Board of Education Hybrid Meeting of October 20, 2020

001you thank you over 82.00 three people i can make it go either way thank you good evening i'd like to call the meeting to order it's 702. uh welcome to the west hartford public schools board of education meeting for tuesday october 20th it is 7 p.m um cammy can you call the roll please present [Music] here yes we are um we are starting the meeting now so you'll only hear me so we're going to go ahead to the pledge of allegiance now okay can i just ask a quick question i'm trying to watch it on whp.org it should be on now i'm getting the we're just double checking before we start the pledge thank you yeah it's still cycling the little pink wheel is like we're checking thanks for letting us know we're streaming are

002you on whctv.org yeah it could be an internet issue on your end yeah i'm trying it on two different computers it's still a black screen with a little white circle going around them in the middle but i can listen okay great thank you very much thank you okay uh lily could you lead us in the pledge please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we do not have a revision to the agenda order so we are going to move ahead to public communications and as a reminder board members do not respond to the comments provided by the public individuals who have signed up will be called first and in the order

003in which they signed up after we go through those who signed up if anybody else is on the call and would like to speak you'll let me know you'll have three minutes per individual 21 minutes per topic matter and the first person um is karen sack karen are you on if not we will move on to the next person who is marina creed marina are you on the call if you are going to hit star six if you were on mute before if not we'll move on to um wilmot dennis good evening good evening uh so i was just you know uh kind of like joining just to hear more and just kind of you know share my own kind of concerns about the hybrid with the merger that i got the email from the

004school unfortunately i don't receive emails from the office of the superintendent i'm not sure why i would like to kind of see that if that's possible my concern is just the fact that you know the whole pandemic you know is still here we're seeing some increase throughout our state and now we're told that there's going to be the uh merging of the two hybrid groups and so my worry or concern has been the classroom capacity now i was still you know it's going to be 22 or more students and so it worries me because i'm not sure if it's six feet you know because i was still 16 is just what cbc recommends but it's not required and so the school is telling me that the deaths are going to be between four to five

005feet so now these kids come in and i mean the district has done a great job in terms of like you know bringing them in on week one and week two with regards to less students in the class and so that's why i chose you know the hybrid style for like week one and then week two online and i know other districts too have done two days monday tuesday or thursday friday but we have done five days which is great now to see that these kids are coming back you know to full capacity it troubles me you know to kind of know one the classroom is not you know fully spacious enough so that takes people more that again is saying and then listening to some of these doctors and scientists who are saying the

006camaraderie of more people in a condensed place it just it troubles me you know and so i know again we've been praying for the school people principals superintendent staff our own children our own community that things go as well but i'm appealing that if we can instead of like keep the hybrid going for five days week one and then week two home that'll be great you have two kids one in elementary one in middle school thank you thank you for your comments uh is there anyone else on the call who would like to make comments this evening okay we are going to move ahead then to unfinished business we don't have any unfinished business new business no new business and staff communications and reports and we'll move to the superintendent's report thanks superintendent's report is

007the same as it is every day is this is one long coveted groundhog day um we'll talk a little bit about um where we are with plans and his callers good emails and i want people to understand that i don't take any um email offering an opinion as oppositional or as this is this is part of the dialogue that we need to have about where we are and where we should be and we've known that if we're when we announce we're going to be in hybrid that there are people that are upset about us being in hybrid when we're going back there are people that don't think we should be going back i get it i think one of the important things to note is that i want to move it away from kind of

008a decision into more a reflection of the numbers and the recommendations of the state and we're still in that place where we're not in a hot zone the numbers um last week ticked up they switched to a two-week rolling average even with that two-week rolling average andy and i did the because you can do the numbers by day just looking at the governor's report from west hartford there was really a three-day stretch about 10 days ago that created a spike and it was you know i know from discussing things the health district there was a couple unique family situations we had a cluster in one family that led to increased numbers basically you want to stay between to stay where we are between five and nine cases a day would basically keep west hartford between

009four and nine four and eight cases per day over a two week average would keep us into that um yellow zone um where um where we are right now um and where we're going tomorrow with our elementary students coming back which is um i think we need to remember that that has been a stated goal from the beginning to get elementary students back if the health metrics said they could and we wanted to watch the beginning of the year to see how safe it was while we've had cases at all levels we have had zero spread across the levels masking is working the mitigation strategies with our ventilation systems that we've spoken about is working and yes one of the mitigation strategies is smaller classes that's that's the whole essence of the hybrid at what

010cost is that mitigation strategy is something we have to think about the hours in school and kids coming together every day so that's certainly something that we weigh with the indicators which we've put on our website as people are familiar with now but there's certain things that i think that are the other reasons why we started in a hybrid so we could learn from other places the south started before we did the american south which there are some parallels for us area towns smaller towns started earlier than we did and they've started coming back i was on a call today with 28 area superintendents their discussion was pretty clear that what they're seeing is basically what we have seen that while there are cases there's not spread in their schools and a lot of them

011have class sizes that are actually far larger than our class size at the elementary level that's the other thing i want to stress is that our class size at the elementary level are basically 22 in a few cases and below the average class size is into the teens we say we can't guarantee six feet because we can't we can guarantee you know as much space as we can get but really at the elementary level we do contact tracing at the high school and middle school level because of movement we would if somebody's in quarantine it has to do with their distance away for 15 minutes or more andy school principals will go out and measure the desks in the locations people were before we send out notifications as we assist the west hartford bloomfield health

012district in contact tracing now some of the things that people want as extra mitigation strategies i get the plastic stand up tri-folds that we got for our k2 students i want to remind people we got those early on and there's a lot of things we ordered in may that if we had to go back now we might say okay was that the best investment we ordered those purely because we were afraid of masking with little kids that everybody was telling us little kids masks won't stay on so you want another mitigation strategy for these basically we were wrong the little kids have masked exceptionally well and i really think that's the story as to keeping transmission down within our schools we may at some point end up back in hybrid for the elementary i wouldn't

013be surprised there could be spikes so large if we enter the red zone we're looking at national average we're looking at state averages there could be bad news coming it could be a bad winter i accept that i understand that but we also have to look at west hartford's numbers and looking at it day by day and west hartford's test positivity rate is still under two as of the as of this past week's numbers and when you track by this week we look at the numbers on this friday this is something we're going to have to make rolling decisions i want to give parents plenty of notice if anything's going to shift that's why we try to roll things out i think it's really important but at the same time i think we have to

014continue with a goal of getting as many kids in school every day as we can and continuing to engage at the november 4th meeting we'll discuss kind of what hybrid 2.0 would look like at the secondary levels and how we shift because the fact is we see numbers rising that's certainly true at the high school the pure number of students there's not a school system our size that has that many students in at the high school level so that's something we're looking at how do we make it better i'm not saying we won't be in person i think as i've said all along i guarantee at this point this year at some point we'll be in all with all students at some point we'll be in hybrid and there's a chance at some point would

015be in virtual even if it just for a very short time period i think we're going to utilize all those strategies before the end of the year so really we're excited to have people back but any first day comes with trepidation we saw that at the beginning the school year with trepidation we understand and i completely understand parents that have concerns parents that are worried when they see the numbers in connecticut continue to grow to continue to go up we spoke at the ptc last night the parent-teacher council i was glad for ari to be there and we talked about how if there's safety health concerns that's a district responsibility we haven't said no to any spending as long as that's a recommendation from the health district so even you know just to make clear

016to people when we're contact tracing if somebody had that shield on their desk that's not considered a mitigation strategy at this point um that would not be a factor in any decision about contact tracing so i do want to make that clear to people because sometimes there's there's this feeling of well i feel like we should do this and i've just tried to move away from how i feel and tried to look at what the numbers and what people are saying and by the way two experts can disagree i've gotten emails from doctors that tell me you're crazy to be in hybrid i've had email from doctors saying you're crazy not to be in hybrid so this is just we're reliant on the department of public health because again i feel like i deserve at

017least an honorary degree in public health now but i still don't have one so that's where we are right now but realistically i think that there's a lot of kinks being worked out we're looking at our um conference schedule we're extending that out a little bit in november working that out with families so we can have discussions about kids there's a certain normalcy to the year and i think it's really important that we get kids in together as much as we can while we can so we're looking forward to that the area districts that have done it have reported that by day two it's kind of back into the flow of what's happening so um looking forward to this happening um though i know it comes with trepidation there's a lot of anxiety that i

018hope our anxiety can begin to wane as time goes on and as we head into the winter and ari was exceptionally well spoken with the ptc last night about the need for our adults to help us in prioritizing our decisions that make school and our children their priority and that that has to do with some behavior that we've seen in town and i'm talking about adult behavior and um i'm not casting aspersions i'm not placing blame but we have to sacrifice we have to make sacrifices so that our kids are safe and if that means that we can't crowd around the way we might like to with our friends that's a shame but our kids being in school is worth it so um hopefully um i've explained some of those issues and some of the

019things that callers have had concerns with so with that happy to answer any questions tom i i think um i think i can say it's a natural trend for colleges is to come home at thanksgiving depending on their tri-semesters and things like that but in that area and then not go back until after the holiday breaks in january having said that and you know there's a lot of reasons why they're doing that um given that potentially have spikes if these spikes come i think it's safe to say or there's an argument that they could come from holiday gatherings and such and is there any way or any thought process that maybe after the thanksgiving holiday and the winter holidays that maybe you go hybrid a week after for both and just in the abundance of

020caution so that um we're that much you know because i could just see it you know your national trend okay it's holidays colleges are coming back so that's a big hot zone and things like that and if you could mitigate that somehow for us here in west hartford that might be something to look at yeah no actually mark i brought that up um we're going to look at what the next few weeks show and we're going to see what happens both in west heart from within the state i this discussion all of us superintendents had today frankly a lot of us would like to see a state move this way because for one time to do it another time not to do it doesn't really do what we're trying to do as a state um

021most people would suggest and there's a lot of people that are talking about could be hybrid some people are suggesting that the two weeks after a break and two weeks after thanksgiving i mean we have thousands of kids coming back to west hartford at that point from all over the country we know that and so there is discussion about is that a time where you would go virtual for two weeks um and that you wouldn't be in at all during that time and that would be virtual learning it's a discussion i'm not i'll be honest with you i'm not saying i'm for it i'm not saying i'm against it because it depends on numbers depends on trends and it depends if the health department would come out and say and advise something like that it

022intuitively makes sense to me and i'm glad you bring it up because it's something that a lot of us are talking about i'd like there to be some general leadership from the state on that but i'm not i'm not banking on that happening um so it's something we might we certainly might be talking about before thanksgiving so having said that i'm glad you guys are thinking about it is that you already mentioned it that all over the country kids will be coming back to west hartford so not only does the state really have to be involved but on a national level so if we have a you know we use notre dame or caltech whatever right you know and there's hot zones louisiana wherever we may have to take different precautions not only out of

023state right and you know if there's certain states that are hitting a hot zone before and that those schools are coming back somehow we've gotta take that into account so i don't know how you do that but yeah i i agree i think it's i think there is something we have to look at because we i mean you know i do that report for you guys every year which i just realized i haven't done yet this year i've been a little busy on where all of our kids went to school i know like a you um but but you know last year's graduating class at hall 53 i know that off the top my head chosen out of state college and so you're looking at that at connor i think it was 48 so we

024have kids from virginia carolina florida texas arizona california washington we know they're all across the country and so as they come back and they're on that break and we understand why the colleges did it from thanksgiving on it is something that more and more the districts are certainly talking about and i i hope there's some um state-level guidance on that liz [Music] well we're on the subject of holidays has there been anything released from the town or from the school district about how the kids should celebrate halloween yeah i i'm i'm in calls on wednesdays and um with the mayor and um the town manager and they're handling that with the governor's advice and when they asked me about them basically was you guys get to handle halloween thankfully um so there is i know

025andy is at ed 12 sedgwick morning cedric 10 to 12 saturday morning of the halloween weekend there's going to be a drive-through thing which i think they're just beginning to be in the process of announcing flyers will be coming out so there there will be a lot from the town and we'll partner with the town certainly and sharing that out with the community and with the other schools in our community just so the town's message can be out there i think everybody's kind of waiting what happens before anybody says okay this is exactly what we're doing on halloween to make sure we know where the numbers are at that point no catapults amanda [Music] thank you would you mind clarifying a bit more about the plans you're thinking for middle and high school i know

026you touched upon it but it was when the computer kicked in yeah i'm sorry um so middle and high school our numbers um that by den of being the ninth or tenth largest district in the state puts us at um significant numbers and while we want to plan for a return and we are still planning for a return we're planning at the same time um for hybrid 2.0 and i don't want to go too far down the road because paul's currently planning with he had a meeting with the scheduling team today where we can increase class time for those students and as we talked about during i think the last meeting last presentation getting increased class time incorporating streaming more than we have but still i'll be honest the sticking point is trying to find

027a way for that check-in for the kids that aren't physically present that week and trying to pair that with the streaming so we've got a couple things contractually that we have to look at where we have to provide teachers x time here we've got to make sure we can provide travel time for the people that are between middle and high school um during the day today i can tell you if the day started with andy actually last night andy and paul met and put together a scenario we talked for an hour about that today paul brought it back to the high school committee they found a problem with it right away he redesigned something else and sent it to me 20 minutes before the meeting then came into my office to ask me what i

028thought of it and i told them get out of my office um so tomorrow morning at 10 we have another meeting about that and so i would say on the november 5th november 4th board meeting before then we'll communicate something out about what this will look like but it kind of it dovetails nicely with the following week being kind of the second quarter beginning for us to roll out differences then whether it be if the numbers got really good and we could look towards in person great or if we can look to how we're shifting our hybrid at secondary level so i would expect the next meeting we'll share more information on that all right thank you and just one follow-up question we'll when we'll be we'd be talking in more in depth about the

029remote learning because i know there's people who have a lot of questions about that and they understand tonight's the community's mind is on bringing the little ones back tomorrow um and then knowing that you're still in the process of the hybrid 2.0 for the other levels but when can i expect to hear or to have a more robust discussion about how that's going we can do a presentation in november um probably the second meeting in november talking about where we are what we've learned and how things are going and moving forward so we can put that on the agenda i wanted to well i've been uh thinking about the emails that we get for the board and hearing other rental concerns about about going full in person on tomorrow and i'm wrestling with with those

030concerns as well as hearing about other about the degree of transmission in the community among adults um and and so trying to pair all these things together it made me kind of ask some questions about how you know how how you built confidence in the procedures of the school and and the mitigation strategies and to make me think of this basketball announcer jeff van gundy he says confidence is built on successful repetition and and so i feel like trust in how the schools have handled this and um and made me return to the cobit 19 return to school protocol and i really want to encourage everyone to to read through this this form because it really establishes the conditions the same conditions in which students can return back to back to school and you know

031i think that i think so i wanted to ask you about how how were these these conditions to be built and then also what are the consequences for not following these guidelines what are the consequences for uh for for not disclosing um you know information about positive tests or things like that and i appreciate the question the truth is there's no consequences um there's no consequences on the state level for not following the guidelines there's no consequences for not sharing information i can tell you 10 districts right now because we have not removed the superintendents today that are sharing zero information on their sites and they're not reporting case expect communities and there now eventually they will because the state every case we get andy sends in not just to our own website but to

032the state and the state at some point is going to release a dashboard by school and the reason it came up is because there are districts in opposition to that there are districts in the red zones that are in the red zone which is where if you're in the red zone the recommendation is close to saying you should be virtual there are some that are going virtual there are some that are still in all it um it's that's what i want to avoid because what i was going to say is that's a decision this isn't my decision this like i have to say that somebody has to make the decisions um but even that terminology we talked about last night i i i want people mad at me for this that's fine i don't want

033it to filter the principles or anybody else that's fine i use those guidelines that are issued by the state in the department of public health that we post publicly so everybody can see so that it's not really a decision i mean there are things that go on that line of decision if because if you're in a primary indicator of over 10 cases per 100 000 but your secondary indicators are a 1.4 as far as your test positivity if you know you had one spike in one week on that tuesday because a family of seven threw off your numbers and this is certainly more true in a very small community where they could explain more in west hartford levels out although we did have a couple of those situations and you know gosh next week's numbers

034because remember those numbers that are published thursday friday are lagging by four days so if you have a strong supposition that the next friday's number is going to be different you don't want to go into that in and out so you might say we're in we're looking closely and next friday if these numbers are the same we will be in hybrid that kind of thing there you're on a decision when you're cuspy we're not cuspy right now that's the thing our numbers have gone up the numbers in the state continue to go up the true number that tells you there's trouble out there is hospitalizations because hospitalizations aren't based on testing or anything else that's this many people are sick enough to go and that's doubled in the past three weeks so we know there's

035an increase in the state southeastern connecticut but again hartford's a red zone that's right next to us um so those are the kind of things that decision we have to make but for example hartford's wrestling with what to do and and i i i'm not critiquing anybody that makes a different decision i'm saying i've chosen just to be up front and kind of lay it out there that this is where we are but there could be tweaks to that based on the primary secondary tertiary indicators um the the one thing i don't want to lose um that you talked about when um this is the it goes back and ari spoke eloquently like i said about it last night there's no punishments for doing the wrong thing in your house you know what i mean

036if you're if you're doing the wrong things with a large group of people you're at home private residence there's no punishment um but we've got to move away from the notion of what's our punishment versus what's our responsibility to each other as human beings doing this and really using that one community to lift all of us up so i hope that answered thanks mine's not so much a question as it is um just a follow-up to tom um i'll stay off i'll just ask you to bring your mic up oh sorry i'll stay off the soapbox tonight um but i just think it's really important as a community what we talked about last night at the ptc meeting is you know the the mantra for the year is sorry one community one year and if

037we can look at it in a short term i think it it would just be helpful you know if we know and what what tom and andy are reporting to us is that transmission and spread is not occurring in schools where all of those mitigation strategies have been thoughtfully put in place and are being implemented so in my opinion then what we need to do is we need to look at the practices within our own community um and you know i've said this in other arenas but i fully support it in this area as well is that you know as the parents and the adults in this community we are really the role models and we set the tone for our children um so unfortunately we are the ones that have to make the sacrifices

038and make the tough decisions um for the good of our community for the safety of our children um so you know if we're not picking those priorities correctly or um acting responsible responsibly um on our level um it's hard for us to enforce that um and and have our children believe that that's the way um you know that we should be addressing this pandemic and what i've you know i've had very difficult decisions with people that are very close to me because i think as time has gone on we have really kind of loosened our idea of social distancing and i think that's why we are where we're at right now is because of those um kind of you know fatigue they call it you know coveted fatigue and and the loosening of social distancing

039and and i really believe that's why we're kind of rising back to where we were so what i've really been talking to my friends about and people at work is you know being able to really be honest with yourself and look in the mirror and say am i part of the solution here or am i part of the problem and if you can honestly tell yourself that well maybe i am part of the problem then you just have to commit to doing better um you know i think the idea with risk is if we're increasing risk by allowing our children to go back to school then we have to make sacrifices in other areas of our life it doesn't open up other areas if we want our kids back in school and education is the

040priority then we have to give up other things um for the betterment of our kids um so all right stepping down now oh and and i think that the important thing for parents and another important point for parents that we want to stress we get we have those magnets out about whether if your child feels ill make sure they stay home please make sure that but if you have close family members that are ill i know that it's probably nothing and it's probably this but we really need to keep our kids home safe until you know especially if you're waiting on a test result that test will come in and we need to make sure we keep those kids home because that's that's um that's keeping everyone else safe but it is certainly a sacrifice

041my colleague well said thank you so much and also the question you raised in terms of consequences and and i i respectfully disagree with you saying that there is no consequence i could see on the formal level there's no consequence but we certainly know there is the ultimate consequence if someone does not comply with the rules and that is going to the grave to bury someone or being in the hospital because you know of someone who's ill or who is dying and that's the ultimate consequence that all of us are responsible for so even if you may be kind of cavalier with your own family and your own children that's your choice but please don't do that and have that level of irresponsibility and hold others accountable for that because there are other members who

042are dealing with the loss are those who are ill or you have other households with children or persons themselves that have a pre-existing condition like asthma where they cannot sacrifice or or be exposed to any type of condition that could put their health further at risk so if you're choosing how you govern yourself and your household but please be responsible for others and we are a brother's keeper it does take a village to raise a child and this is something that we collectively are responsible for in the present and certainly to help us move forward in a productive and long-lived way so i don't mean to get on a soapbox to preach but this is a life or death matter and we have to keep it real and we have to be accountable for one

043another thank you i actually have just one practical question for you um one of the concerns that's been raised um about going back in full time is lunch time can you talk about what some of the options are in the elementary school classrooms for eating lunch absolutely you know the vast majority of our classrooms six foot distancing is is possible i mean our typical classes are sitting at 15 16. um but each building has a different alignment obviously so you know i have people that um comment to me and it's one of the nicest comments because it's always said with a smile i hope people still keep eating lunches outside because i love when i go by the school and i see the kids out sitting outside and picnicking with each other you know i'm

044i'm i i'm i'm ignorant of it now because you get used to it but that is a really nice thing those are the kind of things we should remember next year we should use the outdoors more than we do on a regular basis and those are the things that we should think about there's also this feeling like oh well the cafeteria like almost like the cafeteria is a bad place cafeteria is not bad play it's a really good place because it's bigger so we can space people out more when we can use that cafeteria and we can um you know still keep your cohort together where the groups are further apart um but still use that there are places where you may choose to use the gym and that's kind of why you have to

045be in to see the situation in front of you there could be situations where well we can't use the cafeteria because music's using that well music's not going to be able to use that then and we have to make those shifts so it's really and that's why i can't say and some people have asked you have a building do you have a policy we don't cause it's building by building because there are some places where it's not a problem you know on a day like today being outside great tomorrow may be rainy okay so here are the in-school mitigations and i will say that is one thing about the outside and being outside um i'm hoping for a warm winter but when it's 50 degrees out you can be outside in a coat a kid

046can be outside they're gonna be okay being outside um in that weather we have about take away rain but if you base it on temperatures we have about 10 days a year if that where we don't have outdoor recess um just based on a wind chill number um some years more some years less but those are the kind of things that hopefully um we can understand because i've you know i think i brought up last time because paul's answer was perfect somebody said what's your mitigation strategy for when it gets cold outside and paul sent a picture of a jacket because that's a mitigation strategy so those are the kind of things that those are some of the things that we're doing utilizing the space we have in the building as much as we can

047we're not using an art room you know for we're because we're not going there so is that space clear it is in one building so that's a good place is a foyer in a place possible yes it is in some places not in others so these are all the things that are building by building decisions all right thank you thank you very much we will move to staff reports and board discussions and our report tonight will be on equity advancement and so i'll invite dr rosina haskins and dr scott rashford up to present [Music] hold on just one moment i'm sorry could you please repeat that on the phone um okay so public comment is restricted to the beginning of the meeting and the end of the meeting so if you want to hang tight

048at the very end of the meeting i will ask for public comment that is um that's our board policy so i'm going to keep the computer on mute though um at this time [Music] i think he asked about asking questions this will be a public comment [Music] so good evening good evening everyone and i'm sorry to always have thanks to you uh thank you superintendent moore and to the board uh for this opportunity to share with you and the viewing public an update about our district's equity work and our plan for educational equity and anti-racism i'm going to remove my glasses because when they fog up i can't see you but i don't know if that makes a difference because without them i can't see you so i am pleased to have with me this

049evening at the ward table my colleague dr scott rashford um this summer in the reorganization of our district's equity structures scott was repositioned to the office of equity advancement and uh he brings with him sharp skills a depth of knowledge and really collaborative dispositions that make him well suited to be a thought and action partner in our office so just as a matter of general housekeeping whc tv has made this available made our powerpoint presentation available as normal for our at-home viewing public and of to board members here and my colleagues you should have a hard copy and so we'll um signal either by slide numbers or headings as we advance through our presentation so tonight we will outline um on our second slide we it frames our presentation and it begins with our vision

050for equity and anti-racism in ways that we are we aim to be more intentional in our strategies and our practices for promoting student growth for professional development for our educators and more intentional and our str in our efforts to strengthen our family and community partnerships in ways that really reach out and involve our families who have been traditionally underrepresented and underserved and and you know largely not heard and then finally we'll outline our the big picture plan for continuous improvement and accountability [Music] so before we move into this presentation content i would like to open with a native land acknowledgement but i first would like to share why i would do that land acknowledgement in the opening of programs and events is one way that we seek to understand our place in history and honor

051the indigenous peoples indigenous allyship is a large part of our work and our commitment so it seems fitting to me to uh in the context of our commitment to equity and anti-racism to open with a native land acknowledgement which i will read uh to recognize and respect indigenous peoples as traditional stewards of the land that we occupy right here so we begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather here this evening is the ancestral homeland of the tunxis syquotes wappingers and wangs they are native peoples who have stewarded this land throughout generations we thank them for their strength and resilience in protecting this land and aspire to uphold our responsibilities according to their example and i'd be remiss if i didn't acknowledge that we are very fortunate to learn from our co-founders of

052the akuma educational initiative here in connecticut [Music] so in acknowledging all that we need to there are some folks in the room we'd like to acknowledge um we begin our work knowing that we have champions who join us and who support us in the work of equity i've worked in a number of districts and it is no small matter to have a board of education and a superintendent who stand tall in the matters of equity and that have made a firm statement and a commitment a formal commitment to equity and anti-racism so we wanted to acknowledge that as a place of beginning okay so when we make a commitment we must have a mission and a shared vision um for what this looks like and so in building a vision we've been asking all of

053our stakeholders to reflect on whether our community has established a set of clear expectations practices and accountability measures a vision statement should help us all who are responsible for delivering on our promise toward equity to see and operationalize what that is and so to help us know the expectations for important work we have drafted a statement for equity and anti-racism so scott and my words matter so scott and i are going to read the equity and anti-racism vision statement for the west harbour public schools aloud we the members of west hartford public schools dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of equity equitable schools are those that value and honor all in our community as unique individuals capable of maximizing their true potential we make a solemn promise to identify and dismantle all elements of systemic racism

054and historical inequities we vow to clear paths with a relentless duty to those in traditionally marginalized groups and we pledge to partner with all families in the service of the success of each child so a good vision statement really frames and drives our work toward continuous improvement but it's also a slide that you all may not have is kind of a slide that talks about our our definition and it really just frames you know how we arrive at this common understanding and this vision statement and that is to actively mindfully identify um and oppose cultural messages and dismantle institutional policies practices in all systems of advantage and equity based on race [Music] so in our work it's important that all who need to carry the work of equity forward understand what equity looks like and

055how it's actionable and so as a part of that work we have not only crafted a vision statement we've also developed a model which we hope will help all who are working with us and on behalf of equity to see what equity looks like in practice and to identify that there are deep bodies of research and there are skills and dispositions which can inform the work and so what you're looking at is a model which talks to what equity looks like in practice in each of the areas that educators might borrow and lean on and use as leverage points toward equity with equity always being at the center and the goal [Music] and so we again we want to make sure that we strive for and hold ourselves accountable to the fact that that is

056always the end game in all that equity represents and so at the center of that model is equity and and the center of what is equitable is what impacts the lives of and the performance of and the ways in which students are all acknowledged and children are at that heart so in the work one of the things that we want to make sure that as we help our colleagues to become more familiar with what equity work looks like as educators we want to make sure that we acknowledge that these are different times we started our meeting tonight with a discussion about all that is happening in our world around health and safety our staff our students all of us are walking in the doors with experiences that are informing who we are each day so

057the work is really in acknowledgment of what's happening for students leaving space for a dialogue about what is in their lives in terms of health social justice racial issues and leaving room for a dialogue that allows people's personal experiences to be a part of that work and also important in that work it's it's only it's an area of equity that we identify as having a strong potential but it's also part of how we believe the work should be done that we don't do this work in in isolation that this is a an effort that's done as a community and so we reach out to and draw upon the strengths of our families and our community members and our community agencies to help us do the work help us see how to do that work in

058in to inform us with all that they know in terms of their strengths and help help them to build the capacities they need to work with us is in partnership so as scott highlighted from the earlier slide students have more in their backpacks than ever before our students are situated in a landscape and a climate that together just is unprecedented and so this year that our district-wide pre-k through 12 program we're implementing social emotional learning instruction or sel you may have heard of it and it's really to help our students and adults to be better able to build self-awareness to manage emotions during this complex time and to strengthen relationships with others social emotional learning is a research-based model it is supported and endorsed by the connecticut state department of education we are accountable to

059them as well but we do this not because of accountability um we have done it but this year we're looking to do we are doing that pre-k through 12 with fidelity and we're very fortunate to have a set of standards and tools developed by the collaborative for academic and social emotional learning that help us to model and teach and hold expectations for students and adults in managing emotions and within the emotional demands of everyday life and so we also have a set of standards and domains set forth by teaching tolerance and so i borrowed this bridge as a metaphor for my colleague carrie jones to help me to do a crosswalk of um of social emotional learning and social justice education when we pair them together and so the the standards for social justice education

060by that i just want to clarify that we mean pro social education we do not blur lines um with politics and because that's just not within the realm of public education but when we we teach students how to think we don't teach them what to think and so we provide them with these skills to become agents of cultural change and so if you will as i go through the crosswalk imagine mirrors windows and sliding glass doors we built we look to build self-awareness so that students develop a positive self-concept their identity where they feel like they are seen they are valued they are heard and they are supported that is the mirror self-management being able to understand others to have empathy show empathy that correlates to diversity and those are the windows [Music] responsible decision

061making [Music] when you make good responsible decisions when you're trying to be equitable you're trying to be fair we relate that to justice the justice domain and pro-social education and then relationships matter at the root of everything that we do it's all about relationships it's where we build trust and social awareness having a sense of we opened with talking about one community but feeling like you have a place in a community and you feel responsible and so that's what leads us to action and it's sliding glass doors so we do have a framework that we have that we've adopted we remain unwavered in that framework and that's our cultural competence continuum and essentially it helps us to take a candid look at ourselves understand our own identity but also to recognize our own inherent biases

062and we all have that and when we know better we try to contextualize it or operationalize that into culturally responsive practice and so we want everybody to recognize that um this framework and it's essentially understanding our identity and bias and and moving toward um moving toward a professional practice for cultural to be cultural agents and and dismantling systemic inequities and so along with the cultural competence continuum we also have tools we're using in this work this is very different work for in some ways for a lot of our educators i think most of our educators most of us in this work come to it activated morally activated emotionally about what we see for young people i think most people who enter into education are equitable by nature but they need to know what to do

063and so part of our work really acknowledges that there is research based tools that we've borrowed the courageous conversations compass is one that's been used by folks like glenn singleton over for years to look at issues around equity we're using this tool purposefully to get people to see that though i may start in a place of moral outrage it's not where i can end i need to examine equity from a number of perspectives if i'm going to arrive at a place where i truly understand the circumstances of others and i reach a place where i know what action looks like so this is a tool that we're using in a lot of our professional learning work to help people to move around that compass to see more fully what equity looks like we're also using

064it in our classrooms too with our students and what i didn't mention is when i said that we're implementing the sel in social justice education with fidelity we're offering our students a guaranteed common experience across all great levels in their morning meeting and they're at the elementary level and uh at the middle school level it's in the morning advisory and in the high school it's in community and so this is a tool that they are exposed to and helps them students and adults to manage our emotions and understand where we're entering and how we're entering certain conversations and difficult topics and being aware of others too [Music] so and likewise we have um not just what the work is but how to do the work is really important if we're going to do this in

065a way that is acknowledging that it is challenging work that we need to hold one another accountable and we need to do it in a way that's respectful of where people are along that journey we have a set of norms for children and adults that really look at being respectfully engaged and staying present and this is not work that's ever done it's a journey equity is an aspiration and so if we're really being honest with ourselves we're continuously examining where we are along that journey and it's being fair to those who may be in different places and inviting them to take part in the work of equity in a way that is safe respectful and that builds people's patience and understanding of one another so these norms are ones that we're trying to live by

066in all of that work and so essentially we aim for um building capacity in our skills and also developing our dispositions in this work and so we realized that we're all operating with some beliefs about this important critical challenging work and i love this slide because you know after a hard day in hard times in complex situations just in the world around us this reminds us to have grace with ourselves and with each other and you know and try really hard to do our best we strive to be equitable educators and it really is a journey and there will be we recognize there will be progress and there will be setbacks um this work really recalls for cause for us to reflect um and be patient with ourselves and each other and it's okay that

067we're all in different places we don't have to be perfect but we absolutely can't um just rely on hope and chance we really have to make concerted intentional efforts well and in that form of intention just one last point is that one of the things that we're trying to make sure that we give permission for is that people are going to need to do intense self-reflection to do this work it requires personal reflection to get to professional understanding and to lead the professional dispositions and that's not easy work you want to leave room for that and acknowledge that that is important and vital in driving the work so to echo scott's earlier sentiments of gratitude to superintendent moore and to the board and our leadership team our courageous leadership team you know we your support

068will allow us to commit to goals with a stronger equity lens and to dismantle systemic inequities but really be intentional and to look for them we do believe that you all have cleared our paths for us um and have supported our work with intention to develop a policy um that will you know it's it's not so much that a policy will drive our work but we believe that a policy will support and protect our work uh and sustain it as well so presently we are working to ensure that we have a common understandings and so we've reorganized some of our district structures scott is a testament to that sitting here with me as well as the equity and diversity council but we're building you know school-based equity teams to help us and so that we

069are working with a common understanding and we have greater capacity so that we really want every single member of the west harbor public schools community to have an individual responsibility or ownership and a shared and collective vision so this is this speaks to the idea that we're really trying to build a system for continuous improvement that exists at all levels of the district that this would be mirrored in both a district-wide um equity and diversity council whose work is to be thought partners with us as members at stakeholders in that work helping us to think about whether or not we're meeting the expectations we've set for ourselves holding ourselves accountable and looking at whether or not we're making the growth that we we say that we're trying to achieve and then having building-based teams where

070those representatives on the district-wide committee would go back to their home schools and do that same work at each of the schools to look where they are because each school is in different places and so they would need to help inform the leadership at that school about where they are in terms of achievement of equity as well right so this is our journey toward you know more systemic approaches to this work and we also have a professional learning plan and the west harbor professional learning plan outlines our progression of our growth and development and how we will operationalize what we learn and what our expectations are aligned with our vision for equity and anti-racism you want to say anything more here i think again sort of i think one of the most important pieces is

071that we're helping people to recognize what it means to be equitable educators and what it means to be an equitable organization we have to really call ourselves to task by looking very carefully at what that looks like in practice what we would expect to see in terms of results and so we're helping our educational colleagues to think about what skills they may need what dispositions they may need what competencies they might need to be more equitable with students and i think that's a different perspective so we're walking people from a definition to looking inward to lead to that place of action so we're really trying to be very thoughtful and very we're using the word intentional and where educators get to the place where they recognize what this what equity looks like in practice they

072can help us by daily looking for opportunities to move the needle on equity right and i also want to just give a nod and a thank you to our parent partners in this work we invited parents into this work and what we always have but we made a concerted effort to reach out to our parents and caregivers from our bipot community to join us in this work and those who have been underrepresented traditionally and so we're grateful for their partnership they are giving providing us feedback on our lessons on our common experience lessons each day and helping us to to pair our work with a parent education that we're doing in collaboration with educators so we wanted to bring it back home to what this is all about ultimately we need to keep children at

073the center of the work that's why the model the equity model really places children at the center we have a quote here which we thought really does speak to some of the power of the work and the importance of the work and the quote is from dr dana simmons assistant director of yale center for emotional intelligence also informed a lot of the work of ruler that we use here in the district and the quote is every child deserves an education that guarantees the safety to learn in the comfort of one's own skin so we really think that captures the essence of why we're here and we'll close in the way that we open the school year with a greeting of the african messiah and that is kasserian in guerra kasserian in guerra it means and

074how are the children and so in the african messiah community they greet each other with kasirin aguero how are the children where we say good morning how are you they concern themselves with their future generation because they really believe that by nurturing and by ensuring the well-being of their children that is the pro that is the pathway to prosperity for their community and so the response in english is and all of the children are well and so it doesn't mean that children don't have productive struggle but they are in good hands in our community so thank you very much so with that we'll open the floor for any questions and discussion uh thank you so [Music] all much um i just first wanted to uh right and i'll just remind you about your microphone i

075know okay um i'm adjusting um rosina i just wanted to kind of recognize you know your long-standing and ongoing commitment to um equity and anti-racism within our community um and scott i want to welcome you um i'm really excited what the two of you um can do um to further this this mission and cause um i just keep thinking dynamic duo i don't know why but i just that's really the thought that keeps coming to my mind when i hear more about um where you're headed um i really just wanted to make more of a comment when i look at kind of the plan that you put in place the venn diagram um i think the piece that really sets it apart from other um equity and anti-racist racism programs or plans is that family

076involvement i think it really recognizes the fact that children don't exist in isolation and in a vacuum family engagement is really the key to creating any kind of meaningful and long standing change so i think you know the work they've been doing the work that you continue to do i think the key is really developing that trusting um maintaining this trusting and supportive relationship with the children but also with their families i think that that's key and i i just i want to recognize that i think that that is really um something that sets the district and your plan apart from others that i have um seen so i just want to kind of applaud you for that for that piece as well as the others but i think it's a key piece that sets

077yours apart [Music] so i think i have the pleasure of being uh the longest standing board member when this was first implemented and uh i remember talking to tom about it and the board in general and um you know there couldn't have been more agreement about this position and and there couldn't be a better person to lead it and we've only seen good things come out of this and correct me if i'm wrong tom but i think when this was first uh developed we were the model in first at connecticut right and you know so i say that out loud for both people at home and in this room that haven't been part of it that long so we really in west hartford have uh to use a military journal like kind of the tip

078of the spear right out in front always and continuous improvement model as well we've just always been a leader in this you know i always talk about sometimes and i'll digress it'll be a leader or a follower and sometimes you don't always have to be a leader and sometimes you have to follow to get results but this is a pure example of where we led by example and those efforts have been noticed by many and [Music] the results are are only going to be beneficial as the future goes on so i couldn't be happier honestly i knew it right from the beginning this was going to be a win-win and i'm just glad that i'm still here to see it go through the fruition from the beginning and involve as it so and welcome thank

079you scott as well so appreciate it thank you support mark i just want to acknowledge that um mark yes you are the longest the lack of politicization of this anti-racism initiative among our school system and our board of education and so i just wanted to um give a shout out to all who have been involved over the last couple of years who are involved presently and um in the future for having us come together in a non-partisan way to try to promote what we know is best for our children and our families to promote equity and social justice so thank you for that other questions jason okay thank you for this presentation um stressed by how uh how detailed the your plan is for both uh uh describing what does equity look like how do

080you i think is really important because there are um now we see a number of institutions now have decided that they're anti-racist and they've adopted something that doesn't come from their community and when that happens there's a change in values and having having community participation in this ensures that those feedback loops right as you were saying scott uh you know over time develop the kind of um that validate what because of their experiences within the school we know it's equal because they're included and and we understand their role so i think that's a really important part of how to how to define equity is also not just by states but by process and so [Music] i'd like to kind of ask a little bit further about about the plans to evaluate the district's progress and

081you know i know that this is you know we're in the planning stages but in that process have you thought about how [Music] not just now but in 10 years in 15 20 years because you know from where i sit i you know now being a part of the board and also teaching at uconn i see education and connecticut over 20 years and when you know and to see students that may come through this district and then go to college you know i think about you know what are those things that that they're going to take with them and so i know that [Music] the outcomes will be in process but i'd like to understand your thinking around evaluating the district's progress and then you know some folks have talked about equity audits and if

082that how that thinking has informed your planning and [Music] and so you know just more clearly our plan is to one acknowledge right to acknowledge our shortcomings to acknowledge um all of the inequities and disparities and we're frustrated by persistent disparities in and among racial groups the other piece of it is making that commitment for change and the the critical part of that also is evaluation in an evaluation an accountability system that is transparent um measurable so we are we're we're looking at baseline data um a lot of it that you know it's not new to us and unfortunately those disparities continue to persist over time and so we want to make sure that we are we have a collective set of a collective agreement on goals and outcomes before we can move into an

083equity audit we've had so many we've looked at so many proposals so many research questions and inquiries and so we really want to involve and engage all of our constituents in looking at you know what are our priorities what are the goals what are we seeking to answer and address what outcomes do we want we know student achievement and then there are things that we know that we have the capacity to really investigate and research ourselves from within and we have an understanding that there are you know um inequities systemic inequities and practices that you know it would be more appropriate to consult with um you know an outside researcher institute so you know that's where we are right now looking at some approaches that have been used we so to mark's point i remember

084at a previous presentation mark said don't give away you know all of our all of our intellectual property because we get cut we get calls um across the state at one time it was across the nation uh asking to consult with us one of the things we started thinking about doing is maybe forming a network with those organizations that are consulting with us and maybe having an exchange kind of like the knee ask accreditation process where we can do an equity audit partner with someone else to do an equity audit so we do have other districts that might be interested in doing that as well i guess i would add just first of all thank you for the acknowledgement around process and how much that matters part of my background comes from social sciences world

085and so i think qualitative pieces often get missed it's one thing to look at survey results in the shape of a curve sorry mr vicenus but it's another thing to talk with human beings and to ask them i know that wound you deeply but i do think in not being glib i think it's an important part of that whatever metrics we we end up with um that we involve conversations with kids conversations with families about where we are in terms of again it seems like a soft kind of a data point but trust relational trust i think it's a vital piece of the work especially around the work of equity and anti-racism where are we with our community i think if we don't involve families if we don't involve children in informing us as to

086whether or not we are making them seem to feel seen and heard and valued [Music] we are missing something pretty vital and there is some hard research behind that people like um you know anthony brick out of university of chicago have pointed to relational trust driving the needle on achievement so it's not just about you know sort of soft data so i think that process piece matters as much as you know some of the traditional metrics i think we need to look at involving stakeholders in the work and pushing on us to make sure that we're thinking about it in a more rounded and uh you know three-dimensional way [Music] when you guys are thinking about process and network forming and i'm i'm curious to hear from you other things that you think the board

087could develop or to support that work um you guys are the ones the clock so you know it's really you know encouraged to think about how how the board can support that work and i'm really and we would say the very first thing we would ask is for the board to stand by and support our vision statement for equity and anti-racism you thank you very much and welcome again thank you i really appreciate um where this is [Music] i don't mean taking a first step if you don't mind i think that the way in which we have built this model speaks to um what we prioritize which is children at the center around equitable outcomes so it's pretty hard to refute when we're asked that it's important that all children be achieving at a level

088that is a represents their maximum potential regardless of who those children are and when we see data that points to the fact that we don't have that right now it's not blaming people it's not pointing fingers this is not about who's at fault i think it's about building systems that strive for results that are more equitable results and so i i love that the comment was asked or the question was asked about politics this is not a political issue this is about what is morally correct for all children and we have a charge so i think that's where we would come from as the place of a moral obligation for all kids um that would be my answer no i think that's great i want rosie to finish up but i want to jump in

089with one piece because you ask the question one of the questions that's the that's such a key important question we have 1500 employees because not just teachers everybody that is around kids and it's really important that we hire the right people it's really important that we train people properly it's really important the conversations we had have and this is really hard work because an initial discussion with somebody about this topic a reaction that every one of us that's been a principal or dealt with people is are you calling me a racist and it's about no but we need to talk about what's the perception how does this go and these are conversations that we need to have and rosina scott thought leaders at our schools besides just principles because sometimes the best messenger is a

090colleague um and we urge colleagues because sometimes people come to us and say i think this about this or i heard this and well have you spoken to that person as a colleague about how that made you feel and we will if we have to if there's reason but i want to say one other piece and then rosina will say something nicer but i i want to say this and make it clear i've said this directly at convocation to all staff i've said it to people in meetings with rick and i in with the meeting this is the direction of this district these are the core values of this district if you don't believe in these core values and you can't work under these core values this is the wrong place for you to be

091now that's not the first conversation you have with somebody that's way down the road but it is that kind of conception that we all have to understand what west hartford stands for you know that that is something that's really important to me that we make it clear in our statement that we make the moral reason the child the clear the clarity of that statement that this is about this isn't about you this is about the child that just keep going back to that over and over and making sure people understand that i think that's a really important part of this conversation and training too you have made it very clear you've opened the door and you've made it very clear on where we stand in this work and for our schools to be more equitable

092inclusive and socially just and so we just won't compromise on that but we recognize that we have their conversations that we have to have and that's why we said we we have we have tools and then we have some resources that we will try because we are i had parents say just don't forget that you're an educational organization it is your charge and your job to educate others and members of the community i'd hate to miss the opportunity because we didn't make it clear and we didn't know that somehow we had a misstep in that communication that we turned somebody away or we lost someone and they didn't understand our mission and our vision and you know we i live in this community and i the question that someone once asked me as an early

093educator was how would this would these results be okay if it was your child i think that we need to remind ourselves that every child who walks our door is someone's child and is this good enough for the for that child whether it's your child or whether that child is in your care for the six hours that you have them during the day i think that's pretty hard to walk away from go ahead thank you thank you thank you and so appreciate the candor and the realness of it because as aspirational as this is we certainly know they're going to be some challenges and we certainly know they're going to be some who will not embrace that i say that as a board member and i say that as a parent here in west hartford

094who years ago recalls someone a child saying to my child that they didn't want to play with them because of the color of their skin and they learned that from their mother because of things their mother said so that's the reality that as as as embracing as our town is we do have some pockets where some are not as open and so glad to know that there's a vigilance stance that we're taking to educate others so even if that education is not coming within the home it's going to come from within the school so thank you definitely glad this is happening and certainly want to support it moving forward thank you other questions or comments amanda you asked as one of the things that would be most helpful is to have our support so i

095just want to be clear that not only do i support this work but i'm really excited about it i think that this is something that i've had experience over the years as a teacher doing some of these pieces and one my kids loved what we were doing when it came to the curriculum it was always stimulating and exciting and expanded their thinking in ways that i see in their lives now because i keep in touch with many of them they're now in their third you know late 20s early 30s and when we think about what this is going to mean for our district it's very exciting because not only are we able to well i don't know how the rest of us approach our work here but one of the things that i do is

096i picture kneeling down in front of every single one of our kids and look in that child in the eye and being able to say to him or her and i'm doing right by you i want i hope i'm doing great by you and and that means a lot of things you know it's especially exciting right now as we think about the times that we're making decisions in and i think that a lot of this work is gonna is going to continue to be as this statement says in service of the child the other thing is that for people who have already been involved with this work over the summer there's some really special things happening in our community that we've so people are meeting each other in ways they haven't met before there's so

097many different working groups that have come together to collaborate the leaders like um thinking about trisha and nakia and yukiyo and gigi and all the wonderful people over at wasco all of the people that are working on this in very significant deep ways are also bringing us information about other things that we need to be aware of as it relates to just general school operations so we're expanding the relationships of people who just know each other in the community and understand each other's lives and we're getting a lot of good work done and i think that that's a really special thing but what also happens when you look at an anti-racist organization or learning work you start getting a level of critical thinking skills when it comes to thinking in terms of systems that is

098so exciting because it forces you to learn at a whole another level so when we talk about when kids take ap classes and why we want them to take that sometimes it's because we want them to know what it feels like to learn in a way that is much harder and to think in a way that is more challenging and it feels really good maybe not at the beginning but it feels good to challenge yourself and learn that way and when i look over at lily and rasheel i'm thinking about this year and coming up in your education as you start digging in and thinking critically about systems i can't even imagine the value that you will bring to your chosen fields when you go out into the world and you're the person sitting there

099saying have you thought about this what do we need to learn more about have you asked this person you know just the training that comes from learning how to think is so valuable and i think when we look at the reason why our district continues to be an award-winning district it's because a lot of this kind of work has already been started so to take a deliberate look at deepening it is only going to mean good things not just for people in in our community in our children in our schools but it's going to help bring our community together in a way that is really very significant in a time when you know most of us are kind of moving a little further apart from one another in ways it's it's a really nice thing

100to get to know your community on a whole another level so for people who might not have been introduced to this work before i just encourage you to become part of the process in a way even if it's just attending something on zoom there's a lot of meetings going on i'm seeing this work at the new britain museum of american art where i'm a docent i'll be 44 on saturday and i'm the youngest docent by a lot which my kids love to tease me about um and we're doing this as an institution and so and our entire learning plan three quarters of the year is dedicated to this kind of work and imagine how exciting it is at someone at my age to see seniors who have been leaders in our community in all kinds

101of industries digging in and learning about this in a new way and it's been very exciting so for people who haven't been close to this work before i hope that you will be part of the process and join us in this learning because i think you will find it to be very very satisfying you will meet a lot of new people and you'll also be part of solidifying this vision for our district which is going to have incredible results for our children our communities and then everywhere that they go so i'm really excited about the work that we have and and ready to dig in meaningfully to it oh thank you i hope that we are doing right by you we will any other questions or comments thank you very very much [Music] we're going

102to move on to routine matters and we have item a approval of the minutes and i'm seeking um a motion to approve the minutes from the october 6th 2020 regular board of education meeting can i have a motion so i moved amanda and seconded by ari is there discussion mark i don't know the um appropriateness but if you know i [Music] and we don't have a way to indicate that in a minute i can't check because there was a meeting a couple years ago he did that i have laura checked out it's a good point i i definitely present i just don't know if there's something in parentheses okay so we'll make a note of that um thank you do you mean we need cause it says present up top do you mean whether or

103not we need to clarify if it was remote or not yeah okay i don't know that we've come up have that situation before well tom says we have yeah okay this board hasn't but it's happened in the past where people have called in actually i called in you've called in before yeah so i know that's what i was thinking so we can go back and check that okay thank you because that's going to come up i'm sure for most of us it was in march of 2019 i think believe it or not i can tell you what i had for dinner that night too so so with that notation are there any other comments on the minutes if not i'll try your minds all those in favor of approval please signify by saying aye aye

104all those opposed say nay abstentions the eyes have it moving on to information and reports board members communications and reports are there any reports from other boards and organizations okay any other information and discussion moving on to non-staff communications and reports we have the reports from our student board representatives and we'll start with russia tonight so i'm first going to report on the curriculum night that happened last wednesday at connerd i think the overall response from the parents was very positive and the in the whole curriculum night was a pretty big success considering the situation that we're in um i think parents in general were extremely impressed sort of by the the time and the hard work the teacher spent in creating the videos and staying on for the google um meet and i think

105that i think a lot of this year at least from the parents has been focused more on how school is going to work in terms of the hybrid model the block scheduling the online and i think the curriculum night really helped in terms of knowing what students are actually learning in the classroom and less about like the logistics of how school is going to work and i think the curriculum night was really important in that regard the psat happened last wednesday and there was high participation for the juniors and sophomores who took it um the athletics are going well and they're up and running and then connor's black box is also having are doing outside rehearsals and are having a performance um and it's really just limited to the family members of the students participating

106but i think it's really great given the circumstances that we're in that we're still able to have shows go on i think it also i think even based off today's meeting i would also like to report on how the community block has been going i think the overall response from students is that it's been very positive and enjoyable i think that given the current situation that we're in and all the stress that's sort of going on with a covid i think that this really is a great opportunity for students to really sort of share how they're feeling i think school is really great in that it allows for students to see and see and observe different backgrounds outside of the spheres of their family and very close friends and the community block i think really

107takes advantage of like seeing the different people in our community and the different backgrounds in which people come from i think it's also a great place to sort of and i really enjoyed the discussions regarding sort of the self-awareness and how we're feeling and i think sort of given the situation sort of given like how it's pretty lots of like hustle and sort of bustle that students typically face i think the community block has done a pretty good job of sort of slowing down and sort of making sure how making students feel self-aware in terms of how they are emotionally and thinking sort of in terms of my experience my community block has been in a study hall and if like study halls in general are pretty sort of independent and like students are just

108focused on themselves and that sort of thing and despite that sort of environment that you get from a study hall i think my classmates in that study hall were very open to sharing and have these conversations even though study hall is a time where students really take to spend to themselves and i think i think that the community block has been really beneficial in that regard um so i'll just begin where russia left off with talking about community i'd say admittedly the first few community classes were definitely uncomfortable but that's a pretty big aspect of the community block and its purpose is to kind of talk about topics that may be uncomfortable for some people but as they progress it's definitely gotten easier to have these very important discussions we've mostly been focused on the

109theme of identity and we discuss our personal identities what we're confident about about ourselves what we may not be so confident about and how our identities fit into our culture our school and our town and we've also learned how to be effective listeners and communicators when we're having these tough conversations um also a lot of things that have been happening at connor have been happening at hall as well so our black box theater is also having its first outdoor socially distance play which is called all in the timing and its performance is this friday it's outside but the audience is limited to those invited by the actors and the crew proper support progress reports were due two fridays ago which marks the halfway point of the quarter so the students should be receiving those soon

110picture day will occur tomorrow and thursday for the blue group and next monday and tuesday for the red group today was supposed to be the first day for school pictures but there were technical difficulties so it was cancelled um we also had our curriculum night last week and i think it was it was definitely an opportunity to have the parents do that online because it was kind of like they got to have they got to live kind of like a day in the life of a student online going to all the different google meets and i think they kind of got to see what our daily life is like just by having them online and doing google meets in the google classrooms like we do every day and safegrad fundraising has begun for the class

111of 2021 and although we don't really know what the future months will hold what how the safe red party will turn out the planning committee has remained really flexible and is continuing to fundraise in a lot of different ways such as our flocking kind of the iconic safegrad fundraiser there's a clothing drive a bottle and can drive and also events at local restaurants um the one that's upcoming is the safe grad night at blue plate kitchen this friday from 4 to 8 pm in which 10 percent of the proceeds will go to safe grad [Music] future business announcement of future meeting dates our next meeting will be wednesday november 4th which is uh we're meeting on wednesday because the election is the day before i just like to say that out loud i believe we

112will likely still be in this room i'm not sure the legislative chamber will be available yet but we will check on that um and then after that our our meeting after that is tuesday november 17th again location to be determined are there requests for future agenda items [Music] um if not comments from visitors i believe we do have one person still on the line waiting to provide public comment [Music] yes uh my name is jack a resident here in west hartford um i got on the call a little bit late that's the beginning period of talking about the kids going back to school i just want to make some comments on that i have four children in the west hartford school system now one is doing at home learning and three in the hybrid system

113one in the elementary two in the middle schools i see the kids going to the elementary school all the kids going back in with them being mainly in one class all day with the middle and high school kids there's really no way for them to be social distancing at all you know i see the kids at sports games not necessarily social distancing the parents many parents are still having parties going out having a good time and not adhering to any safety precautions um you know yes we haven't seen any kids spread carbon 19 in school but it's popping up a lot in kids at school these days and it's just a matter of time until it starts to spread in there too um you know this is putting you know the kids at risk the

114parents at risk other family members at risk businesses at risk other employees at risk that's completely unnecessary that these kids should stay in the hybrid system you know this this is not over it's going off getting worse you know the test results today we're at three percent um it's getting worse and frankly i'm not quite sure how we expect our kids should be able to social distance and and hear these rules when the state doesn't even believe the state employees can do that the employees are not in work yet they don't go to the office i'm not quite sure how we can expect the kids to do the same you know states used to put the kids at the second tier level over the employees um so i'm not quite sure this works and i

115really uh from a lot of parents i've talked to you know really ask that the kids stay in the hybrid model and not go back in full time for the middle and high school kids thank you thank you for your comments i have it i don't believe uh there's anyone else on the call waiting to provide comment uh we do not have executive session and so i am seeking a motion to adjourn uh lorna and seconded by liz uh meeting is adjourned at 8 44. thank you everybody you