001welcome to the West Hartford board of education regular meeting it is Tuesday September the 20th 2022 and we are going to get started with calling our meetings in order first let us have the roll call please Charlotte Dr Chang here Mr Goldman here Dr Harris absent excused Ms nazarella present Miss Poland here Dr Steinberg here Dr Thomas farqueston here student representative Megan Murphy here student representative Caitlin strathcave here thank you and Caitlin will you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance in America indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much we do not have a revision to the agenda order and it is now time for Public Communication this is an opportunity where we're able to hear from you your questions your thoughts your concerns each individual is allowed three minutes
002and we have 21 minutes per subject matter please be mindful of the cards that Charlotte will hold up hold up when you have one minute remaining in your time a yellow card will be held up and when your time is expired you will see a red card and we ask for you to please gracefully take your seed please know that we are attentively listening to what is being said however we do not respond to comments as they are being made we have a list here and first we have Mary hope Rutherford and also would ask please that when you come to the podium please share your name and your address hi I'm Mary who brought the third I live at 400 Quaker Lane North um and I'm here today to say thank you for creating
003prioritizing and defending the gender identity component of the social emotional learning curriculum my daughter is a 10 year old transgender student at Morley Elementary and I'm continually grateful that she is free to learn at school because of the support of this District I have made PHD in social psychology with an expertise in social support and health and it is particularly Salient to me how crucial it is for every person from the Cradle to the Grave to have support acknowledgment and acceptance from their Community for their identity knowing who you are is only half the battle being seen and loved for who you are is Paramount the research is clear support matters the statistics for kids like my daughter are staggering and heartbreaking 60 to 70 percent of transgender and non-binary youth consider ending their lives
004and up to 40 percent make attempts on their lives before they graduate high school rates of other types of self-harm bullying depression and anxiety are all significantly higher for children like my daughter for parents like us getting our children through their youth safely is at the very top of our minds and the research is super clear the most effective mechanisms for reducing these risks are supported home and support at school and support isn't a passive thing it is not the absence of harm support is visible active constructive and validating and it is most effective when it comes from trusted authority figures like teachers this curriculum is a central pillar of that support and refraining from teaching this content would not make my child cisgender refraining from teaching this material would not make the kids incurious
005about her it would just mean that they got their information on the playground refraining from teaching this material would not make trans and non-binary youth go away or stop a parent's child from being exposed to transgender persons refraining from teaching this material would not be a neutral act it would be an act of aggression it is not a nice to have it is essential it's the right thing to do acknowledging the existence of trans and non-binary persons is no more sensitive than identifying the existence of boys or girls teaching our children about the diversity in the world is not a matter of Parental choice but teaching hate and discrimination is we can't control whether parents at home teach their children implicitly or explicitly that being non-binary or transgender is sensitive bad or other but what
006we can control what all of you here have offered is a refuge from that kind of discrimination a safe and truly inclusive environment for my children to my child to learn because of your work we have the luxury of having our conversations about school be dominated by friendship Dynamics what happened at recess and who wore what in the hallway you know all the good stuff of fifth grade and not the despair of self-hate and ostracism and fear so thank you for this thank you thank you thank you and I so appreciate your time today foreign thank you next we have Mark Walsh how you doing Mark Walsh I live at 33 Huckleberry Lane I come here wearing two hats father first we had three boys go through the education system and this one I always
007wear proudly I'm a retired Hartford firefighter who went on over 20 000 calls and I bring this up because it's very important to my issue here when I moved here about 25 years ago I had two reasons to come into this town and it was public safety and education now how did I know you guys were strong in these two areas it's because you were transparent okay I didn't come here she's taking a guess or rolling the dice that West Hartford had a strong education system or a public safety was important last year we had a terrible overdose death of a boy at a middle school through a fentanyl overdose it was transparent from almost minute one I was instrumental in outing Hartford for not having fentanyl I mean I'm sorry Narcan on hand they
008don't have sros due to some narrative they want to have they got rid of their police officers who carry Narcan within days that whole school system has it I know we have it here in town that leads me to the two deaths I recently found out about one at a middle school and one at elementary school I really wasn't searching to see a name gender where they lived what I want to do is find out what happened and what you guys did to mitigate uh the issue I mean did for instance if um if a student goes off by themselves to the bathroom do you have anything in place to say okay how long do we send them in peers do we now send them in peers I don't know what happened then and I'm
009not saying I know any specifics because everybody has been silent I emailed everybody in town you know the only person who got back to me Dallas Dodge so what's that telling me that's telling me that you're either preserving image or you're worried about a liability either one of them disgusts me I mean how do we have a town where we lose two children and nobody knows nothing we have no idea if you guys are doing anything to recover from these two tragedies it's it's almost outrageous to me that you know again wearing this hat this is the most important thing I used to go to tragic events all the time and the one thing we prided ourselves in the Hartford Fire Department me personally who's trying to figure out how to never duplicate what happened
010to everybody but especially when we would go to events where children were involved we would really go out of our way to find out what we could do to to again minimize or you know here's the funny thing is Public Safety and you guys back it up if you see something say something if you hear something say something but guess what I don't think it exists in this town because if you hear or see something you're better off keeping your mouth shut and you know what I hope everybody in this room including you go up to this second sentence here getting close to our residents read that paragraph underneath there I don't think you guys are meeting your obligation thank you we next have Addie Lorden good evening Addie Lorden 561 Park Road two weeks
011ago you as a board put forward a motion regarding public comment and expanding the chairperson's power to remove anyone that they deem disruptive this motion was based on several meetings apparently of a subcommittee that it became very apparent that the whole board did not know about in fact the public didn't know these meetings occurred because it wasn't on the website the meetings that were posted were posted just prior to the 9-6 meeting and in fact the minutes for the August 10th meeting are still not made public the minutes from the September 6 meeting meeting 8355 are still not public this motion was drafted by outside attorney Jessica Ritter from The Firm Shipman and Goodwin why we the residents already pay for the entire Corporation Council Office housed in this building consisting of three attorneys and
012a paraprofessional it should be noted that the corporation canceled Dodge was once employed by Shipman and Goodwin I should also it should also be noted that the board as well as the people all interpreted this motion differently freedom of speech and the right of all to speak without fear is the Cornerstone on which this nation was built residents parents and students have come here and spoken of financial discrepancies bullying within the student body bullying by admin towards students and parents sexual harassment and abuse and recently as has been mentioned a child who tragically died 11 days after attempting to take her life within School walls you refuse to reach out in sympathy and compassion but more egregiously you deny this family peace and healing by providing answers to their questions you tout Equity diversity and
013inclusivity but you forget Humanity which all three are based on thank you thank you we next have Ella Nichols foreign Nichols I live on North Quaker Lane and I my kids graduated from Hall you know many years ago and I am a retired from Bristow I taught sixth grade there I'm speaking tonight on the proposed policy 8533 changes but first I have two things I just want to throw out there first of all I wanted to acknowledge that the curriculum page for each grade has been changed and updated to include scl instead of scl being a separate spot where it was hard for parents to find so thanks Paul and congratulations to whiting Lane Karen cookish who was my mentor when I for my first year of teaching when I was 54. um over at
014uh and she's she's awesome and she has brought that awesomeness to whiting Lane of course with the support of you know the whole town but I just want to say that okay so anyway I know 100 getting back to 8533 I know 150 people spoke in public comments section last year if this is a lot it's a reflection of your constituents having some disagreement with the policies of the board and the administration question and also it's a reflection of them being you know part of the democratic process that we you know very much Revel in especially here in New England uh you seek to change the historical public comment process by really diminishing the importance of uh you know comments not germane to your agenda that's your agenda but we are your constituents so we
015feel that we have you know a very strong place in these meetings uh rearranging the order of the speakers will improve the convenience for some but likely will result in fewer comments being presented to you I hope that's not the case but here's what I'm recommending this may work against your board policy 1122. which is communication with the public and that states that you should seek to improve communication and expand contact with audiences not make them smaller okay so that whole section of the 1000s that's all about you know I mean that's in that that's board policy too okay I'm recommending that a review of public comments be made at the end of the 22-23 school year if you do go ahead and change uh change it now um and to Champ to what really
016check for any dampening effect on people coming forward and expressing um their opinions and their feelings about what's going on in the schools next in paragraph two um I have to agree with that I think you're trying to expand uh The chairperson's Authority or power I don't think that's necessary the chair has power explained in board policy 1120 it doesn't need to be in whatever this is 83.55 she's already got that she's used it I've seen her I went to all the meetings last year that's not necessary and I really worry by having the power in two places um you're expanding the power I think it only needs to be in one place I'm sorry the red cards uh thank you so much thank you do we have any other visitors that would like to
017make a comment I'll ask one last time any other comments okay we'll pause on Public Communication we now are going to go to non-staff communication and reports and this is where we've shifted things in an important way we are so honored to have our student Representatives here with us and always with us and this year we have Caitlin and Megan and typically as we know the student representative updates are given towards the end of the meeting however we certainly know that it's important to hear what they have to say even in those moments when the meetings may be quite long and we must respect that although they were elected to serve in this position they're students first they have priorities and so we have shifted to where they're going to present earlier in the meeting
018and if for some reason they may need to depart the meeting early we certainly give them our blessing to attend to their primary job which is to be students so thank you so much again for being a part of our board and we are going to start with Megan pleased to hear your updates good evening everyone so I just want to share as the school year is underway there's been many exciting accomplishments and achievements in the past two weeks at Connor actually just this morning there was a college board recognition breakfast and a handful of students from conard received various Awards due to their Excellence but I want to highlight two students they were actually both seniors Thatcher Slocum and Elizabeth's there they were both recognized as semi-finalists for the distinction of National Merit Scholars
019so we give huge congrats to them also a project that's been going on at Connor that's hard not to recognize when you're walking into school or driving through the parking lot or even driving by the school is that the tennis courts are underway now the project has started that they're going to be redone and I'm on the tennis team myself and so this is a project very exciting for me but I'm also excited for all the residents in our town as I notice a lot of people use the cords and I'm really happy that they're going to be redone for us um regarding Athletics boys soccer had a seven to three comeback win against New Britain last week and it was their first big win of the season but not only do I want to
020recognize their win I want to recognize their coach this year coach Lewis is the first female coach in the program's history and so that's awesome and another team that reached success this week was the boys football a team defeated Newington in their first home game which was a score of 36-33 and I could not attend myself I was actually out of state but I heard from staff and students and everyone who attended that there was a huge sense of community in school pride and we hope to keep that going this Friday everyone had a great time there was a lot of positivity and we really have a fun time cheering on all of our student athletes and also at that event there was Red Sea leaders who organized a food drive they collected boxes of
021pasta and cans of sauce pasta sauce and it was a huge success to get a lot of pasta and sauce for our local food drive another activity that has been going on at conard is Unified soccer has started and this is a great way for everyone to be involved um a huge accomplishment is our 2023 Connor High School Musical will be frozen this year which was recently announced and the production is always amazing but this year it's especially um a great recognition because we're the only school in the state to be awarded the license put on this production um and it was a very selective and competitive process um also this week this Thursday conard and I think Hall and 10 other schools a couple of our students are going to go to The JCC
022to view the movie The Rescuers which is about the Rwandan Genocide and they're going to have some food and debrief on their thoughts which will be a great opportunity one last thing is that college Representatives have begun to come in to meet with our seniors I actually attended one today and we're just really lucky that they can come and visit with us as we embark on this college application process and just overall the mood has overall been overwhelmingly positive I said at the beginning of the school year something was different about the school year and as I say college Representatives have come in a lot of visitors and all visitors comment on how kind how happy and excited the students seem to be in school everyone's just really Pleasant and I think everyone's really excited
023to have a great year thank you Caitlyn uh well it's no surprise that we have very similar things going on at Hall uh definitely all the college visits very exciting um the first thing that we're going to mention or I have on here is uh all the sports games and meets and matches all starting up definitely a lot of fun we had our football game a home game last week I believe on Friday we had pasta collected for our food drive which was wonderful and it was really exciting to see um everyone in the stands new Titans all of it was awesome and um it was just a great time I know there was a couple other games this past week that have been great I know the girls soccer won 3-2 against Northwest Catholic
024I believe and girls field hockey won against Avon and um another team I forget which one we played but we won it was very exciting and um overall it's been just a really great season so far for a lot of our teams it's been very exciting so Sports has been great uh the clubs and activities have really been getting into their groove I know first week of school is a little bit tricky because everyone is starting everything but now we have a schedule going we have people showing up consistently uh like a lot of auditions are over I know for the hall black box they're putting on the production of comedy of errors and so they're uh play rehearsals are up and going which is awesome uh we also had our College Board National Merit
025scholar recognition this morning we had our semi-finalists our commended students and also our recognition of the Hispanic and African-American Scholars which was wonderful um the other thing that we are doing this month which has been very interesting and exciting is we have National um Hispanic Heritage Month and so we have like a trivia game going on in the morning so Mr zatoon will ask a question to the school and whoever can email him the fastest with the response gets the the prize so it's very exciting to have everybody out on their phones and getting ready and apparently Mr zatoon gets like a huge flood of emails at all at once so um and just to end off I do wanted to give uh give a little bit of a bathroom update it is still the
026nicest bathroom in the school it is still very shiny and still very popular so I have definitely seen my share of uh bathroom pictures and selfies in the new the new white shiny stuff I wanted to mention that since it was a high point yes it was a high point last time it's still a high point so thank you so much wonderful thank you thank you both so much moving on to unfinished business which we do not have any at this time and now we will go to new business to setting the date for the June 2023 High School graduation and we have received a recommendation at the Board of Education vote to set the date for this year's High School graduation on Tuesday June the 13th 2023 passing it off too short if you
027remember a couple of years ago we were given the authority to go ahead and set the date without having to normally we'd wait until after the the storm season and and do our best guess at that time and so we're able once again this year to set it for Tuesday June 13th that currently is the last day of classes and again with the understanding that you know as you know seniors are done ahead of time with their with their exams and such and so that will be our set graduation date and then if we have snow dates and such afterwards that will go we'll go beyond that okay foreign questions well first I will seek a motion and then we'll have discussion if need be seeking a motion at the Board of Education vote to
028set the date for this year's High School graduation on Tuesday June the 13th 2023. so moved thank you Ari is there a second second thank you Deb discussion just out of curiosity there's no alternative is there well no we have to let them graduate Ethan yes no we I think by then they've probably earned it but you can check with them if that's fine it's as far as an alternative date I mean to give advice no what we what we've done in the past is when we get closer to that if if we need to establish a rain okay a date we'll usually do that something after afterwards I will do it the day after but we make those decisions much closer to the thing but we do this date so that parents and families
029can go ahead and plan for the event right any other questions or comments and with the motion on the floor let us now vote all of those in favor say aye aye aye opposed extensions the eyes have it all right seniors get ready that's right moving on now to B revision of authorized signers of the ed-099 agreement for Child Nutrition programs and we'll have Liz Hewitt to come before us since we have a recommendation that the Board of Education designate Andrew Murrow as authorized to sign the ed-099 agreement for Child Nutrition programs and claims for reimbursement and in his absence that Elizabeth Hewitt be authorized to sign claims for reimbursement passing it off to you good evening as a way of background we have a formal agreement the district does with the State Department of
030Education in order to run all of our nutrition services programs this agreement allows us both to do our reimbursement claims on a monthly basis and to enter into other agreements that we need to do with our nutrition program they request that two Representatives be authorized to do so typically it's the superintendent and myself the Director of Finance and planning and they ask that when there are any changes to those Personnel that you authorize the new Personnel to be a signer on the agreement thank you any questions comments teammates all right seeking a motion that the Board of Education designate Andrew Murrow as authorized to sign the ed-099 agreement for Child Nutrition programs and claims for reimbursement and in his absence that Elizabeth Hewitt be authorized to sign claims for reimbursement so moved thank you Jason
031is there a second second thank you Claire any discussion all of those in favor say aye aye any hose extensions the eyes have it thank you so much but you're not going anywhere because we have quite a bit all right and next we have the ratification of the West Hartford board of education security Union contract and we have several persons coming Mr Julio Duarte and miss Ann mckernan passing it off to you all right good evening everyone so before you is a pro your approval is a ratified agreement between the Board of Education and the West Hartford board of education security Union this is a group of 22 security guards that work across the various schools in the district the security Union ratified this agreement on September 7th the contract that you're voting on this
032evening is a four-year contract and will call for a general wage increase of three percent each year looking at the insurance category we have increased the employee employee Premium cost share in 2022-23 to 21 and 23 24 to 21 and a quarter and in 24 25 and 25 26 to 21 and a half in addition related to the pension category we have increased the employee Premium cost share in 2223 to 6 percent and 23 24 and 24 25 to six and a quarter and in 25 26 to six and a half so that summarizes the agreement as always I did want to take a moment to to thank all of our security guards for the work that they do day in and day out to ensure the safety of all of our students and our
033staff I know firsthand that they actually are oftentimes the first person that our students seek out when they need help because of the relationships that they have developed with all of our students and even our staff oftentimes will seek them out for uh just advice and things like that so I want to publicly thank them at this time we'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have all right teammates questions comments even yeah I was assuming you would answer the question before I asked it based on last year but I assume this is within the budget it is the amount was included in the adopted budget for the current year okay the second question is you mentioned that the percentages went up what were they where are they currently to the 21
034as far as health and pension yeah so currently the health contribution is 21 so that is the same in the first year of the new contract for retirement currently the percentage is 5.75 that's going up to I thought to six percent and then six and a quarter and six and a half thank you other questions comments Jason yeah thanks for the report uh and working with the Union uh for this contract I'm curious if you can comment on the Recruitment and Retention for for the security officers for the schools uh is there a lot do you see more retirements now or have you been hiring or are these folks that have just as you said been in the school system for a while I think it's a good mix you know I want to give
035Eric Dempsey a lot of credit he does a great job of having amazing relationships with I think folks that are not only in the West Hartford Police Department but also with throughout so that we're when we have openings we're not only getting really highly qualified folks we're getting folks that I think there's a unique skill set when you're looking at a security officer and what you're looking for and sometimes that's that is a little bit different than what you may have in a law enforcement person and so he does a great job of making sure we get the right fit for each building as well you know a difference between working at perhaps the elementary school and at the high school and doing some of those so we've really it has not been an issue
036and again I think I got to give him a lot of the credit for all of that work other questions comments all right seeking a motion that the Board of Education ratified the negotiated agreement between the West Hartford board of education security Union and the board of education for the period of July 1 2022 through June 30th 2026. so moved thank you Deb is there a second a little second thank you Ethan any discussion all of those in favor say aye aye aye opposed extensions the eyes have it thank you so much moving right along to D ratification of the West Hartford board of education cafeteria workers contract before you for approval is a ratified agreement between the Board of Education and the West Hartford board of education cafeteria workers this is a group of
037approximately 60 extremely dedicated employees that work throughout our various schools in the district to provide over 4 500 nutritious meals each day to our students the cafeteria Workers Union ratify this agreement on September 2nd the contract that you're voting on this evening is a four-year contract looking at the insurance category we have increased the employee Premium cost share in 2022-23 to 15 and a half and 2023-24 to 15.75 and in 24 25 and 25 26 to 16 percent in addition related to the pension category we've increased the employee Premium cost share in 2022-23 to 5 and 23 24 to five and a half and in 24 25 and 25 26 to 6 percent looking at the wages category you'll notice that we have two different categories one is general and Technical nutrition assistance and the
038other is Baker cook head cashier and truck driver the charts on page four and five outline the specific wages for the various categories over the duration of the contract to summarize the chart in 2022 members on steps one through six will move up one step to the newly established pay schedule and step seven will receive a two percent General wage increase then for the following three years steps one through six will move up a step and receive a two and a half General wage increase while step 7 will receive a three percent General wage increase so that summarizes the agreement and as always I did want to take a moment to thank all of our outstanding cafeteria workers for the work that they do every day to not only create a positive atmosphere in our
039cafeteria that allows students to relax and socialize with their friends but also to provide nutritious meals for all of our students we would be happy to answer any questions that the board may have thank you questions Claire I'm just curious here is step one at fifth [Music] previously at step one I believe the step one was around 14.38 it was moved in order to comply with the minimum wage requirement of fifteen dollars which starts June 1st of 2023. and I also wanted to thank all the cafeteria workers um a lot of people don't know the relationships they develop with the kids and they know the kids and um it's there's a lot of interaction it's not just about food thank you other questions or comments eat I might as well be repetitive in budget yes
040so um the nutrition so the cafeteria workers are included in our nutrition services fund which is self-supporting so it's not part of the general fund uh but when we developed the budget for the nutrition services fund um this increase was contemplated and did you want to see him I'm sorry it it does and did you want the um percentages as well okay other questions comments all right seeking a motion that the Board of Education ratify the negotiated agreement between the West Hartford board of education cafeteria workers union and the board of education for the period of July 1 2022 through June 30th thank you R is there second second thank you Jason any discussion all of those in favor say aye aye aye opposed sentence the eyes have it thank you thank you and on
041to another E ratification of the West Hartford Police employee crossing guards Association contract all right last but certainly not least for today before you for approval is a ratified agreement between the Board of Education and the West Hartford Police employee crossing guards Association the crossing guards are managed by the West Hartford Police Department but are officially board members board employees this is a group of approximately 40 employees whose roles and responsibilities Center on ensuring that all of our students get to and from school safely each day these positions are part-time so there's no medical or pension benefit earned by this group the agreement calls for a wage increase in 2022-23 of one percent and 2023-24 of one and a half percent and in 2024-25 of 2 percent there is also a slight increase in their
042life insurance benefit from nine thousand to ten thousand for active employees and four thousand five hundred to five thousand for retirees so that summarizes this agreement um and as again as always I did want to take a moment to thank all of our dedicated crossing guards for the work that they do day in and day out um rather rain sleet or snow they're there with a smile on their face every day making sure that our students get to school safely we'd be happy to answer any questions that the board may have about this agreement questions comments teammates a Deb and then Jason uh just a comment actually I just wanted to thank the crossing guards because they are I would say the most visible of our employees across town and so as you as you
043drive around town whether you are have a student in our school system or not these are the employees that you actually see out there like being an ambassador for our school system and they do such a great job and if you if you drive the same route on a daily basis you tend to see the same crossing guard and it's sometimes year after year that you see the same person helping kids across the street in the mornings and in the afternoons and I just think it's a great way for the community to see representatives of our school system so thanks for all the work that you do thank you Jason yes I want to Echo the thanks uh many who put who go out into traffic and to uh to make the The Crossing um
044possible for students um so I I wanted to ask um because I wanted to ask about the Recruitment and the at the employment of of the crossing guards because some have noticed including myself that there are some crossing guards have been have sort of retired or maybe ended and there are police officers who are who are attending the crossings and um and was wondering if that was a part of you know sort of new contracts being being placed and um and if there are openings for crossing guards can we encourage people to to uh to apply for those I don't know if you were looking to go ahead no I just I I think there's always openings and I I know that through the town that people can certainly apply to that I know that
045um again as someone like Deb who who would see the same people every day would you know take the Dunkin Donuts gift cards for the holidays to them which I would encourage everyone to do uh there is a there is a sense and I know that when when someone is ill when someone has a conflict or whatever that it is uh that the West Hartford Police do step in and handle those those uh intersections in that time to make sure that everyone is safe there um I think it's you know as Claire said I think it's really this is really valuable tonight that you're seeing the contracts for uh for our crossing guards for our security for our cafeteria workers who we don't normally think of having such a great influence with kids but these
046are the the behind the scenes these are our front line people who are are working day in and day out and oftentimes maybe the first one who sees a student in the morning a bus driver a crossing guard they may be uh they may be the ones who who have that kind word at lunch or the security guard who frankly when I was at Bristol our security guard was was another counselor someone that I could trust to go and and talk with kids and work with kids so I think it's great that you're seeing all three tonight yeah I appreciate that Andy I want to just piggyback on that because I think that is something that oftentimes we may not think of um you know I think back a lot to my when I was
047in the building is that I may not and normally wasn't the first face that a child would see and oftentimes it is one of these folks and just really we would always focus on like starting the day right for a child you know and for for many of them maybe leaving the home they're not leaving in a great spot and some of us sometimes leave and it's not a great morning and so you the first face that you see if it can at least be welcoming and good morning and let's have a great day today and that's really what these folks do whether that's the crossing guard and you know hey good morning let's have a great day Tara they've got their own little secret handshake with the kid whatever that would be just making
048them feel special and that was stuff that I was always in awe of and really just that's what these folks really do across the board and sometimes I think as Dr Moore said we don't think of them in that role but they are critical to the success of our students foreign s Ethan I get two one is my usual so yes so this is fully funded in the adopted budget okay second question is there a matrix you have um that shows all the different unions in the timing of them because we had a lot of them last year that's a couple more this year so I'm just trying to get a context of you know are they all done for three years or are they gonna say again yeah so we can certainly share that
049at this point we were making up I think last year a lot because some things had been on delay um so we are in a really good spot now I think right now we've really got the the one left is whaa right now um and I think that's really it for this year it'll be another two or three years before you see them again I was just trying to get it yeah and uh we have and this the two that we did today the two earlier ones and we have one more they were actually we started them last year we weren't able to get to an agreement we worked on them throughout the summer some of them and we got there so we're rolling them out now since it's really our first opportunity to do
050that in front of the board but some of these are really done last year so we have one more at the I think it's at the next board meeting we'll have it would be just helpful to see a matrix I realized from what you said that we won't be getting any more other than the one you just mentioned but at least it just puts the context of this is you know done for three or four years absolutely all right thank you [Applause] other questions or comments before we go to vote I just want to Echo what my colleagues have shared certainly so in terms of appreciation for all of these uh contracts that we're speaking of but also all of the roles that other others play and I'm saying this firsthand because this week with
051my mommy hat on first thing in the morning I had sweats on had to drop something off at the school and Security office as every young person was going in have a fabulous day have a fabulous and I stopped and I looked back and I just smiled and I was like well you too and it put a little pep in my step and that was just wonderful wonderful so just to see that and then as Deb would described crossing guards you know waving and greeting others and as clear mentioned in terms of nutrition it's more than food it's food for the soul when the cafeteria workers know their young people so just thankful for all that all do on helping our village here so with that seeking a motion that the Board of Education ratified
052the negotiated agreement between the town of West Hartford Police employee Association and the board of education for the period of July 1 2022 through June 30th 2025 thank you Ari is there a second second thank you thank you Deb uh thank you Deb all right all right thank you so much is there a discussion all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed extensions the eyes have it thank you so very much and now moving right along to staff Communications and reports we now will receive our superintendent's report all right [Applause] so as uh has been mentioned and certainly as uh as you know and hopefully everyone knows who saw it on the news and all of this I I want to once again congratulate Karen cookish and all of the dedicated teachers staff students
053and families at Whiting Lane Elementary School uh in their recognition as a National Blue Ribbon school for 2022. this award really validates the passion and the dedication of the Whiting link community and all of West Hartford in creating inclusive learning communities where Equity positive relationships are are embraced in the hallways and embraced every day and all students are motivated to thrive as the release stated uh Whiting Lane is one of only 297 schools Nationwide to receive this recognition and only one of four in Connecticut and only one of two recognized foreclosing the achievement Gap among student groups Whiting Lanes hosting a celebration for their students and their families this Friday at two o'clock you're all invited to come and have a popsicle and help them celebrate and then there will be a recognition ceremony in
054Washington DC on November 3rd and 4th but I I wanna they'll be the first to to point to other people but I do want to to just say how how wonderful it is that Karen and and Susie Sinatra and all of the the hard work that they've done over the past uh the past years has really been recognized in such a special special level we're very proud of them it reflects positive positively on everyone in West Hartford on our entire community and it really validates our focus of clearing paths for students for reference the last uh Award of a blue ribbon School in West Hartford was in 2013. at bugbee prior to that it was 2001 for Smith and the year 2000 for Sedgwick those were recognized for academic Excellence which is the other category
055Whiting Lane was recognized in closing the gap which frankly I think is more impressive but we won't go there but um it's also as as our Representatives mentioned National Hispanic Heritage Month if you go to the websites for our schools you can see all the different activities that are being done at each grade level uh Mike Wilkos at Hall High School is one of only three Connecticut Teachers who are certified as MIT master trainers in educational mobile commuting Computing not commuting uh Abigail Esposito at conard is the Connecticut winner uh for the 2022 National social studies teacher of the year program the Charter Oak International Academy Odyssey the Mind won first place and state finals we had two Quest students uh who were at Sedgwick in eighth grade and have now moved on who took
056uh first and second place in the Hartford Regional Connecticut History Day moving on to the state contest Juliana farkerson and Conrad kalki uh who are both now at connored I believe and Connor's technical Student Association the TSA has been recognized by the Connecticut State Board of Education for an award for outstanding service project Hall High School are in first place and the diversity award in the annual Connecticut DMV Public Service competition and video Connor took second place in that and bugbee student Amy long who's in current fifth grade placed eighth in the National SF sifma Foundation invest right which is a writing competition and for those following at home that is the security industries and financial markets Association I had to look that up um and so again as as Megan also said Conrad High
057School is very excited to be the first organization in Connecticut to present Frozen this school year uh we all received emails they're very very excited I offer it to be a snowman and a walk through so we're gonna see how that goes okay but it is an incredible opportunity and a really something the school is very excited about and it really rewards the program there and and the work that they've done and the work that they commit to with students that's my report thank you so much any questions with what has been shared all right Dr Morrow thank you very much now on to staff reports and board discussions Safety and Security update we now will receive this information we have several esteemed individuals coming to the table Ann mckernan and Mr Eric Dempsey and
058he will introduce the others so passing it to you as they're getting set up if you don't mind um so this is really a presentation that we've done uh for a number of years and with covet and such we weren't able to to bring uh to bring our our partner in West Hartford Police and and really have this update but it really focuses on a partnership that is is focused both on a a hard approach to security the physical things that we all see the enhanced offices the the doors all of that but also really focusing on on a soft approach the threat assessment the work that we do with students the the counseling pieces and really the identification of threats through Anonymous alert through other other mechanisms because really we know that's where the
059gain uh the gain is and that's where true safety lies and students feeling comfortable and being able to share that in school so I'm going to turn it over to assistant chief rickeban and Ann and Eric to go from there well thank you very much for having us I'm so pleased to be with Eric and and our assistant chief of police Robert command today um uh as Dr Mora has let us off uh there's nothing more serious than we take than School Safety and Security and not just the physical plant but certainly the emotional well-being of our students and staff it is our number one priority and something that we think about at really every moment of every day I can say that in all confidence and we take a multi-pro a multi-pronged approach to
060this which really starts out with our work in our lessons and um let me just move move ahead um our work with our lessons start in all parts of our curriculum and specifically in our social emotional learning curriculum which really focuses on self-awareness focuses on self-control focuses on communication these are very important lessons for many reasons but these help students to express themselves to understand themselves to speak with adults to form relationships not only with adults but with uh with their peers to understand their peers better than to understand themselves so the work we've been doing in the area of social emotional learning not only in the curriculum when we're doing community lessons or advisory lessons but throughout the curriculum let's say in a social studies lesson or when you're reading a piece of literature
061together all of those opportunities to form bonds and create strength among our our students helps them and helps us to get to know them better to understand each other better and it's an enormous component of our work so our targeted lessons are very important our mental health approach in schools you have known because you've sat on the board over the last few years you have heard about the increase in our staffing in this area thankfully through Esser funds and through other efforts we've been able to add five elementary school counselors three additional social workers two middle school counselors a student mental health coordinator a trauma interventionist and a homeschool liaison as well as expand our relationship with the bridge in terms of additional services and of course with the iol so that work is crucial
062and we find great need for our students to work with work with these professionals and use the services of these agencies to get supports they need to um to to mature to grow and to strengthen another approach I'm going to ask Eric to speak about is we've worked over the last several years with Sandy Hook promise and Sandy Hook promises You Know by its name alone grew out of the San Diego tragedy and they offer many great programs and I'll let Eric go ahead with that sure good evening everyone a couple years ago we partnered with the Sandy Hook promise um started with the pre-pandemic with our start with hello program that taught students to be more socially inclusive and connected to each other the goal of the program is to end social isolation the
063program say something started includes lessons on how to emphasize with others to seek help when needed identify problems and analyze situations in an ethically responsible manner both programs were offered at no cost to the school district we just started I think it was last week is the say something program that was offered to uh to all the uh I guess the middle schools had it I think the high schools have it coming up as well next and feedback I've heard so far has all been positive relative to the program um another way that we communicate with students is through our Anonymous alerts app and program that's available both online and Via a app we have posters hanging up inside the schools there's also QR codes so somebody could actually scan and then if they want
064to report something it'll go directly to that specific school that administrator depending on the level of information if it's something that's deemed possibly an immediate threat it goes also to the police department and we all work together to reach a logical conclusion and try and you know figure out what's going on the technology is designed to provide two-way communication allowing students and staff to acknowledge receive the message so we can communicate back and forth with somebody real time when an incident is is going on all school principals make students staff and caregivers aware of the tool and educate students about the importance of reporting safety issues the anonymity of the approach encourages those who feel feel vulnerable to speak up without fear of reprisal I will say that you know the program it's been here
065a number of years and it's still actively being used all the time even throughout the summer time we've gotten alerts you know when I went to school I won't say how long ago but you know kids communicated a little differently you know and you know kids don't necessarily pick up a phone call a phone you know when they're in crisis it might be through snapchat or whatever I know maybe I'm out of date with that now too but you know with our series of pictures um you know when they're not feeling well and you know other kids are reporting like hey my friend you know you know I'm worried about them you know what can we do and I tell you as soon as they report it you know we'll we'll start talking to each
066other and we'll figure out a plan and decide the best course of action and we're happy to have those open lines of communication with students and and staff so it's been a highly successful program and I also wanted to mention that another point that I didn't mention is our mental health professionals also we use a proactive risk assessment tool if we do see a risk that needs to be assessed by a professional it is a it is a tool that was brought to us that a uh a person is able to complete uh I'm sorry is done by trained and certified Behavior Specialists who can use any available information regarding the risk factors the warning signs that the person is exhibiting any stabilizing factor in the person's life to arrive at a categorical risk level
067so that helps us to understand what our next actions are so all of this work really is on The Human Side of getting to know people to imp to give students the tools they need to report or to to self-report to help with others and to um to strengthen but that's only one part of our approach of course we have our buildings themselves and I'm going to turn it over again to Eric to talk about our site assessment sure a couple of security updates um that we've been implementing throughout the district one of which I'll start with is our new informacast system we started with Connor High School which is going to be our pilot school it's a new lockdown system that's a more efficient and allow lockdowns a more efficient effective manner it's a
068mass notification system that uses both audio and visual alerts to inform people of a event occurring inside the school the new system one of the key advantages it allows immediate two-way communication between the school and the police department via 9-1-1 so it's a dramatic improvement over um our older system we have in there so we've tested it several times over the summer and it's worked great I'd like to you know thank our I.T Department that's been working alongside of us the throughout the hallway in the West Hartford Police Department so the way it would work is somebody would press a button and it's a domino effect that would trigger depending on what the alert would be in the school we will have a Visual Alert so for areas like cafeterias where there might be you
069know people talking tech ed rooms where people have headgear on though you'll see a visual strobe to alert them to maybe you know take their headgear off and listen for a message it also establishes two-way communication immediately via 911 with the West Hartford emergency dispatch so they could listen in or you could talk directly if they're able to and explain what the emergency is inside the school so the system will be tested and evaluated during our first lockdown down shortly and it's going to be rolling out to all the other schools throughout this school year another another thing we've worked on over the summer our continuous Improvement at the entrances to each building this summer we installed a Access Control vestibule up at norfelt school so upon entry into the school visitors are allowed into
070a waiting area where they could be visually identified by School staff before being granted access into the main office Norfolk we've also installed additional cameras inside the school area throughout the district new external doors and window upgrades were installed this summer also um related to training and drills we have state mandates that we have to do regarding drills we try and go above and beyond that you know with the way we do it through constant training um with our guards our teachers our students and the West Hartford Police Department um you know assistant chief Rick abon and I talked over the summer it's the first time we really partnered to this level but we actually trained at the beginning of the school year with all of our school security guards we trained at the West
071Hartford Police Department for a full day of training in the training room um a couple things that we covered included cross-agency training consisting of updates to recent active shooter events including Lessons Learned From the tragic Uvalde shooting we did a debrief and after action with uh with all of the guards we also received updated Medical Response training on bleed control and tourniquet application up at St Bridget's school so we did some really live training there's also a a physician who's also a parent in the community that gave his time and volunteered to help out as well so it was a great combined training effort I'd like to thank everybody involved relative to that um we also trained School leaders just recently West Hartford police came over and we did a after action similar to what
072we just trained with all the security guards related to the events that occurred in Uvalde again each one of these tragic events there's information that can be learned from them and we try and look at you know the way we're doing things how we can improve and self-evaluate and ways to improve so we just recently did that and again thanks to the West Hartford Police Department for that we're in the process of updating the district wide all Hazard Emergency Operations plan which is submitted to the state of Connecticut every year it's required by State Statute and it's will be submitted before November 1st it's a collaborative effort not just with the school district with the police department and the West Hartford Fire Department and Emergency Management so our all hazards plan includes site vulnerability and
073security assessments at every school that occurs every two years and it includes all school specific emerge energy plans that we share with the the state of Connecticut and Reporting our drills back so it's um that will be submitted on time as we have been for the past several years as required by law and finally beyond our lessons and our work at sites and our mental health it is our daily interactions every day with our students and as you saw in the various contracts that came before you just a few moments ago it may be security guards it may be a school cafeteria workers it may be school counselors it may be our friends the sros or our security guards but it is in our daily interactions where we really get to know each other and
074understand each other and our in our vision for our students our vision of The Graduate that we um that we embed in all of our messaging it certainly is a multi-disciplinary approach in order to secure our schools and it is also continuous we learn every day and improve every day I'm really pleased to work with these two gentlemen um and we're we're ready for any questions here thank you so much questions Claire um question I'm sorry two good questions one is um with Anonymous alerts have you seen it um do you track the number and what kind of trend are you seeing since you put in the program as far as increase or numbers of its use well I was just actually with the high school assistant principals today and we were talking about looking
075at our data from an anonymous alerts I'm a little bit new to the position as you know so I can't speak at this moment about Trends but I could probably get you information on Trends but I can tell you they were talking about it let's look at our Trend data now versus last year so I know we can pull the data and look at it I haven't done it myself yet I can share if I can jump in for that because it's something that we've worked with for a number of years we've had it in place and there's there's been a real value to the program um not from uh you know where it's great that we're you know finding out if people are doing things wrong we're finding out if people need help and
076it's that's really been it's been great over the years it started a little slow but I would say in the last three years there really has been a a steady stream of support that we're able to identify it's being there's it's become a trusted way I think for students to share concerns that they have about a friend about something they see online because I I firmly believe that that students want that feeling of security they want that feeling of safety and they want people to know if people need help and so that's really where the values been we can certainly pull together and can send it to you about it you know we can look over the last couple of years but we've definitely seen the program's value again and again with that it's really
077been a valuable tool for us it's nice that they trust it and and over time you find out you don't get in trouble or you don't get outed for helping someone um and then just a quick I'm not sure about the data but are all building's key card EX or access and are they also um auto lock if you you know the only way in is through the key cart unless a janitorial staff might have keys correct all buildings have key card access a while back we kind of eliminated most of our physical keys because you know they can kind of get lost uh you know from year to year so we have key card access at every school building in addition to that we also provide key card access to our partners with the
078West Hartford Police Department so in an emergency they're not locked out of the building so a lot of people always ask um you know does you know can we lock the doors yes but we also have to let our First Responders in to come to emergency if we're handling an emergency or you know in a lockdown situation so not only does West Hartford Police have access to our buildings via key cards which is part of their ID that they carry on them they also have access to our camera system when needed so in an emergency they could look in the camera if there's a report of something going on and they could live stream an incident that you're they're not monitored routinely but when there's an incident going on they could look in and evaluate
079what's going on and then kind of decide how how they need to respond actually if you ever when you're out of school if you are around outside and you notice that some doors have a blue piece of tape uh at the door that indicates the doors that have the key card access for First Responders yeah we try and make it uh you know each building sometimes I don't even know when you look at a building because each building has its own unique design and shape so what we want to do is make it an expedited uh entry into the building so when a police officer you know that might come from a different part of town or not you know be familiar with that particular school they could quickly scan the building and identify this
080is the key card access point that I can get into the building so that's uh part of why we did that uh you know that numbering or um you know color coding system other questions comments sorry yes I just had a quick question about the new um lockdown Mass notification system in in formicast who initiates the um the lockdown like who who has access I was just thinking because when you were saying like I mean that do the student if something happens and a student is present are they able to do that or notify I just didn't know how the system kind of what triggers the system So eventually when a system is rolled out key stakeholders which will be school staff primarily mainly like administrative staff will have the ability to activate it in
081the office and they'll also have remote access as well via their phone there will be some built-in safeguards obviously because if somebody has a young child and they happen to be on a day off and they're you know going through and looking watching Sesame Street we certainly don't want them to click and put Conor into lockdown so we've we've looked into that as well we also are going to have access with the West Hartford Police Department so if an emergency is going on that we might not know about it like the next street over there's an imminent threat the police department will be able to access and put the school into secure the school or secure this classroom or into lockdown as well so they will all have that and also all staff are trained
082that they can call a lockdown from their classroom via the traditional PA system because in the event a system like this fails for whatever reason or it's the current Tech technology we don't want them to have to rely on calling the office they could self-report because if they're on the other side of a large building and there's something that they're observing they are trained to access the PA system and call the lockdown first because it's important to get everybody into their safe spots and then you know notify the proper authorities from there thank you other questions come instead yes two questions how many of our schools have the Man Trap system right now and how many do we have left to get that installed so that's three three left three left if I believe I'm
083counting off the top of my head three I think yeah yeah three left and those are in the works I imagine we have um various Solutions in in development for each of those yes thank you um and I I wanted to just um call out assistant chief ricobon uh thank you for being here and you're um a household name in our house when my kids were really little they would come home and say officer rickabon came to school today um so it's nice to see the partnership I wanted to ask you what how quickly can the police get to each of our schools if needed do you know what the like approximate arrival time would be our average response time for any emergency calls is about two and a half to three minutes thank you
084so now we can also add uh and Eric can share instances where we an alarm has been set off accidentally and we've had a much faster response time uh by the police to the point where we had to have someone out front waving them off before uh when we had a principal who didn't know what a button did and pressed it number of times and then wondered why everybody was calling and showing up on it the elevator didn't come you keep pushing the button no no so yeah but but we're we're very I mean we're very blessed and I think that goes to a larger conversation when people ask occasionally that the question comes up about responses and security guards being armed and such like that and I think it's a very different conversation in
085West Hartford with the partnership and with the the work that we've done with the West Hartford Police and responding and and just the number of of of officers that they have on patrol at any given time as as a resource versus a community be where there may be a 10 to 15 minute response time and I think we're very we're very lucky we're very blessed to have an instant communication Eric and I work very closely and and as well very closely with West Hartford Police and uh working very closely on a day-to-day basis when there's when there's things that are happening in the community we're aware Eric constantly monitors uh radio contact and really we're just we're able to have that close partnership and I think everyone is really on the same page with that
086and we're very lucky to have that foreign just a question you mentioned that the um I don't remember the exact title but calling students notifying you that there's an issue who gets those calls because I think back to the um incident in Florida several years ago where calls were made but nobody responded and I realized I went I guess to the FBI but I was just curious who's managing it or so you're referencing the anonymous alerts reporting who when they're reporting information yeah so the anonymous alerts app is while it's you know we state that it's not monitored 24 7. we try and build enough of a kind of Dragnet that there is always somebody that kind of catch you know catches it I've had conversations like sometimes with uh you know Dr Morrow at
087like you know one in the morning and he answers his phone I'm like okay that was quick and I'm like did you happen to see that so um it's District specific it's categorized so if somebody you know and not trying to diminish with somebody reports but if somebody reported just like a minor incident that occurred on the bus that'll go directly to the school administrative staff who will be able to handle it in the morning but it is there is a level of Tears built in there so if somebody you know deemed something like an imminent threat it goes not only to the school it goes to our administrative staff here and it goes to the West Hartford Police Department so a lot of times a couple times you know something might have been categorized
088like wrong when it was more of a minor incident and assistant chief ricobonds calling me like hey do you need our help and I'm like no we've got this covered but the way it happens now it's so you know so quick you know when an issue happens like you know innocent to happen over the summer where somebody was in crisis you know we were all talking within a minute after you know this report coming across and that person was able to get the help that they needed I'd say within you know 20 minutes of that initial alert coming across so that's how quickly it you know it worked so there is somebody constantly I realize not doing necessarily anything if it doesn't appear necessary at one in the morning but there is somebody looking at
089it yeah there's different it's not only it's it goes an email it goes to text messages over uh you know a multitude of our phones so like I said if if somebody happens to be away from their phone you know one of us you know will hopefully pick up and grab it so that's a great question because it it really I think the redundancies we've worked into this are anything that is indication that it's a risk to other students or risk to someone to someone's self uh my friend is posting online that they're that they're going to hurt themselves things like that that goes directly regardless of time goes directly to us goes directly then to the to the front office or the the manned the man post with the police at night my question
090was more is does somebody sort of own it for you know whatever period of time as opposed to it sort of has to have somebody pick up on it well all these passive once sort of assertive type of well it it's owned by the fact that if if I don't see it if Eric doesn't see it if the principal the assistant principles and and about three other people don't see it the police will also get the indication and see so you're all getting the same message correct initially yeah so there's nobody routing it through no it's it's coming to multiple people at the same time and normally what will happen is we'll call each other okay and and that really is very very helpful and um and uh I I can't I can't tell you
091how quickly Eric will call did you see that did you see that Anonymous schools on it they're doing it nothing to do at this point I think what uh Andy and Andy said is it's a redundant system so it's going to many many people and um we're talking very very quickly and certainly those High Level Threats or high level actions um they're also going to the police department and that's really really helpful okay thank you it I just also wanted to say that you know I I felt such great partnership with the the PD this year I was able to attend their training in their training room and and officer assistant chief Rick Cabana was there his team was terrific um from uh the uh Lieutenant lejure who works with us and and uh the
092staff over at St Bridget our security guards were all there and I I felt that partnership is really crucial on as one of the prongs of this approach is that it's such a good relationship and really thank you very much for having for what you do and for what your team does and I wanted to give you an opportunity to say anything because you haven't spoken too much tonight I like to listen first before I respond I was taught that by very wise grandmother of mine um if you listen to everything that was said tonight from the start of this meeting till this point this entire Community is based on relationships stronger the relationship the stronger the program you heard cafeteria workers that had relationships and custodians and it's the same thing that we own
093here as well it's the relationship that we've had with the school district we've been in the school since the 1970s this is not something new to West Hartford West Hartford was a Pioneer in this and the safety of the students that you see before you safety of every child in this town is Paramount to everything that we do that we decide that we Implement that we execute whatever word you want to put in there that's what we're doing each and every day every time an incident comes in we'll sit down we'll talk about it we'll make sure that we put the policies and procedures in place not to wait but to get ahead of something we don't like to wait we want to try to get ahead of something because when parents drop their children
094off at school we want to make sure they feel they know that they're safe and again the relationship that we have is what drives us every single day so on behalf of the pdate thank you to the students that thank you to the board Town Council everyone that supports us that's how we get things done and that's why people feel safe in the West Hartford School District so thank you for everything I appreciate it yes even so let me put the question a different way is there anything else you guys need or anything we can help with where everything's wonderful well as I think I said in the end it's daily work and it's continuous Improvement and it's learning and I think from our from every aspect of the school district we are always questioning
095you know what else can we be doing so our in talking to Liz you at today about budget and and positions and what we have to do on that side or talking to Eric about um maybe the next the next school safety feature it's just the work is never going to be done it's constantly keeping our eye on on the work and knowing that as as assistant chief Rick Avon said we all know it is relationships with our students getting and speaking with them every day and getting them to speak with us so it's I'm sure we will let you know if we have major things coming but it is continuous continuous work Jason yeah I want to thank uh uh everyone for the Partnerships the relationships uh the health and safety of our kids
096uh there's nothing uh more important than that um and yeah I wanted to ask um about a different kind of uh like a threat awareness because conscious of the ways that online speech online behaviors can be a kind of indication for for other violence or can be a precursor for for other threats and um and I'm wondering what kinds of awareness the police department has or other folks or the or the school system has for uh for the presence of that kind of online activity that's directed at the school district or at students or they're having individual experiences um it may not be sourced from another student or another you know another person within the school Community but outside of the school community and I'm wondering if that is is a part of the the
097um the practices put in place um I can I can speak with you about the uh the schools are very aware the assistant principles and principals are very aware of online uh online issues that are brought to their attention because they are brought to their attention very quickly um when things are going on between kids among kids in the schools it is spread online very quickly and they they get involved very they're very quick to respond because the students will show them what's happening and the students will and and I was as I said today I was meeting with the assistant principals today and that was one of the topics we can't completely control it but we can address it all the time and what kind of behaviors are not acceptable and what kind of
098behaviors need being addressed and being remediated and and in some cases held accountable so for student to student kinds of issues um this is it's part of everyday life unfortunately in schools that they'll see things and they'll be working on them and they're very clear that that kind of interaction is is inappropriate against school policy another couple ways that we communicate you know we talked a little bit about the anonymous alerts which also has the availability of kids to share links videos other things which has been very helpful in the past so you know if somebody's posting something inappropriate we could actually look directly at that as well um you know we communicate I almost I communicate almost daily with my liaison at the police department um you know we were faced like with the
099tick tock challenges and everything that have been going around Connecticut through Department of Homeland Security has what is called CTIC or the Connecticut Intelligence Center I get briefings daily and weekly regarding that as well as the police department so if there's any sort of emerging Trends or any information that's going on that information is shared and you know we could talk it out amongst ourselves as far as like the best way of handling it from the police department's point of view it's a three-pronged approach first of all the school district does a great job with the curriculum because I had the pleasure of teaching in the schools for six years as officer friendly through the elementary and the middle schools so the curriculum that's been implemented by the West Hartford School District where you're addressing
100I'll give you an example Internet safety and social media when I first started teaching that that was all the way in the ninth grade Curriculum by the time I left the community relations division it was in the fifth grade so it shows you how we're always assessing what's going on so what's being taught in the schools is number one number two is relationships again the relationships the students have with our sros our community resource officers the teachers because that's how we get the Intel and the info something's happening a student trusts somebody they go and they let them know and that filters its way back up and then the last thing I'll place it back on the parents so the parents have to be involved parents have to know what their kids are looking at
101what their kids are sending out what their kids are texting so it's just not the people in this room to keep this community safe it's everyone that's saying stuff tonight and the parents that are watching at home because they're your children right so you should know what they're doing what they're on what's on their phone what's not on their phone and what they're doing on the computer so when they find stuff out as we look through some of the incidents that happening around the country parents didn't know and if they that information got passed on that they were on inappropriate sites if they were texting something if they were bullying if you give that to the appropriate people especially here in West Hartford we can help out we have a lot of resources I if
102I could just piggyback up for a second on that I think one of the the best uh interventions that we've probably had in the last five years and I think Eric would would agree uh as he was really integral in in developing this as well with uh our pupil services department is the proactive risk assessment tool that we have and it came from that need of well someone did a someone posted something online that we think is threatening to other students or someone has been identified as as oftentimes through through online Behavior because frankly people feel for whatever reason uh Freer to perhaps say and do things online that they would in person and when we become aware of that I think with the the proactive risk assessment tool the best thing it did was
103it brings together the people that we need to make sure we have that complete picture of a student and of a situation I've seen proactive risk assessments once completed that are over 20 pages we bring together the police we bring together the student the parents the teachers the records we bring together outside contacts we interview friends we really get that sense of what's going on here and what is really the risk level and we make that determination with the team and so I think in the past as the assistant chief alluded to there's been gaps not here but certainly in other places where someone knew that this was a problem and that information wasn't conveyed or wasn't getting to the right people we make very sure that before we make an assessment that someone is
104is safe or unsafe that we have the information that we need and I think that's been an incredible Tool uh for us and I think it's it's really made us made us feel better about a lot of situations and that we're taking that time to to work with mental health experts and to really have a sense of was this a really just a bad choice Made In the Heat of a moment due to anger or is this something that is is much more indicative of the possibility of someone who may be a long-term a long-term threat to himself herself or uh or other students so I think that's very positive foreign thank you uh Claire yes um I I appreciate your comment about the parents I'm just wondering what has the district done or can
105the district do to um help the parents become a little more Savvy because the kids are so Savvy and um apps and understanding because some of the things that kids are doing with technology we we don't understand anymore and to monitor or to have some kind of understanding are there parent education programs through the PTO or anything to help parents out I have been aware of some programs in the past both through a community of concern which has done quite a few different programs for all types of issues that might relate to this topic as well as principals have set out in many things in newsletters and I know there have been parent presentations in the past that have to check on how recently they were but I know there have been in the past
106and certainly the weekly newsletters are always opportunities to share information about programming that's coming up and as I say I know community of concern has been great on all kinds of mental health issues all kinds of safety issues and that goes out to our parents regularly you like to piggyback on that uh it was probably pre-covered but we did have representatives from the West Hartford Police and the state come in I believe is at KP um that we did a whole social um you know basically online um you know awareness for parents that way was very well attended um that was right before the pandemic hit we're also have plans this year we've already have dates on the calendar that we're going out and with the West Hartford Police Department meeting with the each individual
107school and parents and ptos and having those discussions with them as well since we're kind of getting back in the group settings again so that's one of the things that we have on the calendar that we're doing this year other questions comments thank you so much for the presentation thank you so much too don't leave just yet just want to say thank you so much as well just hearing with you sharing and presenting how you are essentially are on call um and and that is greatly appreciated um those are things that may not often be spoken of but we recognize that and thank you so much for your dedication in that regard and assistant chief ricobon um thank you for your service thank you for all that you do and may I ask I really
108appreciate you highlighting the importance of relationships and and all of the the levels of tears that play a role and in what helps sustain the partnership the relationships may I be intrusive and ask for you and if you don't care to respond that's okay what motivates you and I say that because you you seem there seems to be a level of of commitment that's more than just a job and then with you also talking about teaching as well helping to educate I'm just curious what uh what inspires you okay first of all I'm off probation so I can speak freely now the chief Frick will be happy I've been a coach for 31 years I've been blessed with having great teachers in my life that probably without them I wouldn't be able to be in
109the position that I'm sitting in today uh and I and I know for a fact that our society is only as good as the students we have in our schools right we keep going so we have to pass that torch on to the next group behind us and when I came to West Hartford I knew that when I applied to be a community resource officer for six years and teach in the schools that was done with purpose to understand what's going on and I think there's no greater gift than I say this with my swim team and the parents when I have my parent meetings uh when a parent gives you the trust of their child there's no greater gift when they dropped them off at the schools and they dropped them off at sports
110programs and they are saying I trust you with my child what are the great there's no other greater gift than that and then to watch them grow up in my sport of swimming I can get the kid on my team at seven and watch him grow up till 18. there's not a lot of sports you can do that and sharing those life experiences so when I see that I know it and like I said the West Hartford Police Department allowed me that venue to go and teach but then also be out there in the community because it is a special Community It's a Wonderful community and to have a positive impact on a young adult's life like I said what other greater gift there's there thank you and you get choked up there that we
111will say thank you so much again take care stay blessed and we'll be in touch thank you and as we make the transition we will move on to Personnel actions and we will welcome Mr giulio Duarte to share the reports please foreign [Music] good evening again so um our Personnel report can be found on page 10 of your packet as you know the district policy requires that we update the board every month on any change that we have for our certified staff both teachers and administrators again I know that I covered this during our opening schools report so I'll just provide you with a quick rundown of the data all of the changes that you see here are really reflective actually of May so you'll see some additional folks in there and the difference here
112too is you'll see the specifics for different folks that we hired and some of their educational background and things like that but the the overarching numbers as you can see in the reporters that we had 26 resignations three leaves of absence and eight retirements we also hired 71 contracted teachers 24 interim teachers eight administrators and three interim administrators and again the difference between a contracted teacher and an interim teacher is it a contracted teacher or someone who we've hired and we plan on having them here long term and supporting their growth through the process where as a interim teacher is here again we're certainly supporting them through the process but they're filling in for someone that's out on leave for whatever reason that may be so again I'd be happy to answer any questions that
113the board may have teammates questions comments all right oh pardon me Claire yes um I I was just curious about there's about 15 16 teachers on step two is that sometimes their first year teaching but yet they come in with some background uh no so actually if you look at the current the new teacher contract there is no step one so the contract that we agreed to actually removed that step one so all of the teachers coming in are on step two [Applause] it does feel better though when I'm meeting with them we're going to put you on step two I think it's great that many first-year teachers and it's also you know you're kind of equal between the teachers with many years of experience so as a a teacher with background you can still
114get a job in West Hartford because some districts say oh you're too high on the stat scale but yet we also bring in brand new teachers so it's a nice balance yeah I appreciate you pointing that out and I think that's something that I've been really proud of our principals and everyone that's on all of our hiring committees I'm really just doing a good job of looking at what they need for that specific position and what that team sort of uh may be missing and what would be the right fit and that varies depending on the other players on that team and so again we've got I think a really good mix of you know individuals that are coming out of college and bring a different sort of experience level where we've also got some
115folks that have been you know veteran staff members in different districts can also bring a different lens too and so I think that really is what lends itself to a rich environment and at the end of the day really transitions to excellent practitioners in the classrooms and other roles that we have other questions comments all right thank you so very much moving on now to routine matters approval of the minutes approval of the minutes from the September 6 2022 regular Board of Education meeting seeking a motion that the Board of Education approved the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting of September the 6th 2022. so moved thank you Jason is our second thank you Ari any discussion all ready for the vote all in favor say aye aye opposed extensions the eyes have
116it thank you now on to information and reports do we have any reports from board members regarding other board matters or organizations seeing none other information and discussions not at this time on to Future business announcement of future meeting dates Tuesday October the 18th 2022 will be our next meeting right here at the Town Hall in room 314 followed by Tuesday November the 1st 2022 at 7 pm right here again at the Town Hall and Then followed by Tuesday November the 15th 2022 here at the Town Hall at seven o'clock do we have a request for any future agenda items seeing none do we have any visitors here that would like to make a comment seeing none we do have an executive session and I am seeking a motion pursuant to section 1-210 B10 of
117the Freedom of Information Act I move that we enter into executive session to discuss Communications privileged by the attorney-client relationship is there a second seconded thank you all in favor hi hi any pose the eyes have it and in doing so asking for would like to invite attorney Dallas Dodge Dr Murrow an assistant attorney Cynthia LaTour to attend the executive session so we will pause at this time could I make one suggestion yes um you might want to indicate if you could that we won't be returning back except just to close the meeting afterwards and obviously the students can all right ABS absolutely yes thank you so while we depart to go to the executive session we will be coming back just to gavel out and state the time but while we are in executive
118session students please go be students and we'll see you the next time going to pause for now yes [Applause]