcoming pep rally. This February 13th, students will cheer on unified basketball, spring sports, and see their friends participate in the Whitney Houston challenge, the pie in the face contest, and to be more general, school spirit. After a fun pep rally, students will then have the opportunity to dance the night away at Connard's Valentine's Day dance the same night. Thank you to student council for organizing, and we look forward to a great party. for winter sports. They're underway and we want to congratulate all the achievements completed by winter athletes so far. Keep up the competitiveness and good teamwork. Some updates for next year's scheduling. Connor and Hall will be having a block

014scheduling panel for students on the 28th, which will be a great opportunity for students and staff to hear from a panel of the people currently participating in block scheduling. We are excited to see the different perspectives and can't wait to ask all of our questions. Uh, make sure to keep a little eye out for the senior class board because we will be having a Chipotle fundraiser on February 2nd. If you want to support, and you should want to support, visit the Chipotle on New Britain Avenue February 2nd from 4 to 8:00 p.m. and place your order. Make sure to tell them that you're supporting the Connor fundraiser so we can get our percentage. And another important update and my final update is that Connard's mock trial team has moved on to the next round and

015we will be competing again this February 6th. We will be rooting for them as well as Hall and we can't wait to see what they achieve. Thank you for listening to Connor's updates. >> Thank you both. You are both such exceptional ambassadors for your schools and you make me want to be a high school student again. So, um, any questions from board members? I just I just want to thank Bridget for noting that both Conrad and Hall represented the West Hartford public schools very well in the Hartford region of the mock trial competition and they advanced to the uh to the state playoff tournament which by the way is no small feat because this was the state's largest field in probably decades this year. So the fact that both Connard and Hall advanced is really

016a testament to how hard our students and teachers work. So thank you for being a part of it. I hope to see you in New Britain on uh Friday the 6. And if I don't, good luck. >> Matoya. >> Yeah. Um and I I want to add to um y'all Yeah. The representation at the MLK event was just beautiful. the the chorus um and the speeches were so profound and I think uh really left all of us really thinking a lot and engaging in some some deep self-reflection and and self-awareness. So, thank you both so much and and thank you to both schools and all of the adults involved in helping to shape our young minds. It was a powerful event. Thank you. Um moving on to unfinished business. Um, so we will be uh

017tonight revisiting the capital improvement plan and I believe Julio Darte and Bob Palmer will be joining us uh for any questions. Um, and I am currently seeking a motion that the board of education adopt the capital improvement plan for the 2026 2027 year. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Jason. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, John. any uh discussion or qu any presentation you'd like to give or >> uh I was just going to say at our last meeting um we introduced the capital improvement plan which outlines funding for school maintenance, construction, equipment and technology and we provided a detailed breakdown of those categories. I again want to thank Bob and Barb for their support in that process. Um, as a reminder, this 12-year plan serves as a roadmap for maintaining, repairing, and modernizing

018our school facilities in a strategic and responsible way while also protecting the investment of our community. Uh, for the fiscal year of 2627, the recommended appropriation is $14,890,000. And we are happy to answer any questions that the board may have before it votes. And just to remind the board, this recommendation, this goes forward um into the town's larger capital improvement plan for ultimate adoption. >> Any questions, Ethan? >> So, the first question was, you said 14 million. The table shows 12. >> I was looking at this one. >> Are you on I think you might be on the wrong page. Go to >> page five of your board book. >> Okay. >> Do you see the top uh top left 2627? >> Okay. I was looking at the wrong page. Yeah, I see. So, if

019we can go back to page two though for a minute. Heating and ventilation system board adopted final number says a million. Yet when I look at the page table two, page three, it's being postponed. >> Yeah, I had mentioned that at the last meeting the um Webster Hill project because of we had to change the design of the HVAC system uh due to the industry changing. So we are postponed. >> I have no problem with that. My question was more board adopted a million the final million but that's not how much we're going to spend. So shouldn't it reflect the zero or is that on page five? >> No, we still end up adopting we we still end up adopting that project. It's just postponed in timing. So the funds still remain in place for

020that project and the capital the funds in a capital project don't don't go away. They remain in place. >> It's postponed for a future year. >> Yes. Well, it'll still happen, but it's postponed for this time. >> So, will the the U debt that's taken on reflect for this year? >> No. Yeah. No, the debt doesn't get Barb probably can answer that better than me. >> Sure. While the town does um adopt the bond ordinance to allow for the town and the board to move forward, um they don't actually issue the debt until they the projects are underway. >> Okay. I just the way I've always seen it is you know the board adapted a million the spending you know there's something that shows the variance or what the spending will be but this it

021looks like because yeah I'm just trying to understand >> so with a lot of the projects that Bob is doing because they're transcending multiple fiscal years we're very frequently um it's a benefit of the CIP program and and the bonding process so the town they adopt the bond bond ordinance in advance of the project being started. And so that allows in the springtime for things to be going out to bid and so on and so forth. So it often straddles multiple fiscal years and is flexible in that way. So even though a project might have to be delayed, there might be another project that's become a priority. So >> I I get all that. It's just I'm used to seeing the numbers where they're going to come in. I don't know if there's another way

022this can be done, but because to me it's >> Yeah, I I think if I understand But it's >> more of a question relating to like financial examiners where you're looking at a budget versus this is a a you know basically a a planned ex you know and these are our plans. This is what we think it's going to cost and to the and the money itself is actually handled. I think all those variances across different accounts are actually in the town's budget and and what you're sort of approving is we're saying, hey, these are the relative projects that we're thinking about the big projects and the relative expected costs. Obviously, you know, a lot of the costs are just rounded. It's a million, but I'm sure it's not a million and change, but just

023just so the town knows how much debt if they were to approve all these they might need to uh incur. >> Yeah. I mean, my assumption is there's going to be times where you're not going to be able to spend as much because of timing like with Webster Hill. There'll be other ones where there's an emergency. >> Yeah. I'm saying that variance is is under the purview of the town versus the board. I guess was what I was offering. >> I guess in my comment is would be good if we could reflect this is what the current estimate is. It may go nowhere, but to me that's just reporting effectively. Well, what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, Bob, the million is the current estimate for what we would need to uh be able

024to progress with the with a project. We >> Yeah. And some projects we end up acrewing for multiple years. So, the uh school HVAC fresh air uh project is a good example of that. We um annually receipt ask from the town $5.54 million. um we anticipate the project is probably going to cost more than that. So we accumulate um a couple years of adopted budget for that in order to in order to execute that project and that project takes several years to execute in itself between the design, the bidding, the obtaining of the equipment and then the final installation. It's it's a three to four year project. So it's it's done over multiple years. >> I understand I have no problem with that conceptually. Okay. It's >> just the way I don't know reported. >>

025And I should mention also, you know, the town uh since they're managing the capital improvement program, they are reporting it in their annual financial report when they go out to bid um when they go out to to for debt. You know, they're reporting an official statement which is talking about the projects. So, they have a lot of um publications on their end because they're the ones overseeing the financials there. just if we're going to vote on it, I don't know. I just wish there was a better way to do it. >> I think that the difference in the distinction is this is our plan. This is our priority. This is what we tell the town we think we need. This is how we'd like to prioritize it, what it would cost you. It's their budget.

026So, I think everything that you're looking for would be on their side of the ledger. >> I would just think we should reflect this is what we expect to spend. Just the finance background I'm used to. So, so I I don't mean to derail this, but if it was something we could think of in the future. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Um, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those oppos Oh, thank you, Jennifer. All those opposed? Any abstensions? All right. The motion passes. Thank you all. All right. Now moving on to um we new business. We have none. So we'll move on to staff communications and reports and we'll start off with the superintendent report. Uh Paul, over to you. >> Thank you very much. And

027uh I will also say officially happy new year. I know we had the opportunity to have audience uh with most of you here at our board workshop but uh first public meeting and regular meeting or actually that was public also our first regular meeting. So welcome back. lot happened over the course of the month. So, uh allow me to u provide you some celebrations. Um some st thunder stolen on that uh Hall High Blackbox Theater production of Lord of the Flies. It was it was truly excellent. And I just want to give a shout out to Katherine Hopkins, the theater director, the entire cast and crew, just great. Um we recently hosted uh this year's spelling bee. It was our 10th anniversary. It was bigger than better than uh than ever. We had a packed

028house. Many students came out to support their peers and their friends. It was 15 rounds, five of which were head-to-head with the Grigos sisters from King Phillip Middle School. Um, it was sixth grader from KP's uh team Ruby, Katherine Grigos, who is the West Hartford champion. And joining Kathleen at the state B on March 8th at the University of St. Joseph will be Bristo sixth grader Violet Long and Cedric Bobcat sixth grader Luis Rother. Um all sixth grade school champions this year which is quite impressive and I think leads to um a real uh future for us at least for the next few years. Um I want to thank all the ELA teachers who came out to support uh the spellers, the middle school teachers for their commitment for this fun tradition. Um, special thanks

029to Tom and Amy who helped support this with the support of uh uh with Webster as well library. So, Scholastic Art Award winners. I want to give congratulations to Connor Junior L. Castillo and senior Katie Miranda for taking home Scholastic Key Awards uh in fashion and photography categories respectively. Scholastic Key Awards are some of the most oldest uh some of the oldest and most esteemed art award program in the country. Um, and a super shout out to Jessica Fus who uh for her guidance and inspiration as their visual arts teacher. Um, another thanks and shout out to Luke and Jacob of the Amnesty International Club. The visit from Senator Blumenthal was great. Uh, but I I needed to say that Luke and Jacob uh were as students were responsible for all the coordination with the

030senator um going through the mayor first and and obtaining that. And so I I was just very impressed um by their by their followthrough, their advocacy. Um it was a great turnout from the entire Amnesty International Club. It was a great set of questions that they asked. Um you also mentioned already MLK day, but um uh Neble and uh and Rowan Thompson from Connor, Neil, Bona from Hall. They were phenomenal. And as you said, Latoya, the music from uh whether it was the Hall Jazz Ensemble, the Connor solo choir, the King Phillip singers just added uh just something indescribable. It was it was so good. Um Wilk Elementary recently celebrated their semianual culture fest with an audience of greater than 400 in attendance. It was so impressive. They had more than 60 families who created

031booths showcasing their heritage, proudly sharing their traditions, their history, aspects of their culture and uh most favoritely for me, the amazing food. Um [laughter] it was just a fantastic night. I I want to give kudos to Scott Dunn, the principal, and Darcy Melor, uh teacher there for their amazing um coordination. Another shout out, uh, National Council of Teachers of Math, uh, President Latrena Knighton, uh, recently joined the Charter Oak staff virtually to present our very own Alexa Freighus, fifth grade teacher at Charter Oak, with the 2025 NCTM linking research to practice Outstanding Publication Award for her submission as a co-author in the article developing the right reason in kindergarten mathematics. write writ uh it's about students at the earliest ages demonstrating their thinking through writing um I just just a huge kudos on being recognized

032at such a high national level uh for her ability to combine research and pedigogy um Alexa well done. Congratulations to Kathy Hardesty and the entire Whiting Lane fourth grade math quest team for their exceptional performance in the stock market competition, earning first and second place among 40 teams statewide. We seem to just uh win that every year and every year I say I'm going to go reach out to these kids and have them manage my portfolio. And I really need to uh to do that one time. Um I shared in uh an email but I wanted to announce publicly uh more than 30 students from Connard Hall and reach attended the youth empowerment conference at central Connecticut this year. Uh while there they engaged in conferences they provided a conference uh roundt conversation um devel

033on developing studentled initiatives. uh they helped support generating new ideas and they built on existing efforts uh at the high school levels. Uh one of many highlights was our own uh students from our future educators diversity who facilitated a session to empower their peers to find their voice and strengthen their sense of agency. So, a huge thank you to the club adviserss, Alex Haravel, Elvra Casillas, uh, Tamishi, I always kill Tamishi's last name. Um, Heterarachi, Heterarachu, >> thank you. And and Ben Norland. Um, phenomenal teachers. I I do actually know each of them and and they're just great. Uh I also want to give a shout out to Bugby that recently celebrated its 75th anniversary having first opened its doors in 1950. We'll be treated uh by Susan Horvath who's here, principal uh at Bugby

034currently um as part of a later presentation, but uh I'll share that Lloyd Bugby was a former principal at Hall High School, second superintendent of the district, and he served uh with a tenure of 25 years. Uh Bugby held a student-led schoolwide assembly that featured student presentations on popular trends um in Bugby history throughout the decades. And we had a special guest uh Gail Ripass Stafford who happens to be principal Horvath's third grade teacher to provide reflections on their history. Um obviously you as a board know and I'll I'll just share for the uh for the sake of public comment. uh uh Webster Hill um elementary recently this this last week had had an outbreak of Nora virus. I'm I'm very happy to report um that we you know we did close school on Friday

035to arrest uh any spread. It's a highly contagious thing. Um and uh the school, not only Webster Hill, but all of our schools, we just uh for the sake of safety and to ensure that that things were were going to be clear for us over the long weekend, did a deep cleaning thanks to uh to Bob Palmer, the entire entire plant services team. And uh no issues um to report this week. Currently, a couple of of uh questions had been recently asked. You know, we just approved the uh the CIP to go forward. Um I've been talking to you guys about the drip program, the district repair and improvement program. It's a new grant from the state of Connecticut. Uh the state just recently uh approved that through bonding. So, uh we expect that we'll

036have uh paperwork in place and be able to apply against that grant uh very soon this year and uh we'll report that out to you through financial examiners. Likewise, we've we've talked a little bit about and you've read about the special education expansion and development seed grant, which is a new grant this year um for special educ expansion of special education programs. Um we have uh re received the amount of our entitlement, but the state is just putting the final touches on the grant application. We expect that to be out. Um and we do already have uh projects that we would apply against that um once the state finalizes that and we can access those funds and again we will provide you with updates um about that through our financial examiners meeting. Um I did

037want to ask you guys you guys asked a question last time um that we were here in the closing moments [snorts] of um of our meeting. You asked about um how schools respond when there's when there's instances of charged language, specifically things that could be characterized as hate speech, racial slurs, or slurs that uh really um are directed toward an element of a person's identity, whether it's their religion, their cultural heritage, um any anything of that nature. Um and as as you know, hate speech has absolutely no place in our schools. um whether it's targeting an individual or a group or whether it's directed to a person or whether it's just simply used uh in someone's very unfortunate casual speech um it simply has no place and when incidents are reported our administrators do follow

038a protocol. Um that includes interviewing the victim, any relevant witnesses, uh the offenders when known. Uh we will always make contact with all families involved. Um we will explore openness to restorative conversations and conduct caregiver followup with families when circumstances certainly circumstances vary often in terms of the intensity of the impact. Um instant regardless of that impact instances of hate speech are considered a serious offense and gen and offenders can generally face suspension um as well as required educational components. Communication always involves families directly involved to include witnesses to the events. And in the instances where a perpetrator is unknown or if the event is very public, there may be class, grade level, or school or even district level communication regarding the behavior and its inongruence with our values. Um, some description of our response

039and the supports available to the larger community. Um, and you may have likely as parents seen some of that communication uh in the past with with those events. Um, the district also has a charge language protocol that we use whenever there are curricular intersections with uh charges language that might occur in literary or historical settings. Um, and you have a number of relevant policies relating to hate speech under policy 1800, our educational equity policy, policy 5320, student dis uh discipline suspension and expulsion that identifies protected classes, as well as connections to our school climate and restorative practices policy, which have recently been uh revised, renewed, and passed and will be discussed a little bit here. So, I share all that tonight uh not to signal any any dramatic um you know issue that that is

040requiring public attention, just really in response to questions that were raised at the last board meeting. Um I did want to share uh to you know we do have a presentation tonight and tonight's presentation um is intended to uh when we passed the new policies new statewide policies on school climate the board specifically asked that we report out on behaviors twice per year. So this is our midyear report. We will have a follow-up report that will occur in the spring uh likely if not the last board meeting of the year then close to the last. Um, and separately from that, we also have we we have a little bit because the new statewide school climate policy does reference restorative practice. We we have a little mentioning of restorative practices that occurs tonight. Uh, but we

041have a longer presentation on our work with restorative practices that's scheduled uh for February. Couple of more. Sorry, this is a longer update. I apologize. But um under the heading of curriculum and professional development, we had a great meeting uh the other day uh and I want to give a shout out to Ann McCernan as well as Greg Priest, our uh chief uh fire chief. Uh we have a new emergency medical technician course, EMT, as opposed to our previous EMR, emergency medical response. Colin H. call on Connard. Yeah, Connor and Hall will both offer uh this newly revised emergency me medical technician course as a early college experience, a Yukon ECE course to prepare students for the National Registry Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians certification. Um the course itself is co-taught by a West Harford

042Fire Department instructor. Um very very exciting. Um AP honor role. Both Connor and Hall have earned distinction in as 2025 AP honor role schools. The AP honor role recognizes schools that have done outstanding work to welcome more students into AP courses and support them on a path towards college success. Um so just great things happening there. Um and then in general uh I did want to mention the SPTO and very glad to to hear a little more about Septo this evening. They have a uh in conjunction with our pupil services department, they're offering a transition night this Wednesday, January the 21st at 7 p.m. at King Phillip Middle School. Uh transition nights an opportunity for parents and caregivers of children transitioning across levels, i.e. kindergarten, moving into kindergarten, moving up from elementary to middle and

043into high school or from high school into post-secary to gain valuable information about transition activities and make connections with their future school teams. We also have our annual welcome to kindergarten informational meeting for parents and guardians of children who will turn five by September 1st, 2026, uh who are eligible for the 2627 kindergarten class. That meeting will be held on Monday, January the 26th at 6:15. Um, don't recall if this was mentioned, but the second annual West Harford Youth Leadership Academy is taking place on January 29th. It's hosted by the West Harford Prevention Partnership. It's a full-day academy offering engaging training and hands-on activities designed to educate and empower students in a variety of areas. Uh, West Harford Public Schools very proud to partner with the prevention partnership in support of this event. And last

044but not least, the Bridge Charity Ball takes place on January the 31st. Um, and hope to see you there. That is my update for this evening pending. Any immediate questions? >> Thank you, Paul. Um, any questions, Latoya? [snorts] >> Um, no, no questions. Mine is a comment. Feel a little nervous about what I'm about to say, but it just has to be said. And um yeah, I just thank you for what you shared about uh hate language and um how the district is handling it. I'm going to take my time. [sighs] I think that like this is beyond the school district's responsibility. Um, I want to say like I want to say here on this public platform that we as a community and we as parents need to really think about the messages that we're

045giving our kids. The rise in anti-semitism, antilack, um, homophobic language in our schools is a direct reflection of what's happening in our society. um anti- like differentlyabled kids, like all of that anti-fat language, all of it is a direct reflection of our society. And our kids are just going and they're repeating it. And so I think the call to action for our community, for our families, is like we need to be having these conversations at home. We need to be talking to our kids about literally being kind. You don't have to have the same political views to honor someone's dignity and humanity. Um and so like while I appreciate what our district is doing, our district needs help. We're raising the kids. We're sending them in the buildings. We're giving them the messages. We're controlling.

046like they have cell phones, but like we're the parents. And so we need to really be mindful about the messages that we're perpetuating in our households because our kids are going into schools. They're the next generation. They're our next leaders, our next elected officials at this table, right? Like we can't be teaching them to hate people. We can't be teaching them division is okay. I'm a black woman in America 400 plus years. I got a lot of reasons to be angry, but I can't perpetuate that in my household. I can't tell my daughter to go to school and be angry be angry as a black person and be mad at everyone. No, that's not the way, right? Like, we got to stand together. This is a big moment for our country. And while we can

047be upset about what's happening at the national level, what's happening worldwide, we got to be thinking about what's happening right here in West Harford, Connecticut, and how we're perpetuating it. What are the intentions behind what we say and what we do? Is it rooted in love? Is it rooted in unity, community, wanting to gain a willingness to understand people? And so I just I want to offer that tonight that the struggle that we're seeing in our schools is not unique to West Harford. It's happening all over the state of Connecticut. All over the country, we're seeing an increase in hate speech. And it's because of adults. It's adults, y'all. We need to check ourselves. And so I hope that resonates with people tonight. Thank you, Paul. >> Thank you, Latoya. John, did >> I I'll

048I'll defer my question. >> Uh Miriam, thank you. Just a comment also that I appreciate Latoya's passion and the concern and I think that we here sitting here to be focused on what we can control as well and that is to ensure that while our students while our district is in charge of student achievement and school climate and other policies that while they're here physically that we ensure their protection um when it comes to hate speech and that we have the policies and we have the education to support and ensure exactly what you're saying that our students and our teachers can be supported um when things arise and that they have education as needed uh which I think is critical that we continue to be up todate um with ed a variety of education um

049to ensure that our students are safe um while while they're here while they're in our purview and that's our charge I I think as a board to ensure that we have policies in place to ensure um that our values are are upheld and that our students are safe and so that ultimately they can be as successful as possible and reach their potential. >> So I think we're kind of landing in the same place. I I would like to think and that I do think that the district has done a lot to advance. I mean, we are very consistent in those policies and I think we need to continue to revisit them, but they are uh holding firm on an alignment with the values we possess as a district and they're being in kind of enforced

050and supported accordingly. Um, but that doesn't prevent things from happening regardless because of outside forces. So, I think it's something we're just going to continue to contend with. But I see a lot of attention being paid in West Harford and feel very uh comforted by that and feel like we're a a model for I hope the rest of the state and the country, but we can always do better. >> Yeah, I was going to say I agree and we're always learning and there's always more work to do unfortunately. Um but uh I appreciate both comments. Thank you. >> I think as our former chair would have said, it's a yes and a both end. Well, thank you, Paul. Um, moving [clears throat] on uh to staff reports and board discussion. I'm uh very excited to

051um welcome up Melissa Cabillo and Miss Mrs. Kelly Browse to report out on special education West Harford Public Schools. And I understand they will be joined by some special guests. >> Absolutely. As they make make their way to the table, I'll um make some quick introductions to the members of my team. You are all very familiar with Melissa Cabalero, who is our executive director of pupil services. Um I don't know if the new board has had the pleasure to meet Miss Kelly Brown. She is our assistant director of pupil services and I know that they have brought some wonderful guests and some excellent advocates um from our post-secondary program. and I will let Melissa and Kelly do the honors uh to introduce them. But uh I'm very thankful for this team and I don't know

052if I could give um sort of a better acknowledgement than the one that they received earlier for the work that they do in the support of our programs and our children and our families. So with that uh as they power up, I'll turn it over to the team. >> Very good. Well, good evening. We're so grateful to have this opportunity to present to you tonight on pupil services. I'm Melissa Cabalero. Um we've not had an opportunity to um meet with the board yet, but I um I'm very pleased to be able to um have this opportunity to address you this evening. I'd like to welcome our newest team members. So nice to see you. We are very fortunate this evening to be joined by my outstanding colleague, Mrs. Kelly Browse. And we have three very

053important guests that are joining us for the presentation today. Would you guys feel comfortable saying your name? >> Maybe I'll start with Quinn. >> Yeah. >> Hi, my name is Quinn. >> Can you say that again? >> Um, hi. My name is Quinn. My >> name is Vi. What's your name? >> My name is Sarah. So, we're very fortunate to have these special guests with us tonight. They're members of our post-secary transition program. And so, in tonight's presentation, Mrs. Browse and I are going to give you an overview, high level overview of the laws and our programming. And because it is a school night, we would just ask um that the beginning part of the presentation until we get to the program that you just hold any questions. We'll have an opportunity for the students

054to share about the post-secary program. And we're once they're done sharing and you have an opportunity to talk to them a little bit, we'll let them go because they have very important work to do tomorrow at school. And um we we can answer any questions that you have up until that point before we continue on with our presentation if that's all right with everybody. But um very pleased to be able to present to you tonight. And so as a matter of course in um West her Oh, is it not presenting? [clears throat] I'm going to keep talking. Um, in West Harvard Pupal Services, you know, we always follow all state and federal mandates. We have our own internal systems of monitoring, but we really are overseen by the Connecticut State Department of Education, Bureau of

055Special Education, and they actually have key indicators that they look at, and they produce an annual report every year um that looks at those key indicators. And West Harford, I'm happy to report that report just came out and we are at the highest level of meets expectations in all of those key areas. I always like to start and ground ourselves in the law that guides this work about the protections that are in place for students with disabilities. And you know, we're very fortunate. I think a lot of people think this has been a long-standing provision of supports for students and individuals with disabilities. But I would say that this is a relatively newer law. It's only 50 years old and it really came to be in 1975. So literally last year was its 50th birthday.

056um when they had the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was first passed. And around that same time, that's when section 504 was passed. And there were some great documentaries like Camp. If you're not familiar with that, I highly recommend you watch that because the people who advocated for rights of students and individuals with disabilities are still living and they are still actively engaged in that advocacy work. And it's really neat to be able to um learn from them. And so, you know, those protections under IDA really came into effect in the 70s and it's been revised a couple of times. But there are three guiding principles under that law that really guide our work. And the first is Childfind. Childfind is our district's responsibility to identify, evaluate, and locate those individuals with suspected disabilities

057so that we can ensure they're receiving those services. It's also to provide them with free and appropriate education. You'll hear people use the term faith and that just means that all students whatever their learning style is that they're guaranteed that same free and appropriate education just like their non-disabled peers. And in this law, it really stipulates that all school districts must ensure that to the maximum extent possible that students with disabilities are educated with their non-disabled peers. And so in West Harford, we engage in that process all the time. But in addition to this law, our state legislature has legislative session happens every summer and key changes can be made at the federal level governing our work or at the state level and our responsibility is always to be monitoring any changes that come up.

058So for example, a couple of years ago um 2023 they changed the age in which students can be educated in the public schools. And so that changed from being on they exited on their 22nd birthday to providing them the full year of which they're 22. So they will stay with us the full year which we are very happy about to keep our students and it gives them the opportunity to be exiting at the same time as a graduation um and then entering the workforce or following their career aspirations at that time um but it really provides more continuity and also this summer um they changed the age for de developmental delay. So it used to be that by a child's sixth birthday we had to make a mandation change but now it's moved to the

059age of eight. So we are just responsive to whatever occurs in the legislative session. So we're always monitoring that and making sure that we as a district are being responsive. And how might somebody be found eligible for special education? So parents and or school team members, if they have a area of concern or question about suspected disability, they can make a referral to the school-based team. Once a referral is made, a planning and placement team meeting is held and that's called a PPT and related service providers, special education teachers, administrators, whoever's deemed relevant for that referral will be included in that meeting. And the purpose of that meeting is to discuss the students data. What questions and concerns do they have? And they might plan at that time a comprehensive evaluation if they believe there

060might be an area of suspected disability. And I've listed some of the disability well all of the disability categories up here for you. So they would design the evaluation to kind of target those areas. When a referral's made it starts a clock for us in the state of Connecticut, it's a 45day clock. So our teams have 45 days from the date of referral to go to PPT, get the signed consent for evaluation, complete those evaluations, and come back to PPT. Um and also if eligible implement that IEP. So, it is um 45 days seems like a short timeline, but um it goes by really fast because we're holding meetings in the interim. Once a PBT does do evaluations, we reconvene again to look at those evaluation reports and determine if a student's eligible under one

061of these categories. I think it's important to note that um something specific to Connecticut is specific learning disabilities dyslexia. Not all states in the United States identify um dyslexia as its own independent category for a disability. And that is um something that's unique to us uh to the state of Connecticut. And once a student is found eligible, if we deem them eligible, then parents do need to sign consent. Um so until they sign consent, we don't do anything. Um so parents have to provide expressed consent that they would like their child to re receive special education services. And if a parent is to sign consent, it's at that time that we would develop an individualized education plan. An individualiz education plan is a legal document that ensures the students needs are being met. It talks

062about their current present levels of performance. It identifies very specific goals and objectives that we'll be addressing. And it talks about very specific things like the services that they might be um receiving such as special education services, related services, the frequency, the location, and who might be delivering those services amongst many other things. It is a living breathing document. So, we're required to meet annually at minimum. That's called an annual review. And every three years we redo that initial evaluation to redetermine um eligibility to make sure students are still eligible. And um but if a parent has a question or concern across any point in the year or the team deems that we might need to revise the IEP in some way, we can call a PPT meeting to revise that IEP at any point

063in time. And we really encourage our teams to do that because students change all of the time. And if we wrote a goal or objective that's ear mastered really early and we want to change the rigor or um modify something, we can do that at any point during the school year. And we do that quite frequently as a practice in our schools. And now that I've had a chance to talk to you about um the laws that govern our work, I'm going to turn it over to Kelly who is going to talk to us a little bit about um the students that we have the privilege to serve and our team members doing the work. Right. Thank you. So, of course, our favorite thing to talk about and why we're all here are our students.

064And so, as you look at the numbers up on the screen, um you know, it's certainly we have a large majority of our our West Hartford population receive services in some capacity um under a under special education. When you're looking, we pulled these numbers in your board report. I think it says January 9th. That can change. Students move out, students move in, students are found eligible. Melissa just talked about the process. So, those numbers do fluctuate. Um, but what we really want you to understand is what those numbers mean and who our children are. So, we're going to talk about programming tonight, but those 195 students here, you know, you can see about um 1650 around there are in in our schools in our West Hartford schools as you walk the halls. They're in our

065prek. They're in our post-secary program. um they're receiving all different s sorts of services whether it's for um a speech impairment or a hearing loss need um or different more wraparound services maybe academics. We you know work closely and we're going to talk about um what those programs look like tonight as well as the people who who service them. But it's really important for you to understand that as a public school district here in Connecticut um we have a responsibility to other students as well. And so part of the decisions we make and where your budget money goes is to these students as well, which which we find very important. Um, so any student that resides in West Hartford but attends a magnet school or a charter school and requires an IEP is a student

066that we are considered their nexus for. So we have an administrator and a case manager who monitor their programming, work with the school team of the magnet school and the family and and follow our same protocols, our same timelines and and use um you know those conversations look very similar when we're at PPT and those students um are part of this number. Additionally, we'll talk more a little bit later, but we do have students as we talk about our continuum of services who might need a more um a higher level of care and a higher level of service that might not be provided in our in district programming. Um so we do have students who access what's called ABSEPS. Those are approved private special education programs. Those are schools around the state and some out

067of state that are approved by Connecticut because of the services and the qualities that they provide. and we partner with families to determine a right fit if that's the need. And then um we have a department supervisor, Lauren Dell, and she directly oversees each of those student cases and their their programs. We visit collectively, Melissa, Laura, and myself often will bring a BCBA or another staff um to really make sure that that student who's ours is getting everything that they can even though they're not in our walls. Um, and the last thing that I want to make sure you understand is also within West Hartford, the geographic region, if there's a private school that resides in West Hartford, if a student that attends that private school and it qualifies um for a nonprofit status, if

068they require some level of service, so they won't receive an IEP, but they'll receive an ISP, an individualized service plan. Um, and so we have a department supervisor, Miss Piscatello, who supports the postsecary and sty program. She also supports our private schools. So, it's important for you to understand our legal obligation to students who may not be within our West Hartford public schools that you visit, um, but are part of of the students that we care about and we oversee and we make sure that they're getting the very best. Um, as described, our our obligation begins at age three. So, we have students in the community, children in the community who come um and they might just come for testing, they might come to one of our programs. um and then all the way through,

069you know, that 22nd year of of age. Um so it's a it's a wide range of students and we are thrilled and every single one of them deserves nothing but our best and they all come with their own unique profile and unique exceptionalities in the best ways that we get to to support them. Um so as we talk about our leadership team, you may remember that a couple years ago we had a bit of a restructure. So of course Melissa is our executive director. She has shephered us through um the changes that we've seen the past couple years and she continues to impress us all. And um as the introduction of my position a couple years ago, the assistant director came into be. Um I think as we've gone through our couple years together, the

070thing that is everybody agrees on is nobody can believe how Melissa did it with on her own. So she she's exceptional. Um and we're so grateful for her leadership. But with the change um and the addition of my role to really support all of the responsibilities of the executive director um for district oversight, we've also introduced a level of administration at every school. And there's great intention behind that and um it was a very creative effort to make sure that it was not at a major cost to the district. As you'll remember, elementary schools had principles and curriculum specialists um as their leadership team, which was really a one administrator team. So and then we also had department supervisors. We had six department supervisor maybe seven department supervisors and their responsibility was to go to

071every school in the district. So they might have had five or six schools just for themselves that they visited over the course of the week and supported the pupil service teams of of teachers with making decisions and PPTs all of that. Um so so understandably these exceptional people in the department supervisor role could not necessarily see the student day-to-day support the teams you know throughout the hallways as things were coming up and giving advice and and really overseeing that fidelity of service. So with this shift moving the curriculum specialists who were teacher leaders um changing that into an assistant principal role not only did we increase the leadership that was at the elementary schools we increased the leadership at the secondary schools as well. Uh so the elementary assistant principles have the responsibility of overseeing

072pupil services. So they attend all PPTs. They support their teams directly. Their special education teacher teams have them in the building all the time to ask any questions, talk about what's going on for a student. And in the same way, the students have them all the time. The assistant principles know the kids. They know the families. They know the intricacies of the programming and what's working and what images they're going to like if they get a sticker for as a reward. all the good stuff. Um, and then in the same vein, you know, the the secondary schools, our department supervisors are now dedicated really to a secondary building, which is obviously much larger than an elementary school. So, they join those leadership teams with that pupil services lens. Um, and really what we've seen overall,

073and it's only been, you know, we're in year two of this change, so we're going to be tracking long term because we have aspirations that it's going to help us in many ways as a district, but I think what we've seen is that um, conversations around what happens for kids are about kids, are about, you know, the day-to-day of what is really going to help them grow skills and and grow independence. and and there's just a trust that you can't always get if you're if you're doing your best by going, you know, building to building every day. So, we're really excited about this change. Um, and as I mentioned, you know, we our people service supervisors, we have one dedicated to the early learning center, which is at Whiting Lane and Aken, we'll talk about

074in a minute, the out of districts, um, and all of our programs as well. And then the magic makers um are not us, they're our teachers, right? and they are um making incredible things happen for our students. They are creative. They are dedicated. They are calling at night to tell us about things that they're thinking in reflection that they want to change for a student the next day. They are just so impressive and you know that is what our work is really all about. So as you can see um we really are a constellation of services here in West Harford. We have both direct academic instruction through our special education teachers. We also have services for speech and language um speech and language needs. We have the clinical um consortium of of services. And then

075we have board certified behavior analysts. So those are um BCBAs that visit the schools and work with teams to support student planning and really support independence and oversee some of our adult support staff. Um and then we have all of our related services as well. So students might need gross or fine motor needs. they um you know they're all working on their own skills that are yet to be developed and will be developed and we ensure that we have a wide range of services to support whatever those needs are. I do want to point out a couple uh special positions in the district. You know we have teachers of the deaf and heart of hearing. We are um we love being a destination district for folks that that may be part of the deaf community

076and that's because of the the history here in West Hartford. Um and we have an incredible team that really ensures access for all and inclusion for all um in that in that um community. We have an assisted technology specialist who who is actually a consultant for all of our schools and all of our programs and even out of districts at times. Um so she's she's pretty spectacular. She's all over the place and she's ensuring students have access to any type of technology that's going to promote their learning, promote their ability to share what they can do. Um, so that's a really neat neat thing that we do as well. We have transition coordinators to support our transition legislation that starts at age 14. Um, one primarily dedicated to the high schools who works on vocational

077skills, supporting students with accessing jobs in the community, um, supporting next steps. And then we have one primarily dedicated to post-secary work supporting transition into adulthood um and working with students in a myriad of ways you know whether it's accessing a college campus or um seeking out you know a vocational area of expertise for them. Um and then I really want to highlight that our nurses who are amazing um and certainly every time of year but especially this time of year um they are also part of our people services team. So, it's important for you to understand kind of how our team is comprised and all that our budget touches as well, including a nursing supervisor. So, that's our team. Um, and what those people will probably tell you is the magic makers are our

078adult support staff. um because we know that there are students who may need a higher level of support whether it's with actual direct instruction or support of a behavior plan um or data collection around a student's needs so that we can make good decisions as a team for that child and that comes from our adult support staff. Um, we've been working really hard with our administrators, our pupil service teacher teams, and also our BCBAS on how to provide additional training to really build capacity with these folks because we know they are with our children day in and day out, hour in and hour out. Um, really boots on the ground making sure they get what they need and the fidelity of services. So, um, can't thank this team enough either, the PAR educators. Um, we

079actually student aids. Oh, we got to change that for now. Um, and registered behavior technicians are a different level of certification. They're overseen by the BCBAS. Um, and they can provide additional support primarily around data collection and analysis to really drive good programming that's meaningful for students. Um, we also have sign language facilitators and interpreters, two different levels of communication access based on student needs. And certainly these numbers are really just a reflected reflection of student needs. So, what's important to know about staffing in general is that we intermittently over the course of the year really track our student cohorts and our student needs and their programming and that is a reflection of how we staff the buildings um year in and year out and that may change over the course of the year as

080well. So, um you know there's never a set amount of staff and we just have to make do. It's it's really a reflection of what our students need, the programming that needs to be provided to them. And um we trust our teams to be judicious in their decisions around that because we're always trying to promote the least restrictive environment for our students and the most independence possible long term. Um so just good things to know. All right, so the next piece, um I'll get us started with this and then Melissa will finish us off. We're going to talk about our continuum of services. Now, this is the fun stuff, right? this is what we actually are doing for our kids right here in West Hartford. And it's just so impressive when you you really see

081um at the table with the kids what's happening for our children. So all schools across the district, you know, have different models of delivering academic instruction for for students who have IEPs. So that's a specialized um type of instruction based on a need. And that could be the resource model. That's where students might get pulled out of class. It could also look like a pushin. So sometimes when students and and perhaps at the younger ages when they're trying to generalize a skill or also work on pure interaction at the same time or um you know for a variety of reasons that pushin model might might make sense. We have a co-taught model where you might see a general education classroom with a special education teacher as a team teacher. So that expectation is that there's

082really two teachers in the class and they're responsible for all the children in the room and the content. And um but that special education teacher is keeping that lens on what a child might need in a specialized instruction model so that they can access the general ed classroom. Um and then we also have consultation model. So some students may not need that direct and explicit instruction, but their general ed teacher is going to benefit from consulting with their case manager to understand how to modify a text or what accommodations are going to be appropriate. Um, so again, as you're hearing us talk, the least restrictive model is our goal, but we know that students need all sorts of things and at all different times of their life, too. We, you know, there's never one um

083program that's just going to be it for a child because they're humans and they grow and they're amazing. Um, so we change with them and so we have all of these options available to our students. So talking about some of our more intensive programs, we have a continuum of services that go from, like I said, least restrictive to more intensive. Um, and then we we'll talk about out of districts as well, which are, you know, more restrictive in nature because they don't have access to the general education population. So starting with our youngest learners, we have pre-k rooms across many schools, but our early learning centers at Whiting Lane and Aken are NYAK accredited programs where there's an integrated approach to providing intensive services alongside general education peers and it's just a beautiful um young

084learning program for ages three and four um with a dedicated supervisor as I talked about and and it does have the continuum of services that you saw whether it's related services like OT and PT or um anything that's needed can be provided there. As students metriculate up to our kindergarten, we have uh created really I will say hubs of support knowing that we have 11 elementary schools. We've dedicated certain schools to have more inclusive programs that can provide more um more intensive services where the the case manager, that pupil services teacher might have a smaller case load because their students have more um higher levels of need or hours of support or services that they might need. So those intensive academic programs service our students. We actually have 13 elementary intensive academic programs right now

085across five schools. Um, and they range, you know, because every child's different, but they they receive, you know, throughout the day ABA therapy services, um, you know, integrated into their approach. They might have discrete trial instruction. um you know it's a range of things and they can have co-treats which is when you know a speech pathologist might come in with a social worker or a psychologist and do a session together so that um the services are are being addressed together for a child to really generalize and and again get back to that goal of independence. Um, so we meet students where they are. Again, no program is just what the child is going to receive until they graduate. Every year, and oftentimes far more frequently than that, teams are coming together around the table to

086talk about how the child's doing, what the team can do in response and proactively. And and certainly there are students who we see move from an intensive program to a resource model. Um, and and vice versa as well. So, we're always kind of trying to figure out what's best for children. um with that intensive academic program that we have, it does go up through the middle school. So, all three middle schools have intensive academic rooms that provide similar services. Again, the goal is to ensure students are getting high levels of care and service delivery while still accessing general ed courses and peers as much as possible and as much as appropriate. Um, and that can be a reverse model. It can be, you know, students pushing or support pushing in with a student. Um but

087really it's constantly trying to keep the doors open for students and never closing any potential pathways down the road because we know um in all veins of our conversation we don't close doors and we create opportunities. So you know that's a goal certainly in pupil services as well and then Connor and High also has further um you know carries on the intensive academic services throughout and builds in vocational work as well. And then on the other side of things, sometimes it's not the academics that that cause challenge for students. It's that regulation and their social emotional learning and their reciprocity with peers. So when students are really showing us through their behaviors that they're having some lagging skills in those areas, we have learning centers at two of our elementary schools for an intensive behavior

088program. Um, and really it follows the same model. The goal is to provide a smaller environment where students can access that as needed to learn how to, you know, access their regulation strategies and the things that might not come as as naturally when they're feeling uncomfortable or disregulated in the larger classroom, get their curriculum without so that if they have to leave a general ed classroom because they're, let's say, overwhelmed, that doesn't mean they have to miss all of that instruction either. So that's a key core and core component to this is that we don't want a lagging skill in their you know emotional development to get in the way of their academic growth. So these programs um work very collaboratively just like I described in the intensive academic programs. they have a high um

089I would say I wouldn't say higher level because certainly there's a need in the intensive academic but they work very closely with the clinicians so that often they're you know they're having the clinicians more frequently in their classrooms providing maybe daily morning meetings where they're working on a specific skill over the course of the week um recently I was visiting one of the classrooms at Mory and the students were actually reflecting on their days and and talking about how they felt and they were creating kind of this beautiful like pixelated picture of the month of January based on how they were feeling and having those open conversations. And I think, you know, there's so many things we can do as parents for our kids, but also normalizing that being human means having different emotions is

090one that we should also be normalizing for our kids because sometimes it can be very tricky when you feel stigmatized for just having a natural response. So, you know, that's something that gets worked on in our in our learning centers. Um, those programs carry through at our two larger middle schools, Sedwick and KP. And then you'll hear in a minute about our um focused program Strive at the at the high school. Um and that's where Miss Piscatello oversees it. It's a smaller environment for students who you know we've really heard from our students who have accessed the STI Strive program after being in a main campus just how much more confident they felt in accessing their instruction and their their learning. It's a fully um credit bearing program. you know, it's about it's less than

09140 students at Strive. So, it is off-site and it just provides those wraparound services where students can access access their core instruction. If they have the um if it works for them to go back to to a main campus and access uh courses there, the teams can work together to provide that provide access to their afterchool activities. Um so, it's a fantastic program that really carries through the level of support. Um and again, it's all about that continuum. what is more restrictive but more appropriate for a student. And when we say more restrictive, we just mean not in the general education environment as much. Um because that's certainly the goal and we're always looking for opportunities to grow that for our children. You heard enough of me. [laughter] You did a great job. And uh

092going on with our programs, there's more. Um we have a school engagement program that was started um a little under 10 years ago. It was originally a program started offsite in response to student engagement trends. So this was precoid where we really noticed that there were students who were struggling to get into the high schools and they might be because of anxiety, feelings of overwhelm and we were really trying to respond to what the current need was. And the good news story there was that the school engagement program was highly effective, included a clinician, special education teachers and a low studenttoteer ratio, but it was offsite. And what we saw is students were coming to school and we were so happy that we were able to break down that barrier, but we we weren't seeing

093with the Strive program, we see students metriculating back to their home high school, but because it was off-site and they were doing so well, there wasn't really a lot of interest to go back to their home school. And so, um, a couple of years ago, we moved it back to the home school. So, there are two school engagement programs, one at Hall, one at Connard. They both have a full-time clinician and a special education teacher and, um, tutors that work in the room. and it allows for students to enter into very quiet, calm, therapeutic setting and access their school day as appropriate. We try to be very proactive and engage with students who might be showing levels of disengagement so that we can work with them on coping skills and support so that if they're

094starting to show those trends, we might be able to intervene sooner. Um, and it has been very successful and we've seen a lot of our students graduating mostly on time, which is um, a huge change from the trends that we were seeing when the program was offsite. Um and so we were very fortunate this year that we um we've partnered with Effective School Solutions. They're a separate entity and they received their own grant and they called us and said, "We've received this grant and we need a school district to partner with." And they've partnered with us in the past very successfully. And so they essentially gifted us that that grant. And so they're working with us at Bristo and King Phillip Middle School to downstream some of our efforts for school engagement. and we've been

095very pleased with the outcomes that we've seen at those two schools this year. And those schools were picked based on their um chronic absenteeism data. And so we've been so happy with that partnership this year. Um there is a possible potential that their grant might extend partial funding into next year. And so Paul and I have been meeting with them, but we've been um so fortunate to have that and intervene sooner so before kids are getting to high school and provide them with those coping skills, strategies, and confidence so that as they go into the comprehensive high schools, they're feeling supported. Um, in addition to that, we have a fabulous post-secary transition program. And I'm going to talk a little bit about that before we ask our students to share. But our post-secary transition program

096services students ages 18 through 22 all the way through the end of their 22nd year. We have two locations. We have two classrooms located here at Town Hall and others located on the Cogsville campus. And the program is really for students who've um fully um met their high school graduation requirements and need transitiononly skills, working on activities of daily living, vocational support, and independent living skills. Um we're fortunate to say that in addition to fabulous teachers and a transition coordinator, we also have a culinary coordinator who um has a full culinary kitchen and our students bake delicious treats. And we're very fortunate at Town Hall because there's a town hall perks cart that comes on Fridays. So, if you're ever in the mood, please stop by. It is the highlight of everybody's day. And if

097they're running late, I get lots of calls. Um, but they they bake the most delicious treats. And they actually partner with um Nero Cafe who provides the coffee every week, which is just wonderful. But I'm telling you, if you there's certain things that if if you weren't one of the first offices, all the treats are sold out of of certain hot items, but really delicious. And in addition to that, we have our own vocational site that you might have heard of, the Next Chapter Bookstore that was opened in 2021 in response to the need after the COVID pandemic. A lot of our our partners in the community that we rely on heavily for vocational training were practicing um you know, distancing standards. They were allowing less people into the workplace. And so we opened um

098our Next Chapter bookstore and it's been open since then very successfully. And I'm going to let the students tell you a little bit more about that. But we're so happy to have our three students here tonight. And I thought it would be nice if you started by sharing what the post-secary program means to you. You could think about that. Do you want to go first? >> Sure. Just push the button before you talk. Um my name is Vi and for me the postsecondary program um it means a lot of things. I definitely um think that it is a place to grow um with confidence and just develop a lot of skills as well as a community. I think I look forward to coming every day and you know seeing my classmates and working with the

099job coaches and the teachers and going out in the community and definitely become a lot more confident in doing things independently. Sorry. >> Um, this is my second year at post secondary and I think that I improved a lot going through first semester to now just like um I learned how to like take the bus like independently. There's all different one of amazing why this town is amazing is because of these buses um to go around and um and it's been amazing um just like going independently on that. Um I loved um I love um looking at the uh bookstore. It's amazing. Um, it's a great opportunity to do with to talk to uh like customers and be on the register and kind of deal with money. Um, and speaking of money, [clears throat] we

100uh go on a uh community trip and we kind of learn how to like uh do budgeting and uh try to track your money. And um I thought that was very helpful. >> And on Sarah's behalf, um she's asked me to share her answers and I think it sums it up just perfectly. um postsecary means to her that it's her community. It certainly is. >> Maybe you guys could share a little bit about we have great community partners. What are some of the places that you've worked and a little bit about um each of those jobs? >> Um I can start if you want. >> So um I'm a part of I think four different job sites. Um two of them are based in the program. So, as mentioned earlier, um the next chapter bookstore.

101Um probably my favorite. I help with u managing the social media versus used bookstore. If you're not familiar, um so we have students that like I personally come in the store and work and I know that I have classmates that um do things like book sorting at the Cogsole campus and things like that. Um I like interacting with the customers and it's also cool to sort through the books, see like what people donate. It's it's a great community aspect. I'm also involved in the culinary program as Miss Galler mentioned. So on Thursdays I go with a few other students to Cogswwell and we work in the kitchen and we create um things for the coffee cart. We work on following recipes, measuring ingredients, doing the conversions. We package everything. We practice cleaning the kitchen, mopping,

102sweeping, things like that. Um then I'm also involved with um Our Farm has a preschool program where they partner with um a school in Bloomfield and they have different classes come every week to the farm and participate in lessons. I do that one independently. So most job sites I have a job coach but some of them I I go on my own. And then the fourth one that I'm a part of is actually the Wedding Lane ELC. And it's really cool to be a part of that and to see students that will probably be in this program one day when they're, you know, four and five. And I like playing with the kids and just learning a lot from, you know, there's a lot of paras that are they're very helpful and they show me

103a lot of things and having job coaches. We fill out um job reflections every day. So, we're able to get um feedback from job coaches about, you know, what to work on or what we're doing well. I think that's definitely something that I appreciate. >> Um, let's see. Something I learned. Um, >> right. Beth question. >> I think we're talking about your job. >> Oh. Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Um, the job sites. Um, yeah. Um, I've been, uh, looking at, um, Cornerstone. It's a, uh, pool where you kind of like clean the deck and stuff. It's kind of cool. Um I actually um said to um the uh job coordinator um I wanted to be a uh lifeguard when I'm um um soon um hopefully I don't know when. And I was and I said

104to her um I would like to work at Cornerstone. So, I kind of um made that um job um up for uh people part of this program. And um so I think that's pretty cool. [snorts] And then um I w I work at a job site um Collins. It's a uh medical um center where I get to like scan um like medical documents and then um I work at also uh DVS where we do uh like stalking selves and stuff. And then and then we also have a uh cooking class really learn um how to make a meal for yourself. [snorts] There's uh two groups. Um one does the side and then and the other one makes the main meal and then we kind of like decide together what to make. So if you at

105um town hall, you normally go like you take this city bus to Codwell and you kind of figure out your budget and then you go to a big Y to get this stuff and you shop and you try to um and you try to do it in your budget and then you go back and you make the things and then um make the food and then you get to eat the food which is good [laughter] and then um and um and I think every week I think that's very helpful just like learning what kind of meals you can make when you live on your own. >> Thank you. Um on Sarah's behalf, I'd like to share that her vocational sites that she shared um in her writing. Last year she was at Culinary Coffee Cart

106and the Smith Cafeteria. This year she's at Hounded Home the next chapter and she's starting Salt and Lime next week which should be exciting. Uh she but she does say the question was what do you enjoy most about postsecary and her answer was the jobs especially next chapter. Do >> you have anything you want to add? >> Do you want to say anything else? >> No. Okay. Do you have any questions for that? >> Um, I guess I think you guys were planning to share something you thought others should know about the program and I'll start. Sarah, can I share your answer? >> Yeah. >> Sarah shared that they do jobs and are learning to be independent. She wants to drive and take the city bus. Um, I think that, um, one of the, uh,

107great things about this program is that you get to, um, after when you graduate from the program, it um, you kind of get that independently and you get to like live on your own maybe. um that's I wanted to do anyway. It's different for everybody, but um but um I think it's this program has a lot to offer and I'm glad that I'm part of it. >> I think I want everyone to know just how important this program is to all of the students involved. And I think it's it's hard to see that when you're not a student or you're not a teacher, but it really is something that provides so many things from, you know, vocational skills, building independence, forming community. I mean, making friends, having a classroom of people that, you know, we

108all have something in common and then we all have things that are so different that we can learn about from each other. And so, yeah, it just really means a lot and it's really important to so many students. Those are such great reflections. If it's okay with you, I bet the board might have some questions or comments that they'd like to share with you. >> Fellow board members, any questions? John, >> it's really more of a it's really more of a comment of how much I enjoy visiting uh the next chapter with, you know, with my family. I think it's really one of the really, you know, one of one of those special bookstores in town in a town that has a lot of them. And I just want to thank you for it. And

109I also want to say that uh value, you said something that it's hard to see that it's hard to see the value of the program when you're not in it. And that that might be so, but I think you did an incredible job and all the students tonight did a great job of conveying how important the program is both to you, your families, and the entire community. So, I just want to thank you for that. Jason. >> Yeah, I I just really echo that. Um the your timing is really important. I don't know if you know that, but we're about to do go into our budget season and and you are the reason, you know, why we do so much of this and and so you a wonderful reminder as we get into that season.

110Um you all three of you should know just how impressive you are um to come up here to present. Um that we still get nervous. We still think this is a very awkward thing to do. Um, you guys seem like pros. Um, I will uh another shout out to the next chapter is amazing. Lots of holiday shopping. Valentine's Day is coming up. Very important. Uh, check it out if you haven't. It is a true treasure for West Hartford. Um, next time bring the cart. [laughter] >> We will. >> Any other questions? Ethan. So to echo what was said, um my daughter came home from Europe with her her children and that was where she wanted to go was the um the was the next L chapter bookstore because they had books she thought she wanted.

111So So we're happy customers. >> Good. Miriam, >> also to echo everybody's sentiments and to express to you as well how impressive you are and as a parent of a student with multiple disabilities. You give me and I hope many other parents in our community so much hope and optimism and so much to be proud of and just to know that your impact uh you know is not just it's really communitywide. your involvement in the community and what you the examples that you're setting for all of our students and our students going forward who would are moving through the continuum of services. So, I want to thank you very much. >> Yeah. And I'm just going to layer right on top of all of that and say that you guys are just such a huge

112testament to what an amazing program continuum of programming exists in this district. And I know that it's been a destination district uh for years going back. My mother was a special education para educator at Whiting Lane. So, um I know that it it it's just such an investment and such a reward um for everyone involved and you all are exceptional in your ability to come up and represent the program. One question I have is um are there other places looking at this as a model because it seems like it should be everywhere. >> Can I let Vi answer that? I think Vi has some information about that. >> So, I will say that um I've learned through um helping manage the social media that we've had um um other districts um with similar programs come

113into the store. Um, we actually I think Southernington is starting their own sort of bookstore as well. Um, sort of inspired by what we've done. We have um I think students from Middletown have come in and um just seen the store and we have a lot of a lot of teachers that come in from out of district that have heard of us that want to know more and just like yeah get involved. I cannot top vice testimonial but I I wanted to share that Melissa and Dr. Andy Morrow presented at a national conference as well about this model. Um and I take opportunity to say you guys are truly impressive and Sarah I miss seeing you at the coffee cart. >> Well thank you so much for these fabulous students for joining us on a

114school night nonetheless. Um if we could give them a round of applause and we'll let them [applause] head out. Just watch your heads. Just watch your head. Great job. We're so fortunate like to do this job every day and get to work with students like that. We're we're truly the lucky ones. Um continuing Well, let me pause. Were there any questions that you had about the first part of our presentation or do you want me to continue on? And >> Miriam, >> I just had one quick question. Where can you help us understand where do students with 504 plans fall into this? And how does the Department of People Services support students with 504 plans or is that a separate presentation? >> It's um it's actually a separate presentation. um 504 because it's accommodations and

115modifications actually lives jointly between my side of the house and um Amber Kiran and I are both co-coordinators. We do have a dedicated administrator who um does oversee 504 plans and she and I meet regularly to review and support families. Um but as um Brick Killian said about Septo really open doors. we've really seen such a huge welcoming effort from our new SPTO board and so that's also inclusive of 504 families because they're looking for a connection point and so that's actually been a great connection point for them too but good question >> Ethan question um you mentioned private schools American school of the deaf that must have a large number of students doesn't it >> or we only do part of it >> so the American school for the deaf is actually considered one

116of those ABSPS approved special education schools that um Kelly was mentioning earlier. Private schools, the not for-profit schools are like private parochial schools. Um Northwest Catholic um Solomon and Shector, those schools are a little bit different. If we if a PPT was to place a student at the American School for the Deaf, the district would be funding that placement because a PPT made it. Separate and different are private schools. So, those are the schools that Kelly was talking about in the geographic area of West Hartford. The students may or may not be West Harford residents. Um, might be a Cheshure resident, a Bloomfield resident that chooses to attend those schools. West Hartford assumes the responsibility for child find and a proportionate share fund of our IDA grant goes to that. That calculation is made annually

117and we meet with those schools for meaningful consultation. those families talk about how that grant's going to be written, what the annual allocation might potentially be, and what it will be used for the following year. >> Um, I have two quick questions. One is related to the private um school enrolled students, does that get any beyond IDEIDA funding, does it get factored in in any way with the excess um cost special education funding? Well, there's kind of that goes back to those two ABSP versus private because the private is proportionate shares so it would never hit the threshold. >> Um, good point. >> Yeah. But the apps, the private schools that we place students at, they may, you know, contribute to that excess cost sharing because that's four and a half times the amount of

118a, right? So that might meet that threshold and then we can count it. So any additional resources you need to put towards the private school enrolled students has to come out of the IDA grant because I imagine it's time of your staff. Okay. >> It's capped at a proportionate share amount that comes out of the grant. >> Okay. Um and then related to the outplacement um students I know that that number has decreased since >> significantly and um which is awesome because I I think for those you know in the last couple years we've heard efforts being made to show that West Hartford is able to provide the the fair and adequate education for many students here in the district and so therefore students reenter re-entering or not ever leaving the district for outplacement. So,

119it sounds like those those uh efforts are working and that is a significant uh impact when it comes to budgeting because I know that what do you have a sense of the average cost per student for out placement because >> not not off the top of my head but >> but I know it's significant. So, I think by >> um addressing that and it's it's really a messaging issue of communicating out how well the district can serve students here right within West Harford public schools. So, uh, kudos to that number coming down. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> All right. Well, I'm going to That's a perfect segue right into our students on the continuum. So, as Kelly mentioned, when students do need something beyond what we could provide in the public schools, we leverage our

120partnerships with EPS. And so, those are our approved special education schools that are are in the state or sometimes out of the state. Um, and those are PPT driven decisions based on a student's need. And when we determine that, you know, um, for whatever reason, the student might need a higher level of care. And, um, we oversee and monitor, and I think that's really important to Shannon's point, we have a dedicated full-time administrator, [clears throat] Lauren Dell, um, who oversees our out of district placements. And we feel very strongly that those students are still our students. And so, as Kelly was mentioning earlier, we visit them regularly. We are connected with their families. Lauren does a lot of outreach and support. We want the students to know that while they might attend another school that

121they are part, you know, part of our school system, they are part of our community. Many of the students who um might require day programs that are attending somewhere else actually still attend all of our um extracurricular activities. They might participate on our sports teams. Um they might participate in our unified theater um and unified organizations. And we're so happy to have that continued engagement because our goal, if appropriate, is always to return them back to our school district. And so we're always working with our our teams to make sure that they're receiving the maximum benefit if they're anywhere else. You know, as we look at our administrative structure, we have a lot of administrative oversight of our teams, of our school programs, and we don't expect anything less of students who are placed along

122the continuum. And so, um, as Shannon mentioned, there's been great, uh, great efforts to make sure that students who might, um, need more that we're monitoring them and when they're ready to return that we're putting together very individualized plans to bring them back successfully. And I was looking back over some data before this meeting and back in 2024, I think um, we had brought back 38 students and since then, I think it's been almost 60 that we've brought back to district very successfully. And that looks different for every student. It might start off as bifurcated programming where students might attend just a period of the day at their comprehensive high school or one day a week on Wednesdays for the shortened day at the elementary level, whatever works for that student. Some students return to

123one of our more intensivized programs and some students are returning to our general millu and might just have a resource model or some academic support classes. It's all very student specific. But what we've really established with our ABSET partners is that it is our goal that these are our students that we will be very involved in their education. Um and that when we do bring them back, we want their partnership ensuring that that's successful. And so we've really seen some really creative ideas, whether it's video modeling, um school teams who've loved our students so much, they keep in touch by having virtual chats or sometimes they've even sent their clinicians to our schools to make sure the student is successful in that transition. So, it's looked a lot of different ways. Um, but really it's

124individualized for the student. Last year at this time, we had over 140 students outplaced. This year it would have been 120, but we had some moveins over the holiday break. So, it's 124 as the date that we pulled the data. And so, as Kelly was mentioning, those numbers do change all the time um based on famil family's current registration enrollment. And so, um, we were just planning some more site visits to get out and meet those new students that we don't yet know so that we can, um, develop relationships with those families and get to know them better and see how we can best support them. Um, but it has been an ongoing effort to make sure that students who, um, we're we're looking to program for um, that we're placing them in the least

125restrictive environment. And we know that students have really strong outcomes when they're with their non-disabled peers. But there are times that students might need a full special education program, but we like to just monitor that to make sure that the outcomes are still um rigorous and that the program is still high quality. And then I'd be be remiss if I didn't mention the importance of partnerships with our parents. We are so lucky to have such great relationships with families. They know their children best and we value their insights, perspectives, and they truly are a part of our team. Um, and I hope they always feel that way. We've been so lucky with Britt and the new leadership team really expanding Septo's offering, making it very inclusive um, community, different ways to engage, different levels. There's

126structured formats, there's more social formats, and then, you know, we'll have our um, annual transition meetings. So, we have some key things that happen across the year, but really some nice opportunities for families to engage in the community and join without having to worry about paying a fee or a membership. um they can just attend whatever they feel comfortable with or have the opportunity to um go to. Kelly and I host parent workshops across the year. Um every year it's different. Um every spring we host transition activities that really talk about um different things that parents should be aware of as their students become teens and young adults. That might include conservatorship um services and agencies beyond public education, what that looks like. We're seeing some long wait lists for our agencies like Department of

127Developmental Services and the autism waiver. Right now, the autism waiver is over 10 years long. So, we're really trying to encourage elementary families who think their child might be eligible to apply now so that by the time their child is of age, even if they um get the call and they say we don't need it just yet, at least they're in the queue because if they don't apply until they're 22, we have students who might not be eligible for services until they're 32. So, we're really trying to be proactive with our um communication with parents around what's available to them. We also put out quarterly parent newsletters to inform them of events that are happening in the district and community because we do partner with other area districts um that have events or speakers that

128will be coming in. So, we like to cross-promote. We partner um with a number of area groups. Um we do a coffee with director series which can include special guests or special topics. We have one coming up on dyslexia in a couple of weeks. So, we really try to monitor what would be of importance to families to talk about. And then, um, always, as I said, community offerings within other towns, but um, you know, really a plug to Septto for their great partnership. We're looking forward to our event tomorrow night to really support families who are looking at transition between levels. And we really encourage families who might not have a fifth grader rising to middle school next year, but those fourth graders to to those parents to come too so that they can hear

129more about what that transition activity will be that things that happen behind the scenes and what they can expect just to kind of reduce some of the stress and anxiety. um our kids get stressed enough about change and you know as parents that's hard for us too and so we like to provide as much information upfront so that parents are feeling um confident with the information that they have and knowledgeable when they go into the year that they're planning their transition. So um we're looking forward to that event and we're so grateful for our parents and their partnerships for their children. And with that concludes our formal presentation and Kelly and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have for us. >> Any questions John? Yes. Well, thank you for your presentation

130tonight and I had a question about the intensive behavior program and how it relates to some of the discipline practices and policies generally and what what's the interse what's the intersection between the two in terms of when a a child might be placed into the uh behavior program after some incidents at the school and where how how do how do those programs talk to each other? >> It's a really good question and so we actually like to think about it in reverse. We like to say, what does a student need and how can we be responsive to that need? And so a student might be displaying to us and communicating through their behaviors and challenges that they might need something smaller, less stimulus, more therapeutic. Um they might need more direct instruction or in the-

131moment coping skills teaching. And that process can happen over time. So we like to always intervene slowly. So if we're see a student might be struggling to um manage their feelings and emotions, we might put supports in place such as a behavior intervention plan. We might conduct assessments to better understand what in the environment might be um resulting in some of those behaviors to see if there's environmental changes we can make for that student, whether it's providing them regular reinforcement, breaks. Um sometimes those things are very effective in helping students really regulate their feelings and emotions and commu communicate with us in different ways about their wants and needs. And then it would be um you know looking to see how responsive that is. But if they still need that more intensivized smaller um environment

132to really um be successful then we move along that is a PPT placement. We do um have a lot of safeguards in place because again our our responsibility is to the least restrictive environment. So, if a student's already eligible for special education and we're making that recommendation, there's a process by which we have um the team consult with a home school first, so a BCBA and or special education teacher from one of our programs. And this is true for intensive academic as well because our goal is always to keep children in their home school. A change to a new school is is very traumatic for a student. Um and so we're very thoughtful about that process. And so what might happen first is there's a consultation and that team that works in the behavior program

133will come to the homeschool, talk about the student, meet with the parents, meet with the school team, observe the student, and maybe make recommendations to the team like, have you tried these things? Here's a way to tighten up your behavior plan. Let's look at changing these items in the um environment. And that might really provide for success for students. And we actually have seen students successfully stay in their homeschool. Um, but if students need more, then the PPT would make that recommendation to explore that behavior program and then potentially place in the program. But relative to actually actual discipline as it relates, there's actually not a correlation. So discipline wouldn't necessarily be an indicator that a student needs um a more intensive behavior program. It might be that they have a disciplinary consequence for uh

134an a mistake that they've made and they might be learning from. And so that might be separate and different. Um, and so while a student might display behaviors, they're not always outward- facing behaviors, they could be more internal behaviors. It could be coping skills behaviors. And so we really try to look at behaviors as a communication to us so that we better understand as the adults how we can be responsive. >> Oh, thank you. And uh just one follow-up question. And if let's say a student is at Duffy school and they're third they're third grader Duffy school and all the pro all the steps are made and ultimately the decisions made to put them into a behavioral program and they go to say Mley um if they go to Morley if let's say now the

135students start started in third grade at Duffy's get some time passed now we're getting to fourth grade are they going into a regular fourth grade class at MLY with additional supports or is it or is it an entirely self-contained program? >> So that's a great question. what what's that student being told? >> Yeah. So, the student might start depending again, every student's different. So, the stu there are students who might require a period of being self-contained in a smaller therapeutic environment before they're metriculating out with their peers or they might be starting in the program with times that that we already know that they're successful. Like if they have a preferred subject area or special, they might be still engaging with their peers. They are always assigned a general home room classroom. They are always

136still members of a class in the fourth grade. they have a CL fourth grade teacher um and they have the learning center as a separate um additional resource to them. Many of our students spend most of their time in the general education setting and some time in the smaller learning center. And what we see is over time as they develop coping skills, they will spend more time with their general education peers and less time in the learning center. But of course, you know, growth is not a straight trajectory. There are bumps along the way. And so that's why the learning center is there because they could always come back, reset, remember what their coping strategies are, receive a little bit of extra support and encouragement before they're reintegrating again with their peers. And in that

137case, if a student's very successful, because that's happened, too. A student moves into a program with the right supports and coaching does very well, they might metriculate into the resource program at Morley. So they might stay as a MLY student even though Duffy's their homeschool. They might be exiting from the behavior program and just be metriculated as a regular fourth grade student who might receive some resource support or a touch point with one of the special education teachers. And that gives us a barometer of of you know um how is the student doing with the support present in the building but maybe they're not part of the program. And it gives us that continuum that we were talking about. We have a continuum in but we have a continuum out too. And since that student's

138already moved, we might keep them there all the way through their elementary years and talk to them about, you know, your your home middle school is Cedric, but if you develop positive peer relationships, maybe there's a consideration of you moving on with your peers that might be tracking to King Phillip, for example. So, we really try to make this the decisions very individualized based on the student. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Miriam, >> thank you for your report and all of the hard work and care that you provide to open opportunities for all of our students. Um my question is um looking at so all the care and all the support to follow students who whether they're outplaced or in a private school and that responsibility to manage the IEP falls within Department

139of People Services are students who are coming so the reverse so students who are coming from outside of West Hartford through whatever programs and if they happen to have IEPs Does that responsibility also fall under our department of people services and are those numbers counted in these totals? >> So are you talking about like students who move into district who have um who might be outplaced? >> I was think I was thinking more like like open choice students or you know because we're we're looking at like magnet and other things going out. So, I was just curious like students who are coming in >> who they have um or you know, >> sorry if they have needs or they're identified once they're already part of our programs, who manages that process and >> is that

140are those numbers sorry are those numbers part of our totals collectively? >> Thank you for clarifying. Yes, they are. So, we consider open choice students our students. um they might have that identification and it's important for us to know that so that you know we could track transportation which might work a little bit differently but for all intents and purposes they are our students and so um they function just like any other student would in our building and our administrators and school teams um have full oversight of their IEPs. We do invite Hartford to those meetings because they do like to be included and they will um participate whenever they're available. But um they are we believe they're our students and we take the responsibility for their education and development of their plans just as

141seriously as residents. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Well, Kelly, anything? >> I was going to say thank you. >> Yeah. Well, thank you both. Um you are very it is so obvious in the way that you speak and the um thoughtfulness with which you just plan and execute everything through the program that you love what you do and it is then reflected in the students that you support. So thank you for everything that you do every day. So thank you. >> Excellent job. [clears throat] Now moving on to our semianual restorative practices response report and we will be joined by Julio Dwarte, Terresa Wrangle and Susan Horvath. >> Excellent. Um, and I'll just uh make brief comments while uh they prepare themselves and get settled. Um, and my my gratitude for

142Susan Horvath. She is our principal at Bugby Elementary School um for for her presence tonight and uh reflections on how some of this work kind of manifests within within the school setting. Um I did want to remind you that uh with the passage of uh two new policies that were mandated by the state department of education but actually aligned very nicely to to our approach and our work here in the district. um you as a board had asked for uh a semiannual report really report twice annually on um how we're doing with um challenging behavior. That was that was really the new buzzword. Uh the state's kind of really broadened the understanding of what bullying is and introduced this new term of challenging behavior. But this is an opportunity to kind of look at where

143we are halfway through the year and to give a glimpse at our approaches with restorative practice work. But as I mentioned, we do have a fuller report that we plan to provide for you um in February and early February uh I believe on the 3rd. Um I know they don't have a PowerPoint, but uh at some point during the meeting they will be referencing uh the onepage handout that was left and there were copies um in addition left uh at the table for any members of the public. So with that, I'll turn this over to the team um and let them provide you with a great summary. >> All right, good evening everyone again. So um as Paul had mentioned, this school year, the Connecticut Department of Education required all school districts to adopt the

144updated school climate policy as well as restorative practices response policy um to address incidents of challenging behavior which Paul mentioned. And just for calibration, I'll let us I'll remind us of that definition. Um, which is behavior that negatively impacts school climate or interferes or is at risk of interfering with student learning or safety or the safety of a school employee. And so that was a very new and broad definition that the uh department put out there. When this policy was adopted by the board back in December and then revisited and revised again in November, it directed the administration to collect and maintain data on the types of challenging behaviors and to report them out um semiannually and to disagregate those also by students of color and students with disabilities. And so, you know, you'll see

145in the report which we'll walk through that we were able to do that. Um you'll see also in that the asterisks will represent numbers that essentially were lower than 10. And that was one of the things that was really important for us because some of these numbers, they are very small. They may be one, two. Um, and so we wanted to really be thoughtful about that to ensure that there was no way that someone could specifically draw back to an incident that may have occurred with a student um, and have that be identifiable to them. I want to begin by emphasizing two critical points that I hope will help frame how this report is interpreted. The first is again given the change in definitions, the change in the definition for bullying, a a very um

146big change for for us and we've talked a little bit about that at the board table, but really taking a look at that is wanted to use this year as really an opportunity to start to draw what we would consider a baseline or establish that baseline. Um you know, I know there were we started to look at just data in the past and and it just started to become really tricky because of the definitions changing and trying to figure out where to draw those lines. So we thought this is really a good opportunity to start to establish that new baseline and to take a look at uh information going forward. So that'll really help us I think better understand patterns over time uh the impact that our practices have and make informed decisions on how

147best to improve school climate and student support. The other piece that I wanted to really think about is something that I continuously remind myself. [snorts] Um, is that every single number that you see here really it represents a student. Um, and it's not just the number that we put on a piece of paper, it goes back and and you know, I think the thing that we always talk about is that it's it's a number on a piece of paper, but again, it symbolizes a student and a student that has a unique story. Um and certainly I think when you look at you know some of the disciplinary pieces that occur and I'm often brought back to uh my time in the building as an assistant principal when you know much of my time was spent

148dealing with behavioral referrals and and things that were sent down and you know I can remember getting them on my desk and looking at and thinking h again same thing and getting frustrated when I first saw that and and sometimes even angry calling that student down to my office and then saying hey tell me about this and then hearing you know their version of it, but more importantly hearing, you know, the story that came with it, right? What went on at home before they came to school, what was going on in their own personal lives, what was going on and and all those different pieces that, you know, really I was allowed to do in my role and I had the opportunity to do in my role. And I'll tell you that when I was

149able to do that and sit down that oftent time those feelings of as as I mentioned perhaps um frustration and disappointment, they quickly started to change, right? and and they changed to understanding and empathy and really trying to look at certainly, you know, we're going to have to do something to to hold you accountable for your behavior and the harm that you've done. But more importantly, let's take a look at like what we need to do to help you understand and and what supports do we need to put in place and you know, I was sitting in the back and listening to Melissa who always says things I think so eloquently and really looking at, you know, what is the students behavior telling us? Um, and I think that that's one of the things that

150our administrators do, and I know Susan will talk a little bit more about that, that they're so skilled at is that they really take the time to realize that this isn't just a task that I have a set of referrals I need to get through and, you know, and hold students accountable, move on. Like, no, this is about really sitting down, hearing what happened, helping them understand like, hey, here's what your behavior did. Here's how it made people feel. What do we need to to help you understand that? what do we need to do to move forward with that? And I know that Teresa will also talk about some of the um great work that she's doing. And so, for that reason, my hope is that as you take a look at this report and

151that as we walk through that that this isn't just a report that presents um you know, counts of offenses that have occurred this year. It it really is going to give us an understanding of the patterns and help us guide to what we need to do to make sure that we're being effective and that we have equitable practices across all of our districts. and that we're taking into account the stories that come with every single student. Um because I know that often times even right when I make a mistake like I want people to give me an opportunity to understand where I was coming from so that we can work on those things and and hopefully come to a better understanding and and truly I believe that's what helps build strong relationships. Um and so

152I think that's also at the heart and the foundation of everything that we do. So if you look at page 17 in your board packet, you'll find a chart that provides an overview of the 10 reporting categories and a description for each. So these categories are the incident types that make up each category and these are established by the Connecticut State Department of Education and they essentially determine how incidents across all the districts need to be coded. And you know at first when you hear that you may think, oh that's pretty straightforward. Um and you know unfortunately though that's not the case sometimes because what ends up happening is that these definitions may require us to um code something that truthfully if we had I think a little bit more discretion we may may have

153a different thought in that process. And so you know one of the examples that I will highlight is on page 18 you'll see that the very first number there is this category for fighting. Um and I you know you probably think oh fighting I know what that is. Um, and then you look at the chart for elementary and you see 12 there and you must, you know, the first reaction is, oh my goodness, 12 fights at the elementary school. And you know what's interesting, and I'll read you the definition just so that we can be calibrated on that as well, is that the state defines fighting/physical aggression. It includes a physical confrontation in which one or more participants receive a minor physical injury that does not require professional medical attention, such as a scrape. um

154you know and so again I don't want to minimize that but I think that's important for us to contextualize that is that as you know right and and again I know that Susan will talk a little bit more about that but students in the elementary early elementary years especially are still developing skills related to emotional regulation and really even understanding personal boundaries. Um, and as a result, sometimes a little brief disagreement over perhaps, you know, who won the uh, soccer game, which sometimes at recess may be the World Cup or as equally as important as the World Cup. I understand that. Um, but that quickly is deescalated by a staff member. However, because of perhaps something that may have occurred that may require us to categorize that as a fight. Um, and so again, I

155just want us to sort of have that context in mind because I think that, you know, if we had some some more leeway, we may not go in that direction, but we want to make sure that we're following, you know, what's what's prescribed and and doing it that way. So, as we review the incident categories and totals, I want you to know that every incident is viewed through a developmental and contextual lens. again the administrators will have and take the time to hear the story right in that scenario that I described is getting to understand hey what caused that um fight to occur right and understanding how important that game may have been to those students and and in that moment how critical you know scoring that goal or maybe they he was off sides

156maybe they weren't off sides we recognized that disagreement but helping them understand that the choice they made wasn't the right choice and there were other ways to handle that um and so really walking through some of those pieces You'll see that the vast majority of our reported incidents fall under the category called school policy violations and particularly at the secondary level which is an extremely broad category and that includes many many things that essentially are uh violation of school rules such as disruptive or inappropriate behavior. Um there's insubordination. There's even misuse of a hall pass. Um, so there's just an array of items that are in there and it becomes really a place that a lot of these um I'll call them perhaps more minor offenses um get logged in there. I'm also happy to

157report that for more a more serious category such as violent crimes against persons, those remain rare and even non-existent in this reporting period. But with that said, we recognize that even one incident is too much. as Paul mentioned that you know many of these have no place in our school and one of those that I want to highlight is the category of personal and threatening behavior and in this category that does include what the state calls are our racial slurs and they actually do racial slurs/hate crimes and so there's no way to separate those and I know that the state's actually looking at that right now because I think the you know attaching those two together especially when you start talking about hate crimes and things like that is is something that's really a very

158very serious piece and And certainly we want to take a look at that. But when you look at that category, the the racial slurs themselves, if you pull them out, actually account for approximately a third of the categories total there. And so, as we mentioned before, even one is too high. Um, you know, and there certainly is no place for this, but all of these incidents are things that we want to continue to work on. And I know Teresa will talk more about that, and I know Paul talked about our approaches to that. Um, but you know, I do think it's important for us to be transparent about that and to continue to look at we have work to do there. On page 19, you'll see a chart that lists the number of challenging behavior

159incidents that resulted in one of the formal discipline sanctions listed in the chart. And so what we're required to do is to essentially track the discipline referral for these various types or the uh challenging behaviors that result in these types of disciplinary pieces. I do think it's it's important because people are always going to say, "Are these all the challenging behaviors that occurred um in the school?" And the answer to that is no. And the reason that is is because honestly, most of the time these aren't going to get tracked into a disciplinary referral because they're going to be handled at the teacher level. They're going to be handled in the classroom, right? You think about the student that may be off task, may be starting to create a disruption. And the skillful teacher is

160going to ask them either whatever signal they have, if they have a signal to help them regroup, they may say, "Hey, do you need to take a quick break to get a water and go get a drink of water and come back?" And they sort of recalibrate themselves. And so there is no need to to further and certainly not look for a disciplinary pieces. And those are the things that, you know, we continue to work on. We call our tier one pieces and ways to help students, right? And and one of the things that I'm seeing too is students being great advocates for themselves and when they're starting to struggle that they raise their hand and that's that's K through 12 where they'll be able to raise their hand or they've got something they pre-established

161with the teacher to say, "Hey, I need to go down and see my school counselor um so that I can process, you know, what's going on before we get to a point where there is a a a infraction or even just going up to various folks. I I remember again being at the high school and uh students would go up to our security guards and say, "Hey, you know, I need to go down to my school counselor. Can you walk me down there? I want to make sure that I don't do anything silly on the way there." And they know who those trusted adults are in the building that they can trust. And and I think about my own relationship with, you know, some of my teachers and and certainly the security guards and it

162wasn't that. And and again, I think that's a testament to the folks that are in our building and the relationships that they're doing and the relationships that they're building with our students to to be able to sort of look at those pieces and to make sure that they're minimizing all of the things that are occurring there. One of the other things I want to um highlight again is is on that page um 19 is that when you take a look at uh the chart and you'll see that they're all reported in there and you'll see that the asterisks again are in there and and the removal from class is one of the things that you know I've been really proud of the work we're doing and we continue to do that because again going back

163to my time that used to be one of the uh I'll call it your go-to um you know things in your toolbox as someone in the classroom was you know to tell a student that perhaps wasn't and you know following along exactly with how you wanted him was to get out and go to the office. Right. I think all of us see a lot of the head nodding uh from our esteemed board members is that they probably got to see not experience but see that occurring as well in their classroom and in their educational setting and again really talking to to teachers and helping them develop their toolboxes on you know what other ways to address that because again the most important thing is we want to keep kids in the classroom. Um and so

164we've done a really nice job of I think continuing to move in that direction. So uh as you'll see and in general whenever possible our goal is to use inschool supports or instructional consequences rather than exclusionary discipline. This reflects our intentional decision-making process to keep students connected to learning and to keep them connected to school as a whole. This provides us with the opportunity to do the restorative work necessary to address behavior, repair harm, and build the skills students need to be not only successful in that class um but also successful in life. And so, one of the things I wanted to do was I've invited my good friend Susan here um to have her give us sort of and and it's not, you know, there's there's an asterct with her that these aren't bugby

165specific um but certainly in conversations with colleagues some of the things that um you know, they're seeing and doing. And and I've asked her a little bit to touch on too with you know inschool suspension particularly at the elementary school because I you know I think back and and what may be the perception of what an inschool suspension is and so I thought it'd be important for us to just have a real understanding of what that is um what that actually looks like and I thought to highlight that at the elementary school would be you know a great starting point. So I'll turn it over to Susan. >> Thank you and nice to meet you all officially for the first time. Um, so much of what you were saying resonated with me and certainly those

166are the views and the philosophy that we espouse at Bugby as well as our 10 other counterparts in our elementary schools in our secondary. Um, we hadn't talked about this. You were referencing a a soccer game and some dispute. So, you you clearly are very in tune with what happens at elementary recess. There might be a sport or preferred activity or say a gaga pit or something really fun and enticing. And and sometimes we do see conflict there and and sometimes it it can turn physical at times and as we mentioned and even going back to Melissa and Kelly, not everyone has the communication skills that you know might be expected at a certain age. So sometimes we see our students making what you had referred to before as maybe mistakes or something that they

167would want to take back. And um an example that I'm thinking about from that recess um activity was um there was a dispute over some refereeing calls, shall we say, and you know, this might have happened at Bugby or other places, but this is certainly an elementary story. and what Julia was saying about getting to the bottom of the story and helping to understand I think some of the work that we're doing with restorative practices and presortive practices and having all of our students feel welcome and belong belonging in our culture opens up those lines of communication. So when we do have group talks if there is an issue at recess students are much more willing to talk and they're willing to process and it helps us understand the why. So you had referenced the

168you know these numbers are all faces and students and they're doing the best that they can every single day. Well come to find out there were some rule disputes over a particular game at recess. So once we talked with several students who were involved in that, they were able to isolate what those were and come up with a plan moving forward. And so it was a set of rules that was agreed upon. And it was it was just very much like Julio said um when we're thinking about that recess and the you know expectations that we have of students in that unstructured environment it's been a wonderful tool to come back to talking it out working it out thinking as a group what could we do and if there was harm can we restore it

169how can we repair it and so that was basically something that I wanted to share um that's regularly and ongoing not just at the administrative level, but also for our amazing classroom teachers and grade level staff who are out at recess. In terms of kind of um inschool suspension and what that might look like at the elementary level, it it it looks like whatever the student needs that day, but very typically at the elementary level, it would mean myself or another administrator greeting that student as they walk in in the morning. probably there's been a conversation the day before about what has happened. Oftentimes there's a clinician available to talk with and process with the student. And the goal of inschool suspension is certainly to reflect upon whatever harm has been caused towards others and

170work towards restoring that. So whether that means learning more about the harm that was potentially caused, reflecting on previous actions, it might include apologies of action or talking with people or individual classmates who have been harmed. Um it very much likely does not look like how many of us might have experienced that growing up. It's a lot of talking and processing and contact with adults who are very supportive in whatever the goals are for that day to have that student understand what the situation was and what we could do differently moving forward. At the elementary level, um sometimes we say we, you know, we teach math, we teach reading, but we also teach those skills for self-regulation very explicitly, just like we might teach an algorithm for 2x twodigit multiplication. some students may need that

171and so we're able to provide that in those settings and that may look a little bit different than our secondary counterparts but um we've found that that's a wonderful opportunity to process with the student and also make sure that the family is incorporated with a re-entry meeting and talking about what does that day look like because we want to be transparent. We want the the family to understand what that time looks like and what the student will be focusing on during the school day. Great. >> Thank you. Um, again, perfectly said and you know, I bring up those sports analogies because I I may be a little competitive myself, so they just resonate with me, but um, I know that on the bottom of page 19 as well, you'll see [snorts] what essentially the board

172has asked for is the breakdown there, um, by race as well as by our special ed status. And I just want to, you know, really highlight too that the segregated data is not in is included. It's not there to label or to stigmatize anyone. I think it's really there for us to just be transparent. Um, and you know, I was talking a lot with Teresa about this and I I think the piece that we've really looked at when we've broken down this data and you know, since the school year has started, I meet every month with all of our assistant principles, it's either with sometimes the high school or the middle school and the elementary and we've been really transparent. I've been really transparent with bringing this data and I do break it down by

173schools because in that setting we can be more transparent and really looking at that with our folks and and I want us to ask the deep question right and it's been grounded in this question that I ask every time is are our systems responding consistently fairly and effectively for all students. Um, you know, and while the data clearly shows that our system is serving many students well, it also makes it equally clear that we must do better, particularly for our Hispanic/Latino students and our black students. The data compels us to look more deeply at our instructional practices, the supports we provide, and the adult the adult decisions we make every day. And as I talked about, one of the concrete things that I do is when we meet with our assistant principles, we're really having

174and engaging in open and honest conversations where, you know, we've got and I think we've done a lot of good work to establish the relationships within those groups and and those pieces so that, you know, we're taking an actual scenario that's occurred at a school, right? And we're putting it out on the table and we're saying, "Hey, here's what happened. Here's how it was addressed." And going through those. And sometimes we're just saying, "Hey, here's the scenario. Let's take a pause. How would you have handled this? Having folks turn and talk to their partner, you know, how would you have handled this? What do what questions do you have? Going through that and really then also as we've processed all those pieces and reflected on that, we go back and ask, hey, have we missed

175anything? Did we miss something that maybe could have actually just prevented this all together, right? Because there's one thing to say, hey, what do we do now that it's happened? But I think it's important for us to always look at our systems and things say, are we missing anything, right? Can could we have done something different? Is there an educational component that we need to be doing across, you know, the grade level, the school, perhaps with all students before recess starts is, you know, just calibrating on expectations. And so, you know, it it's been a really interesting piece and and I will commend um all the administrators, the principles, the assistant principles of their openness and willingness to put out, you know, what sometimes may not be very um you know, exciting to share with

176colleagues, like, hey, here's what's going on. And you know, and certainly what I get to is this vibe that no one's ever like, you know, oh, and and you know, thinking I think most people are thinking, thank God that wasn't my school, right? And then trying to figure out and help like what can we do? And and I know Susan can also share is just the amazing relationships that they have with each other and the confidence and hopefully trust they have in us too at central office that, you know, they're constantly calling each other. they've got their text messages, but then they'll call either myself or they'll call Teresa and we sit down and we really go through and and try to work it and and think about like, hey, here's all the different things

177because we want to make sure that we're not missing anything, right? And and I think Teresa and I have used this analogy is that, you know, we've we've sort of you're walking through this this place where there's all these little traps and we know where many of them are. So, we can help to make sure that you don't land on those. Um, but we recognize that some of them even we don't know and some we don't anticipate coming. And that's why we really want to work together um and and strengthen all of these pieces. But I I think you know and in these conversations that we're we have ongoing, Teresa has been a a key member of that and really being able to just have those honest conversations and it's not about sitting there and

178trying to just share all of the globes, right? We know we've got a lot of globes and and those are things we want to celebrate and there's a time for that too and that's really really important. But we also think it's really important for us to sit there and look at what are the growths, right? And what are things we can learn from each other and to think about and I know when I was again in the building as a principal, it was rare that I wouldn't call Dan over at Hall when he was a principal and say, "Hey, like here's what I got going on. What do you think?" Or even just talking to other folks so that you can really look at those relationships that you have. And so at its core, this

179work is really about ensuring that our systems are consistently fair, effective, and responsive for every student that we serve. You know, again, I I on some levels I look at the data and there's pieces that I'm proud of, right? Because I know the work that we've done to to try to prevent some of these pieces, but there's also pieces I look at and and I'm just I'm sad and I know we've got work to do. Um, you know, and that's work that I I'm confident I have the right folks, you know, working on it. I'm confident that we're all looking and want the same thing. But it's certainly something that we need to continue to be transparent about. And so before I turn over to Teresa, I want to just return to the point that

180I made at the beginning is that the numbers in this report, they're not abstract numbers, right? They're not students from other districts. Um there are children, right? There are children. And to me, each incident reflects a moment in the student's life, often involving an unmet need, a conflict, emotional disregularity, or perhaps even just a skills gap that we need to look at, you know, and so I I think I'll be using Melissa's line, you know, for for every time I do this presentation. Um, but is, you know, taking a pause to look at what is that student's behavior trying to tell us? Um, and and oftentimes if we can stop and figure that out, right, that's where we start to really make impactful changes. So what I will do is I will turn it over

181to Teresa which will talk about some of the work that we're doing in that area. >> Great. Good evening and happy new year's and welcome to new board members. I think this is my first time right at the table uh since you've joined us. So um really happy to be here. Um you'll learn very quickly. I'm I'm we're I'm always honest, always transparent, always pretty direct. Um, I think one of the things, um, as you were talking to earlier that I was thinking about is, you know, it's not just that we look at the numbers and we're like, oh gosh, we don't like that number. I think it's also, um, looking for for for points of impact and where we can actually have some influence. And one of the things that we've discussed is perhaps

182um looking at um you know when you think about the whole process and and it kind of dovtales into the work that I do with trying to be proactive about relationships and you when you think about um when these moments are happening um there are definitely some infractions that are um you know there are things that are subjective right things that like things about like the subject of respect right we all have very different different definitions of respect. I asked you what your definition of respect was and I went through each and every one of you. Not one of you would have the same definition. Not one of you if you put your your thoughts on a continuum would it be the same. And so those for me are are touch points where we can

183actually have some conversations and look at changing practice. Um I will say that you know as a district we are not reacting to behavior. we are being proactive about laying a foundation that is going to support um conditions that reduce harm um increase belonging and prevent escalation before it occurs. So, you know, one of the tricky things when people ask about data um is because I I'm the person who typically gets and Julio as well who gets these like crisis calls, something happened. Um so, I can tell you without without a doubt that that has decreased. When I first got here, I remember telling Paul, I'm like, um, we might have to have a conversation because, you know, my first year was it was a whirlwind. Um, and we were I, you know, if I

184felt like, um, the school was the district was on fire when I first got here. Um, you know, in a very weird way, I'm a I'm relieved to say that I feel like the world is on fire, but we're actually moving in the right direction um with the work that we're doing. Um, Latoya, I really appreciate um your your segue um because it is, you know, in in reality, and it's funny because I was like, does she see my notes? Um because I actually I actually drew a stool um because as as I'm trying to, you know, when I do this work, I also always I'm always looking to frame it in a way that people understand. And I think what what we've missed about this work um with with culture and climate is that

185this used to be a team sport. it we you know we had structures in place right if you think about our students as like the that top part of a stool and you had like a three-legged stool you know you had schools in the middle you had whatever faith-based right support that you had on one side and then you had community on the other side and um you know I'm I'm sure probably everyone on this board has read like the anxious generation and what started happening when we started um feeding the narrative of not trusting our neighbors and not having that community when I grew up. Anyone on our street could discipline you. I know that's a scary thought for you guys, right? But literally, that's what it was. And I'm not that old. Um

186but um that used to be how it was. You trusted your neighbors. If you were coming home late for work, you weren't worried. There was a community that kept your children safe. We no longer feel that way. Um I work a lot with our um our faith-based or, you know, organizations and and communities. they're struggling to have members actively participate. Two parts of of of that, you know, trilegged uh stool have kind of fallen or are crumbling. And the one thing that people are continuing to expect to stay strong is the school system. And we are amazing. This is an amazing staff. I will I will stand by the staff. I do stand by the staff day in and day out. Um they are they are doing the work. Um that from you know administrators

187all the way through. Um everyone is is showing up. We don't shy away from from the fact that we don't feel like we're perfect. Um we we are doing the learning as it comes. Um but we cannot do this alone. It is not just our charge. it can't it just there's it's not there's no way to replace what we're missing. And so um I do echo that we need families to have this conversation. And what I tell people when I tell you to have conversations at home when it comes to talking about hate particularly um I don't want you to talk about the hate that's personal to you. I want you to talk about the hate that's personal to someone else because that's our problem. We know ourselves really well. Um, it's why we don't

188actually teach um, we try not to, particularly in elementary school, we try not to teach hate in these little buckets because the reality is is everybody knows their own really well, but you don't understand the other persons. You know, I can promise you, unless you are a, you know, a black woman, it doesn't matter how much I tell you about antilackness and what it feels like, you'll never understand what that feels like. and you'll never know the nuances the way I will know the nuances. And so it's really important that we don't fall into this trap of perfection. Our job is not to teach people to be able to identify the perfect segments of of the different ways that hate shows up, but it's to understand the the global importance that we all have. We

189all matter. We we all um every person deserves an opportunity to be in the space to have to be loved, to be cared for. Um, I used to freak people out as a elementary principal because I threw the word love around a lot and they were like really uncomfortable like, "Oh no, I love your children." Like, listen, if I come to work and after everything that we've gone through with the obscene number of school shootings that exist, if I come to work and I'm willing to stand in front and take a bullet for your child, then you better believe that I love your child. I will do anything for their support. I will do anything to see their success. And that's I think we've we've shied away from emotional attachment and and being honest about

190that to a point that I think that we've we've gone a little too far in the wrong direction. Th this is not a a profession that you get into because you kind of like kids. You have [clears throat] to love what you do. The the these kids, like I said, I actually super excited about our youth now and the fire that they have and the honesty that they demand, but it is not for the faint of heart. like you must you must love what you do. If you're standing in this space, if you're in this room and and you work for this district, it's because you love children and you want a better world for them. Um so, um I want to kind of reiterate that, you know, for restorative practice, 80% if not more,

191I would argue more, but research says 80, um is about the proactive things that you do to build relationships and connections. um you know, we train um a select number of people in like the full process where if you actually had to go through like a restorative conference and that's because quite frankly um untrained people attempting this create more harm, I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. Um and so we're very um strategic about who has access to that training, their expectations. Um and you you get better by practice, right? You have to actually have an opportunity to do this. um that would not be just for for um clarification that would not typically be your classroom teacher. Um as a classroom teacher, I can tell you I've probably had to be

192involved in what a process even similar to that once. Like it's not something that you typically have to be part a part of or brought into. Um as a building administrator, you're going to live that life every like you're going to live that and you're going to do that. Um, but the reality is is our we put our efforts into what we do proactively so that we can ensure that you don't get to the point of needing to actually have this full-blown conference because if you've ever seen one, it's not just I pull people together and I sit them in a meeting and we talk. I'm meeting with you privately first, I'm meeting the other person privately first. I'm making sure that we that you're ready. I'm assessing your readiness to actually be in that

193space and and what you're hoping the outcomes are um negotiating that process. And then I'm allowing you to actually bring other people into the space and I got to meet with those people too because they have to understand the rules and the parameters right of what that looks like. Um it's not something that you um you know ever necessarily want to have to go through. It's it's laborious but it gets to the heart of what we're looking for which is um real accountability which is you know you know we have discipline you know we it's you know necessary function of what we have to do. Um, but at the end of the day, real accountability is you being able to accept responsibility of your actions and and being able to to look for ways to

194to make amends for that in a real meaningful way, right? Um, so we are really looking at um how we train and support and how we have teachers engage in real everyday practices that are going to actually support the day-to-day of how you interact with kids. So, uh, we have a continuum of learning that they have are on. Um, this year we have six modules. Um I actually highlighted um I gave you I believe all six of what they are collective efficacy and reinforcing practice circles are have not like quite occurred yet like schools are in different spaces with them um but those are those are upcoming um most schools are already um either you're deep in the building trust with students which obviously is super important um or you're moving on to collective efficacy

195at this point but um we started with respect agreements um and it's a foundational point for us for um instead of having rules like being able to understand that respect is something that we agree on as a community um and how should I expect to be treated and how as a as a student and how should I expect you know what do I think you as the as the adult in charge um what does that look what does respect look like for you and kind of g having this agreement amongst each other that kind of allows us to to move as a community um in elementary school it's you know I I love it in elementary school because um things are very concrete with with elementary students like because anytime something happens you literally it's

196like you look back at their respect agreement. I'm not sure that this actually follows our respect agreement and like kids were like oh no it's not. Um but it's just you know it's a really um safe way to to remind kids of what of what we've agreed to. Um and it's also a very pointed way um particularly when you have um guests in your room that they can anchor onto the culture of that room because that those respective agreements are basically the agreements. It tells you a lot about what this room um you know what this group of of of people um want out of their experience in being in school. Um we move on to effective statements like just being able to to acknowledge your feelings in something and how it's how it's connecting

197and making you feel. Um impromptu conversations when Julia was talking about um a lot of these things don't end up on you know on our behavioral chart. That's impromptu conversations. That's your ability to be able to manage um through relationships, having the conversations with students and negotiating with them about, you know, something I've noticed happening or something that might be, you know, acting um opposite of our respect agreements or even if like you just notice tension arising amongst students. Um it's a perfect opportunity for you to kind of step in um and to make sure that you buil you're building connections with students and that you you know as a teacher you have however many students you have, but every student needs something from you. And so it's your job, your responsibility to kind of

198understand that and know that. Um and then you know building trust with students. You know this one I think was a bit of a um you know when you when you give people when you give students an opportunity to tell you how they feel about you [laughter] honestly, right? And you you get to ask them their opinion and you get to um anonymously, right? They get to just tell you, right? Uh, I think that's um it's one of these things where um it requires a real purpose of why you're doing it and you have to be you have to be willing to to to listen to the feedback and be responsive to it. And you know, I tell people all the time, listen, you're going to we're going to do this. We're going to do

199either whether it's focus groups or it's surveys or however you choose to do it, but then you're going to take an opportunity to like, you know, you might go into your office, close the door, and scream because you didn't like what you heard. But that once you get that out of your system, then you have to come back to the table and you have to process that with your team and you have to um make an a commitment for meaningful change. Um and so you know the buildings are going through these pro so this is basically every certified staff. I will say because in total transparency, one thing that has come up that um Ann and I have been problem solving is that we recognize that um some of our special teachers because they are

200they when we do a CSIs, they might have department CSIs. Um so we're looking at our structures and making sure that we don't miss like our specials teachers when when they get pulled for for separate things. But um but other than that, all certified staff are receiving this. So, when you talk about training and you talk about accountability, um we're we're we we're starting and it's a starting point. Um I'm not going to lie to you. If I if I had my way and I could make as many days Well, I guess technically you could, but if I could make as many days of the year I know Julie's like, "Be quiet, Teresa." Um but I would I would add additional time because um you know, schools are are villages and we're all um very

201connected to the work that's happening there. So, um, I'm always looking for ways to connect with other staff who have real impact on the day-to-day lives of our students. So, it's not just certified staff and I'm very well aware of that. Um, but it's a starting point and we will we will cycle this to the next group and we'll cycle this to the next groups that we're we're building capacity. Um, and so, you know, I think if I were gonna because I know Julia was going to be like, you're talking too much. Um um so what are what the whole point of this is that we're looking to have staff do things differently, right? It's not just you learn something because that's really great. We did I mean during 2020 we all did a lot

202of reading. People did a lot of protesting. They did a lot of marching. They did they did a lot. Um and then what I you know what you we personally myself um being in this role not not within this district but being within this role what I saw was a swift backtracking. Swift. Um, our goal is not to just inform people of things that are good ideas. Um, I'm I'm very much more interested in changing your practice. I'm interested um in how we address behavior in the moment without escalating it. Um, you as the adult are responsible for doing that, right? Something happened. You're going to address it. Your job is not to escalate what's happening in in that in that moment. Um, asking questions instead of issuing directives. Um, I don't know about you,

203but nobody likes to be told what to do. Um Paul and I sometimes have some conversation about that. Um separate the student from the behavior. Um and you know reducing shame. It's something you did. It's not who you are right. Um I've been doing a lot of conferencing um with with parents with students. Um I think one thing I'm proud of is even being have opportunity to conference with parents of students who have done something wrong. So it's not just the student who who you know the parent not just making sure that the student who had something done wrong to them but the other side of that equation because and I think that's so important for us to be able to have those conversations and to talk about it um and to and to um

204eliminate this idea of shame when it comes to I made a mistake. Um you don't learn when you stay stuck in shame. Um, and then you know the for teachers resolving local issues locally like in their room so it doesn't need to become an administrative issue. As a classroom teacher, I won't lie to you, you never left my classroom to go to somebody else. You were way more worried about what you didn't to upset the culture in my room than you would ever been of my principal, any principal I've ever had. [laughter] Um, because that was our culture, right? Like we we had commitments to each other and so who cares what principal so- and so thinks. Um, and and to be honest, as a principal, that's what I inspired in my teachers. Why would

205you want to send them to me? Like, yeah, I can handle I can always handle it, but you not you may not like how I handle it. Then then you're upset with me because you didn't like how I handled it or they came back smiling. Now you're mad about that. Like, I don't know what you want me to do. Um, but but the reality is is it's harder to have the conversation with the person who you have um upset the apple cart with than it is to have it with a completely unconnected person. And so my role does not define my relationship. And so our goal is that teachers have the strongest relationships with their students, that the adults in the building have the strongest relationships, and that that becomes like the nexus of how

206our communities work. Um, and so, you know, we're really working on culture being led and not left to chance. Um, that's that's really our goal with our training. Um, and I, like I said, I'm I'm incredibly proud of the work that our our staff is doing and continues to do. Um, but we absolutely positively cannot do this without the support of of our the of the rest of the communities. And the easiest people to ask for me anyway is families to make sure that you have those conversations um and that you broaden those conversations outside your own sphere of um like what impacts you um so that way we can kind of build this cross understanding. But I'll stop and wait for any questions because I could literally do this all night. Sorry. Thank you.

207Uh Jason. >> Yeah. So, first of all, just thank you. This while it's a semianual report, it is a first ever semianual report. Um [clears throat] and uh you know, the speed I'm very appreciative. I think I speak for all of us with the speed with which you guys turn this around. I think this is only a few weeks old in terms of of policy for us. Um you know, it's a very thoughtful presentation. I think your passion and your commitment to this work is very clear. Um, I think what you may hear a little bit of us kind of thinking out loud tonight about and and things that you brought up was how do you quantify this? Right? We're looking at really metrics of impact and and that's really difficult. Um, for me, I

208think it would be helpful if we kind of walk a little bit more through these charts and maybe how I'm supposed to read the tables together. um it gives the impression I could be completely wrong that the first table is like a chart of all the challenging behaviors and then the second one which would be those that uh result in student discipline that would be a subset of of the first table is that that >> correct um thank you because u I know that and and this is our first uh ever so we'll also incorporate >> it it's our first too I think as a board we're still kind of searching for what it is we're trying to to measure and how best to do that. >> Absolutely. So, on page 18, it's it's really

209a summary of uh of all offenses of all behavioral offenses and they're and they're uh sorted as Julio indicated by the category types that are defined by the state department of education. So, it is a total of over 1300 separate offenses. Um, and when you flip the page to page 19, what's important, it's uh it's roughly 300 that you see there, and those are the 300 that are mandated to be while while everything is reported to the state in some way. Those 300 are the incidents that are specifically covered under the new regulations and the new the new state laws and the policy 5550. um a as it relates to hey a challenging behavior um that results in in in one of these very serious potential consequences. And then just to walk that line through

210um at the bottom of page 19, those roughly 300 incidents are then disagregated by the students. And you'll see there are only 135 students reported there. aka some students were involved in more than one incident. So, we were very specific to not double count students to show any sort of disproportionality. Um, and my apologies. I, you know, as I'm looking at this and I'm thinking about it, you've got student counts, but you may not be as familiar with sort of the percentages in our demographics. So, I'm going to give you um, and this is off the top of my head in the moment. I apologize this is not well researched but um you know uh for uh for our Hispanic Latino population um that's roughly I know it's greater than 20% or roughly 20% of

211our population. So I'm going to say in the neighborhood of 1,800 students total. So that 52 that incidence rate of 52 that's that's somewhere near 33%. >> Paul not to interrupt but I do have actual numbers. >> Oh great. Oh thank you so much. We could [laughter] let them keep >> I'll shut up and let you walk them through the rest of that then. >> No, no. So, for um and and I appreciate you giving that background and it's one of those, you know, you do the report and I'm like, "Oh, yeah. I know exactly what this means." And and thinking of it from your perspective, I can see that. And so, again, on page 18, you'll see that all of those pieces, they don't necessarily result in one of those disciplinary um infractions. And

212that >> if I could stop you at that point. So what we're actually seeing if you read those two charts together is we are probably seeing some of the effects of this kind of restorative practices at work when in the past those may have all resulted in discipline at some point. >> I actually would would say more probably more accurately what you're seeing is that the challenging behaviors there were certain there were certain um conditions that had to be met for it to be considered that had to be reported as challenging behavior like it needed you needed to either be removed from the class in school suspension out of school suspension or expulsion. Right. Right. So that's really like I think part of the difference of what you're saying is that like for challenging behavior

213um to [clears throat] be identified as that like only certain things qualified like so if you came in if you were late for class that's not a challen that wouldn't be considered a challenging behavior um and wouldn't be like on this charter. >> Yeah. Because the to go back to the school policy violations that's like detention or lunch bunch or something. >> Lunch detention. And so again, I think some of the the onus of that is really not wanting kids out of class, right? And so I think there was some concern that something perhaps a misuse of a hall pass could have resulted in a in school suspension for 3 days if there's not a calibration of that. And so again, not something that we were doing, but I think when you look at some

214of the, you know, data across the state, right, and that's the thing that I know that they're looking at, um, is to look at those pieces. What I will say is, you know, I have the the one big change I think that I've seen this year especially is really that push with really looking at proactive approaches to when they see students um getting to a point where it may be becoming either disregulated or whatever that would be. And I've seen that really as not only a a real skill set from our teachers, but also from our students. Um and again, it's it's been a little bit since I've been in the building, but that's been a real clear piece. piece and I know that we even message that really with teachers is you know hey

215when you see that like think about the supports that we have in place in the building so that a student doesn't need to get to that point and it's a simple going over and maybe saying hey do you want to see your school counselor and the kids are happy to go do that or thinking about what proactive approaches as Teresa mentioned um that you know some of our students perhaps have a pass that they don't need to go ask the teacher the teacher just knows oh that student can go see their school counselor when they need to um so I think that's one of the reasons why we've seen some of those dips, >> right? And again, that gets back to the metrics of impact are are difficult and and you know, we may that

216that's going to be an area for growth. And I think, you know, obviously we'll have some ideas on that as well as you. >> Yeah. And and truthfully too is we don't, you know, with everything going on in the building, we don't always hear every little thing that a teacher does. Um that they really we'd love to hear that so we can give them kudos for that. Like, hey, great job in the way you were able to proactively either deescalate that or you brought a student out in the hall or whatever that was. um you know that so that you were able to have a respectful conversation with the student where they trusted you to be able to do that. They weren't embarrassed, they didn't feel singled out and that they can learn about like,

217hey, here's what we need to do to continue to meet the norms and the expectations we have in this classroom. And so, you know, I think that and Teresa's done a lot of work too is just with starting with some of those clear respect agreements right from the start. I mean, you walk into many of our, if not all of our elementary classrooms and they've got them right there posted so the teachers can point to them um and remind students, right? And because sometimes we need those little reminders. But you know, and then to go back to I think where Paul was going with our numbers. So when you look at the Asian, we have a little over a,00 1,16 students total when I looked at it earlier today. uh 918 black, African-American, 1,663 Hispanic,

218Latino, and then 4,923 um white students. And so that total that I had there was around 9,110 um students that I was able to pull from the the quick poll that I had uh done here. So when you look at that number and then you know you sort of look at that's that's one you know each one of those counts for one student you're looking at about 1%. Um and so that's why I go back to that piece that you know there's something to be proud of that. Um, but as I used to always say, you know, the speech I used to give a lot of times to to my faculty was, hey, if you're in that 99%, if that's your kid, that's great. But if your kid is in that 1%, like then all

219of a sudden that's not so great, right? And so I think >> I mean, acknowledging that that we've come a long way does not mean that we're there, that it's perfect, that it's not an ongoing process. I think you've done a really good job of of, you know, stating that and laying that out. And you know, I think we'd all like it to move faster or to have more resources to do that, but you know, we're working on that. I I I'm really appreciative of that. And just know that the work you're doing is so foundational to the very mission of every child every day, that sense of belonging, right? That that's what this is about. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. I just want to give again kudos to the folks in

220the building cuz you know I I think of our principles that are leading you know people like Susan that are not only leading in the work but they believe in the work right and I think it's one thing to go and to to hear the professional development that's being rolled out um but to then take it back to your building and have the same passion that Teresa and the team are delivering it with and then deliver that to your faculty and embrace it and then hold those expectations like that is the expectation in this school. um you know and so really want to give kudos to them and then to the people in the classrooms right our teachers our paras all of our support staff that have to actually do the hard work right when

221when the students making that uh that choice that perhaps we wish they didn't um that they address it and they don't just look the other way right that they're going to tackle when they hear that a word that's hurtful in the hallway right it's easy to just turn the other way and pretend like you didn't hear it but it's really important that our adults don't do that and that they address them and that that we sit down and talk to students about what that means and the hurt that that could cause if people hear it. Um, so again, I really think it's important that we continue to just celebrate those folks. >> Ethan, >> yeah, realizing this was the first time I had a couple comments on the schedules if I could do that. Um,

222I assume this covered fiscal year 25, but there's no date that I that I could find. >> So, this goes to what was September whatever the first day of school was till today. Okay. It would just be helpful to have that in there. >> Sure. >> The dating. This next thing was um I assume that this is going to be compared to prior years and just we didn't get around didn't have time for it. >> So, as I mentioned, the reason we didn't look down that path is because there's been so many changes in definitions that you wouldn't really be comparing apples to apples. Um and so, you know, that's why we decided to really use this as a baseline to now be able to sort of highlight that and go forward. >> Okay. the

223um I would have been interested challenging incidents and challenging individuals. The how many per you know like was did one student have you know were a number of students over at five or you know some way to you know where are the real you know is it a small number smaller number or is it every student did it two or three times in the challenging incidents it's just me the um other thing was do you have offense offenses by incident type category like particularly school policy violations I assume that's in the challenge challging one and the non-challenging. It just be interesting to break out because I tried going back initially to the um 135 or 307 where there was challenging incidents trying to figure out which those were. >> Yeah. To my understanding, I know

224we talked about that earlier in the presentation. Julio did a gave a number of examples. To my understanding, there wouldn't be a school policy violation that results in in a suspension or expulsion. the these are typically minor infractions. Um >> well, there have to be because otherwise you wouldn't have as many high school students. There's got to be some in that there that since high school students were and if you take out the school policy, >> it's like 67. Part of it is you have um you the asterisk actually when there's an asterisk at the end and so you don't actually know what the number is and that's done anytime that we you're the numbers are [clears throat] >> those are those are less his is less than 10 so that's only 40 max >>

225the asterisk >> oh I see you know it could be um because what's also included in school policy violations is attendance uh violations so if there are multiple class cuts that might result in a in So I see I take your point. We'll uh we'll see how we can clean that up so give you a better understanding. >> Yeah. It' be interesting to know what school policy viol you know. >> Yeah. But in general just to make sure that there's clarity for the board and for the public the school policy violations in general in terms of what the um nature of the offenses are are are are less serious than pretty much all the other categories. >> No understand. I assume some that was in was challenging and some weren't but >> that'd be helpful.

226Um the 10 or fewer the asterric uh is that really necessary because it just >> I don't know how you identify from >> here you wouldn't identify like Ethan Goldman's not going to know but if we're up here on television and we're talking about the one elementary school incident that involved an out of school suspension and if that family happened to be listening they would feel I would say, you know, potentially a degree of personal violation because um if questions arose about that um and even to your earlier question about, you know, a number of students who had five or more, you know, discipline, it's sort of like, yeah, it's an interesting thing to know, but I don't know what it does to support the board or the community. Um, so some of those specifics,

227um, and and with suppression like there there's a real reason it helps to not revictimize a victim or or victimize an offender, especially, you know, at age at any age students are going to learn from this. So I do appreciate that folks have a concern, but the whole point for us to have that asterisk and include the zeros is so that you can know when something's zero. And when you can know there is still some work to be done in in with some of these things, but it's not a significant number. >> All right. It's just it makes it hard to follow with when you add the numbers up and then you realize you missed something. >> And the um last one I had was Yeah, I think that was it. No, it's a good

228start, but it just if you could differentiate some of the things, it would be helpful. Thank you. >> Yes, certainly. We'll take a look at that. And like I said, I want to just reiterate because we looked at this multiple times and and really went back to how the state reports out their data too when they're reporting out and they do use asterisks and actually I think we looked at trying to figure out sometimes 20 is the end, sometimes it's five. really depended. And so I think we wanted to air on the side of caution when it came to student confidentiality and privacy knowing that you know these are some of these are sensitive issues that we've had to deal with with students and families and you know in a in a smaller setting like

229Paul mentioned perhaps we had you may have a one one elementary and they'll know you know we may not know or the folks in this room may not know but that school community probably would know. So but but I appreciate where you're coming from on that Ethan. Just wanted you to know that there was it's certainly we tried to be as transparent as possible in this report >> and I understand you're trying to protect people to say if you could give more definition because there's obviously challenging school policy valuations and there's not as challenging. >> Yeah, I'll follow up with Paul too and that we can look at essentially sharing the ED166 report. I mean it's public you can see it. We originally looked at doing that and and some of them like the um

230the school policy violation I think it may have like 15 or 20 codes in there that it just became so cumbersome but certainly can share that link with Paul and he can share that with uh you folks on the board. >> Then one last question I just remembered in school suspension is that like one day five days is that I was just trying to understand this what what it is. So when you see it here, it's just an inschool suspension that occurred, but there are a different length of inschool suspensions depending on the incident that occurred. Sometimes too, it's depending on when they're meeting with the child, right? We don't want to if if an incident occurs and and that student may not be ready to go back to class, then we want to also

231make sure we're not setting students up for failure and just saying, "Hey, it was one day. Good job. See you later." Like we want to make sure we've processed and had those conversation as Susan has highlighted that often times those are great conversations. students are having, but sometimes perhaps they're not ready to hear it either. Um, and so needing to make sure that we're doing all those pieces, but for the purposes of this, each one is one, you know, you can look at it as one incident. >> Okay. I was just trying to understand the difference between removal from class and school suspension. >> So, a removal from class may be that student is removed from that class, but they're back the next period, let's say, at the high school level. So, I an incident

232occurs in my period 2 class, I'm removed from it. I go down to the office, I have a conversation with my administrator, I process it, and then I can go to my next period. Um, so the state does want all of those recorded because they want to know when students were out of that classroom and essentially missing instruction. But perhaps the incident wasn't something that really required the student to miss additional class time and now can really go back and continue on with their day. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm I'm good, >> John. >> Well, I I also want to thank all of you for the report. Uh Teresa, it's really good to meet you for the first time. Susan, same. Um I just had a question generally about the reporting and about the quality

233assurance in terms of the statistics. So who who decided which which category um to you know to group the various incidents into? So like let's say let's say you have two kids at an elementary school who get into an altercation of some you know an altercation may maybe it's a fight you know maybe it's something less. who made who made the decision to put that incident into uh into a category for purposes of reporting and and this in this study and is there was there any way of sort of vetting that once the decision was made the first time? Yeah. So that's, you know, some really good work we've been doing too and I know Susan maybe even want to talk about that is from day one we've been working hard on calibration because I

234think that's one of the things we want to make sure that we're we are comparing apples to apples and that there aren't differences at the school which is why you know oftent times when incident occurs first administrators will go to this ED66 report which has definitions in there and so you're trying to find like okay which definition does this best meet but when you get into those you know we'll call them a little bit trickier ones you call your colleagues and you just say like, "Hey, what do you think? What do you think?" And then ultimately they call me. Um, and that really one of my roles is to make sure that we're calibrated across the district. And what I do too is like I'll run reports as the weeks go on and as every

235week or so I'll run one. If something pops to me that I didn't hear of, I'm like, "Well, that's strange." I'll call the school and say, "Hey, can you walk me through this? What happened?" And so that we can look at those pieces to make sure that we're calibrated, too. you know, and as you talk about, and I'm glad that you highlight that, Jonathan, is because I think that is one of the areas of work that we need to continue to do. Um, and I think we've come a long way from where we were, but it's certainly sometimes in those conversations and and we'll call them the tabletop exercises, right? We'll walk through like here's a scenario that happened. How would you code this? And if we're not calibrated on that, then having the conversation

236of, hey, why did you do that? or how or you know to make sure that that is coded accurately so that when we look across the schools and we look across grade levels we'll start to see some of those consistencies there. I don't know if you wanted to add to that Susan. >> No, I think that's exactly right on track and um our tabletop exercises or you know whatever we want to call them. A lot of times we'll start a meeting or at some point in a meeting someone will bring up without any identifiable information as Julio mentioned before a specific incident for the elementary team to kind of calibrate on and see what might we have done and and one of the things that has been really interesting that's come out of that because

237of some of this new legislation because it's it's really important to have those conversations not only with my role alike other 10 other um elementary principles but also Julio at town hall is um it what's been interesting about some of those tabletop exercises or problem of practice is it's not necessarily a oh xyz it's really been wonderful to see the questions that have come out of that which speaks to kind of the training that we're all going through and understanding the story it's not always xyz it's hm what questions might I have if I was faced with this scenario during a fourth grade recess and what might I need to find out more about and so that's been very helpful as a group to calibrate especially with any new legislation or policy that's that's been

238very important and I can say that all the principles are very adept at picking up the phone and calling each other calling town hall um hopefully not too much but um we are as we try to navigate this together it's been a wonderful network to to do this with >> thank you and uh the only the only other question I had and when we looked at these numbers I was somewhat takenback by and And Julio mentioned this by the number of of Hispanic students who seem to have uh had been recorded as having one or more challenging behavior incidents and you know then received one of the more severe sanctions. it, you know, by by the numbers it does appear very disproportionate, you know, you know, you know, relative relative to the population. And I

239was wondering if I know this is our first year really putting all this together, but given your experience in the district, do you do you think this is an aberration or do what do what do you you know what what are you seeing from these numbers compared to your experience both in the classroom and in town hall? you know, I I think and even Ann McCern and I have had conversations because she's really monitoring our um chronic absenteeism numbers and to look at, you know, the the through line that we're we're having and seeing. And [snorts] I think, you know, the piece that to say is that I think what it's done is really just say we need to just name it and start to really proactively think about how do we tackle this and

240not just look at numbers and say, "Oh, right." And and that's why really bringing in Teresa and having her in front of our team and saying, "Here they are." Right? like and and I I don't know that we used to really dive into them so closely and so regularly to track and to look for patterns and to look and to see um because you know one of the things that we're starting to really take a look at now too is like where are these behaviors occurring um because you know when we start to look at particularly at at maybe the high school right and we start to see that many of these behaviors are happening let's say in the hallways or in lunch um and they're not happening in classrooms and and so it starts

241to help us get an understanding of okay like that also helps us see is it some of the unstructured time? Is it something with perhaps like the lunch waves are maybe just a little too long? Like whatever that would be. Um and so I think the data it's it's something that helps us ask a lot more questions. Um you know and and I hope to be able to come back to to start to say like hey here's some of the stuff we started to tackle and started to look at. But you know to to answer your question Jonathan I was certainly taken back by it. Um but it is as we started to look at some of our other data points, you know, it's the same sort of um subgroups that are causing us to

242look at them and needing to just now say we've just got to look at this and tackle and come up with legit plans on what we need to do to start to to do that. And and I think what Teresa mentioned is one of the things that we're really doing is sitting with kids, right, and sitting down with groups and doing focus groups and saying like, "Hey, help us like what do you think? What are we missing?" Right? Um, I think oftent times we as adults like to sit down and brainstorm great ideas and then you go talk to kids and like what are you doing? You know, and so instead of wasting [snorts] our time doing that, we want to go sit down with them. And I know that Paul and Teresa do that

243every year, right? They meet with the seniors and and sort of say like, hey, walk us through like what worked, what didn't work, what do we need to do better. And we want to take that same approach with these types of pieces and to say like, hey, here's the numbers. we've seen we've seen a heightened in you know whatever um insubordination let's just say across like what is it what's causing that um to take a look at some of those pieces so that we can start to hear what do kids say um and I know that's the work that at the elementary level they do so well um and and you know start to do those pieces and trying to think of at the secondary level as the numbers get a little bit larger like

244how do we take that and break it down so perhaps it's our school counselors who've got a smaller case load partnering with the assistant principles and really starting to tackle those things and then start to draw through lines of what are we hearing across the school, what are we hearing across the district um to start to tackle some of those different pieces. So, I hope that answers your question, Jonathan, a little bit. >> It it [snorts] does. And and I know this this is really just the beginning and uh the the only other two data points I would like to see maybe for ne you know for next time um I would like to see how many incidents are recorded um as having taken place on school grounds versus you know out of school incidents

245that come to that come to the district's attention. I'd like you know I'd like to see what proportion there. I would also be curious to see uh how many result in criminal referrals as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. Um, we do is the number of arrests is that part of the PPR report at the end of the year? >> I don't recall off top of my head. We'll have to look at that. Um, >> okay. >> And when you're talking about that, you're talking about actual arrests. [snorts] >> I mean, actual arrests are certainly quantifiable. I guess the question is if you know if you could quantify say referral to law enforcement as well. I mean if that's quantifiable I'd be curious to see that as well. >> Yeah I'll take a look at

246that. I know >> certainly a hard data point. >> Yeah I think one of the things that we've looked at really is also that partnership with our West Harford PD and and even with them and taking a having them look at some of their practices and and going down a JRB route instead of perhaps some of these different pieces. Um, you know, most of our discipline referrals and discipline they're going to be on school grounds. Our offschool grounds would probably be more um related to I would say the the drugs, alcohol, and tobacco infraction. Um, which I also wish that we could break those separately cuz you know having and I think that's the problem with some of these when you cluster them together and I can't break them apart to say right it's it's

247a different you know I'll just make up a number. If I said, "Hey, we had 15 drug incidents." I think that's very different than if I said, "Hey, we have 15 tobacco incidents." Right? Both are bad. And I disagree with kids doing both of those. However, I do think they're just they're different. Um, and so we're not able to break that up. And so trying to conceptualize like what does that look like as well is a piece. But, you know, we'll we'll take a look at that. And, you know, I do appreciate some of the feedback um that we're getting. And I know that Paul I can guarantee is writing things down and I'm writing things down on Teresa's because like I said, I think our biggest piece is wanting to partner um with everybody,

248right? Partner with parents, partner with caregivers, partner with teachers, partner with um you know, community members because at the end of the day, it the old saying, right, it takes a village. Um and and I'm not sure, you know, what other districts I I don't know any other district that's necessarily being as transparent um and upfront about the work. Um, and so I do think that that speaks to the the value that we put in this and that we recognize that we need to do this and tackle this all together. >> Well, again, thank you and I I really appreciate the work and it's a great start. >> Latoya, >> thank you. Thanks for the presentations. Awesome. Great start here. Um, I have just a couple of things uh I wanted to lift up. Sorry,

249I forgot a little bit. All right, it's back. Um, [laughter] so one of them was um around the the proactive stuff like the building trust. Um, something that I'm just reminded of in my own practice as an educator that I thought was really helpful was when rolling out restorative practices with the community, engaging in the conversations with families about it, too. That we're rolling this out. legislation came out from the state, but this is something that we've been committed to. Um, and getting parents on board with it, offering them opportunities to get trained in some of the stuff that you named Theresa, that was awesome, like a effective statements and shame, all those things, because if we're doing it at school, but then they're at home and they're getting the traditional punitive consequences and it

250can bump up against each other. The other thing was like having the using the restorative justice process with families and students around the history of harm in the school system. That's how I got the buy in from day one. Like I sat with families and students and circled up and said like I recognize that the institution of education has harmed your families for generations and you've no reason to trust us and use the process with them and then made a commitment like moving forward like we really want to do things with you like we and that's part of this practice. And so I think taking the practice um and and using it to actually address some of that harm and like to say that we know we know where we've been like we know the

251harm that we've caused and this is a part of our commitment to move forward is so powerful and getting the buy in and strengthening those relationships. So that's one thing. Um the other thing I was thinking about too were the same thing as Ethan just the school policy violations and just trying to understand how um yeah we can just support folks and not advocating responsibilities to admin over some of those things like misuse of a hall pass like I'm like why is that even recorded like that's a conversation and you don't have to be formally trained to ask what happened what were you thinking like who's been impacted like what do you need to do next time right that's like the impromptu that you're talking about. So, some of these things I'm like, okay, it's

252great and like how can we support administrators with not having to be inundated with some of those things. Um, and I was I'm y'all going to have to drag me along on the in school suspensions in elementary school. I haven't seen it before. I didn't do that. I wouldn't do that. I mean, you got to really sell me on this one. >> So, I want you [laughter] I want you to I want you to reframe. So, by law, if we take you out of your classroom and you're not able to engage, that is what we must call it. We don't consider it that, right? We consider it um you're not ready to go back in the classroom. And that's real, right? Like, you know, let's say I was, let's say I'm a student in the

253classroom and I got upset with you and you're the teacher and I decide to like, I don't know, throw my shoe at you and hit you in the face. Let's be realistic about this. You are you you as a teacher are a human being. You have feelings. You felt some way about it. Um, the whole class watched you get hit with the shoe in front of your face. Now, this has not happened. Let me before I go on with this story, Paul's like, Teresa, this has not happened. But I'm just trying to give you a very like >> right over the top example. Here's my question. >> So, wait. So, now you teacher have some things you need to work through, right? Right. About about this because you love this child, >> but this child

254has done has caused harm, >> right? And you student definitely did need to deescalate and being in that space without because now to somebody else to other children in that room you now seem like somebody who is might be perceived as being dangerous and not safe to be around. So we have the stigma of what your decision what you chose to do. You have a teacher who has been harmed right. How in what world would I say oh tomorrow clean slate here you go back in the room. No. So our process of working through with kids because you're not anytime we remove you from your learning setting, we must classify it as basically you're in school suspension like that because you're not you're not in your learning space, right? And so we're we're removing you

255from that because you have some things that you need to work through and you have to prepare yourself to do that. Like we don't have a oh the kid's just not here today. And to be honest with you, like if I just send you home to your parent, I don't know that you're having the conversation that you need to have, right? Um we're we're we're responsible for making sure that you as a teacher are you feel safe, right? And that you're ready to receive the student and that the student is ready to be received and that that classroom has processed this moment that just happened. So we don't just say, "Hey, next day, here you go. Back into the classroom. Nothing's up." Like we we we are we have an obligation to make sure that

256everybody's safe. So, I hear what you're saying about the wording, but I want you to think of that wording very differently about the practice of you need a moment. We need a moment. Everybody needs to process this and then we can come back together and we figure out how we make how because how do I receive you back in the classroom and how do I make sure that your your students like the other students in the classroom receive you back in and don't see you as this person who had this, you know, it was a moment, right? And so like I think part of that process um in particularly with really young kids because um they're not going to give you when you if you ask the like you know oh you know what do

257you think happened you're not getting a straight answer. So you have like it's a process that you go through you know right and so >> I I get all that. I'm not trying to cut you off. >> So like so that's why it's it's not really I get all that. I feel you. I feel you. I feel you my sister. And now, respectfully, I disagree because do they need to does that have to does that have to take an entire school day to do? If it's not the whole school day, is it really in school susping it's it's not the whole day, right? >> Yeah. So, [gasps] um it doesn't have to be the whole day, but um there are certain things that we are beholden to that are law and policy and and um

258part of what I was just kind of processing through as you're having this conversation is [snorts] in my mind as an administrator, I think about 90 minutes. So, if a student is out of their classroom setting for 90 minutes or over, that needs to be counted as something a little bit differently than just a conversation in the office. Um, so that doesn't mean that these are all 91 minutes or you know some might be a half day full day but there is some flexibility and I do think you know there there does need that space and the grace to kind of process and think about and if that happens to be over 90 minutes before the student is regulated again you know unfortunately and you know we can keep opinions to ourselves about like how

259we feel in our hearts about doing that but you know we are bound by certain regulations and 90 minutes out of the classroom room is one of those. >> Okay. So, 90 plus. So, that's my thing. Like, that's all I I'm like it doesn't need to be the whole day. [laughter] >> And it's it's certainly not always. Um and and sometimes it can be. So, you know that it's so situational and everything is so different, but I felt like that was important to to share. >> Yeah. Okay. No, thank you, >> Miriam. Thank you. It certainly seems like there has been a tremendous amount of effort and care and you know research to really ensure restorative practice in compliance with state mandate and certainly in the best interest of our students from you know the

260executive team all the way through teachers from what I'm understanding and I have a couple questions. I first wanted to piggyback on what uh my colleague Latoya um just brought up which I think is a great idea that um you know parent buyin is huge and it would be great if I could make this suggestion that um you know evidence starting from the beginning so the evidence that you're using to support the practice to support the work in schools to support the work with various communities special education etc would be amazing to have accessible to the community for that kind initial in you know initial buyin and also to be able to then support parent understanding and participation with you know also the availability of resources that perhaps are employed in the classrooms to be

261available for parents. So I I think that's a great idea. I would love to see that also to be able to it's another way to support our students. Um, I also wanted to piggyback on what my colleague John said or asked, which was, um, it also occurred to me that what we're seeing are the CSDE required, uh, reported incidents. This is of the 20% of the work of restorative practice, so to speak. Um, and so I was just curious about the incidents that are not required by CSD to be reported. And, um, you know, Mr. Dr. Dwarte, you mentioned the calibration across incidents in the district. So, it made me wonder what about, you know, all these classrooms in the district where classroom management techniques are being utilized and how that is being reported and

262the data being tracked. Um, because I guess I'm trying to look at how are we or how how is the impact going to be measured. So, where is the data coming from? So we have the official CSDE data but then certainly we have things that are going on in the classrooms and it would be also helpful to know because potentially incidents in the classrooms that are not reported could then lead to be CSD reported uh incidents. So it would be helpful to kind of have some kind of baseline and understanding to follow trends but also to see what issues are going on that perhaps aren't being addressed even by the way that these categories according to CSD are listed. So, um, just wondering if there is calibration, if there's kind of uniformity about classroom behaviors

263that teachers would be logging. It also seemed that in the restorative practice training manual that teachers are required to kind of log and share, you know, their experiences and and what's going on and whether, you know, what the outcome was and students as well who were old enough to engage and participate in and answer surveys. So I'm curious about that data as well and what's being reported and identified uh by teachers involved and by students um as well. And I guess big picture for me too is trying to understand this is this part was kind of the 20% but looking at the 80% of like building community um and trying to understand where where is the data that we're showing the impact of restorative practice because I think about like our charge again as a

264board and if we're looking at student achievement which is quantifiable we're looking at data we're looking at scores which is often I think supported by qualitative ative data and that's important um and I recognize that but I'm really trying to understand where how do we track uh you know restorative practice the impact and the impact then on student achievement. So I'm hoping you could help make that connection or figure out or or help us understand you know where we can see that data um going forward that would be helpful. Thank you. So [laughter] all those questions in one, I was like, "Oh." All right. So I'm going to work on I think feel like what what maybe I can talk about and then I'll pass uh to Julio. Um so you know I think one

265of the things that I um [sighs and gasps] if I could if I could have had the ear of legislators when they when they or even like you know when they adopted this practice um to kind of um add some input. One of the things that has been my um the thorn um in my side um is you know it's like everything else right we call oh social emotional learning seal we have we come up with these catch things and then it becomes it diminishes from what it actually is so I'm going to try to be really um concrete about this right so culture and climate building is something that as a district we have always done we have culture and climate surveys we have done them we they're required by you know state all

266we do them anyway because we want to know how people are feeling. We've always measured how people are feeling right about you know about their school experience. Now what I can tell you is do do you know what would be great is is that every single person and every single family which is by the way a plug when you get your culture and climate survey please make sure you take it. Um it would be great if every single person um filled it out because then you actually can take that data I think I think it's like 30% right becomes like a valid data source for us. Um so you know depending on schools like we're we're always pushing to have more and more families be responsive and to have more and more um families representative

267of the school population right be responsive to that. So we've had to kind of come up with some um you know less favorable because I know that everybody likes numbers but we've had to come up with some other ways and other forms for us to be connected and know what our families are thinking. So we've been heavily engaged. We did street data study last year. We've been heavily engaged in focus groups across all levels. Um when you hear Titan talks and DEN talks again, what is it? It's student focus groups. It's students being able to come in and talk about what's working for them and what's not working for them. Uh we do it across our elementary schools, every single elementary school. Um, one of the things about, you know, when you think about equity

268and the definition of equity is, you know, understanding individually what people need and providing them that every school needs something different. So although I'm going to say that I want every single school, every single staff member, if I can get my hands on every single one, to have a certain level of um understanding of the work that we do and the expectations of for what we're looking for. um you know when you when you take that data and you you referenced um that they do um reflections and surveys so much of this work is is self-work and I think that that there's um we gloss over that right I'm I'm I'm asking the adults to to um to monitor their ability to address things right and so like when I ask you to to um

269to think about your practice as a teacher it's not as a principal and as certainly at a district level I'm not asking you to take that, write it down, and hand it to me because the moment I make you do that, you are less engaged in actually doing that or you're going to start um you're going to start scripting what you think I want to hear versus having the honest conversation. And so when you give people um you know, we are professionals. When you give people the the space in the room to self-evaluate and then to to make a commitment for themselves and maybe you find an accountability partner, right? even amongst our principles who's who's going to be your accountability partner to kind of hold you to what you've committed to. That's like the

270inter internal work that has to be done for for real change to happen. And so um so you you you you do all these things in combination. So like the student surveys, each building is doing their student surveys or their student focus groups and they take it back to their team and they have a conversations and they divi they develop a plan unique to their school and the needs of their school in that moment, right? Um, and that really, you know, gets at the heart of what we're trying to do. I can't make a plan that's going to that will is going to work for every single school because every single school has a different heartbeat. Um, and we want them to have that different heartbeat. And I need you as a principal to know

271the heartbeat of your school and to and to be connected um to to your community so that you can make recommendations for change. And I do think that that when you think about collecting the data, it's not that the data is not collected. I'm I'm really excited for for February's February 3rd. Um you know, I'll have a panel of um administrators and maybe some students so that you could see the work in action so that you can start to understand how we're looking at data differently. Um because one of the things that we've been cautioned about is this obsession we have for numbers. Um and people are not numbers and experiences are not numbers. But when you can get people to tell you their lived experiences, um there is when you're trying to change things

272there like the numbers like again it's like our our data, right? This tells us we have a problem. It it it it raises a flag. It tells us, hey, woohoo, look over here. Like there's something something's not quite right here. We c we don't fix this by keeping keep looking at this number. We fix this by actually having those focus groups with students and talking about you know what what do they think might be impacting um you know this number right what do they think what are some practices I think that we as as educators can look at differently and so I appreciate numbers I trust me I came from a background where like everything had to be proved by data but I've also learned that change happens when you connect with the people and

273you get to the heart of why things are happening right and so we're trying to balance both and I promise you you will continue to receive both um some some data and some numbers, but the reality is is like a lot of those numbers live at the building. They partner with us at, you know, at central office and with our team. We come in, we help support. If you have a project that you're doing, we help that that project. Um but really, we'll kind of dive it heavily into that at the next um board meeting. So, you could actually talk directly to principles and you could talk to them and ask them about the data specifically from their building. Um, and I think last year when we presented, I know you weren't on the board

274at that point, but like we had um like Shannon was here and had presented about what what she did in her building and she took that data and then that sparked a change in her like because that's what we're looking for. I'm not looking I'm looking for adults to change their behavior to impact student behavior and experiences. Like that's that's the goalpost. That's what we're really looking for because that's um we are the model for students. Uh and that's you know really the highest level of achievement when it comes to this work is adults adult behavior impacting student behavior. >> Um >> and I might have missed and Julia might have had some other question. >> I was just going to say in the interest of time I'm just mindful of of the hour. Um

275any did you have because I had a summary thing I was just go >> I do I do. Um, so actually that leads me to my my last question which was really just seeking some clarification around a statement that was made prior which was um we don't and correct me if I'm wrong please or please clarify to make sure but it was something along the lines of we don't need to learn different ways hate shows up. So I'm hoping you can help clarify with the recent statement that you know adult behaviors are impacting our students. Can you help me understand exactly? >> So when it particularly when it comes to elementary school students, so yeah, let me clarify that statement. Um, learning the nuances of um me talking to you because I know like other

276I don't know how to put it without like offending somebody. So I'll just use myself. It's example. me talking to you about the different ways that I receive hate as I travel the world um is is impactful for you. Um it may it may touch your heart. It may not. Right? That's I I I for um as I'd like to believe that everybody wants their heart to be be changed and to kind of see us all as you know equal etc. Like I don't have any guarantee of that. where we have impact is where where I can influence the practices that we use so that I can ensure right that we are not deliberately doing things that are going to make you feel like you don't belong right so I have better impact instead of

277me trying to either convince you of my experience or um give you you know um 20 million different examples of the different things I experienced which again not saying it's not like might might not be helpful for you to to know, but our job is to impact behavior and change. And so, and you'll never know the nuances. You'll never be able to be as um you know, if I told you them all, right, and I told you about microaggressions and I told you about the different microaggressions I experienced, you'll be sitting in a room and some and and we're hearing something and something that you know I hear and and for me is clearly a microaggression. You may not hear it. And there's and there's no part of the trouble with the work this work

278is if I expect you to hear it, right? That's part that's part of the trouble. Like it'd be great if it's really obvious. I hope we all hear it, right? But I will never expect you to understand the nuances like I do. And so when we make that expectation and when we give people that belief that if you don't hear it in the same way that I hear it that then then then it's you know either it's not valid or you don't care you you scare people away from wanting to do the work. So then what can I engage you in? I can engage you in you know how we speak to each other. Um in intent, you know impact versus intent, right? And so I'll apologize because it wasn't my intent to make you

279feel like that that that's what I that what I meant when I said that, right? Because the reality is is it's the impact versus the intent of what you were saying. And so it's it would be impossible for me to have you develop the nuanced understanding of racial um antilack sentiment in the way that I know it. And if I try to teach you that, you're going to become frustrated. I'm going to become frustrated with you. And so that's what I'm trying to get at. It's not it's not a matter that we we shouldn't learn. Of course, on some level, we learn these things, but when you when you if you teach somebody with the expectation that they now are going to have your level of understanding, you you you know, perfection is the enemy

280of all things that have to do with this work. And that that becomes problematic. Um, and I and I think, you know, as professionals, part of our license covers that we make sure that all students feel safe. And I think that we can we all recognize when something's happening that makes a student not feel safe. >> I hopefully that makes that >> Yes, >> that clarifies >> it. It helps. I guess I'm just trying to understand, you know, perhaps maybe it's not an issue of perfection, but, you know, kind of a baseline education and acknowledgement. And I guess what I'm curious about is, you know, there's a lot of um there's a lot of focus on cultural competency and systemic racism and conversation about race and I'm and I'm just curious, you know, especially in

281the CSD reporting if if a third of that is, you know, racial slur and hate crime, you know, is there is there anything in the middle and where are we getting the things in the, you know, issues in the middle? So whether it's anti-semitism, other forms of hate and so where are we then at baseline educating you know ourselves staff to then be at least in the the realm of acknowledging and understanding oh this is actually you know if somebody says this this is an anti-semitic trope or this means this for this specific group so how do we then even at baseline say we're going to have more understanding >> yeah no I think I understand. Um and I and I and I appreciate both points. I think um and and I know that you

282worried a little bit about the time and we'll probably have more opportunity to talk about this. um in general, you know, because I think the the the question was originally framed in around the elementary level and at the at the elementary level, you know, the effort is very strategic to um identify, you know, to use this line of the slurs or and it's not just racial slurs among those. Um there were you know instances of some anti-semitic there were some instances of uh um [snorts] disparaging comments towards students with disabilities or what have you. Um the the effort if and when something like that occurs at the elementary level uh is to educate how how it's painful, hurtful. But the the majority of our efforts really stem for how can we provide students with an

283understanding of differences um in culture, in history, in religion, in um race, ethnicity, in family structure, in and and we we do a lot of that through uh trying to uplift both both share a variety of different elements of identity and and provide uplifting stories when incidents occur. where um there's there's one-on-one conversations where, you know, there's there's an expression of um why that's hurtful and and and why that's not appropriate and and that becomes something, but it's it's very separate from um I think some of the you know the the learning that might happen at an older developmentally appropriate age where you you you kind of get into some of that through different curricular connections, historical connections and other pieces where that gets I a more nuanced understanding starts to occur >> and and

284I apologize if I wasn't clear and I was specifically concerned about the adults the adults who were in charge of the behavior. So not not the kids because understanding elementary is certain but I I'm was and I apologize that I was not clear I was thinking about the adults and the adults who were charged then with handling such issues and their level of education and kind of baseline okay comfortability with you know that's a whole different conversation Yeah, I apologize. That's that's really what I was getting at is the adults in the room. Um to piggyback off, you know, the adults who Yes. As you said, >> so again, so for so the so for example, the administrators who would be again, it's reported, it happen, something happens, it's reported that's always going to the

285principal's office and the the principles do have and continue to have extensive um training and conversation about all the things that we need to be aware of, right? including anti-semitism, including um you know anti-blackness, like so yes, you're absolutely right. So like those the people who are are are responsible for handling that we have these conversations. I kid you not. We they just had an elementary principal meeting. We literally just went over and you know and they were provided resources and we talked about it. So that is ongoing uh an ongoing commitment for us to have those conversations. So I I appreciate that. Sorry, Miam. [laughter] And then uh Jennifer, did you still have a comment? >> Hi everyone. Yes, thank you Shannon. Um just real I want to I'll be brief. Um you know

286first like everyone I want to thank you for sharing this information with us tonight. I think it's a really good start um to the conversation. you know, coming into the board, one of the um concerns I had was um you know, black and brown kids having being treated with discip being treated with discipline actions differently than than white kids or or other peers. And you know, I think one of the really important pieces of this report is going to be comparing data over time. Um and I hear I hear you on that. this is this is the first um time we're seeing numbers and we're going to have to you know be a bit more patient to to compare that. So I I just want to point that out that that's definitely something I am

287um uh I want to know more about and I'm I'm curious about and I think is um a challenge that uh is incredibly timesensitive. Um, and I know or I'm learning, I should say, all that you do as administrators and and school leaders. And it's um incredible to me and still I just feel the need to point out that this is something um you know that that uh is just incredibly important and um I am really looking forward to uh working on this and um you know doing doing all that we can to support our students. So, I'll leave it there given the hour. Um, and and thank you um for for sharing everything this evening. >> Thank you. >> It is 10:35. Teresa, um, >> saying that >> um well, thank you. just to

288um say I I do just appreciate your spirit of continuous learning with respect to this report and the process in which things are reported and definitions that have been a moving target and seem to have settled. So we look forward to establishing the baseline and it sounds like we're um going to hear significantly more about the actual implementation of restorative practices at the February 3rd meeting. Um, and I think speaking to what Miriam said, hearing kind of how it while it's unique to each school, how there is some baseline or standardization at some level so that there's a calibration and consistency in the way that it's being implemented, a fidelity to the implementation. Um, I think everyone is going to look forward to that. Unfortunately, I will be missing the February 3rd meeting, but I

289will watch it on our wonderful uh uh TV station. So, um, thank you all for your time and effort in this and, um, we wish you a good evening. All right. Can we power through this, guys? >> Power. >> We got to power. Okay. So, moving moving on to routine matters. The financial report. Approval of the financial report for the period ending November 30th, 2025. Can I have a motion that the board of education approve the financial report for the period ending November 30th? do so expeditiously. >> Thank you, Jason. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Ethan. And who is planning to report on this? John or Ethan? >> Um, I'll be reporting at a very high expeditious level. >> Beautiful. Go ahead, John. >> Especially because we have uh we

290we have Barbara here. So, Ethan and I met with Barbara last Wednesday uh to go over the financial examiner's report. Um, I can report that as of November 30th, 2025, the projections remain on track with the anticipation of a $15,000 surplus in the $214 million uh general fund budget for the end of the fiscal year. Um, all the exact numbers aren't at page 20 of the board materials. And I would just report that on the major lines, the salary lines, we are projecting to be about $65,000 under budget. Um, in terms of the major details, there's currently an unfair unfavorable variance of 375,000 on the teachers line due to increased staffing needs. Uh, specifically six more elementary classrooms than anticipated. Um, as well as an increase in salaries due to professional growth, but that was

291offset by less expensive new hires. Uh we've had a $240,000 savings in pupil services because of Connecticut seed funding to fund some new special education classrooms and offset current salaries. And we currently have a custodial payroll savings of $100,000 due to vacancies, but that was offset slightly by an overtime overage. We've also have a $75,000 savings on maintenance offset on other lines because of the need to outsource facility services. Uh specifically, there is a $50,000 overage on the purchase services line, mainly because of those those those vacancies in the maintenance area. Um we received grants awards and carry forward authorizations in the amount of $4 million $4,133 uh $490 with 3,852 956 available for public school use. And nutrition services is running a profit of 11,000 $11,798 in November. And that is all I have

292at the highest most expeditious level. And Barbara, Barbara is here to answer any questions as always. >> Welcome Barbara. Um, thank you for staying with us so late into the evening. Uh, any questions or discussion? Jennifer, anything on your end? >> No. >> Great. Um, all right. Uh, moving to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All. Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right, the motion passes. Thank you. Um, moving on. Can I have a motion um that the board of education approved the minutes from the regular board of education meeting of December 16th, 2025? >> Moved. Second. >> Thank you, Ethan. Thank you, John. Uh, any discussion? Any changes? Okay. Nope. Moving to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right,

293the motion passes. Now, moving on to information and reports. Um, do any board members have reports from any other boards or organizations? Okay. Uh, any other information or discussion? Uh, future business, just announcements of the future meeting dates of the board. Um, our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026, regular board of education meeting here in the town hall chamber, legislative chamber chamber, room 314 at 7 p.m. followed by Wednesday. Note the change uh because of the holiday president's day that week. Um will be a Wednesday meeting on February 18th, 2026. again here in the legislative chamber 3:14 at 7 p.m. Um, any requests for future agenda items. Miriam, >> um, do I have to make it in the motion or do I just ask? >> Oh, okay. Um, is it possible to add

294um specific again incident reporting because I know it's been asked in the past um by members of the last board, parents, community members for incident specific which seems like perhaps they're not counted in the s the cde around anti-semitism and other hate related incidents. Um that would be helpful. Um, >> so they are counted. Just to be clear that, uh, I thought Julio mentioned it, it's under personally threatening behavior. And while there's a total of 60 across the district, there's roughly a third of those. So, it's just over 20 that are associated specifically, and that's broad, that's not specific to anti-semitism. I can tell you in that code from our review to my knowledge there were only a handful of anti-semitism but it in but it is inclusive of some incidents of anti-semitism. Use of

295slur words uh relating to race, ethnicity, the nword and such. Some use of uh disparaging remarks regarding um students with disabilities was one that came up a couple of times um for a total of just about 20 incidents. So that was included um just to put that out. But you can we can talk more offline about if there's something more that you guys are looking for >> or perhaps to add it to policy committee agenda. And I don't know if it's too late now for the policy committee on Thursday. >> What policy would that be? >> Um potentially either new ones to discuss with Shipman also to incorporate specific language in our current existing policies. I I would I think we would need kind of something more specific that we're looking at. >> Okay, we

296can talk about it. Sure. >> Okay. So, >> take that offline and follow up. Okay, great. Um, any other agenda item requests? Um, any comments from visitors? Seeing none. Um, oh yes. >> Is it Oh, what? Is it too late? Sorry. To add a future No, sorry. [laughter] >> Sorry. future agenda item and um discussion about a formal board of education curriculum committee. >> So, and I I do think that's something that would potentially originate at the policy committee before coming to the full table, but we can have follow-up conversation about that agenda and timing. >> Okay. Trying to understand the process. Thank you. >> Um all right. Uh there's no executive session. So seeking a motion to adjurnn at or seeking a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Ethan. Second. >>

297Second. >> Thank you, John. Meeting adjourned at 10:43 p.m. Thank you.