Board of Education Meeting of December 2, 2025

001All right. Good evening and calling to order the um December 2nd, 2025 meeting of the West Hartford Board of Education. Um we it's great to have some audience here on this dreary night and I hope everybody was safe and stayed dry today. Um can we get started Amani with a roll call? Miss >> here. Uh excused. >> Mr. President. Present >> present. >> Here >> excused. Okay. Great. Um, so, uh, we did have initially a, um, recommend. Oh, sorry. Excuse me. Um, since we are absent our student uh, representatives tonight, I've asked Jason to 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. >> Thank

002you, Jason. Um, so we did initially on the agenda have a motion to change the order of uh the agenda items, but because of the weather, we are unfortunately not going to be joined by um our Cedric Sounds performance with Mrs. Jenna Day from Sedwick Middle School. Very sorry to hear about that. Is that going to be rescheduled or probably? >> Okay, great. So hopefully we can look forward to the rescheduling of that. Um, I know that you also had a statement to share, Mr. Vicinus and I will turn it over to you. >> Thank you so much. Um, so to our listening public at home, as you may or may not be aware, Hall High School today was in a prolonged state of a heightened security posture called secure the classroom. So in this

003posture, just to say what that means, u students are asked to remain in the classroom, but normal instructional activities may continue. Um, however, visitors are not allowed into the school. Hall was uh brought into the secure the classroom in order to investigate the possibility of a weapon being on the premises. And with the expert assistance of our West Harford Police Department and the collaboration of our own security team and professional staff, it was determined that there was no weapon on the premises. I'll repeat that. No weapon on the premises. Uh but there was a prolonged uh security stance uh as we collaborated with the police department to conduct an investigation. Um during that an initial message was sent out to the hall community to alert families of a police presence and to assure them of

004student safety. Um and a follow-on message was sent immediately upon lifting the secure the classroom once that message was uh cleared for public dissemination. Um the hall team itself um is commended for their response to this incident. Uh kudos to our student population who remained calm and patient throughout. Uh a genuine thanks to our teaching staff um for their professionalism and to our West Harford Police Department partners for helping to clear the school and to ensure student safety. Um, and a real thanks and statement of gratitude and understanding to parents who I recognize during a prolonged period of time and absent really any volume of communication that as a parent they can find satisfactory. Um, I I recognize how they feel and uh and appreciate their patience as uh we work diligently to ensure things

005were um exactly where we hoped and needed them to be with all of our students safe. So, Thank you, Paul. Um, I I echo the the um gratitude to the West Harford public uh police department for their quick response and it's challenging these days with how rapidly and quickly information and communication can move and sometimes it's it makes things more complex and so I'm glad we were able to get the clear information. Um, moving on to public communications. Um this is a time for the board of education to hear from you, our community members. Um your thoughts, questions, concerns, and suggestions. Um when you come to the podium, please share your name and town of residence. Each individual is allowed three minutes to speak. And please be mindful of Ammani who will be holding up

006a yellow card when there is one minute remaining in your time and a red card when your time has concluded. We ask for you to then please conclude your comments in a timely fashion and respectfully take your seat. Please be aware that we are actively listening during this time. However, it is a policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made. Um, we will begin with comments regarding agenda items for tonight's meeting. And just as a reminder, the agenda items for tonight are adoption of the annual board meeting schedule for 26 2026 27, college credit bearing programs, approval of the financial report period ending October 31st, 2025, and approval of minutes from the November 18th, 2025 board of education meeting. There is nobody who signed up for any agenda items, but

007is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak on any of those agenda items? Okay, moving on to general comments. Um, we have a couple of individuals who have signed up. Uh, first being, um, Shriber. Um, my name is Hoga Shriber, a resident of West Hartford. Most of you were here three months ago when my wife and I reached out to you to discuss inappropriate behavior by administrators in the context of the suicide of our son Luca Shriber in August 2024. This was after we shared numerous emails and attachments with you with a request to investigate, establish accountability, and make changes so that this will never happen again. Three months have gone by and nothing has happened. I'm here today to remind you again that your obligation under section 2120 of your board

008policies is to supervise and evaluate the superintendent. You were elected to lead this school district and if administrators do not act or even worse take actions that put students at risk, it is your job to hold the superintendent responsible. Such investigations need to be performed with sufficient objectivity and independence and can't be managed by the same individual the complaints are against. You were given plenty of notice and opportunities to ask us specific questions about the information we provided and discuss how accountability will be established and things are going to be changed. However, you don't seem to be interested in such discussions which is very disappointing. As a reminder, we have serious concerns about how students with severe depressions are treated in West Hartwood and how disciplinary measures are identified, putting students well-being at risk like

009that of our son. We share with you specific concerns about misrepresentation of facts and educational records, selective investigation of bullying allegations by following up on some but ignoring others. disrespecting a medically diagnosed severe depression disorder and belittling it as emotional issues in the context of disciplinary investigation among several others. Those types of behaviors don't occur in isolation. They happen because certain administrators in West Hartford work under the assumption that there is no accountability and no consequences for their behavior. It saddens us to notice that our elected officials care so little, but we hope that you can reconsider, especially with some new Bman being here today. And just to be clear, we won't stay quiet as we are doing this to prevent similar tragedies from happening again in West Hartford. Thank you. >> Thank you. >>

010Uh, next is Brendan Callahan. Hi, good evening. Um, yeah, Brennan Callahan, West Hartford resident. So, um, I was here about a year ago, um, to share about our nine-year-old daughter, Charlotte. She's a fourth grader at Duffy. Uh, when I was here, I I described her big curly hair, uh, as well as her multiple disabilities. I expressed a concern that extended school year offerings for students like Charlotte have been shrinking over time from 8 weeks to 6 weeks to 5 weeks and most recently to four weeks. And I asked for some creative problem solving to support vulnerable students like Charlotte who need routine and continuity to thrive. So, I wanted to be sure to return this fall to express my family's genuine gratitude to this board. Uh, last summer, the district partnered partnered with the Justice

011Education Center to bring Inspire Ability Summer Camp to Charter Oak School. Uh, we are grateful to Melissa Cabayro and Kelly Browse for their leadership on this front. Uh, and thankful to this board for your support. The camp was a welcoming and enriching community for Charlotte who was not able to access most summer camps. At this camp, Charlotte had exposure to arts and crafts. Uh she had a chance to to learn how to strum the cello. Um she even got to play sports with some visitors from Yukon. She made friends and she kept learning and growing. In fact, last summer, Charlotte was finally able to toilet train. something she achieved with coordinated support from her team at Duffy, uh, the summer camp team, and our family throughout the summer months. Uh, this sort of growth is

012truly life-changing for Charlotte, and we could not be more grateful. So, as we look ahead to next summer, I'm hopeful that the district will continue this partnership. Our most vulnerable students need the support. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Um, there is no one else signed up uh for comment at this time. However, is there anyone else who would like to speak? All right, moving along to um non-staff communications and reports. We would typically um hear from our student representatives at this time, but they have been uh excused for the evening given the weather uh situation out there. So um we know that Kayla and Bridget are here in spirit. Um unfinished business, we have none. So moving on to new business. Um we have next the adoption of the annual board meeting schedule

013for 2026 2027. Can I I'm seeking a motion that the board of education review and revise as appropriate the proposed annual board meeting schedule and adopt a final meeting calendar for the 2026 2027 school year. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Jason. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miriam. Any discussion, Paul? >> Yeah. So, I'll just uh orient you to that schedule. Uh it is located on page two of your board booklet. And um as you may or may not realize um it it's necessary for boards of education to pass to pass a regular meeting schedule a year at least a year in advance. Uh so uh and a calendar year. So we typically uh take care of this business in December. Um so what is proposed pretty much follows uh

014the pattern uh that we've established here in the district of the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Um with the exceptions being noted in red um and where there may be any perceived gap in meetings typically that's uh for the observance of any religious holidays. Um we are not infallible. So if there is something that you have observed that does not work for you as a board, I would ask you to let me know and we can uh we can either decide that uh tonight or uh we could bring it back for an additional reading based on based on the preferences of the board. >> Thank you. Um any questions, comments, conflicts? Jennifer. >> Hello everyone. Um sorry that I was late. you know, no particular conflict and I don't think this is the

015moment to discuss this, but you know, it seems to me like we meet a lot. Um, and I want to just put that out there, I guess, again, for a discussion another time. Um I am new to the board and I'm learning but I've attended previous board meetings as a guest and um it seems to me like we could find some efficiencies in both the material given to us of like you know us having discussions and being able to talk about issues um and then also work uh off off of the uh scheduled board meetings and committees and things like that. So, I just want to put it out there. Um, I'm new and I'm not looking to change anything like today, but uh just from what I've seen so far, it seems like this

016is something um we should be thinking about. >> Thank you for bringing that up. It will I think it's something we can Yeah. follow up on. Any other concerns or questions about the dates specifically? So, do we feel good about moving to a vote to officially adopt it? Okay, great. Um, so, um, can we move to all in favor say I? >> I. >> Uh, any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. Thank you. The motion passes. Um, all right. We are now moving on to staff communications and reports, and we will start out with the superintendent's report. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. Um, so December has clearly ushered in some winter weather. Um, but it also is the time where we have a wealth of uh happenings at our school, especially as it relates to

017our our winter concerts, uh, musical performances, and uh, so many so many great things. So, um, very excited to uh, to enter into the December months. Uh the first share that I have actually kind of hits on that December theme of uh holidays. So the governor and Mrs. Lamont, they annually host a holiday open house at the governor's mansion. Uh we're very proud to announce that this year there will be handcrafted decorations adorning the governor's tree created by our very own Charter Oak Elementary students with some support from um Connor students who are partners. Uh on the subject, I'm sure our students would have mentioned this uh but I wanted to give a kudos to our Hall encountered football teams uh who participate in an event each year to honor educators that have made a

018positive difference in their lives. It's a program called our jersey, your impact whereby players provide uh one of the teachers or educators or people in the school who made a difference for them um a uh one of their jerseys and and I put some pictures in so that you could see uh kind of what that looks like. Um I also want to share that the district has earned recognition as part of the Bonnie B. Carney Awards program which is a program uh sponsored by CAB the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education for Excellence in Educational Communications. Um it's our budget document that was submitted and it earned an honorable mention which is a tie for second place um for exceptional clarity and transparency. And just a huge shout out to Barb Rua and her entire

019team for the amazing work that goes into putting that together every year. Um, I did share with you and kind of re-shared for our new board members. Um, just some general information in your board packet about the seed grant. Seed SED is short for special education expansion development grants. It's a new grant from the state of Connecticut this year uh for which uh West Harford as well as other towns have all received uh funding. the funding is coming um basically equivalent to an entitlement in the same way that our title one title two grants are. So it's so it's to say that everybody gets something and the the something that you get as a district is based on student population and demographic factors. uh to receive the grant uh there's still an award process similar

020to where you have to submit uh proposals and while we've received the amount of our allocation and I believe we've actually the funding is actually there in the system in the electronic grant system we're we're not yet able to access those grants until the state puts up and publishes a grant proposal so they'll review how we plan to spend it um we'll share that that information will also come out I'm certain through finan financial examiners. But I just wanted to raise the awareness of that um as something uh to be on the lookout for. Couple of announcements under curriculum and professional development. I did want to share that Charter Oak International Academy, which as you likely know is a magnet school, which has an international balora theme to it, um is undergoing a program visit,

021what what essentially I would call an accreditation visit. Um, I was I was pleased to have Shannon be able to attend. Um, but the accreditation team, the visiting team is there all week. They're engaged with classroom visits, student focus groups, parent focus groups, teacher conversations. Um, and we're very excited uh to get their feedback and to really showcase everything that exceptional that happens over there. Um, once that final report is available, I'll be certain to share it with the board. Likewise, Connard High School um is in its final preparations for the NEAS denial visit. NASK stands for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. It's an accreditation visit for our high schools. Um they will be uh having those meetings in earnest beginning on Monday of next week. Um and they're very very excited

022to showcase the incredible number of strengths that Connard has. Um, a district curriculum leadership team as well as uh staff from our career and technical education uh attended the first annual Connecticut high school public safety pathways summit in late November. And not only do they did they attend, I need to credit uh both Ann McCernen uh but also Chief Priest of our of our fire department for their work together and their collaboration to really they they uh I think conversations that they were having kind of spawned the event and created a statewide focus. Um, and so this event was a gathering of fire and public safety officials as well as educators from across the state to talk about what pathways exist and to educate school districts about how to start a a program that that

023supports uh career and technical advancement in in the public safety sector. Um, and lastly, I believe I wanted to highlight uh an announcement that's here from our sister organization, the West Harford PLTI. It was most recently selected as one of only five parent leadership institute programs in the state of Connecticut to receive uh state grant to fund their mission. Um and it's and it's due certainly to the large success that West Harford PLTI has had ongoing now for 14 years. So um they run classes um weekly from January until June and I know that they have communication going out through our school newsletters um if there are community members interested um in joining. Uh those uh really are a summary of my updates. Uh open to any questions. Thank you, Paul. Any questions? Ethan, >>

024just one question on the special education and expansion development seed grant. The way it reads, and it could be just me, it's new money, but it seems like it's not enough money. So, my question is, is it going to bring more resources? Is it going to bring more cost? >> So, it is new money, and and I would say, sure, is there such a thing as enough money? I don't know. Um but uh it is bringing new money to uh West Hartford as well as other districts across the state. Um and the caveat to that is that they're looking for expansions. Um and we have expanded. So one an example of one of the expansions that we had this year for which we can apply the funds. Um we increased the number of intensive academic

025programs. So programs to support um students with autism in our schools and and significant academic needs. We expanded programming to Charter Oak is one place. Um and so we are going to be able to um balance costs that we have associated with that uh with funding from the seed grant. And there are several other areas uh that we're looking at to apply those funds based on expansions that we've had um within special special education funding. But that's um that's essentially kind of what the state's looking for is how they can provide additional funding to school districts recognition of the growing need for programs and also looking for innovation in new programming. So um that's also as the seed grant continues a way that we can look to kind of uh help to fund some efforts

026that we may take on here in the >> structurally it should be neutral. >> Uh it's it's to our benefit. It's going to give us um additional funding we would not otherwise have. >> The funds themselves won't, you know, they'll be listed as a as a separate grant. So, they're not coming out of our general fund. >> Yeah. And I think just the clarification is that this is different money than the money we typically get to offset the cost of special education. Okay. My question was more it's new money, but does it require additional money to come in? It sounds like it's being absorbed by the money that's already there in the budget and so you have the >> Yeah, we the the existence of this seed grant was something that was communicated to us

027in advance as we were looking at budget last year. Although we didn't necessarily know a number, we we obviously knew that we had um a need for expansion in our programming based on enrollments and and things of this nature. So um this will this will offset uh if that money was not available planned expenses that we would otherwise need to based on the expansion of our programs, but it also offers us the opportunity to look at new programming efforts. >> Jennifer Um I think we're going to go through the um financial report later, but one of the bullets there is pupil services shows a $240,000 savings to the Connecticut seed funding. So I guess just so I'm clear, am I getting the two things confused here or is that the same? >> Um if I

028might defer that question until Barb comes up just so I make sure I don't misspe. >> We can definitely wait. Not a rush. >> Wonderful. I'll put a note that we come back to that. Uh any other questions for Paul, right? Um I just want to make an additional plug for the parent leader teacher uh parent leader training institute um PLTI. I was a participant um going on six years ago and it was one of the most transformative experiences as a parent. You get amazing resources, amazing education. It's completely free. There's child care. Um the whole thing is just set up in such a great way. And so I encourage any parent who's even thinking about it to definitely check it out. Um there are there I'm not sure how the the word is spreading.

029But I have a flyer um that I can get to Paul if you don't have it and then we can >> we sent that flyer out through our school. >> Okay, perfect. So take advantage of it. There's there's nothing to lose. So, um, great. All right. So, we now are moving on to staff reports and board discussions and we will be hearing tonight from Ann McCernin and Mrs. Eileene. Is Eileene unavailable? Okay. Um, so an will be joining us to talk about college credit bearing programs with West Harford Public Schools. >> It's like quite the >> Oh, yes. walk up with the screen coming down. >> As as Ann gets settled, I'll just introduce her for uh for board members that are new. Um Ann is our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. And uh

030this report is uh one of uh has has become one of the most exciting reports that we love to give each year based on what really is a streak of um continued excellence that that started more than 10 years ago now and uh continues to exceed our expectations um which is a testament to the work of our teachers and the potential of all of our students. So, with that, I'll turn it right over to Ann. >> Good evening, everybody. It's nice to see you. Welcome to our new board members. Uh, nice to have you with us. Um, and last year I came to the table and I said there couldn't be a possibly be a better report. Someday there is go not going to be. I was definitely wrong because this report is outstanding in

031so many ways. And although we'll always look for room for growth, um it's hard to imagine, you know, it's really hard to imagine. It's it's an outstanding report. I'm very proud of our teachers who work tirelessly with our students, our students who are willing to challenge themselves and um their parents who are willing to support them and all of the many people who created multiple pathways for students to experience this uh earning credits in high school in ways that are comfortable for them. So, I'll start off by um reviewing tonight's agenda. We'll go over the purpose and the benefits of a dual credit programs. Um a dual credit meaning that you are enrolled in high school. You get a high school credit for the class you're taking and you can get college credits. One, three,

032or four is usually the majority are three credit courses. There's occasionally four credit courses that are lab courses and we have a new course that has a one credit course. Um we'll talk about the executive summary put in your uh packet. Um we'll look specifically at the advanced placement program which has been a star in this district for 20 years probably and then the other dual credit uh programs which are um the Yukine ECE um other state and private universities that students enroll with and the Connecticut State system which is our community college system. And then we'll open it up for questions and discussions and please interrupt me at any time if you have any questions. Uh our goal is to prepare and inspire every child for their future. And um a quite a bit

033of this is to give them the rigorous coursework that they need to extend beyond their high school curriculum. And there are many many benefits for students who take these programs. They are exposed to more rigorous lessons. They earn transferable college credit. They gain some confidence and to succeed at their next level. Um we have three uh the AP program is the college board's program that has been around for many many years. Um I don't know how long actually. Um it has it has some other programs around the world that are similar. There's the IB international baloria program. There's the Cambridge program. But these are the leading programs in the world for children to take high school courses and earn college credits. Um although the colleges all accept them in different with different caveats, they are

034all uh applicable to to different colleges. We have our dual enrollment courses which are uh you're sitting in a high school course and you're also taking a course with a university or a college or a community college. And there's great impact for this. We believe that this year we can calculate close to $3.1 million in tuition savings for our families, which is no small amount in anyone's book. Um, so our AP program, 9th through 12th grade students, 47% of our entire high school population participated program just last year. Just last year. So that means that a vast majority of the senior class is taking AP classes as well as the junior class. There are several courses that sophomores take and then the freshmen don't take too many but they they sometimes sign up for one

035or two. Um we administered 3,200 exams. So just think for a moment how much thanks we need to give to the people who actually organized that event at both Conerard and Hall. um 1,272 students participated which is truly amazing when our schools have about 2600 2700 students and the percent scoring three or higher which is uh considered the passing score if there is such a thing as I say some colleges will only accept a four uh in some classes and a three in others but three is considered to be qualified for college work and that was 88%. we had um 678 students. Now, many of these courses are both AP and EC at the same time, so it's hard to get a distinct number, but 678 students participating in the Yukon ECE program. Um 98%

036of those students earn college credit. The Yukon program is one of the oldest, I think it is the oldest dual enrollment program in the country and uh their credits transfer well beyond Yukon. There's a huge list of classes of courses, I'm sorry, of colleges that will accept Yukon credits. We also have students um going to other schools, CCSU and some private colleges and Connecticut State, which is our state community college system. Um just looking at the AP program um as as mentioned in the report rigorous college level classes uh advanced standing for college it's very widely used it is it is comparable to the international balorate diploma program or the Cambridge uh university exam system and there are more than 3,600 universities that will receive AP um and EC uh AP exam scores. Um the

037process is our students start selecting all their courses not just AP courses in February. Um in in the fall they are engaged in their in their coursework. They there are AP resources available AP uh central and uh uh AP daily. There's there's a lot more electronic resources available for students. Now every year the first two weeks of May are the two weeks of exam period for the students. They are scored on a one through five scale for their uh work with five being highly qualified for college. Uh one being not demonstrating that yet and a three being the score that generally is considered to be qualified. Um this is a chart that shows our growth since 2003 in taking AP exams. Um this year uh 47% of our students participated. uh you see a const

038uh a consistent increase in uh participation in this program over the years. You see a dip around 2021 that now those were the pandemic years but we have certainly far exceeded that. Um and I really have to go back and thank people over 20 years ago now who who had a vision and saw it through and every year all the leaders in the district the principles of the school and the teachers have bought in to say kids can do this. So, can kids can our students achieve at a highest level? Absolutely. Our exams uh 3,200 exams that peak this year, you might say, "Wow, look at that peak." And it really was a true uh increase, a dramatic increase this year. Um that may have been the fact that we um this year we restructured

039our AP English courses at Hall where we had multiple options in the 11th grade in the past and this year we limited those options to 12th grade and offered AP uh language and a world language class uh a world literature class and more students chose uh AP uh language class. So I think that was contributing to the dramatic increase this year but they did exceedingly well in your packet in appendix A you're going to see uh you will see the scores for every subject. >> Did you have a question? >> Are you good with questions uh while you present >> any way you like? >> Okay. Um so obviously you know I think it's great so many kids are um availing themselves of this as a mom. One of the things that pops into my

040mind and I think you know we all just got an email about this too is like kids taking on too much >> and you know um so I guess it's a it's a multi-part question but one like are we also considering that maybe our high schoolers are getting too stressed out and trying to do too much and when I see growth like this that's kind of one of the things that pops into my head. Um, and then I guess kind of aligned with that, um, I'm wondering about the focus on AP classes and does that impact like school rankings and other things or, um, I guess I I want to learn I want to know more about that if if you could enlighten me. So I will certainly take a moment and and Paul will

041have some comments I'm sure but one of the things that's important for us is we have no goal for students to take multiple multiple AP classes. Some students do choose to take I have two children who finished um just last year and uh one chose you know a good number and one chose even more. Um our goal is not to have students take any number of these classes. We would like them to be exposed to at least one college class before they graduate. However, that being said, students have their own they talk to their friends and what they're taking and that's certainly something that we need to uh help them with their decisions. Our counselors, I think, are very good at asking them what is the right level for you, right? For instance, one of

042my children didn't didn't want to take the high level maths. So did take APs in most of the humanities. Did not choose the math and science. The other one chose both because and her counselor was very helpful with having her understand this is not going to ruin your college experience if you don't take AP calculus BC in high school. So we have to message well. We have to tell ask students what they want, what they're capable of, what they what they don't want to do. We suggest they take electives, all kinds of electives as well. So it's a balance because you are in a high school high performing high school on many levels and students certainly have their own peer pressure. They also um may be thinking ahead and thinking they need to do this.

043So our counselors have to be very adept at working with them and they do meet with them individually uh every year when they choose their classes. So it's a really important part of um the process to choose what's right for you. Um, and there's there are some students who do not experience a college class before they graduate, and that's fine, too. Uh, but we would we also don't strive for high high scores. We strive for just about the average. 3.1 is the average score. There's no sense in in uh trying to get much higher scores. Uh because the way to do that is to limit participation. We don't want to do that. So, it is everything that you're bringing up is uh valid and we have to be careful. uh in our messaging. >> Okay.

044>> So I had a question just following up on that in terms of the student capabilities and and and expectations. >> Are AP CLA is is there any kind of stratification within these three college options or are AP classes considered to be a higher level than the others? >> Well, it's a it's I I would say that the um there's no real stratification certainly for us. We would like you to have the experience of taking a college class, any one of these these types of classes. Uh, a lot of the AP and Yukon classes actually run concurrently. So, uh, it's hard to stratify because they're they're the majority run together. Then there's a handful of Yukon classes that are ECE that are not AP classes. And you know, it's it's hard to um to really

045answer that because each department at Yukon, for instance, is actually in charge of the uh and the parameters they So, it's not like the university sets parameters for the course. If it's a chemistry course, it's from the chemistry department. If it's an English course, it's from the English department. So, uh it's hard to say is is a AP class harder than a a Yukon class, for instance. >> Yeah. I I think really where I was going was just asking whether AP classes are in some ways a proxy for an honor for honors for an honors program. >> So So a lot of our AP classes um are you know are the equivalent of the honors class. We don't there are some schools math was an area where I was math supervisor for years and years

046and at one point years ago there was a question hey can we have a calculus class that's honors but not AP and the answer was well you can but it's a very different class that would be an applied calculus class like for business applications where uh you can teach a very different course a very different curriculum um that's that's not AP that doesn't um that wasn't what but in terms of like what's if we when we go out and look at school districts and say well what's your honors calculus look like and then you look look at well what is the AD uh college board calc AB curriculum look like they're the same so there's no um AP is not harder for the sake of being harder AP has done a lot of work over

047the last 30 years really um which is part of the part of the reason why our enrollment has grown so much number of students and number of exams because they've also expanded their offerings. they look out and they and they have really tried to gauge interest and now one of the things College Board is actually doing is it's also trying to get into the credentiing business to where hey we can find these um career and technical sorts of skills and provide an industry recognized a certificate that's again not the AP or honors that we might have thought of when when I went to school AP was this um holy grail that was only for some kids and we've made a deliberate effort in the district to to demonstrate the potential of all kids to take

048at least one course to stretch themselves into whether it's AP, Yukon, ECE, Capital Prep. Um, and you can see we've we've doubled the number of students over a 20-year period. We've tripled the number of exams and we have 88% of students earning the three or above. So, so the success is there that where you see a lot of the limiting factors, they're false limits. Um and we work very hard so that it's not a college board is doing the same college board president will come out and say hey there may be too many you know there there's a number out there that might be too many exams for a student but to Ann's point that number is different for me for for each child. >> Um I also have two sons uh that went through

049uh public schools um one of whom uh struggled and wanted to take more APs. another one who wanted to take fewer kicked himself afterward because he was in a he was in a course and he said, "I know I could have done the same work in in the AP course and and he kind of breeze through and he got an A+ in a in a class." And there was nothing wrong with that, but it's sort of sometimes the students don't know. We do we do rely on our counselors to help provide that guidance so that so that no student um either limits themselves or overextends themselves. any other uh >> I just wanted to if you don't mind just finish the question that I asked originally which I appreciate um all the effort that's put

050into these AP classes but I would like to I guess my concern is clearly this seems to be a priority of the district seems to me and you know I think everywhere high schoolers are facing more pressure and mental health is a huge issue um so I I think that this is great I just want to be conscientious of kind of the pitfalls of it So my my questions are one, you mentioned the counselors. I'd love you to do it now, but I'd love to know more about like are the counselors directed to do that? Is this something that that you just happen to do? Okay. And then and you can respond really can hear. But then secondly, um does having more kids in AP classes, does that impact rankings or is that taken into

051account? >> So the first the first question um are the counselors directed to talk about this? It it is well known in our schools. A lot of the students take AP classes and what's the right challenge for you? Challenge by choice. What's the right challenge for you? >> And so the counselors have this conversation all the time. It's an ongoing conversation because you don't want students to take too many. And you want them to not feel like they didn't challenge themselves. So it's a it's a sweet spot that you try to and I would say absolutely they um they think about it and they talk about it amongst themselves. Um I don't even think we have to direct them anymore to be honest with you because we've had such a stronggoing culture uh not only

052AP just a strong collegegoing culture. So it's very much in the system. Yeah. >> And then your second question was about rankings and do you mean student rankings or >> or like I mean school it see I guess I'm not really sure what I mean to be honest with you but it seems like there's such a focus on this. I'm just wondering like what are the other pressures that are causing it? >> The students don't have rights in in our schools. Well, no, not the just the school district. I guess >> the school there there's uh the Connecticut Accountability Index which has 14 measures I think on it. It is it is one of 14 measures and it has a it has an impact. So does art and your PE score, >> right? So it

053is not by any means like wow we're chasing this number because it's going to help us. We really have um a very strong culture and that perpetuates itself. you within that you just need to work closely with the children to say is this enough is this too much and assure them that um they're on their path for the right next step in their life and I think our counselors are excellent at doing that and I've experienced it myself but I um I I I believe strongly in what I see as a professional and what I've experienced personally. Thank you, >> Miriam. >> Thank you so much. Um, Miss McCernan, it's really exceptional so far. I'm just curious um as we're telling sharing numbers, um, are the same types of classes and dual enrollment opportunities available

054at both high schools and including the same amount of classes and opportunities. So if you go to the appendices which are on page 10, 11 and 12 and 13, I think you'll see that there are a there one or two classes that are not that are not um available, but they're usually because there were no signups. It's not that they're not available. They just they didn't have enough students to run the course. So that's on the AP. Um for instance, this year at Connor, we didn't have enough students to run the research course. It is available if we had enough students. Um there are I think one or two EC it's for the ECE program your teachers have to be certified by Yukon to teach the class and so sometimes if we have a turnover

055in a teacher we bring a new teacher in if they don't have a certification in time we have to work on that but by and large I would say well over 90% of the courses are are offered at both schools in the amount that the students need them I mean commensurate with the signups. Yeah, I just emphasize one point that Ann made uh which might be new learning for perhaps all board members. I don't know. Uh but at our high schools, what's what's dramatically different from our middle school and our elementary program is that student enrollment, student interest drives um course offerings. Uh there there have been examples over the years of a niche course that was proposed perhaps on one side of town and then offered duly on both sides of town once it

056obtained a footing but kind of took off at one school and withered on the vine at another school um just based on student interest. Perhaps it could be the following of a particular teacher. Um but we do by and large as Ann mentioned um if something if something is successful somewhere we will work to replicate it. Uh but it really becomes uh the consumers who make the decision as to whether or not that product is uh is on the top shelf or or not. >> Ethan. >> Yeah. I just wanted to comment on the uh question of kids taking too many APS. From my own personal experience, one of my sons, I tried talking him out of taking too many. And after talking with him, I realized I was wrong. He was looking for the

057challenge. He wanted more. And so for him, it was he wanted more courses and it was he did very well. So it was the right thing for him to do. So >> I I had the same concern, but he convinced me I was wrong. And I was. I I appreciate you saying that because um you could look at it one way and think, "Oh, we're adding all this pressure." But when you put in all the safeguards, the guard rails, do we know that the students have their own culture? It's much stronger than the apparent culture on them. I couldn't say anything to my daughters what their ch what their friends were taking was an influence. What where they how they perceive things was an influence. So, we need guard rails to reassure them that they

058should challenge themselves at the appropriate level that that if it's not appropriate to take any college courses, that's okay. And if it's appropriate for you to take 12, it's okay. And and I I've heard from Paul's uh child was in the situation I wish I had taken. I hear your child wanted to take several. >> You wanted the challenge, >> right? And my mine did, too. So, it's it's got to be appropriate. And that's the role of really really strong teachers who act sometimes as mentors to kids. They come back and say, "Can I take this? Should I take this?" To counselors, to all of our administrators and teachers who know that if not watched, it could look like it could feel like they should take too many and we don't want that. >> So,

059I'll go back. So, did you have a question? >> Nope. I just turn over >> the um the next slide is the AP equity and excellence uh score that the College Board um reports every year and this is the percentage of your graduating class. So these are your 12th graders who earned a three or higher on at least one AP exam and that was our highest ever this year at se um sorry 67.6 for Hall and 65.2 for Connard. So that was a an a very high percentage of our senior class alone are taking these classes and and and it's probably even higher because there's possibly juniors who took a class back then and and aren't taking their senior year. So it is it's a very high uh score. Um the growth of the program

060I've included both in the report and here I just uh took some example years for you to see. The program has been growing steadily. But I think what we're most uh proud of is that despite an increase in the number of students and the increase in number of exams, our teachers are working with our students so they are successful. We are not looking to get that score 3.8 to four or five at all. In fact, our our stated goal is a 3.1, but we are trying to make sure we open up as many opportunities to students as possible. So eight 88% of the students who attempted an exam uh got a three or higher and the average score was 3.8. And again on page 10 you'll see the breakdown of each course. We look at

061that very closely to make sure we have the right resources and the right courses and help the students. They're working really hard. They're trying some very difficult things. So they deserve quite a bit of support. We are very proud of the work we've done with our Students of colors are well represented in this program and they're doing very well. highest number of exams ever taken, highest percentage at a three or higher, and highest average score in the I believe we started tracking this data back in 200 to go back 2003. So in 22 years, so highest program ever. Um >> I have a question. >> Yes. I was just curious if you think there's any reason for the increase in the te I mean what's really objective as a measure is the test score and

062curious if there's been new efforts to form different kinds of study groups or different kind of tutoring sessions that you think might explain that really >> throw something out first and I'll certainly let um add on but one of the things I've talked about over the years is um more about the cultural shift and the understanding of the opportunity gap and and the notion that what what spurned all the growth within the AP was not nothing magic. It was opening the doors to students and letting them know they could try and and I was there as a teacher during the time when we first u did this under a principal by the name of Chuck Landro and um you know teachers were concerned. Oh my gosh, students won't be prepared. We're going to have to

063work so much harder to make them successful. All of those preconceived notions um did not manifest. It was it was really just opening the doors and the rising ties raised all ships. Um getting that same shift uh those doors were open, but sort of creating that cultural spurn for all students to see and believe it uh really I think is one of the biggest factors. Um and there's work ongoing with that. There's there's more work to be done uh within certain uh subgroups of the subgroup. Um but uh the evidence of success is there. The numbers don't lie. Um and I wouldn't say there's been any uh there's no targeted specific thing for uh for students. It's really just good quality instruction, good strong relationships with students and teachers and and a belief uh a

064belief in the students and a belief in themselves. >> And just to add to that, we also and have done this for many years, we invest a lot in our teachers. So the college board does provide some very good professional training and we uh we have some leaders, national leaders in our district in certain areas. For instance, in AP computer science, we have people who serve as there there are readers. There are table leaders of readers for the exams where you get intensive training on if you're a reader of the test, you're a scorer. If you're a scorer, you really learn and understand what the what the what the knowledge and skill base and application base is. And then we have teachers who who are readers. We have teachers who are table leaders. Table leaders

065are leaders of readers. So if they disagree, they help to uh on a score. They they help to apply their their um parameters and determine scores. And we have national presenters in our faculty, several actually. And so we do a lot of investment in our teachers. Um and then we also in the last few years the the electronic resources that are available have just really exploded in APAB classroom. Something that wasn't available to kids in the past. They'd have a big thick textbook or something. But now AP classroom is available all the time. AP Daily with videos that help students. I have lead teachers around the country who can reexplain concepts at any time in the day. So you can can have a new explanation of a concept during study hall. Um if you couldn't

066go see your teacher, you can watch at night. So there's there's a lot of new resources available which might be contributing. >> Thank you. Uh Jennifer, >> thanks. Um, I re I really appreciate the focus on um, you know, uh, black and brown students and and making sure they have the same um, opportunities. I'm I guess I'm interested to learn more about the cultural shift and what that means as far as having more students of color taking the test. Um, I guess I'm also interested too like it seems like we lay out the student of color test scores over time. I don't see that um for white kids. So, I'm I'm I'm interested about that too. So, I guess both of those to just to learn a little bit a little bit more. >> We

067have the all group which is this slide. We have students of color, Hispanic, black, and two or more races in this group, >> right? >> And I hadn't broken it down. There's many, many ways you can disagregate the data. Many ways. Um I hadn't broken it down for this report. Uh it certainly can be broken down. Um, >> well, it just feels a little bit like we're tracking uh black and brown students test scores and not the white ones. >> I just want to be cognizant of that. >> Yes. And I would say that um one of the reasons we were paying so much close attention to that was there was under representation for quite a while. So, you wanted to make sure you address the under representation where there is in your report, I

068don't have it in the slides, you'll see on page seven that of our Asian students, they um our Asian students in West Harford are about 11% of students in the high school and they represent 14% of the test takers. So, they're slightly over represented. Our students of color are 35% of the enrollment. Black, Hispanic, and two or more races, and they represent 23% of the test takers. And our white students are about 54% of the population. They represent 60. So, white and Asian are slightly over represented and um kids of color are slightly under, although that's been getting much closer. And that's the effort Paul's talking about. And that was going back to a lot of fine people before me, including our own Julia Dewarte, who's in the audience, who made efforts to tap kids

069on the shoulder and say, "Hey, have you thought about taking one of these classes?" And and listening to them closely about why they may choose to take one or why they might choose not to take one. And students have their own thoughts about these things. they've interpreted things that they've heard and and those conversations help to maybe dispel any misunderstandings. So, um it can be done, but that was the emphasis for the students of color because of the under representation that is still occurring, but much less than than it had. >> A follow up on that. Um, I would still like to learn more about the the cultural piece, but do we have um black and brown teachers and um other school um leaders talking to students about this? Um I guess I just um

070I I guess I should wait to hear more about what the cultural shift means and like what happened. Uh well, you know, our we have so your question has um a lot of tentacles, but the first I would say is that um the effort to have more of our students better represented in these classes comes from the underrepresentation and then as I said when I highlighted Julio's work, individual discussions with students about the why. Do they perceive the class a certain way? Do they think the class is for a student student that doesn't include them? Do they need to be with a friend? Is there a certain teacher they'd like to take it with? Because when you undo those barriers, some students even had said, well, if I take it and I don't do well,

071does that mean I'm not going to do well in college? You know, fear. So, um, the culture shift is is not just promoting big and saying, oh, why why aren't the kids of color taking, but going further, having the individual conversation, learning, well, that's a barrier. We might have to make sure two or three kids who are just friends are together in the class. Those are the kind of cultural shifts. One-on-one conversations, tapping on the shoulder, figuring out what the beer is, having conversations, reducing fear. If you don't do well in this class, which by the way, you're going to get a lot of support. But if something happens, it does not mean, you know, you're not going to be a college student or do well in college. So, that still needs to go on.

072It still does go on. Um, every year our our department supervisors help with that. They look at students who were in courses before who chose who have the profile of a kid who would be really strong and who didn't sign up. Just ask the question, did you not sign up because you really just don't want to or were you afraid? What what is it? And so it's a lot of personal conversations. >> Now, >> thank you. >> I'll piggyback one last thought on it. I mean, when you look up at those numbers, those are numbers of students and you're going from roughly a 100red to roughly 200 to roughly 300. Um, it's like anything else. The jump from 100 to 200 is probably a lot of adult work to open doors and offer opportunities. The

073jump from 200 to 300 is probably a lot of studentto student discourse. Once I see myself as the average kid, you know, it's not, oh, that's Ann. Ann's super smart. She can do anything, but not me. Once I can see myself through my peer group succeeding, that begets the cultural shift to where more students kind of sign up. So that's that's some of what I'm talking about. >> And one final thought on both of these slides. Um I want you to understand that this took place in a declining enrollment environment. So these numbers are going up be Connor and Hall are both down about 300 student not each total over the last 10 years. So you're getting more participation in a smaller population which is really impressive as well. Um, if I move on to

074uh there is a student recognition program and the longer explanations are on page seven in your booklet, but we have 654 students who've been recognized for their work with um the scholar being a student who earned three or higher on three AP exams and uh a distinction being students who have earned three or higher on five exams um with a 3.5 average. So we have lots of students who have been recognized. uh they put this on their college transcripts. They write about it in their college essays. There's also a co a school um recognition program that usually is uh mentioned in October every year. Connor and Hall both got high distinctions last year. So when I went to add it to the report, I couldn't find it anywhere and I realized they moved it to

075January. So we won't know, but I have high hopes that we will do well there too. Um, I'd like to switch over, it's okay, to the dual enrollment programs. And these are our the Yukon ECE being our largest program. The state and private universities having a small but important role here. And then Connecticut State also a small but important role. So 678 students at Yukon with 1589 enrollments. We offer 28 courses. Those courses are taught by West Hartford faculty who've been certified to teach the class by the Yukon department in which the class resides. So it's not a university distinction. It is the department has to certify the teacher. Um in our state and private we had 10 students taking co colleges courses on college campuses. Um they're taught by university faculty at the university

076or hybrid if that's how the school you know everyone's doing so much hybrid or um online. So it could be hybrid, it could be online and it could be at the university. A lot of the courses there were advanced level courses in something that they may have started an advanced Spanish course. We've had such talented math students that I can't I can't honestly sometimes comprehend the math that some of these high school kids are taking beyond multivariable calculus is very hard for me to understand and I was a decent math student. Um and then CT State is our Connecticut State um community college. We had 75 enrollments and taken on different campuses and you can see that those courses on page 13. So it's a little bit more about Yukon. Some things I've mentioned before

077so I will try to um make this brief but um this is one of the oldest concurrent enrollment programs in the country. It the Yukon class is equivalent to the same c the course we offer is the same course at Yukon. Um Yukon certifies the instructors. Oh, it was established in 1955. That's how long it's been around. And the courses can transfer to about 87% of the colleges around. They have a very nice web page that you can visit and say, "Oh, my child's going to go to DAT College. Would they take the Yukon credits?" Um, this is a little bit of a projection. Over the last few years, our participation in this program is is dramatically increased, especially from last year to this year. And I'll explain that. um we estimate it's approximately 400

0784,500 credits that they earned last year. One of the reasons for this is the state department of education offered a dual enrollment grant for any schools that wanted to um expand their dual enrollment offerings. So we took advantage of that. We applied and we got an $89,000 grant and we could apply it in any way we wanted. Our choice was to apply it to classes where there may be under representation of kids who have access to uh or kids who see themselves as college students. So we didn't expand our upper level math classes. We already had a lot of upper level math classes. We didn't expand our upper level literature classes. We were very good there. So we added an art class. We added American Sign Lang. We articulated our American Sign Language class. We

079added two classes in wellness, health and education in urban communities as a one credit class and kinesiology which the kids have really signed up and drove I think over 110 kids at each school um is you know personal wellness being a personal trainer is is very attractive to kids. So kinesiology and we had a public speaking class that many students um really liked. it was a great way to get an art credit and so we articulated that with Yukon. So we used our money to um create these classes through curriculum writing and to fund these classes through resources and I think that really contributed to the dramatic increase. This is um a a slide I think that's really important because the per credit tuition at Yukon this year is $79. For a three credit class,

080the students pay $150. So each three credit class saves almost $2,000 in tuition. And a four credit class, like a biology class, and you can see the number of credits on page 11 and 12. So biology, AP calculus, AP Chinese language. These are four credit classes. It's cost $200 to register, but the course is worth 2600. See a lot of smiling parents when you get to this slide. Um the the total estimate we believe I didn't calculate exact numbers because I had would have to go through who took a one, who took a two, who took a three credit class. Uh but we estimate approximately $3 million and it's about $2,000 per class. Um going on to our our the other prong of this, and I'm really proud of this because um it's multiple pathways

081for students. So although there were only 10 enrollments between CCSU and St. Jose, it was another way and maybe that serves these students the best. Um, approximately 30 credits earned. It's often advanced level classes that that we have the class but we don't go that high like uh advanced Spanish beyond Spanish literature beyond AP literature. Um, the courses are taken on campus as I said and Connecticut State had 75 enrollments approximately 25 students earning 225 credits. Uh, their courses are on page 13. Um this was yes >> can you speak to the cost implications for these ones in particular? I was curious how the CT state courses are tuition free. >> They are tuition free as well. >> How who how is that happening? >> Ug agreement with um the state. I don't know if

082I have a great answer so I'll have to look it up. The the technical part I would say the one course that the children paid for here was the St. Joe's course. Uh that is not a tuition free. That was a child who took a course, got prior approval from the the department or from a counseling and took a course. CCSU we have an agreement with where if they have spots, now this is if they have spots at CCSU are and it meets the child's schedule. So there's a couple it's a harder that's why the numbers are lower too. It needs to meet the child's schedule and they need to have the openings because they're teaching the classes. So that's why some of these numbers aren't as high. Um, so CCSU is also tuition free.

083St. Joe's the privates are not. And I'd have to get you a better answer on CC State, but it is tuition free. >> Is it part of packed to the the co tuition free community college? So they're just taking a spot that is available. >> Yeah, I believe in an already existing class >> college system has if I believe if I have it correct, it has an articulated agreement not just with West Hartford but with districts across the state to be able to provide for this. So I I Yes. Oh, go ahead. Finish. >> No, go go go ahead. >> Um, two quick things on this one. I really want to commend you. I think that it's >> not me, believe me. Thank you. But >> I don't want to commend you. I want to

084commend other people. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um, on uh the the new types of courses that are offered. I think that that's, you know, fantastic. And I think too a lot of my questions about the increase in enrollment I think is answered through like the increase in in types of classes that are optioned that are offered. Um so you know kudos to other folks besides you. >> Um >> and I also want to just uh throw up you know another good thing for the um college courses. I know I took advantage of that and it was a huge help and I think that the cost savings cannot be underrated. It is a huge help I think especially in the transition to college. Um and so I guess I just wanted to also offer my

085kudos on that as well. I think it's a great thing that we can do for our students. Um my final thing is uh more of a question. And I don't know if it's going to take us off path, but I'm interested to know more about um offerings that aren't for kids on a college path, but are for kids who either want to get involved in manufacturing or the trades um technical high school type situation. And it seems like Paul is ready to fill me in. >> Yeah. So last year um and historic last year in the last few years we had combined our early college experience report AP exams early college experience with our uh career and technical education credentiing offerings. This report you know it's become so big and uh and we have been

086expanding over the last three years and and kudos to an you can thank her for really the heavy lifting in supporting uh that work specific to manufacturing itself. uh because that's been a career focus area for the town of West Herford. Um that we that we uh chose to separate those reports just so that so that each could have its own separate spotlight. >> So we'll be hearing about uh manufacturing other trades at another meeting. >> And Paul mentioned in his opening remarks the work we were doing on public safety. I got to this report. I mean, this is already 10 pages and to your point earlier, like it's a lot of information, so I tried to stick in this lane for this report, but we can do more. >> Well, I want to be

087careful what I'm asking for. I am interested to know what our students have available to them as far as like manufacturing two-year programs. I'm not interested in asking you to do more work. Um, so is that a topic we address at another meeting? Okay, great. Thank you, >> Miriam. Sorry, Miriam. Thank you. Um I agree that this is so so impressive and the cost savings is really remarkable as well. How since I don't have high school age kids yet, >> um I'm curious for parents out there, how would they know about all of these offerings and the costsaving and all the benefits and the guidance counselor conversations. Is this information put out by the school at the beginning of the year? How do how would parents know? Shannon's a parent of a freshman, so maybe

088she should answer that for you. >> Thank you. >> Um there was an excellent presentation orientation uh last winter um that families were I think there were a couple offerings of it just to offer different dates and time options. And I was completely blown away. First of all, just the um the care and the thoughtfulness of the the whole team being there at night. um all the parents were able to hear kind of un universally what the offerings were. There were tables where you could go talk to different departments and I think just the sheer number of offerings available at the high schools. I had no idea that there would be so many things that were accessible to any student. Um so I think the hardest part is figuring out how you're going to choose.

089Um but so I think you get a lot of information as a parent. You then kind of cycle back to it again. you kind of have to hear it a couple times that you get a course catalog. You can kind of look over everything in more detail. Um, and then everybody is accessible if you want to go in and ask more questions at a department level at the counseling department or talking to the administrators at the school. Um, and they give a lot of great guidance and so um, it's it's exceptional. It's a it's great set of offerings. And just a quick followup and are these sessions and then material available in multiple languages and translators etc. during these presentations? >> Well, anytime a translator is needed, we we are very well aware of that

090and have all kinds of processes to get translation services. Um, I don't know what's in hard copy available in which languages, but uh, our departments are very well aware of the needs for translation services and how to access translators or they're working so closely with the families already. Um, although we could get surprised, we have some really good processes in place for those. And I think as your children get older, you're slowly you're going to hear of it more when they're in eth grade and they're getting ready to move on. And then you'll get to the high school and you'll heal hear more. The high school is a very different world, right? You get there and there's so much. Um the middle schools and the elementary school all have a lot going on, but the

091high school gets very the wide variety of things that are happening and gets really broad. So I I think you're going to enjoy it. >> And all the um materials are online. So you could >> say all the course descriptions and the full catalog of courses is available online. And then you can click a button and translate the uh the web page to hundreds of languages. >> Yes. And I wanted to finish with this. This was an email. Like I did change a little bit of the information to not give away gender or give away anybody's name, but this was a letter we got from a parent just this September talking about their child being accepted to a private college with 39 AP or ECE credits classifying that child as a sophomore. Um, and when

092they met, they were going to meet in a few weeks. Could the child graduate in three years? Um, but I like the way the parent also talked about um the end where he says, "We're so proud of our child, but the look on that child's face, knowing um what they had done in high school to help their family was priceless." And I think that's really important because we talk about affordability. Um we talk about college costs. We talk about a lot of things. And in this one program, you're addressing affordability, you're addressing college costs, you're you're supporting families, and um you know, you're really making students proud. You know, it's a way to that students are really proud of themselves. And this is not the only letter I've ever gotten on this topic. So, I

093thought I'd include it because um this isn't just like a maybe 39 is a lot, but it could be 12 and you're and you're halfway through your freshman year or it could be 20 and you're almost all the way through your sophom freshman year. So the although the credits vary and this I know well the college this was is a very fine private institution that that took these credits >> I mean I take privilege to add one one point um on that and uh the college board has done extensive research you throw away the 39 credits throw away the 88% of students earning a three or above college board has done extensive research on students who earned a one on an exam so not yet qualified or questionable if qualified those students students have a

094dramatically higher success rate in college than students who did not participate. Um and and it's it's all based on that belief set of seeing yourself stretching yourself. It's where we talk about as a district holding high expectations. That doesn't necessarily mean holding everyone to the same standard of you have to have 39 credits or five honors courses. It's you have to stretch yourself. you have to you have to uh you know really look at where your interests are and and try to dive deep into into an an area. Um so it's a it's a it's it's a great complement to what's up there. I think >> thank you. Um Ethan had two things. Um one was just on page 10. I was interested to see the differences between the two schools and um I don't

095know if it's the teachers or but it was interesting how history's heavy to hall and economics is heavy to cloned >> and some others. The other thing I was going to say was we've been talking about the affordability and this was a different uh son. Um one of them took US history AP at Hall teacher I assume has retired by now. It was phenomenal. He without it although it was not a direct path he wouldn't have become a lawyer and done various clerkships and other things so it to me it was like a real turning point for him exposed him to history just because it's an AP course >> and I think he just got a lot out of it so I assume those kids have those kind of reaction to those courses I >>

096I think I think they absolutely do and if you remember our previous superintendent Mr. Moore. Tom Moore. He talked about being the son of plumbers. I think seven seven kids in Boston. They're all plumbers and and he goes to you. Well, some high school teacher says to him, "You should take APU's history or AP world history. I'm not sure which history it was." is very much like your son. And that brought him to college, UMass, and then obviously illustrious superintendent of West Harper public schools and on to and on from there. So sometimes it is that one teacher, that one course that shows you can do this, whatever it is, manufacturing, history, math at a high level. So uh yeah, we're very proud of this. The small differences sometimes we do look at the differences

097and why a course is popular. Sometimes it is a teacher. Um sometimes it is the culture of the school. Everyone's like, "Take that one. It's great." You know, so there are slight differences, but you can see a very robust enrollment in almost every course across both schools. >> Yeah. Um, I was going to just end with the key takeaways being, you know, we had our, as I said, started the report tonight saying it couldn't have been better, but it was. All students and students of color, highest exam number, highest pass rate, highest average score, dual enrollment. We are the second highest dual enrollment um town in the state, and we have 9,000 kids. The number one is, I won't mention the town, but it has 18,000 children. So, um, and we're not far off. They

098have 2,000 enrollments. we have 1,600. So, um we do very well and we've we've talked about the um the very important co cost savings and number of students. So, that ends my formal part of the report. I know we've had some discussion going on, but happy to invite more. >> Jennifer, >> one quick follow-up question actually to Miriam's question. Is is that financial piece on the same information distributed to parents as far as um being able to achieve college credits in high school? Okay, >> great. >> They share that widely. I don't know if it's exact same way I shared it, but they do. Yeah, they share that widely because it's really, really good for the kids. >> Ammani, >> hi. I'm actually so passionate about this because I went to school in New Britain

099and I took I can't speak on AP, but I took the ECE courses. So I did history 150152 in physics and it literally changed the course of my academic career and made me feel confident in going to college. Made me advocate for myself because in college courses like there's hundreds of kids in those courses. So to be in a smaller class and to raise your hand and ask your teacher for resources you need genuinely made me feel like oh I can go to college. I can afford college. and getting those courses taken off of your tuition and being able to take more fun electives that you're interested in in college. I vouch for this ECE program. So, thank you so much for your presentation. >> Well, thank you for your comments because there's no better

100advocate than someone who has sat in the seat and understood what it meant to them. So, congratulations on your choice and I'm glad it's all worked out. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Ann. That was fantastic. >> Um, and I just want to make a comment that, um, to Jennifer's point earlier about career pathways, that is the work I do every single day in my day job. And, um, there's been a lot of conversation about better aligning dual enrollment course offerings um, across the state with articulated career paths. so that there's a real understanding of what the work kind of is leading towards because a lot of the AP courses are incredibly um helpful and interesting but don't necessarily get the industry recognized credentials and the skills-based focus. Um so there is an

101effort on an advocacy level to invest more in dual enrollment at the state level because otherwise districts are kind of going it alone to make more of those offerings available. So we are part of that fight and if you want to join it we welcome that. So thank you. Um all right so moving on to um our f our routine ma matters where we will be hearing our um financial report. Um can I get a motion that the board of education approve the financial report for the period ending October 31st, 2025? >> So moved. Thank you, Jason. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, John. Um, and I think we are joined by Barbara, who's going to uh be available to answer any questions. And is uh Jason or Ethan, one of

102you presenting? >> Not me anymore. >> Oh, no. Sorry, John. One of Did you you got it, Ethan? All right. Thank you. The financial up this financial update is for the end of October 2025 and the changes that have been projected since the forecast was made at the end of September 2025 as well as being compared to the full year fiscal year 26 adjusted budget. Um the fiscal year 26 fullear adjusted budget general fund is budgeted to be 214.1 million. The difference between the fiscal year 26 adjusted budget and fiscal year 26 budget is a fiscal year 25 savings of 700,000 that have been moved in to had been put into a non-lapsing account at the end of 25. It was then moved in fiscal year 26 by a vote of the school board earlier

103in the year to add to the fiscal year 26 fund spending. That means the full year expenditures of 214.1 million from what had been 213.4 4 million general fund budget. I'll just say I'm hung up because when we do in my real life we do budgets the budget stays. Here we have an adjusted budget. So I keep trying to draw the distinction. While there were changes in the individual line item since the September forecast review, the overall forecast has not changed in terms of the month of October. Um, in total, the salary budgets had an overall year-to- date positive spending change, a reduction of uh the salary spending of 25,000, which was a positive change of 75,000 since the September forecast. The most significant line item change was in the teacher salary line item, a

104four negative $425,000 variance from the budget and a negative 325,000 variance from the September forecast. The increase primarily can be attributed to the addition of six elementary school classrooms with teachers above the elementary school teachers budget um because of the uh addition of kids coming into elementary school. The negative variance of the teacher salaries was offset by savings and maintenance salary salaries and people services salary line items. The positive 25,000 total salary variance forecast the budget is offset by a negative 25,000 line item in the purchase service budget. The net being a forecast is flat to the fiscal year 26 budget above the 700,000 that came in from the non-lapsing funds. As previously or has been noted when the budget was passed in March it we assumed it would be necessary to use the money

105that had been placed in the non-lapsing funds. So even though it's an adjusted budget, it was assumed to be that way. Um in other uh pages, terms of the grants, state and federal district had 4.1 million in grants, federal and state, uh 3.9 specifically earmarked for the West Harford schools. In terms of special funds, the third financial set of funds, the 10 different funds ended the fiscal year with the $2.3 million balance. And the final set of funds was the nutrition service funds. terms of nutrition services at balance at the end of October was a fund balance of 2.9 million approximately 700,000 less than the October 24 balance. That's what I got. >> Thank you, Ethan. Uh any discussion or questions, Paul? >> So, I have the answer, I believe, to Jennifer's question earlier. Uh

106you were asking about the pupil services showing that $240,000 savings uh on the salary lines. And so when we passed the budget uh last year, we knew of the existence of the seed grant, but we didn't yet know the allocation that we would receive. So, with the allocation of, I believe it's approximately $317,000 from the seed grant, we will now have a favorable $240,000 uh expected u v favorable val v variance in special education salaries uh under the anticipation that we that's how we'll be applying alliance share of that money. Um so hopefully that answers your question. >> Yes, thank you. Um, you know, I think maybe it's it's how this is uh written. It says that there's savings due to the seed funding and it seems like maybe it's just costs are being offset.

107>> Correct. When we first passed the budget, we were, you know, we had to apply those costs to the general fund as if we, you know, wouldn't get the seed grant not knowing what the dollar value would be. So the offsetting produces what will now be a savings in the general fund. >> Gotcha. Thank you for that clarification. >> Any other questions? Miriam, >> can I ask a general question on page 17 and 18 kind of more specific? Um I'm just curious about midway through um the mandated adult education. What is that specifically? And that's my first question. And the second one is who vets these grants? So some seem very specific um and just curious exactly what the vetting process is. >> Please. Thank you. >> Sure. Um so mandated special education uh adult

108education is um as as the phrase would indicate uh state of Connecticut requires uh school districts to be able to offer um adult education. We do have a program. it does fall um technically while it's outside our our day-to-day K to2 operations it falls within our board of education budget and um we have we we hire you know we have an administrator that oversees that a part-time administrator that oversees that we hire um teachers for that program uh the programming exists and and is offered uh within our school buildings generally but also in some outside community sites Um, so I don't know if that answered kind of the question of what it is, but in terms of vetting, to make sure I understand the question, um, what we're required to do for any and all

109of the grants, and many of the grants are, you know, you'll notice over the years, uh, the majority really of the grants are year-over-year grants that, um, you know, that that we apply into in terms of, um, we we produce uh here, you know, we'll receive information from the state of Connecticut. Here's how much money uh you might be entitled to receive for what's called an entitlement grant based on your population metrics and all the rest. But there are there are specific um criteria and contingencies about how the money can be spent, what it can be spent on, and so on and so forth. So we assemble that, we send it to the state department of education. they vet our materials and then uh to ensure that our plan is in compliance with the grant

110structure and then at the end of the year we have to send what's called um a grant evaluation report where we um essentially justify and talk about the impacts of that to the state and the state reviews that and uh and provides us feedback. >> Thank you. I guess I'm also curious about some of these smaller grants that look like maybe they were teacher applied for or I don't know you know some of the smaller ones under that first section you know can teachers apply for grants is there a process for them then to share with admin and then who kind of oversees that? Um sure some of the smaller amounts that you're seeing there are actually relating to carry forward grants. So we have grants that oftent times span two years sometimes they don't

111you know they may not even have an end date. So for instance some of them that you're looking at below um for instance the Asia Society foreign language grant that was a grant that we had received routinely on a regular basis um and the grant funding stopped and so they were trying to sort of you know stretch it out for a little bit longer. So this is the final year that they'll be deploying those funds. But some of our recurring grants like title one, title two, um, and IDA, they are federal grants that span two years. So they carry forward. >> Jennifer. >> Yeah. Follow up on that. I guess to put my question quite bluntly, like I'm wondering, can the Red Chair Grant Foundation decide they want to give a grant to West Harford

112and have all the chairs red? Like I guess part of the curiosity is like who is this Williams fund grant? What are they granting and why and like how do we go about deciding who can grant money to schools? >> So I don't know if you can speak to the Williams fund but I can speak to the general question of uh which I think I'm hearing from both of you. U there are um there are at times grants that uh teachers might apply for more generally. Um generally we're you know we want to have some sort of awareness and involvement to ensure that any any funds that a teacher might be seeking are are things that are you know in terms of what the parameters of that grant are the things that fit within the

113parameters of the district. So they would they would request uh support from that and then whether or not um whether or not the those funds require you know kind of fiduciary oversight by um by Barb's office or not is something that we then work out. Uh for instance, uh right now there's uh a grant that uh we were recently uh told we'd be awarded that was something that was offered through it was offered through the state department of education. Um I believe through the open choice office. Um we put in an application for it. They will post on their website request for proposals. We put in an application. It was coordinated and overseen centrally uh by one of my team. Uh but we have received word that we should uh get that and so now

114we're kind of working on that. Um and then once once that uh that funding is secured and everything else, I'm sure it's something that we'll be highlighting to you as a board. Um a lot of times, yeah, there's there's money that teachers can kind of go out and fish for. We we really try to uh encourage them to work within parameters um within the district uh so that we don't fall into any unnecessary traps. when things become available and we learn about it, if it's something that as a district we have interest in, we would we would try to support them uh with our administrative team relative to I don't know relative to um the one that was mentioned >> that one was just less >> Yeah, I'm less familiar with Williams family. >> No,

115no need to explain it. I just used it as an example because it's less clear than the Chinese language or the Asian society. That's all. >> Sure. And that was actually part of a grant from uh that was administered by the Harford Public Foundation of Giving. Um and so it had come through that and was a larger grant, but now what's seen there is the carry forward that's left. >> John, >> sure. Um how does the open choice chef settlement uh differ from the open choice enrollment and acceptance? And uh is is the chef settlement is is that an annual grant? So the open choice uh chef settlement is a grant that we receive on a recurring basis and that is spo that is leveraged to support our open choice students and so there we're

116primarily doing uh math intervention tutoring um some software I ready software um and then the enrollment grant is focused more on um the acceptance grant is focused more on sort of like family engagement and an and and and and uh providing information around the open choice program. So they're a little bit niche in the open choice program. >> Mary question on page 18. What is the educational services reimbursement mean? >> Yes. Um so when we have students who are say in the open choice program um we um if there are costs above regular education or if we have a state agency placed student we would uh invoice for a select education components and so we would deposit the funds there and we use that to offset costs associated with the students. Jennifer, >> I think

117I just I think I just have uh three more questions. Um the first is on 15, the education non-lapsing account. Uh from my non uh financial brain, this says to me that there's no more money left. Is that what it says? And if so, what's the plan? >> So the educational non-lapsing account is a bit of a unique situation. In the springtime, uh, we found ourselves in a unique position where we had additional resources available to West Harford public schools um unanticipated and so state authority allows for us to deposit any surplus into the educational and non-lapsing account. So in the springtime um we intentionally deposit them into these funds. There was an offsetting budget reduction and then at the November 5th board meeting the board um appropriated those funds into the general fund. >>

118Got it. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Uh the two more. Okay. Um I noticed that we had said that there were six more kindergarten classes needed. That seems like an exceptional number of more classes than expected. Uh can you give me a little bit more color commentary around that? >> Sure. There were um elementary school classes and so they were spread out amongst a few different grades. So we had anticipated 196 sections and ultimately needed 202 elementary sections. And so, uh, we worked closely to monitor the class size guidelines and where those sections were needed. Um, and as a result, we we did need the additional teachers to reduce class size. Yeah, I could say that just to add some additional detail to that. Uh we saw some and and if you

119go back uh Barb uh gave an outstanding presentation of our first day of school enrollments uh just was it last month, last meeting uh or the previous meeting to when the new board members were installed. uh we had uh some some fairly significant unanticipated growth all centered in specific grade levels in and around specific neighborhoods um which kind of pushed us over um the class size guidelines as Barb mentioned and six is you know it's not unusual for us to add two or three or collapse one or two um six was six was fairly significant uh for this year and uh one of the things that I I think was really fortunate um in terms of our hiring um and were always interested in being able to blend new talent with people with experience, but

120we we we did actually we were we were fairly fortunate with a fair a fair number of uh new teachers that came in lower on the salary scale so that the overall impact to uh salaries being six teachers over was not was at least uh I think offset a little bit by um our ability ability to place uh younger teachers, which is always good for us uh to have kind of a blend of people we can shape into our into our mold and then and then also be able to retain and and find some veteran folks, especially in niche areas. >> Yeah, I have one follow up on that and I'll ask my last question, I think. Um I guess I'm I'm wondering about the impact of that. I I hear you financially, but I'm

121wondering space um all those other things. And then go ahead and ask my last question. >> Yeah, space-wise, I mean, I would simply say, um we you know, you'll see we do an enrollment projection report uh more in the spring every year. Uh you'll get you'll get to see that. And spacewise, our schools uh can absorb uh classes. In fact, if you look historically about the number of classrooms that we had to where we are now, um the tradeoff is that when we've had a a much greater number of say typically elementary classrooms, um other um folks who currently have a dedicated classroom, our world language teacher, um some dedicated spaces that might be afforded to tutoring or um larger rooms that might be utilized for smaller settings like some of our uh multilingual learner

122Esau instruction. Um you know, we've had the ability to provide people probably with more comfortable space. Um it's not that the school buildings can't absorb. Uh it just means that more more individuals might be sort of itinerate in where they're where they're providing their instruction. So, um, but you'll you'll see in our in our, uh, multi-year enrollment projections kind of where we are by building with the number of classrooms available and what it looks like. Uh, but we don't we don't have any while we don't have any dramatic space needs. You know, we're also not at the point, one of the one of the areas of interest to the board over the last couple of years has been prek expansion. And um that's a larger question because you not only need classroom space, you need

123specific types of classroom space with specific uh facilities uh for children, you know, uh bathrooms adjacent and things of that nature. So there there are uh construction dollars that that would be involved. >> Thank you. Um I'm sure we'll we'll be chatting more about that. My last question for tonight is about the nutrition services budget. Um, you know, I obviously am new and I'm learning here. Um, you know, my kids are also in elementary school, so I'm only seeing those menus, but I would say, uh, they don't strike me as awfully nutritious, and that's very concerning, especially for kids who rely fully on school lunch. Um I'm sure there is a cost component to that because there is a cost component to everything. Um but you know I would like to know more about um

124about that topic, learn more about how we're making those decisions and um you know I think the other piece of it too is um creative uh ways to I don't know enhance our nutrition services. um which I'm guessing I'm not the first person to think about this. So I'd love to to hear more and um learn a bit more about that. >> I mean I'm I'm wondering from a financial perspective it's more kind of a a potential future agenda item is what I'm hearing maybe proposed. Uh, I'll I'll wait to propose any new agenda items and chat, learn more about where we're at. Um, but you know, I think um I'm I'm guessing that uh the type of food we supply is in direct uh relation with the cost. Um and so that's >> Yeah.

125No, I would I would just want I wanted to address that part of it. Um because I know there are relative to the federal funding that we do receive for the nutrition services, uh there are definitely uh nutrition guidelines that were subject to. And in fact, um I'm not going to say that, um school lunches is u the same cuisine that's available to us downtown, but um you know that that's always the you know they do definitely meet uh the standard the nutrition standards that are set forward by the by the federal agency. That said, um there are there are things that are more popular um that that sometimes are excluded because they don't meet those um nutrition guidelines or there are things that we can't include. But we can if if the question is

126less financial and more about that, that is something I can I can first get you just general information about and include it in an update or if you want a full-blown presentation, uh we can get that. So, I'd welcome, you know, any specific questions or comments. >> Let me follow up as far as as what I want. Um, what I would just just to add a final comment is that um, you know, completely anecdotally, and I and I don't like when people do this, but here I go. Um, you know, my kids will come home and tell me they had, you know, like pink milk, and I'm just like, "Oh my god, we're still serving strawberry milk at lunch." Um, and I was somewhat surprised by that. Um, I think that what kids eat is

127directly related to how they learn. Um, this is obviously a substantive about food, but my guess is when we have the food discussion, there's going to be um, well, we're, you know, there's there's a budget reality here. So, yes, and I will I will get a um more specific maybe discussion of what I what I think would be helpful together. I don't do anything yet, but I just don't want to completely silo them because I think we'll be going in circles. >> Any other questions? >> Oh, John, >> I just had a question going going back to the six new teachers who were hired for for those vacancies in in a given year when you're hiring to fill, you know, to fill vacancies caused by retirement uh departures. Is the pool largely lateral hires with

128some experience or are you looking more are you looking more at uh brand new teachers coming out like what what are the what does the typical pool look like? >> Um so we'll you'll see and you'll get a report um typically on uh I think beginning of the year is when uh Shannon will will provide kind of what that looks like. Uh the pool um I mean there is you know there's there's a blend of two things. There's there's obviously a lot of talk in uh the world about teacher shortage and the teacher shortage is a real thing. Uh but at the same time we do attract uh a pretty significant number of applicants. So we will get um we will get quite a blend of new new folks into the district into the profession

129and that's not without effort. That's not without a presence at our um at our colleges and universities in terms of their career fairs and and conversations and communications that we have with like the NEAG School of Education Central's program, Eastern's program and others. Um and then you'll get uh a number of experienced folks that are also uh trying to get into the door here in West Harford or um so it's it's a pretty decent blend, but we do a report on that annually. Uh typically it's some of those metrics are coming uh right at the beginning of the year in September um as part of the human resources update. >> Thank you. I look forward to that. >> Any other questions? All right. So, regarding the financial examiner's report, all those in favor say I.

130>> I. >> Any opposed say nay. Any abstensions? The motion passes. Um, moving on to the approval of the minutes. Seeking a motion that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of November 18th, 2024. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Jason. Thank you, John. Uh, any discussion? >> Did you? >> Yeah. Yeah. I I had I had one discussion item uh or one correction and it was just under the portion where we were nominating uh members to serve on committees. Um so uh Mr. Gagnon moved that uh >> right yeah that M Mr. Goldman, Miss Maramon um Mr. Weiner and Miss Hers will serve as the alternates. I think you should be read Mr. Gagnon will be as an alternate. >> Yes, I caught that as well. Um

131so we will make that revision and so then do we vote based on that revision being made? Okay, any other corrections to the minutes? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose say nay. Any abstensions? All right. The motion passes. >> All right. Uh moving on to information and reports. Um do any board members have any communication or reports to share with the board or the community? Okay. That it will come. It will come with time. Um, moving on to future business, uh, announcement of future meeting dates. Our next board meeting will be Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. a regular board of education meeting at 7 pm here in town hall in the chambers room 314 followed by our meeting first meeting of the new year 2026 on January 20th uh

132regular board of education meeting and a presentation of the construction improvement plan capital improvement plan um at 7 p.m. again here in the chamber uh town hall room 314. Um is there a request for any future agenda items? Oh, >> John. >> Sure. I I would just follow just following up on the conversation that uh Jennifer started. I'd be interested to hear from nutrition services. >> Thank you, John. Any others? Okay. Um so, uh moving on to comments from visitors. Uh do we have any additional comments from visitors? Seeing none, um we have no executive session. So, may I please have a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> Moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, John. Meeting adjourned at 8:53 am.