Board of Education Meeting of March 18, 2025

001e e e right e e is it good evening and calling the meeting to order welcome to the West Hartford Public Schools regular Board of Education meeting today is Tuesday March the 18th 2025 Charlotte may you please call the role Mr gagnan here Mr Goldman here Dr Harris here miss maramon here Mrs nazarella present Dr Thomas farus here Mrs yalof present student representative Sarah granquist here and student representative Alexis nuan here thank you so much and Alexis may you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you we do not have a revision to the agenda order and now it is time for public

002Communications this is an opportunity where we're able to hear from you your thoughts your questions your suggestions and your concerns each individual is allowed three minutes to speak we ask when you come to the podium to please share your name and your town of residents also please be mindful of Charlotte who will hold up a yellow card when you have 1 minute remaining in your time and a red card when your time is expired and we ask for you please to conclude your thought and respectfully take your seat at that time please be mindful that we are attentively listening to what is being shared however it is policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made we are receiving comments on both agenda and non-agenda items however we are going to

003start with those who are speaking on agenda items and forour awareness the agenda for this evening includes proposed calendar for the 2026 202 27 school year as a second reading multi-year enrollments Early Childhood play-based learning and approval of minutes from March 4th 2025 Board of Education meeting I have a list here with no one that is signed up to speak on an agenda item but I will ask if there's anyone here who desires to speak on an agenda item seeing none we'll proceed to the list of those speaking on General comments and first we have and I will say from the beginning I apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name name please charge it to my head and not my heart we first have Libby Green blat blot Libby um my name is Libby

004greenblat and I live in West Hartford good evening board members superintendent and faculty my name is Libby greenblat and my husband Aaron and I are proud graduates of the West Harvard public schools and the parents of two amazing children a third grader at aen and a preschooler who will be enter the district in two years our respective educational experience in the school system was a driving force in our decision to leave New York City and return home to raise our family in thinking about next year we are deeply concerned about the proposed class sizes at Akin and other schools in the district last year a fourth section of second grade was added at Ain due to increased enrollment therefore for the last two years my daughter and her amazing classmates and teachers have experienced the

005benefit and joy of smaller class sizes around 18 to 20 per class as it stands right now class sizes amongst the fourth grade throughout town will range from 18 kids per class at Smith 26 kids per class at Aken and whing Lane and 27 kids in each fourth grade class at braver and webill this is unacceptable and unprecedented in a town like West Harford when I told my daughter about how many kids will likely be in her fourth grade class next year she remarked mom how could any adult think this is a good idea historically kids are supposed to learn how to read from kindergarten to third grade and in fourth grade the expectation shifts to reading to learn I volunteer weekly in my daughter's classroom and I can attest to the fact that there

006are still many children who are learning how to read across Connecticut 54% of children are not reading at grade level if all children have the right to become proficient readers it seems unrealistic to think that a teacher with a class of 26 to 27 fourth or fifth grade students will also be able to remediate below grade level reading skills this is an unreasonable expectation of our hardworking Educators and also seems unfair to our children particularly those who are neurode Divergent and speaking of we have the best principal faculty and staff they can only do their job well when they are given the support to be successful large class sizes and high case loads are not supportive of their job satisfaction and student outcomes I want these wonderful humans especially our special Educators to stay in

007West Hartford our kids cannot afford to lose them in conclusion I ask you all to please do what is right for our children please consider keeping class siiz limits enforced and fifth grade the same as you do in kindergarten to grade three which is no more than 23 students per class our covid kids our soon to be fourth and fifth graders desperately need smaller class sizes to close the academic and social emotional gaps that were a product of missed instruction and socialization from preschool to kindergarten if you truly believe in every student every day with no limits you will consider flexibility with your class size guidelines for our fourth and fifth grades please do not prioritize cutting the budget and having the lowest per pupil expenditure in our drg over the welfare of our children

008and teachers thank you for your time and service thank you excuse me thank you next we have Aaron greenblat good evening board members uh Educators and everyone else my name is Aaron greenblood I live in West Hartford uh I was born and raised here uh I'm a proud graduate of the West Harford Public School System norfeld Elementary School King philli Middle School and Hall High School um I take a lot of pride in being from West Hartford uh growing up here and making the decision to with my wife uh to move back here and raise our family here and much of that pride comes from the experiences that I had going through with the public schools here um West artford public schools have always been regarded uh as an exceptional system uh and I credit

009a lot of my personal success to having gone through that uh by all accounts our town is thriving uh just two weeks ago mayor caner delivered the state of the Town address uh she touted the strength of the residential real estate market uh the town's diversity multiple current ongoing developments amongst other things uh even with everything else that's going on uh in town uh our public schools and its children are the foundation of West harford's success uh both past current and future uh I believe that the school system is the main driver in attracting new families to our community and retaining uh existing residents uh obviously I'm now a father of two children and I have a completely different perspective than I did when I was going through the school system uh I try and

010remain as active as possible my wife volunteers on a weekly basis uh and I attend any event that I can uh I'm starting to observe some serious concerns uh and changes uh that cause me concern for the future of of our school system and the main issue is the size of of the class CL rooms uh section 6250 of the school board policy provides the guidelines for school sizes it says on our website that that policy was established in 1988 I was 7 years old when that policy uh was established I hope we can all agree that uh our society our town and the complexity of Education uh have changed since then uh if the board members have not done so already or have not or don't do so Reg L I would urge you

011guys to attend some of our schools and observe what's going on there uh our our daughter's classroom currently has 20 kids in it which is a decent size uh the level of activity throughout the day is uh it's a spectacle in there in that classroom uh nine out of 20 of those kids including my daughter have uh identified uh issues either educational or behavioral um and others likely have unidentified issues um throughout the day students are being pulled in and out for services service providers come in and out at varying intervals and there's um you know just the teachers keeping track of of everything is is a full-time job let alone the education that they're supposed to be be provided uh this is not the kind of level of activity that existed back in 1988

012when these guidelines were established I would urge you guys uh to again observe what's going on in the schools and act accordingly we can't have kids in fourth and fifth grade on a on a 1 to 26 um ratio 1 to 27 it's it's just unacceptable uh you know our children deserve better uh our teachers who work at the school deserve better and as parents we demand better from the town so I hope you guys can reconsider and try and find a way to make those class sizes smaller thank you thank you next we have Sabrina below good evening everyone my name is Sabrina Buller I'm a parent of a sixth grader at King Philip Middle School um a third grade daughter in a first grade son at aen elementary school um I serve on

013both PTO boards at King Philip and akchen Elementary School I was once a teacher in a past life and I still feel a deep connection to um the educational system um I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the proposal to increase class sizes this cap that was set however many years ago we are living in a very different world now our children have very different needs than ever before since this cap was put in into you know place our students have suffered from pandemic learning loss they are there's a rise in mental health issues and now is not the time to pack more students into each classroom the children currently in grades three four and 5 began their schooling in the midst of a pandemic they learned the fundamentals of Reading Writing and socializing

014wearing masks and keeping a distance in an environment that was anything but typical as a result many of them still require intervention to close those learning gaps that continue to widen yet we do not have enough staff to provide these critical Services teachers are already stretched far too thin working tirelessly to support students academic and social emotional needs now we're asking them to do even more manage larger classes differentiate instruction and and address individual learning challenges all without any additional support how can we expect them to do this effectively and if we're increasing their workload are we increasing their compensation as well teacher burnout is Real This concern is not only it this concern is only going to grow West Harford is is an expanding community and enrollment will continue to increase we also need

015to consider the number of students who enter the district throughout the year a classroom that starts at 24 in September can easily grow to 26 that is an unsustainable number both for teachers and for students who need individualized attention the research is clear and it's available to everyone smaller class sizes boost learning we are incredibly fortunate to have such talented and dedicated Educators in West Harford but we cannot take them for granted increasing class size will only push more of them to their breaking point and when we lose great teachers it's our children who suffer the most if we truly value the quality of Education we need to prioritize reasonable class sizes adequate Staffing and the support our students and teachers deserve I acknowledge that fiscal responsibility is important however I'm asking each of you

016to keep our children at the center of all financial decisions you make thank you for your time thank you next we have Nicholas seagull Nicole pardon me I apologize pardon me Nicole hi good evening my name is Nicole seagull and I live in West Hartford I'm speaking to all of you as not only a parent but as a seasoned teacher herself with almost 20 years experience working in elementary schools I have two children that are in West Hartford Public Schools one at King Phillip and one at Aken my younger child is currently in third grade at aen where there are four classes but given the plan for the next school year budget we drop down to three classes which would make each fourth grade class have a total of 26 students there are so many

017positive things to share about West Hartford Public Schools the schools are actually one of the main reasons I personally chose to move to this town I can truly say that living here has not only met but exceeded all of my expectations in many ways in regards to education both of my children have been incredibly successful in school and I and I believe there are many reasons for that the leadership like our principal at Aken and at KP is a part of that and I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the teachers we have really had the most positive experiences with both of our children's teachers in aen and now at KP it's been lovely to see the growth and Independence that both of my boys have displayed as the years have gone by

018and I credit the amazing staff and Educators for that every teacher has made them feel safe and valued each and every day with all of this said studies do show that the number one factor in improving student achievement is having smaller class sizes when a teacher has less students they're able to devote more time to each individual student it is essential for teachers to have a great Report with the student and with a smaller class size they can actually meet all students social emotional needs I have a very deep concern over the class sizes for next year and I'm truly worried about the ramifications for our children for years to come by adding an additional six or more kids per classroom and eliminating a teacher I want everyone to truly take a moment and think

019about how that teacher is able to meet all of the needs of each student with such a large class don't we really just want our students to feel safe and emotionally secure this is something that we are taking away from our children by making class sizes this large I am keenly aware of all that goes into a school day as a classroom teacher myself like needing to support academic and behavioral challenges and differentiating instruction for each child so by adding additional students to these classes these needs will not be able to be met in the same capacity and it will be detrimental to our children let's not also for get about the physical complications that will will take place with the given space with a class size as as large as 26 will cause so

020I really just ask the board and everyone to please reconsider this plan with the budget and immediately reconsider this important decision regarding our children of this amazing town thank you thank you next we have Heather Sanson [Music] good evening everyone my name is Heather Sansone I'm a West Hartford resident and the proud parent of two Smith stem school students West Hartford is a wonderful place to live but it is also an expensive place to live our town has one of the highest median property tax rates in the state and the $14.5 million budget increase proposed to maintain the school system will raise the taxes even more my husband and I view this financial burden is the trade-off for a highquality education for our children but there is a caveat to it when it comes with

021the loss of teacher positions and increase class sizes it is it realistic to say that this high quality education will be able to be maintained when a teacher may now see 8 to 10 more elementary students in the room what about the increase in the number of students on IEPs and 504s my son has an IEP and I cannot fathom how all of the individual accommodations each one of these students may require can be met along with the general needs of all students when there are 27 of them in the room how does this ensure every child is fully accessing their education how does this ensure that we do not lose high quality teachers to other districts due to burnout the system is only as good as the teachers willing to work in it our

022district proudly touts its vision of The Graduate as the aspirations held for each student problem solving and creativity is one of the fast facets that the district aims to instill in all students and it seems the budget concerns for the coming year might benefit from some Innovative approaches to solving problems two years ago I spoke out against the consolidation of the stem curriculum specialist job with the full-time science lab job and this year that is exactly what was done despite public outcry this is frustrating and I think it is long overdue to see some creative consolidation of roles at the Town level why are there so many department heads curriculum developers and other administrators how do you justify those roles to taxpayers at the expense of the teacher roles I can tell you I did

023not move here because the administration is so great last year the justification for assistant principal roles at the elementary schools was to free up the principles to be able to focus more on curriculum development so what is the justification for maintaining the town level once I am respectfully urging all of you to take a hard look at this system objectively and ask yourselves why is it so easy to eliminate jobs of those who have direct contact with students but not those that sit at a higher salary base with minimal student contact what what roles truly make the most impact in a child's education anyone with children knows that working with adults is way less taxing than 27 10y olds we can administrate the best curriculum known to man but it is only as good as

024the ability to effectively implement it I hope you will vote no and send a message that is time to prioritize teachers over administrators thank you for your time thank you next we have Ruby Diaz good evening um and thank you for the opportunity to speak today my name is Ruby and I am a concerned parent of a third grader at Smith stem school and a West Harford resident and I'm here to urge you to reconsider the proposed budget cuts that will disproportionately impact our teachers and our students we all recognize the need for fiscal responsibility but when making these difficult decision decisions we must ask who will be the most affected unfortunately the current proposal shifts the burden onto the very individuals who make the greatest impact on student learning our Educators at the cost

025of losing quality Educators our district remains topheavy with about at least 34 FTE positions dedicated to administrative and supervisory roles not including principles and assistant principles who interact directly with students these Ians totaling millions of dollars in six figure salaries have minimal personal touch points with students this figure also does not include curriculum Specialists who are housed the town hall assisting with oversight in various content areas despite the fact that we replaced 11 of our building based curriculum Specialists with assistant principles to empower our principles to take a more prominent role in curriculum development the classroom is where education happens not the central office I'm concerned by this pattern that looks to the classroom as a first place to cut it's true that we have some of the brightest most dedicated teachers in West Hartford

026it's also true that every day teachers are juggling a diverse set of needs within each classroom balancing different personalities learning styles IE accommodations behavioral challenges and the unique social emotional needs of every student all while striving to deliver high quality instruction I recognize that I Face Value the proposed cut of five Elementary classrooms from the current level seems reasonable given the anticipated enrollment and existing class size limits however numbers don't tell the whole sto story every classroom has unique learning needs that also need to be considered in healthcare we call this Acuity giving a nurse three stable patients on the floor is not the same as giving them three patients in the ICU I've stood at this Podium before first to avate against consolidating the stem specialist position at Smith stem we were successful only

027to have her position cut the next year and last year I stood here to advocate for keeping our family and Community engagement coordinator we celebrated when the board chose to maintain her only to move her to central office in the fall away from the families whom she supported day in and day out within our school building this was really disappointing there is a lot of talk in our town about finding Equitable solutions to problems with teachers and students support staff facing budget cuts how does the district justify the continued funding of such a vast administrative body if their impact on Student Success is unclear could some of these funds be better implemented at the classroom level where Equity is directly experienced our children don't need more oversight they need more Educators and I urge you

028to re-evaluate the proposed cuts and prioritize the needs of students in our classrooms thank you thank you next we have Gary Brown good evening everybody my name's Gary Brown I uh I own a Psychotherapy practice in town and my wife is a registered nurse at St Francis Healthcare um her and our two daughters are here tonight um I came to speak about Quest but I I did want to say a word just a of a salute and and support for everybody that's spoken tonight I feel so compelled by what you've all shared um my older daughter Vivian just leaned over to me and said that her classroom size at norfeld school in the fourth grade is currently 18 students she says it's crazy the way it is and I can't imagine it being any bigger

029um I I did as I said come to speak about Quest um uh I'm the father of two young girls um 10 Vivian is 10 and my daughter beatric is 7 and we moved to West Hartford from Oregon uh on the west on the west coast a couple of years ago now we moved here in large part for the quality of the schools and I can say gladly that we've been affirmed in that choice multiple times and no better example of that has been our oldest daughter's experience with the quest program uh at norel school or or in the West Hartford Public School District um she talks about school with about Quest days in particular her her face lights up she's so enthusiastic about what she's working upon about the chance the sense of belonging

030she feels with the community of Learners that she's in in the quest classroom the sense of uh engagement and how she is challenged by her Quest teacher Teresa corsy um she she shares with pride the project that she's working on she surprises us with her um abilities she's she's a growing mathematician an emerging artist um and a voracious reader and at Quest you know I don't my wife and I we don't have a need for her to be or either of our daughters to to do anything in particular really we we just want them to be joyful and have meaning in their lives and to become who they are and when our daughter is at Quest I know that's happening and so I I hope that you will support the full Quest budget um for

031this coming school year that you won't uh reduce it thank you very much thank you that is all who I have signed up on a list here however we extend to the audience anyone who may want to make a public comment is there anyone who would like to make a public comment I'll ask again seeing none we shall pause on public Communications now moving on to non-staff Communications and reports this is where we're able to hear from our students what is happening at their respective schools so Sarah may you please share with us what is going on at Hall this week is the start of our famous pops and Jazz performance es the singers dancers musicians and actors have been working tirelessly through their 8-hour rehearsal days to prepare for this production there will be

032student viewing performances during the day on Friday as well as a sensory friendly performance Thursday afternoon this weekend we look forward to performances on Friday Saturday and Sunday at 700 p.m. as well as a MAA show on Sunday at 1 p.m. next week there will be shows on Thursday Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. you may have also seen some pops and Jazz cast members on WFSB Channel 3 at 3 p.m. today we encourage everyone to purchase tickets at pj. lud us.com and see this amazing performance and support the hard work of all of our performers and faculty over on the academic side we have our school administered sat this Thursday for all Juniors their teachers have been working to prepare them for this exam and we wish all of our students the best of

033luck on Thursday in preparation for the SAT the hall and Conor counseling departments have been holding the SAT power prep program after school on Wednesdays this program is open to any Junior and provides guidance in studying and preparing for the sat on March 24th through the 26th we will be welcoming NEOS to our school for their follow-up accreditation visit we are excited to show NEOS all of the amazing activities events and achievements we have at Hall and NEOS will hear about life at Hall from both faculty and students our winter sports seasons have all come to a close and spring sports are starting up this week both our girls and boys hockey teams made it to the quarterfinals in their championship games and we are very proud of all of our athletes two of our

034girls hockey athletes tan cohain and Lauren Bucy earned All State honors the boys swim and dive team had their state championship meet yesterday and came in fifth overall with many individual event placements a special shout out to Jack akur Quinn O'Neal yuran curovic and Cyrus Zoo for earning All State honors Mike Ortiz a hall wrestling athlete was also awarded All State honors we also have a few shout outs for our coaches coach billing was named the chsca coach of the year for indoor track and Coach Jenny Mancini was named assistant coach of the year for girls hockey congratulations to all of our Hall Titans for the amazing achievements and we look forward to a busy and exciting next few weeks thank you Sarah Alexis please share what is going on at Connor um hi everyone

035and happy almost spring there's plenty to share about Conor's events this month our our winter musical disaster had their final performance on Saturday we are so proud of our talented actors and actresses and would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved with the show whether it was behind the behind the scenes or on stage our improv tro parachute will be hosting another show in the blackbox on March 27th at 6:30 p.m. and additionally the music month concert by our band will be on March 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium so definitely go check it out and to add on to that unified theater just start started back up again yesterday and we're really excited to see what everyone has to come up with um our pep rally for Unified sports sponsored

036by ESPN will take place on March 28th thank you to miss Heather Russell Tracy Kelly and Lisa Dy the department supervisor for PE and health as well as a Special Olympics and ESPN we also want to thank Miss Kelly Casey Miss meger ssmo and Mr sorsi for their help and support for the event in honor of world Down syndrome day this Friday March 21st senior Caitlyn frell put together a fantastic fundraiser we'll be showing our fun socks by wearing to school and will be selling bracelets during lunch waves show your support by rocking these socks and bracelets conid is collaborating with rise up again to create another beautiful mural we will be working on one for the back of our school and students from NHS and other clubs will be supporting the mural thank you

037to Mrs Lindsay tral who is leading the project we'd like to remind parents that Conor tours are happening for anyone interested in visiting the school during the summer if you are looking for specific details there should be an email from Mrs tambrella Noble but do not hesitate to reach out in our Sports World world we have some exciting things happening from the girls indoor track team Runners Liv Sherry Tess Sherry Annabelle Tracy and Hazel montinari competed at the new Balan Nationals this past weekend additionally our boy swim dive team will be attending State opens this weekend at Yale University after winning last night against New Milford our boys hockey team will be returning to the state championship to face Joel Barlo at kipc this Saturday at 1M we wish them lots of good luck and

038are hoping to bring home some Hardware yet again um lastly we are so excited for spring Sports to start on Saturday registration will close this week so if you have not registered please go to West Harford athletics.org to do so as soon as possible you won't be able to participate on Saturday without registering and like Sarah said this Thursday Juniors will be taking the SATs during periods 1 through 3 all other their students should follow their regular schedules that have been adjusted to account for the testing period Juniors make sure you check your school email for details on your test room assignment and thank you to Mr Fisk for organizing this sat day today a select group of students from our AP Chemistry classes attended the chemistry Olympiad and Connor's math team finished top five

039in caml out of 25 schools they will be attending the state match on April 1st congrats to these students on their amazing achievements and then to just to relay some college announcements on March 21st there will be a community college application day in the career center at 9:00 a.m. on March 25th college financial planning will take place in the auditorium at 6:30 p.m. and for students there will be an options fair in the library during school on March 27th we'd also like to thank all the teachers who helped out seniors by writing recommendation letters we appreciate the effort that you put into helping us succeed lastly the work-based learning efforts continue to align with Community Partners as we build career awareness and exploration opportunities this spring we will see our largest group of student intern

040placements and job shadow participants in April we'll see over 20 students participate in job Shadows at West harford's Triumph engine control systems which is a local Aerospace firm looking to help whps expand beyond the classroom woo all right Alexis thank you and thank you Sarah Lots going on at Halland Connor thank you both so much you represent your schools well now moving on to unfinished business where we have proposed calendar for the 2026 2027 school year as a second reading seeking a motion that the Board of Education review as a second and final reading the proposed calendar for the 2026 202 7 school year is there a motion so move thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Shannon discussion our superintendent Mr VES to you thank you uh very much so um

041on page two of your booklets uh you will see the 2026 2027 proposed school calendar um it is unchanged from our from our last uh discussion that we had at the last Board of Education meeting um and at that time uh there were no um proposed revision Visions to it so I'm I'm really here to just answer any questions that you might have and any further discussion You' like to have before voting on this calendar thank you very much teammates any questions or concerns again this is our second reading and as Mr Vina shared there were no concerns raised the first time are there any concerns or comments at this time seeing none we shall proceed to vote with the motion on the floor all of those in favor say I I any oppose any

042abstain the eyes have it thank you very much moving on to new business which we do not have any of but we do have staff Communications and reports so passing it on to Mr vcas for a superintendent report thank you very much um and I'll I'll second the early spring welcome to early spring uh March brings um not only women's History Month St Patrick's Day we most recently celebrated World Down syndrome day um and school day at so very excited for all of those things for our students uh one of my favorite things that does occur around this time of year however is the artbeat the annual artbeat celebration um which kicked off and runs March 12th through the 30th I was there a little bit late at the opening and I was just in

043awe of the talents of our students K through 12 uh with the art that's showcased for families for staff and the community um and then alongside if you didn't get out to see see it alongside the program there were students outside that were selling handmade Pottery uh in support of the empty Bulls fundraiser which is a program to help with food scarcity um as I said this this uh showcase will be up throughout the entirety the month at the salt box and Clubhouse Galleries and I would I would strongly encourage anyone from the board anyone from the listening public that hasn't made it out there to go to go enjoy um uh shout out to norell Elementary who hosted Junior Achievement day last month with a cad of wonderful community volunteers who came in and

044supported lessons and activities relating to financial literacy and there's certainly no uh there's no such thing as as starting too early when when we think about that topic um under the topic kind of U of operations I did want to let the board know uh that our strive program uh will be temporarily relocating from the American School the de campus to the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford um this is based on the ASD building having some persistent roof issues um necessitating the move so all of the staff and the students from reports that I've received are actually very excited about the new space that they'll be occupying and there's ongoing communication with the families transportation and all the logistics are being coordinated but wanted to provide you some visibility with that under curriculum updates

045uh certainly I wanted to share you you have a hand out there regarding the America 250 project we've been talking a little bit about that want to just kind of keep it on your um keep it on your radar but you can you can read a little bit more about uh what the town at large is planning and the schools role within that and we're hoping to be able to support the themes that Connecticut is hosting telling inclusive Stories the power of place doing history and looking at things from the lens of for the common good um I also wanted to make an announcement that we've recently partnered with project shama to host an anti-Semitism education Workshop upcoming in the month of April this will be an assured professional learning experience that will engage all

046of our principles on staff uh as well as District leaders and uh the EDC members at the Schools teacher teacher volunteers who are on that committee to further develop their understandings and their skills to navigate difficult conversations in around anti-Semitism we've got some uh great shoutouts to our pupil Services Department namely our our deaf and heart of hearing Community who were recently celebrated at a Community Fund night hosted at morly Elementary uh families and students engaged with each other and school officials and their service providers in an evening activities and crafts uh and families you know gave a lot of positive feedback about the camaraderie and the networking opportunities that were available to them on that note uh just a heads up that April will be Autism Awareness Month uh and our pupil services department

047is looking forward to a kindness campaign to celebrate our students under governance and policy um I did want to share that the Conneticut general assembly is expected to debate and vote on um Bill 1511 an act concerning disconnected youth this this is a bill we we heard a little bit about at our uh one of our Board of Education workshops uh relating to significant changes planned for the educational cost sharing formula uh ultimately it's intended to provide a greater level of funding to districts and towns um and one of the major tenants of the bill there are several but one of the major tenants of the bill is to add um students with disabilities as a weight into the formula as well as others and there a little bit more detail that I've uh provided

048in the written copy of my notes to you and and in a link where you can go and read the full language of the bill um it was mentioned uh March 28th we're looking forward to that celebration for our Banner celebration for Unified sports at our schools I I know I've been hitting that one every meeting um the board and the Town Council as you know are collaborating to present installments number two and number three of our community conversations uh regarding the budget those will take place in the morning of the 31st at the Faxon library and in the evening um at the Noah web Noah Webster Library leave those start times are 8:45 and 6:00 p.m. respectively and then a quick personal shout out to one of our principles Jen Derek of norel Elementary

049on becoming a grandmother this weekend so that is what is exciting and happening in our schools uh open to any of your questions thank you very much teammates any questions or comments regretting our superintendent update yes Claire um is the postsecondary being moved or just from the Cox so we we are able to relocate postsecondary within the ASD so they're they're currently planed to stay where they are for for the remainder of this year but we the space limitations on what's available there in terms of uh the work that they need to do will will force just strive to move Shannon I'm just curious which campus of the Boys and Girls Club they'll be based at and would they would they become members of Like will that be a reciprocal opportunity I don't know about

050the membership in fact that that's something interesting we're going to be at um it's the South it's Boys and Girls Club South on um oh God the name of the street thank you ledgard Street and as I said yeah it's we we did our professional learning there uh the beginning of this school year just an absolute beautiful facility and uh very excited about about their willingness to support us and and possibly future potential other questions or comments ments all right thank you very much now moving on to staff reports and board discussions where we shall receive the multi-year enrollment projections and so we welcome Miss Liz huitt to the table to Enlighten us with information to share as Liz cues this up I'll just uh throw some thanks her way as as as you all

051know this uh is an annual report uh that Liz helps to prepare um and is an important factor uh in our in terms of our long-term budget planning uh as well as you know our Capital Improvements and looking at space so I'm very grateful to Liz for the work that she puts into this um and with that I'll turn it right over to Liz thank you Paul good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity tonight to discuss our multi-year enrollment projections with you um the report if you'd like to look at it in our book is on page three of your board book so as you all know student enrollment is a key factor in determining our classroom sections our class size our staffing levels our facility needs um and important during this budget

052season are resource funding um we estimate student enrollment for the upcoming year to inform our budget discussions and our staffing needs but we also prepare multi-year enrollment projections for long-term planning and facility needs there we go can we see that so the graph that you see here depicts 35 years of IND District K to2 enrollment for West Hartford Public Schools as you can see in the 8990 school year enrollment was 7,411 students and we experienced growth each year until we hit a peak of over 10,000 students in school year 2010 2011 and during this time our Focus really was on facility and space needs uh as we were quickly outgrowing our space since that Peak we've experienced a gradual decline almost every year to 8,686 K to2 IND District students in the current year and

053you can see that's the uh the current year is the last part where there is no shading as we look ahead into the Shaded area in the upcoming 10 years our overall enrollment is really expected to vary by no more than 200 students uh in any of the years presented you can kind of see there's a slight increase over the next few years and then a gradual decline in the out years so this is our third year uh using the predictive enrollment analytics module uh which is a component of Power School our student information system prior to using this we did the analysis inhouse that focused primarily on birth rates um as well as cohort survival uh and that method served us well but we really felt we were able to leverage the information in

054our power school system uh to take a different look at enrollment uh we've been happy with the results and as I said this is our third year now using this system uh this methodology focuses on three major factors to project enrollment our kindergarten enrollment Trends changes in our grade level cohorts of students as they move each year through the system and changes in the number of residential units in the district so as I said the first factor is kindergarten enrollment so our kindergarten enrollment has been a bit erratic over the past several years um first it was because of the pandemic and the impact that we saw um from that you may recall that in the fall of 2020 we had a very small kindergarten class there were about 584 um students as parents decided

055to hold their children out of kindergarten because they weren't quite sure what was happening uh with the pandemic and um that was the year that we had both inperson and remote um learning and some parent parents just weren't comfortable sending their students that year so in 2021 um our kindergarten enrollment jumped up to 634 so that was a pretty big increase 50 students in one year and what it really was was kind of all the catchup from the parents who decided not to send their um their children the year before in 2022 uh we had a kind of more typical year of about 603 students in 2023 the housing market hit us a little bit um and so we bumped up to 627 and in the current year we had the change in the kindergarten

056age um legislation so it used to be that if your child turned one or turned five rather before January 1st they were kindergarten age eligible now it's September 1st so as we look at these percentages what what they're saying in the top chart is really what is our kindergarten class this year as a percent of what it was last year typically we see that you know in the high 90s right around 100% but you can see we really have quite the variation there it it makes um projecting a little bit more difficult when you have that variance uh but it's certainly taken into account as we come up with our numbers uh the second thing that you see here is the incoming kindergarten class compared to the graduating senior class and what that's trying to

057project is on an overall basis what is happening to our enrollment K to2 and again you see some variation here um I would say in general we have been in the high 80s uh but again we see a little bit of a variance here based on some of the factors that I've just spoken about particularly with 2023 with the kindergarten class coming in at 82% of the graduating seniors it's a result of the change in the kindergarten age legislation so um just to put some numbers to that in 2324 our grade 12 so students who are graduating was 71 students but our kindergarten class uh this year is only 7 students or 82% of the graduating class I expect this number to come back next year but I think we will continue to see a

058gradual decline as evidenced by the overall enrollment Trend that we saw in one of our first graphs so our next slide has a problem loading so I don't know what you do with that sorry I don't know why that would have happen excuse me and is going to be our technical expert since this is her computer today oh everybody got matter of time before I get look at that awesome thank you Ann and here we go I appreciate it so our next slide details our District's grade level cohort which is just another way to express what happens to a certain group of students as they progress through each grade so in general we would expect that that would stay pretty consistent year to year you know about 100% kids who come in kindergarten stay with

059the same Elementary School Etc um typically we see at the lower grade levels when they're in elementary an increasing um enrollment each year you know we add a few students to the cohort and then when you get to the high school level we see a decreasing as students choose perhaps to go to a technical school or a magnet school or a private school um the years where we generally see um bigger variances are the transition years so typically from kindergarten to first grade you might see a bigger increase um as you see here from fifth to sixth grade um we're at 98% so that's a time when students perhaps go to um a parochial school a private school and then we look at 8th to 9th grade when they move from middle school to high

060school and you'll see that many of them come back to the public school the third factor that we look at is residential development so as we all know there is a lot of development going on in town and so we worked with Todd D who's our town planner um to look at the impact of the 11 ongoing projects um related to residential development the projects that are in place right now um propose adding 89 single family attached units and 1,137 multifamily units for a total of 1,226 new units new housing units over the next 10 years um I did want to mention that there was a typo in your report so these are the correct figures if you want to note those so 8 9 single family attached and 1,137 multif family units um it

061is estimated that these new developments with the families that move in and um and their families will add between 60 to 85 students per year for the next few years so from a perspective standpoint you know that's 60 to 85 students over 13 grades over 16 schools um so again we we certainly are happy about the development but at this point in time based on the composition of the development we're seeing we are not expecting a significant impact on our enrollment so as we look at those factors um we come up with our enrollment projections and you'll see here that there are two trend lines a conservative trend line and a moderate trend line which assume different rates of residential development so certainly um when developers come to the Town Council uh or to the

062Planning Commission and propose their project they have a set time frame often that changes and so um the the work that we do kind of has two different time frames to see what the impact will be on our enrollment the reality is we'll probably end up somewhere in between there so you know uh the the top line where we have a higher enrollment is if things um happen on schedule you know everything kind of comes in it be more moderate but the reality is there are delays and so we'll see a more conservative or more moderated um enrollment change um and that will grow over time and I guess just to clarify as you're looking at this our Elementary uh is depicted in red the blue is our high school projections and the green is

063our Middle School projections uh over this uh 10year period so as we look at our actual forecast at enrollment by grade level um you can see here the actual enrollment for the current year 2425 as I mentioned earlier is 8,686 students uh broken out uh at the levels as you can see there by the 2930 year we expect that there'll be a slight increase approximately 8,800 students but based on the information we have now we expect that to drop down to about 8,500 uh by the 3435 school year certainly as you get further out it's it's more difficult um to project uh some of the things that I talked about such as residential development and that kind of Builds on itself so if some of that comes in a little bit quicker you're kind of

064starting with a bigger base and so there is the um the impact on that on the outer years uh likewise if some of it either doesn't come to fruition or comes in a little more slowly uh we may see a more tapered effect there certainly when we look at um our facility needs at this point we have no capacity issues um or space issues for any of our standard classrooms at any of our schools certainly um you know we we do have rooms that are used for other things and it is always um things are always tight but we have no capacity issues for standard classrooms as we did during the time when we were seeing enrollment growth year-over-year so that was a quick quick walk through of it I think um you know this

065year really things are there isn't a lot of information it's uh it's a pretty gradual uh rise a very gradual uh decrease and I feel confident that we're we're poised to handle that but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have any detailed questions or information that I could provide all right thank you so very much teammates questions comments yes Gail thank you for the presentation um yeah when I saw that number in there 2563 um um you know I I couldn't understand how it's possible that we're not going to have an increased um amount of students uh with that amount of additional um dwellings but I even with the revised number that you gave us it's really hard to understand how we would not be increasing um the number of students substantially uh

066particularly uh given that how is you know quite expensive and families are having trouble even buying houses and I I believe that most of these are rental units um so it would seem to me I mean and I'm just curious how you get to that that we are not going to have a substantial number of increased students with the amount of building so what we um what we look at is um the total number of students or I'm sorry the total number of new residential developments the years over which those will be added on to our inventory and then a factor as to historically um and not just here but but you know Across the Nation what type of student enrollment you get from different types of dwellings so you can imagine if you have

067a single family home it is more likely um that it will be a family that may have school AG children and will add to the enrollment um the projects that are currently in the works and that are pending um as I said there are 89 single family attached which either means um a condo a duplex a townhouse or something of that nature and so the rate that we use is that for every one of those dwellings we will receive 37 students across all grades so you know with that type of housing typically um it's basically a third of a student per unit uh when we look at the multif family units there are a little over 1100 of those and the factor that's used typically is3 um students per unit and again when we look

068at these 1,200 units they are over a 10-year period so you know uh when we look uh for example in the upcoming year um depending on you know a a moderate scenario where everything is on track um they're projecting that only 240 of those would actually be coming online and people would move into them so if you look at 240 units with3 students per unit you end up with about 65 students being added now you know as we have more experience we'll be able to to really see um what happens I agree that with housing prices you know being high and a lot of families uh perhaps renting instead of buying a home um we we may see a little higher than that but with the developments that have already come online our experience has

069has been Prett consistent with the national Trends so I do agree it's it's a lot of development and we'll certainly be watching it very carefully um but so far this this is what what we've seen happen Jason so my recollection of this presentation from last year is that the program um capabilities doesn't extend to or get to the granularity of what this means for individual schools is that correct that is correct now certainly we know the physical location of these projects um but you know when we're looking at an overall factor of how many students per unit you know it's spread across the elementary the middle the high school and so it it does get very difficult to really um see an immediate impact or direct impact on a particular School other questions Claire um

070I I realize that prek is not mandated by the state and probably isn't in this formula but do you see a trend of um prek seats in the district or is there any work done towards that change over time so our prek seats and our regular prek program we have nine classrooms um which equates to 144 students and so because we set that number based on the number of programs we have we we don't see increased enrollment there uh we did recently or we're in the process of going through the magnet school Lottery process and looking at the number of applications for those seats um and certainly the the need is consistent um but I did not see any kind of a a significant growth in the number of families who applied for prek this

071year it's pretty consistent with what I've seen in Prior years other questions or comments Ethan so the one thing that stood out from change is the elementary school where it drops off pretty substantially certainly in the non-conservative appro I foret which is which but yeah is there reason for that or is that just a way of the general population well I think what we're you know certainly I don't know if there was a particular chart that you were looking at or if it was just one of the slides um what we're seeing each year is that as our graduating class falls off it's replaced by a smaller incoming kindergarten class and so what I think you're seeing is the cumulative effect of that as we keep having smaller classes come in now keep in mind

072as well that in the current um kindergarten class is smaller because of the legislation change in kindergarten age and we expect that that cohort is going to stay small all the way through you know its Elementary years and so that is affecting that number a bit as well basically the historical Trend it is the historical Trend and I think the the changes that we see tend to start at the kindergarten at the elementary level and then really work their way through the rest of the district thank you other questions yes Shannon um I'm just curious with respect to development since they seem to be highly concentrated in the center area um are is there a way to see which schools they would those bigger developments would each be districted to because it might be part

073of a conversation around that we're hearing all these kind of crunching on enrollment and if it's going to get worse because of the location of some of those developments it I'm wondering at what point does it reach a threshold to think about redistricting relative to those locations um so certainly as I said we do know where each of them are located we have a district map uh which shows all of the elementary middle school and high school um dividing lines or or neighborhood lines um and when uh Power School looks at our projection uh they do drill down to a you know to a school level so we do have that data we just find that when you're drilling down to that level it's not as accurate as an overall level um but yes particularly

074um as some of these developments come online we're starting to see the impact of them I think we'll be better able to predict uh if they'll have an impact on a particular most likely Elementary School I think the middle schools and the high schools will will be fine but the elementary schools themselves other questions or comments all right well thank you so very much thank you and thank you for your patience with my technical issue uh but we are good to go oh no we saw it as a versatility you were able to just go with the flow so it worked well thank you so much thank you and now moving on to Early Childhood play-based learning where we have other teammates coming to the table to share but I will pass the Baton to

075superintendent VES to carry us through absolutely so as the team gets set up and I'll give them a moment to um get their pieces in place but uh you may recall there was a question uh that had come from the board I I apologize I don't recall exactly who had asked but with the passing of legislation related to play based learning um there was a question as to U how is West Harford approaching this what are we doing with that so um I spoke with an and she certainly enlisted uh I believe you you all know Melissa Barons who has taken over as our director of Elementary education and I hope that you will remember Irene gar know who is our department supervisor for early childhood education um and uh you know a lot of

076this Falls uh squarely in Irene's uh area of focus and uh I'm very excited to have them present because we're doing some very phenomenal things with play based learning that really stimulate uh critical thinking problem solving communication collaboration all of the pieces of our vision of The Graduate at a very young age so with that I'm going to turn it over to Ann and the team and and ask them to uh share what they [Music] have hello it's nice to be here with you tonight discussing uh play based learning for um pre kindergarten and kindergarten students as Paul said I'm really happy to be joined by Irene and Melissa and I will just start us off and I'm really going to turn it over to them um just so for some background um the state

077of Connecticut General Assembly passed Public Act 2302 in July of two uh 2023 and this was an act that among other things recognizes the essential role of play in Early learn in early childhood education and um required schools to include play as part of that that law had three important pieces that um play be incorporated and integrated into daily practice that it allows students to meet um that it allows the students needs to be met through both Free Play Guided play and game games and predominantly not going to be using mobile devices or electronic devices so we um we were uh ahead of the game in many ways when it came to this work because of Irene and our early childhood team's early work but I'm going to turn it over to Melissa to to

078continue okay thank you an building a the strong play-based practices already implemented in prek during the 2022 23 school year our two magnet schools so Charter Oak international academy and Smith stem School piloted a push-up model where they Incorporated purposeful play into their kindergarten classrooms we learned a great deal from this pilot as it was implemented in the academic blocks which poised us very well for when the um legislation passed in July of 2023 to roll out play-based learning across our elementary schools so now in kindergarten play based learning is implemented in every kindergarten classroom embedded daily into the academic blocks in explicit instruction is balanced with the application of skills and Concepts through play and um Irene will talk a little bit more about what this looks like in practice hi it's great to

079be back um last time I was here I talked a little bit about preschool which sets the foundation for our wonderful play-based kindergarten practice um so in kindergarten by balancing structured instruction and meaningful play West Harford Public School supports the whole child academically socially and emotionally helping students build a strong foundation for future learning when we consider Equity play is the great equalizer all students can access Play regardless of their language proficiency regardless of Developmental stage or ability level children find joy and a sense of belonging in a playful classroom research also shows us that play develops empathy and understanding of others and that supports their social emotional learning as well a well done play-based classroom is really a two-way street where teachers Infuse curricular content into Play and play experiences are found within instruction

080teachers take an active role as side-by-side Learners and co-constructors of knowledge you'll hear us talk a lot tonight about a both and approach so our goal is to provide a balanced learning experience that includes teacher directed instruction and student-led exploration this both-end approach ensures that students receive explicit instruction and foundational literacy and math skills while also applying their learning their new learning through play current curriculum and learning standards remain don't worry we are not throwing reading out the door um we still teach children to read write and learn about math and science but in a play-based classroom instead of or in addition to a traditional literacy station for example we may see children creating signage or props for a dramatic play center creating menu shopping lists making signs for the post office or the Pet

081Shop really whatever they decide that they want to be playing in they apply these skills to authentic and meaningful writing that is interesting to them thus increasing their engagement and their Joy uh this VIs is one that we use quite a bit with our teachers um it is from the crisis in kindergarten and it does a nice job of showing a Continuum of instruction from free play which there are places for right recess children need to kind of figure those things out and navigate make their own rules all the way to direct instruction which is a more traditional model that we have seen in the past the pendulum is now swinging back to Center um embracing a balance of foundational literacy and math instruction and play based learning where young children have the opportunity to

082participate in highly engaging developmentally appropriate experiences the big takeaway here is intentionality and that's what we talk to our teachers a lot about it is not just free play or as I like to say run a muck a muuk a muck um it is carefully designed and thoughtfully planned using Children's interests learning standards and curricular connections teachers craft play-based experiences that meet the needs of the whole child next slide so professional development so some of our teachers came to the table with a pretty deep knowledge of play-based learning some did not so how do we get everyone together um and implementing a play-based approach requires reflective and collaborative teacher planning um professional conversations and shared planning time help teachers balance that structured instruction with play-based instruction ensuring that both are mutually reinforcing to each other

083reflection is an essential is essential in lesson design and assessing play-based learning it's in alignment with academic standards teachers need time to do this work thoughtfully and effectively through our professional development in the past two years teachers have had access to in-house teacher videos allowing them to see each other in action those are included in your board report and if you have the links to those you can view them we'll see one in a minute um they have shared documents uh resource texts that they have done book studies on together and they have each other as they build their confidence and confidence in implementing a play based approach following the lead of students requires flexibility and Nuance making decisions in the moment to support students ideas and questions that they have about their world there

084is no script for this work there is no box of curriculum that you can pull out teachers use their deep understanding of the standards and Child Development to support and scaffold learning during these Hands-On and authentic experiences the current Ela curriculum offers space and provocations for play that is connected to the learning standards slow and steady wins the race it also leads to Lasting success teachers have the opportunity to gradually Implement elements of play-based learning into their practice ensuring a deep understanding and a strong Foundation our goal is to Foster meaningful growth rather than rushing to a less effective implementation so now the fun part what does it look like uh and we know and I know as a learner some of the most effective PD for teachers is to go visit one another and

085observe Um this can be a little tricky when we think about an entire Kindergarten grade level across 11 elementary schools um so earlier I mentioned some videos created by current West Harford teachers with the help of Craig Diamond I always like to give him a nice shout out and his video magic uh teachers have the opportunity that way to see purposeful play in action we want to share one example with you and the community tonight oh we're loading and we're loading and we're I hope it loads CU he's really cute this little guy close this and try again okay all right let's try one more time come on baby turn off Connect [Music] maybe try one more time this is such a good video really is well the highlights include um some teacher interviews as

086well as student interviews around um a structure that we call block teams um part of our p teams at Charter Oak um engaged in some outside PD and learned about block teams where children spend a week they commit four children in each class commit to a whole week of engaging in Block play where they select a different important building whether in their own Community or it might be in a a a country that represents someone from their class um or just something interesting this week um one of our kindergarten classrooms at churo um they built Howard University um including many many details the video in and that's on that slide so that's Howard University um the in the video they built the Guggenheim Museum and you can hear children um giving they're like the dosent

087right of the block team so they spend the week building they add details they draw plans they count how many windows what they need um they they created the Luxembourg Palace noticed that there was portraits um all over the Luxembourg Palace so they went into the art area and they painted little mini portraits um and hung them in and created Gardens right so they they really study these different buildings and structures um and the best part is when the children are talking about it and how articulate they are um at the end of the week they invite preschool students or other kindergarteners in they um tell them all about it the other children get to ask questions and then they pack up and as they pack up they're sorting blocks by shape um they put

088them in stacks of 10 teachers know that the standard in kindergarten is being able to count by 10 so they're counting all their blocks luckily all the structures have over a 100 blocks in them and if we get this working you'll get to see it all again after my highlight reel we pretend like I didn't see we get to build structure that we haven't seen before and we get to do it like a construction worker our Bluff teens are four kids each week they get to pick a building that they're going to build today we will decide what building we are going to make and we will dve brought it if we have time we can start the building process too we'll have to agree on that we have those little books and they decide

089what to build I you knowen California no let's see what on the what it's over 2,600 ft tall we might need another piece we write what it looks like and then we build it and with the buildings A lot of it is vocabulary so we have a lot of esol students so that's where like I can be there supporting those students scaffolding their learning while they are in the area the importance of it is talking about architecture talking about important buildings why do you go to a museum you know what do you explore there so it's great with history and why some of these buildings are crumbled in these books that they're looking at you'll find like sometimes they'll be working together and other times they'll just like all go apart I'm like okay let's

090come together we're working together on one thing that we're all doing so they really need to collaborate listen to each other and then we do details and then we show it off to people we try and find pictures if it's somewhere they haven't been we find pictures so that they can then really think about other details that they need to ask artist because they R the artist they got [Music] it starts at the very beginning of the school year we teach them how to use the blocks that blocks are not for throwing you have to be very careful with them you have to be very purposeful with them it's a lot about building relationships with your students like I like to get to know each of my students for who they are and what they

091like to do this morning for Luxembourg Palace we were looking at some of the pictures we noticed that there were some portraits on the walls inside the palace so the kids started making portraits so then some other kids they had seen the garden so then they started you can see they started making some Landscapes that we do one more because you give them that choice at the beginning of the year and it's more open-ended they learn to go with it where they want but because you set up those behavioral expectations in the classroom these are how you use the materials they pretty much do whatever they want with them because they know the boundaries on Friday typically we will go for tours so we'll go get the prek friends they will will come down to

092our classroom the kids can describe what building it is why the building is important what goes on inside the building how they work together what kind of blocks they used what kind of details they added so they can really explain their process behind what they did the communication that goes on with it is huge tell the friends what you built this week mumen High Museum the G High Museum this is our drama we made Palace we made a water of chair um we made the auditorium in the middle got people and we at the end of that we sort them all out by shape we count them to see how many blocks we use they go one block at a time so first they will take down some of the details that they've added and

093put the details away the details are not included in our count one of our standards is counting to 100 all of our block builds have had more than 100 blocks one of our standards is counting by T so the blocks are purposefully put together in stacks of [Music] 8 when I first started it I was building in stacks of five because it was just easier and I'm like it doesn't have to be easy things can be difficult for kindergarteners I love it it just gives the block area a bigger better focus blocks used to be more like they're just doing like whatever they want like here there's more purpose behind it there's so many things that you can pull in and sometimes you don't really know what you're pulling in until it actually happens so

094if you know the standards in kindergarten it's so easy to pull it in so like they're writing and they're looking at words and they'll be noticing oh my goodness there's like a diagraph in this building that we're making there's a short vowel in this word that we're writing when they're adding labels they're sounding out the words that they're trying I'm not there doing it for them it's like all those skills that you've taught them throughout the year that they are bringing into their block team and they just really enjoy it I found it's just very cool I'm really glad the video worked because that was so much more eloquent than I could explain it um and you can see that there's a great deal of intentionality and transdisciplinary learning that's happening there all in the

095context of a joyful classroom I think our our students are a little jealous of kindergarten right now um although the youngest Learners are many many many years away from graduation um oh sorry have to um back to my present back to our presentation okay updates required lots of things going on here okay Although our youngest Learners are many years away from graduation these play-based learning experiences allow them to practice the foundational elements the district aspires to see in our graduates and I think as you watch that video you might have seen a little bit of collaboration you might have seen a little bit of respect for self in others curiosity and love of learning determination and self-efficacy uh problem solving creativity critical thinking effective communication these are all the things that make up our vision

096of The Graduate so these youngest Learners are are um practicing right from the beginning of kindergarten and by fostering a physically and emotionally safe environment rooted in genuine relationships uh enriched with these authentic Hands-On experiences we aim to instill lifelong learning uh that will carry our students um through their educational journey and Beyond and um although the block um the block uh video is beautiful there's others and they're in your package I encourage you to to look at them their links are for others because uh it's not just about one approach uh play based learning is a much larger approach and there have many ways to achieve that so with that we welcome any of your questions oh my thank you so very much uh teammates questions comments yes Jason so I'm really glad you

097got the video too because I had the very great pleasure I at least 10 School visits over the course of the fall and one of my great Joys was watching the kids and getting in classrooms and watching them do the building but more importantly talk about it and the sense of Pride that they they really had and what they were doing and the level of sophistication is as you can see it's pretty cool um I I don't know that my kids at that at five knew where the Guggenheim was so uh very impressive uh the other and and no question just two comments so that was the first comment the other one is it is impressive as doing those visits seeing how this Foundation actually carries through to the idea of these student Le classrooms

098the student Le teaching where you have to collaborate you have to problem solved together and so having that foundation in prek and in kindergarten and then on up you can really see how that does fulfill the vision of The Graduate so thank you thank you other questions or comments Gail yeah thank you for the presentation um you know I was really excited to hear about this because I mean there's a lot of research coming out now that's showing that um that we've sort of given up this play-based education um and given um our kids basically an electronic based education so um this presentation and this idea was really kind of intriguing to me um and I think that some of the you know downsides of that switch has been a lot of problems with kids

099in terms of anxiety and depression so my question is um do you mirror anything like this um Beyond kindergarten sure what I can say is um the law actually requires play based instruction in prek and kindergarten and I believe it reads and teachers cannot be penalized something like that for play based instruction in first through fifth grade so it's opening a door um for more inquiry and play-based instruction in the the older grades um I know at Smith and at Charter Oak because their philosophy is an inquiry based philosophy um that inquiry and it might not look like dramatic play but it could be productive struggle kind of messing around with things and figuring things out um is an approach that um is used through fifth grade um and you know I I would welcome

100the opportunity to continue to push up sorry inquiry in inquiry based sorry we avoid the anger based sometimes there's a little anger [Music] but um I would also add that student centered learning of all kinds is important in all of our all of our grades um from from K through 12 so we encourage teachers at all times in within our curriculum as well to look at uh student centered instruction um a really good example of that that has been uh growing in the district is what we call um BTC building building thinking classrooms excuse me the acronym um escaped me which is is an approach to teaching this is started in the area of math but has uh gained um increased interest in other areas where uh if you think of a math classroom where

101students are having the teacher review most of the work at the board and possibly sitting at their desk either with a partner or listening to the teacher writing down solving problems on their own this is um an approach where we have groups of students at working together at whiteboards around the room solving specific problems and explaining their thinking to others following a specific approach of how to engage in really a strong dialogue one one example of that is the child who is writing is not the one speaking so the one who's talking to them about how to solve the problem the one holding the pen and doing the work is listening to their colleague and then the other person is helping to add other ideas or explain why we would be doing that and then

102that those children can turn around and explain to the classroom so those are those student centered approaches all know not always play are really a foundation of the whole K12 uh approach and if and if I may I wanted to piggyback one thing Claire and Claire had asked a similar question uh to me which is prior to the meeting about you know how does this scale up and as I was watching the presentation I was thinking about her question um I recently had the opportunity to sit down with um one of the curriculum Specialists that works in an's office um who has been out in and I think it's important because this will also help clarify some of the some of the concerns we heard um regarding ing you know central office type positions because

103this person is out in our schools um and has been doing a lot of the lift relative to uh supporting computer science specifically at Smith stem school where you know we did have that cut but we've um promised and delivered on a promise to help Infuse support directly into that school Smith is a pilot for some of our uh computer science the students uh I'm recounting a very specific example about a a fourth grade class where they were working with scratch and they were working with some and I've forgotten some of the gwiz names of the uh small robot pieces that are the precursors for program and and get the students involved um it's a it's a board update that we're you know we just started talking about planning to be able to really show

104off because to me it speaks to that student centered classroom there's an element of structured play uh in the same way that that Irene um has supported this within prek and K and Irene's another person that lives in our budget um theoretically uh as as a central office person although she will tell you she does not have an office here at central office and every prek student um and I would imagine the majority of kindergarten students know her um by name uh by site based on uh the work that these folks are doing um directly infused into the classroom setting and I I think that's an important clarification to provide because I know that that the general public doesn't know that I know that our you know our parents know our teachers names um and

105they don't necessarily know the inner workings of how the rest of that works but um you know when when a number like 34 or something is thrown out that that's inclusive of the of the secretarial staff and and a number of folks um that are that you know I I don't want there to be a a missed impression because the work that you saw on that video would not be possible without a person like Irene who's who's rolling up her sleeves and doing Hands-On work with our teachers and our students in the classroom on a daily basis and I'm just I'm grateful to her and I'm grateful to all of the teachers that you saw and and the many more that you didn't because they are just knocking it out of the park um and

106I'm so excited for uh the work that's been undertaken thank you for the kind words and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the names of the teachers that were featured so Rebecca Boyce and Rachel Bernett who are both at Charter Oak they did a great job Claire yeah so thank you so much it's great to see the video um it's sometimes hard to understand if you haven't seen it in action so it's nice to see that um the Connecticut mandate does include adding play based learning to the other grades it is mandated for the prek-k um but it's so effective in the upper grades and games like Biz Buzz or um even doing Pi Day or kids lit quiz lets your non-typical kids really Excel and we had some students that we had

107no idea they were such a champion with some of the numbers games and their whole um status and feeling of being part of the class was raised up with these games because um play does um pass all the disabilities it it takes away the language barriers and it's just fun and um so I hope that we do more PD and help other teachers know that that math game once a week can be the highlight of some students school week um and you know kids still like to play um even when they get out of that grade I also wonder if any of our kids with prek experience in play based learning are coming into kindergarten with more of a a mentor role because some of our kindergarteners have not had prior play based learning and

108then our prek kids even our Early Learning Center children that might have disabilities they've got a edge up on play based learning they do and kindergarten teachers will tell me every fall they know exactly who had prek within the district and who didn't other questions or comments Latoya I just had a comment um about I know we're talking about early um our early childhood U play base but one of the things that I thought about when I was touring the schools and thinking about again tonight is um and I know this isn't the legislation but want to certainly encourage us as a district is um you see kind of a little bit of a drop off when the kids start to go to Middle School in high school um and I feel like the play

109the opportunities for play and um the social emotional learning become almost like you have to opt in um it's like an option you know to go talk to someone or um to sign up for an after school uh Club to you know kind of engage in that and so just thinking about like how we have such a high bar for rigor and academics and being you know so competitive um in our high schools which is something that attracts families I think thinking about how to infuse the fun part um because I feel like when our kids are getting to high school it's very high pressure high stakes high stress almost like they're already in college um and I even kind of feel like college is a little like less stressful than um being a high

110schooler in a district like this like where academic M uh rigger is like you see they're nodding and so I think the grades are good but the overall well-being of our students is everything um and you see straight A students at Ivy League schools having nervous breakdowns and not even able to complete their degrees and so I think just we I want us to be reflective about that um and about not the drop off just maybe it's not a drop off like just really thinking about how do we continue um you know that stuff on in middle school and high school our elementary schools look so colorful all the beautiful SEO language all this stuff and it's like almost like as we go up in grades it just changes and it's like they need that

111stuff more than ever 14 15 and 16 year olds need to play if you ask them right now like would y'all like to play a game like most of them are going to say yeah and so I think I just it's just something I want us to think about and like just kind of consider um because I think we have the tools to to keep that more consistent as the kids grow so thank you other comments questions all right thank you so much for your presentation and I I think to to dovetail a bit off of of Latoya's piece what I'm so impressed with seeing the video and hearing you all describe and seeing those young people with such confidence talk about what they're doing and to engage with one another and collaborate and even

112if they didn't have the answer they didn't give up they work together to solve the answer and I think having those opportunities to build that solid foundation of self-confidence and motivation early on will help them as they continue to grow and learn in different settings so thank you so very much for all that you're doing and I do have to say oh my watching the video I saw someone I'm not going to get choked up but who helped teach my babies and I took everything in me not to just break down and tears so please tell Miss V I said hello and I'm giving her a big hug what a blessing what a blessing so thank you all so very much for all that you're doing and I do encourage you if you have a

113minute click on the other ones because they're just as good excellent thank you and as we transition we shall move on to routine matters where we have approval of the minutes seeking a motion that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting of March the 4th 2025 is there a motion so moved thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Latoya any discussion or suggested edits seeing none all of those in favor say I I I any oppose any abstain the eyes have it moving on to information and reports board members do we have any Communications and reports from other organizations or boards seeing none any other information or discussions seeing none moving on to Future business announcement of future meeting dates our next meeting will be

114Wednesday March 26 2025 Board of Education public hearing hearing at 7:00 followed by board Workshop number two here at the Town Hall in legislative Chambers room 3:14 then on I'm going to also reference our listening sessions then on Monday March the 31st at 8:45 a.m. at Faxon Library we'll have our Town Council Board of Ed listening session and that same day in the evening March 31st at 600 p.m. at nor Webster Library our third and final listening session session again with our Town Council teammates and Board of Ed members and then on Tuesday April the 1st 2025 our regular Board of Education meeting where we have adoption of the superintendent's 2024 2025 budget at 7 o' here at the town hall room 3:14 and then Tuesday May the 6th 2025 regular Board of Education meeting

1157 o'clock here at the town hall room 3:14 do we have a request for any future agenda it items seeing none do we have any persons that would like to make a Public Communication seeing none we do not have an executive session therefore seeking a motion to adjourn thank you Shannon is there a second thank you Ethan meeting adjourned e