001I can't we can't physically Good evening and welcome to the West Harford Public Schools regular board of education meeting. It is Tuesday, May the 20th, 2025. Charlotte, may you please call the role. Mr. Gagnen, here. Mr. Goldman, here. Dr. Harris here. Miss Maramman here. Mrs. Nazarella present. Dr. Thomas here. Mrs. Yagalof present. Student representative Sarah Granquist here. Student representative Alexis Newan here. Thank you. And Sarah, may you please lead us in the pledge of 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 you. We do not have a revision to the agenda order. Now it is time for public communications. This is where we have an opportunity to hear from you your questions, your
002thoughts, your suggestions, and your concerns. Each individual is allowed three minutes to speak. We ask when you please go to the podium to please share your name and your town of residence. Please also be mindful of Charlotte who will hold up a yellow card. When you have one minute remaining in your time and when your time is expired, you will see a red card. We ask for you please to conclude your sentence and respectfully take your seat. Be mindful that we are attentively listening to comments that are being made. However, it is policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made. And with that, we will start with the list that we have here. We're receiving comments on any item. However, for our purpose for this evening, tonight's agenda includes annual
003inspection and evaluation for indoor air quality, Hall High School denial accreditation visit. I'll have others to specify the actual full name of that equity and diversity council a year in review financial report and approval of minutes from the May 6th, 2025 board of education meeting. I'm going to start with those who have signed up speaking on an agenda item. And we first have Jonathan. All right. Pardon my chuckle. I'm glad you were ready. All right. Okay. Thank you for the introduction. My name is Jonathan Ryome. I'll bet you couldn't read that. French Canadian last name. I'm a resident of West Hartford. I have a son who goes to Cedric Middle School. And I am passionate about education. So much so that I have a PhD, but please don't call me doctor. Um, but because I'm
004passionate, I wanted to bring to your attention some of the things that um that I've I've noticed over the years. In fact, a couple things that I'm hoping they'll consider changing. My son's first introduction ever to video games was, as a matter of fact, at um in Charter Oak um elementary school where he had a math website where he had to do his homework and he could um get some um some some video game time as a reward. And so I I wasn't terribly excited about that because I wanted to minimize my son's access to screens and digital technology. And unfortunately, he's taken this video game in school concept with him to Cedric Middle School. And what he does there is there are a couple of classes that when he finishes his work, he gets
005his Chromebook out and he plays video games in the back of the class. I asked him if he's allowed to do that and he said, "Well, the teacher really can't keep up with them and he can always circumvent whatever controls they've put in place." So, I'm hoping that this board will take seriously the fact that my son is rushing through his schoolwork in order to play video games in class. He's also developed a habit of binge watching YouTube, which he does in the back of some classes, unfortunately, if he's not playing video games. That's something I've been able to clamp down at at home. He actually was thankful when I did it. Um, and I think that um that if you do it at school, I hope that people will be more focused. Now, what
006I'm really concerned about is that if he goes to high school, my understanding and and it's an imperfect understanding is that kids are allowed to carry their phones around in high school. Well, I'm really concerned about unfettered access to the internet. I'm extremely concerned. Um I've seen the reports. I've seen mental health declines. I've seen suicide rates up. I've seen um reports of social media bullying. I don't think people should be carrying I don't think adolescence should be carrying phones around in the high school. And I'm hoping that you will consider a policy for next fall and thereafter where kids don't carry phones around. I think that overall these the academic environment will be much improved. That said, I think that there's a lot of information about um digital media um about the effects of
007screens about the effects of cell phones um and and their effects on mental health that need to be communicated. I have the impression that um other parents would like to know. I have the impression that the teachers would like to know. Um administrators, faculty, and I don't think there's any any one solution. I think we need a multi-pronged effort. Um maybe by providing information through pamphlets or handouts or on school websites or by um revising um the the the student handbooks. or maybe having uh showings of screen agents or maybe having speakers. So, it looks like my time is up. I thank you very much for your consideration. Thank you. Next, we have Esther Gonzalez. And I will say if I mess up anyone's name, please charge it to my head and not my heart.
008Hi, thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak up. First of all, um, as Jonathan mentioned, um, I and my husband, he wrote this for me, support a policy that limits a students access to the internet in a school to only websites they need to complete school assign assignments. We can do this at home and there is no reason this cannot be done in schools. We also support a policy of no phones bell-to-bell townwide. Kids focus in a school should be on a school work and face-to-face interactions with their teachers and peers. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Rebecca W. Uh thank you. Uh my name is Rebecca Wart. I am a West Hartford resident. I am a mother of a fourth grader at Brayburn, a sixth grader at Sedwick, and I teach
009sixth grade in Simsbury. Um all of that said, there are three things that you can do to help dramatically improve the focus and the mental health and the social well-being of our students. Uh the first step is a bell-to-bell no phone policy. K12 Sedwick implemented it this year and have seen really positive results. Similarly, Simsberry's middle school did it recently and like the administrators are not spending their time dealing with phone stuff in the middle of the day. The kids are not leaving class to go check their phones in the same way. Um, and it's going to make teachers lives easier and administrators lives easier. And who doesn't want to do that? Um the second thing in addition to that um is having some way for teachers to monitor what students are doing online securely
010go guardian or examples there are other programs I'm sure this has academic benefit as a teacher I can see all of my students computers at the same time I can say oh this student is struggling quietly with an assignment and hasn't gotten started yet let me check in with them or this student hasn't found a credible source or this student's doing an excellent job maybe I can pull it up as a model and so it's actually a really quick litmus test for me like how the class is doing. U similarly I can close out a tab, send a note to a kid who is on a game that they're not supposed to be on. Um have a history of where they've been because even with the belltobell no phones students are using these devices to
011access other things as Jonathan said, workarounds. Um the last thing is we need to do it next year. Um the research is there, the data is there. Connecticut said we need a policy. Why wait for an entire year? New York State is moving this direction. Torington's got a strong one. We can come out as a leader on this and it will have a immediate dramatic effect on our kids' mental health. Thanks. Thank you. Next we have Jamie Burns. Hi, thank you so much for your time. My name is Jamie Burns. I am a West Harford res resident. I am a mom of a fifth grader at Brayburn and a seventh grader at Sedwick. I am also a clinical psychologist. And so I'm hoping to talk to you tonight about something that actually um is meaningful
012both when we're talking about phones and going bell-to-bell and also talking about the restrictions with the computers and trying to have a program in place to sort of try to restrict um our students access to as Jonathan said being able to get onto YouTube or rushing through work. Um, being a clinical psychologist, I always think it's important to listen to what people's stories are, but also to back it up with research. So, I do have a research article I brought for you tonight that comes out of the University of California, Irvine, where um they have proven that when people are distracted, it takes approximately 23 minutes to bring your focus back. And that is really for all of us. That's not just for our adolescents. So, anytime we're looking at a phone and we might
013just look for 10 seconds just to see, did I get a text, did I get a new email, or I'm just quickly reading through something, it will take me 23 minutes to get back on task. That is also the case. Should a student be sitting next to somebody who is distracted and looking at something and the student looks over and sees that somebody is on a game or on YouTube, that student is equally going to be distracted and it's going to take an average of 23 minutes to get back on track. Why this is very important when we're thinking about our restricting cell phone usage in the classroom is that if our students don't have access during their classroom but in the time that they're walking to their next class they are looking at their
014device we are now impacting their next class and their ability to focus in that class even if they don't have their device in front of them. Similarly, if a student is on a computer playing a game at the end of one class, we're now going to be impacting their ability to focus in their next class. So, really, this is important for both pieces to really be thinking about the fact that we are we are having to be aware of the fact that anytime we are distracted, it will take a long time for us to refocus, whether that distraction is a phone or a computer. Um, so I'm going to leave this here if anybody is wanting some research to look at. Thank you. Thank you. That is all who we have who have signed up
015on the list here. However, certainly we'll extend anyone in the audience who would like to make a public comment. Is there anyone who would like to make a public comment? Sorry, what? Let me go to those who haven't spoken yet and then Okay. Um, yes, please come to the podium and share your name and town of residence, please. Thank you. Hi, I'm Maria Laruso. I'm um a resident of West Hartford. I have a daughter at a freshman at Connard and a seventh grader at Cedric. Um, so, um, I'm also a professor at the University of Connecticut and, um, I guess I come at this from a lot of different angles because I do research with kids in K to2, but I also see, um, where they come out at the other end because they're my
016students after they leave U. And I have a lot of West Hartford students at Yukon, as I'm sure you can imagine. Um, and what I'm increasingly seeing as a professor is that um, we're very aware of the mental health crisis, but um, I'm seeing social deficits. I'm seeing communication deficits. I'm seeing kids who are spending so much time on screens that they've not gone through the same experiences, the same um developmental um the the same kinds of interactions face to face, eye contact that used to mark their days. um when kids were younger that that most of their day was highly interpersonal and the screens are like a wall. I had probably like my worst experience last spring that it really was like peaking how bad it had become that um I just couldn't I
017couldn't get the students to let go of the devices and I now have a policy in my own classes this starting this year we have no technology whatsoever and some of the students say I can't write notes by hand because I haven't done it in so long I don't I don't think that way anymore I can't my hand is tired. Um, but I I what I want to say is I agree with what everybody else has said about the importance of not having the phones um even if it's just between classes because of the distraction. But um I would also like to um suggest if it would be possible to do some revisiting of curriculum because the amount of time spent on screens in the classroom I think is excessive. I think is a big
018part of um kids screen time I think it is a big piece that's getting in the way of their education. uh my own kids I think um especially my seventh grader at Sedwick I would say um I would say 80 to 90% of her screen screen time is Sedwick based it's because she's on it all day at Sedwick and then she comes home and does it at home and I just think there's other ways to practice math it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to like she comes home and she wants off the screen she wants to go out and be outside in the sun and play and um or if she's going to do homework, something that is active and and um that she's creating, that she's engaging, but she's not wanting to
019be looking at a screen. She's already done it all day. And I just think that while technology is a great tool, um we need to rein it in. Thank you. Is there anyone else who has not spoken yet who would like to make a public comment? Okay, sir. Oh, did was her hand raised behind there? I couldn't. No. Okay. All right. So, last time I didn't get to this one final point, which is that um I think that when teachers have to become the phone police, it diminishes the relationship with students and it degrades the educational environment and that relationship between a a student and a teacher is very important and it goes both ways. I mean students are there to learn but I met a guy this weekend who was a former computer science
020high school teacher and he left the profession. He said a lot of it was because he turned into a a phone cop and he didn't get along with the students and the students were always angry with him and um it just made for a very um challenging environment in the classroom. So um please keep that in mind during your deliberations. Thank you. Thank you. And with that we will pause on public communication. I'll just do one last call. All right. We're going to pause on public communications and now move on to non-staff communications and reports. This is where we are able to hear from our student representatives what is going on in their respective schools. So let us begin with Alexis please sharing about Connard. Um, hi everyone. With the school year wrapping up soon,
021there are many different events going on at Connard right now. For starters, this past weekend, our theater department went down to New Haven to attend the Sonheim Awards. Connor walked away with the achievement by a student orchestra award as well as the best music direction award for Sam Urick. Congratulations to everyone involved. Additionally, we had some students attend the poetry recit recitation contest. Aubrey Korn, Tia Gira, Nova, Fangan Lee, and Tudau, who won bronze, competed for Chinese. Hannah Djak, who won silver, competed for Spanish, and Jennifer Schlicking and Brian Swanson competed for Latin. This past weekend, there were also some amazing performances from our select music groups to commemorate the end of the school year. Good job to everyone who performed. Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 21st, is our annual spring concert. At 7 pm, there will
022be wonderful performances from the Carnard orchestras, bands, and choirs to show families everything that has been worked on over this last semester. Our athletics department has been having a very strong spring. The girls basketball team won the Central Board 6 basketball official sportsmanship award. Seniors Tyler Walsh and Nate Blooms from the football team were awarded with the scholar athletes award from the Doc Boy and no Northern CT chapter of the National Football Foundation. The boys track and field team was named inaugural champion of the Lindy Remenino Harford Invitational. The boys volleyball team is currently undefeated and is looking for a great run in the postseason. And lastly, with the end of the season, we have some exciting senior nights and Connor Hall games coming up. We are so proud of everyone's accomplishments and look forward
023to seeing um look forward to more success to finish off the great year. The Connor art show is currently taking place right now in the cafeteria and lots of amazing art is present. It will stay up through May 22nd and the reception of the awards ceremony will be tomorrow night from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Lastly, with senior prom this Friday and junior prom next Friday, we hope students will stay safe and have a great time. Thank you, Alexis. Sarah, please share what's going on at Hall. We are wrapping up the last few weeks of school at Hall with lots of celebrations and performances by our students. This past Saturday was junior prom or senior prom which was held at the basketball hall of fame and was followed the next day by the spring select orchestra
024music showcase. IGI Cisti and the Westerford Camarada put on an amazing performance at St. James Church in the center. Yesterday was also the choir and jazz spring concert and the orchestra and band will perform this Thursday at 700 p.m. in the hall auditorium. Next weekend the hall band will perform in the Memorial Day parade as a marching band. Two hall musicians, Mindy Xiao and Khloe Madrich, were recently selected to be a part of the National Youth Orchestra and Jazz Ensembles. These groups are composed of the best high school musicians in the country and perform at Carnegie Hall in July before touring internationally this year to East Asia. This is an incredible achievement for these two musicians and a reflection of the incredible arts program we have in West Hartford. Today marks the first day of
025Paul's art show. Students who are taking fine arts classes have their work displayed in one of our gymnasiums and students and staff can visit the show during the school day. Tomorrow Hall is hosting its annual awards night ceremony to honor students who have demonstrated citizenship, leadership and achievement in various subject areas. We have also begun to host senior night events for boys lacrosse, track and field, softball, boys tennis and volleyball and girls lacrosse with the rest of our sports teams having their senior nights over the next week. Yesterday, our baseball team beat Connard 9 to1 in the Mayor's Cup game, which is very exciting. Um, the baseball team also honored Abby Zatune and supported the A Family Foundation with Love Abby shirts during their game with Simsbury last Monday. Our spring sports teams will be
026moving into their league and state tournaments next week. And we wish all of our athletes the best of luck as they represent us. We also have a number of celebrations coming up for many of our seniors. Last Wednesday, West Hartford Public Schools hosted a celebration at the town hall for seniors who will be entering into a skilled trade after high school. And this is the first year that West Harford has held a career pathway signing day. On May 27th, we will honor our seniors that will be joining the military. And on May 29th, both Hall and Connor will honor the seniors who participated in the future educators of diversity club through a pinning ceremony. We want to congratulate all of our students for their achievements, wish our seniors luck with their future plans, and remind
027everyone to finish out the year strong. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Alexis. Thank you both. I'm going to ask a question, I apologize. I did not give you a heads up on this question. And if you choose not to answer, that is completely well within your right. Do you care to share what your plans are once you graduate from high school? Um Sarah and I will actually be spending the next four years together. We're both going to Yukon. [Applause] All right. Congratulations to you both. Yes. Yes. Please, Latoya. Um yes, my question is a little different, but congratulations, Queens, and glad we're going to still have you in CT. We need you. Um, I wanted to just put something out there to y'all. Um, you're both two just powerful young women. Um, and there is
028a reason why you're on this board, why you were, you know, maybe asked to be members of this board. Um, and we love hearing all the wonderful announcements and the ways that y'all show up here. One of the things that I wanted to um invite y'all to is to think about some feedback you could share with us about what your experiences have been like going through the West Harford school system. We know we have a great district, but we also know that there's room for improvement. And y'all are like what you have to say and your experiences matter more than anything. And so just, you know, thinking about and it can be however you want, whether it's sharing, you know, um verbally or uh y'all coming together and writing something up and sharing with us
029to just help us advocate for for you all for the future students in this town. Um and to really um just reflect on what your experiences are like and what you need from all of us because I think all the adults are trying their best, but none of us are are y'all. We're not going through this experience. And so I think like I'd love to know before y'all graduate um what are things that we can do to improve the district and what your what are the experiences that you've had um and and what advice would you give us moving forward and so y'all can think about how you want to deliver that to us but we'd love to hear it. Thank you. All righty. Thank you. Thank you. And before we transition on again you
030I apologize pardon me and so will my head. Jason, I was just going to point out that I think Sarah left something out of her hall announcements. Jason, absolutely. Yes, please. I I believe that you won the Exchange Club Student Youth of the Year award. So, congratulations. [Applause] Absolutely. Thank you, Jason, for reminding us. Congratulations. And I love that you both gave each other a high five. Excellent. Excellent. All right. Well, with that, again, you both are students first and foremost, so if you need to depart early this evening, please do so with no hesitation. All right, thank you both so much again. You continue to represent your schools very, very well. And with that, we will move on to unfinished business, which we have none of. And now on to new business, which we
031do not have any of. So, we shall go on to our staff communications and reports and receive our superintendent report. Mr. Vicinz, to you. Thank you very much. Um, and uh, my report really is, uh, given the time of year, so many things to celebrate. I want to I want to add to some of the celebrations that we've already heard. Um, and kudos uh, on everything that you've shared. You've taken some of my thunder here, but um, I'm excited to announce that King Phillip had uh, three top winners in this year's Yukon letters about literature contest. Uh at level one, which is uh grade four to six, we had a top prize and an invited reader. Uh Cam Lancing. Uh Kimberly Herrell is the teacher. Um and he wrote a piece, The Remarkable Journey of
032Coyote Sunrise. Uh or um excuse me, he um wrote a letter about about that piece. Um, we had winner AJ Serno, also from Miss Herrell's class. And um, at level two in grades 7 to 8, we had a winner um, Aaron Shamstein uh, who's in Mrs. Duan's class. Um, just uh, very very proud of them for that amazing uh, feat. Uh, I'm excited to also in King Phillip, I'll stay with them for a minute, Christine Ziner. Uh, she won a CA fund teachers grant. um she was one of only 62 recipients out of uh just under 300 applicants. And I talk about these at the end of the year each year because they're just dramatic professional development opportunities for our teachers. She uh will go this summer to experience Puerto Rico, their art, their music,
033their food u and the language of uh as she describes it uh laadel ananto which I think means the island of love alongside fellow Spanish teachers from around the state to build a culturally rich uh curriculum and and some community connections bringing bells back to the back to the uh classroom. Uh we have other stock market club winners. Uh lots of students here I need to get to know personally. Um the SIFMA Foundation proudly announced the middle school sixth grade students uh Lauren Mason, Hannah Melo, and Naomi Camshi. Uh they placed in the year-long stock market game competition at the middle school division. They were among uh they were among the six year-long teams that achieved the highest portfolio of values in the competition across the state. uh and they were recognized alongside their teachers
034in their schools at a recent uh award assembly. Um our Connor girls basketball I I didn't catch if you mentioned this. If so if I'm repeating I apologize. They were recently honored with the basketball officials organization uh provides a sportsmanship award and we're so very proud of our Red Wolf spirit and the demonstration of leadership both on and off the courts by our by our Connor girls u basketball. Um I have to mention Connor solo choir performance. You mentioned the Sinheim that uh that were one, but I attended this this weekend at uh St. Thomas Church and I was uh blown away by the performances and by the personal statements that were given by the seniors as they sort of handed off the reigns to our juniors and then the comments from the juniors sort
035of uh thanking the seniors for their guidance and and their mentorship. and uh Hershel, who you all got to meet, he was among uh one of the students that was playing there. And I had a an unsolicited report from a parent who came forward and just talked about the personal impact um of our arts program in general and and talked to me for five minutes. It was um it was amazing. Uh Karolina Gazooski, a world language teacher at Bugby and Webster Hill Elementary Schools, has been honored as the 2025 2026 Connecticut Council of Language Teachers Teacher of the Year Award. So very very proud for her. This award is presented to a world language teacher who demonstrates excellence in their craft, outstanding dedication to students, involvement and impact in the professional community and a promotion
036of understanding of respect for the multiling multicultural and multilingual world in which we live. So, um Carolina is just an absolute talent. We're so thrilled. Um, I did want to share uh just given that uh we're still in May, the impactful presentation of Sharon Kornman, a guest speaker uh for Jewish American Heritage Month at Bristol Middle School. She shared uh a very powerful family history and how members of her family uh were hidden and protected during World War II. And uh we thank all of the different speakers and events that we've had this this month and we continue. Um it it makes a big difference in terms of in terms of how we celebrate our uh different cultures. Yesterday we celebrated speaking of our annual mentor recognition breakfast. Um it was a site to be
037seen. The auditorium was absolutely packed uh with adult and student volunteers uh certainly our mentees, their families uh and community members. And we had uh short remarks from the Governor's Prevention Council uh as well as a stirring keynote delivered by Mr. Paul Mouns who's vice chair for the council but also vice president uh for community corporate and government relations at Yale New Haven Health and he gave a very stirring personal address about the role of mentorship in his life um and and really was a charge to continue that type of service. Uh as I came in today, I was extremely extremely proud to learn news that the town of West Harford uh has been recognized in a recent US News and World Report uh poll uh as number 19 nationwide in the top places in
038which to live in the country. Um and it is based uh heavily on things like quality of life features which certainly includes education as well as the availability of health care and uh the state economy and infrastructure. Um we were the uh number one town uh within Connecticut as a whole. And just for perspective um there there were 850 that that they surveyed. uh the number two town in the state of Connecticut was number 440. So uh nationwide. So this this is a huge accolade uh both on the town side and on the school side. we share in this celebration. And uh I want to take this opportunity to give thanks to all of our teachers, all of our par educators, our teaching assistants, our cafeteria workers, our bus drivers, our school security, our SRO's,
039everyone who really makes this difference. Um this is this is a difference made uh in the classroom face tof face with children face tof face with families our clinicians our our family leaons and supports um they are owed a dramatic round of applause for that award. So I submit that and pending any questions that is my report for this evening. Wonderful report indeed. teammates, any questions or comments regarding the superintendence report we've received? Um I'm just curious about the career pathway or um career signing day event and if you could tell a little more about how that played out. Absolutely. No, thank you. I I uh certainly have that as something to highlight but heard it already. Um it was a phenomenal event. It was held here at the town hall auditorium. We had um
040students uh from both Connor and Hall and they were presented um there was a short uh sort of remarks given about each student in terms of the pathway that they were pursuing. They were given uh a small token that was um very appropriately created by students in the career uh and technical education systems uh through our woodworking and um design classes. is they created a base and then on some of the 3D printers they mounted it with uh something and they were personalized relative to the specific pathways uh that they were going. I believe it was the skills 21 group that um that we part or or modeled this after and we invited in it was it was both celebratory in terms of what their pathways were but we also took opportunity to invite in
041um a number of community partners um businesses and and folks that we've partnered with so that the students could could also have kind of a career fair afterward and students went around to each of those partners. Um, we had folks from, uh, we had Chris there from the Chamber of Commerce. We had, um, folks there on the town side from economic development. Um, and it it it was a phenomenal afternoon. Um, and the first of many to come. Uh, I I I want to credit, you know, certainly Brian Cohen, um, Jocelyn Timber, Sarah Issacs were there. Uh certainly Ian Mccernin, Eileen Eustace, the effort and the focus that they've been putting into uplifting our career paths um is is demonstrable and it's and it's really paying off with um events such as these that um
042you know there was a student speaker who um oh his name escapes me. Cam uh what's his what was his Cam Brown um who's I had a chance to chat with him and he he provided short remarks uh about you know his pathway what he intended to do um and the meaningful nature of uh of the whole event and and being able to you know find his path and see see it as recognized valued and important. He he talked about a personal experience when he was growing up. Um, and it was a neighborhood barber shop where where he would go before and after school and kind of individuals who um, you know, he he slowly grew a relationship with as an adolescent who taught him some some really core values about um, how he presents
043himself, how he shakes hands, how he looks people in the eye, how he greets people. and it motivated him to um kind of kind of fell in love with this concept of um uh barber shop. He he so he plans to go to school uh get a certificate in that and open his own business and uh he he he wants to pay it forward. So the whole day was kind of like that talking with kids. It was it was a great event. Any other questions or comments regarding our superintendence update? All right, wonderful things shared. Thank you very much. Now we will move on to staff reports and board discussions where we shall receive our annual inspection and evaluation for indoor air quality. So as the team comes to the table, we'll pass it to
044Mr. Vicinz to ensure So I think you uh you know the both these gentlemen very well. Dr. Marorrow um and Mr. Robert Palmer, our director for plant and facilities on both the town side and on the school side. Um, very very grateful for their work and uh this is a a report that I believe I understand is mandatory from the state of Connecticut. It's one of their joys in life regardless and they're here to uh to walk you through the pieces. Good evening. All right. So, this is a new uh report that is a result of a new statute that was put in place last year that requires school districts to conduct annual inspections and evaluations of indoor air quality in each of their buildings and report that to the board and post those results
045publicly. And so, we have done that. And so I'm going to turn it over to Bob Palmer who can explain sort of our process in following the the statute and can direct you if you have any questions to the actual individual reports and what are on them. Uh thank you Andy. Uh so yes, Andy mentioned this is a new uh state law that went into effect last year. There are actually two components. There's just is the annual report and then there's a five-year um in inspection program also which requires us to hire a professional uh engineering firm or other types of professionals in the HVAC industry in order to evaluate our systems. Um it's a very similar process to what we did when we reopened uh after COVID. Um evaluating our systems, making sure they're
046working correctly. Uh but it goes a little bit further and it t it it it speaks to the deficiencies of the buildings uh as it as it relates to current code. Um we're not required to bring buildings to current code. Of course, it's a goal to bring them to current code at some point. Uh but it does talk about the deficiencies and um helps us identify uh capital projects for planning purposes in the future. So So it's a two so there's two prongs to this. We're tonight we're presenting the annual report. Um, we are working also on the five-year report already. Uh, we engaged a firm to begin that process. We've already uh evaluated five buildings. Uh, we can be begin to uh provide those results to the state in July of this year and
047we'll do that as we work through. We're anticipating that we'll get through all 16 schools this calendar year and we'll be complete with that. So, we'll we'll have knocked off that as as part of this program as well. But tonight, we're talking specifically about the annual inspection. Um this is a program it's called that utilizes the EPA program called tools for schools. We in West Harford have been using tools for schools for almost 20 years now to evaluate indoor air quality in our school buildings. Not to this extent but we had been doing uh the walkthrough inspection checklist for almost 20 like I said 20 years. uh the state department of public health used to provide training on this um for about 10 years be uh for about 10 years since we've been doing the
048program. Um we engaged them several times to come out and train our staff. So we're well verssed in tools for schools. It's not a new program for us but the the additional checklists were were new to us this year. So um so as you can tell there are a series of checklists, six checklists be uh that we were are required to complete by various staff within the the district. Uh a lot of the burden of this falls on the head custodian at each building uh unfortunately. So that's uh been their uh a challenge for some of them. So and it's really been a team effort. Uh we've we've uh worked with our head custodians. Um our HVAC department is involved and also um our uh manager of building services is in charge of the uh
049integrated pest management program which is another component of this and also the kitchen manager is also part of this from nutrition services. So it's a real team effort to get this all compiled and put into uh the get the forms filled out completely and get them uploaded onto the website. So as as Dr. Moro uh refer uh mentioned we've already conducted the inspections. We did most of the inspections actually last fall. Uh it's just taken us some time to get the the information onto the the right sheets and to get it uh in a presentable form. Uh so and we have made them publicly available on our website. Part of the requirement is also that we come to the board of ed and present uh this to you. Um and then also we have to
050submit a form to DAS stating that we have completed the process as part of this. We actually don't submit the forms to DAS. They just want to know that we did it. They don't really want to read it. So u so the checklists are pretty straightforward. I hope you had a chance to go through them. Uh the first one is the it talks about buildings and grounds just basic maintenance and making sure things that are in order. Waste management checklist. It's it's basically making sure that your dumpsters are in a proper location are managed correctly that you're you're removing waste on a regular basis. You're not if you're storing waste in a building. We don't really store any type of waste in a building. Um if you're doing that you have correct ventilation. Uh the
051ventilation checklist is uh something new this year. Our HV VAC foreman uh worked on that with uh along with some other of the office staff. Um you'll notice in sections five and six, five is the exhaust systems and then six was the quantity of outdoor air. For a lot of the schools, we had to answer no on that because the five-year evaluation that we're doing right now will help to answer those questions. So for the five buildings that we have already done that we were able to answer those questions in the affirmative but for the remaining schools we just didn't haven't we haven't had the ability to evaluate those those criteria at this point. So and we will do so in the next year. So um the walkthrough inspection checklist I've mentioned before we've been
052doing that for for 20 years already. Um and that's a a pretty intensive process. It involves um a team of people from each building. typically the principal, a teacher or staff member, the head custodian, and a parent or the team. Um, and what they do is they send out a survey to the entire building asking about specific questions about indoor air quality. They get the feedback and then they do a tour of the building. Uh, specifically looking at concerns that were brought up by the occupants of the building and looking for general types of things in the building, uh, potential issues within the building. uh and then they complete a report and then that report is what is been submitted here and summarized by the head custodian for you. Um so that's a very in
053intensive project. It takes a lot of time to get the survey done. It takes time to do the tour and to to compile all that information and to and to work your way through it. So we do identify quite a few problems in that area. Things some things are quite simple. It's a heating or cooling comfort issue. Um it could be just a stained ceiling tile that just needs to be changed out. um you know, we're looking for things like uh water coming into a a classroom, maybe dusty conditions that aren't being addressed correctly in the cleaning process. So, so we do catch a lot of little things and it's good preventative kinds of actions that uh end up being the result there. So, um IPM is integrated pest management. Um that's a another state
054program that we're mandated to do that involves um the use of pesticides or insecticides on school properties. It's very restrictive. Um we can only apply in certain conditions and making notice to the building occupants. Uh we do it's very it's very regulated. We can only do certain things at certain times. We can never do anything with uh children present on the property. Uh so it it's a very strict program, but it it's the right program. Uh so we do comply with that. Um, and it's just that and then the kitchen checklist is is is very straightforward as well. It's just looking for cleanliness and uh the overall condition of the kitchen uh facilities in the schools. Uh, so with that, I can uh certainly answer any questions you might have about the programs andor any
055of the individual reports for the schools. All right. Thank you very much, teammates. Any questions or comments regarding the information we've received? Claire. Yeah. Um, so I'm I'm curious. it it's on this report is the inspection and evaluation of indoor air quality and I understand why ventilation waste management would fall in that but can you explain why food services and grounds maintenance some of these things that you say that we check on don't really have to do that much with air yeah you could say that but you also have to remember that if Um the the area surrounding a building is the source of the air coming into the building. So that is an important factor I think. Um and I think the the cleanliness of the kitchen. I Yeah, I'm not quite sure how
056they make that connection. Um, and the other thing is, um, I'm really glad that you take teacher input through surveys, um, and then tour and investigate because depending on when you check air quality, it can be very different from a springtime check, middle of the winter check. Um, and the teachers that are in the building, um, you know, year round have a a real good perspective that I'm glad is included. Um, from what I understand, OSHA regulations don't pertain to school environments. Is that correct? Um, they do pertain to Yeah, they they are. OSHA could be involved if it's a employee complaint. Okay. Work related. But as far as temperature, that's not uh temperature is regulated by the health department. Okay. Right. So, um, and we typically do perform the surveys, um, October, November, as
057soon as we kind of close up the buildings and turn on the heat, right? And that's when we do these uh, inspections because that's typically when we're we're getting less fresh air into the building because the windows aren't open. So, that's the that's the time that they recommend you do the inspections and that's when we do do them. So, Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or Shannon? Yes. um related to the five-year requirement. If I recall correctly, that's a fairly large line item uh in the budget and there was a comment I believe that maybe that would go away. Is there any update on that front? No news on that yet. So, so yes, but I also understood the state of Connecticut had a um lack of providers and that if everyone had to do
058it in five years, it would be an impossible task. Yeah. The the original plan was to have it done within uh was supposed to be due January 1st of 2025. There are 1300 schools in Connecticut and about six firms that can do this work. So there was a a problem. Yeah. So now it it is a fiveyear inspection and you can do 20% per year. Um so they they they figured that we just decided to bite the bullet and go for it. So um so we'll be done this year. So other questions or comments? All right. Well, thank you both very much. Thank you. Now moving on to Hall High School, New England Association of School and Colleges to Cine Accreditation Visit as we make the transition. So, as the folks get seated and I
059know they have a team, um I'll introduce Eileen and uh Eileen Eustace, our director of secondary education, and uh I will allow her in a moment to introduce the team once they're settled. But the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, they are um the accrediting body uh that uh comes in and and essentially evaluates uh our high school programs on a set of nationally recognized standards. Uh they do so throughout the uh the state of Connecticut and and New England as their name would suggest. Um and uh Hall I I had the privilege to be at Hall High School uh for some of their visit and had the opportunity to engage with the accredititors um and they had un unsurprisingly a very strong positive um report. So, not not only are they accredited, as
060one would expect, uh, but there were there were really a lot of um accolades that were that were put on to Hall um for the strength of the programming and and the uh the strength of growth. So, um, without further ado, I don't want to steal any of their thunder. I'm going to ask Eileen to introduce everyone. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. We're really excited to be here tonight and to celebrate the amazing work and achievements of Hall High School as highlighted in their recent NEASC dennial accreditation visit as the superintendent just shared it was really um there was so much hard work that went into this. But I will say the payout with what the visiting team shared um it was really incredible. Not surprising of course, but um it really feels great to
061be val to have your work validated and know that your uh hard work is paying off. So with me here tonight we have Mrs. Sarah Issacs, principal of Hall High School. And we have our two co-chairs of the building based NEAS committee and we have Dr. Justin Boucher, social studies teacher and Dr. Kathleen Cogill who is a science teacher. So our agenda for this evening includes a brief overview of NEASC and the 10-year accreditation cycle the priority priority areas based on the school's self-study as well as highlights from the recent dennial visit in March and next steps for this work. So, so just to share um for those of you that may not be familiar, NASC stands for New England Association of Schools and Colleges and within the association they have various commissions that will
062accredit various schools, independent schools, other types of private schools as well as public schools. So the commission on public schools engages schools in a voluntary collaborative process to determine alignment with its qualitative standards of accreditation. So although it's voluntary, it is important for schools to engage in this process for a variety of reasons. One, NEASC provides a framework for schools to evaluate their own programs and take action to help improve student outcomes. It also shows a commitment to highquality education based on rigorous research-based standards. Earning the accreditation demonstrates that your school consistently meets and exceeds highest level levels of quality as well as accountability. So noted above you'll see the five accreditation standards and then within each standard are several principles of effective practice with identified benchmarks. So for example, if you're taking a look
063at the student learning uh standard, there's many principles in that are nested underneath that overall standard. Um principles for effective practice that could be related to written curriculum, instructional practice to meet all to meet all learning needs as well as strong connections to our vision of the graduate. Those are just a few of the principles that are embedded with that particular standard. So, as we mentioned, um, Hall should be very proud as the visiting team was very complimentary and rightfully so. Um, it was really a a great visit. And so, with that, I am going to turn it over to Kathleen who will talk a little bit about the 10-year cycle. So, just to overview, it's a it is a 10-year process and we are starting or we started a couple years ago with the
064self-reflection. So the self-reflection involves a and is by design a very collaborative process. So the goal with that self-reflection is to get everybody involved, get community um insight, to get student insight, to get staff insight, uh and uh get everybody to collaborate on the report. Um it starts with a survey that's sent to students, to families, uh and to staff. Uh and then we got together a a pool of core 25 staff members at Hall and divided them into those five standard groups. Uh and each group was tasked with looking at the evidence from the surveys with looking at evidence within the school uh within the curriculum within the way and the processes that we operate according to all the principles and the standards. Um after that they drafted a report for each standard and
065the report culminated it was a 95page report that was submitted to NAS the accreditation um in preparation for that collaborative conference visit uh which happened in 2023. So the collaborative confidence uh visit is a visiting team of administrators and teachers uh from various places within New England but usually within the state of Connecticut uh and they come in and they review our report. They meet with teachers, they meet with the board of education. I believe there was a meeting. They also meet with um with students, staff and family members. as they visit classes and that's a three-day process. The goal of that collaborative pro conference is to look at the priority areas that this the collaborative conference report identified as our key areas for growth over the next six seven years. Um so once that
066is done uh they acknowledge that they make any recommendations uh and then we start the uh number three that improvement planning process. So the improvement planning process is developing the plan that for addressing those priority standards over the next seven years of work. So that plan includes actionable items steps so that we can achieve and move forward on those standards and principles within the five uh standards. So after two years uh they come in and see us at the dennial visit. Uh that's going to be discussed uh a little more uh in in just a moment. Um and then we just finished that pro uh that process in March and the next step is going to be to start that planning and submit a three and a six-year report. So that's the whole 10-year cycle
067and so we just finished that denial visit piece right now. So um the process of preparing for the dennial visit included identifying five uh priority areas that we as a school community identified as the areas that are most in need of our attention. Um, in the case of Hall, it was uh pretty easy to agree on those areas, um, which you see behind you, partially because in most cases, the work had already been in process and had been things that we'd been working on for some time and things that were core to our our educational commitment. Um the first of those uh priority areas, this is really big for NEASK, but it was also big for us, it's big for West Harford, um is documenting and aligning uh curriculum resources to the vision of the
068graduate. Um obviously the vision of the graduate work and curricular resources long predate working on this in in uh 22 23. Um but as we were looking at uh the NIASK standards and we were interacting with uh staff and students it was really clear that this was something that should be uh on the top of our list. Um Connard is six months behind us. So it was really easy to align on the idea that this was a a district-wide process um and as I said already uh in progress. Um, the second uh key area we wanted to uh we aligned on was reviewing the ESOL program and the supports that we have for our our English language learners. Um, that came up time and again in our conversations with teachers and with students. Um, we
069also wanted to take a look at our social, emotional and health services. This was a a more broad-based, but it also had some facilities concerns because we were having a lot of backups in the in the nursing office. And so there were some facilities changes that that uh we were interested in by the time they came back for the dennial visit. Uh the nurse's office um and a number of other spaces had been renovated. Uh making that uh probably the most achieved of the goals that we set. Um we wanted to look at collaborative time for staff, professional learning committees. Uh groups are are a pretty big commitment both among the teachers at hall that was organic and also uh in conversation uh with the district. And finally, we wanted to take a look at
070equitable access to advanced coursework. Um, this is an area that that Hall uh excels uh in many ways, but it's still right uh an ongoing conversation to make sure that all of our students have access to the to the best things that we do. So, that was a thing um that we wanted to focus on as well. Um and all of these were organic uh bubbled up came up time and time again in surveys among students and among staff. Um we can jump ahead. Okay. Uh and so um the dennial visit uh occurred in March. Uh it was a 4-day on-site visit rather than the three-day on-site visit where we sort of ratified the priorities uh two years ago. So it's it's really a big progress check. They're again talking to everybody. Um they were
071on site for 4 days. I I don't know of anyone in the building who didn't have a conversation and many people uh outside the building who got to have a conversation with the six member visiting team. Um they reviewed all of our reports on how we had done over the two years. They visited classrooms. Um they met with just about everybody. Um and they were just uh if I if I can say something personally, they were just smiling the whole time, right? Like we kept hearing time and time and time again that that oh I want to take this home. Oh, I like how you do this here. Oh, I wish we could do this where in in the schools that we come from. Um, so it was really really a very positive experience. Um,
072and uh that was March and now we're we're following up with their commendations recommendations. So, uh, there were quite a few commendations, um, which is very encouraging and and nice that it's supporting our process and the and the hard work that everybody's been putting so much into all the time. Um, the list of accommodations is longer than this slide allows. Uh the full list is in the report, but we wanted to pick out some key commendations that we felt were very important uh to Hall and to who we are uh as a school community. Um so one is the commitment to equitable practices uh as well as a strong support for ELLL students and we recognize that that's also a priority area of ours. But that kind of is echoing that they're seeing that we
073are moving forward and doing good work. uh and we're committed to continuing that work. Um they admired our robust professional learning opportunities, the two-hour Wednesdays, um the establishment of the PLC's, um and they acknowledged the facility upgrades, uh the capital improvement plan that we put together that with a very robust set of um understanding what we're going to improve on uh year after year uh including the facility upgrades to the science department and and nursing offices. Um the increased AP ECE access uh this was also recognized by the college board which gave us the uh AP access award um and a gold stand uh gold status access um on the AP honor role. um as well uh the continuous commitment to curriculum improvement. Uh we've actually achieved a lot over the last two years. Um
074and we are in the process of continuing that work and also making sure that that vision of the graduate is uh central uh to all of what we do at Hall including within the curriculum documents uh and within the activities and the soft skills uh that we're trying to develop in students as well. When we look at the There we go. As we look at the recommendations, I I think the entire staff sees it as such a a support of of the call to action we already feel and see and and just an opportunity um to improve in the in the service of students. We are focused on the completion of our curriculum in its new format, ensuring that it al aligns with district expectations and best practices. As part of this effort, we can
075we are committed to strengthening the integration of the vision of the graduate across curriculum, instruction, and assessment, helping ensure that our students not only meet academic standards, but also grow in the essential skills and dispositions that prepare them for life beyond high school. We are expanding the professional development opportunities for all staff focused on instructional practices that support our multilingual learners. Um we know that increasing the toolbox and providing that professional development will help all students and especially um any student that really needs additional support. Um, as our multilingual learner population grows, it's essential that all educators are equipped with effective strategies to meet the diverse language and learning needs. We will continue to provide training for staff in the use of our new emergency systems um, ensuring that safety remains a top priority. In
076addition, we will maintain a strong emphasis on social emotional well-being for our students by offering ongoing professional development and expanding the use of resources um that support mental health and wellness. We will work toward providing all teachers with the opportunity to meet in professional learning communities or PLC's during the school day. These collaborative structures are critical for engaging in datadriven conversations, refining instructional practice, and ultimately increasing student learning outcomes. We look forward to developing time within our current schedule structure and the possibility to refine that if our schedule were to ever um ever t change a little bit. These recommendations reflect our ongoing commitment to supporting every student every day and continuing to grow as a learning community. our next steps. Following uh our dennial visit, we are now responsible for a series of follow-up
077actions that were touched upon before and are out will be outlined in um our final report. We expect that that report will be um out in June and we will submit it for you to um review. These recommendations are designed to support this continued growth improvement and we're fully committed to addressing each one with intention and care. As part of the NEASC process, uh we will formally report on our progress through to the two required follow-up reports, the three and six report that we spoke about before, and both of which will provide updates on the steps we've taken to implement the recommendations and sustain our improvement efforts. And we look forward to reporting out on that. We are proud of the thoughtful preparation, the deep reflection, uh the broad community engagement that led to a
078successful accreditation visit. It was a true team effort reflecting the professionalism and commitment of our staff, our students, and our families. I want to take a moment to express sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to Hall High School's NASCA process. A thank you to our NIAS committee chairs uh Mrs. Jillian KS as one of our assistant pro principles and of course Dr. Buchet and Dr. Cochill for their work throughout this multi-year prog process. um their commitment was just incredibly appreciated. Um for the outstanding leadership that and dedication that both of you brought through every stage of the process and of course um I want to extend our deep appreciation to our hall staff especially everyone involved in in all the process uh leading up to this moment our students our district leadership uh for
079their thoughtful engagement collaboration and commitment to continuous improvement and finally to the board of education. Thank you for your continued support of Hall High School. Your investment in our work and our students makes a meaningful difference every day. And before they open it up for questions, I I want to point out that uh Connor High School will be going through this um one year in succession from this. So they're one year out of phase with each other. So there will be uh another report. Uh but hearing the hall report when when the visiting team was there and the thing that stuck with me and I want to I want to compliment Sarah's leadership um and really the culture at Hall uh the students it was the students that were interviewed by this visiting team over
080the 4-day process and the educators that were there could not fathom how positive um the students were about at their school. The pride that they took um was something that I that stuck with me that they mentioned. Um and I have to give an equal shout out to uh Kathleen and to Justin as co-chairs. I'm well aware from my time um in in the classroom and at Connor and leadership of the commitment and the work as co-chairs um for the entire committee, but as co-chairs, there is such a dramatic amount on your shoulders. It is very much um a collaborative process that is led through teachers um to assess the work of teachers um in creating this and from feedback from from the teachers and the staff and the entire school community and just as
081your superintendent my uh my gratitude uh for everything that you did for this. Thank you. So any questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, lots of information, good updates. Teammates, any questions or comments regarding the feedback we've received from the accreditation process. Jason, really just a thank you echoing everything that Paul has said that that you've all said about what goes into this process. It it's absolutely incredible. Um, I I do think the highest praise you could possibly have gotten was that the students are so proud of Hall High School. I I think that says it all. So, thank you for your dedication. It it it makes a meaningful difference. Other question? Yes, Gail. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Um, I had a question about your um I wanted to see
082how you worded this. Um I wrote it down but um the curriculum documentation aligned to the vision of the graduate. So I don't know if you could just clarify a little bit what that means. Are you revamping the entire curriculum or how do you how do you change a curriculum to meet the goals of or the uh vision of the graduate? It is going to be a district process. So I'm going to turn it over. Yeah. For a district perspective. So So when the team came a couple of years ago, we had a lot of we we have written curriculum, but some of it had been in maybe a little bit of a a few different formats. And so one of the things that we did is we took the opportunity to revamp our curriculum
083template so that it aligns with the recommended standards that are coming out of NESC. It does allow for the opportunity where you are purposeful in weaving in aspects of the vision of the graduate. Um so for example, one of the aspects of the visi uh vision of the graduate is effective communication. So there's obviously content areas that align very tightly with effective communication. So we built aspects of effective communication into various courses in our curriculum documents. And the next step for that is to also lead to how do you go about assessing that? Because eventually they're going to want to know how do you assess that students have actually met the the various aspects of the vision of the graduate. and we want to be purposeful about that and we want it to be embedded
084in our curriculum so it doesn't feel like a standalone. So it was not a major rewrite of curriculum but one of the things that I am a big believer in as someone who works in the curriculum instruction and assessment office is that curriculum is an ongoing process. It's really important and I think one of the things that um NESK allows for is uh for you to engage in that cycle to really take a deep dive and review your curriculum. And I will say all of our departments have been engaging in that. What we're starting to see is more coherence in terms of our um assured activities, assessments, and that ties in a lot with our PLC work. they everything really goes handinhand with all of that. So not a major revamp of of courses that
085we have um but certainly a tightening up and bringing that coherence across not just from classroom to classroom but also across buildings because we offer for the pretty much 99.9% of our courses are offered at both buildings and it's really important that we ensure that all of our students are getting those same opportunities because that's also part of our equitable practice as well. Okay, thank you. Other comments or questions? Yes. Um well, first of all, congratulations. It's very um admirable to go through this entire process and stay the course. Uh just a curiosity around the recommendations. Do you anticipate any obstacles or con things that it might be in the way of you advancing or making progress on some of the recommendations or any resources that you need more access to? I'm just thinking speaking
086as board member like is there anything we could do to make a more smooth glide path to you advancing on the recommendations? No, thank you for that question and and we appreciate that support. I I think that there is already so much support for these recommendations and they they went so handinhand in um with what we've been talking about as a district and through um both at Hall & Connonard and then also through our school development plans. They're really in alignment with what we're already planning for for this past year and for the next year and and when we look at longer term planning. um you know I I feel really confident that as any barrier comes up that we have such an open communication um and support through all of you that that I
087know that we'll be able to tackle that and and you know there are things that we're already talking about when we talk about for instance um like PLC expanding PLC's you know we're already talking and I know um there's been conversations around would a different schedule be more beneficial to creating more time um so I do feel that a lot of the conversations are already happening and we really appreciate the support. And just from my lens, I'd add, you know, I think as we talk as a board about, um, you know, our budget process, uh, our approach, you know, we we speak often about I speak often about the importance of sustainment of programs. you know, when you think about this report and the accolades that they received and and the sense that we do
088have the tools, we have the processes, we have the resources, um, and we have the structure and the vision for continuous improvement. Um, we know our results. you know, I think tonight's announcement about 19th in the country speaks for itself in terms of what um what the return on investment is for us. So um I you know I I want to talk about you know the sustain to Sarah's point the sustainment of what we have and at the same time you know we balance that we obviously have to have fiscal responsibility we have to understand we're in a tight budget. So as we as we look for those efficiencies so that we can keep our costs low um and be responsive to the very real uh financial burdens um within the community and and and
089the country at large. You know, how do we do so without loss of our identity, loss of what is making such a dramatic and powerful impact um for this community? Claire. Um, so congratulations. I I know a lot of work went into this and to get this kind of result and that kind of feedback, especially in the visit. There's something in a report that we can all read, but what you experienced in the visit and the feedback in the actual moment, I'm sure, was something that you can't really express totally to us. um the um for the evaluation, it just seems that a lot of the stuff that you're already doing was aligned to what they were looking for. So there wasn't the necessity for a dog and pony show um because it was already
090best practice and you guys were doing it and so now you have some direction. Um so congratulations for that. The other thing I was wondering, this is for New England. Um, can you do you have an idea of what percentage of districts partake and choose this? It's voluntary, but um, is it what what are we looking at for the New England states? I don't know of a public high school in the state of Connecticut that does not go through the process. So, they're one of six accrediting I believe it's six accrediting bodies across the United States. So, they're regional. So, NAS takes care of the six New England states. And if you think about it, everybody needs that accreditation. So, even when we evaluate students that are coming from outside programs, we always are looking
091to see if the program that they're in is accredited. So, um it is really important to have that accreditation, especially as outside agencies are looking at us, as we're sending students to post out for postsecary. um they want to know that that accreditation gives them confidence in the fact that we are um aligning with very rigorous standards of NEASK. So, so it's voluntary, but everyone has to do it. And then if you if you do it and you don't pass, is that something that you're then obligated to share out? Does a student have to come and say, "I'm coming from a nonacredited voluntary accreditation." I am lucky enough to not know the answer to that question. Typically um typically what would happen is they have recommendations. So sometimes it might in certain towns it might
092help with um if they are in dire need of uh facility changes, right? And so they are able to then take this information from uh you know this association and commission to say we're going to lose our accreditation and part of it is because we can't provide the educational program because our facility is an actual barrier. That's just one example. Um but typically it is really meant to be a collaborative process and it isn't just about like the stamp of accreditation. NAS really wants to work with you to also improve So, um, they're always going to be working with schools to to make those improvements as well. Just to in in all seriousness, they were incredibly collaborative and supportive. There were many premeings. Um, they made themselves very available to us. And so it it
093really felt like a collaborative process where they they wanted to see um us in our true form and they also wanted to see our successes and where they could support us in in moving our school forward. And that's a little bit of a change in their process. Prior to um prior to this, it literally used to be they would show up every 10 years and you would put on that you'd send them that big report. you'd spent two to three years and everybody would be scrambling to make sure they were meeting all of the standards. And so, um, with their new iteration with their standards, they condensed some of the standards so that there wasn't as, uh, too much repetition. And um they really built this collaborative piece into it so that you as the
094school were identifying the priority areas and they're basically validating or potentially making additional recommendations but then working with you as you are um working towards that dennial visit and then working on the followup. Yeah. Um yeah thank you and congratulations as well. Um, I'm patting y'all on the back and I have some questions. Um, I think, you know, like I love that we're doing well and um, but I I think about some of that stuff that y'all talked about and thinking about like how we push things forward and um, one of my questions is just like what does what does that look like? You know, particularly um, I know our students are stressed. Um, I know that students have opportunities to opt in to support, but it's not offered at the tier one level. So,
095I want to know how we're challenging ourselves to offer those things at the tier one level to all students, the mindfulness, the the social emotional learning, um, and and and building that culture of belonging. Um, while I know, you know, Teresa's team is going to get to that part in theirs, it's not just Teresa's team's job to carry that work. And so I I I want to know how, you know, how does that factor into this report? I know we still do have issues um at our schools and and issues at hall with racialized harm and anti-semitism and all those things. And while we're doing great, like I want us to be real about like some of the cultural things, too. And um and as a board member, I just want to know like what
096are we doing? Um and what's the plan forward with with those things? Um and and yeah, just want some specifics. Thank you. And and we absolutely agree that this is just support for us to continue our work. So from the time of the collaborative conference to this visit, um some very specific things that we've added is, you know, we applied for the SBGI grant through the state and we've added and and been able to train a number of our our teachers and our clinical staff in um restorative practices. Um we have worked very and I I think One of something I hold very dear is that is not just one group's work. It is all of our work and all of our responsibility. And I've seen a lot of staff jump in and take on
097um the trainings and and take on the professional development that allows them to really create more of a culture of of restorative in a restorative nature just within their classroom. I know in our own faculty meetings we run circles um very regularly. That's how we started our faculty meetings, I think, throughout the whole fall. Um, just so that we as as a staff can one model those practices, but also create a more collaborative environment because that's important for our students to see. Um, when we look at professional development, we dedicate multiple CSIs or those two-hour Wednesdays across the across the year to um bu again building that toolbox for for teachers, whether it's trauma-informed practices. Um, we're looking next year at making sure that there is a piece of um that training, whether it's equity,
098diversity work, trauma informed practice throughout all our building CSI. so it doesn't just live by itself because it doesn't just live by itself. Um and so we've really worked to to bring those pieces. Another just a a highlight is we created across all the secondary schools the um a it had it's like a symbol of helping hands and then everybody's logos in it and we've put them in spaces where students can seek help and support safe spaces and they're across all our middle schools and high schools and though they have different logos the hands are the same. So any student knows that whatever building they're in, if they're having a hard time, that that office or that space is somewhere where they can seek an adult that is is there to support them and train
099to support them. So those are just some concrete examples and I completely agree and feel um excited and empower and just ready to take on more work like this is this is the next step, right? and and so it's been it was great to get all the the accolade and those pieces and and I appreciate all the work but I also see it as as an incredible call to action. Can I piggyback one thing? I just because um I want to clarify not not so much for you Latoya but for the listening audience um at the tier one level because uh you mentioned something about tier one and what access do do children have to kind of social emotional learning at tier one level at the high school. Um, I want to talk about that
100because it's it's fully available in in the following way if when we think about what that really means. I mean, 20 years ago, a high school teacher might, you know, stereotypical, not a hall high school teacher, but a stere stereotypical theoretical high school teacher might say something, I'm a teacher of content. And and I would say that our high school teachers are are teachers of students. They're teachers of human beings. They're teachers of future leaders. They're teachers of uh unique individuals. And it's always been a hallmark of this district that we recognize the power of relationships. Um we try to create an understanding in a in a in a culture in our classrooms where there's perspective taking. All all the efforts that Sarah just talked about are just adding depth to of capacity for our
101teachers to be able to do this uh effectively and and hopefully expertly um as you know as teachers build their skill in this over the course of their careers. And so I I just wanted to offer that as you know that is that is the inroad at the tier one level that we try to create. Do we have bumps along the road? Do the do all the students get it at the same speed? Do all of our teachers get it at the same speed? Of course not. So, there's always going to be bumps along the road, which is why we have to have continuous professional development. But I just for the for the listening audience, I just want to make sure that everyone understands there's there's certainly no lack of attention and effort that's applied
102at that right at that ground level. There's lots of intervention work that we do with lots of very skilled professionals and teacher leaders and and and everything else in addition too. Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to respond to that and I you know, thank you for all that feedback. Um I guess what I'm thinking of like I think of some of these um some of the incidences that are that happen in our schools that are at the tier one level that impact the culture and climate. And I do want to challenge us to address those issues as tier one issues. Racialized harm, those are conversations I think that shouldn't be students opt in if they want to talk about what happened. But the whole school, everybody in that morning is having that conversation at
103breakfast. Not just about racialized harm, but all the different harms that we see that are now like resurfacing, too. Not that we've completely strayed away, but there was a time where like this died down, but things are resurfacing. Um, and so I think that is just my challenge for us to like think about how we can look at those things as whole community issues that we addressed from day one with all of the students and were really explicit about it. And then the other thing is we as board members like we're here to support as well. And so I think the more open and and transparent we are as a team um we can also you know we want to hear like if we need to have certain conver like if we as a community
104need to have certain conversations with families about the conversations that they need to be having like we need to know that because it's not just on y'all. You're doing the best that you can as well. And there's a huge part of this that the that parents and the community also need to lift up. And that's why I'm bringing this up because this is a public meeting and it is recorded and it other people can see and hear this. And I think that onus is on our entire town. And so I wanted to just that's why I'm like I just wanted to be transparent about it because it's not just on y'all, you know? So what I'm saying it's not just on Teresa's team, but it's not just on y'all. It's on this whole town to
105rise. we all need to be having these conversations and we all need to hold the line for our community and we need to be real about what we're going to tolerate and what we're not going to tolerate. And so just I hope that y'all can also see us as resources and advocates too. Um because we all want the best for our students. So I also want to just give that context that that's the space that I'm coming from. Um that we're just we're in this with y'all. So thank you. And I think to close the loop in terms of bringing it even back to the NIAS process, one of the things that's emphasized throughout all of the standards is your commitment to the vision of the graduate. And if we think about it, part of
106the vision of the graduate is acting with honor and integrity. And so we have to continue to really be explicit with all of those things with all of our stakeholders that if we continue to hold true to our mission, our vision of the graduate, we should be able to continue to move that work forward and have it really be coherent and have people see it um in everything that we do. Ethan was your hand was raised. Yeah, it's different vein. Um it's a 10-year process. I was just curious for the committee chairs, how long have you been working on this? Uh, I started in 2019, fall of 2019, and so uh it was an exciting first year uh leading into 2020. That's fair. This is actually my third NIA. I came in uh when one
107was just ending. I went through one entire 10-year process and now I've just started my um you know 2022 was the beginning of this current in the next 10 years too. I think I might be done after this one. Well, I think it's already been said, but thank you for all the hard work Gail. Sorry, I just want to um go back to my original question about how you integrate um the curriculum into the vision of the graduate and you just measured mentioned honor and integrity. I'm just curious if you could um give me an example how you would integrate that into curriculum. I will say when you're talking about curriculum specifically, that is one of the tougher ones. So sometimes you look to other measures, perhaps some of the work that we're doing through
108our community lessons within our developmental school counseling programs. But I think any opportunity that you have to be able to work in uh conversations, reflection, and so forth and opportunities for students to grow in those areas in curriculum. Um I having been an English teacher, you know, I see lots of opportunities where you can work on having discussions surrounded about that, pulling uh pieces of various pieces of literature where you can talk about that and then you do have to work on opportunities for students to be able to demonstrate that. um and it could be through some of their practices and behaviors in the classroom, but there are other various sources of evidence that we would you can use um when you're looking uh for in terms of honor and integrity. I will say that
109one is is definitely a little tougher to weave in when you're looking to measure that. I guess what I'm asking is obviously a teacher can weave that into a particular lesson but is it integrated into the actual curriculum so that you know in whatever class you've decided to integrate this it's across I'm going to go back you know what's ringing in my head as I'm here is the uh previous presentation we just had for instance on computer science and the integration of artificial intelligence and the ethics that are built around that so that's I think a concrete example, but I think what what you're recognizing and what what Eileen is affirming is, you know, it it has to be more deliberate. It's not, you know, it's it's not the um necessarily the content objective and
110I'm going to list up list up in my math lesson, but I need to I think through this process, I need to be thinking about what are the intersections with that, what are the connections um beyond just classroom policies around integrity and stuff like that. How do I how do I talk about um the application of a content in um in concert with u you know ethical use or or or something about integrity. So um it's it's definitely uh one of the reasons why there's an effort to ensure that your curriculum is you know has alignment with your vision of the graduate. Otherwise, your vision of the graduate is just, you know, it's a it's a nice statement, but how do how have you achieved it and how can you, you know, if it's supposed
111to be what graduates um evolve into, how how can you assure it? No, I mean, I think it's a I think it's great. I'm just curious, you know, how you're doing it. And I appreciate you giving me those examples and and the computer science is actually a very good example. And I will say full transparency that is a next layer of work in terms of while we have made connections to the vision of the graduate. We really have to get to a point where students have opportunity to self assess as well as where we also as educators have an opportunity to provide feedback for students in terms of how they are doing. So we're not there yet but we're making those we're at the beginning stages of making those tighter connections. Let me Can I
112follow on that question? Does do the schools have a code of conduct? Yeah, we there's a student handbook. I Sarah, you can speak to that more explicitly. Yes. So, our our student handbook um and we work in conjunction with Connor to make sure we're we're in alignment. It has um outlines around academic honor honor code. It has it about being, you know, citizenship. Um, and it outline and it outlines for students and and we do go over it in our our through community and through class meetings and and making sure it's explicitly clear for students. I've been in institutions such as the army when became an officer where it was beaten into me. This is the way you operate and in a honest and up way. And I my I know for my kids that
113they've been at colleges where it's very stressed and important. So I mean it's one half in the handbook, but it's just it never occurred to me to ask the question before. Yes. And and we work to address it really throughout the year. Um whether that's how we open school is is students every student meets with um all the administrators. We're up on stage. We're talking about our expectations. We're making them explicit. We have um those conversations again at the midyear and then we also work through um our community block where students are in smaller groups where they can discuss the handbook and um and then we're working to um add in pieces where students are actually in front of students um talking about the handbook because really that's I think the most powerful way to
114make it meaningful and using student leaders and um to to reinforce that. No, just from personal experience when it's done effectively it's very very it's great but it's not always effectively. So thank you. Other questions or comments? I I I will make a comment and I appreciate um Ethan what you were sharing and I certainly know we're encouraging other ways of supporting the retention of what is in the handbook. you were making we don't beat just want to make sure I say for the record but I appreciate you saying that though but with that we'll say it wasn't beaten but it I got to be yes there you go yes but I echo all that has been shared wonderful job congratulations for what has been achieved but I also want to say congratulations for what
115you continue to aspire to do I appreciate and respect the constructive feedback that you are receiving without defense and hearing you describe the process and a 10-year process my that is quite a long length of time but hearing how it is one I think you use the word is collaborative it's a collaborative um process and you use the word evolve and also self assessment I think that speaks volumes because when there is that level of intimate engagement that helps increase a sense of accountability if you feel like I'm contributing to establishing what bar we're striving to meet then you're going to work even harder so thank you for encouraging our students I have to say, Sarah, you have quite a stare. Oh my. Yes, you do. Oh, a smile. That's all right. No, that's good.
116That's good. But a very focused look you have, but like the smile. All right. All right. But wonderful job overall. Thank you so very much. And continue to raise that bar of expectation. Thank you for allowing me to to tease you, sir, but wonderful job nonetheless. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. [Applause] And as we transition, we now will prepare to receive our equity and diversity council a year and review. And so teammates are making their way. We'll pass it to Mr. Vicinus. Excellent. I will give them a moment or two to uh to arrange themselves and get their tech set up. But uh and certainly uh Teresa Wrangler, our executive director of equity advancement, is no stranger to this audience. Um this is uh one of a series of two reports that
117the board will receive. So um next month um in June we will uh as as part of our end ofear reports uh we will have uh what has traditionally been called our equity and excellence report where we kind of report out on our end ofear measures and results. Um this particular report and this fine um group that's in front of you are representatives of our equity and diversity council. So God bless. This is uh these are many of the movers and shakers that really help to uh drive the work forward within our schools. Um as one arm of our effort and uh this report is kind of uh intended to highlight the work that has been ongoing across the 16 schools um to to drive our our larger effort uh within our equity mission. So,
118with that, I'm going to turn it over to Teresa to uh introduce her team and lead off uh this report. Well, hello everyone. It seems like it's been a while since I've been in front of you, at least, you know, I can't say just me because obviously I have this fabulous team with me. Um but I think since November, right, as last time I I directly reported. So, um this is uh a great opportunity for actually a followup to that. If we can think way back to November, we had talked. I was here with um Henley Solomon and Melissa Zish who were here who was uh who's our um co-chair of our EDC team. So, this actually is it's actually perfect timing with the perfect group and and I'm um surrounded with excellence all around
119me. So, I'm actually going to start to this side. Um from Sedwick's school, I have uh with me um Katie Seymour and um Lisa Helvy um who are joining us who are going to report on their school. To my right, I have Ben Norland from Hall High School. Look at that. Sarah, you you're still represented here. Um and then of course I have next to Ben here, I have Shannon, who will be joining um who is Wow, is this your last report probably in front of the board as principal of Aken School because she's going to be joining our party here at central office. And next to her um is Ryan uh from Mley school, Ryan Killy. So, um, super excited to be here, um, and to have an opportunity to share. When I was
120here with you in November, we were, um, excited and motivated. And I have to tell you, like the last couple minutes, like we're we're in the audience getting a little bit, you know, not sleepy, but definitely, um, we had some time and you guys just like fired us right back up again. So, it's awesome. Um, I love the smiles and the laughs. Um, so I wanted to kind of get us started with um, framing the work that we've been doing this year. Um, since I haven't spoken uh directly to you since November, and this is kind of like the our flow of information we're going to give, we're going to talk about who we are um as an EDC, what the EDC is, and I think the best way to do that is with um
121the voices of EDC members who are actually I have a video that I'm going to show that is going to work, Paul. uh and then um a quick um overview of the work that we've done this year with some of the focuses that we've had and then I'm going to stop talking and I'm going to shift it to u my colleagues here who are going to talk about the work in action because um one of the things that I'm I'm super aware of and super conscious of is that this work um there's a lot of lip service uh to to equity work. There's a lot of um theoretical thought behind it. there's a lot of, you know, hearts and warm feelings. Um, but equity and action and the work it actually takes to to make
122change happen is um is is um grittier than that, right? It's it's not seamless. It's not um that smooth road. Um it comes with its challenges. Um but also comes um you know, the blessing that we have of being in West Hartford is there's a clear demand that we we figure it out and and and as painful sometimes as the process is to figure it out, uh we are committed to doing so. So, I want you to have the opportunity for the bulk of the time to hear um how equity works in action and for for you to get a good sense of that across the grade level. So, we have um two elementary, middle school, and high school represented. So, you can kind of see K through um 12 what that looks like. We'll
123talk quickly about what's next and then um obviously plenty of time for questions. Uh so, I'm going to click this and it is going to work, I swear. And if it doesn't, I have a backup plan. magic. The EDC is a resource of people who have spent tremendous amounts of time learning and educating themselves and putting hours and hours into the school system on a volunteer basis to make this world better. And so it is a beautiful resource of people who really care. Doing this work is a very hopeful and inspiring part of our job. But it's a problem that has this incredible result which means like just kids are just succeeding and feeling more whole and growing. If families feel like they belong, if they feel like they can walk into a school and
124be welcomed and that they're really truly a part of that community, then they're going to help their kids do better and they're going to feel better about being at school and being in West Harford. The value of the EDC is to really continue to push us as educators and our students in the pursuit of our mission for equity, which is really to challenge what we know, to seek new knowledge, but also to as educators be really well-versed in the communities around us to be able to serve all of our students. when they're feeling seen, when they're feeling heard, when they're feeling valued, when they see themselves in what we're reading, when they can make connections to their own lives and their own identities, that's when we see the most engagement. I think when staff feel
125valued and welcome and that their experiences and perspectives are being respected, they're also happy to be here, happy to do their best work. They feel like they're included and that their voices are valued. They're so excited to share their pictures of their family and then it immediately creates this sense of I don't just know you as my classmate, but I know you and your family. And not only are the children excited to share about who is in their family, then throughout the rest of the school year when we're doing writing assignments, we're doing math assignments, not only can I add that into the work and I can ask them like, "Oh, how's your dog Cooper and what's Sam up to?" Like a brother, they do that with each other. So I think that is one
126thing just right from the start of the year is not just seeing my own individual students but immediately creating that bridge with their families. What makes someone feel like they belong different for everyone? It could be that poster on the wall. It could be some kind of thing that this teacher says, some kind of routine that they do, some kind of book that they read, some kind of word that they use. It could be some something so simple. So rather than us just guessing at it, this book, Street Data, which was brought to us by the EDC, just has this great framework for us to say, "Here's how you can just find out." When I get to be my authentic self, my students see that. And then I watch as they become their most authentic
127selves. And then as they have gotten older, they've come back and they're still that same kid. And that to me is the power of this work is that when we change and grow and get to be exactly who we are, flaws and all or in my case singing and all, the kids rise to that occasion. They continue to learn and grow, but most importantly, they get to be and see the type of human that they want to be. And that's so important. I'd love to say this work eventually stops, but our world doesn't stop changing. So the work will keep changing. That's really my big hope is that we can get so bogged down by so many things in education and the data charts and this and that, but really first and foremost, seeing people
128as humans and what they can bring is really the key. The people that I teach with, my students, they don't all look like me and they come from different places and they have different stories. And that's why I love my job. I get to hear their stories. I want to hear their stories because they make me a better human. They make me a better teacher. The more that we connect with each other, the better things get. And so my hope is that we'll continue on that same path where we're identifying what our problem of practice is, gathering data from multiple perspectives, and really going for it, setting those action steps, and really taking steps towards meeting our goal. Huge shout out to Craig who is always um just so amazing at um capturing um the
129voices of you know of us collectively and and the joke that we have going around is that if we if we entrust Craig with it, we we will never look bad, we'll never sound bad. He's he's just um a blessing, I think, to the district and his ability to be able to capture and get people comfortable in front of a camera. You have you have no idea. Perhaps you can all do a video for us. No. Okay, never mind. I saw some I saw some reactions there from Yes. Um because I do think it I think it matters when we think about um when we talk about the work that we do and being able to kind of you know express that. And so as a board I think you should you know if we
130do it I think you should do it. It's you know one of the things that we do right we model. Um, but this year we've we've really taken a a big focus on um uplifting some um many things, but one of the things that we've definitely focused on as an EDC is centering student voice and lived experiences uh with our work through street data. It's um you know, we are always attempting to do the best that we can and what we think as adults we should be doing. Um but much to to Toya's um point, you know, we have to listen to to what students are are trying to tell us. And so we we give them space and we give them opportunities and we've been really digging deep with allowing students to be able
131to reflect and tell us what they're thinking. Not just students, our staff as well because the reality is if um if those who are caring for our young are not feeling well and connected then they're also not able to do their job to the best of their ability. So, um really doing some deep listening which has been a practice that we've been um exploring this year. Um professional learning um and identity reflection. Who we are as we we work with our young people um ne is never not present. Uh and so it's really important um when we think about um building a restorative culture as a district and what it means to actually have a restorative culture. um you have to be able to kind of understand your own lens and what your experiences are
132um with consequence. What what are your experiences with being connected with people um and that work is is always ongoing and and and revolves really really really um deep reflection as one of the core elements of this work. uh if you're not able to reflect and think and be curious um you're you are going to have a really hard time being able to connect and make bridges across differences uh which of course our schools are um just you know these these great um spaces where we have so many differences altogether and those differences just make us um you know the magical place that that West Hartford is. So I said I wasn't going to talk anymore. I'm done. Um, I'm gonna actually pass it over uh so we can look at some equity and action.
133And I believe first up is Morley School with Ryan. All righty. Thank you, Teresa, and thank you everybody. Really appreciate the opportunity to talk tonight about some of the things that have been going on at Moley School. And you know, I will say that our journey with our EDC work this year uh was awesome. And and I think the thing that I want to share the most with you is that because of the guidance um and the partnership we found with the EDC committee. Uh the awesome thing about this year is we made a pretty significant pivot from our beginning of the year goal, our expectation for what we were going to work on and that ended up being a tremendous learning opportunity uh for all of us. So that's what I'd like to talk
134about tonight. And you can see on the uh presentation behind me that we initially started the year with two goals. And one of them was really just focused on general belonging because that's a real core piece of of what we do and how we engage with the EDC. And then the other piece was really doing a close examination of all the systems we have at play and how to support equity, you know, with all the stakeholders in our community. And so we were really excited about that work. on schoolbased EDC really kind of maybe got down a few rabbit holes here and there about you know our systems and and what we'd like to you know take advantage of where we'd like to do some more work and we thought before we got started with
135that with the street data piece that was introduced this year we'd take some initial street data as an EDC team just to uh maybe prioritize our efforts and as we did that what we found was that a lot of the stakeholders in our mor community didn't necessarily feel as though they belonged um in in the community and in the work as much as we thought we did. And that was a really important realization because I think that it'd be very difficult for folks to analyze and engage in systems level work if they don't feel that core sense of belonging with where they are. Uh so we took a step back and we decided to really focus on engaging all of our stakeholders and and really uh prioritizing our students and our teachers in that sense
136of belonging at Moly this year. So one of the ways that we did that was we tried to show folks how equity work is embedded in the things we do every day. I think a big challenge and and one of the reasons why people feel like they don't always belong as a champion of equity work is because it's still seen as uh a separate thing uh another another item on the list. And so uh my EDC rep partner here, Mr. Jason Buer uh is featured in this slide. And the point that he made through our EDC work with our school community was that there are opportunities to promote equity work every single day. Like for example, a readaloud. Read aloud is something that happens in countless elementary classrooms every single day. And Jason pointed out
137that there's an opportunity to build student relationships there. And if you're purposeful about the content and the books that you're choosing, there's also an opportunity for students to see and feel themselves in that content which is hopefully opening a door and creating accessibility. So those are things that are happening all the time and that was a great point for uh for us to explore as a staff because I think it helped people see that equity work is not separate work. It's embedded in the things that we do every single day. you know, as is our work, you know, with that district EDC team on top of our school-based team. And our district EDC team has been really, really helpful this year because it gave us the opportunity, so when I say us, I mean it
138gave our school-based team the opportunity to have a dedicated time to sit down and really dig in and think about the street data that we're pulling and how it's going to impact our work. And the really nice thing was that it wasn't an isolated piece that Jason and I looked at after school one day in my office. it was in the company of all of our EDC colleagues at the district level. So we had the opportunity to bounce off ideas off of other schools hear what people were doing and that helped make that time really purposeful. You know, looking forward, we also wanted to think about, you know, what challenges lay ahead. You know, what can we anticipate as a as a bridge we need to cross? And I mean, who doesn't recognize time as
139a challenge? Uh, and and I certainly want to acknowledge that just time itself is something we always want more of. Any one of us could have used two or three more hours in today, I'm sure. Um, so I want to acknowledge that because it's validating for folks. But, you know, looking at it more deeply, we recognize that time is a challenge in terms of this equity work requiring not just research um but research with reflection and sensitivity to make sure that we're really being open and inclusive with the work that we're doing. And the last piece about time that we talked about this year I really want to anticipate isn't so much a how we're spending a time consideration, but that question of when. Uh, and I'm super purposeful about that because uh, it demonstrates
140the commitment of EDC work. And the example I always like to give people is in the beginning of the year when we're goal setting, when we're setting the tone, creating excitement, everybody believes that our space is equitable and open and inclusive for everybody. And then because we are in the business of developing human beings, conflict naturally arises over the course of the year. You can't avoid that. It's inevitable. So then the question becomes uh do we still believe we are as inclusive um and and welcoming and creating that sense of belonging in those moments of conflict as we are when everything is optimistic you know at the beginning of the year and that's a difficult question to answer and it's certainly a focus of ours moving forward. So, you know, moving forward going into next
141year, we really really want to think about some of the systems you see there on the left. Uh, and those came out of some student and staff focus groups that we did this year. And based on the, uh, responses we got from people in those settings, we really started to think about, well, all right, so these new pieces we started this year, these fairness focus, these equity um, pieces at each of our staff meetings, what are those going to look like moving forward? and what is our cheer committee doing and how are we casting a wider net for some of our community events that we do at Morley and within each of those things. We really want to make sure that student voice is present even at the elementary level doing those student focus groups
142from kindergarteners up to to fifth graders, you know, from 5 to 11. They'll tell you lots of cool stuff and some of it is just fun. Um but some of it hits you right here. And we really want to make sure that we're using those responses to not only guide our work, but inviting the people who gave those responses to be part of the work with us. And that's something we're really committed to as we uh you know move into next year. And we're really excited to have the support of our district EDC committee. And uh hopefully there'll be a lot more development that happens. And I want to end just really quickly Jason Beller who was uh featured in that video. This is a quote that he wrote for one of our staff meetings
143and it just speaks to the level of learning that happens through EDC work and the level of impact because when we engage with community members in this way, we're learning as much ourselves as we're trying to teach them and that makes an impact and it's something that that stays with you moving forward. So, we're really really happy and proud of our work and looking forward to continuing next year. I believe I'd like to pass things off to my Cedric colleagues at this point. Good evening. My name is Katie Seymour and I am an ELA teacher and team leader at Sedick Middle School. And hello, my name is Lisa Helyby and I'm a speech language pathologist at Sedwick Middle School. And we've both been members of EDC since we've joined the district here and we are
144proud to be representing our school tonight. The restructuring of our EDC has allowed us to truly become teacher leaders at Sedwick Middle School. We've been able to collaborate with our administrators to make change in our building. We've developed a problem of practice with our principal, Miss Karen Cookish, as it is aligned with our strategic development plan. We decide to start with academic interventions to encourage differentiation from an equity lens and strengthen our tier one instructional strategies to meet the needs of all of our learners. Additionally, the full day learning opportunities that we've had this year as part of the EDC have allowed us to collaborate with peers around the district, essentially creating a think tank of equity work. All right. Oh, this is you. We made a script for you. We were very excited. We
145planned a teachers teaching teachers PD to highlight the expertise of our educators within the building. We recruited teacher leaders to present equity focused instructional strategies at 11 rotating stations. We distributed faculty into random groupings. So if you can picture the middle school model of um teams, we broke them all apart um and to encourage collaboration across disciplines leading to deeper conversations about how to apply strategies in order to promote equitable outcomes throughout our school. You could hit the next one. Thank you. All right. So, after our PD session, we received valuable and energizing feedback from both participants and presenters. Honestly, it was shocking. It is very hard to make teachers happy after a professional learning experience. We have very harsh critics and they were so excited. Um, they described the learning as high lever strategies
146fostering student ownership and reflected that the learning from other teachers is highly valuable. One teacher even reflected that this was the jump start I needed. The presenters also shared positive feedback feeling empowered by the experience and excited about the practicality of the classroom ready strategies. Many of the presenters shared they would love to do this again but as participants next time since the feedback was so wellreceived we continued with peer-led PD snapshots during our faculty meetings. The this routine regularly embeds equity learning opportunities in our monthly staff meetings, maintaining our focus on best instructional practices. Next year, we will expand our work by furthering our restorative practices, introducing instructional rounds aligned with the social justice pedagogy from our reading street data and continuing to strengthen our tier one instructional strategies that are differentiated to empower
147all learners. and we really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight as the EDC building representatives. Um we're very proud of the meaningful equity work that we've been doing over the past few years at Sedwick and um we love being there. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Tossing it over to you, Ben. All right. Thanks everybody. Um Ben Norland, science teacher from Hall High School. Um, and first I want to thank Sarah for her, you know, leadership and and guidance shaping our problem of practice, establishing it, um, and recognizing the importance of and of a sense of belonging at school and, um, for sort of setting the stage for our work in the year. Um, and so yeah, go to the next one. So um you know broadly this year we
148decided that it was about understanding where we're at um as a community for the purpose of informing you know good uh strategic choices sort of moving forward. So that you know began with um designing a series of focus groups and so that included um uh Sarah met with families uh early on and and doing a kind of a parent focus group session and then that led into um a number of student focus groups that were carried out by a team of of really great colleagues at school. Um and then in one of our uh professional learning opportunities, we did a um a data collection session with staff as well um focused around the street data framework uh for agency um looking at identity, belonging, efficacy, and mastery as sort of elements of building this positive
149school community um that we want. And so uh we gathered a lot of qualitative data and um to process and really what we found is that you know coming from the students um they you know want the leadership to not just hear but act on their voice and input create more opportunities to share that voice but also to have it be meaningful. Um they also want their peers to speak out more and set a good example and so they recognize you know their responsibility uh as much as ours and sort of shaping that. Um and you know for staff there's uh it was very clear that relationships matter a lot um and that their professional relationships are an important part of feeling like they belong in the staff and can and do their best. uh
150the collaborative time that we're able to get is really important for our sense of mastery and efficacy and being effective educators. Um new learning is really important uh to the staff and we need need and want to continue to have opportunities um to expand our learning. But uh the challenges are real and integrating multiple modes of and of new learning is really really hard and the volume of and pressure of the job is increasing and that was very evident in um the conversations and feedback that we gathered. Uh and it was interesting for the staff talking about identity was very difficult. Um, and in a lot of the responses we notice staff defaulting to centering students over themselves, which I think is a testament to our staff, but also to the challenge that we have
151of seeing ourselves in this deeply meaningful work. Um and so I think there's a lot to process and to think about and to set direction for you know moving forward and developing a sustainability plan for effective information gathering that we can then act on um with the limited resources and time that we have uh and thinking forward about a sustainability plan that integrates you know our traditional school climate surveys with some deeper work building connections in the moment but also to inform our decision- making long term. Did I miss anything? I think I got it. You got it. Oh, and yeah, and we welcome any questions as we go. That's my first time. Oh, okay. I'm so sorry. You You did forget something. You forgot Shannon. I just It's a lot to include everything on
152the slide. I just had an extra handout, too. Thank you. Um, so one of the things at Akin that we talk about all the time is that relationships are the foundation of everything that we do and having that sense of belonging we talk about a lot being a welcoming school. Um, we always look through the ends the lens of equity in whatever we do. But what we really delved into this year with the work through the EDC and looking at the street data was really how can we get information to really um quantify what that looks like and to also make sure that we're really students aren't falling falling through the cracks and that we're not missing anyone. So our problem of practice was to identify students who may feel less connected and then how
153we can improve our own practices to help all students feel that sense of belonging. So where we started was I just put out a question to all staff. I said without overthinking it, who are those students that come to mind in your classroom interactions, special areas, recess, lunch that you feel may not feel that sense of belonging. Send me their names. So, I took all of that information and there were 54 different student names that were identified at least once. But there were 16 students that were identified by at least three staff members. So, I really felt that that was significant if of all the students in our school, those 16 were being identified in more than one area. So, then what we did at a staff meeting, we put up pictures of who those
154students are. um because we all, you know, work together and own all of our students. And then on the next slide, what I did was I really looked at those numbers. So, of those 16 students, 63% were male, 38% were female. So, we talked about what that might mean. Um I also noticed 10 out of 16 of those students did not start at Aken in kindergarten. So, we talked about as we have more students moving into the district at different times, how much how integral those foundational beginning years are when we're talking about a sense of belonging and feeling welcomed and what do we need to do when we don't have the gift of time in six years with a student and family to help them feel that sense of connection. And then I also
155broke down the demographics of those 16 students compared to our school population as a whole. And in some cases it's very aligned and in some cases it isn't. So we talked about why that might be the case and things that we can do differently. And then once I did the data with the staff, it really made me think about, okay, well, this is who the staff is identifying, but how do some of our own perceptions, biases, looking at our own lens, how do the kids actually feel about their sense of belonging? So, sorry, backwards. So, then I created a survey and you can see on the first page that I handed out, um, the survey questions and I surveyed all 202 of our students in grades three through five. Um, I gave them the survey
156because I kind of wanted it to be on the same playing field given by the same person. And at the start of the discussion, I told them really what we want to talk about is the difference between feeling welcomed and feeling like you belong. And I think even in elementary school, we don't always give students enough credit for being able to really know and identify the difference. So, we said, you know, what are examples of feeling welcomed? Someone says good morning. Someone says hello to you in the hallway. Um, but what does it mean to really feel like you belong? That's a deeper feeling. That feels different than just feeling welcomed. Um, and what I have up here are some of the responses that the students put. Um, and don't tell the staff, but they
157were better than some of the things the adults said. Um, students said, "When someone asks me if I'm okay on my bad days, that makes me feel like I belong." Um, being acknowledged, feeling I can trust teachers, feeling accepted. Someone said, "It feels like home." Um, some things that make me feel like I belong are when my friends understand me and know my boundaries. Um, I thought that was very powerful. And then we had some, you know, that really, you know, hit you in the core. We had a student that said, "Nothing really makes me feel like I belong here, but I feel welcomed at least." So that's when we real, you know, students know the difference and we had work to do. Um, so based on those student surveys, then what we did was
158we correlated that information between what the students were identifying as their sense of belonging compared to what the staff thought. And it was some really good discussions because there were certain students of those 16 that based on their survey weren't feeling the way that we thought they were. And we talked about who are students that may present as a loner or we mentioned happy introverts. um you know that are feeling connected but may not show that in the way that we may be expecting them to. Um when we asked students to identify friends that they rely on, we talked about the difference between a trusted true friend and an acquaintance. And um we realized it wasn't just the quantity of what they wrote, but the quality. So, for example, if I wrote down 10 trusted
159friends, but none of those 10 friends wrote my name, then, you know, that was information that we had. Or I may have only put one friend, but if I put Ryan and he put me, then, you know, we have that sense of belonging. Um, so that was also information that then we shared with our clinical team, um, the results of the survey and the results with the staff. And then once we had done that on the third slide was we said okay now we have all of this information we have these student names what do we do about it. So those were some of the artifacts that I shared with you on that sheet. One of the things our fantastic school counselor Laura Griggs developed the Aken changemakers group and that's a group of fifth
160grade students where their mission is to create that sense of belonging. And it says the group is made up of fifth grade students who believe that all students at Aken regardless of gender, race, culture, etc. Our group listens to all students and strives to leave a lasting impact on our school. And some of the initiatives that that group has done this year um they have gone into the younger classrooms and they've read stories about belonging and inclusion and equity and had discussions with um some of our primary students around that. They've created I have a picture here of table talk conversation starters in the cafeteria because we talked about when students are eating to have um questions that they can talk about to help facilitate conversations, maybe talk to someone that they don't always communicate
161with at lunch. Um and you can see they were totally student created questions. You know, my favorite, what did the left eye say to the right eye? Um between us, something smells. Um, so you could see and I have to say all the time at lunch I see kids getting up taking, you know, the ring of questions, sitting down at their table, going through the different questions together. And then on the back page, something else that we've done this year as a schoolwide initiative, our mascot is Swoop the Owl. So we call it a swoop shuffle. And we've done two far this two rounds so far this year and we have a third coming up in June. So, every single staff member in the school, this is just a sample, comes up with just a
162fun activity um that they want to do with a group of students. Um it could be something they're interested in, it could be an art project, it could be um something outside, whatever they choose. And then we have a menu of options for the kindergarten and first graders to choose, the second and third grade, and the fourth and fifth grade. So the kids get their menu of what their options are, who the staff members are that are teaching it, and then um I put them into mixed across grade level groups and for 45 minutes um they get to spend time with that staff member and kids that are not in their class um doing just a fun activity to help build that connection and belonging. Um, and you can see from some of the pictures
163just joy and fun um, and spending time together. So, those are some of the things that we've done so far this year. Um, and we'll definitely look to continue to build upon this this next year. And the teachers are actually very invested because they said, "Are you going to do that survey again at the end of the year?" Because now we want to see the results. You know, we don't want any kids on that list at all. Um, and you know, I'm so appreciative just the work of the EDC through the lens that we value and look at equity, um, and the commitment that we have, um, you know, to really help all of our students to feel safe and seen, um, and like they belong. So, needless to say, it's why I preferred you
164actually hear it in person instead of me trying to explain that. I would have never done any of this magnificent work justice by um speaking about it myself. Um and so just to give you um just some ideas about what's next for us. Um we are we remain committed. we will continue um our learning opportunities uh to expand our knowledge to learn together um to challenge each other to ask the hard questions because I think that um it's really very um it's very easy to fall into the trap of like feeling like you've done something and you're done. Um and the reality is is you know as Kathy said in the video the the the challenges are evolving, the work evolves. Um we um even when you're feeling good about something, all it takes I
165I tell people all the time, we give these climate surveys and everybody gets really excited because it comes out super positive and I'm like, "Yeah, do a focus group." And it's it's such a different um experience to have young people in front of you um who which ironically I've I've done a lot of focus groups um in the district and it doesn't actually matter to me to them that I'm a stranger in essence. I'm an adult who wants to listen and that's all they care about. I'm an adult who cares, who wants to listen. Um, and they're happy to tell me all the good, the bad, and the ugly. Um, which is what we have to be attuned to listening to. Um, it's great to hear the good. Um, you know, it's it's a little
166concerning when you start hearing some bad and it's heartbreaking when you hear the ugly. Um, but it is it's the work that we've chosen to do. So, we we are responsible for listening to all of it. um whether it be from our students, from our families um and then being responsive to that. So we will continue that work and we will continue to ask the hard questions. Um I think it was really telling when when Ben mentioned that how how the adults struggled with talking about identity and how that kind of takes um a role in um in the role in the work that we do. Uh that's a very real thing. Um it's why when people, you know, want to jump into um this idea of restorative practices and they want to just jump
167into circles and jump into this and do all this and I'm like, "No, freeze." There's a mindset that you need to have in order to be able to effectively do this. Um and it there's a consistency of belief and values that we have to be really aligned um with in order for this work to um to bear fruit and for us to genuinely say that we have lived up to um our our val our mission that we said that we want. It's aspirational. I think if anybody tells you that we're there, I'll just be frank and tell you that they're lying. So, the reality is we're working to we're working towards it. We're always working towards um close um we want to continue to have closer partnerships. Our office um my team who's behind me
168back there um we we recognize um these the problem of practices that schools have developed. Um there are like day-to-day questions and and um and I do feel like sometimes some especially like our administrators feel a little bit more bashful about like you know bugging me what they think is bugging me. I'm like no it's not bugging me it's literally why I'm here. Um and so what we've decided to do is we've decided that we're going to we we I've assigned us to each to schools. So, we actually have like a a cohort of schools that we will support more directly and be involved um in at at a closer level to kind of help support some of that work to help support with doing some of the focus groups um so that we can
169we can um be really um in it with with our schools, right, with our EDC members, with our principles um making sure that they feel supported um love through, right, the process of change and growth. Uh and we also again this this idea about building a restorative culture. Um this group works hard. Uh we have one of the members who was in the video um is in our full day EDC group but she she's definitely takes part in the afterchool um and is and is a force within it. So, we are going to continue to actually keep our our double dose model that we have where we have our full day and we still offer the afternoons because some people can't do um during the day, but they're happy to come in the afternoon and
170and and do work. Um, we will also be developing modules for um, the whole school year over the summer that will kind of help guide people through some of the mindset mindset um, work that needs to be done to to truly be able to kind of lean into this work along with some of the actual discrete skills that you need to to have um, and kind of pairing those back and forth. So, we're going to be doing that work this summer as well. Um, so that is kind of what's up in next for us. You know, I can talk all day, but I'm sure never mind. Um, but I will bring it back to you for questions. All right. Thank you collectively. Thank you very much. Thank you teammates, questions, thoughts, comments regarding the information.
171Latoya, thank you for the reports. Um, sounds wonderful. Thank you for all your hard work. um that granular work that you're doing at Aken that you've done at Aken girl like that's a model. Oh, thank you. Um and it as you were like I was just like that's what it takes like that's the work. Um, and so it it made me think a lot about how we duplicate that in the older grade. Like like it's interesting cuz I like hearing Ben say like it's hard to get the adults in high school to talk about their identities and like to go there. And it's interesting because it's also hard to get high school students to do that. There is a culture shift that happens from elementary to middle and high school and and there's a difference
172in how we're talking about belonging in SEAL to that shift. So, it's just it's something I'm pondering cuz I'm like the conversation is changing and then like we're almost regressing like the the students and teachers, right? Like we just get less vulnerable. So, it's just I I was thinking a lot about what you said and I'm just thinking a lot about it in in terms of our upper grades like what does that like what does that look like, you know, at that level and like it's not like kitty to like do those same things and in those spaces. So, I'm just thinking about that because that's that's awesome. Um, and then I my question for y'all is like what does parent involvement look like? What do you like? What do you need from parents and
173families to help further the work that you're doing at schools? I got a list. We we want to hear it. Um I would say like one of the most important things that I really need for for not just parents but community and as well is that to remember that we are all in this together, right? the good, the bad, like we're all in this together. And that the conversations that we have at school, the brave conversations that you want us to have at school, you need to be brave enough to also have them at home. Um there's a level of comfortability that we can we can develop and a and a level of family, right? Feeling that we can develop um in our classrooms and certainly in our schools, but you're literally family, right? they're
174literally taking their some of their mold of of their belief systems and and what they um what they think they should be able to expect from the world from you. And so um we we recognize that this um that the fact that maybe this might not be happening as much as we like is is not in likelihood a not want to but a not knowing how to. And so like my office um is prepared as we launch into next year um in late summer to to kind of offer some opportunities for families to be able to come in and let's let's let's talk and let's learn about how you have those conversations at home because it's not I mean I'll be honest um you know for some of the you know I'm a black woman
175and we've had we had lots of conversations in my house about some elements of the work that is part of of DEI work right um but many of the other pieces we didn't talk about right like I don't think I don't think there was ever a point in time that we had a conversation about disabilities in my house right like I had the general like golden rule that was kind of applied over everything um but actually specifically talking about that wasn't something that we ever really talked about talking about different religions we didn't really talk about that as a family and and the acceptance of those different things the bottom line was just everybody was supposed to be accepted um and but I do think that it's important that we we have conversations ations um
176with families and we help families. And so instead of judging families, um it's not a judgment. It's it's um it's a an invitation, right? An invitation um to learn, an invitation to lean into this, an invitation um to kind of gather in fellowship with other people who are also in that same spot wanting to know, hey, how do I bring this up at home? Or like what's a good way? And I always tell people, you'd be shocked. There's probably a stu a children's um book like you know elementary level book that covers everything because you can you can make lessons and have and like leapfrog into um the deepest conversations um from from literature that from for intended for really young children. It's always a safe inroad, right? There's the all these morals to the
177stories where you can kind of say, "Hey, so what are you so what are you thinking about that?" Right? Um and it's it's you know practice practice makes better. Not perfect, right? practice makes better. And I think that we we don't practice that. We don't practice asking for help. Um and I think as as a district, we you know, we just have to um focus on our efforts on just really making sure that we offer that support and that help and that we're, you know, we're not here to judge. We're here to help. We're here to um make things better for all of us. But what I would ask is that people um lean into this idea that we it is a community effort. We all need to be doing our part. Uh we have
178so many amazing community partners uh in this community who can all be offering they all have the these like niche areas of expertise. You could all be voluntarily offering these you know these classes to talk about your area in specific right like and then we all just come and join yours right um I think there's so many there's so much opportunity here and I I would just encourage people to just lean into that. Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you all for your work and putting yourselves on the front lines of this work and being so courageous and and putting in that extra time for our students and families. We appreciate you Claire. Um thank you so much for the report and for for explaining it from such a fundamental level. I also
179like that um when you start the work if you find out the data and the feedback from kids isn't in alignment of the path you were starting on that you can adjust to it. Um because shine time matters. It matters for adults. It matters for kids. Um and you know your voice mattering um your opinion mattering people listening to you makes such a difference. And I really think it's fundamental to address the attendance problems that we see. If you know that you're missed when you're not there, if you know that you're you've got a a real important part of this project, um you know, a variety of clubs. We're not all into sports. We're not, you know, talented in music and art, but there's clubs. There's great clubs and a place where you can find
180your people. And so these opportunities to find your people, to find that place to to um and not all kids have that ability, they don't know. And sometimes parents aren't the best example of how to um be extroverted or finding people because sometimes families are don't go reach out much beyond their doors, you know. Um they're so busy. Um, so I I appreciate all the time you're giving, the the listening to kids, um, sharing stories where you can talk about how you feel. Um, all of that's really important. Thank you. Gale. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Um, I wanted to really commend what you did at Aken. I thought that was really outstanding and um like almost you could almost publish that data. Um I was actually surprised when you stratified that um by
181the race of the children. I was not what I would have expected. Um and so I had actually two questions. one is I would find it like I think it would be useful and I I don't know if your plan is to now after you've tried to make some of those changes to go back and reservey and because you did mention that but I don't know if that's the plan to see if any of what you did obviously had any impact and then my second question was to you Teresa if what was done at Aken can be done more across the district looking at some of these you know issues and then um doing that kind of essentially research to see what we what we're doing that's right and what we're doing that isn't right.
182But I I would also want to know if um if you plan to research Go first. Yep. We have a plan to do this survey again the first week in June. Um especially as we're changing leadership. I think it's extra important. And I want to put a close on what we've done for this year and then also really use that information to help as a springboard um going forward to next year because also, you know, when you're looking at students and how they're feeling, I also want to see what may potentially have been a moment in time and what may potentially be, you know, a longer standing feeling. And on the other side, were there students that had a more positive response on the first survey but aren't feeling as good going into next year?
183Um so yes, we'll be doing that again. Um so it was really important um for um I think for our all for all our collective growth um that people got to to choose a problem of practice that resonated with their building and they got to kind of dive into it um in in um in their way and then to um and then to share. So like our last day um of our EDC, I wish I had it on tape. It's magical um because every single school got up and shared and the ideas like popping off and like in in how we've seen um ideas you know that were done in one school be transplanted into other schools like that's what you want because the reality of this work is um you have to have a
184why for doing it right like so I could in all sincerity be like okay listen everyone you're all doing this you don't have a choice etc etc The moment you turn it into that um you have um you have taken the the the spark of a problem of practice that was a real interest to people and that where they have self self um motivation to want to see it through. Um, and so the the the best model in all sincerity is to allow people's ideas to spark off of each others because as they're all hearing them, they're they're adding like if you see like I already I'm starting to see what people are drafting for next year for their problem of practices, they're picking out like the best things because they had 16 different models
185to choose from. And so they're they're naturally doing that. And because they're owning the process of doing that, they're going to do it and they're going to go all in. And so, um, part of the the splitting up of our team is to help make sure that we kind of guide that practice, um, and also ask the tough questions. Like, so if I feel like someone's problem practice, um, isn't hitting like a level that I that is that we think is where everybody can see themsel in it, it's it becomes our responsibility to ask those questions and to and to push them further and deeper. Um, so I I mean I to tr told me I I totally get um where you're going with that, but it's also really important for um for adult learners
186and for adults that you're that you're trying to shift practice that they feel really invested in what they that they're doing. Um and trust me um seeing other people um approach it in different ways has has already transplanted those ideas um along the path. So, I'm I'll be excited to show um next year when we we get to around this time um so that you can kind of see like how how how deep people choose to go um and how deep people are going to be helped to go in their practices. But yeah, I I wish that you could have that that that could have been like taped and memorialized because it was just phenomenal to see all the different ways like I have like a sampling of schools. There are 16 and every school
187did a prom of practice. Um it was and it was just a beautiful um experience I think for all of us if I could speak for the whole team. Um but thanks. Other questions or comments Jason? So, thank you not only for the very very important work that that goes behind this, but really for this presentation and and I think this presentation is so important because unfortunately right now we're we're in a moment where diversity and equity and inclusion, those words are are straw men, right? They're boogie men. And I think if you know what they're really about, just as you have shown us tonight, for us it's about every day, every child belonging, right? And what that means is students who feel like they belong perform better. They don't get lost in the system.
188Schools are safer. I mean, that's the message. And and so just thank you so much. Trademark. We'll talk later. All right. Other questions or comments? All right, I echo all that has been shared. Thank you very much for the information and it was really insightful to hear the perspectives from each school and and what was learned and what was learned to do differently. I appreciate you sharing how you all pivoted uh and and and striving to do something that was meaningful in that moment and that just shows the authenticity of the work that's being done. So, thank you. Thank you. I do I do have a brief question and and if and maybe this is one too that would allow for uh insight and maybe qualitative and an opportunity for quantitative pieces. But I was
189struck when you mentioned how in terms of the teachers that were leading some of the work that they would love to do it again but as participants the next time. Of course. So we had a station rotation and we actually with Karen selected some teachers who we know are modeling highquality instructional practices and engaging all learners in a variety of ways. Um for example we have some teachers who are um crafting like social justice podcasts and like engaging students in creating their own um uh content and like questions and inquiry. And so we like pulled really awesome instructional strategies, some learning target reflections, different, you know, unique strategies that would make sure that we're engaging all learners in a meaningful way. Um, and we chose them from a variety of disciplines as well, which was
190really great. We had special education teachers, arts teachers, regular ed teachers. Um, and so they led each of those stations. We set a timer for 15 minutes. Um, Ann McCernan actually was able to come too. It was awesome. um and they got a chance with their unique group to listen to the teacher but also collaborate and share their insights and kind of partner and say, "Oh, I did this similarly or I tried this. Oh, I'd love to try this." Um, and at the end it was just a really awesome opportunity for the participants, but the people who are leading the PD would love to be being participants next time. So having the um the peer-led PD snapshots and staff meetings was one of our ways we responded to that feedback so the teachers who led
191the PD could have some PD coming back to them um in the following months um so they could get a little like taste of what was offered. But that's something we definitely want to keep in mind so that they're not always providing the PD but they can also have opportunities to be learners themselves. um because all of our staff have those ways of providing their insights into their classroom and those instructional practices. And also this work was developed after last year we did um focus groups on belonging with sixth, seventh and eighth graders and it was really insightful. We found that a lot of them were complaining about the instructional practices and wanting to be more engaged in the classroom and that's kind of what led us to that academic focus this year. Um, and
192so we're excited for that work and our teachers are really feeling invigorated and like applying this work in their PLC's. So, thank you so much. Well, thank you. And I'm really proud of those teachers for being open and saying, "Hey, we would like to have some of the learning as well." And that is so very important. I'm thinking, Latoya, what you were speaking about in terms of being vulnerable and how can we encourage our young people to be vulnerable if we adults are not allowing ourselves to do so. So, thank you for allowing the opportunity. Thank you all for all that you're doing and let's continue to move forward. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] report. And with that, seeking a motion that the board of education approve the financial report for the period
193ending March 31st, 2025. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Jason. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ethan. Discussion. So Ethan, I believe you are reporting out this time. Yeah, I do. Lucky. All right. Uh report is for the end of March for fiscal year 25. So since the year end is June, that's threequarters of the year has been uh captured. At this point, the uh fiscal year is projected to end with a positive $700,000 overall variance in the general fund, which is the primary fund for the schools. This compares to a end of February report, which had a positive variance of 50,000 for the year. Yeah. The general fund budget um in the current fiscal year is uh the budget is 200 million 200 200 million800,000 and that goes against the current
194projection with the new updated uh budget report or variance report of 200.1. So it's a positive variance of 700,000 against the budget. There's four major categories of the general fund. The largest category salaries accounts for almost 65% of the general fund categories and it had changes in the individual line items but overall the category was the same as the prior last meeting which was 300,000 to the positive side. Second category benefits which accounts for 18% of the budget also had no change from the April meeting in terms of year and projections. However, in the third category of the general fund, purchase services, there was a significant change in the expense line items. The line item of out of district tuition, there was a positive net $650,000 variance, which was a combination of a positive $1
195million coming from uh the legislation or the money from the state of Connecticut um that had just been uh passed by the legislature um for West Hartford and other towns. And this was offset against 350,000 of uh funds that we had taken out of the educational service reimbursement funds to help cover the prior deficit. So the net is a 650,000 for the uh in terms of looking forward. Um, and while this is incremental money coming from the state, it should be pointed out the particular expense has grown significantly over the last year, several years, and the million dollars is to a certain extent catch-up of mandated costs dictated by the state. In summary, the general fund with a budget of 20.8 million is projected at the end of March to have an overall positive 700,000
196positive variance in total. That's it on the general fund unless there's any questions. In terms of the grants, state and federal district had 6.2 million of federal and state grants that are expected to be expensed in the current fiscal year and 587,000 that is for future years. And then in terms of the special general special fund, sorry, the uh which there of 10 different funds with an overall balance of 1.7 million, the only real change was a $350,000 transfer that had previously mentioned that went back into the educational services reimbursement fund. And then the final set of funds is a nutrition service funds. At the end of March, there was a fund balance of 3.5 million which was approximately 400,000 higher than the March 24 balance and is anticipated that the money in those fund
197will be used in the future for dining setup of the Hall High School and for the redesign of the Connor High School. And that's all I had unless I need to be corrected. No, you were right on. Uh I'm certainly happy to answer um any questions you may have or provide any more details that you might need. uh particularly as it relates to excess cost or anything that has has changed materially that you'd like more information on. All right. Well, Ethan, thank you for the report out and yes, we have Miss Liz Huitt here. I'm trying not to get nostalgic, but I'll but nonetheless, teammates, any questions or comments regarding the financial report that we have received? Keep on the hook. All right. Uh so um I'm going to guess we haven't often had 700,000
198surplus. That is correct. Uh can you just for the you know assuming anyone's still up and listening but for posterity's sake I suppose can you just explain how we got to that figure because certainly it wasn't there on April 1st when we had to approve the budget. It was not. Um thank you for mentioning that. Um so uh excess cost has been quite a story this year. Um you've heard Paul talk about it many times. It was a key factor uh when we adopted our budget. Um the initial projection that we had received from the state based upon our December our October 1st filing of our excess cost, we were informed we were going to get approximately 6.1 million or 62% of what we had filed for for our excess cost with the state. Uh
199certainly that put us in a deficit position. Subsequent to that, the state appropriated another $40 million of which we were to receive approximately 1.4 4 million which got us to the point where we could balance um for the year and and we were in good shape. Subsequent to that, we did our March 1st filing. Our filing for excess cost is done three times a year. The preliminary October 1st. Um the uh filing in March when we have more information about our students who qualify and what we anticipate the actual cost being. And then we do a final filing at the end of the year. We did the March 1st filing and the state published updated estimates in April subsequent to when we adopted the budget. What we found at that time is that our portion
200um of the excess cost reimbursement went up $825,000. So the total appropriation stayed the same. Um but our percentage of that total pot went up significantly. With the initial filing, we were at around 3.3 3.4% of the total. And with the secondary filing, we were at 3.9%. That also had the impact of increasing our additional appropriation um that the state had done, the additional 40 million. So in total um we came in 1 million higher than what we had been estimating. As Ethan explained, 650,000 of that will affect our general fund and will be a surplus for us. The other 350 we had planned to use our education services reimbursement to help offset the projected shortfall and we will not need to do that anymore. Uh Paul had mentioned um at the last meeting um
201when we adopted the revised budget based upon the numbers that the town council adopted. Our plan at this point would be um to take that 700,000 and to put that into a non-lapsing education account because at this point we really don't know what's going to happen to this funding um at a state level for the upcoming year. The uh state session ends I believe on June 3rd or 4th um which is too late for us to to make any changes to our budget. Um the town has committed that they will match us 700,000 for a total of 1.4 million should there be a shortfall in funding for the upcoming year. That might have been a little more information than you wanted. The long-winded approach. So a fortuitous confluence of of some good events. Yes. So,
202yes, thank you. So, Claire and then Ethan. Yeah. So, I'm I'm curious the in the grant funding, the 512,000 that um we have in that fund, is that money actually in the town of West Harford? Is it in a bank account or is it still being held by the state and then you request it and the state gives it? It is still held by the state at this point. We do all of our grant drawdowns on a monthly basis and we do them in a rears meaning that we spend the f spend the funds first and then draw down whatever we have spent each month but they are committed to us. We have received these grant awards and it's really just a matter of timing as to when we'll receive them. Ethan. So, just one
203critical ad that I understand from to what Jason was saying, the important change that happened this year recently as opposed to prior years is the 700,000 can actually be used for future years because it's my understanding that before that money would have gone back to the town. Correct. So, the state actually modified its legislation um regarding the unexpended education account. And so, prior it had to be um established and authorized by the town council and they made a change in May of 2024 which gave local boards of education the ability to establish and then um deposit funds into that account. In both cases, they could only be used for education purposes. It just allows um you as a board to make that decision. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Shannon? Um I just had
204a question about the contracted services um and the increase there. I just I was curious if there's a threshold at which contracted you know I'm in my day job I'm a contractor for a lot of school districts and we have to go in front of the board to justify the services and get approval from the board for the contract of work. Um is there a threshold at which that would happen in West Hartford because I don't think we've ever seen something come before us for contracted services. So in our case um you know we differentiate between professional services which are services um that might be done for special education students um or other professionals of that sort whereas contracted services are typically um services done for our facilities that we do not have the expertise
205to do ourselves. So for example you know we have all the elevators and the school um inspected each month we bring contractors in for other services. At this point in time, we do have a vacancy in our maintenance um division and so we are bringing in more more contracted services to cover that. So it's not something that we would have to come back to you for. Um they're just contracted services in the normal operation of business. But even for professional services, is there a threshold at which the provider would present their like their case for why we would need that work from an external source? No. when we um our purchasing requirements say that if we are going to have you know uh bring in a professional services provider for more than a certain amount
206that you have to kind of go through a process to vet them um but not that they would have to come before the board. Other questions or comments? Miss Huitt, may I ask and Mr. Vicinus, is this the last report that you will We're going to do one more next month. Oh, good. Okay. All right. I will hold off. She does not get off the hook. No, right till the end. Right to the bitter end. I believe I'll be the last agenda item on the last meeting of the year. Oh, all right. All right. So, I Oh, well, thanks. So, with that, any other questions or comments regarding our financial report? All right. With the motion on the floor, all of those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? The eyes have it.
207Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. And now moving on to approval of the minutes. Seeking a motion that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of May the 6th, 2025. Is there a motion? So moved. Thank you, Latoya. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ethan. Discussion or suggested edits? Seeing none, all of those in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Any abstain? One I or yeah one one abstension. All right. Thank you. Moving on to information and reports. Board members, do we have any communications and reports from other boards or organizations? May I offer an alibi? Oh, okay. From my report, I this seemed like the most appropriate time. I meant to mention for the listening public, if they're still up, that
208the last day of school will be on June the 13th, which is a Friday, and that as per our usual, we will um have an early release schedule similar to what we do on Wednesdays on that day. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any other updates? All right. Other information, discussions. All right. Moving on to future business. Announcement of future meeting dates or date that is Tuesday, June the 3rd, 2025, regular board of education meeting 7:00 here in room 314. Do we have a request for a future agenda item? Seeing none, do we have any visitors who would like to make a comment? Seeing none, we do not have an executive session. Therefore, seeking a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Thank you, Shannon. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ethan. Meeting adjourned.