Board of Education Meeting of June 2, 2020

001keep my eye on the clock for Tuesday June 2nd before we call the meeting to order I'd like to turn us uh turn the meeting over to to superintendent Tom Moore thanks Deb this is um about a month late normally we do this in the beginning of May but as with many things we've been a little bit delayed and before I um talk about our three teacher of the year finalists um I want to thank Michelle Cashman Tom leowski and Gert Perry for their work in keeping the teacher of the year process going throughout this difficult time because this is this is a um the teacher of the systems been in place for a long time this isn't a selection by Administration this is of and by the teaching community of West Harford as it

002should be and um so proud always to have these teachers represent um all of the teachers in the district and there's it's you know when you're talking about a teaching staff of well over 900 teachers the um the number of candidates that could be here are of course many um but these represent um a special group for us so the teacher of the year process is rigorous and begins with nominations from other teachers nominees then submit a resume an essay and recommendations finalists then have a lesson videotaped and the final three are then formally interviewed by the teacher of the year committee the teacher of the year award recipient will be announced this Thursday June 4th the 2020 teacher the finalists are Lori de roer an Grabowski and Marne palus now normally I'd call each

003of you up and do a lovely presentation but we can't do that um as my kitchen isn't big enough for you'd all be socially distanced here but um but what I'd like to do is after I speak about each one of you if you could just kind of give a wave so everybody knows that's who I'm talking about maybe a simple thank you our first teacher of the year finalist is Lori der roer a passionate Early Child educator Lori has been teaching for 30 years and specifically kindergarten at norfeld elementary school for 24 years Lori got her Bachelor of Science and education from Southern Conneticut State University as well as her Masters in Education from Southern she's been a best program Mentor um she's been a volunteer she was a finalist for Teacher of the

004Year um 17 years ago and um is just known throughout the um norfeld Community as one of the nicest people you're ever going to meet so congratulations Lori thank you very much all right our second candidate an Grabowski Ann taught kindergarten for 12 years at Smith stem school before obtaining her master's degree to to become a teacher of English as a second language and as he continued to support English language Learners in this capacity for the past three years she received her Bachelor of Science in education from CCSU then a master of arts in reading and language specialization from University of St Joseph's and then a master of arts in teacher of English as a second language from St Joe's she's been a two-time speaker at building learning communities conference um she's a mentor at

005Joe's past member of the council for equity and diversity and a multi-time West Harper Foundation Grant award recipient also so and congratulations thank you so much and Marne paus Marne teaches sixth grade science at King Philip Middle School where she is also a team leader she's been a KP since 2012 but also talked back at KP in the 90s and then in between those assignments also worked as a tutor um she has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from St anels always a good degree to have when you're going into teaching and a master of education from the University of St Joseph's she's a member of multiple committees at um King philli and across the district member of the townwide vertical science team presented engineering tasks to districtwide science department as well as being a

006constant pres presenter at building csis um presents how to succeed in Middle School to incoming parents that are coming into King Phillip and receive the king Phillip teacher of the year award congratulations Marty thanks everyone it's an honor to be nominated and make it this far so thank you I I yes let's all they represent West Harford exceptionally well and really um it's a testament to our district that we can put forth three Educators like this um that are just tremendous so with that congratulations and the official announcement is this Thursday correct Tom am i j Thursday yes that is correct yes all right very good so with that thank you everybody and we can go on with our regular meeting and you guys don't don't feel the need that you have to hang out

007at this meeting thank you Tom thank you Tom thank you all all right with that thank you um Tom for sharing those finalists with us um at 7:05 I will call the meeting to order and Cammy can you please call the rle Miss Aron present Mr Pac present Miss po here Dr Steinberg here Dr Thomas fuson here miss Wilcox here Mr zanoits here Representatives Kenya Ferrera here and Isabella gum here thank you uh just as a reminder to everyone if you do have a question this evening you put a question mark in the chat box and I'll call on you at the appropriate time um Isabella can you lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation

008under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank thank you before we go any further I'd like to read a statement tonight we grieve with our community and our country for the trauma and despair we are currently experiencing this trauma is partially due to the monthong covid-19 pandemic and the devastating losses it has brought with the death of thousands of Connecticut residents the impact on our local economy and the destruction of normaly over the past week our pain has deepened as we grapple with overt racism continued police violence and attacks on the First Amendment right to peace ofely assemble notably a right which was granted appropriately a few weeks ago to predominantly white protesters carrying assault weapons at state capitals across our country the mission of West Harford Public Schools is to inspire and

009prepare all students to reach their potential to realize their potential and enhance our Global Community tonight we acknowledge that our success with this Mission has been imbalanced quite simply the experience of students of color in the west Harford Public Schools is not equal to the experience of their white peers we don't need to guess about whether or not this is true we have the data that show disparities and academic achievement even prior to the co pandemic which has exacerbated this issue troubling as well is the disparity and discipline by race we have tried to have an impact on these measures by committing ourselves to best practices around curriculum coaching of teachers hiring a diverse staff and more and we've tried to improve those things less measurable like peer-led segregation and avoidance we have made efforts

010to create more welcoming School environments for people of color for immigrants and for families for whom English is not their first language and we'll hear more tonight about some of our initiatives towards improving Equity I find Hope in our caring Community our civic-minded students and our talented committed Educators I call on our West Harford Public Schools Community to work with us on these issues we want to hear all voices we want all people particularly those who feel least empowered to share their experiences and their ideas to help effect change that will dismantle these disparities we recommit ourselves to being intentionally anti-racist to actively working for a more equal school system and a more equal Community thank you okay we do have a revision to the agenda order this evening uh we are going to start

011with new business item a the nomination appointment and swearing in of our new board member um to be transparent this has already happened in um in real life and we're just going to do it again uh so that we can have it televised uh the recommendation is that the Board of Education appoint Elizabeth Liz Wilcox as a member of the West Harford Board of Education to fill the position vacated by Mr Robert Levine for the period of June 2nd 2020 through November 2nd 20121 and that Miss Essie Essie Leo swear in Elizabeth Liz Wilcox as a new board member is there a motion don't move thank you Mark and a second second Amanda arenson thank you Amanda um do we I guess we vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and saying

012I I opposed May uh extensions the eyes have it and I'll turn it over to our town clerk Essie Leo thank thank you um Miss will Cox will you please raise your right hand and do you solemnly swear that you will Faithfully perform according to law your duties as a member of the West Hartford board of education to the best of your ability so help you God I do thank you congratulations thank you thank you welcome aboard thanks I'm honored to be working alongside all of you uh we do not have any student participation so we're going to move to public Communications I believe we do have a few members of the public who um wish to speak to the board this evening so for each of you I'll just say um what I would

013tell everybody there are comments uh that are for three minutes per individual um 21 minutes per subject matter maximum when you begin your comments please state your name and your address uh before you provide your comments and um if you're watching us online uh you'll see Cammy who is GNA raise a yellow piece of paper when you have one minute left and then a red piece of paper when you have no more time left uh so I will open it up for public Communications and um if you want to go first on the phone and they might have be a verbal announcement of time right so if you um yeah if you'll just let me know when you start speaking if you can or cannot um see Cammy then I will be the person to

014let you know about the timing thank you for that all right so does anyone want to go first yes um this is Yuko can you hear me yes great um so my name is Yuki and I reside at 63 Highwood Road uh first I would like to thank the members of the Board of Ed superintendent Moore administrators and Educators here um as we are all juggling the pressures of home and work as well as all the raw emotions that we are experiencing with the systemic racism and violence that we are seeing play out across our communities targeting our black community members um it's an emotional time for many in our community but um and I commend the district for seeing that you know that that we need to move more to an anti-racist professional development

015training and you know looking at what we do through the practices and policies at the buildings at the you know the Board of Ed um through the anti-racist lens um as a founding member of the northfelt PTO Equity diversity and inclusion committee um we have been we as parents have been doing this work since 2017 um at at our local buildings and you know everything from Community Building making sure that we are centering the voices of our black indigenous you know parents of color um we've been trying to create a space where it's safe we have heard and we can impact change and at norel we have been able to you know advocate for diverse books and our classrooms find funding for those things um parents have been contributing you know blurs for all the

016Heritage months so that teachers can make announcements and and we've collected um resources to go along with it um and even PTO events we have been able to put an equity lens and make sure that everyone um has access to our events and some things like creating a sensory room where family and and and children can go and take a break and regroup from you know all the loud and exciting activity that's happening um so we have been doing a lot of anti-racist you know Community Building um at our buildings and we have also been collabor started a collaboration with Rosina Haskins and and the equity diversity Council this year in starting the family school partnership series uh we had a great kickoff event um um in January and unfortunately the second in the series

017had to be canceled because of covid-19 but we have been getting great feedback about you know having the space where organic relationships between parents Educators and community members um to have a safe space to talk about these issues that are pressing for many in our community um and you know I am also a part of the Connecticut Family School partnership advisory Council and Connecticut has a definition for what family engagement looks like and it's full equal and Equitable partnership and I invite you know uh Board of aded member superintendent Moore to come to one of our meetings um so that we can discuss you know actions further and and get you know give you our input as to what we are seeing on the ground and how we can help each other support all of

018our students try to wrap up thank you thank you uh is there anyone else who'd like to address the board this evening hi can you hear me yes okay um this is Nikia Alexander I live at Tu Beacon Hill Drive and I wanted to comment um just make a comment on the communication that we received yesterday um from uh the superintendent and while I appreciate the communication obviously from the superintendent I do have to admit that I felt a little conflicted and a little disappointed about the notion that there was some level of satisfaction as it relates to our state as a district prior to the recent events and although I'm sure there there has been some progress as Tom mentioned in his communication myself and many other parents over the last couple years have

019felt compelled and obligated to develop EDI committees across the district because of the very fact that we are not satisfied and especially as a parent of two black boys I am particularly dissatisfied at the fact that my kids still see no people of color and Leadership roles at school that they for the most part do not have enough books or literature accessible to them in the classroom that reflects who they are and what they look like nor a curriculum that sufficiently depicts their history in a genuine um honest way I am not satisfied that African-American students across the district are consistently underperforming compared to their white counterparts and sometime sometimes by almost 20 points across literature Math and Science nor am I satisfied that the gifted program at least on the elementary level is disproportionately

020white and does not provide kids of color the same access to enrichment programs so I'm not saying this um I'm not saying all this just to complain um or call anyone out but Tom mentioned in his communication that we can do better and I agree that we can but I also think that starts with an open line of communication and a two-way dialogue between parents and the district so so that said um as yukoh had mentioned previously our EDI groups collectively would like to propose that we have a consistent standing meeting with the superintendent and potentially some um Board of Ed members to discuss the issues that are critical to our community and moving this new anti-racist approach um forward so we hope that um the group is open to this um and we look

021forward to a uh successful effective relationship going forward thank you thank you and I will just state for um the public to know we do not respond to comments um so don't take the fact that we're not responding to mean anything other than that's just our board policy are there other members of the public who wish to communicate this evening hi there my name is GG B I live at 31 grenan Road and I am a parent of a middle schooler at Bristo and three brayburn students um I am also part of the West Harford parent um parent Community EDI know what her name is but um I also co-founded the equity diversity and inclusion committee over at braburn a few years ago because I thought it was important to have difficult convers around race

022and social justice even at the elementary level um so what I was trying to do is to focus on making a change at a Super Hyper local level and try to get bols that were more representative of of our community and that showed diverse backgrounds and um different perspectives um within that group we also brought in um racial Justice training for children and their parents um for fourth grade kids and their parents and we're also working to bring um true colors to begin a community conversation around gender this year but it was unfortunately cancel due to uh covid-19 so I to want to um commend a district for their support and also um for what they've been doing in terms of like moving things forward like um making rosen's position as director of diversity advance

023a full-time job I've been honored and thrilled to work with her in many of our um many of the things that we've been trying to do such as the family and School uh partnership series and um what I wanted to point out tonight is that in Tom Moore's email he did refer to going Beyond cultural competence to West Harford becoming more active actively antiracist in thoughts actions and professional development and I applaud that because I've wanted for our schools to go beyond cultural competence um and what I want to know uh is really how we will address that and I know that you mentioned going forward that some plans be put into place but I want to urge to have um have a curriculum that is more representative and include all histories and all backgrounds

024not just black history and I know there has been a state mandate to include uh Latino and black history at the high school level and I know there's at least one course at the high school level now for uh black history but it is so important for kids to learn about other histories as well such as Asian-American History and also Native American history um just in the past few months asian-americans have been subjected to harassment and um anti-racism not only nationally but also locally so we need to understand that Asians also experience racism and for many Asian kids they don't believe that racism can happen to them it's only something that happens to black people and for many African-Americans they don't believe that Asians experience any racism so they don't have anything to worry about

025they it's really important for kids to learn about everyone's history as well so that they can get a better understanding and a more nuanced understanding of like why things work um and how our struggles are actually tied together because without an understanding of these histories we can't really move forward so in Tom Mo's email he also mentioned that the time is now for us to commit to our children that we will do better and I would like to see how the district is going to hold itself accountable and whether and hopefully they will take into account um parent voices and um hopefully we'll have a way for us to uh also participate in the conversation thank you thank you is there anyone else hello this is Jason I'd like to speak sure go go for

026it hi uh my name is Jason Chang I live at 79 Ringold Street um I have three children at Charter Oak Elementary and um I'm a professor at University of Connecticut in the history department and I also direct the Asian and Asian-American Studies Institute there I just wanted to start off by saying I'm really proud to be in this uh District where they um where the board has you know uh supported these uh these statements and also live in a community where um where other parents are uh engag engaged in and um and and supporting these efforts um I wanted to uh share that um as a as a child I I didn't learn about anyone's history until uh any any people of color until until high school and um and and I think that

027you know now that I'm a professor of history and I study race relations and teach about immigrant history at at the University level that um it's taken me an additional 12 years of education to teach myself about that um and I encounter students uh educated in Connecticut who come to my classes at the University without having experienced the with with having the the same the same experience I had um and it shows me that that what has happened the the advances that have been made are not enough and uh and that was clear to me before before this year before the pandemic before the most recent uprisings um and and so um I think what what I would really encourage the board to think about is uh is a really aggressive and open and um

028uh engaged approach that um that that we won't won't find uh an answer in the next year but that this is an ongoing uh uh uh process and um and that when um when we we engage communities and families in the education process uh it makes makes both stronger um the presence of ethnic studies curriculum for African-American Asian-American Latin American and Native American people what that what studies show is that uh students are more engaged uh they perform better uh and uh and and and they they succeed um at after school as well uh and so this is you know not just about um about a a kind of evenness but this is also about excellence and performance um diverse classrooms are uh Central to uh to Excellence uh and the um the um creativity

029and performance of diverse groups are always better than more homogeneous groups I wrap up these thank you uh so just wanted to to to to uh uh to ask everyone to to think of an ethics of care for our students that uh to be honest and uh with them about the world they live in and uh and to engage uh in in anti-racism uh as a long-term commitment thank you thank you are there other members of the public who wish to speak all right we will move on to unfinished business and item a is a motion to accept the revised student athlete handbook the recommendation is that the Board of Education accept the revised student athlete handbook as presented by the administration and reviewed by the board policy subcommittee so um I have a parliamentary

030question which is we already moved this last time and then tabled it do we need to remove the um motion yes okay is is there a motion so moved Amanda thank you Amanda is there a second second thank you Mark and discussion well maybe um Andy for lizz's unless she wants to abstain maybe just give a brief overview why we're doing this uh you know just a leader okay um the Readers Digest version is we last year about a year ago put together a group of parents of coaches of Administrators and took a hard look at the student athlete activities handbook uh with the idea that we wanted to make sure that it was appropriately uh representing our goal also appropriate in consequences and was measured in uh the fact that we really hadn't looked

031at it for 10 years and wanted to make sure that it also reflected best practices with the uh C and neighboring districts so this group in the process of meetings uh that this group had and this committee had we also did Outreach and involved PTO at each of the schools we involved uh the uh student death thetes at each of the schools we involve the uh the principal advisories at each of uh at each of the high schools as well as faculty and coaches collected that feedback and presented the changes uh at the last meeting your motion tonight is to accept the the handbook uh as revised thank you is there a further discussion on this so what I would like to uh to to oops I'm sorry do the question mark Lauren I go

032ahead pardon um what I would like to uh to bring forth I believe that there I know there was discussion from the last meeting that we had and there seemed to um be some continued thoughts in terms of semantics and wording within the handbook wonderful job overall with the committee I very much appreciate the time and consideration and putting those pieces forward as it relates to specifying which items are prohibited in terms of alcohol and drugs thoughts or the request is to also specify nicotine and vaping products as well as has been explained we do know that it is explained in the policy how that is a violation but just to have continuity of the language and to minimize uh ambiguity in terms of whatever the case may be is that something that's we would

033request for that please to be added that's that's fine Lura and I'll go ahead and again that's just a that's simply going ahead when we talk about violation of drug and alcohol will put in nicotine and tobacco and nicotine products so that's fine wonderful thank you um just for clarity um and vaping right yes well you have to understand if you remember back when we redid the policy two years ago tobacco and Delivery Systems were all covered under that and vaping and SN everything is covered under that so yes but we'll we'll broaden the broaden the definitions great thank you are there other um other members who wish to ask questions or discuss this item all right with that um change then I will try your minds all those in favor of accepting the revised

034student athlete handbook with the revision to include tobacco and vaping products uh signify by saying I and raise your hand I I um all those opposed abstentions all right the motion passes unanimously thank you and thanks for all your hard work on that everybody who played a role uh moving on to new business we already did item a we'll move to Item B which is a motion by Amanda arenson Lura Thomas farguson and Mark Z danowitz for approval of model policies the recommendation is that the West Harford Board of Education approve all model policies drafted by our legal council Shipman and Goodwin that are legally required or otherwise essential to the proper and effective operation of the West Hartford Public Schools is there a motion or I guess that is the motion but can we

035just have somebody make the motion I got Mark and a second second second I got Laura all right um discussion okay uh Deb can you hear me all right yes okay this is Amanda arenson we just wanted to give the community an overview of of what this means in plain language the West Harford Public Schools utilizes a model policy service by Shipman and Goodwin and so what and the board of education has a subcommittee that reviews policy so Dr Laura Thomas far farus and Mr Mark and Antz and I are the board members who sit on that policy committee and our one of our this year was to look through this binder this is our model policy binder from shipment and Goodwin uh we went through and read every single word of it and what

036this tells us is all of the policies that are legally mandated so most of the things in here are things that make sure that we are complying with um with the law and there're also policies that affect all of the core areas that ensure that the schools are being run effectively and safely so the this motion is to accept the model policies that they've analyzed and that we have reviewed so that we can go into the 2020 2021 school year ensuring that all of our policies are complying with the necessary areas so essentially this is our Baseline and from there anything that gets updated or added um they will review we will review and then we can certainly take a look at anything that is West Harford specific as we normally would so this is

037uh it's been a very reassuring process and we thank Jessica Ritter and um Andy Morrow and the and um everyone for um helping as we did that review and I know that Andy and Jessica are also available for any questions um that are needed in more detail thank you uh does anyone have any questions okay wow that was easy um if not then I'll try your minds on this motion all those in favor of accepting the model policies please uh signify by saying I and raise your hand I I I um all those opposed say nay extensions and the eyes have it thank you and will we be receiving copies of these now that they've been approved by the board yeah everyone will start the the new year fres with the with the book I'm

038looking forward to it all right moving right along to staff Communications and reports and to the superintendent's report okay thanks um tonight uh we have some you know it's everything has been um a Maelstrom of events emotions and um obviously I sent a letter to the community reflecting the feelings of the district uh the feelings of myself and our commitment to what we are going to do to be better um and it's one of those difficult uh I'll be honest anytime you send um something like that you make yourself vulnerable I don't want anyone to misinterpret I think a Hallmark from the time I took over as superintendent one of the things that everybody that's presented at every board meeting knows when we present results or anything else I always make it a point to

039present the negative um not just put a shine on everything that we do um that can be difficult there are people that feel like um it's too negative and um you know we've had um we've had some successes in doing some things but that sounds um that sounds defensive frankly now is not the time for defensiveness now is the time to move forward to get better and to do well um so uh we're committed to that over the next um over the the rest of our West Harford Public Schools existence that we can be a part of society that works to continue to improve and um maybe has a little less patience is my goal one of the things I'm very proud to report tonight is that um we have a um very good announcement

040or I have a very good announcement to make the Connecticut Association of schools just sent me a letter um this weekend announcing that Joy Wright principal of King Philip middle school has been named the 2020 Connecticut Association of schools Middle School principal of the year she she was chosen for this amongst the entirety of the state of Connecticut of all Middle School principles um she had a remote site visit which was difficult obviously um and uh went through everything and they noted what a change agent in our her school and in our community Joy has been and um for those of us that have known Joy over the years we can't say anything other than how proud We Are to have her as leader in the district I am so thrilled to have her um

041leading the changes that we need and um I want to offer my most heartfelt congratulations to Joy um and really to the king Phillip Community overall so this is quite a feather in our cap and we are thrilled for Joy um now the school's reopening as we talked about last time [Music] um I've gotten some Communications and people sometimes feel frustration and I share that frustration of I wish I could just tell everyone right now this is what we're doing in August um at the start of school but there are CDC guidelines and there's going to be State guidelines and there's going to be State recommendations and that's something that a lot of us have said we think it's very important that there's at least some models um at least by region and areas that

042are similar so that we're working towards um we're working together to make sure we're all doing what's best for our kids and um a little bit less of halves and Have Nots and differences in communities in the state so we talked a lot about what will it look like and and I've said before we're preparing literally for everything we meet as an executive team every morning and the topic for that conversation um every day is okay what's next what's going on Paul has looked at basically every schedule Under the Sun Rosine is talking about every type of community need that we have Andy's meeting with procurement to you know I mean we're talking about how many thousands of masks do we need to order what type of cleaning supplies do we need to order how

043do we shift our custodial staff I mean that you know to kind of put in perspective in the midst of everything else today Andy and I had a meeting with Bob Palmer in the middle of the day to talk about what does a schedule look like for cleaning during the day if students are in the day and how many part-time custodians will we need to add to make sure that we can clean to the standards that are necessary and there's a lot of different proposals that are out there as to what the school year will look like um depending on what the pandemic does whether the same holds true for the fall and the spring is a big question um depending on what guidelines around social distancing and maske wearing um exist I think we

044can say right now one thing that we're going to be adjusting is um class sizes and and how does that work days of the week could be affected um Elementary School versus secondary schools and how we shift there but one of the things that means is we don't have if we had to shift spaces dramatically we don't have enough space um for all of our kids to be in so there there's a lot of things that we're going to have to think about and frankly I can promise one thing whatever the solution is it will not be met with open arms by everybody um we're just kind of come to accept that um 100% approval ratings do not exist during pandemic times I have found so um um but what I want to do for

045the remainder of uh my superintendent's update is we've put together Community uh committees um under kind of one of the things I learned as we went into this that we've talked about is the clear delineation of Duties and who's doing what is really important and there's a lot of times where people want me at different things and what I try to express to them is I'm have I go to a whole lot of things but if I have somebody in charge of something I need to make sure that person has my trust and my faith and people need to understand when they're talking to that person they're talking to me too and so these committee will be chaired by members of my executive team and I and I'm gonna ask each one to talk a

046little bit about their team so and their their committee and how this is going to look going forward and um so I think we spoke this morning I think we'll start with Paul good evening everyone uh thanks Tom thanks for the opportunity to present and uh and a welcome to Liz um uh my committee obviously is relates to curriculum instruction and assessment and the real charge for my committee is to determine uh the programmatic delivery and the impact on scheduling and much of that will be defined um as we get a little bit further into June and July and the state continues to provide us with some guidance we have several models that we've looked at thus far I want to assure you that when we know something definitive we will be getting all stakeholder

047feedback uh specifically parental feedback um but it right now it's too early for us in in terms of what the state guidance is to be able to assess that I would like to take an opportunity to just kind of talk about where things are in the school briefly and where they're going in the summer um we are obviously wind winding down we're into June uh the senior's last day is next Friday June the 12th and then the remainder of students have their last day on June 18th um we are maintaining our focus on academics however uh as we move into the last weeks the elementary plan specifically we'll start to focus a little bit more on some social emotional aspects some reflection and I think you know recent events uh have given us the unfortunate

048um impetus and Catalyst to have to redouble our efforts in terms of uh making sure that everyone uh has an understanding of uh identity fair treatment uh their role in terms of race and racism and how to react to that and uh I don't I could I could share some of the things I don't want to step on rosen's toes if she was planning to share any of it uh but I do just want to acknowledge her work um given you know the understandable uh High emotions that are out there in our community uh regarding recent events I just I just want to publicly acknowledge Rosen for her tireless work effort and uh and and I'm proud to work alongside her and it's pushed me in terms of where we are in a curricular lens

049on this um as we look ahead to the summer I would simply say uh you know we're planning our our summer reading lists um we are uh at the elementary level we're looking across those weekly plans that have been posted and there elements to those plans uh specifically in science in the Arts and in World Language that not that we recognize not all families were able to engage with so we're we're sort of repackaging all of that from the weekly plans into some summer activities and extensions that folks might uh be able to like to engage in uh we're also keeping our weekly plans posted throughout the summer and we've extended access to uh some of the online programs uh math DreamBox Lexia for literacy that the students will be able to access um with

050that we'll be using some of those programs with uh with our summer esol summer prep program the Charter Oak and Smith summer connections and the hanik uh summer programs uh those will be four-week online programs that will begin in late June um um we are conducting we've Ann Carrie and myself have been sitting in on faculty meetings across all the different levels getting both staff and uh families feedback in terms of uh what went well what could be improved should we have online components for our learning next year uh we are in the midst we just finished our uh sixth School uh conducting after action review collecting those Lessons Learned with teachers um and looking at how that will inform our planning moving forward and the committee itself is getting ready to publish uh a

051survey for students at the secondary level to collect their insights uh in addition we're looking at um procurement of an online resource uh for the secondary level should we be um continuing to engage in that in that venue and just really kind of pushes us some that we've seen that that's worked very well um as a presentation tool that will inform instruction whether we're online or in class we're also looking at Best Practices you know a lot of the initial feedback that we've gotten from students is boy if we could if we could streamline and and and make uh the the Google Classroom have some common expectations so that especially when I'm when I'm when I'm a middle schooler or a high schooler and I have five six different teachers and I'm seeing things five

052six different ways can I get everyone on on the same page with how the material is presented in that platform so you know simple things like that um we're working on to identify what those best practices are and that will be part of our professional learning as we prepare for next year setting that expectation so that uh so that things are a little bit more streamlined and improved so that's a that's a kind of a hodgepodge of different uh ideas uh happy to take any questions either an hour whenever whenever uh the opportunity arises in this discussion thanks Paul um all right i' I'd go to um Rosen now and Rosina some of the topics that are in your presentation tonight naturally focus on both but Rosen is going to be leading a committee um

053based focused on community outreach with um stakeholders throughout the community you could talk a little bit about that Rosine and again I'd also say um there are some things in this District I'm exceptionally proud of nothing more than my partnership with Rosina has Haskins and the fact that West Harford has a director of diversity advancement which um District after District tries to add and their Boards of AD do not support it typically so um this goes to um thank the board for their support but more um thanks Rosen for your expertise and the way you lead this District um from the heart so Dr H Haskins thank thanks Tom and Paul good segue Paul into the uh community outreach advisory that I will be leading um that that advisor will bring together Community shoulder Partners

054as I like to call them who will serve our students they have served our students and families and um even before the uh covid School closure and we'll continue to do so the committee will bring together diverse perspectives of people from across the district and we will apply and Equity lens uh to raise some really tough questions as we think about reopening schools and and serving all students and I and I'm including you know those that have been traditionally underserved and under represented um well I'll highlight some of what we have learned that will help to uh inform our thinking and planning for reopening schools so that we leave no Stones Unturned all right thanks Rosen Gretchen um you want to talk about Gretchen obviously has been working on um the extended school year and

055looking at the summer as we plan for next year and what things we can do there in addition both online and as we get ready for the school year what it means and um as you know we've met with septo and had a productive meeting um Dr Nelson all right thank you Tom I appreciate that um so we're I'm going to start with talking about the committee that Tom has uh asked me to move forward with which I'm very excited about and this is to uh pull together a group of stakeholders to talk about the social and emotional impact of uh returning to school and we know that all students are going to be accept uh affected on some level with um with how they're returning to school what they think about um how the

056last few months have been and as they move forward and so in order to do that we I have uh asked a group of teachers students parents Board of Ed members administrators and community members to meet with me to talk about what are the things that we need to really uh do to support students as they re-enter and so some of the topics that we'll be talking about are um social and emotional learning across all students um in all levels about classroom management and what that's going to look like as we come back to to school about re-engaging in relationships uh with student to student as well as student to staff um also talking about student discipline and how that might look differently uh as we re-enter in the school year and then um more

057significantly behavioral and uh mental health support as we uh help students reintegrate into an inperson or a hybrid you know we don't know um situation in the fall so that's really what we're going to be focusing on within that um within that committee and then I also did want to talk about uh what we have been doing over the last uh few months um in working in in pupil services in terms of supporting students with disabilities both with IEPs and 504s and uh we have encountered some challenges because our students require uh additional support and some unique very individualized support needs and so you know Rosen will touch on some of the challenges that we have encountered as we've worked to meet the the needs of families and students with disabilities we've also had some

058successes that I think is important to highlight and some of our students um have thrived under this uh situation they've really um done really well with this format and then we have students that have really struggled with this format and so uh we work daily with our department supervisors and our teachers to assess and to readjust and uh and to meet the students where they are and meet the families where they are um you know to move them forward and to continue learning we are in the process right now of working on esy so esy is a summer school program for students who are found eligible under idea for additional programming throughout the year primarily to um help students with significant regression issues and recruitment issues and so we have been looking at the state

059guidance and at this point we are planning on a virtual esy program uh while I'm working with um Andy and um and everyone else in the district in order to determine whether or not we can meet um all of the safety issues and the um the requirements for bringing staff students back to an in-person program in July and so once we determine if we can meet those needs then we will be looking at some type of an in-person programming as the state has provided us with some guidelines around that um and so in order to meet those students needs um it's going to be very important that we continue to have conversations with parents and teachers and stakeholders and Tom and I were able to meet with the septo group um and get some of

060their concerns out on the table and address those um as we move forward into the New Year we're talking about um you know how we can support students needs as they reintegrate into the into the school year but also learning from uh what we have experienced over the last few months in terms of uh meeting students where they are using the different types of technology that we have been able to use and um and capitalizing on some of the gains that we've made during this time so that's really where we're working in pupil Services thanks Gretchen I I can say with confidence there's not a person um besides perhaps me that wants to be in school more than Gretchen and um knows the needs that um we're having difficulty meeting one of the things that

061people also need to understand is I can't order people to work during the summer um during the school year it's a little bit different but working during the summer is a voluntary position to come in and work with people either one onone or one on three or one on five one on seven so these are all issues so it's it's not just that we have one thing we can decide to do everything has layers and Rick will talk about that as we talk about when we come back in the fall in his committee but um Gretchen mentioned a few things even busing at summer school and Andy by now we usually have our bus routs done for the fall we mail them in August but we do practice runs and there's a program we do

062them all right now the guidance for buses would have us with 12 or 13 kids on a bus we normally have 52 you know that our transportation currently costs about $7 million so um we do five times as many buzz if we just tried to do the same thing which clearly isn't going to work so that's something else we'll be talking to family about that's something Andy's working hard about I didn't want to Cho I didn't you know so Andy's talking about procurement he's talking about cleaning he's talking about facilities talking about buses but Andy's also um going to be overseeing our committee that looks at the medical requirements um as we move back so Andy if you want to talk about that a little bit sure uh thanks Tom so yeah one of the

063as Tom mentioned um not the most exciting stuff that we're that we're working on uh on my side but you know certainly I think it's important that we we do it well what we're we're really working on is is closing out this year as we're winding down as we're clearing buildings as we're packing up classrooms clearing out lockers safely uh making sure that that's being taken care of at the building level we're also looking at a committee to review the the health and safety advisors uh that we're going to have uh going forward and this is the committee that I put together that is made up of really more of Emergency Management types we're working very closely with Bob McHugh who's directing uh Emergency Management for the town uh Eric as you know Bob Palmer

064and I uh working closely with Amy Krauss who's the director of the West Hartford Bloomfield uh health district some of her people who are Public Health Emergency responses we also have uh four Physicians uh on this committee and and other other health Adis iers to to Really as we as we develop different scenarios to be able to tell us that yes this is a best practice yes this is something that would work or or we need to consider these other aspects because again what we're what we're going to do in the fall regardless of what it looks like if we're going to do it well and we're going to do it safely and that's our commitment since day one on this and so these are the these are the people who are going to give

065us that feedback and that expertise thanks Andy um and I think that this is you know I a little example I'll use that I discussed with the principles today to kind of say you know we're going to have to roll this out with our teachers slowly and with our families that we understand one thing think of what a classroom looks like think of how over the past few years we've taken classrooms and tried to deinstitutionalize them you know I never had my classroom in there was always a circle or a semicircle for discussion um think of the homey kind of touches or as a comfortable reading chair or some people with little mini coaches or the carpet the people come together on the carpet that's all gone I mean we we have to reinstitutionalization of

066like Cotton's existence in our classroom you know cotton ain't going to be king anymore this year this is um just the kind of thing that we have to look at it's a massive challenge as we look at how we're going to redesign all of our classrooms also and that's we need experts not just in health but also Bob Palmer obviously will be on that um group also as we look at our facility and um last but not least uh Rick ledwith a committee that doesn't have as much um Community involvement but is really focused on our employees if you want to talk about that a little bit reick yeah thanks Tom so the the name of my committee will be the employee workplace Safety Committee and this committee will be comprised of employees across all

067of our categories of of employees so that includes teachers administrators secretaries par professionals custodians maintenance workers nutrition service workers uh um security nurses you name it everyone will be represented in our committee in addition our board chair will serve on this committee so thanks Deb uh and the mission of this committee will be to work together to provide the safest environment possible for our employees to work in this will include ensure ensuring our facilities are fully clean and equipped with a blueprint for maintaining safe conditions every day setting up a support system for employees as they return to our buildings and adjust to new realities and emotional challenges that could be presented by the covid-19 pandemic and then creating a plan for a safe and work work environment that protects our employees from risks connected

068to covid-19 including exposure and transmission this committee will help us to develop safe workplace policies PPE policies emergency leave policies which will include the emergency paid sick leave act and the emergency FMLA laws presently in place and will help Us address things like employees with underlying health risks and uh and what that means coming back to work we as a committee are really going to want to think about every possible employee related scenario that we can think of and really have a plan in place to address it which is really no small task uh we sent out an invitation today to the committee members and we'll look to start our meeting schedule shortly uh we're hoping to have some guidance from the governor soon as this will help Drive the work uh that we will

069do collectively together so that's uh summarizes this committee be happy to answer any questions that you guys had thanks Rick and I think it's important to note that families have trepidation for their children we have staff also that are um nervous about what they're going back to and there's things that you know people read one thing and that's the importance of Andy's health committee people read something and believe something I've had you know we we have the UV cabinets for all the glasses for our and goggles for our um for our science classes you know that's where they go and and so um once this all started and we found out we're were going to have to reuse the masks and everything we went through this process and again it was a it was a

070Chase I put IND on where we're taking all of those down relocating them so the police could use it and then the CDC issued guidance that said nope they don't work on masks after like a week and a half of reorganizing relocating and that's the kind of thing and sometimes people are operating on things from a month ago or two months ago and things change rapidly as to what um what we know is safe and what we can try to do so with that open to questions for me or any of my team about their committees and I thank them for their diligence I should add I will be meeting with the PTC and Reporting out from all those committees as they report um back to me and the PTC I've talked to Steve Dean

071who's run the PTC and he's going to be sending out a communication this week um and we'll meet um throughout the summer so that that is a conduit That's How we'll communicate and be make sure each PTO has information from all the Committees that we can report back to their home schools and U be able to answer questions so and Liz I apologize for all the acronyms when we have hard paper booklets they all come through the PTC is the parent teacher Council so it's representative from every PTO and I always have to work on that it's not you it's us it's okay actually so I knew what it was perfect that's right excellent any questions for um Tom or anybody on the team Sean uh thank you for the description of all the Committees

072uh very helpful I was just wondering mostly for the Public's interest of what um source of guidance are you most eager for because we get a lot of recommendations to us we get a lot of suggestions on what to do from experts in the community and um are you for example CDC the governor's office uh the farming uh excuse me West Hartford Bloomfield um health district uh maybe you can just kind of say what you're waiting for uh guidance from sure the the answer the answer is yes it's um I speak to um the West Harvard Bloomfield Health District um four times a week we have standard calls and the days that I don't sometimes is a double up with Andy in the morning um as we're on two separate townwide committees um the CDC

073sends out guidelines and um if I'm being honest they're a little they're not as prescriptive probably as um the states are currently for summer school and the fact is we're you know I I have been I am very confident that on the governor's desk is a plan that's come from the State Department of Education um that he will be releasing within the next X number of time just as there is for Yukon I think there is for the schools of Connecticut I don't know how prescriptive it will be I don't know how definitive it will be um but I know that caps has had Representatives that have worked on it I know that CA and aft have had Representatives that have worked on it I know cab has had Representatives that have worked on it

074I've heard a lot of different rumors about it but until I see it I can't make a promises to what it says but realistically that's what's going to drive um that's what's going to drive I think our plan and every District's plan going forward after that is because the fact is we we can't have 169 different plans for education in the state and there'll probably be a couple districts that will try to do things differently there are districts trying to do things differently now um but you know only a third of our teachers live in West Hartford and um anybody that's taught knows going to another place um Child Care issues and just the continuity of instruction that we need from our employee staff of 900 plus teachers is um going to be a major

075challenge if people are all diff doing different things so um uh more to come once we get it and I I would expect I would expect that that document is I would expect but I'm hoping it's not just because I hope so so much I would hope and expect that it's not too far off from getting that guidance thank you any other questions and I think we all have a lot of questions but we don't have a lot we know that you don't have the answers at this point so you're gonna get a path I think on this one for now all right uh mve on to staff reports and board discussions and first off is the Personnel report and Rick ledwith you're up good evening everyone again and the Personnel report can be found

076on pages three and four of your board packet which was emailed out to you so I know you hopefully had a chance to glance through it anyways as of this evening we have 14 retirements and five resignations for uh that's end of the year retirement so for comparative P purposes we had 27 retirement last year and 25 the year before that so going into this year we had budgeted 25 retirements so we are surprised at the low number uh for this school year and as of now we're uncertain as to how this number may or may not change due to the pandemic we had thought and we talk about this almost every day as the executive team as we were moving through the pandemic response that we may receive more retirements from folks who may

077not want to come back in the fall due to the uncertainty um but since the outbreak of the pandemic in March we've only received one additional retirement so that we that may be where we stand uh as we head into the summer so with this uh these retirement resignation numbers our leaders are in inter interviewing and hiring mode uh though at a much reduced rate than in previous years uh and unfortunately we are hiring without the use of our three signature recruiting events the CK minority teacher career fear the niag school of education career fear and of course the West Harford Public Schools teacher career fear uh we're all canceled due to the pandemic uh we had also signed up for the Howard University teacher career fair down in Washington DC which would have been

078our first time attending a historically black college and university career fear that as well was cancelled too so uh that we will make sure we get there next year and of course uh we have started our hiring in and uh we are doing it completely virtually for the first time ever ever uh early in the pandemic we realized we would not be back in our buildings so we work with our leadership team to develop guidance for conducting remote interviews uh this guidance addresses some of the things we have experienced even in in these types of meetings that we were in tonight uh you know early on when we had these first virtual type of meetings you always want to make sure your technolog is working correctly uh cameras microph phones checking your lighting backgrounds Etc

079muting your devices when we aren't talking relying on non-verbal cues as we cheer the interview committees and looking for nods and shaking of the heads uh so that everyone isn't speaking into the devices at once and and really these little things I think make a difference um in providing the best possible experience for our committees and for the candidates coming through the door and we've done a few uh new hires over the for last few weeks and the feedback from those candidates has been positive on this experience so we're happy about that um and that summarizes our last Personnel report of the year uh when we do receive go uh guidance from the governor we know things are likely to look different for next year in what impact that may have on Staffing as we

080move through the summer uh we will learn and we will certainly keep the board up to date as as we learn those things over the next few weeks um that's it for me i' be happy to answer any questions that the board had thank you uh Amanda and then Sean thank you I'm Anda arenson I do have a question for you Rick I didn't um mention it to you ahead of time so if you don't know it off the top of your head perhaps we can uh connect later but if you do know um have there been any changes to when you're thinking about hiring as far as reciprocity and licensure I know particularly with the ing of minority teachers when we're thinking about the reciprocity from States or if you're trying to recruit from

081HBCU graduates the practice exams and some of the hurdles that we've faced in most districts face um have how what's the status of that as far as hiring State it's a great question and hiring from state to state uh and every state actually handles it almost the same way that Connecticut does and and we do make it difficult uh for folks that are are moving from out of state or teaching in an out of out of state district and then trying to come through Connecticut um but we're committed to working with any candidate and helping them through that process and working directly with the state um with our staff right here in HR we do it every year and certainly working with minority candidates if we're able to recruit folks from uh the HBCU we

082would do that as well I know the state's working um specifically on that question I get you I can get you some more specific question answers to that question Amanda it's a good question thank you because it is actually a question more about if there's any change on state level yeah and if they've relaxed any of those things in light of some of the hurdles and timelines for things yeah there were there were a couple bills with it with the legislature this year but obviously the legisl you know postponed um some of those didn't come to fruition so um you know I think it's right now um there hasn't been a lot of movement in that area as an accommodation for this but we'll see maybe over the summer we'll get some more guidance okay

083thank you Sean uh having moved cross country twice I appreciate your question Amanda and reciprocity is is definitely something to consider when when attracting the best teachers for our students um Connecticut does set a high bar but in my experience I don't know if this is possible Rick but I believe we do have the one-year emergency wave option I don't know if that's still an option for areas of need especially but um it's definely something that I mean we as maybe Democrats and Republicans can reach out to our counterparts for um my my question was more so for the retirement side of it uh West arford does this amazing thing where they have this uh Grand you know retirement um dinner or or celebration where I think um you know our superintendent would come and

084say some nice things about all the retirees and there's a few on that list um that I definitely have looked up to over the years so I was just wondering is there any way that those people are going to be thanked and honored for their service to the district yep um that's that's another good question Sean and and actually as I think it would be last Thursday we would have had our big retirement dinner over at the um the Farmington Club so unfortunately with everything that's happened been cancelled I know there's a lot of different retirements that are happening within each school I don't think there's anything happening from a a districtwide standpoint um but we will be attending a couple of virtual um retirements at individual schools so they'll be run by the principles

085themselves if you want to reach out to me on the side I can let you know when those are that's great I just wanted to make sure that they realize that we still support them and um it's it's got to be tough for them going out I'm not sure you know they would have planned for this as well and many people look forward to that event yeah other questions or comments all right thank you thank you all right moving on to item two equity and diversity Council report uh covid-19 response Dr H Haskins again good evening everyone and um good evening thank you Deb for your opening statement of uh acknowledgement and support for racial and social justice um and I know that the board can't respond to public comments but these are voices that

086I know very well that have been they've supported our work and um you know I want to say to them if they're still listening I hear you I truly hear you and I think that's important I value your partnership and um I'm eager to work continue to work with all parents as we lean in and dig deeper as we uh apply this anti-racism model as an overlay to our cultural competence framework um to the board thank you for this opportunity to uh report to you and the viewing public some of the reflections and findings of the equity and diversity Council during the covid-19 school closing uh tonight I'll highlight a few key findings and action uh but a full board report was made available online um and just before I go to uh screen share

087I'll just say full confession my heart is very heavy and so I apologize that I don't have a song in my voice tonight but I have hope in my heart because incidentally I've got Kenya and Isabella side by side in my screen view this evening and I'd be miss or negligent and maybe even tonee if I didn't acknowledge this as a very trying time and to apologize to you and your peers and your siblings for what you've had to experience and what you've had to endure daring what should be such a joyous time in your lives your young lives and I know that you deserve better um and you done you deserve better than even my leadership has given you and um that won't be the Legacy I am sorry for the chaos and unrest

088that you find yourself centered in and I'm looking right at you um and so today you know I today I had the privilege at Connor to uh sit in on a student discussion and I have to say I have hope because I was so proud of their resilience and and the way that they've come together to reflect and dialogue about the pain and the change and healing that we need and so tonight as I highlight um you the ways that we've coped with covid-19 during the the closure um I I just want to make it clear because this was a recurring theme today that I recognize that we are in a pandemic of racial Injustice and the crisis of covid-19 has really magnified racial inequity and so I think it's important that uh our students

089are heard and I'm going to talk about that a little bit but it listening to them today it reemphasized that for me and uh it made me think of Dr King quote Riot is the language of the unheard and so Kenyan is a bot thank you for your voices for not being silent and for being an inspiration for me um so allow me to uh screen share my presentation all right give a holler if you cannot see I'll make an adjustment all right so what I'd like to highlight are three key areas where we've seen significant challenge we've seen opportunities for um growth and connections and and and we've identified a lot of ongoing needs and so superintendent Moore has encouraged me to be as candid and honest about um where we've probably have fallen

090short and we'll use our findings and this information to inform our advisory committees and in particular our community advisory but those three key buckets I want to focus on are the grab and go operations technology and internet access and um Family engagement in the context of at home learning and um as I always do in every presentation I try to ground Us in the work that that framework that guides and drives our work and it's this cultural competence Continuum and it's with an equity lens and essentially you know Equity is just not one side fits all Equity is giving everyone the Footwear that they need to run their best race and we still subscribe to our framework for cultural competence um and essentially it means checking your biases at the door so that we can

091be our best selves for our students and families and for each other and and over time growing in our culture Al humility but we recognize that's not enough we will We overlay that with the anti-racism lens in model and this was something that we had already started working on prior to school clo closing we have a high school group that's mobilized and ready to uh Implement a model on anti-racism anti-racist training um and it really essentially focuses on Breaking the influence and disrupting this Legacy of racism by empowering our teachers and in particular our white teachers so our first bucket I want to focus on is grab and go our our grab and go operations as I call it because on March 16th the first day of school closure the department of nutrition services they

092set up in seven locations grab and go Mill distribution um operation and and we were planning to distribute food meal package bags of meals for students with need um just to minimize the threat of food insecurity and um as it turn out our grab and go sites have been way more than just meal Distributors we have uh to date we've served over 60,000 bagged meals um their code there are you know kind of supper time kind of meals too we're open three days a week for an hour and a half and um meals are packaged so that there are two days worth of servings for breakfast and for lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays and three days for the weekend on Fridays and we've found that we've been able to engage families by um at our

093grabbing go sites we've been kind of a welcome Center and an information kiosk if you will but uh it has not been without challenges you know just we expected Transportation barriers even though we were initially set up at uh seven sites we had families that could not access the grab and go sites and for a host of reasons not just because of maybe not having access to a vehicle but you know the challenge of rounding up you know three kids in the morning midday and they're in the middle of their instruction to to travel over to their local grab and go site um to bring meals back home and then reestablish that structure that they had in the morning uh and so we recognize that as a barrier our hours of operation again hour and

094a half in the middle of the day that's kind of a one-size fits-all at all of our locations that really hasn't been as effective um as we like and then dietary restrictions um generally during the regular school day program that's something that we can do pretty seamlessly but it's and we've done a really good job but it's been challenging because we just don't have the systems and structures in this very unusual setting to uh collect information about dietary needs and restrictions um and talking to each other across the different sites and so we have relied heavily on the relationships that we've developed with um with our families and then we still have families that report making their meals stretch through the evening and even three meals three days of servings of breakfast and lunch on

095the weekend making those stretch because money needs to go to other competing priorities and bills and keeping a roof over their heads now we have been responsive um every time some of those challenges present itself you know when we started grabb and go the first day we knew immediately we had three families that were requesting delivery door too delivery um and that numberers up to 40 plus families and you know I think my board report probably says under 40 because that number changes every week uh and that's due to various circumstances but we've been fortunate to partner with uh local food programs like food Shear um the food pantry we stay connected to our Hartford grab and go food sites because of our Hartford residents um who attend West Harvard Public Schools through the open

096Choice School integration program and we have been so fortunate to have the food backpack programs the Fern Street Food Ministry uh they pack it's a two-person operation a mother and daughter and they pack um fresh bags of groceries and they deliver them to every family that they serve and they serve probably over hundred um children and adults and serving 60 plus families as well as gifts of Love is another program and they bring their they bring the food bags to our grab and go sites and we deliver them to the homes of families who cannot pick them up um I will say that we've also been very fortunate to have uh parent supporters um lots of community volunteers we've had donations of uh of money and gift cards that have served well over a hundred

097families and um you know we've been able to answer the call for help with uh those donations and um in very Equitable ways I will say if a parent needs a fuel in their car to get to a grab and go site or to get to work you know there's a gas gift card for that so we are very um judicious Equitable we log all donations we acknowledge them and we make sure that we target them to a specific need and we call our grab and Go distribution operations multi-purpose because it's just a great information um site for disseminating important information and things that are happening in the community or things and resources that may that families May need but it's also an opportunity for us to connect with families and then make referrals to

098different agencies that might support their uh ongoing needs for some families covid-19 just completely pulled the rug out from under them and um they've never had to access any kind of relief or Aid um from any agencies before and so what's special about our grab and go size is that you know we had because of the executive orders that they were becoming more strict we had to uh replace 200 of our community volunteers with our School nurses our food nutrition services staff our um school security team and West Harvard Police Department and they have served as a wonderful conduit to our leadership team just letting us know what our families really need and giving us feedback from our families and it really has been two-way communication and so you know like I said it's more

099than just Distributing meals you know I want to reiterate that the teams don't only look forward to handing out uh you know bagged meals and putting food on the table they work really really hard to put smiles on children's faces and um even those Smiles that you can't see behind masks we recognize that through our grab Ando distribution and feedback from parents and caregivers that there's still a lot of needs everyone wants to know about summer grab and go summer meals you know and because a lot of programs take a break during the summer unfortunately Community needs don't take a break and so we won't take a break with our grab and go locations we'll just have to uh modify you know our our locations maybe look at accessibility a little deeper and clearer um

100in terms of needs you know the information that I'm sharing what I out LED in my report it's more so qualitative than it is quantitative and empirical so when I say many I really mean a lot um and we've seen a lot of need and growing need but we've um been fortunate to be kind of a welcoming face of the West Harford public schools for families who have been displaced and now they're here living in West Hartford and they're not sure where to go what to do or even knowing to register children um so you know we recognize we have needs and and we that'll help us to inform some of our advisory committees technology is the the other uh bucket I wanted to talk about and this slide just really lays out how we're

101situated with our technology and our devices um as you can see we have almost a 1.5 device per student ratio and that's based on our February 2020 um enrollment again no surprise that there were challenges there you know for some families that have devices in the home they're outdated um or systems are incompatible or there are no devices or the cell phone is the only device and the sharing between siblings and and parents who are now working remotely was just really challenging we found and then the printer in the beginning we were handing out um um hard copies of the educational packets the learning packets and um you know some families knew that they can access them online and it was just too costly for them to print even if they had a printer and

102internet access once we got lots of devices into the hands and homes of our families we found that a lot of them just didn't have internet or Wii access or if they did the bandwidth was low or slow uh and I was embarrassed because we really carefully looked and combed through all of the resources that are out there for lowcost or free internet uh service and um and all those providers I mean we picked up the phone and called them just to make sure that you know they were answering it was the right number that we had the correct information posted on our websites we really um vetted them carefully but I was embarrassed to find that a lot of families just could not access the low or free um low cost or free internet

103services and um in the beginning for some it was because they had overdue um balances um because now they've had to budget in different ways and so we were pleased to go back to those families and talk to them about the amnesty agreement that all of the providers um you know confirmed and and attested to and so for for families there were still families that their needs could not be met um and and having to be in the corner by a window trying to get a Wi-Fi signal just was heartbreaking um some of the ways that we have been responsive we have distributed almost 2,000 Chromebooks and iPads uh and uh we continue to receive them to for swapping out and fixing and making adjustments um and even Distributing more if um something goes wrong

104or there's another need uh we have distributed 200 webcams for our teachers because if um students can't see their teachers they can't connect uh and for those families who were still without internet access we were um able to secure procure 10 mobile hotspots I think that number is up now their mobile myi um in which we assume the cost of the service during this time that they are out and and and part of the um funds that we were able to apply to that came from the West Hartford um foundation so helped us support all of those things are in place for families call um put in a help desk ticket and then we've make sure that we've made sure that we've had subscriptions and District licenses that meet our need um in terms of

105the number of students that need to be able to access software and applications and programs and we still have need uh we recognize that and that that technical support is going to have to continue through the summer we're going to have to really look at we've I've seen some of the devices that have come back and um and that have been swapped out we're gon have to really look through our Tech refresh uh what devices need to be replaced augmented or supplanted but you know we could not have done any of this without the IT team I mean they were just Tire their tireless work really helped to move us um and and at home learning plan family engagement is the final bucket I want to talk about and this slide just Lees out or

106outlines the essential components of our at home learning plan um you know Elementary again we started with the printing packets and you know we're keeping the weekly lessons uh the secondary schedules and essential content keeping that updated on our webs ite making our website um even more user friendly by using a more this more interactive uh um design format and um and our our delivery of instruction is synchronous and asynchronous and as you can imagine there are challenges there too and the challenges are mostly associated with Dynamics home Dynamics circumstances and situations um sometimes working um remotely families who are home you know they're balancing their work with their children's work and navigating you know that online instruction distance learning um and I've seen it with my own colleagues and during our virtual meetings too

107and many of our families are called out of the home and for long hours because they're considered essential workers uh and then we we've heard from families who are just trying to navigate we've got children multiple children in in the different building levels and so understanding that and staying in contact and having our schools reach out to them by phone or traditional ways and having to respond to three multiple teachers has been challenging for families too as we've heard and then there's that worry constant worry about keeping up falling behind Tom Moore has had to respond to hey that's too much that's not enough again it's uh where that one size doesn't fit all and then the digital literacy and Technology divide has been something that's been quite a barrier ways that we've been responsive

108I know that Gretchen has talked you know ongoing about some of the challenges that students who receive special education um have been experiencing and that families have been reporting uh so we've really tried to be responsive to families at large and more individual uh the virtual parent PD was something that was new something that we recognized that we launched right into language like Google meet and um and you know asynchronous and synchronous learning and we just really didn't kind of similar to how you know superintendent Morris said PTC we just didn't really do a great job in the beginning of unpacking that so we said let's slow it down and let's try to uh be much more parent friendly uh in our communication in in our language video updates have been very appealing um and

109just kind of shows the true Spirit of our teachers too we've even done porch visits at safe distances um and sometimes those little ones just need to see their teachers faces and so they've been willing to do that and as I mentioned before we've gone um we've really tried hard to keep our up our website userfriendly and up to-date and sharing tools know just like we uh want to put food on students tables and smiles on their faces we want to make sure that we're giving them the tools that they need to be able to productively engage in the teaching and learning and so these are just a few of um identified ongoing needs that we really need to be thoughtful about um through the summer and into the fall with h School reopening and

110so some of these things we've already spoken to you know survey of students getting their voices and their feedback and reactions um to how this has worked out for them um what's working what's not what we need to do differently and uh and you've heard a little bit about our focused advisory and how we reimagine schools and for my for all of our advisories it'll be applying that Equity lens um so I've said a lot and I want to I want to close but what I want to share is that you know or ordinarily first I'm honored to be entrusted to lead this work and ordinarily I would bring to the in-person board table you are true heroes in this work and so um whenever someone says thank you to me uh I feel like

111I'm photob bombing they're tireless work and so before I close I do want to recognize those colleagues and partners who are heroes and have been doing work with lots of dedication love and commitment our nutrition services staff they're out there um you know every day that we have the meal distribution sites open with a smile on their face and they they're frustrated because the mass you can't see their smilees so they speak their love through their heart um and through their eyes um and we're just so grateful for them April was not kind weatherwise and we had some strong wind and and cold rain and and they still maintained you know that warmth and then our School nurses when they came on we were just so excited and they gave us lots of good feedback

112and guidance um about what's what our families need wanted and um and were asking uh and really being advocates for them as well as our building custodians keeping things safe and um accessible on the inside as well as on the outside our school security at West Harvard Police Department the bonds that I've seen our teams form with them too and then there's Carlos and Lewis my uh our van drivers who they helped to form a connection with our families too and uh you know they knew the shortcuts to a lot of our the homes that we were going to and we couldn't have done this obviously without our community volunteers you'll see a familiar face there um Isabelle and her mom and there's a brother Kenneth in the back um just you know all it

113was an all handson deck and and you lots lots of other thank yous to give um and these are just a few more and I'm sure you know you always run the risk when you're thinking individual groups and people of missing someone and so if I have please um know that I am grateful and please charge it to my uh head not my heart um my heart's a little broken right now I do want to um before I close I did have a picture that I really wanted to share of uh superintendent Moore but he'd probably fire me if I did so I'll just quickly say describe what that picture was um it was a picture of him holding a uh he was holding a sandwich I'm going to close out with this because you

114have to actually see me illustrate this but this quote this is a quote that he inspired me to add to tonight's presentation and it is um by Dr King I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism in war that the bright Daybreak of peace and Brotherhood can never become a reality I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word and I truly believe that too before I turn over for questions and discussions I'm going to bring it back oops I wasn't supposed to show that picture so I'm GNA stop so I I want to describe that picture because now that he's been exposed the story behind it is that you know he had said to me Rosena you know I'm worried

115about food allergies and um he's got and I said to him um no it's fine it's safe we've got that Co we've got nut allergies covered and he says look I only want the best for our students and he asked me like how can I be sure that what we're serving is safe and good enough for our students and I said you can't unless you try it for yourself um and as someone who worries about kids with food allergies he did and he gave it a thumbs up um and you know he I share all of that just to say just to continue to characterize him as I always have you know superintendent Moore is a fierce humanitarian he has super high expectations and he really has persisted um throughout what I think is a

116test of his human spirit and I'm I'm really proud to uh he's a tough boss but I'm really proud to call him leader mentor and friend um and I do feel very confident that under his leadership we will never go back to normal because as my grandmother would probably say um normal just was never right that's what I have I'll open the floor for questions thank you thank you for that really comprehensive report um I I am positive we're going to have some questions so if you have any questions uh please remember to put a question mark in the chat box really Sean and then Lorna I I never like being first but I guess I'll go I just wanted to say thank you and I hate speaking for people too but I'm going to

117do it because I I know I think we all feel it and that reading your report and seeing it here it was very comprehensive it was very detailed we know you put a lot of work into it and I just wanted to say thank you and I'll I'll leave the questions for everybody else all right Lura and then Amanda good evening um I too want to thank you for your report um I will also share that my heart is heavy also I said I wasn't going to do this um but you know what transparency sometimes speaks volumes and I'm just going to be candid and real with that um the reason for my heavy heart is that we continue to have these conversations in terms of the climate of our our country and our world

118and certainly issues of the pandemic have been pronounced and have impacted us all covid-19 is something that we have experienced for the first time ever however racism is not and that's why I very much respect the fact that the word anti-racist is being used when a person says they're not a racist well that's great but that's more of a passive approach when you say you are anti-racist that's where you are taking more of an active and assertive approach in responding to addressing and working to rectify it so I thank you superintendent Tom and I thank you board chair Deb for speaking up and speaking out about what is going on and how it's not right and how we need to do better and I thank you for that not only as a board member but

119also as a person of color because I think all too often people of color are expected to be the cheer leaders to cheer for something that we did not create and so being candid uh as well again it's important for our colleagues of all Races to speak up and speak out and I very much appreciate the quote that you shared wien I also am fond of quotes and I would like to share one also from Dr Martin Luther King Jr and this speaks to the importance of not being silent because silence is deafening so for persons who may choose not to get involved or who may choose to turn off the station and not to want to deal with it well that's a luxury because unfortunately there's some persons that have no choice but to

120deal with it and as a parent who's had to have conversations with my children again that I at times say darn it's not fair but it has to be had those conversations have to be shared so in closing um Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said the ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people please continue to speak up and speak out and thank you again for all of your work thank you L Amanda I am just taking in everyone's comments and didn't want to rush to comment myself as I was trying to listen my full attention on both of you and I have to say uh going back to rosen's report that those are one Frank I don't know how you

121or any of the team has been able to sleep for the last few months because the work that you're doing is Round the Clock and you know we saw those early days um the nutrition services team out in all that weather especially down in the hanck area you children coming in flipflops in the rain with their scooters and trying to find food and the humanity of that time it's such a raw time and just taking in your report um as we read it the other day and now hearing it again it's it's even hard to comprehend just how much is going on um through the work that you're seeing and I just want to be if I were in the community right now I would be wondering especially if I were a black mother or

122if I were someone of color in our community wondering what is my board of education thinking what can I expect from them and I think it's important that we're very clear and so for my part I'll be short so that it is clear I wanted to just say that the letter that um superintendent Moore sent out about our district moving in the direction of an anti-racist capacity for the work that we do um is something that I fully support and I am in it for the long Hall our lead our district is a lead district and our leadership will make a difference and it will have exponential um Ripple effects and that's something that we take very seriously so I send my my love and my respect to you as my colleagues and to the

123members of our community particularly the members of our black community and I want you to know that you entrust us with your children's lives and safety and education and I hope to make you know and trust that I will strive to be worthy of that in my role here and I know that we are committed to that as a team thank you Mark thank you uh Rosen I want to thank you for all your hard work um and your teams um it's been exceptional uh I have the pleasure of serving on the board when Tom had recommended um the director of diversity to us and without hesitation uh we all agreed and I got to say it was probably one of the best things that we've done for West Harford even though um where leader

124in that and not a lot of towns uh follow that set lead and and it's it's just been um you know kind of a shining star for West Harford and it's been exceptional um I can't pretend to know how it feels uh during these times um but uh my my heart goes out to everyone um there are good people in the world and that will overcome um my tfold and and we will get through this and we will be a better country for it I'm assure of it I hope that um hope not a strategy but I I know in my that we will be a better country for this um and that um we will all come together and you know it it's sad for everyone this isn't just it's it's not in fact

125I don't really think it's a of course it's it's sad for everyone it's this isn't it's not in just one community that people are are it's for everyone so um the work that you continue to do Rosina I appreciate it um I am I am hats off to Tom his letter I support that and that we hired you before any of this ever happened um is for this position is just you know I often say sometimes you're leader and sometimes you have to follow these are the times when when we have to lead and it's great for West Harford that we have done this and and we are a leader in this in this environment and um I take my hat off and praise you so thank you very [Music] much thank you Ros I

126have a question uh this is more of a practical nature um and I'll Echo everyone else's um notes of gratitude to you and everyone that you're working with to try to address these barriers uh that our families are facing across town to um to their to their success of the students um one of the questions I have is regarding um Staffing for grab Ando over the summer so assuming that the waiver is granted and we're able to provide the grab Ando meals are we looking to have um again professional staff hand those out or if you had a crystal ball would you um predict that it's possible that we would be using community volunteers for that service yeah it's right now we are um hearing from a few staff members who want to and then

127people who have said we I just need to recharge I need to reflect I need to recharge so we are going to probably be banking on community volunteers again and U the 200 that we had um we felt really good about but again it's it's the uh times are changing things are different we're in a different place now and so uh and those connections that have been formed you can't replace that right now it's you know trust has been built so that's something that we're really grappling with and and you know and and I share all of this this is not everything this is just the tip of the iceberg that we can see we can't see what's beneath the surface and so we just want have to be really thoughtful in terms of Staffing

128who's at our sites and who's interfacing interacting with our with our families well I appr appreciate hearing that and I know that members of our community are feeling a desire to pitch in in some way and so I my prediction from my crystal ball is that you you will be getting some phone calls and emails from people who want to um want to try to help out any way they can so um get to know that that could potentially be a possibility thank you are there other um questions or thoughts to share at this time okay thank you uh thanks Rosen we will move on to routine matters and the financial report and the first item is approval of the financial report for the period ending April 30 2020 and I'll welcome Liz hwit who

129I know is on the call somewhere um see is I am the only financial examiner of the board right now I will uh take the opportunity to go through the financial report and then and I know Liz will be available for questions um and this was sent out in your packet and is available on our website I don't know if it would be helpful to share on the screen um or so small I don't know if it's worth it um but I'll go ahead and get started thank you Liz so um this is the financial report for um the period of time ending on April 30th and you'll see that we are projecting a general fund balance of 1, 595,000 which is a little higher than we were projecting last month um as a reminder

130we are um going to be putting that into our new non-lps account which is a one-year non-aps account that was established uh for uh just this purpose uh by the Town Council a couple of weeks ago so moving on to the next page just to get a little bit more detail about that um this is the page with the general fund report uh by account and um just a couple of variances I wanted to point out one is under transportation um which is line 5345 obviously you see a big um big change there of $1.1 million we have resolved our bus contracts um the bus companies are still paying for their drivers U maintenance of the vehicle Etc and we're expecting a savings of $1.1 million um in the transportation line item um underneath supplies

131uh supplies materials and capital um we have purchased laptops and devices to support distance learning um we expect that we may need to distribute more of these in the fall and um because well depending on whether we are back in school or if there is any distance learning occurring we also have software packages that until now have been free and I think Paul's mentioned a number of them over the course of the last few meetings um and those have been very beneficial for um helping to provide the distance learning those uh software packages um have been free until now but they are likely to cost money starting this fall and so would' like to buy those um now so that we can get in uh when the getting's good and we're also purchasing ing uh

132PPE personal protective equipment for when we come back into our schools so plexiglass for our main offices um some outdoor education equipment and uh masks Etc so that is um the big change in the supplies materials and capitals line we go to the next page um this is our grants report and we don't have any uh changes to this page we do um expect to expend out all of the grants um that are the ones below the line are the ones we need to expend by the end of this year uh the state is likely going to give us an extension for a few months but we don't think that we're going to need it so um the the big change on this page is going to show up in a few months and that's

133when we're going to see the additional money that West Harford and all the other districts are getting through um the new federal funding providing extra money for education so that'll show up on this page in a couple of months moving on to our special funds report um there's not a lot of changes here just a few things that have um shaken out over the last month or so um again we're not charging preschool tuition um and haven't since March and so that is um why we have a loss in that line item and finally our nutrition services fund um this is um unfortunately we an area where we are seeing a loss and we are projected to have a loss of about $350,000 by the end of June um this is um this is simply

134a matter of scale we're getting paid for our meals but we're only serving um we're serving much many fewer meals a day than we were serving when when school was open obviously so we do have uh money in this account and it's not like we're going to go into deficit because we have the money but uh it's just a little bit of a let down because we had finally turned this account around and um and now we are where we are so that's the financial report are there any questions no questions all right um well I will make a motion that we approve the financial report and can I have a second thank second I think it was Sean who got that in there yeah um and no without any further discussion all those in

135favor of accepting the financial report please signify by saying I and raising your hand to make it easy for counting purposes I I any opposed abstentions and the eyes have it motion passes moving on to approval of minutes um the first item is approval of the minutes the May 13th special Board of Education meeting can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the special Board of Ed meeting from May 13th so moved uh thank you Amanda and a second second second I got mark on that one um any discussion on those minutes okay if not I'll try your minds all those in favor please signify by saying I I I all those opposed say nay abent iions abstention one exstension noted thank you um the eyes have it and it's 6 to one

136next the approval of the minutes of the May 19th regular Board of Education meeting can I have a motion to approve those minutes so moved thank you Amanda and a second second Laura Thomas fuson thank you Laura any discussion on the May 19th minutes all right all those in favor uh please signify by saying I raising your hand I I I uh all those opposed any extensions abstention uh one exstension Liz Wilcox so noted motion passes 6 to1 information and reports board members communication and reports number one reports from other boards and organizations does anyone have any reports from other boards and organizations okay number two other information and discussions uh Sean hi uh thank you so I I'll be stepping away from the Board of Education as all the board members already know I've

137spoken to them personally I don't like to surprise people like this so um I'll be stepping away from the board for uh professional reasons and if if it's okay with you Deb I'd like to say a few things sure thank you um I'd like to say a little something about each board member even though I've only served about a year I I thought I've gotten to know some of you more so than I've seen my own family members given the circumstances so uh I've gotten to know you fairly well um so anyways Deb uh thank you for being a great leader in uh on the board of education uh thank you for helping me recognize roles and borders of a board member and then also teaching me how to successfully possibly get around them I

138appreciate your experience and your guidance I think you're excellent for the Board of Education and I'm glad you filled that role um more um I knew you I felt I knew you before I joined the board because I watched you on several board meetings just as I mentioned to rob it was like meeting a celebrity of some kind and I always noted my first observation was that you didn't speak too much and now that I know you it's that because you're a good listener so I I hope to emulate that I think you're a great board member and uh I value your advice that you've given me over the past year uh Ari um I felt you like you've been my partner and crime through this especially the election season and joining the board um

139if if a person could be a spirit animal you would definitely be mine so thank you uh Mark um I the thing I wanna I don't think the community realizes is how much you serve this community and how value your uh your voice is to this board um I I appreciate how you listen to the people and bring their voice to the table so it's been an honor serving with you uh Amanda you are I feel like the soul of this board and it's desperately needed because uh some of us tend to not show compassion and you wear yours your heart on your sleeve so to speak so thank you uh all of you play a certain role within the caucus there that um is that is important for the functioning of the board and

140Liz it was a pleasure to call you and get to know you briefly but as you come in I am going out so I expect um you to do big things um and I have high hopes for you and thank you for serving one thing I didn't realize is that there is many more meetings Beyond this one uh so for the public uh I I wish them I wish you the best of luck Liz uh whether you're caucusing or in subcommittee or leening or whatever you want to call it I hope you do really well and I appreciate your your effort to serve thank you thank you um and then lastly to the students um uh I appreciate you guys serving I know you guys run for an election in your school and um you

141won and I don't know if you realize what you're getting into but you probably put in more hours than the rest of us because you have to complete this and your schooling U but more than that I apologize for the circumstances that you're serving under and I I hope you encourage your successors to to be as vocal as you have been I know we've gotten into some pretty interesting um discussions call them at the board level and I loved hearing you speak up I think you really spoke really well for your um your classmates and I don't think they're watching considering there's nine other people in this call uh but I know that I really value your your input into the board discussions because you're why we're all here so um so thank you for

142that and uh Kenya good luck as an educator um I think you're going to do great in the short time I've gotten to know you um and I hope to welcome you to the workforce very soon so um to Tom and his team thank you guys for always providing um and tonight is a perfect example of that the the most detailed uh above and beyond reports that a board could ever ask for so uh I wanted to Thank You from One Professional to another that we we the board really do see the time and effort you put into these reports and how you go above and beyond and so many small decisions that you make that people don't realize that other districts don't get the benefit of for example one tonight is I know several

143districts that did not provide weekend food and when I was handing out food at wading Lane you should have seen the the kids and parents' faces uh for that we had thought of providing food on a Saturday and Sunday and somebody in your office made that decision uh we'll go ahead and say it was you Rosen because it probably was and I know that small things like that at 50 South Main or virtual are are why we love West Hartford and your team that you assembl Tom and uh lastly to Tom um thank you I mentioned a lot of positive things about you in the past couple months but one thing I learned through this was that you wear multiple hats I knew one or two of them coming into this uh I didn't realize

144that you probably have 50 hats but the great thing about you is that you wear them all really well and you're definitely the superintendent that we need at this point in many ways so I know you're going to get a lot of emails in the coming months especially the board members will we're going to not make somebody happy but what the public doesn't realize is that um we're very lucky to have you and your team uh that you put together so um I think that's all I have um to the public um it's obvious that our schools have have are more than we we paid for they are are essential to our communities they are feeling roles that we never imagined and this board has some difficult decisions ahead especially when it comes to the

145budget so I don't envy the decisions you'll have to make but I'm certainly going to be supportive um I'm not going away but I do have to step away so I'm happy to help you in in shortterm uh you know ways that I can but anyways um that being said Thank you for allowing me to serve thank you Mark you put a question mark in was that for right now or did I miss that from before no it's um well it was it was from before but I'll take the opportunity to do two question marks here um I just I want to thank Sean H for his service to the town of West Harford um a lot of work that goes into this and I appreciate people stepping up um and you really took it

146to heart you you brought a teacher perspective to it and that's always very very helpful so um that was very um uh it was very um well it was well respected on the board and and and just your your time commitment that you took and you know we appreciate it and I I said this to you on our phone call I don't know how many Board of Ed members in the United States and I'm going to say zero with the exception of us they were able to have a board of bed meeting in a delivery room or not NE delivery room but in in the hospital um with a newborn that was something that I I will never forget um when I was in Iraq I uh had the advantage of having some technology that

147other soldiers didn't and I gave my room up for a night so that he can have uh a baby virtually with his wife um in Iraq and that was in 20087 I think 2007 so it kind of It kind of reminisced that and um it was it was cool and I don't think that there's many Board of Ed members out there that can say that so um we have a uh an advantage over the rest that thank you for your service um prematurely congratulate on your new position or wherever you know I don't know if that's whatever but congratulations and um that's awesome and that you will still be a cog in the wheel if if I can say that so thank you um and and if I could take a minute to if you

148don't mind Deb just a little bit to introduce that was really a couple question marks over there I want to kind of introduce Liz a little bit to the board um so that um kind of everybody knows her um she's resided in West Harford with her husband since 1996 and his his husband's name is Bill three children Matt who's a senior Abby of sophomore in college a senior in college and a sophomore in college and Kate who's a senior in high school um Liz earned her um law degree from Western New England University School of Law and she earned a ba from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Tom Moore and an English and psychology uh and she was admitted to the Connecticut bar and has worked in legal roles as well as in insurance industry

149and Financial Services Industries um and and she serves on the town conservation and environmental Commission in the past she's also been an active member for the uh bugby Bristo St Tim Hall TC boards where that she gets the acronyms and having served in many capacities in each of these schools which is well versed um in school curriculum and planning and policy she's also a long-standing volunteer with the bridge Family Center uh serving on the children's charity ball committee uh with the bridge and sort of many valuable programs offered to use to West Harford including the Family Resource Center um and she's also a West Harford parent leadership uh training institute I just really really want to welcome Liz to the board and um and and introduce you to her and I know this board is

150very welcoming Liz and they will uh wrap your arms around you and uh get you through the bumps in the road as we all know that we have so welcome thank you welcome H thank you Mark and yes the board has been so welcoming so far I appreciate all of you who have reached out and um I'm just really looking forward to Jumping right in and and getting to work get all these difficult tasks at hand all right um Amanda okay well Mark thank you for introducing Liz because I I known Liz for over a decade now and I know I can attest to the fact that we are um inheriting not inheriting but welcoming a very strong uh colleague who will be prepared and compassionate and um a very very productive thought partner as

151we do the important work of this community so um welcome to you Liz Sean we spend so much time together as a board that I can't my husband now always says Sean Pac like it took him forever to not call you Sean pan that he now always refers to you by both names um so I just want to thank you so much um that when we started our election time together when your name hit the community um my neighbor across the street was one of your students and she was like Mr pacon Mr Pac I can't believe it's Mr Pac and all the kids were so excited uh that you were going to be on the board of education because you are such a an incredible teacher for them and having the perspective of a

152long-standing teacher on our team has been um incredibly valuable and I appreciate the many hours that we've spent um as a group challenging each other's thinking and really digging into this work um thank you for taking it so seriously and I wish you all the best I know that we will see you constantly because you're so engaged with this work I can't imagine that we wouldn't be seeing you all the time in some capacity or another so thank you for serving thank you Ari well I want to welcome Liz first of all um uh I hope that you are as excited to be on the board as we are to have you um and I really look forward to um being able to get to know you and for us to work together so welcome

153to the board and I can't hug you right now because you know social distancing but we will welcome you with open arms just not right now at least six feet apart um and then Sean um I I don't know what to say when we discussed this unfortunate situation um I think you heard my entire house heard me scream um and my son came running upstairs because he didn't know what was happening and I told him to go away he could not know the information um but I think that in and of itself really um expressed how sad I am um that you need to make this decision um I too consider you my partner in crime um I don't want to say crime but you know from the very beginning you Amanda and I um

154I thought of the three of us um as really working together having very similar um interests and passion and energy for the work that we were um preparing to do um and I think that our um campaigning together spoke to that um so um as I said when we all met um I don't know if if you're not running if I'll be running again because I I don't know if it'll feel oh I'm kidding Deb but I'm just saying I really enjoyed um our campaigning together um so I will I will miss you very very much I do know that you will stay involved in some way or another and that you we will still hear from you um but I did really enjoy I I loved having someone on the board who really looked

155through looked at issues um and process issues um through an Educator's lens because I I think that that's really important um and getting the other side of the um you know the other perspective we're looking at it on you know the children and the families and and you really kind of H helped us to put things in perspective from the the teach teachers um perspective so I really appreciate that and I will just miss your um energy and enthusiasm um and I would be honored to be your spirit animal so Laura hello first off I as well want to Echo the welcoming to Ln Liz welcome to the board very much glad to have you a part of the team and something that has been a thread throughout uh my tenure here has been regardless

156of where we come from uh in terms of what side of the aisle we on it's quite clear that all of us are here for a shared purpose and working uh for the betterment of our young people so glad to have you a part of the team and sharing in that same regard and Sean to you um saying farewell to your role as a board member but not saying goodbye I don't like to say goodbye to anyone it certainly has been a pleasure working and serving with you um I did not have the advantage of getting to bond with you prior to you officially coming onto the board but nonetheless uh since you have been a part of the board certainly have appreciated and valued your presence and your voice certainly with your educational background

157that has allowed us to um to balance out the discussion and certainly look at uh questions and ideas from a different angle and perspective and very much uh recognize and appreciate your calm tone throughout so thank you for your advocacy thank you for your presence wish you all of the best in your next chapter in life and again just gonna say see you later thank you and I'll just chime in um Liz I'm really looking forward to working with you and um learning about your passions for our public school system so thank you for agreeing to serve and Sean um what has been mentioned yet is that you're also um coming at this from the perspective of a parent of young children and the rest of us on this board um don't have little tiny

158kids in our house anymore and so we're coming at I think coming at things from a slightly different perspective than you are um I really appreciate having your perspective both as an educator um but also as a dad to cor and Holden um which by the way you did tell us you would probably bring Holden into this board meeting at some point so have another couple of lines on this agenda before we get to the adjournment so I'm hoping to see that little one uh if if you can swing it don't wake them or anything but if you can swing it we'd love to see them so um so thank you um oh and also as a coach by the way I think that's also been a really helpful perspective that you've brought to the

159table a number of times um a number of times this year so stay in touch I know you will and look forward to hearing from you in the future all right with that uh let us move to the reports from student board representatives and um this is the last um report from both of you as well so Isabella we'll have you go first tonight okay can you hear me yes okay good good evening everyone students are starting to return to the building to collect personal belongings Mr zun sent out information to the student bodies about the student body about this last week I'm told that the graduation plans are well underway and we will be receiving details soon also the administration is discussing ways to better support students of color thank you to Dr H

160Haskins for speaking about student voices earlier I have been a part of the West Harford Public School District since kindergarten and as a student of color I appreciate the position of acve anti-racism that Mr Moore in the west Harford public school system has taken and we do need to do better I completely agree that an important aspect is to include student voices in the conversation and to actively seek student feedback about everyday experiences that we have in school environments with other students teachers and members of the administration it's important for students to have a safe space to share information and experiences they have regarding racism microaggression and all other forms of discrimination as we as a district move forward to create a more Equitable learning environment students in our schools can help build the these

161systems as this is my last meeting as the hall student representative I want to thank Mr Moore the board and the hall student body for this incredible opportunity I have learned so much this past year and I will take this experience with me thank you thank you Isabella and you truly have been um such a dedicated representative of the hall student body and we're we've really enjoyed and I I know Sean brought this up earlier but we've really enjoyed having your perspective as part of the conversation so whoever is the new um representative from Hall and I don't think you guys have had elections yet but whoever that new person is I hope that you will take him or her under your ring a little bit and encourage them to speak their mind um and

162bring forward the thoughts and ideas of um of the students at Hall and thank you for everything that you do and please stay in touch with us thank you I will Kenya good evening so the school year is wrapping up and seniors have received their caps and gowns yesterday um we have uh date scheduled for next week in order to drop off any textbooks and to clean out our lockers also the graduation ceremony will take place a day before Halls Wednesday June 24th at the Farmington Polo Grounds at 6 p.m. there's also a car Caravan or parade on June 15th and more details will come about that grade 11 and 12 awards were also presented through a video made by Administration and we seniors receiv received their Awards in their package along with their capping

163gowns the unified theater performance was last Friday and it brought a great sense of unity Among Us us it was beautiful um congratulations to our students who are now members of the international thespian society and students have arranged protests for Sunday at 2 pm in the west Harford Center in order to bring awareness to the current situation of our country um we're currently waiting to hear back from the chief of police and the mayor now I would be remissed if I didn't speak on what is happening um not only do I represent my school but I represent my peers of color and so it's only right to voice their emotions and thoughts at this time and recap the conversation and which we had earlier today as Dr H Haskins mentioned con Embraces diversity and that's

164means bigger than just 47% of our students are diverse what does it mean to embrace diversity it means to open yourself up to an individual regardless of their differences and be willing to hear their experiences be willing to empathize with their suffering not fully understand their suffering because unfortunately in life there's just some things you won't be able to understand unless you go through them so we can be compassionate and we can ask ourselves how could we help what can I do to support you one of the first steps of change is having a conversation and I think right now it's just we're tired we've been having the conversation we've been swept under the rug and so we're done being passive some people may say you know we're going we it seems like history is

165repeating itself it seems like we're taking step backwards but logically thinking you could only take step backwards if you took steps forward we haven't taken steps forward forward okay the emotion the brutality the pain that people black people have been feeling has been swept under the rug a passive slap on the wrist now with George Floyd that was a trigger George Floyd was the last straw the wound is that in George Floyd we see ourselves we see our brothers we see our best friends our fathers and when someone is in pain you don't get to justify the extent to which they're hurting you don't get to justify how they cope especially in this case scenario what is happening today is what I read about in my textbooks is what I wrote my essays on okay

166is what I watch documentaries on am I disappointed yes am I frustrated of course but one thing I can't lose is being grateful and it's like how could you be grateful in a time like this you need to look at it like this we've been chosen to live in this time period of change okay Justice is being demanded right in front of our eyes this is an opportunity to ask yourself what can I do in my position with the platform that I have to help out somebody else who may be different from me and my make a change may be different from her make a change or his make a change because we each have a different Duty we each represent a different part of the community We Touch different groups of people one of

167the things that I told my mom convincing her to let me protest was when I grew up and my children open their textbooks to the year 2020 and they're reading about everything that happened and they come to me and they ask Mom how did you feel what did you do the same way we go to our parents and ask them about my 9/11 am I going to be comfortable with telling my own child that it didn't affect me directly so it wasn't my fight so I didn't do anything or am I going to tell them that silence is being complacent that silence is sighing with the oppressor that I sat on the floor of my room painting a poster for the protest in tears because I know that I'm fighting for for something larger than

168myself I'm fighting so that when my best friend when my brothers when my father when they walk down the street one day they could feel safe that one day they're are capable they feel capable that they have the same opportunities in life in the classroom to be as successful that they don't have to prove their innocence because human is written in their skin I understand that if I want to make my future better I first need to better myself we first need to educate ourselves ignorance cannot combat with ignorance and it's simple for closure the youth is the backbone of this movement the youth is the backbone of this country and so we need to ask ourselves how are we going to prepare our students so that when they leave this bubble when they leave

169West Harford Public Schools they go out into the real world they're able to have those conversations they're able to point out discrimination at its core at its roote and defend their brothers and sisters lastly we need to acknowledge how we are a part of the problem by understanding where we went wrong by not educating yourself you're part of the problem by not teaching your kids you're a part of the problem so as Mr Moore said the time is now we each have a choice to do better let's start unraveling the problem having the conversations changing the cul curriculum un learning the biases and relearning love let us educate ourselves and I say that all to say thank you this is my last meeting as student board representative my last few weeks being a senior at

170Connor my last year being in the west Harper public school system a system that's willing to have those conversations to build those foundations future educators of diversity and I want to thank you Mr Moore for being the leader you are not only in our school district but in our state and in our nation um Connor and Hall always have these top rankings but it's because of your leadership because of your administrative team and so I want to thank them as well because it is so clear how hard their work is reflected in the classrooms and in the families that are supported it was a privilege being on the board so I want to thank the members because I got to see the behind the scenes of what makes West Harford public schools have such quality

171education and what was said before was the ad advancements were not enough absolutely the advancements we've made are not enough but I would also like to remind you that there's families like mine who moved here specifically to have a better education so I think that just speaks for itself so thank you again and know that there's always more work to be done thank you Kenya and that is how you use your platform thanks for showing us how it's done and for all the work that you've put in uh this school year and um best of luck to both of you in the future Amanda I just want to thank you so much for illustrating just now the whole point of education and everything that you just embodied to speak to us so clearly and so

172concisely is exactly why we exist to provide education I I have to wonder if that even felt brave for you because getting to know you and Isabella when we look over at you at the meetings you know know what's inside you you know how you want to use it and you use the gifts that you have for such purpose and with such quiet confidence when necessary and with such vocal confidence when necessary and when you step off of that I know you're not going to be in physical platform on the stage but when you move on from this into your next stage of life you're going to constantly be assessing when do when and how am I going to use my voice is it going to be calm is it going to be loud how

173can I best Reach people and both of you have voices that Reach people when you speak we listen and I want you to know I know and I'm sure that I speak for everyone on our team that we heard you and we hear you and I will I will see you on Sunday uh for sure um standing off to the side if it is a student protest to respect that but we hear you you have made a difference with your your engagement on this board and your participation there have been so many times when we've been in the midst of difficult and heated conversations where in spite of that you still spoke calmly and and affirmed exactly what you wanted to say and when we all went out off into the world um from high

174school to college you know there was this sense that our future was far ahead of us and there was some time for us to grow and decide how we wanted to function in the world and both of you have just you've already started and I'm so hopeful about our future knowing that you are already using the gifts that you have to move people to action and to show them what's possible so thank you for taking so much time from your heart to talk to us we hear you I hope that you trust that we are going to continue to help build a world that you deserve to be in and we thank you so much for what you have given to this community through your service and for the love that you just put into

175everything that you just said um both of you are magnificent you will be strong women leaders and I know that we will see you changing our world and you are the absolute best embodiment of what this school system could do and I know that you want us to do more and to do better and we will thank you anyone else okay um we are going to move on to Future business announcement of future meeting dates we don't have anything here in theend agenda but uh we do expect we may have a special meeting called for some time between now and the beginning of September so want to come I can guarantee it at least one at least one is there a request for future agenda items that is not what will school look like in

176the fall other future agenda items no okay are there comments from any visitors okay uh we do not have an executive session and so um I'll take a motion to adjourn motion uh motion by Sean seconded by second Thom thank you Lorna uh meeting is adjourned at 9:40 pm thank you very much everybody