HUHS Board of Education Meeting - August 20, 2025

001That was actually I don't know. Oh, someone Oh, actually Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is 5:45. I would like to call this board meeting to order. Um, Marie, would you tell us about the statement of meeting notices? >> Yes, ma'am. We posted it in three places in the newspaper, on the bulletin board, by the main office, and on our website. >> Thank you. And would you take our roll call attendance for board members? >> Tracy Hennis >> here. >> Nolan Jacket >> here. >> Heather Barry >> here. Tiffany Stapleton >> here. >> Kenneth Miller >> here. >> Thank you. Would all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. And I believe it's being led tonight by Desire Raml. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

002republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next on the agenda is to adopt the agenda. I would like to make a motion first however to um adjust the agenda to put our principal report which is item 5e at the as at as the first report this evening. So before 5A >> second. >> Um all those in favor of that adjustment to the agenda say I. I >> I any oppose say nay. And that motion carries. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda as just amended? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> I seconded by Tiffany. Thank you, Tiffany. Um any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of adopting the now amended agenda signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose say nay.

003And that carries. We will roll forward with the agenda. Um, is there anyone who signed up to address the board this evening? There is not anyone signed up to address the board. So, we will skip our public comments section. Next on the agenda is our recognitions and we have a donation. So, we want to thank uh the Hartford Athletic Booster Club for their super generous donation of $10,000 towards the Orio Onward program as well as 3750 for the HUDL program. So huge thank you to the Hartford Athletic Booster Club. Truly grateful for their contribution and what it does to support our students. So thank you. Thank you. Greatly appreciated. And there is a typo in there that we can correct in the first part of the sentence with the 10,000. >> Thank you very much,

004Dr. Gain. And thank you very much for that donation from the the booster club. Next on our agenda is our consent consent agenda items which have the minutes from the meetings listed for August 7th, the vouchers, the treasures report, and the personnel recommendations. Is there a motion on the consent agenda? >> I will move. >> Hang on one second. Looks like Mr. Nelson has something to add. We do have one item in the personnel recommendations that we need to make sure the board does not approve. Um there is one item um we were looking um to potentially contract with Kelly Services which would uh supplement subteers for us in addition to our subteers that we employ. Um they came back and and we thought we had agreement that we could continue to hire our own

005and use them as a supplement. Um they said it's an all or none. They want to to be the only show in town to provide subs. That's not a direction we're ready to go uh at this point. Um so we want to make sure that the personnel recommendations are approved without that a part of it. So this is a pretty long list of personnel recommendations. So Mr. Nelson, are you telling me that that is currently listed on the document that the board has? >> Correct. It's the uh first one in the others co-curricular reappoints and staff changes. Yeah, the very first line. >> I see. Okay. Thank you. So, I would like to make a motion that we adjust the personnel recommendations um by removing the Kelly services agreement from that section for others on

006the personnel recommendations document. Is there a second for that? >> We have a motion by Tracy, seconded by Kenneth. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any oppose say nay. >> Okay. So, that personnel recommendation is now adjusted. Thank you, Mr. Nelson and Dr. Gain for bringing that forward. Any other discussion on consent agenda items hearing? None. Is there a motion to adopt the amended consent agenda items? >> So moved. >> We have a motion by Nolan. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Kenneth. Um any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Any oppose say nay. And that motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Uh, next on our agenda is reports and we are going to start with our principal report from Miss Kelly Lamb.

007Good evening everybody. So, our principal's report is going to tackle AP and ACT data from last year. We'll first start with our AP exam scores. And I just kind of wanted to focus on we're definitely trending up. And the data point that we're looking at is the percent of total AP students with scores of three or more. So with AP testing, it is scored between a one to a five. Five being the best, one being the lowest. AP says if you get a three, that will be college credit. So our goal is for our students to get a three or above. Probably a four or five, but definitely that three. So if you see the trend, we went from about 72% to 68 to 77 and now we're about 85% of our students are scoring

008with college credit scores. So some of the key highlights out of our AP exams, out of the 19 AP exams that were um administered, 15 of them had over 60% of the students earn a three or higher. 10 of those AP exams had over 80% of the students earn a three or higher. I do want to give a shout out to our English lit and composition as a 100% of the students earned a three or higher. So that is something that we're very proud of. Below is some data that we put in our academic achievement wall and it's something that the AP college board gives honors with and it's an AP scholar, an AP scholar with honor or an AP scholar with distinctions. So the criteria is given and that also includes the number of

009students that gain that award. We had um about 400 AP exams taken and around 200 students take them. Oops. So looking at our ACT trends, we are extremely proud of the growth that we've had with our ACTs. We've done a lot of work about being intentional in the work. For the last three years that I have been principal, we do have a school goal that does focus on all student growth from when they take the preac in fall to either the preac secure for freshman and sophomores or the ACT for juniors. So that is something that we did implement and it has been a focus with various action steps. So, as you can see, we've grown about a half a point, which is amazing, especially with the ACT. And for the last two years, we've

010had an average of 20 or above. I am super proud of our 20.2 as we finally went over that 20 mark. And then you see the different sections of math, science, English, reading, and writing. I do want to state that writing is not involved in the um the composite score. So that is just of math, science, English and reading. We do take the writing because that is required by DPI. That is an optional section. So if somebody does want to take the ACT, they can choose not to take writing. But DPI requires all juniors to take that subject area. And I think oops um so what are the benchmarks? So, I showed you those scores before and I'm sorry, I probably should add this slide before. What are we looking at? The ACT benchmarks are

011scores that say if you reach that score, you will be college ready. Basically, meaning you are going to pass that course fairly easy in college. So, that is kind of what we're getting at. And then they have different scores from grade eight, which we obviously don't have, but grade nine, grade 10, grade 11, and ACT. So, you're probably asking, what are those fall spring? Those scores are part of the preac that we administer in fall. So those are the scores that we're looking at achieving. The reason why I show this to you because the next slide we're going to have cohort data. The cohort data shows the growth of each c or graduating class because that is more apples to apples than just showing you what our ACT benchmark is. So those are kind of

012the goals that we are trying to reach to ensure kids that do want to go to college that they will be ready to be successful and not have to retake classes. So that's what we're aiming for. And I'll just say generally kids know the ACT. So I'll just highlight that English is an 18, math and reading is a 22 and a science is a 23. So here are some cohort trends. So for our class of 2025, this kind of shows their growth throughout school. So if you notice, we don't necessarily have all the data because we didn't start the preac until 22 23. That was our first year of implementation. So it is great to see and as I said, we continue to grow and obviously the younger courses have had more opportunities to take

013it which That's why you see a little bit more of the trends. And then these are our now going to be sophomores and freshman or no sophomores and juniors I believe because we're incoming the class of 2029 which is crazy. So as you can see um our investment in the prect and fall I do feel has showed growth with our students and kids are now talking about their scores and wanting to improve. Again we're not necessarily chasing a number certain kids do because that is part of their pathway here but most importantly our teachers our students are working together to ensure growth in all those different areas which is great to see. any questions on some of this data? And we're very excited to share two phenomenal students that have reached a very difficult milestone,

014which is earning a 36 on their ACT. This is not easy and it is very difficult. I think since I've been here, we've only had about five. So, we're very fortunate and they've worked extremely hard. They didn't just show up and take the ACT. They worked. They planned. And I do want to give another shout out. I just found out Haley has actually developed an ACT curriculum and she wants to help more Hartford Union High School students to do better and grow in the ACT. So, I think that's phenomenal and just both of their dedication to their growth and their learning. So, at this time, I am going to ask for Caitlyn and Haley to come up, and they're going to share what their plans are after high school, after their senior year. [Applause] >>

015Uh, I'm Caitlyn and my plan is to go to UW Stout for Applied Computer Science and Mathematics. Awesome. [Applause] >> Hi, I'm Haley and I've applied to a few different schools, but I'm hoping to be a cancer researcher. >> Cool. >> Thank you. Any questions overall? >> Um, I would just ask if the two young ladies would please stay in touch with the high school even beyond your graduation here. It's always nice to hear from students after they're out in the real world and and see what they actually end up doing. So, we're looking forward to seeing what your future holds for you. Thank you. [Applause] Our next report then is Thank you, Miss Lamb. Our next report then is our design and construction update from Miss Tracy Peterson. All right, we are wrapping up

016our summer of um capital projects. I guess we'll start with uh uh >> Tracy, I think on our agenda, we have the construction one first. So, if we could start with that one, that would be great. All right. Thanks, McCoy. So, the drama girls bathroom. Um, this is a before picture. Uh, as you can see, this was a very large bathroom with, um, two stalls in it. Um, the sink was already removed in this picture. Uh, and this is what it currently looks like. So, uh, the two stalls were added, the sink was moved down, and there was a door to a plumbing chase that was removed and put in the hallway uh to, um, give us uh, more room for the sink. And, uh, this is very, very near completion. Um, it just needs

017some cleaning and sprucing up and it'll be ready to go. >> Is that a new hand dryer? >> Those are new hand dryers. Yes. >> I hope it works better. >> Yes, they do. Trust me. >> And will there be any kind of a hooker shelf? Just curious. >> Uh there there will not. I did request that, but for ADA compliance, we cannot have that. >> Okay. Sorry. I'll put my stuff on the floor then. All right. Thank you. >> Uh second floor bathrooms. Uh this was um what we were um used to the, you know, very 1968 look of the second floor bathrooms. And oh, what is this? And this is the newly remodeled. Um, again, these are near completion. Um, just need some cleaning and some final um, walkthrough punch list items. Uh,

018they turned out very nice and bright. Uh, the tile color is really, really pretty. And my favorite thing about the girls bathroom is we eliminated stall gap. Um, I know that's very important for us ladies out there. And uh yeah, the they turned out really nice. Um the staff bathrooms, I didn't get any before pictures, but these are what the current state. Um again, very near completion. Uh we'll be ready to go for the beginning of the school year. The doors are now um entered through the hallway instead of walking into the staff lounge and then into the bathroom. So it'll it's easier access for staff. And these will be um unisex bathrooms. LED lighting is wrapping up. They should be uh 100% complete by Friday. Uh these are the new lights in our lobby.

019Um the rest of the building um that had LED um replacements. You really can't tell much of a difference, but I'm sure our electric costs will uh be going down and we will definitely see a difference there. Uh this was our parking lot space before and this is today. Um this is the same exact spot. I'm just up on the dirt mound. Uh so landscaping is currently being worked on. Um that should be completed on Friday. Uh the last step to the parking lot project is the light poles and those should be in by the end of September. Uh pool renovation is going very smoothly. I'm very happy with the progress that has been made. This is what the pool currently looks like. Uh the insulation is in. Um walls are rough framed and we

020are just waiting on inspection and we will be starting on drywall and tile. All right, any questions? Oh, cameras and door access. Yes, sorry, it it froze a little bit and I thought we were done. Uh so our new camera system is very near completion and they have been really working hard to get all of the door access controls in and programmed. Uh the new camera system we've been um you know going through with a fine tooth comb um with our leadership staff and um you know fine-tuning all of the cameras to our liking and um the new system is running just wonderfully for now. Um it the camera system will be 100% complete by the time school starts and door access control will follow shortly. There we go. Any questions? >> Dr. Gain, did

021you have something? >> I just wanted to thank Miss Peterson for the leadership, the great leadership over the last several months. It's a lot of different teams to orchestrate um together and plan and you've just done a phenomenal job of bringing us all together and working with contractors and things of that nature. So, thank you so much. >> Yeah, thank you Stacy. >> And I know that um it's been wonderful, but you are meeting almost weekly now with with a group. Of course, you're talking to stuff every day, but you know there's there's there's a meeting with the group just about every week. And um board members have been invited. We typically have at least one board member either in person or or virtually for the meeting. So I know there are some other things

022kind a little bit still in motion. I don't know if you want to tell about some of those things. And what I've also been very impressed with is any change that's come up has actually been pretty minor when you take a look at it. You know minor changes and a very minor or no impact on on the overall budget of it which has been really nice to see. So I don't know. I mean I've heard a couple of those things recently but just kind of let you have the floor if you want to talk to those at all. Uh yes, and I agree. It's been wonderful working with CG Schmidt and Bray. They are really on top of things and um really looking into fine-tuning those details. Um so there are no major surprises. Um,

023so, uh, we recently, um, met to discuss our turf, and I really want to thank Scott Helms, our coaching staff, and, um, Kelly Lamb, everyone who has been involved in, um, helping with the turf, uh, process. This is something that um we did not take lightly at all and we have been researching and um networking with all sorts of different um school district groups to just really involve ourselves and um pick the right product. So, uh that should be um a decision should be made very shortly and we'll have more for that. uh the tech edition. Um we are fine-tuning all of the small details there and um then our bid package five will be coming up very shortly for uh board approval. Um and uh yeah, we just need to get the bids out

024to contractors and move forward with that. >> Thank you. Yeah, it has been pretty impressive. I don't know if if you guys saw like really one of the changes that they talked about recently just had to do with we thought we could re hang the current water fountain or water bottle filler we have in the pool space but it's not in the right condition so now we have to buy a new one correct but again like it's really refreshing to have that level of transparency and discussion around something like that so there's really >> there's there's no surprises which is awesome thank you >> I've participated on the calls on the phone, not being able to be in person. And I can tell you when you listen and you hear the dialogue among everyone, it's

025a very cohesive team. So, I I appreciate that. It's not like, okay, this is so and so from a different company or, you know, it's you can just hear the cohesiveness of everybody that's contributing. So, I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And it's been really a great experience with the core planning team as well. um you know kind of bringing everyone into my world and you know help having everyone help me with all of the planning and working together has just been fantastic. >> Awesome. Thank you. Looks like that's all for board member comments and questions on that part of it. Great. So next we can roll into your capital projects report. Yes. All right. I want to start off by saying this has been the most fun summer for me. Just with

026all of the projects that I've been able to lead and the progress to the building and changes to the building that we've been able to made to make have just really been a fun summer. Uh so we'll start off with the small gym insulation project. Uh this project is not going to uh be very flashy. If you walk into the small gym, you're not going to see any visible changes to the system, but they wrapped all of the duct work. So now um everything's insulated and we won't have water dripping on the small gym floor and it'll make the HVAC system quieter for during our concerts. Um the fieldhouse curtain replacements um are completed. Uh this was what the curtains looked like previously and this is the completed project. Uh they look phenomenal. Um I

027really think it gave the the fieldhouse the look that we wanted and they're going to be a lot more functional than what we had prior. Uh flooring updates were completed in um five spaces. Uh so it was four classrooms in an office space. This was the previous flooring. So in the one of the egg rooms um that's shown here. There was uh VCT flooring. The other agriculture classroom had carpeting which was not ideal for animals being in the space. Uh the other classroom areas are two English classrooms and those had old um carpeting that was in need of replacement. So we um replaced uh the agriculture classrooms with LVP flooring as you can see on the left and this is our new carpeting that we put into the English classrooms and into the office space.

028Um, we are still working on furniture quotes. So, um, that will be coming up as well. We really want to make these spaces, um, look more refreshed and provide a more comfortable environment for our students. So, um, still working on that. Yes. And we also added paint colors to some of these classrooms. So, Kelly and I met and uh we talked about um how we could add some color to our our spaces and um we decided to pick colors for each department. So, English is yellow, science classrooms will be green. Um there are some blues and purples eventually in the future. Um, but we will only be um painting the spaces as we're um you know doing heavy renovation to to the rooms. All right. Uh like to introduce you to Rosie, our Cenobot scrubber.

029Uh she has been working diligently in the building. Uh we with the rena or um with the referendum projects, we don't send her out too often right now, but uh once the school year starts, she's going to be a huge help to the custodial staff and also to keeping a clean and healthy environment for our students. Uh we took on the project of um putting epoxy resin flooring in the mudroom space. Uh this was previously um just concrete that we were kind of just waxing over and it was getting very deteriorated. So this is the current look. Um it added texture so there is less slippage um and just added a very nice um you know maintenance pretty much maintenance-free flooring in that space. We have installed uh lockdown shades as one of our safety

030initiatives. Um this is making it uh consistent throughout the building where um in case of an act uh of an intruder in the building. um teachers can very quickly and easily block their windows and we also had the asphalt removed on Monroe Street. Uh we had the giant dirt pile um behind the new parking lot. So this was perfect timing where we wouldn't be paying to bring in new soil for the area. So, um, we paid for the asphalt to be removed and then, uh, Mike Horse and, um, Ethan, our two groundskeepers, um, went out, um, filled the area in and seated. And if you look at it now, it, you wouldn't even be able to tell there was asphalt there previously. So, they did a fantastic job on this project. Okay, I think that's

031the last slide. Any questions on our capital projects? >> I do have one. So, with the uh the Cenobot in service now, how often has our janitorial staff been scrubbing the floors manually? >> Uh we have not um besides in classroom spaces. But in classroom spaces, uh, over the summer, we either are doing a scrub and recode of wax on the floors or we are doing a full um a full like a stripping down to bare floor and then rewaxing. Everything looks phenomenal. This is really fun to see this with the old asphalt taken out and the mud room. What a change. the same I think when I went to school here. So, it's amazing to see how how that flooring really made a huge difference. So, thank you to the entire staff for all

032their work. They've done a lot of hard work this summer. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Looks like we're ready for the next one, the energy report. Okay. Uh we had a very good year overall. Uh so our total utilities cost trend um had us um with a total savings compared to last year at $1,617. Um as you can see the previous year was much more. But um what I like to see is consistency and um as you can see by the graph we were pretty much following last year's. And that's that's what I want to do is try to stay consistent so that you know when Rob and I are um budgeting for the year, we have a good grasp. Um there's multiple factors that affect energy use. Uh weather and facility use are the

033top two. Obviously weather we cannot control and um since our buildings are not only schools but also community centers at times uh facility use um is high in our buildings. Um here's the weather data. Uh heating and cooling degree day comparisons. Um if you look at the totals on the bottom, uh we did have quite a few more heating and cooling degree days in the 2425 year compared to the 232 24. Um so normally with that you would see an increase in your bills and we were able to maintain a steady um steady number with those. So this is our district overview and this is showing our use and cost. As you can see, our use is more natural gas. Uh, but our cost for electric is higher. Uh, this is showing our electric use

034trend. Um, and this is for all buildings and meters in the district. Uh, so we, like I said, I like to see consistency and this followed almost perfectly uh what we saw last year. Um, and this was our electric cost trend. Um, again, following that same line, uh, we were, uh, we saved $5,754 compared to last year on this. Um, we've done LED pro lighting projects and um, just optimizing the HVAC systems during breaks and shutting things down as needed has really saved us some some money on our electric costs. Um, natural gas use uh, had increased in December, January and February. We had much colder months than we had the previous year. So, we did see um a an increase in the usage. Uh so, Rob and I locked in a lower gas rate

035uh through um Synergy and Synergy is our um where we purchase our natural gas and then We Energy distributes to the school. So, we're able to kind of negotiate a rate every year. Um so, Even though we had a higher usage, our total increase for natural gas was only $76. Um, water and sewer use trend, as you can see, um, we shut down the pool in February, so that definitely dropped. Uh and um you can see kind of where uh we were having issues with the pool and exactly when that happened on this graph. And here's the cost trend for that. So the cost increase was only $26, but again that was because we had shut that down for those four months. Um the future of our program is to increase visibility uh with all

036of our LED lighting projects. I think that's um coming very clear that we are energy conscious and um we want to develop an energy conservation culture at Harford Union High School. um all of our future facility planning and capital projects. Uh we want to include any sort of energy conservation that we can. I would like to thank the the high school staff um for continuing to assist in in our efforts for our energy conservation. Um everyone has been really supportive and also our district staff um for helping support the energy program. Any questions? >> No questions or comments from board members >> or just about um taking this initiative and sharing it with the other all of our feeder schools. you know, with the some of the efforts that you've you've put into this, um

037I don't know I don't know how that would ever trans transpose, but um >> well, hopefully they're watching because this has been really fun to see these reports and see the savings. I know Holy Hill Area School District does get a chance to to look at this as well. >> Y >> I mean, because just since I've been on the board just watching this, it's you know, I just saw one $40,000 savings. So that's >> Yeah. >> Kudos. Awesome. Thank you. >> Anyone else on stage have anything to say? Questions? All right, looks like we're good. Thank you very much, Tracy. >> Thank you. >> Our next report is our library plan from Dr. Stevie Schvy and Miss Kim Almore. Thank you. So, as Kim makes her way to the stage, um I'll just sort

038of get us set up here. McCoy, eventually she'll click, but will you click through to the next one just so we can see the four areas we're looking at tonight? >> Kim, that mic might be off. I can't tell if that light's on or not. >> Oh, there we go. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, we just wanted to bring this forward. Um, we do typically bring the full library plan that is actually board approved later in the spring. Um, however, as Kim has transitioned out of a dual role from English teacher and library media specialist last year into a full-time library media specialist role for the upcoming school year. She has done an immense amount of work over the summer. Um and we just wanted to bring a small update of what that work

039has been um as we plan forward into this upcoming school year to have her with us full-time. So, she'll walk us through um library visioning and a needs assessment process and then we'll also really briefly touch on some upcoming plans and then looking forward to what you can expect to see when we do bring that spring update that will be approved by the board. Okay. All right. Um yeah. Okay. So, we'll start with um our updated mission and uh vision. Um, so the updated mission statement is where we are going to foster a safe and equitable learning environment where we're going to engage diverse learners and that is just encompassing all learners from all different walks of life and learning styles. Um, to promote a love of reading, provide life ready resources and to equip

040students to contribute to a global society. We've discussed a vision for what we want to see the library to become. And we want it to be a a dynamic hub where every Hartford Union High School student is empowered to become a discerning reader, a confident digital citizen, and an innovative creator. Um, and a lot of work has kind of gone into the vision. And it's not just the library portion. It's more than just the library that a team is working on that all kids are going to hopefully want to, you know, come and and see what's going on in the library. So, the process for developing the mission and vision plan um at the end of last school year, Dr. Gain, Dr. Schleywe, Miss Lamb, Miss Fer Hunts, and myself met together to just kind

041of wrap our brains on how we want to move forward. Um, and that kind of led into the summer work that Dr. Leeway and I um did we met a couple times over the summer and just talked about what uh the mission and vision should be. Um and then what this year should look like because this year is there's so much stuff to do um because there hasn't been a librarian for three years um full-time in the library. So we're starting small and then working our way up to building a new concrete three-year plan. Um the first step that I took was to send a survey out to uh certain staff members. So we focused on the ILT members. Um we sent a survey out to the student school board representative and then the leaders

042of the between the lines book club uh which I'm the adviser for. And those results were brought back to Dr. Leewi who shared them with Miss Lamb and Miss Ramlo. Um and I'll go over the results in a little bit. So, the biggest thing, >> sorry, Miss Almore, I'm just going to interrupt. Um, our board might not know what ILT stands for. >> That's our instructional leadership team. So, that's a team of six teachers um who are leading staff through some instructional work. So, that was just a subset of staff that was that we opted to reach out to over the summer. Just wanted to clarify that. Sorry. Um so the biggest thing is conducting a needs assessment and um we wanted to focus on the strengths that we have as a library team and

043by team I mean more than just myself and Miss Baker. It is all the people that met at the end of last year. Um because we're all going to bring um our own unique abilities to creating that um hub for the library. Um another strength that we have is our maker space. Um, this is something that I'm super excited to expand on. Um, we've spent a lot of time working on the low to no tech maker space items and my goal is to bring in the high-tech maker maker space items to get kids in there to using those. Also involved in an interdisciplinary um approach to getting classroom teachers into the library using those high-tech um pieces of equipment that we're hoping to get in. And I just love the fact that it's a new

044beginning, not just as a standalone library, but that hub using a team approach to creating um an awesome environment for our students and staff. So, the gaps that I found um is the average age of circulation, um equity and foreign language materials, and updated non-fiction selection options, which I'll go over in a bit as well. >> Could you um you had spoken to this before when we were just talking. Could you expand a little bit more on the foreign language materials and just again the work that you have put in over the summer and the hours that you've spent on that? >> So um as part of my master's program um I did I conducted an equity audit um and focused in on areas of need and what I found was that um 9.2% of

045our student population is Hispanic. Um, so looking at the information that I found in our title wave from the 2023 2024 school year, um, books that are in Spanish are we have 169 print items. 28 of those are non-fiction. Um, for 141 are fiction, and the average age of those books is 2013. So over the summer I spent a lot of time um finding books. We have 32 on the shelf already um and there is a list of about a hundred that Dr. Schliwi and I are working through um to increase the circulation for our Hispanic population. I've also reached out to um Sarah Ruiz and getting her working with her and her program um to hopefully bring more students um of her students into the library. So that was actually kind of a really

046shocking statistic that I found when I was doing that audit um that we have such a a big population with such a small selection uh for them to choose from and the majority of them are like classics like The Great Gatsby or I think the Hunger Games was probably like the most popular book title that was in that uh collection. So, we're working on completing um series, bringing in new books, more recent books um so that our uh Hispanic population can access books that they can understand or read in their own language. Um and then updating the non-fiction selection I'll go into in a little bit. Um, so when I sent out the survey to the staff and students, um, the students commented on what they would like to see and they'd like to see

047more books, which we are working on. Um, they want to see teachers in the classroom, which I was a little kind of shocked to see that that was something that they responded to. Uh, but was also really excited to see that kids want their teachers to use the library. Um, and they want more outside opportunities. um to use that the library, especially that tutoring program that the school board student school board representatives are pushing to launch. Um for the staff, what we did was we sent them our old mission statement and the potential for the vision plan and the feedback that we got from them was that they'd like for it to be future oriented, so more technological. Um they like we took the hub from them, the dynamic hub from their feedback. um and

048they want the library to be an inspiration to our students. Um for families, we are continuing with our communication. The email opt-in uh was provided to all parents at registration. Um I did get that list. I have not gone through the numbers yet. So I'll bring that in the spring meeting um because it is a list of over 1,400. Um so I haven't had a chance to weed through the yeses and the nos. um continuing with our transparency, having um public access to our Destiny catalog. Anybody can access that um at any time. So, um that's where we're going with the family communication. >> Um we >> Do you mind if I hop in really quick? >> Yeah, go right ahead. Okay. >> Um so, in the next few slides, um I'm sorry I'm hopping

049in early. >> That's okay. Okay. So, I'll just continue talking and then I totally overrode you. I apologize. Um, but in the upcoming slides as um Kim continues to talk about this, you will see um a recurrence of maybe the word diverse or diversity and we just wanted to provide some clarification around that much like we did when we talked about equitable um multi-level systems of support when we brought that to the board initially as well. So when um Kim will be referencing in these upcoming slides the idea of diversity in a library collection, it really is looking at a wide range of materials that represent um different topics, genres, and authors. Um that ensures that readers can find something that they're interested in, but it also gives them an opportunity to explore. So, if

050if um we're referencing a diverse collection of books, it could be that there's an increased genre that we maybe haven't seen previously. Um I love classic British lit and if I had my way, that is what I would stock the library with. But not everybody loves that. Um which is a little bit sad to me, but that's okay. So we have a wide range of genres and authors and so if that word is popping up and you just maybe have questions around that that's definitely included in the work that Kim has done through the audit in looking at um do we have male and female authors? Do we have um genres that are sports, realistic fiction, paranormal? Um some of those classics are in there. So just making sure that there's a wide range of

051topics that are present within the library. So just some clarif clarification as we head into the next few slides. Sorry, I'll stop interrupting. >> No, you're good. Um, one of the new initiatives that we um brought up is to partner with uh the community. Uh I was able to reach out to um the head librarian and the youth librarian at Jack Russell. Um we actually they were able to come to registration to uh get some kids signed up for public library cards. Um we are already talking about things that we want to work with them in the future. Uh primarily right now just to get um kids with public library cards. Um they are going to come to our um showcase um in January I believe. Um and uh we've um extended an invite to

052them for the first parent teacher conference um in September or October. Um and next year uh we're going to work with them for registration. It was kind of a lastm minute reach out to them and they were awesome enough to get here for one of the days. So um it's something that I'm excited for us to move forward to uh working with more of the community members. Um, so some of the things that we're going to be continuing on um throughout the school year are um teacher and student surveys. Give it a little bit once school starts, everybody gets, you know, in the groove, acclimated, send those out to get more feedback, um the audit of the space, technology, and accessibility. Um inventory of programming and resources. And then the summary of findings in the

053needs report. Okay. So, the needs assessment, um, this is, um, a huge task, um, because there's just so much that has been kind of brushed under the rug without having a full-time library media specialist. Um, so, we're going to be focusing in on um, subject areas um, with the foreign language, uh, social science, science, and technology, and our non-fiction. Um, last year at the end of the year we were doing some weeding and I pulled a book off the shelf titled uh, how to use your mobile device. So, we need to update that. Our average age of circulation for uh, non-fiction is 2011. So, it it needs it needs some sprucing up. So, um, that was something that was also kind of shocking to me. And out of our entire collection, which as of 2023

0542024, there were almost 13,000 books in circulation. Um, only 39% of our collections was non-fiction. So, want to update that. Those are the three areas that we want to focus on because those are the ones that are ever changing. Also, biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Um, no offense to Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, but kids can Google that information. and they're not going to read books on, you know, the founding fathers anymore. So, we want to get books in there that the kids are going to want to read. Um, I found a lot of Taylor Swift, so the Swifties will be happy. Um, and to do that audit, that evaluation, we use um, Flet Destiny and our Title Wave analysis. And Title Wave is the platform where we order all of our books through. Um, and

055then a review of the digital documents and databases. Uh this is something that Miss Fer hunts and I are going to work on together. Um analyzing the databases that we currently have, how often are they being used, are they necessary, and are they worth spending the money on? And reaching out to the staff to see what they would like to see as far as digital resources go for their specific content content area. So, just kind of creating that checklist again, the collection age and condition analysis, going back to non-fiction. Um, replacing copies. Um, we want to get rid of paperback copies in the library and replace them with hard cover. Uh, they last longer. Um, doing that diversity audit. Um, so looking at the American Library Association guidelines and the definition that Dr. Schley presented.

056um listing materials to update, remove, and add. There's a new update in Destiny Discover uh that was done over the summer and um I did some training with it and it's a really cool um update. It allows the students to have their own dashboard um in Destiny. Um one of the cool things they can do is um there's a wish list. So, if there are book titles that they would like to see potentially added to the collection, they can just, you know, put it in that wish list and we can access the information that way. Um, I'm really excited to get some library displays going. Um, the first one we're doing is Are You Red E for some football and it's going to be all books, non-fiction and fiction about football um to get that

057sports theme going. Um and then um preparing a collection development plan. So looking at our circulation data and then weeding. Um one other thing that I didn't put on here was um professional and maybe I did maybe I did it. Um professional and uh career books. I um submitted a list to Dr. we with a ton of college and career uh resources along with uh ACT prep books, AP books. Uh so that's something because we do have a really small collection and with the ACB ACP program being you know as relevant and as successful as it has been this is just another way to continue to promote that uh area of focus. Um, so weeding the collection based on circulation data. I am going to have to run new reports because the information I have

058was from 2023 and 2024. So look at the checkout history, circulation data, check the relevancy, the non-fiction accuracy. Again, nobody calls it a mobile device. Um, the diversity, so assessing the collections. Um, and then the digital resources. Um, again, contacting staff members, seeing what they'd like to see. um vetting the current resources uh with Miss Fur Hunts and then researching um new resources that's going to best support everybody here at Hartford Union High School. Would you mind clicking for me for this? Okay, super. >> So, we'll just really um briefly also talk about the plans for the upcoming school year. So you got um an indepth look at what Miss Baltimore would be working on. Um in addition to all of those areas, we're also continuing to work on how are we integrating with um

059curriculum or the different departments in the building technology. And then as Miss Altaltimore just referenced the academic and career planning. So we want to look at the current integration of the library services in terms of how she is put um pushing in and supporting in classrooms or welcoming classrooms down to the library space. Um ensuring that staff have an understanding of the tools that are available to to them. So, as you've heard, this is the first time in three or four years where we've had somebody in the library full-time. And so, there is a little bit of a gap in knowledge with our staff in terms of what um sources we do have in the library. Um, and then also looking at the college and career center to look at those post high school supports.

060So, referencing some of the ACT materials, the AP materials, the career resources. We want to continue to um look at the physical space and making sure that that current space um either supports or limits learning and then what can we do if we need to make any updates or changes. Um once again gathering staff and student feedback on that um once we get into the swing of things. It is a little um inundating with information the first couple weeks of school. So we'll wait a little bit on that. I know um Miss Baltimore is really anxious to get feedback from staff, but we'll we'll give them a couple weeks to get settled. Um and then also looking at the budget review and the common school fund use. So reviewing the past two years of fund

061use. Um doing some cross referencing with what we have for a library plan and then looking at where we want to go in terms of goal setting. And then also um meeting with Miss Verhunts, our director of technology and future ready learning and Mr. Nelson um director of business to review purchases to make a have a more streamlined process for that. And then finally, what you can anticipate in the spring in terms of an updated library plan is um a more detailed explanation of our current state versus our future state. So really looking at synthesizing that needs assessment that has been referenced a few times that looks at um collection that looks at the physical space that looks at um what teachers and students want to see that space used for and then being able

062to bring all of that information to you in the spring. Additionally, we hope to be able to bring um a more um concise view of how we are using common school funds. So, identifying those needs, how they've been used in the past and how we can streamline that more towards goals that are u more specific to the needs assessment data that we receive. And then also continuing with that library media center visioning to ensure that we do have future planning um within that space that also aligns with district goals as we um start that strategic planning process this upcoming school year as well. So our overall goal for that space is to make sure that we are aligned with the the vision of the district and the direction that the district wants to go and

063then also being responsive to information that we are getting from staff and students in terms of things they would like to see within that space as well. Are there any questions for us? Heather looks like you maybe have something up. Okay, sorry. Board members have any questions? >> No one. >> I do. So on, excuse me. On page, uh, slide 11 next to the diversity audit does specifically mention race, gender, and ability. Were those taken into account for your audit? >> Um, let's see where. Yes. Um, so I did pull um numbers um from two other um areas in uh title wave. It breaks it down very specifically. And so I did pull books um from the LGBTQIA community and racial books on racial discrimination. Um for the LGBTQIA, there are 474 print items. um

06474 being non-fiction, 400 being fiction with the average age of circulation at 20 uh 2017. And then books focused on racial discrimination, there are 421 print items, 144 of them are non-fiction. Uh 277 are fiction and then the average age of circulation for those is uh 2015. And then my next one would be do we have any policies for the district on hand that specifically mention the American Library Association to your knowledge? >> I have to pull up the board policy. I would have to pull up the board policy again to see if that's specifically listed by name, but I can get that information to the board. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments from board members? >> I just wanted to say thank you for doing all this work. Our library media centers

065are no longer just a place for print and acknowledging the needs that we have as a district to incorporate our digital resources. Um, as well as providing a plethora of print and non-print materials that our students can access is phenomenal. As an English teacher, I know that we need to, you know, ensure that we have books that our students can relate to, that they can engage with because if they don't have those kind of resources, they won't actually engage in the reading process. So, um, updating our resources, updating our materials is fantastic and I know it's a lot of work. So, thank you very much for putting that time in. >> Thank you. I would just like to give a shout out to Kim again because she's put in a lot of hours over the

066summer and she's um leaving the board meeting to go to a two-day conference as soon as she leaves here. So, she's just put in a lot of extra time to be able to make sure that um we're, you know, going through and making sure that our collection is up to date and that we are being responsive to what staff and students are telling us that they would like to see in that space. >> I would echo that, Dr. Schley. would thank you and Miss Alaltimore for a lot of work that's been done over the last several months and look forward to hearing more as you move forward. >> Heather, >> I guess one thing I'd like to also add is um the the slow to start of being an avid reader. Um I personally can

067attest to one of my sons that can read reads like three books at a time. It reminds me of my mother. And um the sooner that we can get that ball rolling faster is is just advantageous to our whole community. And I'm glad that you mentioned the tutorial program that the students are working on too because I think that'll be a great feeder to get in a library because once you get in the library, and my kids will attest that libraries are one of my favorite things in a building, especially in colleges and high schools, um there will be that atmosphere of wanting to pick up a book and continue to read. So that's just a a new diversion, not a new diversion, but a diversion to get students to enjoy the reading um versus

068being mandated to read in a lingo's class. Um so the more we can focus and push them towards that avenue um it it I what I've seen in my personal experience, it has a a snowball effect. And so, you know, seeing my my children that didn't like to read in high school reading three books at a time right now is is a great thing, but it's a slow process, but if you can start sooner, then we're ahead of the curve. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I just want to add I'm so glad that you are here, that you've gotten your certification that we're going to be back to having a full-time library and media specialist. That's really exciting and awesome, especially with this whole interactive hub concept. It's is it it's a more modern

069way of a question I have for you is how are we manning the library during oral time? Is that a need for any additional support? >> So that's something that we need to discuss yet um in the last last year Miss Baker was um in uh overseeing the library during oral time because I was teaching full-time. I needed to have my classroom oral time. Um, my hope is that with having two of us potentially in there during oral time, we can get more students in the library during oral time. Uh, so they have that area where they can study. Uh, they can utilize our maker space items, check out books, um, you know, work with me trying to get me, you know, work with me on getting, you know, reading, using it for the tutoring

070sessions, uh, things like that. So oral time is still something that uh we need to talk about. Also need to discuss with Miss Lamb if I'm going to be keeping the oral time that I started with last year. Um or are they going to be going to one of the new teachers? So there's still some discussion that needs to be had for that. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I would assume that oral time would be a very popular and important time >> for the library to have the appropriate number of staff there, especially you. So, just that's just my personal thoughts on it, but looking forward to you guys having those discussions. Uh, anything from any other board members? Looks like we're good. Thank you so much for all your hard work. >> Our next

071report is our superintendent report from Dr. Stacy Gain. >> All right, just have a few items tonight. First, just wanted to thank CG Schmidt again for their donation of lunch and just a sincere appreciation for their collaboration and professionalism as we continue to work together over the summer. So, very grateful um for their collaboration as well as treating all of our summer staff. It was a great opportunity to take a brief break, get together and have some conversation and um connection. So, thanks again to them. Richfield Days parade, just wanted to mention uh thanks Mr. Jim Healey, village administrator, and his team for including us. We are headed over, Miss Peterson and I, over to the parade with the band and look forward to sharing information and just providing an opportunity for anyone to ask

072questions about our projects or just connect with us in general. So, really looking forward to that event, which is always fun. If you have been there before, you know that. So, definitely head on out. Also wanted to mention project Adam. We are as many of you know certainly renewed our heartsafe school designation this past May. And so there is actually a kind of a national support um video being created to help support schools and how you work through that process to become a hearts safe school designation. And so tomorrow we have them coming out just to take some clips of our health response team and how we engage in that process to keep our school safe not only during the school day but also well beyond. So all of our coaches um have that training

073as well. So we really have that unique piece as a school district that we have a really strong system both in the school as well as after the school day. So huge thanks ahead of time to all the staff, our police department, the chiefs headed out, McFarland to support us tomorrow. So super exciting and just thankful that um Hartford High School can be a huge part of that uh support for other schools. Also wanted to mention the golf outing. Thank you to Mr. Helms for organizing and executing another incredible event with that golf outing this past weekend. We had a number of staff as well that came out on their own time to support our event. And so Mr. Daniels, Coffin, Roo, Garrison, Miss Rosema, Miss Lamb, Miss Peterson, Miss Franks, just so many staff

074came out to support for our kids. And we had about and Mr. Helms can correct me if this is incorrect. I think we had about 156 golfers, 39 groups, and this is the sixth year in a row it's been a sellout. So each year the money or that we um raise goes to scholarships for students. So we had 11 scholarships last year to a variety of sports. Um the storage said for tennis, softball dugouts, athletic leadership conference. So really that money goes to support our children in a number of ways. So huge thank you to everyone who supported just the organization process. Um that's a pretty big event to put on. And then finally wanted to just remind everyone friendly reminder of Jumpstart and that we will be having freshmen coming first this year 7

075to 245 and every year Miss Ramllo has really just enhanced the day for our students even more and more. So we are for that first day back for our freshmen. We're having the opportunity to meet teachers and staff and get to know their schedule and tour. We have a student panel which is awesome. Volunteers, they're going to go through uh the lunch piece which as we all know for freshmen could be kind of a pretty stressful time to be thinking about that. Um OT bus routes are running. So really just a great opportunity for our kids to have that prep time before all of the other students come. So huge thank you to Miss Ramllo, the high school team, and everyone who has really supported continuing to enhance it each year for our kids. And

076that is actually all I have for tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Gain. I'm I'm curious. Do we have a number on how much money the golf outing raised? >> Um, typically we're looking at about $20,000, Mr. Helms. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. So, right around there, maybe a little higher this year. Great. Thank you. That is awesome. Thank you for everybody who participated. >> Um, up next is our school board report. I just have a couple of things. Um, one I just thought of as Stacy was talking. If any board members missed getting their photo taken, we had those two days early in August when we could get our photo taken. This coming Monday is another opportunity. I think Marie, is it like 8 to 8 to 1? Thank you. 8 to 1 on Monday. We

077are also invited as board members to attend the welcome back breakfast Monday morning which I believe starts at 7 o'clock. Is that correct? >> 7:45. >> Thank you very much. 7 to 7:45. So you can come early, talk to staff, welcome them back, have some breakfast, and get your photo snapped. So that's an opportunity for us on Mondays. um this coming Monday. Also, let's see here. It's been a very busy summer here, not just with all the the physical construction projects going on, but I know our staff, just like you've seen Stevie and Kim talk to us about all the work that's been done for the library, there's a lot of other work that happens um all summer long. I will say I only know some of it and I've seen so much work happening.

078Um thank you to Dr. Stacy Gain for everything that she's tackled and um helped work alongside others with as well. There's been a lot of work going into these summer months. So, I just want everybody to be aware of that. And um please thank everybody when you see them. We have a lot of staff members who do have extended contracts who put in a lot of time during these summer months as well. Um when it comes to our our packet this evening is a prime example with our policies. There's a large number of policies that we were to review as board members and look toward approving. I believe it's somewhere around 28 policies that we saw in our packet this evening. There is a large amount of policies that we have to go through as

079a district and update. Yes, Nola does consult with us. Yes, they do give us, hey, you need to take a look at these, but we also know that there are others in the background that we want to get to as well. Stacey and I were just talking to there are also um a large list of technical corrections. there are the administrative guidelines that go hand inand with the operational pieces of these policies that we set as a board. So there's this is going to be a pretty big a pretty big and busy year here. We have a lot a lot of policy work to do. Um, so what I wanted board members to be aware of is that when we see policies in our agenda, um, a lot of school boards have in their policy

080in terms of how they operate that they will have a first and then a second reading, a second and final reading to approve. So for example, a lot of boards will bring them one month. They'll approve the first reading, talk it over a little bit, maybe some some other thoughts or possible changes they like to see. they come back another month and then the board can vote on whether they want to do a second and final reading for approval. We don't have it in our policy that that is our practice. Um here at Harford High School, we have done that or we've also done where done some where we just do a first and final reading and it's approved. Um, so just just be aware of that. That is always an option, especially as a

081board member, if you see a large number of policies or if you're concerned that you really want to make sure the public has a little bit more time to digest, take a look at, and um maybe if it's something controversial or you think the public might be interested in showing up at month two and giving their perspective on policy, keep that in mind. So I did ask Dr. Gain before this this evening's meeting if she had any concerns. Were any of these policies timely? Were we absolutely needed to get them approved tonight? Would she be concerned if if there were any that the board felt let's let's just bring these back for a second and final reading? Um, and Dr. Gain did share that she's perfectly comfortable with with any and all of these coming

082back for a second reading if that's what the board um deems necessary. Just so we're aware, um there are technical corrections that come up, tiny little verbiage changes that might need to be modernized or typos, that kind of thing that do come to the attention of the superintendent or she might see. And in our policy 0131.1, it's our bylaws and policies. We do have that bylaws and policies shall be adopted, amended, repealed, or suspended by majority vote of the full membership of the board. But we also have the superintendent is authorized to review and make technical corrections to policies that have already been adopted through normal rulemaking procedures. The superintendent shall inform the board of any such changes no later than the next regular board meeting. So that's why sometimes when we're looking over these

083policies, we'll see like this was corrected by and there's a name at the bottom in a year even though it didn't necessarily come before the board. There are just these these small changes that happen. Um Dr. Gain and I I'm sure you're seeing it. We've discussed it. There is a air on the side of being very transparent right now, right? And so we're seeing a lot of things come to the board for discussion even though it might not necessarily need approval. So Dr. and I did talk about it and if there are some some was considered technical corrections by some which might be a little controversial or might spark a little conversation with the board just to make sure that we're being responsible to our community and our stakeholders. Um we're perfectly fine bringing those

084forward as well to talk about just so everybody's aware. But just know that there's a pretty big list and catalog of of these small technical changes that do come at the district. So, that's that's just kind of some of the the ways of policies here at the high school. Just wanted to share that bit. Um, also board members, be sure to utilize Trimble's project site to keep up to date on all of our our referendum funded projects that are going on. If you look in there, there are so many wonderful documents for us to make sure we're staying in the know. And so we might even know which questions to ask then just even you know everything that Tracy shared tonight you can find in the documents on that that platform in terms of what

085was discussed at the last meeting the most recent drawings of the pool space. Um there there are a lot of wonderful bits of information. If you are at all struggling um with how to log into that, look back in your emails, use, you know, key search terms such as project site or Trimble or Ethan's name. And if you're still um not sure how to do that, just contact the the district office and somebody can help you through it. I don't do it on a real regular basis. So, every time I have to go back in there, I'm looking back for my old email to figure out how to get in. And it's it's really simple. Once I'm there, it's just not necessarily natural for me yet. But, please take a look. There's like, oh my

086gosh, 135 drawings. Like there's there's so many wonderful pieces of information for board members, especially since we're nearing that time where we're going to be seeing the next bid package and getting, you know, a lot of our plans finalized. It's a really important time that board members are making sure that we are asking any and all questions that we might have. Um, the last thing I have is watch for those fall regional meetings from WASB. Those are coming. There is an in-person option as well as online option. And then also any upcoming workshops. It's a time of year where there'll be a lot more workshops happening and planning for conferences. If something comes your way and you're interested, um, feel free to share with Dr. Gain and share with other board members in case some

087are interested in going. That's all I have for our board report this evening. Uh, next up is our items for discussion and possible action and the first one being our NEOLA policy update volume 34.2. All right. Great. And as you had mentioned, um, certainly there will be a number of policies moving forward and sometimes this is just a reflection of changes in state or federal law that transpire or andor educational best practices. So it's important to note that really that final decision to adopt, revise or reject the policy um you know certainly will come here. So I would just point out in terms of um and I'll open it up if there's specific questions about individual policies, but for example policy 0144.5 board member behavior, communications and code of conduct. We obviously are striving for

088all board members to have a voice and express um their thoughts and interests in what is transpiring in the district. So um would just note that for that policy in particular that we want to ensure that all board members definitely have a bit of voice and express um you know their thoughts and uh various suggestions and ideas. So, just wanted to put that forth for that particular policy. Are there any specific policies that anyone has questions, wonderings about, I know you've taken the time to really go through and review those. >> Um, one I'll start. One of them that I have is the policy 166.1, the consent agenda. It's not necessarily a question, but maybe just something that might be good for board members to know. Um, we always have that personnel recommendations piece on

089there. Sometimes it's a long list, sometimes it's not. >> Um, sometimes there are things such as retirements or significant new hires, like when we hire somebody for administrative team. >> Um, typically if we want to recognize anybody, that is something we kind of pull out and stop and do before we approve it and move on to the rest of the meeting. And it's interesting over the years we've had it's probably a 5050. Sometimes people like no don't recognize me in the meeting. I just want to get this approved and they they want they want to talk about their retirement later perhaps. Um sometimes people they will show up with their family and they want to like yes let's hear about this hire this retirement and they want to be recognized. So Stacey and I talked

090it over and we just need to make sure that it's it's part of our our practice that Dr. game would check in with any of those special circumstances and the personal recommendations so that it's not um confusing or surprising or clunky for us when we're up on the stage and and that's a part of our consent agenda. I think if you look at that policy as well is that the the suggested changes I think are really good because it does show more of what our board has felt and what our community wants to make sure is that we're being very transparent and we don't have a big bulk of stuff that just gets put under that consent agenda. So, thank you for your work on that one. >> Absolutely. Um, does any other board member

091have another policy they want to talk about or anything further on 166.1? >> I do have another one with a small question. >> Okay. Which policy would you like to bring up? No. >> Policy 2440.01 summer school and interimm school attendance. Uh, so the new language the board authorizes district administrator to establish minimum requirements. What is the minimum attendance requirement that we currently have in place for summer school? grab the so attendance is something that within the school year as well as during the summer we are looking at revising um in terms of the overall attendance policy to align it. So at this point I don't believe that we have a minimum in terms of attendance requirement. Obviously, there are standards that need to be attained across the summer and I certainly um could invite

092Miss Ramlo too to further kind of express um given that she definitely has done a phenomenal job of overseeing summer school, but really we're looking to align in terms of what the school year attendance expectations are and certainly summer is obviously different with the amount of time. um it's compacted, but in terms of the minimum attendance requirements, we need to clarify that. >> Thank you. >> I'll just jump in if you don't mind um to just piggyback off that and um voice that when students are taking summer school courses for credit, DPI does put does allocate a certain number of minutes that they have to be in that course in order to receive credit. So, it should be um to the amount of minutes that they take for the course in during the school year.

093So, our students who are here working in um classes for credit are here for a significant amount of time during the day, three or four hours um four days a week um for four or five weeks to make sure that they are hitting those minute requirements and that is something that is set forth by DPI. So, that is why we have to make sure that we're accurate in in reporting those numbers. Thank you. Is there another board member that might have another policy they'd like to talk about? Okay. Um, I will bring up a next one that I had. Um, 5112, our entrance age policy. It does also go into the proper immunization records or appropriate waiver within 30 days. I guess my question is just um where do we get that appropriate waiver format

094from? So we should have that all set in the registration in terms of parents having the ability to then submit that to their um medical provider. So, I know Miss Hecker has worked hard on communicating that information prior to the end of the school year and also making that available to to our families. Um, so if there are any questions, I would encourage you to reach out to Miss Hecker because she is always happy to kind of walk through that in terms of the requirements and how and when parents are able to get an additional copy. >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. So, that is it is apparent that parents have that option. Absolutely. >> I I had someone in the community ask me that question where they thought they absolutely had to have >> and

095we do have parents that >> engage in that process. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um Nolan, do you have anything else? >> Uh no, I guess I'm just curious. Are you looking to do final approvals on this package tonight? I don't have concerns about doing a final approval unless there are there is an interest in moving them forward to a second reading. Certainly, we can do that as well. My my only thought is I know that 144.5 the board member behavior communication and code of conduct seems to be one of kind of a a hot topic amongst board members around the state right now. It's really not that our policy I think our policy very much mimics what people are talking about. They're just looking at a little bit different verbiage that has to do

096with um basically board board members voices that they not losing your right to speech but also being cognizant of protecting the district and not breaking any laws. It's just a little bit different verbage that states that. So, just so you know, that is one of these topics that is being discussed, which we might even hear more about at these fall regional meetings or as as board members from district different districts are getting together in these upcoming weeks ahead when we're kicking off the school year. So, that was the only thought in my mind is is that one that we might want to hold off on just in case there is any other board members who want to wait and see what those conversations look like. I'm I'm I'm good with the packet of policies, but

097and I would go with what the board majority is on maybe possibly just holding that one back a little bit. >> Yeah, I'll I'll add on to that a little bit. I think there's a little bit of uh some vague language in that one and I would just kind of reiterate the same uh concerns that you put forth. So I for that reason I would like to motion to table policy 0144.5 for maybe for further review at our next board workshop. So the motion is to to table it. >> Yes. >> Is there a second to table that until the next board workshop? Is that what you stated, Nolan? >> Yes. >> Okay. So it be a workshop >> second >> item. We have a motion and a second to table that one policy until

098the next board workshop. Um I guess I'm just thinking out loud here. I'm wondering if we should table it till the next board workshop or say a future workshop just because our next board workshop is actually the the meeting we have with a CIS 6 representative which is actually a training and I don't know I haven't had a chance to touch base with him to find out exactly how long that training is or how extensive his agenda is. We may actually have to bring it forward for discussion at another time. If I I hate to pay somebody for that evening if if >> How about I do this? I would like to amend my amendment uh to another board workshop within the next three months. >> Okay. So, Nolan's motion is to table policy 144.5.

099Um >> would you have to approve the amendment to the amendment first? >> Thank you. He like to make that amendment. Is there a second on that amendment? >> Sure. Second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by Nolan, second by Kenneth to amend his amendment. All those in favor of the amendment say I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. >> Okay. So, that carries. So, now we have that amendment which should be to bring this back for discussion sometime within the next three months. Does that seem acceptable for a timeline too, Dr. Gay? Abs. So I think what I'm hearing then is that's the only one that we are not approving tonight, the 0144.5. So we don't have a motion on the other ones. We could have a motion on the rest of the

100policies in that NEOLA update. It could be a first reading or it could be a a first and final rating with approval on the rest of those policies. Is there a board member who's interested in making that motion? >> I did have a question about policy 8420 school. >> Uh, can I make a point of order? Do we have to vote on the amendment on on the table before we move on to any other motions? >> Let me think about this >> or to uh to vote on the table before we move on to another motion. >> Let's clear that up. Thank you, Nolan. So, we have a motion and a second to table the approval of policy 144.5 until we can have a workshop to discuss it further sometime within the next three months.

101All those in favor of that signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. Okay. Thank you. So now we have that officially tabled. We have these other policies still in the table and Kenneth has brought one forward that he'd like to talk. Which one is it, >> Kenneth? 8420 school safety >> 8420 okay go ahead the district administrator shall develop guidelines for the handling of all emergency evacuations and crisis procedure checklist includes at least the following and there's a whole list how often is that revised who develops it where do they get their input from on the development of that >> great question would you like me to elaborate now or was there additional pieces in I can start. You want me to start there? Okay. So, over the last three, four years

102now, we have really worked hard to work with our police as well as fire um to really evaluate the current plans that we have. So, um Miss Lamb and I, the high school team, Miss Peterson, our fire and police have continually reviewed now formally, we review our emergency operation plan every three years formally. We actually did it every two. We did it last year, but we every year, multiple times a year, we have our school safety um team that meets. And so we're constantly re-evaluating all those procedures and processes of all our more I would say utilized potentially responses. That large document that's like a hundred some pages gets formally revised every three years. However, each year we submit to the Office of School Safety. All of our blueprints, plans, um, you know, the EOP,

103all of that is continually updated and each year we tweak it a little bit based off of, you know, feedback um, from our staff, feedback from families. So that is an ongoing fluid piece in terms of continually um updating and revising all of those emergency responses. Um so that is ongoing. >> Thank you. >> Do any other board members have anything that they would like to question or discuss regarding that policy? Okay. Are there any other points of discussion for any of these policies? All right. Is there a board member who would like to make a motion um for a reading or approval of these policies? >> Motion to approve the policy update volume 40 34.2 as presented. And so just to clear that up, Kennet, that's for final approval. So first and final. Okay.

104Thank you. >> Is there a board member who'd like to second that? >> I'll second that. >> All right. So we have a first and a second to approve the rest of the policies as part of this packet for a first and final reading. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. Okay, that motion carries. Those policies have been approved. Uh the next item up for discussion and possible action is the the select employees 2025 2026 job descriptions. So it's it's essentially we regularly want to obviously continue to update job descriptions to just really maintain clarity, compliance, effectiveness across our system. And so these job descriptions are revised to reflect changes in the roles and really align with the needs um of our district stakeholders. So you'll see for

105example the director of curriculum and instruction an amendment or revision in there just in terms of Dr. Actually, we in this position supervising the operation of the district library and media media center as well as the the components that go along with the library and the the media staff piece of it. So, that was an ad um in there and it was removed from the director of technology and future ready learning um which is where it was housed prior. the director of communications, for example, we added in there to really be collaborating with both the district and the school leadership to update and oversee the development of the district website and assist with those school sites and the maintenance of the the web platforms. Um, and that is something we're really looking forward to Miss

106Trap um and the work that she continues to do um with that. the executive assistant. We had some minor tweaks in there just in terms of if you look in the front assisting um the superintendent with maintaining the calendar, not solely responsible for engaging in in that process as well as adding the scholarship foundation committee as well as the scholarship breakfast committee. So those are some ads of that piece. I think that concludes all of the major pieces. Any questions um on those job descriptions? Um one question I had was just the executive assistant. I know we we kind of talked about this. I don't know where it landed. I know that supporting the person tasked with leading day of service has been taken off of that job description. Um so is that landing on

107um high school leadership team? Where where are we having that land? >> So Dr. Levy really takes the head lead on the day of service along with support from the high school leadership team and that's not to say that um certainly the executive assistant myself others cannot support you know won't support in that process I don't know Dr. Schley if you have any additional thoughts on that. >> Yep. So that um will certainly stay a part of um my role sort of informally. Um, and then Laura and I worked a lot last year on doing that together. Um, any support that we received from the high school leadership team last year was certainly voluntary on their part, but much much appreciated as we work to make sure that the day um was executed very smoothly.

108So, primarily it would be myself and Laura. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, do board members have any other questions regarding any one of these job descriptions. U one more that I saw. So I don't hear any from other board members. One that I saw it just had a question on I think it had was in the director of technology has an operations um 7 responsible for complying with state and federal requirements regarding the use of technology with our stakeholders. I'm just curious on the striking of that one. >> Where are you Tracy? >> On um it's the director of technology under operations 7. I'm just curious why that one was taken out. I that should not be struck out. I'm not sure why that struck out. So I would amend I would amend that. I'm

109not sure. >> Yeah. I was curious the verbiage. >> Okay. Because that should be >> Oh, I see number eight. Yeah. I was going to say that >> responsibility still remains but Okay. It's a duplicate. >> That makes sense. All right. I missed that. Thank you. >> Any other questions from board members? Is there a board member who would like to make a motion? >> I would like to motion to approve the selected employee 20256 job descriptions as presented. >> Is there a board member who'd like to second that? >> I'll second that. >> We have a motion by Nolan, second by Tiffany to approve these job descriptions for the 2025 2026 year as presented. All the board members in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Any oppose say nay. And that motion carries.

110Thank you. Uh the next item for discussion is our vision house memor memos of understanding. Is that the right purpose? >> Memorandums of understanding. >> Correct. So we're super excited and grateful to continue to part partner with the Hartford Rotary Club as well as ANN contracting. So administration has brought these forward for our partnerships with both the Rotary and ANN contracting or contracting for approval. And so huge thanks to Miss Lamb for also supporting this process. These really serve as critical documents for just ensuring successful and collaborative partnerships with our community partners. And so it just really puts forth a clear written understanding that guides us from the beginning to the end. And this year we're really excited um the&m through ANN contracting led by Mr. Mike Burgerer. He will be overseeing the project and

111he's obviously a former HUS student and vision house participant. So, we're really super excited about that piece. Um, just moving forward and obviously our goal is to continue to help train, you know, that next generation um of our students. So, these documents really lay out um our plan for the school year and just a great collaboration with the Rotary um as well as ANN contracting. >> One thing I would mention with the ANN is there is a financial component to it. So when the board does approve that, we'll need to take that in consideration when voting. >> And um just so I'm clear, is that $25,000? >> Correct. >> Okay. So if we were to say not to exceed $25,000, we'd be within the scope. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Amount that will spread out

112over four different payments throughout the the vision house project. >> Okay. The question I had is the other document in our packet talks about the carrying of liability insurance if necessary. Is there any additional costs or any additional insurance costs that we have due to that component? >> No, our current coverage would would take care of of this. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Um question from any other board members or comments? Nolan, >> I'm just very excited to see this program continue. I know late last year I had some people who were concerned about, you know, the potential of the visions house going away again. So really excited to see that we were able to find a way to make it work again. >> Absolutely. >> Um hearing no, board members have any further questions

113or comments? Hearing no further question or comment, I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve the ANN and Harford Union High School memorandum of understanding in the Harford Rotary Club and Harford Union High School memorandum of understanding um with the cost not to exceed $25,000 as presented at this board meeting. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second to approve these memos of understanding at a cost not to exceed $25,000. All board members in favor signify by saying I. >> Should this be a roll call? >> Oh, I'm sorry. It is a roll call vote. Thank you for reminding. We'll do a roll call vote. We'll start with Nolan. >> I. >> And that has carried unanimously. Thank you. The next item for discussion is our student, staff,

114and parent survey. So, obviously, as as we move forward, we want to take a look at what we've done previously and what might be some opportunities for enhancement. So historically we have used the school perception survey over the last few years and I just listed some pieces in there in terms of what the surveys historically for student parents and staff have um put forward in terms of the information our goal is to really have that unfiltered view of the experiences the opinions of all of our stakeholders. And so um a couple things that I would just maybe suggest moving forward to to be thinking of um as we look at doing surveys. So I think one historically we have offered to my understanding typically the second half of the year and I think it would

115be beneficial to move up our surveys so that we would have that information sooner and be able to be more responsive um and efficient in that manner. Secondarily, I would say, you know, we could look at some alternative options for surveys. So, there are other survey options out there that we could potentially use. For example, Gallup has a staff survey. Um, there are opportunities for companies, research companies that we can actually craft our own student and parent surveys, for example. Um, so it just would put forth those couple pieces. Uh, certainly we do have the option to continue to move forward with school perceptions, but could also consider some additional um I guess opportunities for surveys. So, just curious where the board is at in terms of the desire moving forward. >> Heather, >> yes.

116Um I deal with surveys all the time um in my profession um by licensing approvals and in fact I'm in a year where I need to do a survey and in all the years doing surveys I think the greatest advantage is I don't know if it's as much timing as the expectation when we when we put ourselves out there to say hey what are we doing how are we doing what can we do better grade us all that kind of stuff and then to not have like a follow-up report that says, "We heard you say this and here's what we did and we're continuing to do this." I think that's really where the the heart of the survey and responses are. Um I know when we do surveys in my profession, we're always saying your

117input is so important. Um, I know as a candidate when when I was running for the school board seat, there was some information that I um reviewed in in a survey and some of it is um, you know, concerns and then if there's concerns that are brought up, how are we addressing it? So, I'm I guess my comment is not again the timing as much as let's do it. let's get really good feedback and let's let's show our action on it. Um you know if we categorize it and have to do different teams and committees or whatever to to address that particular issue. Um and and I'd like to see what else is out there to do besides I think it's now been two two times that I've been um involved in the board to

118see whether their options are out there and what other school boards are are doing or school systems are doing um because if you ask someone for their input um and we don't respond and say that we're doing something with it I think that causes um the transparency transparency to say that we heard you and not doing anything about it loses our um effectiveness. >> Thank you. Any other board members have a comment or question or some kind of input to help Dr. Gain as we move forward with thinking about surveys? >> Yeah, I got a little bit here. I'm uh just excited to hear that there are alternatives out there and I would be very interested in exploring those. Thank you. Um, I'll add I know that we had legal advice, you know, from the

119same source for many years and it was it was pretty much um strongly suggested if not drilled into us to be very careful about conducting surveys on our own because of the ability to to guard um feedback as anonymous >> and and um confidential to help protect people who participate. staff, the district, that kind of thing. So, I know that there there are a lot a lot of details and legalities to think about in terms of surveys that may not be as simple as I think, but however, I would be interested to hear what um other legal advice might have for us now to see if there's a different perspective that might help us figure this out. I I fully agree. I think that that reporting on the on the back side of it, like,

120hey, we heard you say this here's what we are going to work on doing and then down the road here's here's what the result was. I think that is definitely important. I think we all know that sometimes there are things that maybe may have to be dealt with in a confidential manner but there are some things that can be dealt with in a very public and transparent manner as well. So I think that um I'm I'm definitely a fan of getting the feedback. I think the one thing that the school district has done very well in recent years is at least we're doing surveys um where we're trying to seek that feedback. I think it became very apparent um a couple years ago and also there were people who were just standing up at a

121board meeting and telling us stuff that we we hadn't heard before. So it was very obvious that we need to make sure we're doing what we can to get feedback and in a manner where people feel safe if they want to if they wanted to remain confidential. Do we still have the um like the comment box or like an area on our website for for comments all the time? We do have the ability for anonymous reporting, okay, of various things. So, we do um certainly get things through that methodology. We encourage people to come in and I've been really grateful for we have had community members come in to express concerns or share ideas and that has been very helpful because then we can provide direct feedback um to that individual on really what we're

122doing how we enhanced how we may or may not have taken that you know suggestion and modified. So I definitely look forward to looking at some other options and can certainly bring back some legal pieces around the surveys, confidentiality and things of that nature. Um, happy to do that because there is there's a lot out there and I think it's I know it's hard and cumbersome when there are open-ended questions on surveys. However, sometimes if there's a way to get >> more than just like, you know, a satisfaction rating, I guess that's sometimes those little pieces of information that come out when you can kind of give people a little bit more of an open an open space to say to share something is beneficial as well. I just know that it is it's more

123cumbersome to to analyze that data. So, I guess I' I'd be curious to see what some of these other surveys look like and how we get at learning some things that we maybe aren't necessarily going to know from one to five ratings. >> Absolutely. >> Are there survey options that use like AI and comment sections to mine >> sure themes? So typically um from a stats perspective related to that I won't speak about like a specific survey per se but certainly AI can ana really analyze something like that and I would invite our math teachers to probably provide more than I than I can. I'm um but I will I'll tell you that um AI oftentimes though where it can error is it'll really overanalyze the factors on the front end of a survey for

124example. So you really need kind of both pieces. you need maybe that AI analysis by a company who actually does that research and then also be able to kind of go through individually as well for themes and so you know you can have a model but then also kind of a secondary model to make sure that if you're looking at themes things like that how are the factor and a factor analysis weighing in um so I think companies have really developed been further developed on that so you're not just reading a thousand comments and kind of summarizing those yourself. So I would imagine that most companies have a statistician now that really um looks at that analysis from more of like a multivariate analysis. Do you know of any in particular that you know as

125you're kind of thinking about or um kind of from your perspective on that? >> Our company uses a few but it's kind of in a different manner. So I wouldn't I don't think would correlate to this? >> Okay. Yeah, those are great questions though because I think rather than um you know, you look at the the cost benefit of time and certainly you want to ensure all of the comments, you know, if you had a safety issue or a concern. So, you really do want to read all of them, but in terms of summarizing them, obviously there certainly technology to your point can really be of benefit. Um, but oftentimes there's a couple different models so that you don't frontend it um in those formulas and and I've seen it too where the surveys were

126when their comments are coming through you can almost classify the comments. So is your com is your comment going to be about safety? Is it going to be about curriculum? Is it going to be about >> the weather? you know, so >> any other thoughts or suggestions as we move forward with potential surveys options? The only concern that I have is we've been using school um school perceptions for the last several surveys that the district has done. So, if we would switch to a different company that would provide the survey, is it going to I don't want to say skew, but when we're looking at like continuing to grow as a district and continuing to make positive changes as a district, is that information going to be related to the past surveys that we've conducted?

127>> Sure. I think that's a great question and that's something when we look at alternative surveys really um pulling out what questions do we really want to focus on that many of them quite frankly are very similar. Um so you know they'll focus on safety they'll they'll focus on parent satisfaction you know in various areas. So I think we just need to be very mindful if we move to an alternative that we are looking at comparable questions things of that nature. Um I think that's a great point Tiffany in terms of the longitudinal piece. I also will say if you really drill down to some of that data it's pretty minimal in terms of like the movement and how that moves the percentages. So I think that's something we should explore when we look at

128additional surveys. The sensitivity um of that data. >> I agree. I don't want us to lose um I don't want to lose too much time over this, but I do think it's worth exploring just to see if if we stick with the same the same company, same format, or look at something different. Um I know Heather, you also we had a discuss You also share with me how you've seen it be successful where maybe not more often but maybe a little less often so there's more time to concentrate on the plan for growth the growth the reporting end of it >> right if you do it you know like the one that I work on right now is bianual so it gives you the time to get it get your feedback get your information get

129your team together to address it so that you can go back to the respective areas and say hey this This is what we heard you say in the survey. Here's what we're doing because time just goes too fast to try and do this annually. You just you're spinning your wheel constantly just trying to address people's issues and concerns. And when you classify it to the issues that we feel are the most important of, you know, in a school setting with safety and academics and um, you know, I saw some of the information on um, school facilities and I'm like, we we hit a home run on that already with the referendum and work that Tracy's doing. So, you could go back and say, hey, you were concerned about this. Here's what we've done. So, that's

130that's a win-win right away. But every other year is probably more cost effective and it allows the team's time to digest it, address it, and sometimes um you even can have you can take the survey and break it down into a forum and get people in a room and talk about it more because it's not going to be as detailed when it's just a yes and no, one through five, and a quick comment section. So that's my suggestion is to to spread it out and give us our ourselves time to work it out and report back. >> When Heather shared that, I thought that was an interesting concept. I also think that we are in a time period where we're experiencing more transparency. We're experiencing more people who are comfortable coming forward and say, "Hey,

131I want to talk about this." I mean, last winter when board members were receiving record amounts of emails with perspective and people sharing their their thoughts on the district, that tells me that this might be a time where people are more comfortable just coming forward even without waiting for a survey, which is a really great thing to be happening here. >> Absolutely. So, it sounds like we're we're putting Dr. Gain to do a little bit further exploration. >> Absolutely. >> Come back. So, I will do that and come back. Thank you. The next item for discussion and possible action is the 2526 curriculum grading and assessment handbook. Thank you. While there are no major changes to this handbook for this year, um that doesn't mean that work is not happening. So, I certainly want to

132provide an acknowledgement to the amount of work that our staff has done over the last couple of years. And then what we are doing to or what we are going to do to continue to grow our instructional practice and increase our collective teacher efficacy particularly around teacher clarity. These continued practices align with the changes that you'll see in the next item which is the supervision and evaluation handbook. um as well as we work to align all of the practices around um identifying learning targets, setting success criteria, things like that so that that is aligned with more updated educational research. We've spent the last two school years aligning standards, learning outcomes, and success criteria. This upcoming school year will be our first year fully aligned with all three of those pieces. Um, from that lens, I

133look forward to the continued opportunity that could potentially present itself um, as we continue our growth in our assessment practices this year as we embark on that strategic planning process. >> Thank you, Dr. Schlwi. Are there any board members with questions for Dr. Schlwi? >> No. >> Yeah, I do I do have one. So on page 12 under the assessment methods number one uh select responses or short answers that's multiple choice true or false in your opinion does that uh really kind of align with the instructional practices on the page above I guess the one thing that really always got me or the you know fill-in bubble questions when I was in high school just did nothing for anybody and it was just an awful way to kind of you know retain anything and kind

134of grow >> certainly the work that we did um over the course of last summer was to look at what assessments we are giving. Um and I I will say that I believe that every type of assessment is really giving us data and feedback and teachers are putting in more of a concerted effort to be able to take that information and make instructional decisions based on that. And there's a variety of methods that they're using. So um without a formal push in terms of looking at assessments um at this time teachers have taken this initiative to be able to do that work on their own and that does include some of those pieces that we may think of in a more traditional sense. Um however that is not the majority of the way that our

135teachers are u assessing students anymore. Um again I would point to that section on there as well um on page 12 I think it is that looks at the assessment of learning and the assessment for learning. So making sure that once we have that information that it's not just um being used as an entry in the grade book but it's informing what our teachers are doing in terms of instructional practices. Do you have any further questions, Nolan? >> Uh, does anybody else have anything? >> Tiffany, >> I would just say that the, you know, selected responses are short answer using multiple choice, true, false, matching, short answer, any of that kind of stuff can be beneficial to teachers. Um, especially when you're looking at, um, doing the pre-assessment, for example, you're looking at a quick

136snapshot of what a student may or may not know. You're not looking for them to give detailed responses or you know detailed explanation of their their answers. Um but it's just a quick snapshot so it can be really informative for a teacher when they are planning for instruction going forward. Um they typically are not used on a summitive assessment. However, using them in you know short type um assessments is beneficial for teachers to be using them. >> Thank you for sharing that. Um, any other board members have comments or questions? >> Nolan, did you have further? Okay, go ahead. >> I do. So um for three things the grading scale on page 14, the late work uh m uh maximum grade of 85% on page 18 and the uh and the plagiarized work maximum score

137of 75%. How do those three numbers compare to districts in our area? >> I don't have the answer for a comparison of districts in the area at this time. Um certainly all of those things are part of an analysis that we would like to do based on some strategic planning um results and information that we're getting. We know that um updating our grading and assessment practices is an area that we want to look at, but we also want to make sure that it's intentional and targeted and that we're not rushing um that review of what those systems and processes are because we want to make sure that we are being responsive to what parents in the community want to see as well as making sure that we're aligned to what um is potentially happening in

138other districts around the state as well as working with colleges and universities. ities to make sure that that is um reflective in the policies and procedures that we do have. So, in terms of what other districts are doing right now, I can find that information out and bring that back to you. Um but again reviewing the grading and assessment policies and practices is something that I anticipate will come up in this in um the strategic planning process which is why we're not making substantial changes to that at this point because we want to make sure that it is aligned to that process. >> Thank you for that explanation Steve Stevie Nolan. Do you have any other questions? I do not. Okay. >> At this time, >> um, any other board members have comments or questions?

139Is there a board member who would like to make a motion regarding this item? >> I will make the motion to approve the 2025 2026 curriculum, grading, and assessment handbook as presented at the August 20th board meeting. >> Is there a board member who'd like to second that motion? >> Second. We had the motion by Tiffany, the second by Kenneth to approve the 2025 2026 curriculum grading and assessment handbook as presented at this H 2020 2022 meeting. Any further discussion hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose say nay. >> No. >> And that motion has or that has been approved. Um the next item for discussion and possible action is the 2526 supervision and evaluation handbook. So changes in this handbook align with requirements set forth by the

140Wisconsin Department of Public Instructions Educator Effectiveness Program. Um the Danielson framework which DPI uses provides alignment to current educational research allows educators and allows educators to grow in their instructional practices. um which I referenced in the previous item. Particularly, we're looking this year at um collective teacher efficacy through the lens of teacher clarity. That's also reflected in those changes from DPI in that framework. The updates in the handbook relate directly to what DPI expects from districts for the upcoming 2526 school year. >> Thank you. And I want to say thank you for your work on making that board members and staff all knew this was coming. The way you brought it to our attention last last year was um wonderful. So we this was not a surprise and it's nice to see it clarified in

141this handbook. Are there board members who have any comments or questions? Hearing none. Is there a board member who would like to make a motion on this item? >> I will motion to approve the 202526 supervision and evaluation handbook as presented. We have a motion by Nolan. Is there a second? >> I have a second. >> Second by Tiffany. So, we have a motion and a second to approve the 25 2026 supervision and evaluation handbook as presented. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any oppose? Say nay. And that has been approved. Thank you. Uh the next item for discussion and possible action is the varsity girls soccer field trip proposal. And I just want to thank Mr. shrunk as well as all of our coaches for the great detail that is

142provided um in the field trip request form. So if you take a look in there, there's a larger document, Google document of all of the layout for the Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So just to really appreciate that timeline and really truly the time um spent with the teams. Clearly this is a great opportunity for them to come together and bond as a team and and develop. So Mr. Mr. Helms, is there anything that you wanted to point out at all? >> Okay. Does the board have any questions regarding this field trip? >> I do have one. So, uh, between now and during the field trip in April, are there going to be any like fundraising opportunities for the uh, girls soccer team to alleviate the cost uh, listed on the uh, agenda? >> Yes, as as

143soon as their season begins, they will do some fundraising. Um, they also have some leftover money in their fund 21 account, their fundraising account that can be used as well. So, really the only money coming from district funds would be the gas money. >> Thank you. >> Do you have an approximate cost on how much this would cost each of the players on the team? >> Um, the only responsibility that the players will have is a meal or two um when they go out to dinner. Otherwise, the team will be supplying the rest. So, Mr. Helms, just to clarify, there is a um $2400, but it does say advisor, registration, travel, food, room, and board. Um, and then there's also the student food and extra expenses. Do you know what portion of that approximately might

144be? >> Gas travel, >> gas itself. >> Yeah. >> Um, I'm I'm assuming their trip they may have to fill up once. just for their way back. >> Okay. >> From Iowa and they're just crossing the border. It's not going to be too too far. >> Sure. >> Um we've done this with other sports as well programs like golf has gone south to Illinois and um it's just a a great way for them to compete uh against a team that we don't normally see, but also get them some time to work on some teamwork and bonding. >> Thank you. So go ahead, Kenneth. Just as I look at the kind of the itinerary, I see, you know, Best Western is the lodging of choice. Reason why we choose Best Western >> uh close in proximity

145to where we're going to be and the best rate for the block they would get us >> and they provide breakfast. >> Have you had a negative experience at a Western? I'll be careful. I won't make you answer that in public. No. my my family as well in different town but yes >> yeah never at the deuke best western but yeah >> um any other comments or questions from board members for Mr. Helms. So tonight, because this this field trip goes over state lines tonight, you're just looking for the board to approve the soccer team being able to take this trip. Correct. Okay. It's not that it's that we're approving an additional cost of $2,700. >> Correct. The only thing that we'll be covering as a district is the gas money. >> Okay. >> Taking

146school vans. >> Thank you for clarifying that. >> Yes. >> Any other comments or questions? >> Is there a board member who'd like to make a motion? I will make a motion to approve the varsity girls soccer field trip proposal as presented or uh do we do as presented with the cost factor in it or do we just approve the >> I think we'll just approve it. I think it sounds like we often cover the cost of gas for different things that we have our students and athletes traveling to. So it's not out of the ordinary. >> Correct. >> All right. I will just motion to approve the varsity girls soccer field trip proposal as presented. Then >> thank you. Motion by Nolan. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Kenneth. >> Um all board

147members in favor of approving the girls soccer field trip as presented signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Say nay. >> Is that a roll call too? In case there is a cost associated. >> Typically when we approve these field trips we don't just because if if it's kind of a the cost of doing business like a tank of gas, we have not ated that out as a roll call, but thank you for asking that question. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. And I just want to add that you should have received your Northshore Conference passes. >> Yes. >> At your at your seats tonight, so hopefully we'll see you at any home run away games this school year. >> Awesome. Thank you. And I I also did get the email making

148sure everybody knows to use GoFan for getting their tickets. And I love seeing that senior citizens will get free admission. So, thank you for that. Our next item for discussion and possible action is administrative guideline 7440.03 small unmanned aircraft systems. So briefly, this is just a minor tweak. Uh I know administrative guidelines aren't necessarily formally approved but brought this to the table as we amended the um policy and the administrative guideline, excuse me, last meeting. So essentially we just added that other than the remote pilot in command that no person shall manipulate the flight controls unless that person is under the direct supervision of the remote pilot in command um and has the ability the remote pilot has the ability to take immediate or direct control. So, kind of a real life example, that might

149be a coach who has the um remote pilot in command um license and they have, for example, a student manager standing next to them who may have, you know, a greater level of skill in flying the drone. Oftentimes, um you know, for example, in athletics for practices, things of that nature, the drone is, you know, it's not like the movies. It's simply just coming up um recording a particular play or a period of time and coming back down. Um but wanted that in here just to clarify that if there is someone other than the uh direct pilot that that person is within close proximity or you know a couple arms lengths. I also just want to remind the board that we do have a process now in terms of those requesting the use of a

150drone. So there is a process in place and a form that is completed that we can assure that everyone um follows those procedures license etc. So just bringing this more as an awareness u as we added this this piece to the policy or to the administrative guideline. >> Thank you. Thank you for being so thorough and it's very modern >> and I appreciate >> the administrative guideline. you know, our staff really considering the use because this is something that many many school districts have already been certainly utilizing and this just provides us a nice process to make sure that we're in line. So, so just to clarify, this is an administrative guideline and boards don't typically approve administrative guideline, but I believe that Dr. Gain just wanted to make sure that this board was aware.

151If there is ever an administrative guideline that you feel you really want to be sure you have a board vote on it for some reason, um, please feel free to let us know. >> Okay. Um, anything else regarding that item? Hearing none, we'll move forward to our architecture instructional materials purchase. Thank you. So, in an effort to continue to grow our technology and engineering pathways, we're looking to adopt an instructional program that provides industry aligned learning experiences and industrial materials for this course. This is for the purchase of 24 licenses, which is the cap for the class based on lab space. We currently have 21 enrolled this year. Um, those licenses are good for six years, which is why we're proposing to purchase 24, which is over that current enrollment number. This full suite allows

152both the students and the instructor access to interactive online learning materials that would enhance our current instructional model. Thank you, Dr. Shy. Uh, are there board members that have any comments or questions? >> Nolan, >> guess I should turn my microphone on. Uh, so I see with the teacher text for 900, it says potentially waved. What are the odds of that actually happening? >> We would have to get a formalized quote from the company first. Um, so I believe that they when Mr. Mr. Whit had done some research that it was if we were to p purchase a full suite, which is what we were proposing. Um his initial proposal was not for the full suite, but when Mr. Nelson and I met and did some cost comparison with just purchasing um on an annual

153basis rather than purchasing for the six-year license um that there was just some discrepancy there and this seemed like a better deal. So, um Mr. Whitow's understanding was that that could potentially be waved based on which direction we went with the annual subscription or the six-year one. Thank you. Any other questions? Is there a board member who would like to make a motion on this discussion item? >> I move to approve the purchase of new materials for the architectural course not to exceed the amount of $5,647.20. >> Thank you. We have a motion made by Kenneth. Is there a second? >> I second >> and a second by Tiffany. We have a motion in a second to approve the purchase of new materials for the architecture course not to exceed the amount of $5,64720. Uh

154this is a cost of the district. So we will do a roll call vote. I will start it. I Tiffany >> I >> And that has carried and been approved unanimously. Thank you. Uh the next item on our agenda is some future schoolboard related dates. So we have the board workshop which is an effect of training with CISA 6 on September 4th. We also have the regular and annual schoolboard meeting which is September 22nd. Note that that is a Monday because we were holding our meetings on Mondays previously. Um we have a board workshop potentially scheduled for October 2nd and we also have our next regular schoolboard meeting on October 25th. There may be some discussion over some of these dates. I know Heather, there was something that that you brought up. >> Yes, the

155um WSB fall regional meeting is on October 2nd, the same day as the board workshop. So, there's a conflict there. >> Right. I did see that that does start registration 6, dinner's at 6:30. Um and then the the actual program of that meeting starts at 700 p.m. Um so that is the the in-person fall regional WASB meeting. There is an online opportunity as well, but I believe it's at like noon. Um, it's at early November date. So, that might interfere with some people's work date, I mean work time if they if they would choose that that online option. Um, Dr. Gain, is there anything you like to add about that October 2nd date? >> I guess I would add an additional that we're also going to need to certify the tax levy by October 31st.

156So I'm wondering about, you know, currently we have a workshop scheduled for November 6, I believe. I can look at the calendar, but listening in terms of the October 2nd, and then listening, I guess as we think about certifying the tax ley, wondering about moving potentially a meeting to the, you know, maybe the 27th, 28th, 29th. Um I guess moving around the current meetings we have to make sense to combine and be efficient. >> U Mr. Nelson, does that timeline work out well for the pieces that you would put together for that as well? >> Correct. We discussed that today. Um the the day of the October 15th board meeting is the date that DPI certifies the last piece of information need to finalize our budget. So it take being probably a few days or

157a week to kind of get the final budget ready. Um so that's what we looked at that last week of October um to twoart it. One is certified tax levy but also to for the board to approve the final budget that helps determine the tax levy that you're going to certify. You do that in the same night. So it's from from the perspective of the budget it's a two two items that could be approved. Um, and then you could go into a potential board workshop like we did last month if that was something the board was interested in doing. So, that's why we looked at that last week. >> Okay. Um, I'll just share uh just the rest of the board knows something did come up for me and I am very likely going to

158be out of state somewhere in the realm of October 22nd or 23rd till the 28th or 29th. So I would just want to make sure that if if I am not able to attend that we still have a majority who does have time available in that span of days for a possible meeting. Is there anybody else who has a conflict that we need to be aware of? >> Not during that time for me. No. >> Okay. >> I have um 22nd, 23rd, 24th. >> Okay. Conflict. >> All right. Thank you. And I'll keep you guys posted um when I know for sure what the departure date is going to be and let you know what my plans are so we can plan accordingly. But it sounds like that October 2nd date is probably not a

159good day to hold our board workshop. Correct. Okay. So, we will be looking at a different date to hold an additional meeting for this board to get together um including potentially a workshop um in October. Okay. Um let's see what any other things about these dates. >> I did have one more piece I just wanted to mention when you're >> done with dates. Go ahead. >> Just wanted to mention that we will need to set our September 2026 annual meeting date. So, just to keep that in mind during our next board meeting. >> Okay. I think that's all. I mean, our our September 4th board workshop, I'll let you know when when we do hear more in terms of what that's going to include, what the >> duration is. Um, talk about potentially having it

160at a different location, but we want to make sure that it's it's convenient enough for our board members. So, we'll keep you posted on that. Um, any possible future agenda items? >> Yes. >> Go ahead. I I before No, before you start, I just want to say I really like the conversations and discussions we're having as a board. I think it has already kind of pointed us toward some future agenda items. Um, whether it was discussed at the board workshop or this evening, it's very healthy to have these conversations um at our board meetings. And it's also healthy to not have unanimous votes. It's that's perfectly okay. Uh, go ahead, Nolan. Uh, so Tracy and Stacy, this uh kind of has to do with the email I sent you about some policy discrepancies like a

161week or two ago. So I would like to propose policy student government uh policy 0141.1 student representation at board meetings. >> Say that number again. >> 0141.1 student representation at board meetings. And I would also like to at a future board meeting or workshop look at a model policy on annual review of policies from the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty. It's happened multiple times during my tenure on the board here where we come across a policy that hasn't been reviewed for, you know, years and years. And I think we should get into some kind of a habit over uh making sure that does not happen. >> Okay. Thank you. And um to be clear, I know that no one unfortunately when that email came from you, we were looking to finalize that packet I

162believe the next day because of the outing that was happening on Friday. We didn't have staff available. So um Stacy is aware um and was looking at working on that for the near future >> and there's already work that's being done um on revising that policy and u Miss Ramlo and others have really been on that already. So um appreciate that work from our team. Um and in terms of you mentioned the annual review of policy, a specific um I guess suggestion of that is is what you're not just the policy. >> Yes. Yes. I don't believe we have something currently on hand and looking to uh add that to our policy is what I'm uh proposing. >> And I think you know um Stacy, you're well aware from previous districts and as well I

163mean also we've taken a look here at Harford High School. There are several districts that lay it out in a calendar or they lay out um which which departments or which district leaders are in charge of which series because you know our policies all have a a number that go with them. There's series the 1000s, the 2000s, whatever. And so there are other ways that districts have very um strategically divided that up and and and follow those that structure to make sure that it is being reviewed. I think that um when you have a consulting firm like Niola, sometimes districts fall into this habit of well, Neil is going to catch it and bring it forward for us, but we do need to make sure that we're all reviewing these policies internally. You have say

164even, you know, when a a district leader is looking to um follow a practice, there's nothing wrong with going back to the policy. Okay, does this policy still match what the best practice is here in the district? And if not, I welcome those district leaders bringing it forward saying, "Hey, just discover this. It doesn't quite match what we feel is best here at Harford High School, nor does it really match what we're doing anymore." Um, so I think it's it's good to have a strategic structure in terms of how we're going to continuing to look at these policies, but I just welcome our our staff, our leaders, our teachers, whenever you see something, um, bring it to our attention so we can work on it. So, another thing to to look at moving forward. And

165I would just just indicate that um you know certainly this work is important work and we're going to continue to revisit policies. I would um I guess caution against kind of a mass um review of obviously every single policy. We have a lot of large initiatives in terms of what we're revamping for our foundation in a number of areas. So, um, while I think policy is absolutely critical and important, um, I think also what we've been trying to do in the last few months is pull out the significant ones that either you guys have identified or our staff have identified um, that we can really focus on. So, I do appreciate I know board members, you guys have brought forward policies, our staff um, in the community. We've had community members bring forward concerns that

166they like, hey, what about this policy? What's the practice behind it? So have appreciated that as well. Um and I know that there is a lot of obviously revisions that need to be done. There's a lot of policies that are not NEO policies. Um so certainly um have not been reviewed because they might be 30 years old or um greater in our policy bank. So I guess those are just couple things to to keep in mind as we move forward as well. So great item for future discussion. Thank you. Um, anything else from any other board members? All right. Uh, next on our agenda is to adjourn to a close session. I'd like to make the motion to adjourn to close session pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.851c considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data

167of any public employee over which governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. 19.851c specifically administrative evaluation. Is there a second to go to close session? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. We'll do a roll call vote into close session starting with Tiffany. I I >> I >> And we are going