001e e e good evening and calling the meeting to order welcome to the West Harford Public Schools Board of Education meeting today is Tuesday October the 1st 2024 Charlotte may you please call the role Mr gagnan present Mr Goldman here Dr Harris here miss maramon here Mrs nazarella present Dr Thomas M Faron here Mrs yagaloff present student representative Sarah granquist here student representative Alexis new 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 with liberty and justice thank you we do not have a revision to the agenda order now we shall proceed to public Communications this is where we're able to
002hear from you your thoughts your questions your suggestions each individual is allowed 3 minutes to speak and we ask when you come to the podium to please share your name and your town of residence please be mindful that we are attentively listening to you however it is policy that we do not respond to comments as they are being made while you are sharing your thoughts please also be aware 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 and we ask for you please to conclude your sentence and respectfully take your seat with this being the first meeting of the month we are receiving comments on both agenda and non-agenda items but for our awareness
003we'll share the agenda items for today include accept and approve revised policies 4011 and 5691 setting date for the 2025 High School graduation modification to the 2025 2026 school calendar 2024 school day sat results and approval of the minutes from the September 17th 20124 board meeting we will Begin by hearing thoughts from those who are speaking on agenda items and I have a list here and first on the list we have and I apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name the first name we have is Tali kest hi thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight um what I had planned to say here tonight has changed due to today's current events as Jews in 2024 we are living through anti-Semitism it is no longer just a part of History to which
004we had hoped it would be relegated today we are faced with both an existential and a cultural threat today Israel was attacked by missiles from Iran Jews in Israel and all over the world have been watching anxiously this attack on Israel is an attack on Western democracy the story of the Jewish holiday puim celebrates victory over just such an attack attack but all over the world we are faced with another type of anti-Semitism one that tries to bully us into shedding who we are culturally and religiously as had been attempted on Hanukah that attempts to tell us that we are bad for supporting the only Jewish state in the world and what is the natural outcome of that I'll tell you when colleges fail to protect Jews all over the United States from verbal attacks
005and vilification The Logical outcome is what happened over the last two weeks two students at University of Michigan and one at pit beaten up simply for being Jewish and showing their Jewish signs wearing a star of David this is not happening in a vacuum unfettered radicalization of thought is dangerous please help combat that by giving these students Foundation what we teach matters we need to teach not just about anti-Semitism of the past but of the current day and also to celebrate Jewish contributions to society with the already federally recognized Jewish American heritage month thank you thank you next we have Miriam bleach blle Miriam good evening I'm from West Hartford good evening my name is Miriam BL and I have four children in three elementary schools across the district this evening on the topic of
006special education I would like to raise awareness and visibility for inclusion and special education programming the buyin to the philosophy of inclusion and the narrative for inclusion and the district's extensive special education services needs to start during transitions in preschool in the Early Learning Centers then again into Elementary again into middle and again into high school and Beyond special education programming is not a secret nor should it be we have come a long way since 1975 when the education for all handicap children Act was passed to guarantee equal education equal access to public education for children with disabilities in 1990 this was renamed to the idea which further expanded on the inclusion of children with disabilities into regular classes focused on the rights of parents and creation of IEPs and yet we still have a
007ways to go so here we are in West Hartford including students with IEP and 504 plans because I do think it's important to acknowledge that 504 accommodations still require utilizing resources this is almost 30% of our student population receiving special education services I would like to highlight and Briefly summarize for you what is involved for our from our daughter to receive equal access to education with intensive academic special education services I cannot speak for anyone else's experience and as you know there are only four elementary schools out of the 11 who house intensive academic programs for starters there there is a tremendous amount of communication and time required to coordinate with our West Harford Transportation Department for the special education minib buses to ensure access to and from school with a bus monitor then time
008and communication with the general education teacher around time spent in the classroom with typical peers time in the Learning Center with fellow intensive academic students one to1 adult staff scheduling for and pull out time for speech therapy physical therapy and occupational therapy multiple times a week various skills groups as well as Unified sports modified specials onetoone special education time with the teacher consultations with medical providers etc etc and then there's extended school year in the summer there's a lot going on for just one child how do the special education teachers and paraprofessionals do all of this I worry that what might look manageable on paper is really very stressful and a cause for Burnout and the 40% National attrition rate for special education teachers and challenges for hiring non-certified staff I couldn't imagine my daughter's
009progress up until this point without the incredibly devoted dedicated and selfless staff I don't have the words to express my gratitude for the incredible School leadership devoted and skilled special education teachers who are also case managers and the Magical PA professionals and support staff I also want to acknowledge the typical peers whether their parents know it or not many have become really wonderful and inclusive friends I would like to ask you Board of Ed education members that if if the opportunity presents that you go visit the Intensive academic programs I would like to ask that you strongly consider program expansion for special education services including Staffing and resources which are also mentioned in the Connecticut State Department of Ed special education taskforce recommendations program expansion will also keep costs in District finally inclusion is not
010just for the children receiving special education services it benefits all children together they will make our world a more accepting tolerant a better place thank you thank you that is all who we have signed up speaking on agenda items before going to the other list would like to ask if there is anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item we have another list for open Agenda other items as well but specific to agenda items okay please share your name and your town of residents I'm I'm talking about the policies that was discussed last week so good evening everyone my name is G I'm a resident of West Hartford at the most recent Board of Education meetings there was uh the first reading of the policy 411 and 5691 the discussion focused on how
011schools should respond to sex based harassment which is an update of the previous language on sexual harassment I also noticed several crafted terminologies being introduced such as sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy related conditions sexual orientation and the gender identity among others these policies would extend the school Authority uh essentially positioning it it as a low-level enforcement body within the community rather than focusing exclusiv on education any complaints of discrimination that occur outside the school settings should be handled by the appropriate law enforcement agencies not by the school this appears to be a clear case of overreach by the school system another concerning aspect is that the policy would require the school to investigate comments like boys can't take cooking class or girls don't do Auto sh these are some of the examples given two weeks
012ago isn't that ridiculous if this policies were enacted the school would become a speech monitoring Authority deciding what can and cannot be said this could seriously affect our children's freedom of speech what about the First Amendment of the US Constitution even more alarming is the potential chilling effect on students expression the idea that school officials may now intimidate children into Silence of expression expressing opinions that disagree with it is deeply that they disagree with is deeply concerning so I wonder how can students learn in a healthy environment when such unreasonable policies are looming over them thank you for listening thank you we on WE next have on the list George Lang Lang pardon me right okay thank you uh my name is George Lang I'm a resident of the town of West Hartford uh good
013evening members of the school board uh my name is George Lang my son Nathan is currently in kindergarten at braver elementary school he was placed there instead of his normally assigned District school at Webster Hill for developmental issues that have resulted in the creation of an IEP and diagnosis of autism from a developmental pediatrician he's currently assigned a minius 34 with an expected morning pickup time of 7:58 a.m. and afternoon drop off time of 3:58 p.m. he's been a part of the school district for the last two plus years having been at Whiting Lane ELC for the last two years I give you all of this background information because in the last three weeks first student has completely failed in their role to ensure the timely transportation of students including my son for over 2
014weeks his morning bus was anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes late daily with no warning or effective communication the one morning in that time it was on time the app provided by the company sent out a notification saying it would be approximately 15 minutes late had we followed the guidance of the notification he would have missed the bus and had to have been driven to school throwing off a routine he is so keen on with his developmental issues this tardiness is also cutting into his instruction time at school since he has a 40 plus minute bus ride normally and is now arriving late to school missing valuable time in the classroom ensuring he's receiving the services required by his IEP and ensuring the catch-up development in areas needed due to his diagnosis his afternoon bus
015has been if anything worse I would classify it as nothing short of a disaster for three Tuesdays in a row now his afternoon bus has been slated to be anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes late sometimes with as little as 20 minutes notice before School dismissal this is untenable not just for myself but for the rest of the students and parents who are left to wait at school for potentially an additional 40 minutes before their bus arrives to take them home or to be picked up by parents or guard at the last moment this is not limited to Tuesdays as many other days have had the same issues but the Tuesdays it is even more apparent due to after school activities he has scheduled every week some of this information about other students comes from
016one of his teachers that has had to wait with students for their buses sometimes until around 4 p.m. while I understand bus is running a few minutes late due to traffic lights or an accident along the Route this is well beyond the reasonable scope of tardiness to be accepted not only has first student failed in their obligations for timely transportation and communication to the parents and guardians but the response by The District transportation office has been severely lacking I have sent multiple emails over the last 13 months due to issues last year as well and have received nothing but canned responses back this includes my most recent email asking for the implementation of a plan to be worked out with first student to stem these issues Miss Torres has abdicated a responsibility as transportation coordinator
017to hold first student to account for their shortcomings over a month into the school year and the fact that my son's bus and others I'm sure is now just being assigned a permanent driver shows a complete lack of preparation by First Student in the transportation department to ensure the timely transportation of our students I come before you this evening to ask for your assistance in rectifying this glaring shortcoming in this District it is within your power to cancel the contract with first student for lack of performance and put out to bid a new contract that will ensure the safe And Timely transportation of the district's students if this is untenable then a contingency plan needs to be put in place to allow for quicker response of any shortages resulting from equipment failures or driver absences
018it is incumbent upon you to ensure the entire District works as it should including Transportation the students of the district deserve better than the performance this transportation company as district has put forward thus far this year my information's on the sheet if you'd like to discuss this further thank [Music] you thank you that is all who we have signed up on the list but I'll ask if there's anyone in the audience who would like to make a public comment we'll ask once again okay we shall pause on Public Communication now moving to non-staff Communications and this is where we're able to hear from our student Representatives sharing what's going on within their respective schools so let us begin with Sarah sharing about Hall please Hall has a very busy next few weeks coming up we
019are holding the PSAT on October 10th for our freshman sophomores and juniors which will help them prepare for taking the SAT the spring of their junior year tomorrow is is National custodial appreciation day and together the hall Community created a video to show our appreciation for our custodians the Hall concert brand will also be performing this weekend in the annual Park Road parade this week Hall is deciding on a homecoming theme and as a result of student input we are now using a bracket system to vote and we will know the theme by Friday we recently welcomed a new Student Activities coordinator Mr Wallace who runs the career cater Center and facilitates many opportunities for H students Hall girls soccer recently beat connard in the first Hall connard game of the year which is very
020exciting and today marks the first day of bullying awareness month and to promote a safe and supportive School environment both Hall and connard created symbols with two hands and their school logos these symbols are put up on certain doors around the school to indicate that students can find a trusted adult who is ready to help them there at Hall the symbol has been put up outside School counseling the main office people services and may also be put up outside classrooms in other offices on September 20th 45 West Hartford students had the opportunity to attend a youth leadership academy at the Town Hall this program ran from 8 to three and students heard from a number of speakers on the topics of mental health prevention and creating change students participated in nami's student Navigator training as
021well as a lockone training and many were issued a free box of narim I was one of the students from Hall who attended this event and I can say that the speakers were incredibly impactful and we all learned a lot about how to support our peers and promote prevention in our community thank you Sarah Alexis hi everyone and happy October 1st as always we'd like to send our gratitude to the administration team teachers nurses security officers custodians and all other members of the Conor staff for their hard work to keep a positive learning environment with that being said with the of a new month conard will have plenty of activities and events going on to recognize the talents and accomplishments of our student body and more first off we would like to recognize that 11
022students were named 11 or named leaders of the pack for the month of September each department at Connor nominates one student to be their chosen leader of the pack meaning they represent ideal leadership within the Connor walls with this recognition it is understood that these students will help guide the rest of the student body to their level of Excellence as well additionally we handed out a few more awards for the the 25 students that received an award from the college board for their outstanding performance on the PSAT administered last fall various Awards such as a National Merit commended student a National Merit semi-finalist a national African-American recognition program scholar a national Hispanic recognition program scholar and a first generation recognition program scholar were acknowledged at a college board recognition breakfast this morning thank you to
023the administrators and teachers that work to put this breakfast together and congratulations to all the students on your wonderful accomplishments on the topic of the PSAT we'd like to remind families that this year's testing will be administered next Thursday so and put that in your calendar our annual college fair for con and Hall will also be taking place on Wednesday October 9th at 6:30 p.m. so we hope to see as many students as possible in attendance as there is a plentiful list of colleges and universities attending the event also the parent principal Forum will be taking place on Thursday October 10th at 6 p.m. in the seminar room outside of our academics Conor students are taking part in many fascinating activities that I'd love to highlight for starters our improv TR parachute will hold their
024first performance on Thursday October 10th at 7 p.m. in the blackbox additionally our select orchestral Ensemble a Giovani cisi and weha Jazz All Stars will be performing at celebrating Gifts of Music a benefit concert on Saturday October 19th at 7:30 p.m. lastly Conor football has another home game this Friday at 700 p.m. against Berlin we hope to see you there and as always go red wolves furthermore we do not have school this Thursday October 3rd or two Mondays from now October 14th due to rashash Shana and Indigenous people's day finally we'd like to acknowledge that October is National bullying prevention month we do not condone behaviors of bullying at our school so we hope that all students will make their best effort to help each other make Conor a warm educational environment thank you Alexis
025thank you Sarah thank you both thank you both you represent your schools well now moving on to unfinished business where we have a motion by Laura Thomas Ferguson Gail Harris and jel gag and Jason gagnan to accept and approve revised policies as a second reading seeking a motion that the Board of Education accept and approve as a second and final reading the following revised Title 9 policies which were reviewed by the board policy subcommittee referring to Personnel series 4000 4011 prohibition of sex discrimination and student series 5000 5691 prohibition of sex discrimination is there a motion so move thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Shannon discussion so thank you Dr murl you are here before us as part of our policy subcommittee and we know teammates that this these policies were
026originally brought before us these are policies that are ones that are federally mandated and so in essence by law we are obligated to follow them however we do follow the process of presenting them before the board and voting on them and so with that we'll open the floor for questions or comments I asked this last time so I realize I'm being repetitive and do we have I mean I realized it's by federal but is there a per I just there's a lot of changes and it doesn't seem I'm just there must be there should be a reason other than well the law had significant changes and the guidance is based on the law and so we're following the law for that okay well that's what I was trying to get at what just I I'm
027struggled I struggled reading it to to Define what the change was okay I can summarize again I provided last time I can summarize okay that if you'd like so the new regulations put forward by the Department of Education significantly changed the way schools must respond to sex discrimination and sexual harassment which is now called sex BAS harassment uh these new rules went into effect August 1st 2024 and it provides a broadest jur broader jurisdiction while Title 9 previously applied only to conduct that occurred in the school's program or activity it can now apply to off-campus conduct if the school has disciplinary Authority in Connecticut that can be in conduct that occurs off campus if there's significant enough NEX is or impact to school which is a significant disruption to the educational process under under the
028new rule there's a broader definition of sex discrimination and sex-based harassment so more conduct may be considered as a title n manner matter uh discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related characteristics or conditions sexual orientation and gender identity uh notably Title 9 was expanded to significantly include protections for lgbtq plus individuals Connecticut has had these protections for a long time under chro orders so that is not a new change for Connecticut uh it talks about the definition of sex-based harassment having three types hostile environment quid proquo and specific offenses such as sexual assault Dating Violence domestic violence and stalking there also is provided changes to a streamlined process for investigation so responding to complaints for districts is now more streamlined school districts can
029adopt one grievance process for sex discrimination rather than separate processes for sex discrimination and sexual harassment change also makes title n investigations uh more akin to how administrators handle other matters of misconduct and investigations while still providing some specific due process steps that must be followed in addition districts can adopt a unified process where one person or a team of people can conduct the investigation and make the decision instead of the current or the past system of having to have separate investigators and decision makers okay can I ask one followup question sure I doubt I'll be able to answer but give it a shot no I'm sure you will you mentioned off- campus is that a school activity or a non-school activity it depends um and as the lawyers will tell you that's the answer
030you're supposed to give when unsure of something on that because it does depend Ethan it depends based on the Nexus right now we have there's there's a there's a disciplinary Authority for off-campus events if there's a Nexus to the school district right if it involves an an impact or a major impact on educational on the educational Community or on the on the operations of a school and so that same thing could apply in this in this case but wouldn't that be a school related activity or to me Nexus means there's interaction Nexus in this case means that there's a connection between behavior that occurs and the school district okay or a school in question good any other Gale um yeah so I wanted to just give a heads up um to all of my colleagues
031here that I'm going to vote against this policy these both of these policies and because I'm on the um committee I just wanted to give a little bit of an explanation as to why um I'm concerned with several things in the policy uh one of them has been brought up several times here tonight um that this gives some jurisdiction um of off-campus and it it's unclear to me um exactly what that means and how that could be implemented I I think that there is a question of whether that goes too far in terms of schools jurisdictions to be policing things that are sort of off off campus um secondly I'm concerned that there are 28 states that have an injunction against this these Title 9 changes and I'm not entirely sure um why that is
032uh but I it does concern me that more than half the states in the country are are obviously uh very concerned about these changes and are have gone to court to try to make those changes um and lastly I am concerned um particularly about how this Title 9 is going to affect women's sports and if um in fact this will cement the end of women's sports it's unclear to me um what how this exactly would affect women's sports but I do believe that it will in some shape or form um so for all of those reasons I am going to vote against both policies um when we when we take a vote yes thank you and U Gail want to say uh respectfully receive your your thoughts and thank you for sharing them thank you
033Ethan I just wanted just to follow up thank you Dr Mo for the explanation I that's what I was looking for okay you're welcome other thoughts or comments Jason on it sounded like and I may have misheard this on the Nexus connection that already exists under state law correct correct it exists for things like discipline and other actions and so this is simply establishing it again at a at the level for the the sexual discrimination or connections there and it's not just a CL ify the school district is not going out and policing this I mean if there is a sexual issue or sexual assault that occurs somewhere then that's a Police Issue where where our connection is and where our responsibility is parents or students have a right to to invoke this title n
034investigation and ask the district to get involved in a title n investigation if they feel that somehow it is impairing or impacting a student's ability to access their education so we're not actively out there investigating but we do have a responsibility when something is brought to us to investigate and to make sure that that hurdles are cleared so so in that case it would give students and families a vehicle to to seek some kind of redress some kind of help from the schools correct if there was a proper Nexus there then the schools could do that correct um on the issue of um the state injunctions um which I think I brought up at the the policy meeting um those just it's to my understanding it's not the states themselves that are imposing injunctions there
035are groups who have brought lawsuits in various States that's correct and as part of those lawsuits while those lawsuits work their way through the system be that through the various Federal districts that some courts have chosen to put an injunction in place until the underlying case is resolved correct based on based on having membership at a state level of people that are are in this group or in various groups and have joined into the lawsuit is my understanding as well um and then on on uh one final issue if I may on the issue of um how this may impact women's sports um obviously I I'm the father of a female athlete this is something I I do deeply care about I think about very often um I believe that those policies are actually covered
036under Sak policies and and so there whether or not there's interplay here is kind of moot considering that at a state level the state has already decided what those policies would be yeah the state has made that determination and again we follow the state guidance on that and if the state guidance changes we follow that change guidance thank you you're welcome thank you thank you Jason other thoughts are yes CLA and if if I recall 20 25 years ago there was a change in state law that said that things off the school campus that affected the School were now some of the responsibility of the school to get involved if it affected the school so that that our care of the kids could be affected by something that happened off campus that we had to
037not just say you're you're out of the school building it's the school day is over our job's done it no longer was that way anymore and I remember that change happening and the teachers were were we were educated about why why that change happened thank you Claire any other questions or comments okay with that we have a motion on the floor we now shall proceed with voting on The Motions however I am going to ask for a roll call vote please Charlotte just to distinguish and respect where we are voting so beginning with policy 4011 prohibition of sex discrimination we please have a roll call vote Mr gagnan I Mr Goldman no Miss har Dr Harris no Miss maramon I Mrs nazarella I Dr Thomas farus yes and Mrs yalof I the motion passes moving
038on to policy 5691 prohibition of sex discrimination roll call vote Please Mr gagan I Mr Goldman no Dr Harris no Miss maramon I Mrs narella I Dr Thomas farus yes Mrs yagaloff I thank you the motion passes and with that I'm going to ask CH to pause for Just 2 minutes please just a two-minute recess please okay thank you for your patience and want to say please pardon Gail she has a family emergency and that's something we must always remember that with our time here we must always prioritize family and that is who we are here to serve so we certainly must serve our own so we do pray for the best for Gail's family continuing on now to new business setting a date for the June 2025 High School graduation seeking a motion that
039the Board of Education vote to set the date for this year's High School graduation on Wednesday June the 11th 2025 is there a motion so moved thank you Shannon is there a second second thank you Latoya discussion Mr vus thank you very much um and thank you all I'm going to reference you to page 14 in your board book it's not uh not a dramatic amount of information just so for background I'll let you know uh that many many years ago um the uh Connecticut legislator made the legislature made the change that allowed the boards of Education to set graduation dates earlier previously the rule had always been that you had to wait until like April before you could set the date um but that change was made in response to a lot of communities
040which also are own uh folks who like to make plans like to have uh folks who travel who may be coming from out of state to attend graduation and so with that uh we've been following a practice for the last several years to set the graduation date early on in the school year um and we in our practice we try to avoid uh graduations typically on Mondays or on Fridays uh generally the weekdays are the bests just just to ensure uh safety of students more over than anything else uh our last day of school currently is scheduled for June the 11th um now while I may anticipate some emergency closings due to weather this winter um generally it's been it's been our practice to be able to set that date for seniors and then hold
041to that date and with a with a graduation date of Wednesday uh I feel very comfortable that we can uh do all of the necessary programming um and have an excellent um graduation for them on Wednesday June the 11th so that is my recommendation and up for any further questions that you may have thank you superintendent vus I'm so curious what Sarah and Alexis are thinking but we'll open it up to anyone that may have any questions or comments yes Claire and there will not be a rain day correct uh generally we we try to have a reain plan versus a reain date other thoughts yes Shannon just to confirm would would it be both the Conor and Hall graduations at the same time I know it's very rare but we did get a concern
042last year that some people were trying to attend both and that made it a little challenging but just want to clarify that no thank you for that question um an Omission on my part we we we always uh seek to have Conor and Hall graduation same date and same time so and we would be continuing with that practice other questions or comments oh I see some smiles over there all right with the motion on the floor all of those in favor say I I any oppose any abstain the eyes have it well we certainly look forward to Wednesday June the 11 2025 moving on to modification to the 2025 2026 school calendar seeking a motion that the Board of Education approve a correction to the 2025 2026 school calendar with regard to the observance date
043of dwali on Monday October the 20th 2025 is there a motion so moved thank you Claire is there a second second thank you Jason discussion so Mr V thank you again so um I I'll point out first and foremost this is this is not the current year calendar this is next school Year's calendar and um apologies on my part that uh we identified an error we had previously listed dwali on the in the celebration of dwali on the incorrect date um so we've made that correction uh to October the 20th uh that you can see if you reference page 16 you'll see um a box around October the 20th representing a school holiday or vacation a day which school is not in session and then you'll see that it is appropriately listed about a third
044of the way down the center column under important dates so this is really a piece of bookkeeping to correct uh to correct a date we had previously uh erroneously identified thank you any questions or comments with the motion on the floor all of those in favor say I I I any oppose any abstain the eyes have it thank you very much now moving on to staff Communications and reports where we now shall receive our superintendent report Mr VZ back to you well thank you so much um I have a few celebrations that I want to share and and some other comments uh but I begin with one for Connor High School Connor has recently been named uh a national Banner unified Champion school which is an honor bestowed by the Special Olympics nationally um a
045special uh I'm sure you're saying what was that again a Special Olympics unified Champion school um is a school that has been identified as having an inclusive School climate that exudes a sense of collaboration engagement and respect for all members of the student body and staff uh a unified Champion School receiving National Banner recognition as is the case for Connor is one that has demonstrated a commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 national standards of excellence which were developed uh through a national panel of leaders from the Special Olympics and within the education community so it's a huge congratulations not only to Connor High School specifically to Tracy Kelly who is one of uh our physical education teachers at Connor Lisa D our physical education supervisor and realistically the community as a whole so very excited
046with with that announcement um I'd also like to put a spotlight out on one of our uh special education teachers Alicia Cohen who is an assist of technology specialist she's been selected as a panelist uh for the upcoming New England assistive technology annual Summit that will be held uh this coming November uh the event itself is focused on supporting educational professionals and administrators in the K12 realm with accessibility Solutions assistive technology and augmentive alternative communication uh tools and strategies for their students with disabilities uh the the team that has identified um Elicia the neat Team National um new excuse me New England assist of Technology team is enthusiastic about Alicia's specific efforts and her achievement in the field um and sought her out specifically for this opportunity so we're very pleased um I won't repeat
047uh Alexis gave uh the recognition for connard and the phenomenal a uh student Scholars who won uh recognition from uh the National Merit Scholarship program um and I know that Hall High will be hosting a very similar recognition of students in the coming weeks and just uh separating those by a little bit and I also want to thank both Sarah and Alexis they they both identified October uh as kicking off National bullying prevention month um October also houses uh World mental health day which will be as I understand it on October 10th um and as such it's it's only you know as as I think about U what we've been seeing in the news um and the fact that uh you know October has events within it we're coming up on the on the one-year
048anniversary uh of the terror attack by Hamas um we we see a lot it's it's appropriate for us to talk about supports that are available in our School for students um anyone really in the community that may be suffering from from any feelings of anxiety or concern for any number of reasons uh through our exceptional professionals within our school counseling staff and our clinical staff uh so as we think about this whether it's bullying whether it's anti-Semitism whether it's islamophobia whether it's um any any form of mistreatment or something that makes you doubt your own identity uh we have folks that are ready to help support and provide spaces for our students um in the school and all of our students so I want to give a shout out to those professionals and to all
049the efforts that are going in um on the topic of school safety I want to share first a positive I want to share um that West Harford public schools has been recently spotlighted as a model District by the director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the state of Connecticut um based on our security and our emergency response planning this acknowledgement is a reflection of the professionalism of our school security office uh those in our employee at our schools as well as our collaboration with the West Harford Police Department uh right down to our crossing guards I am thankful to the team as a whole and to our broader Community uh for what is done to make our school safe and school safety is an area uh that we continue to read about in the
050news there have been several articles both in our local journals and the Harford krent as well um with school threats being communicated mainly through some online postings um a local news article I read last week cited more than 35 such threats here in Connecticut since the Georgia shooting of September 4th that's an average of uh just over one a day um now we as you know have not been immune to these and while we're relieved when a threat itself can be determined to be non-credible um or something that was a hoax the response to any Potential Threat is significant it ties up resources uh it can be anxiety producing um and it takes away from law enforcement and our educational Mission and our security Mission so it's been a topic I was at uh it's
051been a topic at the state level uh I was at a Harford area superintendence group this morning and it was a significant topic across area superintendant uh and I just wanted to share that in the coming days uh specifically at our secondary schools we're going to be voting time to talk to students about online threats and and about and I'm hoping for this phrase to catch the importance to report and not repost um reposting hoax threats contributes to a problem it creates a climate of uncertainty reporting whether it's to a trusted adult or through our Anonymous alerts systems is the right thing to ensure that we can address the situation and keep our entire Community safe so um I would encourage our students to help spread the word to report and not repost and I
052would encourage parents to have conversations with their children at home about this topic we need to have uh better conversation and communication and set those expectations um switching to more curricular topics uh over the last uh couple of weeks our middle schools had invited parents to their respective openhouse programs um one of the one of the highlights is the web we uh we all belong student leadership program um I'll send out a a a copy of these notes and there'll be a link in there of a video that highlights uh specifically our sixth grade uh orientation at Cedric middle school and the role of those web leaders uh just to give you better uh sort of a understanding of what that looks like but um I wanted to I wanted to Spotlight the web Leaders
053The Faculty advisers across all our schools and give them a thank you for a job well done um Charter o International Academy recently celebrated International Peace day that was on Monday uh September the 23rd the program featured students reciting the peace pledge uh songs from the fourth and fifth grade class and remarks from Victoria christow who is the founder and executive director of the Connecticut Center for nonviolence um students participated in the installation of pin wheels for police and it was it was just a a very special um afternoon so very pleased for for Charter rope um exciting news at Sedwick middle school they're going to host uh national uh an author National book award winner and MacArthur genius Grant recipient Jacqueline Woodson at a special program on October the 17th um the program itself
054uh is coordinated by the West Harford public library and it highlights Jacqueline as part of the West Harford Reeds annual literacy literary celebration um and there is more information um that you can look up on the west Harford public library and the sudwick uh web pages this just in today both Connor and Hall were named today 2024 AP School honor rooll recipients um this is a relatively new award uh I believe it was uh first came out from college board last year and we were recipients of it last year and we are again recipients the distinction celebrates organizations who demonstrate a a strong College culture college credit and optimization opportunities College Board further recognized Hall High School um with the AP access award for providing all students the chance to participate in AP including students
055of underrepresented populations um the AP access award is earned when uh the percentage of underrepresented Andor low-income students accessing the AP program is the same or greater than that of the graduating class so uh kudos to both schools uh excellent job a full a full report on our AP as well as our early college experience uh programming is scheduled for a November board meeting and as a final note the next chapter bookstore which is run by our postsecondary program will be celebrating its third birthday and alongside that we will be doing a celebration of a recently uh published and illustrated book turning in pages together which was created by our program students um so we hope that you as a board and members of the public might join us on Friday October the 4th this
056Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the bookstore uh right here downtown 13 South Main Street West Hartford so that's that 10 or 10:30 uh did I say 10:30 I have 10:30 did I say the wrong thing no I okay 10:30 um how long do we think that'll run Melissa maybe half hour 45 minutes probably but uh pending any questions thank you so much Mr V is lots of wonderful information yes Latoya um yeah thank you for all the updates um so just a couple of things um thanks for the updates on safety I think it's top of mind for everyone so appreciate the proactiveness and just keeping us you know continuing to update us on it um and really appreciate the uh push into you know for students and and supporting them with reporting um also
057want to lift up within that same vein uh are there um opportunities to kind of take that same pause within the community to process some of this stuff you know for the kids to so in the same way of like going to schools um and I don't know if the conversations are happening with teachers to students or yeah so it's teachers to students that are going to it'll be teachers to students okay awesome so yeah I guess I just would would be curious around like are there conversations happening um around like processing some of these n these events that are happening in schools and like kind of taking that pause to just say like hey let's you know kind of decompress um and I know we have wonderful Mental Health Resources for students to go
058oneon-one but like as a class are there those opportunities so certainly and I think I think um where we've seen events certainly in early September when we had the news uh coming from Georgia obviously there was um recognition of that within our schools there was opportunity to kind of stop I'm sure some of it some of it may be anecdotal I don't know if our student reps might share um anything that may have happened in a particular class with a teacher taking a moment to sort of just try to process that but then if things get you know one of the things we always try to do if if things are going to get super heavy um we want to make sure that we can we can steer a student before we kind of open
059up something that might be very disconcerting that we that we have the supports in place for any child who's who's who's more impacted but that's really I think what what the effort is going to be as we see this kind of persisting um is we're creating the opportunity kind of within uh whether it's an advisory kind of like The Home Room period where we can have a small number of students somewhere you know a classroom versus a a whole giant class setting and uh be able to talk talk about it be able to talk about what you should do be able to talk about what the resources are here um and and and try to stay ahead of it so it's not it's not just a a lecture about what you should do or what
060you shouldn't do but it's an opportunity to be able to engage with students and hear what they're hearing and um allow them the opportunity to ask questions we I'd be curious if you have thoughts along those lines so I would say in general when we see events like this happen um at least at Hall what usually happens is we'll have a morning announcement where where they'll talk about the event we'll have often times like a moment of silence um but I do have to say I think with what happened in Georgia we really didn't hear much about it and that's something that I think we definitely could have done a better job with that Hall um I don't think we talked about it in any of my classes um and I honestly don't recall them
061doing anything general for the school overall um I think additionally at Connor we do have something called community that kind of takes place every single Wednesday so we use that time to kind of shed light on like things that may have happened and so I can't remember exactly but I feel like we did have a pause like to like recognize and acknowledge that that event did happen and to make everyone more aware of it so but I do feel similar similarly to Sarah thank you good feedback oh yes just thank you both for for your cander thank you thank you Jason yes I just want to pick up on on that because I think it's really important because not only do we have recent past events but again we're coming up on October 7th the
062anniversary of October 7th um we have a you know what everyone will acknowledge is a very contentious election coming up and and I think having spaces where kids can talk about these things you know as as peers with with trusted adults I think is is very important because I don't think it's lost on anyone at this table or in this room or watching at home you know the the state of global Affairs right now um you know not only the escalation today um but you can look at Ukraine what's happening in Israel what's happening in Gaza what's happening in Lebanon and those things aren't thousands of miles away right they are right geographically they are but that has an impact right here and I I think it is wonderful we have all these Mental Health
063Resources but I think we're we're hearing there's another need and and I think it it's important that it's a a listening space but that no one needs to feel that they have to have answers and it it's very hard because people come from different places but if the kids and adults can just talk about their concerns their observations what what they're feeling um because there aren't always answers but everyone can talk about what they're thinking or feeling yeah thank you and then I have one more question um also side plug a great way to use restorative practices there's something called listening circles and it could happen in every class so um my other question is for parents if I'm it's funny because I am a parent but I'm goingon to say hypothetically like if I'm
064a parent and I want to have these conversations with my kids at home and I don't know how um are there resources I can get from the district can I come is there is there just something like a a one pager to kind of help me get this these conversations started I think one of the things I I noticed with parents too is like we're dealing with things as well as they're happening and like in our own way and sometimes we might try our way of processing with our kids and it might not be the the right way or the way that they're being taught in school so is there are there resources for parents to kind of help bridge those gaps and have those conversations too especially because we really want to encourage those
065conversations happening at home so students can show up and um and and promote an inclusive environment yes yes thank you for that question short answer yes uh more explanation there's a letter that's going to be coming out from the state and I don't know if it's going to come from the governor's office or directly from the commissioner of Education uh that something that we're going to uh be asked they're either going to send it out directly or they're going to send it to school scho and ask schools to send it out that list uh some vetted resources to have these conversations and then I expect that we'll do some cascading uh communication so I was at a meeting last week where uh we got to see kind of a draft to that and talk about
066that plan thank you other questions or comments regarding our superintendent update quick clarus just a quick shout out to the Unified sports um I was there last night and I'm I'm guessing there were 60 maybe kids in the gym maybe 10 kids with special needs and 50 General kids the generally kids and they everyone was having a great time it it was so wonderful and it just it's great music they're having a ball it's just a wonderful program and I'm so glad they're getting the national recog they deserve thanks and I and I do an I should have said this when I was speaking um there'll be some kind of a I imagine some kind of a ceremony there's some sort of I believe a physical Banner that will come um but they they told
067us it might take uh several several weeks so once that comes I'm sure we'll we'll have some kind of a spotlight event to be able to celebrate them any other thoughts or comments just want to Echo once again again thank you so much for for speaking up yes we as a district are here to educate you but you were also helping us to learn and your voice is help in that regard so so glad you all here at the table thank you thank you and thank you for being receptive to that because it's important to receive information and respond accordingly so thank you very much and thank you for your update and so with that we now will go on to staff reports and board discussions where we shall receive the 2024 School sat results
068and we have teammates coming to the table so as they get settled I know you know Ann mckernin our um assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction she is joined by eileene Eustace who is our uh director of secondary education and uh also our testing coordinator for the district so um they've done amazing analysis on our school day sat and uh once they're once that projector pops open for them I'll turn the show over to them but in the meantime I'll try to fill the air with some comments e okay well good evening it's nice to see all of you and we are prepared to give our 2024 uh school day sat results presentation it's always great to have the students here because these are the children who took the test actually last March 20th I think
069it was you remember okay yes so we're gonna U um tonight we will give you some background and context to the the uh assessment we're going to spend a little more time on that tonight than we have in the past because there was a major revision this year and with that major revision brought some you know challenges I think to our students so we'll talk a little bit about that um we will um give you some you know hopefully a good overview of the results as well as comparisons to how the state and similar districts are doing with this assessment um we will go further into key subgroups so you can understand you know just not from the overall but down uh a little bit um a more discret level of how our children are
070doing we'll then follow that with some next steps things we're learning from this some key takeaways and open it up for questions and discussions but as always you can ask questions whenever you like so don't wait if you have a burning question um I'm going to turn over to Eileen Eileen is our director of secondary education our test coordinator doing a fabulous job and she's going to lead us through some of the um background of the test okay so good evening everybody so since 2016 we have used the school day sat to meet the federal accountability requirement prior to that we had a one year of esac and prior to that it was the cap testing which was administered in uh 10th grade so we actually were really pleased when they moved to the SAT
071because majority of students were taking the SAT anyway so um it it was great to be able to uh combine efforts on that it is a globally recognized College admissions test that meets the fedal law um again it was a substitute for another state assessment and it provides all 11th grade students one free assessment for college admissions and while there was a period of time where more and more schools were going test optional we're actually starting to see a bit of a swing back where schools are requiring uh the SAT so it's a really good opportunity for us to work with our students in preparation for the test so as far as the new version of the uh 2024 test it had moved to a digital platform and for a few years you had the
072option to continue with paper or to administer it digitally and then eventually they said no option you do need to administer it digitally so some of the advantages in relation to the new version of the test is that with a digital platform it does provide the uh faster results so we are seeing results coming in um even a little shy under two weeks um we've been noticing as the administrations of the test continues there are some accessibility options so there's a lot of uh Universal options that are available for all students uh digital tools that will help um and some of those examples include like uh the use of a highlighter a notepad an answer Eliminator where they can cross out answers that they know they're not going to select the ability to Mark items
073for review or you can flag questions that you want to skip and go back to um there is a built-in graphing calculator um now and a built-in timer that if you don't want to see the time you also have the option to hide it so those are just a few of the accessibility options the big component with the new test version is that it is now adaptive so in the past it was a fixed form where students were all provided with the same questions and what they've now done is they have moved to each test in literacy the literacy test in the math test has um and each of the they each have two tests and within those two tests there's two modules So within the module depending on how you do in the first
074module when you move to the second module if you're if you were doing well you may enter a module where you're now getting more difficult questions if you miss some questions you may enter a module where the level of difficulty is a little bit different so um that that really is a major shift in terms of that adaptive feature for the test it is a shorter test uh they did move to a shorter test previously that test was three hours and now it's just a little over two hours some of the um concerns that go along with the new version of the test um just some of the challenges we encountered is that uh just a lack of experience in terms of that digital testing platform it's a little different than um when students are
075taking the esack test because they will take that in third fourth fifth grade you know all the way through e8th grade so they have this continuous review and they also have some other opportunities to practice when you're taking the digital sat uh you do take that in 11th grade and fortunately we do offer a PSAT practice so they are going as with the digital platform there is more and more practice that is associated with the test as we continue to move forward and then just in terms of the familiarity with content and structure of the test so because of the the structure of the test changed a little bit that was new for the students and as far as the content while the content is generally the same I will say there's a shift in
076emphasis on some of the topics within the test that they're putting more emphasis on so maybe a little bit more geometry than there was in the past a little switching back on the literacy test a little heavier emphasis on vocabulary as well so that takes us to um just in terms of some of the content um you can see what some of the changes were in terms of a focus on the comprehension and concise expression a big change on the literacy test is that the passages are shorter so they range anywhere from 25 to 150 words and there's one question per passage so prior to that they were very long passages with multiple questions so students will move through um shorter passages with one question and they also embed uh non-fiction as well as informational
077text in the the literary components and also a strong emphasis on the understanding of central idea use of evidence and the synthesis of information in the math section um there's more emphasis on problem solving and data analysis and then a continued focus with algebra geometry and trigonometry and it did appear that there was a greater emphasis on Geometry and the nice thing about the math test is that you can use the calculator on both sections of the math te math test previously there was always one non-calculator section so it's nice that they are allowing students to use a calculator on both sections so hopefully you found that helpful and then next this just really summarizes some of the some of the things that are the same as well as some of the things that are
078um different so you'll see that the score range is still the same 400 to, 1600 for the total test score the test com and then you'll notice that the delivery method that changed so we were using a paper pencil test up through 2021 we moved to the fixed digital so our students have taken the sat in a digital format in 22 and 23 and now they're taking the Adaptive digital test you'll see that the number of questions there's far fewer there's 98 questions now the timing of the test and you can see the breakdown where they got to 3 hours previously and now we're at 2 hours and 14 minutes and the score reporting is significantly less the College and Career ready benchmarks do remain the same at this point thank you for that comprehensive
079overview and before I get into the results I can't help but look at Alexis and Sarah and say um you know I do feel for your class you were the kind of guinea pigs here taking going to a digital um adaptive test and not having a lot of practice on this exact uh uh environment before so you know just before we dive into the results any thought through for you guys and how that went I would say preparation I think was different than it would have been in past years I mean teachers were saying T us like we don't know what to expect tell us how it is afterwards we don't know like what this is going to be like um but I think there's going to be more resources coming out to help people
080prepare I mean you already noticed there's like more books geared towards the digital sat so I think that should be helpful um and with knowing what to expect this year but I think that was difficult last year thank you yeah I definitely agree with Sarah I think in the past our teachers have always kind of given us like in the week leading up to the test like passages like I know my English teacher would give us a passage to like practice with the SAT questions um and like our Math teachers would kind of put like these Challenge questions that are kind of sat related but I do agree like after we officially switched to the digital it was kind of up in the air on what to do so it was an experience yes I
081appreciate that um one second do appreciate that perspective because you know often there are multiple ways to practice for this whether you are seeking private tutoring or whether you're using KH Academy or whether you know you just have an older brother or sister has a book laying around um and this group didn't didn't have that Advantage um so you were you are Trailblazers and we'll learn from you and Ethan I think I saw your hand up apologize for the detour but you said there's two modules and the or the module you can go how do they do that from a scoring I just they I was trying to figure out how they that works so almost all of our tests are now adaptive the state test in for the the smarter balance is the same
082way so I don't know the the technology behind it but these companies have figured out ways that based on your previous answer you would get a question from another category so did you get more points if it's a harder yes it won't penal you know you you will end up with a higher score if you took more harder if you took harder the harder question route find that fascinating yeah no it is fascinating to think about it but when we all sat for the SAT we had pen and pencil and a lot of erasers and certain space between us and maybe dividers I don't know because you could you all the same questions and now these children are getting different questions as as they progress and U we're learning about it too to be quite
083honest we brought in professional developers last year to understand better and one of the things we found out is depending um how you get into your second module um you know if the first module is mostly medium level questions with some easy some hard but the mix medium if you do well on that the next module will be harder but your score will be higher for instance if you didn't get into the harder part of the second module we have heard and we have to do a little more research on this then it's harder to get a 600 on that test which is is relatively strong score but if you got into the harder module then you likely will get over a 600 thank so we're learning too but I'm I'm really happy to hear
084from the kids because um normally we can prepare them and help them so much and they really did this on their their own so we're going to move over to the results now um and what I have before you is the results of the last many many years in in this um I have a presentation to give you some numbers here but um this year in literacy we actually saw a nice bump and that is um very important to us because of the lack of preparation but um what you're going to see as we go through the data is a very similar pattern so what you'll see in this similar pattern is that we had before um the pandemic which is delineated by that that red line um four years before the pandemic and before
085the pandemic of course you know almost all the schools were not test optional most schools were test required the SAT which also put a little bit of extra reason to study for it uh on the students and then after the pandemic of course most schools went test optional um so we had we were fairly flat in literacy before the pandemic and um nearly 79% % our average um and then we saw a little dip after the pandemic followed by a second dip last year and a nice rebound this year so even though the test was new in literacy um we saw a nice rebound of uh four uh over four points almost Five Points which was uh a strong performance for students um and this was the overall for all students um but it's hard
086to understand these unless you see a greater context we have a new test we're in the post-pandemic era we know that the entire state has suffered from from this uh Interruption to education and so I'd like to put it in context for you with this slide um there's a lot on this slide so I want to walk us through a little bit here but one of the most important things we can say is in looking at all the districts around the state all of them and I looked at every one of them which is always fun to see how we do versus every one of the hund I don't know 75 80 School uh districts to look at we are in the top 20% for literacy which is quite phenomenal I think um and that's
087at the top bar the next bar I'd like to explain is um along the left-and column there we have the state results for the years 212 22 23 23 24 uh followed by um how they what is their average after the pandemic and what was their four-year average before the pandemic and what you can see here is that it's it's following a similar pattern there was a dip in 2223 followed by a rebound um in not only the state and in West Harford but dur b means similar this is about a group of 20 districts that are more common to West more like West Hartford so this uh the district reference group is what Durk stands for and it is uh it is a designation the state gave years ago when they tried to say
088well let's not compare an inner city school to a very rural School let's let's make groups of schools that are more alike and then compare those to each other and see how you do so durby schools are schools that are are more similar to West Hartford um and what you can see here is that whether it was the state West Hartford or durby um everyone seemed to have a little bit of a dip at after in 2223 and rebound but what I like about West harford's performances we we rebounded very strongly last year and I'd also like to point out at the very bottom here where we say 85.4 91.9 and 90.7 that's a percentage of uh recovery we've had to get to where we were pre pandemic so our percentage of recovery is higher
089than like districts and higher than the state and although we'd like to see where we were prior to the pandemic when you add in the factor of a new test a new environment students who hadn't seen this or been able to practice with it um I think we did quite well so congratulations to you to as two of the 600 plus testers that we had okay I'll pause and go over to the math results and there'll be a little bit different pattern but again the pattern will be similar for math uh not similar to literacy but it will follow the similar pattern for the dur and the state and here we have our math results and what you saw here is um after we came off the pandemic we had a dip we had a
090little bit of an improvement but we've had a more significant fall in math and that was kind of concerning to me especially when the results first came in I was like wow this math math result is significantly lower than I would have expected not not six points but a healthy dip so I was wondering what was happening but again it's important to go to the broader level to see really what's happening again a new test now we have the math you know the math in a online in a in an Adaptive environment we don't know what influence those factors have but when we do go to the same kind of chart we see West her is performing in the top 12% of all this districts in the state of Connecticut in math which is quite
091impressive although we had the dip um you will see that the state also did and the dur also did in fact both uh the dur took a little bit more of a dip than we did from 2020 um from last year to this year and overall we have recovered 93% of our pre-pandemic uh scor so although I think when uh when when the scores were first coming in I was looking at I like oh geez I I wonder what's behind these numbers because you see these numbers at first and you're either very happy or you're or they're flat and you're wondering what you can do better or they're down and you're like wow you know did something happen but in looking at the overall picture actually the top 12% is is a very very strong
092performance um I would like to also point out that although we're often compared to other dur be schools we tend to have a much higher elll level than all those dur schools maybe our proximity to a core City uh we have a much higher free and reduced lunch rate than almost all dur B schools um at 26% and most of the dur B schools are average more like 177% so um the performance is really strong given that we are recovering faster from the pandemic than our peers I can stop there because that's a lot of information even to yeah I wanted to just punctuate what you what you shared um because Ann did some exceptional analysis on this and my question question um to her and eileene as we watch over time is given the
093the change in the test format is this a new essentially is this a new Benchmark or a new Baseline I guess I should say because what's what's fascinating about uh the results itself when we look at that uh bar graph on the previous slide um it appears that to to be a performance dip in actuality um at the higher levels of performance in the previous years we were we were in the top 20% of schools across the state when you look at our dip that measure of performance is in the top 12% of schools so it's so it's a significant increase in context and it suggests the potential uh that that that that this past Year's result might be a new Baseline that it might just be uh a greater challenge similarly with literacy we
094were previously in the top 25% of schools and our score this year in literacy we're in the top 20% Which is uh information that an shared the report so um it's it's a very sort of a it's a very sort of an interesting uh thing that perhaps the year-over-year comparison that we're so accustomed to may or may not be as relevant and so I was appreciative for her to really take a solid look at the performance across the entirety of the state and I could just add to that um you know when 2122 came we were thought we were thinking is this a new Baseline right is this our new Baseline but no one wanted to accept that as a baseline because it was a sign ific decrease from where we had been and we
095knew that it was um heavily impacted by the break from school you know students were home and the engagement issues that we know the chronic absenteeism that followed we know we were suffering from from that um so it's a valid question do we have a new Baseline now because we have a new format a new test format and we' we've been out from the pandemic a few years so we'll we'll we'll take that into consideration is our new Baseline a threeyear measure the last three years or or uh is 2324 a real new Baseline with a new assessment uh Ethan and CLA I'm not sure what your hand up first so I was just curious just for the process and I realiz sat is doing this if everybody dropped and assuming state of Connecticut is
096reflective of the country would they there wasal drop bring the Baseline back up or just stay with where the Bas I think we'll just stay with the results the way they are in a you know adjust to them but there was also I didn't say this but I looked at the national and the global results and there were were drops they don't report them in terms of percentage of students meeting The Benchmark they report them in terms of the mean score but there were significant drops in the mean score at the national assum Connecticut would be reflective of the Yeah country thank you clear um would would the results of the curriculum shift that you're doing in math where you're combining algebra algebra and geometry where they were every other year and you're put you're
097combining them together would any of that have a effect or is that coming after the results of this um it's a great question it's I'll say this much I think uh we have more analysis to do it's it's confounded a little bit by the fact that you know we change the variable of the order of the curriculum and then the College Board uh changed the variable of the format of the T so we've we've got some more sort of uh looking that needs to happen in order to say what you know what's the cause and what's the effect but a good question uh overall I mean I would say um I'll take I'll take an optimistic view uh we jumped eight points in our standing we we exceeded the dur in terms of um our
098overall performance this year um so you know their drop was more our drop was less you know we we outperformed uh so my My Hope and my expectation is that given that when when we look at it in that context and everybody else you know has the same challenge of a brand new test format what do we have that's different from what they did potentially the re the resequencing of some of our curriculum I I'll take that as a optimistic first first sign that uh that that was a positive shift but but that changes in its infancy because wasn't it just a year ago so you're not very far into that change right and I I do have a senior but I'll I'll check myself I believe uh that change happened two years ago so
099that the children who took um honors geometry in 9th grade took Algebra 2 in 10th Grade correct honors Algebra 2 that was the sequence so that was that was the last year so when you guys were in 10th grade was so that was two years ago yeah so Paul's absolutely right we have many variables we dropped a little bit less than other than the dur which is similarly um you know similar districts although I will not say again just so you guys make sure you hear this is we're similar but there's no dur B school that has almost high 20% free and reduce launch population or as high of eel population as we do so um our predecessor Tom Moore would say that over and over again and it always stuck with me so I
100say it again here um Jason I'm sorry I'm G to be in danger of oversimplifying this but it it seems to me that this really isn't you really can't compare year overy year because this isn't Apples to Apples correct in fact it's not it sounds like it's not just a different format but the the test is actually different in substance as well so yeah um but what I do take from the numbers is I think it uh supports other data we've seen from testing that we are doing well at rebounding from the pandemic yeah we absolutely would like to be fully back at 100% or more and we we will strive for that um but uh yes you are absolutely right and um and and the other change is pre pandemic to now I I
101don't think it's lost on anyone that kids talk all the time are you submitting your scores colleges talk all the time are you submitting your SCH this is a big decision right you know um I have a of a senior this year too we're having those discussions all the time do you want to take another test do you want to submit your scores do you want to submit them to some schools so in the past it was it was more clearcut you were going to submit these scores and so you really had this this extra you know uh I I don't want to say pressure but reason to to work on this test so these these children had you know definitely a different situation with a test they didn't know and you know reasons to
102submit or not submit a score are you guys going through that now as you think about your schools okay yes Shannon so um I have to say I'm kind of relieved that there was sort of an Level Playing Field of not knowing what the test was because then everybody is in the same place I I have a strong opposition to the fact that so many students have access to resources that let them prepare for a test that other students don't um so I think that's actually a more realistic indication of the preparation that the school system has provided for the students um I'd also like to put more of an existential view on this in that uh and I West harford's certainly not alone in this but there's 27% in the threeyear average who are
103not at Benchmark for uh literacy and 44% not at Benchmark for Math and I keep thinking if we give any Credence to College and Career Readiness Benchmark of of what this is a measure of and those students are not at that at 11th grade like what I you know I I think we can feel good about our comparative to other districts and to the state but seeing the forest for the trees like we're still not cutting it correct uh so what are we doing you know I don't know that you have an answer to this but um and I see districts that are way further away from being at that Benchmark but how do we kind of see pull back and say like what how do we think about changes to sequences that get students
104closer and closer to closing that Gap especially when we start looking at the subgroups yes and and I'm glad you let finish with that because these are the overall and subgroups will have even more challenges and as we were putting this together Eileen and I were talking about this the overall story in terms of comparisons are good but there is much there's a ways to go and you're going to see that in the upcoming slides and we'll talk about some next steps to address um some of the concerns that you have related to that okay so um I'm going to look at the high need students now and our high need students are our students just remind you these are students who fall into any one of three categories and these are the categories of
105if you're an eel student if you are students um with speal a student receiving who with disabilities a special education student or if you have free or reduced lunch so if you have any one of those you fall into a a super category called high need students because there are many challenges for our high need students and our high need students um followed the same pattern where after the pandemic there was a drop then I'm sorry there was a drop off from from pre-pandemic then there was a drop in 22 in literacy and then a nice rebound this year but as Shannon pointed out there are more than 50% of our high need students who are not College and Career ready in literacy um and it's similar here in that in literacy uh we slightly
106lag the state actually in comeback so we need to it's very close obviously uh part of a percentage point but um we are we talk about high need students a lot we talk about strategies with our high need students quite a bit um our high need students who receive free and reduced lunch that is not known to our teachers that is not um an indicator they would know or see they would know if a child receives um Isel or if a child is special education needs or they don't know anything about our fre who is free to reduced and who is not but regardless there are strategies that um that are important to to use with these children and um and with all because your point is really well taken in this particular group less
107than half of the students are meeting the College and Career ready benor so we can be proud of the fact that we're Wellhead of the state because we are uh but we are not where we want to be with that um in math it's a similar story there was a little bit of an increase and then a fairly significant decrease here um but what I want to point on this slide is I'd like to point out the four-year preand mic trend for our high need students and Paul was working on this with me at the time and we were quite proud of the fact that for four years in a row we were making some good gains now uh going from 20 to about 35% is significant in four years although 35% is not where
108you want to be um but we liked that Trend and we liked what we were seeing there because we thought if we could continue that so as we restart this new Baseline we'd like to uh look at uh very closely we've been making some Chang changes already in in some of our decision making on how much intensive math support some of our kids are getting and how much is appropriate I'm starting in the Middle School um that was a change we made that wouldn't directly affect the SAT now but might affect the results later clar so in 2015 that was an all day um sat for all 11th graders it was a it was a paper and pencil full test which was over 3 hours and if you had extended time it was longer and
109all kids with IEPs and special needs except for maybe intensive kids 1% yeah okay yeah all of our special uh education students take the SAT unless they have unless they have qualify for the um alternative test and that is 1% as well e kids that can't read engl or read English yes y it's it's everybody so I mean it's not keeping any one group to the side and saying you don't need to test so that that is one of the you know the reasons why you see some of the results um the comparison here when we look at the rebound again Shannon's Point has to be taken very seriously because close to 75% of the students are not at College and Career ready Benchmark in this category now we certainly are recovering faster than the
110state but Eileen said this earlier in our meeting she's like this you know this is UN this is so sad that we have so many of our students who have these needs who are so the percentage is so far away from what you would hope um so lots to do but I go back to this slide where I think we were starting to get some in the pre pandemic some of the decision making we had I think was resulting in some real good outcomes for our high need students in math and we'd like to uh you know again revisit what we were doing and see if we can recreate that I want to just piggyback just one comment um that in no way shape or form detracts from our our mission to continue to uh
111be able to raise the bar for for all students and there students within our high needs category but I I do want to make sure that as we throw around that phrase College and Career ready because that's a phrase we use quite a bit in education and it's something that we're committed to and that we deeply believe in that when students graduate West Harford public schools that they are legitimately College and Career ready um the college and curity Benchmark on the SAT uh that was recraft in around this time I believe in 20156 and it equates to um a probability that a student will be able to earn a b or better in the Freshman uh College course in that subject area something close to that if I messed it up a little bit um
112so you know it it at the end of the day if if I'm talking about high needs population I'm talking about as as as you referenced a student who's still carrying the moniker of an English learner still working on their language proficiency um it's a tall order to necessarily expect that uh that that student might necessarily in two years time um be earning a b or better in a college you know literature class uh whereas uh are we able to equip them with the skills um definitely the language proficiency uh habits of mind and all of the rest to enable them to be college and graduate by the time that they graduate to have the opportunity to uh to continue their education or be successful in the workforce so I I just I don't want
113us to um to have uh any you know the the college creative Benchmark is still something I very much strongly strongly believe in uh but at the same time I don't want it to be the only measure of what it means to be College and Career ready when we're talking about uh the multiple Pathways for for all different students um Latoya um yeah so just along that because that was the question I had is um are you seeing a correlation between this data and then like students grades and overall performance because I also know like I mean for myself I didn't do well on standardized tests but I was a straight A student so um when you see you know students it may look like they're not you know on the standard on the test
114like how how does that look in relation to their grades and their overall performance do y'all see a parallel in that do you see some change I mean all of those factors are really really important and um and obviously um I think it's really important just to reiterate Paul is saying this is a high Benchmark it is not a low Benchmark especially the math is very very uh high and I say that because I think there's less variability in what college math is than than there's variability in what a college English class is so there might be great flexibility in what college English is so The Benchmark of a 480 is still significantly rigorous but 530 in math is really a first year college math course and so that is a very high standard so
115there's so much to take into account and that's why you know some of Shannon's comments of of you know this test in many ways was good because there was less preparation by every was more of a Level Playing Field and the fact that colleges and most are still staying um test optional although we have heard especially of the more rigorous colleges returning to the the standard but you know child's complete package is what's really important to us it is it is not any one score we report on it because it is it's a federal accountability measure it's a good measure but it is one of many Jason um so if we look at the the pandemic Red Line yeah uh and and the you know the amazing growth that you're seeing pre pandemic are there
116things that we were doing then that we stopped doing I either because of the pandemic or otherwise well I think a couple things you know there's a million possibilities here but one of the possibilities if I talk to you about chronic ABS ISM for high need students you're going to see numbers in the 30% and you're not going to see that for the non-high need students you're going to see more like it was high for non-h high need students it was high for everybody but it was more in the 10 or 15% and for these particular subgroups these were in the 33% for students with disabilities for students in free and reduced lunch so I'm sure that was just one of many factors not the only one what we want to get down to is
117what was the programming we were doing prepandemic did we make any change to that and look at that because that's something we can control now we have put a great deal of effort into Crown absenteeism and we've actually seen a really good drop last year and hopefully continue this year but that's just like one of the factors when I look at this this particular group that that I know they weren't there a good third of them missed more than 10% of school and that was very it was scary to look at those numbers cuz we were already disappointed on our overall and then when you dug deep into each group you're like wow this is really significant kids are missing a lot a lot of school a lot of instruction I'd say one of the
118other changes that I want to highlight um during that period of time from 2015 16 through 201819 um just relative to our work within instructional strategies we we had a very deliberate very very specific plan dramatically interrupted between 2021 22 when we just weren't in school and uh or just had returned to school in 2223 last year where we were kind of coming back to it but still feeling a lot of the behavioral stuff um Ann and Eileen and the whole team in the curriculum office has done an amazing amount of work over the last two years but really uh with significant emphasis this year getting back to those instructional strategies having a coherence plan um akin to what we were doing even better from from those four years of growth excuse me take a
119moment take a moment um so as I said we we are seeing a stronger rebound but well very far to go here um students of color you want to get some water we'll let Paul talk okay um our students of Color Group is our students who are black Hispanic or two or more races and um you can see the results similar to what I've been showing this is results in literacy um there uh was uh a little bit of a drop last year and like the other literacy results I'll rebound this year but one of the highlights here and I always want to be careful when I point out any one or two groups because the the overall nend for these groups is not as large you know so that there may be only 50
120to 100 kids in in in a subgroup here where there might there's 600 or 700 total in the group but the um both of Black and Hispanic part of that subgroup in literacy really had very strong performance this year going up more than the district did in literacy when I looked at the actual numbers which I have here um that was a very nice performance from those two groups the two race Group which usually does extremely well had a little bit more of a drop this year which is uncommon uh we don't haven't seen that in the pass as much but um it was nice to see our black and uh Hispanic students really outperform the overall growth of the district this year which was nice although as Shannon is pointing out and keep in
121mind we still have about 50% of our kids not there and that's that is not lost on us um looking at the recovery it is um a similar Trend you see slightly better than the state back towards um you know pre-pandemic averages but um but a long way to go uh in math um similar type of thing we saw a slow but increase a slow but steady increase in the group prior to pandemic this group of uh black Hispanic and turmer race students uh nice low but increase over four years and then like the overall math results we saw um a dip and then a second dip here uh although the dip for Black and Hispanic students this year was actually smaller than the overall District dip so so that was an interesting pickup we
122saw there and here um this group is making stronger gains towards um recovering but recovery uh pre pandemic was 31% so uh still a lot to do moving on to our next step I'm going go back to i e here so some of our NE some of our next steps in terms of addressing uh student growth um in relation to the our performance on Sat is that our teachers are primarily n9th and 10th grade course courses are meeting in professional learning communities and we worked with the high schools to have that time built into the school schedule so that they are meeting on a regular basis and this provides them an opportunity to really closely examine student performance data in a collaborative setting and it also the other thing that we're really pushing in terms
123of the PLC work is looking at formative data and providing opportunities for practice for students and then examining that data so that we can intervene and provide the supports that are needed for students and that ties in with a second next step is that we are working we are providing more practice opportunities related to PSAT and sat across multiple content areas in grades 9 through 11 so we had a team of department leaders as well as teachers come together this summer and actually look at what types of practice opportunity ities could we build into our coursework over 9 through 11 and you'll students will see opportunities in English math science and social studies so for example in social studies um sat will have students looking at questions related to infographic so they're picking up a
124lot of practice in that area because it aligns very well with that curriculum they'll be doing work with informational tax you know in the ELA in the English classes they'll be doing more of the work in terms of um rhetorical analysis um and the English conventions the standards of English conventions so um and then the other thing too that um as a group we talked about that we'll be working with teachers on and this was presented to all high school teachers is this focus on high leverage test strategies that will benefit all students across a variety of Assessments so at the end of the day these are really good practices anytime you're sitting down for any type of assessment things like doing a close reading of the question elimination of answers pacing using available tools
125and resources to help in terms of determining the correct answer so again the SAT it's a really important measure because if you think about the skills that we're asking students to um perform on that particular assessment that's it's reading it's writing related to communication as well as important math skills so it really does all work together but I do want to concur that there are definitely other measures but because our students this is an important assessment for our students we do feel it's important to provide increased practice opportunities built into our curriculum so that all students have an opportunity to um have have opportunities to practice and um be exposed to the the platform and um there's a lot of research that shows the more that you're practicing and the more exposure you have to
126the platform the the better students will do so if I'm not wrong the PSAT digital the PSAT is digital I just looked up today and it actually is it's going to follow the Adaptive format this year as well that'll give us a good um alignment now as well unlike Sarah and Alexis when they take the the ne the future classes will be able to practice with a PSAT that's adap as well as digital versus I know isn't that not fair right they didn't get that practice but we will continue to embed resources as they become available new new practice opportunities and and the PSAT alone will give them that H sorry I think it died oh we'll go between us I and one other thing I do want to mention is that we do offer
127SAT practice at both schools for students um we do that typically after the first of the year and we actually collected some data and even though it was a small sample group we had data that supported that the more students went the the higher their score was the more that their score um improved over time which was great we look to expand that program yes you mentioned that um absences was a negative factor in the uh performance have you done looked at that statistically and been able to measure just you know the different at 10% 20% or whatever I have not done a deep dive but I've done a dive enough to say this subgroup yeah um had this chronic absentee level which was much higher and then looking at performance but hasn't gone deeper
128than that surface level of the subgrade identify how bad impact because obviously I think it makes a lot of sense yeah in yeah the student's best interest to show up but that's one way to show up show up that that was you know that just can't be underestimated is being there and being present being engaged in school I agree thank you um so key takeaways from our learning were that the new version provides an opportunity to set a new Baseline as Paul said we think this this could be considered a new Baseline we like a little bit more information first um we are performing well um which you know as I said when the results first came in I I was a little hesitant especially in the math but then after a lot of digging
129and downloading of all the state test data that is available and there's a lot of it available um and then looking at at the changes I was I really was a little pleasantly surprised um that we had done so well and credit to you guys and your classmates because uh you you certainly went in with uh less practice than most um we're doing strong in terms of P pandemic recovery strong in relation to both the state and the dur and um we're we're at that level or higher than in almost every category but as you guys very intelligent group of people point out we've got a long way to go especially with our subgroups and that is our mission really is to make sure that every child has that opportunity to have reers courses um
130and that's what a lot of our work to look at our math sequencing what we had done pre pandemic we had done some really good work on instruction and I think we had made some key decisions and we saw results so we'd like to replicate those um we were going to continue to work on having kids in school sending those messages which are so different from a couple years ago should I come to school yes should I come if I'm coughing yes unless you have a fever yes you should be coming to school and also not only coming to school but coming to class because those can be two different things in high school I know that's funny but it's true in fact you know little side note there's a new system this year called
131smart pass and it helps the kids understand how much class time they're missing because uh they we can look up how many passes are you asking for in a day and how often are you out of that have you seen that system yes you have so um discussion I know you've had some time to ask some questions but feel free um I just had a question so this is a everyone can take it in everyone takes it in 11th grade if you choose to retake or is that an option how does that work what is the cost do you see a change in score is there how often I mean how does that work if you say I don't like my score I want to take it again and and and let many many students
132do so we offer the free one-time school day sat program in 11th grade and then if students want to take it again they sign up for a Saturday test and I think there's about seven Saturday opportunities in the United States and maybe six internationally and students sign up and we have test centers Conor and Hall are both a test Center not in every single Administration but probably on like five of the seven and students take those have you guys taken Saturday SATs right and students will retake and often they will do better with practice um over time um they can retake as many times as they want even students who are applying right now to college who seniors might decide I want one more chance and I'm going to take the uh there's an October
133sat I believe uh and in November I believe as well so they take them on Saturdays generally at their own cost uh they're are fee waivers through the SAT if you are free and reduced lunch uh but uh it's just one time if for any reason you were in 11th grade twice you don't take it twice you only take this one free school day sat and they are coming out with more and more support materials so for example college board has two full digital practice Tex tests on their website that is open and available to anybody that wants to take it all students would have to do is they can get the blue app um which is available for any student to download and KH Academy is a free resource KH Academy is a free
134resource they were a little behind in terms of the connection with the new format of the test but I actually was just in a state seminar the other day that talked about um that KH Academy is catching up which is great other questions or thoughts or suggestions other feedback all right well thank you so very much I do want to just make my my often uh piece when you refer to this information thank you very much again for being very clear in describing High needs uh and ensuring that I many times there is a temptation to put a racial or ethnic element into that and appreciate how it's recognized that it pertains to um language and socioeconomic status and disability and when you extract out the social economic status that you see quite a a
135range in variability and performance pertaining to race and ethnicity so that that is absolutely true absolutely true and I want to thank my co-pilots here Alexis and Sarah for actually chiming in and giving a little bit of the student perspective because this was definitely uh um it's needed to see what they what they experienced this year taking it so helps us to understand so thank you absolutely we Echo the things thank you both so very much watch your heads yes as you stand and as we continue on with the agenda we now will 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 September the 17th 2024 is there a motion I move to
136approve thank you Claire is there a second second thank you Latoya discussion or suggested edits all of those in favor say I I I any oppose any abstain abstain thank you the eyes have it moving on to information and reports board members do we have any Communications or reports from other boards seeing none any other information or or discussions seeing none moving on to Future business where we have announcement of future meeting dates our next meeting will be Tuesday October the 15 15th here in room 3:14 at 700 p.m. followed by Wednesday November the 6th 2024 once again that is Wednesday November the 6th 2024 here in room 3:14 at 700 p.m. followed by Tuesday November the 19th 2024 7 p.m. here in room 3:14 do we have a request for any future agenda items
137seeing none do we have any visitors who would like to make a comment comment seeing none we do not have an executive session therefore seeking a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Jason is there a second second thank you Shannon the meeting adjourned at e e e