001e for for good evening and calling the meeting to order welcome to the West Hartford Public Schools regular Board of Education meeting it is Tuesday September the 24th Charlotte may you please call the the role Mr gagman Jason say one more time Mr Gagner present remotely Mr Goldman here Dr Harris here miss maramon Mrs nazarella present Dr Thomas farus here Mrs yagaloff present student representative Sarah granquist present and student representative Alexis newor present thank you 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 for all thank you we do not have a revision to the agenda order and now it is time for public
002Communications this is an opportunity where we're able to hear from you your thoughts your questions your concerns and your suggestions each individual is allowed 3 minutes to speak and we ask for you to please come to the podium and 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 with this being the second meeting of the month we are listening or rather receiving comments on agenda items only and for the purpose of our awareness tonight's agenda items include revision of policies 4011 and 5691 as a first reading Safety and Security update Personnel actions and approval of the September 3rd Board of Education minutes we have a list here and I'll start
003with those who have signed up on the list and we have Addie listed Eddie West Harford I'm here to talk about safety on September 9th and 10th I walked my daughter to the intersection of Park and South Main she's a new Sedwick student there was no crossing guard present at all I sent in a request for information as to why there was no crossing guard and what happened and would there be a crossing guard uh if you're not aware South Main and park there have been two fatalities one further up at Farmington and park it is a four lane road that it cannot not carry the traffic that's there as it is it is extremely dangerous um I sent my request for information to Mr deny and to the Board of Education members and to
004the superintendent Mr deny forwarded my concerns to the whpd as apparently crossing guards fall under uh the police I did not hear from the superintendent's office and I only heard today from Dr farinon who said uh it was being handled by the other entities and she hoped I had an answer very flowery uh language and no substance and the first time she's ever answered any of my concerns when I've emailed on the 11th of September uh there was a crossing guard an officer there who took a few steps in towards the intersection when the walk sign came on did not go into the center of it my daughter went to cross and somebody blew a red light luckily I had seen it coming and I told her to stop before she got any further you're
005talking about the safety of our students we have three lawsuits right now two for deaths of children and one for a sexual assault of an Esau student in those court documents it shows that there is a lack of following policies and procedures in fact there is statement stating that school officials did not do what they should have done for the child who was sexually assaulted and prohibited a an exam of that child you want to talk about safety you can't even guarantee that there's a crossing guard that is going to be there every day to craft our children safely back and forth to to school you cannot keep them safe in the school you are failing I have not heard from the superintendent's office about this matter I heard from you today Dr farinon and
006everybody wants to pass the book these are our children we are all responsible and we come to you with concerns and problems and you pass the book you do not address them you do not have our children's safety in mind you do not care it is very very apparent and it's about time you did and everybody's going to sit at that table and tell you the policies and procedures we have in place and how good we're doing and how fantastic we're doing I'm the only speaker you can give me a minute excuse me your time is expired thank you take your job seriously thank you that was the only person listed on the paper here is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment we shall pause on Public Communication now moving
007on to now non-staff Communications and reports and this is where we're able to hear from our student Representatives what is happening within their schools before we do that want to formally welcome our student representative Alexis Nan who had a design here last the last meeting because she was rightfully being a wonderful student and a student athlete so she was attending to that task and we're so glad that she's here today so want to say again welcome welcome Alexis and of course Sarah welcome to you once again Sarah may you please share with us what's happening at Hall so over at Hall things are pretty much back in full swing all of our Sports Seasons are underway and the first Hall Conor event will be this Saturday with girls soccer we have two new head coaches
008this year Ellie Tate coaching field hockey and Steve Mary coaching football our first football game was Friday night which was well attended and in general there are many different sports practices and games going on every day after school in school college visits where a representative from a college comes to speak with students started last week at Hall and there have been 13 College visits already and we have many more scheduled over the next few months last week we also had auditions for our fall musical which is The Adams Family and Hall's unified theater production has started as well we are looking forward to our annual curriculum night event tomorrow parents are invited to Hall where they will follow the their students schedules and meet with each of their teachers in time blocks that model the
009eight periods of the school day our select Orchestra and choir cisi and corers will be performing in the hallway at this event during passing time we also recently had three seniors that were recognized as National Merit semi-finalists which means that these three students scored in the top 1% of Connecticut seniors who took the PSAT last October thank you Alexis sharing about connard hi everyone my my name is Alexis as you know and I'm glad to finally meet you all I'd like to thank herel Elli for filling in this position at the last meeting and during and doing an amazing job furthermore on the behalf of the Conor student body I'd like to thank our administrative team teachers coaches parents and all other members of the Conor faculty and staff for accommodating the students and helping
010us adjust to the new school year we've had an outstanding start to the year and cannot emphasize enough how much of that is because of you all thank you with that being said as continue to move through the school year Connor has many exciting events coming up first of all our curriculum night will also be held tomorrow on September 18th at 6:30 p.m. we invite all parents to attend this night where you are able to meet all of your students teachers and learn more about their school day additionally Connor is hosting a financial aid night which will be held virtually at 6:30 p.m. on Monday September 30th on the topic of colleges we would like to mention that the college fair for both connard and Hall will be held again in the connard cafeteria this
011year on October 9th at 6:30 p.m. if available students should stop by to learn more about various colleges that they may be interested in lastly while this is not fun for everyone we want to remind students that PSAT testing will occur during the school day on Thursday October 10th in addition to these events Conor has brought the smart pass system over to our school as well for those that do not know what that is it is a way for students to initiate their own passes to their desired location on a laptop or kiosk then Hall monitors are able to access all the passes and keep everything flowing smoothly during the school day outside of all of these in school activities Conor students are involved with many things outside of the school day such as various
012clubs and sports this week clubs such as the Conor current environmental Club service Club different stem clubs and many others have begun their work for the year our improv troop parachute even has their first performance in the Black Box on Thursday um we are so excited to see what everyone has accomplished by the end of the year additionally Conor sport have been going strong with our first home football game being this Friday we want to congratulate both boys and girls volleyball teams from 2023 to 2024 for obtaining a national recognition for academics from the American volleyball coaches association furthermore we'd like to formally welcome coach Greg Smedberg as our new head coach of boy soccer lastly our first matchup against Hall will be this Saturday at Hall for our girls soccer team so we wish
013them good luck in go Red Wolves finally I wanted to take this time to recognize the importance of national Suicide Prevention month which will be taking place during the month of September at Connor there will be several activities revolving around National Suicide Prevention month as we believe that it is a time to raise awareness about suicide prevention and to bring out hope sorry I even just learned that in case of a mental health emergency an individual can call or text 988 and there will be someone waiting to help them we will be doing a yellow ribbon campaign at the end of the month to further emphasize its importance thank you thank you both Alexis and Sarah thank you now moving on to unfinished business which we do not have any of so we shall proceed
014to new business where we first have a motion by by Lura Thomas farguson Gail Harris and Jason gagan to accept revised and new policies as a first reading therefore seeking a motion that the Board of Education accept as a first reading the following revised Title 9 policies which were reviewed by the board policy subcommittee those being Personnel series 4,000 4011 prohibition of sex discrimination and student series 5000 5691 prohibition of sex discrimination is there a motion so moved thank you Gail is there a second second thank you Claire discussion and so thank you so much Dr merrow for being before us and teammates just as an intro as we know that with our policies there are many policies that we formulate within our district and there are also many ones that we adhere to because
015they are required federally or Statewide in terms of statutory laws and regulations and the ones before us today fall in that category however it is important for us to review what this entails and if I may say and Dr M please correct me if I'm wrong because these are policies that we legally are required to adhere to our district has already been following suit in that regard so by us reviewing these these policies as just a first reading we will come for a second reading to formally vote on them however our district is following suit in following these policies this is a way for us to ensure that we are keeping up to date with our documentation and doing so and so with that Dr mura will pass to you no you're you're absolutely correct
016with that and and i' also point out as we talked a little bit about this really substantially doesn't change how we provide a safe and inclusive environment in Connecticut for our staff and for our students Connecticut has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to uh protection of individual rights and this really isn't much of a change about how Connecticut districts are doing business while it may be for other parts of the country um but as you mentioned the new rules did go to an effect uh at a federal level on August 1st and so we've been following this and uh are mandated to follow this uh since August 1st and so this is just this is just a really paperwork catching up with with the legal foundations that we have to operate
017under thank you questions comments Jason and then Claire not Jason Ethan Jason I'm calling you pardon me Ethan and then Claire um I'm not sure who to direct the question to but as as I'm reading because there was a lot of uh edits in ads what is the purpose of the change so really what it is is it's um um it's addressing how schools must respond to sex discrimination and sexual harassment which is now called sex-based harassment under the under the new guidance and it provides a broader jurisdiction uh before Title 9 previously only applied to conduct that occurred in the school's program or activity and now applies to off-campus activity if the school has what's called disciplinary Authority for that process uh in Connecticut it can mean that conduct that happens off campus if
018there's a significant Nexus or impact at school that can be u considered falling under Title 9 regulations for that it gives a broader scope uh broader definition of sex discrimination and sex-based harassment so more conduct is considered under Title Nine uh discrimination on the basis of sex includes includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy related condition sexual orientation gender identity uh it expands of protections for lgbtq uh plus individuals but Connecticut again as I mentioned has had these protections for for a long time so it's not a new change for Connecticut there uh it refers now the regulations refer now to sex-based harassment not sexual harassment and the definition of sex-based harassment continues to have three types a hostile environment quidd proquo and specific offenses such as assault violence uh domestic
019violence stalking and and so um more one of the big changes for school districts is that there's a streamlined process and responding to complaints is now more streamlined where in the past uh we've had investigations and complaints that have gone on for for almost a full year uh as far as an investigation goes this is now a more a streamlined process school districts can adop adopt one process for uh for investigation rather than separate procedures and uh we can also have a a unified process where one person or a team of person can conduct the investigation and make the decision in the past you had to have separate investigators you had to have separate uh decision makers and so we would often times contract with other people outside of the district to be different components
020in the investigation so I'm still confused to the reason but I thought I also read that this has if it's right the person being accused doesn't have the right to defend themselves no or doesn't get me to see their accuser there's no interaction to be accused I I don't I don't have an answer for that but again it's I I don't have an answer for that and maybe it's for the future for policies if we could have something to say this is why're the change is being made because there's a lot of additions and deletions well no I understand that the reason I mean ultimately the reason why the changes are being made is because we're mandated to follow the federal law and that's why the changes that's why the every District in Connecticut had
021to make the same changes is that was also told that this one isn't federally it's being there's injunctions against it as well there are injunctions by other states that uh have that are against this Connecticut does not have that I understand but it's still going through the judicial process in other states we're obligated to start following it as of August 1st I'm good for now Claire um I I noticed a lot of the changes are are very similar and and easily replaced by the similar words but the one change that just seemed a little strange is on page three uh after the word sex discrimination the word hire is crossed out and it says sex descript Iration occurs when an employer refuses to hire discipline or discharge and then when it's Rewritten it says sex
022discrimination occurs when a person because of a person's sex do you know why hires is no longer in there and I'm just wondering why it it's only within the school district it's not for people outside that are being brought in what do you mean being brought in I don't well sex discrimin does they're saying it's not for anyone that's being hired by the district it's only for people I I might be able to answer Andy she's at the um the second paragraph on on page three I I would I would just have you read a little further Claire so it says under the old language occurs when an employer refuses to hire comma or disciplines or discharges an individual or otherwise discriminate so it's sort of painting this blanket with all those words and in
023the new language it's more concise language uh and simply says sex discrimination occurs when a person is denied participation in or benefits of a program so it's it's just kind of casting a blanket instead of having these discreet uh separate characterizations do you have a follow-up question or no it just it it seems like you're taking out the The non- Hired people in the changes I don't think that's the case okay I don't I don't well thank you no that's all right go ahead Gil um yeah Andy I had just a couple of questions um one is I I didn't exactly understand what the difference and this my be just my own ignorance but what is the difference between the two policies they seemed like very very similar one applies to to staff and Personnel
024one applies to students the only difference we have to have separate policies uh in Connecticut based on on how the law is written for that okay and then I my second question is you talked about off campus I I would just like a little bit more clarity to this does that mean like if somebody's doing something in the park with their friends has nothing to do with school then that can be now pulled into a school into this policy the way that Connecticut has always defined off campus activity and a District's um relationship to off-campus activity is something called a legal Nexus is how they've used it and the language really is whether or not there is an impact or disruption significant disruption to the educational process is is how they've always classically defined that
025and so by extending it for that if there is an activity um that occurs say at a um at a a party somewhere that causes a Cascade or a significant impact or a significant connection to a school or to uh to uh the district from that that could be considered under that because there is then that extension to that whereas in the past it had to be at an activity that was school sponsored say a a dance or an athletic event or something like that this just broadens it to uh to really anything that then comes into our schools could be considered a Nexus for that and that's the way that the the discipline and the Connecticut statute has always defined it piggyback just question for you Andy uh so that matches am I correct
026to our uh to our policies regarding alcohols and drugs bullying and all the other polic it's just basically saying that um that if it happens outside of our building but still impacts the students and the schools and such that we can consider it under a jurisdiction so I mean that just to me seems like a very blurry line and a little bit problematic because you know if you have a bunch of kids go to a party at someone's house and they do things that we would find problematic you're now saying that the school can sort of come into that situation and this can now become like a school issue where I feel like this is someone's private house and obviously the behavior is problematic but I don't really feel like it should become now we're
027no what we're saying though is the PO what the policy says is that individuals have a right to bring it to the school for an investigation it's not up to the school to to initiate an investigation on that this is a a student's right and a a parents right to initiate this and it's outlining then the process that we would go ahead and and have to follow to investigate that but it's not it's not a we're now out there policing the party and such okay all right I that's a good clarification um any other questions or comments otherwise we'll Ethan and then we'll go back to Gail forgot middle of the page if the title 9 coordinator is alleged to have engaged in sex discrimination and it's also on page 12 is way where where
028are you seeing this middle of the page on page six six yeah blue okay blue is what we're doing right yeah yeah M the title n quarr is alleged to have engaged in sex discrimin a board employees so I understand if it just seemed like s 12 and I think it may be somewhere else is there a better way to word that so we don't imply guilt to the Ethan if you don't mind can you read the entire sentence just for viewers who may not have it before then thank you if the title 9 coordinator is alleged to have engaged in sex discrimination board employees shall indeed instead notify their building principal or the superintendent of schools what what that's doing Ethan is it's providing it's providing a pathway if the person who is in
029charge of Title 9 who you're supposed to report Title 9 to if that person you're alleging has engaged in a violation of Title Nine it's simply saying you go and talk to these people instead I I get that yeah my only comment is is there a better way to Wordsmith so we don't imply that the title N9 coordinator it just seemed to me that it it's alleged I mean the the word they use is alleged and this is all right I just it comes across assuming guilt well no I would I would I would counter that I can see what you're saying but I would say that it comes across providing an alternative so that the person doesn't feel like they're what what they're the way the law is written is they're providing an alternative
030so that the person doesn't feel that their road is blocked if they want to go ahead and and provide it I'm good with that I just figure there's got to be a better way to word it okay Gale that's all right got it um so I just want to also clarify that from a legal standpoint and that this is not now increasing the I'm going to use the word penalties uh than from the pr previous um policy so for example I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about so if somebody were to sort of uh not sort of if somebody were to let's say use the wrong pronouns for somebody was is this policy now increasing the penalty for something like that this policy doesn't doesn't deal with penalty this policy is simply
031outlining a process that schools have to follow and districts have to follow and it's outlining a uh definitions of what practices fall within that policy yes okay other Claire and if I'm to understand this was advised by Shipman and Goodwin and is followed by at least 6 or so yeah and this is yeah this is the this is the official shipment and Goodwin uh policy it's about a 60 60 70% of all the districts in Connecticut are using it the other 30% are using the cave policy which is almost word for word and it's all based on state law it's based on the federal law it's based on the the 1972 educational amendments but it's it's law that is not contested in the state of Connecticut at this time correct correct thanks if that changes
032then we would again follow follow follow that law okay we're also um the way that it's actually written is that we follow this law and these procedures for any action or any activity that is reported to us that is is being claimed to occur after August 1st of this year if someone was to come today and say this happened to me in June or or something we would be following the previous law and the previous guidance as far as the way we've been instructed to do it from the Department of Education so just to confuse it even further so Andy are you saying that if somebody were to bring an injunction against us in the state then it would revert back to the old policy I'm saying I that's up that's for someone who's higher
033up than me to decide what I'm saying is that if there was an injunction at a state level if there was something we would receive guidance from the from the Connecticut uh Department of Education clarifying which portions we were putting in place and not okay thank you any other questions or comments All right so again this oh Ethan you yeah I I'm part of one of the things I'm struggling with on this is and I'll use page three as an example at the second paragraph or sex discrimination paragraph it says when a person because of the person's sex is denied parti participation in or the benefits of any educational program or actively receiving Federal Finance assistance is it anything in the school or is it just anything receiving finan federal financial assistance because that's referenced
034quite a few times so that's an or statement it says or any activity so so it could be any of those things in why does it differentiate that's actually current policy that what's what's currently in the black is unchanged from what we've had for the past that's fair but and then can I just ask sex stereotypes so the ne let me the next this includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotype sex character I don't know what that means I don't you can't go to cooking class yep when you when you think of of sex stereotypes as in um describing that only persons who ident as Claire said you identifying as a male should not be going to a a cooking class that's a stereotype that is it would be a sex stereotype if we
035were to separate uh all of the all of the students by by gender and have the females go and do gymnastics while we sent the boys out to do football okay the girls are nodding at me like yes that would be a correct I mean that's a that's a I can't go to Wood Wood Shop corre you can't go to home we don't let girls do auto shop all right it just seems that would be because again it's it happens it happens Ethan it's a it needs to be addressed and it's important that we're doing that addressing it not conducting sexual stereotypes to be clear other questions or comments again this is a first reading this is wonderful the questions that are being asked all right well with that Dr murl thank you so very
036much this will come before us again for a second reading but until then we shall move on with the agenda and moving on now to staff Communications and report where we will receive our superintendent report passing it to you Mr vicus thank you very much um I'm appreciative of the comments that we've already received from our student body our student Representatives excuse me um I want to make mention not only uh the importance of this month as Suicide Prevention month uh this week specifically we kicked off National Hispanic Heritage Month um and I'm pleased to call attention to the rich history and the cultural contributions of not only the Hispanic Community the Latino communities as as well um very excited to share some uh celebrations uh for the district we start with Governor Lamont visited
037aen Elementary School in early September right after the day after our previous meeting uh to make the formal announcement that the Siberian Husky is the official state dog um and we had the American Kennel Club on hand with several huskys the children got to meet the governor the children got to meet the dogs and uh even the governor said they were more excited to meet the dogs um sticking with Akin Shannon Maj jinsky the principal at Akin was honored at this year's annual Bridge breakfast uh Shannon was named as this year's recipient of the build no fences award which is presented to an individual who exemplifies collaborative spirit and goes above and beyond in the service of Children and Families in West Hartford uh and that is a very apt description of Shannon every day
038uh just received news uh today of Pam Murphy our visual arts department supervisor being named the 2024 Connecticut outstanding art administrator by the Connecticut art Education Association um it's an annual uh recognition for an art administrator who recogniz uh for contributions in art education at all levels and P is very deserving um last week marked the beginning of our open house you heard a little bit about that not only at our uh high schools but at middle schools curriculum nights across many of our elementary schools this will continue this week and into early next week to include the kickoff meeting of septo our special education PTO on September the 25th uh we were excited to open the new portable classroom spaces this week at Duffy Elementary um those spaces house the second grade team um
039their rooms are currently being refit with new windows and with fresh air systems and as those classrooms are updated uh the new spaces will serve as a swing space to house to temporarily house uh other classrooms as they as they receive the same update um parents will have the opportunity to view the new portable spaces at some point this week and all of that will be communicated through uh Christy lvy the principal I want to give chrisy my thanks the entire Duffy staff Andy Morrow Bob Palmer and the entire crew um working on the project uh I wanted to share that um in the wake of the appalache high school shooting in Winder Georgia schools across the state and the country have received uh a number of hoax threats uh many of these being spread
040across on social media um locally we've seen this here in Connecticut and we've recently reported of a threat um through our own and has been reported to us excuse me through our own Anonymous alert systems um School District leadership acted immediately collaborating with our West Harford Police Department to identify and assess uh the person responsible ultimately determining that there was no credible threat here in our community there was no safety concern uh to the school or the community at large but I'm very thankful for the West Harford PD Who provided additional police presence at our schools on Monday morning to ensure um kind of uh visibility and I want to I want to publicly thank our principal Joselyn tamborello Noble her team again Dr marrow Eric deny Joanna blumetti uh the entirety of our security
041team and all of the law enforcement professionals within West Harford PD on curriculum notes uh this week the entire reach family which is to say the staff and students participated in the first of a four-part empowerment leadership program the goals of the workshop are not only centered around student leadership but also to create a sense of unity and team within the reach Community uh students are going to many of the students will have the opportunity to take the content they learn from the workshop in conjunction with some extension activities as part of a Mastery experience project um this coming Friday September the 20th students from Conor and Hall as well as classmates from Kingswood Oxford Northwest Catholic will take part in the west Harford youth leadership academy which is being hosted by the town of
042West Harford Social Services Department facilitated by the West Harford prevention Council uh students will have the opportunity to learn about mental health substance abuse uh recovery from experts in these fields as well as individuals with lived experience and specific topics to be addressed include the student navig training and National Alliance on Mental Illness opioid overdose awareness and prevention social media safety health promotion skills team building ex exercises um will also be a part of the program and students will have the opportunity I believe for some certificates so um a big thanks to assistant director Liz uh and I'm going to kill her name here bu zini of the social services I I'll get that better Liz I apologize October coming up is fire prevention month during the month of October the fire department will be
043visiting our elementary schools to provide age appropriate education to all of our students uh a big thanks to Deputy Fire Marshall Wilcox and the West Harford fire department for your collaboration our leadership team received training and restorative practices in preparation for TurnKey training uh that they'll conduct with their staff in October the focus of the training was around high expectations intentional teaching and Invitational teaching practices this concept this content is adapted from the restorative practices Playbook um and uh excited to have our own uh executive director of equity advancement who led that for you thank you Teresa um lastly by way of General announcement the next chapter bookstore which is run by our postsecondary program and as we've mentioned is going to be nationally recognized at a conference that Melissa and Andy will attend uh
044they're celebrating their third birthday alongside the celebration of a Rel release of a newly published uh and illustrated book uh called Turning pages together it was excuse me it was created and illustrated by our program students uh members of the public you're welcome to join us on Friday October 4th 10:30 a.m. at the bookstore which is right here downtown at 13 South Main Street so that is my report pending any questions thank you very much Lots going on teammates any questions or comments regarding our superintendent update question yes um yeah would we be able to hear from those youth that are going through the mental health prevention the leadership program maybe when they're done um just because mental health is a big issue in our schools and that's a really cool program and love to
045hear like about what they learn or what they are going to apply um yeah just sounds really cool I will absolutely take a note and I believe um I'll also say that Jason I know is on the Board of Education uh subcommittee that attends the prevention council meeting so either between his you know potential report out from him or some sharing that we're able to do i' be happy to get you guys updates on that and just in I think they would love to be able to share that at least the prevention Council would love to be able to have the platform to share the the work they're doing around mental health and particularly this program which is actually a pilot program for the state so West Harford is the the first to to try
046this program and to to train U you know student peers to be really leaders in the school on mental health so the district's excited and the state is excited about it thank you for the comment Jason thank you other yes Gail yeah thanks Paul um I was wondering if it's possible in the future um that we as a board would get notification when there is um like an event that happened at Connor with The hoax um just because people came up to me and were telling me about it and I didn't have any knowledge of it so I I know sometimes we do get some of that information but um I know something happened I think on Friday that the board yeah so I wanted to get with you offline Gil to ask because I
047know we did send um a an email out that no no no no so the schools schools Community sent an email out to the school community in general and then there was a follow-up email that should have been received by everyone in the district um to include the board of education but all parents through our school messenger system it was it was uh actually it was Dr marrow who who sent that so it came you know listed under his name um and it provided and it came that same uh essentially that same weekend that same day uh that we were following up communication so if you did if if members of the board or if members of the listening public did not receive that for some reason um we'll look into that but I know
048that um I happen to be away on on a drill weekend Andy sent that came into my inbox and just by virtue of you know we we kind of select all schools so so if there's some hang up on that we'll look into that for you appreciate that because I don't think either one of us got it I looked for it too I couldn't find it okay I thank you Gail for sharing that because I I know that I received it and some others in the board did as well under the heading as you described of going out to the entire District so thank you we'll make sure that yeah I'd say I got it but I got it to my other email and and I you know I'm on the board and I'm a
049parent so sometimes I do get both because I know I had email issues before so I don't I guess hearing that some board members didn't get it I don't know if I got it because it was a parent communication or or because we're no if it came from Andy it was it was a district communication so um well we'll look into that because that sounds um odd yeah I don't I don't have an explanation for that any other questions or comments it would be wonderful if we didn't even have to receive such communication because such events were not happening but unfortunately nonetheless that is certainly want to keep our lines of communication open any other questions or comments regarding our superintendent update all right hearing none we now shall move on to staff reports thank
050you Mr vinus now moving on to staff reports and board discussions where we will receive our safety and security update and so as the team comes to the table we'll pass the mic over for introductions to be had all right so with me this evening uh Mr Eric deny wearing a sports jacket you should all note uh who's our director of Safety and Security uh assistant chief raban and Sergeant Hopkins who are joining us tonight so um you you've heard us say before but I I do want to reiterate that we consider uh the the physical and the emotional safety of our students and our staff our primary responsibility and we approach this work in many ways one of the ways we start is by establishing a trusting supportive and a safe School climate and
051our work over the past decade and more really has shown that when we create a culture when where all of the members of the community feel connected and where students feel comfortable asking for help and Reporting concerns our schools become safer and there's multiple evidence that we'll we'll talk about of that another important aspect of our approach uh in enhancing the physical safety measures in each of our school buildings you've heard us talk over the years when we talk in our in our uh Capital Improvement budget of the different upgrades that we've done uh at each of our school buildings and really we assess the each building on a continual basis which really considers the particular characteristics of the site and we're always looking to integrate the newest and most effective technologies that are available
052the third prong of our approach is really advanced planning and preparation including drills training opportunities both for our students and for our staff and Inter agency cooperation I want to start off and talk a little bit about safe School climate one of the the the big things we've been focusing on especially over the past five years that you've heard Melissa and and I both talk about is our mental health support and in addition to our students receiving lessons on strengthening self-management uh and examining confli conflict resolution approaches uh proactive communication understanding how to make responsible decisions our counselors and our clinical staff receive training on a variety of areas including trauma informed practices the district continues to implement a contract with the bridge to serve as additional students that need our supports as well as
053recently establishing mental health Clin uh clinicians in our high schools the schools also employ various risk assessment tools to evaluate threats and what we've been using is the comprehensive school threat assessment guidelines C uh SE Stag and this is a tool for responding to situations when a student makes a threat to another person to a school or to the community and the key of this process for us is really slowing it down uh often times in a situation where there is a threat things are moving very quickly and so once we've establish that everyone is safe this process for us is to slow down and really understand why someone did the action that they did why they made the threat and truly what the risk is and so a key to that is slowing down
054and making sure we have the right people in the room to get a full picture of the student and a situation it's this uh sea stag is completed by a trained and certified Behavior specialist who utilizes a team approach involving parents the student administrators teachers and law enforcement in evaluating all of the various RIS risk factors weighing the signs the warning signs and looking at stabilizing factors to arrive at a description of risk for a particular point in time and we're very clear in that process and Eric will talk a little bit more about that we're very clear in understanding a student and a situation before that person returns to our community what has helped with the process over the years is is also we've created a culture where students and parents feel it's okay
055to share concerns and ask for help through systems such as our Anonymous alert platform as we saw on Sunday when a concern was shared on that platform at 3:00 2:30 in the morning was it about 2:30 rough about 2:30 it was immediately responded to and I believe West Hartford Police had secured the situation by 3:30 and had shared with us that that the threat was was contained and taken care of which gave us then time in the morning to talk to the right people to make sure when we were sending information out to not only to the parents at the school but also then later on that Sunday to the entire District that we were able to to share what had occurred and and uh that this the situation was contained so I want to
056pass it on to Eric to talk a little bit more about that thank you good evening everyone as the superintendent alluded to you know the start of the school year um unfortunately you know nationally there was the uh situation in Georgia with the school shooting which obviously uh creates anxiety and concern throughout the country one of the things we worked on last year in collaboration with the police department was getting out to the the schools and the parent community and educating them as to what we do as a security team in West Harford and help to alleviate some of those anxieties when situations unfortunately happen um we work tirelessly behind the scenes um to ensure the safety of everyone um you know last night the assistant chief frab Bond I were on the phone I
057think at 10:00 last night discussing a matter so you know it doesn't matter the time of day or time of night when something happens uh we do follow you know the Secret Service model uh for threat assessment and prevention of targeted School violence and one key part of that um is creating a safe School climate built on culture of safety in respect through a centralized reporting system and that's our Anonymous alerts program our Anonymous alerts program is accessible on both computers uh and a mobile app it's designed to provide two-way communication allowing staff and students to acknowledge receipt of the message and request more information um at the start of each year all principles make students staff and caregivers aware of the tool educate students of the importance of reporting safety issues Flyers are posted
058around the schools to remind students to report situations of concern and the uh anonymity of this approach encourages those who feel vulnerable to speak up without fear of reprisal um since we've implemented the system in 2018 we went from 70 reports or uses of the system um and it's gradually built um 2019 we had it 126 2020 138 leading up to last year where we had 447 documented um reports from students and the community of anything of concern that they feel necessary to report um so it's been the the system has been a tremendous Su success um one of the things we're very proud of is our partnership with the West Harford Police Department we continue um to be grateful for our school resource officers and community resource officers they're an integral part of our
059schools they are trusted familiar faces in our schools assisting with lessons safety and support at all levels we talked about this last year we continue to move forward with our new state-of-the-art um alert system for lockdowns and building specific emergencies called informacast to date we have three schools completed and we continue to work with our it Department to map out the rest of the district and all of our schools um the new system allows the school to be placed in a lockdown or activated um any other building emergency procedures um in a more efficient and effective ma uh manner um the system you know a key advantage to the system is it calls 911 and activates an audio and visual alerts throughout the building work continues to improve um on the physical security side of
060things at all entrances to each uh building we're finalizing plans uh for redesign entrances uh hopefully uh by the end of this year with wlit and King philli we also continue to add cameras throughout the district to enhance uh physical security another partnership with the police department at the beginning of our school year um our all of our security staff um trained with the West Harford Police Department it was a joint training um held in the training room where we uh received updates on active shooter events uh Lessons Learned From recent instances and also uh updated Medical Response training including bleed control and tourniquet application schools implement the state of Connecticut mandatory school safety drills each year we uh attend those drills along with the police department to evaluate those in conjunction with the fire
061department and West Harford Emergency Management um you know the we're in the process of updating our district-wide all Hazard plan which is due to the state November 1st um this is uh submitted to the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management as required um this is a collaborative effort working again with the West Harford police department and the West Harford fire department and Emergency Management again uh this report is uh just a uh just a a brief uh synopsis of what we do um you know in the West Hartford school system um the scope of the work uh to keep schools safe and secure cannot be fully captured in one report it's the daily interactions with staff um that we have with students and caregivers and direct communication among stakeholders that are crucial elements of
062the district's approach to provide a safe School environment for everybody so like just open it up for any questions anybody might have thank you teammates questions yes Latoya um hi and I'm so sorry if this is not a smart question I just don't know um are the security guards um armed with anything a smile and the best training okay Gail um yeah just to follow up on what Latoya is um asking and I I also want to thank you for everything that you do to keep our students safe and particularly the West har Police Department um so there's nobody in any of our schools that's armed no the school resource officers and the community resource officers that are part of the West Harford Police Department carry weapons but our our security officers are not armed
063so the resource officers are armed correct and they are in the school which they're in our high schools they're in the high schools and then the community resource officers are in the middle schools and the elementary schools and the community resource officers are also armed correct okay so is there so I guess what I'm asking is is there an armed person in every school while the kids are in school the the community resource officers split between the middle schools in the elementary schools whereas the the school resource officers are assigned to each of the high schools okay so let me just then I'll just take the at the high school level yes there's somebody armed in the school at all high school level yes okay and then the elementary it depends upon the lessons that
064are being taught and the schedules that they're on so can you um quantify in our middle schools like how often there is somebody in that school that's armed we really wouldn't want to quantify that information for the public he'll just it represents more or less a breach of a you know of a security protocol yeah okay I mean given you know what happened oh sorry I don't want to I can say I'll just just keep going um what happened in Georgia you know a few weeks ago and the fact that there's over 350 school shootings in the country every single year um you know I'm wondering why we don't have somebody armed in the Middle School considering that we saw just a few weeks ago um a 14-year-old come to school with a weapon and
065kill four people so that's my question well and and it's a good question I think we we do have have school resource officers at our high schools and we do have community resource officers at our middle schools and our elementary schools there's the the Georgia high school shooting was the 45th school shooting in the US in 2024 so it's the the 45th there's three there have been 385 mass shootings in America across the country since uh since the beginning of the year which is more than one and a half a day and so again there's um there's absolutely the the need to to increase our security and to always have a focus on that and we work very closely with the police in doing so I have a thought but I want to do you
066have a followup or yeah I guess I'm just curious why then first of all I mean the data I have said that there was over 340 school shootings in 2023 I mean it's POS possible they quantitate things differently um so I'm just wondering uh why we don't have you know somebody armed in the middle schools pretty much throughout the school day I I think that given you know again I'm I'm not a security person but given just those numbers and what we see in our country and what happened a few weeks ago I just would think it would be if you have somebody in in the school that's armed anyway some of the time in the middle schools which is I think what you said Andy that some of the time there is somebody in
067the Middle School armed I don't understand why we don't have somebody there all the time that's armed I I'll take a I'll give you some information on that I think that's one aspect of it right we've had um workplace violent shootings on Army bases plenty of Weapons Systems uh at police stations plenty of Weapons Systems there um what we have here in West Hartford is the strength of the community the communication that we have here the resources available with the number of officers we have on the street our response time uh the technology we have in the schools and when you put all of those pieces together that's what creates that umbrella of safety it's not going to be just because someone has a firearm that you're going to deem something safe um so when
068we put all those pieces together and the constant communication we have between the school district security our officers our students some of our best resources are our students with the anonymous alerts which help us immensely that's that's what keeps this blanket of safety over West Harford school students Claire so I've been in many lockdown drills and we know when they call a lockdown whatever your code is we get the kids secure in our classrooms and immediately that building is solid there's no one in the halls and we are safe and if there is an intruder there at one spot and the police are there within minutes and how many doors and windows are there in the building and how many police officers would you need at every single door and window in that building that
069one officer cannot be you can't have enough police officers at every single window and every single door in your building and all the security doors that you guys have all the security the office and all the systems you have in place and how quickly you can be there and all the drills we go through it is a great system you guys do an amazing job the one question I have I've been asked this before is the anonymous alert available in in the middle school yet and can it be available in the elementary we have 14-year-olds in eighth grade there are 11 and 12 year olds that can get access to guns we have sixth graders and fifth graders that can get messed up and we need to be able to access Anonymous alerts for kids
070that have parents that are doing stuff that shouldn't be doing things and kids that have teenagers that they want to do an anonymous alert for anonymous alert should be available to anyone that knows something and so I do think that it's great it's in the high school but I really would like it to be something that anyone can use well it it is and it's always been in the middle schools as well when we rolled out the system it's been rolled out at the secondary level um and more so than that we also it's also on all of our district websites and so parents anyone can access it roughly a third of the bulletins that we get from it are from desktop machines from the internet uh from the website that people are accessing it
071from the website so any parent can access it from from anywhere online it's on all of our websites we don't we don't have it available as an app for elementary schools just because of the age group but again they each have on their website Anonymous reporting tools as well but it's always been a it's always been available to middle schools and it's always available to any parent at the district do you have a way to know if your Anonymous alerts are coming from which population yeah they're each targeted per school when you when you when you submit an alert in a system you have to indicate the school community that it concerns and so that's why it goes then to the right people to make sure with the way it's routed it routes to the
072principal and to the people at those schools okay Gail um yes I just want to follow up so I I appreciate um you know your discussion about that but I still feel that even having somebody in a school armed is a one it's a deterrent to some degree because who's ever coming in there would know that that there's somebody armed to the uh immediate response has to be faster than the police department coming I understand you guys come quickly but having somebody on site has to be quicker and the sheriff who spoke in Georgia and I'm not saying he you know is the end all be all but he did say that in his opinion having an armed guard an armed person in that school saved people's lives so I mean I I think that
073this is something that you know should be thought about and should be discussed given what we see in our country every day I mean I I I appreciate all the other initiatives I appreciate what's going on with the students I appreciate the mental health part of it but I can't accept that that all of that is going to be good as good as having somebody in the school that's armed any other thoughts or comments Ethan um let me start and I'll Echo what others have said thank you for what you do um uh it's important um what question I had as I was reading through the document was trying to put context into the what's going on or what's been done where we were where we've been and I also realized you only want to
074give out certaine information and this is a public record my question question is is there like some kind of Matrix where you can say for in the items that came to mind were like the entrances the alert system the um cameras or whatever you know here's where we were and here's where we are and here's where we're going because I didn't get us you know the each of the programs is great but that's not your safety your safety to me is more the some of the physical as well as all the deterrence that was mentioned and I don't know if there's a way to do that I don't I also appreciate the fact that you don't want to give out certain information because I think unknown is this business is probably good yeah and that's
075and that's a large part of it we don't publish we don't publish a list I can share with you because again you you haven't been here for some of the previous work we've done over the past decade um really but we've we've systematically uh redesigned um all of the entrance ways to our schools and put various Harding aspects in uh and so that's been a process over the years as we've been rebuilding redesigning school entrance ways when you go into our schools now you go into you go into really a holding area man traps for example where you're double buzzed in those are those are systems that we've systematically gone through and put in place over the past decade no and I've been in those traps but I I don't know if it's all schools
076or I mean it just yeah but it' just be interesting to say this is where we are this is where we've been this is where we are so if you can do it separately that's fine I I appreciate also by Statute we every two years we have to do a threatened vulnerability assessment at every school in the district so uh we work with the West Harford Police Department school security School administrators and we go over approximately a 300 questionnaire um document um what are our vulnerabilities um where do we need to work towards to the better secure so we do have a way of tracking it so so we just completed that last year with the West hardare Police Department um that gets incorporated into our all Hazard plan so that's how we track what
077we need moving forward because technology changes you know threats change so um by every two years is when we do those assessments is there a summary or something I I just feel like a responsibility to at least know what's going on and I realized reading this I classified at the state or I mean it's Paul I mean it's submitted with our all Hazard plan which I think you know they would have access to to to see which we file with the state every no November so if there's somewhere thank other questions or comments Latoya thank you um mine is more around that the sense of psychological safety I know y'all mentioned earlier about that also being a big part of it um and I was really impressed last year you know facilitating a a restorative
078justice training and um and there was West Harford police officers in that training and I just think that's awesome and it's really rare actually to see that and I just want to commend you know westart for PD for that commitment and like making sure that with within our SRO community that it's a relational thing where students can feel safe to come to police officers in their school so like I thought that was awesome so I just wanted to say that um and then my other question is just around um can we get can we get some more information um along the way around some of those interventions that are taking place um that are supporting some of that building the psychological safety in in terms of the hate speech cuz I feel like that's one
079of the bigger issues that could kind of create that feeling of unsafety in our schools um and and just wanting to know like what I think kind of along to what Ethan was saying about the other thing but like where were we versus where we're at and where we're headed like you know the things that we're implementing are they are we seeing a decrease in some of the hate speech stuff are we seeing any change as a result of some of these um interventions uh and and I that because I know some of the data that can come from that can also inform us on the community side families too on what we could also be doing um to help lift up what's happening in the schools so just wanted to ask about that I'll
080take that um I think we can we can very much continue to provide you updates in terms of things like hate speech I think that falls uh very clearly uh across multiple Lanes certainly within our Equity advancement but um you know it is uh a part of our Focus uh we talked last year and we continue to talk about one of our one of our strategic areas of focus is in building um a sense of true belonging with students and combating hate speech combating whether it's stereotypes some of the other you know some of the early combating um you know sex based harassment all all of these things are are obstacles and to a sense of belonging and so uh it's work that's ongoing relative to hate speech itself I can tell you that one
081of the things that we did uh even from a district level systemically this year that was new and a great Improvement uh was that we put together uh a small professional learning we put it into our online system so that we could have an accountability that 100% of Staff members have seen our our our ha speech protocol and our and our ha speech um you know essentially guidelines uh especially in our charged language guidelines where where where charged language might be encountered um whether it's in primary source documents or whether it's in some you know historical literature or something of that and um and then there's followup and conversations that happen in departments in terms of what that means um I do think that uh not only a sign of the a sign of some
082of the happenings in and around the world um have have created uh potentially some upticks but I also think that our EMP empis and our effort in around hate speech have also created greater visibility on it created greater awareness we're we're sending letters home more frequently perhaps than we may have in the past and that creates you know the opportunity someone sees it and says well wait a minute this this happened over here as well or something so I do think that some of the attention that we're putting onto it as a positive brings brings light to things and bringing light you know is a is a good thing but it um I would I would say that we're uh definitely evolving with this in terms of we have um we've developed some guidelines we've
083developed some some shared uh common practices and around it we've we've had Greater Community conversations we had a book read this summer so um from where we've been to where we are uh I think we're moving in the right direction um and uh happy to continue to provide updates on that which is the question that I heard thank you I appreciate that yeah I think you know what I was thinking about is that you know obviously y'all can't do this alone and so I'm thinking a lot about just us as a West Harford town too and um and just how that can be helpful in in informing how we move and how we support what our conversations look like with our neighbors um and how we can kind of be that Village together so thank
084you Claire um how many years have we done this Sandy Hook promise and um have you seen results from that it start with hello I'm going to go on liit say it's about 2018 20 2018 I believe has it been a successful prog I I would say so I think it's been I think it is it still going strong it is anything that really gets um gets students at the the middle school the high school comfortable talking about those issues I think is a very positive thing I would defer to our to our student reps and ask what your what your thoughts on it would be um I do have to say I don't think that um I've really seen a lot about this in my experience however like specifically the Sandy Hook promise but
085there have been in general um some programs they have different names that basically have the same purpose and I definitely think it's been helpful to bring up these issues where we can at least start to talk about um and when I was in Middle School I believe that at Cedric we did have a like kind of we had like a meeting in the auditorium for like different grade levels so that we could like familiarize oursel with this Sandy Hook promise and I think it really did again like Sarah said benefit us to like kind of open our minds to communicating about these types of issues so that we're more aware of everything that's going on okay questions or comments I want to say um thank you so very much for the summary I'm going to
086try to speak without getting tearful but I can't promise that because I it's unfortunate seeing you all talking about what we're talking about and that's no offense to you all but just the reality of what we as a district and what we as a country face in terms of what our young people are exposed to is something that as a human being we don't want any young person to experience and especially as a parent and so I am glad to hear that in terms of the anonymous alert glad to hear that it is increased in terms of usage you mentioned from when it first was conceived about 70 something now over 400 it's a blessing in disguise it's great that so many are using it but it's unfortunate that it has to be used but
087glad that there is an outlet for our young people to use it I very much appreciate you describing the umbrella approach when it comes to keeping our children safe I hear you Gail in terms of wanting an immediate means of intervening when there is a safety uh risk for our children but we as a board we as a town we as a community must recognize that our intervention cannot start in the moment when crisis is happening it starts from when we're raising our children when we're teaching our children you made reference to it begins with a smile it begins with interacting with them and we have to remember that all of us play role in helping to educate our young people and keeping them safe all of us whether you have children or not because
088what is happening in your household in your backyard is going to impact what's happening and what my children are exposed to and what your children are exposed to so there is no Silo approach when it comes to keeping our community safe we all have to be invested in this and it starts as early as possible as early as possible and it's unfortunate that it may at times escalate to coming to a point when you have to go to the school for a shut down or to secure that's the ultimate worst case scenario and I pray it does not ever happen here but when it happens in other districts in other C in other states it impacts us as well because we're watching it on the news and our children are watching it on the news
089and I don't know what adult did not get emotional when they saw and read and heard what happened in Georgia and the fact they were talking about how many school shootings just this calendar year so pardon me for having a moment of a tie raade but before I became a board member I am a human being and I'm a mother and that will always be the case and so I thank you so much for your vigilance I thank you so much for what you do in ensuring we keep our children safe we keep our community safe and we have to do it together as a community I will get off the Soap Box all right thank you so much and so with that we will continue on with our agenda and moving on to Personnel
090actions and we will receive Mr Julio dwarte who will report passing the microphone over to you all right I told Paul I should have gone first I'm not sure I want to follow that now but but appreciate all of your passion honestly on a topic that's dear to my heart as well as a educator and as a father so um so moving on with our Personnel report it can be found on page 17 of your board packet as you know I provide regular updates to the board of ed uh related to our certified staff including teachers and administrators since I covered much of this during our uh opening schools report tonight I'll provide simply a brief update of some of the key uh numbers so the numbers I'll share to you reflect those since June
091um and so that's why I'm happy to to look at those and we can and you may see some discrepancies as you can see we had 23 resignations six leave of absences and one retirement and we also hired 41 contracted teachers 17 interim teachers 17 administrators again 11 of them being our new Elementary assistant principles and then five interim administrators again the difference between a contracted teacher and an interim teacher is that an interm teacher is here filling in for someone that we anticipate returning at some point either during the year or next year whereas a contracted teacher someone that we've offered a contract and expect them to be with us uh for the Long Haul so at this point I'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have thank you any
092questions or comments yes Gil um I just ask the same question I ask each time um is that sort of onar for what you usually see in terms of resignations it is so uh our retention was at about 6% I think this year we tend to be 5 and a half five 6% so that it's it's right on par there so when you say 6% you mean you what does that mean retention so folks if you take our entire staff of how many tend to leave every year and how many we would retain so we'd say that we lose about 6% of our staff every year to various reasons 94% yes I guess that would have been a much more positive way to spend that so okay thank you other questions or comments all right
093well thank you very much moving on now 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 3rd 2024 is there a motion moved thank you Ethan is there a second second thank you Lya discussion all of those in favor say I I I any oppose any abstain the eyes have it thank you moving on to information and reports board members do we have any Communications and reports from other organizations any other discussions I do want to say and I apologize for not saying this at the top of the meeting that our teammate Shannon is attending a work conference so she does apologize for not being here but her absence certainly is excused so
094thank you Shannon for all that you do and Jason thank you for your presence with us as well moving on to Future business we have announcement of future meeting dates our next Board of Education meeting will be on Tuesday October the 1st 20124 here in room 3:14 at 7:00 then we'll meet again on Tuesday October the 15th 20124 once again here in room 3:14 at 7:00 and then Wednesday November the 6 again Wednesday November the 6th 2024 here at 7:00 in room 3:14 and then we're back again on Tuesday November the 19th 2024 room 3:14 at 700 p.m. do we have a request for any future agenda items seeing none do we have any visitors that would like to make a comment seeing none we do not have an executive session therefore seeking a motion
095to adjourn so moved thank you Claire is there a second second thank you Gail meeting adjourned at 8:21 for